tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7853204965986587589.post4645335570260120307..comments2024-03-17T22:48:00.427+08:00Comments on Reflections and Ruminations: Keeping faithful to prayer when it is hard.Fr Luke Fonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03079016104331055895noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7853204965986587589.post-20739260095183908732017-05-19T09:20:24.085+08:002017-05-19T09:20:24.085+08:00Thank you Jonathan, but I am afraid that your last...Thank you Jonathan, but I am afraid that your last paragraph may lead others to think that even if they have serious sins on their souls, that they should just go ahead and receive The Lord in Holy Communion. This would be committing the sin of presumption AND the sin of sacrilege. In fact, if the person who has committed serious sin refrains from Holy Communion, it is a much more laudable act of piety than one who simply goes up to receive The Lord because everyone else is doing so and he or she is afraid to 'lose face'. This would be the sin of pride acting in a covert way. <br /><br />We need to be clear about this - as long as we know that we are in serious sin, where we have purposefully cut off ourselves from God's grace and/or good relations with our brother and sister, we need to be humble and seek the Lord's forgiveness in humility and with contrition, and then, when the time comes for Holy Communion, with great reverence receive the Lord. I agree with you that the more one stays away from Communion, the worse things will get spiritually. But the more one makes sacrilegious Communion, the less one will even think that there is a need for repentance and conversion. Fr Luke Fonghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03079016104331055895noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7853204965986587589.post-44297286135444549352017-05-18T21:38:43.058+08:002017-05-18T21:38:43.058+08:00There are a few saints I abhor too.(Not St Ignatiu...There are a few saints I abhor too.(Not St Ignatius)Specifically those who seemed to be overly obsessed about sin and self mortification. In fact, some psychiatrists have diagnosed them as probably having been afflicted by mental illness. I am not belittling them,sin,or mental illness in any way. Even if it was true they are all the more heroic in my view.<br /><br />I initially wanted to comment on this but deleted it as I may be stepping on heretical ground but here goes.<br /><br />I think Mortification should ideally be the fruit of drawing closer to God. Mortifying yourself to achieve a result or to counter sin works for some people but we are all different and at different stages in our spiritual life.Choose your Saint carefully!<br /><br />If I might use the story of the prodigal son to illustrate my point,our Father is overjoyed to receive us as long as we turn back and take small steps to come home.The father never required his son to confess his sins,do penance or perform self mortification first.I believe the son would have eventually done those after being lavished with so much love from his father.<br /><br />I submit that as long as we have the spiritual disposition like the son, ie we are just asking our Father to take us back as a servant and nothing more, everything else concerning sin(be it confession, mortification, penance) is secondary. It will come naturally after we persevere in our dry prayers and eventually find back our wet prayer and receive the Father's abundant love.<br /><br />It is rather disturbing that many Catholics are not receiving communion when they come for Sunday Mass. It is extremely sad if it's because of their sin or because they are not quite spiritually ready to go to confession and are scared of committing more sin by receiving communion. I think the more one is in sin, the more you should receive communion as long as you have the same disposition as the son returning home. The more one stays away from communion, whatever the reason,the worse things will get spiritually. Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17660409168173004609noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7853204965986587589.post-55630102793588309242017-05-16T18:35:40.827+08:002017-05-16T18:35:40.827+08:00Prayer
"Experiencing challenges and difficul...Prayer<br /><br />"Experiencing challenges and difficulties in prayer will always abound simply because we are human." - totally agree with you there.<br /><br />I believe that to be a follower of Christ , I have to learn to pray and to love to pray! Prayer is sometimes tiresome & challenging coz it's elusive & mysterious - yet also exciting & necessary to school the senses & discipline the slothful soul - all these I've also found out through personal experience - both, humiliating as well as profound.<br /><br />It was through a happy "error" that I learnt about God being the initiator of prayer (for He first seeks the encounter with us) through his word, the Daily Scriptures and of course through the Word made flesh -in the Eucharist. I learnt also that I must keep my mouth shut & listen good, meditate - before asking questions & launching into petitionary mode………...(a difficult, irrepressible task especially when there are floods of questions) - and here I learnt that there's such a thing as spiritual mortification. So it can be done - with practice, patience & discipline?<br /><br />Setting aside a sacred space & time helps too. But it does not totally abolish the struggle to be faithful in prayer. <br /><br />It does help to learn the many forms of prayer....so as to enliven & spice up one's prayer life. Recently I had the good fortune to stumble upon the writings of a Saint that I used to abhor. I was pleasantly surprised at how relevant his teaching/advice- were to our time & age.... targeted at the laity seeking holiness in everyday life……..especially on the subject of prayer!<br /><br />Thank you for an enlightening post.<br /><br />God bless u, Fr<br /><br />Tessa<br /><br />Tessahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04211998984286520369noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7853204965986587589.post-90902241248172101722017-05-15T22:38:10.567+08:002017-05-15T22:38:10.567+08:00The cause of this dryness is also sometimes due to...The cause of this dryness is also sometimes due to monotony and not just lack of effort and perseverance.<br /><br />In sports science, drill and repetition develops the muscle rapidly and there is definitely benefit in persevering through the aches and pains to learn a new skill.<br /><br />However, after there is general mastery of the skill, muscle memory develops and the body tends to get bored because it is not being challenged. There is also the issue of recovery as muscles used repeatedly in the same manner tend to become strained and sore without rest.I think the same holds true for our spiritual muscles in prayer to some extent.<br /><br />If I might be so bold as to use the the same language as the religious priest, sometimes to get the wetness back,I think one has to vary the intensity, duration and technique of one's prayer. <br /><br />Sometimes, quickie prayers that are short but intense are just as effective as prayers of longer duration and one can also experiment with other techniques taught by the Saints who were experts in praying.<br /><br />The Church in my mind has the " Kamasutra "when it comes to the rich variety of spiritual practices and prayers one can adopt. The key is to find an individual method that works in whatever dry circumstances one finds himself in.If St Ignatius is not working,try St Benedict, St. John of the Cross, St Teresa and so many other Catholic Saint and non Saints who have written on the subject of prayer.Keep trying and don't stop until you find something that brings the wetness back.<br /><br />Just like physical fitness, it does not really matter how you exercise or your general fitness level to begin with as long as you commit to move your body constantly no matter what.<br /><br />The goal is to keep working up a sweat or your muscles will just atrophy and slowly die. Stop praying and your spiritual muscles will atrophy and die as well.<br /><br /><br /><br />Finding<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17660409168173004609noreply@blogger.com