The Name of Our Redemption

'How happy we will be if, 

at the hour of our death, 

as well as during the whole 

of our lives, we pronounce 

the Sacred Name of our 

Savior with due respect. 

It will be like a password 

with which we freely enter 

into heaven, for it is the 

name of our redemption.'

St. Francis de Sales

 

Painting: Baciccio, 'The Triumph of the Name of Jesus'

This is a repost from the archives of 8/7/16.  

If We Knew...

The World For Which I Was Born

I was recently reminded of something a friend wrote to me some years ago. 'Sitting in a monastery of nuns,' this woman said in a letter, 'I knew I didn't belong in their life and yet I didn't belong out in the world either. The closer you get to His Heart, the farther you get from everything else, which is really as it should be... I felt that the problem with being in the world is that so often you are distracted from loving Him, which is all I want to do. When you are in the monastery, everything reminds you of Him no matter what chore you are presently doing. But His will is mine, so wherever He wants me is what I really want too. What I fear is taking Him for granted and becoming lukewarm.'

My friend's fear is one I know well. Taking Him for granted. Becoming lukewarm. How I wish I could say these things have never happened to me, but I cannot. Lukewarmness can seem normal, even cozy, and I sometimes find myself settling down in it and feeling right at home. Being distracted from things of God doesn't seem like such a problem then, when the world around feels eternal and entrancing and like it must be the forever-world-for-which-I-was-born.

But the truth is: the world around is not The-Forever-World-For-Which-I-Was-Born. 'God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him forever in Heaven.' The Baltimore Catechism said it well.

'When you are in the monastery,' wrote my friend, 'everything reminds you of Him.' While monks or nuns enclosed inside walls are not yet in the Forever-World, they live twenty four hours a day inside a reflection of it. Their time is entirely spent on the pathway to Home. They wash dishes on that path. They do laundry on that path. They eat and sleep and garden and pray and laugh and sing on that path. They live in an entrance foyer to Heaven, and everything around reminds them of where they're headed and for Whom they were made.

As a laywoman in the world, I too am called to the pathway. But mine is not so clearly marked. I have no monastic schedules to keep me on the trail. I don't spend every moment of every day with a community of people all focusing in the same direction. If I listen to friends or co-workers or celebrities who don't know or accept why God made them, I can even lose sight of my own awareness of the truth.

Probably this is why some of us can feel more at home in a monastery than in the world.
Because really - we are.


(When I start to lose sight of my real pathway, I am helped by what several saints have had to say about this kind of thing.  A few of their exhortations can be found by clicking here.)


Painting: Jan van Helmont

But Then...

And He Raised Her to the Highest Heaven

The Name of Our Redemption

'How happy we will be if, 
at the hour of our death, 
as well as during the whole 
of our lives, we pronounce 
the Sacred Name of our 
Savior with due respect. 
It will be like a password 
with which we freely enter 
into heaven, for it is the 
name of our redemption.'

St. Francis de Sales





 









Painting: Baciccio, 'The Triumph of the Name of Jesus'

Through the Shadows

'It is impossible to look upon the Divinity and not to love it. However, 

here below we do not see it, but only have a glimpse of it 

through the shadows of faith, seeing as in a mirror.'

St. Francis de Sales

Painting by Rodolfo Amoedo (digitally altered)

Within This Heaven of My Soul

What A Beautiful Abode!

'From this valley of tears, turn your gaze continually to God, ever awaiting the moment when you will be united to Him in heaven. Often contemplate heaven, and fervently exclaim: What a beautiful abode is above! It is destined for us!'

St. Paul of the Cross

Paintings by El Greco

Finally, That Country

'The present life is given to us only to earn eternal life. If we forget this, we tend to concentrate all our affections on the things of this world, where we are but birds of passage... Believe me, if we want to live as happy pilgrims, we must always have in our hearts the hope of finally reaching that country where we will settle down forever. But at the same time we must believe, and believe with all our hearts (this is a most sacred truth!) that God keeps a loving eye on us as we walk toward Him, and never lets anything happen to us that is not for our greater good.'

St. Francis de Sales

Eye Has Not Seen...

"Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, nor has it so much as dawned on man what God has prepared for those who love Him." (1 Corinthians 2:9)

It is Easter, and thoughts have turned toward heavenly things. Dark has been overcome by Light. Life has conquered death. Truth has shattered lies.

Looking around the world in which we live, however, we might be starting to wonder. We see so much darkness. Death appears to win more battles than we care to think about. Shoving truth aside, lies strut around proud and haughty and apparently triumphant. Just imagine there's no heaven, we were told in song forty years ago; imagine no hell. And that, it seems, is precisely what the world has been doing - imagining that this life is all there is.

I would like to spend the next few weeks looking through the grillwork, considering how various ideas do or do not line up with what is "on our grille."  I find the world's current view of eternity (for instance) quite obvious. It's hard to miss that view if we have read a newspaper lately, or turned on a TV.  The world, as a whole, appears to be imagining that there are no consequences whatsoever for the choices we make.

But what do Scripture and Church teaching have to say on the matter?

It is only through reading the Bible and authentic teachings of the Church that we shall ever find the "view through the grille."

"Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him to subject all things to himself." (Philippians 3:20-21)

"Blest are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of slander against you because of Me. Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is great in heaven." (Matthew 5:10-11)

"Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father Who is in heaven." Matthew 7:21

"Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell."  Matthew 10:28

"By virtue of our apostolic authority, we define the following: According to the general disposition of God the souls of all the saints... and other faithful who died after receiving Christ's holy Baptism... already before they take up their bodies again and before the general judgement... have been, are and will be in heaven, in the heavenly Kingdom and celestial paradise with Christ, joined to the company of the holy angels." (Catechism of the Catholic Church 1023)

"Let us never forget the sublime end of man, which is to be happy forever in a blessed eternity." (St. John Bosco)


Text not in quotes© 2015 Nancy Shuman. 
thecloisteredheart.org     

Painting: Louis Janmot, Poème de l'âme, in US public domain due to age {PD-US}

Who Art In Heaven

After praying yesterday with the words "Our Father," I thought I would probably spend today's prayer time with "hallowed be Thy Name."

But wait. I was missing something. What about "Who art in Heaven?"

I didn't deliberately omit these words from my pending meditation, it's just that I figured they wouldn't draw me toward prayer.  I'd anticipated, perhaps, a time of thanksgiving and praise, maybe with music and psalms. That seemed a "next logical step."

I love it when God surprises me.

I began praying, just as I had yesterday.... "Our Father Who art in......heaven...."

heaven. HEAVEN....

Will it sound strange if I say that word kind of...... "shimmered?"  Probably, but that's what seemed to happen. As if the word itself were suddenly dripping gold.

I find it difficult to squeeze such things into words, so I won't try to share the "fruits" (so far) of my ongoing meditation.  Instead, I'll include a few quotes from those who know what they're talking about.

Anyway, my main point is that God is answering prayer.  In His mercy, He is (again) teaching me to pray. Which I did throughout the day, as it turned out, cooking and washing and opening mail while keeping up an inner conversation with the One Who awaits us in heaven.

I sometimes make things too complicated. I can think that in order to pray, I must first "do this" and then "do that" and then read something particular and then cross this T while standing on my head in the kitchen corner, and by the time I've put all the pieces in place, I've sort of forgotten the goal. Which is to give my attention and love to God.  But He knows my cry of "Lord, teach me to pray" is exactly that, and He is now pointing me toward this profound prayer that He, Himself, gave us.

I love it when God surprises me.  

"As you know, we have our citizenship in heaven..." (Philippians 3:20)

"The country in which I live is not my native country; that lies elsewhere, and must always be the center of my longings." (St. Therese of Lisieux)

"Heaven is the ultimate end and fulfillment of the deepest longings, the state of supreme, definitive happiness. To live in heaven is to be with Christ.... This mystery of blessed communion with God and with all who are in Christ is beyond all understanding and description. Scripture speaks of it in images: life, light, peace, wedding feast, wine of the kingdom, the Father's house, the heavenly Jerusalem, paradise.  'No eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him.' (1 Corinthians 2:9)" (Catechism of the Catholic Church 1024-1027)

Painting: Giovanni di Paolo, Paradise 


Text not in quotes © 2015 Nancy Shuman.  All Rights Reserved.
thecloisteredheart.org   

But Take Courage!

'The one peculiar and characteristic sin of the world is this:

that whereas God would have us live for the life to come, 

the world would make us live for this life.'

(John Henry Cardinal Newman)

'You will suffer in the world, but take courage!

I have overcome the world'

(words of Jesus in John 16:33)

Painting: José García Ramos, Leaving a Masqued Ball 

A Necessary Winter

'In heaven it shall be all a springtime of beauty, 

all an autumn of enjoyment, all a summer of love. 

Winter there shall be none; 

but here winter is necessary for the exercise of abnegation 

and of the thousand beautiful little virtues 

which are practiced in the time of barrenness.' 

St. Francis de Sales

Painting: Jules Breton, Last Flowers

A Gradual Courage

Hero: someone admired for great courage. Thus says my dictionary.

Heroic saints: those in Heaven who had the courage to get there. Which is everyone who IS there. Thus says me.

Yes, that second is my own definition and it's cumbersome, but I believe it's accurate.

After all, it takes courage to...

1. admit I am a sinner in need of a Savior
2. put my faith in Jesus Christ, especially  when the world around considers Him insignificant
3. choose to believe Scripture
4. choose to believe 2,000 years of authentic Church teaching
5. choose to live according to Scripture and Church teaching
6. choose to live according to the teachings of Christ, no matter what
7. overcome obstacles to living for Christ

Every saint we've ever read about, every Christian martyr, has had this kind of courage. They became saints because they lived heroically. Some were martyred on scaffolds, or by stoning, or in lions' dens. Some endured imprisonments for their faith. Some led the most ordinary of lives, caring for those around them, unnoticed by the world. 

Not one of the saints we read of was born with heroic, saint-making courage. The courage most often came gradually, step after baby step, followed sometimes by a defining leap or two. Along the path there were missteps, moments of caution, roadblocks. Each saint grew in courage, step by step by step.

"Francis' conversion did not happen overnight. God had waited for him for twenty-five years and now it was Francis' turn to wait. Francis started to spend more time in prayer. He went off to a cave and wept for his sins. Sometimes God's grace overwhelmed him with joy. But life couldn't just stop for God. There was business to run, customers to wait on. One day while riding through the countryside, Francis, the man who loved beauty, who was so picky about food, who hated deformity, came face to face with a leper. Repelled by the appearance and the smell of the leper, Francis nevertheless jumped down from his horse and kissed the hand of the leper......" (from Catholic Online)

St. Augustine "spent many years of his life in wicked living and false beliefs.... he heard about two men who had suddenly been converted on reading the life of St. Antony, and he felt terribly ashamed of himself. 'What are we doing?' he cried to his friend Alipius. 'Unlearned people are taking Heaven by force, while we, with all our knowledge, are so cowardly that we keep rolling in the mud of our sins!' Full of bitter sorrow, Augustine flung himself into the garden and cried out to God, 'how long more, O Lord? Why does not this hour put an end to my sins?' Just then he heard a child singing, 'take up and read!'  Thinking that God intended him to hear these words, he picked up the book of the Letters of St. Paul and read the first passage his gaze fell on. It was just what Augustine needed, for in it, St. Paul says to put away all impurity and to live in imitation of Jesus. That did it! From then on, Augustine began a new life...." (from Catholic Online)  

I would like to spend some time here, over the next few days, looking at courage. And at our call  - yes, your and my call - to be heroic.  If the world is in need of anything right now, it is a hefty dose of heroism.

In the tiny, hidden, day to day circumstances of our ordinary lives, imagine becoming "heroic!" It sounds presumptuous, doesn't it? But it isn't. It is not presumptuous at all.

Everyone in Heaven is a saint. So do we really want to be, eternally, anything less? 

"Make up your mind to become a saint," said St. Mary Mazzarello.

I'm taking another step, today, toward heroism. I am making up my mind.



Top painting: Domenico Ghirlandaio, Santo Stefano
Bottom painting: Helen Allingham, Harvest Moon  


This post is linked to Catholic Bloggers Network Linkup

It is Faith

'No one
is a martyr 
for a conclusion; 
No one 
is a martyr 
for an opinion; 
It is faith 
that makes martyrs.' 

Blessed John Henry Newman 


















Painting: Gustave Dore

But I Digress

I haven't forgotten.  I know I promised to report back on seeking God ten times the more, and it has been a week now.  I wanted to wait until I felt I'd had some success.

Sigh. 

This is where it would be handy to have an emoticon for the word "sigh." Or a way to write it in wistful script, implying a breath of drawn-out longing:  in this case, a sighing for something that seems unattainable.   

But I digress.  Which is appropriate, as digressing is my problem.  To digress, says the dictionary, is to turn aside or wander from the main subject temporarily.

The Main Subject:  God.

Digression:  my distractions even in the midst of trying to turn "ten times the more" to Him.  Do I turn aside from God?  No, not deliberately.  Do I wander from paying attention to Him?  Now that is a good question.  My will, in a time of prayer, may or may not stray.  My mind?  Now there's the great wanderer, the little nomad, the part that goes missing in action without so much as a fare-thee-well.  It can later be found in the most unlikely places, having chased every "wheeeeeeeeeeeee, let's follow this!" mental breeze.   

Temporarily:  the last word in the dictionary definition.  This is a word that gives me hope.  My distractions are not a permanent condition.  It is only when I will not hope in GOD that I become hopeless .... and that, itself, can be a temporary state.  The instant I turn and place my hope in Him - that's the instant when hope is restored.  That is when God has the last word. 

Even when I ask forgiveness of sin, my repented-of failings are rendered "temporary."  Everything in this life will one day fall into that category.

Imagine being able to concentrate fully on the Main Subject, the one thing necessary.

Imagine dwelling eternally where all digressions have ceased.

Painting:  Elizabeth Adela Forbes, The Open Book
 
This post is linked to Catholic Bloggers Linkup

O Truth, Fatherland of Exiles

Let a person "treat transitory things as passing, as necessary for the moment; let him cling to eternal things with an enduring desire.  Give me such a man, I say, and I will boldly call him wise, because he recognizes things for what they really are... I ask in tears, how long shall we scent and not taste, seeing our Homeland far off, not possessing it but sighing for it.  O Truth, fatherland of exiles, end of their exile!  I see you, but imprisoned in flesh, I may not enter.... Christ, the Bridegroom of the Church and our Lord, God be blessed forever." - St. Bernard of Clairvaux

St. Bernard, ora pro nobis

Painting: Wilhelm Bernatzik, Vision of St. Bernard

More Fleeting Than a Shadow

'For certain, this life is only a phantom of life,
and its pleasures
only the shadows of pleasures....

'If pleasure is met with
here below,
it is more fleeting than a shadow,

'for the soul's true satisfaction
is to reach its goal,
which is God -
and this everlasting,
and most to be desired, eternity.'

St. Jane de Chantal

Painting: Lovis Corinth Schattenspiele 1891

The Threshold of Your House

"The monk, like the seer of the Apocalypse, has seen a door opened in heaven... from now on, everything resolves itself into passing through that door, into plunging into the vision which it opens on to the invisible."  (Louis Bouyer of the Oratory, The Meaning of the Monastic Life, PJ Kenedy and Sons, NY 1950, p. 68)

"It is the vocation of a monk to seek not the earthly but the heavenly Jerusalem."  (Walter Nigg, Warriors of God, NY, Alfred A. Knopf, 1959, p. 201)

"Here we have no lasting city; we are seeking one which is to come."  (Hebrews 13:14)

____________________________________________________________________
For Prayer and Reflection:  

• Has it ever seemed that a 'door opened into heaven' for me?  Have I ever had a sense (even if fleeting) of God's presence, reality, or love?  
• Even if I'm not a monk or nun, am I called to seek the heavenly Jerusalem? How am I responding to this call?

"Eternal Father, open Your gates today to the most miserable of your children, but one who greatly longs to see You."  (Blessed Jeanne Jugan)

"My God, without ceasing, I will tread the threshold of Your house."  (St.Ephrem)

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