Home and Interior Design Ideas

 

One Bedroom Apartment/House Plans

Source: Visualizer: Rishabh Kushwaha

Really beautiful architecture and interior design site with some very inventive One Bedroom Plans.

The Examen

Found this thought-provoking blog post today on RC Spiritual Direction's Book Club website, where they are reading St. Frances de Sales' classic An Introduction to the Devout Life.

 (This is a direct repost of the wonderful content there).  

How to Overcome Day to Day Annoyances?

JANUARY 21, 2014 
BY VICKI BURBACH  

Read more: RC Spiritual Direction

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE DEVOUT LIFE (WEEK 10 OF 14)

…meekly endure all little evils, trifling inconveniences, and unimportant losses, which happen daily; for by using these little opportunities with a good and loving purpose you will overcome your heart and have it entirely under control.  All such trifles, as the daily chances of life – this headache, toothache, or fever, the perversity of a husband or wife, the breaking of a mirror, this slight, the loss of a ring, handkerchief, or glove, the little inconvenience of going early to bed and rising early to pray and communicate, the little shame at being publicly noticed in certainly religious observances, – all these and similar trifling annoyances will (if they be taken and received cheerfully) please that Divine Goodness which has promised to the faithful an ocean of bliss in return for a cup of cold water; and inasmuch as these opportunities are perpetually occurring, their right use affords an abundant means of laying up spiritual treasures. – An Introduction to the Devout Life, Part III, Chapter XXXV, Paragraph II.

For me, small inconveniences, such as getting stuck in traffic or having a headache, are not bothersome at all. I seem to have little trouble offering them to God and moving about my day. On the other hand, I do struggle with those aggravations which happen over and over again, day after day.  Exasperating habits of loved ones, for example.  I often remind myself to accept those daily annoyances for love of Christ.  Unfortunately, those reminders come too often just after I’ve had an incident wherein I allowed myself to become annoyed, or they come when all is well and I sit, peacefully in my favorite chair, sans all irritations, amidst my Bible and prayers, after spending time with Our Lord.  But in the heat of the moment, the sheer weight of the cross bears down on me and I fall.

Wait a minute.  Weight?  But these are small trifles.  Why then, do I fall?  Perhaps when viewed in a vacuum they would be viewed as small.  Toothpaste left in the sink, garbage on the counter, front door left wide open…But for some reason, I rarely view small trifles for what they are.  Rather, they become irritations that have persisted for months, even years, and I find myself reacting (or over-reacting), not to a minor unpleasantry, but to moment upon moment of related past annoyances, connected as chain link upon chain link, until they become some mile-long leviathan that’s wretched completely out of control.

For example,  there are two prominent places in our home that nobody seems to be able to locate: the laundry chute and the garbage can.  But when I come across dirty clothes on the floor, I’m not merely annoyed because at that moment, I’ve found clothes on the floor, but because my mind automatically attaches that moment to all the other moments in the past, wherein I have found dirty laundry left on the floor, even less than two feet from the laundry chute.  And more, to all the times I’ve followed up with “pleasant” reminders about household cleanliness.

Taking Saint Francis de Sales to heart, I could look upon each of these moments as an opportunity to grow in sanctity.  And when I read the above passage, I was immediately reminded of another passage I read a couple of years ago.  One written by St. Thérèse of Lisieux.  The above offers great wisdom.  The passage below provides an example of how one particular young lady used repeated annoyances to grow in love:

For a long time I had to kneel during meditation near a Sister who could not stop fidgeting; if it was not with her Rosary, it was with goodness knows what else…I wanted to turn around and glare at the culprit to make her be quiet, but deep in my heart I felt that the best thing to do was to put up with it patiently, for the love of God first of all, and also not to hurt her feelings. So I kept quiet, bathed in perspiration often enough, while my prayer was nothing more than a prayer of suffering! In the end, I tried to find some way of bearing it peacefully and joyfully, at least in my inmost heart; then I even tried to like this wretched little noise.

It was impossible not to hear it, so I turned my whole attention to listening really close to it, as if it were a magnificent concert, and spent the rest of the time offering it to Jesus. It was certainly not the prayer of quiet!

Another time, washing handkerchiefs in the laundry opposite a Sister who kept on splashing me with dirty water, I was tempted to step back and wipe my face to show her that I would be obliged if she would be more careful. But why be foolish enough to refuse treasures offered so generously? I took care to hide my exasperation.

I tried hard to enjoy being splashed with dirty water, and by the end of half an hour, I had acquired a real taste for this novel form of aspersion. How fortunate to find this spot where such treasures were being given away…– The Story of a Soul, pg. 180-181

How do I grow to love the inconveniences as opposed to allowing them to pile up until they become the size of Mt. Everest?  St. Thérèse offers a great example.  She used repeated irritations in her life to perfect her response to them.  At first, they may have annoyed her, but she didn’t allow herself to react.  Over time, she grew to love each and every incident.  I think I’m going to follow the early example of St. Thérèse, who, as a child, used sacrifice beads, which she pulled each time she was able to offer a sacrifice, no matter how small.  Offering small acts of love became known as her “Little Way” to God.  St. Thérèse clearly demonstrated that it is in those small moments that we have the greatest opportunity to choose God.  Each time I allow a situation to go by without making my frustration known, I’ll slide one bead. Every time I allow our Lord to conjure up joy in my heart for one of these moments, I’ll slide two. Eventually, with God’s grace and my diligence, perhaps daily annoyances (one by one) will cease to be bothersome at all.

Parents' Prayer for Their Children

O God the Father of mankind, who hast given unto me these my children, and committed them to my charge to bring them up for Thee, and to prepare them for eternal life: help me with Thy heavenly grace, that I may be able to fulfil this most sacred duty and stewardship. Teach me both what to give and what to withhold; when to reprove and when to forbear; make me to be gentle, yet firm; considerate and watchful; and deliver me equally from the weakness of indulgence, and the excess of severity; and grant that, both by word and example, I may be careful to lead them in the ways of wisdom and true piety, so that at last I may, with them, be admitted to the unspeakable joys of our true home in heaven, in the company of the blessed Angels and Saints. Amen.

O Heavenly Father, I commend my children to Thy care. Be Thou their God and Father; and mercifully supply whatever is lacking in me through frailty or negligence. Strengthen them to overcome the corruptions of the world, whether from within or without; and deliver them from the secret snares of the enemy. Pour Thy grace into their hearts, and strengthen and multiply in them the gifts of Thy Holy Spirit, that they may daily grow in grace and in knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ; and so, faithfully serving Thee here, may come to rejoice in Thy presence hereafter. Amen.

Prayer by Blaise Pascal

O Lord, from now on 
let me not desire health or life 
except to spend them for you and with you. 
You alone know what is good for me. 
Therefore do whatever 
seems best to you. 
Give to me or take from me. 
I desire to adore equally 
all that comes to me from you, 
my Lord and God. Amen.

-  Blaise Pascal

An Ignatian Prayer Adventure

This is a wonderful version of the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises.

source: http://www.ignatianspirituality.com/ignatian-prayer/the-spiritual-exercises/an-ignatian-prayer-adventure/

The Feast of All Souls November 2nd

 Saint Ambrose

From a book on the death of his brother Satyrus by Saint Ambrose, Bishop of Milan:

source:  http://divineoffice.org/

Let us die with Christ, to live with Christ

We see that death is gain, life is loss. Paul says: For me life is Christ, and death a gain. What does “Christ” mean but to die in the body, and receive the breath of life? Let us then die with Christ, to live with Christ. We should have a daily familiarity with death, a daily desire for death. By this kind of detachment our soul must learn to free itself from the desires of the body. It must soar above earthly lusts to a place where they cannot come near, to hold it fast. It must take on the likeness of death, to avoid the punishment of death. The law of our fallen nature is at war with the law of our reason and subjects the law of reason to the law of error. What is the remedy? Who will set me free from this body of death? The grace of God, through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

We have a doctor to heal us; let us use the remedy he prescribes. The remedy is the grace of Christ, the dead body our own. Let us then be exiles from our body, so as not to be exiles from Christ. Though we are still in the body, let us not give ourselves to the things of the body. We must not reject the natural rights of the body, but we must desire before all else the gifts of grace.

What more need be said? It was by the death of one man that the world was redeemed. Christ did not need to die if he did not want to, but he did not look on death as something to be despised, something to be avoided, and he could have found no better means to save us than by dying. Thus his death is life for all. We are sealed with the sign of his death; when we pray we preach his death; when we offer sacrifice we proclaim his death. His death is victory; his death is a sacred sign; each year his death is celebrated with solemnity by the whole world.

What more should we say about his death since we use this divine example to prove that it was death alone that won freedom from death, and death itself was its own redeemer? Death is then no cause for mourning, for it is the cause of mankind’s salvation. Death is not something to be avoided, for the Son of God did not think it beneath his dignity, nor did he seek to escape it.

Death was not part of nature; it became part of nature. God did not decree death from the beginning; he prescribed it as a remedy. Human life was condemned because of sin to unremitting labor and unbearable sorrow and so began to experience the burden of wretchedness. There had to be a limit to its evils; death had to restore what life had forfeited. Without the assistance of grace, immortality is more of a burden than a blessing.

The soul has to turn away from the aimless paths of this life, from the defilement of an earthly body; it must reach out to those assemblies in heaven (though it is given only to the saints to be admitted to them) to sing the praises of God. We learn from Scripture how God’s praise is sung to the music of the harp: Great and wonderful are your deeds, Lord God Almighty; just and true are your ways, King of the nations. Who will not revere and glorify your nature? You alone are holy; all nations will come and worship before you. The soul must also desire to witness your nuptials, Jesus, and to see your bride escorted from earthly to heavenly realities, as all rejoice and sing: All flesh will come before you. No longer will the bride be held in subjection to this passing world but will be made one with the spirit.

Above all else, holy David prayed that he might see and gaze on this: One thing I have asked of the Lord, this I shall pray for: to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, and to see how gracious is the Lord.