"We are travellers…not yet in our native land" – St. Augustine
Continuing through the Qur’an, today I read the following chapters:
Surah 108 – “Abundance” (Al-Kauther)
A three-verse chapter in which Allah tells Muhammad that He has granted him the most abundant good and cut off Muhammad’s enemies from good things in this life and the next.
Questions
Q1. Muhammad is told to “offer sacrifice to [Allah alone]”. What sacrifices did Muhammad offer?
Knowing that my interest in the subject of psychology has been increasing recently, last week a friend gave me a paper written by Daniel G. Amen, MD on the subject of Automatic Negative Thoughts (ANTs). Those who suffer from depression will almost always suffer from Automatic Negative Thoughts, filling their minds of such people are filled with a succession of dispiriting thoughts. They view the world through a dim grey lens and this colours their thoughts concerning both themselves and others. They look to the past with regret, find the present unsatisfactory and look to the future with anxiety and pessimism.
I thought Dr. Amen’s paper contained such solid advice that I would write a short post here summarizing its contents.
October 11, 2018: Erica Tighe @ St. Elizabeth Seton Catholic Church
About the speaker: Erica is the owner and designer of Be A Heart as well as a designer for Blessed is She; she moved to Brazil post-grad to work for Heart’s Home and currently lives in Los Angeles and travels through out the country sharing the message that beauty can save the world as a witness of hope for humanity.
You can subscribe to the San Diego Theology On Tap Podcast using either iTunes or Google Play.
Main Talk (Download)
Q&A (Download)
Epilogue (Download)
I’ve been thinking a lot about Aesop’s Fables recently, and one fable in particular which was read to me as a child. I remember the pictures in the book and the story vividly:
“The Wind and the Sun were disputing which was the stronger. Suddenly they saw a traveller coming down the road, and the Sun said:
‘I see a way to decide our dispute. Whichever of us can cause that traveller to take off his cloak shall be regarded as the stronger. You begin.’
So the Sun retired behind a cloud, and the Wind began to blow as hard as it could upon the traveller. But the harder he blew the more closely did the traveller wrap his cloak round him, till at last, the Wind had to give up.
Then the Sun came out and shone in all his glory upon the traveller, who soon found it too hot to walk with his cloak on and took it off.”
I think there’s something intrinsic to human nature which makes us believe that the best way of bringing someone around to our way of thinking is through confrontation and force. Even though this rarely works, we persist in using this approach, probably because it looks like the most direct approach and therefore the most efficient means of achieving a favourable outcome.
However, as this fable teaches, gentleness, kindness and persuasion are often more effective tools than direct force. This is because when we try and force someone to do our will, that person will resist all the more. When we attack, that person will automatically get defensive and when we try to wrestle a belief away from someone, that person will usually only cling to it all the more.
The difficulty is that being “The Sun”, rather than the “The Wind”, is hard… Patience is required because results are often not immediately visible. When we feel someone has an incorrect opinion, our pride all too often gets in the way and we become harsh as we try to “fix” this person. Finally, treating someone with gentleness is often costly, particularly when we feel we have been wronged or treated badly. Yet, if we are seeking a beneficial and peaceful end, gentleness is what is required:
“A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger…The soothing tongue is a tree of life, but a perverse tongue crushes the spirit…” – Proverbs 15:1, 4
The Catholic love of Saints is well known, so it is with this in mind that I make my next “Catholic Bucket List” recommendation:
Bucket List Item #7: Read the life of a Saint
In the 2,000 year history of the Church there have been Christians who have lived lives of courageous virtue. These Christians have been both male and female. Some have been well educated, while others have not. They have come from every country, class, race and people. We call them the Saints.
We have had Saints who have been well-known Popes, others have been obscure. Some were monks, priests, monks, nuns, but others have been laity. Some have been mothers, fathers, husbands and wives. Some have lived to a great age and some died during chidlhood. All these people have been united in their love of Jesus Christ and lived lives as a testimony to His grace.
The lives of the Saints are generally not of much interest to many Protestant congregations. During my time attending Protestant congregations I don’t recall any historical figure prior to the 16th Century ever being mentioned. I did briefly attend an Evangelical congregation in London which had a “Heroes of Faith” section in their Sunday service which gave a little biography of some figure from Protestant history.
It is quite surprising, therefore, that I was introduced to the Saints by a Baptist minister. He had a great love for St. Francis of Assisi and made me watch the movie about his life, “Brother Son, Sister Moon”. Afterwards I got a small book about Francis’ life. I was greatly impressed. The question you often here asked in Christian circles is “What would Jesus do?”. As I read the life of St. Francis I regularly found the answer to that question as I found myself thinking “That’s such a Jesus thing to do!”.
So, I’d invite you to see what Jesus did through His Saints by fulfilling this bucket list item. Read the life of a Saint.
I started this blog a while back now, in June of 2010. Today I thought I’d advertise the blogs of some of my friends who also write here on the Internet.
The first blog I’d like to share (and what prompted this post) is Hannah’s blog Transformed In Christ. I first met Hannah when I lived in Cheltenham back in 2003. She’s a graduate of Cambridge University and now lives in London. She hasn’t been blogging for very long, but she’s a smart cookie, so expect some good stuff here 🙂
I was looking at my post from a couple of days ago and noticed something about the icon of Polycarp that I didn’t initially notice…
If you look carefully, you will see on the left the emblem of a bird, peaking out from underneath Polycarp’s robes. I believe this bird is the Phoenix. If you don’t know the mythology surrounding the Phoenix, it is described in the letter of St. Clement of Rome to the Corinthians (96 AD):
“Let us consider that wonderful sign [of the resurrection] which takes place in Eastern lands, that is, in Arabia and the countries round about. There is a certain bird which is called a phoenix. This is the only one of its kind, and lives five hundred years.