1st entry: This Meditation on “conversion” reminds me of my “kitchen table experience.”[LES]
“Follow me”
[Father Donald Haggerty]
Conversion is the spark that allows a soul to catch fire with God. It strikes the flint and begins the early burning of a passion for God. It is the first leap of flame that can quickly become a fire lasting a lifetime. Conversions are necessary for deeper spirituality, as many saints can testify. It would seem that no one without an experience of a serious conversion will be taken to the more profound depths of a personal encounter with God or invited by grace into a contemplative life of prayer. This seems to be almost a private maxim of our Lord with souls. He wants us to know the experience of being finally conquered and subdued in the presence of his love. For being vanquished by him is essential to all greater love for him. And then, once he is known, he wants us to taste a longing and a pure desire for himself.
We do not have to be sullied with terrible corruption in our lives to need this experience of conversion. We simply have to be ignorant of our Lord to some degree. The flame ignites all the same whether sins are small or great for one primary reason. Whenever an overpowering encounter with Jesus Christ on his cross at Calvary pierces our soul, he draws the deeper desire of the heart, and a conversion is ready. The sight of Jesus Christ crucified gazing down on us in a single hour of our life is sufficient to change us forever. But we must choose to seek such an hour. We cross a threshold in spiritual perception in looking at the eyes of this crucified man who is God himself, perhaps overcome by an incomprehension of what he may be asking of us in his suffering.
Father Donald Haggerty
Father Haggerty, a priest of the Archdiocese of New York, is currently serving at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City. / From Conversion: Spiritual Insights into an Essential Encounter with God. © 2017, Ignatius Press, San Francisco, CA. www.ignatius.com. Used with permission.
Saturday, 3/5/22; Magnificat [LES]
2nd entry: LES
Novel Review: Fiorella De Maria: See No Evil [LES]
I just finished the third novel in a set by a “new” [to me] author: Fiorella De Maria, a Catholic Christian mystery author. The three novels follow the crime-solving adventures of a Father Brown-like character, another Catholic priest, Fa. Gabriel. The three novels, in order—The Sleeping Witness; The Vanishing Woman and See No Evil—are entertaining and astonishingly good.
What makes me take the time to write this recommendation is the surprising and exquisite ending of the third novel, See No Evil. The novel is properly exciting and attention-holding; I couldn’t put it down, not that it is that long. The secondary characters from the first two novels develop consistently—Abbot Ambrose and Inspector Applegate (adversaries to Fa. Gabriel, and friends of sorts—) and held my interest and affection; the “new” characters who are the source of the crimes and the evil at the heart of this mystery are compelling. What raises this novel above the good, ordinary crime story is the character of Fa. Gabriel and the ending. Just as it looks as though the author is going for the usual sentimental (feel good) ending, the character, Fa. Gabriel, does the right thing and chooses the difficult Truth over Sentiment. The novel has a terrible evil at its center and the priest says and does the difficult, right thing throughout rather than acquiescing to the popular easy thing, as our culture does. I didn’t expect his steely, consistent choice for the truth in the end (my bad) and his consistency and eloquence, and the consequence of his choice, brought many tears to my eyes. [LES]
Image: The Temptation of Christ by the Devil by Félix Joseph Barrias, 1860 [Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, Oklahoma] With the Catholic Thing essay, “Bow Down in His Presence,” 3/6/22, by Bevil Bramwell OMI.
The first Sunday of Lent; The 3 temptations of Christ—fitting image for essay and novel.
I bought a 4th novel by her because of what I found in the 3rd. [LES]
3rd entry: Magnificat
A Light Unto My Path
First Sunday of Lent
Bishop Robert Barron
Lent is a time to return to spiritual basics: to explore, with particular focus, some of the most fundamental dynamics of the soul. By nature, we are all oriented to God. As Scripture has it, my soul rests in God alone (Ps 62:2). But in our sin, we foolishly seek after substitutes for God. During his time of temptation in the desert, Jesus himself entered into the deeply human experience of being lured by these simulacra of our true happiness.
Hungry after forty days of fasting, Jesus hears the words of the devil: If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread. What the tempter is suggesting is that the Lord should make sensual pleasure the center of his life. How many of us sinners are drawn in this direction! Replying, one does not live on bread alone, Jesus insinuates that the deepest hunger of the soul can never be satisfied by mere bodily contentment.
Leading him up a high mountain and displaying all the kingdoms of the world, the devil says, I shall give to you all this power and glory. This is the temptation toward power, an inclination that multitudes of men and women over the ages have found irresistible. Responding, you shall worship the Lord, your God, and him alone shall you serve, Jesus stipulates that no position of authority in this world could ever quiet the heart’s deepest longing.
Placing the Lord on the very pinnacle of the Temple, the devil urged Jesus to throw himself down, confident that God would send angels to protect him. This is the subtle but devastating temptation toward pride, putting oneself at the center of the universe, making God himself into one’s attendant. Every single one of us sinners, to varying degrees, falls prey to this sin—which is, of course, Satan’s own sin. Jesus resists him: you shall not put the Lord your God to the test.
Spend some time this Lent honestly asking yourself to what degree you are tempted toward sensual pleasure, power, and pride. And ask the Lord to help you stand firm against these seductions.
