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Betrothal

A gentleman with his with *wife* would want to anoint her with FLOWERS and in scent just to make his special *lady* feel warm and wanted in her heart (soul, inner being) and her mind (let her know he thinks about her nonstop and cares for her always!). Would not Jesus want his grooms' men and friends/brethren presenting themselves by looking there sharpest and acting in there best behavior? Would not Jesus want his `bride' (ladies/men), the church (those chosen to the marriage supper) anointed in *purity* along with these sorts of virtues also. Consequently a gentleman wants to have passion with his **BRIDE/Wife** and soar with the wind in union/unity/consummating for not only procreation but expressions of love in touch and communication. Does not every one want to be touched in some way? How you touch some one is only a reflection of you own inner being. How you touch some one in acts of love weather it be in poetic written words, painting or sculpting the perfect master piece, making love in certain serene situations, or holding hands, and even hugging or kissing is such a beautiful act that very few seem to notice/cherish any more. This is how *I* picture life should always resemble in charity, faith, love, hope, understanding, destiny, compassion, mercy, acceptance, friendship, and wisdom/Sophia. Every one is always looking for a quick fix to feel good in our present/current *world*. PATIENCE, REASON, and UNDERSTANDING is the type of lover Jesus would be! Jesus kissed Mary Magdalene on the lips often. Even chimpanzees in nature kiss on the lips so gently just for *love*. Such a beautiful act in nature very few seem to ever take notice of any more. Look how every day parents hold there children's hand guiding them in life, thereof. This is *SUCH* a simple act/thing in life, but yet so beautiful. A child clings to this hope. Would not Jesus be like this? "To Paint A Picture" is this not what life is truly all about! Look at a Star twinkling in the twilight of the night sky/HEAVENS/COSMOZ. *IS* this not how a heart feels and looks on the inside while making love to there partner/companion in the discourses of life. Look how a planet in our solar systems appears when the STAR/SUN of our system shines on them. Is this not the type of Love JESUS/Creation has in his eyes wanting us to be his lover/bride or grooms men/friends/brethren.

Some times there is more wisdom in a married couple walking along the sea shore at sun set watching a celestial thunder storm then one realizes. They reflect on the wisdom of age, the storms/tempests of life, and so much more while holding hands. This symbol to children is very important. It shows the children there parents are united in love. Watching the thunder, lightning, and celestial light show in the distance hit the water makes the married couple realize they endure all tests and trails time have handed them called destiny and fate. Cherish what you have to day. For tomorrow may never come your way. So why worry. Honor the moment, the breath, and the air you breathe. Think of it as a fine wine to savior for the moment. Therefore that is all we truly can ever comprehend in making love as a *lover*. Any other reflection/glimpse is only a wasted echo, thought, and perception. If you look to the future you will not find what you have (seek) now. If you look to the past it is only a grave that gets deeper with each passing moment. At sunrise a lover wants to hold hands with his BRIDE/GROOM. But where ye start and how is what life truly is designed and made to be like.

Gazing at the sun all day only can give you wrinkles that are hard to fade away. So along your walk/path/journey in the fate of father time let mother love guide and raise thee in virtues of family (reason/love), tear drops (patience) and forgiveness (understanding). Try not to get afflicted by mistakes in the light or tormented by condemnations/accusations in the darkness. When you wake in the morning and look in the mirror the appearance you give is what others will think of you as. So at bed time when ye glance/gaze at the mirror in tiredness what have ye really learned about being a true lover. How ye think Jesus will be as a lover to thou art comes by way of how you treat others in every mannerism/detail etc… Walk in Light, Love, and Peace Always … May the Light be with you! May the Light shine on ye in your darkest times.

Let us now begin to treat of the way in which the Spouse deals with [the soul], and see how, before it is wholly one with Him, He fills it with fervent desire, by means so delicate that the soul itself does not understand them, nor do I think I shall succeed in describing them in such a way as to be understood, except by those who have experienced it; for these are influences so delicate and subtle that they proceed from the very depth of the heart and I know no comparison that I can make which will fit the case.

All this is very different from what one can achieve in earthly matters, and even from the consolations which have been described. For often when a person is quite unprepared for such a thing, and is not even thinking of God, he is awakened by His Majesty, as though by a rushing comet or a thunderclap. Although no sound is heard, the soul is very well aware that it has been called by God, so much so that sometimes, especially at flrst, it begins to tremble and complain, though it feels nothing that causes it affliction. It is conscious of having been most delectably wounded, but cannot say how or b{ whom; but it is certain that this is a precious experience and it would be glad if it were never to be healed of that wound.

It complains to its Spouse with words of love,and even cries aloud, being unable to help itself, for it realizes that He is present but will not manifest Himself in such a way as to allow it to enjoy Him, and this is a great grief, though a sweet and delectable one; even if it should desire not to suffer it, it would have no choice-but in any case it never would so desire. It is much more satisfying to a soul than is the delectable absorption, devoid of distress, which occurs in the Prayer of Quiet . . . .

In intimacies of which it were better for the Seraphim-to speak in their language of fire than a creature that possesses only a tongue of flesh incapable of expressing such lofty things as these.

The will is now no longer active in love. The soul, united in its center, remains actively in love in the embraces of the Spouse. . . . This is to be remarked: to the degree that the spirit suffers interiorly in being cleansed of all impurity, God allows many crosses exteriorly to the end that all be fulfilled according to the words of St. Paul, "He conformed them to the image of His Son. .

repeat it! It is necessary to go through great trials, interior and exterior,which would terrify the soul that foresaw them. They would even make one give up everything in order not to proceed further in such an experience did not a hidden strength sustain one. For it seems that the waters of tribulation through which one has passed . . . have extinguished the fire which-perfected so gently that higher part of the soul when the faculties had been deprived of their exercise and when, alone, the soul enjoyed God in purity of spirit. Indeed, the poor soul does not know where or what it is. A cloud has formed about it that shuts out the view and, it seems, cuts it off from the portion it had in its sovereign and unique Good, the adorable Word Incarnate. And He finally, in pity for the soul, dissipates the cloud. . . . Now, in its possession of the goods of the adorable Word Incarnate and of Himself, it is more fecund than ever. . . .

I know, experientially in great pureness and certainty, that here is Love Himself intimately joined to me and joining my spirit to His and that "all that He has said has spirit and life" in me." Particularly does my soul experience being in this intimate union with Him.

This mode of union is most lofty and most pure.And, although I speak of "the holy Word Incarnate," it is not because I have an image of Him but because, in a spiritual pureness and simplicity, the soul has the experience that the Father and the Word Incarnate are one with the adorable Spirit, although there is no confusion of Persons. And this soul is aware of the Divine operations of the adorable Word Incarnate by the Spirit. With these motions, impressions, and operations the same Spirit has me speak now to the eternal Father, now to the Son, now to Herself. Without reflecting on it, I find myself saying to the Father: "O Father, in the name of Your beloved Son, I say to You this." And to the Son: "My Beloved,

I am continuously engaged in this divine exchange in a fashion and a manner so delicate, so simple, and so intense that there is no way of expressing it. It is not an act. It is not a sigh. It is an air so gentle in the center of the soul where God has His dwelling that, as I have already said, I cannot find

Oh, what confusion the soul feels when it comes to itself again and what ardent desires it has to be used for God in any and every way in which He may be pleased to employ it! If such effects as have been described result from the former kinds of prayer, what can be said of a favour as great as this? Such a soul would gladly have a thousand lives so as to use them all for God, and it would like everything on earth to be tongue so that it might praise Him.

It has tremendous desires to do penance; and whatever penance it does it counts as very little, for its love is so strong that it feels everything it does to be of very small account and realizes clearly that it was not such a great matter for the martyrs to suffer all their tortures, for with the aid of Our Lord such a thing becomes easy. And thus these souls make complaint to Our Lord when He offers them no means of sufferings

The will is now a queen who takes her delight in her Divine Spouse

Knowing that those who love Him become by: that love itself most blessed. . . . He seeks for nothing else, The soul has nothing else. Therefore is it that He is a Bride. groom and the soul is a bride, for this belongs only to a wedded pair. To it no other ever attains, not even a son. . , , The love of the Bridegroom-rather, the Bridegroom who is Love-asks only a return of love and fidelity. Let the bride, then, return love for love.

With good reason, then, renouncing all other affections the bride gives herself wholly to love alone. in reciprocating love she is forced to make a return of love to Him who is Love itself. Yet when she has poured out her whole being in love. what is it in comparison with the unceasing flood from the . source of Love? to love thus is to have been joined in marriage because it is impossible thus to love and not be so.

As soon as He has entered into me He has awakened my sleeping soul. I have perceived a some degree the loveliness of His beauty. I have been filled with wonderment at the magnitude of his greatness.

Then God shed on the creature another ray of love which filled her soul, and was so abundant that her body too was restored, and she felt only love and heart's joy so that she thought herself in Paradise.

She was kept in this state until all love lower than God had been consumed in her and she was left with love for God alone and in Him was all recollected. God vouchsafed many graces to this creature, sending her very pleasant savours on which she and all her friends in God were fed, and words of love like burning arrows which pierced the hearts of those who heard her.

Even her body was, through her mind, set on fire; it seemed as though her soul would leave her body to join what she loved. The time was one of great peace and contentment in which the creature fed only on life eternal.

Didn't Christ say we'll no longer be given in marriage at the resurrection (see Mt 22:30)? Yes, but this doesn't mean our longing for union will be done away with. It means it will be fulfilled. Sacraments are merely earthly signs of heavenly realities. We no longer need signs to point us to heaven, when we're in heaven. Heaven is the eternal consummation of the marriage between Christ and the Church. "For man, this consummation will be the final realization of the unity of the human race, which God willed from creation. ...Those who are united with Christ will form the community of the redeemed, 'the holy city' of God, 'the Bride, the wife of the Lamb'". This is the union for which we're ultimately created. And this is what the "one flesh" union points us to from the beginning (see Eph 5:31-32). Hence, in the resurrection of the body we rediscover - in an eschatological dimension - the same nuptial meaning of the body in the meeting with the mystery of the living God face to face. "This will be a completely new experience,"but "it will not be alienated in any way from what man took part in from 'the beginning,' nor from ...the procreative meaning of the body and of sex".

Jesus says that unless our righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees, we will not enter the Kingdom of God (Matthew 5:20). By this same reasoning, unless we exceed our natural selves, we will not enter the God Family. As Christian men and women, we should seek to go beyond self-actualization to God-actualization—to the point that, when we look into our spouse's eyes, we should be able to see the very image of God Almighty.

“He who learns must suffer.
And even in our sleep,

 pain that cannot forget

falls drop by drop upon the heart,
and in our own despair, against our will,

comes Wisdom to us by the awful grace of God.” 

 ~ Aeschylus

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