Tag Archives: virtue

Living Morally in an Immoral Culture

26 Saturday Jun 2021

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JPII Keep Commandments

St. Peter tells us that we are made holy through “obedience to the truth” (1 Pet 1:22). Unfortunately, in today’s culture, each individual decides what is true and these many “truths” conflict with each other. What is the ultimate guide for moral truth?

St. John Paul II in his classic encyclical Veritatis Splendor (The Splendor of Truth), says: “Only God, the Supreme Good, constitutes the unshakeable foundation and essential condition of morality.” He goes on to say that only “upon this truth is it possible to construct a renewed society and to solve the complex and weighty problems affecting it.”[1] Society today simply has lost its bearings and moral compass.

John Paul II identified the spread of a devious political movement that aims to rob the dignity and authentic freedom of the person in following the moral authority of God almighty.

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Take Up Your Cross

20 Sunday Sep 2020

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Christ on the Cross_Eugène Delacroix_c1835 Christ on the Cross, Eugène Delacroix, c. 1835

Last week, we commemorated the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross by urging you to view your spouse as your cross, your path to sanctification. This week, we want to delve into the theology behind the exhortation.

Jesus said, “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Lk 9:23).

Denying ourselves and taking up our cross entails sacrifice. It means giving up something for the sake of something better. For example, we might give up time that we would have spent taking a nap so that we can read a book to our three-year-old daughter. Or it might mean biting our tongue instead of lashing out at our spouse who has just said something hurtful.

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Confronting Lust

10 Friday Apr 2020

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Pure in Heart

On this Good Friday, we are nearing the end of our journey through The Seven Deadly Sins and the Seven Beatitudes. On this day, Jesus bore excruciating pain and death on the Cross to free us from slavery to sin. Thank Him today for the free gift of salvation. Isaiah prophesied about the Suffering Servant, Jesus, whose mission was to free us from sin and death…

But He was wounded for our transgressions,

He was bruised for our iniquities;

The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,

And by His stripes we are healed. Isaiah 53:5

We have discussed the Deadly Sins of pride, avarice, envy, anger, and sloth. Today we will look at the Deadly Sin of lust and on Easter Sunday, we will conclude this study with the Deadly Sin of gluttony.

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Living Virtue Well in Our Marriages and Families

22 Saturday Feb 2020

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shutterstock_virtues

A year ago, we ran a series of Lenten reflections on the Theological Virtues of faith, hope, and love. This year, we will be focusing on two areas: 1) The four Cardinal Virtues of prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance and 2) How to counteract the Seven Deadly Sins of pride, avarice (greed), envy, wrath, sloth, lust, and gluttony with the seven beatitudes of Jesus in His Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5:1-12).

In our post-Christian culture, we no longer consider virtue an important aspect of life. All great cultures of the past ended in ruin when virtue was thrown by the wayside. Our culture is at the precipice of destruction. It is only virtuous living, especially in our marriages and families, that our culture may avert disaster.

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Manifestation of the Lord

07 Sunday Jan 2018

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'ADORATION OF THE MAGI'

Adoration of the Magi

Basilica of the Immaculate Conception

Conception Abbey, Conception, Missouri

Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East, and have come to worship him.”…and lo, the star which they had seen in the East went before them, till it came to rest over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy; and going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Matthew 2:1-2, 9-11 (emphasis added)

“The Epiphany is the manifestation of Jesus as Messiah of Israel, Son of God and Savior of the world” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 528). The joy of the Magi upon seeing the Child is the joy of the Gospel. It is “the joy of one whose heart has received a ray of God’s light and who can now see that his hope has been realized—the joy of one who has found what he sought, and has himself been found” (Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives, 106). The Magi find “crying in a manger, the one they have followed as he shone in the sky…in swaddling clothes, the one they have long awaited as he lay hidden among the stars” (St. Peter Chrysologus, Sermon 150).

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