Private Vows in The Laity/Spirituality

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In fact, sometimes you find yourself in the center of God’s Will in a very dark place just as much as you do when you find yourself in a good place.............

Joseph was in the center of God’s Will in the prison cell just as much as he was when he was sitting on the throne right next to pharaoh.

Abraham’s wife Sarah was in the center of God’s Will being barren most of her life just as much as when she finally had little Isaac in her arms to carry.

David was in the center of God’s Will being chased by his crazy father-in-law and king Saul just as much as when he was finally ruling as Israel’s greatest king.

And you are in the center or God’s Will

just as much in the hard times as you are in the easy times.

https://daughterbydesign.wordpress.com/2012/09/11/and-it-all-came-crashing-down/faith-is-praising-god-in-the-storm/

Doctrine of Divine Providence

Catholic Catechism:

http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p1s2c1p4.htm 313 "We know that in everything God works for good for those who love him."180 The constant witness of the saints confirms this truth:

• St. Catherine of Siena said to "those who are scandalized and rebel against what happens to them": "Everything comes from love, all is ordained for the salvation of man, God does nothing without this goal in mind."181
• St. Thomas More, shortly before his martyrdom, consoled his daughter: "Nothing can come but that that God wills. And I make me very sure that whatsoever that be, seem it never so bad in sight, it shall indeed be the best."182
• Dame Julian of Norwich: "Here I was taught by the grace of God that I should steadfastly keep me in the faith. . . and that at the same time I should take my stand on and earnestly believe in what our Lord shewed in this time - that 'all manner [of] thing shall be well.'"183

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Joy does not simply happen to us. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day. It is a choice based on the knowledge that we belong to God and have found in God our refuge and our safety and that nothing, not even death, can take God away from us.

- Henri Nouwen

 

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Saint Augustine (354-430), Bishop of Hippo (North Africa) and Doctor of the Church

"Lord, I am not worthy"

When the gospel was read, we heard Jesus praise our faith in an act of humility. When the Lord Jesus, you remember, promised he would go to the centurion's house to heal his servant, the man replied, “I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word, and he will be healed”. By calling himself unworthy, he showed he was worthy to have Christ enter, not within his walls, but within his heart...

There would, after all, have been no great benefit if the Lord Jesus had entered within his walls, and had not been in his bosom. Christ, the teacher of humility by both word and example had, you may remember, sat down in the house of a certain proud Pharisee called Simon (Lc 7,36f.). And though he was sitting in his house, there wasn't anywhere in his heart where the Son of man might lay his head (Lk 9,58)... But into this centurion's house he never entered, yet he took possession of his heart...

So this man's faith is discerned and praised in an act of humility. He said, “I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof” and the Lord said, “Amen I tell you, I have not found such great faith in Israel”... The Lord had come to Israel according to the flesh, that is to the Jews, there first to seek the sheep that were lost (Lk 15,4)... We, as human beings, can assess the faith of human beings - from the outside; he, who could look inside, whom no one could deceive, bore witness to the faith of this man, and on hearing his humble words, he gave him a clean bill of health. (From DailyGospel.org)

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422. What is justification?

Justification is the most excellent work of God's love. It is the merciful and freely-given act of God which takes away our sins and makes us just and holy in our whole being. It is brought about by means of the grace of the Holy Spirit which has been merited for us by the passion of Christ and is given to us in Baptism. Justification is the beginning of the free response of man, that is, faith in Christ and of cooperation with the grace of the Holy Spirit.

Further reading: CCC 1987-1995, 2017-2020


423. What is the grace that justifies?

That grace is the gratuitous gift that God gives us to make us participants in his trinitarian life and able to act by his love. It is called habitual, sanctifying or deifying grace because it sanctifies and divinizes us. It is supernatural because it depends entirely on God's gratuitous initiative and surpasses the abilities of the intellect and the powers of human beings. It therefore escapes our experience.

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This story is a reminder that we can create a fairer world when we take action persistently, and collectively.

We made this video to celebrate the news and highlight the practical difference this emergency aid will make in people's lives.

Watch and share the video with your networks on Facebook here.

Thanks for all you do. 

Tony, Nicole, Jody, and the whole team at Campaign for Australian Aid

https://australianaid.org/

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Daily Reflection - St Vincent de Paul Society (FAMVIN)

Daily Reflection – September 18

 

“The greater my unworthiness, the more abundant is His mercy.”
– St. Elizabeth Ann Seton

 

 

 

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Message of the Day - A Daily Spiritual Seed

If God’s incomprehensibility does not grip us in a word,
if it does not draw us into his super luminous darkness,
if it does not call us out of the little house of our homely, close-hugged truths…we have misunderstood the truths of Christianity.
- Karl Rahner

Shalom Place - Dominican Sisters of Peace

 

 

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 Saint Basil (c.330-379), monk and Bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia, Doctor of the Church
Prologue to the Great Rules
 

God is calling us unwearyingly to repentance

My brethren, don't let us remain in carelessness and ease or lightly put off for tomorrow, or even later, a start to our work. “Now is the favorable time,” the apostle Paul says, “this is the day of salvation” (2Cor 6:2). The present moment is the time for repentance, later on will be that of reward; now is the time of perseverance, our day of comforting is yet to come. Now God is helping those who turn away from evil, later he will judge our deeds and words and thoughts. Today we are profiting from his patience; at the resurrection, when each of us receives according to our deeds, we shall know the justice of his judgments.

Oh, how much longer will we hold back from obeying Christ, who calls us into his heavenly Kingdom? Are we not going to purify ourselves? Won't we firmly decide to forsake our customary way of life so as to follow the Gospel to the end?

Daily Reflection - St Vincent de Paul Society (FAMVIN)

Daily Reflection – September 19

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“We must know how to wait with patience and to expect more from God than from men.”
– St. Vincent de Paul

 

 

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Keep alive within you and bring under wise control that courage which makes you long to undertake great works, which others might consider it folly to attempt.
- Mary Euphrasia Pelletier, Embrace the World    

                                                       (Short biography http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=869)

 

 

 

 

 

Benedict XVI, pope from 2005 to 2013
General audience of 30/08/06 (copyright ©Libreria Editrice Vaticana)
 

Saint Matthew: repentant sinner, apostle, evangelist

 

"He rose and followed him". The brevity of the sentence clearly highlights Matthew's readiness inresponding to the call. For him it meant leaving everything, especially what guaranteed him a reliable source of income, even if it was often unfair and dishonourable. Evidently, Matthew understood that familiarity with Jesus did not permit him to pursue activities of which God disapproved. The application to the present day is easy to see: it is not permissible today either to be attached to things that are incompatible with the following of Jesus, as is the case with riches dishonestly achieved. Jesus once said, mincing no words: "If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me" (Mt 19: 21). This is exactly what Matthew did: he rose and followed him! In this "he rose", it is legitimate to read detachment from a sinful situation and at the same time, a conscious attachment to a new, upright life in communion with Jesus.

Lastly, let us remember that the tradition of the ancient Church agrees in attributing to Matthew the paternity of the First Gospel. This had already begun with Bishop Papias of Hierapolis in Frisia, in about the year 130. He writes: "Matthew set down the words (of the Lord) in the Hebrew tongue and everyone interpreted them as best he could" (in Eusebius of Cesarea, Hist. Eccl. III, 39, 16). Eusebius, the historian, adds this piece of information: "When Matthew, who had first preached among the Jews, decided also to reach out to other peoples, he wrote down the Gospel he preached in his mother tongue; thus, he sought to put in writing, for those whom he was leaving, what they would be losing with his departure" (ibid., III, 24, 6). The Gospel of Matthew written in Hebrew or Aramaic is no longer extant, but in the Greek Gospel that we possess we still continue to hear, in a certain way, the persuasive voice of the publican Matthew, who, having become an Apostle, continues to proclaim God's saving mercy to us. And let us listen to St Matthew's message, meditating upon it ever anew also to learn to stand up and follow Jesus with determination.

From DailyGospel.org

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How to Trust God

http://catholicexchange.com/how-to-trust-god?mc_cid=7ebbba2da0&mc_eid=365c5a299b

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Let None Despair

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Anonymous 9th century author in present-day Italy
Homily for Septuagesima, 4-7

"Let no one despair because of the greatness of his sins and say: “The sins in which I persevered until old age and even extreme old age are many; now I will no longer be able to obtain forgiveness, above all since it is the sins that have left me, not I who have rejected them.” May that person absolutely not despair of divine mercy, for some are called to God’s vineyard at the first hour, others at the third, others at the sixth, others at the ninth, others at the eleventh. That is to say that some are led to God’s service when they are children, others when they are adolescents, others in their youth, others in old age, others in extreme old age.

Thus let no one despair, regardless of how old he is, if he wants to turn back to God… Work faithfully in the Church’s vineyard to receive the salary of eternal happiness and to reign with Christ forever and ever."

From DailyGospel.org

 

 

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