Consoling words from Our Lord -
Amen, amen, I say to you you will weep and mourn, while the world rejoices; you will grieve, but your grief will become joy (John 16:20).
So you also are now in anguish, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you (John 16:22).

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Spiritual or worldly riches?

How profitable for the soul is spiritual richness that comes from trials and humble practice of virtue and how superior it is to worldly riches always corruptible.

Sirach 31:8-11
Blessed is the rich man that is found without blemish: and that hath not gone after gold, nor put his trust in money nor in treasures.

Who is he, and we will praise him? for he hath done wonderful things in his life. Who hath been tried thereby, and made perfect, he shall have glory everlasting. He that could have transgressed, and hath not transgressed: and could do evil things, and hath not done them: Therefore are his goods established in the Lord, and all the church of the saints shall declare his alms.

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Feast of Dedication of the Archbasilica o Our Saviour - click for link

Today we celebrate the end of persecusion of Christians in ancient Rome - the patriarchal Basilica of St John Lateran or Our Saviour Basilica was built and consecrated when Christian were allowed to practice openly their faith. St John Lateran is the parish church of all Catholics, for it is the Pope's parish, the cathedral church of the Bishop of Rome. This church is the spiritual home of the people who are the Church. This is what Dom Gueranger writes about the Feast (link to full post in the title):

The Emperor Constantine had placed the imperial treasure at the disposal of the bishops; and he himself stimulated their zeal for what he called in his edicts the work of the churches. Rome, the place of his victory by the Cross, the capital of the now Christian world, was the first to benefit by the prince’s munificence. In a series of dedications, to the glory of God and the holy Apostles and Martyrs, St. Sylvester, the Pope of peace, took possession of the eternal city in the name of the true God. Today is the birthday of the mother and mistress of all churches, called “of Our Savior, Aula Dei (God’s Palace), the golden basilica” (Ancient inscription once found on the greater apse. It is also called ‘St. John Lateran’—‘Lateran’ after its location in Rome and ‘St. John after St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist, who are both specially honored therein). It is a new Sinai, whence the apostolic oracles and so many Councils have made known to the world the law of salvation. No wonder that this Feast is celebrated in the Universal Church calendar.

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Borat paroding Barack Hussein Obama hopeful candidate for American President

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Carmelite Mysticism Historical Sketches - The Brothers of Our Lady

Cloud seen by Elias, Symbol of the Mother of God

We have already mentioned the pious tradition in the Order of Carmel that the Prophet Elias saw in the little cloud bearing the redeeming rain for the parched land of Israel a prototype of Our Lady, the Mother of the Redeemer, a revelation of the mystery of the Incarnation.

Long before the order became definitely established under St Berthold, there was a sanctuary in honour of Our Lady on Mt Carmel. This sanctuary became the centre of the Order in its new form and the first members of the Order were called after it "the Brothers of Our Lady of Mount Carmel".

Name, "Broters of Mary", Inspires to Devotion.
This gave ample scope to their piety and while they daily hurried to Our Lady's Chapel and before her altar performed their divine Office and meditation; while they led their lives of prayer under the very eye of their heavenly Mother, so to say, their devotion to Mary became more and more fervent and earnest. It was a wonderful dispensation of Providence that the first monastery of the Order should be built round a little chapel which had long been a centre of devotion to Mary. That dispensation of Providence enjoined on the Brothers the devotion to Mary as something intimately allied to their institution, and the name with which the neighbouring population called them after this sanctuary, stamped the former crusaders, who had laid down their swords on the altar of Mary, as Knights of Our Lady.

When the second General of the Order, St. Brocard, lay on his death-bed, he gathered the hermits about him to address them with some parting words of farewell and exhortation. The words he spoke to them excited the Brothers to honour Mary by deeds tried in virtue, "You are called," he said, "Brothers of Our Lady. Take care that after my death you prove worthy of that name." Evidently he had during his life, more especially during the twenty-five years of his office as General, always insisted on this. He had even looked to it that they should remain worthy of that name. His generalship, therefore, must have especially fortified and confirmed that devotion in the hearts of his brethren.

Devotion to Mary Confirmed in Europe.

When Pope Innocent IV admits the Order to the West and adapts its Rule to fit the changed circumstances, he retains the name, Order of the Brothers of Our Lady, and confirms it officially. With the expansion of the Order in Europe this special devotion to Mary will be its beloved characteristic, a title of which the Brothers are proud and which they put forward time and time again when they have to defend their rights. Pope and Bishops, even in that first century, affix indulgences to the use of that name and moreover endeavor to grant to the Order a distinction by which it may more easily be recognised. In Northern Europe, we see this being done by the Bishop of Cologne in 1271.
The tradition of the first Generals was splendidly maintained by the man of divine election, St. Simon Stock, who figured so largely in the Order's removal to Europe. The Order has preserved two fine prayers of his which he is said to have recited many times each day. Our Order still recites them daily in imitation of the Saint. The first is the Ave stella Matutina; the second is the beautiful Flos Carmeli. This latter was his favourite prayer. He realised that devotion to Mary was a feature of highest value to the Order, that the title must render the Order loved by the people, and that if Our Lady should confirm the title by special privileges the future of the Order would be assured. The Pope had already favoured the Order, but their authority had not succeeded in breaking entirely the resistance the Order experienced when settling in Europe. However much the Saint appreciated the privileges of the Popes, having recourse again and again to the Holy See, he nevertheless appealed incessantly to the Holy Virgin with unswerving faith, convinced that she would not withhold her special help and protection from the Order which, with the Pope's approval, was called the Order of her Brothers and which tried to live in accordance with this title. Times were hard. We are told so not only in the life of St. Simon Stock, but also an account of William de Sanvico written at the end of the 13th century emphatically confirms this. Not only the local clergy, but even the bishops did not realise the necessity of a new Mendicant Order and did not see in what respects this Order was distinguished from the Orders already approved. The foundation of new monasteries in the various countries was everywhere attended with serious difficulties. Not only was the Order threatened from within by the loss of her vital, original power through the difficulty of attuning itself to new circumstances and through the increasing demands of the active life, but from the outside also there were enemies who had to be taken into account and whose resistance was not so easily broken, even though the Brothers presented commendations of the Pope and of Bishops and Prelates who were kindly disposed towards them.

To be continued...

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A new dawn, the Carmelite nuns and Bl John Soreth - by Bl Titus Brandsma O.Carm

The Benedictine Abbot, Trithemius, calls the Blessed John Soreth "a mirror of monastic life, an honour and glory for the Order of Mount Carmel, a reformer such as the future will seldom see, absolutely bound to God and the furthering of his order, in contemplation and prayer."

The Dominican, Magister Rolandus Briso, praises him at his election as General, 1451, as the most worthy priest of God's church, and father Brugman, a Franciscan, although loving his own Order, exclaimed: "Father Soreth firm leader, light and prop not only for his own Order but for all mendicants. O immortal God, how I wish the Order of Friars Minors had received from Thy bounty such a governor. How our affairs would prosper, how my beloved Order would grow and flourish."
Indeed, he was God's man for our Order in this difficult age, and above all things, elected to give life to so elevated an institution as the Order of Carmelite Sisters, St Teresa says that God always grants special grace to the founders of an Order. They have to give so much that unless they themselves have richness and affluence of spiritual goods, they cannot share with those whom they have to lead and support. Was there still another intention, besides that of letting a new group of soul partake in all the gracious privileges of the Order of Mount Carmel? I will have to answer this question in the negative and history confirms my statement. No, the object was not merely to swell the numbers, but to let thousands of women share in what thousands of men enjoyed in the Order.
It cannot be denied that through contact with the world the Order had lost much of its original fervour, in spite of having at its head a man who had no peer in his age and in spite of the fact that the order numbered among its ranks several hidden saints, whose holiness time has revealed and the Church confirmed. Portugal had a Blessed Nonius, the father of the royal house of Braganza, who became a lay brother in the Carmel of Lisbon. Italy had an Angelus Augustinus Mazzinghi, the chief instrument of the Italian reforms; a Blessed Bartholomaeus Fanti and a Blessed Baptista Mantuanus, chief actors in another North-Italian reformation of the Order; the blessed Avertanus and Romaeus, pious pilgrims dying on the way from home and revered as saints in Luca; Blessed Jacobinus, a lay brother, a miraculous example of obedience. But the list grow to an inordinate length if I called to mind the names of all those of this age whose memory is blessed for the sanctity of their lives.
We may say that on the one hand the sanctity of many of its members earned for the Order new graces and favours from God; on the other hand, that the institution of the Sisters was a free and entirely voluntary gift conferred by God on the Order. Blessed John Soreth put a high value on this insitution as the Sisters through their stricter contemplative life could supply in the Order what the Fathers, because of their growing activity in the world, not precisely forgot, but put more ot less into the background, in spite of the fact that it was a salient characteristic of the Order.
Not only was the Community increased by the access of new members, so essential to its being, but the mystical God-bound life received at once a great number of new aspirants to its delights. A large number of saintly women joined the Fathers to emphasize yet more the contemplative elelment in the Carmelite vocation. Yet we should not conclude that by this displacement the fathers left contemplation and its joys to the sisters entirely - the life of the Bl John Soreth himself shows the contrary. As before, the contemplation of the Law of God remained the chief aim of the Order, but there is no room for doubt that the increasing active life often left the fathers little time to devote to contemplation and the fullness of a mystic life and that it distracted them from the high ideal.
The institution of Carmelite Sisters as a second Order in an organization that from then onwards should contain both men and women gave the assurance that the first and highest aim of the order was henceforth to be worthily striven after. The Sisters were not only called upon to supply what the Fathers in the stress and trouble of pastoral duties in the world were likely to forget, but they are called upon to do even more. Their service was to strenghten and confirm the mystical character, to make it more brilliant than ever.
Being much stricter in their seclusion from the world, they could easily occupy themselves with more intensity with God and God accordingly rewarded their intercessory efforts. They were, so to speak, the crown and glory of the Order. They proved that the most blessed thing on this earth, the contemplation of God, was again Carmel's own. They were an untiring group of women who considered it their vocation to be a Mary in the solitude of their convent, a Mary who chose the better part, which should not be taken from her.

Thus, not only was a formidable shortcoming made good, a telling want filled, but there was a positive gain to be set down because the Order now again fulfilled its calling in the greater part of its members. It is best to try to see things in a positive light and the surety of the attainment of its set purpose, be it only a restricted number of its members, must be called an inestimable gain.

So we welcome the Carmelite Sisters of Geldern and of all convents that came after, with unmitigated joy. We see with our mind's eye the interminable procession of Sisters as so many soldiers, and succesful ones, for the ideal of our Order. Together we feel stronger and safer; with them we may go through the world sharing the same ideal. Generally, the Fathers are called upon to keep the memory of this ideal green in the souls and hearts of the Sisters; conversely, the example of the Sisters will stimulate the Fathers to a more complete striving after their mutual ideal. When Holy Scripture says that brother aided by brother is strong, like a fortified town, how strong is the Order, how strong the brothers, now that they see at their side, since the founding of Geldern, this numberless host of Sisters. It is as if the vision of the prophet Eliseus displays itself before my eyes, as if I see the Order surrounded and enclosed by a numberless armed host who banish the fear from my heart that the spirit of this world will one day drag them down.

To be continued..

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Fr Corapi summary on American Election and on Catholic pro-Obama voters

The American people have now made it abundantly clear who they want to lead them, and the policies and practices that this president-elect has represented for some time, they can now claim as their own.

Actions have consequences, and I am sure God has duly noted what our priorities are in the US of A. Economic matters would seem to take precedence over moral matters; money more important than life itself to most people (I guess they don’t consider almost 50,000,000 innocent children murdered by abortion part of life).
Now we shall see what the fruit of such a tree will be. I predict that we won’t have to wait long. In recent months we have seen “corrections” in the stock market, housing market, and banking industries. Now we’ll see if God orchestrates a “correction” in a country and a world that has demonstrated quite clearly that it prefers convenience and wealth to life itself.
Regardless of whatever happens next, remember there is still a God in Heaven and He loves you. He is infinitely merciful—and He is infinitely just as well.

From Jay: Latest News from UK: Surprise result as Labour candidate Lindsay Roy beat the SNP's representative in the Glenrothes by-election in Scotland. We, Catholic voters, should keep in mind the moral issue first - as Fr Corapi well pointed out all morally flawed ideas may become our own choice when we vote and elect candidate who supports them.

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Bl Titus Brandsma on Bl John Soreth and Carmelite Nuns, practical advice on prayer, meditations and rules of spiritual life in pre-Teresian Carmel

Frances d’Amboise and Her House. Example of Observance.

The convent of Geldern (Spanish Netherlands at that time) did not long remain the only one. The foundation of many convents and religious houses in Belgium, in the Northern provinces of Holland and the Northern part of France followed after. A little later they sprang up in Italy and Spain as well.

A very favourable circumstance, such as Our Lord often allows to happen at the beginning of an Order, occurred in the north of France. It was the entrance into the Order of a saint who drew much attention to the new Order and made it known in wider circles. I refer to Frances d'Amboise, Duchess of Brittany, who scorned all earthly love after the early death of her husband, and completely dedicated herself to Our Lord.

God had intended the ways of Blessed John Soreth and Frances d'Amboise to cross and the two saintly souls at once understood each other. Notwithstanding all opposition, even of the royal house, Frances entered the Order and received the veil at the hands of John Soreth. Her example attracted many followers and soon the community where she had been received had grown so large that a second house had to be founded. This house, Les Couets, near Nantes, came under her direction only because the Pope commanded her under Obedience -- on no other account could she be moved to accept the leadership. Under her direction this place became known for its heroic virtue and God rewarded it by many a mystical experience. For long years it was looked upon as the prototype of Carmelite convents. Not only during her lifetime, but many years after, it maintained its splendid reputation. When in later times St. Teresa, contemplating a stricter observance of her Rule, as she writes in one of her books, thought of going to a convent in the North where the Rule was better observed and which flourished in an exceptional way, it is thought that she meant the convent of Nantes, set on this path of virtue by Blessed Frances d'Amboise.

Explanation of the Rule. Solitude in Interior and Exterior Cell
Blessed John Soreth, also wrote, as an aid to his attempts at reformation, an exposition of the Rule after its new mitigation in 1431. It is worthy of note that BI. John Soreth founded the Carmelite Nuns under this mitigated Rule and that the observance of this Rule brought the Sisters to the highest heights of mystical life and the greatest perfection. We can in some chapters see what was foremost in his mind when he founded the Carmelite Nuns. It strikes us at once that he is lavish in his praise of solitude and the high value in sanctifying the appointed cell. He makes a play on the Latin word, coelum , and points out how the fervent intercourse with God in the silent cell is found to life the mind to God. But he at once distinguishes between an internal and an external cell. The latter is the means of communing as much as possible with God; to know Him as present. Besides he indicates that the cell must be a positive good, not only to keep us tree from the world and its shortcomings, but above all to bring us nearer to God, to give us peace and quiet of heart and total surrender.

Threefold Subject of Meditation
This treatment of contemplation, to which the life in the cell must be primarily devoted, is especially noteworthy. He distinguishes a threefold meditation and calls special attention to all three forms. In the first place, he proposes the admiration of Nature, then the reading of the Sacred Scriptures and finally an introspection of our own lives. These three kinds of contemplation he does not regard as necessarily connected but rather as subjects deserving a separate treatment in various hours of meditation. Only now and then they will have to be retarded in their relation to each other.

Admiration for the wonderful works of God is the very first thing to which he calls our attention. If we call up these feelings of admiration, the question as to the secret designs of God, why He created all this, forces itself upon our minds and from this problem we shall deduct and understand the intention and the meaning of all creation.

Six Steps of Meditation on Holy Scripture and Books
The second form of meditation is reading the Sacred Scriptures and spiritual books. Here as well, he distinguishes various steps by which we can mount upwards: (1) Primarily we must read to get to know truth and to extend our knowledge of heavenly things. Love for this knowledge must urge us to take up Holy Writ and edifying books. (2) Not only must we read to know, we must let ourselves be caught by truth, we must invite it to work its influence upon our minds by mentally pondering the words. Only then will our reading be not a barren knowledge but a power to lift us up and support us. (3) Truth should not be something that only illumines our mind and satisfies our craving for knowledge; it should be a motive power lifting us above ourselves, not keeping us shut up in our own minds. (4) The fourth step is not to remain inactive, but to turn that which we have read over and over in our minds, to combine it with what has been read or heard before, that it may grow into a living whole, giving a certain direction to our acts. (5) After we have assimilated it, we must again make it the subject of our contemplation so as to find joy in the possession of truth. (8) This contemplation should vivify our love for God's laws, should deepen our sense of that same law and our sense of God's grace, so that we may be inclined to do those things that, though not obligatory, yet tend to God's honour and glory and which we ought to do if we truly love God. This love for the divine law and the glory of God will in the end bridle our passions and, ever freer and less hampered by our evil inclinations, we shall cleave to God and serve only Him.

Six Steps of Meditation on Ourselves
The third form of meditation, the inspection of our own life, also calls for a six-fold explanation. It has, to start with, always a double aspect, an inner and outer way of approach. We must keep our conscience spotless so that we always can account for our acts before God. Yet externally we must ever think of leading an exemplary life in the eyes of our neighbours. We have been placed here among our brethren by God to strive together toward the high ideals which He placed before our mind's eye but unless we guard jealously the purity of our conscience, we cannot gather merits internally.

The second point is a most perfect knowledge of ourselves. We must not only know what we are doing but we must also account for the motives which prompt our deeds, the inclinations to which we are subject when acting and try to find out where they are able to lead us. Secret inclinations are to be revealed before our own minds and above all the end to which they tend should be distinguished. This knowledge of ourselves, of our deepest being, though it is difficult, is absolutely necessary.

This will give, in the third place, a fixed direction to our life and show us the road along which we can most easily make progress. Our successes, as well as our defeats, should be subjects of medita-tion, so as to evolve at the end the most perfect schemes for success in the campaign of life What we intend to do should not be left to the inspiration of the moment but our whole life should be planned beforehand in such a way that we are sure of victory. Many people work and labour and achieve many things which perhaps appear meritorious in the sight of others, whereas they are not keen on searching out what is asked of them for their own welfare and improvement.

A fourth introspection makes us see over and over again what we have undertaken in choosing this life which we live by our vows and by the orders of our superiors. The obligatory acts should always have precedence over such deeds as we perform of our own free will. Naturally we should not restrict ourselves to meeting only the obligations; charity should urge us to go beyond this; but never should such free acts be undertaken at the cost of duty.

The fifth point is more or less a warning. It goes without saying that in those meditations which are the result of the review of our life we should neither undervalue ourselves so that we too easily despair of attaining our goal, nor overrate ourselves and attempt too much. There are hazards on both sides and we are to keep on the middle of the road.

Blessed John Soreth concludes with a sixth consideration which forces us to shut our eyes to everything except what the moment demands, so that we may not break off what we are doing under the pretext of doing some other good work.

Methodical Spiritual Life
From what I cited here from the exposition on the Rule, it is evident that BI. John Soreth had a very systematic way of practising virtue and using prayer; this is in perfect keeping with the time in which he lived and the school which he represented. The question has been raised whether St. Teresa in her wonderful writings about the Way of Perfection and the Interior Castle has not undergone in some degree the influence of the Dutch school of the Devotio Moderna which brings methodical prayer and systematic practice of virtue strongly to the fore in its Exercitia. I am inclined to see some influence but should like to look farther than the works of Thomas à Kempis, Zerboldt van Zutphen and Garcia de Cisneros and look to BI. John Soreth and the influence which he has had in the Order. His mysticism is doubtless very firmly bound up with that of the Devotio Moderna. He lays great stress on active holiness and the exercise of virtues and in this he proves himself a child of his time and of the country in which he laboured for the benefit of the Order. But in this case, the connection which is found between the demand for a more methodical mode of prayer and the school of St. Teresa is at the same time an indication that St. Teresa built on the foundations of John Soreth, on what he had stressed so particularly in his reformation and his institution of the Carmelite Sisters.

Position of Prayer in Life
He inserts a whole chapter to recommend both the practice of virtue as well as the preparation for prayer, followed by the practice of prayer. He speaks of a very slow and deliberate raising up of the building of our spiritual life and of the lasting influence of its foundations. He rejects the idea that the hours of prayer should be like oases in the desert of life but affirms strongly that prayer should be woven into our lives, grafted into it, so that our prayer is proof of our life and conversely our life proves the sincerity of our prayer. Before we begin to pray, we should first get into such a mental state as we should wish to be found in while praying. Therefore, the Rule says that we are first to contemplate the Laws of God and our own life in order to obtain the required state before beginning to pray. That which is to dominate our prayer should first be evoked by meditation. Speaking later about the spiritual armour, he reverts to this image. He points to David, who had to take off the armour which Saul had given him because he had not practised in it. That is the reason, he says, why our Rule demands a never-ending activity, both of body and soul. We must exercise all our faculties and in this con-nection he points out to us the two sublime examples which should be ever inthe mind of a perfect Carmelite; Our Lady and Elias the Prophet.

The Precious Pearl
Blessed John Soreth compares the practice of the Rule, in the section about the weekly chapter, with the precious pearl of the gospel which keeps its value in spite of its being despised by some. The wise merchant sells everything he possesses in order to buy the field in which the treasure is hidden. Then the treasure must be dug for. I should like to apply this image here, to explain how we are to draw ever farther back into ourselves to find Christ and live with Him. BI. John Soreth has made the Rule known to us like the pearl of the Gospels and has taught us to sell everything to obtain it, but at the same time he has taught us how to dig up the treasure by living a life of the greatest possible piety. Therefore, this life has to be aided, borne upward and nourished through a never flagging exercise of virtue. In the shining of these virtues the glory of the pearl will be set off.

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Commentary on American Presidential Election form the 'Remnant' Catholic Trad newspaper

Reflections on the Presidential Election from Ken at Hallowedground

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US Election Novena - 27 October to 4th November -click for link

"That kind is only driven out by prayer and fasting" (Mark 9:29)

This is the rest of the post

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Update from SPUC

It is suggested that a law which Senator Barack Obama would sign if elected president could lead to the closure of Catholic hospitals.
The Freedom of Choice Act would make abortion a right and Mr Michael Moses, the American Catholic bishops' lawyer, says it would not allow conscientious objection. Every medical facility would have to provide abortion, making it impossible for Catholic hospitals to function. Catholic Family News said clergy should warn people about this. [LifeNews, 2 November]

The Scottish government opposes a parliamentarian's proposal to bring in a law next year which would legalise assisted suicide. Ms Nicola Sturgeon MSP, health minister, says it would not be possible to have "sufficient safeguards" but she welcomes the debate begun by Ms Margo MacDonald, independent MSP for Lothians, who has Parkinson's disease. Ms MacDonald says it is inhumane not to have such a law. [Herald, 2 November] A disabled person has warned of eugenic activities resulting from the legalisation of assisted suicide. Dr Alison Morton-Cooper of Dumfries and Galloway says disabled people are "socially negated" and that their suffering could be alleviated if others tried to understand their difficulties. People's fears of becoming disabled played a part in support for such policies. She concludes: "However bad my disability gets, I want to be living when I die, and that depends on the rest of you being enlightened and prepared enough to take that on board." [Herald, 3 November]

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American Presidential election - hopefully America will wake up on time!!

The eyes of the whole world are turned to America.

Could that be possible the nation will chose the most liberal, communist-like and pro-choice

person who appeared on political scene out of nowhere, the very presidential candidate with more than dubious citizenship who does care for America/Americans possibly less than he actually cares for the snow on his backyard that fell there last year winter? Is that possible???
If he is chosen this is what we can feel afterwards....

More Obama cartoons from Paul Nichols' Catholic Cartoons blog

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Commemoration of the faithful departed - All Souls Day, click for link

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All Saints Day vigil

I recommend very good and edifying reading with a lot of Scripture references on Purgatory from Sisters of Carmel for the coming All Souls Day

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St John of the Cross

Love your enemies

He was also concerned about what was happening to the Order under Doria's authority, and the unhappiness it was causing to the nuns. He wrote to Sr Leonor advising her not to dwell on things, 'because what should be occupied in God be occupied in this....Let the garden be closed, then, without pain or worry, for he who entered bodily for his disciples, when the doors were closed, and gave them peace, without them knowing or imagining that this could be, nor how, will enter in spirit into the soul....and he will fill her with peace.'
He had need of that peace for himself, because a new definitor, Fr Diego Evangelista, elected at the Madrid Chapter, was given the task of investigating Fr Gracian, with a view to carrying out his expulsion from the Order that Doria had proposed. The nuns at Granada were so worried at the interrogation to which they had been subjected and the way what they said was being twisted and misinterpreted, that they burned a whole sack of John's letters and other writings. Hearing of this activity, John was deeply hurt, but refused to say anything against Fr Diego. This campaign continued for the rest of John's life, and hearing of his death, Diego expressed regret that he had not managed to expel him from the Order before he died. The hapless Gracian was not so 'fortunate'. He was expelled, captured and tortured by Barbary pirates, escaped, and, not able to re-enter the Discalced, died as a Calced friar.

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St John of the Cross

God is always good.

What John had foreseen came to pass.


Doria saw his prestige and the reverence in which so many held him for his spiritual stature as a threat to his own authority and he left the Chapter a simple friar, stripped of any post. There were even plans to send him to Mexico, although this never materialised. Instead, he was sent to a remote friary at La Penuela. For John, it was a relief no longer to have all his administrative tasks, and to pursue the life of prayer for which he always yearned, whatever his outward activity over the previous years. As he remarked of those years, when he spent his journeys praying, singing psalms, 'I am well, but my soul lags far behind'. The letter he wrote to Mother Anne of Jesus shortly after the Chapter shows his state of mind: '[God] has arranged this that we may show it by our actions...this is not evil or harmful, neither for me nor for anyone. It is in my favour since, being freed and relieved from the care of souls, I can, if I want and with God's help, enjoy peace, solitude, and the delightful fruit of forgetfulness of self and of all things.' He made the most of the nature he so loved a Penuela, going for hours into the countryside to pray and be alone with his Beloved. Even so, he was not out of contact with the many people whom he had directed, and continued to guide them by letter. Even so, he would not have been human if he had not felt hurt by the antagonism and even hatred of which he had been the butt at the Chapter. A he wrote to Anne of Penalosa, he liked Penuela very much: 'The vastness of the desert is a great help to the soul and the body, although the soul fares very poorly. The Lord must desire that it have its spiritual desert.' He described his simple life to her, which suited him so much: 'This morning we have already returned from gathering our chick-peas, and so the mornings go by. On another day we shall thresh them. It is nice to handle these mute creatures, better than being badly handled by living ones.'

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St John of the Cross

Today we will continue to meditate on the life of St John of the Cross who at the pick of his religious leadership and popularity preferred to follow in the food-steps of Christ by choosing 'to suffer and to be looked down upon' instead of obtaining temporal rewards for his service to Christ. By meditating upon this example of extraordinary holiness we can better understand what does it really mean to love God above ourselves.

Storms clouds began to break over John's head when the Father General, Nicolas Doria, convened an Extraordinary Chapter in June 1590. John had a premonition that things would go badly for him. When one of the Segovian nuns said that she was sure he would return to them as their Provincial, he replied and with certainty, 'I shall be thrown into a corner like an old rag'. One source of disagreement went as back as 1581 at the Chapter at Almodovar del Campo. John had come into conflict (yes, even saints do this sometimes!) with Fr Gerome Gracian who had been a favourite and close collaborator of St Teresa. Gracian wanted the friars to be more active in the apostolate, whereas John insisted that they should be primarily contemplative, from which their apostolate would flow. He did not want their contemplative vocation to take second place and perhaps be squeezed out. This tension between the active and contemplative aspects of the Carmelite friar's life had a long history. The Order traces its origin back to the time of the Crusades, when some of the crusaders decided to settle in the Holy Land, on Mount Carmel, where Elijah and Elisha had founded a 'school of prophets', living a life of community and contemplation. Ever since, Carmelites have looked on two great prophets as their spiritual forebears. When the Muslims defeated the crusaders and drove them out of the Holy Land, the friars fled to the West, where they took up an active apostolate, sometimes to the detriment of their contemplative base.
At the Madrid Chapter the problem was more a clash of personalities between Gracian, who represented the moderates and Doria who wanted more control. Although Teresa had not taken personally to Doria, a Genoese who had been a banker before entering the Discalced, she had prized Doria's organisational skills, but he was rigid and authoritarian. The younger Gracian had a brilliant mind, a distinguished scholar and organiser , and had a much more pleasing and charming manner, although his impetuosity and rashness made him powerful enemies - including Doria. Now, Doria put forward some proposals with which John adamantly disagreed. Doria changed the government of the Order, concentrating all power in the hands of a permanent committee. He also wanted to take revenge against the formidable Mother Ann of Jesus, who, supported by John of the Cross, opposed his plans for the nuns and wanted to seek papal approbation for their constitutions. In addition, he wanted to expel Gracian from the Order, seeing him as a dangerous rival to his own power. John of the Cross had already warned Gracian that this might happen. He had been horrified when Gracian had proposed that Doria should succeed him as Provincial: he was elected only by two votes. Now, he felt that Gracian was being unfairly treated, and said so. Although many of the other friars privately agreed with him, they were too cowed by Doria's dictatorial manner to speak out.

The moving story of St John of the Cross last years marked by his heroic love of God and the neighbour is to be continued.
Credit: on the basis of little book 'John of the Cross' by Jennifer Moorcroft

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St John of the Cross

There are many Saints who proved their love of God through examples of heroic virtue. St John of the Cross is one of them.

He wrote the most beautiful poems describing soul search for His beloved. It is good to think of him during the month of the Sacred Heart, the beautiful symbol of God's love for us. We will focus today on the period of St John's life that began when he was elected the prior of Discalced friars in Baez. It happened just after Discalced were finally set up as a separate Province. He was the Prior there for two years and after that he was appointed Prior to the Granada foundation of Los Martires. He was far away from his beloved Castile and he felt his isolation deeply. This feeling of isolation was increased after Saint Teresa died the same year. He had reached however, that state of inner freedom when he could truly be himself and not to be forced into a mould of other's making. As Prior and an official in his Order now, he himself had a status that afforded him some dignity, but he refused to be judged by such standards. A high ranking official would be brought to him and be greeted by John just as he was. As he said to one visitor who expressed his surprise, 'After all, I am the son of a weaver'. Later on, his brother Francisco was often with him. Francisco remained what he always was, a poor workman, and John would introduce him with great pride as the greatest treasure he had on earth. To John, earthly rank or attainment did not matter. What did matter was that they were all children of God, and as such, deserving of his respect and love, whatever their rank or lack of it. The Order met for their second Chapter in 1583 and John was reaching the peak of his religious leadership. He was elected 2nd definitor and Vicar Provincial. He completed at that time his major writings, The Spiritual Canticle and the Dark Night of the Soul. From 1585, for the next three years he was almost constantly on the road in his role as Vicar Apostolic, attending chapters, visiting the various foundations, founding new convents and friaries. At one such foundation, that of Cordoba, he nearly lost his life. A stone wall that was being built fell on the cell in which he was working, and the workmen scrabbled frantically to dig him out, fearing he was dead. However, they found him crouched in a corner under a statue of Our Lady that had fallen above him, laughing and saying that it was she who had saved him. To his delight, in 1588 he was appointed prior of the Segovia friary, which meant that he was back in his beloved Castile. A new friary was still being built away from the dampness of the nearby river, so John joined in with the building work. These were to be the last happy moments in his life. He was back in Castile and nearer to his beloved brother who was able to visit him more often. To his brother he revealed an experience he had. Praying before a picture of Christ carrying his cross one day, he heard an inner voice calling his name, and responded inwardly, 'Here I am'. The voice asked him then what reward he would like for all he had done and all he had have suffered. John's response was, 'To suffer and to be looked down upon.' He told this to his brother so that when Francis saw him having trials he would not be distressed, knowing that it was what he desired and that they God's will for him. The time of serious trials was coming for John to prove his love of God and neighbour. God was willing to give him a chance to become a great saint.

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Voters guide for serious Catholic - from Catholic Answers

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Quas Primas - encyclical of Pope Pius XI on the Feast of Christ the King - promulgated on Dec 11, 1925 - click to read

Holy Trinity painting is by Raphael

Paragraph 15 in the encyclical letter of Pope Pius XI gives us description of Christ's Kingdom:

(Christ) kingdom is spiritual and is concerned with spiritual things. That this is so the (above) quotations from Scripture amply prove, and Christ by his own action confirms it. On many occasions, when the Jews and even the Apostles wrongly supposed that the Messiah would restore the liberties and the kingdom of Israel, he repelled and denied such a suggestion. When the populace thronged around him in admiration and would have acclaimed him King, he shrank from the honor and sought safety in flight. Before the Roman magistrate he declared that his kingdom was not of this world. The gospels present this kingdom as one which men prepare to enter by penance, and cannot actually enter except by faith and by baptism, which, though an external rite, signifies and produces an interior regeneration. This kingdom is opposed to none other than to that of Satan and to the power of darkness. It demands of its subjects a spirit of detachment from riches and earthly things, and a spirit of gentleness. They must hunger and thirst after justice, and more than this, they must deny themselves and carry the cross.

More reading on the Kingship of Christ in this world from Christian Order

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