What of yourselves have you renounced?

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FlowerOfMountCarmel

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I’m considering the Divine Will at the moment, and I wonder what parts of myself are to be clipped away in order to cultivate a full relationship with God.

I have a lot of interests. I like music and literature of all kinds, I enjoy fashion (nothing immodest!) and makeup. I have quite a quirky personality and sense of humour. Sometimes it can be a bit risqué, but nothing obscene, and I’m working on keeping my language as clean as I can. I’m reading the revelations to Mamma Carmella (approved by her Bishop) and Jesus talks about the problem of materialism in it (among other things). I just wondered what would constitute excessive materialism that would displease God? What might I have to give up out of what I’ve just mentioned? I don’t hoard my clothes, I give away what I no longer wear to charity, I donate money to charity as well. I’m taking on more spiritual works of mercy by upping my prayer life. I offer up sufferings too. I know that God loves us just as we are, but He also wishes us to become better people too. Is anything that I’ve just mentioned inappropriate for a good Catholic life?

Also, were there any aspects of your personality that you felt you had to give up for God?
 
I really want to lock myself up in my room so that I can focus on my prayer life.
 
Part of me says that, but I also wonder whether that’s because I fear the world in some respects. Really I should be brave enough to go out there and live the Gospel and rely on Jesus to keep me safe. I don’t trust myself a great deal! 🙂
 
There were many good saints who were away from the World in hermitages and convents and they were a light of the world. I heard that an interior person is more useful than an exterior one since God communes and acts in the former.
 
Absolutely. I have a much richer interior life than exterior one, I think I don’t like crowds, I’m not shouty or noisy, when in a room with dominant personalities I tend to withdraw into myself a great deal. Could be lack of self-confidence as well. Who knows? I just prefer smaller group scenarios where less superficial conversation may be had. I don’t fear silence or solitude. In fact, at times I crave it. It isn’t really solitude anyway, you’re never alone with Christ.
 
there is an inner renunciation and an effective renunciation. Inward renunciation is detachment, it is the desire for effective renunciation. What Jesus expects of us is an inner renunciation of all that we have, and of all our person for his love, that everything includes our loved ones, our honor, our well being, our life. On the other hand, effective renunciation require the discretion, and the advices of a spiritual director or other wise person, because an effective renunciation can cause injustice, for example, a father who gives up his work puts his children in danger. So Jesus does not necessarily require an effective renunciation of us, he expects first from us an inner renunciation.
So inwardly one must be willing to give up everything for God so that if God one day deprives us of any good, instead of being in sadness we will be in joy because internally we had already given to him all our goods.
 
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Once on retreat, I heard the word, “Be the creature I made you to be.”
I’d already been through some difficult times. In pride, I rejected everything in my attempt to follow the example of St. Francis.
It is not necessary to reject everything, those parts of you that make you the individual that God created you to be. In other words, don’t reject the humorous parts of your personality. One of the causes of headaches is taking ourselves too seriously.
I read the autobiography of St. Ignatius of Loyola. He too started by rejecting everything in an attempt to follow St. Francis. In obedience to his superiors, he started to dress better as a student while studying at the Sorbonne. As he developed in understanding, he no longer waited for the Inquisition to call him, but actually reached a point in his understanding to become proactive and courageous enough to approach them when he would become aware that they might have questions concerning what he was teaching.
Some of us are called to live in the world. Yes, we do need a certain amount of the world’s belongings to live a comfortable life. We don’t want to be attached to those belongings. That was the problem with the rich man who owned a lot of possessions, or rather was owned by them.
Can you live with a simple makeup routine as outlined by Justine LeConte? She basically uses BB cream, a little lipstick, and simple eye make-up. See YouTube.
Try a capsule wardrobe. I read a book back in the 1980’s by Emily Chu that starts with a core color for starting a basic wardrobe.
What you are looking for is a simplistic lifestyle, which would be a detached lifestyle.
You don’t need to give up everything entirely. You can begin by following the Biblical principal of the tithe for charity. I split my tithe, following what I learned from my brother with 5% to the Church and 5% 5% 5% to God’s people or charities of choice.
A book worth reading is Discipline of a Beautiful Woman, if you can find it.
Definitely begin your day with prayer.
 
An excellent book is Solitude. I like the definition of alone as all one.
 
I try very hard to surrender what I want when other people want something else. For example I plan on getting something accomplished and someone else needs to talk; or i want to stay home and my wife want to go to som event. Things like that. Small exercises in renouncing my wants. And dont’ get me started at work. There it is often things I have to do but i can renounce my resistance, may attitude, my resentment, etc.
 
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Yeah, The Lord has lead me to forsake some things. I’ve given up violent video games. I used to play violent games all the time as well as games with swearing and nudity. A really nice looking game called ‘God of War’ just came out recently, but the Lord has forbidden me from playing it. I’m not saying that christians in general should avoid the game-- just that God has forbidden it for me personally.
 
OsculeturMeOsculo said:
There were many good saints who were away from the World in hermitages and convents and they were a light of the world. I heard that an interior person is more useful than an exterior one since God communes and acts in the former.
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Have you looked into communities? In Europe you can stay at a lot of community for a donation. I know people who have retreated for six weeks in one in Germany.

But unsure how realistic that is. I’d love to do a silent retreat, but that stuff is expensive. 😮
 
Thank you for such thoughtful responses! The idea of detachment came through very strongly!
 
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