- Feb 5, 2002
- 185,383
- 68,033
- Country
- United States
- Gender
- Female
- Faith
- Catholic
- Marital Status
- Married
- Politics
- US-Others
There are three traps of Satan that steal our joy and peace: Regretting the past, fearing the future, and being ungrateful in the present (St. Anthony the Great)
When I first heard the phrase “ Live in the Present,” I thought it was the dumbest statement one could make. “After all”, I said to myself, “where else should we live?” However, the more I reflected on this phrase, the more I realized that most of us live anywhere but in the present.
Contrary to my initial impression, I realized that I spent a good chunk of my time crying over spilled milk and ruminating over past hurts. “Wudda, Cudda, Shudda” were my mantras. I spent long hours reviewing what I would have, could have, or should have done differently for past fumbles and sins. Conversely, it seems that I spent the other half of the time freaking out over the future.
I am no math genius, but by my accounts, 50 percent on the past and 50 percent on the future leave zero percent spent on the present. I have since learned that such a time proportion is fertile soil for sin and strangles any efforts toward the sanctity that we are called to achieve. When it comes to our secular existence in this distorted world, we often live in a time warp, which is often defined as imagining that one time is being lived in another time. If we are to achieve the holiness that is God’s Will for each of us, we need to live in the here and now. It is only by fully savoring the present that we can encounter Christ, who is with us there.[ii]
Saints, Clocks, and Calendars
Continued below.
spiritualdirection.com
When I first heard the phrase “ Live in the Present,” I thought it was the dumbest statement one could make. “After all”, I said to myself, “where else should we live?” However, the more I reflected on this phrase, the more I realized that most of us live anywhere but in the present.
Contrary to my initial impression, I realized that I spent a good chunk of my time crying over spilled milk and ruminating over past hurts. “Wudda, Cudda, Shudda” were my mantras. I spent long hours reviewing what I would have, could have, or should have done differently for past fumbles and sins. Conversely, it seems that I spent the other half of the time freaking out over the future.
I am no math genius, but by my accounts, 50 percent on the past and 50 percent on the future leave zero percent spent on the present. I have since learned that such a time proportion is fertile soil for sin and strangles any efforts toward the sanctity that we are called to achieve. When it comes to our secular existence in this distorted world, we often live in a time warp, which is often defined as imagining that one time is being lived in another time. If we are to achieve the holiness that is God’s Will for each of us, we need to live in the here and now. It is only by fully savoring the present that we can encounter Christ, who is with us there.[ii]
Saints, Clocks, and Calendars
Continued below.
Three Traps of Satan to Steal Your Peace - SpiritualDirection.com
SPIRITUALDIRECTION- explores Catholic spiritual direction advice and how a deeper relationship with the spiritual aspect of being human being based on the wisdom's of the Bible, Church and the saints and angels.
spiritualdirection.com
