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Category Archives: Achieving Peace of Heart – Fr. Narciso Irala

Scruples, Anyone?

23 Wednesday Mar 2022

Posted by Leanevdp in Achieving Peace of Heart - Fr. Narciso Irala, Spiritual Tidbits

≈ 4 Comments

It’s a scary world out there. The world, the flesh, the devil is constantly pulling at us, trying to suck us in. Everywhere we look there is promiscuity, immoral values, etc. It almost makes one swing to an extreme….an extreme where there is no good in the world left and everything becomes a sin. An easy trap to fall into?

If the devil can’t get us one way, he will try another, won’t he?

This excerpt is from the wonderful book Achieving Peace of Heart, written over 50 years ago. The author is a Catholic priest. His book is the product of years of experience both as a priest and as a practicing psychologist. It is a book, therefore, written out of knowledge and charity. How much Fr. Irala’s wise words are needed today:

11659325_415437021991647_8351787182656670342_nFrom Achieving Peace of Heart, Father Narciso Irala, S.J.

The obsessing insecurity of scruples can find expression in profane matters, as in the case of one who goes out of his house and is worried whether he put out the lights, turned off the faucet, or locked the door.

This kind of obsession also, and frequently, finds expression in religious or moral affairs. A religious scruple is a torturing but unfounded fear of sinning or having sinned.

It is an error or anguishing doubt caused by a strong fear which inhibits or disturbs the reason. Scruples are the source of anxiety or sadness, of many organic ailments, bashfulness, and many personality disturbances. If not controlled in time, scruples can become the occasion of despair, moral relapses, and even moral perversion.

The predisposing causes of scruples are the same as those indicated above for exaggerated impressionability or exaggerated emotions in general, such as organic weakness and nervous exhaustion.

Another cause is a temperament that tends to look upon the negative side of things. Or it may be one or more of the following: a residue of insecurity because of not having taken action against previous unreasonable fears; an uncontrolled and exaggerated imagination; an excessively strict education; much dealing with scrupulous people; an anxious desire for excessive certitude; or fear of responsibility.

A scruple may also be a temptation of the devil. When it is very prolonged, it is almost always an indication of psychoneurosis and sometimes of psychosis.

In other words, a scruple can be one of many symptoms of mental illness, but of itself it does not indicate an evil moral life or lack of faith.

Remedies for Scruples:

1. Before all else make sure that it is really a scruple and not merely ignorance or a passing test prompted by God. This judgment should be made by the director or adviser and not by the person himself.

2. Then admit what is scientifically proven, that is, that scruples are a mental and not a moral illness. He should recall what we said about the “degrees of fear.” Whenever the fear is great (and there is no greater fear than that caused by the idea of “eternal damnation”), this not only inhibits and disturbs his muscles, but also his mind and feelings. The emotion of fear is so disturbing to the scrupulous person that it makes him see danger where there is none, or see grave sin where there is only an imperfection or a venial fault.

3. Fight the battle on the proper terrain. Do not pretend to destroy this mental and natural enemy with means that are spiritual or supernatural such as absolution. What should we say to someone who comes up to a priest and keeps saying, “Father, save me. I have such a toothache I know I am going to hell.”

The answer should be: “Go see a dentist, but do not think you are lost because of a reason like that.” The scrupulous person must be told something similar. “Do not give an eternal dimension to what is only an emotional disturbance.”

4. Recognize, then, that emotion disturbs the judgment so much that it makes one see what does not exist. This often happens when timid persons think they see apparitions at night. They forget it when they discover the phantasm, or appearance, is really something that they know very well. But they run away in terror if the fear gets control of them.

Once upon a time there was a blind man, led along by a guide, who all of a sudden, stopped and said, “I can’t go another step; I see a deep pit in front of me. Of course, being blind, he could not see what was really not there, but he had something in his imagination.

Something like this happens in the case of the scrupulous man when, despite his confessor’s judgment, he sees sin and sacrilege in receiving Communion. We should insist that he receive Communion, but, instead of losing time examining his conscience over and over again weighing the “sacrilege” that he thinks he sees, he should repeat acts of love and confidence. Such faith and obedience, which relinquish one’s own judgement for God’s sake, are heroic. And each such act of love itself gives or increases grace.

5. Whoever had a clock or thermometer out of order would be advised by everyone not to be guided by it, but to follow normal clocks or thermometers. So, God gives a right to the scrupulous person not to be guided or changed by what his disturbed conscience tells him, but by what his director tells him. More than this, his heavenly Father asks him to use this right, to lay aside for a time his subjective judgment, and to remain at peace.

6. When the scruple is concerned with one’s past life, even despite a series of general confessions; when a person thinks that he has forgotten or has not confessed well, or that his confessors have not understood him, he should remember that by means of indirect absolution all his sins have already been forgiven on the day on which you made a confession with good will.

The obligation of making known forgotten sins in a subsequent confession pertains only to those which are certainly mortal, certainly committed, and certainly omitted from confession.

7. Many confuse the concepts of perfect confession and good confession. An absolutely perfect confession could be made only by God who knows perfectly the responsibility of every act. We can all make at least a good confession, for this demands only goodwill on our part.

Many scrupulous people could hardly do any more than this because of the blocks in their mind and their disturbed emotions. They should realize, then, that in such a good confession absolution directly pertains to the sins of which they accuse themselves, and indirectly pertains to those which they have forgotten or those of which they did not accuse themselves perfectly, although they acted with goodwill at the time of the confession.

More than this, when their nervousness and confused ideas about the examination of conscience and confession itself begin to torture them, we must remember what moral theology teaches us. If the integrity of confession would tend to do them serious psychical harm, then with their confessor’s approval, they may content themselves with a general accusation or merely ask for absolution, renewing their contrition for all their past sins.

Instead of worrying about past confessions, they should increase their faith in Christ who washes all sins away through His Most Precious Blood. They should trust in the infinite mercy which delights in pardon and is shown to us in the parable of the Prodigal Son.

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A holy house is one in which God is truly King; in which He reigns supreme over the minds and hearts of the inmates; in which every word and act honors His name. One feels on entering such a house, nay, even on approaching it, that the very atmosphere within and without is laden with holy and heavenly influences. -True Womanhood, Rev. Bernard O’Reilly, 1894 https://amzn.to/2PsM94w (afflink)
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The famous novelist Louis de Wohl presents a stimulating historical novel about the great St. Thomas Aquinas, set against the violent background of the Italy of the Crusades. He tells the intriguing story of St. Thomas who – by taking a vow of poverty and joining the Dominicans – defied his illustrious, prominent family’s ambition for him to have great power in the Church. The battles and Crusades of the 13th century and the ruthlessness of the excommunicated Emperor Frederick II play a big part in the story, but it is Thomas of Aquino who dominates this book. De Wohl succeeds notably in portraying the exceptional quality of this man, a fusion of mighty intellect and childlike simplicity. A pupil of St. Albert the Great, the humble Thomas – through an intense life of study, writing, prayer, preaching and contemplation – ironically rose to become the influential figure of his age, and he later was proclaimed by the Church as the Angelic Doctor.

Seriously wounded at the siege of Pamplona in 1521, Don Inigo de Loyola learned that to be a Knight of God was an infinitely greater honor (and infinitely more dangerous) than to be a Knight in the forces of the Emperor. Uli von der Flue, humorous, intelligent and courageous Swiss mercenary, was responsible for the canon shot which incapacitated the worldly and ambitious young nobleman, and Uli became deeply involved in Loyola’s life. With Juanita, disguised as the boy Juan, Uli followed Loyola on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land to protect him, but it was the saint who protected Uli and Juan. Through Uli’s eyes we see the surge and violence of the turbulent period in Jerusalem, Spain and Rome.

Louis de Wohl has again created an exciting and spiritually inspiring novel for all readers of historical fiction.

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Positive Happiness – Achieving Peace of Heart

25 Tuesday Jan 2022

Posted by Leanevdp in Achieving Peace of Heart - Fr. Narciso Irala, Peace....Leaving Worry Behind

≈ 1 Comment

Excellent read by Father Irala. S.J., Achieving Peace of Heart

Painting by Edmund Blair Leighton

by Father Narciso Irala, S.J.

You can have a happiness and joy which is not external and vain but interior, true and well-founded, one which fills your heart with satisfaction.

This happiness has four aspects and comes to us through many channels:

Aesthetic pleasure by which we receive within us the beauty of the external world through conscious sensations, when we contemplate the beauties of nature or of the arts, and especially when we do this in the light and warmth of an ideal.

Intellectual pleasure when by intellectual concentration we possess the truth with certitude, and perfect it or complete it by analysis and synthesis.

Volitional satisfaction in the power of producing, and in doing, what we value. This type of happiness is the result of exercising a firm and constant will; and finally,—

Emotional or affective satisfaction at feeling one’s own kindness irradiating others, and the kindness of others being diffused in oneself through the elevation and equanimity of our feelings.

Your human capital is twofold: Your faculties and the time for making them produce. You can have no true satisfaction if you see your capital diminishing each day, yet bring you no return. Nor can you have any satisfaction if you feel your time passing in useless amusements or occupations.

You ought not to feel that each passing moment is lost or less profitable. You should feel that it is a source of your own and your neighbor’s well-being, and a fruitful seed of an immortal and happy life in Heaven.

To bring about this satisfaction and sense of fulfillment, the “life” element should also be present in a vigorous functioning of your intellect and will. Then you will find in your mental concept of happiness the characteristics of unity and totality.

The scholar who makes a discovery has great intellectual pleasure. The mother who is always loving and showing her love for her child is very happy even in the midst of work and sufferings.

If that pleasure of the scholar were not disturbed by other ideas and distractions and were prolonged by new and more brilliant findings, and if that of the mother had as its object not a mortal child with all its imperfections but one which would never be separated from her and had all possible good qualities, then we would have true, complete mental happiness.

Before it, all merely bodily happiness would grow pale, fade and pass away. You could sum it up in these words: fullness and unity of your mind and feelings.

Now let us see how this happiness, though limited in this world, yet unlimited, secure and eternal in the next, is in a real and true sense near at hand.

With re-education of control presupposed, apply your understanding to knowing not some small part of the truth but all the truth, infinite truth, truth in itself, God.

Each day you can discover new horizons without ever exhausting this infinite fountain of truth and beauty.

This is the joy of spiritual persons at receiving in prayer those supernatural lights which we call divine consolations. These eclipse all worldly happiness and cannot even be imagined by those who have not experienced them.

Dedicate your will and feelings to loving the infinitely lovable good, God. Strive to realize that He is not far off from you, but close by in all created things.

In these He is at your service and gives you joy. Try to possess Him in the Eucharist, human in body as you yourself. And enjoy a holy intimacy with Him, present as He is within you through sanctifying grace.

This is the type of joy in union with God that made a St. Francis of Assisi complain of the sun that it rose too early and forced him to leave the delights of a night with God.

Happiness impelled St. Ignatius, when he saw a flower, to say with tears of consolation, “Be silent, be quiet for I understand you.” He would remain in ecstatic contemplation of the Divine Beauty of which the flower was but a pale reflection.

Speaking before a Youth Congress of Catholic Action, one of the leaders said, “At first in prayer I used to look toward Heaven, but ever since I realized that God was within me, I look toward myself and feel great joy.” Tears came to his eyes and were joined to those of his listeners. He was happy at loving and feeling God within himself.

That is why the great mystics who felt the presence of God in this world speak so many marvels about this little-known happiness.

St. John of the Cross insists that the devil admitted to him that if he had a body and if, in order to see God, he would have to climb a pole studded with thorns and needles, he would not hesitate to do this for ten thousand years in exchange for enjoying the sight of God for a single minute.

Some Thoughts on Changing Sorrow into Joy

Passing over the threshing floor, the southwest wind raises eddies of dust. But, sweeping through flower gardens, it raises a cloud of perfumes.

So does the wind of suffering act differently in different souls. The Divine Heart of infinite happiness is “bound with thorns.” If you feel the touch of thorns in your heart, it is a sign that God is reaching out His heart to you, a sign of the embrace of Infinite Happiness.

But happiness will enter into you only through your wounds. God left a trail of blood at His passage through the world; no longer can there be doubt about which is the path to glory, the road to permanent happiness.

Acceptance of sorrow is a contract for work made with God. You agree to construct some great thing with Him. You are the workman who does not see the plans. God is the architect with sublime and magnificent designs.

Nothing great is accomplished without suffering and humiliation, says Newman, and everything is possible by using these means. We must be friendly with suffering. It is a selfless and faithful friend who reminds us of true goods.

Souls are instructed by word of mouth but are saved by sacrifice.

 Some Thoughts on Happiness and Joy

Happiness is a noble, peaceful and recollected lady who dwells in the hidden fortress of the soul. She knows and tastes its treasures. Frequently she shows herself at the windows of the face and wreathes it with a smile. She clothes the face thus with the brilliance of rational being.

This is something about which neither animals nor the most beautiful flowers can boast.

When the polished, peaceful mirror of consciousness reflects a ray of the sun, some good possessed or soon to come, its spontaneous reflection is joy, a smile.

If the sun of Infinite Good shines directly upon it, it will reflect happiness.

Life should be a perpetual joy, the joy of living for God, of serving Him in one’s neighbor, of saving souls, the austere joy found in suffering.

There is the joy of living in a present of infinite value, joy for a past entrusted to the Divine Mercy, joy for a future assured by His Paternal Providence.

Have joy in work, and if this is beyond your powers, then have joy in prayer. If even this seems impossible for you, then have joy at least in suffering in Christ and for the sake of Heaven.

The apostle who takes doctrine and example and, together with these, sows smiles, and then waters these with prayers and sacrifices, will win many souls.

“Joy,” says St. Paul of the Cross, “is the sun of souls. It enlightens those who possess it and enlivens as many as receive its rays.”

The exercise of Christian charity is the best way to make yourself joyful. And this is your most effective contribution to the happiness of others.

Smiling eyes scatter more rays of joy than precious diamonds.

Through joy you will better perform your duties. And your burdens will be lighter. It will be your consolation in solitude and your best introduction to society. You will be the more sought after, the more trusted and better appreciated.

The vicious, degenerate or low person may come on the stage of life as a loud and vulgar jester. But he is almost never sincerely happy. Almost never can he wholly forget what weighs upon his conscience. Evil is a cold hand which freezes smiles.

But a frank and hearty smile is almost always an indication of a noble and pure heart. The virtue that smiles is the more beautiful and often the most heroic.

“To accomplish a big task, break it into a few smaller parts—these become ‘instant tasks’ that you can easily handle. It’s the big items that throw us and leave us in a panic. Think of one project that you have put off because it seemed too big to take on after a busy day or in the middle of a hectic one. Set a timer and work like mad for those 15 minutes! In a day or two you’ll have invested two or three 15-minute sessions and completed the larger task.” -Emilie Barnes, 101 Ways to Clean Out the Clutter http://amzn.to/2opUDer (afflink)

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Come Rack! Come Rope! is a historical novel by the English priest and writer Robert Hugh Benson (1871–1914), a convert to Catholicism from Anglicanism. Set in Derbyshire at the time of the Elizabethan persecution of Catholics, when being or harbouring a priest was considered treason and was punishable with death, it tells the story of two young lovers who give up their chance of happiness together, choosing instead to face imprisonment and martyrdom, so that “God’s will” may be done. It is perhaps the best known of Benson’s novels, and has been reprinted several times…

“The Earls of Ravenhurst must always stand for God and Our Blessed Lady, let the cost be what it may!” In seventeenth-century Scotland lies Ravenhurst, the stronghold of Clan Gordon, a family whose reputation for defending their people and their Catholic faith is legendary. But now the rights and lives of Scottish Catholics are in grave peril, and a traitorous usurper controls the clan. With the help of his mother, the “renegade priest,” and other heroic allies, young Charles Gordon must strive in the face of persecution and martyrdom to defend the true faith and restore to Ravenhurst a good, noble, loyal, and Catholic earl….

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Think of Others, Keep Busy

12 Monday Oct 2020

Posted by Leanevdp in Achieving Peace of Heart - Fr. Narciso Irala, Peace....Leaving Worry Behind

≈ 3 Comments

 

Disclaimer: Busy-ness isn’t always a solution to real, clinical depression or other mental issues. If there are real problems, seek out help. But keeping busy and not thinking of ourselves so much can go a long way to a happier, healthier life.

We are busy mothers and wives. We could lament this fact, but instead we will rejoice in it. Idleness is the devil’s workshop. There are so many self-inflicted nervous ailments that we avoid if we learn to resign, no, like my mother would say, EMBRACE our crosses each day and glory in being the best wife and mother we can be!

And for the unmarried, do not be afraid to embrace your vocation, whatever it may be. Hesitation towards the vocation of wife and mother should be spurned. It is a sacrificial life, it is true, but one that is full of so many joys, so many opportunities to give of yourself. As the years go by, you will marvel at your growth in character because of what you have given to your family.

Father Irala from Achieving Peace of Heart:

No one who lives for himself alone lives as fully or produces as much as he who lives for others and does good for others.

When you are dominated by your unconscious mental activities, you lead a negative life which is colored by a sickly egoism.

You are always thinking of your own troubles and finding ways to lessen them. You can find no time to busy yourself with others or do any positive and progressive work. You see the enemy everywhere and are wholly taken up with fleeing from him.

Such a person lives, as Fosdick puts it, as if in a room lined with mirrors. Wherever he looks he sees himself.

But when he busies himself with others, several of these mirrors are changed into windows through which he can see other faces, other lives and other more pleasant landscapes.

You will also find great help in a noble ideal. This may be professional or religious. Let it be some unselfish dedication of your work either out of patriotism, love of your neighbor, or from some religious motive.

I knew a young doctor who was exhausted by his studies and first labors. He was crushed by insomnia, obsessions, fatigue and a sickly egoism.

Then he decided to take a trip to rest and distract himself. On his arrival at a Chinese port, a missionary invited him to visit his hospital.

He began to interest himself in the illnesses of those good people and lent them his professional service out of compassion. He ended up by remaining as the head of the establishment. He forgot his own ills and was completely cured.

Keep Busy

Employ your time well and so distribute it among different tasks that by keeping yourself busy you have no time for worry.

To enable the factor of feeling to intervene here, let your undertakings be in the possible and practical order.

Make sure they are useful and interesting. Only when the sick imagination finds the field of consciousness unoccupied will it be able to torture you with its sad and discouraging exaggerations. Idleness and the lack of an ideal produce more neurotics than work ever does.

A young bride, her mother told me, used to live tormented by fears. One fear was that she would lose her mind.

She bore a son, and still the fears continued. In the course of time she had five more children and because she was not rich she had to do all her own housework. Hardly could a worry take shape when a child’s wail would bring her flying to its side.

Or two of them would start a squabble and she would be off to calm them down. Or she had to get a meal ready, or the ironing board was calling her.

Or rain threatened to wet her laundry that was stretched on the line to dry. Some urgent household task would always be taking up her whole attention and coming just in time to kill worries at their first stirring.

The famous Jesuit scholar, Father Wassman, conquered his own depression by taking up the study of ants.

In this field he later became so preeminent that the whole world marveled at his books.

“Regularity in meals is another thing the wise housekeeper will insist upon in her abode. Regularity and punctuality, how delightful they are, and how they ease the roll of the domestic wheels! A punctual and tidy woman makes a punctual and tidy home.” -Annie S. Swan, Courtship and Marriage And the Gentle Art of Home-Making, 1894

 

 

 

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Inspire and delight your children with these lighthearted and faith-filled poems. Take a peek at Meadows of Grace here.

 

 

The book is filled with wonderful advice on how to live a happy life…

Here is a complete guide to mature, responsible, even noble behavior in our complex modern society. Written in the 1930s by a wise Jesuit priest and steeped in the wisdom of the ages, these pages teach the timeless principles that have led countless souls to true success and lasting happiness….

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Morsels for Meditation from Achieving Peace of Heart – Fr. Narciso Irala

11 Thursday Jul 2019

Posted by Leanevdp in Achieving Peace of Heart - Fr. Narciso Irala, Spiritual Tidbits

≈ 1 Comment

This book is much used in our family! It is always available to hand to any friend who is going through difficult times. The book review is here.

A Little Psychology Today from a great priest:

Achieving Peace of Heart

The following are some “Morsels for Meditation” for your day!

🌹A Fixation – Unpleasant impressions or thoughts tend to engrave themselves and become fixed in our minds by repetition unless we succeed in forgetting or ignoring them. They will be engraved even deeper if we give them importance and fear them.

A case in point would be that of the person who struggles against impure thoughts in a spirit of fear. They would gradually disappear if he despised them (instead of fearing them) and, in practice, went on as if he did not have them.

Worry is a fine thread of fear which traces a path across the life of our spirit. Unless we succeeded in breaking it early, while it is still weak, it will open up into a deep crevasse into which all our attention and thoughts will be channeled.

🌺An obsession – An impure thought or a thought of a present or imminent disaster will not leave us in peace for a moment, unless we busy ourselves with something extremely interesting. It struggles continually to occupy the center of our attention.

A scruple is no more than obsession of fear. The way to conquer it is by giving less importance to the imaginary eternal loss, convincing ourselves that it is an emotional illness which cannot have eternal consequences and by diverting our attention from the thought which produces the emotion.

So we shall refuse to follow that train of thought even for the sake of removing the doubt, in practice treating the thought with disdain.

🌻Exaggeration. – The ills or dangers that beset us will almost always tend to be exaggerated. If we surrender to this tendency to exaggerate, we shall end up terrified or infuriated by trivialities.

If we have caught ourselves in this type of exaggeration, we should learn a lesson to apply to our whole life: “I see that I have a personal tendency to exaggerate and I dread a hundred dangers where there is only one. Therefore, whenever I catch myself worrying a lot in advance, I shall react with a deliberately chosen attitude of joy and smiling peace, because I know that the reason for fear is insignificant.”

🌼If we make family life a haven of love, the negative emotions we may experience in office or factory will be counteracted.

If we have a sincere spiritual life, in it we shall find the best counterweight to daily dissatisfactions and fears.

If in prayer we take account of the fact that we are having an interview with Infinite Wisdom, Goodness and Power, this will give us a great degree of satisfaction.

And if, in the performance of activities we understand that we are fulfilling the will of God – that is, the ideal of Infinite Wisdom or, in other words, that we are doing the noblest and most useful task that anyone could accomplish in the circumstances – we can have hours of emotional fullness to immunize us against many psychosomatic illnesses.

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“Children must not feel that because of their littleness, their prayers lack power. Because of their stunning purity and their childlike love, their prayers are probably far more powerful than our own. We should encourage them to pray boldly and should point out all they can accomplish by uniting their prayers to Christ’s prayers for all men. This gives them the soundest, most mature, and most inspiring reason for acquiring habits of prayer.”
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The original writing was in 1944 and successful in many countries – finally translated to English/US in 1964 and thank God it was not lost to us. This book is written for our times; yes today, more than ever. Amazing manual in simple clear language with how to’s and immediate exercises to improve understanding, increase personal power. You will know it’s right because you will recognize some methods used in some of today’s top books on Improving. You will know when you read this book, it was probably the source for what we see today in these successful books. This is the source. -Maggie Meo

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We live in an age characterized by agitation and lack of peace. This tendency manifests itself in our spiritual as well as our secular life. In our search for God and holiness, in our service to our neighbor, a kind of restlessness and anxiety take the place of the confidence and peace which ought to be ours. What must we do to overcome the moments of fear and distress which assail us? How can we learn to place all our confidence in God and abandon ourselves into his loving care? This is what is taught in this simple, yet profound little treatise on peace of head. Taking concrete examples from our everyday life, the author invites us to respond in a Gospel fashion to the upsetting situations we must all confront. Since peace of heart is a pure gift of God, it is something we should seek, pursue and ask him for without cease. This book is here to help us in that pursuit.

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Scruples, Anyone?

23 Sunday Jun 2019

Posted by Leanevdp in Achieving Peace of Heart - Fr. Narciso Irala

≈ 5 Comments

It’s a scary world out there. The world, the flesh, the devil is constantly pulling at us, trying to suck us in. Everywhere we look there is promiscuity, immoral values, etc. It almost makes one swing to an extreme….an extreme where there is no good in the world left and everything becomes a sin. An easy trap to fall into?

If the devil can’t get us one way, he will try another, won’t he?

This excerpt is from the wonderful book Achieving Peace of Heart, written over 50 years ago. The author is a Catholic priest. His book is the product of years of experience both as a priest and as a practicing psychologist. It is a book, therefore, written out of knowledge and charity. How much Fr. Irala’s wise words are needed today:

11659325_415437021991647_8351787182656670342_nFrom Achieving Peace of Heart, Father Narciso Irala, S.J.

The obsessing insecurity of scruples can find expression in profane matters, as in the case of one who goes out of his house and is worried whether he put out the lights, turned off the faucet, or locked the door.

This kind of obsession also, and frequently, finds expression in religious or moral affairs. A religious scruple is a torturing but unfounded fear of sinning or having sinned.

It is an error or anguishing doubt caused by a strong fear which inhibits or disturbs the reason. Scruples are the source of anxiety or sadness, of many organic ailments, bashfulness, and many personality disturbances. If not controlled in time, scruples can become the occasion of despair, moral relapses, and even moral perversion.

The predisposing causes of scruples are the same as those indicated above for exaggerated impressionability or exaggerated emotions in general, such as organic weakness and nervous exhaustion.

Another cause is a temperament that tends to look upon the negative side of things. Or it may be one or more of the following: a residue of insecurity because of not having taken action against previous unreasonable fears; an uncontrolled and exaggerated imagination; an excessively strict education; much dealing with scrupulous people; an anxious desire for excessive certitude; or fear of responsibility.

A scruple may also be a temptation of the devil. When it is very prolonged, it is almost always an indication of psychoneurosis and sometimes of psychosis.

In other words, a scruple can be one of many symptoms of mental illness, but of itself it does not indicate an evil moral life or lack of faith.

Remedies for Scruples:

1. Before all else make sure that it is really a scruple and not merely ignorance or a passing test prompted by God. This judgment should be made by the director or adviser and not by the person himself.

2. Then admit what is scientifically proven, that is, that scruples are a mental and not a moral illness. He should recall what we said about the “degrees of fear.” Whenever the fear is great (and there is no greater fear than that caused by the idea of “eternal damnation”), this not only inhibits and disturbs his muscles, but also his mind and feelings. The emotion of fear is so disturbing to the scrupulous person that it makes him see danger where there is none, or see grave sin where there is only an imperfection or a venial fault.

3. Fight the battle on the proper terrain. Do not pretend to destroy this mental and natural enemy with means that are spiritual or supernatural such as absolution. What should we say to someone who comes up to a priest and keeps saying, “Father, save me. I have such a toothache I know I am going to hell.”

The answer should be: “Go see a dentist, but do not think you are lost because of a reason like that.” The scrupulous person must be told something similar. “Do not give an eternal dimension to what is only an emotional disturbance.”

4. Recognize, then, that emotion disturbs the judgment so much that it makes one see what does not exist. This often happens when timid persons think they see apparitions at night. They forget it when they discover the phantasm, or appearance, is really something that they know very well. But they run away in terror if the fear gets control of them.

Once upon a time there was a blind man, led along by a guide, who all of a sudden, stopped and said, “I can’t go another step; I see a deep pit in front of me. Of course, being blind, he could not see what was really not there, but he had something in his imagination.

Something like this happens in the case of the scrupulous man when, despite his confessor’s judgment, he sees sin and sacrilege in receiving Communion. We should insist that he receive Communion, but, instead of losing time examining his conscience over and over again weighing the “sacrilege” that he thinks he sees, he should repeat acts of love and confidence. Such faith and obedience, which relinquish one’s own judgement for God’s sake, are heroic. And each such act of love itself gives or increases grace.

5. Whoever had a clock or thermometer out of order would be advised by everyone not to be guided by it, but to follow normal clocks or thermometers. So, God gives a right to the scrupulous person not to be guided or changed by what his disturbed conscience tells him, but by what his director tells him. More than this, his heavenly Father asks him to use this right, to lay aside for a time his subjective judgment, and to remain at peace.

6. When the scruple is concerned with one’s past life, even despite a series of general confessions; when a person thinks that he has forgotten or has not confessed well, or that his confessors have not understood him, he should remember that by means of indirect absolution all his sins have already been forgiven on the day on which you made a confession with good will.

The obligation of making known forgotten sins in a subsequent confession pertains only to those which are certainly mortal, certainly committed, and certainly omitted from confession.

7. Many confuse the concepts of perfect confession and good confession. An absolutely perfect confession could be made only by God who knows perfectly the responsibility of every act. We can all make at least a good confession, for this demands only goodwill on our part.

Many scrupulous people could hardly do any more than this because of the blocks in their mind and their disturbed emotions. They should realize, then, that in such a good confession absolution directly pertains to the sins of which they accuse themselves, and indirectly pertains to those which they have forgotten or those of which they did not accuse themselves perfectly, although they acted with goodwill at the time of the confession.

More than this, when their nervousness and confused ideas about the examination of conscience and confession itself begin to torture them, we must remember what moral theology teaches us. If the integrity of confession would tend to do them serious psychical harm, then with their confessor’s approval, they may content themselves with a general accusation or merely ask for absolution, renewing their contrition for all their past sins.

Instead of worrying about past confessions, they should increase their faith in Christ who washes all sins away through His Most Precious Blood. They should trust in the infinite mercy which delights in pardon and is shown to us in the parable of the Prodigal Son.

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A holy house is one in which God is truly King; in which He reigns supreme over the minds and hearts of the inmates; in which every word and act honors His name. One feels on entering such a house, nay, even on approaching it, that the very atmosphere within and without is laden with holy and heavenly influences. -True Womanhood, Rev. Bernard O’Reilly, 1894 https://amzn.to/2PsM94w (afflink)
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For adults….

The famous novelist Louis de Wohl presents a stimulating historical novel about the great St. Thomas Aquinas, set against the violent background of the Italy of the Crusades. He tells the intriguing story of St. Thomas who – by taking a vow of poverty and joining the Dominicans – defied his illustrious, prominent family’s ambition for him to have great power in the Church. The battles and Crusades of the 13th century and the ruthlessness of the excommunicated Emperor Frederick II play a big part in the story, but it is Thomas of Aquino who dominates this book. De Wohl succeeds notably in portraying the exceptional quality of this man, a fusion of mighty intellect and childlike simplicity. A pupil of St. Albert the Great, the humble Thomas – through an intense life of study, writing, prayer, preaching and contemplation – ironically rose to become the influential figure of his age, and he later was proclaimed by the Church as the Angelic Doctor.

Seriously wounded at the siege of Pamplona in 1521, Don Inigo de Loyola learned that to be a Knight of God was an infinitely greater honor (and infinitely more dangerous) than to be a Knight in the forces of the Emperor. Uli von der Flue, humorous, intelligent and courageous Swiss mercenary, was responsible for the canon shot which incapacitated the worldly and ambitious young nobleman, and Uli became deeply involved in Loyola’s life. With Juanita, disguised as the boy Juan, Uli followed Loyola on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land to protect him, but it was the saint who protected Uli and Juan. Through Uli’s eyes we see the surge and violence of the turbulent period in Jerusalem, Spain and Rome.

Louis de Wohl has again created an exciting and spiritually inspiring novel for all readers of historical fiction.


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Positive Happiness – Achieving Peace of Heart

26 Tuesday Feb 2019

Posted by Leanevdp in Achieving Peace of Heart - Fr. Narciso Irala, Peace....Leaving Worry Behind

≈ 4 Comments

A little heavier read today…but excellent!

Painting by Edmund Blair Leighton

by Father Narciso Irala, S.J.

You can have a happiness and joy which is not external and vain but interior, true and well-founded, one which fills your heart with satisfaction.

This happiness has four aspects and comes to us through many channels:

Aesthetic pleasure by which we receive within us the beauty of the external world through conscious sensations, when we contemplate the beauties of nature or of the arts, and especially when we do this in the light and warmth of an ideal. Continue reading →

How to Overcome Fear

23 Tuesday Oct 2018

Posted by Leanevdp in Achieving Peace of Heart - Fr. Narciso Irala, Peace....Leaving Worry Behind

≈ 5 Comments

Fr. Irala’s Achieving Peace of Heart has been one of our favorite books through the years. Here is an excerpt on practical ways to overcome fear….

From Achieving Peace of Heart by Fr. Narciso Irala

Fear is the emotion most difficult to control because often we do not know what we fear or why we are afraid, as in cases of anxiety, phobias, or groundless fears.

The motive is often unconscious or may be transferred from its real cause to some accompanying circumstance. Or we may be unconsciously repressing some natural reaction which might humiliate us, we think, if seen.

Instead, we give it expression in “symbolic” fears which we recognize as groundless, but which we do not know how to control.

In such cases a deeper exploration of the subconscious is indicated, an investigation of the abnormality and the circumstances which first accompanied it. Discovering these, we may more easily control a transferred fear.

If the fear is conscious, we may take the following steps to conquer it:

1.Before all else, act. Fear already tends to inhibit our activities. So we must not assist it by remaining inactive but, on the contrary, conquer it by acting.

A North Pole explorer owes his rescue to such a procedure. Lost on the endless ice, he could not find his camp. Instead of worrying about it, he began to heap up piles of snow and ice at regular intervals. These helped him to make calculations through which he eventually rediscovered his camp.

2.Make them concrete. We must illuminate those dark caverns. Answer these questions in writing and in detail: “Just what am I afraid of? And why?”When fear or anxiety is made concrete and viewed objectively, it is destroyed.

3.Reason about them. “What probabilities are there that this [the thing I fear] will really happen? And even if it does happen, will it really be as disastrous as I fear?”

4.Face up to them. “Even supposing that this happens, what then? So what? Are there not others who have gone through similar crises? Haven’t they gone on living and become happy? And even if I have to die, so what? Then can’t I begin to be happier in eternity?” When we imagine the worst possible natural evil that could happen to us and sincerely accept it and so find a human or divine solution for it, we shall be victorious over exaggerated fear.

5.Avoid the exciting factors, or rather the alarming ideas which these stimuli arouse in us. Distract your attention from them by means of concentrating it upon conscious sensations or by deliberately following out a favorite train of thought or, even better,-

6.Deliberately affirm contrary judgments, e.g., “There is no special danger. The probability that this will happen is very small. Even if it does happen, the disadvantage would be insignificant, or at least there would come with it several advantages which would far counterbalance it.”

7.Deliberately foster contrary feelings, e.g., of courage, or security. This is done by the same means by which fear betrayed us, i.e., by intense acts of courage, by vivid remembrances of peaceful moments or places, by actually saying something with a tone of courage or security in the voice.

8.Associate this reliving of past peaceful moments with the circumstances which had been producing anxiety in you. Imagine that you are in control of the situation and that you are speaking in a masterful tone of voice.

In a Brazilian seminary I met a stammerer who was afraid that he would be unable to go on to the priesthood because of this defect. Face to face with the Rector of the seminary he could not speak two consecutive words. The same thing would happen when with certain of his companions and in certain classes.

On the contrary he spoke well whenever he had learned something by memory. Hence it was the feeling of anxiety which was inhibiting his vocal muscles. He was afraid that the Rector would declare him unsuitable for the priesthood.

But I helped him to remove this fear by showing him that he could cure himself if he would implant the contrary feelings in his sub-conscious by the means indicated above. And so I had him link these feelings to the experience which had terrified him most.

I had him imagine and then actually say, “I am going to see Father Rector . . . I greet him . . . And all is serene. I am completely at peace and am master of the situation.”

At first he spoke the last phrase with the same descriptive tone as the first. But I had him repeat it after me with a tone of security. On doing it with all the courage and force of which he was capable, I felt that he was transformed.

Three days later the Rector came to thank me for the good done to his seminarians, and he particularly mentioned that the stammerer had been cured.

9.In cases of muscular constriction. By this I mean a latent state of insecurity or anxiety due to strong and prolonged tension in the intercostal muscles. This prevents the quiet easy expansion of the chest which is normal when we are secure or in good spirits.

Instead, we would then tend to assume a posture characteristic of timidity or depression. But, since there appear to be no mental or emotional causes of fear, we should try to loosen these muscles by adequate gymnastic exercises, a more correct posture, or massage.

10.Assume the opposite facial expression: not the wide open, staring eyes which are a sign of fear, but rather a look that is secure and, mild.

Keep the voice deep and firm; let it rely on the outgoing air current and not on forcing the throat muscles. Maintain a respiration that is deeper or slower. To do this, instead of concentrating on expanding the lungs, try to expand the nasal passages and keep them well opened.

The great St. Bernard wrote in his rule that whenever the monastic bell rang, the monks were to drop what they were doing and go to whatever they were being called to.

In our homes, our monastic bell is all the many things beckoning at us throughout the day…the diapers to be changed, the dishes that need doing, the laundry that needs to be done, etc.

We respond to these things right away, even though we many not want to, remembering that these duties are the very things that will make us holy.
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Overcoming Sadness, Discouragement, etc.

17 Tuesday Apr 2018

Posted by Leanevdp in Achieving Peace of Heart - Fr. Narciso Irala, Be Cheerful/Helps to Happiness, FF Tidbits, Peace....Leaving Worry Behind

≈ 4 Comments

This little excerpt is from the excellent book, Achieving Peace of Heart by Father Narciso Irala, S.J. written over 60 years ago.

Father talks about the re-education of the mind and the will when overcome with sadness, discouragement or depression. He goes more in depth in his book, but through this excerpt you are able to see that often the cure is simple, if applied consistently and with perseverance….and that the cure is in our hands.

Exercise Conscious Life

When you are not engaged in intellectual work, rest your mind by receiving conscious sensations with an easy, peaceful attention to the things of the external world.

And when doing mental work exert yourself in concentrating all your attention there. Forget the past, future and yourself. In the beginning you will do this easily for a few moments.

Then by progressive increase of attention you will attain normal concentration. The root of the evil is in domination of conscious mental activity by the unconscious.

Now the acts prescribed above are in themselves insignificant. Yet, because they are fully conscious and often repeated during the day, they attack the root of the evil directly. They produce a reaction of greater joy, peace and mastery.

Don’t Be Discouraged

Do not think it strange if in the morning you notice a greater sensation of the symptoms, discouragement or fatigue, and if fatigue is less and sadness almost gone by the afternoon or after doing some work.

The reason is that the unconscious is in control during sleep. And there is danger after awakening of continuing under its disturbing influence. After some controlled acts, however, joy returns again and our vigor is rejuvenated.

Nor should you wonder at the periodic appearance of enthusiasm and discouragement, progress and apparent setbacks. This happens in many mental and nervous illnesses.

Fight Pessimism

An uncontrolled imagination drives a man toward pessimism and exaggeration of his troubles, and hence to discouragement and despair. For sad events and experiences, at one time conscious but now perhaps forgotten, continue to be active on the unconscious level. They tend to add a pessimistic overtone to all mental images.

If we reflect on our thoughts and feelings we shall see that even insignificant beginnings can have terrifying consequences. A brief daily examination in writing of the course of your pessimistic imaginings will quickly convince you of this.

You will then belittle those fears, troubles and worries. If you discount your fears by 90 percent, you will be closer to reality.

Give no importance then to imagined ills or fears for the future. Better still, once you recognize the error or exaggeration of your unconscious mental associations, deliberately come to the opposite conclusion: enthusiasm, joy, courage, optimism.

For, as Father Gar-Mar again said, the shadow of the cross is often larger than the cross itself. So black, so sad, so crushing are the crosses we dream up for ourselves.

Foster Joy and Optimism

Insist upon joy and optimism as opposed to the sadness and discouragement which sometimes seem so natural.  Do this by briefly changing your occupation and busying yourself with thoughts, readings and conversations which make the mind happy and elevate it.

Do not pretend to drown melancholy in alcohol for, as a modern author says, drinking does not drown our troubles but only irrigates them.

The central powerhouse which supplies current to our organs is optimism, either instinctive or acquired.

Feelings of joy and health stimulate blood circulation and accelerate nutritional processes. If you doubt your forces and think yourself sick, you are already beginning to be sick. Then the central powerhouse has lowered its potential. All lights grow dim. Your organs do not work so well.

Sad passions, such as fear, worry, discouragement, agitation, anger, scorn, anxiety, make us realize the truth in the common phrase, “It makes me sick!”

All joy is curative and all discouragement tends to increase our troubles. Gladness is a swimming pool of health where we should bathe each day.

Get Down To Work

If you suffer from any of the personality maladjustments remember that there is no lesion in your higher faculties, above all in you will.

What happens is that you do not know how to use them. These faculties are marvelous forces. When well directed they are capable of transforming any mental pattern and curing any abnormality.

But you must know how to avail yourself of their benefits. This is easily attained by re-education. You have the cure in your own hands. A little constancy and method is enough.

Your thoughts are the limit of your activities. No one takes a single step further than his convictions. If you imagine to yourself that you cannot do this or that, you will never do it.

“Possunt quia posse videntur,” the old Romans used to say. “They can because they think they can.”

Aside from the times when you need the ministrations or advice of a profession physician, your six best doctors are sun, water, air, exercise, diet and joy. They are always there waiting for you. They cure your ills and do not cost you a cent.

111

 

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Morsels for Meditation from Achieving Peace of Heart – Fr. Narciso Irala

02 Friday Jun 2017

Posted by Leanevdp in Achieving Peace of Heart - Fr. Narciso Irala, Spiritual Tidbits

≈ 4 Comments

This book is much used in our family! It is always available to hand to any friend who is going through difficult times. The book review is here.

A Little Psychology Today from a great priest:

Achieving Peace of Heart

The following are some “Morsels for Meditation” for your day!

🌹A Fixation – Unpleasant impressions or thoughts tend to engrave themselves and become fixed in our minds by repetition unless we succeed in forgetting or ignoring them. They will be engraved even deeper if we give them importance and fear them.

A case in point would be that of the person who struggles against impure thoughts in a spirit of fear. They would gradually disappear if he despised them (instead of fearing them) and, in practice, went on as if he did not have them.

Worry is a fine thread of fear which traces a path across the life of our spirit. Unless we succeeded in breaking it early, while it is still weak, it will open up into a deep crevasse into which all our attention and thoughts will be channeled.

🌺An obsession – An impure thought or a thought of a present or imminent disaster will not leave us in peace for a moment, unless we busy ourselves with something extremely interesting. It struggles continually to occupy the center of our attention.

A scruple is no more than obsession of fear. The way to conquer it is by giving less importance to the imaginary eternal loss, convincing ourselves that it is an emotional illness which cannot have eternal consequences and by diverting our attention from the thought which produces the emotion.

So we shall refuse to follow that train of thought even for the sake of removing the doubt, in practice treating the thought with disdain.

🌻Exaggeration. – The ills or dangers that beset us will almost always tend to be exaggerated. If we surrender to this tendency to exaggerate, we shall end up terrified or infuriated by trivialities.

If we have caught ourselves in this type of exaggeration, we should learn a lesson to apply to our whole life: “I see that I have a personal tendency to exaggerate and I dread a hundred dangers where there is only one. Therefore, whenever I catch myself worrying a lot in advance, I shall react with a deliberately chosen attitude of joy and smiling peace, because I know that the reason for fear is insignificant.”

🌼If we make family life a haven of love, the negative emotions we may experience in office or factory will be counteracted.

If we have a sincere spiritual life, in it we shall find the best counterweight to daily dissatisfactions and fears.

If in prayer we take account of the fact that we are having an interview with Infinite Wisdom, Goodness and Power, this will give us a great degree of satisfaction.

And if, in the performance of activities we understand that we are fulfilling the will of God – that is, the ideal of Infinite Wisdom or, in other words, that we are doing the noblest and most useful task that anyone could accomplish in the circumstances – we can have hours of emotional fullness to immunize us against many psychosomatic illnesses.

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Morsels for Meditation from Achieving Peace of Heart – Fr. Narciso Irala

19 Saturday Jul 2014

Posted by Leanevdp in Achieving Peace of Heart - Fr. Narciso Irala, Spiritual Tidbits

≈ Leave a comment

sacred-heart21aThis book is much used in our family! My book review is here.

Achieving Peace of Heart

The following are some “Morsels for Meditation” for your day!

🌹A Fixation – Unpleasant impressions or thoughts tend to engrave themselves and become fixed in our minds by repetition unless we succeed in forgetting or ignoring them. They will be engraved even deeper if we give them importance and fear them.

A case in point would be that of the person who struggles against impure thoughts in a spirit of fear. They would gradually disappear if he despised them (instead of fearing them) and, in practice, went on as if he did not have them.

Worry is a fine thread of fear which traces a path across the life of our spirit. Unless we succeeded in breaking it early, while it is still weak, it will open up into a deep crevasse into which all our attention and thoughts will be channeled.

🌺An obsession – An impure thought or a thought of a present or imminent disaster will not leave us in peace for a moment, unless we busy ourselves with something extremely interesting. It struggles continually to occupy the center of our attention.

A scruple is no more than obsession of fear. The way to conquer it is by giving less importance to the imaginary eternal loss, convincing ourselves that it is an emotional illness which cannot have eternal consequences and by diverting our attention from the thought which produces the emotion.

So we shall refuse to follow that train of thought even for the sake of removing the doubt, in practice treating the thought with disdain.

🌻Exaggeration. – The ills or dangers that beset us will almost always tend to be exaggerated. If we surrender to this tendency to exaggerate, we shall end up terrified or infuriated by trivialities.

If we have caught ourselves in this type of exaggeration, we should learn a lesson to apply to our whole life: “I see that I have a personal tendency to exaggerate and I dread a hundred dangers where there is only one. Therefore, whenever I catch myself worrying a lot in advance, I shall react with a deliberately chosen attitude of joy and smiling peace, because I know that the reason for fear is insignificant.”

🌼If we make family life a haven of love, the negative emotions we may experience in office or factory will be counteracted.

If we have a sincere spiritual life, in it we shall find the best counterweight to daily dissatisfactions and fears.

If in prayer we take account of the fact that we are having an interview with Infinite Wisdom, Goodness and Power, this will give us a great degree of satisfaction.

And if, in the performance of activities we understand that we are fulfilling the will of God – that is, the ideal of Infinite Wisdom or, in other words, that we are doing the noblest and most useful task that anyone could accomplish in the circumstances – we can have hours of emotional fullness to immunize us against many psychosomatic illnesses.

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