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Help! Annoying Relative

TzegemariamTzegemariam
edited December 1969 in Random Issues
  I have a new family member living with me from overseas.She is very nice and I'm glad she is here, but she is kinda of annoying me.
    Her being here, interferes with my daily prayers, since we share a bedroom. I don't really have a lot of alone time like i did before she arrived. She does some other little things that i get irritated with too, like before she was here i could sing hymns and practice my divine liturgy but when she is here i feel like i'm just singing to show off or something and i can't really avoid her since she is always around.
      I try not to show her that I'm irritated because i keep it inside but I don't know how long I can be able to do that!!!
      I don't know if I'm just being selfish and greedy or what? 
Please give me some advised!!!

Pray for me a unworthy servant, :-\
May God Bless

Comments

  • sodr2sodr2
    why not pray and sing together?
  • childoforthodoxy
    Welcome, Tzegemariam! I am glad that you have taken the initiative seek advice on the matter. As I have previously experienced something slightly different from this, I recognize the source to be the same, and hope that, by speaking a bit on the matter, we may be able to grow in spirituality and pray for one another.

    Allow me to quickly summarize the experience of a few of the Desert Fathers. There are several stories of Fathers who were fasting that would accept other visiting monks for a short period of time, usually a day or so. The visiting monks were not fasting at the time, and the particular Father would not reveal his fasting to them. In so doing, he would break his own fast that he may share in community with them that they may grow in spiritual asceticism together.

    See how the Father, who had his own lifestyle, his own practices, his own personal demands in his individual asceticism, would go outside of his set regime that he would be able to incorporate the others without offending them, without revealing to them his fasting, and striving to bring Christ between them, that they may all grow with one another.

    You have established a set of practices for yourself, which are very good, but it is important to see the goal of your practices rather than the practices themselves. That is to say, the goal of your chanting hymns is to come closer with God, to praise Him from your heart. We should not let the idea of someone involuntary "interfering" with our practices mean that they are taking us away from Christ. This is the work of the devil, who takes our fervor for the service, for hymns, for Christ, and twists it just a bit, allowing us to believe that we are striving to be closer in Christ, but in doing so, upsetting ourselves over the actions of another, a person who is not even intentionally taking you away from Christ.

    God bless you and your fervor. Keep in mind the goal of your fervent prayers, your zealousness: that you wish to be closer to Christ. If you have to change the time when you practice chanting your hymns, or take a break from doing so out loud for now, while maintaining a good relationship with your relative, then you will be struggling for the right goal, to have Christ be more closely incorporated in your life, in your being, in your prayer. Know that you do not only praise God with your lips, but more importantly, with your heart. It is that which He sees, and that which we all struggle to keep pure.

    childoforthodoxy
  • TzegemariamTzegemariam
    Thank you childfororthodoxy for your advice,
    and Sodr2 i understand what you mean about singing together but
    i think its different when it comes to praying
    like it says in the Holy Gospel Matthew 6:6
    "But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly."
    May God Bless and pray for me a sinner
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