Christian Catholic Mystic Hermit: Some More Reasons Why God Brought Me into Catholicism

In previous blog I mentioned a couple reasons why it seems God brought me into the Catholic Church some 26 years ago (in addition to how He's progressed me as if through the temporal Catholic Church aspects, with wanting me for several years past, to not remain trying to help unentangle those entangled in the nets of the temporal aspects, but rather for me to swim on out into the deep, duc et altum.  So on more into the spiritual depths requiring more faith and hope in God and love of God above all else and in God, to love as God loves, all others and His creation.  

God also a decade ago, more or less, showed me aspects of the temporal church and asked me why I would want "that" when I could have Him more directly now?  So of course, I want Him more directly; who of us would not?  And we all can, yes indeed we can have God more directly.  It is all a spiritual progression and a release from attachment to the temporal--and that includes the temporal of the temporal Church, Catholic or otherwise.  Jesus Himself was not entangled in the temporal of the Jewish laws and rules and regulations and rituals created over time by mortal mankind.  We humans can't seem to keep ourselves from organizing and creating increasing laws and structure and systems and requirements--temporal laws even in religions as opposed to simply living God's law of love.  

So as I mentioned in previous blog, God providing an awareness of the Christian mystics so that I'd not feel alone and grasp that these are my people, why I am as I am, born this way and with a purpose and mission which was hindered by temporal church people, essentially, including priests, and prior to Catholicism not understood by Protestants, either, and even less by them. But ironically, the Protestants were kinder in their ignorance of mystics in some ways, but also could relegate it to "new age" of which that classification did not go well for me--and of which I was nor am whatsoever.  But Catholics are aware of mystics who they know of as the "saints" that others in the past created and labeled through quite a complex process and system--and that continues to this day, the practice of saint-crowning, so to speak, or canonization.  Of course, not all "saints" are mystics, but some were.  

So I learned the mystics are my type, my people, what I am, and I learned over time how mystics were and generally are perceived and treated in the temporal aspects of church and the leaders and congregants therein.  Especially if there are mystical phenomenon that others do not understand or is not of external benefit such as the gift of healing or founding a religious order that enlarges the Church's standing, or acts of charity that get noticed by many and becomes a movement. But if the mystic exists more as one in the domain of spiritual insights and a type of prophecy of seeing matters not good morally, ethically, and spiritually which need correcting--this can be a problem for the mystic. Think Jeremiah tossed in the cistern, and Joseph likewise tossed in a well and then sold as a slave by his own envious half-brother.  Or if the mystic has phenomenon occur that has spiritual meaning but seems a bother to the temporal order of things--that brings problems for the mystic from the temporal-focused clergy and parishioners.

Those mystics, if in a religious order, are generally placed in a cell removed from the others and told never to speak of whatever might be of spiritual impact, nor of any mystical experiences such as visions, dreams, and locutions, ecstasies or a variety of other phenomenon that can occur, unbidden of course.

For those not in a religious order, it is really best, as I've learned the hard way, to go with what seems surely ought not be--but is actually God's protection and guidance, to be removed from the temporal church and live as a hermit of sorts, and dissociate from the temporal aspects of church.  Allow God to be for the body, mind, heart and soul the reality that He Is--through, with, and in us and us in Him.  Have God more directly and acknowledge this relationship with God and with oneself; accept it and be thankful, put the temporally induced sense of guilt or questioning as we are so conditioned to think in terms of a system that has become entangled with human-created and added rules, canon laws, regulations, requirements, and various rituals--a temporal church system that was not that of the early Church nor many aspects such as a system for making inspirational, holy people into "saints" and all that has developed as a result--rather a large business with employees, salaries, time and energy spent on investigations and interviews and levels of "sainthood" in the lengthy procedural canonization process.  Right there--"canonization"--that of making legal, I suppose, someone who lived a life following Christ to a certain level or status that humans devised to determine who they'd "canonize" or legalize as someone to be labeled "saint' and given a certain day of the year for these people to be celebrated and "venerated," but the problem develops that humans being as we are, move on from celebrating to venerating to adoring, and before long the focus can become skewed.

I've gone off-topic some.  Back to a major reason it seems God brought me into the Catholic Church: to experience the Mass.  The Mass from the first time I experienced it, has a mystical and supernatural element.  The Tabernacle with the consecrated Host or Hosts is quite real in the power emanating.  This has to do with faith in God and of His Real Presence:  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  The Mass, I was told and shown by my guardian angel, is the Stairway to Heaven.  And it was in the Mass that they mystical ecstasies began, and I realized the fullness of His Real Presence in the Mass from His Living Word onward through the Consecration--the remembrance of and reenactment of Christ's Last Supper Discourse and actions of breaking of the bread and drinking of the wine that He had mystically transformed into His Body and Blood, with the instructions:  Do this in remembrance of Me.

The priest consecrating is amazingly powerful mystical and spiritual action, and when one considers that from the time of Christ and His appointing Peter as the earthly head of His Church, giving Peter the "key" to His Kingdom, and all "priests" or "bishops" or whatever called from that point on, there was a passing on from Peter and the apostles a bequeathing, an anointing, that was from His Real Presence.  So there is a certain spiritual-mystical power that extends from the time of Christ through Peter who he chose to lead His Church.  This passing on, of what is a succession of spiritual authority with mystical reality, I have experienced in a very real sense; but in the mystical ecstasies during Mass, I also learned that an immoral or bad or priest lacking faith, or other than a priest at the altar, had the effect of not good to quite hellish. But a holy priest at the altar--and a priest who preached of Christ and His Living Word--that was sheer bliss and Heaven.

I'm considering now, since the Lord has effectively progressed me through the temporal aspects of church, that His Real Presence is in me and I am in Him wherever and always, even when I am not consciously thinking of Him and acknowledging His Real Presence in me and me in Him.  The more I learn to love God and love as God is in me and loves, I am able to love others and self as God loves. This, too, is a process of awareness and allowing the love to flow in practice, and in faith and truth.  I must cooperate with God's grace, and the more I learn to do this and to love, the less I hang on to temporal entanglements--such as the upset with so much mess around me that requires the body to do manual labor, or the news yesterday that my neck has moderate to severe stenosis, and nearly all vertebrae have no room for the nerves coming from the spinal cord so most of the neck is severe.  

It is a matter of waiting until the pain goes down the arms and I lose yet more strength to the point of unable to grip or items begin to slip from grasp.  I am fairly sure the spatial and mental disorientation I experience, sometimes severe, can be attributed to the C-2,3,4 vertebrae with not enough space for the nerves as these are the ones that go more into the head and brain.  However, it did seem that with increase of pain pump mediation, the severe aspects of the disorientation subsided some.  Or else that was helped by concurrent deep tissue massage I began weekly, or also from a lot of bed rest for weeks after I had overdone it with some work, having felt better after a knee was drained and a strong does of steroid injected that allowed me to feel temporarily better than I had in a long, long time, so I over did it--physically up from bed more and able to be more active for a short time, before the "boom hit", and I had severe disorientation.

The above is an example of how the temporal can still entangle me and upend my mind, heart, and soul--through the body and pain and debilitation, through the upset of potentially needing cervical disectomy of nearly the entire neck--all but C-1 it seemed, I was told has no room for the spinal nerves now, but the cord, while it has no room anymore, is not squeezed to the point my lumbar was two years ago, requiring that serious and intricate spine surgery.  So yesterday and a bit this morning, I had some temporal upheaval; I blocked the peace of the reality of my abiding in His Real Presence and His Real Presence abiding in me.  And this is another reason why God brought me into the Church:  to suffer, to have my years and life of constant suffering be used by God in reparation for the temporal church--for all that is not of God that humans have created and gone askew in and of His Church.

And this is what I discovered in the fullness of the Mass--the reality of the Mass as a portal, as the stairway to heaven.  And the Mass can be in us always as is His Real Presence, or rather, His Real Presence being in us always and us in Him--this is the Mass, the essence of the Mass. I don't know if I am making this reality clear, for it is very difficult in words; words are inadequate.  But some of you will grasp.  I do not advocate not going to Mass, unless His Real Presence brings you to a point in which you have Him more directly and are fed within mystically, and in faith, with but the thought and even without the conscious thought.  For most of us, there will come a time when we are brought through and beyond, even if this is at death and not before.  The Mass has many facets, and the spiritual depth and the mystical phenomenon which is the Mass can be at some point grasped as His Real Presence within from beginning on through.

So the Mass was a major reason God brought me into the Catholic Church.  I needed to progress in this, also, to understand and come to the awareness and experiencing of His Real Presence throughout the Mass and then the Mass in me, as well, and me in the Mass, for His Real Presence is within and without the fullness of the Mass as the Stairway to Heaven. I do realize there are many temporal distractions going on in the Mass, and these are hindrances, as well as our own thoughts that get in the way, and what we observe, and also the emphasis on the consecration and receiving Communion, when His Real Presence is in the other parts, from the beginning, the prayers of penitence and asking forgiveness, and within the Living Word--His Real Presence, His Living Word.    The praise of God, the angels present in singing, the glory, the consecration in which the priest is to stand at the portal of the altar and point from the temporal to the mystical realm of being transported and transcended in His Real Presence, through to Heaven and a glimpse of Heaven as our eternal home.

So once we grasp and experience, the Mass is with and through and in His Real Presence and His Real presence through and with  and in the Mass, and we are in His Real Presence and the Mass anywhere and any time and always as He is in us and the Mass then is in us, as well.  This is part of the progression, and rather than my feeling negative about how God allowed the temporal means of people and priests essentially closing the door to my being there physically, it is a great blessing for God has progressed me to grasp beyond the temporal Mass and the temporal church, and this is indeed having God more directly now.  I must and ought praise God and be very grateful for these gifts and understandings, even though I do not know what or how I can do for God or is my purpose in this life now.  

Should I share the various experiences of God over the many years, going way back into my earlier life as a mystic is born as such, and it is not per a particular church or religion, but in mine is as a Christian having been brought through Protestantism and Catholicism--as are all Christians:  abiding in His Real Presence and His Real Presence abiding in us.

I must let go the temporalities of "church" just as I must let go the temporalities of my tightened lack of space in my neck vertebrae.  There is nothing to be done about these temporal entanglements; there is all to do about faith, hope, and love of God.  Love God above all else and love in His Love, Love as He loves, in His Love.

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

Catholic Hermit: Giving Up Stuff

His Real Presence leads us, it seems, thematically.  In our daily lives themes recycle until we grow through the phases, one after another.  Often, the themes recycle again and again in other levels and with varying circumstances and details.  Can we see this in each of our temporal and spiritual lives?

Today's Gospel is from Matthew 19.  The Word may be alarming to some, for it sounds severe, even extreme.

"And everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters
or father or mother or children or lands
for the sake of my name will receive a hundred times more,
and will inherit eternal life."

Jesus is asked, off and on, in His public ministry years what it takes to enter the Kingdom of God.  What must we do to be followers of Christ?

This past Saturday while in the mystical state during Mass, the Lord taught me a bit of "stuff" that hinders, that I must give up.  It is an answer to prayer, the showing of the particular "possession."  Coincidentally, the priest had some temporal comments to make, all fine.  But as I've explained before, when in the ecstasy, if there are temporal aspects, appropriate or not, good or not, I can recall those or recall the gist.  If it is spiritual, then there is no memory recall and simply bliss.

Of course, priests do well to include temporal examples in teaching, just as Jesus did.  The priest was making excellent points--quite brief but pithy.  With a heat wave in effect, he mentioned a priest he knew who gave a 32nd homily...or was it 30-second homily?  So a little joke there, but I could hear the priest ask if given the heat, if parishioners would prefer a 30-second homily or a longer one?

Ah, of course--the 30-second one seemed for the best under the temporal circumstances.  What the priest spoke about might have taken a bit longer, but he challenged everyone to ponder this week, just what it really means in our own, daily lives to actually follow Christ.

During his brief remarks and a bit after, into the prelude to consecration of the host and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ, I noticed the ecstasy to be rather light.  I began to notice the thoughts in my mind, like bees in a bee hive buzzing about.  They were not negative thoughts--but were thoughts all the same of this person to pray for or that situation, or other extraneous tidbits and reminders.

Then I recognized the message that dovetailed with the priest's very brief message that contained much to reflect upon and apply to our lives.  The Lord was showing me how brief and succinct is God in His messages and teachings; and how many thoughts are in my mind.

You see, after the death of my will and it being replaced by God's Will, I have been praying for my thoughts, my mind, to be replaced by His Thoughts, His Mind, His Insights.  I had come to understand that my own thoughts were not so cohesive much of the time, with His Will that had replaced my will.

During Mass, the bee hive of my mind was so buzzing with thought-bees, I got the message by being shown the difference between His Thoughts and mine.  God's Thoughts are to-the-point and do not keep buzzing round and round, in and out.  My thoughts tend to do that; they can swarm sometimes!  The negative ones now are easy enough to toss out or bar entrance to my hive-mind.  But the busy-bee thoughts--even though hard at well-intentioned work--are noisy and profuse.

I had felt such a tremendous freedom once I stopped the negative thoughts over a week ago. I broke free from the prison I had allowed my mind to become--a cell of pain and hardship thoughts.  The burden of all that has been dramatically lifted!  It seemed as if there was lots of free space in my mind, in my soul!

But no, where the negative thoughts had been run out, many more neutral or even positive thoughts multiplied and filled the mental space.  How could the Lord get a Word in edgewise?  Well, His Mind could come knocking at the door of my busy bee hive-mind and find no room in the "inn".  

Thus, in my pondering as how I can follow Jesus in my daily life, and in the answer to my prayer for God's Mind to replace my mind, for His Thoughts to replace my thoughts, I must give up my thoughts, in effect.  And part of all that includes having to give up some relationships, or types of relationships, that are heavy-laden with my thoughts, not God's Thoughts.

Of course there is much we can give up--aspects of our temporal lives, of temporal "stuff" we can give up and should give up if we are to follow Christ and be fit to enter His Kingdom.  Yet also there are aspects of our souls, in all the rings or levels of our souls right into the center where is the will and the intellect, that we can give up, bit by bit or in chunk after chunk.

A little exercise I am practicing this week is to inquire of His Real Presence, Him in me and me in Him, is to ask:  Is this thought God's Thought, or is this thought my thought?  Most often at this point of the exercise, the thoughts are mine.  But increasingly my thoughts will subside, dissipate, buzz away, or drop dead of natural causes like bees who have worked themselves out of fruition....

Now, to rid out the thoughts that are not God's--I'm not sure we humans could or should completely clear out all our thoughts.  In our temporal lives, we have thoughts coming in often--and all the time if we avail ourselves to cell phones, laptops, televisions, radios, videos, movies, news, and all the i-tech gadgets that keep communications flowing.

However, we can simplify and manage the thoughts.  And we can, such as I am to do, rid out as many of my own thoughts, especially the negative and pointless ones, and begin to identify and grasp God's Thoughts.  For if He has made His Abode in us, He certainly has within His Thoughts to impart in us.  

I know this to be true, for in the night when my hive-mind is less buzzing and the bee-thoughts are at rest, God's Insights are able to make honey in my soul.  Or sometimes in the day when I am asking Him something, He answers if my hive-mind is alert and cleared enough to hear and listen.

Amazingly (as His Real Presence is amazing grace), after He showed me my busy bee thoughts swarming my hive-mind, accentuated in the mystical ecstasy during Mass--the thoughts became stilled, and throughout the Consecration and following, it was once again bliss--until the end-of Mass announcements of temporal good things, yes.  But the spiritual, the mystical aspect of Mass is bliss, is heaven on earth.

When we give up stuff in order to follow Christ and enter into His Kingdom, we increasingly climb the stairway to heaven and experience degrees of bliss in whatever manner and grace He bequeaths.  His attributes bring peace, truth, beauty, goodness, bliss and blessedness.

I'm sure there will be more stuff, material or immaterial, for me to give up in order to increasingly, fully follow Christ and enter into His Kingdom.  For now, my assignment is to discern thoughts.  

I must seek out and identify His Thoughts which will multiply when I quiet or rid out or bar busy bee thoughts.  The busy bee thoughts can be from without my  mind--busy thoughts from others in various input modalities.  Yet I can shut the windows and doors of my mind-hive to the extraneous and unnecessary.  Just as I was, others might be surprised by how many thoughts are swarming our minds, taking up space that otherwise could be available to God's Thoughts, God's Insights, His Wisdom.

Of course, we must emphasize that giving up stuff is done for one ideal, one purpose, One Lord: Jesus Christ!  We are giving up our "possessions", that which possesses us, for His name's sake.

This is work; it takes some desire and effort.  Cleaning a house is far easier, but ridding my bee hive mind of my buzzing thoughts is going to be fruitful and increasingly freeing in a fruitful way.  Within I will find the honey of God's Mind, sweetening my soul--the effects of which can be shared with others in nuanced ways.  I have no idea exactly how, but we will find out!

I do know this:  God's Thoughts are not busy nor buzzing.  They are succinct, clear, pure, not worrisome nor repetitive, not possessive but freeing and quiet.

God bless His Real Presence in us--our bodies, minds, hearts, and spirits!  Yes, I pray for His Real Presence to find plenty of room in the inn of our bodies, minds, hearts, and spirits.

Catholic Hermit's Consolation

Been having more severe pain issues lately.  It is difficult to keep going, and the Lord has heard this nothing consecrated Catholic hermit's thoughts.  I've been quite direct.  Why try to fool His Real Presence?  Impossible!  So He knows how hard it is for us to want to live when the suffering becomes most challenging, when the true crosses we are given weigh down upon our mortal frames.

And, or course, at the same time we may be praising God for all things.  Honesty, though, is always the best policy.

So it was that this body dragged its way through a couple of days.  The severe pain continues in the relatively new bodily locale: liver area.  Yes, recent scans show nodules and what an emergency room doctor said was a "splayed and frayed" portion of the upper right quadrant--a portion under the back rib cage and touching the bottom right lung lobe which has a larger nodule.

All is confirmed non-malignant.  The Lord also understands and knows this hermit's disappointment.  On earth, only those who have had death experiences or are mystics, or a couple or so persons who know the hermit for the past many years of suffering, can grasp how this could be for one to be actually eager and excited about the prospects of cancer.

It is not as a means of escaping from something, although that would be a decent enough reason.  Crosses can become excruciating.  Just see an inward glimpse of Jesus Christ being crucified.  He cried out to God with His last breaths.  I suppose it does not even take someone who has had a marvelous death experience or who is a mystic, to have a great desire to pass to the other side, to begin the new life, to be more on the way to heaven without dragging our physical bodies around with us.

Over the weekend I did try to get up and do what I could to make a little progress with the on-going efforts of making this hermitage more livable and ultimately salable.  The neighbor lad, seemingly so sincere about wanting to work with promises of coming on Thursday and able to work Friday and Saturday, never showed up.  I'd placed a call and left a message late Thursday when it was becoming obvious that my "guarded encouragement" that he meant what he said, was turning to reality that he was not reliable.

Ah, the Lord gives and the Lord takes away!  Blessed be the Name of the Lord!

His brother came, evidently hearing the message later on.  We were able to get the bathroom cabinets into the bathroom.  Of course, one is incorrect so Lowe's will be ordering a correct cabinet--the fourth try in getting four cabinets ordered correctly.  I will wait another month or so on that project.  The lad who did come became faint.  This pained hermit walked him home to make sure he did not keel over on the road.  He'd had a couple routine inoculations that morning.  Promised he'd be back on Friday, as well as his brother probably coming.  Did not happen.

It was all right.  This hermit did what possible, and the angel Beth and St. Joseph surely helped.  The trim is now installed and caulking done, and posts wrapped with trim board--the porch nearly completed.

By Saturday afternoon, the thoughts came from within where God's Will has replaced mine.  And I think they were God's Thoughts nudging me to try going to confession and possibly Mass.  Catholic friends and others have suggested otherwise.  Why go through more persecution and hardship?  Why subject myself to that?  (You'd have to search back into older posts for the backlog of events, to understand what had transpired.)

However, I decided to drive the distance, for the liver-muscle-whatever pain had subsided some.  The truck still loaded with mulch, I headed to the parish.  The new priest was hearing confessions.  I decided to remain for Mass; a man and his wife were willing for me to sit with them, for a year ago they were the ones who became alarmed when this hermit (they know not my vocation, of course--am hidden from the eyes of men in that regard!) did not move during Mass.  They would remember and did, for they had called EMS only to find, after Mass, the hermit not near death nor dead but simply has a mystical phenomenon known as an ecstasy, during any Mass.

So it occurred again this time, which is fine.  Lately the reminder has come to my mind (and must be the Lord's Thoughts reminding me) of what Jesus had said four years ago.  He had shown me some parishioners and priests and told me they would criticize and persecute but that I was to not pay attention to them, to not be bothered by them.

The Saturday vigil Mass was marvelous!  Praise God for the new priest who did not at all bastardize the Mass.  There was no horror in the mystical state.  All is well!  In fact, there is something that I remember distinctly from the priest's homily when in a holy Mass, in the deep mystical state, usually nothing is recalled after.  But the Lord wills that I would hear and recall these words from the priest.

"We have to learn to think like God thinks.  And God thinks in terms of love and mercy."

What a consolation to this nothing consecrated Catholic hermit's body, mind, heart and spirit!  I have been so praying for God to replace my mind with His Mind--my thoughts and ideas with His Thoughts and Ideas!  Increasingly, the difference between my mind and His Mind has been painfully revealed, and the dichotomy disturbing.

The answer is simple as far as discerning the difference.  God thinks in terms of love and Mercy.  God's Mind Is Love and Mercy.  All of my thoughts can be sifted out accordingly.  His Thoughts can be discerned based upon love and mercy as key.

I will be returning to Mass, if body able, once a week.  I am joining the parish although I know that as a consecrated Catholic hermit, my interactions will be governed by my rule of life, the Gospel Rule, and the parameters of my eremitic vocation as set forth in the Institutes of the Church, by my vows, and as defined in The Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Prior to Mass, at the end of confession, I mentioned to the new priest that there might be a bit of a mystical state that has been occurring during Mass for going on eight years.  An ecstasy by definition, but that it might not occur as has been awhile since being at a Mass in person.  I also mentioned that I am a consecrated Catholic hermit, privately professed, going on 16 years, and at some point perhaps we might want to talk some.  Yes, I'd like to be helpful with any specific prayers or spiritual needs of his efforts with the parish and my being part of the Body of Christ.

After Mass, yes, people had inquired some of the parish administrator, regarding this person they noticed at Mass.  The parish administrator told me that people were "talking", and some would be judging the situation, judging the hermit without knowing me.  I assured that it would be all right.  We can do all we can to keep others from judging and temptation or occasions of that particular sin, but ultimately, I must keep my eyes on Jesus.  Look at HIM.  And remember what He said over four years ago.  Others will wrongly judge and criticize you, but you are not to pay attention to them, not be bothered by them.

What a loving and merciful consolation the Lord has given me!  And I must approach all as God Thinks, in love and mercy.

Praise His Real Presence!  Little children, let us love God above all things and others as ourselves.  We must love as Jesus loves us, as God Thinks and Is:  Love and Mercy.

More Tidbits of Catherine of Siena's Life

Found some details fascinating and personally relevant.

Catherine of Siena was told by some priests they did not want her ecstasies at Mass.  They also told her they did not want her sighs or to come up to receive Communion.  Yes, they refused her Communion.  The lead priest told the others, and that was that, for awhile.

The Lord provided for her in mystical ways sometimes; but other times she went without the tangible Eucharist and without any mystical offering by Jesus or angels.  So she had spiritual Communion--that of her spirit desiring and her mind and heart meditating upon Christ Jesus and the Mass.

The more one reads of the well-researched biographies, especially those of Italian and other European writers of the past, the more details fill in to present a realistic depiction of these human beings' actual lives.  Plus, as a bonus, one discovers much history, scenery, and other personages of the time period who interacted with the person being revealed.

While Catherine Benincasa was not a hermit, she did spend two or three years living in much solitude in a small room in her family's home.  She called it her "cell."  But the Lord had a more active mission for this young woman who loved Him above all else.  He called her out of her solitary life, and commenced her life of active efforts in converting some of the most derelict souls, saving them from eternity in hell.  

However, she soon would have a yet more visible mission--that of convincing the rightful Pope to return to Rome and quell the other two men who had claimed, each of them, the papacy.

The aspect of her treatment during Mass, is well to note, as we often think that actual people did not have issues with the spiritual gifts God gave that others noticed, nor that priests or rectors or parishioners ever committed non-Christian offenses toward the ones with mystical experiences.

[In a previous post, the details of how when in her mystical state during Mass, people would pinch and criticize her.  One time a couple of men lifted her up bodily, one on each side of her, carried her out of Mass and dumped her by the street outside where people came along and kicked her.  After awhile, she returned to herself, out of the ecstasy, and took her very bruised body home.  Honestly....]

They did.  They do.  They ought not, from our perspective. It does seem Catholics ought to learn from history; but His Real Presence knows, and what is learned as a result of ill treatment to some, by the ones being ill-treated, is just what Jesus experienced in His life on earth.  And that is what those desirous of union with Christ must experience in order to fully grasp and be one with the Beloved, for that which is unlike the other, cannot unite as One with His Real Presence.

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