Spiritual Living

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benjoy07

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I just want to post my thoughts and hopefully receive insight into my concerns. I am a Catholic. My heart wants to grow in my faith and live for God every day. And that is why I have come to many obstacles and questions. Please forgive my ranting and nonsensical, random blogging, if you will.

From what I have read, have been taught, and have come to understand, one of the ultimate goals for Catholics is to live by the Spirit and not for the World.

God so LOVED the world, he gave his only Son… Doesn’t this explicitly say God loved the world? Yet, we’re asked NOT to love this world? I just found that interesting.
Focus in building our treasures in Heaven, and not on Earth. How difficult that will be if one is married. Why does the church still allow marriage, when inevitably, focus will be swayed to caring for wife and shelter and food and not completely on Heaven. How do we fully live for the Spirit, when part of us is NOT spirit, but is physical? And being physical, we must tend to those physical needs, not necessarily desires, but needs, like food, shelter, clothing, etc. How does this conflict EVER get resolved? To strictly live spiritually seems to be impossible because we’re not ONLY spiritual, but we are also physical. The spirit doesn’t need what our physical bodies need, yet we have to obey our body’s needs to continue to live on earth.

Is the answer that we need only to LOVE in all things that we do, to fulfill our spiritual living? If we can do that, are all other things we do for the physical body acceptable as long as we always LOVE? Otherwise, it seems impossible to fully be spiritual while still living in our physical bodies. Is that why we seek the grace given at confession? Because there is no way any of us will ever meet the expectations that God has for us. None of us can ever be perfect. Are we hoping that before we die, we were able to receive absolution? Because without it, we all probably sin, even in our minds, once a day! On another note about LOVE, how do we teach our young children in today’s society, to love that bully who keeps harassing them? How do we explain to our children NOT to defend themselves, but to Love them? Are they to sit there and take it, expressing Love for them? We are taught to be humble and without pride. How hard is that for a parent to raise their child with no pride in themselves or even in their own parents? Won’t they lack self-esteem? That doesn’t seem right. Maybe I’m being extreme, but isn’t that what we are to practice?

I’ve been doing some soul searching. I’ve been trying to focus inward vs outward. Improve and better my faith. I want to let go of world attachments and focus on treasures in Heaven. But I am married with children. And I love my family. But the things I mentioned above confuse me. And I’m sure there are others who might have felt or feel like I do. I’m praying and I’m trying. But it’s hard to know where to go, when the goal and the method sometimes doesn’t make sense to me…I appreciate any and all insight. It seems to me the only way to be fully righteous is to not have gotten married nor have children sell all my belongings and join the priesthood!
 
You need the guidance of a spiritual director. But, considering how hard it can be to get one, you should read the works of the great Saints written for lay people. St. Frances de Sales was the spiritual director of lay people and wrote his instructions for them. Also, St. Therese of Lisieux taught her “Little Way” for ordinary people. She too believed that all our thoughts, words, and deeds can be done with love, and so not only please God, but bring him and his word to others. Ask at your local Catholic book store for titles that will help you live out your Catholic faith in the world.
 
Your questions are very profound. Some of them we actually discussed in our small church group couple weeks ago. I can’t answer all your questions but I’ll try my best. My answers are just my personal point of view, you may or may not agree.

God did not call everyone to priesthood. Majority of us probably will get into marriage.
No matter which life style or call we answered to, our life on earth is a journey of learning that prepares us to be with God in eternity. We are both physical and spiritual.
But in eternity, we are spiritual, at least before our physical body is resurrected. Therefore, while we are bound in our physical body, our spiritual aspect is very important. Taking care of our family is our responsibility. God wants us to fulfill our responsibility. Actually laboring for our daily responsibility is part of our learning process that trains us with patience, integrity, hard working, humility, and trust in God.
In doing so, though we are dealing with the physical aspect, the spiritual part is actually included in.

There is no conflict between performing our daily job, taking care of our family and seeking God as well as spirituality. St. Terese’s “Little Way” is the best example.
Brother Lawrence’s “Practice the Presence of God” is another. During our busy daily schedule, we can discipline ourselves with daily Bible reading, regular prayers, and thinking of and talking to God often.

Our secular life provides lots of opportunities for us to practice loving our neighbors as ourselves. How to teach our children is a good question. Our small church group discussed that. All of us agree when kids are little, we cannot tell them not to defend themselves. If a school bully bothers our kids the first time, go tell the teacher. If the school authority could not correct the problem, show the bully back so he would know to stop. My theory is when our children are really young, they have to properly protect themselves.Let them understand that standing up for themselves does not mean to revenge. It is for the purpose of not getting hurt and stop the wrong doing from the other person. The Gospel concept could be instilled when they are older. Someone may not agree with me. But that is the way I brought up mine. And they are very decent Gospel living young man and woman today.

As for taking pride, confidence and proper pride are good. That is different from arrogant and proud. We should praise our children for their good performance and let them know we are proud of them. Just teach them to thank God for all the talents and abilities, for all good things are from God.

I hope this helps a little. God bless!
 
InLight247 said:
In doing so, though we are dealing with the physical aspect, the spiritual part is actually included in.
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Thank you for book references. I will have to check those out. Just from the two posts, I thought about the following:

If the main goal of spiritual living is to please and serve God, that is, He wants us to focus on the spirit, not worldly things, and understand his teachings are of and for the spirit. And, because his teachings are to care for our physical body because it is the temple of our spirit, serving the body’s needs is actually for the spirit. Focusing again on things in Heaven and building my treasures in Heaven, to do that, again, is by giving LOVE, because that is what he commands of us, of our spirit. So through marriage, an outward sign of Love and loving my family and tending to their needs out of love, physical and spiritual, I am again pleasing and serving God, ultimately building my treasures in Heaven. I’m just writing out loud…

Still thinking on the other things as well…
 
benjoy07 said:
Thank you for book references. I will have to check those out. Just from the two posts, I thought about the following:

If the main goal of spiritual living is to please and serve God, that is, He wants us to focus on the spirit, not worldly things, and understand his teachings are of and for the spirit. And, because his teachings are to care for our physical body because it is the temple of our spirit, serving the body’s needs is actually for the spirit. Focusing again on things in Heaven and building my treasures in Heaven, to do that, again, is by giving LOVE, because that is what he commands of us, of our spirit. So through marriage, an outward sign of Love and loving my family and tending to their needs out of love, physical and spiritual, I am again pleasing and serving God, ultimately building my treasures in Heaven. I’m just writing out loud…

Still thinking on the other things as well…
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You are right that we are pleasing and serving God by serving others. Jesus said when we do good deed to the least of our brothers we are doing to him. Showing our love to our family and our neighbors are pleasing to God. In addition to that, we also build a personal relationship with our Lord by attending Mass, reading Bible, praying, doing spiritual reading, attending Eucharist adoration, going to confession, sharing our talents and treasures and getting involved with our parish.🙂
 
God created us as body and spirit, not spirit alone. Jesus confirmed the dignity of our human nature by taking on human flesh Himself. He lived for thirty years in a human family, doing ordinary human things (extraordinarily well). He ate, drank, slept, and worked. During His public ministry he not only cared for people’s spiritual needs (by prayer, teaching, forgiving sins, etc.), but also cared for their physical needs (feeding the hungry, healing the sick) and interacted with them socially (dining with them, attending a wedding, etc.). We are called to imitate Him in all these ways.
 
I agree about getting involved with our parish. I have been trying to do that. And I have also been focusing my reading and radio and television on catholic oriented material. As I said in my OP, I’m trying to focus inward vs outward, attempting to focus more on improving my spirit, my faith, and re-evaluating my priorities, rather than things external, e.g., money, career, physical, etc. It goes without saying; it is NOT and easy undertaking. I feel I was raised with catholic values and taught good values, in earthly perspectives, like get a good education, strive for wealth, have pride, don’t be a welcome mat, etc. Traits I always thought were good. But learning more about Jesus’ teachings, some of what I thought to be good seem to be in conflict. That causes me some conflict within…
 
I understand what you are saying. But having a good education, a good job, providing well for our family are all good things. As long as we know where our priorities are, those things you mentioned are perfectly fine. God wants us to have an abundant life in every area.

The bottom line is to put God first in our life. I like the saying of “In HIm we live, move and have our being.”
 
Philo; thanks for your insight. Some of what you wrote did cross my mind; that is, Jesus doing all those things required by the human body, and still be the example, by which spiritual living is modeled after…then again, He is the Lord! Not one of us will ever achieve His perfection as a human. So that means we are asked to strive for it, but never expect to achieve it. If that’s the case, my frustration is normal and is expected, because even though I want to achieve perfect spiritual living, I will never have that in this earthly life…?
 
I think what is key here is understanding the difference between “detachment” from the world, as opposed to rejection of the world. My view is we are called to “detach” ourselves from anything that does not lead us to include God in our daily lives. This does not mean that God wants us to reject the world, but our actions within it must be solely for the purpose of coming closer to Him. When we are confronted by a difficult decision, the proper context to see this decision in is whether or not the outcome will help bring you closer to God, nothing else matters. If our basic physical/emotional/spiritual needs demand a certain material possession and we can afford it, then the decision is easy to take - these needs must be satisfied. If we perceive we need a luxury item because we feel pressured by society in some way - then we must weigh up these social pressures against whether this item takes us closer to God or farther away - again nothing else matters. It comes back to contemplating our purpose in this life and following our Fathre’s will - to love God and others - nothing else matters in this world or the next. But this way of living can only be achieved through regular deep prayer with the Trinity, for your family to accept this way of thinking means they must also have deep silent prayer with God in their lives too. In this way we are transformed from the burdens of original sin into beings that are in union with Trinity throughout their lives - societal pressures then fall away quickly. I will pray for you.
 
Forgive me, but I haven’t read all the recent posts. I’m posting a thought related to my OP. I think what was partly responsible for my OP, was comparing something I read or heard, which implied the OT law was for man, but the NT law was for the spirit. And then something along the lines of letting our human part obey the OT law and our spirit obey the NT law. (Sorry if this is starting to sound confusing; it’s because I am!) So if our human side sins, it’s because it is always prone to sin–but not our spirits. So, mind our spirits? How can our human side sin without our spiritual side be at fault? Can they be separate? As you can see this confuses me. And I may be over analyzing, but just putting it up for discussion and insight. Thanks!
 
benjoy07 said:
Forgive me, but I haven’t read all the recent posts. I’m posting a thought related to my OP. I think what was partly responsible for my OP, was comparing something I read or heard, which implied the OT law was for man, but the NT law was for the spirit. And then something along the lines of letting our human part obey the OT law and our spirit obey the NT law. (Sorry if this is starting to sound confusing; it’s because I am!) So if our human side sins, it’s because it is always prone to sin–but not our spirits. So, mind our spirits? How can our human side sin without our spiritual side be at fault? Can they be separate? . . .
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No. 🙂 We cannot excuse ourselves by saying (wrongly) that our spirit is pure, but our bodies sinful. When we sin, our whole self sins. But by God’s merciful love we are being raised through fidelity to the graces we receive (especially through Baptism, Confession and the Eucharist) to become more truly images of Christ. He - with the Other Two Persons of the Blessed Trinity - has made His home in us through the Sanctifying Grace received at Baptism. As we are transformed in Christ our bodies become more subject to our wills that are to becoming one (sometimes exceedingly slowly! 🙂 ) with His most holy Will.
 
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