🌹Monday's with Blessed Mary🌹
🧀The Cheese & Crackers = Quotes by Fr. Richard Janowicz, Venerable Bede, and C.S. Lewis
🍆The Veggies = my 2💰
🍟The Potatoes = "“Concerning the incomprehensibility of God from the Church Fathers, by Θεόφιλος
🌭The Meat = "Chastity: Seeing Others Through Christ’s Eyes”, by Matthew Rose
🍧The Dessert = YouTube video: “Modesty in Dress”, with Colleen Hammond Part 2
🍯 "They alone know how to believe in God who love God, who are Christians not only in name but also in action and [way of] life, because without love faith is empty. With love, it is the faith of a Christian —without love, the faith of a demon." By Venerable Bede
🍩 “Where men are forbidden to honour a king they honour millionaires, athletes or film stars instead: even famous prostitutes or gangsters. For spiritual nature, like bodily nature, will be served; deny it food and it will gobble poison. “. By C.S. Lewis
~God's Every Miracle~So Irresistible~ ~God's Every Miracle~So Irresistible~
☄️You may wonder and think upon how can it be and why
☄️The Lord says: All things are possible for me
☄️Not one single thing can confound me, cause I'm supreme you see
☄️Don't have to say: Oh me or my
☄️Never a need to sigh
☄️A hint as to how it unfolds, which as such is quite a mystery
☄️Reflect my child, on my grand and glorious sovereignty
☄️I am more than able, most extremely capable
☄️Doing what appears so hard or very near impossible
☄️No problem for me to handle this or that
☄️More simple than winning at a game of pitty pat
☄️In all things and at all times, the Godhead is most reliable
Bringing about results and solutions in ways that are absolutely wonderful
☄️No impediments, things can change at the drop of a hat
☄️I am in total control, doing as I do please, at the expense of no one's wrath
☄️Oh yes, I certainly am at any time, a God that can do
☄️Great and mighty things for each and everyone of you
☄️It's ok, put me to the test
☄️You'll find out in various circumstances that in unexpected ways you'll never fail in someway to be blest
☄️For those who trust wholeheartedly, they are in number really oh so few
☄️In regards to doubters, now that's a category where there can be found a whole slew
☄️It pays to believe and pull out into the deep, be set apart from the rest
☄️All who do so, brings joy and romances me the best
☄️For all those operating with sincere trust and love in their heart
☄️Let them have high expectations, hoping to receive life changing graces which from them that will never have to depart
☄️Be of good cheer for in an instance, in a blink of an eye
☄️Can come forth miracles so mighty from my hands that nothing or no one can even attempt to defy
Info from this site: https://lifeondoverbeach.wordpress.com/about/
Excerpts:
...Concerning the incomprehensibility of God from the Church Fathers, – every one of them a Christian, I have been trying to draw attention to an older and better understanding of the Christian faith that is unfamiliar to a great many whose only experience is with American style fundamentalist/evangelical/literalist religion.
There are different types of knowing. There is a theoretical or technical knowledge that is concerned with objective data. This kind of knowledge confers a certain power and control: power and control over matter, and even power and control over people. It can be taught and learned in all its particulars by any one possessing the intellectual acuity. it is the same kind of knowledge found in surgical techniques, business strategies, military tactics, or legal procedures, – Paul referred to this as the kind of knowledge that “puffs up.”
The other type of knowledge is personal and intuitive, it arises from within, is subjective and is more difficult to transmit. It can really be gained only through experience, and one can be guided to that experience through the witness that others bear of their own experience. It sometimes is easier to portray through poetry, stories, or parables. At its purest it is transcendent, in that it passes through even the hidden levels of the imagination and affective life to the heart of the person known. This is the kind of knowledge the Christian faith is most concerned with. To know another, to know God is to experience him precisely as person. Such knowledge of the Lord is a saving knowledge. It is possible only through love. And it can be spread only through love, not through argument. If you insist that the first kind of knowledge is the only kind to be had, then there is little that I will be able to say to you that will help you understand. This second kind of knowledge is not a flag to be waved, nor a club to use against those who do not understand. As Saint Ambrose said, “It doesn’t suit God to save his people by arguments”
God is Incomprehensible in His essence, but there is a sense in which He can be known and that knowledge of Him is an absolute necessity for our salvation. In his Catechetical Lectures St. Cyril of Jerusalem says that, “We explain not what God is, but candidly confess that we have not exact knowledge concerning Him. For in what concerns God, to confess our ignorance is the best knowledge”
Info from this site:
catholicexchange.com/becoming-true-men-christ-chastity-seeing-others-christs-eyes?mc_cid=97b0757c15&mc_eid=18b89dd2ad
“Poverty may be the most radical call of the monastic religious vows, but chastity is the vow most under attack today. Rare are contemporary examples of chaste cinematic heroes, men who actively live a life with an ordered sexuality. An unmarried character who is not in an active sexual relationship finds himself at the receiving end of jokes and concern for his sanity because he is not having sex. We the audience are encouraged to laugh or worry along with his friends. Pornography, fornication, adultery, and homosexuality are not only encouraged, they seem required. Why even bother with chastity?
The Challenge of Chastity
We forget, in our sexually oversaturated world, that chastity is not some psychological defect nor is it a repressive restriction of the prudish. Chastity is the proper state of human life; it is what should be expected of everyone, in the same way that we expect honesty and respect from others. St. Thomas Aquinas includes his discussion of chastity under the cardinal virtue of temperance, meaning that chastity concerns moderation in our sexual appetites. Sex is a good thing, and all good things are best in moderation. Everyone is called to be chaste, not just priests and religious.
Chastity isn’t celibacy. It’s using sexuality in its proper context. It isn’t a list of nos; it’s a way of saying “yes” to what God wants of us. The requirements of chastity vary depending on one’s state in life. For example, a chaste single person should abstain from sex while a married couple should embrace their marital union. We are even biologically wired for chaste sex, sex that seeks to bond the spouses and remains open to life. To attempt to override this crucial aspect of our biology is, frankly, unnatural. Chastity is an essential aspect of life for all Christians, but it is especially important for men. Men are the guardians of our world, as Adam was of the Garden. We cannot be the guardians of our world if we are unchaste, if we do not discipline ourselves in the face of sexual temptations. When we approach a woman in lust, a woman entrusted to our care by our Heavenly Father, we are abusing another person. The damage of our abuse does not stop when we leave that particular woman. It infects how we view other people and undermines our other relationships, either romantic or otherwise. Acting in lust is not manly; it is evil.
Mary’s Chaste Spouse
What does St. Joseph have to teach us? When Joseph was married to Mary, the most pure, most chaste person who ever lived, save only Christ, he did not view her as a collection of body parts; he saw her as a whole person, as a beautiful daughter of God. Church Tradition tells us that Mary was consecrated as a virgin in her youth and that Joseph married her knowing this. He married knowing she and he would not unite sexually. Like Tobias taking Sarah as his wife, Joseph took Mary “not for any lustful motive, but” rather “in singleness of heart”
My Struggle
If you struggle with impurity, you are not alone! Oppressive forces surround us, an enemy great in number. Impurity stalks every man since Adam after the Fall. In my own life, I have struggled with impurity, with temptations to see women through the lens of lust, rather than with the clear sight of Christ. My struggle lasted throughout high school and into college. The blessings of a strong spiritual formation, a solid Catholic education, devout parents, and a good teen ministry program at my parish, as well as the grace of the sacraments and good, virtuous friends, kept me from surrendering to the enemy. They helped align my sight with that of Christ.
Whenever I get the chance to talk to students about chastity, especially high school seniors about to head to college, I urge them to stay close to the sacraments, to return repeatedly to confession even when they feel exhausted by their sins, and to surround themselves with good, virtuous friends. No soldier fights a war alone. We need our brothers and our commander, the Lord God of Hosts.
That, then, is my advice to men who wish to follow Christ in holy Chastity. Turn to Him! Don’t give up! Don’t surrender to the forces that want nothing more nor less than our spiritual destruction. When we fall, Christ, chaste despite being stripped and exposed to the mockery of the crowd, will heal us if we rest in His open arms and next to His Sacred Heart. There are few things more authentically masculine than the embrace of men who have fought together against a common enemy; so is our embrace of the crucified Christ."