I didn't know where to post this so I thought this might do. I receive these daily meditations from American Catholic. This one really stood out to me. Overcoming Sin If we resist sin out of love for God, he can make a magnificent dwelling in our soul. This requires effort and sacrifice, working diligently to recognize our sins and praying for grace to overcome them. It involves striving to give up our sins even while we are still attached to them.
Fasting from sin - this is clearly the way to holiness. This can be achieved only by the grace of God. Even holy desire is a grace from God - we need grace and yet more grace so we need to ask for the graces to see our sins and weaknesses, the humility to recognise that we cannot be good by ourselves alone but only working with and through the grace of God. Grace perfects human nature and transformative grace succeeds in making us truly beautiful in the eyes of God. Amazing grace that saved a wretch like me - it is by grace we are saved through faith and co-operation with the grace of God and by living in the will of God He perfects our good works which are merely the outflow of God's love poured into our hearts. We are literally transfigured by the grace and love of God when we allow His grace to flow through our lives by means of the sacraments and through prayer from the heart. Immaculate Heart of Mary our refuge, Sacred Heart of Jesus our salvation.
I have a sin I have never been able to overcome. I went to an old priest one time in confession and he told me this, 'Don't worry about not overcoming this sin just strive the best you can to fight it'. I always though that this, like Gails quote was some of the wisest advice I have ever been given. That there is virtue in the struggle even when we don't win.
Thank God the graces needed are readily available to us in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Fasting from sin is great but it is like diet with out exercise. The more frequently avail ourselves of the sacramental graces of the confessional the more likely we are to overcome even the most stubborn of aspects of our sinful nature. Frequent confession, regular communion and daily prayer leave little room for sin to grow in us.
I love to read the lives of the saints but whenever I read, 'he she preseerved their babptismal innocense raight through their lives' my heart slumps a little because no matter how much I admire such wonderful souls it makes it a little harder for me to relate to them. There are areas of sin in my own life which just don't seem to go away, though I go to mass every day, pray without ceasing, go to confession once a week and fast almost daily. I don't blame anyone else for this but myself. Well I could hardly blame God. could I? :lol: :lol: But still I turust. I would love that I could overcome these areas of sin, less and less for my own sake but for God's that I might stop hurting Him. But sometimes I wonder , if I was through GOd's grace to overcome these things what would become of me? I wonder if I might not become swollen with praide. These flies in the ointment keep my nose down to the spitiual grindstone , my feet very firmly planted on Earth. But still I pray all these long years for healing, may God forgive me, I am like the littlest of baby 's tottering afer God and keeping falling,even at my age. Oh well may I totter after Jesus into heaven even if I fall right on my face when I get through those gates as I am always doing here on Earth... :roll:
This is of great interest to me, that you fast almost daily. Is it a partial fast? Do you fast until a certain time or from particular foods? All foods? What does this look like? It made me wonder if you were living on the Eucharist? I realized that fasting, to a certain point, increases my energy but to fast daily is too far of a stretch for me. I start dreaming about avocados! :?
A friend gave me the idea . It is like Ramadan, the Muslim fast, I try not to eat till evening. I am not too strict about it, but it works well and when you get used to it , it does not kill me. As to living on the Eucharist, I am afraid I have given you an overblown idea of me Gail. Better to ask if I could live on beer. :lol:
LOL - Padraig you crack me up! I'm all serious reading over this thread, thinking about persistant sin and daily fasting and then, you throw out the punch line! :lol: that's why you are such a good moderator, and why Mary smiles on you (and probably sometimes laughs at you :wink: ). You in all your seriousness, can still laugh at yourself and at the world. Still the optomist, and the fighter. I was just about to share a bit of advice I have heard, but I think you already know it. Someone once said, "We need confession, by a priest, because sometimes we need someone to tell us, "You're being too easy on yourself". Likewise, we also sometimes need someone to tell is, "You're being too hard on yourself". If we can no longer laugh at ourselves or our situation, then we really need to get in there and talk with God and the priest. You know, one of the most uplifting things I have realized since going back into the confessional, is that sometimes, the priest laughs with you (or at you) too! How nice to leave the confessional sometimes (especially after being very overwhelmed with something) actually smiling and even laughing a bit, not just because of the weight lifted, but because the priest made you smile with a little joke or something. A nice surprise now and then! Padraig, you are right what we often read about the saints, that they led near-perfect lives. But when we have the chance to actually read something the saint himself writes, we read nothing of the sort. They certainly are sinners and they see themselves as such. Nevermind what people say - we want to see them as pure, to follow their example, but that is not the whole story is it? I was so amazed when I read Mother Teresa's book on the dark night and her inner feelings. You just would never guess she was at such a loss in her faith for so long, that she was so...human, not with what you see and hear from others about her. I always try to remind myself that we will all be saints one day, whether the material world knows it or not, and that even the saints we revere may have spent some time in Purgatory. I too have some very grave sins in my past and repetitive sins in my present, that no matter how much I discuss them with a priest, they still bring me down. But as long as we have confessed them, as long as we are truly sorry, as long as we keep trying and we say yes to God's Mercy when God puts our lives in our faces (whether during the Warning or upon our deaths), we will receive His mercy, even if we have to spend 1000 years in purgatory, we will still receive it, and one day we will join Him (even if we do trip and fall on our faces going through the gate!). THAT is the good news, isn't it? PS -Have I told anyone lately how much I love this forum?
I love reading the lives of the saints ,Connie, but I confess I often find them more than a little bit intimidating. Especially in the old days when the hagiographers felt they had to put the saint on a plinth and cover up anything a little shady. I admit the shady bits are the bits I particularly like. :wink: For they cheer me up; maybe they shouldn't but they do. For instance when I was young I used to read about the old Irish saints and their love for penance. I read of one who was supposed to have walked out into the Atlantic in winter and kept his arms outstretched so long the sea birds came and made nest in his hands. Follow that one . 8) To swim in the sea of Ireland you even in the summer you would have to be a polar bear. :lol: But here and there the humanity of the saints shine through. For instance St Ignatious of Loyola after his conversion was riding along on a little donkey when he met a Muslim guy who insulted Our Lady. Ignatious in a great fury decied to do him in, but beofre doing so had a doubt and asked God to steer his donkey. If he wanted the guy stiffed to steer the donkey after him and he would do buiness on him; if he wanted him to live to steer the donkey elsewhere. Happily the donkey headed of in the opposite direction. I love Ignatious for this as I have a temper myself. :lol: In the life of St Bernadette it was covered up that her family was more than slightly fond of a drink very fond indeed in fact and in all probablity Brenadette quaffed more than a drop or two herself. I love this too, for obvious reasons (being Irish) :wink: Of course the apostles did a runner on Our Lord in a fit of great cowardice and St Paul did in Christians likethere was no tommorrow and so on.....this gives me hope. The shady bits are best , to a shady person like myself.
Well it would be nice if there were beer in heaven, it wouldn't be much of a feast without it. :wink:
When Pope John 23rd was dying with stomache cancer someone asked him how he fared. Hesaid, 'My bags are packed and I'm good to go' When my mother was dying I thought she was like an apple ready to fall of the tree. I think Rose seems like this, ready to be plucked at harvest and brought into the Thanksgiving Festival.
I have sort of a serious question. I've been going through some of Religious instruction with a friend. She is upset with me over something I'd said about being accountable for truth once you learn it. A deacon has left our church and joined a presbyterian church (I think he has found a new love and she belongs to that church). I intimated that this was very unfortunate and when she became upset I tried to explain that the truths he has been taught he is accountable for and through rejecting the church is rejecting or ignoring some important truths. Has anyone else been taught that? She thinks I'm judging him but I was judging the behavior. But regardless of my fumbling explanation- am I wrong to believe that? Once a Catholic, you can't change your mind and become protestant and still be totally "OK" with God? I would think not recieving the sacrements alone would be enough to make a deacon not want to leave the church, but I think he is going to be held accountable for actually rejecting them. It's not my job to judge- I know that so please no lectures about that. I am just wondering if I'm going down the wrong road in my understanding and creating difficulties where there are none. Thanks, Kath
"am I wrong to believe that? Once a Catholic, you can't change your mind and become protestant and still be totally "OK" with God?" You know, I don't think this is always the case, if someone hasn't been led or instructed properly in the Catholic faith and they haven't found it to be the truth for them yet...but you certainly would think that a deacon would not be in this state. So I agree with you Kathleen, if he left just to appease his new love, he is in the wrong. My own daughter is in that category, and I pray for His Mercy on her too when she faces this with God. I pray for the warning to let her see this error in a merciful way and also to start the conversion of her boyfriend, who has been led the wrong way by his father, who had some kind of bad experience while in Catholic school. My daughter sees the good person he is, but compromises her faith for him right now. I believe she needs to confess this someday, as does your deacon. I believe the act is a sin if you know that the Catholic church is the true way. Like you say, it's the action that we can judge, not the person. That is for God only. It is lying to yourself and to God, and to that person you love too.
I agree with Connie. Of course it is possible for someone to become Protestant for very good reasons. I read somewhere that a very high percentage of irish Catholcis who emmigrats to the USA became Protestants because there was no Catholic Church in the area they lived. I can respect this. But for a deacon to become, forgive me, an Apostate shows he is on a trobling spiritual directory, for why having seen the truth would you abandon it for a lesser light? So you were telling the truth ,Kathleen and I think it was brave and honest of you to tell it. Folks who tell it like it is are so rare in these times. The scriptural text: St. Matthew 7 Lk. 6.3738, 4142 1 Judge not, that ye be not judged. Is perhaps the most misunderstood in the entire bible in that it is misquoted to cover a multitude of sins from abortion to sexual improprities. In fact Jesus meant by this that we should not judge rashly. Not that we should not judge at all. God gave us senses a brain and a conscience to use ,not to lock in a cupboard. But mentioning telling the truth, Jesus said, I am the truth' John 14:6 Tothich the world weary, cynical Roman Governor Pilate replied, 'What is truth/' Well I happened to read the most beautiful definition of truth jus the other day from a priest called Fr Segniri which I would like to quote, for it cuts throgu the fog of our times: 'Truth is a transcendent virtue which enters into all well ordered human affairs and, according to the diversity of these, assumes different names. In the schools it is called science, in speech veracity, in conduct frankness, in conversation sincerity,in actions righteousness , in business dealings honesty, in giving advice fredom from predjudice, in the keeping of promises loyalty, and in the courts of law it has the noble title of justice. This is the Lord's truth which , 'Abides forever' (John 2:17)' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paolo_Segneri
