Ijournal entry 020816 #6. February is the month dedicated to the Holy Family. Maxim of Pope, St. John XXIII. Quotes from St. Angela of Foligno, Fr. Jacques Philippe, and Fr. Balthasar Gracian, S.J. "What Jesus wants of us", meditation by Ann Voskamp. Book: "Silent Pilgrimage to God", by A Little Brother of Jesus. Video presentation: "What is Christ’s core value?, by Fr. John Bartunek
"O most loving Jesus, Who by Thy surpassing virtues and the example of Thy home life didst hallow the household in which Thou didst choose to live while on earth, mercifully look down upon this family, whose members, humbly prostrate before Thee, implore Thy protection. Remember that we are Thine, bound and consecrated to Thee by a special devotion. Protect us in Thy mercy, deliver us from danger, help us in our necessities, and impart to us strength to persevere always in the imitation of Thy Holy Family, so that, by serving Thee and loving Thee faithfully during this mortal life, we may at length give Thee eternal praise in heaven.O Mary, dearest Mother, we implore thy assistance, knowing that thy divine Son will hearken to thy petition. And do thou, most glorious patriarch, St. Joseph, help us with thy powerful patronage, and place our petitions in Mary's hands, that she may offer them to Jesus Christ. Amen."
Pope, St. John XXIII
Maxim: "Always acknowledge my own nothingness"
MTA = My Take Away is the Veggie being served up
What is your take away? (YTA)
Maxim: "Always acknowledge my own nothingness"
MTA = My Take Away is the Veggie being served up
What is your take away? (YTA)
⚫️"No one can be saved without divine light. Divine light causes us to begin and to make progress, and it leads us to the summit of perfection. Therefore if you want to begin and to receive this divine light, pray. If you have begun to make progress, pray. And if you have reached the summit of perfection, and want to be super-illumined so as to remain in that state, pray. If you want faith, pray. If you want hope, pray. If you want charity, pray. If you want poverty, pray. If you want obedience, pray. If you want chastity, pray. If you want humility, pray. If you want meekness, pray. If you want fortitude, pray. If you want any virtue, pray." By St. Angela of Foligno
⚪️ "We should not measure the value of our mental prayer by how much we do during the time allotted to it, thinking it good and profitable to
say and think many good things, and getting upset if we haven't been able to do anything. The prayer may have indeed been VERY POOR, and yet God may have worked wonders secretly in one's soul during that time, doing things whose fruits will only become apparent much later. The cause of the immense riches arising from prayer is not our thoughts and actions, but the action of God in our hearts. Only in the Kingdom of Heaven will we see many of prayer's fruits". By Fr. Jacques Philippe
🔵 "Many men have sought to give their views about man and about life in a pithy way; a few have tried to advise men in short sentences what to do in the various emergencies of life. The former have written aphorisms, the latter maxims. Where the aphorisms states a fact of human nature, a maxim advises a certain course of action. The aphorism is written in the imperative, the maxim is an imperative mood. nature, a course of action. mood. "Life is interesting if not happy, is an aphorism. "Ascend a step to choose a friend, descend a step to choose a wife", is a maxim". By Fr. Balthasar Gracian, S.J.
⚪️ "We should not measure the value of our mental prayer by how much we do during the time allotted to it, thinking it good and profitable to
say and think many good things, and getting upset if we haven't been able to do anything. The prayer may have indeed been VERY POOR, and yet God may have worked wonders secretly in one's soul during that time, doing things whose fruits will only become apparent much later. The cause of the immense riches arising from prayer is not our thoughts and actions, but the action of God in our hearts. Only in the Kingdom of Heaven will we see many of prayer's fruits". By Fr. Jacques Philippe
🔵 "Many men have sought to give their views about man and about life in a pithy way; a few have tried to advise men in short sentences what to do in the various emergencies of life. The former have written aphorisms, the latter maxims. Where the aphorisms states a fact of human nature, a maxim advises a certain course of action. The aphorism is written in the imperative, the maxim is an imperative mood. nature, a course of action. mood. "Life is interesting if not happy, is an aphorism. "Ascend a step to choose a friend, descend a step to choose a wife", is a maxim". By Fr. Balthasar Gracian, S.J.
Maxim of Pope, St. John XXIII = "Always acknowledge my own nothingness"
A Trinity of take away points, resulting in (MPA= my practical application)
🏹1. This year to work towards diminishing super sensitivity is to, by the grace of God, grasp hold of humility and let go of pride. Jesus endured more than just talk or attitudes, He put up with much, much, more.
A Trinity of take away points, resulting in (MPA= my practical application)
🏹1. This year to work towards diminishing super sensitivity is to, by the grace of God, grasp hold of humility and let go of pride. Jesus endured more than just talk or attitudes, He put up with much, much, more.
🏹2. It's to realize that what is of paramount importance is to concentrate on the greater and not on the lesser . Jesus' words to St. Catherine of Siena brings forth clarity:
“At the beginning of her visions, when the Lord Jesus Christ first began to appear to her, he said, “Do you know, daughter, who you are, And who I am? If you know these two things, you will be blessed. You are she is not; whereas I am He who is. Have this knowledge in you and the enemy will never deceive you…“
🍒What better cherry topping than Scritpture?
Practical application for a doer and not just a hearer, means internalizing that “God Is”, and being among those who worship, praise, & love Him as “self fades in the background!
🏹3. The practical application for being a "doer" and not just a "hearer", means internalizing that "God Is", and become one who worships, offer praise, and love God wholeheartedly as "self" fades into the background.
🏹3. The practical application for being a "doer" and not just a "hearer", means internalizing that "God Is", and become one who worships, offer praise, and love God wholeheartedly as "self" fades into the background.
The following thoughts have been surfacing and resurfacing, It calls for deep introspection to see if one is indeed heeding the call to love God with one's whole mind, soul, and spirit. All this started after listening to a YouTube video, which will be presented in another Ijournal entry.
It seems it may be happening to a certain degree, that with the mind people are loving God, but how many are truly loving God with one's whole spirit and soul? To do so would result in a radical change of behavior, visible for even the blind to see. When such a change occurred, it would be an experience where one would powerfully encounter the Holy Spirit when dealing with a person. Sometimes in truth, you can have an unholy experience when dealing with certain people. Sometimes it's hate, obstinacy, jealousy, etc. It's for us to set the bar, and proceed to reach our goal by the power of the Holy Spirit. Yes, it's to love God in the manner He desires, and not one of our own picking and choosing. It's to go go about this haphazardly (no or little reverence, etc.).
Another thing crossing my mind, is how many of our sincere prayers are prayers of petition, and not sincere prayers of Adoration and Worship? Prayers of thanks may enter the race, but will worship and adoration come in dead last? If it's not that way with you, Praise the Lord, you should have been sharing that with others. Not just sitting in the Adoration chapel is worship, you can be sure of that, now don't even talk about in the chapel or church talking, laughing, sleeping, consuming beverages etc. Among everything we legitimately do there, we should carve out some time for Adoration and Worship. Even reading, my number one favorite, is not an act of worshiping God while in the chapel. Little solutions were obtained from the video recently viewed numerous times. After listening several times, that was a point that jelled. It you listen to something a hundred times, eventually a hundred points will surface, upon which you can meditate. Thank you Holy Spirit, help me to never tire in working and cooperating with your help to better myself and grow to be the person God created me to be.
Another thing crossing my mind, is how many of our sincere prayers are prayers of petition, and not sincere prayers of Adoration and Worship? Prayers of thanks may enter the race, but will worship and adoration come in dead last? If it's not that way with you, Praise the Lord, you should have been sharing that with others. Not just sitting in the Adoration chapel is worship, you can be sure of that, now don't even talk about in the chapel or church talking, laughing, sleeping, consuming beverages etc. Among everything we legitimately do there, we should carve out some time for Adoration and Worship. Even reading, my number one favorite, is not an act of worshiping God while in the chapel. Little solutions were obtained from the video recently viewed numerous times. After listening several times, that was a point that jelled. It you listen to something a hundred times, eventually a hundred points will surface, upon which you can meditate. Thank you Holy Spirit, help me to never tire in working and cooperating with your help to better myself and grow to be the person God created me to be.
"What Jesus wants of us", meditation by Ann Voskamp
Book: "Silent Pilgrimage to God", by A Little Brother of Jesus
Excerpts:
"Blessed Charles's written meditation by way of commentary on Jesus' words in Matthew 9:22, gives a good summary of his thoughts on the primacy of faith in the Christian life.
Excerpts:
"Blessed Charles's written meditation by way of commentary on Jesus' words in Matthew 9:22, gives a good summary of his thoughts on the primacy of faith in the Christian life.
The virtue our Lord rewards, the virtue He praises, is nearly always faith. Sometimes He praises love, sometimes humility, but such examples are rare. It is nearly always faith which He rewards and commends. Why? Probably because faith is, if not the supreme virtue, charity is that, at least the most important, because it is the basis of all the others, including charity, and also because it is the rarest. Real faith, faith which inspires all one's actions, faith in the supernatural which strips the world of its mask and reveals God in all things; which abolishes the notion of "impossible", and empties the words "anxiety", "danger", and "fear" of their meaning; which gives life calm, peace, deep joy, like a child holding its mothers hand; which detaches the soul so completely from earthly things by showing up their total lack of importance and their childishness; which bestows such confidence in prayer, the confidence of a child asking its father for something useful; the faith which shows that "apart from doing what is agreeable to God, everything is vanity". Oh, how rare that is! My God, I believe, help the little faith I have!
It follows that in the light of faith, the true believer sees everything as God sees it, stamped with the infinity of God and the nothingness of creatures; in the strength of faith, he sees as God acts, sharing in God's power and peace, and serenely detached from material things. Charles De Foucauld often stresses unlimited filial trust - the absence of all anxiety, of all fear; the courage, the quiet determination of the true believer. He applies to himself the words of Jesus:
It follows that in the light of faith, the true believer sees everything as God sees it, stamped with the infinity of God and the nothingness of creatures; in the strength of faith, he sees as God acts, sharing in God's power and peace, and serenely detached from material things. Charles De Foucauld often stresses unlimited filial trust - the absence of all anxiety, of all fear; the courage, the quiet determination of the true believer. He applies to himself the words of Jesus:
Faith, which is a sharing in the knowledge which God has of himself, gives the mind that receives it such a feeling for the Absolute that it becomes, in the illuminated will, a strength giving a share in the indestructible strength of God. Hence the need to go to the limit, to push the possible to its extremes; and we must remember that the possible is not as creatures see it, but as the Creator sees it:
For Charles De Foucauld, faith always has this quality like well-tempered steel. This is why some of his sayings, taken in conjunction with his heroic life, reverberate with extraordinary vigor and invincible faith:
🚏"Yes, Jesus is enough. Where he is, nothing is missing"
🚏"Jesus is master of the impossible"
🚏"One of the things we absolutely owe to our Lord is never to be afraid"
🚏"For the proclamation of the Holy Gospel, I am ready to go to the ends of the earth and live tithe end of time"
🚏"Live as if you were to be martyred today"
Video presentation: "What is Christ’s core value?, by Fr. John Bartunek
"What is Christ’s core value? In this week’s Spiritual Smoothie, we learn that it is peace. Jesus speaks of peace repeatedly in the Gospels, it’s a central component of Mass (“Peace be with you…”), and it’s without a doubt the antidote for a troubled heart. When we possess the peace of Christ, we become at peace with all the struggles in our lives". By Fr. John Bartunek
Link to video :
http://rcspirituality.org/spiritual-smoothies-christs-core-value/
Link to video :
http://rcspirituality.org/spiritual-smoothies-christs-core-value/