Richie,

Your courteous and kind messages are always gratefully received. Verily, only those individuals who embrace a charitable life can truly believe; faith, charity and thus valid hope are inseparable. Habitual selfishness or unrestrained and wrongheaded ambition as any grave transgression by degrees destroy charity. A person is genuinely free only if the choices of his or her will, are not slavish to sin, undue aspirations and faults. True knowing therefore is always separable from self-serving needs or interests. Only through the eyes of charity, we truly see and truly know; Love and Truth are perpetually inseparable. True greatness of a soul consists of learning to be nothing - abolishing the ego, the self within us, the sin and error which stop the Light... Moral obligations and duties were given to eradicate the false self (e.g. St. John of the Cross, Simone Weil). Those who do not consent to become nothing in order to be everything in Christ, need idols like money, power, recognition etc. As you rightly stated, holding on to selfish agenda inevitably leads to a markedly callow, manipulative and nonadult actions, and ultimately forlorn and unblessed existence since self-centeredness and self-glorification (as opposed to self-giving) close the door to special divine graces. Woe to those who refuse to be trained for eternity...

May the Omnipotent One help us to become genuine Christians... D.K.

Grateful thanks for your commentaries always delivered with invaluable incisiveness and considerateness. Unequivocally, the mark of a great soul is to favor courageous and glorious demands of virtuous life as opposed to being engrossed in oneself and one's own affairs espousing plight marked by unquenchable greed. We can possess only when we renounce... and we cannot possess anything unless it passes through the Author of all that is infinitely good. The essential question is not what is the ambition but what is its origin - whether it is inspired by the Author of love or it comes from the voice of the evil one. Sadly, there are a multitude of souls who are easily fooled and deluded by the arch Enemy, and find a whole host of unreasonable excuses to continue on the way of self-destruction. There are too many reasons to distrust human nature alone, and innocence indeed ends as soon as the "I" appears - the old pride of the Fall (e.g. Czeslaw Milosz, G.K. Chesterton).

Let the Word of God dwell in us richly...
With all blessings - Dorothy

Kathy,

Your consideration for others and generous comments are always valued and appreciatively accepted. As we know, all that is changelessly beneficial and good belongs exclusively to God: His Mercy, His Wisdom, His All-powerful Grace... Someone once appropriately expressed that our good deeds are used by the Eternal as seeds for planting trees in the Garden of Eden; thus each of us creates by responding generously to divine grace our own Paradise. What is requisite is to uncover all that which deforms us, and recognize that perilous desires must not only be despised but extinguished by eternally favorable desires. Human beings are weak because of earthly/transitory desires and searching for inferior "goods", and also the aptness for right thinking is extensively incapacitated on account of grave sins or immoral actions. For every action in order to be a right action must be a moral stimulant to even greater self-sacrificing action.
Wishing you abundance of grace and strength in your journey of faith.
Sister in Christ... Dorothy

for he shall enjoy everything" - Saint Francis of Assisi

Thank you for the invariably uplifting and considerate comments; for the consistent generosity and kindness of heart that inspire and afford hope...

May the peace of Christ control... our hearts...

P.S. Needless to say, I enjoy our frequent discussions which are mutually edifying.
With all blessings... Dorothy

Dear Reverend Chris,

For obvious reasons, I feel quite unworthy... nonetheless am a grateful recipient of your encouragingly written comments; your exceptional kindliness is irreplaceably inspiriting while some remarks delivered in a humorous vein appeal decidedly to my heart... for they are a precious fusion of humility and humor - the secret of the saint's advantage, victory and glory. Your affirmation is also distinctly esteemed since it is coming from someone who is a revered worker in God's vineyard, and is a "Fisher of men."
BTW I am sure that your sermons are full of substance and are of the finest quality!

Wishing you continued superabundance of grace in your apostolic work.

May we pursue the Infinite Good ceaselessly... loving and knowing more...

In Solidarity with Christ... Dorothy

Thank you again for sympathetic and like-minded observations, which are greatly appreciated. As you affirmed, true power and undying benefits ensue from absolute love of God. That is why, vehemently combating all that is contrary to His reign and His life in us is imperatively required... and supreme. And, that warfare takes place (interiorly) and continuously in our minds conquering sins of mind (nebulous, anomalous ideations, pride etc), involving inseparably warfare that of the heart for God demands our hearts completely - wanting all or nothing, and finally it also impartibly entails defeating that will of the old Adam. God must be loved supremely and supernaturally (our love for Him infused with the omnipotent sanctifying grace). Needless to say (and to put it, overly simplistic!) He must be loved more than everything else... if not, one is never truly successful nor victorious.

May He rescue us from being exiguous converts...DKK