Private Vows in The Laity/Spirituality

[BarbTherese]

Thank The Lord that ADELAIDE CHANNEL 10 NEWS AT 5PM IN ADELAIDE has pulled up their journalistic socks. 

Well done Channel 10.

x and X have set up an excellent work-space for me including huge computer screen and a separate huge television, my large L shaped desk with large back executive=type swivel office chair.    It's a sort of office area in a corner of my family room converted by me from a dining room, which is now a smaller dining room area.  The original was far too big anyway for a dining room anyway - but the original large dining room did come in handy for seating for my Home Mass to renew Private Vows.  Relatives and friends attended, some of them anyway (those very close to me), about 20 or 25 or so in all.  After The Mass, two of my family members heated (part of the supper), served and waitered for a light supper.  My then priest and religious confessor and spiritual director has now passed away while on holidays with his family.  Two Carmelite nuns also attended my Home Mass - go to commencement of this thread to read that section of my journey.  When I started this thread, I had no idea at all the direction this thread and my journey would subsequently take.  My  whole life came slowly into perspective, understanding......and now continues along that trajectory......

Every night at 5pm I watch Adelaide Channel 10 News.  Then TV goes off until 6.30pm when I watch SBS CHANNEL 3 for the international news.  After that TV goes off for the rest of the night usually.  Bed time for me is anytime from midnight to 2am, always followed by 7.5 hours sleep straight without waking.  On waking a rush for the toilet - then my Morning Medication without fail, my physical self is hooked on it after all these years and I do not want to go into withdrawals.  No thanks, pas de tout.

I do like Channel 33, the cooking channel, especially when Simon and Maggie are featured - "Cook and the Chef" I think it is called.

Every Monday most often I am at the Greenacres Shopping Centre to get among people i.e. to "watch the river flow" i.e. people walking by and around, plus a few other reasons  - usually after 1pm I am there sitting in the mall table on my wheelchair, with my carer sitting with two good legs beside me.

                                          

 

 

 

 Channel SBS 3 News is a great station, along with Al Jazeera (al jazeera.com I think - YEP! https://www.aljazeera.com/).

The following album was among my brother's (dec'd at 29 years of age) record collection and is BEAUTIFUL :

 

 

Dont ignore musical interludes of Dylan - he always has something to convey, if you "have ears to hear".................

Bob Dylan lyrics https://www.bobdylan.com/songs/man-peace/

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[BarbTherese]

It is Monday, 22nd August 2022, here in Adelaide South Australia; therefore it is the Memorial of The Queenship of Mary, Queen of Heaven and Earth, including of course, Queen of The Angels.

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https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/queenship-of-mary-343

Pope Pius XII in the Papal Encyclical Ad Coeli: Reginam https://www.vatican.va/content/pius-xii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_11101954_ad-caeli-reginam.html

 

 

       

[BarbTherese]

 

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Dave Allen is 3-4 years of age:....................

 

[BarbTherese]

We call it the Good News and very often it can come across as anything but Good News i.e. it is not what you say, but the way you say it.  A psychiatrist once said to me that I had good insight into my brand of bipolar and that my sense of humour rescues me more often than I realize.  When I am stressed out nowadays, watching my favourite stand up comedians or, indeed, writing, can relieve the stress, lower it to a manageable level......in hope.

Let us "live our own vocation joyfully" and walk the talk.  Or do I take myself too seriously, unable to laugh at my own 'sacred cows' nor able to laugh at myself?

Fr. Martin tells the story of a visiting Jesuit Provincial bemoaning that there was so many elderly Jesuits in the Province, there was a problem of space and where to put them.  With that an elderly Jesuit stood up and said "Father, we are dying as fast as we can."

Some of my Posts are not for children, the underage.  Largely it might be content and/or swear words in the content. I am hoping that if they are too much, I will be advised of such via PM, or into this thread, whatever.  It is difficult for me to know, no longer having young children myself.  My youngest is now 56 almost. Today, the young ones do know far more than my generation ever did as children.

I do know that some Catholics do challenge Fr James Martin - I am hoping that the "baby is not chucked out with the bathwater".  I will be posting too perhaps quotes from Thomas Merton, even videos by Fr Anthony de Mello and equally hope, no baby out with bathwater.

It is music that has kept me on the road, hands on the wheel, eyes on the road, in my own journey - when seemingly nothing at all would in a human type of sense, been supportive i.e. keep me on the journey.  For as long as I can recall anyway, I have been a person of prayer with an ardent love of The Mass and Holy Communion, The Sacraments, Scripture.  Perhaps not always consolation per se in a certain sense; nevertheless, always loved.

If all that does not make sense, can't help that.  It has been/is the truth to me of my experience(s).  Fr Martin, in the video below has things to say about honesty in relationships.  I don't find it easy to wear a mask, and not on the internet either. Don't miss either, Father pointing out that the parables for example, some of them, would have struck the hearers in first century Palestine, the times of Jesus, as funny and why they would have been funny in the times of Jesus.

Don't miss Father's teaching jokes either, with quite a few laughs about Jesuits, of whom he is one.

In my previous suburb, I won quite a few over with a funny story about Mary's Gate in the rear of Heaven.  Not at all a true story, but the theology is not wrong. 

 

 

[BarbTherese]

 

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Congratulations to our Police Force again.  Record bust of drugs - cocaine - in South Australia by Organized Crime, Federal Police and the Border Patrol  Cocaine in record SA drug bust

Jolly good news.  But dreadful day for those hooked on cocaine - exceedingly bad news for them.

It all makes me wonder.

https://indaily.com.au/news/2022/04/01/video-police-seize-400kg-of-cocaine-in-record-sa-drug-bust/

[BarbTherese]

 

[BarbTherese]

 His trademark catch cry was: "Cheerful! Cheerful!" I recently posted from Catholic Education Resource Centre website on St Philip Neri into OPEN MIC: HERE

[BarbTherese]

 

 

                          

.............like posting off the subject, and descending in a nasty way to personal attacks, I guess...... i.e. sometimes triggering internet/pham bunfights......

 

“I get tired of playing a guy who gets into a fight, then starts singing to the guy he’s just beat up.”   (Elvis Presley)   (to quote Led Zeppelin and Stairway to Heaven HERE "does ANYONE remember laughter?"   I am laughing with Elvis, not at him.   In other words, healthy Joyful laughter.  Ya kno, the kind of laughter Ol Nik hates.

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At the end of his 2016 Nobel Lecture in Literature, Bob Dylan quoting Homer: "Sing in me, oh Muse, and through me tell the story."

The Lecture, with text:

 

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Case Western Reserve University "Why Bob Dylan Matters": .................

Very long, 1.17 hours.  I haven't finished it yet, but so far so good - about one third into the video, around there I think:

 

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Dylan is posing a question the hearer must answer for himself or herself:

 

Played at my brother's funeral ...............

 

I really like the following by Simon and Garfunkel:

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I haven't researched if I can watch the series "The Chosen" on Netflix or something similar.........not yet anyway....................

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Non Religious Music

Dhttps://www.ncregister.com/blog/is-it-okay-to-listen-to-non-religious-musico

This is an excellent article full stop, but particularly good to reflect on the evangelising style of St Paul................excerpt only:
"Do not be deceived:

          “Bad company ruins good morals.”

The quotation “Bad company ruins good morals” is from the comic playwright Menander.

Bear in mind that all of these men were pre-Christian pagans, yet Paul did not balk at using elements from their writings.

 

Catholic Answers - Jimmy Aiken, Apologist

 

    

[BarbTherese]

         

[BarbTherese]

 

At times, the lyrics in songs sung by Dylan, can be difficult to understand.  Here is a website of all his songs with lyrics - all in alphabetical order. https://www.bobdylan.com/songs/

The following are releases after Bob Dylan converted to Christianity - and the agonizing journey preceding it - a real Dark Night of many years - contained in music and song by Bob Dylan over his whole career.  I am rather hoping he might write an autobiography, I think he is in his eighties now.  He was always a person seeking for truth.........and at times very much in a The Dark Night.  I wrote to him suggesting he read The Dark Night by St John of The Cross.  To me, TDN is not a never-fall-or-fail 'walk'.  The Dominican nun who taught us told us that it is not what we did, but how long it took us to pick ourselves up, repent and confess if necessary, and then go on as if nothing at all had happened.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A good depiction of a The Dark Night in the following video.  Everything has been abandoned to follow Jesus, with a tremendous feeling or awareness of loss, suffering.  Profound aloneness.  Begging for help from God, met with silence.

Sirach Chapter 2, is too important and not very long, I am posting it in full from The Vatican Bible: 

https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0839/__PM4.HTM
 

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My son, when you come to serve the LORD, prepare yourself for trials. Be sincere of heart and steadfast, undisturbed in time of adversity.  Cling to him, forsake him not; thus will your future be great.

Accept whatever befalls you, in crushing misfortune be patient;  For in fire gold is tested, and worthy men in the crucible of humiliation.

Trust God and he will help you; make straight your ways and hope in him,  You who fear the LORD, wait for his mercy, turn not away lest you fall.  You who fear the LORD, trust him, and your reward will not be lost.  You who fear the LORD, hope for good things, for lasting joy and mercy.

10  Study the generations long past and understand; has anyone hoped in the LORD and been disappointed? Has anyone persevered in his fear and been forsaken? has anyone called upon him and been rebuffed?Compassionate and merciful is the LORD; he forgives sins, he saves in time of trouble.

12 Woe to craven hearts and drooping hands, to the sinner who treads a double path!  Woe to the faint of heart who trust not, who therefore will have no shelter!  Woe to you who have lost hope! what will you do at the visitation of the LORD?

hose who fear the LORD disobey not his words; those who love him keep his ways.  Those who fear the LORD seek to please him, those who love him are filled with his law.

Those who fear the LORD prepare their hearts and humble themselves before him.

Let us fall into the hands of the LORD and not into the hands of men, For equal to his majesty is the mercy that he shows.

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 Serving God is not without its trials (⇒ Sirach 2:1); moreover, it must be done with sincerity, steadfastness and fidelity (⇒ Sirach 2:2-3). Misfortune and humiliation merely purify man and prove his worth (⇒ Sirach 2:4-5). Patience and unwavering trust in God are always rewarded with the benefits of God's mercy and of lasting joy (⇒ Sirach 2:6-11).

2 [12-17] A warning to those who compromise their religion in time of affliction; they fail in courage and trust and therefore have no security (⇒ Sirach 2:12-14). But those who fear the Lord through obedience, reverence, love and humility find his mercy equal to his majesty (⇒ Sirach 2:15-17).
 

 

 

Edited August 24, 2022 by BarbTherese

[BarbTherese]

 

The following struck me as a really good and important interview with two Sisters of Life:

https://www.catholic.com/audio/caf/how-can-we-know-that-god-loves-us

                                        

[BarbTherese]

THE CHOSEN series.  I am hoping to post every Chapter in Season 1 for sure, and then any Seasons after that.  I do not swallow and take on board every word in the video, nor anything I might read or listen to, see.  These seasons are imaginary fill-in type stories based on The Gospels.  It is like the recommendation of the Jesuits to take a scene from the Gospel and put yourself into the scene........in other words exercise your imagination - based on a scene from The Gospel.  Pure imagination based on a Truth.

Enjoy, be enlightened perhaps, take care.  Start with a quick prayer to The Holy Spirit.

Chapter 1, Season 1:

 

[BarbTherese]

Usual caveat always applies............but a very funny video below, sort of like our priests well before Vatican 2 was even remotely thought of nor whispered, when older priests were priests in a certain mould, fashioned by long parish experience as it were and young assistant priests were probably accepted into seminaries not even in their teens and consequently ridiculously green and naïve, idealistic and only parish experience could educate into the parish priest mould.........and all that.......

 

   

[BarbTherese]

                                           THE CHOSEN - EPISODES 2 & 3

The following episode 2 and 3 took me 5 minutes buffering I think it is called before video began.

 

[BarbTherese]

 

 

 I read somewhere that nuns and priests who stayed after Vatican2 had not 'swallowed' the rule book and without sin, took the cracks in the system option i.e. took the ways around the rules wherever possible.  Those who had been and remained "walking rules" left The Church, or opted to not go with the changes coming about through Vatican2 - and those leaving were not only priests and nuns, but Laity as well. .  A "walking rule" in religious life were known to follow the rules to the letter.  It was said if ever the written rules were all lost, the walking rules could rewrite the rule book to the letter.

I had never been a walking rule and remain so today.  But I do recall one funny incident.  Long before my Home Mass, years before, we had a new priest in our parish (in my previous suburb).  The thought occurred to me one day that our new priest had a right  to know who was in parish.  So off I went to Confession.

I went face to face.  I told Father that I had made private vows to the evangelical counsels and that I suffered bipolar disorder.  Father nodded knowingly and happily.  It was after I was cured of scruples, so I launched into confessing only my serious sins over my lifetime (known as a General Confession).  Well as I got into the serious stuff, I noticed that Father's happy smiling face was going shade after shade of pale.  I felt dreadful and felt I had made a very wrong move with our new parish priest.

I wound up having a really good relationship with the new parish priest (more really funny stories between that  General Confession and establishing a happy relationship with him - I had to set him straight about my ID!)  A long time after that GC and going to Father to Confession regularly.  At the time we had only the one pp.  I had made my usual face to face Confession and when I left The Church and it was after a weekday Mass, Father was talking to a couple of ladies i.e. known as pillars of the parish.  As I walked past them to leave the Church foyer, I said to Father "Father, you would have to give me an A for effort, surely).  Father replied:

"And God really loves the A for effort-ers".  I felt like singing on the way home and probably did.

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In the following video, the actual story does not commence until 20.45 mins into the video.  Plus there is 5 mins at the very beginning buffering or whatever it is called.   Adverts are going to drive you nutty!

Story begins at 20.45 mins: