Private Vows in The Laity/Spirituality

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CHITTY CHAT

LEANING ON THE LORD

Fair bit on my plate just now for an old gal and not posting much at all - but not abandoning this thread either

I have been in touch with my Aunty (12 months to live) and my niece (back operation and mental problems) - also Buddie has to have dental treatment this coming Monday (around $400 - $500).  The government housing authority have put a drain in at the side of my unit due to flooding in the recent storms and I am very thankful for this; however, the drain has created other garden problems I need to deal with myself.  More later.  Friday I will be collecting for St Vinnies at a shopping centre near here.  Last night went to our St Vinnies monthly meeting, meaning I need to get the Minutes done and emailed out.  MSN having changed around the layout of my emails is no help whatsoever.  The layout is too confusing for me.   If you understand computers it is probably a breeze, problem is I don't understand them at all.  

 

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Daily Reflection - St Vincent de Paul Society

12th October 2016

 

“The holy will of God has assigned to us our present employment.

We should perform our work with the fidelity of an ambassador executing the orders of his sovereign.”

– St. Louise de Marillac

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While the document below has been written for religious, with a bit of application and common sense it can be translated into a spirituality and theology for the mature aged person.  The latter is a subject I am currently researching and will be posting more on this subject in due course.

If anyone would like to discuss the document below, please do feel quite free to post.  
 

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Catholic Religious Australia

Spirituality and Ageing (during and beyond the year of consecrated life)

http://www.catholicreligiousaustralia.org.au/index.php/news-a-views/news/item/2049-spirituality-and-ageing-during-and-beyond-the-year-of-consecrated-life

 

 

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http://www.poetseers.org/spiritual-and-devotional-poets/christian/meist/meistp/

“Some people want to see God with their eyes as they see a cow, and to love Him as they love a cow – for the milk and cheese and profit it brings them. This is how it is with people who love God for the sake of outward wealth or inward comfort. They do not rightly love God, when they love Him for their own advantage. ”

― Meister Eckhart

 

 

“Some people prefer solitude. They say their peace of mind depends on this.

Others say they would be better off in church. If you do well, you do well wherever you are. If you fail, you fail wherever you are. Your surroundings don’t matter. God is with you everywhere — in the market place as well as in seclusion or in the church. If you look for nothing but God, nothing or no one can disturb you. God is not distracted by a multitude of things. Nor can we be.”

― Meister Eckhart

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A Toast and a Blessing

 

Cleaning out a small box I came across in my pantry and found the following laminated toast and blessing.  I type these types of findings in Word and them cut them out and put them in small frames for here and there around Bethany:

An Irish Toast

May you be in Heaven a half hour

before the devil knows your dead.

 

An Old Gaelic Blessing

May the roads rise with you

And the wind be always at your back

And may The Lord

hold you in the hollow of His Hand

Deliver Us From Evil

 

The Way of Perfection, by Teresa of Avila (1515-1582)- Chapter 42

Treats of these last words of the Paternoster: "Sed libera nos a malo. Amen." "But deliver us from evil. Amen."

 

 

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You, daughters, must ask as you think best. Personally, I shall find no redress in this life, so I ask the Lord to deliver me from all evil "for ever." What good thing shall we find in this life, sisters, in which we are deprived of our great Good and are absent from Him? Deliver me, Lord, from this shadow of death; deliver me from all these trials; deliver me from all these pains; deliver me from all these changes, from all the formalities with which we are forced to comply for as long as we live, from all the many, many, many things which weary and depress me, and the enumeration of all of which would weary the reader if I were to repeat them.

This life is unendurable.

The source of my own depression must be my own wicked life

and the realization that even now

I am not living as I should, so great are my obligations.

 

 

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PLAINLY VISIBLE

 

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Chitty Chat

SPECIAL EXPERIENCES

Prayer requests

On Sunday 30th September, and the last Sunday our parish priest celebrated Mass for us before taking leave for prostate surgery (please pray for him, he is now recovering but awaiting biopsy results), he asked that all parish members of St Vincent de Paul Society attend his final Mass for a special blessing (the Feast of St Vincent de Paul had occurred on 27th. September).

It was a really beautiful blessing.  He asked the St Vinnies members to link arms in front of the altar, while he and all parishioners extended their arms over us.  The wording Father used near on brought tears.  The consequence has been for me that I actually feel on the feeling level of being blest........still.

Then last night at Vigil Mass, I had another very special experience.  A visiting priest celebrated Mass for us and at the Offertory Procession, it was suddenly realised that no one had been rostered.  As an emergency stand-in at Vigil Mass for any reason, I was asked to be one of those processing.  When we got to the foot of the altar steps, where Father usually takes the bread and wine from us, Father asked us to take the bread and wine to the altar.  At the altar he blessed the bread and wine (followed by "Blessed be God forever") as we extended the bread and wine to him over the altar.

It was a beautiful experience.

This coming Wednesday, my SD is calling on me.  With the bills I have at the moment, I just cannot afford a taxi to where he lives and then return, so Father emailed that he would call on me here in Bethany.  I always feel (and on the feeling level) that having a priest under one's roof is always a real honour and blessing.  Of course (perhaps monastic tour-of-duty showing) I will be having a real spring clean the day before.

Tomorrow, Monday 17th October, Buddie (Maltese Cross) is having surgery to have dental treatment (with general anaesthetic).  He is 10 years of age and not a young pup any more and with a periodic cough problem.  A prayer for Buddie too would be much appreciated.

Edited October 16, 2016 by BarbaraTherese

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THE HO HUM HUMDRUM DAYS
 

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Diary of St Faustina

1373. O humdrum days, filled with darkness, I look upon you with a solemn and festive eye.

How great and solemn the time that gives us the chance to gather merits for eternal heaven! I understand how the saints made use of it.

Time is a gift, and I grow more aware of how important it is to use the time God gives us, well. By God's Grace also, I hope I am beginning to be more prayerful in each task I take up, uniting myself with Jesus and Mary as they took up their "ordinary" tasks in Nazareth -- making them extraordinary by their great love! HERE

 

 

Almost Forgot

Almost forgot this.  After Mass last night (Vigil Mass Sat 15th October) I was at the door handing out invitations for a High Tea that one of our St Vinnies members was organizing to raise funds for a really worthwhile cause.  The visiting priest who had celebrated Mass was in the foyer.  I had never met him previously, not since he was a very young priest anyway. Father laughingly commented to a parishioner "Barbara has taken my place to hand out pamphlets".  How on earth did he know my name?  Our priests can be so very mysterious at times!    Doubtless, for some reason, perhaps because I was standing by the door, he had asked someone else my name........or perhaps he has a phenomenal memory from both our younger days.  I have had a few of these mysterious type of episodes with our priests.

Incidentally, where I was standing was not where we usually have a priest standing to greet parishioners as they leave Mass.......i.e. I had not deliberately hijacked Father's place

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THE MYSTERY BEYOND THE KEYHOLE 

http://bcove.me/xfsi1yoh  (Video - 2.5 minutes)

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Deo Gratius - and Thank you

SVP Minutes

Thank you to any who prayed for Buddie.  He is now home in Bethany after a general anaesthetic and dental treatment today.  He is still quite groggy and to be expected.  What really blew me over, besides total rejoicing and thanksgiving for Buddie and a good result, was the vet's bill, which was only $250 and not the $400 to $500 I had been quoted to expect as the worst scenario.  Hence in working out how I would collate up to $500 was quite scary for me.  I really wasn't expecting something as low as $250 since that amount was never quoted to me.  I had thought $400 and it would be great.  I am blest in my pet's veterinary surgery, the veterinarians and the staff.

I need to go to the shops tomorrow for groceries and am going to invest in a bunch of flowers and a nice thank you card for my vets and staff.  I know Buddie is always treated well as if I say "Going to the doc, Buddie?" and I get no peace until I set off with him to the vet...Buddie knows the way.....and he goes into the vet's surgery quite happily.  Strangely, I think my little cat, Missie, missed Buddie today too and was glad to have him back home again.  Sometimes they fight and argue like typical brother and sister.

Just at this point, Buddie still staggers rather than walks and has gone to sleep on the carpet square near my computer.

________________

Working on the SVP Parish Conference Minutes.........over the years taking the Minutes at SVP Meetings, I have developed a whole new shorthand - many miles away from the Pitman's Shorthand I once knew... not even remotely similar.  But if it works, go with the flow giving thanks.  

[CountrySteve937]

11 hours ago, BarbaraTherese said:

Deo Gratius - and Thank you

SVP Minutes

Thank you to any who prayed for Buddie.  He is now home in Bethany after a general anaesthetic and dental treatment today.  He is still quite groggy and to be expected.  What really blew me over, besides total rejoicing and thanksgiving for Buddie and a good result, was the vet's bill, which was only $250 and not the $400 to $500 I had been quoted to expect as the worst scenario.  Hence in working out how I would collate up to $500 was quite scary for me.  I really wasn't expecting something as low as $250 since that amount was never quoted to me.  I had thought $400 and it would be great.  I am blest in my pet's veterinary surgery, the veterinarians and the staff.

I need to go to the shops tomorrow for groceries and am going to invest in a bunch of flowers and a nice thank you card for my vets and staff.  I know Buddie is always treated well as if I say "Going to the doc, Buddie?" and I get no peace until I set off with him to the vet...Buddie knows the way.....and he goes into the vet's surgery quite happily.  Strangely, I think my little cat, Missie, missed Buddie today too and was glad to have him back home again.  Sometimes they fight and argue like typical brother and sister.

Just at this point, Buddie still staggers rather than walks and has gone to sleep on the carpet square near my computer.

________________

Working on the SVP Parish Conference Minutes.........over the years taking the Minutes at SVP Meetings, I have developed a whole new shorthand - many miles away from the Pitman's Shorthand I once knew... not even remotely similar.  But if it works, go with the flow giving thanks.  

Glad to hear all went well.

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3 hours ago, CountrySteve21 said:

Glad to hear all went well.

Thank you, Steve, for the very kind comment.  Buddie was up early this morning and almost back to his usual self.  Thank you too for posting into this thread.  If it wasn't for the fact that I check the number of times this thread is accessed, I would abandon it.  Comments into the thread are great encouragement too - encouragement to stay active in this thread, plodding along persistently........or is it remorselessly tenacious  .......what indeed is in a name, which by any name at all remains what it is.

 After so many years in the revolving door of a psychiatric hospital quite seriously ill, I cannot shake that constant feeling that everything is going to go terribly wrong and soon - i.e. conditioning.  I am very grateful for our spirituality which tells us there is more merit in trusting God when one does not feel at all that way, than there is in trusting Him when all is sunshine and roses. 

 It can give those who do struggle along rather than stride, a happy place in the scheme of things.

[CountrySteve937]

1 hour ago, BarbaraTherese said:

Thank you, Steve, for the very kind comment.  Buddie was up early this morning and almost back to his usual self.  Thank you too for posting into this thread.  If it wasn't for the fact that I check the number of times this thread is accessed, I would abandon it.  Comments into the thread are great encouragement too - encouragement to stay active in this thread, plodding along persistently........or is it remorselessly tenacious  .......what indeed is in a name, which by any name at all remains what it is.

 After so many years in the revolving door of a psychiatric hospital quite seriously ill, I cannot shake that constant feeling that everything is going to go terribly wrong and soon - i.e. conditioning.  I am very grateful for our spirituality which tells us there is more merit in trusting God when one does not feel at all that way, than there is in trusting Him when all is sunshine and roses. 

 It can give those who do struggle along rather than stride, a happy place in the scheme of things.

Indeed, it is wonderful how our Faith can just click with our humanity (especially our frailty!)  

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Catholic Spirituality and Mental Health

 

This is an excellent video from You Tube.  As a sufferer of mental illness - and with hindsight adding perspective and real value, I listened to this video very carefully - and I found it worthwhile, excellent in fact.  Keep pen and paper handy, there are three recommended books and as soon as my budget sorts itself out, they are going to the top of my "To Get" list.

The address proper lasts just under 1hr -  with the Q&A session after, it is roughly 1hr 15mins including the address.

 

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A Spirituality for the Aged Person

I still have a Spirituality for Mature Age, or the aged, in mind and am still researching when I can.  I am reading at the moment a paper I posted previously written for religious.  As I read, I am attempting to address it with common sense breaking it down with value for a lay person of mature age as well.  Periodically, I am researching on Google for more information I hope will be helpful.  In other words, it is still in the process of actively happening.   The interesting thing to me is that, as with mental health issues from a Catholic perspective, there is much available for those carer type persons who are dealing with another(s) with mental health issues, not much at all applicable (from the Catholic perspective) for an actual sufferer of mental illness.  The same seems to be applying to the question of a spirituality for the mature aged person.

The above video is a valued find for those suffering mental health issues for one.

3 hours ago, CountrySteve21 said:

Indeed, it is wonderful how our Faith can just click with our humanity (especially our frailty!)  

Spot on in my book too, Steve!   Catholicism literally sings the continual hymn of "I have come for sinners, the righteous have no need of me". Matthew Ch9

I really like "The Church is not a club for saints, but a hospital for sinners" which I read somewhere or other.  Catholicism is The Church from every perspective in which I can really find a resting place and a home - a yoke that is sweet and a light burden.

C.S. Lewis wrote a line about that God knows well the weak frailty with which we must daily work - and He has Infinite Compassion and Understanding for it.

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If I can, with God's help, get off that endless merry-go-round of an obsessive compulsive needing to be perfect in all things always, it can release all sorts of healthy directions and creative abilities.  It doesn't mean that I stop striving for virtue - rather that I acknowledge and accept realistically and with Mercy and forgiveness my faults and failings and with repentance and renewal.  It then means that I can move forward beyond my failings and offences, not with a sense of having failed - or completely useless and unrealistic baggage, but with a sense of acceptance of who I am - and as Loved by God and praising and thanking God for His Infinite Mercy and Understanding of my human frailty nothing excepted...........and that disposition releases all sorts of Graces into my soul and witnessed in my life and living.

Sin is not something I might do, think or say now and then - it is a continual state (sinner) in which I live compared to the Holiness and Glory of God.  Jesus has told us "Be ye Perfect as Your Heavenly Father is Perfect" and my response is "Who then can be saved?".

"With God all things are possible" - i.e. even this miserable sinner can be saved.

It is repentance and renewal to which we are called and by God's Fatherly Love and Mercy with understanding of the baggage we all have inherited (original sin).  For Jesus came for sinners, since the righteous really do not have need of Him.

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First Letter of St John Ch1 "If we say, "We are without sin," we deceive ourselves, ³ and the truth is not in us.

9 If we acknowledge our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from every wrongdoing.

10 If we say, "We have not sinned," we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

 

 

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NOT IN THE SCHOOL OF EMOTIONAL

& PSYCHOLOGICAL HEALING

This is a really good You Tube video to follow one on mental illness.  It is a commentary on the life of St Therese of Lisieux from three main perspectives: the death of her mother, her lifelong struggle with scruples and finally her last 18months before death and temptations to disbelieve in Heaven and eternal life.

Some points which struck me from the video:

Slugging life's journey out, day by day

To have others think of one as a mediocre Catholic - but to not be one

Emotional healing and spiritual growth are not identical

Therapy ends when we are dealing with our feelings - when our feelings are no longer dealing with us

Growth in holiness does not depend on change of feelings

Knowing and accepting limitations

Spawn of Jansenism: a very rigorous asceticism.  Scruples: a difficulty to believe in forgiveness even after it is granted.  God as always looking down on one in harsh judgement.

The Distinction Between Believing God is Merciful and Feeling God is Merciful.

The courage to act on belief, rather than feelings.

Being seized by darkness and that mocking voice.

A feeling of scaling the heights and suddenly plunged into the depths of darkness

Therese discovers agnostics and atheists, sinners, are her brothers and sisters - she identifies with them ....when"they" becomes "us".....i.e. solidarity

Therese participated in the scepticism of her age with the attendant anguish and dread

Not a question of getting beyond - but of how one relates to it

Therese does not desire to rise from her table of bitterness "until that day set by You, my God".

Therese had a deep belief in The Church as The Mystical Body of Christ

Experiencing in abandonment the support that is beyond human understanding

Loving with unfelt love

Finally: Some people believe that to grow in holiness they must get beyond the human condition - the human condition is that place in which we are called to respond to God

 

 

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Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass ... it's about learning to dance in the rain!

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CHITTY CHAT

My SD dropped in yesterday for coffee - he is recovering from surgery and I am recovering from budget woes.  Also, my pp is recovering from major surgery and things are not going well, please keep him in prayer.

This paperless generation of computers really gets to me.  I seem to have more paperwork than I did before computers.   Slowly I am catching up again, but I no sooner rejoice in having dealt with it all than it is mounting up once more.

 I have a load of ironing to get done by Monday and other than that it is pottering around house and garden.  This is one of the things my SD and I discussed yesterday.  Whatever one does, doing it for love can earn merit elsewhere.  For example, I would not consider myself at all very good at this new evangelisation, but I can earn Graces for those who are simply by duties and tasks done for love of God and neighbour.  I can never know in all probability what my own way of life may have earnt for others........not this side of Heaven anyway.   This is very much the Little Way of St Therese.  The thing that really struck me in the video I posted previously i.e. commentary on St Therese by Fr. Mark Foley OCD, is that Father explained that emotional maturity and spiritual maturity are not at all the same thing.  When I give that prayerful thought, it is a decided consolation.

I think I am slowly learning to let go of the busy active life I had when younger and before I shifted here where Bethany now stands.  However, the circumstances of my life now are what God has given me to work with and for Him - and for His Intentions and Reasons, not mine.  One most always has however those intentions that often come to mind - any sort of success great or small is up to The Lord in whose Hands are success or failure.  And failure is never any sort of failure at all.  Perspective and Attitude.

I had a funny one last Saturday Vigil.  We were introduced to our Anglican Ordinariate priest who will be celebrating Mass for us in November until late December until our pp returns we hope.  The conversation ran like this:

Friend: "I am not putting money on the plate!"

Me: "Yeah, ok"

Friend: "I will not pay for a hybrid priest!"

I tried to explain the Anglican Ordinariate to her, but it was terribly difficult to withhold laughter at her expression. No matter what I said to her, she was disgusted and appalled at the changes in The Church........and now, she argued, we must put up with "hybrid priests" too. In relating the conversation to my SD yesterday, neither of us could withhold laughter in order to move on.  Eventually we did.

Buddie had his bath this morning and getting the washing done just now - and then this afternoon tackling the load of ironing for my client.

My day interspersed with prayer times.

Deo Gratius.

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God's Power

Daily Reflection - St Vincent de Paul Society

 

Oct 21, 2016

“God can show his power by means of weak instruments, and his wisdom by ignorance. Blessed be his Holy Name!” – St. Elizabeth Ann Seton

 

Catechism Not Enough

https://zenit.org/articles/pope-tells-3-ways-to-know-christ-at-morning-mass/

Catechism is not enough, we must pray to know Jesus.

According to Vatican Radio, Pope Francis urged faithful to do this during his daily morning Mass at Casa Santa Marta, drawing from St Paul’s letter to the Ephesians today where the Apostle prayed that they may be strengthened with power through the Holy Spirit and that Christ may dwell in their hearts.

In the reading, Paul speaks of the richness that is found in really knowing the person of Christ, and in today’s homily, Pope Francis expressed the three requirements we must meet to really know Him, too.

Requirement 1: Prayer

“How can we know Christ,”Pope Francis asked. “How can we understand His love that is beyond all knowledge?”

Francis affirmed that Christ is present in the Gospel and we know Him, by reading the Gospel, or when we hear it at Mass. “And studying the catechism teaches us who Christ is,” he said.

“But this is not enough,” Francis said, noting, “In order to understand the breadth and length and height and depth of Jesus Christ we need to enter into the habit, firstly of praying, as Paul did on his knees: “Father send me the Holy Spirit to know Jesus.”

Requirement 2: Worship, Adoration

In order to truly know Christ, the Pope stressed that prayer on its own is not enough.

As Paul said, Francis recalled, in addition to praying, Paul “worshipped the mystery” that is beyond our knowledge and in this spirit of worship or adoration he asks for this grace from the Lord.

“We cannot know the Lord without this habit of worship, to worship in silence, adoration. If I am not mistaken, I believe that this prayer of adoration is the least known by us, it’s the one that we do least. Allow me to say this, waste time in front of the Lord, in front of the mystery of Jesus Christ. Worship him. There in silence, the silence of adoration. He is the Saviour and I worship Him.” 

Requirement 3: Accuse Ourselves

Pope Francis said the third requirement for truly knowing Christ was to know ourselves and as a result be accustomed to describing ourselves as sinners.

“We cannot worship without accusing ourselves,” he said. “In order to enter into this bottomless and boundless sea that is the mystery of Jesus Christ, this thing is necessary. (Firstly), prayer:  ‘Father, send me the Holy Spirit so that he leads me to know Jesus.’  Secondly, worship the mystery, enter into the mystery and worship Him. And thirdly, accuse ourselves. ‘I am a man of unclean lips.’

Pope Francis concluded, praying “the Lord give us too this grace that Paul implored for the Ephesians, this grace to know and earn Christ.”

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Message Behind The Burqa

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