Private Vows in The Laity/Spirituality

[BarbTherese]

                                         

 

[BarbTherese]

  

 

[BarbTherese]

                    From Divine Office (General Calendar)   

                      Tuesday 20th March 2023 - 3rd Week LENT

 

Morning Prayer - Lauds - MORNING PRAYER

Evening Prayer - Vespers - EVENING PRAYER

Night Prayer - Compline - NIGHT PRAYER (COMPLINE)

 

                                     Second Reading Office of Readings 

                                         TUESDAY 21st March 2023

From a sermon of Saint Leo the Great, pope

                                              In praise of charity

In John’s gospel the Lord says: By this love you have for one another, everyone will know you are my disciples. In a letter by John we read: My dear people, let us love one another since love comes from God and everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Anyone who fails to love can never have known God, because God is love.

  So the faithful should look into themselves and carefully examine their minds and the impulses of their hearts. If they find some of the fruits of love stored in their hearts then they must not doubt God’s presence within them, but to make themselves more and more able to receive so great a guest they should do more and more works of durable mercy and kindness. After all, if God is love, charity should know no limit, for God himself cannot be confined within limits.

  What is the appropriate time for performing works of charity? My beloved children, any time is the right time, but these days of Lent provide a special encouragement. Those who want to be present at the Lord’s Passover in holiness of mind and body should seek above all to win this grace. Charity contains all other virtues and covers a multitude of sins.

  As we prepare to celebrate that greatest of all mysteries, by which the blood of Jesus Christ destroyed our sins, let us first of all make ready the sacrificial offerings — that is, our works of mercy. What God in his goodness has already given to us, let us give to those who have sinned against us.

  And to the poor also, and to those who are afflicted in various ways, let us show a more open-handed generosity so that God may be thanked through many voices and the needy may be fed as a result of our fasting. No act of devotion on the part of the faithful gives God more pleasure than the support that is lavished on his poor. Where God finds charity with its loving concern, there he recognises the reflection of his own fatherly care.

  Do not be put off giving by a lack of resources. A generous spirit is itself great wealth, and there can be no shortage of material for generosity where it is Christ who feeds and Christ who is fed. His hand is present in all this activity: his hand, which multiplies the bread by breaking it and increases it by giving it away.

  When you give alms, do not be anxious but full of happiness. The greatest treasure will go to the one who has kept the least for himself. The holy apostle Paul tells us: He who provides seed for the sower will give bread for food, provide you with more seed, and increase the harvest of your goodness, in Christ Jesus our Lord, who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen.

 

 

                              Eucharistic Adoration Live Online HERE    

[BarbTherese]

                                      From Divine Office (General Calendar)   

                                Wednesday 21st March 2023 - 3rd Week LENT

 

Morning Prayer - Lauds - Morning Prayer

Evening Prayer - Vespers - Evening Prayer

Night Prayer - Night Prayer (Compline)

 

                                     Second Reading Office of Readings 

                                               Wednesday 22nd March 2023

 

From a letter by Saint Maximus the Confessor, abbot

                                    The mercy of God to the penitent

God’s will is to save us, and nothing pleases him more than our coming back to him with true repentance. The heralds of truth and the ministers of divine grace have told us this from the beginning, repeating it in every age. Indeed, God’s desire for our salvation is the primary and pre-eminent sign of his infinite goodness. Precisely in order to show that there is nothing closer to God’s heart than this, the divine Word of God the Father, with untold condescension, lived among us in the flesh, and did, suffered, and said all that was necessary to reconcile us to God the Father, when we were at enmity with him, and to restore us to the life of blessedness from which we had been exiled. He healed our physical infirmities by miracles; he freed us from our sins, many and grievous as they were, by suffering and dying, taking them upon himself as if he were answerable for them, sinless though he was. He also taught us in many different ways that we should wish to imitate him by our own kindness and genuine love for one another.

  So it was that Christ proclaimed that he had come to call sinners to repentance, not the righteous, and that it was not the healthy who required a doctor, but the sick. He declared that he had come to look for the sheep that was lost, and that it was to the lost sheep of the house of Israel that he had been sent. Speaking more obscurely in the parable of the silver coin, he tells us that the purpose of his coming was to reclaim the royal image, which had been coated with the filth of sin. “You can be sure there is joy in heaven’, he said, over one sinner who repents.

  To give the same lesson he revived the man who, having fallen into the hands of the brigands, had been left stripped and half-dead from his wounds; he poured wine and oil on the wounds, bandaged them, placed the man on his own mule and brought him to an inn, where he left sufficient money to have him cared for, and promised to repay any further expense on his return.

  Again, he told of how that Father, who is goodness itself, was moved with pity for his profligate son who returned and made amends by repentance; how he embraced him, dressed him once more in the fine garments that befitted his own dignity, and did not reproach him for any of his sins.

  So too, when he found wandering in the mountains and hills the one sheep that had strayed from God’s flock of a hundred, he brought it back to the fold, but he did not exhaust it by driving it ahead of him. Instead, he placed it on his own shoulders and so, compassionately, he restored it safely to the flock.

  So also he cried out: ‘Come to me, all you that toil and are heavy of heart’. ‘Accept my yoke’, he said, by which he meant his commands, or rather, the whole way of life that he taught us in the Gospel. He then speaks of a burden, but that is only because repentance seems difficult. In fact, however, my yoke is easy, he assures us, and my burden is light.

  Then again he instructs us in divine justice and goodness, telling us to be like our heavenly Father, holy, perfect and merciful. Forgive, he says, and you will be forgiven. Behave towards other people as you would wish them to behave towards you.

                                                   

Eucharistic Adoration Live Online: HERE

[BarbTherese]

                                     From Divine Office (General Calendar)   

                                Thursday 23rd March 2023 - 3rd Week LENT

 

Morning Prayer - Lauds - Morning Prayer

Evening Prayer - Vespers - Evening Prayer

Night Prayer - Night Prayer (Compline)

 

                                     Second Reading Office of Readings 

                                               Thursday 23rd March 2023

From a sermon of Saint Leo the Great, pope

                                       Contemplating the Lord's passion

True reverence for the Lord’s passion means fixing the eyes of our heart on Jesus crucified and recognising in him our own humanity.

  The earth – our earthly nature – should tremble at the suffering of its Redeemer. The rocks – the hearts of unbelievers – should burst asunder. The dead, imprisoned in the tombs of their mortality, should come forth, the massive stones now ripped apart. Foreshadowings of the future resurrection should appear in the holy city, the Church of God: what is to happen to our bodies should now take place in our hearts.

  No one, however weak, is denied a share in the victory of the cross. No one is beyond the help of the prayer of Christ. His prayer brought benefit to the multitude that raged against him. How much more does it bring to those who turn to him in repentance.

  Ignorance has been destroyed, obstinacy has been overcome. The sacred blood of Christ has quenched the flaming sword that barred access to the tree of life. The age-old night of sin has given place to the true light.

  The Christian people are invited to share the riches of paradise. All who have been reborn have the way open before them to return to their native land, from which they had been exiled. Unless indeed they close off for themselves the path that could be opened before the faith of a thief.

  The business of this life should not preoccupy us with its anxiety and pride, so that we no longer strive with all the love of our heart to be like our Redeemer, and to follow his example. Everything that he did or suffered was for our salvation: he wanted his body to share the goodness of its head.

  First of all, in taking our human nature while remaining God, so that the Word became man, he left no member of the human race, the unbeliever excepted, without a share in his mercy. Who does not share a common nature with Christ if he has welcomed Christ, who took our nature, and is reborn in the Spirit through whom Christ was conceived?

  Again, who cannot recognise in Christ his own infirmities? Who would not recognise that Christ’s eating and sleeping, his sadness and his shedding of tears of love are marks of the nature of a slave?

  It was this nature of a slave that had to be healed of its ancient wounds and cleansed of the defilement of sin. For that reason the only-begotten Son of God became also the son of man. He was to have both the reality of a human nature and the fullness of the godhead.

  The body that lay lifeless in the tomb is ours. The body that rose again on the third day is ours. The body that ascended above all the heights of heaven to the right hand of the Father’s glory is ours. If then we walk in the way of his commandments, and are not ashamed to acknowledge the price he paid for our salvation in a lowly body, we too are to rise to share his glory. The promise he made will be fulfilled in the sight of all: Whoever acknowledges me before men, I too will acknowledge him before my Father who is in heaven.

Eucharistic Adoration Online -live: HERE

 

                                                   

[BarbTherese]

                                  From Divine Office (General Calendar)   

                                Friday 24th March 2023 - 4TH Week LENT

 

Morning Prayer - Lauds -  MORNING PRAYER

Evening Prayer - Vespers -  EVENING PRAYER

Night Prayer -  NIGHT PRAYER (Compline)

 

                                     Second Reading Office of Readings 

                                               Friday 24th March 2023

The Paschal sacrament brings together in unity of faith those who are far away

Brethren, how fine a thing it is to move from festival to festival, from prayer to prayer, from holy day to holy day. The time is now at hand when we enter on a new beginning: the proclamation of the blessed Passover, in which the Lord was sacrificed. We feed as on the food of life, we constantly refresh our souls with his precious blood, as from a fountain. Yet we are always thirsting, burning to be satisfied. But he himself is present for those who thirst and in his goodness invites them to the feast day. Our Saviour repeats his words: If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.

  He quenched the thirst not only of those who came to him then. Whenever anyone seeks him he is freely admitted to the presence of the Saviour. The grace of the feast is not restricted to one occasion. Its rays of glory never set. It is always at hand to enlighten the mind of those who desire it. Its power is always there for those whose minds have been enlightened and who meditate day and night on the holy Scriptures, like the one who is called blessed in the holy psalm: Blessed is the man who has not followed the counsel of the wicked, or stood where sinners stand, or sat in the seat of the scornful, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night.

  Moreover, my friends, the God who first established this feast for us allows us to celebrate it each year. He who gave up his Son to death for our salvation, from the same motive gives us this feast, which is commemorated every year. This feast guides us through the trials that meet us in this world. God now gives us the joy of salvation that shines out from this feast, as he brings us together to form one assembly, uniting us all in spirit in every place, allowing us to pray together and to offer common thanksgiving, as is our duty on the feast. Such is the wonder of his love: he gathers to this feast those who are far apart, and brings together in unity of faith those who may be physically separated from each other.

Eucharistic Adoration Live Online: HERE

 

                                                   

[BarbTherese]

                     

                                  From Divine Office (General Calendar)   

                                Saturday 25th March 2023 - 4TH Week LENT

                            SOLEMNITY OF THE ANNUNCIATION TO MARY

 

Morning Prayer - Lauds -  MORNING PRAYER

Evening Prayer - Vespers -  EVENING PRAYER

Night Prayer -  NIGHT PRAYER (COMPLINE)

 

                                     Second Reading Office of Readings 

                                               Saturday 25th March 2023

  

From a letter of Saint Leo the Great, pope

                          The mystery of man's reconciliation with God

Lowliness is assumed by majesty, weakness by power, mortality by eternity. To pay the debt of our sinful state, a nature that was incapable of suffering was joined to one that could suffer. Thus, in keeping with the healing that we needed, one and the same mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ, was able to die in one nature, and unable to die in the other.

  He who is true God was therefore born in the complete and perfect nature of a true man, whole in his own nature, whole in ours. By our nature we mean what the Creator had fashioned in us from the beginning, and took to himself in order to restore it.

  For in the Saviour there was no trace of what the deceiver introduced and man, being misled, allowed to enter. It does not follow that because he submitted to sharing in our human weakness he therefore shared in our sins.

  He took the nature of a servant without stain of sin, enlarging our humanity without diminishing his divinity. He emptied himself; though invisible he made himself visible, though Creator and Lord of all things he chose to be one of us mortal men. Yet this was the condescension of compassion, not the loss of omnipotence. So he who in the nature of God had created man, became in the nature of a servant, man himself.

  Thus the Son of God enters this lowly world. He comes down from the throne of heaven, yet does not separate himself from the Father’s glory. He is born in a new condition, by a new birth.

  He was born in a new condition, for, invisible in his own nature, he became visible in ours. Beyond our grasp, he chose to come within our grasp. Existing before time began, he began to exist at a moment in time. Lord of the universe, he hid his infinite glory and took the nature of a servant. Incapable of suffering as God, he did not refuse to be a man, capable of suffering. Immortal, he chose to be subject to the laws of death.

  He who is true God is also true man. There is no falsehood in this unity as long as the lowliness of man and the pre-eminence of God coexist in mutual relationship.

  As God does not change by his condescension, so man is not swallowed up by being exalted. Each nature exercises its own activity, in communion with the other. The Word does what is proper to the Word, the flesh fulfils what is proper to the flesh.

  One nature is resplendent with miracles, the other falls victim to injuries. As the Word does not lose equality with the Father’s glory, so the flesh does not leave behind the nature of our race.

  One and the same person – this must be said over and over again – is truly the Son of God and truly the son of man. He is God in virtue of the fact that in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He is man in virtue of the fact that the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.

Eucharistic Adoration Live Online: HERE

[BarbTherese]

 

 

                                                    THE INCARNATION

All quotes in quotation boxes below are taken from The Second Reading in the Office of Readings for the Solemnity Feast of The Annunciation, 25th March 2023.

It is at the moment of Mary's "Be it done unto me according to Thy Word" that Jesus, Second Person of The Blessed and Most Sacred Trinity, became a fully human being and took of Mary's flesh and became incarnated and fully human, as Mary had been.

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 He was born in a new condition, for, invisible in his own nature, he became visible in ours. Beyond our grasp, he chose to come within our grasp. Existing before time began, he began to exist at a moment in time. Lord of the universe, he hid his infinite glory and took the nature of a servant. Incapable of suffering as God, he did not refuse to be a man, capable of suffering. Immortal, he chose to be subject to the laws of death.

16 minutes ago, BarbTherese said:

  As God does not change by his condescension, so man is not swallowed up by being exalted. Each nature exercises its own activity, in communion with the other. The Word does what is proper to the Word, the flesh fulfils what is proper to the flesh.

 

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  He took the nature of a servant without stain of sin, enlarging our humanity without diminishing his divinity. He emptied himself; though invisible he made himself visible, though Creator and Lord of all things he chose to be one of us mortal men. Yet this was the condescension of compassion, not the loss of omnipotence. So he who in the nature of God had created man, became in the nature of a servant, man himself.

 

Edited March 22, 2023 by BarbTherese

[BarbTherese]

  

 

I had the above framed and hanging in every office I had while in the workforce.  I also had the record (it was record way back then) at home.  As I played it just now on YouTube, I suddenly became aware of Jesus Present in this little cell of mine in this Aged Care Home.  Laudate Dominum Deo Gratius Amen.

[BarbTherese]

 

 

 

 

 

 

Soolaimon" can mean "hello," "welcome," "good-bye" and "peace be with you

 

[BarbTherese]

   

 

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To read the book, the full text free onlne of: Johnathon Livingston Seagull, go to: https://archive.org/stream/JohnathanLivingstonSeagull-AStory/jls_djvu.txt

 

 

                 

 

 

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"I Am The Way, The Truth and The Life" (John Ch 14).............."Know The Truth and the Truth shall set you free" (John Ch 8).

I am not saying that Neil Diamond or anything he wrote is the way, truth or life - what  I am saying is that we cannot put The Holy Spirit in a compartment, nor restrict Him within boundaries.  We need to be alert to His Presence anywhere, everywhere and at all times, for gold is wherever it is found.  What is He saying to me in this situation or whatever?  What He will do is break open my compartments and tear down my boundaries, drive out my fears. Set me free to find my unique identity and call to follow Jesus.

A priest in my teens once asked me "What led you to Jesus?"

I quoted the writings of a Roman Historian that "Jesus of Nazareth was crucified in Rome today."

Father replied with a question: "So a pagan led you to Jesus?"

Father was quite correct and that made me think.

 

[BarbTherese]

As a teenager, I had plenty of questions, lots of doubts.  I used to wonder how we knew that The Gospels were true.  Then, when I read what Josephus, a Roman Historian, had written, I knew that Jesus had existed; that The Gospels were true.  It was like a briefest touch of only a second or two that told me so much. That marked the time in my journey when my understanding was touched by The Holy Spirit with something a step beyond belief, it was knowledge which left no room for questions nor doubts.  It was Gift planted, and I never questioned again.  Perhaps I can term it an opening flowering of the Gifts of understanding and knowledge, two Gifts of the seven we receive at Confirmation.

Such like experiences walk hand in hand with my bipolar illness. How is that possible? - dunno! It is what it is.  In fact, when I was lost completely to any sort of 'sanity' and logic, reasoning, in the early stages of bipolar, it was the music of Bob Dylan and Neil Diamond primarily that led/pointed me back to 'sanity' etc., understanding beyond belief.  Gold is wherever it is found.  I pray for them both, with myself and The Church, the whole world.  Amen.

I just wish I was better at this penance thing, although I do suspect that if I was better, I would be full of spiritual pride, which is death to the spirit of Jesus and His Gospel.  Weakness can help keep one humble.  St Teresa of Avila wrote that to have sinned too keeps one humble.  St Albert wrote in the Ancient Rule for Carmel that humility is the foundation of ALL virtue. These are the positives one can draw out of the negatives of faults, failings, and sinfulness.  Please grant me humility, Lord, humility in Truth for nothing false can be found anywhere in You..........and I have no basis, no just reason, for pride.  Plenty of falsehood in me.

Bob Dylan - lyrics: "I and I" https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/bobdylan/iandi.html

 

[BarbTherese]

For a very good friend of mine in his journey through sadness:

 

 

 

[BarbTherese]

The Shell Poem by James Stephens

The Shell

AND then I pressed the shell
Close to my ear
And listened well,
And straightway like a bell
Came low and clear
The slow, sad murmur of the distant seas,
Whipped by an icy breeze
Upon a shore
Wind-swept and desolate.
It was a sunless strand that never bore
The footprint of a man,
Nor felt the weight
Since time began
Of any human quality or stir
Save what the dreary winds and waves incur.
And in the hush of waters was the sound
Of pebbles rolling round,
For ever rolling with a hollow sound.
And bubbling sea-weeds as the waters go
Swish to and fro
Their long, cold tentacles of slimy grey.
There was no day,
Nor ever came a night
Setting the stars alight
To wonder at the moon:
Was twilight only and the frightened croon,
Smitten to whimpers, of the dreary wind
And waves that journeyed blind-
And then I loosed my ear ...

O, it was sweet
To hear a cart go jolting down the street.

James Stephens

[BarbTherese]

 From Divine Office (General Calendar)   

                      Sunday 26th March 2023 - 5th Week LENT

 

Morning Prayer - Lauds - MORNING PRAYER

Evening Prayer - Vespers - EVENING PRAYER

Night Prayer - NIGHT PRAYER (Compline)

 

                                     Second Reading Office of Readings 

                                         SUNDAY 26th March 2023

From a sermon of Saint Leo the Great, pope

                                              In praise of charity

In John’s gospel the Lord says: By this love you have for one another, everyone will know you are my disciples. In a letter by John we read: My dear people, let us love one another since love comes from God and everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Anyone who fails to love can never have known God, because God is love.

  So the faithful should look into themselves and carefully examine their minds and the impulses of their hearts. If they find some of the fruits of love stored in their hearts then they must not doubt God’s presence within them, but to make themselves more and more able to receive so great a guest they should do more and more works of durable mercy and kindness. After all, if God is love, charity should know no limit, for God himself cannot be confined within limits.

  What is the appropriate time for performing works of charity? My beloved children, any time is the right time, but these days of Lent provide a special encouragement. Those who want to be present at the Lord’s Passover in holiness of mind and body should seek above all to win this grace. Charity contains all other virtues and covers a multitude of sins.

  As we prepare to celebrate that greatest of all mysteries, by which the blood of Jesus Christ destroyed our sins, let us first of all make ready the sacrificial offerings — that is, our works of mercy. What God in his goodness has already given to us, let us give to those who have sinned against us.

  And to the poor also, and to those who are afflicted in various ways, let us show a more open-handed generosity so that God may be thanked through many voices and the needy may be fed as a result of our fasting. No act of devotion on the part of the faithful gives God more pleasure than the support that is lavished on his poor. Where God finds charity with its loving concern, there he recognises the reflection of his own fatherly care.

  Do not be put off giving by a lack of resources. A generous spirit is itself great wealth, and there can be no shortage of material for generosity where it is Christ who feeds and Christ who is fed. His hand is present in all this activity: his hand, which multiplies the bread by breaking it and increases it by giving it away.

  When you give alms, do not be anxious but full of happiness. The greatest treasure will go to the one who has kept the least for himself. The holy apostle Paul tells us: He who provides seed for the sower will give bread for food, provide you with more seed, and increase the harvest of your goodness, in Christ Jesus our Lord, who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen.

EUCHARISTIC ADORATION LIVE ONLINE: HERE