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Christ spoke to me about the devout remembrance of His Passion which has been made by so many of His followers during the past two thousand years. He said, about the 'Stations of the Cross' which I had just prayed, "You comfort my heart by your devotion". From the Cross, He could see and hear His friends of future ages comforting Him, including ourselves today.
Through prayer, especially through the cycle of the Church's Liturgical prayer, we can enter the Mysteries of Christ's earthly life. At each of the feasts of His life we can address Him in that event, and benefit from the graces He won for us, in it. Simple people who pray to the 'infant Jesus' have an instinctive knowledge of this truth.
Through prayer, especially through the cycle of the Church's Liturgical prayer, we can enter the Mysteries of Christ's earthly life. At each of the feasts of His life we can address Him in that event, and benefit from the graces He won for us, in it. Simple people who pray to the 'infant Jesus' have an instinctive knowledge of this truth.
A person who rarely prays, or who prays but does not open her heart completely to Christ cannot develop an intimate friendship with Him. It is as if she declares that He is a good friend but, not trusting Him, keeps the door of her soul on the chain.
Can we imagine that the Blessed Virgin Mary did not know when her son had risen from the dead? She knew, at the moment of His rising, as she experienced in her own heart His bliss and glory. She cried out in joy - and later on was overwhelmed with joy when He visited her before anyone else.
In every age, there are new ways of spreading the Gospel. If it is true that last century, it was possible for a poster of a well-known revolutionary to appear on the bedroom walls of thousands of people throughout the world, it is even more certain that, through the internet, pictures of Christ can reach an even wider audience.
Christ said that life can be like a family outing, in which some people trust the driver, even if they don't recognise certain points of the route, and others are very disturbed by not knowing exactly where they are. Christ wants us to look upon Him as our driver, and to trust in His wisdom and guidance.
People usurp the Father's role when they act against His wishes (even without realising it) by their suicide or self-harm. Life is a gift from God, not to be thrown away or damaged.
It is against the Will of God for people deliberately to kill sick persons, or to assist them in committing suicide. Only God can give life. Only God has the right to call someone from earthly life into eternity.
A person acts wholly against God and His Laws if he threatens or inflicts death as part of his criminal activities, for gain, fraud, punishment or bargaining, or any other reason.
People act wholly against God and His laws when they threaten to kill, or do kill others, to settle a private feud or a family or clan vendetta - or in gang warfare.
When people show true kindness and compassion towards the sick, disabled, injured or dying, and care for them tenderly until God choose to call the sick person away from earthly life, they show respect for life; and they show out God's love which is in their hearts.
Christ wants us to respect priests who are 'other Christs' amongst us. But when a priest publicly speaks against the teaching of the Church on faith or morals we are not wrong to warn others about the danger of listening to his advice - though we must not speak with scorn or malice. And we should pray for him.
God can see that some atheists are muddled and badly-taught; yet there are some who have made themselves 'blind' to His existence, have refused to listen to the truth about His existence, have ignored the promptings of God, and have failed to respect His laws or to offer a single word of thanks for the gifts of God which include life itself. Someone like this has chosen to be separated from God - and he remains separate, in Hell, for all eternity, if he does not repent before he dies.
We should trust that God sees our efforts to love Him. If we worry about our little failings, when we are exhausted from having done great work for Him amidst opposition and spiritual assaults, we are like a soldier who has travelled hundreds of miles in dangerous mountains to save the lives of his comrades, and who now lies wounded, but who apologises for not having cleaned his teeth or done up his top shirt button.
The cliff-face represents the apparent separation from God which is experienced by those who are being purified in Purgatory to prepare them for the perfection of Heaven. They are helped by our prayers, as surely as people at the foot of a cliff are helped by those who send down ropes, to pull up the helpless people.
Those Holy Souls who have been helped by our prayers, and who are ready for Heaven, are like people who have been hauled up a great cliff, to arrive in joy and gratitude at the top, from which they can see Heaven's glory nearby.
Those Holy Souls who have been helped by our prayers, and who are ready for Heaven, are like people who have been hauled up a great cliff, to arrive in joy and gratitude at the top, from which they can see Heaven's glory nearby.
The glory of Heaven, which seems to be like a glorious sun, seen from earthly life, stretches upwards into infinite heights, coiled upon itself; and the happy Saints within those vast interiors are astonished by the vistas spread out before them in eternal newness and beauty, with nothing tedious or stale.
People who fulfil their everyday tasks in union with Christ, in the home or the workplace - or in the Priesthood - grow in holiness. Their communion with Him drives them to do everything for love of Him and of the Father, Who is the Source of all holiness. They are becoming ready to live one day as Saints, with the Father in Heaven.