Prayer of St. Augustine

[Cpb88]

Hi, I just completed a consecration to Mary, and one of the required prayers included this:

“O Jesus, Let him who does not love you be accursed, and filled with bitterness.” -St. Augustine fm. Gillespie, Fr. Hugh. Total Consecration to Jesus Christ through Mary. (Bay Shore, NY. Montfort Publications),95.

Anyway, this doesn’t seem quite right to me. Any thoughts?

 

[TK421]

There are a considerable deal of prayerful verses in sacred scripture and pious statements in Church history that follow a similar sentiment. Open to a random page in Psalms and look around. It won’t take long.

It is not in anyway sadistic, however I imagine that it does mean exactly what it sounds like it means.

1. Divine Justice. As St Aquinas explains, God takes no delight in the punishment of a sinner for its own sake, but rather that they would turn from their way, however He does all the same delight in the fulfillment of His justice. And so, one joins his Creator in coming to accept the destiny of mankind should they refuse to live with their Lord.

And/or

1. Awakening. The misery of sin can be a last resort to bring a person to repentance, as the prodigal son returning to his father after considering his wretched condition. The state of the prodigal son may not be seen just as material destitution, but as a destitution afflicting mind, body, and soul. Likewise, as St. Paul extols, an impenitent in the Church is “to be handed over to Satan”, that in the end they might be saved.

 

[Cpb88]

Thanks, that is helpful. Also Ignatius’s first rule of discernment:

“First Rule. The first Rule: In the persons who go from mortal sin to mortal sin, the enemy is commonly used to propose to them apparent pleasures, making them imagine sensual delights and pleasures in order to hold them more and make them grow in their vices and sins. In these persons the good spirit uses the opposite method, pricking them and biting their consciences through the process of reason.”

So in wishing bitterness upon those in mortal sin, I am hoping that God may act upon their lives by “pricking and biting their consciences.” and hopefully cause them to be holy eventually.