“Man must not anticipate the Providence that guides him” (St Vincent de Paul).
It is a spiritual art to be “in tune” with Divine Providence, or in other words, to follow in the footsteps of the Holy Spirit.
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MEDITATIONS FOR LENT: “There is no desperate situation for God!”
‘Discretion’ has led us to recognise the present crisis in the Church as a danger to the faithful, to perceive how her witness to the world has been obscured, and to see, beyond the human realm, the “principalities and powers” who plot evil against “the Lord and His anointed”, and who often pull the strings of all that usurps glory from God and harms men.
To get a more comprehensive picture in the sense of discernment of spirits, it is also worthwhile to take a look at the present situation in the world. It is not difficult to see that whole nations are under the dominion of darkness. Even formerly Christian countries have opened the door to great evils by introducing abstruse policies such as abortion, gender ideology and others. As a result, the powers of evil have made these states, with a few exceptions, part of the kingdoms over which Satan rules. If we add to this the wars and the injustices associated with them, we are faced with a sea of horror, full of corruption and impurity.
TOWARDS GREATER FRUITFULNESS
“O my Jesus, I know that in order to be useful to souls I must long for the most intimate union with You, Who are eternal Love” (St. Faustina Kowalska).
Our fruitfulness for the salvation of souls depends on the intimacy of our union with God. Every day we are invited to deepen our love for the Lord and thus to be ever more united with our heavenly Father. In fact, Jesus introduced us to this love, as He makes clear in His priestly prayer in the Gospel of John: “I made known to them thy name, and I will make it known, that the love with which thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them” (Jn 17:26).
DON’T LET YOURSELF BE DISCOURAGED
“Never let yourself be discouraged. Our eyes are on you, and we will not allow more to happen to you than you can bear” (Inner Word).
In our journey of following the Lord, situations may arise in which we need these words especially. Sometimes – or even often – our Father allows things to happen that are difficult to face, whether on a personal level or in the world and in the Church. These are crosses that we have to bear, the meaning of which we find difficult to understand and which we can only overcome through faith. In such circumstances it is easy to become discouraged. But when this happens, temptation has achieved one of its goals. A discouraged soldier of the Lord can easily be dissuaded from doing what those difficult circumstances would allow him to offer for the Kingdom of God. We must therefore accept crosses as coming from the hand of God, learn to bear them and make them fruitful. We can always ask the Lord to teach us.
MEDITATIONS FOR LENT: “The influence of darkness”
In the sense of ‘discretio’ it is inescapable to face the current crisis in the Church, for how else would we draw the right conclusions to face it as disciples of the Lord? If we ignore it, we will continue to behave as if nothing has changed, and we will end up becoming carriers of modernist errors ourselves. If we even agree with such errors, then, without realising it, we are working on the side of those who want to destroy the Church or transform it into a humanitarian institution, as the philosopher Dietrich von Hildebrand so aptly described it. If we remain silent when we see errors, we should take to heart the words of Pope Felix III: “Not to oppose error is to approve it; and not to defend truth is to suppress it”.
On the other hand, the realisation that the ecclesiastical hierarchy has embarked on a wrong course should not shake us or confuse us to the point of leading us to resignation or to leave the Church and join another denomination. That would be the wrong conclusion. The Catholic Church remains the Church founded by Christ, even when attacked from within and without.
MEDITATIONS FOR LENT: “The light is darkening”
In yesterday’s meditation, as we delved into the discernment of spirits, we pointed out some drifts of the ecclesiastical hierarchy which can concretely affect the lives of the faithful. But what is even more tragic is the fact that the face of the Church is being distorted in such a way that, instead of being a beacon of the Gospel for the nations, in many areas it is adapting itself to the spirit of the world.
We need to be constantly reminded that the primary task of the Church is to bring people the salvation that the Heavenly Father offers them. In other words, evangelisation, as it has been understood until now, is about the salvation of souls. Man is not able to save himself from his misery, but needs God’s grace, which is offered to him in Jesus Christ. Once he has accepted faith, the Church accompanies the believer with all the means that God has entrusted to her.
NEVER HESITATE TO SPEAK THE TRUTH
“Never hesitate to speak the truth!” (Inner Word).
Truth is an invaluable commodity. Without it, everything is blurred and reality takes on illusory features. As Christians, we have had the joy of knowing the One who is truth itself (Jn 14:6) and who comes to us from the throne of the Father. Before the procurator Pilate, Jesus declared: “For this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth” (Jn 18:37), that is, to proclaim the Heavenly Father from whom all things come.
THE WEDDING GARMENT
“No one is excluded from my love; all are called and invited. But they must put on the wedding garment that my Son has given to humanity” (Inner Word).
Our Father’s Heart is open to all people, no one is excluded from His love! All are called to approach the throne of His mercy. That is why the Father sends His messengers to make His love known to mankind. But although this love is boundless and inexhaustible, there is a condition for man to be able to receive it and live in it. He must put on the wedding garment of the Lamb, which the Lord acquired for mankind on the Cross, thus fully fulfilling the Will of the Heavenly Father.
MEDITATIONS FOR LENT: “Concrete repercussions of false doctrines”
Applying ‘discretion’ as it is understood in ecclesiastical terminology, we have first of all turned our attention to the current situation in the Church. Yesterday’s meditation concluded with some reflections by the philosopher Dietrich von Hildebrand, characterised by his gift for discernment. Without adopting extreme positions, he did observe with great precision the harmful tendencies in the Church, especially after the Second Vatican Council.
Hildebrand and others pointed out that the profusion of negative post-conciliar developments could not be explained simply as isolated errors, but that the enemies of the Church set out to destroy it from within or to transform it into a kind of humanitarian institution. The latter is particularly dangerous, because it may not be immediately noticed, thinking that it is a Christian humanism, as in the case of the encyclical Fratelli tutti, which is capable of confusing the faithful.
THE HIERARCHY OF LOVE
“It is better to burn than to know” (Saint Bernard of Clairvaux).
Saint Bernard, an ardent preacher, proclaims here the primacy of love. He was able to inflame his listeners with the love of God and to present the monastic life to them in such an attractive way, with all the praises imaginable, that mothers began to hide their children from him so that they would not all follow him to the monastery.