Wretchedness is freedom.

His wretchedness has become his greatest gift – for as a wretch, he is allowed to be gifted by God. It is the brokenness of Peck’s emptiness – only it is not the fruit of the agony of struggle but of surrender to God’s love and tender greatness. And it is not temporary, but permanent, forever. It’s being carried to the extreme with God’s giving of himself in Heaven. This wretchedness, accepted in Christ without despair, is, with Christ’s grace, the foundation of the freedom of God’s children and the uprightness and truthfulness of everything. It is the foundation for the sonship of God and the communion of the Church.
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It is not that the Catholic Church owns the truth. It is just the opposite; fact holds the Church. How else? It is, after all, the Body of Him who is Truth, the Way, and the Life!
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Adoration and intercessory prayer belong together so much that they are one. To intercede for others in profound union with Christ and to bring them to Him, before His Face, into His Nearness. Both are one.
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Asceticism is possible when our heart already lives elsewhere, higher, above the lusts and desires of the flesh – and the meat is already, like that rebellious donkey, only pulling by the harness where the soul, the heart, already dwells in joy and freedom.
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Disposition means that we desire the sacrament to do in us precisely what it does in us to make it come. The Eucharist is there to unite us entirely to Christ so that we are transformed into Christ and become Christ, with all consequences. Disposition to Holy Communion means to desire and long for this transformation, to cease to be oneself and to become wholly and in all Christ.
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“For when there is jealousy and strife among you, you are not carnal and do not live after humanly? When one says: “I am Paul’s,” and the other, “I am Apollos’,” does not are ye not men?” (1 Cor. 3:3-4) Paul accuses the Corinthians of still being human. And who should they be if not human? Well, angels! According to the words of Christ: “Those who are counted worthy of that age and the resurrection are no longer living, nor marry. Neither can they die anymore; for they are as angels, and are God’s sons.” (Luke 20:35-36) Christianity is about becoming angels and teaching us to live the life of an angel because that is what we live in Heaven, and therefore, we crave it. We long for it: ‘For we know that when this tabernacle – our earthly house – falls apart, we have from God a dwelling not made with hands but an eternal house in heaven. For in this, we groan and long to put on our heavenly dwelling.” (2 Cor. 5,1-2)
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Becoming Christ is not about what I have to leave and forsake. It’s about it’s about, oh, a whole new, huge, unique, extraordinary world that I can dive into! How exciting! Honestly, I expect nothing but great things! The awe of God is born not only from beholding God’s greatness but also…from the consciousness of one’s guilt and sinfulness. It is also carried out by looking at what and who God is. Until then, we thought we were good, capable, friendly, excellent…
Suddenly, we see God – and in Him a glimpse of what we were meant to be before sin in God we were. And suddenly, we are flooded with pain, sorrow, and shame that we are wrong, crippled, ugly in comparison, and extremely ragged and miserable.
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It’s like a sick person with us. Until a man realizes he is well, we can do nothing to make him well. And when he finally admits he’s sick, we don’t tell him: “Hey, you are sick, very sick, you are sick!” but take him by the hand and say, “Don’t worry! We will cure you, and you will do more and great things!” This is how God deals with sinners: “When Simon Peter saw it, he fell at Jesus’ feet and said: “Lord, depart from me, For I am a sinful man.” For terror seized him and all who were with him at the catch of fish which they had taken. So also of the sons of Zebedee James and John, who were Simon’s companions. Here Jesus said to Simon: “Do not be afraid; from now on, you will no longer catch men.”  And when they drew the ships to the shore, they left everything and followed him.” (Luke 5:8-11)
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The consciousness of sinfulness that accompanies even the saints springs from, among other things, this: that although we are righteous and good people, indeed perfect people, we are still only human. Our goodness, our righteousness, our perfection is human. God is totally different, totally different, intrinsically different from us. Even when we outwardly imitate Him, we only imitate what He is. And this difference is the essence of sinfulness, which can only be removed by a new creation, a new birth; no law or rules are not enough. Therefore, no one will ever be saved by works of the Law. That is why Jesus says of the righteous people of his day: “If your righteousness will not be greater than the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:20).
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How is this possible: “Many will say to me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, are we prophesied in thy name? Have we not cast out evil spirits in your name and wrought many miracles in thy name?” Then I will declare to them: Never I never knew you; depart from me, ye that work iniquity” (Matt. 7:22-23). We have received gifts from God – beauty, strength, intelligence, talents, abilities, and in time, status, influence, power, and possessions. And when we believe, we add charisma and other gifts as well. But basically, it is still the same thing: Whether we enjoy
gifts for Him and in service to Him and out of love for Him, or whether we will cling to the facilities
themselves and not put them before God. Similarly, in experience.
We experience joy, contentment, and success. When we believe, we add inner consolation, the experience of the Kingdom, the mysticism… But again, it’s about what is more precious, whether we hold these experiences dearer before God or God before them. That’s why mystics and saints have said not to fixate on these experiences, not even to not pay much attention to them, not to long for them, but to cling to God. It is similar to the gifts and abilities, including charisms (one of them).
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Usually, we are afraid to depend on God and God alone. But when it comes down to it, when we experience our weakness and see that God is the only one who holds it together – he is. Strangely enough, it feels immensely relieving, lovely, accessible, and beautiful… It’s probably like this: “I have lifted a burden from his shoulders and a heavy basket from his hands.” (Ž 81,7)
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During adoration, I sometimes feel like just being silent before the Lord, letting myself be filled by Him. The Rosary, the Jesus Prayer… seems to me rather like a disturbance of this beautiful silence, of the experience of God. But that is why we can do the opposite: to renounce lying down in the presence of God and instead take up the chotki, to take the rosary and offer a sacrifice to God. An offering of praise, an offering of intercession. Not for but for the salvation of the world, for God Himself. It is something of the rule of the saints and mystics who also said: do not follow spiritual experiences and consolations, don’t cling to them, don’t long for them, don’t even pay much attention – notice God, cling to Him, follow Him!
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Fasting is the power of prayer.
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Christianity means to burst into life.
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It is so that the deeper we go into Heaven, the holier we become. We become. Heaven transforms us – and we are transformed by the same
by the very act of entering it. It’s not that you’ll be in Heaven if you’re holy. It’s that if you’re in heaven, you’re a saint.
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Indulgences that God’s healing grace is, on the one hand, on the other hand, a person who desires to receive it and expresses it by humbly accepting the way God presents it to him in the Church. By taking the form, he confirms his humility and obedience as a sinner and a Christian and his desire for healing and love for Christ by the act itself. An excellent example of indulgences in the N.T. is the story of Naaman (quite exemplary) and, in the NT, the level of Zacchaeus. Or even Jesus.’ words, make friends out of sinful mammon… Even there, the principle well rings true.
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To pray the rosary is to be allowed to approach Christ through Mary’s maternal heart and to love Him and to adore Him with the love of Mary, over and above which there is no other in this world. Mary’s relationship with Christ is unique and blissful, and she leads into this intimate relationship.
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It is not about what “function” Mary and the saints have in our lives and salvation. That would be a very selfish view. They are in Christ, the communion of saints, the connection of the blessed; they are already fully living in Heaven. To enter Heaven is to join them, to become part of their lucky community.