November 30th - Christmas Novena

Say 15 times each day until Christmas.

Saint Andrew Christmas Novena

Hail and blessed be the hour and moment in which the Son of God was born of the most pure Virgin Mary, at midnight, in Bethlehem, in piercing cold. In that hour, vouchsafe, O my God! to hear my prayer and grant my desires, through the merits of Our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of His Blessed Mother. Amen.

Just a Thought: There are...

There are four letters in HATE,
but there are also four letters in LOVE...

There are seven letters in ENEMIES,
but there are also seven letters in FRIENDS...

 HURT,
 HEAL...

 NEGATIVE,
 POSITIVE...

FALSE,
TRUTH...

Everybody has a story. But none of us know how long it will be. Some of us have volumes, others have chapters, while others, mere pages, paragraphs, or simply, the title. Death comes like a thief in the night. Every comma, letter, word, subplot adds up to the life we lived. Giving a finite amount of characters, how do we fill them? Leaving them empty is a choice, too.

If your story were to be written, what words would be used to describe your life? Would those around you agree with you? How many other stories would be inspired by yours? How many have been or will be extinguished because of you?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

TAKING,           ANGER,           FIGHT,            SAD,           FAITHLESS,

  GIVING...          MERCY...         PEACE...         JOY...          INTEGRITY...

WASTE,        COLD,          REVENGE,         RUDE,         STAGNATE,

  RENEW...      WARM...      FORGIVE...         KIND...        IMPROVES...          

LUST,            ADDICTIONS,          DISAPPOINTS,       NEGLECT,       

  PURE...          DISCIPLINE...          RESPONSIBLE...    NURTURE...  

GLUTTONY vs TEMPERANCE - Day 6

From the Catechism:

1809 Temperance is the moral virtue that moderates the attraction of pleasures and provides balance in the use of created goods. It ensures the will's mastery over instincts and keeps desires within the limits of what is honorable. The temperate person directs the sensitive appetites toward what is good and maintains a healthy discretion: "Do not follow your inclination and strength, walking according to the desires of your heart."⁷² Temperance is often praised in the Old Testament: "Do not follow your base desires, but restrain your appetites."⁷³ In the New Testament it is called "moderation" or "sobriety." We ought "to live sober, upright, and godly lives in this world."⁷⁴

To live well is nothing other than to love God with all one's heart, with all one's soul and with all one's efforts; from this it comes about that love is kept whole and uncorrupted (through temperance). No misfortune can disturb it (and this is fortitude). It obeys only [God] (and this is justice), and is careful in discerning things, so as not to be surprised by deceit or trickery (and this is prudence).⁷⁵

1838 Temperance moderates the attraction of the pleasures of the senses and provides balance in the use of created goods.

2290 The virtue of temperance disposes us to avoid every kind of excess: the abuse of food, alcohol, tobacco, or medicine. Those incur grave guilt who, by drunkenness or a love of speed, endanger their own and others' safety on the road, at sea, or in the air.

2341 The virtue of chastity comes under the cardinal virtue of temperance, which seeks to permeate the passions and appetites of the senses with reason.

2407 In economic matters, respect for human dignity requires the practice of the virtue of temperance, so as to moderate attachment to this world's goods; the practice of the virtue of justice, to preserve our neighbor's rights and render him what is his due; and the practice of solidarity, in accordance with the golden rule and in keeping with the generosity of the Lord, who "though he was rich, yet for your sake . . . became poor so that by his poverty, you might become rich."¹⁹⁰

2517 The heart is the seat of moral personality: "Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication. . . . "³⁰⁵ The struggle against carnal covetousness entails purifying the heart and practicing temperance:

Remain simple and innocent, and you will be like little children who do not know the evil that destroys man's life.³⁰⁶

Time - Fr. Isaac Relyea

GLUTTONY VS TEMPERANCE - Day 5

For those of you following my Devote Life Series, you have probably been wondering if I fell off the face of the planet.  :-)

I would say that life has been busy, or other more immediate projects came up, etc., and both these would be true, but the main reason the series froze was because every time I sat down to write something about temperance or gluttony, I couldn't think of anything to write and I couldn't find anything I wanted to reblog.

So, I apologize for the writer's block.

Since yesterday was Thanksgiving, I thought about temperance and gluttony all day. I resolved not to get second helpings and to not indulge in sweet unhealthy/unnecessary drinks. In regard to the food I was very good, minus the extra spoonful of stuffing. :-)  I normally don't drink alcohol; I don't like the taste of it. However, surprisingly I had way more alcohol than I average in a month.  My uncle made me a vodka drink and then my aunt handed me a huge glass of wine which I was only able to half finish. I also had two glasses of hot apple cider, coffee and one glass of sprite. So, basically I failed yesterday.

I feel very blessed to not have alcohol as a temptation in my life.  However, I do struggle with saying no to fatty, fried, gooey and sweet items. They always look or smell so good... yet I always know that my body doesn't need them at the time I devour them.

Our bodies need very little food to be healthy and functional. Our stomach is as big as our fists.  I am much better at not over-indulging then I used to be.  My will power has improved and second helpings are becoming less of a temptation.  However, I am still very bad at choosing healthy options that actually nutritionally fill and sustain me.

Eating unhealthy foods is gluttony because we are choosing taste over health. Our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit and not protecting and maintaining His dwelling place is a capital sin.

Despite what the world says: that I deserve to eat bad because of a holiday, stress, working hard, etc., I know that when I do as it advises, as soon as I am conscious that I fell for and accepted the temptation, I must stop and go to confession. On this Black Friday, that is the only line I'll be in.

Mutual Subordination - Husbands & Wives

GLUTTONY vs TEMPERANCE - Day 4

St. Thomas Aquinas took a very expansive view of gluttony, going as far as to prepare a list of six ways to commit gluttony:

• Praepropere - eating too soon.
• Laute - eating too expensively.
• Nimis - eating too much.
• Ardenter - eating too eagerly.
• Studiose - eating too daintily (picky).
• Forente - eating wildly.

On the white house's official petition page, this is one of the petitions:

 https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/regulate-internet-pornography/cPbNXzzK

Please sign it to raise the awareness that we want to protect minors from this evil addiction. 

WE PETITION THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TO:

Regulate Internet Pornography

Regulating the distribution of internet pornography is crucial. We petition the government to keep pornography away from minors by demanding and enforcing that a valid credit card number belonging to the adult viewer is provided at a login screen to every pornographic website.

We also request that advertising is made illegal on internet sites containing pornographic images or video.

These two simple steps are absolutely necessary to regulate the distribution of pornography and end the exponential increase of pornography among those 17 years of age and under.

GLUTTONY vs TEMPERANCE - Day 3

A quick look at what St. Thomas says about temperance:

Article 1. Whether temperance is a virtue?

I answer that, As stated above (I-II, 55, 3), it is essential to virtue to incline man to good. Now the good of man is to be in accordance with reason, as Dionysius states (Div. Nom. iv). Hence human virtue is that which inclines man to something in accordance with reason. Now temperance evidently inclines man to this, since its very name implies moderation or temperateness, which reason causes. Therefore temperance is a virtue.

Article 2. Whether temperance is a special virtue?

I answer that, ... Accordingly the word "temperance" has a twofold acceptation. First, in accordance with its common signification: and thus temperance is not a special but a general virtue, because the word "temperance" signifies a certain temperateness or moderation, which reason appoints to human operations and passions: and this is common to every moral virtue. Yet there is a logical difference between temperance and fortitude, even if we take them both as general virtues: since temperance withdraws man from things which seduce the appetite from obeying reason, while fortitude incites him to endure or withstand those things on account of which he forsakes the good of reason.

On the other hand, if we take temperance antonomastically, as withholding the appetite from those things which are most seductive to man, it is a special virtue, for thus it has, like fortitude, a special matter.

Article 3. Whether temperance is only about desires and pleasures?

I answer that, As stated above (123, 12; 136, 1), it belongs to moral virtue to safeguard the good of reason against the passions that rebel against reason. Now the movement of the soul's passions is twofold, as stated above (I-II, 23, 2), when we were treating of the passions: the one, whereby the sensitive appetite pursues sensible and bodily goods, the other whereby it flies from sensible and bodily evils... Accordingly, just as the virtue of fortitude, which by its very nature bestows firmness, is chiefly concerned with the passion, viz. fear, which regards flight from bodily evils, and consequently with daring, which attacks the objects of fear in the hope of attaining some good, so, too, temperance, which denotes a kind of moderation, is chiefly concerned with those passions that tend towards sensible goods, viz. desire and pleasure, and consequently with the sorrows that arise from the absence of those pleasures. For just as daring presupposes objects of fear, so too such like sorrow arises from the absence of the aforesaid pleasures.

Article 4. Whether temperance is only about desires and pleasures of touch?

I answer that, As stated above (Article 3), temperance is about desires and pleasures in the same way as fortitude is about fear and daring. Now fortitude is about fear and daring with respect to the greatest evils whereby nature itself is dissolved; and such are dangers of death. Wherefore in like manner temperance must needs be about desires for the greatest pleasures. And since pleasure results from a natural operation, it is so much the greater according as it results from a more natural operation. Now to animals the most natural operations are those which preserve the nature of theindividual by means of meat and drink, and the nature of the species by the union of the sexes. Hence temperance is properly about pleasures of meat and drink and sexual pleasures. Now these pleasures result from the sense of touch. Wherefore it follows that temperance is about pleasures of touch.

Article 5. Whether temperance is about the pleasures proper to the taste?

I answer that, ...On these matters certain things are to be considered as principal and others as secondary. The principal thing is the use itself of the necessary means, of the woman who is necessary for the preservation of the species, or of food and drink which are necessary for the preservation of the individual: while the very use of these necessary things has a certain essential pleasure annexed thereto. In regard to either use we consider as secondary whatever makes the use more pleasurable, such as beauty and adornment in woman, and a pleasing savor and likewise odor in food. Hence temperance is chiefly about the pleasure of touch, that results essentially from the use of these necessary things, which use is in all cases attained by the touch. Secondarily, however, temperance and intemperance are about pleasures of the taste, smell, or sight, inasmuch as the sensible objects of these senses conduce to the pleasurable use of the necessary things that have relation to the touch. But since the taste is more akin to the touch than the other senses are, it follows that temperance is more about the taste than about the other senses.

Article 6. Whether the rule of temperance depends on the need of the present life?

I answer that, As stated above (1; 109, 2; 123, 12), the good of moral virtue consists chiefly in the order of reason: because "man's good is to be in accord with reason," as Dionysius asserts (Div. Nom. iv). Now the principal order of reason is that by which it directs certain things towards their end, and the good of reason consists chiefly in this order; since good has the aspect of end, and the end is the rule of whatever is directed to the end. Now all the pleasurable objects that are at man's disposal, are directed to some necessity of this life as to their end. Wherefore temperance takes the need of this life, as the rule of the pleasurable objects of which it makes use, and uses them only for as much as the need of this life requires.

Article 7. Whether temperance is a cardinal virtue?

I answer that, As stated above (123, 11; 61, 3), a principal or cardinal virtue is so called because it has a foremost claim to praise on account of one of those things that are requisite for the notion of virtue in general. Now moderation, which is requisite in every virtue, deserves praise principally in pleasures of touch, with which temperance is concerned, both because these pleasures are most natural to us, so that it is more difficult to abstain from them, and to control the desire for them, and because their objects are more necessary to the present life, as stated above (Article 4). For this reason temperance is reckoned a principal or cardinal virtue.

Article 8. Whether temperance is the greatest of the virtues?

I answer that, As the Philosopher declares (Ethic. i, 2) "the good of the many is more of the godlike than the good of the individual," wherefore the more a virtue regards the good of the many, the better it is. Now justice and fortitude regard the good of the many more than temperance does, since justice regards the relations between one man and another, while fortitude regards dangers of battle which are endured for the common weal: whereas temperance moderates only the desires and pleasures which affect man himself. Hence it is evident that justice and fortitude are more excellent virtues than temperance: while prudence and the theological virtues are more excellent still.

GLUTTONY vs TEMPERANCE - Day 2

There is a wealth of resources out there that cover over-indulging, the inability to say no to that extra serving. There is much out there about the proper way to abstain and how to acquire the virtue of fasting. I may even touch upon these later.  However, for now, I am considering spiritual gluttony: that is, to say, the inability to say no to sin.

Yes, gluttony is about the flesh; it is when fleshly pleasure conquers will. Fleshly pleasures involve the taste, and touch.  Nevertheless, I think gluttony can extend to not saying no to certain thoughts, and behaviors.  We may be gluttonous over a certain day-dream and try to always escape there. Or we may be gluttonous insofar as we are addicted to a tv show, sports stats, video games, gossip, to talking constantly, drinking, sleeping or finding unhealthy outlets to pain, and responsibility. We over indulge in things that take us away from God, our spouse, our family, our faith. We may know that there are limits to how much we should indulge in distractions, if at all, but we just can't resist doing it, saying it, thinking it, participating in it just one more time.

This is different than greed, because greed covets and seeks to have more for more sake, whereas, gluttony seeks to experience a pleasure and/or to escape pain because the body wants to inordinately be in a state other than what it is in. When our will is weakened by these addictions, whatever they may be, I feel that St. Thomas' definition of gluttony still holds:

"Gluttony denotes, not any desire of eating and drinking, but an inordinate desire... leaving the order of reason, wherein the good of moral virtue consists."

It is an inordinate desire leaving the order of reason, wherein the good of the moral virtue consists. While it is most manifest in the appetite, can we admit gluttony in other areas of our lives, maybe the secret part of our lives? If so, when are we going to stop? When is enough, enough? When will it be the last time?

GLUTTONY VS TEMPERANCE

Why is Gluttony a capital sin?

St. Thomas Aquinas: "Gluttony denotes, not any desire of eating and drinking, but an inordinate desire... leaving the order of reason, wherein the good of moral virtue consists." (2, 148, ad 1)

Saint Alphonsus De Ligouri: "He that gratifies the taste will readily indulge the other senses; for, having lost the spirit of recollection, he will easily commit faults, by indecent words and by unbecoming gestures. But the greatest evil of intemperance, is that it exposes chastity to great danger. 'Repletion of the stomach,' says St. Jerome, 'is the hotbed of lust.'

New Advent says, "Clearly one who uses food or drink in such a way as to injure his health or impair the mental equipment needed for the discharge of his duties, is guilty of the sin of gluttony."

The folowing Scriptures advise against over indulging:

Pr 23:20-21 Do not join those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat, for drunkards and gluttons become poor, and drowsiness clothes them in rags.

Pr 28:7 He who keeps the law is a discerning son, but a companion of gluttons disgraces his father.

Mt 11:18-19 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, 'He has a demon.' The Son of Man came eating and drinking and they say, 'Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and "sinners."' But wisdom is proved right by her actions."

Php 3:18-19 For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things.

Temperance is the cure. 

Ven. Mary of Agreda: "Temperance includes the two virtues of abstinence and sobriety... Abstinence also includes fasting. These virtues take the first place in treating of temperance; for nourishment, being necessary for the preservation of life, is among the principal objects coveted by the appetites."

Saint Catherine of Siena: "without mortifying the taste, it is impossible to preserve innocence, since it was by the indulgence of his appetite that Adam fell."

Russian Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov said, "Wise temperance of the stomach is a door to all the virtues. Restrain the stomach, and you will enter Paradise. But if you please and pamper your stomach, you will hurl yourself over the precipice of bodily impurity, into the fire of wrath and fury, you will coarsen and darken your mind, and in this way you will ruin your powers of attention and self-control, your sobriety and vigilance."

ANGER vs MEEKNESS - Day 7

Meekness:

"Though he was harshly treated, he submitted and opened not his mouth; Like a lamb led to the slaughter or a sheep before the shearers, he was silent and opened not his mouth. Oppressed and condemned, he was taken away..." (Isaiah 53:7)

ANGER vs MEEKNESS - Day 6

Anger: