SrSusan (Guest): Do you think it was dismissive that St. Francis explained that there was no direct solution for her problem other than waiting the passage of time?Why are so many things in our spiritual life about being patient and taking time to grow instead of God of just “zapping” everything to become better?St. Francis says, “this life is continual warfare and there is no one who can say: I am not being attacked.” Discuss this. How could we do well to keep this in mind more often?St. Francis describes charity
Feb 5, 9:22 AM
as “made up of three elements: love of God, affection for oneself and love for one’s neighbor.” When thinking of love, why do people often overlook the important element of loving ourselves as well?St. Francis proposes this prayer: “I love these neighbors of mine, Lord, eternal Father, because you love them, and you have given them to me as brothers and sisters, and you want me to love them as you yourself love them.” Even though we’re supposed to see everyone as our neighbor, how can we better love our ac
Feb 5, 9:23 AM
SrSusan (Guest): our actual physical neighbors and get to know them? What about those “neighbors” who are in our own household?
Feb 5, 9:23 AM
SrSusan (Guest): Sun chat Feb 6730pm est
Feb 5, 9:24 AM
SrSusan (Guest): newsletter for chat
Feb 5, 9:24 AM
SrSusan (Guest): http://www.icontact-archive.com/archive?c=1029793&f=1988&s=2046&m=631362&t=44f0d18c19339967b1be43b205c1596fa07d3b2574e5f4560987969cb886fdda
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Carolyn H (Guest): I think he realized some solutions need time. 33 PM
VisitationSister (Guest): Yes and sometimes we are impatient with our own faults and slow growth and want quick solutions PM
Elena (Guest): Hi, everyone! I don’t think it was dismissive; he was being honest that these deeply rooted tendancies typically don’t go away overnight. The Lord wants us to remain dependent on Him rather than ourselves, and that means His timing in our lives.
Feb 6, 7:34 PM
Carolyn H (Guest): I couldn’t agree more. Sometimes in the darkness, we find God has other plans for us.
4 PM
Carolyn H (Guest): to bring us back to the light PM
Elena (Guest): I agree, Sister! I am often impatient with my growth and want quick solutions. It’s also the culture we’re in, too, I think. PM
Elena (Guest): Agree, Carolyn!
Feb 6, 7:35 PM
VisitationSister (Guest): our instant age!
6 PM
VisitationSister (Guest): Why are so many things in our spiritual life about being patient and taking time to grow instead of God of just “zapping” everything to become better?
Feb 6, 7:37 PM
Elena (Guest): He could zap. He has the power to zap. He knows how. But there is something about the relationship we develop with him that can only be there if the process unfolds, the relationship. Our free will is the only thing that enables that.
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Elena (Guest): Although, by God’s very nature, he can’t zap! God is love, and love cannot demand things. God invites and gives us grace, never failing to draw us to him. PM
VisitationSister (Guest): We need to engage in our own process of growth PM
VisitationSister (Guest): In the case of miracles of course, especially physical ones, altho also emotional sometimes, healing can be instantly
Feb 6, 7:40 PM
Lisa (Guest): Well, I guess I could say, we live in a time where psychotherapy is the norm for self-improvement. It’s the idea I can fix myself. I’ve spend years trying to fix myself, and it never worked. Then, after going back to my faith, I saw that I all the changes I hoped for just started happening. I healed faster with grace from God and sacraments than 20 years in self-help!
1 PM
Lisa (Guest): So, I guess I’m trying to ask/say, who is our healer? Is it God, or myself?
Feb 6, 7:41 PM
Carolyn H (Guest): I believe it is us through the power of God’s grace.
Feb 6, 7:42 PM
Elena (Guest): Lisa, that’s so beautiful! I am in a similar way. What I meant by God not being able to zap is the idea of removing free will. That’s against his nature. The process is how we come in deeper relationship with him; but sometimes he gives us little “power ups” like healing of mind/body, and influxes of grace.
3 PM
Elena (Guest): God does the healing work; he knows exactly how each of us are hurt and what we need. He doesn’t just heal us so that we can live this life, but so that we can be with him in the next.
Feb 6, 7:44 PM
Lisa (Guest): I struggle with finding the balance between, how much do I rely on self-will, and how much is it up to God to give grace? Since I can’t see God’s grace physically, but I can see my efforts, so it’s hard not to fall on self-reliance.
, 7:46 PM
Ruth (Guest): Lisa, that is an excellent testimony.
Feb 6, 7:46 PM
VisitationSister (Guest): St. Francis says, “this life is continual warfare and there is no one who can say: I am not being attacked.” Do you agree
46 PM
VisitationSister (Guest): St. Francis says, “this life is continual warfare and there is no one who can say: I am not being attacked.” Do you agree
Feb 6, 7:47 PM
Ruth (Guest): If I remember correctly, though, St. Francis does not just say, one must wait, but also, follow the rule of the community to which she belongs. That rule must be “designed” to make saints.
Feb 6, 7:47 PM
Elena (Guest): I agree. Felt it all day today. yesterday, not as much. There are days, though, when the temptations come flying – all the inner stuff I struggle with.
Feb 6, 7:47 PM
Lisa (Guest): Yes, I agree…Story of my life…ha.
Feb 6, 7:48 PM
Anne goezte (Guest): I learn better when able to have time to absorb, search out if I am after a quick fix or is there more that God has to show me through the process, painful or not.
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VisitationSister (Guest): We may not always perceive them as attacks or use that word but we are troubled
Feb 6, 7:49 PM
Ruth (Guest): A friend is praying the St. Michael the Archangel Novena. We’ve prayed others, together. How grateful I am because these past two weeks or so have felt hugely challenging in ways totally unfamiliar to me in the past.
Feb 6, 7:50 PM
Elena (Guest): Ruth, it can be so hard. Whatever it is you’re going through, I am with you in my prayers!
Feb 6, 7:50 PM
Lisa (Guest): Why does it seem though, that many don’t seem to have much warfare in their lives? At least that they speak about, or you witness? Many I know live very happy lives… Or am I only one who perceives this?
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Ruth (Guest): Thank you Elena. I really appreciate and NEED all the prayer help I can get.
Feb 6, 7:52 PM
Ruth (Guest): Did Sr. Susan have to leave?
Feb 6, 7:53 PM
Ruth (Guest): And I wonder why Anne’s name does not appear to the right.
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VisitationSister (Guest): St. Francis describes charity
Feb 5, 9:22 AM
as “made up of three elements: love of God, affection for oneself and love for one’s neighbor.” When thinking of love, why do people often overlook the important element of loving ourselves as well?
Feb 6, 7:57 PM
Ruth (Guest): I think they live very happy lives for a time, and then there are times when things are not so easy for them. The key to happiness, I think, is well ordered desires, longings, and actions that follow. We are here on Earth to come to KNOW, LOVE, and SERVE GOD and the second part of that, which Jesus EQUATES to loving God is loving our Neighbor.
Feb 6, 7:58 PM
VisitationSister (Guest): Love often means outreach and we dont think of that in relation to self
7:58 PM
Lisa (Guest): Great point Ruth! 7:59 PM
Ruth (Guest): I think I’ve learned to love myself more by knowing that God loves me, and that I am a daughter of him.
Feb 6, 8:00 PM
Lisa (Guest): Sister, or anyone, can you give examples of what it would look like to love oneself, that isn’t narcissistic?
Feb 6, 8:00 PM
Elena (Guest): Well said, Ruth! Same for me.
01 PM
Anne goezte (Guest): To be kind to ourselves also takes effort sometimes, and to forgive ourselves too from feelings of failure..
Feb 6, 8:01 PM
VisitationSister (Guest): I think when one is humble and truthful about oneself that is a form of healthy self-love
2 PM
Elena (Guest): Being gentle with yourself when you make mistakes; giving everything to God including (especially) our mistakes. Not burying ourselves in scrupulosity (I’m the worst ever, etc.). Being honest and humble about who we are, as Sister just said!
Feb 6, 8:03 PM
Anne goezte (Guest): And to laugh at ourselves is a good thing!
Feb 6, 8:03 PM
Lisa (Guest): That’s the best Anne!
:03 PM
Elena (Guest): Forgiving self can be so hard. The enemy is the “accuser” who will try to make us feel worthless and unforgivable.
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Ruth (Guest): I have a sign on my refrigerator door dated 1/15/16. I had realized that living alone, far from grocery stores, and having grown up thinking wasting anything was a sin, I think I had made myself sick sometimes by eating food that was just beginning to “turn,” so wrote, regarding food safety:
Feb 6, 8:04 PM
Elena (Guest): When you teach middle schoolers, you HAVE to laugh at yourself lol!
6 PM
Ruth (Guest): When in doubt, throw it out! is definitely a priority over Waste not, want not. DON’T EAT ANYTHING YOU WOULD NOT SERVE TO A FRIEND. PM
Ruth (Guest): “Love your neighbor as yourself” has a corollary: You need to “love yourself as your neighbor.”
Mère Madeleine – Joseph de Siry …
8:07 PM
Elena (Guest): Amen, Ruth! 11 PM
Ruth (Guest): Trusting the Lord also means, I think, trying to live his Word. Sometimes even when it seems absurd.
Feb 6, 8:12 PM
VisitationSister (Guest): .” Even though we’re supposed to see everyone as our neighbor, how can we better love our ac
our actual physical neighbors and get to know the
6 PM
VisitationSister (Guest): Living in community is supposed to be supportive but sometimes it is troublesome because we do not love our neighbors, our Srs as we ought 8 PM
VisitationSister (Guest): But we have customs which help us get back on track :18 PM
Lisa (Guest): I don’t live in a community, but I can’t imagine how painful it would be. Very troublesome, because it’s against the reason, presumably, why you are there. Not sure how I would handle that…and how you would love yourself as well
Feb 6, 8:19 PM
Elena (Guest): Doing little things I know will brighten my housemate’s day are little acts of service. Doing things she feels are important that I don’t care about, like closing the kitchen blinds all the way.
Feb 6, 8:19 PM
Ruth (Guest): Sr. you know about one neighbor who has given me an incredibly hard time . . . Well, every day, especially when I drive or walk past his house, I say a little prayer for him and his family, ask God to bless them. It’s been years . . . And he had once sworn that he would arrest me if I set foot on his property, although the only times I had done that was to protect his little step daughter who was in danger of hurting herself by trying to climb out of the back of their pickup truck which they were using a
8:19 PM
Elena (Guest): IN fact, I used to grumble about the kitchen blinds.. so now i close them without grumbling as often as I can.v 0 PM
VisitationSister (Guest): conversion, yielding to the other. Salesian!
Feb 6, 8:20 PM
Lisa (Guest): Oh my, Ruth. Your neighbor sounds like mine….
4 PM
Ruth (Guest): as a playpen while they built the house. And another time, after his wife had come to my aid before paramedics arrived. . . Well, ignoring his threat, onetime when during COVID they were giving away gallons of milk by the school in town, I picked up some for myself and for my neighbors. I walked up his driveway and to the back porch were workers were making some improvements while he looked on, and offered two gallons of milk: He said his refrigerator was full, but on second thought, accepted one gallon 4 PM
Elena (Guest): Yielding to the other… so against my nature, LOL. St. Jane and St. Francis, pray for me! The same goes at work.. even harder.