How to Arrive at the Perfect Love of Jesus

From the Introduction by St. Alphonsus Liguori to his book The Passion and the Death of Jesus Christ. 

 

The lover of souls, our most loving Redeemer, declared that he had no other motive in coming down upon earth to become man than to enkindle in the hearts of men the fire of his holy love: I am come to cast fire on earth; and what will I but that it be kindled? [Luke 12:49.] And, oh, what beautiful flames of love has he not enkindled in so many souls, especially by the pains that he chose to suffer in his death, in order to prove to us the immeasurable love which he still bears to us!

Oh, how many souls, happy in the wounds of Jesus, as in the burning furnaces of love, have been so inflamed with his love that they have not refused to consecrate to him their goods, their lives, and their whole selves, surmounting with great courage all the difficulties which they had to encounter in the observance of the divine law, for the love of that Lord who, being God, chose to suffer so much for love of them!

Wherefore St. Augustine, all inflamed with love at the sight of Jesus nailed on the cross, prayed thus sweetly: “Imprint, O Lord, Thy wounds in my heart, that I may read therein suffering and love: suffering, that I may endure for Thee all suffering; love, that I may despise for Thee all love.” “ Write,” he said, “my most loving Savior, write on my heart Thy wounds, in order that I may always behold therein Thy sufferings and Thy love. Yes, because having before my eyes the great sufferings that Thou, my God, didst endure for me, I may bear in silence all the sufferings that it may fall to my lot to endure; and at the sight of the love which Thou didst exhibit for me on the cross, I may never love or be able to love any other than Thee.”

Who, then, can ever complain that he suffers wrongfully, when he considers Jesus, who was bruised for our sins? [Isa 53:5.] Who can refuse to obey, on account of some inconvenience, when Jesus became obedient unto death? [Phil 2:8.] Who can refuse ignominies, when they behold Jesus treated as a fool, as a mock king, as a disorderly person, struck, spit upon his face, and suspended upon an infamous gibbet?

Who could love any other object besides Jesus when they see him dying in the midst of so many sufferings and insults, in order to captivate our love? A certain devout solitary prayed to God to teach him what he could do in order to love him perfectly. Our Lord revealed to him that there was no more efficient way to arrive at the perfect love of him than to meditate constantly on his Passion.

St. Teresa lamented and complained of certain books which had taught her to leave off meditating on the Passion of Christ, because this might be an impediment to the contemplation of his divinity; and the saint exclaimed, “O Lord of my soul, O my Jesus crucified, my treasure! I never remember this opinion without thinking that I have been guilty of great treachery. And is it possible that Thou, my Lord, couldst be an obstacle to me in the way of a greater good? Whence, then, do all good things come to me, but from thee?” And she then added, “I have seen that, in order to please God, and to induce him to grant us great graces, he wills that they should all pass through the hands of his most sacred humanity, in which his divine majesty declared that he took pleasure.”

For this reason, Father Balthasar Alvarez said that ignorance of the treasures that we possess in Jesus was the ruin of Christians; and therefore his most favorite and usual meditation was on the Passion of Jesus Christ. He meditated especially on three of the sufferings of Jesus – his poverty, contempt, and pain; and he exhorted his penitents to meditate frequently on the Passion of our Redeemer, telling them that they should not consider that they had done anything at all, until they had arrived at retaining Jesus crucified continually present in their hearts.

“He who desires,” says St. Bonaventure, “to go on advancing from virtue to virtue, from grace to grace, should meditate continually on the Passion of Jesus.” And he adds that “there is no practice more profitable for the entire sanctification of the soul than the frequent meditation on the sufferings of Jesus Christ.”

St. Augustine also said that a single tear shed at the remembrance of the Passion of Jesus is worth more than a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, or a year of fasting on bread on water. Yes, because it was for this end that our Savior suffered so much, in order that we should think of his sufferings; because if we think on them it is impossible not to be inflamed with divine love: The charity of Christ presseth us, says St. Paul [2 Cor. 5: 14.] Jesus is loved by few because few consider the pains he suffered for us; but he that frequently considers them cannot live without loving Jesus. “The charity of Christ presseth us.” He will feel so constrained by his love that he will not find it possible to refrain from loving a God so full of love, who has suffered so much to make us love him.

Therefore the Apostle said that he desired to know nothing but Jesus, and Jesus crucified; that is, the love that he has shown us on the cross: I judged not myself to know anything among you but Jesus Christ, and Him crucified [1 Cor 2:2]. And, in truth, from what books can we better learn the science of the saints – that is the science of loving God – than from Jesus crucified?

St. Thomas Aquinas was one day paying a visit to St. Bonaventure, and asked him from what book he had drawn all the beautiful lessons he had written. St. Bonaventure showed him the image of the Crucified, which was completely blackened by all the kisses that he had given it, and said, “This is my book whence I receive everything that I write; and it has taught me whatever little I know.”

In short, all the saints have learned the art of loving God from the study of the crucifix. Brother John of Alvernia, every time that he beheld Jesus wounded, could not restrain his tears. Brother James of Tuderto, when he heard the Passion of our Redeemer read, not only wept bitterly, but broke into loud sobs, overcome with the love with which he was inflamed toward his beloved Lord.

It was this sweet study of the crucifix which made St. Francis become a great seraph. He wept so continually in meditating on the sufferings of Jesus Christ, that he almost entirely lost his sight. On one occasion, being found crying out and weeping, he was asked what was the matter with him. “What ails me?” answered the saint. “I weep over the sorrows and insults inflicted on my Lord; and my sorrow is increased when I think of those ungrateful men who do not love him, but live without any thought of him.” Every time that he heard the bleating of a lamb, he felt himself touched with compassion at the thought of the death of Jesus, the Immaculate Lamb, drained of every drop of blood upon the cross for the sins of the world. And therefore this loving saint could find no subject on which he exhorted his brethren with greater eagerness than the constant remembrance of the Passion of Jesus.

This, then is the book – Jesus crucified – which, if we constantly read it, will teach us, on the one hand, to have a lively fear of sin, and, on the other hand, will inflame us with love for a God so full of love for us; while we read in these wounds the great malice of sin, which reduced a God to suffer so bitter a death in order to satisfy the divine justice, and the love which our Savior has shown us in choosing to suffer so much in order to prove to us how much he loved us.

Let us beseech the divine Mother Mary to obtain for us from her Son the grace that we also may enter into these furnaces of love, in which so many loving hearts are consumed, in order that, our earthly affections being there burned away, we also may burn with those blessed flames, which render souls holy on earth and blessed in heaven. Amen. 

See all of my Catholic books Here. 

God Wills that all Graces come through Mary

Therefore the intercession of Mary is morally necessary for our 

salvation.

Although not infallibly defined as a doctrine of Church teaching, as are Mary's Immaculate Conception and her Assumption into heaven, St. Alphonsus de Liguori considers it to be a certain truth that all graces come to us through the Mother of God. He copiously demonstrates the reasons for this in his book The Glories of Mary. St Alphonsus (1696-1787), who has been declared a Doctor of the Church, penned this Catholic classic 250 years ago. Following are selected passages from chapter five of The Glories of Mary:

That it is most useful and holy to have recourse to the intercession of Mary can only be doubted by those who have not faith. But that which we intend to prove here is, that the intercession of Mary is even necessary to salvation; we say necessary – not absolutely, but morally. This necessity proceeds from the will itself of God, that all graces that He dispenses should pass by the hands of Mary, according to the opinion of St. Bernard, and which we may now with safety call the general opinion of theologians and learned men. In the words of the saint, “Such is His will, that we should have all by Mary.”

Another author, in a commentary on a passage of Jeremias [Jer. 31: 22], in which the prophet, speaking of the Incarnation of the Eternal Word, and of Mary His Mother, says that “a woman shall compass a man,” remarks, that “as no line can be drawn from the center of a circle without passing by the circumference, so no grace proceeds from Jesus, who is the center of every good thing, without passing by Mary, who compassed Him when she received Him into her womb.” Saint Bernadine says that for this reason, “all gifts, all virtues, and all graces are dispensed by the hands of Mary to whomsoever, when, and as she pleases.” Richard of Saint Lawrence also asserts “that God wills that whatever good things He bestows on His creatures should pass by the hands of Mary.”

TAN Books

That it is not only lawful but useful to invoke and pray to the saints, and more especially to the Queen of Saints, the most holy and ever Blessed Virgin Mary, in order that they obtain us the Divine grace, is an article of faith, and has been defined by general councils, against heretics who condemned it as injurious to Jesus Christ, who is our only mediator. But on the other hand it is impious to assert that God is not pleased to grant graces at the intercession of His saints, and more especially of Mary His mother, whom Jesus desires to see loved and honored by all.

No one denies that Jesus Christ is our only mediator of justice, and that He by His merits has obtained our reconciliation with God. But . . . mediation of justice by way of merit is one thing, and mediation of grace by way of prayer is another. There can be no doubt that by the merits of Jesus, Mary was made the mediatress of our salvation; not indeed a mediatress of justice, but of grace and intercession; as St. Bonaventure expressly calls her “Mary the most faithful mediatress of our salvation.”

There is certainly nothing contrary to faith in this, but the reverse. It is quite in accordance with the sentiments of the Church, which, in its public and approved prayers, teaches us continually to have recourse to this Divine Mother, and to invoke her as the “health of the weak, the refuge of sinners, the help of Christians, and as our life and hope.” In the office appointed to be said on the feasts of Mary, this same holy Church, applying the words of Ecclesiasticus to this Blessed Virgin, gives us to understand that in her we find all hope, “In me is all hope of life and of virtue;” in Mary is every grace, “In me is all grace of the way and of the truth [Eccl. 24:25].” In Mary, finally, we shall find life and eternal salvation: “Who finds me finds life, and draws salvation from the Lord [Prov. 8:35].” And elsewhere: “They that work by me shall not sin; they that explain me shall have everlasting life [Eccl 24: 30-31].” And surely such expressions as these sufficiently prove that we require the intercession of Mary. 

By Fra Angelico

And thus, finally, do we understand why the holy Church requires that we should salute and invoke the Divine Mother under the glorious title of “our hope.” The impious Luther said that he “could not endure that the Roman Church should call Mary, who is only a creature, 'our hope;' for,” said he, “God alone, and Jesus Christ as our Mediator, is our hope: and God curses those who place their hope in a creature, according to the prophet Jeremias: 'Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord' [Jer. 17:5].”

But the Church teaches to invoke Mary on all occasions, and to call her “our hope; hail, our hope!” Whoever places his confidence in a creature independently of God, he certainly is cursed by God; for God is the only source and dispenser of every good, and the creature without God is nothing and can give nothing. But if our Lord has so disposed it, as we have proved that He has done, that all graces should pass by Mary as by a channel of mercy, we not only can but ought to assert that she, by whose means we receive the divine graces, is truly our hope. Saint Thomas says that “Mary is the whole hope of our salvation.”

Jesus was the fruit of Mary, as Saint Elizabeth told her: “Blessed are thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of they womb. Whoever therefore desires the fruit must go to the tree; whoever desires Jesus must go to Mary; and whoever finds Mary will most certainly find Jesus. And as we have access to the Eternal Father, says Saint Bernard, only through Jesus Christ, so we have access to Jesus Christ only through Mary: “By thee we have access to the Son, O blessed finder of grace, bearer of life, and mother of salvation, that we may receive Him by thee, Who through thee was given to us.”

See my Catholic books on Mary, the Rosary, and others Here.

How Satan tempts mothers to abort their children

Venerable Mary of Agreda, author of The Mystical City of God. From Chapter XV, Book IV:

He misses no chance of causing us damage or leading us into sin and robbing us of grace, even from the moment of our conception until that of our death. Hence so long must last also our defense.

281. All this, especially with the children of the Church, happens in the following manner. As soon as the demons suspect that the conception of a human body is to take place, he first notes the intention of the parents, and whether they are in the state of grace or not, or whether they have committed any excess in the act of generation; he studies also the complexion of the humors of their bodies, for ordinarily these humors influence also those of the body generated. The demons also take note of the particular as well as of the general natural causes and conditions of nature, which unite in bringing about the generation and the organization of the human body. From these different concurring elements of generation, the demons, with their vast experience, judge as much as possible of the complexion or inclinations of the one conceived and they are wont to layout great plans for future action. 

If they fear good results, they seek to hinder as much as possible the last generation or infusion of the soul, waylaying the mother with dangers or temptations to bring about an abortion before the creation of the soul, which is ordinarily delayed forty or eighty days. But as soon as they see God create or infuse the soul, the wrath of these dragons exerts itself in furious activity to prevent the creature from issuing to light, and from attaining Baptism, if it is to be born where this Sacrament can easily be administered. For this purpose they suggest and tempt the mothers to many disorders and excesses, whereby the parturition is forced and a premature birth or the death of the child in the womb might be caused; for among Catholics and heretics, who still administer Baptism, the demons content themselves with depriving children of Baptism and thus withholding them in limbo from the vision of God. Among pagans and idolaters they are not so solicitous, because among them damnation is in certain prospect.

282. Against their malign influence the Most High provides defense and protection in various ways. The most common is that of his vast and universal Providence, which insures the proper effects of natural causes in their time, independently of the perversion or hindrance of the demons. For this is the limit set to their power. Otherwise, if God would give free scope to their implacable malice, they would overturn the whole world. The goodness of the Creator will not allow this, nor does He wish to deliver over his works or the government of inferior matters, much less that of men, to his sworn and mortal enemies. For the demons, in his scheme of the universe, hold the places merely of vile executioners; and even in this office they do no more than what is commanded or permitted them.

If depraved men would not join hands with these enemies, entertaining their deceits and by their sins meriting punishment, all nature would preserve the common order of cause and effect both in general and in particular; and there would be no occasion for such great misfortunes and losses among the faithful, in the diminution of crops, in contagious diseases, in sudden deaths, and in other devastations invented by the devil. All these and many other evils, happening even at the birth of children through vices and disorders, we merit ourselves by uniting with the demons for our own chastisement and by delivering ourselves over to their malice.

                                      

See my Catholic books Here.

The Four Degrees of Poverty – St. Alphonsus de Liguori

True poverty consists in having less than is necessary.

Following are selected passages from pages 263-276 from The True Spouse of Jesus Christ. Although he wrote this book particularly for nuns, St. Alphonsus states in his preface that only a small portion of it is directed exclusively to them, “and what regards the Christian virtues, will be found highly useful even for seculars.” In fact he subtitled the book: The Nun Sanctified by the Virtues of her State.

The first degree of perfect religious poverty is not to possess anything as one's own. Hence a religious should regard but as a loan whatever she possesses, and should be ready to give it up at the first intimation of the Superior's will. A sister who is afflicted at being deprived of anything by the Superior shows that she did not retain it with the true spirit of poverty, or at least that she had some attachment to it. And if you feel an attachment to anything whatsoever, resolve, in imitation of that great servant of God, Sister Mary of the Cross, either to deprive yourself of it, or to bring it to the Superior and leave it at her disposal. In a word, you must preserve the heart free from all affection, even for those things you are permitted to retain. 

The second degree of poverty is, to deprive yourself of whatever is superfluous: for the smallest superfluity will prevent a perfect union of the soul with God. You may imagine that a certain sum of money or a certain portion of property will enable you to relieve the poor or to assist your companions. But I repeat that it is the nun that has nothing to give, and not the religious that has the means of distributing alms, who edifies the Church. St. Thomas says that “it is good to give your goods to the needy, but it is better to be poor with Christ.” If you truly desire to be with Jesus Christ, I advise you, not indeed to be singular, but not to allow any of your companions to surpass you in poverty. And that you may be among the poorest of your companions, you must endeavor to be poor in all things, in your dress, in your furniture, and in your food. In the chronicles of St. Jerome we read that when Superiors found curiosities in the convent they immediately cast them into the fire, calling them idols of religious. The great servant of God Sister Mary Magdalene Carafa would not keep in her cell paintings or presents, or even many books. “For reading,” she would say, “a single book is sufficient and contains more than we can put into practice.”

The third degree of poverty requires that you do not complain when you are in want even of necessaries. The Mother of God once said to one of her devout servants, a Franciscan nun: “My child, as long as all your wants are supplied, you are not poor; true poverty consists in having less than is necessary.” “To desire to be poor,” says St. Francis de Sales, “and not to feel any of the inconveniences of want, is to wish for the honor of poverty and advantages of riches.” On every occasion in which you have to suffer from want have before your eyes the beautiful sentiment of St. Jane Frances Chantal, who was accustomed to say, that as the opportunities of practicing poverty are so rare, we should, whenever they occur, accept them with gladness.

Excellent biography of the saint from TAN Books.

The fourth and last degree of poverty requires not only that a religious be content with what is poor, but also that she prefer and select what is poorest – the poorest cell, the poorest bed the poorest clothes, and the poorest food. It will be useful to insert in this place the beautiful instruction of Father Anthony Torres to a nun who was one of his penitents. “Since your Spouse esteemed poverty so highly, you should love it as a treasure; you should practice it in all things, and glory in it more than in the most splendid ornaments. Do not allow any nun or lay-sister in the convent to be poorer than you. Do not possess or seek anything, however necessary it may appear, without first looking at your naked Spouse on the Cross and asking His permission.” And dearest sister, since you have left all things for God, do not, for the sake of any miserable earthly good, expose your soul to the danger of eternal perdition. Imagine that God places before you Himself on the one hand and creatures on the other, and that He speaks to you in the language that He once addressed to the Venerable Mary Crucified: “Choose between me and creatures whichsoever will make you happy.” A religious should have no treasure but God.

As in all the chapters of his book, St. Alphonsus concludes with a prayer, which begins “My Jesus in Thee I find all things, out of Thee I desire nothing. Ah! Draw me entirely to Thee: enkindle in my heart Thy holy love, by which I desire to see myself entirely consumed.” He always closes the prayer with some invocation to Mary. “Mary, my mother, in thy intercession, my hopes are placed.”

View all my Catholic books Here. 

Padre Pio and Luisa Piccarreta

Two of the greatest mystics of the past century have been St. Pio of Pietrelcina, and Luisa Piccarreta. The four books of Padre Pio's letters astonish readers for their spiritual wisdom and depth, as well as practical advice. The thirty-six books of Luisa Piccarreta's revelations, and her other works, continue to be mined by both clergy and laity alike who wish a deeper understanding of the Divine Will of God. 

 

Although Luisa and Padre Pio knew about and esteemed one another, it is not certain just how or when they became aware of each other, since there is no record that they ever met in person, at least not by natural means. They were contemporaries, and spent their lives in the same province of Puglia, or Apulia, in the southeast of Italy along the Adriatic Coast. They lived most of their lives only about 50 miles apart, with Luisa confined to her bed in Corato, and Padre Pio to his monastery in San Giovanni Rotondo. As word of the sanctity of each spread among the pious Catholics of the Italian South, it seems inevitable that they would have been told about each other from among the many visitors that besieged them.

I have researched as thoroughly as possible all the available facts, stories and information that I have been able to find regarding the relationship between these two amazing mystics, Padre Pio and Luisa Piccarreta. I would like to use the word "saints" for both, and I join with many in praying that this new year will see the Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta declared Venerable by the Church, if not Beatified.

To read the surprising story about their spiritual friendship, please click Here.

Pope Francis and Christ's Miracles

Is the Pope denying that Christ worked miracles?  The atheist Engenio Scalfari reported [Link] that the pope had told him that once he has become incarnate, Jesus ceases to be a God and becomes a man up until his death on the cross.  He quotes Pope Francis as saying: ". . . Jesus of Nazareth, once he became man, was simply a man of exceptional virtue, he was not quite a God."  Of course the Vatican denies that these were accurate recollections of what the pope "actually" said.  Personally, I tend to believe Scalfari's report. Francis' off-the-cuff interviews reveal what he really thinks, as opposed to the official speeches he gives, which are most likely written by others.

If, and I emphasize the “if,” the pope thinks that Jesus did not operate as God in his earthly life, then he is implicitly denying that Jesus wrought true miracles, since miracles are of God.  Does he think that the multiplication of the loaves was that silly canard of people sharing their fish sandwiches, does he think that he did not walk on the water because the lake was beginning to ice up, or that those raised from the dead were simply recalled from near-death experiences they were undergoing? 

Yet Our Lord himself said that if you do not believe in him, believe in the works that he does. By this he affirms that his works are miraculous.  "Do you not believe, that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak to you, I speak not of myself. But the Father who abideth in me, he doth the works.  Believe you not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me?  Otherwise believe for the very works' sake. Amen, amen I say to you, he that believeth in me, the works that I do, he also shall do; and greater than these shall he do."  [John, 14:10-12, Douay-Rheims. ]

Regardless of how "progressive," preposterous, or outrageous this pope is, it is important to still accept his presence as pope, since the Church can only be rebuilt from within. All that is not Catholic of the Vatican II cult must be rejected. And that includes the veneration of pagan statuary.  

View my Catholic books Here. 

(Credit: CNS.)

Amazing Miracles of Padre Pio

Amazing Miracles of Padre Pio - and the stories behind them.  That's the title of my newest book, which contains thirty documented stories of miracles and wonders performed through the intercession of St. Pio of Pietrelcina.  They include examples of his bilocations, healings, reading of souls, and conversions, as well as more esoteric tales of people seeing him crowned with thorns, seeing Jesus when they looked at Padre Pio, and his visits from the souls in Purgatory.  Many of his miraculous gifts do not fit into any known categories. 

The book is available in both print and e-book format, click Here.  

See all of my Catholic books Here.