What Souls Are Closest And Dearest To Jesus

[MarysLittleFlower]

I came across this story from a book by St Alphonsus Liguori and wanted to share it the answer is not what I expected at first but it really made me think!

[url="http://acatholiclife.blogspot.com/2012/01/what-souls-are-closest-dearest-to-jesus.html"]http://acatholiclife.blogspot.com/2012/01/what-souls-are-closest-dearest-to-jesus.html[/url]

God bless

[BarbTherese]

Cancelled post

Edited January 24, 2012 by BarbaraTherese

[Sarah147]

Interesting.

[MaryJJD]

Sometimes when I do spiritual reading, sometimes it makes sense-and I go 'oh, wow' and sometimes, I feel kind of ackward and uncomfortable with it. This one (for me) is one of the latter type. It could just be the language, Im not sure.

I think there should be a care with this for a couple of reasons, but please realise I don't mean to sound harsh-I'm just trying to pull how this could be interpreted for people not familiar with the spiritual life-but this is just my take on it.

First of, on the surface-it bears remarkable parallels with domestic violence, and the reasons abusers pose to justify their behaviour-so it should be clearly stated that there is a difference in what is written in this article and that, but the way its worded seems dangerous to me in how it could affect relationships.

Secondly, in regards to suffering and the reasons for it. Suffering in itself is unnatural-a left over from the fall, but we still suffer or struggle in a miriad of ways in life. But the important thing is how we take that suffering. Interpreting it as favour from God can be presumptuous (for ourselves or others), but doing what we can to lessen it and then offering it in union with Him in prayer, thats different. However, additional suffering should not be sought on the basis of one's own ideas-particularly important, with excesses that could occur with those who self harm-who may use this as some kind of justification to prove that God loves them, but even then-for everyone, its especially important to seek and follow advice through spiritual direction. Obedience is better than sacrifice. St Faustina had a great few examples of this, where Jesus preferred her obeying her superiors over some great act she wanted to do.

The other thing that comes to mind, is can we look at someone suffering, and think, oh yes, God must be loving them very much! And then do nothing to help. While its true God loves each of us very much, He also asks us to love others as ourselves, and so to relieve the suffering we see in others.

As a last thing, I do agree with something of the sense of this article in one way, but overall it still makes me feel uncomfortable. While it is true that with the different stages of the spiritual life, there are different, lets say, challenges involved-it is different for each person; just as each of us are unique, so too is our journey and relationship with God. There could be due to the purification a particular person needs or as a gift from God etc, but thats really really rare-again, spiritual direction. We also need to take into consideration that some Saints suffered more than others, and others, hardly at all-but all of whome still had great love for the Lord.

Pax

[MarysLittleFlower]

Thank you for the replies, I don't want to debate but I guess I see it a bit differently.. I wasn't reminded of domestic violence, etc, because of the subject matter. I guess people have different associations, with different things.. I just focused on how this quote was about Our Lord. Of course we know that He is loving. I did read in the writings of several Saints, how He allows suffering to increase our love for Him. I don't know if it's presumptious or not to see suffering as being from Him, unless it's self inflicted somehow, - but my impression from the Saints is that they did accept suffering as a gift from Him. I think it's hard to see it as a gift but that was their perspective on it, because they wanted to share in the Cross. I think what this quote means is that some souls are given much consolation in prayer, etc, and that is good, but those who only feel desolation or the "dark night" are being tested more so they can love God more selflessly. The first soul is not given this because they are still too weak for it and God wouldn't give us more than we can handle, but to help us grow. Only those who love God much can handle much desolation or many trials, like the dark night of the souls which the Saints experienced.. so that is sort of how I interpreted this quote.

I don't think this quote talked about self imposed penances, etc, but rather accepting the suffering that God allows for us.. of course if a person is seeking to do penance, they should speak to their spiritual director and be obedient.

I agree that we should help others to alleviate their suffering.. I don't think the quote addressed this or said that we should not but maybe you were just sharing an additional thought here.

I don't really remember reading about any Saints who did not suffer... do you have any in mind? All the ones I remember reading about, seemed to suffer a lot but this purified them. I remember reading in a spiritual book (Way of Divine Love) that there's only one way, and that is the Cross. (I'm pretty sure Jesus said this in the book).

I just thought I'd share how I interpreted the quote.

God bless

[XIX]

I think it's important to remember that this is a private revelation, so it's safe to assume that the Lord would speak in a way that [i]the woman[/i] would best understand. So it's not surprising if the rest of us are unclear as to what the message really meant.

[MaryJJD]

I do apologise-I didn't mean to debate or cause offence or sound harsh, which I probably ended up doing.

Lately, I've had a heap of instances where I've been entirely misunderstood or where I've totally misunderstood others, so I've been looking for extra possible layers of interpretting the same words and things to try and see where they are coming from or where the misunderstanding could crop up, so that it can be cleared up. Its amazing how differently words or phrases can be interpreted differently by different people who hear it or have a different intention behind it. It still boggles me. I did go over the top with this one-and probably saw things not really there, sorry.

Yeh, all Saints suffer in a sense, in different ways-purification, in attonement, or even as an act of mercy in carrying someone elses suffering, but I was more thinking of the degrees of suffering they endure as such that are different-and also the reasons, like the Good thief, but that God still doesn't have favourites. Then I was thinking of the apostles-they were all called to be apostles and all suffered, but still Jesus had that particular relationship with the beloved disciple, John. And also the difference in that story of the workers in the vineyard, who were paid the same amount of money for working, but where some only worked a little, whereas others worked the whole day. I think thats more of what I meant, rather than the other stuff of possible ways of misinterpreting it.

Thank God He has a way of working with us all, otherwise I'd be totally lost.

Peace.

[BarbTherese]

I found the article a bit brutal for my concepts. Jesus striking a woman made me cringe. But there was underlying truth in the article I thought. Beloved to the Heart of Jesus is the soul that perseveres despite desolations in that He loves this soul as He loves all of us, but the soul that remains faithful in desolation is opening himself or herself up more to receive that Love.
Jesus said that the righteous have no need of Him, that He came for sinners. When I consider the beautiful parable of The Good Shepherd, I think that probably the souls He loves with a gentle tenderness are those who have lost their way spiritually and are struggling and struggling to find a way back to spiritual, emotional and mental sanity. When we struggle for our spiritual sanity, it does affect the emotions and mind.

I think that He loves us all equally and that we are all equally dear to Him - sinner or saint. When someone achieves something great including in the bearing of suffering, we can be sure that His Grace was with them and where the credit lay therefore, of course the soul must collaborate with Graces granted and this is an act of free will. A choice to do so. But without Grace we can do nothing good or positive whatsoever - Grace initiates and Grace completes and grants success. As St Therese of Lisieux said "All is Grace" reflecting the words of Jesus: "I am the vine: you the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit: for without me you can do nothing." (John Ch15)

[BarbTherese]

[quote name='XIX' timestamp='1327689186' post='2376241'] I think it's important to remember that this is a private revelation, so it's safe to assume that the Lord would speak in a way that [i]the woman[/i] would best understand. So it's not surprising if the rest of us are unclear as to what the message really meant. [/quote]

Excellent post. Private mystical type experiences including visions and locutions etc. come to a person in ways that the person receiving them will find meaningful. Others may find that private experience not meaningful at all. Nothing mystically genuine will contradict what The Church teaches teaches.