Private Vows in The Laity/Spirituality

[Guest]

BIT OF A CHAT

Not angry anymore thankfully, just hurting emotionally. This is a journey within the overall journey.  Something to be worked through and with God's Grace never lacking, I will eventually work through it making some new decisions rationally and calmly (in hope) as things unfold.  The situation, which I am keeping to myself just now, was totally unexpected - it overwhelmed me.  It has been draining and I quickly tire out.  Thank goodness prior to the situation, I gave up ironing.  My foster son has now returned to his wife in the hope of reconciliation.

I see my psychiatrist on 2nd February next.  I also have her pager number and telephone number if I really need immediate contact.  At this point, I don't.  2nd Feb sounds ok to me just now.

For a few days or so, I might be quite quiet although staying in touch with Pham through reading and the Prayer Forum especially.  President Obama in his last media conference televised here in Australia said that he needed to be quiet, to not hear his own voice so much.  That spoke to me ..... including 'my voice' when I post.

Out under my pergola with roof and a large outside table with chairs, in the middle of the table I have established a small garden in a wide but not very deep pot.  In the middle of that little garden is a statue of Our Lady. It is plastic as it will withstand the weather.  It has a really lovely face artistically.  I sit out there with a coffee (and smoke now and then) and talk to her........and to her Son, sometimes to Our Father and if late at night, that is when I like to feel the presence of The Holy Spirit.

My SD rang me yesterday.  I will be seeing him on Wednesday 1st Feb.  He said he can drive me back here to Bethany.  How The Lord has been good to me over the many years with some really wonderful and holy, dedicated, priests and nuns who have been all along more like good pals than anything.

I will post into this thread now and then something or other just to let any readers know I am still around.

I still do count number of times this thread is accessed and it is up slightly and the trend is upwards since I first began it.  There are many variables involved, but it is the only indication I have of any possible/likely/perhaps interest.

Deo Gratius

Laudate Dominum

.............The Lord of The Dance...........

 

[Guest]

St Vincent de Paul Society ("FAMVIN" or Vincentian Family) http://famvin.org/reflections/quote-day-january-20/   Quote   Jan 20, 2017 God’s wisdom has so well ordered things in this world that night follows day, sadness joy, and contradiction applause, so that our mind may dwell on God alone, who is above all these changes (VI:1-2).

[Lamb]

Thank you, that is a beautiful quote, especially since it would be easy to say that God's wisdom orders the pleasurable to follow the unpleasant, but this quote puts it the other way around, showing true trust in God and detachment from all else. Perfect for reflection. 

[Guest]

 

St Vincent de Paul Society (FAMVIN - Vincentian Family)

Quote of The Day - Jan 19, 2017

 

Quote

 

“The past is no longer in our power; the present is in our power, but the future is not. Let us take the opportunity of giving ourselves utterly and completely to God.”
– St. Catherine Laboure

 

[Guest]

PARTICULARLY BEAUTIFUL

A particularly insightful and quite beautiful teaching text from Mother Angelica:

"The Divine Personality of Jesus"

Quote

Excerpt only :   "To one crowd, He would speak of Mercy, Hope, and Love, but to another He would lash out with words of condemna­tion and warning. No matter what His words to a crowd were meant to convey, Jesus never ceased to be in complete control of Himself and of the situation. He gave to each person and each situation what it needed, and then went His way to an­other person and situation." 

 

Waiting for taxi to take me to Vigil Mass - all problems faded away and replaced by happiness and Joy.  Who indeed are we, Oh Lord?  Deo Gratius. Laudate Dominum in the journey in all things.

12 hours ago, Lamb said:

Thank you, that is a beautiful quote, especially since it would be easy to say that God's wisdom orders the pleasurable to follow the unpleasant, but this quote puts it the other way around, showing true trust in God and detachment from all else. Perfect for reflection. 

Thank you for the above post, Lamb.  It is truly wonderful to hear another voice in this thread besides my own!  I would give you ten props if I only could.

 

[Lamb]

7 hours ago, BarbaraTherese said:

Thank you for the above post, Lamb.  It is truly wonderful to hear another voice in this thread besides my own!  I would give you ten props if I only could.

 

Oh, you're very welcome!  I will warn you that I can be frightfully inconsistent about posting, though. 

[Guest]

8 hours ago, Lamb said:

Oh, you're very welcome!  I will warn you that I can be frightfully inconsistent about posting, though. 

Hi again Lamb...........

"Frightfully inconsistent" is good too and entirely welcome.  Most of what I post into this thread are probably spiritual type quotes and articles - and comment is always abundantly welcome.  I also post now and then about my own journey.  This thread is open always to other members to post spiritual quotes and articles texts too - as well as posting about their own journey.  In fact, it is open to anyone at all to post anything at all more or less within the subject of the thread.  I am not at all in anyway whatsoever an owner or 'boss' etc. of the thread.  No way - not even a smidgen.

I also suffer Bipolar Disorder and any posts and commentary on the subject of mental illness generally is welcomed too, particularly by anyone journeying with mental illness. 

I am really appreciative of dUSt (our Administrator - aka "The Boss") who has permitted this thread to continue to the now 31 pages with me in the main the only contributor.  I opened the thread on January 25, 2014.....three years ago almost.

Cheers Lamb and God's richest blessings...........Barb  

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General comments: The laity have a quite specific and special call to holiness along a particular road or role in The Church - and it is a quite specific, important and vital road or role with attendant duties laid out by The Church.  Holy Orders and Consecrated Life have their own vital roles in The Church with specific duties - as does Laity, married or called to celibacy in the single life.  I will post later a quotation from "The Mission and Vocation of The Laity" (Christifideles Laici) from Pope John Paul II.

All vocations have specific duties only that vocation can fulfil........as does the vocation to the Laity married or celibate.

 

 

Edited January 21, 2017 by BarbaraTherese

[Guest]

CHAT - HANDLING EMOTIONS

As usual, I did not sit down at this keyboard to rave on - I just cannot resist the lure of letters and words!  Give me a keyboard of any kind or pen and paper and I am off and running.  Correction: It is not can not so much as will not perhaps.  It is a self indulgent occupation and one I find rewarding to me personally, even cathartic at times.  I wrote a poem once,  lines of which ran:

"merely a creative urge none can still

and passion would have its fill, as passion often will."

But then again, I am the same if I sit down with brush, paint and canvass.......off and running.

After Vigil Mass last night, I sunk into a miserable depression.  I did not try to get rid of it, to distract myself in some way.  All I did was stay with it, miserable and negative permitting my mind to roll on as it may(without permitting my mind to get ridiculous).  It's 11.09am here in Adelaide just now and no sign of any sort of depression to date.  Depression which plagued and hunted me last night.  It might return it might not.  In God's Hands and Divine Holy Will.  I know this is going to be a journey dependant on unknown variables and decisions of others.  I do know as a bipolar sufferer that in the comings and goings of various moods for whatever reasons, to just stay with the mood whatever it might be.  I read once in a book on Gestalt Therapy "get the basic energy up to the ears".  In other words, I listen to my thoughts allowing them to roam wherever but not permitting them to go too far and be ridiculous.  I go about a normal routine despite feeling like going to bed and forgetting the world exists.  In manic highs in the past, in the main (mistakes galore!) I knew those triggers that were indulging in the mania making it worse.  I listened for those triggers and aborted them.  I intersperse the listening and roaming mind with ejaculatory prayer e.g. "Dear Lord, please help me through this".  "Jesus, I offer up whatever I might suffer to you and your Most Sacred Heart"..............endless types of ejaculatory prayer occur.  I try to stay in touch with other minds at difficult times - very often over the years on Phatmass, it has been reading and posting on Phatmass which has kept me in touch with other minds and thoughts.   Best of all however, is to sit down with a cuppa with a friend one trusts and let it all hang out.  If one has such a friend that is.  So many in our world go through life without even one close friend they trust.  I do think this is one of the reasons to be gentle and kind, considerate and compassionate with people we come across on the internet.  They may be exceptionally lonely and alone persons.  Indeed, some in real life even know many people indeed, but cannot count even one that is a close friend and trusted.

Having said the above, I think one knows (I certainly do) when it is time to contact the doctor or therapist, psychiatrist etc...........and when it would be remiss and a complete failure of wisdom and prudence not to do so.  Contacting one's doctor etc. can be also an act of Charity and Mercy - consideration for others who have to endure one if one becomes unwell.

Dependant on how today unfolds, I will reinstate my formal prayer routine from Vespers tonight.

Deo Gratius

Laudate Dominus

......journeying............

[Guest]

[Guest]

34 minutes ago, BarbaraTherese said:

I try to stay in touch with other minds at difficult times - very often over the years on Phatmass, it has been reading and posting on Phatmass which has kept me in touch with other minds and thoughts.   Best of all however, is to sit down with a cuppa with a friend one trusts and let it all hang out.  If one has such a friend that is.  So many in our world go through life without even one close friend they trust.  I do think this is one of the reasons to be gentle and kind, considerate and compassionate with people we come across on the internet.  They may be exceptionally lonely and alone persons.  Indeed, some in real life even know many people indeed, but cannot count even one that is a close friend and trusted.

The above reminded me of last night's homily at Vigil Mass.  Part of that homily pointed out that there are three primary stages in growth and maturity:

Dependance (baby/child)

Independence (moving out of home and becoming self supportive)

Interdependence (An ability to work in a team and all that teamwork of any kind does involve both as leader and as just one of the team).

Father last night pointed out for us that Jesus negotiated each stage.  As a baby and child we see Him totally dependant on Our Lady and St Joseph for survival.  Jesus moves into the independence stage at around 12 years of age.  We find him talking with teachers in the temple, questioning them.  When Mary and Joseph find Him, they express their distress thinking that they had lost Him.  Scripture then tells us that Jesus went home with His parents and "learnt obedience".  Traditionally it is felt that Jesus probably spent some years working his father's carpentry business after St. Joseph had died.

Finally, we see Jesus move into the interdependence stage.  He leaves His family home completely, never to return.  He is not the loner, he gathers apostles and disciples around Him.  We do know that Jesus had people around Him who controlled the purse strings for them all.  Jesus is a good leader, He trains those around Him to take over as will become necessary after His death.  Jesus looks for leadership qualities and acknowledges Peter as a leader forming Peter into the role...........for all those very endearing weak and imperfect human qualities in St Peter that can trigger a re-look at what holiness and sanctity might really be all about making it attainable.  Not beyond the reach of the weak and imperfect.

Jesus walked the length and breadth of Galilee - and where He found Faith, He worked miracles.  Not charity and not hope, only Faith.

"And he did not work many mighty deeds there because of their lack of faith." http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0839/__PVM.HTM

[Guest]

“There is so much need today for mature Christian personalities, conscious of their baptismal identity, of their vocation and mission in the Church and in the world!”

—Pope John Paul II, May 30, 1998

Message for the World Congress of Ecclesial Movements and New Communities

 

________________________________

THE LAITY - OUR ROLE AND RELATED MATTERS

 

I will be posting the following quite lengthy article from Ignatius.com in full.  Each part (as below) will have its own separate post and over a period of days - the entire quite long article is excellent reading even essential for the baptised Catholic in the Laity, I think .  I did a search but couldn't find any copyright information on the site. 

AN EXCELLENT SITE REVIEW FOR IGNATIUS.COM FROM CATHOLIC CULTURE SITE REVIEWS

http://www.ignatius.com/promotions/cfe/documents/Disciples web pages.pdf

PART 1 - Essential Role of The Laity

PART 2 - The Role of the Lay Faithful in The Church

PART 3 - Priests and Laity work Together to Form The Mystical Body of Christ

PART 4 - In The Church there is a Diversity of Ministry (or apostolate) - But a Oneness Of Mission

PART 5 - Disciples in The World

PART 6 - Discernment

PART 7 - Guidelines for Discerning Our Calling

PART 8 - Formation (Ongoing Formation is Essential for Every Baptised Catholic)

PART 9 - Participating in The Life of The Church

 

[Guest]

CELIBACY IN THE LAITY

I will get around to reading the following document too.  It has 28pages, my printer tells me.  I have only read some opening pages and just skimmed over the rest.  I did like this in the skimming: "In the case of “holy madness,” one’s natural talents and abilities developed as charisms for the service of God, Church, and world can be called into service by God in a way that persuades one to see that the only or best way to offer them is as a secular single person."

 

THE NONVOWED FORM OF THE LAY STATE IN THE

LIFE OF THE CHURCH

http://cdn.theologicalstudies.net/68/68.2/68.2.5.pdf

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About Theological Studies site :

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http://theologicalstudies.net/about/   Theological Studies is a quarterly journal of theology, published under the auspices of the Jesuits in the USA. It has been in continuous publication since 1940.

Mission Statement - Founded and sponsored by the Society of Jesus in the United States of America, Theological Studies is a Catholic scholarly journal that serves the Church and its mission by promoting a deeper understanding of the Christian faith through the publication of research in theological disciples. Through refereed articles and reviews of noteworthy books, the journal aims to recover and to help make accessible the riches of the theological tradition, and to present significant developments in current theology. It is published quarterly in English for an international readership.

Located at Santa Clara University, in Santa Clara, California, TS is under the general editorship of Paul G. Crowley, SJ, in concert with its editorial consultants. Its book review editor is R. Daniel Kendall, S.J., of the University of San Francisco.

[Guest]

PART 1 of 9 

ESSENTIAL ROLE OF THE LAITY

Ignatius Press "Today's Disciples"  - Leader's Guide $22.06 - http://www.ignatius.com/IProducts/22907/todays-disciples-leaders-guide.aspx

http://www.ignatius.com/promotions/cfe/documents/Disciples web pages.pdf

Essential Role of the Laity

Never before in the history of the Church has the absolutely essential role of the layperson been so dramatically emphasized as it is now.

Particularly since Vatican II, the Church has called for a renewal in the life and role of the laity. Yet among the faithful, there remains a fundamental lack of understanding of the lay vocation and its role in the Church’s mission. For many, there is a notion that the only real vocation in the Church is the ordained or vowed priesthood and religious. They believe “the Church” is the ordained office and only people in habits or collars are called to serve.

Many think that the role of the laity is to help out around the parish and that they are not called to play an integral part in the mission of the Church. But in fact, the actual teaching of the Church is that laypeople have a distinct and very real role in the spreading of the Gospel, which the Church desperately needs them to carry out with the authority, creativity, and power that the Holy Spirit has given them in Baptism. The Church teaches that in dignity laypeople are absolutely equal to those in ordained and religious life. In mission, the work of the laity is the crucial means by which the world is to encounter Christ.

Many lay Catholics would like to be more involved, but do not have a clear understanding of their role in the Church. In Today’s Disciples you will learn:

• the lay state is a “vocation” derived from our Baptism,

• the role of the laity is essential in accomplishing the mission of the Church,

• how each of us has been called by God to our own specific vocation and mission,

• laypeople are called to engage in the affairs of the world and direct them according to God’s will,

• the unique capability that laypeople have to bring Christ’s divine message of salvation to every aspect of life, and

• how to discern one’s calling.

[Guest]

THEOLOGICAL GEMS

Vocation to the Lay State of Life

 

I have read half of the quite lengthy theological study of vocations to the laity HERE.  It is literally full of passages worth quoting, worth reflection i.e. theological gems on the vocation to the lay state of life. 

What I have decided to do is periodically post those theological gems into this thread with link to the actual text.  As I come across those gems in the text, I am copying and pasting into a Word Document.  This serves two purposes i.e. for that of this thread and also for my files.

Deo Gratius

Laudate Dominum

...........The Lord provides............

 

[Guest]

THEOLOGICAL STUDIES

THE NONVOWED FORM OF THE LAY STATE IN THE

LIFE OF THE CHURCH

Quarterly Journal of Theology, under auspices Jesuits USA

 

 http://cdn.theologicalstudies.net/68/68.2/68.2.5.pdf

Excerpt: “Under the law of grace there cannot in justice be a separation into a class

of elite who follow the special gifts, and minimal Christians who commit

themselves only to the restrictive commandments. Everyone owes God the full response of love in proportion to the talents bestowed on him…….

……….. The unity of all Christians and its expression in a diversity of interrelated forms of graced life is reflected in Balthasar’s attention to the fluidity of the various “vocations.” Priests may be called to live the evangelical counsels,38 some lay persons and priests are called to live at least the spirit of the evangelical counsels as members of secular institutes,39 and some lay persons may be called to live not only the spirit but the full reality of one or

two or all of the evangelical counsels..

...... In Razing the Bastions, Balthasar called readers’ attention to the worker priest and to the consecrated lay person as examples of visible confluences of states of life for the sake of the work of all Christians toward “the salvation of the world in the world.”40 In this convergence tending more and more toward Christian transformation of the world rather than Christian separation from the world, the lay person especially has received the prominent role of a mediator, bringing gospel values to the world while attuning the Church to the world.41 Indeed, according to Balthasar, “the future of the church . . . depends on whether laymen can be found who live out of the unbroken power of the Gospel and are willing to shape the world.

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My comment:  Re: "attuning The Church to the world".  The Church does not and is not called to conform itself to the world and I don't think that this is the implication in the text.  Rather, it is lay people who are in probably the best position to keep The Church informed on what is happening out here in the world.  We can do this in a variety of ways according to those gifts and means with which The Lord has provided one (Divine Providence).

 

Deo Gratius

Laudate Dominum

........... onward into the duties and unfoldings of this day............