CARMELITE QUOTE

ST. THERESE OF THE CHILD JESUS AND OF
THE HOLY FACE
DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH-DOCTOR OF LOVE

Charity gave me the key to my vocation. I understood that since the Church is a body composed of different members, she could not lack the most necessary and most nobly endowed of all the bodily organs. I understood, therefore, that the Church has a heart-and a heart on fire with love. I saw, too, that love alone imparts life to all the members, so that should love ever fail, apostles would no longer preach the Gospel and martyrs would refuse to shed their blood. Finally, I realized that love includes every vocation, that love is all things, that love is eternal, reaching down through the ages and stretching to the uttermost limits of the earth.

CARMELITE NUNS IN DANVERS MASSACHUSETTS

Peace be with you!
Rosemarie, ocds

LENTEN MEDITATION

Peace be with you!
Rosemarie, ocds

FAITH OF OUR FATHERS

Sunday in the Year of Faith

ST. IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH (50-107)

St. Ignatius was the third bishop or patriarch of Antioch and a student of the Apostle John. Ignatius was arrested and led to Rome to be martyred, on the way, he wrote a series of letters that have been preserved. He was the first writer to use the term Catholic Church.

From a letter to the Romans from St. Ignatius of Antioch



I am writing to all the churches to let it be known that I will gladly die for God if only you do not stand in my way. I plead with you: show me no untimely kindness. Let me be food for the wild beasts, for they are my way to God. I am God’s wheat and bread. Pray to Christ for me that the animals will be the means of making me a sacrificial victim for God. No earthly pleasures, no kingdoms of this world can benefit me in any way. I prefer death in Christ Jesus to power over the farthest limits of the earth. He who died in place of us is the one object of my quest. He who rose for our sakes is my one desire. The prince of this world is determined to lay hold of me and to undermine my will which is intent on God. Let none of you here help him; instead show yourselves on my side, which is also God’s side. Believe instead what I am now writing to you. For though I am alive as I write to you, still my real desire is to die. My love of this life has been crucified, and there is no yearning in my for any earthly thing. Rather within me is the living water which says deep inside me: “Come to the Father.” I no longer take pleasure in perishable food or in the delights of this world I want only God‘s bread, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ, formed from the seed of David, and for drink I crave his blood, which is love that cannot perish. Pray for me that I may obtain my desire. I have not written to you as a mere man would, but as one who knows the mind of God. 

LEARN MORE ABOUT ST. IGNATIUS

THE LETTERS OF ST. IGNATIUS

(Scroll down to heading of St. Ignatius)

Peace be with you!
Rosemarie, ocds

Spiritual Life Dictionary

TODAY'S TERM: LOGISMOI

Photo: R. Massaro St. Patrick Church Kent, Ohio
Judas fell prey to Logismoi

A Greek term used in Eastern spirituality to describe
temptation in thought.

Logismoi (pronounced log-is-me) is described in the writings of the desert fathers as real demons that tempt us to sin by way of our thoughts.

I have been fascinated by this word and the spirituality behind it for a number of years after hearing a Byzantine priest expound on this subject. It was a spiritual revelation for me at the time. Not so much by the fact that we are tempted in thought in a very deep and real way, but I was deeply moved by the way in which he explained how demons are involved in this intellectual battle for our soul.

It is a daily battle, indeed, is it not?  So many temptations bombarding us from without and within on a moment-by-moment basis.  If one does not constantly stand guard at the door of one's heart, well, the battle is over very quickly and we are the ones who are defeated.

The desert fathers who wrote and taught about the intellectual demons were a kind of spiritual psychotherapist to the monks under their direction. The monks were required to report to their spiritual father throughout the day and reveal their most intimate thoughts and the temptations that passed through their minds. The wisdom of the spiritual father directed the monk in his effort to purify his thoughts and to become less of a target of the spiritual demons that afflict man in his interior battle for purity of heart.

Let's stop for a moment in this little study of mental temptations to ask ourselves a few questions:

Did I check my thoughts today?

Did I renounce thoughts of criticism, complaining, jealousy, envy? 

Did I speak uncharitably about another?

Did I give in to the demons of criticism, gossip, anger, and complaint?

According to the early fathers, there is plenty going on within us before we make the final ascent of giving in to temptation. Here are the eight patterns of evil thought according to Evagrius Ponticus (346-399):

gluttony
fornication
avarice
sorrow
discouragement
anger
vainglory
and pride.

The five stages of logismoi according to Fr. Maximos of Mt. Athos:

1.  Assault - the logismoi first attacks a person's mind
2.  Interaction - a person opens up a dialogue with the logismoi
3.  Consent - a person consents to do what the logismoi urges him 
     to do
4.  Defeat - a person becomes hostage to the logismoi and finds it 
     more difficult to resist
5.  Passion or Obsession - the logismoi becomes an entrenched 
     reality within the nous (mind) of a person


Spiritual illnesses such as scrupulosity can be the result of logismoi. That is why it takes a good spiritual director to help one overcome these serious spiritual problems that afflict some souls for years. The spiritual director becomes a sort of exorcist if you will-he helps the soul to be delivered from these demons who hold the soul hostage. Logismoi can also be a root cause of a person's addiction, a spiritual malady that manifests as a physical addiction to drugs, alcohol, sex, etc.

What can we do to overcome temptations in our thoughts? The answer: prayer!  Logismoi comes to us when we are at prayer to break our spirit. It is Satan's way of getting us to stop praying.  According to St. Teresa of Jesus and also the early church fathers, we are to ignore these temptations. Another problem spiritual people have is that they believe they can stop all thoughts from entering the mind.  This is nonsense according to St. Teresa. She tells us clearly that as long as we live in the body we will have this battle. But, do not lose heart! If we are faithful to prayer and meditation, we will be given the gift of perfect prayer: contemplation. This is a gift in which imperturbable peace is given to the soul. This gift of peace, that no man can give, is our spiritual armor that protects us from falling into sin through logismoi. But we must be careful as well, to always be on guard, for even great saints have been tempted and tried until their death.

Let us pray for each other, that we be on guard on what goes in and out of our heart and mind. And let us guard ourselves against becoming living logismoi-feeding others with evil suggestions and comments. Let us foster an interior silence and peace and be found in that blessed state of  'prayer without ceasing' and that purity of heart of which St. Paul speaks. Let us be living witnesses of the Kingdom, where we do not fail in charity, in thought, word, or deed.



Peace be with you!
Rosemarie, OCDS

CARMELITE QUOTE

From a holy card I received in France, where
great devotion to St. Maravillas exists

I consider myself to be a mere nothing, so incapable of any virtue. But it seems to me as if the Lord wants me to let all this nothingness be lost in him, and for him to live in me. For a while I have had a sort of attraction just to stay loving and adoring the Lord whom I feel in the deepest recesses of my soul, however obscure and hidden he may be. It's as if I am aware of someone better inside me. It's like the different dwellings of the soul that St. Teresa speaks about. Father, could it be the case that what the Lord wants of me is to remain like this, loving and adoring him in greater or lesser emptiness, in sorrow or in joy, just observing how he can do whatever he likes in the center of this soul, just letting him work?
(Letter to Fr. Torres-1932)

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE SAINT

Peace be with you!
Rosemarie, ocds

FAITH OF OUR FATHERS

Sunday in the Year of Faith

ST. IRENAEUS-BISHOP OF LYONS (130-202)
(Disciple of St. Polycarp)

Photo: R. Massaro(c)2013SpiritSinging

Knowing, my beloved Marcianus, your desire to walk in godliness, which alone leads man to life eternal, I rejoice with you and make my prayer that you may preserve your faith entire and so be pleasing to God who made you. Would that it were possible for us to be always together, to help each other and to lighten the labor of our earthly life by continual discourse together on the things that profit. But, since at this present time we are parted from one another in the body, yet according to our power we will not fail to speak with you a little by writing, and to show forth in brief the preaching of the truth for the confirmation of your faith. We send you as it were a manual of essentials, that by little you may attain to much, learning in short space all the members of the body of the truth, and receiving in brief the demonstration of the things of God. So shall it be fruitful to your own salvation, and you shall put to shame all who inculcate falsehood, and bring with all confidence our sound and pure teaching to everyone who desires to understand it. For one is the way leading upwards for all who see, lightened with heavenly light: but many and dark and contrary are the ways of them that see not. This way leads to the kingdom of heaven, uniting man to God: but those ways bring down to death, separating man from God. Wherefore it is needful for you and for all who care for their own salvation to make your course unswerving, firm and sure by means of faith, that you falter not, nor be retarded and detained in material desires, nor turn aside and wander from the right. Read more

FACTS ABOUT ST. IRENAEUS

Learn more about St. Irenaeus

Peace be with you!

Rosemarie, ocds

Saturday of Our Lady

OUR LADY OF HOLY PROTECTION

Photo: R.Massaro (C) 2013 SpiritSinging

Prayer of St. Faustina to Our Lady

O Mary, my Mother and my Lady, I offer you my soul, my body, my life and my death and all that will come after it. I place everything in your hands, O my Mother, cover my soul with your virginal mantle and grant me the grace of purity of heart, soul and body. Defend me with your power against all enemies and especially against those who hide their malice behind the mask of virtue. Fortify my soul that pain may not break it. Mother of grace, teach me to live by God’s power. O Mary, a terrible sword has pierced your holy soul. Except for God, no one knows of your suffering. Your soul does not break, it is brave, because it is with Jesus. Sweet Mother, unite my soul to Jesus, because it is only then that I will be able to endure all trials and tribulations and only in union with Jesus will my little sacrifices be pleasing to God. Sweetest Mother, continue to teach me about the interior life. May the sword of suffering never break me. O pure Virgin, pour courage into my heart and guard it. Amen.















Peace be with you!
Rosemarie, ocds