Private Vows in The Laity/Spirituality

[BarbTherese]

 

                                                                                                                             

JMJ+

Four words I can skim over without much thought:

 

                                                        IN THE NAME OF,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

 

 

i hae sent a text to my IT guy about not being able to connect to big screen.  He will reply when he can.  So I am typing nearly blind as best I can.

The spiritual life is indeed the greatest adventure I have ever lived for sure:

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[BarbTherese]

catholice 

 

I love the way His Grace gives emphasis to Our Lady.

[BarbTherese]

                                                      JMJ+

The world is in dire straights needing heartfelt prayer.  And the temporal order is that order to which the Laity specifically is vocated (called) by The Lord.

60 Minutes Australia is a TV program I can usually respect.  It goes to air every Sunday night in Adelaide Sth. Aust. usually.

The following video is available on YouTube, no problems for me anyway, again it is an episode of 60 Minutes Australia.  IT IS AGE RESTR ICTED.

What is the primary reason for the strong and persistent, persevering, Ukrainian Resistance to Russian invasion.  The Ukrainian President names it in one of the first questions asked of him.  It is Unity (including Unity of) the Ukrainian soldiers!  What can that say to me in the battle with evil in any of its' forms great or small.  I/we, who are confirmed as a Soldier of Christ in The Sacrament of Confirmation, called to the Laity, the majority of us, and therefore the temporal order within creation and The Church?  Words of Jesus: "GO OUT INTO THE WHOLE WORLD...........:

The video from 60 Minutes Australia is an interview in Kiev with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian President. (Click on to "Watch on YouTube" ... the video is AGE RESTRICTED.

 

 

[BarbTherese]

 

Quality of video below not the best, but worth listening, I thought.  I love the biblical story of Jonah - and no wonder the prophets tried to run from their task or personal vocation and often the sometimes funny story of how God got through to them, finally putting them into a position where their vocation cannot be avoided.

 

A few guys I have a lot of time for in following videos.  I am obviously eclectic in source teaching/learn material for many things, including for formation and growth - without getting ridiculous.  I think too that The Holy Spirit can speak to one in diverse ways, means.  I can learn by listening to others, listening and hearing.  While not, of necessity, taking every word and thought on board i.e. selective.

 

 

 

 

 

[BarbTherese]

 

 

                    

 

[BarbTherese]

 

 

 

 

 

[BarbTherese]

 

At 77 years of age almost, I can confidently state, always short of a miracle of course, that there will never be a generation like ours.  Unless, The Lord help us, 'they' decide to destroy all the music, videos etc. etc., it is ours but to plant our seeds willynilly.  What I love about the Parable of The Sower is that he does cast his seed willynilly, some falls on rocks, some in bad soil, some in weeds and some thankfully in good soil.  So journey on casting willynilly wherever you will your own seeds.  The rest is up to The Lord.  Bless us, Lord through the hands of your Blessed Mother - Queen of all Your Mercies Who Are Lord of Infinite Mercy.  Bless the works of our hands and show us The Way, we who are all without exception Your children.

Bob Dylan's lyrics can be found https://www.bobdylan.com/songs/

 

 

 

[BarbTherese]

 

"Ask not  what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."  President John Kennedy.

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The above contains one of the best, if not T HE best, guitar solo's I have ever heard.  

When in Rome one must speak in the lingo of the Romans.  Otherwise no one will understand a word you say.

Certainly, the artists grasps that an artwork can take many perspectives.

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When in Rome one must speak in the lingo of the Romans.  Otherwise no one possibly will understand a word you say.

Some, of course, might be multilingual.

 

[BarbTherese]

 

"CAN EMBARK" to my mind should read "MUST EMBARK" ..................

I have changed around the following personal email to hide identities, except my own.  Packages are government allowances to support the elderly.  I have been awarded Package 4, around $54,000 per annum or the highest Package amount.  It is paid monthly in increments of that total $54,000 to chosen mature aged person chosen Service Provider, who charge for EVERYTHING, not cheap either.  This means a fair bulk of that $54,000 goes to the Service Provider to cover their charges.  Medication Prompts are carers calling to ensure medication has been taken – a hefty Service Provider charge on the Package ensues.

A Webster Pack or Blister is provided to break medication (for patient) into Morning, Daytime and Evening medication prescribed.

In the journey towards unique identity intrinsic to happiness, unique identity is not an instant 'happening'.  It unfolds in actual circumstances, in actual hoc et nunc cause and effect in time and space (willed or, alternatively, permitted by God always) of any individual, non excepted.  No circumstance can be excepted in that journey; therefore, my own experiences related to mental illness or any other circumstance in my life has validity and is of valid importance in my journey - and as expressions of God's Will in my life.  Read the Story of a Soul, the autobiography of St Therese of Lisieux, Carmelite nun, saint and Doctor of The Church https://www.amazon.com.au/Story-Soul-Autobiography-Translation-Manuscripts/dp/0935216588  (said to be original transcript as written by St Therese)

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I am posting the following copy of a personal email into Phatmass largely not only for members if interested and for general lurkers if interested, but for the certain Catholic 'hierarchy types' who are lurkers, who now and then and do read Phatmass as a Catholic Discussion site, interested in general Catholic thought out in cyberspace as it were.......and is.  They are the seeds we are planting - read Parable of The Sower in Matthew Chapter 13, in fact read the whole Chapter, commencing your reading with a brief prayer to The Blessed Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, One God: https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0839/__PVM.HTM

'Hierarchy types' may or may not join an internet site under a User Name.  They may/may not lurk under the same 'cloak'/cloaked identity.

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Copy of email to my son and brother:

The medication prompts just suddenly appeared after I came out of hospital.  That refers to medication in the Webster/Blister Pack only.  I did ask for the checks to stop as they really are unnecessary.  They haven't apparently, looking at the charges on the Service Provider  Statements. It is important to me psychologically (inclusive of psychiatrically) that I stay in control of my own mental health.  X my Psychiatrist permits it unless of course I become unwell.  She (alone) can instigate the ASIS Team or even Older Persons' Mental Health visit me in person to give her a second opinion of where I am at re mental health.  Service Provider X  do not have my permission to contact my psychiatrist.  I am unsure if ASIS now has another name or not.  It needs to be noted that it was my psychiatrist who guided me through 12 years of sound mental health, if a bit rocky(meaning bipolar is restless) now and then AND ROCKY IS NOT SICK PER SE - MEANING BIPOLAR IS OUT OF PATIENT CONTROL !!!, and to rely on what what psychiatrist indicates rather than any other party jumping to (potentially false) conclusions not leaving room for my personality rather relying solely on some sort of mysterious to me negative Barb stereotyping- I certainly rely totally on my psychiatrist’s feedback re my state of mental health and would pass on certainly any adverse comments to my son and brother.   I think I have proven over the many years of bipolar that I can manage my own condition.  Another story, however, if stress after stress is piled on me (as you, my Service Provider did prior to this last episode) - then bipolar will act up and from my last episode, potentially very seriously so.  My brother made me laugh when he said to me "While you were visiting another planet...."  Spot on. -  when I am unwell.  If men are from Mars and women are from Venus, Barb also sometimes visits Planet X ?....... LOL

In the main my carers are still checking re the 2.30pm Medication without understanding that the first dose of PanOstea is taken am when I get up.  PanOsteaSR has an effective/therapeutic life-span of around 8 hours; therefore; much depends re time of that second dose on what time I have woken and taken that Morning Medication containing first dose of PanOsteoSR.  It annoys the heck out of me that the girls do check without understanding my previous sentence.  But again, I have asked that the medication checks stop.  It hasn't happened.  I have asked the carers to stop, but it continues unnecessarily.  Not necessarily with each carer however.

There are a few other charges on the Statements I would like to query.  But I have reasoned we(my son, brother and I) have enough on our plate just now.  In fact, I would rather leave the issue altogether until a face-to-face Meeting can be arranged with all of us at a later date down the line somewhere.

My Package Rollover has very minimally gone up, it seems, in three months !

Could we go ahead re your Dad's suggestion (if and when available) and ask my service provider if I MUST have an OT(Occupational Therapist) if it will be purchased out my fortnightly pension, not charging my Package?  I don't think we do have to consult an OT for personal purchases out of my pension, which I have done in the past without any OT input.   Unless that has suddenly changed too !!! Can the Package pay for your Dad's suggestion if we do go ahead that way?  But at this point, I think that the electric bed and electric recliner are prime and getting all that put to bed - 'scuse pun -  is enough for just now.  I certainly cannot take much more - fed up.  My carer on Mondays  has 2.5 hours on a Monday and come what may, I am determined nothing will get in the way of her taking me out for 2.5 hours as happened Monday of this week.  And I loved it !   It did wonders for me just to be out and about and in relaxation (Service Provider switched off) mode.  I have always been a people-person, not a hermit in seclusion.  In Elizabeth Park, I called Bethany "Kennedy Airport" as I not unusually had a steady stream of visitors and phone calls.  I would visit people too and on foot. This side of my life after shifting here, I wanted/planned to have a quiet and peaceful life to concentrate on my writings.  God has other Plans, not unusually, and I can only play the cards I am dealt by Him and that is ok with me i.e. God's Will in my own journey.  I would be round the twit again, on Planet X, for sure if not for my son and brother primarily.  My regular carers now have been a good support.  my youngest brother as well who regularly rings me.  He is going to send me a video of the funeral. X in Rostering is friendly and efficient.  Psychiatry does recommend that MI sufferers set up a support system.  Most sufferers I knew in Elizabeth had no support whatsoever.

I do understand that Service Provider Senior Coordinator might have needed to make changes, but to do so without any pre-explanation of some kind, was and is, making things difficult for us.  It is not as if I was deliberately trying to 'get around the system'.  It is the way things had been ever since I accepted X as my Package Provider.  At no point, did anyone, carer nor coordinator, indicate they were doing too much for me..........until X - and then it was for me a case of "not so much what you say, Sir, as the way you say it".

 

Love .............Mum and Barb xxx

 

PS X in Rostering said today that the maximum load a carer can lift or carry is 25 kilos.  I have no idea how much my wheelchair might weigh.  I am concerned for X on Monday (2.5 hours) as she will need to put the wheelchair in her vehicle and unload it as well.  Then do it all over again to return home here.  I like X for the 2.5 hours Social Support as X and I have much in common, nothing to do with MI. (Note for Phatmass: X on Monday is also a Catholic.  Although she too is disgusted with what has happened in parishes of her experience re sufferers of MI.  Hence she has stopped practising and not an unfamiliar story).

Phatmass note: What follows is my own reasoning drawn from my own experiences with one source or another: .............."Maintaining self-confidence and self-esteem is like pushing a barrel full of bricks up a very steep hill to MI sufferers.  It is a daily battle with stigma (often maintained in memory) - e.g. herd values (society) make our daily stigma battles, either faced hoc et nunc or retained in memory and experienced as hoc et nunc from past experience(s) extremely difficult, distressing to a MI sufferer.  In the main, the herd is coming from false stereotyping, instead of reliable source factual info., which would challenge and destroy stereotyping of any kind.  The journey to unique identity and happiness is a 365 daily unfolding in cause and effect in time and in space.  It is not an instant something or other - as always short of the miraculous, which potentially can occur. An hoc et nunc 'happening' or epiphany verges on the miraculous.

Phatmass note: my own reasoning continues: ..........."Not at all rare or unusual for a MI sufferer to strive to live up to expectations of others in the desire to 'fit in' and be socially accepted and acceptable - and that is deadly/abortive in the journey towards unique identity essential to happiness - which applies i.e. journey towards unique identity, to every single person MI or not.  Community, for one only, essential to that journey; hence psychiatry stressing the vital importance of support system, be it one, two or fifty persons (in part, essentially acceptance, friendship and love).  It is vital (intrinsically essential) to both mental health and the journey to happiness as aforementioned.  Humanity, as herd and individually, really must avoid conscious philistinism.  Largely they/I often do not.

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The following are examples of shoring up their base.  In other words, gathering together, affirming and strengthening fans..........or, READY SET...............GO?

https://youtu.be/451H6kaKeSU

YouTube would not allow posting of video on the above link, but ok with following  although it is not as good/clear a video as the first above.

 

 

All the angry poor/politically angry need is charismatic leadership for revolution - and the poor/politically angry, history reveals (e.g. French Revolution, Russian Revolution, which I studied while a student) will not take their plight forever.  Revolution can be evil, but it can also be a movement for good.  Revolution commences from within, while Reformation commences from without.  The true revolutionary will stop for Love, but for romance........NEVER!

"I do not bring Peace alone, I bear a sword" Matthew Chapter 10 Verse 34: https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0839/__PVJ.HTM

 

 

 

Lyrics, by Dylan, are featured on the video below:

 

[BarbTherese]

         

 

 

                                                            MAFIA

                                       HELL'S ANGELS 1%ers OMCG

                                    ORIGINATING IN A HELL BELOW

 

  

 

The music of Bob Dylan is as important as the lyrics.  In the following video his music is a marking time beat.  The video that follows expresses music that is communication and movement, yet still marking time later in the video:

 

 

What he wears too.........

 

 

 

 

Take note all of the above Steve Taylor videos ..........non corrupt police still need our help.......to clean up our country(ies).........

[BarbTherese]

Thank The Lord that ADELAIDE CHANNEL 10 NEWS AT 5PM IN ADELAIDE has pulled up their journalistic socks. 

Well done Channel 10.

x and X have set up an excellent work-space for me including huge computer screen and a separate huge television, my large L shaped desk with large back executive=type swivel office chair.    It's a sort of office area in a corner of my family room converted by me from a dining room, which is now a smaller dining room area.  The original was far too big anyway for a dining room anyway - but the original large dining room did come in handy for seating for my Home Mass to renew Private Vows.  Relatives and friends attended, some of them anyway (those very close to me), about 20 or 25 or so in all.  After The Mass, two of my family members heated (part of the supper), served and waitered for a light supper.  My then priest and religious confessor and spiritual director has now passed away while on holidays with his family.  Two Carmelite nuns also attended my Home Mass - go to commencement of this thread to read that section of my journey.  When I started this thread, I had no idea at all the direction this thread and my journey would subsequently take.  My  whole life came slowly into perspective, understanding......and now continues along that trajectory......

Every night at 5pm I watch Adelaide Channel 10 News.  Then TV goes off until 6.30pm when I watch SBS CHANNEL 3 for the international news.  After that TV goes off for the rest of the night usually.  Bed time for me is anytime from midnight to 2am, always followed by 7.5 hours sleep straight without waking.  On waking a rush for the toilet - then my Morning Medication without fail, my physical self is hooked on it after all these years and I do not want to go into withdrawals.  No thanks, pas de tout.

I do like Channel 33, the cooking channel, especially when Simon and Maggie are featured - "Cook and the Chef" I think it is called.

Every Monday most often I am at the Greenacres Shopping Centre to get among people i.e. to "watch the river flow" i.e. people walking by and around, plus a few other reasons  - usually after 1pm I am there sitting in the mall table on my wheelchair, with my carer sitting with two good legs beside me.

                                          

 

 

 

 Channel SBS 3 News is a great station, along with Al Jazeera (al jazeera.com I think - YEP! https://www.aljazeera.com/).

The following album was among my brother's (dec'd at 29 years of age) record collection and is BEAUTIFUL :

 

 

Dont ignore musical interludes of Dylan - he always has something to convey, if you "have ears to hear".................

Bob Dylan lyrics https://www.bobdylan.com/songs/man-peace/

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[BarbTherese]

It is Monday, 22nd August 2022, here in Adelaide South Australia; therefore it is the Memorial of The Queenship of Mary, Queen of Heaven and Earth, including of course, Queen of The Angels.

Quote

 

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/queenship-of-mary-343

Pope Pius XII in the Papal Encyclical Ad Coeli: Reginam https://www.vatican.va/content/pius-xii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_11101954_ad-caeli-reginam.html

 

 

       

[BarbTherese]

 

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Dave Allen is 3-4 years of age:....................

 

[BarbTherese]

We call it the Good News and very often it can come across as anything but Good News i.e. it is not what you say, but the way you say it.  A psychiatrist once said to me that I had good insight into my brand of bipolar and that my sense of humour rescues me more often than I realize.  When I am stressed out nowadays, watching my favourite stand up comedians or, indeed, writing, can relieve the stress, lower it to a manageable level......in hope.

Let us "live our own vocation joyfully" and walk the talk.  Or do I take myself too seriously, unable to laugh at my own 'sacred cows' nor able to laugh at myself?

Fr. Martin tells the story of a visiting Jesuit Provincial bemoaning that there was so many elderly Jesuits in the Province, there was a problem of space and where to put them.  With that an elderly Jesuit stood up and said "Father, we are dying as fast as we can."

Some of my Posts are not for children, the underage.  Largely it might be content and/or swear words in the content. I am hoping that if they are too much, I will be advised of such via PM, or into this thread, whatever.  It is difficult for me to know, no longer having young children myself.  My youngest is now 56 almost. Today, the young ones do know far more than my generation ever did as children.

I do know that some Catholics do challenge Fr James Martin - I am hoping that the "baby is not chucked out with the bathwater".  I will be posting too perhaps quotes from Thomas Merton, even videos by Fr Anthony de Mello and equally hope, no baby out with bathwater.

It is music that has kept me on the road, hands on the wheel, eyes on the road, in my own journey - when seemingly nothing at all would in a human type of sense, been supportive i.e. keep me on the journey.  For as long as I can recall anyway, I have been a person of prayer with an ardent love of The Mass and Holy Communion, The Sacraments, Scripture.  Perhaps not always consolation per se in a certain sense; nevertheless, always loved.

If all that does not make sense, can't help that.  It has been/is the truth to me of my experience(s).  Fr Martin, in the video below has things to say about honesty in relationships.  I don't find it easy to wear a mask, and not on the internet either. Don't miss either, Father pointing out that the parables for example, some of them, would have struck the hearers in first century Palestine, the times of Jesus, as funny and why they would have been funny in the times of Jesus.

Don't miss Father's teaching jokes either, with quite a few laughs about Jesuits, of whom he is one.

In my previous suburb, I won quite a few over with a funny story about Mary's Gate in the rear of Heaven.  Not at all a true story, but the theology is not wrong. 

 

 

[BarbTherese]

 

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Congratulations to our Police Force again.  Record bust of drugs - cocaine - in South Australia by Organized Crime, Federal Police and the Border Patrol  Cocaine in record SA drug bust

Jolly good news.  But dreadful day for those hooked on cocaine - exceedingly bad news for them.

It all makes me wonder.

https://indaily.com.au/news/2022/04/01/video-police-seize-400kg-of-cocaine-in-record-sa-drug-bust/

[BarbTherese]

 

[BarbTherese]

 His trademark catch cry was: "Cheerful! Cheerful!" I recently posted from Catholic Education Resource Centre website on St Philip Neri into OPEN MIC: HERE

[BarbTherese]

 

 

                          

.............like posting off the subject, and descending in a nasty way to personal attacks, I guess...... i.e. sometimes triggering internet/pham bunfights......

 

“I get tired of playing a guy who gets into a fight, then starts singing to the guy he’s just beat up.”   (Elvis Presley)   (to quote Led Zeppelin and Stairway to Heaven HERE "does ANYONE remember laughter?"   I am laughing with Elvis, not at him.   In other words, healthy Joyful laughter.  Ya kno, the kind of laughter Ol Nik hates.

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At the end of his 2016 Nobel Lecture in Literature, Bob Dylan quoting Homer: "Sing in me, oh Muse, and through me tell the story."

The Lecture, with text:

 

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Case Western Reserve University "Why Bob Dylan Matters": .................

Very long, 1.17 hours.  I haven't finished it yet, but so far so good - about one third into the video, around there I think:

 

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Dylan is posing a question the hearer must answer for himself or herself:

 

Played at my brother's funeral ...............

 

I really like the following by Simon and Garfunkel:

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I haven't researched if I can watch the series "The Chosen" on Netflix or something similar.........not yet anyway....................

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Non Religious Music

Dhttps://www.ncregister.com/blog/is-it-okay-to-listen-to-non-religious-musico

This is an excellent article full stop, but particularly good to reflect on the evangelising style of St Paul................excerpt only:
"Do not be deceived:

          “Bad company ruins good morals.”

The quotation “Bad company ruins good morals” is from the comic playwright Menander.

Bear in mind that all of these men were pre-Christian pagans, yet Paul did not balk at using elements from their writings.

 

Catholic Answers - Jimmy Aiken, Apologist

 

    

[BarbTherese]

         

[BarbTherese]

 

At times, the lyrics in songs sung by Dylan, can be difficult to understand.  Here is a website of all his songs with lyrics - all in alphabetical order. https://www.bobdylan.com/songs/

The following are releases after Bob Dylan converted to Christianity - and the agonizing journey preceding it - a real Dark Night of many years - contained in music and song by Bob Dylan over his whole career.  I am rather hoping he might write an autobiography, I think he is in his eighties now.  He was always a person seeking for truth.........and at times very much in a The Dark Night.  I wrote to him suggesting he read The Dark Night by St John of The Cross.  To me, TDN is not a never-fall-or-fail 'walk'.  The Dominican nun who taught us told us that it is not what we did, but how long it took us to pick ourselves up, repent and confess if necessary, and then go on as if nothing at all had happened.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A good depiction of a The Dark Night in the following video.  Everything has been abandoned to follow Jesus, with a tremendous feeling or awareness of loss, suffering.  Profound aloneness.  Begging for help from God, met with silence.

Sirach Chapter 2, is too important and not very long, I am posting it in full from The Vatican Bible: 

https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0839/__PM4.HTM
 

Quote

 

My son, when you come to serve the LORD, prepare yourself for trials. Be sincere of heart and steadfast, undisturbed in time of adversity.  Cling to him, forsake him not; thus will your future be great.

Accept whatever befalls you, in crushing misfortune be patient;  For in fire gold is tested, and worthy men in the crucible of humiliation.

Trust God and he will help you; make straight your ways and hope in him,  You who fear the LORD, wait for his mercy, turn not away lest you fall.  You who fear the LORD, trust him, and your reward will not be lost.  You who fear the LORD, hope for good things, for lasting joy and mercy.

10  Study the generations long past and understand; has anyone hoped in the LORD and been disappointed? Has anyone persevered in his fear and been forsaken? has anyone called upon him and been rebuffed?Compassionate and merciful is the LORD; he forgives sins, he saves in time of trouble.

12 Woe to craven hearts and drooping hands, to the sinner who treads a double path!  Woe to the faint of heart who trust not, who therefore will have no shelter!  Woe to you who have lost hope! what will you do at the visitation of the LORD?

hose who fear the LORD disobey not his words; those who love him keep his ways.  Those who fear the LORD seek to please him, those who love him are filled with his law.

Those who fear the LORD prepare their hearts and humble themselves before him.

Let us fall into the hands of the LORD and not into the hands of men, For equal to his majesty is the mercy that he shows.

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 Serving God is not without its trials (⇒ Sirach 2:1); moreover, it must be done with sincerity, steadfastness and fidelity (⇒ Sirach 2:2-3). Misfortune and humiliation merely purify man and prove his worth (⇒ Sirach 2:4-5). Patience and unwavering trust in God are always rewarded with the benefits of God's mercy and of lasting joy (⇒ Sirach 2:6-11).

2 [12-17] A warning to those who compromise their religion in time of affliction; they fail in courage and trust and therefore have no security (⇒ Sirach 2:12-14). But those who fear the Lord through obedience, reverence, love and humility find his mercy equal to his majesty (⇒ Sirach 2:15-17).
 

 

 

Edited August 24, 2022 by BarbTherese