How To Deal With The Nasty And Cunning Ones

Christ turned the other cheek, suffered for them on the cross and asked God to forgive them while dying in pain because of them, but no human today can be expected to accomplish anything this selfless.  To deal with them, you need not be nasty and cunning in return.  If you become nasty and cunning yourself, you would be ugly just like them and you do not want to be ugly.

Who wants to turn into an ugly monster and see that image in the mirror?  You want to be beautiful inside and out.  I believe that if you are beautiful inside, like Christ, the you will be beautiful in the image of Christ on the outside as well.  The more you are like Christ, the more beautiful your personal trinity, your mind, your body and your soul will become.

What about the nasty and cunning ones? You know and can see that they are already ugly.  The nastier and more cunning they become the uglier and uglier they will turn, inside and out.  The secret is that they do not have to be nastier or more cunning to appear uglier and uglier in front of you.  Their minds, bodies and souls will naturally be uglier and uglier relative to your mind, body and soul when you become kinder and kinder, more and more compassionate and forgiving, more and more loving and beautiful as you become more and more like Christ.  Their punishment is painfully, and sadly, apparent to them for they also see how more and more beautiful you have become and your ever increasing beauty has unwittingly become a mirror for them reflecting their ever increasing ugliness, heightening their envy and deepening their bitterness.

All you can do is pray for them, that they too would follow Christ and become loving and beautiful like Christ, and not turn their anger into vengeance against Christ and His faithful ones and become captives of Satan.

A Sublime Imagery By Dante

"We were received into the elements of the eternal pearl as water takes light into itself, with no change in its substance" [Emphasis added] is from Dante's Divine Comedy, translated by John Ciardi who explained that Dante and Beatrice entered the Sphere of the Moon "as light [enters] into water, as God incarnated himself into man, or as the saved soul reenters God, without disruption of the substance thus entered. [Emphasis added] " [1]


[1] Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy. The Paradiso, Canto II, pages 606-7. Trans. John Ciardi. New York: New American Library, 2003.

Knowing Versus Serving God's Truth

Saint Augustine said it best [1]:

"I could no longer claim that I had no clear perception of the truth - the excuse which I used to make myself for postponing my renunciation of the world and my entry into your service - for by now I was quite certain of it.  But I was still bound to earth and refused to serve in your army.  Instead of fearing, as I ought, to be held back by all that encumbered me, I was frightened to be free of it  [Emphasis added.] ... I was quite sure that it was better for me to give myself up to your love than to surrender to my own lust.  But while I wanted to follow the first course and was convinced that it was right, I was still a slave to the pleasures of the second.  I had no answer to make when you said Awake, you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light.  You used all means to prove the truth of your words, and now that I was convinced that they were true, the only answers I could give were the drowsy words of an idler - 'Soon', 'Presently', 'Let me wait a little longer'.  But 'soon' was not soon and 'a little longer' grew much longer.  It was in vain that inwardly I applauded your disposition, when that other disposition in my lower self raised war against the disposition of my conscience and handed me over as a captive to that disposition towards sin, which my lower self contained.  For the rule of sin is the force of habit, by which the mind is swept along and held fast even against its will, yet deservedly, because it fell into the habit of its own accord.  Pitiable creature that I was, who was to set me free from a nature thus doomed to death?  Nothing else than the grace of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  [Emphasis original.]"

[1] Saint Augustine, Confessions, translated by R.S. Pine-Coffin.  Page 165.  England: Clays, Ltd, St Ives, plc, 1961.

Clare of Assisi

Below is quoted verbatim (emphasis original) from The First Book, Chapter VIII, How He Built The Church of San Damiano, And Of The Way Of Life Of The Ladies Living In That Place by Thomas of Celano [1]:

The first work that blessed Francis undertook,

after he had gained his freedom

from the hands of his carnally-minded father,

was to build a house of God.

He did not try to build a new one,

but he repaired an old one,

restored an ancient one.

He did not tear out the foundation,

but he built upon it,

always reserving to Christ his prerogative,

although unaware of it,

for no one can lay another foundation,

but that which has been laid,

which is Christ Jesus.

When he had returned to the place mentioned where

the church of San Damiano had been built in ancient times,

he repaired it zealously within a short time,

aided by the grace of the Most High.

This is the blessed and holy place where

the glorious religion and most excellent Order

of Poor Ladies and holy virgins

had its happy beginning,

about six years after the conversion of the blessed Francis

and through that same blessed man.

The Lady Clare,

a native of the city of Assisi,

the most precious and strongest stone of the whole structure,

stands as the foundation for all the other stones.

For

after the beginning of the Order of Brothers,

when this lady was converted to God

through the counsel of the holy man,

she lived for the good of many

and as an example to countless others.

Noble by lineage, but more noble by grace,

chaste in body, most chaste in mind,

young in age, mature in spirit,

steadfast in purpose and most eager in her desire for divine love,

endowed with wisdom and excelling in humility,

bright in name, more brilliant in life, most brilliant in character.

A noble structure of precious pearls arose above this woman,

whose praise comes not from mortals but from God,

since our limited understanding is not sufficient to imagine it,

nor our scanty vocabulary to utter it.

First of all,

the virtue of mutual and continual charity

that binds their wills together

flourishes among them.

Forty or fifty of them can dwell together in one place,

wanting and not wanting the same things

forming one spirit in them out of many.

Second,

the gem of humility,

preserving the good things bestowed by heaven

so sparkles in each one

that they merit other virtues as well.

Third,

the lily of virginity and chastity

diffuses such a wondrous fragrance among them

that they forget earthly thoughts

and desire to meditate only on heavenly things.

So great a love of their eternal Spouse arises in their hearts

that the integrity of their holy feelings keeps them

from every habit of their former life.

Fourth,

all of them have become so distinguished

by their title of highest poverty

that their food and clothing

rarely or never

manage to satisfy extreme necessity.

Fifth,

they have so attained the unique grace

of abstinence and silence

that they scarcely need to exert any effort

to check the prompting of the flesh

and to restrain their tongues.

Sixth,

they are so adorned with the virtue of patience

in all these things,

that adversity of tribulation,

or injury of vexation

never breaks or changes their spirit.

Seventh,

and finally,

they have so merited the height of contemplation

that they learn in it everything they should do or avoid,

and they know how to go beyond the mind to God with joy,

persevering night and day

in praising Him and praying to Him.

For the moment

let this suffice

concerning these virgins dedicated to God

and most devout servants of Christ.

Their wondrous life

and their renowned practices received from the Lord Pope Gregory,

at the time Bishop of Ostia,

would require another book

and the leisure in which to write it.

[1] Armstrong, Regis J. O.F.M. Cap. et.al. Francis of Assisi: Early Documents, Volume I, The Saint. Pages 196-9. New York: New York City Press, 2000.

Serving God With His Extreme Intellect - Reluctantly

The one most capable who was able to see clearly the cancer of Satan festering in his soul and then to rid this disease by his confessions and thereby sanctifying his entire being was Augustine of Hippo, later known as Saint Augustine. Even as Augustine was successful in cleansing his soul of the cancer of Sin and having a clear view of God, in truth he wrote: "in an instant of awe, my mind attained to the sight of God who IS.  Then, at last, I caught sight of your invisible nature....But I had no strength to fix my gaze upon them.  In my weakness I recoiled and fell back into my old ways, carrying with me nothing but the memory of something that I loved and longed for, as though I had sensed the fragrance of the fare but was not yet able to eat it." Emphasis original.  [1]




[1] Saint Augustine, Confessions, translated by R.S. Pine-Coffin.  Pages 151-2.  England: Clays, Ltd, St Ives, plc, 1961.

The Bigger Evil

Evil is an insatiable desire to win by any means necessary even at the cost of disobeying God.  When the Serpent proposed to Eve and Adam that they could be like God, imagine the intensity of their desires to be like God.  Adam and Eve were not perfect. They were creatures of dust and so are we and therefore on Ash Wednesdays, the Catholic priest would say something like: "you are dust and to dust you will return" when he makes a cross with ash on the forehead.  Indeed people do return to dust after death. [1], [2]

Here we are, millenia later, we too can be afflicted with an insatiable desire to win, not necessarily by any means necessary but necessarily by disobeying God by not believing in God enough, by not being humble enough, by not turning the other cheek enough and by not loving (thy enemies) enough.  Having the affliction means we want to win because we have our ego to satisfy, because we believe we are righteous and the non-righteous must lose otherwise all hell would break loose, because we are addicted to winning since winning makes us feel that we are powerful and in control and we must be powerful and in control since we are right and righteous.

To win not by love but by unjust laws, by might, by deceit or by treachery is to play into the hands of Satan.  There will always be the bigger evil somewhere on this planet.  The bigger evil could be the loser in the first round and come back the winner the second time around.  The cycle never ends because vengeance and the desire to win are insatiable.  The insatiability on earth is just like that in Hell where there is a constant void and every desire that is seemingly fulfilled is devoid of fulfillment.

If the desire to win is fulfilled, then the manner in which it was fulfilled must have been perfect for no bigger evil could unseat you in your throne to bring back the desire to get back on it and the only way that can happen is through unconditional love.  Since that is not going to happen any time soon, there will always be a bigger evil to claim the win and the throne, perhaps an old rival or a new kid on the block.

While jostling for superiority, people focus so much on the bigger evil, to prevent it from bringing defeat or to defeat it that they lose sight of the obvious, Satan, the biggest evil.  Those who are continuously devising strategies and mobilizing to win against the bigger evil on earth, Satan in Hell is claiming a bigger and bigger part of those souls that are in the cycle of insatiability.  Satan was the creator of and a current participant in this insatiable vortex of void.  Lucifer, presently known as Satan, created the vortex of void when it left Heaven.  In Hell, Satan has the insatiable desire to beat God in collecting souls.  Take part in Satan's game of insatiable desires now and take the heat in Satan's Hell for in eternity later. [3]


[1] In contrast, Mary, Mother of God and Jesus, Son of God were perfect.  They never disobeyed God and their bodies never became dust.
[2] Literally and figuratively.  Aside from artificial attempts to preserve the corpse, the flesh decays and becomes dust.  Even well-preserved corpses are usually buried in the ground (dust) and not displayed on the living room table.  Even the body of Saint Bernardette of Lourdes was first placed in the ground after she died but her flesh did not become dust when she was exhumed approximately 30 years later.  Parts of body did return to dust after she was first exhumed, washed and re-buried.  That became known after she was exhumed a second time.  For details, see http://www.ewtn.com/library/mary/bernbody.htm
[3] It is not certain if Hell is hot or cold or both.  Perhaps the temperature varies with the location like real estate on earth, or perhaps it is so cold that it burns.  Would that not be hell?

Two Masters

This quote:  "You cannot serve both God and mammon" is so true.  To serve God fully, one has to be willing to give up one's life and life's comforts.  There are not too many people who do that, not priests, not preachers, not anyone in my life but they exist.  I would love to befriend such a person because spending time with this person would be like spending time in heaven except that any person who serve God fully would not have time for me.

Unwilling to part with life and life's comforts one can only enjoy being with God part-time.  The other and much bigger part of one's day has to be spent on the demands of daily life in a financially driven society that is far more adversarial than communal, competitive than cooperative and deceitful than truthful. [1]  Putting it bluntly, this world is a Satanic world, far, far away from Heaven.

There is no true joy or true peace in this Satanic world.  Only God has them and only deep in prayer [2] can one find God's joy and peace.  It is important to take a few moments (15 minutes at least) a day to spend with God in prayer, in addition to saying the rosary.  During this time, make that a very quiet time, allow God's peace to enter the soul and the mind and the body, and then allow the human trinity to feel very gradually the Holy Trinity's gift of complete fulfillment.  That moment may not always arrive but when such a moment arrives, realize the richness of that sensation has nothing to do with Satan's worthless mammon that buys artificial and ephemeral happiness but has everything to do with God's infinite, genuine, priceless and addictive joy that cannot be bought. [3]




[1] Capitalism need not be based on competition and deceit as people are taught to believe.  I postulate that capitalism works far better and is far more rewarding if it is based on cooperation and mutual benefit.  Unfortunately, that is only theory and will remain a theory because of human greed and selfishness both of which stem from Satan.

[2] Being deep in prayer does not mean reciting a litany of mundane earthly wishes but rather asking God to re-direct one's path back to God should one stray and praying for the ability to do everything and relate to everyone with the love of God in heart and in mind.

[3] None of God's gifts can be bought.  One has to live in God's truth with humility and with love to have them.

The Use Of Intellect

Intellect is a gift of God that is rarely, if ever, used to serve God.  When it is not used to serve God, it is a destructive instrument that serves Satan.

The best use of one's intellect is to use it to perform acts of love for another.  Sadly, that is hardly the case for that requires a degree of selflessness and deep consideration for others which in this day and age has been replaced by the self-serving ego. [1]  On this topic, like some others I have posted in the blog, there is not enough internet space to itemize all the abuses of the human intellect, but two of them stand out and I believe they are also Satan's favorites:  Rationalization and Intellectual Dishonesty.

The human mind is so dominated by Satan that it assumes that Rationalization [2] and Intellectual Dishonesty [3] are part of the norm, i.e. expected norm, i.e., nature, i.e. Mother Nature, i.e. God's plan.  That itself is rationalization and intellectual dishonesty and that cannot be farther from the Truth and closer to Satan's desire.  To what extent is one's intellect warped to satisfy Satan's desire?

The only way to find out is to see one's intellect for what it is and that means stepping away from one's ego and view the intellect in all of its nakedness.  That requires one's iron will (Free Will, of course) as well as God's grace because it can be ugly.  Very ugly.  Whoever want to see the ugly image of Satan living like a cancerous creature in our souls?  I certainly do not but I know it is ugly if I see it.  Truthfully, I have not seen mine yet but I know it is ugly.  I am working up the courage to see it.  I know I will be able to one day but it will not be easy and will take may tries.

Even if I get to see it, the problem is getting rid of it, making the soul beautiful again, young again, pure again, innocent again, just as God had intended.  Can it be done?  Not without a war.  For the sinful, that is practically most of everyone, it will be a never-ending war.  Satan is powerful.  We cannot prevail against Satan without prayer, without God's help, without fighting it until we draw our final breath.  How hard we have tried is how much Mary is able to pray for us, plus a bit of Her very kind and very loving nature, for the forgiveness of our sins.

Please pray for us, Mother Mary.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.


[1] Even some of those who stand in the pulpit to preach have egos too, perhaps even over-inflated ones.  Some of their sermons are non sequitur and some overly esoteric.  Some think that if they ramble about Christ's suffering and resurrection, they have "arrived".  No they have not.  To have "arrived" and therefore able to speak for Christ means speaking with conduct and action and/or speaking with inspiration and emotion that bring tears to the eyes, all the while keeping the ego in check and using the intellect to engage in selfless love.  To be sure, I think some preachers are in the wrong profession and they would serve God better if they would do something else instead.  But then who am I to criticize them when I cannot commit to what they have committed their lives to do and do what they do daily?  Is it better to do something for God poorly, non-believingly and/or half-heartedly than not to do anything at all?  I do not have a satisfactory answer, but I think Francis of Assisi had preached obedience to and respect for those who serve God for they are the ones who uphold the Church.  Holy Francis is right.  As much as I am reluctant to agree with him,  I defer to his Holy Wisdom.

[2] I define Rationalization to mean the denial of God's Truth.

[3] I define Intellectual Dishonesty to mean any and all of the following: exaggeration of God's Truth, omission of God's Truth, partial statement of God's Truth, selective use of God's Truth as a means to an unholy end, partial omission of God's Truth, re-statement of God's Truth artfully to disguise it, fabrication of  a fact or a series of facts to create a false truth, and all other unapologetic and intentional misrepresentations and/or omissions of God's Truth.                                                                      

Life Without God

How atheists can exist without relying on God is unknown to me.  Without God life would be difficult to live.  I cannot imagine the burden of worrying about this and that, with new concerns that are just beginning adding to continuing concerns that are yet unresolved .  A person's cross which gets heavier and heavier in time would crush anyone without Christ's help in carrying it.  At the end of life a person who is without God has nothing to look forward to except a vortex of absolute void and in that insatiable void fear of the unknown overwhelms the dying mind.  Fear is a result of uncertainty. [1]  With God there is no uncertainty because God is peace and God is complete fulfillment and God is both of these because God is love.



[1] Satan is the master of uncertainty.  Satan casted its first doubt in Eve and Adam, making them think that they did not already have the knowledge of good and evil.  Of course they did.  They knew it was evil to disobey God but they disobeyed God anyway.  Fast forward to the present, after Mary and Jesus had replaced Eve and Adam and Jesus had cleansed the original sin with His blood and had by His resurrection blazed a trail for our souls to return to God, it is best to ask God to take part in our daily lives until the end.  If God is absent at death, there is reason to fear Satan, for the Master of Uncertainty is there with the welcome mat to Hell where torment and void exist and the desire for peace, fulfillment and love is but an eternal and insatiable craving.

One Way To Pray

Pray to Mary with all your love for Her love.
Pray to the Lord Jesus with all your love for His love.

Mother's Day - Our Two Mothers

Happy Mother's Day!

We were all once defenseless fetuses and infants.  Without the love and care of our mothers we would either not have been born or not have survived for very long afterward.  A mother's love is a special love.  It is not equivalent to or coextensive with the care and concern of the best and kindest of caretakers, adoptive or surrogate mothers.  Such surrogates should have their day too, and their greatness recognized, but they are not mothers and they do not deserve to share in Mother's Day.  To expect or demand it would be a perversion of Nature.  Surrogate mothers have mothers too and they are at peace with themselves by equating their motherly roles with the roles of their own birth mothers?  How can that even be possible without ever carrying the child in their wombs to term?

Contradicting my foregoing point, I now claim that we have in addition to our earthly mothers, we also have a Heavenly Mother.  Her name is Mary.  She is the Immaculate Conception, the Mother of Christ.  She had not carried any of us to term in Her womb but She did carry Jesus to term and on Christmas Day Mary gave birth to the Son of God.  She was the Mother of Jesus until Good Friday, approximately 33 years later, when Christ, dying on His cross, gave His Mother to His favorite disciple John.  From that moment on, Mary, the Mother of Jesus Who is without Sin, became the Mother of all of us sinners.  This is difficult to accept for those who do not believe in Mary, the Mother of God, the mother of John and our Mother in Heaven, an extrapolation based solely on faith.

Those who believe in Mary know that She is our greatest and most effective advocate for us before Christ.  She knows Her Son.  She wants us to listen to Him and at the same time, she knows that He listens to Her.  When we pray to Mary and She prays for us, Jesus hears Her and answers Her wishes.  How effective is Mary when she prays to intercede on our behalf?  That depends on how much we love Her and Her Son.  There is a little prerequisite to loving Mary and Jesus and that is faith, complete, absolute and unyielding faith in both the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, and Her Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ.

This year, Mother's Day coincides with the Day of Ascension.  Imagine how happy Mary was when She knew that Her Son not only resurrected but also ascended into Heaven.  None of us will resurrect and ascend in the way Christ did, but all of us can make our mothers happy (we all have one) by being as Christ-like as possible so that one day we would be invited to join them both in Heaven.

And on this Mother's Day, give and show thanks to our birth mothers and our Mother in Heaven and that will be all.  It is a day off for all mothers on earth and our one Mother we share with Christ in Heaven. 

The Healing Water of Lourdes

Beyond the miraculous cures certified by the Vatican there are many, many more untold cures that maybe not be instantaneous and these cures are not only available from the source but also from the water that are brought from the Grotto in Lourdes, France.  Cures are given to the genuine and faithful who love God.  To be cured, sometimes one goes and asks; other times, one is "asked" to go.  Being "asked" to go comes in many forms and under many different circumstances.  When you go, whether you have planned to go or have been "asked" to go, go with love, not so much with love of life, but love of God and the Mother of God, Mary.  That love must be pure, untainted with any sort of pecuniary interest, not even the slightest hint of it.  Let your intentions be as pure as the water Bernadette Soubirous dug up under the direction of the Lady Who spoke these words when Bernadette asked Who She was, "I am the Immaculate Conception  (in French of course)."





Note:  I have never been to Lourdes although I have wanted to go and still plan to go some day but on Friday, May 3, 2013, I had been "asked" to go to a virtual visit to Lourdes at a local church.  After attending the slide show, I touched a piece of the Lourdes rock while standing around a statue of Mary in the parking lot "grotto."  After a short pilgrimage from the parking lot to the church, I dipped my fingers in a bowl of Lourdes' healing waters after saying some prayers in the pews next to a new friend I met, Sister Ann, along with a number of other pilgrims. I want to remember always the moment my fingers touched the water.  All I will say is that it was not ordinary water. 

Of The Many Religious Fakes - This One Is Real

He is not in the Vatican.  Not a Cardinal.  Not a priest.  Not Catholic.  He has not even a basic degree in theology.  But he speaks the truth about God.  I trust that he is God's pick and like so many of God's picks, Joel Osteen was the unlikely candidate. [1]

I have wanted to write about Joel Osteen for quite some time but it was the sermon entitled "Make God A Part Of Your Everyday Life" dated Sunday, May 5, 2013, that has compelled me to stop procrastinating.  He said, "Did you know that God wants to help you not just in the big things, but even in the small things? But here’s the key: God will only be involved in your life as much as you will allow Him."  There does not seem to be a link that goes directly to the video but here is the link to his website:  Joel Osteen Ministries

Bottom line (my words, not Joel Osteen's): Go with God wherever you go.  Ask God to accompany you in doing the tough things as well as the fun things. Plan them with God.  Have faith.  And relax.  Be humble when there is a good outcome if you had asked God for help and give thanks to God.  If you succeeded on your own based on a sinful act, such as dishonesty, give thanks to Satan.  Knowing Who to thank is not easy.  It is a fine and difficult to distinguish line for there is a little thing called denial, denial of the Truth.  Act, one must. Choose freely, but choose with care.  At stake is an eternity.  It can be Heaven or it can be Hell. 


[1] How Joel Osteen began his ministry is online.

The Grand Deceiver

There is no mystery who the grand deceiver is: it is Satan.  It occupies all positions of influence, great and small, even as the cast of characters changes over time Satan finds a way to stay put.  From the mouth of the grand deceiver, what could be said to convince someone it is not Satan?  "I'm not Satan?"  That would cast an immediate doubt if it really is or not.  What about issuing a warning against Satan?  That can be tricky.  The first thought would be:  "Who would be stupid enough to betray himself?" But the next would be:  "Would the grand deceiver be cunning enough to betray itself so that the deceit could be complete?"  I think so.  Be on guard even though what you hear from a revered office may sound good.  Just watch what it does.  Remember the anti-Christ will sound awfully like Christ and will try to assume the identity of Christ.  Satan is smart, powerful and patient.  Do not be deceived.   Pay careful attention to any sign of hypocrisy or inconsistency.  It will draw you in but in the face of Truth, it cannot hide.  It must show its disgusting identity.

I talk a lot about Satan but I am not Satan or its minion although I have been recruited in various ways.  It is my hope that I will never fall prey to its many cunning disguises.  Its powers are a lot stronger than you think.  Without Divine Intervention, Satan will win.  The only way to defeat Satan is to pray for Divine Intervention.  If someone speaks of Satan and does not ask you to pray for help, it is Satan's mouthpiece.

An Analysis - Francis of Assisi's "A Salutation of the Virtues"

A Salutation of the Virtues [1] quoted in the 4-23-13 post [2] began with these words:  "Hail, Queen Wisdom! May the Lord protect You, with Your Sister, holy pure Simplicity!"  Later, Holy Francis said, "Holy Wisdom confounds Satan and all his cunning.  Pure holy Simplicity confounds all the wisdom of this world and the wisdom of the body." [3]

I was going to conclude Holy Wisdom belongs only to God since no human is able to confound "Satan and all his cunning."  That is a lot cunning to confound, an impossible thing for anyone to do.  I was so certain that I was right when moments later it dawned on me that the author of this manuscript, A Salutation of the Virtues, Francis of Assisi, had had the Holy Wisdom to confound Satan and all his cunning. [4]  Holy Francis would not have been able to record this thought had he not. [5] Could Holy Francis have imagined it?  No, since he said it with certainty and authority and continued to expound on it by linking Holy Wisdom with Pure Holy Simplicity and contrasting Holy Wisdom with worldly wisdom. [6]

Although Francis of Assisi started with Holy Wisdom [7] in his composition and ended it with Holy Obedience, I believe that his holy life began with Holy Obedience.  After Holy Francis perfected Holy Obedience, he moved up the ladder of Virtues to Holy Charity by denying the temptations and enduring the pains of the flesh.  By the time Holy Francis perfected Holy Charity, Holy Francis knew he was God's pick but would not allow his pride to surface and was thus able to achieve Perfect Humility.  From Holy Humility, it was a small step for Holy Francis to reach Holy Poverty.  It could be argued that Holy Francis began with Holy Poverty when he abandoned his life of riches.  That is right on the surface but on a deeper level, Holy Francis did not perfect Holy Poverty until he was near the pinnacle of his holiness and still he did not envy the power of the Vatican or the wealth and comfort that come with being a pope and that must have confounded more than a few people in the establishment.  From there, Holy Francis left all the cares of the world and entered the heavenly realm of Holy Simplicity, confounding all of worldly wisdom by making it superfluous and irrelevant.  There was no need for worldly wisdom when Holy Francis left behind all worldly concerns to serve only God.  By serving God wholly and faithfully without any distraction, Holy Francis attained Holy Wisdom.  In Holy Wisdom, there is God and only God and therefore in Holy Wisdom, Holy Francis was able to confound Satan and all of its cunning.


[1] Armstrong, Regis J. O.F.M. Cap. et.al. Francis of Assisi: Early Documents, Volume I, The Saint. Pages 164-5. New York: New York City Press, 2000.
[2] I entitled the previous post Sixth & Seventh Of Many Prayers Of Francis Of Assisi but according to the authors, they are manuscripts that salutes or greets the virtues that belong to the Blessed Virgin Mary.  Thus, technically they are not prayers but I consider them to be prayers.
[3] Armstrong, op cit., p. 164.
[4] Ibid.
[5] In the second paragraph of A Salutation of the Virtues, Holy Francis said no one could own any of the virtues without dying first.  How could then Holy Francis own, as I believe that he did own, all of the virtues when he was still alive?  The answer was in the book's introductory paragraph to the manuscript: "Francis saw these virtues as [the Blessed Virgin Mary's]; yet they are clearly those of any Christian who has died to sin."  Emphasis added.  Ibid.
[6] Ibid.
[7] "Holy Wisdom confounds Satan and all his cunning. Pure holy Simplicity confounds all the wisdom of this world and the wisdom of the body. Holy poverty confounds the desire for riches, greed, and the cares of this world.  Holy Humility confounds pride, all people who are in the world.  Holy Charity confounds every diabolical and carnal temptation and every carnal fear.  Holy Obedience confounds every corporal and carnal wish; binds its mortified body to the obedience of the Spirit and obedience to one's brother, so that it is  subject and submissive to everyone in the world, not only to people but to every beat and wild animal as well that they may do whatever they want with it insofar as it has been given to them from above by the Lord."  Armstrong, op cit., p.165.

The Sun Of God - A Prayer - May 4, 2013

The Sun Of God [1]

May Your rays of purity heal the trinity of mind, body and spirit,
May Your brightness shine upon and reveal the Absolute Truth,
May Your blinding whiteness give clarity to Divine Justice,
May Your boundless energy give strength to deliver Divine Compassion and Forgiveness,
May Your rays of beauty fill all the dark crevices with the Holy Trinity that is the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.


[1] I saw the Sun's rays again today, Tuesday, May 7, 2013, in the same place that I saw the Sun's rays last Saturday and I want to make this prayer a bit more personal [2]:

The Sun Of God - My Personal Version

May Your rays of purity heal my trinity of  mind, body and spirit,
May Your brightness shine upon and reveal to me the Absolute Truth,
May Your blinding whiteness give clarity -- for me to recognize Divine Justice,
May Your boundless energy give strength to deliver continuously to this habitual sinner Divine Compassion and Forgiveness,
May Your rays of beauty and warmth fill all the dark, cold crevices in my soul  with the Holy Trinity that is the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Share it with me. 

[2] It does not seem remarkable that the sun's rays on May 4 would be any different from those the day before, the day after or on May 7.  The sun would shine through a window at a certain place at a certain time of day and at a particular time of year.  That would be normal.  If he sun kept shining through the window, it would have been boring and I would not have been inspired to compose the prayer.  But on May 4, late in the afternoon, it was cloudy but the sun's rays peaked through the thick grey clouds after I sat in the leg extension machine (I was at the gym), lit up brightly where I was as if it were a spotlight while the rest of the room remained unchanged as I look around the whole room and the area behind me reflected by the mirror in front.  Then it went back behind the clouds and then peaked from behind them again and again.  It was so fun to experience the Rembrandt-style lighting.  I did not mention this on May 4 because I did not think it was that unusual but when the same thing happened, with much less intensity, much less frequency and far less dramatic effect on May 7, I was re-inspired all over again and wanted to personalize the prayer. In the end, it was the outcome of the inspiration that mattered, not how I was inspired but was nonetheless compelled to memorialize the events. (Note [2]'s date: May 13, 2103.)

So Many Ways In Living The Life Of Christ

I cannot think of all the ways in living the life of Christ but here are some of them, not all commendable:

Actively, as a participant, e.g., a saint chosen by the grace of God [1] as contrasted to one canonized by a Pope due to popular demand or church politics;

Vicariously, as an observer; e.g., one afraid or unwilling to bear the heavy and painful burdens of the cross;

Devotedly, as a person of cloth; e.g., a monk or a nun dedicated to a prayerful life;

Hypocritically, as a speaker of God's words; e.g., a preacher who believes or practices not what is being preached;

Gluttonously, as a bloat in a religious garb; e.g. a priest who eats and drinks too much [2], from the top of the Vatican down;

Manipulatively, as a mouthpiece to attract followers; e.g. a cardinal who is more interested in politics and concerned with securing political favors [3] on their behalf than preaching to them the Gospel truths and saving their souls;

Fraudulently, as a disciple of Christ; e.g., a leader on a stage [4] who merely reads a script and acts out his role dressed as a shepherd that is often overfed.



[1] Francis of Assisi and Bernadette of Lourdes are two of my favorite saints that were hand picked by God.
[2] Can any of the many blimps of the Catholic Church tell me if Jesus Christ was ever rotund?
[3] Some Catholic priests in the United States are clamoring for government handouts rather than encouraging charity and supporting amnesty for lawbreakers rather than encouraging them to return to their families they had left behind and teaching them how to be equally productive in their own country and lift up their relatives and friends who could still be struggling.  For those who have immigrated legally, there have been many who have returned to their own country (or would like to) to do just that.
[4] Quite possibly an installation by Satan.  If truly these leaders are "Peter" then pedophiliac priests would have long been defrocked and all financial matters would have been transparent.