Mystic Monday: Amma Theodora -- Lover of Souls

Today dear children we will return to the desert to visit with a mystical woman who was revered by even the Desert Fathers for her counsel. Amma Theodora was the wife of a tribune. She sought the way of humility as the pathway to perfection.

Here are a few pieces of wisdom from Amma Theodora:

It is good to live in peace , for the wise man practices perpetual prayer. It is truly a great thing for a virgin or monk to live in peace, especially the younger ones. However you should realize that as soon as you intend to live in peace, at once evil comes and weighs down your soul through accidie (sloth and depression) faintheartedness and evil thoughts. It also attacks your body through sickness, debility, weakness of the knees and all the members. It dissipates the strength of the soul and body, so that one believes one is ill and no longer able to pray. But if we are vigilant, all these temptations fall away. There was in fact a monk who was seized by cold and fever every time he began to pray, and he suffered from headaches, too. In this condition, he said to himself, "I am ill, and near to death; so now I will get up before I die and pray." By reasoning in this way, he did violence to himself and prayed. When he finished , the fever abated also. So by reasoning in this way, the brother resisted, and prayed and was able to conquer his thoughts.

A devout man happened to be insulted by someone and he said to him, "I could say as much to you, but the commandment of God keeps my mouth shut."

Give the body discipline and you will see that the body is for Him who made it.

If you are wondering why of all her saying I chose these, it is because I needed to hear these particular few for my own spiritual nourishment and growth.

Amma Theodora knew what she was talking about. In particular I am going to write a post in the next few days on the topic of my own battle with accidie, when I get some time to sit down and collect my thoughts.

Pax

Direction Comes, Even When You Don't Get Directed . . . God is So Good!

My Spiritual Director is ill this week and had to cancel our regular monthly appointment, so I missed my monthly shot of spiritual direction. I felt really bad for him because being the pastor of two parishes and all it must be difficult for him to admit that he has to cancel everything on his calendar and stay in bed (he really must be sick, especially to cancel Mass).

This morning though I got a very eye opening and deeply needed moment of correction from my devoted and highly put upon husband as he was preparing to leave for work. I was musing out loud about losing someone's email address, and he asked a simple question and I jumped to a totally wrong conclusion about the intent of his question (something he pointed out later in the conversation that I do quite often.)

It occurred to me, as I listened to what he was saying and then used that as prayer meditation as I spent a half hour on the treadmill. I usually react to what he has said before I even try to understand what he means. I really need to work on that because I know that he doesn't intend to say things to hurt me and if I would just stop and think I might understand that he is simply asking a question to gather more information and not trying to in any way impugn my intelligence or capabilities as a person. He just likes to have all of the facts before he makes a statement because he is a Myers Brigs TJ where I am an FP.

As I was doing my meditation walk (sounds so much better than exercise don't you think?) I realized that while I have been trying to make changes in myself in the last year and thought that I had come pretty far, I still have a lot of growing to do. The first thing I need to do is to publicly apologize to mrangelmeg for being so blinded to how ignorant I have been in the past to our different communication styles. Then I need to thank him for the loving correction and not so gentle nudge he gave me this morning that started me on this path of self revelation. I have to learn to stop jumping to conclusions before I jump into or off of something that will do irreparable harm to our relationship.

I am so blessed to have mrangelmeg in my life. In the Vocation of Marriage the role of each spouse is to insure that the other spouse gets into heaven. In our case I think mrangelmeg has the tougher assignment. Be patient with me I may be slow but I do eventually get it.

Pax

I Must be Getting Smarter

Because I wasn't this smart in High School, I promise you . . .

You paid attention during 100% of high school!

85-100% You must be an autodidact, because American high schools don't get scores that high! Good show, old chap!

Do you deserve your high school diploma?
Create a Quiz

hat tip to Tony at Catholic Pillow Fight for the link

Pax

Humility Goes Where I Go

I wrote this a long time ago about a shift in my way of thinking about service and something as simple and humble as changing the toilet paper roll without complaining or having to be asked to do it.

I think that at home I have done a pretty good job of changing them without saying anything to anyone about the number of times I change the rolls in not only the master bathroom, but in the girls' bathroom and even my son's bathroom.

This evening when I got to my mom's and was getting ready for bed, what did I find when I sat down to go to the bathroom, but an empty toilet paper roll! I guess God was just allowing me to serve my sister and mom as well.

It just made me remember to do it without complaining that the person who used the last piece hadn't thought to change the roll after she was through. I suppose I was just lucky there was some tissue left in the Kleenex box.

Pax