SPIRITUALITY 101
SPIRITUAL REFLECTION- 107
Deacon Jim Breazile o.c.d.s.

Some years ago a distinguished gentleman visited a convent of Discalced Carmelite cloistered nuns. The sisters showed the man through the institution, explaining to him their daily life of prayer and recollection, their rigorous fasts and vigils, their many acts of prayer and penance. He saw their simple cells, their frugal table, and their happy contentment in a modern world. Finally she brought him to the top of the monastery which was seated on the brow of a hill. Below him he could see the beautiful flower gardens and well-kept lawns. Across the busy valley, buzzing with life and activity, far beyond the surging city on another hill-top there could be seen in the bright sunlight a beautiful marble country home, which seemed to symbolize everything that which rich and refined and noble in life. Pointing to the beautiful home, the man said: "Sister with all your culture and refinement, you too could enjoy all the comfort of such a life, all the luxuries of the world as that family in that beautiful stone structure on the hill-top. If the choice were offered you, would you not exchange your little convent-cell for that beautiful home?" Modestly the sister replied: "Sir, that beautiful home on the hill-top is my father's house, and I have not been homesick since I came here."

The good sister had experienced the innocent pleasures of youth as well as the peaceful and consoling joys of convent life. She no doubt had encountered many temptations toward the alluring pleasures of a deceitful world. In prayer and mortification, she can weight them calmly in the scales of the sanctuary of Gods grace. She echoes the words of St. Paul, "I do not run aimlessly; I do not fight as if I were shadowboxing. No, I drive my body and train it, for fear that, after having preached to others, I myself should be disqualified. (1 Cor 9: 27-27)

DEVOTION - Growth in love- 3rd stage 
DEVOTIONALS- MEDITATION-SACRAMENTALS-THE ROSARY-34 
OUR FATHER-10 

The final petition of Our Lord's Prayer is "deliver us from evil." This petition reminds of the passage in John's Gospel, in which Jesus, praying to The Father intercedes for his disciples. He prays, "I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the evil one."

What is this evil, that we ask to be delivered from? We know that the world itself is not evil, because God created it, and found it to be good (Genesis 1:7ff). . On the other hand, we know that the world does not provide a haven from evil, as Matthew states; "What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?" We know that man sins, and that sin leads to evil, but evil seems to exist within man as a separate consciousness, against which, for the saint there is a constant struggle. Revelation makes it clear that there is another evil that exists in the world in addition to that derived from mankind. Satan, "the ruler of the world" (Jn 12:31; 16:11) opposes all that is good. St. Paul counsels us in his letter to the Ephesians (6:11-12), "Put on the armor of God so that you may be able to stand firm against the tactics of the devil. For our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, the evil spirits in the heavens." We should note in petition that we pray for all of us in the plural, because we are aware of our contribution to sin. On the other hand it should be noted that we pray to be delivered from evil, not evils. The last word of the petition refers to a singular evil. And what might this one great evil be?

Satan is the source of all evil. It is Satan who begot sin. Sin then begot ignorance and concupiscence in man. It is from ignorance and concupiscence that all other evils flow. Ignorance is a weakness of the intellect that leads us to confound evil with good, and good with evil. Concupiscence, on the other hand, is a malady of the will. It is that strong propensity to evil that we experience within us as it seems to pervade the essence of our being. The effect of sin affects every avenue and nook of our being, as a bad leaven that prevents us from doing even the good we wish to do. It is as though the evil is in our blood, circulating as to disturb the function of every cell of the body. In particular, it is from this spiritual evil, this moral depravity that fills the world with so much sin, that we pray for deliverance.

In the wake of man's spiritual and moral depravity there are also many physical evils to disturb peace and happiness. From the day that Adam left the Garden of Eden, the entire universe rebelled against him. The very soil from which he was created rebelled, and so man in his human essence is seriously flawed. Not only does death become the destiny of all mankind, but this rebellion that gives rise to refusal to love and to fulfill the purpose of man's existence. Under the veil of sin it seems impossible for man to fulfill his purpose in the world, to be the Gods glory.

NEW CATHOLIC CATECHISM 
ARTICLE NO. 1082 

In the Church's liturgy the divine blessing is fully revealed and communicated. The Father is acknowledged and adored as the source and the end of all the blessings of creation and salvation. In his Word who became incarnate, died and rose for us, he fills us with his blessings. Through his Word, he pours into our hearts the Gift that contains all gifts, the Holy Spirit.

ARTICLE NO. 1083 
The dual dimension of the Christian liturgy as a response of faith and love to the spiritual blessings the Father bestows on us is thus evident. On the one hand, the Church, united with her Lord and "in the Holy Spirit," blesses the Father "for his inexpressible gift" in her adoration, praise and thanksgiving. On the other hand, until the consummation of God's plan, the Church never ceases to present to the Father the offering of his own gifts and to beg him to send the Holy spirit upon that offering, upon herself, upon the faithful, and upon the whole world, so that through communion in the death and resurrection of Christ the Priest, and by the power of the Spirit, these divine blessings will bring forth the fruits of life "to the praise of his glorious grace." 

CELEBRATED AND PRAISE 
Deacon Jim Breazile o.c.d.s.

Divine blessing celebrated and revealed 
As source of all salvation 
Gift of the Father celebrated and sealed 
By confession and adoration

He came incarnate, died and rose 
The Father's gift to all creation 
From whom the Holy Spirit flows 
Our empty heart's oblation

Celebration as a response of love 
To Fathers spiritual blessings 
Celebration with heaven above 
The Lords great love expressing

Gifts returned are the gifts received 
The Church's gifts for sharing 
The faithful His grace perceived 
The world His glory bearing

Ó2001 DR. JAMES E. BREAZILE, deacon 
JOHN PAUL EVANGELIST OCDS