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The Lord showed me His torn flesh, and said: It is the same work, beating a human being to a bloody pulp, and tearing an infant, limb from limb, in the womb. The same hard-heartedness enables people to do such things or allow someone else to do them - especially if they don't see the results of their actions.
The Lord showed me His torn flesh, and said: It is the same work, beating a human being to a bloody pulp, and tearing an infant, limb from limb, in the womb. The same hard-heartedness enables people to do such things or allow someone else to do them - especially if they don't see the results of their actions.
We must not become disheartened if we struggle to be dutiful and kind towards our relations or companions. In His own earthly life-time, Christ had to be patient with people whose ideas repelled Him, or whose good hearts He admired but whose lack of understanding was hard to bear.
At every Mass we praise and adore Christ the God-Man Who is Present with us at Mass: Body, Blood, soul and Divinity. He was once a flesh-and-blood baby with a beating heart like those little babies whose lives end in the womb today, when they are killed because they are held to be inconvenient or imperfect. To kill a child is to act against God, Who loves every human being, and Who even chose to share our human nature.
At every Mass we praise and adore Christ the God-Man Who is Present with us at Mass: Body, Blood, soul and Divinity. He was once a flesh-and-blood baby with a beating heart like those little babies whose lives end in the womb today, when they are killed because they are held to be inconvenient or imperfect. To kill a child is to act against God, Who loves every human being, and Who even chose to share our human nature.
Even as we pray to Christ, offering our lives in His service and praying for help in our need, we can be certain that He is holding us, and all our concerns, close to His heart. Indeed, He is holding us in existence; and all that concerns us - life, family, work, friends, prayer, struggles, church - is of concern to Him too.
It is the Will of Christ that each Mass be offered with reverence and gratitude, in accordance with the rubrics. Wherever Clergy act in 'creative' ways disobedient to the rubrics and causing distraction in other ways, those present should focus on the heart of the Mass: the Real Presence, and Christ's Sacrifice - as if with Mary at the foot of the Cross.
We can no more know what it is 'like' at the heart of the Godhead than we can know what it is 'like' at the centre of an exploding star in the heavens. But we do know some things which are certain, because God has revealed them, through His Son. First, He is Love: like a fire of love. Secondly, we need to be pure if we hope to enter God and be joyful rather than tormented.
Christ is our Creator, with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Because of His sincere love for us, we can be sure that whenever He has seen someone suffer - especially the martyrs - it has almost broken His heart to see it, though it has been necessary as part of the victory over evil.
Christ our Saviour is touched to heart - deeply touched - by all the suffering He sees. Every person who suffers, even those whose sufferings were caused by their own fault, can be certain of Christ's sympathy and compassion. Even when people are not healed, they should believe that Christ can bring good out of evil.
The little child who was born of Mary is the Divine Saviour Who is worthy of all the glory we can offer Him today in our churches. In crossing the threshold we are in a sacred space, consecrated for the praise of the Blessed Trinity. What God always wants to see in our hearts is the simplicity and humility which were in the heart of the infant Jesus.
When there has been a death, or a tragedy for the nation, it is important that all who mourn, or work for justice, or show sympathy for others, or demonstrate for change, open their hearts to the influence of the Holy Spirit, and refuse entry to the spirit of hatred, lies and malice which is Satan.
A person whose heart and soul is numb with lack of faith or despondency is like a person sitting covered with ice in a snow-bound landscape. The only solution is to let Divine Love into his heart, and to take a new look at his life.
Like figures In a wintery landscape, we see all around us persons who remain frozen by despondency or lack of faith. Those who would allow Divine Love to enter their hearts would 'thaw'. They would repent of their immorality, and begin to notice all that is good, which God has given to them but which they ignore.
Christ came from Heaven as a man: a fire of Divine Love, embodied. His presence 'melted' and changed some people, who enjoyed a new and glorious life; but other people had no desire to allow Him to 'thaw' their frozen hearts and cold souls, and reacted to Him with anger.
People who meet Christ after death vary in their reactions. A person on fire with Divine Love is overjoyed to greet Him. Someone aware of her still-cold heart will accept the painful 'thawing' which is her purification. Someone frozen in spirit and unwilling to be changed will freely choose to hurl himself away, into Hell.
A firm and mistaken private judgement about a moral issue is like a boulder in the heart of someone who claims to have examined Catholic claims and found them inadequate. A private opinion that abortion is a right, for example, prevents sincere and fruitful exploration about the Catholic Church.
Christ died, to conquer sin and death; yet He would have done so, to save a single person from going to Hell. Millions, however, are in danger of condemning themselves to Hell because they lead hard-hearted and sinful lives. Each of us needs to repent, by the grace of Christ, before we die.
A great battle goes on when a person is torn between love of God and love of self. Satan attacks that heart and mind, while the Guardian Angel acts to restore that soul's peace. Someone like this desperately needs to pray in the name of Jesus.
A person who says, with sincerity, 'Lord, have mercy', allows the Father to lavish upon her the sweetness of His forgiveness and love, whereas the person who refuses to repent shuts his heart to the Father and therefore to the gifts which He would lavish upon him for his consolation and salvation.
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