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Name: Joey
Country: United States
State: Indiana
Metro: South Bend
Birthday: 2/20/1987
Gender: Male
Interests: hanging out with friends, reading good books, swimming, playing ultimate, playing guitar, playing piano, theater, math, science, philosophy, theology, greek
Message: message meEmail: email me
Website: visit my website
AIM:  Joeswimmer7
Member Since:
3/31/2004
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| Just Do It!
Go read Papa Benedict's encyclical now!
I'll even make it easy for you.
Take your pick, Latin,
Or English.
And even to give you a sneak peek at the awesomeness that you get in this document...
Yet it is neither the spirit alone nor the body alone that loves: it is man, the person, a unified creature composed of body and soul, who loves. Only when both dimensions are truly united does man attain his full stature.
~Papa Benedict | | |
| Anxiety
...and protect us from all anxiety as we wait in joyful hope...
--Roman Missal
What a beautiful quote... As I noted with a friend recently, one of the beautiful things about beautiful quotes is that they can mean many different things depending upon what the hearer/reader needs to hear/read at that point. This quote can mean so many things. Anxiety is a wonderful word that brings to mind many different things. It can mean fear, anticipation, hope...and on and on and on... The idea of waiting in joyful hope is very important to this very short phrase. It shows that even when we are anxious about things to come we should still be waiting "in joyful hope for the coming of our savior." Perhaps we should be fearful, but only fearful enough to realize our immense unworthiness to receive the gift given to us by God. Perhaps we should be anticipating our savior's coming, but only anticipatory enough to keep our minds on present things to make sure that we will be ready for Him whenever He comes. Of course we should hope for His coming, for hopefully obvious reasons, but we should still ask for God to protect us from anxiety as it keeps us from truly hoping for His coming, and makes us distracted. Thanks be to God that He loves us so much to come among us and give himself completely in an act of completely self-sacrificial love. May He protect us all from any anxiety that may be ailing us as we wait, in the most joyful of all hopes, for Him to come to us again with the same infinite gift of love He is always holding out to us. | | |
| May you never be numbered among those whose house is peaceful, quiet and free from care; those on whom the Lord's chastisement does not descent; those who live out their days in prosperity, and in the twinkling of an eye will go down to hell.
-Saint Raymond of Penyafort, O.P.
What a blessing! Today is the feast of Saint Raymond of Penyafort, and that quote above is from a letter that he wrote. Saint Raymond produced a collection of canon law for Pope Gregory IX and he was the general of the OP for a period of time. But about that blessing/wish for whomever this letter was addressed...
I doubt that many people on first thought really desire to have a house that is hectic, noisy, and stressful, but that is exactly waht Saint Raymond seems to be suggesting is best for us. Why would a man who is now a Saint wish something like that for a person to whom he was writng a letter? Well, one possible reason is that Christ told us, "Blessed are you who suffer every kind of injustice for my name" (paraphrased). But once again, the question arises, why are those people blessed? It seems that suffering injustice, and suffering at all are not really the most fun things to endure; however, if we look more deeply we can see why those who suffer are blessed and why Saint Raymond would wish us never to "be numbered among those whose house is peaceful, quiet and free from care." The reason is right in the quote from his letter: "and in the twinkling of an eye will go down into hell." One of the important things about suffering is that it divides us from the world when we get too close to it, when we don't focus on the proper ends in our lives. In fact, for a Christian, suffering unites us with the God-man, Jesus, who came down from heaven and suffered greatly on the cross to save us all from our sins. By being united to Jesus' suffering, we might be able to pass through His death and be renewed in His resurrection. In so doing, we will most surely not go down to hell, in the twinkling of an eye. By allowing the hand of the Lord to press down upon us all sorts of suffering, we allow him to purify him, and to bring us ever closer to him. God is love as John says, and as long as we remember that, we will be able to endure any suffering that we pass through with the hope and assurance that He is taking care of things, regardless of how bad they may seem to us now.
With this understanding, "May you never be numbered among those whose house is peaceful, quiet and free from care." | | |
| Sorry I haven't posted in so long. I noticed today that there have been very few people reading the blog lately, but that makes sense since, the last post is about 2 weeks old now...
"Do not be afraid to go out into the streets and into public places to preach Christ and the good news of salvation, in the squares of cities."
-John Paul II
That quote from John Paul II is absolutely amazing. I just heard it here: God in the Streets of New York. What an amazing video. It got me thinking. I don't have much else to say right now, except pray for vocations, and please pray for me. I could use it. I'm not the only person who could use prayers, but if you would be kind enough to add me to your list of intentions, that would be awesome. Who knows, maybe your prayers will inspire me to post more often! | | |
| "A criticism of faith: God's grace is present in our very lives and in the potential for goodness that we each have, hidden behind a mask, where the person of Jesus Christ lies. If we are to truly come to God, would we not need to come to ourselves? And not just ourselves, but to every single person in our human community? Isn't that what Christmas is all about: the Spirit of Giving? Not just giving to receive, but receiving to give as well?"
--a friend of mine
So, I didn't know what to post for today, but this quote from a guy I know and the homily I heard tonight at midnight mass to celebrate the birth of our Lord helped me out a lot. So, here goes my Christmas post.
Every year people want to know, "What is the real meaning of Christmas?" "What are we supposed to get out of Christmas?" "Are people really in 'the Spirit of Christmas'?" Well, what is the meaning of Christmas and what are we supposed to get out of it? Well, it seems that the only way to answer those questions is to go to the beginning, and by that I mean the manger. We cannot merely look at our own age to discern what we are supposed to do to celebrate and what we are remember for Christmas.
When we go to that manger 2000 years ago, what is it that we find? Do we find some disembodied spirit floating around, "The Spirit of Christmas"? No. We find a very tangible baby. A baby that is both God and Man. This baby, Jesus, is truly a gift to mankind, and that is why we must recognize the need for generosity at this time of the year, but the main point of Christmas is not that we are to be generous. The main 'point' of Christmas is that God, in His infinite love for us, deigned from all eternity to save us from all of our mistakes and sins by coming in the form of a human being like ourselves. He came down from heaven and allowed himself to be subjected even from the beginning of His life here on earth. He could have very easily come down in a glorious manner, with all sorts of fanfares and lights, but he chose to be born in a stable, among a bunch of animals, and shepherds. The wisemen came eventually with their expensive gifts fit for a king, but at the very beginning, Christmas was about a small child, who was and is also the eternal God, who, although he was the greatest of all kings, came in the humblest manner possible.
Today, as you give and receive all of your gifts to and from friends and loved ones, remember that Christmas is not merely about the spirit of generosity, it is also about the child who was born to us of a virgin, who came to rule the world in peace. Allow Him to enter your heart and feast with you. Answer the door to your heart, at which He is always knocking. | | |
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