The Holy Spirit inspired our blog.
Memorial of Saint Augustine, Bishop and Doctor of the Church
R. Blessed are those who fear the Lord.
Blessed are you who fear the LORD,
who walk in his ways!
For you shall eat the fruit of your handiwork;
blessed shall you be, and favored.
R.
Behold, thus is the man blessed
who fears the LORD.
The LORD bless you from Zion:
may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem
all the days of your life. Ps 128: 1-2; 4-5
Ever since Bill Cook challenged me, over thirty years ago, to learn the Seven (Holy Number) Gifts of The Holy Spirit
Wisdom, Understanding, Knowledge, Counsel, Strength, Fear (Awe) of the Lord, Delight in the Fear (Awe) of the Lord. Note: I learned these over thirty years ago, and like everything else, there have been changes. I, yes, I am not changing.
We have been praying daily for an increase in the gifts of the Holy Spirit for myself and everyone else in our lives, including the Readers and writers of ACM.
I, yes, I haven’t talked much about the Gifts of the Holy Spirit because, unlike the Fruit of the Holy Spirit, I, yes, I find it tough to measure growth in the Gifts of The Holy Spirit.
What attracted me to Learning The Gifts of The Holy Spirit were the words Delight in the Fear (Awe) of the Lord.
A Question I first asked myself was, how can I fear a God who climbed up on a Cross so I, a sinner, might be Justified? This, to me, didn’t make any sense,
But
The words AWE and DELIGHT in the Fear of the Lord make total sense. All you have to do is look at our pictures and be in AWE of all of the beautiful pictures that you, our readers, have sent, and you will see the Kingdom of God is all around us.
As I think back, this was the reason The Holy Spirit suggested we change from my pictures to YOUR pictures, and I am filled with Joy I listened.
When we sat down to write this blog, I had no idea where we were going, certainly not what we were writing about, but I am thrilled we have.
The gifts of the Holy Spirit are mentioned in two places: Isaiah 11: 2-3, Corinthians 12: 4-11, and Romans 12: 6-8. I learned the Seven Gifts in Isiah.
Wisdom: our ability to value spiritual things over worldly ones. We pray, this is happening when you read ACM.
Understanding: helps us grasp the truths of the faith more easily and profoundly.
Knowledge: awareness of God’s plan.
Counsel: acknowledges the difference between right and wrong and bestows proper judgment.
Strength: sustains our decision to follow the will of God in any situation..#
#(Strength is the word I learned, they wrote Fortitude)
Fear (Awe) of the Lord: Being in Awe at all of God’s creation*
Delight in the Fear (Awe) of the Lord: This makes us aware of God’s glory and majesty.
* ( We took six of the Gifts and their meaning from https://www.catholiccompany.com/magazine/confirmation-the-7-gifts-of-the-holy-spirit-5808. They didn’t mention Fear (Awe) of the Lord; they mentioned Piety: obedience to God and our willingness to serve him.
As we said, I pray every day for an increase in the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, and I believe my prayer has been answered. I pray you will join me.
Now that I think about it, I think I will change and include Piety instead of Fear (AWE) of the Lord. It just goes to show that old men can change. Thank you, Father.
Change in one of our Prayers:
Thank you, Father, for the Difficulty of ………… Name the DIFFICULTY…… I have FAITH that you will take care of me.
Sidebar:
I want to apologize: We have spent the past few weeks writing about Purgatory, and I yes, I thought we were done until Friday, August 9, when I was reading three chapters of the Old Testament, which you might remember if you read Three Chapters a day of the Old Testament, and one Psalm or Proverb a day, you will complete the entire Old Testament in a year.
We are reading from the NRSV C.S. Lewis Bible: for reading, Reflection, and Inspiritation, which we have mentioned before in our blogs.
In the last chapter of the Book of Daniel, C.S. Lewis’s Reflection said:
Our souls demand Purgatory, don’t they? Would it not break the heart if God said to us, my son, “It is true, my son, that your breath smells and your rags drip with mud and slime, but we are charitable here, and no one will upbraid you with these things, nor draw away from you. Enter into my Joy”?
Should we not reply, “With your permission, Sir, if there is no objection, I’d rather be cleaned first.” “It may hurt, you know”-” Even so, Sir,” I assume that the process of purification will normally involve suffering. Partly from tradition, partially because most real good that has been done me in this life has involved it. But I don’t think the suffering is the purpose of the purgation. I can well believe that people neither much worse nor much better than I will suffer less than I or more.”No nonsense about merit.” The treatment given will be the one required, whether it hurts little or much. Emphasis mine
What C.S. Lewis did in a few words was to clearly explain Purgatory and the fact our souls REQUEST it; I would rather be cleaned first, no nonsense about merit, and what I get is what I deserve.
In eighty-three years, I have never had Purgatory explained so concisely.
Let’s review for a few moments what C.S. Lewis said.
C.S. Lewis said that God would accept us with our breath that smells and our rags drip with mud and slime; this is truly Outrageous Love, which we have been talking about since the inception of our Blog. I had falsely believed God demanded we go to Purgatory to be cleansed before they would welcome us into Heaven, which negates Outrageous Love.
This thought also extends to Hell; as C.S. Lewis said, the gates of hell are locked from the inside. Once again, a God of Outreachous Love can’t lock the gates from the outside; that is a contradiction of the term Outreachous Love.
Outrageous Love has to be true all of the time, and now, in my mind, it is.
Wow!
To continue with Lewis’s quote, I’d rather be cleaned first.” The treatment given will be the one required, whether it hurts little or much, and I don’t think the suffering is the purpose of the purgation. Once again, this is a statement of Outrageous Love.
I also now believe the above quote applies to almost everyone, especially since we reported that Tim Gray on 7/24/24 said Hell is for people who have Fundamentally turned away from God.
I don’t believe I have met anyone who meets the criteria of Fundamentally turning away from God. I am sure they are there, but I haven’t met them. I have met people who don’t believe in God but act in a Christian manner.
Who are they imitating?
Jesus!
One last thought: Does what C.S. Lewis wrote negate last week’s blog about a process? No, I now believe the process is now, and after we die, the process ends when we are purged of our sins.
I welcome both!
By losing my Joy when I didn’t give money to Jesus sitting on the sidewalk, I learned a very valuable lesson that I pray will not be repeated.
Will I have to suffer after I die for this sin?
IF the answer is yes, The treatment given will be the one required, whether it hurts little or much. I, for one, am at Peace with this statement.
I can’t believe we have talked about this topic since 7/24/24. I am sure you can see how I have wrestled with this and my conviction that God is a God of Outrageous love. As we said earlier, purgatory was constantly talked about in the forties and fifties, not so much now.
I, for one, am at Peace, and I pray we might have helped some of you.
News Flash!
Pope Francis said Wednesday that the person who lives with joy in his anointing in the sacrament of confirmation cannot help but spread the fragrance of holiness in the Church and the world.
Quoting from St. Paul’s Letter to the Galatians, Francis said, “The fragrance of Christ emanates from the ‘fruits of the Spirit,’ which are ‘love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.’”
“It’s beautiful to find a good person, a faithful person, a meek person, not proud,” he commented.
Sin, the pope emphasized, “must not distract us from the commitment of realizing, as far as we are able and each in their own environment, this sublime vocation of being the good fragrance of Christ in the world.”
“Let us ask the Holy Spirit to make us more conscious [of being] anointed, anointed by him,” he concluded. Catholic News Agency 8/21/24
Picture:
“Like a bee drawn to the nectar of a flower, find the beauty and sweetness in life’s simplest moments. In every bloom, there’s a lesson in patience, a celebration of growth, and a reminder of the joy found in nature’s small wonders.” Picture by Cindy Prince
Please keep Snapping!
If you want a copy of the prayers we discussed, email me.
fprince101@gmail.com
Remember, if you want to submit a picture, no people, please, because we have to get permission from that person to use their photograph.
