Oh, Dearest Mother, Sweetest Virgin of Altagracia, our Patroness. You are our Advocate and to you we recommend our needs. You are our Teacher and like disciples we come to learn from the example of your holy life. You are our Mother, and like children, we come to offer you all of the love of our hearts. Receive, dearest Mother, our offerings and listen attentively to our supplications. Amen.



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MicheleQ
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Posted: March 02 2010 at 12:58pm | IP Logged Quote MicheleQ

Beginning at the beginning of the chapter:

Dietrich Von Hildebrand wrote:
The Gospel intends us to attain to true simplicity: simplicity in the sense of an inward unity of life.

Simplicity Contrasts with Disunity

Such an simplicity contrasts in the first place, with the disunity in the soul of those whose lives are filled, now by one thing, now by another; who lose themselves in the motley variegation of life, who do not seek for an integration of their actions and conduct by one dominant principle. A similar disunity is manifest in lives controlled by diverse and mutually contradictory currents, which develop side by side, each according to its immanent law, without being coordinated or confronted with the other. A person of this kind is said to be split; his life lacks inward unity. Such a deficiency often occurs in those who also lack consciousness and continuity.


I love this --what a great beginning. The focus is inward, of course, it must be.

Our culture, indeed our world is so full of distractions so much "diversity" but looking at myself here I am compelled to ask; Does everything I do lead back to that ONE dominant principle? Are there contradictions? A lack of unity? My pride answers "No!" immediately but I know better, I must reflect, pray, ask God to show me the places where I lack continuity. Really look. This is what Lent has been for me so far, discernment --hard and honest.

Looking forward to all of your thoughts.



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Posted: March 02 2010 at 1:46pm | IP Logged Quote LeeAnn

My thoughts on my own inward disunity: for myself I have to limit what comes in (books, media, music, tv) because I too often get swept up in enthusiasm for the minutia of all kinds of things. It could be politics, scrapbooking, facebook, fashion/design, apologetical arguments, art, food & cooking, anything. These for me are the "diverse and mutually contradictory currents, which develop side by side, each according to its immanent law, without being coordinated or confronted with the other." This year so far, for me, has been about simplifying the input to simplify the output--making my life a unified and coherent message reflective of my faith, my mission, my "one dominant principle" if I understand DVH correctly.

"Such a deficiency often occurs in those who also lack consciousness and continuity." Ouch. I am getting better at being conscious of inward disunity...it's the CONTINUITY part that's always the most work.

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Posted: March 02 2010 at 1:56pm | IP Logged Quote Willa

So just to be clear -- what is the one dominant principle? I would think something like "seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness".   But I constantly get muddled with HOW that works out... what is more important.

Recently I've been reading Father Dubay's book Happy ARe You Poor -- and it made me realize that some of my muddle comes from excess -- too many choices. By voluntarily limiting what's in my environment, what I'm hooked into in one way or another, I leave more room. I'm not there -- but I AM starting to see that something that would SEEM good -- lots of options -- is something that can really be a stumbling block for me.   Since I'm easily distractable.

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Posted: March 02 2010 at 2:36pm | IP Logged Quote LeeAnn

Re; the "dominant principle"

Yes, if you see page 83 in the second paragraph from the bottom, he says:

"One supreme point of view governs our entire life and in subordination to that point of view all else is judged and settled. It is the principle of conduct enjoined by the words of the Lord: 'Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his justice, and all these things shall be added unto you.'"

And Willa, to what you said in regards to excess of choices...YES. Voluntarily limiting my environment was exactly what I was trying to get at in my first post.

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Posted: March 02 2010 at 2:42pm | IP Logged Quote stefoodie

My dominant principle that I've been trying to work on is "do all for the glory of God". I think I like yours better, Willa, certainly sounds clearer to me.

I can easily see where some of my choices lead me -- whether towards this dominant principle or away from it... some are not so clear, I'm still trying to sort them out.

My big resolution after reading "Simplify Your Domestic Church" by Abby Sasscer was to try and overlap all these things so that they point towards the same direction.... God... but I'm realizing especially this Lent that it's not just a matter of... consolidating (? -- not the word i'm looking for but will have to do for now) these choices but actually limiting them. I guess UNITY would be the word.... I am far from that.

My continuity is severely affected because there's JUST.TOO.MUCH.

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Posted: March 02 2010 at 2:42pm | IP Logged Quote stefoodie

cross-posting with you, LeeAnn. i haven't gotten to that page. thank you.

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Posted: March 02 2010 at 2:49pm | IP Logged Quote LeeAnn

I hadn't either but I did a search for "principle" to see if there was a reference elsewhere to what this "dominant principle" was. I am slowly crawling through this paragraph by paragraph, believe me. LOL

And I totally get what you are saying about consolidating vs. limiting. Consolidating is like trying to keep all the little areas of your life but somehow making them all part of your path to holiness. Limiting however is saying some of those areas of my life are more conducive to becoming holy than others--let's keep the best and prune the rest. Or at least, that's what I THINK you are saying. Could be totally wrong.

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Posted: March 02 2010 at 3:36pm | IP Logged Quote JennGM

It is neat to see how one little paragraph synthesized for me so much of my reading of the past week or so.

Is that dominant principle universal applicable for all? Could this be also termed as the "Christian principle" that should be motivating all of us at all times?

I was reading Dr. Jeffrey Mirus' Escape from Theological Minimalism this week, and Dr. Hildrebrand's mention of the principle reminded me of the beginning section of his article, in particular the bolded sections (mine):

Jeff Mirus wrote:
By “loss of corporate thinking” I am not at all referring to big business. In a business, the term “corporation” is merely an indication that a business structure has been embodied by law as an entity distinct from its officers and agents. Thus the President of Entrepreneurial Experiment, Inc. does not lose his personal wealth if the entrepreneurial experiment doesn’t work. Some would argue that we have way too much of that sort of corporate thinking today.

But if we cast our minds back to the distant past, before the so-called Enlightenment of the 18th century, we find that people actually identified themselves first and foremost as members of groups, of bodies that both gave expression to and protected their own personal identities. Thus persons in the Medieval and Early Modern periods, for example, conceived of themselves not as atomic or alienated individuals who were wholly on their own, but as constitutive members of a family, a social class, a guild or, above all, the Church. They thought corporately.

When people think this way they are far more conscious of the binds that tie. In those days, one’s religious identity was inextricably bound to the identity of the Church, just as one’s personal identity was inextricably bound to the identity of the family. Nowadays, we tend to think of our religious identity over against the Church, and our personal identity over against the family. Both must be fractured if our own self-actualization demands it, as we see in the astronomically high rate of divorce and custom-built “families”, as well as in the ease with which people move from parish to parish and even from Church to church—to take just two telling examples of the problem.


Not that all those who lived in medieval times were saints, but this idea of a unified life, not compartmentalized was simple. Everything was (in general) motivated by the principle of Seeking God and His kingdom first.

ETA: The reason why I bring up medieval times is that it would be far easier to be living in a Catholic Culture, then fighting an uphill battle everyday. We're countercultural in this day and age, so our struggle to listen or answer or demand the dominant, single driving principle in our lives can be very hard.

I think about how I teach my son how to sort out behavior. "When I die, will God ask me about winning or losing this football game, or will He ask me HOW did I win?" We are trying to sort everything by the idea is this heaven-worthy or not. And really, it's not complicating nor is it oversimplifying. It's establishing and firmly planting our general principle.

I can also see how the cardinal virtue prudence applies here (another area about which I was reading this week). Prudence is the first of the cardinal virtues and most important for all the other moral virtues. From the classic spiritual work The Spiritual Life by Adolphe Tanqueray:

The Spiritual Life, 1017 B wrote:
It is Christian prudence which, based upon the principles of Chirstian faith, refers all things to the supernatural end, that is to say, to God known and loved upon earth and possessed in heaven. Of course, prudence is not directly concerned with this end, which is proposed to it by faith, but it keeps it ever in view in order to discover by its light the means best adapted to direct all our actions. Prudence therefore concerns itself with all the details of our life. It regulates our thoughts to prevent them from straying away from God. It regulates our motives to keep them aloof from whatever may affect their singleness of purpose. It regulates our affections, our sentiments and our choices, so as to center them on God. It regulates even our exterior actions and the execution of our good resolves so as to refer them to our ultimate end.


With that single principle in mind, I can see how things would fall into place. Will I need this when I die? Is this keeping me from heaven? Is it clouding or blocking my thinking? More detachment should ensue, but not for its own sake, but motivated by the solid, Christian principle of Seeking First.

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Posted: March 02 2010 at 3:41pm | IP Logged Quote DominaCaeli

LeeAnn wrote:
Consolidating is like trying to keep all the little areas of your life but somehow making them all part of your path to holiness. Limiting however is saying some of those areas of my life are more conducive to becoming holy than others--let's keep the best and prune the rest.


I really like this.

I'm thinking too that trying to simplify should be a two-pronged approach: pruning the distractions away (and in my life, I can see many), but also realizing and remembering that so often what seems like a distraction is actually an essential means to or part of that one "dominant principle." I'm thinking here of my own tendency to forget that the simple acts of service to my husband and children are often, thanks to my vocation, the way God desires me to "seek Him first."

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Posted: March 02 2010 at 5:23pm | IP Logged Quote Servant2theKing

Thank you dear ladies for sharing such wealth! When I couldn't print the pages of the work Michele referred to in the first post on this topic I felt led to pick up Fr. Dubay's books "Happy Are You Poor" and "Authenticity"....Fr. Dubay's words, from the latter, seem fitting:
   "God respects human freedom in more ways than one. He honors our native psychological liberty by allowing us to elect either the heights of the new creation or the depths of self-fashioned degradation. He desires to exalt us with the very summit of goodness and beauty but He forces not the least speck of it on anyone. God wills the salvation of all but He imposes it on no one.
   One aspect of this respect can be seen in His waiting until we are freed from inner clutter before He gives His most exquisite gifts. Just as a flutist does not attempt to play an instrument clogged with foreign matter, so the Holy Spirit does not play in the stopped up person. He works a transformation only in those who are transformable. He fills only the empty.....
   It is significant that when Jesus wishes to explain why His word is sometimes heard with an initial receptivity but finally fails to reach maturity, He uses a suffocating verb to describe what happens. People, He says, are choked with the cares, the wealth and the pleasures of life, and they fail to come to the fullness. (Lk 8:14; Mt 13:22).....Anyone who makes himself a friend of this world becomes an enemy of God, an adulterer (Jam 4:4) Lovers of pleasure may be always learniong but they cannot reach the truth and so falsify the faith. (2 Tim 3:4, 7-9
   Spiritual writers, therefore, are wholly in the biblical tradition when they insist that there is no holiness without the inner freedom of detachment."

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Posted: March 02 2010 at 5:51pm | IP Logged Quote MicheleQ

Servant2theKing wrote:
Thank you dear ladies for sharing such wealth! When I couldn't print the pages of the work Michele referred to in the first post on this topic I felt led to pick up Fr. Dubay's books "Happy Are You Poor" and "Authenticity"....Fr. Dubay's words, from the latter, seem fitting:
   "Spiritual writers, therefore, are wholly in the biblical tradition when they insist that there is no holiness without the inner freedom of detachment."


How perfect. I too am reading Authenticity along with Transformation in Christ. So much of the two overlap and I am seeing so many connections. Of course that would make sense since the underlying message is essentially the same.

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Posted: March 02 2010 at 6:49pm | IP Logged Quote Willa

Tanqueray wrote:
Prudence therefore concerns itself with all the details of our life. It regulates our thoughts to prevent them from straying away from God. It regulates our motives to keep them aloof from whatever may affect their singleness of purpose. It regulates our affections, our sentiments and our choices, so as to center them on God. It regulates even our exterior actions and the execution of our good resolves so as to refer them to our ultimate end.


I liked this -- helps me with specifics!

I was just reading Way of Perfection by Teresa of Avila -- she says:

Quote:
Let us now come to the detachment which we must practise, for if this is carried out perfectly it includes everything else. I say “it includes everything else” because, if we care nothing for any created things, but embrace the Creator alone, His Majesty will infuse the virtues into us in such a way that, provided we labour to the best of our abilities day by day, we shall not have to wage war much longer, for the Lord will take our defence in hand against the devils and against the whole world. Do you suppose, daughters, that it is a small benefit to obtain for ourselves this blessing of giving ourselves wholly to Him, and keeping nothing for ourselves?


I used to think detachment was just making myself strong enough not to need this and that, a sort of exercise like the Spartans plunging into icy rivers to toughen themselves. But the main thing is getting rid of distractions to focus more fully on God... I was reading an article about Augustine where the author said to imagine going out to a fine dinner with the one you most love and focusing completely on the food while ignoring the loved one, or text-messaging other people the whole time, or watching the other couples -- etc.    





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Posted: March 02 2010 at 6:52pm | IP Logged Quote Willa

LeeAnn wrote:
I too often get swept up in enthusiasm for the minutia of all kinds of things. It could be politics, scrapbooking, facebook, fashion/design, apologetical arguments, art, food & cooking, anything.


I do this too! If the subject is worthwhile I can rationalize it to myself, but I often felt my conscience pinging anyway. Spending too much time lesson planning, or researching homeschool options too intensively -- traps for me, leading to confusion and disunity. I have to keep it ordinate.

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Posted: March 02 2010 at 6:56pm | IP Logged Quote JennGM

Willa wrote:
I was just reading Way of Perfection by Teresa of Avila -- she says:

Quote:
Let us now come to the detachment which we must practise, for if this is carried out perfectly it includes everything else. I say “it includes everything else” because, if we care nothing for any created things, but embrace the Creator alone, His Majesty will infuse the virtues into us in such a way that, provided we labour to the best of our abilities day by day, we shall not have to wage war much longer, for the Lord will take our defence in hand against the devils and against the whole world. Do you suppose, daughters, that it is a small benefit to obtain for ourselves this blessing of giving ourselves wholly to Him, “giving ourselves wholly to Him wholly.”and keeping nothing for ourselves?


I used to think detachment was just making myself strong enough not to need this and that, a sort of exercise like the Spartans plunging into icy rivers to toughen themselves. But the main thing is getting rid of distractions to focus more fully on God... I was reading an article about Augustine where the author said to imagine going out to a fine dinner with the one you most love and focusing completely on the food while ignoring the loved one, or text-messaging other people the whole time, or watching the other couples -- etc.


Oh, that Teresa! She is so good! And although it's a bit harder than she says, I'm seeing that the focus needs to be on our goal or guiding principe, loving God above all things, and everything else will fall into the right places...or fall out and away.

Yes, I also have that same Spartan idea...hard to shake sometimes. Is what DVH implying is we don't need to force outselves to become detached, that it will all happen if we guide our lives on that principle?

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Posted: March 02 2010 at 7:05pm | IP Logged Quote MicheleQ

JennGM wrote:
Is what DVH implying is we don't need to force outselves to become detached, that it will all happen if we guide our lives on that principle?


I believe it is. I heard an excellent homily along these lines a few weeks ago. About how we are often afraid to open ourselves to Christ --REALLY open ourselves. Quoting JPII who often said "Be not afraid!" and then Benedict XVI who expanded it to Be not afraid of Christ, or more specifically " "Do not be afraid of Christ! He takes nothing away, and He gives you everything. When we give ourselves to Him, we receive a hundred-fold in return. Yes, open, open wide the doors to Christ, and you will find true life."

This has been so much in the forefront of my mind that by always putting God at the center everything else falls into place. And I will say this has certainly been true for me in many ways. But then there's all this work to do because although we can become detached then we have to deal with the things we have. Too much stuff --finding the time to sort and get rid of it. The consequences if you will. True also for emotional attachments and the like as well.

I hope this makes sense --I have a head cold and feel quite foggy.

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Posted: March 02 2010 at 7:23pm | IP Logged Quote BrendaPeter

I often think about what St. Therese had to say about the staircase with Christ at the top. When we simply make an effort, not even climbing that 1st step itself but simply reaching our leg up, Christ rushes down to the bottom and carries us up to the top. I've found this to be VERY true in my own prayer life. My efforts are pitiful but when I make them (often with a fierce determination by ruthlessly trimming out all the excess in my life to be alone with my Lover), I am rewarded one-hundred fold.

As St. Thomas Aquinas said when asked how does one become a saint, "Will it", we need to persevere with great determination and understand that Satan loves best to distract us (especially in this current culture) from focusing on our most important goal, unity with God. I've found the book,"Difficulties in Mental Prayer" to be a great encourager in this regard.

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Posted: March 03 2010 at 9:05am | IP Logged Quote Paula in MN

Willa wrote:
Spending too much time lesson planning, or researching homeschool options too intensively -- traps for me, leading to confusion and disunity.


Those are the traps for me. And they are huge. Back to my reading ~ great discussion!

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Posted: March 03 2010 at 11:45am | IP Logged Quote MicheleQ

I changed the title here to part 1 since it would be too much to put each section in its own thread.

Here is the next part:

DVH wrote:
Simplicity contrasts with psychological convolutedness

      Secondly, true simplicity is opposed to complexity taken in a specific sense. Certain people are prevented by their various psychic complexes and tensions, from giving a plain response to the logos of a situation. Hence, instead of keeping on the straight road that points to the object, they are always compelled to choose bypaths and detours. Everywhere they come to grips with artificial problems and complications. Their inferiority complex, for instance, makes them feel embarrassed by a complaisance which would rejoice a healthier type of person, or makes them reciprocate it with some objectively incongruous act.

      They are deformed by their inhibitions and are continually delayed in their reactions by many unnecessary sentiments. Everything becomes thus over-complicated: a huge amount of time is wasted on the simplest things and the most unequivocal tasks are denatured into portentous problems. Their false way of being conscious, in the sense of an ever-present reflectiveness, is often responsible for such people's lack of simplicity. They are, as Shakespeare says in Hamlet, "sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought."




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Posted: March 03 2010 at 12:37pm | IP Logged Quote CrunchyMom

It is also worth saying, I think, that when we are convoluted, we waste *others'* time as well!

It reminds me that we sometimes use the word "simple" to describe people who we see as ignorant or shallow, when, really they may not be shallow at all.

Our priest recently made a comment in a homily that we now teach children "theology" when he's not so sure if we shouldn't be teaching them "religion" instead. I think he was describing religion as relational or personal, but I do hope to ask him to elaborate on this point a bit.

While I enjoy apologetics (indeed, as a convert, I'm grateful for it), but I can't help look with admiration at those who simply accept as mystery as a mystery without need for further explanation. Of course, this can be maddening when the person is perhaps not Catholic, but in a Catholic society where they were raised with the truth, this sort of simplicity is rather beautiful.

I'm not trying to say that mysteries are not worth contemplating or that theology is unworthy to be studied! But is it really necessary to understand these matters fully in order to be holy? I don't think so.

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Posted: March 03 2010 at 12:58pm | IP Logged Quote stefoodie

Ahaha. That is so me. Trust me to always over-complicate things. I think it is also my dependence on devices. I have been thinking about this the past year. How in the 20 years I've been married we've acquired so much stuff to "simplify our lives" but actually, our lives have gotten more complicated.

crunchymom wrote:
While I enjoy apologetics (indeed, as a convert, I'm grateful for it), but I can't help look with admiration at those who simply accept as mystery as a mystery without need for further explanation. Of course, this can be maddening when the person is perhaps not Catholic, but in a Catholic society where they were raised with the truth, this sort of simplicity is rather beautiful.

I'm not trying to say that mysteries are not worth contemplating or that theology is unworthy to be studied! But is it really necessary to understand these matters fully in order to be holy? I don't think so.


so true. i often think of the poorest of the poor in the society i grew up in (philippines) and how they have the simplest of faiths. no education, no money, often they don't even have the most basic things -- clothing, shelter, food.... and yet they go to Mass, believe in God, pray, trust in the Lord, etc.

and here we are getting caught up in thy whys and wherefores and arguing this and that, when these are not the "needful things".

isn't this what our Lord meant, when He said "Amen, I say to you, whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it." (Mark 10:15)

Oh and LeeAnn -- yup !

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