To Reach the End for Which We Were Made

From +Archbishop Luis Martinez, The Sanctifier, on the virtue of fortitude aided by the gift of fortitude, a gift given us by the Holy Spirit at our baptism:

"We need the Holy Spirit to moderate our affections, to regulate our lives, and to unite us intimately with God, so that no earthly attraction, no worldly enchantment, can pull us away from his loving embrace...

"In the spiritual life, there are difficulties and there are also dangers: occasions of sin and obstacles to good...We need extraordinary strength to help us bear these difficulties, avoid these dangers, strive toward the accomplishment of the will of God, and finally to reach the end for which we were made...

"That we may overcome the difficulties and escape the dangers, God has provided us with a set of virtues grouped around the cardinal virtue of fortitude. These are patience, perseverance, fidelity, magnanimity, and a number of others, which, like an army in battle array, stand ready to help us. They are very efficacious, yet they are not sufficient...although virtues are supernatural, they receive in our practice of them our own stamp: the human character, narrow, limited, and very weak. 

"...If we are to attain salvation, fortitude with its companion virtues is not enough. A gift is needed, the gift of the Holy Spirit that bears the same name as the virtue: the gift of fortitude. The Holy Spirit moves us by this gift so that we are able to overcome difficulties, to avoid dangers, and to have confidence. 'I can do all things,' exclaimed the Apostle St. Paul, 'in Him who strengthens me' (Philippians 4:13).

"...In the supernatural order, under the movement of the Holy Spirit, creatures are actually clothed with the strength of God... In fact, we often observe how obstacles become a means to some good end in the all-powerful hands of God.

"Not only does the gift of fortitude help us overcome difficulties and avoid dangers, but it also gives us confidence like that which the Apostle Paul describes in the passage just cited. It is a confidence, a security, that produces peace in our souls in the midst of dangers, in struggles, in all our tribulations."

Father in Heaven, increase in us the gift of fortitude to aid our virtue and give us confidence of our life in You! +Amen!

Jesús, Maestro Divino

Found this beautiful prayer on a holy card I received at a retreat this past spring.  Love the intimacy of this prayer:

Jesús, Maestro Divino,

que descendiste del cielo

para darnos gracia, en abundancia

auméntala dentro de nosotros y conviértala

en río que fluya hacia la vida eterna.

 

Te ofreciste a sufrir

la agonía de tu pasión y muerte; y

te entregas en la Eucaristía

como, alimento para todos.

Ayúdanos a comprender

la grandeza de tal ejemplo.

 

Haz que el fuego de tu amor queme

las impurezas de nuestra debilidad humana

y dadnos la fuerza para seguir tu invitación

a la perfección infinita del Padre.

 

Por Fé, dadnos firmeza,

Por Caridad, dadnos fervor,

Por Esperenza, confianza infalible.

 

Dadnos la fuerza de ser héroes en cada virtud

y la confianza de alcanzar la santidad

con la ayuda de María,

tu Madre y nuestra Madre. Amen.

 

+Siervo de Dios, Obispo Guglielmo Giaquinta

Love's Companions: Patience, Obedience, Humility

Love never stands alone but has her companions all the true solid virtues, because all the virtues have life from charity's love...And among love’s companions is patience, the very marrow of love and the clear sign of whether the soul is in grace and is loving in truth or not. This is why charity, the mother, has given obedience patience as a sister and has so joined the two together that the one can never be lost without the other. Either you have both or you have neither.
 
Obedience has a wet nurse, true humility, and the soul is as obedient as she is humble, and as humble as she is obedient.

St. Catherine of Siena, The Dialogue

"Fasting detaches you from this world, prayer reattaches you to the next world"

I trust in You Jesus. 

We have been given an amazing opportunity to witness to the hope that we have been given in Jesus Christ. Our hope is in Him, not in men, not in princes.  He gives Himself completely to us in the Sacraments, and thanks be to God, we still can receive Him without fear in our country.  Hope in Jesus Christ is our anchor and He will not abandon us during this current storm, even if things get decidedly worse.  It is going to take a lot of trust on our part, and He will give us fortitude and courage to speak when we need to, take action when called for, and to stand firm in silence when necessary.

Each one of us has been born at this time for a particular reason.  In our ordinary lives, we are called to love in an extraordinary way.  There is a lot going on in our world and country, and it is very discouraging at times.  But God has not abandoned us.  We may be chastised a bit, but we trust in His Love for us and in His Divine Providence.  He gives and He takes away.  In all, is His Grace.  In this time, I can choose to become overwhelmed with the things of the world or I can choose to place all my trust in Him.  Trusting in Him does not mean complacency or ignoring what is going on around me.  There is a battle going on, and we must remain engaged.  Trusting in Him means giving myself completely to Him in relationship as His beloved daughter and knowing He will call me to action where I am needed in the battle.  The only way to remain grounded in Him right now is through prayer and fasting.  As Archbishop Fulton Sheen once said,

"Fasting detaches you from this world, prayer reattaches you to the next world."  

It takes discernment to hear what God is telling us, and with too much indulgence (non only food, but information and material goods) comes fog, but with fasting comes clarity.  May we discern where God wants us to be in this battle, equipped with all the virtues, especially the theological and cardinal:  faith, hope, love, prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance.

Lord, have mercy on us as we place our trust in You.  Mary, our Mother, watch over us.  I give you my will, conform it to the will of Your Son.  Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.  Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.  St. Joseph, pray for us.  Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.  In Your Most Holy Name, Amen.

Where do you start?

When your house is a mess, is there a place you can always begin that will jump start you into action? Is there a place where you can attend to the task in front of you and then be able to move on to tackle the rest of the mess? This is the only way I can move forward sometimes, otherwise I get completely overwhelmed by the work in front of me.

This task for me is laundry. It is really hard for me to begin cleaning the rest of the house when the laundry is out of control (unfortunately this happens a LOT at our house). For some it's the kitchen. Others start in the bathroom. I can toss all the laundry in an unsorted disaster into another room and ignore it for awhile while "pretending" to straighten up and clean, but my heart is not really into it. I have an underlying anxiety about the unseen piles of clothes waiting to be sorted, washed, dried, folded, and finally put away. The funny thing (or maybe not so funny) is that staying caught up with laundry is not one of my strong suits. Go figure. I think God lets us struggle with precisely that which will give us the most benefit.

I was thinking about this yesterday and today as I have been tackling Mt. Washmore in pursuit of getting to the other side and starting to really clean our home. And as with just about everything that happens in my life, I began to think about this in terms of an allegory to the spiritual life. Where do I start spiritually when my life is a mess? What do I have to tackle first in order to get to the rest of the mess?

The first thing I always have to do before I can receive the Truth of God's Love for me, is to lay down my pride and quit seeking the affections and approval of other people. There, I said it. I am overly concerned with what people think of me, and it is paralyzing. God has healed this in my heart before, and He continues to do so when I begin to forget or begin to let my desire for the affections of others take over my thoughts and actions.

This is what was on my heart when I picked up Seven Deadly Sins Seven Lively Virtues by Fr. Robert Barron, through a Lighthouse Catholic Media display at the local Newman Center. I was inspired to get this CD in part due to the excellent series Mary has been doing at her blog The Beautiful Gate on the seven deadly sins. God is good! Here is what Fr. Barron had to say just at the beginning of this talk:

"We have been loved into existence by God... God doesn't need us.... God can't
be self-interested...Whatever exists, including you, is coming forth right now
as the result of a sheerly generous act, and that's where your worth comes
from."

This and everything else on the CD is exactly what God wants to tell me today. My worth comes from Him and not from anyone else. This is where I begin. I begin from Him. And so do you. So where will you go this week with that knowledge?

If you would like to learn more about what Fr. Barron has to say about the 7 Deadly Sins and the opposing 7 Lively Virtues, you can purchase the CD from Lighthouse Catholic Media. Or go check out a four part series of sermons on the Seven Deadly Sins and opposing antedotes at Word on Fire:

Fr. Barron's Sermon 7: on Pride / Humility

Fr. Barron's Sermon 8: on Envy / Admiration and Anger / Forgiveness

Fr. Barron's Sermon 9: on Sloth / Zeal for the Mission and Avarice / Generosity

Fr. Barron's Sermon 10: on Gluttony / Asceticism and Lust / Profound Respect for the Other

In Need of a Savior

On my last post, I should have written that I struggle with acedia and sloth rather than acedia/sloth because I struggle with both.... didn't mean to imply they were the same thing.

A HUGE help for me is Confession. I went to Confession last week the day after writing that post. Then we finally had a weekend at home without too much going on, and we were able to spend a full day cleaning and organizing. I'll admit I am not a particularly organized person, but in order for things not to completely fall apart around here, we have to have some semblance of organization. Procrastination usually comes first for me, and then sloth, finally resulting in acedia. A friend once told me, you are kind of an all or nothing type of person aren't you? Sigh Yes, I guess that is true for me. I'm a sinner in need of a Savior. I trust You Jesus, You are my All in All.

I am thankful for all of your prayers because it is such an encouragement and writing these things here helps me to be accountable. I am most thankful for Jesus Christ giving Himself completely to us in the Sacraments, particularly in the Eucharist and in Confession. Without these Sacraments, I could very possibly still be plodding my way in the Slough of Despond, trying to save myself.

Formation in an Electronic Age

I was searching online for some practical tips in dealing with the sin of acedia/sloth, which I have been struggling with lately. I found a fantastic article by Sr. Prudence Allen at Catholic Culture that I want to share with you:

Formation in an Electronic Age

Please pray for me as I try to combat the sin of acedia/sloth and learn to live out my vocation with vigor and joy. I am firmly convinced that this will not occur unless I change my habits. It seems like common sense, but it is much easier to say than to practice.

Practicing Patience

Last week humility :)

So, I was planning to write a beautiful, insight-filled post on the virtues of prudence and courage and how we need one with the other, especially as it applies to standing up for our Catholic beliefs in an increasingly secular world. Really, just go read Archbishop Chaput, he's all over it.

But, instead, I have the definition of torture:

Sitting in a closed van with a restless 3 year old that cannot sit still or sit quietly, a crying baby, and a 5 year old boy that has to go to the bathroom while waiting for piano lessons for the older two to finish. There was the option of watching a DVD, but I was trying to save gas and... oh.... well.... another long story having to do with leaving the van running too long and batteries dying and piano teachers being late to pick up their own children....

I thought that it would be a great time to sit and finally finish writing those thank yous. What used to take an afternoon to finish, now takes weeks, wait scratch that, months to complete. Guess I'll have to finish those thank yous another time. It was not prudent to think that this was a good time to write thank you notes. I guess the courage part comes in sitting that long in a van with a restless 3 year old, a 5 year old with an incontinent bladder, and a baby that doesn't like the sun in his eyes.

This. is. so. much. fun!

next up: magnanimity and confidence as we go to play in the park next week instead of waiting in the van.

Studiositas versus Curiositas

I read an excellent post over at Catholic Spiritual Direction called "Is curiosity bad? I seem to have an appetite for information about all things...." Father Bartunek writes:

Learning involves all the good things that you describe above. We cannot love what we do not know. Studying God’s creation can help us know God better, just as studying the works of an artist can help know an artist better, and by knowing God better we can love him better – which is the purpose of our existence. Our intelligence is meant for this, in fact. That’s why the Christian spiritual tradition catalogues studiositas as a virtue – the virtue of study, of applying our minds to studying and learning, so that we can grow in knowledge and understanding of the world, ourselves, and God.

and

But like every power of the human soul, this capacity to learn can be de-formed. Instead of applying ourselves to develop the virtue of study, we can fall into the vice of curiositas, or curiosity. In the Christian spiritual tradition, this word, like studiositas, has a technical meaning. The vice of curiosity refers to the superficial gathering of information, the thirst to imbibe the latest headline or rumor just because it’s new. Curiosity stops where learning begins. It’s like the butterfly that flits from flower to flower without gathering any nectar, whereas the bee will settle into a flower and drink up, taking time to gather all that the flower has to offer.

Ever since jumping into the online world (back in 2006 when I was on bed rest with our 3rd), I have had to fight the battle of spending too much time online. Before that, I viewed the computer as a tool I used at work, but spending time at a computer screen was never something I wanted to do with my free time. I checked email periodically and that was about it.

Image Credit:

Association of Catholic Women Bloggers

It is interesting that right before this is when I really started to experience an exponential growth in my faith and formation in the Catholic Church. I began researching the teachings of the Church through reading books, attending prayer groups, Bible studies, anywhere I could go to learn more about Christ and His Church. It is a wonderful thing to be so in love with Christ and want to know more about Him! And I still have that desire and am so thankful that God has given it to me.

But like with all desires, our unchecked human appetites can become vices (I type this as I eat chocolate chips since we have no other chocolate in the house....hmmm). Another good point that Fr. Bartunek makes in his post is the following:

On the other hand, it [knowledge] also can keep us distracted. In this case, the thirst to have new experiences and develop new areas of expertise is inordinate, out of proportion to our mission in life. The enjoyment of acquiring new knowledge, which is legitimate in itself, becomes so all-consuming that the duties of one’s state in life are neglected.

This is exactly what my struggle is right now with intellectual curiosity, it too often becomes inordinate and then I neglect the duties of my state in life. What seems to be a good thing becomes a vice. I need God's grace to keep this desire within His will. Pray for me.

Interestingly enough, right now as I am typing this, my daughter brought the mail in, and in it is a book I just ordered, No Greater Love, by Mother Teresa. It isn't supposed to be a used book, but thumbing through it, I noticed several sentences were underlined. Here is a sentence that was underlined:

Words that do not give the light of Christ increase the darkness.

So not only do I need to watch the amount of time I spend online, but also discern what I am reading online. Thank you Mother Teresa!

I'm excited now to go start reading this book! After I get the laundry put away and dinner started, of course ;)

Pray for us, Blessed Mother Teresa!

Do go read all of Father Bartunek's post at Catholic Spiritual Direction. And go check out Association of Catholic Women Bloggers at:

Clarity

For most of this year I have been asking the Holy Spirit for clarity. There are so many movements in my heart that it sometimes feels a bit muddled and hard to discern where the Holy Spirit is leading me. It used to be I could keep so many things in my head and multi-task the day away and be successful at the tasks at which I endeavored. Now, I have a hard time accomplishing one task and I find myself being quite forgetful and scatterbrained. Part of this may be age (I am only 39 though!), part may be having 4 young children to care for, and part of this may be God leading me to depend on Him rather than on myself. The muddled thoughts in my head truly affect my heart. My Spiritual Director told me once to ask God to sort it out for me. When I do that, it is much easier to live the vocation God is asking of me, a vocation as wife and mother.

One way God has been giving me clarity is by speaking to me about the same thing in many different ways. Don't you love it when God does that? He pours out His Love on us by speaking to us through different people, movies, songs, Bible studies, homilies, books, prayers and the list goes on and on. Well, God has been opening my eyes to how the Holy Spirit can help me with this clarity thing in so many different ways. Once I began praying for clarity, this is how it all started.

Some friends and I were discussing the Gifts of the Holy Spirit earlier this year, but I admit I did not know much about these gifts. Then not too long after that I kept encountering different places where God was teaching me about His gifts to us through the Holy Spirit. And I was intrigued and thought are these gifts for me too or only for the very holy? And, YES, of course they are, and they are for each one of us; we must be receptive to His grace and these gifts are ours. And we are all called to holiness.

Wisdom...

Understanding...

Counsel...

Courage...

Knowledge...

Piety...

Fear of the Lord....

Then I just happened to find a blog post about a novena to the Holy Spirit asking for these gifts. And so I went a little deeper... Then this summer when we were visiting friends in Montana, I went to a prayer group with my friend, and the priest spoke about the 7 gifts of the Holy Spirit and how these gifts will help us live out the Virtues, and that when we are living out the Virtues, that is when we see the Fruit of the Holy Spirit in our lives. And each one of the 7 gifts can help us to live out specific virtues, like courage may help with fortitude, counsel may help with prudence, and there is overlap too, but it all started to make sense. CLARITY!! I must say as soon as he began His talk, I was overcome by God's Love for me, by placing me at that place at that particular moment in time. My friend said that the priest usually never gives talks at this prayer group and that it was an unusual ocurrence.

When I see that God is speaking to me in a direct way like that it really makes me realize how He has His eye and heart on each one of us at all times. And He places on our hearts that which will guide us closer to Him. So, I went a little deeper..... and then I found out that the Mom's group that I belong to is doing a book study by Gina Loehr called Choosing Beauty, a book about living a life "infused with the virtues." CLARITY!! The Cardinal and Theological virtues...

Prudence...

Justice...

Fortitude...

Temperance...

Faith...

Hope...

Charity...

I remember many years ago doing a protestant Bible Study about the fruit of the Holy Spirit. I loved the Bible study, but was still was wondering why am I having such a hard time with so many of these Fruit of the Holy Spirit? Why do I not see this happening in my life? And now, CLARITY.

~ Charity ~ Joy ~ Peace ~ Patience ~ Kindness ~ Goodness ~ Generosity ~

~ Gentleness ~ Faithfulness ~ Modesty ~ Self-Control ~ Chastity ~

God has given me clarity and has opened an avenue in my heart to receive His gifts, to live His virtues, and to see His fruit. I still have a LONG way to go, but He has laid out a path and it is through His Holy Church. Praise be to God, I love You, and I love Your Holy Church. Mary, I give you my will, conform it to the will of Your Son. St. Joseph, protect us from the confusion of the world. In the Holy Name of Jesus, Amen.