Carmelite Sisters Blogging
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Integrated Catholic Life: Ask a Carmelite Sisters Series - Posted 12/28/2011
Question: I’ve been reading your answers to questions on The Integrated Catholic Life™ for several months now and have been playing with the idea of writing you a question that I’ve been thinking about for many years. It’s about my family. I don’t consider us bad Catholics, nor do I consider us to be devout “pillars of the parish”. We are just a regular Catholic family. I feel uncertain as the head of the family whether I am doing a good enough job of passing along the Catholic faith to my family. Do you have any advice that would help me?
Answer: Thank you for your question, which I’m pretty certain many other husbands and dads find themselves asking.
What a blessing! You state that you are just a “regular Catholic family”. You are blessed, indeed, and so is the rest of your family. Don’t belittle yourself and your role as the father of your family. I believe you are doing a lot more than you realize to share your faith with your children. The Catholic faith isn’t so much “taught” as it is “lived”. Or rather, the very living out of the Catholic faith teaches. Continue Reading |
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Catholic Spiritual Direction: Sometimes Prayer is so frustrating I just give up...what can I do? - Posted 12/26/2011 Q: Dear Sister Carmen, in the Second Mansion of the Interior Castle, St. Teresa strongly emphasizes the need for perseverance. Can you help me understand how this works in a practical way? I really struggle to keep a consistent prayer time and to stay focused when I pray. Sometimes it is so frustrating that I just give up. I know this doesn’t help but what can I do?
A: Many doors have a sign over their entrance. If the door leading to the Second Mansion or Dwelling Place were to have a sign, I would imagine it would read, “Where is your treasure?”
Teresa teaches us in her description of the Second Dwelling Place that if we are to reach the Center, the final Dwelling Place, we will have to wage war with Satan. In this Second Mansion we are still caught between the attractions of the world and our final destination. Self-centeredness makes us fearful of trials and penances. The tug-of-war is between falsehood and truth, between sin and virtue, between self-gratification and generosity. We must be determined to bring our wills into conformity with God’s will...Continue Reading |
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Integrated Catholic Life: Ask a Carmelite Sisters Series - Posted 12/7/2011
Question: When someone asks me to pray for them – to be honest with you – I am not sure how to follow through on my answer which is always “yes, of course, I will keep you in my prayers.” May I ask, what do you do, Sister, when people ask you to pray for them?
Answer: Thank you for your question. You are not the only one who wonders about the “best” way to pray for someone who asks for your prayers. There are probably as many ways of interceding for people as there are people in the world. Continue Reading |
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