tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56436372129187821092024-03-05T20:58:08.437-05:00Time for the FamilyTime for the Familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11913058932504799191noreply@blogger.comBlogger55125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5643637212918782109.post-37020782977953027072015-09-26T10:40:00.000-04:002015-09-26T10:40:04.195-04:00Burning down the house<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">This past week my oldest son received a <a href="http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Fire-Emergency-10671">Lego Junior fire station
set</a> as an unexpected gift from his cousins.
It is his first Lego set and he is</span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> totally captivated by it. He has played with it constantly and shows no
sign of tiring of it like he does other toys.
It was a wonderful gift totally in accord with his desires and longing
to be immersed in the world of firefighters. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Not surprisingly, my youngest son is also completely
mesmerized by the set. He relishes the
few opportunities he gets to play with the truck and station on his own without
his brother around. The thing about it
though is that he breaks pieces off <i>every</i>
<i>single</i> <i>time </i>he touches it! So in
the span of 5 minutes the truck no longer has its ladder, windshield, doors, or
rear seating compartment and the station no longer has its slide, door handle, chair,
windows, antenna, garage, ramps to the garage, upper wall, external hydrant . .
. you get the picture. The gift intended
for his brother is totally in accord with his desires too and he longs to be
immersed in the world of firefighters via this portal. Currently though at his young age, with
imprecise fine motor skills, he cannot help but steadily and predictably
destroy the very thing with which he is enthralled. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">I bring it up here because it has struck me as an analogy
for helping to process the SCOTUS ruling in <a href="http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/obergefell-v-hodges/"><i>Obergefell v. Hodges</i></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">So what specifically are the contours of the analogy I am
referencing?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVe7Owx7r9wQHaWsejTqtFnbOLp3KvLef5mhxlsx-knLiDqIRF8FCSRGZ0HFxCERsAG2-tCvQF0YhN4oLGyzSkXLh-RGa2-qGkg6eOj0CszEW3stdx-_1E3xJ0U5KO1Jdt1rKaK3BMFYY/s1600/15574067800_c6a1e849d6_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVe7Owx7r9wQHaWsejTqtFnbOLp3KvLef5mhxlsx-knLiDqIRF8FCSRGZ0HFxCERsAG2-tCvQF0YhN4oLGyzSkXLh-RGa2-qGkg6eOj0CszEW3stdx-_1E3xJ0U5KO1Jdt1rKaK3BMFYY/s400/15574067800_c6a1e849d6_z.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/99304214@N05/15574067800/in/photolist-pJeaLm-dmY5QB-5Qjd5q-5Qf468-5Qf3EP-pYsTfE-q1oN2V-q1Gnzd-5Qf3Sr-7bUT1z-7bUUfZ-7bURFH-7bYGX7-9bzNDR-aMSKK-5Qj9Cs-5QeYog-aT5aw-bQJmak-7KbZ3D-7KbZ26-bC7zfZ-69yHE1-pJb7fh-pJcpfX-p4PMic-p4LVCW-p4LVV9-pJed7U-5QjmAj-bosjLw-5Qf6p4-wqAsin-aT55n-bBneTx-bosjsN-bBnf7D-bosjus-bBnf4D-bBneRg-bBnfcP-bosjzU-bosjvQ-bosjGo-bBnf94-bBnfea-bosjx7-bosjq1-bosjrA-5QjfHo" target="_blank">"Lego Fire Station" </a>by ShadowMan39 is licensed under <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/" target="_blank">C.C. 2.0</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">An unexpected gift arrives from thoughtful relatives. It is spot on in terms of fulfilling a
longing we have. This is what God our father
has done in giving humanity natural and sacramental marriage. We all long to love and be loved for, “Man
cannot live without love. He remains a being that is incomprehensible for
himself, his life is senseless, if love is not revealed to him, if he does not
encounter love, if he does not experience it and make it his own, if he does
not participate intimately in it.” (<i><a href="http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_04031979_redemptor-hominis.html">Redemptor
hominis<span style="font-style: normal;"> #10</span></a></i>)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The possibility of remaining exclusively, permanently and
fruitfully bound to a spouse is a longing proper to all human hearts. St. John Paul II calls it the <a href="https://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/jp2tb96.htm">primordial sacrament</a>,
or the sign that actually makes God present in the world from the very dawn of
creation. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Some of humanity is capable of receiving the surprise gift
in an appropriate way that keeps the gift intact. Some of humanity is not. Here’s a kicker though, we<i> all</i> start out <i>not</i> being able to keep the gift intact, but with time, patience and
training (by God) we develop the necessary skills and finesse to interact
appropriately within the confines of the gift.
After the Fall, all of humanity experiences a wound in our most
vulnerable interiority. We desire things
that do not correspond to our longing for love.
We are attracted by lies, counterfeits and knockoffs. Because of this gaping wound everyone needs
to learn how to grow beyond the ultimate poison to marriage which is “hardness
of heart” (<a href="http://usccb.org/bible/matthew/19">Mt 19:8</a>). So the remedy for <i>any of us</i> being able to live out the intricate gift of marriage well
is time, virtue and God’s grace.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">This is why, in part, I’m so displeased with the SCOTUS
ruling. It ignores the crescendo of time,
virtue and grace that humanity has been learning to implement when it comes to the
tremendous gift of marriage down from Adam and Eve, through Abraham, David,
Hosea, Moses, Jesus, my ancestors to me.
But actually, I can’t be too harsh on the 5 Justices that ruled so
wrongly late in June because marriage in America has been consistently ruled
against for generations (if we wanted to try, we might pinpoint the first major
turn with the ruling on contraception in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griswold_v._Connecticut"><i>Griswold v. Connecticut</i></a>). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">I am disturbed that so many in our culture remain where my
younger son is, constantly destructing and unable to leave an intact structure
for others. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Spelling it out even more in the terms of the analogy, <i>everyone’s</i> proclivities to all sorts of
sexual sins have been breaking pieces off of sacramental marriage (when two
baptized Christians profess vows) and natural marriage (when a baptized
Christian marries a non-Christian, or two non-Christians marry) for so long
that we no longer have a fire station standing in Western culture. We just have a pile of recognizable pieces,
deconstructed and seemingly read for our own designs. But this will not work for man who must
participate intimately in love in order to fully receive himself. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">I’m not angry at the “Gay lobby”, they’re just applying the
same logic that our culture has been applying since even before <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Sanger">Margaret Sanger</a> was up
to no good at the turn of the century. The
widespread acceptance of no fault divorce means that marriage is not truly
expected to be permanent for many in our culture and the ubiquitous use of
contraception and sterilization have made intimacy between men and women
unfruitful and closed to the possibility of lovingly accepting children from
the first moment of their conception. So
if men and women are not permanently and fruitfully bound together in marriage,
what would be the rational basis in our courts for distinguishing between
marriage and same sex civil unions now erroneously referred to as “marriage” in
our nation?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">I’m disheartened when my sons get overwhelmed by the
intricate details of their Lego fire station.
One of them can play well with the gift, the other can only slowly
destroy it. This realization has enabled
me to process my thoughts and emotions in the wake of June 26, 2015. I long for the time when more of us learn our
lessons and grow to be like my older son, playing in accord with our limits—and
therefore are free to love authentically and be loved fully.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">What’s helping you process the SCOTUS ruling? </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ3epYOadMd4eH6TX9K3P_yzLYHfaIDbDhNBtIQQn97nVzJoMBR6mUTsQGsjx61YnGEXTVSLFGYzbAnYx9VgD-0RpVfzHNLZspc32y91k2Vs0yWzictPUNG5su6Asy1Nwh5xCm6NfcPJQ/s1600/CTejeda+bio.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ3epYOadMd4eH6TX9K3P_yzLYHfaIDbDhNBtIQQn97nVzJoMBR6mUTsQGsjx61YnGEXTVSLFGYzbAnYx9VgD-0RpVfzHNLZspc32y91k2Vs0yWzictPUNG5su6Asy1Nwh5xCm6NfcPJQ/s640/CTejeda+bio.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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Time for the Familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11913058932504799191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5643637212918782109.post-68769838054508234902015-07-22T10:08:00.001-04:002015-07-22T10:08:29.565-04:00What should I know when discerning marriage?<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Though I
must maintain a certain level of confidentiality as a canonist, I can still
make broad observations when it comes to marriage and preparing for marriage.
One area in which I find myself often surprised is the various reasons people
decide to enter into marriage and with whom they decide to do it. Too often
there is too little actual discernment and too much fantasy involved in the
decision. If I may be so bold, I
present here some advice about the discernment of marriage from a canonist.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The most
common ground for annulment is a lack of discretionary judgment (LDJ). Simply
put, LDJ means that something was so overwhelming and essential that it
hindered the mind to make a proper judgment, which affects the discernment of
marriage. In our RomCom culture, it is not hard to find this ground in most
cases considering how little discernment there is for marriage.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Love is a
virtue. It is not something one “falls into.” Like any virtue, love requires
active participation of the person in his striving toward excellence. Love does
not make marriage, only consent makes a marriage; in fact, tribunals won’t look
explicitly at love to judicate the validity of marriage.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixaOvJhl7jBwE4iKkcdARXkyM4Srg8-eh9CFgkBRCksuQX9qoRTLxWp7WvYXCwHunHdiUG9SPqWEdgntfaTc5kBefsPm9cARlODryGo1SutO0dUzM16PLrXTSlg-yV_bzsBV4sSClq_Ww/s1600/5339009539_f8192035d2_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixaOvJhl7jBwE4iKkcdARXkyM4Srg8-eh9CFgkBRCksuQX9qoRTLxWp7WvYXCwHunHdiUG9SPqWEdgntfaTc5kBefsPm9cARlODryGo1SutO0dUzM16PLrXTSlg-yV_bzsBV4sSClq_Ww/s400/5339009539_f8192035d2_z.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisgampat/5339009539/in/photolist-98MPwB-aYEUS6-aNqesp-8vMza9-89UXYm-7WcE4A-56o8z4-gHmTmV-WD1aL-9vAWDf-kV3nkp-89RHnv-8ku7v6-8Hg1is-7KvBGj-4veMZd-7S895j-rXThA-8rnR19-8Hg1nL-bzn45D-bhWK2-6usKuU-9XLf83-4BBMYm-8HcTk6-28Hyo7-4jEMWZ-69HSic-kWoz5m-6vRtB4-9yANK-kWn44T-7ETWvT-WD1e3-JFn77-89UVTU-9LmELN-dR2qpQ-5T6e9i-aWXsWT-9ZS3jz-kWnr28-5uMKRm-9XLfy5-ryisFg-aSmv1V-9XLfvm-4XF1t-kWor9S" target="_blank">"Kim and Dan's engagement" </a>by ChrisGampat is licensed under <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/" target="_blank">C.C. by 2.0</a></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Marriage is
a vocation (<i>nb</i>: this does not
preclude love, but in fact makes space for love’s true depth). It takes at
least nine years of discernment to be a priest. Yet, some people get married
over the weekend. There is wisdom in discerning your vocation. Now marriage is
not the same vocation as the religious life, but, as individuals, we should
take any vocation seriously. Marriage is not a simple matter of choice, but
involves God in the decision making process. Therefore, courtship is
discernment because it has one goal, to marry or not marry. Neither is a good
or bad answer because either answer helps in discerning one’s vocation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Discernment
is key to marriage. The couple must realistically evaluate their boyfriend or
girlfriend with God’s help. In order for the relationship to work, there must
be prayer. The couples should understand each other’s spiritual life and
models. Faith is key to trust and love.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">One thing
RomCom culture neglects to portray is that the discerning person should look at
the potential spouse’s family. When the tribunal reviews a case for a ground,
we will often ask about families and upbringings. The family is very important.
Often as the couple matures in the marriage, they will begin to imitate their
parents because the parents were of course each spouse’s first model of
marriage. Therefore, it is wise to see how their parents interact with each
other and to notice the relationship between the parent and the future spouse.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">If you are a
woman, see how your potential husband talks about his father because his father
is often his first model of masculinity for him. Many of his characteristics
and principles will be formed from the pattern of his father. If his father
provided a good formation to the son, the son will usually behave accordingly.
This system will provide certain unbreakable principles that will include his
wife and the treatment of her. Also, remember that the reverse can also be
true: the sins of the father are the sins of the son.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Moments of anger
or stress tend to reveal something about a man’s honor system. Every man has a
level of aggression in him. As he grows, he learns to control and channel it.
When he is angry or stressed, at times, he could become aggressive. How he
responds to those triggers, might save the discerning woman’s life. If the
aggression turns into violence, this is a red flag. Other red flags include lying,
malice, or any other forms of deceit., these are also red flags. If there is
any aggressive sexual advancements during these times, the woman should be
concerned. These red flags should be discerned because they may be mild during
the courtship; once the marriage matures and there are children, they will
escalate. This is a tale I have read far too often.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">If you are a
man, see how your potential spouse understands beauty in broad sense. Her sense
of beauty is instilled in her by both her parents. Her father provides an
outward understanding, while her mother will provide an inward definition.
Discern the source of that beauty. Is it from God, the woman herself, or from
something material? Does her understanding of beauty include motherhood and
wifehood? Try to discern the source of her beauty because it will save the
husband from struggles further in the marriage. Did she marry you for you or in
order to fulfill a fantasy? Or are you just a stepping stone to something
better?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Other simple
things I have noticed from reading cases: try to discern any abuses or trauma
in the other person’s life and how it was handled. Such things determine the person's character
and behavior. Depending on his response to and handling of the abuse or trauma,
it may determine his actions in other stressful situations, like his or her
child being hurt. Understand this simple truth: if he or she hits you once, he
or she feels a right to abuse and it will manifest at some point again in the
marriage.<br />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br />
<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Try and determine how forgiveness and closure has played in
healing from any abuse or trauma. The way they have forgiven the transgression,
may reveal the manner they respond to events in the marriage. I have noticed
three levels of forgiveness: God, the other person, and the self; the self
being the hardest to forgive and to discern. Some have forgiven the other
person and God for what happened and they say they are fine. But they may have
not completely forgiven themselves for being a victim, so they hide it. While
the courtship may be fine, marriage always brings up what is hidden. If it is
unresolved abuse, remember your vows “in good times and bad.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Don’t make
excuses for the other person; rather seriously develop an insight into him or
her. Look at the Church's teachings on marriage and discern if the other person
can fulfil them. When the discernment is complete and your judgment has
determined this person to a potential spouse, I would recommend going to prayer
and see if God agrees.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">This may all sound a bit harsh, and that comes from my
experience: what I do can be harsh, but also enriching. I write so that couples
can see the bad with the good. There is great hope for love in marriage, more
so than in any stalled courtship, but marriage makes the spouses naked before
each other. There is nothing hidden or will be hidden in time. Each spouse loves
the other, including all the other person’s flaws. Some flaws can be seen in
the present, but many may not be revealed until after the marriage, often after
having children. The virtue of love, which is an action, can take all the
ugliness with the beauty, and saying “I do” allows this to happen. The form of
marriage aids the spouses in their pursuit of holiness.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<i><span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Have a question you’d like answered about canonical law? You
can email it directly to askacanonlawyer[at]gmail.com</span></span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Times","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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Time for the Familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11913058932504799191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5643637212918782109.post-53760124244200873812015-07-02T17:30:00.000-04:002015-07-02T17:30:42.493-04:00What is to be done?<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">With
regard to SCOTUS; with regard to <i>Vanity
Fair</i>; with regard to the co-opting of language, concepts, and symbols; with
regard to the sloganeering; with regard to the vitriol; with regard to the
violence; with regard to being labeled a bigot; with regard to the seemingly
all-pervasive truth claims; with regard to the oppressive nature of such truth
claims; with regard to the question of what is to be done: I recall that there
is in fact truth, that truth is a person who actually exists, and that he will
set me free (John 8:32).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNRCE1iRLkSDPCAlvACRgjd6MzmBxjHaLRWfVNbsmze-QYWQ4eZhIZPB9hN_KW3pweA4G5CqpduoFnqjMv4Dozk967M0o_utbJR1edYuVad4fszw1MKIGpcf4BBIh8SqoacncFeyKpIos/s1600/16372137033_34aa4ff85c_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNRCE1iRLkSDPCAlvACRgjd6MzmBxjHaLRWfVNbsmze-QYWQ4eZhIZPB9hN_KW3pweA4G5CqpduoFnqjMv4Dozk967M0o_utbJR1edYuVad4fszw1MKIGpcf4BBIh8SqoacncFeyKpIos/s400/16372137033_34aa4ff85c_z.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/sevlaordep/16372137033/in/photolist-qWKtWH-ePyMTS-4VBkkC-suoHn3-g7UeSW-ezScpa-8b7kBd-oeXu7U-sSj3Z2-4W5K58-u7eRPA-tQ96gW-8nkhJj-ifpw-ghVAB-v7qhuL-de4i1-vBBW3-rSRxr2-JaAX7-9RfWZp-nWKJE-6BNGmx-X8Azw-vyfVR-rCkTz5-KDEH5-5dQPDp-tgNiUT-aJZ5v4-5yEudC-heg2po-ezScy2-anhP6F-qj8qC8-dQ1EHr-7McCtL-dHX2x4-8sRhoE-gTSYuR-gTRXRS-697rbg-314PKY-amAyMU-nywCsA-2X1ss4-pzxCXz-EhMBW-7RBZph-8qhjXq" target="_blank">"Road to Nowhere" </a>by Pedro Alves is licensed under<a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/" target="_blank"> C.C. by 2.0</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">And then
I remember what I try always to remind my students of: first, that we live in a
broken culture, which has a broken vision of the human person. This vision
tells us that we are androgynous; that we are monads; that we are not creatures;
that we should not, if we don’t want to, really have to depend on anything or
anyone; that love is merely a feeling; that nothing beyond what we want or feel
today matters. But that in fact we are creatures; that we were created male and
female (Gen 1:27); that our needfulness is not a curse but a gift; that love
does in fact constitute our being; that that same love has also already been
given and will redeem everything—every last broken thing—from the inside out.</span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Second, I tell my students that we are affected by the broken culture in which
we live. Because we are not in fact isolated monads, the vision of the human
person by which we are surrounded <i>does</i>
matter. That, in a way, this anthropological and theological vision is
incarnated in us. And thus, it is not the nature of the Church to isolate
herself, or to run away from the world, no matter how much the world hates her.
She exists, along with Christ, her head and bridegroom, to save the world. She
safeguards the truth about the human person and all of creation within herself,
and we, members of the body, must live these truths incarnately, renewing the
culture from within, losing our blood, if necessary.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">And then
I know that it is only from this viewpoint that we can begin to think about and
approach these issues. Because it is, after all, the viewpoint of Christ on the
Cross.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Time for the Familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11913058932504799191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5643637212918782109.post-7384815716658496912015-06-28T14:45:00.000-04:002015-06-28T14:45:32.076-04:00TOB: What is original nakedness?<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">We continue here our explorations into St. John Paul II’s
series of Wednesday Catecheses, which eventually became known as <i>Man
and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body</i> (TOB, for short). To
see other posts on this topic, click <a href="http://www.timeforthefamily.com/search/label/TOB">here</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">I will admit upfront that original nakedness, the third of
the original experiences that John Paul II explains in the TOB, has always been
the least clear to me: we have seen man alone, in front of God and the rest of
the world, understanding both his created nature and his unique place in
creation; and we have seen Adam and Eve together, understanding that man does
not live or know himself in isolation, that his finitude and bodiliness are in
fact good. What more does original nakedness “bring to the table,” so to speak?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Let’s first recall the context of original nakedness: the
three original experiences are a meditation by the saint on the subjective
experience of Adam and Eve in the state of original innocence. The experiences
are not step-wise or successive, but in fact a circumencession: all three are
present in the beginning in some sense, albeit in more or less explicit ways at
different points. Original nakedness is intrinsically related to <a href="http://www.timeforthefamily.com/2015/02/tob-what-is-original-solitude.html">original solitude</a>
and <a href="http://www.timeforthefamily.com/2015/03/tob-what-is-original-unity.html">original unity</a>
insofar as it is part of the <a href="http://www.timeforthefamily.com/2015/02/what-can-experience-mean.html">human experience</a>,
and insofar as it too, like the other experiences opens up another dimension of
what it means to be <i>imago dei</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh90GIkHpsaNJmrOFkSogH9ntVtas4ubQkMz7cIhdFcRBMRQbl4-FCAVaGuXULsmFYx9hxGm6y4uC6Y2OnfJX3sAHz1NDANLhjrO18B45UmPIF1X7-L01db7SW_qamJbHaZimNrjbpzkK8/s1600/adam-and-eve-in-the-garden-of-eden-1530.jpg%2521Blog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh90GIkHpsaNJmrOFkSogH9ntVtas4ubQkMz7cIhdFcRBMRQbl4-FCAVaGuXULsmFYx9hxGm6y4uC6Y2OnfJX3sAHz1NDANLhjrO18B45UmPIF1X7-L01db7SW_qamJbHaZimNrjbpzkK8/s400/adam-and-eve-in-the-garden-of-eden-1530.jpg%2521Blog.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.wikiart.org/en/lucas-cranach-the-elder/adam-and-eve-in-the-garden-of-eden-1530" target="_blank">"Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden"</a> by Lucas Cranach the Elder is in the Public Domain.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Which dimension is that? Our first clue is the word John
Paul II uses to name this experience: nakedness brings the body almost
immediately to mind and thus should be a clue that it may have something to do
with the immanent experience of man as embodied. Once again, we are being
reminded that the body is not something “other” than myself, that in fact I <i>am</i> my body, and my lived experience
occurs, so to speak, nowhere else. Original nakedness, then, reminds us of a
certain transparency the human being should properly have (even if it has been
now distorted) to himself, to others, and to the world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">This does not however mean that in original nakedness we’re
laid completely bare to one another, such that there could be no interiority in
either Adam or Eve that the other did not see. This would be a violation of
man’s integrity, and a violation of his freedom: though there is a proper
transparency in original innocence, there is also a proper boundary with the
other, such that Adam and Eve can choose to reveal themselves to each other in
time. We must not mistake the exteriorization of things for original nakedness;
rather it seems to me that original nakedness is another way to look at what
intimacy really means.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Though intimacy has become a bit of an epithet for sex or
other physical closeness, I think we all know that one can be physically close
to someone and not be truly intimate. That’s because intimacy is in fact first
a kind of knowing. It is a knowing that sees the other person not just for his
body—or for any one-dimensional aspect—but rather sees him as a whole, in all
of his humanity—that is to say, as a <a href="http://www.timeforthefamily.com/2015/02/what-can-experience-mean.html">subjective/objective whole</a>.
Intimacy is also, as we know, something that takes time. This temporal aspect
is, it seems to me, intrinsic to intimacy because to see and treat someone
holistically means to acknowledge that there is an interiority about him that I
cannot know unless he reveals it to me himself. Human beings are not machines
whose parts can be separated and (literally) objectified—we are persons whose
experience is expressed in and through the body in modes we can choose to
share.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The intimacy that the experience of original nakedness is,
then, helps us understand what knowledge truly is—it is not a running list of
facts and figures, but the space in which we can let someone reveal himself and
in which we can reveal ourselves. Obviously the bodily aspect of intimacy has a
great deal to do with this, but physical intimacy is not the entire telos of
original nakedness, and we risk abridging John Paul II’s vision if we cut it
off at that point. We must remember that the original experiences, and the <i>Theology of the Body</i> itself is not
simply about the relationship (conjugal or otherwise) between male and female,
but about man in the world as incarnated <i>imago
dei</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Original nakedness is then a way of knowing and being known
as God knows and is known. It is God who respects the wholeness of creature so
much that he allows him the freedom to say yes to God or not. And it is God who
reveals himself to his creature gently and appropriately, such that his
creature can come to know him—<i>in time</i>—intimately.
If God gives the gift of identity in original solitude and community in
original unity, then he gives the gift of his vision and care for his creation
in original nakedness.</span><span style="font-family: "Times","serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0mIS8apigVYeipPoslnRCoGP7bmGtENs7jSEBgRxhyP0F4e90lFW0cA3zeIZ1FK_mVCAkVf7xOHCN3Czd66cQrOfv8F5hQv2GZB8gCy47l3MpaJsZ3_Znyl9brq5WlnzI8wRLsHoKn1k/s1600/RColeman+bio.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0mIS8apigVYeipPoslnRCoGP7bmGtENs7jSEBgRxhyP0F4e90lFW0cA3zeIZ1FK_mVCAkVf7xOHCN3Czd66cQrOfv8F5hQv2GZB8gCy47l3MpaJsZ3_Znyl9brq5WlnzI8wRLsHoKn1k/s640/RColeman+bio.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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Time for the Familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11913058932504799191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5643637212918782109.post-38242377632775398852015-06-19T21:00:00.000-04:002015-06-19T21:00:02.495-04:00Walking and chewing gum at the same time<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">When I
was a junior in high school I began the application process for a U.S. Marine
Corps NROTC scholarship. Along the way I
encountered a recruiter for enlistment with the Marines. His basic selling point was, why go through
your first exposure to military training while you’re also becoming accustomed
to undergraduate studies? Join the
Marines as an enlisted man and then if you get accepted to the NROTC program
you’ll be a step up on everyone. The
unmentioned part of the plan though was that if I didn’t get accepted to NROTC
then I’d be a Marine, not a college student, for at least four years and he’d
be one step closer to his monthly quota of recruits. He summarized his sales pitch to me by posing
the question, “do you want to have to learn to walk and chew gum all at the
same time?” I must confess, at the time
it was a persuasive rhetorical question because of my eagerness to do “tough
guy” stuff as soon as possible. Looking
back on the whole brief exchange (my application did not make it past the first
wave of scrutiny) I periodically and whimsically call to mind that rather
bizarre phrase, “learning to walk and chew gum at the same time”.<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfrYQHFnxH9QmupIzk_XTpvhaNu0Avcr20_LS8fUlCNo2pPp1LDAlassjcrlM7oUdJiBgPxxEtgyilRDCQ-7JlqGCJUBVqKd_QOUj6qzfXbnf07yb2giU_jBoLZfqXzpYGOq5NCaFtVvY/s1600/10103284323_cc196803af_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfrYQHFnxH9QmupIzk_XTpvhaNu0Avcr20_LS8fUlCNo2pPp1LDAlassjcrlM7oUdJiBgPxxEtgyilRDCQ-7JlqGCJUBVqKd_QOUj6qzfXbnf07yb2giU_jBoLZfqXzpYGOq5NCaFtVvY/s400/10103284323_cc196803af_z.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ganesha_isis/10103284323/in/photolist-goMYri-gLznyp-b5LXA-5y2gxR-D94aR-bm7CXF-hvncMY-ASPiv-5GNKfy-jgyLQ-5bvZqP-p6b8Z4-qD3ZGL-8QbAuQ-e96VXk-e9cH7s-e96TiZ-e96XCR-e9cDus-e9cF6u-8nVeUM-aCw5i4-9uQ7t1-5y6Dyo-fgtTBh-9nvpzv-4rWw5b-5y6Egf-7oKdhv-aZGNzp-7Q2HUe-7Q2J32-7Q2HWB-7Q2Gsr-kpcAMN-b2wxTR-kpa61t-kpaX2P-kpa77r-kpb2sH-kpa3EM-kpa8rk-7Q62mS-4rWw2f-3ZEsUd-5t2zod-oKzSrj-9wNGuq-9wKHpT-99PShj" target="_blank">"Gum Ball Machine"</a> by Ganesha Balunsat is licensed under <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/" target="_blank">C.C by 2.0</a></span></td></tr>
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<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> I bring it up here because of two
very much non-trivial tasks in which all baptized Christians are called to
participate, but most of us don’t have a real good grasp of either of them on
their own, and certainly not when paired up!
The two tasks: forming intentional disciples from people within our
sphere of influence (walking), and living fully our own Christian state of life
(chewing gum). Expecting that most
Christians fulfill these responsibilities currently (or even know how to begin
them) is like expecting that Marine boot camp wouldn’t be a culture shock to a
pampered city boy. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">If you
haven’t had a chance to read Sherry Weddell’s <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Forming-Intentional-Disciples-Knowing-Following/dp/1612785905"><i>Forming Intentional Disciples</i></a> and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Parish-Intentional-Disciples-Weddell/dp/1612788343/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_z"><i>Becoming a Parish of Intentional Disciples</i></a>
yet, I highly recommend them. The books
equip and motivate the reader to fruitfully respond to the Gospel imperative to
share freely what we have freely received (Mt 10:8). For if we don’t do this, our own faith will
atrophy and our friendship with the Lord and our neighbor will deteriorate,
perhaps even to the point where we don’t believe it’s possible to have a loving
relationship with God himself or care about the condition of our neighbor’s
body and soul. As St. Vincent de Paul wrote,
“It is not enough for me to love God, if my neighbor doesn’t love Him.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> So if sharing the Good News of Jesus
Christ, and purposefully helping others to transition from trusting Christians,
to being open, to learning more, to being outright curious about Jesus, to
seeking him so as to eventually become his disciple, who can lead others
through the same predictable stages of conversion is indispensable to following
Jesus (Mt 28:19, Mk 16:15, 1 Cor 9:16), how do you actually do so while (or
better yet—because of) simultaneously being a good husband/father or
wife/mother? While it is awesome to have
convert (or revert), to the faith as a college student living in bachelor/bachelorette
mode and bring your roommate to bible studies/Mass/Adoration/etc., it is not at
all the same as being in the thick of sleep-interrupted, diaper-changing,
dinner-with-toddler(s)-on-your-lap stage of life and spiritually accompanying (c.f.
<a href="http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20131124_evangelii-gaudium.html"><i>Evangelii gaudium</i> 169-173</a>) a peer or
someone from a different stage of life in your own vocation or a different
vocation altogether. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">So how
does one bring the orbits together of forming disciples and living marriage
well? <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Here is a
list of items to get the conversation started, please share yours too:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.5in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">·<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="line-height: 115%;">Marry someone decidedly in love with Jesus. <a href="http://www.wordonfire.org/resources/video/marriage-and-relationships/200/">Aristotle
and Fr. Barron</a> recommend it! This
way when your baptism, confirmation, marriage and Eucharistic graces kick in,
then you can share the love and joy of the Gospel to the fullest. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">o<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="line-height: 115%;">Tithing 10% of your gross income versus net. This
won’t be a source of conflict, it’ll be a source of trusting in God’s
providence together which will lead to overall marital joy even in the midst of
less cash flow! <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">·<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="line-height: 115%;">Don’t allow people to view your children as a
burden preventing you from participating in the life of the community or your
parish. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">o<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="line-height: 115%;">If you sense that the RCIA team leader does not
want to impose on your weeknight routine by having you share your testimony
with the candidates and catechumens, say explicitly and perhaps repeatedly, “it
would be a pleasure and honor to share my faith story with others. My spouse will support me in this by tucking
the kids into bed that night.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">·<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="line-height: 115%;">Don’t fall for the mental trap that “we’ll have
more time later . . .”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">o<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="line-height: 115%;">There’s no guarantee that tomorrow will be given
to us; each of our ends will always be surprising to us (Mt 24:36, 42-44). Show your children today what it looks like
to be a gracious host to God in our neighbors (Heb 13:2) so that when they are
older it will be a natural manifestation of their Christian life. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">·<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="line-height: 115%;">Strike a balance with your time in favor of Jesus
and Christian community.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">o<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="line-height: 115%;">What if you only watched TV one night a week for
30 min? <a href="http://www.lavozdelpueblo.com.ar/nota-27095--aoro-ir-a-una-pizzera-y-comerme-una-buena-pizza">Or
what if you didn’t watch TV at all</a>?
What if you visited Jesus in the tabernacle or exposition of the
Eucharist once a week? What if you
stopped by an elderly and lonely neighbor’s house each time you were out for a
walk? What if your kids only did one
sport per year and you joined teams that your fellow parishioners were on too
so that while on the sidelines and during practices you could share your faith
journey and struggles with your peers?
What if you read the lives of the saints with your kids each night? Or said “goodnight” to their patron saint’s
icon on their bedroom wall?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">·<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="line-height: 115%;">What if you prayed obscure Catholic prayers and
invited others to learn them with you?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">o<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--></span><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">You could pray Angelus at noon with coworkers or
to St. Michael the Archangel after Mass with your spouse, kids and pew neighbor,
or the Memorare at the start of car journeys, or the Glory Be upon hearing
emergency vehicle’s sirens wherever you may be, or even simply make the Sign of
the Cross before grace at meals at restaurants. </span><span style="font-family: Times, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
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Time for the Familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11913058932504799191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5643637212918782109.post-22025003413681259562015-06-12T11:31:00.000-04:002015-06-12T11:59:46.396-04:00You Are Not A Rock, You Are Not An Island<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Within the last six weeks or so, I have attended a diaconate ordination, a priestly ordination, a Mass of Thanksgiving for a newly ordained priest, a wedding, and a Mass for the tenth anniversary of priesthood. For several of these Masses, I noticed something while standing in the back with our squirmy, chatty 16-month-old: I wasn’t alone.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12px; min-height: 15px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">I’m not sure at which event the back of church was more populated. At the ordinations in the cathedral, babies were walked back and forth on the marble tile. The wedding Mass had a virtual second world in the back of the large church, where babies were nursed in back pews and introduced to every statue. And at the Mass of Thanksgiving, the back carpet was covered with crawlers and climbers, intrigued by the baptismal font.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12px; min-height: 15px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Many of us, perhaps, have heard that the vocation to marriage and the vocation to celibacy are complementary, but it can be easy to forget that we are not set in opposition or relegated to our own corner of the ecclesial room (as it were). </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12px; min-height: 15px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">As I looked around the back of the various churches, I saw more than just mothers, fathers and babies. I saw the communities from which these new vocations were born. Attending the diaconate ordination were members of a young adult group that one of the young men, a convert, had attended. Likely, his discernment of the seminary was occurring at the same time as the dating and engagement of many couples in the group. The newly ordained priest was surrounded by couples, who, a decade earlier, were at the same college, asking where God might be calling. And even the newly married couple were surrounded by deacons and priests as they professed their vows to one another.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxddX8qb9gRP3_y6eloUvIGmc0fwcHWaezuyvyQCM7YFdVOsdhjqBteGEfO5pUoy0inWeCBoSw65JRw1q71SCT5W4-f1TxKieHTRMNmxPdqJ7UD0wEfrTiKjQQ3q8eylvz33sblcumW_E/s1600/4744658036_24007975c5_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="294" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxddX8qb9gRP3_y6eloUvIGmc0fwcHWaezuyvyQCM7YFdVOsdhjqBteGEfO5pUoy0inWeCBoSw65JRw1q71SCT5W4-f1TxKieHTRMNmxPdqJ7UD0wEfrTiKjQQ3q8eylvz33sblcumW_E/s320/4744658036_24007975c5_o.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jasonpratt/4744658036/in/photolist-8egBwU-4eoCm-4MhUyG-3MVHW8-EF33w-6VD8h1-FEcx5-4MdK6x-9LoTrp-4MhVGw-bA6koQ-dh3TSC-dh3TM7-7Yjw8P-4MdJmr-btirp9-btiGNh-btizxb-btiHPN-bGdkSH-bGdfv4-btiuGw-bGdd6k-btiwAf-bGdcck-btiyy3-btit7u-bGdu8g-bGdjkt-bGdegk-bGdb7B-bGdt5B-bGdvDK-btiAjA-bGdrRV-bGdnTH-btiEnL-bGdhXz-9LrDCL-8ednfV-9LoSN4-9LoT18-9LoT6M-9LoSB2-9LoS9Z-9LrCTj-9LoRnc-9LoRK6-9LoSwZ-9LoTLP" target="_blank">Photo</a> is licensed under <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode" target="_blank">creative commons</a></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12px; min-height: 15px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">No vocation is born in isolation.</span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"> </span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">We seek our specific path in the call to holiness along with so many other saints-in-the-making.</span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"> </span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">Some are called to marriage, others are called to be priests or religious, but each person is called to holiness and to eternal communion with God.</span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12px; min-height: 15px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Once we have begun living our state in life, said our vows and commenced the day-to-day actions, we live out our vocation, not in isolation, but in the community of others, both married and celibate. The married couples reveal something of the exclusivity and totality with which God loves every human person. Those who have embraced celibacy for the Kingdom reveal something of the abundance of God’s love and the promise of eternal communion with Him in heaven. </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12px; min-height: 15px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">There isn’t a competition to see who can rack up more “holiness points” or who has chosen a more difficult path. The cloistered nun might pray a Holy Hour for her friend with a family, and her friend might offer up middle-of-the-night diaper changes. The prayers, the sacrifices, the witness are mutually given and received by those within both states of life. </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12px; min-height: 15px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">It was a matter brought home to me in a very real way as I watched young mothers and fathers pacing, patting, and swaying while a friend (or friends) were promising vows of obedience and celibacy. The parents and the priests (and everyone else filling the pews, of course) are called to a vocation to love, to serve and to draw closer to the God who created us. </span></div>
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Time for the Familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11913058932504799191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5643637212918782109.post-78731852888725589252015-05-30T12:57:00.000-04:002015-06-01T08:44:47.537-04:00The Daily Gift<div class="Body" dir="LTR" style="background: white; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">My
proposal to my fiancée did <i>not</i> go how I planned it. I'm sure plenty of
guys can say the same in today's day and age where <span lang="NL">proposals </span>are often choreographed with
more extras than a Cecil B. DeMille epic. There is pressure to infuse as much
meaning as possible into the moment. In my case, I proposed, as planned, in
front of the Blessed Sacrament on St. John Paul II’s first feast day. Instead
of being private, however, it ended up being in front of fifteen other random
strangers in the chapel – my fiancée's personal nightmare. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body" dir="LTR" style="background: white; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="Body" dir="LTR" style="background: white; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">As our
engagement proceeded, I was surprised by the feeling of normality. I had those
periodic “<span lang="IT">Woah, I'm getting married</span>” moments, but in general, the monumental life change I was
preparing for seemed very much matter-of-fact. “Of course I'm marrying Maureen,
it would be weird to think otherwise.” Now for someone who never ceases to seek
the profound in anything less than the <i>weather</i>, I was alarmed at what I
was feeling about my own betrothal. This should be a time of being overwhelmed
at the depth of what I was entering into with this woman I loved and instead I
felt very matter-of-fact about it all. Something had to be wrong with me, my
maturity, the engagement, <i>something.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="Body" dir="LTR" style="background: white; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="Body" dir="LTR" style="background: white; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">As I reflected
and prayed about all of this, two things occurred to me. It was entirely
appropriate for me to feel this way, but it also signaled that I needed to
grow. I thought of two concepts that St. John Paul II wrote in his <i>Theology
of the Body. </i>The first was the <i>sacramentality of the body</i> and the
second was the <i>body as a task</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body" dir="LTR" style="background: white; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoM6Z35LeXrt6b2K5Aiuapl1V4nnlAEYAVEzqxstWbgJM10z8Oef7WAR3mxFjD9jE421DUOsI5mCt5J3b6NIhYbO64NIDaTt-yOT7Gmz_U99g36hUkjtWZxWSd8gFH6RBkmG8oKe9hjqE/s1600/IMG_0021.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoM6Z35LeXrt6b2K5Aiuapl1V4nnlAEYAVEzqxstWbgJM10z8Oef7WAR3mxFjD9jE421DUOsI5mCt5J3b6NIhYbO64NIDaTt-yOT7Gmz_U99g36hUkjtWZxWSd8gFH6RBkmG8oKe9hjqE/s400/IMG_0021.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Author's picture.</td></tr>
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<div class="Body" dir="LTR" style="background: white; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">A
sacrament, as we all remember from our second grade religious education
classes, is “an outward sign, instituted by Christ to give us grace.”
Sacraments are those visible things that not only point to invisible things,
but also really make those invisible realities present or efficacious. For
example, when someone is baptized, the symbol in the rite is one of being
washed. Yet, the physical pouring of or immersion into the water, is not merely
a sign of what God is doing, the physical action <i>actually </i>brings about
the spiritual action. Sacraments efficaciously make present the very things
they signify. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body" dir="LTR" style="background: white; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="Body" dir="LTR" style="background: white; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">John
Paul takes this truth and then applies it to the body. Man and Woman are made
in God's Image and Likeness. God, who is a Trinity of Persons, exists as a
constant and complete gift of self. Being made in his Image as male and female,
this gift-reality is written precisely into our bodies in our relation to one
another. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body" dir="LTR" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 67.45pt; margin-top: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="Body" dir="LTR" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 67.45pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Man,
in fact, by means of his corporality, his masculinity and femininity, becomes a
visible sign of the economy of truth and love, which has its source in God
himself and which was revealed already in the mystery of creation. Against this
vast background we understand fully the words that constitute the sacrament of
marriage, present in Genesis 2:24: "A man leaves his father and his mother
and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh." (19, 5)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body" dir="LTR" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 67.45pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="Body" dir="LTR" style="background: white; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">So, in a
certain sense, there is a sort of “naturalness” to the idea of getting married.
There is a certain matter-of-factness that one should expect with this because
God created us to be a gift to this other. It is in our very nature to be gift,
just as it is in our nature to eat, sleep, exercise, etc. So, there should be a
certain “of course” quality to my betrothal. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body" dir="LTR">
<br /></div>
<div class="Body" dir="LTR">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">And
yet, we know almost by instinct, that there is something wrong with staying
simply in the realm of the “of course.” We know that marriage is on a higher
plane, even if marrying her seems as natural as breathing to me. It is, but we
also need our growth from the sacrament of marriage itself to come close to
grasping marriage's reality. John Paul simultaneously affirms that man already
has written into him this reality of gift, and that the body is also a task for
men and women. Yes, my body, as it was the moment I was born, was given to me
as a sign of my interior reality to be a gift to another, however, my body is
also an assignment. I must grow into the reality that I am: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body" dir="LTR">
<br /></div>
<div class="Body" dir="LTR" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 67.45pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The
Creator has assigned as a task to man his body, his masculinity and femininity;
and that in masculinity and femininity he, in a way, assigned to him as a task
his humanity, the dignity of the person, and also the clear sign of the
interpersonal communion in which man fulfills himself through the authentic
gift of himself. Setting before man the requirements conforming to the tasks
entrusted to him, at the same time the Creator points out to man, male and
female, the ways that lead to assuming and discharging them. (59, 2)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body" dir="LTR" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 67.45pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="Body" dir="LTR" style="background: white; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">My task
is to, in a sense, become who I am. I'm not there yet. There is a depth written
into my creation as a man to more fully become a gift and to more fully enter
into this communion of persons with my beloved who also has a depth written
into her creation and must more fully become a gift to me. The body reveals to
me that this is who I am, but it also educates and leads me to a fuller depth
of this mystery. A maturation needs to take place:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body" dir="LTR">
<br /></div>
<div class="Body" dir="LTR" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 67.45pt; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">In its masculinity or femininity
the body is given as a task to the human spirit. By means of an adequate
maturity of the spirit it too becomes a sign of the person, which the person is
conscious of, and authentic "matter" in the communion of persons. In
other words, <i>through his spiritual maturity, man discovers the nuptial
meaning proper to the body. </i><span lang="PT">(59, 4 emphasis mine)</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="Body" dir="LTR">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">And
so, while it is the most natural of things for me to enter into marriage with my
fiancée, the reality of what we are doing goes to the very heart of what it
means to be made in the image and likeness of God. By entering into this
matrimonial covenant, we continue this “pedagogy of the body” by the revelation
of the communion of persons not only to ourselves but to the rest of the world.
Our wedding and our married life together is a sacrament of this reality of who
and what we are created to be, but also stands as our task to more fully become
that reality.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body" dir="LTR" style="background: white;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="Body" dir="LTR">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">My plans to infuse meaning into
my proposal to Maureen didn't work and my time of betrothal has been less a
matter of being overwhelmed by the gravity of it all and more an ordinary day to
day affair. From what I know of family life, that's probably an experience most
of us have. We go to work, make the meals, do laundry, mow the lawn, but
written into each of these very normal mundane affairs is this reality that
while doing them, we are being drawn to consider this life as a gift. That
married life, in the normal day to day, is a task given to us to live out more
completely the reality that in these moments of picking the kids up from school
and untangling the Christmas lights I am living for another - and I'm receiving from another. And just
like my proposal, the truth of this reality is already there, it doesn't need a
grand scheme to infuse it with meaning. This gift-quality of life isn't just <i>part</i>
of life, it <i>is</i> life. I am nothing else but gift, and only in pursuing
this as task, can I truly become who I am. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Time for the Familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11913058932504799191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5643637212918782109.post-70403838816681146722015-05-28T00:27:00.000-04:002015-05-28T00:27:17.299-04:00Throwback Thursday<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU000WzOGAzqHnev3iCCwpGxPmfBsv5X-TLyBrUF1qFJkHdv5gQahm5Jm6kasOlzJDRXGsT6YK16ur1CS-vx6mTpSBppibooiRIy5hQbf9E5emnETxy0-LR6comP2TGmG4hVl4eESo8Ho/s1600/jp2friendyoung2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="335" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU000WzOGAzqHnev3iCCwpGxPmfBsv5X-TLyBrUF1qFJkHdv5gQahm5Jm6kasOlzJDRXGsT6YK16ur1CS-vx6mTpSBppibooiRIy5hQbf9E5emnETxy0-LR6comP2TGmG4hVl4eESo8Ho/s400/jp2friendyoung2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Segoe, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">"Man cannot live without love. He remains a being that is incomprehensible for himself, his life is senseless, if love is not revealed to him, if he does not encounter love, if he does not experience it and make it his own, if he does not participate intimately in it." - St. John Paul II (</span><span style="font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Segoe, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"><i>Redemptor Hominis</i> no. 10)</span></span>Time for the Familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11913058932504799191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5643637212918782109.post-89839085874367380582015-05-23T14:11:00.000-04:002015-05-23T14:11:19.949-04:00Concupiwho?<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">For the past two
years I’ve been participating in a men’s ministry entitled <a href="https://www.paradisusdei.org/index.php/programs/tmiy/">That Man is You!</a>
The presenter of each week’s content is
a man by the name of <a href="https://www.paradisusdei.org/index.php/about/about-steve-bollman/">Steve
Bollman</a>. He doesn’t pull any punches
in the sense that he readily shares some of the lesser known aspects of
Catholic theology and spirituality. At
times this means that he loses guys in attendance at the parish hall at 6:15 am
watching the DVD, but it also has the effect of raising important questions for
guys during the post-DVD small group table conversations. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">One term that
has come up repeatedly over the sessions is “concupiscence” (kon-kyoo-pi-<i>suh</i> ns).
It is a difficult word to pronounce without some practice, and even with
practice! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The Catechism of
the Catholic Church defines it as “human appetites or desires which remain
disordered due to the temporal consequences of original sin, which remain even
after Baptism, and which produce an inclination to sin.” The <a href="http://ccc.usccb.org/flipbooks/uscca/">U.S. Catholic Catechism for Adults</a>
mentions it as our “inclination to sin which shows itself in what is sometimes
referred to as a darkening of the mind and a weakening of the will, that is,
the inability to know clearly the right or wrong of an action and/or the lack
of strength to resist temptation and always to do the right thing no matter how
hard this is.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">What was new to
me though was what I recently learned by looking in the index of the<a href="http://store.pauline.org/english/books/productid/2853.aspx#gsc.tab=0">
2006 edition</a> of the Pauline Books and Media publication of Michael Waldstein’s
translation, introduction and index of <i>Man
and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body</i>. Saint John Paul the Great used the word
“concupiscence” 340 times over the course of the four years that he was sharing
his Wednesday catechesis with the world!
That works out to make it the ninth most used word in the whole body of
work. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Here’s how it
breaks down: <br />
“Body” – 1319 times<br />
“Meaning/Significance/Importance” – 625 times<br />
“Marriage” – 502 times<br />
“Love” – 465 times<br />
“Heart” – 408 times<br />
“Person” – 382 times<br />
“Mystery” – 373 times<br />
“Truth” – 342 times<br />
“Concupiscence” – 340 times<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">To give you an
idea of some other important words:<br />
“Flesh” – 330 times<br />
“Church” – 326 times<br />
“Dimension” – 297 times<br />
“Creation” – 281 times<br />
“Theology of the Body” – 100 times<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">So, what really
struck me was that every other frequently used word in the TOB is a positive
term. Concupiscence sticks out like a
sore thumb, and must have a lot to do with our coming to understand the
“adequate anthropology” that St. JPII wanted to impart to us. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAngHAB3XPqUFh6iHlymlcJC2f9bH0SGvp6aDpKRPyxZL36HGPg0_TfN5vpuy4EpNtPLqMfAaiiTskuMbWqLROuZ88b36YiYVdaTFwKY1gBC2wWqEBT2w2ggzEvD9uqB0ygJbX6uPNpdk/s1600/3766009204_8721a00dde_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="335" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAngHAB3XPqUFh6iHlymlcJC2f9bH0SGvp6aDpKRPyxZL36HGPg0_TfN5vpuy4EpNtPLqMfAaiiTskuMbWqLROuZ88b36YiYVdaTFwKY1gBC2wWqEBT2w2ggzEvD9uqB0ygJbX6uPNpdk/s400/3766009204_8721a00dde_z.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mindaugasdanys/3766009204/in/photolist-NrQ5Q-akWKTS-bhFEHi-6JMMkb-8Y2hrt-5gwEHt-88BdGo-3xrSTB-7qk7Hk-zVpgR-7q3cTA-dj9Phw-7NAayn-7NAasi-nLc9mz-q2MGE-8CrYKJ-cQc2Ms" target="_blank">"Scream and shout" </a>by Mindaugas Danys is licensed under <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/" target="_blank">C.C. by 2,0</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Sure enough, as
I was meditating on this factoid of word frequency I began noticing things
about my children’s behavior which ultimately led me to remember the most
obvious detail of my own conversion to Christ: left to my own devices I do what
I want! (<span lang="FR">à la</span> Cartman from
Southpark) What is crazy is that no one
has to teach us this at any point in our life…ever! We are all very inventive when it comes to
riffing on the theme of sin-sick selfishness.
It’s always lurking just around the corner of our inattentiveness to
God’s grace due to a lack of a real prayer life. We never get to set the toggle switch on our soul
to “cruise control”! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Concupiscence
(and therefore in a reverse engineering kind of way all of TOB and the Gospel
of Jesus Christ) is a universal reality experienced by everyone (Original Sin
anyone?). Spend 20 minutes around any
toddler from any region of the globe and it’s guaranteed that they will all do
the same selfish behaviors that stem from overwhelming inclinations to
dominate, ignore, horde, hit, bite, scream, etc. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Right in line
with this phenomenon is the reality that I experienced as a young boy and
immature man. When no one educated me in
the way of love, understood as “making a sincere gift of myself” (<a href="http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19651207_gaudium-et-spes_en.html"><i>Gaudium et spes</i> 24:3</a>), I used the
powerful gift of my masculinity to turn inward on myself and away from God and
neighbor. Not until I was five years
into living life as a weekly Mass attending, baptized and confirmed Catholic
making use of regular sacramental reconciliation was I
spiritually/socially/physically in a consistently good place with God, others
and myself. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Whenever I share this detail
of my past with other men, I hear, read or see them confirm my reflection. No one had to teach us to lust, dominate,
use, manipulate or waste time, money and energy on ourselves! Rather, all that darkness simply came
flowing out from within us because apart from the divine physician we are truly
ill. We need to be healed from the
inside out (Mk 7:20), we need to be taken back to the beginning of God’s design
for us (<a href="http://usccb.org/bible/matthew/19">Mt 19:8</a>). This is why TOB is so important, beautiful
and life changing if you allow it to be the vehicle for encountering Jesus
Christ risen from the dead today! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">If you are intrigued
by this theme, take a look at this <a href="http://www.aleteia.org/en/lifestyle/article/narcissism-kills-a-lesson-from-the-germanwings-plane-crash-tragedy-5817073980669952">article
by Dr. Rick Fitzgibbon</a> (specifically the second to last paragraph from the
bottom of the first page). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Here’s a <i>VERY</i> powerful <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4foXehDmWs">video</a>
story/testimony/confession by a father about how only his second daughter’s
life was able to invade his selfish-concupiscence-bubble and bring him abundant
life (Jn 10:10). Enjoy and share
widely! </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Q4foXehDmWs" width="560"></iframe>
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Time for the Familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11913058932504799191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5643637212918782109.post-15406770754479456222015-05-10T22:58:00.000-04:002015-05-10T22:58:51.480-04:00Learning Motherhood From Mary<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Times New Roman';">
It probably shouldn’t be so shocking to me that our toddler daughter is interested in books. After all, nearly every wall in our small apartment is lined with bookshelves. We have daily read-aloud sessions, and if she hears a line or two from a particular book that I recite from memory, she trots across the room looking to retrieve it.</div>
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One such line that has come to mind as we begin the month of May, dedicated to mothers, and in a particular way to the Blessed Mother, is from a little board book about saints. “Mary teaches us about loving mothers,” the book declares, with a picture of Mary being crowned by a smiling angel. </div>
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The words aren’t just for children. This month is a fitting time to reflect on what the Blessed Mother can teach all mothers about how to love the children entrusted to us.</div>
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At first glance it can seem overwhelming to look to Mary – a woman without sin – to grow in our own mothering. We look around at piles of dirty dishes, smell another diaper in need of changing, take a glance at the quickly filling calendar and figure that the Blessed Mother – a perfect woman raising a perfect Son – has so little in common with our 21st century American lifestyle that we’re better off looking elsewhere for guidance.</div>
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But as we reflect on the mysteries of the Rosary, there are many life lessons we can learn from Mary. We see, too, that her life was not a blissful ride on easy street. Sure, there are no mysteries centered on smelly diapers or work-life balance, but the graces present in Mary’s life can help us to embrace the struggles and joys of our own family life. Let’s take a look at a couple of lessons of motherhood we glimpse in the fifth sorrowful mystery, <i>Jesus Dies on the Cross.</i> </div>
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It’s tempting to think that Mary knew exactly what would happen at every moment of her and her Son’s life. We sometimes have an image of Mary giving her “yes” to Gabriel at the annunciation, knowing exactly what that “yes” would mean. In reality, the archangel did not hand Mary a 33-year calendar to inform her of the everyday “yesses” her fiat to becoming the Mother of God entailed. St. John Paul II, for example, wrote that Mary’s yes to God at the foot of the cross was perhaps the “deepest kenosis (self-emptying) of faith.” Standing at the foot of the cross, she did not know how God would be victorious through the death of her Son, but she knew and trusted that good would come from evil. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Pieta, </i>Michelangelo - artwork in the public domain</td></tr>
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There are many crosses in motherhood – miscarriages, children who are sick or bullied or ostracized, teenage or adult children who leave the faith, and so many more. Yet, with Mary, every mother is called to have faith that God’s love will pour forth even amidst the most painful situations. There is no resurrection without the cross, and Mary reminds us to trust God’s plan.</div>
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There is another poignant lesson for mothers from the crucifixion subtly portrayed in Michelangelo’s “Pieta.” Most viewers of the statue focus on Mary’s arms embracing her Son, but a closer look also reveals her left hand open in an act of surrender. Mary reveals the art – and perhaps the biggest challenge – of motherhood: to embrace and to be detached. </div>
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On the one hand, a mother is called to love, cherish and care for the child(ren) entrusted to her. At the same time, these children are not ultimately hers, nor her husband’s. Ultimately, each child is a gift from God. Mothers must care without being possessive. Mothers can look to Mary as an example and as an intercessor in striking this delicate balance.</div>
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In his encyclical, <i>Redemptoris Mater</i>, St. John Paul II summarized the way in which the Blessed Mother reveals the call of all women: </div>
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It can be said that women, by looking to Mary, find in her the secret of living their femininity with dignity and of achieving their own true advancement. In the light of Mary, the Church sees in the face of women the reflection of a beauty which mirrors the loftiest sentiments of which the human heart is capable: the self-offering totality of love; the strength that is capable of bearing the greatest sorrows; limitless fidelity and tireless devotion to work; the ability to combine penetrating intuition with words of support and encouragement (#46).</blockquote>
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At first glance it might seem that only women with biological or adoptive children have something to learn from the motherhood of Mary, but St. John Paul II would challenge us to think differently. All women, by virtue of their femininity, are called to be mothers. All women are called to be spiritual mothers whether or not any children call them, “Mom.” </div>
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The human person is entrusted to women in a unique way. It’s not that men do not love or care for people, but rather that women are able, in a particular way, to notice the needs of others and to meet them, offering empathy, a listening ear and the unique care that a particular person needs. Men and women both love, but they love differently. Women love as mothers. </div>
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Whether joyful, sorrowful, luminous or glorious, the mysteries of the rosary offer us a glimpse into how Mary loved and lived as a mother, becoming both guide and intercessor for us as we seek to more fully love as a spiritual or physical mother.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCLpqRTfUQd9VSZJf2LOv18c3Yi_eQVNAYxCGuud-GpEch-WGSwIOCtMSXCrZkuE7Z6Bd3SRyX7G6UOcYMEAEQkT0h9qIBi5QIvz7yqoVpqms-zX6LogJ1t-w7wC0mZIUz5dMJ-Tdma9k/s1600/EMacke+bio-1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCLpqRTfUQd9VSZJf2LOv18c3Yi_eQVNAYxCGuud-GpEch-WGSwIOCtMSXCrZkuE7Z6Bd3SRyX7G6UOcYMEAEQkT0h9qIBi5QIvz7yqoVpqms-zX6LogJ1t-w7wC0mZIUz5dMJ-Tdma9k/s400/EMacke+bio-1.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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Time for the Familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11913058932504799191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5643637212918782109.post-60398880603240285352015-04-02T10:32:00.000-04:002015-04-02T10:32:30.678-04:00Remembering the Pope of the Family<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">“I would like to be remembered as the
pope of the family,” he said. And ten
years after his death, we remember St. John Paul II as a man who was passionate
about the family, about love and about the gift of human life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">St. John Paul II’s fifth anniversary of
death was Good Friday; his tenth is Holy Thursday. What might these coincidences tell us about
the first Polish pontiff? In many ways,
I think it underscores his life and his papacy as being “for” others.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Author's picture.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">One striking example is described in
George Weigel’s papal biography, <i>Witness to Hope</i>. In 1994, the United Nations was embattled in
preparations for the Cairo Conference on Population and Development. Worldwide promotion of abortion and birth
control was on the line. St. John Paul
II fought tirelessly to promote the good of human life, love and the
family. He called 1994 the Year of the
Family, and wrote a Letter to Families. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">And then in the midst of the titanic
fight, John Paul II fell. He broke his
hip. His world stage became a hospital
bed, followed by a Sunday Angelus address, during which he shared the deeper
meaning he intuited behind his fall.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">I understood that I have to lead
Christ’s Church into this third millennium by prayer, by various programs, but
I saw that this is not enough: she must be led by suffering, by the attack
thirteen years ago and by this new sacrifice. Why now, why this, why in this
Year of the Family? Precisely because the family is under attack. The Pope has
to be attacked, the Pope has to suffer, so that every family and the world may
see that there is ... a higher Gospel: the Gospel of suffering, by which the
future is prepared, the third millennium of families, of every family and of
all families. (As quoted in <i>Witness to Hope</i>
721)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">St. John Paul II was willing to fight
for families to the point of being willing to suffer for them. It was a suffering that continued for 20 1/2
more years. A suffering that involved
hospital visits, a Parkinson’s diagnosis, the embarrassment of slurred speech
and failing limbs, the limitations of less travel and more rest.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Here was a man who lost his family at a
young age. He was the only living member
of the Wojtyla’s at age 20. Some would
have taken this suffering and resented families – seeing what others have, and
I have been denied. But for Karol
Wojtyla, his lack of a family only furthered his desire to defend the gift of
the family, to uphold the family’s dignity and to celebrate the role of the
family in the world. He “learned to love
human love” through his interactions with young couples as a newly ordained
priest in Poland. And he shared that
love until the day he died.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">We could really say that this love of
human love is still being shared a decade after St. John Paul II’s death. His theological works, especially Theology of
the Body, are shared even more enthusiastically today than they were when he
first delivered them. His philosophical
works, especially <i>Love and Responsibility</i>, are
studied still. His encyclicals,
apostolic letters and exhortations, each with a reference to the family or to
the need for self-giving or to the love to which each human person is called,
are discussed today.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">And his life! There are still images of a vigorous,
smiling, young pontiff, proclaiming to the world, “Do not be afraid!” His vigor inspires, and his articulate words
encourage. And then there are the images
of his final appearance at the Vatican window, unable to speak, a man clearly suffering. And a man who on his death bed, heard the
voices of the young, whom he spent his life and papacy inviting to embrace the
Gospel. He heard their songs and their
prayers and so beautifully said, “I have looked for you. Now you have come to
me. And I thank you.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Ten years since our beloved Papa went to
the “house of the Father,” we are embarking upon the Triduum. It’s as if, even from heaven, St. John Paul
II is saying, “Don’t look at me. Look at
Him. All of my words, all of my
teachings, all of my suffering was meant to invite you to look to Love
Himself.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">May we too learn to love human
love. May our families be homes where
this love is cultivated. And may our
children and grandchildren know that the wizened pontiff with white wispy hair,
leaning on a crucifix for support is part of a family, <i>our</i>
family through his sacrifices, suffering and love.</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVgTnRVAy_5ODdS2HsqJtR03G4wZOjoUYOIEayOpm_y5DWYkxtWYIOBJyrjvKvEdqj5YrRNOBMOIeUPyaTy7j3NnQZNo0jbM4gvbms7vLOckxZW9vSg3ufAVL3oDvYqRt7ofnCjsMFlu0/s1600/EMacke+bio.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVgTnRVAy_5ODdS2HsqJtR03G4wZOjoUYOIEayOpm_y5DWYkxtWYIOBJyrjvKvEdqj5YrRNOBMOIeUPyaTy7j3NnQZNo0jbM4gvbms7vLOckxZW9vSg3ufAVL3oDvYqRt7ofnCjsMFlu0/s1600/EMacke+bio.png" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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Time for the Familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11913058932504799191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5643637212918782109.post-15539391041769413482015-03-30T12:19:00.000-04:002015-03-30T12:20:16.460-04:00So what if I live in a jungle or a home?<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxzwqGHI8ZTlxt_2lEPjKzCMsJG5eEJWYtd3T5FmH2500z0EAEawcjm83-FmGy_2KHxQSRqoMgzNam7WCz_ylJykoThCY8x2GlkV1HwRjAKObZ9h-0VN45HwZ6SNesxWFEICXIv0JmAt0/s1600/3369973306_bd3cee44b9_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxzwqGHI8ZTlxt_2lEPjKzCMsJG5eEJWYtd3T5FmH2500z0EAEawcjm83-FmGy_2KHxQSRqoMgzNam7WCz_ylJykoThCY8x2GlkV1HwRjAKObZ9h-0VN45HwZ6SNesxWFEICXIv0JmAt0/s1600/3369973306_bd3cee44b9_z.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/christianhaugen/3369973306/in/photolist-68MZE3-32Rdya-pixFnR-nYawri-6tDQ53-99es1U-nVPucz-KAfaL-6Wrigc-o28muG-cAZHnu-L1JUU-fpkXeP-3ukeho-c3oKMh-pbaksK-4saSWH-7eJLKD-7q12Pz-4XGAXz-7xX3Zh-5mAaws-oY7GYu-bxLTMk-68i3au-8B5XAc-8tUUtj-aaV5Yn-iwAdZg-5Vf1V5-5QXaWx-4saSJK-oQJ9fB-6wai2X-FJhTT-8tH9AM-o28ELu-dhyv5d-8mHsTJ-7C8xuj-4J6aHx-2Cx33g-it5waP-eef4K1-4Z2Nm3-p2XvJm-7NwFRT-aAahRX-nKReLV-p2d25Y" target="_blank">"Our treehut in the jungle" </a>by Christian Haugen is licensed under<a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/" target="_blank"> C.C. by 2.0</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: large;">My <a href="http://www.timeforthefamily.com/2015/02/is-world-jungle-or-home.html">last
post</a> referred to some anecdotes of life that prove the point that the world
can seem to be an inhospitable jungle and very much not the home that
Christianity claims it to be. This <a href="http://www.timeforthefamily.com/2015/02/tob-what-is-gift.html">post</a>
by my friend Rachel Coleman is also helpful in describing the gift nature of
creation. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: large;">So in this post I would like to unpack some implications for
marriage and family life given the fact that the world is ultimately a good
gift given to us, not some testing ground for cleverness and survival instincts
a la <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunnel_in_the_Sky">Tunnel in the Sky</a>,
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ender's_Game">Ender’s Game</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hunger_Games_(novel)">Hunger Games</a>
or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Maze_Runner">Maze Runner</a>. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times, serif; line-height: 115%;">1)<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Times, serif; line-height: 115%;">If the
world—and life in it—is a good gift given by a loving Father then I don’t have
to construct my own happiness in a relationship. Instead I can receive it and cooperate with a
natural order already inscribed in everything around me. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l4 level1 lfo5; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; line-height: 115%;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Times, serif; line-height: 115%;">For instance: my wife’s fertility isn’t a
burdensome killjoy that I must have her medicate away or always walled off from
me. Rather, I can learn the cycles
present within her femininity and collaborate with them for the conception or
postponement of a baby and in so doing I will be called outside of my own
boyish demands and discover happiness stemming from virtuous (although
strenuous) selflessness (who wants to be married to a tantrum throwing boy when
he can’t have what he wants? Who wants
to be a 20/30/40/etc. something year old boy?). <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times, serif; line-height: 115%;">2)<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Times, serif; line-height: 115%;">I can
stay put and enjoy the adventure of domesticity.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo4; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; line-height: 115%;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Times, serif; line-height: 115%;">You should really check out two essays by G. K.
Chesterton entitled <i>Homesick at Home</i>
and <i>The Wildness of Domesticity</i> (it’s
in the compilation book<i> Brave New Family</i>). Until you do however, suffice it to say that
rather than chasing a promotion, bigger bank statements, more toys and gadgets,
clothes, or square footage, try pursuing and “earning” your spouse’s affection
like you did when you first dated. How
about pursuing your spouse by putting on perfume/cologne just because you’re
both home for dinner on Tuesday night?
What if you spent more time with your children than your <a href="http://www.timeforthefamily.com/2014/12/would-you-give-up-your-iphone-for-person.html">smartphone</a>,
coworkers or lawnmower? What if your
home didn’t have a blue glow and background noise from breakfast to Jimmy
Fallon? <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times, serif; line-height: 115%;">3)<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Times, serif; line-height: 115%;">I won’t
need to compete with others to get ahead.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; line-height: 115%;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Times, serif; line-height: 115%;">I can focus my energies on diligently applying
myself to serving the authentic needs of those who depend on me. If I run a business, then my employees and
customers get my sincerely best efforts.
If I am an employee, then my supervisor, coworkers and customers should
all intuitively sense that I’m not truncating my performance on Monday morning
or Friday afternoon. When I am at home
my spouse and children have 100% access to me. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times, serif; line-height: 115%;">4)<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Times, serif; line-height: 115%;">I won’t
need to necessarily curtail my openness to children in order to “survive” or be
“happy”. [See this <a href="http://www.timeforthefamily.com/2015/01/why-arent-italians-having-babies.html">post</a>
about what’s happening in Italy or read this <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_to_Expect_When_No_One's_Expecting">book</a>
or watch these <a href="http://www.demographicbomb.com/">documentaries</a>] <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; line-height: 115%;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Times, serif; line-height: 115%;">This is really the kicker that strikes me as the
most important ramification regarding whether or not we perceive the world as a
home or a jungle. Who wants to bring a
baby into a dangerous unknown? No
one. Who can’t help but want to fill up
empty bedrooms with cribs, kitchen tables with high chairs, back seats with car
seats and toilets with potty seats?
Those who perceive the world as fundamentally hostile and hopeless. You see the future of humanity depends on the
outlook of us today. Civilizations
continue or end when the majority of citizens either sign up for celebratory
joy and hope or survival mode minimalism due to perceived hostility.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: large;">Life is challenging and living it virtuously so as to respond
to God’s grace fruitfully is a life-long task.
But it is a worthwhile life project that makes sense when you have been
given a home from which to venture out of, not abandoned into a dangerous
peril-filled wilderness. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: large;">What do you think are other consequences of interpreting the
world as a threat-filled jungle versus a hospitable safe home?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Time for the Familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11913058932504799191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5643637212918782109.post-20047094051375909602015-03-26T16:23:00.005-04:002015-03-26T16:23:49.876-04:00Throwback Thursday<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQrqwvxETYhmGljAoSPZjpYnMABvPAHmWBPt7t03hwtzrVtmLDOrf46PlX2_SKajUliMzm7M10rG0W3b8QUnLI11o5gCkpJVVgyLWfUnUcFfTlyaGZ4-PdQbEz9TSCQOb1f5CfnBa7Y0U/s1600/2900827625_79888750bf_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQrqwvxETYhmGljAoSPZjpYnMABvPAHmWBPt7t03hwtzrVtmLDOrf46PlX2_SKajUliMzm7M10rG0W3b8QUnLI11o5gCkpJVVgyLWfUnUcFfTlyaGZ4-PdQbEz9TSCQOb1f5CfnBa7Y0U/s1600/2900827625_79888750bf_z.jpg" height="320" width="212" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/hyougushi/2900827625/in/photolist-5qkuZp-6iGSN9-6qCcgr-ayhtq6-b3xtvg-3anN7j-6wbwje-ebBapL-gitSa-96dWp1-7irUX-758aPN-6CqVf-2amVPG-aykaTq-4WMSZs-o71c5L-4JBrvN-9w9Tkq-5aNefS-acXLbr-NEcrR-6tr5Cv-3fAZ29-iad7qV-3fAYUd-9man97-iacW4d-iacEDM-mYc28-eh5ABW-qEZZsA-4cVnqG-9j3kyf-cCEAn9-93CtYv-5HDvit-dbw7Se-cbUZA-nLiKs-nUeMY-5rxEyj-aod6EX-qXvAjM-cWQMQ9-pGSX5z-2ahvUz-ooYcRW-mYc8U-bEaKRJ" target="_blank">"Wedding Rings" </a>by Hideyuki Kamon is licensed under <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/" target="_blank">C.C. by 2.0</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">"There is no relationship between human beings so close as that of husband and wife, if they are united as they ought to be."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">-- St. John Chrysostom (Homily 20 on Ephesians 5:22-33)</span>Time for the Familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11913058932504799191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5643637212918782109.post-63629378576595439022015-03-19T12:44:00.000-04:002015-03-19T12:44:01.994-04:00Throwback Thursday<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">"St. Joseph was called by God to serve the person and mission of Jesus directly through the exercise of his fatherhood. It is precisely in this way that, as the Church's Liturgy teaches, he 'cooperated in the fullness of time in the great mystery of salvation" and is truly a "minister of salvation.' His fatherhood is expressed concretely 'in his having made his life a service, a sacrifice to the mystery of the Incarnation and to the redemptive mission connected with it; in having used the legal authority which was his over the Holy Family in order to make a total gift of self, of his life and work; in having turned his human vocation to domestic love into a superhuman oblation of self, an oblation of his heart and all his abilities into love placed at the service of the Messiah growing up in his house.'</span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkNMWL3GGxr9P4g5DGSQ94zh9cQ6rwskzfoVd7Aaeif5LSPygzVh2w6q2-dThGsa0ZTBaRsKDhe2gCw-IPCIioTRySMMaFNnPYQ8dP_D_s5I4G9slDanCfWvw7AqrNMJWtP3z2fZCIyhI/s1600/Georges_de_La_Tour._St._Joseph,_the_Carpenter.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkNMWL3GGxr9P4g5DGSQ94zh9cQ6rwskzfoVd7Aaeif5LSPygzVh2w6q2-dThGsa0ZTBaRsKDhe2gCw-IPCIioTRySMMaFNnPYQ8dP_D_s5I4G9slDanCfWvw7AqrNMJWtP3z2fZCIyhI/s1600/Georges_de_La_Tour._St._Joseph,_the_Carpenter.JPG" height="320" width="231" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Georges_de_La_Tour._St._Joseph,_the_Carpenter.JPG#/media/File:Georges_de_La_Tour._St._Joseph,_the_Carpenter.JPG" target="_blank">"Georges de La Tour. St. Joseph, the Carpenter"</a> by Georges de La Tour. <br />Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.</span></td></tr>
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<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">"In recalling that 'the beginnings of our redemption' were entrusted 'to the faithful care of Joseph,' the Liturgy specifies that 'God placed him at the head of his family, as a faithful and prudent servant, so that with fatherly care he might watch over his only begotten Son.' Leo XIII emphasized the sublime nature of this mission: 'He among all stands out in his august dignity, since by divine disposition he was guardian, and according to human opinion, father of God's Son. Whence it followed that the Word of God was subjected to Joseph, he obeyed him and rendered to him that honor and reverence that children owe to their father.'</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Since it is inconceivable that such a sublime task would not be matched by the necessary qualities to adequately fulfill it, we must recognize that Joseph showed Jesus 'by a special gift from heaven, all the natural love, all the affectionate solicitude that a father's heart can know.'</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">"Besides fatherly authority over Jesus, God also gave Joseph a share in the corresponding love, the love that has its origin in the Father 'from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named' (Eph 3:15).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">"The Gospels clearly describe the fatherly responsibility of Joseph toward Jesus. For salvation-which comes through the humanity of Jesus-is realized in actions which are an everyday part of family life, in keeping with that 'condescension' which is inherent in the economy of the Incarnation. The gospel writers carefully show how in the life of Jesus nothing was left to chance, but how everything took place according to God's predetermined plan. The oft-repeated formula, 'This happened, so that there might be fulfilled...,' in reference to a particular event in the Old Testament serves to emphasize the unity and continuity of the plan which is fulfilled in Christ."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">-- St. John Paul II, <a href="http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_jp-ii_exh_15081989_redemptoris-custos.html" target="_blank">"Redemptoris custos" </a>#8</span></div>
Time for the Familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11913058932504799191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5643637212918782109.post-17690490905568313472015-03-18T12:01:00.000-04:002015-03-18T12:01:17.020-04:00Thank you, St. Joseph<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Recently,
my fiancé and I took a dance break while preparing dinner to sample out a
potential first dance song, “Then,” by Brad Paisley. Romantic swaying quickly
turned into ridiculous laughter as Paisley reminisced about his early
encounters with his now wife...
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">I remember trying not to stare<br />
The night that I first met you<br />
You had me mesmerized<br />
And three weeks later<br />
In the front porch light<br />
Taking 45 minutes to kiss goodnight<br />
I hadn't told you yet<br />
I thought I loved you then <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Our
first few weeks of dating were certainly <i>love</i>ly
– and as love goes they also contained their taste of the cross that Christ
guarantees when we follow Him. The lyrics hit a nerve because to be perfectly
honest, many of our early evenings were not capped with passionate kissing but
with passionate tears – on my part. I was a hot mess. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">My
twenties were ripe with constant flip-flopping; one moment I was able to trust
and hope in God’s goodness only to shortly thereafter give into doubt and
despair. I followed all the rules, listened to every Catholic talk, and gave my
plethora of fiats and still, I found myself alone, heart-broken and fearful as
I passed into my 30s. I admittedly was simultaneously struggling with resentment
over the past and anxiety over the future. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">And so,
those first few weeks…err months…of dating my now fiancé will forever be
characterized (and thus cherished) by a different kind of expression of love.
After years of praying, hoping and waiting, God in His perfect (though still
challenging) timing sent me my St. Joseph – my <b><u>patient</u></b> fiancé who, in those moments when I was most
vulnerable and weak, chose to love and comfort me with a grace-fueled and
grace-giving gentle strength. I am sure that I will never know how difficult it
was for him to pour himself out to me only to be met time and again with tears
of pain and uncertainty. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">I take
solace in the idea that I am sure St. Joseph had his fair share of difficulties
in loving his beautiful bride Mary. Being married to literally the only perfect
woman on earth was likely filled with moments of unparalleled grace and
unparalleled struggle. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">All too
often, we feminize both Jesus Christ and his earthly father, St. Joseph. We
ignore the perhaps smelly sweat, the bloody bodily scars, and the sheer will
power that they embodied and outright owned while walking the earth. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo9wIhl-rDZHloHwxTkfBioks5JEwr6ACfj5NA56ruU1B1bfH12pHcWwusc6ZNGS09P2gbt89UD__ooS2Ob0Kri6UNCQRDl700Aep4fRV-ut_HYJB7wVPlH8XJB4CtwXI2Q8BV7AxyQZc/s1600/joseph-with-infant-chris-1666.jpg!Blog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo9wIhl-rDZHloHwxTkfBioks5JEwr6ACfj5NA56ruU1B1bfH12pHcWwusc6ZNGS09P2gbt89UD__ooS2Ob0Kri6UNCQRDl700Aep4fRV-ut_HYJB7wVPlH8XJB4CtwXI2Q8BV7AxyQZc/s1600/joseph-with-infant-chris-1666.jpg!Blog.jpg" height="400" width="203" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.wikiart.org/en/bartolome-esteban-murillo/joseph-with-infant-chris-1666" target="_blank">"Joseph with Infant Christ" </a>by Murillo is in the Public Domain</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">St.
Joseph is known as the quiet spouse of Mary, perfectly content with being her
most chaste spouse, wholly accepting of his place as the only imperfect being
in the holy family. We rob him of his manliness when we forget his nature and
how he must have fought to be the leader, provider and protector we call on.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">In an
essay on <a href="http://www.kofc.org/un/en/resources/cis/cis322.pdf">“Becoming
a Real Man of God,”</a> Fr. Roger J. Landry lists ten traits of a good soldier.
Included among them are: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">·<span style="font-stretch: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]-->He
is rooted in discipline and strength.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">·<span style="font-stretch: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]-->He
may be tender and compassionate but never soft. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">·<span style="font-stretch: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]-->He
sees sacrifice as an opportunity to show his character and demonstrate love.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">As we
remember St. Joseph on his feast day (March 19), let us praise him for who he really was
and is – a true lover and a fighter. And let us thank all of the men in our
lives who follow his example.</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMc2Xa8QJmRzorgit9IAeeicp5G4wHt34hoOsHGOme2xasB3P-Db2hrdlrODtGA9GGwJagElmpzRc2pq0BrXBDRdhRcfJrEa9s8j2aG-3PWpoXOgbZ95BdIXa1azdfolPB03Z7MwFd5nY/s1600/STanguay-Colucci+bio.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMc2Xa8QJmRzorgit9IAeeicp5G4wHt34hoOsHGOme2xasB3P-Db2hrdlrODtGA9GGwJagElmpzRc2pq0BrXBDRdhRcfJrEa9s8j2aG-3PWpoXOgbZ95BdIXa1azdfolPB03Z7MwFd5nY/s1600/STanguay-Colucci+bio.png" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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Time for the Familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11913058932504799191noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5643637212918782109.post-35761752340873336412015-03-11T17:12:00.000-04:002015-03-11T17:12:17.779-04:00What is sexual difference? Part III<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">In
seeking to define sexual difference and to understand its significance, we have
<a href="http://www.timeforthefamily.com/2015/02/what-is-sexual-difference-part-i.html">discussed
the Trinity</a> and <a href="http://www.timeforthefamily.com/2015/02/what-is-sexual-difference-part-ii.html">the
metaphysics of form and matter</a>.
Though in many senses “invisible,” we can now begin to see how the logic
of love and gift are made visible in the human body.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Our call
to love, our being as <a href="http://www.timeforthefamily.com/2015/02/tob-what-is-gift.html">gift</a>,
and our invitation to fruitfulness are reflected and made visible through our
bodies, which are either masculine or feminine.
In his apostolic letter, <a href="http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_letters/1988/documents/hf_jp-ii_apl_19880815_mulieris-dignitatem.html"><i>Mulieris dignitatem</i></a> St. John Paul II
explains that our masculinity and femininity are not incidental to our being
created in God’s image and likeness. He
writes, “To say that man is created in the image and likeness of God means that
man is called to exist ‘for’ others, to become a gift” (#7).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Together,
masculinity and femininity reveal that who the human person is involves giving
and receiving, and therefore, love. To
be in the image and likeness of God involves our capacity for intellect and
will, but also our call to love.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Gender,
therefore, is not a social construct. It
is not arbitrary. Neither is it
following the sheer dictates of biology.
Rather, sexual difference is a visible sign of what is invisible. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Although
there is not gender in God, there is something about love and fruitfulness in
God, that when embodied, takes the form of gender/sexual difference. We began these reflections by looking at God
as eternal Gift, eternal relationship of love, eternal fruitfulness. From God’s love, generosity and fruitfulness,
in His creation, through metaphysics and becoming visible in our bodies, we see
a glimmer of who He is. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM91EIUFVOeNfm9oWJqT5K-CLUnAEGkASJ1yLN-GvtH1jY03pruFAU9xxrCITIiACQTRP9te-J5S6bzr14MkhsSAuLSeWtNKSLFto5n9Bnz2igMybwAUpt2pT-bA5F-fIN1tha_42nTUE/s1600/4896822030_e7fa872658_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM91EIUFVOeNfm9oWJqT5K-CLUnAEGkASJ1yLN-GvtH1jY03pruFAU9xxrCITIiACQTRP9te-J5S6bzr14MkhsSAuLSeWtNKSLFto5n9Bnz2igMybwAUpt2pT-bA5F-fIN1tha_42nTUE/s1600/4896822030_e7fa872658_z.jpg" height="200" width="149" /></a></td></tr>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Our culture, however, has begun to look at the body as a blank
canvas with no inherent meaning.
Whatever meaning I choose in my “freedom” to give to my body (or lack of
meaning) I may assign to it. One
concrete demonstration of this logic is the severing of sex and gender – sex as
whatever reproductive organs I happen to have and gender as a social construct
by which certain stereotypes have been linked with particular reproductive
organs. In defiance of these
“stereotypes,” gender becomes something I choose, not something I am
given. Therefore, gender is seen as
arbitrary and meaningless. (Its only
meaning is that which I choose to give it.)
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">But the body
is not some “dumb matter,” a meaningless collection of cells and DNA. Rather, the body is a gift whose origin is
Love. Because the body was created by
God who is Love, every fiber, cell and strand of DNA is inscribed with love,
and therefore with an inherent meaning.
The way the body is expressed in a masculine or feminine form profoundly
manifests the call to love.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 1.0in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">1)<span style="font-stretch: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]-->My
male or female body is a beautiful reminder that I was created. I am not
God. I am a child of God. I did not create myself. I come
from another. My life is such a radical
gift that there are some things I did not choose for myself -- my gender, my birthday,
my name, my family, etc. Since there is another way of being that is
different from me (male or female), I also realize that I <a href="http://www.timeforthefamily.com/2015/02/tob-what-is-original-solitude.html">cannot
encompass the whole of reality</a>. <br />
<br />
2) My male or female body is a beautiful reminder that I am called to love.
In seeing that there is another with whom I have <a href="http://www.timeforthefamily.com/2015/03/tob-what-is-original-unity.html">unity</a>
(the same gift of humanity) and difference (masculinity or femininity), I see
that it is possible for me to give and to receive from another. I am
called to live "for" another. I am then able to see that love
is possible, that love is good and that love is the meaning of life.<br />
<br />
3) My male or female body is a beautiful reminder that I am called to love
fruitfully. When I realize that I did not create myself, that I come from
God, and when I realize that I can love another with whom I share a unity
(humanity) and a difference (male or female), I can see that my love can be
fruitful. It can grow and be more. It doesn't have to collapse in
upon itself. It can open me up to new experiences, new wonder, new
gratitude as I watch love unfolded as something I am given and not as something
I create, dominate or master.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">In short,
my sexual identity, which I discover in my body, is a constant reminder of who
I am as a human person -- a gift from God, called to give in love, fruitfully.
So, embracing this gift of our masculinity and femininity, which is
revealed in and through our bodies is key to understanding who God created us
to be and what He is calling us to (ultimately, eternal communion with Him in
heaven).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">In our desperation to
promote equality, we have reduced equality to sameness. And by rendering the body and gender as
devoid of meaning, we are ironically uprooting the very foundation of the
absolute dignity of both men and women.
Our bodies reveal that we did not create ourselves. Our masculinity and femininity make us aware
that we come from another and are created for another. Our life is a gift. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">If our engendered bodies
reveal that we are created and that we are gift, then it is precisely this
truth – that we were loved into existence by God who is Love – that gives us
the dignity that we are desperately trying to enshrine. If we want to receive this gift, appreciate
our dignity, and look at others as people to love and not as objects to use,
then it starts with receiving our masculinity and femininity and realizing that
love indeed requires gender (sexual difference). And that gender reminds us of our unique call
to love. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVgTnRVAy_5ODdS2HsqJtR03G4wZOjoUYOIEayOpm_y5DWYkxtWYIOBJyrjvKvEdqj5YrRNOBMOIeUPyaTy7j3NnQZNo0jbM4gvbms7vLOckxZW9vSg3ufAVL3oDvYqRt7ofnCjsMFlu0/s1600/EMacke+bio.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVgTnRVAy_5ODdS2HsqJtR03G4wZOjoUYOIEayOpm_y5DWYkxtWYIOBJyrjvKvEdqj5YrRNOBMOIeUPyaTy7j3NnQZNo0jbM4gvbms7vLOckxZW9vSg3ufAVL3oDvYqRt7ofnCjsMFlu0/s1600/EMacke+bio.png" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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Time for the Familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11913058932504799191noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5643637212918782109.post-51131261858115246592015-03-06T08:00:00.000-05:002015-03-06T08:00:02.457-05:00TOB: What is original unity?<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">We
continue here our explorations into St. John Paul II’s series of Wednesday
Catecheses, which eventually became known as <i>Man and Woman He Created
Them: A Theology of the Body</i> (TOB, for short). To see other posts on
this topic, click <a href="http://www.timeforthefamily.com/search/label/TOB">here</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">“The
looks of human beings were as a whole round, with back and sides in a circle.
And each had four arms and legs equal in number to his arms, and two faces
alike in all respects . . . but there was one head for both faces—they were set
in opposite directions” (<i>Symposium, </i>189e).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">This is
the account of human beings the Greek playwright Aristophanes gives in Plato’s <i>Symposium</i>. In that dialogue, each member
of the dinner party gives an account of love—where it comes from, whether it is
a god, how it affects humans. Aristophanes proposes that we all used to be
double ourselves—two persons, as it were, in a doubled body; this version of
humanity was too strong and threatened the gods, so Zeus decides he will split
humans in half. When Zeus did so, however, the splitted-humans could not
function and wandered around aimlessly on the earth looking for their other
half; this situation was also unacceptable, because the gods needed humans to
offer sacrifices. So Zeus gives humanity physical love so that the
splitted-humans would be satisfied and could then “attend to the rest of their
livelihood” (191b). Thus, the two sexes and love were born at the same time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Though
Aristophanes was a comic playwright, his creation myth is rather compelling,
which is one of the many reasons it acts as an appropriate foil to John Paul
II’s account of the experience of original unity in his TOB. There does at
times seem to be a lack in us that leads us to another person. But are gender
and sex simply the result of some original wound inflicted upon us, either by
ourselves or some force outside of us? Is my limitedness and need—made evident
by the fact that I cannot be both male and female—evidence of some deep wound,
as Aristophanes articulates?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">No! John
Paul II helps us see this in light of the Genesis account, by explicating the <a href="http://www.timeforthefamily.com/2015/02/what-can-experience-mean.html">original experiences</a> of <a href="http://www.timeforthefamily.com/2015/02/tob-what-is-original-solitude.html">solitude</a>, unity, and nakedness. Original
solitude is the experience of the human (Adam) coming to terms with what it
means to be a creature, and specifically, a human being, one who is in the
material world, but not entirely of it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Original
unity is the next experience John Paul II reflects on in the TOB, and this
experience arises out of and also helps us to understand original solitude.
Though Adam is a full human creature who has a relationship to both God and the
world (securing, ultimately, that no human person must be with the opposite sex
in order to be whole), the Lord sees him in his solitude and says, “It is not
good that man should be alone; I will make a helper fit for him” (Gen 2:18).
Why this need for an-other?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNSpVUEKh1Ex8udB1ErhQ77xXb85A_PHqhfMTJArqX24UHXcbhpkJFzs6uoh5z_dIi6lKkqzdYd-NswP6eGS73vKXFm8DWqbPInIFTyArJcXTM6gVuXJYEo-FSTQWUln0F5kJmqtFr_9c/s1600/3991459257_0d02d96a45_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNSpVUEKh1Ex8udB1ErhQ77xXb85A_PHqhfMTJArqX24UHXcbhpkJFzs6uoh5z_dIi6lKkqzdYd-NswP6eGS73vKXFm8DWqbPInIFTyArJcXTM6gVuXJYEo-FSTQWUln0F5kJmqtFr_9c/s1600/3991459257_0d02d96a45_z.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/quinndombrowski/3991459257/in/photolist-75HgM4-kq492-Hk7vP-6CToZN-6MibyL-5JjNEw-5GozfR-fqKCXj-cNf6MY-dWWfVX-8xYqpM-3PRiM1-8v2dBw-6dEihz-3kGsgL-a6LEr2-7cVi4n-5GsTou-4DVvST-pdCNnK-6rWX7g-7nGjNq-b7FDxV-a77P8Z-8C3soF-4PJshm-79ZcRM-522r1t-24LYYq-6MQorK-dVJH6J-pWs3B-71uENs-658UVk-6nU5QS-bSm3Nx-4y63vX-nvBRCq-ebRsia-8LLZbB-oTGGBg-8o1BUa-8cGEws-7akZKn-6Ai5oW-8wCMKK-74RX-bTQyur-cko3uQ-cDEHvE" target="_blank">"Holding hands"</a> is licensed under <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/" target="_blank">C.C. by 2.0</a></td></tr>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">In my
last <a href="http://www.timeforthefamily.com/2015/02/tob-what-is-original-solitude.html">post</a>, I pointed out that God gives
the Adam three directives—till the
garden, the commandment about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and
name the animals—and that those directives helped Adam to understand his place
in the world vis-à-vis God and the rest of creation. Still, though, Adam’s
knowledge of himself is not entirely clear.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">God puts
Adam into a deep sleep, and forms the woman from his rib, and then she is
presented to the man. John Paul II emphasizes that before this, we have only
seen the general word for humanity (in Hebrew: <i>‘adam</i>) to describe Adam, whereas now we see the words male (<i>‘is</i>) and female (<i>‘issah</i>), signaling that in woman’s creation, man comes to be in a
certain way for the first time as well. One does not make sense without the
other.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Adam
responds with the joyful exclamation we all know so well: “This at last is bone
of my bones and flesh of my flesh!” (Gen 2:23). Remarkably, this is first time
we hear man speak in the creation accounts. It is only in front of an-other
like himself that Adam can say “my”—that is to say, we cannot know ourselves in
isolation, but fully come into the knowledge of what it means to be human (and
specifically, the human that is <i>me</i>),
without the flesh of another. But notice! This original unity is not two humans
stuck together, who were originally meant to have “the same” body—rather, this
true original unity comes from looking at another, seeing that she is actually
other, and knowing that she is also “mine.” The image of a mother and a child
is also very apt here: the child learns, through his mother’s embrace and her
smile, who he is.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Original
unity, then, helps us see more explicitly that to be human means to be <i>for </i>another. Thus, John Paul II writes,
“In the biblical account, solitude is the way that leads to the unity that we
can define, following Vatican II, as <i>communio
personarum</i>” (9<sup>th</sup> Catechesis). Humanity as <i>communio personarum</i>, or communion of persons, made explicit for the
first time in the presence of Eve, helps us better understand man’s capacity
for gift: man is a gift himself (Eve is entirely unexpected and gratuitous),
and has the inner structure appropriate to receiving a gift (Adam receives Eve
in wonder, awe, and gratitude). The <i>communio
personarum</i>, then, is simply another way to express what the late pope
emphasizes in his work time and again: that our creation is a <a href="http://www.timeforthefamily.com/2015/02/tob-what-is-gift.html">gift</a> and that we are made to give a
gift of ourselves. The late pope’s reflections on original unity help shine a
new light on this reality that has existed from the <a href="http://www.timeforthefamily.com/2015/02/tob-what-is-meant-by-beginning.html">“beginning.”</a></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Time for the Familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11913058932504799191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5643637212918782109.post-74803306050217346242015-03-04T08:00:00.000-05:002015-03-17T16:11:08.669-04:00Frozen, Russell Brand and Pope St. John Paul II<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Not long
after <i>Frozen</i> became the highest
grossing animated film of all time, a cyber scandal accusing the masterminds of
Disney of a “gay agenda” blew up all over social media. Whatever the potential
motivations of Disney may or may not have been, the movie actually left me surprised
by hope. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">In these
seemingly dark times when the culture of death looms around us, the plan God
has for us written in our hearts, inscribed in <i>and</i> revealed through our human nature (qua embodied souls) is so
undeniable that even adorable cartoon characters get it. When the lead
character, Elsa, tries to repress and suppress her magical powers, she is left
feeling alone, miserable and with a burden she was not meant to bear. When the
pendulum swings the opposite way and she embraces self-centered <a href="http://www.timeforthefamily.com/2014/12/what-is-freedom.html">“freedom”</a>
indulging her icy powers, the entire fairytale kingdom of Arendelle suffers
from an eternal winter. Clearly, we are not made to suppress or repress our
deepest desires, nor should we overindulge. Elsa learns that all is well when
we order our “magical powers,” if you will, to love. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">I was floored last week when I read <a href="https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/russell-brand-just-destroyed-porn-in-one-of-the-most-jaw-droppingly-awesome"><span style="color: windowtext;">this</span></a> Life Site News article featuring a recent
YouTube video by Russell Brand, the British comedian, former husband of Katy
Perry and now…outspoken anti-pornography activist?!? The video is worth
watching – though fair warning that it includes Brand’s naked chest and casual
bedroom backdrop. He uses personal experience backed by sociological evidence
to deliver his argument and the best part…he mentions a quote commonly
attributed to Pope Saint John Paul II (he refers to him as a “priest,” we’ll
take it), <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">“I
heard a quote from a priest that said ‘pornography isn’t a problem because it shows
too much, it’s a problem because it shows too little.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">He denounces the book and film, <i>Fifty Shades of Grey</i> and says, “Our
attitudes towards sex have become warped and perverted and have deviated from
its true function as an expression of love and a means for procreation. Because
our acculturation—the way we’ve designed it and expressed it—has become really,
really, confused.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0yXLi2JVTxfiDOOy6g7sVy8aJsT4REhlZpnOXJQ3xC05tR35r98VLixzYnaZLr0Hb6nWGwPFZ9eLkpV2Qxf6Ucdjq1fK0AvQ3vwMpkTXsxR572SNc1RIkcJtX1ZqnpPc-K1HGGNR4iEw/s1600/11895012576_5fa8c09a5b_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0yXLi2JVTxfiDOOy6g7sVy8aJsT4REhlZpnOXJQ3xC05tR35r98VLixzYnaZLr0Hb6nWGwPFZ9eLkpV2Qxf6Ucdjq1fK0AvQ3vwMpkTXsxR572SNc1RIkcJtX1ZqnpPc-K1HGGNR4iEw/s1600/11895012576_5fa8c09a5b_z.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/aloha75/11895012576/in/photolist-k544Rj-a1y7YF-njtcL4-j883PJ-e97ofu-oA1JkD-e7uANM-iuxThE-4bNxb9-ebf3Yf-orCURo-nhqSYm-bbty14-zTvdt-8t2Qge-orCshG-dpQCXp-7LC8Ey-kyfymA-p2B6yw-j883zW-j85NTj-5Wfegx-8dRSCu-oHRNUc-nqi6mm-4bJxCk-4bJvan-kydB2k-oG6MXS-a2DcMb-8dNCLH-7Ly8hB-nSBmWq-9JXFR3-48gXGJ-6uUb1j-edi424-nAGes2-orDi96-ed8jwE-5hobiS-7Ly5Cr-orDgTS-9WNLxy-orD5am-4bJwei-q3UBnK-dYTGbj-fohRMT/" target="_blank">"Elsa"</a> by Sam Howzit is licensed under <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/" target="_blank">C.C by 2.0.</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Whether you are a princess covered from head to
toe in sparkly attire or an outspoken and rugged bloke, clearly you don’t have
to be a graduate of the John Paull II Institute to know that you are made for
more, to know that you are made for authentic, life-giving love. Even in the most unsuspecting places we find
echoes of the call God has written on our hearts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Taking
a cue from Russell Brand, I leave you with these words from our favorite
“priest’s” 1979 encyclical <i><a href="http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_04031979_redemptor-hominis.html">Redempter
Hominis</a></i>,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">“Man
cannot live without love. He remains a being that is incomprehensible for
himself, his life is senseless, if love is not revealed to him, if he does not
encounter love, if he does not experience it and make it his own, if he
does not participate intimately in it.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Fifteen
years later in his <i><a href="http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/letters/1994/documents/hf_jp-ii_let_02021994_families.html">Letter to Families</a></i>, he further
explained, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">“The
love which the Apostle Paul celebrates in the First Letter to the Corinthians -
the love which is <i>"patient" and "kind"</i>,
and <i>"endures all things" </i>(1 Cor 13:4, 7) - is
certainly a demanding love. But this is precisely the source of its beauty: by
the very fact that it is demanding, it builds up the true good of man and
allows it to radiate to others.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">As a
high school religion teacher, I am aware of how very daunting communicating
this truth is – and I am even more aware of how my task is actually quite
simple. As Disney might put it, I need only awaken them to “their heart’s true
desire.” </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Time for the Familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11913058932504799191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5643637212918782109.post-43789218351899458342015-03-02T13:25:00.001-05:002015-03-02T13:25:36.895-05:00The Original Trial: God v. Adam and Eve<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Most of us know that the
condition of man in the Garden of Eden is called original innocence, and that
after the Fall, man enters into the state of original justice. Man comes into
this latter state through the original sin, which still affects every man
today. This last term is probably the most well-known. There is, however,
another “original,” one to which we refer much less often: the original trial.<span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The original trial will
help us understand that even in our sinfulness God will always be just and
treat us according to certain rights. As such He will deliver a just decision
and the <i>vetitum</i>, so we must go back to the Genesis accounts. There
we see how the trial unfolded and how the Church developed the rights that we
freely enjoy today.<span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The Original Trial
begins in Genesis 3:8. The original Sin has already been committed and Adam and
Eve understand the weight of the crime when they hear God. They hide
themselves—but how does one hide from God? They could not simply jump behind a
bush; their hearts told the truth of the weight of their crime, so in shame
they hide themselves.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br />
</span>Now, God already knows
the offense committed and He knows where Adam and Eve are. As a just judge, He
must summon or at least cite the parties. So He calls out to Adam, "where
are you?" (Gen 3:9). This is the first right of man within the context of
a trial. The medieval canonists realized that every man has a natural right to
face his accuser. Every man has a right to be summoned or cited in order that
that trial to be joined (started). For the 12<sup>th</sup> century man, this
was revolutionary. No longer did the king have the power to simply hand down
decisions and execute them. The peasant had a right to be at the trial. This
leads us to another natural right.<span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht2cv9rOTISQN8YbaKagYVaNaSkn80vJVuE5Ft-7ZL9cWrAomfPn6e3NYyy4SQ0CzYYhl2uBTiNrLvV6WHc-uZ7ww9DaOlenbpnxmMEwipKqjjIuCuRxGATLe439aNAIFTzgP9BIq-qH0/s1600/the-expulsion-of-adam-and-eve-from-paradise-1791.jpg!Blog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht2cv9rOTISQN8YbaKagYVaNaSkn80vJVuE5Ft-7ZL9cWrAomfPn6e3NYyy4SQ0CzYYhl2uBTiNrLvV6WHc-uZ7ww9DaOlenbpnxmMEwipKqjjIuCuRxGATLe439aNAIFTzgP9BIq-qH0/s1600/the-expulsion-of-adam-and-eve-from-paradise-1791.jpg!Blog.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.wikiart.org/en/benjamin-west/the-expulsion-of-adam-and-eve-from-paradise-1791" target="_blank">"The Expulsion of Adam and Eve From Paradise"</a> by Benjamin West is in the Public Domain</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">God, knowing the weight
of the crime, does not <i>need</i> to ask questions to Adam or Eve,
but He does. He investigates the matter at hand. He asks Adam "who told
you that you are naked?" (Gen 3:12). Adam's response is to blame the
woman. God, again, already knowing the depth of the crime, still follows His
investigation and asks Eve "what is this that you have done?"
(Gen 3:13). She, in turn, responds by blaming the serpent. Despite
knowing the events and depth of the crime, God is a just judge and understands
the rights of man. Man has a right to a fair investigation of the acclaimed
crime and the right to defense, even if, as in the case of Adam and Eve, it
will incriminate him further. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">In the context of the 12<sup>th</sup> century, the canonists begin to understand that the king could
no longer determine for himself the decision without due justice within an
investigation. He could no longer violate the right to defend oneself against
one’s accuser.<span style="color: #222222;"><br />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br />
<!--[endif]--></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">With the investigation
concluded, the Lord God was able to fulfill His duty as a just judge and
deliver a just decision. The crime, original sin, and decision were declared
publicly in Gen: 14-19 to all parties involved. Included in the decision was
a <i>vetitum</i>: a required prohibition despite the decision being
fulfilled. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The <i>vetitum</i> was in form of Adam and Eve driven out
of the garden. God knew, and the canonists later developed, that man has a
right to hear publicly the offense committed and the decision given to him—this
will help bring him to a state of justice. Decisions were made public to ensure
that the judge would not change the declaration after the trial had closed. A
king could not punish someone without the accused knowing the charges, the
reasons for it, and the decision.<span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">(Parenthetically, this
was an important development in legal history because a 12th century farmer
whose cow was slaughtered by a stronger neighbor was very limited in receiving
compensation. If he went to the king, there would be a trial by combat. If he
went to the pagan priest, there was an ordeal. If he went to the Catholic
Church, there would be a fair trial based on rights and evidence. He would have
a better chance of receiving compensation to buy a new cow).<span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br />
</span>These rights are vital
to today's legal system: the right to be summoned or cited, the right to know
the charges, the right to an investigation, the right to a defense, and the
right to a just and public decision based on a due process. While it may not be
revolutionary to us today, we have these rights because of the Original Trial.
The Original Trial shows the judge the way he must precede in the trial in
order that the trial does not violate certain rights that even God followed.<span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times; font-size: 18px; text-align: start;">Have a question you’d like answered about canonical law? You can email it directly to askacanonlawyer[at]gmail.com</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIsCwuS8JFFg4SQcKV212nVNMG0W6VX4DhzIMaJc18iAqGo_8avEKp7DRxtAuhZ4PPM6IqNdstLCb8XRIMwAp8ihe39A_sDnBrDy8IEoGqDfnen1hMhPthEAq6Oxq_gBYILdpZ4PGItz8/s1600/CSacasa+bio.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIsCwuS8JFFg4SQcKV212nVNMG0W6VX4DhzIMaJc18iAqGo_8avEKp7DRxtAuhZ4PPM6IqNdstLCb8XRIMwAp8ihe39A_sDnBrDy8IEoGqDfnen1hMhPthEAq6Oxq_gBYILdpZ4PGItz8/s1600/CSacasa+bio.png" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />Time for the Familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11913058932504799191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5643637212918782109.post-90662834023004970352015-02-28T08:37:00.000-05:002015-02-28T08:37:33.951-05:00TOB: What is original solitude?<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">We continue here our explorations
into St. John Paul II’s series of Wednesday Catecheses, which eventually became
known as <i>Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body</i> (TOB,
for short). To see other posts on this topic, click <a href="http://www.timeforthefamily.com/search/label/TOB">here</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">As I wrote in my <a href="http://www.timeforthefamily.com/2015/01/why-did-john-paul-ii-write-theology-of.html">first
post</a> on this topic, John Paul II’s TOB is often looked at solely
in terms of what it has to say about sex and marriage. This is not without
warrant—indeed, John Paul II placed a great deal of emphasis on marriage and
the family during his papacy—but if looked at only in this light, we miss the
bigger picture. <i>Man and Woman He Created
Them </i>is about, in the simplest terms, what it means to be human—a bodily
creature who comes from and responds to God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">This
method of theological anthropology is evident from the beginning of TOB, After
John Paul II sets up the starting point for his reflections—that is, Jesus’
insistence that we return to “the beginning” in his dialogue with the Pharisees
about divorce—the pope introduces the three “original experiences” based on the
creation accounts in Genesis. These three experiences—solitude, unity, and
nakedness—all help us understand what it is to be both spirit and body. What
does it mean to be in the material world but not entirely of it? There is more
going on in TOB than thoughts on what conjugal love is and means.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">This is
reinforced by John Paul II’s reflections on the first of the three original
experiences -- original solitude. Though in the first creation account, male
and female appear simultaneously (“So God created man in his own image, in the
image of God he created him; male and female he created them” Gen 1:27), this
is not the case in the second creation account. Instead we are presented with
Adam, the first human, whose name means something like “humanity.” John Paul II
is careful to note that in this second account, the worlds “male” and “female”
(‘is and ‘issah in the original Hebrew) do not appear until there are two. I’ll
talk about this more when I address original unity, but for now we’ll give our
attention to the solitary Adam.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">John
Paul II explains the experience of original solitude in terms of man’s place
and situation in the world—man is neither animal nor pure spirit. As both, man is above the rest of the
creatures. The first indication of this superior place in the created world is
the directive about the garden: “The Lord God took the man and put him in the
garden of Eden to till it and keep it” (Gen 2:15). Work, then, helps set
humanity apart from everything else in this world; man is the only creature
with the capacity to care for what has been created—to receive it, we can say,
as a <a href="http://www.timeforthefamily.com/2015/02/tob-what-is-gift.html">gift</a>. This receptivity and capacity
to work, then, is a first step in thinking about original solitude.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqjqbrq29IcfP5CkAaAB4yScMRjm-p7BfeGqg9pJlzD1tdSD5ttfZZJb8OV05ENCsfJhvZObUsM07D1B9p1N4O9g-PYchgPQ00WSMEaPjXj2sPs7iRJEGFcL-lw1aBFZsvRhNj1LTqX0o/s1600/for-to-be-a-farmer-s-boy.jpg!Blog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqjqbrq29IcfP5CkAaAB4yScMRjm-p7BfeGqg9pJlzD1tdSD5ttfZZJb8OV05ENCsfJhvZObUsM07D1B9p1N4O9g-PYchgPQ00WSMEaPjXj2sPs7iRJEGFcL-lw1aBFZsvRhNj1LTqX0o/s1600/for-to-be-a-farmer-s-boy.jpg!Blog.jpg" height="272" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.wikiart.org/en/winslow-homer/for-to-be-a-farmer-s-boy" target="_blank">"For to be a farmer's boy" </a>by Winslow Homer is in the Public Domain</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span></div>
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<br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Another
indication of man’s being set apart is the naming of the animals: “out of the
ground the Lord God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air,
and brought them to the man to see what he would call them” (Gen 2:19). This
too is a form of dominion—to name something is to see and understand its
essence; no other creature in the world has been given this task and privilege.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Though
this multi-faceted dominion is clearly a gift for and to man, making it clear
that the earth is <i>for</i> him, it also
sets the man apart in such a way that it’s not entirely clear to whom or what
he belongs. By tilling the garden and naming the animals, it is evident that
though Adam has a material body like the rest of creation, there is something
more in him as well. Obviously the question of belonging becomes clearer when
Eve is created from Adam’s rib, but we should not pass too quickly over
original solitude, as, for John Paul II, it is the key to other original
experiences.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">John
Paul II draws our attention to a third dimension of human existence that occurs
before the original unity of male and female: “And the Lord God commanded the
man, ‘You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day you eat of it, you
shall die’” (Gen 2:16-17). John Paul II asks this question of the passage:
“could man, who in his original consciousness knows only the experience of
existing and thus of life, have understood what the words ‘You shall die’ mean?”
(7<sup>th</sup> Catechesis). Put another way: how could Adam understand death as
death has not yet entered the world?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">We tend
to glide over this question because of our familiarity with these passages. But
if the commandment about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil can hold
any weight, so to speak, with Adam, then he must have at least some sense of
the consequence the Lord gives him. What can this mean?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">John
Paul II writes: “The words of God-Yahweh addressed to the man confirm a
dependence in existing, so that they show man as a limited being and by his
nature, susceptible to nonexistence.” In other words, because man is a
creature, nonexistence is constitutive to his very being. Though it is somewhat
unfathomable, we all know with certainty that there was a time when we were
not. This is the situation of the creature.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Thus the
commandment, though often viewed in negative terms (likely because we
transgressed it and pay the price), is actually also a gift in line with the
other directives of keeping the garden and naming the animals: it allows man to
know his place in relation to the world and God, in short, it gives him the
capacity to know what he is—a creature.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">This,
then, is the main thrust of original solitude: that man can rest in the
knowledge that he is a creature, and not just a creature, but also one to whom
God speaks. The original experience of solitude secures our knowledge of our
selves in this world, that each person is created for his or her own sake by
God, who gives the world to man as a gift.</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0mIS8apigVYeipPoslnRCoGP7bmGtENs7jSEBgRxhyP0F4e90lFW0cA3zeIZ1FK_mVCAkVf7xOHCN3Czd66cQrOfv8F5hQv2GZB8gCy47l3MpaJsZ3_Znyl9brq5WlnzI8wRLsHoKn1k/s1600/RColeman+bio.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0mIS8apigVYeipPoslnRCoGP7bmGtENs7jSEBgRxhyP0F4e90lFW0cA3zeIZ1FK_mVCAkVf7xOHCN3Czd66cQrOfv8F5hQv2GZB8gCy47l3MpaJsZ3_Znyl9brq5WlnzI8wRLsHoKn1k/s1600/RColeman+bio.png" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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Time for the Familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11913058932504799191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5643637212918782109.post-65780471750839047842015-02-26T13:24:00.000-05:002015-02-26T13:24:31.345-05:00Throwback Thursday<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVPz75nVrcRiVr8U6bsYPRvMj0gmsek2t7Z4zdRwWbq_0K0cIkYeGFzzy2Eaf43LRF8b3BwIU5i_jE_Uwk_IAFwDfppyrXyL8kC031q90_97hm44mwJnWKOxqxbq_ZkyUpOQS8SOUf1SM/s1600/3476636111_c551295ca4_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVPz75nVrcRiVr8U6bsYPRvMj0gmsek2t7Z4zdRwWbq_0K0cIkYeGFzzy2Eaf43LRF8b3BwIU5i_jE_Uwk_IAFwDfppyrXyL8kC031q90_97hm44mwJnWKOxqxbq_ZkyUpOQS8SOUf1SM/s1600/3476636111_c551295ca4_z.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/peta-de-aztlan/3476636111/in/photolist-6idEMV-9ZaVSB-q1hb1N-ii18aX-cjDeXE-hBCZT9-hs55vM-hs6ZMJ-hs74on-hs6P8Z-e5JGci-hs5Bce-hs5DVx-hs7jn1-qhKqPs-ncaj8h-ncajcf-hs5tWT-hs31JH-3J8Cy-hs7GfB-bVuCw6-hs5fu3-hs6CBt-4LQ4vK-5WJsP4-hs4G7r-hs3FLS-hs5jJV-hs6fDv-cPgsD9-5VTZoK-hs4xR1-hs5Zs8-cWmR1-hs3kUC-5AwGxT-b7QRJV-hs4Vor-b5BAJ6-nq875e-hs82SA-m1kfnK-hs4SM7-fMGHhc-dWWRce-hs4ofp-67LJPA-m1kNo6-gDi9Nm/" target="_blank">"Mother Teresa Collage" </a>is licensed under <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/" target="_blank">C.C. by 2.0</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">"Once in a while we should ask ourselves several questions in order to guide our actions. We should ask questions like: Do I know the poor? Do I know, in the first place, the poor in my family, in my home, those who are closest to me -- people who are poor, but not because they lack bread?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">"There are other types of poverty just painful because they are more intrinsic.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">"Perhaps what my husband or wife lacks, what my children lack, what my parents lack, is not clothes or food. Perhaps they lack love, because I do not give it to them!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">- Bl. Mother Teresa </span>Time for the Familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11913058932504799191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5643637212918782109.post-62156680149578458912015-02-25T20:14:00.000-05:002015-03-03T14:08:43.173-05:00What is sexual difference? Part II<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Sexual
difference is one of the most contentious topics today. We toss around the word “gender” with a
panoply of meanings, though each person professes the utmost confidence that
his (or should we use the </span><a href="http://www.newsweek.com/2014/10/03/three-letter-word-driving-gender-revolution-272654.html"><span style="line-height: 115%;">gender
neutral “hen”</span></a><span style="line-height: 115%;">?) understanding of the term is the most accurate.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">So, in a
quest to understand what sexual difference is and why it matters, we are
carefully defining our terms. This post
is the second in a series. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">In </span><a href="http://www.timeforthefamily.com/2015/02/what-is-sexual-difference-part-i.html"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Part I</span></a><span style="line-height: 115%;"> of our
reflections, we looked at who God is and summarized that He is relational, has
unity and difference (three Persons, one God) and that within God there is both
giving and receiving. In Part III we
will focus on the visible ways in which we can see the Trinitarian stamp in
humanity, but first we must take a quick (and confessedly inadequate) primer in
metaphysics. To understand why the
visible has an inherent logic and meaning, we must understand something of the <i>invisible</i> behind it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">In
Ancient Greece, the philosopher Aristotle asked the question, “What is
being?” He came to understand it as
composed of two things – each necessary for a thing to exist, but not reducible
to each other – form and matter. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Form is
the principle of unity. It is what
actuates a thing. Because a thing has
form, it cannot be “mere matter.”
Therefore, a whole is greater than its parts. A person is still a person if his finger is
cut off. Likewise, a frog dissected in
biology class cannot be magically put back together again as a living frog.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph">
<br /></div>
<br />
<br />
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Matter is
the material. In modernity, this tends
to be that to which things are reduced, because form, is in a sense taken for
granted: if it gives matter its being, then we think all we see is just matter. But if things were merely matter, they could
not exist.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Fast
forward from Aristotle to St. Thomas Aquinas.
Instead of beginning with the question, “What is being?” he wanted to
know why things exist. For Aristotle,
the world was eternal and therefore it seemed an irrelevant question. But for Aquinas, who believed that the world
was created out of nothing, this was an important question with which to
begin. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXDX62LiiZe1XtgTwpylkcOUnFuktwvFp1WS30RmaFm1QSjY6NUYsuo8poFiaYp3k9Lw8dy5G5V002CEHxPkhyphenhyphenTSiwY486XW9q9MaXWq2bOeQWeNHNZKLdZP2lPoiK730DVMddndIs-bw/s1600/Angelsatmamre-trinity-rublev-1410.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXDX62LiiZe1XtgTwpylkcOUnFuktwvFp1WS30RmaFm1QSjY6NUYsuo8poFiaYp3k9Lw8dy5G5V002CEHxPkhyphenhyphenTSiwY486XW9q9MaXWq2bOeQWeNHNZKLdZP2lPoiK730DVMddndIs-bw/s1600/Angelsatmamre-trinity-rublev-1410.jpg" height="400" width="321" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Angelsatmamre-trinity-rublev-1410.jpg" target="_blank">"Angels at Mamre (Holy Trinity)"</a> by Rublev is in the Public Domain</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">St.
Thomas Aquinas had a more comprehensive notion of what it means to be, which includes
the “real distinction.” An existent or
entity is composed of esse (being or “that a thing is” and essence (“what a
thing is”). Essence is composed of form
and matter. So, for Aquinas there are
three dimensions of a particular being – esse, form and matter.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Though
belief in what is immaterial has always been part of humanity, there has been a
shift in the last several centuries to not take these immaterial realities
seriously. In many ways we seek value
only in what is provable through experiment and what is tangible or makeable. Metaphysics is not visible and therefore is
not seen as true or as valuable. But it’s
vital for a full and philosophical explanation of the human person to understand
what form is. When it is denied by the
world at large, we miss out on huge implications of who the human person truly
is.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">In
answering the question, “What is sexual difference?” we start with God who is
eternal Gift, a Communion of Persons in which the Father gives to the Son, the
Son receives the Father and gives Himself in return, and the Holy Spirit is the
love that they share. In Genesis 1, the
pattern of God creating and then saying, “It is good” is interrupted before the
creation of man. Here, God pauses and
looks into Himself, seeking in a sense the “blueprint” for the creation of the
human person in His own image and likeness.
There is a “Trinitarian logic” at the ground of the human person, both
physically and metaphysically. Esse/being
in all its fullness gives itself to existents/entities and “receives” from
them. Likewise, form – although
invisible – gives shape to matter, which in turn receives and instantiates
form. This logic of gift is then made
visible in our male and female bodies. God
has not only given us the </span><a href="http://www.timeforthefamily.com/2015/02/tob-what-is-gift.html"><span style="line-height: 115%;">gift of
ourselves</span></a><span style="line-height: 115%;"> but also the ability to give – a reflection of and a
participation in His own generosity and love.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large; line-height: 18.3999996185303px;">In our next post in this series we will look more closely at the meaning of sexual difference and what our masculinity and femininity reveal to us about being human.</span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large; line-height: 18.3999996185303px;"> </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVgTnRVAy_5ODdS2HsqJtR03G4wZOjoUYOIEayOpm_y5DWYkxtWYIOBJyrjvKvEdqj5YrRNOBMOIeUPyaTy7j3NnQZNo0jbM4gvbms7vLOckxZW9vSg3ufAVL3oDvYqRt7ofnCjsMFlu0/s1600/EMacke+bio.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVgTnRVAy_5ODdS2HsqJtR03G4wZOjoUYOIEayOpm_y5DWYkxtWYIOBJyrjvKvEdqj5YrRNOBMOIeUPyaTy7j3NnQZNo0jbM4gvbms7vLOckxZW9vSg3ufAVL3oDvYqRt7ofnCjsMFlu0/s1600/EMacke+bio.png" height="424" width="640" /></a></div>
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Time for the Familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11913058932504799191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5643637212918782109.post-77135858062962346722015-02-23T11:05:00.000-05:002015-02-23T11:05:00.644-05:00Is the World a Jungle or a Home?<div style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Roughly a year ago a wise religious sister shared with me a
profound truth, “either one receives the world, and life itself, as a gift and
therefore perceives one’s surroundings as a hospitable home or the world is simply
experienced as a harsh jungle threatening one’s life constantly.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Her words came back to me recently as I was watching my
toddler son explore our kitchen. In the
span of 45 seconds, he bonked his head twice and was sent reeling backward onto
his posterior. Clearly our kitchen was a
jungle for him. Then, before bedtime, that
same son bent over to pick up a toy only to unexpectedly hit the corner of the
bed with his head causing him to fall backward and land on the carpet. The bedroom proved itself to be no less than
the Amazon.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">So how do I communicate to my children that ‘there is more
than meets the eye’ when it comes to their experience of the school of hard
knocks? I think it has to do with an
exchange I just had with my older, three-year-old son.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFKHVHi8nK_rvqBUNcFZmu4WFiRFYfT7qPoVJQPEQcuMLxLeaTAPOky3euwVWSHK4Cfpb9wE9eGD00xiqN3E_OD51fmxZjYPz4j9cg0l1PXX3o7cQnZoT_KiFbeYSbjm3OQQxPo49bPmU/s1600/8037048360_dcc66d2ee8_m.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFKHVHi8nK_rvqBUNcFZmu4WFiRFYfT7qPoVJQPEQcuMLxLeaTAPOky3euwVWSHK4Cfpb9wE9eGD00xiqN3E_OD51fmxZjYPz4j9cg0l1PXX3o7cQnZoT_KiFbeYSbjm3OQQxPo49bPmU/s1600/8037048360_dcc66d2ee8_m.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Roboto, Helvetica, Tahoma, Arial; font-size: 11.1999998092651px; line-height: 28px;">This photo by the Montgomery County Planning <br />Commission is licensed under </span><a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #464646; font-family: Roboto, Helvetica, Tahoma, Arial; font-size: 11.1999998092651px; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">C.C. by 2.0.</a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Unbeknownst to him, Grandma had mailed him a picture book
about hook and ladder fire engines. So I
told him Grandma had sent him a surprise and that he should close his eyes and
hold out his hands to receive it. After
two or three more repeat instructions he trusted and did it. When he </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">opened his eyes, he discovered the
fantastic gift and was thrilled with it.
He was genuinely delighted with the book and kept asking me, “What is a
surprise?” I found his question
endearing, and this experience of surprise was an irreplaceable moment for him. In his innocence, surprise is </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">now synonymous
with a good thing given by a loved one who knows one’s preferences. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The next morning, as we were walking down the stairs, he
looked out the window and saw a slight dusting of snow and immediately
exclaimed, “it snowed! Thank you
Jesus!” Clearly for him this experience
demonstrated that the “world is a home.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Perhaps this is the punch line of Christian parenting? I must form my children to know through
personal experience, not just lecture or conceptually, that life is full of
goodness, providence and being intimately known. Inevitably, when their innocence is worn down
and the struggles of life (see Genesis 3; i.e. labor pains, thorns, thistles
and sweat) have mounded up, they can then enter the philosophical fray and
concur that creation is <i>very</i> good and
given to humanity to till and keep; all in anticipation of the Master’s return
when He will invite His faithful servants to reside with Him in His Father’s
house. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I’m truly beginning to discover that being “like a child”
(Mt 18:3) as an adult <i><u>necessitates</u></i>
me being physically, emotionally and spiritually present to the children in my
life (primarily my sons) so that when they oscillate between “jungle” and
“home” experiences of the world, I relearn the lesson too and revisit my
ultimate conclusion about life. Namely,
that the world is an awe-inspiring gift, and if I have the eyes, ears and heart
to receive it, I will become like a child trusting his father that the next
thing placed in his hands will be an unexpected delight.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Life isn't a perpetual pop quiz that we dread because we
have never understood the material<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"></a>. Life is a surprise mailing of a hook and
ladder fire engine book that you love so much that you take it with you to nap
time so that it fills your dreams. </span> </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ3epYOadMd4eH6TX9K3P_yzLYHfaIDbDhNBtIQQn97nVzJoMBR6mUTsQGsjx61YnGEXTVSLFGYzbAnYx9VgD-0RpVfzHNLZspc32y91k2Vs0yWzictPUNG5su6Asy1Nwh5xCm6NfcPJQ/s1600/CTejeda+bio.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ3epYOadMd4eH6TX9K3P_yzLYHfaIDbDhNBtIQQn97nVzJoMBR6mUTsQGsjx61YnGEXTVSLFGYzbAnYx9VgD-0RpVfzHNLZspc32y91k2Vs0yWzictPUNG5su6Asy1Nwh5xCm6NfcPJQ/s1600/CTejeda+bio.png" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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Time for the Familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11913058932504799191noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5643637212918782109.post-47421412167703883282015-02-21T13:51:00.000-05:002015-02-21T13:51:24.173-05:00What can experience mean?<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">We continue here our explorations into St. John Paul II’s
series of Wednesday Catecheses, which eventually became known as <i>Man
and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body</i> (TOB, for short). To
see other posts on this topic, click <a href="http://www.timeforthefamily.com/search/label/TOB">here</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The first part of the Wednesday Catecheses, sometimes called
the first “cycle” of TOB, concentrates on what John Paul II calls the “original
experiences”: solitude, unity and nakedness. Each of the three warrants its own
post so for now I’ll just concentrate on opening up the word “experience,” and what
John Paul II is drawing out of it here. Using the creation accounts in Genesis
as his guide, John Paul II contemplates the first experiences of man. In these
reflections, the late pope leads us to an incredibly deep and rich
understanding of man’s place in the world as creature, as worker, and as male
and female. In a word, thinking about the original experiences helps us
understand what it means to be human.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP44K_scMe1-Pg91PSHgFlOX-WDeZFsTKulJKK9NhjQi5vyaIbIfHbhMMmRr-7crnjeit6qesjbI0i1bmMB3SacxsRgmLI4Tx45t_4_NzVIAD7q9aLzpWkNZ308NWi634_sPCauBb-HH8/s1600/sistine-chapel-ceiling-creation-of-eve-1510.jpg!Blog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP44K_scMe1-Pg91PSHgFlOX-WDeZFsTKulJKK9NhjQi5vyaIbIfHbhMMmRr-7crnjeit6qesjbI0i1bmMB3SacxsRgmLI4Tx45t_4_NzVIAD7q9aLzpWkNZ308NWi634_sPCauBb-HH8/s1600/sistine-chapel-ceiling-creation-of-eve-1510.jpg!Blog.jpg" height="293" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Michelangelo's <a href="http://www.wikiart.org/en/michelangelo/sistine-chapel-ceiling-creation-of-eve-1510" target="_blank">"Creation of Eve" </a>is in the Public Domain.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">It’s important to remember that these original experiences
are not fairy tales. The Genesis accounts are mythic in structure, but mythic
in the sense that they recall something common to all mankind—a memory, so to
speak, that we all have within us. John Paul II speaks of solitude, unity and
nakedness as original not simply because they are first temporally, but because
they are at our origin: these three experiences are common to us in our very
humanity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">John Paul II spends most of his time in this first cycle on
the original experiences exegeting the second creation account in Genesis,
though always keeping the first in view as well. This second account, called
“Yahwist” on account of its using that name to refer to God, is older, and John
Paul II notes, has a more subjective tone. That is to say, in the second
creation account we see creation more from man’s point of view, as it were.
Therefore, John Paul II refers explicitly to this second account more often in
order to contemplate man’s original experience of his body, which in turn helps
man understand his relationship to the world and God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Let me reiterate that last point: John Paul II is proposing
here that it is mankind’s having a body and his experience in that body, that
allows man to know himself, the world and God. “The body reveals man,” says the
late pope in the 9<sup>th</sup> Catechesis.
In the very same paragraph, he also says of the person that “man as a
person, that is, as a being that is, also in all its bodiliness, ‘similar’ to
God.” Our lived experience in and through the body opens us up to God. Indeed,
it is also where we are similar to Him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Perhaps this seems like common sense: of course my
experience is how I know things, since knowledge first comes from the senses.
But maybe it’s not so evident to us—we have a tendency, I think, to regard our
day-to-day lives and experiences as having little to do with the laws of the
universe or the truth of the world. What could my body help me to understand
about those things? Well, John Paul II avers, everything. Without the body,
there would be no experience, and therefore nothing to know.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">We tend to think in a false dichotomy of subjective vs.
objective. My subjective experiences only accidentally connect with what is
objectively true, but the two aren’t intrinsically connected to each other. In
fact, “subjective” has become a bit of an epithet.* But if what is objectively
true about the world, man and God doesn’t have everything to do with how I
(subjectively) experience such things, then the world (and man and God) becomes
foreign to me, a place in which I don’t really belong. That is problematic and
deeply divisive, but it’s the situation we find ourselves in when we pit
subjective against objective and vice versa.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">John Paul II is trying to cut through this dichotomy by
recovering experience as a means to know the true, good and beautiful, rather
than as something incommunicable that traps us in ourselves. Experience and
meaning are not opposed. The original experiences help us to see this more
fully because they are at the basis of every other experience, and therefore
something which we all share. Solitude, unity and nakedness, as John Paul II
articulates them in TOB, are the abiding presence of “the beginning” in the
midst of our lives. And as we have this deep memory of creation within us
simply because we are human (and therefore bodily), surely our lived, bodily
experience is also what helps us to understand the transcendent.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">*the Dude <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWdd6_ZxX8c">abides</a>.</span><span style="font-family: Times, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Time for the Familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11913058932504799191noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5643637212918782109.post-31180480684040129292015-02-19T14:48:00.000-05:002015-02-19T14:48:07.310-05:00Throwback Thursday<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">"By virtue of the sacramentality of their marriage, spouses are bound to one another in the most profoundly indissoluble manner. Their belonging to each other is the real representation, by means of the sacramental sign, of the very relationship of Christ with the Church.</span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFT4iIyqHPYek6pvfpTYTLZGcRphBQJZgMR2aziKxpoo3oRC_Pd_g3pM9ESDCHS-5ND3TentSv1k5lxAyfbJzVSM2XWNMs4QYgDDrLVTZCy3W6gxqjY5OxtoSAaYjHk9RCVB-LzTT3rIg/s1600/640px-Park_Jordana_w_Krakowie_-_JPII.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFT4iIyqHPYek6pvfpTYTLZGcRphBQJZgMR2aziKxpoo3oRC_Pd_g3pM9ESDCHS-5ND3TentSv1k5lxAyfbJzVSM2XWNMs4QYgDDrLVTZCy3W6gxqjY5OxtoSAaYjHk9RCVB-LzTT3rIg/s1600/640px-Park_Jordana_w_Krakowie_-_JPII.JPG" height="320" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_John_Paul_II_bibliography#mediaviewer/File:Park_Jordana_w_Krakowie_-_JPII.JPG" target="_blank">Public Domain</a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">"Spouses are therefore the permanent reminder to the Church of what happened on the Cross; they are for one another and for the children witnesses to the salvation in which the sacrament makes them sharers. Of this salvation event marriage, like every sacrament, is a memorial, actuation and prophecy: 'As a memorial, the sacrament gives them the grace and duty of commemorating the great works of God and of bearing witness to them before their children. As actuation, it gives them the grace and duty of putting into practice in the present, towards each other and their children, the demands of a love which forgives and redeems. As prophecy, it gives them the grace and duty of living and bearing witness to the hope of the future encounter with Christ.'"</span></div>
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<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">-- St. John Paul II, <a href="http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_jp-ii_exh_19811122_familiaris-consortio.html" target="_blank">"Familiaris Consortio"</a> #13</span></div>
Time for the Familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11913058932504799191noreply@blogger.com0