So, how do we deal with compliments? I've mentioned before that the average Dominican will say, "Praise GOD!" when you praise a sermon or a lecture he gave. And that seems absolutely right to me. "Praise God." If there is any good at all in my vicinity, it's because He put it there or did it there. I'm clear on that.
But recently people have been praising certain moral and spiritual aspects of moi. Somebody said that something was "evidence of [my] growth in charity."
Golly that makes me uncomfortable! It's because I SO MUCH want my own glory. I want (or a part of me wants, or a demon in my mind wants) me to be spectacularly holy and just simply FABulous (lisp optional) for MY glory.
[Maybe it would be a LITTLE better to talk about charity's growth in me? But it would probably be best to shut up about me.]
But more than that, I want it so I can know I'm on the right track, I'm "getting somewhere."
I guess all I have to do is to write that to see that I am always falling off the high mountain ridge of faith, of confidence in God, and always tumbling into the abyss of pride, worry, and despair.
It is my place, aided by God, to dedicate the next step to God, to implore His grace on it, and to take the step. I think if He gives me the grace to do just that, then He will take care of whether I'm "getting somewhere."
As I like to say, there is nothing you can do and nothing you must do to be saved ... but it's very hard to do nothing.
In related news, The Forty Days For Life begin tomorrow. I am going to post nowhere on FR but on this thread only. I will recommit myself to make this thread part of my prayers. It will be part of my fasting and prayer.
I invite all of you to prayer for the unborn, and for the poor people who are so confused that they think preventing a birth by killing a child could be a good thing.
And lets us all pray that God will enable us to heed the promise of Exodus 14:14 -- "The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be still."
THX THX.
May God ever lead you closer to Himself.
Gee, are you sure it's that? Maybe you're just scared of the responsibility of having to live up to it . . . sort of stage fright when you realize someone's actually watching. I don't know -- not a problem I have to deal with lately! ;-)
I'm clear on that too, dear brother in Christ!
You wrote:
... there is nothing you can do and nothing you must do to be saved ... but it's very hard to do nothing.Dear brother, the constant act of living Faith is never "nothing!"
You wrote:
And let us all pray that God will enable us to heed the promise of Exodus 14:14 — "The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be still."This wisdom evidently is of very ancient heritage. From ~1500 B.C. Egypt we have the "Wisdom of Amonepone" (author anonymous, spelling doubtful):
"Rest still in God's arms,It seems to me if we feel we are walking in darkness, The Book of Exodus and Amonepone's insight can remind us of the helps and consolation we have from the Holy Spirit of God, by Christ's unimaginably stupendous Sacrifice, so to give us patience for the return of His Light....
and your silence will confound
your enemies."
It seems to me the Holy Spirit is always near to those who manifestly love Christ, even if the Spirit seems "obscured" or somehow "distant." Saint John of the Cross speaks of this sort of thing as the "dark night of the soul".... The 23rd Psalm speaks of "the valley of the shadow...."
Yet St. Anselm of Cantebury speaks passionately of direct communication with God....
All these insights come from human experiences of an extraordinarily elevated order. JMHO FWIW
In Christ's love and peace, dear brother Mad Dawg!
All Praise and Glory be to our Lord God!
Thanks for the prayer suggestion..
40 days of prayer is very holy.
I’ll be with you in the Forty Days of Prayer for the Unborn.
Do we have a special prayer for that?