Chatting about: Counsels

Ruth (Guest): Hi Sister. Hi Judy. Thank you, Sister, for doing such a good job of “cleaning up” last weeks chat. The guy who was trying to be disruptive discovered that he had a formidable “opponent.“ We all prayed for him.

Ruth (Guest): Brian, if you highlight the Guest and # and then type your name it replaces the #. No problem when there is only one Guest # but when there are several it gets a bit confusing.

Ruth (Guest): This is a situation in which I think it is best to respect and honor those who are “called” to all the counsels but realize that even though EVERYONE or every baptized person is called to be a saint –– that is to pursue perfection in whatever state in life he is in –– not all are called to do so the way we traditionally thing of as following all the counsels.

Ruth (Guest): I disagree about equating hate and anger.

Ruth (Guest): I am just beginning to recognize –– probably because of so much literature about how bad anger is –– that anger is simply an emotion. What you DO with it is what is important.

Ruth (Guest): In fact, I now believe that to be angry about the right things is far better than to ignore them or “take” everything sort of in a laid back manner. Passions –– any of them –– CAN be dangerous, that is, lead to sin, but they are also the “STUFF” that makes saints. The opposite tends to be a sense of hopelessness, depression, or indifference.

Ruth (Guest): Good observation, Judy –– initial statement. But I don’t think that the sacramentality of marriage makes it a “higher state” any more than the living of the counsels ––as a “religious”–– makes that a higher state. (And I am glad that St. Francis recognized and stated what he did about comparing the two.

Ruth (Guest): Another example of how a sacrament does not necessarily mark a “higher state”: Anointing of the sick. Is it “better” to be sick. A person MAY become holier by being sick, that is offering up suffering. But if the glory of God is a person FULLY ALIVE –– good health can contribute to making the person better ABLE to live in charity. I think LOVE is the main measure, godly love: charity.

Ruth (Guest): There is a different sort of chastity for married couples than there is for single persons, but both are made holier by chastity. A celibate priest or single person “in the world” is called to one expression of chastity, a married person to another.

Ruth (Guest): Good summary, question 3, Judy.

Ruth (Guest): And think about it: All of the “religious” –– celibates, priests, member of various orders, communities, sisters, nuns, monks, etc. –– every one of them had parents! And most of those parents were married to one another. In fact, I’m not sure if it is still the church law, but the grown child of an illegitimate union used to be excluded from even being considered for one of those vowed states.

Ruth (Guest): Yes, Dawn.

Ruth (Guest): So true, Brian.

Ruth (Guest): “Perfectionism” is considered a fault.

Ruth (Guest): It sometimes gets in the way of the “good.

Ruth (Guest): And is often unattractive.

Ruth (Guest): Perfection and perfectionism may not be the same, but the latter is somehow, it seems, equated with prissiness.

Ruth (Guest): And even humility MUST be reality based, not just kicking oneself for not (yet?) being perfect.

Ruth (Guest): Lord, give me the grace to use my two ears a lot more, and my mouth less!

Ruth (Guest): Example to my point above: GK Chesterton, not yet canonized, but he may eventually be. Sts. –– was it Gertrude, and Hildegard –– who became counselors to kings and heads of state.

Ruth (Guest): True Judy, yet there are those who believe that they are following Jesus and have some sharply differing views on important matters: vis Pope Francis and

Ruth (Guest): Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò

Ruth (Guest): Thank God that God himself, Jesus promised to be with his Church til the end of time! If it weren’t of HIS making, it would have collapsed long ago.

Ruth (Guest): And let us reach out and open ourselves ever more to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit –– who also gives the gift of discernment of spirits.

Ruth (Guest): Thank you Sister. But let us pray and fast during those whirlwinds, as Francis asks us to.

Ruth (Guest): Thank you, all of you, for your friendship and your prayers. Sister is right; I’ve been sort of “caught up in” the whirlwind –– but hanging onto the Jesus of the Gospels for dear life! Today, after Mass, I asked the local pastor if today’s Gospel means that if reading the National Catholic Register or listening to the news disturbs me and, though it does not directly cause me to sin, at the very least it –– and the memories provoked by these matters –– distract me and make it harder for me to “get done”

Ruth (Guest): the things on my agenda, does this Gospel mean that I should avoid reading the NCR and avoid listening to the news (or watching it on my computer, since I do not have TV)?

Ruth (Guest): Gospel passage.

Ruth (Guest): Always, I’m “out of step,“ late, and too wordy. Sorry. Slow typing is a contributor to the problem. Good night all. Prayerful good wishes for a week filled with the blessings of knowing Jesus close at hand, the Holy Spirit inspiring, and pleasing the Father in all you do.