PRAYER-MOUNTAIN

I never thought that the destruction of Sodom and G0morrah could have been avoided if only...
If only Abraham had dared to 'reduce' the number a little more!!! If he had climbed the mountain of humility a little more...

This is an interesting reflexion on today's readings from mycatholic.com:

One Bread, One Body - Reflection for July 29, 2007
PRAYER-MOUNTAIN

"Lord, teach us to pray." –Luke 11:1

When the Lord visited Abraham, He stayed behind to give Abraham an opportunity to intercede for Sodom and Gomorrah (Gn 18:22). Abraham quit just before His prayers would have saved the cities from destruction. Like Abraham, we have not persevered in prayer for cities, world leaders (1 Tm 2:1-2), and international affairs. God has looked in vain for someone to stand in the breach (Ez 22:30). Consequently, many cities and countries have been destroyed, not by God but from within.
Have we lost our faith in praying for world events? We need to pray in the power of the Spirit, not in our own limited strength. Jesus told us prayer moves mountains (Mt 17:20) and expels demons (Mt 17:21, NAB), but how many Christians really believe this and make intercession for world events a priority? We have lost confidence in prayer.
In the past century, Satan had gotten away with world wars, massive deaths through bombings, and two holocausts (the Third Reich and abortion). However, we have hope. Mary tried to rally the intercessors at Fatima. She prophesied that we would see the conversion of Russia, if we would intercede in faith. Also, we saw a tremendous prayer-victory in the nonviolent revolution in the Philippines. This is just the beginning if we can climb again, by faith, prayer-mountain.
PRAYER:
Father, teach me to pray like Your child should.
PROMISE:
"He canceled the bond that stood against us with all its claims, snatching it up and nailing it to the cross." –Col 2:14
PRAISE:
Praise You, risen Jesus! You prayed for peace and for Your cowering disciples, and they went forth and changed the world. Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus!

Grey areas and "Abandonment to Divine Providence"

- Man Must Learn to Hear Truth, Says Pope -

Growing in charity is also a matter of knowing how to make a difference between what is right and what is wrong with certainty. And also how to power ourselves up for the good action. Both of these are accomplished by abandonment of ourselves to the will of God. But how do we know the will of God? This book go throught it all. Below are few quotes. I like how it sound schoenstatt. Those quotes themselves explains something of the schoenstatt picture of grace of the MTA.

On then, my soul, on with head uplifted above earthly things, always satisfied
with God, with everything He does, or makes you do. Take good care not to
imprudently entertain a crowd of anxious reflexions which, like so many
trackless ways, carry our footsteps far and wide until we are hopelessly astray.
Let us go through that labyrinth of self-love by leaping over it, instead of
traversing its interminable windings.

On, my soul, through despondency, illness,
aridity, uncertain tempers, weakness of disposition, snares of the devil and of
men; through suspicions, jealousies, evil imaginations and prejudices. Let us
soar like the eagle above all these clouds with eyes always fixed on the sun,
and on its ways, which represent our obligations. All this we must needs feel,
but we must, at the same time, remember that ours is not a life of mere
sentiment, and that it does not depend upon us either to feel, or to be callous.

Let us live in the higher regions of the soul in which God and His will form
an eternity ever equal, ever the same, ever unchanging. In this dwelling
entirely spiritual, wherein the uncreated, immeasurable and ineffable holds the
soul at an infinite distance from all that is specific in shadows and created
atoms, it remains calm, even when the senses are tossed about by tempests. It
has become independent of the senses; their troubles and agitations and
innumerable vicissitudes no more affect it, than the clouds that obscure the sky
for a moment and then fade away, affect the sun.

On the Priest for Life show on EWTN at this moment, you can read on screen the number of abortions as they (the Show people) speak. It increases by 3-6 every second.

Abortion is one of the things that some people even some churches are still confused about their evilnes. Fr. Corapi likes to say that the Devil's favorite color is not black as we usually think: It is gray!
The Devil confuses people. In all kinds of moral situation people don't know exactly if something is bad. If they feel that it arranges them, then they conclude that it must be okay since...this and that...even God can undestand this particular situation...etc.

The good thing about being Catholic is that our Church is not one of those ones who are confused about 'gray' issues. Dispite the largeness, or how many traditions, spiritualities, etc, the entire universal Church knows exactly what it wrong what is right in matters of morals and faiths. Jesus is with us. And He would never fail to answer you question cleary and to find a solution for it.

If you are confused about any matter you can be sure to get an answer. Here in the internet Catholic Answers' people can clear any doubt you may have.

On this blog, Theology of the Body, and Gospel of Life are themselves great moral resources left to us by our beloved pope John Paul II. They propose a deep and genuine undestanding of life, love, and truth based on the Bible, Reason and Faith .

An other kind of 'grey' area we often experience is about understandig the will of God at any moment of our lives. At work, and real life I always get confused on how to testify for truth without sounding judgemental, or feeling prideful.

There is a schoenstatt song we used to sing in Africa. It said:
" If Mother send you to (complete here with any charitable deed you can do for your neighbor)
Will you go right away?
Ans: Yes, I will go, of course I will go right away...

Now, some case are very easy. However, others are just 'grey'. You can feel her sending you, but you just can't figure out which way to proceed. Or, you are not well disposed to act. In either case, if something goes wrong later, you can really fell hurt. Mother sent you to her child and you failed her. You can fell the sadness. If this happened to you, this is one of the things you can do (you probably know others :)).

But it is bette to find avoid it from happening in the first place. We are told that we need to arm ourselves because the devil is always 'closer than we think'. The commandement of the King is to love. But love can be sometime very confusing. It is amazing how some acts that we may think are out of love may be precisely the opposite. From keeping silence out of 'respect' to a mother aborting her child because she is not ready (so it is good for both of them), all kind of acts and decisions may seem to be out of love. So how do we tell real love? How do we tell the reel will of God? and How do we find enough strength to do it?

In my previous post I provided links about "crashing the head of the Old Dragon". Remember that this dragon is mostly preocupied by our Mother and us who try to keep the commendements. Well, we are the strategic 'points'. We should always remember that we are in dangereous positions of the front. We are not in the occupied area, nor on the unoccupied area. We are on the frontline. Fr. Corapi has a great series on his web site about this spiritual warfare: Surrender is Not an Option. I think it is probably still running on EWTN (saturday and sundays).

Again this is the wonderfull document about Divine Providence. Read it and don't loose your blessings or miss to deliver God's blessings to others.

It is great for any christian, specially for Schoenstatters. I am not sure but it must have been written by a schoenstatter. I saw it few years ago in french but its font was not attractive and I was not in mood to read, so I missed the treasure. When I realised that I saw it, I had a feeling which might be similar to that of St. Peter after denying Jesus. The remorse of taking yourself more serious than God.

Crashing the Head of the Old Dragon

I once read a book which suggested that the seven head of the Old Serpent are the seven deadly vices which opposes the seven virtues and gifts of the Holy Spirit.

We are once in a while if not always under siege by those vices. Friday is a best day to go about crashing them. Here they are and their remedies from 'The Sinner's Guide.


30.
Remedies against Pride
SECTION I - General Remedies
SECTION II - Particular Remedies
31.
Remedies against Covetousness
SECTION I - Against Covetousness in General
SECTION II - Against the unjust Detention of Another's Goods
32.
Remedies against Lust
33.
Remedies against Envy
34.
Remedies against Gluttony
35.
Remedies against Anger and Hatred
36.
Remedies against Sloth
37.
Other Sins to be avoided
38.
Venial Sins
39.
Shorter Remedies against Sins, particularly the Seven Deadly Sins

"In love lies true life" Fr. Kentenich

The french words translate: " You are a temple of life" His Holyness Pope Benedict XVI

Last night I had a very short but sweet dream where I got an unexpected wonderful smile. I wonder if it was because of this picture. I saw it yesterday and I had liked it very much.

It reminds me to be always in company of nice people. Bright and shiny. The Light shines on us and we can shine it on others. But if our light become deam we won't shine in darkenss, on the contrary darkness may overcome us.

Parce que l'Amour t'aime tu deviens amour

- Because Love loves you, you become love

Parce que l'Amour m'aime je deviens amour

- Because Love loves me, I become love

Holy Father to Meet Scouts

Holy Father to Meet Scouts

VATICAN CITY, JULY 24, 2007 (Zenit.org).

- Benedict XVI will meet with Boy and Girl Scouts and their guides in a celebration marking the 100th anniversary of the Scouts' founding.The Pope will meet the Scouts on Aug. 1, during the general audience.

More than 60,000 members of the International Union of the Guides and Scouts of Europe will attend the meeting with the Holy Father.

The Pontiff recently sent the Scouts a letter addressed to Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard, archbishop of Bordeaux and president of the French bishops' conference.

"For one century, through play, action, adventure, contact with nature, life as a team and in service to others, you offer an integral formation to anyone who joins the Scouts," said the Holy Father in his letter written in French.

Rosario Barone, general commissary of the Italian Association of Guides and Scouts of Europe, told Vatican Radio that the meeting will be "a moment to express our affectionate closeness to the Pope."

Aug. 1 marks the centenary of the first Scout camp, held on the island of Brownsea, in England, and organized by Robert Baden-Powell (1857-1941), founder of the Scout Movement.

The whale, Prayer, and the Interior Castle

Yesterday gospel told us the story of Martha and Marie and their two ways of relating to Jesus. Martha was so busy that she needed her sister's help, and she let Jesus know about it. But Jesus told her that Mary had chosen the rigth thing: staying at the Lord's feet.

Today I rediscovered a french show I used to watch when I came to Canada. This show helped me to keep my faith for sometime. And then I started College, very busy, I started forgetting about it until I lost appetite for it. I think at one point I became as busy as Martha. My view of serving God had changed. Mary's way is the contemplative way: prayer, meditation, and then work. But we can guess that Martha's way was the opposite. That's what happen when we neglet prayer. We become weak, in fact the 'contemplative' way become unattractive. Instead we think that there are things to get done first and then we will go to the Lord. But those things keeps increasing until we feel that we don't have time for prayer anymore. Actually all that time is feeled with our own worldly things that we excuse and tell ourselves that they are part of God's plan... But the fact is, when prayer is lost we loose strength in all spiritual things. We may even loose spiritual life at the end.

I was reading the first chapters of the "Dark Night" and I was surprised on how they relate to the Interior Castle, this story of Marth and Mary, and today gospel of prophet Jonah. Those chapters describe what happen when a soul is about to enter the dark night of a soul. It seems that a soul like Martha who really love the Lord can be mistaken in certain ways to a point when it realises that it has lost Him. But because it loves Him, it will not get lost. It will eventually find the way back and this time it will be more "purified of its imperfections" as St. John of the Cross explains.

The three nights in the big fish for Jonah can be considered a dark night. He got afraid of testifying, and the three nights made him stronger enough to do his job. They striped him not of the fear but of the reasons of his fear. His imperfections were removed. But we can undestand that this would not have happen if he had prayed enought to be above his fears. In one of the previous post I mentioned how St. Francis de Sales explains the necessity of prayer.

1. Prayer opens the understanding to the brightness of Divine Light, and the will to the warmth of Heavenly Love--nothing can so effectually purify the mind from its many ignorances, or the will from its perverse affections. It is as a healing water which causes the roots of our good desires to send forth fresh shoots, which washes away the soul's imperfections, and allays the thirst of passion.

2. But especially I commend earnest mental prayer to you, more particularly such as bears upon the Life and Passion of our Lord. If you contemplate Him frequently in meditation, your whole soul will be filled with Him, you will grow in His Likeness, and your actions will be moulded on His. He is the Light of the world; therefore in Him, by Him, and for Him we shall be enlightened and illuminated; He is the Tree of Life, beneath the shadow of which we must find rest;--He is the Living Fountain of Jacob's well, wherein we may wash away every stain. Children learn to speak by hearing their mother talk, and stammering forth their childish sounds in imitation; and so if we cleave to the Savior in meditation, listening to His words, watching His actions and intentions, we shall learn in time, through His Grace, to speak, act and will like Himself. Believe me, my child, there is no way to God save through this door. Just as the glass of a mirror would give no reflection save for the metal behind it, so neither could we here below contemplate the Godhead, were it not united to the Sacred Humanity of our Saviour, Whose Life and Death are the best, sweetest and most profitable subjects that we can possibly select for meditation. It is not without meaning that the Saviour calls Himself the Bread come down from Heaven;--just as we eat bread with all manner of other food, so we need to meditate and feed upon our Dear Lord in every prayer and action


The above comments point directly to Mary at the feet of Jesus. If we remember that Mary Magdalena was the one who was saved from being stoned to death we can see that she most likely undestood how to get healed. She undestood the importance of prayer better than Martha.

Those comments also point to the Interior Castle. St. Teresa says that 'prayer' is the door to this castle; meaning that we can't know ourselves unless we pray. Praying is connecting with Truth and Life (Jesus). Entering this castle is important because we really undestand what is going on around us. St Therese described it wonderfully that she shows that it is the building in which we live. The more we live in, the more our lives will be fulfilled. But she explains that the first rooms are filled with obstacle that prevent us from seing the Majesty of God inside. Only a big desire to know Truth can defeat those 'reptiles' as she calls them.

But if we stay outside our own house (our soul and live in confusions, etc) and we don't care to do something about it, we face the clear consequences. That's why Jesus responds:

“An evil and unfaithful generation seeks a sign,but no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah the prophet. Just as Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earththree days and three nights.

We will see the miracle of Jesus. We will undestand what it means. Because we will wish we can get out of the belly of the whale, and we will only get out throught the prayer in the name of the cruxified Jesus. God explains it to St. Catherina of Sienna in Treatise on Divine Providence:

"Do you not know, dear daughter, that all the sufferings, which the soul endures, or can endure, in this life, are insufficient to punish one smallest fault, because the offense, being done to Me, who am the Infinite Good, calls for an infinite satisfaction?

"However, I wish that you should know, that not all the pains that are given to men in this life are given as punishments, but as corrections, in order to chastise a son when he offends; though it is true that both the guilt and the penalty can be expiated by the desire of the soul, that is, by true contrition, not through the finite pain endured, but through the infinite desire; because God, who is infinite, wishes for infinite love and infinite grief.

"Infinite grief I wish from My creature in two ways: in one way, through her sorrow for her own sins, which she has committed against Me her Creator; in the other way, through her sorrow for the sins which she sees her neighbors commit against Me. Of such as these, inasmuch as they have infinite desire, that is, are joined to Me by an affection of love, and therefore grieve when they offend Me, or see Me offended, their every pain, whether spiritual or corporeal, from wherever it may come, receives infinite merit, and satisfies for a guilt which deserved an infinite penalty, although their works are finite and done in finite time; but, inasmuch as they possess the virtue of desire, and sustain their suffering with desire, and contrition, and infinite displeasure against their guilt, their pain is held worthy.

"Paul explained this when he said: If I had the tongues of angels, and if I knew the things of the future and gave my body to be burned, and have not love, it would be worth nothing to me. The glorious Apostle thus shows that finite works are not valid, either as punishment or recompense, without the condiment of the affection of love."

"I have shown you, dearest daughter, that the guilt is not punished in this finite time by any pain which is sustained purely as such. And I say, that the guilt is punished by the pain which is endured through the desire, love, and contrition of the heart; not by virtue of the pain, but by virtue of the desire of the soul; inasmuch as desire and every virtue is of value, and has life in itself, through Christ crucified, My only begotten Son, in so far as the soul has drawn her love from Him, and virtuously follows His virtues, that is, His Footprints.

"In this way, and in no other, are virtues of value, and in this way, pains satisfy for the fault, by the sweet and intimate love acquired in the knowledge of My goodness, and in the bitterness and contrition of heart acquired by knowledge of one's self and one's own thoughts. And this knowledge generates a hatred and displeasure against sin, and against the soul's own sensuality, through which, she deems herself worthy of pains and unworthy of reward."

Many fantastic movies have been produced trying to illustrate the drama of souls, but I wonder if no director or producer ever discoverd the Interior Castle to make something visual out of it. Something more illustrating and undestandable than Constantine or more true than the Lord of the Ring or the Matrix.

Fire up your heart for WYD 2008

August is approching, as wyd2008.org metre indicates already, only 360 days left. One Year left. Here are some videos to help you taste the fire of the Spirit. Don't let it cool down. And pray that we may all make it to Sydney. Yes, please pray!

Theme Song RECEIVE THE POWER (International version)



Cross and Icon of WYD:
They have been almost everywhere in the world. In my home countries Burundi and Rwanda. On the war between the two Corea, and many other areas where Christ is deepley needed.





WYD 2008 - Sydney - Austraria



Dare you to move



Testimonies from previous WYD-2008