{"id":26067,"date":"2010-12-21T17:38:25","date_gmt":"2010-12-21T21:38:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2010\/12\/exercising-proper-judgment-in\/"},"modified":"2010-12-21T17:38:25","modified_gmt":"2010-12-21T21:38:25","slug":"exercising-proper-judgment-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2010\/12\/exercising-proper-judgment-in\/","title":{"rendered":"Exercising proper judgment in our life so that we share in God’s glory"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\"St<\/a>Last week the novices of the Order of Friars Preachers –the Dominicans of the Province of Saint Joseph– heard the following talk by Dominican Father <\/span>André-Joseph LaCasse. Father LaCasse is the pastor of the Church of Saint Gertrude, Cincinnati, OH. I am not a Dominican but I have great affection for the Dominican vocation and many friends are of that persuasion, however many readers of this blog are not Dominicans. So, I thought after reading LaCasse’s talk there is something we can all be helped by what was said about the fraternal life the Dominican Order. In my estimation Father LaCasse’s thoughts are applicable to all<\/u> states of the Christian life: the single person, the married couple, the Capuchin, the secular priest, bishop, etc. In the School of Community (of CL) we’ve been working on Father Luigi Giussani’s notion of charity and sacrifice and are about to start the section on virginity. And I ask myself: How is it that as a Christian I live in a state of perpetual discernment of faith, hope and charity through a life of sacrifice? In what concrete ways do I live honestly? Well, I’m off to confession to find that out. You?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

You are privileged here because you
\nlive with friars who have lived this life for quite some time. In our community
\nwe have two jubiliarians, one who is close to being a jubiliarian, and the rest
\nof us who have lived this life for over twenty years. Our lives as religious is
\na steady progress towards perfection, but<\/b> a perfection that experiences many
\nimperfections along the way<\/u>. Our lives are not extraordinary. None of us has
\nwon prestige. None of us is in the limelight. We live ordinary lives of
\nconsecration, hoping<\/i> that we can do our best to advance the cause of Jesus
\nChrist and his Church. <\/span><\/p>\n

The Dominican life is a life of
\nprayer, study, and the apostolate<\/u>. Most days are ordinary days where you are
\ncalled to be simple servants of the Church<\/u>. Do you desire to be a servant?<\/b> Are
\nyou willing to die to your own desires<\/u> in order to do the desire of God manifested
\nthrough the will of our superiors? In a real sense you will not be able to
\nanswer this question until something is asked of you that takes real sacrifice
\nand humility<\/b>. But still the question needs to be asked now: Am I willing to die
\nto myself and become a servant of the Church? The question needs to be answered
\nnow because from the very beginning of your discernment you must be brutally
\nhonest with yourself. <\/span><\/p>\n

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Why have you been called to our
\nlife? Certainly not because somehow you will receive consolation from the
\nbrethren. Trust me that will not happen. What you will receive from the
\nbrethren are men who place expectations on one another to strive for
\nperfection. I live this life because I know that left to myself I could not be
\nthe Catholic man that God has called me to be without my Dominican life. I
\ndepend on my brothers to expect me at prayer, and I miss brothers who for
\nwhatever reason cannot be at prayer. I depend on my brothers to join me at the
\nconventual Mass, and I miss the brothers who cannot attend. I depend on my
\nbrothers to see my faults and take me to task, and although I’m not fond of
\nbeing corrected, I would never want to live with brothers who ignore my
\nweaknesses. <\/span><\/p>\n

I depend on the fellowship and
\ncompanionship of my brothers<\/u>, but<\/b> I desire intimacy with Christ and Our Lady
\nalone<\/u>. Only too often in my life I have seen brothers who disregard the
\nfundamentals of our life, and each and every times they have left our
\nfraternity.
\nFor we who are Dominicans, the unexamined life is unacceptable<\/i>. Dominicans are
\na critical group of men living together. If you are not good at taking
\ncriticism you are certainly not meant to be a Dominican. You won’t survive if
\nyou can’t take criticism. Nothing, absolutely nothing, does not receive review
\nin our lives; hopefully from yourselves and assuredly from your brothers. <\/span><\/p>\n

St. Paul tells us today, stop
\npassing judgment before the time of the Lord’s return. Although in the end it
\nwill ultimately be God who judges our soul, the time of the Lord’s return could
\nbe any time, and proper judgment is critical for our lives. As St. Paul reminds
\nus today, God will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and manifest the
\nintentions of the hearts<\/b>. So what is your intention and is it pure? Have you
\ncome to our life because you are inspired by our life, and does that desire to
\nmake a difference continue to burn in your hearts? <\/span><\/p>\n

The Prophet Isaiah this morning in
\nthe Office of Readings told us, The noble man plans noble things, and by noble
\nthings he stands. So are you striving for noble things? Why exactly are you
\nhere and does staying here still make sense for you? I certainly hope it does. <\/span><\/p>\n

In the end we depend completely on
\nGod’s grace. St. Irenaeus told us this morning, “By his own powers man
\ncannot see God, yet God will be seen by men because he wills it.” God
\nwills that we be in communion with him<\/b>. This is the greatest gift of a
\nreligious vocation: to see God. <\/span><\/p>\n

St. Irenaeus continues: “As
\nthose who see light are in the light sharing its brilliance, so those who see
\nGod are in God sharing his glory, and that glory gives them life. To see God is
\nto share in his life.” <\/span><\/p>\n

To be a Dominican is to share in
\nGod’s glory, anything else is a compromise of our life as Dominicans. <\/span><\/p>\n

Please be assured of the prayers of
\nyour senior brothers as you continue discerning your calling to our way of
\nlife. <\/span><\/p>\n

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Last week the novices of the Order of Friars Preachers –the Dominicans of the Province of Saint Joseph– heard the following talk by Dominican Father André-Joseph LaCasse. Father LaCasse is the pastor of the Church of Saint Gertrude, Cincinnati, OH. I am not a Dominican but I have great affection for the Dominican vocation and … Continue reading Exercising proper judgment in our life so that we share in God’s glory<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,32],"tags":[2597,1832,1723],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26067"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26067\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}