<style type="text/css">p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }</style>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="CENTER">“<font size="3"><b>TWO
ARE BETTER THAN ONE” MINISTRIES</b></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="CENTER"><font size="3"><b>Jim
& Marie Watt</b></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="CENTER"><font size="3"><b>Tel:
253-517-9195 - Email: <a href="mailto:jmbetter@gmail.com" target="_blank">jmbetter@gmail.com</a></b></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="CENTER"><font size="3"><b>Web:
<a href="http://www.2rbetter.org/">www.2rbetter.org</a></b></font></p><p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="CENTER">July 28, 2011</p><p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="CENTER"><br>
</p>
<style type="text/css">h1 { margin-top: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center; text-decoration: underline; }h1.western { font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 11pt; }h1.cjk { font-family: "DejaVu Sans"; font-size: 11pt; }h1.ctl { font-family: "DejaVu Sans"; font-size: 12pt; }p { margin-bottom: 0in; }p.western { font-size: 11pt; font-weight: bold; }p.cjk { font-size: 11pt; font-weight: bold; }a:link { color: rgb(0, 0, 255); }</style>
<h1 class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in; text-decoration: none;">
THE LIFE OF MICHAEL MOLINOS – Part 9 - 2001-12-08</h1>
<p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;" align="CENTER"><br>
</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;">(This biographical
section comes from “The Spiritual Guide” by Michael Molinos. It
can be obtained through SeedSowers Publishing, 4003 North Liberty
Street, Jacksonville, FL 32206 – Tel: 1-800-228-2665 –
<font color="#0000ff"><u><a href="http://www.seedsowers.com/">www.SeedSowers.com</a></u></font>
)</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><br>
</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><font size="3"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> In
the midst of all the scandalous rumors and electric excitement, a
bombshell went off. The city of Rome was officially informed that
Molinos had confessed he was a heretic … and that he had </font><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><u>recanted</u></font><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2">.
There was also released the ominous and damning statement that “he
had also confessed other sins.” To date, what those sins were has
never been revealed. Further, Rome was now informed, the Inquisition
had found Molinos guilty of heresy, and he had been officially
sentenced to life imprisonment. Again, strong evidence there was no
substance to the charges of immorality. Had they been true he would
certainly have received the death penalty. </font><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2">This,
as far as I can ascertain, was the first public knowledge that
Molinos had been tried in court!</font></font></p><p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><font size="3"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><br></font></font></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2">You
can get some idea of how much the mind of the public had been
re-programmed toward Molinos, and how much this life was still public
topic number one, in this footnote: On the day Molinos recanted,
every church in Rome rang its bells at the news. It was a day of
jubilation for everyone.</font></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> What
were the conditions of his recantation? Many felt he had been
tortured. Others felt he was obeying his own belief that all men
should submit to the church in whatever the church called for. There
is no question about this: Molinos would have submitted to anything
the church finally decreed, no matter what the conditions.</font></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><br>
</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><font size="3"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> On
the 28</font><sup><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2">th</font></sup><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2">
day of August, 1687, an official decree was posted by the Inquisition
declaring Molinos guilty of “having taught Godless doctrines and of
having practiced them.”</font></font></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><br><font size="3"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> </font></font></p><p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><font size="3"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2">Included
in this proclamation were 68 propositions stating that Molinos’
teachings were “heretical, blasphemous, offensive to pious ears,
insolent, and dangerous to the destruction of Christian morality,”
but never – to my knowledge – did they ever specify </font><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><u>anything</u></font><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2">.
All public statements ever released about Molinos were couched in
vague generalities.</font></font></p><p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><font size="3"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><br></font></font></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> Not
only did the Inquisition not give specific explanations, but it was
clear it did not wish to do so. Was the Inquisition ashamed to let
Christendom know the basis on which it drew its conclusions? One
historian observed that everything which was publicly and officially
said about Molinos was mild, and lacked enough weight to brand him a
heretic or justify life imprisonment. <br></font></p><p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><br></font>
</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><font size="3"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> But
on that fateful day of August 28, 1687, no one thought of such
matters. Once the charges against Molinos were officially made public
all copies of the </font><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><u>Spiritual
Guide</u></font><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> – once
officially acclaimed by the Inquisition – were ordered </font><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><u>burned</u></font><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2">.
Anyone found possessing </font><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><u>anything</u></font><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2">
by Molinos would be automatically excommunicated from the church.</font></font></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><br>
</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> Had
Molinos really been on the verge of a great reformation movement
within the Roman Catholic church? Had such a reform happened would
the people of the Roman church, along with its clergy, have been
brought into a deeper walk with their professed Lord? We will never
know. The torch was so successfully put to this movement that 300
years later the question is unanswerable. The system had once again
triumphed over liberty, the heart, and realms unseen.</font></p><p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><br></font></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> What
followed is one of those moments of history that is a caricature –
almost a comedy – of justice.</font></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> The
Inquisition set aside a day to make itself look good, look
legitimate, and most of all, look powerful. It was decided that
Molinos’ renunciation of his heresy would be officially celebrated,
with all the pomp of which the church was capable. (And it was
capable of a great deal.) September 23 was set aside for this grand
occasion.</font></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><br>
</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> Can
you believe that the church issued a proclamation stating that any
person attending this auspicious ceremony would be given 15 years of
indulgences! With that a crowd of mammoth proportions was guaranteed!</font></p><p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><br></font></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> The
ceremony was held at a church called Santa Maria Sopraminerva. The
recantation was to be made out in full view of the waiting multitude.</font></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> On
the appointed day cardinals and bishops, members of the holy office,
royalty (including princes), ambassadors and their ladies came …
along with Rome’s tens of thousands of ordinary people. So great
was the throng that for a time the vaunted Swiss Guard seemed
incapable of containing it. In the melee a number of persons were
injured.</font></p><p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><br></font></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> At
the same time during that day Molinos was given his last meal before
imprisonment. The Vatican could afford to be gracious; we are told
that it was a luxurious repast.</font></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><br>
</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> At
some high moment of the celebration Molinos was dramatically led
before the expectant mass. Molinos, 65, stood before them dignified
and melancholy. Attired in the garment of the penitent, his shackled
hands held a burning torch. He was conducted to a platform facing the
cardinals and the tribunal. Around him were the ladies and the
nobility, the priests, seminarians, and prelates. Someone mounted the
pulpit and read aloud the charges against him; the reading took
several hours. The crowd, we are told, became so incensed at hearing
all that was charged against him that they began accompanying the
reading with the cry, “To the flames! To the flames!”</font></p><p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><br></font></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> Ah,
we Christians do have a flair for persecuting one another!!</font></p><p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><br></font></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> Following
the reading came the pronouncement of judgment – Molinos was to be
sentenced to life imprisonment. Within that lonely cell, the judgment
continued; he was commanded to recite the Apostles’ Creed, once
daily; twice each day he was to recite the rosary; three times a week
he was to fast. Confession was to be four times a year. As to the
receiving of the sacraments, this was a decision left to his
confessor.</font></p><p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><br></font></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> After
the reading of the judgment Molinos knelt down and formally renounced
his heresy. He then signed a formal statement to the same effect,
turned and received absolution from the commissary of the Pope.</font></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><br>
</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> At
last, the thing was over.</font></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><br>
</p>
<h1 class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;">Chapter 12 – SELF
SEEKING, IN THE SEEKING OF GOD</h1>
<p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;" align="CENTER"><br>
</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;">(Taken from “The
Spiritual Guide” by Michael Molinos)</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><br>
</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><font size="3"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><b> </b></font><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2">God
loves not the believer who does the most, nor who feels the most, nor
who thinks the most cleverly and best, nor even that one who shows
the greatest love, but He loves him who suffers the most.</font></font></p><p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><font size="3"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><br></font></font></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> I
am aware that in telling you that a deeper prayer is a prayer that
does not depend on outward senses nor on those things which are
pleasing to our natural man, that we are speaking of something that
requires the martyrdom of some parts of us. But, please remember, we
are also speaking of something that pleases the Lord.</font></p><p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><br></font></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> When
there is no emotional experience nor intellectual insight into His
way, the enemy may suggest to you that God has not spoken. But your
Lord is not impressed with a multitude of words. He is impressed with
the purity of the intent of your heart. He wishes to see the inward
part of you humbled, quiet, and totally surrendered to Him and to His
will, whatever it may be. You may not find emotions to produce such a
relationship, but you will find a door by which you will enter into
your nothingness and His all.</font></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><br>
</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><font size="3"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> There
are those people who </font><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><u>have</u></font><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2">
begun a practice of collecting their inmost being but turned away
from it almost immediately because they did not find any </font><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><u>pleasure</u></font><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2">
in it! There was no sense of God, there was no power, there was no
sense of being pleased with their own thought, or being impressed
with the way they formed their words and sentences to God. Actually
all of these approaches to God </font><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><u>are
nothing but a hunt for sensible pleasures</u></font><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2">.
This, to God, is but self-love and seeking after self. It is really
not a seeking after God at all.</font></font></p><p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><font size="3"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><br></font></font></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><font size="3"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> It
is </font><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><u>necessary</u></font><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2">
that you suffer a little pain and a little dryness. Without thinking
about how much time you have lost or what other losses you have
sustained, come to the Lord with reverence, paying no attention to
dryness and sterility. You will find eternal reward.</font></font></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><font size="3"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> The
more your outward man delights in some sort of pleasure in prayer,
the less delight there is in the Lord. But the less you care for the
outward thrills of spiritual things … ah, </font><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><u>here</u></font><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2">
is something which delights the Lord.</font></font></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><br>
</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><font size="3"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><u><b>EDITORIAL
NOTE</b></u></font><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2">: There are
two more sections to the biography of Michael Molinos. He was brought
up in Spain to the Catholic priesthood. As a Spanish professor in
theology, he had an exact knowledge of St. John of the Cross -- and
St. Theresa of Avila, leading figures in the Contemplative Movement.
He not only understood the way of the Interior Life and the Prayer of
the Heart, but he experienced and practiced it. <br></font></font></p><p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><font size="3"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><br></font></font>
</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> He
moved to Rome and became a friend and mentor of Cardinals and high
people – even the Pope! He wrote “The Spiritual Guide” by
request, so that many more people could profit from his life and
teachings. It was translated into all the major languages of Europe,
and at one time 20,000 in one city of Italy followed his example and
teachings.</font></p><p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><br></font></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> It
was jealousy that led the Inquisition and Jesuits to seek a way to
cut his growing popularity and effectiveness.</font></p><p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><br></font></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> At
the same time in France Madame Guyon and Fenelon were exciting the
fear and opposition of these same parties. Madame Guyon was
imprisoned for 10 years, part of that time in the Bastille. She wrote
many books, but “Experiencing God through Prayer” probably helped
countless numbers on the same level as did “The Spiritual Guide”
by Molinos.</font></p><p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><br></font></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> “It
is Madame, because you seek without what is within. Accustom yourself
to seek God in your heart, for you shall there find Him.” These
words addressed to Madame Guyon by a Franciscan monk dramatically
changed the direction of her frustrating life. From an early age she
began to realize the words of Jesus to be true -–that the Kingdom
of God is within you!</font></p><p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><br></font></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> Truly
God is Transcendent – but He is also Immanent. From the viewpoint
of experience, we need to be immersed by Jesus in the Holy Spirit, by
which we are in Him, and He in us. A bottle without a cork thrown
into the ocean is an example of what God desires for us!</font></p><p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><br></font></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> To
read the list of names and movements influenced dramatically by the
writings of Madame Guyon is like reading a book of “Who’s Who!”
</font>
</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> If
you are living an “exterior life” as a believer, and sense an
emptiness, a frustration, a deep unfulfilled hunger and a feeling of
frustration – try dipping into the writings of Madame Guyon,
Fenelon and Michael Molinos. If you receive and persevere with these
friends as mentors – you will in the end marvel at the change you
experience.</font></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><br>
</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> May
this be the blessing for your life in 2002! - J.A.Watt</font></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><br>
</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"><br>
</p>
<h1 class="western" style="margin-top: 0.01in;"></h1>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="CENTER"></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font size="4"><u>TO
SUBSCRIBE -- Please Email: <a href="mailto:mailing-subscribe@2rbetter.org">mailing-subscribe@2rbetter.org</a></u></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font size="4"><u>TO
UNSUBSCRIBE -- Please Email: <a href="mailto:mailing-unsubscribe@2rbetter.org">mailing-unsubscribe@2rbetter.org</a></u></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font size="4"><u>FOR
ARCHIVE ARTICLES -- Web:<a href="http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/">http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/</a></u></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br>
</p>