When a saint sees a person doing a sin, does he or she feel a sense of disgust, a sense of "that person is destroying his life, he's sunken so low" like how one may feel when seeing a drug addict sleeping in the street, or a drunkard crying because he sun out of booze. I feel this is unlikely but maybe in God's eye, every sinner is a sort of junkie who is throwing away so many good chances at life? Or do they see a sinner as a mischievous little child, since Gods Mercy is infinite and thus any sin, even if great ,is finite. and any finite number is nothingness next to the infinite. But this would diminish the gravity of sin? Maybe both of my ideas are wrong? my country has a drug addiction epidemic now so my human brain has been forced into seeing stuff in these terms
Hi Xsantiagoux, One of the greatest saints St Mother Teresa of Calcutta served the poorest of the poor. Below is one of her many wise quotes “Seeking the face of God in everything, everyone, all the time, and his hand in every happening; This is what it means to be contemplative in the heart of the world. Seeing and adoring the presence of Jesus, especially in the lowly appearance of bread, and in the distressing disguise of the poor.” She would say to the those in wealthy countries.... "you maybe have the poorest of the poor, right in your own country, in your own homes, right in your own families, these poor are lonely, abandoned, homeless, unloved, uncared for." Many of these persons are addicted and Mother exhorted us to "find them, love them; put your love into action for in loving them you are loving God Himself."
I heard a lovely talk on Charity by an Orthodox Abbot which teaches us a lot of the way the saints might see things. He said one monk was walking along the corridor of his monastery and happened to see the door of one of the brothers cells half opened. Glancing in he noticed how dirty and unkempt the cell was, the bed unmade. 'How lazy and slovenly this monk is!', the brother thought, 'He cannot even make his bed he is so lazy!' After a little while another monk happened to pass by an noticed the exact same thing, 'How holy and what an example this monk is!', the Holy brother thought. 'He is busy with his prayers he cannot even find time to clean his cell or even make his bed!'
I think a saint would feel sorrow at sinful behaviour and compassion for the sinner who is in danger of hell. The saint would pray for the sinner’s conversion. This can be very difficult when the sin is despicable or disgusting. But the saint knows that but for God’s grace, he too would be lost. It’s easy to fall into judgementalism but a temptation to be resisted. Every human being has a soul made in the image of God so we can’t despise sinners, however frightful their acts.
That reminds me of a story Fr. Groeschel told of Mother Teresa. They were walking in NYC and there was a person sprawled out on the sidewalk and everybody just walked around him, but Mother Teresa stopped and reached down to him smiling. He said can you imagine waking up and seeing Mother Teresa smiling down at you? No, not disgust at the situation of the person fallen low. Great sorrow for the lost soul.
The saint would look in the mirror and say, "Hello, sinner. Jesus have mercy on me and the drunk guy passed out on the stoop."
There go I but for the grace of God! I was told by my sister (in the last few days) who works in this field and studies youth statistics, that the suicide rate in Australia today is a total of 7 successful suicides a day with 13 unsuccessful. This is mind blowing! That's a total of attempted youth suicides of 20 per day in Australia with 7 successful. Australia has a population of only 26 million. So many young people are lost to suicide. Why? I believe its because they have no firm foundation in reality; no belief in the truth; because truth is hidden from them by the double talk they glean from the Catholic hierarchy which melds hand in glove to what they learn and experience in colleges. In this hopelessness that they find themselves, many young turn to drugs, alcohol and pharmaceutical pills to alleviate this feeling of hopelessness. This diabolical lot has been our children's diet. So even those of us who believed we installed the faith of our fathers to our children, now experience a complete and utter slap in the face! Behold this is my lot! At times I want death to alleviate the pain I feel, as it seems to grow larger with each month of each year, no matter how many rosery's I pray! In regards to my children I find my repetitive prayers for conversion of my children may be repugnant to God because God maybe working things out totally different to how I would work them out. If this is the case then I am less than nominal in His scenario! Should I remain offering my repugnant prayer for my children? In my inmost being I believe I should and I believe this is what God is asking of me and all other parents of wayward children I know God will work everything out, no matter what happens in this temporal world , but He needs me to trust Him and to continue to give it all to Him. Jesus I trust in You. Amen
josephite, What you feel your prayer to be and what it is are two very different things. Repugnant? My parents might have raised their eyebrows at some of my requests as a child, but they never would have used the word repugnant. Do you use that word because you fail to see God responding to what you see as a prolonged desperate situation? Do you believe you're repugnant to God? It could never be. He's claimed you as His beloved child. The timing of God can be unfathomable, but it is always perfect. My dear friend you are in a hard place. But there are those of us praying with you. I love you and care for you. Many members here feel the same way as I. Isaiah felt something akin to you many centuries ago. 50:10 Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the voice of his servant, who walks in darkness and has no light, yet trusts in the name of the Lord and relies upon his God? Let Our Lady cover you with her Mantle and hold you as she held Jesus as a Babe so many centuries ago. And we'll gather around the two of you calling out: O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long! Abba cannot resist the cry of his daughter! JoeJerk might taunt you trying to make you think otherwise, but he's just an old windbag. And God loves all those for whom you pray and we on MOG will join in! You may not see us, but we are here with you and aren't leaving!
First of all Mario, Thank You!!....for both your kind words and the love you exude in your post! I am so privileged to have you as a friend . Thank You. May God Bless you Terry, Geralyn and your family with many rich blessings of comfort. For You have lived His will in season and out of season, this has been your hallmark, whereas for me, I have deceptively calculated the out of season era and in many ways betrayed Our Lord's calling. At the moment I am struggling with many smaller crosses housed within larger crosses. These new crosses (existing within major crosses) highlight my impotence in prayer! It seems the crosses have grown, however this is untrue, because the initial crosses have lessened in many ways but the new crosses within these initial crosses cause even greater conflicts for me and they sap my energy, hence my thoughts and dreams of Heaven and just wanting to be there! I hope no one is discouraged by my post that you responded to. The Lord in His great patience and love is leading even me to try and understand His Love and mercy! God Bless you Terry! And Thank you for your prayers. You remain in my prayers.
Thank you Michael You are right. We must never discount our prayers for our children. These prayers for our children, embrace our children and hold them apart, while we call on Gods Mercy,( imagine the graces given to such a mother or Father) This is what we need to remember. We have recourse to Him, Our Lord "Jesus" and He then saturates us in His blessings!
I can't speak for how a saint sees a sinner, but for myself, I experience a great longing in my heart for the healing of their soul. I want to gather souls up and place them safely in Jesus' heart. When you look at people in general--just ordinary people in the grocery store--there is often such sadness, emptiness, dullness. Jesus thirsts for each one of them. I try to notice and pray for them individually.
