Private Vows in The Laity/Spirituality

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Saint Clement of Rome, Pope from about 90 to 100
Letter to the Corinthians, § 7-13 (trans. Edgar J. Goodspeed, 1950)

http://dailygospel.org/main.php?language=AM&module=commentary&localdate=20160822

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“Return to me with all your heart” (Jl 2,12)

 

      Let us survey all generations and learn that in generation after generation the Master has offered those who wished to turn to him an opportunity to repent. Noah preached repentance and those who obeyed were saved. Jonah warned the men of Nineveh of destruction, but they repented of their sins and besought God and were forgiven and saved, although they were aliens from God…

      Wishing to give all his beloved a share in his repentance, he has established it by his omnipotent decree. Let us therefore obey his magnificent and glorious desire and, as suppliants of his mercy and goodness, let us fall before him and return to his compassion, forsaking labor that is in vain and strife and jealousy that lead to death….

      So let us be humble-minded, brethren, and put aside all pretentions and conceit and folly and anger… With this command and these orders of our Lord Jesus let us strengthen one another that we may live in obedience to his holy words in humble-mindedness. For the holy word says: “This is the one whom I approve: the lowly and afflicted person who trembles at my word,” (Is 66:2).

 

 

 

 

Edited August 22, 2016 by BarbaraTherese

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My foster son and his wife called by today.  My fridge had broken down and my washing machine had been long playing up.  They have bought me new ones !!!!   After that they took me to lunch.  Am I blest or am I not !!!  I am still flabbergasted at their thoughtfulness and generosity.

My foster son is now coming up 53yrs of age and I began fostering him at 8yrs old.  His very early years were traumatic and horrible.........but his life now is a real credit to him and God has blest Him with a lovely wife and a spirit of kindness, thoughtfulness and generosity, shared by his wife.  A son and daughter in law to be proud about as I am.

God is always praised through all that choose to be channels of His Goodness and Generosity.  His Humility shines and is praised too in that He as origin sort of hides behind the goodness, kindness and thoughtfulness of others, quite content that they might reap the praise and gratitude and He delights that they do.

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https://www.youtube.com/embed/cH_LLGiE0f0

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Daily Gospel.org - Reflection Tue 23rd August 2016

Tuesday of the Twenty-first week in Ordinary Time

Commentary of the day
Saint Peter Damian (1007-1072), hermit then Bishop, Doctor of the Church
Opuscule 51 ; PL 145, 749f (Migne 1992, p. 125 rev.)

 

"You have neglected the weightier things of the Law: judgment and mercy and fidelity"

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         If you want to make your way along the road of true religion, doing the right thing with discretion and profit, then you need to be austere and hard with yourself but always appear happy and open with others, striving in your own heart to walk along the heights of uprightness while knowing how to stoop kindly towards those who are weak. In short, you should moderate the rigors of justice before the judgment of your conscience in such a way that you are not hard on sinners but open to forgiveness and indulgent…

Consider your own sin to be dangerous and mortal; that of others, the weakness of the human condition. The fault that, in your own case, you consider worthy of severe correction, think of as only deserving a light tap of the stick in others. Don’t be more just than the just! Fear to sin but don’t hesitate to forgive the sinner. True justice is not that which throws the souls of the brethren into the pit of despair… How dangerous is the fire that, in burning up the bushes, threatens to consume the whole house with the fierceness of its flames. No, someone who willingly picks their way through other people’s failings will not avoid sin since, even if moved by the zeal for justice, sooner or later that person will fall into disparagement.

Clearly, if our own life didn’t seem so successful to us, then that of others wouldn’t seem to us so shocking. And if, as should be the case, we were severe as judges of ourselves, the faults of others would not find in us such exacting censors.

 

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Dearest Holy Mother, Most Holy Mary, you undo the knots that suffocate your children, extend your merciful hands to me. I entrust to You today this knot....and all the negative consequences that it provokes in my life. I give you this knot that torments me and makes me unhappy and so impedes me from uniting myself to You and Your Son Jesus, my Savior.
I run to You, Mary, Undoer of Knots because I trust you and I know that you never despise a sinning child who comes to ask you for help. I believe that you can undo this knot because Jesus grants you everything. I believe that you want to undo this knot because you are my Mother. I believe that You will do this because you love me with eternal love.

Thank you, Dear Mother.

Mary, Undoer of Knots, pray for me.

The one who seeks grace, finds it in Mary's hands.

 

 

Edited August 23, 2016 by BarbaraTherese

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It is quite obvious from what is happening in Australia that probably the majority of Islamic immigrants interpret the Koran peacefully without a call for violent oppression.  While there is a minority probably who turn to the Koran to justify violence.  It indeed seems wrongful to me to generalise and call it "Islamic violence", which seems to indicate that all professing the Moslem faith beliefs are violent or inclined that way.  They are not.

If we do insist that all of Islam is violent calling for violent oppression then we are certainly not unifying, nor accurate in fact assessment, rather we are contributing to the breakup of our communities, to dividing and in (possibly violent) opposition to each other.  We are spreading inaccuracies. We are probably even contributing to violence and radicalisation of our Moslem immigrants. especially perhaps the young. Many young Moslems here in Australia do struggle to find a place in our society.

We have the same different interpretations of The Bible and Christian beliefs even in our own day.  We do have neo-nazis and the KKK as two violent groups I can think of who do claim Christianity.  These groups might not be particularly strong and effective at this point, but to dismiss them as totally ineffective could be making the same mistake we made in the early years of Hitler and Nazism (also claiming Christianity) and the National Socialist movement. Just as we loudly deny that any such violent groups are indeed Christian, so Islam denies that ISIS and the like are Islamic and 'hands on' evidence/ personal experience affirms that indeed not all Moslems are violent nor inclined that way at all.

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It is unity that is dearest and closest to the Heart of Jesus in His Prayer at The Last Supper: "And now I will no longer be in the world, but they are in the world, while I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are." John Chapter 17

The Prayer of Jesus is not justification to seek unity at any cost, rather it is to seek unity based on truth.  Unity is our objective and the path we take to unity must be the path of truth always.

 

 

Iranian religious leader applauds Pope over Islam stance

Published: 24 August 2016 - CathNews

"Ayatollah Shirazi prayed for the success of the Pope “in spreading kindness, peace and spirituality in the world.”

Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi

One of the top religious leaders in Iran has told Pope Francis he is delighted that the head of the "Catholic world" has been quick to separate terrorists, and those who support terror groups like Islamic State, from practising Muslims, reports The Tablet.

Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi of Qom also stressed that it is necessary for religious leaders to adopt clear stances when it comes to accusing religions of violence. Read entire text HERE

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@bernadette d posted this into Open Mic last Saturday here.  It spoke to me. I thought it more than worth repeating here:

 

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Over the last few days, I have been mainly occupied with ironing.  My one client returned from holidays and delivered a huge load of ironing to be done.  It keeps me out of mischief and adds a few dollars to the age pension.  Between times are prayer, reading, researching, housework and garden - at times watching something or other interesting on FoxtelGo.  I also managed to email out the Minutes of our last St Vincent de Paul meeting.  Later today, I plan to go to the shops.  This takes it out of me as it is a lengthy, slightly uphill, grind for me, while of course downhill on the way home when the legs almost move without effort at all.

I must make a few phonecalls to make today to stay in touch - while I am hoping to keep next week relatively free with the following week a busy one again, including an ironing load. I am hoping in the latter week to catch up with some visiting too.

I love the way the Little Offices end with "Let us praise The Lord" - it reminds me that all I do, think and say after that acclamation is dedicated to Him............and He is so overwhelmingly humble to accept with Joy all small and most imperfect offerings.

Let us praise The Lord

 

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I am a great fan of St Therese of Lisieux.  I have been reading an article on her life by a Carmelite priest (will post at a later point) - and it set me to pondering over a coffee (and smoke) under my pergola on a beautiful late winter sunny afternoon.  St Therese considered herself just a little flower in the garden of Jesus.  I am no St Therese for absolutely sure nothing of her ilk in so many ways and yet have long been drawn to her and her Little Way and probably more to her Little Way than St Therese per se. I needed to find something much lower even than a little flower.  Something that would speak to me and my own heart......my life and my vocation as it seems to be unfolding nowadays.

And so I pondered the point contemplating my own little pergola garden and its environs...........

What is lower than the smallest and most nondescript flower in a garden? It is the soil from which the mighty oak sprouts as does the most beautiful as well as the smallest and most ordinary of flowers.  Nothing can grow in a garden without soil.  It is tilled (sacrifices) and it is fertilized (prayer) - and it is all done with love which is the heartbeat of The Gospel and The Church. Love is the heartbeat of Heaven and of the Communion of Saints.  It is the heartbeat of all vocations without exception.  Nothing will grow to its intended best without good soil. 

Dirt is dead soil, but with tender loving care, it can be revitalised into good soil.   The thing about soil and dirt is that they are both basically the same, while the latter is unwell - not functioning at its intended best.  I am a mixture of both.

Et ego pulvis

Laudemus Dominum

Edited August 26, 2016 by BarbaraTherese

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The Way of Perfection, by Teresa of Avila (1515-1582)

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"Keep this in mind, for it is very important advice, so do not neglect it until you find you have such a fixed determination not to offend the Lord that you would rather lose a thousand lives and be persecuted by the whole world, than commit one mortal sin, and until you are most careful not to commit venial sins. I am referring now to sins committed knowingly: as far as those of the other kind are concerned, who can fail to commit them frequently?

But it is one thing to commit a sin knowingly and after long deliberation, and quite another to do it so suddenly that the knowledge of its being a venial sin and its commission are one and the same thing, and we hardly realize what we have done, although we do to some extent realize it. From any sin, however small, committed with full knowledge, may God deliver us, especially since we are sinning against so great a Sovereign and realizing that He is watching us!

That seems to me to be a sin committed of malice aforethought; it is as though one were to say: "Lord, although this displeases Thee, I shall do it. I know that Thou seest it and I know that Thou wouldst not have me do it; but, though I understand this, I would rather follow my own whim and desire than Thy will."

If we commit a sin in this way, however slight, it seems to me that our offence is not small but very, very great."

 

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The article on St Therese and her Little Way I mentioned previously:

The Daily Life of St Therese (Part One): http://carmelnet.org/larkin/larkin043.pdf (4.75 A4 pages - two column)

The Daily Life of St Therese (Part Two): http://carmelnet.org/larkin/larkin044.pdf (3.5 A4 pages - two column)

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"All God asks is that we live in the truth,

recognizing our indebtedness and God's loving kindness;

the rest is simply acting out this new life as God leads"

"My desires for martyrdom are nothing; they are not what give me the unlimited confidence that I feel in my heart. They are, to tell the truth,the spiritual riches that render one unjust, when one rests in them with complacence...

Ah! I really feel that it is not this at all that pleases God in my little soul; what pleases him is he sees me loving my littleness and poverty, the blind hope that I have in his mercy.

 

The environment for St Therese's path to holiness was as a nun in a Carmelite monastery - for many of us our environment and path to holiness is all the circumstances of our daily life in the laity - our duties, all the people with whom we might live or come across, our environment.  St Therese was called by vocation to Carmel as a religious, while for most of us probably, we are called by vocation to a quite commonplace and most ordinary life in the laity.  The Little Way and St Therese speaks to both vocations and can be lived out equally in both.  The Little Way of St Therese can be lived out in any vocation but perhaps the more ordinary and commonplace the way of life, the better - but not of necessity.

I think one needs to use creative imagination and adapt, innovate.......using the tools St Therese with her Little Way has given to us, her creative genius if you like, and applying them to our own particular way of life, our personal circumstances as they unfold.

I think this might probably apply to most all reading of the saints and perhaps especially the classics. 

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Daily Reflection - St Vincent de Paul Society

Daily Reflection – August 26

 

…”we must give them a life worthy of the name.” – St. Vincent de Paul – (The poor need so much more than food and clothing. Dignity and self esteem are much harder to nurture but are nonetheless essential in breaking the circle of poverty.)

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PURPOSE IN FULFILLING ALL OTHER DEVOTIONS

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http://www.therealpresence.org/eucharst/vat/vere_2.htm  (4 only A4 Pages in Word)

"In short, as Catholics we derive our spiritual strength principally from the Eucharist. Moreover, our purpose in fulfilling all other devotions is to draw closer to Christ's Real Presence in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist."

Excerpt only "Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium: "Each must share frequently in the sacraments, the Eucharist especially, and in liturgical rites. Each must apply himself constantly to prayer, self-denial, active brotherly service, and the exercise of all virtues.

For charity, as the bond of perfection and the fulfillment of the law (cf. Col. 3:14; Rom. 13:10), rules over all the means of attaining holiness, gives life to them, and makes them work." [paragraph 42]  More on above link

 

 

 

 

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St Vincent de Paul quotation:  “Humility is nothing but truth, and pride is nothing but lying.” here