Private Vows in The Laity/Spirituality

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Those who risk all for God will find

that they have both lost all

and gained all

Saint Teresa of Ávila

 

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“Whether, therefore, we receive what we ask for, or do not receive it,

let us still continue steadfast in prayer.

For to fail in obtaining the desires of our heart, when God so wills it, is not worse than to receive it;

for we know not as He does, what is profitable to us.”

 

-St. John Chrysostom

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Daily Reflection St Vincent de Paul Society

 

Aug 28, 2017

“The good God will not fail to supply your need since it concerns His service,

and He will do it in one way or another.”
– St. Vincent de Paul

 

 

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“God wants me for Himself, He is keeping me for a work which is not yet founded.”

St Jeanne Jugen

St Vincent de Paul Society

Quote of the Day – August 27

"We preach mainly by good example" (XI:252).

 

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Jamberoo Abbey - Western Australia

http://www.jamberooabbey.org.au/prayer/fx-articles.cfm?loadref=163&id=213

The Empty Room

9 January 2016 | Words from the Heart

Excerpt only - "I had to clean a floor in an empty room at the Abbey a couple of months ago. The room is at one end of the building and since it was work time, no one was within co-ee. The rest of the nuns were all working in silence at the other end of the monastic complex and I had the place to myself. That being the case, I used the opportunity, as I was scrubbing away, to sing my favourite hymn. I was amazed to tell you the truth, because, even to my sometimes tone deaf ear, my voice in the empty room really sounded alright!! It echoed and resonated magnificently and encouraged by the sound of my own voice I launched into more than one of my favourites. It was a very happy time and I was sorry when the floor was finished. Try it yourself one day; you will see what I mean!

It occurred to me that sometimes you and I are afraid of our emptiness. We can think our strength lies in fullness, in having a head full of good ideas and correct answers. We bemoan our emptiness; we see it as a huge shortcoming; and we shudder quietly at the emptiness that loneliness brings about in us; we recoil from our incapacities of whatever sort and our inability to rise to the various challenges that come our way, especially those challenges of the heart. We are so often ashamed of our apparent emptiness, we wish we had more to give and we are sure that if we were truly 'together people', we would be full of all manner of good things, we would always know which way to go and we would have the certainty of knowing that we had made some sort of progress through life. We can end up feeling as though we are failures and we are sure God thinks so too. MORE

 

 

 

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Our Lady of Peace pray for us to your Son, The Prince of Peace. Amen

See thread in Open Mic on North Korea

From above thread (my comments): "If there is nothing to be overly/excessively concerned about at this point in the North Korean provocations - we can be very sure that it is prayer and penance for this cause that is holding things at more or less status quo as the pendulum does swing (beware of calling wolf in reverse? - the last thing world leadership wants is panic - although I personally think Kim Jong Un, like a cruel personality getting the attention craved, is having the time of his life being the primary world concern just now)  I am thinking primarily re prayer and penance of our contemplatives and their acute awareness always of current affairs and news, not only that but their contemplative insight into same - and as Thomas Merton wrote "sharing the fruits of contemplation in the parlour" (Contemplation in a World of Action).  I am close to Carmelite nuns here and I have been rather often amazed at their knowledge and keen insight blessed with simple wisdom into world affairs and general news, shared with me in the parlour. 

I, as a layperson, however also have a responsibility in this area.  It is Peace that Jesus gifted to us all at the Last Supper and His Prayer that we should all be one as He and The Father are one.  Does my heart beat with the heart of Jesus?  When we pray  ardently (make simple acts of penance) for Peace in our world, we are praying from and for The Heart and Mind of Jesus, Prince of Peace, to reign victorious over our world.  It simply follows always wherever Jesus is victorious there is Peace and Joy, happiness and fulfilment.

As a layperson in the world where my primary vocational mission is focused, I very much doubt I can complete what I need to complete, respond where I need to respond, if I spend hours on my knees and weaken myself with heavy penances.  Not that I have EVER been guilty of such.  There might be some called this way but not, I would really and truly hope, without (with docility) wise and sound, holy, spiritual direction and affirmation of that call and vocation.

It is in balance rather than excess that The Holy Spirit is present.........while He cannot be compartmentalised and contained in that.

Undoubtedly North Korea, Russia and China are restless at this point.

Also, we need to be aware I think that our opinions are very often formed by media...........and media craves and indeed needs the dollar for its survival and bad news and sensationalism does sell.  When I watch the News each evening, it is swamped in really bad news........but there is really good news in our world too.  Deo Gratius

We are only told what politicians (and others) need and want us to hear.  God bless our Whistle-blowers!

Laudate Dominum

Well, that was an all over the place mouthful indeed "

 

 

Edited August 29, 2017 by BarbaraTherese

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"You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running, to work by working; and just so, you learn to love by loving. All those who think to learn in any other way deceive 
themselves."
- Saint Francis de Sales

 

 

St Vincent de Paul Society

Daily Reflection – August 30

 

“That peace which is the portion of the chosen servants of God

is seldom unmixed with interior struggles.”

– St. Elizabeth Ann Seton

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THREAD VIEW COUNT

Aware of likely variables and making an adjustment for same, I am amazed that the view count for this thread is still healthy.  This is certainly better than the view count dropping, which would indicate I might need to consider that there is no interest in the thread and end it.  I think that quotations from the saints and others, along with spiritual  texts from somewhere or other, are the drawcard.

 

 

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______________________

 

Measure not God’s love and favour by your own feeling. The sun shines as clearly in the darkest day as it does in the brightest. The difference is not in the sun, but in some clouds which hinder the manifestation of the light thereof.

- Richard Sibbes

Daily Spiritual Seed, Shalom Place, Dominican Sisters of Peace

Edited August 31, 2017 by BarbaraTherese

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How do I know The Lord Loves me totally and unconditionally

with Absolute and Boundless Infinite Mercy?

 

I exist.

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This struck me as more down to earth than James Finley is usually, and probably I thought because he is basing his address on conversations he had with the most always very down to earth Thomas Merton.  Finley entered Gethsemane Monastery where Thomas Merton was his spiritual director.  Eventually Finley left monastic life and became a psychiatrist.

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________________

Excerpt from above video:  "There are some things you have to accept in your life as true even though you cannot explain it to others, not even to yourself"

"It isn't that something is given to me that wasn't there before, rather it is as if a curtain has parted revealing to me what is always with me".

...........and many other gems.............

(The above are from memory and are probably paraphrasing more than verbatim quotations)

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"Reflections on The Ascent of Mt Carmel"

It is instructive that the root of the word happiness is hap, meaning “to happen.” This suggests that happiness is our capacity to find joy in what is happening. For most of us, being happy is future tense. We are caught up in a mad pursuit of some illusive goal that is forever just beyond our reach. We are blinded “like a fish dazzled by the light” chasing a glittering lure (A. 1.8.3).

Foley, Marc. The Ascent of Mount Carmel: Reflections

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IMPORTANT

Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves … Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps, then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer. 

- Rainer Maria Rilke

Shalom Place - Dominican Sisters of Peace

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Not much happening

Still having good and not so good days as I struggle along with hip and leg pain.  Nothing much is happening just the ordinary sort of days.  I have suspended going to Mass and also St Vinnies until after surgery - it was getting too much.  Tiredness, pain and continual itching with headaches all has got the better of me at least, I am hoping, temporarily.  I really am hoping that once I have settled down after surgery, I will be able to make some new decisions.  However, still no communication from orthopaedics about when surgery will be taking place.

My brother is back from the USA and will be calling next week.  The rather major problem I have on my plate continues, although at some point I am hoping in the not too distant future with my brother back, I will be able to address it and make some new decisions in that direction.  I hope.

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Just did another quick view count over the last 3 days.  The number of views daily is definitely around 80 per day and stabilizing around the 80's.  This is an indication for me that there is interest in this thread that has doubled since I posted the thread first in January 2014 - and therefore worth continuing to post.

The thread is specific to lay people since it is my own chosen state of life and an important state of life in The Church, which Vatican II and the post VII years has been at great pains to underscore.

I have made private vows to the evangelical counsels - I felt a strong call to do so affirmed by spiritual direction.  My Archbishop gave his permission for me to have a Home Mass to renew life private vows.  This took place on 15th August, Solemnity of The Assumption.  My spiritual director (priest religious) celebrated The Mass.

 Vatican Council II
Lumen gentium 31-33

LAITY

Witnesses because of the gifts they have received

 

The laity, by their very vocation, seek the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and by ordering them according to the plan of God. They live in the world, that is, in each and in all of the secular professions and occupations. They live in the ordinary circumstances of family and social life, from which the very web of their existence is woven. They are called there by God that by exercising their proper function and led by the spirit of the Gospel, they may work for the sanctification of the world from within as a leaven. In this way they may make Christ known to others, especially by the testimony of a life resplendent in faith, hope and charity. Therefore, since they are tightly bound up in all types of temporal affairs it is their special task to order and to throw light upon these affairs in such a way that they may come into being and then continually increase according to Christ to the praise of the Creator and the Redeemer…

The lay apostolate… is a participation in the salvific mission of the Church itself. Through their baptism and confirmation all are commissioned to that apostolate by the Lord himself. Moreover, by the sacraments, especially the Holy Eucharist, that charity toward God and man which is the soul of the apostolate is communicated and nourished. Now the laity are called in a special way to make the Church present and operative in those places and circumstances where only through them can it become the salt of the earth. Thus every layman, in virtue of the very gifts bestowed upon him, is at the same time a witness and a living instrument of the mission of the Church itself, "according to the measure of Christ's bestowal" (Eph 4:7)…

Upon all the laity, therefore, rests the noble duty of working to extend the divine plan of salvation to all men of each epoch and in every land. Consequently, may every opportunity be given them so that, according to their abilities and the needs of the times, they may zealously participate in the saving work of the Church.   http://dailygospel.org/M/AM/ 

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My way of life is no different from any other person in the Laity, except that I have a Rule of Life (approved) to which I am privately bound by vow of obedience.  This Rule of Life spells out how I am to live out Poverty, Chastity and Obedience within the Laity as defined by The Church (or the evangelical counsels).  It is a mark of this way of life that there is nothing identifiable to isolate me from any other person in the Laity.

At the moment, I have no spiritual director, since my director and I seem to have arrived at a point where we cannot agree.  I will be seeking out a new director and hopefully a religious sister.  I have now, in my probably over 35 years of living under private vows, been directed by priests and one religious sister.  I seem to be better 'attuned' to a religious sister.  Thankfully, the Home Mass to renew life private vows has taken place and nothing can take that from me.  I did not undertake being directed by a priest religious in order to have the Home Mass - that was incidental since my director at the time was a priest and he approached The Archbishop at his own decision, although I had raised the subject with him of possibly having a Home Mass for the purpose of renewing life vows.

But just now, everything is on hold until after surgery.

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Edited September 3, 2017 by BarbaraTherese

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As something of a PS, my disagreement with my spiritual director was over a teaching of The Church - it was not a disagreement over something minor or unimportant in the whole picture.

Quote

Important Documents related to Church Teaching on the Laity - from USCCB website

 

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From "Called and Gifted for the Third Millenium"

http://www.usccb.org/about/laity/called-and-gifted-for-the-third-millennium.cfm

Excerpt   "Because the laity's call to holiness is a vocation in every sense of the word, it makes demands and poses challenges. Many challenges are embedded in the call to holiness on this eve of a new era, but we have raised up three as particularly apt for our time: (1) to make an explicit connection between holiness and active service, especially to the poor and vulnerable; (2) to recognize that human suffering—so much a part of the laity's life—can be the catalyst for them to carry forth the Church's healing ministry in diverse ways; (3) to reappropriate the Church's tradition of a simple lifestyle in light of the pressing need for justice, as well as preserving the earth for ourselves and for generations to come.

The laity's call to holiness is a gift from the Holy Spirit. Their response is a gift to the Church and to the world."