Posts
"Lord, have pity on my son, who is a lunatic and suffers severely;
often he falls into the fire, and often into the water.
I brought him to your disciples, but they could not cure him."
Jesus said in reply,
"O faithless and perverse generation, how long will I be with you?
How long will I endure you?
Bring the boy here to me."
Jesus rebuked him and the demon came out of him,
and from that hour the boy was cured.
Then the disciples approached Jesus in private and said,
"Why could we not drive it out?"
He said to them, "Because of your little faith.
Amen, I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed,
you will say to this mountain,
'Move from here to there,' and it will move.
Nothing will be impossible for you."
I've worked in customer service positions my whole life. Today I still am in customer service and I have learned a few things along the way and apply those lessons to my daily interaction with the company's customers. For example, after greeting and allowing the customer to get a sentence or two out and you have a general idea of what they are calling about, gently take charge of the conversation and through your attitude make it known to the customer that you are interested in their issue and happy to be speaking to them about it. Then use all of the tools and authority that your company gives you and try to work out a mutually beneficial solution to the problem the customer is calling in about. This works out about ninety-nine percent of the time. Once in a while, however, you are going to happen upon the customer you cannot please. Either because you do not have the authority to give them what they want or they just have an attitude that you are much to low in the food chain to be of any help to their important selves. They will then play the manager card. Now, once they ask to speak to the manager, I do not waste any more of their time. I have a fairly good idea that they will not get much more satisfaction from her because the company I work for gives me a lot of freedom to satisfy the customer and once I get to the bottom of the list of things that I can do, well, there is not much more that can be done. So, I transfer the customer to the boss and update the boss on what has been done so far and with one button push of the AMF button the problem is out of my life. (AMF = Adios my friend.) Now, later on, the boss may coach me about the call by bringing up something that I forgot to do, or something that I could have done better so as not to cause the ball of wax to go against gravity roll uphill and to arrive in her nest.
This is exactly what happened to the apostles. I could just see them, one after another trying this prayer and that prayer, maybe a little cleansing by dunking in the river and nothing helps rid the kid of the demon. The father brings the boy to Jesus, effectively playing the manager card. Jesus makes short work of the demon and later on, he coaches the apostles on what they were lacking, faith. Maybe the apostles at this point thought that what Jesus was doing was some sort of magic and they mimicked His words and actions attempting to bring the same results that he did. Well, their words and actions had nothing to back them up. They were missing the faith that Jesus had that backed up His words and actions. Jesus said that faith could move mountains and that would mean that lack of faith could move nothing. The apostles learned this lesson well and began to realize that they were not dealing with a practitioner of the magical arts but with a Man of God, a Man blessed by God and a Man that was God.
The Realms of Purgatory
It has pleased God to show the gloomy abodes of Purgatory to some privileged souls. He has done this, so that the sad mysteries of Purgatory may be revealed for the benefit of the living.
One such mystic soul was St. Frances, foundress of the Oblates, who died in Rome in 1440. God showed her many things concerning the state of souls in the next life. She saw hell and its horrible torments. She also saw the interior of Purgatory, with its mysterious order and hierarchy of suffering. In obedience to her superiors, St. Frances related everything that God showed to her.
One on occasion, the servant of God was made to endure an unspeakable horror. She had to witness the vision of Hell. But when she came out of that abyss, her heavenly guide led her into the regions of Purgatory. It greatly contrasted to Hell. In Purgatory, there was neither horror nor disorder; no despair nor eternal darkness. Divine hope diffused its light in all the poor souls. Frances was told that this place of purification was also called sojourn of hope. She saw souls which suffered cruelly, but angels visited and assisted them in their sufferings.
St. Frances tells us that Purgatory is divided into three distinct parts, like three large provinces of that kingdom of suffering. They are positioned on top of each other, so to speak. The souls in these provinces are buried to different depths, depending on the state of their soul - which determines how much longer they must atone for their sins.
The lowest region is filled with a fierce fire. But this fire is not dark like the flames of Hell; it is a vast burning sea, shooting forth immense flames. Souls beyond count are plunged into its depths. These are the souls guilty of mortal sin, which have been duly confessed, but not sufficiently expiated during life. St. Frances learned that a single forgiven mortal sin requires a suffering of seven years in Purgatory. This is, of course, not a definite measure, since mortal sins vary in enormity, but it is clearly an average penalty. Although the souls are enveloped in the same flames, their sufferings are not the same; they differ according to the number and nature of their former sins.
In this lower Purgatory, the saint beheld both sinners and persons consecrated to God. The sinners were those who, after a life of sin, had had the happiness of being sincerely converted; the persons consecrated to God were those who had not lived according to the sanctity of their state.
At that same moment, she saw descend the soul of a priest whom she knew, but whose name she does not reveal. She remarked that he had his face covered with a veil which concealed a stain. Although he had led an edifying life, this priest had not always observed strict temperance and had sought too eagerly the pleasures and satisfaction of food.
The saint was then conducted into the intermediate Purgatory, destined for souls which had deserved less rigorous chastisement. It had three distinct compartments; one resembled an immense dungeon of ice, the cold of which was indescribably intense; the second, on the contrary, was like a huge cauldron of boiling oil and pitch; the third had the appearance of a pond of liquid metal resembling molten gold or silver.
The upper Purgatory, which the saint does not describe, is the temporary abode of souls which suffer little, except the pain of separation from Heaven, and anxiously await the happy moment of their deliverance.
One such mystic soul was St. Frances, foundress of the Oblates, who died in Rome in 1440. God showed her many things concerning the state of souls in the next life. She saw hell and its horrible torments. She also saw the interior of Purgatory, with its mysterious order and hierarchy of suffering. In obedience to her superiors, St. Frances related everything that God showed to her.
One on occasion, the servant of God was made to endure an unspeakable horror. She had to witness the vision of Hell. But when she came out of that abyss, her heavenly guide led her into the regions of Purgatory. It greatly contrasted to Hell. In Purgatory, there was neither horror nor disorder; no despair nor eternal darkness. Divine hope diffused its light in all the poor souls. Frances was told that this place of purification was also called sojourn of hope. She saw souls which suffered cruelly, but angels visited and assisted them in their sufferings.
St. Frances tells us that Purgatory is divided into three distinct parts, like three large provinces of that kingdom of suffering. They are positioned on top of each other, so to speak. The souls in these provinces are buried to different depths, depending on the state of their soul - which determines how much longer they must atone for their sins.
The lowest region is filled with a fierce fire. But this fire is not dark like the flames of Hell; it is a vast burning sea, shooting forth immense flames. Souls beyond count are plunged into its depths. These are the souls guilty of mortal sin, which have been duly confessed, but not sufficiently expiated during life. St. Frances learned that a single forgiven mortal sin requires a suffering of seven years in Purgatory. This is, of course, not a definite measure, since mortal sins vary in enormity, but it is clearly an average penalty. Although the souls are enveloped in the same flames, their sufferings are not the same; they differ according to the number and nature of their former sins.
In this lower Purgatory, the saint beheld both sinners and persons consecrated to God. The sinners were those who, after a life of sin, had had the happiness of being sincerely converted; the persons consecrated to God were those who had not lived according to the sanctity of their state.
At that same moment, she saw descend the soul of a priest whom she knew, but whose name she does not reveal. She remarked that he had his face covered with a veil which concealed a stain. Although he had led an edifying life, this priest had not always observed strict temperance and had sought too eagerly the pleasures and satisfaction of food.
The saint was then conducted into the intermediate Purgatory, destined for souls which had deserved less rigorous chastisement. It had three distinct compartments; one resembled an immense dungeon of ice, the cold of which was indescribably intense; the second, on the contrary, was like a huge cauldron of boiling oil and pitch; the third had the appearance of a pond of liquid metal resembling molten gold or silver.
The upper Purgatory, which the saint does not describe, is the temporary abode of souls which suffer little, except the pain of separation from Heaven, and anxiously await the happy moment of their deliverance.
No comments:
Post a Comment