Bound by Rules

Rules are binding.

When you are at a stage in your spiritual journey where your soul still attends to the enticements of the devil, where compulsion and passion cause you to sin, then rules which bind you and stay your hand from breaking God's commandments are good. Do whatever you must to keep yourself from sin. If you cannot touch the forbidden fruit without eating it, then you must live by the rule "Do not touch"!

However, once you have gained a degree of self-control, and are no longer a slave to sin, you must abandon your self-made rules! They are good while they bind you from evil, but they nonetheless bind you, and you are not free to attain the heights of holiness. When you are bound you cannot fly to the heavens, soaring on the Eagle's wings.

The Bible is clear that true holiness is living by the Spirit--Who will never direct us to break or contradict God's law! Jesus came not to abolish the law but to fulfill it, by writing it on our hearts with His grace. You are called to something infinitely deeper, infinitely higher, than fear of transgression. You are called to divine union!

Think of the Shepherd and His sheep. In the dark of night, the sheep are penned to keep them from wandering and to protect them from thieves. However, in the morning light, they hearken to the Shepherd's voice which leads them out into the open range of the mountains, where He leads them to green pastures and fresh, clear water. Here in the pristine wilderness of the mountains, guided and guarded by their Shepherd, the sheep grow robust.

If a sheep wanders and becomes lost, the Shepherd will leave the others to search for him, and upon finding him rejoice and return him to His flock. The Good Shepherd knows that in the mountains His sheep are exposed to greater dangers alongside the greater goods; He will always protect them and draw them back to Him when they stray. If a sheep is wounded, no matter how close or far away from the flock, the Shepherd will carry him on His shoulders through the heights until he is well enough to follow again. And after this time of closeness with his Shepherd - hearing His voice, His every breath, feeling the vibrations as He talks - how much better can the sheep recognize and obey His voice in the future!

When you hear the Shepherd's voice calling you, be not afraid! Leave your pen you have built yourself to frolic with Him on the mountain tops. He will never leave you. His grace is sufficient.

The Sword of Silence

Christ wields the sword of silence to sever the chains that bind our souls.

With loud voices and chaotic busy-ness, demons have convinced us to proffer our ankles and wrists to them, that they may adorn us with pleasure. What we soon discover, however, is that these adornments are not bracelets but shackles that bind us to our demonic slave drivers. These chains may be lust, anxiety, doubt, fear... once the manacle encloses around our wrist, we cannot free ourselves from it.

But there is One who can break these chains. He alone has the authority and strength to free us from our bondage. When we feel ourselves weighed down or dragged about by these chains, we need only strive to attain silence. This striving is an orientation of our whole being towards God and God alone; it is the silence of two souls' eyes meeting in the midst of chaotic battle and bloodshed. This desperate plea from our hearts to God will be met with Mercy and Love, and our Savior will strike the chains with the gift of true silence in our hearts--the silencing of the devil.

Private

"Tenderness is always personal, interior, private, -- to some extent at least it modestly shuns the gaze of others. It can display itself freely only to those who can understand it and respond to it properly." --JP II Love and Responsibility

The tenderness between a man and a woman is a private matter, for through it they are seeking to enter into the other's heart, to assume, through love, the other's experiences and state as their own. Through physical love, the invisible becomes visible; it is God's gift to man and wife to experience a unity and closeness that is otherwise impossible, for two people are always incommunicable on this earth.

Even had man never sinned, and were still in the garden of Eden where man and woman were naked without shame, the intimate affections between man and woman would be a private matter. Others would look away should they happen upon it out of respect and love for them--out of a recognition that this beautiful love was something which involves only that one man and one woman. The total gift and total reception of the gift can only be communicated between the two persons involved.

This is not to say that brief moments of tenderness cannot be shared in the sight of others, nor that a man and woman should not allow their tender love to be revealed to the world through the way they interact with each other. However when it becomes an exchange between them which is seeking the depths of the other, even if it is just looking in each other's eyes, they are removing themselves from the levels which are accessible by onlookers, and it becomes a private affair.

When touching means death

Beware of Eve's mistake. God told her not to eat of the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, but she tells the serpent when questioned that God said "You shall not eat it or even touch it, lest you die."

It is important to not fall into a near occasion of sin. However at the same time we must not add to God's commands. If touching the fruit is a near occasion of sin, then we would be right to ban ourselves from it for a time, opening ourselves to God's healing that we may become rightly ordered. However we must not forget that God's command was to not eat it. This tree, like the rest of the trees in the garden, is to be cared for, can be climbed and admired, or used for its shade. Touching does not kill us if we rely on God and not ourselves.

When touching means death, it is only a matter of time before looking means death, and being means death, for it means that we no longer believe in God's love for us and His healing grace.

"Balance what you fear from yourself with hope in God" (Dom Scupoli).

The key to life then is to ban ourselves only for a time; a fasting which makes the soul more open to God and the movements of the Spirit within. For once you have developed the ability to listen to the Spirit's guidance, and your soul has been healed and rightly ordered, then you may abandon your crutches and walk with God.

See Christ Crucified

The priest raises the monstrance for Benediction: see the cross with Christ crucified as the weighty object wobbles upon being lifted into the air. How each wobble must have added pain to His wounds!

Love and Weakness

Love is only strong in weakness. Without weakness, love becomes hardened and brittle, ready to shatter at the slightest blow. Weakness allows Love to bend and flex with the blows, that it may stand firm by its Beloved.

Other's Spirituality

Perhaps when you are uncomfortable with someone or his practices, it is not him or his practices, but your reaction that makes you uncomfortable. If you judge him, is the painful twinge your conscience telling you of your sin, rather than his?

If he is missing some piece of Truth, then show him Truth. Do not judge.

Look to the Eucharist

If you doubt the Goodness of God, look to the Eucharist.
If you doubt His love
...if you doubt His concern
...if you doubt His mercy

Look to the Eucharist.

Eucharist and the Body of Christ

When you receive the Eucharist, do not merely receive the graces for your own life. Rather, offer Mary her Son, that she may distribute these infinite graces to the whole world. For we are broken vessels; we cannot receive all of the graces proffered to us in the Eucharist. But surrounded by her perfect vessel, not a drop will be lost; through her intercession the whole world can be saved. Allow the graces from your Eucharist to win life for the unborn child, peace for the troubled woman, Truth and meaning for the man in the suit.

Gaining Virtue

The surest way to fail in your attempts to gain virtue is to judge those who have not attained it. If you struggle with temptation, stop judging and you will be granted victory over the demons that plague you.

Needs fulfilled

If we are in need, we have only to look at what we have and what tomorrow will bring, for You O Lord are an extravagant Lover! You know our true desires, and You fulfill them a thousand fold, if only we would open to You and believe in Your goodness!