This morning's insight came from one of those convergences of two things I'm doing at the same time - this happens to me all the time, and I really believe that this is one of the main ways God speaks to us - so maybe that insight is as important as the actual morning insight for today.
As I've been working on our gospel passages in the Beatitudes for The Journey, looking ahead to "blessed are those who mourn," it won't surprise you to hear that the Church fathers interpreted that as repentance, i.e., blessed are those who mourn over their sins. But some said that an even higher level of holiness would be characterized by mourning over the sins of others. So in a very real way, even the saints are never completely free of mourning, since the fewer sins of your own you have to regret, the more you start to see other people on their way to hell, and you mourn their sins.
And then this morning I read this passage in the diary of St. Faustina, which shows how she did exactly that. Here is a prayer she wrote in her diary (she often just wrote as she prayed and prayed as she wrote):
Oh Jesus, my Jesus, with what great pain is my soul pierced when I see this fountain of life gushing forth with such sweetness and power for each soul, while at the same time I see souls withering away and drying up through their own fault. Oh Jesus, grant that the power of mercy embrace these souls.
FYI, the gushing fountain she's talking about is a reference to her image of the blood and water that came out of Christ's side on the cross, and that is a fountain of mercy. And in Catholic theology, when Jesus' side was pierced, the spear went all the way in to his heart, so it's really his heart that was pierced, and what came out was not just blood and water, but the grace that comes with the blood and water of the sacraments. That's oversimplifying it a bit, but you get the idea. Recall that Jesus himself gave to St. Faustina the "Divine Mercy" image, in a vision, and she commissioned the original painting of it.
Thoughts?
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I mentioned in The Journey that I wrote a song based on Isaiah 2, which is one of my favorite OT passages:
In days to come, the mountain of the Lord’s house
shall be established as the highest mountain, and raised above the hills.
All nations shall stream toward it. Many peoples shall come and say:
“Come, let us go up to the Lord’s mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob, That he may instruct us in his ways, and we may walk in his paths.” For from Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations, and set terms for many peoples.
They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; One nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again. House of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!
I hope you like the song!
St. Albert the Great - teacher and mentor of St. Thomas Aquinas
The Original Church
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The problem with us men is that often we don't have the wisdom to be a father until we're a grandfather.
This may sounds like some ironic statement that makes you nod your head in agreement but shrug your shoulders in resignation, thinking, well there's nothing we can do about that. But the practical application of that is that it demonstrates how important it is for kids to grow up around their grandparents. But as in our culture the family becomes ever more fractured and spread out, that is harder and harder to do.
Lately I've been thinking that part of the problem is the whole concept of college. It used to be that everyone thought a person had to go to college to make a good living. Not only is that not the case (truck drivers make more money than I do) but now college has gone from useless to actually ruining our kids. But when I went to college, what you were supposed to do is figure out what career you wanted (as if anyone knows that at age 18) and then go away to the college ...
