It sounds kind of weird, but I've definitely known people who developed an extreme attachment to detaching from other things. In trying to emulate the outward appearance of detachment from worldly things but not filling that space back up with anything. I like the way you explain it, "crowding out" worldly attachments over time. Because trying to just drop everything and not having anything else in that metaphorical garden to replace it leads to a pretty hollow existence.
That thumbnail got me 🤣 Im doing Exodus 90 and every morning the first thing I do before I pray my holy hour is make a cappuccino and think "Im sorry God but I need this first" haha I hope he understands. I'll totally make Him one if He wants one at the eternal banquet. It would be an honor to be the Lord's barista
"The average American is physically, biologically, psychologically and neurologically unable to do anything worthwhile before he has a cup of coffee. And that goes for prayer too. Even sisters in convents whose rules were written before electric percolators were developed would do well to update their procedures. Let them have coffee before meditation."
I had the same internal debate about coffee. Ultimately ending with the conclusion, that i was using coffee to make me alert and more focused on my prayer. The lesser good used to facilitate more active participation in a higher good. Which i think is the point of all goods in general. That is to facilitate in higher goods. Is this right, Is this wrong ? not sure, but it helped me! I’m sure your using coffee the same way.
I love to hear I am not thinking void of humans. Thank you so much for your wisdom . I am elderly in years but have not lost the ability to discern and miss humanity in this era of indoctrination and division among the younger generations.
One of my favorite hotels is the Notre Dame Center in Jerusalem because Jesus is always accessible in the chapel there. I also love visiting the houses of religious sisters because they have the blessed sacrament there; it’s the greatest luxury someone could have where they live!
Thanks Fr. Pine! I appreciated these thoughts! I’m currently reassessing my love for coffee. Most of the time it brings me joy, but I sometimes question my love for it. Do I love it more than God (thus do I idolize it) vs is it a good that I get to enjoy? But ultimately, how amazing is it to be a Catholic and to (properly) enjoy the goods that God has put in this world!!
We can also have disordered attachments to spiritual things: particular sacred objects, consolations in prayer, Pints with Aquinas.😉 St. John of the Cross took a certain cross away from Teresa of Avila, because she was getting attached to it. It takes a lifetime and much passive purgation to be cleansed of all disordered attachments, but only then are we able to love God with our whole mind, heart, soul, and strength.
Yes! I am reading St. John of the Cross, and he seems to have a greater caution about attachments than Father Gregory in this video. I wonder if it's a Dominican/Carmelite thing
Thanks for this, Father! On the note of personal attachments, I would like to hear your take on attachment to Eucharistic devotion (and other outward religious practices). In the parish I usually attend, virtually everyone receives standing and in the hand. I am really uncomfortable receiving in the hand, and I strongly prefer to receive kneeling. I don't mean it to come of as showy piety, but that doesn't mean it isn't.
Neat and interesting video, Fr. Gregory! The only thing I'd ask about this though is whether desiring to eat food you enjoy when not particulary hungry is really somehow a bad attachment? We know Christ Himself ate food and drink with the disciples after resurrecting, and this even after eating the fish to prove He was physical - and my own intuition seems to say that eating food just to enjoy it when not hungry isn't sinful or a disordered attachment, provided one practices self-control in that.
Great! I think though that it is not possible to be "attached" to God. An attachment is a bond to something or to someone which does not allow you to flourish into what God wants from you. Perhaps it could be said that an attachment is disordered love. The contrary would be ordered love (or simply "love").
