This is beautiful. And I'll hold onto it through my own struggles. Tanqueray explains the same thing in his writing, but the way you've put it here makes is more easily understood, more compassionate, if you will. Such a grace for you, and now for us since you've so kindly shared it ~
I don't think that without the very active help of the Holy Spirit that anyone could be a good Confessor, Spiritual Director, Spiritual Mother, Father , Counsellor, whatever. The Holy Spirit takes us, very often on the wildest journey with many twists and turns. We can see this in the lives of the saints. It is true that there are fairly set rail lines on which we can judge but the Holy Spirit can lead us all right of the tracks at times. Perhaps the best example of this is in the life of Saint Teresa of Avila. At the start of her journey she had many, many priests coming forward to give her direction and they all sent her speeding of in wrong directions. The poor woman was driven nearly to distraction. There really is no one size fits all in the Spiritual Life. Another good example is when Mother Teresa went into the ghettos of Calcutta. To any reasonable person in a human sense sounds totally nuts. A Catholic nun, a teacher at an elite Catholic school going in alone into what was basically hell on Earth? Or Saint Joan of Arc and unlettered young French peasant girl leading the armies of France into Battle? Nuts.
Some years ago I visited a little church outside Galway city and it brought home to me the suffering of the Irish under Cromwell. Cromwell's army was on the march and the women, children and old all went into the church, over 200 of them. The cromwellian army sorrounded the church and burnt it to the ground.everyone in the church died.So many martyrs. Martyrs & saints of Ireland pray for the resurrection of the faith in Ireland.
Similar atrocious acts took place during the French Revolution. Satan will always strive to seek to persecute the Church through civil authorities. Consider what is taking place in Ireland today, or the last four years in America under the Biden Administration against pro-life Catholics. Perverted civil logic is JoeJerk's preferred tool in his hope of persecuting and crushing the Church. The AntiChrist will be his ultimate attempt! How soon, O Lord? Mercy!
