Detachment In Rl And Elsewhere.....

[maximillion]

We got onto this subject through another thread and I was saying it isn't much spoken of these days, but it is very essential in life (not just RL).

 

The cult of the individual, the contemporary emphasis on feelings, and IMO an overemphasis on their importance means many people have never even heard of detachment and don't know what it is.

 

What is detachment for you and how do you see its relevance (or lack of) to RL?

[Deus te Amat]

For me, I understand detachment to be a true expression of the command "love God with all your heart, all your mind, and all your strength." It places God, and His will, first, with ones own likes and desires secondary.

 

One cannot truly live religious life -- life truly united to God -- without it. The religious life, with the definition above, is a detached life.

[maximillion]

The Ignatian emphasis of Christian spirituality emphasizes interior freedom. To choose rightly, we should strive to be free of personal preferences, superfluous attachments and preformed opinions. St. Ignatius of Loyola counseled radical detachment: “We should not fix our desires on health or sickness, wealth or poverty, success or failure, a long life or a short one.” Our one goal is the freedom to make a wholehearted choice to follow God.

Most Christian denominations never mention detachment in general. However, detachment is a prominent theme throughout Eastern Orthodox Christianity's spiritual texts known as the 'Philokalia, where it seems to be consistently endorsed as part of the spiritual life for the spiritual seeker.

[freedomreigns]

I would just like to say that when I read the title to this thread I thought it was RI  and not RL.  I was wondering what "Detachment in Rhode Island and Elsewhere" could possibly be about!  

 

Need more coffee.

Edited August 16, 2014 by freedomreigns

[maximillion]

We also need a system that does not automatically change things when you use double capitals..............it would help!

[marigold]

What I understand about detachment is that it is the practice of learning to relate to God as God. Everything in creation is good, and 'iconic', meaning it can show us God and lead us to him. But we have a fallen tendency to treat those created things as God instead. So, detachment is not merely the theory, but the daily, tiny, grinding, practice of turning back to that original viewpoint of God as God and creation as creation.

[Blessed&Grateful]

This has been my prayer these past years, to detach myself from "self" so I can attach myself to God's will 100%.

Edited August 16, 2014 by Blessed&Grateful

[Feankie]

A good book out "Strange Gods" by Elizabeth Scalia (of the Anchoress blog). It speaks about identifying what you are attached to instead of God.
That's my one sentence synopsis! You can see a preview on Amazon

[brandelynmarie]

This has been my prayer these past years, to detach myself from "self" so I can attach myself to God's will 100%.

A prayer I say often is, "God grant me the grace of forgetfulness of self..."...& yes, I believe I am essentially asking Him for the same thing...

[brandelynmarie]

A good book out "Strange Gods" by Elizabeth Scalia (of the Anchoress blog). It speaks about identifying what you are attached to instead of God.
That's my one sentence synopsis! You can see a preview on Amazon

I want this book!

(Guess one of the things I'm attached to! :bible: :love: :evil:)

[Sponsa-Christi]

For me, I understand detachment as loving God above all else. And I agree that it’s a very important—and these days, under-rated—virtue. Because of this, I think it is okay to promote the virtue of detachment in a fairly straight forward way when you’re addressing a general Catholic audience.

 

However, when you’re addressing a more specialized audience of Catholics who already appreciate the importance of detachment and are committed to pursuing it (e.g., most of the crowd here on VS), I’ve been wondering lately if the topic of detachment might need to be a little more nuanced. As I mentioned on the other thread, I think there may be healthy and unhealthy ways of understanding detachment.

 

Or in other words, I don’t think growing in the virtue of detachment means shutting down feelings completely, but rather ordering them properly. I know this sounds fairly obvious, but I think it’s easy for serious Catholics to miss this important distinction sometimes.

[Sister Marie]

I'm so glad you said this.

 

 

I don’t think growing in the virtue of detachment means shutting down feelings completely, but rather ordering them properly. I know this sounds fairly obvious, but I think it’s easy for serious Catholics to miss this important distinction sometimes.

 

I think to truly be detached one must feel deeply but know that even those deepest desires, precious to God and to the heart of the one who has them, end in eternity with God in union with his will.  This detachment allows us to be both ambitious for the things of God but peaceful when God's will moves us in another direction, passionate about doing some act for God but peaceful when obedience requires we abandon the act.  It also works the other way when we are shaken with compassion for a cause we did not know before, stirred from our original direction by a new need, and surprised by the circumstances we never expected changing our lives.  

 

We have to feel deeply the desire to do good things for God and mourn them when they don't work out with peacefulness.  We have to know that what we could imagine for ourselves is so limited that if we allow God's grace to enter into our lives our plans will look completely different.  We will mourn some lost things, fear some new things, anticipate some exciting things, and be moved to act by places in our hearts God opens to others - but if we are detached we will have peace in all these things.  Detachment is absolutely being more attached to God's will than anything else but it is not a sterile reality - its a messy and wonderful journey.     

[brandelynmarie]

Thank you so much, Sister Marie. :) I really needed to hear this as I continue my discernment...especially your last paragraph...

[veritasluxmea]

Or in other words, I don’t think growing in the virtue of detachment means shutting down feelings completely, but rather ordering them properly. I know this sounds fairly obvious, but I think it’s easy for serious Catholics to miss this important distinction sometimes.

This thread was reminding me of Buddhist or Stoic Philosophy, but that clears it up :) Catholic truth is beautiful.  :heart:

[maximillion]

 

 

Or in other words, I don’t think growing in the virtue of detachment means shutting down feelings completely, but rather ordering them properly.

 

Yes, very important. There is great confusion about the difference between using feelings as a part of the information we have and either denying them (which is the origin of neurosis) or indulging them.

[brandelynmarie]

A very delicate balance sometimes...I feel like I have grown up in a world that mainly emphasizes most decisions based solely on personal feelings...Sometimes I'm surprised when it comes out in others, but I'm especially surprised when I notice it in myself! I don't even realize I'm basing my thoughts on something completely on how I feel about it...it's definitely an area to work on :blush:

[Sponsa-Christi]

Yes, very important. There is great confusion about the difference between using feelings as a part of the information we have and either denying them (which is the origin of neurosis) or indulging them.

 

Feelings can be useful in terms of discerning God’s will, but I don’t think feelings are only meant as this kind of means to an end. I think there is a certain inherent goodness in feeling our (properly ordered) feelings even for their own sake, since this is part of how God in His goodness created us as human beings.

 

Even God Himself, when He took on our human nature in the Incarnation, showed that He had real feelings. The example that most readily comes to mind is John 11:35 (“…and Jesus wept.”), but there are many others.

 

The problem is that, like everything else about human nature, our feelings have a tendency to be disordered because of the fall of Adam and original sin. But just because our feelings can be disordered doesn’t mean that they always are; and just because feelings aren’t our be-all and end-all doesn’t mean that they aren’t still a good part of our humanity. 

[krissylou]

I would just like to say that when I read the title to this thread I thought it was RI  and not RL.  I was wondering what "Detachment in Rhode Island and Elsewhere" could possibly be about!  

 

Need more coffee.

 

Detachment *is* very important in Rhode Island.  It is also important elsewhere.  :)

[brandelynmarie]

:hehe:

[inperpetuity]

I would just like to say that when I read the title to this thread I thought it was RI  and not RL.  I was wondering what "Detachment in Rhode Island and Elsewhere" could possibly be about!  

 

Need more coffee.

Your not the only one!