“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matt 5: 8). It is this pure love, springing, as a gift from God, from the hearts of men and women, that enables us to experience—to see—God, who is Love Himself.
Do not be afraid!
For the first time in her life she had witnessed a series of exorcisms. She had palpably experienced the terrifying presence of evil spirits. During these exorcisms, which lasted for almost two hours, the entire community had been praying the chaplet of Divine Mercy with great fervor. She had heard the voices of these unclean spirits, voices that aroused extreme revulsion and dread. She found the experience so appalling that on returning home she suffered a panic attack. It took her parish priest to explain to her that this experience had been a special grace. It had impressed upon her the fact that evil spirits really existed.
The mystery of evil arouses fear and terror in any normal person. Exorcisms force evil spirits to reveal their presence. For them this is a bitter defeat, since they are loath to reveal themsleves. They would rather people be not aware of their presence; indeed, they would rather people stop believing in them altogether.
We fall under the control of these depraved and terrible spiritual beings only when we consciously and freely commit mortal sins and avoid the sacrament of penance. Living in a state of mortal sin and rejecting God’s mercy are our greatest tragedy, for then we find ourselves enslaved and at the mercy of the powers of evil, which seek to lead us to eternal ruin. Actually, there is no need to fear unclean spirits, for when we are in a state of sanctifying grace, we are united in love with Christ, and it is then the evil spirits who fear us. They are powerless to do us any harm. But there is a need to fear being in a state of mortal sin, for then we freely give ourselves over to the powers of darkness.
Tempting a person to commit sins of impurity is one the most insidious actions of the evil spirits. Our Lady of Fatima told Blessed Jacyntha that what doomed most people to Hell in the modern world were precisely the sins of impurity. Hell is absolute selfishness. Sins of impurity deepen selfishness and destroy man’s aptitude for love. That is why these sins lead to Hell. God leaves us in no doubt at all: “Do not be deceived; neither the immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor 6: 9-10). Sins of impurity are extremely dangerous, for they touch on the area of human sexuality, which is associated with particularly strong sensual and emotional experiences. There is the great danger of sins of impurity becoming identified with these experiences, which, in turn, leads to the false claim that in the sixth and ninth commandments God forbids something that is essentially good and pleasurable.
The call to pure love
What great dignity we enjoy as human beings!—created as we are, man and woman, in the image of God Himself, who in the absolute oneness of His Divinity is a Communion of Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This same God calls human beings (man and woman) to love. This call to pure love is inscribed in the human person, in the soul and body of man and woman. The call to love has a marvelous metaphysical beauty in all its dimensions, physical, affective, and spiritual. God also appeals to us not to falsify this gift of being called to pure love. He enjoins us not to destroy its treasures or sully its beauty. In God’s plan, the sexual union of a man and woman is to be a sign of their mutual, indissoluble spousal love. It is meant to express a total, unselfish, lavishing one’s spiritual and bodily abundance upon the other. To make this possible, Jesus instituted the sacrament of matrimony. In receiving this sacrament man and woman become husband and wife—exclusively—with Jesus Christ being the wellspring and guarantor of their indissoluble union and love. God reserved sexual intimacy for married couples alone. It is intended to be the seal of the sacrament of marriage, an experience of the couple’s mutual love within the love of God, the locus in which the miracle of creating new human beings takes place. Christ calls man and woman to mutual love, and His beatitude resonates in their consciences: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matt 5: 8). It is this pure love, springing, as a gift from God, from the hearts of men and women, that enables us to experience—to see—God, who is Love Himself.
The poison of evil
Wherein lies the poison of evil that sins of impurity carry with them? Self-abuse, premarital sex, pornography, homosexual practice, marital infidelity, contraception—all these sins conceal a selfishness, which expresses itself in the treating of the human body as an object, as a source of pleasure and stimulating the senses. A human being is a person. A person may never be treated as an object for gratifying another’s sensual and emotional desires, for this demeans the person’s dignity and destroys the loving relationship. “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body” (1 Cor 6: 19-20).
By committing the sin of impurity, we focus on ourselves, on our own physical and emotional sensations. Hence we destroy love, deepen our selfishness, become addicted to these sensations, and give ourselves over to the powers of darkness. But God calls us to love, to an unselfish self-giving after the paradigm of the Triune God.
The first step in the journey to pure love is to become aware of the spiritual damage caused by every consciously and freely committed sin of impurity. We need to pray daily for the grace of aversion to sin and the gift of a pure heart.
Follow Me!
Blessed John Paul II appealed to us: “And so I ask you not to break off your conversation with Christ in this extremely important phase of your youth; I ask you rather to commit yourselves even more. When Christ says ‘Follow me,’ his call can mean: ‘I call you to still another love’; but very often it means: ‘Follow me,’ follow me who am the Bridegroom of the Church who is my bride; come, you too become the bridegroom of your bride, you too become the bride of your spouse. Both of you become sharers in that mystery, that Sacrament, which the Letter to the Ephesians says is something great: great ‘in reference to Christ and the Church’” (Dilecti Amici, 10).
Dear reader! Do not throw away your life. Entrust yourself totally to Jesus Christ. Make the decision to embark on the journey of maturing in love in His Clinic of Pure Love.
The Clinic of Pure Hearts
Do not let yourself be enslaved by the glamour of vice and porn business! Only Jesus Christ is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life” (Jn 14: 6). His love is stronger than all the powers of evil. Cling with complete confidence to Jesus. Entrust yourself to Him every day, that He may free you from your enslavement to sin and teach you how to love with a pure heart. Take up the daily tasks of life in line with the demands of Jesus. Go boldly against the current of the “culture of death” and ruthless selfishness. To this end, practice self-discipline in realizing your daily schedule, which should include time for prayer, solid work, rest, and recreation (some kind of sport is best, as is sleep also; so go to bed early and get up early). Receive the sacraments of penance and the Eucharist regularly: this is the essence of the spiritual therapy provided by the Movement of Pure Hearts. The Movement is the “clinic of pure hearts” to which Jesus invites all without exception for healing. “Chastity includes an apprenticeship in self-mastery, which is a training in human freedom. The alternative is clear: either man governs his passions and finds peace, or he lets himself be dominated by them and becomes unhappy” (CCC, 2339). Self-mastery and chastity are achieved through intense spiritual training and joining with Jesus, who is our Physician, Trainer, and Guide along the arduous, yet oh, so fascinating, ways of the spiritual life. Christ’s treatment consists in working toward a pure, unselfish love. It means a hard climb to the highest spiritual peak, whose name is Love. Do not be afraid to undertake this greatest of life’s adventures in the Movement of Pure Hearts.
Who can join the Movement of Pure Hearts? Anyone who desires to offer his wounded heart to Jesus and learn from Him how to love as He loves. What are the expectations? A genuine desire to fulfil all the promises contained in the Prayer of Consecration. In particular, MPH members pledge to pray daily, to seek the sanctifying grace of the Sacrament of Reconciliation the moment they fall into serious sin, and to work on themselves. When and how do I join the Movement of Pure Hearts? Any time at all! Go first to Confession; then after receiving Jesus in Holy Communion, offer your heart to Him by praying the Prayer of Consecration:
“Lord Jesus, I am thankful that You love me with a love that rights the greatest wrongs and heals the most hurtful wounds. I offer You my memory, my mind, my soul, my body, my sexuality. I pledge not to engage in sexual acts until I am united with my spouse in the Sacrament of Marriage. From this day forth, I will not read, buy, or look at pornographic materials. [Here, girls add: I pledge to dress modestly and in no way to arouse lustful thoughts or desires in others.] I solemnly promise to meet You every day in prayer, scriptural meditation, frequent reception of Holy Communion, and Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. I also pledge to avail myself regularly of the Sacrament of Penance, not to give in to discouragement, and to pick myself up promptly every time I fall into sin. Dear Jesus, teach me the practice of self-discipline and to control my sexual desires and feelings. Give me the courage to resist the easy way in my daily walk through life. Help me to avoid everything that weakens and enslaves the will: nicotine, alcohol, and drugs. Teach me to place love at the very center of my life.
Mary, my Mother, guide me in my journey of faith. Lead me to the very source of Love—to Jesus, that I may trust and believe in Him alone. After the example of Saint John Paul II, I desire to entrust myself entirely to you: Totus Tuus, Mary! Blessed Caroline, procure for me the gift of a pure heart. Amen!”
Try to say this prayer every morning. Inform us of your decision to join MPH. We in turn will send you our special blessing and enroll you in our Book of Pure Hearts. Our Lord Jesus desires that you to write down and send your testimonies to us so that we may share with others your experiences of faith and growth toward love as well as your battles with sin and the powers of evil. Through your witness stories Jesus can reach a great many lost souls, so as to open up their hearts and allow them to accept the treasure of faith. We pray for our readers every day. At seven in the morning we recite the rosary. At three in the afternoon we say the chaplet of Divine Mercy. We request that all members of MPH pray for one another every day. There is great Divine power in this spiritual community of prayer. All of us stand in great need of it in our daily struggle with the powers of evil. “[Take up] the shield of faith, with which you can quench all the flaming darts of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Pray at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance” (Eph 6: 16-18). My heartfelt blessings to all!
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