START THE NEW YEAR AS A SLAVE TO MARY

 

Some years ago, I made my consecration to Mary, but it was rushed, so I feel called to do it again - a refresher, which is a common thing to do. Some people regularly repeat the cycle, delving deeper and deeper into their spiritual life.

- First, between now and December 31, my plan is to re-read "St. Louis de Montfort - The Story of Our Lady's Slave," by Mary Fabyan Windeatt.

Available at Amazon, book and kindle forms: ST LOUIS DE MONTFORT - THE STORY OF OUR LADY'S SLAVE

- Then begins one of six suggested cycles of prayer listed in the companion book, Preparation for Total Consecration according to Saint Louis Marie de Montfort - published by Montfort Publications.

Available at Amazon: PREPARATION FOR TOTAL CONSECRATION

In addition, I recommend that you be sure to make a good confession at least once before you start the actual preparation exercises on December 31. There's not much point in doing it if not in a state of grace.  We want to give to God a bright and shiny spirit, right?

In the front of the second book I mentioned, above, there is a chart of 6 suggested schedules of preparation. I noticed that December 31 is the start of the next one, which dovetails with my typical "New Year" practices. Throughout my life, it has been my habit to celebrate the holiday with prayers and visualizations about how I am going to better myself.  I have never been interested in drinking and carousing, I am not fond of crowds, and the idea of getting on the road for any activity at a time when so many inebriated people are behind the wheel is not something I want to do. Now that I am mostly blind in one eye and I am over 60, my ability to drive at night is impaired anyway.  Definitely not a party girl!

I will be happy to join with you to whatever extent you would like to do that. I've always thought it would have been inspiring to have others involved when I did my consecration.  But it did not work out.  Perhaps now, someone will show up.  You can contact me about this on Facebook or here, in a comment. (Comments are not published automatically.) I read them and only publish them if that is the intention and we both feel it would be helpful to others.

God bless you all!

Silver Rose

                                                                   

FEAST OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE DE PAZZI - CATHOLIC MENTAL PRAYER AND MEDITATION

 

Saint Mary Magdalene de Pazzi

(1566-1607)

Feast Day May 26

Patroness against bodily ills, sexual

temptation, sickness

Patroness of sick people

Mary Magdalene de Pazzi is one of my favorite mystics. In addition to her love of mental prayer, she is the patroness of sick people (among other things) and she was a Carmelite nun.

From a very early age, she was attracted to contemplative prayer, and it was so obvious to everyone who knew her that her mother requested of The Church that she be taught mental prayer that involves lengthy sessions of meditation when she was about 9 years old.

I know what it feels like to be attracted to contemplative life at a young age.  When I was 11, I was living in Carmel Valley, very near the Carmel mission, and I used to cycle over there on my little Schwinn Bicycle and wander through the grounds, visiting the book store and talking to the nice man behind the counter. Occasionally, he would give me little medals and holy cards. I wish I could thank him today, but he has most probably gone to his reward already.

Unlike Mary Margaret's household, there was NO religion in my family. My mother hated religion and particularly hated Catholics. I had a short series of correspondence with the Catholic nuns in Carmel, but my mother put a stop to it when it became obvious that I was very attracted to the life of silence and contemplative prayer, and her hatred for the Catholic Church resulted in her refusal to allow me near it.

"Trials are nothing else but the forge

that purifies the soul of all its

imperfections."

St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi

To this day, I still have a strong feeling for the Carmelites and enjoy the Catholic mental prayer that is the bailiwick of the Carmelite mystics and saints!

We have some writings of this remarkable saint that have endured to this day. Most interesting are the 12 letters in which she continually confirms that the words are not hers, but given to her by God while in an ecstatic state of union with Him.

Franciscan Media defines "mystical ecstasy" as "the elevation of the spirit to God in such a way that the person is aware of this union with God while both internal and external senses are detached from the sensible world." (See their page on Saint Mary Magdalene de Pazzi at THIS LINK)

I have become inspired to learn more about this saint and will be including her in my private studies. If you are at all interested in the lives of the saints, and especially those who practiced mental prayer with some miraculous results, I recommend you do the same!

CATHOLIC MENTAL PRAYER

"There is no greater sign of being dear

to God than suffering joyfully for love

of him."

St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi

SAME GOAL, DIFFERENT METHOD

I have many years of experience with Buddhist and Hindu (Vedanta style) meditation and, while the goal is substantially the same as the Catholics, the methods differ. Eastern religious traditions generally attempt a type of unitive prayer that quiets the discursive mental processes, while Catholic mental prayer activates it and makes use of our intellect in a targeted fashion. 

We all want to be closer to God, spend time with Him, and be as like Him as is possible. The mystics among us long for the unitive state of oneness with The Lord, whether they are Hindu, Buddhist or Catholic.

THE PROCESS

First, a subject of meditation is decided upon, then we examine ourselves in relation to it, resolving to do better and explore how we may do that, opening ourselves to the action of the Divine within us.

MEDITATION TOPICS

You could meditate on the exquisite glory of Heaven, or a particular holy trait, such as love of neighbor. The "practice of the presence of God" is probably my favorite.

The affections of our spirit are drawn into this process, and the degree of our love for God is made obvious at this point because honest self-examination can be difficult to do without a great deal of love for the Lord. A mature intellect is also essential, which would be unusual for a young girl, but Mary Magdalene de Pazzi was unique in this regard.

PETITIONS

This process naturally leads to prayers of petition for the sake of the world and individuals in particular, depending upon the subject of meditation and any insights that may have been gained during that session of mental prayer.

This type of prayer is the precursor to the unitive prayer and advanced mystical states. It is part of the work that one does to clean oneself up, in a sense, and grow in holiness.

Everyone has their own temperament and abilities when it comes to sitting still and working with the mind. I have always enjoyed it. When I was in the Vedanta convent, my yearly "vacation" was taken at a retreat center where I meditated 6 to 8 hours a day. I found it wonderfully inspiring and healing. Others might go mad.

HUMILITY

We can't approach the throne of God in a dirty, fallen state, unrepentant and lacking in virtue. Mental strength and stamina are necessary to endure the stress of comparing oneself to the Divine attributes. The holy characteristic of humility is one of the blessings of the spiritual practice of mental prayer.

SPENDING TIME WITH GOD

This is how I look at this topic:

When we go to visit a king, we do not appear in rags, unwashed, with our hair tangled and stinking of the world. Right? We clean ourselves up! We take a shower, wash our hair, put on clean clothes and usually bring a little present of some sort - something that shows our regard for the ruler of the land. Mental prayer is the way the soul scrubs itself up.

We cannot be perfect, but we can open ourselves to perfection so that when faced with the All Perfect Being, we are equipped to tolerate that experience without suffering shame. We will ourselves shy away from Him if we have not made any effort to present ourselves in the proper condition.

DO WE WANT GOD?

It seems to me that we decide how close we will be to God.  

Jesus said that if we love Him we will follow his commandments. It follows then that the degree to which we try to do that is the degree to which we love Him. 

But it's not a business arrangement. His arms are open to us all the time He isn't forcing us to come to Him. He gave us free will and is just waiting for us to walk into His open arms. It is up to us if we do it or not.

God doesn't "send" us to Hell either. I am tired of people complaining about the "Christian" God that "sends" people to Hell. Do we gravitate toward Heaven or Hell? That's the key.

Just think about this: It is you who decides where you put your mind. If you incline your mind to God, you will be with Him or at least you will be immersed in thoughts of Him, at first. Eventually, the thoughts move away, like clouds move from in front of the sun.

I have heard many people exclaim that Jesus spent all his time with "sinners" and that they can therefor sin as much as they want, after which they will go to Heaven - easy peasy -  a terribly obvious misrepresentation of his message. The "sinners" that He spent time with were repentant people who regretted their former habits and had resolved to do better, under the sheltering umbrella of Jesus's remarkable forgiveness in a milieu that was rather unforgiving. "Once a sinner, always a sinner" was the prevailing attitude in the culture of the time and place. 

Jesus reversed that by forgiving repentant sinners. But He clearly told the Apostles that if anyone did not entertain His message, they were to kick the sand of that place from their shoes and move on.

Prayer and meditation are steps toward Him.

THE MYSTICAL STATE

The end result of mental prayer and meditation can be spiritual ecstasy. Saints such as Teresa of Avila have written many hundreds of pages on this type of spiritual experience and I don't pretend to replace or emulate it with this simplified version of it, but I DO hope that you are inspired to take it up on a regular basis.

Saint Mary Magdalene de Pazzi enjoyed a special personal relationship with Jesus, enjoying divine conversation with Him as a result of her spiritual disciplines, and she is a wonderful inspiration to anyone interested in contemplative life.

As I mentioned before, a portion of her writings have been preserved and I intend to buy them as soon as I am able. Bob and Penny Lord, well known Catholic film makers, have produced an episode about her, and this is available on Amazon and, I assume, elsewhere.

There is such a wealth of spiritual guides available to us, it is really remarkable that we are not all saints by now. But it will not just hit us, like a lightning bolt, because of some wishful thinking or presumption. It is up to us to prepare ourselves to receive God's grace, to be in a ready state, and glance in His direction.

I hope you take some time to get to know Saint Mary Magdalene de Pazzi and the mental prayers that she practiced. Let me know how it goes and if you need any help locating these resources.

In the meantime, God bless us all.

Silver "Rose"

BLESSED MARIE-ANNE HACHER DU BOIS - At the Mercy of Circumstance - New Years' Resolutions

 

Blessed Marie-Anne Hacher du Bois

being dragged to her death during the French Revolution

The ONE woman on the Catholic calendar of saints for whom November 2 is the feast has almost nothing written about her that I can find on the internet. Imagine this: that you give up your life, to die in an horrific manner, for the sake of your religion, and the Church in which you do this doesn't bother to retain information about your life story.

As usual, the official "Saint of the Day" is Basil "The Great" and there are all sorts of things written about him. Historians might say that more is known about this man than Marie-Anne Hacher du Bois, who was martyred for her faith - but I would contend there is a reason for that as well. Historians are traditionally men, and men ignore the accomplishments and saintliness of women. Yes, I am expressing a broad generalization, but this generalization is far more true than not.

Despite the paucity of information for this female "blessed," I am taking her up anyway. Oddly enough, we have her actual birth date, April 3, 1765, and her death date: February 10, 1794, in Avrille, France. As an expert genealogist, I will tell you that knowing the exact birth date of someone born in the mid 18th century is fairly unusual, with the exception of those born into the royal houses of Europe. As far as I know, this blessed was an ordinary woman of Anjou, France. Some of her "biographies" say she was a laywoman. A few claim her as a nun. In any case, she died during the French Revolution for the sake of her faith.

Whenever I am studying a saintly person from history, I always try to align myself with their circumstances, and in this respect, with this particular woman, I feel like she and I were each caught up in the turmoil of general societal circumstances over which we have no control. In her life, it was the French revolution, and in mine it is a world-wide pandemic and, to a lesser degree, a government that has gone mad in the hands of a wealthy despot.

Spiritual life transcends every other aspect of existence, as far as I am concerned. Those of us who have given ourselves over entirely to our faith must opt to follow the dictates of that faith rather than occupy our hearts and minds with anger toward our circumstances. Most Americans are distracted by the dangers of the "novel" Covid virus and the implied perils and pitfalls of a surprisingly fascist government, but Jesus himself was killed at the hands of misguided government, and his inner peace and sense of mission were not thrown off by it. Other than educating the powers-that-be when they accosted him, he stayed focused on the matters of God.

I am too easily distracted by the failures of everyone else, specifically with regard to orders I place for various survival items. None of the merchants I deal with seem to be able to produce the items they claim they have for sale, but they go ahead and send me SOMETHING ELSE I cannot use. Food prepared or picked by others arrives rotten or unpleasant or otherwise WRONG in some way. This is all complicated by the fact that when I prepare my own meals or make my own supplies, I am unable to clean up after myself, as it requires more standing than I am able to tolerate while washing pots and pans.

As I write this, pots and pans from CHRISTMAS DAY remain in the sink, moldering away. (The nuns of the Vedanta Convent could tell you about my messy cooking habits, which have not changed. They would always ask me plaintively, "can't you wash your OWN pots and pans?" I could not. Standing on my crumbling bones to cook the meal for a dozen women was all I could manage because, even though I was only in my mid-30's, the arthritis I inherited from my mother's side of the family had already taken hold and was eating away at my bones and joints. Thank God I was a fairly good cook.)

I COULD have an attendant come to help me from the agency. Medicaid will pay for it. But it is far too dangerous to have someone come into my house when there is a deadly pandemic virus coursing through the population. The world and everyone in it has become dangerous.

These pressures have taken their toll on my mood. I have become irritated far too easily - and this corresponds with my failure to discipline myself better with my meditation routine. Like many elderly disabled people who suffer constant pain, I am having trouble sleeping, and it is throwing me off my schedule. This has been going on for a very long time, and whenever I push myself very hard to adjust my sleep, I not only fail to do what I aim to do but I also have an even greater difficulty restraining the irritation.

It has become obvious that two things are now necessary. I need to give up many of my "do it yourself" decisions and habits. I can no longer "do it myself" no matter how hard I try. My body has retaliated against me.

As was once suggested to me by a very spiritually advanced priest, I need to use the many painful circumstances of my life to push me closer to the Divine, and this is, indeed, the job of the mystic.

For instance, since I am determined to simplify while at the same time eating very healthy, I can also develop a type of ascetic eating habit that involves as much raw fruit and veg as possible. To some degree, some of my food has to be prepared by others, so I have decided to try a food delivery service called DAILY HARVEST, which is rather expensive and will really cut into my food supplies. Therefore, I will also use this as an opportunity to lose more weight - though perhaps in a faster mode than previously. Mostly, I have ordered some frozen fruits and veg that, combined with some soy milk in the blender, will be a nutritious breakfast. They ship it to you in dry ice, after the fresh fruit and veg have been frozen "at the farm." We shall see.

Secondly, I need to work on my decision to avoid complaining.  To qualify that term, I would say that reporting what has happened is not the same thing as complaining. Frankly, I have found that for poor people, most news is "bad" news. Nearly every saint I have studied had a life liberally peppered with unfortunate circumstances. It is how you greet your circumstances that is the key. Everyone has to decide for themselves what this means, but I think that desiring too much sympathy may be a warning sign, at times. But mostly, I would say that one's mood is the real indicator.

Now - what if you have what is called a "mood disorder?" I am not a psychiatrist and I don't have a mood disorder myself, so I can't say. I do have a big case of PTSD, dating back to childhood, and this comes with its own baggage, but my personal experience is that the decision to manage it is the tell-tale indicator of whether or not one is complaining or simply reporting the daily goings on of life.

The most important signal to watch for, I would imagine, is whether or not one remains curious about the welfare of OTHERS. If you lose track of the needs and circumstances of other humans and remain focused on your own disappointments, selfishness has taken hold.

As with all spiritual disciplines, it is not one's success in overcoming all these obstacles that is the most important thing. It is our aspiration and our attempts that matter. What do we intend to do? How sincerely do we work at it?

One thing I particularly love about New Year's observances is the tradition of committing to New Years "resolutions." Everything I have talked about in this post pertains to my New Year's resolutions for 2021. As usual, it all centers around my spiritual disciplines.

I would love to hear your resolutions for this new year. Take a minute to write me and let me know.

In the meantime, may God bless us all.

Silver Rose