101323 faithposting

[prismaticbleed]

Praying DVM Chaplet = said in unison with all those in threat of death or awaiting it inevitably, like prisoners & those in warzones. Felt their pleading fervently for that mercy in Christ. Understood exactly WHAT the chaplet is asking for and why and how.

Praying Rosary = images elicited GENUINE SOBS: notably Tissot's art of the Betrayal. I felt SO MUCH PAIN.
Sad face Jesus for 3 & 4 = CHILDLIKE. Deep sorrow with total innocent candor. Hurting Him, causing Him TO look so sad, is just as horrible as if they were ABUSING A CHILD.
Crucifixion with Mary reaching up still shatters my heart.


VOTD = Hebrews 12 & GODLY DISCIPLINE. "We learn to obey BY being corrected." When God disciplines us, He is SHOWING us His HOLINESS, and in so doing, is TEACHING US to be holy LIKE HIM. His discipline is ALWAYS good for us as a result, and it will always HAVE good results-- it gives us both righteousness and PEACE. Its ultimate end is ALWAYS to conform us more closely to God, and so MAKE US HIS CHILDREN, who He corrects AS an HONORABLE & LOVING FATHER.
SO, IF THE "DISCIPLINE" YOU GET FROM "GOD VOICES" DOES NOT TEACH YOU HOLINESS, HELP YOU DO RIGHT, OR GIVE YOU PEACE OF HEART, IT'S NOT FROM GOD!!!

ALSO discipline helps us to "finish what we started" AND "not give up on new efforts"?? So true discipline Involves ENDURANCE and PERSEVERANCE, and is NOT NECESSARILY PUNITIVE??????
It can come from INSIDE as a VIRTUE??? In any case it's TRAINING. It's not easy and shouldn't be. It's often tiring & painful. But without it NOTHING CHANGES.
⭐"We must be trained THROUGH discipline to CREATE GODLY HABITS that will then PRODUCE righteousness and peace in our lives"!!! And we do this by "allowing the HOLY SPIRIT to EMPOWER us and BUILD holy discipline" in us, step by step in cooperation!!! We do this by cultivating righteous daily habits & especially MASS, SCRIPTURE STUDY, PRAYER, and OBEYING GOD'S VOICE!!!
THE HOLY SPIRIT IS WHO REMINDS US OF GOD'S PROMISES TO THE FAITHFUL AND HE GIVES THOSE FAITHFUL THE STRENGTH TO ENDURE ALL CHALLENGES-- and THAT IS DISCIPLINE!!!!

KVOTD= "Are you scared to ask God for things? Or maybe you're worried that He won't hear you? He WILL answer you. Whether it's a big answer, or a small answer, or a "not yet"-- God IS listening. If you believe, and you are patient, you WILL see Him work in your life."
Oh man and THEN they ask, "What area of your life can you trust Jesus to use in miraculous ways?" The options are "My Generosity," "My Talents," and... "My PERSONALITY." Kids i legit did a double take, you mean JESUS CAN USE THAT???? FOR HIS PURPOSES?? Man that WOULD be a miracle... which means, I absolutely have to trust Him. Jesus is always willing & able to miracles, because they glorify God and cannot be (sanely) ignored or denied. But that's the kicker. Jesus won't work any if the people who would receive it have no faith in Him. That would defeat the holy purpose of the miracle, which is glorifying God: without faith, it's just a magic trick, or a phony show. And Jesus will NOT allow such irreverence, even passively.
So. If Jesus miraculously uses my personality for the Kingdom-- because He CAN-- it will only be BECAUSE I HAD FAITH THAT HE COULD, AND WOULD. 


Guided prayer =
"Pause for a moment and marvel that the Creator of the universe listens when you talk to Him."
But you know what? Of COURSE He does-- He IS LOVE, after all.
...I remember how I used to listen to grandma when she was in home hospice. I had my ears PINDROP ATTUNED to her every sound, especially the feeblest ringing of that bedside bell. I would RUSH to her side the instant I heard her plea, even if it was just a whimper. I never tired, even when I was exhausted. My heart couldn't get tired-- it was operating on love. God is the same way, I know it. He is always listening, attuned to every beat of our hearts, and always willing and able to respond with devoted swiftness. He even hears our silence, as it were-- He knows our prayers before we even think them. THAT'S how loving He is. THAT'S how well God listens to us.

Revelation 4:11 gutpunch of love= "Our Lord and God, You are worthy to receive glory, honor, and power. You created all things, and by Your decision they were created"; THEN the reflection "Read this verse again, and imagine God creating you."
...because He DID, you know. The eternally glorious, immeasurably powerful, infinitely honorable God and Lord of All, DECIDED TO CREATE ME. It's staggering.THAT kind of Divine Personality is WHO decided to speak me into existence-- I was no accident, nor was I the production of a malevolent or mischievous demiurge. No, THE ONE TRUE GOD WHO IS LOVE & LIGHT & TRUTH is Who created me.
Let that fact sink in, right into your bone marrow. I'm serious. Make your very blood from it.
...

------‐--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ellicott continues with Jesus's powerful Words.

"Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die" = The truth is one of those of the spirit-world, lying beyond the ordinary language of men. He prepares them for it by what we call the analogy of a physical law, but what is really an instance of the working of the great law of life, which God has given to the moral and physical worlds alike. All knew that a grain of wheat, though containing in itself the germs of life, would remain alone, and not really live unless it fell to the earth. Then the life-germs would burst forth, and the single grain, in its own death, would give life to blade, and stalk, and ear of corn. Its death then was the true life, for it released the inner life-power which the husk before held captive; and this life-power multiplying itself in successive grains would clothe the whole field with a harvest of much fruit.
This law Christ now teaches to be a law also of the moral world, and one to which His own life is subject. Here too life issues from death. The moral power which IS the life of the world finds its source in the death of the Son of man. “He IS life.” “In Him is life.” “He quickens whom He will.” “Whosoever believeth in Him hath eternal life.” These truths this Gospel has told us again and again: but Christ now tells that while He is still on earth this life exists, but in its germs; and that in His death it will burst forth, and grow up, and multiply itself in the great spiritual harvest of the world. Such was the prophecy. The history of all that is best, and truest, and noblest in the life of [over twenty] centuries comes to us as the fulfilment [of His death]. Hearts hardened, sinful, and dead, that have been led to think of His death, have in thoughts of it have felt germs of life springing up and bursting the husks of their former prison, and growing up into living powers which have changed their whole being; this is the individual fulfilment that has come to many and may come to all."
Oh man where do I even start, this is gorgeously life-changing.
First. The spirit (moral!!) world and the physical world are BOTH REAL, are INHERENTLY CONNECTED and SHARE A BASIC LAW-- which is the LAW OF LIFE. The obvious stunning implication is that LIFE IS A LAW.
Second. Seeds hold germs of life by nature. BUT those germs ONLY COME FORTH IN THE GROUND!!! The outer husks HOLD IT CAPTIVE and MUST "DIE" before the INNER LIFE can flourish-- and Life MULTIPLIES BY NATURE; it CANNOT BE STOPPED.
Three. ALL things are subject to this Law, BUT THEREFORE ALSO to the paradox of death as impetus for bloom. Winter comes before spring, husks split before sprouts. But then what is THE germ of Life IN death, as a cosmic phenomenon? What is the ultimate Seed, waiting to be buried so that ALL things can be released to flourish infinitely? IT'S JESUS. HE IS THE SEED.
Fourth. ALL "good, true, and noble" things in mankind since the Cross ARE THE RESULT OF ITS LAW?? Before the Seed bloomed, WE WERE ALL DEAD because we had NO GERM in ourselves?? Is THAT what we lost by sin??? The Principle of Life, the very Law OF Life ITSELF, IS THE PERSON OF JESUS. He is TRUE MAN, and True GOD. Without Him, we were sunk-- blinded & deadened by sin, crushed by guilt, unable to flower, bereft of all color & beauty & perfume. Everything worth living for was shut up in that Seed, and only freed from the hull of death when Christ the Rose broke through the grave-dirt of sin for ALL mankind forever.
Fifth. THAT'S THE HARVEST. The Seed of Christ is IN EVERY MAN'S HEART by nature of His BECOMING man, and all we need to do is have FAITH ENOUGH in that fact to DIE TO SELF FOR HIS SAKE and therefore allow that germ to give us HIS LIFE. We become fellow-grains on His Stalk of Redemption, the Cross of Finest Wheat, the Harvest of Souls that become united in the Bread of Life, in His Body and Blood, in the Church.
...


"He that loveth his life loses it—i.e., that the loss of life is not in the future only, but that in the present, in every moment when a man loves and seeks to save his own life, he is then, and by that very seeking, actually losing it."
That phrase "seeks to save his own life" doesn't just apply to survival, either-- especially not here. It really speaks of wanting to be your own Savior. No man has that power, and cannot have it, for man owes a debt he cannot pay. Christ alone can save us, and HAS saved us; to reject this out of pride and insist that you can do it yourself, by your own strength or smarts or subterfuge-- you are only damning yourself, literally.


"The words of this verse (12:25) are familiar to us from the earlier Gospels, and... are asserted as the law to which even His life is submitted. There is even in His human nature a physical and emotional life which would shrink from sacrifice and death, but in self-sacrifice and death is His own glory and the life of the world. There is in all human nature a principle which would seek as the highest good the life of the body and of the soul, as distinct from the higher life of the spirit, and [therefore] would shrink from sacrifice and death; but the true principle of life is of the spirit, and only in the sacrifice of the desires of the lower physical and emotional life is that spiritual life realised."
More inherent laws, tying directly into that original one of Life.
Human nature, having fallen from grace and in separation from the divine life, is ignorant of the reality of that very spirit-life, and in extreme cases denies or even condemns it outright. In all cases, unregenerate man is blind to the truth of their own existence, and so doomed to enslavement under lower desires. In this wretched state, the spirit-blind man has no understanding of that Law of Life, and so despite his unhappiness and misery, he will be terrified of death, which he sees as a complete cessation of existence, a literal dead-end with no hope or escape. This is why human nature shrinks from suffering-- Death's sister, so to speak-- and fears sacrifice, which IS a "death" on a different level. You'd think that fact alone would inspire some to suspect something greater going on, but no; terror is too powerful a tyrant.
Yet here is our seed. Here is our hidden germ. Here is how even a blind man can tap into the truth of that Law of Life that is the Gospel's heart... we must find our holy ground, our humus of humility, and bury our hard hearts beneath it. We must die without dying. We must sacrifice our lower life, surrendering it entirely, so it can lifted up and transformed into the truth.
But how do we do this? On our own we're powerless-- we're blind, we're tired, and we're afraid. We need faith. We need that first spark to be lit.
That spark is the Son of God.
Jesus the Light appears, and enables us to see. Jesus the Truth speaks, and enables us to hope. Jesus the Son of Man comes to us, and faces death head-on, and enables us to finally believe that yes, there is more to life than what we've known... and HE IS IT.



"The close connection of John 12:23-25 make it certain that the spiritual law of sacrifice is there applied to the life of our Lord Himself. This verse makes it equally certain that the law is applied to those who follow Him. The point of the whole teaching is missed unless we think of the Greeks as present. They had come as volunteer disciples. Did they know what the discipleship was? Were they prepared to follow Him in self-sacrifice, that through sacrifice they may obtain eternal life? It had been the condition of earlier discipleship. It is laid down for the new disciples, but in the presence of the older ones who, in the dark days that have now come, were to learn what sacrifice meant. The Greeks needed no less than the Hebrews to learn it; the men of a wider civilisation and more philosophic thought no less than the fishermen of Galilee and the scribes of Jerusalem. All self-seeking, whether in the coarser forms of pleasure and power or in the more refined forms of emotion and thought, is self-loving; [in direct contrast,] all self-sacrifice, whether in the daily round of duty to man or in the devotion of the whole self to God, is self-saving. Self-seeking is always akin to, and ofttimes one with, hatred of others; and hatred is death. Self-sacrifice is akin to, and one with, love to others; and love is life."
I apologize for all the formatting but WOW.
It sounds so obvious yet we somehow never connect the dots. To seek oneself is to focus on oneself, to prioritize oneself, ultimately to worship oneself... it is to be the object of one's own love. To do this is to exclude "the other" from your entire lifestyle, especially from your love, and therefore to hate the other as "intruder" and "obstacle," and directly or indirectly to seek their removal... even by force or by death. It all starts like Lucifer: to fall in love with one's own beauty, so that all existence becomes your rival. It's a living death. IT'S PRIDE.
What SHOCKS me is what this INCLUDES = pleasure is obvious, as is power, but emotion and thought??? How does THAT fuel self-seeking, especially towards fatal pride??
...
The horror of all this is contrasted, with immense consolation, by its holy opposite: self-denial, often called self-sacrifice.
...
But how is "seeking" the opposite of "sacrifice?" It's because seeking wants to have; it wants to cling, to own, to grasp, to hoard. It seeks in order to possess... but, ironically, its very seeking implies that it is perpetually empty. On the other hand... you cannot sacrifice what is not entirely yours. Here we already see a profound truth: in our very sacrifice of self, we find ourselves.
...


"If any man serve me, him will my Father honour" = The condition is the same as in the first clause of the verse ("if any man serve me"): the difference, which follows upon the condition, again brings out-- in the fulness of its meaning-- the law of life through sacrifice:
“If any man serve Me,” “let him follow Me” . . . “he that hateth his life in this world” = “If any man serve Me,” “him will my Father honour” . . . “shall keep it unto life eternal.”
The honour of the servant, after his work is done, is in the same relation to that work as the glory of the Son of man is to His work. This honour will consist in his being where the Son of man is; and this will be the Father’s gift."
To serve the Lord Jesus, we must follow Him. To follow Him, we must hate our life in this world. When we do this, since we are serving Jesus, and so God the Father will honor us-- and that's where it gets interesting. To "hate one's life in this world" means-- remember?-- to live a life of self-sacrifice.  This means we are living our worldly lives not for ourselves, but for God and for others. This is how we follow Christ, and following Him INEVITABLY LEADS TO THE CROSS... WHICH IS ETERNAL LIFE. Then we will be where Christ is forever, which is the highest possible honor, the gift of the Father Who GAVE His Son to us FOR this saving purpose.
...


"Now is my soul troubled" = The word rendered “soul” is the same word as that rendered “life” in John 12:25. It is the seat of the natural feelings and emotions, and, as the fatal hour approaches, our Lord is, in that region of His human life, troubled. There is a real shrinking from the darkness of the death which is at hand. The conflict exists but for a moment, but in all its fearfulness is real, and then the cup of the world’s woe is seized and drunk to its bitter dregs. Men have sometimes wondered that St. John passes over the agony of the garden of Gethsemane, but the agony of Gethsemane is here, and the very words of Matthew 26:39 are echoed. Men have wondered, too, that in the life of the Son of man a struggle such as this could have had even a moment’s place. [Many] indeed, would at any cost read the words otherwise. But they cannot be read otherwise, either on the written page or in the hearts of men. That troubled Soul asked, “What shall I say?” Blessed reality! In that struggle humanity struggled, and in that victory humanity won... The moment of agony is the moment of victory.”
Until very recently, i was one of those fellows who struggled to accept that Christ actually and really struggled here. I thought it impossible for divinity-- and i was technically right. I just forgot that Jesus is also fully human. Yet, even more 'scandalous' than that-- I never even considered that such a troubled fear of approaching darkness and death IS NOT A SIN.
..."He who hates his life in this world shall keep it for eternal life." Jesus was demonstrating that in real-time, and there was NO "HATRED" OF HUMANNESS INVOLVED. He did not reject, disdain, or crush His "natural emotions" out of some religious zeal. No, He felt that weakness of ours fully, integrating that very frailty into His Passion, entering completely-- if only momentarily-- into that very real space of fear and trembling that all mortal men inhabit as their earthly end draws near, unable to see anything beyond that grim nightfall. Jesus felt it all, as man.
But. He did not "love His life" so much that He would seek to save it. He sought something else.
And THAT is the victory here. FROM that natural terror, Christ reached out and took the chalice Himself. He seized it and drank it, not with regret, but with ardor. He KNEW that this looming death, however frightful, was the key to unleashing the true Life He held within Himself, by which everyone else could be brought TO Life.
...
"Thy will be done." "Glorify Thy Name." THAT is what transmuted human trepidation to divine triumph, and it is what will bring even us mere men from fear to faith, from pride to humility, from death to Life. It is a surrender of self, a sacrifice of self, for the purpose of God, for the sake of others. It is entirely an act of Love. THAT is paradoxically "hating one's life in this world"-- because to live for this world is to live as one half-dead, and to reject the beauty of truth, which is the most hateful fate. But to live with one's heart tuned into the eternal, to the moral reality, to the truth of heaven-- then "hatred" doesn't happen at all; there's too much love to even think about anything but God. It is in this state of being that we bring the Kingdom of God to earth, that we serve His Creation properly, that we work for the real Good of all things, without ever getting tangled up in the temporal.
...But here, see, this is where Tilly starts blithering. She has already forgotten the point.
It's not nirvana. It's not the moon. It's not some dreamy happy place with rainbows and cupcakes. Did you forget God has His armies even in Heaven? Did you forget that to love is to sacrifice?
Even living FOR Love, in this world but not of it, we WILL still feel our "natural emotions," like pain & grief & fear, BECAUSE JESUS DID TOO!!!!!! Yes He overcame them by His perfect Charity, but He STILL SUFFERED AS ALL MEN DO. YOU ARE NO EXCEPTION.
Remember the Owl Witch. Remember the Moon King. Stripping yourself of emotion is NOT HOLY. CHRIST'S PASSION COULD NOT BE A PASSION IF HE DIDN'T FEEL EVERYTHING.
...
I'll come back to this. My head is too switchy to think straight now.


"The Son’s will is one with that of the Father; the Son’s glory is in the glorifying the Father’s name. Compare the opening clause of the Lord’s Prayer."
This is the definition of humility= seeking in ALL things to glorify God. Whether we are working, playing, eating, resting, writing, speaking, or thinking... our highest and constant goal must be to glorify God's Name. Remember Exodus 34: “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished..."  Are we witnessing to THAT in our every moment? Are we distinguishable as worshippers of-- even as CHILDREN of-- the God Who Is loving, faithful, forgiving, merciful, patient, kind, compassionate, and yet righteous and just? Do we Uphold His honor, glory, and beauty? Do we live by His Truth?
The second essential question is, do we actively surrender our wills to His? Are we willing to make sacrifices for His sake? Do we regularly study His Word and check whether our desires, inclinations, goals, and habits are in harmony with It?
Do we take Jesus as our model of self-surrender even in daily life? Of course we'll never be perfect, that's pride creeping in-- but do we consciously strive to follow our Lord's footsteps even if we still stumble over our own shoes? Are we carrying our Cross? 
...
...

"I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.—The words are without limit, extending to the whole past and to the whole future of God’s revelation of Himself to man. The only limit in the context is that this revelation is thought of as in the person of Christ: His words, His works, His life revealing the mercy and love and majesty of the Father, had to many hearts glorified the Father’s name. The wider future is at hand. The death and resurrection are to reveal God’s character, and therefore glorify the Father’s Name to all the world."
The fact that the death & resurrection of Christ glorify the Father's NAME is amazing, again remembering Exodus 34:5-7. Somehow, ALL of God's character is MANIFEST in the work of the Cross.
I also love the reminder, simple yet profound, that Christ's very Person IS THE REVELATION OF GOD, and therefore Jesus is ALSO THE GLORY OF GOD, in and of Himself. In Him, purely by existence, God the Father is glorified beyond measure. That, too, implies that God's Name IS in Jesus.
...


"The fact that Saint John clearly means us to understand that a distinct voice spake from heaven does not forbid our understanding also that this voice was heard more or less distinctly, or was as a voice not heard at all, in proportion as the hearts of the hearers were or were not receptive of the Voice of God. To some it seemed but as natural thunder, but their own Scripture had taught again and again “God thundereth marvellously with His voice: great things doeth He which we cannot comprehend,” and the religious interpretation of nature hears everywhere the voice of God. Others, and these must have been Pharisees, recognise a voice which is more than that of nature or of man, and think that an angel hath spoken... There was that, then, which seemed to them but the thunder’s sound or an angel’s word, which, coming in answer to His prayer and after His teaching, should have been, to ears ready to hear and minds willing to receive, the voice of God witnessing to the mission of His Son."
More proof & demonstration of "believing is seeing/hearing," but with the huge clarification that the "belief" is synonymous with their RECEPTIVITY TO GOD.
I love that "religious interpretation of nature"  note, because that is something modern secular culture jeers at & mocks as infantile, whereas pagans skew it into seeing nature itself AS deity, which makes no sense in the long run. But it is actually fully Christian to hear God's Voice EVERYWHERE, and I needed that reassurance SO BADLY because I have been shamed & scared out of listening for far too long.
...
Also, that mention of the Pharisees is a great glimmer of hope. Although they were still stubbornly resisting Christ, their hearts were not totally closed off to God. They could, and did, still recognize something higher & greater than nature, something divine. This is so important for evangelization. God still has a place in their hearts, however small & confused, just like mine was for so long. There is always hope for growth.
...But we must be ready & willing.