Bucket of Virtues for Kids (And Adults too!)

Join in on the 2nd Annual Keep Love in Lent Link-Up!
Add your inspiring LENT post at one of the following Catholic Blogs:

Catholic Bloggers Network

  Equipping Catholic Families (Monica)
 Campfires and Cleats (Chris)
 Truly Rich Mom  (Tina)
A Slice of Smith Life (Tracy)
and discover NEW WAYS to Keep LOVE in LENT!

For Lent, our family usually makes a fasting cup which we fill with slips of paper that have things that we can fast from listed on them but we decided to do something different this year:

Michaela and I have been studying virtues lately and since the best way to learn is by doing I decided that a "virtues bucket" would be the best and most practical way for her to integrate the virtues into her daily life.

We used an old plastic coffee container as a bucket, decorated it, and then cut out flowers and butterflies and wrote down a virtue on each one. On the reverse side of the cards we wrote down
which vice the virtue opposes or what help the virtue gives.

Each day we will pick one card from the "virtues bucket" and will then put into practice for that day the particular virtue we have picked. At the end of the day, after our evening prayer, we will go over the opportunities we had to practice the virtue and how we can further work the virtue into our everyday lives.

The list of virtues we used can be found here (Theological and Cardinal Virtues, along with a good activity that will help kids learn about them) and here (the moral virtues).


Have a blessed Lent!

(Can you tell I just dusted? Yep, Mom is practicing "diligence" today!)

Your Biggest Cross

Sisyphus: courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Rumor has it that a newspaper once sent out an inquiry to famous authors, asking the question, What’s wrong with the world today? And Chesterton responded simply:

“Dear Sir,

I am.

Yours, G.K. Chesterton.”



This story about G.K. Chesterton is not substantiated but I sure wish it were true. Why do I wish this?

Because sooner or later every person stumbles upon one of the great truths of life. And "stumbles upon" is the right phrase because this truth sure feels like a huge stumbling block. God knows this truth, the saints knew it, the souls in Purgatory definitely know it. We may know it as well, but our pride resists it. This truth is:

We are our own heaviest crosses.

There, I said it.

And it's true for all of us.

When I first came upon this realization I thought it was only me. That I, myself, was my own heaviest cross and that this didn't apply straight across the board.

But it does. It applies to all of us. When you read the lives of the saints you see that every single one of them came to this conclusion about themselves. It's a common thread that runs through their writings and one we should take note of.

Those who say, "But my husband (insert person or circumstance of choice here) is my heaviest cross!"

Nope. Not true. You are your heaviest cross. This is a truth about ourselves that we tend to resist in an extraordinary way because pride has taken root in our hearts and we don't want to believe that one of our biggest problems just might be ourselves.

When we believe that others are our "heavy crosses" it may be one of the strongest signs that a virtue we should be praying for in abundance is the virtue of humility and maybe some charity to go with it.

It took me ten years to learn this. (And another five to accept it.)

It is part and parcel of our fallen human nature.

It's a great lesson though because as soon as we REALLY learn this,as soon as we stop resisting God's
efforts to point this oh so hard-to swallow, it's stuck in my throat fact out, we can begin to make quick progress in the spiritual life because our focus is taken off the sins and faults of our neighbor and responsibility is planted squarely on the shoulders to whom it belongs. We stop blaming others for our heavy loads and start seeing that WE are the heavy loads. This is not to say that there are not external circumstances in our lives that do not make our cross heavier. There are. But the reason the *external circumstances* are so "heavy" is because of our *internal circumstances*.

In other words, if you want to lighten your load you have to work on yourself first.

As G.K. Chesterton so bluntly puts it: Not only are we all in the same boat, but we are all seasick.

Funny how some of the most obvious things in life are the most difficult to see. Not only are we seasick, we are "see sick" as well and our biggest blind spot is ourselves.

~ You cannot escape it, wherever you run. For wherever you go you carry yourself with you, and will always find yourself. Turn upwards or turn downwards, turn inwards or turn outwards: everywhere you will find the cross.                      Thomas A Kempis

~ The greatest cross of all is self.       Archbishop Francois Fenelon

Lent Meme

Victor at Time for Reflections has tagged me for a Lent Meme. This Lent Meme is very easy to follow. 

 The rules are very few:

1.   Copy/paste this post on your Blog.

2.   Contact as many other Bloggers as you like and leave them this comment: "You have been tagged for the LENT MEME on my Blog".

3.   And now the difficult bit: Do someone a good deed. Anyone. Relative, friend or stranger. Any good deed. Saying a prayer for someone in need. Helping an old person with shopping, transport, gardening. Visiting a sick person. Giving some money to charity.

Just use your imagination and do any good deed.

If you are greedy you can do more than one good deed. To more than one person. You can do a good deed every day of Lent if you wish. The minimum is just one good deed.

As soon as Victor tagged me for this meme I jumped right on it because this is probably the most meaningful meme I've seen. And I tag each person who reads this post and wants to join in. Let's go all out this Lent and place our focus on what REALLY matters: love of God and neighbor.

As We Forgive Those...

Eduard Veith: courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

I've heard people say, "I cannot forgive this person but I do not wish them in hell." What they may not understand is that this is the spiritual reality that underlies not forgiving others, the condemnation of the person, and this is why God warns us about it over and over in the Bible. The refusal to forgive is your personal "judgment" on the soul you withhold forgiveness from. When you don't forgive you are in essence saying that your judgment holds more water than God's. We align ourselves with the accuser instead of the God of mercy whom we claim to trust.

I am not being harsh in my assessment of unforgiveness.  In the Bible, Jesus himself makes this very clear to us numerous times (see below). The Catechism of the Catholic Church has this to say regarding
"forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us" :

2840 Now - and this is daunting - this outpouring of mercy cannot penetrate our hearts as long as we have not forgiven those who have trespassed against us. Love, like the Body of Christ, is indivisible; we cannot love the God we cannot see if we do not love the brother or sister we do see. In refusing to forgive our brothers and sisters, our hearts are closed and their hardness makes them impervious to the Father's merciful love; but in confessing our sins, our hearts are opened to his grace.

"Love, like the Body of Christ, is indivisible" - this statement says so much. Who are we harming by our refusal to forgive? The entire Body of Christ, that's who. Everyone.  And mercy cannot penetrate our hearts if we refuse to forgive. Daunting, for sure. Thank you, Lord, for Confession, that beautiful Sacrament that lays bare our hearts so that we can be healed.

2841 This petition is so important that it is the only one to which the Lord returns and which he develops explicitly in the Sermon on the Mount. This crucial requirement of the covenant mystery is impossible for man. But "with God all things are possible."
. . . as we forgive those who trespass against us

2842 This "as" is not unique in Jesus' teaching: "You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect"; "Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful"; "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another." It is impossible to keep the Lord's commandment by imitating the divine model from outside; there has to be a vital participation, coming from the depths of the heart, in the holiness and the mercy and the love of our God. Only the Spirit by whom we live can make "ours" the same mind that was in Christ Jesus. Then the unity of forgiveness becomes possible and we find ourselves "forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave" us.

2843 Thus the Lord's words on forgiveness, the love that loves to the end, become a living reality. the parable of the merciless servant, which crowns the Lord's teaching on ecclesial communion, ends with these words: "So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart." It is there, in fact, "in the depths of the heart," that everything is bound and loosed. It is not in our power not to feel or to forget an offense; but the heart that offers itself to the Holy Spirit turns injury into compassion and purifies the memory in transforming the hurt into intercession.

2844 Christian prayer extends to the forgiveness of enemies, transfiguring the disciple by configuring him to his Master. Forgiveness is a high-point of Christian prayer; only hearts attuned to God's compassion can receive the gift of prayer. Forgiveness also bears witness that, in our world, love is stronger than sin. the martyrs of yesterday and today bear this witness to Jesus. Forgiveness is the fundamental condition of the reconciliation of the children of God with their Father and of men with one another.

Reading this section on forgiveness from the Catechism of the Catholic Church makes me very grateful to be Catholic. What a treasury of wisdom we have at our fingertips!

Here are two links on unforgiveness that I also found helpful:

Unforgiveness is the cause...

Human Defenses Against Forgiveness

No sir, those are my feet...

Special delivery just for you, Mary!

You know, living in the (kinda-sorta) country has its good points, I'll give you that. Lots of space, no streetlight glaring through your windows during the night, stars galore, fresh air - the list of good things could go on and on. But...

...the water here smells really funny. As in *bad* funny.

Eggy in fact.

You turn on the tap to brush your teeth and are assaulted by egg water.

I don't get it.

I got over the nighttime howling wolf thingy - they weren't wolves at all, really. No, they were roaming packs of coyotes attacking their prey with a glee that would curl your toes.

The bears? Well, the bears don't eat meat. At least not yet.

And I can accept that the (kinda-sorta) country may have a few intrinsic odors of its own. I mean, let's face it, septic systems and horse farms come with their own special brand of "fresh country scent", don't they?

So it's all good.

But the water?

Noooooo...

 ...I cannot accept the water. I'm not even sure it IS water.

Rotten egg-scented well water?

Do you know what that means, folks?

That means you hard boil your clothes in the egg-scented water and then the dryer bakes the scent in. And if you throw in a few "fresh linen clean" scented dryer sheets? You get "fresh linen clean
egg-scented" shirts, pants, socks, sheets, towels, etc...

The problem with egg-scented socks is it results in egg-scented sneakers and egg-scented shoes. And you can't just toss your shoes each week. 'Cause that would be a sin my friend and I would be remiss if I didn't mention that fact on a Catholic blog now, wouldn't I? So you go about your days with a mild egg-scented air about you.

This is a problem. Why? Because not everyone understands that the odor is coming from your feet and when I am in crowded places and someone sniffs at the air I get paranoid. No sir, those are my feet...I swear it's my feet and not my breath. My Triple Blast Arctic Air Peppermint Fields Peel The Paint Off Your Walls Mouthwash carries a minty fresh scent guaranteed to kill 99.99% of all odor-causing bacteria in existence. 

When someone says, "You smell that? What is that?!" I cringe. Yes, I cringe. No sir, I didn't break that unspoken cardinal church rule which Catholics 9-months-old and up in pews around the world instinctively know (it's passed down in the genes methinks) that only coughing is allowed at Mass AND. NOTHING. ELSE. So I make a big production of checking out the bottom of my shoes so that the people behind me will know that I'm wondering where that foul odor is coming from too. 

It's the bane of my eggsistence.

 I know, I know, that was REALLY bad, Mary...the worst you've ever done.

Any advice out there from my fellow bloggers who live in the country who may or may not have a high manganese level in their well water? 'Cause I'm pretty sure manganese is the culprit because our feet always smelled just fine until we moved into the country and odor-eaters will only work for just so long. 

Plus, I'm not really sure if secretly rolling deodorant on your feet and in your shoes each day is a *good* thing. 

Chemicals, you know what I mean? Though, I have to let you in on a little secret: my socks are REALLY white. Just a little cleaning tip for my dingy-footed friends out there.

Mercy - Limited or Not?

Robert la Longe - Sacred Heart of Jesus

Does mercy have a limit?

Yes and no. Mercy is limitless on God's end, it is on our end that mercy has it limits. In other words, mercy is limited by the narrowness and constriction of our own hearts. God's mercy has no limit but we can limit the expression of God's mercy by saying no to it. God is willing to forgive all of our sins but...

(There's always a but, isn't there?)

... we have to forgive others as well.

When we pray the Our Father we say, "Forgive us our trespasses AS we forgive those who trespass against us." We see here that forgiving others is one of the conditions for receiving mercy. We have to forgive others if we want to be forgiven ourselves. At the very least, the desire to forgive must be present, Jesus will help with the rest. Desire is a great thing - it leaves a large opening for God to work with.

Not forgiving others means that we want them to be held bound for their sins against us. The wound was too large, too brutal, too cruel to ever be repaired, how can I forgive?  This holding bound their sins in turn holds us bound to our own sins while at the same time it binds us in a negative way to the very person we refuse to forgive!

How can that be?! I mean, they did this brutal terrible thing and I could reap what THEY sowed? Huh?

Doesn't seem to make sense, does it?

Until we realize that unforgiveness has the potential to be one of the worst sins of all. It is not a quality from God. Ever. It has one source and the source is evil. According to St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, evil is defined as "the absence of good". So, technically evil is not a something, it is an absence of something. In the case of  sin (of unforgiveness or any sin) it is the absence of virtue to some degree or another. For instance, satan is evil because there is no good in him. He is virtueless. We, on the other hand, are kind of a mixed bag...lol.

The definition of evil as the absence of good is an important observation because it helps us understand how to overcome both the sins of others against us and the sin we see in ourselves. For the first, we would ask for the grace to forgive, as well as the virtue of love and humility to battle against the lack of love and the pride which leads to unforgiveness. For the second, we would pray for and practice the opposing virtues of whatever vices we are trying to rid ourselves of.

Unforgiveness can lead to a hardening of the heart and if this potential for hardening is fulfilled to its ultimate capacity its end result could be the complete and utter hardening of the human heart, which grace can no longer pierce because the person has refused to allow it to be pierced. It's a total turning away from God, a refusal to love AND a refusal OF love.

In some ways, unforgiveness, if held to the end of life is worse than murder. Why? Because  unforgiveness is basically the intent to impose spiritual death. This is the spiritual intent which lies beneath unforgiveness - that a person should reap what they sowed for all eternity. Though we may not see it as such, it is an attempt to usurp the authority of God whose mercy is given to all who ask with sincere hearts. It is an attempt to usurp the justice of God as well. It aligns us with "the accuser of our brethren" instead of aligning us with the Lord, who is rich in mercy.

Unforgiveness is saying to another, "You are not worthy of mercy."

God says otherwise.




"My mercy is greater than your sins and those of the entire world. Who can measure the extent of My goodness? For you I descended from heaven to earth; for you I allowed myself to be nailed to the cross; for you I let My Sacred Heart be pierced with a lance, thus opening wide the source of mercy for you. Come, then, with trust to draw graces from this fountain. I never reject a contrite heart. Your misery has disappeared in the depths of My mercy. Do not argue with me about your wretchedness. You will give me pleasure if you hand over to me all your troubles and griefs. I shall heap upon you the treasures of My grace."                (The Diary of St. Maria Faustina Kowalska)



(This post has a second part because it was too long to post all at once. With Lent coming up I thought mercy versus unforgiveness would be a fitting subject to write about. The second part speaks a bit more about the importance of forgiveness and delves into what the Catechism teaches about it.)

Into the Silence

Artwork: Night by Edward Burne-Jones

One foot in time

One foot in eternity

O, be still my mind

Be still my soul

For in the deepest silence

of the human soul

lies the peace which

surpasses all understanding

and in the quiet chambers

of a peaceful heart
                                                 
                                                                time stands still

                                                                and eternity begins

                                              ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you.        St. Augustine

Cultivating inner silence is an important part of prayer. In the midst of the clamor of the world, which is louder than ever in our day, I would go so far as to say this silent time is imperative for most of us because it is in the silent sanctuary of our souls that we find the rest we so desperately need, it is there we find the "peace that surpasses all understanding". When we search for this peace on the surface of our lives it's hard to find but if we look at the calm beneath the storms of life, if we turn our gaze to the inner recesses of the soul, there we find God's steady presence.

Rather, I have stilled my soul, hushed it like a weaned child. Like a weaned child on its mother's lap, so is my soul within me.       Psalm 131:2

And behold, the veil in the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom.  Mt.27:51

Thanks to Jesus we may enter the "inner sanctuary" - that place in our innermost being where God and the soul are in intimate communication.  It can be compared to the Holy of Holies in the temple. That place "beyond the veil" which we cannot see with our physical senses but become aware of with our spiritual senses.

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?      1 Cor. 6: 19

The ark of the commandments you shall bring inside, behind this veil, which divides this holy place from the holy of holies.            Ex.26:33

You yourself are His dwelling and His secret chamber and hiding place.       St John of the Cross

Time seems to stand still in the inner recesses of our souls. I never quite understood how this could be exactly but a good guess is that our souls don't experience time in the same way our physical bodies do. Our souls, I guess you could say, stand outside of time in some strange way, even as our physical bodies stand very firmly IN time.  Because we are body, soul, and spirit we exist both in time and outside of time. This is the reason a person can experience heaven as a spiritual state of being while still in time. Our souls rest in God who is beyond time.

What more can you desire, what more can you seek without, seeing that within you have your riches, your delight, your fullness and your kingdom; that is your Beloved, Whom you desire and seek? Rejoice, then, and be glad in Him with interior recollection, seeing that you have Him so near. Then love Him, then desire Him, then adore Him, and go not to seek Him out of yourself, for that will be but distraction and weariness, and you shall not find Him; because there is no fruition of Him more certain, more ready, or more intimate than that which is within.     
                                                  St. John of the Cross (A Spiritual Canticle of the Soul)

Here are a few beautiful scripture passages (along with  the verses and quotes I mention above) that I have been meditating on recently that deeply resonate within my soul whenever I think of the indwelling of The Holy Trinity:

I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one, that the world may know you sent me, and that you loved them even as you loved me.                 John  17:23

"Be still and know that I am God." Psalm 46:10

"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts become troubled or afraid." John 14:27

A bit of an odd question but humor me, please...

It's been a little while since we've moved from the city to a small town and things are going well but...

...does anyone know if it's *bad* if your stink pipe is buried under mountains of snow?  I mean that candy cane shaped thingy (which I decorated for Christmas in red and white FYI) that off-gases your septic system? (Or I'm assuming that's what it's for? Not that we need off-gassing or anything like that here...no siree bob...but, well, you know how it is.)

I cannot find it. Seeing that I haven't lived in the sticks for all that long and am not "septic savvy" I was wondering if any of you knew the answer to my question?

I googled it but couldn't find the answer anywhere. I'm wondering if I have to go on a search, find and shovel (No do not insert the word that just popped into your brain...begone satan, this is a Catholic blog! Shoo!) mission or if I am all set.

This post will self-destruct as soon as I get an answer.

The Joy Thief

"Accidia" 

"We would like to get back to our innocence and joy, but they are cold and sepulchered."          
                                                                             Archbishop Fulton Sheen


The Seven Deadly Sins steal your joy. But perhaps none so much as the deadly sin of sloth, also known as acedia. If you lack joy in your life this may be the deadly sin to look at first, so great are its detrimental effects on the soul. Sloth is the head "joy thief" because, well...that happens to be its job description. It is sadness in the face of joy, sorrow for the things of God. Or as Peter Kreeft, in his book Back to Virtue, so bluntly describes it:

"Sloth is the most depressing thing in the world. It is hell on earth. It finds our very highest joy - God himself - joyless. If Joy himself is joyless, where can we find joy? If salt has lost its saltiness, how can it be restored? If the very light in us is darkness, how great is that darkness?"

This is the best explanation of sloth that I have ever seen. Sloth finds Joy himself...joyless.

Scary, huh? Sloth is like walking around in the bright sunshine with a huge black cloud hanging over your head. You can't see the light for the darkness that surrounds you.

St. Thomas Aquinas says that sloth is a "sluggishness of the mind which neglects to begin good...its evil is in its effect, if it so oppresses man as to draw him away from good deeds". So, sloth is not only joyless, it is neglectful as well.

Those who are encumbered by this deadly sin walk this world in a half-hearted fashion and I believe it is one of the biggest problems that this century is faced with. Those who are lukewarm almost always have a problem with sloth. Sloth is a spiritual torpor, a listlessness of the spirit that leads most often to sins of omission rather than sins of commission. Rather than confronting this joyless spirit head-on, many try to escape it by frantically rushing around in an attempt to outrun the heaviness in their hearts and the sword of sorrow hanging over their heads. This is where sloth gets ugly, for in trying to escape it we make matters worse. Sloth doesn't like to confront, it likes to avoid. It is a spiritual languor that says, "I still have time...I'll take care of spiritual matters tomorrow. Today I just have too many things to do - I have to get this shopping done, the game is on, these e-mails have to go out, my blog is waiting (hmmm), etc...

Here are a few of the signs (or symptoms, one could say) of sloth:
~ An aversion to prayer - this can be mild or great depending on how deeply rooted this vice is
~ Aridity
~ Lack of zeal
~ Disorganization
~ Confusion (spiritual)
~ Apathy or discouragement
~ Boredom
~ Putting off tasks or leaving them undone without good reason
~ A lack of awe
~ Ingratitude
~ Sadness (melancholy)
~ Excessive activity that hides a spiritual languor - too busy for God

The seven deadly sins tend to be "intertwined" with each other like interlocking pieces of a hellish puzzle. For most of us there tends to be one particular deadly sin that takes precedence over the others. In other words, it is the "kingpin" and hitting the kingpin helps take down the other deadly "pins" that have attached themselves to our souls.

Sloth is sneaky, irresponsible, and apathetic when it comes to God but there are remedies for this vice and one of the ways we tackle it is by practicing the opposing virtue. In the case of sloth/acedia the opposing virtue is diligence. Exercising virtues builds your spiritual muscles. Another virtue which opposes sloth is charity.

It's important to remember that joy isn't a "thing" to be grasped. Joy is alive. Joy is a person.
Set your heart on God and there you will find your Joy.

Ding! Oh, I get it!

How to tell you just may be spending a bit too much time on Facebook?

Well...

...you know you've been on Facebook too much when you try to respond to comments on Blogger and that dratted comment just won't publish no matter how many times you hit enter.

What?

Am I the only one who has ever done this?

Yeah, right. Fess up, Facebook friends. You know who you are.

Stealing Heaven

Christ and the Good Thief - Titian

Alas, dear Christ, the dragon is here again.
Alas, he is here: terror has seized me, and fear.
Alas, that I ate of the fruit of the tree of knowledge.
Alas, that his envy led me to envy too.
I did not become like God; I was cast out of Paradise.
Temper, sword, awhile, the heat of your flames
and let me go again about the garden,
entering with Christ, a thief from another tree.

             St. Gregory


Who can help but love St. Dismas, the "good thief" who stole heaven with one simple, heartfelt sentence: Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. 

I've always thought that the story of St. Dismas reflects the true depth and beauty of God's mercy. During times of trouble, I often repeat the words he spoke to Jesus to remind myself of the greatness of God's love for his people.

God bless all the "wicked saints"  whose great witness to God's mercy reaches into the hearts of  poor sinners everywhere.  They are a  reminder to us that we should never lose hope - that conversion is possible, even into the last moments of someone's life. We all have people in our lives who seem to have little to no interest in God and maybe some of us have lost hope that they can change, but this should never be the case. True conversion is always possible and our prayers can help.

I remind you, My daughter, that as often as you hear the clock strike the third hour, immerse yourself completely in My mercy, adoring and glorifying it; invoke its omnipotence for the whole world, and particularly for poor sinners; for at that moment mercy was opened wide for every soul. In this hour you can obtain everything for yourself and for others for the asking; it was the hour of grace for the whole world - mercy triumphed over justice.    (Jesus to St. Faustina, The Diary of St. M. Faustina Kowalska - 1572)




           

Dust Makers

Do I HAVE to take a bath?

Do I really trust God?  Do I have total faith in Him and in his love for me?

As much as I'd like to answer those questions with a big fat YES, I can't do that. I WANT this total faith and perfect love... but I just don't have it yet. I have faith and love but it's not perfected yet.

"Perfect love casts out fear."

Simply put ... I have fears. And what are fears but little pockets of despair that need casting out?

Fears that I fear "Perfect Love" has not yet rid me of.

Mostly I fear my own obstinacy. I see certain attachments so clearly and still procrastinate in ridding myself of them.  I'm afraid I'll get caught with my hand in the cookie jar.

 Because, as St. Augustine so bluntly eloquently puts it, "Having You, I might have naught besides."

Naught. Nothing. A big fat zero of nothingness. And that I'll have to wait for years in this state of nothingness until the Lord sees fit to end the nothing period and fill me so full of Himself that the nothing disperses into everything.I wonder if I'm the only person on the planet with this fear? I hope nobody answers that.

So I cling to my "somethings". I call them my little "dust makers".

Because that is what they'll eventually be, right?

 Dust. I cling to dust. Though I must admit that chocolate flavored dust is especially yummy. If I graciously thank the Lord for it often enough I wonder if He'll excuse my over consumption of this very fine dust product.

A bigger fear?

That I won't detach myself from all these little dust makers in time and I'll go before the Lord and clouds of lingering dust will surround AND trail my soul.

Kind of like Pigpen from Peanuts.

And my biggest fear?

The Lord will cough and choke out, "Let's get you off into Purgatory and give you a nice bath!"

And that the "bath" water will be too hot.

Just sayin'.

Okay! Nice and clean! You can come out now!

The Double Yoke Syndrome - Lack of Faith

Photo source: Wikimedia Commons

As long as I look at myself, my eye is filled with bitterness. But if I look up and fix my eyes on the aid of the divine mercy, this happy vision of God soon tempers the bitter vision of myself.
                                                                                  St. Bernard of Clairvaux

In the first part of this series I wrote about how despair over circumstances, ourselves, or other people may stem from a need for the virtue of hope. I stated, "Half the problem with feeling doubly yoked is what we believe about ourselves and others mixed with what we may not believe nor trust about God." Here in this next post I'd like to tackle this second aspect of feeling "doubly yoked", a lack of faith in the goodness and mercy of God.

 You can see how this would be a huge obstacle. How can we give ourselves to someone we don't completely trust?

We can start learning to trust by throwing out our false ideas of who God is.

No more believing in an ineffectual God that smiles benignly down upon his people, rarely interacting, never intervening. God is a god of power.

"I AM"

Then Jesus approached and said to them,"All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me."                 
"And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the world."                 Mt 28:20

"I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "the one who is and who was and who is to come, the almighty."        Rv:1:8


No more believing in a lightweight God who dispenses"cheap grace" when the mood strikes him. God is generous and grace is rich and freely given.

"And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you."                           Lk 11:9

"Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest."      Mt 11:28

"From his fullness we have all received, grace in place of grace..."                    Jn 1:16

The necessary grace is there waiting for us. Jesus assures us of this truth.

If what He is saying holds true then why may we feel "doubly yoked" at times? Where does the problem lie?

With us. The problem lies with us.

We lack faith and therefore have trouble receiving.

We block grace through our unbelief.

"If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you."

"O you of little faith, why did you doubt?"                       Mt 14:31


When temptations to doubt plague us we can push them aside, refusing to trust our own thoughts rather than God's thoughts.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. As high as the heavens are above the earth so high are my ways above your ways and my thoughts above your thoughts.          Is. 55:8-9     ( Ch 55 - An Invitation to grace - Beautiful!)

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, on your own intelligence rely not; in all your ways be mindful of him, and he will make straight your paths.              Prv 3:5


In this way, we overcome the tendency to doubt. We place his ways above our own.

We boldly approach the throne of grace.


So let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help.           Heb: 4:16


Confidently, because we are relying on Christ's merits, not our own. This is where people get confused at times, they confuse confidence with a lack of humility. Truthfully, it is the opposite. When we approach God, we are trusting in his goodness, his love, his merits. 

Humility seeks help, pride runs away from it. And what walks hand in hand with pride?

Despair. Once again we come back to despair - that hefty beast that is too heavy to carry. This is why, as I mentioned in my last post, faith, hope and charity are so necessary - they are the three vital virtues that keep our feet firmly on the path of salvation. We cannot do without them. So let's humble ourselves, ask the Lord for the help we need to carry our crosses, and believe that He will answer our prayers.


Let souls who are striving for perfection particularly adore My mercy, because the abundance of grace which I grant them flows from My mercy. I desire that these souls distinguish themselves by boundless trust in My mercy. I will provide them with everything they need to attain sanctity. The graces of my mercy are drawn by means of one vessel only, and that is - trust. The more a soul trusts, the more it will receive. Souls that trust boundlessly are a great comfort to Me, because I pour all the treasures of My graces into them. I rejoice that they ask for much, because it is my desire to give much, very much. On the other hand, I am sad when souls ask for little, when they narrow their hearts.            Our Lord to St. Faustina, Diary of St. M. Faustina Kowalska -1578

The Cure for "Double Yoke Syndrome" Part 1

Hope in a Prison of Despair: Wikimedia Commons

The food we feed our minds and the things we tell ourselves make a great deal of difference in whether our cross feels light or heavy. Half the problem with feeling doubly yoked is what we believe about ourselves and others mixed with what we may not believe nor trust about God. I joked around in my last post about people feeling doubly yoked but there's a great deal of truth mixed in with my rather lame attempts at humor. Many people do feel overwhelmed and weighed down but the truth is that feeling heavily burdened is often the result of a lack of hope.

Despair is the heaviest thing in the whole universe. Even a little bit is hard to carry.

What we believe or disbelieve about ourselves can leave us locked into patterns of living that make it more difficult to respond to God's freely given grace. If we don't believe that we, or others, or even a situation, can change we have the tendency to slam the door on grace. Very often there are hidden areas of hopelessness in our lives that God yearns to touch deeply with his grace but because of the things we believe about ourselves and others we keep the door closed through our own hardness of heart. A strong and stubborn belief can be a hard obstacle to remove. It can be done but we have to ask God to open up these painful wounded areas to hope. As in "Lord, please pour your hope into this area. I have difficulty believing I can/she can/he can change and I hand it over to you. Touch this part of my life with your grace. May the light of  hope cast its rays on the dark corners of my heart and may your love be the balm that heals this brokenness within me. "

Basically, when we don't trust fully in God or his word, we end up with hidden areas of despair in our hearts. We discount grace. We believe in a cheap grace that is not powerful enough to effect change in ourselves or others.

Hope is a "power" virtue and a "living" virtue. Without hope touching every aspect of our lives parts of us crumble and die inside. The easiest way to destroy someone? Strip them of their hope. Anyone who has ever lived in a state of despair can understand the debilitating effects of a lack of hope. Hope grows things... hope nourishes faith and love and brings about their full flowering.

Those of you who are gardeners have probably heard of "companion planting". This is when we group certain plants together to increase their strength and ability to survive and bear fruit. The same is true in the garden of your heart: faith, hope and charity work together to nourish the soul. These are virtues that God has infused in our hearts. Here on earth, they work in tandem. Strip one away and the others begin to fail.  When virtues fail like this we leave space in our hearts for the Seven Deadly Sins to set in. They are the "weeds" in our gardens and if not removed tend to take over the whole thing.

When I began praying for hope to light up all the areas in my life I felt hopeless about I began to see huge changes in my life. It doesn't matter the size of the issues you are despairing over, large or small He wants to open these areas to the light of hope.



"For I know well the plans I have in mind for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare, not for woe, plans to give you a future full of hope."              Jer. 29:11

"And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us."               Rom 5:5

Double Yoke Cake

Photo source - Wikimedia Commons

Mix:
 One Type A personality
 2 cups of "there's not enough time in my day"
 1 ounce "sure I can do it no I don't need any help"
 1/4 cup grated nerves
 A dash of Martyr Complex*
 A tablespoon of bitterness
 2 teaspoons of  snake oil


* may substitute a pinch of God Complex for a heavier cake

Mix together in well ain't life just a bowl of cherries!

Bake one hour in the oven of resentment.  Remove and sprinkle liberally with hubris.

Caution! Very hot under the collar - handle with care. Makes 365 servings

                                        ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~




Do you often feel weighed down, overloaded and overwhelmed? Shoulders stooped by the weight of your "enormous, I'm telling you, Lord, it's huge" cross? Wondering what might be the reason for this seemingly unfair distribution of the world's troubles upon your narrow shoulders?

When you read Jesus' words, "for my yoke is easy and my burden light", does "oh no, Lord, your yoke weighs a ton" automatically pop into your mind? No matter how hard you try to push the thought out or ignore it?

Well, I hate to break it to you but you just might have "The Double Yoke Syndrome".

What? What do you mean I made that up? Me?

I would never.

Well, maybe just the name. The syndrome certainly exists, I can assure you.

No, don't ask me how I know. I'm trying to slim down and feed on lighter fare these days.

Though, I have to admit,  my new steady diet of Humble Pie a la mode (and yes, I scream) is giving me a bit of heartburn.