Tag: antoniobacci

Posted in MEDITATIONS - ANTONIO CARD BACCI, QUOTES - J R R Tolkien and MORE, QUOTES on HELL, The LAST THINGS

Thought for the Day – 15 January – HELL 3

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Thought for the Day – 15 January – Meditations with Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1881-1971)

HELL 3

it is not god who is relentless - bacci 15 jan 2020 hell 3.jpg

“The greatest punishment, however, will be that of LOSS.
This is the knowledge that we have lost forever, our one, true and highest good.
God Himself!
The soul will now understand, fully, what it means to have lost God forever.
It will feel irresistibly, the need to be united with Him and to see, enjoy and love Him.
But, at the same time, it will KNOW that God has cast it away from Himself for all eternity, “Go, accursed soul, into everlasting fire!”
Then, the irresistible need for God, will turn to hate and eternal malediction.

The terrifying reality of hell, should not leave us amazed, as if it were an act of implacable severity.
Rather, it should be a warning to us.
God should not seem to us to be a pitiless judge but a judge who is infinitely just and infinitely good.
Rather than send us to hell, God gave us His only-begotten Son, Who died on the Cross for our sins.
Just as the Redemption is a work of infinite love and goodness, so hell is a work of infinite justice.

If we reflect on the mystery of the Incarnation, on the Redemption and on the death of the Son of God, it will appear that, omnipotent though He is, He could not have done more to save us.
The divine work of the Redemption explains the mystery of the eternity of hell.
It is not God Who is relentless.
It is the damned soul which was relentlessly ungrateful towards the infinitely good and merciful God.”

Antonio Cardinal Bacci

Posted in MEDITATIONS - ANTONIO CARD BACCI, QUOTES - J R R Tolkien and MORE, QUOTES on ETERNAL LIFE, QUOTES on HELL, The LAST THINGS

Thought for the Day – 14 January – HELL 2

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Thought for the Day – 14 January – Meditations with Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1881-1971) – Tuesday of the First week in Ordinary Time, Year A

HELL 2

they are flames which will never be extinguished bacci - snip no 2 -14 jan 2020.jpg

 

“In that place of never-ending suffering, there will be three punishments to torture us.
There will be the worm of conscience which does not die – “Their worm dies not” (Mk 9:43).
This is the awful realisation that we could have saved ourselves but are lost for all eternity, that God gave us so many graces and we damned ourselves, by abusing them.
Now there is no longer any remedy, because the mercy of God has been succeeded once and for all, by His justice.

In the second place, there is fire!
This is a real fire but altogether different from the material fire we know in this world, which was created by God for our benefit and service.
The fire of hell, on the other hand, was created by Divine Justice, purely to punish us.
It is a special kind of fire which tortures body and soul and the rebel angels, as well as damned human beings.
It could be called discerning, insofar, as it torments, more or less mercilessly, according to the gravity of the sin.
These flames embrace every evil and exclude every good.
They are flames which will never be extinguished, flames which burn but do not consume, flames without light – dark and accompanied by the shrieking of eternal despair.
The very thought of this horrible dungeon of torments should spur us onto begin immediately, a life of virtue and Christian perfection.”

Antonio Cardinal Bacci

Posted in MEDITATIONS - ANTONIO CARD BACCI, QUOTES - J R R Tolkien and MORE, QUOTES on ETERNAL LIFE, QUOTES on HELL, QUOTES on MORTAL SIN, The LAST THINGS, The WORD

Thought for the Day – 13 January – HELL 1

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Thought for the Day – 13 January – Meditations with Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1881-1971) – Monday of the First week in Ordinary Time, Year A

HELL 1

remember that a singel mortal sin - bacci - hell 1 13 jan 2020

“In whatever you do, remember your last days and you will never sin.” (Eccl 7:36)

“The meditation considered, by the masters of the spiritual life, to be the most useful for rousing the soul from sin, or from a state of torpor, is that on the last things, in other words, on what will happen to us at the end of life.
Amongst these last things, hell is the most terrifying.
Yet, if the mercy of God did not sustain us, we could fall into hell at any moment.
St John Chrysostom meditated on hell everyday.
All the Saints have found in this meditation, the first steps on the way to perfection.
Remember, that a single mortal sin, would merit hell for us.
In that moment, the sinner could have been already hurled into the abyss of torments.
Let us imagine, that we are there …. and, that the goodness and mercy of God has released us from those everlasting, all-devouring flames.   If this should happen, all the sacrifices, which virtue demands, would seem so easy and pleasant.
How ready we should be to do anything, sooner than return to that chasm of eternal sorrow!”

Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1881-1971)

Posted in MEDITATIONS - ANTONIO CARD BACCI, QUOTES - J R R Tolkien and MORE, QUOTES on DEATH

Thought for the Day – 12 January – The Death of the Just

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Thought for the Day – 12 January – Meditations with Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1881-1971) – Feast of the Baptism of the Lord

The Death of the Just

“Consider now the death of the just man.
Through his dying tears, he also will see the world slipping away from him.   But, one thing will remain to comfort him, namely, the memory of his good actions, of the virtues he acquired, of his fervent prayers and of his voluntary mortifications.
Above all, there will remain his great love of God, for Whom he has lived, worked and drawn breath.
In that moment, this love will even increase the flaming desire consuming his poor, frail body, to be united to God.
He will be able to say, as some of the Saints have said – “I never thought it would be so sweet to die.”
With St Louis, he will be able to say: “I am going joyfully to meet my God.”
He will be able to exclaim with St Charles: “I long for my body to be dissolved, so that I may be with Christ!” (Phil 1:23)

In the sight of God, the death of the good man is a very precious thing.   “Precious in the eyes of the Lord, is the death of His faithful ones” (Ps 115:6).”

Antonio Cardinal Bacci

Posted in MEDITATIONS - ANTONIO CARD BACCI, QUOTES - J R R Tolkien and MORE, QUOTES on HEAVEN, QUOTES on SUFFERING

Thought for the Day – 10 January – The Apostolate of Suffering

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Thought for the Day – 10 January – Meditations with Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1881-1971) – Fifth Day after Epiphany

The Apostolate of Suffering

In God’s plan, suffering has a special mission.
One might even call it a kind of apostolate.
Suffering reminds us continually, that we have not been made for this world but are on a journey towards eternity.
“Here we have no permanent city but we seek for the city that is to come” (Heb 13:14)

Suffering is a spur which lifts our gaze towards Heaven, our real home, in which we shall find a happiness, which will have no end.
It would be disastrous if there were no suffering in this world!
It is the salt which preserves from corruption, our poor, fallen nature, tainted by sin.

When everything is going well and the passing pleasures of this life hold us fascinated, it is too easy to set our hearts on things below and to forget God.
But, when our bodies are racked with pain and our minds are troubled and lonely, then an inward turmoil seems to detach us from this earth and causes us to raise our tear-filled eyes, towards Heaven.   Purified and almost renovated, our hearts turn towards God, our one, true and supreme good.

This is why the Saints loved suffering.   Not only did they accept it with complete resignation but, they desired and requested it from God.
“Either to suffer or to die,” was the please of St Therese of the Child Jesus.
St Mary Magdalene del Pazzi, even added:  “To suffer and not to die.”

How well the Saints understood the mission which God has entrusted to suffering!
If it is accepted with faith, resignation and love, it can make us living images of Jesus, Who suffered beneath the weight of the Cross and died upon it, His Hands and Feet pierced with nails, His Head crowned with thorns, while He prayed for us and for all those who had crucified Him.

Antonio Cardinal Bacci

Posted in MEDITATIONS - ANTONIO CARD BACCI, PRACTISING CATHOLIC, QUOTES - J R R Tolkien and MORE, QUOTES for the NEW YEAR, QUOTES on PRAYER

Thought for the Day – 9 January – Good wishes and resolutions?

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Thought for the Day – 9 January – Meditations with Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1881-1971) – Fourth Day after Epiphany

Good wishes and resolutions?

“During these days, it is customary to exchange, verbally or in writing, good wishes for the New Year.
But these poor greetings are often nothing more than conventional phrases.
Men lack the power to transmute such good wishes into reality.
God alone is the source of every material and spiritual good, therefore, He alone can ensure that these benevolent expressions are translated into deeds of Christian renovation.
Since we are at the beginning of a new year, it is especially important for us to ask God more fervently and insistently, to bless the resolutions which are making for ourselves and the good wishes, which we are showering on our friends.

These wishes have no meaning and these resolutions have no force, if they are not accompanied by fervent and persevering prayer!”

Antonio Cardinal Baccigood wishes and resolutions -these wishes have no meaning - prayer - bacci 9 jan 2020.jpg

Posted in MEDITATIONS - ANTONIO CARD BACCI, QUOTES - J R R Tolkien and MORE, QUOTES on DEATH, The LAST THINGS

Thought for the Day – 8 January – Death

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Thought for the Day – 8 January – Meditations with Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1881-1971) – Third Day after Epiphany

Death

death - we must always be ready - bacci - 8 jan 2020.jpg

In theory, everybody believes in death.
In practice, many live as if they did not believe in it.
So, it is necessary and helpful, for us to meditate on death.
We begin to die on the day when we were born.
People say:  “I have lived twenty, thirty or forty years.” But, if they said, “I have used up twenty or thirty or forty years of my life,” how many would then be left?   We do not know, we only know that death will come at the very moment when we least expect it.
Let us always be prepared.
“You also must be ready, because at an hour that you do not expect, the Son of Man is coming.” (Lk 12:40)

We must always be ready.
Let our faith be lively and active and our minds turned towards God, Who is waiting for us.
There is no need to be afraid.
He is good and merciful.
He desires our salvation.
This is a wonderfully consoling thought.   God desires my salvation!
Let us surrender ourselves to Him, therefore, as if we had to die this very moment!

Antonio Cardinal Bacci

Posted in GOD is LOVE, HOLY WEEK, MEDITATIONS - ANTONIO CARD BACCI, QUOTES - J R R Tolkien and MORE, QUOTES on JUSTICE, QUOTES on LOVE, QUOTES on REPENTANCE, QUOTES on SIN, QUOTES on SUFFERING, QUOTES on the CROSS of CHRIST, QUOTES on WILL (Reasonable or Superior), The HOLY CROSS

Thought for the Day – 7 January – The Problem of Suffering

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Thought for the Day – 7 January – Meditations with Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1881-1971) – Second Day after Epiphany

The Problem of Suffering

“Christianity, alone, offers an adequate explanation of the mystery of suffering.   Why is there such a thing as suffering?
The problem is a profound one and the explanations suggested by various schools of philosophy, fail to satisfy the human heart and leave the mind in doubt.
Christian doctrine tells us, that God is infinitely good but also infinitely just.
Being infinitely good, He created man without suffering.
He also gave man the wonderful gift of liberty, which man abused by committing sin.
Once the sin had been committed, God, in His infinite justice, demanded expiation.
Hence, suffering and death … “and through sin, death and thus death has passed unto all men because all have sinned” (Rom 5:12).
Together with death, came the never-ending series of misfortunes, of physical and moral sufferings, which beset humanity.

Suffering then, does not come directly from God. It is a consequence of and, a punishment for, sin.
But, there is also the aspect of expiation and redemption.
God, in His infinite justice, demands from man a penalty for his sin … but, He does not cease to be infinitely good.   Hence, to the mystery of suffering, there is added, the mystery of Redemption.   The Son of God Himself, is made man and takes upon Himself, all our sins.   For the full expiation of our sins, He, the “Man of Sorrows,” offers to the Eternal Father, His own sufferings of infinite value.

It would not be right, however, if we were to remain inactive in this work of redemption. Like Jesus, we must bow our heads before our Cross and embrace it, with resignation and love.   We must unite our sufferings with those of our Redeemer, for the expiation of our sins.”

Antonio Cardinal Bacci

Posted in CHRISTMASTIDE!, FEASTS and SOLEMNITIES, MEDITATIONS - ANTONIO CARD BACCI, PRACTISING CATHOLIC, QUOTES on DISCIPLESHIP, QUOTES on LOVE

Thought for the Day – 5 January – Epiphany of the Lord – It was Love

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Thought for the Day – 5 January – Meditations with Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1881-1971) The Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord

The Epiphany

it was love which inspired the magi - antonio bacci 5 jan 2020.jpg

“Let us consider the faith of the Magi, a faith which was willing, lively and active.
They saw in the sky, the star which heralded the Infant Jesus and experienced the divine inspiration in their hearts.
Immediately, they went in search of Him.
They were not even deterred by the long and hazardous journey, which lay before them.

When they arrived at Jerusalem, they found Herod, who did not know what they were talking about.   The star disappeared and the priests replied coldly to the questions they asked.
But all the time, their trust in the divine call continued to grow.
Eventually, they reached a poor barn, where they found, not an earthly King but a little child, who was crying on the straw bed of a manger.
As a reward for their trouble and perseverance, a voice in their hearts told them, that this was Jesus, the King of Kings and Saviour of the world.

Unfortunately, when we hear the divine call, no matter how clear and simple it is, we find a thousand excuses for delaying and perhaps for not responding to it at all.

Let us humbly promise to be more generous in listening for it and more energetic in complying with it, regardless of the cost!

It was love which inspired the Magi.
Love sustained them on their journey and made them fall prostrate in adoration before the Infant Jesus.
Even before they offered Him material gifts, they offered Him, their hearts!”

Antonio Cardinal Bacci

Posted in MEDITATIONS - ANTONIO CARD BACCI, PRACTISING CATHOLIC, QUOTES on HELL, QUOTES on SIN

Meditations with Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1881-1971) – Sin

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Thought for the Day – 4 January – Meditations with Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1881-1971)

Sin

for the sinner hell begins on this earth - bacci 4 jan 2020

In that we prefer our own wayward whims to the law of God, sin is an abuse of liberty.
It is a revolt against right reason, the dictates of which, we refuse to obey.
It is an offence against our Creator and Redeemer, whose commandments we despise and whose redeeming grace, we reject by our actions.
It is moreover, an act of supreme folly, for it extinguishes, not only the supernatural splendour of grace but, also, the natural light of reason.
Through sin, man is brutalised and experiences in himself, as his first punishment, the confusion of his whole being.

In practice, the sinner denies God, Who has created and redeemed him.
He upsets the natural order of things and is violently separated from the source of all truth, beauty and goodness.   As a result, he experiences, in himself, the hell which he has constructed with his own hands – a hell of emptiness, disgust and remorse.
Unless the helping hand of God reaches out to rescue him from the abyss, all this is simply a bitter foretaste of eternal despair.
God, as St Augustine has written, has ordained from all eternity, that every dissolute soul will be it’s own punishment.
For the sinner, hell begins on this earth!   There can be no peace for the wicked.

When we realise, the gravity, stupidity and dire consequences of sin, it seems impossible, that a rational being, enlightened and enriched by divine grace, should continue to sin.
Nevertheless, sad experience teaches us that the lives of individuals, families and human society in general, are often distorted by this evil, which is the root of all other evils.

Antonio Cardinal Bacci

Posted in MEDITATIONS - ANTONIO CARD BACCI, QUOTES - J R R Tolkien and MORE, QUOTES on MEDITATION

Thought for the Day – 3 January – Making a Good Meditation

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Thought for the Day – 3 January – Meditations with Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1881-1971)

Making a Good Meditation

“It is not enough, simply to make a meditation.
It ought to be made well.
It is well made only when it results in an increase of solid virtue and sanctity.
Meditation, moreover, should not be study but mental prayer – a raising of mind to God, asking Him to illumine the darkness of our hearts, too often entangled with the things of the world and, to reinforce our wills, rescuing them from the violent attractions of evil and drawing them, in the direction of virtue and sacrifice.
To meditate, is not to study but to pray.
Whoever loses himself in subtle investigations of Christian Doctrine in order to learn something or to be able to mystify others, is studying, not meditating.
It would be even worse, to let one’s imaginations wander off into a kind of pseudo-mystic daydream.
Let us be quite clear about this – Meditation is not a waste of time but a very serious occupation.
It consists in placing ourselves in the presence of God, in admitting to Him our misery and weakness, in thinking about the eternal truths, so that our minds may be enlightened and in aiming at a Christian self-renewal, through the making and carrying out, of good resolutions.“

Antonio Cardinal Bacci

Posted in MEDITATIONS - ANTONIO CARD BACCI, QUOTES on MEDITATION, QUOTES on SILENCE

Thought for the Day – 2 January – Silence

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Thought for the Day – 2 January – Meditations with Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1881-1971)

“Silence”

at least for a little time each day - bacci antonio cardinal 2 jan 2020

“Absorbed in the deafening din of the world around us, it is difficult to hear the voice of God.
At least, for a little while each day, we must create within ourselves, a zone of silence, in order to listen to His voice.
Since God speaks readily in the silence of the heart, let us recollect ourselves before Him, in this quiet oasis.
At least a quarter of an hour of daily meditation is essential for the life of a Christian.
This should be the jumping-off board for all the actions of day, if we wish these to be correct and productive of good.

It is very useful, moreover, to recall to mind frequently during the day, the resolutions which have been formed and to accompany these reflections, with short prayers, aspirations and acts of love for God.”

Antonio Cardinal Bacci