"I love Counseling Kevin"

2022-07-14 14:11:58

Counseling Kevin The Spirit Sings A Simple SongThe intellect thinks. The body dances. And the spirit sings. A song, a simple song. When love and memory are overwhelming, and the soul, though crushed, takes flight, it does so in a simple song.Mark Helprin, "A Soldier of the Great War"Posted byKevinatFebruary 01, 2022No comments: Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest The Light Shines In The Darkness, And The Darkness Has Not Overcome ItI have seen fine religious communities that are faithfuland fervent. They remind of the Christians who, in the twilight years of the Roman Empire, kept watch over the flickering flame of civilization. I want to encourage them. I want to tell them: your mission is not to save a dying world. No civilization has the promises of eternal life. Your mission is to live out with fidelity and without compromise the faith you received from Christ. In that way, even without realizing it, you will save theheritage of many centuries of faith. Do not be afraid because of your small numbers! It is not a matter of winning elections or influencing opinions. It is a matter of living the Gospel. Faith is a fire. A person himself must be onfire in order to transmit it. Watch overthis sacred fire!-Robert Cardinal Sarah, "The Day Is Now Far Spent"Pray more; pray harder; pray well.Posted byKevinatMarch 16, 2021No comments: Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest What It Is And Is NotIf anyone says, "I loveGod," but hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love a brotherwhom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. This is the commandment wehave from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. --1 John 4:20-21Hard cheese in a time of polarization and atomization, especially for those who've decided to render unto Caesar what is God's. Then again, as the late philosopher, Fr. James V. Schall, asserted, "We are living in a time where the logic of disorder is at work, rejecting systematically the logic of being a human being." Father Schall was also well-known for asserting that it is important for a philosopher "to say of what is, that it is, and of what is not, that it is not." John, the "beloved apostle," declares what Christian love is and what it is not. If you don't like that, fine. Just don't call yourself a "Christian," because you're not.As I write this, I'm gazing in a mirror, not as Narcissus would, but as St. Paul might have."The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been founddifficult; and left untried."--G.K. ChestertonPosted byKevinatJanuary 11, 2021No comments: Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest The Black Dog Held At BayWe Christians, like all other children of planet earth, are born into a reality that will necessarily incorporate griefand lamentation. We accept this actuality and reject any explanation that says our sorrowing is a waste or based on illusion. To unlock the meaning of our ordeals, we climb a hill where God-become-human dies in agony. After that culminating event, everything else in the world's history has a new illumination--a light born out of the darkness of Calvary. We see the awesome spectacle of a God in utmost need, struggling in our pain. St. Therese [of Lisieux] describes the face of Jesus as "luminous...in the midst of wounds and tears" (Letters, Lt 95, p.580). The primal sin was accepting the serpent's promise, "You will be like gods, knowing good and evil" (Gen 3:5). And from that human decision came suffering and death. Who would have conceived of a divine response to this original betrayal whereby God would embrace the very penalty imposed upon sin: suffering and death? The Psalms of the Hebrew Bible sing over and over of God's abundant kindness, of God's steadfast love. Yet we Christians sing of a mercy that not only pours out compassion but enters into the experience of our desolation. We have an infinite God who has willed to feel our limitations, even our small ones. Jesus does not explain human existence from afar. He allowed Himself to be restrained by the boundaries of the humanity He shares with us. But in so doing, He transforms those very limitations and endows them with power.He looks at us in whatever lameness is holding us back from moving forward with Him. His words sound in our ears. "Get up and walk" (Mt 9:5). With His power energizing us, we know the path before us this very day-yes, with all its difficulties--leads to eternal life.---Sister Margaret Dorgan DCM, "The Message of Jesus About Human Pain"If a non-believer prefers a more secular perspective, perhaps the following passage by Harvard psychologist Gordon Allport, from the preface to Viktor Frankl's book, "Man's Search for Meaning," will help him or her.[T]o live is to suffer, to survive is to find meaning in the suffering. If there is a purpose in life at all, there must be a purpose in the suffering and the dying. But no man can tell another what this purpose is. Each must find out for himself, and must accept the responsibility that his answer prescribes. If he succeeds he will continue to grow in spite of all indignities.Cold comfort to many of us. To the rest, a warm hearth on a bitterly cold night.Posted byKevinatJanuary 06, 2021No comments: Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest Too Many Different Needs To SatisfyI Knew A Woman---by Theodore RoethkeI knew a woman, lovely in her bones,When small birds sighed, she would sigh back at them;Ah, when she moved, she moved more ways than one:The shapes a bright container can contain!Of her choice virtues only gods should speak,Or English poets who grew up on Greek(I’d have them sing in chorus, cheek to cheek).How well her wishes went! She stroked my chin,She taught me Turn, and Counter-turn, and Stand;She taught me Touch, that undulant white skin;I nibbled meekly from her proffered hand;She was the sickle; I, poor I, the rake,Coming behind her for her pretty sake(But what prodigious mowing we did make).Love likes a gander, and adores a goose:Her full lips pursed, the errant note to seize;She played it quick, she played it light and loose;My eyes, they dazzled at her flowing knees;Her several parts could keep a pure repose,Or one hip quiver with a mobile nose(She moved in circles, and those circles moved).Let seed be grass, and grass turn into hay:I’m martyr to a motion not my own;What’s freedom for? To know eternity.I swear she cast a shadow white as stone.But who would count eternity in days?These old bones live to learn her wanton ways:(I measure time by how a body sways).Posted byKevinatJanuary 05, 2021No comments: Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest Waiting For A Shouting LightAVE MARIA, gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus. Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc, et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen.Winter's Night--Thomas MertonWhen, in the dark, the frost cracks on the window The children awaken, and whisper. One says the moonlight grated like a skate Across the freezing river. Another hears the starlight breaking like a knifeblade Upon the silent, steelbright pond. They say the trees are stiller than the frozen water From waiting for a shouting light, a heavenly message.Yet it is far from Christmas, when a star Sang in the pane, as brittle as their innocence! For now the light of early Lent Glitters upon the icy step - "We have wept letters to our patron saints, (The children say) yet slept before they ended."Oh, is there in this night no sound of strings, of singers! None coming from the wedding, no, nor Bridegroom's messenger? (The sleepy virgins stir, and trim their lamps.)The moonlight rings upon the ice as sudden as a footstep; Starlight clinks upon the dooryard stone, too like a latch,And the children are again, awake, and all call out in whispers to their guardian angels.Posted byKevinatJanuary 04, 2021No comments: Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest Sit TempusThe hymn "Ubi Caritas" dates from the late Eighth Century A.D., and is traditionally sung in the Western Church as one of the antiphons during the washing of the feet on Maundy Thursday of Easter Week. Here is a nice version of the traditional hymn. The lyrics are as follows:Latin textEnglish translationUbi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est.Congregavit nos in unum Christi amor.Exsultemus, et in ipso jucundemur.Timeamus, et amemus Deum vivum.Et ex corde diligamus nos sincero.Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est.Simul ergo cum in unum congregamur:Ne nos mente dividamur, caveamus.Cessent iurgia maligna, cessent lites.Et in medio nostri sit Christus Deus.Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est.Simul quoque cum beatis videamus,Glorianter vultum tuum, Christe Deus:Gaudium quod est immensum, atque probum,Saecula per infinita saeculorum. Amen.Where charity and love are, there God is.The love of Christ has gathered us into one.Let us exult, and in Him be joyful.Let us fear and let us love the living God.And from a sincere heart let us love each other (and Him).Where charity and love are, there God is.Therefore, whensoever we are gathered as one:Lest we in mind be divided, let us beware.Let cease malicious quarrels, let strife give way.And in the midst of us be Christ our God.Where charity and love are, there God is.Together also with the blessed may we see,Gloriously, Thy countenance, O Christ our God:A joy which is immense, and also approved:Through infinite ages of ages. Amen. A few contemporary composers have rearranged the hymn or based longer works on the theme of the hymn. Three of my favorite contemporary works on this theme are by Norwegian composer Ola Gjeilo, a contemporary chorale and symphonic composer whose various compositions often "strike a chord" within me (pun intended). The following are versions of Gjeilo's "Ubi Caritas" and "Ubi Caritas II" (which he has stated are, to his mind, "bookends," meaning that they work as stand alone pieces or performed together in order), the first sung by the exquisite British a cappella group Voces8, and the second performed by the Central Washington University Chamber Choir, with the composer accompanying the choir with an improvised piano part. While choirs also perform the second piece without a piano accompaniment, I usually think that it's interesting to see the composer of a piece perform it. I hope that readers enjoy these versions as much as I do. The advertisements are annoying, but a small price of admission, I think.As much as I love versions I and II, I most love Gjeilo's third variation on this theme, entitled "Sacred Heart (Ubi Caritas III)." The following version is sung by the Dutch professional chamber choir Cantatrix, with orchestral accompaniment. The pictures that are featured in the video are well-suited to the music. As we approach Christmas day, I hope those of you whose hearts are open to it are touched to some degree by the beauty of this music.Sit tempus (Blessed be the moment).Posted byKevinatDecember 22, 2020No comments: Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest The Cult Of The ShadowGodleaves us free to be whatever we like. We can be ourselves or not, as weplease. We are at liberty to be real, or to be unreal. We may be true or false,the choice is ours. We may wear now one mask and now another, and never, if weso desire, appear with our own true face. But we cannot make these choices withimpunity.Causes have effects, and if we lie to ourselves andto others, then we cannot expect to find truth and reality whenever we happento want them. If we have chosen the way of falsity we must not be surprisedthat truth eludes us when we finally come to need it!Our vocation is not simply to be, but to worktogether with God in the creation of our own life, our own identity, our owndestiny….The seeds that are planted in my liberty at everymoment, by God's will, are the seeds of my own identity, my own reality, my ownhappiness, my own sanctity….Every one of us is shadowed by an illusory person: afalse self.This is theperson that I want myself to be but who cannot exist, because God does not knowanything about him. And to be unknown to God is altogether too much privacy.My false and private self is the one who wants toexist outside the reach of God's will and God's love - outside of reality andoutside of life. And such a self cannot help but be an illusion.We are not very good at recognising illusions, leastof all the ones we cherish about ourselves - the ones we are born with andwhich feed the roots of sin. For most of the people in the world, there is nogreater subjective reality than this false self of theirs, which cannot exist.A life devoted to the cult of this shadow is what is called a life of sin.All sin starts from the assumption that my falseself, the self that exists only in my own egocentric desires, is thefundamental reality of life to which everything else in the universeisordered.Thus I use upmy life in the desire for pleasures and the thirst for experiences, for power,honour, knowledge and love, to clothe this false self and construct itsnothingness into something objectively real. And I wind experiences aroundmyself and cover myself with pleasures and glory like bandages in order to makemyself perceptible to myself and to the world, as if I were an invisible bodythat could only become visible when something visible covered its surface…[...] We havethe choice of two identities: the external mask which seems to be real...andthe hidden, inner person who seems to us to be nothing, but who can givehimself eternally to the truth in whom he subsists. --Thomas Merton, "New Seeds of Contemplation"I think that so many of us spend our lives in the cult of the shadow, wearing our masks and wondering why, even if others buy the facade, we--in our heart-of-hearts--do not. Come home to reality, before it's too late.Posted byKevinatDecember 14, 2020No comments: Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest Older PostsHomeSubscribe to:Posts (Atom)About MeKevinA Roman Catholic revert. A retired professional man weary of conflict and searching for transcendent truth and beauty in the midst of the cosmic dance.View my complete profileBlog Archive ▼  2022(1) ▼  February(1)The Spirit Sings A Simple Song ►  2021(5) ►  March(1) ►  January(4) ►  2020(8) ►  December(3) ►  November(5)Subscribe ToPosts Atom PostsAll Comments Atom All CommentsSimple theme. Powered by Blogger.StatCounter