Private Vows in The Laity/Spirituality

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THE ONLY FRIEND OF HUMANITY

Saturday of the Second week of Advent

DailyGospel.org HERE

Commentary of the day (Saturday 10 Dec 2016)
Saint Romanos Melodios (?-c 560), composer of hymns
Hymn on the prophet Elijah

“How amesome are you, Elijah!… You were taken aloft in a whirlwind…You are destined… in time to come to put an end to wrath before the day of the Lord.” (Sir 48:4.9f.)

"Confronted with human perversity, Elijah considered making the punishment even harsher. Upon seeing this, the Merciful One told the prophet: “I know your zeal for good (1 Kings 19:14), I know your good will, but I have compassion on sinners when they are punished beyond measure. You are angry because you are without reproach; can you not resign yourself? As for me,  I cannot resign myself to even one single person being lost (Mt 18:14), for I am the only friend of humankind.” (Wis 1:6)

In what followed, the Master, seeing how short-tempered the prophet was with respect to human beings, was concerned about them. He removed Elijah from the earth where they live saying: “Distance yourself from where human beings dwell. I in my mercy will go down to them by becoming man. So leave the earth and come on up, since you cannot tolerate people’s faults. But I, who am from heaven, I will dwell among sinners and save them from their faults, I, the only friend of humankind.

“If you cannot live with guilty human beings, come here, live in the domain of my friends where there is no more sin. I will go down, for I can put the lost sheep on my shoulders and bring it back (Lk 15:5), and I can cry to those who labor: Come quickly, all you sinners, come to me and rest (Mt 11:28). For I have not come to punish those whom I created, but to tear the sinners away from ungodliness, I, the only friend of humankind.”

Thus, when Elijah was lifted up to the heavens (2 Kings 2:11), he was perceived as the person for the future. This Tishbite (1 Kings 17:1) was lifted up in a chariot of fire; Christ was lifted up among the clouds and the powers (Acts 1:9). The former dropped his cloak to Elisha from the heights of heaven (2 Kings 2:13); Christ sent to his apostles the Holy Spirit, the Advocate (Jn 15:26), whom we, the baptized, all received and by whom we are sanctified, as the only friend of humankind teaches."

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The above reminds me of something I read from Thomas Merton long ago - to paraphrase: the one thing we are probably not prepared to be detached from is our personal sense of security.  The desire to not experience anxiety, insecurity and the unknown.  Probably most all experienced this to some degree or other in the wake of Vatican II and well after the Council closed too.  Much of the disturbance over Amoris Laetitia reminds me of that period of insecurity and the unknown, confusions.  I am experiencing some anxiety, insecurity and the unknowing of what might lay ahead in the wake of Amoris Laetitia - and a desire (and struggle) to keep an open mind as it all unfolds and will unfold.  It will eventually resolve and conclude, perhaps with an undesired result.  Prayer for The Holy Father, our hierarchy, religious and laity generally: The Church here on earth.

Edited December 10, 2016 by BarbaraTherese

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According to Kids.....

 

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CHRISTMAS

I've had a bit of a rough time.  My little dog, Buddie, had diarrhoea cured with a chicken and rice diet - and then he developed constipation.  During that time and with a sudden burst of real heat here, I came down with heat exhaustion.  I also had a load of ironing to be done for my client.  However, now both Buddie and I are back to normal thankfully and the ironing has been struggled through and is finished.

During the Advent run up to Christmas and for a while after, I won't be posting much at all I anticipate.

I hope that all (with family and friends) will finish Advent in grand style and then celebrate Christmas and the Christmas Season with Peace and with Joy - which will be the yeast in all things in 2017.

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O Antiphons

17 - 24 December

 

https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=958

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PSYCHOLOLGY ST THERESE LISIEUX

From Boston Carmel - Fr Marc Foley OCD

(Video 1hr 9 mins)

 

https://player.vimeo.com/video/103946361

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Prayer Requests

Carmelites of Boston

 

Are you in need of Prayer?

Let us pray for you

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A CHALLENGE

 

Taken from the address on You Tube by Fr Marc Foley OCD on "The Psychology of St Therese" :

Father Marc: "I challenge you all to be thought of as a mediocre Catholic.........

..........Note! I didn't say to be one!"
 

Quote

 

(A nun in the monastery with St Therese at the time of her final illness was concerned about what could be said of St Therese in her obituary notice (sent out to all Carmelite monasteries at the time of a nun's death).  The nun commented (paraphrasing) "She has been a mediocre Carmelite never seen to perform any acts of virtue")

Pope John Paul II in the canonization of St Therese stated that she was like an iceburg i.e. that only the tip of the whole could be seen on the surface. 

 

 

Another video worth watching "The Mystical Life of St Therese of Lisieux"

 

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Change of Pace

I found the following video (1hr 39mins) fascinating.   It is lengthy, but I did learn much about various Church matters through watching it.  It covers a variety of subjects.  At times, since we have moved well on from October 2014, it was almost prophetic type commentary.

Fr James has a dry sort of humour at times that pops up here and there.  He relates in reference to cult like admiration around certain figures.  Someone commented to him "As St John Paul II said "" Be not afraid "".

 

 Fr James replied "So I guess that Jesus was quoting St John Paul II then".

 

 

Quote

 

Published on Oct 23, 2014

In a lively discussion October 20 at the Fordham University Lincoln Center campus, James Martin, S.J., and J. Patrick Hornbeck, Ph.D., discussed Pope Francis' simple question “Who am I to Judge?". Taking place a day after the conclusion of the first half of a Synod on the Family that the Pope called for at the Vatican, the speakers agreed that the fact that question is even being asked is just as important as the answer.

 

 

 

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Another Change of Pace

 

A quite down to earth walk through The Interior Castle (St Teresa of Avila) explained as an easily grasped description of the various stages of the spiritual life

Fr. John Welch O.Carm

 

 

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HAPPY CHRISTMAS

Liturgical colour: white

White is the colour of heaven. Liturgically, it is used to celebrate feasts of the Lord; Christmas and Easter, the great seasons of the Lord; and the saints. Not that you will always see white in church, because if something more splendid, such as gold, is available, that can and should be used instead. We are, after all, celebrating.

  In the earliest centuries all vestments were white – the white of baptismal purity and of the robes worn by the armies of the redeemed in the Apocalypse, washed white in the blood of the Lamb. As the Church grew secure enough to be able to plan her liturgy, she began to use colour so that our sense of sight could deepen our experience of the mysteries of salvation, just as incense recruits our sense of smell and music that of hearing. Over the centuries various schemes of colour for feasts and seasons were worked out, and it is only as late as the 19th century that they were harmonized into their present form.

http://www.universalis.com/today.htm

 

 

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REFLECTING

Last night at Vigil Mass, one of those epiphany-type of reflections we all know.  Nothing new, but something striking home with a bit more clarity.

Our Church was filling very quickly during the Nativity Play and Christmas Carols commencing at 5.30pm.  I became aware that Our God who created the whole universe, loved it so much He entered into the fullness of our humanity and I began to reflect.  I became acutely aware that God Loved every single person He created sufficiently to become one of us and it is only by entering into that Love of God for all that I can truly know and Love God. 

As I reflected, I became aware that the Nativity Story is overshadowed by a cross and had been so for all eternity and yet God delights in us and desired to be one of us, to draw us to Himself in friendship and fraternity, solidarity and Unity despite the dreadful cost to Himself of His Humanity.  His Desires for us all was to be effected through The Cross, as my own journey must be lived out through The Cross with Jesus.

I became aware of the different ways we are called to enter into that Love.  Those who are far and distant, friend or foe, I can keep in prayer and often that Love can have a sacrificial element because I am so far and distant and in a sense only, I am helpless.  For those who are close and immediate I am called to Love equally including those who might be, for one reason or another, distasteful to me and that that distaste can call upon the sacrificial element.

A sacrificial element calling on detachment, detachment from my own needs, concepts and requirements.

By entering fully into Love of neighbour, I enter fully in the very Love of God, a Love that embraces all with Absolute Love Unconditionally.  How can I know if I truly Love God? All I need to do is ask myself if I do Love all without conditions or requirements.  Jesus has said "How can you Love God whom you cannot see, if you do not love your neighbour whom you can see".

Then it struck home to me that true Love does not invest in its own needs, concepts and requirements.  It is all embracing without any rejection nor conditions whatsoever. It is a gentle, compassionate, understanding and all embracing without distinctions.  That that is a true reflection of God's Love.

And all that has reminded me of the theology of St Therese of Lisieux.  

All the above has posed to me a question and a challenge with which to move forward in my journey.

Mea culpa and Deo Gratius.

Quote

 

"Jesus said to him, "What is written in the law? How do you read it?" He said in reply, "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself."

He replied to him, "You have answered correctly; do this and you will live. "

But because he wished to justify himself, he said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbour?"

Jesus replied, "A man fell victim to robbers as he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho.."........

Luke Chapter 10 http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0839/__PWT.HTM

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Abba Abraham told of a man of Scetis who was a  scribe and did not eat bread.
A brother came to beg him to copy a book.

The old man whose spirit was engaged
in  contemplation, wrote, omitting  some phrases and  with no punctuation.

The
brother, taking the book and wishing to  punctuate it, noticed that words were
missing. So he  said to the old man,  'Abba, there are some phrases  missing.'

The old man said to him,  'Go, and practise first that  which is written,

then..."..........http://www.coptic.net/articles/sayingsofdesertfathers.txt

you will write the rest

 

______________________

I cannot 'read' nor certainly 'write' with any accuracy

the book of my life, or of my own journey,

until I have first put into practise "that which is written".

 

 

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Quote of The Day

St Vincent de Paul Society

http://famvin.org/reflections/quote-day-december-24/

 

Quote

 

Dec 24, 2016

May God be pleased to strengthen you in these hardships, enlighten you in your doubts, and bring you safely to the place where Providence intends to lead your little bark (V:454).

 

 

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The Sanctifying Humanity

of Jesus’ Incarnation

Brian Kranick

http://catholicexchange.com/sanctifying-humanity-jesus-incarnation?mc_cid=7363ac0144&mc_eid=365c5a299b

 

Quote

 

The Incarnation of God as man is a scandal.  The first century Jews were expecting a Messiah, but did not conceive that he would be the Son of God Himself.  They expected a messianic political leader.  Jesus, being the second person of the Trinity, could very well have descended from Heaven ablaze in His divine power and majesty to establish His kingdom.  Yet, we know this is not what happened.  The Son of God came in obscurity, humility and poverty.  This is the second scandal of the Incarnation.  The divine being was born as a baby, completely dependent and helpless, to a poor family in a small village, placed in an animal manger.  God came as the least among us.  Chesterton called this “an idea of undermining the world.”  This is the great paradox of Christianity, God as man, and even, God as an infant, the divine hidden in the ordinary.  So intimate is His love for us that He came personally in search of us, as the Creator entered His creation, and eternity entered time.  How few recognized the extraordinary baby in their midst in that most ordinary scene in Bethlehem?  How often still do we fail to see God in our ordinary circumstances each day?......Read More on above link.........

 

 

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REJECTION

Daily Reflection - St Vincent de Paul Society

Dec 26, 2016

“Though our service be rejected, let us believe that whatever happens is for the best. Do we not know that God draws his own glory from contempt?” – St. Louise de Marillac

 

 

WILL OF GOD

St Vincent's Quote of the Day

Dec 26, 2016

You know the will of God cannot be made known to us more clearly in events than when they happen - without our intervention  (V:459).

[CountrySteve937]

I love that quote by St. Vincent. We all need more trust in our Heavenly Father, don't we? 

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My patron saint is St Therese of Lisieux and besides her autobiography. the writings of St Francis de Sales and Jean Pierre de Caussade are my 'bedside' books.  Each puts on emphasis on trust and confidence in God i.e. in Divine Providence....to embrace one's situation and unfolding circumstances as expressions of God's Will as either His Direct Will or His Permissive Will.

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Foster Son Moving In to Bethany

Quote

 

Under the thread title "Foster Son Moving In" into the Prayer Intentions Forum.  The following is the content of my thread into the PIF:

"My foster son is now 52yrs old (53 in July).  I was married at the time and we began fostering him when he was 8yrs old.  His marriage has collapsed (seemingly completely) and he is coming to live with me.  This is probably turning my whole way of life upside down almost, although I wont know how things are going to pan out until he moves in (later this afternoon) and in the following unfoldings.  I am leaving it all in God's Hands, despite which I feel much anxiety united to The Cross.  I have lived alone for so many years, it is going to be a big adjustment (for both of us) but not an impossible one.  I am prone to anxiety, it seems to be in my DNA almost.

Because of my mental history with the trigger being anxiety for an episode, suddenly a potential episode has loomed into the back of my mind.  In reality too, as I write I realise, my problem is not my FS moving in here, nor the adjustment we need make, it is my fear of bipolar present somewhere in the anxiety.

Your prayer very much appreciated."

 

I am very grateful to those who have promised prayer already into the PI Forum and my own prayer will include their intentions as well as for all our members and lurkers on Phatmass - and in a special way for those requesting prayer into the PIF.

After posting into the PI Forum, I sent of an email to my Carmelite nuns here with a prayer request.  Always I get some sort of a response to their prayers with acceptance of God's Will either Direct or Permissive, and already some 3 hrs or so later, I have a huge sense of relief and allaying of anxiety with the feeling that I can indeed cope with this - and with bipolar threat too vague to be concerned about.  Any stress that should come along can be turned into the productive by uniting it to The Cross whether I cope, or whether I do not.

Thank you heaps too Pham Prayer Warriors! Very much, without a doubt you have contributed to the conversion of high anxiety into manageable stress without discomfort overly on the feeling level - with that jolly fear of bipolar seemingly taking a very back row seat.

Our Lady of Carmel with St Joseph, O.L. of Perpetual Help and Queen of Mercy - also Untier of Knots please keep us all in prayer along with Pope Francis and The Universal Church.

Please help me to formulate a sound routine into a different living situation with my foster son living here.

Deo Gratius

 

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Daily Reflection

St Vincent de Paul Society

Daily Reflection – December 31

Dec 31, 2016

“Like thrifty housekeepers, we should turn all things to real profit; let us not seek our consolation in creatures nor in self-gratifications, but let us go straight to God by the path of interior and exterior mortification, traced out for us by his Divine Son.” – St. Vincent de Paul

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FOSTER SON

A few teething problems, nothing really major, with my foster son living here in Bethany (2 bedroom unit).  I am not used to someone else here and sleep was a bit disrupted along with routine.  Last night, however, I slept well.  I have also discussed with him my prayer routine and we have that covered.  I am used to silence too, but will adjust.  His coming to stay here in Bethany was a shock initially - especially to discover his marriage was in so much trouble and high anxiety settled in initially.  He may or may not put things together again, it is all in the unfoldings on both their sides - him and his wife, although he does not offer much hope at all at this point.

Undoubtedly at some point, he will be looking in to independent living if his marriage is beyond repair.  Just now it is far less expensive here in Bethany (cost only).

On the really positive side, he is a great help to me and often.  I won't have to catch taxis to Sunday Mass for as long as he is living here (no idea how long at this point) and much other assistance as well.  He is baptised Catholic but not practising although I am hoping he might come to Mass with me while I do not intend to pressure, merely invite when the time seems opportune.  I have a lift home from Mass.  He is currently looking for work closer to here (carer in aged care).  His marital home and employment is on the other side of Adelaide completely.

Thank you so much for prayer and to Our Lady and St. Joseph and the whole of Heaven to whom I appealed for prayer.

Deo Gratius in humility and gratitude for continual guidance and care in all and any circumstances............and yet I doubt at times acutely aware of not deserving anything all!  Mea maxima culpa!