Some stunning examples of this Gift of the Holy Spirit in the Life of St Anna Schaffer. I never heard of cases quite like this before , even in the life of St Padre Pio. Amazing. Plus she has gorgeous eyes, they remind me of St Gemma Galgani.
Saint Anna mentions that she met a 10 year old girl child crying in Purgatory because her relatives were not praying for her. I suppose most modern Catholics would at once give this the thumbs down, even recoiling in horror at the very idea of a loving, merciful God having a child in Purgatory. But of course in Fatima we had very young children being shown hell and told of a young girl from their village who would be in Purgatory , 'Until the End of the World'. So there's nothing new in all this. But them again most moderns would reject Fatima too as , 'Old Hat'. It occurs to me that even here on Earth we can punish children quite severely ,sending them to Detention Centres or prisons. Personally I love this , 'Hard Edge' to the Faith. It makes things real. We were taught as children that when we reached the age of reason we could make choices for good or evil. Since we had such an ability we then needed the Sacrament of Confession. I do recall from my own childhood of being aware of committing sins and being aware that I did so. St Augustine reports a time when he and friends robbed an apple orchard. He said it was a very, very bad thing because they did it out of simple badness, not even for the fruit itself. If it is possible for children to choose to be saints, I suppose it is possible from them to choose to be demons too.
I think this Hard Edge is one of the things that convinces me that a particular revelation is true. New Agy, False Revelations tend to sweet smelling, perfect, nothing could be more wonderful with no Dark Edge whatsoever. Saccharine Sweet. True mystical experiences tend to have parts were the wheels hit the floor, so to speak. Get real moments.
At Fatima, when Lucia asked if Francisco would go to heaven too, Our Lady said, "Yes, but first he must say many Rosaries." This little phrase has always scared me in a spiritual sense - an innocent little boy from the foothills of a mountain region -- yet he had to say many Rosaries to be saved - Children today are exposes to so much perversion - is there innocence left anywhere? -- how difficult for the young people and indeed everyone today to be saved! The loss of innocence, the loss of the sense of sin has truly opened up the floodgates to hell -- Garabandal - October 18, 1961 "We must make many sacrifices, perform much penance, and visit the Blessed Sacrament frequently. But first, we must lead good lives. If we do not, a chastisement will befall us. The cup is already filling up, and if we do not change, a very great chastisement will come upon us." June 18, 1965 As my Message of the 18th of October has not been complied with, and as it has not been made known to the world, I am telling you that this is the last one. Previously, the Cup was filling; now, it is brimming over. Many Cardinals, Bishops and priests are following the road to perdition, and with them they are taking many more souls. Ever less importance is being given to the Holy Eucharist. We should turn the wrath of God away from us by our own efforts. If you ask His forgiveness with a sincere heart. He will pardon you. I, your Mother, through the intercession of St. Michael the Archangel, wish to tell you that you should make amends. You are now being given the last warnings. I love you very much, and I do not want your condemnation. Ask Us sincerely and We shall grant your plea...Reflect on the Passion of Jesus
It is quite common, I notice, in Apparitions of the Blessed Virgin for some people to see more and some less than others. So sometimes one person can see all and another, at the same time nothing at all. Some can hear but not see, some smell, but not see or hear. It depends I think on the Spiritual state of the one watching and the condesension of heaven. 'Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God'. When the sun danced at Fatima, it is interesting to read the reports from individuals, or from Knock Ireland it is interesting to see how the amount each person saw of the phenomena in front of them. It would be interesting to ask a large group of school children what they experienced on receiving the Eucharist for the first time. I bet you would get the most interesting answers.
I read a funny story about a party of young Italian Pilgrims who travelled to Rome to see a priest. Confessor who had the Stigmata. The Father was supposed to have the Gift of Reading Souls and so the young pilgrims were naturally enough, I suppose more than a little nervous about what he might turn up. So on the way down to Rome they arranged to stop at a Church so another priest could get to hear their Confessions first. So that when they went to Confession in Rome the Father there would find them with a clean slate and nothing to Read.
And....did the Stigmata priest read their souls afterward and was there anything there left to read? Jesus has told the saints many times that confessed sins are gone. Period. Its a comforting thought.
There is the story of Padre Pio telling a lady in Confession as a Penance , that when she got home she should look down a Well in her garden. When she did so she saw the face of a baby she had had aborted years before staring from the water back up at her. I think what is striking about this story is that the woman had forgotten what she had done and so never confessed it. The only way I can understand this forgetting is that sin can be normalised to such an extent that we can forget, thinking to ourselves, 'Everyone does it, it is no big deal'. Pope St John Paul visited Sicily one time and gave very bitter condemnations of the Mafia down there. The police happened to record the conversation of several Mafia Dons at the time. They were complaining bitterly about Pop JP's condemnation. . They explained to each other what great Catholics they were going to Mass every Sunday, giving to Charity and having a Great Devotion to the Madonna and the saints...what was there not to like? Again the normalisation of sin, to such an extent that conscience was dead...
Our Lady of Fatima was so clearly right when she said that the sin which by far drags souls to Hell in our own times is the Sin of Impurity. Why is this? Because it is so everywhere in our Culture that it is considered the , 'Normal' way. very, very few people see the least thing wrong with it. Perhaps the way we can see this more clearly is in the way women, in particular, dress. One French writer even claims that the greatest perversion of all if Celibacy, because it is so, 'Unnatural'.
The very greatest punishment of all is not to be even aware of our sins. In other words to have murdered our poor conscience by repeatedly ignoring it. If we can no longer even hear the voice of God in our Soul what chance do we have?
It never fails to come to my attention how even I who talked the talk.. could somehow habitually sin.. w/o the full import of said sin from striking home.. ! Any habit of sin within.. IS a sure sign that one barely? has God within! Our Goal on Earth is to rid ourselves of ALL SIN.. !
I believe that the main focus of our Spiritual Eyes must not be on our own sins but on the Mercy of God. There must, to be sure, be an awareness of our sins but a much greater trust on the Mercy of God. We know we are Great Sinners but we also know we have a Great Saviour. I remember after my conversion my Spiritual Director was more than a little shocked at how laid back I seemed to be about my truly dreadful past sinful life. But I quoted him from the Prophet Isiah, 'Even if your sins be as red as scarlet , I will make them white as snow'. I told him I really and truly believed God had forgiven me as He promised and if God forgave me, it meant nothing to me what anyone else should think. It seems to me that there are two great graces here. The grace of being forgiven. The second grace, just as great as the first, is the grace of believing ourselves forgiven. The Book of Sirach teaches us that the just man falls several times a day. This process of being forgiven and accepting we are forgiven will go on until our dying breath.
I fully agree, padraig... Complete Examination of Conscience requires accepting God's assistance. Knowing / Believing that God is Merciful? Our Seeing of our Sins via a Firm Faith in Jesus - Word of God - is as a Prime example of God's spiritual Merciful Works - to His Faithful.. We are called to RePent.. ReThink.. Re-Be.. to become just as our Heavenly Father is.. And fully and deeply coming to Know our Sins (Thanks be to God) is as a pre-requisite to obedient & willful RePentance // Metanoia.. +
I remember how relentlessly my father and mother would point out each others failings to each other. Being single I have not got that great grace. My Spiritual Director used to be great at this but he is long gone. I appreciate now as I get older how aggressive and combative I can be when challenged. This does not encourage people to venture any critique. Also keeping myself very much to myself maybe does not help. It is great for us all to have someone out there to tap us on the shoulder and bring us down a peg or two. The Desert Fathers however comment that the greatest spiritual danger to those who live alone is anger. Who is this anger against but ourselves. There is no fleeing from God's anger; the consequence of sin, it always finds us out, no matter under what stone we may hide ourselves.
I think our Angel Guardians are great at pointing things out. They are great Truth Tellers. But in order for this to work we must have a true, living relationship with our Good Angel. Few people have this. If we are unaccustomed to listening to his voice, we are deaf when he attempts to critique. Not a good place to be in.
