Friday 27 November 2020

Spiritual tips on how to overcome hatred of someone

 Parish Bulletin | Nov 28-29 2020: 1st Sunday of Advent | 75th Anniversary Year

Spiritual tips on how to overcome hatred of someone

When you begin to feel strong feelings of anger against your neighbour, try this.

There are times in our lives when our anger can reach an unhealthy level, breeding severe hatred against a person who has wronged us in some way. This is not the Gospel way of life, and Jesus used strong words against such harmful thoughts, “But I say to you that every one who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment” (Matthew 5:22)

The good news is that with God’s grace, we can over-come our anger and practice charity, even when we are tempted to strike out in rage.

Venerable Louis of Granada, a Dominican priest of the 16th century, gave his advice in a book rightly called The Sinner’s Guide. In it, he gives a step-by-step plan for sinners who want to start practicing virtue and be released from their slavery to sin.
The first tip explains how we should think about Jesus and how he has borne so many offenses that come from us.

If it be hard to subdue your anger, excited by an injury from one of your fellow creatures, consider how much more God has borne from you and how much he has endured for you. Were you not his enemy when He shed the last drop of his Blood for you? And behold with what sweetness and patience he bears with your daily offenses against him, and with what mercy and tenderness he receives you when you return to him.
Jesus is patient with us; should we not be patient with others?
Furthermore, one of the reasons we get angry is because of an inordinate love of self.

The most efficacious, the sovereign remedy against this vice is to pluck from your heart inordinate love of self and of everything that pertains to you. Otherwise the slightest word or action directed against you or your interests will move you to anger. The more you are inclined to this vice the more persevering you should be in the practice of patience. Accustom yourself, as far as you can, calmly to face the contradictions and disappointments you are likely to encounter, and their effect upon you will thus be greatly diminished.
Last of all, remember to never act in anger, for when our feelings subside, we will have a much clearer mind.

Never act until your anger has subsided, or until you have once or twice repeated the Our Father or some other prayer. Plutarch tells of a wise man who, on taking leave of a monarch, advised him never to speak or act in anger, but to wait until he had repeated to himself the letters of the alphabet. Learn a lesson from this, and avoid the evil consequences of acting from the impulse of anger. Philip Kosloski, Aleteia,24/11/20

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THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK

AUTHOR: St Mark was not an Apostle and may not have been an eyewitness to the ministry of Christ, but he was associated closely with St Peter, whom he may have served as a scribe. He accompanied St Paul on some of his missionary travels, although they parted ways for a time due to some unknown disagreement (cf Acxts 13:5-13; 15:36-41; 2 Tim 4:11). He was also a cousin of St Barnabas, another of St Paul’s co-workers.

DATE: Mark makes no mention of the destruction of Jerusalem and. Therefore, was likely written before this catastrophe AD 70. The historian Eusebius and some modern scholars suggest that the Gospel may have been written before Matthew, but early Church tradition states that St Mark wrote his Gospel after AD 60. (from The Didache Bible)

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Friday 6 November 2020

Why Sts. Louis and Zelie are role models for today’s parents (Part 2)

 Parish Bulletin | November 7-8 2020: 32nd Sunday | 75th Anniversary Year

Why Sts. Louis and Zelie are role models for today’s parents (Part 2)

Leonie was the cause of much worry and anxiety.
The Martins were not a perfect family, free of problems.

Louis and Zelie were not perfect parents. They each had their favorite daughter, and Zelie’s spicy letter, in which she confides to Pauline, still a teenager, how to “manipulate” her father, will make more than a few mothers see they are not alone in making mistakes! Like all parents they, too, had their share of inappropriate attitudes and hurtful words. But being a saint does not mean you are perfect, and for years they were faced with their shortcomings as parents with their daughter Leonie.

Ever since she was born, Leonie suffered from poor health, and was more intellectually limited than the other girls; she isolated herself and became a very difficult child. The housekeeper, Louise Marais, began mistreating her while Louis and Zelie were completely unaware, which explains why Leonie would flinch away when anyone came near. Zelie says it is one of the greatest sufferings of her life. Louis and Zelie responded with a two-sided trust. First of all trust in their child, whom they refused to label the “ugly duckling.” Every time Zelie mentions something that Leonie has done wrong (and her letters are full of examples!), she always adds: “but I know she is good, I believe she has a good heart.” And above all, trust in God, whom Louis and Zelie continually beseech with prayer for their child. And look at the result: the cause for Leonie’s beatification—quite moving itself because of all the difficulties in the process—began in 2015.

To what extent can this way of educating be an example for other parents to follow?
In practice, there is no “magic recipe” for educating your children. It is striking to see how Louis and Zelie give a different education to each of their daughters, according to their personality. For Pauline, who has a very assertive character, Zelie says that she never let her get away with anything, even if it hurt her heart to do so. For Therese, on the other hand, a very sensitive child who cried for the littlest things and then cried for having cried (!), Louis is nothing but gentleness and encouragement. One could multiply the examples: it is touching to see in the letters how Zelie carefully studied the character of each of her daughters to see what would suit each one best. There is no ready-made or perfect education, but what we can take from the Martins is their desire: to walk together, with our loved ones, with God—whom Louis and Zelie considered a member of their family—on the road to holiness. Holiness that they lived in their existence here on Earth as parents.

Interview by Antoine Pasquier Edifa - published on 19/10/20

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To see Father Peter Kerin and his perform-ing sheep dogs: www.youtube.com/watch v=UiJ9PSU3sXM

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“The Church is the one thing that saves a man from the degrading servitude of being a child of his own time.” - Chesterton

"He who wants to live as a good Catholic must be on his guard against those who speak against religion and its ministers, especially the Pope who is the father of all Catholics. Let it be said quite clearly: only a bad son speaks poorly of the Pope."
Don Bosco MB 3 607

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