Private Vows in The Laity/Spirituality

[BarbTherese]

I am considering on and off prayerfully writing more about my psychotic experiences and how I dealt with them and the journey of dealing with them and constructively from a perspective of psychiatric theory for one only..........at least after many years of one only very personal psychotic journey.  And personal experience is always limited (even quite unique and one off only) experience somewhere and/or somehow.   At this point, that psychotic journey seem too personal and too close to the inner me in that the tail of that subjective journey remains intact......... and a subjective experience can be assessed by the tail of the experience - or the result of the experience.   If I do write, then my hope would be that such would somehow be helpful/speak to to a reader or readers.

The Gifts and Fruits of The Holy Spirit are:

CCC

1831 (excerpt): The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. They belong in their fullness to Christ, Son of David...............

Let your good spirit lead me on a level path................

 

1832 The fruits of the Spirit are perfections that the Holy Spirit forms in us as the first fruits of eternal glory. The tradition of the Church lists twelve of them: "charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, chastity."

 

Psalm 143 "O Lord, to thee have I fled

- teach me to do thy will, for thou art my God.

Your Good Spirit shall lead me into the right land"

 

.........I feel very real hesitancy in even hitting "submit" to this post.........and if I should post, then to write on my past psychotic experience and dealing with them is simply a thought rather than any sort of commitment to follow through............

 

...........and all that, I guess, is disclaimer...............

 

Edited June 7, 2016 by BarbaraTherese

[BarbTherese]

https://zenit.org/articles/pope-establishes-dicastery-for-laity-family-and-life/

(excerpt)

Pope Establishes Dicastery ‘for Laity, Family and Life’ Posted by ZENIT Staff on 6 June, 2016   On Saturday, it was announced that Pope Francis has taken up a recommendation from this Council of Cardinals, and approved ad experimentum the statute of a new dicastery for the laity, family and life. The new dicastery will merge from 1 September 2016 the existing Pontifical Council for the Laity and the Pontifical Council for the Family. On that date both dicasteries will cease their functions and will be suppressed, following the repeal of articles 131-134 and 139-141 of the apostolic constitution Pastor bonus of 28 June 1988.................. "...............The section for the lay faithful will inspire and encourage the promotion of the vocation and mission of the lay faithful in the Church and in the world, as individuals, married or unmarried, or as members of associations, movements and communities. It will also promote studies to contribute to the doctrinal examination of themes and issues regarding the lay faithful. It will encourage the active and responsible presence of the laity in the advisory organs of governance present in the Church at universal and particular levels; it will evaluate the initiatives of Episcopal Conferences that make requests to the Holy See, in accordance with the needs of the particular Churches, for the institution of new ministries and ecclesiastical offices, and will erect aggregations of faithful and lay movements of an international character and approve or acknowledge statutes without prejudice to the jurisdiction of the Secretary of State."

 

 

[Guest]

During my ill years, I wrote many poems.  My Dad confiscated what he could as he felt I had no respect for what I wrote (I would write just to express myself - and then discard).  My son asked me many years ago to discard nothing that I write and I have kept to my promise.  After my Mum and Dad had passed and the task was to clear out our family home, my poems must have gone into the rubbish - or perhaps somewhere amongst Mum and Dad's retained possessions in my brother's shed.

Sorting through paperwork today working out what to shred and what to keep, I came across this very old poem dated in June 2005 and have opened up a Folder in my Documents for any poetry I might write.  I typed into Word the poem "Who Am I?".  I have no inclination nowadays to write poetry although back in years past it was a cathartic exercise for me.  In writing poetry I could discover in myself that which reflection seemingly would not reveal.  Nowadays, writing has the same effect without the poetry.......to date.

It is interesting that I did find the it. That I had written it came to mind in another context.  I did a quick search but could not find it and thought it must have gone into the rubbish after Mum and Dad had moved ........ although written in 2005, I later realised, means it was written after their deaths.  Hence it is probably retained on the hard drive of my previous computer.

WHO AM I?

 

But for fortune

some twists of fate? Not so...........

but for the past

            unasked

            and unperturbed

 

I am the sum of my experience

            of calm, of sun

some rough high seas

            perhaps some certain unasked gifts

                        earned elsewhere

 

I am but a windmill

shifting in the slightest breeze

South or east

            then north or west

 

words, thoughts, not of any fixed abode

            who spoke yesterday from thought

            but thought travels elsewhere

 

I am but a tapestry, once ended

            put aside

Soon enough forgotten

When the earth takes care of me

            Perhaps today

                        Or then tomorrow

 

I am a charity of constant donations

And ever in need

To some catharsis

To some disease

 

To some a flower

To some but a weed

I am your friend

The best I could ever be

 

I am the windmill

            Constantly turning

            in life’s breeze

            Soon asleep

            And then will die

            Perhaps life is but a dream

            And death awakens me

 

Who am I?

I am dirty and drunk in your gutter

I am unshaven and begging butts

I live one road over

I am adulteress and picking up every deadly stone

            Just to pass the time

I am drugged to create any sort of justly needed heaven

Or justly mad to escape the c r a p and endless hell

I am lowered into any grave at all in time and space

            earthquake, flood, war, famine or disease –

..................or words...................

Convict me anyway and I will justify it

My only gift or non possessing

I am sneered and judged useless

I sit next to you on any bus

            And in every transit and journey

A creature of Creation

Of Life’s endless dance

The vast variety

 

Perhaps I am just a victim

and yet am

            creator of all that I can

            and will ever be

 

I am just another human being

And I am only me

But who are all the others

mercenary

            meretricious

                        mellifluous

Or untarnished and inculpable

All mendicants just like me

Produce of some conceivably disparate paradigm

A call to flower where planted

A call to holiness ever elusive

I am only me planted everywhere

 

Just endless pictures in my mind

 

 

                                                Barb T

                                                Bethany Elizabeth

                                                16.6.05

Edited June 18, 2016 by BarbaraTherese

[Guest]

St. Emily de Vialar, A Revolutionary Survivor 

.....".....a saint to call on when it seems the whole world is ordered against you.........."...........

 

 

Catholic Exchange Article on St Emily de Vialar

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Prayer  (based on Vatican website:  http://www.vatican.va/spirit/documents/spirit_20010227_emilie-de-vialar_en.html )

St. Emily, you who in The Church, wanted to continue to manifest the Father's love, as realised through the Incarnation of the Son,

grant us your docility to the Spirit, your audacity and your apostolic courage. 

 

 

Hidden still is Jesus’ messiahship

Source: famvin.org http://famvin.org/en/2016/06/14/hidden-still-jesus-messiahship/

 

 

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"Jesus is God’s Christ.  His being so remains hidden, however, from those who lack compassion.

Jesus backtracks.  He keeps hidden once again his being the Messiah no sooner than he has revealed it through Peter’s confession of faith.  The Teacher directs his disciples not to speak to anyone of the confession.

One finds the reason for the prohibition in what Jesus says immediately:

The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised.

No, Jesus does not want his disciples to announce that he is the Messiah without their understanding it well.  Better to keep it hidden than to announce it inaccurately.

To hit the mark, the disciples have to know, in the first place, that their Teacher is not the triumphalist messiah that people are expecting.  Every prospective disciple must take seriously, in the second place, what Jesus adds right away:

If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me.

For today’s Christians, the message of the cross is no longer an obstacle or a folly.  In contrast to even the disciples, we take it for granted that our Messiah is none other than the Lord’s Suffering Servant.  We are resolved to know nothing except Jesus Christ crucified and not to boast but in the cross of Jesus Christ.

Yet our ethnocentrism continues unabated as we forget about the reconciliation of people that God brings about through Christ’s cross.  We demonize immigrants and certain religious groups.  We enact laws that make it harder for some sectors of society to exercise their right to vote.  We inch our way back to the times of slaves and freemen, of subjugating men and subjugated women, of the rich man and poor Lazarus.

What kind of Messiah Jesus is still stays hidden from us, too, when we lose sight of the reason for Jesus’ anointing.  He is God’s Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed.  The Lord has anointed him with the Spirit for the mission of bringing the Good News to the poor.  Hence, if we dismiss the poor, we really do not confess Jesus as the Messiah crucified for the poor of all kinds.

To be a Christian and not take pity on the pierced ones, the afflicted, and the marginalized is to be a caricature of a Christian (SV.EN XII:222).  To celebrate the Supper of the Lord and cause division, this is not to see Christ’s face in the face of the poor.

Lord Jesus, grant that we may contemplate and serve you in the person of the poor.

June 19, 2016
12^th Sunday in O.T. (C)
Zech 12, 10-11; Gal 3, 26-29; Lk 9, 18-24 "

 

 

[Guest]

Prior to posting what appears below and today's Gospel, I was conscious that the first person the Gospel and meditation is addressing and pointing towards is me.  I need to primarily take a good look at myself and my own words, thoughts and actions....... and motivations.

I researched St John Climacus http://www.ewtn.com/library/MARY/CLIMACUS.htm and his Ladder of Perfection is available online for download http://www.carmelitepriory.org/ladder-divine-ascent/ (129 Pages download or 165 pages copy and paste into Word)

I looked up Step 10 in the download and it has far more to say than the meditation below.  I have marked "The Ladder of Perfection" (aka "The Ladder of Divine Ascent") for spiritual reading and quick glance at the download tells me it would be helpful.

(I will be writing about developments here in Bethany at some point.  First, I want to ensure that I am indeed taking the path meant for me - not in broad terms of my own private vows, but in the detail of living them out.)

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Monday of the Twelfth week in Ordinary Time - http://dailygospel.org/main.php?language=AM&module=commentary&localdate=20160620

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 7:1-5.
Jesus said to his disciples: "Stop judging, that you may not be judged. For as you judge, so will you be judged, and the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you. Why do you notice the splinter in your brother's eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye?
How can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove that splinter from your eye,' while the wooden beam is in your eye? You hypocrite, remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter from your brother's eye."

Commentary of the day
Saint John Climacus (c.575-c.650), monk on Mount Sinai
The Ladder of Perfection, 10th step

 

"Why do you notice the splinter in your brother's eye?"

I have heard some people speak ill of their neighbour and have rebuked them. To defend themselves, these evildoers have answered: “We are saying these things out of charity and concern for them!” However, I have replied: “Stop practising a charity like that or you will be accusing of deceit the one who said: 'Whoever slanders his neighbour in secret, him will I destroy,' (Ps 101[100],5). If you love him – as you claim – pray for him in secret and don't make a mock of the man. This is the way of loving that pleases the Lord; don't lose sight of it and you will take the greatest care not to judge sinners. Judas was of the number of the apostles and the thief was among the criminals but, in an instant, what an astonishing change!...”

So reply to anyone who speaks evil of his neighbor to you: “Stop, brother! I myself fall into the most serious faults every day; how could I now condemn this man?” Thus you will make a twofold gain: you will heal yourself and heal your neighbor. Not judging is a shortcut towards the forgiveness of sins, if this saying is true: “Do not judge and you will not be judged”... Some people have committed grave faults in the sight of everyone but, in secret, have carried out the greatest acts of virtue. Thus their detractors have been mistaken by focussing only on the smoke without seeing the sun...

Those who are hastily censorious and severe fall into this delusion because they don't keep the memory and constant care of their own sins before them... Judging others is shamelessly to usurp a divine prerogative; condemning them is to bring down our own souls... Just as a good grape-picker eats the grapes that are ripe and does not pick those that are green, so a watchful and sensible soul carefully takes note of all the virtues he sees in others; but it is the stupid man who keeps an eye on their faults and failings.

 

 

Edited June 20, 2016 by BarbaraTherese

[Guest]

No time to go into it now, but I am going to revise my Rule of Life, not to change anything really - only to make it simpler and shorter.  I have been reading up for quite some time on the eremitical life and on hermits including their rules of life, what they include, what they don't generally speaking.  I am not going to apply for consecration under Canon 603 - no intention whatsoever.....but the lifestyle here has evolved into a more contemplative way of life and closer, much closer, to the life of a lay urban hermit I imagine than an apostolic religious type of life with a particular apostolate -  or the type of life I had been living and envisaged for the future when I first wrote the rule.

I am changing my prayer times and making the formal times not as lengthy. As my lifestyle has unfolded, it's intrinsic nature, lengthy formal prayer times don't 'go with the flow' is the only way I can think to put it.  The manner of prayer has now changed.

My physical limitations have really increased due to long standing back injury (car accident) and osteoarthritis - and these have meant that voluntary work asking bus travel must be stuck off 'the list'.  I don't have a vehicle.  I still work voluntary with St Vincent de Paul in my parish (other members kindly give me a lift where necessary).

When I first wrote the Rule of Life for Bethany over 35yrs ago now (and left it on a bus stop and lost it) that Rule fully embraced Divine Providence to dictate the way of life.  The Rule I wrote prior to Home Mass (my SD approved that Rule) also embraced Divine Providence howsoever it unfolded........I did not anticipate as dramatic a change as has taken place.

Other factors exist and at this point I do not know whether they are temporary or fixed and only the unfolding of the days will reveal which.  This does include the reduction of psychiatric medication creating problems with sleep, since my body (brain and perhaps psychology too) has become accustomed to anti-psychotic medication putting me to sleep and keeping me there.  I am having ongoing problems with sleep as medication is reduced.  At the moment my doctor and I are fiddling around with various types of over the counter medication to aid sleep.  A big problem is cost.

If any reader would like to read up on Divine Providence online - and it is a spiritual classic:  http://www.ccel.org/ccel/decaussade/abandonment.html

Abandonment to Divine Providence is also readily available in book form - but ensure the book does include Fr. Jean Pierre's letters at the rear........these are immensely valuable I found personally to really internalise his concepts

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"God is sovereign.
God is in charge of everything, including the little things.
Not a hair falls from our heads without God's divine will.
We must rest in God's grace, as we are totally unable to contribute to our salvation.
What word pops into people's minds when they hear Christians making the above statements? Calvinist. Usually these beliefs are associated with those of the Calvinist persuasion. However, Father de Caussade was a Roman Catholic Priest who taught that God is truly sovereign, and therefore our whole lives can be lived in the knowledge that all things are working for our good. We may not understand why God does things the way he does, or how our suffering can ultimately be for our good, but we can trust our benevolent Lord, who has decreed all things, is good and just. Reading Abandonment to Divine Providence will help the reader surrender to God's will. The result? Spiritual peace in the arms of a loving God."  http://www.ccel.org/ccel/decaussade/abandonment.html  

 The other point that has heavily influenced my own spirituality in a marked manner, is the theology of St Therese and her Little Way - not only her autobiography, but also reputable and sound comment on the theology of the Little Way and St Therese.

Edited June 26, 2016 by BarbaraTherese

[Guest]

Just want to quickly as possible post the following and with a prayer it comes out right.

When one is gifted a vocation to the consecrated life and this always includes acceptance into a certain way of consecrated life as per Canon Law, one embraces the related rule of life as God's Will for oneself and is also embracing obedience to a superior in some way.  I do think that an actual call into consecrated life might be temporary and not for life although it takes very careful discernment including best with spiritual direction prior to change one's state in life from the consecrated.  With a life in the lay state in secular life however, one may or may not write a rule of life for oneself and I have done so leaning very heavily on Divine Providence and with ongoing spiritual direction (priest religious with leadership experience).

Researching into Catholic eremitical life or the lifestyle of a hermit, it seems that those under Canon 603 (eremitical life or consecrated hermits) anyway do revise, or might revise, their personal rule of life from time to time after lived experience with a rule they have written themselves.  That is one aspect I have researched.  The other is abandoning oneself to our Catholic doctrine of Divine Providence as intrinsic to my own personal rule of life (done from the outset) and any revision I might make would always be subject to direction/advice by my own director.

The degree of seriousness with which one might dedicate or quite personally consecrate oneself to a personal rule of life is a personal matter solely between self and God - again always best done with wise and holy, experienced, spiritual direction.  The latter however is NOT essential and the Church has not made (nor has ever made) binding type declarations in the previous matters re a vocation in the laity in secular life.  One is completely free to 'go with the flow' & again, that is the only way I can think of putting things........including the listening to The Holy Spirit in whatever might unfold -  and what direction He may be indicating or not indicating.........always best confirmed with spiritual direction.

In discerning a way of life in the laity in secular life, it is always a very good move, wise too, to read the documents on the laity which The Church does put out for our instruction.......all of us.

I hope the above comes out right.

Any anything at any time in this thread....questions, statements, challenges.......do post!.........most welcome!

[Guest]

I downloaded the other day from Amazon Kindle ($13 apprx) "Henri Nouwen & Spiritual Polarities - A life of Tension" (Will Hernandez) https://www.amazon.com/Henri-Nouwen-Spiritual-Polarities-Tension/dp/0809147416

 

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About the Author

"Will Hernandez, PhD, is a retreat leader, counselor, and spiritual director in private practice. Aside from doing retreats, lectures, seminars and workshops all over the U.S. and abroad, he also teaches courses on the spirituality of Henri Nouwen at various Catholic and Protestant seminaries and universities across the country."  

_____________________________________________

"Format: Paperback

I'm pleased to welcome the release of the third book in Wil Hernandez's trilogy on the life and ministry of Henri Nouwen, titled Henri Nouwen and Spiritual Polarities: A Life of Tension. He writes out of his deep doctoral research on Henri Nouwen. Wil does a masterful job of helping us enter into one of Nouwen's significant contributions, that of being able to hold together dynamics that tend to push many of us into "either/or" thinking. Nouwen was able to live and describe a vital tension between self-owning and self-giving, woundedness and healing, solitude and community, compassion and confrontation, and suffering and glory, to name a few. Rather than choosing a preferred side of this tension, Nouwen (and Wil) invite us into the fruitful embrace at the center of these tensions. I heartily recommend it."

 

 

 

After the above depending on how I go with the above, I have these in mind:

• "Henri Nouwen - A Spirituality of Imperfection" (Will Hernandez)
• "Reaching Out: The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life"  (Henri Nouwen)                       

 

[Guest]

Through The Wormhole Season 4 Episode 8 Is Reality Real  (with Morgan Freeman)

Been watching the above off and on on Foxtel Go.........absolutely fascinating!  (My son and his wife have Foxtel Platinum I think it is -  and has the option free of charge to put FoxtelGo on another computer and they have put it on mine).

Edited June 26, 2016 by BarbaraTherese

[WhoamI]

I haven't posted on here in a long time, but I still have been reading.  Your reflections have been of help to me, as I continue to pray and discern what thd Good Lord is asking of me. 

I can to realize a couple of things over the last little while. One, that the thought of trying to live religious life again kind of terrifies me, because I feel like I have "failed" so spectacularly so many times. This is something that I'm going to need to work through with in prayer and with my spiritual director.

Two, is a little more comforting. This leave of absence is as much a part of my obedience as anything that happened while I was physically in the convent. My superiors asked for it, and I obeyed. That means that I am doing the will of God for ne at this moment, even though it seems like a less perfect thing than remaining in the convent.

Please pray for me. My depression seems to go rearing its ugly head over the last little while. I'm doing what I need to do to get through it, though.

 

[Guest]

16 minutes ago, WhoamI said:

I haven't posted on here in a long time, but I still have been reading.  Your reflections have been of help to me, as I continue to pray and discern what thd Good Lord is asking of me. 

I can to realize a couple of things over the last little while. One, that the thought of trying to live religious life again kind of terrifies me, because I feel like I have "failed" so spectacularly so many times. This is something that I'm going to need to work through with in prayer and with my spiritual director.

Thank you for the post!

My tuppence.....here goes.... and further down too:  Where you might feel that you have "failed", there is an option I think.  You can focus on your sense of failure, or focus and strive for understanding of it, acceptance and growth in  humility.  After all, your current situation has been permitted by God and therefore, in Him, good will come out of it.  Spiritual direction/therapy should be able to help you discern understanding of the past.  (I know you are having spiritual direction) This post just might offer some points not yet discussed to raise with your director.   Sometimes too I think that any sort of failure, might be God closing a door and opening another (spiritual direction).  I think that either a spiritual director or a therapist on the subject  of what "terrifies" you about a return to RL would be again your best approach.  The Holy Spirit rarely speaks in a state of terror.  Because one might have failed thousands of times in the past and spectacular failures to oneself too, does not of necessity indicate the path ahead as repetition of the past (potentially in religious life in your instance), although given failure we humans can become fearful the past will continue to be repeated in the future.  Not necessarily so at all!  God's Grace can work miracles in the most dire of mental states and circumstances...........and we do know, even in situations considered impossible.

Don't make any big decisions while you are in a negative emotional state......which you probably already know.

Two, is a little more comforting. This leave of absence is as much a part of my obedience as anything that happened while I was physically in the convent. My superiors asked for it, and I obeyed. That means that I am doing the will of God for ne at this moment, even though it seems like a less perfect thing than remaining in the convent.

Spot on.  You haven't left religious life at all, you are merely on a leave of absence as part of your RL formation.  Hence your leave of absence is an obedience and pleasing therefore to God.

Please pray for me. My depression seems to go rearing its ugly head over the last little while. I'm doing what I need to do to get through it, though.

Definitely - prayer for the depression and your whole situation ...... depression is cruel in that one most often is viewing all things through murky glasses - and not with clarity at all.  Most everything can seem black with molehills appearing to one as massive mountains.  In depression, reality is distorted in some way and why, to me, depression (severe or mild) is termed a form of mental illness.  I am hoping you might have therapist as well as spiritual direction.

God bless and may He relieve you soon of your suffering.

 

 

[Guest]

Just wanted to add that depression while a form of mental illness is not of necessity lifelong or long term at all.  It can be transitory over a short or long period.  It can present an isolated event in one's life.   It can be mild or severe.  Depression is probably best treated by some form of therapy.  Although a good spiritual director knows what his brief and expertise actually is  - and knows when to advise therapy. 

[Guest]

 

Lots of food for thought in the Readings for Friday 1st July 2016

______________________

Readings for the 1st July 2016

http://dailygospel.org/main.php?language=AM&module=readings&localdate=20160701

 

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In the first Reading today............

Book of Amos 8:4-6.9-12.
Hear this, you who trample upon the needy and destroy the poor of the land!
"When will the new moon be over," you ask, "that we may sell our grain, and the sabbath, that we may display the wheat? We will diminish the ephah, add to the shekel, and fix our scales for cheating!
We will buy the lowly man for silver, and the poor man for a pair of sandals; even the refuse of the wheat we will sell!"
On that day, says the Lord GOD, I will make the sun set at midday and cover the earth with darkness in broad daylight.
I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentations. I will cover the loins of all with sackcloth and make every head bald. I will make them mourn as for an only son, and bring their day to a bitter end..................
 

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.................Yes, days are coming, says the Lord GOD, when I will send famine upon the land: Not a famine of bread, or thirst for water, but for hearing the word of the LORD.
Then shall they wander from sea to sea and rove from the north to the east In search of the word of the LORD, but they shall not find it.

 

The above, from the Book of Amos, reminds me of what Jesus said (Luke Chapter 18) ................

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 'Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him day and night? Will he be slow to answer them? I tell you, he will see to it that justice is done for them speedily. But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?" http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0839/__PX1.HTM

 

 

Gospel for Friday 1st July 2016:

 

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Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 9:9-13.

http://dailygospel.org/main.php?language=AM&module=readings&localdate=20160701
As Jesus passed by, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the customs post. He said to him, "Follow me." And he got up and followed him.
While he was at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat with Jesus and his disciples.
The Pharisees saw this and said to his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?"
He heard this and said, "Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do.
Go and learn the meaning of the words, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' I did not come to call the righteous but sinners."

 

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(For an understaning of "I desire mercy, not sacrifice' by Father Raniero Cantalamessa,Pontifical Household preacher, go to http://www.catholic.org/news/international/europe/story.php?id=28167 

 

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Commentary of the Day (lst July 2016)

John Tauler (c.1300-1361), Dominican
Sermon 64

 

“Matthew got up and followed him.”

      Our Lord told Saint Matthew: “Follow me.” This lovable saint is a model for everyone. He was first of all a great sinner, as the Gospel says, and later, he became one of the great ones among all God’s friends. For Our Lord spoke to him in the depths of his being, and then he left everything in order to follow the Master.

      To follow God in truth – that is everything; and in order to do that, it is necessary to truly and completely leave all that is not God, whatever it might be. God is a lover of hearts. He is not interested in what is external; rather, he wants us to give him a living interior devotedness. That devotedness has in itself more truth than if I said prayers so as to fill the whole world, or if I sang so loud that my song rose up to the highest heaven, more truth than everything I might do externally in fasting, vigils and other practices.  

Commentary of the day
John Tauler (c.1300-1361), Dominican
Sermon 64

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest]

Way of Perfection (St Teresa of Avila) http://www.catholicapologetics.info/library/onlinelibrary/ (Catholic Books Online)

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Excerpt from Chapter 40: ........."..........If they have not much love, they should proceed with many misgivings and realize that they have great cause for fear; and they should try to find out what is wrong with them, say their prayers, walk in humility and beseech the Lord not to lead them into temptation, into which, I fear, they will certainly fall unless they bear this sign. But if they walk humbly and strive to discover the truth and do as their confessor bids them and tell him the plain truth, then the Lord is faithful, and, as has been said, by using the very means with which he had thought to give them death, the devil will give them life, with however many fantasies and illusions he tries to deceive them. If they submit to the teaching of the Church, they need not fear; whatever fantasies and illusions the devil may invent, he will at once betray his presence.

But if you feel this love for God which I have spoken of, and the fear which I shall now describe, you may go on your way with happiness and tranquillity. In order to disturb the soul and keep it from enjoying these great blessings, the devil will suggest to it a thousand false fears and will persuade other people to do the same; for if he cannot win souls he will at least try to make them lose something, and among the losers will be those who might have gained greatly had they believed that such great favours, bestowed upon so miserable a creature, come from God, and that it is possible for them to be thus bestowed, for sometimes we seem to forget His past mercies.

Do you suppose that it is of little use to the devil to suggest these fears? No, it is most useful to him, for there are two well-known ways in which he can make use of this means to harm us, to say nothing of others. First, he can make those who listen to him fearful of engaging in prayer, because they think that they will be deceived. Secondly, he can dissuade many from approaching God who, as I have said, see that He is so good that He will hold intimate converse with sinners. Many such souls think that He will treat them in the same way, and they are right: I myself know certain persons inspired in this way who began the habit of prayer and in a short time became truly devout and received great favours from the Lord.

 

 

My two pence worth: I think that Satan betrays its' presence because the illusions and fantasies, fears, it presents are indeed contrary to what The Church teaches.  Hence, I think If one invests fully in what The Church has to state, one will not be led astray immediately recognising either Satan or one's own (paranoid?) imagination presenting false information.  We all can be led astray by either Satan or one's own imagination and possibly unable to define which nor do I think identifying source always necessary.........hence the safe way to me is what The Church has to say.  If I always need to know the actual source of the ups and downs of life including one's spiritual life, I probably just might drive my SD to drink with his appointment book overloaded.   If one is obedient to The Church at all times, this is the safe path without fail at all times

I do think that a favoured means of Satan is to disturb, disrupt or rob one of Peace of heart, mind and/or soul. It can be for that thing a sort of jumping board to worse difficulties and even to despair.  I keep in mind that Jesus said: "My Peace I give to you" (not might give, will give, shall give, or did give.  Always it is present tense i.e. "give").  As Scripture says "Do good and avoid evil and seek after Peace and pursue it" (Psalm 34).

Edited July 1, 2016 by BarbaraTherese

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http://famvin.org/reflections/daily-reflection-june-28/

Daily Reflection – June 28

“Rash judgments are what Jesus most reproved in the Gospel.”
– St. Vincent de Paul

– "Lord, because I can never know the motives or interior struggles of another person, help me to avoid those thoughtless judgments I so often make about the actions of others. Forgive me for my failures in this regard.'