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Diary of Saint Faustina - paragraph 742 - Demands of Mercy

742 Yes, the first Sunday after Easter is the Feast of Mercy, but there must also be acts of mercy, and I demand the worship of My mercy through the solemn celebration of the Feast and through the veneration of the image which is painted. By means of this image I shall grant many graces to souls. It is to be a reminder of the demands of My mercy, because even the strongest faith is of no avail without works.

Christians worship Christ but in this excerpt from Saint Faustina's Diary, we have Christ Himself seeming to direct our worship away from His person, onto the attribute of His Divine Mercy. We know that Jesus Christ is the physical personification of Divine Mercy so if we worship Christ, we are hand in hand with worshipping his mercy anyway so why is this specific demand necessary? I suspect it's all about Christ making our carnal brains less hardwired to Christ's physical person and more synched into His larger spiritual self, especially in the attribute of His Divine Mercy.

Diary of Saint Faustina - paragraph 88 

I asked Jesus whether the inscription could be: "Christ King of Mercy." He answered, I am King of Mercy.

If we worship Christ our King in all heartfelt truth then we also worship all attributes of the King in equal heartfelt truth. This would include the worship of His Divine Mercy but I don't think this is what we normally envision when we think of worship. I like to pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy every day and I believe that can qualify as worship but I think Christ is talking about something different here. The worship of Christ's Mercy is more lively and outward going than the pleading of mercy for ourselves or others. I think the truest and most spiritual worship of Christ's Mercy is the interior spirit pushing the exterior flesh into working acts of mercy for others rather than the pleading of mercy for oneself.

Supportive Scripture - Douay Rheims Challoner Bible

John 4:24 God is a spirit: and they that adore him must adore him in spirit and in truth.

In paragraph 742 above, Christ directs our attention to the famous image of Him with red and white rays coming from His Most Sacred Heart. And it's revealing that He tells us this image is to be a reminder of the “demands of My mercy,” because even the strongest faith is of no avail without works. We don't normally think of Christ's Divine Mercy as a demanding thing because we're pleading for ourselves or a loved one to be on the receiving end of the Mercy. Christ seems to be making it clear that there are demands that come with His Mercy though, and Scripture has something to say about this also.

Supportive Scripture - Douay Rheims Challoner Bible

Matthew 18:32-35  Thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all the debt, because thou besoughtest me: Shouldst not thou then have had compassion also on thy fellow servant, even as I had compassion on thee? And his lord being angry, delivered him to the torturers until he paid all the debt. So also shall my heavenly Father do to you, if you forgive not every one his brother from your hearts.

The demands of Christ's Mercy are to be equally merciful ourselves, not hoarding the mercy we plead for but channeling it from interior self, to the exterior world as the wicked servant in the above parable failed to do. And the forceful channeling of God's Mercy is the work that Christ speaks of in the last line of Saint Faustina's entry, “the strongest faith is of no avail without works.” The lesson here is that if we have a lively faith in the Divine Mercy we plead for, we soon recognize that Mercy is bigger than our needs and react accordingly. Christ’s Mercy starts within but Christ’s demand regarding His Mercy is that through faith we work that Mercy outward into the lives of all others.

Supportive Scripture - Douay Rheims Challoner Bible 

James 2:17 So faith also, if it have not works, is dead in itself.

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Saint Teresa of Avila- Interior Castle - Fourth Dwelling  Places - Interior Gaze

I think I never put this matter so clearly before. To seek God within ourselves avails us far more than to look for Him amongst creatures; Saint Augustine tells us how he found the Almighty within his own soul, after having long sought for Him elsewhere.

Interior recollection is how we find God most intimately but also, interior recollection is very spiritual, and goes against the grain of our carnal nature. We first became fallen by not looking interioraly to God but looking outwardly and away from God, to self and from there it was only natural that our wandering gaze would continue outward from self into creation. That ongoing look away from God to self and next to the material creation deepened our fall from God through the ages. In time it became so normalized that today, even when looking for God Himself, we inherently “look for Him among creatures” rather than deeply within, where God has always been.

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Romans 1:25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator.

None of this is to deny the beauty of God's creation or that God can be found in fallen creation because God is still omnipresent throughout all of the universe. But in the interactive sense of God redeeming fallen man, we find God most powerfully within ourselves, not in the creation, not even in self but buried beneath self, as the last core remnant of who we were before we set self before God. 

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First Kings 19:18 And I will leave me seven thousand men in Israel, whose knees have not been bowed before Baal, and every mouth that hath not worshipped him, kissing the hands.

Despite my belief that our initial fall from God became a continuing fall through the ages, I still don't believe any of us has cut ourselves off from God altogether. There is still some small uncorrupted remnant in all men, even the greatest monsters of history that has never bowed the knee to kiss the hands of Baal and this is why Saint Catherines tells us, “To seek God within ourselves avails us far more than to look for Him amongst creatures.” If we look for God outwardly we look through corrupted lenses of self, through passions, lusts, and vices which cloud our spiritual vision. And if we think we find God outwardly in the fallen creation, then we're looking at Him amidst the shroud of all accumulated sin since the days of Eden, which hampers our perception of God. If we look for God interioraly though, we are looking away from those outer passions, lusts and jealousies of self to see Him in His purer light, unshrouded by the sins of self and the world. And the more interioraly we go the more self will be burned away in His light. I think we all try to look interioraly to some degree but I doubt any of us are very good at it. We get a little bit beneath the surface and think we're there, mistaking progress for perfection and complicating things even more with the sin of pride.

None of that means we stop looking for God just because pride or some other sin may hamper our journey through the Interior Castle. Sin always challenges us but if we continue looking inward toward God, we will be drawn through all obstacles of sin as they arise, leaving them to our backs as we continue forward to the King's Chamber at the center of the Castle. I doubt any of us will coast easily into the King's Chamber though. I don't even think we’d make it on our own effort even though the last part of our journey may become less difficult. I think God's pull on us will just get stronger as we near Him and make the last part of the journey less difficult. Sin does not survive God's presence so the closer we get to God, the more our sin will whither, the weaker the temptations will be and the stronger His pull will become. We will ultimately be pulled into and immersed in His cleansing interior light by continuing to look for Him interioraly, as Saint Teresa says, and on that day, we shall know, hear and see God interioraly in ways that could never be had by searching for Him among creatures of this fallen realm.

Supportive Scripture - Douay Rheims Challoner Bible

First Corinthians 2:9 But, as it is written: That eye hath not seen, nor ear heard: neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what things God hath prepared for them that love him.

im looking into reading and studying Thomas Aquinas’ mystic works. is there any works of his that i should look into first? im looking for more or less profoundly mystic work of his rather than dogmatic (for lack of a better word)

An excellent story from "The Prayer of the Frog":

"After many years of labour an inventor discovered the art of making fire. He took his tools to the snow-clad northern regions and initiated a tribe into the art — and the advantages — of making fire. The people became so absorbed in this novelty that it did not occur to them to thank the inventor who one day quietly slipped away. Being one of those rare human beings endowed with greatness, he had no desire to be remembered or revered; all he sought was the satisfaction of knowing that someone had benefited from his discovery.

The next tribe he went to was just as eager to learn as the first. But the local priests, jealous of the stranger’s hold on the people, had him assassinated. To allay any suspicion of the crime, they had a portrait of the Great Inventor enthroned upon the main altar of the temple; and a liturgy designed so that his name would be revered and his memory kept alive. The greatest care was taken that not a single rubric of the liturgy was altered or omitted. The tools for making fire were enshrined within a casket and were said to bring healing to all who laid their hands on them with faith.

The High Priest himself undertook the task of compiling a Life of the Inventor. This became the Holy book in which his loving kindness was offered as an example for all to emulate, his glorious deeds were eulogized, his superhuman nature made an article of faith. The priests saw to it that the Book was handed down to future generations, while they authoritatively interpreted the meaning of his words and the significance of his holy life and death. And they ruthlessly punished with death or excommunication anyone who deviated from their doctrine. Caught up as they were in these religious tasks, the people completely forgot the art of making fire."

God spiritually indwells the intellect that receives Him, as the intellect in its turn lays hold upon God. Thus the intellect clearly perceives the truth of Paul’s words, ‘He who cleaves to the Lord is one spirit with Him’ (1 Cor. 6:17).

When giving freely and opening your heart god provides in ways that are not explainable. I've had Edenic like experiences in flirting with veganism and moving from lust to love. Animals greeting me, free food, kindness from strangers, huge success in growing food and new realms of beauty.

I've also had prayers answered immediately in regards to being grateful for what I have. See Matthew 25:29 To all who have, more will be given, and they will have more than enough. But everything will be taken away from those who don't have much.

Side note: Does anyone have experience in miraculous healing?

I think it's absolutely wonderful for people to spend time learning about God and his son's life and the plan they have for all of us, but one thing God has revealed to me is that he really wants genuine connection. To Him and between people. It feels like, in our communities, we're more focused on our reputation and how we appear to others rather than genuinely loving one another.

I attend a ministry and church on Sunday and it seems like everyone is putting on an act to impress one another. This was NEVER the goal of the church. It was literally to build relationships. To spend time talking to one another and God.

Christian Mysticism: The goal of Christian mysticism is to achieve spiritual union with God, typically through personal purification, prayer, contemplation, and living in accordance with the teachings of Christ. Salvation involves grace and the transformation of the soul, leading to a deeper love for God and others. Christian mystics seek to experience God's love and presence in their lives, allowing this experience to shape their actions and relationships.

If anyone wants to deepen their personal relationship with God for this purpose, or feels like their current level of devotion could be improved, please reach out to me. I can help you.

I think God wants me to keep reaching out, so here I am! Anyways, I would love to hear what y’all have been experiencing in your spiritual lives. It could be anything from a religious experience, to a trial you’ve been faced with, to a spiritual overhaul, or just a change of pace. It’s always good for my soul to hear your stories.

My recent development is a return of an indescribable and immediate faith in God and His constant loving presence, perhaps more robust than ever before. I feel Him accompanying me as a Companion in my life, a Friend whom I can trust with everything, who is always there as a support if I only turn to Him. There is this indescribable sweetness I feel, this wholesomeness, pure goodness, this loving care and understanding, this support, all so utterly mysterious—but of course those words don’t capture it at all. It’s so far beyond words that what I write feels quite silly. I love my Friend so much! I could not be more lucky! I am going through many inner challenges lately, and it can get quite rough, but God is helping me through it and overall I just feel so thankful.

BTW, does anyone else think that there should be a weekly thread like this?

Hello everyone,

First off I want to give a disclaimer: this post will contain "heresy" whether you are catholic, orthodox or any of the most popular protestant denominations. I am just here to share my interrogations, and not express any convictions from my part. Also I post on this sub because I usually find your insights as being the most interesting of the christian part of reddit.

I'm currently struggling with the historicity of the virgin birth, which is the literal (as in factual historical event) interpretation that Mary was physically a virgin at the conception of Jesus. I am now realizing I have not payed a lot of attention on this part of the gospel, because it didn't influence my perception of God the Son as being perfect in His divinity and fragile in His humanity (hypostatic union). In fact, even if it was said that Jesus was born out of wedlock to a complete stranger, the lowest of the low, it wouldn't change my view that Christ is God.

Now if you adhere to the Apostles creed you have to adhere to the virgin birth as a literal event. And the common argument for the necessity of the virgin birth is that it puts Jesus in a position where He did not inherit from original sin passed down from generations to generations through the father since the Fall. This what makes Him the Second Adam: born without sin, because born from the Father. So the birth of Jesus and His uncorrupted nature regarding original sin inheritance is indissoluble from the primeval history narrative as written through Genesis 1 - 11.

Now, this is the problem for me: the Genesis story accounts are known to not to be taken as natural history. It is allegorical. Early fathers like Origen or Clement of Alexandria already wrestled with that; even catholics in their CCC consider that one is free to have an allegorical approach. I would go as far as to say I have never met a catholic in real life who believes that Genesis are historical events (usually they observe it as an allegorical story that is communicating a truth about God and mankind).

However, most Christians I met in life adhere to the virgin birth story. But if the story of the Fall is allegorical, I really don't understand the necessity of a virgin birth. Jesus could still be born from a non-virgin Mary and free of the allegorical (but real) original sin.

Anyway, I'm starting to question if I really belong in a church if can't adhere to the theology of it: it makes me sad, because my faith is grounded and will always be, but how can I participate to the sacraments and liturgy if I don't agree with what it means?

Thank you for reading. Looking forward to your answers

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Diary of Saint Faustina - paragraph 1261 - Motherly Example

1261 September 1, 1937. I saw the Lord Jesus, like a king in great majesty, looking down upon our earth with great severity; but because of His Mother's intercession He prolonged the time of His mercy.

So much of our perceptions of Christ are correctly based on Scriptures presenting Him as our Mediator and staving off the judgment of God the Father that it becomes easy to forget that the Father and Son are One, and this Oneness includes both mercy and judgment. The harsh but just judgments of God are also the judgments of Christ, from Old Testament times all the way through the final judgment of mankind. And likewise, the mercy of God, in Old and New Testament times is One with the mercy of Christ because they have never been separate. Christ is certainly our merciful Savior who died for our salvation but if anything, His suffering on that cross, the very crucible of our redemption, qualifies Him without question as the judge of our salvation, looking down on us and our world with “great severity” for the rejection of His Divine Mercy, or great compassion for our wise acceptance of it

Supportive Scripture - Douay Rheims Challoner Bible 

Acts 10:42 And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that it is he who was appointed by God to be judge of the living and of the dead

There is no credible denying of Christ’s position as judge but through Saint Faustina’s entry we know Mary’s intercession can move Christ to extend the time of His time of mercy on the earth, just as in their earthly life together Mary once moved Him in the changing of water into wine. Because of Mary’s unique relationship to Christ she will always be in a better place than any of us to intercede on behalf of others. I tend to think we all have some type of intercessory ability though, maybe even an intercessory responsibility if we believe Christ hears and acts on our prayers for others. Mary is certainly considered the greatest intercessor and the one we go to most often but Scripture speaks of others as well.

Supportive Scripture - Douay Rheims Challoner Bible

Psalm 105:23 And he said that he would destroy them: had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach: To turn away his wrath, lest he should destroy them.

This verse refers to Moses interceding with God for mercy upon the ancient Israelites after their exodus from Egypt so we know intercessory pleadings aren't limited to Mary and actually go back to Old Testament times before she was born. More to the point though, Moses’ intercession took place here in the same world we live in today, and involved the saving of thousands so I think we can extrapolate intercessory prayer onto ourselves. If Moses, even in his earthly life, could successfully intercede in the breach before God's judgment then why can't we become intercessors ourselves for God's Mercy on others, joining  Moses, Mary and the many other Saints we rely on for intercession for ourselves?

The writings of the great Catholic Mystics like Saint Faustina and others always seem to recall Scripture and reveal its multifaceted nature. I believe the intercessions of Mary, Moses and others were not just real events in their own time but in our time serve as examples for us to follow. By Christ's grace we are all given some measure of the same holiness given to Mary and Moses so that we may become intercessors ourselves. Not only in our personal lives, or the lives of friends and family, but for the state of our fallen world as it stands before the severe but righteous judgment of Christ our King. I believe Christ gives us this grace intentionally, to draw us into the course of Salvation History as we plead mercy for the world with His Blessed Mother, and stand in the breach of His judgment as Moses did before her. We may thereby join them in the further delay of His righteous judgment so that even more souls become sanctified in His Divine Mercy and in the process, become more sanctified ourselves through our own place in these closing days of Salvation History.

Supportive Scripture - Douay Rheims Challoner Bible

First Timothy 2:1-2 I desire therefore, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions and thanksgivings be made for all men: for kings and for all that are in high station: that we may lead a quiet and a peaceable life in all piety and chastity.

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Letter of Saint Catherine of Siena to Mantellata of Saint Dominic, Called Catarina Di Scetto

Christian Mysticism & Sacred Scripture - Love and Profit 

Servants we ought to be, because we are bought with His blood. But I do not see that we can be of any profit to Him by our service ; we ought, then, to be of profit to our neighbour, because he is the means by which we test and gain virtue. Thou knowest that every virtue receives life from love; and love is gained in love, that is, by raising the eye of our mind to behold how much we are beloved of God. Seeing ourselves loved, we cannot do otherwise than love; loving Him, we shall embrace virtue through the force of love, and shall hate vice and spurn it.

No matter how good or virtuous we become in service to God, it is impossible for us to ever return a profit to Him simply because God has invested more in us than we can ever return, much less surpass. Our earthly lives are from God so even the great martyrs who gave back their lives to God didn't return a profit to Him. And despite their heroic sacrifice in giving their lives back to God, I would even argue that still doesn’t qualify as an even return for the life God gave them because they were rewarded with eternal life, and an infinitely greater life than what they gave up. One of the greatest things about genuine old school Christian Mystics like Saint Catherine is that their wisdom always connects back to Sacred Scripture.

Supportive Scripture - Douay Rheims Challoner Bible

Luke 17:10 So you also, when you shall have done all these things that are commanded you, say: We are unprofitable servants; we have done that which we ought to do.

Saint Catherine has an earthy solution to our heavenly problem. If we cannot be profitable to our Risen God, we can at least be profitable to our fallen brethren and become more godly ourselves in the process. We will glorify God by exuding the divine virtues of grace, charity and mercy that he’s given us from above, onto our brethren in this fallen world below. Those virtues are born of love but our love for others isn't really ours. That's God's love flowing through us when we raise “the eye of our mind to behold how much we are beloved of God.” When we do that we realize God's love is bigger than we are so it can never be completely contained or hoarded, even by the most selfish spirit. And if we intentionally and consciously recognize God’s love for us, it will be magnified all the more and escape our interior self into the lives of others, like a light bulb growing ever brighter and penetrating the darkness ever more. 

This love that Saint Catherine speaks of feels like a human to human interaction but that's not really the case because love is not of human origin to begin with. This is God's love so it's not so much about us loving our neighbor as about God loving our neighbor through us, using us as spiritual channels through whom the love of the Risen God flows into this fallen realm. God simply pours more love into us than we can channel or control so it bursts out of us involuntarily, as in Saint Catherine's verbiage, “Seeing ourselves loved, we cannot do otherwise than love; loving Him, we shall embrace virtue through the force of love, and shall hate vice and spurn it.” The gist of all this is that without God’s love first, there would be no human love at all, for family, friends, spouse and probably even oneself. Without God's preemptive love our species would be nothing more loveless beasts of higher intelligence than the other beasts. All love is of God rather than men but by Christological Decree, our species was chosen and Scripturally ordained to channel the love of God into the fallen world.

Supportive Scripture - Douay Rheims Challoner Bible

John 13:34 A new commandment I give unto you: That you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

The last portion of that verse “I have loved you, that you also love one another,” could easily be read too passively, as if since God loves us we should just consider loving others. It’s actually a command though, with the power of God's will behind it. And given Saint Catherine’s mentioning the “force of love” in the last line of her excerpt, that Scripture might be taken more forcefully, “I have loved you to ordain love for others within you.” I think God loved us with a spiritual cause and effect in mind. God's all powerful love caused our love for others, which led to the effect of spurning selfish vices for selfless virtues in service of our neighbor. So that failing to be profitable servants to God we would become profitable servants to others and to the Kingdom of God on Earth, humbly preparing the way for the King's final return.

Brothers and sisters please pray that a friend of mine will receive healing. He is in critical need and only God can save him so pls pray for him!

A Camino prayer

(Robert Corin Morris)

🙏 🙏 🙏

May I walk this day

in the realm of grace,

walking with You

my feet firmly on your earth-path,

my heart loving all as kindred,

my words and deeds alive with justice.

May I walk as blessing,

meeting blessing at every turn

in every challenge, blessing,

in all opposition, blessing,

in harm’s way, blessing.

May I walk each step in this moment of grace,

alert to hear You

and awake enough to say

a simple Yes.

It's time for you to wake up to the wondrous, completely unreasonable, absolutely shatteringly beautiful gift that God has given you when He not only gave you existence and awareness but wrapped around you an entire universe of physical things, emotional things, other people, and poured Himself into it too behind every leaf and blade of grass.

Friends, we spend so much time in the very superficial level of faith and existence. Even our obsession with emptying oneself in order to rest in the stillness of God. Even the concepts of Christ coming and dying, redemption, etc. This is all just details from inside, once you skipped past the central miracle of all.

The greatest miracle of all -- the greatest gift of all, the most wondrous gift any Father could ever fashion for their child -- is your existence and the universe itself.

Imagine you had an infinite amount of skill, resources, power, intelligence, and love in your heart. What gift would you give to your child?

The greatest possible gift of all would be to craft a universe for your child in which they could marvel, grow, learn, fall in love, enjoy, and do everything in-between. Yes, you'll have to enter into their plane of existence and die for them, but even that is a secondary element (in fact, that's part of the gift - the drama and example of love, the concreteness of you bridging yourself back to your child).

The experience of life is INSANE in its beauty, depth, and power. The detail. The levels from the quantum to the galaxies. The way light hits an apple on a tree. The way the wind caresses the tears on your cheeks. How it feels to fall in love. How strong your feelings of injustice when you're wronged.

You are a work of art sleeping and waking, living and dying, celebrating and grieving, through a miracle so vast and powerful of an expression of love of the Father for His children that it's a SHAME that we are so focused on the 'empty-oneself' path of mysticism or specific doctrinal minutiae.

ALL THIS exists for you! As a gift, for you! This very moment, with all its mundaneness or pain or drabness, even, is an experience God has wrapped around you!! And He is in it and through it!!

So friends - do not just reach for God from a state of emptiness. The fullness and richness and artistry and overwhelming LOVE of God underlies every single moment of your life, and you should feast on the wonder of it all.

The JOY of this creation is screaming out to you, despite the fall/sin/death - and those things are part of the experience too, and God foreknew they would be so even those things have a place in this Gift.

So as you reach to commune with God, remember there is a time to fast, and a time to feast.

Occasionally take time to feast on the wondrous gift God has given you in existence and this universe He's wrapped around you.

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Diary of Saint Faustina - paragraph 915 - The Terrible Sword

915 O Mary, today a terrible sword has pierced Your holy soul. Except for God, no one knows of Your suffering. Your soul does not break; it is brave, because it is with Jesus. Sweet Mother, unite my soul to Jesus, because it is only then that I will be able to endure all trials and tribulations, and only in union with Jesus will my little sacrifices be pleasing to God. Sweetest Mother, continue to teach me about the interior life. May the sword of suffering never break me. O pure Virgin, pour courage into my heart and guard it.

This paragraph from Saint Faustina's Diary speaks of Mary's suffering and strength, both of which came about as a result of her unique relationship with Christ, developing in her womb for nine months before coming into her worldly life thereafter. Saint Faustina seems to be pleading for some similar type relationship with Christ. She knows she can't be Christ's mother but zeroes in on Mary’s silent strength, knowing it comes from Christ's physical and spiritual presence in Mary. Saint Faustina wants that Marian type of strength, given by the Interior Christ, to be magnified into the exterior world. It was Mary whose destiny was to birth God in both flesh and spirit into our fallen world. And two thousand years later it was Mary's daughter in Christ, Saint Faustina who by similar destiny carried on the march of Salvation History, from what started in Mary's womb physically, to the magnification of Christ's Divine Mercy spiritually.

This calls to mind that Christ is also within us and development is still going on but it's a reverse kind of development. Unlike Mary, it’s not Christ Who is developing in us but we who are being developed in Christ. Two thousand years ago it was Christ’s body forming within Mary’s womb but today it’s different because Christ’s Indwelling Spirit is forming us. There are still similarities though because Christ’s Spirit and the changes it brings to our spirit are no more containable than Christ’s flesh was in Mary. Christ’s forming of our internal spirit affects our outgoing actions. I am less miserly when passing a homeless person on the street and more patient with certain people in my life. Others can cite different personality changes but all of us should avoid crediting these changes to self rather than Christ within. Saint Faustina understood that Mary’s soul was unbreakable because “it is with Jesus” and wisely prayed for the same type of Christ-sourced strength against whatever “terrible sword” might pierce her own soul; “unite my soul to Jesus, because it is only then that I will be able to endure all trials and tribulations.”

The terrible sword that pierced Mary’s soul is well known; the maternal suffering in watching the persection, torture and slow death of her Son. Saint Faustina's “terrible sword” was lesser than Mary’s, but included tuberculosis, very personal attacks of the devil, and rejection by many of her fellow nuns and superiors. I believe the strength of these women against the “terrible sword” that pierced their souls was measured out to them in equal measure to the strength of their relationship to the Indwelling Christ. And I think in ways smaller than what both of these Saints suffered, the same dynamics will apply to all of us in our own relationship to Christ in a world where He is often not welcomed. 

Supportive Scripture - Douay Rheims Challoner Bible

Luke 2:35 And thy own soul a sword shall pierce, that, out of many hearts thoughts may be revealed.

Christ’s Spirit can never be contained. If we seek and find Christ within, we will in some small or large way, always magnify the Spirit outward into our troubled world where the evils of Satan abound, just as Mary and Saint Faustina did. Do we not expect Satan's spirit in the fallen realm to react against us just as it reacted so virulently against Saints Mary and Faustina? There is a “terrible sword” for all who invade Satan's fallen realm with Christ's Risen Spirit but because of the work of Saints like Mary and Faustina, the fallen realm has already been greatly weakened by Christ's growing presence and cannot fight back as strongly as before. Our “terrible sword” will most likely be light compared to greater Saints who came before us but if we bear it strongly, as Saints Mary and Faustina already have, we can weaken the fallen realm's resistance to God even more. We can thereby gain our own small place in Salvation History and make it easier for those who come after us, as Saints Mary, Faustina and countless others have already made it easier for us.

Supportive Scripture - Douay Rheims Challoner Bible

Luke 1:46-47 And Mary said: My soul doth magnify the Lord.And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.

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Saint Teresa of Avila - Interior Castle - Recollection Prayer 

The effects of divine consolations are very numerous: before describing them, I will speak of alphaἈanother kind of prayer which usually precedes them. I need not say much on this subject, having written about it elsewhere. This is a kind of recollection which, I believe, is supernatural. There is no occasion to retire nor to shut the eyes, nor does it depend on anything exterior; involuntarily the eyes suddenly close and solitude is found. Without any labour of one's own, the temple of which I spoke is reared for the soul in which to pray: the senses and exterior surroundings appear to lose their hold, while the spirit gradually regains its lost sovereignty. Some say the soul enters into itself; others, that it rises above itself.

Saint Teresa speaks here of an involuntary, wordless and exceptionally spiritual form of prayer. This is not verbal prayer where we thoughtfully speak words to God and it's not mental prayer where we think the words instead of saying them. All prayer is of an ethereal nature because it's the corrupted spirit of fallen man reaching back to its holy origins, the One True Spirit of God from Whom our spirit first came. The prayer Saint Teresa speaks of here is beyond us trying to touch God though. It actually sounds more like God trying to touch us by sending this form of prayer upon us, as Saint Teresa explains, “involuntarily the eyes suddenly close and solitude is found. Without any labor of one's own, the temple of which I spoke is reared for the soul in which to pray.”  

Saint Teresa describes this type of prayer as a kind of supernatural recollection, the soulful knowledge of its humble place in God, like a drop of rain losing all sense of self as it falls into the ocean and becomes One with the infinite sea of God. Some might think of this as the realization of the souls smallness and others might call it the realization of God's greatness. I tend to think it's both perspectives complimenting each other, that knowing our smallness helps us appreciate God's greatness and likewise, if we know God's greatness it makes our smallness in Him more apparent. Aside from that argument though, I think this all comes down to the joyous discovery of our hidden oneness with God which is ultimately how the soul “regains its lost sovereignty” over fallen self by realizing it's humble place in our Risen Savior.

Saint Teresa specifies this recollection prayer as something that comes upon the soul involuntarily rather than something to be pursued. Despite this, there is a prayer which actively pursues this type of recollection anyway and it's clearly based on Saint Teresa's writings in another famous work of hers, The Way of Perfection.

Give me the grace to recollect myself in the little heaven of my soul where You have established Your dwelling. There You let me find You, there I feel that You are closer to me than anywhere else, and there You prepare my soul quickly to enter into intimacy with You.

Help me, O Lord, to withdraw my senses from exterior things, make them docile to the commands of my will, so that when I want to converse with You, they will retire at once, like bees shutting themselves up in the hive in order to make honey.

I don't know that Saint Teresa actually wrote this prayer or if someone who read The Way of Perfection wrote it. The language of the prayer is similar to certain chapters in The Way of Perfection but I don't think this prayer actually appears in any of Saint Teresa's writings. It seems odd that she would write about the Prayer of Recollection being an involuntary kind of thing in The Interior Castle but also write out a Prayer of Recollection in The Way of Perfection as if it were something to voluntarily pursue. I tend to think the actual prayer was written by someone who was inspired by Saint Teresa's writings rather than Saint Teresa herself. Either way though, this is a beautiful prayer which centers the soul on its small place in the infinite Spirit of God. And it is aimed interioraly, at ones own soul, to lead that soul to knowing itself centered in God, withdrawn from bodily senses and exalted in the truer senses of spirit by which God is most fully known.

Supportive Scripture - Douay Rheims Challoner Bible

Psalm 45:11 Be still and see that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, and I will be exalted in the earth.

from here -- more at the source link (not my site, BTW)

There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test him and said, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “What is written in the law? How do you read it?” He said in reply, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus replied to him, “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.” Luke 10:25-28

"Do this and you will live."

How many times have we read and heard these verses?

And how often have we stopped to think about them—will we pass this test—do we love God more than anything or anyone and do we love our neighbor as much as we love ourselves? Do we understand what this love is all about, where it comes from and more importantly, how we can get it?

I set out to see what I could find about this love. I went to books, the internet, scripture and to those people who seem to know this love more completely than anyone, the saints. I would like to share just a little of what I came across below. Maybe by the time you’ve finished reading you too will agree with John of the Cross when he says **“**In the evening of life, we will be judged on love alone”.

We cannot be sure if we are loving God, although we may have good reasons for believing that we are, but we can know quite well if we are loving our neighbor. And be certain that, the farther advanced you find you are in this, the greater the love you will have for God …  Teresa of Avila

I see the Old Testament characteristics of God to be strict and benevolent, but also fair and true to his word. But then we know the NT, Yeshua is the benevolent, more open hearted facet of God to be a fact. I’ve looked into more esoteric philosophical interpretations addressing God’s nature. I’m going to be honest, they are ancient, esoteric and yes, deemed “heretical” sources of information. They delineate God as the “Father” and “Lord” in the strict manner. It’s like the father we all have; his essential role to raise us and take care for us by being really hard and stern. Whereas, the other archetype is all loving and warm. I want to extrapolate a better understanding of Him.

I feel intimidated by our enemy (Satan, demons) and I suppose also by the idea of magic or witchcraft being used against me.

It doesn't help that, without going into detail, I've met some pretty spooky people and experienced some pretty spooky things.

It is clear to me we have an enemy.

What would be your advice to not get intimidated by this fact, to not get intimidated or spooked by what seem like active attempts to intimidate me and just generally be spooky and menacing towards me?

I know morally speaking fear and worry are to be resisted and usually I do ok with that but recently some things have happened to just knock me into fear and now I seem to be stuck in it...