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, Interior Challenge, Reminders, Answers

Some answers are coming to this nothing consecrated Catholic Hermit.  It has been asking the Lord about the situation at Mass, of why such a profound experience of ecstasy, yet the horror of hell when some aspect of inappropriate temporal enters into the Mass, some type of intrusion that interrupts the bliss of the Holy Mass.

The last several days brought much prayer for a priest, as well as a seeking within as to why, then, this separation from the temporal, from various temporal aspects of the Catholic world including some tangible forms of the sacraments.

As for the priest, it is not him, per se.  It is the reality that some, including this hermit, do not fully grasp the holiness of the Mass and that His Real Presence suffers when we do not recognize and enter into the holiness of the Mass, when we alter some aspect or mostly, it seems, bring out own will into it, our own notion of self and performance, or misguided intention that is tainted by too much self.  This seems especially critical for priests and those at the altar, those at the lectern, during the Holy Mass.

But, what this hermit is garnering from the seeking and questioning, is that it needs to examine its own spiritual life, its being brought to the Stairway to Heaven some seven years ago this past August, and has it climbed a step or two or many?  Or has this hermit stepped backward in some way?

What the hermit has learned from the mystical ecstasies during Masses for over seven years, is that Mass is intended to be sheer bliss.  Even though, as the hermit's helper's mother said, "I don't feel what you feel [during Mass]", the hermit is shown the depth and purity, the love flowing, the bliss of utter darkness and unknowing when the Mass is celebrated by the priest in obedience and accordance to the Church's liturgical form, and when there is submission of will to God's will and not the projection of self into the Mass, by those at the altar or assisting.

During Mass when in the mystical ecstasy, it is true that when intrusions enter in, they are due to some aspect of self will and self and temporality intruding. And this can be on the part of the hermit, as well.  Sometimes, the hermit has some thoughts or concerns intruding--fleeting distractions.  At other times, and usually, it is that of the celebrant or others involved at the altar, or on occasion those in the vicinity in the pews, whose "self" and "self will" intrude.  When intrusions occur during Mass, bastardizing the holiness of the Mass and disrupting the blissful union with His Real Presence, it is a hell, a horror, of which the bliss is obliterated.  Chaos and dire desperation to flee results.

This is going on for everyone present at the Mass, in the Mass.  But they do not sense it, do not feel it.  This hermit has been given this experience of being subsumed into the Mass, but also to sense the reality of what hell occurs when some aspect of the holiness of the Mass takes place.  And insertion of self, of self-will, of disrespect, of distraction, of some disruption of grace by a priest or others at the altar, of some type of disobedience--these aspects bastardize the Holy Mass.

The word "bastardize" keeps coming to the hermit regarding what happens to a Mass when there is something not holy, not right, not pure input into the Mass.  The word comes so often and as the only word now that the hermit sees and hears within, to describe the situation, that it looked up the word even though the hermit had an idea of the force of "bastardize."

"Basterdize:  corrupt or debase (something such as a language or art form), typically by adding new elements.  Synonyms:  adulterate, corrupt, contaminate, weaken dilute, taint, pollute, debase, distort"

Ah, the definition explains exactly, why and how and under what circumstances a Mass can be bastardized.

As for what this hermit has gained in reflection as to why it is shown this in profoundly deep and painful ways, is to take more seriously:  souls.  If His Real Presence registers hellish effect when something that when conscious, the hermit would be able to shrug off or ignore, or pull out a prayer booklet to read silently so as to not pay attention to whatever element is bastardizing the Mass--then how does His Real Presence feel and respond to this hermit's daily progression, thoughts, activities, prayer life, and piety (love of God and all aspects pertaining thereof)?

The hermit has had a wake-up call.  It has been hit on not only the head and the heart, but in the soul.

As to parishes and being able to attend Mass, or not to attend in physical form, the Mass, some Scriptures this morning gave the answer, as well as reflection upon some past visions and locutions, repetitive in message, over the past 20 years.  Always, when shown parishes and shown the hermit desperately trying to be one of the parishioners, to participate and be one and alike, the message repeats:  "You do not belong to that world."  

This message has come from three early desert fathers, from Mary and her sister Martha, from the hermit's deceased father, and from God Himself, lifting up the hermit to see up close what it so thought it wanted and ought to be.  The question then was asked, "Why would you want that when you can have ME more directly now?  Each messenger and each message has been profoundly powerful, firm, clear, adamant.

Then this from the Living Word, from Hebrews 13, that made impact this morning:

"It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by ceremonial foods which are of no value to those who eat them. We have an altar from which those who minister at the tabernacle have no right to eat. The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp.  And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood.  Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore.  For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.  Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise--the fruit of lips that confess his name."

This is not to say that we are not to go to Mass, not to receive His Body and Blood in Holy Communion.  Rather, it offers a progression of the temporal to the mystical.  It is this temporal to the mystical that the priest is to teach and show, while standing at the altar, at the portal which is between this world and the heavenly realm.

There are seasons in our spiritual lives and understanding, in wisdom and knowledge.  This is a season for this nothing consecrated Catholic hermit.  It is called to go to Him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace He bore, and to look for the "city" that is to come.  (In fact, in one of the visions with the three desert fathers, this hermit saw the parish off in the distance, and the parishioners were represented as off in the city--skyline and all.  But the desert fathers stopped the hermit who was asking for help to get to the city and join the parishioners.  They pointed to the east, their off-white tunics and long, white beards flowing with a wind from the east, the city far off in the west.  They said, "No, you must stay with us here."

Yes, it was far outside the camp, far away from the city.  And the point is, that the city is good and has many wonderful aspects.  But there comes a time, a season, in which we must accept being outside the city, in the desert exile--which, ironically, was a long east-to-west valley of spring-green grass.

It is time to take the spiritual journey far more seriously, in the Order of the Present Moment.  It is time to let go of the desire to fit into a parish as well as the yearning to be physically present at Holy Mass, and to let go of many aspects, including that some Masses will be blissful and others hellish, and that we mortals can help make Mass holy or bastardized.

It is time to let His Real Presence deal with me more directly.  All this is in faith, trust, and hope, and remaining in His Love.  There may come a season in which there will be a return to the temporal and tangible Holy Mass, celebrated in a parish church, a monastery chapel--who knows but God?  It is time to discern these insights and follow them along for a season, for there is not a physical means to drive a long distance in this pained body, and there is no returning to the parish which for now, at the direction of the spiritual father, is off limits.

Peace flows.  The hermit grasps and understands as much as one can, when others will judge or not grasp, not understand.  Part of the gift of the Holy Spirit--understanding--is very much to accept the mysteries, the unknowns, and lean not unto our own understanding.  We must enter into the mystery of the Holy Spirit's understanding of matters.

How much faith will it take to understand and trust in spiritual communions, in spiritual confessions, in being as much or perhaps more, part of the Body of Christ, worshipping in the spirit with those who are off in the city, worshipping physically, tangibly, present?  One cannot measure faith.  It, too, is  a mystery of trust in God Who Is Love.

God bless His Real Presence in us!

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If the World (or Person) Hates You

From 1 John 3 we have today in Mass Scripture readings:  Do not be surprised, brothers and sisters, if the world hates you.

And later in this sequence we read that those who do not love from their hearts, who do not have love in their hearts, are murderers.  

This is the truth.

Lately, have pondered a relative whose relationship with a family member has ruled her for the bulk of her life, and it has been based upon resentment and personality clash that has grown into hatred for even the slightest nuances of speech or viewpoint that the family member makes.  The hater is 66 years old, and the hated is 91 years old.

The elder has reasons for her personality and outlook, for what she likes to do and discuss.  She, like the rest of us, is not perfect and knows it.  But she enjoys perfection or striving for it, and is an artist by profession, was an art teacher.  She grew up in a deprived household, her father passing when she was four, on the eve of the Great Depression.  With eight children in the family, the mother had quite a difficult life.  All the children grew to be successful, hard-working, and yes, with various but all strong and distinct personalities.  

The youngest, this woman now 91, has always desired to be socially acceptable, gracious, and tending to outer appearances in some aspects.  There are reasons for this.  A struggling childhood, for one, and recalling and so appreciating her mother's Saturday evening meal, using the good china, a lovely table cloth, and making what otherwise would have been a rather dark time of their lives, at least uplifted in those simple aspects.

Yes, perhaps there has been a bit much attention to personal appearance and desiring nice things.  But one can certainly understand why, in addition to the artistic proclivity and gifts.  Artists observe the outer appearances and appreciate color, style, design, and beautiful things.  There is nothing wrong with that.  But it is this aspect among many other small aspects, that have annoyed and grown into hatred in the reaction of the now 66-year-old.

Personality clash, yes, but the poison is seemingly beyond antidote in other than to pray for the person.  Talk and explanation, counsel and even being supportive in hopes of trying to get the poisoned one to then move into better mode, has not been effective.  The person poisoned has done self-harm, stuffing in feelings of anger toward other aspects of life and now lives with limitations of a physical sense in addition to the damaged emotions, the poison.

The 91-year-old has increasingly turned to God and prayer, yet still loves to enjoy what people wear, or their conversations, or lovely tables and details of delicious food and presentation, or gatherings of people for music or social time together.  And she loves the one who despises her, without realizing the depth of the anger the other has toward the elder, or else not allowing herself to realize it.  What difference would it make to know the extent of dislike, of hate?  The elder is now well-off, independent and has learned to hire others to assist her when her family cannot or does not.  But she appreciates when they can and do, and she chooses to love.

When the elder passes, which may be before the younger, although in this life we never know, she will leave the amass of money to the younger and to the younger's adult children.  She has already gifted the younger with a comfortable and lovely car, not causing a fuss in giving up that freedom in being able to drive, but rather passing through that phase with grace as opposed to many who instead need to be confronted and have the keys taken by strained family members.  She likewise, on her own, decided when to sell her home, then when to leave an apartment and enter an elder care facility.

Will the younger, the 66-year-old, even then, when the elder passes, be rid of the poison?  Is hate toward a living person alleviated when the person dies to this life, or is hate in the mind and emotions only quelled in and by forgiveness and grace of God, and in being able to then love the one who has been hated for nearly all of the person's life?  What difference does it make to change the word hate to resentment, personality clash, or trigger points?  It is none other than hate.

Yes, over the years the elder has said things of which the younger resented and felt hurt.  There were expectations of the younger as to how she wanted the elder to be.  (And there was rudeness from the younger to the elder, for sure.)  And true, others had difficulty sometimes relaxing in the presence of the perfections and plans of the elder, but they could understand and take it in stride.  

Having understanding of others and finding the good in them, and seeing the progress in their souls over the years, and realizing the love the person has for others--that washes over and ameliorates the bits of human flaws and irritants.

We all have them, these flaws and irritants.  But the reality is, that when we want to be good and to love, and when we strive toward His Real Presence and want to live a good as well as possible and be in light and as light--despite our human failings--those who resent or cannot forgive have a pall of darkness that distorts all the more, and suffocates their very soul.

All this is particularly highlighted when those who share the same faith--even the same Church--dislike others, criticize, try to discredit through words spoken or written or even thought and kept silent. Those who are stuck too much in the temporal Catholic world can be prone to this, and we must not be surprised when the temporal world aspects--society or church of any group or individuals--hates us.  

It is nothing new that the poison of disliking, of hating others, can creep into the Church.  St. Paul writes and warns of it in the Church of the first century.  Those who have hated, as he did, and been converted and healed, humbled, and forgiven, can tend to be able to love and forgive others, to have mercy for they have been given mercy and love.

But what a difference for a life and the lives of all involved, and for salvation, if we learn to love, if we live to love to learn to love.  Discord, anger, resentment, envy--it all boils down to the word that is so blatantly (and embarrassingly) strong but is the correct word to describe such:  hate.  

Those who have hate in them do not have God in them. Those who have darkness in them do not have the light.  Those who hate anyone (even if they describe it in less honest terms), are murderers.

And we must be reminded that those who dislike, resent, are rankled by, and hate, are not themselves but the darkness has crept in.  Yes, they were weak and open to darkness, but who of us has not been tricked and entered into by the author of darkness and hate?  So we cannot hate those who hate us, but rather have empathy and love, for we know what it is to be a host to poison even if quickly flushed out by the grace of God-Is-Love.

Little children, let us love one another!  Surely, if we see within ourselves that we are angered by others or dislike them, or are ruled by how they irritate us, have the poison of hate in us.  It is so unnecessary to love, especially among family, and that includes the family of the Church.  Darkness does not like Light.  Do we really want to be murderers?

Who will be judged harshly?  Who will advance to heaven? Will it be the one who is imperfect and yet loves, or is it the one who has let resentment and irritations build up in years of poison and hatred?  Will the death of the one heal the anger and hate of the other?  Will money gifted to the living, heal the hate?

God bless His Real Presence in us--if we have room for Him. Darkness does not like the Light. Clouds mask the sun as does the earth when night signals the obscuring of day.  Let us love one another.  Just love!  It ought to be simple, should it not?  Understand, empathize, encourage and see the good qualities and see hope in all souls (even our own)!  Be kind and merciful.  Pray for one another, and love one another!  Just love!

Learning from Jesus

If one could truly live by but a phrase of Jesus' Living Word, what a holy difference to our souls, to other souls around us, and to life and to the world!

This morning, the nothing Catholic hermit took to heart Jesus' three words:  learn from me.

What and how is it to learn from Jesus?

Listen, ponder, think with the heart.  Wait.  Seek.  Pray.  Praise.  Love.  Most of all, love.

 "‘Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.’" Matthew 11: 28-30

In the recent days, the hermit has lived through additional physical and emotional hardship.  All of us have these phases of "additional" hardships to the daily trials that we all carry when we pick up our crosses daily and follow His Real Presence.

Yesterday, with a desire to do manual labor, much needed always here, instead the hermit remained reclining.  It distracted itself by nothing much holy.  Intellectually it knew that the distractions were nothing more than escapism, taking the mind to lovely scenery, fictional lives of active people, good people, doing good in the world, solving problems.  

It was not terrible escapism, but it did not elevate the soul, particularly.  It "bought" time, perhaps--time that belongs to God and not for us to purchase nor beneficially to take.  Yet, this hermit has learned in this vocation of stricter separation from the world, hidden from the eyes of men, lived assiduously in praise and prayer, the will is not strong enough yet to the discipline of one such as Mary of Egypt.  She was an early century penitent whose conversion led her to the desert where she lived for 30 years in a cave.  Her clothes wore out; her hair grew long and became her bodily covering.  

At year 31 of her solitude, prayer, penance and being blessed by God in spiritual unity on earth, a priest came upon what he thought to be a man.  She explained her life, her conversion, her gender, and she desired Holy Communion.  He went off, determined to return with some clothing.  He could not relocate her and learned she had passed from earth, having edified himself and a handful of others who knew of her existence and life of prayer, humility, and union with God.

While Mary of Egypt made an abrupt change in her life--a life that had known mortal and moral sin, we do not know the trials and the efforts and temptations endured in the process over the years.  We can assume she did not make an immediate leap from one way of existence into the physical desert, and yes, the outer and inner desert of silence, solitude, slowness, simplicity, stillness, stability, suffering, selflessness and serenity.

With that in mind, we may know that to learn from Jesus is a process.  Even if we were to give up our possessions, we would retain enough to survive, especially in our time period of temporal responsibilities, such as paying taxes, having our affairs in order for our death dues, being accessible to others who have need of us in some aspect or other that requires our compassion and selflessness in sacrificing some external aspect of our vocation, for a time.

What this hermit considers today one aspect to learn from Jesus, it is to learn His compassion.  Compassion includes understanding, of placing oneself in another person's body, mind, heart and spirit enough to suffer with, or to share with, that person's "passion."  This passion may be some intense feeling or desire, and can involve some aspect of the person suffering angst or pain.

When a friend emailed frustrations that her cleaning woman has now three times changed the day of her coming to clean her home, the hermit understood the friend's frustration.  It is all relative to the phase and personality and pace of spiritual growth, and the calling and place that we each and all have in our world and our lives.  What frustrates one person could seem superficial to others.  (This hermit's being cold for several days is superficial to the cold that the homeless or many of the world's poor experience.)  

Yet in humility, we can learn from Jesus:  understanding and compassion.  He has compassion for all life and beings, including us!

Learning compassion is part of the good of the little exercise this hermit has developed for itself.  Bend in understanding and to have compassion as to what and why others find 
irritating of this hermit and to try to remove the irritants.  It is just a small aspect of learning from Jesus understanding and compassion, of bearing with and for others.  

What frustrates or irritates others may not be in the full spectrum of life what we consider major; the problems or irritants may seem to us picayune.  However, in understanding and compassion, in learning the "s" of "selflessness", we learn from Jesus to relate and to love; and in that loving we can feel what others are enduring, at their levels and phases of living their lives.

And we learn in the process that Jesus in particular, but also other people, have had understanding and compassion for us in our levels and phases of living our lives.  What seems upsetting or frustrating to us, may be quite minor, if we take a realistic look at our crosses.  We learn from Jesus all about crosses--our own, others, and His--and pray to grow in lessons of understanding and compassion.

We may not learn high degrees or full understanding and compassion immediately.  But we learn, all the same, if even a little.  Any ounce or degree of understanding and compassion are gifts worth appreciating and sharing with others:  silently, humbly, lovingly, not judging their motives or outcomes.

There is an infinity of holiness to learn from Jesus.  Learning compassion is one wondrous lesson and gift.

God bless His Real Presence in us!  Little children, let us love (and have compassion for) one another!

More Spiritual Combat Practice

Finally got the call that the laptop was repaired.  So thankful to have purchased the warranty service.  Don't usually do that, but with the laptop it has been useful and practical and finance-saving.

In the past few days, there have been many trials in which to practice lessons learned in The Spiritual Combat book by Dom Lorenzo Scupoli.  Can't say there is great progress in overcoming the surprise attacks, but there is progress in recognizing them.  Being rested and in good, physical health would bring better successes.  But who in battle on the battlefield is rested and has particularly good health?  The soldiers are weary, hungry, aching, and overwhelmed with responsibilities and high stakes of potential failure and defeat.

The reality yet requires one to remain steadfast, remain on the field, remain engaged in tenacity and purpose, remain hopeful and faithful in loving dependency on His Real Presence.

Appliances were delivered.  Unexpected delivery man exhibited resistance to helping place the behemoth things into the openings.  He relented, but the appliances did not fit.  Appeared that the cabinets were not "square", or so he said.  Being worn out but having spent hours and with hired help to level and square the cabinets, it all seemed rather confusing.  What went wrong?

Later, asked the delivery young man if the appliances are level.  "Yes," he replied.  He suggested shaving off the cabinet edges to make the stove fit.  All had turned to confusion with trying to figure out the tangible problem of materials and space, making one item fit into another.  The counter top people were to come the next day.  Three cumbrous, heavy appliances were left sitting in the center of a small kitchen; a microwave in its box was plopped in front of the sliding exterior doors.

After several phone calls, thankfully did not shave the cabinets.  Simply by eying the appliances again, could see they were not level with the floor (which was not level--thus all the hours of shimming cabinets to make all level and square).  More misinformation was given by store employees:  no leveling feet on fridge; yes leveling feet, but only in front; leveling feet on stove, not just on front.  "Your floor is not level."  "What floor even in new construction is level, let alone in old houses?  Do they not deliver appliances to other older, single people who live in older houses?"

No help was forthcoming from the store.  More phone calls to others.  The counter top people were trying their best to figure out what this solo, tired, old woman could do.  The man helping with electrical was called; he described how to make a fulcrum with 2x4 pieces of lumber and jack the heavy refrigerator enough to turn the adjuster wheels.  (Yes, refrigerators do have them in the front.)  But one wheel would not go up or down; the other would.  Faulty adjuster foot-wheel.  Appliance employees said they knew nothing about leveling appliances but deliver people do.  Delivery people were ones giving wrong information from onset.

Delivery head man said store can do nothing to help.  Call the service warranty people as one month remains.  Service warranty people said would be a charge if adjuster wheel not broken but stuck.  Who knows, but God?  Turned focus to stove to at least get it level as it would fit into the spot if level with the level cabinets.  (Thanks be to God the counter top people, so helpful, said do not shave the cabinets to get the stove to fit--back when was wrongly told the stove was level with floor.)

Back foot leveler on stove would not budge.  Call the store again, and appliance man said must just do the best as he did not know anything other to advise.  Could not help.  Frustration rises.  Said maybe counter top man, when he comes, would be kind enough to help me.

Counter top man did help by holding range on side so this one could get down on floor with tools and see why foot would not budge.  Leveling foot is defective; bent in on angle and thus would never have moved.  Call store again.  Appliance man finally says what could have, should have, been said previous day.  "We will send a man out on Tuesday with a new stove foot, and if the one cannot be replaced will replace the stove."

Asked if the man could also take a look at the defective refrigerator leveling foot?  Maybe....

From one young delivery man's arrival and attitude, chaos ensued, involving various others in phone calls and trying to help, amidst some store employees catching the "resistance fever" while others tried to problem solve.  As it turned out, nothing was going to solve the problem with defective parts other than replacing them.  And that was going to take a strong person and a store employee to handle the massive appliances.

Stayed in the battle, remained on the field.  (Where else is there for a hermit to go in a remote area when worn out and stressed by such unnecessary chaos?)  Prayed about why this was unfolding as it was--a first glitch with the store and employees who otherwise have been so helpful to a point of holiness. 

First insight:  the young delivery man needs prayers.  Had noticed previously in the store, his tendency to dark chip on the shoulder.  Not delighted with the job, a bit resistant to helpfulness.  Second insight:  God was testing this Catholic hermit in the art of spiritual combat.

Results:  Battle not won yet but looking more promising for victory, one way or another.  Did not do well in the midst of the fray; frustrations rose to a peak, and tears came like rain on the field, at one point.  But did come to the realization that if need be, would exist with the appliances sitting in the center of kitchen, not finish the kitchen, and go on until illness or death plucked me from the temporal scene, and someone, some day, some how, would be able to level or move the appliances.  Had lived without a kitchen for well over a year, and adapted and survived just fine.

Lessons learned:  Attitude makes all the difference.  Persevere to the goal, and do not be beaten back by others' negative attitudes, resistance, nor misinformation.  Praise God and those who help when it is not even their responsibility to be involved and help.  Praise God in all aspects of the trials.  Keep a perspective that prayer for souls is at the root of all trials, and love of God and others despite the obstacles or if they become the enemy combatants, is key.  Do not consider them enemy but rather fellow seekers and strugglers on the battle fields of life, of which spiritual combat is a daily and nightly reality in any of the miniscule details of our temporal journeys.  Thank all those who helped, and thank those who became resistant when the resistance is snapped like the little rubber bands they were all along.

Praise God.  Pray to not slip in midst of combat next time, for there will be a next time and next time and next time.  Only when there is recognition and loving, spiritual and temporal handling of trials will the combat seem not a combat but merely an opportunity for prayer, love and not-so-stressful victory. 

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