Holiness -- how do we distinguish it to become holy?

[BarbaraTherese]

We might be “in” this world, but we’re called to be not “of” this world. Can’t do it without unceasing prayer, however – I wish I didn’t suffer from such short-term memory and self-centeredness, so that I can stay connected with God in prayer unceasingly.

We’re striving to be holy when we’re trying to follow His will.

Hi Quiet52…Jim_OCDS is quite a mentor for me on this Board. I absolutely admire his spot on most conscise answers - I would fail miserably on the “concise scoring” for sure -as for the spot on, I dunno - I rave on well I know though…Dont you feel alone…I suffer short term memory and decided self-centredness, ego inflation and pride that if a conquer it in the conscious me, just slips into the unconscious and shows itself without my realizing it until after the event. I dont know what the answers are for sure, other than to pray about it all and to just go on praying and persevering and hoping for the Grace to be more Loving in every way - Loving of God and hence of all my brothers and sisters - my neighbour…less concerned and me and my imagined needs that are questionable. Failing that, that God will be rich in His Undeserved Mercy to me. Tonight I was thinking about St. Teresa of Avila calling herself a miserable worm…why she has sanctified little worms by calling herself one…I’m fishing around for something truly despicable for myself without much luck.
Problem is, it seems to me, that if I become fixed in fear afraid to move right or left because of my sins, imperfections and weaknesses, then that is not an answer - rather compounding the problem…going on in trustful hope and some remote degree I hope of humility that I am not at all sure is stable, not sure at all for sure if it is anything remotely near humility. Every so often I get into a state of total confusion where I cannot even find the ends let alone let get them to meet…my answer is to be peacefully confused as long as I am peacefully confused

Thanks for the frank openhearted sharing!
Blessings Peace and Joy…Barb
Edit: I just read your post again because something was niggling at me…it is the word “trying” as in your “trying to follow God’s Will”…that word is most comforting.

 

[BarbaraTherese]

“Holiness is to see the naked human body and to see in it the mystery of God.” – Pope John Paul II

 

[BarbaraTherese]

Yes, here is the response if I may say to God’s giving different amounts of grace, faith, love, blessings to those who He choses to give them to, as Jesus tells us that one person was given 5 tallents another 3 and another 1 and each was called to accounting latter. Each was given more as they showed their ability in faith in God.

individuals cannot put into practice without grace or heart of God?, as David had the heart of God.
God bless
littleone

…a really excellent comment of yours drawingon the Parable of The Talents. This connects up with what Jim said about holiness is becoming the person God intended from all eternity. I read somewhere that God actually needs us to be that person (of course God needs nothing) - that’s a real mind bender - I think anyway I know what I mean,I just cant explain it - which spares you all anther raving post from moi!

We are all given different gifts of all kind including the spiritual coupled to that our various experiences in life factor in and other things…to bring into being a quite unique person in actuality but also in potential Grace dependant

Blessings all Peace and JOy…barb

 

[littleone]

I read somewhere that God actually needs us to be that person (of course God needs nothing) - that’s a real mind bender - I think anyway I know what I mean,I just cant explain it - which spares you all anther raving post from moi!
We are all given different gifts of all kind including the spiritual coupled to that our various experiences in life factor in and other things…to bring into being a quite unique person in actuality but also in potential Grace dependant

This is how I relate.
The whole world is a painting, if it were only one colour (which ever) how dreary it would be and who would follow. The world is made of many flowers some small others large. but non is greater or less than the other for after all it is the designer who is blessed. To see His ***greatest creation ***smile in seeing these flowers. For ***the greatest flower He created is mankind ***who is made to His own likeness.
Godbless
littleone

 

[BarbaraTherese]

I read somewhere that God actually needs us to be that person (of course God needs nothing) - that’s a real mind bender - I think anyway I know what I mean,I just cant explain it - which spares you all anther raving post from moi!
We are all given different gifts of all kind including the spiritual coupled to that our various experiences in life factor in and other things…to bring into being a quite unique person in actuality but also in potential Grace dependant

This is how I relate.
The whole world is a painting, if it were only one colour (which ever) how dreary it would be and who would follow. The world is made of many flowers some small others large. but non is greater or less than the other for after all it is the designer who is blessed. To see His ***greatest creation ***smile in seeing these flowers. For ***the greatest flower He created is mankind ***who is made to His own likeness.
Godbless
littleone

Great insight and explained beautifully, LO! Many of our saints drew on the garden and flowers to find explained and to explain some of our most beautiful teachings in Catholicism.

    Talking to a Carmelite Nun one day about the garden and she said "We have lots of uninvited guests"........she meant weeds. I thought it such a beautiful terminology for God's creations - we call weeds.

Connecting up to that we have two weeds in Australia that are most upsetting to many “Sour Sobs” and Salvation Jane". Now SourSobs are the prettiest little bright green stem and vivid bright yellow flower … Salvation Jane is a beautiful vivid purple coloured flower and in the winter they will proliferate (and nothing is more beautiful than a huge paddock covered in their brilliant yellow and purple hues) and I pick them and put them on the kitchen table. Some walk into my winter kitchen and just start laughing. Some think my aesthetic taste in winter flowers is a sign of mental illness, others that it is not mental illness but that I am totally eccentric to appreciate weeds and put them in a vase on my kitchen table. Rather I think beauty and its contrary is always confined to the eyes of the beholder…it is a subjective matter most often. We need, I think, to be able to look beyond tags and nouns, concepts and notions and see simply what is really there.
It is called “eidic perception” (you will probably know the correct spelling, LO - it is terminology from psychology) most all loose eidic perception very early in babyhood when they are first being taught to speak.
I remember that the nun that taught me in College said that life and creation was like a great tapestry that God was working on and we were each a strand and a colour. She said to consider a completed tapestry and if one strand and colour is out of place, it spoils the whole. The essence is if God needs a green thread in the very lower right corner to be that green thread in the lower right corner joyfully and rejoicingly, thankfully and happily…and not want to be and strive to be the bright yellow group of strands towards the upper left hand corner - which is a spoiling of the whole and God’s Divine Plan. Of course, that ties in with the Doctrine of The Mystical Body one of the truly beautiful Doctrines of Catholicism. I really identifed with that story.

Stunning huh, LO, to consider that each person and us too are made in the Image of God…I guess maybe one should not call oneself nasty names after all - and should strive to appreciate others as indeed in the Image of God…awesome thought. Our Catholic Theology which of course is founded and based always in Scripture, is a wondrous and great gift and it really is something that we do have to offer mankind that would resolve so many of the problems mankind grapples with, struggles with and cannot find answers.

Thanks for the sharing and (name removed by moderator)ut…cacha on the rounds,LO…blessings Peace and Joy - Barb

 

[littleone]

Stunning huh, LO, to consider that each person and us too are made in the Image of God…I guess maybe one should not call oneself nasty names after all - and should strive to appreciate others as indeed in the Image of God…awesome thought. Our Catholic Theology which of course is founded and based always in Scripture, is a wondrous and great gift and it really is something that we do have to offer mankind that would resolve so many of the problems mankind grapples with, struggles with and cannot find answers.
Thanks for the sharing and (name removed by moderator)ut…cacha on the rounds,LO…blessings Peace and Joy - Barb

I think that you have summed a lot up in that pint Barb. Yes every time we call ourselves names little on not then we put the “temple” of God down do we not?

"There is only ONE God in heaven and on earth, ALL others forms and thoughts are but of the figment of mans mind and bound to diminish when “Love” comes to take their place"

God bless
littleone

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[BarbaraTherese]

Stunning huh, LO, to consider that each person and us too are made in the Image of God…I guess maybe one should not call oneself nasty names after all - and should strive to appreciate others as indeed in the Image of God…awesome thought. Our Catholic Theology which of course is founded and based always in Scripture, is a wondrous and great gift and it really is something that we do have to offer mankind that would resolve so many of the problems mankind grapples with, struggles with and cannot find answers.
Thanks for the sharing and (name removed by moderator)ut…cacha on the rounds,LO…blessings Peace and Joy - Barb

I think that you have summed a lot up in that pint Barb. Yes every time we call ourselves names little on not then we put the “temple” of God down do we not?

"There is only ONE God in heaven and on earth, ALL others forms and thoughts are but of the figment of mans mind and bound to diminish when “Love” comes to take their place"

God bless
littleone

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Hi there again LO…Yes if we put ourselves down we are putting down the temple of The Holy Spirit. That is sound theology. Not that I mean St. Teresa of Avila for sure was attempting any such thing…I truly admire the wondrous humility of St. Teresa and she was searching for a way to describe how she really saw herself and I think in her writings always fearful that she might wrongly shine and not the Jesus she loved and who had gifted her so highly in the mystical phenomrna she experienced and experiences which she shared in her writing.
I must admit ( a bit of humor here,LO!) what on earth did little worms do to St. Teresa that she thought them in any way miserable “miserable worm I am” or something like that she wrote…which is me joking in every way. I know, I think anyway, what she meant, what she was striving for which I mentioned in the paragraph above and hence, entirely commendable. She wanted Jesus who had gifted her to shine and not anything about herself per se and only. It is not so much what we may say do or think…but the motive behind it all. “Men judges appearances, but The Lord sees the heart” that is in Samuel somewhere or other, and will dig out the reference if needed.

Be all that as it may, we do need to be able to recall always that we are indeed tabernacles of the Holy Spirit. The dictionary definition of “tabernacle” is interesting. We are tabernacles, in Grace, of The Blessed Trinity. This could be, I can see a real conflict…to want to convey our state as sinner while realizing our wondrous state of the Indwelling of The Blessed Trinity. I guess common sense prevails and common sense, says ST. Abert in the Ancient Rule of Carmel, is the foundation of all virtue. Nor is it in any way offensive to God I dont think to want to stress that there is nothing about ourselves that is of intrinsic good, nothing small or great, which does not belong and have its source and origin in God who showers His Gifts wherever He may and not particularly concerned about rules etc. God also protects and will increase that good…nothing comes good from us that is not Grace. Sinners we are conceived and remain. Always loved and always forgiven sinners if we ask for Mercy. “That you be without reproach when You judge, see Lord a sinner was I conceived”…Psalm in the Divine Office.

Dear me, sometimes others ask me a simple question and get such along and involved answer! Apologies LO…cacha on the rounds!..hope I haven’t made things entirely too much confused…regards and God’s Every Blessing to you…and all…Barb

Where on earth was I when God was handing out conciseness and brevity - oh and "to the point’???

 

[BarbaraTherese]

Quoting mysef:

“Our Catholic Theology which of course is founded and based always in Scripture, is a wondrous and great gift and it really is something that we do have to offer mankind that would resolve so many of the problems mankind grapples with, struggles with and cannot find answers.”

There is something needed at the end of the above “and the question remains, how do we effectively communicate to mankind the wonder and reality of Catholic Theology which is based on Scripture and The Gospels, which mirrors the Compassionate, Understanding and Merciful Heart of Jesus for only one” and a great wondrous matter of itself. We do indeed have the answers for mankind…we need to know how to communicate it with affect and effect. That is the existing and ongoing quest and question. First I think by the person we are…to become what we want the world to be as I think it was one of our saints said. It is a quote from somewhere or other.
God has gifted us through Scripture for only one with this theology…and indeed far far more over nad above that than we could ever hopefully dream of ever.
I read a story once. It was fiction. About a man who brought fire to a village. They had never known fire before…over many many years of time they put it on a throne and worshipped it…and lost the knowledge that fire could light dark places and warm cold people…cook food etc. They lost too the knowledge the man had given them of how to light a fire. That is the story in a nutshell, it did give me pause to ponder.

Blessings Peace Joy…barb