"To this you rejoice, though now for a little while you may have suffer various trials, so the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold which though perishable is tested by fire..."
Peter 1:6-7
This text points out "predestination" in Christ of the created world and how the theme of the relation of divine providence & reality of evil and suffering
The principle is hard to accept , it is even more difficult to accept when one accuses God because of evil and suffering, but we must somehow accept the divine providence.
It is clear from the pages of sacred scriptures, the bible, shows the vision of reality of evil and suffering. However through the gospels the good news, their is adequate method to find response to the question of evil and suffering in the world, it is to seek it in the context of revelation offered by word of God.
Lets be clear about evil, it is multi form. It can be distinguished in a physical sense, from that in the moral sense.
Moral evil is distinguished from the physical evil, first of all because it implied guilt, it depends on free will and always an evil of spiritual nature.
It is distinguished from physical evil because the latter does not directly include mans will even thought it does not mean cannot be caused by man of result from his fault. At times its result of ignorance, this is sometimes related to natural disaster, bodily and physical disability and sickness
Though these forms of evil, suffering is engendered in human beings, human suffering can be interiorized known and experienced in the whole dimension of ones being.
Sometimes it constitute a complaint , challenge and cry of rejection of God and his providence, thus questions can be summed up; Does God not will evil? And if he does, can we believe God is love?
In the old testament we can look at Job.The old testament bears witness to primary of wisdom and goodness of God, the bank of job outlines and develops an attitude dedicated to the theme of evil and suffering seen as a tremendous trial for the just overcome by certainty , laboriously acquired , that God is good.
In all of this, we can be consoled with definitive light can come to us, only the victory of cross from Christ can do this
General audience June 4, 1986
Wednesday, May 23, 2018
Wednesday, May 16, 2018
Patience and meekness
Jesus is the model of patience and meekness
We need to contemplate the greatness of God as opposed to that weakness of our own or others which we know thourhg experience of our repeated falls to sin
From Isiah 4:25-31
Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abundant in steadfast love; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, thery shall walk and not faint.
Jesus brought a yoke and a burden to humankind, his yoke is easy to bear because it liberates us, and this burden does not weight us down because he himself carries the hard part.
Matt11 Jesus says, Come to me , all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
Jesus wins the trust of the people following him due to meeknes of His heart., it is through his lovable heart that crowds at his time on earth find shelter and rest, and why they are strongly attracted by him and find peace in him. And today we do the same through the eucharist. The fruitfulness of all apostotlate will and should be very closely bound up with this virtue of meekness and patience.
If we are to follow and be like Christ as we are due to our baptism, then we should notice how patient he was with defects of his disciples.
The way to cure our bad temp or impatience with either ourselves or others failures is to imitate Jesus meekness. This calm and welcoming spirit will be born and develop in us in exact proportion to ur efforsts to remember to constant presence of God and to think more of our Lord's life on this earth.
Meekness is particuraly necessary in circumstances where living with other people who are difficult.
Meekness is founded on great spiritual streangth. Just as the Gospel beatitudes, notes, the poor are those who are really rich, so the meek are those who are truly strong.
Meekness is like a strong shield which blunts and shatters the sharp arrows of anger, The meek are like people dressed in garments of thick quilted, meekness helps control and directs it, so that is aroused only when ncessary.
Let us examine ourselves on our readiness to make sacrifices neccessary to make life pleasant for other people. LEt us see if we are able to give way to other people opinions, instead of claiming to be always right about everything, and how to control our temper and disregard the frictions which are in our daily life.
If we can go to adoration or just go to a chapel with the tabernacle, let us discuss or talk it over with our lord and let him get through and what is in our uppermost thoughts.
We need to contemplate the greatness of God as opposed to that weakness of our own or others which we know thourhg experience of our repeated falls to sin
From Isiah 4:25-31
Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abundant in steadfast love; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, thery shall walk and not faint.
Jesus brought a yoke and a burden to humankind, his yoke is easy to bear because it liberates us, and this burden does not weight us down because he himself carries the hard part.
Matt11 Jesus says, Come to me , all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
Jesus wins the trust of the people following him due to meeknes of His heart., it is through his lovable heart that crowds at his time on earth find shelter and rest, and why they are strongly attracted by him and find peace in him. And today we do the same through the eucharist. The fruitfulness of all apostotlate will and should be very closely bound up with this virtue of meekness and patience.
If we are to follow and be like Christ as we are due to our baptism, then we should notice how patient he was with defects of his disciples.
The way to cure our bad temp or impatience with either ourselves or others failures is to imitate Jesus meekness. This calm and welcoming spirit will be born and develop in us in exact proportion to ur efforsts to remember to constant presence of God and to think more of our Lord's life on this earth.
Meekness is particuraly necessary in circumstances where living with other people who are difficult.
Meekness is founded on great spiritual streangth. Just as the Gospel beatitudes, notes, the poor are those who are really rich, so the meek are those who are truly strong.
Meekness is like a strong shield which blunts and shatters the sharp arrows of anger, The meek are like people dressed in garments of thick quilted, meekness helps control and directs it, so that is aroused only when ncessary.
Let us examine ourselves on our readiness to make sacrifices neccessary to make life pleasant for other people. LEt us see if we are able to give way to other people opinions, instead of claiming to be always right about everything, and how to control our temper and disregard the frictions which are in our daily life.
If we can go to adoration or just go to a chapel with the tabernacle, let us discuss or talk it over with our lord and let him get through and what is in our uppermost thoughts.
Wednesday, May 9, 2018
How to battle Lukewarmness
Our life does not make sense if we are
not following Our Lord closely
He comes to bring us the fire of his
love, which fills our pointless lives and make sense of them. Every
Christian soul full of the love of God is that tree of which the
responsrial psalm speaks of; "the tree whose leaves never fade". It is
Christ himself who gives it life. But if Christian allows his love
to grow cold, if he allows self satisfied mediocrity to creep into
his soul, then he will develop a spiritual sickness
The persons mind and heart become as it
were blind and deaf; as a result of their negligence the person can
no longer see or hear Christ. Their soul feels emptied of God and that person tries to fill that emptiness with other things
We must realize that there is a cure for
every disease of the soul, including that of the lack of love. We
have only to employ the right means in the order to re-discover
Christ. The hidden treasure who once gave meaning.
Isolated faults do not lead to
tepidity or lukewarmness, This sickness of the soul is characterized by the fact
that one more or less deliberately treats venial sin lightly.
Even if someone still frequently
commits venial sins, it does not mean that he is tepid or lukewarm ,
provided that person is sorry for them and try to fight against it.
Tepidity is a state of conscious and deliberate lack of fervor, a
state of enduring carelessness and half heartedness
Tepidity or lukewarmness is the result of prolonged
carelessness in the interior life. It usually follows a whole string
of small infidelities who un-repentet guilt has come between the soul
and God. There is no struggle or only pretended and effectual
struggle, to be better.
The state of tepidity is like a gentle slope down which the soul slips further from God. Almost without noticing, it becomes content with not going too far. Where there is tepidity or lukewarmness , there is no true worship of God in the Holy Mass; lack of love and preparation make Holy Communion itself cold. In this sorry state the tepid soul looses all desire to get really near God. To sum up, You are lukewarm if you carry out lazily and reluctantly those things which have to do with God.
To prevent or break out of it, , we need to increase our determination to struggle again tepidity or lukewarmness, which will involve taking great care with our daily examination. Contrition makes the soul young again. Remember, God always forgives, but we must get up , repentant and go to Confession wherever necessary. Our Lord take our failures into account, but he also expects from us many little victories in the course of our days, we will never fall into self-satisfied mediocrity, into carelessness, into lovelessness.
The state of tepidity is like a gentle slope down which the soul slips further from God. Almost without noticing, it becomes content with not going too far. Where there is tepidity or lukewarmness , there is no true worship of God in the Holy Mass; lack of love and preparation make Holy Communion itself cold. In this sorry state the tepid soul looses all desire to get really near God. To sum up, You are lukewarm if you carry out lazily and reluctantly those things which have to do with God.
To prevent or break out of it, , we need to increase our determination to struggle again tepidity or lukewarmness, which will involve taking great care with our daily examination. Contrition makes the soul young again. Remember, God always forgives, but we must get up , repentant and go to Confession wherever necessary. Our Lord take our failures into account, but he also expects from us many little victories in the course of our days, we will never fall into self-satisfied mediocrity, into carelessness, into lovelessness.
Fr. Fernando "In Converstation with God"
Sample examination of conscious from a prayer book
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