Private Vows in The Laity/Spirituality

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August 11, 2016

Don't Give In To Discouragement (Catholic Exchange article)

Dom Hubert van Zeller

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Excerpt Only "............Even if we do not reproduce the Passion in any other re­spect, we have the chance of reproducing it in perseverance under exhaustion. If, as we have seen, the Passion is con­stantly being renewed in the members of Christ’s Mystical Body, there must always be some aspect of Christ’s suffering to which our own personal sufferings can show an affinity. If we are bearing witness to the same truth, opposing the same evil, moving in the same direction, then the same means must be used by us as those that were used by Christ — namely, patience and endurance in the all-but-defeating experience of life. The effort that we make to regain the position lost by ei­ther circumstances or sin will reflect the effort made by Christ to return to the interrupted work of cross-bearing. Nothing of our experience need be wasted, not even our sinfulness................"............

 

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Today here in Adelaide, the sun has gone contrary to yesterday.  The sky is grey and overcast - the weather generally is cold as we move on towards Spring in September.  With the grey and overcast day, all the inspiration I thought I might have had has vanished.  All that never deserts me is a knowledge of God's Love and Mercy, even if it is only confidence on the intellectual level without any emotional support nor input save on a level that I cannot explain.  I am growing more aware too that I suffer an active bipolar condition without the serious psychotic episodes which once marked my brand of bipolar and by which I identified my particular brand of the illness.  I have never denied suffering the illness in the past - it seems to be settling in on a new level just now, a more internalised active and conscious level.  I am arriving at the knowledge that my brand of the illness has changed and I can no longer identify it by serious psychotic episodes. I need to identify and reflect from a different angle.   Again, I don't really have the precise and accurate wording.  I can put it into the context of the Passion of Jesus which is meaningful and this does speak to my previous post "Don't Give In To Discouragement".  It is difficult (not impossible) not to give in to it discouragement when it is what one is feeling and intensely on a feeling level.  My interior dispositions, however, whatever they might be, no matter how negative, do not show in my outward behaviour and relationships.........thankfully!  While collecting for St Vinnies in a local shopping centre (and again next Friday) I ran into two old friends and our exchange was warm and loving, nothing of discouragement or a negative type of mood.

I was reading Sr Laurel O'Neal's website this morning "Stillsong Hermitage" and read the following poem by Teilhard de Chardin's poem there.  Since one cannot copy anything on her website, I chased down the poem below on Google.  Incidentally, there is some excellent reading on on Sister's website  "Stillsong Hermitage" website

The poem spoke to me, if not as consolation then at least as awareness and insight in a spiritual context of where I seem to be just now, which really is a nowhere sort of place to me.  It is always a consoling sort of place, however, when someone seems to understand one and even to be or have been in the same place or experience "bear ye one another's burdens" as it were.  It tells me that I am not going crazy and that others have and have had the experience too.  I daresay rather confidently that if the sun came out shining and grey skies became blue, my attitude and reflections would change too.  I have long been aware of this weather related yo-yoing and see-sawing and am now highly suspicious it might be bipolar related.  I guess I have always thought it might be bipolar related, but now I am becoming more confident that it probably is.  This is not to write off faults and failings as any fault of bipolar, not at all.  Those I own as my own creation.

My hope is, given time, that I will start to make some sense once I am able to put things together.  I have no reason to think that I will not going by past experiences.  Because of those past experiences, I have no reason not to actively hope.  Just now, as is obvious, I am writing from a confusing sort of place.
 

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Patient Trust (by Teilhard de Chardin)

Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are quite naturally impatient in everything
to reach the end without delay.
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way to something
unknown, something new.
And yet it is the law of all progress
that it is made by passing through
some stages of instability—
and that it may take a very long time.

And so I think it is with you;
your ideas mature gradually—let them grow,
let them shape themselves, without undue haste.
Don’t try to force them on,
as though you could be today what time
(that is to say, grace and circumstances
acting on your own good will)
will make of you tomorrow.

Only God could say what this new spirit
gradually forming within you will be.
Give Our Lord the benefit of believing
that his hand is leading you,
and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself
in suspense and incomplete.

 

 

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Always I am in the Presence of Jesus (I rarely speak of it)  and it just occurred to me that this lousy place I find myself in is actually a place to be thankful for.  No matter how negative it seems to be emotionally, mentally and every other ally.  No matter how confusing and dry without consolations much at all -  it is not sinful and insofar as it is not sinful it is where God has placed me and I will give thanks.  It rather reminds me of what St Teresa of Avila said about the weather in a previous post "There is no such thing as bad weather. All weather is good because it is God’s."

But give me a minute or so, and I will have lost that thought too!

Edited August 13, 2016 by BarbaraTherese

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I think I am slowly and prayerfully putting things together, although not quite there as yet.  Together re a need to reflect on my bipolar condition from a different angle and as an ongoing condition.  This is not to write off faults and failings, sinfulness, as caused by bipolar - never that.  Bipolar might (and I think it does) trigger changes in mood and at certain times.  Also stress is something I do not handle well sometimes and this has long been written off medically as a result of bipolar.  There might be changes of mood and/or stress situations at times, but these do not of necessity mean that I am confused or unable to make sound choices and act on them - other than confused possibly by the sudden mood change or stress itself.  I am quite able in mood changes and stress situations to reflect on right and wrong, including on deep spiritual levels, and to act accordingly - while common sense and judgement might be a bit off kilter.  It is only when "a bit off kilter" moves to "right off kilter" that a psychotic episode is a potential.  Nowadays, I seem to be able, even under "right off kilter" internal situations and hence a situation of potential psychosis, to work through it without a resulting psychotic episode necessitating hospitalization; however, that is not a fixed rule at all, it is only an experience to date over the past 12 years it must be now.  I am well aware and have long been aware that bipolar can be an insidious type of illness and a serious episode can result at most any time.  It is very difficult, however, after 12 years of no serious episodes not only to forget what it is like, but also to pass from memory the potential of reoccurrence at any time.  That is to be forgetful unless one deliberately applies oneself to recalling those memories........and something that I would do only with tremendous reluctance and for no other reason than that such memories are too distressing to me.

Today, Solemnity of The Assumption, my Home Mass to renew life private vows is now two years in the past, while my private vows must be getting close to 40 years standing.  It has never been (or rarely been perhaps is better) an easy journey, although just now it is as difficult as it has ever been - the only difference is the content of the difficulty.  My private vows are still intact as laid out in my own rule of life.  Deo Gratius.  All is Grace.

____________________________

Reading some discussion sites and threads, it can be very difficult for a person refused entrance into religious life when the life is praised so highly as the very best of God's calls and vocations - and the life is publicly celebrated at the various stages.  Such a person refused entrance into religious life quite naturally feels rejection and very often too I know (although not my personal experience) the rejection is conveyed in words that are quite cruel to the actual person, while the person doing the rejecting will not at all have intended to be cruel.  The wording is either cruel or condescending.  Such a person being rejected can feel not only rejected by religious life but by God Himself and the very experience of a heartfelt desire to love and serve God in the very best way available becomes the source of tremendous suffering and fears of rejection by God as well.

Although I left religious life both times through my own choice entirely, leadership could not resist having a parting rather quite nasty parting shot at me anyway.  However and very thankfully, it was eventually water off a duck's back because I knew she was very wrong.  Her comment did not become lasting useless baggage I carried around weighing me down.   But mine was indeed a blest experience - many others I know do carry around cruel type comments and statements as tremendous baggage for a long part of their journey -  or even for the whole of their whole journey.

While spiritual texts hail The Cross as the Way of Jesus, rather often in the living out of one's life it is not pointed out that in suffering of every kind one can indeed be walking very intimately the Way of Jesus and with Him.  It all depends on one's attitude and perspective to the sufferings and difficulties of life.  There are sufferings too in life that are 'respectable type sufferings' and there are those that have no respectability at all about them - and the latter just might be the most difficult sufferings of all.  After all, on the cross, Jesus was not pretty at all and died a most disgraceful type of death in His day "spurned and avoided by men, a man of suffering, accustomed to infirmity, One of those from whom men hide their faces, spurned, and we held him in no esteem.Yet it was our infirmities that he bore, our sufferings that he endured,

While we thought of him as stricken, as one smitten by God and afflicted." Isaiah Chapter 53

...........and this is something that gets to me every so often.  Why do I not hold it constant in all I think, say and do that The Cross and suffering is the Way of Jesus and welcome it with Peace and thanksgiving........even a certain Joy - and the reason for that certain Joy, it seems to me, is very obvious.  One reason I do not hold suffering as I should can be, I have noticed, is that one's own fears or nudges from satan can cause one to be fearful that one's state of suffering is not only deserved but is intrinsically sinful.  If I am in no way choosing the state in which I find myself it is not sinful - and truth is I deserve far worse than I have ever received.  Thankfully, so very thankfully, we are never dished out what we actually deserve.....never.  The intrinsic reason to me is that we do not insight what exactly sin is in relationship to The Glory of God, or His Intrinsic Nature.

I am slowly reading just now the Life of St Teresa of Avila and she notices a similar in her own life.  It is where in her early years she had as it were one foot or investment in Heaven as it were and the other on earth and the things of this world........and this caused her tremendous suffering, seems to me she is stating that she was a house divided against itself.  I think this is probably a common experience while the actual details may differ.  As a lay person, I need to remember that St Teresa and St John of The Cross wrote largely for enclosed contemplatives, whereas I, as a lay person, am called into the world for the world; nevertheless, most often there is a rule or model underlying the writings of these two remarkable saints for two only, masters of the spiritual life, that can be applied with reflection to a life in the laity.

I think that those called to secular life in the laity (for one only) and as an investment, must needs have an investment in both Heaven and earth with the intention of dedicating the things of earth to God as justly and rightfully His anyway - and in the interests of "Your Kingdom come", or for the sake of The Kingdom.  Newer insights by The Church no longer ask us (as in the 16th century) to view the world as intrinsically bad and to be abandoned, rather the world is created by God and somehow reflects Him - and it is created by Love, His Love - however, the world has strayed with us and it becomes our task to return it to its rightful place in God, for the sake of His Kingdom.

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"For creation awaits with eager expectation the revelation of the children of God; for creation was made subject to futility, not of its own accord but because of the one who subjected it, in hope that creation itself would be set free from slavery to corruption and share in the glorious freedom of the children of God.

We know that all creation is groaning in labor pains even until now;

and not only that, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, we also groan within ourselves as we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies." Romans Chapter 8

 

 

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St Vincent de Paul Society - Daily Reflection

Daily Reflection – August 16

Aug 16, 2016 12:00 am

“If we wish to give satisfaction to our good God, we must not stop to consider what we would like to do,

but rather what he wishes us to do.

Our Lord will know where to find you when he intends to give you other work to do.” – St. Louise de Marillac

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St Vincent de Paul Society - Daily Reflection

Daily Reflection – August 17

 

“God does not ask you to go beyond the means he has given you.” – St. Vincent de Paul

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I see my psychiatrist on 1st September next and taking time to let things prayerfully internalise (mini retreat) and discuss with my psychiatrist - and after that I can discuss it with my SD along with psychiatric confirmation or lack of it - although I am quite confident it will be confirmation.  It is rather new to me that I might have a quite active bipolar condition (although to this point not psychotic) related to the weather: change of seasons, change of weather generally and of course stress. I have also come, I think, to grasp how bipolar expresses its presence under such conditions.   I will be open too to further comments from my psychiatrist.  She has my psychiatric history going right back into my overtly psychotic years.

My psychiatrist has told me in the past that I am eccentric and that not only others interpret eccentricities as symptomatic of mental illness but that I can do so too (in relation to my own behaviours).  Eccentricity however is not mental illness.  It can be quite confusing to me personally (i.e. bipolar, eccentric or normal?)- but the more I can understand and identify, the higher are my chances of remaining in control and adopting socially acceptable type of behaviours...........and hence, hopefully, avoid the stigma and tag of "mentally ill", which even today can be an exclusionary factor.  It closes doors of opportunities still.  Not only those factors, but staying in control and adopting socially acceptable behaviours, enables me to be just another person - rather than identified by some tag which then tends to become in the minds and behaviours of others the sum total of my identity isolating me with a negative determination or tag.  I can become to others simply "mentally ill" and a tag which others have allotted. It can be impossible to move beyond that allocation as in my previous parish.  I am dismissed on all fronts, at all times, as "mentally ill".  And all embracing dismissiveness it is.

Although, I must admit, I am weary of the quest to avoid the tag and stigma.  I thought I could do so in this newer parish, but it now seems I might be unable to do so at all. Mental illness and eccentricity are not sinful - why worry about them?  It does seem to me however that charity towards others is a factor too in my struggle against what Divine Providence has permitted.   Should I accept these permitted factors or engage in the struggle against them?  These things, I think, will be a subject for my SD.

 

I

Edited August 21, 2016 by BarbaraTherese

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St Vincent de Paul Society - Daily Reflection

Daily Reflection – August 21

 

“God made the interests of the afflicted His own.” – St. Louise de Marillac

 

 

Edited August 22, 2016 by BarbaraTherese

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Feast of The Queenship of Mary

Mary, undoer of knots, pray for us

 

The painting depicts Mary suspended between heaven and earth, resplendent with light. The Holy Spirit in the form of a dove is above her head, reminding us that she became Mother of God and full of grace by virtue of the third person of the Trinity. She is dressed resplendently in crimson, and a deep blue mantle representing her glory as Queen of the Universe. A crown of twelve stars adorning her head signifies her Queenship of the Apostles. Her feet crush the head of the serpent indicating her part in the victory over Satan. She is surrounded by angels, signifying her position as Queen of the Angels and Queen of Heaven. In her hands is a knotted white ribbon, which she is serenely untying. Assisting her at the task are two angels: one presents the knots of our lives to her, while another angel presents the ribbon, freed from knots, to us. http://www.thinkingfaith.org/articles/20130521_1.htm

 

Edited August 22, 2016 by BarbaraTherese

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Insight into St Vincent de Paul - the saint and the man, the priest and religious - and the founder:

http://famvin.org/en/2016/08/20/vincent-tell-good-story/
 

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Excerpt only: "On March 28, 1659, a year and a half before his death, he publicly and humbly professed in front of the community:

I lose my temper, I change, I complain, I find fault … at other times I am very brusque with some [people] and speak loudly and harshly … other, boorish persons like me, present themselves with a stern, gloomy or forbidding expression (CCD:XII:154, 155, 156).

His gascon character was prone to exaggeration and yet his conversation was very appealing and that could be viewed as a sign that he was not as dry as he said he was. We know that he was able to combine seriousness with humor and the pleasant with the useful.

One has simply........."......read on at above link.

 

 

 

Pope Francis's Personal Devotion to Our Lady,

Untier of Knots (and a title of Our Lady that really appeals to me too)

http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/commentandblogs/2015/09/24/the-popes-personal-devotion-to-mary-untier-of-knots/

 

Pope Francis's Personal Devotion to Our Lady,

Untier of Knots (and a title of Our Lady that really appeals to me too)

http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/commentandblogs/2015/09/24/the-popes-personal-devotion-to-mary-untier-of-knots/

Edited August 22, 2016 by BarbaraTherese

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Saint Clement of Rome, Pope from about 90 to 100
Letter to the Corinthians, § 7-13 (trans. Edgar J. Goodspeed, 1950)

http://dailygospel.org/main.php?language=AM&module=commentary&localdate=20160822

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“Return to me with all your heart” (Jl 2,12)

 

      Let us survey all generations and learn that in generation after generation the Master has offered those who wished to turn to him an opportunity to repent. Noah preached repentance and those who obeyed were saved. Jonah warned the men of Nineveh of destruction, but they repented of their sins and besought God and were forgiven and saved, although they were aliens from God…

      Wishing to give all his beloved a share in his repentance, he has established it by his omnipotent decree. Let us therefore obey his magnificent and glorious desire and, as suppliants of his mercy and goodness, let us fall before him and return to his compassion, forsaking labor that is in vain and strife and jealousy that lead to death….

      So let us be humble-minded, brethren, and put aside all pretentions and conceit and folly and anger… With this command and these orders of our Lord Jesus let us strengthen one another that we may live in obedience to his holy words in humble-mindedness. For the holy word says: “This is the one whom I approve: the lowly and afflicted person who trembles at my word,” (Is 66:2).

 

 

 

 

Edited August 22, 2016 by BarbaraTherese

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My foster son and his wife called by today.  My fridge had broken down and my washing machine had been long playing up.  They have bought me new ones !!!!   After that they took me to lunch.  Am I blest or am I not !!!  I am still flabbergasted at their thoughtfulness and generosity.

My foster son is now coming up 53yrs of age and I began fostering him at 8yrs old.  His very early years were traumatic and horrible.........but his life now is a real credit to him and God has blest Him with a lovely wife and a spirit of kindness, thoughtfulness and generosity, shared by his wife.  A son and daughter in law to be proud about as I am.

God is always praised through all that choose to be channels of His Goodness and Generosity.  His Humility shines and is praised too in that He as origin sort of hides behind the goodness, kindness and thoughtfulness of others, quite content that they might reap the praise and gratitude and He delights that they do.

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https://www.youtube.com/embed/cH_LLGiE0f0

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Daily Gospel.org - Reflection Tue 23rd August 2016

Tuesday of the Twenty-first week in Ordinary Time

Commentary of the day
Saint Peter Damian (1007-1072), hermit then Bishop, Doctor of the Church
Opuscule 51 ; PL 145, 749f (Migne 1992, p. 125 rev.)

 

"You have neglected the weightier things of the Law: judgment and mercy and fidelity"

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         If you want to make your way along the road of true religion, doing the right thing with discretion and profit, then you need to be austere and hard with yourself but always appear happy and open with others, striving in your own heart to walk along the heights of uprightness while knowing how to stoop kindly towards those who are weak. In short, you should moderate the rigors of justice before the judgment of your conscience in such a way that you are not hard on sinners but open to forgiveness and indulgent…

Consider your own sin to be dangerous and mortal; that of others, the weakness of the human condition. The fault that, in your own case, you consider worthy of severe correction, think of as only deserving a light tap of the stick in others. Don’t be more just than the just! Fear to sin but don’t hesitate to forgive the sinner. True justice is not that which throws the souls of the brethren into the pit of despair… How dangerous is the fire that, in burning up the bushes, threatens to consume the whole house with the fierceness of its flames. No, someone who willingly picks their way through other people’s failings will not avoid sin since, even if moved by the zeal for justice, sooner or later that person will fall into disparagement.

Clearly, if our own life didn’t seem so successful to us, then that of others wouldn’t seem to us so shocking. And if, as should be the case, we were severe as judges of ourselves, the faults of others would not find in us such exacting censors.

 

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Dearest Holy Mother, Most Holy Mary, you undo the knots that suffocate your children, extend your merciful hands to me. I entrust to You today this knot....and all the negative consequences that it provokes in my life. I give you this knot that torments me and makes me unhappy and so impedes me from uniting myself to You and Your Son Jesus, my Savior.
I run to You, Mary, Undoer of Knots because I trust you and I know that you never despise a sinning child who comes to ask you for help. I believe that you can undo this knot because Jesus grants you everything. I believe that you want to undo this knot because you are my Mother. I believe that You will do this because you love me with eternal love.

Thank you, Dear Mother.

Mary, Undoer of Knots, pray for me.

The one who seeks grace, finds it in Mary's hands.

 

 

Edited August 23, 2016 by BarbaraTherese

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It is quite obvious from what is happening in Australia that probably the majority of Islamic immigrants interpret the Koran peacefully without a call for violent oppression.  While there is a minority probably who turn to the Koran to justify violence.  It indeed seems wrongful to me to generalise and call it "Islamic violence", which seems to indicate that all professing the Moslem faith beliefs are violent or inclined that way.  They are not.

If we do insist that all of Islam is violent calling for violent oppression then we are certainly not unifying, nor accurate in fact assessment, rather we are contributing to the breakup of our communities, to dividing and in (possibly violent) opposition to each other.  We are spreading inaccuracies. We are probably even contributing to violence and radicalisation of our Moslem immigrants. especially perhaps the young. Many young Moslems here in Australia do struggle to find a place in our society.

We have the same different interpretations of The Bible and Christian beliefs even in our own day.  We do have neo-nazis and the KKK as two violent groups I can think of who do claim Christianity.  These groups might not be particularly strong and effective at this point, but to dismiss them as totally ineffective could be making the same mistake we made in the early years of Hitler and Nazism (also claiming Christianity) and the National Socialist movement. Just as we loudly deny that any such violent groups are indeed Christian, so Islam denies that ISIS and the like are Islamic and 'hands on' evidence/ personal experience affirms that indeed not all Moslems are violent nor inclined that way at all.

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It is unity that is dearest and closest to the Heart of Jesus in His Prayer at The Last Supper: "And now I will no longer be in the world, but they are in the world, while I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are." John Chapter 17

The Prayer of Jesus is not justification to seek unity at any cost, rather it is to seek unity based on truth.  Unity is our objective and the path we take to unity must be the path of truth always.

 

 

Iranian religious leader applauds Pope over Islam stance

Published: 24 August 2016 - CathNews

"Ayatollah Shirazi prayed for the success of the Pope “in spreading kindness, peace and spirituality in the world.”

Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi

One of the top religious leaders in Iran has told Pope Francis he is delighted that the head of the "Catholic world" has been quick to separate terrorists, and those who support terror groups like Islamic State, from practising Muslims, reports The Tablet.

Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi of Qom also stressed that it is necessary for religious leaders to adopt clear stances when it comes to accusing religions of violence. Read entire text HERE

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@bernadette d posted this into Open Mic last Saturday here.  It spoke to me. I thought it more than worth repeating here:

 

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Over the last few days, I have been mainly occupied with ironing.  My one client returned from holidays and delivered a huge load of ironing to be done.  It keeps me out of mischief and adds a few dollars to the age pension.  Between times are prayer, reading, researching, housework and garden - at times watching something or other interesting on FoxtelGo.  I also managed to email out the Minutes of our last St Vincent de Paul meeting.  Later today, I plan to go to the shops.  This takes it out of me as it is a lengthy, slightly uphill, grind for me, while of course downhill on the way home when the legs almost move without effort at all.

I must make a few phonecalls to make today to stay in touch - while I am hoping to keep next week relatively free with the following week a busy one again, including an ironing load. I am hoping in the latter week to catch up with some visiting too.

I love the way the Little Offices end with "Let us praise The Lord" - it reminds me that all I do, think and say after that acclamation is dedicated to Him............and He is so overwhelmingly humble to accept with Joy all small and most imperfect offerings.

Let us praise The Lord

 

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I am a great fan of St Therese of Lisieux.  I have been reading an article on her life by a Carmelite priest (will post at a later point) - and it set me to pondering over a coffee (and smoke) under my pergola on a beautiful late winter sunny afternoon.  St Therese considered herself just a little flower in the garden of Jesus.  I am no St Therese for absolutely sure nothing of her ilk in so many ways and yet have long been drawn to her and her Little Way and probably more to her Little Way than St Therese per se. I needed to find something much lower even than a little flower.  Something that would speak to me and my own heart......my life and my vocation as it seems to be unfolding nowadays.

And so I pondered the point contemplating my own little pergola garden and its environs...........

What is lower than the smallest and most nondescript flower in a garden? It is the soil from which the mighty oak sprouts as does the most beautiful as well as the smallest and most ordinary of flowers.  Nothing can grow in a garden without soil.  It is tilled (sacrifices) and it is fertilized (prayer) - and it is all done with love which is the heartbeat of The Gospel and The Church. Love is the heartbeat of Heaven and of the Communion of Saints.  It is the heartbeat of all vocations without exception.  Nothing will grow to its intended best without good soil. 

Dirt is dead soil, but with tender loving care, it can be revitalised into good soil.   The thing about soil and dirt is that they are both basically the same, while the latter is unwell - not functioning at its intended best.  I am a mixture of both.

Et ego pulvis

Laudemus Dominum

Edited August 26, 2016 by BarbaraTherese