Private Vows in The Laity/Spirituality

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4 hours ago, chrysostom said:

I wasn't raised Catholic, but I pray that that God would give me purity of heart in an undivided love for God. The little Child Jesus is the restorer of innocence.

May The Good God fulfil your every heart's desire. Amen.

 

St Therese of The Child Jesus and of The Holy Face

................Thérèse

SPIRITUALITY OF IMPERFECTION (part one)

Finding Strength in Weakness

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By: Vilma Seelaus, O.C.D. (Carmelite Nun)

FIRST PUBLISHED IN SPIRITUAL LIFE IN WINTER 1998

Part 1 - http://showcase.netins.net/web/solitude/vilma5.html

Part 2 - http://showcase.netins.net/web/solitude/vilma5b.html

 

Autobiography of St Therese of Lisieux "Story of a Soul" HERE

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St Alphonsus Liguori (1696 - 1787) Memorial 1st August http://www.universalis.com/today.htm

Saint Alphonsus Liguori was born in Marianella near Naples on September 27, 1696. He was the first born of a rather large family belonging to the Neapolitan nobility. His received a broad education in the humanities, classical and modern languages, painting and music. He composed a Duetto on the Passion, as well as the most popular Christmas carol in Italy, Tu Scendi Dalle Stelle, and numerous other hymns. He finished his university studies earning a Doctorate in both civil and canon law and began his practice in the legal profession.

  In 1723, after a long process of discernment, he abandoned his legal career and, despite his father’s strong opposition, began his seminary studies. He was ordained a priest on December 21, 1726, at the age of 30. He lived his first years as a priest with the homeless and marginalized young people of Naples. He founded the “Evening Chapels”. Run by the young people themselves, these chapels were centres of prayer, community, the Word of God, social activities and education. At the time of his death, there were 72 of these chapels with over 10,000 active participants.

  In 1729, Alphonsus left his family home and took up residence in the Chinese College in Naples. It was there that he began his missionary experience in the interior of the Kingdom of Naples where he found people who were much poorer and more abandoned than any of the street children in Naples.

  On November 9, 1732, Alphonsus founded the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, popularly known as the Redemptorists, in order to follow the example of Jesus Christ announcing the Good News to the poor and the most abandoned. From that time on, he gave himself entirely to this new mission.

  Alphonsus was a lover of beauty: musician, painter, poet and author. He put all his artistic and literary creativity at the service of the mission and he ..............read MORE on above link.

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"Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire?"
- Corrie Ten Boom

(From: Shalom Place, Dominican Nuns of Peace)

 

 

 

 

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Reading from Morning Prayer - Thursday, 3rd August 2017

 

Quote

 

"Thus says the Lord:

With heaven my throne

and earth my footstool,

what house could you build me,

what place could you make for my rest?

All of this was made by my hand

and all this is mine – it is the Lord who speaks.

But my eyes are drawn to the man

of humbled and contrite spirit,

who trembles at my word." (Isaiah 66 1-2)

 

 

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St Catherine of Siena

If you are what you should be,

you will set the whole world on fire.

Let The Truth be your delight and proclaim it, but with a certain congeniality.

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Still around, not in the best of places just now.  

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I'm in much pain in my hip and left leg and can hardly move until early afternoon around 1pm, after I have had two lots of painkillers.  The painkillers I am taking (Panadol Osteo, Tramadol and iBrufen) make me tired and lacking in energy.  I still have motivation, but not the physical wherewithal to get up and get going, although after 1pm I am able to get dressed and do something at least.  Tomorrow, I am making an appointment for an ECG and blood test as my GP attempts to find out why I fell in the first place.  I also need an appointment with my GP and she has given me a referral to make an appointment with a physio therapist.  I am a bit wary of the latter but will ask my questions when I see him or her. I will take along too my X-rays.

The mornings are my worst time, while the hip replacement should put me back to normal; meanwhile, Deo Gratius.  No idea when the hip replacement surgery will take place with elective surgery suspended due to the changeover from the old RAH site to the new one.

Embracing the cross lovingly because it is the reality permitted by Divine Providence and to reflect on those who suffer far more than I do and many far more than I ever will.

 I thank God with all my heart that I am not depressed, flat spirits now and then -  but not depression.

Laudate Dominum. 

 

"Do not look back to the past,

nor forward to the future. Claim only the present, for it holds God's Will"

 

(Rose Philippine Duchesne)

 

[Guest]

Increase the multitude of your mercies in us all, O Savior, and as you satisfied the multitude in the desert by your wisdom and nourished them by your power, so satisfy us all with your righteousness by strengthening us in our faith, O Lord. Feed us all, O Compassionate One, grant us your grace and forgiveness for our sins... for you alone are the Messiah, the only merciful One, O Heavenly Bread of everlasting life. (St Romanos Melodios)

 

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"If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy,

the most probable explanation is

that I was made for another world."
- C. S. Lewis

(Shalom Place, Dominican Sisters of Peace)

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CATECHISM IN A YEAR

SUBSCRIBE http://flocknote.com/catechism

 360. Why are the beatitudes important for us?

The beatitudes are at the heart of Jesus' preaching and they take up and fulfill the promises that God made starting with Abraham. They depict the very countenance of Jesus and they characterize authentic Christian life. They reveal the ultimate goal of human activity, which is eternal happiness.

Further reading: CCC 1716-1717, 1725-1726


361. What is the relationship between the beatitudes and our desire for happiness?

The beatitudes respond to the innate desire for happiness that God has placed in the human heart in order to draw us to himself. God alone can satisfy this desire.
      
Further reading: CCC 1718-1719

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In the life of faith things are even less obvious, less immediate. A life of faith often means conforming oneself to taking the “long view” of things — looking at where we are in one particular moment and realizing that some things, even if we prefer they would not happen, must happen in order for something else to occur, later. That, as St Philip Neri taught, “All of God’s purposes are to the good; although we may not always understand this, we can trust in it.” HERE

 

FAITH

Often faith is stirred within us due to some profound experience that propels us forward joyfully in our relationship with God. But as the power of these experiences wanes over time, we are forced to trust that we remain in communion with God even as His presence seemingly vanishes. Our situation is akin to that of the apostles: for three years they experienced directly the presence of Christ, and the attendant joy and security that came with it. But after His death and resurrection, they learned, courtesy of Thomas, that it is not feeling but raw trust that constitutes faith. “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.” (John 20:29)

Carmelite Father Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen writes that “the enkindling of love does not consist in the joy the soul may experience, but rather in the firm determination of the will to give itself entirely to God.” Faith puts us in union with the love of God. We need not fret over lack of religious emotion in our lives, and we need not think our preferred religious experience should be shared by everyone else. True love withstands the flux of all emotions because it is anchored in the certain hope of the God who made us for Himself.  https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2014/02/06/faith-and-emotion/

 

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The Little Way with St Therese

 

Quote

 

On working with the Carmelite novices: "I throw to the right and the left to my little birds the good seed that the good God puts in my little hand. And then, the seed does what it will!"

"I don’t concern myself about it. Sometimes the results are as if I had thrown nothing; other times, something good results.

But the good God says to me, 'Give, give always without concerning yourself with results.'"

HERE

 

 

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BIT OF CHAT

Saw my GP yesterday.  She has increased the painkillers and also contacted another hospital and orthopaedic surgeon in the hope of my having surgery sooner.  The problem is that the overflow of patients from the RAH are being sent to this hospital and my doctor has no idea of the waiting list.  The orthopaedic surgeon's office contacted me today to ensure they had my details correct and I'm hoping that surgery just might be soon.

Other than that, like the rest of humanity, I have my good days and my not so good days.  Yesterday, for example, was lousy along with the weather.  Today it has been very windy but we have had sunshine and so my spirits have been far better than yesterday too and I have managed to catch up with what I needed to get done.  The increased painkillers do make me tired and lacking inspiration and motivation; nevertheless having the sun shine today overcame that.

Public Mental Health called today and we had a long conversation.  The conclusion by the representative was that I am nowhere near any sort of being ill - nor certainly no hospital case - and that my insight into my brand of bipolar along with a persistent sense of the funny and absurd is keeping my head well above any water.  I am having PMH call as my psychiatrist was very concerned about my mental health with a particular problem that arrived on my plate a while back now.  That problem is unlikely to be resolved until some time in September - if then.  But as the time has unfolded I have become quite happy and thankful that it is taking a prolonged period to be sorted out.  I now feel I have a much clearer understanding of the core problem itself and what I can probably do about it without upset to myself or anyone else either.  That is probably the best of results.

I am having a 'carer' call 2 days weekly and today I got some confidential destruction out of the way at the library just across the road from me. I am trying to rationalise my files here.  For a non paper setup, I have more paperwork than ever I think! Got my Webster Packs organised at the Chemist with the increase in painkillers - then bought some new coloured felt pens.  I have completed a couple of those adult colouring therapy images and framed them.  I am now working, on and off, on my fourth.  I love to sketch and paint but it has to happen when I have the inspiration and motivation - and just lately it hasn't happened.  I have started some knitting but not much enthusiasm there either.  It will happen when it happens.

Just at the moment, I am binging out on 21 episodes of "Everyone Loves Raymond".  I have seen them all a few times now, but still like to watch them again after a while.  I am enjoying them!

My prayer life as to my normal prayer routine is a bit all over the place.  But I have Companionship as I go about my day whenever I refer.

Tuum fiat voluntas

Deo Gratius

Laudate Dominum

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I don't worry my poor soul and aggravate it with this's and that's unnecessarily.  There are enough worries and aggravations in the course of living out a life in the day to day without inventing them.  I can be very confident and quite certain that The Lord will send more than enough crosses and difficulties into any life in the day to day to make a great saint (it's a question of response) without me getting all creative and prompting imagination to run riot.  The Lord will always provide more than enough Grace to cope with the day to day in an (even creative) holy and saintly response - He will very rarely (it seems to me) send Grace to copy with a creative imagination taking flight and running riot.

12 minutes ago, BarbaraTherese said:

 

 He will very rarely (it seems to me) send Grace to copy with a creative imagination taking flight and running riot.

The above should read "to COPE (not copy) with a creativeimagination"

[Pax17]

Barb, a little informal "art therapy" goes a long way to boost one's mood.  I've just started an online colored pencil course and go to ceramics 2x a week...nothing like sorting things out by pounding some clay...:)

[Guest]

Thanks Pax!  While I was married we attended ceramics classes as a family and we all really liked it.  Just now I am happy with the art therapy and I do like the finished product and am framing what I do finish.   Many years ago while married, I liked to express the parables of Jesus in clay - the problem was every time I tried to fire them, they exploded...........but there was much fun and therapy in creating them.  I did think about perhaps trying talc.

 

[Pax17]

It's so nice to enjoy the fruits of one's labor.  I'm learning to sculpt animals and am pleasantly surprised by the results---although the latest critter is missing a toe or two (they broke off)!

[Guest]

4 hours ago, Pax17 said:

It's so nice to enjoy the fruits of one's labor.  I'm learning to sculpt animals and am pleasantly surprised by the results---although the latest critter is missing a toe or two (they broke off)!

Yeah, I find it rewarding to finish something as simple and easy as an art therapy Image (glorified colouring in book) and framing it.   Sorry to read about your critter's toes!  I am taking it that your artworks are animals made from moulds. 

 

[Pax17]

Nope, no molds...every part sculpted by hand.  I use little plastic animals as models, look carefully, add/subtract clay, and carve.  Each animal is hollowed out before the first firing.  Legs and feet are the hardest to do. And you have to make a hole somewhere so  nothing explodes in the kiln.

Simple, easy projects are good...and coloring is soothing.

[Guest]

I really do admire that you have mastered sculpturing in clay without any explosion in the kiln!  I tried and tried, but finally gave up.