Monthly Archives: November 2016

Nov302016

Advent thought

I desire no consolations which takes me from the sting of conscience; nor do I seek consolation which leads to pride.  For all that is esteemed is not Holy, nor every sweet thing good, nor everything that is dear pleasing to God.

Thoughts leading to addiction, ponder and consider.  Can a sin linger, granted permission to abide under the guise it is necessary because it humbles?  Can I allow a particular sin of propensity to stick around, content with the sincere humbling it brings about?

The previous paragraphs were a text exchange, coalescing subtly.  I have heard it said that when dieting the first ten or twenty pounds are easy to lose.  It is the last five or so that prove difficult.  I hope it is not shallow, for the vanity of shedding pounds is a poor example, yet the point is refinement commences quite naturally, however the further one goes the narrower the road becomes.  Those sins rooted deepest within habit and personal imperfection; upbringing  and subconscious, pride and prejudice, are the last five or so pounds proving nearly impossible to shed, most likely impossible without the grace of God.

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Nov302016

Advent reflection

In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God;

God is being described. With him is someone else, someone called “the Word”; he is the expression of the meaning and fullness of God, the First Person, Speaker of the Word. This Second Person is also God, “was God,” yet there is only one God. Further, the Second Person “came” into his own: into the world which he had created. Let us consider carefully what this means: the everlasting, infinite Creator not only reigns over or in the world but, at a specific “moment,” crossed an unimaginable borderline and personally entered into history—he, the inaccessibly remote one!  –Romano Guardini ‘The Lord’

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Nov292016

During combat fear not

We must not, however, desire temptations, despite the great advantages to be drawn from them; for they are actual incitements to evil and consequently a danger to our souls. Rather we must implore of God to preserve us from them, particularly from those to which He foresees we should succumb. Nevertheless…we should be resigned to endure temptation, if such be God’s good pleasure; but at the same time we should be resolved to overcome it. Then, without ever losing courage, we should put our trust in God, abandon ourselves to His sweet Providence, and fear nothing. Let us pray, let us struggle; and, since it is He who exposes us to the combat, He will never forsake us or permit us to fall. –Abbot Vitalis Lehodey “Holy Abandonment’

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Nov282016

Drive time

Radio listening, Mother Angelica defining the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Her opening declaration on Wisdom was beautifully stated in a way I’d never heard before. Wisdom is the ability to love as Jesus loves, all the gifts put together.

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Nov282016

Advent Hope and Patience

Lord, teach me to be patient,
With life, with people,and with myself.
I sometimes try to hurry things along too much,
I push for answers before the time is right.
Teach me to trust Your sense of timing rather than my own,
To surrender my will to Your greater and wiser plan.
Help me let life unfold slowly,
Like the small rosebud whose petals unravel bit by bit,
Remind me that in hurrying the bloom along,
I destroy the bud and much of the beauty therein.
Instead, let me wait for all to unfold in its own time.
Each moment and state of growth contains a loveliness.
Teach me to slow down enough to appreciate life and all it holds.
Amen

inverno-alma

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Nov272016

Advent Week 1

Besides this you know what hour it is, how it is full time now for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed; the night is far gone, the day is at hand. Let us then cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us conduct ourselves becomingly as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy,,,make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires. –Romans 13

…and further Isaiah says, “The root of Jesse shall come, he who rises to rule the Gentiles; in him shall the Gentiles hope.” May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.  –Romans 15

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