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Saint Therese of Lisieux


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St. Therese of Lisieux was the most ordinary person. At age 15 she became a Carmelite sister. The Carmelite Order is named after Mount Carmel and dates back to the Prophet Elijah and the school of prophets on Mount Carmel who prayed and meditated on the law of the Lord day and night. 

That is essentially what she did. She could do absolutely nothing extraordinary.

But she did little things with great love. She saw that by cleaning toilets, sweeping and mopping floors, doing laundry, dusting, cooking, and doing chores with great love for God, she could please God , bring grace from heaven to earth, and change the world.

She wrote a book called the little way , and taught the world that God doesn't need us to do great things but do little things with great love.

A Pope declared that she was the greatest saint of modern times, and she was made doctor of the church. She died at age 24, and to most people it would look like she accomplished nothing.

She gives hope to people that live the most ordinary lives. I make money washing dishes and going on liquor store runs for a wet house. I plan on being a janitor again. Therese teaches me that being a nobody and doing ordinary labors can lead to sainthood.

If you believe in God, and you feel like you have a lot of ordinary tasks that you attend to, everything you do can be an offering to the heavenly Father that you pray to. Jesus was a humble carpenter.

It is all a sacrifice, an offering, and a redemptive cross to offer your higher power, bringing down Grace from Heaven to Earth.

The prayers of one person, Moses, saved the entire nation of Israel. Perhaps you feel like a most ordinary person, but your prayers and ordinary labors are what is needed to save a nation from destruction. If Therese can become the greatest saint of modern times doing ordinary labors, so can you. 240px-Teresa-de-Lisieux.jpg.2ac24edab549fc49062f9d03d23d587a.jpg

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Uh -- What part of EX-Christian do you fail to comprehend?  Alleged saints, imaginary gods and silly buggers with fancy hats and Popemobiles have no credibility here.

 

Take your proselytizing rubbish elsewhere.

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Rose0101, welcome to the Lion’s Den.

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This philosophy, dressed here in religious mythology, is the same as the Buddhist approach to life, that is, be in the moment. When you wash the dishes, wash the dishes. As this moment is all that actually exists, it's a helpful philosophy. Mindlessly doing tasks or rushing through them with resentment does not calm the mind or feed your happiness. Enjoy and savor the moment, every moment. All that you do matters.

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I agree.

The “Be here now” teaching in Buddhism is also taught in the scriptures. From “Whatever your hand findeth to do, do with all your might..” in the OT, meaning to stay focused on the task at hand. And in the NT “Don’t worry about tomorrow..” Don’t spend life worrying about the next day, be here today. Take care of the present. And another from the OT, “do not dwell on the past” Those are a few of the passages.

I think the reason days and time seemed to move slower when we were children is because children are focused on the present. They do not spend much time worrying about tomorrow. As we age and fall to loosing our focus, we fail to be in present. We miss the moment. 

As John Lennon said, “Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans.”

 

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Hi, welcome to Ex-C and the Lions Den!

 

16 hours ago, Rose0101 said:

St. Therese of Lisieux was the most ordinary person. At age 15 she became a Carmelite sister. The Carmelite Order is named after Mount Carmel and dates back to the Prophet Elijah and the school of prophets on Mount Carmel who prayed and meditated on the law of the Lord day and night. 

That is essentially what she did. She could do absolutely nothing extraordinary.

But she did little things with great love. She saw that by cleaning toilets, sweeping and mopping floors, doing laundry, dusting, cooking, and doing chores with great love for God, she could please God , bring grace from heaven to earth, and change the world.

 

She would have done better to spend that time determining if her god even existed,

 

16 hours ago, Rose0101 said:

She wrote a book called the little way , and taught the world that God doesn't need us to do great things but do little things with great love.

 

Little things are necessary for daily living. Its those who have done great things, often and great personal cost that has move humanity forward.

 

16 hours ago, Rose0101 said:

A Pope declared that she was the greatest saint of modern times, and she was made doctor of the church. She died at age 24, and to most people it would look like she accomplished nothing.

 

Popes declare many things. Most of it utter garbage.

 

16 hours ago, Rose0101 said:

She gives hope to people that live the most ordinary lives. I make money washing dishes and going on liquor store runs for a wet house. I plan on being a janitor again. Therese teaches me that being a nobody and doing ordinary labors can lead to sainthood.

 

I am all for you doing what makes you happy. But do it because it makes you happy, not because you think it will make you a saint. It might mean you are a nice person, but there is no evidence that saints exist outside arbitrary classifications we give people. If you think it actually means something in a spiritual sense I think you are sadly mistaken.

16 hours ago, Rose0101 said:

If you believe in God, and you feel like you have a lot of ordinary tasks that you attend to, everything you do can be an offering to the heavenly Father that you pray to. Jesus was a humble carpenter.

 

Rats and here I thought he was God incarnate. Someone lied to me!

 

16 hours ago, Rose0101 said:

It is all a sacrifice, an offering, and a redemptive cross to offer your higher power, bringing down Grace from Heaven to Earth.

The prayers of one person, Moses, saved the entire nation of Israel. Perhaps you feel like a most ordinary person, but your prayers and ordinary labors are what is needed to save a nation from destruction. If Therese can become the greatest saint of modern times doing ordinary labors, so can you. 

 

Historians both religions and secular now largely agree Moses never existed and was a later fabrication by Judaic priests. Moses is to Jews what Hercules was to Greeks.

 

Prayers have been shown to have no effect what so ever. If you think they do, you are welcome to pray for God to grow my friends amputated fingers back. God knows he's one nice humble person who deserves it.

 

I won't hold my breath. In the meantime you have the right idea that doing is far more likely to have a positive result than praying.

 

4 hours ago, ironhorse said:

I agree.

The “Be here now” teaching in Buddhism is also taught in the scriptures. From “Whatever your hand findeth to do, do with all your might..” in the OT, meaning to stay focused on the task at hand. And in the NT “Don’t worry about tomorrow..” Don’t spend life worrying about the next day, be here today. Take care of the present. And another from the OT, “do not dwell on the past” Those are a few of the passages.

 

 

Some of the worst advice ever. I have seen some people take this quite literally, not worrying about anything tomorrow, believing god will take care of all. They are often destitute and wonder why at retirement they have nothing and life is a struggle.

 

I'd suggest some concern for the future is necessary, and in fact is one of the key things separating us from our animal cousins. We can think of tomorrow and what we need to put into action today in order to bring a desired outcome tomorrow. I agree about not worrying, but some people take this as don't plan, simply live. Those who fail to plan, plan to fail.

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A balance among the past, present and future has worked best for me.  Sometimes I choose to remember past events, relationships, etc.  That is often enjoyable, sometimes difficult, and can help with decisions about the present or future.  Of course, living in the moment is the most common state I live in.  That is how things get done and experienced.  Spending time with the future is a bit different because it has not yet happened.  Planning, fantasizing and hoping involve possible future events.

 

Paying attention to the past, the present and the future, albeit at different times, in different amounts and for different purposes, works.  I don't think I would function well without that balance.

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I'm quite familiar with mindfulness.  Putting a religious gloss on it, IMO, detracts from the mindfulness itself.  One can think of one's present actions, or think of a god, but not both at the same time.

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Yay.  Another ordinary christian.  

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240px-Teresa-de-Lisieux.jpg.2ac24edab549

She still helps people today...

 

Her gaze is arousing enough to fap to...

 

According to a friend of course.

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On 1/18/2018 at 11:43 AM, ironhorse said:

I agree.

The “Be here now” teaching in Buddhism is also taught in the scriptures. From “Whatever your hand findeth to do, do with all your might..” in the OT, meaning to stay focused on the task at hand. And in the NT “Don’t worry about tomorrow..” Don’t spend life worrying about the next day, be here today. Take care of the present. And another from the OT, “do not dwell on the past” Those are a few of the passages.

I think the reason days and time seemed to move slower when we were children is because children are focused on the present. They do not spend much time worrying about tomorrow. As we age and fall to loosing our focus, we fail to be in present. We miss the moment. 

As John Lennon said, “Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans.”

 

 

Yes, Lennon said that, but it wasn't original.  https://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/05/06/other-plans/

 

Also, as an ex school teacher you should know that "loose" is what happens to your shoelaces, and "lose" is what happens to your car keys.

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On 1/18/2018 at 10:24 AM, Rose0101 said:

Great post!  You have the right idea

 

It's good that you think so! I hope you follow what else Florduh has to say about Christianity. 

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7 minutes ago, Rose0101 said:

I'm disgusted with Christianity, but the saints in heaven have been like doctors to my sick, broken, unstable mind...I have found much healing and grace praying to them

 

I am of the opinion that if something, whatever it is, gives you comfort when nothing else will, however irrational others find it, as long as you are not imposing that on others then its ok.

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8 hours ago, Rose0101 said:

I'm disgusted with Christianity, but the saints in heaven have been like doctors to my sick, broken, unstable mind...I have found much healing and grace praying to them

Yay.  Another ordinary papist idolator.

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Uh-oh! Looks like things are picking up speed here. Come on guys, lay it on! :fdevil:

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20 minutes ago, Rose0101 said:

I was praying really hard that the Vikings would win today, all I can say now is "my God my God why have you forsaken me."

I prayed that God would guide all of their plays and curse Philadelphia Eagles to throw interceptions and make stupid plays.

I was hoping the forces of heaven would bless the Vikings and the forces of hell would curse the eagles. I even prayed to woden, Thor, frigg, freyja, and for the Viking gods and goddesses and spirits of deceased Vikings to all help our team.

The Super Bowl is in my hometown this year, and so it was very important that Vikings would win this game to have a historic Superbowl in their hometown.

God taught me a valuable lesson. The Vikings got their butt kicked worse this game than any other games all year, and this was the only game that I prayed for them to win this year. My prayers did the opposite. The lesson is bless and do not curse. I should have never cursed the Philadelphia Eagles. The other lesson is that God doesn't care about football.

(I prophesy that the Patriots will win the Superbowl. They are God's favorite team. God is patriotic. )

Anyway, I asked God why he let me down, and the answer he seemed to give me is that he wins by losing.

If Jesus was truly God incarnate, look at how he chose to conquer. He chose to be defeated, humiliated, rejected, disappointed, tortured, abandoned by the apostles, and murdered. He chose to win by losing.

God also wants me to be happy about them losing. Just like God wants me to be happy that Christ was crucified. God wants us to be happy about disappointments. He wants us to genuinely feel joy when we are disappointed and be happy about it.

I read a book about a guy that learned that God wanted him to praise him every time something bad happened and thank him for that bad event, and feel genuine joy about the bad thing happening. I was able to truly feel joy about the Vikings losing. By praising God for the disappointments in life, and thanking God for them, it releases God's power into the situation to bring as much good out of it as possible.

I was really looking forward to a historical game where the Vikings win the Superbowl in their hometown. Praise God they lost. Thank you Jesus. Allelujah! 

It is good for one's Health to accept all things as if they were the best. Being miserable and disappointed over it does absolutely nothing. Being happy about it is good for the health!

Go Vikings!

 

It was stupid of me to pray for a football team.  A valuable lesson was learned though

 

Ok.... not entirely sure how to respond to all that.

 

Have you considered, that maybe, just maybe no Gods exist? That maybe the vikings lost because the other team played better?

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