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Dec 29th, 2019
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Glory be to Jesus Christ!! Glory be to Him forever and ever!!!
Just picked up this book yesterday and can't put it down. I recommend it to anyone as a spiritual gem.
IMHO, this kind of book is good for one's ongoing metanoia. When I think I've taken the first step, I read how this remarkable woman committed to Christ in the first couple chapters and I'm embarrassed to call myself a Christian by comparison.
BOB
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Yes, Bl. Mother Teresa's own "dark night of the soul" was not a crisis in faith, as some uncharitably suggest, but a trial of faith!
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I'm half way through. To live and work for many years on pure faith when one feels absolutely abandoned by God . . .
BOB
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Most newsmen don't look at matters from a mature interior life. There is such a great need for her work.
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I thought this little portion of a sermon by St. Augustine fits the thrust of this book rather well. It's something we want to forget, safe as we are in our country. BOB From St Augustine's sermon On Pastors (from the Office of Readings for Saturday, September 22, 2007; Liturgy of the Hours)
Offer the bandage of consolation
Scripture says: God chastises every son whom he acknowledges. But the bad shepherd says: �Perhaps I will be exempt�. If he is exempt from the suffering of his chastisements, then he is not numbered among God�s sons. You will say: �Does God indeed punish every son?� Yes, every one, just as he chastised his only Son. His only Son, born of the substance of the Father, equal to the Father in the form of God, the Word through whom all things were made, he could not be chastised. For this reason he was clothed with flesh so that he might know chastisement. God punishes his only Son who is without sin; does he then leave unpunished an adopted son who is with sin? The Apostle says that we have been called to adoption. We have been adopted as sons, that we might be co-heirs with the only Son, and also that we might be his inheritance: Ask of me and I will give you the nations as your inheritance. Christ gave us the example by his own sufferings.
But clearly one who is weak must neither be deceived with false hope nor broken by fear. Otherwise he may fail when temptations come. Say to him: Prepare your soul for temptation. Perhaps he is starting to falter, to tremble with fear, perhaps he is unwilling to approach. You have another passage of Scripture for him: God is faithful. He does not allow you to be tempted beyond your strength. Make that promise while preaching about the sufferings to come, and you will strengthen the man who is weak. When someone is held back because of excessive fear, promise him God�s mercy. It is not that temptations will be lacking, but that God will not permit anyone to be tempted beyond what he can bear. In this manner you will be binding up the broken one.
When they hear of the trials that are coming, some men arm themselves more and, so to speak, are eager to drain the cup. The ordinary medicine of the faithful seems to them but a small thing; for their part they seek the glorious death of the martyrs. Others hear of the temptations to come, and when they do arrive, as arrive they must, they become broken and lame. Yet it is right that such things befall the Christian, and no one esteems them except the one who desires to be a true Christian.
Offer the bandage of consolation, bind up what has been broken. Say this: �Do not be afraid. God in whom you have believed does not abandon you in temptations. God is faithful. He does not allow you to be tempted beyond your strength. It is not I who say this, but the Apostle, and he says further: Are you willing to accept his trial, the trial of Christ who speaks in me? When you hear this you are hearing it from Christ himself, you are hearing it from the shepherd who gives pasture to Israel. For of him it was said: You will give us tears to drink in measure. The Apostle says: He does not allow you to be tempted beyond your strength. This is also what the prophet intends by adding the words: in measure. God rebukes but also encourages, he brings fear and he brings consolation, he strikes and he heals. Do not reject him�.
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Bob,
I love this whole homily of Augustine's (#46) (in fact, St. Augustine is at his absolute best in his homilies and letters, as far as I am concerned).
I think that what he is saying hear about "the shepherds", while he is intending to speak in first instance of bishops and priests, can be taken to heart by almost anyone with responsibility for others, especially parents.
Best,
Michael
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Michael:
Someone sent me a piece written by an Orthodox monastic--I think it was Archbishop Averky of ROCOR, but I can't put my hands on it. The thrust of the piece was that the Christian life is meant to be a life of penance, sacrifice, suffering, and hardship so that we may enter the Passion of Christ and, as St. Paul puts it, "fill up what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ" by shouldering our cross with love, joy, patience, and peace.
We so often forget that and adopt a rather Calvinistic attitude that sees suffering as God's punishment on us, as opposed to worldly success which the same mindset thinks is God's blessing on His own: the opposite of Apostolic spirituality in both East and West.
BOB
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Would someone with a Calvinistic attitude towards suffering be able to bear a fraction of the suffering of the dark night?
I was close to someone who had that attitude. A family tragedy was God's punishment on her unfaithfulness, then her sister was injured from the same motivation. Nothing I said steered her away from that way of seeing, she was doggedly persistent at it with every aspect of life. I had wondered at this.
There seems to be a certain mystery to suffering. Though Job did not know why he was suffering, his faith did not waver. Why is there such difficulty with this mystery in our time?
Terry
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Would someone with a Calvinistic attitude towards suffering be able to bear a fraction of the suffering of the dark night? Terry: I think the difference in bearing the pain of suffering is that Mother Teresa's was borne with a joy that seems to develop as one progresses through her correspondence. The Calvinistic approach can leave one in a despair that may or may not become permanent. Without the idea that our suffering has eternal value when nailed to the Cross, what differentiates it from the suffering of anyone else in the world at any time either before or after Christ? To me, nothing. It's entirely human to want to avoid suffering and to seek answers for the "why?" of it. Think of defining suffering as God's punishment. What does it leave one with? Does it lend itself to the idea that "God so loved the world that HE sent His Only-Begotten Son . . ."? Job in the Old Testament could not relate to the Christian concept that we have now. But his clinging to faith in God despite what he had to endure is something we have as a foundation on which our later concept of nailing our suffering to the Cross of Christ can be built. He points the way to Christ, IMHO. There seems to be a certain mystery to suffering. Indeed. We see everything, including our suffering, from the vantage point of the door of the empty Tomb. We look out on the whole of our world and all of our experiences, standing in that doorway. In Christ, BOB
Last edited by theophan; 09/23/07 05:00 PM.
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Terry, Would someone with a Calvinistic attitude towards suffering be able to bear a fraction of the suffering of the dark night?
I was close to someone who had that attitude. A family tragedy was God's punishment on her unfaithfulness, then her sister was injured from the same motivation. Nothing I said steered her away from that way of seeing, she was doggedly persistent at it with every aspect of life. I had wondered at this.
There seems to be a certain mystery to suffering. Though Job did not know why he was suffering, his faith did not waver. Why is there such difficulty with this mystery in our time?
Terry St. Josemaria Escriva used to distinguish between "crosses" that we make for ourselves, and the "true cross" (which can be as simple as being on time for all our classes). When it is a self-made cross, or when we call "cross" what is the consequence of our disorderly conduct or laziness, it doesn't unite us to Christ (although any sorrow for it can unite us to Christ). When it comes without our provoking it, it has the ability to unite us ever more closely to Christ, if we embrace it with His help. The "dark night of the soul" is never the consequence of self-made crosses; it's not the consequence of our negligence. Mother Teresa was a heroic disciple and saint. That's why all the talk about "her doubts" is nonsense: her spiritual suffering resulted from her continual fidelity to the Will of God, not from her defects. That's why she always had a smile for people.
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It occurred to me this morning that the darkness described by Mother Teresa; the darkness felt by Christ on the Cross as He felt what it was like to be completely cut off from communion with the Father; and the darkness that Mother Teresa describes as being the lot of those who are poor and who have never heard of or felt the presence of God in their lives may be the same darkness that people feel who take their own lives.
It's that eternity of distance between God and the sinner. One who takes his own life is not necessarily someone who has committed something. HE or she is simply one who is stuck in the "separation (from God) is normal" lie that the world and the Enemy promote as "normal."
I have pondered all day the idea that it might be that the thing lacking for people who take their own lives is a faith-filled experience of a God Who loves them from all eternity and Who sent His Only-Begotten Son to let people know it. Somehow we have not gotten the message to them by word and example. Somehow by not hearing and seeing, they have perhaps not had room for the Holy Spirit to move them to ask for the gift of faith. Somehow they have remained closed, whether through past hurts that have made them close in on themselves and not trust others. Somehow they have lost the ablilty to reach out in trust to others. Somehow they have lost the idea that we human beings need other human beings--we're hard-wired that way; in the same way we are hard-wired to seek out the God Who made us, even when we don't really know anything about Him.
How fortunate every member of this board is to have had the gift of faith and know deep inside that the darkest darkness is light when we are "in Christ."
In Christ,
BOB
Last edited by theophan; 04/15/08 09:57 AM. Reason: spelling
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It occurred to me this morning that the darkness described by Mother Teresa
[ . . . ] may be the same darkness that people feel who take their own lives. Bob, I honestly disagree. The former are experiencing a darkness that has been drawn over them, like a veil. The latter are experiencing a darkness that they have chosen to focus upon because it is their way to flee the pain in their lives. The former actively seek the Light of Christ, despite the pain. The latter have difficulty seeing the Light of Christ, and some consciously turn away from it, because they are trying to escape from their pain. How fortunate every member of this board is to have had the gift of faith and know deep inside that the darkest darkness is light when we are "in Christ." Amen, brother, amen . . . -- John
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JOHN: You're probably right. Not everything that occurs to me has value and I appreciate your insight. I guess I was focused on the darkness and not the reason behind it. Well put. Back to the book.  In Christ, BOB
Last edited by theophan; 09/25/07 06:56 PM.
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Bob, one of the things I like about this forum is that it allows people to think out loud and engage in useful group discussion. And I thank you for sharing your thoughts and receiving mine in reply.
-- John
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JOHN: Thought about this darkness some more overnight--didn't lose any sleep, however. The darkness, the emptiness, the loneliness, the sense of abandonment that Mother Teresa speaks of in her correspondence and that some many spiritual writers allude to when they speak of Jesus' cry from the Cross seems to me to be something that can put one to the brink of suicide if one has no faith to hold onto as an anchor. Mother Teresa seems, by her letters to have just plain "hung on" in spite of everything--what she called "blind faith" in Christ even when it felt like HE had abandoned her completely. She goes on to equate it to the poor who have never heard of Christ--not only those who were materially poor in India, but also those who are spiritually poor in never having heard of Christ. What I'm saying is that somehow we can all get there, whether it is a God-given gift for purification or it is a self-willed state, it's still a frightening place to be for any human being. It occurred to me that even those who have a large family and a large social network can feel this way and that maybe that's why it seems so unreal when someone who seemingly should hve no reason to do so chooses suicide. Maybe I'm still trying to find some answer for the people I serve who ask and I have no answer--I'd still have no answer even though I might come to some dim understanding of the state that people must be in. Or am I still off the mark trying to equate two different things? BOB
Last edited by theophan; 09/26/07 06:39 AM.
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