News Item: : Look Up and Lift Up Your Heads - For Your Redemption is Nigh (Luke 21:28)
(Category: Torch of The Faith News)
Posted by admin
Friday 13 January 2017 - 00:28:11

St. Juliana of Liege receiving her Eucharistic visions in the early 13th-Century.

There is no doubt about the fact that this is a remarkably tough time for orthodox Catholics. The plethora of disturbing stories emanating out from Rome each and every day can well be summed up by 1 Peter 5's latest headline, which announces - in stark contrast to the head-in-the-sand claims of Cardinal Muller - Cardinal Burke: ''The Faith is in Danger!''

Just this evening, we logged on to discover from LifeSiteNews that Pope Francis had, yet again, been deriding defenders of Church teaching as being supposedly un-Christ-like.

I was about to start crafting together another response to these kinds of grim stories when I looked up to consider that big old moon, which was so filling our chilled northerly skies at that time in the early evening.

Whilst other parts of England were being lashed by hail, sleet and snow, we were instead treated to a glowing vista of an almost full-moon rising low in a clear and dark sky; punctuated only by occasional patches of milky clouds and several forked-lightning strikes that were breaking through the cold air near to the coast.

Sometimes we can become so focused on a problem that we stop seeing what is around us. This is not surprising when our holy religion is under such sinister and coordinated attacks from within. None of us should ever forget these constant attacks; neither should we cease to resist them via the ways God has given us to do so. Primarily, this should be prayer, sacrifice and Sacraments. At the same time, we must not allow anything to remove our focus from Christ, or the countless ways in which He communicates Himself to us in the ''sacrament of the present''.

I remember one period at Ushaw seminary, when I would take off every afternoon during a supposed ''retreat'' for a 1.5 hour hike on my own across the local lanes, fields and moorland to come to terms with all the liturgical abuses, sacrilegious shenanigans and erroneous teachings that were being forced on us as a, quite literally, captive audience of the scoffing Modernists who were controlling that environment.

On the fourth afternoon of that painful retreat week, I suddenly heard a blackbird singing and stopped to observe it. At that moment I realized that I was surrounded by quite beautiful open countryside, an expansive sky and a veritable choir of birdsong. The truth broke in on me that, during almost four whole afternoons of hiking, I had neither seen nor heard anything external to myself!

What then, I wondered, had I been seeing and hearing?

Like a crashing wave breaking over my consciousness, I realized that all I had seen was the patch of rocky track immediately in front of my two striding feet; combined with an internal replaying, over and over again, of the painful scenes described above. These latter had also formed the interior sounds that had, together with my frustrated grumblings, preoccupied my recent walks up until then.

Becoming suddenly aware of my vast surroundings, I also remembered that God was still there; still in tranquil control of the created, fallen and redeemed universe that He was holding in being all that time.

Don't think I'm saying we should not be concerned or stop wrestling with all that is going wrong around us in these times.

But, let us not allow these things, either, to lock us up in a restricted paradigm of our own making; into which even God will not enter without our express permission.

Luke 21:28 announces: ''But when these things begin to come to pass, look up, and lift up your heads, because your redemption is at hand.''

I was thinking of that verse after looking up at that terrific moon earlier tonight. By God's grace, when I see a full-moon, I am reminded of the Eucharistic Host and experience a deep kind of spiritual hunger and thirst for the Most Holy Eucharist.

I remember reading about twenty years ago that, following St. Francis of Assisi's poetic canticles, there has been a tradition since medieval times of Catholics recognizing the Sun and Moon as symbols pointing us to the pure white beauty and light of Christ in the Eucharistic Host.

Certainly, St. Francis could see God in all things.

In his Canticle of the Creatures, he joyfully proclaimed: ''Praised be You, my Lord, with all Your creatures, especially you, Sir Brother Sun, who is the day and through whom You give us light. And he is beautiful and radiant with great splendour, and bears a likeness of You, Most High One. Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Moon and the stars: in Heaven You formed them clear and precious and beautiful.''

Yes, Pope Francis and his minions may seem to be winning in waging a sacrilegious war on all that is good and holy - on the Most Holy Eucharist, Holy Matrimony, the Church and the faithful! - but GOD IS. And He reminds us of His Presence through the created beauty of His awesome creation. The present evils are passing; Christ remains forever.  

Another medieval saint with a profound recognition of God's communication through nature was St. Juliana of Liege. In the early 13th-Century, she received the series of visions in which the bright Moon appeared to her with a segment that remained dark.

In time, St. Juliana came to understand that the bright Moon represented the Liturgical Year; whilst the dark segment represented the absence of a feast in honour of the Real Presence of Jesus in the Most Holy Eucharist. Eventually, the visions of St. Juliana contributed to the establishment of what we now celebrate throughout the Church as the annual Feast of Corpus Christi.

The Fathers of the Church taught that Creation was made as the setting into which the Church would eventually be established. Creation exists for the Church! It makes perfect sense then, for that Creation to be imprinted, indeed punctuated, with signs of Christ Who reigns at the Heart of that Church at the very centre of the Creation.

The Sun and Moon, those lights at the centre of every single creature's day and night, recall us to the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus at the centre of all things that are.

The saints could recognize this, because they had Christ at the centre of their hearts. They found Him in all things; and all things spoke of Him, and returned them to Him. In Him, they really did live, move and have their being!

In my earlier paragraphs above, I described tonight's moon as being almost a full-moon; for this moon, too, has a small segment that remains at this time dark. So it was easy to be reminded, tonight, not only of the Holy Eucharist and St. Francis, but also of St. Juliana and Corpus Christi. 

St. John Vianney once taught that, to the impure, even holy things are viewed through sullied eyes. This reflects the teaching expressed in Titus 1:15: ''All things are clean to the clean: but to them that are defiled, and to unbelievers nothing is clean: but both their mind and their conscience are defiled.''

I do believe this is why so many, who should know better, are trying to force sacrilegious communions, and the acceptance of such, on the whole Church. This is why we must all ask God to renew our own hearts and minds; and then cooperate with Him in this renewal by our grace-aided efforts to be converted each and every day.

At the same time, it is why the saints like St. Francis and St. Juliana could see and hear God in all things. Their pure hearts gave them a clear vision of reality.

May these holy saints intercede for us to remain ever open to Our Lord Jesus Christ and to the promptings of the Holy Spirit to find God in and through all things. May we see more than the two foot of rocky track ahead of us, by remembering to see the light of Christ, and to hear His promptings, all around and within us too.

It is helpful for the spiritual life to cultivate praise of God each day. Let us then join together in praying with our Guardian Angels: ''O Sacrament Most Holy, O Sacrament Divine, All Praise and All Thanksgiving be Every Moment Thine!''

Yes, let us look up and lift up our heads; for truly our redemption is nigh! This is so, because Christ is Really Present to us. Our job, is to remain really present to Him. And therein, lies our peace.

St. Francis of Assisi - Pray for us!

St. Juliana of Liege - Pray for us!

---

This news item is from Torch of The Faith
( http://www.torchofthefaith.com/news.php?extend.1526 )