I really thought this was inspirational and great advice so wanted to share with you all. Peace A Bold and Firm Re-Commitment By Fr. Steve Ryan, SDB I have decided to follow Jesus… with a bold and firm conviction! You may think that is an odd thing to say from someone who is obviously “ALL IN” as a member of the clergy and a religious. However, even though I’ve been a priest for 31 years and a practicing Catholic since infancy, I want to say it publicly again: “With firm conviction, I want to follow Jesus.” Now it’s your turn; say it: “I have decided today again, with a bold and firm conviction, that I will follow Jesus.” Why the need to repeat it to yourself and to others? Why the re-stating of the obvious? Because it’s not so obvious and evident, even to ourselves and unless we repeat it daily, that Jesus is the One we follow. Unless we re-commit daily, you and I are likely to falter in our journey toward sanctity. We desperately need Christians who are attached to Jesus completely and wholeheartedly. This requires a daily re-commitment that’s made in our morning prayer – every day. Saint Peter did it at Caesarea Philippi in the presence of Christ and the other apostles. Our Lord commended him for his bold conviction and told him it would give him power and wisdom and authority to live a holy life and lead God’s people – as the Rock – the Rock upon which He would build His church. Peter still messed up from time to time, kept re-committing and kept on going. We must do the same if we are going to stick it out with Jesus and get to heaven. In today’s world many Christians lack the strong determination for a holy life. We think it just comes automatically. It doesn’t. We will fall into sin and selfishness unless we re-commit daily. We will fall for distractions and temptations if we don’t re-commit often. We will give up and seek a soft and less demanding life than what the Gospel offers if we don’t re-commit daily. The secular culture is dominating. We will simply go along to get along and cut Jesus out as an old afterthought from childhood, unless we re-commit to Him daily. Don’t you see how the devil is prowling around wrecking things? Please don’t give up on following Jesus. Be so filled with the love and power of the Grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ that you will not falter. Re-Commit! Additional daily and bold convictions that we can make and re-commit to: We believe that we were made to know, love and serve God in order to be happy in this life and in Eternity. We believe that Jesus Christ is Our Lord and Savior and teaches us the way to live. We believe in the 10 commandments. We believe in the power of the Sacraments – especially the Eucharist and Confession. We believe in the power of the Holy Spirit and that prayer works. We believe that we ought to order our lives with God as priority #1. We believe that the devil is real and that there is evil and that the evil one wants to destroy us through sin and selfishness. We tell him to get lost! Re-commit with a fierce determination. Do it daily. God is so good… love Him back!
I had a sin that has plagued me my whole life and no matter how much I tried could never defeat it. But I watched a very holy young gentleman on tube who said the reason why people could not overcome addictive sins was simply that they did not make a definitive choice to do so. They simply had to make a choice not to do so. This sounded so simple it sounded incredible. He said that the choice was not to keep on spitting in the face of Jesus over and over again. So this really deeply touched my heart and I did. To my delight it actually worked! I am so very,very happy and at peace to be granted this grace. But at the same time I have to say these words came at a time when I was ready to accept them. But I feel like someone who has got out of prison having been in chains nearly my whole life. A great. Great blessing. But in order to do something like this we really, really have to want it to make such a definitive choice. That's the rub. It's so easy to think we want something when really deepin our heart we don't. Not really.
St Alphonsus Ligouri told the story of one exorcism when the devil revealed which sermon , above all others he despises the most. He said, 'Being compelled by exorcisms , the devil once confessed that of all sermons, that which displeased him most was the sermon on avoiding occasions of sin: and justly; for the devil laughs at all the resolutions and promises of penitent sinners who remainin the occasion of sin.'
We say we are sorry for our sins and maybe we are . alittle But if we commit the same sins over and over again for years and years hoe sorry are we really? B
Although one time I said to my Spiritual Director that I was sorry to keep bringing him the same old sins. He said it would be much worse if I kept bringing new ones . We both laughed
I suppose it is this deep rooted attachment to sin that keeps us enslaved here and chained in purgatory. We really are children.
Jesus as the perfect man. 33 years of age and at the perfection of manhood long before. We have no idea
St. TERESA of Avila: “To those who want to journey on this road and continue until they reach the end, which is to drink from this water of life, I say that how they are to begin is important – in fact, all important. They must have a great and very determined determination to persevere until reaching the end, come what may, happen what may, whatever work is involved, whatever criticism arises, whether they arrive or whether they die on the road, or even if they don’t have courage for the trials that are met, or if the whole world collapses.” (The Way of Perfection 21:2)
I believe St John of the Cross had a good image. He compares us to little birds that want to fly to the sky to touch the Face of God However we are tied to the Earth by the many great ropes of our sins. Over time we can sever them one by one how're even if a little tiny cord is not severed , still we are held down . Personally I like everything in the Spiritual Life to revolve around prayer. Spend enough time in prayer sun bathing in His love and the cords will melt like wax one by one
If we were only to look at what we can do for God we would be scared chicken's. If on the other hand we think what God has and will do for us we fly as mighty Eagles.
a homily by Saint John Chrysostom, my favorite father of the Church, on the importance of mirroring ourselves in the lives of the saints so that we can reach humility and true contrition for our sins. Penance and Conversion The most serious thing is that, finding ourselves in this state [of sin], we do not think about the deformity of our soul or realize its horrible appearance. When you sit down in a barbershop to cut your hair, you immediately take a mirror in your hand and look and look again at how the cut is going and ask those present and the barber himself if the front quiff turned out well. And, even if you are already an old man, you are often not ashamed of the mania for imitating young people. But that our soul is deformed, and even that it has taken on the appearance of a wild beast [...], we do not even realize it. However, here too we have a spiritual mirror, much better and more profitable than the other, material one. This mirror not only places our deformity before us, but can even, if we wish, transform it into incomparable beauty. This mirror is the memory of holy men, the stories of their blessed life, the lesson of the Scriptures, the laws given to us by God. If you ever decide to look at the images of these saints, not only will you see the deformity of your own soul, but once you see it, you will need nothing else to free yourself from that ugliness. So useful is this mirror for us and with such ease it performs the transformation. https://www.ecclesia.com.br/biblioteca/pais_da_igreja/s_joao_crisostomo_vida_e_obra.html
A man told me someone very touching concerning all this last week. One of his teen age sons had caused considerable trouble in his home, even resulting in the police being called. But he says now suddenly it was not his son's fault but his own. He understands looking back on it it was far more his fault than his son's. That at that time he had been drinking and taking weed too much and this caused his son to go off the rails. He said that the finger of accusations must point at ourselves first. I found this a little disquieting as well as inspirational, because the question arises, what have I got wrong in my own life? But the priest in confession told me if we are living a good Catholic life and searching our conscience every day we should be fine. Fr Ripperger says if we want to know the bad news we should simply ask Our Guardian angels and they will be delighted to tell us, I will do this when I get home.
Lets face it, unless we are great saints we are all of us lying to ourselves about something or other in our lives. When we say we are all sinners it's not just a pious phrase , it actually means what it says on the tin.
