Fast-Food Spirituality

Perhaps most Catholics do not know that some saints had to face the courts of the Inquisition and defend their writings, as well as their new orders.

Because of the numerous heretical writings and new orders, such as those spawning from the heresy of the Albigensians, some saints had to prove before Church officials, their true orthodoxy and obedience to Holy Mother Church.

SS. Ignatius of Loyola and Teresa of Avila had to submit to this type of investigation. Of course, as they were totally obedience and orthodox, their causes were upheld as good and true. That they were humble and followed the long teaching of the Church regarding waiting on God, proved their holiness.

What we find today is the opposite type of trial-the trial of those who are orthodox by those who are unorthodox.

Years ago, before Mr. Voris used the phrase, I wrote of the theology of nice, the prevailing religious opinion that peace, tranquility, and tolerance had become the stand of too many Catholics, including priests and nuns. The greatest good for decades in some areas, as Fulton J. Sheen noted as well, has been tolerance.

But, among Catholics, this religion of nicety means that difficult situations, or problems can never be brought up or discussed. The tyranny of silence has fallen over some parishes and even dioceses where one simply cannot bring up such issues as illegal Masses said daily by lax priests, or New Age spirituality being taught, or the heresies endemic among Charismatics. If one wants to help teach or correct errors, one finds that the vast majority of people in certain areas are unteachable.

One of my friends noted that people want short-cuts to holiness, and do not want to endure the work of study and the long journey to higher prayer and holiness. He told me that in this fast-food culture, people want holiness NOW, without the work.

And, if they are told that become a saint is hard and involves suffering, the conversation ends.

At one point in time, he was considering a Dominican vocation, (somewhere out east of here), and discovered what I saw in the vision of the Smarties, that those around him only wanted the consolations without the Cross.

We shall be caught up in the Cross whether we want to or not. Either we shall be crucified with Christ, sharing in His Passion, or we shall be one of those who stands and watches, even deriding those who choose to endure the long, painful way of the long teaching of the Church on prayer and penance.

Today, in prayer, it was clear to me that in order to be able to stand up against the disobedience and mediocrity in the Church, I would have to do more penance.

Most crucifixes depict a serene Christ, already dead. Few show the agony of the Dying Christ.

Those who want fast-food holiness or spirituality cannot endure the long suffering of purgation and penance.

There is no easy way to find God and be one with Him.

When I have tried to teach in the past, and I was thinking of this phenomenon this morning when contemplating the fact that those younger than I am do not relate to metaphors, I became aware, by 1982, at the latest, that my students no longer shared the same language in order to understand great literature.

For example, I was teaching a class on the Arthurian myths, and all my students, at ND had been valedictorians of their high school graduating class. And yet, one young woman did not know the word, "chalice". She had never heard it before we read the story of the Holy Grail. She was confused.

I told her what a chalice was, as we were discussing the text, and she said, "Oh, we call that the cup."

David Jones wrote about this sad phenomenon of the Western man and woman losing the common Catholic heritage, or even larger Western heritage of words referring to something in the common culture.

He described "the Break" in the consciousness of the West as occurring absolutely in World War I.

The "Break" now is obvious in the Church. Words no longer mean the same thing to Catholics. Concepts regarding the sacraments, or prayer, or worship do not resound with the same definitions as in early times.

We cannot share metaphors or, more seriously, theological concepts, or even basic religious truths as the language of Catholicism has become more and more distorted by either heretical or New Age interpretations, or by laziness.

A language of Faith must be reclaimed and this reclamation involves hard work on the part of those, like me, who want to teach the real meanings of words, or those who want to learn. The willingness to learn and not merely to get knowledge one's self is a sign of good will and humility.

Few want to learn. They want fast-food spirituality.

I have written before here on the fact that one cannot take short-cuts to holiness. First of all, as noted in the hundred of posts in the perfection series, one begins with and in orthodoxy.

If one cannot "pass" the test of basic truths of the Faith, one clearly has to go back to Square One.

When I was in the convent in the novitiate, I had to go back to Square One, as all women were treated the same, whether they had a degree in theology or not.

I found the test delightful, and I learned more and more going back to the basics. Nothing which is good and truthful can be boring.

But, then, I was always a cook who did everything the "long way", like making my own pie crust, making mayonnaise, not buying frozen dinners or much less frozen anything.

Like a good Montessori teacher, I taught my son to do things "from scratch" and to enjoy every slow step of the way.

In the land of spirituality, there are no fast-food prayers, or techniques, or ways to holiness. That was the teaching of the heretics over and over and over.

Unlike SS. Ignatius Loyola and Teresa of Avila who understood that prayer was a lifestyle and not a method. that prayer, as I noted in the Framing Prayer series, was more than mere adaptation, but a way of looking at life, those who want quick results, and who do not want to learn "the long way" will fall into deceit.

Satan has a common ploy to make people believe that they are holier than they really are. Fr. Chad Ripperger, in a talk I heard years ago and which is online somewhere, told a shocked audience that most people had not even begun to climb the ladder of holiness.

Prayer and study, quiet and simplicity, humility and self-knowledge.....a few of those key rungs on the ladder which bring us all back to the work of our lives-becoming saints.

Thoughts on Prayer

In this post, I look at two aspects of prayer. The first part is self-explanatory. The second revolves around understanding stigmatics.

Firstly, this post comes from a discussion I had with a friend on intercessory prayer. She is involved in doing reparation for members of her family who have fallen away from the Faith. As Christ told us, some prayer needs to be coupled with fasting, or, to extrapolate, other penances. My friend and I discussed how real prayer, entering into the spiritual world in order to do reparation, or intercede for others, is downright exhausting. (Actually, doing manual labor, such as laundry, or cleaning, or gardening, is a rest from intense prayer, and if one is doing this in silence, prayer continues, but at a lesser intensity.)

This is why scheduling and pacing prayer, as in the Benedictine day, an example given below, is so important. One needs breaks of other work, but one needs to keep up the prayer by pacing it throughout the day. This idea came from the genius of St. Benedict. Here is an example from a monastery in America.

Through the Day



Sunday Schedule

4:00 A.M. - Vigils (choral office in church) lasts about an hour and fifteen minutes.

6:00 A.M. - Lauds (in church) followed by breakfast for guests from 6:30 to 7:10 am in the monastic refectory.

8:45 A.M. - Terce (in church) lasts about 10 minutes.

9:15 A.M. - Conventual Mass (Eucharist) followed by refreshments in the Guest Reception Area.

11:30 A.M. - Sext (in church) lasts about ten minutes, followed by Light Meal in the monastic refectory, 11:45 to 12:30 P.M.

4:00 P.M. - None (in church) lasts about ten minutes, followed by Main Meal in the monastic refectory.

5:30 P.M. - Solemn Vespers and Benediction (in church) lasts about 45 minutes.

7:30 P.M. - Compline (in church) lasts about 15 minutes, followed by Nightly Silence.

Daily Schedule

4:00 A.M. - Vigils (choral office in church) lasts about one hour.

5:45 A.M. - Lauds (in church) lasts about thirty minutes, followed by Mass. Breakfast for guests in the Guest Breakfast Room from 7:00 - 7:45 A.M.

8:45 A.M. - Terce (in church) lasts about ten minutes.

9:00 A.M. - Work meeting for guests outside the Gift Shop. Work for All.

12:40 P.M. - End of work period.

1:00 P.M. - Sext (in church) lasts about ten minutes, followed by Main Meal in the monastic refectory.

3:30 P.M. - None (in church) lasts about ten minutes.

5:20 P.M. - Exposition and Eucharistic Adoration (in Church).

5:50 P.M. - Vespers (in church) lasts about thirty minutes.

6:20 P.M. - Light Meal until 6:50 P.M. in the monastic refectory.

7:30 P.M. - Compline (in church) lasts about fifteen minutes, followed by Nightly Silence.

Most nights, I try to be in bed by half-past nine so that I can get up early, or as God asks, very early, like three or four, to pray intercessory prayers for certain people

Real prayer is not merely saying words or sitting in silence. although that can be part of the day.

Intercessory prayer reminds me of a wrestling match. One enters into prayer knowing that God asks for suffering for those for whom one prays. Intercessory prayer can be very tiring.

My friend recalled prayer times when she was drained. Sometimes, if God wants a concentration of prayer, He will allow her to become ill with severe arthritis, so that she cannot do anything for three days but pray.

Last week, when I had that histamine reaction, God wanted me to stop doing things, including talking, and be quiet in intercessory prayer. I had become too busy.

The prayer of quiet demands attention and focusing. I compare it to the August chorus of birds in the early morning, now about five.

Early in the summer, in late May, early June, the chorus resounds with the songs of hundreds of birds, starting about half-past three in the morning. Now, in late summer, the songs of a few birds, a cardinal or two, a few robins, sing in a schola rather than in a chorale. But, these animals focus on their songs, intent on praising God, as they do at this time of year. This focusing only lasts a short time, Then, these birds rest, do a few "chores", fly about, and rest again, eating as well in between singing. But, the morning chorus only happens once a day, a focusing of song.

Birds sing all day, but at times, their song is more intense than at other times.

So, too, with some intercessory prayer, which can be a real struggle. And, what those who do not understand the contemplative life do not know, is that even encounters with God can be exhausting.

Again, I refer to the limp of Jacob.

Why a contemplative does not "work" in the world is that he IS working, on the threshold of the spiritual world, praising God, interceding, listening.

This takes time and energy.

Secondly, some people with whom I have spoken, do not understand the life of the stigmatic.

The stigmatic has crossed over the threshold of the spiritual world because Christ has invited them to be one with Him in His Passion. Those who do accept these graces of complete union in the physical suffering of Christ mirror what the contemplative experiences spiritually, without the signs and physical suffering at this level of intense pain. The stigmata is a great gift of love.

The stigmatic intercedes when in union with Christ, carrying on, as St. Paul noted, the sufferings of Christ in this world. Such special souls allow their bodies to be one with Christ, for a day, or longer. The example of Padre Pio, Francis of Assisi, (the first recorded stigmatic), Marthe Robin, and many others provides an example of intense intercessory prayer of love.

They become one with Christ in love, not only for the Savior, but for those for whom they suffer in intercession.

I am astounded when Catholics think that the life of the contemplative nun or monk or priest or lay person is an easy life, without work. Prayer is work. And, it can be exhausting, as my friend said.

Those who only value work which is physical and has monetary reward simply do not understand the ways of God in deep prayer.

The stigmatic teaches us the extreme of the loving union of those who intercede for us daily.

UPDATE: After I wrote this post, I checked my e-mail, and lo and behold--synchronicity.

Here is the note:

Prayer Takes Effort by The Hermit

I may be wrong but I think nothing needs so much effort as prayer to God. If anyone wants to pray, the demons try to interrupt the prayer, for they know that prayer is the only thing that hinders them. All the other efforts in a religious life, whether they are made vehemently or gently, have room for a measure of rest. But we need to pray till our dying breath. That is the great struggle. ~Sr. Benedicta Ward, SLG; The Desert Fathers: Sayings of the Early Christian Monks

Scheduling; one of many posts

One of my priest friends told me not too long ago that he appreciated this post. I repost it for those who may have missed it.

Wednesday, 1 January 2014

Sanctity and Schedules

Posted by Supertradmum

Now, a disclaimer. As an INTJ, I am scheduled. I get up at the same time everyday and I have regular habits of eating, praying, writing.

I do most of my work in the morning.

When I was in Ireland, living alone for months and months, I could pray four to six hours a day, as I was living in silence and solitude.

I love this.

But, even though it was just me, I was scheduled.

Daily Mass same time, prayers, writing, etc. only interrupted by parties at night in the flats next door, or personal illness.

Same in Malta, even though for most of the time I was sharing a flat with one other person. Daily morning Mass, prayers, breakfast, and so on....Dinner was always about the same time as well.

Recently, living with other people without schedules, people who are not INTJs but ESFPs or variations of unscheduled types, I am observing something which the ancient fathers understood. One good thing about living in community is that those who naturally gravitate towards schedules can help those who do not.

Those who are more easy-going can help with the obsession some may have with schedules.

It is much harder for those without schedules to become holy. Going from one activity to another as these present themselves to the mind does not allow for prayer or reflection. Merely reacting to things rather than planning or reacting to situations on impulse are methods of living which impair the way of holiness.

Holiness demands scheduling.

Why? 

Prayers, the reading of Scripture, the reading of holy books, daily Mass, or Adoration demand planning.

Those who have never had schedules, or who have avoided scheduling do not plan formation into their days.

Every semester when I was teaching college, the first thing I did was introduce my students to Time Management Skills.

I would, in some extreme cases, find up to 40 wasted hours in one week of 168 hours. I would mostly find between 17-27 wasted hours, enough time for my students to really study. They all had too much "down time" or just wasted time.

Waste is a sin.

Wasting time can create a habit of avoiding God and holiness.

Wasting time can lead one to hell.

A few days ago, I was speaking with a person who use to read the Scriptures daily for at least a half-hour.

He no longer does this. He is "too busy", "too tired".

He works, and he works hard, but his home life is not scheduled and never has been. He goes out a lot. He is single.

I see many, many elderly people out and about here-and they have lively social lives. There is nothing wrong with that, but one must face preparation for death. They are not scheduling in prayer, the rosary, meditation or contemplation, silence.

Sanctity must be a cooperation between work and grace. Without a schedule, it is hard, perhaps impossible to find out who one is and who God is.

Schedule. Follow the tag for more posts on scheduling.

"A Quiet Mind"

A friend of mine and I were discussing home schooling children today and why so many vocations come out of such a relatively small group of youth.

She correctly pointed out that home schooling children and teens have, each, "a quiet mind". Their minds have remained much more pure than those of children in the schools. They have learned how to work diligently, be self-motivated, and pray. They have learned the value of work and the value of reflection.

It is so sad to state that the vast majority of Catholic schools do not train a child to have a "quiet mind". Reading about the conversions experiences of such people and saints, as Cardinal Newman, Cardinal Manning and others, I realized that they had the ability not only to study and pray, but to reflect in the quietness of their minds.

I have written many times on this blog of St. Catherine of Siena's idea that we must all create a cell in our minds to which we can go to pray and reflect.

If you are not doing this, you will miss the Voice of God, Who does not shout.

If you are not doing this, you are not passing the real Faith to your children, which is the ability to pray, study, reflect.

God will punish parents for not training their children to have "a quiet mind" based on purity and serenity.

But, parents cannot give their children what they do not have. The adult must come into the realization that the vast majority of things which impede scheduling and reflection, prayer and fasting, must be sought and worked for daily.

Cooperating with grace is hard work.

Morning vs Night People

I am a morning person. I do most of my work in the morning. By four, I am feeling my blood sugar dropping. I have tried to get some people interested in going for the $2.99 breakfast at a local cafe. A real bargain, which just started this month, but I cannot get anyone to go with me.

Interesting.

However, I have noticed something in American society which disturbs me greatly. Most people I meet now are night people. I am surrounded by people of all ages who stay up to midnight, one, two. Many of these people have children, and allow their children to stay up late.

I am not talking about people living in poverty, but middle-class and upper-middle-class families.

I cannot understand families which stay up late. There is something not Christian about staying up late unless one is in prayer. There is something not quite right about staying up late, so late, that one cannot greet God in the morning.

The kids in the morning can hardly get up for camp in one family I know. I have seen this in one family with which I am familiar. The kids are in baseball and football camps and in the morning, as they go to their day of sport, they act like zombies. They have been allowed to stay up way too late. Why?

Oddly enough, one of the persons in this neighborhood, solidly middle class, has a license plate with ZOMBIE on it.

When did it happen in this culture that children stopped going to bed at nine or ten, if teens? Teens actually need at least eight to ten hours of sleep a night.

When did it happen that parents thought it was ok to watch TV until one or even two? Kids have TVs in their rooms and computers in their rooms. Parents watch movies late into the night.

The problems of work-place illnesses and accidents may be sleep-deprivation and the lack of awareness needed for most jobs.

I have been in this house for the past two weeks and there have been three people killed in car accidents since I have been here, in this city alone. Three.

A lack of attention? Drinking or drugs? Sleep-deprivation?

I see many young people with short tempers, with frustration and anger.

I had an excellent pediatrician for my son in England who said this to me. “When you child is upset, always begin with the physical. Children react to stimuli faster and keener.”

He was correct. Start with the physical and move to the spiritual. Sometimes kids are just plain tired. Anger and frustration can simply be symptoms of a lack of sleep and no scheduling. Kids do better with schedules. We all do.

I blame the parents, as too many parents do not have schedules themselves.  Pay attention to your days. Schedule going to bed times. Schedule prayer times.

Teach your children to be disciplined. We do not have much time.

If any readers can share with me why people are staying up so late, please let me know. I am wondering at this habit and part of the culture I have not noticed before the past six months. Interesting.

Habits and Addictions

Habits and Addictions are chosen, as some point, because of a lack of order in one’s life. One chooses bad habits which become addictions, serious mortal sin. Then, the trap is so hard to break out of, one may be tempted to despair, the ultimate last sin of many.

Rules can shape our day, and for those who work, there exists many rules which mean  we have responsibilities to duty, to others. But, what is so easily forgotten, is that our first time must and does belong to God.

But, we choose to deny Him the time we owe to Him as creatures.

On this day of the feast of St. Benedict, I have been thinking of the beauty of the Rule and the scheduled hours of the typical monastic day. Those who have been reading my blog for a long time, know how many posts I have on order, scheduling and the necessity for good habits.

A habit of prayer or reading Scripture learned as a child or in college, or in one’s twenties, will be part of a person’s life until they die.

The absolute necessity of habits cannot be emphasized enough, and the building of habits goes hand in hand with life of the virtues.

Again, children can easily be taught to have good habits of prayer, fasting, mortification, even meditation.

I have been reading the sermons of St. John Vianney this week and one of the main themes in these has to do with the saint pointing out how much time people waste in doing things which not only have nothing to do with their salvation, but are contrary to those habits which bring about the cooperation with grace.

I repeat two points I have made on this blog. Number one, without a schedule, one cannot become holy. And, two good habits can be formed in a relatively short period of time.

To look at the first consideration, again, one sees so many people not only wasting time, but building into their daily lives the false idea that somehow they cannot help not praying or reading Scripture.

I know many people who watch hours of television, talk or even gossip, go shopping for hours, (for unnecessary things), spend hours on the phone complaining to friends and family about their lives and yet tell me they have no time to read a half-hour of Scripture or pray.

These very bad and even evil pursuits will push the Catholic off the path to holiness, and yet, the complaint of such people is that they have no free will to choose to pray.

This is a scary mindset. We are not guaranteed heaven by weekly Mass or Confession once a year. To think that interruptions must be tolerated, especially trivial ones, is simply a great lie.

Secondly, such bad habits lead to addictions. Now, many people inherit addictive behavior from and in families. Some people have become drug addicts and alcoholics because of environment as well as concupiscence and weakness.

But, the heresies which deny free-will deny that God has given us enough grace to combat all addictions.

An addiction may have started as a bad habit, like coming home from work and turning on the television, watching for hours and hours. After a time, the addiction, which frequently turns into mortal sin, the mortal sin of either gluttony, or greed or sloth, can also change into demonic activity.

A bad habit repeated and repeated is an open door for the minions of satan to take over one’s spiritual life.

Bad habits can become addictions.

As to wasting time, I wonder at people who have never had a schedule yet tell me they do not have time to say a daily rosary.

When I was teaching college and university classes, within the first week, I presented ways for my students to manage their time. I did time management charts with them to show them how much time they wasted, which could be used for homework and reflection.

One cannot learn anything without time to reflect on the subject at hand.

Reflection leads to insight.

I pray that those who have any addictions, be it to movies or computer games, may be enlightened to see the real sin of these repeated and time-taking activities. The sinful or spiritually dangerous content is a subject of another post.

But, as St. John Vianney preached, those who are mediocre in the faith, the lukewarm Catholics, will not have the strength, nor the merits necessary for salvation, as they repeatedly ignored the call to repentance and holiness.

St. John Vianney speaks clearly that those who are mediocre and lukewarm pave their own way to hell.

These Catholics want to go to heaven but are unwilling to break with the world around them, unwilling to make the hard choices necessary to develop good habits of prayer.

St. John Vianney preaches the importance of not shopping around for an easy confessor, but seeking out the one who will help one break away from being a “worldling”. He reminds his people in his sermons that they have forgotten God and only seek either pleasure from the world, or approval from other worldlings.

He encourages all to bid farewell to the world daily by choosing the path of God, the path of holiness.

From where I sit today, all I can see are Catholics who really have not decided to be Catholics. One is complaining about the Church’s teaching on contraception, that it is too harsh. One is complaining about “all” the pedophile priests. One is living a life that teaches his children that the minimum is enough to get into heaven.

The minimum is not enough to get into heaven. Remember, either we are moving towards God or away from God. There is no middle ground-none.

St. John Vianney plainly states that one cannot choose both the world and God. He decries the hearts which are so fixed on pleasures, which the Catholic life has been set aside for conformity to the world.

Too often, when I am writing, I think of the many people I know personally who have never read the Catechism of the Catholic Church, or who do not read anything the Popes write. All my family members have not read my blog nor will they. They do not read Catholic blogs or Catholic websites.

They then tell me that because they are in ignorance that God will have mercy on them.

Their faith did not die a death made by some sudden blow, but by the drip, drip, drip of the daily forgetfulness of religious duty and the lack of love for their own souls.

I pray that God will enlighten them, just as St. John Vianney prayed, and return to being really Catholic.

Good habits learned early bring one back to God. Bad habits continually sidetrack one away from God and eternal life.

Not scheduling means that one is open to the winds of distraction, the siren songs of the world, the sheer waste of time.

God forgive us and help us so that at our particular judgment we do not suffer from the grief of seeing a wasted life, a life spent adrift in a boat which could have been under our command. We are in control of our daily schedules. We have free will to avoid the creation of bad habits, of addictions, which may someday take over our lives to the point where we no longer have free will-but we decided, at some juncture, to go on that path of destruction-the destruction of our own spiritual lives, ending in the eternal gnashing of teeth and pain of total separation from God.

According to some statistics, up to 60% of Americans have addictive personalities. Part of this problem has been created by wealth, by fast-food, by a society which denies itself nothing.

Part of the problem is that Catholics are not taught to be moderate, or to give even when it hurts, not merely give over and above one’s income.

Addiction is most likely a state of mortal sin, chosen on a long pathway, and not something which “just happened.” Too many elderly people as well as teens have no idea that they are wasting away their lives in trivia. They have exchange the present moment when they could be meeting God to meet trivia instead.

Pray, pray for self-knowledge, the only thing which helps us be truthful to ourselves, our priests in the confessional. Pray to see the bad habits and addictions which keep us from becoming holy.

Working on Schedules

Many weeks ago, I had an interesting discussion with a friend who had read by post on scheduling and prayer.

Now, without schedules, one cannot become holy.

The younger generations have yet to make interior scheduling, as many of their parents resist scheduling. There is a false idea that "down time" is a necessity. There, also, is a hugely false idea that one should have entertainment daily.

Check out these posts.

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-great-evil-of-entertainment.html

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/2014/01/sanctity-and-schedules.html

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/2014/02/there-is-no-neutralitynone.html

No longer, and I would guess, that there never has been any neutral territory in the world for the imagination. If we are merely "vegging out" or "chilling out", we are not concentrating on God.

The New Age ideal of meditation outside of the reading of Scriptures or the thinking on the Attributes of God leads not only to narcissism, but occult influences.

Schedules make us disciplined and accountable to God, not merely to ourselves.

As humans with a body and a soul, we absolutely need schedules to tame the flesh and nourish the spirit.

When I teach, one of the first things I make a student do is a time management chart. I find up to 27 wasted hours per week per student.

Adults need to do the same. Scheduling also takes away fatigue, which is created when we have interruptions in our normal bodily patterns.

Homeschooling moms and dads who do not have schedules for their children, mostly because the parents are not scheduled, are not forming the children in the virtues. Only the externalizing of discipline can create the interior discipline needed to be a saint.

A schedule also entails making a "prepared environment" for work, for prayer, for leisure.

More later...

Chaos vs. Discernment

Dante appropriately defines the concept of contrapasso in his presentation of divisive shades, the most clear-cut manifestation of a logical relationship between the offense and the punishment: as they divided institutions, communities, and families in life, so these figures are physically--and repeatedly--sliced apart for eternity in hell (Inf. 28.139-42). The contrapasso for the thieves, on the other hand, is arguably the most conceptually sophisticated of the poem. The tenuous hold on one's identity--with dramatic transformations of human and reptilian forms--suggests that no possession, no matter how personal, is safe in the realm of theft. Slightly less subtle is the contrapasso for the falsifiers, whose corrupting influence--on metals (alchemists), money (counterfeiters), identity (imposters), and truth (liars)--is reflected in their diseased bodies and minds in the tenth and final pit of circle 8, the realm of fraud. from http://danteworlds.laits.utexas.edu/circle8b.html#fraud

Many Christians understand and have seen at work the demons of Discord. These malicious spirits stir up the Church ladies to argue about whose flower arrangements will go on the main altar, or the parish councils as to the dates of the parish fete.

Discord stalks the Church in small and large matters. Heretics follow Discord. Schismatics follow Discord.

But, there is another demon, called Chaos, who is being allowed by God to work on earth for the greater good. That greater good would be the conversion of sinners, especially agnostics.

Chaos creates division as does Discord, but in a different manner. Chaos clouds the mind, makes people hear words spoken as these were not said, and enters into families to interfere with peace, harmony, order and focus. Chaos makes people busy about many things so that they cannot concentrate on Christ.

Judas allowed Chaos to manipulate him and cause the greatest crime in history-the betrayal of God. But, as we all know, God brought good out of chaos.

The way to stop chaos from entering into your family is a threefold attack. The first is prayer. All members of the family must be praying, dad, mom, children.

Secondly, using the gift of discernment. If you feel you do not have discernment read the link below.

Thirdly, by reconginizing chaos and stopping Chaos....this can be done.

That God is letting Chaos and other demons come into the world in power is not only part of His plan for the salvation of millions, but also as punishment owing to sin.

Violent anarchy is a symptom of chaos.

Addictions are symptoms of chaos.

Misinformation in the media is a symptom of chaos.

Lack of scheduling, order, discipline are symptoms of chaos.

Your home is your place of peace and your fortress against evil. Do not compromise your strengths.

More later....

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/2014/02/why-catholic-cannot-discern.html

Repost on Benedictine Education

Saturday, 19 January 2013

Benedictine Education-desiring God through learning

Posted by Supertradmum

St. Benedictine and the Benedictines created the education system of the West. We owe the revival of classical education to the Benedictines. They preserved the texts of the Greeks and Romans and used these to re-create the Trivium and the Quadrivium in the context of Catholicism.

The entire idea of work and prayer, labore et orare is also part of the day for education of the monks as well as their lay students.

The beauty of the Benedictine Rule, which covers the practice of the virtues, and the pursuit of perfection, under obedience and through humility, provides a great format for the home schooling.

A parent can divide up the day between work, manual labor and study, as well as prayer.

Children then learn necessary maintenance skills, as well as cooking, cleaning and so on as part of the spirituality of work and prayer and study.

A typical day can look like this:

Rise, dress, short morning prayer
Mass
Breakfast

Study of the home schooling curriculum based on the Trivium and Quadrivium, depending on age
Prayer

Lunch

Outside or inside work

Prayer

Tea or snack break

Study, including Scripture study

Play

Dinner

Play

Prayer

Sleep

Rarely does a homeschooler need to study all day and the Benedictine methodology fits into teaching the whole person, based on order and scheduling.

It works.

Art and Beauty are part of the Benedictine heritage. So that and music should always be part of the curriculum.

I highly suggest reading The Love of Learning and the Desire for God by Jean Leclercq, which I read years and years before I was married, but it prepared me for my Benedictine day of work, prayer, and study, and led me to use the Benedictine model for home schooling.

Repost on Catholic Education

Friday, 18 January 2013

More on the formation of the child and education

Posted by Supertradmum

The end of the Society is not only to care for the salvation and perfection of their own souls with divine grace, but with the same [divine grace] seriously to devote themselves to the salvation and perfection of their neighbors. For it was especially instituted for the defense and propagation of the Faith, and the progress of souls in Christian life and doctrine. St. Ignatius




Tomorrow, I shall post the Salesian Preventive System and then look at my favourite, the Benedictine system. St. John Bosco's ideals were written in his The Preventive System in the Education of the Young.

There is no right or wrong or even a hierarchy of preferences for these methods. Only, parents involved in home education, or merely looking for good schools, should be aware of these different methods of formation.

Very important for parents would be the discovery of the movements of their own souls towards learning and formation. Too many lay people merely jump from one saint's ideas to the next instead of focussing on a way to approach God, prayer, time, scheduling, the formation of their own souls and those of their children. Talents and temperaments decide on choices.

These methodologies prove to be very different and serve different needs in the families, as well as talents and temperaments.

How interesting it is to meet men who are older than myself, who were raised in a Jesuit or Salesian or Benedictine schools and had real formation.

It shows.

This type of formation has all but disappeared. Home schooling parents benefit from using what has already been developed by these inspired men.

Ignatius
John Bosco
Benedict
and others

If I have time, I shall write about the Ursulines and Dominicans. But, sadly, few of those schools exist which still follow the original methodologies. Again, to preserve these aspects of our Catholic identity, it may be up to home schooling parents to carry on the various visions.

Prayer Schedule

I am working on a prayer schedule for active contemplative prayer. As I am tutoring only part-time, I can devote more time to prayer again, as I did in Ireland and London.

The only way one can devote time to prayer is through scheduling. The only way one can move to perfection is through scheduling.

If any readers are having trouble with daily prayer, I highly suggest setting aside the same time daily.

Do not leave prayer time, until you "have time".

"Make" time.

Sanctity and Schedules

Now, a disclaimer. As an INTJ, I am scheduled. I get up at the same time everyday and I have regular habits of eating, praying, writing.

I do most of my work in the morning.

When I was in Ireland, living alone for months and months, I could pray four to six hours a day, as I was living in silence and solitude.

I love this.

But, even though it was just me, I was scheduled.

Daily Mass same time, prayers, writing, etc. only interrupted by parties at night in the flats next door, or personal illness.

Same in Malta, even though for most of the time I was sharing a flat with one other person. Daily morning Mass, prayers, breakfast, and so on....Dinner was always about the same time as well.

Recently, living with other people without schedules, people who are not INTJs but ESFPs or variations of unscheduled types, I am observing something which the ancient fathers understood. One good thing about living in community is that those who naturally gravitate towards schedules can help those who do not.

Those who are more easy-going can help with the obsession some may have with schedules.

It is much harder for those without schedules to become holy. Going from one activity to another as these present themselves to the mind does not allow for prayer or reflection. Merely reacting to things rather than planning or reacting to situations on impulse are methods of living which impair the way of holiness.

Holiness demands scheduling.

Why? 

Prayers, the reading of Scripture, the reading of holy books, daily Mass, or Adoration demand planning.

Those who have never had schedules, or who have avoided scheduling do not plan formation into their days.

Every semester when I was teaching college, the first thing I did was introduce my students to Time Management Skills.

I would, in some extreme cases, find up to 40 wasted hours in one week of 168 hours. I would mostly find between 17-27 wasted hours, enough time for my students to really study. They all had too much "down time" or just wasted time.

Waste is a sin.

Wasting time can create a habit of avoiding God and holiness.

Wasting time can lead one to hell.

A few days ago, I was speaking with a person who use to read the Scriptures daily for at least a half-hour.

He no longer does this. He is "too busy", "too tired".

He works, and he works hard, but his home life is not scheduled and never has been. He goes out a lot.

I see many, many elderly people out and about here-and they have lively social lives. There is nothing wrong with that, but one must face preparation for death.

Sanctity must be a cooperation between work and grace. Without a schedule, it is hard, perhaps impossible to find out who one is and who God is.

Schedule.

Home Schooling Advice Part 11 Religion VI Reflection and Meditation 101

This topic will surprise many parents.

A very young child can learn reflection and basic meditation.

Now, a warning, from Dr. Montessori, with which I agree 100%.

A CHILD BEFORE SIX SHOULD NOT BE INTRODUCED TO FANTASY.

That is a shock to those who think little ones need Walt Disney.

No. No. No.

Fantasy must be held off until the child is grounded in reality or the mind will not be properly formed.

Fantasy follows nature studies, learning that when a glass falls it breaks and one has to sweep it up, that birds build nests and some baby birds die, that the pet dog needs feeding and watering and walking daily, that pouring juice without spilling is possible for a three year old and so on. Reality is making Popsicles and watching them melt in the hot sun. Reality is .....

When fantasy is introduced too early, the child will be confused about reality and fiction. Many young people today cannot tell the difference.

Of course, for the Catholic, the Bible is true, real and not mythological. Therefore, Bible studies can be introduced as early as two and a half or earlier with those adorable hard religious books for toddlers.

I knew a four year old, not my son, who was memorizing Scripture passages like I make popcorn, and he understood the passages his parents chose. He was using his own God-given drive to be a saint.

Some children at three get the long years in the desert of the Hebrews if a mom uses bead counting chains.

So, too, anything can be used to explain the Sacraments or sacramentals. What five year old girl would not love dressing up as a little bride, or a little nun instead of a Disney princess?

But, meditation and reflection must be based on reality, and a child is quite capable of both.

Examples: one can take a passage in Scripture and let the young child act it out. Like the finding of the lost lamb with a toy lamb, or even with the farm set on the floor. Like the parable boxes, acting out reinforces truth.

The child can dress up like Bible personages. Kids love this, and if one has a large family, the plays could be highly involved. Some home schooling families put on pageants for others or for other family members as entertainment. I had a dress-up box when I was a child. One should have one in the home school with old elaborate clothes for such use. Children can enact manners.

Having a picture of a saint and asking the child how the saint might think or feel in the picture-like one of St. Lucy, or St. Gemma Galgani. Let the child imitate, enact the saint by a mime. Montessori has exercises in the book I put on a post yesterday and here again. Interpretation of emotions and activities may be applied to religious themes.

Giving the child silence is absolutely essential for spiritual formation. The normal time a three to four year old can concentrate on one thing is 45 minutes. If the child's natural ability for concentration has been ruined by television or ceaseless activities, this is a tragic development. I know parents who say the entire rosary with the children in the car instead of other parents, who have to put in the latest Disney in the car DVD player.

There is no reason why a normalized child cannot be quiet for up to a half-hour thinking about Jesus on the Cross, or the Birth of Christ. Just holding the Crucifix and asking the child  How do you think Jesus felt? is a beginning of meditation and reflection. A child might say, scared, or cold, or lonely.

Every Good Friday, when my brothers and I were very young, from 1-3, we had to go to our rooms and be quiet. Now, we did not pray the entire time, of course. We could play quietly, but my mother said that first we must sit down for a few minutes and think of Jesus on the Cross. The entire house was quiet. At three, we went to church.

We managed.

From early on, I made my son have quiet time in his room. He was encouraged to read and look at saints' lives. I was fortunate that he began reading at four. But, his quiet time was the beginning of reflection, daily. Then, we would talk about his saint, or Moses, or the Blessed Mother.

By five, I was teaching a basic examination of conscience. Did you do anything today which would displease God, or make mum or dad sad? I would encourage this in just the evening, but not everyday. My son made his First Confession at five and knew what to look for making his mental list of little sins. He made his First Communion at six. His dad and I did all the prep, including a book of sacraments, which the son made, starting with his baptism-and he did all the coloring and writing and pasting. I just provided pictures from old bulletins, or cards he got on that day, or photos. He wrote about baptism and confession, and his upcoming First Communion in the album.

Reflection leads to meditation, a practice we all do on the way to holiness. Meditation is based usually on Scripture, but one can, with the child, meditate on the words of a song, or a prayer, like the Hail Mary. One can teach the child to reflect on his patron saint. Very young children love repetition and we learned lots of songs.

Pictures can help and imagining the scene. One can say to the child, for example, Let us think of walking with Jesus to Lake Galilee. What sounds might you hear, or smells or what would you see and so on?

A quiet environment in the home takes planning and time. It means the home schooling parent has priorities. It means no radio or tv, but times for music. It means scheduling.

What the child can do is amazing if we let them do it and provide them with the means, especially the environment.

One of the most successful things I did was make an Icon Corner. This changed according to the liturgical season or saint's day, and even as a teenager, up until college when son went away, that was a little locus of prayer.

One can do this in the children's room as it is safe.

At night, after a mini examen, we said the Angel of God prayer, the prayer of  Venerable Fulton J. Sheen for the adoption of the baby in danger of abortion, the St. Michael prayer and a litany of family saints-which changed as one was confirmed and so on.

The rosary we mostly said in church with others, or on our own, after the child learned it. It is important for a child to pray both with people and on his own. I had a set of pictures of the meditations on the rosary which one can still buy. To this day, my son prefers saying his rosary alone-now an "old" habit.

All these things can be started as early as your child is aware,  and everything I have mentioned can be done with pre-schoolers on up.

Especially in these days, parents need to help their children be saints.

To be continued...and another on line book. And, here is an Orthodox mom's website of home schooling ideas, including an icon corner, similar to what I had. And, for the fun of it, here is St. Therese, at a later age, acting out a play of St. Joan of Arc. And. one more blog on children dressed up for All Saint\s Day. Cute.