Tuesday, May 9, 2017

Catholic Hermit Sets Sights on Sermon on the Mount


Since reading in The Catechism that the Sermon on the Mount is a living and perfect rendition of living the Gospel law, the divine law--the Law of Love--I am focusing my sights on it for the day.  And, I hope, my body, mind, heart and spirit continue on with the teachings of Jesus firmly implanted in my interior by the workings of the Holy Spirit!

I was going to try to get the pained body out to the vegetable garden area by 10 a.m., but we see how a disciplined horarium or hourly schedule for this nothing consecrated Catholic hermit is simply not so feasible in sensory or practical, human ways.  The bodily pain rules the temporal roost!  Yet the mind, heart and spirit can be open to whatever "schedule" of the spiritual the Holy Spirit wishes to lay out in every present moment.

Yes, my own choices do affect whether or not I acquiesce to the Holy Spirit's non-temporal-time "horarium."  God is timeless, and in Him there is no earthly time other than a season and time for everything under heaven.  That is, all that God wills for us in our earthly lives--and this is key for grasping why circumstances are not all that firmly rooted, or ought not be considered so.

I could choose to ignore the inner nudge to write out the Beatitudes, at this point in temporal time, but rather to force the pained body up and out sooner.  Yet, for this present moment, perhaps there is an open-willingness to the wisdom the Holy Spirit also tries to impart within us!  

Thus, I am going to delay the weeding (and hopefully planting some veggie seeds and starts) in order to at least read and write the Beatitudes this morning.  In this selection, the Gospel Rule of Life as the perfection of the divine law is exemplified in how Jesus taught to live out charity.

So here are the Beatitudes.  I think it is worth delaying my temporal work in order to have these teachings implanted in my brain and hopefully also heart and soul, for the earth-time I will then be out working the soil, plucking unwanted weeds, and maybe getting to the planting.

From Matthew 5:

Blessed are the poor in spirit, 
   for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are they who mourn,
   for they will be comforted.

Blessed are the meek,
   for they will inherit the land.

Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
   for they will be satisfied.

Blessed are the merciful,
   for they will be shown mercy.

Blessed are the clean of heart,
   for they will see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers,
   for they will be called children of God.

Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake 
of righteousness,
   for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you 
   and utter every kind of evil against you [falsely] 
   because of me.

Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.
   Thus they persecuted the prophets who were before you.




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