Unemotional Communions

Everyone Who Listens Comes to Me
by Caryll Houselander

"I especially like this part: "In the eyes of the world they are without importance, but in fact, because of them and their unemotional Communions, when the world seems to be finished, given up to hatred and pride, secretly, in unimaginable humility, Love comes to life again.  There is resurrection everywhere."

You can find the whole Meditation in Magnificat, April 2016, Vol. 18, No. 2, pages 185-186

Purposeful Trial

Keep in mind...

(From the Catechism of the Catholic Church)

The Church's ultimate trial

675 Before Christ's second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers.⁵⁷⁴ The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth⁵⁷⁵ will unveil the "mystery of iniquity" in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth. The supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of his Messiah come in the flesh.⁵⁷⁶

676 The Antichrist's deception already begins to take shape in the world every time the claim is made to realize within history that messianic hope which can only be realized beyond history through the eschatological judgment. The Church has rejected even modified forms of this falsification of the kingdom to come under the name of millenarianism,⁵⁷⁷ especially the "intrinsically perverse" political form of a secular messianism.⁵⁷⁸

677 The Church will enter the glory of the kingdom only through this final Passover, when she will follow her Lord in his death and Resurrection.⁵⁷⁹ The kingdom will be fulfilled, then, not by a historic triumph of the Church through a progressive ascendancy, but only by God's victory over the final unleashing of evil, which will cause his Bride to come down from heaven.⁵⁸⁰ God's triumph over the revolt of evil will take the form of the Last Judgment after the final cosmic upheaval of this passing world.⁵⁸¹

^{[Note to self: The path to Resurrection is always through the Cross.]}

Victory In Christ

USCCA, Chapter 13
I believe in the resurrection of the dead, and life everlasting.  I believe Christ's death and resurrection means He has saved everyone from their sins and from the power of death.  However, for each person to enjoy eternal life in Christ, they must accept His self-giving love, His Life. 

Exactly when and how the Lord will execute the Final Judgment, I don't claim to completely know or understand.  I do know that because I live in Christ, I can trust Him for my eternal destiny.

Lord I pray for every human-being that has ever lived, that lives now on earth, and that will yet be born.  I pray that Your mercy on them will be experienced by them in coming to recognize and receive Christ.  Lord, forgive us for all the times we make it difficult for each other to see Christ.

Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.


Thanks be to God Who gives us the victory in Jesus Christ!

Faith is a Gift

In response to USCCA, Chapter 8 Discussion Questions:
I've written a response to Question 1 for another venue, so I will wait to post that here until another day.  Meanwhile, re Questions 2 & 3:

How could I help someone come to faith in the Resurrection of Christ?  I don't think it really works that way.  I think that the Holy Spirit gives the gift of Faith.  Christ's Resurrection is something beyond human reason; the only way it is truly grasped is by the gift of Faith, given freely by the Spirit.  The way I can be used by the Spirit in that work is analogous to tilling soil.  I could till the soil, but the Spirit plants the seed.  The primary way I am to "till the soil" is by living a life transformed by the Spirit, especially by caring for others.  Another way I can "till the soil" is by sharing The Word (Scripture) with others.  Another way that is very accessible to me is that I can support others' in their growth in their faith life.  But the real work is done by the Spirit: giving the Gift of Faith.  For those who resist this Gift, I can pray the Lord to have mercy and to persist in making their lives "soil" capable of receiving the "seed."  This is a hard thing to pray because I am well aware that usually this involves some sort of tragedy or hardship.  People who have resisted the Gift of Faith in Christ tend to be hardened against receptivity.  It usually takes a life-altering event to bring about any review of their world-view.

There might be many ways a person comes to understand their need for a Savior, but the main way I experience this need is by encountering my own limitations, particularly my inability to forgive and to heal without the special working of the Holy Spirit.

"Why (/how) are the Cross and the Resurrection bound together in the Paschal Mystery?"
You can only rise to new life when you die to the old.