Lectio et Oratio

Episode 88 -- Spiritual Combat c54.2 -- The moment of Communion and After Communion

What are some good thoughts at the moment of Communion and then after receiving?

The second and third sections of Chapter 54 of the Spiritual Combat give advice on what to be praying about just before receiving Communion, and then in our time after communion.

Last episode we read about various ways to prepare for Holy Communion.

1. Cleanse ourselves: if we have committed a mortal sin, let us go to confession.

2. Offer Ourselves: let us offer all our faculties and all the good we have done to the Lord in response to his great gift. He is offering us all that He is and all that He has done for us.

3. Meditate: Let us think over, ponder, consider, meditate on the fact that Christ has an ardent desire to join himself with us to help us in the spiritual combat. He wants to help us overcome our sins.

Episode 87 -- Spiritual Combat c54.1 -- Before Receiving Communion

Are there any special tips for making a better preparation for receiving Holy Communion?

Chapter 54 of the Spiritual Combat has three sections: before Communion, at the moment of receiving, after communion. In this episode we will read Fr. Scupoli’s advice on what to do BEFORE receiving. He tells us to CLEANSE, OFFER, and MEDITATE. On the traditional feast of Corpus Christi, the Lord offers us insights for making a better preparation for the greatest gift God could give us: His Son.

We read the opening chapter on the Holy Eucharist last episode. Fr. Scupoli stressed the glorious truth about WHO is present to us in the Eucharist: Jesus Himself. His power is at work in the other sacraments, but the Most Blessed Sacrament is Christ Himself. Whether we receive Him under the appearance of bread or under the appearance of wine, we receive the WHOLE CHRIST. Under the smallest particle of the Eucharist is the BODY + BLOOD + SOUL + DIVINITY of CHRIST JESUS.

Why? He is in heaven now, risen and glorified. He can never die again. His body and soul are united. His body and blood are united. His body and blood and soul (his human nature) is united to his divinity. In the EUCHARIST, we receive Christ as HE is now in heaven. When the bread becomes His BODY, all of Christ is present. When the wine becomes his blood, all of Christ is present.

He knows it is hard for us to fight against the enemies of our SPIRITUAL PERFECTION and SALVATION. This is why he does not leave us to ourselves. HE UNITES Himself to us.

Episode 86 -- Spiritual Combat c53 -- Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist

Is there a fifth spiritual weapon, the Holy Eucharist? Yes!

The final section of the Spiritual Combat holds a little surprise. Up until chapter 53, Fr Scupoli has repeatedly talked about four weapons of the spiritual battle:

1. distrust of self (one’s own unaided strength),
2. trust in God,
3. right use of our faculties,
4. and prayer.

We never read anything earlier in the book about a final, ultimate weapon. In chapter 53, Fr. Scupoli begins telling us about the role of the Eucharist in helping us fight against our egoistic tendencies and building up the virtues.

Episode 85 -- Spiritual Combat c52.3 -- Christ's Cross as a Book

In this episode, the reading is devoted to finishing the section of prayer. All prayer, Fr. Scupoli teaches us, is aimed at intimate union with Christ himself. Prayer is a living relationship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit that Jesus made possible by his Passion and Resurrection and Ascension. Christ Himself is the way, the truth, and the life. Our prayer aims at fostering a loving union with the will of the Father through union with Christ Jesus, a union made possible by the Holy Spirit.

Episode 84 -- Spiritual Combat c52.2 -- Pondering the Mysteries of Christ's Soul

How can I meditate more on the soul of Christ?

Fr. Scupoli offers us five points in this episode for searching into what the soul of Christ experienced in his sufferings. We have seen a method of meditating on his bodily sufferings; but Fr. Scupoli provides a method of meditating that focuses more on the soul of Christ itself.

1. What did the soul of Christ suffer for God?
2. What did God do for the soul of Christ?
3. What did the soul of Christ do for itself and its body?
4. What did Jesus for for us?
5. What should we do for Him?

Notice how Fr. Scupoli has given us all kinds of meditation methods. He knows that not all souls are alike. He knows that the same soul, the same human person, is not the same each day. He provides different method for different days and different persons.

Last episode we read the introduction to chapter 52, the final chapter on prayer. We read about the four benefits of MEDITATING ON THE CROSS. Meditating on Cross is advantageous because it bestows on us:

1. Detestation of our past sins
2. Forgiveness of sins
3. Spiritual energy to uproot our disordered habits
4. Ardent desires to imitate our Saviour

• Do I want to detest my past sins more and work to overcome my present disordered desires?
• Do I want to receive grace to have my sins forgiven and to love and serve God? Remember: sanctifying grace is one, but has two effects! The same grace removes the darkness of sin and inspires us to do good!
• Do I want to be able to work continually until the roots of my sins are pulled up?
• Do I want to burn with a desire to imitate

If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then meditating on Christ’s Cross is a solution for us.

Episode 83 -- Spiritual Combat c52.1 -- Four Benefits from Meditating on Passion

What benefits are there from meditating on Christ’s Cross? Would it be better to just think of the Holy Trinity in heaven?

We begin the final chapter on prayer as a spiritual weapon in this episode. We will be reading about the benefits of pondering over Christ’s Passion. Remember: the humanity of Christ, and especially his Passion, is our path into the inner life of God. God’s Son revealed the inner life of God through his life and death. 

In the previous episode we pondered the various considerations that help us to feel compassion for Christ’s sufferings.

Episode 82 -- Spiritual Combat c51.2 -- Growing in Compassion for Christ's Sufferings

How do I develop feelings of compassion for Christ’s sufferings?

The longest part of chapter 51 of the Spiritual Combat is devoted to considerations of Christ’s sufferings that will stir up in our souls feelings of compassion. Beyond the physical or exterior pains, there is the interior anguish. Why was there so much anguish or severe pain in Christ’s soul?

1. Seeing God dishonoured and desiring his Father to be loved.
2. Loving humanity and seeing it pull itself away from God.
3. Knowing all the sins we commit or would have committed.
4. Grasping all the ways human beings can be afflicted.
5. Seeing his mother’s afflictions.

At the root of His sufferings were our sins. Fr. Scupoli tells us a few things we must do in response.

If in this episode we are considering Our Lord’s interior sufferings, the previous episode focused on his exterior sufferings. In the previous episode, we saw there are two steps in the kind of meditation being proposed.

Step 1 — Ponder five moments in the Crucifixion

1. Christ’s arrival…
2. Christ being stripped of his garments…
3. Christ’s crown of thorns taken off and replaced...new wounds
4. Being nailed into the cross...dislocated shoulders...etc
5. Being RAISED UP on the cross...pain of hanging

Step 2 — On the basis of these 5 sufferings consider one the following:

1. Christ’s LOVE behind suffering...if you want to experience LOVE of Christ.
2. Christ’s PLAN in suffering...if you want to experience feelings of HOPE.
3. EFFECTS of his Sufferings...if you want to experience feelings of JOY.
4. Christ’s desire to inspire in me self-contempt...if you want to experience SORROW.

In other words, there are different ASPECTS of Christ’s crucifixion that we can ponder depending on what SENTIMENTS or FEELINGS we desire to personally experience.

Episode 81 -- Spiritual Combat c51.1 -- Meditating on Crucifixion to Gain Personal Experience

Did the previous method of meditating on Christ’s sufferings exhaust what we can gain from meditating and contemplating his sufferings?

Having taken us through a whole series of methods for making a 30-60 minute meditation, Fr. Scupoli returns to where he started: meditating on Christ’s sufferings. We saw in chapter 46 that we can meditate on the SCOURGING AT THE PILLAR, for example, in order to acquire the virtue of PATIENCE. But in this episode’s reading, Fr. Scupoli shows us that such subjects of meditation have many more graces to offer us. The consideration of the passion of Christ gives rise to many proper sentiments/affections.

Last episode, we read about the need to meditate on the graces God has bestowed on the angels and saints. We can devote different days to different angels and saints. But everyday, we need to speak to Mary, our guardian angel, and our particular favourite saints. Moreover, Fr. Scupoli insists that we also must speak to St Joseph everyday!

1. Ask the eternal Father, his Son, and the Virgin Mary to be under the protection of St Joseph.
2. Ask St Joseph to be received under his care.

Episode 80 -- Spiritual Combat c50.2 -- Method of Meditating on Saints, especially St. Joseph

Why is it possible to meditate on the saints, especially St Joseph?

In this episode we will read the second method of meditation based on the angels and saints. Fr. Scupoli has a fascinating presentation on St Joseph, very fitting for this year of St Joseph.

In the previous episode we looked at his first method for meditating on the saints. Fr. Scupoli stresses our need to speak to the eternal Father about the saints. We can ponder their labours, persecutions, trials. We present these great followers of Christ to the Father and ask for blessings.

Episode 79 -- Spiritual Combat c50.1 -- One Method of Meditating Based on the Saints

Can we spend 30 minutes to an hour pondering the mystery of the saints?

We read about a method of meditation and prayer involving the saints and angels. Fr. Scupoli surprises us with a meditation on the eternal Father being presented with the what the saints have done for His Son.

In the previous episode, we read about how to grow in confidence in Mary’s assistance. We call upon her because of her great love for Christ. She has one goal - to glorify her Son and through Him to glorify the Father in the Holy Spirit.

Episode 78 -- Spiritual Combat c49 -- Growing in Marian Confidence

How can I grow in confidence in the assistance of the Blessed Virgin Mary?

How blessed we are to be reading more about the Blessed Virgin Mary. “To begin well and end better, devotion to the Blessed Virgin is nothing less than indispensable,” St Philip used to say. During his great illnesses, when the doctors had given up hope of his recovery and had closed the curtains around his bed, they were whispering in the hallway with some of the Oratorian fathers. They suddenly heard St Philip’s voice. He was speaking to someone; he was speaking to the Blessed Virgin Mary. “My Madonna, my Lady, My beautiful Madonna.” St Philip thought he was alone. The doctors came and pulled back the curtains and saw St Philip with his arms outstretched as though hugging someone. Surprised and embarrassed at seeing the doctors, St Philip began to weep. He told the doctors that the Madonna has visited him and healed him.

In this episode Fr. Scupoli gives us reasons for greater confidence and trust in the help of Mary. He appeals to analogies taken from perfume containers and fire. He also makes us think about the motivation of Our Lord in giving us His Mother as Ours. Why would he do that unless he planned on listening to her requests?

In the previous episode, we pondered how we can make a longer meditation based on considerations of the role and mission of Mary.

• Start with the Father’s eternal love for her as willed to be the Mother of his Incarnate Son. Enter into the Eternal Father’s heart and all the delight he has in Mary. Speak to the Father about Mary.
• Consider all the ways she helped her Incarnate Son during his life…Speak to Jesus about his Mother…
• Then speak to Mary herself, Spouse of the Holy Spirit, as discussed in the previous episode.
  • Remind her of all that she has done in the past.
  • Ask her especially to help us make use of her Son’s sufferings.

Who helps us to speak to God the Father? The Holy Spirit. “God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts crying, ‘Abba Father.’” (Galatians 4:6) Who allows us to believe in Christ and love Him? The Holy Spirit. “No one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord’, except by the Holy Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 12:3)

Episode 77 -- Spiritual Combat c48 -- Marian Meditation Method

If one wants to spend 30 minutes or an hour meditating on the Blessed Virgin Mary, is it possible? Yes!

During the first day of the traditional Pentecost Octave, our minds naturally turn to the Blessed Virgin Mary. St. Francis of Assisi called her the Spouse of the Holy Spirit. There never was a moment in Our Lady’s existence that she did not have the Holy Spirit in her heart. She was conceived with the grace of the Holy Spirit in her soul. She never sinned or lost that grace. She and the Holy Spirit cooperated in the conception of Christ Jesus in time. Like spouses, she and the Holy Spirit are distinct, but inseparable. They continue to work together. Our Lady is able to be called the countenance of the Holy Spirit. St Maximilian Kolbe called her “a quasi incarnation of the Holy Spirit”! In other words, she and the Holy Spirit are so close that it is as if (quasi) she and the Holy Spirit are one person.

I tell you all this because it can be hard to relate the Holy Spirit. But being devoted to Mary gives one a visible face to aid us. As St Joseph was a visible image of God the Father for Jesus, the Son, on earth, so Mary was a visible image of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Family in Nazareth (Joseph, Jesus, Mary) is an image of the Holy Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit).

The Church especially dedicates the Monday after Pentecost to Mary as Mother of the Church. The Feast of Mary, Help of Christians, May 24th, was established by Pope Pius VII. And so it is fitting in the Providence of the eternal Father that this episode's reading is about Mary. In this episode Fr. Scupoli offers us a meditation method based on the three things:

1. God the Father’s eternal love for Mary.
2. God the Son’s love for His mother who bore Him in her womb and never stopped assisting Him.
3. Our Lady’s own role in our salvation.

In the previous episode, we pondered a short method of meditation based on two principles:

1. The merits of Christ’s sufferings - what kind of justice he earned by his patient suffering.
2. The satisfaction and glory given to the Father by Christ’s obedience.

Let us recall that this method of meditating is meant to help us acquire a virtue like patience.

1. What did Christ’s patience merit? What was owed him as a just REWARD? His own glorification (resurrection/ascension) and our salvation (sending us the Holy Spirit). By Christ’s patience, God brought forth the greatest good (the RESURRECTION), snatching victory from the greatest evil, killing the Son of God.
   • What then can we merit, through Christ, by our own patience?
   • We should ponder that our patience motivated by love unites us to Jesus?

2. Satisfaction and Glory:
   • His obedience, patiently borne, also made satisfaction for all the disobedience of humanity. Christ makes satisfaction because He offers his Father, Aquinas teaches, “something he loves more than he hates the offence.” God the Father loves the obedience of the Son made man more than he is displeased with all our sinful disobedience. To make satisfaction is to make up for, to atone for, to counterbalance.
     • How might my patience help make up for my own sins or the effects of my sins?

     • How should I encourage others?

   • Christ’s love, his preferring His Father’s will over all the pain and suffering and rejection gave more glory to His Father than all our disobedience and selfishness diminishes God’s glory. God’s will is a greater good than anything this world can offer!
     • What Glory can I give God my patiently embracing the sadness he allows me to undergo?
     • Can I proclaim the greatness of God in this trial?

Episode 76 -- Spiritual Combat c47 -- Meditating on Effects of Christ's Patience

Is there a more intellectual method of meditating on Christ’s life and passion?

Having looked in the previous episode at a method of praying for 30 minutes, or an hour, or even longer, that considers the sufferings of Christ, Fr. Scupoli in this episode turns to another method, a more intellectual method, of considering Christ’s sufferings.

1. Ponder on the merits of his sufferings — what he has earned or won by them.
2. Ponder the satisfaction and glory that the Father has in his loving obedience.

In the previous episode we read through Fr Scupoli’s description of a mediation on the SCOURGING OF CHRIST at the Pillar. Here is a little summary. Remember it is prayer aimed at helping us grow in a virtue, the virtue of Patience.

• REFLECTIONS
  •  Physical sufferings:
    • First — blows and revilements — how he is dragged?
    • Second — Stripped of garments — how cold?
    • Third — hands tightly bound 
    • Fourth — blood dripping to earth — how much?

    • Fifth — repeated wounds from blows — how many?

  • Interior sufferings:
    • Inexpressible sorrow
    • Excruciating agony

    • Willing to suffer more

  • Interest He takes in us:

    • Desires us to be patient

    • Implores graces for us

• RESOLUTIONS AND AFFECTIONS
  • Resolve to be like Christ and carry crosses with joy

  • Resolve to be like Christ and carry crosses with joy

• CONCLUSION — Ask God for Patience 

Episode 75 -- Spiritual Combat c46 -- Meditation

If I want to spend longer in silent mental prayer, say 30 minutes or an hour, what can I do?

In this episode we will read a fascinating little chapter on how to spend 30 minutes to an hour pondering Our Lord’s scourging at the pillar. Fr. Scupoli teaches us a little method of meditating, reflecting on, pondering over this scene in Our Lord’s passion. He teaches us how to practice Christian meditation in order to grow in the virtue of patience.

In the previous episode, Fr Scupoli’s treatment of “mental prayer” is so important. He is describing what many Christians already do throughout the day as they silently turn to the Lord in their needs. How crucial to present ourselves before him as:

1. unable on our own to avoid sin.
2. unable on our own to do truly supernaturally good. things.

Episode 74 -- Spiritual Combat c45 -- Mental Prayer

Does our prayer have to use words?

In this episode we look at a special kind of prayer that stays within the mind (mens, mentis — Latin). Fr. Scupoli calls it mental prayer. This is a form of prayer that can be practiced in all the difficult situations of life and in all temptations. May the Holy Spirit help us to put into practice this profound chapter.

Last episode we finished talking about the basic conditions or requirements of efficacious prayer. Fr. Scupoli does not mean that we put conditions on God. He means that there are conditions IN US that must be met for our prayer to be heard. What must be true of our prayer, what requirements must be met or in place, if it will truly obtain its request?

Episode 73 -- Spiritual Combat c44.3 -- Four Other Conditions for Prayer

Are there seven basic conditions for praying as we should? Yes!

In this episode we finish reading chapter 44 of the Spiritual Combat, Fr. Scupoli’s opening chapter on prayer. We will look at his discussion of the last four conditions of prayer, plus an eighth condition that should follow our prayers. We have seen so far that we must have/do the following:

1. Devotion, that is a desire to serve God 
2. Holy Confidence that God can answer our prayers
3. Right Intention of conforming our tainted and selfish will to the Divine WILL—> we will look at what are the conditions of being heard by God.
4. Practice what we pray for. We must strive in our actions to become what we are asking God to become. Our moral lives and prayer life are interconnected. We live as we pray and we pray as we live.
5. Thank God for past benefits before asking for new ones.
6. Ask in the name of Jesus and through His merits.
7. Persevere in asking. Do not give up! Knock and it will be opened!

In the previous episode we saw that there are some things that are so pleasing to God that we can ask for them without conditions: grace, virtue, salvation, etc.

There are other gifts from God that we should only CONDITIONALLY ask God to give us; in other words, Lord, grant me x, y, z, [here is the condition] if it will truly benefit our spiritual lives. The if = the condition. We should only ask for the following kinds of things conditionally: house, job, better health, etc.

One day St. Philip Neri begged God to save this woman’s life. He fulfilled all the conditions set out by Fr. Scupoli: devotion, confidence, right intention, good actions, thanksgiving, asking in the name of Jesus, and persevering. The Lord heard his prayer. The woman got better. But then she did not change her life and obey God. She became worse and worse in how she lived. St Philip then told people: “that is the last time I ever pray for someone’s health unconditionally. From now on, I will only ask for healings on this condition: the person will get closer to God.”

Let us ponder St. Philip’s words. In all our requests, let us ask for conformity to God’s will. Fr. Scupoli tells us that no matter the outcome of our prayer: we must be resigned to God’s will (an 8th condition!).

Episode 72 -- Spiritual Combat c44.2 -- Desire, Confidence in God, Right motive for Prayer

Are there conditions of heart for praying well? Yes!

In this episode we will look the first three conditions that our hearts need in order to pray well:

1. desire — and the ways to grow in desire for prayer
2. confident faith that God can help us; and
3. the right motive, viz., to do the will of God.

Last episode we read a really short passage that connected Prayer to the other three weapons of the spiritual combat. Prayer is the greatest and most important weapon. By prayer we can obtain distrust of self, trust in God, and the right use of our faculties to grow in virtue. Prayer is the channel of all graces. “A man without prayer,” St. Philip Neri used to say,“ is like an animal without reason.”

Episode 71 -- Spiritual Combat c44.1 -- Prayer in relation to the other weapons

What is the FOURTH weapon in the spiritual combat and the channel of all grace? PRAYER!

In this episode we begin to discuss what the Spiritual Combat teaches about prayer. Like so many things in this excellent book, Fr. Scupoli’s treatment is very practical. He is not giving us a complete treatise on every kind of prayer. He is looking at prayer primarily as the means of overcoming our tendency to evil and conforming our wills to God’s will.

We will see the first three conditions that our hearts need in order to pray well:

1. desire,
2. confident faith, and
3. the right motive, viz., to do the will of God.

Let us take heart! Let us open our hearts and minds to receive this teaching on prayer. If we want to change our way of judging people, if we want to grow in patience and humility, our greatest and strongest weapon is PRAYER.

Episode 70 -- Spiritual Combat c43.2 -- Properly Reacting to the Public, Serious, and Malicious Sins of Others

Granting that rash judgements of fellow human beings are wrong, what do we do when the sin is publicly known and/or the sin is very serious? Should I condemn the person then? No!

In this episode we are planning to finish reading the long treatment of the need for organized “spiritual exercises” in the Spiritual Combat. “Exercises” are practiced by militaries. They have various plans and methods, and simulated situations in which they figure out what to do against an enemy. We have been studying the methods we need to overcome the subtleties of the devil, the world, and fallen human nature (the flesh) if we want to grow in virtue.

He ends with one of the most difficult trials: the temptation to rash judgment.

What is rash judgment? Aquinas explains it this way: when the reason lacks certainty, as when a man, without any solid motive, forms a judgment on some doubtful or hidden matter, and then it is called judgment by "suspicion" or "rash" judgment.

In other words, if we reach “certainty” too easily, without sufficient EVIDENCE, then we call it rash judgment or suspicion.

There are so many hidden things about other people and their pasts that we rarely are in a position to be CERTAIN about their hearts.

But what if it is a public sin?

1. In charity, look for an excuse for the person.
2. Look for a hidden virtue in the person that this public sin will keep hidden…
3. Remember that this fault may one day help the person reach a deeper self-knowledge and humility.

What if the sin is very serious and the person is not repenting?

1. Turn your mind to Heaven and God’s inscrutable wisdom…
2. Remember: some saints were terrible sinners earlier in life…
3. Even those who were at the heights of holiness have fallen…

Who should I criticize then? - Myself! But with gentleness!

Where do my good thoughts of others come from? - The Holy Spirit!

What do I need to watch out for?

1. Detraction, saying evil about others unnecessarily.
2. Condemning others.
3. Being attentive to faults of others.
4. Magnifying, making the faults of others seem larger and worse.
5. Focusing on smallest faults of others when no large ones exist.

Episode 69 -- Spiritual Combat c43.1 -- Our Tendency to Rash Judgement

What do we do with our tendency to judge others rashly?

The devil tries to get us to be immoderate in our mortifications. He wants to distract us from what is even more meritorious in the sight of God:

1. desires of sharing in heavenly glory
2. desiring to serve Christ like a soldier
3. self-contempt of false, independent self
4. disdain of the empty promises of the world
5. silence and retirement
6. humility
7. charity for all men
8. patient endurance of the greatest injuries
9. rendering good for evil
10. avoiding smallest faults

In this episode we look at the final chapter of part 3. The devil loves to makes those trying to serve God into very judgmental people. He encourages us to assume the worst of people. He makes us prone to believe evil things. What can we do against this typical fault?