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A person who is always anxious about his state of soul and about the likelihood of going to Heaven is like a man on holiday who charges around the aircraft, enquiring anxiously about the weather, and the time of arrival. It is best to rely on the navigator and pilot.
If we persevere in faith, we can approach the 'shore' - the state of great charity - from which we will depart to Heaven at our death. Even in this life, we can come near the edge of Eden.
A woman in Purgatory exclaims: 'Oh God, if only I had known'. She wished she had believed more firmly that God is real, and that sin should be abandoned, and that it's important to prepare for Heaven.
Those who have remained faithful to God, yet who need purification, enter Purgatory, from which they can 'ascend' to Heaven when they are ready. Yet Hell awaits those who have insisted, until they die, on ignoring God or rebelling against His laws in serious matters; who will find themselves separated from Him, in Hell, unable to escape.
Someone whose faith is lukewarm, and whose practice of the Faith is careless and sporadic, is like the woman in the novel who grew old whilst dressed for her wedding, as the cobwebs and dust slowly covered her table and her life, trapping her in past dreams. Worst of all is a priest whose heart is dead and ministry fruitless.
Even when Catholics in England are looked upon as being different from 'ordinary' people, as the Amish are in the USA, we must still persevere in our faithfulness to the Church and God's laws.
The happy group of friends at the party gave joy to God through their grace before the meal, their faithfulness to marriage and to friendship, their love of God's gifts of laughter, food, drink and music, as men and women together celebrated a birthday and therefore life itself, which is a gift - from God.
Christ is touched to the heart by every sign of devotion to Him in His Passion, which He endured out of love for us all. He wants us to pray to Him, even if the image in our hearts or the knowledge in our hearts is not perfectly accurate. The Sacred Liturgy is supremely important for prayer, but we should encourage everyone, of every faith, to trust in God and to turn to Him in prayer.
Christ wants us all to know how deeply touched He is, as He looks upon those who bear the Crosses which go with discipleship, with faithfulness to the Church and the sacraments, stable family life, and day to day witness.
Christ told me: "By reverence, you enter into the Mystery. By the opposite, you cast yourself out". He was speaking about the Mystery of friendship with and intimacy with God. Great faith in Him should show itself in gestures of reverence and gratitude.
Christ spoke to me at the Consecration, when His Precious Blood was on the altar. He said, of those Catholics who teach distorted or truncated versions of the Faith: "I shed my Blood for them" - He meant: yet they rarely speak of His Passion, death and Resurrection.
In Baptism a person is made God's own child - 'adopted' - transformed, empowered by the Holy Spirit, made a member of the Church, freed from sin and made an heir or heiress to the Kingdom of Heaven, if faithful to the end.
Christ showed me in Holy Communion that the Father in Heaven gazes with delight upon all who work to see the sacraments - including the Mass - celebrated with due reverence and gratitude, and to ensure that the Faith is taught in its fullness and not watered down to 'fit in' with what others think.
In wartime, some people slipped away from a town in darkness, to join the partisans in the hills, and to work for justice and the defeat of evil conquerors. And in the Church today, faithful members work quietly to defeat the evils that have entered the Church: irreverence, dissent and heresy.
Rich and poor, sick and well, can receive faith. All who put their trust in Jesus and His saving work and come 'into the light' by membership of His Church can be confident that the prayers they offer through and with Jesus, in the power of the Holy Spirit, will be heard and answered.
Whenever the Church on earth prays the Creed with faith and fervour, the Saints and Angels, with the Holy Trinity, rejoice at seeing such a blaze of love and faith from upon earth.
St. Peter spoke about Christ with fervour, joy and utter conviction; and so he provided a wonderful example for us who are sometimes timid, and have to throw off our fears, with God's help, and make joyful proclamations about the truths of the Catholic Faith.
It is as if, in the Lord's sight, there is a cloud of corruption swirling in society; and Catholics find it hard not to be overcome. Many compare themselves with others, and are satisfied with themselves, instead of asking themselves: "Am I faithful to the teachings of Christ and His Church?"
It is as if, in the Lord's sight, there is a cloud of corruption swirling in society; and Catholics find it hard not to be overcome. Many compare themselves with others, and are satisfied with themselves, instead of asking themselves: "Am I faithful to the teachings of Christ and His Church?"
God the Father is surrounded in Heaven by the Saints, who share His joy; so when we please Him by our love for Christ, our sincere prayer, our encouragement of others in faith, and our efforts to foster reverence in God's house, we give joy to the Saints.
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