Writing, Sharing

To any who come upon this blog site or who have signed up for notices, I have been recently writing again on the site: catholichermit@blogspot.com

At some point I may return to writing on this or another blog site, not that it is of any matter or importance.  I continue to write thoughts on God and living the spiritual life daily and nightly.

God bless His Real Presence in us!

This Is the Stairway to Heaven

This is the stairway to heaven.  I am on it, both feet, but still need to grip the handrail.  Have been slipping on the steps and have stumbled, but am still on the stairway to heaven.

I know, for various reasons, and most too much to describe.  But I also know due to the tremendous chaos in my life for the past several weeks. It is the evolving soul's earthly and spiritual battle between temporal and mystical.  But at some point, there will be the metamorphosis that comes but once in a lifetime, and that is to be on the stairway to heaven.   

The chaotic backlash is an indicator of oppositional forces in our body, mind, spirit and soul clinging to the impurities to which we have become so attached in the temporal life. And these give indication to the greatest indicator: the battle of the soul being rid of vices and its unnatural but human, temporal love of them, versus the infusion of virtues of the purity required for the body, mind, spirit and soul to exist comfortably (as yet embodied) on the stairway to heaven. 

The more our temporal body, mind, spirit and soul tries to pull us from the perceived crucifixion necessary for existing on the stairway to heaven, the more we must hang on--though nescient to life on the stairway.  

Consider a baby, just learning to walk, who discovers a stairway.  Grown-ups are hard-pressed to keep the toddler from attempting to climb.  And how does a baby begin climbing stairs?  It learns to climb from clumsy, awkward, and painfully injury-laden attempts.  How does the baby respond to repeated stumbles on the steps?  After crying-- instinctual response--the baby tries again. 

Persevere!  Do we know of many children or adults who do not climb steps now, with ease?  Many run up and down stairways, in fact.  Some are so agile as to not use the handrail.  Of course, later in life people tend to lose balance and wisely avoid climbing steps. But this is of the temporal.

Yet we see in this analogy that the stairway to heaven takes some getting used to, just like a temporal stairway.  We must desire to climb, and return again and again to attempt it.  Persevere!  Yes, we can cry when we fall, but better to figure out that the handrail is given us for a purpose, and these equate to the sacraments of the Church, Scripture, virtues, prayer and penance.  Use that handrail and do not let go.  No thinking we can trot up this stairway to heaven before we are spiritually developed and able to do so.

Another aspect of the stairway to heaven is the sense of isolation.  How many are on a step at one time?  How many are noticed or visible when on a stairway?  The stairway to heaven, like any stairway, is between levels.  It is a means of passage.  It is a dimensional experience as well as perceptional and mystical.  When a soul is on the stairway to heaven, the temporal experiences are, for a fact, affected by the mystical infusions.

No, it is not easy or comfortable at first.  The body, mind, heart and spirit are not accustomed to the unique way in which the soul shifts, and the transfiguration is individual for each soul.  

There can be no way to anticipate how God will have all aspects and effects unfold in this mystery...not until one is on the stairway.  And even then there is tremendous adaptation involving a sense of suffering, such as when a baby is born or a body dies.  But note that suffering is but a perception, pain "felt" by letting go of one spiritually inferior way of being and adapting to that which is superior...and ethereal.

From this point onward the stairway to heaven is finely tuned, perfectly individualized according to God's will for any given soul.  Language struggles to describe that which would be universally understood.  The soul's process changes, and the experience is filled with the unexpected, the ineffable.  The soul must wait in actualized silence, solitude, slowness, suffering, selflessness, simplicity, stability, stillness and serenity.

The soul finds itself, if on the stairway to heaven, in varying stages of very real crucifixion.  Access to the stairway to heaven is gained solely by the Cross.  Its form is the Cross in structural substance as well as essential structure.  The soul will find relief, sooner or later, only when acceptance, adaptation and transfiguration is attained into the pure love of Christ.  

This relief requires death.  As in any "death", the process is impeded or progressed through either the clinging to or the letting go of the lower level, of the attachments to the temporal in substance and essence.  The former component, substance, is released only to the degree that the senses, emotions, imagination, memory, understanding and the soul's core (intellect and will) can embrace the mystical wisdom and reality of God-is-love.  

When this occurs, the temporal will otherwise remain visible, but the then transfigured soul is able to transcend and exist anew in love--mystical love--that is unseen except by the filtering outflow through charity (holy love) in all of its temporal and spiritual forms.

This, again, is a process that continues once we are on the stairway to heaven.  And this process in adaptation and transfiguration while actually being on the stairway to heaven may occur in some while they yet exist as humans on earth.  

The souls in this state and process are not common because the shift involves the pain of suffering which persists until the soul, yet in its body, can accept and adapt to this way of existing on the stairway between levels or "worlds" (for lack of better images to explain).  How many desire detaching from the temporal in order to painfully climb onto an invisible cross of which unknown elements of dying to self is the risk, and the reward is tangential?  

However, once a soul finds the stairway, accepts and adapts, there are decreasing slips and falls, and the real and perceived sense of isolation subsides.  The pain of misunderstanding and rejection by those in the temporal, as well as a sense of loss for the known aspects of the temporal, are recognized and understood, inexplicably so, by subsumption into the invisible, mystical wealth of Christ, of God-is-love. 

When one is on the stairway to heaven and has adapted to existing in the mystical (while yet in body), the theological virtues of faith, hope and love become actualized.  The soul acclimates to and accepts its veritable crucifixion, a death to self that distances one from the hitherto perceived comforts of, and also the perceived negativity of, the temporal. But the negativity is not as temporal minds would have it be.  No, the negativity is simply a term allowing comparison to the positive, and temporally deemed as oppositional forces. 

Perhaps it is more clear to consider the soul as in an experience of being neutralized when it is crucified, to what was, and then to prepare the soul for being posited in the totality: the transcendent reality of Christocentric love. 

Regardless, the actual experience is of the mysteries, the hidden wisdom of God of which St. Paul writes in I Corinthians 2:6-10; nothing more or less can be understandably expressed.  What is truly ineffable for an embodied soul undergoing the transition from one level and onto the "stairway" that leads and connects into heaven, the eternal beatific vision--is finding itself cocooned in actualized, experiential, mystical metamorphosis: the transfiguration of being, existing on the stairway to heaven.  

Again, there is no means to explain what it is, this dying to self and being born again into the mysteries of God is love.  The temporal effects of it, however, are real enough and excruciatingly painful.  The mind enters a fog and darkness of clarity so bright that the sense of isolation from what was and where others may remain, is utter self-deprivation to the temporal view, ever passing away but now realized for what one was, is and shall be: dust. 

The freshly crucified, quaking soul must pray:  wait, fear not, and love, in this dark brilliance.  Accept that which the soul never fathomed, during earthly life, that it would accept or endure in suffering.  This suffering is the very real, yet painfully lonely and individualized, departure from the temporal level. It is also the strangely, seemingly insufferable, entrance into the mystical, while yet on earth.  Accept and endure.

This is the stairway to heaven.

[Readers Note: This post concludes, or so it seems probable, this blog: Stairway to Heaven.  From here, the soul in body in this temporal realm, is on the mystical stairway, and as every larva that spins its cocoon, not one is alike in itself or its experience.  Nor will it be as any other butterfly upon its eventual breaking forth from its body into heaven.  To describe my particular experience while on the stairway would not be understood by those reading, unless they, too, have sought and found and been crucified to formation upon the stairway to heaven, while yet in bodily form, on earth.  And these souls will comprehend and not need to know, for they are existing in the womb God has chosen, each to His own choosing.]

The Nine S' Illustrated, by Seraphim's Wife

Tomorrow, tomorrow?

Guest came and went.  Relative out of hospital, thanks to miracle, and now in rehab.  nothing recovering from sinus infection, but for a week able to get to Mass, then home, then errands, appointments, guests again.  Spiritual direction came and went.  Fabulous!  Much to write, much learned. Soon.  But Advent is our time of waiting.... 

Thanks for waiting with me, on the Stairway to Heaven, for whatever is next in the Order of the Present Moment, remaining in His love.

The Nine S': Serenity

The ninth and final S is serenity.  This may seem more an outcome or effect than a standard of formation in our earthly and spiritual lives.  However, after examining serenity, we may affect our living in Christ in the present moment, living the Gospel Rule, through being serene.

Serenity is the state of being calm, peaceful, untroubled, unruffled and tranquil.  The Latin root, serenus, was used to describe the weather or sky as clear, fine, or calm, or as an expanse of clear, calm sea.  Such is the state of our soul when we are formed in the standard of the Nine S': silence, solitude, slowness, suffering, selflessness, simplicity, stability, stillness and serenity.

While serenity seems an accumulative effect of all the s', the state of being calm and tranquil is something we can attain by cooperating with the Most Holy Trinity.  The descriptor of clarity seems especially important.  Consider clarity of the night sky, a window, a pool of water.  Consider clarity of our physical sight, hearing, taste, touch, smell.  

Consider the clarity of our bodily functions--the air we breathe, the blood that courses through our vessels, and the various organs that are fed and purify the elements within our systems.  Consider the clarity of the inner senses which mirror the outer senses: sight, hearing, taste, touch, smell.  Also consider the clarity of our spoken thoughts and inner thoughts; are they calm and clear, peaceful, tranquil, undisturbed?

There are ways we may affect the clarity of both our inner and outer "bodies".  For the inner, we gently wipe away the fog as from a misted window, or still the ripples by remaining inwardly motionless.  We bathe our souls in what is divine, inspirational, and pure.  We are refreshed by the Body and Blood of Christ, cleansed by frequent confession, partake of Sacraments pertinent to our state and condition in life. All is accomplished through love, and now we know that it is remaining in Christ's love and all the attributes of love (see 1 Cor. 13) in every present moment, that clarity and calm clear the fog of our inner beings.

As for our outer lives, we must make simple choices as eating fresh and healthy foods, drinking water, proper hygiene of body, tending to illnesses and preemptive measures to ensure the best health within our personal means, rest, and exercise.  We dress appropriately for the weather and rest comfortably as our conditions permit.  We take into our eyes, ears, mouth, nose and skin what is refreshing, healthy, pure and ennobling.  We read, listen, worship, absorb the purity of truth of the Faith, practice virtues, and love to learn to love God and others.

Are we amazed that serenity may be aided from such personal choices and life styles?  Does it seem we are not sacrificial or penitential?   Shouldn't we be austere?  Now consider Christ, our King.  He plucked grain on the Sabbath when traveling and hungry.  Even after His resurrection He grilled fish on the shore for the disciples to eat after a long day fishing.  Do we have instances of Him scourging Himself or not wearing proper apparel for the climate and times?  Did he go about unkempt?  No.

Christ shows us the Way, the narrow path to the narrow gate and door.  We are to sacrifice our vices, go and sin no more.  We are to eat His Body and drink His Blood, dwell in His word, have true life, eternal life.  We are to lay down our lives for our friends, enter our "inner rooms" and pray, be watchful, love our enemies, detach from that which possesses us, die to ourselves and remain in His love.  

We do not have to seek austerities when we have plenty to do in clearing our bodies, minds, hearts and spirits of hindrances to love.

The challenges God allows will come as needed for strengthening our souls.  We do not need to create hardships and trials.  Remaining in His love, we remain in His will. If we do all we can to live inwardly and outwardly with clarity of health, holy purpose, and His love, we will be composed of Christ's serenity, as well.

The Nine S': Stillness

Stillness is defined as a deep silence or calm.  It actually has various uses and definitions, all reflecting a fixed position, undisturbed by wind, sound or current.  Why is stillness not the same as our S' of silence and stability?  It has to do with degree, the depth.  And, as in all the S', we consider the interior and the exterior.  

There may be stillness of the body and voice as well as stillness of the soul.  If we attend to the stilling of our souls, the exterior will be like an unstirred pool of water or a motionless leaf.  The interior may be like the night desert sky.  We may still from outer to within, moving through rings of the senses, emotions, imagination, memory and understanding, to intellect and will in the heart of the soul.

St. Hesychios the Priest shares the following.  The intellect's great gain from stillness is this:  all the sins that formerly beat upon the intellect as thoughts and which, once admitted by the mind, were turned into outward acts of sin, are now cut off by mental watchfulness.  For, with the help of our Lord Jesus Christ, this watchfulness does not allow these sins to enter our inner self and so to burgeon into outer acts of evil.

We may go to the interior, to the intellect and will first, and be watchful.  Or we may enter from the outer, the exterior, working our way through stilling the senses, emotions, and so forth.  For those who are able to focus, to enter into the inner, to be watchful of the intellect's thoughts and thus to strengthen the will in purity, all the better.  The stillness will ripple outward, from the center of the soul to the exterior, calming the memory and understanding, imagination, emotions, and senses.

This stillness of soul redounds to the depth of stillness and calm of the Most Holy Trinity.  This stillness of soul washes from the inner to outer like gentle, lapping waves upon the shore of our existence.  It is essential to call upon Christ all the more to receive the standard of formation: stillness.  

Remaining in His love, we learn to be still, and are stilled by His love, in every present moment.  Stillness is the funnel from the inner depths to the outer realms in which we remain unruffled by situational storms.

Be still and know that I am God, sings the Psalmist.

Life or Death Crisis, but Remaining in His Love

Hope to be able to write tomorrow. Today got phone call and told of crisis situation with a family member so went immediately to hospital.  Home now, but will say that just a few days ago had mentioned to guests that I couldn't think of anything that would up-end or rattle remaining in His love.  And this was certainly a test...and a testament to the actuality of remaining in His love and the power and strength of His love: REMAINING.  His love is steadfast, and there is joy even in crises and tears, and healing now for the loved one survived although has quite a journey ahead.  But a good one, for she had wanted to learn more about remaining in His love before calamity struck.

Was able to mention to a couple family members, and just brief explaining of praying, remaining in His love, gave them strength, hope, and now desire to remain in His love.

Again, we are finding this is not a perspective, not a way of thinking.  It is an actuality, a living, eternal gift given by Christ, available for us in every present moment!  There is only goodness and mercy all the days of our lives...eternally...remaining in His love.