Great Podcast from Kevin Allen and The Illumined Heart
Thursday, 10 April 2008 by Benedict Seraphim
[All the sarcasm from the previous post aside . . . ]
Kevin conducts an interview, Pascha and Personal Experience (mp3 file), with His Grace Bishop JOSEPH, Bishop of the Antiochian Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the West. It is a great interview.
Some quotes from His Grace on which to reflect:
The greatest of these [personal] experiences is repentance, which is the opening of the human heart to God’s consolation and mercy. We are called to repentance and through this experience we begin to perceive and experience life as it really is, rather than creating an imaginative component so often found in human experiences.
If someone does not find cause to repent of something about himself during Great Lent, then he has had no Lent at all. Look, we are all full of sin, so it is not difficult to find things in our hearts to repent and weep over. If you find nothing, you are simply not looking.
This last is quite pertinent to me:
The sensations of the heart [i.e., the conscious and perceptible experience of God] assume that someone is under spiritual supervision and has undergone substantial purification. Most of us do not acheive this kind of purification except through intense involuntary suffering. So if you want to experience God in your heart, you must be willing to experience suffering. No saint was ever formed without pain and suffering.
[...] 14 April 2008 by Benedict Seraphim I have had Bp Joseph’s words on my mind since I posted them: The sensations of the heart [i.e., the conscious and perceptible [...]
Dear Benedict Seraphim:
A friend directed me to your site and your kind comments about H.G. JOSEPH’s pod cast. Thank you! I am blessed that his interview resonated with you! It does with me, too! Especially his comments (which you quote) about no saint ever being formed without pain and suffering.
By the way, your previous post - about your annoyance with critics of the new OSB - led me to search out some of these sites and I must say I am REALLY annoyed at the nit- picking, and academic elitism of these sorts of comments (and frankly segments of our Church).
I wonder how many inquirers and catechumens are standing in line, waiting to receive baptism and chrism in THEIR parishes [while they debate the academic fine points] In my parish, we have 25l Last year we had 23, year before 18! They LOVE the new OSB, including the notes!
Anyway, thanks for the kind comments!