Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium - 1.3

(*Nota Bene: emphasis mine.)

I invite all Christians, everywhere, at this very moment, to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ, or at least an openness to letting him encounter them; I ask all of you to do this unfailingly each day. No one should think that this invitation is not meant for him or her, since “no one is excluded from the joy brought by the Lord”.1 

The Lord does not disappoint those who take this risk; whenever we take a step towards Jesus, we come to realize that he is already there, waiting for us with open arms. Now is the time to say to Jesus: “Lord, I have let myself be deceived; in a thousand ways I have shunned your love, yet here I am once more, to renew my covenant with you. I need you. Save me once again, Lord, take me once more into your redeeming embrace”. 

How good it feels to come back to him whenever we are lost! Let me say this once more: God never tires of forgiving us; we are the ones who tire of seeking his mercy. Christ, who told us to forgive one another “seventy times seven” (Mt 18:22) has given us his example: he has forgiven us seventy times seven. Time and time again he bears us on his shoulders.

 No one can strip us of the dignity bestowed upon us by this boundless and unfailing love. With a tenderness which never disappoints, but is always capable of restoring our joy, he makes it possible for us to lift up our heads and to start anew. Let us not flee from the resurrection of Jesus, let us never give up, come what will. May nothing inspire more than his life, which impels us onwards!

1 Paul VI, Apostolic Exhortation Gaudete in Domino (9 May 1975), 22: AAS 67 (1975), 297.5 

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Joy is a byproduct of love; this fact is common to our experience, yet made explicit by St. Thomas Aquinas:

Now it is evident from what we have said about the passions (FS, Q[25], AA[2],4) that love is the first affection of the appetitive power, and that desire and joy follow from it. Hence the same virtuous habit inclines us to love and desire the beloved good, and to rejoice in it. But in as much as love is the first of these acts, that virtue takes its name, not from joy, nor from desire, but from love, and is called charity. Hence joy is not a virtue distinct from charity, but an act, or effect, of charity: for which reason it is numbered among the Fruits (Gal. 5:22).

If we love God, we will desire Him and our joy will be from Him. So. . . let us, AT THIS MOMENT make an act of love to our Beloved. 

God is waiting. . . 

LUST vs CHASTITY - Day 5

Is chastity a negative or positive mindset? Many individuals think chastity is a stuffy and prudish word. It is a turn off, especially, the way that most people talk about it. For me it is easy to talk about lust, because everyone can understand what that is, what it looks like, what it feels like. But chastity is a concept more foreign to our society and often presented as something left to be desired. I stumbled upon an article which I believes gives a more positive outlook on the virtue, we, as individuals and a culture, so desperately need. Below are snippets of the article: (click here for the full discussion http://www.catholicculture.com/past_discussions/june28_july12_01.html)

Tonight’s discussion addressed the last section of Chapter Three called “The True Meaning of Chastity,” pages 166-173. Peter introduced this important section by saying that he found it to capture, in a certain sense, the essence of the book, and in fact the essence of the Pope. He focused our attention on the bottom of page 171, where Wojtyla writes, “The connection between chastity and love results from the personalistic norm, which — as we said in Chapter One — has a dual content: a positive content (‘thou shalt love!’) and a negative content (‘thou shalt not use!’).” Many people put inordinate weight on the negative, and think of chastity in a negative sense, while John Paul, said Peter, puts it first in the positive context of thou shalt love. Alberto concurred, adding that one of the most attractive qualities of John Paul II is that he is so positive, and this clearly requires more intellectual effort and understanding than merely prohibiting this or that action. Wojtyla explains that people are unwilling to acknowledge the enormous value of chastity to human love because they reject the full objective truth about the love of man and woman, and “put a subjective fiction in its place.” When the objective truth about love is accepted, chastity is understood as a great positive value and an essential element in “the culture of the person.” He then returns to his theme of the integration of love, asserting that “love is only psychologically complete when it possesses an ethical value, when it is a virtue. Only in love as a virtue is it possible to satisfy the objective demands of the personalistic norm, which requires "loving kindness" towards a person and rejects any form of ‘utilization’ of the person.” He then proceeds to explain chastity in the context of St. Thomas Aquinas's hierarchy of virtues from Summa Theologica. In St. Thomas’ system, chastity is linked with the cardinal virtue of “moderation.” Wojtyla writes, “The virtue of moderation strives to save a reasonable being from this perversion of his nature.... The virtue of moderation helps reasonable people to live reasonably, and so to attain the perfection proper to their nature.” Yet Wojtyla’s description of chastity transcends St. Thomas’ hierarchy of values (the Pope is “para-thomistic,” we joked). Wojtyla strives to emphasize the “kinship” between chastity and love. He says, “Chastity can only be thought of in association with the virtue of love. Its function is to free love from the utilitarian attitude.” As we know from our last section, this utilitarian attitude is grounded in carnal concupiscence, the subjectivism of emotions and the subjectivism of value judgments, and it can easily transition to “sinful love.” “To be chaste,” Wojtyla writes, “means to have a ‘transparent’ attitude to a person of the other sex — chastity means just that — the interior transparency without which love is not itself, for it cannot be itself until the desire to enjoy is subordinated to a readiness to show loving kindness in every situation.” Wojtyla cautions that chastity is often misunderstood to mean a blind inhibition of sensuality so that the value of the body is pushed into the subconscious — which explains why chastity is often mistaken for a negative virtue. He writes, “Chastity, in this view, is one long ‘no.’ Whereas it is above all the ‘yes’ of which certain ‘no’s’ are the consequence.” “The essence of chastity consists in quickness to affirm the value of the person in every situation, and in raising to the personal level all reactions to the value of ‘the body and sex.’ This requires a special interior, spiritual effort, for affirmation of the value of the person can only be the product of the spirit, but this effort is above all positive and creative ‘from within,’ not negative and destructive. It is not a matter of summarily ‘annihilating’ the value ‘body and sex’ in the conscious mind by pushing reactions to them down into the subconscious, but of sustained long term integration; the value ‘body and sex’ must be grounded and implanted in the value of the person.” The Pope writes that chastity is a difficult, long term matter, “and one must wait patiently for it to bear fruit, for the happiness of loving kindness which it must bring. But at the same time, chastity is the sure way to happiness.” Chastity involves a humility of the body. Part of this humility is recognizing that we live with concupiscence through the consequences of original sin — that we have these negative tendencies and must work to counter them. Wojtyla writes that the “body” must show humility in the face of human happiness. Happiness is not just mere enjoyment, the sum of pleasures the body can bring to a relationship between a man and woman. Man and woman “can and must seek their temporal, earthly happiness in a lasting union which has an interpersonal character since it is based in each of them on unreserved affirmation of the value of the person.” If the body is not humble, then it can obscure the full truth about the happiness of man — obscure the vision of the ultimate happiness: the happiness of the human person in union with a personal God. This, says Wojtyla is how we should understand Christ’s words from the Sermon on the Mount: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. “It should be added that the truth about the union of the human person with a personal God, which will be fully accomplished within the dimensions of eternity, at the same time illuminates more fully and makes plainer the value of human love, the value of the union of man and woman as two persons.” Marriage is a lasting union on earth to prepare ourselves for permanent union with God; in this way, marriage is the image of our relation with God.

Turning into Pinocchio

Last night I lied.

I am ashamed of myself.  Although, I told a white lie (half truth) to protect my reputation,  I think that in reality I caused more damage. Maybe nobody I told the lie to cares. Perhaps, they already forgot about it.

BUT IT MATTERS.

It matters because:

1) Lying is a sin

2) The fear of truth is not healthy.  It shows that I am unable to accept the reality of a certain situation, because I am too afraid/ashamed to admit a particular problem out loud to others.

3) Lack of true humility. I think that if I say everything "is ok" and pretend certain events didn't happen, I can fix the issues with no shame. No one needs to be the wiser, right? Wrong.

4) I am denying others the opportunity to practice Christian virtue.

5) Lack of trust in God. I realized that I am trying to control the situation/people's reactions, etc.,  where I should just be trusting God to take care of me because the situation is out of my control.

"As Isidore says (Etym. x) "honesty means an honorable state," wherefore a thing may be said to be honest through being worthy of honor. Now honor, as stated above (Q[144], A[2], ad 2), is due to excellence: and the excellence of a man is gauged chiefly according to his virtue, as stated in Phys. vii, 17. Therefore, properly speaking, honesty refers to the same thing as virtue." Summa Theologica

My Favorite Links

Here are some links that inspire me to stay positive and are also a source of healing:

Health: Rebel Grain

Mass Requests: Seraphic Mass Association

Media: Catholic Answers
             Lighthouse Catholic Media

Music: KLOVE

Politics: Catholic Scoreboard
             Stop Human Health and Services Mandate 

Prayers: Consecration of Marriage1 or Consecration2
               Healing Memories
               Marriage Prayers
               Novenas

               Spiritual Warfare
               Traditional Prayers 

Prayer Requests:

             Archdiocese of St. Louis                        

             Adoration Sisters

             Carmelite Sisters 

             Rosary

             St. Anthony

            

Patron Saints:   http://saints.sqpn.com

Rosaries: http://www.rosarymart.com

Spiritual Warfare: http://catholicwarfare.com/

Theology: 

            EWTN: Global Catholic Network

            St. Thomas Aquinas: Summa Theologica

                  

Talk Radio: Ave Maria
                     EWTN

         
         My favorite speakers are:

         Al  Kresta - Kresta In the Afternoon (Politics/Church)

         Patrick Madrid - Catholic Answers (Catholic Dogma & Traditions)

         Barbara McGuigan - The Good Fight (Christian Living)
         Greg and Lisa Popcak - Heart Mind and Strength (Family Life)

         Fr. John Riccardo - Christ is the Answer (Christian Living)

Youtube:

 Chaplet of Divine Mercy:

                          

Chaplet of Divine Mercy with the Sisters of Mercy

  
Sacred Heart Novena: 

                          

Stations of the Cross:

                          

Purgatory Prayer:

                        

The Resurrection - A Reason to Overcome Suffering

Today is the most glorious feast of the Resurrection.

    

"I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart; I will tell of all thy wonderful deeds. 

I will be glad and exult in thee, I will sing praise to thy name, O Most High." 

- Psalms 9:1-2

Of all of Our Lord's deeds, His Resurrection is His most glorious.  However, His Resurrection only could come after the intense suffering that afflicted all of our Lord's body, senses, emotions and being. There was not one part of Him that did not suffer.

"In His head He suffered from the crown of piercing thorns; 
in His hands and feet, from the fastening of the nails; 
on His face from the blows and spittle; and from the lashes over His entire body. 
Moreover, He suffered in all His bodily senses:
 in touch, by being scourged and nailed;
 in taste, by being given vinegar and gall to drink; 
in smell, by being fastened to the gibbet in a place reeking with the stench of corpses, 
"which is called Calvary"; 
in hearing, by being tormented with the cries of blasphemers and scorners;
 in sight, by beholding the tears of His Mother and of the disciple whom He loved." 

- Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theolgica

He also suffered from abandonment, betrayal, false accusations, sadness, weariness, humiliation and fear.  Generally speaking He endured every suffering that we can experience.  He chose to go through the pain we are experiencing in order to not only redeem us, but to also show us how to deal with suffering. Good can come out of every wound and hurt, if we just give our sufferings to Him.  One day in God's timing, we will be relieved of this suffering; we will understand why it was necessary.  

"Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, 
and fill up on my part that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ 
in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church" 

- Colossians 1:24

The Resurrection is the manifestation that good things will come.  Consequently, we must look to Him in all things and endure our sufferings with a thankful heart. "Not my will, but Thy Will".

 

"And He said to all, "If any man would come after me, 
let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 
For whoever would save his life will lose it; 
and whoever loses his life for my sake, he will save it." 

- Luke 9:23-24