The Road to Hell (Vision of St. John Bosco)

Many of the dreams of St. John Bosco could more properly be called visions, for God used this means to reveal His will for the Saint and for the boys of the Oratory, as well as the future of the Salesian Congregation. Not only did his dreams lead and direct the Saint, they also gave him wisdom and guidance by which he was able to help and guide others upon their ways. He was just nine years of age when he had his first dream that laid out his life mission. It was this dream that impressed Pope Blessed Pius IX so much that he ordered St. John Bosco to write down his dreams for the encouragement of his Congregation and the rest of us. Through dreams God allowed him to know the future of each of the boys of his Oratory. Through dreams God let him know the boys' state of their souls. On February 1, 1865 St. John Bosco announced that one of the boys will die soon. He knew the boy through the dream the night before. On March 16, 1865, Anthony Ferraris passed away after receiving the Last Sacraments. John Bisio, who helped Anthony and his mother during the former's last hour, confirmed the story of his part in this episode by a formal oath, concluding as foIlows: "Don Bosco told us many other dreams concerning Oratory boys' deaths. We believed them to be true prophecies. We still do, because unfailingly they came true. During the seven years I lived at the Oratory, not a boy died without Don Bosco predicting his death. We were also convinced that whoever died there under his care and assistance surely went to heaven."

On Sunday night, May 3 [1868], the feast of the Patronage of Saint Joseph, Don Bosco resumed the narration of his dreams: 

I have another dream to tell you, a sort of aftermath of those I told you last Thursday and Friday which totally exhausted me. Call them dreams or whatever you like. 

I told you of a frightful toad threatening to devour me on the night of April 17. When it finally vanished, a voice said to me: 

“Why don't you tell them?” 

St. John Bosco

I turned in that direction and saw a distinguished person standing by my bed. Since I did not understand the reason for that censure, I asked:

“What should I tell my boys?” 

“What you have seen and heard in your last dreams and what you have wanted to know, which shall be revealed to you tomorrow night!” He then vanished. 

The next day I was continuously worried about the miserable night in store for me, and when evening came, I did not want to go to bed. I sat at my desk browsing through books until midnight. The mere thought of having to contemplate more terrifying scenes thoroughly frightened me. However, with great effort, I finally went to bed. 

In order not to sleep immediately, and fearful that my imagination might drag me into the previous dreams, I placed my pillow in a way that allowed me to practically sit on the bed. But, due to my tiredness, I unintentionally fell asleep. 

Soon I saw the man who had appeared to me the previous night standing by my bed. He said to me: “Get up and follow me!” 

“For Heaven's sake,” I protested, “leave me in peace. I am exhausted! I have been tormented by a toothache for several days now and need rest. Besides, my last dreadful dreams have completely worn me out.” 

I said this because this man's apparition always means anxiety, fatigue and terror for me. 

“Get up,” he repeated. “There is no time to lose.” 

I complied and followed him. As we walked, I asked him: 

“Where are you taking me?” 

“Come and you will see.” 

He led me to a vast, boundless plain, veritably a lifeless desert, with not a soul in sight, nor a tree or brook. Yellowed, dried-up vegetation added sadness to the desolate scene. I had no idea where I was or what was I to do. For a moment I even lost sight of my guide and feared that I was lost, utterly alone. Neither Fr. Rua nor Fr. Francesia nor anyone else was with me. When I finally saw my friend coming toward me, I sighed in relief and said: 

“Where am I?” 

“Come with me and you will find out!” 

“Well, I will go with you.” 

He led the way and I followed in silence, but after a long, dismal trudge, I began worrying whether I would ever be able to cross that vast expanse, what with my toothache and swollen legs. Suddenly I saw a road ahead. Breaking the silence I asked him my guide: 

“Where to now?” 

“This way,” he replied. 

At the begining the path of sin is lined with roses...

We took the road. It was beautiful, wide, and neatly paved. Both sides were lined with magnificent verdant hedges covered with gorgeous flowers. Roses in particular peeped everywhere through the leaves. At first glance, the road was level and comfortable, and so I ventured upon it without the least suspicion. 

But after walking a while, I noticed that it almost imperceptibly kept sloping downward. Although it did not look at all steep, I found myself moving so swiftly downward that I felt I was effortlessly gliding through the air. Really, I was gliding and hardly using my feet. Our march was fast. Then the thought struck me that the return trip would be very long and arduous, I asked my friend: 

“How shall we get back to the Oratory?” 

“Do not worry,” he answered. “The Almighty wants you to come back to it. He Who leads you onward will also know how to lead you back.” 

The road was increasingly sloping downward. As we continued on our way, flanked by banks of roses and other flowers, I became aware that the Oratory boys and a multitude of others whom I did not know were following me on the same road. Somehow I found myself in their midst. 

As I was looking at them, I noticed that now one, now another, fell to the ground and then was instantly dragged by an unseen force toward a frightful opening in the ground, distantly visible, which led those unfortunate boys straight into a furnace. 

“What makes these boys fall?” I asked my companion. 

“Take a closer look,” he replied. 

I did. Traps were everywhere, some close to the ground, others at eye level, but all well concealed. Unaware of their danger, many boys got caught, and as they tripped, they would sprawl to the ground, legs in the air. Then, when they managed to get back on their feet, they would run headlong down the road toward the abyss. Some got trapped by the head, others by the neck, hands, arms, legs, or sides, and were pulled down instantly toward that hole. These ground traps, fine as spiders' webs and hardly visible, seemed very flimsy and harmless; yet I observed that every boy they snared fell to the ground. 

Noticing my astonishment, the guide remarked:

The Devil is behind every trap of human respect

“Do you know what that is?” 

“Just some filmy fiber,” I answered. 

“It seems like nothing,” he said, “but it is human respect.” 

Seeing that many boys were being caught in those fibers, I asked: 

“Why do so many get caught? Who pulls them down?” 

“Go nearer and you will see!” he told me. 

I followed his advice but saw nothing peculiar. 

“Look closer,” he insisted. 

I picked up one of the traps and tugged. I immediately felt some resistance. I pulled harder, only to feel that, instead of drawing the thread of the trap closer, I was being pulled down myself. I followed where the thread led and soon found myself at the mouth of a frightful cave. I halted, unwilling to venture into that deep cavern, and again I started pulling the thread toward me. It gave a little, but only through a great effort on my part. 

I kept tugging, and after a long while a huge, hideous monster emerged, clutching a rope to which all those traps were tied together. He was the one who instantly dragged down anyone who got caught in them. 

It would be useless to match my strength with his, I said to myself. I would certainly lose. I could better fight him with the Sign of the Cross and with short ejaculations. 

Then I went back to my guide and he said to me: 

“Now you know who he is.” 

“I surely do! It is the Devil himself who places these traps to make my boys fall into Hell!”

Carefully examining many of the traps, I saw that each bore an inscription: Pride, Disobedience, Envy, the Sixth Commandment, Theft, Gluttony, Sloth, Anger, and so on. Stepping back a bit to see which ones trapped the greater number of boys, I discovered that the most dangerous were those of impurity, disobedience and pride. In fact, these three were linked to together. Many other traps also did great harm, but not as much as the first two. Still watching, I noticed many boys running faster than others. 

“Why such haste?” I asked.

Bishops and Kings are tempted by the mirror of pride and vanity

“Because they are being dragged by the snare of human respect.” 

Looking even more closely, I spotted knives among the traps. A providential hand had put them there to cut oneself free. The bigger ones, symbolizing meditation, were for use against the trap of pride; others, not quite as large, symbolized spiritual reading well made. There were also two swords - one representing devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, especially through frequent Holy Communion, and the other devotion to the Blessed Virgin. There was also a hammer symbolizing confession, and other knives symbolizing devotion to St. Joseph, St. Aloysius and other Saints. By these means, quite a few boys were able to free themselves or evade capture. 

Indeed, I saw two boys walking safely through all those traps without being caught, either becuase of good timing - getting past it before before the trap sprung on them - or by sliding out of it if they got caught. 

When my guide saw that I had observed everything, he made me continue along that rose-hedged road. But the farther we went, the scarcer the roses became. Long thorns began to appear, and soon there were no more roses. The hedges became sun-scorched, leafless and thorn-studded. Withered branches torn from the bushes were strewn along the roadbed, littering it with thorns and making it difficult to walk through. 

We had come now to a gulch whose steep sides hid what lay beyond. The road, which increasingly sloped downward, was becoming ever more horrid, rutted and littered, bristling with rocks and boulders and making the march ever more difficult. 

I lost track of all my boys, most of whom had left this treacherous road for other paths. 

I kept going, but the farther I advanced, the more arduous and steep the descent became, so that I tumbled and fell several times, lying prostrate until I could catch my breath. Now and then my guide supported me or helped me to rise. At every step my joints seemed to give way, and I thought my shinbones would snap. 

Panting, I said to my guide: 

“My good fellow, my legs will not carry me another step. I just cannot go any farther.” 

He did not answer but continued walking. Taking heart, I followed. Finally, seeing me soaked in perspiration and thoroughly exhausted, he led me to a little clearing alongside the road. I sat down, took a deep breath, and felt a little better. From my resting place, the road I had already traveled looked very steep, jagged and strewn with loose stones, but what lay ahead seemed so much worse that I closed my eyes in horror. 

“Let us go back,” I pleaded. “If we go any farther, how shall we ever get back to the Oratory? I will never make it up this slope.” 

My guide sternly responded: “Now that we have come so far, do you want me to leave you alone?” 

At this threat, I wailed: 

“How can I survive without your help?” 

“Then follow me,” he added. 

We continued our descent, the road now becoming so frightfully steep that it was almost impossible to stand erect. 

And then, at the bottom of this precipice, at the entrance of a dark valley, an enormous building loomed into sight, its towering portal, securely locked, facing our road. When we finally reached the bottom, I became smothered by a suffocating heat, and I could see a dense, green-tinted smoke lit by flashes of scarlet flames rising from behind those enormous walls which loomed higher than mountains. 

"Where are we? What is this?" I asked my guide. 

An Angel locking Hell: No one can leave it

"Read the inscription on that portal and you will understand." 

I looked up and read these words:Ubi non est redemptio - The place where there is no redemption. I realized that we were at the gates of Hell. 

The guide led me all around this horrible place. At regular distances bronze portals like the first overlooked precipitous descents; on each was an inscription, such as: "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, which was prepared for the Devil and his angels." (Mt 25: 41) "Every tree that yielded not good fruit, shall be cut down, and shall be cast into the fire." (Mt 7: 19) 

I tried to copy them into my notebook, but my guide restrained me: "There is no need. You have them all in Holy Scripture. You even have some of them inscribed on your porticoes." 

At such a sight, I wanted to turn back and return to the Oratory. As a matter of fact, I did try to start back, but my guide ignored my attempt. 

After trudging down into a steep, never-ending ravine, we again came to the foot of the precipice facing the first portal. Suddenly the guide turned to me with a changed and startled face, pointing to something with his hand: "Look!" he said. 

I looked up in terror and saw in the distance someone racing down the path at an uncontrollable speed. I kept my eyes on him, trying to identify him, and as he got closer, I recognized him as one of my boys. His disheveled hair was partly bristled and partly tossed back by the wind.

The guide pointed to the path ending at Hell

His arms were outstretched as though he were thrashing water to keep from going under. He wanted to stop, but could not. Tripping on the protruding stones, he kept falling even faster. 

"Let us help him! Let us stop him!" I shouted, holding out my hands toward him. 

"Let him go," the guide replied. 

"Why?" 

"Do you not know how terrible God's vengeance is? Do you think you can stop one who is fleeing from His blazing wrath?" 

Meanwhile the youth had turned his fiery gaze behind him in an attempt to see if God's wrath were still pursuing him. He precipitated himself toward the bottom of the ravine and crashed against that bronze portal as though he could find no other solution in his flight. 

"Why was he looking back in terror?" I asked. 

"Because God's wrath pierces all the gates of Hell and will reach and torment him even amidst the fire!" 

As the boy crashed into the portal, it sprang open with a roar of chains. Instantly two, then ten, then one hundred, then near a thousand inner portals opened with a deafening screech as if moved by the crash of the youth, who was dragged in by an invisible, very rapid and irresistible gale. 

As these bronze doors - one behind the other, though each at a considerable distance from the other - remained momentarily open, I saw far into the distance something like furnace jaws spouting fiery globes at the moment the youth hurtled into it. As swiftly as the portals had opened, they then clanged shut again. 

For a third time I tried to take notes, this time to write down the name of that unfortunate lad, but the guide again took me by the arm and said, "Wait, and look again." 

Don Bosco with the boys of the Oratory

I could see a new scene. Three other boys of ours precipitated themselves down the same path. Screaming in terror and with arms outstretched, they were rolling down it, one behind the other like massive rocks. I also recognized them as they too crashed against that first portal. It sprang open and so did the other thousand. The three lads were sucked into that endless corridor amidst a long-drawn, fading infernal echo, and then the portals clanged shut again. At intervals, many other lads came tumbling down after them. 

I saw one unfortunate boy being pushed down the slope by an evil companion. Others fell alone or with others, arm in arm or side by side. Each of them bore the name of his sin on his forehead. I kept calling to them as they hurtled down, but they did not hear me. Again the portals would open thunderously and slam shut with a rumble. Then, dead silence! 

My guide explained to me: “These are some of the causes why many are eternally lost: Bad companions, bad books and bad habits." 

The traps I had seen earlier were indeed dragging the boys to ruin. Seeing so many falling into perdition, I cried out disconsolately, "If so many of our boys end up this way, we are working in vain. How can we prevent such tragedies?" 

My guide replied: "This is their present state and that is where they would go if they were to die now." 

"Then, let me jot down their names so that I may warn them and put them back on the path to Heaven." 

"Do you really believe that some of them would reform if you were to warn them? At first, your warning might impress them, but soon they will forget it, saying, 'It was just a dream,' and they will do worse things than before. Others, realizing they have been unmasked, will receive the Sacraments, but this will be neither spontaneous nor meritorious since they are not upright. Others will go to confession because of a momentary fear of Hell, but will still be attached to sin." 

"Then is there no way to save these unfortunate lads? Please, advise me how they can be saved." 

Here is the advice: "They have superiors; let them obey them. They have rules; let them observe them. They have the Sacraments; let them receive them."

A new group of boys came hurtling down the path, and the portals opened momentarily. 

“You should enter as well,” the guide said to me. 

I pulled back in horror. I could not wait to return to the Oratory to warn the boys lest others might be lost as well. 

My guide, however, insisted, “Come, you will learn much. But first tell me: Do you wish to go alone or with me?” He asked this to make me realize that I was not strong enough to go alone and, therefore, needed his friendly assistance. 

Dante watching the horrors of Hell

I replied: “Alone inside this horrible place without the solace of your goodness? How will I ever be able to find my way out without your help?” 

Then a thought came to my mind and raised my spirits. I said to myself: Before a person is condemned to Hell, he must pass by his judgment. And I still have not presented myself before the Supreme Judge. 

After that I said resolutely: “Then, let us go in.” 

We entered that narrow, horrible corridor, whizzing through it with lightning speed. Threatening inscriptions appeared under a veiled light over each one of the inner gateways. The corridor opened into a vast, gloomy courtyard with a small but incredibly thick door at the far end. Above it we could read this inscription: Ibunt impii in ignem aeternu - The impious shall go into the everlasting fire. [Mt 25: 46] The walls all around were filled with inscriptions. 

I asked my guide if I could read them, and he answered, “Do as you wish”. 

Then I examined everything. 

In one place it was written: Dabo ignem in carnes eorum ut comburantur in sempiternum Cruciabuntur die ac nocte in saecula saeculorum - I will give fire to their flesh and they will burn for ever. They will be tormented day and night forever and ever. [Judith 16: 21] 

In another place: Hic univérsitas malorum per omnia saecula saeculorum - In this place all the evil ones are put forever and ever. 

In others: Nullus est hic ordo, sed horror sempiternus inhabitat - There is no order in this place, but only eternal horror dwells here. [Job 10: 22] 

Fumus tormentorum suorum in aeternum ascendit - The smoke of their torments rises forever. [Apoc 14: 11] 

Non est pax impiis - For the impious there is no peace. [Isaiah 47: 22] 

Clamor et stridor dentium - [Here is] weeping and the gnashing of teeth. [Mt 8:12] 

As I moved around reading the inscriptions, my guide, who had been standing in the center of the courtyard, came up to me and said: 

“From here on, no one may have a companion to help him, a friend to comfort him, a heart to love him, a compassionate glance or a benevolent word to sustain him. All this is gone forever. Do you want to see and experience these things yourself?” 

“I only want only to see!” I answered. 

“Then come with me,” my friend replied, and, taking me by the hand, he led me to that small door and opened it. It opened onto a corridor at whose far end was a room with a large window that had a single crystal pane reaching from the pavement to the ceiling, which allowed the observer to look through. As soon as I entered the room, I felt an indescribable terror and stopped. 

Ahead of me I could see an immense cavern that extended far ahead ending in deep caves dug into the bowels of a mountain. They were all ablaze, but it was not an earthly fire with leaping tongues of flames, but a fire that made everything incandescent and white because of its high temperature. The entire cavern - walls, ceiling, floor, iron, stones, wood and coal - was white and glossy. That fire surpasses the fire of earth in heat thousands and thousands of times. Yet it did not consume what it burned or reduce it to ashes. It is impossible for me to describe that cavern in all its astounding reality. 

Souls swallowed into the mouth of Hell

While I looked appalled at that place of torment, I saw a lad, oblivious of everything around him, arriving with an indescribable momentum. He emitted a most shrilling scream, like one who is about to fall into a cauldron of liquid bronze. Then, jumping into the center of the fire, he too became incandescent like the entire cavern and perfectly motionless, while the echo of his dying wail lingered for an instant more. 

Terribly frightened, I stared briefly at that unfortunate youth for a while. He seemed to be one of my Oratory boys, one of my sons.

“Isn't he one of my youth?” I asked my guide. “Isn’t he X?” 

“Yes, that is right,” he answered. 

“Why is he so still, so incandescent without being consumed?” 

“You chose to see. Do not speak. Observe and you will see. For,omnis enim igne salietur et omnis victima sale salietur - Everyone shall be immobilized by the fire. Every victim shall be conserved with salt. [Mk 9: 48] 

As I looked again, another boy came hurtling down into the cavern in a despairing fury and at a lightning speed. He too was from the Oratory. As he fell, he remained there immobile. He too emitted a shriek of pain that blended with the last echo of the scream that came from the youth who had preceded him. 

Other boys kept hurtling down with the same impetus, all screamed, and then all became equally motionless and incandescent, like those who had preceded them. I noticed that the first became immobile with one hand and one foot up into the air; the second boy was bent toward the floor. Others had their feet up or their faces glued to the floor. Still others supported themselves by only one foot or hand; others were sitting, standing, kneeling or lying on their backs or sides, their hands clutching their hair. 

Briefly, the scene resembled a large statuary group of youth set in every painful posture imaginable. Other lads hurtled into that same furnace. Some I knew; others were strangers to me. Then I recalled what is written in Scriptures to the effect that as one falls into Hell, so he shall remain forever. Lignum, in quocumque loco cecíderit, ibi erit - In the place the wood falls, there it remains. [Eccles 11:3] 

As my astonishment increased, I asked my guide: 

“When these boys run with such speed, do they not know they are coming here?” 

“Oh, yes, they surely do! They have been warned a thousand times, but they still choose to rush into the fire because they do not detest sin and are loath to forsake it. Furthermore, they despise and reject Divine Mercy, which calls them to do penance. Thus provoked, Divine Justice harries them, hounds them and goads them on so that they cannot halt until they reach this place.” 

“Oh, how terrible must be the desperation of these miserable boys who do not have any hope of leaving this place” - I exclaimed. 

“If you really want to know their innermost frenzy and fury, go a little closer,” my guide remarked. 

I took a few more steps, coming closer to the window, and looked inside. I saw that many of those poor wretches were savagely striking at each other causing terrible wounds; some were biting one another like mad dogs. Others were clawing their own faces and hands, tearing their own flesh and spitefully throwing it about. Just then the entire ceiling of that cavern became as transparent as crystal and revealed a patch of Heaven and their radiant companions safe for all eternity. 

The reprobates gnashed their teeth with envy, hardly breathing because they had once ridiculed those just youth.

Reprobates in Hell suffer more to see the Blessed in Heaven

I asked my guide, “Why do we hear no sound?” 

“Go closer!” he advised. 

Pressing my ear to the crystal window, I heard some screaming and weeping among the horrible contortions; others were blaspheming and making imprecations against those saints. It was a tumult of voices and cries, shrill and confused. 

I asked: “What are they saying? What are they shouting?”

He replied: “When they recall the happy lot of their good companions, they are obliged to admit, ‘We fools deemed their lives to be madness, and their end without honor. Behold, how they are numbered among the children of God, and their lot is among the saints. Thus we passed up the path of truth.’ [Wisdom 5:4-6] 

“They also cried out, ‘We wore ourselves out on the path of iniquity and destruction and walked through hard roads, but we ignored the way of the Lord. What has pride profited us? All those things have passed away like a shadow.’ [Wis 5: 7-9] 

“These are the melancholic canticles that sound here for all eternity. But screams, efforts, weeping are all useless. Omnis dolor irruet super eos - All sorrow fell over them! Here time is no more. Here is only eternity.” 

As, in utter terror, I viewed the condition of many of my boys, a thought suddenly struck me. 

I asked: “How is it possible that these boys are damned? Last night they were still alive at the Oratory!” 

The guide answered: “The boys you see here are all dead to God's grace. Were they to die now or persist in their evil ways, they would be damned. But we should not waste time. Let us go on.” 

He led me away from that terrible place and we went through a corridor deeper down to another underground cavern. Over its entrance I read: Dabit Dominus omnipotens ignem et vermes in carnes eorum, ut urantur et sentiant usque in sempiternum. [The Lord Almighty will give fire, and worms into their flesh, so that they may burn and may feel forever - Judith 16: 21] 

Here I could see the terrible remorse of those who had been formed in our schools:

• The memory of each unforgiven sin and its just punishment; 

• The thousands of means, many of them extraordinary, they had to convert to the Lord, persevere in the good and earn paradise;

• The memory of so many graces given by the Blessed Virgin that were ignored and the promises made to her that were not kept;

• The fact that they could have been saved by a small effort, and instead, now they are condemned forever! 

• So many good intentions that were not kept!

Hell is indeed paved with good intentions, as the proverb says. 

In that place I again saw those Oratory boys who I had seen before in the fiery furnace. Some are listening to me right now; others are former pupils or even strangers to me. I drew nearer to them and noticed that they were covered with worms and disgusting insects that gnawed and consumed their hearts, eyes, hands, legs and entire bodies, leaving them in such a miserable state that it defies description. Those unfortunate boys remained motionless and were a prey to every kind of torment without any possibility of avoiding them. 

He saw horrors in Hell that defy description

Hoping that they could see me and I might be able to speak with them or to hear a word from them, I drew even nearer but no one spoke or even looked at me. I asked my guide why, and he explained that the damned are totally deprived of freedom. Each must endure the full weight of God’s punishment, with no change whatsoever in his state.

He added: “And now it is necessary for you to enter this fiery region you just have seen.” 

“No, no!” I objected in terror. “Before going to Hell, one has to be judged, and I have not been judged yet. So I do not want to go to Hell!” 

“Answer me,” he said, “what would you rather do: Visit Hell and save your boys, or stay outside and abandon them to their torments?” 

For a moment I was struck speechless. Then, I answered: “I love my boys and wish to save them all, but isn't there some other way without going to that place?” 

“Well,” he went on, “you still have time just as they do, provided you do all you can.” 

My heart felt a great relief as I heard those words and instantly I said to myself: I don't mind how much work it takes if I can rescue these beloved sons of mine from such torments. “Come inside then,” my guide went on, “and observe a proof of the Goodness and Mercy of God, who uses a thousand means to induce your boys to penance and save them from everlasting death.” 

Each cavern of Hell has punishments for different sins

Taking my hand, he led me into the cavern. As I stepped in, I found myself suddenly transported into a magnificent crystal hall. In the hall, at regular distances were large veils that covered other rooms that accessed the cavern. 

The guide pointed to one of those veils over which was written: The Sixth Commandment, and he exclaimed: “Transgressions against this commandment caused the eternal ruin of many boys.”

“Did they not go to confession?” 

“They did, but they either made a bad confession or purposely omitted the sins against the beautiful virtue of purity. For example, one said that he had committed such sins two or three times when it was four or five. Other boys who had fallen into that sin in their childhood were ashamed and never confessed it, or made a bad confession, or did not tell everything. 

“Others did not have the sorrow for their sin or lacked the purpose to avoid it in the future. There were even some who, rather than examine their consciences, spent their time trying to figure out ways to deceive their confessor. Anyone dying in this frame of mind shall be among the damned for all eternity. Only those who die truly repentant with the hope of eternal life shall be eternally happy. 

“Now do you want to see why the mercy of God brought you here?” 

He lifted the curtain and I saw at the end of the room a group of Oratory boys - all known to me - who were there because of this sin. Among them were some whose conduct seems to be good. 

“At least now you will surely let me take down their names so that I may warn them individually,” I begged.

“There is no need for that”, he answered. 

“Then what do you suggest I tell them?” 

“Always preach against immodesty. A generic warning will suffice. Bear in mind that even if you admonished them individually, they would make you a thousand promises, but not always sincerely. For firm resolution not to sin again, one needs God's grace, which will never be denied to your boys if they ask. God is so good that He manifests His power especially by being merciful and forgiving. On your part, pray and make sacrifices. As for the boys, let them listen to your admonitions and teachings and let them consult their consciences, which will tell them what to do.” 

He spent the next half hour discussing the requisites of a good confession. 

Afterward, my guide exclaimed in a loud voice several times, “Avertere! Avertere!” 

“What do you mean?” I asked. 

“They must change their lives! They must change their lives!"

God provides innumerable aids and graces to help a soul avoid Hell and attain Heaven

Perplexed, I bowed my head and was going to withdraw, when he called me back again and said: “You have not yet seen everything.”

He turned and lifted another veil under which this inscription was written: Qui volunt dívites fieri, íncidunt in tentationem et láqueum diáboli [Those who desire to become rich, fall into temptation and into the snare of the Devil - 1 Tim 6: 9] 

“This does not apply to my boys!” I countered. “For they are as poor as I am. We are not rich and do not want to be. We give it no thought.” 

As the veil lifted, however, I saw in the room a group of boys, all known to me. They were in pain, like those I had seen before. Pointing to them, my guide remarked:

“As you see, the inscription does apply to your boys.” 

“Then explain to me the means of the word divites.”

“For example, the hearts of some boys are attached to material objects so that this disordered affection distances them from the love of God; they lack therefore, piety and recollection. The heart can be perverted not only by the use of riches, but also by the immoderate desire for them, especially when this desire is against the virtue of justice. 

“Your boys are poor, but remember that greed and idleness are bad counselors. Some of the boys committed substantial thefts in their native towns, and although they could make restitution, they are not concerned to do so. There are others who try to break into the pantry or the prefect's or treasurer’s office; others rummage in their companions’ trunks to steal food, money or other objects, and there are some who steal stationary and books for their own use...” 

After naming these boys and others as well, he continued: 

“Some are here for having stolen clothes, linen, blankets and comforters from the Oratory wardrobe in order to send them home to their families. Others, for some intentional damages they made and did not repair. Still others, for not returning objects they had borrowed or for keeping sums of money they were supposed to hand over to the superior.”

He concluded, saying:

“Now that you know who these boys are, admonish them, tell them to curb all vain, harmful desires, to obey God's law and to be zealous of their own honor, otherwise jealously shall lead them to greater excesses that shall plunge them into sorrow, death, and damnation.” 

I could not understand why such dreadful punishments should be meted out for infractions that boys held of little account, but my guide interrupted my thoughts by saying: “Remember what you were told when you saw those spoiled grapes on the wine.” 

Source:
Memorias Biograficas de San Juan Bosco,
Vol. 9, pp. 166-181
All Photos do not belong to the webmaster

The Three Kings and Blessed Elizabeth Canori Mora

On October 19, 1816 the Feast of St. Peter of Alcantara, Elizabeth was going to Holy Communion, when she heard a voice, which said to her : "On the 23rd Our Lord will contract with you a sacred marriage. This favour which I bestow upon you equals that which I was pleased to grant to my worthy servant Catherine of Siena."

Midnight of the 23rd of October had scarcely struck when the room was illuminated. The Blessed Virgin appeared, carrying in her arms the Blessed Infant. The Divine Child called Elizabeth, and told her to come to Mary, the Throne of His mercies. At this sight, Elizabeth was so confused that she desired to conceal herself. She approached them, trembling. Then the Divine Infant placed on her finger a precious ring, and communicated to her so much love that she seemed to be in the midst of an immense fire. He then gave her a new heart, like His own, and purified her in a miraculous water which poured forth from His sacred side. 

This ceremony was accomplished in the presence of a numerous company, who shared in the happiness of the new Spouse of the King of Glory. Elizabeth received the congratulations of the Queen of Heaven, who on this occasion held the office of Bridesmaid; of St. Joseph, her chaste and virginal Spouse; of the Three Kings, of the Patriarchs of the Order of the Most Blessed Trinity, and a multitude of angelic Spirits. The delight which the saintly Mother experienced during this night made her beside herself, and during fifteen days she fell into continual ecstasies.

One day the holy and venerable Pontiff, Pius VII, had a fall, from which fatal consequences were feared. The Blessed Elizabeth, profoundly afflicted at the news of this accident, began to pray most ardently for his cure. Our Lord ordered her to send to him a small vial of the water of Jesus of Nazareth [the miraculous image of "Ecce Homo," or Jesus scourged and crowned with thorns, that she had, see photo]. She desired to obey, but who would undertake to present this beneficial water to the Sovereign Pontiff? At the same moment that she conjured God to come to her aid, she found herself suddenly transported in spirit into the apartment of the Holy Father. There she saw the Three Kings, who themselves presented the miraculous water to the august patient. A few days later it was reported throughout Rome that the Holy Father had been completely cured. 

A man named De Sanctis, of Marino, lost a splendid mare, which he valued exceedingly. The sorrow he experienced, added to the extraordinary exertion which he had made to find it, caused him to fall dangerously ill. His son, Matthew de Sanctis, distressed by his father's condition, went to Rome to see the saintly Mother, and in her presence gave way to uncontrollable grief. 

Elizabeth, much moved, led the young man to her Oratory, and told him to recite three Our Fathers and three Hail Marys in honour of the Three Kings, with the assurance that he would recover the lost mare. After some other prayers to Jesus of Nazareth [the miraculous "Ecce Homo" image in her Oratory] she informed him that his father was already better. Then she said to him; " Listen, Matthew, where do you wish the mare to be left if she should be recovered? Would you like her to be taken to your friend, John Fioravanti?" The young man replied that he would like this to be done. 

Seven or eight days after the son of De Sanctis returned to Rome, and, to his great satisfaction, he found the animal in the stable of his friend Fioravanti. He asked the coachman who brought her. He told him that the animal was brought back by a well-dressed young peasant, and that when he went to seek him to give him a reward he was not to be found. Matthew de Sanctis hastened to Elizabeth to inform her of what had occurred, and to thank her. She replied to him : "Go, and return thanks to Jesus of Nazareth and the Three Kings."

From: 

Life of the Venerable Elizabeth Canori Mora

Translated from the Italian by Lady Herbert 

Download the free eBook (PDF) at: 

https://ia600406.us.archive.org/14/items/lifevenerableel00moragoog/lifevenerableel00moragoog.pdf

A Snakebite Letter from a Senior Demon

A Letter from a senior Demon, Snakebite, to an apprentice Demon, Braintwister, instructing him in methods of tempting men and winning men's souls from "the Enemy" (God). 

From The Snakebite Letters by Peter Kreeft, in the tradition of The Screwtape Letters of C. S. Lewis.

My dear Braintwister,

    See? We've won the teachers, soon we'll have the students. Once you capture the cause, you soon own the effect. And these teachers aren't limited to the classroom; through TV, movies, internet, magazines and music, we've turned the whole society into a classroom. And the lesson plans are written by us.

    We have a right to preen a bit over this success, but we should also be realistic and candid. Not only do we have the usual Enemy counterattacks to fend off; but we're also struggling with a contradiction within our own strategy, and if the humans ever sense it, our plans may be ruined.

    Here's the problem. On the one hand, we want the human vermin to be bland, egalitarian conformists. Our strategy has been to produce photocopied souls, and we've labored long and hard (and quite successfully) for more than a century now to rid them of the very concepts of excellence, nobility, superiority, hierarchy and authority. Nearly all of them, when they hear those words, react with a negative knee jerk. Their unconscious creed is: What all cannot attain, no one should.

    But on the other hand, the masses remain much more traditional, religious and moral in their beliefs than our elite. We don't want souls to conform to the real majority just yet—not until the majority is ours. You must therefore keep your patient from noticing the contradiction between his egalitarianism and his elitism.

    But here's the good news: You'd be amazed how easy this is. Remember our basic principle of keeping his mind and his morals in separate compartments.

    The Enemy wants him to be an elitist about ideas and ideals, and an egalitarian about people; to be suspicious and critical of ideas but open and welcoming to all people. Our strategy is to make him just the opposite: an elitist about people and an egalitarian about ideas. Make him think his teachers and scriptwriters are superior people, but also that one idea isn't really superior to another, that all ideas are equal, that there's no objective truth, no real right and wrong, and thus no one has any right to "impose his own values on others". (You simply will not believe how much mileage we've gotten out of that hog-wash!)

    Once again, keep his mind away from noting the self-contradiction in our propaganda, the value judgment that there are no real value judgments, the dogma against dogma.

    How can they not notice such an obvious contradiction? They can, Braintwister, they can—especially the well-educated ones. The more educated they are, the less they believe in logic and common sense. It's the firm boys and cleaning women whose minds we've been unable to twist.

    Really, did you think the sexual revolution of the 1960s just "happened"? No, it was the flowering of a long, deliberate strategy. The basic principle of our approach is a one-two punch: Hit them where they're soft and weak, and at the same time hit them where they're hard and proud—in other words, between their legs and between their ears.

    They've always been soft in the reproductive organs, of course. How typical of the Enemy to invent that obscene joke of a "rational animal", to put an angel-like spirit in an ape-like body! But now we've softened their heads too. They've always had trouble obeying the Enemy's law of chastity; but they've never had such trouble understanding it and believing it until now. It's not new that we've tempted them to live promiscuously, but it's thoroughly novel that we've tempted them to justify it, to glorify it even to sanctify it.

    How did we manage it? We had some success with philosophers, playwrights, artists, novelists and poets over the last century, but our campaign really took off with the advent of movies, internet and TV. The secret is the power of images. The humans can put up defenses against ideas, which have to pass the gate keeper of their mind, Reason; but they're weak as water against images. Images sneak in through their unconscious, which is a helpless child.

    If we plant the same kind of image in them over and over again through TV, internet and movies, they'll gradually be desensitized. Sex and violence are our two specialties, of course. Our media elite personnel have relentlessly pressured for more. If the sex and violence curve continues at the current rate, we'll have Hell incarnate in their minds in just two more generations. There's nothing, literally nothing, these creatures won't allow. Already, most things the last generation would have regarded as unthinkable are commonplace on TV and internet.

    With the movies, it was a two-step strategy. First, their films showed more explicit sexual promiscuity, but within a moral context— "crime and punishment", so to speak. Movies like Carnal Knowledge, Alfie and Shampoo typify this stage. Then, once the explicit images became commonplace, the sheep were too passive to protest the removal of the moral frame. Their moralists played right into our strategy; they were so hung up on how much flesh was shown that they forgot the lesson the images taught. They were so shocked at overt eroticism, even in a framework of fidelity, that they hardly noticed the snide little smirks for infidelity.

    The upshot is that now, nearly every single movie that's made for young people must have a dash of nudity, no matter how gratuitous (and of course never, never between married people). And every time a boy first kisses a girl, the next scene always shows them in bed. What a triumph of image propaganda!

    The lesson it bores into them unconsciously, like holes bored in the hull of a ship, is so obvious I'm surprised they don't get bored with it: that the normal, the natural, the inevitable corollary of kissing is copulating.

    Notice the power of images, Braintwister. Not even a professor could be fool enough to fall for that as an argument. Put it in words, and it's ridiculous. Put it in images, and it's compelling.

    Thus we've persuaded them to rationalize their lust, to believe that feeling, not marriage, justifies sex. Most of them don't yet believe in infidelity, but they do believe in fornication. The only structures they put on copulating are "emotional maturity"; and "contentment", which are vague enough for anyone but an infant to claim.

    Oh, we've had a field day with their heads. There have been times and places in the past where we've had as much success with their hormones, but never with their heads. That's because never before has a society been so educated, and never before have we so dominated the education industry, especially the extracurricular one, the media.

    We've also succeeded in imposing a total media censorship on the one subject that is the most important thing of all in the lives of the majority of the people in the country, but which is never allowed to enter even the most "realistic" movies or public TV shows. I mean, of course, religious faith. Religion is shown occasionally, but from the outside, and never as true. The only characters shown as deeply religious are either bigots or sissies.

    Though we've undermined their sexual morality, we haven't yet rotted away the rest or their Christian ethics. We've persuaded only a few to accept cruelty, the last bastion of their moral absolutism; but we've succeeded in glorifying it and desensitizing them to it, for example, just by making "slasher" movies fashionable. Wait till they see the next step!

    But we mustn't let our love of violence distract us from our main task. Niceness is as useful as nastiness, stamp collecting is as useful as murder, if only it sucks these vermin from the Enemy's grasp. That's the only thing that matters in the end.

    The Enemy has this utterly ridiculous thing about repentance, you know. Sometimes I suspect He deliberately allows us to tempt some of the vermin to great sins just so that they'll see them more clearly and repent more strongly, and thus escape our two most deadly nets, pride and self-satisfaction. That supremely troublesome philosopher Thomas Aquinas let out a secret of the Enemy's strategy when he said that just as a doctor may tolerate a lesser disease to free his patient from a greater one, the Enemy often deliberately withholds that loathsome thing He calls "grace" and allows a soul to succumb to our temptation to some dear, external sin in order to free it from pride and bring it to repentance.

    The Enemy really will forgive any sin, you know—that is, any sin He can forgive, i.e, any sin that's repented of. So impenitence is what we must aim at, by dulling their consciences to guilt, making them feel more guilty about guilt than sin.

    Your patient does, unfortunately, have something of: conscience. That's our enemy, Braintwister. Conscience is the Enemy's own mouthpiece in the soul. Shut it down at any cost.

    Our end, of course, is not simply to inveigle the brutes into bed with each other, but (1) to win their souls through corrupting their society (after all, a "good" society is simply one where it's easy to be good, as one of their more dangerous but fortunately obscure thinkers Peter Maurin, has said); (2) to corrupt their society through destroying its fundamental foundation, the family, the one place they naturally learn the Enemy's philosophy of unselfish love, being loved just for who you are, not for what you do; (3) to destroy the family through destroying marriages; (4) to destroy marriages through destroying fidelity, their anchor and glue; (5) to destroy fidelity through the new philosophy of "sexual liberation" and the "sexual revolution"; and (6) to do that through our domination of the media. It's a simple six-step sexual strategy.

    One of the most pernicious ideas that can creep into your patient's head is throwing away his TV set and gadgets. That would burn the bridge by which we march into his heart. But that's an act so radical that few of them are ever capable of it—no junkie likes going cold turkey.

Your affectionate uncle,

Snakebite

Our Lady Converts the Jew Alphonse Ratisbonne

Marie Alphonse Ratisbonne, an anti-Catholic Jew, befriended a baron in Rome and began wearing the Miraculous Medal as a simple test. On January 20, 1842 while waiting for the baron in the church Sant Andrea delle Fratte, Ratisbonne encountered a vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary. He converted to Catholicism, joined the priesthood, and began a ministry for the conversion of Jews.

Alphonse Ratisbonne was born a Jew in the Alsace region of Eastern France and would, over the years, develop a particular disdain for the Catholic Faith. Fully embracing the wave of new philosophic trends and scientific advancements, he looked upon Catholics as naive, superstitious, unintelligent and foolish. 

    This prejudice would grow to outright hatred when his older brother converted to Catholicism and became a Jesuit priest, essentially "betraying" his family and heritage. 

    In 1842, on a journey for pleasure undertaken before he was to marry, Ratisbonne made the decision to take a slight detour and pay a visit to Rome. It was there he met a priest, a brother of an acquaintance, who would dedicate himself to the cause of this unlikely candidate's conversion. In an effort to demonstrate the frivolity of Catholicism, Ratisbonne agreed to wear a Miraculous Medal and recite the Memorare daily. Additionally, for his own entertainment and prideful appetite, Ratisbonne would accompany his new acquaintance around Rome, never missing an opportunity to ridicule and blaspheme all he would hear and see.

Our Lady of the Miracle

All that would change on January 20th, when he visited the Church of Sant' Andrea delle Fratte. It was within the walls of this historic church where Ratisbonne would be instantaneously converted by the Mother of God Herself.

“At the moment when the Blessed Virgin made a sign with her hand, the veil fell from my eyes; not one veil only, but all the veils that were wrapped around me disappeared, just as snow melts beneath the rays of the sun.” [1]

The Mother of God would present to him the glories of the Faith and instantly educate him in its sacred truths.

“It is well known that I never opened a religious book and had never read a page of the Bible, and that the dogma of Original Sin, which it is either denied or forgotten by modern Jews, had never for a single moment occupied my thoughts—indeed, I doubt I had ever heard its name. How did I arrive at a knowledge of it? I know not. All I know is that when I entered that church I was profoundly ignorant of everything, and that when I came out I saw everything clearly and distinctly.” [2]

In another, he said: “I was scarcely in the church when a total confusion came over me. When I looked up, it seemed to me that the entire church had been swallowed up in shadow, except one chapel. It was as though all the light was concentrated in that single place. I looked over towards this chapel whence so much light shone, and above the altar was a living figure, tall, majestic, beautiful and full of mercy. It was the most holy Virgin Mary, resembling her figure on the Miraculous Medal. At this sight I fell on my knees right where I stood. Unable to look up because of the blinding light, I fixed my glance on her hands, and in them I could read the expression of mercy and pardon. In the presence of the Most Blessed Virgin, even though she did not speak a word to me, I understood the frightful situation I was in, my sins and the beauty of the Catholic Faith.”

After a thorough inquiry and investigation, Pope Gregory XVI declared the event a true miracle. There was no natural explanation to what happened on that particular day. As Ratisbonne's Roman companion recounts:

“Even if we imagine an illusion in the case of a person of Ratisbonne's character and education, with prejudices so violent, and with such interest both of affection and of position, it could not have been induced or augmented by any outward representation; for in the chapel that was the scene of the miracle, there is no statue, or picture, or image of the Blessed Virgin of any kind.” [3]

Alphonse Ratisbonne was baptized, ordained and joined the very Society of Jesus he had so violently despised. As he predicted, his family disowned him and revoked his partnership in the bank which was to be his inheritance. He would later receive permission to leave the Jesuits to start the Sisterhood of Our Lady of Sion, which dedicated itself to the conversion of Jews. The sisterhood soon moved to Jerusalem where it established two convents, two schools, three orphanages and a church. The priests assisting Ratisbonne, known as the Peres de Notre Dame de Sion later returned to Europe to establish additional foundations. Less than a century later, during the Nazi persecutions, these holy priests were among the most active rescuers of Jews. [4]

As was the case when She appeared to St. Juan Diego three centuries earlier, Our Lady demonstrated the same “simplistic” outlook towards Catholicism and conversion that many Catholics today are mocked for maintaining. She did not fill Ratisbonne with a newfound respect for Judaism or encourage him to follow his conscience and “be the best Jew he could be” [indirectly promoting Indifferentism and Pluralism]. She clearly showed him the error of his ways and the true light of the Catholic Faith. She did not enlighten him as to the permanence of the Old Covenant, suggest that conversion may not be necessary for his eternal salvation or apologize for past actions of Catholics [although an apology for Her presumptuous actions that day may be in the works]. Following Our Blessed Mother's heavenly example, Ratisbonne would take this holy gift and make it his mission to provide it to as many other Jews as possible.

The story of Ratisbonne's conversion is not ancient history. This wasn't a Roman centurion or even a medieval prince; he was a modern man in every sense of the term. He was well-educated in the ways of science and modern philosophy, had a prestigious position as a wealthy banker, was betrothed to a beautiful young girl and had every reason in the world to remain in his current state of worldly pleasures. The unlikelihood of the miraculous occurrence was not lost of the recent convert:

“O my God.  . . . I who only a half hour before was still blaspheming! I who felt such a deadly hatred of the Catholic religion! And all who know me well enough that, humanly speaking, I have the strongest reasons for remaining a Jew. My family is Jewish; my bride is Jewish; my uncle is a Jew. In becoming a Catholic, I sacrifice all the interests and all the hopes I have on earth; and yet I am not mad. Everyone knows that I am not mad, that I have never been mad. Surely they must receive my testimony . . .”

“A man has a claim to be believed, when he sacrifices everything to a conviction that must have come from Heaven. If all that I have said is not rigorously true, I commit a crime, not only the most daring, but the most senseless and motiveless.” [5]

Men in Alphonse Ratisbonne's pre-conversion condition are anything but a rarity; millions could easily be found today. However, the nature of priest the Blessed Virgin called him to become is becoming increasingly scarce. Her clear example provided by the conversion of this "modern man" has fallen into the dustbin of history...

¹ "The Conversion of Ratisbonne" Roman Catholic Books, p.71 (2000) 
² Ibid., p.71 
³ Ibid., p.37 
⁴ Ibid., p.75 
⁵Ibid., p.36-37 

Other Sources:

1. “From Ratisbonne to Reflections” by Peter W. Miller

2. http://www.miraclehunter.com/marian_apparitions/approved_apparitions/rome1842/index.html

The Purity of Soul Necessary for Holy Communion

Padre Pio was delighted when they brought him young children who were prepared for First Holy Communion. Father Stefano Manelli, the author of Jesus, Our Eucharistic Love went to First Confession and First Communion to Padre Pio.

Fr. Stefano Manelli founded the "Franciscans of the Immaculate" despite of persecutions particularly within the Franciscan Order. The Institute was raised to Pontifical Right by Blessed John Paul II.









From: Jesus, Our Eucharistic Love, Chapter 3
by Father Stefano Manelli, F.I., S.T.D.

The Purity of Soul Necessary for Holy Communion

What is there to say about the great purity of soul with which the saints approached to receive the Bread of Angels? We know that they had a great delicacy of conscience which was truly angelic. Aware of their own misery, they tried to present themselves to Jesus "holy and immaculate," (Eph. 1:4) repeating with the Publican, "O God, be merciful to me a sinner" (Luke 18:13), and having recourse with great care to the cleansing of Confession.
      When St. Jerome was brought Holy Viaticum at the end of his life, the Saint prostrated himself on the ground in adoration and he was heard to repeat with profound humility the words of St. Elizabeth and those of St. Peter, "How is this, that my Lord should come to me?" "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord" (Luke 5:8). And how many times was the angelic and seraphic St. Gemma tempted to not receive Holy Communion, holding herself to be nothing else than a vile “dunghill”?
      Padre Pio of Pietrelcina used to repeat with trepidation to his brethren, "God sees blights even in the angels. What must He see in me!" For this reason he was very diligent in making his sacramental Confessions."
      “Oh, if we could only understand Who is that God Whom we receive in Holy Communion, then what purity of heart we would bring to Him!" exclaimed St. Mary Magdalen of Pazzi.
      For this reason St. Hugh, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Francis de Sales, St. Ignatius, St. Charles Borromeo, St. Francis Borgia, St. Louis Bertrand, St. Joseph Cupertino, St. Leonard of Port Maurice and many other saints went to Confession every day before celebrating Holy Mass.
      St. Camillus de Lellis never celebrated Holy Mass without first going to Confession, because he wanted at least "to dust off" his soul. Once, at sundown, in a public square in Livorno, before taking leave of a priest of the same religious order, foreseeing that he would not have a priest to confess to on the following morning before his Mass, paused, took off his hat, made the sign of the Cross and went to Confession right there in the square, to his confrere.
      Also, St. Alphonsus, St. Joseph Cafasso, St. John Bosco, St. Pius X, and Padre Pio of Pietrelcina went to Confession very often. And why did St. Pius X wish to lower the age for First Holy Communion to seven years, if not to allow Jesus to enter into the innocent hearts of children, which are so similar to angels. And why was Padre Pio so delighted when they brought him children five years old who were prepared for First Holy Communion?
      The saints applied to perfection the directive of the Holy Spirit, "Let everyone first examine himself, and then eat of that Bread and drink of that Chalice; because he who eats and drinks unworthily, eats and drinks unto his own condemnation" (1 Cor. 11:28-29).
      To examine themselves, to repent, to accuse themselves in Confession and to ask pardon of God, and in this way even every day profit from the Sacrament of Confession, was something natural for the saints. How fortunate they were to be capable of so much! The fruits of sanctification were constant and abundant because the purity of soul with which each saint welcomed into himself Jesus, "the Wheat of the elect," (Zach. 9:17) was like the good ground "... which brings forth fruit in patience". (Luke 8:15).
      St. Anthony Mary Claret illustrates this fact very well: "When we go to Holy Communion, all of us receive the same Lord Jesus, but not all receive the same grace nor are the same effects produced in all. This comes from our greater or lesser disposition. To explain this fact, I will take an example from nature. Consider the process of grafting, the more similar the one plant is to the other, the better the graft will succeed. Likewise, the more resemblance there is between the one that goes to Communion and Jesus, so much the better will the fruits of Holy Communion be." The Sacrament of Confession is in fact the excellent means whereby the similarity between the soul and Jesus is restored.
      For this reason St. Francis de Sales taught his spiritual children, "Go to Confession with humility and devotion ... if it is possible, every time that you go to Holy Communion, even though you do not feel in your conscience any remorse of mortal sin."
      In this regard it is well to recall the teaching of the Church. Holy Communion must be received only while one is in the grace of God. Therefore, when one has committed a mortal sin, even if one has repented of it and has a great desire to receive Holy Communion, it isnecessary and indispensable to confess oneself first before receiving Holy Communion, otherwise one commits a most grave sin of sacrilege, for which Jesus said to St. Bridget, "there does not exist on earth a punishment which is great enough to punish it sufficiently!”[Editor's Note: Thus can we wonder about the great calamities in the world today?]
      St. Ambrose said that persons who commit this sacrilege "come into church with a few sins, and leave it burdened with many." St. Cyril wrote something yet stronger: "They who make a sacrilegious Communion receive satan and Jesus Christ into their hearts - satan, that they may let him rule, and Jesus Christ, that they may offer Him in sacrifice as a Victim to satan." Thus the Catechism of the Council of Trent (De Euch., v.i) declares: "As of all the sacred mysteries ... none can compare with the ... Eucharist, so likewise for no crime is there heavier punishment to be feared from God than for the unholy or irreligious use by the faithful of that which ... contains the very Author and Source of holiness."
      On the other hand, Confession made before Holy Communion to render a soul already in the state of Sanctifying Grace more pure and more beautiful, is something precious even though not required. It is precious because it clothes the soul with a more beautiful "wedding garment" (cf. Matt. 22:12) with which it may take its place at the table of the angels. For this reason the most conscientious souls have always made frequent use (at least once a week) of the sacramental cleansing of absolution, even for venial sins. If you want great purity of soul in order to receive Jesus, no purity shines brighter than that which one obtains when he makes a good confession, where the cleansing Blood of Jesus renders the repentant soul divinely bright and beautiful. "The soul that receives the Divine Blood becomes beautiful, as being clothed in a more precious garment, and it appears so beautifully aglow that if you could see it you would be tempted to adore it," declared St. Mary Magdalene di Pazzi.

Holy Communion with Mary

      Oh, how much it pleases Jesus to be received by a soul cleansed and clothed with His Divine Blood! And what affectionate delight He takes when such a soul is a chaste virgin! For "the Eucharist came from the Paradise of Virginity" (namely, Mary), said St. Albert the Great; and Our Eucharistic Lord does not find such a paradise except in virginity. No one can repeat, quite like a virgin, with the Spouse of the Canticle of Canticles at every Holy Communion: "All mine is my true Love, and I am all His; ... He goes out to pasture among the lilies .. Come back, my heart's Love" (Cant. 2:16-17).
      One praiseworthy way of preparing for Holy Communion is to invoke the Immaculate Virgin, to count on Her to enable us to receive Jesus with Her humility, Her purity and Her love - praying rather that She Herself may come to receive Him in us. This pious practice is much recommended by the Saints, in particular St. Louis Grignon de Montfort, St. Peter Eymard, St. Alphonsus Liguori, and Blessed Maximilian Mary Kolbe. "The best preparation for Holy Communion is that which is made with Mary," wrote St. Peter Eymard. A delightful illustration is given by St. Therese of Lisieux, picturing her soul as a little three or four-year old girl whose hair and dress were in disarray, ashamed to present herself at the altar rail to receive Jesus. However she appeals to the Madonna, and "immediately," the Saint writes, "the Virgin Mary occupies Herself with me. She quickly replaces my dirty dress, ties up my hair with a pretty ribbon and adds a simple flower ... This is enough to make me attractive and enables me to take my place without embarrassment at the banquet of the angels."
      Let us try this method of preparation. We will not be disappointed. We will be able to say what St. Gemma exclaimed in ecstasy, "How beautiful it is to receive Communion with the Mother of Paradise!" 

Thanksgiving After Holy Communion

      The time of Thanksgiving after Holy Communion is the most ideal time for an intimate exchange of love with Jesus. Let it be a love of total self-giving thus returning Jesus' love so wholeheartedly that there is no longer two of us but one, so to speak, in soul and body. Let it be a love that vivifies and unites, - He in me and I in Him, so that we may be consumed in the uniqueness and unity of His love.
      "You are my loving prey just as I am the object of Your immense charity," said St. Gemma to Jesus with tenderness.
      St. John wrote, "Blessed are they that are called to the wedding banquet of the Lamb" (Apoc. 19:9). In truth, in Eucharistic Communion rightly received, the soul realizes, in a heavenly virginal union, a nuptial love for the Spouse, Jesus, to Whom the soul can say with the most tender enthusiasm of the Bride in the Canticle of Canticles: "Let Him kiss me with the kiss of His mouth" (Cant. 1:1).
      Thanksgiving after Holy Communion is a small foretaste, while on earth, of the love which will be experienced in Paradise. In Heaven, in fact, how shall we love Jesus if not by being one with Him eternally? Dear Jesus, sweet Jesus, oh how I ought to thank You for every Holy Communion that You grant me! Did not St. Gemma have good reason to say she would thank You in Paradise for the Eucharist more than for anything else? What a miracle of love to be so completely united with You, O Jesus!

Remain at least fifteen minutes

      The Saints chose, when it was possible, to set no time limit for thanksgiving after Communion, which would last at least a half hour. St. Teresa of Jesus told her daughters, "Let us detain ourselves lovingly with Jesus and not waste the hour that follows Communion. It is an excellent time to deal with God and put before Him the matters that concern our soul. ... As we know that good Jesus remains within us until our natural warmth has dissolved the bread-like qualities, we should take great care not to lose such a beautiful opportunity to treat with Him and lay our needs before Him."
      St. Francis of Assisi, St. Juliana Falconieri, St. Catharine, St. Paschal, St. Veronica, St. Joseph Cupertino, St. Gemma, and many others, used to almost always go into a loving ecstasy immediately after Holy Communion. As for the duration, only the angels measured the time. Also St. Teresa of Avila nearly always went into ecstasy right after receiving Holy Communion, and sometimes it was necessary to carry her away bodily from the Communion grille.
      St. John of Avila, St. Ignatius Loyola, and St. Aloysius Gonzaga used to make their thanksgiving on their knees for two hours. St. Mary Magdalene di Pazzi wanted it to continue without interruption. It was necessary to constrain her so that she might take a little nourishment. "The minutes that follow Communion," the Saint said, "are the most precious we have in our lives. They are the minutes best suited on our part for treating with God, and on His part for communicating His love to us."
      St. Louis Grignon de Montfort used to remain for Thanksgiving after Holy Mass at least a half hour, and he would not let there be any worry or engagement that could make him omit it. He said, "I would not give up this hour of Thanksgiving even for an hour of Paradise."
      Let us also then make the following resolutions: That we will so organize our time and our lives that we will remain in Thanksgiving after Holy Communion for at least fifteen minutes; And further resolve to allow nothing to stop us from taking this time for Thanksgiving. These minutes in which Jesus is physically present to our souls and within our bodies are heavenly minutes that we should by no means waste.

Thanksgiving with the Madonna

      There is a special beauty in a Thanksgiving made in Mary's company in honor of Her Annunciation. Right after Holy Communion we carry Jesus within our souls and bodies, just as the Blessed Virgin Mary did when She had received the message of the angel. We cannot find a better way to adore and love Jesus at that time than by making our dispositions agree with those of the Mother of God, making our own the same sentiments of adoration and love that She had toward Her Divine Son Jesus enclosed under Her Immaculate Heart. It can be helpful in achieving this, to recite meditatively the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary. Let us try it. We cannot fail to profit by becoming united this way with the Madonna in order to love Jesus with Her Heavenly Heart.

__________

On Weekly Confession

Pope Benedict XVI
(At a question and answer session with children who just received their First Communion) 
Livia: Holy Father….Do I have to confess every time I receive Communion, even when I have committed the same sins?...They are always the same. 
Benedict: "I will tell you two things. The first, of course, is that you do not always have to go to confession before you receive Communion unless you committed such serious sins that they need to be confessed. …. It is only necessary when you have committed a really serious sin, when you have deeply offended Jesus…and you have to start again. Only in that case, when you are in a state of "mortal" sin, in other words, grave [sin], is it necessary to go to confession before Communion."
"My second point: Even if, as I said, it is not necessary to go to confession before each Communion, it is very helpful to confess with a certain regularity. It is true: Our sins are always the same, but we clean our homes, our rooms, at least once a week, even if the dirt is always the same; in order to live in cleanliness, in order to start again. Otherwise, the dirt might not be seen but it builds up."
"Something similar can be said about the soul, for me myself: If I never go to confession, my soul is neglected and in the end I am always pleased with myself and no longer understand that I must always work hard to improve and make progress. This cleansing of the soul which Jesus gives us in confession helps make our consciences more alert, more open, and hence helps us to mature spiritually and as human persons. Therefore, two things: Confession is only necessary in the case of a serious sin, but it is very helpful to confess regularly in order to foster the cleanliness and beauty of the soul and to mature day by day in life." (From: Zenit News Service, October 20, 2005)
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St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina
To the souls Padre Pio directed, he gave a five-point rule: weekly confession, daily communion and spiritual reading, examination of conscience each evening and mental prayer twice a day. He said:
"Confession is the soul's bath. You must go at least once a week. I do not want souls to stay away from confession more than a week. Even a clean and unoccupied room gathers dust; return after a week and you will see that it needs dusting again!" 
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St. Francis de Sales, Doctor of the Church
"...never allow your heart to abide heavy with sin, seeing that there is so sure and safe a remedy at hand...Make your confession humbly and devoutly every week, and always, if you can, before communicating, even although your conscience is not burdened with mortal sin; for in confession you do not only receive absolution for your venial sins, but you also receive great strength to help you in avoiding them henceforth, clearer light to discover your failings, and abundant grace to make up whatever loss you have incurred through those faults. You exercise the graces of humility, obedience, simplicity and love, and by this one act of confession you practise more virtue than in any other." (from "Introduction to the Devout Life")
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Blessed Teresa of Calcutta
Everybody loved and respected Mother Teresa. She was a weekly penitent. Some may express surprise at this: "But, she was holy!" Indeed she was, precisely because she regularly and humbly sought forgiveness from Our Lord in exactly the way He intended: through the Sacrament of Penance. She would not cheat herself of the very graces that Jesus hung on the Cross to give us, graces that helped her to do what we all aspire to do: to live a life pleasing to our Father in Heaven...to live not just a good life, but a holy life. Mother Teresa knew and traveled the "narrow path" to Heaven. We are not likely to follow her in heroic sacrifice, but we can try to follow in some measure her simplicity and humility of heart by regularly asking pardon for our sins in the confessional, and so not cheating ourselves of the graces that Jesus earnestly wishes to give to each of us. 
(From: Zenit News Service, April 12, 2006)

Censure and Opinion of a Certain 'Mystic' by St. John of the Cross

Introduction

At the time Nicolas Doria was vicar general he asked John of the Cross to examine an account written by a Discalced Carmelite nun and give his opinion about her spirit. We do not know who this nun was or the community to which she belonged, but we know that other learned men had judged her favorably. Discerning five defects in the nun's report of her experiences, John gives a negative evaluation of her spirit in this written opinion for his vicar general.

Censure and Opinion

[On the spirit and procedure in prayer of a discalced Carmelite 

nun, given by St. John of the Cross Segovia, 1588-91]

In the affective manner with which this soul proceeds there appear to be five defects manifesting a lack of the good spirit.

First, it seems she bears within herself a great fondness for possessing things, whereas the good spirit is always very detached in its appetites.

Second, she is too secure in her spirit and has little fear of being inwardly mistaken. Where this fear is absent, the spirit of God is never present to preserved the soul from harm, as the Wise Man says [Prv. 15:27].

Third, it seems she has the desire to persuade others that her experiences are good and manifold. Persons of a genuine spirit do not desire to do this, but, on the contrary, desire that their experiences be considered of little value and despised, and this they do themselves.

Fourth-and this is the main fault-the effects of humility are not manifest in her attitude. When favors are genuine, as she says here that hers are, they are ordinarily never communicated to a soul without first undoing and annihilating it in the inner abasement of humility. And if these favors had produced this effect in her, she would not have failed to say something about it here, and even a great deal. For the first thing the soul esteems and is eager to speak of are the effects of humility, which, certainly, are so strong that they cannot be disguised. For although they may not be so noticeable in all the apprehensions of God, still, these apprehensions that she here calls union are never present without them: 'Before the soul is exalted, it is humbled' [Prv. 18:12] and, 'It is good for me that you have humbled me' [Ps. 119:71].

Fifth, her style and language don't seem to come from the spirit she claims, for the good spirit itself teaches a simpler style, one without the affectation or exaggeration she uses. And all this about what she said to God and God said to her seems to be nonsense.

I would advise that they should not command or allow her to write anything about this, and her confessor should not show willingness to hear of it, other than to hold it in little esteem and contradict it. Let them try her in the practice of sheer virtue, especially in self-contempt, humility, and obedience; and by the sound of the metal when tapped the quality of soul caused by so many favors will show itself. And the tests must be good ones, for there is no devil that will not suffer something for his honor.


From:
The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross
Translated by Fathers Kieran Kavanaugh, OCD and Otilio Rodriguez, OCD