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De Sales for all ails

12/19/2013

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I find that very often to deal with a particular spiritual problem, I need to read the same basic advice from a different approach. This problem for me is anxiety.  It has a particular flavor now that I am 76 years old than it did in the past. I think that as we age our bodies weaken - I see my body as like a snake skin that is peeling off, as it were. That is expected. But there is an emotional fragility I didn't expect. This fragility makes anxiety more poignant. Even if you are not elderly, you may have anxiety and find these words of St. Francis de Sales or so many centuries ago really helpful:



“…Sadness is nothing else but the grief of mind which we have over an evil that we experience against our will, whether it be exterior, like poverty, sickness or contempt, or interior, like ignorance, aridity, discontent or temptation….If out of love of God the soul seeks a way to be freed from her troubles, she will seek it with patience, meekness, humility, and tranquility. She will expect deliverance more from the providence of God than from her own labour, industry, or diligence. If she seeks her deliverance from the motive of self-love, then will she excite and fatigue herself in search of this means, as if the success depended more on herself than on God. I do not say that she thinks so, but that she acts as if she thought so. Now, if she does not succeed immediately according to her wishes, she falls into great anxiety and impatience. Instead of removing the evil, she increases it. It involves her in an excessive anguish and distress, with so great a loss of courage and strength that she imagines her evil incurable.  You see, then, that sadness, which is justified in the beginning, produces anxiety….

Anxiety is the greatest evil that can befall the soul, sin only excepted. The seditious and intestine troubles of a commonwealth ruin it completely and present it from being able to resist a foreign invasion. So also, when your heart is troubled and disturbed within itself, it loses the strength necessary to maintain the virtues it had acquired. At the same time it loses the means to resist the temptations of the enemy, who then uses his utmost efforts to fish, as they say, in troubled waters….

Whenever you are pressed with a desire to be freed from some evil or to obtain some good, before all else be careful both to settle your mind in repose and tranquility and to compose your judgment and will. Then gently and meekly procure the accomplishing of your desire, taking in regular order the means that may be most convenient….

Consider whether you have our soul in your hands, or whether some passion or anxiety has not robbed you of it. Consider whether you have your heart at your command, or whether it has not escaped out of your hands to engage itself to some disorderly affection of love, hatred, envy, covetousness, fear, uneasiness or joy. If it has gone astray, seek after it before you do anything else and bring it back quietly into the presence of God…They who are afraid of losing anything which is precious hold it fast in their hands….when you perceive that anxiety begins to affect your mind, recommend yourself to God…perform the action, not according to your desire, but according to reason….If you can disclose the cause of your anxiety to your spiritual director, or at least to some faithful and devout friend, be assured that you will quickly find ease.”


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o radix Jesse

12/19/2013

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 O ROOT OF JESSE, that stands for an ensign of the people, before whom the kings keep silence and unto whom the Gentiles shall make supplication: come, to deliver us, and tarry not.

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O Adonai

12/18/2013

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O ADONAI (God of the covenant) and Ruler of the house of Israel, You appeared to Moses in the fire of the burning bush, and on Mount Sinai gave him Your Law: Come, and with an outstretched arm redeem us!
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PROJECTITIS

12/18/2013

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"To allow oneself to be carried away 
by a multitude of conflicting concerns, 
to surrender to too many demands, 
to commit oneself to too many projects, 
to want to help everyone in everything, 
is to succumb to the violence of our times."

A provocative quotation!  The description seems to fit so well the constant plaint of so many people I know, and me, also. The kicker is how the author calls it a form of violence.
I purposely left off the writer's name so that some readers of this blog who are rightly or wrongly wary of him could just think about the message. 
I think that this famous 20th century US monk was trying to shock us into wanting the peace of Christ enough to consider examining the negative side of our so activist life-style. 
When I challenge the "project-itis," as I call it, that I engage in day after day, I wonder, what would it be like if I spent a whole week, for instance, at seeming "vacation" time, not doing anything that is not obligatory and doing those things very, very slowly.  Using the "saved time" for Mass, quiet prayer, contemplation of beauty in nature and home surroundings. 
The writer is Thomas Merton, by the way. I loved his earlier writings, was upset by reports of bad turns in his late mid-life, wary of his inter-faith concepts, and not sure about aspects of the peace movement he became a part of.  Just the same, I was impressed by how he challenged peace movement people to look into possible peacelessness in their own hearts.
As we look at the 20th century with 21st century perspectives, I believe it is important to grab hold of all Catholic insights from the past, not dismissing them because the thinker could have been wrong about x,y, and z, if he or she was dead right about a,b, and c. 

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O wisdom

12/17/2013

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O WISDOM, who came forth from the mouth of the Most High, reaching from end to end and ordering all things mightily and sweetly: come, and teach us the way of prudence.

Homeschoolers, check out these websites today:
http://maryellenb.typepad.com/o_night_divine/advent---o-antiphons-dec-17-23/
http://sacredspace102.blogspot.com/
http://www.wdtprs.com/JTZ/o_antiphons/
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Caterwaul or catechise

12/16/2013

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Dear new readers of my random thoughts,
About 6 months ago I stopped writing blogs. I was thinking that I had nothing more to say. If you want to get the back-story, you can go to www.rondachervin.com and peruse the seemingly infinite number of ideas I have shared in the categories of books to purchase, free e-books and audios and last of all free journals of mine for the last 20 years ago up to the present called One Foot in Eternity.
I am presently, as you see in the short bio, teaching philosophy and spirituality at Holy Apostles College and Seminary in Connecticut on campus but also distance. You might consider auditing or taking, toward a B.A. or M.A.  undergrad or grad courses at Holy Apostles distance learning. Google Holy Apostles College and Seminary and click on Distance Learning.
I did save thoughts since June, 2013, and I will be inserting these in globs of blogs from now on until I reach the present:

June 14, 2013

 Conflict
A few blogs ago I wrote about Karen Horney on conflict. Here is an e-mail I got from a blog-viewer who is a pastoral counselor using Cognitive Behavioral therapy methods:
“Here is one example of the steps that a Cognitive Behavioral therapist might use in addressing conflict or anger management:
 1.  Help the client identify the stimuli or triggers in his life that typically cause conflict, like anger or a related emotional response.

 2.  Help the client to learn and rehearse self-statements that he can use at the very moment he notices the presence of the stimuli and the conflict response beginning to happen so that - by use of these mental statements (cognitions) - the circumstance can be reframed in order that his response is no longer one of conflict, but becomes a healthier and more socially acceptable one (e.g., the person could say "This isn't so bad, I can manage it."  or  "This really isn't important, so I don't need to lose my temper because of it" etc.).

 3.  Help the client to learn relaxation techniques - both mental and physical - that he can use along with the rehearsed cognitions when he experiences the stimuli that usually results in a conflict response.

 4. Help the client practice the above in a safe setting (e.g., the therapist's office) so that he learns the techniques and can use them whenever needed as circumstances arise in real life.  This is usually done through practice sessions in which guided imagery and role-playing are utilized to initiate a conflict response (or as close as one can get in an imagined setting) in which the client can then practice the techniques until they become almost second nature.

If you are reading this but not wanting or able to find such a therapist, I think we could get a better handle on conflict by pondering these steps.   They correspond very well to Recovery, International for anger, anxiety and depression that I participate in. For more information google them. I am an assistant leader on an on-line meeting that is at 5 PM EST and 6 PM Pacific time Tuesdays in case on-line is a better option than their world-wide face to face meetings described on this web.

June 12, 2013

Topic: Our 21st Century Synthesis

I have been editing a book that will be called Catholic Realism: A 21st Century Synthesis. It will be chapters from those who teach and study at Holy Apostles College and Seminary in Connecticut in the face to face or distance learning programs in philosophy and theology.

At the parish where I have been in California we have a group studying the Catechism each week. We read paragraphs and talk about them. When this great Catechism came out many years ago, I read it cover to cover in a week, with delight because it had the potential to put an end to controversies about whether the Church really teaches this or that in areas where people in the Church dispute about whether a teaching is out-dated or not.  

Now reading it slowly, years after its publication, I see that it is, in effect, this very synthesis I am always longing for.  The inspiration of the Holy Spirit to bring God’s personal love for each of us in the context of experiencing and building the kingdom of God through the truths of the faith, is beautifully displayed in the texts and the quotations.

In the parish group, because I am a professor, it is easy for me to show the others, zealous Catholics with a little less formal education, how every sentence in the Catechism is a nuanced reflection of the balance in our teachings from errors on many sides of each topic.

I urge you all to reread this book if you have not opened it in a while or start a similar group in your parish.

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REJOICE!

12/15/2013

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In Psalm 35 I found the phrase, "they shall drink all they want from the stream of joy.”  I thought that a remedy for heavy crosses is not less crosses so much, when these are inescapable,  but more joy in ordinary gifts such as the sunrise, that God is hoping we will see. I also thought of this beautiful line from our new doctor of the Church, St. Hildegard of Bingen, that "there is music in all creation but we can’t hear it until we sing."   

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    Author

    Ronda Chervin received a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Fordham University and an MA in Religious Studies from Notre Dame Apostolic Institute. She is a dedicated widow, mother, and grandmother.
    Ronda converted to the Catholic Faith from a Jewish, though atheistic, background and has been a Professor of Philosophy and Theology at Loyola Marymount University, the Seminary of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, and Franciscan University of Steubenville. She is an international speaker and author of some fifty books about Catholic thought, practice and spirituality. One of her latest is LAST CALL, published by Goodbooks Media.
    Dr. Ronda is currently retired and living in Corpus Christi, Texas after her years of teaching philosophy at Holy Apostles College and Seminary in Cromwell, Connecticut.
    You can contact her via e-mail by clicking here or by emailing [email protected] directly.

    Visit her websites:
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