Forgiveness and Contemplation in Prayer

One obstacle to praying for forgiveness is the struggle to forgive. Whenever someone hurts us in a serious way, there is a spiritual wound that remains. As we begin to pray, we commonly find ourselves going back over these wounds again and again. What is most frustrating is that many times we thought we had already forgiven the person who hurt us. But when the memory comes back, we can sometimes feel the anger and the pain all over again.

What do we do with the wounds so that they no longer impede our ability to pray? The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains, “It is not in our power not to feel or to forget an offense; but the heart that offers itself to the Holy Spirit turns injury into compassion and purifies the memory in transforming hurt into intercession” (CCC 2843). What this means is when wronged, we naturally feel pain and remember the hurt, but surrendering that pain to the Holy Spirit can change its shape — from bitterness to mercy — and cleanse memory by converting grievance into prayer for the one who caused it.

To pray for those who have hurt us is difficult. In scriptural terms, those who hurt us are our enemies, and this is true even when they are friends and close family members. Christ commands us to love our enemies and to do good to those who persecute us. Betrayal, abandonment, indifference, scandal, abuse, scorn, sarcasm, ridicule, detraction, and insult — these are all bitter things to forgive. The Lord grieves with us and for us when we suffer these things. He has permitted us to suffer them for a profound reason.

The Lord explained to His disciples that those who hunger and thirst for the sake of justice, those who are merciful, and especially those who are persecuted for righteousness and for the Lord are blessed. Their mysterious beatitude makes sense only when we see through the eyes of faith the injustice and persecution they have endured. Somehow, trusting in God in the midst of such things makes them in the likeness of Christ. Trusting in God means to pray for those who harm us, to seek to return good for evil. When this act of trust is made, the power of God is released in humanity. For two thousand years, this is what every martyr for our Catholic faith has revealed to the Church.

Why God Permits the Persecution of Those He Loves

In his mysterious wisdom and profound love, when the Father allows someone to hurt or oppose us in some way, He is entrusting that person to our prayers. When our enemy causes us to suffer unjustly, our faith tells us that this was allowed to happen so that we might participate in the mystery of the Cross. Somehow, like those who offered their lives for our faith (our saints), the mystery of redemption is being renewed through our own sufferings.

We have a special authority over the soul of someone who causes us great sorrow. Their actions have bound them to us in the mercy of God. Mercy is love that suffers the evil of another to affirm his dignity so that he does not have to suffer alone.

Whenever someone hurts us physically or even emotionally, he has demeaned himself even more. He is even more in need of mercy.

From this perspective, the injury our enemies have caused us can be a gateway for us to embrace the even greater sufferings with which their hearts are burdened. Because of this relationship, our prayers on their behalf have a particular power. The Father hears these prayers because prayer for our enemies enters deep into the mystery of the Cross. But how do we begin to pray for our enemies when the very thought of them and what they have done stirs our hearts with bitterness and resentment?

Here we must ask what it means to repent for our lack of mercy. The first step is the hardest. Whether they are living or dead, we need to forgive those who have hurt us. This is the hardest because forgiveness involves more than intellectually assenting to the fact that we ought to forgive.

We know that we get some pleasure out of our grievances. The irrational pleasure we can sometimes take in these distracts us from what God Himself desires us to do. What happens when all that pleasure is gone, when all we have left is the Cross? Saint John of the Cross sees our poverty in the midst of great afflic­tion as the greatest union with Christ crucified possible in this life: “When they are reduced to nothing, the highest degree of humility, the spiritual union between their souls and God will be an accomplished fact. This union is most noble and sublime state attainable in this life.” In the face of our grievances we must realize this solidarity with Christ and cleave to His example with all our strength.

Living by the Cross means choosing, over and over, whenever angry and resentful memories come up, not to hold a debt against someone who has hurt us. It means renouncing secret vows of revenge to which we have bound ourselves. It means avoiding indulging in self-pity or thinking ill of those who have sinned against us. It means begging God to show us the truth about our enemy’s plight.

The Work of the Holy Spirit

Here, human effort alone cannot provide the healing such ongoing choices demand. Only the Lord’s mercy can dissolve our hardness of heart toward those who have harmed us. We have to surrender our grievances to the Holy Spirit, who turns “injury into compassion” and transforms “hurt into intercession” (CCC 2849).

As with every Christian who has tried to follow Him, the Cross terrified Jesus. He sweat blood in the face of it. We believe that it was out of the most profound love for us and for His Father that He embraced this suffering. Because of this love, He would not have it any other way. Overcoming His own fear, He accepted death for our sake and, in accepting it, sanctified it so that it might become the pathway to new life.

Precisely because Jesus has made death a pathway of life, Christians are also called to take up their crosses and follow Him. They must offer up their resentment to God and allow their bitterness to die. Offering the gift of our grievances to God is especially pleasing to Him. It is part of our misery, and our misery is the only thing we really have to offer God that He wants.

This effort is spiritual, the work of the Holy Spirit. In order to forgive, we must pray, and sometimes we must devote many hours, days, and even years to prayer for this purpose. It is a difficult part of our life-long conversion. Yet we cannot dwell very deep in our hearts, we cannot live with ourselves, if we do not find mercy for those who have offended us. Living with ourselves, living within ourselves, is impossible without mercy.

There are moments in such prayer when we suddenly realize we must not only forgive but must also ask for forgiveness. A transformation takes place when our attention shifts from the evil done to us to the plight of the person who inflicted it. Every time we submit resentment to the Lord, every time we renounce a vengeful thought, every time we offer the Lord the deep pain in our heart, even if we do not feel or understand it, we have made room for the gentle action of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit does not take the wounds away. They remain like the wounds in the hands and side of Christ. The wounds of Christ are a pathway into the heart of every man and woman. This is because the hostility of each one of us toward Him caused those wounds. Similarly when someone wounds us, the wound can become a pathway into that person’s heart. Wounds bind us to those who have hurt us, especially those who have become our enemies, because whenever someone hurts us, he has allowed us to share in his misery, to know the lack of love he suffers. With the Holy Spirit, this knowledge is a powerful gift.

Once the Holy Spirit shows us this truth, we have a choice. We can choose to suffer this misery with the one who hurt us in prayer so that God might restore that person’s dignity. When we choose this, our wounds, like the wounds of Christ, no longer dehumanize as long as we do not backslide. Instead, the Holy Spirit transforms such wounds into founts of grace. Those who have experienced this will tell you that with the grace of Christ there is no room for bitterness. There is only great compassion and sober prayerfulness.

Saint Thomas Aquinas on Mercy and the Gift of Counsel As we go further into the discussion of Saint Thomas Aquinas on mercy, he explains that the Holy Spirit’s gift of counsel is a special prompting, or impetus, in the heart that brings every act of mercy to perfection. The gift of counsel, explains Saint Thomas, allows us to know and to understand the misery in the hearts of others. Once we know and understand their misery, we can bind ourselves to them in prayer so that those who have hurt us might feel the mercy of God in their misery, that they might find a reason to hope, a pathway out of the hell in which they are imprisoned.

It is by this same gift that Christ knew our hostility to God and allowed Himself to be wounded unto death by it. He wanted to bear this dehumanizing force in our nature so that it might die with Him. This way, when He rose again, He could free from futility all that is good, noble, and true about each of us.

Likewise with us, this same gift allows us to extend Christ’s saving work into the hearts of others. In particular, the gift of counsel allows us to understand the dehumanizing hostility others have unleashed on us and by understanding it in faith, to offer it to God in love. When we do this, our mercy, perfected by the Holy Spirit, makes space in the hearts of those who have hurt us, space into which God’s love can flow. It is the saving mercy of God, His love suffering our misery, which is the only hope for humanity.

BY: ANTHONY LILLES

St. Michael's Church - Chicago

 

 

From MY hometown (Chicago) - The beloved St. Michael's Church in the Old Town neighborhood (1633 N. Cleveland Ave.), is a Roman Catholic church staffed by the Redemptorist order of priests. The parish was founded to minister to German Catholic immigrants in 1852 with its first wooden church completed that year at a cost of $750 (including the bell). The building stands at the intersection of Eugenie Street and Cleveland Avenue. In addition, the town's main church, St. Joseph's Church, was overcrowded. The Redemptorists were invited to administer the parish in 1860 and a large brick church was finished in 1869. When completed, its tower made it the tallest building in Chicago, a distinction it held until the old Chicago Board of Trade Building was completed in 1885. The church was one of six buildings to 'survive' the path of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, albeit heavily damaged. While most of Old Chicago's infrastructure was made of wood, the church was made of brick which helped it survive the fire.

First Saturday Communion of Reparation

The following material is directly quoted from an article found at The Marian Library:

Servite Nun Originated First Saturday Communion of Reparation

We all know that from time immemorial Christian tradition had consecrated every Saturday to Our Lady. At Fatima, however, it was the First Saturday of each month which she herself particularly singled out for reparation to her Immaculate Heart. Were these words of Our Lady's "Great Promise" at Fatima the origin of the First Saturday Communion of Reparation? No. Both St. Pius X and Benedict XV had previously indulged the practice. Who, then, was the founder of Reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on the First Saturday? As far as our studies have been able to determine, the founder was a Servite nun. And here is the story.

Apparition of Our Lady

In the latter half of the nineteenth century there lived at Rovigo, Italy, a very holy family named Ronconi. There were seven sons in the family, all of whom died a saintly death at a very early age. The last to die – he was nineteen – received an apparition from Our Blessed Lady just before his death. Among other things Our Lady told the dying youth that she wanted his father to become a Servite tertiary and that he could do so by writing to the Servants of Mary at Vicenza. Mr. Ronconi was so enthusiastic about Our Lady's request that he not only became a Tertiary himself, but also eventually succeeded in having the Servite Order canonically erected in the Parish of St. Michael at Rovigo. The date of the Canonical Erection was March 24, 1890.

The new Servite Tertiaries at Rovigo purchased a large oleograph of Murillo's Sorrowful Mother and mounted it over one of the side altars in St. Michael's church. It was before this image that the monthly meetings of the Tertiaries took place.

Second Marian Phenomenon

Early in the morning of May 1, 1895, word went around Rovigo that "the Sorrowful Mother of St. Michael's is moving her eyes!" Before long the whole church was jammed with people and thousands outside fought to get in. The rumor was true. Everyone saw the eyes of the image move, look up to heaven, then look down as if in great sorrow. Later it was discovered that three school girls, who used to go into the church each morning on their way to school to greet Our Blessed Mother, had witnessed the phenomenon for three days running. They had told their parents, but no one had believed their story.

Mary English Inspired

Among the people who ran to the church at Rovigo that May 1 morning was thirty-year-old Miss Mary English (Inglese), a most pure soul, all on fire for the Madonna, and a Servite Tertiary for the past four years. The look of Our Beloved Mother, so desolate and appealing, was an interior revelation to Miss English. She knew immediately that Our Lady was asking for reparation and love. At the same time the whole practice of Marian Reparation seemed revealed to her in a flash.

Begins Communions of Reparation

For the next four years Mary English prayed constantly, asking to know more distinctly exactly what Our Lady wanted her to do. Then in February 1889, moved by an irresistible interior revelation, she instituted among her friends the pious practice of "Communion in Reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary." In the same month she published a pamphlet – How Good Is Mary! – which explained her plan and included prayers of Reparation. The bishop of the diocese not only approved of the practice, but also recommended it most warmly to his people. In a short time seven hundred units of the Sodality of Our Lady, in Italy and elsewhere, had adopted it officially. The plan at that time was to have members take turns in uninterrupted daily Communions and Hours of Adoration in Reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

St. Pius X Approves

Miss English was in very bad health. In 1904 she composed a series of prayers for each mystery of the rosary, as well as prayers for the opening and closing of the Holy Hour of Reparation to Mary. She brought these writings to Rome and St. Pius X indulged them immediately. In 1905 the same Pontiff, in a private audience, warmly encouraged Mary English in her apostolate of Communion in Reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Our Lady Appears Again

It was about this time that Our Blessed Lady appeared to Mary English at Rovigo. No words were spoken during the Apparition, but Our Lady showed the girl a nun's habit. By interior inspiration Mary English knew immediately that this was the religious habit which Our Lady wanted her to wear. So she went to the bishop and asked his permission to start a new Religious Congregation to take over this work of Marian Reparation. The bishop, Pius Thomas Boggiani, who later became a cardinal, answered: "No. There is no need to found a new Congregation. Recently I brought the Servite Sisters to this diocese and their devotion to the Sorrows of Our Lady makes them the ideal group for your Marian Reparation. I desire that you confide it to them." The Servite Sisters to whom he referred were those founded at Vidor in 1890 by Sister Mary Elisa Andreoli, who died a most saintly death in 1935.

Joins Servite Nuns

Naturally Mary English was greatly disturbed by this answer of the bishop, since she had interpreted the Apparition of Our Lady as meaning that an entirely new congregation was to be founded. However, in obedience to the bishop, she went to visit the Servite Sisters. Imagine her surprise upon seeing the nuns dressed in the very same habit which Our Lady had shown to her in the Apparition! Immediately she asked to be admitted to the community and on December 29, 1911, was clothed with the Servite Habit and given the name of Sister Mary Dolores.

Institutes First Saturday Reparation

Mother Foundress Andreoli and Sister Dolores then set about revising the Rule of their Congregation so as to make Marian Reparation its chief work. Framework of the new Rule was that each day (from 6:00 A.M. to 9:00 P.M.) be a series of uninterrupted hours of Reparation before Our Lady's altar, and that the First Saturday of each month be the most solemn day of Reparation. On each first Saturday the community would engage in special penances and prayers and would renew its Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Also, its apostolate among the school children and then adult laity would concentrate on the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturday of each month. The name of the Congregation was then changed from "Servants of Mary" to "Servants of Mary of Reparation," Congregatio Servarum Mariae a Reparatione.

"The Marian League of Reparation"

The miraculous picture of Our Lady was then moved from St. Michael's Church to the novitiate of the Sisters and the new program of continuous reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary began. The Congregation has since opened many new convents, and in each of them you found – at any hour of the day – at least two nuns kneeling in reparation before the image of Our Lady. In 1912 the Sisters began publishing a new monthly magazine entitled The Marian League of Reparation. Chiefly through this magazine they were able to spread throughout Continental Europe their apostolate of the First Saturday Communion of Reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Pioneer of Marian Reparation

Sister Mary Dolores died on December 29, 1928. The question of her possible canonization is being studied in the diocesan curia. She was the first, as far as this writer knows, to popularize the devotion of receiving Holy Communion on the First Saturday of each month in Reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. She also instituted the practice of continuous Holy Hours of Reparation before the altar of Our Lady. "The work of Marian Reparation instituted by Sister Dolores," wrote Cardinal Boggiani, "is something which Heaven desires. Reparation is necessary in these most sorrowful times. Only the intercession of our Holy Mother can bring sinful society back to the feet of Jesus."

From our sources in the Marian Library: Queen of the Missions, October 1954