Encouragement
As we have entered the Holy Week and draw closer to the conclusion of the Lenten Season, it would serve us well to look back and ponder on how we kept the sacredness of this Holy Season through our actions of Prayer, Fasting and Charity.
Whether we lived up to our Christian calling and made a whole hearted effort to dwell and meditate deeply on the Lord’s own sorrowful journey during this season.
The Holy Season was also a time where we participated in many Lenten Retreats to help us return to the Lord with all our hearts. To understand more profoundly the Passion which our Lord undertook for the sake of every mortal being that He created so that He could gather them all into His Heavenly Kingdom at the end of time.
Having attended two such spiritual retreats; one being Life in the Holy Spirit and the second on what our soul really is, I was deeply propelled into this subject of our own soul.
Given an inspirational insight into the writings of St. Teresa of Avila on the Soul’s journey to God, I was completely absorbed into how she has beautifully explained the Soul of every human being as a Diamond Castle with Seven Mansions in the Interior Castle and each mansion having many rooms.
As we go through life, our soul too goes through seven stages in each of these mansions. The main aim is to keep reptiles which is Sin from entering into the doors of the Castle.
Each mansion in the Castle corresponds to the state of our soul as we wrestle with that which is harmful to our soul and keep building up our good deeds.
These mansions are where the soul travels via prayer and virtues taking care of the soul’s dignity and beauty. The main realization of the soul is that God dwells within the Soul.
We need Prayer to enter the First mansion after having escaped from all the venomous creatures of sin from outside and closed the door to them. It is in this mansion that the soul spends time in self knowledge and humility. The soul needs the Intercession of the Blessed Mother and Saints to protect the soul.
The Second mansion is where the soul grows in holiness through prayer and perseverance.
It has a greater desire for Christ and purges its imperfections.
The Third mansion is where the soul avoids committing even venial sins so as not to offend God and spends time in recollection and works of charity.
The fourth mansion is where the soul makes a great advancement to a profound intimacy with God getting nearer to the place where God dwells.
The soul experiences the sweet consolation of the Prayer of the Supernatural and the Prayer of Quiet.
In the Prayer of the Supernatural the soul is active in praising and thanking God, its senses completely withdrawn from all distractions whereas in the Prayer of the Quiet, the soul is in peace and quiet with an inner sweetness, the soul drinks directly from God. The Lord himself gives this type of prayer when the soul least expects it.
The Fifth mansion is where the soul goes into a deeper Prayer of Union with God.
The riches and treasures in this mansion are of a supernatural type.
The soul can actually fall asleep from the things of the world leaving the body and being united to God if for even just a moment in the mystical way.
When the soul returns back, it can be so firmly sure that it has been in God and God has been in it,
It is here that we are so attentive to God that we keep silent and allow Him to speak to us. We can hear His voice in any situation guiding us and beautifying our souls.
The Sixth mansion is where the soul has fallen deeply in love with the King this is where our Spiritual Betrothal to Christ takes place. We pledge ourselves to Him.
However this journey is not without danger and affliction and we have to suffer much. The soul experiences extraordinary phenomena like flights of the spirit, ecstasies, visions and locutions.
The soul is so conscious of the presence of God and ready to battle all and stay with Him.
To enter the Final and the Seventh mansion the soul will have to undergo greater hardships and persecutions, physical illness and trials. Yet the soul bears it all on account of intense love for the King. This is the second heaven. It is here that the spiritual wedding takes place when the soul is completely united to God and the beatific vision takes place.
All the Three Persons of the Trinity communicates and speaks to the soul. A moment of intense Rapture!
Truly, after having read this depiction of the soul which is really mind blowing, we too should keep our gaze fixed on God above and spend every moment on earth in close companionship with Him never leaving His side because He never leaves us even for a moment.
He has breathed His own spirit into our souls and all He yearns for is that our souls should be transformed while on earth and be in total communion with Him.
It is very imperative that the soul craves for this rapturous state at every stage in the earthly life to find fulfillment in Heaven. Our goal should be to never allow our soul to lose this moment. Then our soul can also be like a shining Diamond of priceless worth whose value comes to us by just being God’s creation.
We know Love always takes the sign of the Cross. The Vertical stand is our Love for God, our Creator who made us and to whom we have to return.
The Horizontal stand is our Love towards others which is in the steps of our Love for Christ with a passion so great that our soul should enter into the soul of the other to demonstrate this love.
We all know that we have a Soulmate marked for us by God. I believe that Souls are stuff of what Love is made of. Our Soulmate waits for us to come on this earth even before our existence. Even before we actually meet face to face, our souls are being prepared in the love process for this soul capturing moment. A Soul can only contain Love and nothing else. All feelings and emotions abide inside this Love. The Soul takes control over the Heart and even supersedes the Heart into the nether world. One soul mate always wants to share with the other the feelings and words that have touched them so that both are immersed in the same message and tied to the same string from one heart to the other.
I was greatly attracted towards some inspiring quotes on Soulmates
“A soulmate is a person with whom you have an immediate connection the moment you meet, a connection so strong that you are drawn to them in a way you have never experienced before. As this connection develops over time, you experience a love so deep, strong and complex, that you begin to doubt that you ever truly loved anyone prior.
“When soul mates meet, there is from the very beginning instant recognition of each other stemming from the very core of their beings.”
“Wen two souls fall in love, there is nothing else but the yearning to be close to the other. The presence that is felt through a hand held, a voice heard, or a smile seen. Souls do not have calendars nor do they understand the notion of time and distance. w that it feels right to be with each other. This is the reason why we miss someone so much when they are not there-even if they are in the next room. Your soul feels their absence It does not realize that the separation is temporary.”
“If you have found a smile that is the sweetest one you’ve known. If you have heard within a voice, the echoes of your own, If you have felt a touch that stirs the longings of your heart, And can still feel that closeness in the moments you’re apart. If you are filled with wonder at the way two lives can blend to weave a perfect pattern that is seamless end to end. . If you believe some things in life are simply meant to be, Then you have found your soul mate, your heart’s own destiny.”
Surely, souls are always joined to each other even when away from the other. Souls can live only together with the other’s soul. Having said and done all, soulmates themselves have their Soulmate in God. He pairs the Soulmates together and governs these souls while on earth. Soulmates can only emulate and match the Love that their Soulmate from Heaven teaches them.
We have read so often about the Samaritan women that now we can guess her indescribable joy on encountering Jesus at the Well. Her soul came alive and communicated with that of the Lord. It was her soul that was filled with the springs of Living Water. She herself filled with the rapture of this heavenly experience could not contain it to herself only. She had to run back into the town and tell others about Jesus so that they too could experience this soul moving encounter by knowing and meeting Christ.
This is what we are called to do in Life. When we have found Jesus, we need to rush and tell others so that their souls too can be filled with the supreme happiness of having Jesus with them not just for every moment in this world but for eternity in the life after.
As it is aptly said ; “One day someone is going to hug you so tight that all of your broken pieces will stick back together.” God alone can glue and mend, re-mend and keep breathing back hope, love and joy into every created soul.
First, we have to come back to Him with all our Soul!
May we be fully attentive and accompany our Lord with true pain in our hearts through the final events of His earthly life, his death on the Cross and eagerly await His Resurrection on Easter day!
Maria Franco
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