Chatting about: Extraordinary Inspirations of the Holy Spirit

Ruth (Guest): I’m back, sooner than I thought. 2 Viewers? Welcome. I wonder if Sister is coming. And others who typically do.

Ruth (Guest): Not sure what was happening, but this site now appears to be working (almost) normally. Hi everyone.

Ruth (Guest): A gentle breeze, Scripture says.

Ruth (Guest): If the inspiration is extraordinary it is for the individual who received it, not for all. Not even to be imitated.

Ruth (Guest): I like that Carol.

Ruth (Guest): Many people when “confronted” by angels or the voice of God were frightened.

Ruth (Guest): Carol Ann, wasn’t it you who said “the still small voice that you KNOW is him” ? Rossini indicates that in contemplation you just KNOW it is God at work. If you question that, that is evidence that it is not.

Ruth (Guest): But I have a little trouble with that. I would think that there needs to be some external “tests” or at least clear indicators of inspirations that come from God’s Spirit.

Ruth (Guest): And having a good, intelligent faith-full spiritual director can be important.

Ruth (Guest): I am way more comfortable relating to modern or contemporary saints, too.

Ruth (Guest): I’m not sure that we are not here, at least in part, confusing doing ordinary things extraordinarily well –– lovingly –– with what SFdS refers to as extraordinary inspirations.

Ruth (Guest): Those inspirations that may even seem to go against the “rules.

Ruth (Guest): A friend raised Catholic, has abandoned the Faith; just tries to “be good” and teach her children to “be good.“ She says that now she has so much more peace than when she tried to live as a Catholic. She doesn’t need Church; she doesn’t need religion, she says.

Ruth (Guest): Can we equate her “peace” –– or the peace of many Protestants or even Atheists with evidence of God’s inspiration of their choices?

Ruth (Guest): Isn’t God’s way, always the way of TRUTH?

Ruth (Guest): Maybe, but I’d hate to believe that he is not giving them what they need for their salvation.

Ruth (Guest): Judy, neither can I. The Eucharist, I think, is why I am still Catholic –– in spite of having suffered considerably “at the hands of” people who supposedly represent the Church. Many examples, but one a bit easier to write about at this time, was how I was treated in a CATHOLIC hospital when doing OB/GYN compared to in a city hospital.

Ruth (Guest): In the CATHOLIC hospital the director would try to get us residents to do things that they knew “the nuns” would object to, so that it they, themselves, would not have to do it and come in bad repute with the sisters.

Ruth (Guest): In the city hospital, supervisors who knew I was Catholic, RESPECTED my values, and did all they could to make sure I did not have to, personally, order, prescribe or perform “duties” that would conflict with my faith –– even though it was happening all around me.

Ruth (Guest): Carol Ann, they COULDN’T FORCE me; and it COST me. But that’s OK.

Ruth (Guest): I mean, it is not as it should be, but there are sacrifices one has to make in order to live uprightly, as so I accept those sacrifices, consequences, etc.

Ruth (Guest): and so

Ruth (Guest): Carol Ann, I don’t think those staff physicians, themselves, believed it to be wrong. But they were not willing to be seen by the nuns in administration as having views unacceptable to them, to the Mercy Sisters who ran the hospital.

Ruth (Guest): I have trouble with the examples given in this article of peace spirited Biblical Characters. Moses killed an Egyptian man, and ran off into the desert to escape –– out of fear for his life. In the desert God changed him.

Ruth (Guest): David, arranged to have the husband of a woman he lusted after killed in battle so that he could marry that widow.

Ruth (Guest): David, repented, AND David prior to that, had developed a strong, peaceful relationship with God. We see it in the Psalms. And in his refusal to harm the anointed king, even though that king wanted to kill him, and even though he had an opportunity to do so.

Ruth (Guest): Christ, himself, on the HUMAN level sprang from a long line of people who were sinners. That, in a way, is encouraging. We can follow Him, even if our “heritage” is full of defects.

Ruth (Guest): Amen, Judy!

Ruth (Guest): YES! Dawn.

Ruth (Guest): God IS MERCY. God is LOVE. God is PATIENT. God is FAITHFUL, even when His people are not.

Ruth (Guest): And that is why PRAYER, deep personal PRAYER is so important, so that we recognize the graces we have received, give THANKS, and PRAISE God, not because God needs our praises, but because it is simply the right order of things, WE need to give thanks and praise to God who made us, made the universe, and redeemed us with his own blood.

Ruth (Guest): Ora pro invicem. Let us pray for one another. So grateful for your friendship!

Ruth (Guest): Good night. A blessed week.