Saint Barbara's branch
Sirach,
Chapter 6, Verse 16-17
16 Faithful friends are life-saving
medicine; those who fear God will find them. 17 Those who fear the Lord enjoy
stable friendship, for as they are, so will their neighbors be.
It has been said a man is never
poor who has friends. If making friends has always been difficult for you try
these tips that I gleamed from an old public domain book authored by Henney,
Nella Braddy, published in 1922, The Book of Business Etiquette, that
has some timeless advice.
·
People
are now more dependent on one another than they have ever been before, and the
need for confidence is greater. We cannot depend upon one another unless we can
trust one another.
·
We
ask you, then, to remember that our growth—and your opportunities—depend not
only upon the friends we make, but the enemies we do not make.
·
Remember
names and faces.
·
Listen
to and help those around you.
·
“We
are all nobly born; fortunate those who know it; blessed those who remember.”
·
No
man has a right to impose his opinions and prejudices, his sufferings and
agonies, on other people. It is the part of a coward to whine.
·
A
lack of understanding, which is a form of ignorance, is the cause of nearly all
discourtesy.
Married
love should be a union of two friends but because of human nature each friend
in order to give themselves fully to the other must practice the virtue of chastity. To do otherwise is to invite
unhappiness.
Catechism of the Catholic Church
II.
THE VOCATION TO CHASTITY
2337 Chastity means the successful
integration of sexuality within the person and thus the inner unity of man in
his bodily and spiritual being. Sexuality, in which man's belonging to the
bodily and biological world is expressed, becomes personal and truly human when
it is integrated into the relationship of one person to another, in the
complete and lifelong mutual gift of a man and a woman. The virtue of chastity
therefore involves the integrity of the person and the integrality of the gift.
The
integrity of the person
2338 The chaste person maintains the
integrity of the powers of life and love placed in him. This integrity ensures
the unity of the person; it is opposed to any behavior that would impair it. It
tolerates neither a double life nor duplicity in speech.
2339 Chastity includes an
apprenticeship in self-mastery which is a training in human freedom. The
alternative is clear: either man governs his passions and finds peace, or he
lets himself be dominated by them and becomes unhappy. "Man's dignity
therefore requires him to act out of conscious and free choice, as moved and
drawn in a personal way from within, and not by blind impulses in himself or by
mere external constraint. Man gains such dignity when, ridding himself of all
slavery to the passions, he presses forward to his goal by freely choosing what
is good and, by his diligence and skill, effectively secures for himself the
means suited to this end."
2340 Whoever wants to remain faithful
to his baptismal promises and resist temptations will want to adopt the means
for doing so: self-knowledge, practice of an ascetic adapted to the situations
that confront him, obedience to God's commandments, exercise of the moral
virtues, and fidelity to prayer. "Indeed it is through chastity that we
are gathered together and led back to the unity from which we were fragmented
into multiplicity."
2341 The virtue of chastity comes
under the cardinal virtue of temperance, which seeks to permeate the passions
and appetites of the senses with reason.
2342 Self-mastery is a long and
exacting work. One can never consider it acquired once and for all. It
presupposes renewed effort at all stages of life. The effort required can be
more intense in certain periods, such as when the personality is being formed
during childhood and adolescence.
2343 Chastity has laws of growth
which progress through stages marked by imperfection and too often by sin.
"Man day by day builds himself up through his many free decisions; and so
he knows, loves, and accomplishes moral good by stages of growth."
2344 Chastity represents an eminently
personal task; it also involves a cultural effort, for there is interdependence
between personal betterment and the improvement of society." Chastity
presupposes respect for the rights of the person, in particular the right to
receive information and an education that respect the moral and spiritual
dimensions of human life.
2345 Chastity is a moral virtue. It is
also a gift from God, a grace, a fruit of spiritual effort. The Holy Spirit
enables one whom the water of Baptism has regenerated to imitate the purity of
Christ.
St.
Barbara, one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers, is the patron saint of artillerymen,
miners, and a happy death. Though her feast on December 4 obviously belongs to
the cycle of saints and not to the temporal cycle of Advent, there is a custom
observed in her honor that ties into the meaning of the Advent season. A Barbara
branch is the name given to a twig that is broken from a fruit tree (especially
cherry), placed in a bowl of water, and kept in a warm, well-lit part of the
house, such as the kitchen. According to legend, if the Barbara branch blooms
on or before Christmas Day, good luck will come to the person whose branch it
is. Aside from this harmless superstition, Barbara branches are reminiscent of
the image from Isaiah of Christ as a Flower from the root of Jesse (Is. 11.2;
the Epistle for Advent Ember Friday); they can thus be instructive in teaching
children the meaning of Advent and Christmas. They are also used as the Saint's
tribute to the Christ Child in the manger, lovingly placed in the crèche when
they have blossomed.
Things
to Do[2]
·
Celebrating for the Feast of St. Barbara. See also Painting Angels, Saints and Their Symbols for a description
of St. Barbara's symbols.
·
Further reading:
·
Read about the German custom of St. Barbara's
Twig, where every member of the family puts a small cherry or peach branch into
water so that it will blossom on Christmas. If you have a young lady in your
home desiring marriage, the custom of St. Barbara's Cherry Twigs will have St.
Barbara pick the right husband for young unmarried girls. An alternative idea
to this custom would be forcing Amaryllis or other bulbs to bloom for
Christmas. Start the bulbs today!
·
St. Barbara is the patron of artillerymen. Offer
your rosary or say a prayer for all our enlisted men and women who are in
harm's way. This page provides the Legend of St. Barbara and the explanation why she is the
patron of artillerymen. Read the Ballad of St. Barbara by G. K. Chesterton.
49 Godly Character Traits[3]
As we begin the Advent season let us take up the nature of God by
reflecting on these traits that make us a model for our children and our
sisters and brothers in Christ. Today reflect on:
Contentment vs.
Covetousness
Realizing that God has provided everything I need for my
present happiness (I Timothy 6:8)
377 The
"mastery" over the world that God offered man from the beginning was
realized above all within man himself: mastery of self. The first man
was unimpaired and ordered in his whole being because he was free from the
triple concupiscence that subjugates him to the pleasures of the senses,
covetousness for earthly goods, and self-assertion, contrary to the dictates of
reason.
2517
The heart is the seat of moral
personality: "Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery,
fornication. . . . " The struggle against carnal covetousness
entails purifying the heart and practicing temperance:
Remain simple and innocent, and you
will be like little children who do not know the evil that destroys man's life.
Daily
Devotions
·
Please
pray for me and this ministry
Comments
Post a Comment