domingo, 21 de febrero de 2021

THE VOICE OF CONCIENCE.

 

 THE VOICE OF CONCIENCE.

Taken from the numbers 58 to 63 of the ENCYCLICAL, VERITATIS SPLENDOR  of Saint John Paul II.

Due to the importance of being concient of all our acts, I have considered very useful to print from the enciclical only this numbers, being my recomendation to know the complete document.

58. The importance of this interior dialogue of man with himself can never be adequately appreciated. But it is also a dialogue of man with God, the author of the law, the primordial image and final end of man. Saint Bonaventure teaches that "conscience is like God's herald and messenger; it does not command things on its own authority, but commands them as coming from God's authority, like a herald when he proclaims the edict of the king. This is why conscience has binding force".103 Thus it can be said that conscience bears witness to man's own rectitude or iniquity to man himself but, together with this and indeed even beforehand, conscience is the witness of God himself, whose voice and judgment penetrate the depths of man's soul, calling him fortiter et suaviter to obedience. "Moral conscience does not close man within an insurmountable and impenetrable solitude, but opens him to the call, to the voice of God. In this, and not in anything else, lies the entire mystery and the dignity of the moral conscience: in being the place, the sacred place where God speaks to man".104

59. Saint Paul does not merely acknowledge that conscience acts as a "witness"; he also reveals the way in which conscience performs that function. He speaks of "conflicting thoughts" which accuse or excuse the Gentiles with regard to their behaviour (cf. Rom 2:15). The term "conflicting thoughts" clarifies the precise nature of conscience: it is a moral judgment about man and his actions, a judgment either of acquittal or of condemnation, according as human acts are in conformity or not with the law of God written on the heart. In the same text the Apostle clearly speaks of the judgment of actions, the judgment of their author and the moment when that judgment will be definitively rendered: "(This will take place) on that day when, according to my Gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus" (Rom 2:16).

The judgment of conscience is a practical judgment, a judgment which makes known what man must do or not do, or which assesses an act already performed by him. It is a judgment which applies to a concrete situation the rational conviction that one must love and do good and avoid evil. This first principle of practical reason is part of the natural law; indeed it constitutes the very foundation of the natural law, inasmuch as it expresses that primordial insight about good and evil, that reflection of God's creative wisdom which, like an imperishable spark (scintilla animae), shines in the heart of every man. But whereas the natural law discloses the objective and universal demands of the moral good, conscience is the application of the law to a particular case; this application of the law thus becomes an inner dictate for the individual, a summons to do what is good in this particular situation. Conscience thus formulates moral obligation in the light of the natural law: it is the obligation to do what the individual, through the workings of his conscience, knows to be a good he is called to do here and now. The universality of the law and its obligation are acknowledged, not suppressed, once reason has established the law's application in concrete present circumstances. The judgment of conscience states "in an ultimate way" whether a certain particular kind of behaviour is in conformity with the law; it formulates the proximate norm of the morality of a voluntary act, "applying the objective law to a particular case".105

60. Like the natural law itself and all practical knowledge, the judgment of conscience also has an imperative character: man must act in accordance with it. If man acts against this judgment or, in a case where he lacks certainty about the rightness and goodness of a determined act, still performs that act, he stands condemned by his own conscience, the proximate norm of personal morality. The dignity of this rational forum and the authority of its voice and judgments derive from the truth about moral good and evil, which it is called to listen to and to express. This truth is indicated by the "divine law", the universal and objective norm of morality. The judgment of conscience does not establish the law; rather it bears witness to the authority of the natural law and of the practical reason with reference to the supreme good, whose attractiveness the human person perceives and whose commandments he accepts. "Conscience is not an independent and exclusive capacity to decide what is good and what is evil. Rather there is profoundly imprinted upon it a principle of obedience vis-à-vis the objective norm which establishes and conditions the correspondence of its decisions with the commands and prohibitions which are at the basis of human behaviour".106

61. The truth about moral good, as that truth is declared in the law of reason, is practically and concretely recognized by the judgment of conscience, which leads one to take responsibility for the good or the evil one has done. If man does evil, the just judgment of his conscience remains within him as a witness to the universal truth of the good, as well as to the malice of his particular choice. But the verdict of conscience remains in him also as a pledge of hope and mercy: while bearing witness to the evil he has done, it also reminds him of his need, with the help of God's grace, to ask forgiveness, to do good and to cultivate virtue constantly.

Consequently in the practical judgment of conscience, which imposes on the person the obligation to perform a given act, the link between freedom and truth is made manifest. Precisely for this reason conscience expresses itself in acts of "judgment" which reflect the truth about the good, and not in arbitrary "decisions". The maturity and responsibility of these judgments — and, when all is said and done, of the individual who is their subject — are not measured by the liberation of the conscience from objective truth, in favour of an alleged autonomy in personal decisions, but, on the contrary, by an insistent search for truth and by allowing oneself to be guided by that truth in one's actions.

 

Seeking what is true and good

62. Conscience, as the judgment of an act, is not exempt from the possibility of error. As the Council puts it, "not infrequently conscience can be mistaken as a result of invincible ignorance, although it does not on that account forfeit its dignity; but this cannot be said when a man shows little concern for seeking what is true and good, and conscience gradually becomes almost blind from being accustomed to sin".107 In these brief words the Council sums up the doctrine which the Church down the centuries has developed with regard to the erroneous conscience.

Certainly, in order to have a "good conscience" (1 Tim 1:5), man must seek the truth and must make judgments in accordance with that same truth. As the Apostle Paul says, the conscience must be "confirmed by the Holy Spirit" (cf. Rom 9:1); it must be "clear" (2 Tim 1:3); it must not "practise cunning and tamper with God's word", but "openly state the truth" (cf. 2 Cor 4:2). On the other hand, the Apostle also warns Christians: "Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect" (Rom 12:2).

Paul's admonition urges us to be watchful, warning us that in the judgments of our conscience the possibility of error is always present. Conscience is not an infallible judge; it can make mistakes. However, error of conscience can be the result of an invincible ignorance, an ignorance of which the subject is not aware and which he is unable to overcome by himself.

The Council reminds us that in cases where such invincible ignorance is not culpable, conscience does not lose its dignity, because even when it directs us to act in a way not in conformity with the objective moral order, it continues to speak in the name of that truth about the good which the subject is called to seek sincerely.

63. In any event, it is always from the truth that the dignity of conscience derives. In the case of the correct conscience, it is a question of the objective truth received by man; in the case of the erroneous conscience, it is a question of what man, mistakenly, subjectively considers to be true. It is never acceptable to confuse a "subjective" error about moral good with the "objective" truth rationally proposed to man in virtue of his end, or to make the moral value of an act performed with a true and correct conscience equivalent to the moral value of an act performed by following the judgment of an erroneous conscience.108 It is possible that the evil done as the result of invincible ignorance or a non-culpable error of judgment may not be imputable to the agent; but even in this case it does not cease to be an evil, a disorder in relation to the truth about the good. Furthermore, a good act which is not recognized as such does not contribute to the moral growth of the person who performs it; it does not perfect him and it does not help to dispose him for the supreme good. Thus, before feeling easily justified in the name of our conscience, we should reflect on the words of the Psalm: "Who can discern his errors? Clear me from hidden faults" (Ps 19:12). There are faults which we fail to see but which nevertheless remain faults, because we have refused to walk towards the light (cf. Jn 9:39-41).

Conscience, as the ultimate concrete judgment, compromises its dignity when it is culpably erroneous, that is to say, "when man shows little concern for seeking what is true and good, and conscience gradually becomes almost blind from being accustomed to sin".109 Jesus alludes to the danger of the conscience being deformed when he warns: "The eye is the lamp of the body. So if your eye is sound, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is not sound, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!" (Mt 6:22-23). Prepared by JCS.

martes, 16 de febrero de 2021

THE MESSIAH AND ITS RELIGION

 

THE MESSIAH AND ITS RELIGION.

The teachings of Jesus Christ, as example for all mankind, of course  has no rival, the evidence of his religión is divine, due to comming from God All Migthy. Other religions come from men, that have not an origin different from any other man, but as Jesus is the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, that has taken flesh, is real God and real man, lets remenber that all the revelation contained in the Old Testament is the preparation of his comming to earth, being his preence among us the will of God Father, that allows his son to come to us with the powers to save  and give us the opportunity of salvation. Therefore his teachings, his Religion, with its Institutions, Sacraments, and the Authority given to his Church and Hierarchy, present us his salvation purposes, and his claims of reverence, obedience, imitation, and fervent love.

 

The more we contemplate Chist´s Gospels the more we shall be impressed with its genuiness and reality the Evangelists bear the marks of truth beyond all other historians. They set before us the most extraordinary being who ever appeared on earth. They never speak for themselves, they manifest only one deep venerationfor for their Master.

 

In their discourse they show the character of Christ, wich could not have etered the thougths of man, they simply could not have been imagined, therefore it has to be acknowledged its divine origin. His teachings, and let me just name one of them, due its great importance, and could not have any previous indication is:  the Trinity of God, Three Persons in one single Divinity. The force of this argument should transport us to a dimention in Christ´s Revelation, over any other religious knowledgment.

 

Among all nations, the jewish was the most marked, they realy felt that no other nation in the world had more wrigths than them to be the leaders in all senses, and that they should dominate over the roman and other empires, everywhere, every time, and were waiting the Messiah that was to come soon, acording to Revelation. What they expected was a leader that would be the kind of powerfull King, as had been David and Salomon, and would banish the roman occupation, creating a powerful army, the hatred occupant,  with its idolatrous goverment, tax collection, was regarded as the intruder to be overcomed and after, to be a conquered state by them.

 

In effect the Messiah came, but it was absolutely different from what the majorty was expecting, He was not the person to fulfill their expectations of dominion, his teachings were unexpected by the majority, he teached: Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, love and forgive your enemies, lay down treasures of earth and lay them up in heaven, seek charity and love, and so on.

 

Among this singular people, appeared Jesus of Nazareth, his first words were, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”. Many, the majority of them could not beleive that Jesus was the Messiah, never the less we find many thronged by Him and surrounding Him, listening carefully to his teachings and marvelled by his miracles, in curing and resucitating. Never a Word about Rome, conquest, or domination. Instead the Glories of God and the long expected kingdom of heaven.

Instead of  war and victory, He commands his heares to love, to forgive, to bless their enemies, he spaks of peace, proclaiming the happyness and eternity of the incorruptible inmortal life as the true end of their being,  honoring the kingdom from wich He comes.

 

Jesus Christ as a child and a  Young human person grew up as any other among his community and Heard the opinions that the jewish people handeled at that time, burning with one passion, “to overtrow the roman dominion”. And we see in Him, the escape from any influence of that society. We find Him untouched by those feelings, and surrounded by the teaching of a mother and a father that were influenced only by the law of Moses, and were close, very and conscious of its commandments. This is an other proof of the veracity of his predication, that came directly from God, no human interventios was in his life, that as a carpenter before and after the death of Saint Joseph, consisted in working with its hands. Away from the bitter abhorrence of the people with wich He must have dealt with.

 

The religión that He taught, was the continuation of the previous Revelation, from this is that the difference of testaments, old and new, exist. But the enormous difference  is in what the profets inpired from the Spirit of God taugth to regular men, and the Summit of his Revelation done by his own Son, due to the great importance for our salvation, and the unmeasurable love of God to mankind, for THY wants all men to go to heaven for eternity, but leaving the possibility to our  freedom, it is each one of us who decides wether to live according to Gods will, or not.

 

We should know as much of Jesus and the Holy Virgin, in order to know them as well as posible, love them, since we cannot love what we do not know, and we will be  able to love them more if we know them better, and get their help to reach the kind of life that will assure our salvation, pray to them, for their help, since by ourselves alone we cannot.

 

Prepared by Jorge Casas.

viernes, 29 de enero de 2021

ST. JOSEPH.

 

SAINT JOSEPH.- (prepared by Jorge Casas).

The Pope Franciscus, has declared the year of Saint Joseph, a very good decision, it goes from, the 8 of December 2020 to the 8 of December of 2021, and this decisión was taken to conmemorite the 150 years of, the declaration of the saint as Patron of the Church. And something very important is that indulgences can be gained, as the apropiate instance has declared.

 Saint Joseph betwen other things, is the saint of the good death, we know this by logic, since nothing is writen about the matter, but for a moment let´s thik of his own death, for sure that at  his last moments, Jesus Christ and the Holy Virgin must have been at his side, conforting him in this transit,  from this life to  the Eternal Life.

Saint Joseph, was born in Betleham, but is known as Joseph of Nazateth, due to his living, in that city. Many are the things that he made in his life, as we will see, the scriptures do not register, one single word said from him, such was his discretion, and form of living in the shadow, he was an example of discretion being the adoption father of the Son of God, and husband to the Virgin Mary. Few are the mentioned in the scriptures, of the many thigs that he realized, but between lines we can mention some of them. For us catholics he was an example of man of faith, and many other virtues, of wich we could mention:  his love for others, the responsabiities always acomplished, the discipline of his live, entirely delivered to his adopted son and it´s holy Mother, he worked with his hands and teached the trade to Jesus, they both were known as carpenters.

As a Young bachelor, he had been promised to Mary, in that time this promises, by both of  the couple was a serious ceremony, but they did not live together, but until the ceremony of wedding, wich was to take place in a few months after, it was in this period of time that two very important happenings took place, one was the visit of Arcangel Saint Gabriel to Mary, to anounce her that she was to be the mother of the Messiah. And the other her visit to her cousin, the old Elizabeth that in her very old age was expecting, as a very special favor from God. And the person she was carrying in her womb, was, later in his life , nothing less than John the Baptist. When both women met, Elisabeth filled whith the Holy Spirit, said to Mary. ¡How is it that the future mother of the Messiah visits me!, and the answer of Mary was the prayer that we know as the, Magnifica. (Magnificat). Being in the middle of such happenings, Mary should not have been worried of what Joseph would think of her apearence of pregnant woman, she must have hoped that in some manner he would be adviced, as her cousin was.

When Mary returned to Nazareth, Joseph, did not have any notice of what she was carrying inmediatly noted her pregnacy, and since he was a good hearted man, took the desition of leaving, going away, and nothing else. But in his dreams he was informed of the maravellous pregnacy, and that he should go trough with the marring ceremony. And that was what happened, and since then they lived together. Some months later he had to go to Bethleham, the city of his origin, due to an order of the roman goverment, that every one should go to  register acording to the protocol of the sensus of population, that the romans decided, and not having, at the moment any persons to care for her wife, in such critical time, he took the desition of taking her along, in the short trip, probably two journeys. Once arrived they could not find vacancy in the inns, the ownwers did not want a woman about the give birth in their place, we have to remember that  the inns at that time, did not have privacy, they were large rooms in wich the beds were side by side, and did not want to have a birth in he middle of the rest of the clients.

Joseph will solve the problem, going to the shelters for the shepherds and part of their cattle that were built in the caves, those exist near the city, and using one of the mangers, that he properly cleaned and prepared for Mary and the baby to come. And there took place the most important happening in the history os mankind, such form of starting his life among us, is  the first lesson of humility that we receive from Jesus Christ. The witnesses were simple young pastors, kids realy, and the company they had was that of a cow anf the monky, whose breath warmed the place, this wids knew what was happening sice they were told by the Holy  Spirit, and took the news of what they had seen, and those who listened to them werw amased.

The birth was,  -- a saint puts it in beutiful words--, as the mature fruit that separates from the branch that has given it, its sap, until it is ready to be separated.

Some time after the visit of the three Wise Men, took place, and after as Herod, that did not see the Wise Men, as they did not want to see him, in  their return, took a terrible decision.

Joseph was the silent witness of this history, that will continue with his acting in the situations that came, receiving in his dreams the instructions to act. They had to go to Egipt due to the order of killing all youngsters under two years of age, given by Herod, in order to kill , among them, the baby Jesus.

Joseph kept his family in Egipt for the time, providing  what they needed until the time that, again in his dreams, was advised to return, since Herod had died. But as Herod´s son was the new King, so instead of going to Jerusalem, he decided to go to Nazareth, and there they were stablished, as any normal family, the Sacred Family that they were. The education of Jesus included the learning of Joseph´s trade, so we will find that Jesus was known as the son of the carpenter, and also as carpenter himself.

St. Joseph, died some time after, we do not know when, and his last moments most have been in the arms of his wife and son, we can  not imagine a sweeter way of going from this life to the other Life. That is why he is known as the saint of the Good Deadth.

In this time of pandemia in wich we have to take new decisions and responsabilities, no one is a better bet than St. Joseph. So lets pray to Jesus Christ, The Holy Virgin Mary, and St. Joseph, for the help that we need.

jueves, 29 de octubre de 2020

HOMILIE ABOUT FAMILY OF THE 1 SEPT. IN TORRECIUDAD, BY PRELATE OF OPUS DEI.

 The PrelateHomilies, Articles, InterviewsHomilies

"Share this joyful and hope-filled vision of the family"

Homily of Monsignor Fernando Ocáriz, at the 28th Marian Day of the Family held in the shrine of Torreciudad on September 1, with over 16,000 people taking part.

HOMILIES
Opus Dei - "Share this joyful and hope-filled vision of the family"

My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior” (Responsorial Psalm: Lk 1:46-47). When repeating these words of Our Lady in the responsorial psalm, we have expressed our desire to accompany our Mother in her attitude of thanksgiving and praise to God. We have many reasons to raise our hearts to God, who wants to carry out great things in us, and through us in our families, in society and in the whole world.

Today, in celebrating this Marian Day of the Family close to Our Lady of Torreciudad, we raise our hearts to God with these words of holy Mary. Certainly, we are and we realize we are very little, greatly in need of God’s help in order to be good children of his and bring forward our families in accord with his will. But with our Mother in Heaven we can pray this prayer of thanksgiving to God: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.”

In the Gospel we have seen how an angel restored peace to Saint Joseph’s heart, in a complicated moment in the history of the family of Nazareth (cf. Mt 1:18-23). We are amazed to see how Mary and Joseph also encountered difficulties in bringing forward their family! The history of their home is not an idealized one. The Holy Family was without doubt the happiest family the world has ever seen or will see, but nevertheless they had to confront real setbacks and problems.

“We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him” (Rom 8:28). We have heard these words of Saint Paul in the second reading. Many of us will recall how Saint Josemaria summed them up in three words: omnia in bonum, everything works for the good. How often these words will have helped us to embrace God’s will, also when we don’t understand why He allows something that makes us suffer or that causes others to suffer. We can also apply them in the context of each home. Everything works for the good: a financial problem that requires a change of plans, the challenges involved in raising children, the difficulties in trying to make compatible a demanding job with the needs of the home… Everything works for the good, if we put everything in God’s hands. He will give us the strength needed to turn it into an opportunity to grow as a family, to find in these small or great challenges a way to be more united, because everyone bears them with love.

“I thank God,” says Pope Francis, “that many families, which are far from considering themselves perfect, live in love, fulfil their calling and keep moving forward, even if they fall many times along the way” (Apost. Exhort. Amoris laetitia, 57). These are hope-filled words. At the same time, they invite us to ask ourselves: are we aware of the great good that families do when they strive to be a school of communion, of forgiveness, of solidarity? Truly, families can give light and warmth to other families, to friends, neighbors, school or work colleagues. “God wants every family to be a beacon of the joy of his love in our world. What does this mean?” the Holy Father asked a few days ago in Ireland. “It means that we, who have encountered God’s saving love, try, with or without words, to express it in little acts of kindness in our daily routine and in the most hidden moments of our day” (Address, Dublin, 25 August 2018).

To attain this, there is no need to wait until everything in one’s own home is going perfectly. “Every Christian home,” Saint Josemaria said, “should be a place of peace and serenity. In spite of the small frustrations of daily life, an atmosphere of profound and sincere affection should reign there together with a deep‑rooted calm, which is the result of authentic faith that is put into practice” (Christ is Passing By, no. 22). This is how families can cooperate very directly and effectively in building up and strengthening the civilization of love that Saint John Paul II spoke about.

In the Collect prayer today we have addressed God with these words: “In your commandments the family finds its authentic and sure foundation.” This is truly the rock that gives stability to the family: the loving and wise plan of our Creator and Father for the family. Therefore we want to get to know and appreciate ever better the features of this marvelous divine plan, and spread it joyfully in every sector of society.

Let us also renew today, close to Our Lady, the resolution to live the Communion of Saints intensely. Let us pray for the Church, for the Pope, and for all the shepherds and faithful. And may we raise our prayer to Heaven today especially for all the world’s families, asking that they receive the strength of the prayer and sacrifice that accompanies each of our days.

Our Mother, Our Lady of Torreciudad, with your help we want to share this joyful and hope-filled vision of the family with those around us. We ask you to teach us to go forward together, as a family, towards the encounter with God and with other men and women. And that we not become discouraged when the path becomes hard, or when we stumble, because we know that you always accompany us.

lunes, 12 de octubre de 2020

Taken from 31 to 36 of Enciclical from Pope Franciscus, Fratteli Tutti, Oct. 2020.

 


31. In this world that races ahead, yet lacks a shared roadmap, we increasingly sense that “the gap between concern for one’s personal well-being and the prosperity of the larger human family seems to be stretching to the point of complete division between individuals and human community… It is one thing to feel forced to live together, but something entirely different to value the richness and beauty of those seeds of common life that need to be sought out and cultivated”.[29] Technology is constantly advancing, yet “how wonderful it would be if the growth of scientific and technological innovation could come with more equality and social inclusion. How wonderful would it be, even as we discover faraway planets, to rediscover the needs of the brothers and sisters who orbit around us”.[30]

PANDEMICS AND OTHER CALAMITIES IN HISTORY

32. True, a worldwide tragedy like the Covid-19 pandemic momentarily revived the sense that we are a global community, all in the same boat, where one person’s problems are the problems of all. Once more we realized that no one is saved alone; we can only be saved together. As I said in those days, “the storm has exposed our vulnerability and uncovered those false and superfluous certainties around which we constructed our daily schedules, our projects, our habits and priorities… Amid this storm, the façade of those stereotypes with which we camouflaged our egos, always worrying about appearances, has fallen away, revealing once more the ineluctable and blessed awareness that we are part of one another, that we are brothers and sisters of one another”.[31]

33. The world was relentlessly moving towards an economy that, thanks to technological progress, sought to reduce “human costs”; there were those who would have had us believe that freedom of the market was sufficient to keep everything secure. Yet the brutal and unforeseen blow of this uncontrolled pandemic forced us to recover our concern for human beings, for everyone, rather than for the benefit of a few. Today we can recognize that “we fed ourselves on dreams of splendour and grandeur, and ended up consuming distraction, insularity and solitude. We gorged ourselves on networking, and lost the taste of fraternity. We looked for quick and safe results, only to find ourselves overwhelmed by impatience and anxiety. Prisoners of a virtual reality, we lost the taste and flavour of the truly real”.[32] The pain, uncertainty and fear, and the realization of our own limitations, brought on by the pandemic have only made it all the more urgent that we rethink our styles of life, our relationships, the organization of our societies and, above all, the meaning of our existence.

34. If everything is connected, it is hard to imagine that this global disaster is unrelated to our way of approaching reality, our claim to be absolute masters of our own lives and of all that exists. I do not want to speak of divine retribution, nor would it be sufficient to say that the harm we do to nature is itself the punishment for our offences. The world is itself crying out in rebellion. We are reminded of the well-known verse of the poet Virgil that evokes the “tears of things”, the misfortunes of life and history.[33]

35. All too quickly, however, we forget the lessons of history, “the teacher of life”.[34] Once this health crisis passes, our worst response would be to plunge even more deeply into feverish consumerism and new forms of egotistic self-preservation. God willing, after all this, we will think no longer in terms of “them” and “those”, but only “us”. If only this may prove not to be just another tragedy of history from which we learned nothing. If only we might keep in mind all those elderly persons who died for lack of respirators, partly as a result of the dismantling, year after year, of healthcare systems. If only this immense sorrow may not prove useless, but enable us to take a step forward towards a new style of life. If only we might rediscover once for all that we need one another, and that in this way our human family can experience a rebirth, with all its faces, all its hands and all its voices, beyond the walls that we have erected.

36. Unless we recover the shared passion to create a community of belonging and solidarity worthy of our time, our energy and our resources, the global illusion that misled us will collapse and leave many in the grip of anguish and emptiness. Nor should we naively refuse to recognize that “obsession with a consumerist lifestyle, above all when few people are capable of maintaining it, can only lead to violence and mutual destruction”.[35] The notion of “every man for himself” will rapidly degenerate into a free-for-all that would prove worse than any pandemic.

lunes, 28 de septiembre de 2020

SOME THINGS ABOUT THE HOLY SPIRIT

SOMETHING ABOUT THE HOLY SPIRIT.

It has been said that the great unknown is Thy Holy Spirit, it is allwais good to remember Thy, pray to Thy and maditate about all what Thy does for each one of us and for the the unique Church of Christ. To start, we can say that Thy is the source of all unity, that in Pentecost gave the Apostols the gift of tongues, and since then they remembered and understood all the teachings of Jesus, that came to form the writen Gospels and the Holy Christian Tradition. We should not expect the same gifts, this are other times and circumstances, but Thy gives us gifts that are very valuable, to start the possibility of intuition of God. He came to it´s church and to us, as promised by Jesus Christ himself, after his Resurection and before going to his Father in Heaven.

The Psalm 104,30 says:

WHEN YOU SEND YOUR SPIRIT, THEY ARE CREATED, AND YOU RENEW THE FACE OF THE EARTH.

The Psalmist celebrates the glory of Creation. The earth was not in order, and was empty, darkness covered the abism and THE SPIRIT OF GOD  MOVED OVER THE SURFACE  OF THE WATERS.

It is Jesus Christ who will make clear to us that the Holy Spirit is one of the three Persons of the Holy Trinity, God´s love for menkind is aforded to us throug the Holy Spirit, God is love and his love to us is given trough his Spirit.

“The Grace of Jesus Christ, the Charity of God, and the communion of the HolySpirit, be with us all”. We have to be able to discern of the action of the Holy Spirit , over our children, if one of them shows a vocation of a religious life, we should not take away the opportunity, and without forcing, take her or to a well prepared priest in these matters, or a the ideal person to chat with. It migth be a vocation or just devotion, God is who gives the vocations, so we as parents, should prudently investigate.

When we are bautized, the Grace of God Father is our new reborn, it is given to us by the Holy Spirit, in Jesus Christ. Due to the conduction of the Son, since the Son presents them to the Father and the Father in return gives the incorruptibiity, so without the Holy Spirit it would be imposible to see the Son of God, and without Son no one can get near God, because the knowledgment of the Father is through the Son and knowing of the Father is through the Holy Spirit.

Our faith also comes to us by the Holy Spirit, and along all our lifes Thy will be with us, with his inspiration, in the words of Christ in his last dinner with his Apostols he said that it would be the Holy Spirit who would keep them in the truth of his Revelation, and until the end of times.

The Holy Spirit is a gift to us by God, and he has 7 gifts to us, and this allows us to make our life a gift to God. these gifts are:

1)      WISDOM.-  that allows a person to know the truth.

2)      UNDERSTANDING.-  trough it, we gain a certitude about our beliefs.

3)      COUNSEL.- because Thy will guide us in defending those truths

4)      FORTITUDE.- courage against evil.

5)      KNOWLEDGE.-  desire to live up to the meaning and purpose of God, as ability of knowing.

6)      PIETY.- the perfection of the virtue of religión, to worship God and serve Thy.

7)      FEAR OF THE LORD.- taking in account our smallness and Thy greatness, puts us in perspective.

These informations are taken from the sciptures, and are and will be for all mankind the effective forum of the faith that saves us. We should prey or the capacity and comprehension of the messages that come from Jesus Gospels, that are a set of truths and comming from his own voice. The Gospels are Christ Thyself, Eucaristy, Confession, Praying.

Discerning about the the influence in our children is an important matter, if one or more of them show, signs of a religious vocation, we should not ignore it, but without forcing them they shoud be taken to a wise priest or a well prepared person in this, and let them talk alone, as many times as necessary. The Holy Spirit will do the rest.

The enemies of our Church, Religion, and beliefs, are alwais trying to influence our children, with idelogys that are bad for them, being nowdays the “Gender Ideology”, of wich we have to take all posible precautions, and get information that allows to know its dangers and corruption of the tiny minds of our minors. Lets pray to the Holy Spirit to donate us, what is necessary to guide our minors agaist the perverse influence of the Ideology of Gender.

Jorge Casas y Sánchez.