Today is the birthday of my step son Ryan Patrick, paratrooper; please pray for his intentions.
John,
Chapter 7, verse 13:
13
Still, no one
spoke openly about him because they were afraid of the Jews.
The people were divided over Jesus and he was either
loved or hated. Even today you must decide to follow Christ or follow the world
for there is no middle ground.
Scripture and the Church teach us that we have three
divinely ordained purposes that give our lives meaning:
1. Salvation — seeking to save our
eternal souls and help save the souls of others (that salvation, the Church
teaches, is God's free gift but requires our cooperation through faith in God,
obedience to his commandments, and repentance of our grave sins).
2. Service — using our God-given
talents to build God's kingdom here on earth.
3. Sanctity — growing in holiness.
The third of these life goals, sanctity, is central to
building Catholic character. At the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says
something that is stunning: "Be thou made perfect, as your heavenly Father
is perfect" (Mt 5:48). St. Gregory put it this way: "The goal of a
virtuous life is to become like God." Scripture tells us, "God is
love" (1 Jn 4:16). If we want to be like God, our vocation is to love. The
essence of love is to sacrifice for the sake of another, as Jesus did. Love is
self-gift. What, then, is our goal if we want to develop Catholic character in
our children and ourselves? Look to the character of Christ: A life of
self-giving.
Natural
Virtues
The high goal of Christ-like character builds on a
base of what the Church calls "natural virtues." Among the natural
virtues that families and schools should nurture are the four advanced by the
ancient Greeks, named in Scripture (Wis 8:7), and adopted by the Church as
"the cardinal virtues": prudence, which enables us to judge what we
should do; justice, which enables us to respect the rights of others and give them
what they are due; fortitude, which enables us to do what is right in the face
of difficulties; temperance, which enables us to control our desires and avoid
abuse of even legitimate pleasures. These natural virtues are developed through
effort and practice, aided by God's grace.
To develop a Christ-like character, however, we need
more than the natural virtues. We also need the three supernatural, or
"theological," virtues:
Spiritual
Virtues
1. Faith in God, which enables us to
believe in God and the teachings of his church.
2. Hope in God, which leads us to view
eternal life as our most important goal and to place total trust in God.
3. Love of God, which enables us to
love God above all things and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God.
The three theological virtues are considered
supernatural because they come from God and have as their purpose our
participation in God's divine life. As the Catechism (1813) teaches, the
theological virtues are not separate from the natural virtues; rather, they
"are the foundation of Christian moral activity; they animate it and give
it its special character." The Catholic writer Peter Kreeft points out,
"The Christian is prudent, just, courageous, and self-controlled out of
faith in God, hope in God, and love of God." The supernatural virtues,
like the natural virtues, grow stronger through our effort and practice, in
cooperation with God's grace.
“Be sober and watch.” I. Peter v. 8.
St. Peter prescribes sobriety and
watchfulness as necessary means for resisting the attacks of the devil, who by
day and night goes about seeking whom he may devour. Woe to those who, by
reason of their drunkenness, (The term drunkard applies to any person who is
caught up in the addiction cycle, whether it is drink, gambling, drugs or sex.)
live in a continual night and lie in the perpetual sleep of sin! How will it be
with them if, suddenly awakened from this sleep by death, they find themselves
standing, burdened with innumerable and unknown sins, before the judgment-seat
of God? For who can number the sins, committed in and by reason of drunkenness,
which the drunkard either accounts as trifles, easily pardoned, or else, not
knowing what he has thought, said, and done in his fit of intoxication,
considers to be no sins at all? Will the divine Judge, at the last day, thus
reckon? Will He also find no sin in them? Will He let go unpunished the
infamous deeds and the scandals of their drunkenness? He Who demands strict
account of every word spoken in vain, will He make no inquiry of so many
shameful, scandalous, and blasphemous sayings, of so much time wasted, of so
much money squandered, of so many neglects of the divine service, of the
education of children, of the affairs of home, and of innumerable other sins?
Will they be able to excuse themselves before this Judge by saying that they
did not know what they were doing? Or that what they did was for want of
reflection, or in jest? Or that they were not strong, and could not bear much?
Will not such excuses rather witness against them that they are the worthier of
punishment for having taken more than their strength could bear, thereby
depriving themselves of the use of reason, making themselves like brutes, and,
of their own free will, taking on themselves the responsibility for all the
sins of which their drunkenness was the occasion? What, then, awaits them? What
else than the fate of the rich glutton who, for his gluttony, was buried in
hell? (Luke xvi. 22.) Yes, that shall be the place and the portion of the
drunkard! There shall they in vain sigh for a drop of water. There, for all the
pleasures and satisfactions which they had in the world, as many pains and
torments shall now lay hold of them (Apoc. xviii. 7); there shall they be
compelled to drain the cup of God’s anger to the dregs, as they, in life,
forced others into drunkenness. This is what they have to hope for, for St.
Paul says expressly that drunkards shall not possess the kingdom of God (i.
Cor. vi. 10). What then remains for them but to renounce either their
intemperance or heaven? But how rare and difficult is the true conversion of a
drunkard! This is the teaching of experience. Will not such a one, therefore,
go to ruin?
Reflect on your use of TV, internet,
media, food, etc.; alcohol is only one form of intemperance-keep your heart
free of all that tarnishes love.
Daily Devotions
·
Please
pray for me and this ministry
[1]http://www.catholiceducation.org/en/education/catholic-contributions/building-catholic-character-5-things-parents-can-do.html
[2]
Goffine’s Devout Instructions, 1896
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