After doing some Internet searching tonight, I was very saddened by what I found. As I stumbled upon Myspace, I found countless users that claim to be atheists or agnostics. I found pagans and scientologists. I found a few Catholics who obviously didn't follow the faith since they cursed using our Lord's Holy Name in vain on that page. I found not only faithful Catholic - not a single one.
I was reminded of the account of Abraham speaking to the Lord in Genesis 18:20-32. There the Lord promised to spare Sodom and Gomorrah from destruction even if there were as little as ten righteous people left. Yet, as we know, the cities were destroyed because not even ten God-fearing men could be found. Is our world today any better?
I wonder what will happen in our world today. So many people do not believe and live there lives away from God seeking happiness and money - all without God. They will fail in this life and be condemned in the life to come. Then there are people even more horrifying - those that truly hate God and chastity and all things holy. They seek to destroy it. These people are corrupted by the devil. They too shall fail. For hell is not just intense pain, it is more terrible than that. Hell is painful not because God seeks to torture souls. No, not at all. Rather, the souls that go to Hell go there because it is the one place that God is not present. And the deprivation of God's love is the torture suffered by those souls. They rejected the Holy Church and refused to turn aside from sinful ways. These people turned away from God and earned what they had all along - a life without God.
St. Catherine received a vision of the devil once from Our Lord. And she told Him that she would rather walk on burning coals for the rest of eternity than go to hell and look upon the devil's face for one more moment. For in hell, the condemned will look on the face of satan, the father of lies, for all eternity. There truly shall be no end. This is the faith of those that ignore God, hate God, and die in the state of mortal sin.
So now I sit here gazing at the Crucifix contemplating his most precious wounds and the blood loss and pain He endured. Yet He endured that suffering for me as much as for each one of those people hate Him. And even if one of those people had been the only one to ever exist, Jesus would have mounted that cross just for him too. I once saw a picture in store. In the photo a little girl was looking up to Heaven and asked, "How much do you love me, Jesus?" Jesus answered, "I love you this much," and then He opened up His arms and died.
I am re-posting the rest:
I ask you to say this prayer for all that still live in darkness and do not see the great joy of Jesus Christ!
Dear Lord:
On the night before your passion you were taken from us, beaten and mocked and condemned to death. Bound and beaten on your precious head, the very head that lay in a beautiful manager in Bethlehem. Your back was ripped open in the Scourging, and on the road to Calvary so many hated you; you almost died on the way. Your precious face was disfigured - your body beaten and ripped apart. O Lord, your precious hands which worked so many wonders, were pierced. On that day Lord, you liberated me. May your blessings be upon me and transform me on my pilgrimage to Life Everlasting. May the grace and joy of Christmas and Easter enkindle an eternal flame in my heart for love of you and neighbor that shall never abate. And, permit me O Lord, to die in love of Thee for Thou hast died for love of me.
O Lord, so many hate you. So many call you false and a liar. So many pretend as if you ascended to Heaven and left us here - alone. So many pretend the Eucharist is not truly YOU. So many hate the good of your Church and deny your eternal word of scripture; so many utter lies against your faithful. Lord, so many ignore you. They refuse to acknowledge you, and they practice political correctness instead of acknowledging You as the only God to have worked wonders. But, You, O Lord, are the only truth. You are the only light on our journey. If I died today, would I be no more? No! For the miracles you worked are forever recorded in scripture, the miracle of the Eucharist is ever before us. May your light shine upon those that hate you Lord. For, O Lord, your skin was ripped open for them. Your blood poured forth from your heart for them. It was by your Cross alone we are saved. The God of all Creation truly took flesh and mounted a tree to redeem our disfigured race. What love! And what greater love is there than truly giving yourself to me in the Holy Eucharist each and every Mass!
Lord, you need nothing as You alone are perfect. Please, permit me, if you will, to offer up the sacrifices in my life to you in reparation for those that hate you, my best friend, my Love, my All. O Lord, you let your apostles help you in the miracles of the loaves, permit me to offer my small sacrifices in union with Your perfect gift on the Cross. May my sufferings offered for you bring one soul to the truth of your Church. O Lord, grant that my work may produce much fruit and at the end, when I leave this world, you may say, "Well done, my good and faithful servant." Lord, I love you. Forgive us all, my Crucified Lord. Forgive us, for you are the Savior of the World.
Amen
5 comment(s):
Christ said that some will utter hatred becasue of Him but blessed are we who live the truth. All we can do is pray that they will come to know God. This evening at drama reherseal I was praying the Office of Readings since i had exra time on my hands and before I said the closing prayer I prayed for all of them because they talk of immoral things such as sexual sins, they indeed use God's name in vain, and so I just prayed for them. That is all we can do. But also as future priests we must realize that some will not like the message we bring and we will be hated. But just know that the eucharist can transform lives as we will celebrate mass in the future. Vinny Flynn in Secrets of the Eucharist says that eucharistic adoration will change the world. This is true! Let's pray for them.
http://mariandevotion.blogspot.com (My Blog)
That was the most beautiful prayer and I am going to copy it and pray it to Jesus during my Eucharistic Adoration. It seems especially appropriate to be said on Friday or during the Hour of Mercy at 3pm.
most of the "scientologists" on myspace don't know what scientology is and think its a cool thing to put down on their profile. there are some catholics, go to groups and search catholic. Catholic Connect, though the largest, seems to be pro-homosexual and pro-schismatic (EO). There are several great groups such as catholic celebration and cyber diocese. i think the groups pretty much represent the Church. there are a lot of nominal catholics who think they follow catholicism, but they trust their own instincts and ignore Church teaching, and ridicule those who are orthodox and firm in their beliefs. we are labeled extremists, rad-trads, ultra-conservative... though i don't mind these names, I simply prefer Catholic, a practicing one :) spend a couple days and it'll be easy to spot the progressivist-liberals-modernists from the conservative-NO&trads. myspace can be a scary place, and may be an occasion of sin, but it also is a good way to keep in contact with friends and meet new like minded ones. many faithful catholics also see it as a ministry since they can reach out to so many. send me an email if you'd like to add my Catholic account.
There's hope for even the worst of these people -- I used to be one of them. The kind, loving witness of people like yourself does so much to open the eyes of those who've lost their way. Keep up the good work.
Myspace is of the gutter, are you familar with facebook sir? It's a bit more refined as untill recently only college students were allowed to join. There are tons of Catholic and pro-life groups there with huge memeberships and great discusions going on in them. I have met countless practicing and orthodox Catholics on facebook. Just a sample of some group names and numbers to warm your heart...
WName: We're not Crazy, We're just Catholic...25,091 members
Name: Adorers of the Blessed Sacrament
Size: 1,527 members
Name: Society for the Reinstitution of the Papal Tiara
Size: 148 members
Name: Pope Innocent III Fan Club
Size: 42 members
Name: The Theology of the Body
Size: 473 members
Name: The Rosary Project
Size: 782 members
and I promise you, this is just a slice of whats there. There are groups of seminarins, people discerining, diffrent local Catholic clubs, various saint fan clubs, etc. The JPII Generation is connection on the interent and its a beautiful thing!
-FD (blogger ain't letting me log in)
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