| Topic: |
Religions > Bible |
| User: |
"Hildi" |
| Date: |
04 Jan 2006 11:27:04 AM |
| Object: |
2 Peter 1:5-9 |
Bible Verse
-- 2 Peter 1:5-9 --
For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to
goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control,
perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly
kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in
increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive
in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But if anyone does not have them, he
is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his
past sins.
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Our faith must go beyond what we believe; it must become a dynamic part of what
we do, resulting in good fruit and spiritual maturity. Salvation does not depend
on good deeds, but it results in good deeds. A person who claims to be saved
while remaining unchanged does not understand faith or what God has done for him
or her.
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January 4th - Blessed Angela of Foligno, OSF (AC)
Born in Foligno (near Assisi), Italy, c. 1260-70; died January 4, 1309; cultus
confirmed in 1693.
Blessed Angela was self-indulgent early in life, living a worldly life of
riches. She was quite young when she married, and when she was widowed about
1290. Around that time she experienced a conversion and joined the Third Order
of Saint Francis. Once her husband and all her children had died, she gave
herself up completely to God. Consistent with a life dedicated to penance, she
donated all her possessions to the poor and lived only on charity.
Angela is remembered as a mystic, a form of spirituality that gained prominence
in the Western Church around the mid-11th century. Mysticism is an attempt to
reach a knowledge of and union with God directly and experientially. The mystic
renounces his senses and the images they offer of God, called the via negativa,
in order to allow God to replace them.
Mysticism is characterized by an abnormal psychic state which may culminate in
ecstasy. Such states are sanctified when the individual is perfectly united with
God and the whole personality is fully free; otherwise, it may simply be a sign
of psychosis. True mystical experience leads the individual to an ever more
passionate love of God. As a rule, mystics exhibit extraordinary self-knowledge.
At the request of her confessor, Friar Arnold, Angela dictated to him an account
of her visions and ecstasies in which she reveals herself as one of the greatest
mystics. Authentic transcriptions of the visions and messages of Blessed Angela
are now housed in Assisi, Subiaco, and Rome. These originals are much more vivid
than the logical arrangements made from them in the 15th century and reproduced
by the Bollandists. They make it possible to sense the overwhelming religious
ecstasy of Blessed Angela.
In them it is especially the Passion that we relive with her: a vision of
absolute torture in which even the words of Christ seem to be heard:
"Then, as He was showing me all that He had endured for me, He said to me: 'What
can you do which suffices you?' . . . He showed me His torn beard, His eyebrows
and His head; He enumerated the entire list of His sufferings of the scourging .
.. . and He said: 'I suffered all that for you . . .' and He said: 'What can you
do for me which suffices you?' And then I wept and moaned so ardently that the
tears burnt my flesh. Then I had to pour cold water on myself to cool off (1)."
". . . When I had arisen for the prayer, Christ appeared to me on the Cross . .
.. And He called me and told me to put my mouth on the wound on His side. And it
seemed to me that I saw and drank His blood flowing from His side . . . and He
purified me. And then I experienced a great joy, although contemplating the
Passion I felt very sorrowful. And I prayed to God to have me, as He Himself had
done, shed all my blood (2)."
"And He began by saying to me: 'My daughter, sweet to me, my daughter, my
delight, my temple, my daughter, love me, for you are greatly loved by me, more
than you love me.' (3)."
"And I swooned and lost the use of my speech. And it seemed to me that my soul
entered into the side of Christ; and it was not sadness, but a kind of
indescribable joy (4)."
"On Thursday of Holy Week I went to meditate upon the incarnate Son of God . . .
and a divine voice spoke to my soul, saying: 'I did not love you as a joke.'
These words caused me mortal pain for immediately the eyes of my soul were
opened and I saw all that He suffered in life and death . . . and that it was
not as a joke but because of perfect and tender love that He loved me. And I say
that it was just the opposite with me; for I only loved Him as a joke and not
really. And it caused me mortal pain and such unbearable suffering that I
thought I would die.
"And after He had said: 'I did not love you as a joke' . . . He said: 'I did not
serve you by pretending. . . .' My soul then exclaimed: 'Oh master, what you say
is not in your heart fills mine completely. For I never wished to approach You
in truth so as to feel the pains you bore for me. And I served You only through
simulation and falsehood.' . . . And on seeing just the opposite in me such pain
and suffering filled my heart that I thought I would die; and I felt as if the
sides of my chest were being disjoined and that my heart would burst . . . And
He continued, saying: 'I am closer and more intimate with your soul than your
soul is with itself!' And this increases my suffering."
This is just a small sampling of Blessed Angela's writing about her mystical
experiences.
The collection of the Rotuli is enriched by a large number of letters or notes
that Angela wrote to her disciples and in which she develops her spiritual
doctrine. Through poverty and detachment, she lead them to the contemplation of
the Passion. In the midst of the doctrines of the so-called Spirituals, among
whom she lived, Angela defended orthodoxy. She and her group trace out a road on
which all the ardor of human love as well as contemplation aspire to be united
to divine wisdom. She died surrounded by many of these male and female disciples
whom she loved as children. Considered by her contemporaries as a saint, Angela
became the subject of a faithful cultus immediately after her death-a cultus
that has been approved by the Church (Benedictines, Encyclopedia, Harrison,
Martindale).
This Version Taken From:
http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0104.htm
Bible Quote:
And because you are sons, God hath sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts,
crying: Abba, Father.
Therefore now he is not a servant, but a son. And if a son, an heir also through
God. (Galatians 4:6-7)
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FAITHFUL AND TRUE
You look at your soul-
Lost it's sparkle and vim;
And you can't figure out
how old Satan got in.
You check your reserves-
Got to line up those graces
to rescue you fast from those dark, hidden places!
You shine up your armor
to fight once anew,
For our dear Holy Father
cast aside by the few.
Your eyes are on Heaven;
Your words are a prayer
to join the vast army
of the folks who still care.
We'll raise up a banner
called 'Faithful and True',
and show the whole world
what a true love can do!
.
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