Tag: parents

• Joy and Sirach 3: Honor

  
  

  Friday, December 17, 2021

  Joy and Sirach 3

  Honor

  Continuing with wisdom recorded by Jesus ben Sirach, we find more words that surprise us with joy. If today’s Noontime calls you to search for more ways to encounter joy, click on the word Joy in the categories cloud in the blog’s right hand sidebar and choose a reflection, enter the word Joy in the blog search bar. Today we consider the great joy that is found when we honor wisdom.

  In this Chapter, Ben Sirach writes about family relationships, humility, docility, and the giving of alms to the poor. In all of this lies the quiet theme of honor.

  Verse 3:5: Those who honor their parents will have joy in their own children, and when they pray they are heard.

  God says: Some of you have no children born from your union with another; yet you provide the wisdom of elders to many. Some of you have never known your parents; yet you honor those who have served you well as mentors and guides. Many of you have siblings who love your parents as you do and siblings who are jealous of your relationship with your parents. There is not a singular model for family life in the many cultures that blossom around the world, but there is a singular path to follow in finding joy. Through your humble service to others you honor me and bring honor to your family. Through your quiet, docile care of the poor you gladden others and bring joy to me.  

  Choose more of these verses and reflect on them, considering how often honor and wisdom are present in your own family. Compare the different versions of Sirach 3 at the scripture link above and reflect on Jesus Ben Sirach’s words.

  ---

  Image from: https://humanangels.wordpress.com/tag/people/

  For more information about anxiety and joy, visit: http://riselikeair.wordpress.com/2014/01/09/anxiety-joy-a-journey/

  Share this:

  • X
  • Facebook
  • Email
  • Print
  • More

  • Reddit
  • Pinterest
  • Pocket
  • LinkedIn
  • Tumblr

  Like Loading…

  December 17, 2021

  children, humility, joy, parents

  ---

• Sirach 3: Stubbornness

  
  

  Wednesday, February 19, 2020

  Sirach 3: Stubbornness

  A stubborn heart ends badly; an obstinate heart is full of disquiet.  When calamity befalls the proud, there is no healing. 

  This book opens with a series of paths we might follow to gain the sort of wisdom that transforms the world: awe of the Lord, self-control, sincerity, patience, faithfulness, respect of elders, humility, and almsgiving.  Each of these avenues holds its own form of consolation.  Each promises serenity.  As we investigate our interior, we will need this kind of wisdom to sort out what it is we are called to do as builders of God’s kingdom.  As we open ourselves to God’s piercing love, we will need this kind of wisdom to fully take in the goodness God has in store for us.

  The first portion of this chapter is devoted to the relationship we are to have with our parents.  Some of us are painfully aware that not all parenting is good.  Some of us are blessed to have lived in families that thrived in the hands of merciful yet just parents.  In the later case, we might share the love we have been given with those who lack it.  In the former case, we might look for people in our lives who can bring us the kind of sustaining constancy we have lacked growing up.  In both cases, God the Father, the Blessed Virgin Mary, Jesus the brother and the consoling Holy Spirit can bring us all that humans in our lives have been incapable of providing.

  The second portion of this chapter focuses on the difference in a life lived in pride as contrasted with one lived in humility.  It is easy to make the statement that humble hearts are more serene than proud ones.  It is difficult to actually live a modest life.  Service to God and others and the will to do God’s will rather than our own are keys to success if we are to find any sort of peace at all in our daily living.

  Christ’s meekness confounds his enemies.  God’s love does not make sense in our secular world.  The Holy Spirit abides and consoles even, and especially, through horror and pain. Perhaps this is why we often feel so torn, pushed, and plucked at in our culture.  We have forgotten who we are: humble creatures dearly loved by the triune creator, wayward children called home each day by our loving parents.

  As we read Sirach today, we can use these images to bring us back to our true hearth where our mother, father and the love they hold between them bind us to them.  With care they tend the fire that will protect us from the cold and over which they will prepare our meal.  With compassion they will bind up our wounds of the day.  With justice they will defend us from all that is evil.

  A stubborn heart ends badly; an obstinate heart is full of disquiet.  When calamity befalls the proud, there is no healing.

  When we are feeling alone, bereft, confused, agitated, hurt or anxious, we will do well to humble ourselves, to put away our stubbornness, and to return to the forgiving love of the creator.

  ---

  Image from: http://personalityspirituality.net/articles/the-michael-teachings/chief-features/stubbornness/

  Revised from a reflection first written on March 22, 2010, and posted today as a Favorite. 

  For interesting insight about stubbornness, click on the image above or go to: http://personalityspirituality.net/articles/the-michael-teachings/chief-features/stubbornness/

  Share this:

  • X
  • Facebook
  • Email
  • Print
  • More

  • Reddit
  • Pinterest
  • Pocket
  • LinkedIn
  • Tumblr

  Like Loading…

  February 19, 2020

  elders, humility, parents, powerlessness vs power, pride

  ---