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AS 'SPIRIT OF FEAR' GRIPS COUNTRY, CLEANSE AND SEEK THE REFUGE OF 'INNER CHAMBERS'

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If you go deeply enough, through prayer, into your interior, it is your "phone line" to the supernatural. Follow the peace. Follow the New Testament. The area code is "Mary take over"; the number is "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus."

We say this because it is time to "go within." It is time to gather our strength. It is a time to go to your internal sanctuary.

It is also time to shut off the world.

For we live in an hour of trepidation. There's a "spirit of fear" over all of America -- just as we wrote recently of a "spirit of anger"!

There are seasons of struggle, and concern. There are seasons of favor. They all open to a new dimension of life when we go inwardly and "clean house" -- when -- before fixing the entire world -- we search through the "rooms" in our own souls and check for dirt, for cobwebs, for jealousies, for resentment, for unforgiveness, hatred, pride, for lust, bias, for clumps of dust that prevent us from realizing the joy of the Spirit.

Open the doors to your soul with Christ and clean those inner chambers. Cleanse the vessel. Look at those rooms as vaults and place the Blessed Sacrament in each one. This will drive out sin which fuels trepidation.

Only when your interior vessel is clean can you partake fully of the Blood of Jesus.

Under the dirt in those rooms you may find hidden treasure.

Concern, yes; there are reasons to be concerned. There have been for years. We approach major events.

But fear? Anger?

They're related: Anger is mostly rooted in fear as many today have economic or societal or political fears and they threaten to cause something we have also repeatedly warned about: a time of division (and upheaval).

It doesn't have to occur. But if it does, we can find peace, joy, and fearlessness with the Holy Spirit. Perfect love casts out all fear even in chaos. Stop being mad at everyone (especially those with whom you disagree). The way of hatred is never the way of truth.

Have you noticed how everyone is at each other's throats?

It has become a trend.

It's fashionable to attack every person who has a different opinion.

It is also the route to evil.

Escape to the depth of prayer; shut off that which sacrifices goodness for the sake of debate. Don't fool yourself into wrong righteousness.

What are "inner chambers"? What is "going deeply"?

It's not introversion. It's not "copping out." It is not escapism.

It's calming down. It's casting passions away. It's praying for tranquility. It's turning off "the world" and letting the Holy Spirit speak to you as opposed to the rancor of media.

It's praying long enough for the Spirit to lead you into a state of inner rest and here you sense your mission. Here you find your secrets! It is where you can say, "God will get us through this" and "this shall pass," and it is where there is a font of holy determination.

A key to life is holy determination. Fill yourselves with that!

Determine not to fear but to use your eyes of faith to see a new season.

That takes discipline, and discipline is another key to happiness. It comes by embracing our cross and brings the harmony of our faculties in proper proportion, which leads to true joy and a connection with God Who is bigger than any suffering and even bigger than joy. Meditate on that!

To carry the Cross is to let go of anxiety, of ego, of what the world is trying to foist upon you -- anger, self-righteousness, criticism.

We are in difficult times. They will become more difficult. This we have known for many years. It's a challenging time, which also means it is an exciting time: affording all the more opportunity to cleanse. Autumn leads to winter which leads (recall always) to spring.

Tap not into your failings but the strength of your spirit. Jesus said, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of filth. Even so, on the outside you appear righteous, but inside you are filled with hypocrisy and evildoing" (Matthew 23).

In other words: go inward, before going outward. Turn off the noise of the world.

Evil plays on both sides of the fence.

When we think we are right and everyone else is wrong or no good it gives us the excuse not to self-correct, not to love, not to cleanse internally (when in fact such is desperately needed). This we see as the prelude to the current force of upheaval.

Have you prayed to rid yourself of spiritual -- of generational -- baggage? Have you cleansed of the "bones" from past sins, from spirits that may hover within or about you: have you cast them from your inner chambers?

Fear is often fed by habits we have not corrected and unconfessed sins.

We fear because in the place of Divine grace we have allowed the world into our souls: the carnal above the spiritual. Place Jesus in every chamber of your heart. Make the Word of God your media. As a deliverance expert once said, the effect of straying from Him is seen when theology is exalted above revelation; intellectual education above character; psychology above discernment; eloquence above supernatural power; laws above love; and reasoning above the walk of faith.

"Whoever teaches something different and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the religious teaching is conceited, understanding nothing, and has a morbid disposition for arguments and verbal disputes," is today Mass reading (from 1 Timothy 6:2).

"From these come envy, rivalry, insults, evil suspicions, and mutual friction among people with corrupted minds, who are deprived of the truth, supposing religion to be a means of gain."

Go deep inside yourself and take care of your own house -- every room, one by one, with the Immaculate Mother -- before worrying about the huge house that we call society.

Cleanse first your vessel so that in a troubled fearful world you may transmit the fearlessness of Jesus.

[resources: The God of Miracles]

[see also: Beware the 'spirit of anger']

[Michael H. Brown retreat, Minnesota and Retreat in New Jersey]

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