Thank you for this clear perspective you provided Sister, of your visit to the Holy Land and the subsequent reflections upon your faith and view of the church as a result. I have some things to say and I truly hope it all helps you and anyone sincerely interested in our Savior Jesus and Christendom!
Jesus came here to save us so He God came down to our level as one of us to grace us with his actual presence and be an example of the perfect human being for us to develop a personal relationship with and grow in our understanding of Him and thusly our Father in heaven. But let’s not forget this is God Almighty and we can only know the Father through the Son and then in knowing Jesus He is then truly the gateway to the awe and mystery of God the Creator of all things! That blows my mind to try and fathom, and that is what Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni went to all that painstaking bother for when up on staging’s and on his back with paint dripping in his face he Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, which took approximately four years to complete (1508–1512) ; that act of love service to God, as I believe the will of God; was to represent in an artistic human expression coming from God via the Holy Spirit through Michaelangelo’s heart, a display of the divine mystery of God and what it means to us who are nothing without Him, His plan and purposes; to be “totally humbled” and “in awe of His infinite beauty, power and grace” lastly to actually love us and care enough to bring Himself down to this level and get to know us in that most simple basic way where we dwell in this broken short imperfect flesh realm, the material world!
Giving us an actual connection to the divine eternal God and to get a real sense of who and what He is; but then to even promise us gifts of an eternal existence where God dwells, which is to us beyond the most creative and wildest imagination! But then, in this process to allow us a glimpse of it through Jesus, to have our hearts and minds touched by the supernatural and divinity of God Himself through the Comforter and prove to us that it is all totally real “if we will have faith in Him as our Savior” and without that we are nothing but lost “ruined souls, damned to hell!
John 14:6-8 “Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. 7If you had known Me, you would know My Father as well. From now on you do know Him and have seen Him.” 8Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.”
I know that my soul has been very moved and inspired when I partake in the Full Latin Mass; as I know from experience Jesus is there and I feel His Holy Spirit coming down from heaven with the Father to join us in the Mass, blessing those who are participating in this most Divine inspired true way of expressing our devotional love for our Lord Savior Jesus and the Father in heaven! I’ve had many tears in this traditional Mass at times and they are always tears of sweet joy that are coming to me from the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, because the Lord really touching my soul at that time most intimately and acknowledging His presence and love for me, as in no other setting can this occur to this degree; which nothing on earth can compare to this realization that my God is with me and will not abandon those who believe/worship Him in this way! Unless I was like Moses on Mt. Sinai seeing the burning bush! Amen.
Those are my absolutely certain truthful observations and deepest feelings in this regard! And I should share from a previous writing about this; what else I had to say just prior to what you read here to make it clear how certain I am about this. “And so far as his argument that the world had changed I totally disagree because it’s the people that have changed, and, God and Jesus are the same always so our communing with them in Holy Mass remains static, or plainly our souls are just that which we truly are; not our exteriors of body/flesh or daily life on earth; and therefore that is what we want to awaken to the mystical power of the Holy Spirit the focusing of our inner souls to the mystical presence of God and be totally receptive to Jesus Christ and through Him the Father to grow our deep heart felt faith not alter appearances or procedures as this New Age approach is planning to do! In this case especially in life, less is more; that which is not contrived or noisy, but simple and peaceful coming from our core is all we need to bring to the ceremonial alter of the Mass!
It is very sad to me how all of these big time sports heroes or government leaders and other highly visible public figures don’t see or feel any of this I speak about here today; if they did they surely wouldn’t have the crass and aloof attitudes they do and would quickly have a change of heart.
Look folks, I know I sort of go off my rocker in this to me quite dire situation in the Church and in our everyday lives with how basically all tradition along with tried and tested Truths have been decimated by radical and totally destructive thinking or the wishes of the wicked who are real and now in our governments and Churches attempting to overthrow and destroy it all in the same way of thinking that Karl Marx employed who was a cohort of Satan without any doubt and I just wrote about him again regarding this current Topsy-turfy, insane world we are now part of!
Even Einstein a Jew who studied as a boy in a Catholic parochial elementary school said something I give him more credit for than his Time Space Continuum theoretical physics! He put it this way!
“The most beautiful and most profound experience is the sensation of the mystical. It is the sower of all true science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead. To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their primitive forms – this knowledge, this feeling is at the centre of true religiousness.”
-Albert Einstein – “The Merging of Spirit and Science”
I personally have had very surreal other worldly experiences in a few magnificent grandiose Churches built my the master craftsmen of many generations ago by hand; and to me they are a tribute and referential offering to God’s majesty and beauty, and in those buildings during an old school Latin Tridentine Mass I cry and weep feeling God and Jesus present being in such awe like Einstein referred to; not anything like the holy roller type singing or clamoring and so on in some small say Pentecostal church, to which I say, hey be good people and praise God in your way but that does nothing for me and my inspired faith. Amen.
I wrote not too long ago the following regarding this matter of the decline of the “profound divine presence” I’ve experienced in mass.
“Reverence, humility and awe.” This one line pinpoints the massive loss within the Church that’s taken place; in this very well written explanation of what has happened to the Holy Catholic Mass since the Second Vatican Council concluded setting in motion the ever so methodical decline of the Catholic Church. It’s taken roughly a half century to hollow out this body leaving a dry husk or nearly empty shell of what once was the “true sanctuary and a Holy Place” for the faithful to be in the presence of the “mystical and Godliness of the Almighty through Jesus Christ.” I think of it as a kind of experience that nothing compares to and one which gives those who believe a true sense of being visited and in the Holy Spiritual presence of God; perhaps a sense of what it was like for Moses and other Holy men of God, “what the prophets must have felt when God spoke to them directly.” But this “mystical aspect of the Church is the religious experience” we strive for when we attend Mass if genuinely sincere in our “humility and love of God.”
When you dilute or water down anything you continue to move away from the original; be it a substance, object or a Church; and “this dilution process further separates you from the genuine or the original article” which in this case is “God the Father through Jesus Christ.” To me it’s simple as to what is happening and why. Who or what would benefit the most from this distortion and separation of the Truth; but obviously the Devil.
I’m all in on that deal; “impenetrable to us really exists,” and, “manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their primitive forms.” This sure looks to me like what Jesus was, and did, while to those with insight still is!
Many people are too proud and arrogant; so they just “go their own way” down and down to a dead end! Just some stuff to think about! But important I say; maybe the most important of all!
“The Sacred Liturgy is not a matter of so-called “Church politics” but the fullest and most perfect encounter with Christ for us in this world. The faithful, in question, among whom are numerous young adults and young married couples with children; encounter Christ, through the UA, Who draws them ever closer to Himself through the reform of their lives and cooperation with the divine grace which flows from His glorious pierced Heart into their hearts. They have no need to make a judgment regarding those who worship God according to the Usus Recentior (the More Recent Usage, what Pope Benedict XVI called the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite) [UR], first promulgated by Pope Saint Paul VI.”
And again I quote; “A schismatic spirit or actual schism are always gravely evil, but there is nothing about the UA which fosters schism. For those of us who knew the UA in the past, like myself, it is a question of an act of worship marked by a centuries-old goodness, truth and beauty. I knew its attraction from my childhood and indeed became very attached to it.”
For those who have come to the UA for the first time, its rich beauty, especially as it manifests the action of Christ renewing sacramentally His Sacrifice on Calvary through the priest who acts in His person, has drawn them closer to Christ. I know many faithful for whom the experience of Divine “Worship according to the UA has strongly inspired their conversion to the Faith or their seeking Full Communion with the Catholic Church. Also, numerous priests who have returned to the celebration of the UA or who have learned it for the first time have told me how deeply it has enriched their priestly spirituality. This is not to mention the saints all along the Christian centuries for whom the UA nourished an heroic practice of the virtues. Some have given their lives to defend the offering of this very form of divine worship.” cardinalburke.com/presentations/traditionis-custodes
Precisely in my opinion as I’ve previously stated from actual personal experience and the communion with the Holy Spirit of God Almighty during mass.
“I am the way the truth and the life; no one comes unto the Father but through Me!” So we have a choice by His statements, we can look at Him as just some prophet or even madman to some people, that will be inconsequential in the sum total of “our personal” lives journey! Or maybe we better take Him dead serious so we won’t miss the boat and end up stranded in a place much worse than this messed up world we’re in right now! Is that a bridge too far to cross? To have faith in something you don’t know for sure is on the other side of that bridge, and can’t prove in worldly terms with some piece of physical evidence which even in those cases might be an optical delusion on our part; so do we take this insurance policy and go with it in terms of all the substantive historical context and supporting data to protect our personal journey, or toss caution to the wind and say to hell with that; I’ll go it alone without the silly insurance policy! But, hell you go and buy auto insurance and toss all that bread into the bin for the rich and greedy even if you haven’t had a fender bender in 30 or more years and maybe never! Add that cost up and now compare your life and soul to what loss you could sustain at the end of your road without that policy in hand; saying I did trust and had hope in You!
I will say this when I have attended Latin Mass I’m so touched deep in my heart and soul that I tear and when the choir sings I feel closer to heaven, they sing so beautiful and I’m blessed to be able to participate in such a Mass.
Thank you for this opportunity to express my honest to goodness perspective and love of God Almighty through our Savior Jesus!
Here is a previous posting that may be of interest to many of you!
https://lawrencemorra.com/2021/07/19/i-am-the-way-the-truth-and-the-life/
God bless you!
Brother in Christ Jesus,
Lawrence Morra III
Okay friends, buckle up (unlike every student on our tour bus) because we are getting into the nitty-gritty today: holiness on display.
I do not believe there is magic powder coating the holy land making it more sacred than any other place created by our precious, sacred God. So what does that mean for my trip to Israel? Going in here was my thought: eternal life is to know God (John 17:3). Greater knowledge of God leads to greater intimacy with God. After all, what makes life more precious and eternal than our relationship with the Eternal One. Therefore, I had one goal for the trip: to know Jesus more accurately as the humble, Jewish man He is.
So it makes sense that my favorite places from the trip were where I learned the most about Jesus. Sadly, at times it felt like those places were few and far between…
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