The Presentation of the Lord through the Eyes of the Mystics
What is the Most Ancient of Christian Devotions?
Making the Devil Afraid of You
Three Assaults on Your Interior Peace
Is the Interior Life Selfish?
The Torments of Hell
Summon up before the eye of your mind, therefore, a horrible and swirling chaos, or a lightless and sinister subterranean cavern, fuming with every kind of unspeakable foulness and swarming with hideous phantasms, or a burning and bottomless pit, completely suffused with scorching, acrid, and inextinguishable fires. Alternatively, you may imagine a great and immense…
Four Means of Distrusting Oneself
DISTRUST of self is so absolutely requisite in the spiritual combat that without this virtue we cannot expect to defeat our weakest passions, much less gain a complete victory. This important truth should be deeply embedded in our hearts; for, although in ourselves we are nothing, we are too apt to overestimate our own abilities…
Maxims for Perseverance in Piety
TO LIVE constantly in devotion, we have only to establish sound principles or maxims in our soul. The first which I desire you to adopt is that of St. Paul: “All things work together for good to those who love God.” And truly, since God is able and understands how to draw good from evil,…
Defending the Real Presence: Two True Stories
It happened once in the Netherlands that two ladies, a Catholic and a Protestant, were disputing on the subject of the Real Presence. The Protestant asserted that the Real Presence was impossible. The Catholic asked her: “Have you Protestants any creed in your religion?” “Oh, to be sure,” said the Protestant; and she began to…
The Martyrdom of St. Sebastian
After all of these things had taken place, Sebastian himself was arrested by the imperial spies. Since he was a man of high rank in the Roman army and court, he was taken before the emperor Diocletian for a personal audience. Diocletian looked upon Sebastian with some sadness and disappointment. At last, he exclaimed, “Sebastian,…
The Joys of Heaven
Consider, my friend, the infinite and unutterable joy which shall arise from the pure and direct perception of the most Holy Trinity! This is the mystic and unfathomable wonder referred to as the “beatific vision.” For this Holy Trinity, mysterious and beyond all conception, is the perfect archetype and ultimate epitome of all that is…
Hell and the Revelations of a Holy Nun
The Holy Catholic Church was founded by Jesus Christ to save souls from the eternal punishments of hell. Otherwise, Jesus’s death, resurrection, and ascension have no meaning. But His life is of greatest value, for we could not be saved without His death and resurrection. Our Lord is very clear that the road to heaven is…
First Temptations of St. Antony
But the devil, the hater and envier of good, could not bear to see such resolution in a young man, but attempted to use against him the means in which he is skilled. First, he tried to draw him back from the religious life by reminding him of his property, of the care of his…
