OPUS DEI.

 

 

There is a great personality, I am refering to a priest (RIP) that has  founded the OPUS DEI. In this oportunity my intention is to promote, to spread the knowledgment of his institution. That has done and is doing so much Good not only to the Catholic Church, but to all humanity.

 

In order to enter the knowledgent of the spirituality of san  Josemaría Escribá de Balaguer we can start by remembering some of the things he said.

“Our Lord and our God: For love of your son, you cause us to say with all our being, with our body and soul: He must reign”.

“As we work at our job, side by side with colleagues, Friends and relatives and sharing their intrests, we can help them come closer to Christ”.

“If we stop seeking ourselves and seek him alone, then in his name we will be able to give to oters, freely”.

“There is not a single soul in whom Christi s not interested”.

“May our souls…. Trust entirely in HER who watches over us  at all times”.

“ Lord does not depend in any way on thehuman resulto f our efforts”.

“Saint Luke the Evangelist  tells us that Jesus prayed……”.

Opus Dei, (pair of latín words that could mean “work for God” or “the work of God”). Seeks the santification of persons in ordinary life. Finding God in our usual profesional work, family life, social and sportive, activities and even in relaxing time. The doctrine of Opus Dei is to contribute to the evangelistic life being coherent in faith and our life circumstances in the santification of them.

As so many cases in a few parographs it is noy possible to aproach a complete idea of an instituton, so my recomendation is to buy, as a first step of this so interesting matter, one of the books of homilies of san Josemaría Escribá.

Jorge Casas.

ADULTS GREATEST DUTY ON EARTH.

 A

ADULTS GREATEST DUTY ON EARTH.

Not only for catholics, but for all mankind, from the so ample, deep and perfect knowledgment of our church, I have picked some parrographs of Papal Enciclicals to direct the line of this message.

 

“The most serious duty of transmitting human life, for which married persons are the free and responsible collaborators of God the Creator, has always been a source of great joys to them, even if sometimes accompanied by not a few difficulties and by distress”

Speaking from my own experience, now at 93 years of age, having been father of five and grand father of six, I can tll you that there is more happy experience than that of seing your own family be. No doubt having five descendets for a couple married today, under normal circumstances, is seen a very difficult matter, that is the reason that we should know what our church says regarding the speciousness and amount of descendats that we want and can have.  

 

“The changes which have taken place are in fact noteworthy and of varied kinds. In the first place, there is the rapid demographic development. Fear is shown by many that world population is growing more rapidly than the available resources, with growing distress to many families and developing countries, so that the temptation for authorities to counter this danger with radical measures is great   Finally and above all, man has made stupendous progress in the domination and rational organization of the forces of nature, such that he tends to extend this domination to his own total being: to the body, to psychical life, to social life and even to the laws which regulate the transmission of life. This new state of things gives rise to new questions. Granted the conditions of life today, and granted the meaning which conjugal relations have with respect to the harmony between husband and wife and to their mutual fidelity, would not a revision of the ethical norms, in force up to now, seem to be advisable, especially when it is considered that they cannot be observed without sacrifices, sometimes heroic sacrifices? Such questions required from the teaching authority of the Church a new and deeper reflection upon the principles of the moral teaching on marriage: a teaching founded on the natural law, illuminated and enriched by divine revelation”.

“”The Joy of Love experienced by families is also the joy of the Church. As the Synod Fathers noted, for all the many signs of crisis in the institution of marriage, “the desire to marry and form a family remains vibrant, especially among young people, and this is an inspiration to the Church”. As a response to that desire, “the Christian proclamation on the family is good news indeed””

“” I will begin with an opening chapter inspired by the Scriptures, to set a proper tone. I will then examine the actual situation of families, in order to keep firmly grounded in reality. I will go on to recall some essential aspects of the Church’s teaching on marriage and the family, thus paving 6 the way for two central chapters dedicated to love. I will then highlight some pastoral approaches that can guide us in building sound and fruitful homes in accordance with God’s plan, with a full chapter devoted to the raising of children”. i

Hoping that this article can enligth our concept of the importance of:

.--In the first place, have the desition of marring, and not be afraid of it, since it is based on LOVE, and it is the strongest motivation tan persons can have.

.—to colaborate in keeping strong the greatest institution of Civilization, THE FAMILY, that in being   ataked in our times.

.—THE FAMILY, as you know is the fortress that can not be submited to the new forces of the economic theories that want to institute their own religión that makes mankind a modern slave, subject to the perverse circle of: work, spend, (consumism) and work more to spend more. This makes a few billionares more rich and us common persons a kind of robots that exist only to fulfill their economics and power.

.—let´s defend our believes, behavior, family, culture, freedom and dignity. Let´s be married and rise chidren that will defeat the menaces that without the strength of family would win. If we keep the family we are undefeateble, on the contrary we are the winners.

Jorge Casas.

Adult blog May 12 2023.

ADULT BLOG may 12 2023.

In the continent discovered and colonized in its origins by the powerfull SPANISH EMPIRE,  separated at the times by seas at a montly distance,  in historical moments that were dificult to the spanish Crown, nevertheless the conquest was the graetest ever. Including the cristianization , the vice-royal goverment, culturicing a great numbered population. Historical memories of mankind may not do proper justice to this everlasting happenings. It was taking out of darknes to the sun many towns, cities, communities of great population. All were sanctified by the divine presence, this was acomplished by the great help of the VIRGIN OF GUADALUPE.

Persons of high rankings left spain and came to the NEW SPAIN (Nueva España), being its labor on many fields of invaluable help to bring up to civization the extensive lands of what was called afterwards América. This conquest even without resources reachazationd from Alaska to Patagonia, of course other european powers like Portugal and England came, and did their inmortal parts.

Not all was hunky-dory, not all the men that came laked ambition and  easy personal enrichment, and abuse was extended trough all the conquered land along with the legal explotation by the empire. Those were times of slavery and silver and gold minning, so you can imagine what happened, Spain received good amounts of rich metals that were spent in armies out of the Iberic Península, defending dominions, that after all were lost..

Opression in one side of the world, big spenditures on the other side, but lets value what was good for Mexico at the time. The monastic orders in accordance and financed by teh Crown, did the finest ever job of teaching and cristianization that has taken place in the world, we are speaking of several million inhabitants that from the monks and other organizations, some govermental and others by private individuals did the most extraordinary acomplishment of civilization and progress. Schools, the first university of all americas was founded by the vice-roy in mexico city, arts and crafts schools were all over as well as fruit and vegetable growers.

Working animals and other were brougth for the first time to this lands, cows, horses, burros, dogs, and many othes that had the success that can be apreciated today, and some others like potato, tomatos, sugar cane were unknoun in Eupe and taken from Mexico to that continent, with the everlasting success.

Oh mexicans, my countrymen how deep and profound is the debt of gratitude to the spaniards that we should have, instead of the hate and dispice we showsome times, it is  love and apreciation to  Spain in general what we showld have. They, the spaniards, have a deep love and admiration for us mexicans, and they show it whenever we visit our MADRE PATRIA.

Jordi Casas.

INTERESTING MATTERS OF OPUS DEI AND THE VATICAN.

 JOHN PAUL BISHOP

SERVANT OF THE SERVANTS OF GOD

FOR A PERMANENT RECORD OF THE MATTER

With very great hope, the Church directs its attention and maternal care to Opus Dei, which -- by divine inspiration --the Servant of God Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer founded in Madrid on October 2, 1928, so that it may always be an apt and effective instrument of the salvific mission which the Church carries out for the life of the world.

From its beginnings, this Institution has in fact striven, not only to illuminate with new lights the mission of the laity in the Church and in society, but also to put it into practice; it has also endeavored to put into practice the teaching of the universal call to sanctity, and to promote at all levels of society the sanctification of ordinary work, and by means of ordinary work. Furthermore, through the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross, it has helped diocesan priests to live this teaching, in the exercise of their sacred ministry.

Since Opus Dei has grown, with the help of divine grace, to the extent that it has spread and works in a large number of dioceses throughout the world, as an apostolic organism made up of priests and laity, both men and women, which is at the same time organic and undivided -- that is to say, as an institution endowed with a unity of spirit, of aims, of government and of formation -- it has become necessary to give it a juridical configuration which is suited to its specific characteristics. It was the Founder of Opus Dei himself who, in 1962, in a humble and trusting petition, asked the Holy See to grant an appropriate ecclesial configuration to the Institution, bearing in mind its true nature and theological characteristics, and with a view to a greater apostolic effectiveness.

From the time when the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council introduced into the legislation of the Church, by means of the Decree Presbyterorum Ordinis, n. 10--which was made effective by the Motu proprio Ecclesiae Sanctae, I, n. 4--, the figure of the personal Prelatures, to carry out specific pastoral activities, it was seen clearly that this juridical figure was perfectly suited to Opus Dei. Therefore, in 1969, Our Predecessor Paul VI, of beloved memory, graciously accepting the petition of the Servant of God Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer, authorized him to convoke a special General Congress to begin, under his guidance, the study necessary for a transformation of Opus Dei, in keeping with its nature and with the norms of the Second Vatican Council.

We ourselves expressly ordered that this study should continue, and in 1979, We requested the Sacred Congregation for Bishops, which was the competent Congregation, by virtue of the matter involved, to examine the formal petition presented by Opus Dei, following a careful study of all the relevant facts and legal data.

In carrying out the task entrusted to it, the Sacred Congregation carefully examined the matter, taking into account the historical, and also the juridical and pastoral aspects. Thus, having completely eliminated all doubts about the basis, and the possibility, and the specific manner of granting the petition, it became abundantly clear that the desired transformation of Opus Dei into a personal Prelature was opportune and useful.

Therefore, We, with the plenitude of Our apostolic power, having accepted the opinion which Our Venerable Brother the Most Eminent and Most Reverend Cardinal Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for Bishops had expressed to Us, and making good, in so far as it is necessary, the consent of those who have, or think they have some competence in this matter, command and desire the following to be put into practice.

I

Opus Dei is erected as a personal Prelature, international in ambit, with the name of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei, or, in abbreviated form, Opus Dei. The Sacerdotal Society of the Holy Cross is erected as a clerical Association intrinsically united to the Prelature.

II

The Prelature is governed by the norms of general law, by those of this Constitution, and by its own Statutes, which receive the name "Code of particular law of Opus Dei".

III

The jurisdiction of the personal Prelature extends to the clergy incardinated in it, and also only in what refers to the fulfillment of the specific obligations undertaken through the juridical bond, by means of a contract with the Prelature to the laity who dedicate themselves to the apostolic activities of the Prelature: both clergy and laity are under the authority of the Prelate in carrying out the pastoral task of the Prelature, as established in the preceding article.

IV

The Ordinary of the Prelature Opus Dei is its Prelate, whose election, which has to be carried out as established in general and particular law, has to be confirmed by the Roman Pontiff.

Vⁿ

In accordance with Art. 117 of the Apostolic Constitution Praedicate Evangelium, the Prelature depends on the Dicastery for the Clergy, which, according to the subject matter, shall evaluate the relative questions with the other Dicasteries of the Roman Curia. The Dicastery for the Clergy, in dealing with the various questions, shall make use of the competencies of the other Dicasteries through appropriate consultation or transfer of files.

VIⁿ

Each year the Prelate shall submit to the Dicastery for the Clergy a report on the state of the Prelature and on the fulfilment of its apostolic work.

VII

The central Government of the Prelature has its offices in Rome. The oratory of Our Lady of Peace, which is in the central offices of the Prelature, is erected as a prelatic church.

The Most Reverend Monsignor Alvaro del Portillo, canonically elected President General of Opus Dei on September 15, 1975, is confirmed and is appointed Prelate of the personal Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei, which has been erected.

Finally, We designate the Venerable Brother Romolo Carboni, Titular Archbishop of Sidone and Apostolic Nuncio in Italy, for the opportune execution of all the above, and confer on him the necessary and opportune faculties, including that of subdelegating--in the matter in question -- in any ecclesiastical dignitary, with the obligation of sending, as soon as possible, to the Sacred Congregation for Bishops, an authentic copy of the act which testifies to the fact that the mandate has been carried out.

All things to the contrary notwithstanding.

Given in Rome at Saint Peter's, on the 28th of November, 1982, the fifth of Our Pontificate.

AUGUSTINUS Card. CASAROLI

Secretary of State

+ SEBASTIANUS Card. BAGGIO

Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for Bishops

Iosephus Del Ton, Protonotary Apostolic

Marcellus Rossetti, Protonotary Apostolic

Loco + Plumbi

---

(ⁿ Indicates that the text has been updated)

Original wording of the articles modified by His Holiness Pope Francis (cf. Apostolic Letter issued "Motu Proprio" Ad charisma tuendum, July 14, 2022, effective August 4, 2022):

V

The Prelature is under the Sacred Congregation for Bishops, and will also deal directly with the other Congregations or Departments of the Roman Curia, according to the nature of the matter involved.

VI

Through the Sacred Congregation for Bishops, the Prelate will present to the Roman Pontiff, every five years, a report on the state of the Prelature, and on the development of its apostolic work.

Note: Recently this Prelature will report to the Congregation for the Clergy, and his report will be every year. This acordingly to the Reform of the Roman Curia.

Comment: The most important things about OPUS DEI are its carismas, they are identical, there is no change at all, it is a matter of administration in the Reform of the Roman Curia, so there is no need of being worried.

Compiled by,   Jorge Casas. 

LET¨S MEDITATEABOUT JESUS CHRIST THIS CHRISTMAS.

 LEST´S MEDITATE ABOUT JESUS CHRIST.

He lived in the time of “Augusto and Tiberio, emperors of the empire of Rome, his comtemporaries saw him working with his hands as a carpenter, probably with a chip of wood in his ear, as a sign of his trade, he walked in the ways that they can show us today. They saw him eating bread and olives and those fishes that are a delicacy for his fellow mates, at nigth they could see him in a mat or in a hammock, resting or sleeping, dead tired, just like any other man, similar to any one of us.

Never the less he said the most surprising words that can be heard: He said that he was the Messiah, that he was the person that would promote his “chosen people”  to its glory and culmination, and what is most surprising, that He was the Son of God. and they belived Him and acompany and escort Him  along those ways of Palestine, that He perenigrated through.

Prodigies  came out of his hands with surprising easyness, miracles of resurrections, miraculous cures, exortions, etc. however many of them hoped for a political liberation from the romans, but his thing was spiritual, and for the culmination of it, the end of his normal existance, all came with a stroke to wich He did not put resistance. But far from geting discouraged, his followers spread through all the world sealing with blood the testimony of his divinity and from then on, the humanity has converted that defeat in proof of his victory  and prostrate to the cross, ( his gallows,  just imagine what would have to happen to make of the electric chair an adorable thing )

All his life, from his birth, his childhood, and adult existence was pletoric of supernatural evidence, and at the third day of his death by unjust execution,  he resurrected by his own power. St Paul says that this is what confirms our faith, and if the ressurection had not taken place, our faith would have been useless. BUT HE DID,  AND ALL WHAT HE LEFT US IS VALID: THE REVELATION THE TRADITION, THE GOSPELS, ETC.

Speaking of his Gospels the Evangelical Beatitudes, taken as an example have possitibly influenced the humanity since they were known, and will stay for all menkind  until the end of times. It is amazing what Jesus Christ, taugth, for our salvation, the Doctrine left for us, the Church he founded, the gospels, Revelation and Tradition, inherited to his followers, and the rest of humanity, in all the extention of its meaning. Nothing on earth has the value of the Sacraments, that his church enables, being the Holy Mass the center of our catholic life, it is the commemoration of the Sacrifice that he offers as  victim, to God Father, for the love of us. This is a double consideration, he offers himself in painful passion for He loves us and the Father offers his son, to be sacrificed, also for the love of us.

In this days that we conmemorate His Nativity, it is very usefull for our spirituality to contemplate this ítems, along with the rolls of the Virgin Mary and St. Joseph, that took such important and vital participation in His comming to this world, the gospels of this liturgical time, tell those important happenings. We must pay special attention to them.

Jorge Casas y Sánchez.

FRAGMENT OF ENCICLICAL "REDEMPTOR HOMINIS".

This post is a fragment of the enclical of Saint John Paul II, I consider that we should not forget what his way of thinking and acting, was. It Will alwais be actual.

  Redemptor Hominis (Redeemer of Man), promulgated on the 4th March, 1979, was the first encyclical of John Paul II. The Polish Cardinal Karol Wojtyla had been elected Pope John Paul II in October 1978, after the very brief pontificate of John Paul I (AugustSeptember 1978; Paul VI had been Pope from 1963-1978. John Paul II was the first nonItalian Pope since the early sixteenth century). Like John Paul I, John Paul II chose a name which combined the names of the two Popes of the Second Vatican Council (1962- 65), John XXIII and Paul VI, in order to emphasize that he was committed to the legacy of the Council, in which he had been an active participant. Commitment to Vatican II This commitment is very clear in Redemptor Hominis, in which John Paul II emphasizes the great achievement of Gaudium et Spes, the Council’s Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World. At the Council, he had also been an important supporter of Dignitatis Humanae, the Declaration on Religious Freedom, arguing that the Church could not insist on its own freedom from Communist oppression unless it extended full religious freedom to non-Catholics in traditionally Catholic countries such as Spain and Portugal. The ‘cold war’ context Karol Wojtyla was born in 1920, had found his vocation to the priesthood during the Nazi occupation of Poland and been consecrated bishop during the post-war Stalinist dictatorship. He had been a professor of philosophy at the Catholic University of Lublin and was Cardinal Archbishop of Krakow at the time of his election as Pope. When Redemptor Hominis was issued, global politics were still bound up with the ‘Cold War’, the tension between the Soviet Union and its satellite states and the United States of America and its allies. The Communist government of North Vietnam had conquered South Vietnam in 1975. Some parts of Portugal’s former African empire had become Soviet-aligned. There was to be a Soviet invasion of Afghanistan at the end of 1979. Although the end of the ‘Cold War’ was little more than a decade away, geopolitical tensions were high at the time when Redemptor Hominis was issued. The call for human rights The call for human rights was also gaining in strength at this time. The US President Jimmy Carter (in office 1976-80), a devout Baptist, sought to make respect for human rights an important criterion in the foreign policy of the United States. This resulted in tensions between the Carter administration and military dictatorships in Latin America, which had formerly enjoyed more American support. Liberation theology had been 1 gaining influence in Latin America throughout the 1970s, and John Paul’s relationship to liberation theology was to be an important aspect of his pontificate in the 1980s. First visit to Poland – the ‘Solidarity’ movement A few months after issuing Redemptor Hominis, John Paul II made his first pontifical visit to Poland. Attracting huge crowds, he reminded his fellow Poles of the Christian roots of their culture, and affirmed them in their struggle for human rights. In the next year, 1980, the Solidarity movement began to challenge the dictatorship of the Communist Party, and John Paul II was to give it crucial advice and support in the following years of struggle until the end of Communism in Poland in 1989. 2. Executive Summary Christ the centre of history The central theme of Redemptor Hominis is the centrality of Jesus Christ in human history and as the answer to the human search for meaning and identity. Vatican II’s Gaudium et Spes was a reflection on the situation of humanity in the mid-twentieth century that constantly returned to Christ as the true meaning of humanity, the one who reveals us to ourselves. Redemptor Hominis takes up this theme and develops it as the charter of John Paul II’s pontificate. The argument with Marxism-Leninism and other ‘materialisms’ The encyclical was deeply influenced by the imposition of Marxist atheism on Poland. In a very important sense, it was a Christian answer to Marxism-Leninism, which had sought to weaken and eventually abolish the Catholic Church. Yet the encyclical does not see Marxism-Leninism as the only enemy of authentic humanity: it is critical of any form of power or set of attitudes that degrades the human person, including other forms of materialism, such as consumer capitalism. Marx’s theory of religious and economic alienation As a professor of philosophy and church leader in the post-war period, Karol Wojtyla had had to resist Communist ideology and Communist power in many different contexts. At the same time, he was eager to debate with Marxist thinkers and to engage with the foundations of Marxist thought. For Marx, ‘the root of man is man himself’(Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right, 1844): in this atheistic world-view, there is no purpose to human existence other than what human beings can shape for themselves through work and historical struggle. Marx had argued that human beings lose their humanity in a multi-dimensional process he called ‘alienation’. In religious alienation (and here Marx drew heavily on the philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach), humanity seeks hope and meaning in the false consolation of heaven: rather than realizing that only struggle in this world can liberate us from oppression, human beings become resigned to injustice by 2 transferring or ‘alienating’ all their hopes to the next world. (It is fair to note that the early nineteenth-century Christian response to industrialization gave Marx some evidence for this judgement.) In economic alienation, human beings become enslaved to their own products. Their work and ingenuity is transformed into ‘capital’, the accumulation of wealth, and this capital in turns rules them, making work into drudgery and bondage, rather than the spontaneous expression of the human capacity to transform nature. John Paul II’s response to Karl Marx Karol Wojtyla accepted some of Marx’s insights concerning economic alienation. He was critical of any economic system that deprived work of its human character, that made the products of work more important than the human person, the subject of work. At the same time, he rejected the utopian illusions of Marxism, the belief that the abolition of private ownership of the means of production would usher in a classless society of spontaneous work. In its Stalinist form, it had in fact become a totalitarian dictatorship. John Paul II’s reflections on the meaning of work as a dimension of our humanity were to be developed in his third encyclical Laborem Exercens (On Human Labour) (1981). A foundation of Redemptor Hominis is the rejection of the Marxist idea of religious alienation. Whereas Marx had argued that ‘Communism is the solution to the riddle of history, and knows itself to be the solution’ (Communist Manifesto, 1848), Redemptor Hominis is inspired by the faith that Jesus Christ is at the centre of human history, and that faith in Jesus Christ is not alienating, but rather the true source of fulfilled and joyful human existence. 3. Key Points of the Document Christ, the revealer of the mystery of humanity Redemptor Hominis (RH) is a proclamation of Christ’s central role in human history as the redeemer of humanity. It affirms the highest values of modern humanism - religious freedom and social justice - and seeks to relate Christian proclamation to the universal human search for meaning – to the transcendent dimension of the human person. Its central message is that Christ is the answer to this search. It affirms a key passage of Gaudium et Spes: ‘The truth is that only in the mystery of the Incarnate Word does the mystery of man take on light’ (GS 22; RH 8). Drawing on this teaching of Vatican II, Redemptor Hominis proclaims Jesus Christ as the revelation of the meaning of our humanity, the divine manifest in the human. Our redemption takes place within human history, since Christ is present in that history and shares our human condition in all things but sin.

IN RELATION TO OUR SALVATIO AND LOVE

 IN RELATION TO OUR SALVATION  AND LOVE.                                                                                           1

 

GOD gives us life and Pope Johanes Paulus II, says to us: …”human life in general has value in the sense and measure that it is the answer to the question: ¿ do you love ¿, ¿do you love me” ? . Only  thanks to the affirmative answer, life is worth to be lived. And I say to you, ¿how is it posible not to love, God father, Jesus Christ, the second person, and the Holy Spirit,  of the Trinity one God?  All we are is given to us  by God Creator, our existance, life, and all we have as unrrepeatable person. Jesus is the savior that gives his own life for our salvation, and the Holy Spirit that inspires us all we need to win the promises of the Eternal life of happiness. Owr soul´s main duty is to love God and after that mankind, all humanity, of course with the preference of our nearest family.

Lets for a moment remember what Jesus does for us: He lived as human, being God and all what this is, he took human flesh, and being perfect God, he is (and was among us a perfect man), same as us in all except sin, he was absolutely pure all his life. His love of us is greater, much greater tan ours for him, in all cases. He formed his apostles, and through them left us the Gospels. He iniciated the only true church:  The Only, Holy,  Catholic,  Apostolic, Roman Church, and its Sacraments. In his agony,  nailed to the Holy Cross, He gave us his own Mother as our Mother (in Heaven). He gives us the Doctrine, the example of his family and personal life, he sufered injustice, was hited, lashed, tortured, crowned with spines, insulted, and finnaly crucified. And all He did was good and only good, curing, saving the possessed by demons, teaching, forming  women and men, performed miracles  bringing to life the dead.  Finally, gave his own human life dying in agony for us,  crucified in the cross, the instrument of torture of the romans and other civizations of those times, and He did it for  our salvation. His love for each one of us, (all humanity) is eternal, it exists for ever before we were nothing, He allready loved us.  ¿HOW NOT TO LOVE THIS?.

The plan for us menkind from God, after the Original Sin, and according with his promise is: the anouncement by the prophets of the incarmation of the Second Person of the Holy Trinity,  that was among us to grant the possibility of salvation for those who believe in Jesus Christ, and that follow his doctrine, obey the Commandments of his Law and his Church, in other words those who follow God´s will. ¿HOW NOT TO LOVE THIS?.

In regard to the Holy Spirit, we must remember what was said  by Jesus, before He went back to His Father in Haven, ….”I most go away, and it is for your advantage, because the Counsellor will come, and He will bring to you, from the Father the spirit of truth,  and speak what the Father tells Him, he will guide you to all the truth and bear witness to my teachings”.…….He will with his precense among you strenghten and deepen the conciousness of its divine presence and our human misión. ¿HOW NOT TO LOVE THIS?

  Accepting the spirit of obedience, accepting the command: “ feed my lambs” given to saint Peter and trough him to all of us,  this is the reason why we have to keep and promote our religión, helping its permanece in time, wich we do first of all trough our own children, that we must introduce into catholic faith, and then after, to wich we can, and that is true love,  do our own apostolate.

Since we receive so much love from God, in return seeking others to love him, trough knowing him, given that we cannot love what we do not know. Making known  God and his religión is how we contribute to the development of chistinity, this can be done in every place we are living. Lets remember that first is praying, second friendship and only third teaching those who know less tan we do. Let us seek the help of our Mother of heaven, by asking in pray, for  her to enligthen us to do our apostolate duty whith love of God. ¿ HOW NOT TO LOVE THIS ? .

Jorge Casas y Sánchez.

JESUS OF NAZARETH.

 JESUS OF NAZARETH. 

By the observation af any thing in nature, and practically every thing, not hand made, or designed, wether it is pysical or chemical, or mechaninal,  by human persons, whether it is inert, living, physical, chemical, can and should be considered to belong to nature, including humanity. We are the most important part of Creation and of nature due to being the only reasoning creatures created by God.

Taking in account what is been said, we can see that God Creator is love, and that The bears  love to every creature, specialy us, mankind on earth, and he sent his son  into the world to save us fron Adam and Eve´s Original sin, and all the sins that we commit in our lives, if we repent and go to the Sacrament of confession in order to obtain his pardon, such is his love of us.

This words of Jesus Christ: “If I be lifted  up on the cross I will drive into me all mankind “, this prophecy of himself was a reality and is being completed as per today, as we can see the missionaries moving to every corner of the planet in order to preach his Holy Gospel, and convert those who listen to them.

In the synagogue he unrolled the hebrew scriptures and picked the following: “ The Spirit of the Lord is upon me bcause  he hath anoited me to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sigth to the blind,  to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach  the aceptable year of the lord”.

How few of us, there are who know our own failing, see into our hearts, what is really good for us, in those  parts of his teachings. He was clear to tell us, mankind, that he came for the saving of the irreligious or the non religious, to those that thougth little of themselves, to the rough working with their hands, to the heretical samaritans,  to the heathen soldier, to the poor peasants to the swarming population of Galilee, so as we see, our relation to Jesus of Nazareth, should be not ony be for our salvation, but for the knowledgment of God until the limits of our capabilities, and our love of The, since, as it is widely known, we cannot love what we do not know. The Catholic Church is devoted to  its apostolic and catechesis activities in all the stratum of society, but with option for the: humble, neglected, dangerous, friendless, oppresed, forgoten, unthougth, uncared and poor.

We do not refer with these adjetives to the material status only, but to the spiritual, as well.

This is the way we help others to their own salvation and get our own, for doing it. Our work weather it is done in the instances and directions of our church, or given under guidelines from a catholic organisation to wich we belong. In other words, our dedication should follow the instructions of the Pope Franciscus, that has told us, that we have to take our efforts to the street. Meaning that we have to look for the developing,  of the catholic church following  the teachings of Jesus and his example. It is a matter of our love for the others. “ one new commandment I give you, that you love one another”. Thy loves us from eternity, and wants us to love all his creation, starting with our neighbors, and then our common house, the earth. Lets ask ourselves: ¿do I realy love the others? ¿do I try to keep our planet unpoluted?.

All the activities that we do in these fields,  are a treasure that we invest in Heaven, where it does not rust or be  stolen or deteriorated and in due time Jesus our King,  judge, legislator, savior, will take this treasure in account, and for our favour. If we seriously thik of these, we will see the enormous convenience of carrying it out, because we are speaking of eternity, inmediatly after we are called by our Creator to the afterlife. Our earthly existence is short compared to eternity, and we have been created for it, so we better do the best we can, in this life, to save ourselves.

Lets pray to our Mother in Heaven, the holy Virgin Mary, for her help that we need, intervening for the strength, discipline, perseverance, we must have,  in order to comply with God´s will.

Jorge Casas y Sánchez.

LOOSING OUR TRADITIONAL VALUES

 

VALUES BEING LOST.   

In the begining of christianity our traditional values started, in the begining with the church fathers time, in feudalism, and the middle ages values  grew, they were kept and lived, and gave a substratum to the occidental, western European civilization and the rest of the world, other new religions took them as precious  parts of their beleives, before, civilization did not have difficulty in stablishing them, at the reinessance they started to be lost, and with the french revolution, many were simply forgotten. Step by step the influence of the catholic church, that has been the origin and defender of them has been loosing its influence.

Persons in the old times did not have the distractors of modern times, from the end of the XVIII century reading became popular, books reached the middle and lower clases, the comunication technology has supplemented reading and instead, the popular electronics of tv., inteligent tablets and lap tops, móvil phones that are practicaly computers, that are full of information, memories,  photographs, games, news practicaly at the time they are happening, have taken the much of the place of books, now academic and technology texts are in its place,  all around the globe. Persons used to read books much more than today.

Some values are in use in bussines as indispensable issues, and others are thaugth, specially with offspring at home, but not enough. It is very little family comunication, here the technology is widely used by youths in poor conversations with their friends. Some parents use modern technology  very conveniently when the offspring are away from home, and they use it with great advantages for their studies, investigation, general information, But not all is good, there is a perverse side of it, dangerous to the kids and persons of all ages, from young to oldies. Some examples of this are, improper films, pornography, wich can reach  despicable addictions, fake news and wrong information, it is also a political instrument, widely used, in many oportunities to deceive audience. This shows us the need of applying new manners of teaching values, in accord with times.

Regarding computer technology, in our horizon we have to learn how to win the needed battles, trying to erase the dark side and enhence the good part of technology, being consent, of the advantages that a good use grants, and the evil it can generate if used wrongfully, this can be succesful if values are well teached in order to be well understood.

Of course this is a responsability in the first place of the parents, but also goverments must play its roll, in centers of education and also in general information to the public in the mass advertisement. If this points are not well taken care off, the society will suffer pains, and the ideologies will spread its bad influence.

Human persons are generaly open to assimilation of the good education, but if it is not realy active then come the bad ways of thinking and acting. The catholic church is alwais very aware of the problem of the value lost, and acting, but needs our support and help, this is not a simple task, we all must take part of it in a very responsable way.

Jorge Casas y Sánchez.

FAMILY ORIENTATION.

 

FAMILY ORIENTATION.

The dignity of the family is one of those eternal issues, that will be discussed alwais, our catholic religión in many cases, even if not in a direct manner, makes references to it, in both the old and the new testaments. Not only in the written Word but in the TRADITION.  Another topic very interesting in the dignity area is the relief we enjoy of the women that keeping their family household is  getting a higher education, is working outside home and competing with men in the finding of Jobs, and in the demonstration of their capacities, in all the fields, technical, scientific, administrative, political and the rest.

The first thing we must consider seriously is the responsability of giving our decendents an INTEGRAL education, it  is the introduction into catholic faith at home, supposedly our own childs are baptized as son as posible after they are born, when very young they must receive the Sacraments for wich they are previously prepared by cathequists of children, courses for First Comunion, Confirmation and Confession, they will understand much better if they have boon introduced by their parents in knowledments like: there is only one God, that love us, that has given to us a guardian angel, that the holy Virgin is our mother in heaven,  the most important prayers like Our Father, Ave María, and the nigth orations before going to bed. The great importance of going to mas son sundays

Family Orientation  was included in universities all arround the world, starting in the “Universidad de Navarra”, Spain, that sent all the information needed to the interested. When it began to be known,  the interest from universities was great, they wanted the posibilities of the teaching of it in courses for professors and family parents. Navarra university introduced many other institutions in this discipline. The Harvard “Method of the Case” was used, let me tell you that relations between Harvard and Navarra, have been alwais very close.

Family Orientation (F.O.) courses were not easy to start with. Parents taugth that they did not have any thing to learn from an education instance, that their experience at home was the very place for learning how to educate their descendants, but once they started, and I tell you these out of my own experience as organicer and teacher in my Alma Mater, I withnesed and received personaly from parents, opinions like these:

                How usefull would have been, to know this things when my children were younger.

                From today on, we will educate our sons much better.

                ¿Why did not tell us before about orientation of the family?

                ¿How is it posible that as parents, we were  ignorant of so important issues?

And so on. Realy the profound investigation done in the universities and specialized different schools of F.O. have found very rich knowledgments, very useful in the formation of better human beings. It has taken professors of F.O. years of high studies, and the universities that teach it, and  PH.D. degrees are granted to the ones that opt to it, and pass. This discipline includes couseling for matrimonies, unfit members, education of descendats at all ages,  our own education, treatment of some cases of adictions, and many other difficult situations of families.

We all agree that the lack of values and virtues in our society is as bad as it can be, and  that it is urgent to restore them, F.O. is the best way to teach them in the minors, so that they,  learn values and virtues that will acompany  them for the rest oftheir existance. It is not an exageration to say that in most cases these matters, if taugth properly and at the indicated age, will be part of their personality,  and for such reason, they will carry them the rest of their lives. In the personal freedon in wich God creates us, they will make use of them, or not. But any way we will have done our best, and acomplished our obligation. God wants us to be as good educators, as said before starting with the introduction of our catholic faith, and going trough the virtues and values acording  age. Lets ask for the help we need from Heaven to be good educators and assist to courses of F.O.

Jorge Casas y Sánchez.  

FIDELITY TO OUR CHURCH.

 

FIDELITY TO OUR CHURCH. 

There are some things that have to be clearly present in our minds, regarding our catholic church, they are:   1).- Our church is one and only one, founded by Jesus Christ.   2).- Our church is  holy has santity, given by God himselve.  3).- Our church is catholic, because it is universal, for all mankind.  4).- Our church is apostolic because its knowledge and teachings are for all human kind.

IT IS ONE, clearly Jesus Christ cries to his Father: “let´s  all be one, as you and I are, let all be one thing, as you are in me,  and I am in you. On an other occasion Jesus says: “every kingdom, or house divided in oposite factions wil not subsist”. And  in his  predication says,” I also have other sheeps that do not belong to this herd, and I must pick them up, they will hear my voice and  will be one single herd and I will be their Pastor”.

“ I am the true vine, and my father is the farmer, every branch  that does not carry its fruit, He will cut it, and all those that give fruit, He will prune to bear fruit. Stay with me and I will stay with you, as the branch canot produce fruit alone, united to the vine will do”.

“ I am the vine and you are the branches, if you are united to me, and I with you, the fruit  will be a great harvest. Without me you cant have a crop”.

Saint John Crisostumus, insists: “do not separate from the Church, nothing is stronger, your hopes, your spiritual health, your refuge, is in it, never will get old, its strenght is for ever”.

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IS HOLY.-  Santity is exactly unity with God, the better this unity the more santity. The Church has been founded and loved  by Jesus Christ in accorrdance with GOD FATHER, this way it is the spouse of Jesus, and asisted by the Holy Spirit. The Church is “opus” of the Holy Trinity. It  will never disappear, the gates of hell wil never prevail against it.

Jesus Christ  not excluded sinners of the society He founded, so if some members are affected by spiritual sickness, this should not diminish our love to our Church, on the contrary it should increase our sorrow  and compasión to those members.

The Church is not governed by Peter or John, or Paul, it is governed by the Holy Spirit, and the Lord has promised, that  will be at its side, all the days until the end of times. Thy has compared it to a troul net, that gets all kind of fish, good and bad, and will trow away the bad.

THE CHURCH IS CATHOLIC.-  God wants all humanity to save its soul, to go to heaven, and have knowledgment of the truth, and Jesus as the mediator between God Father and Jesus Christ the son in the Holy Trinity, for centuries the Catholic Church has had persons of all races, and social status, but its catholicity does not depend of the geographic extensión, even if it is a visual sign and a motive of credibility, at Pentecost when being born, it is all ready universal.

We call it catholic because from one end to the other of the earth her teachings and dogmas are being taugth without defects, and teaches the same doctrine of the visible as well as the invisible, to the governants and citizens of the terrenal as well as the heavenly. It does it with the sapient and the ignorant, in all values, virtues and spirutual gifts. And of course in things done, and words.

It will be observed that any ideology or thinking are in some way related to veracity, will have in its part of truth the influence, eco, or founding  of the Catholic  permanent sapience, that comes from the Divine Revelation, and lets remember that for the loyal interpretation we have the Church Magisterium.

The Catholic Church is not a political party, or a social ideology, or an not govermental organization  (NGO),  it is the sign of the divinity of the Holy Revelation. It is not looking for concord or material progress, it is the spouse of Christ, even if persecuted, and does a tremendous work in favor of the poor,  marginalaized and  outcasts.

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IS APOSTOLIC.- Jesus Christ founded its Church based on the weak, but they were loyal and faithful, the apostles were assisted by the Holy Spirit, that was a promise to them.  Christ did tell them:  “to me was given all authority in heaven and earth, so go and intruct all people, baptize them in the name in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all the things that I have commanded to you, and be certain that I will be with you until the consummation of the centuries”.

We are santified in the church after being baptized, we can access to the grace that saves, this is a great advantage to catholics. Jesus grants his grace out of his church also, due to his Divine Justice. But in our church we get all the help necessary, the guidance, the knowledment, we learn how to live in state of grace, we have the inmense help of the holy Sacraments, specially the forgiveness of sins. This is thanks to the missión of the church that is to save us, to grant the eternal salvation, if we comply with the will of God.  

Trough more than two thousand years of history in the church, the succession of the apostles is preserved, in their place we have the bishops, and the Pope that is the succession line of S. Peter, specially named by Jesus as  the first Pope of the Church.” YOU ARE PETER AND OVER THIS ROCK I  WILL BUILD  MY CHURCH”.

Peter will move to Rome in due time, and there he will found the primacy of the church. This is the reason for wich in América the protestants some times call our church ROMAN CATHOLIC .

The suprime power of the Catholic Church is Jesus Christ himself, all the rest are subdued to Thy, and taking his will, that comes from God Father as our supreme commandment.

Lets pray to our mother of heaven the Holy Virgin, to Access salvation by obeying God´s will, her help is of the outmost importance.

Jorge Casas y Sánchez.

EDUCATION IN THE FAMILY.

 

EDUCATION IN THE FAMILY.

This is an issue that has been very important alwais, but today due to several social circumstances, has become more necessary and needed than ever. In the matter of education of our sons, the parents are the first responsable, the most useful and irreplaceble in their first years, later priests, professors and else, will have important influence also. So we see the reason to prepare ourselves to perform this important part of our lives. Some of the very important things to consider are: Introduction to catholic faith, knowledment of environement, vocation, authonomy, career, responsability at home, study center, social surounding, good manners and exquicite social education etc. with the objective of having a happy life, and the eternal happiness in tho next life. This is the enormous advantage of salvation teached in cathoic families. A life full of contents, loving humanity, as Jesus Christ taugth us in the new comandment, given to his disciples as part of his final instructions: “just as I have loved you, you must also love one another”  John 13, 34.

At home children are subject to: Expectations in:  experiences, answers to environment, love, affection, sympathy, reaction to learning process, and adults are supossed to give them the tools to grow and mature. Their personalities will come out in due time, and the feeling of freedom will have a definite roll in their lives. This calls our attention in relation to the quality of teachings ,that we, as parents have to use in order to have a good catholic influence that forms their spiritual way of being, acting, living, with rectitude of intention in all their decisions, with the inner power to govern themselves, keeping away the bad influences of our own pasions, and giving space to all good acts, intentions, manners of being good persons in front of God and the human race, being example of how we must live as good catholics. All the actual problems in the world would be solved, just by living by all humans, the New Comandment, given to all us from Jesus Christ.

Overall education includes many aspects, we can mention as example besides the allready mentioned of Spiritual deep conviction, introduction to catholic faith, hope and love, moral convictions, matters as keeping good health, physical devepment, hygiene, affinity to art, good attitudes and habits in social life, possitive aproach towards work, predisposition to be be good citizens and family persons, and have preference for realy honest relations to others. As we can see, with this in mind and many other good caractheristics of a fine personality, the family education is a challenging but payable experience of life.

Following I have taken some parographs from:

 The Role of Parents in the Education of Children Ardita Ceka1* Rabije Murati2 1.Faculty of Philosophy, University of Tetova, 176 no.53A, Tetovo,1200 Macedonia 2.Faculty of Philosophy, University of Tetova,1200 Macedonia.

“ THE MOTHER AS AN EDUCATOR.- Mother is the first and the best teacher- proverb The family enables children protection in that suggestively that makes parents responsible for their developing and to make their children grow into a total personality.  The role of the woman or the mother as an educator represents a crucial resource to the development of the individual identity, which from researchers is seen even as more important as the very marital status of the parents and the occupation of the parents themselves. It seems that the feeling of being a mother, to the woman is more powerful than being a father of given child for the husband. Always in accordance to the biological as well as physiological relation of mother to the child, represents the first and reasonable part or segment of the child’s development. This for the reason that mother assures child’s life, as she is the one who brings the child in this world, and further on she raises them from being little towards reaching a total independency in mature life. The mother’s function in this regard, has a very important role which as such may be divided into two parts or directions: The first one is related to the child’s defense, while the other one to the child’s overall development. Mother’s protection as a function embeds several types of actions or types of functions. The 1st type is connected to the physical protection of the child, which means that the child must be provided healthcare and hygienic conditions, so that he/she could have a healthy life in a worm home environment in every sense of the word, including here the ambiance where the child lives, which must be well enlighten, a healthy place which offers the child to be showered, feed up and taken care in general. The 2nd type is the Psychological protection, which can be reflected through the child’s emotional security and psychological protection, especially in moments when the child feels it when the mother is next to him i.e. her. Another group of activities in this regard, are the maternal functions regarding the child’s development involving here the physical development, the intellectual development as well as the emotional development of the child. (Grancic, Radovan, 2006) Each child which grows up and is educated in the presence of mother, for sure is expected to reach an appropriate physical, psychological as well as social development. In this regard, these children have a much better appearance, the look happy and they enjoy the childhood in general. They are communicative and as such they are ready to cooperate. (Brada, Riza. 1995) For this reason, mother’s love and care to the child, is full and well completed, and as such is often accepted by other members of the very family. This type of cultivated love and affection can be qualified as a key condition for an appropriate development of the children in a given family. The children experience the physical as well as psychological effects of the mother, and as such they are taken as model which influences their further development during their emotional stage of development of their moral values as whole. This element of the so called child’s identification, the child embeds it in his/her personality for years on and on, throughout his/her total lifespan. It is planted in their character as well as temperament, and as such it is reflected through his/ her attitudes and thoughts in interaction or behavior comportment with the society in general. Almost all culture have developed arrangements which enable mothers to provide for basic child care while maintaining other duties that are instrumental to family well – being. (James, Garbarino. 1982) However, depending on the economic, social as well as emotional limitations, mothers, nowadays have a variety of opportunities to be able to reach or make real their mother’s role, which helps the child’s overall development and enables mothers to enjoy the fact of being mother. The modern experiences, show quite Journal of Education and Practice www.iiste.org ISSN 2222-1735 (Paper) ISSN 2222-288X (Online) Vol.7, No.5, 2016 63 frequent derailments from this path of action, which as such can be illustrated with the fact of single mothers, mothers coming from unemployed background, under age mother etc.”.

 

 “THE FATHER AS AN EDUCATOR.- The father in a family is a very important factor, concerning the organization of a nice and appropriately functional development of a house hold, with a specific accent on the children. Helping fathers be the ‘best fathers they can be’ is therefore of enormous importance to children. A god father must be a good parent and a good husband. This person is extremely important factor in the organization of the family life as a whole, which are the basic ground towards a happily and joyful family for all the members of a respective family. Many young fathers want to do things better than how they have experienced in their lives. (Claudia&Eberhard Muhlan. 2008) His presence in the family has a particular importance while it leads the family members, i.e. the children towards a feeling of safety in their life reigning on the overall family members as a compact union of members. In these circumstances of safety, the children are the ones who benefit mostly. However, the so called subjective experiencing of the parents by their children varies in different ways and family models, and as such his relevance in a family is much more different from the one that is performed by mothers. As a result of the gender prejudices in terms of the duties to be performed in their family, especially regarding their approach and contribution towards their children’s education, it turns out that mothers are more prepared to undertake their role in their children’s education, rather than their fathers. Fathers make a powerful difference in defining expectation and challenging children to do their best. (Constantine, Tammy. 1999) As such, the children learn their responsibilities and role in the family, when they themselves grow up and become parents, which is they are mature to play the father’s role in this regard. Given this theory, there has been done much research, which proves that the relationship between father and child becomes stronger. This relationship does not result to be dependent from neither of the other two relations i.e. the one between father and child neither the one mother-child. (Cowan, C. 1992) In order to have a successfully brought up and well educated children in one family, parents are crucial and they must be careful to some elements which play a key role in raising, bringing up and educating their children; Firstly, while the parent’s principal role in the family is the education and the bringing up of their children, then the main obligation of their children is to study harder and properly. For this aim, they need to be well instructed how to study, based upon rules and principles of an appropriate learning and studying. This approach would open to them the doors of the world of a behaviorist attitude towards the work, making possible for them to get to know better the relevance of working as one of the main behaviorist elements of the human kind. Secondly, the development of the child is in fact an overall child’s personality formation. The parents as educators must be able to recognize the basic features of their child, interests, temperament and especially the child’s emotional features regarding the child’s character. Thirdly, the child’s personality formation has resulted to be constructed mostly based upon child’s socialization in general. The socialization process as such, for sure nowadays represents the most important one of all other processes involved in his formation as a child. Thus, the child commences to socialize within a given society since the early stage of his/her childhood at parents’ home, circled by parental atmosphere and the relationship between family members in general. In this entourage, the child makes the first steps in the society, manifesting the basic features of behavior, which as such are the fundaments of further social development and integration of the child in a given society”. Lets pray to the holy Virgin our mother in heaven to make us good educators in the family.        JCS.

ALWAIS THE TRUTH.

 

ALWAIS THE TRUTH.

Catholics are alwais in the search of the truth, specialy in relation to our existance. Knowing the truth makes us capable of giving sense and direction to our lives, we should never be satisfied until we are sure that we own the truth in whatever issue. This, because of the abundance of fake information, specially in the social pages of Internet, many persons are interested in deviating the proper way of thinking of as many persons as they can, the other side is trough the truth that allows us to thihk properly, to know what is real, and the advantages of this are many.  Nobody is happy not knowing the reality of things, instead of being misguided by lies and information that is not adecuate but tendentious.

The truths are in many areas, like the sciences, just thik for a moment in the information that astronomy, chemestry, phisics, mathematics, give us, and has the good finnality of information, but, when it is about politics, history, catholicism, the lies are shamefully abundant.

When things are very serious, like in religión we have to try to clear as much as posible, lets take as an example “faith”. There are two different kinds,: human faith and divine faith, for us catholics the divine faith comes from God´s Revelation, and since God cannot mistake things, it is absolutly thuth. However human faith can be mistaken, can be wrong or on purpose a lie. We catholics learn trough the teachings of our church those knowledgments related to our beliefs.

 It is of great importance to know exactly what Jesus Christ trough his church´s knowledge wanted to reveal us. The Catholic Chuch trough its Magisterium, that is carefully inspired by the Holy Spirit, is the instance trough wich we receive the absolute truth. This thanks to the organization of our church and trough its bishops, priests and well prepared laymen.

Nothing is in human life compared to the wonderful situation of being in the possession of the truth, and it may be even dangerous not to own it.

Jorge Casas.

LIBERTY.

 

LIBERTY.-

“Acts of men”  and “human acts”,   there is a diference wich is that human acts are those that fall under the concience and due to it  are moral or inmoral, and acts of men, are those simple things as taking a glass of wáter, or having a stroll, that are not subjct to moral judgement. We are going to see a the human acts under various points of vieu, and circumstances, specially in relation to the responsability of them and to our salvation. Liberty has to be seen as a faculty of our soul, our will, and not determinism, we consider it as our free will to do things wether they are appropiate, correct, or wrong. Here I would like to make clear that thare is not “absolute liberty” for mankind and along the next paragraphs, it will be clear.

This free of will is a distintion of humans, not animals, since all they have is instint and whatever they do is because of it. Humans can choose among diffrent ways of aproaching our acts, that is oposed to following instint, wich we have, but can or can-not follow it, animals fatally have to follow it. Besides instint, us, thinking humans have the moral side of human acts.

“Thank you Father, because you have given me the privilege, and the decision  of following your steps, or offend thy”.  With  this words S. Josemaría, give us one of the aspects  of our freedom of will. This takes us to the dichotomy of doing what is moraly good ot not.  That way it is our decisión to do the things that will put us in the path of salvation, if  our acts are acording to the will of God. For acomplishing this we count with the help os Jesus Christ and our Mother in Heaven the Holy Mary. God helps us though the practice of our virtues, especially if we pray for them. If we fall in sin, we are sin slaves, it is proper to remember “The truth will make you free”. (J, 8-32) This in reference of the sapience  that the Jesus, teaches us. Liberty makes us responsable of our acts, and, we are in Christ. On  the contrary sin is against liberty, because in spiritual sense, instead of being in Christ we are in the devil.

Chistianity makes us try to do well and refuse bad, but there may be circunstances that make us do wrong, such as scareness, violence, ignorance, this attenuate the wrong doing. Another facet would be the wrong that we do that could be avoided, like the man that produces a car accident being drunk, if sober the accident would not had happened. The catholic formation gives us a profound sese of responsability and this promotes our liberty, taking us to its exercise. So in our inner being we become freely responsibile. Humanity  starts with Adan and Eve, they were created with a liberty much greater than our atual liberty, but due to their sin, they lost it, so in us the heirs, our liberty is very limited, and the slavery of sin could ony be rescued by God himself, so given his love for us, the only creatures made to his image and likeness, in the perfection of his love, Thy sent his oun son to rescue us, and institute his Church and the Sacraments that allow us to be in “Grace of God”, and to aquire the sense of freedom. That way we are free to reject sins as, divorce, abortion, sins against purity, eutanasia, eugenics, in vitro gestation, or not carring out the Commandments, etc.

About our actions, we say that they are free, when in accord to our will we discard determinism, and admit that they come from volunty, the error in wich Luther and Calvin fell was precisely determinism, Luther tougth that men could not avoid sining, that we humans are not capable of avoiding to sin, great error, God gives us the tools and the capacity, to avoid sin and in the case of needed recuperation of the state of grace, if we fall in sinful behavior, the Sacrament of confession. King David pleads with God “Restore to me the joy of my salvation, and uphold me with willing spirit” he wrote this after he had fallen into the sins of murder and adultery, as we can see it is repent and the virtue of hope, that he shows the Creator.

The acts of our will do not come casually, they proceed from our inner consciense, from our        casuistry. All the time we are taking decisions,some of them are inconsequential, like taking a “siesta” on Sunday, or in front of a fruit salad to pick first the bannana or the water melón. But others are important in our every day life, like pricing our merchendice, or picking a film between one that is profane or other that is decent, these acts are subject to moral judgement, others are so important that afect our existance, like who to marry with, or what career to study in the university, one difference that is important to manage consists in using our free will to do things that are in the sphere of our decisions, according to Gods will, and being happy in this life is in first place, or doing what “I feel like it”, without worrying in any way,  wich is debauchery.

We have to be carefull to not invade others rights, to be pure, to comply with just laws, to be in favor of morality in general, our own and that of others, those are acts of liberty, due to our acceptance of them, as examples of mistakes in this área, we could say: I am married but if I decide to have an intimate relation with an other woman, I can do so, to this we can say, you have the phicological liberty to do it, but you do not have the moral liberty. Here we see these two kinds of opossed liberties, expressed in plain lenguage: “I can do it, but I should not do it”  like this example we can find many. On other point of vieu, we can take the example of transit laws, they do not realy decrease our liberty, because we decide freely to obey them, as we consider that they are for the good af all of us. It is positive election, not repression, but confirm that there is not absolute freedom.

Lets ask the Virgin Mary to help us use our liberty to better serve the will of God.

Jorge Casas.

LENT, a very special time, of love.

 LENT, is a 40 days of liturgical time in wich our love for  God must be very special, we must not sufer, instead we must increase our love to our savior, Thy will sufer to save us, let us be touched by that luminous and brilliant ligth that respandesee, from the heigth of the cross. In that cross is crucified the God that has taken human flesh, to be among us and giving an example as a family man, as a prophet, as a professor, leaving to us the highest point of the Divine Revelation, founding the only true Cristian Church, the Catholic. And in it the knowledgment, the wisdom that trough the Holy Tradition and the Gospels, our church is the professor, the institution to teach us all about God and thy, will, thy wishes, the meaning of all thy Revelation, is also in charge of the Holy Sacramts, in other words, what is necessary for us to gain the eternal happiness, as the must great gift possible  for us.

All the life of Jesus Christ has been for the love that he has for you, for me, for all  humanity, a God that wants to spend eternity with you and me, ¡ that is the size of his love to us !. 

That is the reason to give his live for. There is no greater love that the one that gives his life for you. This 40 days must be of gratitude, of thankfullness, of joy, due to its purpose of salvation of its loving followers, of those of us, that beleive in Thy, also this 40 days are of pain because we see the suffering, the way Thy delivers his body and soul to God the Father, and that way he cleans us from the Original Sin, inherited from our first parents Adan and Eve, and leaving us, in charge of the Church, the Sacrament of pardon, for all of us, that repent of our sins.

Also in this Lent we have reasons to pray for due to the invasion of Ukranea, this is a tremendous way of slaugther of inocent persons, women, children, oldies, etc.  to soften the heart of Putin, and stop the bloodshed. In this Lent, the protagonist must be the love of peace, the love of our suffering brothers of Ukrania and Russia, the love of Christ that gave his entire life and a very painfull death for tho love of us. 

Numbers 21 to 32 GAUDIUM ET SPES.

 

21. In her loyal devotion to God and men, the Church has already repudiated(16) and cannot cease repudiating, sorrowfully but as firmly as possible, those poisonous doctrines and actions which contradict reason and the common experience of humanity, and dethrone man from his native excellence.

Still, she strives to detect in the atheistic mind the hidden causes for the denial of God; conscious of how weighty are the questions which atheism raises, and motivated by love for all men, she believes these questions ought to be examined seriously and more profoundly.

The Church holds that the recognition of God is in no way hostile to man's dignity, since this dignity is rooted and perfected in God. For man was made an intelligent and free member of society by God Who created him, but even more important, he is called as a son to commune with God and share in His happiness. She further teaches that a hope related to the end of time does not diminish the importance of intervening duties but rather undergirds the acquittal of them with fresh incentives. By contrast, when a divine instruction and the hope of life eternal are wanting, man's dignity is most grievously lacerated, as current events often attest; riddles of life and death, of guilt and of grief go unsolved with the frequent result that men succumb to despair.

Meanwhile every man remains to himself an unsolved puzzle, however obscurely he may perceive it. For on certain occasions no one can entirely escape the kind of self-questioning mentioned earlier, especially when life's major events take place. To this questioning only God fully and most certainly provides an answer as He summons man to higher knowledge and humbler probing.

The remedy which must be applied to atheism, however, is to be sought in a proper presentation of the Church's teaching as well as in the integral life of the Church and her members. For it is the function of the Church, led by the Holy Spirit Who renews and purifies her ceaselessly,(17) to make God the Father and His Incarnate Son present and in a sense visible. This result is achieved chiefly by the witness of a living and mature faith, namely, one trained to see difficulties clearly and to master them. Many martyrs have given luminous witness to this faith and continue to do so. This faith needs to prove its fruitfulness by penetrating the believer's entire life, including its worldly dimensions, and by activating him toward justice and love, especially regarding the needy. What does the most reveal God's presence, however, is the brotherly charity of the faithful who are united in spirit as they work together for the faith of the Gospel(18) and who prove themselves a sign of unity.

While rejecting atheism, root and branch, the Church sincerely professes that all men, believers and unbelievers alike, ought to work for the rightful betterment of this world in which all alike live; such an ideal cannot be realized, however, apart from sincere and prudent dialogue. Hence the Church protests against the distinction which some state authorities make between believers and unbelievers, with prejudice to the fundamental rights of the human person. The Church calls for the active liberty of believers to build up in this world God's temple too. She courteously invites atheists to examine the Gospel of Christ with an open mind.

Above all the Church knows that her message is in harmony with the most secret desires of the human heart when she champions the dignity of the human vocation, restoring hope to those who have already despaired of anything higher than their present lot. Far from diminishing man, her message brings to his development light, life and freedom. Apart from this message nothing will avail to fill up the heart of man: "Thou hast made us for Thyself," O Lord, "and our hearts are restless till they rest in Thee."(19)

22. The truth is that only in the mystery of the incarnate Word does the mystery of man take on light. For Adam, the first man, was a figure of Him Who was to come,(20) namely Christ the Lord. Christ, the final Adam, by the revelation of the mystery of the Father and His love, fully reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear. It is not surprising, then, that in Him all the aforementioned truths find their root and attain their crown.

He Who is "the image of the invisible God" (Col. 1:15),(21) is Himself the perfect man. To the sons of Adam He restores the divine likeness which had been disfigured from the first sin onward. Since human nature as He assumed it was not annulled,(22) by that very fact it has been raised up to a divine dignity in our respect too. For by His incarnation the Son of God has united Himself in some fashion with every man. He worked with human hands, He thought with a human mind, acted by human choice(23) and loved with a human heart. Born of the Virgin Mary, He has truly been made one of us, like us in all things except sin.(24)

As an innocent lamb He merited for us life by the free shedding of His own blood. In Him God reconciled us(25) to Himself and among ourselves; from bondage to the devil and sin He delivered us, so that each one of us can say with the Apostle: The Son of God "loved me and gave Himself up for me" (Gal. 2:20). By suffering for us He not only provided us with an example for our imitation,(26) He blazed a trail, and if we follow it, life and death are made holy and take on a new meaning.

The Christian man, conformed to the likeness of that Son Who is the firstborn of many brothers,(27) received "the first-fruits of the Spirit" (Rom. 8:23) by which he becomes capable of discharging the new law of love.(28) Through this Spirit, who is "the pledge of our inheritance" (Eph. 1:14), the whole man is renewed from within, even to the achievement of "the redemption of the body" (Rom. 8:23): "If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the death dwells in you, then he who raised Jesus Christ from the dead will also bring to life your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who dwells in you" (Rom. 8:11).(29) Pressing upon the Christian to be sure, are the need and the duty to battle against evil through manifold tribulations and even to suffer death. But, linked with the paschal mystery and patterned on the dying Christ, he will hasten forward to resurrection in the strength which comes from hope.(30)

All this holds true not only for Christians, but for all men of good will in whose hearts grace works in an unseen way.(31) For, since Christ died for all men,(32) and since the ultimate vocation of man is in fact one, and divine, we ought to believe that the Holy Spirit in a manner known only to God offers to every man the possibility of being associated with this paschal mystery.

Such is the mystery of man, and it is a great one, as seen by believers in the light of Christian revelation. Through Christ and in Christ, the riddles of sorrow and death grow meaningful. Apart from His Gospel, they overwhelm us. Christ has risen, destroying death by His death; He has lavished life upon us(33) so that, as sons in the Son, we can cry out in the Spirit; Abba, Father(34)

CHAPTER II

THE COMMUNITY OF MANKIND

23. One of the salient features of the modern world is the growing interdependence of men one on the other, a development promoted chiefly by modern technical advances. Nevertheless brotherly dialogue among men does not reach its perfection on the level of technical progress, but on the deeper level of interpersonal relationships. These demand a mutual respect for the full spiritual dignity of the person. Christian revelation contributes greatly to the promotion of this communion between persons, and at the same time leads us to a deeper understanding of the laws of social life which the Creator has written into man's moral and spiritual nature.

Since rather recent documents of the Church's teaching authority have dealt at considerable length with Christian doctrine about human society,(1) this council is merely going to call to mind some of the more basic truths, treating their foundations under the light of revelation. Then it will dwell more at length on certain of their implications having special significance for our day.

24. God, Who has fatherly concern for everyone, has willed that all men should constitute one family and treat one another in a spirit of brotherhood. For having been created in the image of God, Who "from one man has created the whole human race and made them live all over the face of the earth" (Acts 17:26), all men are called to one and the same goal, namely God Himself.

For this reason, love for God and neighbor is the first and greatest commandment. Sacred Scripture, however, teaches us that the love of God cannot be separated from love of neighbor: "If there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.... Love therefore is the fulfillment of the Law" (Rom. 13:9-10; cf. 1 John 4:20). To men growing daily more dependent on one another, and to a world becoming more unified every day, this truth proves to be of paramount importance.

Indeed, the Lord Jesus, when He prayed to the Father, "that all may be one. . . as we are one" (John 17:21-22) opened up vistas closed to human reason, for He implied a certain likeness between the union of the divine Persons, and the unity of God's sons in truth and charity. This likeness reveals that man, who is the only creature on earth which God willed for itself, cannot fully find himself except through a sincere gift of himself.(2)

25. Man's social nature makes it evident that the progress of the human person and the advance of society itself hinge on one another. For the beginning, the subject and the goal of all social institutions is and must be the human person which for its part and by its very nature stands completely in need of social life.(3) Since this social life is not something added on to man, through his dealings with others, through reciprocal duties, and through fraternal dialogue he develops all his gifts and is able to rise to his destiny.

Among those social ties which man needs for his development some, like the family and political community, relate with greater immediacy to his innermost nature; others originate rather from his free decision. In our era, for various reasons, reciprocal ties and mutual dependencies increase day by day and give rise to a variety of associations and organizations, both public and private. This development, which is called socialization, while certainly not without its dangers, brings with it many advantages with respect to consolidating and increasing the qualities of the human person, and safeguarding his rights.(4)

But if by this social life the human person is greatly aided in responding to his destiny, even in its religious dimensions, it cannot be denied that men are often diverted from doing good and spurred toward and by the social circumstances in which they live and are immersed from their birth. To be sure the disturbances which so frequently occur in the social order result in part from the natural tensions of economic, political and social forms. But at a deeper level they flow from man's pride and selfishness, which contaminate even the social sphere. When the structure of affairs is flawed by the consequences of sin, man, already born with a bent toward evil, finds there new inducements to sin, which cannot be overcome without strenuous efforts and the assistance of grace.

26. Every day human interdependence grows more tightly drawn and spreads by degrees over the whole world. As a result the common good, that is, the sum of those conditions of social life which allow social groups and their individual members relatively thorough and ready access to their own fulfillment, today takes on an increasingly universal complexion and consequently involves rights and duties with respect to the whole human race. Every social group must take account of the needs and legitimate aspirations of other groups, and even of the general welfare of the entire human family.(5)

At the same time, however, there is a growing awareness of the exalted dignity proper to the human person, since he stands above all things, and his rights and duties are universal and inviolable. Therefore, there must be made available to all men everything necessary for leading a life truly human, such as food, clothing, and shelter; the right to choose a state of life freely and to found a family, the right to education, to employment, to a good reputation, to respect, to appropriate information, to activity in accord with the upright norm of one's own conscience, to protection of privacy and rightful freedom even in matters religious.

Hence, the social order and its development must invariably work to the benefit of the human person if the disposition of affairs is to be subordinate to the personal realm and not contrariwise, as the Lord indicated when He said that the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.(6)

This social order requires constant improvement. It must be founded on truth, built on justice and animated by love; in freedom it should grow every day toward a more humane balance.(7) An improvement in attitudes and abundant changes in society will have to take place if these objectives are to be gained.

God's Spirit, Who with a marvelous providence directs the unfolding of time and renews the face of the earth, is not absent from this development. The ferment of the Gospel too has aroused and continues to arouse in man's heart the irresistible requirements of his dignity.

27. Coming down to practical and particularly urgent consequences, this council lays stress on reverence for man; everyone must consider his every neighbor without exception as another self, taking into account first of all His life and the means necessary to living it with dignity,(8) so as not to imitate the rich man who had no concern for the poor man Lazarus.(9)

In our times a special obligation binds us to make ourselves the neighbor of every person without exception and of actively helping him when he comes across our path, whether he be an old person abandoned by all, a foreign laborer unjustly looked down upon, a refugee, a child born of an unlawful union and wrongly suffering for a sin he did not commit, or a hungry person who disturbs our conscience by recalling the voice of the Lord, "As long as you did it for one of these the least of my brethren, you did it for me" (Matt. 25:40).

Furthermore, whatever is opposed to life itself, such as any type of murder, genocide, abortion, euthanasia or wilful self-destruction, whatever violates the integrity of the human person, such as mutilation, torments inflicted on body or mind, attempts to coerce the will itself; whatever insults human dignity, such as subhuman living conditions, arbitrary imprisonment, deportation, slavery, prostitution, the selling of women and children; as well as disgraceful working conditions, where men are treated as mere tools for profit, rather than as free and responsible persons; all these things and others of their like are infamies indeed. They poison human society, but they do more harm to those who practice them than those who suffer from the injury. Moreover, they are supreme dishonor to the Creator.

28. Respect and love ought to be extended also to those who think or act differently than we do in social, political and even religious matters. In fact, the more deeply we come to understand their ways of thinking through such courtesy and love, the more easily will we be able to enter into dialogue with them.

This love and good will, to be sure, must in no way render us indifferent to truth and goodness. Indeed love itself impels the disciples of Christ to speak the saving truth to all men. But it is necessary to distinguish between error, which always merits repudiation, and the person in error, who never loses the dignity of being a person even when he is flawed by false or inadequate religious notions.(10) God alone is the judge and searcher of hearts, for that reason He forbids us to make judgments about the internal guilt of anyone.(11)

The teaching of Christ even requires that we forgive injuries,(12) and extends the law of love to include every enemy, according to the command of the New Law: "You have heard that it was said: Thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thy enemy. But I say to you: love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who persecute and calumniate you" (Matt. 5:43-44).

29. Since all men possess a rational soul and are created in God's likeness, since they have the same nature and origin, have been redeemed by Christ and enjoy the same divine calling and destiny, the basic equality of all must receive increasingly greater recognition.

True, all men are not alike from the point of view of varying physical power and the diversity of intellectual and moral resources. Nevertheless, with respect to the fundamental rights of the person, every type of discrimination, whether social or cultural, whether based on sex, race, color, social condition, language or religion, is to be overcome and eradicated as contrary to God's intent. For in truth it must still be regretted that fundamental personal rights are still not being universally honored. Such is the case of a woman who is denied the right to choose a husband freely, to embrace a state of life or to acquire an education or cultural benefits equal to those recognized for men.

Therefore, although rightful differences exist between men, the equal dignity of persons demands that a more humane and just condition of life be brought about. For excessive economic and social differences between the members of the one human family or population groups cause scandal, and militate against social justice, equity, the dignity of the human person, as well as social and international peace.

Human institutions, both private and public, must labor to minister to the dignity and purpose of man. At the same time let them put up a stubborn fight against any kind of slavery, whether social or political, and safeguard the basic rights of man under every political system. Indeed human institutions themselves must be accommodated by degrees to the highest of all realities, spiritual ones, even though meanwhile, a long enough time will be required before they arrive at the desired goal.

30. Profound and rapid changes make it more necessary that no one ignoring the trend of events or drugged by laziness, content himself with a merely individualistic morality. It grows increasingly true that the obligations of justice and love are fulfilled only if each person, contributing to the common good, according to his own abilities and the needs of others, also promotes and assists the public and private institutions dedicated to bettering the conditions of human life. Yet there are those who, while possessing grand and rather noble sentiments, nevertheless in reality live always as if they cared nothing for the needs of society. Many in various places even make light of social laws and precepts, and do not hesitate to resort to various frauds and deceptions in avoiding just taxes or other debts due to society. Others think little of certain norms of social life, for example those designed for the protection of health, or laws establishing speed limits; they do not even avert to the fact that by such indifference they imperil their own life and that of others.

Let everyone consider it his sacred obligation to esteem and observe social necessities as belonging to the primary duties of modern man. For the more unified the world becomes, the more plainly do the offices of men extend beyond particular groups and spread by degrees to the whole world. But this development cannot occur unless individual men and their associations cultivate in themselves the moral and social virtues, and promote them in society; thus, with the needed help of divine grace men who are truly new and artisans of a new humanity can be forthcoming

31. In order for individual men to discharge with greater exactness the obligations of their conscience toward themselves and the various group to which they belong, they must be carefully educated to a higher degree of culture through the use of the immense resources available today to the human race. Above all the education of youth from every social background has to be undertaken, so that there can be produced not only men and women of refined talents, but those great-souled persons who are so desperately required by our times.

Now a man can scarcely arrive at the needed sense of responsibility, unless his living conditions allow him to become conscious of his dignity, and to rise to his destiny by spending himself for God and for others. But human freedom is often crippled when a man encounters extreme poverty just as it withers when he indulges in too many of life's comforts and imprisons himself in a kind of splendid isolation. Freedom acquires new strength, by contrast, when a man consents to the unavoidable requirements of social life, takes on the manifold demands of human partnership, and commits himself to the service of the human community.

Hence, the will to play one's role in common endeavors should be everywhere encouraged. Praise is due to those national procedures which allow the largest possible number of citizens to participate in public affairs with genuine freedom. Account must be taken, to be sure, of the actual conditions of each people and the decisiveness required by public authority. If every citizen is to feel inclined to take part in the activities of the various groups which make up the social body, these must offer advantages which will attract members and dispose them to serve others. We can justly consider that the future of humanity lies in the hands of those who are strong enough to provide coming generations with reasons for living and hoping.

32. As God did not create man for life in isolation, but for the formation of social unity, so also "it has pleased God to make men holy and save them not merely as individuals, without bond or link between them, but by making them into a single people, a people which acknowledges Him in truth and serves Him in holiness."(13) So from the beginning of salvation history He has chosen men not just as individuals but as members of a certain community. Revealing His mind to them, God called these chosen ones "His people" (Ex. 3:7-12), and even made a covenant with them on Sinai.(14)

This communitarian character is developed and consummated in the work of Jesus Christ. For the very Word made flesh willed to share in the human fellowship. He was present at the wedding of Cana, visited the house of Zacchaeus, ate with publicans and sinners. He revealed the love of the Father and the sublime vocation of man in terms of the most common of social realities and by making use of the speech and the imagery of plain everyday life. Willingly obeying' the laws of his country He sanctified those human ties, especially family ones, which are the source of social structures. He chose to lead the life proper to an artisan of His time and place.

In His preaching He clearly taught the sons of God to treat one another as brothers. In His prayers He pleaded that all His disciples might be "one." Indeed as the redeemer of all, He offered Himself for all even to point of death. "Greater love than this no one has, that one lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13). He commanded His Apostles to preach to all peoples the Gospel's message that the human race was to become the Family of God, in which the fullness of the Law would be love.

As the firstborn of many brethren and by the giving of His Spirit, He founded after His death and resurrection a new brotherly community composed of all those who receive Him in faith and in love. This He did through His Body, which is the Church. There everyone, as members one of the other, would render mutual service according to the different gifts bestowed on each.

This solidarity must be constantly increased until that day on which it will be brought to perfection. Then, saved by grace, men will offer flawless glory to God as a family beloved of God and of Christ their Brother.