The past several months have been a whirlwind of suffering, beauty and miracles. The Lord continues to purify. After moving my parents into my home because of my mom’s broken hip, and after recovering from COVID, I was able to go to the Easter Triduum. The Liturgy on Holy Thursday made me weep as the Priest washed the feet of 12 men in our parish. I felt spiritually protected in that moment as I remembered the closing of churches the previous year. I was just so grateful to be there.
At the Easter Vigil 9 people came into the church. Nine people who fought through restrictions and lockdowns just to be able to have the chance to join the church that Jesus left us, in all it’s mess, and to receive Christ in the Eucharist. The whole Easter Triduum just made me so thankful.
On Thursday I went to the old chapel to pray for the first time in a several weeks. I said my devotions and as I knelt to pray, I am ashamed to admit this, but I had the thought, “I wonder how many co-workers come in here and pray?” The Lord sharply rebuked me, “None of your business, and until you stop entertaining thoughts like this your heart will never be pure.”
And like he has before, he showed me the thoughts I entertain. I wept. I do not feel I can sufficiently explain the goodness of God and the darkness of our hearts.
Take captive every thought. 2 Corinthians 10:5
I reviewed all the times a politician made think I wanted to punch them in the face. A person on Facebook made me want to tell them they’re going to hell. A person on twitter made me want to call them a moron. I had deleted these accounts a couple of months ago, so as not to be tempted, but here I was in the chapel still comparing in a moment of pride.
Until you stop entertaining thoughts like this your heart will never be pure.
The place where God is, the place where he wants to take us, it contains no darkness, no snark, no animosity, no despair, no bitterness, no sin. It is a place of nothing but charity and mercy. It is a place of abundant life. There is no knowledge of evil. Heaven contains none. He wants His will on earth as it is in heaven. We live in a society that cannot even look at another person without trying to size up whether they are good enough to be in our tribe. But God says, what I made is good. Sin keeps us turning away. I cannot control whether other people’s hearts become pure, but I can allow God to purify my heart.
The Lord wants for us to want what he wants, that other souls be saved because saving means being surrounded by nothing but unconditional love. How many of us have just longed for that? It’s available, it’s feely offered, Love hung on a cross to die for us.
When we look down upon others in pride, or compare in envy, or just wish ill upon another, we are not loving like God loves. It’s impossible to love like that right?
With God all things are possible. Matthew 19:26
I looked up at the crucifix and told God I was sorry. I asked him to continue to purify my heart. I recognize that total surrender to the Lord of Lords will bring a Pentecost like we have never seen before.
Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. John 14:12
I realized that ever since I had shut down my social media accounts I have been happier. The anxiety I experience I am handing more quickly to God. It is almost as if our technological age has created a whirlwind of calumny, ridicule, gossip and hatred. A perfect storm to create a demonic frenzy. I have no doubt God will deal with this. I think many of us will be shocked when he shows us who we are.
I thought of the beautiful Beatitudes and how it is the pure of heart who see God. Like the Blessed Virgin who beheld the gaze of love staring at the Infant Jesus. The pure of heart see the good, want the good for others, and bring the good to the world. May Jesus and Mary teach us to have hearts like theirs so we can be light shining in the darkness.
For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come toward the light, so that his works might be exposed. But whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God. John 3:20
Veil of Veronica 
thank you for all your writings! Each one I’ve read has truly touched my heart and spirit! I appreciate very much your sharing of your thoughts and prayers, they make so much sense to me. God bless you. Even though i have signed up to receive your writings I never seem to get them, lol, obviously I’m doing something wrong, however, I hope to remember to look your blog up now and then to catch up. Glad you are well now and blessed are you for taking your parents in to take care of them. My older sister suffers from Alzheimer’s, its a very tough journey, God bless you.
love of JMJ,
Monica Keiser
Hi Monica, thank you. I don’t know if you are doing anything wrong. I have tried to figure out a subscription button on WordPress but I always seem to have trouble navigating how to do it and then I get side tracked with other things. I told God if he wanted people to read the blog he would have to work it out because I was not going to “market” my blog. If it’s His will he would spread the words. You found it so He worked it out.
God Bless you.
Thank you always for your writings. This is a beautiful call and testimony. Praying for this purity of heart. Thank you.
God Bless you
Sue,
Lots to say, but I, too, have been very blessed. I would say that I am growing in the right way.
A quick comment on Father Calloway’s remarkable book. I am in the middle of my consecration, thanks to Mary O’ Reagan. I asked St. Michael and our Lady for clarification on whether St. Joseph was assumed and Michael pointed me to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Section #966, which states the assumption is a singular (unique) privilege of Mary. Mary pointed me to the Apostolic Constitution of Venerable Pius XII, Munificentissimus Deus and section ## 5 and 14 make it clear that only Mary was assumed Body and Soul into heaven.
There is much good in Father Calloway’s book, in fact, it over flows with love. The book suffers from the lack of a good critical (not grammatical) editor, but that is what second editions are for. The book, when cleaned up, should have a ribbon, gilded edges and be bound in leather. It is a book that will go down in history as one of the great works, like De Montfort’s “True Devotion to the Virgin Mary.” It really will!
I never have used Social media. What I have done is cut out most of the news media (even conservative sites) as I found them to be toxic, dripping poison onto my soul and I also dropped many Catholic websites as well, for being caustic or unduly negative.
I hope you are able to get out and garden. Love to your parents!
Thanks James. I am sure there is distinction for Mary happening after the Resurrection. We know Enoch and Elijah were taken up…prior to the Resurrection Joseph would have died/slept prior to the Resurrection also that so to me would be more akin to what happened with Enoch and Elijah. Mary’s was definitely singular in the participation the way it happened…
Sue,
I think ven. Pius XIl can bring clarity here. Pius XII, Munificentissimus Deus: Section 14″ . . . [t]hey contemplated . . . The privileges which the most provident God has bestowed on this loving associate of our Redeemer, privileges which reached such sublime heights that, besides herself, no creature of God’s – except the human nature of Jesus Christ – has ever attained them.”
In Section 5 and 25 the Assumption is tied to the Immaculate Conception. Joseph, most just and most chaste, was macculate (not a word one hears much, anymore).
Section 25 “”her singular holiness, which surpasses the sanctity of all men and of the angels.” This means the privilege of the Assumption and all it entails was Mary’s alone.
Elijah and Enoch did not die, so they did not resurrect. Joseph and Mary died.
Mary alone was immaculate and never knew the taint of sin
Even if Joseph was pre-purified in the sense of John the Baptist and Jeremiah, Joseph was still macculate, that is, touched by sin. Pius XIl notes above that the Assumption was a privilege associated with the Immaculate Conception.
That being said, I found it strange that Father Calloway cited Bl. Anne Katherine Emmerich as an authority throughout the book, except here where he dismisses her.
This sort of inconsistency is something that a critical editor would have addressed. In fact, looking at what Bl. Emmerich says about the resurrection at Matthew 27:52, she notes that all of the dead returned to their graves (unlike the daughter of Jairus, Lazerus, and the widow’s son). Calloway does not even mention that point of Emmerich’s.
Sue, I know Father Calloway was not writing an academic work, but from a critical perspective if you will treat a source as credible and cite it, as Father Calloway has done, you have to explain why you are cherry picking the evidence/ignoring what is inconvenient to your argument. I got slapped around for that mistake when I got my BA and MA in history.
I just read a Protestant argument that the events in Matthew 27:52 took place after the Resurrection. An attempt to square the circle, but not part of the church’s tradition.
Keep praying for me, I am praying for you and yours!
James as I have stated, I am okay being wrong, I just wrote what I felt the Lord tell me in prayer – obviously people should follow what the church says not what I say. I do know Saint Francis de Sales said Joseph was in heaven body and soul of that we should have no doubt. Additionally there is a book about the Assumption of Joseph called
sorry it sent before done, the book is The Life and Glories of Saint Joseph by Edward Healy Thompson. He lays out the Assumption based on the writings of Fathers and Doctors of the church.
I am not trying to prove I am “right”. I do believe based on the apparition at Fatima when Joseph also appeared that the whole Holy Family is in heaven, body and soul. But I will leave all these things for theologians to figure out.
God bless you as well James. Always good to talk to you.
Reblogged this on Love and Love Alone.
Your writing’s have helped my spiritual growth. Thank you!
God Bless you!
Sue, bear with me and indulge me, please. I did a lot of digging. But first, I must apologize I was wrong in my comment on squaring the circle. That is Matthew 27:53.
I looked up the book you referenced by the late Father Thompson and looked up his sources. His main source is the great Jesuit, Cornelius Lapide, who died in 1637. Lapide was a prodigious scripture scholar and apologist who copiously cited his sources. So, did Lapide support Thompsons assertions regarding St. Joseph? Since I have Lapide’s Commentary on Matthew, I looked it up. Lapide notes first that several fathers acknowledge a resurrection of the dead after Christ’s resurrection, but notes that there is a division as to what happened to the resurrected.
Group One says they resurrected, but then died and Group Two says they resurrected and went to heaven. He cites Origen and St. Jerome as favoring both positions, but a reading of Jerome and Origen’s Commentary on Matthew 27 52-53, shows that they only acknowledged the resurrection as a fact in of itself, not the disposition of the resurrected.
St. Bridget of Sweden expressly quotes our lady as saying no human body is in heaven but that of my son and myself. – Book 6 of her Revelations, Oxford University Press. Lapide to his credit cites this, but Lapide’s personal opinion is that these resurrected ones went to heaven, such as Adam, David, Job, Jonah, Isaiah, etc., but he never expressly states that St. Joseph was among them. In fact, Lapide impliedly finds it problematic regarding John the Baptist as he has relics.
Well, I would let Bl. Theophylact of Ohrid (died post1108) have the last word: “These things have been explained in a rather elaborate manner; but you, O reader, understand that the raising of the dead which occurred at the Lord’s crucifixion, also revealed the freeing of the souls in hades, Those who arose at that time were seen by many lest the event appear to have been only an apparition They arose as sign from God and is is evident they they again died. Some say that after Christ’s resurrection, these arose and have not yet died; but I do not know if this should be accepted.”
The event regarding the freeing of the souls in Hades is what is depicted in the Byzantine icons of the resurrection when Christ is pulling Adam and Eve out of their tombs, in other words, the liberation of the souls in hades (limbo) was a resurrection of sorts.
So, thank you for indulging me, Sue. You allowed me to think and got me in shape for the critical review of an introduction I just went over for a book in a patristic academic series. I will have a mass said for your intentions, just for putting up with me.
I just like to think that Jesus was asked by Mary to bring her “macculate” husband to heaven. I know you come at it scholarly with way more knowledge than I have. I perhaps more from the sentimental-which as I said is usually wrong. I am not here to argue it. I just know God is far more good and far more merciful than our human mind can comprehend. Whatever God decided in regards to Joseph is fine with me. It doesn’t make me love Joseph less.
Thank you also for the Mass intentions. You have no idea how much I need it.
We all love Joseph! I owe him so much that I can never repay. I can’t go into detail, but he saved me when I was young. I, too, think it fitting, to use Lapides’s phrase, that he be in heaven, body and soul. Here is what Mary said about Joseph to Maria Valtorta: “And after Me, Joseph is the most blessed by this shower of divine gifts.”
Sue, you have been very good to me. Here is a gift, all of Valtorta’s Poem of the Man God free to down load. I read it all a year ago and it changed my life. To wit: http://www.dmnx.eu/
There are a lot of great sentimental sections in it. It is the book of the gospels, love, of mercy, of the divine will, all together.
As for the mass, I will have it done as a Divine Liturgy at my church for you!
Thank you James.
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“The Life of St. Joseph” , as manifested by Our Lord , Jesus. Christ to: Maria Cecilia Baij, O.S.B. is a treasure regarding This Magnificent Saint…
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