Private Vows in The Laity/Spirituality

[Guest]

Paradox

a person or thing that combines contradictory features or qualities.

 

I think that if I cannot live comfortably with paradox, then I am going to struggle and wrestle with Jesus and His Gospel - and with the consequent spirituality and theology that is Christocentric.

 

[Guest]

Genesis Chapter 32 http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0839/__PY.HTM

"After he had taken them across the stream and had brought over all his possessions,

Jacob was left there alone. Then some man wrestled with him until the break of dawn. When the man saw that he could not prevail over him, he struck Jacob's hip at its socket, so that the hip socket was wrenched as they wrestled.

The man then said, "Let me go, for it is daybreak." But Jacob said, "I will not let you go until you bless me." "What is your name?" the man asked. He answered, "Jacob."

29Then the man said, "You shall no longer be spoken of as Jacob, but as Israel, because you have contended with divine and human beings and have prevailed." Jacob then asked him, "Do tell me your name, please." He answered, "Why should you want to know my name?"

With that, he bade him farewell.

 

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To Read Pope Benedict's Reflection on Genesis 32 and  Jacob wrestling with God: http://w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/audiences/2011/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20110525.html

Excerpt only: "His rival, who seems to be held back and therefore defeated by Jacob, rather than giving in to the Patriarch’s request, asks him his name: “What is your name?”. And the Patriarch replies: “Jacob” (v. 28). Here the struggle takes an important turn. In fact, knowing someone’s name implies a kind of power over that person because in the biblical mentality the name contains the most profound reality of the individual, it reveals the person’s secret and destiny. Knowing one’s name therefore means knowing the truth about the other person and this allows one to dominate him. When, therefore, in answer to the unknown person’s request Jacob discloses his own name, he is placing himself in the hands of his opponent; it is a form of surrender, a total handing over of self to the other.

However, in this act of surrender paradoxically Jacob too emerges victorious because......"........read MORE on above link

[Guest]

In the Gospels, we see the people in the times of Jesus (people of all kinds and professions) 'wrestling' with Jesus, asking Him questions - even challenging Him.  He answers questions and meets challenges - and as He travels, He also cures the sick, raises the dead and forgives sins.  He becomes a great hero and saviour, messiah, to many.   He takes up the plight of the poor, the sick and the sinner in his condemnation of the rich in His Times, rich in many ways including in their attitudes and perspectives.

But then the Great Paradox!

Jesus is arrested and subsequently dies a cruel criminal's death and is crucified.  Most all of His followers abandon Him.  And, I daresay, His enemies would have rejoiced He was finally right out of the way. 

But then another Great Paradox occurs.  After His death and burial, Jesus rises from death and walks among His followers once more.  From there, the message of Jesus is to spread worldwide down to our own times.

Perhaps the Greatest Paradox for us all is that out of death will come life and not only out of our physical death where we will rise again in Jesus, but out of the many kinds of dying that can occur in any earthly journey.   I think that can apply to institutions too. 

"The law entered in so that transgression might increase but, where sin increased, grace overflowed all the more" (Romans Ch5)

Paradox!

Edited July 13, 2018 by BarbaraTherese

[Guest]

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Something very painful and debilitating happens to Jacob - his hip is dislocated by God; nevertheless, Jacob continues to cling to God refusing to let go until he is blest.  God blesses him but Jacob is yet to realise who he has wrestled with and so Jacob asks His name.  His opponent merely asks why Jacob should want to know his name.  Jacob later realises he has wrestled with God and man.  And he names the place as holy where he had wrestled with God.

Ever after Jacob walks with a limp.

Jacobs journey is to unfold in quite a story indeed from beginning to end.  Jacob means “to deceive, to supplant”.

 

""Why should you want to know My Name?"

With that,

He bade him farewell."

Edited July 13, 2018 by BarbaraTherese

[Guest]

As one reads and contemplates Scripture, one cannot help but notice how flawed and sinful are most all the great figures of the Bible story from Adam and Eve all the way down to St Peter The Rock ....... down to today and all the in betweens.  Despite sins and flaws, struggles and problems, rising and falling daily, our God of The Surprise down the history of creation from its dawn has chosen and graced the totally unexpected of His creatures for great things.

 "He has exalted the lowly"

   (Magnificat Luke Chapter 1)  

                                                                                                                

 

I think (for one only) of St Therese of Lisieux as a sort of 'backwater nun in a backwater monastery' piercing the very heart of scriptural truth with the eidetic, direct and clear, sight of childhood - and living it out in her journey.  She goes on to be proclaimed a great saint, theologian and doctor of The Church.  She is a saint whose theology could speak to the greatest of mystics and to the most ordinary of the ordinary and everyday person.  I think it a great loss indeed, terrible loss, when her person and her message are whitewashed in an attempt to make her 'more holy' and larger than life - and in the doing can consign her to that list of saints who are outstandingly amazing and holy - but oh so inimitable.

Perhaps it is indicative that striving to protect the reputation of The Church, to build it up at any and all cost, can be so shockingly devastating to that reputation as in our own day. 

 "He has shown might with His arm,

He has scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart.

He has put down the mighty from their thrones,

and has exalted the lowly."

   (Magnificat Luke Chapter 1)  

 

Edited July 13, 2018 by BarbaraTherese

[Guest]

Shalom Place

A Daily Spiritual Seed

Dominican Sisters of Peace https://oppeace.org/

If every call to Christ and His righteousness is a call to suffering, the converse is equally—every call to suffering is a call to Christ, a promotion, an invitation to come up higher.
    ... Charles Brent (1862-1929)

[Guest]

 

 

And now below, back at the ranch, the man with the voice that just grates on me

like fingernails down a blackboard.

 

But Dr Finlay does share some valuable insights from,

or based on, 

Thomas Merton's thought and writings

 

 

[Guest]

 

 

I will be posting commentary on the Rule of St Benedict now and then if I think that the comments could pertain to any way of life including married or single in the laity.  I am not, incidentally, in any way connected to the Benedictines formally.

If you would like to receive a daily email with a rule of St Benedict, plus a commentary, it is available here: http://www.stmarysmonastery.org/holy_rule_reflections.html 

REFLECTION

Blessing readers and servers may strike the modern reader as a bit
silly: a CEREMONY of blessing to do a no-brainer like that for a
week? Ah, well there's the rub. Ancient monastics (and many Eastern
Orthodox monastics even in our own day,) did NOTHING without a
blessing from their elder. This results in all kinds of blessings for things
we’d take for granted. When the Carmelite Martyrs of Compiegne went as a
group to the guillotine in the French Revolution, at least one of the nuns
approached the Prioress and asked; "Permission to die, Mother?" The Prioress
blessed her to die.

Getting a blessing, asking God's help for even seemingly trivial
matters is a powerful reminder of our own weakness. It is a statement
that we can do nothing without Him, that we truly are nothing that He
has not given. There is a great humility in asking anyone for help.
In this instance, however, humility is richest truth: we need God's
help for everything. We do things only because He enables us, whether
we asked Him for help or not. Our very lives would not exist without
Him.

We still bless readers and servers. Short ceremony, same every week.
We all pray together for whomever is serving us. Since we are small
(only 7,) the Superior is often reader or server. When that happens,
he kneels like anyone else and the senior monk blesses him. It's a
little family ritual.

But what is its message for families in the world? For single Oblates
living alone? The message is that there are no tasks to insignificant
to bless with prayer. St. Benedict has earlier encouraged us to begin
every good work with prayer, but maybe we have forgotten. Because the
monastic is MINDFUL, careful, attuned to life, nothing is unimportant,
nothing should be done "on automatic pilot." There is that healthy level of
mistrust of self that will ask for Divine assistance in any endeavor. “Bless,
Lord, yet another diaper." "Bless, Lord, emptying the trash." "Bless, Lord,
management meeting!!"

Making dinner or washing the dishes? Take a quiet moment in the midst
of either to say "Help!" and "Thanks!" Two simple, one word prayers.
No matter how chaotic your household, everyone will find time for at
least that. God knows the details, knows your heart and can readily
fill in the blanks! We may think God needs essay-length prayers, but
He doesn't. He may enjoy hearing from us, but trust me, we NEVER tell
Him anything that's news to Him.

Of course, there is another side to simple things like serving table,
picking up pins and the like. No one could have done anything
without God's help, but ah, if one does them out of love and care!
Bingo! Double coupons, so to speak! If that pin got carefully picked
up because of a barefoot and running child, or a beloved pet who is
prone to "tasting" whatever she can find on the floor, simplicity
becomes a very much greater matter, indeed. Now it is very close to
the heart of God, and that is a wonderful place to be.

Love and prayers,
Jerome, OSB
http://www.stmarysmonastery.org 
Petersham, MA

[Guest]

I have put a link to Phatmass and this thread into my email signature as well as a link to something Catholic or other - at the moment it is Catholic Answers Q&A.  It is another small endeavour at evangelisation when disabled and retired as I am.  In my 72 years I have often learnt that one little pebble dropped into a huge lake really can send ripples right out over a huge lake.  At times, I have said some little something or other, or written it, and months later it has come back that it had a far bigger audience/impact than I ever intended or remotely imagined and at times with people that amazed me even more.   Faith in trustful confidence really does work miracles - and it does rather remind me of the parable of the mustard seed:

Matthew Ch13: "He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. 32 Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants.........."........

When I send an email in future, I will be formally asking The Lord to bless my tiny little mustard seed.  Amen.

Edited July 14, 2018 by BarbaraTherese

[Guest]

 

Actual answers given by contestants on the game show The Family Feud:

 

• Name something that floats in the bath - Water
• Name something a blind person might use - A sword
• Name a song with 'moon' in the title- Blue Suede Moon
• Something you do before going to bed - Sleep
• Name a famous bridge - The bridge over troubled waters
• A sign of the zodiac - April
• Something slippery - A con man
• A part of the body beginning with the letter 'N' - Knee
• Something you do in the bathroom - Decorate

[Guest]

 

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Vincent's Quote of the Day - St Vincent de Paul Society

Quote of the Day – July 16

"It is not so important for us to live a long time as to continue in the vocation to which God has called us and to abide by what we have promised God (III:97)."

[Guest]

My computer on and on/off basis is really giving me headaches.  If I suddenly disappear off Phatmass, it will be due to computer woes - I can't afford to take it to a technician.  It is starting to play up again now and if the problems get any more problematic, I just might have to abandon this laptop computer altogether.  I am not at all computer literate and have no idea at all what the problem might be.  I have virus protection.

[Guest]

"8 Reasons You Need a Spiritual Director"

https://aleteia.org/2018/07/17/8-irrefutable-reasons-you-need-a-spiritual-director/?utm_campaign=NL_en&utm_source=daily_newsletter&utm_medium=mail&utm_content=NL_en

 

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“Books,” said St. Augustine after his conversion, “could not teach me charity.” We still keep on thinking they can. We do not realize ... the utter distinctness of God and the things of God. Psychology of religion can not teach us prayer, and ethics cannot teach us love. Only Christ can do that, and He teaches by the direct method, in and among the circumstances of life.
    ... Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941), Light of Christ [1944]

PRAYER TO OUR LADY OF GOOD SUCCESS

Oh! Mary Immaculate of Good Success, holy mother, through the special and singular love that thou givest us,

 both visible and invisible. Come to our assistance, so that the virtues of charity and humility may rule among us,

and that we may enjoy thy maternal protection and be thy dignified children. Thou hast never denied us any grace

suitable for our sanctification and salvation, which we ask of thee and which thou kindly anticipates to provide for

our own good. Holy Virgin of Good Success, with this confidence, we present ourselves to thee in need of the

graces of conversion, sanctification, and perseverance in the service of Jesus and thee (Mary). We implore thee

that, thou piously grant us chastity, charity and humility; so that adorned with these virtues, we manifest ourselves

as thy children and be the testimony of how thou dost never abandon those that, with faith, have recourse to

thee.

Amen

[Guest]

(From Daily Gospel.org)

Saint Vincent de Paul (1581-1660)
priest, founder of religious communities
Spiritual conference of 21/03/1659

 

"You have hidden these things from the wise and the learned; you have revealed them to the childlike"

Simplicity is so pleasing to God! As you know, Scripture says that his delight is to converse with the simple, with those who have simplicity of heart and who behave unaffectedly and simply: “With the upright is his friendship” (Prv 3:32). Do you want to find God? He speaks with the simple. O my Savior! O my brothers! You who feel the need to be simple; what happiness! what happiness! Take heart, because you have the assurance that God's delight is to be with the simple.

Something else that wonderfully recommends simplicity to us are these words of our Lord: “I bless you, Father, for having hidden these things from the wise and learned and revealed them to the childlike.” Father, I acknowledge and thank you that the teaching I have learned from your divine Majesty and pass on to others is known only to the simple and that you do not allow the prudent of this world to understand it. For you have concealed from them, if not the words then at least the spirit.

O my Savior and my God! This ought to astonish us. We run after knowledge as if all our happiness depended on it. Woe to us if we don't have it! We certainly need it, but in its fullness; we ought to study, but in moderation. Other people claim understanding of business and pass for people of substance and negotiation in the world. These are the ones from whom God takes away perception of Christian truths: from the learned and knowing of this world. Who does he give it to, then? To simple, ordinary people... Gentlemen, true religion is to be found among the poor. God enriches them with living faith; they believe, touch, taste the words of life... For the most part they preserve their peace in the midst of trouble and distress. What is the reason for this? Faith. Why? Because they are simple God causes those graces to abound in them that he refuses to the rich and learned of this world.

[Guest]

PROBLEMS

It is now 11.20am here and I have been all morning trying to get I.E. with Google as my home page working.  Things seem to go ok for a while and then jam up again (freeze).  I have done a few tweaks but no idea what I was doing, but at least I have i.e. and google working again, but I don't know for how long.

See how things go.  Again, if I disappear it is my computer.