Chatting about: Holiness and Happiness

Ruth (Guest): “homework” and will have to find my computer glasses! Good topic though! Very interesting. Bishop said to me a couple of weeks ago, when I was hurting in multiple ways and he had prayed for me, quickly, with laying on of hands, “Keep smiling.“

Ruth (Guest): Is Visitation Sister, Sr. Susan Marie, just signed in differently. I thought you were just saying goodbye to Jennifer, since she had to go to prayers.

Ruth (Guest): Hi Carroll, So glad you are here! You always contribute a great deal.

Ruth (Guest): I’m all for joy, but I think it is possible to have a deep down joy and still have a wrinkled brow. If that is combine with a forced smile, it seems fake. And fake doesn’t hack it.

Ruth (Guest): That’s one criticism that many Europeans, esp. those in Germany have of Americans.

Ruth (Guest): I wish that the Holy Spirit would then take some of the pain, too, then. I can have JOY AND PAIN at the same time: it is not a one after another of death and resurrection; it is an in-one-another, and all at the same time.

Ruth (Guest): Yes, I’ve heard many Europeans complain about the Americans with their “plastered on smiles.“

Ruth (Guest): Carroll, it is simply true. Even tonight as you get ready to jump in service, you bring good tidings of reconciliation, “conversion” and renewed joy.

Ruth (Guest): Joy comes from the love, and from believing that in the larger scheme of things, God –– often through the intersession of Mary and/or other Saints –– can and will make GOOD come of the suffering.

Ruth (Guest): We may never even see or hear about or in any way directly discern the GOOD that comes of uniting our sufferings to those of the Son of God –– as best we can. But if we believe in HIM we KNOW that there is meaning in EVERYTHING he allows.

Ruth (Guest): Not sure, Sister. That was a problem I posed just last Tuesday night at Formation for Ministry, unit on Catholic Spirituality. I put it a bit more concretely though:

Ruth (Guest): Sorry, Carroll. NOT to have anxiety, possibly even intense anxiety, in SOME situations may be less a sign of metal illness than it is a sign of keep observation and intelligence!

Ruth (Guest): Two threads here: The Joy of heaven is PERFECT –– and yet, I asked HOW can it be, if, for example, the parent is aware that a child still on earth is leading a sinful life and turning away from God/worship/Church.

Ruth (Guest): Carroll, did you say you’d become a Catholic after going through RCIA?

Ruth (Guest): I mean, not just now, but some weeks back?

Ruth (Guest): BRB

Ruth (Guest): I’m back. Hurrah! I didn’t burn the roast and I found my eyeglasses.

Ruth (Guest): You are great at “carrying the ball,“ Sister.

Ruth (Guest): I believe I’ve seen saints in state psychiatric hospitals –– even one lying on the floor in her own urine. Lord have mercy! And there is a woman in our town who lives independently, who attends Mass often, even lectors sometimes, but has to walk out of church during the Mass sometimes because her anxiety level is so high. And I have NEVER seen her smile or laugh. We’ve often talked, and I’ve helped her out in various ways, but NOT as psychiatrist. Yet I think that because she is doing the best she can

Ruth (Guest): she is on the way to sactity.

Ruth (Guest): Beautiful, Carroll. And I am so glad you found a psychologist who understood the Faith we profess.

Ruth (Guest): If I may share a not very pious “prayer”?

Ruth (Guest): Bishop Bernadine, Sister, said we should pray a LOT while we are well because it is extremely difficult to pray when you are sick. You know he died of pancreatic cancer, and he had been falsely accused of sexually abusing a young man (who later admitted that the accusation was false; but it had taken years . . . )

Ruth (Guest): I say “prayer” because it is addressed to Jesus and to his Mother. In his suffering –– and I think that the film “The Passion” gets it right when we see “flashbacks” of pleasant moments with his mother as Jesus is a child –– sometimes I complain to HIM, “but you had a loving mother . . . “

Ruth (Guest): That is when I feel like I am being asked to give or to suffer more than I can bear . . .

Ruth (Guest): HE grew up to be a healthy person. So many of us are so messed up!

Ruth (Guest): One of His replies, though is, “She is YOUR mother, too!“ And that can bring me to tears of contrition and appreciation.

Ruth (Guest): He was like us in all things but sin. But he also had less of the EFFECTS of orignial sin in His early, quiet life as a carpenter.

Ruth (Guest): Carroll, that is part of what sister was talking about several minuets ago, too, the connection between love and suffering. He suffers because he loves her, and the service he gives –– the LOVE grows “purer” when she cannot reciprocate. The more loving he becomes, the holier.

Ruth (Guest): I did not mean that Jesus had original sin or NEEDED to be baptized; but living in this world means we ARE effected by sin, original and ACTUAL; were it not for the obedience of his parents, Jesus would

Ruth (Guest): ve been slain as a little child. They had to flee into Egypt.

Ruth (Guest): Tomorrow

Ruth (Guest): another day; and I think we’ll continue this topic next week. God bless you Carroll, and those you care for.

Ruth (Guest): Good quote. I should remember that. Daily my efforts seem so ineffective.

Ruth (Guest): Good night Carroll. Blessings!