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REDEMPTIVE SUFFERING
LIVING LAMPS BLOG
Consoling the Heart of Jesus in Our Suffering
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- Accidental Glory
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- Christian Meditation
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- Communion of Saints
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- Double Consequences of Sin
- Eternal Weight of Glory
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- personal witness
- Pray for the Dead
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- Redemptive Suffering
- redemptive suffering
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- temporal punishment
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- The Gift of Tears
- The Good Shepherd
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- The Particular Judgment
- The Pilgrim Church
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BLOG POSTS
(scroll down to read individual blog posts)
Will You Be on Our Lady’s A-Team?
The Teeter Totter
We are all born with the effects of Original Sin in our souls which leave their mark by a proclivity to sin. We can see that most clearly in our disordered desires. Some examples would be: desiring junk food, over-eating, over-sleeping, over-drinking, spending too much money on frivolous things, gossip, base humor, feelings of superiority, judging other people, need for attention and admiration, lust, etc. All of this is further compounded by our personal sins which lead to sinful habits.
Are You a Reservoir or a Channel?
“Do not just be a channel for grace, but a reservoir, an overflowing reservoir. No sooner has a channel received grace than it pours it out. A reservoir waits to be filled up and then offers grace to those who come to draw from its superabundance” (St. Bernadette).
Finding the Real Soul of the Apostolate
“The channels let the water flow away, and do not retain a drop. But the reservoir is first filled, and then without emptying itself, pours out its overflow, which is ever renewed. We have many channels in the Church today,” Saint Bernard added sadly, “but very few reservoirs.”
Combating Hedonism by Living the Message of Fatima
Our Lady came to Fatima to begin the formation of her “A Team” – a team of new “missionary disciples” who would be bright lights in a time of darkness, and by living an authentically Catholic life, would mission to people who had received a perverted form of the Catholic Faith through Modernism; disciples who would allow Jesus' victory over the Strongman to be fully effective in their lives. She knew it wouldn’t be easy for them because Hedonism – a direct consequence of Modernism – has infected everyone. The antidote is to respond to her urgent call to prayer, penance and reparation.
My Mother Was a Priest
We were all shocked and shattered when my brother announced that he wanted to become a priest. It was not just that he wanted to become a priest, but he wanted to become a Cistercian priest. That meant that once he left home he would never return. Naturally my mother was totally bereft.
Taking Up Our Cross
Luke 9:23-25 ‘If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross every day and follow me. For anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake, that man will save it. What gain, then, is it for a man to have won the whole world and to have lost or ruined his very self?
What Does It Mean to "Offer It Up?"
Teresa of Avila, in her book The Way of Perfection writes:
"Everything I have advised you about… is directed toward the complete gift of ourselves to the Creator, the surrender of our wills to His, and detachment from creatures…For we are preparing ourselves that we may quickly reach the end of our journey and drink the living water from the fount."
The Reality of Suffering & the Hope of Salvation
It has been said that Christianity is not an electric blanket that coddles or warms a person gently to sleep. In reality, it is a cross that each and every one of us must bear.
The Prophetic Messages of Our Lady of Akita
Our meditation today arises from the approved apparition of Our Lady of Akita, Japan from June 12, 1973 until Sept. 15, 1981. It began with 101 instances of a statue of Mary bleeding and weeping. Sr Agnes Sasagawa then received visions of an angel and messages from Mary, the Mother of God and Our Mother.
Why Do We Suffer?
Suffering is hard. It is easy to say you want God's will.... til you take up that cross.
Suffering is Meant to Be a Win/Win/Win/Win/Win
If God is all-good and all-powerful, why is there so much suffering in this world?
Six Reasons We Have to Carry Our Crosses
"If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me" (Matthew 16:24).
When Jesus uses the word “cross” he is referring to suffering as an “instrument of salvation.” This makes sense in reference to his suffering and death but many Christians wonder, isn’t what Jesus did enough? Why do we have to carry our crosses?
Through Him, With Him, In Him
We are Living Lamps
