Thursday
8 At Lystra there was a
crippled man, lame from birth, who had never walked. 9 He listened to Paul speaking, who
looked intently at him, saw that he had the FAITH
to be healed, 10 and called out in a loud voice,
“Stand up straight on your feet.” He jumped up and began to walk about.
Paul
and Barnabas worked many signs and wonders. Yet the crowds focused on the
healers rather than the source of the healer’s power, our loving God, and in
turn treated the apostles as gods not hearing or receiving the faith. Pagans
have trouble seeing except with the eyes. Paul stresses it is folly to worship
men as gods and emphasizes the one living God who created all things and
revealed himself through creation.[1]
Most
people would say that as modern people we do not worship men and women as gods
as the Greeks and Romans of Paul’s time. Yet, on reflection, think; for some FAME
is a god or POLITICS is. To some money, power and glory is their god’s. It is
interesting to note Plato wrote about this. I was intrigued by Plato’s Book
“Republic,” which argues that those who are stronger in any society, the
rulers, control education and socialization through legislation and
enforcement.” The reason for my intrigue was I just recently worked in an
all-girls college prep and I had some difficulty in the inconsistencies there
that were not congruent with my honor system. Yes, I agree the educational
system does favor the wealthy. In addition, I have recently been reading a book
“How rich people think” it was very insightful in how middle-class values and
thought process are perpetuated in schools. I was also fascinated by Plato’s
psychology or theory of the soul. Having recently interned in a urban high
school with a high diverse student population I seen that it fundamentally
catered to students desires which were of what he classified as appetitive; food, drink, sex and the
money with which to acquire them. I reflected on this school in relation with
the all-girls college prep which was a good example for catering to Plato’s spirited psyche, honor, victory, and a
good reputation. Fortunately, then I became acquainted with a smaller private
catholic school which was a good example for Plato’s rational ones which pursues knowledge and truth; this school has
had several students recently enter the religious orders. It was fascinating to
note that these three schools by their educational day to day approach had
found their own educational niche. One taught the money lovers; one taught the honor–lovers
and one taught the wisdom–lovers. From
my experience many public schools are teaching to the money lovers and are not successful because students according to
Plato have not been trained to socialize their appetites and they are not
virtuous to any degree and act simply on their whims. I think that this was the
situation that Principal Joe Clark found himself in the movie, “Lean on me” and
he took the actions he needed to moderate the appetites of students then he
educated them through physical education, a mix of reading and writing, dance
and song as advocated by Plato. My philosophy would be to help students rise to
their potential and cater to all three of Plato’s psyches. In addition, I
believe schools should help students break the cycle of poverty and help them
get on track or be aware of the cycle of wealth and reach their true potential.
I believe it would be interesting to explore the idea of creating a “Cycle of
Educational Poverty” to see ways we are perpetuating poverty through
education.
|
Cycle of Poverty |
As
you see our educational systems and media systems has left most of our children
lame from birth; today like Paul you can do something about it with your vote-always
vote life.
Thursday
Feast
Thursday
is the day of the week that our Lord gave himself up for consumption. Thursday
commemorates the last supper. Some theologians believe after Sunday Thursday is
the holiest day of the week. We should then try to make this day special by
making a visit to the blessed sacrament chapel, Mass or even stop by the grave
of a loved one. Why not plan to count the blessing of the week and thank our
Lord. Plan a special meal. Be at Peace.
Feast of the day: soup Potage
bonne femme main dish Leeks au Gratin
salad Broccoli
and Tomato desert Twelfth
Night Cake Drink hot tea
Party at Winterskol in Aspen[2]
January 12-15
Raise
a toast to winter in Aspen’s annual Winterskol Festival. The winter tradition is more than
60 years strong and was started by a lodge owner who wanted to enliven the
Aspen winter season following Christmas. Today, the four-day winter fest
includes a snow sculpture competition, a soup cook-off and a downhill race with
apple strudel at the finish line.
Catechism of the Catholic Church
III. THE LOVE OF HUSBAND AND WIFE
The fecundity of marriage
2366 Fecundity is a gift, an end of marriage, for conjugal love naturally tends to be fruitful. A child does not come from outside as something added on to the mutual love of the spouses, but springs from the very heart of that mutual giving, as its fruit and fulfillment. So the Church, which is "on the side of life," teaches that "it is necessary that each and every marriage act remain ordered per se to the procreation of human life." "This particular doctrine, expounded on numerous occasions by the Magisterium, is based on the inseparable connection, established by God, which man on his own initiative may not break, between the unitive significance and the procreative significance which are both inherent to the marriage act."
2367 Called to give life, spouses share in the creative power and fatherhood of God. "Married couples should regard it as their proper mission to transmit human life and to educate their children; they should realize that they are thereby cooperating with the love of God the Creator and are, in a certain sense, its interpreters. They will fulfill this duty with a sense of human and Christian responsibility."
2368 A particular aspect of this responsibility concerns the regulation of procreation. For just reasons, spouses may wish to space the births of their children. It is their duty to make certain that their desire is not motivated by selfishness but is in conformity with the generosity appropriate to responsible parenthood. Moreover, they should conform their behavior to the objective criteria of morality: When it is a question of harmonizing married love with the responsible transmission of life, the morality of the behavior does not depend on sincere intention and evaluation of motives alone; but it must be determined by objective criteria, criteria drawn from the nature of the person and his acts criteria that respect the total meaning of mutual self-giving and human procreation in the context of true love; this is possible only if the virtue of married chastity is practiced with sincerity of heart.
2369 "By safeguarding both these essential aspects, the unitive and the procreative, the conjugal act preserves in its fullness the sense of true mutual love and its orientation toward man's exalted vocation to parenthood."
2370 Periodic continence, that is, the methods of birth regulation based on self-observation and the use of infertile periods, is in conformity with the objective criteria of morality. These methods respect the bodies of the spouses, encourage tenderness between them, and favor the education of an authentic freedom. In contrast, "every action which, whether in anticipation of the conjugal act, or in its accomplishment, or in the development of its natural consequences, proposes, whether as an end or as a means, to render procreation impossible" is intrinsically evil: Thus the innate language that expresses the total reciprocal self-giving of husband and wife is overlaid, through contraception, by an objectively contradictory language, namely, that of not giving oneself totally to the other. This leads not only to a positive refusal to be open to life but also to a falsification of the inner truth of conjugal love, which is called upon to give itself in personal totality. . . . The difference, both anthropological and moral, between contraception and recourse to the rhythm of the cycle . . . involves in the final analysis two irreconcilable concepts of the human person and of human sexuality.
2371 "Let all be convinced that human life and the duty of transmitting it are not limited by the horizons of this life only: their true evaluation and full significance can be understood only in reference to man's eternal destiny."
2372 The state has a responsibility for its citizens'
well-being. In this capacity it is legitimate for it to
intervene to orient the demography of the population. This can be done by means
of objective and respectful information, but certainly not by authoritarian,
coercive measures. The state may not
legitimately usurp the initiative of spouses, who have the primary
responsibility for the procreation and education of their children. In this area, it is not authorized to employ
means contrary to the moral law.
Daily Devotions
· Today's
Fast: Unite in the work of the Porters
of St. Joseph by joining them in fasting: Holy
Priests, Consecrated and Religious.
·
do
a personal eucharistic stations of the cross.
·
Religion
in the Home for Preschool: January
·
Carnival
Time begins in Catholic Countries.
·
Offering to
the sacred heart of Jesus
·
Rosary
[1] The Collegeville Bible
Commentary
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