This week has been full of challenges.  This isn't particularly out of the ordinary in a large family mind you.  I was grateful to awaken fairly rested this morning and had an hour to myself to sit and read and think in absolute quiet before I needed to shift into high gear. A title caught my eye on the bookshelf: Holy Abandonment.  My fingers ran down the table of contents til they reached "home and community." 

The page found, I read first, "Our time on earth is a a time of conflict: of conflict against ourselves to repair our faults, to overcome our defects, and to grow in virtue and merit. The means at our disposal for attaining these ends are manifold. One of the most efficacious is community life with the sacrifices it imposes."  This of course, has its counterpart in the domestic church, the home and family. 

Jean Pierre de Caussade writes that, "…because you have not sufficiently brought home to yourself this great principle, you have never been able to submit as you should to certain conditions and occurrences, nor consequently to remain firmly and tranquilly united to the will of God." He says we suffer much disquiet and 'false reasonings' on this account. 

There is a section which follows that explains that the irritations and upset we experience with others only serves to show us what is inside of ourselves.  Kind of like that meme about how when the kettle is knocked you find out what was boiling inside of it.  Other people serve to reveal was already inside of us.  For this reason the author asserts that these occasions of annoyance are a blessing.  (otherwise) "We should imagine we knew ourselves and all the time entertain the most fantastic illusions, if this person or that in a moment of temper did not frankly tell us the truth about ourselves."

He shares that a holy founders once said, "Each of you has her own disposition, temper, imperfections, eccentricities. If we had no difficult characters (in our family/community) we would be obliged to purchase some in order that they might help us to heaven. God has provided us with such means free of charge. It is for us to make the most of of this means of mortification."  

Digest that one for a moment.  These personality clashes are somehow a blessing.  More than that,  a necessity.

Holy Abandonment advises:

"Let us forgive and we shall be forgiven. Let us forget the wrongs we have suffered from our brother and God will gladly forget the wrongs He has suffered from us. Let us support our neighbor, let us be patient with him, show him mercy and kindness; and the Lord, ever faithful to His promise, will deal in the same manner with us."   The author understands this is not easy.  "It costs something to suffer without respite." 

These contradictions which we face day in and day out, "Provide us with repeated opportunities for the practice of the rarest and most solid virtues: charity, patience, gentleness, humility of heart, kindness, mortification of the temper, etc.  These little daily virtues, faithfully practiced, will yield us a a rich harvest of graces….

This cross alone (daily irritations) will serve more effectually than other crosses, heavier in appearance."

De Caussade goes so far as to say, "Far from pitying you, I can only congratulate you on having found at last an occasion for the practice of true charity. The antipathy you feel for the person with whom you are continually associated,  the opposition between your ideas and temperaments, the pain he causes you by his manners and language are so many infallible guarantees that the charity you will exercise in his regard shall be purely supernatural without the least alloy of human sentiment. Therefore thank the good God."

He gives four instructions so we may not squander this opportunity:

1. Endure patiently the involuntary feelings of resentment excited in your heart by the conduct of this person, just as you would endure an attack of fever or a headache. 
2. Never speak as perhaps others do of this person but always say something to his advantage for he must have some good qualities. And which of us is altogether free of defects?
3. Whenever you commit any fault (ie respond undesirably to the person) repair it once by gently humbling yourself without any voluntary bitterness either against yourself or this person. By means of these daily miseries and faults God never ceases to lower our pride and keep us in true humility. 
4. Abandon everything to Providence. 

"Instead of complaining, let us bless God Who has had the wisdom and the goodness to place at our side (such a person) for that neighbor is necessary to us."

St Jane Frances de Chantal, a woman who is said to have begun her life with a 'haughty' disposition, chipped away at her pride and grew in humility over a seven year span following her husbands untimely death. She was ill-treated and suffered humiliations in her father-in-law's home.  You can read more here on page 164-165. 

We made a short visit to the Western Slope to see one of our sons – and the fall colors – this weekend. My phone is also down so I missed my annual sharing of St. Francis' Perfect Joy.  I certainly thought about it though and am posting a bit late anyway.  It's too good to miss.  

"He hath given his angels charge over thee; to keep thee in all thy ways." Psalm 90

St Ambrose tells us, "Every soul at the moment it is infused into the body, is entrusted into the keeping of an Angel." 

"That there is an angel for each one of the faithful no one will contradict." St Basil

"Their angels always see the face of the Father," Mt 18:10

We have been told of the angels watching over us from the writers of the Old Testament up to the present day.  It is piously believed that countries, cities, churches and families have heavenly guardians as well. Despite the heartwarming depiction of Clarence in It's a Wonderful Life, angels are not wonderfully good people who go to heaven and get their wings.  Believers who go to heaven are referred to as saints – and not just the famous ones.  Angels were created ahead of us and are entirely different creatures of God.  And though they are also often depicted as chubby babies that isn't the best visual for creatures who have been seen defending us with flaming swords and on the front lines of battlefields. (more here)  Given how many accounts we have of angelic activity it ought to challenge any ideas we may have of the heavenly host lolling about on their own clouds. 

St Bernard admonishes us to continually bring to mind our indebtedness for this protection. "Never forget your life companion. Show him reverence for his presence, for his loyalty, and for his good will, and have great confidence in his protection."

Pius XI refers to St Bernard's instructions and adds to them:

"We wish to stress in particular as an act of gratitude that We have always experienced the wonderful help of Our Guardian Angel. We have often felt his very presence.

The same can be said of the Guardian Angels of all little children, that they are always present, led by their tender love to be ever watchful.

The conviction that we are protected by a prince of the heavenly army by one of those chosen spirits of whom Christ said that they always see the face of God, this conviction fills us with reverence, devotion, and a firm confidence.

Such a confidence is necessary and must give evidence of itself when a great duty must be fulfilled or a good resolution carried out. At these times we must avail ourselves of the help and protection of our Guardian Angel.

Our prayers for his help are the clearest and best expression of our confidence. This salutary thought of St. Bernard was impressed on our mind early in life by our mother, as soon as we were able to understand it.

This conviction supported us in all the things we have accomplished in our life with the help of God's grace, and it will certainly be our support in the remaining part of our life, which God will grant us."

We have a convicting example in St Francis de Sales.  Fr. Lasance relates:

St. Francis of Sales had a particular devotion to his Guardian Angel; he celebrated the Feast with special care and piety; in spirit he received his blessing in the most important actions of his life; and not only was he devout to his good Angel, but also to the Angels of his friends. He had even a devotion to those of the heretics, his enemies; for he said that in disputing with the Huguenots he exorcised the demons who possessed and obsessed them, and afterward invoked their Angels. When he was absent from his diocese, he recommended it in an especial manner to the care of his holy Angel. He never failed to salute the Angels of the kingdoms, provinces, or parishes which he entered. In the confessional he frequently invoked the Guardian Angel of his penitent, and we may read in his letters how much be recommended to his pious friends devotion to their Guardian Angel. He said that in this world the Angels attend to almost everything, as they are the messengers of God, and invisible; and that to accomplish much for His Divine service and not wish to appear was to serve God in an angelic manner.

Lest we think devotion to the angels is child's play, Father Husslein, S.J. says, "Never let us imagine we can outgrow in stature or in years, our need for the daily and more frequent recital of that perfect little prayer to the Guardian Angel which we learned at our mother's knee: 

"Angel of God, my Guardian dear,
To whom His love commits me here,
Ever this day be at my side,
To light and guard, to rule and guide."

We learned something new in our adult class on the Faith last night.  We always do. We discussed Pope LeoXIII's Encyclical Quamquam Pluries, On Devotion to St Joseph.  It was written in 1889, but reading through it is apparent how applicable it is today.  I will just pull a couple excerpts:

"…you know the times in which we live; they are scarcely less deplorable for the Christian religion than the worst days, which in time past were most full of misery to the Church. We see faith, the root of all the Christian virtues, lessening in many souls; we see charity growing cold; the young generation daily growing in depravity of morals and views; the Church of Jesus Christ attacked on every side by open force or by craft; a relentless war waged against the Sovereign Pontiff; and the very foundations of religion undermined with a boldness which waxes daily in intensity. These things are, indeed, so much a matter of notoriety that it is needless for Us to expatiate on the depths to which society has sunk in these days, or on the designs which now agitate the minds of men."

He goes on to give some guidance especially for October, already consecrated to the Virgin Mary under the title of Our Lady of the Rosary.  St Joseph lived with Jesus and Our Lady for many years.  Their care and support was entrusted to him alone.

"…during the whole course of his life he fulfilled those charges and those duties.

He set himself to protect with a mighty love and a daily solicitude his spouse and the Divine Infant;

regularly by his work he earned what was necessary for the one and the other for nourishment and clothing;

he guarded from death the Child threatened by a monarch's jealousy, and found for Him a refuge;

in the miseries of the journey and in the bitternesses of exile he was ever the companion, the assistance, and the upholder of the Virgin and of Jesus."

He does on to explain why,"men of every rank and country should fly to the trust and guard of the blessed Joseph." He is the personification of paternal vigilance, the perfect example of love between spouses, protector of the vulnerable, who passed his own life in humble labor, content with slight possessions.  Next to Jesus and Our Lady, he is a most efficacious intercessor in Heaven for all families. For that reason the Holy Father made this request:  

"We prescribe that during the whole month of October, at the recitation of the Rosary, for which We have already legislated, a prayer to St. Joseph be added."

It is a small thing, a simple pious practice we can join to the daily rosary this month. The prayer he composed is here:

Prayer to Saint Joseph

To thee, O blessed Joseph, we have recourse in our affliction, and having implored the help of thy thrice holy Spouse, we now, with hearts filled with confidence, earnestly beg thee also to take us under thy protection. By that charity wherewith thou wert united to the Immaculate Virgin Mother of God, and by that fatherly love with which thou didst cherish the Child Jesus, we beseech thee and we humbly pray that thou wilt look down with gracious eye upon that inheritance which Jesus Christ purchased by His blood, and wilt succor us in our need by thy power and strength.

Defend, O most watchful guardian of the Holy Family, the chosen off-spring of Jesus Christ. Keep from us, O most loving Father, all blight of error and corruption. Aid us from on high, most valiant defender, in this conflict with the powers of darkness. And even as of old thou didst rescue the Child Jesus from the peril of His life, so now defend God's Holy Church from the snares of the enemy and from all adversity. Shield us ever under thy patronage, that, following thine example and strengthened by thy help, we may live a holy life, die a happy death, and attain to everlasting bliss in Heaven. Amen.