Tuesday
Acts, Chapter 13, Verse 7-8
7 He
was with the proconsul Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence, who had summoned
Barnabas and Saul and wanted to hear the word of God. 8 But Elymas the magician (for that
is what his name means) opposed them in an attempt to turn the proconsul away
from the FAITH.
We
still have many magicians today that attempt to distort the faith expressed by
the apostles in their creed and illustrated in the preamble of the constitution
of the United States that Life must be protected; it is number 1. That liberty
must be protected, but it is number 2. And those individual pursuits of
happiness (wealth) are protected; but it is number 3. It can be in no other
order! Those that try and change the order as God ordained are deluded and are the
conjurers of our time.
Tonight,
you may want to pray for our nation and go to bed a little earlier.
Thomas
Paine’s “Common Sense” Published 1776[1]
Key Points Made in 'Common Sense'
Here
are some of Paine’s key points:
Government's purpose was to serve the
people. Paine described government as a “necessary evil,” which existed to give
people a structure so they could work together to solve problems and prosper.
But to do that, it had to be responsive to people’s needs. The British system,
Paine argued, failed at that, because it gave the monarchy and nobles in
Parliament too much power to thwart the people’s elected representatives. “The
constitution of England is so exceedingly complex, that the nation may suffer for
years together without being able to discover in which part the fault lies,
some will say in one and some in another, and every political physician will
advise a different medicine,” Paine wrote.
Having a king was a bad idea. Paine didn't
just find fault with British rule of the colonies. He ridiculed the very idea
of having a hereditary monarch at all. "In England a king hath little more
to do than to make war and give away places, which in plain terms, is to
impoverish the nation and set it together by the ears," Paine wrote.
"A pretty business indeed for a man to be allowed eight hundred thousand
sterling a year for and worshipped into the bargain! Of more worth is one
honest man to society and in the sight of God, than all the crowned ruffians
that ever lived."
America
as the home of the free. Paine refuted the notion that Americans should be
loyal to a mother country that he considered a bad parent. “Even brutes do not
devour their young, nor savages make war upon their families,” he wrote. Besides,
he argued, America’s real connection was to people everywhere who yearned to
escape oppression. "This new world hath been the asylum for the persecuted
lovers of civil and religious liberty from every part of Europe," Paine
proclaimed. "Hither have they fled, not from the tender embraces of the
mother, but from the cruelty of the monster; and it is so far true of England,
that the same tyranny which drove the first emigrants from home, pursues their
descendants still."
America
had a rare opportunity to create a new nation based on self-rule. As Paine saw
it, both Americans and the British knew it was inevitable that the colonies
would break free. "I have never met with a man, either in England or
America, who hath not confessed his opinion, that a separation between the
countries, would take place one time or other." And that time had come.
America had raw materials, from timber and hemp to iron, and the skills that it
needed to build and equip an army and navy for its defense. Just as important,
the individual colonies had the potential to put aside differences and form a
powerful nation. But they needed to do it quickly, before the population grew
to a point where new divisions might develop. The moment in history was
"that peculiar time, which never happens to a nation but once," he
wrote.
A strong central government was needed. Paine
envisioned that the new nation would have a strong central government, with a
constitution that protected individual rights, including freedom of religion.
"A firm bargain and a right reckoning make long friends," he argued.
Catechism
of the Catholic Church
III.
THE LOVE OF HUSBAND AND WIFE
2360 Sexuality is ordered to the conjugal love of man and woman. In marriage the
physical intimacy of the spouses becomes a sign and pledge of spiritual
communion. Marriage bonds between baptized persons are sanctified by the
sacrament.
2361
"Sexuality, by means of which man and woman give themselves to one another
through the acts which are proper and exclusive to spouses, is not something
simply biological, but concerns the innermost being of the human person as
such. It is
realized in a truly human way only if it is an integral part of the love by
which a man and woman commit themselves totally to one another until death. Tobias
got out of bed and said to Sarah, "Sister, get up, and let us pray and
implore our Lord that he grant us mercy and safety." So she got up, and
they began to pray and implore that they might be kept safe. Tobias began by
saying, "Blessed are you, O God of our fathers. You made Adam, and for him
you made his wife Eve as a helper and support. From the two of them the race of
mankind has sprung. You said, 'It is not good that the man should be alone; let
us make a helper for him like himself.' I now am taking this kinswoman of mine,
not because of lust, but with sincerity. Grant that she and I may find mercy
and that we may grow old together." And they both said, "Amen,
Amen." Then they went to sleep for the night.
2362 "The acts in marriage by which the intimate and chaste union of
the spouses takes place are noble and honorable; the truly human performance of
these acts fosters the self-giving they signify and enriches the spouses in joy
and gratitude." Sexuality is a source of joy and pleasure: The Creator
himself established that in the [generative] function, spouses should
experience pleasure and enjoyment of body and spirit. Therefore, the spouses do
nothing evil in seeking this pleasure and enjoyment. They accept what the
Creator has intended for them. At the same time, spouses should know how to
keep themselves within the limits of just moderation.
2363 The spouses' union achieves
the twofold end of marriage: the good of the spouses themselves and the
transmission of life. These two meanings or values of marriage cannot be
separated without altering the couple's spiritual life and compromising the
goods of marriage and the future of the family.
The
conjugal love of man and woman thus stands under the twofold obligation of
fidelity and fecundity (faithful & fruitful).
Daily Devotions
· Unite
in the work of the Porters of St.
Joseph by joining them in fasting: Today's Fast: Restoring the
Constitution.
·
Make
reparations to the Holy Face-Tuesday
Devotion
·
Pray Day 7 of
the Novena for our Pope and Bishops
·
Tuesday:
Litany of St. Michael the Archangel
·
Religion
in the Home for Preschool: January
·
Carnival
Time begins in Catholic Countries.
·
Offering to
the sacred heart of Jesus
·
Recipe-Coq
au Vin
·
Rosary
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