Ijournal entry 101016 #41. October, Month of the Holy Rosary. Aphorism by Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin. Quotes by G.K. Chesterton, St. Raymond of Penyafort, and St. Vincent Ferrer. Eucharistic Rosary taken from "There Is Nothing More”: The Blue Army Pledge to Our Lady of Fatima". Book: "REMEMBER THY FIRST LOVE", by Archimandrite Zacharias. YouTube video: "Kyrie Eleison", by Divna Ljubojevic.
(This is absolutely beautiful, the words and images. It is the writings of Dominican Saints with sacred art by Dominican artists–Preachers. Available at the Dominican Monastery of St. Jude in Marbury, Alabama
for $5 which covers the cost of the booklet and shipping)
Link to a free PDF copy:
http://www.stjudemonastery.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/dominican-jubilee-rosary-meditations.pdf
for $5 which covers the cost of the booklet and shipping)
Link to a free PDF copy:
http://www.stjudemonastery.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/dominican-jubilee-rosary-meditations.pdf
By Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin
"The law of spirit and of fire is to go up; the law of matter and of bodies is to go down. Hence, from the first moment of their existence, corporeal beings and beings corporised materially tend to their end and reintegration, each in their class"
MTA= This is backed up by the following scripture that is coming to mind:
"The law of spirit and of fire is to go up; the law of matter and of bodies is to go down. Hence, from the first moment of their existence, corporeal beings and beings corporised materially tend to their end and reintegration, each in their class"
MTA= This is backed up by the following scripture that is coming to mind:
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 "Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal" |
With a renewed understanding, we will definitely not waste all of our precious time on what is passing away, nor are we extremely dishearten by what is temporary and seen. What will happen is that we will fixate on the unseen which is eternal, lasting forever and ever.
🔴 “A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it.”by G.K. Chesterton
🔵 So keep your eyes fixed on Jesus, who gives the faith and safeguards it... That He, the God of love and of peace, may instill peace in your hearts and speed your journey, that He may hide you in the secret of his face, far from the intrigues of men; and do so until He brings you to, and causes you to take root in, that fullness where you will dwell eternally in beauty and peace, in the tents of safety and the rest of abundance.” St. Raymond of Penyafort
⚪️ In sermons and exhortations, use a simple language such as you would use in familiar conversation. Speak in such a way that your words are felt to come not from a proud and haughty spirit, but rather from the tenderness of love and a fatherly goodness. Be like a father who is distressed to see his children misbehaving... he tries to bring them back, to rescue them, he wants to embrace them as a mother, like someone who rejoices to see the progress they have made and feels able to hope they will gain the glory of paradise.” By St. Vincent Ferrer
🔵 So keep your eyes fixed on Jesus, who gives the faith and safeguards it... That He, the God of love and of peace, may instill peace in your hearts and speed your journey, that He may hide you in the secret of his face, far from the intrigues of men; and do so until He brings you to, and causes you to take root in, that fullness where you will dwell eternally in beauty and peace, in the tents of safety and the rest of abundance.” St. Raymond of Penyafort
⚪️ In sermons and exhortations, use a simple language such as you would use in familiar conversation. Speak in such a way that your words are felt to come not from a proud and haughty spirit, but rather from the tenderness of love and a fatherly goodness. Be like a father who is distressed to see his children misbehaving... he tries to bring them back, to rescue them, he wants to embrace them as a mother, like someone who rejoices to see the progress they have made and feels able to hope they will gain the glory of paradise.” By St. Vincent Ferrer
One day my regular reading was from the book of John, the first chapter. These were the verses that were of interest to me:
🗣Verse five spoke to me in this way: that no matter what trials are being experienced, the light of Christ will be shinning through. The light brings hope, peace, strength, faith, and trust. If God is truly present, "Emmanuel, God with us", then there is no reason to feel overwhelmed. The light of Christ should be dispelling the darkness in regards to any worry, fear, sadness or anxiety. It's to take stock and make sure our possession of Christ is secure, for He does want to abide in me/us.
🗣Verse 12's attraction was the excellent business deal being offered by God. Can anyone in their right mind pass up a good deal? The ball is in our court, if we accept God with our whole heart, then truly as His children we are bonafide heirs.
🗣Verse 17 gives great comfort, it comes from knowing that Jesus is our "all in all", both now as we need Him, and forever when we will enjoy Him and get to know Him, truly seeing Him as He is.
A couple of hours later, doing my Christian reading exercise from the book: "REMEMBER THY FIRST LOVE", by Archimandrite Zacharias, something from John 1 is being discussed. It caused me to be "wowed" by the moment, because of encountering the same scripture that supported what was the lesson of the day. This helped to solidify and emphasize the major pivotal point to facilitate learning the lesson at hand to promote spiritual growth. This experience is best described as my "road to Emmaus" moment. Couldn't wait to share the excerpts from the book and hope it will touch someone near or far.
🗣Verse 12's attraction was the excellent business deal being offered by God. Can anyone in their right mind pass up a good deal? The ball is in our court, if we accept God with our whole heart, then truly as His children we are bonafide heirs.
🗣Verse 17 gives great comfort, it comes from knowing that Jesus is our "all in all", both now as we need Him, and forever when we will enjoy Him and get to know Him, truly seeing Him as He is.
A couple of hours later, doing my Christian reading exercise from the book: "REMEMBER THY FIRST LOVE", by Archimandrite Zacharias, something from John 1 is being discussed. It caused me to be "wowed" by the moment, because of encountering the same scripture that supported what was the lesson of the day. This helped to solidify and emphasize the major pivotal point to facilitate learning the lesson at hand to promote spiritual growth. This experience is best described as my "road to Emmaus" moment. Couldn't wait to share the excerpts from the book and hope it will touch someone near or far.
Now it's the following verses from John 1, that are capturing my attention for a good reason as you will see why when you serve yourself a slice of the meatloaf by reading the excerpts shared from the book:
John 1:43-51 "The next day he* decided to go to Galilee, and he found Philip. And Jesus said to him, “Follow me.” Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the town of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one about whom Moses wrote in the law, and also the prophets, Jesus son of Joseph, from Nazareth.” But Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, “Here is a true Israelite.* There is no duplicity in him.” Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree.” Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God;* you are the King of Israel.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree?* You will see greater things than this.” And he said to him, “Amen, amen,* I say to you, you will see the sky opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” Luv, luv, the commentary below and it is fostering a greater appreciation for the person of Jesus Christ as Lord, and definitely flaming the fires of Love. How exciting it is that the Lord can meet us where we are and take us to heights unimaginable without snuffing out the smoldering wick that we sometimes think is burning so bright. Lord have mercy, have mercy, have mercy on false piety. Please have a bite of the delicious muffin, as it is the dessert being served. The song is very short, so indulge. Here is a plain example to support where this line of thinking is coming from. This quote from St.Vincent De Paul previously served as a text mess in the phone apostolate: "Free UR mind from all dat troubles U; God will take care of things. If U are unable 2 make haste in this choice so 2 speak, U grieve da hart of God, cause He C's dat U don't honor Him sufficiently wit holy trust.nTrust in Him, I beg U & U'll have da fulfillment of what UR heart desires" (MC=In other words as Claudia would say: 'God's got it'. Let this B cum 4 us mo of a reality than a slogan, cause it's da truth & not slogans dat sets us free) |
Eucharistic Rosary taken from "There Is Nothing More”: The Blue Army Pledge to Our Lady of Fatima"
Info from this site: http://www.stjudemonastery.org/2014/eucharistic-
"For October, the month dedicated to the Holy Rosary, we would like to share a method of praying a “Eucharistic Rosary,” taken from an old Blue Army book. (The Blue Army, now known as the World Apostolate of Fatima, was founded in answer to Our Lady of Fatima’s request to pray the Rosary, especially for the conversion of Russia.)
As Dominican nuns devoted to the Perpetual Rosary, we are continually praying the Rosary before Our Eucharistic Lord exposed for Adoration. The Perpetual Rosary Sisters tradition calls this “the adoring rosary.” Our original 1800’s Custom Book says: We thus study all the mysteries of Jesus under the veil of the Host which contains them. What a source of joy to be able by this sweet industry, to cause the gift which Jesus had made of His merits to fructify by placing them into our hands, so to speak, through the Holy Eucharist! That is certainly what the following Eucharistic Rosary enables us to do. A Eucharistic Rosary(Taken from the book “There Is Nothing More”: The Blue Army Pledge to Our Lady of Fatima, published by AMI Press, Washington, NJ.
Spiritual Communion is a real Communion and unites to Christ without any visible sign—it draws Him spiritually into our heart, and enriches us with the graces He would have given us had we been able to receive Him sacramentally as we desired.
A simple desire—no matter how brief—suffices to constitute a Spiritual Communion. Obviously the deeper and more fervent the desire, the more fruitful the Communion. No particular formula is required. Our Lord once said to St. Mechtilde, “Every time you desire Me, you draw Me to you.”
In every Rosary we say, we can make fifty-three Spiritual Communions. How? By simply making the Holy Name JESUS in each Haily Mary a formula for a Spiritual Communion. “Call Me and I will come to thee,” said Our Lord to Cistercian St. Ida.
All this we can do mentally, but if we so desire we can externalize our interior desire by bowing the head, or pressing the beads to our heart each time we pronounce the Name JESUS with the intention of drawing Him spiritually into our soul. [Dominicans have a long tradition of praying with both body and mind—our Holy Father St. Dominic had his “Nine Ways of Prayer” using various postures to express or inspire his interior devotion. We ourselves sometimes pray the Rosary genuflecting at the Holy Name.] This won’t make the Rosary a bit longer—but what a difference it will make! The Rosary will become a living experience.
For instance, if when we are saying the Third Joyful Mystery — the Birth of Our Lord — we make the Holy Name JESUS in each Hail Mary a formula for a Spiritual Communion, Our Lady will lay her Divine Babe spiritually in our hearts just as she would (in answer to our request) have placed Him in our arms on the first Christmas Night. And it is even better to have Him spiritually in our souls than physically in our arms!
And what shall we do with Him? WE CAN ALSO OFFER HIM!
Why, surely, place Him back again in our Mother’s arms and supporting them with our own, lovingly offer Him to our Eternal Father—a Gift as infinite as Himself to render Him infinite adoration, reparation, thanksgiving and petition, which are actually the four ends of the Mass, as Pius XII tells us in Mediator Dei (para. 70-74). Such a Hail Mary united us interiorly to the Sacrifice of the Mass wherever we might be. Could we wish for more?
Notice how like the Mass the Rosary is! All the beads stem forth from the Crucifix and return to it again as to their source. Is not Calvary—renewed in every Mass—the Source and Fount of all grace, the focal point of all time?
All that went before it was a preparation for Calvary. Everything that has followed looks back to it and derives all its supernatural worth from it. Every beat of the Sacred Heart from Crib to Cross was a preparation for Calvary. Every subsequent beat of that Heart has been a renewal of the supreme act of Love offered once on the Cross and continued in every Mass to the end of time.
Notice how liturgical the Rosary is! Each decade begins with the Our Father. Like the Canon of the Mass each decade is addressed to our Eternal Father—and ten times over we offer Him (in the Eucharistic Hail Marys) the one and only Gift that is good enough for Him: “the Blessed Fruit of Mary’s womb,” “the Beloved Son in Whom He is well pleased.”
In the present world crises, when the powers of evil engulf us on every side, what more saving and sanctifying device could our heavenly Mother hold out to us than her Eucharistic Rosary—each bead a Spiritual Communion—wherein Jesus enters spiritually into us as He was in each of His great Mysteries—to be offered by us on the living altar of our own heart to the Eternal Father, to pay all our debts of gratitude and atonement, and to purchase for ourselves and each member of the human family the graces we need and desire."
Info from this site: http://www.stjudemonastery.org/2014/eucharistic-
"For October, the month dedicated to the Holy Rosary, we would like to share a method of praying a “Eucharistic Rosary,” taken from an old Blue Army book. (The Blue Army, now known as the World Apostolate of Fatima, was founded in answer to Our Lady of Fatima’s request to pray the Rosary, especially for the conversion of Russia.)
As Dominican nuns devoted to the Perpetual Rosary, we are continually praying the Rosary before Our Eucharistic Lord exposed for Adoration. The Perpetual Rosary Sisters tradition calls this “the adoring rosary.” Our original 1800’s Custom Book says: We thus study all the mysteries of Jesus under the veil of the Host which contains them. What a source of joy to be able by this sweet industry, to cause the gift which Jesus had made of His merits to fructify by placing them into our hands, so to speak, through the Holy Eucharist! That is certainly what the following Eucharistic Rosary enables us to do. A Eucharistic Rosary(Taken from the book “There Is Nothing More”: The Blue Army Pledge to Our Lady of Fatima, published by AMI Press, Washington, NJ.
Spiritual Communion is a real Communion and unites to Christ without any visible sign—it draws Him spiritually into our heart, and enriches us with the graces He would have given us had we been able to receive Him sacramentally as we desired.
A simple desire—no matter how brief—suffices to constitute a Spiritual Communion. Obviously the deeper and more fervent the desire, the more fruitful the Communion. No particular formula is required. Our Lord once said to St. Mechtilde, “Every time you desire Me, you draw Me to you.”
In every Rosary we say, we can make fifty-three Spiritual Communions. How? By simply making the Holy Name JESUS in each Haily Mary a formula for a Spiritual Communion. “Call Me and I will come to thee,” said Our Lord to Cistercian St. Ida.
All this we can do mentally, but if we so desire we can externalize our interior desire by bowing the head, or pressing the beads to our heart each time we pronounce the Name JESUS with the intention of drawing Him spiritually into our soul. [Dominicans have a long tradition of praying with both body and mind—our Holy Father St. Dominic had his “Nine Ways of Prayer” using various postures to express or inspire his interior devotion. We ourselves sometimes pray the Rosary genuflecting at the Holy Name.] This won’t make the Rosary a bit longer—but what a difference it will make! The Rosary will become a living experience.
For instance, if when we are saying the Third Joyful Mystery — the Birth of Our Lord — we make the Holy Name JESUS in each Hail Mary a formula for a Spiritual Communion, Our Lady will lay her Divine Babe spiritually in our hearts just as she would (in answer to our request) have placed Him in our arms on the first Christmas Night. And it is even better to have Him spiritually in our souls than physically in our arms!
And what shall we do with Him? WE CAN ALSO OFFER HIM!
Why, surely, place Him back again in our Mother’s arms and supporting them with our own, lovingly offer Him to our Eternal Father—a Gift as infinite as Himself to render Him infinite adoration, reparation, thanksgiving and petition, which are actually the four ends of the Mass, as Pius XII tells us in Mediator Dei (para. 70-74). Such a Hail Mary united us interiorly to the Sacrifice of the Mass wherever we might be. Could we wish for more?
Notice how like the Mass the Rosary is! All the beads stem forth from the Crucifix and return to it again as to their source. Is not Calvary—renewed in every Mass—the Source and Fount of all grace, the focal point of all time?
All that went before it was a preparation for Calvary. Everything that has followed looks back to it and derives all its supernatural worth from it. Every beat of the Sacred Heart from Crib to Cross was a preparation for Calvary. Every subsequent beat of that Heart has been a renewal of the supreme act of Love offered once on the Cross and continued in every Mass to the end of time.
Notice how liturgical the Rosary is! Each decade begins with the Our Father. Like the Canon of the Mass each decade is addressed to our Eternal Father—and ten times over we offer Him (in the Eucharistic Hail Marys) the one and only Gift that is good enough for Him: “the Blessed Fruit of Mary’s womb,” “the Beloved Son in Whom He is well pleased.”
In the present world crises, when the powers of evil engulf us on every side, what more saving and sanctifying device could our heavenly Mother hold out to us than her Eucharistic Rosary—each bead a Spiritual Communion—wherein Jesus enters spiritually into us as He was in each of His great Mysteries—to be offered by us on the living altar of our own heart to the Eternal Father, to pay all our debts of gratitude and atonement, and to purchase for ourselves and each member of the human family the graces we need and desire."
Book: "REMEMBER THY FIRST LOVE", by Archimandrite
Excerpts from the book:
"Philip invites Nathanael to ‘come and see’, or, as the Old Testament says, to ‘taste and see’. We could also say ‘taste and know’. What will one know? One will know that Christ is the Lord, that the Lord is sweet and good and that there is no other like Him. The Lord draws near to each man in a particular way, so as to stir up in him the desire to give himself wholeheartedly to God. We observe this in the word with which He answered Nathanael when he first approached Him. In most cases the Lord begins by humbling Himself before man in order to transmit eternal life to him. A good example of this is His meeting with the Samaritan woman: in order to reveal Himself to her as the Christ, to raise her from her fallen state and make her His apostle, He humbled Himself and said, as if in need of her assistance, ‘Give me to drink.’ And only then did He add, ‘If you knew Who is speaking to you, you would ask from Him living water.’
In Nathanael’s case, however, rather than humbling Himself, Christ prefers to reveal to Nathanael the ways of his heart. He shows
Nathanael the arrogance with which he has approached Christ (‘Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?’), crushing it not by rebuke, but with gentle honesty: ‘Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!’ Whenever God crushes our illusions about ourselves, He grants us the power to be healed of them. If, on the other hand, we were to expose our wounds to a psychologist, he would make an impressive analysis of our state but we would remain unhealed. For God alone can show us our spiritual poverty, and be cause He wants to save us, He inspires us and gives us the strength to work out our salvation without falling prey to despair. So great is Christ’s desire to transmit His life and truth to Nathanael that, having shown him his pride, He then empties him of it. By calling him an honest man, the Lord not only crushes Nathanael’s arrogance but also acknowledges the uprightness of his heart: Nathanael had clearly decided to approach Christ in spite of his doubts, so as to see for himself.
Of course, it is not simply the content of Christ’s word but also the energy accompanying it, that reveals the truth and informs the heart of man with the grace proceeding from the divine heart of the Lord Jesus. Life in Christ is like an iceberg: only the top is visible, but an infinite amount of grace and strength lies submerged in God’s power, and He communicates this to the heart of man by means of man’s faith. Thus is Nathanael’s spirit awakened and quickened by the word of the Lord. But he is still overtaken by boldness and says, ‘Whence knowest thou me?’ So the Lord continues to reveal Himself and answers, ‘Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee.’ Now, to describe someone as being under the fig tree is an allusion to the Old Testament prophecy of Zechariah,11 in which there is a description of the man who continuously studies the Law and the word of God. For the Lord knew that Nathanael was a searcher of the Scriptures, a man who sought every trace of the presence of God in the written word of God. The spoken word of the incarnate Word of God would there -fore have resounded deep in his heart, for it had been ad -dressed to him personally and therefore described him perfectly. Nathanael could only surrender at this point, his heart having been informed of the truth of the Son and Word of God. So he seals this with his own ‘Amen’, saying, ‘Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel.’ Which is to say, ‘Verily art Thou the One I sought in the Scriptures beneath the fig tree. Thou art the Son of God, the King of Israel, the Redeemer of the world.’
Once Nathanael has confessed his faith in the divinity of the Nazarene, the Lord reinforces the truth which has arisen in Nathanael’s heart, saying, ‘Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou? Thou shalt see greater things than these.’ This is an extremely powerful word, for the One Who pronounces it is God Almighty. ‘Thou shalt see greater things than these’ is a revelation of the na ture of man’s life in God, a life of seeing endlessly ‘greater things’, a dynamic life. Life in God knows no decline, nor does it stand inert: it is a life of eternal dynamic increase. Accord -ing to our Fathers, in the age to come even the Angels will continually increase from fulness of love to an even greater fulness of love, and there will be no end to this.12 So too can man grow day by day in knowledge and grace, even in this life. ‘It is said that in the life to come the angels and saints ever increase in gifts of grace and never abate their longing for further blessings. No lapse or veering from virtue to vice takes place in that life.’ Saint Gregory of Sinai in The Philokalia"
Excerpts from the book:
"Philip invites Nathanael to ‘come and see’, or, as the Old Testament says, to ‘taste and see’. We could also say ‘taste and know’. What will one know? One will know that Christ is the Lord, that the Lord is sweet and good and that there is no other like Him. The Lord draws near to each man in a particular way, so as to stir up in him the desire to give himself wholeheartedly to God. We observe this in the word with which He answered Nathanael when he first approached Him. In most cases the Lord begins by humbling Himself before man in order to transmit eternal life to him. A good example of this is His meeting with the Samaritan woman: in order to reveal Himself to her as the Christ, to raise her from her fallen state and make her His apostle, He humbled Himself and said, as if in need of her assistance, ‘Give me to drink.’ And only then did He add, ‘If you knew Who is speaking to you, you would ask from Him living water.’
In Nathanael’s case, however, rather than humbling Himself, Christ prefers to reveal to Nathanael the ways of his heart. He shows
Nathanael the arrogance with which he has approached Christ (‘Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?’), crushing it not by rebuke, but with gentle honesty: ‘Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!’ Whenever God crushes our illusions about ourselves, He grants us the power to be healed of them. If, on the other hand, we were to expose our wounds to a psychologist, he would make an impressive analysis of our state but we would remain unhealed. For God alone can show us our spiritual poverty, and be cause He wants to save us, He inspires us and gives us the strength to work out our salvation without falling prey to despair. So great is Christ’s desire to transmit His life and truth to Nathanael that, having shown him his pride, He then empties him of it. By calling him an honest man, the Lord not only crushes Nathanael’s arrogance but also acknowledges the uprightness of his heart: Nathanael had clearly decided to approach Christ in spite of his doubts, so as to see for himself.
Of course, it is not simply the content of Christ’s word but also the energy accompanying it, that reveals the truth and informs the heart of man with the grace proceeding from the divine heart of the Lord Jesus. Life in Christ is like an iceberg: only the top is visible, but an infinite amount of grace and strength lies submerged in God’s power, and He communicates this to the heart of man by means of man’s faith. Thus is Nathanael’s spirit awakened and quickened by the word of the Lord. But he is still overtaken by boldness and says, ‘Whence knowest thou me?’ So the Lord continues to reveal Himself and answers, ‘Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee.’ Now, to describe someone as being under the fig tree is an allusion to the Old Testament prophecy of Zechariah,11 in which there is a description of the man who continuously studies the Law and the word of God. For the Lord knew that Nathanael was a searcher of the Scriptures, a man who sought every trace of the presence of God in the written word of God. The spoken word of the incarnate Word of God would there -fore have resounded deep in his heart, for it had been ad -dressed to him personally and therefore described him perfectly. Nathanael could only surrender at this point, his heart having been informed of the truth of the Son and Word of God. So he seals this with his own ‘Amen’, saying, ‘Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel.’ Which is to say, ‘Verily art Thou the One I sought in the Scriptures beneath the fig tree. Thou art the Son of God, the King of Israel, the Redeemer of the world.’
Once Nathanael has confessed his faith in the divinity of the Nazarene, the Lord reinforces the truth which has arisen in Nathanael’s heart, saying, ‘Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou? Thou shalt see greater things than these.’ This is an extremely powerful word, for the One Who pronounces it is God Almighty. ‘Thou shalt see greater things than these’ is a revelation of the na ture of man’s life in God, a life of seeing endlessly ‘greater things’, a dynamic life. Life in God knows no decline, nor does it stand inert: it is a life of eternal dynamic increase. Accord -ing to our Fathers, in the age to come even the Angels will continually increase from fulness of love to an even greater fulness of love, and there will be no end to this.12 So too can man grow day by day in knowledge and grace, even in this life. ‘It is said that in the life to come the angels and saints ever increase in gifts of grace and never abate their longing for further blessings. No lapse or veering from virtue to vice takes place in that life.’ Saint Gregory of Sinai in The Philokalia"