Questions on people's duty to change-?

[fakename]

Are people supposed to change even if it is difficult? I think yes, and if that is true, then shouldn’t people change even when it damages their interests or other’s interests since sacrificing interests is difficult, but every difficult thing shouldn’t get in the way of change?

But that ignores the possibility that some of your interests may be reasonable. So how does one solve this? I think that therefore people have a duty to learn what is most important and to be willing to be corrected about their priorities. Is this conclusion true? And should we be unafraid of rudeness or offensiveness in pursuing correction, or is offensiveness a vice too (I once heard that it is a virtue to not be offensive to people?

 

[michelleds]

Your question is a little too vague, i think. Change what? change into something? change a tire? change an attitude? change churches? change clothes?

Since you’re asking about a duty to change, I’m assuming this is change on a moral level. If you are asking if one has a moral duty to bring themselves more and more in line with God, then, yes, you have that duty.

if it’s something specific, then give us an example.

 

[fakename]

Your question is a little too vague, i think. Change what? change into something? change a tire? change an attitude? change churches? change clothes?

Since you’re asking about a duty to change, I’m assuming this is change on a moral level. If you are asking if one has a moral duty to bring themselves more and more in line with God, then, yes, you have that duty.

if it’s something specific, then give us an example.

essentially moral change, attitude change (indeed these may sometimes also require you to change your clothes).

But there were also other questions: should we change when it is difficult? Is it okay to put-off a change for later if it is too difficult?

Should we therefore try to cause changes in others regardless of cost?

Should we endeavor to know the importance of everything in order to know what our duties are, how to apply them, etc?

 

[marlap2]

The Confessions of St Augustine, Book 8, Chapter 7 - a series of reflections which the saint made on his life and times. “Give me chastity and self-control, but not just yet”.

Every single day, each and every one of us is called to conversion, right? A choice to move towards God’s grace and friendship, or not. Decisions we make, what we wear, how we choose to love our friends, or strangers impacts this…

I love the saints, and in getting to know them, you find that each one of them was called to make some kind of “change” in their lives that was always difficult. Sometimes they had to leave family (St. Francis, St. Clare) change their lifestyle, and not have their love in their life (Dorothy Day), endure a difficult relationship (St. Rita), endure personal ridicule and physical pain (Padre Pio), take changes that would affect his life (St. Damien), accept the rejection of all her family (St. Elizabeth Ann Seton), give up his girlfriend and child born out of wedlock (St. Augustine), save a nation (St. Joan of Arc)… etc. etc.
I could go on and on and on…

I love this question…
God Bless you!

 

[St_Francis]

If God gives you the grace to understand that you need to make a change in your life, then He wants you to do that. But!!! Dom Scupoli in Spiritual Combat explains that we have to rely on God rather than oirselves to effect the change, which is not to say that we just wait around for Him to do it all, but that we ask Him for help every time we need it.

We need the attitude that we are like sick children, very weak. When we fall, it is due to our weakness, but it is to be expected because we are weak. Getting mad at ourselves for falling is a sign that we are not relying on God but thinking that we are stronger than we are and not relying on Him.

What God wants from us is to ask for and rely on His help and try as hard as we can. The next very imporrtant thing is to get back up after we fall. We apologize, brush oirselves off, and move on.

So, yeah… we should not put off making changes. Consider the story of the 10 virgins, some of whom had oil in their lamps and some of whom ddlid not. Our death can come at any moment; don’t put things off.

 

[St_Francis]

Are people supposed to change even if it is difficult? I think yes, and if that is true, then shouldn’t people change even when it damages their interests or other’s interests since sacrificing interests is difficult, but every difficult thing shouldn’t get in the way of change?

But that ignores the possibility that some of your interests may be reasonable. So how does one solve this? I think that therefore people have a duty to learn what is most important and to be willing to be corrected about their priorities. Is this conclusion true? And should we be unafraid of rudeness or offensiveness in pursuing correction, or is offensiveness a vice too (I once heard that it is a virtue to not be offensive to people?

With regard to your last question, it seems that we shouldn’t talk to people about their faults if they would be totally unwilling to listen. We also have to consider the issue of authority, a person with authority over someone else has a much greater responsibility to bring these things up than does someone who doesn’t have authority, and a person under authority also has a greater responsibility to listen to the person in authority over him.

And of course the best thing we can do for another person is to pray for them. That is the most powerful thing we can do for them, and we can strengthen our prayers by fasting and little mortifications.

And as to interests, we have to consider priorities and our states of life. We should consider carefully if it is really from God if He asks us to go off and be a missionary if we are a spouse and parent, right? Otoh, a single person who has a calling forthe religious life should not put that off because they are making a lot of money on Wall Street, right? So it depends on what the interests are and all that.