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?
This was for March 24th, recorded for the Ascension App
Thanks for your patience - here is our next installment of The Journey - it's session # 96, but I'm also calling it PART 1 of a "miniseries" on John chapter 6.
Whoever watches it first, please let me know if it looks good or if there are any problems with it - I get through the first two sections of the text on the feeding of the 5,000.
Enjoy!
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!
As I'm going through all my belongings as part of our move, I have come across some audio CDs of my old music, from when I had my band, Remember Rome - if any of you still have a CD player, and you would like me to send you some of what I have, send me the address to send them to at this email address: [email protected]
Some of these CDs are in their original cases, and some were demo samples, but either way, it's all original music written by me, and performed by me and my band back in the late 90s and early 2000s.
I'll be happy to find a good home for these CDs in case you might enjoy them, and because you all have been supporting me (and I haven't produced much content in the last month or so) I'll send you one or more CDs for free. Just give me an address.
Thanks!
Here's the link to the new edition of my Rome book on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Rome-Second-Pilgrims-Guide-Eternal/dp/B0F8TGTWZX
