Marie Kondo, famed home organizer, tells you to ask yourself, “Does it spark joy?” Here’s a different question…
C o u l d i t E x i s t i n H e a v e n ?
You may not know I have been blogging since about 2008. The original URL and title was “futurecatholic.net”. This URL still exists and directs to this current site. You also may not know that what you thought was gone from the internet may still be accessible at Wayback Machine. It’s hard to lose your past these days. My writing included more “conspiracy” stuff back then and when I started this site, I decided I should be less controversial. Since Covid, it doesn’t matter anymore. We now must all choose a side. So…I don’t care if you go back and look at it. Have fun with that!
Anyway, the point was, I posed the question above on the old site and got some flack for it. I recall someone saying this was too perfectionistic. Well, my only response to that is…
"Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect."
Matthew 5:48
Gonna argue with Him? For about the past 6 months, I’ve been purging and organizing my house. If you think I must be close to done, you think wrong, my friend! I do hope to step up the productivity in the coming months because it’s going way too slow. So far, I have worked mostly on books, papers, clothing and records (those things you used to spin and they would make music). Each type of item presents its own challenges, both emotionally and spiritually.
First of all, why purge at all? 10 reasons:
1) Your home will be more spacious and much easier to clean.
2) You will be better prepared if you need to suddenly move.
3) You will become more organized in the process, which is key to preparedness.
4) You will be letting go of things, helping you to confront emotional issues.
5) You will probably be ridding your family of sinful influences (and receiving graces for it!).
6) You will be giving to the needy.
7) You will be reducing pests.
8) De-cluttering your main residence can help you stock a remote location.
9) You can teach family members to do the same (and this can be great family-time as well!).*
10) You can bring in some income if you can sell some of it.
11) Bonus Reason: You will have more room for your important prepper supplies.
There are a few above points I’d like to expound upon…
#2: Moving-It is now time to begin creating our holy refuges, prophesied about by the mystics. If you don’t see why, pray on it and look around with a new set of eyes-this has been a long time coming. We can expect anything and everything from this point forward, as the New World Order advances its war on humanity and the Church. For a variety of reasons, you may find yourself needing to move suddenly. Being prepared to show your home and having less to pack will be much to your advantage.
#4: Letting Go-Many people never de-clutter because they do not want to deal with the memories and emotions that will come up. They may not even be consciously aware of this. The result is living in continued dysfunction and unfairly passing it all on to your children. This can create enormous stress and expense for them, on top of having to deal with death issues and selling a house. The fact is, those emotions belong to you. Dealing with them is part of your life journey and there is healing in the process. This summer, I finally went through my son’s baby clothes. It was hard. I cried. Much of it was still in good condition and we gave it to our local Saint Vincent de Paul thrift store. Physically holding the clothes in my hands, washing them, folding them one last time and sending them off to be worn by a new baby…it was a “letting go” ritual. It was something I needed to do and I feel so enriched by it. This is the kind of life experience that makes you are deeper, more sensitive person. And it helps you go on in a healthier state. As you continue to go through things, you will get stronger and come out the other side transformed. (Let me just say, if you super have trouble getting rid of something, that’s okay!-as long as its the exception and not the rule.)
#5: Sinful Influences-This one brings us to our question above, “Could it exist in Heaven?” What really happened on the Cross? When we die, we will see above all, that this life was not a joke. In this “Age of Separation” upon us, we must begin to see with greater clarity, the true corruption of the world. The world is regarding us more and more as enemies. It must go both ways. Let the separation begin. If we wait until these “precious” things are wrenched from our hands, we will have squandered any grace that could have been obtained by voluntarily letting go. We must secure mercy at this hour. We must make ourselves worthy to inherit the new world after all the dust settles. “In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph!”
This issue came up heavily when I was going through my records. In my youth, they meant everything to me. I would not have been able to conceive that one day I would be tossing them in the trash. I held myself to about the hardest standard, discarding those with only one offensive song or an immodest image. If the good is tethered to the evil, it must be cast into the fire with it. We can allow nothing corrupt to harm the little ones who will take refuge with us. The new world must be pure before God’s Heavenly Throne. After trashing most of them, I was left with folk, classical, “ambient” and some benign pop music. I was amazed how easy it was. After doing the baby clothes, I feel I can do anything. Another thing-corrupt items must be thrown out, no matter how valuable they are. Passing on the evil does no good. This is the kind of thing that separates the men from the boys in the spiritual realm.
#7: Pests-Didn’t know we had mice in the attic. Now I do.
#8: Remote Location-If you have a summer house or another property, some of the items you find may do well in that location. For a summer house, that extra veggie peeler or old vacuum could be useful and help save money. If you rent another property, you may wish to store some things there in a locked area.
When considering what to do with possessions you no longer need, it can help to think outside the box. For instance, I traded some of my books at a local used bookstore. The 2 books I wound up getting were on traditional woodworking and organic gardening. K-ching! Books I can really use going forward (and they are good hardcover ones). As for my experience purging piles of papers, we actually have a new usable chair in the dining room and it is so refreshing to be able to find something quickly and easily in my files. There are countless resources and systems out there now for de-cluttering. Half the battle is getting started, then you just need to incorporate it into your routine. If you’re really having difficulty, as with everything else, pray on it!
*Unless you’ve got hoarders in your family, in which case it will be “Dysfunctional Family Thanksgiving on steroids.”