New Josephite , I am amazed to see the strength that God has given to you to face these abuses and yet stay firm by attaching to Gods infinite love! I am so sorry for all this pain that is being inflicted upon you, so much that my heart hurts for you and your family. Hang firm in the arms of Mary who is the flame that will overcome all evil and I will keep you in my prayers at every daily and weekend Masses and will unite with you through Mary and her loving Son. Holy God, surround this beautiful daughter of yours and protect and guide her through or away from this evil and reunite her family by your divine will for her. Amen
Josephite, So sorry for your troubles. If it is any consolation, all of my own family have fallen away from the Church and God. Now I just pray for them all, because it is all I can do but I do believe my prayers bad said as they are are enough to get them to change. Abuse is so terrible. It must have cost you so much to post that. May God and his Blessed Mother hurry to help you. I will pray for you especially to Saint Anthony from now on. Thank God you posted this. I will especially as Saint Anthony to work a miracle that allows you to post here. You are a shining light.
Oh, Josephite! What a cross! I will remember you and your family in my prayers as often as possible. Remember, God writes straight with crooked lines. Your commitment to your marriage, along with determined efforts to hold onto the faith and pass it along to your children do not go unnoticed by the Lord. May God bless and console you in these difficulties.
I am so humbled. Thank you all so much for your kind thoughts and words. But more especially for your prayers. It has made me see where I have sinned. I am no Martyr. And have been feeling sick about my above post ever since I posted it. I feel like I have sinned against God and my husband. I stated that my Husband is my cross. Yet, I did not state that; My cross is easy and my burden light. This cross is the one that will take me to heaven, if I don’t keep throwing it away. Thank God I have this cross, as it is the means of my salvation. Our lives are very complex and by throwing light on just one aspect, takes from all the other aspects that are not highlighted. Please forgive me. In truth my husband is my soul mate; not the type of soul mate that you read or hear about in any new age type classification, but a real and authentic one. He has pain and depression which causes outbursts of irrational behaviour but I know he loves me and has always loved me. He is the one that I look to, to keep me balanced, he shows me the face of pain and gives me insight into the human experience that others are not fortunate to see: I am blessed to be given this privilege. In a wonderful moment of God’s grace I choose my husband as the perfect person for me and I love him dearly and he loves me and I am honoured to feel and know that, but reading my post above, you would never know that. My sin is the sin of envy. When I see other married couples who I believe have something greater, I am envious of these marriages. I forget all the good of my marriage and the meaning of love, I focus only on myself, and then throw away my love and my cross. Oh how devious is the devil. Let me give you the fuller picture. My husband and I have beautiful moments. We have been blessed with unsurpassed tender stages in our relationship. I see his soul as gentle and genuine and there are no shadows about him with the way he sees the world. His soul is tortured but it cries out for love and cries out for understanding. In our marriage we have had many good and holy moments. My husband comes to mass with me at Christmas and Easter and on other occasions. He will also say the rosary at times, and I know the times to ask this of him. When he says that he blames God for everything bad in our life or that he blames the rosary for all our bad luck; what he is saying is that he does not understand why we have suffered the many things that have happened to us. He believes it is because I pray so much that God allows us to be constantly attacked, and this has taken its toll on him. We both have suffered so much over the years and I couldn’t explain the consistency or the intensity of this suffering but just to give you a glimpse, the following is part of it. He has suffered the death of our fourth child , our daughter Erin Therese who died on Christmas day in 1987. The loss of his job of 17 years that he loved in 1990. The start of his incurable pain in 1991. The pain of possibly losing our third son Jacob when he was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 11 and all that that era entailed (Jacob has been in remission for over 12 years, praise God). The many failures and then the total collapse of our farming business. The failure of two other business enterprises that we sank money into. The sudden and tragic death of by brother, who was my husband best friend. The loss of family connections. Our constant financial struggle while raising our children. The not knowing if we would lose our small property. The many struggles that our children have had to endure, and the list goes on. My Husband believes that all this suffering and pain was due to the attacks of the devil because I was too close to God. Especially as I was receiving many and varied consolations from the Lord during those times. Please forgive for me. My Husband is a good man. God Bless you all.
Dear Padraig, Your post above is the only reason that I can see anything good that may come from my post in question. Hopefully the person you speak of will see the great calling she/he has; that is, to love the unlovable and to forgive the unforgivable, when these moments are given/gifted to us. And thank you for your understanding. I was so ashamed of myself, but you have a way of making all things that have been said on the forum, have a good ending. So May it be. Amen Trully a God given gift. God Bless you
You have the Faith that moves mountains. May God grant me the same Faith in my own life and in my own calling.
Josephite - you have nothing to be ashamed of in your posts. Thank you for witnessing the beauty and the struggles of a married vocation. God bless you and your family! P.S. - I am still going to pray for you and yours as often as possible!!
I can certainly understand how some people see my life as strange. I do not condone abuse in any form. There is a difference between my life and those that are abused, where they should remove themselves from the situation. A very Holy Priest that I met on a retreat gave a talk about his life as a child and how his mother had to leave his father because of the abuse that see suffered. [I will not name this priest as I know some of the forum would know him] The priest was then only a seven year old little boy and he was the eldest of seven boys, when his mother had to leave with her children and start a new but very hard life without a husband or support. His mother had much to suffer. And you could tell by his talk that his mother was a very holy woman, that must have put up with an untenable situation, where her husband could not see any light and had no genuine sorrow or feelings of love for his wife. My life however is different. My husband converted to Catholicism before we married. He gave a great effort to living the life of a good catholic for many years and he had and still has a kind heart. I see all this; however the few others that have seen the angry side of him wonder why I would want to stay in this relationship. We know as Catholics however, that Love is not a feeling but an act of the will. Don’t get me wrong I do feel love for my husband but at times when he is irrational, that is when I have to put love into action and that is when it is hard to do. At these times I am tempted to retaliate and cause him pain, which sadly I have done in the past, so I have to caution my initial reactions and let God love him through me. Here on this earth Love is suffering and Love is sacrifice. A holy woman explained it to me this way. “The saints all suffer and sacrifice for Love, that is, they put their feelings and needs last. That is what Christ did on the cross and that is what his teachings are on forgiveness and loving each other. As a mother a simple way to see this is to just remember when you had your babies or look at any mother with a new baby. You love this beautiful baby and bring the baby home from hospital, you become exhausted, sleep deprived, with no time for yourself and you have to sacrifice so much in order to put love into action for the baby. With a baby of course you don’t really even feel this sacrifice. But it is suffering and it is sacrifice and it is love.” St Padre Pio tells us that if we knew the value of suffering we would never give it up. Suffering and sacrifice are the essence of the Sorrowful Heart of Mary. May our most Holy Mother keep us under her mantle and pray for us always.
I understand. Your grasp of your vocation is a result of huge graces and wisdom. St Monica took the same path.
I just read this thread for the first time as I generally avoid any posts that reference the devil but I am grateful I read this. Many marriages suffer great temptations and ups and downs. All of us have a dark side and this I suppose becomes really evident when one of the partners grows really close to God. Satan will launch his greatest attacks through the other partner who is not so spiritually aware. I am thinking of Blessed Maria Tiagi who suffered much at the hands of her husband but in the end this was the cross that gave God such glory. Josephite I do admire your christian fortitude and your recognition that your cross is your crown. I am in total awe. I will pray for you and your family and please pray for me and mine. Many blessings to you and dont feel bad about what you have written. It may be of great assistance to someone who needs to hear your witness to your marriage commitment. Mary Mary
I thought today's mass reading could have been written specially for Josephite. First readingEphesians 6:1-9 © Children, be obedient to your parents in the Lord – that is your duty. The commandment that has a promise attached to it is: Honour your father and mother, and the promise is: and you will prosper and have a long life in the land. And parents, never drive your children to resentment but in bringing them up correct them and guide them as the Lord does. Slaves, be obedient to the men who are called your masters in this world, with deep respect and sincere loyalty, as you are obedient to Christ: not only when you are under their eye, as if you had only to please men, but because you are slaves of Christ and wholeheartedly do the will of God. Work hard and willingly, but do it for the sake of the Lord and not for the sake of men. You can be sure that everyone, whether a slave or a free man, will be properly rewarded by the Lord for whatever work he has done well. And those of you who are employers, treat your slaves in the same spirit; do without threats, remembering that they and you have the same Master in heaven and he is not impressed by one person more than by another. Notice St Paul asks the slave to be obedient to the master. This is counter intuitive to today's world. There are several ways round an obstacle that lies in our path. Over it, under it, round it or through it. St Paul invites the slave to go through the obstacle as God asks Josephite to got through hers. To those wise in the learning of this world this appears foolish, but the Wisdom of God confounds the foolishness of me.
Many people try to tell us what love is; They say love is like a rose or a flower, or an never ending stream, but truelly what is love? St Paul tells us what Love is. 1 Corinthians, 13 1. Though I command languages both human and angelic -- if I speak without love, I am no more than a gong booming or a cymbal clashing. 2.And though I have the power of prophecy, to penetrate all mysteries and knowledge and though I have all the faith necessary to move mountains -- if I am without love, I am nothing. 3. Though I should give away to the poor all that I possess, and even give up my body to be burned -- if I am without love, it will do me no good whatever. What Then Is Love? 4. Love is always patient and kind; love is never jealous; love is not boastful or conceited, 5. Love is never rude and never seeks its own advantage, it does not take offence or store up grievances. 6. Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but finds its joy in the truth. 7. It is always ready to make allowances, to trust, to hope and to endure whatever comes. 8. Love never comes to an end. But if there are prophecies, they will be done away with; if tongues, they will fall silent; and if knowledge, it will be done away with. 9. For we know only imperfectly, and we prophesy imperfectly; 10. but once perfection comes, all imperfect things will be done away with. 11. When I was a child, I used to talk like a child, and see things as a child does, and think like a child; but now that I have become an adult, I have finished with all childish ways. 12. Now we see only reflections in a mirror, mere riddles, but then we shall be seeing face to face. Now I can know only imperfectly; but then I shall know just as fully as I am myself known. 13. As it is, these remain: Faith, Hope and Love, the three of them; and the greatest of them is love. So now in my imperfectness, I say again my marrital vows, And this is what I vowed when I married my darling husband. For better or for worse. In sickness and in health. In good times and in bad. I love you to death do as part. So may it be. Amen.
Back to topic...we are all called to be saints; and the devil is real (Vatican Radio) Pope Francis described Christian life as a continuous battle being waged against Satan, the world and the passions of the flesh. His comments came during his homily at Mass celebrated on Thursday morning at the Santa Marta residence. He stressed that the devil exists and we must fight against him with the armour of truth. Pope Francis's reflections during his homily were taken from the words of St Paul in his letter to the Ephesians where the apostle urged Christians to put on the full armour of God in order to resist Satan’s temptations. A Christian life, he said, has to be defended and it requires both strength and courage. It’s a continuous battle against the three main enemies of Christian life which are the devil, the world and the passions of the flesh. “From whom do I have to defend myself? What must I do? Pauls tells us to put on God’s full armour, meaning that God acts as a defence, helping us to resist Satan’s temptations. Is this clear? No spiritual life, no Christian life is possible without resisting temptations, without putting on God’s armour which gives us strength and protects us.” Saint Paul, continued the Pope, underlines that our battle is not against little things but against the principalities and the ruling forces, in other words against the devil and his followers. “But in this generation, like so many others, people have been led to believe that the devil is a myth, a figure, an idea, the idea of evil. But the devil exists and we must fight against him. Paul tells us this, it’s not me saying it! The Word of God is telling us this. But we’re not all convinced of this. And then Paul describes God’s armour and which are the different types that make up this great armour of God. And he says: ‘So stand your ground, with truth a belt around your waist.’ The truth is God’s armour.” By contrast, said Pope Francis, the devil is a liar and the father of liars and in order to fight him we must have truth on our side. He also underlined the importance of always having our faith in God, like a shield, when fighting this battle against the devil, who, he noted, doesn't throw flowers at us but instead burning arrows. “Life is a military endeavour. Christian life is a battle, a beautiful battle, because when God emerges victorious in every step of our life, this gives us joy, a great happiness: the joy that the Lord is the victor within us, with his free gift of salvation. But we’re all a bit lazy, aren’t we, in this battle and we allow ourselves to get carried away by our passions, by various temptations. That’s because we’re sinners, all of us! But don’t get discouraged. Have courage and strength because the Lord is with us.” http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/201...a_continuous_battle_against_the_devil/1109762 May Gods Will be Done Note: Papa Francis has spoken more about the "created one" then any other modern Pope. Maybe the battle is getting very hot and he is preparing his spiritual warriors.
Dear brother Al, I have a cousin who has been a Marist brother for over 40 years, And I love him dearly. He is one of God's most gentle souls. I can't help thinking that you must be one of the brothers of a progressive group! A group that questions all things that we as catholics are called believe? May God bless you in all yours endevours and continue to enlightnen you with your quest for truth. God bless
Josephite, In my humble opinion...some things are not what they appear to be. And you are one of them. Those that have read my posts know my spirituality. It is very orthodox but leaning very much on the mystical side. By your statement above, it leads me to discern your true intentions. This forum is a very special place, it can be easily manipulated. I pray that you use our (and I use our very humbly) forum for the greater Glory of God. May God Bless You and Your Family Brother al
Dear Fallen Saint, I’m sorry I have upset you, by being off topic. I stated 1 Corinthians 13 while realising that it is off topic but I was hoping that all could see that my endeavour to live the word of God no matter how hard life may seem to be, we are all called to love. I was hoping to address those that have sent me personal messages and also those that have followed this post. I am very sorry for upsetting you. Carolyn. God Bless
This is so true and happening in my life right now but I will press on an persevere in prayer because I have God on my side and that is all that matters. Pray for me and my wife my friends. She does not understand my new found love for the church of our birth even though I continue to try to help her gradually but not pushing in any way. Last night was a good example of this. I was talking to my 4 year old son and he was telling me how I am the best daddy and mommy is the best mommy and sissy is the best sissy. I asked him what about him? He said he was the best son in all the universe. I then said what about Jesus, he was a son. His reply was priceless, "Daaaad, Jesus is the bestest of all!" I was telling this to my wife and when I got to the part about Jesus she seemed angered and agitated that I would turn a cute moment into mentioning Jesus. I was so sad by this but then I remembered the book I had just been reading about Jacinta of Fatima. I instantly offered up this sadness for sinners everywhere and for the poor souls in purgatory and would happily suffer and endure knowing that it would help. I was in a funk about it still this morning and out of nowhere my wife just came up to me and hugged me so tight. I think these little moments have purpose in my life and can be used to help others and then heaven rewards me a day latter and all is good. I told her once that I believe that the devil knows how to attack me the hardest through her and she was saddened for me by that. So as much as these attacks can come, I also see great light and hope in her as well. I share all this with you because I care and I hope my sharing of such personal stuff can only help others in their own dealings in this world we live in.
