Chatting about: Introduction to Devout Life Ch 8-Temptation

• Remember, the meditations that follow this reflection will come in our next installments of newsletters/chat topics. Until then, what do you think some of the topics will be that St. Francis de Sales feels are necessary to be meditated upon in order to help us uproot sin from our lives?

• Why do you think it is not enough simply enough to hate sin, but also its tendencies and temptations?

• What can we do in our every day lives to help ourselves live a life of purity befitting the type of that St. Francis describes above? –

 

Guest8919 (guest): Antiphon 3 from Evening Prayer tonight fits our topic perfectly: “Christ bore our sins in His own body on the cross so that we might die to sin and be alive to all that is good”

Guest8919 (guest): Future topics might be purity of heart; the betrayal of Judas and the denial of Peter; Jesus’ Passion and death; Mary our Mother and Model; the Eucharist, our life; the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Any one else answer question 1? I sometimes feel that I am the only one who actually answers the questions.

VisitationSiste: Judy you are a great leader!!

 

Guest8919 (guest): Thank you!

Mar 20 2016, 7:30 PM

VisitationSiste: Hi Michelle- on to the topics!

 

Guest8649 (guest): Thanks Judy for keeping us on track !

Mar 20 2016, 7:30 PM

Michelle P Olivier: Hi everyone

Mar 20 2016, 7:30 PM

Carol Ann: question one, if we do not think about the deep consequences of sin to our internal selves and to God, we will continue to see them as “”not a big deal?

Mar 20 2016, 7:31 PM

VisitationSiste: Yes St Francis will talk about confession for sure

 

 

VisitationSiste: God’s love for us

Mar 20 2016, 7:32 PM

Guest8919 (guest): Maybe giving of ourselves completely to God?

Mar 20 2016, 7:32 PM

VisitationSiste: I think he does a segment on eternal punishment too

 

 

Lisa C: Yes, who could bear it if they think about disappointing God, especially Jesus.

Mar 20 2016, 7:33 PM

VisitationSiste: I would concentrate on His Love tho and on GRACE to avoid sin

 

 

Lisa C: The only way to sin is to forget about Him.

Mar 20 2016, 7:34 PM

Guest8649 (guest): If we drift off into sin gradually we are separating ourselves from God !

Mar 20 2016, 7:34 PM

Guest8919 (guest): Or to ignore His promptings.

Mar 20 2016, 7:34 PM

Carol Ann: That is one way to look at it, but it is also true that we can still sin out of our woundedness, without wanting to or intending to, even while we are looking at Him

Mar 20 2016, 7:34 PM

Lisa C: I think it would be very hard to sin if we can keep our mind on Him all the time.

 

VisitationSiste: That’s prayer- unceasing prayer

Lisa C: Keeping my mind on God

Mar 20 2016, 7:35 PM

Michelle P Olivier: It’s a matter of satisfying our wants rather than what is good for our soul. Once we have true love of God we want to please Him rather than ourselves

7:36 PM

Guest8919 (guest): True Michelle!

Mar 20 2016, 7:36 PM

Lisa C: There are so many distractions though

PM

Carol Ann: But to someone who is just learning the life, to say that you deliberately turned away from God to sin, is pretty harsh. We know that it is true, because we’ve been trying longer, but I try not to discourage people 6, 7:37 PM

Carol Ann: no one among us is perfect, and to speak in absolutes can be too much for some

Mar 20 2016, 7:37 PM

Lisa C: Carol, I am not saying the opposite, i.e. that sinners turn away from God on purpose. I am saying it is harder to sin if we think about God.

Mar 20 2016, 7:37 PM

VisitationSiste: Sometimes our emotions are so overcharged that we fall into ways we would not if we were calm

Mar 20 2016, 7:37 PM

Guest8649 (guest): Amen Lisa ! Tough week had to start telling our clients our mental health clinic that they have relied on for support is closing . Many emotion some clients we have serviced for 20 years !

2016, 7:41 PM

Guest8649 (guest): Completely out of the blue New York State has decided to close our clinic . We are the least expensive clinic to operate so it is not about money just someone decided that we were not what they wanted for future ! Sad

Mar 20 2016, 7:41 PM

Ruth (guest): Think about Peter denying Christ three times. Do we really know what we would do if, say, we were, say, threatened. And there is a genuine Christian Genocide going on right now. We can pray for them and for ourselves, that we remain faithful.

Mar 20 2016, 7:41 PM

VisitationSiste: See a situation like that can lead to anger, depression etc and how to keep God first at this time could be a challenge for some

16, 7:42 PM

Lisa C: This kind of situation also shows how much we need God as He is all we can count on. Everything else is fleeting and can be gone suddenly. 43 PM

Guest8649 (guest): I will trust in the Lord ! He is my strength and my redeemer ! He will work all things for good !

Mar 20 2016, 7:43 PM

Guest8919 (guest): (Judy) I fear such a situation Ruth. I can only pray that I would be strong in the face of threats.

16, 7:43 PM

Amy Cochran: yes, I agree, Lisa, God is the only thing we can count on M

Michelle P Olivier: That is why we must “pray always”

Mar 20 2016, 7:44 PM

VisitationSiste: Only God knows any situation entirely and has the infinite Wisdom to help

6, 7:45 PM

Guest8919 (guest): Thank God for God! He truly is the only One on Whom we can count.

Mar 20 2016, 7:45 PM

Lisa C: Is the State going to refer them to other care?

, 7:45 PM

Ruth (guest): PETER must have been fearful, having seen what they did to our Lord. But he repented. And Jesus put this emotionally rather labile man in charge of the Chruch.

Mar 20 2016, 7:46 PM

Ruth (guest): God knows the whole situation. I was thinking just today. Moses murdered a man.

016, 7:46 PM

Ruth (guest): David, “set up” another to be killed in war because he coveted that man’s wife. , 7:47 PM

Carol Ann: What if Peter said what he did, so that he could stay near Christ and not be sent away or arrested? The story does not say what he was thinking, only that he lied

Mar 20 2016, 7:47 PM

Guest8649 (guest): I am thankful that God has provided the opportunity to service such great people for soo many years and I rejoice in the many people who have recovered their lives with support from the clinic staff !

 

Ruth (guest): God’s Mercy is so great!

Mar 20 2016, 7:47 PM

Guest8919 (guest): (Judy) Peter really stepped up to the plate after his post-resurrection encounter with Jesus. He surely did feed the lambs and sheep of Jesus.

 

Amy Cochran: And St. Paul, after he encountered Jesus, was a fireball for the Church

Mar 20 2016, 7:48 PM

VisitationSiste: So the “tendency” to sin one could identify as covetousness, in the case of David

 

Guest8919 (guest): All of the seven capital sins could be in that category.

Mar 20 2016, 7:48 PM

Guest8649 (guest): Lets follow Peter and shine for Jesus for the rest of our lives !

Mar 20 2016, 7:48 PM

VisitationSiste: And in Moses case? Control?

 

Ruth (guest): Brian, about the clinic. Same thing happened to one of the clinics I worked in after a merger. It was so abrupt that EVEN AS MEDICAL DIRECTOR I was given NO warning whatever. I was working in two different buildings. Went over to see my patients, and the rooms had been cleared out!

Mar 20 2016, 7:49 PM

Amy Cochran: I think covetousness can sneak up on a person, and there it is. It’s definitely sin from the fall of Adam

49 PM

VisitationSiste: Jealousy in another one of those sneaky ones

Guest8919 (guest): (Judy) Anger too.

Mar 20 2016, 7:50 PM

Lisa C: Those questions are making me realize that Adam and Eve were with God in the Garden and did not think of sin until they knew what evil was as opposed to good. How do we get exposed to the knowledge of evil?

Mar 20 2016, 7:50 PM

Lisa C: How can we stay separated from it?

Mar 20 2016, 7:51 PM

Lisa C: Is it too late?

 

VisitationSiste: Good question Lisa

Mar 20 2016, 7:53 PM

VisitationSiste: I think we are exposed thru original sin

:53 PM

Lisa C: I think the theory behind Monastery schools was to keep children’s minds on God.

Mar 20 2016, 7:53 PM

Michelle P Olivier: Yes, those are obvious to us – but the one that creep up are gossip – the sins of the tongue

Mar 20 2016, 7:54 PM

Guest8649 (guest): When we are weak God makes us strong !

Mar 20 2016, 7:54 PM

Lisa C: Yes, original sin did us all in, but can it be reversed in this world?

016, 7:54 PM

Lisa C: Can we keep our minds away from sinful things?

Michelle P Olivier: I think the temptations will come – it’s how we respond

Mar 20 2016, 7:55 PM

Ruth (guest): Yes Brian, it is hard for everyone — except maybe for the “powers that be” who make the decisions without regard for patients and staff. One employee was so angry that he showed up with a gun. I don’t know the details, but the police were called in.

 

VisitationSiste: That’s why Orthodox monks have spiritual fathers or elders to whom they daily confess their thoughts

Mar 20 2016, 7:56 PM

Lisa C: How do we keep evil away from children who are in our care?

Mar 20 2016, 7:56 PM

Ruth (guest): Original sin wounded us badly, gave us a tendency to sin, but it did not do us in. We are alive! God’s mercy — his entering history as a human like us in all things but sin gives us hope.

Mar 20 2016, 7:56 PM

Guest8919 (guest): I think that touches on question 3.To help us live lives of purity such as that described by St. FdS we must have regular times of prayer and reflection; kep before our eyes the suferings of jesus; looking frequently and for a prolonged period of time on a crucifix; considering the life of Mary and how she lived the will of God; reading good spiritual books; having a spiritual director; regular use of the Sacrament of Reconciliation;

Mar 20 2016, 7:57 PM

Lisa C: Maybe do us in is too strong. It was better to be in full fellowship with God, before the fall.

Mar 20 2016, 7:57 PM

Guest8649 (guest): Yes Ruth we must not only forgive but shine in the darkness that’s what draws people to our Lord Jesus Christ !

Mar 20 2016, 7:57 PM

Guest8919 (guest): (Judy) frequent reception of the Eucharist; participation in Holy Hours and Eucharistic Adoration; acts of self-denial.

 

 

Michelle P Olivier: Meditation is another tool

Mar 20 2016, 7:58 PM

Lisa C: Rosaries are very powerful

Mar 20 2016, 7:58 PM

Guest8919 (guest): Divine Mercy Chaplet too.

 

Michelle P Olivier: Self denial, helps strengthen the spirit

2016, 7:59 PM

Guest8919 (guest): Simply saying the Holy Name of Jesus sends satan flying. 6, 8:00 PM

Guest8919 (guest): Acts of love of Jesus.

Mar 20 2016, 8:01 PM

Guest8919 (guest): (Judy) Concentrating on stirring into flame the seeds of love of Jesus planted within us should help a lot.

Mar 20 2016, 8:01 PM

Carol Ann: Judy, how would you teach that to a beginner?

 

Guest8919 (guest): Good question. We might start by having the person begin to habitually say “I love you, Jesus.”

Mar 20 2016, 8:02 PM

Michelle P Olivier: Little prayers – little acts of kindness

Mar 20 2016, 8:03 PM

Lisa C: Asking for grace

Mar 20 2016, 8:03 PM

Carol Ann: Because we want to help them up, and I tend to want to start three or four steps ahead of where they are

Mar 20 2016, 8:03 PM

Ruth (guest): Good example! Showing the child, or the beginner love.

Mar 20 2016, 8:04 PM

Guest8919 (guest): Also recommending that the person read “The Passion and the Death of Jesus Christ” by St. Alphonsus Liguori. That really light a fire within me. Also “Herald of Divine Love” by St. Gertrude the Great.

Mar 20 2016, 8:04 PM

Ruth (guest): And not just at the beginning.

Mar 20 2016, 8:05 PM

Lisa C: Send them to adoration

 

Guest8919 (guest): Yes Lisa, so many young people say that Adoration had a profound effect on them.

Mar 20 2016, 8:06 PM

Lisa C: Tell them about the Sacred Heart and His promises

 

Ruth (guest): There are many who go throught the RCIA process, are baptised, and receive Holy Communion and some Confirmation, but then within a year or two leave the Church,some even choosing an “unbaptism” ceremony. We have to stand by converts, day in day our, even after “graduating” RCIA or teens when they are Confirmed. :09 PM

Guest8649 (guest): Asking God what we can do for Him !Years ago when we were adopting my daughter Maria from Guatemala and her adoption was being held up for months I realized that I was asking and asking for Gods help but I realized I had not asked God what I could do for Him in our situation ! I asked Him and He told me to be in Guatemala in one week! I obeyed Him and with unbelievable help from God and His people God was able through us to uncover corruption and bring help too many families ! And bring Maia Home ! Praise

 

Guest8919 (guest): Sadly some people go through RCIA just because they are getting married. They have no real desire to become Catholics. I had that experience in one RCIA group that I worked with.

Mar 20 2016, 8:09 PM

Mary Roberta Viano: so true, Ruth! Bishop Robert Barron wrote recently that even his seminarians needed continual encouragement to go deeper in their prayer lives.

Mar 20 2016, 8:10 PM

Ruth (guest): Thank you Judy, for that beautiful story.

8:12 PM

Ruth (guest): Oh, yes, Thank you Brian.

Mar 20 2016, 8:13 PM

VisitationSiste: One can become jaded anywhere if the interior fires are not kept burning. But some of that fire is pure gift

PM

Mary Roberta Viano: I think living a life of purity (meaning total trust in Our Lord) leads to the deepening of our prayer lives and the uprooting of sinful tendencies in our lives.

Mar 20 2016, 8:13 PM

Guest8919 (guest): (Judy) It is so tragic when people stop taking meds. they could remain stable if they continued with the medication. I saw that happen so many times when I was working in a mental health clinic.

Mar 20 2016, 8:14 PM

Guest8649 (guest): Thanks Ruth ! With God All THINGS ARE possible !

 

VisitationSiste: Did it happen to you that one day something you already knew and believed in took on new life almost like a new discovery :15 PM

Carol Ann: yes

Mar 20 2016, 8:16 PM

Ruth (guest): I’ve even heard of active church women going to see a fortune teller, supposedly just for “fun.” I knew a man just shy of a doctorate — now a priest — who took an astrologers predictions too earnestly and nearly lost his life. His physical life. He converted from Catholicism to a Protestant religion before becoming an Episcopal Priest.

Mar 20 2016, 8:16 PM

Guest8919 (guest): (Judy) Regarding those tendencies, as I said last week, continuing affection for even sin’s tendencies and temptations opens one up to relapsing into the sinful behavior. Continuing to think about these things means less time and effort spent on reflecting on God and on such things as will lead us closer to Him.

 

Mary Roberta Viano: As SFdS points out in the INTRO.: “The exercise of purifying our soul neither can nor should end except with life itself.”

Mar 20 2016, 8:17 PM

Guest8919 (guest): (Judy) So right Brian!

Mar 20 2016, 8:17 PM

Mary Roberta Viano: and then we’ll continue to be purified in purgatory

Mar 20 2016, 8:18 PM

Guest8919 (guest): (Judy) Wow, is that ever right on target!

 

Guest8649 (guest): Amen Sister !

Mar 20 2016, 8:19 PM

Ruth (guest): Yes, and we have to try to embrace the purifications.

Mar 20 2016, 8:19 PM

Mary Roberta Viano: and SFds continues: “It is a happy thought for us that in this warfare (against sin) we shall always be victorious, provided that we are willing to fight.”

8:21 PM

Ruth (guest): Sometimes they — the proximal causes of purifications — are hidden in the challenges of everyday life, or in difficult situations or trying to deal lovingly with difficult people. 2 PM

Mary Roberta Viano: Holy Father uses a god example in TLG: “We say of a tree that it has been hard hit and stripped bare in a storm that struck it. And since even thought the whole tree is still there it is left without fruit…”

Mar 20 2016, 8:22 PM

Ruth (guest): Sometimes, it seems to me that God “speaks” most clearly directly to us when we are relaxed, not trying tooooo hard.

Mar 20 2016, 8:22 PM

Mary Roberta Viano: “in the same way when our charity is shaken by affection for venial sin, we say it is lessened and weakened.”

Mar 20 2016, 8:23 PM

Guest8919 (guest): (Judy) That makes sense.

Mar 20 2016, 8:23 PM

Lisa C: Ruth, I think that is contemplation

 

Mary Roberta Viano: Venial sin often keeps us from “the works that are its fruits,” he says.

 

Guest8919 (guest): (Judy) I do like that analogy of the tree stripped bare in a storm. The tree still stands but it can no longer bear fruit. We need to watch out for storms in our lives.

Mar 20 2016, 8:25 PM

Lisa C: Storms can be opportunities to get closer to God

Mar 20 2016, 8:25 PM

Mary Roberta Viano: In the INTRO again Holy Father says venial sins “destroy the purity of the ointment of devotion.”

 

Guest8919 (guest): We need to discern how to act in any given storm. use it as a stepping stone, or drive it away.

Mar 20 2016, 8:26 PM

Guest8649 (guest): Amen LISA !

 

Mary Roberta Viano: yes, and we cling to Our Lord through the storms

Mar 20 2016, 8:27 PM

Ruth (guest): Maybe Lisa (contemplation) but without trying to contemplate. It can happen when you are doing housework, riding a bicycle, taking a shower. And yes, storms in our lives, may be dangerous, spiritually, but also opportunities.

Mar 20 2016, 8:27 PM

Lisa C: Ruth, contemplation is passive

 

Lisa C: Yes, Mother, with contemplation we sit with God and He infuses us with what we need 6, 8:29 PM

Mary Roberta Viano: and he says: “Venial sin (sinful tendencies) weakens our spiritual powers, renders us less susceptible to divine consolation, and opens the door to temptation… Mar 20 2016, 8:28 PM

VisitationSiste: Meaning receptive?

 

Lisa C: Yes, Mother, with contemplation we sit with God and He infuses us with what we need

Mar 20 2016, 8:29 PM

Mary Roberta Viano: and he says: “Venial sin (sinful tendencies) weakens our spiritual powers, renders us less susceptible to divine consolation, and opens the door to temptation…

2016, 8:30 PM

Mary Roberta Viano: “…though it does not kill the soul, it makes it very anemic (a good assessment, I think).” 31 PM

Guest8919 (guest): We need a good shot of spiritual vitamin B12.

Mar 20 2016, 8:31 PM

VisitationSiste: And yet if we are all sinners, which is the first level of sin?

Mar 20 2016, 8:31 PM

Ruth (guest): Receptive, seems to me a better word. It is when we are NOT attending to ourselves that we may be more receptive; that is true of creativity,too. We have to make room for the gifts by looking outward. And the most perfect OTHER is God.

Mar 20 2016, 8:31 PM

Guest8649 (guest): Just got off phone with friend Ron please pray for Dan 50 year old father who is coming out of coma !

Mar 20 2016, 8:31 PM

VisitationSiste: Is there anything lower than a venial sin? Maybe a fault?

Mar 20 2016, 8:31 PM

Mary Roberta Viano: I need to get rid of sinful tendencies so I can be a ROBUST Christian in His service!

, 8:32 PM

Guest8919 (guest): (Judy) Yes, a fault could be lower than a venial sin.

Mar 20 2016, 8:32 PM

Michelle P Olivier: faults or imperfections

Mar 20 2016, 8:32 PM

Mary Roberta Viano: Holy Father says those sinful tendencies make us “anemic.”

Mar 20 2016, 8:32 PM

Guest8649 (guest): Was able to raise eyelid

3 PM

Ruth (guest): Yes, surely we all have faults even when we try to avoid even the slightest sins. And I imagine that living in community helops one to recognize ones falts/imperfections.

Mar 20 2016, 8:33 PM

Guest8919 (guest): (Judy) Affections for sinful tendencies weaken our ability to resist sin. they must be eradicated.

Mar 20 2016, 8:34 PM

VisitationSiste: We’d all be anemic if we are all sinners- so how could we ever grow if we never stop being sinners must mean we commit more faults than sins?

Mar 20 2016, 8:34 PM

Ruth (guest): So happy Brian for this relief from a coma.

2016, 8:34 PM

Carol Ann: I don’t know Sr, but I feel very discouraged sometimes when I hear I must be doing more but don’t know how

Mar 20 2016, 8:35 PM

VisitationSiste: Blessed Holy Week and Easter!