Part Five – Our Lady and Mystical Contemplation
Everyone has experienced what it feels like to be captivated by a wonderous landscape or a gloriously calm and serene seascape that enthrals the senses. As the sun sets on the horizon it is set aglow, emblazoning the low-lying clouds with a kaleidoscope of different shades of fiery splendour. We are still enthralled even when the light finally fades away and darkness begins to envelop us so we can no longer be enraptured by the beauty of God’s creation. Even as we wander away back into the world of hustle and bustle whence we came, the feeling of inner peace and serenity into which we were plunged remains, at least for a while.

The Meaning of Contemplation

Continued below.

Awesome!

“God doesn’t give us more than we can handle.”

At least that is what many Christians say in the face of trial or loss. But is it actually helpful? And is it true? I believe it is rather unhelpful, and only partially true.

I’ve written before on the importance of learning to sit with sadness – something we tend to avoid! It’s hard enough when it’s our own sorrow. We’d rather plunge into busyness or fixing or numbing rather than face our grief. But it’s especially hard when we are in the presence of other people’s pain. That’s when the advice or clichés come out!

First, we’ll try to fix it – if there seems to be a way of fixing. We’ll be “generous” and offer to help; we’ll make suggestions for books or podcasts; or we’ll compare this person’s pain with our own or that of a friend – anything to help make the pain go away, because we don’t like to feel it, and we definitely don’t like to feel powerless.

In some cases (tragedies or definitive losses), there is nothing we can do. When fixing doesn’t work, we start grabbing for clichés. Surely one of them will be the magic wand that will make this feeling of powerlessness go away! Surely one of them will help this person feel better so that I can feel better.

Are these clichés helpful? No, I would say not. They often have the effect of “blaming the victim” or shaming others for feeling the way they feel. Rather than compassion (“suffering with”), clichés are a way of stepping back from the pain of others and leaving them to suffer alone.

I suppose there is a time and a place for distracting or diverting from pain. Perhaps we are in a survival situation and lack the time, resources, or energy to engage head on. If mere survival is the best we can hope for at the moment, then we can indeed turn to our arsenal of distractions and find ways to minimize the pain.

Even when we are ready to face heartache, we are still human, meaning we are limited. We can’t face it all the time. It can be appropriate to take a break from our grieving, laugh together at a joke or a movie, plunge into a hobby or game, and so forth. A cliché could be helpful as permission to take a short break from the pain.

Continued below.

At that time, Jesus said to the multitudes of the Jews: Which of you shall convince Me of sin? If I say the truth to you, why do you not believe Me? He that is of God, heareth the words of God. Therefore you hear them not, because you are not of God. The Jews therefore answered, and said to Him: Do not we say well, that Thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil? Jesus answered: I have not a devil, but I honor My Father, and you have dishonored Me. But I seek not My own glory; there is One that seeketh and judgeth. Amen, amen, I say to you, If any man keep My word, he shall not see death for ever. The Jews therefore said: Now we know that Thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and Thou sayest: If any man keep My word, he shall not taste death for ever. Art Thou greater than our father Abraham, who is dead? and the prophets are dead. Whom dost Thou make Thyself? Jesus answered: If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing. It is My Father that glorifieth Me, of Whom you say that He is your God. And you have not known Him; but I know Him. And if I shall say that I know Him not, I shall be like to you, a liar. But I do know Him, and do keep his word. Abraham your father rejoiced that he might see My day: he saw it, and was glad. The Jews therefore said to Him: Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast Thou seen Abraham? Jesus said to them: Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham was made, I AM. They took up stones therefore to cast at Him; but Jesus hid Himself, and went out of the temple.

Continued below.

Michie said:

“Only what is true can ultimately be pastoral”.

This is it. Amen. “Only what is true can ultimately be pastoral”. Cardinal Roche please read anything Pope Benedict wrote. It will help you return to the Catholic faith. https://t.co/hZf7T57gkM — Bishop J. Strickland (@Bishopoftyler) March 24, 2023 Fr. Z KUDOS

wdtprs.com

Click to expand...

That is so obviously true, one wonders how anyone could presume otherwise. Yet here we are. Francis is our pope. Old words now must bear new meanings, or else become inadmissible and replaced by new more flexible ones.

In today’s Gospel, we hear the story of the raising of Lazarus from the dead. The story marks a significant turning point in the ministry of Jesus: it is because of this incident that the Temple leadership in Jerusalem resolves to have Jesus killed; a supreme irony to be sure.

As is proper with all the Gospel accounts, we must not see this as merely an historical happening of some two thousand years ago. Rather, we must recall that we are Lazarus; we are Martha and Mary. This is also the story of how Jesus is acting in our life.

Let’s look at this Gospel in six stages and learn how the Lord acts to save us and raise us to new life.

I. HE PERMITS. Sometimes there are trials in our life, by God’s mysterious design, to bring us to greater things. The Lord permits these trials and difficulties for various reasons. But, if we are faithful, every trial is ultimately for our glory and the glory of God.

Now a man was ill, Lazarus from Bethany, the village of Mary, and her sister Martha. Mary was the one who had anointed the Lord with perfumed oil and dried his feet with her hair; it was her brother Lazarus who was ill. So the sisters sent word to him saying, “Master, the one you love is ill.” When Jesus heard this he said, “This illness is not to end in death, but is for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”

Notice that Jesus does not rush to prevent the illness of Lazarus. Rather, He permits it temporarily in order that something greater, God’s Glory in Jesus, be made manifest. In addition, it is for Lazarus’ own good and his share in God’s glory.

It is this way with us as well. We do not always understand what God is up to in our life. His ways are often mysterious, even troubling to us. But our faith teaches us that His mysterious permission of our difficulties is ultimately for our good and for our glory.

Continued below.

Bob Crowley said:

I happened to see this article on the (Australian) ABC news website tonight.

Inside the facility designed to generate limitless clean energy — if it can solve the fuel problem

Among idyllic French villages and rolling fields, midnight convoys ferry enormous mysterious objects to construct the world's biggest fusion reactor. What's going on there?

www.abc.net.au

It would appear to be the ITER project "International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor", and is being built in France about 60 kilometres north east of Marseilles.

ITER - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

It's not cheap - "The initial budget was close to €6 billion, but the total price of construction and operations is projected to be from €18 to €22 billion; other estimates place the total cost between $45 billion and $65 billion, though these figures are disputed by ITER."

Here's hoping it's money well spent.

Click to expand...

There is a wide variety of fusion energy projects of different kinds, scales, and costs. Sabine Hossenfelder has an informative video on this:

Login to view embedded media

John Mullally said:

The post-Calvary Jesus drawing of all men to Himself in John 12:32.

Click to expand...

Cambridge Bible Commentary explains, "Man’s will is free; he can refuse to be drawn: and there is no violence; the attraction is moral."

Ellicott's Commentary has, "the promise is fulfilled even in the case of those who resist the Holy Spirit’s influence. They are drawn by the moral power of the life and death and resurrection of Christ brought home to them by the Holy Ghost; but no moral power can compel a will which is free."

Walking Contradiction said:

Matthew 7:3

Click to expand...

Sorry, mate, not good enough.

perplexed said:

There were poll watchers that signed Affidavits that had nothing to do with Dominion for example
View attachment 329400

These Affidavits were used by crazy lawyers in crazy lawsuits attacking Dominion.

When the poll watchers got letters telling them to preserve records of all conversations with crazy lawyers, (and Donald Trumps Administration) because Dominion was going to fight thmem in court the poll watchers totally misinterpreted it and assumed the "Deep State" was threatening to sue them from the crime of reporting irregularities. This delusion caused them a lot of stress.

Click to expand...

Affidavits are meaningless. Have them testify in court under oath.

j.hunsung is incredible both in quality and volume. Was following several top notch folks on Instagram for a while doing portrait work. Very inspiring.

Christsfreeservant said:

And they teach that if we continue in deliberate and habitual sin, and not in walks of

Click to expand...

Let me know if anyone here teaches that you can walk in deliberate and habitual sin.

Ive not read a post like that, here.

However, and on the other hand, the Cross of Christ is "Jesus became sin for us" and God does not Charge SIN to the born again.

And you might try to figure that out, as you have not yet, i noticed.

Start here...

2 Corinthians 5:19

Romans 4:8

Many thanks!

GDL said:

Agree. I meant they turn to hostility as if it wins the argument.

Click to expand...

Sadly, some people in general turn to hostility as if it wins the argument.

I vote NO. Even if disclosed, using chatbots "to make forum posts for you" erodes the larger purpose of a discussion forum, which is people expressing themselves to each other.

I dont think its ethical to destroy something useful (a discussion forum) for no good reason.

I think there comes a point when we should stay true to God's word. This means we will hurt an enormous group of people. Why? Because the truth but sometimes! Actually we should have done this decades ago. But sometimes I think churches are so busy with declining member rates that they do anything to keep their members in. Even if it means to abandon the true word of God. It's so sad... And I pray for congregations to return to the Truth!

SelfSim said:

It also shows us the how of: we are alone in determining our own (collective) destiny in this universe, when it comes to our shaping it though the adaptation of our technologies.

Click to expand...

I do not think we are alone. People in Heaven are working on this stuff for us. New technology often does not work very well. It is usually not a good idea to be the first to buy anything. I bought a video camera thinking I could edit the video on my computer. But it did not work. Intel had to build the Pentium processor to do that. Texas instrument made the fireboard, but their techies kept telling me the problem was with Intel.

God's love cannot be anything less than the greatest love.

I personally believe unconditional is the greatest. I could be wrong.

If we now have molecular-scale transistors is this not a continuation of Moore's law?

One approach to implementing qubits using molecular-scale transistors is to use the electronic properties of individual molecules to encode and manipulate quantum information. For example, a molecular transistor could be designed to switch between two different electronic states that correspond to the two possible states of a qubit (e.g., "up" and "down" spins for an electron). By carefully controlling the electronic properties of the molecule and the voltage applied to the transistor, researchers could manipulate the state of the qubit and perform quantum computations.

Lol! This will bring a smile to your face.

A wedding reception is a great occasion for people young and old to mingle—and things always get interesting on the dance floor.

This senior was ready to show who’s the boss of the dance floor, when the DJ started playing Michael Jackson’s Billy Jean.

The balding, eyeglass-wearing gent stole the show with his spot-on moves, including floor drops that floored everyone who gathered round.

Continued below.

Also why I am praying for vocations.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis has updated the procedures for investigating allegations of sexual abuse or the cover up of abuse, specifying that the leaders of Vatican-recognized international Catholic lay associations and movements have the same responsibilities over their members that a bishop has over the priests of his diocese.

The updated version of “Vos Estis Lux Mundi” (You are the light of the world), published March 25, also expanded the categories of victims covered by the regulations to include vulnerable adults.

The original text spoke of the crime of “sexual acts with a minor or a vulnerable person.” The updated text read, “a crime against the Sixth Commandment of the Decalogue committed with a minor, or with a person who habitually has an imperfect use of reason, or with a vulnerable adult.”

“Anything that expands the categories of those who should be protected is to be welcomed,” Oblate Father Andrew Small, secretary of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, told Catholic News Service March 25.

Continued below.

We couldn’t have planned the schedule today any better. We are having Mass at the Church of the Annunciation where the Archangel Gabriel made the announcement to Mary. That also means that it is the Church of the Incarnation where God first became man.

This is a favorite day for everyone, even if we didn’t have that special feast day. We hit three Rosary sites today, the Transfiguration, Cana and the Annunciation Church.

Join us at these three sites and for an amazing dinner in Nazareth overlooking the old city and the church all lit up.

Video below.