Today is the feast of Our Lady of Piat.
Traditionally today had been the feast of The Visitation before the new calendar after Vatican II. The day remains the feast of Our Lady of Piat for Filipinos however. I love her image since she appears rather ethnic, don't you agree? She mirrors those who seek the Divine Mercy through her intercession. Think of that when you invoke her as "Mirror of Justice" in the Litany of Loreto. She in turn gently mirrors to us the Divine Justice, that we may not run away in fear.
A saint said we can never love the Blessed Virgin too much. We should always have recourse to her, even when we are away from the Church or the sacraments. Anthony Bloom told a lovely story of a prostitute who always kept an icon with a candle burning in her room - even when she was 'working'.
We can do that too - even though we live in sin.
I used to do bad things and still wore my scapular. I actually prayed the rosary even when I fell back into promiscuous behavior. One night, coming home very late, I stopped to pray in the adoration chapel of a church, wreaking of alcohol, I'm sure. It has always been Our Lady who obtained for me the grace to return to Jesus.
It is Our Lady who always gave me the grace to return to confession. Once, late in the evening, close to 10 PM, I stopped in a church, asking Our Lady to let me find a priest to make my confession. It was an ordinary week day - not even the Thursday before a First Friday. The old pastor was in his confessional - I made my confession. Later another priest told me he probably forgot what day it was or had fallen asleep there earlier. It didn't matter to me - Our Lady got me there.
We can only become saints if we keep trying, and asking the Blessed Virgin to intercede for us. She is the Refuge of Sinners - that is why sinners flock to her shrines and venerate her images and carry her sacramentals, and pray the three Hail Mary's every morning and evening.
Sins against the 6th Commandment are serious, but turning away from Our Lord and Our Lady is worse - such sins lead to final impenitence. Pray. never stop praying.
Pray the rosary, even when you sin or intend to commit sin.
I used to pray the rosary on the way out to my destination, and on my way back.
Imagine the evil I could have done if I had never prayed?
It seems a contradiction, even hypocrisy - for a wicked sinner to pray - but it is not.
Our Lady is Refuge of sinners, Health of the sick, Mother of Mercy... She is our merciful Mother.
Thank you again, Terry, for giving me hope because I too have fallen many times over and sometimes I want to run and hide and not speak to Jesus but if I listen to myself, I will die. So I come back and every time I do, I ask to be at the foot of His Cross and to seek the resolve to resist temptation and to grow in truth and in hope and in sincerity.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your honesty as it really has helped me too. God bless you forever!
The thing that amazes me about many saints who once lived lives in mortal sin, is that once they turned to Christ they never looked back. Blessed Charles de Foucauld and St Ignatius immediately come to mind. All the rest of us return to their vomit--at least early on. My guess is that they were possessed of unusually strong wills and given unusual graces. Though I think it helped that it was very difficult back then to merely "hook-up" with an attractive young woman of some quality.
ReplyDeleteThe last time I looked at porn was about four years ago. At that point I would still "give-in" about once a month. As I went on a site I was conscious that an invisible being appeared in the room about fifteen feet away and then moved toward me with a firm purpose. It is hard to describe: all of my senses were conscious of the being--probably an angel but could have been a saint since I could tell that it had human dimensions--but I could not see it. Once the person crossed the room it stood right next to me. Obviously I was filled with intense shame, and that was the end of that. I finally got it through my too-clever head that God and the heavenly host really do take offense at such things, and that absolutely everything we do is seen and witnessed.