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Saturday, March 28, 2015

Soul and Body

This gnostic attitude toward the body has never entirely disappeared. Rather, it mutates from age to age. Our modern version began with Descartes, whose Cogito ergo sum radically separated personhood from the body.
Most people today think like Descartes: they imagine their real self is somewhere inside the body, the proverbial ghost inside a machine, and that what they do with their bodies doesn’t really matter. The body is a thing to be manipulated; it has no essential connection with our spiritual core. This gnostic downgrading of the body is so ingrained that we don’t even notice it. And yet it is going to have to be reversed if we are to build what Saint John Paul II called a Civilization of Love.
The Church offers a radically different reading of the human person. To a large extent, we are our bodies, and we are what we do with our bodies. Which means that our spiritual welfare is intimately bound with our physical acts. And there is no deeper physical act than sex.
Sex is not simply the functioning of a biological appetite. It is a deep bonding between two individuals. It is an exchange of persons, and not simply an exchange of pleasure between consenting adults. The whole person, body and soul, is involved. The Magisterium reminds us in documents like Humanae Vitae and Familiaris Consortio that this bonding is so intimately linked with the creation of new human life that there is no way of artificially separating them without doing spiritual damage to ourselves.
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Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Social Gospel

The poor suffer.  To serve the poor is serving Christ (Matthew 25:31-46).  When we serve the poor, we lessen our own suffering. 


However, the Church's mission is not to solve poverty.  In fact, Jesus said that we would always have the poor with us (Mark 14: 7).  The Church's mission is the salvation of souls.  When a crowd of people went searching for Jesus and found Him on the other side of the Sea of Galilee, they said to Him, 'Rabbi, when did you come here?'  And Jesus answered them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you you seek me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.  Do not labour for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you; for on Him has God the Father set His seal."  The crowd said to Him, "What must we do, to be doing the works of God?"  And Jesus answered them: "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him who He has sent." (John 6: 25-29).


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Thursday, March 19, 2015

Spiritual Warfare

In Cracow-Pradnik, June 2, 1938, the Lord Jesus directed a young Polish Sister of Mercy on a three-day retreat. Faustina Kowalska painstakingly recorded Christ’s instruction in her diary that is a mystical manual on prayer and Divine Mercy. Having read the Diary a few times in the past 20 years, I had forgotten about the unique retreat that Christ gave on the subject of spiritual warfare. Then, recently, I was invited to lead a retreat in Trinidad based on Christ’s “Conference on Spiritual Warfare” as presented in the Diary. The Sanctuary of the Holy Family, an amazing group of lay leaders in service to the Archbishop and priests, sponsored the retreat in the Archdiocese of Trinidad and we filled the Seminary of St. John Vianney to ponder this teaching.
Here are the secret whispers of Jesus to his little bride Faustina on how to protect herself from the attacks of the devil. These instructions became Faustina’s weapon in fighting the good fight.
Jesus began, “My daughter, I want to teach you about spiritual warfare” (1760). (The Lord’s words are in bold text; my comments follow.)
  1. Never trust in yourself but abandon yourself totally to My will.
Trust is a spiritual weapon. Trust is part of the shield of faith that St. Paul mentions in chapter six of Ephesians: the armor of God. Abandonment to God’s will is an act of trust; faith in action dispels evil spirits.
  1. In desolation, darkness and various doubts, have recourse to Me and to your spiritual director. He will always answer you in my name.
In times of spiritual warfare, immediately pray to Jesus. Invoke His Holy Name that is feared in the netherworld. Bring darkness into the light by telling a spiritual director or confessor and follow his instruction.
  1. Do not bargain with any temptation; lock yourself immediately in My Heart.
In the Garden of Eden, Eve bargained with the devil and lost. We have recourse to the refuge of the Sacred Heart. In running to Christ, we turn our backs on the demonic.
  1. At the first opportunity, reveal the temptation to the confessor.
A good confession, a good confessor, and a good penitent are a recipe for victory over temptation and demonic oppression—without fail.
  1. Put your self-love in the last place, so that it does not taint your deeds.
Self-love is natural but it should be ordered, free of pride. Humility defeats the devil that is perfect pride. Satan tempts us to disordered self-love to lead us into his pool of pride.


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Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Abandonment

The elderly suffer particularly because they often suffer alone. 

The holy Father addressed this last week.  The most serious disease, he continued, and the greatest injustice that an elderly person can experience is abandonment. Especially since their children, owe them so much. 


"That's why when someone's life becomes fragile, as the end of this earthly existence approaches, we feel the responsibility of helping and accompanying that person in the best way possible.” 
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Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Hand to Hand Combat

Pope Francis said Lent is a time where we struggle against the temptations of Satan and worldliness. 


In his Angelus address the Pope recalled how Jesus went into the solitude of the wilderness for 40 days where he successfully overcame temptations in “a hand-to-hand combat” with Satan. And through his victory over Satan, he said, “we have all triumphed but we need to protect this victory in our daily lives.”


He went on to explain how in the wilderness we can listen to God’s voice and that of the tempter. And we listen to God’s voice through his words and that why it’s important to read the Holy Scriptures because otherwise we’re unable to resist the lure of the evil one.  The Pope said it was for this reason that he wanted to renew his advice to the faithful to read the Gospel every day and reflect on its meaning, even for just 10 minutes and carry around a copy in one’s pocket or bag every day.


The Lenten wilderness, he continued, “helps us to say ‘no’ to worldliness, to “idols”, it helps us to make courageous choices in line with the Gospel and to strengthen our solidarity with our brothers and sisters.”


He concluded by reminding those present that he and other members of the Roman Curia would be beginning their spiritual retreat later on Sunday.  Pray for us, he urged, so that in this “wilderness” of the spiritual exercises "we can hear Jesus’ voice and also correct the many defects that we all have and thereby overcome the temptations that attack us every day.”


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