Come out of the darkness

We are called to be captives set free:
"Come and lead forth from his prison, the captive sitting in darkness, in the shadow of death" (Traditional O Antiphon)

We must follow him, Our Lord, out of this culture of death, into His culture. We can hold ourselves back, pinning for the things of this world, and the things that we think will satisfy. But this will only prolong the misery and captivity.Get up and go. Don't sit there in darkness.

We have to look at Him, follow Him and trust Him. Don't be afraid to give Him your all. He will never let you down. Reflect back on your life. Has He ever let you down? Then why do you fear now, that he could let you down? He can't. It is not in His nature. He comes to lead you out. You must look at Him, and follow Him. You must muster up all the trust that you can, and go forward out of the darkness into His light.

Learn from Mary, Stand firm from the begining, Rule 12

Mary rejected temptations, always and completely, right away, as was discussed by Fr Craig, in his homily on the feast day of the Immaculate Conception.
Rule 12 instructs us to stand firm in the beginning. Mary knows how to battle Satan, and she practiced this rule perfectly. She did not engage him, or have conversation with him or his ideas. She rejected any and all thoughts form the enemy. She is our most wonderful role model. We study her, and she teaches us how to battle Satan.

With God's grace, we too can respond as she did. How can we do this? This goes back to the silence and the reflection and the examine prayer, that allow us to BECOME AWARE that the stirring are from the enemy. This brings us also to realize that these temptations are opportunities to sharpen our spiritual battle skills and to become more practiced warriors. We are then learning and getting better, by the fortification of our will...to REJECT the uncovered inspirations from the enemy!

For example the Chaos that we allow, that brings disorder to our life is just in reality a big distraction for us, from serving Our Lord, in the peace and power of our God.

We build the skill set and our strength and we see that we truly are CAPTIVES SET FREE.. In this simple practice we learn to overcome him. Not bound to sinning over and over, we can stop it through becoming aware, understanding and rejecting. Then with this new skill, that we repeat over and over, we become more proficient, as we imitate Mary, who teaches us to practice Rule 12, by rejecting the enemy in every situation.

Make straight the path

John the baptist cries out to us now in Advent, to " make straight the path" so that our Lord and King can reach us. The roads had to be straightened and the valleys filled in when the king was to make a trip to the people. The roads had to be repaired. God says he will do it, " I will cut a road through all my mountains" isaiah 49, but we must as always do our part. We must fervently will it and ask for it, then act in accordance with the request..

For us to allow our Lord to make His way to us, we straighten the path by staying on this ladder. By keeping our eyes on the goal, true north: God as king of our hearts. We constantly meditate on this realty and this allows us to let other choices be ignored. There are so many distractions from this life, led with our Lord, so we find it imperative to keep our eyes on the goal. Daily, during our holy hour, and many times during the day, and then we examine, with our examine prayer, how did we do? How many times did we not practice the three fold paradigm ( be aware , understand , take action,) and find ourselves looking off to the right or the left. Veering off, becoming concerned with things that won't further our spiritual life or that of others. What good has this been for you,how many opportunities to stay close to our Lord, to keep the path straight have we passed up?
Did we give into distractions, to anger to hurt to judgmental thoughts to anger to jealousy. Reject these temptations! See them for what they are. They are distractions, they are making a very crooked , and not - straight path to our Lord. This is the spiritual battle that we must fight against. Hold tight to the straight path.

Let us do this particular examine today. How did we not stay on the path, eyes forward? Did we allow distractions to take us off the straight path to our Lord? Resolve to reject those temptations tomorrow, and " make straight the path" once more.

As I mentioned in the blog below, on Oct 25th, rule 11 admonishes us to stay close to God. To not only minimize the side ways distractions but the highs and lows as we mature into a deeper more disciplined path towards God. A straighter path!

Rejecting fear and want, and growing in the cardinal virtues

To become captives set free, and to begin to live within the kingdom of God, now , here on earth, and to begin to live the promises of a life filled with love peace and joy, we must cling to God and his truths. We need to cultivate the silence that allows us to hear him. We need to be vigilant and continually reject temptations of fear and want. Then as we accept the graces of the virtues that we practice ,of faith hope and love, we will remain captives set free.

Really it is very simple. If we aren't distracted by fears and wants we will be available to recieve Gods gifts or peace joy and love. This is what he wants for us. This is what we what too. Let's practice today, become aware of the temptations of fear and want, understand where they are coming from, reject them! You will find yourself, through your effort, growing in the faithg that God does fulfill His promises. You will also grow in understanding the reality that you can live in His kingdom here on earth. It is attainable and your heart will be set free. Free to love and praise God, and to love and respect all you meet.

When we can truly believe, by our efforts, and God's grace, that our wants and fears are going to be cared for my by our most loving and all powerful God, then we can let Go, and enjoy living and sharing God, as captives set free.

"Listen my faithful children: open up your petals,

like roses planted near running water; Sirach 39:13

Dosent He show us what he wants? and then won't he show us how to get there?

"Behold, I send an angel before you, to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place which I have prepared" Exodus 23:20

Yes all we have to do is look to the spiritual guides, discern their bidding. This will bring us through the chaos and confusion that is keeping us from the promises and the work that God has ready for you. Be on your way, Today!! Stay aware and follow God and his messengers.

my eyes opened little by little

God wants us to see him, recognize him, come to him, know him. He is always standing at the door and knocking. It turns out that we just aren't paying attention. He wants to speak to us, to show us the way. But we have to, like St Ignatius, open our eyes little by little, till we take in more and more of the reality beyond this present temporal one. It is as if we are walking in a hall way and as we walk along, we notice, or we don't notice, that the sides of the hall are windows. covered with long curtains. Then we notice, or we don't notice, that some light is coming from outside, through a small opening in the curtain. We ignore this, or we walk up to this opening. We look into this opening, to get a glimpse . If we look out to see what is out there we are allowing our eyes to open, little by little, or the curtain to open little by little. God is waiting for us to come , to look through and to find Him and His reality. God brings us all understanding, if we want it.

Wisdom 6:1-25.."She hastens to make herself known in anticipation of men's desire; he who watches for her at dawn shall not be disappointed, for he shall find her sitting by his gate"

rule 11

In rule 11, We focus on the necessary attitude of humility when in consolation and trust in desolation. But it is important to meditate on the results that will come, as a result of these postures. What I mean is when we lower ourself, when we are high, and raise ourself when we are low, we will find ourselves making a path that is more direct and straight. As we begin this spiritual walk, the first thing we notice is that we are all over the place, up for a minute, in the pit, the next. This is the chaos that will be ordered by the spirit of order, the Holy Spirit.

So don't be discouraged by the wide ranges of emotions, and ups and downs when you are beginning. As you reach up when down, and down when up, you will find yourself correcting and minimizing the deep lows and the big highs. This will fulfill the promise in Isaiah 42:16

"I will lead the blind on their journey; by paths unknown I will guide them. I will turn darkness into light before them, and make crooked ways straight. These thins I do for them, and I will not forsake them"

this will bring us to a more mature spirituality. Then we will not be blown around as a tumbleweed by every obstacle and trial. Praise God. What a beautiful promise, we can truely be captive set free!

reflecting on Magnificat meditation of Sunday oct 23

show details 8:22 AM (4 minutes ago)

Patrick Madrid in the Magnificat for today, very clearly describes a
heart, captive set free. This is the heart that St Ignatius is trying
to build in us.
He has abandoned himself to the will of God, he is not trying to make
a hybrid Will; half MY will and half God's will. NO he wants us to be
searching our heart, our understanding for God and His will.
Then he wants us to jump into that will without reserve, once it has
been discerned. This is our path, the very same one that we are
learning how to navigate.
He has no hesitations he is ready he says "My face is set My gait is
fast, my goal is heaven. My road is narrow, my way is rough,my
companions are few, my guide is reliable (our guardian angel), and my
mission is clear."
We even hear the same words PATH and MISSION. We can hear the sense
of urgency and the single minded and generous response to God who he
clearly loves.
When I read this I am fired up again to me more vigilant and more
generous as I approach today. I will be Gods anointed soldier as I
maneuver through my path today