My Chaste Spouse The Blessed Virgin Mary

My Chaste Spouse: The Blessed Virgin Mary By: Phil Friedl

“Behold my beloved speaketh to me: Arise, make haste, my love, my dove, my beautiful one, and come.” I

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Profession of Faith “And I say to you, Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God. But he that shall deny me before men, shall be denied before the angels of God.” II Profession of The Tridentine Faith From The Bulls of Pope Pius IV I. I, Phil Friedl, with a firm faith believe and profess all and everyone of the things contained in that creed which the holy Roman Church makes use of: I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible; and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, and born of the Father before all ages; God of God, Light of Light, true God of true God; begotten not made, consubstantial with the Father by Whom all things were made; Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man; crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate, He suffered and was buried; and He arose again on the third day, according to the Scriptures; and He ascended into heaven, sitteth at the right hand of the Father; and again He will come with glory to judge the living and the dead; of Whose kingdom there shall be no end; and in the Holy Ghost the Lord and Giver of life, Who proceedeth from the Father and the Son; Who with the Father and the Son together is adored and glorified; Who spoke by the prophets; and one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. I confess one baptism for the remission of sins; and I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen. II. I most steadfastly admit and embrace Apostolic and ecclesiastical traditions, and all other observances and constitutions of the same Church. III. I also admit the Holy Scriptures, according to that sense which our holy mother Church has held and does hold, to whom it belongs to judge of the true sense and interpretation of the Scriptures; neither will I ever take and interpret them otherwise than according to the unanimous consent of the Fathers. IV. I also profess that there are truly and properly seven sacraments of the New Law, instituted by Jesus Christ our Lord, and necessary for the salvation of mankind, though not all for every one, to wit: Baptism, Confirmation, the Eucharist, Penance, Extreme Unction, Holy Orders and Matrimony; and that they confer grace; and that these Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Orders cannot be reiterated without sacrilege. I also receive and admit the received and approved ceremonies of the Catholic Church, used in the solemn administration of the aforesaid sacraments. V. I embrace and receive all and everyone of the things which have been defined and declared in the holy Council of Trent concerning original sin and justification. VI. I profess, likewise, that in the Mass there is offered to God a true, a proper and propitiatory sacrifice for the living and the dead; and that in the most holy Sacrament of the Eucharist there is truly, really and substantially the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ; and that there is made a change of the whole essence of the bread into the body, and of the whole essence of the wine into the blood; which change the 2

Church calls transubstantiation. VII. I also confess that under either kind alone Christ is received whole and entire, and a true sacrament. VIII. I firmly hold that there is a purgatory, and that the souls therein detained are helped by the suffrages of the faithful. Likewise, that the saints reigning with Christ are to be honored and invoked, and that they offer up prayers to God for us, and that their relics are to be had in veneration. IX. I most firmly assert that the images of Christ, and of the perpetual Virgin, the Mother of God, and also of other saints, ought to be had and retained, and that due honor and veneration are to be given them. I also affirm that the power of indulgences was left by Christ in the Church and that the use of them is most wholesome to Christian people. X. I acknowledge the holy Catholic Apostolic Roman Church for the mother and mistress of all churches; and I promise and swear true obedience to the Bishop of Rome, successor to St. Peter, Prince of the Apostles and Vicar of Jesus Christ. XI. I likewise undoubtingly receive and profess all other things delivered, defined and declared by the Sacred Canons and General Councils, and particularly by the Holy Council of Trent; and I condemn, reject and anathematize all things contrary thereto, and all heresies which the Church has condemned rejected and anathematized. XII. I do, by this present, freely profess and truly hold this true Catholic faith, without which no one can be saved; and I promise most constantly to retain and confess the same entire and inviolate with God's assistance to the end of my life. And I will take care, as far as in me lies, that it shall be held, taught and preached by my subjects, or by those the care of whole shall appertain to me in my office. This I, Phil Friedl, promise, vow and swearso help me God, and these holy Gospels of God.”

Table of Contents To Whom My Souls Languishes With Love Profession of Faith Introduction Sacrament of Marriage, Lowest Choir: Angels Under his wings thou shalt trust. For he hath given his angels charge over thee. See that you despise not one of these little ones. Sacrament of Holy Orders, Highest Choir: Seraphim Saraph Singing Hymns Setting the world on fire with Divine Love My Chaste Spouse How do I choose a suitable spouse? Spouses of the Reprobate 3

Spouses of the Elect

To Whom My Souls Languishes With Love Oh Mary, my precious peril! It is God from all eternity thought about my love for thee. Oh how little my love is compared to the love thou hast for a wretched sinner like me! How true is the saying that opposites attract. Thou, Mary, art full of grace, and I am full of iniquities and sins! How can I ever praise thee enough? “Thou art beautiful, O my love.” IIIIt is thee that intercedes for me with the Most High. It is thee that comforts me during this exile. Oh Mary, my lady of light, who is full of grace! Thou art so full of grace you must look to such a sinner as myself to make sure the graces given to thee from God are not lost! Oh how I trampled on those precious gifts you have given to me, my love! “My beloved is white and ruddy, chosen out of thousands.” IVEver since I was eight years old I had thought about the woman I wish to marry. How come I did not think of thee? Every time it rained, the rain drops must have resembled thy tears of sorrow. When I thought about other women, “thy own soul a sword shall pierce.” V Oh Mary how many times have you cried: “Turn thy eyes from me, for they have made me fly away,”VI because I have loved another woman other than thee! How long have you waited for me my love? Oh Mary, lady of light, you are “as a lily among thorns.” VIIAll these women of today cast away their precious chastity. It seems that thee alone I am safe with. You do not seek to destroy my chastity like most women would want to do, but rather protect my beloved chastity as an angel, “terrible as an army set in array.” VIII Oh my love, my chaste spouse! I wish that I can become a religious so I can devote my life to honoring such a lady as thee. Oh Immaculate Virgin, I wish to be a saint, alas I am but a wretched sinner, I can only give thee my innumerable infidelities. Oh Mary, lady of light, advocate for the maimed, for the blind, for the deaf, for the dumb, those who lost all their senses to sin. It has never been known that whoever has had recourse to thee, my love, has never been left unaided! Oh Mary, “O thou whom my soul loveth,” IX I wish to be thy chaste spouse! Oh Mary, one sigh in front of the Most High, is enough to convert all sinners into great saints and all the souls in purgatory pardoned of their sins. My love, I cannot wait for the day when I profess my vows, of poverty, of chastity, and of obedience, to thee MaryX “because I languish with love,” XI my chaste spouse. That is when I will die of joy proclaiming, “For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall be two in one flesh.” XII

Introduction What is this paper about you might ask? It is to show you, the reader, that the Sacrament of Holy Orders is a better state in life than those who choose the Sacrament of Marriage. The Sacrament of Holy Orders allegorically and symbolically is very similarly to the Sacrament of Marriage. I am going to present to you out of the nine choirs of angels, two for comparison. The Choir of Seraphim are the highest of all the angelic orders. They are going to represent the Sacrament of Holy Orders. The lowest order is that of the Choir of Angels. They represent the Sacrament of Marriage. This paper is also for those people who wish to know how the Blessed Virgin Mary attracted my heart to the religious life.

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The Council of Trent, Article 5, “He Descended Into Hell,” Page 72: “The principal signs of this resurrection from sin which should be noted are taught us by the Apostle. For when he says: If you be risen with Christ, seek things that are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God, (Col. 3.1) he distinctly tells us that they who desire to possess life, honor, repose and riches, there chiefly where Christ dwells, have truly risen with Christ. When he adds: Mind the things that are above, not the things that are upon the earth, he gives, as it were another sign by which we may ascertain if we have truly risen with Christ. As a relish for food usually indicates a healthy state of the body, so with regard to the soul, if a person relishes whatever things are true, whatever modest, whatever just, whatever holy, (Phil. 4.8) and experiences within him the sweetness of heavenly things, this we may consider a very strong proof that such a one has risen with Christ Jesus to a new and spiritual life.”

Sacrament of Marriage, Lowest Choir: Angels What Is An Angel? “The Angels are spirits,” says St. Augustine, “but it is not because they are spirits that they are Angels. They become Angels when they are sent, for the name Angel refers to their office not their nature.” The Supreme Hierarchy Seraphim - Cherubim - Thrones Middle Hierarchy Dominations - Virtues - Powers Lower Hierarchy Principalities - Archangels - Angels XIII The Angels, Fr. Pascal P. Parente, Pages 125-130: “In the Catholic doctrine on Guardian Angels we find one of the most touching traits of Divine Love and Divine Providence in behalf of man. Saint Bernard of Clairvaux grew most eloquent whenever writing or speaking about our Guardian Angels: "O wonderful condescension of God! O love truly marvelous!... The Most High has commanded the Angels, his Angels, those sublime spirits, so blessedly happy and so near his throne, his familiar, his closest friends. He has given his Angels charge over thee. Who art thou? What is man, that thou art mindful of him?... And what thinkest thou he has ordered them in thy account?—To protect thee.” “Nothing reminds man more vividly of his superior spiritual nature and of his glorious destiny in heaven than this unseen heavenly escort given us during our earthly pilgrimage. Just as kings give their children a tutor, an attendant from their own court, so the King of Heaven has given men, His adoptive children through grace, tutelary spirits, guardians and protectors from His own court. What are, in particular, the duties of our Guardian Angels? Analyzing these duties, Saint Bernard says that the Angels constantly surround the souls of the faithful in their charge with the most tender care and love. They have but one great desire, that of leading us safely through life till we attain the glory and peace 5

which they themselves possess and fully enjoy while in our company here on earth. They protect both our spiritual and our corporal life. They defend and protect our immortal soul from the seduction of the world and the wiles of Satan. They often shield us from sudden dangers that threaten our life, or come to our rescue when some harm has befallen us. This becomes often manifest with little children who quite often come out of serious accidents without any injury. The mind of the little children cannot be reached with warnings and inspirations, because it is not yet functioning; and thus the Guardian Angel must take direct action in case of danger. Adult persons, in the full use of reason, are warned and cautioned by their Angel, but because they remain free to heed or to ignore such warnings of their Angel, many unfortunate things happen to them in spite of their heavenly protector.” “The most important of all the duties of a Guardian Angel is that of positively helping man in the tremendous work of saving his immortal soul. They accomplish this by exciting in our hearts pious and salutary thoughts and desires or, at times, salutary fear of God's judgments. They become intermediaries between God and man, as they lay our needs and our fears before Him, offering God our desires and our prayers, and in return they bring us His grace and His gifts. The often-mentioned activity of the Archangel Raphael, in favor of old Tobias and his son, is the best illustration of the manifold duties of a Guardian Angel. The entire book Tobias gives us not only an example of patience and charity in the holy man Tobias, but also reveals to us the wonderful and loving ministry of our Guardian Angels.” “Occasionally the Angel, in order to give us an opportunity to do penance and to atone for our faults, allows that trials and suffering come our way, or that violent temptations humble our pride and warn us in our complacency. Thus they are truly Pedagogues, as the Greek Fathers often called them, or, better still, spiritual masters and directors. We read often in the life of some Saints who enjoyed the privilege of seeing with their bodily eyes their Guardian Angel almost constantly (as was the case with Saint Frances of Rome and Saint Gemma Galgani, as we shall report later in this book), that the Angel often dis appeared from their sight, either to try them or to punish them for some little fault they had committed; the devil would then appear and afflict them in various manners.” “Indirectly, the Angels help man by keeping the devil away or at least restraining him from causing all the harm and the spiritual ruin which he so persistently tries to bring upon us, not excluding physical violence and even death. Thus they eliminate many occasions of sin, reduce the number of temptations, and break their force, and in this manner they actually fulfill in our behalf what, in a symbolical language, was expressed in Psalm 90: "In their hands they [the Angels] shall bear thee up; lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. Thou shalt walk upon the asp and the basilisk; and thou shalt trample under foot the lion and the dragon." The lion, in this text, is actually the devil himself, of whom Saint Peter writes: "Your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour." The dragon again is another name for Satan: "That great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, who seduceth the world, and he was cast out unto the earth." Against all these invisible enemies of mankind stands as shield and protection our Guardian 6

Angel whose struggles and victories are known to God alone.” “Our Guardian Angels pray for us and with us, and they offer our prayers, our suffering, and our good desires to the throne of God. This most consoling truth is revealed by the glorious Archangel Raphael: "I discover then the truth unto you, and I will not hide the secret from you. When thou didst pray with tears, and didst bury the dead, and didst leave thy dinner and hide the dead by day in thy house, and bury them at night, I offered thy prayer to the Lord." We see here how this Archangel offered not only Tobias' prayers but also his tears, his great works of mercy, his self-denial in leaving his dinner untouched in order to bury the dead. For all this, Tobias had received nothing but great trials and finally blindness: "And because thou wast acceptable to God, it was necessary that temptation should prove thee." No doubt the Archangel who watched over Tobias so carefully could have prevented the accident that caused his blindness, but he did not, in order to offer him an occasion for even greater virtue and more merit.” “Another duty of our Angels is that of praising God, and they wish us to join them in this heavenly occupation. This is the first thing that the Archangel Raphael demanded before revealing his identity: "Bless ye the God of heaven, give glory to him in the sight of all that live, because he has shown his mercy to you." When the faithful soul, leaving this mortal body, shall look for the first time upon the enchanting features of her heavenly guide and try to offer thanks for his loving service, she will probably hear the same answer that the grateful Tobias received from the Archangel Raphael: "Peace be to you, fear not; for when I was with you, I was there by the will of God: bless ye him, and sing praises to him!” “The loving kindness of our Guardian Angels is such that they often go on errands here on earth in behalf of their proteges, or help them with their work. This feature of their ministry will be explained with actual examples in the following chapter. Suffice it here to mention a well-known custom, in our day, with devout persons who have met the saintly Padre Pio of Pietrelci-na, the stigmatic Capuchin priest living at S. Giovanni Rotondo, Italy: When in need of spiritual assistance or in order to ask for prayer, they—at Padre Pio's suggestion— send their own Guardian Angel to him and often with happy results. It is reported by one, associated with the good Padre, that one morning he complained about the constant arrival of Guardian Angels with various petitions during the night, saying: "Those Guardian Angels didn't let me sleep a moment last night!” “It is at the hour of death that the good Angel shows the greatest zeal in protecting and defending the soul committed to his care, invoking often the assistance of other Angels against the wiles and the fury of Satan. According to Origen, "At the hour of death the celestial escort (psychopompe) receives the soul the moment it leaves the body." This common Christian belief, of the soul being accompanied by its Angel to the Divine Tribunal is based on the words of Our Lord: "And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom." The same truth finds expression in the liturgical prayers of the Church, especially in the burial service for adults: "May the Angels lead thee into Paradise, may the Martyrs receive thee at thy coming, and take thee to Jerusalem the holy City. May the choirs of the Angels receive thee, and mayest thou with the once poor Lazarus have rest everlasting.... Come to his assistance ye 7

Saints of God; meet him ye Angels of the Lord. Receive his soul and present it to the Most High. May Christ who called thee receive thee, and may the Angels lead thee into the bosom of Abraham." “Should the departed soul be not quite ready to enter heaven because it has not fully satisfied Divine Justice for its faults, and must therefore remain for some time in Purgatory, the Guardian Angel will lead it to the place of expiation. The same Angel will often visit it and comfort it in company of other good Angels. In the meantime, while the soul is suffering in Purgatory, the Guardian Angel goes around inspiring and prompting some of the friends and relatives or other good souls here on earth to pray and to offer Masses for its release from Purgatory. The Guardian Angel will not rest till the day when he shall introduce the soul into Paradise, where it can share with him the blessed vision of God and join in the never-ending hymn of praise and thanksgiving to the Lord of Heaven.”

Under His Wings Thou Shalt Trust Q. How are my parents fulfilling the role of an angel? A. Your parents represent the lowest choir of angels because they are most active with the earthly ministry. The Angels, Fr. Pascal P. Parente, Pages 81-82: “Taken in the specific sense of a particular Choir, the Angels fill up and complete the lowest Choir of all the Hierarchies of the celestial Intelligences, since they are the last of the heavenly beings possessing angelic nature. And they, indeed, are more properly named Angels (i.e. Messengers) by us than are those of a higher rank, because their Choir is more directly in contact with visible and earthly things. By their nature and duties, the Angels are closer to man than any other celestial spirit. When the psalmist says that God made man 'a little less than the Angels,' he was probably referring to those holy spirits of the last Choir, the closest link between the spirit world and rational man. It is from the ranks of this Choir that Guardian Angels are ordinarily, yet not exclusively, taken for the guidance and protection of individual souls during this earthly pilgrimage, as we shall explain later.” Your parents are messengers from God, allegorically and literally. They hold the Christian Faith,XIV they are passing on a blessing also a tradition to you, which is your Catholic faith. Without your faith you will not obtain Heaven. Without a key, you cannot open a locked door, and you remain stuck on the outside. You parents have received their gift of faith from God through the ministry of the Church. XV What is the definition of an angel? It means messenger. Your parents are fulling the role by transmitting the faith to you and protecting you from the poison of error as the title states: “Under his wings thou shalt trust.”

For He Hath Given His Angels Charge Over Thee Q. How are my parents represent corporeally and spiritually as an angel? A. There are two answers to this question. The first answer is the following quote. The second is after the quote. 8

The Angels, Fr. Pascal P. Parente, Pages 20: “Let us remember, writes Saint Bernard, that the citizens of that country are spirits, mighty, glorious, blessed, distinct personalities, of graduated rank, occupying the order given them from the beginning, perfect of their king...endowed with immortality, passionless, not so created, but so made – that is, through grace, not by nature; being of pure mind, benignant affections, religious and devout; of unblemished morality; inseparably one in heart and mind, blessed with unbroken peace, God edifice dedicated to the divine praises and service. All this we ascertain by reading, and hold by faith.” “By 'pure spirit' we understand a subsistent intelligent being whose subtle and transcendent nature is in no wise whatever composed of matter, however refined and ethereal. An Angel then is such a spirit Both his existence and operation are free and independent from matter; nor is the Angel related to a body, like the human soul, which even though perfectly spiritual, is naturally related to the human body as an essential part of the whole human nature. The Angelic nature is wholly spiritual, man's nature is composed of body and spirit.” Your parents must teach you the Ten Commandments, XVI the six precepts of the Church, XVII and how to start your interior life. How is all of this accomplished? “Word, example, prayer; but the greatest of these is prayer, cries St. Bernard.” XVIII Your parents ought to be blameless like their guardian angels. If they are not, for they would bring about scandal. “Our Lord said one day to St. Bridget, that when sinners see the bad example of the priest, they are encouraged to commit sin, and even begin to glory in the vices of which they were before ashamed. Hence our Lord added that worse maledictions shall fall on the priest than on others, because by his sinful life he brings himself and others to perdition.” XIX So too are the parents equally guilty for doing the same for their children. Who having lived a scandalous life among their own Christian children, they make their children worse for it, damn not only themselves, but their children. The parents must be angelic. “And if, says St. Augustine, we shall scarcely be able to give an account of ourselves, what shall become of the priest that shall have to render an account of the souls he has sent to Hell?” XX They must practice the three theological virtues. The Catechism Explained, Virtues, Page 442-443: “The virtues that unite our soul to God are the three theological virtues: Faith, Hope, Charity. These three virtues are symbolized by a flame; faith is signified by the light it emits, hope by its upward tendency, and charity by the heat it radiates. A tree is also an emblem of these virtues: faith is its root, hope its stem, charity its fruit. Faith lays the foundation of the temple of God, hope raises the walls, and charity crowns the structure. The cross is a symbol of faith, the anchor of hope, while charity is denoted by a burning heart. The greatest of these virtues is charity (1 Cor. Xiii. 13). Without charity, faith and hope are valueless, for God only grants eternal felicity to those that love Him.” “The three theological virtues are manifested in the following manner: The effect produced by the virtue of Faith is to make us believe in the existence of God and in His divine perfections. The effect of the virtue of Hope is to make us look for eternal salvation from God, as well as the means that are necessary for its 9

attainment. The virtue of Charity causes us to find satisfaction in God, and to seek to please Him by keeping His commandments.” “These virtues are fitly termed theological, because God Himself is their object, their motive, and their Author. God is the object of faith; that is to say, we believe what God has revealed, and all that has reference to God Himself, to His being, His attributes, His works and His will. God is the motive of faith, for we believe that which He has revealed because He is omniscient and the highest truth. God is the object of hope; for we hope for the eternal happiness after death, to see God and enjoy Him forever. God is the motive of hope, for we hope for eternal felicity because He is almighty, most bountiful, and faithful to His promises. God is the object of charity, for all our love centers in Him. God is the motive of charity, since we love Him because He is supreme beauty and sovereign goodness. God is also the Author of the three theological virtues, as the following reasons demonstrate:” “We receive the three theological virtues to render us capable of performing good works simultaneously with sanctifying grace. When the Holy Ghost enters into the soul, He transforms the powers of the mind, so that it can rise to God with greater facility. When he comes and imparts to use sanctifying grace, a light shines in our heart that awakens faith and hope (2 Cor. IV. 6), and a fire is ignited, that kindles a flame of charity (Rom. V. 5). This action of the Holy Ghost within the soul is called the infusion of the three theological virtues. The three theological virtues are infused into the soul (Council of Trent, 6, ch. 7). The infusion of these virtues has a similar effect as have the rays of the sun in imparting light and warmth to the atmosphere. God does not force these virtues upon us; the freedom of the will is in no wise interfered with. The power of exercising the three theological virtues is imparted in Baptism, and if it be lost, it is given again in the Sacrament of Penance. As the seed lies dormant in the bosom of the earth, until, under the influence of the sun and rain, it germinates and grows, so the three theological virtues at first lie dormant in the soul of the child until he attains the use of reason, and through the action of grace and religious instruction they are developed and come to sight (in works). The baptized child resembles one who is asleep, who possesses the power of sight, but sees nothing, until he awakens from sleep and makes use of that power. So the power to exercise faith, hope, and charity are latent in the soul of the child, until with the use of reason they are brought into play, and their existence is made apparent.”

See That You Despise Not One Of These Little Ones Q. How do my parents prepare me for life as the angels do? A. By preparing their children for either Sacrament of Marriage or Holy Orders. The Angels, Fr. Pascal P. Parente, Pages 20: “What are, in particular, the duties of our Guardian Angels? Analyzing these duties, Saint Bernard says, that the Angels constantly surround the souls of the faithful in their charge with the most tender care and love. They have but one great desire, that of leading us safely through life till we attain the glory and peace which they themselves 10

possess and fully enjoy while in our company here on earth. They protect both our spiritual and our corporal life.”

(Need to Expand On This) “A person is known to have a true vocation to enter a particular career in life, writes Father C. Coppens, S.J., if he feels sincerely convinced, as far as he can judge with God’s grace, that such a career is the best for him to attain the end for which God places him on earth, and is found fit by his talents, habits and circumstances, to enter on that career with a fair prospect of succeeding in the same.” XXI “Père Poulain, S.J., the great French ascetical writer, adds: In order to judge whether we have a vocation that is inspired by God, it is not usually sufficient to satisfy ourselves that we have a persistent attraction for it. This mark is not certain unless a natural condition is fulfilled, namely, that we have certain physical, moral and intellectual qualities also.” XXII The Guardian Angels Our Heavenly Companions, They Protect Us In Perils, Page 19-21: “A touching story of a Guardian Angel's protection of an innocent youth is related by the renowned Jesuit, Father Coret. One day in 1638, a young nobleman appeared at the monastery at noon and asked to see a certain priest. The priest came and, immediately upon seeing the stranger, received the impression that this was an Angel. The heavenly appearance, the majestic bearing and the angelic demeanor of the young man were most striking. His countenance was fair, his eyes exceedingly kind, his hair blond, his features mild and delicate. The noble visitor apologized for coming at so inconvenient a time, but added, “The zeal with which you labor for the honor of God and the salvation of youth urges me to leave nothing undone when the innocence and perhaps the eternal salvation of one of your pupils is in peril. You are acquainted with the youth, N.?” The young man in question was a nobleman, about sixteen years of age, very handsome, possessed of great virtue and beloved by all. “Oh, how you would love him if you knew him as I do!” continued the stranger. “He is an angel, but alas, into what danger of temptation will he be led today! He has been invited to a banquet. If he goes, it will be at the price of his innocence; he will suffer an irreparable loss!” Naturally, the priest was greatly surprised at this statement. He inquired of the stranger who he was and how he had learned of the snares which had been laid for the youth, but he received no other answer than that the youth was a pure as an angel, very dear to God, and that his Guardian Angel was most solicitous to preserve his innocence. Then the stranger added, “Often I am in the midst of those who would lead him astray. I come in the name of God and conjure you to prevent so great an evil. Be convinced that as the demons exert all their power to corrupt you, the Guardian Angels likewise do their utmost to protect them.” The stranger took his leave, and the priest hasten to inform the mother and the son of what had happened. He then made a search for his distinguished visitor, but he was never seen again, and the priest never doubted that this had been the youth's Guardian Angel.” It is evident that there are only two real choices in our life. That is consecrating yourself to God or not. Your parents, who ought to live a spotless life like angels, must prepare you for the state in life that God wishes you to be in. Not your parents, not your friends, not your 11

family, especially not yourself, but what God wishes. It is for that specific reason why you came to this earth, to serve God. True, I am afraid there is another route, just like the maxim of Satan: “I will not serve,” no doubt you will be cast into Hell, where such a soul would deserve to go for not serving such a generous, fatherly, loving Master. “Not every one that saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven: but he that doth the will of my Father who is in heaven, he shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.” XXIII It is Jesus Christ who gave us the prayer of the Our Father. Within that prayer it states: “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven.” “Praise not any man before death, for a man is known by his children.” XXIV

The Sacrament of Holy Orders, Highest Choir: Seraphim The True Spouse of Jesus Christ, St. Alphonsus De Liguori, Page 54-55: “Some are deterred from entering religion by the apprehension that their abandonment of the world might be afterwards to them a source of regret. But in making choice of a state of life I would advise such persons to reflect not on the pleasures on this life, but on the hour of death, which will determine their happiness or misery for all eternity. And I would ask if, in the world, surrounded by seculars, disturbed by the fondness of children, from whom they are about to be separated forever, perplexed with the care of their worldly affairs, and disturbed by a thousand scruples of conscience, they can expect to die more contented than in a house of God, assisted by their holy companions, who continually speak of God; who pray for them, and console and encourage them in their passage to eternity? Imagine you see, on the one hand, a princess dying in a splendid palace, attended by a retinue of servants, surrounded by her husband, her children, and relatives, and represent to yourself, on the other, a religious expiring in her convent, in a poor cell, mortified, humble; far from her relatives, stripped of property and self-will; and tell me, which of the two, the rich princess or the poor nun, dies more contented? Ah! The enjoyment of riches, of honors, and pleasures in this life do not afford consolation at the hour of death, but rather beget grief and diffidence of salvation; while poverty, humiliations, penitential austerities, detachment from the world render death sweet and amiable, and give to a Christian increased hopes of attaining that true felicity which shall never terminate.” The True Spouse of Jesus Christ, St. Alphonsus De Liguori, Pages 56-57: “St. Thomas teaches that the perfect consecration which a religious makes of herself to God by her solemn profession remits the guilt and punishment of all her past sins. But, he says, it may reasonably be said that a person by entering into religion obtains the remission of all sins. For, to make satisfaction for all sins, it is sufficient to dedicate one's self entirely to the service of God by entering religion, which dedication exceeds all manner of satisfaction. Hence, he concludes, we read in the lives of the Fathers, that they who enter religion obtain the same grace as those who receive baptism. The faults committed after profession by a good religious are expiated in this world by her daily exercises of piety, by her meditations, Communions, and mortifications. But if a religious should not make full atonement in this life for all her sins, her purgatory will not 12

be of long duration. The many sacrifices of the Mass which are offered for her after death, and the prayers of the Community, will soon release her from her suffering.” The Angels, Fr. Pascal P. Parente, Pages 105-117: “As explained in the first part of this book, the name Angel is sometimes taken in a generic sense and it applies to all the various orders and ranks of the three heavenly Hierarchies, Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones, etc: sometimes the name Angel is taken in a specific sense and it applies to the lowest Choir or rank, the third Angelic Hierarchy which consists of Principalities, Archangels, and Angels. This distinction is very important for the solution of our next question. The question is this: From what Choir of what Hierarchy do our Guardian Angels come? According to Dionysius, the first and greatest authority on the subject, they are taken from the third and lowest Angelic Hierarchy, namely from the Principalities, the Archangels, and the Angels: "The highest Hierarchy, being in the foremost place near the Hidden One [God], must be regarded as hierarchically ordering in a mysterious manner the second Hierarchy; and the Hierarchy of Dominations, Virtues, and Powers leads the Principalities, Archangels, and Angels more manifestly indeed than the first Hierarchy,... and the revealing Hierarchy of the Principalities, Archangels, and Angels presides one through the other over the human hierarchies so that their elevation and turning to God and their communion and union with Him may be in order... accordingly the Word of God has our [namely the earthly or Ecclesiastical] hierarchy in the care of Angels, for Michael is called Prince of the people of Juda, and other Angels are assigned to other peoples." “The great majority of the Schoolmen follow the opinion of Dionysius and hold that the Guardian Angels are taken from the third Hierarchy consisting of Principalities, Archangels and Angels, these heavenly spirits being the closest to the earthly and human order of Divine Providence. The name Angel, which means messenger, applies to these three lower Choirs in a very special manner, because they are the ones whom God has sent from time to time into this world; these are His legates with man, His Angels. Seraphim, Cherubim, and the higher heavenly Choirs are closest to the throne of God and have duties entirely different from our earthly and human conditions and interests. Suarez follows the same opinion in his celebrated work on the Angels. Duns Scotus and his School generally admit that the Guardian Angels and all the Angels sent by God to deal with human beings in this world, may be taken, and are taken, from any and all the Choirs of Angels, including the very highest. This opinion which is very dear to a number of saints and mystical souls is said to be based upon the words of Saint Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrews, where speaking of Angels he remarks: "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent to minister for them, who shall receive the inheritance of salvation." According to the defenders of this opinion the word "Angel," in this text, is to be understood in a generic sense as applying to all the Choirs and the entire angelic world.” “However, from the purpose and intention of the inspired writer, as is evident from the context, the word "Angel," in this case, has to be taken in a very specific sense, particularly for those Angels who promulgated the Old Law on Mount Sinai: "You who have received the law dictated by Angels and did not keep it."31 At the time this Epistle was dictated by Saint Paul, the Jewish Christians were 13

on the verge of apostasy and of falling back to Moses, their contention being that the Mosaic Law was superior to the new law, the law of Christ, because it had been given to Moses by Angels. Saint Paul, in the first two chapters of this Epistle, contrasts the Son of God, as author of the new Covenant, with those Angels who revealed the old Covenant on Mount Sinai, and shows Christ's superiority to Moses and to the Angels who revealed the Old Law to him. In the second verse of the second chapter of this same Epistle, Saint Paul writes: "For if the word, spoken by angels, proved to be valid and every transgression and disobedience received a just punishment, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?" The transcending superiority of Christ to these Angels implies superiority of the law of Christ over the Law of Moses, of the New Testament over the Old. From all this we gather that the Angels mentioned here in these two chapters, and specifically in the text brought forward in support of their opinion, are the Angels who were instrumental in revealing the Law of Moses. Nobody would suppose that this revelation of the Old Law was made by those myriads and myriads of heavenly spirits that form the Angelic world. We have seen in the first part how one single Angel was able to kill a whole army of one hundred and eighty five thousand soldiers, in one night. There seems, therefore, to be no reason to assign millions upon millions of Angels to a much simpler task, that of dictating the Law of Moses.” “Regardless of the pious meditations and ideas of some Saints, like Saint Mathilde, Saint Gertrude, Saint Hildegarde, and the opinions of Tauler, Denys the Carthusian and a few others, we believe that the Guardian Angels are ordinarily taken from the Choir of Angels, sometimes from that of the Archangels, and only exceptionally, if ever, from the Choir of Principalities, all belonging to the lowest of the three Angelic Hierarchies. This opinion is more in accordance with Scripture and Tradition and it still remains the more common opinion of Theologians. "The Angels fill up and complete the lowest Choir of all the Hierarchies of the celestial intelligences since they are the last of the celestial beings possessing the angelic nature. And they indeed are more properly named Angels by us than are those of a higher rank because their choir is more directly in contact with manifested and earthly things." Saint Thomas closely follows the doctrine of Dionysius, as Saint Gregory the Great had done before him, and concludes his article on this subject with the words: "We must simply say with Dionysius that the higher Angels are never sent out for external [i.e., earthly] ministry." To this we may add that if the higher Angels are never sent out on an earthly mission, much less would they be employed for a lifelong service as Guardian Angels. Their mission is not one of messengers and legates but as attendants at the court of heaven, and the nature of this, their mission, remains as much a mystery to us as the life of heaven itself.” “For we are the children of saints, and we must not be joined together like heathens that know not God.” XXV Both men and women wish to be married one day. All young couples desire it. Their hearts are inflamed with chaste love. I ask who would be a better spouse for a woman, Jesus Christ or another man? Jesus Christ, has infinite power, beauty, wisdom, justice, and mercy etc. What does the other man have? His sins? Jesus Christ created Heaven, Earth, and the stars. What did the other man create? Jesus Christ loved her from all eternity. How about the other man? This can go on and on... This woman who having lived a life of an angel wishes to choose a spouse. She goes through her options very carefully. “There is a perfect man,” she exclaims. She begins to think 14

about Him, she sees what wonderful attributes He has. The first virtue she falls in love with is humility. This knight in shining armor is faithful in all things. She sees Him devote many hours to the widows and orphans. Her heart just melts and is very much touched by those actions. She asks one of her best friends if she knows this man and her best friend replies, “we have been best friends since the day I can remember.” She tells her friend that she has a crush on that handsome gentleman. Eventually with the help of her best friend they ended up dating for a few years. After all this time her heart began to fall in love more and more. She finally tells her family of her plans with the man she fell in love with. The parents rejoice at such great news. She then pronounced her perpetual profession of poverty, chastity, and obedience. She married the love of her life, Jesus Christ for all eternity. This is where her life begins to flower. “Let him kiss me XXVI with the kiss of his mouth: for thy breasts are better than wine, Smelling sweet of the best ointments. Thy name is as oil poured out: therefore young maidens have loved thee. Behold thou art fair, O my love, behold thou art fair, thy eyes are as those of doves. Behold thou art fair, my beloved, and comely. Our bed is flourishing.” XXVII “For whom the Lord loveth, he chastiseth.” XXVIII The more and more she receives in pain due to her faults the more and more she is becomes detached from the world. The food that she eats to continue on are the mysteries of the holy Rosary. Her most delightful one is the first joyful mystery, the Annunciation to Mary, for it reminds her of her spouse entering into her body consuming her with divine love; which is the Holy Eucharist. By her prayers, her fasts, and her mortifications she conceives many spiritual children over time. Her spiritual children are those apostates, sinners, heretics, schismatics, infidels, and lukewarm souls she brings back to the one true faith, the Catholic Faith. “A single burning prayer of the seraphic St. Theresa (as was learned through a highly credible revelation) converted ten thousand heretics. And her soul, all on fire for Christ, could not conceive of a contemplative life, an interior life, which would take no interest in the Saviour's intense anxiety for the redemption of souls. 'I would accept Purgatory until the Last Judgment, she said, to deliver but one of them.'” XXIX Does her heart cool after giving birth to those spiritual children? No, her love increases in proportion with the amount of children she bears with her spouse. All she thinks about is wishing to conceive with her holy spouse; she exclaims,“Our bed is flourishing.” She does as much as a spouse can do before she enters her eternal rest. “And I heard a voice from heaven, saying to me: Write: Blessed are the dead, who die in the Lord. From henceforth now, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; for their works follow them.”XXX Those who have taken the Sacrament of Marriage may only receive a few children, some are blessed as many as sixteen. But the spouse of Christ could conceive as many as thousands or even millions of spiritual children. Now what about the Blessed Virgin Mary? She is Immaculate. Her physical beauty is beyond all creatures and angels combined. Her virtues go beyond any other woman or angel. Her voice is more prettier than any other woman's. XXXI So why my fellow brothers do you wish any less in a potential spouse? Her poor heart was crucified for your sake at Calvary. How much more love does she need to show? “And a great sign appeared in heaven: A woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars: And being with child, she cried travailing in birth, and was in pain to be delivered.” XXXII You are to preach to the poor apostates, heretics, schismatics, infidels, and sinners. But remember you must have an interior life, without it you will may conceive only a few spiritual children if any. You may suffer excruciating tortures and martyrdom for your spouse and for your spiritual children, that is why “she cried travailing in birth.” It is here were she demonstrates 15

her love for her spouse through the power of the Holy Rosary and the Brown Scapular. Which is personally your sword (Holy Rosary) and shield (Brown Scapular). “In all things taking the shield of faith, wherewith you may be able to extinguish all the fiery darts of the most wicked one. And take unto you the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit (which is the word of God).” XXXIII This is the way she conceives her spiritual children with her spouse, by crushing the foot of Satan. “She shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.”XXXIV The spouse to the Blessed Virgin Mary tells others about the miraculous powers that his love has over Satan. “And he said to them: I saw Satan like lightening falling from heaven.” XXXV Now those who embrace the Sacrament of Marriage will experience many joys and sorrows. Firstly after losing their physical beauty their spark of love will cool. That is not the same for those who have taken the Sacrament of Holy Orders. Those women who embrace lovingly Jesus Christ as their spouse, will not only maintain that that spark of chaste love, but it will grow in due time. Jesus Christ will always be beautiful for He is God. Thus she will always be attracted chastely to His physical beauty despite even if she were to live at an older age. He can maintain her fervor that young couples experience. It is the similar for those men who embrace Holy Orders. Mary, who is heaven has an eternal beauty because she is safe from the dangers the world, that is sin. She is not subject to time and will maintain her physical beauty forever. The most sorrowful part about the Sacrament of Marriage is seeing the one you love die because of the punishment of sin, whether original or actual sin. Those who marry themselves to Jesus Christ or the Blessed Virgin Mary are not subject to that sorrow, only if they lost their souls through their own fault. But for those who embrace the Sacrament of Holy Orders, their joy will begin at death. “That eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what things God hath prepared for them that love him.”XXXVI Now which marriage should one really ought to prefer that of the Sacrament of Holy Orders or the Sacrament of Marriage? Pagans and infidels hold lust as their highest good. When you look at a lion for example, during mating it lasts no more than a few minutes. If we assume you had obtained that same legitimate pleasure through marriage for the sake of childbearing; XXXVII your joy only lasted but for a few minutes and now you must take care of a new soul coming into the world! That is your child. Now for those few minutes of pleasure you enjoyed, you must continually care for this child for the next twenty years or more. Teaching your child by good example of what is it means to be a Catholic. Not only are you responsible for their actions but also their sins whether committed by omission or commission. “Praise not any man before death, for a man is known by his children.”XXXVIII For what little pleasure you obtain for cooperating with God in making a child, through the Sacrament of Marriage, what burden is placed upon thee!

Saraph The Angels, Fr. Pascal P. Parente, Page 72: “Seraphim, from the Hebrew Saraph: to burn. This is the first Choir of the supreme Hierarchy of the Angels. The name Seraphim is the plural form of the word; the singular is Seraph. This name occurs only twice in Sacred Scripture. It is found in chapter 6 of Isaias where they are described as standing upon the throne where the Lord was sitting, having each six wings, and singing constantly the hymn of glory: Holy, Holy, Holy. The description here given by the prophet, their very name, which means the burning ones, their very name, which means burning ones, their position 16

next to the throne of the Most High God, the act of purging the lips of the prophet with fire (a live coal taken from the altar) are all circumstances that in a sensible form reveal the exalted position of the Seraphim in the Court of heaven. “I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and elevated, and his train filled the temple. Upon it stood the seraphims: the one had six wings, and the other had six wings: with two they covered his face, with two they covered his feet and with two they flew.” (Isa. 6:1) The meaning of burning ones, implied by the etymology of the name Seraphim, is to be understood in both the transitive and the intransitive sense of the verb. In this epistle to Pope Damasus, Saint Jerome notes that Seraphim translated from the Greek means the inflaming ones, or, the burning ones. They are described as having each three pairs of wings with one of which they covered their face as a token of profound reverence and in order not be seen, with another they covered their feet out of modesty and respect, with the third they flew. A general resemblance to a human figure seems to be implied, but it is not said what their face looked like. The love of God wherewith they glow keeps them close to the throne of the Divine Majesty, but their profound humility and reverence interpose the screen of their wings between themselves and the superbrilliant splendors of the Glory of the Most High.” The Seraphim are the closest angels to God and thus burn the greatest with divine love. Just like wood is consumed as fuel for the fire, a soul is consumed with divine love when they offer their vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience. Let me ask all of those who are in a relationship. Both of you have fallen in love for one another is that right? Do you feel sometimes you are in so much love that if you had any more you would die? How much more in love are seraphim than you. If God granted you that love the seraphim bore you could simply not live. The Seraphim are completely consumed with love. The state of religious is the same, if they have lived up to their office, they would be consumed with the love of God. Just like those who have taken the Sacrament of Marriage being “two in one flesh,” XXXIX similarly too are those who offer themselves to God. Those religious give their wills over to their spouse allegorically speaking, as a sacrifice, for their love. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercy of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing unto God, your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world; but be reformed in the newness of your mind, that you may prove what is the good, and the acceptable, and the perfect will of God.” XL “This is the work that lies before you, the work God looks to you to do strengthening the Faith that St. Patrick, St. Francis Xavier, St. Alphonsus and other saints left us, preaching the truth to an unbelieving world, sacrificing yourselves, as your ancestors did before, leaving home and friends, and, for the sake of God, giving your life that others may be saved.” XLI To keep the fire of divine love flowing from the heavens unto the earth is the main purpose of the religious. It is to pass on the torch from generation to generation of divine love. The fire of divine love consists in the interior life with God. “The life of the apostolic man is a life of prayer. And the Saint of Ars says: The life of prayer is the one big happiness on this earth. O marvelous life! The wonder of the union of a soul with God! Eternity will not be long enough to understand this happiness...The interior life is a bath of love, into which the soul may plunge entirely...And there the soul is, as it were, drowned in love...God holds the interior soul the way a mother holds her baby's head in her hand, to cover him with kisses and caresses.” “The heart of an interior soul,” says the Cure d'Ars, “stands in the middle of 17

humiliations ans sufferings like a rock in the midst of the sea.” “A holy, perfect and virtuous man,” said St. Theresa, “actually does far more good to souls than a great many others who are merely better educated or more talented.” XLII These souls that God chooses must radiate with the fire of purity both of spiritually (soul) and corporeally (body). “As silver is tried by fire, and gold in the furnace: so the Lord trieth the hearts.” XLIII The greatest attribute of this consecration, which is a form of marriage, is that one preserves their state of virginity, which would have otherwise been lost through childbearing. Just as the Apostle stated: “he that giveth his virgin in marriage, doth well; and he that giveth her not, doth better.” XLIV This marriage, a soul consecrating itself to God, is a greater marriage because its a marriage between a soul and God. While the other is merely just between man and woman. “Matrimony may, therefore, be defined as the sacrament by which a Christian man and woman bind themselves together forever as husband and wife, and receive grace to discharge the duties of their state faithfully until death.” XLV

Singing Hymns The Angels, Fr. Pascal P. Parente, Page 72: “The primary duty of the Seraphim is to sing without ceasing to God, celebrating above all the other attributes the Holiness of God, a perfection which characterizes all of God's attributes, for holy is His Justice, holy His Goodness, holy His Mercy, holy His Power, holy His Beauty, holy His Wisdom, etc. Hence the Seraphic hymn of glory heard by the Prophet was this: “Holy, Holy, Holy, the Lord God of hosts, all the earth is full of his glory.” (Isa. 6:3) The vehemence of their feelings and of their devotion appears from the fact that their song is such powerful cry that “lintels of the doors were moved at the voice of him that cried,” namely the Seraphim who “cried one to another.” The temple, where this vision appeared, was filled with smoke, a symbol perhaps of that fire of love of the Seraphim, “the Burning Ones.” What is the purpose of the interior life? The purpose of the interior life is to advance continually in a relationship with God until death and your personal judgment. By the interior life you continually think and praise God. “For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also.”XLVI Is God not your ultimate end? Should He not be your ultimate treasure? Summa Theologica, I-II, Q.1, A.5: “A man desires for his ultimate end that which he desires as his perfect and crowning good...It is therefore necessary for the last end so to fill mans appetite that nothing is left beside it for man to desire. Which is not possible if something else be required for his perfection. Consequently it is not possible for the appetite so to tend to two things as though each were its perfect good.” As each day passes love will begin to enhance and overwhelm the senses spiritually in addiction to perfecting the prayer of a Christian because the heart will be filled with divine love and not self love. Also depending on the gender of the soul which consecrates itself for the service of Church, they must have a intimate love with their spouse, either Jesus Christ (a Sister) or the Blessed Virgin Mary (a brother or a priest). The interior life is really one continuous song and praise to God. When one says Hail Mary, every time they took a step to walk, that would be a prayer. To say Hail Mary every time they chewed on a piece of meat or 18

bread at meal time. That is a prayer. Our Saviour stated to us, “we ought always to pray, and not to faint.” XLVII Praying is simple, especially for those whom are in love, that is in love with God. Those who are not in love, it is will be a battle until they are truly determined to change their life from sin. For your heart is set on earthly things, that is vanity and sin. But once you create a habit of prayer it will be easy. Just look at a student who studies mathematics for his major in college. He made it a habit for himself to study all different variations of mathematics. There is practical (applied) and theoretical (research) mathematics. If you ask this student to take a test in English, Art, Nursing, or Engineering. I would suspect he would not do very well, because that is not his field of study. But if he were to take a test in mathematics I would suspect he would do much better. It was all because he had a habit in studying in that particular field. Let us go back to praying now. You then ask yourself, “must we continually pray?” Yes, why are you upset? Why are you discouraged already, you have not even begin to start praying? The reason why that student did well in his mathematics courses is because he studied everyday. Thus over a number of days he created a habit. It only takes twenty one consecutive days to create a habit. St. Teresa of Avila stated: “The devil knows that he has lost the soul that perseveringly practices mental prayer.” A very pious priest said once to a young woman: “If you have had the courage to imitate Mary Magdalen in her sins, have the courage to imitate her penance!” You must strive to pray every moment of the day.XLVIII She was forgiven because she loved God very much and was pierced from sorrow at what she had done to Him. Without the interior life, a Christian simply ceases to live spiritually. Take a heart out of a living man or woman, and the body dies on the spot. Take the interior life away from the Christian, the soul dies, by committing a mortal sin. “And in all things whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive.”XLIX If you do not ask to be protected from mortal sin, how then will you be aided against temptations from the devil? You are never very far away from committing sin, especially mortal. “Fear and trembling work out your salvation.”L When a professed religious make their vows they are training for their heavenly vocation, among the choir of angels. If the professed religious fulled their vocation, “this is the will of God your sanctification,” then she will be admitted into the choir of angels depending on the proportion of her fervor in divine love she was in at the moment of death. “The Lord keepeth all them that love him, but all the wicked he will destroy.”LI One has to remember that if one dies in the state of mortal sin, they will perish to Hell. There is no need of thinking of Heaven, for that will be the torture, for having lost God through their own fault. The Angels, Fr. Pascal P. Parente, Page 117: “Saint Gregory the Great had done before him, and concludes his article on this subject with the words: We must simply say with Dionysius that the higher Angels are never sent out for external [i.e., earthly] ministry.LII To this we may add that if the higher Angels are never sent out on an earthly mission, much less would they be employed for a lifelong service as Guardian Angels. Their mission is not one of messengers and legates but as attendants at the court of heaven, and the nature of this, their mission, remains as much a mystery to us as the life of heaven itself.”

(Need to Expand On This)

Those who choose the Sacrament of Holy Orders are the attendants at the court of Heaven. They are the ones that are plunged into the infinite depths of the Christian religion. They are not occupied with earthly or vain ideals, but the for the salvation of souls and the relief of the poor souls in purgatory. What do the Angels and Saints do in heaven? They praise the infinite perfections of God. Seeing that there are an infinite amount, they will need all eternity 19

to praise Him. There work will never finish for it will last forever. What do we do at Holy Mass? Praise, honor, sing His glories. That God will be merciful to us sinners, that the just will not fall into sin, that the souls in purgatory may be pardoned of their sins and admitted into heaven. The devotion one has at Holy Mass is the precursor to heaven. If one is consumed with divine love and is totally absorbed in the Holy Eucharist, that soul would be a Christian. If one has no devotion for the Holy Mass or is careless about its duties at Mass, that would explain to me in their actions that they are very tepid or like chaff (which is separated from the wheat), is useless and thus thrown into the fire. The Guardian Angels Our Heavenly Companions,The Bread of Angels, Page 43-44: “St. Francis de Sales had special devotion toward the holy Angels charged with the guardianship of the tabernacles. His veneration for these Angelic Guardians was increased by an instance which showed that these pure spirits revere not only the Sacred Species, but also the ministers who consecrate and handle them. After having conferred Holy Orders on a pious young man, St. Francis noticed that the newly ordained priest hesitated before a door as if to let someone pass before him. “Why do you pause?” asked the Saint. “God favors me with the sight of my Guardian Angel,” replied the priest. “Before I was ordained to the holy priesthood, my Angel always remained at my right and preceded me. Now he walks at the left and refuses to go before me.” “It is related of St. Catherine of Siena, who was also favored with the visible presence of her Guardian Angel, that once while praying in the church she turned her head slightly to gratify her curiosity. Her Guardian Angel gave her so severe a look for her disrespect in the presence of the Most Holy that for several days St. Catherine was inconsolable and performed severe penance in atonement.” “Blessed Veronica of Binasco relates a similar experience: Once, she writes, when, prompted by curiosity, I happened during the time of Mass to look at one of the Sisters who was kneeling near the altar, the Angel of God who is constantly beside me rebuked me with such severity that I almost fainted with terror. How threateningly he looked at me as he said, Why dost thou not keep watch over thy heart? Why does thou gaze thus curiously at thy sister? Thou has committed no slight offense against God. Thus spoke the Angel, and by Christ's command he enjoined on me a heavy penance for my fault, which for three days I bewailed with tears. Now, when I hear Mass, I never venture so much as to turn my head, for fear of incurring the displeasing of the Divine Majesty.”

Setting The World On Fire With Divine Love The Angels, Fr. Pascal P. Parente, Page 72: “Another duty is made Manifest in this vision of Isaias by the action of one of the seraphim, namely purging with fire: “One of the seraphims flew to me: and in his hand was a live coal, which he had taken with tongs off the altar. And he touched my mouth, and said: Behold this hath toughed thy lips, and thy iniquities shall be taken away, and thy sin shall be cleansed.” From the notion of burning contained in their name, it was obvious to the popular mind to regard the Seraphim as the spirits of love. Seraphic, today, is said of a person whose life is completely ruled by divine 20

love, such as the Seraphic Saint Francis of Assisi, the Seraphic Virgin of Avila, Saint Teresa, and Saint Catherine of Siena. According to Dionysius, “the name Seraphim clearly indicates their ceaseless and eternal revolution about Divine Principles; their heat and their keenness, the exuberance of their intense, perpetual, tireless activity, and their elevative and energetic assimilation of those below, kindling them and firing them to their own heat, and wholly purifying them by a burning and all consuming flame, and by the unhidden, unquenchable, changeless, radiant, and enlightening power, dispelling and destroying the shadows of darkness.” The Soul of the Apostolate, Pages 126-128: “The manifestation of the Divine which showed itself in every movement, and even in the repose of the Man-God, can also be perceived in certain souls gifted with an intense interior life. The amazing conversions which some saints were able to effect merely by the fame of their virtues, and the groups of aspirants to perfection that attached themselves to them, proclaim loudly enough the secret of their silent apostolate. St. Anthony caused the deserts of Egypt to become filled with men. St. Benedict was the reason why an unnumbered army of holy monks rose up to civilize Europe. St. Bernard's influence, through the Church, both upon rulers and their people, was something unparalleled. St. John Vianney had a voice so weak that it could not reach most of those in the crowd that surged around him. But if people could hardly hear him, they saw him; they saw a living monstrance of God, and the mere sight of him overwhelmed those who were there, and converted them. A lawyer had just returned from Ars. Someone asked him what it was that had impressed him. He said: “I have seen God in a man.” Satan in the Modern World, Page 169: “Three centuries ago Pascal, in his own incomparable language, said the same thing: All bodies together, and all spirits together, and all their works, have no the value of the least movement of charity. This is of an infinitely higher order.”

Religious Instruct The Faithful Christians To Live Moral Lives The Story of a Soul, St. Therese of Lisieux, The Apostle of Prayer, Page 171: “In the Lives of the Fathers of the Desert it is told how one of them converted a public sinner whose evil deeds were the scandal of the whole country. Touched by grace, the sinful woman followed the Saint into the desert to perform a rigorous penance. On the first night of the journey, before even the reaching of the place of her retirement, the vehemence of her love and sorrow broke the ties that bound her to earth, and that the same instant the holy man saw her soul borne by Angels to the Bosom of God.”

Religious Teach How To Obtain The Interior Life The Soul of the Apostolate, Action Made Fruitful By The Interior Life, Pages 112-125:Let us leave to one side the cause of fruitfulness called by 21

theologians ex opere operato. Considering only what is produced ex opere operantis, we recall that if the apostle carries out the principle of "He who abideth in Me and I in him," the fecundity of his work, willed by God, is guaranteed: "the same beareth much fruit." Such is the plain logic of this text. After such an authority, there is no need to prove this thesis. Let us simply confirm it by facts. For more than thirty years we have been able to observe, from afar, the progress of two orphanages for little girls, maintained by two separate congregations. Each one had to go through a period of evident decline. To be frank: out of sixteen orphans, all of whom had entered under the same conditions and had left upon coming of age, three from the first house and two from the second had passed, in from eight to fifteen months, from the practice of frequent Communion to the most degraded level of the social scale. Of the eleven others, one alone remained deeply Christian. And yet every one of them had been placed, on leaving, in a good situation. In one of these orphanages, eleven years ago, there was a single change: a new Mother Superior was installed. Six months afterwards a radical transformation was apparent in the spirit of the house. The same transformation was observed three years later in the other orphanage because, while the same superior and the same sisters remained, the chaplain had been changed. Now since that time, not a single one of the poor girls who left, at the age of twentyone, has been dragged down by Satan into the gutter. Every one, every single one of them without exception, has remained a good Christian. The reason for these results is very simple. At the head of the house, or in the confessional, the spiritual direction previously given had not been really supernatural. And this was enough to paralyze, or at least to cripple, the action of grace. The former superior in one case and the former chaplain in the other, although sincerely pious people, had had no deep interior life and, consequently, exercised no deep or lasting influence. Theirs was a piety of the feelings, produced by their upbringing and environment, made up exclusively of pious practices and habits, and giving them nothing but vague beliefs, a love without strength, and virtues without deep root. It was a flabby piety, all in the show-window, mawkish, mechanical. It was a fake piety, capable of forming good little girls who would not make a nuisance of themselves, affected little creatures, full of pretty curtsies but with no force of character, dragged this way and that by their feelings and imaginations. A piety powerless to open up the wide horizons of Christian life, and form valiant women, ready to face a struggle; all it was good for was to keep these wretched little girls locked up in their cages, sighing for the day when they would be let out.That was the poor excuse for a Christian life produced by Gospel-workers who knew almost nothing of the interior life. In the midst of these two communities, a superior, a chaplain, are replaced. Right away the face of things is altered. What a new meaning prayer begins to take on; what a new fruitfulness in the Sacraments. How different are the postures and bearing in chapel, even at work, at recreation. Analysis shows up a deep transformation which also manifests itself in a serene joy, a new enthusiasm, the acquisition of virtues, and in some souls an intense desire for a religious vocation. To what is such a transformation to be ascribed? The new superior, the new chaplain, led lives of prayer. No doubt an 22

attentive observer will have connected up similar effects to the same kind of causes in any number of boarding schools, day schools, hospitals, clubs, even parishes, communities, and seminaries. Listen to St. John of the Cross: "Let the men eaten up with activity," he says, "and who imagine they are able to shake the world with their preaching and other outward works, stop and reflect a moment. It will not be difficult for them to understand that they would be much more useful to the Church and more pleasing to the Lord, not to mention the good example they would give to those around them, if they devoted more time to prayer and to the exercises of the interior life. Under these conditions, by one single work of theirs they would do far more good, and with much less trouble, than they do by a thousand others which they exhaust their lives. Prayer would them this grace, and would obtain for them spiritual energies they need to bring forth such fruits. But without prayer, all they do amounts to nothing more than noise and uproar; it is like a hammer banging on an anvil and echoing all over the neighborhood. They accomplish a little more than nothing, sometimes absolutely nothing at all, and sometimes downright evil. God save us from such a soul as this, if it should happen to swell up with pride! It would be vain for appearances to be in his favor: the truth is that he would be doing nothing, because no good work can be done without the power of God. Oh, how much could be written on this subject, for the information of those who give up practicing the interior life, and aspire to brilliant works which will put them up on a pedestal and make them the admiration of all. Such people know nothing at all about the source of living water, and of the mysterious fountain which makes all fruit to grow." Some of the expressions this saint uses are just as strong as the "accursed occupations" quoted above from St. Bernard. Nor is it possible to accuse him of exaggerating when we remember that the qualities which Bossuet admired in St. John of the Cross were his perfect good sense and the zeal he had for warning souls against the desire of extraordinary ways of arriving at sanctity, as well as the most precise exactness in expressing his thoughts, which are, themselves, of remarkable depth. Let us attempt a study of a few of the causes of the fruitfulness of the interior life.I will inebriate the souls of the priests with satiety and my people will be filled with my blessings. Notice the close connection between the two parts of this text. God does not say: "I will give My priests more zeal and more talent," but: “I will inebriate their souls." What does that signify if not: "I will give them very special graces, and for that reason my people will be filled with My blessings." God might have given His grace according to His good pleasure, without taking any account of the holiness of the minister nor of the dispositions of the faithful. That is the way He acts in the Baptism of infants. But it is the ordinary law of His Providence that these two factors are the measure of His heavenly gifts. Without Me you can do nothing. This is the principle. The Blood that redeemed us was shed on Calvary. How was God going to insure its fruitfulness at the very start? By a miracle of the diffusion of interior life. There was nothing more paltry than the ideals and the zeal of the apostles before Pentecost. But once the Holy Ghost had transformed them into men of prayer, their preaching began at once to work wonders. But God does not, in the ordinary course of things, 23

repeat the miracle of the Upper Room. His way is to leave the graces for our sanctification to fight it out with the free and arduous correspondence of His creature. But in making Pentecost the official birth-jay of the Church, did He not give us a clear enough indication that his ministers would have to make the first step, in their work as co-redeemers, the sanctification of their own souls? Therefore, all true apostolic workers expect much more from their sacrifices and prayers than from their active work. Father Lacordaire spent a long time in prayer before ascending the steps of the pulpit, and on his return he had himself scourged. Father Monsabre, before speaking at Notre Dame, used to say all fifteen decades of the Rosary on his knees. "I am taking my last dose of tonic," he said with a smile to a friend who questioned him about this practice. Both these religious lived according to St. Bonaventure's principle, that the secret of a fruitful apostolate is to be found much more at the foot of the Cross than in the display of brilliance. "These three remain: word, example, prayer; but the greatest of these is prayer," cries St. Bernard. A very strong statement, but it is simply a commentary on the resolution taken by the Apostles to leave certain works alone in order to give themselves first of all to prayer, orationi; and only after that to preaching, ministerio verbi. Have we not often enough pointed out, in this connection, what a fundamental importance the Savior gave to this spirit of prayer? Looking out upon the world and upon the ages that were to come, He cried out in sorrow: "The harvest indeed is great, but the laborers are few." What would He propose as the quickest way to spread His teaching? Would He ask his apostles to go to school in Athens, or to study, at Rome, under the Caesars, how to conquer and govern empires? You men of active zeal listen to the Master. He reveals a program and a principle full of light: "Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that He send forth laborers into the harvest." No mention of techniques of organization, of raising funds, building churches or putting up schools. Only "pray ye"—Rogate. This one fundamental truth of prayer, and the spirit of prayer, is something the Master constantly repeated. Everything else, without exception, flows from it. Pray ye therefore! If the faint murmur of supplication from a holy soul has more power to raise up legions of apostles than the eloquent voice of a recruiter of vocations, who has less of the spirit of God, what are we to conclude? Simply that the spirit of prayer, which goes hand in hand, in the true apostle, with zeal, will be the chief reason for the fruitfulness of his work. Pray ye therefore! First of all, pray. Only after that, does Our Lord add "going, teach . . . preach. Of course, God will make use of this other means; but the blessings that make a ministry fruitful are reserved for the prayers of a man of interior life.Such prayer will have the power to bring forth from the bosom of God the strength for an apostolate that souls cannot resist. The voice of one so great as Pius X throws the following highlight upon the theme of this our book: "To restore all things in Christ by the apostolate of good works, we need divine grace, and the apostle will only receive it if he is united to Christ. Not until we have formed Christ within ourselves will we find it easy to give Him to families and to societies. And therefore all those who take part in the apostolate must develop a solid piety." 24

What has been said of prayer should be equally applied to that other element of the interior life, suffering: that is, everything, whether from the outside or from within us, that goes against natural feeling. A man can suffer like a pagan, like the damned, or like a saint. If he wishes to suffer with Christ, he must try to suffer like a saint. For then, suffering is of benefit to our own souls, and applies the merits of the Passion to those of others: "I fill up those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ, in my flesh, for His Body, which is the Church." And St. Augustine, commenting on this text, says: "The sufferings were filled up, but in the Head only, there was wanting still the sufferings of Christ in His members. Christ went before as the Head, and follows after in His body." Christ has suffered as Head, now it is the turn of His Mystical Body to suffer. Every priest can say: I am that Body. I am a member of Christ, and it is up to me to complete what is wanting in the sufferings of Christ, for His Body, which is the Church. Suffering, says Fr. Faber, is the greatest of the Sacraments. This acute theologian shows the necessity of suffering, and concludes what must be its glories. Every argument of the famous Oratorian can be applied to the fruitfulness of works by the union of the sacrifices of the apostle to the Sacrifice of Golgotha, and thus by their participation in the efficacy of the Precious Blood. In the Sermon on the Mount, Our Lord called His apostles the salt of the earth, the light of the world. We are the salt of the earth in proportion as we are saints. But if the salt has lost its savor, what use has it? "What shall be cleaned by the unclean?" It is only good to be cast out and trampled under foot. But on the other hand, a genuinely holy apostle, the true salt of the earth, will be a real agent of preservation in that sea of corruption which is human society. As a beacon shining in the night, "the light of the world," the brightness of his example, even more than the light of his words, will dispel the darkness piled up by the spirit of the world, and will cause to shine forth in splendor the ideal of true happiness which Jesus set forth in the eight beatitudes. The one thing most likely to induce the faithful to lead a really Christian life is precisely the virtue of the one charged with teaching it. On the other hand, his imperfections are almost infallible in turning people away from God. "For the Name of God, through you, is blasphemed among the gentiles." That is why the apostle ought more often to have the torch of good example in his hands than fine words upon his lips, and should be the first to excel in the practice of the virtues he preaches. A man whose mission it is to preach great things, says St. Gregory, is, by that very fact, bound to perform them. It has been pointed out, and with truth, that a physician of the body can heal the sick without being well himself. But to heal souls, a man must himself have a healthy soul, because in order to heal them he has to give them something of himself. Men have every right to be exacting and to ask much of those who offer to teach how to lead a new life. And they are quick to discern if their works measure up to their words, or if the moral theories which they so willingly display are nothing more than a lying front. It is on the basis of their observations in this matter that they will give him their confidence or refuse it. What power the priest will have, in talking about prayer, if his people see him often in intimate converse with Him who dwells in the Tabernacle, so often forgotten by so many! They will not fail to listen to him, when he preaches penance and hard work, if he 25

is, himself, a hard worker and a man of fortification. When he exhorts them to love one Mother, he will find them ready to listen to him ifhe is himself careful to spread throughout his flock the good odor of Christ, and if the gentleness and humility of the divine Exemplar are reflected in his own conduct. "A pattern of the flock from the heart." The professor who has no interior life imagines he has done all that is required of him if he keeps within the limits of the program of his examination. But if he is a man of prayer some word will now and again slip out, not only from his lips but from his heart: some sentiment or other will show itself in his expression, some significant gesture will escape him, yes, the mere way he makes the Sign of the Cross, or says a prayer before or after class—even a class in mathematics!—may have a more profound influence on his students than a whole sermon.A sister in a hospital or an orphanage has the power and the effective means to sow in souls a deep love of our Lord and His teachings, even while remaining prudently within the limits of her duties. But if she has no interior life, she will not even suspect the presence of such a power, or it will not occur to her to do anything more than encourage acts of exterior piety. Long and frequent discussions did far less to spread Christianity than the sight of Christian conduct, so opposed to the egotism, injustice, and corruption of the pagans. Cardinal Wiseman, in his masterpiece, Fabiola, brings out what a powerful effect the example of the early Christians had upon the souls even of those pagans who were most prejudiced against the new religion. The story shows us the progressive and almost irresistible advance of a soul towards the light. The noble sentiments, the virtues, whether modest or heroic, which the daughter of Fabius found in various persons of all classes and conditions, excited her admiration. But what a change took place in her, what a revelation it was for her soul, when she found out, one by one, that all those whose charity, devotion, modesty, gentleness, moderation, love of justice and chastity she admired, all belonged to that sect which had always been represented to her as worthy of execration. From that time forth she was a Christian. Is there anyone who can keep himself from exclaiming, on finishing this book: "Oh! If only present-day Catholics, or at least their active workers, had something of this splendid Christian life which the great Cardinal here portrays and which, nevertheless, is nothing but the Gospel put into practice! How irresistible would then be their apostolate among the modern pagans, who are too frequently prejudiced against Catholicism by the calumnies of heretical sects, or repelled by the bitterness of our own answers to our opponents, and by a certain way we sometimes have of asserting our rights in a tone that suggests wounded pride far more than the desire to maintain the interests of Christ!" What tremendous power there is in the influence radiated by a soul united to God! It was the way Fr. Passerat celebrated Mass that convinced the young Desurmont that he should enter the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer— in which he himself was later to achieve such holiness and importance. The public has a sort of intuition that cannot be fooled. When a real man of God preaches, people come in crowds to hear him. But as soon as the conduct of an apostle ceases to measure up to what is expected of him, no matter how ably his enterprise is run, it will be much harmed, and perhaps ruined beyond recovery. 26

"Let them see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven."said Our Lord. Good example is something St. Paul stressed over and over again in writing to his two disciples, Titus and Timothy. "In all things show thyself an example of good works." "Be thou an example of the faithful in word, in conversion, in charity, in faith, in chastity." He himself says: "The thing which you have seen in me, these do you.""Be ye followers of me, as I also am of Christ." And these words full of truth sprang from a confidence and a zeal that far from excluded humility, and were of the same kind as those which prompted Our Lord's own challenge: "Which of you shall convince me of sin?" Under these conditions the apostle, following in the footsteps of Him of whom it is written: "He began to do and to teach" will soon become operarium inconfusibilem—"a workman that need not to be ashamed." "Above all, my dear sons," said Leo XIII "remember that the indispensable condition of true zeal, and the surest pledge of success is purity and holiness of life.""A holy, perfect and virtuous man," said St. Theresa, "actually does far more good to souls than a great many others who are merely better educated or more talented." Pius X declared that: "If our own spirit does not submit to the control of a truly Christian and holy way of life, it will be difficult to make others lead a good life." And he adds, "All those called to a life of Catholic Works ought to be men of a life so spotless that they may give everybody else an effective example." The Soul of the Apostolate, Principles and Hints, Footnote from St. Augustine, Page 242: “Praise the Lord, but praise Him from the very roots of your being, that is, not let only your tongues and voices praise the Lord, but also your conscience, your lives, and all that you do. Just as men expect you to be a saint when you present yourself among them as God's delegate, so God demands it of you when you appear before Him to intercede for mankind. An intercessor is one sent from the the misery of this earth to parley with the justice of God. Now, St. Thomas says, two things are necessary, in an envoy if he is to be favorably received. The first is that he be a worthy representative of the people who send him, and the second that he be a friend of the prince to whom he is sent. You priests, who have no esteem for your sanctity, can you call yourself a worthy representative of the Christian people when you do not show forth the completeness of the Christian virtues? Can you call yourself the friend of God, when you do not serve Him faithfully? If this is true of the indifferent mediator, how much more so of one who is in sin! How can words be found to express the anomalies of his appalling situation? Good souls come to you and say: Pray for me, Father, you have credit in the sight of God. But would you like to know what efficacy there is in the protection thus piously invoked? God is more pleased with the barking of dogs, than with the prayer of such clerics.” The Soul of the Apostolate, Action Made Fruitful, Page 127: “It is a terrible misfortune when there is not to be found one really interior soul among all those at the head of important Catholic projects. Then it seems as though the supernatural had undergone an eclipse, and the power of God were in chains. And the saints teach us that, when this happens, a whole nation may fall into a decline, and Providence will seem to have given evil men a free hand to do all the 27

harm they desire.”

My Chaste Spouse “Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee: blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.”

How Do I Go About Choosing A Suitable Spouse? There are two categorical ways about choosing a spouse you wish to marry. First I am going to give you the categories in which pagans choose their spouse. I use the numbering system for the purpose of importance. The first being of the highest importance etc. After I explain how the pagans choose their spouses, I will talk about how Christians choose their spouses.

Spouses of the Damned 1. Physical Beauty • This is strictly for lustful reasons. There is little that needs to be added to this most obvious trait. It is justly explained by the Archangel St. Raphael: “Hear me, and I will show thee who they are, over whom the devil can prevail. For they who in such manner receive matrimony, as to shut out God from themselves, and from their mind, and to give themselves to their lust, as the horse and mule, which have not understanding, over them the devil hath power. ” LIII 2. Piety: Love of the World • This is piety in the sense of godlessness. These are children of the reprobate, they wish to have nothing to do with God. They despise holiness, just like Satan despises holy water. Every time Satan touches holy waters he receives the greatest pain, just like their father, these children have no peace. The sting of their conscience is ever at their side leaving them no rest. “Where are the princes of the nations, and they that rule over the beasts that are upon the earth? They that take their diversion with the birds of the air; that hoard up silver and gold wherein men trust, and there is no end of their getting; that work in silver and are solicitous, and their works are unsearchable? They are cut off and are gone down to hell, and others are risen up in their place.” LIV The Sinners Guide, Venerable Louis Of Granada, Love of the World, Page 235: “Observe how strongly the idea of punishment in this life is shown by the expressions forthwith, without delay, immediately. They clearly indicate that besides the future punishment of their crimes, the wicked will suffer for them even in this world. Hence the many calamities which they endure. Hence the incessant trials, anxieties, fatigues, and necessities, of which they are keenly sensible, and which, in their blindness, they regard as the inevitable conditions of nature rather than the punishment of their sins. For as they do not recognize natural advantages as benefits from God, and therefore do not thank Him for 28

them, neither do they regard the calamities which overtake them as the marks of His displeasure, and consequently receive no benefit from them. Other misfortunes, such as imprisonment, banishment, loss of fortune, come upon the wicked through God's representatives upon earth, the ministers of justice. Dearly bought, then, is the pleasure of sin, for which they pay a hundredfold even in this life.” 3. Personality: Wicked • The Sinners Guide, Venerable Louis Of Granada, Presumptuously Continuing in Sin, Page 212: “As an increase in virtue is the effect and reward of virtue, so likewise an increase in sin is the effect and punishment of sin. Indeed, it is one of the greatest chastisements that can be inflicted on us, when we are permitted, through blindness and passion, to rush headlong down the broad road of vice, adding sin to sin everyday and hour of our lives. This is but just; for when man once mortally sins he loses all right to any help from God. It is owing solely to the divine mercy when he is converted. Look, therefore, over the world, and behold the greatness of its iniquity. Think of the millions who are living in infidelity and heresy. Think how many calling themselves Christians are daily betraying their name by their scandalous lives.” 4. Intelligence: Being Highly Esteemed • Those who seek to be the smartest in the world, at college, at high school, at work, what I ask does it avail poor pagan? Why do you seek to be the greatest? “Never suffer pride to reign in thy mind or in thy words, for from it all perdition took its beginning.” LV The Sinners Guide, Venerable Louis Of Granada, Love of the World, Page 233-234, 259: “What has become of the wise men, the scholars, the searchers into the secrets of nature? Where is the famous Alexander? Where is the mighty Assuerus? Where are the Caesars and the other kings of the earth? What does it now avail them that they lived in pomp and glory, that they had legions of soldiers, and servants, and flatters almost without number? All have vanished like a shadow or a dream In one moment all that constitutes human happiness fades away as the mist before the morning sun. Behold, then, dear Christian, how brief it is. First reflect on the terrible punishment which the angels brought upon themselves by one sin of pride. They were instantly cast from Heaven into the lowest depths of Hell. Consider how this fall transformed Lucifer, the prince of the angelic hosts, and the bright beautiful star surpassing in splendor the sun itself. In one moment he lost all his glory, and became not only a demon but the chief of demons. If pure spirits received such punishment, what can you expect, who are but dust and ashes? God is ever the same, and there is no distinction of persons before His justice. Pride is odious to Him in a man as in an angel, while humility is equally pleasing to Him in both. Hence St. Augustine says, Humility makes men angels, and pride makes angels devils. And St. Bernard tells us, Pride precipitates man from the highest elevation to the lowest abyss, but humility raises him from the lowest abyss to the highest elevation. Through pride the 29

angels fell from heaven to Hell, and through humility man is raised from earth to Heaven. ” 5. Wealth: Being Rich In Materials • The Sinners Guide, Venerable Louis Of Granada, Remedies against Covetousness, Page 273:“We cannot better explain this doctrine than by the words of St. Gregory: Remember that the riches you have unlawfully acquired remain in this world, but the sins you committed in obtaining them will accompany you into the next How great is your folly, then, to leave your profit here and to take only your loss with you-to afford others gratification in this world while you endure everlasting sufferings in the world to come!” 6. Wanting a family: Passing The Legacy of their Godlessness to their Children •

The Sinners Guide, Venerable Louis Of Granada,Virtue Considered Too Difficult, Page 224: “But let us suppose that the path of virtue is sown with difficulties and hardships. Will this prove that you ought not walk in it? Oh, no! Are you not expected to do something for the salvation of your sou? Will you not do at least as much as for this grand purpose, for eternity, as you do for your body and for time, which for you is rapidly passing away and will soon leave you at the tomb? What is a little suffering in this life, if you are spared everlasting torments? Think of the rich glutton, now burning in Hell. What would he not do to expiate his sins, could he return to this world? There is no reason why you should not now do as much, if you feel that you have ever offended God.”

7. Faithful: Being An Obstinate Sinner Until Death • deferring their conversion until death 198 • Sin and Its Consequences, Henry Edward Manning Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster, Page 107: “There can only be a moral limit, and a moral limit there is, but what is it? I said before: All sin and all blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men, save only the blasphemy of the Holy Ghost; that shall never be forgiven in this world or in the world to come. (Matt. 12:31-32) But what is blasphemy of the Holy Ghost? It is resistance to the known truth. It is the refusal of the grace of penance. It is the outrage done to the Absolver Himself, the Giver of Life; and that by the impenitence of the sinner. The one only sin which the Precious Blood cannot absolve, is the sin that is not repented of; that is the sole and only sin that shall not be washed as white as snow.” The Sinners Guide, Venerable Louis Of Granada, Peace of Conscience, Page 127-129: “Thus we are told that King Antiochus, during his sickness, was so assailed by the thoughts of his past crimes that the grief they occasion brought on his death. “I remember, he cried, the evils that I did in Jerusalem, whence also I took away all the spoils of gold and of silver that were in it, and I sent to destroy the inhabitants of Juda without cause. I know, therefore, that for this cause these evils have found me; and behold I perish with great grief in a strange land.” Thus does Holy Scripture portray the torments of which the heart of the sinner is both the theater and the victim. A philosopher was wisely said that by an eternal law 30

of God it is ordained that fear should be inseparable companion of evil; and this is confirmed by Solomon, who tells us, “The wicked man fleeth when no man pursueth, but the just, bold as a lion, shall be without dread.” (Prov. 28:1) This thought is also expressed by St. Augustine, who says, “Thou has ordained, O Lord, that every soul in which disorder reigns should be a torment to herself; and truly it is so.” “Who hath resisteth God and hath had peace?” (Job 9:4) Hence we see that creatures who submit to the order of God enjoy a peace and security which abandon them the moment they resist this divine law. Man, in his innocence, was absolute master of himself; but after his disobedience he lost his peaceful empire and began to experience remorse and an interior warfare against himself. “Is there any greater torment in this world,” asks St. Ambrose, “than remorse of conscience? Is it not a misery more to be feared than sickness, than exile, than loss of life or liberty?” “There is nothing,” says St. Isidore, “from which man cannot fly, save from himself. Let him go where he will, he cannot escape the pursuit of an accusing conscience. There is no torment which exceeds that of a guilty conscience. If, then, you desire to live in peace, live in the practice of virtue.”

Spouses of The Elect In this section I am going to explain the benefits of choosing the Blessed Virgin Mary as a spouse. That especially men who are thinking about the religious life should choose her as a spouse. The true devotion to Mary 126-133 The life of Saint Dominic: 46-54 1. Purity: Both in Heart and Body •

The Glories of Mary, St. Alphonsus Liguori, On the Assumption of Mary, 400-401: “Father Silvano Eazzi relates that a devout ecclesiastic and tender lover of our Queen Mary, having heard her beauty greatly extolled, had a most ardent desire once to see his Lady; and therefore, with humble prayers, begged this favor. The clement Mother sent him word by an angel that she would gratify him, by allowing him to see her; but on this condition, that after seeing her he should remain blind. He accepted the condition. Behold, one day the Blessed Virgin appeared to him; but that he might not remain quite blind, he at first wished to look at her with one eye only; but afterwards, overcome by the great beauty of Mary, he wished to contemplate her with both; whereupon the Mother of God disappeared. Grieved at having lost the presence of his Queen, he could not cease weeping, not indeed for his lost eye, but because he had not seen her with both. He then began to entreat her again that she would once more appear to him, being quite willing, for this purpose, to lose the other eye and become blind. 'Happy and contented shall I be, O my Lady,' he said, 'to become wholly blind for so good a cause, which will leave me more than 31

ever enamored of thee and of thy beauty.' Mary was graciously pleased once more to satisfy him, and again consoled him with her presence; but because this loving Queen can never injure any one, she not only did not deprive him of the sight of the other eye, but even restored him the one he had lost.” The Glories of Mary, St. Alphonsus Liguori, On the Assumption of Mary, 400-401: “Cæsarius relates, that a Cistercian who was very devout to the Blessed Virgin desired to receive a visit from this dear Lady, and continually asked for it in his prayers. Being one night in the garden, as he was looking up to heaven and sighing with the desire of seeing her, he beheld a beautiful virgin coming down from heaven surrounded with light, who said to him, 'Thomas, would you hear me sing?' 'Certainly,' he replied. And forthwith the virgin sang with such sweetness, that the monk believed himself to he in paradise. As soon as she had ceased to sing, she disappeared leaving him full of desire to know who she was. But behold, another most beautiful virgin appeared to him who also let him hear her sing. Upon this he could no longer restrain himself from asking who she might be. She replied,'She whom you saw just now was Catherine, and I am Agnes, both martyrs of Jesus Christ; and we are sent by our Lady to console you. Give thanks to Mary, and prepare yourself to receive a greater favor.' And saying this she disappeared. But the monk had now greater hopes to see at last his Queen. He was not deceived; for he presently saw a bright light, and felt his heart filled with a new joy; and, behold, the Mother of God appeared in the midst of that light, surrounded by angels, and of a beauty incomparably greater than that of the two other Saints, and said to him, 'My dear servant and son, I have accepted your devotion to me, and have heard your prayers: you have desired to see me; behold me, and I will allow you to hear me also sing.' The most Holy Virgin began to sing; and so great was the sweetness, that the pious monk lost his senses, and fell with his face to the ground. The bell for matins rang; the monks assembled in choir, and not seeing Thomas, sought for him in his cell and in other places. At last they found him in the garden, as it were dead. The Superior ordered him to relate what had happened to him; and then coming to himself, through virtue of obedience he related all the favors he had received from the Divine Mother.” 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Charity towards God Humility Divine Wisdom Poverty: Rich in Graces and Merits Charity towards Spouse Obedience

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Works Cited The Angels The True Spouse of Jesus Christ The Glories of Mary The Soul of the Apostolate The Catechism Explained The Sinners Guide

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I Canticles 2:10 II Luke 12:8-9 III Canticle of Canticles 6:3 IV Canticle of Canticles 5:10 V Luke 2:35 VI Canticle of Canticles 6:4 VII Canticle of Canticles 1:2 VIII Canticle of Canticles 6:3 IX Canticle of Canticles 1:6 X Preparation For Consecration To Jesus Through Mary recommended by St. Louis de Montfort XI Canticles 2:5 XII Ephesians 5:31 XIII Angels, Page: 52 XIV The Catholic Faith alone is Christian. He who is not Catholic is not Christian. One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism. XV The One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church which is currently headed by Pope Michael. XVI The Ten Commandments: 1. Thou shalt have no strange gods before Me. 2. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. 3. Thou shalt keep holy the Sabbath day. 4. Thou shalt honor thy father and thy mother, that thou mayst be long-lived upon the land which the Lord thy God will give thee. 5. Thou shalt not kill 6. Thou shalt not commit adultery 7. Thou shalt not steal 8. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. 9. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife. 10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, nor his servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is his. XVII The Six Precepts of the Church: 1. To hear Mass on Sundays and Holydays of obligation. 2. To fast and abstain on the days appointed. 3. To confess at least once a year. 4. To receive the Holy Eucharist during the Easter time. 5. To contribute to the support of our pastors. 6. Not to marry persons who are not Catholics, or who are related to use within a forbidden degree of kindred, nor privately without witnesses, nor to solemnize marriage at forbidden times. XVIII 117 Soul of the Apostolate XIX The Dignities and Duties of the Priest, St. Alphonse Liguori XX The Dignities and Duties of the Priest, St. Alphonse Liguori XXI Vocations, A True Vocation, Page: 6 XXII Vocations, A True Vocation, Page: 6 XXIII Matthew 7:21 XXIV Ecclesiasticus 11:30 XXV Tobias 8:5 XXVI "Let him kiss me"... The church, the spouse of Christ, prays that he may love and have peace with her, which the spouse prefers to every thing delicious: and therefore expresses (ver. 2) that young maidens, that is the souls of the faithful, have loved thee. XXVII Canticles 1: 1-2,15-16 XXVIII Hebrews 12:6 XXIX page 37 The soul of the apostolate XXX Apocalypse 14:13 XXXI Quote source Glories of Mary, Monk fell down with joy after hearing her voice. XXXII Apocalypse 12:1-2 XXXIII Ephesians 6:16-17 XXXIV Genesis 3:15 XXXV Luke 10:18 XXXVI 1 Corinthians 2:9

XXXVII . “Then the angel Raphael said to him: Hear me, and I will show thee who they are, over whom the devil can prevail. For they who in such manner receive matrimony, as to shut out God from themselves, and from their mind, and to give themselves to their lust, as the horse and mule, which have not understanding, over them the devil hath power. And when the third night is past, thou shalt take the virgin with the fear of the Lord, moved rather for love of children than for lust, that in the seed of Abraham thou mayst obtain a blessing in children.” Tobias 6:16-17,22 XXXVIII Ecclesiasticus 11:30 XXXIX Genesis 2:24 XL Romans 12:1-2 XLI Vocations, Page: 22 XLII 104,109, 125,126, 127 Soul of the Apostolate XLIII Proverbs 17:3 XLIV 1 Corinthians 7:38 XLV Page 132 Mass and Sacraments XLVI Matthew 6:21 XLVII Luke 18:1 XLVIII All it takes is to say Hail Mary, Hail Jesus, or Hail Michael, Raphael, Gabriel (the Archangels). You could say a full prayer if that helps you personally. I found that short prayers are the most effective. I used the Hail Mary to a rhythm of footsteps. One step would be a Hail and the other foot would be a Mary. Or each foot could be a Hail Mary. XLIX Matthew 21:22 L Philippians 2:12 LI Ps. CXLIV 20 LII This needs to be discussed further. (analogy to the first sections) LIII Tobias 6:16-17,22 LIV Baruch 3:16-20 LV Job 4:14