We’ll be talking about gratitude during our chat session. Here are questions that will guild our reflection: When it comes to prayer, how much centers on our own requests, and how much on our thanks? It’s easy to see that we should acknowledge God’s hand in the good things that happen to us. What about those that come with suffering? Our Lord complained to St. Margaret Mary about forgetfulness and ingratitude. How are these two attitudes related? How can we turn them around? How can we
Jan 11 2015, 7:18 AM
SrSusan (guest): How can we turn them around?
How can we make “every arbitrary act” an act of thanksgiving?
Judy K: We really do have so much for which to be grateful. In considering my own prayer life, it does consist of a good deal of requests. But I am working on adding more acts of adoration and love into my day. I am increasingly aware of the need for thankfulness, but I am trying to broaden my prayer life in a variety of ways.
Judy K: Yesterday was a particularly thankful day. I awoke (at least I think that awoke, maybe it was a dream) at 3:39 AM. the hour at which I was born and I whispered thanks to my mom and day for wanting me so much. Hi Carol Ann. 23 PM
Judy K: Uh that should be mom and dad.
Jan 11 2015, 7:23 PM
Judy K: The gift of faith is something for which I frequently offer thanks. Sometimes I will go through all of things for which I am grateful beginning with my mom and dad, for my Baptism and membership in the Church, for my sacramental life, for the many years of Catholic education with which I was blessed, and oh so many other things.
Dawn L: I am learning to be thankful for all the trials in my life, for the grace of God never giving up on me in His patience- until I could hear him29 PM
Dawn L: so that I deeply understand how merciful our Lord is
Dawn L: it is the only way to understand our suffering is when we experience it in Christ’s suffering
Jan 11 2015, 7:30 PM
SrSusan (guest): To be able to thank God for trials seems like an advancing spiritual state- I have to really think deeply about whether I really do that- or just thank Him when the trial is over.
Dawn L: I am not always able to reach thankfulness at first, but I am aware he is there and soon I can look at the good that comes out of it33 PM
Dawn L: Mostly I pray for the strenght to see him in all things, and to increase my faith.
Carol Ann: Sometimes it can be hard to see where His hand is when things look totally messed up.
SrSusan (guest): I think anxiety works against thankfulness and that is why it is important to keep peace of soul in all events
Carol Ann: I think that we gain knowledge of what He suffered in our trials. Though ours seem hard and overwhelming, they are no where near like His.
SrSusan (guest): And today we can give thanks for our Baptisms
Judy K: One of things for which I am most grateful is the wonderful gift of the Eucharist. How awesome that He loves us so much that He wants to become totally one with us. It is a union of spousal proportions and so very beautiful.Gratefulness for the trials of our lives was spoken of even by Job 2:10: “We accept good things from the Lord; and should we not accept evil.” Now I do not believe that the Lord sends evil, but I know that He does permit it, and also permits trials for our growth.
Dawn L: yes and yes
SrSusan (guest): A priest recently said to us God is in the mess!
Judy K: I can look back on my own experience with cancer and have been surprised by my own reaction. The Lord was so very present to me during those months. And the experience has made me more sensitive and empathic toward others who are experiencing this disease.
Jan 11 2015, 7:36 PM
Carol Ann: That is true!
Judy K: I don’t know if I have ever made a connection between forgetfulness and ingratitude. Is it forgetfulness or just a lack of mindfulness. We get so caught up in the minutiae of everyday life that things just get past us, at times without our even noticing them. I was wondering what is meant by an “arbitrary act.”
Anne M: waking up in the morning.
Guest7856 (guest): Yes, I don’t know what is meant here by “arbitrary act”
Anne M: waking up in the morning.
Jan 11 2015, 7:44 PM
Guest7856 (guest): Yes, I don’t know what is meant here by “arbitrary act”
Anne M: I think it means random
Judy K: That word mindfulness comes to me again. We do just fly through our days that we do not take notice of what we are doing and why. E.G walking through the supermarket– a time to consider thanking God for the fact that we can walk and that we can afford to buy food.
Dawn L: its not our act?
Carol Ann: Like when someone lets you merge onto the freeway, or loans you a dollar in the grocery store line when you’re short of cash?
SrSusan (guest): Mindfulness- staying conscious of the Presence of God continually- that would lead to thankfulness
Guest7856 (guest): “Chance” Like what are the chances that a moose would dart out of the woods directly in front of my car? That happened.
SrSusan (guest): That’s a good direction to take in the definition, random.
Guest1200 (guest): As Brother Lawrence talks about in Practice of the Presence of God?
Guest7856 (guest): I’ve been thankful that I ducked under the dashboard as the roof came down onto the dashboard.
Guest7856 (guest): I don’t remember ever being thankful for the moose trotting out of the woods at just that moment. Random act. Arbitrary action?
SrSusan (guest): Yes Brother Lawrence is an example
Judy K: That was the watchword for Advent for me. Looks like it might be continuing for Ordinary Time. Mindfulness indeed of the Lord’s presence and of His action in our lives–taking the time to stop and think about what is going on, to really enter into our own reality.
Guest7856 (guest): I think I give thanks many times each wakeful hour. I try to make it a habit. Partly, I think, to counteract my “natural” negativity.
Guest7856 (guest): Dawn, what was the outcome?
Jan 11 2015, 7:52 PM
Judy K: But it isn’t the big things like those you mention. It’s the little things like having the lights come on when you flick the switch or water coming out of the spigot when you turn on the faucet.
Guest7856 (guest): Little things. Yes
Carol Ann: I am grateful our little room is now full every week
Judy K: Amen!
Amy Cochran: It is amazing, but people are looking for something more that just worldly things
Judy K: And many of them do not realize that that is the case.
Amy Cochran: I’ll sign out for a bit, also. we can take turns
Guest7856 (guest): Sr. Susan, we might need two. Nine or ten is almost unmanageable. I have trouble following.
Guest1200 (guest): That is wonderful that people are looking for God.
Amy Cochran: Our hearts are restless, until we rest in Him, I believe I heard say lol
Guest7856 (guest): HOW does one sign out? I’m always listed as as on chat long after it is over.
Judy K: I was going to say the same thing, Amy!
Guest7856 (guest): Yes, there is something special about THIS chat.
Judy K: One thing for which I am grateful is this chat room. There are few people with whom I feel comfortable discussing spiritual things. But I do feel really comfy with all of you.
Jan 11 2015, 8:04 PM
SrSusan (guest): Have any of you had further thoughts on what you’d like to see? For ex I just discovered 2 articles- one relating Franciscan spirituality to St Francis de Sales and another relating Carmelite to St Francis de Sales. What an interesting way to begin a study of spiritualities, i thought. Both were by Elizabeth Stpp in a book called A Man to heal Differences
Carol Ann: that sounds wonderful!
Guest1200 (guest): This is a great chat room!
Mary Roberta Viano: I always look forward to spending a little time with my cyber-sisters!
Mary Roberta Viano: It’s exam week so quieter on the school front.
Guest7856 (guest): How many of us speak/read Spanish? I don’t — but wish I could read St. Teresa in the original.
4 PM
Amy Cochran: I speak Spanish, I had a book of St. John of the Cross and his poetry in English/Spanish. it’s beautiful
Jan 11 2015, 8:14 PM
Guest7856 (guest): Amy, you do don’t you?
Mary Roberta Viano: I read it and speak a little, but reading St. Teresa would probably be like reading Beowulf in Old English.
Judy K: Last week I found an article about evident signs of a lack of humility (17 signs were listed.) Here’s a couple of good ones–Giving your opinion without being asked for it, when charity does not demand you to do so. Not being aware that all the gifts and qualities you have are on loan.Refusing to carry out menial tasks. Being ashamed of not having certain possessions.
SrSusan (guest): http://www.teresa-5th-centenary.org/
Anne M: I saw that too, Judy, I’m using it for my nightly examen. Yikes!
Judy K: I think that I found them on SpiritDaily.
Jan 11 2015, 8:16 PM
Dawn L: thats good list Judy, thank you
Mary Roberta Viano: and then there’s false humility, when I stand back when I should step forward and do something
Amy Cochran: i didn’t see the list but it sounds pertinent
Amy Cochran: false humility, that’s a tough one to understand
Carol Ann: for me as well
Judy K: I’m going to disappear for a moment and see if I can find the location,
Guest7856 (guest): In high school, St. Mary’s Manhasset a Spanish teacher was assigned to teach chemistry. She had me teach the class, and she taught me about St. John of the Cross.
Guest7856 (guest): Opps. I wrote that much earlier.
Mary Roberta Viano: SFdS says in one of his letters: “You must carefully guard your misery and your littleness, for God regards it as He did that of the Blessed Virgin.”
Mary Roberta Viano: SFdS describes false humility this way in Intro.:
Jan 11 2015, 8:20 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: “I would pretend to be neither a fool nor a wise man.”
Mary Roberta Viano: “For if humility forbids us to play the sage, candor and sincerity also forbid me to counterfeit the fool.”
Guest1200 (guest): I need to re-read the Intro.
Guest7856 (guest): Humility. I’m not sure if it was lack thereof, but one teacher got really angry with me — on line — for suggesting how better to handle first graders’ concerns. She’d made up a flippant reply when the kids had CORRECTLY figured out that by twelve days after his birth “a room in the in must’ve opened up.
Jan 11 2015, 8:21 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: “If some great servants of God have pretended to be fools to render themselves more abject in the eyes of the world, we must admire but not imitate them.”
Judy K: It did not appear on SpiritDaily today, so I don’t know if it was on that site and they just took it off, or whether it was another site.
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Guest7856 (guest): Sr. Mary, I’m not sure I understand any of this.
Guest7856 (guest): I often get depressed patients to laugh by revealing some of my weaknesses.
Mary Roberta Viano: For me I think humility is always considering my neighbor/sister to be better than I am and treating her with respect and compassion.
Anne M: Here it is, Judy. http://www.stpeterslist.com/10515/st-josemarias-17-signs-of-a-lack-of-humility/
St. Josemaria’s 17 Signs of a Lack of Humility
Judy K: Right on, Sister!! Thanks Anne!
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Carol Ann: Thanks Anne!
Anne M:
Mary Roberta Viano: That’s hard because it means overlooking foibles, of which I have many myself!
Guest7856 (guest): I’m all for respect and compassion. But some things MATTER and sometimes TRUTH, I would think, trumps deference.
Guest7856 (guest): Thanks Anne
Mary Roberta Viano: Yes, but always truth spoken in love
Guest7856 (guest): I’ll check itout.
Guest1200 (guest): I will, too.
Mary Roberta Viano: St. Josemaria seems very akin to SFdS.
Guest7856 (guest): In writing, the tone can easily be misread.
Judy K: There is a time to speak and a time to be silent. It is not always easy to know which applies.
Mary Roberta Viano: or how to speak charitably about something that’s super-important to me!
Carol Ann: I think we should always pray for the direction of the Spirit before we speak, because only He knows the other person’s heqrt and can inspire us to the proper words
Jan 11 2015, 8:27 PM
Judy K: And to do so not with anger, or with an “edge” in our voice.
Carol Ann: Judy, I find that most difficult of all
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Mary Roberta Viano: My older son was on his debate team and knew how to narrow in on that “tone” of voice of the other.
Dawn L: arbitrary act: finding my way onto this chat room
Dawn L: where I give much thankfulness, often
Guest7856 (guest): Dawn, that’s a good one. I think you were lead by the Holy Spirit.
Guest7856 (guest): And probably I was too.
Judy K: This business of being a Catholic isn’t always easy. In fact sometimes, it is quite difficult. But the rewards are “out of this world.”
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Guest7856 (guest): Judy lol. “out of this world.
Mary Roberta Viano: I like SFdS’s comment in a letter that “the condition of SrSusan (guest): I’m ok with reading Spanish and simple present tense talk
SrSusan (guest): And His inspiration to do this- it is a real need and we are able to touch depths even in this forum
Guest7856 (guest): Jesus is in cyberspace. Hurrah!
Jan 11 2015, 8:08 PM
SrSusan (guest): http://www.amazon.com/Man-Heal-Differences-Essays-Frances/dp/0916101223
Judy K: Awesome!!!
08 PM
Dawn L: I am very thankful for all of you, and the Sisters. You all are my connection to holiness people…one thing I am seeing is how I need to grow in humility!
Guest7856 (guest): thanks for the reference.
Judy K: Oh boy, me too, Dawn!
Carol Ann: Yep, me too!
Dawn L: I keep getting in the way! I never realized others felt this way too. see, this is the gift of having cyper sisters and Sr’s Susan and Roberta.
SrSusan (guest): Spanish Links: St. Francis de Sales and St. Teresa of Ávila,” in A Man to Heal Differences: Essays and Talks on St. Francis de Sales …
The Heirs of St. Teresa of Ávila: Carmelite Studies IX: …
https://books.google.com/books?isbn=1939272149
Guest7856 (guest): We need to keep this in mind if/when we get discouraged.
Jan 11 2015, 8:30 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: What’s my REAL reason for saying what I say?!
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Dawn L: I have not learned to consciously charitably speak to one about something really important…that should be said
Mary Roberta Viano: out of love for the other and concern for his soul?
Mary Roberta Viano: or to gain “points” for myself?
Guest7856 (guest): Good questions, Sr. Mary Roberta.
Judy K: Or to make sure he knows that he has annoyed me.
Mary Roberta Viano: It’s a question that I ask myself a lot in a religious community of sisters, believe me!
Jan 11 2015, 8:32 PM
Anne M: That does get us in trouble though, Sister Mary Roberta, doesn’t it?
Mary Roberta Viano: sure does, Anne!
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Dawn L: very important questions to ask ourselves, thank you
Mary Roberta Viano: So I more often silent than speaking out because I’m not sure of my own motives…
Guest7856 (guest): When the welfare of children is involved, I think I can get a little forgetful about how my “protecting them” impacts adults; but some are so sensitive, that even when one gives acknowledgement of good intentions, they still feel angry/hurt.
Jan 11 2015, 8:34 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: That’s a real problem – super-sensitivity/pride1
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Mary Roberta Viano: I need to say g’night and go make breakfast preparations and music for tomorrow.
Guest7856 (guest): I’m thinking, just now about Pope Francis, so full of love, but so easily misunderstood.
Carol Ann: Thank you Sr. Mary Roberta for coming!
Anne M: Goodnite, Sister
Mary Roberta Viano: I’ll be praying for all of you this week!
Dawn L: ….humility, false humility = pride
Guest1200 (guest): Goodnight.
Guest7856 (guest): Wow! another hour past again. Goodnight, Sr. Mary Roberta. I admire your self-discipline.
Anne M: Goodnite everyone!! Have a great first week of ordinary time.
SrSusan (guest): God bless! Thanks Sr M Roberta!!!!
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Dawn L: thank you very much Sr Roberta and Sr Susan and all cyper sisters. goodnite everyone and May God bless us!
Guest1200 (guest): Goodnight, back next week.
Jan 11 2015, 8:37 PM
Judy K: Well, James does tell us in his epistle that the tongue “is a small member, yet it makes great pretensions…Blessings and curses come out of the same mouth.” I have seen a tee shirt that says “Lord please keep your arm around my shoulder and your hand over my mouth.” G’nite and God bless, everyone!
Jan 11 2015, 8:37 PM
SrSusan (guest): Amy is it this coming weekend or the next- do you know?
37 PM
Dawn L: thanks Judy haha
Jan 11 2015, 8:37 PM
Guest7856 (guest): Happy Ordinary Time to all of you. May it be full of extraordinary blessings.