AccountDeleted Posted December 16, 2011 Author Share Posted December 16, 2011 [quote name='Lil'Monster' timestamp='1324012569' post='2352022'] Yeah I know but it so hard to do! [/quote] Take your medication and have a little nap....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
das8949 Posted December 16, 2011 Share Posted December 16, 2011 [quote name='Lil'Monster' timestamp='1324012107' post='2352013'] I am too far from being a Saint! I am a immature little brat....why would I make saint? [/quote] Not so much as you put on to be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OnlySunshine Posted December 16, 2011 Share Posted December 16, 2011 I have a lot of favorite saints that are "crazies." St. Francis of Assisi (heard a voice telling him to rebuild the Church!) St. Clare of Assisi (supposedly starved herself) St. Catherine of Siena (same as above and cut all her hair off when her parents tried to marry her off) St. Rose of Lima (marred her beauty with pepper, cut all her hair off) St. Gemma Galgani (went into ecstasy) St. Faustina (saw Jesus who told her to paint the Divine Mercy portrait) I really like St. Christina the Astonishing, as well. She's very unusual! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lil'Monster Posted December 16, 2011 Share Posted December 16, 2011 [quote name='DarleneSteinemann' timestamp='1324012885' post='2352031'] Not so much as you put on to be. [/quote] You dont think I am a immature brat? wow [quote name='nunsense' timestamp='1324012678' post='2352025'] Take your medication and have a little nap....... [/quote] I am not sick..but I sure need some sleep! But I am chipper though.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BarbTherese Posted December 16, 2011 Share Posted December 16, 2011 My psychiatrist tells me that I am a marked eccentric and people that know I have Bipolar can mistake my eccentricities for expressions of Bipolar, which they are not since eccentricity is not mental illness. If they dont know I have a mental illness, then they are likely to mistake my eccentricities for evidence that I do have a mental illness. My 'problem' is that my so called 'eccentricities' are completely normal to me and I am never aware of when they are evident or not and when I am the cause of some sort of psychological discomfort in others through stepping all unknowningly out of social boundaries of some kind. Can't win! it used to worry me that perhaps some behaviour was eccentric and I would hold back out of fear. Nowadays I never think about it and saints like St. Christina The Astonishing and some of the comments in this thread underscore that there is no need to have any concern. What is insanity or crazy, eccentric etc.after all - they are nouns given by society to what society cannot accept nor understand. The Gospel will always mark us as counter cultural somewhere or other - or insane, crazy, eccentric. Whatever noun comes along to 'tag' a person and put them into a social compartment - nice and safe and tidy, summed up and shelved, compartmentalized. A rose by any other name does indeed remain a rose! Just as a thorn called a flower, remains a thorn. What indeed IS in a name? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AccountDeleted Posted December 16, 2011 Author Share Posted December 16, 2011 [quote name='BarbaraTherese' timestamp='1324018080' post='2352093'] My psychiatrist tells me that I am a marked eccentric and people that know I have Bipolar can mistake my eccentricities for expressions of Bipolar, which they are not since eccentricity is not mental illness. If they dont know I have a mental illness, then they are likely to mistake my eccentricities for evidence that I do have a mental illness. My 'problem' is that my so called 'eccentricities' are completely normal to me and I am never aware of when they are evident or not and when I am the cause of some sort of psychological discomfort in others through stepping all unknowningly out of social boundaries of some kind. Can't win! it used to worry me that perhaps some behaviour was eccentric and I would hold back out of fear. Nowadays I never think about it and saints like St. Christina The Astonishing and some of the comments in this thread underscore that there is no need to have any concern. What is insanity or crazy, eccentric etc.after all - they are nouns given by society to what society cannot accept nor understand. The Gospel will always mark us as counter cultural somewhere or other - or insane, crazy, eccentric. Whatever noun comes along to 'tag' a person and put them into a social compartment - nice and safe and tidy, summed up and shelved, compartmentalized. A rose by any other name does indeed remain a rose! Just as a thorn called a flower, remains a thorn. What indeed IS in a name? [/quote] Well, your particular situation sounds very positive and while I love individuality and eccentricity, there is such a thing as real mental illness as well that has nothing to do with sanctity. Since I was a psych nurse for 20 years working in hospitals and prisons, I have seen some very unsaintly 'individuals' who insisted on expressing themselves to the detriment of others. The real test for me of whether a person is just being an eccentric 'saint' (small s) or a real 'crazy person' (the technical term ) is whether or not they are rich in in the virtues, especially charity and humility. Most of the 'crazy' saints were recognised in their own lifetime by their great virtues (Christina was always very obedient it is said) and their love of God and neighbour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BarbTherese Posted December 16, 2011 Share Posted December 16, 2011 I agree with you, nunsense! There is such a thing as mental illness and also eccentricity and individuality, which does not per se have anything at all to do with holiness and sanctity at all of any necessity. Heroic virtue is always the mark of sanctity in any life at all - and especially humility and Charity. The saint achieves her God Willed purpose here on earth and therefore that person he or she was always intended to be by God. St Christina The Astonishing certainly had some unusual behaviours and is an excellent patron for sufferers of mental illness and mental and emotional problems. Her unusual behaviours were coupled with a life of holiness. For most of us, I would suppose, who suffer mental illness and perhaps eccentricity to mention two, we come up with some really weird and unsusual behaviours at times that have nothing to do with holiness of necessity. This does not mean of course that sufferers of mental illness etc. are precluded from the potential of holiness. Our very existence, no matter the condition of that existence, is a testament that the person is called to holiness, to sanctity, and all things are possible to God, even the most unlikely of things in the most unlikely of persons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AccountDeleted Posted December 16, 2011 Author Share Posted December 16, 2011 [quote name='BarbaraTherese' timestamp='1324031869' post='2352130'] I agree with you, nunsense! There is such a thing as mental illness and also eccentricity and individuality, which does not per se have anything at all to do with holiness and sanctity at all of any necessity. Heroic virtue is always the mark of sanctity in any life at all - and especially humility and Charity. The saint achieves her God Willed purpose here on earth and therefore that person he or she was always intended to be by God. St Christina The Astonishing certainly had some unusual behaviours and is an excellent patron for sufferers of mental illness and mental and emotional problems. Her unusual behaviours were coupled with a life of holiness. For most of us, I would suppose, who suffer mental illness and perhaps eccentricity to mention two, we come up with some really weird and unsusual behaviours at times that have nothing to do with holiness of necessity. This does not mean of course that sufferers of mental illness etc. are precluded from the potential of holiness. Our very existence, no matter the condition of that existence, is a testament that the person is called to holiness, to sanctity, and all things are possible to God, even the most unlikely of things in the most unlikely of persons. [/quote] God can turn stones into bread, he can make anyone a saint ...but He does require our cooperation! I love the eccentric saints but at the same time I don't want to glorify eccentricity itself. Sometimes comformity is more saintly than individuality, depending on the circumstances. One of the challenges of religious life is to continue to 'be oneself' while also conforming to the Rule and being obedient to one's superior and charitable to one's sisters. That's why I love it that even the really eccentric saints were also obedient. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BarbTherese Posted December 16, 2011 Share Posted December 16, 2011 (edited) I agree again, wholeheartedly! I did not mean to glorify eccentricity, its a burden/cross if anything and can alienate the other - and this is not what love of neighbour is all about, and why eccentricity is a burden. The problem is that one does not recognize one's eccentricities often and it is not an adopted behaviour but an intrinsic psychological makeup. I recall, for example, having put salvation jane and sour sobs in a vase on my kitchen table (they are Australian weeds for those who may not know, but have very pretty purple and yellow flowers). A friend visited and just couldn't not stop laughing because I had weeds on the kitchen table. To me, they were just pretty flowers. Just a very very mild example of an eccentric behaviour and of not 'seeing' things as one is 'supposed' to see them. But ever after, I refrained from my pretty purple and yellow flowers on my kitchen table out of respect and understanding for visitiors - and I guess a way a burden could be foundational to virtue. Obedience is a most beautiful virtue as is love of neighbour. These are of major importance in religious life, but not only in religious life. In an ideal sense and in one sense, religious life holds up to the world the ideal of a life on earth and in Heaven - to all the rest of us. I understand "co-operation" with God being expressed in a life of holiness/sanctity through "heroic virtue". In religious life, eccentricity tends to have a pretty tight rein through obedience to Rule and superior, monastic life anyway. Edited December 16, 2011 by BarbaraTherese Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AccountDeleted Posted December 16, 2011 Author Share Posted December 16, 2011 Actually loving weeds is not an eccentricity at all! I love baby's tears and bougainvillea - both considered weeds. And my niece-in-law did her PhD in weed control (heaven knows why) and when I asked her how she would define a weed, she said 'Anything you don't want in your garden!" So don't worry about putting weeds on your table - some weeds are nicer looking than so called 'flowers'! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
faithcecelia Posted December 16, 2011 Share Posted December 16, 2011 Weeds are only plants where we don't want them, if we decide to love them wherever they grow they are no longer weeds Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AccountDeleted Posted December 16, 2011 Author Share Posted December 16, 2011 (edited) [quote name='faithcecelia' timestamp='1324035320' post='2352144'] Weeds are only plants where we don't want them, if we decide to love them wherever they grow they are no longer weeds [/quote] Yeah, that's basically what my niece told me I thought a scientist would be more literal about it but that's what she told me! In the Singapore Botanical Gardens, when I was there, they had a whole section devoted to different coloured bougainvillea - it was heaven for me. They had a little info plaque that said the plant is considered a weed but it's beauty makes it used everywhere - and it is in Singapore and in California! [img]http://i860.photobucket.com/albums/ab166/nunsense/bougainvillea.jpg[/img] Edited December 16, 2011 by nunsense Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
das8949 Posted December 16, 2011 Share Posted December 16, 2011 [quote name='Lil'Monster' timestamp='1324013433' post='2352045'] You dont think I am a immature brat? wow Nope. I think there is far more to you than meets the eye. I am not sick..but I sure need some sleep! But I am chipper though.... [/quote] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BarbTherese Posted December 17, 2011 Share Posted December 17, 2011 Yayyyyy weeds! And indeed some do have very pretty flowers - like salvation jane and sour sobs! A contemplative nun I know calls weeds "our uninvited garden guests"................and so as very pretty uninvited garden guests, why not make them feel at home on the kitchen table in a place of honour! Much more charitable than rooting them out and a way of stating "Get out - uninvited and unwanted!" After all, they do have their 'wedding garment' in very pretty flowers as well as with other varieties of 'weeds' an amazing variety of the colour: green and in an amazing variety shapes and sizes. I love Bougainvillia - and now we have a thornless variety. Those thorns could be cruel! Nature is consistently proclaiming to us higher spiritual realities! And without saying a word! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FutureSister2009 Posted December 17, 2011 Share Posted December 17, 2011 Never heard of St. Christina. What an amazing story Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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