Building A Strong Interior Life?

[Spem in alium]

[quote name='Lisa' timestamp='1341316817' post='2451893']
Great explanation, Spem!
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Thank you

[quote name='filius_angelorum' timestamp='1341345172' post='2452105']
In any case, this thread has been hijacked by a less-than-helpful thread. The only question salient to the discussion is whether or not the sacrament of confession is a precious gift, an important aid in the strengthening of one's spiritual life and vocational discernment. FuturePriest, myself, and many others, including a good many saints and spiritual writers, say yes.

And of course, prayer, mortification, and penance are all part of helping one develop an "interiority" to one's spiritual life. A fast may be distracting at first, but a prolonged fast slowly deprives the body of the kind of sensuality that leads one to sin and away from humility, provided that one is not prideful about the fast itself. I have always thought that the Western tradition tended to under-emphasize this tradition of spiritual authors.
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These are good points. A strong interior life can be hard to attain. It can take much work and commitment, because there's no one thing or activity that can get you where you want to be. Of course, Mass and the Sacraments are exceptionally important and beneficial when it comes to deepening faith, but if we never reflect on them or never contemplate their significance in prayer or in writing they will not harness their true power in bringing us closer to the Lord. You need to try different things, combine them, work out what helps you best. I think it is definitely worth the effort.

Each person is different, but I think we must all remember, God is always at work around and within us. He has a home in you and will find a way to enter your heart and draw you closer if you encourage Him. In the past I've heard people I know ask why God has let them grow distant from Him. What I think they didn't realise is that God never lets us go. He wants us to be so close to Him, but He can't achieve that closeness on His own. We need to make the effort in believing, in allowing Him to guide and and strengthen our lives.
I made an effort earlier this year of opening my heart to God and His will in a way I'd never done or thought about previously. Since I did that, my interior life and my spiritual life have been so much deeper. Just trust in Him and try different things, and pray that He will strengthen you from within.

[Antigonos]

[quote name='emmaberry' timestamp='1341341639' post='2452080']
All the devotions listed are wonderful! Some days I find that I am just lagging, and I try to get in a daily rosary. Hopefully, you have very few of these, but they are days when nothing goes right, and there really is not one spare minute for LofHrs or adoration or anything. On these days, I find great comfort in Mary and the fact that she will keep me close to her son Jesus.




If you have all this advice for FP's discernment, feel free to send him a message. As for A's comment that he's focusing too much on those 'terrible' sins-he did say he was recovering from scrupulosity, so he has that part under control. It seems like you are trying to affirm FP in his sins-every 16 year old boy does it, etc-and, while that stems from a caring heart and wanting to encourage others, A, it's not really in his best interest, discernment-wise. People are wanting to join religious life today because Jesus said, "Be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect" and they take this very seriously. In [u]An Infinity of Little Hours[/u], Carthusians are depicted confessing their sins in Chapter, many of which are sexual and torment them. Obviously, FP understands Confession, and subsequently knows of Jesus' generous love, mercy, and forgiveness. He is not wrong in saying sexual sins are terrible-they are, though society paints them as 'the norm.' Jerome writes that Origen , along with other well-intentioned Early Christians, cut off their genitals because they read Jesus' words "Some have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom" and "If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off" literally. This is drastic and not something to do today, but they had the right perspective on fleeing from sexual sin.

As for your advice for him to wait awhile to further discern, no one will let him into a religious order at 16. The Church has guidelines for young people who are discerning, and will make sure he is ready before he enters a community. Of course, we have to remember little St Therese entering the Carmelites at 15! We don't know FP's discernment, only he does, although it probably is good advice to wait a bit, as the Church echoes this sentiment too.
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For some strange reason, I can't PM anybody. Otherwise I would have. That's why I wrote "quandary". I didn't feel I could let Filius' remark pass, but had no other way to reply. I agree with you; although I would note that adolescence is a fairly recent tag; in St. Therese's time, one was a child, and then one was regarded as an adult -- and girls were married as early as 14 or even right after their first menstruation in Western societies, so early admittance to religious life was not uncommon.

Not all addictions are to drugs. Anyone who has ever been involved with any of the 12 step programs, like AA or OA, will know that confession [which in this case is public and not a sacrament] can be addictive. There are those who, week after week, trot out lengthy recitals of how they are at fault, etc. I'm not suggesting that anyone here suffers from that, but it's something to be aware of, and if needed, shows how much a good SD is needed.

Let's let the matter drop. I've said all that I think is useful, and my purpose was not to be offensive, rather to clarify.

[ACS67]

I find it more disturbing that so much psycho-babble has entered into the Church particularly in religious orders and most certainly in religious discernment. I am referring, of course, to the "quandry" above. It's ridiculous that the Church (although I believe Antigones is not even Catholic so why she/he has a "quandry" about a young man and his discernment in the first place, let alone his preferred Sacrament, is puzzling in and of itself) has at times (since the 1960s) given more credence to Sigmund Freud's advice than that from the Church's beloved Saints whom She has canonized and exhorts the faithful to imitate.