Powerful & Challenging

[BarbTherese]

I found the article in the quotation box below both powerful and challenging - I think the challenge comes in to not hear what Pope Francis has to say and nod my head in complete agreement, without taking up the challenge and striving to live it out.  I don't think this is easy, easy to me is status quo.  When life becomes easy then I start asking myself some serious questions.  And of course, life is ups and it is downs - but easy to me is setting up permanent camp in my comfort zone ----- and may no man dare to budge me.  I read somewhere and I think it might have been Thomas Merton that the one thing we fear deeply is any threat to our sense of personal security.  I mean all this in the context of down to earth common sense.  For example, sometimes we need to focus on security and it is only The Holy Spirit that can guide us into that sensitivity that knows that it is time to move on and take up a challenge outside our comfort zone and sense of security.

The other thing that struck me in the article and elsewhere is Pope Francis's continual emphasis on Joy both in his writings and in his behaviour.  Joy is the first fruit of The Holy Spirit - and my 'philosophy' for myself is that if I start striving to live out the virtues, then I might start striving to live out definitions - and this does have a valuable place and function at times.  But definitions might become my prime focus not their objective - and been there and done that, which is nothing else to me but having my personal sanctification as prime focus (again, a place for this). If I concentrate on the fruits of The Holy Spirit and strive to live them out, then my hope prayerfully is that I just might be inviting the quite often unpredictable Holy Spirit into the centre of my journey.  "Strive" is an important word for me - it means I am trying and not giving up because of failure or failures - nor the nature of their seriousness.

This is where for me The Sacrament of Penance is vital.

 After a good Confession, Jesus also has 'wiped the slate' completely clean and I can begin again.  Jesus not only fully forgives, He fully forgets.

 

Fruits of the Holy Spirit : "The twelve Fruits of the Holy Spirit are charity (or love), joy, peace, patience, benignity (or kindness), goodness, longanimity (or long suffering), mildness, faith, modesty, continency, and chastity." http://catholicism.about.com/od/beliefsteachings/f/FAQ_Fruits_HS.htm

http://thesoutherncrossnews.wordpress.com/2014/07/02/joyful-future-for-parishes-2/
 
Article: "Joyful future for parishes"
 
 

Referring to the Pope’s thinking on the renewal of structures within the Church, Fr Edwards spoke of “openness, flexibility, compassion” and a “sense of going out of ourselves, to be available to people, especially the poor”.
 
He quoted Pope Francis: “I prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security.”
The Pope states in Joy of the Gospel that he does not believe parishes are “out-dated institutions”. However, this is based on the presumption that the Church “really is in contact with the homes and the lives of its people, and does not become a useless structure out of touch with people or a self-absorbed cluster made up of a chosen few”.........
 
..................Again he quoted Pope Francis: “When you are drawn out of yourselves, you are fulfilling your humanity”.............. ..read entire article on above link.