R
ready
Guest
You are very welcome, Simple Soul!
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B
Bookcat
Guest
Some persons can go down the “wrong path” here…ending up in undue fears about what is rightly a gift from God and not something he is “asking them to give up” but just their thoughts or fears…
Such good gifts need not “compete” with the giver of those gifts…
B
Bookcat
Guest
R
ready
Guest
But when they do, they should be given up is what I am saying. God bless you.
B
Bookcat
Guest
Sure. But often times person misjudge and get off the right path…here. Hence a good director or confessor is rather helpful.
B
Bookcat
Guest
R
Robert_Sock
Guest
I guess that when taken to the extreme we can become obsessed with it to the degree that we fail to do the will of God in other areas of our live, such as in our failure to promote LOVE in the world. Some degree of balance is certainly needed. But I personally feel that this is relatively rare, and that we ought to develop the spiritual discipline and self-mortification needed to be willing and able sacrifice any worldly pleasure, at any point in time, in favor demonstrating our love for God.
Can you please provide some examples of the “wrong path” so we are all on the same page?
LOVE!
B
Bookcat
Guest
A person might think they have to give up all “non religious” good things in life.
A person who when faced with a choice between going to a good movie with a friend or going to pray -thinks they are sinning if they choose the good movie.
Various degrees and kinds of scruples.
A person with OCD who take their thoughts as the will of God and thinks or feels they have to do such thoughts (such would make the OCD their director -indeed more than their director!)
A person who thinks the Church teaches that one is not to enjoy the good gifts that God gives in on this journey (pilgrimage).
A person who fears that if they do not give up what they like - because they like it - that such is a sin.
A person who thinks they have to give up this good non-religious thing just because the feeling or thought happened that they ought to -but no real reason -no moral reason etc.
A person who thinks that creation is evil.
A person who thinks they need to discern what cereal God wants them to eat that morning…
A person who thinks the if they are not constantly doing religious things they are not living as a Christian or are sinning. (not the case!).
A person who thinks that God’s will is always at odds with what they like.
A person who does not realize that we need to “relax the bow” or it will break (as St. Bruno and others noted).
A person who thinks that if they must always choose the more perfect thing or they will sin.
A person with some other psychological disorder that leads to wrong judgments about things.
A person who confuses imperfection with sin.
A person who does not understand yet that we are to be “thankful” for the good gifts of God.
Etc.
J
JRKH
Guest
R
Robert_Sock
Guest
I believe that it is much better to risk going down the “wrong path” than to fail our loving God with all our soul, with all our heart, with all our mind, and with all our strength. I doubt that God would condemn us or send us to Purgatory for going down such a path, but that He very well may do so if we shut out His voice and thus fail in our love for Him. Pascal’s Wager comes to mind here.
LOVE!
LOVE!
R
ready
Guest
When some worldly pleasure that goes against reason is engaged in, one does not need a spiritual director to give it up – one MUST give it up right on the spot, for the pleasure goes against one’s faith illumined by reason. Faith illuminated by reason and the gift of counsel operate effectively in the mind of a balanced Catholic who is in a state of grace. Yes, spiritual directors are very integral, but they do want their spiritual children to be sensible enough to automatically give up things that any reasonable Catholic knows to be harmful or a distraction from God. God bless you.
R
ready
Guest
Sure, they can be helpful when necessary. But there are some decisions that well balanced Catholic is a state of grace should be reasonable enough to – and must – make for themselves. God bless you.
B
Bookcat
Guest
yes.
B
Bookcat
Guest
R
Robert_Sock
Guest
B
Bookcat
Guest
We are not discussing “sinful things”.
Yes of course one ought to give them up right away.
(Worldly pleasure gets used in differing senses and I recall here it was being used in the non-sinful sense.)
Though of course if one is scrupulous that can be a different matter -for they see sin where sin is not…etc and need a regular confessor to direct them to act against such -for them obedience is very key despite their thoughts or feelings to the contrary.
B
Bookcat
Guest
R
ready
Guest
Yes.
R
ready
Guest
‘Think, wherever you are, that God is near you. As there is no moment of time when we are not enjoying some benefit from the hand of God, so there ought to be no moment of time when we have not God in our thoughts. "He who always has God in his thoughts, " says St. Ephrem, “will become like an angel on the earth.”’
(Above excerpt taken from The Catechism Explained by Spirago-Clark)
(Above excerpt taken from The Catechism Explained by Spirago-Clark)
R
ready
Guest
Practicing mortification involves giving up sensual pleasures, sinful and sinless pleasures of the sense. It is very meritorious to give up a sinless pleasure of the senses for the love of God. God bless you.
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