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(0:00) Hello, and welcome to the Catholic Torch Podcast, episode 4, we will start out with prayer. (0:07) In Nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen. (0:11) Remember O most gracious Virgin Mary that never was it known that anyone who fled to (0:15) thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thy intercession was left unaided.(0:21) Inspired by this confidence, I fly unto thee, O Virgin of Virgins and Mother. (0:25) To thee, do I come, before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful, O mother of the Word Incarnate, (0:33) despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy, hear and answer me. Amen. (0:38) In Nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.(0:43) Today’s episode is sponsored by Juans Mobile Welding LLC. (0:48) Thank you again, my dear friend. (0:49) As always, anything that I say that is true and good and beautiful belongs to the Honor (0:55) and Glory of our Lord and our Lady, and anything that is erroneous is truly my own fault.(1:02) And now we will continue with the dialogue of St. Catherine of Siena.
(1:06) What fruit do they receive?
(1:09) The fruit which I destined for them constrained by the prayers of my servants is that I give (1:15) them light, and that I wake up in them the hound of conscience and make them smell the (1:20) odor of virtue and take delight in the conversation of My servants.
(1:25) Sometimes I allow the world to show them what it is, so that, feeling its diverse and (1:31) various passions, they may know how little stability it has and may come to lift their (1:37) desire beyond it and seek their native country, which is the Eternal Life.(1:43) And so I draw them by these and by many other ways, for the eye cannot see nor the tongue (1:49) relate, nor the heart think how many are the roads and ways which I use, through love alone (1:56) to lead them back to grace, so that My truth may be fulfilled in them. (2:01) I am constrained to do so by that inestimable love of Mine, by which I created them and by (2:08) the love, desire, and grief of my servants, since I am no despiser of their tears, and (2:14) sweat, and humble prayers. (2:17) Rather I accept them as much as I am He who gives them this love for the good of souls (2:22) and grief for their loss. But I do not, in general, grant to these others for whom they (2:29) pray, satisfaction for the penalty due to them, but only for their guilt, since they are not (2:35) disposed on their side to receive with perfect love My love and that of My servants.(2:43) They do not receive their grief with bitterness and perfect contrition for the sins they have (2:47) committed, but with imperfect love and contrition. Wherefore they have not as others, remission (2:54) of the penalty but only of the guilt, because such complete satisfaction requires proper dispositions (3:01) on both sides, both in him that gives and him that receives, wherefore, since they are (3:08) imperfect, they receive imperfectly the perfection of the desires of those who offer them to Me, (3:15) for their sakes, with suffering, and inasmuch as I told thee that they do receive remission, (3:21) this is indeed the truth that, by that way which I have told thee, that is, by the light (3:28) of conscience, and by other things, satisfaction is made for their guilt; for beginning to learn (3:35) they vomit forth the corruption of their sins and so receive the gift of grace.
These are (3:41) they who are in a state of ordinary charity, wherefore, if they have trouble, they receive (3:46) it in the guise of correction and do not resist over much the clemency of the Holy Spirit, (3:52) but coming out of their sin they receive the life of grace. But if like fools they are ungrateful (3:59) and ignore Me and the labors of My servants done for them, that which was given them, through mercy, (4:06) turns to their own ruin and judgment, not through defect of mercy, nor through defect of him who (4:14) implored the mercy for the ingrate, but solely through the man’s own wretchedness and hardness, (4:20) with which, with the hands of his free will, he has covered his heart, as it were, with a diamond, (4:27) which, if it be not broken by the Blood, can in no way be broken. And yet I say to thee that, (4:34) in spite of his hardness of heart, he can use his free will, while he has time, praying for the Blood (4:41) of My Son, and let him, with his own hand, apply it to the diamond over his heart and shiver it, (4:48) and he will receive the imprint of the Blood which has been paid for him. But if he delays (4:54) until the time be passed, he has no remedy, because he has not used the dowry which I gave him, (5:00) giving him memory, so as to remember my benefits, intellect, so as to see and know the truth, (5:08) affection, so that he should love Me the Eternal Truth, whom he would have known (5:15) through the use of his intellect. This is the dowry which I have given you all, (5:20) and which ought to render fruit to Me the Father, but if a man barters and sells it to the devil, (5:26) the devil, if he chooses, has a right to seize on everything that he has acquired in this life, (5:33) and filling his memory with the delights of sin, and with the recollection of shameful pride, (5:38) avarice, self-love, hatred, and unkindness to his neighbors, (5:43) (being also a persecutor of My servants), with these miseries he has obscured his intellect by (5:50) his disordinate will. Let such as these receive the eternal pains, with their horrible stench, (5:56) and as much as they have not satisfied for their sins with contrition and displeasure of their (6:00) guilt. Now therefore thou hast understood how suffering satisfies for guilt by perfect contrition, (6:07) not through the finite pain, and such as have this contrition in perfection, (6:13) satisfy not only for the guilt, but also for the penalty, which follows the guilt, as I have (6:19) already said when speaking in general, and if they satisfy for the guilt alone, that is, (6:25) if having abandoned mortal sin, they receive grace, and have not sufficient contrition and love (6:30) to satisfy for the penalty also, they go to the pains of Purgatory, passing through the second (6:36) and last means of satisfaction.
So thou seest that satisfaction is made through the desire of the (6:43) soul, united to me who am the Infinite Good, in greater or lesser degree, according to the measure (6:49) of love obtained by the desire and prayer of the recipient. Wherefore, with that very same measure, (6:57) with which a man measures to Me, dost he receive in himself the measure of My goodness. (7:03) Labor, therefore to increase the fire of thy desire, and let not a moment pass without crying (7:09) to Me with humble voice, or without continual prayers, before Me for thy neighbors. I say this (7:15) to thee and to the father of thy soul, whom I have given thee on earth, bear yourselves with (7:21) manful courage and make yourselves dead to all your own sensuality. (Reference 1)
So now we will do as we always do and (7:32) make sense of what we just read.
“What fruit do they receive? The fruit which I destined (7:39) for them constrained by the prayers of my servants is that I give them light and that I wake up in (7:45) them the hound of conscience and make them smell the odor of virtue and take delight in the conversation (7:51) of my servants”
This hound of conscience that God is referring to is the nagging, almost (7:59) overbearing sense for right and wrong, according to the natural law. A man can come to know right (8:05) and wrong, good and evil, and even truth and falsehood, through use of his reason. God gives (8:11) every human being use of their reason. He writes the 10 commandments on every man’s heart when he (8:17) creates them.
“Sometimes I allow the world to show them what it is, so that feeling its (8:25) diverse and various passions, they may know how little stability it has, and may come to lift (8:30) their desire beyond it and seek their native country, which is the Eternal Life.”
(8:36) God is saying here that He allows the world to show this soul, what the world actually is, (8:43) so the soul will flee the ever-changing landscape of the world to see how fickle it is, so as to come (8:50) to enjoy stability in God who is never changing and always predictable. Especially to those who (8:56) love Him. God is constant and consistent, and He does this so that these souls will seek God (9:03) and love Him while also seeking Heaven.
“And so I draw them by these and by many other ways, (9:11) for the eye cannot see, nor the tongue relate, nor the heart think, how many are the roads and ways (9:17) which I use, through love alone, to lead them back to grace, so that my truth may be fulfilled (9:23) in them. I am constrained to do so by that an estimable love of mine, by which I created them, (9:30) and by the love, desire, and grief of my servants, since I am no despiser of their tears, and sweat, (9:36) and humble prayers. Rather I accept them inasmuch as I am He who gives them this love for the good (9:43) of souls and grief for their loss.”
Now God says He works in these diverse ways to bring (9:51) these souls back to Him and that he is compelled by His servants, by their love of God and love of (9:57) neighbor, to do so. God never holds in contempt or dislike, His servants who shed tears, sweat, (10:04) and make humble prayers to Him for their neighbor. God accepts these things from His servants because (10:09) He is the one that gave them the love for the good of the souls and the grief for the loss (10:14) of souls.
“But I do not, in general, grant to these others for whom they pray, satisfaction (10:22) for the penalty due to them, but only for their guilt, since they are not disposed on their side, (10:28) to receive with perfect love my love and that of My servants. They do not receive their grief with (10:35) bitterness and perfect contrition for the sins they have committed, but with imperfect love and (10:41) contrition, wherefore they have not as others remission of the penalty, but only of the guilt, (10:48) because such complete satisfaction requires proper dispositions on both sides, both in him that gives (10:54) and him that receives.”
These souls now do not receive elimination of the punishment (11:01) due to their actions, but only receive the elimination of their guilt for their actions, (11:06) because they are not properly disposed to receive God’s love or the love of God’s servants. This (11:12) soul that is not properly disposed does not receive their grief with bitterness and perfect contrition (11:17) for the offense they committed against the Supreme Goodness (God). So when we’re talking about contrition (11:23) we’re talking about having true sorrow for the sin that was committed against the Supreme Goodness. (11:29) A good example of this that we can study is, when receiving the Sacrament of Penance, (11:34) at the end of the Sacrament the priest asks you to make an Act of Contrition, which goes like this:
(11:41) O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended thee, and I detest all my sins because I dread the loss of Heaven and the pains of hell, but most of all, because they offend thee, my God,who art all good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve with the help of thy graceto confess my sins, to do penance, and to amend my life. Amen.
This is true contrition and sorrow (12:08) for one’s own faults, when one truly means those words and isn’t just going through the motions (12:14) in the confessional. Going through the motions may receive imperfect contrition, which puts that soul (12:20) in the same state that we are now talking about. Only remission for the guilt and not of the (12:26) penalty. God says for complete satisfaction in this case it needs proper dispositions of His (12:31) servant praying for his neighbor, and the neighbor that is being prayed for.
(12:38) “Wherefore since they are imperfect they receive imperfectly the perfection of the desires of those (12:43) who offer them to Me for their sakes with suffering. And as much as I told thee that they do receive (12:50) remission, this is indeed the truth, that by that way which I have told thee, that is by the light of (12:58) conscience and by other things satisfaction is made for their guilt; for beginning to learn (13:04) they vomit forth the corruption of their sins and so receive the gift of grace.” (13:09)
So this would naturally lead to receiving the perfection of desires of God’s servants (13:15) imperfectly. These offensive souls that are receiving these gifts from God that are having (13:22) penance made for them, receive remission of the guilt due to their sin. These souls being given (13:27) the light of conscience start to learn their wretched state, (and I really love this description (13:34) God uses here), says to vomit forth. Vomit forth the debased and erroneous behavior of their sins (13:41) and receive the gift of God’s grace. What a gift!
God used the same thing on me. It was truly (13:48) amazing! So much so, it just left me in utter disgust of my behavior. I truly was in a wretched (13:54) state. I would truly fall more into the description of the next soul, who is truly more obstinate, (14:00) but finally disposed myself, by the help of the grace of God, to start cooperating. (14:06) And by (I’m now sure), some of God’s servants doing this penance for my truly obscene behavior, so as (14:14) to keep the graces coming until I was properly disposed and open to receive them.
“These (14:20) are they who are in a state of ordinary charity, wherefore if they have trouble they receive it (14:27) in the guise of correction, and do not resist over much the clemency of the Holy Ghost, but (14:32) coming out of their sin they received the life of grace. But if like fools they are ungrateful (14:38) and ignore Me and the labors of My servants done for them, that which was given them through mercy (14:45) turns to their own ruin and judgment, not through defect of mercy nor through defect of him who (14:52) implored the mercy for the ingrate, but solely through the man’s own wretchedness and hardness, (14:58) with which with the hands of his free will he has covered his heart as it were with a diamond, (15:04) which if it be not broken by the Blood, can in no way be broken.”
These souls are in a state (15:11) of ordinary charity so they receive the grace in the form of a correction and do not resist (15:16) much the leniency of the Holy Ghost. If this soul resists though, and is ungrateful for the gifts (15:23) God is pouring out onto the soul, and they ignore Him, then it does turn to their own ruin, because (15:30) of his own wretchedness and hardness, which by his own free will covers his own heart with a diamond, (15:38) which can only be broken by the Blood of Christ either by Baptism (if this soul is not (15:44) Baptized already), or by the Sacrament of Penance. Now to be validly Baptized one has to use the (15:53) Trinitarian Formula for Baptism.
Trinitarian Formula meaning, The Father, The Son and The Holy Ghost, (15:59) The Trinity. So the one that is baptizing the soon to be new Christian would say, while pouring water (16:08) over the head of this person, I Baptize you in The Name of The Father, and of The Son, and of The Holy (16:16) Ghost. Amen. Now the second way that I said is by penance, but you’re only allowed to go to (16:23) receive the Sacrament of Penance if you are already a Catholic. For those that are already Catholic, (16:28) it would be your second Sacrament that you receive after Baptism. You usually receive Baptism when (16:34) you’re a baby, and by the time that you have the use of reason, which is about seven, (16:40) you go to confession because you’ve obviously committed sins and you need to be clean before (16:45) you go and receive The Eucharist.
For converts coming into The Church that were actually (16:51) validly Baptized using the Trinitarian Formula, from whoever they got baptized from, if they were (16:57) validly baptized, the next Sacrament that they would be going for would be the Sacrament of Penance, (17:04) because they cannot receive the Sacrament of the Eucharist while being stained or tainted.
(17:09) We refer to this as eating and drinking the Body and Blood of Christ unworthily. (17:14) so to be worthy of His Body and Blood, one must avail themselves of the Sacrament of Penance. (17:21) The Sacrament of Penance that I’m talking about, washes us of our sins white as snow, (17:27) as long as perfect contrition is made. Otherwise all we’re doing is imperfect contrition, (17:34) like we talked about earlier in this episode.
“And yet I say to thee that in spite of his (17:40) hardness of heart he can use his free will, while he has time, praying for the Blood of My Son, (17:46) and let him with his own hand apply it to the diamond over his heart and shiver it, and he will (17:52) receive the Imprint of the Blood which has been paid for him. But if he delays until the time be (17:58) passed, he has no remedy because he has not used the dowry which I gave him ,giving him memory (18:04) so as to remember my benefits, intellect so as to see and know the truth, affection so that he (18:11) should love Me the Eternal Truth whom he would have known through the use of his intellect.” (18:17)
So to touch on another point for my dear listeners to really meditate upon. When your parents gave God the matter (18:28) to create you, there is something like four x ten to the six thousand twentieth power (18:34) of options of DNA that God could have chosen to make a human being and out of all of those options, (18:41) He chose to make you. There were obviously much better options that He could have chosen. (18:48)
But He still chose to make you.
There were obviously worse options, and He still decided to make you. (18:57) Now God, who is All Perfect, and All Goodness, asks us to love Him back, because He created us (19:05) with perfect love. He isn’t asking anything beyond our own limits (that He gave us, mind you!) Very (19:12) basically follow the 10 commandments. These are the first three for love of God, the fourth is for (19:19) love of God and neighbor, and the last six are for the love of our neighbor. For sake of brevity, we are (19:25) to follow these. And there are numerous ways to break each one of the commandments, which could fill (19:30) up volumes of tomes throughout the entire Earth, but I’m not going to get into that. Now God is a (19:36) gentleman. He is the Perfect Gentleman. He will never force you to come any closer than you are (19:42) comfortable with. He will also never hinder you from growing closer to Him ever. He loves you!
Now (19:50) a soul can choose to not grow closer to Him and continue to back away from God until they are (19:56) comfortable again, and as soon as that soul takes a step back that they are uncomfortable with, God, (20:02) will not let them go any further than that because it would cause this soul to be too uncomfortable (20:08) and God still loves that soul, and doesn’t want them to suffer unbearably.
Where does that soul end up? (20:20)
Was it close to Heaven, in between, or was that soul well, in hell?
How far has the soul distanced themselves from God? (20:29) Are they so far as to be this man that we are currently talking about, that will not dispose (20:35) himself to receive the gift of grace? To put a diamond in front of his own heart? To not apply the Blood (20:41) of Christ, and shatter the diamond in front of his own heart? Where does that soul end up? He ends (20:49) up in hell, sadly!
That soul may have been given chances to take that step back (for a second in God’s (20:55) time) to see the awfulness of that step that he took back, to return forward to Heaven, but if this (21:02) doesn’t happen, and that soul doesn’t ever return, then Oh sad soul, what are you doing? This soul (21:10) before its last breath could choose to get closer, and hopefully does, but who knows when their own (21:16) last breath will come? No soul is promised a second from now. Return to God who loves you (21:24) don’t choose this path down, but choose to grow closer to God, not out of fear of hell, but out (21:31) of love for God. God has told us that this man will not dispose himself to grace and now being the (21:39) gentleman that God is, He says he can still avail himself of the two ways to be washed in the Blood (21:45) of the Lamb, but he has to pray for them, and for himself to pray that he will use them to shatter (21:52) that diamond in front of his own heart, that he placed there of his own free will. So that he may (21:58) return to God.
“This is the dowry which I have given you all and which ought to render fruit to (22:05) Me the Father. But if a man barters and sells it to the devil, the devil, if he chooses, has a right to (22:11) seize on everything that he has acquired in this life, and filling his memory with the delights of (22:16) sin, and with the recollection of shameful pride, avarice, self-love, hatred, and unkindness to his (22:23) neighbors, (being also a persecutor of My servants), with these miseries he has obscured his intellect (22:30) by his disordinate will. Let such as these receive the eternal pains with their horrible stench, (22:38) and as much as they have not satisfied for their sins with contrition and displeasure of their guilt.” (22:44)
Here God refers to the souls who obstinately disregard this grace and will not (22:51) dispose themselves at all to receive these gifts that God showers on them. These souls refuse to (22:57) use their intellect or the ability or faculty God gave to humans, and not to beasts of the earth, to (23:04) think of the things of God. To raise our minds to God. A beast only acts on their concupiscence, (23:11) what feels good according to their carnal pleasures no matter the consequence. But a human (23:15) being, has an intellect, to think of higher things, to think of God. A beast doesn’t think of God. (23:21) It just does the will of God anyway, because that’s what they were created to do, but a human being (23:27) was given a free will, and an intellect, so as to come to God freely. The soul God is referring to, (23:35) has turned to their beastly nature and bartered the gifts God gave them, to the devil, and he will (23:41) be given over to the devil. So that the devil may seize on everything that that soul has acquired (23:46) in this life. The devil fills them with delights of sin and shameful recollection of the (23:52) 7 Capital Sins which man so pitifully falls into.
“Now therefore thou has understood how (23:58) suffering satisfies for guilt by perfect contrition, not through the finite pain and such as have this (24:05) contrition in perfection, satisfy not only for the guilt but also for the penalty which follows the (24:12) guilt, as I have already said, when speaking in general, and if they satisfy for the guilt alone, (24:18) that is if having abandoned mortal sin they receive grace and have not sufficient contrition and love (24:25) to satisfy for the penalty also, they go to the pains of Purgatory, passing through the second and (24:31) last means of satisfaction.”
The souls that will satisfy for their guilt alone but not for (24:37) the penalty. So namely, those with imperfect contrition, or those ones that are just going (24:43) through the motions in the Sacrament of Penance, as long as they are out of mortal sin. (24:49) Mortal sin being a grave offense against God; for example but not limited to, like murdering someone (24:55)
There must be three conditions met in order for a sin to be a mortal sin:
- It must be grave (25:03) matter (or serious matter)
- One must know that the sin is grave matter. (this person that’s (25:13) committing the mortal sin must know that it is grave matter)
- This person must (25:20) give full consent of their will and then commit the sin.
and all three of those have to be in place (25:26) for it to be a mortal sin. If these souls be not in mortal sin, then they must go through the pains (25:34) of Purgatory to satisfy for the penalty due to their sins that they had imperfect contrition for. (25:40)
The soul in mortal sin does not receive Purgatory, but hell because the three conditions that have (25:46) to be met to commit such a sin are so against the love of God that there can be no mistake. (25:52) Natural Law tells us that, and God wrote that on every heart. But a soul who has committed (25:59) mortal sin, can still be forgiven before their last breath, as long as they receive the Sacrament (26:06) of Baptism, for those that have not received the Sacrament of Baptism yet, or by the Sacrament of (26:12) Penance. God says Purgatory is the second and last means of satisfaction for imperfect contrition. (26:21) A soul who makes it there will be moving on to Heaven at some point. Those who don’t make it there (26:29) never will get to enjoy that ineffable love of God, and will never have hope of it. (26:33) These souls I refer to that miss purgatory, go to hell. There are souls also that skip Purgatory (26:40) altogether, and go directly to Heaven, but those are a very elite group of lovers of God. (26:47) Those in Purgatory will make it through the pains and sufferings of the Refiners Fire of Purgatory (26:53) to purge them of their impurities so God can see his own reflection in them, finally making them (27:00) pure. These souls will have great hope in Purgatory of making it to Heaven one day. (27:06) Their only consolation while there, is receiving Heaven after the Refiners Fire (27:12) finally, being made into that beautiful bride wearing the beautiful gown with jewels I (27:17) referred to in episode 1, but instead of jewels on the gown it will be with those virtues that shine (27:22) like jewels to God.
“So thou seest that satisfaction is made through the desire of the soul (27:30) united to me, who am the Infinite Good in greater or lesser degree, according to the measure of love (27:36) obtained by the desire and prayer of the recipient. Wherefore with that very same measure with which (27:43) a man measures to Me dost he receive in himself the measure of My goodness. Labor, therefore to increase (27:51) the fire of thy desire and let not a moment pass without crying to Me with humble voice or without (27:57) continual prayers before Me for thy neighbors. I say this to thee and to the father of thy soul (28:03) whom I have given to thee on Earth, bear yourselves with manful courage and make yourself dead to (28:11) all your own sensuality.”
God entreats upon all His servants here, to stay in continual (28:18) supplication and humble prayer, for your neighbors, so God may pour out with great generosity all those (28:25) graces that they so desperately need to be true lovers of God.
In the next episode we will be (28:32) talking about how very pleasing to God is the willing desire to suffer for Him
That will end (28:37) our episode for today. If you have any questions or comments you can find my email in the contact (28:44) button below. If you need a Catholic Priest, please reach out to me, and I will help you find one. (28:50) And now we will end in prayer
In Nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.(28:56) Ave Maria, gratia plena Dominus tecum (16:12) benedicta tu in mulieribus et benedictus fructus ventris tui Jesus.
(16:18) Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc et in ora mortis nostrae. Amen. In Nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.
(29:17) Thank you for listening and I will see you on the next episode
Refrences
The Catholic Torch 