Author: Essy Dias

“I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you.” (John 17:21-24)

We’ve established in previous posts that the only thing that can rupture this ‘oneness’ is sin, by our willingly choosing to go against Divine Will.

Dom Prosper Guéranger writes… “But is this rupture beyond the hope of reconciliation? Yes, as far as sinful man’s power is concerned; for he can never, of himself, recover his position with the Blessed Trinity, which God’s gratuitous bounty had prepared, and His incomprehensible goodness achieved. But, as the Church teaches us in her liturgy, God never shows His power more than when He has pity on a sinner and pardons him; it is this powerful mercy of God which can work the prodigy of a reconciliation; and He really does work it, as often as a sinner is converted.”

Our part in the body of Christ then becomes one of helping to bring those on the outside into full reconciliation. How do we do this?

In ‘Set Aside Every Fear (Catherine of Siena) we read.

“You seek to suffer for your own sins and the sins of the world. But know this: no suffering, no pain by itself, can atone for even the smallest fault”… at first glance this isn’t too encouraging… but there’s more.

Inasmuch as your life is filled with desire and you accept your suffering with desire and contrition, your pain is worthwhile.

This is what Paul was talking of when he said:

If I had the tongues of an angel, and if I knew the things of the future and gave my body to be burned, and had not love, it would be worth nothing to me.

When, and only when, our finite works are offered up and seasoned with love, do they become infinitely worthy.”

These “finite works” of ours, seasoned with love then become reparation worthy.

“The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if only we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.”

In ‘The Secret of the Holy Face’, Fr. Lawrence Carney states “God has told us how to defeat any enemy who wants to enslave us; follow His commandments, and He will deliver the enemy into our hands. When we make reparation, it is like sweet smelling incense rising up to heaven.

… Leviticus 26 provides a battle plan to defeat evil in our day.

First, God warns us not to make idols to worship. Second, He commands us to reverence His sanctuary. Then, He says,”Keep my commandments.” This means do not blaspheme. So, in summary, we have the first three commandments: do not commit idolatry, irreverence, and blasphemy. God promises blessings to those who follow His commandments:”

In todays readings we also hear “Therefore you shall keep his statutes and his commandments, which I command you this day, that it may go well with you, and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which the Lord your God gives you for ever.” – Deuteronomy 4:40

In these days of darkness when so many are being deceived into living outside of the church which is the Body of Christ, then it becomes dependent on the others to be even more fully committed even to the point of suffering. That is reparation.

We don’t have to overly complicate things though…

Our Blessed Mother, as one who is already fully united to the Trinity tells us in the Blue Book #17 O “ For the present, my beloved sons, pray, love one another, be as little children: let yourselves be formed and guided by me alone.”

“Adoration, then, and love, be to Thee, O Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, O perfect Trinity, that hast vouchsafed to reveal Thyself to mankind; O eternal and infinite Unity, that hast delivered our forefathers from the yoke of their false gods! Glory be to Thee, as it was in the beginning, before any creature existed; as it is now, at this very time, whilst we are living in the hope of that true life, which consists in seeing Thee face-to-face; and as it shall forever be, in those everlasting ages, when a blissful eternity shall have united us in the bosom of Thine infinite Majesty. Amen.”

Fr. Dom Prosper Gueranger

In order to come to the Light and abide in it, we can not be fully dependent on our own ‘resources’, our own mind and will.

Fr. Jacques Nouet writes, “Saul had received the Spirit of the Lord, but he sought to rule Him according to his own pleasure, and to subject Him to his will, instead of obeying Him. Therefore, “He departed from him,” and “from that day forward He came upon David” (1 Kg 16:13, 14), whom He found more submissive, more obedient, and more “after His own heart” (1 Kg 13:14). Wilt thou have the Spirit of Jesus abide ever with thee? Obey Him ever; let Him reign in thine heart, and let the spirit of the world and of the flesh find no place there.”

An interesting ‘side thought’ … ‘profane’ means ‘not sacred’ … the secular. and ‘to profane’ means to treat with irreverence or disrespect. It’s essentially ‘the spirit of the world’ which as Christians we are called to abandon, and instead cling to the sacred, see God in all things…at all times.

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To lack the vision to see the sacred is the ultimate form of blindness. We have been entrusted as members of the Body of Christ to constantly intercede for each other.

“Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects.

My brethren, if any one among you wanders from the truth and some one brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.” – James 5:16, 19-20

I’ve recently been feeling a call toward the ‘Holy Face’ devotion, as well as doing the First Five Saturdays. Things that have certainly been within my grasp for quite some time and yet the fervor and grace to fully commit and persevere have been lacking. Since I’m only just now uniting myself to those on this journey of reparation, there’s still so much to learn so I’m a bit reticent of putting my feeble and rambling thoughts into words just yet. But suffice it to say that it seems to me that this is the ultimate intercessory path of healing for the world at large.

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“Remember that I alone can provide everything you need for soul and body.

Indeed I lavish my gifts on you in direct proportion to the hope that you place in me.” -Set Aside Every Fear (Catherine of Siena)

It’s all Him… but as Christians that are part of His Body, we become vehicles and conduits of this Amazing Grace… we get to Cooperate with Him and be used by Him, in a way more powerful and beautiful than we can imagine. Just as electricity is everywhere, but through the right wiring it can light up a room when properly connected. We too, when united to the font of grace Himself, can bring His Light to dark places.

The most perfect example of this being Our Blessed Mother. She gave us Jesus… and as one who was already perfectly united to the Holy Trinity, is now where we aspire to be some day. However her role of distributing graces is not finished, and as we consecrate ourselves to her, we become part of her cohort … and her mission is now ours.

In yesterday’s post Let there be Light I wrote what the Lord was showing me about the Light that the Holy Spirit brings into our lives. Today the Lord is taking me deeper into what it actually is.

Another name for this ‘Light’ is ‘Sanctifying grace’. The Catechism of the Catholic Church has the following to say about it.

1999 The grace of Christ is the gratuitous gift that God makes to us of his own life, infused by the Holy Spirit into our soul to heal it of sin and to sanctify it. It is the sanctifying or deifying grace received in Baptism. It is in us the source of the work of sanctification:^{48Therefore if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself}.⁴⁹

2000 Sanctifying grace is an habitual gift, a stable and supernatural disposition that perfects the soul itself to enable it to live with God, to act by his love. Habitual grace, the permanent disposition to live and act in keeping with God’s call, is distinguished from actual graces which refer to God’s interventions, whether at the beginning of conversion or in the course of the work of sanctification.”

So this Sanctifying or “deifying” grace, makes us part of Christ and prepares us for a life lived in Union with His Will… we are saved and get to experience a little bit of heaven here and now, we are in a state of grace …but it’s not a ‘once saved, always saved’ as many other Christians like to believe. We need to choose Him and keep choosing Him… not just in our words but in our actions. So the only thing that removes God from us is sin… mortal sin to be exact. For it to be a mortal sin it requires it to be serious matter, we must know that it is a serious sin and choose to commit it anyway. So in other words we tell God that we don’t want to obey Him and we turn our back and walk away from Him, choosing our own path of self gratification instead.

The effect of mortal sin is it “deprives us of sanctifying grace and consequently of all virtues and supernatural gifts” ~ Fr. Jacques Nouet

What a devastating loss and the majority of humanity so easily throw it away without a second thought. This grace is the pearl of great price.

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Fr. Jacques goes on to tell us some of the ways this may happen “Men cast out God from their hearts by blasphemy, lascivious discourse, a desire of revenge, some gross evil-speaking; and you may see them enjoying themselves as if they had lost nothing.”

Blasphemy being; disrespecting, insulting and rejecting the Lord, taking His name in vain. Lascivious discourse is impure or indecent talk, sexual bantering and so forth.

Then in James 5:9 we hear “Do not grumble, brethren, against one another, behold, the judge is standing at the doors.”

The Lord gives it all to us with great love, it is up to us what we will do with it. Do we accept His great gift and reciprocate His love or do we carelessly throw it all away?

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I confess to almighty God,
and to you, my brothers and sisters,
that I have greatly sinned
through my thoughts and in my words,
in what I have done, and in what I have
failed to do;
through my fault, through my fault,
through my most grievous fault;
therefore I ask blessed Mary ever-Virgin,
all the Angels and Saints,
and you, my brothers and sister,
to pray for me to the Lord our God

“The fourth sign of the presence of the Holy Ghost is an abundance of light, which He pours into our understanding, to make it capable Of everlasting Truth.” Fr. Jacques Nouet

This light lives in us but it needs to be stirred and fed often… ha… it just brought to mind my sour dough starter… sorry… anyway… God is a polite God and doesn’t just barge in uninvited. We must do our part.

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Christianity is a beautiful marriage of the Divine with humanity… giving birth to Christ, the Third person of the Trinity. This is why in Catholicism and in my own life, Marian devotion is so important. She’s not the Savior… but her yes, brought the Savior and all the graces that He came to bring down to us. She’s the Mother of Christ and as such, is the Mother of all who are united to Him… the Church.

So what does this mean for us… well… we are to not only be other Christs on earth… the hands and feet of Jesus… but another Mary. She is the perfect prototype of what each of us are called to be, abiding in total uniformity with the will of God as obedient daughter of the Father, docile spouse of the Holy Spirit, and loving mother of the Son. Although Jesus only became incarnate the once… as we unite ourselves to God and welcome the Light of the Holy Spirit into our lives, then, not only are we ourselves brought to life but we also get the opportunity to bring Christ into this darkened world, that is in such dire need of Him. This is our one, true vocation.

“Recognize, therefore, how essential my light is within you.Without my light you are walking blindly, ignorant of vice and the evil that follows it, ignorant of me and the life-giving virtues that I bring to you. You walk ignorant of your own dignity.” (Set Aside Every Fear ~ Catherine of Siena)

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St. Irenaeus tells us that “the glory of God is man fully alive.”

This Light is what gives life to our soul… the more ‘light’ the more alive we are… filled with God’s grace, well prepared to hear His call and strengthened to obey it.

“O how useful, how necessary is this light! so useful, that all our happiness depends upon it; so necessary, that its loss or diminution is the principle of our reprobation.” ~Fr. Jacques Nouet

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“Living with this ignorance, living without My light, is the cause of all evil.” ~Set Aside Every Fear (Catherine of Siena)

MMP Blue book #14a “Night has now fallen upon the world, my son. This is the time of darkness, Satan’s hour; this is the time of his greatest triumph.”

The darkness is real, wishing it were otherwise won’t change things. We’re reminded of this every time we turn on the television, scroll through social media or otherwise interact with those who have been wounded by Satan’s daggers… the casualties of sin are immense.

But it’s not the end of the story…

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#14b (Blue Book) “How I have accepted with great appreciation your prayer and your suffering offered in reparation for the great outrage, the most horrible blasphemy that has been directed against my Son…”

“Whoever knows what is right to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin” James 4:17

How do we know what is right to do? Who are we to look to? No two people out there seem to agree… even often those who claim the same religion or world view, so what now?

Well, for Catholics, a great place to start is with the catechism. Here’s an online version … Catechism of the Catholic Church . You can do a search on any topic and be educated on church teachings.

Beyond that, you need the Holy Spirit and the Sacraments to keep you on the right path, walking in Divine union with God, because that’s what we were created for. To live out our lives with Him… not just after we die… but the here and now…the highs and the lows… all of it. Mortal sin severs this union.

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I love these little walk journals put out by Fr. Mark Goring. They are so simple, but yet powerful as they help us focus and remain accountable. The first time I did a 40 day walk commitment, I did so because of my struggles with depression… and it being a ‘freedom walk’, I thought it would be a good thing. It was. I experienced such freedom in that area and it lead to other areas of my life… I’m so grateful. But as it often happens in life in general… being filled with ups and downs as it is… I’m finding that I’m needing a refresher again. So today…on the feast of St. Rita, I’m back on it. This blog will be my daily report. Who wants to join me? 😀

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(8:30 am) MMP ‘Blue Book’ #12 a … “it must be made known how much I have loved you, and what great things I have worked in you.”

It’s been a little while since I’ve posted here, not sure if anyone will even be reading it and that’s ok… I don’t think that’s even the point… just a way for me to arrive at self knowledge and to the realization of how truly and deeply I am loved by the Father. Been in a slight haze for a little bit, and this will be live commentary as I continue to struggle and not a ‘mountain top view’ by any means … I’m sure I’ll elaborate more as I go forward. However, if someone else does happen to read this and it inspires them on their own journey then what a true blessing. So please let me know, and I can keep you in my prayers. My plan is to pop in here several times throughout the day in a journal like format and update it… so I’m thinking a daily post but with several updates. We’ll see. 🙏❤️

11:30 am

“Resist the devil and He will flee from you.”

There are many ways that the devil can pursue us, often riding piggy back on our human illnesses, frailties and weaknesses. One thing to keep in mind is that he is a liar and always looking to kill and destroy our union with God… but always manipulating things to make it sound reasonable. So how do we resist him? We start by knowing the voice of our Shepherd so well that it leaves us with no doubt as to what is happening. Then pretty much doing the exact opposite. Cleave to God even more fervently… pray and obey… even tiny steps can go far with our Lord by our side.

2:30pm

“If thy joy is produced by the Holy Ghost, it must resemble that of God; for it proceeds from the same principle… Such is the joy of the righteous; it returns all to God, as all that he has and possesses bears an essential relation to God. All his comfort is to be well with Him; all his joy to satisfy Him; all his pleasure to please Him; and when he is called to serve Him and do His will, he applies himself to it gladly, he runs, he flies, he thinks nothing difficult.”

Fr. Jacques Nouet (d. 1680)

This gladness and joy is not of the same ilk as earthly happiness. It is enduring and not dependent on circumstances … including emotional upheavals. There are many saints who have struggled with depression as you’ll be able to read about in the link below. The thing we must keep in mind is how very much we are loved by our Heavenly Father.

Saints who struggled with depression

I generally don’t like to focus on how lost we are as a society, but yea…we are so lost… and it seeps in to the family and religious communities. We don’t know how to love appropriately. We’ve turned into a bunch of narcissists and enablers.

Love isn’t just a sweet feeling where everything goes and we put up with whatever is thrown our way because we ‘luv’… and we don’t want to be seen as harsh…because that’s not Christ like. Or we may keep quiet under the guise of ‘carrying our cross’ faithfully.

But what if our cross was to obey God completely in however way He’s leading us, and that could be to speak up and possibly endure the retaliation of the ‘narcissists’.

We need to step out of the enabling role. If we are parents and teachers, superiors and employers, spiritual directors and parish priests. We have a God assigned duty to correct others in our care. By shirking that God given assignment, we are turning our backs on our calling to love as God loves.

Fraternal correction I find a little trickier… I believe the relationship has to be pretty solid in order for any type of correction to be accepted. We also need to take into account where that person may be on their walk with God. He has a Divine Pedagogy for each of us, just think of your own journey of faith. So a lot more discernment needs to go into it. Could we possibly be doing more harm than good? I tend to just pray for them, and ask to be used by God in anyway that He’d like it. I also ask for the intervention of Our Blessed Mother and then I ask her to do the dirty work. 😀

When we become self focused it can cause so much anxiety and emotional dis-regulation. We weren’t designed to function that way, yes, we are to have a certain amount of self love in order to care for our bodies, which are the temple of the Holy Spirit within us… hence why certain boundaries are in place… gluttony for example, it is a sin because it not only draws our focus away from God but it can hurt our bodies as well.

But once that minimum has been attained, we are then given the grace and the strength to serve others. Not only physically, but spiritually also. Then we are to live assured of God’s Providence. Not that we’ll have everything we desire at any given moment, but that He’ll never leave us and knows our needs intimately, even better than we do, and will provide for those. Even if we temporarily must endure the cross, resurrection always follows if we persevere.

And speaking of Divine Providence we can’t forget the most perfect way that God provides for us, giving Himself to us in the Eucharist!

Today, May 13 along with being the Feast Day of Our Lady of Fatima, it is also the feast day of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament .

We sometimes may think that our lives need to be the model of perfection or be Instagram worthy in order to please the Lord. But all things but sin, are acceptable to God. It’s in the struggles of our duties in life that sanctification happens, as we take up our daily crosses and follow Him.

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It’s this Union of the Divine and lowly humanity that will finally bring the battle to a close. You can’t sit back and say “it’s all been done, I believe, so there’s nothing more for me to do”. In fact that’s exactly where Satan wants you…out of the battle. Christ IS our victory…but we have a role that we have been invited to participate in as part of His Body!

So with that said, what IS our part? What do we do when the battle is raging? Go to Mary! She is NOT separate from Christ and she’s been given a special role in all of this, one that she wants to include all of us in.

By becoming her own little cohort and gathering at her heel, we too have a role in the great head crushing that is even now taking place.

Do not abandon your post!