The Little Number of Those Who Are Saved

[HailGilbert]

This sermon is one of the main reasons why I have kept away from Mass and Confession all these months, along with my anger and pain at God for allowing me to be mentally ill in the first place. Why even hope to escape Hell after death, nor have any real lasting contentment in Christ in this life, when it will all be for naught for most of us after death?

BTW, where are all the other works of St. Leonard of Port Maurice in English on thw web? Why is this sermon on line and nothing else?

Thank you all for your prayers for me in advance.

[Allan]

Trust in God my friend, and hang in there.  No more is expected of you than what you are capable of.  Avoiding the sacraments is not something I would recommend for the simple reason of the identity of the enemy who would like nothing more.....

:pray2:

[ggreg]

So 99.9999 percent of people are not able to live up to their capability but we are expected to be hopeful?

Are you hopeful of winning the lottery?

I am not.

[Allan]

You gotta take your shot.  Fix bayonets and goferit!

[SMKMI]

This sermon is one of the main reasons why I have kept away from Mass and Confession all these months, along with my anger and pain at God for allowing me to be mentally ill in the first place. Why even hope to escape Hell after death, nor have any real lasting contentment in Christ in this life, when it will all be for naught for most of us after death?

BTW, where are all the other works of St. Leonard of Port Maurice in English on thw web? Why is this sermon on line and nothing else?

Thank you all for your prayers for me in advance.

Brother, don't despair!

Entrust yourself to the Immaculate, and plead for the mercy of Christ. (Our Lady, after all, is also known as the Mother of Mercy... whose mom is she? Christ's!)

Go to confession, feel the peace of absolution, spend time before the Blessed Sacrament, pray the Rosary ( I was feeling sort of blah today, but after praying the Rosary and just remembering the basics of certain things, I now feel like a million bucks), etc.

Our Lord did not institute the Sacraments to play games with people, but for salvation! Make use of them. Do your best, and God will not leave you hanging.

Also, get a copy of this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0895552167/ref=dp_olp_used?ie=UTF8&condition=used

It's simply amazing and really puts things into perspective.

[Whitey]

This sermon is one of the main reasons why I have kept away from Mass and Confession all these months, along with my anger and pain at God for allowing me to be mentally ill in the first place. Why even hope to escape Hell after death, nor have any real lasting contentment in Christ in this life, when it will all be for naught for most of us after death?

BTW, where are all the other works of St. Leonard of Port Maurice in English on thw web? Why is this sermon on line and nothing else?

Thank you all for your prayers for me in advance.

Prayers your way friend, you bet.

I understand why some feel this sermon is a bit much, but if we think about it, the Church has a mission and that is the Salvation of Souls. The way to salvation is open if we want to be saved. Hell is real and we need to hear about it. St Leonard perhaps saw his calling as one who had to preach Hell.

Embracing or accepting despair is not a means of salvation. It's a means of insuring one will die a miserable death. God doesn't want that. Pray the Rosary daily and get to Mass daily if possible.

Listen to Allan and SMKMI as well.

[shin]

You can read St. Leonard of Port Maurice's book, The Hidden Treasure or the Immense Excellence of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass online.

But perhaps reading St. Francis de Sales' Introduction to the Devout life would do you more good at this time. Or perhaps 'The Spiritual Direction of St. Claude de la Colombiere' which is only available in print.

[shin]

Since our hope is not in ourselves but in the Lord, who is all goodness -- therefore, hope.

If one prays daily for final perseverance and salvation, and for the grace to make acts of perfect contrition, this is very good. It is a duty to pray daily for a happy death, or final perseverance.

Conversion is  about interior change and this being realized in exterior acts. Often life repeats lessons until we learn the need to change interiorly -- but we cannot do so without the help of God, without the grace of God -- we would not want to do it without Him if it were possible -- and so we pray to acquire the interior virtues, the beautiful supernatural virtues.. And so we pray for the grace to pray properly, to develop a proper prayer life, and this developed everything else can be acquired.. because we are beginning to live in Christ, through prayer and virtue.


'The things I pray for, dear Lord, give me the grace to work for.'

St. Thomas More

[Master_P]

You can't win if you don't play.

[newyorkcatholic]

Gerards posts in this thread are really excellent.