A.a. Thread

[Guest]

When I said religious life I meant a vocation...Wasn't talking about going to Church...I won't stop doing that or aa....Even if I sit there and feel like the biggest hypocrite possible...And I am...Not everyone is but I am...Only thing I can do is try to do better....One day at a time...

[AnneLine]

I knew you were talking about religious life, Josh... and my comment stands.

 

Religious communities are NOT for perfect people.... nor for people who just need water dumped on 'em - look at them grow!

 

Religious communities are for people who WANT to become perfect.... knowing they cannot do it without God nor without the support of the rest of the community.  Trust me, I know of what I speak!

 

FEELING like a hypocrite is not the same as being a hypocrite.  

 

You are among people who are just as flawed as you are, trust me....

[Guest]

What I meant though if you enter religious life there is only so much temptation that can get thrown your way. God removes most of it. Again reminding me of the scripture flee the devil and hhe will flee you.

[AnneLine]

Ah, I see. :)  However... I suspect any religious would tell you that the temptations follow you in the door... they just put on new clothes. :paperbag:

 

 

[Tab'le De'Bah-Rye]

I'm not big on my sponsor anymore i think he is slightly anti catholic christian.

[Seven77]

Like Christine said, Anne you took the words right out of my mouth with your 1st response!

 

Josh, when you are tempted to commit sin, when you're tempted to despair after you've fallen into sin, keep repeating the name of Jesus. It's really powerful man. In times of feelings of depression and despair and loneliness, I've experienced how the name of Jesus fills me with joy and peace that I can't even explain. When you're feeling down and out, just keep repeating the name of Jesus... that's how you resist the devil and how he will flee from you.

 

 

[Tab'le De'Bah-Rye]

out loud in person and thoughtfully in public, repeating the name of Jesus that is. You can even say or think Jesus i trust in you or Jesus is Lord. I am replying to my thoughts thoughtfully and often repetitively on eor the other of these three ' Jesus iz LORD!', 'Jesus' and Jesus i trust in you.'

 

Me and my sponsor had a meet up today it went half well half not so well. He thinks the holy catholic church isn't the church that Jesus built or the original church. He is an ex catholic christian. But as a.a states " we are to look at the similarities not the differences."

 

Edited January 4, 2014 by Tab'le De'Bah-Rye

[Tab'le De'Bah-Rye]

I guess the reason i keep repeating the name of my Jesus, Jesus i trust in you, LORD have mercy etc, is because if i don't ,i tend to take my will back and forget whom is boss. And when i'm running on self will i start thinking about sin including drug and alcohol use and/or abuse, and dwelling on these things is dangerous for me and others, just today i got caught in a lust loop and forgot to cry out the holy name therefore it consumed me and i was entertaining the thought for like half an hour than i said eventually "LORD grant me sleep,please" a few times and than fell asleep. The old testament says " no man can wrestle with leviathan and win." We can't win this battle with sin, we need to ask for help from the Good Lord Jesus, and once it becomes a habit it becomes easier and the LORD listens every single time when his children are crying out in faith,hope and love. And not only listens but acts to such a simple plee to have a sinful thought or desire removed. Though sometimes you kind of have to white knuckle and ask a few times over an hour or two, unsure why but rest assured the thought or desire will be removed and the devil or our own will will flee, because it isn't always our own will, sometimes it is plainly demonic, and sometimes our minds are like tape recorders and we revisit a scene or word in our mind on playback that we have been told or seen on t.v or witnessed etc. But honest to Goodness the holy name repeated in the mind however many times for however long is very powerful against these 3 dilemmas. I'm not so apt but getting better, i don't react so quick sometimes i can wrestle with the thoughts before i hand it over bro, i guess that once it is mastered you can even use the holy name even when talking to someone else and your thoughts start doing bad stuff. Hang in there bro it just gets better over time for most once we stop drinking, i'm led to believe. And i'm about 3 months up now all, i have done 3 months 4 other times in the last 3 and a half years this is danger time for me for some reason where i have busted.

 

Onward christian souls.

 

Jesus is LORD.

 

P.s. The longer i wait to hand the sinful thoughts or desires over the deeper it's root gets and eventually bears fruit or an action or word that is sinful.

Edited January 7, 2014 by Tab'le De'Bah-Rye

[AnneLine]

Hmmmm... well. Tab.... interesting question.   I agree that if you are half-heartedly entertaining a thought or a desire to sin, you are kind of watering and fertilizing it.

 

BUT... and this is a big B.U.T ......   If you are fighting, resisting, it goes away... and then it comes back, and you fight/resist/chase it off... and keep THAT cycle going on a few times (or a few dozen, or a few hundred!) then according to St. Ignatius, you're actually gaining MUCH grace AND actually building up your spiritual muscles.  VERY akin to doing reps in a gym!   Because you are using your spiritual muscles.

 

NOW... if you try to rely on your own strength, yup, it will back fire on you.  As will pride and cockiness, and a whole other bunch of negative stuff you can get going.  BUT if you keep on throwing yourself onto God, and fleeing the temptations you can and fighting off the others... well, yup, you will get stronger.  It's a funny kind of spiritual tension, isn't it!

 

Of course... you get one battle fought, they'll try on another front... so I'm not too surprised that both of you are battling more than one 'front' -- but the Angels are there and the we are here... and yup, I know you are trying hard.

 

Praying for you!  (Both of you, ALL of  you!)

[Guest]

Made it to two meetings last week...In a day or 2 will hit 4 months without a drink....

[beatitude]

Tab, I think you're right. The holy name is beautiful and the best comfort, a reminder that God is always 'a very present help in time of need'. :)

[Tab'le De'Bah-Rye]

I busted tonight. But didn't do anything stupid. I busted because i have no Christian friends to support my endeavours. I have 1 a.a person that i'm slowly getting to know whom is a lapsed catholic but has been to holy mass with me once since we met and gone by himself once as far as i know. This is bollocks that i have no christian friends, the one i had whom i actually lead to the alter whom was already baptised an he got confirmed, and i have known since i was 16 and i'm 35 won't return hardly any of my messages my messages, i send him maybe 10 hellos a week and he messages back maybe once every 2 weeks and this has been going on for a year, i won't be messaging him anymore, if he want's to be friends maybe he will sms me some time. Oh i have one kind of Christian friend but he hardly ever goes to holy mass. I have ditched two close friends because i felt to weak to associate with them because both are in active addiction to mind altering drugs to some degree or another. I told them i can't be at there houses and not to ring me regularly until i'm strong enough and 1 of them keeps ringing me. And another guy i was trying to encourage to come to a.a with me we almost had an argument today and he is also a lapsed Christian, a believer but not going to any church. <breaths heavy> 

 

Unsure what happened, i started believing possible lies i think, that i can't save people and that i have some god complex about saving people, whatever the hell that is and to top it off it was a priest. We are Jesus feet to the lame and eyes for the blind, holy scripture tells us this, i do know that ultimately salvation is between the individual and God but i believe i can lead people to the gates of heaven but it is there choice if they walk in or not, but i just feel I'm not going to hang around for to long anymore in the cold waiting for people to make a decision in or out, I've almost got frost bite so many times it's ridiculous and it's only by the fires of Gods love that i didn't. But i have been getting dangerously close to being locked out lately and i can't risk that, if i have one or two Christian friends at least we can work together and build a good fire in a oil drum and stay warm waiting for people to make a decision, but even than you still have to go back inside the wedding hall and have something to eat before going back out, or something like that anyway, i am definitely no individual and it seems the world and church seems to think i am or should be. All i have really brethren wise is this .com unity but it still isn't the same for me as being face to face in a sweet embrace with others though it is ok and helps me a lot. Please continue to pray for me, God will send me someone i just have to believe and wait patiently, i got impatient and that's probably why i busted and haven't been praying daily for Jesus to send me someone, just asking on the odd occasion, well that may actually be it i'm running on self will. Okay thanks for reading this post whomsoever has read it. Love you guys and god bless.

 

Onward christian souls.

[beatitude]

Tab, you can help people to find God, but you can't drag them there - and God has to choose to use you. Arguing with people isn't going to help, because often when people stop going to church it is down to a deeply personal reason that will not change just because someone else gets stubborn and mulish with them. I have one friend who has walked away from the Church. I also know that I am not the person to bring her back. If I said anything it would make it worse. I can pray for her, and I can trust that there are others out there who will be able to help her in a way that I can't, but I have to recognise that my own limitations and the nature of this situation prevent me from doing anything other than pray - which is enough. It sounds as though you're trying to tackle each person like a bulldozer and you regard them all as your special responsibility. This isn't so and this may be why some people struggle to hang out with you at times. No one likes to be treated as a responsibility or a mission project. You wouldn't like it either. Try and be gentler.

[Tab'le De'Bah-Rye]

Peolpe are special to me but not my responsibility. And i understand what your saying about the whole bulldozer thing and i am a bit of a bull at times but not really. I get a bit bull headed sometimes not all the time. Perhaps i get bull headed here HALF the time for some reason. But it will go. :reaper: :)

[Tab'le De'Bah-Rye]

 It will go because i'm still figuring out this whole blogging stuff and particularly catholic blogging which is all new to me but i will learn with all your help and Gods love.

And i love the whole limitations bit, and we must embrace our nature of what we are and can and can't do, but also i think self knowledge can't necessarily save but can help us along the way and with the Grace of God a tiny mustard seed the tiniest of all can become a grand tree.  :)

Edited January 14, 2014 by Tab'le De'Bah-Rye