Meltdowns, detachment and the future - part II

As I wrote last week, we all know that upheaval and collapse are all around us. The structures that have given us support are falling apart. Most people no longer find support from their families. It is difficult to find a true friend. Most parishes are dysfunctional. Our country has been taken over. We are living in a dictatorship of the liberal elite. Institutions that provided a lot of hope for many people are in meltdown mode.

Pride, arrogance, sin, corruption, denial and complicity all combine to cause the rise and the fall of nations, institutions and people.

Many innocent people get hurt. Many people are angry, anxious and discouraged.

The Church and the entire world are going through what St. John of the Cross called the dark night of the spirit.

In this time of intense spiritual warfare and purification, I would like to turn your attention to a text from a spiritual writer. The text is very important, although the author has written some things that were off the mark; nevertheless what he writes here is very important for our spiritual journey. The Holy Spirit is calling us to the desert. We need to be detached from all human support and immerse ourselves in God.

“Think of a life in which you depend on no one emotionally, so that no one has the power to make you happy or miserable anymore. You refuse to need any particular person or to be special to anyone or to call anyone your own. The birds of the air have their nests and the foxes have their holes, but you will have nowhere to rest your head in your journey through life. If you ever get to this state, you will at last know what it means to see with a vision that is clear and unclouded by fear or desire. Every word there is measured. To see at last with a vision that is clear and unclouded by fear or desire. You will know what it means to love. But to come to the land of love, you must pass through the pains of death, for to love persons means to die to the need for persons, and to be utterly alone.

How would you ever get there? By a ceaseless awareness, by the infinite patience and compassion you would have for a drug addict. By developing a taste for the good things in life to counter the craving for your drug. What good things? The love of work which you enjoy doing for the love of itself; the love of laughter and intimacy with people to whom you do not cling and on whom you do not depend emotionally but whose company you enjoy. It will also help if you take on activities that you can do with your whole being, activities that you so love to do that while you’re engaged in them success, recognition and approval simply do not mean a thing to you. It will help, too, if you return to nature. Send the crowds away, go up to the mountains and silently commune with trees and flowers and animals and birds, with sea and clouds and sky and stars…

At first this will seem unbearable. But it is only because you are unaccustomed to aloneness. If you manage to stay there for a while, the desert will suddenly blossom into love. Your heart will burst into song. And it will be springtime forever; the drug will be out; you’re free. Then you will understand what freedom is, what truth is, what God is. You will see, you will know beyond concepts and conditioning, addictions and attachments. Does that make sense?” (Anthony de Mello, Awareness pp. 173-174)

My dear friends, there is no doubt in my mind that we are in the middle of an intense period of purification. Everything around us is crumbling. Something new will emerge from the rubble. Pope Benedict has spoken about a Church which is smaller, but more faithful.

This is why I have been inviting you to incorporate into your spiritual life contemplative prayer. My Electronic Parish website has a new section on contemplative prayer that can help you to get started.

Satan has launched an intense attack on the Church; in fact he has launched an assault on the entire world. This is why a powerful spiritual life is so vital in order to persevere. Pray the Rosary every day.

Remember that the real name for Our Lady of Guadalupe is not Guadalupe. Her real name is Our Lady of “quatlasupe”. “Quatlasupe” is the Aztec word for “she who crushes the serpent”. Stay close to Mary. She will protect you.

Remember, use the sacramentals: holy water, blessed salt, miraculous medals and the St. Benedict medal. God has provided us with an arsenal of weapons to fight Satan.

“Put God’s armor on so as to be able to resist the devil’s tactics. For it is not against human enemies that we have to struggle, but against the Sovereignties and the Powers who originate the darkness of this world, the spiritual army of evil in the heavens. That is why you must rely on God’s armor, or you will not be able to put up any resistance when the worst happens, or have enough resources to hold your ground” (Ephesians 6: 1-13).
The world economy will continue to spin out of control. A corrupt and sinful people cannot sustain an ordered society. There will be further economic turmoil, maybe even a total collapse of the world economy. The President’s economic policy will not work.

The economy could fall quickly and loudly. There will be a moment of intense violence. Order will be imposed by a police state. Peace will emerge, but our world will change dramatically. We will be forced to return back to basics.

Gone will be the credit cards, the malls, corporations and a global economy. Gone will be the abortion industry, the contraception industry and the pornography industry. Gone will be the drug cartels. Gone will be the Trilateral Commission, the Council of Foreign Relations, the Bildenbergers, the World Bank and the United Nations. Gone will be the corruption within the Catholic Church – entire religious orders and dioceses will go out of business because there will be no money to feed them.

When Nazi troops and tanks were marching through Poland, what did the young Karol Wojtyla do? Did he buy gold? Did he store food? Did he take up a gun?

Providentially, a mystic by the name of Jan Tyranowski introduced the future Pope to the works of St. John of the Cross and invited him to participate in a Catholic men’s group that he had formed.

The Living Rosary, created by Tyranowski, consisted of teams of fifteen young men, led by a more mature young person who received personal spiritual direction from Tyranowski. The Polish mystic, who was a simply tailor, met with the entire Living Rosary organization the third Sunday of every month. Tyranowski was able to instill in his young followers a deep spiritual life and a profound zeal for the salvation of souls.

Tyranowski’s Living Rosary organization is exactly what we need to be doing now during this intense occupation of the culture of death. Form small groups in your parish, your school or in your home. Let these small groups inspire you to go deep into the spiritual life. Let these small groups instill in you a profound zeal for the salvation of souls.

Abandon yourself into the loving hands of an awesome God that loves us unconditionally. Allow yourself to be purified. Do not let yourself be consumed by anger, fear, anxiety, frustration, discouragement or resentment. Enter into the dark night of the spirit. Do not be afraid. If you persevere, “the desert will suddenly blossom into love. Your heart will burst into song. And it will be springtime forever”.