"MORNING FACE TO FACE WITH GOD:
Begin with Prayer to the Holy Spirit
Fifth Exercise: #65-71: A Meditation on Hell
Read the Reflection; pray #65-71 from The Spiritual Exercises; beg for a deep sense of the pain which the lost suffer, that if because of my faults I forget the love of the eternal Lord, at least the fear of these punishments will keep me from falling into sin.
The Fifth Exercise is a meditation on Hell. For the first time in the Spiritual Exercises, St. Ignatius is asking the exercitant to use the method of the Application of the Senses, even though he does not say so explicitly, as he will in the Second Week. The Application of the Senses is a repetition of the repetitions. The method is a very simplified form of prayer that can become contemplative or leads one there. The meditation on Hell acts as the climax of the First Week experience. You are asked to have an experience of Hell through your different sense faculties: "you see in imagination the vast fires, and the souls enclosed, as it were, in bodies of fire;" "(you) hear the wailing, the howling, cries, and blasphemies against Christ our Lord and against His saints;" "with the sense of smell to perceive the smoke, the sulphur, the filth, and corruption;" "to taste the bitterness of tears, sadness, and remorse of conscience;" "with the sense of touch to feel the flames which envelop and burn the souls." As you can see, the Application of Senses is a vivid, visceral, and concrete experience. In the Colloquy with Christ, you consider those who were lost before the coming of Christ, those during His lifetime, and those who were lost after His life here on earth."
What is God saying to you? Hell is real and the choices you make can easily take you there.
Dear Father, I don't like the thought of that place even though it is real. I don't like the noise or the smell or the constant torment with no peace. I pray for the souls on a path that is leading them there, I pray I am never on this path, I pray I am always obedient to Your voice. I entrust my heart and soul into Your care, I know I am capable of this outcome but I know You are not. Protect family and friends from this place Father, I feel Your pain in knowing some freely chose this way. Prayers for a friend being operated on this morning, watch over him and heal his wounds. I ask this in Jesus name, Amen.
Mary, Queen of Peace, Pray for us.
St Joesph, Terror of Demons, Pray for us.
Viva Cristo Rey.
Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world. 1 John 4:4b
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