I watched my dad die a holy death yesterday. Everything about him said “Jesus lives within me”. He was charitable, humble, and extraordinarily loving and self-sacrificing. He was a positive man; my hero. I no longer wish to entertain negative conversations with anyone; on the AirMaria web site, or anywhere else. I wish to carry on his way of life in my own.
I wish you all the best. You will be in my prayers.

Ave Maria!

A little point, perhaps, to clarify, I wasn’t correcting you when I wrote in concerning the 7 deadly sins. I hadn’t had the opportunity to see the post of yours until after I had posted. That seems to happen sometimes here, I don’t know why, and I don’t find it a problem particularly.

Anyway, I hope I haven’t offended you by what I have written previously here. You seem to be set on me learning to forgive any who may have harmed me. They are forgiven, I assure you.

And I am quite familiar with the Church’s teaching on the value of human suffering. As with all of Her teaching, it is beautiful when understood purely and in its fullness.

This does not mean, of course, that we should continue to accept on-going abuse or harm from anyone, nor see such a thing as merely “more suffering to be endured.” It is a good idea to see what is going on in these types of abusive relationships to whatever extent they may exist in your life, and to do whatever you can to make the situation more positive and pure. And if necessary, to back away from them to whatever extent is most prudent and possible. A very good priest told me this once, decades ago, and I believe the instruction is still a sound one.

Anyway, I think some of the dots are coming together now for me as far as the comments lately on this site, though my “internet” memory is definitely not always as good as it should be! All is forgiven from my end of things, and I trust that with that said, I need not put myself in any further near occasion of sin, for my own sake, or for the sake of any other.

As far as breaking any cycle of sin, avoiding the near occasion of it, is always a good start; and as for the deeper more personal aspect of our sinful nature, I will continue to allow Jesus and Mary, as best as I can cooperate in that regard, to “break the cycle” as only they can! I know that relying on our own sinful, self-deceiving ways, or our own intelligence or pride or self-righteousness, will merely leave us in a state of proud, foolish arrogance and unhappy ignorance.

If that seems negative to some, so be it. We must truly admit what we are before we can be changed into something better. God did create us in his image, his goodness, but we have indeed, each of us in our own way, soiled and stained that image with our fallen nature and sinful ways. Happily, God forgives and heals!

Now I feel as though I have been around this block so many times over the years, that it is time for me to move on from the seemingly never-ending drudgery of it.

It is what the Church, through the guarantee of the Holy Spirit working in Her, says it is. We are sinners, in need of repentance, forgiveness, salvation, and redemption.

O happy fault that merited such and so great a Redeemer.

I can add nothing to that. Honestly. 🙂

Ave Maria! And peace to men of good will.

Final word, I think. You have typed some very strong negative words in your comments. I hope that you have someone in your life who helps you contain those emotions so that you do not act them out on yourself, or others.
Secondly, I sense that you are not entirely unfamiliar with the teachings of Holy Mother Church, and the gospels. You know, as well as I, that suffering is redemptive, and that uniting suffering (ie being abused, being betrayed, being physically, emotionally, and spiritually hurt…) helps not only to save our souls, but helps Christ save others as well. That should bring us consolation, and profound joy.
Consider the Passion of Our Lord. He knew very well that those who He cured, forgave, fed, taught, lived with (his friends) would abandon, betray, and deny Him. Jesus didn’t spend a moment’s time being consumed by their actions, or motives. Jesus loved them to the end, to the point of saying, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” His holy Mother did the same!
This is passive and active mortification! This is love.
As long as you allow ‘the evil one’ to worry you you will never get out of your ‘vicious circle’. Break the cycle.

Father Robert Barron’s CD “Seven Deadly Sins, Seven Lively Virtues” has helped me to understand my ‘defects’ and how to change them. He discusses Dante’s “Divine Comedy” in this CD. Dante takes a little time to read and digest, at least for me. But it’s worth reading if you have the time.
“The Particular Examen – How to Root Out Hidden Faults” by Fr James McElhone C.S.C. is on my reading list as well.

I wish you all the best (ie. holiness). You are in my prayers.

Ave Maria!

Marie

First of all thank you for the correction: I wrote envy twice in my list, and forgot sloth.
As for Father de Montfort (my spiritual Father), he was a poet, as well as a song writer. His wording at times is a bit creative, but his meaning is not. He merely points out the great abyss between God’s majesty and His creation; He is everything compared to our nothingness, which is the spiritual mentality we should have in order to look toward heaven and rely on God’s infinite mercies and providence. Father de Montfort never meant for his words to depict a self-depreciation; otherwise we would never endeavor for the higher things such as zeal in God’s service, courage, fortitude, perseverance, magnanimity….we would be ‘stuck in our slime’ due to spiritual indifference.

Jesus Christ came into the world to elevate the marginalized; women, lepers, the sick, children, the unlovables and unwanted of His time. He goes so far as to say, “I no longer call you servants, but I call you friends.” (You can look up the chap/verse).

Since you seem familiar with Father de Montfort’s writings, let me share this with you:
#167 “Since Mary alone has crushed all heresies, as we are told by the Church under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, (Office of the B.V.M.), a devoted servant of hers will never fall into formal heresy of error, though critics may contest this, He may very well err materially, mistaking lies for truth or an evil spirit for a good one, but he will be less likely to do this than others. Sooner or later he will discover his error and will not go on stubbornly believing and manitaining what he mistakenly thought was the truth.”

If we wish to see the world become a better place the change must begin within ourselves first. The kingdom of God must reign within, before it can reign without. Desire and prayer are the first steps.

Consider joining the Confraternity of the Most Holy Rosary. My life changed in a positive way when I did. You will receive all types of supernatural help.

May the Mediatrix of all Graces bless you abundantly, bless us all abundantly, so we can see the good in ourselves, in others, and make the efforts necessary to change the world, one soul at a time, if necessary.

God bless you, Red. Thanks for sharing.

Marie

The seven capital sins. Pride, anger, envy, lust, greed, gluttony, sloth. And we have the need to be saved from them. We can’t save ourselves. But we can cooperate with the offer of eternal life. And even then we might take pride in how much we cooperate better than another! Or feel angry because another appears to be doing better. That’s partly the sorry state of our condition! The gospel the other day about “who’s the greatest” was a bit like that.

St. Louis de Montfort put it like this in “True Devotion to Mary”:
“By the light which the Holy Spirit will give you through Mary, his faithful spouse, you will perceive the evil inclinations of your fallen nature and how incapable you are of any good apart from that which God produces in you as Author of nature and of grace. As a consequence of this knowledge you will despise yourself and think of yourself only as an object of repugnance. You will consider yourself as a snail that soils everything with its slime, as a toad that poisons everything with its venom, as a malevolent serpent seeking only to deceive. Finally, the humble Virgin Mary will share her humility with you so that, although you regard yourself with distaste and desire to be disregarded by others, you will not look down slightingly upon anyone.”

To the modern reader, this seems kind of harsh! But that is only because our pride is somewhat stunned, I suspect, by the thought of seeing ourselves as slimy snails, or toads that poison everything, or serpents seeking only to deceive! How many of us have seriously balked at that paragraph, and attributed the words to a “bygone era” in the Church! Of course they’ve likely never been more true than they are today. We are so deep in this mire and so then, more denial. More hiding, cramming it away inside. More deadly sin. More hypocrisy, etc.

If only we could stand the truth about ourselves and continue to read further. Our Mother Mary, Queen of Heaven, Co-Redemptix, and Mediatrix, knows what to do with her children.

So as you say, Marie, God doesn’t make junk…. but we have “soiled and poisoned” what He made. “Poor banished children of Eve.” The more we hide from that truth, the more sin we stuff inside or attempt to make it more attractive by renaming the wrong as right.

And betray and abuse. Well, on our own, it’s either abuse or be abused… betray or be betrayed. Kind of a “survival of the un-fittest!” But with Jesus through Mary, God is able to bring a greater good” other than betrayal or being betrayed. Abuse or be abused.

Still, though, it’s such a mysterious process a lot of the time, and we “work out our salvation with fear and trembling”, as St. Paul wrote to the Philippians.

Thanks, Marie. Thanks for your prayers. Time now, I think, for me to do some more of that work with fear and trembling. :*]

Ave Maria! And peace to men of good will.

Just a thought.

~for love of the Two Hearts!
Ave Maria!

“Where is the good in me, in my existence? I know only anger and fear and rage.”

I pray the words you wrote above are rhetorical in nature. If they are not, then read these words and keep them with you.

Genesis: 1:31

“And God saw all (highlighting ‘all’) the things that He had made, and they were very good…” (God doesn’t make ‘junk’.)

There is a beautiful staue of the Sacred Heart in a chapel near my home. I have spent hours staring at it while in Adoration of Our Lord. I think about the crown of thorns Jesus’ enemies placed on His head, and I think about the thorns placed around His Sacred Heart by his friends; those who promised to love Him, especially through vows and consecrations. I think the thorns around His Heart hurt a great deal more. Betrayal has to be the biggest of all the thorns because Jesus loves us so very much. When one loves deeply and is later betrayed the pain can be intense.

Well, I think I stepped up on a ‘soapbox’, sorry. Be well, and be at peace. Oh, yes…anger, fear, and rage will kill you. Kill them first.

Ave Maria!

My 12:29 posting is stuck in ‘moderation’. I forgot to say that I will remember you in my prayers, though I am sure I am handing only weeds to the Immaculate for your sake.
She knows our needs better than we do. She is a good Mother.

~Refuge of sinners, pray for us.

Thank you so very much. I will keep your words in my heart (and copied on the hard drive, just in case I forget them). 😉

When Our Lord said in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Watch and pray, that you may not enter into temptation.” He meant for mankind, not to let the 7 Capital Sins tempt us; not to embrace them, because they will ultimately consume us. That is much of the world today. That is the evil. I have recently seen how it only takes just a few, who disregard our Lord’s admonisions, to disturb the true peace of many. It spreads like a cancer! Peace plans between countries will never work until every man, woman, and child has it in their heart to avoid sin and practice virtue. Abortion will never end until the same is done. Changing the law of the land won’t effect anything until good prevails in the hearts of all.

~~~Pride, Envy, Anger, Envy, Lust, Avarice, Gluttony~~~

Maybe the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate can give some homilies on the 7 Capital Sins and the opposite virtues to practice so that we may not ‘fall into temptation’. May God bless them all, and make them all good shepherds to lead His sheep.

Red, I look forward to more of your ‘opinions’ in the future.

~a little black sheep

Ave Maria!