Category: fear

Being afraid

Sr. Dorcee, beloved5 Comments

I was delighted when I discovered Caryll Houselander.  I found her to be a woman of great honesty about herself and great faith in God.  Here is an excerpt from a letter she wrote, describing how she dealt with great fear as she served as an air raid warden in England during World War I.  Perhaps I’ve already shared it, but it’s worth sharing again.  She offers an approach that I think we can apply to many, if not all, of the challenging emotions we can experience:

During the war I was simply terrified by air raids, and it was my lot to be in every one that happened in London–sometimes on the roofs of these flats, sometimes in the hospital. . . I tried to build up my courage by reason and prayer, etc.  Then one day I realized quite suddenly: As long as I try not to be afraid I shall be worse, and I shall show it one day and break; what God is asking of me, to do for suffering humanity, is to be afraid, to accept it and put up with it, as one has to put up with pain (if it’s not druggable) or anything else.  I am not going to get out of any of the suffering.  From the time the siren goes until the All Clear, I am going to be simply frightened stiff, and that’s what I’ve got to do for the world–offer that to God, because it is that and nothing else which he asks of me.

Friday: from the archives

Sr. Dorcee, beloved2 Comments

A bit of a balm for those who are fearful:

Jer 39.17: But I will deliver you on that day, says the Lord, and you shall not be given into the hand of the men of whom you are afraid.

What is the thing you most fear and most earnestly pray about, the thing that you most dread?  If you love your Lord and yet know your own weakness, it is that something may happen to sweep you off your feet, or that your strength may be drained and you may yield and fall, and fail Him at the end.  The lives of many are shadowed by this fear.

But take comfort.  The God who knew the heart of His servant Ebed-melech knows our heart too.  He knows who the men are (what the forces of trial are) of whom we are afraid.  And He assures us and reassures us.  The Bible is full of “Fear nots.”  You shall not be given into the hand of the men of whom you are afraid.  (Amy Carmichael)

God will not be distracted

Sr. Dorcee, beloved2 Comments

” . . . difficulties are magnified out of all proportion simply by fear and anxiety.  From the moment we wake until we fall asleep we must commend other people wholly and unreservedly to God and leave them in his hands, and transform our anxiety for them into prayers on their behalf: With sorry and with grief . . . God will not be distracted.”  (Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Letters from Prison)

 

Friday: from the archives

Sr. Dorcee, belovedLeave a comment

A bit of a balm for those who are fearful:

Jer 39.17: But I will deliver you on that day, says the Lord, and you shall not be given into the hand of the men of whom you are afraid.

What is the thing you most fear and most earnestly pray about, the thing that you most dread?  If you love your Lord and yet know your own weakness, it is that something may happen to sweep you off your feet, or that your strength may be drained and you may yield and fall, and fail Him at the end.  The lives of many are shadowed by this fear.

But take comfort.  The God who knew the heart of His servant Ebed-melech knows our heart too.  He knows who the men are (what the forces of trial are) of whom we are afraid.  And He assures us and reassures us.  The Bible is full of “Fear nots.”  You shall not be given into the hand of the men of whom you are afraid.  (Amy Carmichael)

What is there to be afraid of?

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Some thoughts from Catherine Doherty on fear:

When I was little, my father used to say that, if you were a real Christian, you would never be afraid of anything of anyone.  For were you not, if you were in the state of grace, the temple of the Holy Trinity?  And wasn’t the Blessed Mother there?  For where the Trinity was, there Our Lady of the Trinity was sure to be. And naturally your patron saint would be within you too, as would your angel guardian.  Furthermore, as a Christian you had the right and the duty, when in danger or need, to call on all the heavenly spirits for help, to call on anyone or everyone in the Church Triumphant  which is all the people of God in heaven.  So, living, walking, breathing in such a glorious company, how could you be afraid of anything but sin?  Sin alone has the power to bring real death.  It has to be feared with a great fear, but nothing else.

You shouldn’t fear illness or even death –both are precious gifts of the Lord!  Sickness can make you into his likeness, even as all pain and sorrow does, and bring deep spiritual peace and understanding that cannot be reached any other way.  And death?  Death is Christ calling your soul for an eternal rendezvous of love.  Oh, the joy of at long last being home, in the arms of the beloved!

“But take comfort”

Sr. Dorcee, beloved1 Comment

A bit of a balm for those who are fearful:

Jer 39.17: But I will deliver you on that day, says the Lord, and you shall not be given into the hand of the men of whom you are afraid.

What is the thing you most fear and most earnestly pray about, the thing that you most dread?  If you love your Lord and yet know your own weakness, it is that something may happen to sweep you off your feet, or that your strength may be drained and you may yield and fall, and fail Him at the end.  The lives of many are shadowed by this fear.

But take comfort.  The God who knew the heart of His servant Ebed-melech knows our heart too.  He knows who the men are (what the forces of trial are) of whom we are afraid.  And He assures us and reassures us.  The Bible is full of “Fear nots.”  You shall not be given into the hand of the men of whom you are afraid.  (Amy Carmichael)

“We need have no fear”

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Pope Benedict’s address yesterday as he completed his visit to Germany is a word for us as well:

On Mary’s “Yes”

“In All Our Cares We Need Have No Fear, God Is Good”

FREIBURG, Germany, SEPT. 25, 2011 (Zenit.org).- Here is a Vatican translation of the address Benedict XVI delivered before praying the midday Angelus with those gathered at the Freiburg airport, and after celebrating the last public Mass of his four-day state visit to his native Germany.

* * *

Dear Sisters and Brothers!

At the end of this solemn celebration of holy Mass we now pray the Angelus together. This prayer constantly reminds us of the historical beginnings of our salvation. The Archangel Gabriel presents God’s plan of salvation to the Virgin Mary, by which she was to become the Mother of the Redeemer. Mary was fearful, but the angel of the Lord spoke a word of comfort to her: “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.” So Mary is able to respond with her great “yes”. This “yes”, by which she accepts to become the handmaid of the Lord, is the trusting “yes” to God’s plan, to our salvation. And she finally addresses her “yes” to us all, whom she received as her children entrusted to her at the foot of the Cross (cf. Jn19:27). She never withdraws this promise. And so she is called happy, or rather blessed, for believing that what was promised her by the Lord would be fulfilled (cf. Lk 1:45).

As we pray this Angelus, we may join Mary in her “yes”, we may adhere trustingly to the beauty of God’s plan and to the providence that he has assigned to us in his grace. Then God’s love will also, as it were, take flesh in our lives, becoming ever more tangible. In all our cares we need have no fear.

When our emotions seem to outrun our surrender

Sr. Dorcee, beloved1 Comment

I’m fairly sleep deprived with a lot “on my plate” at the moment, and actually have had a lot on my plate for over a year–not just a lot to do, but am dealing with a lot of major things that I can’t really go into here.  That can easily kick up anxiety in me.  My tendency then is to get anxious about being anxious.  I mean, I do my best to surrender it all to God, but inevitably the feelings of anxiety are still there, and then I get anxious: am I not surrendering enough, etc.  Soooo that brought to my mind two things: 1) my spiritual director’s “mantra” to me: “Don’t be afraid of being afraid,” which I could now rephrase: “Don’t be anxious about being anxious,” and 2) what Caryll Houselander wrote about dealing with her fear and anxiety during WWII which I’ve posted here.

Something else I’ve tried to do (when I remember!) is to offer up my “suffering” of fear or anxiety or whatever.  It is a suffering for sure, not to be wasted.