What do you make of the distinctions
of the types of fear? Is there something that was not clear? Was there
something that stood out to you?
2. Can there be desire without fear? More specifically, can there be a desire
of heaven without fear?
3. How can we use our fear as a springboard into serving God and others?
4. How can we move from servile fear to filial fear?
Dec 8, 7:35 PM
VisitationSiste: Hi Ruth. Did you get in touch with Judy?
Dec 8, 7:37 PM
Ruth (Guest): No, not yet.
Dec 8, 7:37 PM
Carroll V (Guest): Saturday was a day of retreat for catechists in our diocese, so that was a beautiful day of Ignatian prayer and Adoration. Then, today we had our childrens’ Advent program and parrish Christmas party… Providential timing, as are all things. Just on my way home from Church, but wanted to touch base before joining the discussion late. I am looking forward to being here regularly again. I have missed this time with you all!
Dec 8, 7:39 PM
Ruth (Guest): So glad, Carroll, that you were able to be a help and consolation to Elizabeth. God bless you!
Dec 8, 7:39 PM
Dawn (Guest): Hello Sr Susan, Ruth, Carroll, Blanca…peace be with you
Dec 8, 7:39 PM
Ruth (Guest): Peace to you, too, Dawn.
Dec 8, 7:40 PM
Blanca Villa: Hello everyone
Dec 8, 7:40 PM
VisitationSiste: Advent joy too-hi Dawn!
Dec 8, 7:40 PM
Ruth (Guest): Hello, Blanca.
Dec 8, 7:40 PM
VisitationSiste: Thanks for stopping by Carroll and we wait for your next visit and contributions!
Dec 8, 7:40 PM
VisitationSiste: Hello Blanca
Dec 8, 7:41 PM
Blanca Villa: Hello Sister!
Dec 8, 7:42 PM
VisitationSiste: We had a beautiful day- Mass with a Redemptorist priest and this afternoon lessons and carols from Communion and Liberation group- what beauty. From this to a discussion on fear is quite a change
Dec 8, 7:43 PM
Ruth (Guest): You’ve been some faithful and consistent in setting up and organizing these chats. Thank you.
Dec 8, 7:43 PM
VisitationSiste: I have help!
Dec 8, 7:44 PM
VisitationSiste: But this is great for me too and a type of formation actually
Dec 8, 7:44 PM
Ruth (Guest): Mostly it is a good kind of fear that we are addressing though. Maybe not beautiful.
Dec 8, 7:44 PM
VisitationSiste: I think natural fear- as was mentioned in the chapter- storms etc can be overcome more easily than some kind of primal fear that we are unsure of the cause
Dec 8, 7:44 PM
Ruth (Guest): There was one part that made me laugh out loud.
Dec 8, 7:45 PM
VisitationSiste: What was that?
Dec 8, 7:45 PM
Ruth (Guest): Glad you have help. Who is responsible for formation there now?
Dec 8, 7:45 PM
Ruth (Guest): Did a sister come from one of the other communities?
Dec 8, 7:45 PM
VisitationSiste: No but we divided it up between 3 of us
Dec 8, 7:46 PM
Carol Ann: Hi Everyone!
Dec 8, 7:46 PM
VisitationSiste: Then there is fear of evil That is a big one
Dec 8, 7:46 PM
VisitationSiste: Hi Carol Ann!
Dec 8, 7:46 PM
Ruth (Guest): Hi Carol Ann. Glad you could make it.
Dec 8, 7:47 PM
Ruth (Guest): You and . . .
Dec 8, 7:48 PM
Dawn (Guest): Hi Carol Ann!
Dec 8, 7:49 PM
Carol Ann: It is good to be here
Dec 8, 7:49 PM
Ruth (Guest): The fear of the exhortists by the devils.
Dec 8, 7:49 PM
Ruth (Guest):
Dec 8, 7:49 PM
VisitationSiste: I prefer to develop a heart of love however
Dec 8, 7:50 PM
Ruth (Guest): Of course.
Dec 8, 7:50 PM
Carol Ann: Fear can make us defensive and prevent us from opening our heart to God and others
Dec 8, 7:53 PM
VisitationSiste: Even in discernment fear can prevent the understanding of God’s Will for us
Dec 8, 7:54 PM
Ruth (Guest): Hmmm. I read the selection a few days ago and not today. I feel like I am missing something.
Dec 8, 7:54 PM
Ruth (Guest): Fear, as long as it is not exaggerated, can get us to do the right thing.
Dec 8, 7:54 PM
Carol Ann: Is it part of discernment to know that fear (not reverent awe) does not come from God?
Dec 8, 7:55 PM
VisitationSiste: I think so
Dec 8, 7:55 PM
Ruth (Guest): It can paralyze us, like a scared rabbit or a dear in the headlights of your car OR is can make us MOVE in the right direction: fight or flight.
Dec 8, 7:56 PM
VisitationSiste: True
Dec 8, 7:56 PM
VisitationSiste: 2. Can there be desire without fear? More specifically, can there be a desire of heaven without fear?
Dec 8, 7:58 PM
Ruth (Guest): And sometimes that is necessary and good. God gave us the “instinct” to be fearful in some situations, and that is GOOD.
Dec 8, 7:59 PM
Carol Ann: I think the first attraction is love. Jesus looks at us with love and we look back at Him the same way. But it does scarecmectomthink how fragilecthat relationship,is on our and, how easily we can break it
Dec 8, 8:00 PM
VisitationSiste: I think the fear re heaven is the thought we might not get there
Dec 8, 8:00 PM
Ruth (Guest): 2. I dunno. Today after Mass and PREP I had a long chat with Ethan, who is not preparing for his
Dec 8, 8:01 PM
Blanca Villa: The fear of not having God in my life and to lose my opportunity to be with God eternally definitely prompts me to follow him.
Dec 8, 8:01 PM
Ruth (Guest): First Confession and First Holy Communion. That child seems to me to be so pure that there is virtually no fear in him. His older brother is similar. And the parents. Simple, loving people. The Grandparents too.
Dec 8, 8:02 PM
Dawn (Guest): There could be a desire ( of heaven)without fear …I don’t know if entirely …but has to do with trust. and love.
Dec 8, 8:02 PM
VisitationSiste: That is beautiful testimony Ruth.
Dec 8, 8:03 PM
Ruth (Guest): Not “not” but “NOW” preparing.
Dec 8, 8:04 PM
Carol Ann: So when we are close to God fear is irrelevant
Dec 8, 8:04 PM
Ruth (Guest): Not irrelevant but just does not play a big role.
Dec 8, 8:07 PM
VisitationSiste: 3. How can we use our fear as a springboard into serving God and others?
Dec 8, 8:07 PM
Ruth (Guest): Do you remember the Act of Contrition? “I am heartily sorry, because I dread the loss of heaven and the pains of hell, BUT MOST OF ALL BECAUSE YOU ARE ALL GOOD AND DESERVING OF ALL MY LOVE.”
Dec 8, 8:07 PM
Dawn (Guest): There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. 1john4:18
Dec 8, 8:08 PM
Ruth (Guest): Good quotation, Dawn. So relevant.
Dec 8, 8:11 PM
Carol Ann: We need to pass on the graces we are given, and also to use our talents and abilities to bring about God’s kingdom
Dec 8, 8:11 PM
VisitationSiste: To me fear is not the best springboard for serving. But if I feel I am not being loving enough then yes that might have some element of fear behind it
Dec 8, 8:14 PM
Ruth (Guest): I saw a woman getting into her car, which was parked right in front of mine. She’d been pretty hostile toward me at times. But I was afraid she might have an accident because she cleared the snow off the windshield but not off her side window. I grabbed my snow brush and “ran” (my version of running) to help clear her curbside front window, but all I could was make a single clear streak in the window as she took off into the snowy night. It scared me!
Dec 8, 8:15 PM
Blanca Villa: For me fear almost becomes a sort of cave that I’m stuck in and when I reach out to others it helps me to focus outside of my self and my fears whether they are real or not. The key is to focus on others and not just on myself.
Dec 8, 8:15 PM
Carol Ann: That is so true Blanca. Fear can make us blind
Dec 8, 8:17 PM
Dawn (Guest): Yes Blanca, an important insight
Dec 8, 8:17 PM
Ruth (Guest): I think long-term illness does that, too, with or without fear..
Dec 8, 8:18 PM
Carol Ann: Yes, because it takes so much energy that is used for other things
Dec 8, 8:19 PM
Ruth (Guest): Jeannine, whom I’ve mentioned before, used to have a home Mass — and invite a lot of people, mostly family and close friends once per month when she was essentially dying of multiple malignancies. That must have surely helped her to focus outside herself. In spite of her pain, somehow she glowed, sparkled with radiant joy.
Dec 8, 8:19 PM
VisitationSiste: 5. In our everyday lives, which
do we fear more – earthly terrors or God’s disfavor?
5. In our everyday lives, which do we fear more – earthly terrors or God’s
disfavor?
Definitely illness and also great pain
Dec 8, 8:21 PM
Ruth (Guest): A couple of weeks ago I gave a photo I took of her at one of those last days, home Masses — with the oxygen tubes in her nose — to one of her admirers
Dec 8, 8:21 PM
Carol Ann: Loss of control (or at least the illusion of it)
Dec 8, 8:22 PM
Carroll V (Guest): Fear used to literally immobilize me. For me, a big key has been learning to focus on Jesus rather than myself… When I focus on Jesus, then I truly trust and suffer well… If I accept whatever suffering I am afraid of, knowing my Jesus is drawing me more closely to Himself with every breath, then I can move through it peaceably.
Dec 8, 8:22 PM
Ruth (Guest): He stared at it for a long, long time, and then commented: “The eyes! She still had that glow in he eyes!”
Dec 8, 8:23 PM
VisitationSiste: yes, focus on Jesus rather than self- going out of oneself to another- all can dissipate fear
Dec 8, 8:26 PM
Ruth (Guest): I’m afraid our public culture does not fear God’s displeasure very much, otherwise they would not light up public buildings in celebration of a new New York State law allowing abortion up to full term for whatever reason . . .
Dec 8, 8:26 PM
Ruth (Guest): THAT scares me! ‘
Dec 8, 8:27 PM
VisitationSiste: We are in an upside down world-
Dec 8, 8:27 PM
Dawn (Guest): Yes Ruth!
Dec 8, 8:27 PM
Blanca Villa: I think I go back and forth from earthly terrors and God’s disfavors.
Dec 8, 8:28 PM
Carol Ann: I don’t think culture spends any time thinking about God. It has made itself into the authority of each person de vides their own right
Dec 8, 8:28 PM
Carol Ann: We do not belong to ourselves, we belong to God
Dec 8, 8:28 PM
VisitationSiste: WE need to hold on to TRuth and Live Truth
Dec 8, 8:28 PM
Carroll V (Guest): It seems, as with most things, that some fear is good, coupled with a lively faith and confidence in God. Fear becomes problematic when it is either disordered in magnitude or in self focus.
Dec 8, 8:28 PM
Ruth (Guest): Yes, but most of us have to keep on functioning in it. And I quite frankly find it hard to understand how anyone can without trust in God’s love and mercy. But he is also just.
Dec 8, 8:29 PM
Dawn (Guest): Ive been thinking here of what fears I may have. The direction the world is moving I do fear what little children are facing..
Dec 8, 8:31 PM
VisitationSiste: Yes they are being poisoned by evil things spiritually- Pray for them every day that a shield of the Holy Spirit surrounds them
Dec 8, 8:31 PM
Dawn (Guest): but, if I focus on this, it disables. so to be aware, but then staying close to Jesus and praying very much, throughout the day, as he tells us to do..
Dec 8, 8:31 PM
VisitationSiste: And beauty can help save souls- God’s beauty
Dec 8, 8:31 PM
VisitationSiste: It is time for me to leave- have a blessed second week of advent!
Dec 8, 8:31 PM
Carroll V (Guest): Amen!
Dec 8, 8:32 PM
Dawn (Guest): a perfect prayer Sr Susan
Dec 8, 8:32 PM
Carol Ann: Thank you Sister!
Dec 8, 8:32 PM
Blanca Villa: The Church calls on us to be counter culture, which is why we don’t fit in.
Dec 8, 8:32 PM
Dawn (Guest): thank you. Happy Advent
Dec 8, 8:32 PM
Ruth (Guest): Recently I was reading that schools now have vending machines for junk food, and even one, in Colorado Springs, made a contract with Pepsie Cola to sell ONLY Pepsie Cola — in exchange for the company supplying certain auto visual and electronic supplies! So kids are being taught to eat and drink what will make them less healthy!
Dec 8, 8:33 PM
Carol Ann: Weird. Out here a law was passed to keep junk food out. The schools must be desperate for money
Dec 8, 8:33 PM
Carroll V (Guest): Wow, Ruth- upside down is right.
Dec 8, 8:34 PM
Blanca Villa: May God bless everyone. Bye!
Dec 8, 8:34 PM
Carol Ann: Good night Blanca
Dec 8, 8:35 PM
Carroll V (Guest): Good night everyone. Thank you for being here. Have a blessed week!
Dec 8, 8:35 PM
Carol Ann: Good night Carroll. I will pray for you and your family
Dec 8, 8:35 PM
Ruth (Guest): Yes. It does make sense to NOT strive to be “normal” but strive for being counter cultural at least in all those places where the “culture” is in conflict with what we know to be right.
Dec 8, 8:37 PM
Carol Ann: And get used to being misunderstood
Dec 8, 8:37 PM
Ruth (Guest): Good night dear Living Jesus friends. You are precious to me. May God bless you as we wait in joyful hope for the coming of a very revolutionary Savior.
Dec 8, 8:38 PM
Carol Ann: Good night Ruth and Dawn
Dec 8, 8:38 PM
Dawn (Guest): God bless you Ruth and Carol Ann. Jesus is coming soon…quickly! good night
Dec 8, 8:40 PM
Ruth (Guest): Yes, we will soon celebrate his having come as a child in history, but we look forward to his coming again at our individual ends of this earthly life AND coming again at the end of time.
Dec 8, 8:40 PM
Ruth (Guest): Good night. Blessings!