☄️Jawbreakers = Quotes from St. Augustine
🧀The Cheese & Crackers = Quotes by Fr. Edward Leen, C.S.SP., St. Columba of Iona, and St. John Cassian
🌽The Veggies = My 2💰
🍟The Potatoes = “Spiritual Reading”, by Fr. Edward Leen, C.S.SP. (Part 2 of 4)
🍗The Meat = Book: ”Way of The Ascetics, On The Avoidance of Extravagance", by Tito Colliander
🍰The Dessert = YouTube Video: “Spiritual Warfare and Communism, Clarity”, by Fr. Chad Ripperger (Part 01 Segment 03)
🥉Hearken, hearken to what will happen in the latter days of the world! There will be great wars; unjust laws will be enacted; the Church will be despoiled of her property; people will read and write a great deal ; but charity and humility will be laughed to scorn, and the common people will believe in
false ideas." By St. Columba of Iona
🎨 “We must, with God's help, eradicate the deadly poison of the demon of anger from the depths of our souls. So long as he dwells in our hearts and blinds the eyes of the heart with his somber disorders, we can neither discriminate what is for our good, nor achieve spiritual knowledge, nor fulfill our good intentions, nor participate in true life; and our intellect will remain impervious to the contemplation of the true, divine light; for it is written, 'Man's anger does not bring about the righteousness of God' (James 1:20)". By St. John Cassian
OK, stirrings about that rosary began anew, seems it was the Holy Spirit. Viewed rosaries and chaplets on this website called HOLYART, and found myself thinking hard about breaking down and buying one. The decision was made to like Nike, “just do it”. When the shipping was calculated, it amounted to over sixteen dollars. If was then a “no way José”reaction. Preceded to tell someone about my experience and concluded very, very, adamantly that it would be my choice to burn sixteen dollars rather than pay that much for shipping. How in the world could it cost that much to ship a simple rosary? Meant every word said, MO of straight shooter, my dad was that way.
Time past, and a couple of days go by, then the thoughts resurface about the rosary, kind of like enticing thoughts. Finally said: Lord do you want me to get that Rosary? Living life like a prayer, so turned to my “go to” method when trying to truly discern if God is indeed calling for something. It may not be a method for others, but thus far it’s how the Holy Spirit is leading me. Truly from my heart the desire is there to do what the Lord wants, and many times not being quite sure, it’s to cast lots. Well, cast the lots and get “do it”. Incoming thoughts led me to think about my friend Clara. One person who is gung ho pro-life, 100% plus pro-life, if that is possible is Clara. Knew she would absolutely love this particular Rosary so said to myself, you now have to get two instead of one. What a laugh God must have had, the very person who wasn’t buying one and would rather burn sixteen dollars rather than pay that for shipping, is now doing a double. It was on, so the order was placed on January 15th, a Friday.
Well the detour is over, getting back on track, it’s settled that the package should arrive tomorrow on January 22nd
☎️Text mess: “NATIONAL SANCTITY OF HUMAN LIFE DAY. On January 22nd each year, National Sanctity of Human Life Day recognizes the value of every human life. The day celebrates human life from the moment of conception and is set on the anniversary of the 1973. Roe v. Wade U.S. Supreme Court Decision. In 1973, the court ruled that the United States Constitution protects a pregnantThe woman’s right to choose to have an abortion. The ruling was a 7-2 decision in favor of Roe. Leading up to and following the decision, pro-life and pro-choice groups advocated their positions. In 1984, President Reagan supported restrictions on abortion. Several Supreme Court Cases in the late 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s have since challenged Roe vs Wade. Additionally, states have taken action in the event Roe v. Wade is ever overturned – either writing legislation that mimics Roe v. Wade or setting limits or restrictions on abortions.
SANCTITY OF HUMAN LIFE DAY HISTORY
President Ronald Regan first proclaimed National Sanctity of Human Life Day in 1984 to be observed on the Sunday closest to January 22nd. The first observance took place on the 11th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision. In his proclamation, Regan spoke of 15 million unborn children due to legal abortion. Since 1984, Presidents George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, and Donald J. Trump have proclaimed the day during their presidencies”
(MC=My Comments- Have a story to tell, God is mind blowing, da catalyst came when Linda sent a text this am containing this statement: “”DAY OF PRAYER FOR THE LEGAL PROTECTION OF UNBORN CHILDREN”. The story unfolds as a Veggie Post)
Wanted Clara to get her Rosary before midnight and her daughter Mary was able to do so after getting off work that night. Please say a prayer for Mary and that God bless her in every way. So thankful she went to the trouble to come after work and then drop off the package to her mom. Clara was glad, but not super excited by the surprise, maybe because the beads looked cheap, but $77.39 for two rosaries is anything but.
After two days of praying with the special Rosary, inspired with these mysteries of the Unborn. Will join these with the mysteries at hand, be they the Joyful, Sorrowful, Glorious, or Luminous mysteries, when praying my Pro-life Rosary.
📿My Pro-life mysteries
👶1. That lives be lived chastely & not selfish, which cuts to the chaste
Then there will be no need for human life to be treated as waste
👶2. Two wrongs never makes a right
May choices reflect not the evil one but that of Christ the Light
👶3. For those who seek & accept killing the unborn as employment
Come Holy Spirit, come enlighten all and help them to repent
👶4. God please hear our prayers for the innocent losing their lives
Snuffed out, they have no chance to ever be husbands or wives
👶5. The blood of those little martyrs are like that of old, it is seed
We persevere & keep da faith, all allowed works for good indeed
What a journey, what a journey!
Info from this site: https://www.catholiceducation.org/en/religion-and-philosophy/spiritual-life/spiritual-reading.html
“What we are to Read? If the works of ascetical writers are necessary in order to give us a good grasp of the science of spirituality, it is the lives of the Saints that will give us the stimulus to put what we know in practice. What is concrete appeals to us more readily than what is abstract — and in the lives of these heroic men and women we see christian principles in actual working. Without the records of their lives before us, the life of christian perfection as portrayed in the Gospel would run the danger of appearing to our weakness as an ideal impossible to realize, the evangelical counsel and the teaching of the Lord Jesus would appear as something to admire rather than to practice, and, our natural weakness aiding, the teaching of the Savior would soon lose all practical hold upon our hearts and wills. In the lives of the Saints we have positive evidence that perfection is attainable — and that what is impossible to human nature by itself, becomes possible and is actually realized through the grace of Jesus Christ. These records of the lives of these heroic men and women show that all that is required on our part in order to reach sanctity is humility and the entire submission to the Holy Will of God; they show that when these dispositions of humility and fidelity to the divine will are contributed by man, with the help of grace, the divine action can make the rarest virtues grow and flourish in the soul. The reading of the lives of the Saints saves us from the danger of believing that the gospel outlines an ideal which is practically impossible.
There is another danger from which Spiritual reading preserves us — a danger into which many fall, and which has proved a stumbling block to them on the road to perfection. The danger lies in this. The morality taught by Our Lord is so lofty and so uncompromisingly opposed to the inclinations of our lower nature that, under the promptings of that nature, we should be tempted to whittle down the sayings of the Divine Master, explain away their sense, elude their obvious meaning, prune them of all that is sharp and exacting and seek to give them an interpretation more in harmony with the pleasure-loving, easy, comfortable life which is our ambition. So great is our aversion to what is austere and difficult, so unresponsive are we to the appeal to mortification and self-sacrifice, that this tendency would be sure to manifest itself in us, even if there were question merely of the ordinary christian principles, and the counsels of perfection were left out of consideration.
This tendency — to explain away the 'exactingness' of the Gospel — is discernible universally in those who, through a total neglect of spiritual literature, are not conversant with the Saints and their ways, and it is evident also even in those who read the lives of the Saints but who do it in a perfunctory manner or by way of a task. Such persons, judging things by the low standards set by their own lives, are inclined to say, in face of the inexorable morality of the Gospel — "Such and such a principle or maxim of conduct must not be taken in the strict sense." "Putting such principles in practice life would be impossible." "No man could live in the manner required by such a rule." With the example of thousands and tens of thousands of saints, of all ages, of all nations, of all ranks and of both sexes, before our eyes, such questionings are silenced. Christian perfection is possible because so many, even of the tenderest age, mere boys and girls, as for instance St. Pancratius and St. Agnes, have attained to it. In their lives we see in actual working, intense love of God, ardent love of the neighbor, a great spirit of self- denial and an eminent degree of the exercise of the moral and the theological virtues.
Any amount of instruction may fail to rouse to stern endeavor the sluggish, those who are not naturally of an elevated, noble or generous temperament. But when the instruction is embodied in a life, which is its living expression, then even the dullest are aroused to energetic action. A great and good life excites admiration in the hearts of all that contemplate it. Admiration begets imitation. We have an inborn tendency to assume the ways and manners of those we admire. Hence it is that books written for boys deal mostly with the doings of the chief character, who is pictured as possessing all the qualities that it is desired should be emulated by the youthful reader, viz: — truthfulness, honesty, fair dealing, judgment and courage. These ideal figures fire the imagination, and the boy reader is filled with the desire to resemble in all things the hero of his book. Reading of this kind plays a large part in forming the ideals of young boys and in determining their estimates of all that is great and heroic. Great harm then can be done, and is done, in setting before the young mind a false standard of manliness and virtue. One is naturally drawn to greatness, and if our idea of greatness is false, it is easy to see to what a perverted notion of what really constitutes a great and manly life a false standard may give rise.
That man alone is truly great who is perfect in self-mastery, and who is perfectly submissive to Almighty God; this is the perfectly moral and religious man. It is the Saints only who have fully and adequately realized this ideal. We cannot have what is truly lofty and noble constantly before our thoughts without being drawn to make the effort to reproduce at least something of that loftiness and nobility in our own lives. This does not mean that we are to strive to imitate the personal characteristics or the heroic individual actions or mortifications of the Saints in our conduct. Imitation of the Saints does not mean copying them. The attempt would be futile and end only in caricature and finally in disappointment. We imitate them by shaping our lives according to the principles which governed theirs, and by accepting their practical estimation of things, and not necessarily in making our own the material circumstances and the actual doings of their lives. We are not called upon to do what they did aided by the particular graces that were given them. But we are called upon to judge things as they did and view life and its activities after their manner.
Many find spiritual reading distasteful and insipid. This will be the case especially for those who indulge overmuch or even to any serious degree in romantic literature. Even when the tone of this is not really bad, it exercises a very disturbing effect on the imagination, renders the assimilation of spiritual ideas difficult. The sensuous always appeals to us more readily than the spiritual, and hence those eager to lead a truly interior life must exercise a rigid mortification in the matter of light literature. What is bad or of a dangerous tendency must be wholly shunned by all who aspire even to an ordinary christian life. It is unfortunate that parents and teachers do not understand how utterly unchristian can be the mentality created by the works to which they so readily give their approval, if they find nothing in them openly contrary to faith and morals. For those who aim at intimacy with God, the selection of recreative reading must be much more careful; everything taken into their hands with a view to affording mental relaxation should tend at the same time to elevate and ennoble the mind. Nothing should be provided which would only stimulate and excite the imagination. Books turning upon the interplay of human passions, and without any supernatural background to the dramatic representation of the loves and hates of mankind, vitiate the taste and take away all relish for books that deal with the spiritual experiences of those who have given themselves to the life of intercourse with God.
Books that derive all their charm from the vividness with which they portray the deep emotions of earthly and natural affection are dangerous for souls which have consecrated the love of their hearts to God.
The heart of the priest and the nun must be virginal, and should be carefully shielded from everything that would excite in it an interest in the play of human passions. The imagination of those who, turning their back on secular life and renouncing by vow the joys of domestic life, have bound themselves to tend towards perfection, should, as far as depends on their efforts, be kept free from all images of profane love. Then again those who have not had the same call and who, having tasted the joys held out by the world, have experienced the bitterness and disillusionment which too often attends the experiment, will instinctively, in their revulsion of feeling, turn for comfort and consolation to souls consecrated to the service of God. Those who are disillusioned with life will trust to these consecrated souls to establish contact once more between themselves and the supernatural world, with which, in their worldly existence, they had gradually lost touch. If they, whose profession is an exclusive devotedness to the things of God, have nothing to offer to the world-weary ones who look to them for an uplifting, except those very maxims, principles, and views of the world which have proved so bitter a disillusionment, they will have betrayed the legitimate trust that has been reposed in them.
Consecrated souls must keep in close touch with God, for the sake of others as well as in their own interest. They must be always prepared in mind and will to be a guide to the supernatural world, for those who are broken by the trials of earth; for it is to that supernatural world and the God Who reigns in it, that the human heart, when crushed under the burden of existence, will immediately turn for healing and hope, if once it has known the goodness of that God. If they, whose function it is to play the part of intermediary with God, allow their minds to be formed to the same pattern as the minds of those who live in habitual neglect of divine things: if they waste their time, dissipate their energies and enervate their imaginations with the same type of literature as fashions the taste and charms the leisure of the worldling, then they cannot fulfill satisfactorily what is expected of them.
It is true that sometimes those who are devoting themselves seriously to the cultivation of an interior life, are obliged in the discharge of their duties to make an acquaintance with the books that are in vogue. But while doing this they should hold themselves well on their guard against the seduction of that reading and keep their literary taste pure and uncontaminated.
Interior souls should beware of making the perusal of romantic literature a recreation: they should give themselves to it as to a task and regret the time that may have to be spent in it. Where possible an interior soul should renounce all indulgence in light or romantic literature. If one who desires to give himself to spirituality has not a taste for spiritual books, then that taste should be cultivated, for it can be acquired. Its acquisition is, according to Father Faber, clearly a sign of predestination; it is at any rate a powerful help towards a spiritual life. When our minds are by constant reading steeped in the thoughts of God and divine things, it will be easy for us to think of Him, and it will come natural and easy for us to speak to Him and to speak of Him out of our full hearts and well-stored minds.
After one is grounded deeply in spirituality it becomes possible to touch these works of fiction without being defiled; they will have lost their appeal; they will be read only through necessity; they will be read not for amusement but in order that one may be a service to and a guidance to others.”
“It is a known fact that a person who practices the piano too zealously gets cramp in his hands, and a too diligent writer exposes himself to writer's cramp. Dejected and downcast, the musician or author, just now so full of hope, must break off his work; in idleness he is exposed to many evil influences. From this example you should take warning. Fasting, obedience, self-discipline, watchfulness, prayer all make up the constituent parts necessary for practice, and only practice. And any practice should be always undertaken genuinely, quietly taking into account one's own resources of strength, and without exaggeration at any point.
📖Luke 14:28-32 “Which of you wishing to construct a tower does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if there is enough for its completion? Otherwise, after laying the foundation and finding himself unable to finish the work the onlookers should laugh at him and say, ‘This one began to build but did not have the resources to finish.’ Or what king marching into battle would not first sit down and decide whether with ten thousand troops he can successfully oppose another king advancing upon him with twenty thousand troops? But if not, while he is still far away, he will send a delegation to ask for peace terms”
Be ye therefore sober and watch unto prayer, advises the holy apostle Peter, and through him the Lord
📖 1 Peter 4:7 “The end of all things is at hand. Therefore, be serious and sober for prayers”
Drunkenness does not always originate in alcohol and other means of inebriation, just as dangerous is the drunkenness that springs from all too great self-trust and the eagerness that ensues. With an abandoned zeal that expresses itself in exaggerations and extravagances, it sows its sacrifice on the soil of practice. The crop that shoots up out of this is unsound: it bears such fruit as overstrain, intolerance and self-righteousness. No, here it is a matter of not turning aside to the right hand or to the left and never having the slightest confidence in one's own strength.
📖 Deuteronomy 5:32 “Be careful, therefore, to do as the LORD, your God, has commanded you, not turning aside to the right or to the left
If we do not find within us rich fruits of love, peace, joy, moderation, humility, simplicity, uprightness, faith and patience, all our work is in vain, points out St. Macarius of Egypt. The work is carried on for the sake of the harvest, but the harvest is the Lord's. Therefore, keep watch over yourself and be deliberate. If you notice that you are becoming irritable and intolerant, lighten your load a little. If you have the desire to look askance at others, to reproach or instruct or make remarks, you are on the wrong road: he who denies himself, has nothing with which to reproach others. If you think you are becoming "disturbed" by people or by external circumstances, you have not understood your work aright: everything that at first glance appears disturbing is really given as an opportunity for practice in tolerance, patience and obedience. The humble man cannot be disturbed, he can only disturb. Therefore keep yourself under, hide yourself. Go into your room and shut the door even when of necessity you find yourself in a large and noisy company.
📖 Matthew 6:6 “But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you”
But if this sometimes becomes too hard to bear, go out anywhere where you can be alone, and cry out from your whole soul for help from the Lord, and He will hear you. Think of yourself always as like a wheel, advises Ambrose: the more lightly the wheel touches the earth, the more easily it rolls forward. Do not think of or speak of or concern yourself with earthly matters more than is necessary. Remember, too, that a wheel that is completely in the air cannot roll.”
YouTube Video: “Spiritual Warfare and Communism, Clarity”, by Fr. Chad Ripperger (Part 01 Segment 03)
Youtube video link: https://youtu.be/CDLHNRAwoUE