What is experienced in Man is also experienced within the Church. The inner experience of Man is inseparable from the efficacy of the Church and the trials it attempts to meet with and put to reform.
We have come to expect that in all probability and with due hope, that the Christian man who strives spiritually will be rewarded with a greater strength and depth of egohood becoming evident within his character. However and for all to come to understand, there also exists a set of heightened problems perceived around him, which are naturally difficult and at times incredibly oppressive - made all the more apparent because of his efforts to incorporate the spiritual realities, dedicating himself to higher concerns.
Out from an honorable and almost ridiculous courage the Church has withstood the sorest of these realities - well informed of the shades that so inflict Man, defending and maintaining those places where the darkness cannot dwell, prayerful about its presence, bravely trying to do something it cannot achieve alone. The Church itself can really not be held accountable for any failings that it might suffer, for it can only be as real or as abstract as the living souls may make it be. Sincerely let us gather these souls in.
Consider the points mentioned and take yourself into regard with much charity and carefulness. Never believe that harshness is a safe approach to yourself or to others, because there are already so many degrees of sadness accrued and so few reprieves out from the heaviness that follows. Sternness can surely be more thoroughly served with joy.
The Promise of Christ was that we could come to Him to find rest in our souls, that the burdens, such as have just been named above, will be relieved from us.
Dearest Christ,
I call upon You in this moment and for always…
To become my chief defender,
To enlighten and infill every empty space needing You,
In those alley-ways in between ego and soul;
Where my knowing cannot meet,
Where my sensing is inflicted,
Where my charity is incomplete,
When I have no answer for what is asked or is needed,
Please be with me in every failing,
When I hesitate and doubt myself,
When I fright at the faces of evil,
When I tire with the contests about,
In the unknown realms I seek to charter,
Through complexities and ill-designed woe,
In amongst the pressures from others,
And the hardships I cause, though unknown.
As my innocence exchanges for wisdom,
And I try and I strive for a freedom,
As I pledge to love greater and yet greater still,
Yet I pray for His way, that I know His Will.
As I speak this for all of my brothers,
And I plead this for each part of Hell,
Giving over to You now the trouble,
I thank You for soothing me so.
Amen
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