Why do you suppose Saint Francis makes a point to emphasize the distinction of dying in the “act of love” versus the “habit of love”? Why is this important? Saint Francis makes reference to baptized babies dying in the love of God. Based on the point he is trying to make here, how is it that a baby can die in the love of God without dying in the “act of love” or in the “habit of love”? This reflection really brings to mind the importance of staying faithful to God and remaining in the practice of

Jun 21, 11:07 AM

VisitationSiste: This reflection really brings to mind the importance of staying faithful to God and remaining in the practice of the faith. What might this teach us about how salvation is “achieved” in a soul? In other words, where do the roads converge between the repentant thief on the cross and the “good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:23)?

Jun 21, 11:07 AM

VisitationSiste: Sun 730pm est on Sun 24

Jun 24, 7:24 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): Hi Judy

Jun 24, 7:26 PM

Judy (Guest): Hi Mother and everyone! It’s good to be back. I was sick for two weeks. Then I had two Formation presentations to prepare and they took me a good deal of time. I have two more coming up but I hope that I can accomplish them in shorter order so I do not have to miss any more chats.

Jun 24, 7:26 PM

Judy (Guest): Happy Feast of St. John the Baptist!

Jun 24, 7:27 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): Thank you I became a novice on this day 24 years ago I am glad you are better 2 weeks is a long tome

Jun 24, 7:27 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): Time

Jun 24, 7:27 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): To be sick

Jun 24, 7:27 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): I misses 3 weeks of chat but came back last Sun

Jun 24, 7:28 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): Missed

Jun 24, 7:28 PM

Judy (Guest): /the doctor said that it was a cold but it really flatened me. I was so weak that i could not do much at all.

Jun 24, 7:29 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): I am on a different computer so I hope I can do this easily

Jun 24, 7:29 PM

Judy (Guest): I think it affected my brain. That should be flattened. I am forgetting how to spell.

Jun 24, 7:29 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): Me too

Jun 24, 7:29 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): 2 words already

Jun 24, 7:30 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): Glad you are better it is awful to be flattened!

Jun 24, 7:31 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): Last week there were 3 of us

Jun 24, 7:32 PM

Judy (Guest): I guess because it was Fathers’ Day.

Jun 24, 7:32 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): Yes probably

Jun 24, 7:33 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): Also as the summer is here people go on vacations or stay outdoors on Sun nite

Jun 24, 7:33 PM

Judy (Guest): I’m ready to go if you are, or do you want to wait a few minutes.

Jun 24, 7:34 PM

Dawn (Guest): Hi Mother, and Judy sorry you were sick but glad you are better and here tonight

Jun 24, 7:34 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): It is 730 I think Hi Dawn We can start we are 3

Jun 24, 7:34 PM

Judy (Guest): Hi Dawn, it’s good to be back.

Jun 24, 7:35 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): Or 4,

Jun 24, 7:36 PM

Dawn (Guest): Hi Ruth!

Jun 24, 7:36 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): welcome!

Jun 24, 7:37 PM

Ruth (Guest): Hello everyone. Glad you are better Judy. We missed you. Prayed for you.

Jun 24, 7:37 PM

Ruth (Guest): Missed you, too, Sr. Susan.

Jun 24, 7:38 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): Yes how did it go for you I hope well

Jun 24, 7:38 PM

Ruth (Guest): Dawn and I were in touch, from time to time.

Jun 24, 7:38 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): Questions tonite are rather deep don’t you think

Jun 24, 7:39 PM

Ruth (Guest): Two recent retreats, good. The latest was just one day, yesterday. Not very “deep” but relaxing, in spite of the rain.

Jun 24, 7:39 PM

Judy (Guest): Re: Question 1: Dying “in the act of love” means an active love given freely to another. Dying in “the habit of love” eans that the individual possesses diving love but that it is not active at the time of his death. this is important simply that we understand the difference. But I do not think that one is better than the other. One dying in the aact of love had the opportunity to perform such an act. One in the habit of love surely had no opportunity for and act of love.

Jun 24, 7:40 PM

Ruth (Guest): Yes, Sr. Susan.

Jun 24, 7:40 PM

Ruth (Guest): Dying “in the act of love” could that mean martyrdom?

Jun 24, 7:40 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): Good ways of defining them I would think that the habit of love is a virtue

Jun 24, 7:41 PM

Judy (Guest): If he had the opportunity, he surely would have performed an act of love.

Jun 24, 7:41 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): As virtues are consistent habits

Jun 24, 7:41 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): Martyrdom is an act of love I think

Jun 24, 7:41 PM

Dawn (Guest): habit of love, like praying unceasingly...loving the same?

Jun 24, 7:42 PM

Ruth (Guest): Or are we just talking about raising our hearts and minds to God with Love.

Jun 24, 7:42 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): That is prayer

Jun 24, 7:42 PM

Ruth (Guest): You know, how people say their whole life flashes before their eyes when they realize they are about to die.

Jun 24, 7:43 PM

Ruth (Guest): Yes, I meant praying and act of Love at the last moment before one dies.

Jun 24, 7:43 PM

Judy (Guest): Martyrdom is an act of love, but I do not think that all acts of love are true martyrdom. They are a dying to self, but not death at the hand of an enemy of the soul.

Jun 24, 7:44 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): Good distinction. Also every time we examine our conscience a little bit of our daily life is before our eyes

Jun 24, 7:45 PM

Dawn (Guest): In your reflections Sr Susan, it seemed most of the saints were actually doing something like praying when they died. would that be dying in the act of love?

Jun 24, 7:45 PM

Ruth (Guest): Death at the hand of an enemy of the soul” isn’t that mortal sin?

Jun 24, 7:45 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): And an act of contrition at death is also a form of love

Jun 24, 7:45 PM

Judy (Guest): I’m going to have to sign off. We are having a thunder storm. If it ends in time, I will be back.

Jun 24, 7:45 PM

Dawn (Guest): be safe Judy!

Jun 24, 7:45 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): Oh my ok

Jun 24, 7:46 PM

Ruth (Guest): Yes, best to unplug the computer and other appliances, e.g. tv.

Jun 24, 7:47 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): Dawn I think the saints lived in LOve and prayer at death was their constant way of showing it

Jun 24, 7:47 PM

Dawn (Guest): thank you. in constant love and prayer

Jun 24, 7:49 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): I like the comparison about the good thief in the question in the sense that he did not have much in the way of acts of love yet God,s mercy substituted for that

Jun 24, 7:49 PM

Dawn (Guest): something in the video we watched reminded me of how often I would see one of a married couple, perhaps for many years 50 or more, one would die and the other within a few weeks would also die.

Jun 24, 7:50 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): Yes I have seen that and also with my two aunts who were so close they died within 2 weeks of each other

Jun 24, 7:51 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): Dying to self is an act of love as Jesus died on the cross His act of love far surpassed the thief,s yet the thief gained paradise

Jun 24, 7:51 PM

Ruth (Guest): I remember one time waking up and seeing my dashboard crushed like an accordion. At first I thought I was dying, and I remember feeling impatient to “see God. Then I realized “I’d only been hit on the head and was going to live. I was not suicidal; a driver in a borrowed American car – Pontiac – had come around a corner and hit my car in the driver side door, then taken off. Someone had witnessed it..

Jun 24, 7:52 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): That is an quite an experience

Jun 24, 7:53 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): You have a very strong soul Ruth

Jun 24, 7:53 PM

Dawn (Guest): and your recollection being you wanted to see God!

Jun 24, 7:55 PM

Ruth (Guest): Yes, it was between the first and second semester of medical school. My little Fiat, that I’d bought as a teacher in Germany, was totaled. I was a lot worse off than I thought. All of life was divided into before and after the accident. It took me about a half year to recover.

Jun 24, 7:55 PM

Dawn (Guest): Q2 on baptized babies dying in the love of God, not in the act or habit of love. those little souls so new , from God, could only die in his love

Jun 24, 7:56 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): Very profound I find that God,love becomes our own possession in this case of babies in theirinnocence

Jun 24, 7:56 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): They cannot make acts of love so His love counts for them as they are baptized into Christs life and death

Jun 24, 7:57 PM

Ruth (Guest): Medical school in Germany was a much bigger challenge than I had anticipated, also, because I gave the money I’d saved to go to school to my mother when her heating system broke down because I could still work and she couldn’t. So I began questioning my decision in therapy.

Jun 24, 7:57 PM

Judy (Guest): Itwas a quick storm. I’m back.

Jun 24, 7:57 PM

Dawn (Guest): glad you are back

Jun 24, 7:57 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): That is why we celebrate the Holy Innocents in December when they were slaughtered by Herods minions

Jun 24, 7:57 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): Hi again!

Jun 24, 7:58 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): We are on 2

Jun 24, 7:58 PM

Ruth (Guest): The therapist, a Jewish woman, thought that I was wanting to make a murderer – a Judas – out of the other driver. Strange. No understanding of longing for God.

Jun 24, 7:58 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): If we all retained our baptismal innocence!

Jun 24, 7:59 PM

Judy (Guest): A baptized baby has received the virtue of love by virtue of his baptism, but in the state of infancy is not capable of an act of love or habit of love. The virtue is not destroyed in infancy, and so death would be in the love of God.

Jun 24, 7:59 PM

Ruth (Guest): How wonderful that would be!

Jun 24, 7:59 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): It. Is something to ponder

Jun 24, 7:59 PM

Ruth (Guest): to retain innocence.

Jun 24, 8:00 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): Baptized babies have Gods love, what about the u baptized ones

Jun 24, 8:00 PM

Ruth (Guest): God surely loves them, too.

Jun 24, 8:00 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): Not baptized

Jun 24, 8:00 PM

Judy (Guest): It is said that St. Gemma Galgani never committed a venial sin in her lifetime. She sure did preserve her innocence.

Jun 24, 8:01 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): The mysteries we will discover in heaven how God works it all out

Jun 24, 8:01 PM

Judy (Guest): The unbaptized surely are loved by God but have not received the theological virtue of love as has the baptized baby.

Jun 24, 8:02 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): great insight

Jun 24, 8:02 PM

Dawn (Guest): Gods mercy would most surely be upon new infants baptized or not , well yes so much is a mystery. But I have seen nurses running aborted babies to the sink and baptizing them. but some are not! Lord have mercy

Jun 24, 8:03 PM

Ruth (Guest): Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect, CAN be discouraging – we strive, and strive, and try to rely on God’s grace, but most of us fail at least in some small matters. How could that be with St. Gemma?

Jun 24, 8:03 PM

Judy (Guest): Surely by God’s grace.

Jun 24, 8:03 PM

Dawn (Guest): Jesus I trust in you! I do not need to understand everything and just trust in you

Jun 24, 8:04 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): Yes good way to be in trust

Jun 24, 8:05 PM

Ruth (Guest): Dawn, I find that beautiful about you. I make an act of trust, but must add, forgive my lack of trust.

Jun 24, 8:05 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): By the way an aside, but the priest in the video, Frr Fiorelli, was just elected Provincial of the Oblatesof st Francis de Sales keep him in prayer

Jun 24, 8:06 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): He retired last July but..Gods will

Jun 24, 8:07 PM

Dawn (Guest): I am not perfected in my trust, and sometimes I need or do stumble thru situations and then remember I just need to trust in him

Jun 24, 8:07 PM

Judy (Guest): Re: Question 3: By repentance and receiving the forgiveness and the promise of the Lord, one’s salvation is won, by a gift, in an instant. The good and faithful servant works out his salvation over a period of time, some longer, some shorter, by living and doing the will of God.

Jun 24, 8:08 PM

Ruth (Guest): So many people, especially those with bad early experiences, find it extremely difficult to trust. And yet, there are those who do not have access to the Sacramental graces who have had – as if through the skin – a certitude of having been loved, and find it easy as adults to believe “everything’s going to work out.

Jun 24, 8:08 PM

Judy (Guest): It is the repentant thief who received that forgiveness and salvation in an instant.

Jun 24, 8:08 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): yes

Jun 24, 8:09 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): And if he had lived probably would have done acts of love

Jun 24, 8:09 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): But mercy triumphed in his life

Jun 24, 8:09 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): Because his disposition was in itself an form of love, his openness

Jun 24, 8:10 PM

Ruth (Guest): This day you will be with me in paradise.

Jun 24, 8:10 PM

Dawn (Guest): if I go back into the past, or project into the future I am sure to not feel trust. so it is in and with him in the present

Jun 24, 8:11 PM

Dawn (Guest): so much to meditate on in those words

Jun 24, 8:12 PM

Judy (Guest): I would guess that if you project into the future and do not feel trust, there is probably in your past that led to an attitude of mistrust.

Jun 24, 8:12 PM

Judy (Guest): Something in your past

Jun 24, 8:13 PM

Judy (Guest): Perhaps you were betrayed by someone you loved and trusted, or maybe your needs were not met.

Jun 24, 8:16 PM

Ruth (Guest): It is because of the good thief, and God’s mercy, that I have, when working as a psychiatrist, often with patients whose lives are badly “messed up” incredible hope for each. That often confounds them enough to be able to let go of a fixed negative self-image and start to accept a new, healthier image of themselves.

Jun 24, 8:16 PM

Dawn (Guest): I think I did not explain what was in my heart very well.....I meant I do not know what will happen tomorrow. I can simply trust God and not so much worry about tomorrow. and believe his promises, not to worry about tomorrow

Jun 24, 8:16 PM

Judy (Guest): Question 4: We can prepare for death now by always doing God’s will which requires prayer and perseverance, a lifetime of acting out of love.

Jun 24, 8:17 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): Hi I lost connection with internet

Jun 24, 8:18 PM

Dawn (Guest): hi!

Jun 24, 8:18 PM

Dawn (Guest): is it storming where you are?

Jun 24, 8:18 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): Yes God,s will is everything!

Jun 24, 8:18 PM

Judy (Guest): Glad you are back!

Jun 24, 8:18 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): No but all day connection issues

Jun 24, 8:19 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): To know His will is not always easy

Jun 24, 8:19 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): So prayer, yes, is crucial

Jun 24, 8:19 PM

Dawn (Guest): Q4...Contemplating ones own death

Jun 24, 8:19 PM

Judy (Guest): Do you have a router? There is some virus about that gets to routers and can totally mess up your computer.

Jun 24, 8:20 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): Do not know but will investigate tomorrow

Jun 24, 8:20 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): As we get older our death becomes more real to us

Jun 24, 8:20 PM

Dawn (Guest): and....staying in a state of grace!

Jun 24, 8:20 PM

Ruth (Guest): Yes, Judy, that is what I am talking about. People’s experiences have so much to do with their feelings of trust, at least. It is why sometimes it doesn’t even seem “fair” that a person is judged on his/her openness to/expectation of mercy and their trust. But probably trust is not a feeling at all or in itself, but a choice to believe God’s promises and build one’s life upon them.

Jun 24, 8:20 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): I remember around age 59 or 58 I felt I was crossing a border what I do not know I no longer feel this

Jun 24, 8:21 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): Trust is also something we need to learn after we have been in the habit of always taking responsibility for things. We forget how to trust

Jun 24, 8:21 PM

Dawn (Guest): Amen Ruth

Jun 24, 8:22 PM

Judy (Guest): And we hopefully have a sense that we need to prepare for death by living lifes of goodness. No matter how young we may be, we must always be ready to face our death.

Jun 24, 8:22 PM

Ruth (Guest): Maybe it is a little like “whistling in the dark.

Jun 24, 8:22 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): Like that one!

Jun 24, 8:22 PM

Ruth (Guest): I mean, always acting, as far as one is able, at least AS IF one truly believed.

Jun 24, 8:24 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): Tapping into what Christ has already done for us on the cross and offering all He did in place of our lack is acceptable to the Father

Jun 24, 8:24 PM

Ruth (Guest): I remember starting out, always asking myself, What would a person who was truly a believer DO in this situation, and then just doing it. I considered that part of the “experiment” in faith.

Jun 24, 8:24 PM

Dawn (Guest): A choice to believe, yes. and need to learn how to trust. we can through early experiences really not even know trust

Jun 24, 8:24 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): That might help an atheist friend of mine Ruth if she were willing to experiment

Jun 24, 8:25 PM

Ruth (Guest): I don’t think I was ever an atheist, but I wanted the

Jun 24, 8:26 PM

Ruth (Guest): TRUTH. I wanted it badly.

Jun 24, 8:26 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): And you found it He is Truth

Jun 24, 8:26 PM

Ruth (Guest): Indeed. Thanks be to God!

Jun 24, 8:26 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): To love the human divine person of Jesus is the best way of finding Truth, His other Name

Jun 24, 8:27 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): A wonderful chat for his Feat of St John the Baptist

Jun 24, 8:27 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): Judy blessings on your formation work

Jun 24, 8:27 PM

Ruth (Guest): John pointed the way. That’

Jun 24, 8:28 PM

Ruth (Guest): s what we need to do, too.

Jun 24, 8:28 PM

Dawn (Guest): St John had a deep trust

Jun 24, 8:28 PM

SisterSusan (Guest): I need to leave but I pray for you for a wonderful and spiritual week

Jun 24, 8:28 PM

Judy (Guest): And so it is real to trust in, and believe in Him. As truth, He cannot deceive us.

Jun 24, 8:28 PM

Ruth (Guest): He KNEW Jesus from childhood.

Jun 24, 8:28 PM

Dawn (Guest): from the womb!

Jun 24, 8:29 PM

Ruth (Guest): I love that scene!

Jun 24, 8:29 PM

Dawn (Guest): The statue in your garden Sr Susan is so beautiful,

Jun 24, 8:30 PM

Judy (Guest): I leave you with a poem which I learned in my youth: Trust Him when dark doubts assail you; trust Him when your faith is small, trust Him when simply to trust Him is the hardest thing of all. Blessings on all of you through this week I hope that I will be here next week. It depends on how much I have completed on the formation presentations that I have to make.

Jun 24, 8:31 PM

Dawn (Guest): thank you Sr Susan, God bless

Jun 24, 8:31 PM

Ruth (Guest): May HE grow greater, we grow humbler, like St. John, the Baptist,til all we doand say tend to His greater glory!

Jun 24, 8:31 PM

Dawn (Guest): beautiful poem Judy! thank you.

Jun 24, 8:31 PM

Dawn (Guest): Amen

Jun 24, 8:32 PM

Ruth (Guest): Thank you Sr. Susan; Thank you Judy. I like your poem. Thank you Dawn.

Jun 24, 8:33 PM

Dawn (Guest): And thank you Ruth.

Jun 24, 8:33 PM

Ruth (Guest): Have a blessed week. Stay well.

Jun 24, 8:34 PM

Dawn (Guest): good luck on your formations Judy, and yes everyone stay well. summer colds are not so fun. G’night to all

Jun 24, 8:35 PM

Ruth (Guest): Good night. M. called just before this chat, but we did not have enough time to talk, so I’ll call her back now. Good night.