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Truly, Christ our God is Present before us, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity: Present in glory at every Mass to pray to the Father on our behalf. He is the Living Bread, come down from Heaven, for the life of our souls. On the feast of 'The Body and Blood of Christ', we pay Him special honour.
At His Incarnation, it's as though Christ descended to people trapped and lost in a deep mine-shaft. At intervals, He gives special help to lost souls by sending helpers along who give clear reminders of how to find Christ, and rise up to the light.
It's as though, when we intercede for someone in need, Christ lets down a rope from Heaven, to draw a willing soul up high.
God is as pure as fire. He is active, holy, powerful and bright. It is he who lifts up a soul who has placed herself before him. Those tendrils of flame no longer burn, but act as 'touches' of sweetness in a divine embrace.
Someone who refuses to forgive, and who hates and despises someone else, is as if piling up furniture against the inside of the door of her soul. God and His Light cannot shine in. She freely chooses to make a tomb of her own soul, and will find herself in Hell, if she perseveres in sin.
A person who refuses to forgive is like someone who piles up furniture against the 'door' of his own soul. God's light can not come in. That man makes a tomb of his own soul.
It is the Holy Spirit Who pours peace within the souls of Christ's friends, and even allows such souls to share that peace, even at a distance, through their communion with one another 'in Christ'. They can encourage one another to more fervent prayer - as when happy dolphins nudge one another, to encourage joyful leaps into the sunlight above the surface of the water.
Christ unites his friends on earth in the 'Communion of Saints'. Every prayer offered through Christ touches or helps other souls.
The Lord sees behind the image we present to the world. The Lord sees 'behind' our masks, our exteriors. He sees the state of our souls. He sees sinful souls as being grievously 'sick' and wounded, in desperate need of help - if they will accept it.
A very sinful person is in a pitiful state, in God's sight, and in the 'sight' of those who are permitted by God to 'read' souls - as the sickest of sick human beings. Someone in serious sin, who denies that he is sinful, or persists in it, is like a person with festering sores who refuses to have his wounds treated.
True friends in Christ can help to draw one another closer to God's heart. Even at a distance of many miles, some souls can soar 'upwards' to God, together, by God's Will and power. God has shown each when the other is praying, and then enables each to help the other.
Each Divine Person is at work to draw a soul into the heights of union. Father, Son and Holy Spirit - One God - are lovingly attentive, and draw willing souls up high.
Life in Christ is like a constantly moving process of loving guidance from the Three Divine Persons. This draws willing souls up high, to greater sanctity.
In contemplation we can be held as if in a great 'breath': held in the 'wind' which is the Holy Spirit, a sweet breath in which the soul is carried and consoled, and held as if at God's heart.
Whenever souls encourage one another in holiness they help one another to rise up in prayer towards Heaven: freed from fear, doubt or hesitation.
When a soul is almost 'full' of God's grace (like a flooded room) everything and everyone in that person's life is therefore 'touched' by God, as well as that person who opened the 'door'.
As a seagull soars effortlessly on high, resting on the winds as it gazes all around, so the soul can soar effortlessly in prayer, 'resting' on the Spirit's power, gazing towards Heaven, towards the invisible Father Whose touch is felt, but Who cannot yet be seen.
When one soul is willing to pray with and for another, at a distance, it's as if the fire of charity in him is directed towards that other soul (as well as towards God).
When one soul is willing to pray with and for another, at a distance, it's as if the fire of charity in him is directed towards that other soul (as well as towards God).
The Christ we meet in Holy Communion is as if at the 'doorway' of three areas. He is the point at which His friends of earth, Purgatory and Heaven meet. We on earth are close to Him, but not yet wholly secure; the Holy Souls are safe forever, but cannot yet 'hold' Him; the Saints share His glory, and can never lose Him.
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