Chatting about: Trials and Faith

Ruth (Guest): Hello all! I clicked on Vistation Spirit and got a picture of a rail! Guess it is time to run some clean-up software.

Ruth (Guest): Also 2 Corinthieans 1:5

Ruth (Guest): I think non-believers suffering has a purpose, too, only they may not know it.

Ruth (Guest): Here some related scriptures: 2 Cor 4:10. Phil 3:10. 2 Tim 3:11. 1 Peter 4 :13.

Ruth (Guest): Grant that I may love you always, then do with me what you will.

Ruth (Guest): Yes. I like that. Glad as I am that my incarcerated hernia is repaired, somehow it felt a little like a loss. because every morning I “offered up” the unavoidable pain. I chose to do it mainly for women who were struggling with difficult pregnancies. I’m sure there’ll be something new to “offer up.“ And it feels like a little resurrection now to be able to roll over in bed without screaming in pain!

Ruth (Guest): Yes Carol Ann, that is soooooo important.

Ruth (Guest): The End Goal: Glorifying God.

Ruth (Guest): A little crazy, what “psychiatry” says about thinking of death –– as if that were pathological. Not if one believes, hopes, that it’ll be a home-coming like no other.

Ruth (Guest): We need to start here on Earth, though. Learning to rejoice –– and thank God –– in every situation.

Ruth (Guest): Coverts have been made, in this day and age, by their executioners seeing, hearing the martyrs speaking the name of Jesus.

Ruth (Guest): Thank you sister, I wanted to write to or respond to in some way your mention of one of your Sisters passing to the next life.

Ruth (Guest): I suspect that it is even possible to die “well” in agitation, so long as that agitation, like Jesus’s in the garden is directed toward crying out to the Father, even “crying” wordlessly.

Ruth (Guest): I wish, Carol Ann.

Ruth (Guest): There are times when fear is just there; one FEELS NO trust. BUT courage is summoned by CHOOSING trust and right action.

Ruth (Guest): Good observation, Carol Ann. But even when Adam and Eve were cast from the Garden of Eden, God walked with them. He seemed to know that they would need the tribulations to finally accept the salvation he was preparing for them.

Ruth (Guest): Yes, Sister, but there are “Christians” who do appear to me to be masochists. And a HUGE difference between the acceptance of suffering –– as the martyrs did/do and Jesus did/does –– in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass –– OUT OF LOVE. It is LOVE that makes the difference. Take, for example,

Ruth (Guest): the sacrifices of a mother for her child. It is a good thing when done out of love, a “sick” thing when done in order to feel the pain.

Ruth (Guest): My typing is so slow that I am always behind the “thread.“ Sorry. Yes, I think you are onto something important.

Ruth (Guest): We need to recognize and use our “own” strengths, but also acknowledge WHO it is who gives them to us.

Ruth (Guest): But we are meant for COMMUNION –– INTERDEPENDENCE. And in our society independence –– even FROM GOD and GOD’s LAWS –– is seen by many as a strength.

Ruth (Guest): It is now. Because it goes against our very nature as creatures. God IS. God is not just one creature among many.

Ruth (Guest): I think I’ve already mentioned that one friend –– a therapist, and her husband is a PhD psychologist –– after she decided that our friendship was over when –– as a final act of friendship she came to my commissioning by the Bishop –– after having not set foot in a Catholic church since her first Holy Communion because of the terrifying behavior of a priest –– committed suicide. Still her husband’s/widower’s website is full of stuff about SELF-actualization. It is actually DANGEROUS, seriously dangerous,

Ruth (Guest): to have a wrong view of who we are in the universe and what the nature of being is.

Ruth (Guest): OK, Carol Ann. But not too late. Tomorrow is an early day.

Ruth (Guest): Yes, computers! It is good to use this medium but face-to-face is so much better. God bless each and every one.

Ruth (Guest): especially those most in need of his mercy