Ascend to Virtue and Perfection

“Ad Dominum. A prayer in tribulation. A gradual canticle. The following psalms, in number fifteen, are called gradual psalms, or canticles, from the word gradus, signifying steps, ascensions, or degrees: either because they were appointed to be sung on the fifteen steps, by which the people ascended to the temple: or, that in the singing of them the voice was to be raised by certain steps or ascensions: or, that they were to be sung by the people returning from their captivity and ascending to Jerusalem, which was seated amongst mountains. The holy fathers, in a mystical sense, understand these steps, or ascensions, of the degrees by which Christians spiritually ascend to virtue and perfection; and to the true temple of God in the heavenly Jerusalem.”
(from Richard Challoner's notes for the Douay–Rheims Bible)

A Blessed Sunday to you, Rebecca. On your behalf, one per day, I will pray the 15 gradual psalms, praying that you ascend God's holy mountain towards perfection and bliss.

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In my trouble I cried to the Lord: and he heard me. O Lord, deliver my soul from wicked lips, and a deceitful tongue. What shall be given to thee, or what shall be added to thee, to a deceitful tongue? The sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals that lay waste. Woe is me, that my sojourning is prolonged! I have dwelt with the inhabitants of cedar:

My soul hath been long a sojourner. With them that hated peace I was peaceable: when I spoke to them they fought against me without cause.
- Psalm 119

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Dearest friend, we have lingered too long in shadows. We need to seek a better place, a wide open place where the light shines. Your home is not with the violent. You and I must take the path they have scorned; it is the path of mercy that leads out of the valley of the shadow of death.

Do not listen to the voice of those who speak with devilish voices. You heard in your life much that was false, and seemed to believe some of it, for a while. Flattery or insult, incitement or discouragement, do not let any faithless or malicious word that you have heard cause you to hesitate to enter by the narrow gate. Do not let the memory of evil counsel weigh you down as you climb the strait path. Set aside such useless baggage, and ascend to virtue and perfection. Keep only the good that you received. Saint Luke tells us that just "one thing is necessary" [Luke 10:42]. Seek out Christ, setting aside all else, and, finding Him, listen to Him. Beloved, our Shepherd calls your name. Hear His voice and follow Him.

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“Turn your face toward the sun and the shadows will fall behind you”. -Maori proverb
Leave the darkness of this sad world behind you, sweet friend, and walk as a child of the light.

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Pope Saint Gregory VII, pray for her.
Pope Saint Urban I, pray for her.
Saint Bede the Venerable, pray for her.
Saint Madeleine Sophie Barat, pray for her.
Saint Mary Magdalene de Pazzi, pray for her.