Where Can I Find True Happiness?

Where Can I Find True Happiness? By: Phil Friedl

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Happiness is only to be found in love. In proportion to the love one has received the greater one's happiness is emanated. ● Some put their love in riches but gold cannot itself emanate love. ● Some put their love in food, but food cannot itself do the same. ● Some put their love in sexual pleasure, but even that lasts but for a few moments and leaves gnawing conscience which gives no peace to the soul. “Where then can we find true happiness,” you ask. “Everywhere,” I answer. “How so,” you reply. Is not God everywhere? God is not an object like gold. He is the one that created us out of dust and ashes. “My delights were to be with the children of men.”i He delights in men for He has loved us with an infinite amount of love. We can therefore derive from God an infinite amount of happiness. Since we are not of the infinite but that of the finite, the more we love Him the greater our capacity is to love him. Let me give you an example. God loves us so much that if we were to fill a glass with water, it would overflow. But why should it overflow? God's love represents the water, but since God is infinite His love cannot be wholly contained. Therefore His love spills out of us. You may think that God's love is lost or wasted by having it overflow, but alas our wisdom falls so short compared to God's. There is a reason why He spills so much love upon us. We must have charity to our neighbor. “For alms deliver from all sin, and from death, and will not suffer the soul to go into darkness. Alms shall be a great confidence before the most high God, to all them that give it.” ii “How do we know that God loves us this much,” you may ask. Jesus Christ came to firstly fulfill the Old Law and secondly to perfect the New Law. The Old Law consisted in the fear of God. However, when Jesus Christ came with His doctrine of love, the Jews did not recognize him. “Why did the Jews did not recognized their own Messiah,” you ask. For their hearts were harden to His love. “And because iniquity hath abounded, the charity of many shall grow cold.”iii Charity, that is love of God and his neighbor, has grown cold especially today, but I digress. Jesus Christ fulfilled the perfected New Law by adding the love of God with the holy fear of God (Old Law). That is why He came to fulfill not to destroy the Old Law. For we ought to always fear God, for He is infinite and can punish us for our sins. But we must always love Him for he made us out of dust. “Dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return.” iv And made us out of His image, “Let us make man to our image and likeness.” v “How then do I obtain true happiness,” you curiously ask. Let us look at couples that are newly married according to the laws of the Church. They have fallen in love firstly for the love of God. Secondly due to the fact that they love God with all their heart, mind, and soul; their love for God over flows and spills onto their spouse. “Charity is patient, is kind: charity envieth not, dealeth not perversely; is not puffed up; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.”vi Charity is interchangeable with love. “Those who love,” as the saying goes, “do not labor.” “Why do people who love not labor?” For love bears all tribulations and crosses. “For whom the Lord loveth, he chastiseth.”vii Jesus Christ bore His cross for us. He loved us infinitely. And look at the ingratitude we had given Him. We crucified Him by our sins. But let us get back to how to obtain true happiness. Happiness is only to be found in love alone. For love makes a true paradise even here in this temporary exile. The love of God is obtained through prayer. How do we know this? Our Lord commanded us “we ought always to pray, and not to faint.” viii Why did Our Lord command us always to pray? Because we must always love. Those who love God pray. Those who love God always, always pray to God. For prayer is an act of love. Who then are the Saints in Heaven? Those are souls that always loved God. So they always prayed to God. And thus obtained Heaven. “That eye hath not seen, nor ear 2

heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what things God hath prepared for them that love him.” ix How then do you expect to get into Heaven if you do not pray? “The prayer of him that humbleth himself, shall pierce the clouds.” x How do you expect to get to heaven by not loving God? You might say, “that is quite much to ask from me. For I am no saint and cannot do such a thing.” You think Saints instantly obtained a high degree of fervor in prayer over one night? Do you think Rome was built in a day? As it is related to us in one of our history books, “Melanchton, a friend of Luther, in answer to his mother's question, whether she should remain a Catholic or receive Luther's doctrine, wrote: In this religion it is easy to live, in the Catholic it is easy to die.” Before a child runs, it must walk. Before a child can walk, it must crawl. Before a child can crawl, it's mother carries it. We all must turn to the Blessed Virgin Mary to carry us. If we wish to reach heaven, our true country, we must fly to the aid of the Immaculate Virgin. Those “who seeks without her aid, attempts to fly without wings.” xi

The Glories of Mary, By: St. Alphonsus de Liguori, Examples 1) In Portugal there was a devout client of who during his life practiced the devotion of fasting on bread and water every Saturday and chose Saint Michael and Saint John as his advocates with the Virgin. At the hour of his death the Queen of Heaven appeared to him accompanied by those two who were praying for him. The Blessed Virgin looked at him with a joyful countenance and thus the prayers of the Saints, “I will not depart without this soul with me.” 2) In Germany there was a criminal who had been condemned to death but he was obstinate and refused to make his confession. A Jesuit father did all he could to convert him. This good father entreated him, wept, cast himself at his feet, but seeing that all was time lost he at length said, “Now let us recite a Hail Mary together.” The criminal did so and in an instant began to weep bitterly confessed his sin with great compunction and desired to die clasping an image of Mary in his arms. 3) Cesarius relates that a Cistercian lay brother knew no other prayer than the Hail Mary and recited it continually with the greatest devotion. After his death a tree grew up on the spot where he was buried and on its leaves were written these words “Hail Mary full of grace.” 4) Father Crasset relates that a military commander told him that once after a battle he found a soldier in the camp who holding a rosary and Mary's scapular in his hand asked for a confessor. His forehead was pierced by a musket ball which had come out at the back of his head so that the brain was visible and came out through each opening so much so indeed that naturally he could not live. He raised himself up made his confession to the chaplain with great compunction and when he had received absolution expired. 5) The same author adds that this captain also told him that he was present when a trumpeter of his company received a pistol shot from a man who stood near him. When he examined his breast where he said he was wounded he found that the ball had been stopped by a scapular of the Blessed Virgin, which he wore, and had not even touched the flesh. He took it and showed it to all who were present.

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How hard is it to say one Hail Mary every day? Really how many words must we say? Forty two words. That is it! “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 long is that roughly going to take a minute maybe two? And what in return do you get for reciting forty two words? More than a hundredfold as you have seen in the examples above. “He who is devout to the Virgin Mother will certainly never be lost.” xii The Secret Of The Rosary, St. Louis De Montfort: “Saint Augustine says quite emphatically that there is no spiritual exercise more fruitful or more useful to our salvation than continually turning our thoughts to the sufferings of Our Savior. Blessed Albert the Great who had Saint Thomas Aquinas as his disciple learned in a revelation that by simply thinking of or mediating on the passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, a Christian gains more merit than if he had fasted on bread and water every Friday for a whole year, or had beaten himself with his discipline once a week until the blood flowed, or had recited the whole Book of Psalms everyday. If this is so, then how great must be the merit that we can gain by the Holy Rosary which commemorates the whole life and passion of Our Savior!” This is how to get true happiness and a true Christmas. By meditating on His Passion, who “becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross.” xiii Would that be asking to much from us? He suffered extremely for us and we cannot even shed a tear for Him? “Today if you shall hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” xiv Indeed if we cannot make a little effort as to think about His Passion, “the charity of many shall grow [have grown] cold.” xv I would like you to do one thing for me. I want you to recite one Hail Mary (the prayer is written above) everyday that we may all do God's will. “This is the will of God, your sanctification.” xvi

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Food For Thought The Secret Of The Rosary, St. Louis De Montfort, Page 12: “If you say the Rosary faithfully until death, I do assure you that, in spite of the gravity of your sins 'you shall receive a never fading crown of glory.' (1 Peter 5:4) Even if you are on the brink of damnation, even if you have one foot in hell, even if you have sold your soul to the devil as sorcerers do who practice black magic, and even if you are a heretic as obstinate as a devil, sooner or later you will be converted and will amend your life and save your soul, if-and mark well what I say-if you say the Holy Rosary devoutly everyday until death for the purpose of knowing the truth and obtaining contrition and pardon for your sins.” The Secret of the Rosary, St. Louis De Montfort, Page 45-46: “The heretics, all of whom are children of the devil and who clearly bear the sign of God's reprobation, have a horror of the Hail Mary. They still say the Our Father, but never the Hail Mary; they would rather carry a poisonous snake about them than a scapular or carry a rosary. Among Catholics, those who bear the mark of God's reprobation think but little of the rosary (whether that of five decades or fifteen). They either neglect to say it or only say it quickly and in a lukewarm manner.” Bishop Hugh Boyle: “No one can live continually in sin and continue to say the Rosary. Either he will give up sin or he will give up the Rosary.” 1 The Secret of the Rosary, St. Louis De Montfort, Page 30: “Saint Bonaventure said (in his Psalter) that whoever neglected Our Lady would perish in his sins and would be damned: "He who neglects her will die in his sins." If such is the penalty for neglecting her, what must be the punishment in store for those who actually turn others away from their devotions!” The Secret of the Rosary, St. Louis De Montfort, Page 99: “Before the Holy Rosary took root in these small towns and villages, dances and parties of debauchery went on all the time; dissoluteness, and wantonness, blasphemy, quarrels and feuds flourished. One heard nothing but evil songs and double meaning talk. But now nothing is heard but hymns and the chant the Our Father and Hail Mary. The only gatherings to be seen are those of twenty, thirty or a hundred or more people who, at a fixed hour, sing Almighty God's praises just as religious do. There are even places where the Rosary is recited in common - five mysteries at a time - at three special times a day. What a blessing from Heaven this is! Just as there are wicked people everywhere, do not expect to find that the place you live in is free of them; there will be some who will be certain to avoid coming to Church for the Rosary and they may even make fun of it and will probably do everything in their power to stop you from going, exerting their influence by bad example and bad language. But do not give up. As these wretched souls will have to be separated from God and heaven for all eternity because their place will be in hell, already here on earth they have to be separated from the company of Christ Our Lord and His servants and hand maids.” 1. Found at the back of The Secret of the Rosary.

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i Proverbs 8:31 ii Tobias 4:11-12 iii Matthew 24 12 iv Genesis 3:19 v Genesis 1:26 vi 1 Corinthians 13:4 4,7 vii Proverbs 3:12 viii Luke 18 1 ix 1 Corinthians 2:9 x Ecclesiasticus 35:21 xi St. Antonius xii St. Ignatius of Antioch xiii Philippians 2:8 xiv Psalms 94:8 xv Matthew 24:12 xvi 1 Thessalonians 4:3