MEDJUGORJE WEB UPDATE:
Holy Obedience??
..in the spiritual
life the virtue of Holy Obedience provides a framework from which all the other
virtues may burgeon...the contrary to Holy obedience is blind obsequiousness
which out of the weakness of a poorly informed conscience turns the soul into a
slave of presumption...such a one fears the loss of heaven and the pains of
hell however does not live in love since they do not trust..they are a slave to
fear and act from the primitive brain according to the flight or fight
stimulus...without trust there can be no love...what they feel as pleasant they
believe to be good what they feel as invidious to their sensibilities they believe bad..however this
is the opposite to true spirituality....such blind obedience makes one a slave
and entombs every holy appetite so one is held hostage by the pretense and
whims of others...this in turn binds the will and bends it in upon itself..so
such a person becomes a castaway marooned on their own island of bodily
desire...since to reach out is to share the love of Christ..if we cannot share
we cannot keep the living body of Christ alive within us and among us...we must
be KERYGMATIC in essence in order to make our being a sublimation of the
Gospel..if we are bound in upon ourselves through blind obedience which is what
we see happening in MEDJUGORJE the unity message of the Gospel is in danger of
inchoate internalizing which may strangle the germinating seed of love....adherents
are bound by the whims of others and so cannot evince the variety of God’s
creation through their slavish spirituality..hence without Holy obedience to a
living magisterium the works and devotions are subverted... indeed we see a
union among the proponents of MEDJUGORJE yet it is superficial... emotionally
it is fruitful but spiritually at the core it is poisonous...like cactus in the
desert who also put forth flowers...the outward flowers are appealing to the
eye however the spikes of discord and division to church authority do not allow
the intimacy of Christ to prevail among their counterfeit spiritual
communities.....as well such a collection of followers eventually cut off from
the living water of the church reveal a unity as a swamp of stagnant overgrown bodily desire
and emotion...such a swamp becomes home to insidious spiritual creatures
symbolic of bad practices and ugly habits..which eventually scare off many good
habits..however due to pride such people do not see the transformation and
regard every practice they are undertaking as edifying since they lack discernment
and live according to fear in opposition to love...instead of a verdant garden
of virtue pruned by Holy obedience they become spiritual sinks attempting to
hoard every grace...Holy obedience quickens one to proceed by right reason on
the true paths of God...while blind obsequiousness transforms one into a slave
without free will an animal operating out of fear and instinct incapable of
love..these people hoard what they receive according to primitive survival
instincts and due to self-love unconsciously thwart the flow of grace as it
emanates from the Church..however the grace of God is ever living and directly
or incidentally a good end is always met....such a one is unable to actualize
themselves fully and eventually loses the scope of their vocation due to
dryness and the normal crosses of life....since they do not know how to suffer
out of love....amen
..let us see what the
wise spiritual fathers and mothers of the church have to say...
"The Devil doesn’t fear austerity, but the Devil fears
holy obedience.”
– St. Francis de Sales
“Holy Obedience unites us so closely to God that in a
way its practice transforms us into Him, so that we have no other will but His.
If holy obedience is lacking, even prayer cannot be pleasing to God.”
– St. Thomas Aquinas
By
holy obedience a man is guarded against pride. Prayer is given for the sake of holy
obedience. The grace of the Holy Spirit is also given for holy obedience. This
is why holy obedience is higher than prayer and fasting.
-St. Silouan the Anthonite
Holy Obedience is necessary not only for monks, but for all
people. Even the Lord was obedient. The proud and self-regarding do not allow
grace to live in them, and therefore they never have spiritual peace, while in
the obedient soul the grace of the Holy Spirit enters easily and gives joy and
peace. Whoever bears even a little grace in himself joyfully submits himself to
all direction. He knows that God directs even the heavens and the netherworld,
and himself, and his business, and everything in the world, and therefore he is
always at peace.
-St. Silouan the
Anthonite
“Some have afflicted their bodies by asceticism
but they lack discernment, and so
they are far from God.”
-Abba Anthony the
Great
Our vow of chastity is nothing but our undivided love
for Christ in chastity, then we proceed to the freedom of poverty-poverty is
nothing but freedom. And that total surrender is holy obedience. If I belong to God, if I belong to
Christ, then he must be able to use me. That is holy obedience. Then we give
wholehearted service to the poor. That is service. They complete each other.
That is our life.
-Mother Teresa
“What do you think is the
easiest way to become saints?” ....... “To recognize the Will of God in our
Superiors and to submit entirely to it.”"
-
St. Don Bosco
"We've been deceived by the thought
that we would be more pleasing to God in our own way than in the way God has
given us."
-St. Catherine of Siena
"Obedience and her sister patience show whether the soul is in
truth clothed in the wedding garment of charity." Dialogue 163.
-St. Catherine of Siena
“THE
more the Religious abideth beneath the yoke of holy obedience, for the love of
God, the greater fruit will he give of himself to God; the more he shall be
subject to his Superior for the honour of God, the more free will he be and
clean from sin. The true obedient Religious is like unto a knight well armed
and mounted the which overcometh and breaketh the ranks of his enemies, safely
and without fear, because none of them can hurt him. But he who obeyeth with
murmuring and on compulsion, is like unto an unarmed knight and ill-mounted,
the which,when he entereth into the battle, will be cast to earth by his
enemies, and wounded by them and taken, and sometimes imprisoned and slain.” -The Little Flowers of St. Francis
......amen
No comments:
Post a Comment