Category Archives: Christian

All Will Be Well – All Will Be Well

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I’m posting this because I think Theocentric did a good job of summarizing Julian of Norwich‘s “shewings”:

“All Will Be Well”

An Analysis of Julian of Norwich’s “Showings”

In a near-death vision filled with violent and bloody images of suffering, the mystic Julian of Norwich heard God’s assuring words that “all will be well in the end.” In her book, Showings, Julian describes her visions, offering them for the comfort and instruction of God’s people.

Julian’s Visions

As a young woman, Julian prayed for three graces from God: (1) a greater comprehension of Christ’s Passion to increase her knowledge of Jesus; (2) an experience of bodily sickness to the point of death in order to remove her reliance on earthly creatures or comfort, and (3) three wounds to lead her to deeper union with God. (Ch. 1)

God answered her prayers at age 30 when she suffered a bodily illness that brought her to the very brink of death. In this feeble state, she asked to have her upper body elevated so she could contemplate God in her final moments. At this time, the Parson came, accompanied by a boy with a crucifix. As Julian focused on the crucifix, everything around it grew dark. Julian’s pain became so great that she believed she was going to die, when suddenly, all her pain disappeared. Taking advantage of this new turn of events, Julian prayed that God would fill her body with the pains of Christ’s Passion. At this point, her visions began. (Ch. 2 – 3)

In her first revelation, she sees six things: (1) blood trickling down from the crown of thorns on the crucifix before her; (2) a vision of the Virgin Mary; (3) a “spiritual sight” of Christ’s all-embracive love and goodness; (4) a small ball in the palm of Christ’s hand, representing creation, demonstrating its goodness and yet its “smallness” in relation to Christ; (5) three properties in the ball which reveal to her that God is her Creator, lover, and protector; and (6) three “nothings” demonstrating that God is the source of all good and should be sought above all created things. (Ch. 3 – 5)

Next, she has a vision of Christ’s face being battered and bruised. This leads to a revelation that God is present in all things, wisely and providentially working out his purpose. As the body of Christ spews forth blood, Julian sees God’s bountiful provision of forgiveness through Christ’s blood. It is this blood that overcomes the devil and his fiends. Because of God’s overarching providence in all things and Christ’s conquering blood, the devil stands completely defeated in everything he does. This leads Julian to laugh over the devil’s miserable predicament (Ch. 7 – 8).

The laughter leads to a vision of three degrees of bliss in heaven resulting from the joy one experiences upon hearing God’s praise announced publicly in the hearing of all — a joy that once received is everlasting. The vision of bliss is immediately followed by an experience of sorrow and despair. This pattern of bliss and sorrow is repeated again and again, teaching Julian that God loves us and keeps us safe at all times. (Ch. 9)

In the final vision, Julian sees Christ shrivel up in thirst. She cannot imagine a greater pain. The love of Christ demonstrated in his willingness to endure immense pain for the sake of his beloved fills Julian with great joy, so that Jesus becomes “her heaven.” (Ch. 10 – 11)

Suddenly Christ’s appearance becomes joyful and he reveals three heavens to Julian — the joy of the Father, the bliss of the Son, and the endless delight of the Holy Spirit. The three heavens demonstrate God’s infinite delight in his work of salvation. (Ch. 12)

Christ then gives Julian a vision of St. Mary, and in contemplating her bliss and God’s love, Julian realizes that the only thing that hinders her desire for Christ is her own sin, causing her to wonder why God would allow sin in the first place. Jesus replies that “sin is necessary” but that in the end “all will be well.” (Ch. 13)

Julian is disturbed by this revelation. How can all things be well in light of the great harm sin brings? Christ replies that Adam’s sin brought the greatest harm to the world, but now, this harm has been overcome by Christ’s atoning work on the cross. Our lot in life is to embrace the Lord while humbly admitting that some aspects of the Lord’s counsel are closed and hidden to us. (Ch. 14)

Christ concludes by assuring Julian he can and will make all things well in the end. This truth will one day satisfy Christ’s spiritual thirst, when he possesses us wholly as his own. Even though we can’t comprehend this fully now, it is God’s will that we should be confident that “all will be well.” (Ch. 15 – 16)

Pervasive Darkness – Everlasting Light – Benedict XVI

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Sometimes the blindness of those who forgo God leaves me speechless.  There is simply too much to say about God, Life and Eternity that silence and prayer must suffice, especially when you know that no one is actually asking the questions that might turn on the lights and light up their life.

Here is an email I received that begs God’s grace and an answer:

“By the way, besides my atheist status I am a full out Liberal ready to take everyone’s extra money to feed hungry children so watch out! 😉 I get in as much trouble for my Liberal Democrat status as my non faith in mainstream religion. I am spiritual and giving but don’t recognize religion as something that works for me. That’s the difference.  So many people proclaim their loyalty and belief in a god but are not good people, I try to be good without the need of a god’s blessing or promise of eternal life. In other words, I try to be good for nothing…… joke here.”

I thought I would answer by bringing  in the Big Guns for the really Big Picture:

From Jesus of Nazareth by ‘Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI:

“At the heart of all temptations… is the act of pushing God aside because we perceive Him as secondary, if not actually superfluous and annoying, in comparison with all the apparently far more urgent matters that fill our lives, constructing a world by our own lights without reference to God, building on our own foundation, refusing to acknowledge the reality of anything beyond the political and material, while setting God aside as an illusion that is the temptation the threatens us in many varied forms.  Moral posturing is part and parcel of temptation. It does not invite us directly to do evil; no, that would be far to blatant. It pretends to show us a better way, where we finally abandon our illusions and threw ourselves into the work of actually making the world a better place.  It claims moreover to speak for true realism; what’s real is what’s right there in front of us, power and bread.  By comparison, the things of God fade into unreality, into a secondary world that no one really needs.

God is the issue.  Is He real, reality Itself or isn’t He?  Is He good or do we have to invent the good ourselves?  The God question is the fundamental question, and it sets us down right at the crossroads of human existence. What must the Savior of the world do, or not do that is the question the temptations of Jesus are about.”

Alfred Delp, a German theologian, executed by the Nazi’s said:

“Bread is important.  Freedom is more important, but what is most important of all is unbroken fidelity and faithful adoration.”

Benedict XVI continues:

“When this ordering of goods is no longer respected, but turned on its head, the result is not justice or concern for human suffering the result is rather ruin and destruction even of material good themselves.  When God is regarded as a secondary matter that can be set aside temporarily, or permanently, on account of more important things, it is precisely these supposedly more important things, that come to nothing. It is not just the negative outcome of a Marxist experiment that proves this, the aid given by the West to developing countries has been purely technically and materially based.  It has not only left God out of the picture but has driven men away from God. and this aid proudly claiming to know better is itself what first turned the Third World into what we now mean today by that term.It has thrust aside indigenous religious , ethical and social structures and filled the resulting vacuum with its technocratic mindset.  The idea was that we can turn stones into bread; instead our aide has only given stones in place of bread.  The issue is the primacy of God.”

New Adam

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I read these lines from the 33 Day of Total Consecration to Jesus by St. Louis Marie de Montfort:

Our Blessed Lady is the true terrestrial paradise of the New Adam, and the ancient paradise was but a figure of her. In this earthly paradise we have riches, beauties, rarities and inexplicable sweetness, which Jesus Christ, the New Adam has left here; it was in this paradise that He took His complacence for nine months, worked His wonders and displayed His riches with the magnificence of a God. It is in this earthly paradise that there is the true tree of life, which has borne Jesus Christ, the Fruit of Life, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which has given light unto the world. There are, in this divine place, trees planted by the hand of God, and watered by His Divine Unction, which have borne and daily bear fruit of divine taste. It is only the Holy Ghost, Who can make us know the hidden truth of these figures of material things. The Holy Ghost, by the mouth of the Fathers, also styles the Blessed Virgin the Eastern Gate, by which the High-Priest, Jesus Christ, enters the world, and leaves it. By it, He came the first time, He will come the second, by it.

They inspired these thoughts, though I haven’t touched on Mary yet:

Where on this Earth has Jesus passed that flowers failed to bloom?
What on Earth has Jesus passed that succumbed to Adam’s doom.
When on this sad Earth did Jesus pass and desert’s dust remain.
Only if our fallen wills prevail, can Jesus come in vain.

When Jesus passed did flowers bloom and birds begin to sing?
When Jesus passed did children run to jump into his arms?
When Jesus passed did fallen men find strength to rise again?
When Jesus passed and left this world, once worst for Adam’s Sin,
Did Gates fling wide at Sin’s stemmed tide and Paradise begin again?

Joann Nelander

The Rosary – a Prayer, a Place, a Promise

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Mary, the Mother of God, revealed herself as the Lady of the Rosary. This is akin to saying “I Am the Woman of the Book.” The Rosary is prayer alive on the lips and in the heart of Mary’s children. In the Rosary, we pray the Scriptures which speak of Jesus. They foretell and tell forth the story of Salvation. Mary in effect says pray the story of your salvation. Tuck it in your heart and you will become the womb of Jesus who in gladsome labor births My Son, the Son of God, into the world.

Fr. Groeschel speaks of the Rosary as a place. He calls it a”chapel.” For me, it is that and more. It is my cocoon in the Womb of Mary, centered in the Heart of the Lamb of God. I am formed as I live and as I pray.

The promise of the Rosary lives on the lips of Jesus. As I pray I can hear His Spirit whispering, consoling, proclaiming to me personally, “I am in the Father and the Father is in Me.” “I will come in and eat with you, and you with me. “

Move the Hands of God by Prayer

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In the silence God invites without words.  My prayers are often noisy affairs filled with faces, memories, love and feelings of sorrow.  I am often overwhelmed and moved to tears by the poignancy of a fleeting thought. My heart tells me that what seems insignificant holds a treasure.  God’s gifts often come in disguise like the beggar at the door who is Christ.  The Spirit says minister here in this place at this time; reach back through the years to move the hand of God by prayer.

I am with God, the Lord of All, including Time.  I may have missed or misused moments to do good, but God reigns in Eternity, as present in the Past as He is in my heartbeat.  God’s hands are not tied by the flow of Time.  He is there and here and Eternal Now.  My lowly prayer, clothed in The Name, breaks down the wall that stands between my need or regret, and blessing.  Like the little donkey that carried the King of Kings, my humble prayer sets in motion the flow of grace to love, to heal, to mend, to restore and bless anew.

Joann Nelander

B16 – Poignant Response to Maltese Youth

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An appeal to Benedict XVI as reported by the Catholic Herald‘s Anna Arco:

“I wish to speak on behalf of those young people who, like me feel they are on the outskirts of the Church. We are the ones who do not fit comfortably into stereo-typed roles. This is due to various factors among them: either because we have experienced substance abuse; or because we are experiencing the misfortune of broken or dysfunctional families; or because we are of a different sexual orientation; among us are also our immigrant brothers and sisters, all of us in some way or another have encountered experiences that have estranged us from the Church. Other Catholics put us all in one basket. For them we are those “who claim to believe yet do not live up to the commitment of faith.”
To us, faith is a confusing reality and this causes us great suffering. We feel that not even the Church herself recognizes our worth. One of our deepest wounds stems from the fact that although the political forces are prepared to realize our desire for integration, the Church community still considers us to be a problem. It seems almost as if we are less readily accepted and treated with dignity by the Christian community than we are by all other members of society. Continue reading →