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Caricaturing other people’s saints:

5/27/2015

I hear there are people who just assume that the soon to be canonized Franciscan missionary Junipero Serra was a cruel colonial minded Spaniard who came to what is now California and enslaved Native Americans. I was talking to someone who seemed to have bought into that point of view. I mentioned that I had a read the 500 page bio of him by a fellow Franciscan, Palou, that showed how he loved the Native Americans and served them hand and foot.

To the person who had the wrong view of soon to be St. Junipero Serra, I made a comparison to the way some people caricature Dorothy Day, who is being considered for canonization, without having ever read anything but articles about her. Having myself read a long bio of her and her Memoirs, and also having met her once on her farm in Staten Island I feel I know more.

For example how many that insist she will never be canonized know that she went to Daily Mass and Weekly Confession and loved the Rosary? So when I hear someone who has never read a thing about Dorothy but just articles in a part of the Catholic Press that thinks everyone who is an ex-Communist is still a Communist and that she had an abortion after being a Catholic, when it was before she converted, etc. etc. I get very angry and I say "Have you ever read anything by her or by those who knew her?"

Now, of course, none of us knew Junipero Serra who are talking about him now. Having read this long book about him and other books about missionaries, I make a huge distinction between missionaries and colonialists. etc. etc. As in the movie The Mission about the Jesuits in South America, the missionaries were often opponents of the colonialists. So I get upset when I hear something what sounds to me like a politicized caricature of a missionary saint I loved so much when I read about him.

I think, as presumably thoughtful Catholics, we ought to avoid basing our ideas about those up for canonization on the reading of short articles.

More from God Alone –
for more about the nature of such “words in the heart from the HolyTrinity, see 12/18/2014 on this blog.

July 12, 2008
Cultures Blended and Transformed
(Of all the locutions in this series this one seems most like me writing rather than the Holy Spirit. On the other hand it corresponds in many ways to the reading at the day in Ordinary time which followed the locution and, of course, some of the ideas which seem like summaries of my own previous reflections on life could themselves have been inspired by the Holy Spirit. You can just take
whatever you think is true and think about it.)
Holy Spirit:

You can rightly bemoan the violence of the history of peoples; of conquest; the blood of battle; the enslavement of peoples. How do We bring good out of all those sins that exploded out of the initial rupture of the peace of Eden? You can see this good in the fact of the tilma of Our Lady of Guadalupe (this is the miraculous and beautiful imprint of Mary’s face on the robe of a Mexican during the time of the conquistadores which led to the conversion of millions of Mexicans) It is a noble, sorrowful, native face, yet she also appears as the transformation of Spanish culture. The craving for gold is transmuted into the prophesied gold of Revelation in the image of the woman clothed with the sun.

Can you see in the portrait of St. Paul in Scripture the blending of the fierce Jewish obedience to God with the Roman vision of universality? In United States culture, out of the tragedy of slavery, you see coming forth the Afro-American mode of love for Jesus which you hear in passionate gospel music. Now with the waves of immigration you can see out of intense survival needs coming forth a fiery expression of desperation and gratitude for salvation penetrating the perennial universal (Catholic means universal) more serene rituals. We don’t will for you the miseries of evil in the tangled effects from the paths you (yourself) took when you chose to listen to the Evil One rather than walk with your Father in the garden.

But it is from all of that tragedy that you are to be redeemed, saved and a sign of redemption is the transfiguration of each people. Violence is a foretaste of hell; beauty a foretaste of heaven. (Later, when I was “arguing” with the Holy Spirit that this all sounded too blunt, with not enough sense of the mystery of suffering that we cannot understand and can only accept because of the gift of faith, He seemed to add this example: the devil leads people to abortion, but the souls of the babies go into the lap of Mary.)

July 14, 2008
Ten Signs of Awakening
(This is from a Catholic 12 Step Reading but I am inserting it here because I think it reflects the work of the Holy Spirit in many souls in our times.)

1. We desired greater closeness to God but knew we could not bring this about by ourselves.
2. We became aware that God wished to be closer to us in the innermost recesses of our heart.
3. We sensed, saw, or heard, God breaking through the barriers in us of sin, routine, and fear.

4. We found the Holy Spirit’s presence more strongly reaching out to us in our individual and group prayer; in the liturgy, and in communion and reconciliation; to comfort and guide us.

5. We perceived Jesus, more and more, in the suffering hearts of others: those close to us and those less known. This gave us fresh impetus to try to overcome injustices of small and larger scale.
6. We found mercy in the kindness and goodness in the hearts of others for ourselves.

7. We saw God’s hand more clearly in the beauty in nature, in human inventiveness, and in the arts.

8. We felt the embrace of Jesus and Mary in our worst physical and emotional pain. This enabled us better to forgive others and ourselves.
9. We believed and hoped more strongly, in spite of all our weaknesses and evils, in God’s plan of love for the present and for eternity.
10. We experienced our beings expanding with greater joy, peace, trust, gratitude and love.

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From God Alone ---

5/19/2015

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more excerpts from my journal of “words from God” see this blog 12/18/2014 for an explanation.

July 10, 2008
Comfort
Holy Spirit:
The word comfort has an ambiguous ring to you. The desire to be comforted can seem babyish, as if refusing the tough challenges of life in work or even sports. Yet the “giving of comfort” always sounds maternal in a positive way.
To prepare you for heaven, then, We simultaneously wean you from too human a need for earthly comforts, and attach you to spiritual comfort.
What is spiritual comfort? It can come from Divine grace pouring into your souls, but it can also come from the hope of Our approval for your righteousness when you chose the good, often at some sacrifice. This comes from Our paternal justice.

From deprivation of human comfort you can become closed or combative. Moderate human comforts are healing of this: good food, drink, the warmth of the sun. Surfeit of comforts makes you sluggish.
All this is part of the drama of life. Part of heaven will be to know how it all worked. Will you let the richness of all these elements of life give you hope?
“We now see through a glass darkly.”

July 11, 2008
Security
Holy Spirit:
There is a good security. Think of “the house built on good foundations,” being with people you trust because they are honest and responsible; sound investments, hard earned savings.
This is good, but there is something better: the security of being saved by God’s all understanding love. In this sense mercy is safer than justice, for “who can ransom his own soul?” even with piles of merit?

St. Francis of Assisi called death “sister death.” He understood death as a sort of trampoline to help you leap from your temporal securities into the security of God the Father’s waiting arms. Judgment there will be, but no longer on your own fallible terms.
So much of the gospel is about letting go of earthly security, the “stocking up stuff in barns” for a non-existent future.
Come! Let yourself be saved.

July 12, 2008
Insight
Holy Spirit:

Beware of circling around stale self-justifying thoughts. Such repetition is very different from the wholesome cycle of nature or the rhythm of daily activities which brings peace. Insight comes when you let the rays of Trinitarian light into the darkness of mind that comes with the Fall.
The Gospels are full of parables about such breakthroughs: the Prodigal son; and encounters with real people such as the woman at the well. The Good News According to _____________(your name) could be written about such moments of turning.

In periods when your life is not in crisis, We try to give you insight through watching nature or casual encounters. The sky tells you of the infinite. The pleasure of a supermarket worker helping you find what you are looking for could give you insight into the goodness of inter-dependence. Favorite music lifts you above the tragic: a sign that you are not stuck in frustration but can transcend it.
Simplicity of life should lead to less rush and pressure with more room to receive fresh insight. Even in physical pain, disappointment, or loss, be open to the Spirit of Truth for unexpected light.

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Jots and Tittles

5/18/2015

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Benedetto Croce,
the Italian philosopher once wrote:
"Religion is precise. Religiousity is vague." I thought this even more apt today when people go around saying “I’m not religious, but I am spiritual.”

However, we have to be careful who we “write off.” Someone gave me a book by a business consultant, Fred Kofman, who is a Jew who found Buddhism. I was reluctant to read it, but it is actually terrific. He takes the best lines from Buddhism and other religions, even ours, and blends this wisdom with absolutely nifty, helpful ideas about bad ways of managing companies. These insights are highly applicable also to academe or Church. For example, how to avoid seeing oneself always as a victim vs. as one learning even from failure that there are higher goals and obvious success.

Pet peeve! I notice in myself and in many other women this tendency: to fuss about every detail of each situation we are in trying to make sure everything is the best it can be but meanwhile driving others crazy about absolute trivia! I think men usually hate this trait of many women. Of course it is the shadow side of the very important way in which women are concerned about details and will work hard to make things work out not only successfully but harmoniously. I am working on just talking less. It is soothing not only to others but also to me!!!!

I read in one of those non-Catholic Christian meditation books presumably dictated by Jesus, the following very good advice: "When you start to feel stressed, let those feelings alert you to your need for Me. Thus, your needs become doorways to deep dependence on Me and increasing intimacy between us. Although self-sufficiency is acclaimed in the world, reliance on Me produces abundant living in My kingdom. Thank Me for the difficulties in your life, since they provide protection from the idolatry of self-reliance.
It was the last phrase that caught my eye: “idolatry of self-reliance” because I think it has a large part in the misery of aging where we feel all the time insufficient, weaker, and needy. Some of us probably are clinging desperately to independence in a way that is never going to work!

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UpSet with the Setup

5/12/2015

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I was upset over something someone did recently. Jesus seemed to tell me: You don’t need to become cynical when you see all kinds of desperate moves, you need to be mercifully loving, not superior. Think of those whose failings you see as having “fallen in battle” and you could be a nurse in the hospital with the medicine of the Way of Love. In each moment ask yourself what is the most loving thing to say. It can be funny but not sarcastic and not teasing in the wrong way.

A mentor of mine thought that this insight could provide me with a true victory where instead of feeling superior through psychoanalyzing others in my head if not in word, I could beg for supernatural grace instead. It gives me a momentary satisfaction or pleasure which quickly fades, leaving you empty and bitter, this mentor pointed out. Very soon a lust will rise up for a "new" situation to exploit and the drama is acted out again and again.

Opposed to this are the true victories. When you participate in these Mercies, the situation is "reordered" by the Holy Spirit, and Ronda is reordered. The fruit of this Ordering is threefold: the people with whom you interact are "gathered" unto Christ; The Gates of Hell are beaten back, and we claim more space for the Kingdom (Christ prophesied that Ronda would do this) and as the personal fruit of Order in Tranquility and the Peace. Further, this victory signifies conformity (Union) with Christ, who is All Good. St. Thomas tells us that union with Jesus is (=) Happiness, then Joy. This Peace and Joy will endure longer and longer as you become better at Spiritual Warfare and win more "true victories".

From God Alone (for an explanation of these messages, see this blog 12/18/2014

July 5, 2008
Silence
Holy Spirit:

With what words can We teach you the limits of words? We want to teach you not a dull silence but a rich silence; the silence that comes from going out of yourself into ecstatic union with Us and our creation. Tedious chatter comes from your enemy: fear. You try to ward off fear, ultimately fear of death, through wordy plans. Since corpses are silent, you prove to yourselves that you are alive by hearing your own voices. Speech as response is better; more musical. You hear a request, pick up a concern, sense a need. Your voiced response signifies you are ready with helpful love.

Your tongue cries out against the threat of such seeming restriction. You ask if I would condemn the joys of self-expression? Always you want to justify excess by reference to the evil of its opposite: poverty. We treasure your spontaneous personal voices. What we wish to tame is the scattered noises of your anxiety. Try for just awhile slowing down and questioning what you want to say. Favor words of communion with Us; words of praise of beauties large as the sky, small as a flower; words of thanksgiving; words of humble need. Reject words of anger; words of complaint; words of critique; words of prodding. One day your song will blend into Our song.

(Beware) “The tongue is a fire…set on fire by hell.”(James 3:6)

July 6, 2008
Poured Out
Holy Spirit:
It is safe inside the bottle, the libation slowly gaining flavor and strength. The interior life grows in darkness. Then comes the time to let Us bring you out to be served, tested, tasted, relished or, perhaps, spit out! We waste nothing. Think of the angels saving the blood pouring out of the side of your Savior on the crucifix.

Mary’s and your consent to Our plan is at first without boundaries. The specifics of Our plan unfold. At each unexpected turn we leave you free to take back your consent. Appalled, Peter cried out: “I know not that man!” Your weaknesses become part of Our plan. How many find in Peter’s tears the impetus to their own repentance!

The risen Jesus came right through the locked doors of His hidden disciples. He was eager to reassure them. He will anoint them before leading them forth, themselves, to be poured out. Take courage. Let us lead you into the unknown future.
“The light shines in the darkness and the darkness shall not overcome it.” (John 1:5)

July 7, 2008
Results
Holy Spirit:
You think of results as direct effects of causes. We think more of radiation of power as in light. When you don’t see results as you try to witness to Our love, you are disappointed. We are not disappointed because we are sending love to others through you. The light shines through even the darkness in you that makes you so ashamed.
The darkness in you does block those you witness to from accepting you or accepting your concrete plans for them. As it were, they throw away the package, you, and grab what is inside (Our love). All you see is how they reject the package and you feel discouraged. You don’t see them in the home in their hearts cherishing the gift.
If this were not true, how could 12 men, who were martyred, “cause” the conversion of peoples throughout the whole world? I hear the sceptic in you shrugging this off. With the cause and effect mentality, you think this result came more from conquest than from grace. That is the dark side. But, because We are Love, Our rays come into the hearts of all whoopen to Us no matter what the circumstances.
“I am the light of the world.”

July 8, 2008
(note: words in parentheses are Ronda’s explanations)
Microcosm
Holy Spirit:
We want you to learn how to see the All in the small. This is not pantheism (the theory that all creatures are God) or sentimentality (a fatuous cooing over the sweet) as you might fear. It has to do with the imago Dei, with omnipresence, with symbols, with ecstatic union.
Think of
- all the notes in a symphony rushing toward the final triumphant chord;
- the kiss of bride and groom at a wedding;
- the smile of a baby: the first to be seen by the parents;
- each Mass encapsulating every Mass.
In the end, when the barriers break down between the religions of the world, all will become one, not in some false blurring synthesis, but in a mighty ecstatic union where the partial will rush toward the full.

July 9, 2008
Convergence
Holy Spirit:
The closer you get to heaven the more earthly division distresses you. You see no way to overcome it whether it be in the realm of the political or the ecclesial. These divisions are long entrenched, coming as they do from real sins of the past.
Healing will come through grace. You can cooperate in making openings for grace by avoiding denunciation in favor of understanding the reasons for the dividing stances.
Imagination can help. Think of small children learning fear and hate as necessary for self-protection. Let yourself notice the unexpected that comes when someone leaps over the division in a gesture of solidarity. Don’t you want to be one who, with Our help, can make those kind of leaps?
Start by noticing in yourself the impulses to fear and hate and how they come up in the moment you are thwarted in the smallest goal. Can you see that quietly accepting the jolt to your will and working through the problem for the best solution feels peaceful? It prevents you from hasty, harsh, blame, with the retaliation that cements division. Humble forgiveness puts you and others on the same plane. And, then, with the same people or similar ones, at another time, there can be a convergence of needs and helps. It is not a matter of “figuring out,” but of releasing it into Our hands and then responding to Our prompts.
“In the world it is impossible, but nothing is impossible for God.”
”Blessed be the peacemakers.”

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Touring the Void with Siggy Freud

5/11/2015

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Now and than one of my students of philosophy writes a truly outstanding paper in terms of manifesting the truth about something in an unusually insightful manner. Such is this paper by Matthew E. Gonzalez, a lay student at Holy Apostles College and Seminary. The requirement was to take an issue big in the 20th century and relate it to 21st century polarities:

Sigmund Freud:
Sigmund Freud was a very brilliant man, and possessed an intellect adept at penetrating the myriad thought processes of others. Why is this so? From the evidence of his life, of the various choices he made and his expressed views on what and who man is, it would seem that Freud himself was a person beset with many interior demons, that is, neurotic tendencies evolving out of an internal conflict wherein he is attempting to negotiate and understand the traumas he has experienced in his life.
I am sure that we all accept that to experience something is to gain an understanding, or at least a familiarity with it, which we could not otherwise gain. In this respect, and also due to his natural gift of intellect and his tendency to self-obsession and observation, we can thus understand why Freud was drawn to develop the field of psycho-analysis and why he was so good at it.

However, the psycho-analysis which Freud developed, in my opinion, fails miserably at perceiving and addressing the human person as exactly that, a person. In psycho-analysis, there is the tendency to regard a person in a way which is inherently de-humanizing. There tends to be the practice of determining a person’s mental illnesses in a cold, overly scientific manner, addressing the person more as a biological reality, or a machine, really, as opposed to one who, more than anything else, desires to love and to be loved. This is the deepest and most significant reality of the human person, and shows us how we are made in God’s image and likeness: we require meaning in our lives, we need to know we are loved, and we need to be able to give love to others. More than that even, we need to hear this: It is good that you exist. This is the basis for everything else.

Pope Benedict was very clear on this point. Before any type of evangelization and catechesis can take place, each person must know that it is good that they exist, and that they are specifically willed into and sustained in existence by a God who loves them, and it is out of love that they have been created. Freud’s process of psycho-analysis does in fact not do this.

On the contrary, what often occurs with the knowledge of what’s wrong with us and why we do what we do, which psycho-analysis often uncovers for us, is to cause us to become angry and resentful. We learn that because our mother withheld love from us, or because a family member sexually abused us, we now, therefore, as a consequence, exhibit neurotic behavior. I will therefore become angry that someone else has caused me this pain and difficulty. I will obsess over it when life becomes hard and unbearable, asking a God, whom I now doubt in, for why would a loving God allow this pain, why I must suffer for someone else’s wrongdoings. So we are aware of the source and causes of our disturbing thoughts and behavior, but what have we really gained? I have also become full of greater resentment, anger, and even a cosmic rage, ultimately directed at a God who may not even be there.

On the contrary, I believe that what a wounded person really needs is not to be dismantled like a mechanical device, to find out what’s wrong, but rather, they need supportive therapy, and especially love. Forgiveness, a constituent part of love, is needed. We need to be encouraged to forgive others for what they have done to us. We also need to learn that it is ok to be me, so to speak, and to learn a certain amount of forgiveness of self. Very often, contradictory though it may seem, one who is obsessed with how others have hurt them, very deep inside, conceive of themselves in a most hateful, despised manner.

I have noticed that in all the circumstances I have found myself in throughout my life, the absolutely necessary reality which must always be present for authentic understanding and healing, has always been forgiveness: forgiveness of others, forgiveness of self, and, if you will, forgiveness of God. Though God requires no forgiveness from anyone, we are often very angry with him. I may say such things as “why did you make me like this?” or “why have I always been so painfully alone?” or “why do you allow those who are so innocent and vulnerable to suffer so much?”. When I consider these thoughts to an obsessive degree, I experience thoughts of anger and rage, ultimately directed towards God, for He is the only one with the power and authority necessary to stop these evils from occurring. I am now angry with God, who, in the hierarchy of being, occupies the top place. Thus, this affects my view of the entirety of creation, as it comes from and is totally dependent upon Him. Now I am at war with God, creation, and myself. I now have no peace, and desire to gain power, so that I may manipulate creation. I will no longer be hurt and dominated by others! If my world will not be agreeable to me, I will force it to be so. In the end, this is a futile endeavor. What starts with knowledge of self, at least in regards to our weaknesses and struggles, which is often gained by means of psycho-analysis, may in fact lead to this type of inner division and being at war with creation, God and ourselves.

What is the remedy to this? As earlier stated, it is the most important thing for us to understand that it is good that we exist. We are not some unintended result of an evolutionary process, condemned to scrap out our existence in a cold, dark universe. Our sufferings must have meaning, or this whole experience of life is absurd, a cosmic joke. Let us consider for a moment all of the pain and suffering which has occurred throughout the history of the world. It is really quite impossible to do so, but were we able to do so, we would be instantly crushed by the weight of such a burden. Now let us say that this vast ocean of suffering has all been for nothing, and essentially has no meaning. What would the consequences of such a view of reality be? I will tell you: terror and rage. We have lost sight of the sublime meaning of sacrificial love, which is present in suffering properly understood and accepted. As a result of this, I believe, the modern world has seen an overwhelming increase in behaviors which have as their motivation fear and anger. Senseless violence, the abuse of the weak and innocent, suicide and all such things have at their root a misunderstanding of the nature of existence. In other words, an erroneous and misguided view of suffering will lead to the inability to truly understand who we are as individuals, who others are, and who God is. We therefore lose the ability to relate to ourselves, others and God properly, and so our sufferings increase, as we become more and more isolated.

Viktor Frankl, who developed a therapeutic approach known as logotherapy, understood these things. His life experience was one of great suffering, but it did not become for him a meaningless suffering, and was therefore bearable. As a Jew, he was arrested by the Nazis, along with his family. They were placed in a concentration camp. His family was largely murdered by the Nazis, and he was a witness to many other deep pains, not only his own, but others as well. We can say that those who suffer either get bitter or get better. It would seem that Frankl got better. There was great meaning in suffering for him.

After the war, he developed an approach to the practice of psychotherapy known as logotherapy. In contrast to psycho-analysis and Freud, Frankl’s view placed first and foremost the fact the patient is a person, as opposed to a mere organism which is experiencing a malfunction due to some process reduceable to the level of biology and cause and effect. I would like to quote from Frankl’s most famous work Man’s Search for Meaning pgs. 134-135: “There is nothing conceivable which would so condition a man as to leave him without the slightest freedom. Therefore, a residue of freedom, however limited it may be, is left to man in neurotic and psychotic cases. Indeed, the innermost core of a patient’s personality is not even touched by a psychosis. An incurably psychotic individual may lose his usefulness but yet retain the dignity of a human being. This is my psychiatric credo. Without it I should not think it worthwhile to be a psychiatrist. For whose sake? Just for the sake of a damaged brain machine which cannot be repaired? If the patient were not definitely more, euthanasia would be justified.”

I find the last line there to be most telling, and in a sense, prophetic. It is precisely because of the dismal, low view we have of ourselves, of man, that we countenance such things as violence, suicide, abortion and euthanasia. If we are just a collection of atoms, and if our suffering has no meaning, then it stands to reason that pain ought to be avoided at all costs. There is, however, something far worse than pain, and it is the absence of love, which, for us, as believers, means the absence of God. This is the definition of hell. The greatest suffering of hell is not the presence of fire or some active torment, it is rather the absence of God who is love. This is the reason, more than any other, why we experience so much suffering, because we attempt to live without the One who gives meaning to our existence and illuminates for us who we are. Without God, there is no absolute reason why we should exist, and thus we do not hear “it is good that you exist”.

It seems to me that one of the most pervasive lies present in our world today, one which does untold damage, is that there is no meaning to our lives, when we suffer, it is to no avail and that we are, in the end, all alone in a cold, dark universe. This lie breeds fear and rage. It breeds despair. Despair is the enemy of Hope. The reality is that we have good reason to hope, even, and most especially, in the midst of the greatest sufferings, because Jesus loves us. He proved this, since He suffered with us and forgave us. In the end, it is Jesus who gives meaning to our sufferings. The greatest freedom we have, and the one freedom which can never be taken away from us, is the freedom to love.

In conclusion, I would say that it is Frankl’s understanding of the human person which gives hope to those who suffer. It is also no surprise to learn that, towards the end of his life, Viktor Frankl converted to the Catholic faith and embraced Christ. It almost seems like Frankl knew him through all of the sufferings he endured, prior to his conversion, though he was not necessarily conscious of the fact that it was Jesus whom he knew.”

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Caricaturing other people’s saints:

From God Alone ---

Jots and Tittles

UpSet with the Setup

Touring the Void with Siggy Freud

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