First Friday
First Friday
9 Yes, affliction and distress will come upon every human being who does evil, Jew first and then Greek. 10 But there will be glory, honor, and PEACE for everyone who does good, Jew first and then Greek.
There is no impartiality with God. There is nobody who is privileged or exempt from God’s judgment. We will all account for our individual deeds or misdeeds. Those who make lifestyle choices contrary to God will earn God’s wrath which includes sexual immorality[1], covetousness, maliciousness, envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil mindedness, whisperings, backbiting, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving and unmerciful.
Wicked Spirits[2]
Great courage is required in
spiritual warfare. Our enemies are terrible in strength and numerous beyond
count. They are ever active, ever alert to work our destruction. Yet only one
angel of God is able to defeat the devil and all the demons. God never permits
us to be tempted beyond our strength. By God’s grace we can resist them and
advance the work of our sanctification. Know that the devil fears no person and
would destroy us if not for the limits God puts on him and the protection
provided by our guardian angels and the other eight choirs of angels. Let
ourselves be guided by the grace which the precious blood provides and call
upon the intersession of Mary Queen of Heaven. Resist the devil and he will
flee from you. (He will go on to easier pickings like any criminal) When
tempted call upon the Blood of Christ to give you courage and strength to fight
the enemy.
First Friday[3]
"On Friday during Holy Communion, He said these words to His unworthy slave, if I mistake not: I promise you in the excessive mercy of my Heart that its all-powerful love will grant to all those who receive Holy Communion on nine first Fridays of consecutive months the grace of final repentance; they will not die under my displeasure or without receiving their sacraments, my divine Heart making itself their assured refuge at the last moment."
With regard to this promise it may be
remarked:
(1) that our Lord
required Communion to be received on a particular day chosen by Him.
(2) that the nine
Fridays must be consecutive.
(3) that they must be
made in honor of His Sacred Heart, which means that those who make the nine
Fridays must practice the devotion and must have a great love for our Lord.
(4) that our Lord
does not say that those who make the nine Fridays will be dispensed from any of
their obligations or from exercising the vigilance necessary to lead a good
life and overcome temptation; rather He implicitly promises abundant graces to
those who make the nine Fridays to help them to carry out these obligations and
persevere to the end.
(5) that perseverance
in receiving Holy Communion for nine consecutive First Fridays helps the
faithful to acquire the habit of frequent Communion, which our Lord eagerly
desires: and
(6) that the practice
of the nine Fridays is very pleasing to our Lord since He promises such great
reward, and that all Catholics should endeavor to make the nine Fridays.
The Dogma of Purgatory is too much forgotten by the majority of the faithful; the Church Suffering, where they have so many brethren to succor, whither they foresee that they themselves must one day go, seems a strange land to them. This truly deplorable forgetfulness was a great sorrow to St. Francis de Sales. “Alas!” said this pious doctor of the Church, “we do not sufficiently remember our dear departed; their memory seems to perish with the sound of the funeral bells.” The principal causes of this are ignorance and lack of faith; our notions on the subject of Purgatory are too vague, our faith is too feeble. In order, then, that our ideas may become more distinct, and our faith enlivened, we must take a closer view of this life beyond the tomb, this intermediate state of the just souls, not yet worthy to enter the Heavenly Jerusalem.
Fitness Friday-Take a bath
Rome was in part a great nation due to their system of "Bathing".
After researching the bath system, I have reinvented the roman bath into a 10-step
method.
- Oil
- Light
Exercise
- Warm
bath/massage
- Steam
Room followed by drinks
- Hot
Bath/Sauna
- Cold
Bath
- Massage
w/oils
- Entertainment/Sunbath
- Walk/Art
- Food/Alcohol
We
can safely assume that the Roman Bath, or Thermae, is the
father of our modern-day spas and health clubs. Bathing in ancient Rome was not
a private activity conducted in the intimacy of one's home. Quite to the
contrary, it was a highly social activity where men and woman of all classes
congregated at different hours to exercise, bathe, socialize, relax and even
read in the bathhouse’s communal libraries. During the Roman Empire bathhouses flourished. The city of Rome had 170 baths
during the reign of Augustus, which increased to 900 in 300 AD. Bathhouses were
considered a public facility and were built using tax money collected by the
municipality. Sometimes a rich lord or emperor would build a sumptuous
bath to impress his subjects and would grant them free entrance for a period of
time. Generally, a modest entrance fee, affordable by all men was charged at
the bathhouse. The women's fee was double, and their bath time restricted
to mornings, while men used the baths from the early afternoon to closing time.
Communal
bathing, although frowned upon, must have been indulged in regularly in ancient
Rome as various Roman emperors frequently outlawed it. An interesting
aspect of the Roman Bath was the exercise area or Palaestra (as the
gym is still referred to by the Italians today). This is where the ancient
Roman males and some females engaged in various types or muscle-building and
sweat-inducing exercises like weightlifting, ball games, wrestling and
boxing. Bowls, gambling with dice and various board games were available
for the less energetic. The Roman bathhouses were the height of luxury.
Even the average bath had floor to ceiling mirrors, intricate mosaics and rich
marble pools. The baths were the equivalent of a social club or today's
shopping malls. Besides the bath and the gym, they had a library with a
reading room, a snack bar, restaurants, wine and beer bars, shops, lounges,
taverns and hair cutting salons. Some even had a museum and a theatre. A
typical Roman bath started in the apodyterium or changing rooms, where people
would take their clothes off in small cubicles and leave their slaves to guard
them. From there, they would step into the unctuarium where
they had various oils rubbed onto their skin and could then exercise in one of
the exercise yards or Palaestra. Then, they would generally
move to the tepidarium or warm room, where they would lie
around chatting with their friends, with attendants serving them snacks and
drinks. The tepidarium was a transitional area and a
preparation for the hot caldarium. The latter is the equivalent
of a sauna or steam bath, hot and steamy with heated floors where the bathers
would sweat profusely while scraping their skin with a strigil. This
curved metal tool was used to remove the oils, which were used by the common
people instead of the very expensive soaps, only accessible to the rich.
Catechism
of the Catholic Church
PART THREE: LIFE IN CHRIST
SECTION ONE-MAN'S VOCATION LIFE IN THE
SPIRIT
CHAPTER ONE THE DIGNITY OF THE HUMAN
PERSON
Article 8-SIN
V. The
Proliferation of Sin
1865 Sin creates a proclivity to sin; it engenders vice by
repetition of the same acts. This results in perverse inclinations which cloud
conscience and corrupt the concrete judgment of good and evil. Thus, sin tends
to reproduce itself and reinforce itself, but it cannot destroy the moral sense
at its root.
1866 Vices can be classified according to the virtues they
oppose, or also be linked to the capital sins which Christian experience has
distinguished, following St. John Cassian and St. Gregory the Great. They are
called "capital" because they engender other sins, other
vices. They are pride, avarice, envy, wrath, lust, gluttony, and sloth or
acedia.
1867 The catechetical tradition also recalls that there are
"sins that cry to heaven": the blood of Abel, The sin of the
Sodomites, The cry of the people oppressed in Egypt, The cry of the
foreigner, the widow, and the orphan, injustice to the wage earner.
1868 Sin is a personal act. Moreover, we have a responsibility
for the sins committed by others when we cooperate in them:
- by participating directly and voluntarily in them;
- by ordering, advising, praising, or approving them;
- by not disclosing or not hindering them when we have an obligation to do so;
- by protecting evildoers.
1869 Thus sin makes men accomplices of one another and causes
concupiscence, violence, and injustice to reign among them. Sins give rise to
social situations and institutions that are contrary to the divine goodness.
"Structures of sin" are the expression and effect of personal sins.
They lead their victims to do evil in their turn. In an analogous sense, they
constitute a "social sin."
Daily
Devotions
·
Unite in the work of the Porters of St. Joseph by joining them
in fasting: Today's Fast: An
increase of the Faithful.
·
Litany of the Most Precious
Blood of Jesus
· Offering to
the sacred heart of Jesus
·
Friday Fish: Halibut
·
Rosary
[1] Sexuality is God’s design. He
alone can define the parameters for its use. The Bible is clear that sex was
created to be enjoyed between one man and one woman who are in a covenant
marriage until one of them dies (Matthew 19:6). Sexuality is His sacred wedding
gift to human beings. Any expression of it outside those parameters constitutes
abuse of God’s gift. Abuse is the use of people or things in ways they were not
designed to be used. The Bible calls this sin. Adultery, premarital sex,
pornography, and homosexual relations are all outside God’s design, which makes
them, sin.
[2] St. Michael and the Angels, Tan
Books, 1983.
[3]https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=876&repos=3&subrepos=3&searchid=2158533
[4] Schouppe
S.J., Rev. Fr. F. X.. Purgatory Explained (with Supplemental Reading: What Will
Hell Be Like?)
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