St. Michael (Day 27)

Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel

by Pope Leo XIII

O Glorious St. Michael the Archangel, Prince of the heavenly host, be our defense in the terrible warfare which we carry on against principalities and power, against the rulers of this world of darkness, spirits of evil. Come to the aid of man, whom God created immortal, made in His own image and likeness and redeemed at a grate price from the tyranny of the devil.

Fight this day the battle of the Lord, together with the holy angels, as already thou hast fought the leader of the proud angels, Lucifer, and his apostate host, who were powerless to resist thee, nor was there place for them any longer in Heaven. That cruel, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil or Satan who seduces the whole world, was cast into the abyss with his angels. Behold, this primeval enemy and slayer of men has taken courage. Transformed into an angel of light, he wanders about with all the multitude of wicked spirits, invading the earth in order to blot out the name of God and of His Christ, to seize upon, slay, and cast into eternal perdition souls destined for the crown of eternal glory. This wicked dragon pours out, as a most impure flood, the venom of his malice on men of depraved mind and corrupt heart, the spirit of lying, of impiety, of blasphemy and the pestilent breath of impurity, and of very vice and iniquity.

These most craft enemies have filled and inebriated with gall and bitterness the Church, the spouse of the immaculate Lamb, and have laid impious hands on her most sacred possessions. In the Holy Place itself, where has been set up the See of the most holy Peter and the Chair of Truth for the light of the world, they have raised the throne of their abominable impiety, with the iniquitous design that when the Pastor has been struck, the sheep may be scattered.

Arise then, O invincible Prince, bring help against the attacks of the lost spirits to the people of God, and give them the victory. They venerate thee as their protector and patron; in thee holy Church glories as her defense against the malicious power of hell; to thee has God entrusted the souls of men to be established in heavenly beatitude. Oh, pray to the God of peace that He may put Satan under our feet, so far conquered that he may no longer be able to hold men in captivity and harm the Church. Offer our prayers in the sight of the Most High, so that they may quickly conciliate the mercies of the Lord; and beating down the dragon, the ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, do though again make him captive in the abyss, that he may no longer seduce the nations. Amen.

V. Behold the Cross of the Lord; be scattered ye hostile powers. R. The Lord of the tribe of Juda has conquered, the root of David. V. Let thy mercies be upon us, O Lord. R. As we have hoped in Thee. V. O Lord, hear my prayer. R. And let my cry come unto thee.

Let us pray. O God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we call upon Thy holy name, and as supplicants we implore Thy clemency, that by the intercession of Mary, ever Virgin Immaculate and our Mother, and of the glorious Archangel Saint Michael, thou wouldst deign to help us against Satan and all other unclean spirits, who wander about the world for thin injury of the human race and the ruin of souls. Amen.

The Plague of Porn (Day 26)

 

Pray:

 

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore, I will trust you always, though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death, I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone. Amen - Thomas Merton



The Great BOTH/AND (Day 25)

Recently, I have befriended some neighbors from Saudi Arabia. I'm not typically the most outgoing person when it comes to approaching strangers, but I'm trying to practice acts of charity. So my wife and I took a shot, and we welcomed some Muslim newcomers into our home. Our hospitality to them has made them open to talk about Christianity. We even found them a New Testament in Arabic- they were excited to read it. They are refreshing to be around. They are not tainted by American relativism- which makes for straight forward conversations about life and especially about religion. We live in a Western society where there is not an objective truth. But instead a motto of, "What’s good for you might not be good for me." We live in a culture where moral relativism is the law of the land. This relativism has crept into Christianity as well. My Muslim friends are not jaded by this political correctness. I, like them, see it as illogical for us to say, "Well, we both can be right." No, no we can't. And while we totally disagree and least we know where the other stands: I believe in extra Ecclesiam nulla salus. It is a Latin phrase that means: "outside the church there is no salvation." The most recent Catholic Catechism interpreted this to mean that "all salvation comes from Christ the Head through the Church which is his Body." Sound arrogant? Well that is because salvation is a very touchy subject for most. What does 'No salvation outside the Church' really mean?

 

The majority of Christians consider that a person who believes in Jesus to the extent of giving up everything, who literally "loses his life" for the sake of the Kingdom of God, and who perseveres in his call to the end of his life, is assured salvation . All Christians are called to believe and spread the good news of the gospels to those who do not know about or believe in Jesus Christ. But what about the salvation of those who belong to other religions? Most are quick to judge damnation upon them, but the Bible makes no firm judgment about their salvation.

The truth is God has not told us what his arrangements about other people are. We do know that no man can be saved except through Christ and His Church; we do not know that only those who know Him can be saved though him.We do not know that only those that are visibly connected with His Church can be saved through His Church. The Bible leaves open the possibility that God may save some persons who, though no fault of their own, have not accepted the gospel of Jesus Christ. Belief in Jesus is not mentioned in Matthew 25, but yet salvation is granted to the "nations" because of their charity. Romans 2:12-16 says that "gentiles without the law" will be judged according God's law "written in their hearts" or "conscience". Remember, judgment comes from God alone. Paul warns about judging others many times in his letters. In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul goes to the extent of warning about the judging of ones own soul. I do not even judge myself. I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am no thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things hidden in darkness and disclose the purposes of the heart. Then every man will receive his commendation from God (1 Cor. 4:3-5). Knowledge of the bible leads to better evangelization, but it also helps to have a general knowledge of other religions. Most Christians are willingly uneducated in regards to "other" Christian denominations, and other religions of the world. This ignorance causes misunderstandings, which leads to fear, which turns into hate. If you are a Christian, you do not have to believe that all the other religions are simply wrong. You are free to think that all those religions, even the queerest ones, contain at least some hint of the truth. Many prophecies from other religions foretold the coming of Christ. Confucius said he was expecting some great wise man from the east. Buddha said he was not the wise man, someone else was to come. Plato said a just man was to come who would tell us how we are to conduct ourselves before God and men. In the genealogy of Jesus, a reader will find saints, but will also find sinners. Gentile women like Ruth or a public sinner like Rahab were typical examples of the humanity Christ assumed into himself when he became incarnate. Every single human being that would ever be born until the end of time was incorporated into this humanity. Therefore, there is not a Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, communist, sinner, or saint who is not in this human nature of Christ. We are all in it. Our neighbor next door is in it. Every persecutor of Christianity is too. When we are puzzled about how other people are saved, we need only realize that implicitly, all salvation, all men, are in Christ. They may not recognize their incorporation in Christ, but in a certain sense every person in the world is implicitly a Christian in his human nature.

It’s not about one way of "worshiping God" being better than another; it’s about one giving a clearer picture of God-the truth. It’s an objective fact: if one religion claims one thing about Jesus and another religion claims the opposite, one of them has to be right and the other wrong. Why does this matter? It matters because we shape our lives on how we view the truth. We live our lives based on the way that we view Jesus. How we live our lives determines our eternity. "Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life’" (John 14:6). Jesus said that he is the truth. THE TRUTH.

The best thing Christian's can do for people of other religions, (and themselves) is to pray for them, and to live moral lives that reflect Christian teaching. Christians need to start practicing what they preach in order to draw people to Christianity. People from other religions do not get "saved" by bombarding strangers asking questions, "Do you know Jesus Christ as you personal savior? Do you know Jesus Christ as you personal savior? Do you know Jesus Christ as you personal savior?" Handing people pamphlets through drive-thru windows is not fulfilling any call of evangelization. I am not saying that every person in the world is granted heaven regardless of what they believe, but change starts with commonalities, charity, and logical conversation.

I’m convinced that through intellectually truthful dialogue there is hope for unity. My hope is based most fundamentally on the fact that the most passionate truthful dialoguing ecumenist in all of existence is Jesus Christ. "That they may be one even as Thou the Father art in me and I in Thee, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe" (John 17:22-23 ). I think that better knowledge leads to better evangelization. Most Christians are willingly uneducated in regards to "other" Christian denominations, and other religions of the world. This ignorance causes misunderstandings, which leads to fear, which turns into hate. Only with knowledge can people make up their own opinions and truly shake off all preconceived notions. Ignorance is the worst feature a person can acquire. If a person really looks at things, it is evident that all hatred comes from ignorance. People are more prone to hate what they do not comprehend.

Jesus asked the disciples, "Who do you say that I am?" This question applies to us today, "Who do we say Jesus is?" That is the most fundamental question and there can only be one right answer- BUT we have to keep in mind that God is God and is not bound to our limited conclusions.The Holy Spirit blows where He wills. The great Catholic: BOTH/AND.

SOOOO if you have read this far, you may be wondering how this applies to your battle with pornography? It's this: Don't judge. Don't judge others battle. Don't judge your own. Let Paul be your example. Surrender to God's Will. Get the facts, fight but be open minded. God is bigger than your battle and preconceived notions- about purity- and other religions.

Bible Context = Purity Context (Day 24)

A troubled man was pondering his existence. His life had seemed to hit rock bottom and he did not know where to turn. He remembered being told in his youth to always look in the Bible for answers to life’s hard questions. He then took a dusty Bible off a shelf and said a little prayer, “Please show me what I need to do.” He closed his eyes, opened the book, put his finger on the page, opened his eyes and began reading at a random place. Matthew 27:5 “Judas…then hung himself.” The young man shook his head and thought, “Surely this can’t be right.” So he randomly picked another verse the same way that he picked the first. It was Luke 10:37 “And Jesus said, “You go, and do likewise.”

The point of this story is to show that the Bible isn’t a Magic Eight Ball! Do not get me wrong, the Bible should shape our lives but we have to approach it and use it in the right way. You don’t use a TV remote to unstop a toilet. Why, because a TV remote is bad? No, because a TV remote was meant to serve another purpose. The Bibles purpose is the share divine truths to mankind about his creator not to be a magic book, almanac, or a scientific explanation of the universe. The better we understand the Bible, the better we will understand Gods message to us. Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.When we approach scripture, we have to approach it with the right context. If I were to say, “Put the kitty on the table.” You would need to know in what context I was speaking. If I was in Vegas and said “Put the kitty on the table” you would be able to conclude what I was gambling. But the meaning of “Put the kitty on the table” changes if I were at a pet store. Context is key! (Remember this, when a verse is taken out of context to be used as a proof text- that’s really a pretext.)

So what are some context tips for reading Scripture?

• Get a good study Bible, commentary, and concordance.
• Learn the history of the Bible and how it came into existence.
• Learn not to read the Bible as one volume but as a library of genres.
• Realize that The New Testament did not come before the Church but from the Church.
• Remember that Holy Scripture is a stream in which the elephant may swim and the lamb may wade.-Pope St. Gregory

I was raised Baptist. As a Baptist I was taught that the Bible was the most important “tool” I had as a Christian. If it could not be found in the Bible, then it obviously was not important. This view is called “Sola Scriptura,” or “by Scripture alone.” Ever since Martin Luther, Protestants have believed that the Bible alone is the sole teacher of truth and therefore the reason for faith. Ironically though, this is not found anywhere in the Bible. Scripture never says that the Bible alone is the sole rule of truth, but on the contrary it gives that authority to Christ’s Church , “…the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of truth.” (1Tim. 3:16) “And if he will not hear the Church, let him be to thee as the heathen and the publican.” (Matt. 18:17) The idea of the “Bible alone” is not Biblical. Sola Scriptura falls apart with logic because the printing press was not invented until the sixteenth century. Therefore people could not afford a Bible and even if they could, the vast majority were illiterate. Christians heard the Bible at every Sunday Mass because the Church is the mother of the Bible and not vice versa. The New Testament did not come before the Church but from the Church. Jesus did not hand a Bible over to his apostles. Jesus wrote nothing and as far as we know, He never asked His disciples to write anything. His significant command to them was “do this,” not “write this” ; and “this” referred to the Church-forming sacraments. Only five of the twelve apostles wrote any thing down at all. The first generation of Christians had no new testament. Nine years past after Christ’s death before even one piece of the New Testament was written. It was sixty-four years before the last Gospel was completed. So there were sixty-four years without the twenty seven books of the New Testament. The New Testament, as we know it, was not gathered into one book and added to the existing Bible, the Old Testament, Until 393 A.D. at the Council of Hippo. The Bishops of the Catholic Church, gathered in council, prayed to the Holy Spirit for guidance, decided on those twenty-seven and excluded other writings. They said these books and these books alone are the Word of God. Who decided that? Catholic Bishops. Form then on, it was definitely referred to as the New Testament and as part of the Bible. The Church that canonized the Scriptures was the very Church that had produced them. During that four-hundred-year gap, before the New Testament was considered a part of the Bible, Christians relied on the traditions of the apostles for the truth. “Therefore, brothers, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught, either by an oral statement or by a letter of ours.” (2 Thes 2:15).

Here is a short video I made about how Bible study can change your life:

 

The Holy Bible is with out question the most popular book of all times but that does not mean that it is the most read or most understood. Some Christians see the Bible as one big book. It is not A BOOK. Its huge collection of books, a library, that took thousands years to put together. When you go to the library, you do not read every book the same way. You do not read every book literally because there are many types of genres. It is the same for the Bible because it is made up of many types of literary genres. The Bible is made up of Jewish history, poems, political onion, mythology, letters, parables, and theologically rich narratives. The Bible’s complexity throw’s personal interpretation out the window. “Know this first of all, that there is no prophecy of scripture that is a matter of personal interpretation…”(2 Peter 1:20). “ Phillip ran up and herd him reading Isaiah the prophet and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?” He replied, “How can I, unless someone instructs me?” (Acts 8: 30-31). Martin Luther, the original spokesman for personal interpretation, later admitted its absurdity, “There is no rustic so rude but that, if he dreams or fancies anything, it must be the whisper of the Holy Spirit and he himself is a prophet.” It’s the scandal of Christianity that Protestantism has divided into thousands of rival sects each teaching its own set of doctrines while claiming to follow the Bible alone. My conversion to Catholicism did not weaken my view of the Bible; it reinforced it with two thousand years of tradition. The Second Vatican Council’s Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation states the following, “It is clear, therefore, that sacred tradition, sacred scripture, and the teaching authority of the church, in accord with God’s most wise design, are linked and joined together that one cannot stand without the others, and that all together and each in its own way under the action of the Holy Spirit contribute effectively to the salvation of souls.” The Church that produced and canonized the Scriptures in the past, is the same church that interrupts the Scriptures today.

Retreat (Day 23)

When I was in high school I played football. Well I say  "played football" - technically I was on the football team, but most of the time I watched the game from the sideline. At any rate, every halftime our coach would give us a speech to pump us up and encourage us to get back out on the field AND WIN THE GAME! His speech was short, sweet, and "Brave Heart" in style- maybe 5 minuets long. His words really moved us boys, but he did something more effective than just give us a war time speech- he left us with 20 minuets of silence. Time to think. Time to reflect. Time to redirect. My coach would leave us with a personal locker room retreat. Retreat is also recommend and necessary in this battle.

Well my brothers, it is past halftime for us- just 10 days left. Go ahead and take a look at the scoreboard of your own personal battle. Are you ahead, or are you behind? What needs to happen to have victory in this game? Take time to  think. Time to reflect. Time to redirect. Take  a personal retreat. Retreat is necessary in this battle.

Retreat is a time to go into the wilderness. Jesus started his public ministry by a 40 day wilderness retreat. What does "going into the the wilderness" mean in your life? In the wilderness, Jesus was "tested" by Satan. What demons do you need to battle? What demons have you yet to slay? In the eerie quiet of the wilderness, there is nowhere to hide. Nowhere to hide from your demons. Nowhere to hide from your God. How are you going to get to the desert? How are you going to make time to retreat? What distractions do you need to retreat from in order to more clearly hear the Father whisper His will to you? Let this scripture be your model:

Luke 4:1-2

And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit for forty days in the wilderness, tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing in those days; and when they were ended, he was hungry.

The scriptures say that the Spirit LED Jesus into the wilderness. That same Spirit wants to lead you to the same place. Spend the rest of this Boot Camp in your own personal wilderness of prayer, fasting, study, alms giving, and physical mortification. At the end of the 40 days Jesus was strengthened and ready for his public ministry. You, by virtue of your baptism, have a public ministry. You've been baptized into the eternal ministry of priest, profit, and king. God has a plan for you- you just have to be quiet enough, patient enough, and disciplined enough to hear it.

Gentleman:
I have spent the last couple days in the woods. Praying and thinking in the silence. I've come to the conclusion that if we do not surrender to pride/oblations and decide to go on a retreat- we will eventually surrender with a white flag and retreat the battle for purity. Two different ways to surrender and two different ways to retreat. You pick.

Famous Catholic writer, Dorothy Day, wrote this about retreats in her life:


"I made this retreat many times. The first time brought with it a shock of recognition that this was what I was looking for in the way of an explanation of the mystery of the Christian Life, the plan of God for us all. Though still I saw through a glass darkly, I saw things as a whole for the first time with a delight, a joy, an excitement, which is hard to describe. This is what I expected when I became a Catholic. This is what all my reading had led me to expect in the way of teaching and guidance in the spiritual life. I came away with what I can only consider to be an increased knowledge of the supernatural life, the feeling that I had grown in faith, hope, and charity, that I had been fed the strong meat of the Gospel and was now prepared to run the race, to journey onward with that food which would sustain me for forty days in any wilderness. I felt prepared for deserts and underground tunnels, for the dark night of the senses and of the soul. And I knew too that this strong light would dim with the ensuing months and that the next year I would again have to make the retreat, to adjust my visionto the blazing truthwhich was set before us, to get things into perspective once again."

　

Purity Boot Camp...a Woman’s Perspective (Day 22)

My husband is away on business and has asked me to guest write on his blog today. When he asked me last night, I was honored! He is such a perfectionist, without admittance, and hates to be watched! I am not sure how he deals with me (an over analyzer people watcher and nitpicker) but by the grace of God he does! I am writing today with a woman’s perspective on porn and P.O. R. N.

I currently write at this blog about faith, infertility, and everything that comes to mind, so feel free to snoop around my blog anytime! As I wrote this post, I realized that with every stroke of the key, I was speaking to myself. You can ask any good writer, we speak from experience, not from judgment.

To the women on the outside looking in:

As women we take everything so very personally and never really understand how to effectively reach our husbands. When you find out your husband is addicted to porn and not P.O.R.N you feel crushed. You feel betrayed. You feel un-beautiful. You completely shut down and either eat your way out of it, or starve your way out of it. When you discover the secret stash, you are disgusted at what you realize your husband finds attractive. You think, I thought he told me I was beautiful, yet I do not look like any of these airbrushed actresses. Your reactive behavior of venting to your girl friends doesn’t proactively let your husband know how hurt and betrayed you really are. You feel stuck because society says porn is natural and okay, but it isn’t. Porn isn’t any more natural than cheating. That’s right, cheating. If you wouldn’t do it in front of your spouse, don’t do it.  Those feelings, left unaided, eventually turn into you feeling resentment, anger, and hatred. You start picking yourself apart and your marriage begins to suffer.  You eventually become what you fear the most.

To the women on the inside:

Women are human beings.  They suffer with addiction just like anyone would, be it shopping, alcohol, food, or lust. To say that pornography is a man’s addiction is completely and utterly crazy.  Women might not sit behind the computer like a man and hide shamefully in the walls of their office, but they, just as men, can be deceived by the devil and his lustful down spiral. Women like to feel beautiful. Society says beauty is in porn. When we act like porn stars and dress like porn stars, we drown in lustfulness and sex as well- we tell our daughters it’s okay to dress and act the way TV and society acknowledge as okay- we give our daughters a false sense of beauty and our sons a fasle sense of love. Here is my problem with it all: women don’t hold themselves to the same standard as they do their husbands. They don’t want their husbands supporting the porn industry, but they do nothing to stop it! They are sitting in the parent pick up line at school reading 50 Shades of Grey, planning girls’ trips to see Magic Mike, and laughing at the fact that weekends include drinking with your husband and friends at the strip club. Women on the inside of this industry: when you support porn and not P.O. R. N. you are sending mixed signals of mediocrity to your husbands. You are setting up your self-esteem for failure. You are setting up your relationships, your children, and your family for failure. You send a message to your relationships, children, and family, that you do not value your body as a temple of the Lord. Your thinking of what society says is okay turns into a downward spiral of lust and acceptance through other men.  You become your worst nightmare—you eventually become unfaithful in life and you justify that with the addiction and actions of your husband.

To all women: 

 

What we fail to realize though, is that when we are speaking about any addiction, we aren’t speaking on the attack ofthe opposite spouse. That is, your spouse isn’t looking at porn because you aren’t good enough; your spouse is looking at porn because they are addicted. You don’t eat, shop, or gamble because you want to make your spouse mad, you eat, shop, or gamble because that is how you cope with your frustration.

Women, it is time that we take a stand. Stop settling for porn and start using P.O.R. N. Not only will your marriage grow, but you will see a change in your husband. If your husband is addicted to porn and acknowledges it as normal, pray for him, fast for him, and go to counseling without him (because I am sure he will not want to do that either at this point). If your husband is addicted to porn and wants to change, pray with him, fast with him, and go to counseling with him. The purity boot camp on P.O.R.N. Militia is so very powerful because it allows God to be first in your life and marriage.

I am posting a link to my blog post about women (here) the message on this particular post is a wonderful message to women everywhere.

Also, If you do not know who Leah Darrow is, check her out (here). She has a wonderful dvd about women getting out of the industry and into a life of faith-- you can read more about her on Chastity.com

If we want to change society for our children, we have to acknowledge that pornography is taking over. We have to take a stand—we have to become the industry’s worst nightmare. We have to be reverent, modest, and faithful.

            

The Marraige Bed (Day 21)

The Sanctity of the Marriage Bed.
By St. Francis De Sales:

THE marriage bed should be undefiled, as the Apostle tells us, i.e. pure, as it was when it was first instituted in the earthly Paradise, wherein no unruly desires or impure thought might enter. All that is merely earthly must be treated as means to fulfil the end God sets before His creatures. Thus we eat in order to preserve life, moderately, voluntarily, and without seeking an undue, unworthy satisfaction therefrom. "The time is short," says S. Paul; "it remaineth that both they that have wives be as though they had not, and they that use this world, as not abusing it."

Let every one, then, use this world according to his vocation, but so as not to entangle himself with its love, that he may be as free and ready to serve God as though he used it not. S. Augustine says that it is the great fault of men to want to enjoy things which they are only meant to use, and to use those which they are only meant to enjoy. We ought to enjoy spiritual things, and only use those which are material; but when we turn the use of these latter into enjoyment, the reasonable soul becomes degraded to a mere brutish level.

On Purity:

PURITY is the lily among virtues--by it men approach to the Angels. There is no beauty without purity, and human purity is chastity. We speak of the chaste as honest, and of the loss of purity as dishonour; purity is an intact thing, its converse is corruption. In a word, its special glory is in the spotless whiteness of soul and body.

No unlawful pleasures are compatible with chastity; the pure heart is like the mother of pearl which admits no drop of water save that which comes from Heaven,--it is closed to every attraction save such as are sanctified by holy matrimony. Close your heart to every questionable tenderness or delight, guard against all that is unprofitable though it may be lawful, and strive to avoid unduly fixing your heart even on that which in itself is right and good.

Every one has great need of this virtue: those living in widowhood need a brave chastity not only to forego present and future delights, but to resist the memories of the past, with which a happy married life naturally fills the imagination, softening and weakening the will. Saint Augustine lauds the purity of his beloved Alipius, who had altogether forgotten and despised the carnal pleasures in which his youth was passed. While fruits are whole, you may store them up securely, some in straw, some in sand or amid their own foliage, but once bruised there is no means of preserving them save with sugar or honey. Even so the purity which has never been tampered with may well be preserved to the end, but when once that has ceased to exist nothing can ensure its existence but the genuine devotion, which, as I have often said, is the very honey and sugar of the mind.

The unmarried need a very simple sensitive purity, which will drive away all over-curious thoughts, and teach them to despise all merely sensual satisfactions. The young are apt to imagine that of which they are ignorant to be wondrous sweet, and as the foolish moth hovers around a light, and, persisting in coming too near, perishes in its inquisitive folly, so they perish through their unwise approach to forbidden pleasures. And married people need a watchful purity whereby to keep God ever before them, and to seek all earthly happiness and delight through Him Alone, ever remembering that He has sanctified the state of holy matrimony by making it the type of His own union with the Church.

The Apostle says, "Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:" by which holiness he means purity. Of a truth, my son , without purity no one can ever see God; nor can any hope to dwell in His tabernacle except he lead an uncorrupt life; and our Blessed Lord Himself has promised the special blessing of beholding Him to those that are pure in heart.