Comments on: Lesson 3 - SALVIFICI DOLORIS

By: dogstwo

dogstwo — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 07:19:41 +0000

1 I found the phrase the we base our lives on condemnation and not forgiveness, striking home, because when we focus on the forgiveness peace and joy automatically flow. Sometimes I find myself stiffling the joy and thoughts like “you don’t really deserve this” hovering around in the background. and this really helped me to appreciate these thoughts as a momentary lapse, and definitely not the truth. I don’t deserve it - that part is true, but the fact that Jesus did it for me, means that forgivenss is mine, and if I didn’t deserve it before, now I do by the ownership of the gift!

We have an awesome parish - we have frequent adoration of the blessed sacrament. Prayer group meetings once a week. Food hampers, for and visiting the sick/ elderly/ new families. We run Alpha and Catholicm 101 courses, a youth group. Womens league, St Vincent de Paul, Dove, Seafarers mission…. there are lots of opportunities for Catholics to use their talents for other and thereby grow. The very best way thought is to make yourself present to the person you are with. To acknowledge them as God’s gift and to do your best to treat them as someone you value.

I appreciate the redemptive Love of Jesus most when I, myself are suffering - then I appreciate how hard it is for me, to respond out of love to others and how necessary it is for me to hold on to his forgiveness in order to love others.

By: njerufranklin

njerufranklin — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 15:06:52 +0000

1. The readings helped me matcth my suffering to that of Christ though my suffering is a drop in the ocean compared to Christ’s Passion. Our sufferings are sometimes man-madeand do not come from God. If Angels could rebel from God for self gain what about human beings who easily fall into Satan’s temptation. Believing and trusting in God’s unlimited can reduce our suffering.

2. In my parish we have Weekend retreats, weekly Small Christian Community faith sharing meetings in which I coordinate, monthly Charismatic renewal meetings and the Father-in-charge oganises Seminars for the laity. All of these help Catholics grow in faith and lead them towards heavenly kingdom.

3. Since I accepted Christ as my Savior and Savior of the world, I have developed an urge to attend daily Masses in addition to Sunday Mass. I read the Bible everyday using the diary, I conduct Holy rosary daily on top of my morning and evening prayers.

By: mawood

mawood — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 13:39:47 +0000

1. I appreciated the part about the angels who turned from God. I liked the distinction between angels and humans. Angels being created fully aware and humans are not.

2. Most of my ministry seems to be helping fellow Catholics grab hold of their faith. I have been gifted with a great ability to get people excited about things. I love the Church so much and seem to have a gift of being able to share that faith. God uses me to lead fellow Catholics to an understanding and love of the Church. They in turn go out into the world and live their faith more fervently. I take this ministry very seriously and the results have truly changed people’s lives. It also is very life giving to me.

3. Reading the diary of St. Faustina, Divine Mercy in My Soul is the single most influential and life changing experience I have had to help me understand God’s mercy and love. I was finally able to get past the idea that God was collecting check marks and just waiting to pull the rug out from under me. I was finally able to begin to see that God is love and what that means. I came to understand that He created us all to be with Him, to chose Him and to b e confident that heaven is our destination. It also helped me reach the point that I do not want to sin because I do not want to offend God, not because I am afraid of hell.

By: Maria Angela

Maria Angela — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 04:51:28 +0000

3. I do not know that I really do understand it. But I know how much Jesus did suffer for me and the world. And am very blessed in that I was born into a home of devout Catholics, and always thought of Jesus as a member of the family as much as if I could see Him there. Mama loved God and the Church with a passion. Of course she still does in heaven (forgive my presumption, but she suffered so much and yet lived for Him so much and blessed many people). The way He brought me back to the Church after a lot of wandering. I suppose I felt His redemptive love most strongly when I was active in the prolife rescue movement. At abortion clinics surrounded by proabortion people’s hate, and in jail. Especially the last time I was in jail in NJ for 14 months, the last 4 as the only prolifer there with the regular inmates. I had several encounters when I could have been hurt by inmates, but God protected me. Also, incidents such as one with my cellmate Drini. She was still young but had children she wasn’t raising, had been on the streets as a prostitute since late childhood, and she had AIDS. I tried to show her God’s love in whatever way I could. But she would vacillate between being afraid to die and wanting to be right with Jesus, and her lesbian relationships. Amazingly, though many hid their AIDS from most, Drini was open about it, yet still found “lovers”. But I wouldn’t leave the cell to make it easy for her to do that. If she brought a girl in, I just sat on my bunk and prayed or sang hymns. Once when the priest came for Mass, she had planned to be with her lover while I was gone, so I prayed to God asking him to stop her. Well the toilet paper came in at the wrong time, and a gusrd they called “robocop” as on the cell block at a totally atypical time distributing it, and only left the block just before I returned. Many guards looked the other way, but this guard whoulf have written her up to lose privileges. Drini blamed me and told me she knew I had prayed. It was so hard in jail there that one had to join onesself to Jesus’ redemptive suffering to make it. And there were some huge answers to prayer there.

By: Maria Angela

Maria Angela — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 04:31:17 +0000

2. Well, my parish is sort of a combination parish. It is the oldest Catholic Church still here, and is in a poorer area on the fringes of downtown. Some visit in the neighborhood when weather permits. There is a school for some of the neighborhood children. Father Al, who was our pastor before he died started the Fathers and Brothers of Pentecost, and they are there. We have adoration, though not perpetual. It is also an ethnic German parish, as the area was originally German American, so there is a Sun Mass in German, as well as English, and Latin (novus ordo). So we have different groups that use it: the German American community, none of whom now live in the area; those who want to minister to the poor; those who love an older church with altar rails and beautiful older ststues and a Latin Mass; those who love adoration and the offices of the hrs with the Frs and Brs of Pentecost, and people who were associated with Fr Al in Presentation Ministries. There is a lot to offer. It is hard being no longer able to go much, as no one lives near me, and I don’t live close to the church either. But neither of the 2 closest churches are wheelchair accessible, and they have no one to visit my home. I even begged when my previous husband was dying. Fr Lawrence came from Old St Mary’s though it was hard, as he has no car of his own. So it can not be done regularly. That is why I am praying so hard to improve enough to get to Old St Mary’s regularly.

By: Maria Angela

Maria Angela — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 04:18:14 +0000

1. “Human suffering has reached its culmination in the Passion of Christ. And at the seme time it has entered into a completely new dimension and a new order: it has been linked to love, to that love of which Christ spoke to Nicodemus, to that love which creates good, drawing it out by means of suffering, just as the supreme good of the Redemption of the world was drawn from the Cross of Christ, and from that Cross constantly takes its beginning. The Cross of Christ has become a source from which flow rivers of living water(52). In it we must also pose anew the question about the meaning of suffering, and read in it, to its very depths, the answer to this question.”
Love creating good out of suffering gives it the only meaning that makes it worthwhile. Uniting my suffering to Jesus and feeling His closeness is all that makes it bearable.

By: lettyab

lettyab — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 14:18:46 +0000

1. I found identifying the stages of Christ’s Passion in my own personal sufferings most helpful in this week’s readings. By completing this exercise I discovered many things about myself that were stored way back in my mind. This was very helpful in bringing out various incidences in my life, that I could relate to Christ’s Passion.
2. Currently our Parish has formed an Adult Faith Formation Team which I am part of. This team is in the process of working out various ways to bring Catholics who have strayed away from the Church, back again. This is quite a challenge, but if we succeed in reaching out to those individuals, perhaps we can move them closer to heaven.

We maintain a very successful Religious Education Program. I sense (as a Catechist in this program) that parent’s desire that their children learn as much about God and religion as possible. We offer classes taught by enthusiastic catechists and the children are eager to come to class.
It is our hope to reach out to the parents of these children , by offering parent/child retreats, or bringing in speakers, to help bring them back to God and to grow spiritually.

3. As a catechist I have become aware of the transformation of the children as they learn and become closer to God. They become my teacher, as they assist in bringing me to a better understanding of God’s redemptive love.

By: searcher

searcher — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 05:35:34 +0000

1. What Jesus suffered at the cross, is far worse than what I have suffered. I have been falsely accused and betrayed even by church pastors. Suffering is for all people. The Christian may actually suffer more than a non believer.

2. To go to heaven, is a much debated question. Some say if you do good works you will go to heaven. Some say that you need to ask Jesus into your heart (Ephesians 3:17) and ask God to wash you from your sins with the blood of Jesus (1 John 1:9). Others say different methods.
To understand God’s redemptive love, it is helpful to tell people that God is loving and merciful waiting for the person to ask His forgiveness.

3. What helps me is to realize that God is love, and He wants me to live in heaven with Him for all eternity.

By: ulazo

ulazo — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 00:10:57 +0000

1. The fact that we can parallel our live with the life of our Lord Jesus Christ, get to the level of understanding the reason of the written history in the scriptures and make it part of our own history.

2. My Parish has the retreats weekends, and different ministries were people can participate growing in the faith sharing and giving .

3. Every time that I serve in a retreat get a lot through sharing with others, and listening, get time for myself with God when I go to the Blessed Chappel one feels relief of any daily concern, and the most important I think I’m learning to conquire patience.. It’s not something that you just get but we Conquire it.

By: Gramsy

Gramsy — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 21:55:39 +0000

1. I think it is very helpful to match instances in our lives to elements of Christ's Passion. It really helps you to feel you are sharing in Christ's Passion.

2. We have Christ Renews His Parish retreat weekends every 6 months for the men and for the women. We hope that everyone will eventually participate. We see that those who go through the weekend grow spiritually and become more involved in the Church.

3. I have grown in my faith in the last ten years because of my committment to attending Morning Prayer at Church each day. Attending daily Mass in addition to Sunday is very important to me and helped me grow in love of the Lord.