Victim Soul Friendships

The past weeks have been rather trying, physically and spiritually. I called upon some friends to help in the worst of it, and they simply do not have time to spare.

At noon Mass I reflected upon this, as I had called a friend to whom I'd e-mailed several times with no response, thinking perhaps he was in the hospital. But he is simply busy. Very busy. I rather forget what that world is like. So I prayed and reflected about him and other friendships that have dropped by the wayside over the years since being permanently disabled as well as facing up to a rather mystic bent.

Victim souls really cannot have many if any deep earthly friendships. Perhaps the only ones are definitely who God chooses, perhaps a family member or two who love the victim soul and have an extra measure of patience and compassion to endure the stressors the victim soul encounters, over and over. It can be exasperating for a healthy person. And can they imagine what it is like for the one who suffers all the time?

So I explained in yet another e-mail, this time brief, that we cannot be friends but we can be acquaintances, or friends such as a person who is alive in the world can be "friends" with a soul in purgatory, and vice versa. According to mystics and private revelations of saints, souls in purgatory can pray for those on earth, but they are very busy suffering in a kind of isolation and yearning for God, for Light and for purification to be completed.

In this state, then, victim souls should not have great expectations for closeness or understanding by others on earth. To whom shall we go?

We must turn to Jesus, to the Holy Spirit, to God the Father, to Mary, to all the saints and angels. Yes, I know this requires much blind faith, and some good books.

I am beginning today a book, The Meditations of a Hermit on the thoughts written by Bl. Charles de Foucald. While he was not a victim soul in a physical suffering way (until he was martyred), he was in essence a victim soul in the aspect of tremendous solitude in the Sahara, living among Muslims and over time learning their language. He did have a servant helper part of the time. Thankfully, he was physically able to do some manual labor, and as a priest to celebrate Mass. But he did have times of illness, and his fasting took a toll at other times, too. Anyway, it will be good to make a deeper friendship with Bl. Charles.

At Mass today, I prayed extra begging his help during these times which are quite trying to me, as I think he would be able to help me, to be the kind of friend that the living folks simply cannot be, and not through their fault. They simply do not have the time, the comprehension, the patience, or the connectedness with those on the other side in Victimsouland.