A quotation from Robert Louis Stevenson

To be suddenly snuffed out in the middle of ambitious schemes, is tragical enough at best; but when a man has been grudging himself his own life in the meanwhile, and saving up everything for the festival that was never to be, it becomes that hysterically moving sort of tragedy which lies on the confines of farce.

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) Scottish essayist, novelist, poet
Essay (1878-03), “Crabbed Age and Youth,” Cornhill Magazine, Vol. 37

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/stevenson-robert-lou…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #robertlouisstevenson #death #delay #delayed ?#enjoyment #expectations #later #mortality #procrastination #selfdenial #suddenness #workaholic

#SplitTheAtom
#Selfdenial
04/05/2025

https://www.purgatoire.fr/merch/merch-289_split-the-atom

A quotation from Barbara Brown Taylor

What I mean by that, I think, is that much of religion, much of the religion I was schooled in, was about putting myself away, aside, behind me in order to become something holier and closer to God. In other words, to draw nearer to the Really Real I needed to be less me. Perhaps it was a midlife revelation or just wearing out on that that led me to a different understanding — that my humanity was God’s chief gift to me, and that if I was going to find the Really Real it was going to be within that and not separating myself from that. I don’t know if it makes sense. But it meant that the holiest thing I could be was the flawed human being God had made me to be.

Barbara Brown Taylor (b. 1951) American minister, academic, author
Interview (2006-06-08) by Bob Abernathy, PBS

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/taylor-barbara-brown…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #authenticity #creation #God #humannature #imperfection #reality #religion #selfdenial

Most people don’t know what they need.

Not because they’re lost.
But because they’ve learned to shut it down.

Need was called weakness.
So they perform instead of feel.

👉 But a need doesn’t go away.
👉 It isn’t optional.
👉 It will find another way in.

Hunger without appetite.
Helping with hidden hope.
Scrolling to numb what can’t be named.

This dialogue explains it. From a place outside humanity.
https://beyond.timeandspace.online/blog/understand-need-overcome-self-denial/

#Need #SelfDenial #EmotionalClarity

This is how I feel today: part of my brain is telling me to run away, and the other part is in a state of denial.
#ProfessionalAdaptability #ImpostorSyndrome #SelfDenial

Quote of the day, 14 January: Brother Lawrence

Reverend and Dear Mother,

I received from Miss N. the rosaries that you gave her. I am surprised you haven’t let me know what you think of the book I sent you. You must have received it. Put it diligently into practice in your later days. Better late than never.

I cannot understand how religious people can remain content without the practice of the presence of God. As for me, I keep myself recollected in him in the depth and center of my soul as much as possible, and when I am thus with him I fear nothing, though the least deviation is hell for me.

This exercise does not hurt the body. It is nonetheless appropriate to deprive it occasionally, and even with some frequency, of some innocent, permissible, little consolations. For God will not permit a soul desirous of being entirely his to find consolation other than with him, and that is more than reasonable!

I do not say we must put ourselves to a great deal of trouble to do this; no, we must serve God in holy freedom. We must work faithfully, without turmoil or anxiety, gently and peacefully bringing our minds back to God as often as we find ourselves distracted.

We must, however, place all our trust in God and let go of all our cares, including a multitude of private devotions, very good in themselves but often carried out for the wrong reason, for these devotions are nothing more than the means to arrive at the end. If, then, we are with the one who is our end by this practice of the presence of God, it is certainly useless to return to the means. We can continue our loving exchange with him, remaining in his holy presence sometimes by an act of adoration, praise, or desire, other times by acts of oblation, thanksgiving, or anything else that our minds can devise.

Do not be discouraged by the repugnance you feel on the side of nature. You must do it violence. In the beginning you may often think you are wasting your time; nonetheless, you must continually resolve to persevere until death in spite of all the difficulties. I commend myself to the prayers of your holy community and to yours in particular and I am in Our Lord,

Yours,

From Paris, November 3, 1685

Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection, O.C.D.

Letter 4, to the same nun as Letter 3
Saturday, 3 November 1685

Lawrence of the Resurrection, B; De Meester, C 1994, Writings and Conversations on the Practice of the Presence of God,  translated from the French by Salvatore Sciurba, OCD, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: Photographer Mark Notari captures this image of pots and pans on a stove in a commercial kitchen within a market in Oaxaca, Mexico. Image credit: notarim / Flickr (Some rights reserved)

#BrotherLawrenceOfTheResurrection #freedom #innerPeace #prayer #presenceOfGod #recollection #Rosary #selfDenial #trust

Quote of the day, 4 January: St. Kuriakos Elias Chavara

There was a man who considered it obligatory on himself and rendered somebody some good work every day. He did this believing that God had commanded men to help each other.

One day, while at supper, he remembered the omission of the charitable deed for that day. Suddenly he rose up, went out, did a neighbour an act of charity and then only took his supper.

Extravagance and miserliness are both sinful. The luxuries of the extravagant will disappear like smoke. The wealth of the miser will be devoured by worms.

Once there was a man who lived generously according to his means. He prospered well. As he grew richer, he neglected charity and started amassing wealth.

Then he was laid up with an ulcer on his leg. Several physicians were brought in. Much expenditure incurred on this account.

Then an angel appeared to him and told him, “Know ye that the miser who stints in charity and hoards will have to spend money like this.”

Saint Kuriakos Elias Chavara

Testament of a Loving Father, 14–15, “Act of Charity”

Chavara, K, Pathaplackal, T 2014, Testament of a Loving Father, translated from Malayalam by Calzolari, E, Chavara Central Secretariat, Chavara Hills, Kochi.

Featured image: South African photographer Lyndon Stratford captures this image of charity, prayer, empathy, and reconciliation. Image credit: Stratford/peopleimages.com / Adobe Stock (Stock photo)

#angel #charity #deeds #God #health #inspiration #selfDenial #StKuriakosEliasChavara #wealth

Quote of the day, 22 November: Hermann Cohen

“I have finished with the world forever…”

Servant of God Hermann Cohen

At this stage in his story, Hermann Cohen, the recent convert, now intended to clear the debts he had incurred in his gambling days, and these were quite considerable. To achieve this aim, he resumed giving piano lessons.

At the same time, Cohen continued to join his friends in weekly nocturnal adoration before the Blessed Sacrament. Since his conversion [May 1847] and even before his baptism [28 August 1847], Cohen had expressed to friends the desire to dedicate his life wholly to God as soon as he was free to do so. It would take him two years to reach that point. It was a difficult period for him.

Cohen became involved with helping the poor through the Society of St. Vincent de Paul founded by his contemporary Frédéric Ozanam. Cohen found this work a great source of inspiration while he prepared to enter a religious order. He subsequently supported the society by making appeals for them and using his musical talents to give fund-raising concerts for the poor.

At this point in his life, Cohen began to compose music for a collection of hymns that were written by a friend of his. These were called, “Praise of Mary.” and turned out to be a successful venture as the hymns proved very popular.

Cohen needed to give a final concert to pay off all his debts. It was a resounding success. Some of his earlier concerts had not been well prepared.

A Marist friend, Father Reculon, who accompanied him to this last concert, tells us that there was thunderous applause at the final curtain. He added that if the audience had known this was the last time they would hear Cohen’s glorious interpretations of Beethoven, Mozart, Liszt, and Chopin, their enthusiasm would have broken all bounds.

As for Cohen, he rejoined his friend in the dressing room of St. Cecilia’s Hall and threw out his arms in the dramatic gesture of the romantic.

“Ah,” he exclaimed, “I have finished with the world forever; with what joy, after my final note, I took my bow and bade it adieu.”

Timothy Tierney, O.C.D.

Chapter 6: From Franz Liszt to John of the Cross

Note: Biographer Father Tierney provides details concerning Hermann Cohen’s transition from the concert stage to religious life. Although we don’t know the precise date, Cohen’s writings indicate that his famous conversion took place in May 1847 in the Church of St. Valère. His baptism followed on 28 August 1847 in the Paris chapel of the Sisters of Our Lady of Sion.

Tierney, T  2017,  A Life of Hermann Cohen: From Franz Liszt to John of the Cross,  Balboa Press,  Bloomington, IN

Featured image: Father Augustine-Mary of the Blessed Sacrament, O.C.D., the Servant of God Hermann Cohen seated at the double-manual keyboard. | Image credit: Discalced Carmelites

#AugustineMaryOfTheBlessedSacrament #EucharisticAdoration #farewell #HermannCohen #inspiration #piano #selfDenial #ServantOfGod #vocation

A quotation from Ingersoll, Robert Green:

«
The barbaric world was to be rewarded in some other world for acting sensibly in this. They were promised rewards in another world, if they would only have self-denial enough to be virtuous in this. If they would forego the pleasures of larceny and murder; if they would forego the thrill and bliss of meanness here,…
»

Full quote, sourcing, notes:
https://wist.info/ingersoll-robert-green/72891/

#quote #quotes #quotation #afterlife #doinggood #heaven #selfdenial #virtue

The Spectator: The troublesome idealism of Simone Weil…

Hailed as ‘an uncompromising witness to the modern travails of the spirit’ , Weil also exasperated those closest to her with her ambitions for heroic self-denial... The Spectator #simoneweil #philosophy #selfdenial #idealism

https://formuchdeliberation.wordpress.com/2024/09/21/the-spectator-the-troublesome-idealism-of-simone-weil/

As this path on the high mount of perfection is narrow and steep, it demands travelers who are neither weighed down by the lower part of their nature nor burdened in the higher part. This is a venture in which God alone is sought and gained; thus only God ought to be sought and gained.

Obviously, one’s journey must not merely exclude the hindrance of creatures but also embody a dispossession and annihilation in the spiritual part of one’s nature.

Our Lord, for our instruction and guidance along this road, imparted that wonderful teaching—I think it is possible to affirm that the more necessary the doctrine the less it is practiced by spiritual persons—that I will quote fully and explain it in its genuine and spiritual sense because of its importance and relevance to our subject.

He states in the eighth chapter of St. Mark: Si quis vult me sequi, deneget semetipsum et tollat crucem suam et sequatur me. Qui enim voluerit animam suam salvam facere, perdet eam; qui autem perdiderit animam suam propter me … salvam faciet eam (If anyone wishes to follow my way, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his soul will lose it, but whoever loses it for me will gain it) [Mk. 8:34–35].

“I think it is possible to affirm that the more necessary the doctrine the less it is practiced by spiritual persons.”

Oh, who can make this counsel of our Savior on self-denial understandable, and practicable, and attractive, that spiritual persons might become aware of the difference between the method many of them think is good and the one that ought to be used in traveling this road! They are of the opinion that any kind of withdrawal from the world, or reformation of life, suffices.

Some are content with a certain degree of virtue, perseverance in prayer, and mortification, but never achieve the nakedness, poverty, selflessness, or spiritual purity (which are all the same) about which the Lord counsels us here. For they still feed and clothe their natural selves with spiritual feelings and consolations instead of divesting and denying themselves of these for God’s sake. They think denial of self in worldly matters is sufficient without annihilation and purification in the spiritual domain.

It happens that, when some of this solid, perfect food (the annihilation of all sweetness in God—the pure spiritual cross and nakedness of Christ’s poverty of spirit) is offered them in dryness, distaste, and trial, they run from it as from death and wander about in search only of sweetness and delightful communications from God. Such an attitude is not the hallmark of self-denial and nakedness of spirit but the indication of a spiritual sweet tooth. Through this kind of conduct they become, spiritually speaking, enemies of the cross of Christ [Phil. 3:18].

A genuine spirit seeks rather the distasteful in God than the delectable, leans more toward suffering than toward consolation, more toward going without everything for God than toward possession, and toward dryness and affliction than toward sweet consolation.

“The inclination to choose for love of Christ all that is most distasteful whether in God or in the world… this is what loving God means.”

It knows that this is the significance of following Christ and denying self, that the other method is perhaps a seeking of self in God—something entirely contrary to love. Seeking oneself in God is the same as looking for the caresses and consolations of God. Seeking God in oneself entails not only the desire to do without these consolations for God’s sake, but also the inclination to choose for love of Christ all that is most distasteful whether in God or in the world; and this is what loving God means.

His Majesty taught this to those two disciples who came to ask him for places at his right and left. Without responding to their request for glory, he offered them the chalice he was about to drink as something safer and more precious on this earth than enjoyment [Mt. 20:22].

This chalice means death to one’s natural self through denudation and annihilation. By this means one is able to walk along the narrow path in the sensitive part of the soul, as we said, and in the spiritual part (as we will now say), in one’s understanding, joy, and feeling. Accordingly, a person can attain to dispossession in both parts of the soul.

Not only this, but even in the spirit one will be unhindered in one’s journey on the narrow road. For on this road there is room only for self-denial (as our Savior asserts) and the cross. The cross is a supporting staff and greatly lightens and eases the journey.

Our Lord proclaimed through St. Matthew: My yoke is sweet and my burden light [Mt. 11:30], the burden being the cross. If individuals resolutely submit to the carrying of the cross, if they decidedly want to find and endure trial in all things for God, they will discover in all of them great relief and sweetness. This will be so because they will be traveling the road denuded of all and with no desire for anything.

“If individuals resolutely submit to the carrying of the cross, if they decidedly want to find and endure trial in all things for God, they will discover in all of them great relief and sweetness.”

If they aim after the possession of something, from God or elsewhere, their journey will not be one of nakedness and detachment from all things, and consequently there will be no room for them on this narrow path nor will they be able to climb it.

I should like to persuade spiritual persons that the road leading to God does not entail a multiplicity of considerations, methods, manners, and experiences—though in their own way these may be a requirement for beginners—but demands only the one thing necessary: true self-denial, exterior and interior, through surrender of self both to suffering for Christ and to annihilation in all things.

In the exercise of this self-denial everything else, and even more, is discovered and accomplished. If one fails in this exercise, the root and sum total of all the virtues, the other methods would amount to no more than going around in circles without getting anywhere, even were one to enjoy considerations and communications as lofty as those of the angels.

“I would not consider any spirituality worthwhile that wants to walk in sweetness and ease and run from the imitation of Christ.”

A person makes progress only by imitating Christ, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one goes to the Father but through him, as he states himself in St. John [Jn. 14:6]. Elsewhere he says: I am the door; anyone who enters by me shall be saved [Jn. 10:9].

Accordingly, I would not consider any spirituality worthwhile that wants to walk in sweetness and ease and run from the imitation of Christ.

Saint John of the Cross

The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Book II, chap. 7, nos. 4–8

John of the Cross, St. 1991, The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross, Revised Edition, translated from the Spanish by Kavanaugh, K and Rodriguez, O with revisions and introductions by Kavanaugh, K, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: This detail of Christ carrying his Cross by the Italian painter Giampetrino (1495–1549) comes from the collections of the National Gallery, London. It was executed in oil on poplar, probably about 1510–1530. Image credit: Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/09/14/juan-imitation/

#cross #followingJesus #imitationOfChrist #inspiration #selfDenial #spiritualDirection #spirituality #StJohnOfTheCross

“As the thirsty doe longs for the springs of fresh water, so my soul longs for You, O God! My soul thirst for the living God! When will I appear before His face!…” (Ps 42:1–2).

And yet, as “the sparrow has found a home,” and “the turtle dove a nest in which she may lay her young” (Ps 84:3), so Laudem Gloriae has found while waiting to be brought to the holy Jerusalem, “beata pacis visio”—her retreat, her beatitude, her anticipated Heaven in which she begins her life of eternity. “In God my soul is silent; my deliverance comes from Him. Yes, He is the rock in which I find salvation, my stronghold, I shall not be disturbed!” (Ps 62:1–2).

This is the mystery my lyre sings of today! My Master has said to me as to Zacchaeus: “Hurry and come down, for I must stay in your house today…” (Lk 19:5). Hurry and come down, but where? Into the innermost depths of my being: after having forsaken self, withdrawn from self, been stripped of self—in a word, without self.

Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity

Last Retreat, sixteenth day
31 August 1906

Note: Beata pacis visio (Blessed vision of peace) is a phrase found in the first stanza, second line of the hymn Coelestis urbs Jerusalem, which is sung at Vespers for the Common of the Dedication of a Church. Note that having begun her Last Retreat on the sixteenth of August, the “sixteenth day” is 31 August, on which the Dedication of the Churches of Carmel was celebrated.

Elizabeth of the Trinity, S 2014, I Have Found God, The Complete Works of Elizabeth of the Trinity Volume 1: Major spiritual writings, translated from the French by Kane, A, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: This detail from the last photo of St. Elizabeth of the Trinity was taken in mid-October, 1906, less than one month before her death on November 9 in the Carmel of Dijon, France. The statue of Our Lady of Lourdes on the small table next to Elizabeth is the one that she gave to her mother when entering the monastery. In her final illness, the statue returned to Carmel and Elizabeth called her, “Janua Coeli”, meaning “Gate of Heaven.” Image credit: Discalced Carmelites

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/08/30/sabeth-lastretr16a/

#CarmeliteSpirituality #contemplation #inspiration #Jesus #LaudemGloriae #NewJerusalem #Psalms #selfDenial #spiritualDirection #StElizabethOfTheTrinity

Let us go on to other things that are also quite important, although they may seem small. Everything seems to be a heavy burden, and rightly so, because it involves a war against ourselves. But once we begin to work, God does so much in the soul and grants it so many favors that all that one can do in this life seems little….

Why should we, then, delay in practicing interior mortification? For interior mortification makes everything else more meritorious and perfect, and afterward enables us to do the other things with greater ease and repose. This interior mortification is acquired, as I have said by proceeding gradually, not giving in to our own will and appetites, even in little things, until the body is completely surrendered to the spirit [cf. Way, chap. 11, no. 5: “this determination is more important than we realize”].

The least that any of us who has truly begun to serve the Lord can offer Him is our own life. Since we have given the Lord our will, what do we fear? It is clear that if someone is a true religious or a true person of prayer and aims to enjoy the delights of God, he must not turn his back upon the desire to die for God and suffer martyrdom.

For don’t you know yet, Sisters, that the life of a good religious who desires to be one of God’s close friends is a long martyrdom? A long martyrdom because in comparison with the martyrdom of those who are quickly beheaded, it can be called long; but all life is short, and the life of some extremely short.

And how do we know if ours won’t be so short that at the very hour or moment we determine to serve God completely it will come to an end? This is possible.

In sum, there is no reason to give importance to anything that will come to an end. And who will not work hard if he thinks that each hour is the last? Well, believe me, thinking this is the safest course.

Saint Teresa of Avila

The Way of Perfection, Chap.12, nos. 1–2

Note: St. Teresa encouraged her nuns to actively prepare and practice for martyrdom, according to the accounts of 16th-century historian Belchior de Santa Ana, O.C.D. He indicates that Mother Maria de San José Salazar, O.C.D. carried the tradition of these pious recreations to the Carmel of Lisbon.

Teresa of Avila, St. 1985, The Collected Works of St. Teresa of Avila, translated from the Spanish by Kavanaugh, K; Rodriguez, O, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: These metal stolperstein (“stumbling stones”) bear Edith and Rosa Stein’s names, marking the site of their arrest in front of the Carmel of Echt, Bovenstestraat 48. Image credit: Qwertzu111111 / Wikimedia Commons (Some rights reserved)

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/08/08/stj-longmartyrdom/

#desire #determination #DiscalcedCarmelites #martyrdom #martyrs #monasticLife #mortification #offering #religiousLife #selfDenial #StTeresaOfAvila

To be a disciple of Jesus means first of all “to deny yourself”, which doesn’t mean to negate oneself, to despise that which makes us unique, nor to undermine our self-esteem. Jesus simply wants to tell us: stop thinking only of yourself, don’t always put yourself first, and don’t let your selfish interests prevail, because with that you deprive yourself of the joy of loving, you make living together more complicated, and you become less human.

To be a disciple of Jesus means to take up the cross and follow him. The cross isn’t synonymous with suffering, it means extreme love, a limitless love like Jesus has, that doesn’t break in the face of misunderstanding or rejection.

The price of all authentic and faithful love is the cross. Taking up the cross requires purifying our hearts of all selfish ambition and petty projects and always being ready to sacrifice ourselves for the common good.

To take up the cross involves lowering ourselves to the world of the poor and suffering in order to be on their side, to take on their anguish, and to give them back the dignity and hope that God wants for them. “Take up your cross” above all means to assume the almost always painful consequences of the fight to eliminate the suffering of the crucified members of society.

From Peter’s perspective, all this may seem foolish and incomprehensible. However, for those of us who believe in Jesus, the way of the cross is not a path of failure or defeat. On the contrary: “Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Mt 16:25).

If we are obsessed with ourselves, we’ll end up having a sterile and mediocre life and we’ll end up losing it; on the other hand, whoever gives his life generously and spends it every day with love, following Jesus, offering up his life as Jesus did and living for what he lived, will find life in all its fullness.

Today’s Gospel ends with this statement: “For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done” (Mt 16:27). To follow Jesus on the way of the cross is to participate even now, day by day, in his own glorious life, until he himself introduces us one day, forever, into the kingdom of his Father.

Silvio José Báez, o.c.d.

Auxiliary Bishop of Managua
Homily, 30 August 2020 (excerpts)

Translation from the Spanish text is the blogger’s own work product and may not be reproduced without permission.

Featured image: Bishop Silvio José Báez, O.C.D. (center) and Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes (right), along with other archdiocesan priests, seminarians, and volunteers pray together in the Metropolitan Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Managua, Nicaragua on 9 July 2018. They had just returned from the Basilica of St. Sebastian in Diriamba, Nicaragua, where their mission—accompanied by the apostolic nuncio—was to obtain the release of several volunteers who were held captive in the basilica by Sandinista conspirators. Although their mission was peaceful, they were met with violence. Bishop Báez and other members of the archdiocesan delegation were injured and bloodied in the melée and Bishop Báez’s episcopal insignia was stolen; thankfully, it was recovered later. Learn more about the painful consequences that Bishop Báez suffered 9 July 2018 at St. Sebastian Basilica in Diriamba, Nicaragua. Image credit: Silvio José Báez, ocd / Facebook (Used by gracious permission)

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/07/08/baez-30aug20/

#BishopSilvioJoséBáez #Christ #cross #discipleship #ego #freedom #humanDignity #KingdomOfGod #love #mediocrity #poor #sacrifice #selfDenial #selfishness #suffering

We can offer three reasons for calling this journey toward union with God a night.

1. The first has to do with the point of departure, because individuals must deprive themselves of their appetites for worldly possessions. This denial and privation is like a night for all one’s senses.
2. The second reason refers to the means or the road along which a person travels to this union. Now this road is faith, and for the intellect faith is also like a dark night.
3. The third reason pertains to the point of arrival, namely God. And God is also a dark night to the soul in this life. These three nights pass through a soul, or better, the soul passes through them in order to reach union with God.

In actuality, these three nights comprise only one night, a night divided into three parts like natural night. The first part, the night of the senses, resembles early evening, that time of twilight when things begin to fade from sight. The second part, faith, is completely dark, like midnight. The third part, representing God, is like the very early dawn just before the break of day.

Saint John of the Cross

The Ascent of Mount Carmel, I, chap. 2, nos. 1, 5

John of the Cross, St. 1991, The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross, Revised Edition, translated from the Spanish by Kavanaugh, K and Rodriguez, O with revisions and introductions by Kavanaugh, K, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: Canadian photographer James Wheeler captured this lakeside photo of the Milky Way in 2013. Image credit: James Wheeler / Pexels (Stock photo)

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/06/29/juan-asc1ch2/

#appetites #darkNight #darkness #faith #God #possessions #selfDenial #soul #StJohnOfTheCross #unionWithGod

I’m in meditation. Our Lord told me I should meditate on the purity of the Virgin. She, without saying anything to me, began to speak. I didn’t recognize her voice and asked if it was Jesus. She answered me that Our Lord was within my soul, but that she was speaking to me. She told me I should write down what she was telling me about purity.

1. To be pure in thought: that is to say, I should reject any thought that’s not from God so I’d constantly be living in His presence. For this I must strive to have affection for no creature.
2. To be pure in my desires, in such a way that I desire only to belong to God more each day; to desire His glory and to be a saint and perform all my deeds with perfection. To this end, never to desire either honor or praise, but to be despised and undergo humiliations, since in this way I am pleasing to God. To desire no comforts or anything that flatters my senses. To desire neither to eat nor sleep but only to serve God better.
3. To be pure in my deeds. To abstain from all that can defile me and from all that is not permitted by God who seeks my sanctification. To do all things for God as best I can, not because creatures are looking at me. To avoid every word that’s not spoken for God and for His glory. In my conversations, always bring in something about God. I’m to look at nothing without necessity, but contemplate God in His works. To imagine that God is always looking at me. In my tastes to abstain from what is pleasing to self. If I eat anything I should take no delight in it, and I should offer it to God, because for me it is necessary to serve Him better. I should mortify my sense of touch by not touching myself without necessity, or any other person. In a word, my whole spirit should be immersed in God in such a way that I forget my body completely. Mary lived this way since she was born; but it was much easier for her since she was always full of grace. I should do all on my part to imitate her, since by so doing God will unite Himself intimately to me. I should pray to obtain this grace. In this way I’ll reflect God who is in my soul.

Saint Teresa of the Andes

Her Intimate Spiritual Diary, 22 February 1919

Griffin, M D & Teresa of the Andes, S 2021, God, The Joy of My Life: A Biography of Saint Teresa of the Andes With the Saint’s Spiritual Diary, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: The Virgin of the Annunciation is a sculpture carved from limestone in Paris ca. 1300-1310. Traces of paint can still be seen on the sculpture. The sculpture’s modest dimensions (16 11/16 × 11 5/8 × 7 3/8 in., 34 lb.) permit the delicate features of the sculpture to be clearly seen. This artwork is on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Medieval Sculpture Hall in New York City. Image credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art (Public domain)

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/05/26/mdj2024-ep27/

#BlessedVirginMary #contemplation #mysticalExperience #prayer #presenceOfGod #purity #selfDenial #StTeresaOfTheAndes

#Lent2B Get behind me Satan. A reminder that claiming to be a follower of Christ while trying to force Christ to follow you is idolatry and of the devil. May we never confuse personal ambition with Christian discipleship.
#Episcopal #Sermon #SelfDenial #Lent

Imperfect: the garden is overgrown now.

This short story highlights the difficulties of disassociating through life decision and parenthood.

I wrote this in 2017, less than a year after I miscarried. I carried a lot of grief, which is expressed in this short, fictional story through scenes of daily life.

https://laurenhaugfisher.ca/2024/01/20/imperfect/

#Gender, #HopelessRomantic, #Literature, #Parenthood, #SelfDenial, #ShortStory, #Story, #Wife #Writing

@baldrpup you can, but you're not obliged to. #SelfDenial

#apostlepaul #youvegotmail #churchleaders #newtestament #isawthelight #newname #disciple #missionarylife #persecution #jailtime #InJesusName #Apostle #saintpaul #doctrine #theology #cannon #letters #Gentiles #youredoingitwrong #selfdenial #IdentityInChrist #exvangelical #evangelism #christian #christianity #writing #interpretation #sanctification #lifeinchrist #ChristInMe