Luke,
Chapter 1, verse 13:
13 But the angel said to him, “Do not be AFRAID, Zechariah, because your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall name him John.
To a Pious Jew and especially a Levi priest the knowledge that God is so holy we dare not even say His name. Notice frequently in the bible the angels will use the term, “Do not be afraid”, and this is because at times we know our sinfulness and may not feel worthy.
Feeling unworthy is a tool the evil one often uses to discourage us from doing good works.
I have felt this fear of being unworthy often. In the mid-seventies while still a youth in my 20’s I was chosen to be a lay Eucharistic minister while working at the South Pole in Antarctica by the priest that had come 900 miles to bring our Lord to us catholic boys working I didn’t feel worthy; come on this is Richard you know; but the Priest convinced me that it was the only way and I did want to bring “Our Lord” to my fellow brothers in Christ.
We must remember that the evil one will sow fear in
our hearts trying to convince us we are unworthy and if we listen, we become
like the man who out of fear buried his talent in the ground.
St.
John Bonfires[1]
St. John’s bonfire is traditionally
lit on the night before the Feast. The mood surrounding this solemn vigil is
merry, since the day was regarded as a sort of summer Christmas. The Roman
ritual even includes a special benedictio rogi, or blessing of the
bonfire, for the birthday of the Baptist:
Lord God, Father almighty,
unfailing Light who is the Source of all light: sanctify this new fire, and
grant that after the darkness of this life we may be able to come with pure
minds to Thee who art Light unfailing. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Domine
Deus, Pater omnipotens, lumen indeficiens, qui es conditor omnium luminum:
novum hunc ignem sanctifica, et praesta: ut ad te, qui es lumen indeficiens,
puris mentibus post hujus saeculi caliginem pervenire valeamus. Per Christum
Dominum nostrum. Amen.
The
bonfire, incidentally, is an excellent symbol for John, the untamed prophet who
lived outside the city both literally and figuratively. It also makes an
interesting contrast with the Paschal candle. On Easter vigil, a similarly
"wild" fire representing Christ is made outside and is used to light
the Paschal candle, which is then carried into the church. Significantly, in
the Exultet the deacon praises this candle as the product of a beehive,
symbol of a virtuous and harmonious city. The idea seems to be that Christ is
also an outsider, though he succeeds through his death and resurrection in
bringing the light of truth into the very citadel of darkness. On the other
hand, John, who never lived to see Christ's triumph, can only bear witness to
the light from the outside.
Things to Do[2]
·
St.
John's Birth marks the summer solstice. On the eve of this feast many countries
celebrate with bonfires. This is especially true in Ireland, Estonia, Latvia,
and Lithuania. See the list of suggested activities to read more about this
tradition.
·
Read
about St. John's Eve particularly in Ireland (note the link is a secular
website).
·
From
the Germanic countries, here is some information on the Summer Solstice.
International
Widows’
Day[3]
International Widows' Day serves to recognize widows and their unique situations worldwide. Widows are women whose husbands have died. After their husbands have passed, many widows are forced to fight for their human rights and overcome many obstacles to ensure their social and economic development. It is estimated that there are over 245 million widows worldwide, nearly half of which live in extreme poverty and are subject to cruel violence.
Top Events and Things to Do
- Watch
a movie about the life of a widow. Some suggestions are: Water
(2005), Black Widow (1987), and Passionada
(2002).
- Read
a book about the lives and struggles of widows. Some suggestions are: The
Amish Widow’s Secret, A Widow’s Story, and The
Writings and Later Wisdom Books.
- Use
the hashtags #InternationalWidowsDay, #IWD and #WidowsDay on social
media to help spread awareness of the holiday.
- Visit
an old age or retirement home. Retirement homes are often home to many
widows who receive no visits and little interaction with people outside of
the homes. They will appreciate your visit.
Widowhood
in Judaism-Mary Our Queen was a Widow.
Widowhood in Judaism is
treated as a distinct state of being, for a woman. If the widow's husband had
died after the start of the actual marriage (Hebrew: nissuin), rather than
merely dying after the betrothal (Hebrew: erusin), she became a legally
independent individual; the Talmud states that a woman became independent from
her father upon her marriage (nissuin), and she would become independent from
her husband when he dies. It was said that a formerly married widow was
tantamount to an orphan.
Though Judaism takes a
somewhat benign attitude towards widows, historically it has also imposed a
small number of odious requirements on them. For example, if a widow's husband
had appointed her to be the guardian of his children, and some were still
infants, her husband's heirs had a Talmudic right to demand an oath from the
widow, concerning her management of the children; however, her husband could,
before dying, remove this task, by means of written revocation of it.
Protections
The Book of Isaiah argues
that one should judge the fatherless, plead for the widow; in Judaism, it
consequently became customary to give cases raised by any widow the second
highest priority (the fatherless having the highest), when scheduling cases for
a rabbinic court. The later Deuteronomic Code takes up this principle,
commanding that the fatherless (and resident aliens) should not be deprived of
justice, and forbidding people from taking a widow's cloak as a pledge; in
Judaism this command was regarded as referring to all movable property
belonging to a widow, rather than merely her outer clothing.
In the second prologue of
the Book of Deuteronomy, which scholars regard as a later prefix to the
Deuteronomic Code, it is said that such protection is also provided by God
himself, judging the (cases of the) fatherless and the widow. Similarly, a
psalm argues that God was a father of the fatherless, and a judge of the
widows. The Talmud permits a widow to remain resident in her husband's house.
Support
The Deuteronomic Code
legislates the requirement for gleanings to be left for consumption by widows
(and by the fatherless, and by resident aliens); according to the Holiness
Code, which scholars attribute to a different author and time period, gleanings
were actually to be left to the poor, and to strangers. The Deuteronomic Code
also expects widows (and the fatherless, and resident aliens) to be treated as
guests at Shavuot and Sukkot, and permits them (and the fatherless, and
resident aliens), every third year, to eat from the proceeds of the Levite
Tithe.
More substantive and
continual means of support are provided for widows by the Talmud, which allows
a widow to claim support from her husband's estate, even after the estate had
been inherited by his heirs; as with married life, if the woman made such a
claim, she had to surrender all her earnings to the owners of the estate, in
order to offset their duty to support her.
As with an absent husband,
it was argued that a widow should be allowed to sell any parts of her former
husband’s property, if necessary to sustain herself. She was not required to
make such sales via rabbinic courts; however, the Talmud argues that if she did
not involve a rabbinic court, and sold land for this purpose, for less than it
was actually worth, the sale would be void.
Alimony
In Judaism, alimony for a
widow is a right written into most Jewish marriage contracts (Hebrew:ketubah);
the alimony itself is often referred to as the ketubah, in consequence of this.
There was no statue of limitations against a widow collecting her alimony, as
long as she possessed the ketubah for the marriage in question; if she no
longer possessed this ketubah, and had re-married since the death, the statute
of limitations for the claim was 25 years since the death. However, in the
Talmud's opinion, once a widow had claimed her alimony, or had agreed to receive
it, she should no longer be allowed to claim support from her husband's estate,
nor to live in his former home.
The Talmud sets the
minimum amount for this alimony as 200 zuzim for a bride who had been a virgin
when the marriage began, and a mere 100 zuzim for a non-virgin bride; 200 Zuzim
is generally considered [by whom?] to have been enough for a woman to
financially support herself for a full year. These minimum amounts were not the
upper limit, meaning that the groom could, if he wished, increase the amount of
alimony that the bride would receive. Any property which came into the marriage
as a dowry-like gift, was legally possessed by the husband during the marriage,
but it eventually returned to the widow's ownership, as part of her alimony (at
least according to the classical rabbis).
The right of a widow to
claim the alimony could be transferred by her to absolutely anyone, for any
reason, including selling the right. If she died before completely obtaining
the alimony, her heirs could inherit the right to claim the outstanding amount;
the Talmud argues that such inheritance would carry with it an obligation to
pay for the proper burial of the woman.
There are, though, several
things which Jewish tradition regards as sufficient to cause the alimony to be
forfeited, should the bride have committed them. These included immodest
behavior, adultery, having sexual intercourse with her husband while she was
ritually impure due to menstruating, given her husband food that was ritually
forbidden, and obdurate refusal, for more than a month, to have sex with her
husband. It could even be forfeited if the wife had failed to inform her
husband, prior to the marriage, of all of her physical defects which were not
already known about by him.
The
chained wife
As the classical rabbis do
not allow a man to be presumed dead merely on the basis of a prolonged absence,
the wife of a man who has travelled to foreign locations and become lost (such
as explorers in the Amazon, and soldiers in World War II), or of a man who has
deliberately abandoned his wife and become uncontactable, would continue to be
married to him, according to the views of Jewish tradition. A woman trapped
into a marriage in this way was referred to as an agunah, literally meaning a
chained/anchored wife; in modern times, the term agunah has also come to refer
to women trapped into a marriage for other reasons, such as being refused a
divorce by their husband.
In order to mitigate the
hardship arising from being an agunah, Judaism has traditionally been willing
to also accept a much more lax standard of evidence about a husband's fate,
compared to its requirements for other questions. To prevent the situation
arising in the first place, some Jewish husbands provisionally divorce their
wives before undertaking long journeys, or taking part in warfare; such divorce
only takes effect if the husband goes missing for more than a certain period of
time. Provisional divorce has been used by some Jewish American soldiers,
during World War II, but other Jewish groups, such as the Chief Rabbinate of
the modern State of Israel, have completely rejected the method.
Remarriage
According to Jewish
tradition, as soon as a widow remarried, she would no longer have the right to
reside in her former husband's home, nor to claim support from his estate.
Remarriage, though, was not entirely a free choice, and was subject to several
restrictions.
Waiting
period
The classical rabbis
forbade all widows from remarrying, until at least 90 days had passed since the
death of their previous spouse; the delay existed to reduce doubt about the
paternity of any subsequent children, by making it easier to discover whether
the widow was pregnant. A similar waiting requirement, known as iddah, exists
in Islamic society, for similar reasons. Purely for the sake of bureaucratic standardization,
the classical rabbis insisted upon a woman waiting the 90 days even when it was
obvious that she could not be pregnant.
A widow was also forbade
from remarriage if she became visibly pregnant during the 90 day waiting
period, or if had a child which was both younger than 24 months old, and had
still been breastfeeding when the widow's husband had died. Once the child had
reached 24 months in age, or died, the widow was allowed to remarry (if there was
no other impediment).
Forbidden
remarriage
The Talmud suggests that
it would be unwise for men to marry a widow. Furthermore, it completely forbids
a widow from remarriage if two of her previous husbands have died from natural
causes, while she was married to them; it was believed that such a woman was
too dangerous to marry, either due to bad luck, or due to her having a
dangerous vagina harboring some malignant disease.
If a widow had been
suspected of adultery, she was forbade, by the Talmud, from ever marrying her
suspected accomplice, unless she first married someone else; this intervening
marriage was thought to refute, to some degree, the accusation of the adultery.
Similarly if it is necessary for legal action to confirm a woman's widowhood
(due to her husband being absent or missing), the classical rabbis instruct
that she may not marry any of the witnesses who have testified that her husband
is dead.
Priests, and those who claim
descent from them.
The Holiness Code demands
that the Israelite high priest must only marry a virgin, spelling out that this
forbids marriage to a widow. According to the regulations in the Book of
Ezekiel, even ordinary priests should be forbidden to marry widows, unless the
previous husband of the widow had also been a priest. The classical rabbis
followed the regulation of the Holiness Code in this respect, except that they
permitted a high priest to remain married to a widow, if he had married her while
he was merely an ordinary priest.
Although the first century
destruction of the temple in Jerusalem resulted in the priesthood being
redundant, the Torah frequently portrays the Israelite priesthood as an
hereditary position, and so the rabbis of the Middle Ages regarded these
regulations as applying, still, to all men who claim to be descended from such
priests; such claims can often be detected in modern surnames resembling the
Hebrew word kohen, the term used in most parts of the masoretic text to mean
priest (the cognates in related languages, however, mean soothsayer. In the
Middle Ages, several rabbis forced such men to divorce any wife prohibited by
these rules, often by threatening excommunication if this was not done.
Compulsory
remarriage
Among the Israelites, a
wife was legally regarded simply as property (valuable property that needed to
be looked after, and was thus inherited by close relatives, like other
property; this principle was widespread among ancient cultures, and it was
usual for the deceased husband's brother to be the first choice to inherit the
wife. This levirate marriage (levir is the Latin term for a husband's brother)
was made almost compulsory by the Septuagint's version of the Deuteronomic
Code, if the husband and his brother lived together, and the husband was
childless; the masoretic text, of this passage, makes it compulsory even when
the husband was just lacking a son (and he had lived with his brother). In
contrast, the Holiness Code of Leviticus appears twice to forbid the
institution, listing it among forms of incest.
If the brother in question
refuses to take part in the levirate marriage, the wife was permitted by the
Deuteronomic Code to loosen his shoe, and spit on him; this act, known in
Judaism as Halitzah, also existed in other cultures which practiced levirate
marriage. This purpose of this act, however, is not explained by the Torah,
though the Book of Ruth implies that it derives from an historic practice
customary at every transaction involving landed property; the person disposing
of the property gave away his shoe as a symbol of the transaction. In later
Judaism, Halitzah was interpreted as releasing the widow and her brother-in-law
from an obligation to marry each other.
By the time the Talmud was
written, levirate marriage was regarded by rabbinic Jews as an objectionable
practice, and Ashkenazi Jews now almost always perform the Halitzah ritual
instead; nevertheless, levirate marriage, in accordance with the Deuteronomic
Code, continues to be the usual practice of Sephardi Jews. The Samaritans and
Karaites usually only performed levirate marriage if the original marriage had
not been consummated.
Fitness
Friday Wim
Hof's Workout Routine[4]
Becoming
an Iceman like Wim Hof needs a solid discipline, especially when it comes to
your workout routine. A man like him can breathe underwater for about 6 minutes
and sit in an ice bath for about 2 hours while still maintaining his normal
body temperature.
I’m pretty sure you’re all
curious as to how an extreme athlete works out:
Wake
Up and Stretch
Hof stretches his back and
tough his toes. He then reaches the sky standing on his toes, holds for three
seconds, and repeats it twice.
Power
Breathing
Next, he takes a 30-40
slow, steady breath. He then followed it with a 10-count holding on to exhale
and take a breath, and then hold a count of 10 once again. He repeats it four
times and meditates for at least five minutes.
Cold
Shower
The most important part of
his workout routine is taking a cold shower. When he doesn’t have enough time,
he sometimes combines power breathing while showering. If you want to follow a
Wim Hof method, don’t ever skip this part.
Wim
Hof's Breathing Exercise:
Looking for a quiet place
to sit or lie down is the first thing that Hof is doing. There should be no
distractions and minimal noise in that place so that he will be comfortable
while exercising. Then, he follows these four steps:
· Step 1: Power Breaths
Here, Hof starts his
exercise with 30-40 breaths (inhale and exhale). It must be slow and steady,
making sure his breathing is neither deep or shallow. When performing power
breaths, you need to imagine being blowing up a balloon and need to picture it
out as if your body is being concentrated with fresh oxygen.
During this process, it is
normal if you feel tingly or lightheaded.
· Step 2: Hold Your Breath
Once Hof completes the
first step, he empties his lungs and holds his breath as long as he can. To
monitor how long he can hold his breath and improvement with the time, he is
using a stopwatch to check it. If you’re in this step, don’t focus too much on
time or feel anxious if your time doesn’t increase quickly.
· Step 3: Breathe In
After Hof holds his breath
until such time he feels a gasp reflex, he then inhales for about 10 seconds.
Next is, he holds his breath for about 10-15 seconds. He usually repeats this
step 1-4 rounds.
· Step 4: Meditate
Once he is done with all
the rounds of power breathing, he immediately meditates for a minimum of 5
minutes. Here, it would be best if you close your eyes then focus on your
breathing. Do your very best to block out any distracting thoughts and sounds
around.
As Wim Hof said, this will
be difficult at first, but it will become easier with constant practice. He
believes that practicing his breathing and meditation techniques can help cure
and prevent more diseases. It can also help in improving the quality of life,
including having better sleep at night.
Catechism of the
Catholic Church
PART ONE: THE PROFESSION
OF FAITH
SECTION
TWO-I. THE CREEDS
CHAPTER ONE-I BELIEVE IN GOD THE FATHER
Article 1-"I BELIEVE IN GOD THE FATHER
ALMIGHTY, CREATOR OF HEAVEN AND EARTH"
Paragraph 1. I BELIEVE IN GOD
199 "I believe in God":
this first affirmation of the Apostles' Creed is also the most fundamental. the
whole Creed speaks of God, and when it also speaks of man and of the world it
does so in relation to God. the other articles of the Creed all depend on the
first, just as the remaining Commandments make the first explicit. the other
articles help us to know God better as he revealed himself progressively to
men. "The faithful first profess their belief in God."
I. "I BELIEVE IN ONE GOD"
200 These are the words with which
the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed begins. the confession of God's oneness,
which has its roots in the divine revelation of the Old Covenant, is
inseparable from the profession of God's existence and is equally fundamental.
God is unique; there is only one God: "The Christian faith confesses that
God is one in nature, substance and essence."
201 To Israel, his chosen, God
revealed himself as the only One: "Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God is one
LORD; and you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all
your soul, and with all your might." Through the prophets, God calls
Israel and all nations to turn to him, the one and only God: "Turn to me
and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other..
. To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear. 'Only in the LORD, it
shall be said of me, are righteousness and strength.'"
202 Jesus himself affirms that God
is "the one Lord" whom you must love "with all your heart, and
with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength". At
the same time Jesus gives us to understand that he himself is "the
Lord". To confess that Jesus is Lord is distinctive of Christian
faith. This is not contrary to belief in the One God. Nor does believing in the
Holy Spirit as "Lord and giver of life" introduce any division into
the One God:
We firmly believe and confess
without reservation that there is only one true God, eternal infinite
(immensus) and unchangeable, incomprehensible, almighty and ineffable, the
Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit; three persons indeed, but one essence,
substance or nature entirely simple.
II. GOD REVEALS HIS NAME
203 God revealed himself to his
people Israel by making his name known to them. A name expresses a person's
essence and identity and the meaning of this person's life. God has a name; he
is not an anonymous force. To disclose one's name is to make oneself known to
others; in a way it is to hand oneself over by becoming accessible, capable of
being known more intimately and addressed personally.
204 God revealed himself
progressively and under different names to his people, but the revelation that
proved to be the fundamental one for both the Old and the New Covenants was the
revelation of the divine name to Moses in the theophany of the burning bush, on
the threshold of the Exodus and of the covenant on Sinai.
The living God
205 God calls Moses from the midst
of a bush that burns without being consumed: "I am the God of your father,
the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob."9 God
is the God of the fathers, the One who had called and guided the patriarchs in
their wanderings. He is the faithful and compassionate God who remembers them
and his promises; he comes to free their descendants from slavery. He is the
God who, from beyond space and time, can do this and wills to do it, the God
who will put his almighty power to work for this plan.
"I Am who I Am"
Moses said to God, "If I come
to the people of Israel and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me
to you', and they ask me, 'What is his name?' what shall I say to them?"
God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." and he said, "Say this to
the people of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you'. . . this is my name for ever,
and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations."
206 In revealing his mysterious
name, YHWH ("I AM HE WHO IS", "I AM WHO AM" or "I AM
WHO I AM"), God says who he is and by what name he is to be called. This
divine name is mysterious just as God is mystery. It is at once a name revealed
and something like the refusal of a name, and hence it better expresses God as
what he is - infinitely above everything that we can understand or say: he is
the "hidden God", his name is ineffable, and he is the God who makes
himself close to men.
207 By revealing his name God at
the same time reveals his faithfulness which is from everlasting to
everlasting, valid for the past ("I am the God of your father"), as
for the future ("I will be with you"). God, who reveals his name
as "I AM", reveals himself as the God who is always there, present to
his people in order to save them.
208 Faced with God's fascinating
and mysterious presence, man discovers his own insignificance. Before the
burning bush, Moses takes off his sandals and veils his face in the presence of
God's holiness. Before the glory of the thrice-holy God, Isaiah cries out:
"Woe is me! I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips." Before
the divine signs wrought by Jesus, Peter exclaims: "Depart from me, for I
am a sinful man, O Lord." But because God is holy, he can forgive the
man who realizes that he is a sinner before him: "I will not execute my
fierce anger. . . for I am God and not man, the Holy One in your midst." The
apostle John says likewise: "We shall. . . reassure our hearts before him
whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he
knows everything."
209 Out of respect for the holiness
of God, the people of Israel do not pronounce his name. In the reading of
Sacred Scripture, the revealed name (YHWH) is replaced by the divine title
"LORD" (in Hebrew Adonai, in Greek Kyrios). It is under this title
that the divinity of Jesus will be acclaimed: "Jesus is LORD."
"A God merciful and gracious"
210 After Israel's sin, when
the people had turned away from God to worship the golden calf, God hears
Moses' prayer of intercession and agrees to walk in the midst of an unfaithful
people, thus demonstrating his love. When Moses asks to see his glory, God
responds "I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim
before you my name "the LORD" [YHWH]." Then the LORD passes
before Moses and proclaims, "YHWH,
YHWH, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast
love and faithfulness"; Moses then confesses that the LORD is a forgiving
God.
211 The divine name, "I
Am" or "He Is", expresses God's faithfulness: despite the
faithlessness of men's sin and the punishment it deserves, he keeps
"steadfast love for thousands". By going so far as to give up
his own Son for us, God reveals that he is "rich in mercy". By
giving his life to free us from sin, Jesus reveals that he himself bears the
divine name: "When you have lifted up the Son of man, then you will
realize that "I AM"."
God alone IS
212 Over the centuries, Israel's
faith was able to manifest and deepen realization of the riches contained in
the revelation of the divine name. God is unique; there are no other gods
besides him.
He transcends the world and
history. He made heaven and earth: "They will perish, but you endure; they
will all wear out like a garment....but you are the same, and your years have
no end."
In God "there is no variation
or shadow due to change." God is "HE WHO IS", from
everlasting to everlasting, and as such remains ever faithful to himself and to
his promises.
213 The revelation of the ineffable
name "I AM WHO AM" contains then the truth that God alone IS. the
Greek Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, and following it the
Church's Tradition, understood the divine name in this sense: God is the
fullness of Being and of every perfection, without origin and without end. All
creatures receive all that they are and have from him; but he alone is his very
being, and he is of himself everything that he is.
III. GOD, "HE WHO IS", IS TRUTH AND
LOVE
214 God, "HE WHO IS",
revealed himself to Israel as the one "abounding in steadfast love and
faithfulness". These two terms express summarily the riches of the
divine name. In all his works God displays, not only his kindness, goodness,
grace and steadfast love, but also his trustworthiness, constancy, faithfulness
and truth. "I give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your
faithfulness." He is the Truth, for "God is light and in him
there is no darkness"; "God is love", as the apostle John
teaches.
God is Truth
215 "The sum of your word is
truth; and every one of your righteous ordinances endures forever." "and
now, O LORD God, you are God, and your words are true"; this is why
God's promises always come true. God is Truth itself, whose words cannot
deceive. This is why one can abandon oneself in full trust to the truth and
faithfulness of his word in all things. the beginning of sin and of man's fall
was due to a lie of the tempter who induced doubt of God's word, kindness and
faithfulness.
216 God's truth is his wisdom,
which commands the whole created order and governs the world. God, who
alone made heaven and earth, can alone impart true knowledge of every created
thing in relation to himself.
217 God is also truthful when he
reveals himself - the teaching that comes from God is "true
instruction". When he sends his Son into the world it will be
"to bear witness to the truth": "We know that the Son of
God has come and has given us understanding, to know him who is true."
God is Love
218 In the course of its history,
Israel was able to discover that God had only one reason to reveal himself to
them, a single motive for choosing them from among all peoples as his special
possession: his sheer gratuitous love. and thanks to the prophets Israel
understood that it was again out of love that God never stopped saving them and
pardoning their unfaithfulness and sins.
219 God's love for Israel is
compared to a father's love for his son. His love for his people is stronger
than a mother's for her children. God loves his people more than a bridegroom
his beloved; his love will be victorious over even the worst infidelities and
will extend to his most precious gift: "God so loved the world that he
gave his only Son."
220 God's love is
"everlasting": "For the mountains may depart and the hills
be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you." Through
Jeremiah, God declares to his people, "I have loved you with an
everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you."
221 But St. John goes even further
when he affirms that "God is love": God's very being is love. By
sending his only Son and the Spirit of Love in the fullness of time, God has
revealed his innermost secret: God himself is an eternal exchange of love,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and he has destined us to share in that exchange.
IV. THE IMPLICATIONS OF FAITH IN ONE GOD
222 Believing in God, the only One,
and loving him with all our being has enormous consequences for our whole life.
223 It means coming to know God's
greatness and majesty: "Behold, God is great, and we know him not." Therefore,
we must "serve God first".
224 It means living in
thanksgiving: if God is the only One, everything we are and have comes from
him: "What have you that you did not receive?" "What shall
I render to the LORD for all his bounty to me?"
225 It means knowing the unity and
true dignity of all men: everyone is made in the image and likeness of God.
226 It means making good use of
created things: faith in God, the only One, leads us to use everything that is
not God only insofar as it brings us closer to him, and to detach ourselves
from it insofar as it turns us away from him:
My Lord and my God, take from me everything that distances me from you.
My Lord and my God, give me everything that brings me closer to you
My Lord and my God, detach me from myself to give my all to you.
227 It means trusting God in every
circumstance, even in adversity. A prayer of St. Teresa of Jesus wonderfully
expresses this trust:
Let nothing trouble you / Let
nothing frighten you Everything passes / God never changes Patience / Obtains
all Whoever has God / Wants for nothing God alone is enough.
IN BRIEF
228 "Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God is
one LORD..." (Dt 6:4; Mk 12:29). "The supreme being must be unique,
without equal. . . If God is not one, he is not God" (Tertullian, Adv.
Marc., 1, 3, 5: PL 2, 274).
229 Faith in God leads us to turn to him
alone as our first origin and our ultimate goal, and neither to prefer anything
to him nor to substitute anything for him.
230 Even when he reveals himself, God remains
a mystery beyond words: "If you understood him, it would not be God"
(St. Augustine, Sermo 52, 6, 16: PL 38, 360 and Sermo 117, 3, 5: PL 38, 663).
231 The God of our faith has revealed himself
as HE WHO IS; and he has made himself known as "abounding in steadfast
love and faithfulness" (Ex 34:6). God's very being is Truth and Love.
Daily
Devotions
·
Simplicity
of life can drive out demons. Honesty is a weapon to defeat Satan, the Liar.
When we lie, we put a foot in his camp, and he will try to seduce us all the
more.
·
Litany of the Most Precious
Blood of Jesus
·
Offering to
the sacred heart of Jesus
·
Rosary
[4]https://theultimateprimate.com/sports-fitness-motivation/wim-hof-the-iceman-workout-routine-diet-plan/
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