Guest1756 (Guest): (Judy) Starting question 1. God often attracts us at the beginning of our faith journey with consolations and signal graces, but later a desert phase so that we might grow to desire Him more. If He gave us a desert phase right at the beginning, being unschooled in the spiritual life, we might experience great discouragement, assume that we were in error in taking up the journey, and abandon it.
Aug 27, 7:40 PM
Guest1756 (Guest): (Judy) We are attracted by the consolations and signal graces and are willing to follow the Lord.
Dawn (Guest): the sweetness of first, early conversion
VisitationSiste: Sometimes the early consolations may take the form of being in a prayer group or learning about the faith from others
Aug 27, 7:45 PM
Guest1756 (Guest): (Judy) Early consolations could also include exhilaration in prayer, increased joy, a deeper conviction about the faith, and a deepening relationship with the Lord.
Aug 27, 7:47 PM
Lisa C: VA was an early consolation
Aug 27, 7:47 PM
Dawn (Guest): yes, all well described. it was not so long ago for me…2013
Aug 27, 7:48 PM
Dawn (Guest): Hi Lisa! what is VA
Aug 27, 7:48 PM
Lisa C: Visitation Academy
Aug 27, 7:48 PM
Guest1756 (Guest): (Judy) But then, out of the blue, it would seem, dryness in prayer sets in, a feeling that God has left one alone and discouragement. This can be frightening.
Aug 27, 7:48 PM
Guest1756 (Guest): (Judy) Hi Lisa.
Aug 27, 7:48 PM
Lisa C: Hi All
Aug 27, 7:49 PM
Ruth (Guest): I’m trying to remember if I had early consolations on my Faith journey. I think I did, not so much during the three year “experiment in Faith” BUT, maybe as soon as I believed.
Aug 27, 7:50 PM
Dawn (Guest): The moment I realized this all meant I must change, not only the big things which I already had…but it became a deeper journey seeing our human nature
Aug 27, 7:50 PM
Dawn (Guest): Hi Ruth!
Aug 27, 7:50 PM
Guest1756 (Guest): (Judy) For me, the beginning of my journey was like falling in love. Hi Ruth.
Aug 27, 7:51 PM
VisitationSiste: So was mine Judy
Aug 27, 7:51 PM
Lisa C: I cannot remember a time before knowing God is with me
Aug 27, 7:51 PM
Ruth (Guest): Dawn, I did not realize that you count your journey (back?) from 2013, or am I misunderstanding that?
Aug 27, 7:52 PM
VisitationSiste: That is a great gift Lisa
Aug 27, 7:52 PM
Lisa C: Yes, Mother, but Visitation can do that
Aug 27, 7:52 PM
Guest1756 (Guest): (Judy) In fact, it was not LIKE falling, it was falling love with the Lord and I was quite young when it happened.
Aug 27, 7:53 PM
Ruth (Guest): Hi Dawn, Lisa, Judy, Sr. Susan.
Aug 27, 7:53 PM
VisitationSiste: Hi Ruth
Aug 27, 7:54 PM
Dawn (Guest): I returned to the church that year…a few months of hearing and seeing him, then… it was a sudden flying out of bed one morning, hearing interiorly to call a priest
Aug 27, 7:54 PM
Ruth (Guest): It seems life has ALWAYS been a struggle. It was hunger and thirst for TRUTH and maybe for a bit of comfort that got me on the conscious journey of seeking God.
Aug 27, 7:55 PM
Lisa C: I cannot even begin to explain how sweet it was growing up with prayer every hour, and all our classes related to God in some way, and the Nuns were so gentle
Aug 27, 7:55 PM
Ruth (Guest): Such a gift, Judy.
Aug 27, 7:56 PM
Guest1756 (Guest): (Judy) I too loved having Sisters in elementary school. There was something so special about them. They were models of Christian living. And I found that I wanted to join them when I was 8 years old.
Aug 27, 7:57 PM
Dawn (Guest): As time went on I reflected on things past where I could see God had never left, ever. Judy, this is such a blessing you received. how wonderful your early years must have been. its helpful now to others too to hear about
Aug 27, 7:57 PM
Ruth (Guest): Such a gift Lisa, and Dawn!
Aug 27, 7:58 PM
Guest1756 (Guest): (Judy) I guess my elementary school days were like being in a rarefied atmosphere. It was uplifting.
Aug 27, 7:58 PM
Ruth (Guest): I am grateful that my parents had me baptized and that I went to Catechism classes.
Aug 27, 7:59 PM
Guest1756 (Guest): (Judy) I went on to join those
Aug 27, 7:59 PM
Lisa C: We all have the gift of faith and now we have a huge responsibility to pray for everyone else.
Aug 27, 7:59 PM
Lisa C: It is not a burden, it is something that just happens
Aug 27, 7:59 PM
Guest1756 (Guest): Sisters when I graduated from high school, but after 2 1/2 years, I discovered that it was not my vocation.
Aug 27, 8:01 PM
Lisa C: I also feel like God is going to answer the prayers we pray for others, because He wants to save everyone.
Aug 27, 8:01 PM
Lisa C: St. John-Paul said faith is more sure than knowledge
Aug 27, 8:02 PM
Dawn (Guest): I believe God calls each of us in many different ways
Aug 27, 8:03 PM
Guest1756 (Guest): (Judy) Question 2- Trying times are compatible with the prayer “lead us not into temptation” because we need to beg for God’s grace not to submit to temptation, experience discouragement and abandon the journey.
Aug 27, 8:04 PM
Lisa C: Blessed Mother is so much help with not falling into temptations
Aug 27, 8:04 PM
Guest1756 (Guest): (Judy) When we say those words, we may actually be saying “lead us out of temptation.”
Aug 27, 8:04 PM
Dawn (Guest): yes, even simply calling out to Jesus and Mary
Aug 27, 8:04 PM
Ruth (Guest): At St. Ephrem in Brooklyn religious instruction was taught by religious sisters. I was moved into a different class sometime during first grade — preparing for First Holy Communion, I think. They were learning different material, the catechism, and I didn’t know any of it, although I had been moved to a “teacher” roll in my first first grade class — teaching the prayers by rote to the kids who didn’t know them.
Aug 27, 8:05 PM
VisitationSiste: How did I miss that you went to St Ephrem’s??!!
Aug 27, 8:08 PM
Ruth (Guest): Maybe I never said so. We lived right across from McKinnley Park and down the street from St. Ephrem’s where I was baptized and made my First Holy Communion. I attended PS 170, but catechism classes at St. Ephrem, and Sunday Mass with my mother.
Aug 27, 8:09 PM
Dawn (Guest): Ruth, did you always from that time attend Mass or was there a separation for awhile
Aug 27, 8:09 PM
Ruth (Guest): I am surprised I’d never heard of Visitation Monastery. My family used to walk everywhere on Sundays — including along Shore Road, in the park with the “cheese cracker” (hexagone shaped) flag stones.
Aug 27, 8:10 PM
Lisa C: I remember those stones
Aug 27, 8:10 PM
Lisa C: The park near the Fort
Aug 27, 8:11 PM
Ruth (Guest): I never stopped attending Sunday Mass, and from age 13 — the beginning of my “experiment” I attended daily Mass. Never left.
Aug 27, 8:12 PM
Sister Susan Marie (Moderator): You are all such wonderful people!
Aug 27, 8:12 PM
Ruth (Guest): Yup, we climbed on the canon and pile of canon balls at Fort McKinnley.
Aug 27, 8:12 PM
Lisa C: I used to ride my bike along the water and loved to race up the hill to that park
Aug 27, 8:13 PM
Dawn (Guest): I was born into and thru receiving first Holy Communion. a great separation occurred in my family about that time. then, many years later….I so happily and gratefully was called back.
Aug 27, 8:13 PM
Ruth (Guest): Near the Brooklyn base of what is now the Verazzanno Narrows Bridge.
Aug 27, 8:14 PM
Dawn (Guest): So Ruth and Lisa, you may have been playing near one another! did you know each other then?
Aug 27, 8:14 PM
Guest1756 (Guest): (Judy) Question 3- We can encourage ourselves to look for light at the end of the tunnel of spiritual darkness by singing hymns praisig God, acknowledging His love, and expressing our love for Him. Music frequently lifts the spirit, and such hymns will lift our souls to the Lord and begin to brighten our hearts.
Aug 27, 8:14 PM
Lisa C: No, Dawn, we did not know one another
Aug 27, 8:15 PM
Aug 27, 8:16 PM
Dawn (Guest): Mother, just being who you are witnesses. You do so for me…
Aug 27, 8:17 PM
Lisa C: Prayer like that has to be answered. You belong to Jesus, why would He ignore a prayer that asks Him to make Himself known to people He loves.
Aug 27, 8:17 PM
Dawn (Guest): Preach always and when necessary use words. sometimes it is the small and simple that speaks the loudest
Aug 27, 8:17 PM
Lisa C: It will happen. Just do not give up praying.
Aug 27, 8:18 PM
Ruth (Guest): Dawn I appreciate your witness, too. God does call people back, even when families are “messed up” like, what is left of mine is . . .
Aug 27, 8:20 PM
Ruth (Guest): And — except for with you chat siblings — I feel kinda like an “outsider” even in my church groups.
Aug 27, 8:20 PM
Lisa C: The Good Shepherd is going to round up lost sheep
Aug 27, 8:20 PM
Guest1756 (Guest): (Judy) Reading Scripture passages which tell of His love and care for us will also help. Spending time before the Blessed Sacrament and gazing upon the crucifix can also help us to see God’s love. We can encourage those in severe depression and despair to spend time considering the Mysteries of the Rosary, especially the Nativity, the Agony in the Garden, Scourging, those mysteries that most prove His love for us. The Resurrection shows us that death is not the end,
Aug 27, 8:20 PM
Sister Susan Marie (Moderator): I think it is important to be open about our struggles because so many share similar ones and it helps to understand oner another
Aug 27, 8:21 PM
Lisa C: Being open about them also allows others to pray for us
Aug 27, 8:21 PM
Guest1756 (Guest): (Judy) and the Ascension shows that all will enter the Kingdom if we have lived according to the will of God.
Aug 27, 8:22 PM
Dawn (Guest): We just never know how God is working in someones heart, and I remember this when I see my family. I also remember what Sister Lusita wrote…”pray very much for your family, but remember they are Gods children and he loves them more than you do”. She founding sister for Order of Carmelites in Alhambra.
Aug 27, 8:23 PM
Ruth (Guest): I often pray the Mercy Chaplet — but more as a repeated aspiration than a “chaplet.”
Aug 27, 8:23 PM
Dawn (Guest): I agree Mother, it is so very helpful
Aug 27, 8:24 PM
Ruth (Guest): I like that Dawn.
Aug 27, 8:24 PM
Guest1756 (Guest): (Judy) opening up to others about our struggles lightens the burden that, we feel. Continuing to focus on the troubles makes them loom bigger and bigger. But sharing them lessens the impact and enables us to receive insight, comfort and encouragement from the other.
Aug 27, 8:25 PM
Sister Susan Marie (Moderator): This last question explains why I have to leave now- been driving for hours today and am rather tired: 5. What do you think of Saint Francis mentioning how deeply our bodily disposition (e.g., rested, overworked, exhausted, restored, etc.) can influence our spiritual disposition?
Aug 27, 8:25 PM
Sister Susan Marie (Moderator): Have a blessed week!!!
Aug 27, 8:26 PM
Guest1756 (Guest): (JUdy) Mention of the effect our bodily dispositions can have on our spiritual disposition serves as a reminder that we need balance in our lives and need to bring moderation into all things–rest, work, recreation, etc. There can be too much of a good thing.
Aug 27, 8:27 PM
Lisa C: Even God rested after He made the world.
Aug 27, 8:27 PM
Dawn (Guest): Thank you Mother, and God bless you!
Aug 27, 8:27 PM
Lisa C: God be praised!
Aug 27, 8:28 PM
Guest1756 (Guest): (Judy) May we always turn to the Lord in our darker moments and trust that He will bring us into the light again. Have a blessed week!
Aug 27, 8:28 PM
Ruth (Guest): I’ve been thinking today about how/if I can share today’s Gospel with a dear friend who converted from Catholicism to Orthodox Judaism (while I was living in Europe); we’ve become close, but the one thing we have trouble talking about is “Who do you say I (Jesus) am?”
Aug 27, 8:29 PM
Dawn (Guest): I have been on a treatment, on second month of three. side effect of fatigue. this topic very helpful tonight as when we are tired we are weakened in ways
Aug 27, 8:30 PM
Guest1756 (Guest): (Judy) Ruth, you might want to share with the person who Jesus is for you. That, like Peter, you have come to believe that He is the Christ, the Son of the Living God.
Aug 27, 8:31 PM
Dawn (Guest): as I have been experiencing. but , he calls the heavy laden and weary to rest in him.
Aug 27, 8:32 PM
Ruth (Guest): Thank you — all of you — for sharing. I am very tired, too. I drove 627 miles in order to visit my brother. Got back yesterday and have spent today mostly writing and researching how his situation might be improved. Not easy.
Aug 27, 8:32 PM
Ruth (Guest): Dawn, I am concerned for you, too.
Aug 27, 8:33 PM
Dawn (Guest): I am very healthy actually, just looked at my labs. only this one thing and I believe I will be healed by the grace of God
Aug 27, 8:33 PM
Ruth (Guest): Judy, yes, that is what I was thinking. She and I are both very involved in our respective Faith groups and talk about that a lot — even customs — but JESUS is the center of who I am.
Aug 27, 8:34 PM
Dawn (Guest): I pray for you to have a peaceful rest Ruth. how wonderful you can be of help to those close to you, as your brother.
Aug 27, 8:34 PM
Ruth (Guest): God loves to heal.
Aug 27, 8:36 PM
Dawn (Guest): He does. I love Jesus so very much! He is my everything and without him I would be nothing. God bless you all, have a good rest on what looks like the beginning of fall! G’night
Aug 27, 8:36 PM
Ruth (Guest): Richard was very glad to see me. And my nephew and his wife opened their home to me for two nights. And I think we all like and understand one another a little better now.
Aug 27, 8:46 PM
Ruth (Guest): If you have time you may want to have a look at some videos by Fr. Richard McAlear — Ministry of Hope and Healing: http://www.frmac.org/ . I attended a brief course taught by him several years ago and a “Healing Mass” in Plattsburgh NY. Sometimes I feel drawn to ask him if there is room for me and my gifts in his ministry. Please pray for me.
Aug 27, 8:46 PM
Ruth (Guest): Good night.