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It might take time to find the right balance between prayerful interiour
life where we listen to the voice of Our Saviour Jesus Christ by reading the
daily readings and gospel and let ourselves be impregnated by His Word
( 1.st Joyful Mystery of the Holy Rosary) on our road to sanctification.
To share in His Divine Life in us, made possible by Him becoming one
of us.
It takes determination and focus.
It is so easy to get diverted by other people in the church community,
and to unconsciously "follow" (imitate) them, instead of Jesus, making
the unconscious assumption that the ones we imitate are correct in all that
they say and do, because they appear more righteous and holy, and also
that they might appear to have more knowledge.
Very often we are wrong in those assumptions, it is a matter of awareness,
if we loose awareness that we are ALL sinners; me, you and all the others,
we become vulnerable to going astray.
In the church community there are people who are there because they are
in need of an activity, being busy, and as it is the church there might be an
assumption that the personal sanctification is implicit, that it will happen
automatically.
This is no more the case today than it was at the time of Jesus.
Jesus explained in this visit to Martha and Mary's house the importance
of sitting still with the Lord.
Saint Pope John Paul II kept reminding us that the Church is not a charity
organization or an association for making friends, ( even though those are
normally the result), they are not the fundamental reason for her existence.
Today we have His Eminence Cardinal Robert Sarah, the special envoy
of our Pope Leo XIV to the shrine of Sainte-Anne-d'Auray in Brittany,
France, in the recent celebration of the 400th anniversary of Sainte Anne's
apparitions there.
On this occasion, Cardinal Sarah reminded us again, that the fundamental
objective of the Catholic Church, is our personal sanctification, not for our
personal glory but only for the glory of God.
He reminded us that the church, despite being the organization that has done
more humanitarian work than any other organization in the world, is not by
design a mere charity organizational structure, but rather, through her
Sacraments gives us the means to become holy and partakers of Divine Life.
Personal sanctification is the principal and fundamental ethos of
The Legion of Mary; one of the pillars of the Catholic Church.
It's members are obliged to do work, but the work at hand is spiritual;
spreading information and helping others to pray; the glory and gain is
for God and His Holy Catholic Church.
Charity, a theological virtue, is considered, together with Faith and Hope,
to be gifts from God.
Given that we are commanded to love everyone to the same extent that
we love ourselves, for the love of God, and to see Our Lord in each person,
because what we do to others, we do it to the Lord,
since He dwells at the core of every being, (whether we know it or not),
to fully forgive those who hurts us, because He forgives
us if we repent and ask forgiveness (confession),
charity flows from the true practice of the religion itself, it is
efficient when it is rooted in the spiritual practices and
doctrine of the Church and finding it's source in the silence with the Lord
through private prayers, not only the communal ones.
It is a known fact that some people can not tolerate silence, nor being alone,
it is something they avoid at all cost, and they make sure to fill in all the
gaps of every day to avoid it. Even the moments when they might find
themselves alone, they make sure to put on the radio or the television to
have some noise, to hear people talking.
What is behind the urgency, or obsession, to constantly be doing, doing,
doing, even if it is in the service of others, helping everybody, night and
day, for no apparent personal gain?
Could it be that the true motivation is the "benefit" of not having the
time to deepen and develop the personal relationship and to advance in
understanding of the Faith, meaning that it is a form of defensive mechanism,
a system set in place, to avoid looking closer at one self and our personal
areas that needs to be improved, to gain more true confidence in God in
order to surrender to Him.
It can sometimes be the case that what appears as selfless acts of sacrificial
love helps the person to be busy, busy, busy, in an defensive mode of "protection".
Regarding what comes through on the telly, without necessarily realizing to
what extent people are themselves taking on board what they hear, assuming
unconsciously that everything they hear there are objective "facts", and not
somebody's version and narrative; it becomes their "truth", they very often
do not even question it, because "it was said on the telly".
People's minds are being programmed as to what is true, what to think in
regard to any subject, and indeed even what to concern themselves with.
Anything at all has an almost unlimited possible versions and narratives,
anything can be looked at from an almost unlimited amount of angles
which reflects differently on the subject or object at hand.
Jesus told us to not follow the world, that His Kingdom is not of this world,
that even though we are for the time being in the world, our focus should
always be the world beyond, above, underneath, inside, at all sides,
which permeates every living thing that we can see;
God made every single thing, from scratch.
He made us, and not only that, He made us in His Image.
We must ignore as much as possible the subjective delusions and
tricks of the mind, our own and those of others.
We must develop contact with the superior divine dimension which
made this very world we find ourselves in, and to have our bags packed,
our boarding card and passport ready, in order to be ready to leave and
pass to the next world, for nobody knows the day nor the hour of their
time of death, it can come like a thief in the night.
Only one thing is sure; it will come to each and every one of us.
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