PaulaOkeefe Blog Site


Life is a journey and for me it is like climbing a mountain. As you get closer to the top, you are closer to heaven. Whether you are on a mountain with much glory or on the mountain of suffering, you journey.....and for believers like me the journey is to a place we call heaven.
We have many other small journeys that all belong in our life for some reason and even if it seems like some stuff doesn't belong, perhaps we can learn something from it. When others treat us poorly, we can turn the other cheek and learn how to treat others in a kinder way than we might have experienced. Anyway, before I ramble on too much, I will say see you blogging.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Three Signs of Being in the Night, by Fr J. Chalmers

St. John of the Cross gives three signs for discerning whether God is in fact leading someone into the dark night towards contemplation.  

According to the work called "The Dark Night", these 3 signs are:
1. These people do not get consolation or satisfaction from the things of God, nor do they get anything out of  anything else.
   
2.  The person wants to pray but cannot.  There is a painful sense of not serving God and turning back because of this distaste for the things of God.  This dryness does not come from laxity for a lukewarm  person does not care much for the things of God.

3.  The 3rd sign for the discernment of this night of the senses is the powerlessness, in spite of one's  efforts,  to meditate and make use of the imagination, as was one's previous custom.

God come as darkness and dryness and the divine presence is more commonly experienced as absence.  so consolations become a thing of the past and there is a pervasive sense of dryness in prayer and in daily life.  The reason for this is that God is beginning to change my motivation.  when we have no satisfaction in prayer, we are still asked to be faithful to prayer and when there is no more satisfaction in our good deeds, we are asked to continue doing them.


FOR REFLECTION:

     
1.  Are you experiencing darkness or dryness usually when you pray?

2.  If you answer to number 1 is yes, you must check your spiritual pulse: Are you praying regularly?  In your prayer do you try to listen to God?  Are you holding on to some sin?  Are you holding on  to some  attachment of which you know you are being called to let go?  Put right whatever you feel is wrong.


3.  If your dryness and darkness persists when you pray after you have tried your best to let go of  anything that may be impeding your relationship with God,  just wait patiently in the darkness



        



Sunday, April 3, 2011

Carmelite stuff

Well, I hoped to keep this blog up weekly, but looks like I am slipping. So, I will simply like to dedicate this blog to Our Trinitarian God, Our dear Mother, St Joseph, all the saints with special attention to St Therese, St Teresa, St. John of the Cross, Edith Stein & all the Carmelite saints and in a special way to St Anthony, St. Ann and St Pio.  Geesh, I could go on, but will stop here and pray they will help keep me on focus to keep up this blog.  Even if nobody reads it, it is a great way to help me focus, learn Carmelite spirituality and grow in matters of heart and soul. God bless you all and hold you in the palm of HIS HAND!