Private Vows in The Laity/Spirituality

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You cannot pray depression away - but you can pray

when depressed. 

When I am depressed, usually I will not feel any consolation at all when I pray.  It is then that I am praying through Faith, naked Faith and  I am not praying because The Lord is gifting me with consolation.  Even the saints experienced profound emptiness.

When it seems impossible to pray, Jesus is praying within the depressed person.

http://www.beliefnet.com/faiths/christianity/2004/05/jesus-is-in-the-darkness-with-you-praying-when-depressed.aspx

"Recognizing agony in a void that is filled only with darkness and absence calls a depressed person to be present to the Now, even if the Now is darkness. There is a God in that void, the God of Jesus. To be present to this God, to know that Jesus is in the darkness with you and for you as prayer, even were no words or act of love to pass through your heart. God's abiding love is deep within, never forsaking you in darkness. You are alone in the void with the Son of God-both of you keeping silent. Suffering with you is Jesus, the abandoned Son on the cross. When it is impossible to hold on to a thought or to pray, Jesus is praying and contemplating within the one who is suffering from depression. Day by day, moment by moment, groping in the darkness, you are not alone. Jesus is struggling with you. He is there feeling it all. Nothing goes unnoticed by him or his Father. Through Jesus' Spirit who is in you, you can hope for peace.

Ideas for Praying When Depressed
St. Gregory Nazianzus wrote these words during a time when he found anxiety and depression crowding out any space for prayer in his soul:

The breath of life, O Lord, seems spent. My body is tense, my mind filled with anxiety, yet I have no zest, no energy. I am helpless to allay my fears. I am incapable of relaxing my limbs. Dark thoughts constantly invade my head ....Lord, raise up my soul, revive my body.

 

If this is happening to you, try these forms of prayer and contemplative love:

• 1. Try to find a quiet place. Put on some soothing music. Keep it soft and gentle. Take a few deep breaths, holding each one for a few seconds and then slowly exhaling. Relax. Feel the chair you're sitting on, your feet on the floor. Smell the scents in the room. Imagine Jesus coming toward you with a smile on his face. Tell him how you are feeling right now-anxious, uncomfortable, fidgety, distracted, wanting to focus. Tell him what things are like for you today. Open your heart to him. Feel his presence very close to you. Let his love into your heart. Thank him for this gift.
• 2. Go for a walk. Take some pleasant music with you. As you go, notice the sky, feel the season. Recognize what is around you. Feel at home right now. Offer your heart to Jesus, even if your pain is deep. Though you may be alone on your walk, Jesus is in your heart. Tell him what you see ...the beauty around you. Tell him how you feel ...even if it is dark. Remember he wants you to tell him everything in your life ...joys and pains.
• 3. Call to mind someone else you know who is hurting or sick. Focus for a few minutes on what that person may be feeling, and on what you would like to say to him or her. Lift this person up by name to Jesus and ask his blessing on them.
• 4. Hold a crucifix in your hands. Close your eyes and think of Jesus in agony. Join your sufferings to his in his act of redemption.
• 5. If you're feeling low, go to a quiet place and hold your Bible. Read Psalm 130 (see below) or focus on a phrase of it. Embrace how you feel, even if it's uncomfortable. Know that God is loving you through these moments of darkness.
• 6. When you are unable to focus because your mind is racing, try to remember and pray the words, "My God, I love you." Open yourself to God's love.
• 7. Turn on soft music. Read this Bible verse over and over while thinking about it: "My God, my God, why have you forgotten me?" (cf. Mk 15:34). This is Jesus' own prayer of emptiness and abandonment.
• 8. When you pass by your local church, stop in for a few minutes. Pause and connect with the One who loves you.
• 9. If you can't get up, lie still and repeat the name of Jesus over, and over, and over. His love catches these words and he embraces you with love.
• 10. Go to Eucharistic adoration and spend some time in God's presence.

Psalm 130 (De Profundis)

1Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord.
2 Lord, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
to the voice of my supplications! 
3If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities,
Lord, who could stand?
4But there is forgiveness with you,
so that you may be revered. 

5I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
and in his word I hope;
6my soul waits for the Lord
more than those who watch for the morning,
more than those who watch for the morning.

7O Israel, hope in the Lord!
For with the Lord there is steadfast love,
and with him is great power to redeem.
8It is he who will redeem Israel
from all its iniquities.

 

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Daily Mass Online

Passioniste Community

Sunday 9th September 2018

 

 

 

 

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THE MORNING OFFERING

The morning offering is the perfect capstone, cornerstone and 
beginning for a great life of intercessory prayer. It unites the 
poverty of our own lives, prayers, works, joys and sufferings with 
those of Christ, with those of His Mystical Body. It plunges the 
finite smallness of our own actions into sea after sea of infinite 
grace and perfection and, wrapped in that amesome completeness, 
offers them to the Father in the perhaps most perfect personal gift 
we could ever hope for that day, short of martyrdom itself.

Ever forget to pray during the day? The morning offering makes our 
very heartbeats and breathing prayers, means of grace for ourselves 
and for all. We have offered ALL our works, even the unconscious 
ones of our bodies to God, and we have offered them in union with 
the most perfect sacrifice of Jesus. With a gift tag like that, the 
Father is quite likely to be pleased, indeed. Each time we blink, 
or eat, suffer or rejoice, we link that to Christ on His Cross. 
None of us have enough bytes of memory to really do that (I have 
forgotten about it at least three times while writing this sentence!) The morning 
offering is our "hard drive" it is the program that saves to disk 
and runs automatically.

Our baptism into the Mystical Body allows us to plug into 
that infinite worth. It would be a shame if we missed the 
opportunity. Let me tell you, with complete sincerity, that all the 
works of my entire life couldn't save a flea from drowning in a 
raindrop. No way. Buried within the depths of Christ, however, 
their value becomes literally infinite.

Ever feel bad that you forgot to pray for someone who asked, or 
only whispered a quick: "Lord, help her."? The morning offering 
makes our life and our prayer an infinite pie, one which can never 
be sliced too thin. Counting huge groups and individuals, I pray 
every single day for literally billions of people and not one of 
them is short-changed at all.

That's the marvel of uniting our lives and hearts, joys and sorrows 
daily to Christ. Every slice of the pie gets served on the plate of 
His infinity, every single one. Cloaked in the perfect mercy and 
offering of Jesus, every single act, even the keys I just struck and
the mouse I just moved are wonderful prayers for all, for everyone 
throughout time. That's not shabby, folks!

Ever wish that your heart prone to largesse had all the money in 
the world? How generous you would be! But, with the morning 
offering, you have daily more than that. Claim your infinite share 
and spread it around! Name people and groups, sure, but know that 
God has a memory that never quits. You can say: for all people in 
all time" and it WILL count!

Heavens, I pray for all Oblates (among lots of other people and 
groups every day.) Not only could I not name them, I don't even 
know them, nor is it possible for ANYONE to know them all 
throughout time. But God does, and it counts! There is no one 
reading this for whom I have not prayed every single day, many by 
name, but it doesn't matter. God is my hard drive! I have prayed 
for the next new guest who arrives for a first visit for literally 
years, every single day. The morning offering is a very neat method!

Look, folks, it's a Roman Catholic prayer. I'll give you a version 
of it at the end of this post, but there are many others. I KNOW 
that some of our Oblates from other Churches may have to amend it a 
bit and that's OK, go for what God and your heart allows. I think,
however, that all Christians could agree on at least these 
essentials. (Someone please correct me here, if I am wrong.) Offer 
all your prayers, works, joys and sufferings to God in union with 
those of Christ, for the intentions of Christ, for all Christians 
and their leaders, for all people throughout time. Say it any way your heart 
allows, but do at least this much and congratulations: you have 
just thrust your own prayers and works and joys and sufferings into 
the very heart of the Cosmos, into the whole of history itself. You 
now stand beside Christ in HIS perfect work in every age. 

 

Brother Jerome, OSB

http://www.stmarysmonastery.org

 

End with: Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make my heart like unto
Yours. Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place my trust in You.

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Daily Mass Online

Australia

Monday 10th September 2018

 

 

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CATHOLIC SPIRITUAL CLASSICS TO DOWNLOAD

 

 

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Obedience to the Will of God Brings Great Blessings

By Virginia Barber, O.C.D.S

http://www.catholicspiritualdirection.org/obedience.html

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[Guest]

(I haven't read the entire work.  I have simply read here and there and it seems ok to me.

Below are the various Chapters)

http://www.catholictradition.org/Christ/happiness.htm

CHAPTER 1, THE NATURE OF HAPPINESS
CHAPTER 2, HUMAN ACTS: STEPS TO HAPPINESS
CHAPTER 3, HAPPINESS AND MORALITY
CHAPTER 4, HAPPINESS AND THE PASSIONS: PART 1
CHAPTER 4, HAPPINESS AND THE PASSIONS: PART 2
CHAPTER 5, HAPPINESS AND HABIT
CHAPTER 6, HAPPINESS AND VIRTUE
CHAPTER 7, UNITY IN HUMAN ACTION
CHAPTER 8, STRIVING FOR HAPPINESS: PART 1
CHAPTER 8, STRIVING FOR HAPPINESS: PART 2
CHAPTER 9, GOD AND HUMAN HAPPINESS
CHAPTER 10, SIN AND UNHAPPINESS
CHAPTER 11, CAUSES OF SIN
CHAPTER 12, EFFECTS OF SIN
CHAPTER 13, LAW: THE ROAD-MAP OF HAPPINESS
CHAPTER 14, GRACE: THE GIFT OF HAPPINESS

 

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It is only inasmuch as you see someone else as he or she really is here and now, and not as they are in your memory or desire or in your imagination or projection, that you can truly love them.
- Anthony de Mello

(Anthony de Mello is not exactly in favour with Rome and rightly so, but don't throw out the baby out with the bathwater.  The above quote is worthwhile in my book)

 

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Daily Mass Online

Australia

12th September 2018

 

 

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Re Consecration of The Bread and Wine (Transubstantiation)

and celebration of The Sacraments

When the priest celebrant is in the state of mortal sin

 

 

 

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We are undefeated as long as we keep on trying, as long as we have some source of movement within ourselves and are not just moved by outside forces, as long as we retain the freedom of right decision and action, whatever the circumstances.

- George Appleton

 

Quote

 

https://christdesert.org/

Monastery of Christ in the Desert:

Abbot Phillip: Today we begin to hear more about the sufferings that the chosen one of God must undergo.  It is Jesus Himself who is telling us as He told his early followers:  I must suffer and die in order to do the will of God.  This suffering and death of Jesus challenge us:  can we really believe that Jesus is God?

The first reading today is again from the Prophet Isaiah.  The test refers to the suffering servant, an image developed by this Prophet.  Isaiah, even in the Old Testament, was able to understand that one person can accept suffering for the good of others.  Isaiah could understand that a person could accept suffering and pain when that person is giving His life for others.

Even today there are many stories of people who go to rescue others and die in the attempt to save someone else.  Always the challenge is for us:  Am I willing to give up my own life so that others can live?  This is a choice to choose the good of others over my own good.

The second reading is from the Letter of James.  This particular passage is so strong about the different between words and deeds:  Demonstrate your faith to me without works, and I will demonstrate my faith to you from my works.”  It does no good at all to talk about faith if we never do the works of faith.  Words by themselves are just words—and it takes actions to change the world.

The Gospel brings us back to the suffering of humans and the suffering of Jesus.  It is Jesus Himself who tells His followers that He must suffer.  We have this wonderful scene of Peter taking Jesus aside and rebuking Jesus for speaking like that.  Even the closest followers of our Lord found it difficult to accept that Jesus would that suffer and die.  We can think ahead to when Jesus does suffer and die—and all of His followers then doubt.  It is the Resurrection that restores faith.  For us who live so many centuries later it is important that we understand clearly that Jesus did die and He rose from the dead.  The Resurrection is the heart of our faith but resurrection only comes after suffering and death.

Jesus makes clear in this Gospel passage from Saint Mark that we also must follow Him in suffering and death:  “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.”  This is both an invitation and a challenge to us.  So often we are happy to pray to Jesus and to worship Him—but to suffer and die as He did really stretches us.  Faith is more comfortable—but less of a commitment—when it demands nothing of us.

This Sunday we are invited to look at our lives and to compare our lives with the life of Jesus.  Are we ready to suffer and die for our faith?  Can we follow Jesus?  Can we accept His Church with all of its defects and its sins and sinful people?  It is much easier to believe in Jesus than to believe in His Church.  But if we don’t believe in the Church we no longer believe in the Incarnation and thus no longer really believe in Jesus as Lord, as God and Man, as our Savior.

Your brother in the Lord,

Abbot Philip

 

 

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Daily Mass Online

Australia

13th September 2018

 

 

 

[Guest]

The Sexual Abuse Crisis

 

On the Role of Laity in The Church

 

 

 

 

 

The reason why God's servants love creatures so much is that they see how much Christ loves them, and it is one of the properties of love to love what is loved by the person we love.
- St. Catherine of Siena

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…the ideal of the great contemplatives…is to become “modes of the Infinite.” Filled with an abounding sense of the Divine Life… they wish to communicate the revelation, the more abundant life, which they have received. 

- Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism”

 

 

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Saint Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997)
founder of the Missionary Sisters of Charity
No Greater Love

 

"Do good and lend, expecting nothing in return"

Perhaps in an apartment or house next to yours there lives a blind man who would welcome a visit from you to read the newspaper to him. Perhaps there is a family that is in need of something of small importance to you, something as simple as looking after their child for half an hour. There are so many little things that are so small that a lot of people forget them.

Don't think have to be a simpleton to do the cooking. Don't think that sitting, standing, coming and going, and all that you do is not important to God.

God does not ask you how many books you've read, how many miracles you've done. He asks you if you did your best for his sake. Can you say in all sincerity: "I did my best”? Even if the best should be a failure, it must be our best. If you're really in love with Christ, no matter how unimportant your work is, it will be better done, from your heart. Your work will bear witness to your love. You can wear yourself out at your work, you can even kill yourself at it, but until it is mixed with love, it is of no value.