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Living out the faith in this fallen, broken world can be complicated and messy. We are called to be soldiers in this spiritual battle, to carry our crosses, and somehow at the same time to become like children.
This month, our chatters journey through this winding road, on the pursuit to trusting God as a loving Father, who has much for us to endure for the sake of our souls and for the faith.
With them, discover the irony of becoming small to become great, whether we should seek out crosses to carry, and much more. The chat concludes with contentious topics surrounding the state of affairs in the Church and Church leadership today. So stick around to the end!
If you would like to chat with Catholics like yourself, why not check out our Living Jesus Chat Room of the Visitation Sisters. Join us at 7:30 p.m. ET each Sunday! We read a passage of St. Francis de Sales and then gather great insights and sharing!
Question: What can we do to help children be “great”?
Priscila: Help them to keep their child-like innocence and inquisitive fun qualities.
Stacy: Keep showing them gifts of the Holy Spirit: kindness, joy, gentleness.
Visitation Sister: Teach them to pray.
Stacy: Yes, show them prayers, tell them to acknowledge their guardian angel, saying prayers before bedtime.
Priscila: Help children remain children in their characteristics.
Lydia: Bring Jesus into every aspect of their lives.
Stacy: Children are so observant and like parrots, they will pray if you pray.
Caroline: Teach children about the Mass early, in particular the Eucharist.
Priscila: Jesus said that unless you become as little children.
Question: What is the importance of our own spiritual growth in this pursuit?
Caroline: We must keep growing ourselves if we are to be a guide for someone else.
Stacy: We are to be disciples and be like Jesus to all, teach and then we also grow.
Priscila: The more we explain the faith and help others, the more we grow in faith.
Denise: Being little is necessary for advancing our growth spiritually.
Rebecca: Model the kind of greatness we are talking about here!
Visitation Sister: I think we grow when we teach others.
Rebecca: Kids learn a lot by watching and imitating their parents & teachers and older siblings.
Stacy: It is nice to observe parents in church teaching the little ones to genuflect and sign the cross.
Rebecca: Yes, Stacy, it always gives me a good feeling when I see good parenting.
Question: What does it mean to become little?
Lydia: Meek, humble, nonthreatening.
Priscila: Having charity in humility.
Visitation Sister: Seeing oneself as the least of all. But not in a self demeaning way but a humble way.
Lydia: Meek lambs follow the shepherd.
Caroline: Thinking about what we can do for others.
Visitation Sister: Putting one’s self-will aside.
Lydia: Little lambs follow the other lambs that follow the Shepherd.
Rebecca: Sister, could you please clarify the difference between self-demeaning and humble?
Visitation Sister: One is truth- humility, the other is not really a truth but more like an emotional put down of oneself.
Priscila: Unless you become as little children you shall not enter the Kingdom of God.
Question 3: And why is it great to be little?
Stacy: No ego.
Stacy: No pride, children tend to be more open and carefree.
Priscila: No worries, and more trust in the Father.
Visitation Sister: Great to be little means in a way to be like St Therese, so little, but so saintly and now a doctor of the Church! Or like babies, so little and yet in the eyes of God, so great, in purity, innocence.
Denise: St Therese is a great example, Sister.
Priscila: She did little acts with great love.
Lydia: Jesus is meek and humble of heart.
Question: If one is in a position of authority, such as that of a parent or work supervisor, how can we get cooperation and yet be “little” at the same time?
Rebecca: Thank you, Sister, being little in God’s presence is part of right worship. And like a child full of awe over almost everything and still TRUSTING the parents, we can feel secure in who God is: Perfect LOVE.
Priscila: Lower your voice, I heard read somewhere…the more you raise your voice, it eventually becomes a shouting match.
Visitation Sister: Great advice!
Stacy: Keep your voice low, is great like Priscila said, be sure they know the rules and regulations.
Lydia: It was more fun for my daughter and for me to make things a game when possible. It was more fun to put her dolls out and make them play school when she had to study or learn. We would take turns being the teacher and making the dolls answer the questions.
Visitation Sister: Clever!
Denise: Fun!
Lydia: Children want to play. Play with blocks and count them. Add and subtract them. Just play all the time.
Priscila: That helps at work too…make socializing/working luncheons.
Stacy: Adults want to still play at work too, and why supervising is not a fun job at times Lol. I think love your neighbor, love your subordinates, treat them with respect and kindness.
Lydia: Adults need parties. Birthdays, holidays, etc. at work.Take them all bowling or something.
Priscila: I used to organize lots of social events….it works. Order out for lunch, people stay in and work longer/more.
Stacy: Yes, food is always a good step.
Priscila: Morale, welfare, recreation. Celebrate birthdays in the office once a month.
Question: St. Francis instructs us to be attached to the cross. Should we be pursuing our crosses or embracing them?
Lydia: Just embrace them.
Priscila: Embracing them.
Denise: May we be forever attached to the cross and may a hundred thousand arrows pierce us, provided that our heart has first been pierced by the burning shaft of the love of God. May this arrow make us die that holy death which is worth more than a thousand lives.
Rebecca: GOOD quotation, Denise. Embracing the crosses we are given.
Stacy: Embracing, offer up sufferings, suffer with patience.
Priscila: And not running after the ones that we think are our crosses. One is our cross and one is not.
Denise: Seems there are many crosses, and more coming.
Visitation Sister: Do you mean in the world, Denise?
Denise: Yes, Sister, the world. But crosses can come interiorly, you are suggesting, are those different? A good thing to ponder!
Visitation Sister: They do influence each other too.
Question: What is the distinction between embracing them and pursuing crosses?
Lydia: Embracing them is knowing God sent them for us to learn and sacrifice, pursuing them would be seeking them out, and that would not be His will.
Priscila: Definitely.
Visitation Sister: Some people take on great penances, but if it is not an inspiration from God, it might not be helpful to our soul. Sometimes we run from our crosses too.
Priscila: I think crosses have both interior and exterior dimensions.
Visitation Sister: That’s a good point, Priscila, do you have an example?
Priscila: Well, if you are sick/broke a bone, that is an exterior dimension, but you can’t go to church due to it and you love how uplifted you get going to church, that is interior.
Visitation Sister: Ah, interconnected.
Priscila: You are suffering interiorly, too. Or if you love to walk outside…you suffer want of walking. Jesus’ sufferings were not just exterior…His heart was broken by insults…interior suffering.
Rebecca: Uniting, through prayer the suffering that is given to us with the suffering Christ freely accepted on the cross out of love for us can make our suffering not only more bearable but also more efficacious.
Denise: Thank you, Rebecca.
Question: While we should definitely pray for the grace to. Endure and accept martyrdom, why might it be wrong to pray/hope for it to happen to us?
Priscila: It may not be God’s will for us. We may not be made to endure it.
Visitation Sister: All is grace.
Stacy: True, Priscila.
Rebecca: We may be presuming strengths we do not have if we SEEK martyrdom.
Priscila: God only knows what we can withstand for Him.
Visitation Sister: Martyrdom is always with us somewhere in the world. But will it come to us? We cannot know.
Rebecca: True, Sister. And there have already been more martyrs in THIS century than in the early days of the church.
Priscila: You can still be a martyr but not a red martyr.
Visitation Sister: White martyr?
Priscila: Yes…is that possible? A martyr in spirit.
Rebecca: White martyrs, too. But I do mean it in the sense of blood martyrs.
Visitation Sister: We are all martyrs actually, if we take the word to mean witnesses.
Lydia: Archbishop Vigano thinks the true Church is about to separate from the named Church, which is a kind of martyrdom for the Church.
The Remnant Newspaper – Archbishop Viganò on the Conclave, Provocations & Schism: “Fernández is to Bergoglio what Zelenskyy is to Biden”
Visitation Sister: Yes, he is one to follow, a priest I know knows him and worked for him.
Lydia: He is a wonderful Bishop who is not afraid to speak the truth.
Visitation Sister: Had not seen the above article.
Lydia: It is tough to read.
Stacy: Me either, thanks, Lydia.
Lydia: Time to pray for the Church. Time to resist the attack on the Church.
Denise: Yes.
Priscila: Always for oneness.
Rebecca: That article, the title even, is scary.
Visitation Sister: Yes.
Lydia: The Church is in great danger. Fatima 3rd Secret is now.
Denise: I was just looking up Fatima today, diabolical disorientation. May the Precious Blood seal us.
Visitation Sister: How would you suggest we do that under these circumstances?
Stacy: I try to pray the St Michael prayer after every Mass.
Visitation Sister: We do too.
Priscila: Whatever the case, God is still in charge AND it is His church.
Stacy: Promote first Saturdays and First Fridays and try to go every month.
Lydia: Mother, you can raise strong Catholic girls in the model of Sr. Margaret Mary. Emphasize religion more than anything else. Stay true to dogma. Doctrine. The Bible. Speak out against heresy.
Priscila: It’s not just that, people need to speak up and articulate their faith for conversion of souls. To convert their neighbors.
Lydia: Call out bad Bishops and Cardinals. Do not stay silent.
Denise: I'm trying to pray more than one, maybe two or three rosaries. Deeper spiritual reading. And speaking up when I see an offense, for example, the pride thing. One priest put two pages into a bulletin honoring this. I spoke out.
Lydia: Yes, the Rosary, Blessed Mother said to pray the Rosary. So many souls are being misled by bad bishops and cardinals now. Follow Vigano, Burke, Muller, etc.
Rebecca: We have to be countercultural now. That was not always so.
Lydia: Vote pro life. Call out “Catholic” politicians who promote sins. P R A Y.
Denise: Coalition of Canceled Priests.
Rebecca: What are you saying, Denise?
Denise: There is a Coalition of Canceled Priests. Persecuted priests.
Lydia: Yes, Bergolio is getting rid of good Priests for speaking the truth.
Priscila: Maybe his days are numbered, and God will take care of Him. I heard long ago that Pope Benedict was supposed to be the last valid Pope.
Rebecca: Yes, Canon Law has not been applied evenhandedly.
Denise: Pope Benedict wrote about these times.
Lydia: Andres Serrano. Mother, he is a horror, he did the same to Baby Jesus and Blessed Mother.
Visitation Sister: How can he be honored??
Lydia: He was invited for a personal audience, and he gave him a thumbs up. It is on video. I will place all the articles on my Facebook page, Mother.
Visitation Sister: Thank you!!
Denise: The Church is blessed to have strong faithful priests and laymen coming forward at this time.
Visitation Sister: Well, we must stay faithful to all we know and learned in the “better past.”
Priscila: And pray and stick to our faith.
Lydia: Truth does not change.
Denise: Yes. Last night I discovered Classic Catholic Audiobooks on YouTube. Some wonderful tapes.
Visitation Sister: Yes, all good ways.
If you liked this chat, why not join our discussions? Check out our Living Jesus Chat Room of the Visitation Sisters. Join us at 7:30 p.m. ET each Sunday!
Kevin J. Banet is a journalist and publicist. He provides marketing for religious communities, non-profits and healthcare services. Kevin and his family live in the Chicago area. His website is VocationPromotion.com.
