POSTULANT LESSONS
For postulants doing penance
in the Confraternity of Penitents
Our Lady of the
Streets
"In danger,
anguish, or doubt, think of Mary and call upon
her! Following her, you will never lose your
way. Praying to her, you will never sink into
despair. Contemplating her, you will never go
wrong."
St. Bernard.
A
Parents Prayer
For
Their Children's Return to the Church
Dear
God, I come to you with a heart of sorrow over
love for my children who have drifted from the
practice of the holy Catholic faith. Look upon
these children of mine with your loving and
forgiving mercy. Bring these children back into
the embrace of Holy Mother Church, that soon my
children may receive once again forgiveness in
you Sacrament of Penance and be nourished with
you Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity in Holy
Communion.
Oh
patron saints of my children, intercede in
heaven for their salvation. Angel guardians of
my children, you who were appointed to the
charge of my children's souls, intercede
constantly before the Heavenly Throne of the
Most Holy Trinity. Mary, Queen of the Angels,
send forth all the angels of God to inspire my
children to return to the path of salvation I
have attempted to teach them. I beg my
children's guardian angels to go with them and
inspire them to return.
Give me the strength to bear this cross and
offer to you, O Sacred Heart of Jesus and
Immaculate Heart of Mary, the pain that I feel,
so that some day my children will return and I
may glorify God forever in Heaven with these
children whom I love. Amen.
POSTULANT LESSONS
POSTULANT:
LESSON ONE
Note: Keep copies of all lessons turned in
to your formator both for sharing in your
Chapter or Circle meetings, and in case your
formation lessons get lost in the mail or on
the internet.
Introduction to the Confraternity of
Penitents
In the 1100's
and 1200's, a great penitential movement
spread across Europe. Lay people began to
convert from worldly ways to spiritual ones
and adopted certain penitential practices to
enable them to do so. These people were
called penitents or conversi (converted
ones). Certain ways of living a more
simplified, God and‑other centered
lifestyle were codified into a Rule for
Penitents, written in 1221 and approved by
the Pope. A penitent, a converso, was,
therefore, willing to make adjustments in
his or her life in order to more closely
follow God's ways. These adjustments were in
the areas of prayer, diet, clothing, and
works of mercy. The penitential life led to
detachment from worldly values and things
and attachment to the values and things of
God.
In our
modern, materialistic, self‑centered
society, some people feel the need to
simplify their lives and to turn more
completely to God and neighbor. While the
term "penitent" may seem archaic, people who
are moving into deeper surrender to God's
will for them are, indeed, modern day
penitents. The way of life that worked for
penitents 800 years ago in the
self‑centered, materialistic medieval world
still works today to bring people into a
more disciplined life style that makes more
room for God.
Today the
Confraternity of Penitents is an association
of lay men and women who are following
modern Constitutions to the 1221 Rule for
Penitents. The Constitutions make the
penitential practices of 1221 livable in
today's society while effecting the same
conversion which the 1221 Rule achieved for
centuries. The Rule and the Constitutions
have been reviewed and deemed acceptable to
live by the Bishop of the Diocese of
Providence, Rhode Island, USA.
Life as a
modern penitent will enhance, not conflict
with or replace, any Third Order vocation or
membership in any other Catholic lay
association. The penitential way of life
gives more discipline and direction to a
Catholic's life, thus enabling him or her to
be more willing to submit to God's will.
Anyone
considering this way of life must be a
Catholic who agrees with all the teachings
of the Catholic Church. A penitent must have
a desire to become as holy as God wishes.
This desire must be effected by doing God's
will.
A penitent
will receive guidance from a spiritual
director. The spiritual director must agree
with all the teachings of the Catholic
Church and must be an ordained member of the
Catholic clergy (priest or deacon) or a
Catholic religious. A penitent will meet
with his or her spiritual director
regularly, the most common time interval
being once monthly. However, the frequency
and length of meetings will be determined by
the penitent and the spiritual director.
A married
penitent must also obtain the consent of
the spouse in order to live this Rule.
Hopefully, obtaining this consent will not
be difficult since living a penitential life
does not conflict with spousal, parental, or
family obligations and should, in fact, make
the penitent a more charitable and
compassionate family member.
Over a four
year period, the penitent will make
adjustments in his or her life style in the
three areas of prayer, diet, and clothing.
All these areas need attention in our
materialistic, self‑centered world. The Rule
and Constitutions take into account the
penitent's health, employment, family, age,
and work conditions, allowing exceptions and
substitutions when necessary.
Prayer for
the average penitent takes about ninety
minutes daily when living in full conformity
to the Rule and Constitutions. This is a
conscious way of making time for God in our
society that tends to keep us too busy to
have time for God. In a society in which
food is plentiful and people can indulge as
they wish, the diet adjustments help
penitents to control their physical
appetites in healthy, yet somewhat
sacrificial ways.
Because our
modern societies are so clothing conscious
and most people have a variety of styles,
colors, and patterns from which to choose,
the modern penitent limits his or her
wardrobe in certain specific but easy to
follow ways.
The prayer,
diet, and clothing adaptations prepare the
penitent to be more open to God's direction
and discipline. They prepare the penitent's
spirit to become more aware of spiritual and
corporal works of mercy that need to be
performed. The penitent's spiritual
awareness heightens so that he or she can
discern what works of mercy God is
requesting and how God wishes them to be
performed.
These
adjustments in life style are made gradually
over the period of formation, allowing ample
time to discern whether or not an individual
is truly called to this way of life.
The goals of
formation for the Confraternity of Penitents
are as follows:
·
To enable the
penitent to understand the transitoriness of
life and the superfluities of a worldly
existence.
·
To direct the
penitent in surrendering his or her own will
to the Rule and to the spiritual director,
and thus become more inclined to accept with
joy the discipline and direction that God
gives.
·
To draw the
penitent into a deep union with God who
wishes all people to surrender everything to
Him.
·
To enable the
penitent to experience in a small way the
self emptying willingly embraced by Our Lord
Jesus Christ.
·
To foster an
increase of love in the penitent for God the
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and for human
beings who are made in God's image. This
love must lead to loving, selfless service
of God and of others. True love is to seek
the others' good before one's own. The Rule
is intended to have the penitent do this.
·
To lead the
penitent into personal sanctity and eternal
life in heaven.
If an
inquirer desires this way of life but is
fearful of being unable to follow it, the
following must be remembered: God would not
give the desire unless He is willing to
grant the means. Those whom God calls to a
life of penance will be given the grace to
live it. What is needed are patience and
trust.
BRIEFLY
ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS.
Am I
attracted to the idea of a penitential life
style? Why or why not?
Do I feel the
need for conversion in my life? Where?
Do I believe
that God will give me the grace to live this
lifestyle? Why?
LESSON ON THE
RULE
During the
first month of postulancy, look over the
entire Rule and Constitutions of the
Confraternity. What subjects are covered?
How will they impact my life if I continue
into formation?
FIRST MONTH’S
ACTIVITIES
·
Pray daily in
the morning the Apostle's Creed, all of
Psalm 51, all of Psalm 54, and verses 1 to
32 of Psalm 119. In the evening, pray daily
the Apostle's Creed and all of Psalm 51.
Pray the "Glory Be to the Father" after each
Psalm.
·
Pray daily for
the Holy Father, our Bishops, pastor(s),
spiritual assistants, and all of the
Confraternity of Penitents, all sinners,
family members, and yourself.
·
Submit your
answers to this month's questions to your
CFP formator.
POSTULANT:
LESSON TWO
Encountering God through Scripture
God is the
divine being. He is real. He created you and
everything else. He knows you. He loves you.
He wants you to know Him and to live
eternally with Him. Do you believe this?
Love changes
people. Think of how your love of someone
has changed you. How has your love changed
someone else? When we change for the better,
we experience conversion. To the extent that
we know and love Our Lord, to that extent we
will begin to enter a life of conversion
(penance).
How do we get
to know someone? By spending time with that
person. We will know God better if we spend
time learning about Him. To know Him is to
love Him. If we love Him, we are already in
the process of conversion.
How do we get
to know our God? By reading what is
sometimes called His "love letter" to us,
the Bible. Throughout history, God revealed
Himself to the Jewish people, the nation
that He had chosen to know Him. The history
of the Jewish nation is a history of God
intervening in the lives of people whom He
claimed as His. What did the Jewish people
do to have God choose them instead of other
nations as the ones to whom He revealed
Himself? They did absolutely nothing to
deserve this favor. In fact, a "sensible"
God would not have chosen the stubborn,
prideful, and often foolish Jewish people as
the ones to whom He would promise, "You
shall be My people and I will be your God."
Here is the
first lesson we can learn from Scripture.
God, as St. John tells us, is Love, and Love
is not sensible. Love loves the beloved with
reckless and unbounded abandon, not because
of any good qualities in the beloved but
because of the pure qualities of Love. God
loves us, not for who we are, but because of
Who He is.
Love is loyal
but Love is also just. This, too, is seen
from the Old Testament where time and again
God showed the Jewish people where sin led.
It is not Love to allow someone to be less
than they can be. God would not tolerate the
Jewish nation's stubborn refusal to do His
will because toleration is not Love. We may
tolerate rudeness or bad behavior in someone
else's child, but we will correct and
discipline these traits in our own children.
Why? Because they are OUR children and we
know who they can be. We won't settle for
them being any less than their best.
Love is
powerful. Time and again God works miracles,
manipulating and controlling nature which He
Himself created. By reading Scripture we
begin to understand that God's will is in
every thing that happens. Either He is
actively working or He is passively
permitting all things.
We see that
some of these things are evil, some bring
suffering, and we ask why, if God is good,
do these bad things happen. Scripture tells
us that God made us in His image, as the
pinnacle of His creation, even above the
angels, and that He gave us charge over
creation. What we decided would affect all.
What did we decide, not just once in the
Garden of Eden, but every day since then?
That our will is superior to God's. Since we
are inferior, created creatures, that
decision has to be pride-fully wrong.
Since we have
been placed in charge of creation, our
decisions affect that creation much as food
coloring dripped into water colors the
entire batch. Our turning from God has
removed not only our perfection, but that of
all creation. Nothing on earth is or ever
will be perfect again.
Now we begin
to see that we, like the Jewish nation, do
not always, or even much of the time,
understand God's active and permissive will,
but we can, if we delve deeply enough,
understand a truth. God, in His mysterious
way called grace, is able to bring good out
of evil. He did this in Scripture. He does
it in our lives.
The God of
the Old Testament revealed Himself more
fully in the New Testament. God, in His
Second Person, came to earth as a human
being. We begin to see the great and
humbling mystery. God, the Creator of heaven
and earth, enters the womb of a virgin upon
her acceptance of Him. He does not force
Himself upon her. He leaves her free to
accept or reject Him, just as He leaves us
free to do the same. Then, in total
dependence and helplessness, God grows and
is born and then depends totally on a man
and a woman to care for Him. What humility
and trust does this show about God?
All His life,
Christ suffered for us, for Love will do
anything for the beloved. We see the extent
of that love upon the cross where God is
destroyed by His creatures and all because
He not only permitted it but actually willed
it. And then, beyond this supreme act of
love, God returns in the Eucharistic bread
down through time to our present day. Do we
realize, when we take Him in His Eucharistic
Presence into our bodies, that our Creator,
Redeemer, and Lover is intimately uniting
with us? The God Whose tale is told through
Scripture and Who manages all that is, comes
to dwell within us as He did in the womb of
the Virgin. What mystery we begin to touch!
The mystery of God Himself!
As a
postulants in the Confraternity of
Penitents, spend a bit of time daily reading
Scripture. This practice will continue
throughout your formation and should
continue until your death, which is really
your entry into eternal life. This said,
remember that it is better to read and
reflect on a brief Scripture passage than it
is to read too much too quickly.
Where should
you begin? With the Gospels. Read and savor
the words that you have heard again and
again at Mass. Only this time, before
reading, ask God to give you an insight into
the passage you will read. Then read slowly
and pause to think about what you read. God
will instruct you.
After you
have read the Gospels, read the Book of Acts
and then the various New Testament letters.
Then you may begin to read whatever you wish
next. Perhaps you will choose the Book of
Revelation or the Old Testament.
Nevertheless, return to the Gospels
frequently, perhaps alternating your reading
of other parts of Scripture with the
Gospels. Why the Gospels? Because Jesus is
God made man. The more you know of Him, the
more you know of God. The more you know of
God, the more you will love Him.
BRIEFLY
ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS.
1.
What do I see as God's
greatest act of love? Why?
2.
What in Christ's life reveals
to me Who He is? Why?
3.
What does the Eucharist mean
to me?
LESSON ON THE
RULE: SECOND MONTH
Look at the
FRUITS OF THE COMMITMENT and PURPOSE (CHARISM)
sections of the Constitutions of the
Confraternity. What are the goals of a
penitential life? How do you think following
the Rule and Constitutions of the
Confraternity can help achieve these?
SECOND MONTH
ACTIVITIES
·
Continue
praying the Apostles' Creed and the psalms
introduced last month.
·
Add time daily
to read and ponder Scripture. Begin with the
Gospels. Try to spend fifteen minutes per
day if possible.
·
Submit your
answers to this month's questions to your
CFP formator.
POSTULANT:
LESSON THREE
Our
Catholic Faith
The first
penitents prayed the Apostles' Creed twice
daily, and we do the same. The Creed was
important in the 1200's when penitents were
living their original Rule because heresy
was rampant and many so called "faithful"
were using Scripture to justify some very
unscriptural teachings. Today the Creed is
just as important when many, even within the
Church, call into question the very truths
of our faith as well as some of its moral
teachings.
No one can be
accepted into the Confraternity of Penitents
unless he or she adheres to all the
teachings of the Catholic Church. These are
found in Scripture, the Creed, and the
Catechism of the Catholic Church. Penitents
begin to formally study the Catechism when
they enter first year formation. As
postulants, your study will be confined to
the Creed and to Scripture. In this lesson,
we will do some comparison between the two.
The Apostles'
Creed is a profession of faith that contains
twelve fundamental doctrines. Even in
apostolic times, those about to be baptized
had to express their faith. The Apostles'
Creed is so named, not because it was
written by the Apostles, but because it is a
summary of their teaching. The Apostles'
Creed is similar to the Nicene Creed which
is a part of the Roman rite of every Mass.
The Nicene Creed, which presents the chief
doctrines of the Catholic faith, was
formulated at the first ecumenical council
of Nicaea (325 A.D.). The Nicene Creed
authoritatively established the divinity of
the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity by
pronouncing that the Son is "consubstantial
with the Father," a doctrine that had been
in dispute in some quarters at that time.
We can see
from these definitions that the Creeds
express the chief doctrines of our faith,
but not ALL the doctrines. All the doctrines
are expressed in the Catechism. But those in
the Creeds are fundamental, basic to all the
rest. We often "rattle off" these prayers
without thinking about what we are saying.
Let us examine the Apostles' Creed in
detail:
"I believe in
God, the Father almighty,
Creator of heaven
and earth;
And in Jesus
Christ, His only Son, Our Lord. Who was
conceived by the Holy Spirit, Born of the Virgin
Mary,
Suffered under
Pontius Pilate,
Was crucified,
died, and was buried.
He descended into
hell;
On he third day
He rose again from the dead; He ascended into
heaven,
Sits at the right
hand of God, the Father almighty;
From thence He
shall come to judge
The living and
the dead.
I believe in the
Holy Spirit,
the holy Catholic
Church;
the communion of
saints,
the forgiveness
of sins,
the resurrection
of the body,
and life
everlasting. Amen."
Now read the
Prologue to the Gospel of St. John in the Bible
(John 1:1‑18). Compare the Prologue to the Creed.
What similarities do you notice? Differences?
Omissions? The Prologue to John's Gospel is not
meant to be a complete Creed, but it is a creed, a
statement of faith. It speaks of the union of Christ
and the Father and of how God the Father was made
manifest in His Word, God the Son. A word, if
properly chosen, fully expresses a certain idea.
Jesus, the one Word of God, fully expresses the
reality of God. To know the Word is to know the
reality. That is why we must strive to know Christ.
To know Christ is to know the All.
The Apostles' Creed
summarizes the life of Christ. It tells us that He
was born, lived, died, rose, and will return. It
reminds us that we must believe in God the Father
and God the Holy Spirit, and that we must adhere to
all that the Catholic Church teaches. The Creed
affirms our faith in the forgiveness of sins and in
our bodily resurrection and tells us that the saints
are in "communion" with each other, meaning that we
can ask them to pray to God for us and they will do
so.
BRIEFLY ANSWER THE
FOLLOWING QUESTIONS
1.
How does the Creed
encapsulate our faith?
2.
Can you truly say that you embrace
all that it states?
3.
If you have difficulty with any part,
discuss it with a priest, deacon, or religious.
LESSON ON THE RULE
Look At Chapter I:
DAILY LIFE, of the Rule and Constitutions.
Some things for you
to ponder at this time are:
Note the clothing
provision. All penitential Rules contained clothing
parameters because clothing is a worldly concern,
and a penitential life is intended to break
attachments to worldly concerns.
Why were the
particular colors chosen as defined in the
Constitutions?
Read section 2 of the
Rule and Constitutions.
Note that in
Constitutions 2g the penitent is instructed to
visibly wear a simple cross or crucifix unless
already wearing the habit of a Third Order. Why?
Look over sections 3,
4, and 5 of the Rule and Constitutions. Why do you
suppose that section 3b of the Constitutions can be
implemented only to the extent that others in the
family go along with it?
THIRD MONTH’S
ACTIVITIES
·
Continue your prayer life as you have been doing.
Continue to read a portion of Scripture daily and
to spend some time pondering it. Unless you are
already wearing the habit of a Third Order, obtain a
cross or crucifix and wear it visibly always.
·
Submit your answers to
this month's questions to your CFP formator.
POSTULANT: LESSON
FOUR
The Magisterium of
the Church
Catholics are
supposed to be obedient people. We are to obey the
Pope and bishops in all matters of faith and morals.
Being human, some of us may disagree with decisions
of the hierarchy, but as Catholics we are to follow
their directives. Why? Because Christ has ordained
it.
The Roman Pontiff and
the bishops are "authentic teachers," that is,
teachers endowed with the authority of Christ, who
preach the faith to the people entrusted to them,
the faith to be believed and put into practice. "The
ordinary and universal Magisterium of the Pope and
the bishops in communion with him teach the faithful
the truth to believe, the charity to practice, the
beatitude to hope for." (Catechism of the Catholic
Church, section 2034).
How do we know that
the Church has this power? Scripture tells us of
this in Matthew's Gospel, Chapter 28, verses 19‑20,
where Jesus gives final instructions to His
apostles: "Go, then, to all peoples everywhere and
make them my disciples: baptize them in the name of
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teach
them to obey everything I have commanded you. And I
will be with you always, to the end of the age."
The Apostles took
this directive to heart as even a cursory reading of
the Book of Acts will show. Their mission was to
teach authoritatively the doctrines which Christ had
commissioned them to spread. Using the deposit of
faith contained in Scripture, and the oral and
written truth called tradition, the Church "formally
declares, through councils and infallible
definitions, her magisterium" (Catholic
Encyclopedia, p. 366).
The authority of the
Pope was conferred by Christ Himself on the Apostle
Peter as recorded in Matthew 16: 17‑19. "Blest are
you, Simon, son of Jonah! No mere man has revealed
this to you, but my heavenly Father. I for my part
declare to you, you are 'Rock', and on this rock I
will build my church, and the jaws of death shall
not prevail against it. I will entrust to you the
keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you declare
bound on earth shall be bound in heaven; whatever
you declare loosed on earth shall be loosed in
heaven."
Note how Christ
declares that the truth of faith, given to Peter,
was not the result of human reasoning but was
directly infused by God Himself. It is this infusion
of divine knowledge that enabled Peter to hold the
"keys to the Kingdom of heaven." What He permitted
and prohibited were not the results of his own
logic; rather, the Holy Spirit had instructed him to
permit or prohibit those very things.
Jesus chose Peter to
be the head of the Apostles and the visible head of
the Church on earth. The Book of Acts clearly shows
that the Apostles recognized this. Upon Peter's
death, St. Linus was chosen as Peter's successor. He
was followed by Saints Cletus, Clement, Evaristus,
Alexander, and so on to the current Holy Father.
Thus, except for a few brief, sad periods of
history, the Church has never been without a Pope.
The Magisterium of
the Church, evident in the authoritative teaching of
the Pope in union with the bishops, makes the
Catholic Church unique among all the Christian
faiths. Catholics everywhere are to be in obedience
to this hierarchy. They are to accept and teach the
truths of the faith as found in the Catechism of the
Catholic Church. This is not to say that other
faiths are "bad" because they are not bad but,
generally, quite good. But, good as they may be,
other faiths cannot equal the perfection of the
Catholic faith which is the fullness of the teaching
of Christ. Christ promised to be with Peter and his
successors down through time, guiding them without
error in the areas of faith and morals.
This does not mean
that some pastors of the flock do not sin, sometimes
in extreme ways. But when the Pope and bishops
expound a teaching of the Church in the area of
faith and morals, they are speaking the mind of
Christ Himself, unless it is clear that they are
only expressing their personal opinion. All
penitents must believe and accept this basic truth
of the Catholic faith.
The Pope is himself a
bishop, the bishop of Rome. By divine law, he also
has supreme jurisdiction over the universal Church
and over all religious. He may act alone or with a
council of bishops in defining Church doctrine. Thus
the hierarchy of the Church is formed. First Christ,
the head of the "mystical body," then His Vicar on
Earth, the Pope, followed by bishops, clergy,
religious, and laity.
If a person has
difficulty with obedience to the Pope and the
bishops, that person has difficulty with obedience
to Christ. Many of the saints have put the dilemma
this way. "If an angel appeared and told me to do
thus and so, but I went to my bishop and he forbade
it, I would obey the bishop. I may be deceived by
the angel for even a demon can come as an angel of
light, but I can see my bishop and cannot be
deceived about his directives. If the bishop is
right and I am wrong, I am justified by my
obedience. If the bishop is wrong and I am right,
God will reveal the truth in His time."
A good example of
this very thing occurred regarding the Divine mercy
messages to Sister Faustina. Spread initially, then
repressed by a bishop, the messages are now being
spread with the good wishes of the Pope. Moreover,
the nun who received the visions has been canonized.
A measure of Saint Faustina’s holiness was her
obedience.
Penitents must be
obedient to the faith and moral teachings of the
Church. This does not imply that every religious in
the Church is without sin or that penitents cannot
work to address any injustices or lacks of good
judgment that they may notice. It does mean that
penitents should study the Catechism of the Catholic
Church so that they will know what the Church does
teach. Penitents must adhere to all the truths of
the Catholic faith as the Church teaches them in the
Catechism. Formal study of the Catechism begins in
First Year Formation.
BRIEFLY ANSWER THE
FOLLOWING QUESTIONS
1. Reread the second
paragraph of this lesson. What is the Magisterium?
From where derives the doctrine of the Magisterium?
2. Reread Jesus's
address to Peter. What insights does it reveal to
you?
3. If someone in the
hierarchy of the Church sins, how is it possible to
separate the sin from the teaching authority of the
bishop involved?
LESSONS FROM THE
RULE
DAILY MASS
Look at CHAPTER IV:
PRAYER in the Rule and Constitutions. Pay particular
attention to section 14. The Constitutions 14a and
14b clarify the daily Mass requirement. Study these
sections carefully and discuss them with another
penitent if possible. Note that penitents do not
HAVE to attend daily Mass.
The Rule and
Constitutions for the Confraternity of Penitents
always put concern for the welfare of others above
following rules. Therefore, if daily Mass attendance
would seriously inconvenience a penitent in
fulfilling his or her daily duties, the penitent
should stay home. Right?
Should a penitent
feel "guilty" if he or she feels that attending
daily Mass is a "serious inconvenience?"
COMMUNITY LIFE
Look at Chapter VI,
sections 19‑21 of the Rule and Constitutions. This
chapter discusses many aspects of community life
within the Confraternity. Note that penitents are to
attend Confraternity meetings, if possible. Note how
penitents are to respond if this is not possible.
Also note the discussion on the structure of the
meetings themselves.
What procedure is to
be followed if a Chapter loses its spiritual
assistant?
How are members to
financially support their Chapters and the
Confraternity?
What can you
personally do to strengthen fellow penitents?
FOURTH MONTH’S
ACTIVITIES
·
Continue your prayer
life, Scripture reading, and meditation.
·
Consider attending
daily Mass if possible.
·
Submit your answers to
this month's questions to your CFP formator.
POSTULANT: LESSON
FIVE
The Person of
Jesus
Penitents should have
a love affair with Jesus. Jesus is not to be the
spouse of only consecrated religious. He is to be
the mystical spouse of every Catholic. There is no
doubt that Jesus lived. History, including pagan
texts, attests to that. The question is, "Who was
He?" This is a question that every penitent should
consider and every penitent must answer. It is not
enough to give an answer that someone else has
given. The penitent's answer must be from the heart.
We can have many
different possible relationships with Jesus. We may
ignore Him, disbelieve Him, consider Him to be
mentally unbalanced. We may think He was a good
teacher, a great prophet, a holy man, a miracle
worker. But Jesus wants our relationship with Him to
be different. He wants us to know that He is
Creator, Brother, Spouse, and Redeemer of each of
us. All these relationships are possible because
Jesus is God and God, as St. John tells us, is Love.
St. Peter Julian
Eymard wrote, "What are the proofs of a genuine
love? There is only one, its sacrifices: the
sacrifices it prompts us to do and those it accepts
with joy.
"Love without
sacrifice is but an empty name, a self‑love in
disguise" (The Real Presence: Eucharistic
Meditations, Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament,
Emmanuel Publications, 5384 Wilson Mills Road,
Cleveland OH 44143, p. 59).
We can say with
certainty that Jesus loves us because He sacrificed
so totally for us. He left eternal bliss to come to
earth as a child in a virgin's womb. He Who had the
adulation of angels was subjected to ridicule and
rejection by His creatures. Giving Himself and His
healing to us, He taught us that God is merciful,
welcoming, ready to forgive, and yet we crucified
Him, all with His consent. Now, in the greatest act
of sacrifice, He comes to earth minute by minute in
the hands of His priests, uniting through the
Eucharist His sinless Body with our sinful one. St.
Peter Julian Eymard puts this very clearly. "He (the
priest) commands that God be on the altar, and on
the instant, God is there. . . . Our Lord has never
disobeyed His priest. . . . A weak, mortal creature
gives birth to our sacramental Jesus!" (The Real
Presence: Eucharistic Mediations, p. 56).
To develop our love
of Christ, we should meditate on the roles He has
played for us.
Creator:
From God the Father, through
Christ the Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit, all
things came to be and are held in being. All things.
That includes us. Do we ever think that we are here
only because God willed us? And that we remain alive
because of His will? That we will live eternally
because of the will of God? What did we ever do to
deserve being created? What can we ever do to
deserve eternal bliss?
Brother:
Christ told us that He is our
brother. A brother is one with whom we are utterly
familiar. We can joke with our brother and tell him
things we wouldn't think of telling someone else,
even a close friend. Can we relate to Jesus as
brother? What does this mean to you?
Spouse:
A union with a spouse is one
of intimate and private sharing. A spouse is to know
all about us, but even a human spouse may not know
the deepest thoughts in our hearts. Yet Jesus wishes
to be our Divine Spouse. He desires the most
intimate union of love with us. He wishes us to
share with Him every part of our spirits including
the good, the bad, and the ugly! He knows what we
are thinking and feeling anyway. To share these with
our Lord is to give Him access to the most intimate
recesses of our beings.
Redeemer:
To redeem means to buy back,
to liberate, to free by force, to ransom. Only
something that is in possession of someone else can
be redeemed. If we think we are free, then we
certainly are not going to be looking for a redeemer
because we will think that we don't need one. Only
if we realize that we are subject to sin and held
prisoner by it can we see the need for our
redemption. How can we be freed from the power sin
holds over us? Only by the redeeming grace of God.
Jesus is Creator,
Brother, Spouse, Redeemer. All these roles involve
tremendous Love and hence tremendous sacrifice on
God's part. When we see how God has sacrificed for
us, we should be moved to imitate Him and sacrifice
for Him. As penitents, we are called to imitate
Christ. We can only do this if we know Christ, and
we can only know Him if we learn about Him.
To learn about Him,
we must read about Him in the Gospels and meditate
on the messages found there. Then we need to go
beyond this and put into practice what we have
learned. The Beatitudes, "Blessed are the meek, the
pure of heart, those who mourn, the suffering," and
so on, are meant to be guidelines for us. We are to
be meek and humble before Christ and in the presence
of others. We are to be peacemakers. We are to be
pure. We are to mourn for our sins and for the sins
of the world. We are to hunger and thirst for
righteousness, for those who hunger and thirst for
anything strive to alleviate their hunger and
thirst.
In a word, we are to
beg God's grace to subjugate our sinful nature to
God's will and to embrace what may be difficult and
perhaps even physically harmful if it is for the
good of another. By behaving these ways, we are
showing love. We love God because He first loved us.
Love means sacrifice. It means death of the will to
do the will of God. "The measure of love," said one
of the saints, "is to love without measure." Love is
always willing to die for the beloved.
God, Who is Love,
died for us. How much are we willing to die to
ourselves for love of Him?
BRIEFLY ANSWER THE
FOLLOWING QUESTIONS
1.
Describe your relationship with Jesus.
2.
What title do you use most often for
Christ? Creator? Brother? Spouse? Redeemer? Friend?
3.
How far do you think you would go in
your love of Christ?
LESSON ON THE RULE
Look at Chapter VII,
VISITING THE SICK/BURYING THE DEAD, sections 22 to
24, of the Rule and Constitutions. Why do you think
penitents are to exhort their ill brothers and
sisters in Christ to penance (conversion)?
If a fellow penitent
dies, what obligations does a penitent have
regarding the funeral? What prayers are to be said
for the soul of the deceased?
FIFTH MONTH’S
ACTIVITIES
·
One way to show love
for others is to pray for the dead. As penitents, we
are to yearly pray the entire Psalter for our
deceased Confraternity members. The easiest way to
do this is to pray every day one Psalm or a portion
of a Psalm with this intention in mind. This month,
in addition to the prayers that you are already
praying, begin with the first Psalm and pray one
Psalm daily (or portion of a larger Psalm) for
deceased members, adding a Glory Be after the Psalm
and the words, "Eternal rest grant unto them, 0
Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May
their souls and the souls of all the faithful
departed rest in peace. Amen."
·
Submit your answers to
this month's questions to your CFP formator.
POSTULANT: LESSON SIX
The Secret of
Sanctity
Some people have
misconceptions about saints. They mistakenly believe
that saints were extraordinary people who, once
converted, never experienced the temptations that
the rest of us undergo. The saints were superior in
their sanctity, workers of miracles, stigmatists,
prophets, superhuman in enduring physical suffering,
torture, and death. Saints fasted to extremes,
performed severe bodily penances, prayed for hours,
slept little. Believing that such heroism is totally
beyond their grasp, most people are certain that
they could never be saints.
When someone asked
Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta if she knew that
people called her a saint, she replied, "I try to be
one. Don't you?" Blessed Teresa had the right idea.
We are ALL called to be saints. Everyone in heaven
is a saint. Don't we hope to go there?
If we are called to
be saints, but we can't pray all night or live on
half a roll a day, if we've never performed a
miracle or healed anyone, if we are scared stiff of
torture, how in the world will we ever be saints?
The answer is quite simple. We will be saints by
being all that God has called us to be.
You see, God wants us
to live with Him eternally in heaven. Since this is
His desire, wouldn't it be unjust of Him not to
provide the means for us to fulfill His plan? God
has given every person the means to become a saint.
The secret is that the means is not the same for
every person.
The path to sanctity
for Saint Francis was not the same path that Saint
Dominic or Saint Anne or Saint Gregory the Great
took. All the paths led to God, but every path was
tailor-made to the saint who was walking it. We make
the greatest error when we try to imitate the saints
by doing what they did instead of asking God what He
wants us to do and then doing that.
The secret of
sanctity is not doing miracles or having ecstasies.
It is not founding Orders or being martyred for
Christ. The secret of sanctity is surrender.
Surrender! Surrender
to God's plan for us. Not surrender to God's plan
for the woman who prays five rosaries a day or the
man who is our parish deacon. Not God's plan for
Father X or Sister Y but God's plan for us. Do we
honestly believe that God has a plan for us
personally? Not just a general outline, "I want you
to know, love, and serve Me in this world so you can
be happy with Me in the next", but a very specific
plan that God intends to work out in our behalf if
only we allow Him to do so.
God's path to
sanctity is different for each person. Pray to find
the path for you and walk in it. Your path. Your way
to holiness. Yours, not someone else’s. To be
totally conformed to God's will for you is to
become a saint because God wills you to be holy, to
be a saint. Our prayers should be, not "God, do You
want me to be a saint?" but "Lord, let me not 'mess
up' Your plan."
How can we know God's
plan for us? First, by prayer and by reading and
meditating on Scripture. Ask God to reveal His plan
to you. Then wait for an answer. If God tarries, it
is not because He has no plan for you. It is because
you are not yet mature enough to follow it or
because the time is not yet right for the next step.
We have to be at the level of spiritual maturity
that corresponds to each step of the plan. Maybe we
have to grow deeper spiritually before God reveals
the next step of the plan to us. Maybe God is even
now working out the next phase, putting all the
pieces together. At the right time, we will know. If
we continue to pray, to listen to God's still, small
voice within, if we continue to read Scripture and
meditate on it, asking God to speak to us through
it, God will guide us. Often He is guiding when we
least suspect it. We must be patient, trusting,
peaceful. We must walk with the plan, not rushing
ahead, not lagging behind.
We must also not wish
to know more than what God reveals to us at the
time. Scripture calls God's word a "lamp to our
feet." Think of walking at night with a lantern. A
lantern lights up the path before you and around
you, but in the distance, everything is dark. God
promises to give us enough light to see our way, one
step at a time. He never promised to light up the
entire path. We will have enough of His light to
take one step forward in the path that He has
prepared, but what is farther along we must leave to
His wisdom and providence. Our job is not to know
everything but to trust what we do know and to
follow.
God calls us to
surrender to His plan for us. We can only do that if
we give God ALL of ourselves. Recall the story of
the widow's mite (Luke 21: 1‑4). Jesus commended the
widow for putting into the Temple treasury ALL she
had. It didn't seem like a lot but it was more than
others gave because it was ALL she had.
We may not have the
elaborate spiritual gifts common to some canonized
saints. That's because we don't need them to be
holy. To be holy, we must give God what we have,
i.e., our wills, our lives. God does not want fifty
percent or seventy five percent or even ninety
percent. He wants 100 percent. God wants ALL of us.
This is total
surrender. This is the secret of sanctity. The
ultimate purpose of the Rule for the Confraternity
of Penitents is to foster in the penitent this
attitude of total surrender. When penitents
surrender their wills to the daily discipline of the
Rule, they are not only glorifying God by their
prayers and mortification but they are also
practicing surrender to Him. By voluntarily
surrendering what is desirable for the sake of
greater, spiritual gains, penitents become more
docile to the will of God Who, in time, may ask them
to surrender far more, i.e., their worldly plans,
time, health, possessions, loved ones. We cannot be
totally surrendered to God if we are attached to
anything else. By practicing detachment through the
Rule, penitents should be more likely than others to
say, "Lord, Your will, not mine, be done."
To be totally
surrendered to God requires moral courage. Penitents
will soon discover this if they share the Rule with
others who think it is "archaic, medieval”. Why
would anyone want to do such a thing? Surrounded by
all sorts of tantalizing choices and an array of
easily accessible foods, clothing, and possessions,
those who are not called to this way of life might
think that living the Rule seems ridiculously
unnecessary, even severe. We must be sure that, if
God has called us to this, then it is His will that
we embrace it. Living the Rule is part of our path
to sanctity and to ultimate union with Our Lord.
BRIEFLY ANSWER THE
FOLLOWING QUESTIONS
1.
Do I
believe that God has a specific plan for my life?
2.
How have I seen His hand at work in
my life to this point?
3.
What does total surrender mean to me?
LESSON ON THE RULE
Look over Chapter V:
THE SACRAMENTS, OTHER MATTERS, section 15 of the
Rule and Constitutions. What is the spiritual goal
of this section?
A tithe is 10% of
one's income usually taken from one's gross income.
Why do you think tithing is part of this Rule?
Study sections 16,
17, and 18 of the Rule and the Constitutions. Choose
one of these sections and discuss it relative to
your life.
SIXTH MONTH’S
ACTIVITIES
·
Begin receiving the
Sacrament of Reconciliation monthly.
·
Submit your answers to
this month's questions to your CFP formator.
POSTULANT: LESSON
SEVEN
