Private Vows in The Laity/Spirituality

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Reading The Church Fathers

 

                                             

 

This ebook cannot be sold to the United Kingdom.

 

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https://www.ignatius.com/Church-Fathers-P304.aspx

"Following his best selling book, Jesus of Nazareth, and his talks published in Jesus, the Apostles, and the Early Church, Pope Benedict?s Church Fathers presents these important figures of early Christianity in all their evangelical vitality, spiritual profundity, and uncompromising love of God. Benedict tells the true story of Christianity?s against-all-odds triumph in the face of fierce Roman hostility and persecution. He does this by exploring the lives and the ideas of the early Christian writers, pastors, and martyrs, men so important to the spread of Christianity that history remembers them as ?the Fathers of the Church?.

This rich and engrossing survey of the early Church includes those churchmen who immediately succeeded the Apostles, the ?Apostolic Fathers?: Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, Justin Martyr, and Irenaeus of Lyon. Benedict also discusses such great Christian figures as Tertullian, Origen, Cyprian of Carthage, the Cappadocian Fathers, as well as the giants John Chrysostom, Jerome, and Augustine. This book is a wonderful way to get to know the Church Fathers and the tremendous spiritually rich patrimony they have bequeathed to us."

 

 

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I can see my own responsibility for the situations in our world today; the scandals, the natural disasters, the epidemic, cruel dictatorships, corruption, crime .... and all the rest - you name it, I am there.

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I have physical health problems again.  I am 76 years of age this coming January, so it is not unusual to have health problems, rather it can almost be expected.  A prayer appreciated as I am fearful of what 'cure' might entail. 

 I have no notion whatsoever that I have completed my task here as some, richly blest, can claim.  Nor have I any notion of what that task might be as a summary.  Rather, mine has been to live each day as I could with Faith and trust.  30 years of practice has definitely made Faith and trust far more informed than 30 years ago, or even further back.  I do feel that I have journeyed as I have along with the many.  But then too, I have no notion at all that my time here is completed nor is it necessary to know - death can indeed arrive "like a thief in the night"............ "All is Grace".

I have hesitated before posting and asked myself "Am I being too dramatic"?  I don't think I am, rather I have written, as I often do, from 'gut level' as I type.

Ecclesiastes 3: "There is a time for everything,
 and a season for every activity under the heavens"

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Trust in God is not of necessity a feeling

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............"............Many of the great spiritual masters of the Church note that as we progress in holiness, God seeks to free us of those things we depend upon outside of Him. One of these dependencies is our emotions. There will be periods, especially after consolations, in which God will seem to withdraw from us and we will no longer “feel” His presence. In fact, St. Ignatius of Loyola points out that we are in desolation more often than consolation in this life. We may experience aridity, darkness, numbness, and confusion. It is not that God has abandoned us, rather, He is seeking to purify our love for Him. We are not meant to rely on the good feelings that can come from a consolation or an experience of Him at an emotional level. If we constantly seek an emotional response to God, we often become trapped in a type of idolatry in which we worship our feelings over God............"............ Catholic Exchange website: Read whole article HERE

 

                                                                  

Every moment comes to us pregnant with a command from God, only to pass on and plunge into eternity, there to remain forever what we have made of it.
- St. Francis de Sales

 

 

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"We can’t persevere if we don’t understand that our spiritual life isn’t reliant upon feeling good. " https://catholicexchange.com/emotions-unruly-unreliable-guide

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What needs to be guarded is the life of the Spirit within us. Especially we who want to witness to the presence of God's Spirit in the world need to tend the fire within with utmost care. . . Our first and foremost task is faithfully to care for the inward fire so that when it is really needed it can offer warmth and light to lost travelers."

- Henri Nouwen [20th C.], The Way of the Heart -

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https://www.cesapp.catholic.edu.au/__files/f/8207/MITIOG110808WEBPart2.pdf

 "My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed." Psalm 139:15-16

"I will not forget you See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands."  Isaiah 49:16 

 

 

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I know I have posted the following video "Life in Hidden Light" I think twice before.  I keep coming across it in the oddest of places on YouTube and am posting it yet again.  It would have to be my favourite video about nuns and  the interview with the older invalid nun is a real Joy and a classic  :

 

[Pax17]

Barb, this is one of my favorite videos as well.  It's so lovely to see the younger sister caring for the elder, infirm sister who is very spunky despite her disabilities.  My other favorites are the videos of the New Zealand Carmelites with Sister Cushla and her progress who confesses she was a hippie in her youth...:)  BTW, someone mentioned on another thread that the Family of Jacopa no longer exists.  Pax.

Oops...that should be "prioress" not "progress."

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57 minutes ago, Pax17 said:

Barb, this is one of my favorite videos as well.  It's so lovely to see the younger sister caring for the elder, infirm sister who is very spunky despite her disabilities.  My other favorites are the videos of the New Zealand Carmelites with Sister Cushla and her progress who confesses she was a hippie in her youth...:)  BTW, someone mentioned on another thread that the Family of Jacopa no longer exists.  Pax.

Oops...that should be "prioress" not "progress."

Hi Pax

Thank you for the info on the Family of Jacopa. 

That older Carmelite nun was indeed very spunky, huh?  Did you happen to notice the resemblance of the younger nun to St Elizabeth of The Trinity.  

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Here are a couple of videos on American Trappists.  I do like the way monks speak in a normal tone of voice, not a lowered/hushed one-tone type of voice.  

 

 

The following video gives a short history of monasticism - monk-style.  I do like too that the monks of Mepkin Abbey have embraced (almost literally) the world without distinctions........

 

 

What struck me as one only enlightened comment by one of the Mepkin Abbey monks was, paraphrasing: "What are they doing? Can I take something from it for myself?"

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Articles from Aleteia:

"Remember, no one is ever “sent” to Hell. It is a free choice by those who live their entire lives detached from God and who, at death’s door, would rather be in isolation than in communion with God"  https://aleteia.org/2021/09/26/will-souls-in-hell-receive-resurrected-bodies/?utm_campaign=NL_en&utm_content=NL_en&utm_medium=mail&utm_source=daily_newsletter

 

Tolkien reflects on the purpose of life:  https://aleteia.org/2021/09/26/the-purpose-of-life-according-to-j-r-r-tolkien/?utm_campaign=NL_en&utm_content=NL_en&utm_medium=mail&utm_source=daily_newsletter