Ijournal entry 102416 #44. October Month of the Rosary. Aphorism by tmm. Quotes by St. John Vianney, Chiara Corbella Petrillo, and Mark Mallett. Article: "I Heart Prayer", by Thomas J. Neal, Ph.D. Article: "What is Holiness?", by Kathryn Marcellino, O.C.D.S. Audio presentation: St. Elizabeth of Trinity, "Heaven in Faith” Day 1 Prayer 1 – “Remain in me". With Dr. Anthony Lilles
“You must know that when you ‘hail’ Mary, she immediately greets you! Don’t think that she is one of those rude women of whom there are so many—on the contrary, she is utterly courteous and pleasant. If you greet her, she will answer you right away and converse with you!”. By St. Bernardine of Siena
By tmm
"Sitting on false premises will prevent one from rising and standing on true promises"
MTA= After readin a post by Dr. Thomas J.Neal on prayer, inspiration came for my first aphorism. The potato dish is a serving of his post about prayer.
"Sitting on false premises will prevent one from rising and standing on true promises"
MTA= After readin a post by Dr. Thomas J.Neal on prayer, inspiration came for my first aphorism. The potato dish is a serving of his post about prayer.
🔵 “Without the priest, the passion and death of our Lord would be of no avail. It is the priest who continues the work of redemption here on earth…What use would be a house filled with gold, were there no one to open its door? The priest holds the key to the treasures of heaven: it is he who opens the door: he is the steward of the good Lord; the administrator of His goods…The priest is not a priest for himself, he is a priest for you.“. By St. John Vianney
⚫️ “To love a person means: to accept not understanding everything about that person, being prepared to change and to suffer, to renounce something for them". By Chiara Corbella Petrillo
🔴"Whenever I am tempted to dwell on the faults of others, I turn my eyes back to myself, back to the moments when I have failed through timidity, cowardice, and self-preservation; when I have been uncharitable, impatient, and self-centered. And then I pray for them, and for God’s mercy on me. Pray for your shepherds today. They need your love and support, most especially those who have been “pasturing themselves.” By Mark Mallett
⚫️ “To love a person means: to accept not understanding everything about that person, being prepared to change and to suffer, to renounce something for them". By Chiara Corbella Petrillo
🔴"Whenever I am tempted to dwell on the faults of others, I turn my eyes back to myself, back to the moments when I have failed through timidity, cowardice, and self-preservation; when I have been uncharitable, impatient, and self-centered. And then I pray for them, and for God’s mercy on me. Pray for your shepherds today. They need your love and support, most especially those who have been “pasturing themselves.” By Mark Mallett
October 1, 2016 -The GIG now have a theme video-song..
Check out this video on YouTube:
Love To The World
http://youtu.be/13YpuhQfneY
Thank you Clara, on the feast day of St. Therese you helped inspire me to have a video/song 4 The GIG since there are colors, a scripture, a logo, etc., your feed back from hearing the song was the ace in the home. Please pray for Clara, today she is leaving for a pilgrimage to the Ho,y Land. Sharing Clara's response:
"The song is so good, I want to go dancing down the street singing this song & proclaiming the good news of the Lord with timbals. Wasn't it David who did that- dancing down the road singing & praising God. I feel so happy & thrilled that I love God, the Father, Son, & Holy Spirit.🎶💒"
Check out this video on YouTube:
Love To The World
http://youtu.be/13YpuhQfneY
Thank you Clara, on the feast day of St. Therese you helped inspire me to have a video/song 4 The GIG since there are colors, a scripture, a logo, etc., your feed back from hearing the song was the ace in the home. Please pray for Clara, today she is leaving for a pilgrimage to the Ho,y Land. Sharing Clara's response:
"The song is so good, I want to go dancing down the street singing this song & proclaiming the good news of the Lord with timbals. Wasn't it David who did that- dancing down the road singing & praising God. I feel so happy & thrilled that I love God, the Father, Son, & Holy Spirit.🎶💒"
The logo is a scroll in the form of the Torah. On top of the scroll is written: God's intimate group. At the bottom of the scroll: Growing in grace. Along each side a picture of a dove representing the Holy Spirit. Would like the logo sketched, maybe one day that will materialize.
By St. Therese: "The essence of spiritual growth is a dynamic love relationship obtained by the total occupation with the cultivation of intimacy with God. So as a people we will grow spiritually in a dynamic love relationship with God, obtained by total occupation with the cultivation of intimacy with Him".
Jesus Christ Pantocrator
Under the patronage of The Mother of God "Theotokos"
Trinity of Colors: Green, Red, & Purple
📌Green= for growth
📌Red= for the Holy Spirt and the Blood of Jesus
📌Purple= for the royal priesthood, a holy nation
📌Green= for growth
📌Red= for the Holy Spirt and the Blood of Jesus
📌Purple= for the royal priesthood, a holy nation
✔️(1). Cultivation of intimacy & a dynamic love relationship with the Trinity.
✔️(2). To be missionaries of God's will.
✔️(3). Establishing a vibrant friendship with the saints & community with Church triumph, Church Suffering, & Church Militant.
✔️(4). Learning & growing strong in our faith.
✔️(5). Becoming true disciples.
✔️(6). Consecration & Operating under the patronage of Mary, the Mother of God Theotokos, God- bearer.
✔️(7). Proclaiming the Word Of God.
✔️(8). Resting in God.
✔️(9). Surrendering fully to God.
✔️(10). Eternal life
✔️(2). To be missionaries of God's will.
✔️(3). Establishing a vibrant friendship with the saints & community with Church triumph, Church Suffering, & Church Militant.
✔️(4). Learning & growing strong in our faith.
✔️(5). Becoming true disciples.
✔️(6). Consecration & Operating under the patronage of Mary, the Mother of God Theotokos, God- bearer.
✔️(7). Proclaiming the Word Of God.
✔️(8). Resting in God.
✔️(9). Surrendering fully to God.
✔️(10). Eternal life
Book: "The Better Part", by Fr. John Bartunek
Article: "I Heart Prayer", by Thomas J. Neal, Ph.D.
Info from this site:
nealobstat.wordpress.com/2016/08/21/heart-prayer/
"I was at a staff retreat recently given by Archbishop Alfred Hughes, and took copious notes. I thought I would share three of these journaled points with you today as I personally found them very rich. I left them unedited. They intersperse his insights with the insights they provoked in me. Archbishop’s phrases are italicized, mine are the rest.
🙏🏼1. Prayer is ultimately about the heart, about learning to speak to God with both affection and awe; with all the tension inherent in “daring” to call God “Father.”What does praying with the heart feel like? How do you know you’re doing it? When you find an array of emotions entering your conversations with God: joy, sadness, anger, fear, confusion, lust, even bland apathy. Heart-prayer does not limit expressions of prayer to only “acceptable” feelings like trust, joy, reverence. We need to pray out of our life-experience so that God can enter into that life experience with His saving power. Heart-prayer is when you pray “intentionally,” meaning you attend to God’s presence, pray “before His face” very near you, with focus. When I speak with my wife and my mental attention wanders off while she’s speaking, she can immediately tell — usually I’ll use auto-responses like “sure,” “right” or “okay” inappropriately. She might say: “Hello? Are you with me?” lol And my attention returns to her. When we both attend to each other, there’s intimacy. When I am listening attentively to her word, internalizing it and responding out of that word directly to her, I am truly speaking “heart to heart.” And vice versa. My wife has proved herself absolutely trustworthy to me in the 28 year history of our relationship — and so I can speak from the heart de profundis, “out of the depths,” without fear. Defined by the promises of our marriage which give our love the shape of totality, she is my most intimate confidant to whom I can reveal the deepest, darkest, best, most vulnerable portions of my inner world. “The heart of her husband trusts in her…she does him good, not harm…”
Info from this site:
nealobstat.wordpress.com/2016/08/21/heart-prayer/
"I was at a staff retreat recently given by Archbishop Alfred Hughes, and took copious notes. I thought I would share three of these journaled points with you today as I personally found them very rich. I left them unedited. They intersperse his insights with the insights they provoked in me. Archbishop’s phrases are italicized, mine are the rest.
🙏🏼1. Prayer is ultimately about the heart, about learning to speak to God with both affection and awe; with all the tension inherent in “daring” to call God “Father.”What does praying with the heart feel like? How do you know you’re doing it? When you find an array of emotions entering your conversations with God: joy, sadness, anger, fear, confusion, lust, even bland apathy. Heart-prayer does not limit expressions of prayer to only “acceptable” feelings like trust, joy, reverence. We need to pray out of our life-experience so that God can enter into that life experience with His saving power. Heart-prayer is when you pray “intentionally,” meaning you attend to God’s presence, pray “before His face” very near you, with focus. When I speak with my wife and my mental attention wanders off while she’s speaking, she can immediately tell — usually I’ll use auto-responses like “sure,” “right” or “okay” inappropriately. She might say: “Hello? Are you with me?” lol And my attention returns to her. When we both attend to each other, there’s intimacy. When I am listening attentively to her word, internalizing it and responding out of that word directly to her, I am truly speaking “heart to heart.” And vice versa. My wife has proved herself absolutely trustworthy to me in the 28 year history of our relationship — and so I can speak from the heart de profundis, “out of the depths,” without fear. Defined by the promises of our marriage which give our love the shape of totality, she is my most intimate confidant to whom I can reveal the deepest, darkest, best, most vulnerable portions of my inner world. “The heart of her husband trusts in her…she does him good, not harm…”
Knowing she listens with love, with care, receives me into herself as she listens. That she gives me encouragement and insight as well as honesty and truth and challenge. All of these things make of our communication an exchange of hearts. God stands at the door of our hearts and knocks, waiting for our consent for Him to enter and begin a conversation. A real one. A deep one. An authentic one. Cor ad cor loquitur, “heart speaks to heart.”
So it is with God as Father. Who He is for me, and I for Him makes our every encounter an encounter of hearts. In Jesus He has revealed His identity as a Father who is absolutely trustworthy and in love with mankind in general, and me in particular
So it is with God as Father. Who He is for me, and I for Him makes our every encounter an encounter of hearts. In Jesus He has revealed His identity as a Father who is absolutely trustworthy and in love with mankind in general, and me in particular
And to invite my trust in this, He has bared His Heart to us first, manifested His longing desire for each of us
so that we might have the courage to trust Him and do the same in return. Every broken experience of fatherhood in this world Jesus wishes to repair by bringing to us the Father. God is also the awesome God, the holy-holy-holy other, beyond all language, wielding unspeakable power; and yet He is in essence love, the defining core of His identity as Father. To enter into the mystery of heart-prayer with God is to risk an exodus from the narrow confines of our sin-sick shallow lives out into the horizonless and fathomless Ocean of God’s fierce-tenderness that reveals an infinite love; a love that counts the hairs on my head. This Father has also all of the attentiveness and tenderness of a mother’s affection.
“Hearts unfold like flowers before Him, opening to the Sun above…”
🙏🏼2. The Our Father teaches us that prayer is about letting God be God and not simply trying to convince Him to do our bidding. Because God is this kind of Father, we know that in His will is our peace. Much of our prayer, especially in the face of suffering and evil, often looks less like the surrendering trust of a small child raising his hands toward his daddy, and more like the fearful bargaining of an abused child who assumes that his father wishes him harm. The Our Father is really an extended consent to God to do-His-will; to carry out His providential plan in us. We say, in essence, in me (1) reveal the holiness of your Name; (2) make your kingdom come; (3) carry out your will completely; a will which looks like (4) feeding us superabundantly; (4) forgiving us so we might pay forgiveness forward; (6) empowering us to resist yielding to destructive temptation; and (7) liberating us from the Evil One. 4-7 show that the consent of 1-3 is always good for us, permitting a truly provident, loving, redeeming Father to care for us.
But we know from His crucified and risen Son that the playing out of the divine will in real-time takes the form of trust and obedient, self-sacrificing love. When given to God,
🙏🏼2. The Our Father teaches us that prayer is about letting God be God and not simply trying to convince Him to do our bidding. Because God is this kind of Father, we know that in His will is our peace. Much of our prayer, especially in the face of suffering and evil, often looks less like the surrendering trust of a small child raising his hands toward his daddy, and more like the fearful bargaining of an abused child who assumes that his father wishes him harm. The Our Father is really an extended consent to God to do-His-will; to carry out His providential plan in us. We say, in essence, in me (1) reveal the holiness of your Name; (2) make your kingdom come; (3) carry out your will completely; a will which looks like (4) feeding us superabundantly; (4) forgiving us so we might pay forgiveness forward; (6) empowering us to resist yielding to destructive temptation; and (7) liberating us from the Evil One. 4-7 show that the consent of 1-3 is always good for us, permitting a truly provident, loving, redeeming Father to care for us.
But we know from His crucified and risen Son that the playing out of the divine will in real-time takes the form of trust and obedient, self-sacrificing love. When given to God,
the whole catastrophe of our lives becomes a eucatastrophe, a “good disaster” that resolves tragedy into a divine comedy. Such a handing over of the whole mess to God always yields the fruits of life and love and peace and justice and reconciliation and every other good thing — the meaning of the resurrection of Jesus – — as God gathers up, glorifies and preserves all good, and redeems all evil for unending ages in the Age to Come. Hope. Trust in this God is possible — unshakably so — because His Son blazed a trail ahead of us; He who was made perfect through suffering.
in the darkness of Friday, impregnating Friday with the bright dawn of Sunday.
🙏🏼3. Prayer gives God permission to heal our false self (based in the compulsive need to prove our worth) and draw out our true self (based in our dignity as being unconditionally loved). Our attitude toward life is shaped by a thousand hidden premises formed in our earliest years of life. As we grow older wisdom requires us to examine and redact these premises as needed. In prayer, we give God permission to redact, edit our false premises and rewrite in their place true premises.
🙏🏼3. Prayer gives God permission to heal our false self (based in the compulsive need to prove our worth) and draw out our true self (based in our dignity as being unconditionally loved). Our attitude toward life is shaped by a thousand hidden premises formed in our earliest years of life. As we grow older wisdom requires us to examine and redact these premises as needed. In prayer, we give God permission to redact, edit our false premises and rewrite in their place true premises.
So many of these! This is the Church’s whole teaching that flows from Sacred Scripture. The most fundamental premise is this: our life, our very existence is grounded first and foremost in God’s unconditional, free, gratuitous, irrevocable, exceedingly particular and boundless love. Love! And love has been very specifically defined by God’s self-disclosure in Jesus, who is Himself God’s definition of both human and divine love.
John 1:1-18 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be. What came to be through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. A man named John was sent from God. He came for testimony, to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world came to be through him, but the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, but his own people did not accept him. 'But to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born not by natural generation nor by human choice nor by a man’s decision but of God. And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth. John testified to him and cried out, saying, “This was he of whom I said, ‘The one who is coming after me ranks ahead of me because he existed before me.’ "From his fullness we have all received, grace in place of grace, because while the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. The only Son, God, who is at the Father’s side, has revealed him". |
To embrace that basic premise is to discover a life grounding revolution, the liberating truth of who we are as loved to the core. Again, prayer is the permission for God to edit and re-write our faulty inner manuscripts and pen in us our new name."
What is Holiness? by Kathryn Marcellino, O.C.D.S.
"I received an email this month asking, “What does it mean for an everyday person to be holy?”
My answer to that question is that everyone is called to be holy and anyone can become holy in any state of life. What holiness looks like for each person will differ somewhat depending on what God is asking a person to do in the vocation and particular circumstances of their life.
“All Christians in any state or walk of life are called to the fullness of Christian life and to the perfection of charity. All are called to holiness: ‘Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.’ ” Catechism of the Catholic Church, #2013
“As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, ‘YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.’
"I received an email this month asking, “What does it mean for an everyday person to be holy?”
My answer to that question is that everyone is called to be holy and anyone can become holy in any state of life. What holiness looks like for each person will differ somewhat depending on what God is asking a person to do in the vocation and particular circumstances of their life.
“All Christians in any state or walk of life are called to the fullness of Christian life and to the perfection of charity. All are called to holiness: ‘Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.’ ” Catechism of the Catholic Church, #2013
“As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, ‘YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.’
Some people think that holiness consists of doing great penances, but Sister Lucia to whom Our Lady of Fatima appeared said, “Many persons feeling that the word penance implies great austerities, and not feeling that they have the strength for great sacrifices, become discouraged and continue a life of lukewarmness and sin.” She said Our Lord explained to her: “The sacrifice required of every person is the fulfillment of his duties in life and the observance of My law. This is the penance that I now seek and require.”
While most are not called to do great penances, we should still energetically seek to follow Jesus and reform our lives. Jesus told St. Faustina, “My soul suffered the most dreadful loathing in the Garden of Olives because of lukewarm souls,” (Diary of St. Faustina, 1228). A Carmelite priest once said, “Why go for the lowest place in purgatory? Why not seek to be a saint?”
Even if we or our life seems ordinary, we are special to God. Personal holiness can be sought through our everyday experiences, rather than in spite of them. We should love God above all things, put God first, and seek to be like Jesus throughout the day with our actions reflecting God’s love at every moment.
This reminds me of the recent Olympics. See how hard the athletes trained to win a gold medal? Our gold medal as Christians is living in union with God here on earth and for eternity with him in heaven.
St. Paul said, “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.”
While most are not called to do great penances, we should still energetically seek to follow Jesus and reform our lives. Jesus told St. Faustina, “My soul suffered the most dreadful loathing in the Garden of Olives because of lukewarm souls,” (Diary of St. Faustina, 1228). A Carmelite priest once said, “Why go for the lowest place in purgatory? Why not seek to be a saint?”
Even if we or our life seems ordinary, we are special to God. Personal holiness can be sought through our everyday experiences, rather than in spite of them. We should love God above all things, put God first, and seek to be like Jesus throughout the day with our actions reflecting God’s love at every moment.
This reminds me of the recent Olympics. See how hard the athletes trained to win a gold medal? Our gold medal as Christians is living in union with God here on earth and for eternity with him in heaven.
St. Paul said, “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.”
1 Corinthians 9:24-27 " Do you not know that the runners in the stadium all run in the race, but only one wins the prize? Run so as to win. Every athlete exercises discipline in every way. They do it to win a perishable crown, but we an imperishable one. Thus I do not run aimlessly; I do not fight as if I were shadowboxing. No, I drive my body and train it, for fear that, after having preached to others, I myself should be disqualified.* |
Below are a few quotes that explain briefly what holiness is.
🗣“True holiness consists in doing God’s will with a smile.” and “Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.”-- Mother Teresa of Calcutta
🗣St. Therese of Lisieux (the Little Flower) has a concise and wonderful definition of holiness. She said: “Holiness consists simply in doing God's will, and being just what God wants us to be.”
To love God means to desire to please God and to do God’s will. We cannot be holy on our own, but we can with the help of God’s grace, which we can obtain through prayer and the sacraments. We can become holy by fulfilling what Jesus asks of us. We can learn what Jesus asks of us by studying the Bible and the teachings of the Church, through prayer, reading good spiritual books, and receiving good counsel such as in spiritual direction, etc.
🗣Pope Francis said, “In order to know which way God is leading us, we must ask Him in our daily prayer: ‘Lord, what is it you want from me?’ Sooner or later, He will indicate us the way through frequent prayer and reception of sacraments and with the help one receives in spiritual direction with a holy and prudent priest, religious or layman friend.”
🗣“True holiness consists in doing God’s will with a smile.” and “Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.”-- Mother Teresa of Calcutta
🗣St. Therese of Lisieux (the Little Flower) has a concise and wonderful definition of holiness. She said: “Holiness consists simply in doing God's will, and being just what God wants us to be.”
To love God means to desire to please God and to do God’s will. We cannot be holy on our own, but we can with the help of God’s grace, which we can obtain through prayer and the sacraments. We can become holy by fulfilling what Jesus asks of us. We can learn what Jesus asks of us by studying the Bible and the teachings of the Church, through prayer, reading good spiritual books, and receiving good counsel such as in spiritual direction, etc.
🗣Pope Francis said, “In order to know which way God is leading us, we must ask Him in our daily prayer: ‘Lord, what is it you want from me?’ Sooner or later, He will indicate us the way through frequent prayer and reception of sacraments and with the help one receives in spiritual direction with a holy and prudent priest, religious or layman friend.”
Audio presentation: St. Elizabeth of Trinity: "Heaven in Faith” Day 1 Prayer 1 – “Remain in me", with Dr. Anthony Lilles
Link to audio presentation:
www.discerninghearts.com/Video/Beginning-to-Pray-01.mp4
Link to audio presentation:
www.discerninghearts.com/Video/Beginning-to-Pray-01.mp4