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Holy indifference is basically an attitude to love: the practice ofcharity, that is, makes us indifferent to everything that happens to us. Yet love alone makes the indifference holy, which otherwise would collapse into cynical apathy. Only if you love courageously,
for instance, are you indifferent to the consequences for yourself of contracting leprosy by handling a leper's wounds."- Patrick Grant [20th C.], A Dazzling Darkness -(What do you love courageously . . . in such a manner as to forget about self or security? Notice the freedom of spirit you experience
with regard to such a love.)
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1 Jn 2:18-21; Ps 96:1-2, 11-12, 13; Jn 1:1-18 R. Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice! Sing to the LORD a new song;
sing to the LORD, all you lands.
Sing to the LORD; bless his name;
announce his salvation, day after day.
Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice;
let the sea and what fills it resound;
let the plains be joyful and all that is in them!
Then shall all the trees of the forest exult before the LORD.
The LORD comes,
he comes to rule the earth.
He shall rule the world with justice
and the peoples with his constancy.
USCCB lectionary
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Children, it is the last hour.
Today we take stock, recall the blessings of the past year; we mourn those blessings we missed by turning them into burdens. We resolve to do better next year. If there is one day in the year we are drawn to the examination of conscience and a firm purpose of amendment, it is today. Thank you. I'm sorry. Help me to do better. Thank you.
by Paige Byrne Shortal
My Daily Bread
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The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage, by St. John of Rusybroeck (1293-1381)
Such people are always spiritually proud and self-willed; and this is why their desires and lusts are sometimes so vehemently set upon the things which they desire, and wilfully strive to acquire from God, so that they are often deceived, and some of them also become possessed by the devil. All these people live contrary to charity and to the loving introversion in which a man offers himself up, with all that he can achieve, for the honour and love of God; and in which nothing can give him rest or satisfaction but a single incomprehensible Good, which is God alone. For charity is a bond of love, in which we are drawn up to God, and through which we renounce ourselves, and whereby we are united with God and God is united with us. But natural love turns back towards itself, and towards its own profit, and ever abides alone. Nevertheless, in its outward works, natural love is as like unto charity as two hairs from the same head; but the intentions are different. For the good man always seeks and means and desires, with an aspiring heart, to glorify God; but in natural love a man has always himself and his own profit in mind. Therefore, when natural love opposes and conquers true charity the man falls into four sins; namely, spiritual pride, avarice, gluttony, and lust. And in this way Adam fell in Paradise, and all human nature with him, for he loved himself inordinately with natural love, and so he turned away from God, and scorned in his pride the commandment of God. And he desired knowledge and wisdom in his avarice; and he sought pleasant tastes and satisfactions in gluttony; and after that he was moved by lust. But Mary was a living Paradise. She found the grace which Adam lost, and much more besides, for she is the Mother of Love. She turned in active charity towards God, and conceived Christ in humility. And she offered Him up to the Father with all His sufferings in generosity; and she never tasted of consolation, nor of any gift, in gluttony; and her whole life was in purity. Whosoever follows her shall conquer all that is contrary to the virtues, and shall enter into the kingdom where she reigns with her Son in eternity.
- Chapter 66: Showing how some people live contrary to these exercises. Paperback (kindle edition available)
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