Posted on 09/12/2014 1:46:23 AM PDT by markomalley
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I’ve often thought that there’s a very fine line between perfect detachment and despair. When you surrender everything, Jesus is there, they promise ... but what if he isn’t? What if there’s just living death until there’s dead death?
Ping!
This, and the other admissions, are honest but really excuse lying, as indeed we are lying, and i have, when singing words of such hymns that are not a reality with us to varying degrees. Even if those who wrote them were testifying to an overall reality using some degree of poetic license, yet i think this is so far from reality in many souls and in many churches that it makes a mockery of speaking the truth in our heart.
And I often wonder what matter of conscience some writers of modern songs have in the light of their claims for themselves.
But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. (Matthew 12:36)
Let all that is within me cry glory. "Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name." (Psalms 103:1)
Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing :
3. O to grace how great a debtor Daily I'm constrained to be! Let that grace now like a fetter, Bind my wandering heart to Thee. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love; Here's my heart, O take and seal it, Seal it for Thy courts above.
This description of the heart of the regenerate (by an old Anglican: J. C. RYLE - 1816-1900) is quite good. ARE YOU BORN AGAIN?
I am -— in my more awake moments -— aware that I am betting my life on this.
There is a difference between lying and declaring by faith.
Even after crashing into the same wall over and over again and we finally decide to call Jesus in, then we stomp our little foots and want the answer now!
When I was single the answer was clear. Retreat, even if it was just turning everything off and spending the weekend at home with Jesus. Now being married, having animals and for you all kids, grand kids, we all have jobs and or projects. It seems harder to just get with God. Where I can really hear him. Used to not be so hard. So is it me or him? 99.9% sure it's me!
I long for the days that I heard him more clearly, when I think back things were easier then. Was it because I had less complications or because I let him carry the ball?
"Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple."
He didn't mean literally "hate" (in the sense of "hostility and loathing) or even "ignore" or "be indifferent to," but He did mean that one should prefer the way of Christ to all things, even prefer it to this life itself.
If one had to choose between Christ and one's father's or mother's wishes, or one's spouse's or childrens' wishes, or the clear demands of our own "reasonable" self-interest --- we should go with Christ and leave the rest behind.
So I would say "detachment" in the sense of a cold, hands-off attitude toward all things, is bad; but "detachment" in the sense of putting Christ, always, radically first, is good.
Does that make sense?
How much we want to smooth the edges off of this one! It is indeed a hard saying. One of the hardest!
I’m not tempted by any of the usual run of false god - money, pleasure, fame - but I’m considering some of the classics to see if they have a better deal. Athena, now ... the study, the arts and crafts, the occasional armed mayhem ... I just read the Odyssey again ;-) ... but Athena isn’t very patient.
Odin, on the other hand ... wouldn’t he have a gold ring and a barmaid job for the mother of Anoreth and her pack of berserker brothers?
Surely there’s something out there other than complete failure.
A memorable phrase.
Have you read Kristin Lavransdatter? Seriously.
They can put it on a runestone when I die.
Have you read Kristin Lavransdatter?
No, never got around to it. Back in the day (the 80s) when I was hanging around with Vikings, I was put off by the very small print. Maybe I could read it now that I have my bifocals. Or maybe the library has a recorded book.
I see where you are coming from and that is what I was thinking. I think how often I could pray intead of play for instance.
In other words I think I need to work on my interior life with Jesus, if that makes sense.
Despair I think comes from not working on your interior life. That inner dialog, yes dialog with Christ. As a priest told me, when you are so busy talking to him, he does not have time to answer.
Certain offspring are getting a little too enthusiastic about the sacrifice thing already. *sigh*
Anyway, Asuncion would be disappointed in me.
Maybe ... or from working on it and not getting anywhere but more failure.
I’ll tell you something really cool in Freep mail.
I could use it.
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