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We must not worry if we cannot always 'compose' ourselves for prayer, or must pray in a hospital bed or a railway carriage. Christ's greatest prayer, the most beautiful, was prayed from the Cross, when He surrendered to the Father's Will, in death, in love and obedience.

How do we gain entry to Heaven? The Godhead is like an impenetrable cloud that no-one can enter by his own efforts, or by earning entry, or bargaining, or using skills. It is entered by humble souls who surrender to God; the Holy Spirit lifts them into the heart of the Godhead, where, at the centre, they join Christ and His Saints.

It was by her total surrender to the Father's Will that the Blessed Virgin Mary accepted the message of the Angel, and was able to reply that she was the handmaid of the Lord; and so Christ was conceived in her womb.

The journey to union with God is only a slow journey, if a person is half-hearted in serving Him and fearful of His demands. The one who surrenders completely to God by obedience to Him in everyday life makes swift progress in prayer, as if travelling in a fast vehicle, not on foot.

When we surrender to the plans and wishes of our Heavenly Father, as made known to us through the Church, and through Providential meetings and conversations, it's as though we allow God to carry us along on a river of grace, wherever the current takes us; in this way we give joy to Christ, who also did His Father's Will.

In Hell, nothing can be more horrible than the sadism practiced on unrepentant sinners by the demons. People go on ghost trains on earth, or watch horror films, knowing that the horrible shocks and surprises will end. In Hell, unhappy souls have no hope of rescue. By their own fault, they have surrendered to evil, and are trapped with evil forever.

Whether we are lay-persons, or Clergy - even Cardinals - every committed Christian should examine his or her conscience, to see whether, in a time of indifferentism, each is leading people to surrender to Christ: not to a Christ of the imagination, but to the only Christ, the One guiding His Church, sharing His life in her sacraments and wanting us all to obey and love Him.

Those who are constantly within the Church but fighting in the Church, protesting against her doctrines and disciplines, will not make much spiritual progress. Discontented, acting against Christ Who has given us the Pope to guide us, and the other Catholic Bishops, the dissenters should do what Saint Peter did before Christ. He surrendered to Christ and to His Will, just as the Saints have, through the ages, in love and obedience. Surrender is the 'key' to joy in Christ.

Wise people reflect, and actively prepare for Heaven. As we occupy ourselves with ordinary concerns, it's as if we are on a walkway which moves slowly towards the moment of our death. Then, the quality of our relationship with God will be revealed - or even the lack of one. Some people will see God and leap into His embrace. Others gladly surrender to purification, ashamed at not being ready for Heaven. Others continue to do what they did on earth, ignoring or despising God, and freely walking away on the steep road to Hell.

Christ's attitude is one of eternal surrender to the Father's Will; yet Father, Son and Holy Spirit have one single, loving purpose: by the lifting-up of Christ, in His Death and Resurrection, to make a Way in which weak people can follow: people who have also surrendered to God's plans and have become Christlike, loving, obedient and dutiful, relying on Divine Grace.

We are indeed blessed if we are able to reveal our souls and lives to Christ, now, in prayer, to receive guidance, consolation and forgiveness. If we die, without having lost our state of grace, but without having really surrendered to Christ, we shall have to reveal our hearts and lives to Him in Purgatory, with nothing to distract us from our shame and remorse. Far better to trust in Him now, and strive for sanctity.

Christ resembles His Mother: His only human parent; yet the Blessed Virgin Mary resembles her own son, through having been made holy by Him in His Godhead at her Immaculate Conception, and through having carried the Divine Child in her womb until His birth in Bethlehem. She was a marvel of holiness in earthly life, through her extraordinary intimacy with her son, and her total surrender to the Father's Will. She radiated from within herself the holiness of which her son was the living embodiment. She was 'transparent', like a lamp.

Even when we are sincere about our conversion, and we come into full Communion, determined to follow Christ and to grow in holiness, on the path to Heaven, we might still be laden with fears, bad habits, resentments or misapprehensions, from which Christ can gradually deliver us, if we surrender to Him more and more bravely, for love of Him. Near the journey's end, we might be carrying only a small 'handbag'!

We should recognise what God can do in our lives, at our consent. When a grateful person believes in Christ, surrenders to His wishes, and with prayer, penance and acts of charity allows Christ to transform her, whatever the cost, Christ works an amazing transformation. To change a person with sinful ways into someone who lives for the glory of the Blessed Trinity is like changing a go-kart into a Rolls Royce.

We cannot carry our baggage into Heaven. We can only carry a charitable heart, and a pure mind full of pure thoughts, and pure intentions in everything, out of love for God. If we have sins, or ambitions, or grudges, or wounds unforgiven, or feuds, or hearts full of anger or self-pity, it will be, at death, as though we are trying to 'check in'; but we are being asked to surrender all we own, before our 'flight' to Heaven, with the Holy Spirit.

At Pentecost, the Blessed Virgin Mary completely surrendered yet again to the light and power of the Holy Spirit as they poured down upon her from Heaven. She had followed the Spirit's guidance for the whole of her life, and that is what the Spirit asks us to do, and to do so by following all that He teaches and advises us through the Church, and in our individual vocations.

If we love Christ and trust in Him, we can hurl ourselves - by His grace - into His loving heart, in prayer, as if into an Abyss of light, in total surrender but real unknowing, and real acceptance of Christ's plans for us, whatever these might be. He is utterly trustworthy, even if He leads us along unexpected paths.