What does it mean to belong to God alone? Does that mean we cannot have other meaningful relationships?2. How do we turn our sadness from M
Sep 5, 7:51 PM
having offended God into a deep tranquility and submission?3. What does it mean to in submission to God? Are we just servants of God and no more?4. St. Francis says, “God is to be found no less in tribulation than in prosperity.” In Romans 2:11, St. Paul wrote, “God shows no partiality.” Discuss.5. How can we be more unabashedly committed to God? How can this affect ou
Sep 5, 10:53 AM
VisitationSiste: How can this affect our witness to others?
What does it mean to belong to God alone? Does that mean we cannot have other meaningful relationships
Sep 5, 7:29 PM
Dawn (Guest): Hi Elena
Sep 5, 7:30 PM
Elena (Guest): I’m sorry to hear about the damage in the monastery, Sister and all that your area/community (and so many others) are going through, Dawn. So much to pray for.
Sep 5, 7:30 PM
Elena (Guest): Belonging to God alone…. His is the last Word on who I am.
Sep 5, 7:30 PM
Dawn (Guest): I believe God wants us to have relationships, he says it is not good to be alone. but God is to come first, to be the head of relationsips
Sep 5, 7:31 PM
SrSusan (Guest): You know when I read about married saints and blesseds I get a better sense of how they belong to God and also have meaningful relationships, at least from the outside looking in
Sep 5, 7:31 PM
Elena (Guest): And I don’t give up my relationship with God or let anything or anyone interfere with that – how I live my life.
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Elena (Guest): God teaching me through my relationships with others, too.
Sep 5, 7:32 PM
Dawn (Guest): a helpful example Sr
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SrSusan (Guest): I think that when I was younger I would form attachments that made it more difficult to imagine or think of God alone but as I got older relationships became more balanced and I do put God first obviously as a religious. Other relationships pale to God now 5 PM
Elena (Guest): I think I had the same experience, Sister Susan (minus being a religious). I see more clearly how attachments pulled me from my relationship with God. And still the temptation is always there, living in the world.
Sep 5, 7:35 PM
SrSusan (Guest): Yes that would be so
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SrSusan (Guest): and once one is committed to a path that comes first no matter what else happens, at least one hopes so
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SrSusan (Guest): and once one is committed to a path that comes first no matter what else happens, at least one hopes so
Sep 5, 7:37 PM
SrSusan (Guest): If relationships are truly centered in God it is a blessing but ones friends etc need to be spiritually oriented as well and not all are
Sep 5, 7:37 PM
Elena (Guest): Also belonging to God includes how we spend our time, which in the world is constantly being tugged at. As a single person and no children, I battle “time wasters” when I could and should be praying, contemplating, or just being silent and quiet, waiting for Him.
Sep 5, 7:37 PM
SrSusan (Guest): I get caught up in trivia when I have what I deem too much pressure
Sep 5, 7:37 PM
SrSusan (Guest): so I understand
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Elena (Guest): I understand that, too. My job is exhausting and stressful in many ways, and the temptation to escape is constant.
Sep 5, 7:39 PM
Elena (Guest): Sister — I realllllllly struggle with this.
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Elena (Guest): And sometimes it’s not easy to feel lovable.
Sep 5, 7:40 PM
SrSusan (Guest): if only you could be with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament somehow that might help because He is there in a way that does not depend on our efforts to reach out inthe same way, even tho God is within us too, sometimes we dont find Him there as easily
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SrSusan (Guest): Yes it is good to concentrate on His Love for you and His forgiveness1 PM
Elena (Guest): I would love nothing more than to live under the same roof as the Blessed Sacrament. But He’s told me I have to seek him out there every day in some way. There are many churches around here with Adoration or just open doors to sit in His Presence. I hope and pray once school starts I can maintain that. PM
Dawn (Guest): I pray I can spend time with Jesus on first Friday, this friday. still uncertain if roads will be open. so, when they are I will go. its helpful what you just said sister. I think Ive yet to have quiet time with our Lord.
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SrSusan (Guest): Yes to both of you!
Sep 5, 7:43 PM
Dawn (Guest): Elena, I can not imagine living in a place such as this!
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Elena (Guest): Dawn, what do you mean? A place such as…? PM
Dawn (Guest): A place, a town where chapels are open churches are open and one can just go in anytime4 PM
Elena (Guest): Ahhhh… yes I suppose I need to be far more grateful than I am for this. Thank you for that insight.
Sep 5, 7:45 PM
SrSusan (Guest): I hope that in the upcoming Eucharistic revival year the leaders will think of this and provide more open chapels
Sep 5, 7:45 PM
Elena (Guest): I happen to live where several parishes/communities are within 15 minutes driving.
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Elena (Guest): I agree, Sister Susan!
Sep 5, 7:45 PM
Dawn (Guest): how wonderful this would be!
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Elena (Guest): Some of the churches around here started keeping doors unlocked during the Pandemic for people to at least sit with the Blessed Sacrament. I’m assuming this has continued.
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SrSusan (Guest): 2. How do we turn our sadness from having offended God into a deep tranquility and submission?3PM
Elena (Guest): I think you answered that question by suggesting we spend time with Him in the Blessed Sacrament. I mean, all the navel-gazing, etc. really gets me no where. I just need to sit with him and be silent and open. His healing is beyond words or what I think needs to be healed or fixed.
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SrSusan (Guest): . What does it mean to in submission to God? Are we just servants of God and no more?
Sep 5, 7:51 PM
Ruth (Guest): Hi Sr. Susan, Dawn, Elena.
Sep 5, 7:51 PM
Dawn (Guest): serving those he places in our life is also serving him
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Ruth (Guest): And the Sacrament of Penance can be a tremendous help. 2 PM
Dawn (Guest): to be in submission to God means to desire to do his will in all things3 PM
Ruth (Guest): Yes Dawn, I agree. 3 PM
SrSusan (Guest): We are His servants but also His children PM
Elena (Guest): submission to God means doing what He has given me to do, even when it can be a suffering. We’ve talked a lot on here about obedience and humility. Also, though, submission is letting Him heal us, submitting to His authority in our spiritual realities.
Sep 5, 7:54 PM
Dawn (Guest): always consoling to remember he is our Father!!
Sep 5, 7:54 PM
Elena (Guest): Yes, Sr Susan, His children!
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Ruth (Guest): And right now it seems even my fingers “refuse” to type what I think He wants me to say without multiple tries. 4 PM
Dawn (Guest): really like this insight Elena! PM
Dawn (Guest): I wonder if you can find an audio type, RuthPM
Ruth (Guest): Mary says, “Behold the handmaid (servant) of the Lord.”
Sep 5, 7:56 PM
Elena (Guest): Ruth, thank you for that! Right on.
Sep 5, 7:56 PM
Dawn (Guest): thank you Ruth.
Sep 5, 7:56 PM
SrSusan (Guest): Maybe we will need to switch to zoom chats? Altho I don;t think it would work so well but one can try someday
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Elena (Guest): That could be great, if it works! 7:57 PM
Dawn (Guest): Ive not done zoom: can you talk on zoom and it types? helpful
Sep 5, 7:58 PM
SrSusan (Guest): no I dont think so
Sep 5, 7:59 PM
SrSusan (Guest): The advantage to this is no one can dominate the conversation and we can basically all talk at the same time so to speak and yet each gets recorded clearly
Sep 5, 7:59 PM
Ruth (Guest): I’ve been doing a couple of those each week lately — very informally discussing Missionary Discipleship, and some with four friends from high school.
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SrSusan (Guest): St. Francis says, “God is to be found no less in tribulation than in prosperity.” In Romans 2:11, St. Paul wrote, “God shows no partiality.” Discuss
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Ruth (Guest): Yes. We had some difficulties at first, but once “in” the screen can be set up to automatically switch to the speaker. You’re not responding to something from minutes ago, after the thread is lost. 3 PM
Elena (Guest): God is present no matter hte situation, and He will bring Light into everytihng. He constantly invites us to relationship with him. I think sometimes we look for Him more in tribulation than in prosperity, though.
Sep 5, 8:04 PM
SrSusan (Guest): I think we know we need Him more then
Sep 5, 8:04 PM
Elena (Guest): He allows certain things because He will use it to heal us, to help us grow, to help us abandon ourselves to Him.
Sep 5, 8:04 PM
SrSusan (Guest): Or we think we do
Sep 5, 8:04 PM
Elena (Guest): yes
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SrSusan (Guest): God does not show partiality but sometimes we seem to think so because we do not know God’s overall plan , 8:07 PM
Dawn (Guest): I need to ponder on this, thank you. “He allows certain things because He will use it to heal us, to help us grow, to help us abandon ourselves to Him.”
Sep 5, 8:07 PM
Elena (Guest): What is meant by partiality… it seeming as if God let’s good things happen to some but bad things for other?
Sep 5, 8:08 PM
SrSusan (Guest): Some saints are so blessed from childhood and then there are other souls placed on earth who have so many troubles from the start. Who can understand all this but the one who knows all things
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Dawn (Guest): how do you discern when to simply allow things to happen around you and when to become a knight..like St Faustina says fight like a knight!
Sep 5, 8:09 PM
SrSusan (Guest): I am not sure what St Paul meant but that is my interpretation
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Elena (Guest): Ahhh yes, I get what you’re saying. Sometimes it’s hard to read about those saints who knew when they were five that they were going to be a nun and had visions and started giving to the poor. I’m like… “Then there’s me…” Um… 09 PM
Elena (Guest): Dawn — yes!! This is an excellent question. PM
SrSusan (Guest): Back to the Will of God but yes HOW do you know that will? PM
Ruth OniPad (Guest): I agree with that interpretation sister Susan. I’ve heard it sometimes compared to God having a whole WHOL
Sep 5, 8:11 PM
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Elena (Guest): Constantly being in tune with the Holy Spirit… “checking in” before I start fighting a fight. Often I discover there’s nothing to fight (that I’ve misunderstood something). Other times, when it’s time to fight, He gives me words or actions. But I’m very poor in constantly being in that contemplative stance to listen to Him. Then I get all anxious and angry and do the wrong thing.
Sep 5, 8:12 PM
SrSusan (Guest): Discernment is almost a way of life, between knowing commandments, reading Scripture, direction, inner sense of things :13 PM
Elena (Guest): I need to read more Scripture, for certain.
Sep 5, 8:13 PM
Ruth OniPad (Guest): Yup. Same Ruth. Whole view of something like a unfinished tapestry. And we are looking at just one little bit of tangled threads on the backa
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Dawn (Guest): when I believe it is God telling me to step forward and fight, I mean not physically of course, but to do some thing, how do I know it is God asking this of me or is it my ego thinking I can . hard to know and the tempter knows this and will take advantage of situations for the ruin of your soul
Sep 5, 8:14 PM
SrSusan (Guest): Peace should be one of the inner signs
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Elena (Guest): I have felt that peace, or so I thought, and then took an action that I deeplly regretted later. Of course, it could still have been the “right” thing to do I suppose, in God’s will, even if it seemed to me that things went sideways.
Sep 5, 8:17 PM
SrSusan (Guest): That is interesting and worthy of deep thought
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Ruth OniPad (Guest): Unable to make sense out of what we see . At Last I’ve finish that one Response. 19 PM
Dawn (Guest): when there are many tribulations happening all around, at the same time, it becomes so difficult to discern. and then I plunge forward doing what I believe is the thing he wants and yes it can unravel from there..
Sep 5, 8:19 PM
Ruth OniPad (Guest): I think that trying as it has been to deal with aggressive form of lymphoma, they have been good consequences maybe even some they could never have dreamed of.
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Elena (Guest): I’m glad
Sep 5, 8:20 PM
Elena (Guest): I’m glad I’m not the only one!!
Sep 5, 8:20 PM
Elena (Guest): (sorry, Ruth, that wasn’t a response to your previous post)
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SrSusan (Guest): How can we be more unabashedly committed to God?
Sep 5, 8:21 PM
SrSusan (Guest): How can this affect our witness to others?
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Elena (Guest): For me, it’s following through on the movements of the Holy Spirit. Praying when he nudges me. Going to find the Blessed Sacrament somewhere for a few minutes every day. Cause he’s asked me to do that, but I often put it off. PM
Elena (Guest): I don’t know how it witnessed to others, per se, other than hopefully as I become more peaceful and less anxious, people will see that. PM
Ruth OniPad (Guest): Sometimes I think people just notice. Sometimes it pleases them and sometimes it makes them uncomfortable. M
SrSusan (Guest): Trying to be true to what He asks of me, even if no one else changes by the example He allows me to give M
SrSusan (Guest): Being humble when I give a poor example too- that is also a witness 25 PM
Elena (Guest): Amen M
Ruth OniPad (Guest): Yes. I think that went along way in the classroom, to apologize for example 8:26 PM
Elena (Guest): I have had that experience too, Ruth, yes. PM
Ruth OniPad (Guest): Children learn compassion too when parents are apologetic at appropriate times. 9 PM
SrSusan (Guest): Compassion- how we need compassionate hearts these days PM
Elena (Guest): Ruth — sorry, I missed your question. I live near Rochester, NY. Specifically in Penfield. Ladies, I need to get going. Thank you for a wonderful chat tonight. God bless you all this coming week.
Sep 5, 8:29 PM
Ruth OniPad (Guest): I had a friend with multiple sclerosis who sometimes became impatient with his young son. When he apologized to the five-year-old and told him he was sorry he had yelled at him. The young boy said “ dad you don’t need to apologize. I know it’s just that MS.“
Sep 5, 8:30 PM
SrSusan (Guest): Yes thank you for being here Elena, Ruth and Dawn. Have a blessed week!