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All the great temptations appear first in the region of the mind and can be fought and conquered there. We have been given the power to close the door of the mind. We can lose this power through disuse or increase it by use, by the daily discipline of the
inner self in things which seem small and by reliance upon the word of the Spirit of truth. "It is God that worketh in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure." It is as though He said, 'Learn to live in your will, not in your feelings.'
- Amy Carmichael
(This learning to exercise the mind to allow or
dis-allow certain thoughts, desires, images, etc. is no trivial power. Learn to exercise this "spiritual muscle" that you might become more pure of heart.) |
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ROM 3:21-30; PS 130:1B-2, 3-4, 5-6AB
LK 11:47-54
The Lord said:
"Woe to you who build the memorials of the prophets
whom your fathers killed.
Consequently, you bear witness and give consent
to the deeds of your ancestors,
for they killed them and you do the
building.
Therefore, the wisdom of God said,
'I will send to them prophets and Apostles;
some of them they will kill and persecute'
in order that this generation might be charged
with the blood of all the prophets
shed since the foundation of the world,
from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah
who died between the altar and the temple building.
Yes, I tell you, this generation will be charged with their blood!
Woe to you, scholars of the law!
You have
taken away the key of knowledge.
You yourselves did not enter and you stopped those trying to enter."
When Jesus left, the scribes and Pharisees
began to act with hostility toward him
and to interrogate him about many things,
for they were plotting to catch him at something he might say.
USCCB Lectionary
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Luke 11: 47-54 (More woes)
How easy it is to honor a holy person after they’ve died, but how difficult to tolerate the words and deeds of a living saint. When Jesus confronts the scribes and
Pharisees for precisely this hypocrisy, he arouses only their animosity. They are too proud to change.
* Of what practices in our society are you most critical? What are you doing to counter these practices?
* Do you avoid arguments when it is obvious that the others are not open to changing? Why? Why not?
Paperback, Kindle
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God and I: Exploring the Connections between God, Self and Ego, by Philip St. Romain, 2016 (2nd ed.) ____________ Chapter 5: The Journey to Egoic Authenticity - Being Intelligent and Reasonable
Although Lonergan separates being intelligent and reasonable into different steps, I am combining them as they are two closely related operations of the
intellect.
The intellect is an amazing aspect of the human spirit, with powers that far exceed its characteristic logical and problem-solving operations. As part of our spiritual nature, it is also intuitive, which is to say that it is attuned to subtle insights and realizations. Its inductive
reasoning capabilities also enable us to recognize patterns and connections that its lower, plodding, deductive operations do not seem to see.
False self programming inflicts the intellect with an impossible problem to resolve: “I am flawed, fearful, ashamed.” This is presented with emotional urgency, prompting the intellect to swing into action to resolve the issue, “How to make me OK.”
The outer environment is regularly scanned along with one’s own memory databases for clues to how to resolve this issue, but nothing usually seems to work for long. Hence, a considerable amount of intellectual power is co-opted by the false self system, leaving us somewhat handicapped to face other life issues.
Hardback, paperback, eBook and free preview versions.
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