Private Vows in The Laity/Spirituality

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It is quite valid to state that where vocation for life is concerned, God's Will is that we are free to choose.  That is a generalization and a rule of thumb only, The Lord remains forever in Freedom and cannot be confined within nice tidy boundaries.  

But probably most often and generally speaking where vocation for life is concerned, God's Will for us is freedom to choose.  Within that will for us, He May or May Not invite to a particular vocation or role in life.  The invitation becomes apparent with an attraction to a certain vocation and the ability to live that vocation - these await a third aspect and that is acceptance into the life.

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VESPERS

Friday 22nd June 2018

Short Reading

James 1:2-4 

My brothers, you will always have your trials but, when they come, try to treat them as a happy privilege; you understand that your faith is only put to the test to make you patient, but patience too is to have its practical results so that you will become fully-developed, complete, with nothing missing.

 

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Saint Bonaventure (1221-1274), Franciscan, Doctor of the Church 
"The Soul’s Journey into God" 

 https://www.amazon.com/Saint-Bonaventure-Souls-Journey-into/dp/B074ZTJ69R

How wonderful are your works, Lord!

 

The beauty of things in the variety of light, shape and color, such as the heavenly bodies and minerals, stones and metals, plants and animals, clearly proclaims the attributes of God. 

Their order in the book of creation clearly indicates the primacy, sublimity and dignity of the First Principle and thus the infinity of his power. In this way order itself leads us most clearly into the first and highest, the most powerful, wisest and best. 

Whoever, therefore, is not enlightened by such splendor of created things is blind; whoever is not awakened by such outcries is deaf; whoever does not praise God because of all these effects is dumb; whoever does not discover the First Principle from such clear signs is a fool. 

Therefore, open your eyes, alert the ears of your spirit, open your lips and apply your heart (Prv 22:17) so that in all creatures you may see, hear, praise, love and worship, glorify and honor your God lest the whole world rise against you. For because of this “the whole world will fight against the foolish” (Wis 5:21 Vg.). On the contrary, it will be a matter of glory for the wise, who can say with the Prophet: “You have gladdened me, Lord, by your deeds and in the work of your hands I will rejoice. (Ps 91[92]:5). How great are your works, Lord! You have made all things in wisdom; the earth is filled with your creatures.” (Ps 103[104]:24).

(From Daily Gospel.org)

 

 

Vincent's Quote of the Day - St Vincent de Paul Society

Quote of the Day – June 22

 

"Let us abandon ourselves to the Providence of God and be on our guard against anticipating it" (II:499).

 

 

Divine Providence

Catholic Catechism http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p1s2c1p4.htm

Scroll down to  "V. GOD CARRIES OUT HIS PLAN: DIVINE PROVIDENCE "

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Struggling at the moment but happy to offer it up.  Finances and computer playing up.

"This too shall pass"

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"When the painful problems of the heart are endured, humbly and patiently, they give the soul a splendid lustre,

the nearer and better and closer they touch it.  

But remember that kinds actions -- more than anything else -- cause the soul to shine with brilliance."
   - Gertrude the Great, "The Herald of Divine Love"

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The Interview about Padre Pio starts about 4 mins in to the video

 

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Each of us has two natures: one, a hard outer husk, which is an old nature; the other an inner softness, which constitutes our true self. The outer husk is that part of us that, while we are flesh-center beings, is used to protect ourselves from the harshness of our world. Before we come to Christ, that “husk” protects the inner softness, which otherwise cannot endure the struggles of life in this hostile, devil-filled world. But when we come to Christ, the husk must be broken and die. We cannot rely on the way of the flesh to protect us; we must become Christ-centered.

- Francis Frangipane

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https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/112836.Evelyn_Underhill

Where the philosopher guesses and argues, the mystic lives and looks; and speaks, consequently, the disconcerting language of first-hand experience, not the neat dialectic of the schools. Hence whilst the Absolute of the metaphysicians remains a diagram —impersonal and unattainable—the Absolute of the mystics is lovable, attainable, alive.” 
― Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism: A Study in the Nature and Development of Spiritual Consciousness

 

“Every minute you are thinking of evil, you might have been thinking of good instead. Refuse to pander to a morbid interest in your own misdeeds. 
Pick yourself up, be sorry, shake yourself, and go on again.” 
― Evelyn Underhill

 

“the night of thought is the light of perception.” 
― Evelyn Underhill, Practical Mysticism

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Interesting video 

 

 

 

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The voice of Dr James Finlay grates on me and is a distinct turn-off.  I just dont like it the sound of his voice .  But sometimes he does say

something that I do get - and in most all of his videos there is usually

something, if even only one thing.  So now and then I suffer the sound of his voice hoping to hear something he has to say that will touch me in some way.

 

Dr Finlay was a novice in Gethsemani Monastery, Kentucky, when Thomas Merton was

his novice master.   He subsequently left the monastery and eventually married.  I think that's part anyway of his story. 

 

 

 

Edited June 30, 2018 by BarbaraTherese

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USCCB - Gospel Meditation 30.6.18

 

 

 

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Origen (c.185-253)

priest and theologian
Homilies on Leviticus, no. 7

 

"Many will come from the east and the west, and will recline with

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob

at the banquet in the kingdom of heaven"

Christ said: “I will not drink this fruit of the vine from now until the day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s house.” (Mt 26:29) If anyone among you listens with purified ears, he can perceive the ineffable mystery…: the Lord is waiting to drink wine with us; he is waiting for us to rejoice. How long will he wait? Until he has accomplished his word, until we have all submitted to Christ and Christ to his Father (1 Cor 15:28). Since we are all members of his Body, we can say that in a sense he has not submitted until we have submitted with perfect submission, until I, the last of sinners, have submitted. But when he will have accomplished his word and brought every creature to its perfect fulfillment, then we will be able to say that “he has submitted” in those whom he submits to his Father, those in whom he has accomplished the work his Father entrusted to him, so that God might be all in all (1 Cor 15:28)…

And the saints who preceded us are also waiting for us, slow and lazy as we are. Their joy is not perfect so long as there is reason to weep over our sins. The apostle testifies to this for me when he says: “Without us, they were not to be made perfect.” (Heb 11:40) So see: Abraham is waiting. Isaac, Jacob and all the prophets are waiting for us to possess perfect beatitude with us… If you are holy, you will have joy when you leave this life, but that joy will only be complete when not one of the members of the Body we are all to form together is missing anymore. You will also wait for others in the same way as you were awaited. Now if you who are only one member cannot have perfect joy if another member is absent, how much more our Lord and Savior who is both the author and the head of the entire Body… Then we will have come to the maturity of which the apostle Paul said: “The life I live now is not my own; Christ is living in me.” (Gal 2:20) Then our pontiff will drink the new wine in the new heaven, on the new earth, in the new human person, with the new human persons, with those who sing the new song.

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