“Complete abstinence is easier than perfect moderation” (St. Augustine of Hippo).
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LOVE the Word™ is a Bible study method based on Mary’s own practice: lectio without the Latin.
L – Listen (Receive the Word.)
O – Observe (Choose one or more of the following personality approaches to connect the passage to your life and recent events.)
F | Franciscan – Take a long look at a crucifix. Consider the self-control it took to make that sacrifice.
I | Ignatian – Imagine your Jeep has broken down in the desert and you are stranded there at mid-day while on your way to a vacation destination. You can make it, but you’ll have to walk the whole day and part of the next morning, and you’re running out of water. Your mouth and eyes and shoes are full of sand. You have a pack of crackers to last the whole day and into the morning. Your phone is dead and you forgot your charger. The sun is causing disorienting heatwaves that confuse your sense of direction. Sit for a few minutes, imagining the scenario.
Now that you have nothing to depend on and are not assured of even your own survival, what is most important to you? How do you feel? What are your thoughts and fears?
A | Augustinian – During the show, did the Holy Spirit point out a particular desert in your life in which He is attempting to work with you? Are you cooperating? In what area do you lack self-control the most? Is this an area you have struggled with for some time? How does your desert relate to that challenge?
T | Thomistic – Call to mind someone in your life who lacks self-control. What is your predominate feeling about that person? Why?
V – Verbalize (Pray about your thoughts and emotions.)
Remembering you are in His presence and that all of heaven stands by to assist you, make a plan of attack with the Lord in the area of self-control He brought to your mind during the show. Perhaps you’d like to talk to Him about a particular emotional, spiritual, or personal pitfall. You may want to review, recite, and re-write S-T-O-P. Write out your plan in your journal or on your journal page (get a free page and user guide to the right). Resolve to go to Confession for extra grace in that area. You have to go for Lent anyway, right?
E – Entrust (May it be done to me according to your word!)
Holy Spirit, As we begin to close out Lent, help me learn to walk in You, so I do not fall in the flesh. + Amen.
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*LOVE the Word™ exercises are offered according to FIAT: the four personalities, or “prayer forms,” explored in Prayer and Temperament, by Chester Michael and Marie Norrisey: Franciscan, Ignatian, Augustinian, and Thomistic: FIAT! These prayer forms correspond to the Myers-Briggs personality types.
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Courtesy of Kristie Hynniman who does our transcriptions for you.
When you say that self-medication has a different root, what does that mean? I am struggling with
self-medication. What is the root?
The root of self-medication is usually a wound. I talk about how to determine that kind of thing in my book Unleashed. Typically our wound is triggered in some way and then we self-medicate in order to keep from feeling the pain of it, bu that prevents the deeper work God is trying to get us to do.