I wanted to throw this topic out there, I have heard a number of religious say that God's love is enough to substain them. Iam wondering how did they reach that point where God's love is enough....because it seems difficult. Just wanted to know what others think about this

Thanks

Marie, The love of God, is truly a wonderful gift. The way that I feel that I have reached it is through prayer, and through the members of my community. I know that the members of my family are not all that God-fearing Christians that we all are. In my expierence, the members of my community have shown the love of God to me through everyday actions. The ordinary things, done in an extra ordinary way.

Hey Irishsalesian thanks for responding to my post....I thought this was an important topic because so many of us are discerning vocations to the cloister and there may be days when one questions their vocation and others when you are absolutely sure. Gods substaining love may be the only thing one is certain of and when one is in this period of uncertainity of their vocation they must make the leap of faith that this is Gods will. I think that many of us believe that it will be sunshine and happiness everyday when we finally become religious but there will be days of uncertainity to which we must continually say yes, God I choose to make it through the day.

Anyway, not sure if that made any sense but just wanted to put that out there.

prayers

Many saints have had troubles, dryness and temptations thru out thier life.
Look at St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross.

Becoming a Sister, brother, priest or Nun doesn't make the problems of the world go way.
Living the life of a religous is in a way enbracing suffering for the salvation of souls.
It's not an easy life, it's not a cake walk, it's the most difficult thing one can do, yet the rewards are not seen here on the earth but only when we enbrace our Lord in heaven.

Just wich road will you take? the easy one, or the difficult thorn laiden one?
There are two crowns and you can only take one, the gems and gold or the painful thorns?

[quote name='DiscerningSoul' date='Jun 12 2008, 06:09 PM' post='1569936']
Living the life of a religous is in a way enbracing suffering for the salvation of souls.
It's not an easy life, it's not a cake walk,

When we close the physical windows of the cloister, we shut out all the noise and distractions of the outside world. As we enter the interior solitude of the soul, the voices of our own inner demons and distractions
start screaming to be heard. It is there that we do battle, however, we MUST "go within" or "go without".

God's love is needed every day to sustain us all in this life. When we are religious, we think that the difficulty is because we are religious but when we are in a family and experiencing difficulties, then we think it is because we chose family instead of religious life! The fact is that life is hard. We are born into this life separated from God and even though Baptism gives us a rebirth of the spirit and the promise of eternal life, every day we are faced with the choice of God or this world. The closer we try to get to God's Will, the harder it seems to get sometimes, but the greater the rewards as well.

St John of the Cross can be a hard read, but St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross has written a good book about him called The Science of the Cross. St John explains the dark night of the soul so well, and Teresa Benedicta helps make him more understandable. As the soul grows closer to God, the purification becomes stronger, and this can hurt. St John says that many people turn back at this point because it seems too hard. But perseverence leads to a closer union with God and makes it easier to understand how God's love can be enough. The reward for the dark night is The Living Flame of Love - and this one is easy for anyone to understand

The closer one gets to God, the easier it is to fall in love with the Cross, and to understand that as hard as this life can be, all trials only serve to bring us closer into God's embrace. Jesus embraced the Cross because He understood that it was only through the Cross that He would come into God's glory.

If you can, try to glory in difficulties, always asking Jesus to be the strength for your weakness (St Paul). There is no surer way to heaven than through suffering for Him.

"The more we die on the cross the more glorious our resurrection will be. What folly it is to pull away when Our Lord asks for our hand to nail it to the cross. From now on, the more I am crucified, the more I will rejoice." - Saint Bernadette

I don't know if one ever "arrives" at this point. Isn't it really a journey? A daily process of abandonment and surrender?

What a wise woman she was

As redundant as this may seem to be, I think in short religious (and many other of the faithful) reach the point where God's Substaining Love is enough for them through prayer. St. Teresa of Avila explains it beautifully in her book The Interior Castle in the 4th level of the soul by a comparison of prayer to water filling a basin. By experiencing prayer of the quiet (or contemplative prayer) one simply enjoys the Presence and Glory of God, and so their souls are filled like a water basin being filled by a spring present inside it: it fills very fast and very silently. It is a continuous journey, and there is much suffering involved, but really the only way to get to the point of being able to rely on God's Substaining Love is through prayer. I would highly reccomend reading The Interior Castle in regards to this: St. Teresa of Avila most definately relied exclusively on God's Substaining Love.

May God bless and protect you always in all of your endeavors!

Your Brother in Christ,

Joe

My thoughts exactly--one may never truly feel that they have "arrived" in spite of living a deeply religious life--look at some of the writings of Therese of Lisieux during her final illness, and those of Mother Teresa of Calcutta.

Beautifully written Joe...woah