Sister Susan Marie: Consider that but a few years since you were not born into the world, and your soul was as yet non-existent. Where wert thou then, O my soul? the world was already old, and yet of thee there was no sign.
Apr 3 2016, 7:21 PM
Sister Susan Marie: God brought you out of this nothingness, in order to make you what you are, not because He had any need of you, but solely out of His Goodness.
Apr 3 2016, 7:22 PM
Sister Susan Marie: Sun chat: Meditation on creation: http://visitationspirit.org/2016/04/sun-chat-meditation-on-creation/
Guest7717 (guest): Life is such an amazing gift from God Sister ! We are soo blessed just to be alive !
Apr 3 2016, 7:38 PM
Lisa C: Hi Mother, Happy Divine Mercy Sunday
Amy Cochran: In the first statement when God brought you forth out of nothingness, that is to say, that individual souls did not exist before conception? can you clarify that?
Apr 3 2016, 7:50 PM
Lisa C: Even though God made us from nothing I think He thought about us before. Like when we are children we think about our future children.
Apr 3 2016, 7:50 PM
Sister Susan Marie: I remember asa child thinking “I exist” maybe a first contemplative moment
7:51 PM
Michelle P Olivier: Yes, we were always in God’s Mind – but we took form in time
Sister Susan Marie: Good response Michelle; that’s probably what the St Francis means
, 7:52 PM
Carol Ann: It also helps us to remember our place in His design
Apr 3 2016, 7:52 PM
Natacha (guest): Good evening
Apr 3 2016, 7:52 PM
Lisa C: I used to draw pictures of what I thought my children and my sister’s children would be like
Apr 3 2016, 7:52 PM
Amy Cochran: yes, I like that response, Michelle. but that is to say, the soul does not exist OutsiDe of time?
Michelle P Olivier: Yes, we are brought in at a time and we will exist for eternity
Apr 3 2016, 7:53 PM
Lisa C: The God who is in us now always existed.
Apr 3 2016, 7:53 PM
Sister Susan Marie: Hi Natacha. Well actually I was wrong- St Francis did indicate the soul did not exist
Apr 3 2016, 7:53 PM
Ruth (guest): I think that learning those catechism questions and answers as a child saved me — maybe my life, surely protected me from dispair at a time of extreme trial.
Apr 3 2016, 7:53 PM
Sister Susan Marie: Consider that but a few years since you were not born into the world, and your soul was as yet non-existent. Where wert thou then, O my soul? the world was already old, and yet of thee there was no sign.
Amy Cochran: so, at the point of conception, the soul was created in time?
Apr 3 2016, 7:54 PM
Lisa C: HI Brian
7:54 PM
Sister Susan Marie: I do not know actually
Apr 3 2016, 7:54 PM
Sister Susan Marie: Did anybody study theology here
Apr 3 2016, 7:54 PM
Amy Cochran: but at the point of death, the soul does not cease to exist outside of time?
Apr 3 2016, 7:55 PM
Sister Susan Marie: Glad you are back Brian
Apr 3 2016, 7:55 PM
Carol Ann: Only the very basics
Apr 3 2016, 7:55 PM
Amy Cochran: No I certainly know nothing about theology
Apr 3 2016, 7:55 PM
Michelle P Olivier: I go back to God all knowing – knew us and at a time created our soul.
Apr 3 2016, 7:55 PM
Lisa C: Do we have real life outside of God?
Sister Susan Marie: Real life? We are always in God
Apr 3 2016, 7:55 PM
Carol Ann: It feels like we are asking questions that have no literal physical answer
Apr 3 2016, 7:55 PM
Lisa C: The life we have after we die is only through God
Apr 3 2016, 7:55 PM
Sister Susan Marie: I agree
PM
Natacha (guest): I like reflecting on what St Francis said about our soul not existing before we came to be, because we can look around us and not even know who was in our exact location 20, 50 or 100 years ago and the same will happen to us. So therefore, the most important thing is to be aware of God now and that He actually brought us into time.
Apr 3 2016, 7:56 PM
Michelle P Olivier: I don’t think it’s possible to have life outside of God
2016, 7:56 PM
Amy Cochran: yep, maybe we need st. Thomas aquinas
Apr 3 2016, 7:56 PM
Sister Susan Marie: I like that Amy! but…. , 7:56 PM
Lisa C: The parts of us that are not good are not really alive. The parts of us that are good are really part of God. 7:56 PM
Lisa C: The parts of us that are not good are not really alive. The parts of us that are good are really part of God.
Apr 3 2016, 7:57 PM
Lisa C: We join ourselves with Him to do anything good.
Apr 3 2016, 7:57 PM
Carol Ann: Yet we are only one soul, undivided
Apr 3 2016, 7:57 PM
Sister Susan Marie: Years ago it was said sin separated us from God- but of course we cannot exist without God so what that really means?
Apr 3 2016, 7:57 PM
Lisa C: I think before He made our soul our soul was really part of Him
16, 7:58 PM
Lisa C: He lets us go to do His work and when we die any glory and goodness goes back to Him and we share it
Apr 3 2016, 7:58 PM
Sister Susan Marie: “God brought you out of this nothingness, in order to make you what you are, not because He had any need of you, but solely out of His Goodness. –
Carol Ann: Sin closes our eyes to who we really are
:58 PM
Natacha (guest): I think we become blind to God’s presence and death to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, just like Adam and Eve in the Garden, God did not change but their perception of Him changed.
Apr 3 2016, 7:58 PM
Amy Cochran: I see everyone saying “I think” but it makes me feel uncertain……..I can think something, but what is the accepted thought?
Apr 3 2016, 7:58 PM
Sister Susan Marie: Don’t know
, 7:58 PM
Sister Susan Marie: Don’t know
Apr 3 2016, 7:59 PM
Sister Susan Marie: Need someone who knows theology really well
Apr 3 2016, 7:59 PM
Guest8224 (guest): It is soo good to be alive and to be a part of God’s family and every moment is an opportunity to be a living invitation to others to join God’s Family forever !
7:59 PM
Natacha (guest): Sometimes the theologians get more lost than the pure at heart.
Apr 3 2016, 8:00 PM
Sister Susan Marie: Thats why when I was in Rome the speakers emphasized better formation for cloistered nuns
8:00 PM
Ruth (guest): Amy, I’m not sure I understand that bit about the pre-existence of the sould before conception and birth, but surely it exists AFTER this life, and for us, it seems, that after natural death, time becomes meaningless. :00 PM
Ruth (guest): Oppa. forgot to click trhis onto the screen, way back.
Apr 3 2016, 8:00 PM
Carol Ann: Yes, I did get to do some studying in cloistrr, but nothing formal
Apr 3 2016, 8:00 PM
Sister Susan Marie: Yes in prayer Natacha we can discover truths
Lisa C: We have a hard time thinking outside of time so I do not know if anyone totally understands
1 PM
Natacha (guest): I read somewhere that all time come to a single point.
Apr 3 2016, 8:01 PM
Sister Susan Marie: What matters is God’s goodness and love
Apr 3 2016, 8:01 PM
Amy Cochran: i agree, it’s hard to think outside of time, it’s something inconceivable
Apr 3 2016, 8:01 PM
Sister Susan Marie: Thank you Lord for creating each of us here!
, 8:01 PM
Natacha (guest): God is a mystery and that is what I really love about Him
Apr 3 2016, 8:01 PM
Michelle P Olivier: Yes, He loved us so much to create us
, 8:01 PM
Guest8224 (guest): We are all learning to live for the moment with God ! , 8:02 PM
Natacha (guest): Happy Divine Mercy Sunday everyone
Apr 3 2016, 8:02 PM
Guest8224 (guest): Happy Divine Mercy Sunday All !
Apr 3 2016, 8:02 PM
Amy Cochran: Has anyone ever read bill Bryson’s book, a short history of nearly everything? He talks about numbers, the size and creation of the universe and it is very,, very humblig
Apr 3 2016, 8:02 PM
Amy Cochran: humbling
Ruth (guest): I’ve studied some theology, incl. St. Thomas Aquinas. 10 undergrad credits, 6 grad at St. John’s University, Jamaica, NY and was admitted to Theology at the U. of Munich at the same time as I was admitted to Medicine. I did a few courses in theology in Munich and audited some at the Jesuit seminary. But to anwswer this question I am inclined to go back to Baltimore Catechism #2: Who made me?
Apr 3 2016, 8:03 PM
Natacha (guest): Would you not say that we are actually lifted out of “time” at mass, because then we are in heaven and heaven is outside of time.
Apr 3 2016, 8:03 PM
Sister Susan Marie: Never read that book Amy but yes math, science can bring us to God too
Apr 3 2016, 8:04 PM
Amy Cochran: have Mercy on US……all of us praying the chaplet is very powerful
Apr 3 2016, 8:04 PM
Sister Susan Marie: Hi Sister!
Apr 3 2016, 8:04 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: Hello! Blessed Divine Mercy Sunday!
:05 PM
Natacha (guest): Mass is like a holy “rapture” some are taken and some are left behind
Natacha (guest): Ruth, that sounds really good, living it and attaining it is a whole other thing
2016, 8:07 PM
Lisa C: How do we perfectly unite to God’s Divine Majesty and keep existing as ourselves16, 8:07 PM
Lisa C: I know it happens, I believe it happens, but it is hard to understand
Apr 3 2016, 8:07 PM
Carol Ann: God does that for us
PM
Michelle P Olivier: It’s a life long process
Apr 3 2016, 8:07 PM
Amy Cochran: i think it all comes down to trust
Apr 3 2016, 8:07 PM
Natacha (guest): The Holy Spirit is the One who explained things to us.
Apr 3 2016, 8:08 PM
Natacha (guest): I agree Amy
Apr 3 2016, 8:08 PM
Sister Susan Marie: I think St Francis means the Beatific Vision and whatever else happens in heaven
8:08 PM
Amy Cochran: i do recommend that book…..the Benedictines actually read it to appreciate the numbers, the greatness of God in His inexplicable ways
Apr 3 2016, 8:08 PM
Ruth (guest): I’m not sure that any of us, Lisa, except Jesus and his Mother Mary ever perfectly unite to God’s Divine Majesty — not even the saints, but we keep, by his grace, trying to move in that direction.
Apr 3 2016, 8:08 PM
Guest8224 (guest): One of the greatest joys in life is seeing others grow and become the people God created them to be . God loves to see us grow and become the people He created us to be
:09 PM
Natacha (guest): I think St Francis wanted to bring us the an awareness of BEING and bring gratitude into our heart for God because He created us when HE did not have to.
Apr 3 2016, 8:09 PM
Lisa C: We stay as ourselves in heaven, because we pray to individual saints for intercession
016, 8:09 PM
Natacha (guest): That is a good point Lisa016, 8:10 PM
Sister Susan Marie: The Trinity is one God and 3 Divine Persons- great Mystery0 PM
Lisa C: Like a family
Apr 3 2016, 8:10 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: I like Holy Father’s words from TLG: “Out of the depths of His mercy He himself applies His substance to our minds, so that we no longer understand Him by means of representation or image but in His very substance. Such is infinite happiness!”
Natacha (guest): Isn’t great that God decided to stay with us as a simple Host? that is the greatest of Mystery. I look at the picture of Divine Mercy and His robe is so simple….
2016, 8:11 PM
Natacha (guest): WOW…. that is profounds Sr Mary
Apr 3 2016, 8:11 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: So we don’t just think about God but enter into Him and He into us.
016, 8:11 PM
Natacha (guest): I love being with God
Apr 3 2016, 8:11 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: a unity like the Trinity
16, 8:12 PM
Amy Cochran: are we not supposed to strive for total communion with the Trinity?
Apr 3 2016, 8:12 PM
Carol Ann: We love to honor Him with great things, our best, and He brings us simply the best
3 2016, 8:12 PM
Natacha (guest): nicely put Carol6, 8:13 PM
Natacha (guest): What is a bit scary, is that one God creates you, you have an eternal destiny, where that will be depends on you.
Apr 3 2016, 8:13 PM
Natacha (guest): once God creates you.
8:14 PM
Guest8224 (guest): One of the great gifts of our Kairos Prison Ministry is that nearly every member gets an opportunity to be leader of a retreat weekend one time ! It is amazing how God uses the gifts of each person differently on each weekend ! Amazing how God was able to create each one of us to be soo uniquePM
Mary Roberta Viano: SFds makes this wonderful comparison in the same passage: “A mother is not satisfied with feeding her babe with her milk, which is her own substance, unless she herself gives her own breasts to her child’s mouth…so that it may not merely receive it mother’s substance from a spoon or some other utensil, but from her own substance and in her own substance.”
Apr 3 2016, 8:14 PM
Amy Cochran: I agree Natacha, it is a great responsibility when you realize your future is totally dependent on you yourself only on your future in eternity
14 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: that’s God’s overwhelming mercy toward us1
Apr 3 2016, 8:15 PM
Natacha (guest): Mercy is a blessing, the greatest of blessings
Apr 3 2016, 8:15 PM
Sister Susan Marie: That’s why St Therese is so loved- she made things into a way that all could relate to- letting God save us each moment that we throw our arms around Him
Apr 3 2016, 8:15 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: definitely the greatest, Natacha!
2016, 8:15 PM
Amy Cochran: Yes, it’s all about Mercy
9
016, 8:16 PM
Natacha (guest): But people don’t reflect that St Therese spent a lot of time reading scripture and praying… PM
Ruth (guest): I was just looking up the quote (Karl Rhana shortly before his death)– Amy -but got bogged down
Apr 3 2016, 8:16 PM
Guest8224 (guest): If we did not have a choice to follow God it would not be Love !God is Love !He gives us a choice to follow Him !
:17 PM
Natacha (guest): Blessed Mother of Medjugorje says our free will is our greatest weakness….I guess she means by that that we do not use us to chose God.
Apr 3 2016, 8:18 PM
Sister Susan Marie: “Give God thanks. O Great and Good Creator, what do I not owe Thee, Who didst take me from out that nothingness, by Thy Mercy to make me what I am? How can I ever do enough worthily to praise Thy Holy Name, and render due thanks to Thy Goodness
6, 8:18 PM
Carol Ann: It is a weamkness, but also our strength
Natacha (guest): I find that just spending time with God in the Blessed Sacrament, enlightens and strengthens me.
Apr 3 2016, 8:19 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: Yes, indeed, SFdS writes, for our misery is as a throne to make manifest the sovereign goodness of Our Lord.
Apr 3 2016, 8:19 PM
Natacha (guest): I can’t wait to read more of St Francis.
8:20 PM
Michelle P Olivier: He has taken us from nothingness – and gives us grace for gretness
Apr 3 2016, 8:20 PM
Natacha (guest): He captures the movements of the soul with his words
, 8:20 PM
Guest8224 (guest): Our enemy attempts to blind those who do not believe to prevent them from seeing the choice ! God wants us to shine bright for Him soo that people can see the choice that they have ! 8:20 PM
Ruth (guest): “I say as a theologian that Jesus is as man also Lord of the whole creation. And then I read that the cosmos stretches for billions of light years and then I ask myself, terrified, what the statement that I have just said really means.” —Karl Rahner, SJ near the end of his life
From “How Science Enriches Theology,” Benedict Ashley and John Deely (2012)
Apr 3 2016, 8:20 PM
Natacha (guest): It is so painful when the blind person is someone you love very much
PM
Carol Ann: I love that quite, Ruth!
Apr 3 2016, 8:21 PM
Guest8224 (guest): Keep Shining Natacha ! They see Jesus in You !
Apr 3 2016, 8:21 PM
Natacha (guest): Rahner is profound but can be a bit complicated in his thinking, I like st Francis better because is says profound truths in simple ways
Apr 3 2016, 8:22 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: In a sermon Holy Father pointed out that “My Master did not humble Himself for a time only or for some particular actions, but to death, that is to say, from the moment of His conception and then during the whole course of His life, to death.”
6, 8:22 PM
Natacha (guest): It will take us more than this life to understand that Sr. Mary
Apr 3 2016, 8:22 PM
Sister Susan Marie: And if we humble ourselves before the Lord he always helps us
22 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: So if I ask myself WWJD, I know He would be humble!
Apr 3 2016, 8:23 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: so true, Mother!
Apr 3 2016, 8:23 PM
Natacha (guest): But what is humble, sometimes the world confuses humility with weakness, when humility is really strenght
Apr 3 2016, 8:23 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: and without His help, we can do nothing, as He tells us
24 PM
Ruth (guest): I think “terrified” would be better translated “filled with awe” or “fear and trembling” as in Philippians 2:12 and I think Col.
Apr 3 2016, 8:24 PM
Carol Ann: Humility is truth
8:24 PM
Natacha (guest): God is the only person I know to whom I can go and say I am sorry and never have to worry about how He will react.
Apr 3 2016, 8:24 PM
Sister Susan Marie: About ourselves, that we are made by Him
Apr 3 2016, 8:24 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: Yes, Carol Ann. So Mother Angelica was truly humble then, although she’s not usually seen that way.
PM
Carol Ann: Mother sure was full of fire!
Natacha (guest): She made me laugh and think!!!!!
Apr 3 2016, 8:25 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: Can we call it “the fire of humility?”
PM
Sister Susan Marie: I like that!
Apr 3 2016, 8:26 PM
Carol Ann: That is an awesome meditation
Apr 3 2016, 8:26 PM
Lisa C: Maybe terrified because he is thinking that Jesus is a man and a man had the power to create a universe stretching for billions of miles. He does not mention that that man is God and with God all things are possible.
Apr 3 2016, 8:26 PM
Guest8224 (guest): Thomas was soo filled with grief that he would not believe Jesus was alive until he put his hands in His wounds . We must allow Jesus to Shine through us to help those who do not believe !
Apr 3 2016, 8:26 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: so humility doesn’t mean I cave in to untruth, but that I stand up for the Truth
PM
Carol Ann: Yes, sr, even unto loss and pain
Apr 3 2016, 8:26 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: for sure!
Apr 3 2016, 8:26 PM
Natacha (guest): Humility is a virtue only God can give.
Apr 3 2016, 8:27 PM
Natacha (guest): I think of the persecuted Christians and their humility in the face of death and pain
7 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: so that’s why I have to hand myself over totally to God, asking Him to fill/use me
Apr 3 2016, 8:27 PM
Carol Ann: Because he shows us the truth about ourselves with love
Apr 3 2016, 8:27 PM
Natacha (guest): I like that Carol Ann
PM
Carol Ann: People show us the truth too, but not always with love
Apr 3 2016, 8:28 PM
Ruth (guest): Sr.Mary,that’s in the Bible, too. One of the letters. “He was God, but he made himself servant . . .
Apr 3 2016, 8:28 PM
Natacha (guest): More like with salt and hot pepper!!!
29 PM
Guest8224 (guest): Thomas went from unbelief to giving his life for Christ in India ! This is the potential for every person that we know that does not believe !
Apr 3 2016, 8:29 PM
Apr 3 2016, 8:29 PM
Natacha (guest): yes Guest8224
Apr 3 2016, 8:30 PM
Natacha (guest): I like that God is outside of time, then I can pray for my great grand children who are not even born yet!
Apr 3 2016, 8:30 PM
Ruth (guest): Yes, Brian, often we have to remind ourselves of that, especially when facing evils.
0 PM
Natacha (guest): I like that God is outside of time, then I can pray for my great grand children who are not even born yet!
Apr 3 2016, 8:30 PM
Ruth (guest): Yes, Brian, often we have to remind ourselves of that, especially when facing evils.
Apr 3 2016, 8:31 PM
Ruth (guest): Natacha, I like that.
Apr 3 2016, 8:31 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: and I always have to remind myself that, as SFdS writes, “humility and patience have such an affinity with one another that one can hardly exist without the other.”
Apr 3 2016, 8:31 PM
Carol Ann: We can also pray for things in the past because He is still there too
Apr 3 2016, 8:31 PM
Lisa C: Natacha, I also like praying for people who are already dead
Apr 3 2016, 8:31 PM
Ruth (guest): My father died quite young, but he wrote letters to his grandchildren and made tape-recordings for them.
Apr 3 2016, 8:31 PM
Natacha (guest): We can bless not the time of our own conception!! it is amazing
Apr 3 2016, 8:31 PM
Natacha (guest): bless now
Apr 3 2016, 8:31 PM
Ruth (guest): They were not yet even a glimmer in anyone’s eyes.
Apr 3 2016, 8:32 PM
Ruth (guest): Except, maybe God’s.