Private Vows in The Laity/Spirituality

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St. Padre Pio:  "Joy with peace is the sister of charity. Serve the Lord with laughter."

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A psalm of thanksgiving (Psalm100) https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/100

Shout joyfully to the LORD, all you lands; - serve the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful song.

Know that the LORD is God,he made us, we belong to him,we are his people, the flock he shepherds.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving, his courts with praise. Give thanks to him, bless his name;

good indeed is the LORD,

His mercy endures forever,

his faithfulness lasts through every generation.

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One can be glad and happy to serve The Lord, rejoice in The Grace to persevere in serving Him.............while all around oneself might be going wrong and 'Murphy's Law' seeming to apply at every turn, keeping one's emotions and heart in one's boots i.e. frustrated and depressed.  But expect fierce opposition to that Joy in The Lord.  The Church Militant on earth is a battle between good and evil and why, I think anyway, why we are called "Militant" on earth.

 

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I can't find Open Mic.....can't get past Relics no matter what I have tried.

My youngest brother (in his low sixties now) had two seizures this morning and was admitted to hospital.  Last I heard around 8.30pm tonight and the day of his admittance, he was still unconscious and now transferred to Intensive Care.  In other words, he has been unconscious all day today, admitted to hospital unconscious this morning.  (10.40pm now in South Australia Sunday 23rd April).  Doctors have said things could go either way.

Would you say a prayer for him please.  For all of us, it has been very sudden and a shock especially to his wife and adult children.

Thank you.

[Guest]

Thank you  for prayer.  My brother came out of the coma without any apparent harm at all.  He is now able to walk around the hospital with a walker.  He still has to have various examinations and tests.  The doctors think that diabetes caused the seizures and coma.  Thank you again!

As for me, I am still struggling especially with my eyes and vision is poor.  Like my brother, I have various tests to be done and a few appointments on my calendar.  My problem is simply a case of growing older.

[Guest]

I apologise I have neglected this thread.   I am hardly on the computer at all and in much pain and very limited physical mobility.  Laudate Dominum Deo Gratius.

[Pax17]

Sorry to hear you are unwell...thinking of you...

[Guest]

Thank you, Pax.

My whole life has been turned upside down completely.  Almost the last straw for me has been that my little dog, Buddie, was put to sleep this morning.  He has been euthanized.  It is almost the last straw.........just an almost, because my Faith never abandons me except on the feeling level.  I thank and praise You, My Lord! But then I am accustomed to travelling by Faith in my will alone.  Buddie is safe now. I praise and thank You, My Lord!

If this indeed is The Dark Night, then I am deeply sorry, my Lord, but I am afraid You can have it is what feelings are screaming out - but in my will, I praise and thank You, My God. Amen

 

[Guest]

The following poem has been a support tome in my own journey

THE GATE OF THE YEAR

'God Knows'

And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year:
"Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown".
And he replied:
"Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God.
That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way".
So I went forth, and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night.
And He led me towards the hills and the breaking of day in the lone East.

So heart be still:
What need our little life
Our human life to know,
If God hath comprehension?
In all the dizzy strife
Of things both high and low,
God hideth His intention.

God knows.

His will Is best.

The stretch of years
Which wind ahead, so dim
To our imperfect vision,
Are clear to God. Our fears
Are premature; In Him,
All time hath full provision.

Then rest: until
God moves to lift the veil
From our impatient eyes,
When, as the sweeter features
Of Life's stern face we hail,
Fair beyond all surmise
God's thought around His creatures
Our mind shall fill.

                                                  BACKGROUND

The poem, written in 1908 and privately published in 1912, was part of a collection titled The Desert. It caught the public attention and the popular imagination when King George VI quoted it in his 1939 Christmas broadcast to the British Empire. The poem may have been brought to his attention by his wife, Queen Elizabeth (the Queen Consort).

The book The Servant Queen and the King She Serves[2] published for Queen Elizabeth II's 90th birthday, its foreword being by that monarch, says that it was the young Princess Elizabeth herself, aged 13, who handed the poem to her father.

The poem was widely acclaimed as inspirational, reaching its first mass audience in the early days of the Second World War. Its words remained a source of comfort to the Queen Mother for the rest of her life, and she had its words engraved on stone plaques and fixed to the gates of the King George VI Memorial Chapel at Windsor Castle, where the King was interred. The Queen Mother was also buried there in 2002, and the words of "The Gate of the Year" were included in a reflection in her funeral's order of service.

The poem was included in the closing moments of the 1940 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/Frank Borzage film The Mortal Storm, starring Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart and Robert Young.

 

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   https://www.catholiceducation.org/en/religion-and-philosophy/spiritual-life/the-church-will-become-small.html  

                                      The church will become small

CARDINAL JOSEPH RATZINGEThe church will become small and will have to start afresh more or less from the beginning.  She will no longer be able to inhabit many of the edifices she built in prosperity. As the number of her adherents diminishes . . . she will lose many of her social privileges. . . As a small society, [the Church] will make much bigger demands on the initiative of her individual members....

It will be hard-going for the Church, for the process of crystallization and clarification will cost her much valuable energy. It will make her poor and cause her to become the Church of the meek . . . The process will be long and wearisome as was the road from the false progressivism on the eve of the French Revolution — when a bishop might be thought smart if he made fun of dogmas and even insinuated that the existence of God was by no means certain . . . But when the trial of this sifting is past, a great power will flow from a more spiritualized and simplified Church. Men in a totally planned world will find themselves unspeakably lonely. If they have completely lost sight of God, they will feel the whole horror of their poverty. Then they will discover the little flock of believers as something wholly new. They will discover it as a hope that is meant for them, an answer for which they have always been searching in secret.

And so it seems certain to me that the Church is facing.......read MORE on above link

[Guest]

Bit of an update.  My son is here for a few weeks from another state.  He is doing those jobs for me I have had to let go.  Apparently I have sciatica and bursitis, which is terribly painful with any sort of pressure on my left leg or hip.  It does restrict further the ability to even walk.  Next Wednesday, I am having an ultrasound-guided cortisone injection into my left hip hopefully to deal with the bursitis pain.  I am on osteopanadol, Lyrica and palexia painkillers at the moment and hopefully the cortisone injection will mean I can come off some of these painkillers.

Currently, the pain I do receive is causing stress and therefore bipolar is very restless - but so far, so good and an actual episode has been avoided with the help of my psychiatrist abd related medication.

It has been wonderful to have my son here for a while.   For the next few days he is catching up with his Dad and then his mates some of whom still reside in South Australia - most all go back to his days as a student at Blackfriars Dominican Boys' College.  My son's wife has not been able to come here with him, she is babysitting a sick cat.  She should be able to come over with him next visit, hopfully later this year. 

Deo Gratius, Laudate Dominum

 

                                       

   

 

[cruciatacara]

4 hours ago, BarbaraTherese said:

Bit of an update.  My son is here for a few weeks from another state.  He is doing those jobs for me I have had to let go.  Apparently I have sciatica and bursitis, which is terribly painful with any sort of pressure on my left leg or hip.  It does restrict further the ability to even walk.  Next Wednesday, I am having an ultrasound-guided cortisone injection into my left hip hopefully to deal with the bursitis pain.  I am on osteopanadol, Lyrica and palexia painkillers at the moment and hopefully the cortisone injection will mean I can come off some of these painkillers.

Currently, the pain I do receive is causing stress and therefore bipolar is very restless - but so far, so good and an actual episode has been avoided with the help of my psychiatrist abd related medication.

It has been wonderful to have my son here for a while.   For the next few days he is catching up with his Dad and then his mates some of whom still reside in South Australia - most all go back to his days as a student at Blackfriars Dominican Boys' College.  My son's wife has not been able to come here with him, she is babysitting a sick cat.  She should be able to come over with him next visit, hopfully later this year. 

Deo Gratius, Laudate Dominum          

   

 

Keep an eye on your teeth if you are taking Lyrica as it causes dry mouth and can lead to tooth decay.

Glad you have some company in your son and that he can help you out with things around the house.

As you say, we all suffer pain, and we can't always control that, but also dealing with mental health problems is extra challenging so it is good that you have some mental health specialists to offer support.

Be kind to yourself.

 

[Pax17]

Sciatica and bursitis...I've been there.  Both are very painful.  I hope the cortisone injection brings relief.  The shots didn't do much for me, so I have to rely on physical therapy exercises.

So nice to read your son is visiting and is helping out a bit.

 

[Guest]

Hi Pax........and thank you for the post. I am having problems with the cortisone shot too.  It is now a week since the injection and most days I am in near on agony finding it difficult to impossible to walk, but then I can have a day, or hours, when I am almost free of pain. Weird!  I guess it is wait and see type of experience.  I hope that physical therapy exercises are helping you out!  Sciatica and bursitis is no picnic for sure.

Yes, my son here has really helped me out a lot.  He was able to catch up with mates here and this made the trip doubly rewarding for him. He has transformed the pergola into a little touch of paradise - and he has installed an automatic watering system, meaning I do not need to be concerned about watering.  Later this year, all being well at home, both he and my daughter in law will be returning, in hope.

I have lost all inclination to write at any time, even my diary. Pain can do all sorts of things to a human being.  I know I will get there with quite an amount of confidence - much thankfulness again, without knowing at all my destination, but I know I will know it.........I think............but only when I get there   I watch a lot of Netflix and this keeps my mind off myself largely...........it is simply an escape and I am quite conscious of this without taking myself to task.  I embrace all my numerous weaknesses and thankfully offer them to The Lord for transformation, if it is His Will.  When I remember to do so, that is! If it is not His Will, then it is a suffering and of great spiritual value - or so I have read without any inclination at all to invest in spiritual value.   Whatever keeps me going without obviously hurting self or others, is my way, my path just now.  Faith in the will is still very strong with much, frequent, thanksgiving and praise, as all my 'holy feelings', supports, even motivations, of a kind, have gone south too.  Where on earth would I be without the totally unearned Gift of Faith!!!

It is really good to  'talk' with you again, Pax.  
Thank you for staying with me in this thread especially.

Warm regards............Barb

 

Faith to me is more than belief - it is a step beyond and to know........without feeling a jolly thing.  Nothing at all.  It is not, to me, an art implying some level of human action.  Rather Faith is simply there without  any effort whatsoever.  It is simply  there.