Please click here to vote for us in the Catholic New Media Awards 2009 - thanks!

31
Jul

Lord, open our eyes!

Today is the feast day of St Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus, better known as the Jesuits. At present, I am reading a book called The Discernment of Spirits by Fr Timothy Gallagher OMV and am learning a heap about the principles of spiritual discernment, as taught by St Ignatius.

For most Catholics, the question “what is discernment of spirits?” will probably arise about now. Without proper context it could seem something akin the the occult, so opposed by the Catholic Church. It is, in fact, a process by which we can identify the spiritual movements of our hearts, and have better self knowledge and understanding of our spiritual life.

St Ignatius outlines a “threefold paradigm” to simplify the process. The steps are:

BE AWARE

UNDERSTAND

TAKE ACTION (ACCEPT/REJECT)

We make an effort to be aware, or to notice what is happening in our spiritual lives, and in reflection to understand them and try and recognise what is from God and his angels (the good spirit) and what is from the enemy or the devil (the bad spirit). Accordingly, we then take action in an effort to accept what is from god and reject what is not.

A brief story from the life of St Ignatius demonstrates this in a practical sense. It is the way by which he first came to understand the discernment of spirits.

Prior to this moment in his life, St Ignatius was primarily concerned with achieving fame and fortune through fighting in the army, and at  was badly injured and taken to Loyola to recover from his wounds. He was confined to his sick bed for a long time and as a result of his boredom, he asked for reading material. Since his own choice of reading, books about battles acts of chivalry, were not available, he was given a book on the life of Christ and the Saints. He probably rolled his eyes!

His time of rest and recovery seemed to consist of two things – reading the spiritual books and dreaming of imitating the lives of saints like St Francis of Assisi and giving up ALL for the Lord, and secondly, dreaming about a woman he knew and what he could do to woo and impress her, even though it was totally unrealistic because of class differences. So in essence, one was a sacred project (following the Lord) and one an earthly, worldly project (unrealistic, yet captivating, desires of the flesh).

From an account of his life:

Yet there was a difference. When he was thinking about the things of the world, he took much delight in them, but afterwards, when he was tired and put them aside, he found he was dry and discontented. But when he thought of going to Jerusalem, barefoot and eating nothing but herbs and undergoing all the rigors that he saw the saints had endured, not only was he consoled when he had these thoughts, but even after he put them aside, he remained content and happy.

So we see from his experience the two projects affected him in different ways – even though he was intensely passionate about both of them. Look at the words used to describe how he felt.

Eventually, he recognises these feelings and his biographer tells us that “his eyes were opened a little” by the grace of God. He was then able to take action and dedicate his life to the Lord as he knew he should.

How can we apply this method of “becoming aware” to our lives?

What will happen if we allow God to open our eyes a little?

What will happen if we don’t?

30
Jul

“Ooh, I knew I shouldn’t have turned down those cue cards.”

I’m watching the European Athletic Championships at the moment and the medal ceremony for the Men’s 100m is on.  A young french guy won it so he’s currently the fastest in Europe.  Which means that come the Olympics, he’ll probably be blown away by the Americans, Jamaicans, and pretty much all the other non-Europeans who run really really fast.  But for now I get to enjoy the French national anthem which I rate is probably number 1 on my all time great national anthem lists.  It’s got a great tune, a rousing tempo, and even though I don’t know the words, seems like it is fantastic to sing along to. I also like the American anthem and the English have a great one although a little on the short side.  During the recently concluded World Cup I noticed that most of the South American nationas had quite jaunty anthems to sing along to.  I wish ‘God Defend New Zealand’ could be a little more exciting to sing along to sometimes.

Anyhow, I can’t believe how quickly this year is going.  It doesn’t seem like that long ago we were bringing in the new year and here we are at the end of July with August just around the corner.  The weeks are going really quickly too – time seems to go so quickly that this week it seems that BF has only been able to catch posts every other day.  With the passing of time comes the unfortunate onset of age and I am finding my once spritely limbs slowed and sored (not a word sorry) by an hours worth of football (even if the hour was made up mostly of standing in the shade).  And with the onset of age come the inevitable thoughts of what comes after.  The recent plane crash in Pakistan just once again hammers home the point that the end can come at any moment whether or not one is ready for it.  I guess how one has lived one’s life determines how fearful they are of moving on.

The unlikely source of my melancholic musings is a bookshop in the Barcelona airport.  Whilst looking for an english book to read on the flight back to London, I must have stumbled upon that fabled place where unsold books go to remain unsold.  Publishers in English speaking lands must rub their hands in glee at the thought of offloading their ‘gems’ to foreign airports.  Anyway I happened upon a book that was based on the Prophecy of the Popes attributed to Saint Malachy.  It looks like PBXVI is the last one before Peter the Roman and the end of the world.  Better start packing everyone.

Actually that could be a tad dramatic. I’ve never been a big fan of this kind of thing but it kind of does tie in with the Mayan 2012 predictions…. I’m not sure what to think about the Prophecy of the Popes, a lot of it ties in but how much of it is people looking really hard in order to attribute appropriate lines of prophecy to the right Pope?

Who knows when it’ll all end.  Just enjoy life, be good, and eat your greens.

30
Jul

blood money

I’ve just check the blog this morning and realised that my blog for yesterday has disappeared!!!! Did it ever come up on the blog yesterday? Anyways, since I wasn’t smart enough to save a copy (blonde moment number 400 yesterday) I thought I’d just give a brief spiel on womanhood and the radical feminist agenda. There was a comment from my blog last week basically stating that the Church is a repressor par excellence of women. I totally disagree. From my own personal experience as a woman, I couldn’t feel more liberated through my catholicity. If you hold the position that catholic women are indeed marginalised then I don’t know who you are actually talking to or what statistics you are referring to.

Speaking of women’s lib has anyone seen this movie on the abortion industry? I’m interested to know if its good quality. I bring up abortion because it has to be one of the most un-liberating actions disguised under the agenda of women’s rights. And it’s not just catholic/Christian women saying it either. I think you’ll find that Germaine Greer held the same opinion (accept believed that better access to contraception was the solution).

I’ll rewrite my post on rest next week :)

28
Jul

Joy

In sport, coaches and trainers often talk about a ‘winning attitude’.  In my sport and in my work, it seems that in this last couple of weeks the importance of having a good attitude and being around people with a good attitude has really been hammered home. 

There was a marked difference in our team this week compared to last week – the only physical difference was two players – the mental and attitudinal difference they made to the team was massive.  Focusing on the things we were doing right, encouraging others to do more – this built up such an amazing spirit in our team, and the scoreboard reflected it by the end.  The usual complaints of certain team members were not there – there was no-one to enumerate the problems and the mistakes in every team talk – it was a good victory, but made sweeter by the genuine good feeling in the team. 

When things are going badly, or problems are arising, I think it’s always a great relief to know that someone cheerful is in control.  And to be around cheerful, good spirited people is both inspiring and infectious.  Hope, faith, charity… these lift a person up and lighten burdens.  It is also more attractive – and more persuasive. 

“The joy of the Lord is my strength” runs the hymn. 

Joy is indeed strength, and, I believe, the core of a winning attitude.

26
Jul

How do you pray?

I was with my son yesterday in Children’s Liturgy at Mass, and the class was looking at prayer. The Gospel reading was all about Christ teaching the disciples how to pray – specifically the “Lord’s Prayer” or “Our Father” – and the conversation with the teachers was about how and why we pray.

I was quite proud of my little boy when he explained (unprompted) that we talk to Jesus when we pray. When asked how do we pray, the little tyke responded “Our fatherinheaven hallowedname yourkindom come will bedone on earse as is heaven?” :) In rattling the prayer off like that, I picked up on a couple of learnings:

  1. It’s amazing what even young children can pick up about the Divine…and it is crucial that parents share this part of our lives with their children as that is how they learn
  2. It’s also great to have structured prayer like the Lord’s Prayer, as sometimes it really helps to have a framework to place your requests in when talking to someone who loves you more than anything…to save you asking for unnecessary things (like Ferraris ;) )
  3. That it’s pretty obvious to me that I pray the “Our Father” like most other cradle Catholics – i.e. at 100 miles a minute – which is why my son also prays it that fast, as that is all he knows.
  4. On that last point, how do all of you pray? Do you like the structured prayers like the Rosary and the Lord’s Prayer? If so, do you feel that you sometimes race through them simply because you’ve prayed them ten thousands of times? Or do you savour each word as for some finely crafted poetry?

    Or do you pray through song? Or through reflecting on the Scriptures? Or through just general conversation with God? It seems like there are as many methods for prayer as there are people! I’d be keen to know what works for you…

25
Jul

An indelible mark

“Baptism seals the Christian with the indelible spiritual mark of his belonging to Christ.” CCC 1272

This has been on my mind a lot lately.

I have been asked to consider being a godparent and it has got me thinking. It is certainly not a decision to take lightly so I thought I’d better do a little research. I knew that the Church has certain criteria when it comes to parents and godparents for baptism but I have been to several baptisms in the last year in which family situations and even the ceremonies have differed quite markedly. This has confused me as to the ’strictness’ of the rules (some of which can be found on this link).

The couple who have asked me are a non-practicing Catholic and an atheist who don’t intend on starting to go to Sunday Mass any time soon. They have chosen a godfather (not a Catholic) and a priest has offered to do the baptism (not sure how much of the situation he knows). As far as I can see there are two schools of thought when it comes to a priest making a decision about whether to baptise or not. There’s one group who follow the rules because they see the wisdom in what the Church teaches (a pretty good reason if you ask me), and then there’s the group who give higher priority to making sure that the child is baptised rather than being concerned with details.

To be honest, I’m torn. By personality I’m a rule-follower, but who am I to tell the couple that technically (if you want to dot all the i’s and cross the t’s) they shouldn’t be having their baby baptised in the Catholic Church with the situation the way it is? Who can deny that baby a baptism that is ‘necessary for salvation’, that is the ’seal of eternal life’ (St Irenaeus, CCC 1274)? I have even thought of suggesting baptism in another, more ‘general’, Christian church – a thought that scared me.

What about the situation of a grandfather who baptises a baby at home without telling the parents since they choose not to have the baby baptised? Is that ethical? I know of it happening. What’s the difference between this type of scenario and the one above? Do the rules about godparents and baptismal promises go out the window in this situation?

What to do…what to do.

There are significant rights and responsibilities that come with baptism. Do you support a couple who don’t acknowledge these in faith that God will grace the situation? Do you agree to be a godparent so that you can be sure that at least one member of the equation will be a spiritual influence in the child’s life? Do you stress to the parents the importance of the committment they are undertaking and risk them changing their mind about having their baby (who you care about very much) baptised at all?

Hmm… I think this decision is going to need a lot of prayer. Opinions? Advice?

24
Jul

Vocations vs Vampires

In a conversation at my place of work this week we discussed religious identity, and while almost all of my colleagues flat out rejected institutional religion, most (about 6 out of 7) related a deep belief in the spiritual or supernatural. I think the case is that today people are after the spiritual, but not the “way of life”, but that is just my take on it.

One arena this stands out in is the Twilight phenomenon. I won’t go into it too much, but women of all ages and of many cultures have fallen in love with a story that has a very supernatural foundation. The same could be said of the Harry Potter obsession of a few years back.

I came across two articles today which, to me, show the very different paths we (in this case, women) can go down in the spiritual/supernatural life.

The first is about two young, amazing NZ women (one of whom I am privileged to know well) who are pursuing a counter-cultural, radical life for the love of the Lord.

Megan Fowler and Leonie Riddick are off to pursue vocations to the religious life and they are completely joyful in doing so. I imagine they will have struggles and many sacrifices to make, however, with the will of God comes great peace. Megan states…

I felt like something was pulling at my heart. I guess it’s like falling in love. I saw something in the sisters that resonated with me. I felt I would have a more fulfilled life if I gave up my current life. “I was dating a wonderful guy at the time but I felt my heart was being pulled towards a religious life and eventually the relationship came to an end.”

Leonie says…

“The logical part of me was saying, ‘What am I doing? I’m selling everything I own and moving to America to a community I’ve only spent days with!’ But I knew it was the right thing to do.”

Great stuff.

The second article I came across was on the Twilight books/movies and the obsession they can cause.

Check them out and let me know what you think.