Former inmate recalls daring escape from Auschwitz

A wonderful story:

By MONIKA SCISLOWSKA, Associated Press Writer Monika Scislowska, Associated Press Writer

NOWY TARG, Poland – With every step toward the gate, Jerzy Bielecki was certain he would be shot.

The day was July 21, 1944. Bielecki was walking in broad daylight down a pathway at Auschwitz, wearing a stolen SS uniform with his Jewish sweetheart Cyla Cybulska by his side.

His knees buckling with fear, he tried to keep a stern bearing on the long stretch of gravel to the sentry post.

The German guard frowned at his forged pass and eyed the two for a period that seemed like an eternity — then uttered the miraculous words: "Ja, danke" — yes, thank you — and let Jerzy and Cyla out of the death camp and into freedom.

It was a common saying among Auschwitz inmates that the only way out was through the crematorium chimneys. These were among the few ever to escape through the side door.

The 23-year-old Bielecki used his relatively privileged position as a German-speaking Catholic Pole to orchestrate the daring rescue of his Jewish girlfriend who was doomed to die.

"It was great love," Bielecki, now 89, recalled in an interview at his home in this small southern town 55 miles (85 kilometers) from Auschwitz.

"We were making plans that we would get married and would live together forever."

Bielecki was 19 when the Germans seized him on the false suspicion he was a resistance fighter, and brought to the camp in April 1940 in the first transport of inmates, all Poles.

He was given number 243 and was sent to work in warehouses, where occasional access to additional food offered some chance of survival.

It was two years before the first mass transports of Jews started arriving in 1942. Most of the Jews were taken straight to the gas chambers of neighboring Birkenau, while a few were designated to be forced laborers amid horrific conditions, allowing them to postpone death.

In September 1943 Bielecki was assigned to a grain storage warehouse. Another inmate was showing him around when suddenly a door opened and a group of girls walked in.

"It seemed to me that one of them, a pretty dark-haired one, winked at me," Bielecki said with a broad smile as he recalled the scene. It was Cyla — who had just been assigned to repair grain sacks.

Their friendship grew into love, as the warehouse offered brief chances for more face-to-face meetings.

In a report she wrote for the Auschwitz memorial in 1983, Cybulska recalled that during the meetings they told each other their life stories and "every meeting was a truly important event for both of us."

Cybulska, her parents, two brothers and a younger sister were rounded up in January 1943 in the Lomza ghetto in northern Poland and taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Her parents and sister were immediately killed in the gas chambers, but she and her brothers were sent to work.

By September, 22-year-old Cybulska was the only one left alive, with inmate number 29558 tattooed on her left forearm.

As their love blossomed, Bielecki began working on the daring plan for escape.

From a fellow Polish inmate working at a uniform warehouse he secretly got a complete SS uniform and a pass. Using an eraser and a pencil, he changed the officer's name in the pass from Rottenfuehrer Helmut Stehler to Steiner just in case the guard knew the real Stehler, and filled it in to say an inmate was being led out of the camp for police interrogation at a nearby station. He secured some food, a razor for himself and a sweater and boots for Cybulska.

He briefed her on his plan: "Tomorrow an SS-man will come to take you for an interrogation. The SS-man will be me."

The next afternoon, Bielecki, dressed in the stolen uniform, came to the laundry barrack where Cybulska had been moved for work duty. Sweating with fear, he demanded the German supervisor release the woman.

Bielecki led her out of the barrack and onto a long path leading to a side gate guarded by the sleepy SS-man who let them go through.

The fear of being gunned down remained with him in his first steps of freedom: "I felt pain in my backbone, where I was expecting to be shot," Bielecki said.

But when he eventually looked back, the guard was in his booth. They walked on to a road, then into fields where they hid in dense bushes until dark, when they started to march.

"Marching across fields and woods was very exhausting, especially for me, not used to such intensive walks," Cybulska said in her report to Auschwitz as quoted in a Polish-language book Bielecki has written, "He Who Saves One Life ..."

"Far from any settlements, we had to cross rivers," she wrote. "When water was high ... Jurek carried me to the other side."

At one point she was too tired to walk and asked him to leave her.

"Jurek did not want to hear that and kept repeating: 'we fled together and will walk on together,'" she reported, referring to Jerzy by his Polish diminutive.

For nine nights they moved under the cover of darkness toward Bielecki's uncle's home in a village not far from Krakow.

His mother, who was living at the house, was overjoyed to see him alive, though wasted-away after four years at Auschwitz. A devout Catholic, however, she was dead-set against him marrying a Jewish girl.

"How will you live? How will you raise your children?" Bielecki recalls her asking.

To keep her away from possible Nazi patrols, Cybulska was hidden on a nearby farm. Bielecki decided to go into hiding in Krakow — a fateful choice they believed would improve their chances of avoiding capture by the Nazis. The couple spent their last night together under a pear tree in an orchard, saying their goodbyes and making plans to meet right after the war.

After the Soviet army rolled through Krakow in January 1945, Bielecki left the city where he had been hiding from Nazi pursuit and walked 25-miles (40-kilometers) along snow-covered roads to meet Cybulska at the farmhouse.

But he was four days too late.

Cybulska, not aware that the area where she had been hiding had been liberated three weeks before Krakow, gave up waiting for him, concluding her "Juracek" either was dead or had abandoned their plans.

She got on a train to Warsaw, planning to find an uncle in the United States. On the train she met a Jewish man, David Zacharowitz, and the two began a relationship and eventually married. They headed to Sweden, then to Cybulska's uncle in New York, who helped them start a jewelry business. Zacharowitz died in 1975.

In Poland, Bielecki eventually started a family of his own and worked as the director of a school for car mechanics. He had no news of Cybulska and had no way of finding her.

In her report Cybulska said that she was haunted in the years after she left Poland by a wish to see her hometown and to find Jurek, if he was alive.

Sheer chance made her wish come true.

While talking to her Polish cleaning woman in 1982, Cybulska related her Auschwitz escape story.

The woman was stunned.

"I know the story, I saw a man on Polish TV saying he had led his Jewish girlfriend out of Auschwitz," the cleaning lady told Cybulska, according to Bielecki.

She tracked down his phone number and one early morning in May 1983 the telephone rang in Bielecki's apartment in Nowy Targ.

"I heard someone laughing — or crying — on the phone and then a female voice said "Juracku, this is me, your little Cyla," Bielecki recalls.

A few weeks later they met at Krakow airport. He brought 39 red roses, one for each year they spent apart. She visited him in Poland many times, and they jointly visited the Auschwitz memorial, the farmer family that hid her and many other places, staying together in hotels.

"The love started to come back," Bielecki said.

"Cyla was telling me: leave your wife, come with me to America," he recalls. "She cried a lot when I told her: Look, I have such fine children, I have a son, how could I do that?"

She returned to New York and wrote to him: "Jurek I will not come again," Bielecki recalled.

They never met again and she did not reply to his letters.

Cybulska died a few years later in New York in 2002.

In 1985, the Yad Vashem Institute in Jerusalem awarded Bielecki the Righteous Among the Nations title for saving Cybulska. The institute's website account of the escape and its aftermath is consistent with Bielecki's account to The Associated Press.

"I was very much in love with Cyla, very much," Bielecki said. "Sometimes I cried after the war, that she was not with me. I dreamed of her at night and woke up crying."

"Fate decided for us, but I would do the same again."

Source (with pics).

Young Florida woman chooses baby's life over her own

Miami, Fla., Jun 15, 2010 / 07:17 am (CNA).- The story of Benny Abreu, a young woman from the Dominican Republic, has moved Floridians because of her testimony to motherly love. The Florida woman suffered from serious heart problems and preferred to die rather than abort the baby she was carrying....

Continued here

The Baby Gianna Story Part 1

Part I: Answering the Call

Jessica Chominski fights for the lives of others. Little lives. The ones many don’t think are worth fighting for. She is the sole full time employee of the Bucks County Community Women’s Center, a crisis pregnancy center in Pennsylvania....

Last June Jessica's phone rang. It was the call that would change her life. Jessica had no idea how her struggle for one baby would change her forever. And in the end, that one little baby may change many more lives than hers. All Jessica knew was that every time the phone rang a life might depend on her. She simply answered the call.

“Do you guys help out with abortion?” a woman nervously asked.

Jessica informed the woman that they didn’t perform abortions at the center. She offered to discuss options. “We can provide information,” she said. “Would you like to come by?”

Silence....

Very moving - be sure to continue to "Part 2"

Read more here.

Archbishop Burke. God Bless You and Thank You!

Below is a short pictorial of today's standing room only Celebration of the Eucharist and Farewell from the Archdiocese of St. Louis to The Most Reverend Raymond Leo Burke, Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, and Archbishop Emeritus of St. Louis at the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis...


Archbishop Burke proceeds toward the Sanctuary flanked by Knights of Columbus Honor Guards.


Archbishop Burke greets one of the faithful.


As the cathedra is vacant, Archbishop Burke did not occupy the marble seat where the faithful had become familiar seeing him and where his Coat of Arms had previously hung. Here he sits on the opposite side while one of the lectors reads the 2nd Reading.


Archbishop Burke gives his homily from the ambo.


Archbishop Burke hugs his sister, who with her husband were among the gift bearers at today's Mass.


At the conclusion of Holy Mass, Archbishop Burke offer thanks to all who helped in preparing for the liturgy and to all the faithful of St Louis. He also promised to continue to pray for us and asked all of us to pray for him as well. This was an emotionally trying time for many of us and for our spiritual father, Archbishop Burke.


At the recessional, Archbishop Burke reaches out to comfort his sister, who like others was in tears.


On leaving the Cathedral for what may be the last time, His Excellency imparts his blessing to the faithful.


Archbishop Burke listens intently, as he always does, to one of the hundreds of faithful who gathered to wish him farewell and thanks for his courageous leadership and fidelity.

It's difficult to accept the fact that he is leaving us and many hearts grieve. Many have nurtured a deeper faith and understanding because he was our shepherd. May all faithful Catholics continue to pray for him and remember to give thanks to Our Lord that He saw fit to grant us such a wonderful bishop, although it was such a short time. Many Catholics across this country have yearned for a bishop like Archbishop Burke, and now, we are now numbered among them.

May God bless Archbishop Raymond L. Burke and may our Blessed Mother cover him with the mantle of her protection!
____________

The Archdiocese has more here:
Archbishop Burke Leaves His Mark on the Life of the Church

Archbishop Burke Photo Gallery

Farewell Mass Program (440.22 Kb PDF file)

****
The Post Dispatch has an article here.

Meditation for June 20, Love is a Great Thing

Magna res amor. Love is a great thing. Am I convinced of it? What esteem have I for this most sublime of virtues? What knowl­edge of the attentions that it supposes? What zeal for the mani­festations love demands?

"O charity," a doctor used to say, "if I knew your value, I would give any price to have you."

But I am far from possessing a like enthusiasm, a like apprecia­tion, and yet, I pride myself on my good judgment!

To love, as far as I am concerned, is such a little thing and it receives so little of my attention.

In order to reveal to one of His favorite servants what His love for her was in comparison with hers for Him, Our Lord plunged Angela of Foligno into a distress beyond description. She had such a realization of the nothingness of her own love in contrast with that of her Savior that she no longer wished to live. Her suf­fering was a true crucifixion.

Lord, let me understand, not in a manner that is beyond me, but by faith, how great a thing love is in You, and what a great thing love ought also to be in me. Grant that I may not always offer You such a thimble-like capacity for loving. I wish so much to love You. You know it. And then again - I do not wish it.

"Confidence, my daughter, to wish to love is to love. To com­plain loyally of one's little love is to have begun to understand what a great thing love is."
_________________
Adapted from Meditations for Religious
by Father Raoul Plus, S.J. (© 1939, Frederick Pustet Co.)

Meditation for February 13, Knowledge Inspires Love

I cannot bestow my affections freely upon persons or things be­fore I have come to know them well. Love implies knowledge.

Love is inflamed in the heart and grows more profound in propor­tion as the endearing traits and noble characteristics of the beloved unfold themselves.

In his study of the states of prayer, Bossuet declares, "I propose as a foundation that the principle of real adoration is true knowl­edge. Prayer is an act of the reason." He does not mean that it is solely an act of reason, since, he says elsewhere, "Knowledge must turn to love"; to love is to desire the beloved. But it is a known fact that the heart is not inflamed and the will is not fixed until the reason has been enlightened.

I must be alert and make every effort to acquire a better under­standing of my faith. If my spiritual life is not based upon doc­trine, it is completely out of balance and lacks a firm foundation. It totters easily and when fervor cools, the whole spiritual edifice topples because the principles which should have served as its basis do not exist.

I thank God for the solidity of the religious training I have re­ceived and continue to receive through my participation in com­munity life. I will lovingly study my faith and seek to understand more thoroughly its important dogmas together with the moral and spiritual obligations which they impose.

I will try to know Our Lord better both in His human nature and His Mystical Body, that is as He was during His life in Palestine and as He now exists in the members of His Church. The great marvel of Catholicism is that it not only teaches doctrine but also requires the gift of oneself to a Person, the Person of the Savior. The more I know Jesus, the more I shall love Him. I will neglect nothing that would help me to know Him better.
_________________
Adapted from Meditations for Religious
by Father Raoul Plus, S.J. (© 1939, Frederick Pustet Co.)

Woman Gives Her Own Life So Her Unborn Child Could Live

Seeing this and reading this story, I could not help but think of St Gianna Beretta Molla whose stands out as a great example of a saintly woman who exercised this self-sacrificing love and heroic virtue.

A mother made the ultimate sacrfice by refusing cancer treatment to give birth to a healthy baby boy.

Lorraine Allard was told four months into the pregnancy the devastating news that she was in the advanced stages of cancer.

A further blow came when doctors advised her to terminate the foetus [kill the baby], which was 23 weeks old, and start chemotherapy straight away.

Instead, she insisted on waiting long enough to give her unborn son a chance to survive, telling her husband, Martyn: "If I am going to die, my baby is going to live."

This selfless love and dedication brings tears to my eyes.

A Caesarian section was scheduled at 26 weeks but Mrs Allard, 33, went into premature labour a week before and Liam was born on November 18. [He weighed a mere 1 lb 11 oz]

She then began chemotherapy but passed away on January 18, having left her sickbed a handful of times to cradle her son in her arms beside his incubator.

Lorraine Allard died on January 18. Please remember her in your prayers.

The Spirit of Christmas

From Laura's E-Blast
http://www.LauraIngraham.com
December 21, 2007

THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS

Megan pulled a three-ring binder out of her bag and showed me a photograph of herself and her husband. Young-they're both 21-with big smiles on their faces and obviously wildly in love. "That's what he looked like," she said with a somber face, "He was such a cutie-pie?always buying me little stuffed animals and writing the most thoughtful notes the entire time he was in Iraq." Then she showed me the photo of her husband receiving the Purple Heart on Wednesday from President Bush at Bethesda Naval Medical Center. As President Bush pinned the medal on Mike, he lay unconscious in the ICU, having suffered a traumatic brain injury caused by a piece of shrapnel that pierced his temple.

"This is my Mike now," she said, rubbing her eyes. He is completely blind and to alleviate a terrible cranial pressure build-up, doctors had to remove the front of his skull. Since being wounded several months ago, Mike has never regained consciousness and suffers from terrible seizures. "That's my guy," she repeated, before she went on to tell me about how they met and fell in love.

For whatever reason, I kept thinking about the fact that some person somewhere carefully assembled the IED that would eventually maim Mike and many others. They are often packed with nails, hunks of lead and screws to cause maxim human suffering. When they explode, the contents rip through flesh and bones, shattering countless dreams in the process.

How to comprehend this level of evil and the physical and emotional agony it causes? This young woman and her husband should be out buying their first Christmas tree together, going to parties, raising a glass to their future. When I asked what she was doing for the holiday she said, "I'll be here with Mike. I would never want him to be alone on Christmas." They had been married for about three months when Mike was wounded.

In these days before Christmas, Megan and other military wives and moms gave me a precious gift. They reminded me that true love requires sacrifice-sometimes seemingly unbearable, heart-wrenching sacrifice. They are living out their love in big and small ways. Many have moved thousands of miles to relocate to the hospitals where their husbands, wives, sons, and daughters are being treated. This takes an enormous emotional and financial toll, yet they do it for love. When they are not at the hospital bedsides of their wounded warriors, they sit for hours a day in waiting rooms across the United States, hoping for good news-or at least no more bad news. They pray with each other, cry with each other, and yes, even manage to laugh with each other as they hope for a day when they can return to "normal life." Yet for the families of our most seriously injured troops, they know they will have to get used to a "new normal," much different from the life they knew before.

As we are about to celebrate Christmas spending time with our families and friends, let us all do our best to live up to the true spirit of this season-and make it a time filled with love, faith, gratitude, hope, charity, and, yes - let's try for some peace on earth. Let us remember the military families and our wounded heroes who will spend this Christmas at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Brooke Army Medical Center, Bethesda Naval Medical Center and other medical facilities across the nation. As we rush around stressed out because we "haven't found the perfect gift" for so-and-so, these families hope and pray for gifts that cannot be wrapped up: a hand that squeezes back, a smile, the first step on a new prosthesis, or a positive medical report.

They need our prayers and support at Christmas and every day. Please give what you can to any of the wonderful organizations that support our bravest and their families.

Merry Christmas.

The 'Courage' to go 'Beyond Gay'

From Matt Abott's column from last Saturday:

I'd like to put in a good word about Courage, "a spiritual support system which would assist men and women with same-sex attractions in living chaste lives in fellowship, truth and love."

Developed by Father John Harvey, with the assistance of Father Benedict Groeschel, Courage held "its first meeting in September, 1980 at the Shrine of Mother Seton in South Ferry.

"With the endorsement of the Holy See, Courage now has more than 110 Chapters and contact people world-wide, over 1500 persons participating in its ListServs, and hundreds of persons per week receiving assistance from the main office and website. It has become a mainstream Catholic Apostolate helping thousands of men and women find peace through fellowship, prayer, and the Sacraments."

Some may recall that Archbishop Burke vigorously attempted to get an amendment passed recently at the USCCB bishops' meeting to have both Courage and Encourage included in a document the bishops were to vote on...Some realize how important this is, especially in today's confused world.

Secondly, Abbot includes an excerpt from a book by David Morrison, who is a Catholic writer and promoter of the apostolate. He authored the book Beyond Gay, from which the following excerpt comes (Chap. 15, 244-245):

'So much confusion reigns about what the Church teaches about same-sex attraction that I urge every homosexually attracted person to forget what they think the Church teaches or what they have heard she teaches and learn instead what she really teaches. . .

This is just the first sentence-It really is a must read. I highly recommend that Matt Abbott's post be read as Morrison eloquently relates what authentic, true love is.

Matt's column is here.

Homosexual-rights group launches TV ad to promote same-sex marriage

California Catholic Daily reports:

“A shallow, emotional appeal”

The somewhat dark and foreboding TV ad depicts a lovely bride walking down a garden path toward her wedding ceremony. As her handsome groom awaits her, the bride is tripped by an onlooker and stumbles to the ground. On the verge of tears, she looks up to the viewer and these words appear on the screen: "What if you couldn't marry the person you loved?"

The ad, found at the Equality California web site, represents yet another prong of the campaign to use the force of law to back up a radical redefinition of marriage -- a redefinition already rejected by California voters in 2000 when they overwhelmingly approved Proposition 22. Stymied in their push to dethrone natural marriage through legislation or litigation, Equality California is coordinating a pricey advertising campaign to "open hearts and minds" by broadcasting the 60-second spot in San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Palm Springs, and Sacramento.

Mortal Sin, Grave Matter, Fornication, and More

A recent comment from "outside observer" raised some interesting quesions and assertions. I'll try to respond. "outside observer's" comments are in RED.

Your line: "Objectively, it is a mortal sin" is absolutely false. It would be correct to say, however, that "Objectively, it is grave matter." Unless you know whether a person has "full consent of will" and "intent to do harm," you cannot know if it is a 'mortal sin.'

First, let's read from Fr. Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary:

MORTAL SIN. An actual sin that destroys sanctifying grace and causes the super­natural death of the soul. Mortal sin is a turning away from God because of a seriously inordinate adherence to creatures that causes grave injury to a person's ra­tional nature and to the social order, and deprives the sinner of a right to heaven.

The terms mortal, deadly, grave, and seri­ous applied to sin are synonyms, each with a slightly different implication. Mortal and deadly focus on the effects in the sinner, namely deprivation of the state of friendship with God; grave and serious refer to the im­portance of the matter in which a person offends God. But the Church never distin­guishes among these terms as though they represented different kinds of sins. There is only one recognized correlative to mortal sin, and that is venial sin, which offends against God but does not cause the loss of one's state of grace. (Etym. Latin mors, death.)

When speaking of a grave (mortal) sin in the objective sense, we refer to the act itself not the state of an individual's soul. The statement would, indeed, be false had I said that "Subjectively, it is a mortal sin," since that implies that one has committed a mortal sin and I can impute culpability and judge the state of his soul.

You rightly state that there are conditions required for the commission of a mortal sin. In fact there are three conditions which would constitute, subjectively, a mortal sin:
1) the matter itself is serious or grave;
2) there must be sufficient reflection; and,
3) there must be full consent of the will.

Let us return to your objection that my statement is "absolutely false." In support of my statement that "Fornication is, objectively speaking, a mortal (grave) sin, I submit the following:

The thirteenth ecumenical council, held at Lyons in France (1245), answered the challenge raised by some Eastern Christians influenced by Moslem morality. "Concerning fornication," it declared, "which an unmarried man commits with an unmarried woman, there must not be any doubt at all that it is a mortal sin, since the Apostle declares that 'fornicators and adulterers are cast out of the kingdom of God' (1 Cor. 6:9)." (my emphasis)

If my statement is "absolutely false," then you must also conclude that this ecumenical council was also wrong.

A century later, the ecumenical Council of Vienne (1311-12) condemned the Beghards and Beguines for claiming that sexual intercourse outside of marriage is not wrong, "since nature inclines to this."

In the seventeenth century, Pope Alexander VII censured the theory that a penitent "who had inter­course with an unmarried woman satisfies the precept of confession by saying, 'I committed a grievous sin against chastity with an un­married woman,' without mentioning the intercourse."

And before the end of the same century, Innocent XI condemned the idea that, since premarital intercourse injures no one and may be engaged in from sentiments of love, it is not contrary to the natural law. In the language of those who defended the practice, "Fornication by its nature involves no malice; it is an evil only because it is forbidden."

The same teaching on premarital relations continues in the Catholic moral doctrine of today.

The quotes and excerpts above are from The Catholic Catechism by Fr. John Hardon.

Secondly, the line "Intercourse is the divinely instituted means for married person to cooperate with God in procreating children" is past its time.

I certainly do not wish to diminish the unitive aspect of marriage which is essential. However, your position that "Intercourse is the divinely instituted means for married person to cooperate with God in procreating children" is "past its time" seems to be at odds with the Church.

Again, quoting Fr Hardon in his discussion on Christian marriage, we read:

Under pressure from their critics, Catholic theologians have sometimes been tempted to question the primacy of procreation of children in married life. But as often as the issue comes up, the traditional position is upheld and reiterated, that the first reason why God instituted marriage was to have children born into the world and reared in His knowledge and love. Thus in 1944, the Holy Office (over which the Pope himself is chairman), in answer to an inquiry, repeated the familiar teaching. Some years later, Pius XII further clarified the doctrine. (my emphasis)

As a natural institution and in virtue of the will of the Creator, marriage has for its first and intimate purpose not the personal perfection of husband and wife but the procreation and formation of new life (through education). The other ends of marriage are certainly willed by nature, but they have not the same excellence as the first and much less are they superior to it. In fact they are essentially subordinate.
(Pius XII, Address of October 29, 1951)

And St Augustine tells us that "The procreation of children is itself the primary, natural, legitimate purpose of marriage." (De Conjugiis Adulterinus, II, 12).

Since the time of Jesus to the turn of the century, the life span of a human crept up from 35 years to 41 years old. Since then, however, it has basically doubled. Science has improved as well.

I'm unclear where you want to go with this. Do you mean that being "open to life" when engaging in sexual intercourse is no longer necessary?

IF intercourse is, as you say above, the means to procreate, then there are a number of 'issues' here. NFP ("Natural Family Planning") tells us that there really is a small window of opportunity to produce a child - the prime target a mere 18 hours, with enough leeway to allow about 36 hours, roughly speaking, per month. There are times too during the month that, no matter what a couple does, a baby is not going to be conceived. Knowing our bodies and knowing the women's cycle means that a couple cannot produce a child for certain over a 2 week period. Is sex then just "mutual masturbation?" And after a woman has hit menopause ... again - no matter what you do, 'ya definitely ain't producin' no kids!'

First, if you read the comment I made carefully, I was quoting Fr John Hardon.
Second, if a couple is always "open to life," it makes little difference whether or not the married woman is able to conceive. The fact that both husband and wife give themselves totally and completely to each other (always open to life) does not frustrate the conjugal, procreative act.

So ... is sex supposed to be stopped while a woman is having her period? Once she hits menopause? What about women who have had their uterus or cervix removed because of cancer or other health problems? Isn't sex then just 'mutual masterbation,' because there is no chance of procreation, and therefore, according to your sources, this is simply "mutual selfishness?" [Please don't tell me that it's okay for the 70+ year old couple because they're "open" to procreation ...]

OK...while trying to ignore the picture you're painting and since I've already stated it above, I'll not state it again. However, it must be understood that deliberate contraceptive acts are those which can be viewed as 'mutual masterbation.' In each of the examples you've given, this is not the case.

Therefore, is it possible for a couple to have sex simply as an expression of their love for each other - knowing that no children can possibly come from it? -outside observer

Most certainly it is. And no one has stated otherwise. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church states:

2360 Sexuality is ordered to the conjugal love of man and woman. In marriage the physical intimacy of the spouses becomes a sign and pledge of spiritual communion. Marriage bonds between baptized persons are sanctified by the sacrament.

2366 Fecundity is a gift, an end of marriage, for conjugal love naturally tends to be fruitful. A child does not come from outside as something added on to the mutual love of the spouses, but springs from the very heart of that mutual giving, as its fruit and fulfillment. So the Church, which "is on the side of life"[150] teaches that "each and every marriage act must remain open 'per se' to the transmission of life."[151] "This particular doctrine, expounded on numerous occasions by the Magisterium, is based on the inseparable connection, established by God, which man on his own initiative may not break, between the unitive significance and the procreative significance which are both inherent to the marriage act."[152]

I hope this helps. And if I've misspoken on something, please feel free to comment.

Charity and more...

As an aside to the recent post on Mother Teresa, it seems that Divine Providence permitted me to read shortly thereafter, a letter from St. Pio da Pietrelcina (Padre Pio).
It concerns Christian perfection and the virtue of Charity among other things - well worth the read.

The first virtue required by the person who is striving for perfection is charity. In all natural things, the first movement, the first inclination or impulse is to tend towards the centre, in obedience to a physical law. The same thing happens in the supernatural sphere: the first movement of our hearts is a movement towards God, which is nothing more than loving our own true good. With good reason Sacred Scripture speaks of charity as the bond of perfect harmony.

Charity has as its close relatives joy and peace. Joy is born of happiness at possessing what we love. Now, from the moment at which the soul knows God, it is naturally led to love Him. If the soul follows this natural impulse which is caused by the Holy Spirit, it is already loving the Supreme Good. This fortunate soul already possesses the beautiful virtue of love. By loving God the soul is certain of possessing Him. When a person loves money, honours and good health, unfortunately, he does not always possess what he loves, whereas he who loves God possesses Him at once.

This idea is not the product of my own mind but is to be found in Holy Scripture where we read: He who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him (5). What does this scriptural passage mean to tell us? Does it not, perhaps, mean that the soul devoted to God out of love belongs entirely to God, while God gives Himself entirely to that soul?
. . .
It must be noted, however, that as long as we are wayfarers on this earth we can never be perfect, and hence we can never enjoy perfect peace. Trials and contradictions are so many and the conflicts by which the soul is harassed so numerous as to cause it agony at times, to the point at which life itself becomes unbearable. All this arises because the soul sees itself in danger of utter ruin.

Now, to stand up to such harsh trials the soul needs patience, a virtue which enables us to bear all adversity without giving in. Those who are striving for perfection must attribute great importance to this virtue unless they want their efforts to be completely wasted, for it is this virtue which maintains order in one's interior life.

The Priest at Prayer for August 10, Devotion to Our Lady

The Fourth Part - Some Means of Perseverence

Devotion to Our Lady

Second Meditation - Priestly Motives

I. The Church in every age, and now more than ever, has professed such devotion to Mary that Protestants rabidly accuse her of Mariolatry, as though we Catholics venerated the Blessed Mother of Jesus as God. It is gross calumny; for in this, as in everything pertaining to piety, we know that the Holy Spirit comes to the aid of Christ's Bride, safeguarding her from all error.

How enthusiastically the faithful, saints and sinners, acclaim the Virgin of Nazareth! With what assured con­fidence they prostrate before her shrines! The face of the earth is decked with countless wonderful monuments to Mary: no name in history has them more numerous and more beautiful. O Mary, thy own prophetic utterance is ever being fulfilled with brilliant accuracy:

Behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed!

But who is called upon to guide, to consolidate, and to extend this veneration, so vital to the Church of God, if not the priest, by his fervent word and the holy inspiration of his daily example? A priest without devotion to our Blessed Lady would indeed be a strange and baffling phenomenon for the Catholic laity.

II. We priests belong so closely to Jesus Christ, that, within His Scheme of Redemption, we must consider ourselves His necessary complement. It is only through our lips that He teaches the world His heavenly doctrine: Going therefore, teach ye all nations. ­(Matt. xxviii, 19). It is through our ministry that He incorporates members into His Mystical Body, pardons and purifies them: Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them. (John xx, 23). The keys of the King­dom, both in its transitory phase here below and in its everlasting triumph, are completely under our control. Which means that, in authority, in word, and in office, I continue the saving life of Christ: alter Christus.

Who, then, dear Virgin Mother, can claim by so many titles as I the right to occupy in thy motherly affections the same place as thy Divine Son? Whose place will it be if not mine, seeing that, for thee, I am like another Christ?

But, in return, O Mother, it is my bounden duty to reserve in my soul for thee the throne whence thou didst reign in the Heart of Jesus.

No wonder the first to receive Mary for his Mother from the hands of the dying Saviour was a priest, John the Evangelist!

And from that hour, the disciple took her to his own.

To his own! To his heart and home. So, from today, dear Mother, I shall follow his example; I receive and welcome thee into the home of my heart, as someone inseparably mine, as my most cherished treasure.

III. The Divine Word surrenders Himself into my hands every day, belittles, conceals, abases Himself to greater feebleness and silence than in the early years of His infancy; He surrenders to me as He did to Mary when He came into the world, as He did to His heavenly Father, when leaving the world: Into thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.

In this wonderful office of mine, as tutor, master, and father and mother of Thy Sacramental Being, O divine Saviour, where shall I turn for lessons in reverence, tenderness, and chaste and loving dealings towards Thee, but to Thy own Mother? Only she ministered thus unto Thee during Thy life on earth. That I, wretched and
stained, should inherit from her these sacred tasks seems unbelievable.

How is it possible that I have lived a single day of my priestly life without having recourse to Mary, asking her on bended knees to teach me how to treat the Son of her womb in the Sacrament of our altars? To treat Him with that deep love and reverence with which she wrapped Him up in swaddling clothes, and served and kissed Him in the stable of Bethlehem, along the desert roads of Egypt, in the silent home of Nazareth?

IV. Auxilium Christianorum is one of Mary's titles. Strength in our weakness, help in our struggles, guide in our darkness, support in our wavering: this is the firmest foundation of every popular devotion to Mary. The fallen, the attacked, the weak, will always seek refuge in Mary, by God's command. Every prayer voiced by the Church on earth throbs with all these human longings for protection: Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death; Mother of mercy. . . turn thine eyes of mercy towards us. . . .

And I, a priest, am only too conscious of my weak­ness; in the midst of powerful enemies, who perhaps time and time again have worn me down and taken me captive, I definitely feel weak, the same as any other mortal man, and, I suspect, even weaker sometimes than they. All the powers of hell are up in arms against me and give me no respite; under the weight of so many and such heavy obligations my weak shoulders tremble.

Unto the merciful eyes of Mary, Help of Christians, therefore, I shall turn my own afflicted gaze; within the shelter of her protecting mantle, which gathers and keeps
from harm her little children, as the hen gathers her chickens under her wing, I shall hide myself in life and in death.

Resolutions
1. To attach the greatest importance to Mary's Feasts in my dealings with the faithful, announcing them in good time, bringing great numbers of souls to Confession and Communion in her honour, carrying out the liturgical Offices with pomp and splendour; and last, but by no means least, going to Confession myself on the eve of the Feasts.

It is an established fact that the above is very often the final and most effective means of bringing souls back to God and to the practice of religion, in cases of rebellion or of forgetful carelessness.

2. To start and build up one or more of those Marian Associations - Legion of Mary, Children of Mary, Miraculous Medal Association, etc. - which have proved their worth by the holy examples and actions with which they have become an inspiration to the whole Christian world.

3. To preach about Mary, about her life, her virtues, her prerogatives, not disdaining to mention well ­authenticated miraculous occurrences deriving from her intercession. Let the faithful know and love her well, not merely by instinct or tradition, but with insight and depth of knowledge.
_________________________
Adapted from The Priest at Prayer
by Fr. Eugenio Escribano, C.M. (© 1954)
Translated by B.T. Buckley, C.M.

###
Please pray for our priests and pray for vocations to the priesthood!

The Priest at Prayer for August 9, Devotion to Our Lady

The Fourth Part - Some Means of Perseverence

Devotion to Our Lady

First Meditation - General Motives

I. If we reflect, even superficially, on what the Gospels tell us about Mary - and what is written down is all too little to satisfy our filial piety - we shall find sufficient motives to live perpetually and tenderly enamoured of that Holy Woman. Her admirable virtues shine through the Gospel's simple, unadorned style: such delicate acts of sovereign purity, such glorious intimacies of soul; ineffable poise, absolute self-mastery, august serenity. Blessed is the hand which bequeathed us the lines from verse 26 to 56 of the first chapter of the Gospel accord­
ing to St. Luke! The mere reading and knowledge of these lines would suffice, O Sovereign Mother of Christ, even if I knew nothing more about thee, to revere and love thee with my whole heart and soul for all eternity!

If heroicity of virtue, immaculate purity of soul, inexhaustible goodness of heart; if loftiness of aspiration, elevated dignity, and benefits showered like gentle morning dew upon mankind, are all potent to fill us with ardent devotion towards the Saints, where, O Mother of Jesus and my own dear Mother, shall I find these things so truly and so radiantly enshrined as in thee?

In venerating and loving and praising thee, I make willing obeisance to the flower of creation, to the crown of God's ineffable works and wonders. Were I to refuse thee the tribute of my love and piety, I should have to refuse it to every being that was not God, to the very heart of the woman who bore me in her womb.

II. How can I fail to greet and, both inwardly and out­wardly, express my love for her to whom one of the loftiest angelic spirits, one of the Seven in attendance at the Throne of God, the Archangel Gabriel, rendered, even before she was vested with the almost infinite: dignity of Mother of God, such astounding tokens of veneration in the name of the Almighty Himself?

Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women. . . .

Fear not, Mary, thou hast found grace with God.

The Holy Ghost will come upon thee and the Power of the Most High will overshadow thee. (Luke i, 28-31.)

Has the Catholic Church or any of her most distin­guished children, however enthusiastic, fervent, and eloquent, ever gone further in Mary's praise?

All the flowers of poetry, love, art, liturgy, and all the flowers betokening imitation of thee, strewn at thy feet by twenty enamoured centuries; what are they as com­pared to this unfading, ever white and fragrant lily which the Archangel offered thee, O Mary, in the Lord's Name?

Hypocrites those who, boasting of the Christian name, reject the veneration which Catholicism of every age has rendered thee; a veneration which is but a pale reflection of that homage which thou didst receive from God's own Messenger! Will it not be lawful for the children of men to do what God Himself commanded to be done by the Hierarchy of Heaven?

III.

I have given you an example, that as I have done to you, so you do also. (John xiii, 15.)

If our lives are worth living only in so far as they reproduce the likeness of Christ, let us take Christ as our model of devotion towards Mary, His Mother.

For thirty years the Word Incarnate had no other manifest occupation than that of obeying with absolute unreserve His Blessed Mother. Now, there is no form of devotion, veneration, and love, no manifestation of piety, more deep and true than the loving submission of a child or a youth to his mother. And that, precisely, is the devotion and piety chosen by Jesus for the space of thirty years.

Will my piety, with all its inventive genius, ever attain the measure of that total self-surrender of Him Who bears the world in the palm of His hand, at Whose
summons the stars of the firmament tremblingly reply: Adsumus?

My Jesus, I thank Thee for bidding me share with Thee the filial love Thou hast for the Woman whom Thou callest "Mother".

Resolutions
First of all, can I honestly say that until now I have been truly devoted to Mary? Have I not allowed myself to be influenced by a certain type of impartial uncon­cern, regarding this attitude as the characteristic of men who rise above the devotional craze of the common people? Have I denied or disbelieved popular convictions about our Lady? Have I held aloof from the traditional practices of Marian devotion? In preaching about Mary, what has been my stimulus: personal conviction, or merely the law of supply and demand?

Therefore, I resolve to express my devotion towards Mary by the following:

1. To meditate about her more, doing with regard to her what she did to her Divine Son: "Mary treasured up all these sayings, and reflected on them in her heart." (Luke ii, 19.)

2. To have recourse to her every day by the recita­tion of the Rosary, the most popular of all prayers, and, after the liturgy, the nearest to the heart of the Church.

3. To try to imitate her, for imitation is the hallmark of sincere love and devotion; and to imitate her particu­larly in those virtues which are essentially hers and which ought to be specifically the priest's - humility, purity of body and soul, love for Christ.
_________________________
Adapted from The Priest at Prayer
by Fr. Eugenio Escribano, C.M. (© 1954)
Translated by B.T. Buckley, C.M.

###
Please pray for our priests and pray for vocations to the priesthood!

The Priest at Prayer, July 1

The Third Part - Vices and Virtues

FRATERNAL CHARITY (or the Love of One's Neighbor)

Second Meditation - The New Commandment

I. St. Paul's definition of a priest is simply: a man who is specially appointed to the task of loving God and his fellow men, a man chosen from among men to devote himself to a ministry on their behalf at every hour of the day.

This explains why the Divine Master reserved his most touching lessons of fraternal charity for His Apostles and for the very moment they were made priests:

Little children. . . a new commandment I give unto you: that you love one another as I have loved you. . .

By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another. (John xiii, 33-35)

The distinctive feature, the hallmark, the unmis­takable sign of discipleship of Christ is going to be, not so much faith or miracles or even martyrdom for Christ, as their love for one another.

Little children! It is the second time Jesus calls His Apostles by this endearing title, and perhaps it was the last. Servants, friends, brothers, were terms frequently on His lips, but filioli only when speaking to them of mutual charity. This term of endearment was the honey­tipped point which made the precept of love penetrate like an arrow into our hearts, by nature so prone to hatred.

II. In calm and silence let us ponder over the newness of this precept which our Saviour and Lawgiver entrusted to His first newly-ordained priests.

The precept is new by reason of the manner and author of its promulgation; not Jehova, at whose touch the mountaintops burst into angry flame; but the Word, made flesh and blood for our sakes, who took upon Him­self, as it were, our common touch, our own gentle mode of human speech. It is new, by reason of the place where the precept was given: not the wild rugged peaks of Sinai wrapped in lightning and thunder, but the familiar and heart-to-heart talk of a father among his children after supper; not Jaweh in glorious pomp and splendour, but Jesus of Nazareth, girded with a towel, like a slave, on His knees at Judas's feet, washing and kissing them. The command of love issues from under the feet of the man consumed with fiendish rancour! It was also new in the preamble introducing the command; not the solemn, awe-inspiring I am the Lord thy God (Ex. xx, 2), but that most tender: Filioli mei! my darling children!

III. New also is the standard model of our love for our neighbour.

Formerly it was: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself; now it is: love one another as I have loved you.

Love for myself, self-love, which is so liable to delusion and perversity, and which I must renounce if I am to become a true disciple of Christ - if any will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me (Matt. xvi, 24) - is not sufficient a model for other loves; I must take my standard from the incomparably wise, unconquerable, disinterested, infinite love which the Good Shepherd feels for His sheep.

Finally, this commandment is new in extension: "as I have loved you "-to the limits reached by our Lord, to the extremes to which His love has brought Him for our sakes: the Eucharist He had just given us, and the Cross that was awaiting Him.

Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends. (John xv, 13)

"It is hard enough to find anyone who will die on behalf of a just man. . . . but here, as if God meant to prove how well he loves us, it was while we were still sinners that Christ, in his own appointed time, died for us." (Rom. v, 7-8)

" . . . the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Gal. ii, 20)

Any commentary on so many and such sublime "novelties" of the new precept would only unsettle the deep impression that takes hold of any human heart pondering over them carefully.

Resolutions
Persuaded that I have to love my neighbour, and being anxious to see unmistakable signs of this love in me, I am going to examine myself and find out whether I possess or not this threefold love, because if I do not I am determined to struggle until it is firmly ensconced in my life:

1. Love for souls, whose loss is my grief, and their salvation my one abiding interest;

2. Love for my enemies, because God created them also, gave them an immortal soul, the same as mine, redeemed them in the Blood of the Lamb, and made them capable of eternal happiness;

3. Love for the poor, with whom Christ identifies Himself and through whose hands He imparts eternal life:

"Make use of your base wealth to win yourselves friends, who, when you leave it behind, will welcome you into eternal habitations." (Luke xvi, 9)

I shall have the poor sit at the banquet of my love, and I shall be delighted, O Jesus, that they cannot repay me even with their gratitude; because it is Thou who, according to Thy promise, wilt requite me when the just shall rise again.

Possessed of this threefold love, I shall, by Thy Mercy, O Lord, be able to boast that I observe Thy new precept of charity.
_________________________
Adapted from The Priest at Prayer
by Fr. Eugenio Escribano, C.M. (© 1954)
Translated by B.T. Buckley, C.M.

###
Please pray for our priests and pray for vocations to the priesthood!

The Priest at Prayer, June 30

The Third Part - Vices and Virtues

FRATERNAL CHARITY (or the Love of One's Neighbor)

First Meditation - Nature of Fraternal Charity

I. How far should our love go - that love which enshrines everything contained in God's law? God has been pleased to give us the answer in a most striking manner. He, Whom no one has seen in this life, con­descended to show Himself through the medium of manifold and awe-inspiring apparitions to His ancient People, as if to establish a tangible right to their wholehearted allegiance; and at length revealed Himself in Person, became Man, and held converse with mortal man, so as to be able to say to us:

He that seeth me, seeth the Father also.

We are face to face with God when we look upon Christ, and anyone who says he believes in God and loves God but at the same time refuses to acknowledge wd love Christ is to be accounted a liar.

Well now, according to the Apostle of Love, it is impossible to love God or Christ without having love for one's neighbour:

"If a man boasts of loving God, while he hates his own brother, he is a liar."(I John iv, 20)

and the same Apostle adduces this apparently strange reason:

"He has seen his brother, and has no love for him; what love can he have for the God he has never seen?" (id.)

The love we have for our neighbour, therefore, is the hallmark and gauge of our love for God. And, on the contrary, without this love for our neighbour our love for God is false. There is falsehood and delusion and vain observance - religio vana - in that so-called love and worship of God, in those devotions and prayers of ours, if we lean on them and think to find in them support for despising and judging rashly and slandering or criticising with venom and mercilessly hurting our neighbour by crushing him in his weaknesses or ignoring him callously in his griefs and losses, no matter what his race, his nationality, his position, or even his morals and beliefs.

Has my supposed piety ever been a sort of buskin and toga like those of the old Roman Patrician, in which I felt authorised to strut about with a leering glance at my neighbour and to exclaim with Horace: "Odi profanum vulgus et arceo" - I loathe the common herd and I keep my distance? If so, my piety was a pietism execrated by God and by Christ.

II. There is something mysterious and attractive about every man, about human nature, which would seem to captivate God Himself, enamouring Him, so to speak, in such a manner that it elicits from Him acts of the most generous loving-kindness; Self-belittlement, abase­ment, sacrifice, dedication in body, soul and Divinity to the lofty enterprise, the only enterprise worthy of God, of winning over at all costs the love of the human heart. God so loved the world! (John iii, 16)

Not a single human being exists who cannot exclaim with absolute truth, whatever his caste or condition:

"I know and I believe in the love God has for me." (I John iv, 16)

It is a belief exclusively Catholic. Other cults and sects reject it, it offends them; their spirit of contradiction and denial rather prompts them to ask with the Psalmist:

What is man, O God, that thou shouldst keep him in remembrance?

But how can I, who believe in the love God has for man, refuse to love whom God has loved so exceedingly?

And why should I wonder, Lord, that Thou art so ­exacting in demanding of me, with threats of lightning Wrath, that I too love my fellow men out of regard for Thy incomprehensible love?

III. In this precept God shows Himself exacting: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself (Matt. xix, 8). Self­-love is the standard and a high one it is. He could have chosen another standard, for instance the things a man is fondest of, his wife, his children, his mother. No, "as thyself". In the human heart is lodged no affection more widespread, more profound, more unquenchable and ready to serve than the love of self. If we analyse our­selves carefully, if we take apart this complicated machinery of human nature, we shall find that our whole being, our whole life, with all its variety of phenomena and manifestations, with all its long list of appetites and tendencies, comes down to but one thing: that boundless, limitless love we have for ourselves. Accord­ing to that model, then, I am commanded by My Lord and God to love others: thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

And that there might be no mistake about it, God, in His ten commandments, has devoted seven of them to the various works of love towards my neighbour; three for Himself, seven for man. So jealous is He of the honour and welfare of the children of Adam that He does not leave a single human value without a wall of defence, without the shield and flashing sword of a divine precept: Thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not commit adultery; thou shalt not steal, etc., etc.

Resolutions
I shall try to purify my love for my neighbour of all its dross and base metal. It is not a Christian love if its foundation is my selfishness or sensuality, no matter how fervent and self-denying it may appear on the surface.

Nor is that honorable and noble human love, which rests merely on the wisdom or virtue or generous qualities of a fellow man, to be accounted Christian; it can be made Christian, but of itself it falls far short.

The driving force behind true Christian charity towards all men - for it embraces everyone without any possible exception - is the supreme fact that they were created by God, endowed with an immortal soul, made into God's image and likeness, raised to the supernatural level, and are destined for eternal happiness through the redeeming Blood of Jesus Christ. Christian love is based on motives inspired by Christian faith, nothing less.

I shall, therefore, try to bring myself to love my neighbour precisely for these motives, rejecting as worthless any other motive which cancels out the former, and subordinating those other human motives that are naturally honourable and good to the higher motives of faith.
_________________________
Adapted from The Priest at Prayer
by Fr. Eugenio Escribano, C.M. (© 1954)
Translated by B.T. Buckley, C.M.

###
Please pray for our priests and pray for vocations to the priesthood!

The Priest at Prayer, June 29

The Third Part - Vices and Virtues

CHARITY (or the Love of God)

Second Meditation - Priestly Motives

I. Our innate weakness offers many an obstacle to the keeping of God's law, and our twisted inclinations and vicious habits provide many more. But greater still are the stumbling blocks on the steep climb of priestly duty. We cannot but strain and stagger under this yoke with all its extra burdens, enough to tax the strength of an angel.

All the more reason why we should not forget that charity alone endows with superabundant energies, for "Charity sustains, believes, hopes, endures to the last" and, giving a little twist to our Lord's words: all things are possible to him that loveth.

The author of the Imitation, in an immortal passage worthy of Plato, has this to say:

"Love does not feel the burden nor take account of hard work; it desires more than it can cope with; it does not complain if the impossible is com­manded, being sure of accomplishing everything in God; and it brings many things to a successful issue where one who loves not would falter and fall." (Bk. III, ch. vi.)

There is one label for all my cowardice and lack of courage, that chafes at any restraint and sees mountains in molehills: want of the love of God.

II. Our Divine Lord, when making me His distinguished and privileged minister, might well have asked me: "Dost thou love me more than these?" (John xxi, 15)

Who should love Thee, Lord, if not I? Into these feeble hands of mine Thou didst deposit Thy doctrine, Thy Sacraments, Thy honour and glory, Thy own Person; a complete retractation, it would seem, of a former statement: I will not give my glory to another (Is. xlii, 8).

No one contemplates and actually touches the inex­haustible wealth of the Lord's Mercy so closely as I, and for all that, this tremendous Lover comes begging to me for a few crumbs of my love, of that paltry love which I have lavished so prodigally up to now on a host of vile creatures without receiving or even asking in return for so much as a disdainful "thank you"; and yet, of a love which is my heart's only treasure to dispose of freely.

I must confess with shame, O Lord, that when I did give Thee something of my love it was only after a lot of bargaining, only by driblets, as it were; and many a time I just answered thee with a round refusal, or else, I asked for, or snatched, it back after giving it, as though repentant of having deposited my sole treasure in such hands, or rather, in such a Heart, as Thine.

III. And yet, I would love Thee! Yes, I would that my heart were a red-hot cinder in the brazier of Thy divine Charity! Because if love unites and transforms, what more desirable gain than to transform my heart into Thine? Ah, but I find it hard to accomplish. It is hard for the mind to ascend the rugged heights of faith to the Absolute Truth where God dwells in Light inac­cessible (1 Tim. v, 16); harder still for the human will to keep to the hilly road of love and the fulfilment of God's Will and reach the All-spiritual Sovereign Good, which is so remote and so estranged from the greater number of my tastes and pleasures.

And I am so accus­tomed to, and glutted with, the clammy sweetness of tangible things - portrayed to me so fascinatingly amid the auroral splendours of desire - and I am so much at home with the love of what is human and with the human ways of love, that my soul refuses to face, rejects as an airy nothingness, as unsubstantial food, the love of what is purely Divine.

And precisely for this reason the Word of God became Man, became flesh, as St. John puts it, who also writes:

"Our message concerns that Word, who is Life; what he was from the first, what we have heard about him, what our own eyes have seen of him; what it was that met our gaze, and the touch of our hands." (l John i, 1)

The result is, O Jesus, that now when I think of Thee, remember Thy actions, bring Thee before my imagination, sympathise with Thy griefs, ruminate Thy words, and love Thee in all things, I am entering into a mind like my own, cherishing a flesh like mine, loving a heart like mine; and at the same time, I am loving my God and keeping the greatest and first Commandment; because in seeing and loving Thee, one sees and loves Thy Father; for Thou and the Father are One (John xiv, 9; x, 30).

I thank Thee, dear Jesus, for having placed the precept of loving God within such easy reach of me. No, it will not be hard for me now, it will be something easy and smooth to love Thee; for Thy life I read and ponder over every day; Thy doctrine I teach; Thy flesh I eat, and Thy blood I drink.

St. Gregory no longer baffles me when he says that "the Saints learn by loving what they speak about when teaching".

IV. The precept to love God is very much like God Him­self: unseen and unfelt, and yet it is in everything, sustaining and giving life to everything.

So too, this commandment seems to impose no particular obligation, but it is the soul of the entire decalogue. I shall therefore derive motives for observing it from the fact of its being so gently insinuating and easy to fulfil.

Negatively, I shall observe this precept by a fixed determination never to offend God and to lose everything rather than God. And on the positive side, when the occasion arises of offending Him, I shall choose to forgo any other good, however great, rather than incur mortal sin; and when tempted and allured by the enemies of my soul to go astray, I shall sooner see them disappointed and myself stripped of everything than insult and forfeit God.

Moreover, I shall thank the good God who in His loving kindness has so condescended to my human condition and so adapted Himself to my natural manner that, without reproach, He allows me to love all created things, as many as I wish, on the sole condition that their place in my affections is not opposed to, and incompatible with, His; and even allows me to love them with stronger feeling and greater intensity than Himself, as long as I hold Him in higher esteem and appreciate His love more than that of all creatures.

Resolutions
1. I shall school myself in the affective love of God by directing all my activities to His greater glory; that is, to a clearer and more adequate knowledge of God and to loving Him and conforming to His divine Will ­in everything:

(a) Choosing whatever pleases Him best either in work or in suffering,
(b) Doing so in the mode and manner most accept­able to Him; and
(c) Simply and solely because it does please Him, with that purest intention alone.

2. Putting it in a nutshell: I shall transfer the fourth commandment to the first, conducting myself towards God as to a true and only Lord and Father; caring for Him, revering Him, and obeying Him as such; for this is the Christian manner of divine worship. And thus my whole life, with all its yearnings and in all its dealings, will be but one long act of piety and filial fear and worship in spirit and truth towards my Father who is in heaven.

3. In sum, I shall stake my all on loving in every way my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, God and Man; studying Him affectionately, meditating on His life and character, feasting my mind and senses on Him; prefer­ring Him to all my friends, all my kith and kin, to father and mother, and to my own self; because he that loves father or mother more than Christ is not worthy of Christ (Matt. x, 37)
_________________________
Adapted from The Priest at Prayer
by Fr. Eugenio Escribano, C.M. (© 1954)
Translated by B.T. Buckley, C.M.

###
Please pray for our priests and pray for vocations to the priesthood!

The Priest at Prayer, June 28

The Third Part - Vices and Virtues

CHARITY (or the Love of God)

First Meditation - General Motives

I. What is charity? A supernatural habit of the mind whereby we love God above all things for His own sake, and ourselves and our neighbour for Him.

It is a theological virtue like the two previous ones, but higher than they, and the only eternal one of the three. Faith and hope will take us as far as the threshold of eternity, but when we actually enter it they will have fallen away. Only of charity St. Paul has said: charity never falls away, never dies; it is eternal, like God Himself, like the Holy Spirit who pours it into our hearts; and of such surpassing excellence that only the Divine Spirit can infuse it; of a quality that no human force or even the strength of the seraphim, the spirits of love, can impart it to us.

It directs man's most rebellious faculty, his rational appetite, to his final goal. It elevates a man's free will above all desirable things of earth and beyond every creature visible and invisible of the universe, to fix it securely on God, the Supreme Good. It is the last word in human perfection, even now: vinculum perfectionis. (Colos. iii, 14) It is, in a sense, the possession here below of the Sovereign Good, if not in the fulness of union as in heaven, intentionally and affectively, which is the only union possible to us while we are way­farers.

O God, my only Good, do I possess this glorious supernatural endowment? Is my mind and my heart a temple, here and now, of Thy Spirit? Dost Thou at this moment keep my inconstant will bound fast to Thee by that perfect bond, that bond so gentle and delightful and strong?

II. Even supposing - an impossible supposition, of course - that every virtue were enshrined in my soul, my whole existence a most fertile soil and limitless source of heroism, if I lack charity, nihil mihi prodest, nihil sum: it would avail me nothing, I should count for nothing. (Cor. xiii, 3)

Charity is necessary - necessitate medii - for my justi­fication and salvation. Who does not love God is in sin. So it is not to be thought a mere flash from a heart on fire when St. Paul exclaims:

"If there is anyone who has no love for the Lord, let him be held accursed - anathema sit!" (1 Cor. xvi, 22)

It is but God's irrevocable statement. Whoever does not love God remains apart and severed from God; whoever appears before the Judgement seat of God without the cloth-of-gold garment of divine love will have his part and lot with the hypocrites in the unquenchable fire.

O God, let the solemn, imperative, and burning proclamation which accompanied the issuing of the great precept of love on Mount Sinai serve to impel my entry into the kingdom of those that love thee.

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole strength and with thy whole mind (Deut. vi, 5):

for this is the greatest and the first commandment (Matt. xxii, 37).

Or, as St. Thomas of Villanova says:

"Love the Lord your God, at least because He is yours. You love your field and your clothing, because they belong to you, they are yours. Then, why not love God who is also yours? Of all that is yours, will God alone be unworthy of love?"

III. The love of God is the royal road leading to God, the shortest, the quickest, or rather, the only way of approach to union with God.

Thus St. Paul devotes a long and beautiful chapter (1 Cor. xii) to a consideration of the various charismatic gifts and graces - gratiae gratis datae - which attracted so many souls in those early Christian centuries to the Fold of the Divine Redeemer: prophecy, the gift of healing, of tongues, of mind­reading, etc., but he concludes with these words:

"Prize the best gifts of heaven; meanwhile, I can show you a way which is better than any other." (1 Cor. xii, 41)

and that better way is no other than charity, the soul of every other virtue, the life and value of every good work, to which he devotes the most beautiful of all his writings, chapter thirteen of the same Epistle.

The act of least outward significance, for instance, to give someone a drink of water, if done out of super­natural charity is of greater value in the sight of the
Supreme Judge than the tortures of a St. Laurence if endured without charity.

And I, poor blind soul, how often I have tormented myself hunting after elaborate ways and means of spiritual perfection, looking out for byways and unbeaten tracks, and meanwhile, perhaps, bypassing the shortest and easiest and most satisfying route: the love of God.

IV.

"Wilt thou not learn to love the Lord thy God, and obey him, and keep close to his side? Thou hast no life, no hope of long continuance, but in him." (Deut. xxx, 20)

Even on earth, where the senses crave for satisfac­tion with drunken fury: even here, my happiness and my life is to love the Lord my God and to keep closely united to Him. Surely experience has given me a taste of this. And I know what befalls the reckless soul who separates from God expecting to find something better!

As St. Augustine says in his Confessions:

"My soul lay down among creatures, seeking sweet repose; she tossed from one side to another . . . but found the bed hard and unbearable; because Thou alone, Lord, art rest. Tu solus, Domine, requies."

"Repose and sweetness; because the day my soul loved Thee, remained in Thy Presence, and dwelt within Thee, she was like a bee in its honey­comb cell, seeing nought, touching nought, tasting nought but honey and peace and rest." (Bk. VI, chap. xvi)

Resolutions
1. Intimately convinced that the charity which unites me to God is far superior to mercy and any other virtue - because nothing is higher and more perfect than union with the Supreme Being, the Source of all that is - and that such close union with God is the exclusive outcome of true interior love, I resolve to train myself to make frequent and ardent acts of affective charity every day, rejoicing and finding delight in God's infinite Goodness, and thanking Him in terms such as those of the Gloria in excelsis Deo: Gratias agimus tibi propter magnam gloriam tuam; and fostering a keen desire that all intelli­gent and free-willed creatures should join with me in this same praise and thanksgiving for all eternity.

2. I shall, by God's mercy, remain always in the state of sanctifying grace, or I shall do my utmost to recover it as soon as I have lost it, so that God may have some regard for my desire and praise, which from sinful lips would not be a handsome tribute.
_________________________
Adapted from The Priest at Prayer
by Fr. Eugenio Escribano, C.M. (© 1954)
Translated by B.T. Buckley, C.M.

###
Please pray for our priests and pray for vocations to the priesthood!

Excuse me, are you Jesus?

Received via email and adapted slightly...
What would you have done in this case?

A few years ago a group of salesmen went to a regional sales convention in Chicago.

They had assured their wives that they would be home in plenty of time for Friday night's dinner. In their rush, with tickets and briefcases, one of these salesmen inadvertently kicked over a table which held a display of apples. Apples flew everywhere.

Without stopping or looking back, they all managed to reach the plane in time for their nearly missed boarding.

ALL BUT ONE!!! He paused, took a deep breath, got in touch with his feelings, and experienced a twinge of compassion for the girl whose apple stand had been overturned.

He told his buddies to go on without him, waved goodbye, told one of them to call his wife when they arrived at their home destination and explain his taking a later flight. Then he returned to the terminal where the apples were all over the terminal floor.

He was glad he did. The 16 year old girl was totally blind! She was softly crying, tears running down her cheeks in frustration, and at the same time helplessly groping for her spilled produce as the crowd swirled about her, no one stopping and no one to care for her plight.

The salesman knelt on the floor with her, gathered up the apples, put them back on the table and helped organize her display. As he did this, he noticed that many of them had become battered and bruised; these he set aside in another basket.

When he had finished, he pulled out his wallet and said to the girl, "Here, please take this $40 for the damage we did. Are you okay?" She nodded through her tears. He continued on with, "I hope we didn't spoil your day too badly."

As the salesman started to walk away, the bewildered blind girl called out to him, "Mister...." He paused and turned to look back into those blind eyes. She continued, "Excuse me, are you Jesus?"

He stopped in mid-stride, and he wondered. Then slowly he made his way to catch the later flight with that question burning and bouncing about in his soul:

"Are you Jesus?"

Do people mistake you for Jesus?

That's our destiny, is it not - to become more like Him, to be one with Him? to be so much like Jesus that people cannot tell the difference as we live and interact in a world that is blind to His love, His life and His grace?

If we claim to know Him, shouldn't we live and act as He would?

And knowing Him, are we not compelled to love Him?. . .And in loving Him, do we not feel driven to serve Him and follow Him? Do we not want to share His Love for us with others?

Knowing Him is more than simply quoting Scripture verses and going to church. It's actually living the Word as life unfolds day to day.

We, too, have been bruised - bruised and damaged by our sins. But Our Lord will heal us, if we only ask Him.

If people don't mistake you for Jesus, do they, at least, know that you are one of His disciples?

Polish Man Wakes from 19-Year “Coma”....

...And he makes quite an astute observation:

He told the media that people complain now as much as they did under communism: “These people walk around with their mobile phones and never stop moaning.” But he told his wife that the world is “prettier” now than it was under then and he’s happy to be “back”.

Some things never change...

Polish Man Wakes from 19-Year “Coma”, Talks and Expected to Walk Soon
Wife “would fly into a rage every time someone would say that people like him should be euthanized”
By Hilary White

DZIALDOWO, Poland, June 4, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Polish railway worker has astonished his doctors by waking spontaneously after 19 years and talking about memories of his time in a “coma”, the Associated Press (AP) reported yesterday. Jan Grzewski was injured at work and while he was hospitalized, his doctors found cancer in his brain and predicted he would not recover.
. . .
Cases such as Mr. Grzewski’s are being used around the western world as arguments for euthanasia by dehydration or withholding of nutrition for those in what is often called a “permanent vegetative state”.
. . .
After regaining his ability to speak, Mr. Grzewski told his relatives that he has memories of family gatherings while he was supposedly ‘comatose,’ at which they spoke to him, trying to elicit a response.

Praise be to God! And may God continue to bless the man's wonderful wife who dedicated her life caring for him - such dedication seems quite rare these days. Perhaps, this wonderful miracle is one of God's gifts for such love, perseverance, and commitment?