Virgin of Vladimir copyright J.Nelander
We are flesh and blood not angels. We need to see, and touch and feel in-order to experience and learn. The writers of Icons recognize that we need a bit of Heaven in the here and now.
St. James Pray For Me gives some insight and a bit of history and tradition.
Psalm 143: 8-11
In the morning let me know your love
For I put my trust in you.
Make me know the way I should walk;
To you I lift up my soul.Rescue me, Lord, from my enemies;
I have fled to you for refuge.
Teach me to do your will
For you, O Lord, are my God.
Let your good spirit guide me
In ways that are level and smooth.For you name’s sake, Lord, save my like;
In your justice save my soul from distress.
Does the Mainstream Media feel any guilt for the media basis that is now part and parcel of its product and its legacy? Do their heavy-hitters feel any compunction for putting Barak Hussein Obama, a relative unknown with little experience and a shady past into the White House as President of the greatest Nation on this earth. The answer is “No!” and “Hell, no! respectively. Perspectively, they have no perspective!
Bernard Goldberg of “A Slobbering Love Affair” fame, reminds us of the “bubble” in which these guys live. A “Vast Left-wing Conspiracy” has not been organized, but they live and move and have their being
as though there were one. According to Goldberg, “The problem, in a word, is group-think.” An “institutional bias,” that is insidious because it is “too comfortable” and “dulls the senses,” is turning “even well-
educated journalists into narrow-minded provincial rubes.”
In a time of national crisis, those the 1st amendment intended to protect the Nation by
manning the watchtowers, are in denial and worse. They are in lockstep, much as the spaced-out fictional
Borg, zombies acting, but not thinking critically.
From The Story of a Soul, The Autobiography of St. Therese of Lisieux
What can I tell you, dear Mother, about my thanksgivings after Communion? There is no time when I taste less consolation. But this is what I should expect. I desire to receive Our Lord, not for my own satisfaction, but simply to give Him pleasure. I picture my soul as a piece of waste ground and beg Our Blessed Lady to take away my imperfections–which are as heaps of rubbish–and to build upon it a splendid tabernacle worthy of Heaven, and adorn it with her own adornments. Then I invite all the Angels and Saints to come and sing canticles of love, and it seems to me that Jesus is well pleased to see Himself received so grandly, and I share in His joy. But all this does not prevent distractions and drowsiness from troubling me, and not unfrequently I resolve to continue my thanksgiving throughout the day, since I made it so badly in choir. You see, dear Mother, that my way is not the way of fear; I can always make myself happy, and profit by my imperfections, and Our Lord Himself encourages me in this path.”
Well worth the effort to get to this pearl:
After I had received the Sacrament of life, and had retired to the place where I pray, it seemed to me that I saw a ray of light like an arrow coming forth from the Wound of the right side of the crucifix, which was in an elevated place, and it continued, as it were, to advance and retire for some time, sweetly attracting my cold affections. But my desire was not entirely satisfied with these things until the following Wednesday, when after the Mass, the faithful meditated on Thy adorable Incarnation and Annunciation, in which I joined, however imperfectly. And, behold, Thou camest suddenly before me, and didst imprint a wound in my heart, saying these words: May the full tide of your affections flow hither, so that all your pleasure, your hope, your joy, your grief, your fear, and every other feeling may be sustained by My love! And I immediately remembered that I had heard a wound should be bathed, anointed and bandaged. But Thou didst not teach me then in what manner I should perform these things, for Thou didst defer it to discover it to me more clearly in the end by means of another person, who had accustomed the ears of her soul to discern far more exactly and delicately than I do the sweet mummers of Thy love.
She advised me to reflect devoutly upon the love of Thy Heart when hanging on the Cross, and to draw from this fountain the waters of true devotion, to wash away all my offenses; to take from the unction of mercy the oil of gratitude, which the sweetness of this inestimable love has produced as a remedy for all adversities, and to use this efficacious charity and the strength of this consummate love as a ligament of justification to unite all my thoughts, words and works, indissolubly and powerfully to Thee. May all the deprivation of those things which my malice and wickedness has caused be supplied through that love whose plenitude abides in Him Who being seated on Thy right hand, has become “bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh!” As it is by Him, through the operation of the Holy Spirit, that Thou hast placed in me this noble virtue of compassion, humility and reverence, to enable me to speak to Thee, it is also by Him that I present to Thee my complaint of the miseries I endure, which are so great in number, and which have caused me to offend Thy Divine goodness in so many ways by my thoughts, words and actions, but principally by the bad use which I have made of the aforesaid graces, by my unfaithfulness, my negligence and my irreverence. For if Thou hast given to one so unworthy even a thread of flax as a remembrance of Thee, I should have been bound to respect it more than I have done all these favors.
The Anchoress talks about “things being ‘hidden’ and ‘brought to light’.” She says ,
“We all of us make instinctive moves to hide those parts of ourselves of which we disapprove, or which we fear others might hate. Hating ourselves, we project that hatred onto others, and then assume the worst: that people will be ungenerous, rather than generous, hateful rather than accepting.”
Once again the Anchoress pulls back a veil that reveals the beautiful person. Isn’t that what her writing has already brought to light? I’m uneasy when she jabs at herself. I can feel it. I’ve done that myself. Say it before someone else says it!
She speaks of “Irish thighs” and here I thought we Italians had a corner on that market. The memory of my mom’s weight looms like a prophetic utterance. However, beyond my own fears, it is the Anchoress’ revelation of her fear that touches me. She has dissected it and found that in hating those unacceptable parts of herself, the really beautiful parts of the package get lost. Wholeness is halved or quartered or…you know what I mean. She’s tempted to become less than she actually is.
The Anchoress writes about her brothers “coming out” and the peace that followed. I’m sure that didn’t end the struggles but was a big step into the light. Our crosses certainly come in all kinds and complexities. Our pain brings to light our real need which isn’t perfection. The Anchoress speaks of the need to love herself. For me realizing Who loves me changes everything. My battles, my wins and loses,all find meaning, as do I, in a Heart which treasures all.
Fr. Benedict Groeschel, in his Healing the Original Wound, says that one of his favorite groups of the wounded are the alcoholics of Alcoholics’ Anonymous. “When asked,’Well, when are you going to completely recover?’ ‘When we’re dead.’ they will tell you.” No easy platitudes or solutions here, just a continuing struggle, knowing that you are loved by that One great Love. Armed with the knowledge of Whose Arms embrace you this side of Heaven carries you onward, or at least that how I go on (and with a little love from my friends.) Fr. Groeschel puts it this way. ” Hello, I’m a recovering sinner. I’m becoming a saint.”
So I have no answers. My loved ones, come in all shapes and sizes as do I depending at what time in my life you’ve known me. My friends have assorted temperaments and problems, none of which hides their beauty. Fr. Groeschel says that with crosses “we need to turn to the mystery of Salvation.”
“Indeed, if the cross, with all that it represents, with all that it signifies, symbolises and indicates, of sufferings, sicknesses, disasters, various afflictions, catastrophes, pains and injuries to which all people are subject, if the cross is a constituent reality of all human life, there is an obligation for all people, like Jesus, to carry the cross together, in order to disburden the one charged with it and together to bear it with love and solidarity. (From a letter by Patriarch Gregorios III of Antioch (Melkite) for Lent)
Be Holy! 