From Therese....
"Resign yourself, then, to stumbling at every step, to falling even, and to being weak in carrying your cross. Love your powerlessness, and your soul will benefit more from it than if - aided by grace - you were to behave with enthusiastic heroism and fill your soul with self-satisfaction and pride."
- Testimony of Marie of the Trinity, O.C.D., St. Therese By Those Who Knew Her
Are some of us being admonished, lol?
ReplyDeleteI love St. Therese. I want to read her works. It puts so much more into perspective when I think that I'm not pleasing to God unless I'm sleeping on dirt, fasting 24/7, eschewing all entertainment, and using all my free time to pray the Rosary.
ReplyDeleteBecause in the end, *I'm* not the one who's gonna get me into Heaven.
"You must ask for God's help. Even when you have done so, it may seem to you for a long time that no help, or less help than you need, is being given. Never mind. After each failure, ask forgiveness, pick yourself up and try again. Very often what God first helps us toward is not the virtue itself but just this power of always trying again. For however important chastity, or courage, or truthfulness, or any other virtue may be, this process trains us in habits of the soul which are more important still. It cures our illusions about ourselves and teaches us to depend on God. We learn, on the one hand, that we cannot trust ourselves even in our best moments, and, on the other, that we need not despair even in our worst, for our failures are forgiven. "
ReplyDelete- C. S. Lewis
"I do not reward for good results but for the patience and hardship undergone for My sake."
ReplyDelete-Our Lord to St Faustina(86)
Clark
Mercury; You know how much I enjoy you so I hope you don't take this in any other way in which it is intended, but I know you have mentioned scrupulosity. I thought this definition, and solution, might be of inerest, and/or helpful?
ReplyDeleteSCRUPULOSITY. The habit of imagining sin where none exists, or grave sin where the matter is venial. To overcome scrupulosity, a person needs to be properly instructed in order to form a right conscience, and in extreme cases the only remedy is absolute obedience (for a time) to a prudent confessor.
Perhaps you need a loving priest to help you sort through some of these things. Intended in love :)
Maria - not at all - I was thinking of myself here as well as today's gospel - 'even the dogs eat the leavings from their Master's tables' - which explains the photo.
ReplyDeleteWhew. Thought I might be in the dog house for Mass Chat, lol. It is a powerful gospel, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteI don't have any other choice ..but..to be resigned to stumbling at every step.. Loving the powerlessness?
ReplyDeleteAlmost ...kind of...:)
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(((Mr.Terry)))
ReplyDeleteMaria - I appreciate it. I do have a very good priest, a Benedictine who has been assigned to our parish. I see him once a month, and we talk about lots of this stuff, and he's always able to put things in perspective.
ReplyDeleteI think priests see and hear a lot of crazy stuff in the their parish - so they speak from experience when they help keep us well-grounded.
Mercury: I'm glad. I hope you know what a witness and bright light you are :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Maria - but I kind of think of myself as someone groping for the light switch, to whom prayer doesn't come easily.
ReplyDelete