Month: March 2019

A FAMOUS MIRACULOUS CRUCIFIX IN SPAIN

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

The Passion of Jesus Christ rules the history of the world says the great Father Faber, and as if to put an exclamation point on this statement Jesus allowed incredible manifestations of his salvific passion to occur in the Church of Saint Peter in Limpias, Spain from 1914 through 1921.

The six foot crucifix which hangs in the Church of Saint Peter in Limpias, Spain (see image above) is, according to Joann Carroll Cruz, “a meditation on the sufferings of Our Lord and is thought to portray [Jesus] Crucified in his final moments of his agony.” Cruz adds that the “face of Our Lord is of particular beauty, with its eyes of china looking toward Heaven….” More than 8000 people, according to Cruz, have witnessed – and testified to –  supernatural phenomena associated with the facial expressions and head movements of Jesus on this beautiful crucifix. In this note, I will highlight some of the compelling testimonies of some very prominent and reliable witnesses. Given the cumulative power of so many eye-witness testimonies concerning the miraculous nature of this crucifix it seems impossible to deny the credibility of these supernatural manifestations of Jesus’ Passion.

Here is a bird’s eye view of some of the very compelling testimonies:

August/1914: While fixing an electric light over the high altar in the church, Don Antonio Lopes, a monk of the Pauline Fathers, gazed at the crucifix and noticed “with astonishment that Our Lord’s eyes were gradually closing, and for five minutes I saw them quite closed” (this is the first of 8000 testimonies regarding witnessed movements of Jesus’ face and head on the Limpias crucifix).

April/2019: A group of nuns known as the Daughters of the Cross saw both the eyes and lips of the crucifix move.

May 5, 1919: Dr. Adolfo Arenaza publishes his testimony in the secular press stating that while looking through his field glasses he saw the movement of the eyes four times. He states: “Does Our Lord really move his eyes…I am of the opinion that he really does move them, for I have seen it myself.”

August 4, 1919: Rev. Valentin Incio of Gijon visits Limpias and and wrote the following pertaining to his observation of the miraculous crucifix:

“At first our Lord seemed to be alive; His head then preserved its customary position…but His eyes were full of life and looked about in different directions….Now came the most touching moment of all. Jesus looked at all of us, but so gently and kindly, so expressively, so lovingly and divinely, that we fell on our knees and wept and adored Christ.”

September 11, 1919: Father Antonio de Torrelavega, a Capuchin monk, “sees blood streaming from the left corner of Our Lord’s mouth.” The next day he

“observed anew, only still more frequently, the movement of the eyes and…blood flowing down from the corner of the mouth. Several times He looked at me. Many other people who were kneeling round me also observed this….Now I verify it; there is no doubt the Santo Christo [crucifix] moves his eyes.”

September 15, 1919: “The Coadjutor of St. Nicholas Church in Valencia, D. Paulino Girbes, relates in his statement…that he was in the company of two Bishops and 18 priests when they knelt before the crucifix.” He states:

“We all saw the face of the Santo Cristo become sadder, paler….The eyes gave a gentle glance now at the Bishops and then in the direction of the sacristy. The features at the same time took on the expression of a man who is in his death-struggle. This lasted a long time. I could not resrain my tears and began to weep….”

There are so many other compelling testimonies of highly credible and distinguished witnesses that I don’t have time to type them all into this note! Many more detailed accounts are in Joann Carroll Cruz’ book, Miraculous Images of Our Lord. Moreover, there is a 200 plus page book from 1923, The Wonderful Crucifix of Limpias, available online, which provides numerous accounts “of the extraordinary manifestations of the crucifix at Limpias.”

CONCLUSION: The credible evidence supporting the supernatural phenomena associated with the crucifix at Limpias is simply overwhelming. Of the 8000 signed testimonies regarding this amazing phenomenon, 2500 are accompanied with legal affidavits. But what is the message of Limpias? Is it not that God so loved us that He sent his only son to give his life for our salvation? But what if we fail to honor our Lord’s Passion, or even worse if we lack gratitude for His saving death? Limpias is a powerful reminder that the Lord’s Passion is real, tremendously real, and made present in every Mass said throughout the world each day! The miraculous manifestations at Limpias are pretty amazing, but the Mass of Calvary is simply of infinite value.

“The Passion rules the history of the world. Thus it is also the secret of all biographies of individual souls. All their ruin comes from their disloyalty to the Passion. All their holiness in time, and their glory in eternity, are the consequences of their loyalty to the Passion. Jesus Christ and Him Crucified – this is the object of our present contemplation. As we grow older we set a greater price on fidelity; and where is there such faithfulness [and such indisputable proof of God’s love for you] as in the Cross? Devotion to the Passion is at once the surest sign of Predestination, and the shortest road to heaven. Happy are they whom the cruelty and treachery of life have driven to the Cross” (F.W. Faber)

Thomas L. Mulcahy, J.D.

P.S. In the following link is a detailed video of the supernatural crucifix:

Santo Christo de Limpias – YouTube

References: My information for this note comes from Joann Carroll Cruz’ book, Miraculous Images of Our Lord (TAN).

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THE FUNCTION OF CONSCIENCE, CONTRITION AND COMMUNITY IN JANE AUSTEN’S EMMA

“[Emma] walked on, amusing herself in the consideration of the blunders [of others] which often arise from a partial knowledge of circumstances, of the mistakes which people of high pretensions to judgment are forever falling into….” (Chapter 13)

“With insufferable vanity had she believed herself in the secret of everybody’s feelings; with unpardonable arrogance proposed to arrange everybody’s destiny. She was proved to have been universally mistaken; and she had not quite done nothing–for she had done mischief” (Chapter 47).

Jane Austen’s Emma is singularly a novel about Emma and her life in the village of Highbury. In fact, I will maintain in this short note that the towering theme of Emma is her moral relationship to – and her moral development in – the community of Highbury. Emma is saved from the disastrous consequences of her ill-conceived matchmaking adventures and other mischievous actions in Highbury by the “warmth of contrition” and the remorse of conscience. Emma’s sorrow for her sins is the foundation for her emergence as a woman truly capable of loving and caring for the people in Highbury.

Emma’s epistemological problem (the way she sees things) is also the basis for her moral problems, for when she sees the world as it actually is she acts virtuously (consider her charitable treatment of the poor in Chapter 10). But, the way things are imagined to be in Emma’s mind, compared to the way they actually are in reality, is the foundation of all her misjudgments. It is contrition that bridges the gap between Emma’s excessively subjective perception of things and their true, objective reality. In other words, the “warmth of contrition” is what causes Emma to see things as they really are and thus to act virtuously in her community of Highbury.

It should be added that “Emma is unusual among [Austen] novels in focusing on the heroine as a member of a community. Other heroines will achieve this position with marriage, beyond the span of the book; Emma has it already, and her marriage will only confirm and perhaps enlarge her sphere of influence. So while the other novels follow their heroines away from home on a variety of learning experiences, Emma is static. The action takes place wholly in Highbury, the ‘large and populous village, almost amounting to a town’ where Emma has lived all her life” (The Jane Austen Society). In short, says an academic, “Emma is a story about our responsibilities as members of a community,” and it “explores the consequences of failing in those duties.”

Emma’s primary vice is egotism or vanity. Pride is often defined as the exaltation of self, and Jane Austen let’s us know that Emma’s excellent situation in life (she enjoyed “some of the best blessings of existence”) is conducive to egotistical gratification at the expense of other people:

“The real evils, indeed, of Emma’s situation were the power of having rather too much her own way, and a disposition to think a little too well of herself; these were the disadvantages which threatened alloy to her many enjoyments. The danger, however, was at present so unperceived, that they did not by any means rank as misfortunes with her” (Chapter 1).

Emma’s distortion of reality (a major sub-theme of the novel) stems from her egotism. “The dangers of egotism run through Emma. It threatens the happiness and lives of individuals. Despite Emma’s material advantages and positive qualities, her egotism fueled her desire for flattery (however undeserved), for preeminence, and for power and led her into snobbery, self-deception, and cruelty. Because of vanity, she believed in the superiority of her judgment, which in reality was led astray by her fancy or imagination. As a result, she interfered with Harriet’s marriage prospects and future, told Frank malicious, baseless gossip which had the potential to destroy Jane’s reputation and future, and believed she had destroyed her own happiness by putting Harriet in Mr. Knightley’s way” (from CUNY, Austen Overview, Emma) .

What heals Emma is conscience and contrition. In the remainder of this note I will provide three examples (by way of direct quotes from the novel itself) of the healing of Emma’s egotism through conscience and contrition ( and by way of caution I do not mean to imply that Emma’s contrition was perfect all at once, but rather that it was ongoing and cumulative).

1.  Emma’s contrition after the Harriet-Mr. Elton matchmaking fiasco.

“Emma sat down to think and be miserable.–It was a wretched business indeed!–Such an overthrow of every thing she had been wishing for!–Such a development of every thing most unwelcome!–Such a blow for Harriet!–that was the worst of all. Every part of it brought pain and humiliation, of some sort or other; but, compared with the evil to Harriet, all was light; and she would gladly have submitted to feel yet more mistaken– more in error–more disgraced by mis-judgment, than she actually was, could the effects of her blunders have been confined to herself.

“If I had not persuaded Harriet into liking the man, I could have borne any thing. He might have doubled his presumption to me– but poor Harriet!”

How she could have been so deceived!–He protested that he had never thought seriously of Harriet–never! She looked back as well as she could; but it was all confusion. She had taken up the idea, she supposed, and made every thing bend to it. His manners, however, must have been unmarked, wavering, dubious, or she could not have been so misled.

The picture!–How eager he had been about the picture!– and the charade!–and an hundred other circumstances;– how clearly they had seemed to point at Harriet. To be sure, the charade, with its “ready wit”–but then the “soft eyes”– in fact it suited neither; it was a jumble without taste or truth. Who could have seen through such thick-headed nonsense?

Certainly she had often, especially of late, thought his manners to herself unnecessarily gallant; but it had passed as his way, as a mere error of judgment, of knowledge, of taste, as one proof among others that he had not always lived in the best society, that with all the gentleness of his address, true elegance was sometimes wanting; but, till this very day, she had never, for an instant, suspected it to mean any thing but grateful respect to her as Harriet’s friend….

The first error and the worst lay at her door. It was foolish, it was wrong, to take so active a part in bringing any two people together. It was adventuring too far, assuming too much, making light of what ought to be serious, a trick of what ought to be simple. She was quite concerned and ashamed, and resolved to do such things no more” (Chapter 16).

2. Emma’s contrition after the Box Hill fiasco involving Miss Bates.

“The wretchedness of a scheme to Box Hill was in Emma’s thoughts all the evening. How it might be considered by the rest of the party, she could not tell. They, in their different homes, and their different ways, might be looking back on it with pleasure; but in her view it was a morning more completely misspent, more totally bare of rational satisfaction at the time, and more to be abhorred in recollection, than any she had ever passed. A whole evening of back-gammon with her father, was felicity to it. There, indeed, lay real pleasure, for there she was giving up the sweetest hours of the twenty-four to his comfort; and feeling that, unmerited as might be the degree of his fond affection and confiding esteem, she could not, in her general conduct, be open to any severe reproach. As a daughter, she hoped she was not without a heart. She hoped no one could have said to her, “How could you be so unfeeling to your father?– I must, I will tell you truths while I can.” Miss Bates should never again–no, never! If attention, in future, could do away the past, she might hope to be forgiven. She had been often remiss, her conscience told her so; remiss, perhaps, more in thought than fact; scornful, ungracious. But it should be so no more. In the warmth of true contrition, she would call upon her the very next morning, and it should be the beginning, on her side, of a regular, equal, kindly intercourse….She would not be ashamed of the appearance of the penitence, so justly and truly hers” (Chapter 44).

3. Emma’s conscience in her relationship with Jane Fairfax.

“Emma was sorry;–to have to pay civilities to a person she did not like through three long months!–to be always doing more than she wished, and less than she ought! Why she did not like Jane Fairfax might be a difficult question to answer; Mr. Knightley had once told her it was because she saw in her the really accomplished young woman, which she wanted to be thought herself; and though the accusation had been eagerly refuted at the time, there were moments of self-examination in which her conscience could not quite acquit her (Vol. II, Chapter 2).

“[Emma] could now invite the very person whom she really wanted to make the eighth, Jane Fairfax.– Since her last conversation with Mrs. Weston and Mr. Knightley, she was more conscience-stricken about Jane Fairfax than she had often been.–Mr. Knightley’s words dwelt with her. He had said that Jane Fairfax received attentions from Mrs. Elton which nobody else paid her” (Volume II, Chapter 16).

“Pray no more [said Emma to Jane]. I feel that all the apologies should be on my side. Let us forgive each other at once” (Chapter 52).

Let me add that Emma’s contrition in each of these situations was supported by her good deeds, in her kindness and friendship to Harriet, in her reconciling visit to Miss Bates and continued kindness to her, and in the special foods she sent to Jane among other things. It seems that we get a glimpse of Austen’s religious background through Emma’s contrite, penitential heart.

Virtue is often learned in community because it is tested there too. Highbury has been a sort of learning laboratory for Emma, and after a series of failed experiments she has tested true for growth in virtue and self-knowledge. Her redemption, so to speak, is the consequence of her conscience and her contrition. If Emma had been indifferent to the consequences of her actions, then she would simply be a positive menace to the people of Highbury. As it is, Jane Austen has deemed it necessary to show  us that the heroine of her novel is not without a conscience and contrition, and this demonstration of Emma’s penitence is not done (I would argue) to subvert Emma’s natural vitality and enterprising spirit (which make her such a charming character) but rather to order them to her own good and the good of the community.

CONCLUSION: We see, then, that conscience and contrition gradually cleared away the egotistical distortions in Emma’s mind that so deleteriously impacted the community in Highbury, essentially effectuating her growth into a mature woman who is now  capable of contributing to the well-being of the Highbury community in a most marvelous manner, given her charm, wit, intelligence, elegance and loving heart, not to mention her marriage to Mr. Knightley, except to say that “the wishes, the hopes, the confidence of the small band of true friends who witnessed the ceremony, were fully answered in the perfect happiness of the union.”

Thomas L. Mulcahy, M.A.

 

References: “Emma’s ‘Serious Spirit’: How Miss Woodhouse Faces the Issues Raised in Mansfield Park and Becomes Jane Austen’s Most Complex Heroine” by Anna Morton (available online)

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MARY FULL OF GRACE AT THE ANNUNCIATION

                                              “Hail, full of grace”

Before Luke tells us about Mary’s Annunciation, he first tells us about the sanctification of John the Baptist in his mother’s womb (see Luke 1:15, “He will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb”). So John the Baptist was sanctified before birth in Elizabeth’s womb (see CCC 717).

If God prepared John the Baptist for his mission in such an extraordinary way, what are we to make of Mary of Nazareth who was chosen by God to be the mother of a Divine son? Well, the first point to consider is the manner in which the angel Gabriel greets Mary. According to the ICSB, “this is the only biblical instance where an angel addresses someone by a title instead of a personal name.” The angel, God’s special messenger, greets Mary with an extraordinarily descriptive title, saying, “HAIL, FULL OF GRACE” (Luke 1: 28). This descriptive title tells us something very important about Mary, to wit: she is full of grace! Naturally, the angel is to be believed! But it goes much deeper than this.

As brilliantly explained in the ICSB, Luke could have described Mary as full of grace saying, in the Greek, pleres charitos, as he did for Stephen in Acts 6:8. But for Mary he chose a much more powerful expression, kecharitomene. “[The Greek word used by Luke], kecharitomene, indicates that God has already graced Mary previous to this point, making her a vessel who ‘has been’ and ‘is now’ filled with divine life.”

Mary is Immaculate because she is full of grace, and this description of her is part of her deepest identity, which was made known by an angel sent by God Almighty, and revealed to us in the Gospel of Luke.

Thomas L. Mulcahy

Reference: As you can see, I am relying entirely on the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible.

Image: The Annunciation by Bartolome Esteban Murillo, around 1665, Public Domain, U.S.A.

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JESUS PROPHESIED TWO JUDGMENTS (ONE OF WHICH HAS ALREADY BEEN FULFILLED)

THE PROPER MANAGEMENT OF TOXIC EMOTIONS IN JANE AUSTEN’S SENSE AND SENSIBILITY

“Marianne’s abilities were, in many respects, quite equal to Elinor’s. She was sensible and clever; but eager in every thing: her sorrows, her joys, could have no moderation. She was generous, amiable, interesting: she was everything but prudent.” 

“The prudent carefully consider their steps” (Proverbs 14:15)

The proper management of toxic emotions is the central theme of Jane Austen’s much loved novel, Sense and Sensibility. In Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen, the psychologist, gives us her version of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy by comparing and contrasting the romantic lives of two sisters, Marianne and Elinor. Acclaimed novelist Margaret Drabble surmises that one of the reasons Jane Austen wrote Sense and Sensibility was in response to the prevailing “cult” of the “Sentimental Novel” and the “dangerous emotions it expressed and encouraged.” These popular novels “tended to elevate ‘feeling’ above reason” and were given to “sudden passions, fits of weeping and fainting, and acts of wild generosity.” In Sense and Sensibility Marianne represents this sort of uncontrolled emotionalism, and her older sister, Elinor, by way of contrast, demonstrates that emotional life, properly guided by reason or rational life, greatly assists in negating self-destructive conduct and living a happier, more fulfilling life. We are not talking here about a sort of Platonic superiority of reason over emotions, but of the proper integration of the two for a happy life, which is the happy situation for both Elinor and Marianne at the end of the novel.

Theologically speaking – and Austen will bring God and religion into the equation very briefly at the end of Sense and Sensibility – 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. 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, in such circumstances, anger or sadness can even lead to violence or other destructive conduct. Take a look at Marianne Dashwood. What is the outcome of her massive, unchecked emotionalism?: – she nearly dies of mental and physical maladies occasioned by her grief over the handsome but duplicitous Willoughby.

Margaret Drabble comments: “It is in the portrayal of Marianne’s sufferings…that we reach the heart of the novel’s power, and find ourselves face to face with the conflict between emotion and control. [Marianne] suffers more intensely than any other Austen heroine. [Austen’s] description of the first, psychosomatic broken heart illness is particularly vivid and realistic. We learn of Marianne wandering restlessly from room to room, her deathlike paleness, her choking burst of tears, her almost screaming with agony, her hysterical nervous fever, her inability to eat. The psychological details of her illness are extremely convincing. This is not a distressed heroine from a sentimental novel; it is an observed and felt portrait” (as edited).

By way of contrast it would be a mistake to think of Elinor merely as an unimpassioned stoic who spurns emotional influence in favor of a calmer life. This is not how Jane Austen portrays her. Of Elinor Austen says:

“Elinor, this eldest daughter, whose advice was so effectual, possessed a strength of understanding, and coolness of judgment, which qualified her, though only nineteen, to be the counsellor of her mother, and enabled her frequently to counteract, to the advantage of them all, that eagerness of mind in Mrs. Dashwood which must generally have led to imprudence. She had an excellent heart;—her disposition was affectionate, and her feelings were strong; but she knew how to govern them: it was a knowledge which her mother had yet to learn; and which one of her sisters had resolved never to be taught.”

Austen tells us that Elinor’s feelings were strong, but she knew how to govern them. This statement of Austen is essentially the whole meaning of the novel. It is the lesson Marianne will learn only by way of the most painful of purifications, from which she essentially emerges a new woman, with a deeper understanding of herself and life.

And to demonstrate Elinor’s deep emotional life, we come to one of the most emotional scenes in all of literature, where Austen describes Elinor’s reaction upon suddenly learning that Edward had not married Lucy and was free to marry Elinor:

“Elinor could sit it no longer. She almost ran out of the room, and as soon as the door was closed, burst into tears of joy, which at first she thought would never cease. Edward, who had till then looked any where, rather than at her, saw her hurry away, and perhaps saw—or even heard, her emotion; for immediately afterwards he fell into a reverie, which no remarks, no inquiries, no affectionate address of Mrs. Dashwood could penetrate, and at last, without saying a word, quitted the room, and walked out towards the village—leaving the others in the greatest astonishment and perplexity on a change in his situation, so wonderful and so sudden;—a perplexity which they had no means of lessening but by their own conjectures.”

“But Elinor,- how are her feelings to be described? From the moment of learning that Lucy was married to another, that Edward was free, to the moment of his justifying the hopes which had so instantly followed, she was every thing by turns but tranquil. But when the second moment had passed, when she found every doubt, every solicitude removed, compared her situation with what so lately it had been,- saw him honourably released from his former engagement,- saw him instantly profiting by the release, to address herself and declare an affection as tender, as constant as she had ever supposed it to be,- she was oppressed, she was overcome by her own felicity; and happily disposed as is the human mind to be easily familiarised with any change for the better, it required several hours to give sedateness to her spirits, or any degree of tranquillity to her heart.”

We must remember, too, that Elinor also had suffered from a broken heart, not only from her knowledge of Edward’s secret engagement to Lucy, but also from the direct communication that Edward had married Lucy (which turned out to be mistaken). But, rather than let her emotions tailspin into a nervous breakdown, she maintained her “composure of mind,” and was the “comforter of others in her own distress,” despite immense personal suffering and the inability of “openly showing that I was very unhappy.” Under all these distressing circumstances Elinor remained “mistress of myself.”

Marianne’s redemption and cognitive rehabilitation comes about through introspection and valuable self-knowledge that causes her to see the rightness of Elinor’s conduct in comparison to her own. This is Marianne speaking in a confessional, remorseful tone near the end of the novel:

“My illness has made me think — It has given me leisure and calmness for serious recollection. Long before I was enough recovered to talk, I was perfectly able to reflect. I considered the past; I saw in my own behaviour since the beginning of our acquaintance with him last autumn, nothing but a series of imprudence towards myself, and want of kindness to others. I saw that my own feelings had prepared my sufferings, and that my want of fortitude under them had almost led me to the grave. My illness, I well knew, had been entirely brought on by myself, by such negligence of my own health, as I had felt even at the time to be wrong. Had I died, it would have been self-destruction. I did not know my danger till the danger was removed; but with such feelings as these reflections gave me, I wonder at my recovery, — wonder that the very eagerness of my desire to live, to have time for atonement to my God, and to you all, did not kill me at once. Had I died, in what peculiar misery should I have left you, my nurse, my friend, my sister! — You, who had seen all the fretful selfishness of my latter days; who had known all the murmurings of my heart! — How should I have lived in your remembrance! — My mother too! How could you have consoled her! — I cannot express my own abhorrence of myself. Whenever I looked towards the past, I saw some duty neglected, or some failing indulged. Everybody seemed injured by me…. Here ceased the rapid flow of her self-reproving spirit; and Elinor, impatient to sooth, though too honest to flatter, gave her instantly that praise and support which her frankness and her contrition so well deserved.”

And at the very end of the novel Jane Austen narrates the conclusion of Marianne’s remarkable transformation into a prudent, mature woman:

“Marianne Dashwood was born to an extraordinary fate. She was born to discover the falsehood of her own opinions, and to counteract, by her conduct, her most favourite maxims. She was born to overcome an affection formed so late in life as at seventeen, and with no sentiment superior to strong esteem and lively friendship, voluntarily to give her hand to another! — and that other, a man who had suffered no less than herself under the event of a former attachment, whom, two years before, she had considered too old to be married — and who still sought the constitutional safeguard of a flannel waistcoat!

But so it was. Instead of falling a sacrifice to an irresistible passion, as once she had fondly flattered herself with expecting — instead of remaining even for ever with her mother, and finding her only pleasures in retirement and study, as afterwards in her more calm and sober judgment she had determined on — she found herself at nineteen, submitting to new attachments, entering on new duties, placed in a new home, a wife, the mistress of a family, and the patroness of a village.”

CONCLUSION: The inter-relatedness between emotional life (sensibility) and rational life (sense) is the great theme of Sense and Sensibility. Simply put, the proper regulation of emotional life produces well-being and happiness. Left unchecked, excessive sensibility is a sure prescription for disaster as Austen demonstrates through Marianne. But sensibility, properly integrated with sense – that is to say with reason – directs the passions and emotions to be guided by right reason. Marianne and Elinor can teach us a lot about the meaning of life, and the path to emotional well-being, if we take the time to study their character development. Marianne’s mind and heart were sabotaged by her excessively romantic spirit, and her healing came through the profound discovery or realization that she had deceived herself about the true nature of love. The mistake made by so many of the interpreters of Sense and Sensibility is to say that Marianne represents sensibility and Elinor sense. In actuality, Jane Austen shows us that Elinor represents both sense and sensibility, and this too is the happy situation for Marianne at the end of the novel (she, too, now embodies sense and sensibility). By way of her transformation, Marianne did not lose the ability to love passionately, but rather she gained the knowledge to do it prudently and virtuously. “Marianne,” says Austen, “could never love by halves, and her whole heart became, in time, as much devoted to her husband as it had once been to Willoughby.”

Thomas L. Mulcahy, M.A.

 

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THE IRISH MADONNA AND A SAINT PATRICK’S DAY MIRACLE

The beautiful picture you are looking at is known as “The Irish Madonna of Hungary.” The portrait itself is from Ireland, but it was brought to Hungary by an Irish priest, Bishop Lynch, who was fleeing English persecution in Ireland around the year 1652. Bishop Lynch worked for ten years among the faithful in Hungary, and just before he was about to return to Ireland he fell ill and died, bequeathing  on his deathbed the portrait in question to the Bishop of Gyor in Hungary who hung the painting in the Cathedral of Gyor. The awesome miracle I am about to discuss involves this picture.

The miracle in question did in fact occur on March 17, 1697 (St. Patrick’s Day) while “thousands were attending Holy Mass in the Cathedral of Gyor” (the year 1697 is highly relevant because in 1697 all priests were expelled from Ireland).

Suddenly “the eyes of the Madonna [in the picture above] began to shed tears and blood which ran down the canvas to the image of the sleeping Jesus. The Irish Madonna was weeping for her suffering children [in Ireland]. The people who had been attending [Mass], as well as those summoned to witness the miracle, took turns in gathering around the portrait while the priests repeatedly wiped the face of the Madonna with a linen cloth that is still preserved in the Cathedral. The miracle continued for more than three hours.”

Every lawyer knows the value of credible witnesses! Here then we see that this miracle was witnessed by a whole contingent of extremely credible witnesses. Joann Carroll Cruz relates the following: “Before long not only Catholics, but also Protestants and Jews flocked to see the miracle. Thousands witnessed the event, and many of these gave testimony of what they saw. A document signed by a hundred people bears the signatures of the governor of the city, its mayor, all its councilmen, the bishop, priests, Calvinist and Lutheran ministers as well as a Jewish rabbi. All volunteered their signatures to the document stating they had witnessed an undeniable miracle.”

Our Lady of the Irish Madonna of Hungary, pray for us!

Saint Patrick, Patron of Ireland, pray for us!

Thomas L. Mulcahy

 

Reference: For this note I am relying on pages 130-132 of Joan Carroll Cruz’s book, Miraculous Images of Our Lady (TAN), as edited.

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THREE GRAND HELPS IN THE SPIRITUAL BATTLE FOR OUR SOULS

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          “For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” (1 Corinthians 2:2)

I keep on thinking during this Lent that I want to draw closer to Christ crucified. I want to detach myself from petty and peripheral things, as one writer said, and draw closer to Jesus crucified. Saint Francis de Sales tells us that even some small devotion to Jesus’ passion is filled with special graces, so I want to draw closer to the Lord who died and gave his life for me (Galatians 2:20). Even just to sit or kneel and simply look at the crucifix with love and gratitude “does a good work in our souls.”

I once came across some very powerful notes of Father F.W. Faber (an acclaimed “master in mystical theology” according to Catholic Encyclopedia) from the second to last homily he ever preached (which was during Lent).  He first preached about the importance of penance and then he mentioned three grand helps in the spiritual battle for our souls.

In the homily he mentioned “three grand helps,” the last of which, faith in hell, he lays incredible importance on – and this was in 1863. His point is that loss of belief in hell leads to laxity and spiritual death. Thus, a great safeguard against going to hell is belief in its existence, and that is his point. What’s interesting is that Jesus did not avoid telling us about hell. The key point: faith in hell is a sure deterrent from going there. When Saint Faustina was shown hell, she mentioned that so many of its occupants hadn’t believed in hell (Diary, 741).

Here is the note (by Faber):

“I would urge upon you the three grand helps, and not helps only, but facilities also, of penance. 

      
                               1.     Continual remembrance of our sins. 

                               2.    Continual remembrance of His [Jesus’] Passion. 

                               3.    Continual remembrance of an undoubting faith in Hell.”

With respect to the third point, Father Faber states:

“The devil’s worst and most fatal preparation for the coming of Antichrist is the weakening of men s belief in eternal punishment. Were they the last words I  might ever say to you, nothing should I wish to say to you with more emphasis than this, that next to the thought of the Precious Blood there is no thought in all your faith more precious or more needful for you than the thought of Eternal Punishment.“  (Fourth Sunday in Lent, 1863; this was the last occasion but one on which Father Faber preached; from: Notes on Doctrinal and Spiritual Subjects, p.23)

These profound thoughts of a very great spiritual writer deserve a moment’s meditation.

Tom Mulcahy, M.A. 

P.S. I certainly believe that some of the grave problems the Church is presently experiencing are related to a loss in the belief in eternal punishment. A priest who really does not believe anyone goes to hell is certain to tend towards the relaxation of morality and doctrine.

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GROWTH IN SELF-KNOWLEDGE AS A KEY TO UNDERSTANDING JANE AUSTEN’S PRIDE AND PREJUDICE

                            “Confess your sins to each other” (James 5:16)

Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice was first published in 1813, and it seems now to be a truth universally acknowledged that it is one of the greatest novels in English literature. I understand, however, that the first draft of the story, entitled First Impressions, was promptly rejected for publication without even being read! The rewrite of the story proved to be a rather worthwhile endeavor, and that is a lesson in itself about perseverance. And Pride and Prejudice is a story about perseverance. After all, Elizabeth and Darcy did end up getting married despite all the obstacles they themselves presented to such a union! I suggest in this short note that there are Christian elements in Elizabeth’s and Darcy’s joint journey to self-discovery, enlightenment and love.

On one level, Pride and Prejudice is a comical masterpiece as the preposterous Mrs. Bennett explores ways to find husbands for her five daughters, while her reclusive husband provides humorous commentary about his rather ridiculous and zany wife. And the farcical clergyman, Mr. Collins, and his devotion to Lady Catherine De Bourgh, has that mark of brilliant – even caustic –  British humor! The humor in Pride and Prejudice is worth the price of admission, and Jane Austen’s wit and satire are part of her literary genius.

But clearly Pride and Prejudice is also a novel about rational life, the powers of observation, and the acquisition of true virtue. Like the British philosophers, Jane Austen placed a high value on the power of observation (sense perception) and the corresponding value judgments that fill the tabula rasa (intellectual assessment and intuition). The human difficulty presented in the novel is poor discernment, or more precisely rash judgments, and I do not think it would be unfair to call Pride and Prejudice a literary primer on the importance of good discernment which, in the field of human relationships, takes time. Overcoming the pitfalls of poor discernment and contorted first impressions are the keys to success and happiness in Pride and Prejudice (and the key to understanding Jane Austen’s epistemology, whatever it may be, is to see it clearly involves a deeper, truer knowledge of self).

Let me add, parenthetically, that it is not necessarily the rightness or wrongness of the first impression that is crucial, but rather the inadequacy of such a truncated view. For example, it is not that Elizabeth’s first impression of Darcy was wrong (he was, in fact, rude and haughty at the ball ), but rather that it only showed her a very thin veneer or partial picture of his true character, whereas Elizabeth’s first impression of Wickham was clearly flawed because she was too easily influenced by appearances. In Darcy’s case there is not only a flawed first impression of Elizabeth at the ball (flowing from his arrogance and sense of superiority), but even more problematic a failure to discern how he has hurt her by his rude conduct. In this sense Darcy lacks insight into his own deficient character, and therefore the rest of the novel is essentially a journey of self-discovery for him (as it is for Elizabeth as well, who was so put off by Darcy’s rudeness but yet so easily deceived by Wickham’s charm and affability).

I certainly do not intend to call Pride and Prejudice a religious novel (as I would, for example, call Jane Eyre, where prayer is seen as foundational to change), but it clearly is a novel about growth in virtue and love through a deeper knowledge of self and confession of one’s faults, so it clearly is a novel with spiritual overtones. Jane Austen was a novelist, and not a theologian, but it would be a mistake to think that she lacked theological formation (and, yes, everyone knows that Jane Austen’s father was an Anglican Vicar!).

Let me state from the beginning that the superficial characters in Pride and Prejudice are those who lack introspection and self-examination and therefore fail to overcome their defects. These characters – often comical and farcical and even tragic – lead highly external lives and avoid self-introspection (think of Mrs. Bennett and Mr. Collins). These characters lack growth in virtue because they desire not to examine and correct their faults.

Let us turn now to Jane Austen. Although Pride and Prejudice is not a religious novel – and one might rightly call it a secular novel – it appears quite clear that Ms. Austen lived a religious life. As Michael Giffen points out in his book, Jane Austen’s Religious Imagination:

“We cannot understand Austen’s life, or her novels, apart from religion, Anglicanism. While it may seem foreign to us the Austen household would have gathered to say Morning and Evening prayers daily. She would have read and heard all the Psalms once a month, most of the Old Testament once a year, and most of the New Testament twice a year. She wrote intercessory prayers designed to be read out. She cherished her copy of A Companion to the Altar [which she used] to prepare for Holy Communion” (as edited).

A biographer of Jane Austen adds: “Jane Austen’s religion… is an element in her life of the highest significance and importance. The Austen reticence kept her from ever talking much about it. But the little she did say, and what her intimates said about her, show that she grew up to be deeply religious. She actively practiced her faith, and her moral views were wholly, if unobtrusively, determined by the dictates of the Christian religion as interpreted by her church”( A Portrait of Jane Austen by David Cecil, Penguin Books).

Here is an excerpt from a prayer written by Jane Austen:

“Give us grace, Almighty Father, so to pray, as to deserve to be heard, to address thee with our hearts, as with our lips. Thou art every where present, from thee no secret can be hid. May the knowledge of this, teach us to fix our thoughts on thee, with reverence and devotion that we pray not in vain.

Look with mercy on the sins we have this day committed, and in mercy make us feel them deeply, that our repentance may be sincere, & our resolutions steadfast of endeavouring against the commission of such in future. Teach us to understand the sinfulness of our own hearts, and bring to our knowledge every fault of temper and every evil habit in which we have indulged to the discomfort of our fellow-creatures, and the danger of our own souls. *** Oh! God…save us from deceiving ourselves by pride or vanity.”

Finally, Professor Stovel of The University of Alberta informs us that Jane Austen admired the sermons of Bishop Thomas Sherlock, as seen from a letter she wrote which is quite revealing:

“On the other hand, Jane Austen admired the tough-minded sermons preached by Thomas Sherlock, Bishop of London, to an audience of lawyers at the Temple Church: ‘I am very fond of Sherlock’s Sermons, prefer them to almost any’ (Letters, 406).  One of Sherlock’s sermons, for example, takes as its text Psalms 19, verse 12: ‘Who can understand his errors?  Cleanse thou me from secret faults’; Sherlock explains that the deadliest faults are those secret ones that result from self-ignorance, habit, or simply a failure to reflect about the consequences to others of one’s own actions, and he points out that the general petitions of The Book of Common Prayer cover just such faults (142-65).”

Pride and Prejudice – from a spiritual perspective – highlights this process of the purgation of our hidden and secret faults through self-examination, painful humiliations and confession – all leading to a truer knowledge of self and to growth in moral goodness, and ultimately to a deeper capacity to love. Here is Elizabeth’s confession:

She grew absolutely ashamed of herself. — Of neither Darcy nor Wickham could she think, without feeling that she had been blind, partial, prejudiced, absurd.

“How despicably have I acted!” she cried. — “I, who have prided myself on my discernment! — I, who have valued myself on my abilities! who have often disdained the generous candour of my sister, and gratified my vanity, in useless or blameable distrust. — How humiliating is this discovery! — Yet, how just a humiliation! — Had I been in love, I could not have been more wretchedly blind. But vanity, not love, has been my folly. — Pleased with the preference of one, and offended by the neglect of the other, on the very beginning of our acquaintance, I have courted prepossession and ignorance, and driven reason away, where either were concerned. Till this moment, I never knew myself.” (Chapter 36)

And here is Darcy’s confession:

I have been a selfish being all my life, in practice, though not in principle. As a child I was taught what was right, but I was not taught to correct my temper. I was given good principles, but left to follow them in pride and conceit. Unfortunately an only son (for many years an only child), I was spoiled by my parents, who, though good themselves (my father particularly, all that was benevolent and amiable), allowed, encouraged, almost taught me to be selfish and overbearing, to care for none beyond my own family circle, to think meanly of all the rest of the world, to wish at least to think meanly of their sense and worth compared with my own. Such I was, from eight to eight-and-twenty; and such I might still have been but for you, dearest, loveliest Elizabeth! What do I owe you! You taught me a lesson hard indeed at first, but most advantageous. By you I was properly humbled. I came to you without a doubt of my reception. You showed me how insufficient were all my pretensions to please a woman worthy of being pleased.(Chapter 58)

From the point of view of Christian spirituality, growth in self-knowledge through the identification and correction of one’s faults (often hidden by self-deception) is one of the most important steps in the spiritual journey. St. Teresa of Avila, for example, explains how important it is to spend time in the “cell of self-knowledge” in order to grow in holiness. And another great spiritual writer says: “No wonder that reliable self-knowledge is rare, when so few take pains to acquire it. And the person we are most interested to deceive is self. If we are earnest in undeceiving ourselves, we must be taking real pains to acquire self-knowledge. All supernatural principles and all religious manliness are based on genuine, reliable self-knowledge. Give that conclusion leave to do its work in your soul, and you will see what a change it will bring about!” (F.W. Faber, Spiritual Conferences, as edited). And in that great devotional classic, The Imitation of Christ, esteemed by Catholics and Protestants alike, we find this admonition: “Turn thine eyes back upon thyself…. In judging others, a man labors in vain, often errs, and easily sins; but in judging and looking into himself, he always labors with fruit.” This idea deserves to be explored further from the specific point of view of Anglican spirituality. But simply put, this acquisition of self-knowledge is necessary because of our secret attachments to false ways of seeing things that nurture our pride, our self-love, and prejudice.

What an enormous change genuine self-knowledge brought about in the lives of Elizabeth and Darcy! Humility is a foundational virtue in Christianity that counteracts pride (“God exalts the humble”), and it is humility that softened the hearts of Elizabeth and Darcy and made them more capable of realizing their profound love for each other. Moreover, the confession of one’s faults is a quasi-religious act closely associated with Christianity. As Julie Rattey observes in an essay on Jane Austen’s literary spirituality, “The famous conversation between Darcy and Elizabeth near the end of Pride and Prejudice…is as much a confession of sins as it is a profession of love.” In short, who can fail to see the themes of repentance and redemption in Elizabeth’s and Darcy’s mutual confessions? And often overlooked is Darcy’s prayer for God’s blessings upon Elizabeth at the most crucial moment in the novel, there at the very end of Darcy’s letter to Elizabeth, the one he wrote to her after her rejection of his marriage proposal.

Relying on C.S. Lewis’ “A Note on Jane Austen,” and the multiple examples given therein, the celebrated Scottish philosopher, Alasdair MacIntyre, makes this observation: “The counterpart to Jane Austen’s preoccupation with the counterfeit is the central place she assigns to self-knowledge, a Christian rather than a Socratic self-knowledge which can only be achieved through a kind of repentance.” And the esteemed literary critic, Harold Bloom, states: “Though [Austen’s] world is essentially a secularized culture, the moral vision dominating it remains that of the Protestant sensibility.”

As a final point, Jane Austen specifically highlights Elizabeth’s exceptional growth in holiness at the very end of the novel. In the second to last paragraph of the final chapter we read that Lady Catherine, “extremely indignant” of Darcy’s marriage, sent a letter to Darcy that was “very abusive” of Elizabeth. But we read, amazingly, that Elizabeth prevailed upon Darcy “to overlook the offence, and seek a reconciliation,” until finally Lady Catherine’s “resentment gave way.” This is the happy ending to Pride and Prejudice, an act of profound Christian charity by Elizabeth, giving rise to greater well-being in the community. How much good would we do in our own lives if we didn’t cling so tightly to the injustice of having been offended and chose instead – like Elizabeth –  to overlook the offense? There is a lesson here of profound spiritual importance.

CONCLUSION: We can certainly conclude that the journey to greater self-knowledge and enlightenment – as demonstrated by the novel’s protagonists, Elizabeth and Darcy – is a major theme in Pride and Prejudice.  A more remote conclusion – which seems justified – is that Jane Austen’s Anglican faith strongly influenced her description of the moral development of Elizabeth and Darcy. There are significant elements in Pride and Prejudice that mirror the Christian understanding of growth in virtue through growth in self-knowledge, related especially to painful but purifying humiliations and the confession and extirpation  of one’s hidden faults. Jane Austen grew up in a world permeated by Anglicanism, and it probably was not on her mind to preach Christianity to the choir. Moreover, it would have been awkward for her to mix her biting and sardonic humor with Christian sentimentalism. She seems, rather, to use the theme of moral development to express her Christian beliefs. We see, then, that the healing of pride and prejudice is made possible by a greater openness to self-examination and corresponding acts of humility, all of which leads to growth in charity, to a fuller life, and in Elizabeth’s and Darcy’s case, to a loving marriage that will touch the lives of many other people.

Thomas L. Mulcahy, M.A.

References: In addition to the sources mentioned in the note, see the following internet article: “The Theology of Jane Austen” by Guy McClung. Further, there are a number of internet articles on the theme of self-knowledge in Pride and Prejudice that were helpful. The great 18th century spiritual writer, Father Jean Grou, specifically mentions pride and prejudice as obstacles to growth in self-knowledge and true virtue. At one point he says, “The real mainspring of our dispositions is unknown to us; we can see the faults of others clearly enough, but our own faults are hidden from us….” He adds: “knowledge of our own heart…is the most necessary of all knowledge.” See his essays, “On the Human Heart,” and “On the Blindness of Man”. And even from a secular perspective Joann Morse makes this observation: “The story of their love affair [referring to Elizabeth and Darcy] is really the story of their progress in self-knowledge. They move beyond the roles fixed for them to become full human beings with insight and understanding, rather than flat figures of pride and prejudice.”

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MEEKNESS IS THE VIRTUE OF VIRTUES!

“He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth” (Isaiah 53:7)

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5)

Here we are in Lent and we are looking for ways to overcome our impulsiveness and to grow in holiness. Saint Francis de Sales, a doctor of the Church renowned for his gentleness of spirit, advises us to “Take care to practice well the humble meekness that you owe to everybody, for it is the virtue of virtues which our Lord greatly recommended to us.” A Lenten resolution to curb our times of anger by making humble acts of meekness is certain to do a good work in our soul! The powerful role meekness plays in the spiritual life is often underestimated. If anger is a cross in your life, meekness will teach you to carry it with charity.

Our discussion regarding meekness therefore begins with the teaching of Jesus, who said: “Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and you shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30). Of this passage Spurgeon says: “One great lesson of the gospel is to teach us to be meek—to put away our high and angry spirits, and to make us lowly in heart. Peradventure, this is the meaning of the passage— that if we will but come to Christ’s school, he will teach us the hardest of all lessons,—how to be meek and lowly in heart.” In the school of Jesus Christ, we learn the importance of meekness for living a Christian life.

A scholar of Saint Francis de Sales, Alexander T. Poceto, O.S.F.S., PH.D, offers the following rather amazing insights regarding the relationship of meekness or gentleness to God Himself:

“We should review in a cursory manner how greatly Francis de Sales cherished and valued the virtue of gentleness and the great importance it has in his spirituality. The French word he uses for this virtue is douceur or suavité. Unfortunately the word “douceur” is frequently translated as “sweetness” or “meekness.” Neither of these, in most instances, appropriately captures the meaning which the saint desires to convey. It is very revealing to note how the saint views the Incarnation. He describes it as the perfect communication of gentleness: ‘This supreme Gentleness (Douceur) was also so perfectly communicated outside of the Trinity that the created nature and the divinity, while keeping their own properties, were nonetheless so joined together that they were one sole person.’ So the Incarnation is conceived by the saint as God having communicated to us Gentleness itself. For him, the essence of the God-man or the Word made flesh is characterized by gentleness. This idea appears also in the Introduction to a Devout Life, where Francis, after the manner of St. Augustine, urges the devout person to invoke God as ‘O Ancient Gentleness! (O douceur ancienne). Why did I not savor you sooner!’” 

Relying on Surrin, Father Faber states that “gentleness and softness were the graces our Lord [Jesus] most desired that we should copy in Himself; and certainly, whether we look at the edification of others, or the sanctification of ourselves, or of the glory our lives may give to God, we shall perceive that nothing can rank in importance before gentleness of manner and sweetness of demeanor towards others” (The Blessed Sacrament, p. 169).

Why do the meek inherit the earth? “The words [inherit the earth] may be partly allusive to the ‘kingdom of the saints of the Most High’…. They have, however, a wider and continuous fulfillment. The influence of the meek and self-controlled is in the long-run greater than that of the impulsive and passionate. Their serenity helps them to find the maximum of true joy in all conditions of life; for to them the earth is not a stage for self-assertion and the graspings of desire, but an “inheritance” which they have received from their Father” (Ellicott’s Commentary).

“Far from being weak, however, the meek possess an inner strength to restrain anger and discouragement in the midst of adversity” (Ignatius Catholic Study Bible). In this sense, meekness could never be considered weakness because a beatitude taught by Jesus (“Blesses are the meek”)  “is the original and transcendent synthesis of the Christian ethic or, more accurately and more profoundly, of the spirituality of the new covenant in Jesus Christ” (Saint Pope John Paul II). Simply put, the beatitude of meekness is not only a grace-filled power, but a very elevated manifestation of that power.

The real POWER of meekness lies in its capacity to diffuse anger. “Meekness is particularly meritorious when practiced toward those who make us suffer; then it can only be supernatural, without any admixture of vain sensibility. It comes from God and sometimes has a profound effect on our neighbor who is irritated against us for no good reason. Let us remember that the prayer of St. Stephen called down grace on the soul of Paul, who was holding the garments of those who stoned the first martyr. Meekness disarms the violent” (Father Garrigou-Lagrange).

Additionally, Father Garrigou-Lagrange helps us to understand the difference between the virtue of meekness and mere meekness of temperament. He states:

“Meekness, or gentleness… has as its special effect, not the endurance of the vexations of life [the special effect of the virtue of patience] but the curbing of the inordinate movements of anger. The virtue of meekness differs from meekness of temperament inasmuch as, in widely diverse circumstances, it imposes the rectitude of reason illumined by faith on the sensibility more or less disturbed by anger. Meekness of temperament is exercised with facility toward those who please us and is rather frequently accompanied by ill-temper toward others. The virtue of meekness does away with this bitterness toward all persons and in the most varied circumstances. Moreover, into a just severity that is necessary at times, the virtue injects a note of calmness… Meekness, like temperance to which it is united, is the friend of the moderation or the measure which causes the light of reason and that of grace to descend into the more or less troubled sensible appetites.”

Simply put, when we become ANGRY at someone we need to let grace-filled MEEKNESS descend or enter into that anger to produce the fruit of gentleness and self-control. Meekness, then, transforms the vice of potential inordinate anger into the virtue of meekness towards our neighbor.

“The times call for the manliness of meekness more than the false courage of violence and uncontrolled anger. We need the self-conquest of meekness more than the self-centeredness of hate and brutality. We need the meekness and humility of Christ” (Father Kilian McGowan, Your Way to God, p.57)

CONCLUSION: Are not most of us in need of POWER to control our inordinate anger and resentment? What we need, then, is the virtue of MEEKNESS. “Let us often, in practice, ask our Lord for the virtue of meekness united to humility of heart. Let us ask Him for it at the moment of Communion, in that intimate contact of our soul with His, of our intellect and heart with His intellect illumined by the light of glory and His heart overflowing with charity. Let us ask Him for it by spiritual communion that is frequently renewed and, whenever the occasion presents itself, let us practice these virtues effectively and generously” (Father Garrigou-Lagrange).

Thomas L. Mulcahy, M.A.

P.S. It is important to note that Father Garrigou-Lagrange mentions that the deepening of meekness in our life is the prelude to a higher spiritual life (see “gradations of meekness” below. He says, “Supernatural meekness prepares for contemplation.”

Image: Christ Carrying the Cross by El Greco (Public Domain, U.S.A.)

References: The quotes from Father Garrigou-Lagrange are from The Three Ages of the Interior Life. The article by Alexander T. Poceto, O.S.F.S., PH.D, entitled, “The Sternness of the Gentle Francis,” is available online.

FIVE LEVELS OR GRADATIONS OF MEEKNESS: Relying on Father Garrigou-Lagrange I note five levels or gradations of meekness:

  1. The natural temperament of meekness.
  2. The human or acquired virtue of meekness, “causing the light of reason to descend into the sensibility”.
  3. The supernatural or infused virtue of meekness flowing from sanctifying grace (associated with the cardinal virtue of temperance, which “moderates the inordinate impulses of our sensible appetites”).
  4. The supernatural virtue of meekness profoundly strengthened by the Gift of Piety.
  5. The beatitude of meekness which is essentially the overflowing of # 4 in a person’s life.

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