Pints With Aquinas - Compassion & Gentleness... AGAIN!!! | Mthr. Natalia

Episode Date: April 22, 2024

Mother Natalia brings us into some recent events in her life that have deepened her meditations on Compassion, Gentleness and Healing. She then shares these lessons with us. 🟣 Join Us on Locals (before we get banned on YT): https://mattfradd.locals.com/ 🎧 Mother's Podcast: https://whatgodisnot.com/ 🖥️ Website: https://pintswithaquinas.com/ 🟢 Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/pintswithaquinas 👕 Merch: https://shop.pintswithaquinas.com 🚫 FREE 21 Day Detox From Porn Course: https://www.strive21.com/matt 🔵 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mattfradd 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mattfradd We get a small kick back from affiliate links

Christ is risen. I'm Mother Natalia, a Byzantine Catholic nun from Christ the Bridegroom Monastery, and this is Pines with Aquinas. Today I'd like to do a follow-up episode on two other episodes that I've done so far, the episode on compassion and the episode on gentleness. And you might get annoyed with hearing about this because I think I'll probably talk about these topics a lot, but I think they're really, really important and we're in such need in our society these days for compassion and for gentleness that I really think we need to just keep coming back to it. So the follow-up that I want to do about compassion is because I found these two quotes, just this morning as I was praying, these two quotes by St. Maximus the Confessor, who you've heard me quote before.

And I'd like to share them with you. I guess this is also a little bit touching on the topic that I did on neediness, on being needy and our very human need for friendships and support. So and support. So St. Maximus the Confessor says, a true friend is one who in times of trial calmly suffers with his neighbor, the ensuing afflictions, privations and disasters as if they were his own. So this is going back to the etymology of the word compassion, compasio, which is which is to suffer with a true friend suffers with his neighbor. As if the afflictions, privations

and disasters were his own. And then he also says, quoting Ecclesiastes, a faithful friend is beyond price. He then continues, since he regards his friends misfortunes as his own and suffers with him, sharing his trials until death. A faithful friend is beyond price, since he regards his friends misfortunes as his own and suffers with him, sharing his trials until death." I had a really kind of first-hand experience of this the other day. So this week I had a couple ribs that went out of place, and I went to see just a really beautiful Catholic man who lives nearby, a chiropractor who sees all of us nuns for free when we need it.

And while I was with him, I just, I've never, I don't think I've ever been in so much pain in my life as having these ribs out. And this poor man trying to adjust me and get the ribs back in place, it just was so evident that he was suffering just as much as I was by being in my pain with me and in some sense knowing that he was causing the pain, which again, this goes back to the episode on mercy, that it's difficult for us to understand what mercy is because we don't interpret certain things as mercy when they cause us suffering. But this doctor was really having great mercy on me by causing this pain that I needed in

order to heal. And which actually, that's a good lead in into the gentleness part as well, because this this chiropractor was just so gentle and so tender and every once in a while in the adjustment he would just stop and be like, okay, deep breaths, deep breaths, because I'm just sobbing. It was really embarrassing. So anyways, gentleness. The reason I wanted to come back to this topic is because a few weeks ago I got an email from someone and the email just really deeply disturbed me and I was having trouble sleeping at night and as I was talking to a priest friend of mine about the email and the trouble sleeping he said well what exactly

Well, what exactly are you focusing on that's causing the trouble sleeping? What are the things that are playing through your mind? Which I think was just a really great question because I hadn't considered it before. So as I closed my eyes and thought back for a minute on what had been going through my mind. I realized that... So this email just had a lot of accusation and a lot of... There was a lot of anger in it and a lot of argumentation. And I realized that the arguments and the accusations were not the things that were playing through my head as I was trying to sleep. It wasn't that I was replaying the arguments and trying to think of counter arguments and things like that.

That's not what it was. What was playing through my head over and over and causing me to not be able to sleep was just the harshness of the words and the things that were really crass and the things that were very much an attack on my person as opposed to my actions. And so this reminded me again of what I had said in the gentleness episode that we really are not softening people's hearts by speaking to them in harshness. And we really need to have this gentleness with people, this gentleness that I admittedly am greatly lacking

and I'm trying to grow in. In Proverbs 18, 21, we read, death and life are in the power of the tongue. That's Proverbs 18, 21, death and life are in the power of the tongue. And I found when I was looking at that, when I was looking at that verse for the purpose of this episode, I found a commentary on it by St. John Chrysostom. Chrysostom says, Christ makes the same point when he says, by your own words, you will be condemned,

and by your words, you will be justified and by your words you will be justified. Chris is something continues, the tongue stands in the middle ready for either use, you are its master. So also does a sword lie in the middle. If you use it against the enemy it becomes an instrument for your safety. If you use it to wound yourself, it is not the steel but your own transgression of the law that causes your death. Let us think of the tongue in the same way as a sword lying in the middle. Sharpen it to accuse yourself of your own sins, but do not use it to wound your brother. So Chris Isdom's point here is that

when we're using it to wound our brother we really are harming ourselves. You know which I guess I'll just end with this this quote by Evagrius who you've also heard me quote many times Evagrius the solitary Evagrius Ponticus he says there is scarcely any other virtue which the demons fear as much as gentleness there is scarcely any other virtue which the demons fear as much as gentleness. And I know we've all experienced this before, that when someone speaks to us with gentleness, our defenses go down and we're actually open to receiving whatever it is that they have to offer, to receiving whatever even the correction is that they want to give us. And so when we speak with gentleness, I think the reason that the demons fear it so greatly is because they lose their power.

They lose the hold that fear has over us. Gentleness alleviates the fear, which really just diminishes the power that the devil has. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Heavenly Father, thank you for this day. Thank you for the gift of this platform in order to reach out and attempt to bring the gospel, the word of your son, to those who are listening. I ask that you grant those who are listening, as well as myself, a greater spirit of gentleness and compassion, that we may suffer with those that you've placed in our lives, and through our gentleness,

alleviate their fear and diminish the power of the devil. alleviate their fear and diminish the power of the devil. I ask Father that you grant us the graces to emulate your own gentleness, the tenderness with which you love as a father. Help us to keep our minds and our hearts focused on the gaze of your Son in order to imitate him. I ask all of this through the prayers of Saint Nathaniel, Saint Thomas Aquinas, Saint Maximus the Confessor, Saint Davagrius the Solitary, Saint John Chrysostom, Saint John Paul II, Saint Michael the Archangel, the Most Holy Theotokos and all the saints. And through the prayers of our holy fathers, O Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us.

Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.