Learning to Forgive

Forgiveness may be one of the hardest aspects of the Christian/Catholic life. Not only must we go to Confession to be forgiven our sins, but we must also forgive those that harm us. As Christ said, "Love thy enemies", but this radical gospel calling is still possible although to answer Christ's calling He must be the visible center of our faith and life.

Forgiveness is something that came from the Cross, where Christ died the death for sins and in doing so redeemed everyone of us. However, we must still repent for our sins, confess them, and forgive others. The road to Heaven is far from easy. Jesus made Heaven possible; He didn't open the door for the unrepentant. At this time, I must also reiterate the value of indulgences.

"Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned," but "God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world might be saved through Him" (Romans 5:12, John 3:17). Remember, "His mercy endures forever" (Psalm 118:4).

6 steps into forgiveness:

1) We can spend a few minutes every day looking at a cross and considering that Jesus gave up his very life to win forgiveness for us.

2) We can pray constantly to be filled with his perspective of love. Looking at others with eyes of mercy goes a long way toward undercutting the tendency to revenge.

3) We can pray and intercede for those who have wronged, offended, abused, or hurt us. Doing this frees us to love as God loves. God's grace has power not only to change us but also those who have done us injury as well.

4) We can try to perform at least one act of kindness toward someone who has hurt us or who rubs us the wrong way.

5) We can ask the Holy Spirit to cultivate within us an attitude of forgiveness.

6) We can get more serious about following the promptings of the Holy Spirit — especially those that touch on relationships we find difficult. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you find the way to peace, restoration, and reconciliation.

(Source: Catholic Exchange)

Image Source: Believed to be in the Public Domain, Title Unknown

Read more >>

Book Report: Memory and Identity

I recently read "Memory and Identity," but I was only able, though, to read the first three parts (about 70 pages) since I have another book I have to read. For the pages I did read, I separated my reports below.

Part One: Good and Evil
Part Two: Freedom
Part Three: Native Land

Read more >>

"Memory and Identity" Part III

This is my summary/opinions for Part Three of "Memory and Identity" by Pope John Paul ll. After this part I had to quit reading the book, though, because I have another book I have to read very, very soon for someone else. Here is my final report for "Memory and Identity".

Part 3:

When we speak of our native land it is more than just a territory; it includes the country’s values and culture. For Pope John Paul ll, we saw how vitally important this was to him, and with Pope Benedict XVI in “Memoirs”, I saw such a fervent love for his own homeland and fellow countrymen. However, in Germany, as Pope Benedict XVI expressed, not all values were good, and this realization of what is good and not is only through God. If we don’t have God then we become our own gods and decided what is good and what is not while no definite opinion remains.

On page 62, Pope John Paul ll wrote “Christ’s teachings contain the most profound elements of a theological vision of both native land and culture.” He went on to write much about these examples, but I also thought of something while reading this: we all are attached to our native land and its values, but we must only remain attached to the values which God would condone; the values mentioned must be in God’s will, which can be summed up as love itself.

Culture is also changing where we develop new lands such as a Christian land, which began from Christ himself. We also believe in Christ’s second coming where we hopefully will reach Heaven where our new homeland, our refuge, exists. Pope John Paul ll loved his homeland of Poland, but he also loved its values as those values God would condone. But, we don’t need to leave our current country and go to Poland; we only need to be with God, and Christ is present first and foremost in the Blessed Sacrament. Christ gave us the Catholic Church, where “catholic” means “universal” showing that Christ is with us through His Church to the end of the ages (Matthew 16:18).

Overall, I found the book very refreshing although at times repetitive. I give it a 6.0/10, and would encourage it.

Read more >>

"Memory and Identity" Part II

Part Two summary/opinions of "Memory and Identity" by Pope John Paul II:

In the chapter “Lessons of Recent History”:

Through faith and love good conquers evil, and this occurred in the Communist lands. One thing I am reminded of is the pullout of the Germans from Austria in a rosary miracle. This again reaffirms that God is mercy and love and can turn all evil into good, which is the underlying theme of the book.

The Paschal Mystery proves that good all triumphs, and just as St. John the Baptist called before Christ, I see St. Faustina calling out before World War II for us to go to Christ through the Divine Mercy Chaplet (55).

Mercy and love go hand in hand. All those that request mercy and show love will be given it. God is the perfect mercy and perfect justice, his “His mercy endures forever”, and I would say before His justice is always His mercy.

Freedom can only be reacted through truth, and it is this realization in the perfect truth of Jesus Christ that God frees us from sin and suffering. I think we should mention the atonement of sins at this point.

On page 40, it states, “Freedom is for love: its realization can even reach heroic proportions.” I believe true freedom is found only in God because if we are free from sin then we truly are free. Many people today enjoy the beatific vision (sainthood), and this includes those that have given their lives for the faith, martyrs. These martyrs, though, still possessed a strong freedom. The world today believes freedom is in doing what you want, but I view freedom as one world: Sainthood, where we are truly free from Sin, Satan, and death. Some will say we are not free if bound in servitude to the Gospel, but in Heaven all bondage ends and we enjoy the freedom of Christ on the Cross. Christ was held firmly to the Cross by our sins, but all the freedom Christ had He gave for us so that we might have eternal life.

Simply, there is no freedom without truth, and this truth is only found in the perfect truth of Jesus Christ. This realization of truth leads us to the virtues of the faith and in turn we show love and mercy. This love is characteristic of what freedom is according to Aristotle: “…is a property of the will which is realized through faith.” If we have realized the real truth then we must be in God’s grace and serving Him; each of the two greatest Commandments include one word “love”.

Read more >>

"Memory and Identity" by Pope John Paul ll

I'm currently reading this book and will be posting thoughts by Our Holy Father along with my opinions for the next few days. Here is my summary/opinion of part one:

Before anything else, I must state an important conclusion I realized through this book. When we speak of good, we must understand God equals the supreme good; all things God has done and creates is good and perfect serving a definite purpose, and if we are to rate any action in relation to good or lack there of good (evil), we must have a definite value of the perfect good, which is God. I can therefore conclude that sin, an offense against God, is evil because it is against God’s perfect will. I also can conclude that this action of sin is evil, defined as a complete lack of good (the Supreme good being God), so evil must also be the lack of God. Therefore any sin, no matter how small, infinitely offends Our Good God.

Though, evil and good are opposite, all things were both created perfect until they where stained with original sin due to the sin of Adam. Both those that are good and those that are evil, though, still serve a purpose and live together as in the parable of wheat and weeds; “God is mercy” as St. Faustina said, so there never exists a loss of hope to be forgiven for our sins, which Christ bore on the Cross.

Other fundamental concepts I studied included St. Augustine’s view of original sin: “self-love to the point of contempt for God”, which is fought through “love for God to the point of contempt of sin” (6, 7). The Holy Spirit is a powerful armor against hell, which shows us evil and how to fight it; through the outpouring of grace, we are able to live in life through the Holy Spirit’s involvement. As is written on page 7, if we turn away the Spirit of God, we can not be forgiven for this offense because it is showing that we don’t want pardon of our offenses (Matthew 12:31). The Father of lies, satan, was also created good but became evil through pride, and in the Garden of Eden, he set us forth to suffer like him and be cast away. Yet, he failed in his attempt as God has redeemed us; satan views himself to be equal to God, which is the definition of pride. Only through denial of self can we seek God that is why I believe pride to be the greatest of all sins because it prevents our redemption.

On page 8, Pope John Paul ll brings up the philosophical thought of Descrates, which is “I think, therefore I am”. This shows resemblance to how some view science, where it must prove God. But, science is merely the study of God’s creation not the study of God. As the next several pages show, if man uses this thought, he then views himself to be a deity (Genesis 3:5), but then who can decide what is right and wrong? In truth, only God’s opinion is absolute, so if people view themselves equal to God or if they view God as less than the perfect, supreme Creator then we have the rising of evil empires and ideas which include also include abortion.

To finish part one, on page 15, Pope John Paul ll talked about the evil being necessary for mankind. As I thought about this I concluded, without the cross there would be no hope of eternal salvation. Everything God creates is good; “I created both good and destruction. I am the Lord”. If God can take the greatest evil in human history – the condemnation of God to death and turn it into the greatest joy, then that is a miracle beyond words. The Cross continues to live on today as it is through the Cross that eternal life is reached, and we must all live the life Christ calls us to by loving everyone even our enemies so that we fight evil through good (Romans 12:21).

Furthermore, Pope John Paul ll stated that Redemption is the divine limit imposed on evil because it is through evil that the Cross shines. We are only saved through grace, the grace on the Cross, so through evil there is always a Cross. This brings to mind the fact Redemption is a task that must be worked on as we must pick up our daily crosses. All saints have had to bear his or her cross through life, but evil is powerless over the Resurrection.

Pope John Paul ll continued by saying there are 3 stages to follow Christ:

1. Observance of the Commandments
2. Development of virtues
3. Experience a love for God with growing intensity.

These are called the purgative way, the illuminative way, and the unitive way.

Read more >>

A Catholic Supreme Court Justice

I have just read that if Justice John Roberts is confirmed to the United States' Supreme Court, he will be the fourth Catholic on the court at the present time. His position on abortion is a little unsure, but his wife is a member of Feminists for Life. I think that he would serve our country well, but I certainly would like to hear his answers to abortion; I certainly hope he would vote against Roe vs. Wade, which legalized the murder of an unborn child.

I'm currently reading "Memory and Identity" by Pope John Paul ll, and in that book he talked about ideologies of evil including WWII struggles, the Cold War, and abortion. The book is fairly good, and I will be posting summaries and notes from it on my site for the next few days.

Image Source: Believed to be in the Public Domain, Title Unknown

Read more >>

Call No Man Father Meaning

What did our Lord Jesus Christ mean when He said to "call no man father"? This is often a charge levied against Catholics by Protestants who view the Catholic practice in direct contradiction to the Lord’s own command in the Gospel according to St. Matthew. The full passage, in its context, is as follows:

“Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to his disciples, Saying: ‘The scribes and the Pharisees have sitten on the chair of Moses. All things therefore whatsoever they shall say to you, observe and do: but according to their works do ye not; for they say, and do not. For they bind heavy and insupportable burdens, and lay them on men's shoulders; but with a finger of their own they will not move them. And all their works they do for to be seen of men. For they make their phylacteries broad, and enlarge their fringes. And they love the first places at feasts, and the first chairs in the synagogues, And salutations in the market place, and to be called by men, Rabbi. But be not you called Rabbi. For one is your master; and all you are brethren. And call none your father upon earth; for one is your father, who is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters; for one is your master, Christ’” (Matthew 23:1-10).

The Lord in the same statement tells us to call no man “father,” “teacher” (i.e., Rabbi), or “master.” Yet we refer to our earthly fathers as “father” and no one objects to that. And no one objects to calling our instructors as “teachers,” even though this would seem to be literally against the Lord’s words. 

A closer examination of the Sacred Scriptures reveals that our Lord refers to Abraham as “father” in the parable of the rich man in both Luke 16:24 and John 8:56. St. Stephen in the Acts of the Apostles refers to Abraham as “Father Abraham” in Acts 7:55. And St. Paul writes on the spiritual fatherhood of priests in his first letter to the Corinthians: “I do not write this to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (1 Corinthians 4:14-15).

The Scripture commentary on DRBO.org therefore explains the meaning of this passage by saying: “The meaning is that our Father in heaven is incomparably more to be regarded, than any father upon earth: and no master to be followed, who would lead us away from Christ. But this does not hinder but that we are by the law of God to have a due respect both for our parents and spiritual fathers, (1 Cor. 4:15) and for our masters and teachers.”

Our Lord Jesus Christ, St. Paul, and St. James all referred to Abraham as "father". St. John on two occasions refers to Church leaders in his letters as "fathers", and St. Paul refers to himself as "father" in 1 Corinthians. The Lord was telling His followers in 23rd chapter of the Gospel according to St. Matthew to not to give to another the authority that which God is entitled. Notice He said to call no one "teacher" also in the line after "Call no man Father". Therefore, the accusation that Catholics sin by referring to priests as “Father” is far from sinful. It is entirely baseless and comes from a superficial reading of Scripture and ignorance of the Lord’s own words before and after that line.

Read more >>

New Supreme Court Nominee: John Roberts

Last night, President George W. Bush nominated John Roberts, a conservative justice. At one point in the past, Justice Roberts said Roe vs. Wade should be overturned, but he has once called it "the settled law of the land". I am not rejecting or supporting him yet until questions are asked of him, and I will write more later as I feel his position on abortion and other issues becomes more clear.

Image Source: In the Public Domain (Wikipedia)

Read more >>

Birth Control Update

Our discussion topic two weeks ago was on contraception, but I found this article and wanted to point it out. According to this study, at least 23 women so far have died from using the birth control patch with thousands of others suffering horrible complications.

Source: LifeSite

Read more >>

Harry Potter

Just last Saturday the latest Harry Potter installment: "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" arrived on store shelves and literally began flying off. Sunday on the news, I heard that 250,000 are being sold every hour!

Well, recently a letter from Pope Benedict has emerged that cautions people not to read Harry Potter because it "distort Christianity in the soul". I, however, am reading the book and am almost done, but I would like to reiterate Our Holy Father's concerns. This is a book that requires a mature audience that understands fact from fiction. I don't believe this book should be banned, but I strongly encourage parents to remind their children these books are fiction and not something to be embraced as a ideology.

I've even heard that there has been a rise in people to the Wiccan beliefs due to Harry Potter, and I strongly encourage everyone before reading it to read it for fun and not begin believing it is fact. I know this seems like a strength that many of us would never do, but I've heard many arguments; and if people begin to read Harry Potter and believe it, then Christianity has truly been "distorted". I think it's a good book, but with seeing people dressed up in costumes and actually believing wizards and witches are real, a problem has emerged.

Anyone here reading the book?

Read more >>