Till The Soil

[till-the-soil]

"A man of discernment, meditating on the healing Divine Providence, bears with thanksgiving the misfortunes that come to him. He sees their causes in his own sins, and not in anyone else. But a mindless man, when he sins and receives the punishment for it, considers the cause of his misfortune to be God, or people, not understanding God's care for him." - St. Maximus the Confessor

[till-the-soil]

Till the Soil

“Magdalen sought Our Lord while holding Him; she asked Him of Himself; she did not see Him in the form in which she desired to see Him: on this account she was not content to see Him thus, and sought to find Him otherwise; she wished to see Him in His garments of glory, and not in the mean dress of a gardener; but at length she knew Him when He said: "Mary!" “Do you see, it is Our Lord in the dress of a gardener you meet with every day, here and there, in the various occasions of mortification that present themselves to you. You would much wish Him to offer you other more beautful mortifications. O God! The most beautiful are not the best. Do you not think He says to you: Mary, Mary? Before you can see Him in His glory, He wishes to plant in your garden a great many little flowers, small but to His liking, and this is the reason why He is so clad. May our hearts be ever united to His, and our wills to His good pleasure!” ~ St. Francis De Sales

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“God has the goodness to put some of our Purgatory into each day; let us accept, embrace the cross which is presented to us. Let us take care not to complain, not to imagine suffering is a new invention. A person might easily suppose it was, on seeing our astonishment, and hearing our murmurs. The saints, crushed and ground down by trials of all sorts, seized on suffering as gold from the mine.

“See how gold taken from the earth is cast into a crucible, had the gold thought and speech, it would cry out; I suffer, take me out of this. And yet this gold is purified, and soon it will shine on the brows of kings, and on the altars of the living God. The cross effects the same in our regard; it is our crucible.” ~ P. De Ravignan

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"If Jesus Christ, our Divine Master, never laughed, it was because the plenitude of His perfections placed Him above all human imperfections; and laughter is one of them, but inseparable from our condition. God does not condemn it, because we are neither gods nor angels. Laughter proceeds from a sudden joy caused by the sight or thought of some object agreeable and new, or newly remembered; hence our Divine Saviour, to whom all things were continually present, was not susceptible of that sudden joy which novelty causes. Moreover, His soul, enjoying continually the beatific vision, was capable only of sentiments divinely-human; so that if He never laughed, neither was He ever sad, according to the words of the prophet Isaias: Non erit tristis neque turbulentus. If on the eve of His Passion He said that He was overwhelmed with mortal sadness, this ought to be understood only of the impression of sadness on the imagination and on the senses, and not of sadness itself, of which His ever-blessed soul was incapable." -P Lombez.

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“I am a miserable, vile, and abject creature, and therefore God will show me mercy; for power is made perfect in infirmity, and there is nothing astonishing in being poor and miserable.”

St. Francis De Sales

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Remain in peace, and be not troubled, for God is on your side. ~ Saint Francis De Sales

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Why do you put yourself in pain? God is good, he knows well what you are; your inclinations cannot injure you, bad as they are, since they are left in you only to exercise your superior will in effecting a more advantageous union with the will of God. Keep your eyes raised on high, my dearest daughter, by a perfect confidence in the goodness of God. Be not too busy about Him, for He told Martha He did not wish it. He would prefer us not to be so anxious, even to do good. ~ Saint Francis De Sales

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Remember our thirst while you sit and drink; our hunger while you be feasting; our restless watch while you be sleeping; our sore and grievous pain while you be playing; our hot burning fire while you be in pleasure and sporting; so may God make your offspring after you; so God keep you hence not long here; but bring you shortly; so to that bliss, to which for our Lord's love help you to bring us, and we shall set hand to help you thither to us. ~ St. Thomas More speaking on behalf of the souls in Purgatory

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[T]he temptations of blasphemy, despair, and interior shame, place to a certain degree those who resist them in the rank and prerogatives of martyrs; for the servants of God would much prefer to yield with one blow their heads, their blood, their life, for Jesus Christ, than to endure such painful temptations for months, and even for years. Let us conclude then that persons afflicted with scruples are the most favored by divine love, and the surest to arrive at Heaven, because by enduring their pains with patience and humility, and thus dying to themselves, they live in a continual Purgatory, and leave this carth only to fly to Heaven, purified from every matter of expiation. ~ Henry Suso, O.P.

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“To be a good servant of God is not to be always consoled, always in sweetness, always without aversion or repugnance for virtue; if it were, then neither St. Paul, nor St. Theresa, nor St. Catherine of Siena, would have properly served God. To be a good servant of God is to be charitable towards our neighbor, to possess an inviolable resolution in the superior part of the soul to follow the will of God, to have such a profound humility and simplicity as will make us confide entirely in God and rise again when we fall, to endure patiently ourselves and our abjections, and to endure tranquilly our neighbors and their imperfections.”

St. Francis de Sales, Consoling Thoughts on Trials of an Interior Life

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Stella Matutina

“She arose in the night of the ancient law, in the obscure dawn of the future light; She came into the world at the decline of that night and with ineffable foresight She proffered and distributed the nourishment of grace and of eternal life to all her domestics and to the servants, namely her own people, to the rest of the human race, to the holy Fathers and the just of her own nation, and to the sinners, slaves and captives of all the world. And She gave it so truly and so fully, that the nourishment was taken from her own substance and from her own blood, since it originated in her virginal womb.”

City of God, Mary of Agreda

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Divine Providence

“They hold themselves aloof from the divine Providence, which is powerful and sweet and unfailing, which measures the orbs of heaven and the elements; which counts the footsteps, discerns the thoughts, and disposes everything for the benefit of the creatures. Instead of all this men are given over to their own solicitudes, which are inefficient and weak, blind, uncertain and inconsiderate. From this false beginning originate and follow irreparable evils for man; for he deprives himself of the divine protectíon and falls from the dignity of having his Creator as his Helper and Defender. What is still worse, if by his carnal wisdom and by diabolical astuteness to which man resigns himself, he succeeds sometimes in obtaining what he seeks, he deems himself fortunate on account of this, his own misfortune! And with sensible pleasure he imbibes the poison of eternal death in the deceitful delight, which he has gained, while incurring the alienation and abhorrence of his God.”

Instruction of Our Lady to Mary of Agreda, City of God

[till-the-soil]

“Her wisdom enrages me, her modesty irritates me, her humility annihilates me and oppresses me, and her whole behavior provokes me to unbearable wrath. I abhor Her more than all the children of Adam. There is in Her a special power, which often makes it impossible for me to approach Her; if I assail Her with suggestions, She does not admit them, and all my efforts in her regard until this hour have been entirely fruitless. Hence it is important for us all that we find a remedy; and we must make the greatest exertions, lest our power be ruined. I desire the destruction of this soul more than that of all the world.”

From City of God by Mary of Agreda; a vision of the devil addressing his legion about the Mother of God as a child.

[hometoursandotherstuff]

Have you ever heard of Priest Holes? Well, if you live in England, check your attic, b/c you may have one. Once upon a time, it was illegal to be Catholic in England.

King Henry VIII needed a male heir & blamed Catherine of Aragon, his 1st wife, for not giving him one.  On these grounds, he asked the Pope for an annulment, which was refused, so Henry founded his own church (the Church of England). And because he was King, the entire country was required to convert to his new religion.

It was high treason for a priest to even enter England.  Priest Holes are pretty much what they sound like: Small, tucked-away medieval cubbies where Catholic families could hide their priests.

They had to be small, b/c priest hunters were out to find the heretics. They were no taller than four feet, wedged in any space in the house that could discreetly accommodate them.

When priest hunters became wise to these hidden spaces, they would wait until the families thought they had gone, and then seize the priest when he came out. Some homes like this one, had multiple Priest Holes.

This one, formerly a medieval sewer, was found under a kitchen. 

This man found one in the wall of his home.

Here’s one that was found above a bread-oven, in the thickness of the chimney stack.

Nicholas Owen was a carpenter who specialized in building Priest Holes. Owen  worked alone and at night to avoid suspicion.

Some of his work throughout England may still be undiscovered. For example, this one, rediscovered in 1858, was not fully opened until 1910, and “still inside were a rope ladder, a small tapestry, bedding and a folding leather altar.”

Owen did eventually get caught. The first time he was discovered, in 1594, he was tortured, but did not reveal the names or locations of his fellow Catholics. He was released after a wealthy Catholic family paid a fine on his behalf, and went back to building Priest Holes.

In 1606, though, Owen was arrested again.

But, this time, he was tortured so badly, he died an awful death, having revealed nothing to his inquisitors. He later became Saint Nicholas Owen, the Patron Saint of Illusionists and Escapologists.

https://www.messynessychic.com/2021/03/24/another-reason-to-check-your-attic-priest-holes/

[cvbarroso]

Hodie III septembris... Sancti Pii Papae Decimi .

San Pío X

[till-the-soil]

As the most holy Trinity has pledged Itself to honor and exalt this Queen of heaven above all human creatures and above the angels, placing Her in this world as a Mirror of the Divinity and as the special Mediatrix of mortals, God has taken it in a particular manner upon Himself to avenge the heresies, errors, outrages, and all injuries committed against Her, since thereby men have not glorified, acknowledged and adored Him in this tabernacle and have not made use of this incomparable mercy. These punishments are prophesied to the holy Church, although the mysterious words of the Apocalypse shroud in obscurity the rigor of this punishment, yet woe to the unhappy ones, that shall be overtaken by it! Woe to me, who have offended a God so strong and powerful to chastise! I am overwhelmed in the expectation of the great calamity here threatened.

Venerable Mary of Agreda, City of God: Conception

[coriesu]

The Mealtime Prayer Fritz von Uhde⏤1885