Tuesday, January 16, 2018
Sirach, Chapter 21, Verse 11
Those who keep the
Law control their thoughts; perfect fear of the Lord is wisdom.
If you have not had much
success with your habitual sins and find yourself always confessing the same
sins over and over: perhaps this verse will provide a key to real change: those who control their thoughts keep the
law; for where the mind goes unchecked the body will follow. The body is a
good servant but a poor master.
One of the most remarkable characteristics[1]
of all forms of organic life is the power to adapt itself to the circumstances
in which it is placed. It will endeavor under the most altered conditions to
live, and, in order to live, it will resort to all kinds of contrivances,
sometimes effecting such changes in its outward appearance that none but a
trained eye could detect its identity. Yet with all these adaptations, it will
preserve its identity. Man possesses this power in perhaps a higher degree than
any other form of life. He can find his home in any country, in any climate,
under an almost infinite variety of conditions. He can live and adapt himself
to circumstances involving the most violent contrasts and soon settle down and
find the means of making himself at home.
But man has other needs and another
life beside that of his physical nature. He is something more than an animal
and needs more than food and shelter. For the life of man is above all things a
mental life. He can never rid himself of the companions of his mind. He is not
the mere creature of his outward circumstances. There are other surroundings
that are far more intimate and closer to him than any external things, however
nearly they may touch upon him. These things can but touch the surface of his
being; his thoughts enter into the sanctuary of his soul. The beast is wholly
dependent upon what it finds around it. Man can live a life practically
independent of most of these things. In the utmost solitude, he can gather
around him a company of his closest and most intimate friends, and in the
crowded thoroughfares of life, he can be alone with them. You may tell a man by
his friends, but there are no friends so intimate as his thoughts. If you know the companions of his mind, you
will know what kind of man he is.
It is not the sufferings or the consolations of life
that directly affect character, but the thoughts that men call around them at
such times. No external thing can in itself affect the inner life of the soul.
Men are material; the soul is spiritual.
Choose which thoughts to listen
to
We often attribute to such things
some moral characteristic, but in themselves they are neither good nor bad. The
same things do harm to one person and good to another: suffering has been a
curse to some and a blessing to others; poverty has closed the door of Heaven
to some, and to others it has been the source of beatitude. The value of these
things comes from the thoughts the soul calls around itself when it encounters
such things. Some trouble comes into a person’s life, and instantly there
gathers around him, through the door opened by that trouble, a crowd of
thoughts, anger, rebellion, bitterness, and discontent and, at the same time,
thoughts of penitence, acceptance, and the example of our Lord. The outward
trouble has thrown open an unseen door into the spiritual world, and in flow
this mixed crowd of thoughts, swarming around the soul and clamoring for a hearing.
The soul must choose among them all which
it will listen to and which it will reject, and by that choice, it rises or
falls. One person chooses thoughts that heal, encourage, and strengthen
him; another, those that stir him to bitterness and revolt. The morality lies
not in the thing but in the person.
The soul must
choose, and what it chooses it will probably choose again and again, until that
chosen thought gains the right of entrance, and closes the door to all others,
and becomes the constant companion of the soul. And in every event, great and small, it enters and takes its place,
instructing its pupil as to its meaning, interpreting it, explaining it — its
hidden purpose, its power for good or evil — or misrepresenting it and making
the good seem evil and the evil good, and gradually becoming master of its
whole life, the molder of its character.
Indeed, it is true. These secret
and unseen companions of the soul, intangible and volatile as they are, affect
our whole view of men and things around us. The hard, substantial facts of life
are interpreted by them; they become plastic in their hands, and change their
appearance and coloring at their bidding. These phantom forms that rise out of
the darkness and return to it again, colorless, impalpable, ethereal, that
speak in inarticulate whispers and touch us with ghostly hands, are more real
to us than the solid earth and the strong mountains. They can veil the heavens
for us and take the brightness out of the sunshine and deepen the shadows at
noonday or make the darkest day seem bright. For they come from the same land
whence the soul comes; they are of closer kinship than any material thing can
be. And it is the mind that sees, not the eye. It is in the light that burns
within that all outward things are seen. Amid the pleasant laughter and genial
companionship of friends, some thought silently enters, holds up its lantern
and casts its pale light around, and, seen in that light, all is suddenly
turned to ashes, the voices lose their ring, and the laughter becomes hollow
and cheerless. One thought in an instant has changed the whole scene from life
to death.
It is thus in the
thoughts men choose as their companions on their way through the world that the
key to their interpretation of life is to be found. Different men view the
same things in different ways. And the same men, in the course of a few years,
alter their whole view of life. They have simply changed their companions on
the road. Indeed, the breaking with one set of people and the forming ties of
friendship with others of a different type is often but the outward evidence
and result of a hidden and inward change of the more intimate friendships of
the mind.
Drive bad thoughts out with good
ones
There is a better way: the positive
rather than the negative way. Let not your mind be overcome with evil, “but
overcome evil with good.” The emptying the mind of evil is not
the first step toward filling it with good. It is not a step in that direction
at all. If you succeeded in emptying your mind of every undesirable thought,
what then? You cannot empty it and then begin to fill it with better thoughts.
No, you must empty it of evil by
filling it with good. Nature abhors a vacuum. You drive out darkness by filling
the room with light. If you wish to fill a glass with water, you do not first
expel the air; you expel the air by pouring in water. In the moral life, there
is no intermediate state of vacuum possible in which, having driven out the evil;
you begin to bring in good. As the good enters, it expels the evil. Therefore,
the effort of the soul must be to
fill the mind so full of healthy thoughts that there is no room for others —
trying not so much not to think of what is evil as to think of what is good. The
mind is ever working, never at rest. It will feed upon whatever food is given
it. If it is given wholesome food, it will develop and grow strong.
He, therefore, who
wishes to overcome any habit of evil thoughts must do so indirectly rather than
directly, trying not so much not to indulge in anger as to fill the mind with
loving and kindly thoughts, meeting discontent by rejoicing in the will of God,
self-consciousness by wrapping himself around in the presence of God — turning
as promptly as possible to think of something bracing when he is conscious of
the presence or approach of evil.
This, and the constant effort to
keep the mind interested and occupied about healthy subjects that it can enjoy
without strain or weariness will do much to recover it from the ill effects of
the lack of discipline. It is a great matter to know how to give it relaxation
without laxity and, by its studies and recreations, to prepare it for prayer
and the more strenuous work of life. A mind that has a wide reach of interests
and is constantly kept busy will have no time and no care for morbid thoughts.
And the mind that is constantly fed on healthy and nourishing food will turn
away from poison, however daintily served. All this, it will be perceived, can
be done with little introspection or self-analysis. It is based on the wisest
of all systems: that nature works best if she is not too closely watched. A person
who is always anxious about his health will never be healthy. Nature knows her
own laws, and it is not good to interfere too much, even for the sake of putting
them right. It is not an unknown experience that torturing scruples may take
the place of mental laxity and a ceaseless introspection, which is the enemy of
all freshness and spontaneity. We must
take heed so that, in the efforts to overcome one evil, we do not fall into a
worse one. We have to change the habit of the mind without giving it any undue
shock, to keep it well in hand without seeming to watch it, to bring it under
control without enslaving it and while seeming to leave it in perfect liberty.
And to do this we need to have some confidence in its power to rectify itself
if it is healthily fed and duly exercised.
By Fr. Basil W. Maturin (1847–1915) who was an Anglican priest who
became a Catholic priest at age 51. Both before and after his conversion, he
was famous for his preaching and psychological insight: he had a profound gift
for guiding souls. In 1915 he was on board the Lusitania when a German U-boat
sank the ship; he drowned after helping numerous other passengers to safety.
Holy Living[2]
Mindful Habits of Reverence
·
Pay
a visit to the Blessed Sacrament as often as possible; even a "pop"
call is better than none.
·
Receive
Holy Communion frequently, daily if possible.
·
Approach
the Communion devoutly; make sure your attire is in keeping with the sacredness
of the occasion.
·
Avoid
all unnecessary noise during the sacred moments of the Consecration of the
Mass.
·
Attend
weekday Mass whenever possible.
·
Prepare
to receive our Eucharistic Lord. Following the Mass prayers by using a Missal
is recommended.
·
Spend
at least fifteen minutes in prayer as an act of thanksgiving after receiving
Christ's Body and Blood in Holy Communion.
·
Often
make a spiritual communion, particularly when attending Mass without receiving
the sacrament of the Eucharist.
·
Have
Holy Masses read for the souls of your loved ones.
·
Participate
in the Forty Hours Devotion of our parish churches.
·
Get
into the habit of reciting ejaculatory prayers in honor of the Real Presence.
·
When
genuflecting before the tabernacle say: "Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, I
adore and love You."
Daily
Devotions
·
Please pray for me and this ministry
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