Longing for God: Mother Teresa's Letters Reveal Isolation, Doubts.

Catholic News Service ^ | 3/4/02 | Cindy Wooden

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

I know where you are going with this. You are entitled to your beliefs but this isn't the thread for this. Take it elsewhere.

[Judith Anne]

What a terrific post! If God were Santa Claus, going down a checklist of wishes and granting them to each believer according to his/her sincerity, then the Almighty would be nothing...

The God Who loves us, and died for us, meets us in the darkest hours of our lives with gifts of hope, comfort, reconciliation and peace.

Giving up the "God as Santa Claus" idea is one of the steps to growing in Him...Mother Teresa has been an inspiration to me, and her inner spiritual emptiness and darkness were a preparation, to my thinking, for the will of God to work through her...

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

These interior trials and episodes of spiritual dryness are experiences of all the great mystics. St. Theresa of Avila comes immediately to mind and wrote extensively about this in her many works.

[Judith Anne]

Yes, the Dark Night of the Soul...

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

Yes! Did you read the book by St.John of the Cross? I did but I thought it was a very difficult read. One of those books that you have to read a couple of pages then stop and think about it for a while. I was persistent though and finally finished it two years later!

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

I've been through some rough times myself and there is a certain Bible verse that always comes to mind when I feel I am at my lowest point. It refers to Wisdom and how "in fire gold is tested". I'm looking through Proverbs, Wisdom, and Sirach right now but I can't find it. I think it's in Sirach. I wanted to share it with you:( I'll post it if I find it.

[nickcarraway]

Bill Gates funds a lot of death, too. He's big on population control. He gives money to prevent the very thing that made his prosperity possible.

[WVNan]

"I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve that you may see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Rev. 3:18-19)

[Judith Anne]

I didn't get through that book, you're to be commended. What happened to me was that I sort of lived through such a "night" and spent a lot of time as a retreatant at a Trappist monastery...the writings of the great mystics were at my disposal, and to my surprise, I saw my very own struggles illuminated by theirs...it didn't make it any easier, and I am certainly no great mystic, but at times, there were friends in the darkness...

[Atticus]

How many hospitals and treatment centers for the prevention of disease did Mother Teresa fund? How many more lives will Bill Gates save from his funded treatment programs. We will never hear of a Saint Gates!

To quote from the article: "Beatification and canonization are recognitions not of a person's life work -- which is obviously praiseworthy in Mother Teresa's case -- but of holiness."

[Vince Ferrer]

For I am already being poured out like a libation, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have competed well; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith. From now on the crown of righteousness awaits me, which the Lord, the just judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me, but to all who have longed for his appearance.

-Timothy Chapter 4, 6-8

[Judith Anne]

She explained herself perfectly well. If this isn't in your frame of reference, don't worry about it.

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

Okay that's good too, but it wasn't in Revelation. I'm still looking! BTW, I'm sure you all know this already, but when gold is heated the impurities (dross) separate and come to the surface to be skimmed away, leaving only the purest gold, hence, the spiritual comparison. But you knew that:) Just a bit of trivia;)

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

Ooohh Trappists! Thomas Merton.... I haven't read him yet but he's on my list!

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

You know exactly what I am talking about and I'm not buying the 'playing dumb'. If by some small chance you really don't know, then just forget about it.

[NordP]

"People do say, 'Do it faster,'" the priest said. But the official process takes time, he said. "It is designed to discern the sense of the people of God and the verification of the miracle is God's confirmation of that."

I second the request...DO IT FASTER! The woman deserves all, and so much more!!!

[Judith Anne]

Well, I will say that the Trappists are very practical about spiritual matters, and encourage keeping the hours of prayer throughout the day, it's too big an experience to summarize in a post, but Thomas Merton was the least of it. For some reason, I couldn't identify with him and his struggles, as much as with some others...

Evelyn Underhill wrote a terrific book called "Mysticism" which explores the spiritual journey in all its aspects..it was a map through unfamiliar territory, for me; the journey doesn't end in this life, though, I'm convinced. Underhill's book was from a largely Catholic (though not exclusive) perspective.

[NordP]

Okay, so Bill Gates is wealthy - I for one, am sick and tired of people getting upset about that as a root cause.

He made money - who's to say he's a horrible human being?

This class warfare thing is an unsightly blight against the "doers" of the world. We should be glad that we live in a country where this is possible, and be happy for another that has done well.

Who cares what he does with that money. That's between him and God. He has to live with his choices - another great gift from the Almighty - the gift of FREE WILL.

[NordP]

"Giving up the "God as Santa Claus" idea is one of the steps to growing in Him...Mother Teresa has been an inspiration to me, and her inner spiritual emptiness and darkness were a preparation, to my thinking, for the will of God to work through her..."

I totally disagree. You must think of Santa Claus as only the giver of material gifts. To me, Santa Claus, just like God, is the bearer of the gift of understanding that unconditional giving and giving to all is the best that a human can do...a living example to us all, and in that way VERY Godlike.