Friday, November 4, 2022

 First Friday

First Friday

 

Romans, Chapter 2, Verse 9-10

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.

Poor souls in Purgatory[4]

 

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.

1.  Oil
2. Light Exercise
3. Warm bath/massage
4. Steam Room followed by drinks
5. Hot Bath/Sauna
6. Cold Bath
7. Massage w/oils
8. Entertainment/Sunbath
9. Walk/Art
10. Food/Alcohol

The Roman Bath

 

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.

From the hot steaming rooms, the bathers would then move to the frigidarium where, as the name indicates, they were able to cool off and allow the skin pores to close. The frigidarium contained pools of fresh water for dipping and swimming. After swimming, the bather would enjoy a massage and have oils and perfumes rubbed into his skin. Feeling clean and relaxed, the Roman bather then drifts through the beautiful gardens decorated with mosaics and colossal sculptures. Undoubtedly, the most interesting feature of the Roman bath was the under-floor heating, made possible by the Hypocaust system for heating the building and the pools. Thanks to the Hypocaust, hot air, heated from the basement fires flowing between the bricks and concrete columns would heat the rooms. In some baths the floor would be so hot that the bathers had to wear wooden sandals to prevent their soles from burning. The ancient Romans were undisputed early Master of Architecture and civil planning. They are accredited for being the builders of the greatest aqueducts in the world. These refer to an intricate system of pipes, ditches, canals, tunnels, and supporting structures, which were used to transport water from its source onto a main distribution point. Through these aqueducts water flowed to the city by the sheer force of gravity. It usually went through a series of distribution tanks within the city from which it is later transported to its final destination. 

 

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

·       Drops of Christ’s Blood

·       Iceman’s 40 devotion

·       Universal Man Plan

·       Friday Fish: Halibut

·       Operation Purity

·       Rosary

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[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?)