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talking to myself

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All who hope in God


markdohle

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All who hope in God

Mary’s song of praise in the Magnificat “is the
canticle of the People of God on the journey,
and of all men and women who hope in God,
 in the power of his mercy.” Pope Francis

 

+++++


Advent is a time of hope.  For Jesus Christ is God’s mercy in the flesh and Mary in her joy over this deep mystery and actual reality praised God in her “Magnificat”


”My soul magnifies the Lord
And my spirit rejoices in God my Savior;
Because He has regarded the lowliness of His handmaid;
For behold, henceforth all generations shall call me blessed;
Because He who is mighty has done great things for me,
and holy is His name;
And His mercy is from generation to generation
on those who fear Him.
He has shown might with His arm,
He has scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart.
He has put down the mighty from their thrones,
and has exalted the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich He has sent away empty.
He has given help to Israel, his servant, mindful of His mercy
Even as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his posterity forever”.


To live in hope is not easy, it takes courage, for we live in a world of suffering, injustice and the seeming triumph of evil in the world.  In the Incarnation we see a reversal of our world, a reversal so profound that many cannot bring themselves to believe, for it seems too grand to be true.  Yet the Lord Jesus was lowly.  He was from a poor family, from a town of no importance and even showered with contempt…..yet Christ Jesus was born in such a town.  He identified with those on the fringe, those hated by the religious establishment, with tax collectors, who were in reality, to put if mildly; scum.   Yet Mathew, one of his Apostles came from such a group.  He showed love for the powerful as well, but he used a different approach, he told them of their alienation from God, for which he was hated.  Yet after the resurrection many converts came from those he so roundly berated

The journey is hard yet our faith can be a light that leads us deeper into the love of the Father who shows his face in Jesus Chris our Lord.  Yet faith sometimes has to be chosen over and over again so as to deepen it.  For God’s ways or not ours…when we think we understand God’s ways that is when we can let go of our hope in God’s love and Word.  The ‘cross’ is no respecter of person…we either carry it or it will drag us.

 

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12 hours ago, davros of skaro said:

Can you walk on water yet?

No, but I am a good swimmer, that will have to do for now ;-).

 

Peace and Happy Holidays

Mark

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I still do not understand the meaning, point, or purpose behind having faith. Faith in anything really. Makes no sense to me, not anymore. Guess I've been jilted by life one to many times to believe in anything. 

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Frank Merton

Posted (edited)

42 minutes ago, XenoFish said:

I still do not understand the meaning, point, or purpose behind having faith. Faith in anything really. Makes no sense to me, not anymore. Guess I've been jilted by life one to many times to believe in anything. 

It may be helpful to make a distinction between "belief" (or faith) and "opinion." (Many languages make a clear distinction but English often confuses the two and treats belief as nothing more than strongly held opinion -- I would suggest that opinion is on the surface while belief is buried deep inside us, and not really noticed as such but just taken for granted).

Belief is an emotional state, opinion and intellectual one.  One comes to believe via indoctrination, one forms an opinion via evidence and reasoning.  

(What is "indoctrination?" It is also called, to bring out the negative aspect, "brainwashing." It happens most often to children wherein they form their notions about the world and their notions of right and wrong ("conscience").  A feel for this can be seen in the sense that up and down are absolutes, not something relative to the planet -- so that around age ten almost everyone goes through a period of intellectual difficulty contemplating why people at the antipodes don't fall off the planet.

Indoctrination happens when we are children because we don't have mature critical thinking abilities yet, but are otherwise very much in learning mode and are full of questions.  It also happens to adults who never fully developed the ability to think critically (we call them gullible), but it can happen to anyone not paying attention.  It is achieved through propaganda rather than reason -- music, parades and raucous rallies, beautiful pictures or buildings, beautiful or appealing ideas, ideas that have wonderful consequences if true -- plus less appealing tactics such as band wagoning, coercion, repetition, invention of false stories and "facts" (lying), reference to unqualified "authority," logical fallacies, "group-think", altered mental states such as from sleep deprivation, drugs, even heavy meditation, and who knows what else.  The thing these techniques for brainwashing people have in common is use of emotional triggers and mental attributes other than reasoning.

I remember being told by a well-meaning but misdirected monk to meditate on the idea of my previous lives, since I plainly doubted they were real.  I meditated hard, for several weeks, several hours a day, and persuaded myself I could remember traces of such lives.  As a result I "believed" this teaching sincerely, for many years, and adjusted my life accordingly.  I later realized the evidence was flimsy, nowhere near enough to support such an extraordinary teaching (the problem of course is that anything could be true, and when one believes (is indoctrinated), one latches onto possibility as proof.  We have emotional (probably derived from early human or maybe even animal instincts to adhere to the views of the group) links to the belief (one wants to believe it and doubt creates emotional stresses (guilt, fear).

I see people who have rejected the religion of their childhood ending up hating the religion and all it stands for, largely for what was "done to them" and the suffering they went through as they developed cognitive dissonances as they learned truths that didn't fit it.  (This happens less in Buddhism since it is not creedal and, while it has lots of teachings, it doesn't insist on bad things if one doubts or rejects).

I also see people who have gone through periods of doubt, maybe even periods of disbelief, who are so tortured by their instincts here that they end up "deciding" to believe in spite of it all.  The body then rewards them with a stopping of the guilt and fear and a replacement with feelings of joy and visits by the Holy Spirit.

"Faith" is, then, really just a cop-out.  It is an excuse for giving in to the indoctrination (almost always of childhood) because one wants to and because doubt produces serious discomfort that takes a long time to get over.

Edited by Frank Merton
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Davros of Skaro

Posted

6 hours ago, markdohle said:

No, but I am a good swimmer, that will have to do for now ;-).

 

Peace and Happy Holidays

Mark

I can walk on water with no faith needed. I just make sure the ice is at least 12' thick. ;)

Happy Hanukkah

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3 hours ago, davros of skaro said:

I can walk on water with no faith needed. I just make sure the ice is at least 12' thick. ;)

Happy Hanukkah

12 feet? You have no faith. 4 inches is all you need.

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Davros of Skaro

Posted

39 minutes ago, Likely Guy said:

12 feet? You have no faith. 4 inches is all you need.

Is that what your old lady says to make you feel better?

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Likely Guy

Posted (edited)

2 minutes ago, davros of skaro said:

Is that what your old lady says to make you feel better?

BaDum! Tssssh....

*crickets*

Edited by Likely Guy
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On 12/21/2016 at 10:37 PM, davros of skaro said:

I can walk on water with no faith needed. I just make sure the ice is at least 12' thick. ;)

Happy Hanukkah

 

I hope so, especially in winter LOL.

Peace
mark

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