Month: April 2016

THE WONDERFUL HEALING POWER OF NATURE

I am convinced that many people would experience improved mental well-being if they increased their contact and communion with the natural beauty of God’s creation.

God, who is, as the scholastic theologians say, in His creation by His POWER, PRESENCE and ESSENCE is most assuredly present in the transformative beauty of the natural world.

Commenting on the healing power of nature, Saint Pope John Paul II made the following observation:

“The aesthetic value of creation cannot be overlooked. Our very contact with nature has a deep restorative power; contemplation of its magnificence imparts peace and serenity. The Bible speaks again and again of the goodness and beauty of creation, which is called to glorify God.” (John Paul II, 1990 World Day of Peace Message, no. 14.)

What is being urged upon us here is an improved communion with nature. Who hasn’t felt a special feeling of tranquility walking along the ocean shore, or gazing upon a majestic mountain? And yet how often do we find ourselves cut-off and deprived of the beauty of nature for many reasons. Pope Francis made this observation in his recent encyclical on the environment, saying, “In some places, rural and urban alike, the privatization of certain spaces has restricted people’s access to places of particular beauty” (no. 45).

Father Irala, in his popular book, Achieving Peace of Heart, tells us that “we must live beauty.” He maintains that we need to be “reeducated” to “receive the external world.” This means, in one context, that if we are looking at a beautiful river we should spend some time peering into it –contemplating it – so that we may receive the vital influx of its beauty. It’s as if he was saying, “take some time to stop and smell the roses.”

Father Irala tells an interesting story about a businessman who was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. It was apparently felt that the overworked businessman needed some time away from his hectic office to unwind and rejuvenate, but since this remedy wasn’t feasible his physician requested that “an aquarium of tropical fish built in his private office and that he spend an hour every day peacefully watching the graceful convolutions of those little creatures.” It is related that “before the year was out he sent a donation to [his physician’s] hospital as a token of gratitude for his cure” (p.41).

Perhaps many of us need to be reoriented to the beauty of the natural world and its deep healing power. If we are alienated from nature, we are in some sense alienated from God. Near the end of Laudato Si, Pope Francis wrote these poetic words:

“All-powerful God, you are present in the whole universe and in the smallest of your creatures. You embrace with your tenderness all that exists. Pour out upon us the power of your love, that we may protect life and beauty” (no. 246).

Let us not only protect life and beauty; let us immerse ourselves in its “restorative power.”

Tom Mulcahy, M.A.

P.S. As a practical example, many of us spend time walking along a nature trail. To reeducate your mind to the beauty of nature, spend some time actually peering into the moving stream along the trail, or looking receptively at a strange but beautiful flower you pass by. Father Irala says that we should let the beauty “enter deep into us.” We are not talking about pantheism, but rather about God manifested through the beauty of his external creation. This is, in essence, a form of religious contemplation.

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HEALING YOUR EMOTIONS

The beautiful emotions God has given us work tremendous good in our lives when they are under the guidance of our rational and spiritual faculties. A child lives his life primarily on an emotional level, but to mature he must gradually bring his emotional life under the control of right reason and spiritual life. In this context it may be helpful to see our lives from this four-fold perspective:

1. Physical Life;

2. Emotional Life;

3. Rational Life; and

4. Spiritual Life

What is being urged upon us here is the proper management of our emotional life by the higher faculties of human reason and Divine grace. By spiritual life, then, I am referring to the life of grace given to us by God which flows to us by way of prayer and sacramental life. Recourse to prayer and the sacraments is a great aid in healing impaired emotional life.

We know very well that letting our emotions flow freely can be psychologically healing – as in sharing our emotions and feelings with a friend or in therapy. But in a different context unregulated emotional life can be very damaging. In this sense if emotional life is not brought under the control and guidance of rational and spiritual life it can become a tyrant – and as such inordinate anger or sadness can even lead to violence or other destructive conduct.

We see in the garden of Gethsemane Jesus seemingly crushed by the weight of sorrow and grief – yet he has the strength of mind and the strength of grace to complete his mission, saying to the apostles, “Arise, let us go” (Matthew 26:46). Jesus teaches us to place our emotional life under the guidance and strength of grace.

Once a person I knew quite well was suffering significant emotional turmoil and had clearly strayed from the light of right reason. His emotional life had simply engulfed his rational life. I told this person that he had always been a person of great common sense, and that this would be a good time for him to gather-up and make good use of the excellent common sense God had given him. He took my advice and within a few days he was doing much better.

Spiritual life can profoundly impact our emotional life for the better. Thus, if we are experiencing to a harmful degree the emotions of bitterness and resentment, we can take recourse to spiritual life in order to re-channel these vexing emotions into positive forces. By allowing the powerful spiritual virtues of meekness and gentleness to descend into our emotions, we can heal our emotions and make them occasions for acts of virtue and charity. Thus, what started out in the direction of hatred ends in the life-giving direction of charity! “The act of virtue,” Saint Thomas Aquinas says, “is even more meritorious when it makes good use of the passions [or emotions] in view of a virtuous end.” Therefore, “passions or emotions regulated…by right reason…are forces to be used in the service of virtue” (Fr. Garrigou-LaGrange). Here we see a fundamental insight of Saint Thomas: that grace builds upon nature.

Right reason involves not only a knowledge of the virtues but in addition the elimination of what psychologists call cognitive distortions (meaning erroneous ways of thinking). Becoming acquainted with the ten common distorted ways of thinking, and correcting the ones that pertain to you, is one of the most valuable things you can do for emotional health and well-being (see link below). Learning to recognize and correct defective thinking patterns is essentially curative.

Finally, spiritual life involves prayer and the sacraments. Suffice it to say in this short note that the Sacraments of Reconciliation, the Eucharist (including Eucharistic adoration), and the Anointing of the Sick are powerful means of healing grace. Moreover, as Father Padovani, a therapist, points out, we can bring our broken emotions to God freely in prayer. In prayer we approach God in faith and hope, theological virtues which in and of themselves are pathways to healing since they direct us towards God. In prayer we can ask God for the “ever-new graces” we need to heal distorted or impaired emotions. God can restore beauty and balance to our emotional life, or give us the grace to carry the crosses that no one can avoid on this earthly pilgrimage.

In short it is a great benefit simply to see that we need to place our emotional lives under the protection and guidance of our rational and spiritual lives. To see this necessity is already the beginning of the healing of emotional life.

Tom Mulcahy, M.A.

References. The book by Father Padovani is entitled: Healing Wounded Emotions. In Feeling and Healing Your Emotions it is psychiatrist C.W. Baars who mentions at page 55 that “a child lives predominantly on the emotional level….” However, for this note I am relying predominantly on Father Garrigou-LaGrange, a Thomist, who demonstrates how the theology of Saint Thomas Aquinas promotes emotional well-being through the proper ordering of emotional life to rational life and rational life to spiritual life. See The Three Ages of the Interior Life, Vol. 1, Chapter 23. Nothing in this note is meant to be a substitute for good and necessary medical and professional care.

Link: If you type in at Google, “Ten types of cognitive distortions,” numerous sites will bring up this important list. The list is very helpful; however, I can’t tell you about the recommendability of any particular site.

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SAINT MOTHER TERESA’S FIRST HOLY COMMUNION

“These desires to satiate the longings of Our Lord for souls of the poor — for pure victims of his love — goes on increasing with every Mass and Holy Communion” (Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta).

Sometimes we get into a rut and we almost begin taking Holy Communion for granted. We must resist this temptation towards tepidity because Holy Communion is a great gift from Jesus – a priceless treasure. One Holy Communion, says Father Faber, is enough to make a saint. Faber says, “No one can tell how much grace lies in a single Sacrament. In a single communion lies all grace; for in it is the Author and Fountain of all grace….” (The Precious Blood, page 116).

Blessed Mother Teresa (soon to be Saint Mother Teresa) was born on August 26, 1910 (about 50 years after Father Faber’s death). The Church across the street from her house was named The Sacred Heart of Jesus. Mother Teresa – then known as Gonxha (Agnes) Bojaxhiu – made her first Holy Communion when she was only five and one half years old! But as Father Brian Kolodiejchuk M.C. (the postulator for her Canonization) relates, Mother Teresa received “an exceptional grace” on “the day of her first Holy Communion” which “fueled her desire to take this daring step into the unknown” (to form the Missionaries of Charity). Father Kolodiejchuk is referring to a letter written by Mother Teresa in 1947 to Archhbishop Perier of Calcutta wherein she related:

“From the age of 5 1/2 years, -when first I received Him [Jesus] – the love for souls has been within – It grew with the years – until I came to India – with the hope of saving many souls” (Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light, Doubleday, page 15)

Saint Therese of Lisieux – Mother Teresa’s namesake – also received exceptional graces when she made her first Holy Communion at age eleven. The Saint – describing her first Holy Communion “as a flood of divine joy” – relates the following in her autobiography, The Story of a Soul:

“Oh how sweet the first kiss of Jesus was! It was a kiss of love. I knew that I was loved and I declared: ‘I love you and I give myself to you forever!’ …on that day it was no longer a matter of gazing: it was a union. There were no longer two of us . Therese had disappeared like a drop of water in the depth of the ocean. Only Jesus remained….” (Image Books, page 52).

Returning to Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Gina Loeher describes Mother Teresa’s profound Eucharistic faith in the quote which follows:

“Mother Teresa believes that the union the sisters experience with Jesus in Holy Communion is inseparable from their lives. He himself renews and refreshes them every morning at Mass. ‘Our life is linked to the Eucharist,’ [Mother Teresa] would say. She also stated simply that without beginning each day with Jesus in Communion, ‘we could do nothing.’ “ (The Four Teresas, page 91)

The next Communion you receive will be the first Holy Communion of the rest of your life. There is no greater privilege in your life than to receive Jesus in Holy Communion.

“If you only knew the gift God has for you….” (John 4:10).

Tom Mulcahy, M.A.

Reference: The material for this note comes from the books referenced in the note. John 4:10 refers to the living waters of baptism (the prelude to the gift of the Eucharist). See Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, page 168. Blessed Mother Teresa will be canonized on September 4, 2016 in Rome.

Photo attribution: The photo above of Mother Teresa is by Manfredo Ferrari, December 10, 1985, in Rome, available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license (per Wikipedia).

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THE STARTING POINT FOR LOVE: THE REALIZATION I AM NEEDED BY ANOTHER

“Let us therefore love God, because God first hath loved us” (1 John 4:19)

In his lengthy biography of the life of Saint Pope John Paul II, George Wiegel includes a letter written by the then Father Wojtyla (the future Pope John Paul II) to Teresa Heydel. In this letter the future Pope shares with Teresa a profound insight of his into the nature of love, saying:

“After many experiences and a lot of thinking, I am convinced that the (objective) starting point of love is the realization that I am needed by another. The person who objectively needs me most is also, for me, objectively, the person I most need. This is a fragment of life’s deep logic, and also a fragment of trusting in the Creator and in Providence.” (Witness To Hope, p. 102)

George Wiegel comments that “Love, for Karol Wojtyla, was the truth at the very center of the human condition, and love always meant self-giving, not self-assertion” (p. 101). In this short note, I would like to make two applications of Saint John Paul II’s special insight into the nature of love – his conviction being that the objective starting point for love is the realization that I am needed by another.

The first application of the Pope’s special insight into the nature of love involves a person who is struggling in life and feels either unwanted or of little value. The psychological value of the Pope’s insight into the nature of love is not only to assure this person that you love him (consider, for example, a child who has been bullied) but, moreover, that you need his love. The child needs to know not only that he (or she) is loved but also that he is needed by you (that you need his love).

The second application of the Pope’s special insight into the nature of love touches upon the very mystery of your own existence. If love means that we are truly needed by another, then it follows logically that God has chosen to need your love! Stated in another manner, God truly desires and seeks your love. Does this not fill your heart with love for God!

Saint Therese of Lisieux, who was declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope John Paul II, received profound insights from the Holy Spirit about the nature of love. She says in her autobiography that in “1895 I received the grace to understand better than ever how much Jesus desires to be loved.” In another place in her autobiography she tells us that Jesus sought out the love of the Samaritan woman he met at the well (see John 4: 1-27). Saint Therese says, “[Jesus] did not fear to beg for a little water from the Samaritan woman. He was thirsty. But when he said:‘Give me to drink,’ it was the love of His poor creature the Creator of the universe was seeking. He was thirsty for love” (Autobiography, Clarke edition, p.189). Jesus truly desires and needs your love.

Father Faber, who died about ten years before Saint Therese was born, adds these words:

“That God condescends intensely to desire our love, there can be no possible doubt….Blessed, blessed God! Wonderful Father…this mystery of His desiring our poor love should of itself be a lifelong joy to us in our time of pilgrimage.” (The Creator and the Creature, pages 124-125)

A profound fragment of love’s deep logic – rooted in the Wisdom of creation – is that God loves you and desires your love in return. It is a fragment of Infinite worth.

Tom Mulcahy, M.A.

Reference: The inspiration and material for this note comes from Consoling the Heart of Jesus (see especially page 58) by Father Michael E. Gaitley. In his book Father Gaitley explains how Jesus’ words, “I thirst,” were of profound importance in the spirituality of both Saint Therese of Lisieux and Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta. In considering, theologically, God’s need for our love we should reflect on the fact that God freely chose in Jesus Christ to become a human being, thus linking His life profoundly with the human race.

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THE HEALING POWER OF CATHOLIC POETRY

“THE WORLD is charged with the grandeur of God” (Father Gerard Manley Hopkins)

Religious poetry can be very healing and comforting inasmuch as it draws us closer to God who is the source of all goodness and well-being. Poetry in general has always had a metaphysical dimension, but religious poetry has a theological dimension because it is specifically God-directed. “And our hearts are restless,” says Saint Augustine, “until they rest in God.” Poetry can help us to attain to this rest in God, which in turn enhances our well-being.

Psalm 23 can be particularly comforting:

The Lord is my shepherd;

I shall not want.

He makes me to lie down in green pastures;

He leads me beside the still waters.

He restores my soul;

He leads me in the paths of righteousness

For His name’s sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil;

For You are with me (vs. 1-4)

Psychiatrist Smiley Blanton relates he had little success in treating a patient’s depression until he began reading to her these words from Cardinal Newman’s poem Lead, Kindly Light:

Lead, kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom,
Lead Thou me on!
The night is dark, and I am far from home—
Lead Thou me on!
Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to see
The distant scene—one step enough for me.

I was not ever thus, nor prayed that Thou
Shouldst lead me on.
I loved to choose and see my path; but now,
Lead Thou me on!
I loved the garish day, and, spite of fears,
Pride ruled my will: remember not past years.

So long thy power hath blessed me, sure it still
Will lead me on;
O’er moor and fen, o’er crag and torrent, till
The night is gone;
And with the morn those angel faces smile
Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile.

Dr. Smiley states: “Later, I explained that her depression would take some time to cure but that her recovery would be hastened if she would just try to relax for an hour or so each day and as far as possible banish all unpleasant thoughts from her mind. And I recommended she prepare herself by reading this poem and some others…. (The Healing Power of Poetry, p.30).” Dr. Smiley further states that “I write from a long experience in using poetry as a specific means of therapy.”

The poetic originality of the priest-poet Gerard Manley Hopkins has a profound rejuvenating quality to it. Here we look at his masterpiece, God’s Grandeur.

THE WORLD is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs—
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

What is it about this poem that heals us? It is as W.H. Gardner observes of Hopkin’s poetry the “sensation of inscape – a quasi-mystical illumination, a sudden perception of the deeper pattern, order, and unity which gives meaning to external forms….” (Penguin Poets, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Introduction). Hopkin’s poetry frees us from the excessive analysis that burdens the mind and takes us back to the “primal intensity” of simplicity and beauty that draws us nearer to God. Here is another example of “inscape” in Hopkin’s poetry:

Pied Beauty

Glory be to God for dappled things

For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;

For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;

Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;

Landscapes plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plough;

And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.

All things counter, original, spare, strange;

Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)

With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;

He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:

Praise Him.

(Gerard Manley Hopkins, S.J.)

G.K. Chesterton, who was a convert, also speaks to the healing dimension of poetry in a very unique way. He says: “Imagination does not breed insanity. Exactly what does breed insanity is reason. Poets do not go mad; but chess-players do. Poetry is sane because it floats easily in an infinite sea; reason seeks to cross the infinite sea, and to make it finite. The poet only desires exaltation and expansion, a world to stretch himself in. The poet only asks to get his head into the heavens. If the madman could for an instant become careless, he would become sane” (as edited). Mysticism, says Chesterton, “keeps men sane. As long as you have mystery you have health; when you destroy mystery you create morbidity. The ordinary man has always been sane because the ordinary man has always been a mystic.” It is because poetry can express meaning with less restrictions than a purely rationalistic approach to life, and is therefore not enclosed in the “prison of one thought,” that it more closely approaches the frontier of “first principles,” the light of which “we look at everything” else.

John Ciardi once said that “Poetry itself is a religion; it gives meaning to life.” Paul Roche adds that poetry “is in touch with a wider, deeper and more immediate range of being.” But religious poetry goes even further than this: it puts us in touch with the primordial reality of all things: God who has life in Himself. The greatest value of (religious) poetry, then, when read and meditated upon, is that it restores our own being in God. Now that’s Catholic strength!

Thomas Mulcahy, M.A.

Ref. I am relying primarily on The Healing Power of Poetry by Dr. Smiley Blanton (Guidepost Associates, Inc.). Nothing in this note is intended to be a substitute for good and necessary medical and professional care. I am quoting from Chesterton’s classic book, Orthodoxy.

Note on poetry and prayer: When the words of a poem, deeply experienced, elevate your heart to God there is in this moment an invitation to prayer. It is not to be forgotten that the ultimate purpose of meditation is to enkindle prayer and conversation with God. On this point see Pope Benedict XVI’s address of August 31, 2011 wherein he discusses how “artistic beauty can lead the heart to God” and prayer. See also Conversation With Christ by Thomas Rohrbach. Prayer unites us to God.

Photo: Gerard Manley Hopkins (Public Domain, U.S.A.)

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THE INFALLIBLE EFFICACY OF PRAYER ACCORDING TO SAINT THOMAS AQUINAS

  “Ask and you shall receive”   (Luke 11:9)

Here is the very powerful, sublime and awesome doctrine of Saint Thomas Aquinas (“the angelic doctor”) regarding the infallible efficacy of prayer. This doctrine should lead us to develop a tremendous confidence in the efficacy of prayer, especially as pertaining to our eternal salvation. In Question 83 on Prayer, Article 15, Saint Thomas lays down four conditions for the infallible efficacy of prayer. He states:

               “Hence it is that four conditions are laid down: namely, to ask

                (1) for ourselves

                (2) things necessary for salvation

                (3) piously

                (4) perseveringly

                When all these four concur, we always obtain what we
                ask for.”

Given this truly awe-inspiring doctrine on the infallible power of prayer, the importance and necessity of humble, persevering prayer cannot be overemphasized. Every night when we go to bed, we should fall down on our knees and humbly beg God for the graces we need to be saved, adding in our prayer that we desire these graces even if it be necessary
for us to suffer immensely.

Father Garrigou-Lagrange, the eminent Dominican theologian from whom I am drawing these insights regarding the “infallible efficacy of prayer,” reflects further on this lofty doctrine of prayer, stating: “Humble, trusting, persevering prayer, by which we ask for the things necessary for salvation, is infallibly efficacious by virtue of our Lord’s promise….’ask and you shall receive.’ He promises that if we ask this grace of Him, He will give it to us. What is more, He causes this prayer to spring up in our hearts, and inclines us to ask Him for what He wills from all eternity to grant us….

“Prayer is a more powerful force than all the physical energies taken together, more powerful than money, than learning. Prayer can accomplish what all material things and all created spirits cannot do by their natural powers….Prayer thus plays an infinitely greater role in the world than the most amazing discovery….Prayer assures two things to souls striving to attain to God: supernatural light which directs them; and divine energy, which urges them on” (Christian Perfection and Contemplation, pages 206-208).

This lofty doctrine of prayer should fill us with the greatest confidence in God. Our “humble, trusting, persevering prayer” will lead us to “the end ordained” by our Omnipotent and loving God: our salvation.

(Saint Thomas Aquinas as depicted by Gentile da Fabriano, circa 1400, Public Domain, U.S.A.)

Tom Mulcahy, M.A.

Note: I am basing this note completely on the wonderful insights of Father Garrigou-Lagrange, one of the greatest Catholic theologians of the 20th century and a professor of Saint John Paul II. Besides the work cited above, I am also drawing from pages 428-434 of The Three Ages of the Interior Life, Volume I; see also page 377 of this work, a prayer to overcome obstacles to our salvation, which I personally think is highly valuable.

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THE ZACCHAEUS PRINCIPLE AND YOUR CHILDREN

“So [Zacchaeus] ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.” (Luke 19:4)

Perhaps Zacchaeus was feeling guilty about ripping people off. Or perhaps – just out of curiosity – he simply wanted to get a gander at a very popular rabbi who was passing through town named Jesus. In any event, the resourceful Zacchaeus – whom we are told was short – made the effort to climb up a sycamore tree to get a good look at Jesus.

Dear friend, this was to be an amazing day for Zacchaeus (and my words are an understatement); for the Lord who loves souls stopped at the spot where the tree was, looked up, and said, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today” (Luke 19:5). The Gospel story continues:

“So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. All the people saw this and began to mutter, ‘He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.’ But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, ‘Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham . For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.’ “ (Luke 19:6-10)

Zacchaeus made the effort to place himself in the pathway of Jesus, and Jesus changed his life forever! This is what I call the Zacchaeus principle: – when we place ourselves in the pathway of the Lord good things are bound to happen! Think of what happened to the Samaritan woman when she went to draw water from the well, and ended up meeting Jesus there. Think also of the two men who fell into the company of Jesus on the road to Emmaus.

Now the Zacchaeus principle is a great principle to apply to your children: they need to meet Jesus in a personal encounter. There is a story out on CD about a concerned Grandma (or Aunt) who paid to send her very wayward grandson to a teen conference at Franciscan University of Steubenville – and now that young man is a priest. I know a young lady who went to a similar conference and underwent a profound experience of God’s love for her. The point is that these people placed themselves in the pathway of the Lord, and they were anointed by a special experience of His presence. While a student at Notre Dame, Ralph Martin, somewhat skeptical of religion, made the effort to go to a Cursillo, and, well, you know the rest of his story*. And Ralph’s partner, Peter Herbeck, was taken as a twenty-year old to a Charismatic conference at Notre Dame where he underwent a profound conversion to the Lord. There are many other similar stories.

Our kids are growing up in a culture that is becoming increasingly ambivalent – even hostile – to the Catholic faith. There are many paths in the culture that will lead them quite easily in the wrong direction. Let us be like Zacchaeus. Let us make the effort to see where Jesus may be passing by to meet our kids – at a conference, at a camp, at a Church event, at adoration, at Confession, at a movie advancing Christian principles, at a youth retreat, at a talk, or some other event. We can’t force an experience of Jesus on our kids. But we can put them in the path of Jesus, and pray for them, and leave the rest up to the Holy Spirit. After all, what do we want more for our kids than to get them to Heaven?

Tom Mulcahy, M.A.

* If you are unfamiliar with the “conversion” stories of Ralph Martin and Peter Herbeck, check out their website, renewalministries.net . Ralph Martin’s story can be read in a short pamphlet entitled, “My Five Most Important decisions.” Peter Herbeck recounts his story in an excellent book on the Holy Spirit, When the Spirit Comes in Power. Image at Wikipedia (Public Domain).

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THE AMAZING POWER OF GRATITUDE IN THE SPIRITUAL LIFE

“Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (1 Thes. 5:18)

Saint Ignatius of Loyola makes the following powerful and evocative statements about the harm lack of gratitude causes in the spiritual life. He says: “It seems to me, in light of the divine Goodness, …that ingratitude is one of the things most worthy of detestation before our Creator and Lord, and before all creatures capable of divine and everlasting glory, out of all the evil and sins which can be imagined. For it is the failure to recognize the good things, the graces, and the gifts received. As such, it is the cause, beginning, and origin of all evil and sins” (cited and referenced in Consoling the Heart of Jesus, page 421).

Another Saint and Doctor of the Church, Therese of Lisieux, has this to say about gratitude: “What most attracts God’s grace is gratitude, because if we thank him for a gift, he is touched and hastens to give us ten more, and if we thank him again with the same enthusiasm, what an incalculable multiplication of graces! I have experienced this; try it yourself and you will see! My gratitude for everything he gives me is limitless, and I prove it to him in a thousand ways” (The Way of Trust And Love, p.111)

As Father Timothy Gallagher explains, Saint Ignatius of Loyola’s basic attitude toward God was one of deep gratitude. “For Ignatius then, the consciously chosen remembrance of God’s gifts is not just a moment in a spiritual day or simply a devout practice…. It is the heart itself of the way he understands God and relates to God. The only God he ever knew from the first moment of his conversion was the God who constantly bestows gifts of grace upon us, revealing through these gifts the infinite love with which we are loved” (The Examen Prayer, p.58). Here is a beautiful quote from one of Saint Ignatius’ early disciples (Father Diego Lainez, S.J.) which touches upon Saint Ignatius’ profound gratitude for God and His creation: “At night Ignatius would go up on the roof of the house, with the sky there up above him. He would sit quietly, absolutely quietly. He would take his hat off and look up for a long time at the sky. Then he would fall to his knees, bowing profoundly to God….And the tears would begin to flow down his cheeks like a stream….” (The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything, page 17).

Saint Ignatius (pictured below), truly one of the great masters of the spiritual life, recommends that we end each day with a prayer of thanksgiving to God in gratitude for the gifts and graces we have received from God throughout the day. This can be done in a very simple, two-step process (perhaps as you are lying in bed to go to sleep):

1. Close your eyes and become aware of the love with which God is looking upon you. Do this for a minute or two to place yourself in the presence of God (Gallagher, p.25).

2. In your mind review your day and note the gifts and graces God has given you, and give profound thanks to God for them (Gallagher, p. 25).

Here then, with this “Examen” prayer, you are ending your day on a very profound note of gratitude to God. Father Jacques Philippe says this about gratitude: “Here we touch on… one of the secrets of the spiritual life that also is one of the laws of happiness. The more we cultivate gratitude and thanksgiving, the more open our hearts are to God’s action, so that we can receive life from God and be transformed and enlarged. By contrast, if we bury ourselves in discontent, permanent dissatisfaction, then our hearts close themselves insidiously against life, against God’s gift” (The Way of Trust and Love, p. 112).

Tom Mulcahy, M.A.

Reference: My two sources for this note, besides The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius, are The Examen Prayer by Father Timothy H. Gallagher, and The Way of Trust and Love by Father Jacques Philippe. For a more detailed approach to the Examen prayer of Saint Ignatius, and the other steps in the prayer which can be utilized, see Father Gallagher’s book. Also, Father Michael Gaitley gives a consolidated explanation of the Examen prayer (using the B-A-K-E-R method) in two of his books (see Consoling the Heart of Jesus, 178-182, and 33 Days to Morning Glory, pages 187-189). I am also relying on pages 421-422 of Consoling the Heart of Jesus, which also references Father Gallagher’s book, The Examen Prayer, and the critical importance of gratitude in Saint Ignatius’ life, a point which had touched me too when I read this part of Gallagher’s book. Image: Painting of Saint Ignatius of Loyola by Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), a Public Domain work of art in the U.S.A.

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GREEDY FOR HEAVEN

“Be ambitious for the higher gifts” (1 Corinthians 12:31)

In evaluating our lives, we should not discount the length of eternal life. What God is offering to us, ETERNAL LIFE, is simply stunning, overwhelming and unfathomable! Certainly a fundamental part of the Ignatian Exercises is simply to do the math: to reflect on the shortness of life and the incredible length of eternity. And then to choose wisely, which is why we pray to the Holy Spirit for the gift of Wisdom. To miss out on Heaven – and all that Heaven is – simply cannot be an option. “Who could endure the loss?”

As to death, it is a great grace to realize that we are going to die. In essence, our lives are but a preparation for death. God, in His providence, already knows the day and moment of our death, and He has already put in place the graces we will need to be saved. We need to cooperate with those graces, and all will be well.

Unfortunately, so many people live their lives without much thought about their impending death. They realize that other people die but they sort of see themselves as a bystander to the death of other people – somehow convincing themselves that it won’t happen to them.

And although attending someone’s funeral may make such a person anxious about death, it is also the case that we are quite adept at putting in to place psychological defense mechanisms that quickly assuage such thoughts and turn our attention back to the world.

As I see it, there is a gigantic cultural conspiracy in place to convince us that we are not going to die. The plan is to outlive death by taking the right vitamins, wearing the best make-up, and seeing the best doctors. And yet everyone still dies. We are all on an absolute collision course with death. Only God knows for sure how much time we have left. And the clock keeps ticking.

I think it is interesting that in Mother Teresa‘s mystical life the Virgin Mary told her to tell families to say the rosary (reference: Come Be My Light, Doubleday, p.99). This prayer not only helps us to contemplate the life of Christ, including his death and resurrection, but it continually reminds us of the two most important moments in our lives – the present moment and the moment of our death. We ask Mary to “pray for us now and at the hour of our death.” It is in the “sacrament of the present moment” that we can choose to conform our will to God’s grace, and it is at the moment of death that we need all of Heaven (that great cloud of witnesses, Hebrews 12:1) interceding for us to persevere to the end. It is important to pray for the grace of final perseverance and for the fortitude to die a good death. It is reassuring to know that we are asking Mary’s help in this regard when we pray the rosary.

In First Corinthians it says (at 2:9):

“Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, nor has it so much dawned on man what God has prepared for those who love Him.”

Don’t put your trust in the passing things of this world (those idols have no power to save you). Be a little greedy for Heaven, and in the process transform that greed into love and gratitude for a God who, after dying for our sins and humbling himself to be our very eternal life-giving food, has prepared for us such an immense reward that the magnitude of the joy and love we will experience in Heaven is beyond our narrow understanding, lasting for endless ages, in the glory of the “ever-blessed” life of God. In short, to say that Heaven is going to be awesome is an incredible understatement.

Tom Mulcahy, M.A.

Inspiration: The Imitation of Christ (chapter 48); The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola; and F.W. Faber’s The Creator and the Creature (from where I derive the title to the note and I am otherwise heavily indebted to him for the tone and content of the note).

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THEOLOGY OF THE BODY IN A NUTSHELL

“Man, whom God created male and female, bears the divine image imprinted on his body ‘from the beginning.’ Man and woman constitute two different ways of the human ‘being a body’ in the unity of that image.” (Saint Pope John Paul II)

The Resurrection of Jesus provides a wonderful platform upon which to discuss Saint John Paul II’s Theology of the Body – this because Jesus in His divinity did not return to the Father as a disembodied Spirit but as a human being fully reunited to His resurrected and Glorified body which – get this – he then introduced into the very life of the Trinity. The Catechism of the Catholic Church puts it like this:

“The Father’s power “raised up” Christ his Son and by doing so perfectly introduced his Son’s humanity, including his body, into the Trinity.” (no. 648)

The human body, by way of revelation and Catholic theology, therefore has an infinite worth as a partaker in the Eternal Life merited by Jesus Christ.

Theology of the Body is an attempt to heal the alienation which sometimes exists between body and spirit – an alienation which did not exist prior to sin. An example of this alienation is pornography which disregards the person-hood and dignity of the participants in favor of pecuniary gain and carnal pleasure. Even in marriage there can be body-lust, body-shame and body-alienation due to our fallen nature and the violation of Pope John Paul II’s “personalistic norm” which states that the human person is the kind of good that does not admit of misuse and cannot be treated as an object of use and as such a means to an end. According to the Pope, “the general problem of sexual relationships between a man and a woman cannot be solved in a way that contradicts the personalistic norm” (see pages 41 and 65 of Love and Responsibility).

Sexual love therefore has a profound “nuptial” meaning because it is only within the framework of sacramental marriage that there can be a complete gifting of self – body and spirit – which supports “the total physical, moral, psychological and spiritual well-being of the woman and the man” – all of which serves to nurture an “enduring covenant” of love.

The nuptial meaning of the human body is affirmed in creation because both the man and the woman, although different, are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). Therefore there is a profound complementarity between the body of the man and the body of the woman which shows they were made for each other and for the complete donation of self – in the fulness of their totality as beloved persons – in life-long marriage. The grace given in the Sacrament of Marriage therefore heals the dualistic sexual alienation caused by sin (which Pope John Paul II calls a violation of the personalistic norm, a principle he fashions from the philosophy of phenomenology).

In short, because every man and every woman is a body-person with inherent dignity and infinite worth, human sexuality finds its authentic and “life-giving” expression in sacramental marriage where the exchange of sexual intimacy can be “integrated into a total self-donation made in the will.” In this way the husband and wife mirror in the grace given to them the very LIFE of self-donation which is the essence of God’s Trinitarian existence.

“Those who seek the accomplishment of their own human and Christian vocation in marriage are called, first of all, to make this theology of the body, whose beginning we find in the first chapters of Genesis, the content of their life and behavior. How indispensable is a thorough knowledge of the meaning of the body, in its masculinity and femininity, along the way of this vocation! A precise awareness of the nuptial meaning of the body, of its generating meaning, is necessary” (Saint Pope John Paul II).

Tom Mulcahy, M.A.

References:

Love and Responsibility by Karol Wojtyla. A good article (I have relied on) summarizing this topic can be found in Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Catholic Doctrine. It is Saint Pope John Paul II’s strong belief that artificial birth control violates the personalistic norm by objectifying sexual pleasure as an end in itself. It is noteworthy that the high rate of divorce coincides with the introduction of the contraceptive pill, along with other factors. The two quotes from Pope John Paul II compiled by Constance Hull at catholic-link.org

Photo attribution: The lead photo above is by Lothar Schaack, November 15, 1980, under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license (found at Wikipedia).

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Catholic Strength

… growth in holiness… growth in well-being… growth in knowledge

Month: April 2016

THE WONDERFUL HEALING POWER OF NATURE

HEALING YOUR EMOTIONS

SAINT MOTHER TERESA’S FIRST HOLY COMMUNION

“These desires to satiate the longings of Our Lord for souls of the poor — for pure victims of his love — goes on increasing with every Mass and Holy Communion” (Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta).

“From the age of 5 1/2 years, -when first I received Him [Jesus] – the love for souls has been within – It grew with the years – until I came to India – with the hope of saving many souls” (Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light, Doubleday, page 15)

THE STARTING POINT FOR LOVE: THE REALIZATION I AM NEEDED BY ANOTHER

“Let us therefore love God, because God first hath loved us” (1 John 4:19)

“That God condescends intensely to desire our love, there can be no possible doubt….Blessed, blessed God! Wonderful Father…this mystery of His desiring our poor love should of itself be a lifelong joy to us in our time of pilgrimage.” (The Creator and the Creature, pages 124-125)

THE HEALING POWER OF CATHOLIC POETRY

“THE WORLD is charged with the grandeur of God” (Father Gerard Manley Hopkins)

THE INFALLIBLE EFFICACY OF PRAYER ACCORDING TO SAINT THOMAS AQUINAS

THE ZACCHAEUS PRINCIPLE AND YOUR CHILDREN

“So [Zacchaeus] ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.” (Luke 19:4)

THE AMAZING POWER OF GRATITUDE IN THE SPIRITUAL LIFE

“Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (1 Thes. 5:18)

1. Close your eyes and become aware of the love with which God is looking upon you. Do this for a minute or two to place yourself in the presence of God (Gallagher, p.25).

2. In your mind review your day and note the gifts and graces God has given you, and give profound thanks to God for them (Gallagher, p. 25).

GREEDY FOR HEAVEN

“Be ambitious for the higher gifts” (1 Corinthians 12:31)

“Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, nor has it so much dawned on man what God has prepared for those who love Him.”

THEOLOGY OF THE BODY IN A NUTSHELL

“Man, whom God created male and female, bears the divine image imprinted on his body ‘from the beginning.’ Man and woman constitute two different ways of the human ‘being a body’ in the unity of that image.” (Saint Pope John Paul II)

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“These desires to satiate the longings of Our Lord for souls of the poor — for pure victims of his love — goes on increasing with every Mass and Holy Communion” (Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta).

“From the age of 5 1/2 years, -when first I received Him [Jesus] – the love for souls has been within – It grew with the years – until I came to India – with the hope of saving many souls” (Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light, Doubleday, page 15)

Share this:

“Let us therefore love God, because God first hath loved us” (1 John 4:19)

“That God condescends intensely to desire our love, there can be no possible doubt….Blessed, blessed God! Wonderful Father…this mystery of His desiring our poor love should of itself be a lifelong joy to us in our time of pilgrimage.” (The Creator and the Creature, pages 124-125)

Share this:

“THE WORLD is charged with the grandeur of God” (Father Gerard Manley Hopkins)

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“So [Zacchaeus] ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.” (Luke 19:4)

Share this:

“Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (1 Thes. 5:18)

1. Close your eyes and become aware of the love with which God is looking upon you. Do this for a minute or two to place yourself in the presence of God (Gallagher, p.25).

2. In your mind review your day and note the gifts and graces God has given you, and give profound thanks to God for them (Gallagher, p. 25).

Share this:

“Be ambitious for the higher gifts” (1 Corinthians 12:31)

“Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, nor has it so much dawned on man what God has prepared for those who love Him.”

Share this:

“Man, whom God created male and female, bears the divine image imprinted on his body ‘from the beginning.’ Man and woman constitute two different ways of the human ‘being a body’ in the unity of that image.” (Saint Pope John Paul II)

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