Padraig, Somewhere on MOG we have the testimony of that lukewarm priest who was dying in a car accident and realized he was in the devil's clutches. And then Our Lady spoke up in his defense! I can't remember the particulars, but I know I loved the exchange between Mother and Son! Safe in the Refuge of the Immaculate Heart!
I have downloed Fr Alban Butler's , 'Lives of the Saints', on Kindle. All three volumes in one, very, very cheap. Bargain basement. Anyway I am following the saints day by day and read St Gertrude the other day. Gertrude was the Abbess of a very large and famous convent in Germany and of a noble family and famous mystic and writer. Not someone to mess about with , you would think. But the chroncilers say St Gertrude considered herself the servant of all and genuinely considered herself the worst peron in the entire convent.. That is quite something if you think about it. Purely supernatural graces at work there. I have been thinking this ever since. If there is one virtue that makes a person similiar to Our Lady it is Humilty, no doubt about it.
I know God is love and mercy but I fear his holiness. God's holiness is beyond our comprehension. I am continually amazed by priests at Requiem Masses who do not pray for the souls of the deceased and often in homilies assume they are in heaven. What a travesty for the deceased and the congregation present. For me this is a sign that the priest has a false image of God. St Paul - Work out your salvation with fear and trembling Jesus - Be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect.
I noticed from way back Terry. If I am not mistaken the Father may had had an interivew with Mother Angelica conerning this at one point? I think the thing that strcuk me at the time, looking at his face was how badly shook up he still looked, even though his vision of hell had happened quite some time before. I also notice with the young saints at Fatima it changed their whole lives. One of the Visionaries, I think it may have been Jacinta used to ask people, 'Is hell forever and ever and ever?' Is this possible does it never end?'
I think something else about Our Lady reminds me of my own mother. We just always assumed she'd be there. When she wasn't there the house had this totally empty feeling as though its heart had gone (which it had really). It was no longer a home but just an empty house. The same with Mary. She never says much. She is never seen doing much. But she is at the heart , of everything. I think this has a lot to do with her being the Spouse of the Holy Spirit. This is so Marian; this being there and not being there because your presense is Spirit Filled. It leads to silnece and self effacement, to what Jesus advised taking the bottom place at the table. I'll tell you a story about this that is happening to me at the moment. I used for years to take the front seat in front of Our Lady of Perpetual Succours Shrine at Clonard Monastery for 7 am mass every morning. However when I changed over to doing the night shift I had to give this mass up as the time didn't fit. However the last few weeks I have found time to go to this mass now and again and off course I took to sitting at my old seat again.However another gentleman has begun to use this seat and regards it as, 'His' and has told me so and so is taking an interest in my goings on at Church. Anyway last week after mass he came up to me and commented that I was, 'Enjoying myself looking around me' . ..and this morning he commented that, I should , 'Bring your slippers and get your feet up you look so relaxed'. I think by this he considers because it looks like I am doing nothing , a waste of space, I suppose. I think prayer and the Spiritual Life can be like this . When you are praying most it looks often like you are doing least. A bit like Martha and Mary, the sisters of Lazarus when Martha complained to Jesus that Mary was sitting on her ass while Martha was doing the buisness. The Cure of Ars one time asked an old peasant what he did all day sitting in the Church and the old guy said, 'I look at God and God looks at me!' I think this is such a Marian thing to say. We coudl equally say of Our Blessed LAdy that she spent her whole life staring at God and God staring right back at her. This reminds me of a car in the snow. If you watch the carefully the car's wheels are turning but becuase of the snow it is not going anywhere. I think with Our Lady she seems not to be there but is always there, making the house a home and although it might seem like she is doing nothing she is, in fact, doing everything. Her wheels are turning quickly in the snow, so to speak.
