Know your religion

If you are interested in it, learn about it.

So many Catholics do not know their religion.

  What it is NOT: 

It does not look, nor taste, like a soft, wobbly, bland pudding.

For example; some Catholics do not differentiate between married and unmarried couples, they pretend it is the same.

If this is a way of trying to convey their "liberalism", they also reveal that they have not understood nor accepted the dogmas of the Catholic Church. 

"but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. 
Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 
The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” 
“I have no husband,” she replied.
Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband.  
The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. 
What you have just said is quite true.”
“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet.

(John 4:14-19 New International Version (NIV)

A "pillar" of the parish, told me that the strict rules on sexuality was a complete misunderstanding of the religion!!      "No, no, it is not that!"  she told me.

We must not put our trust in people, they do not know what they are saying or doing.

We are not being "judgemental" if we distinguish between people who are married 
and those who are not, we are simply being factual, we are telling the truth.

If we pretend that everything is the same, then we have a very reduced capacity to differentiate 
and discern.

Catechism of The Catholic Church: 

II. THE VOCATION TO CHASTITY

2337 Chastity means the successful integration of sexuality within the person and thus the inner unity of man in his bodily and spiritual being. Sexuality, in which man's belonging to the bodily and biological world is expressed, becomes personal and truly human when it is integrated into the relationship of one person to another, in the complete and lifelong mutual gift of a man and a woman.
The virtue of chastity therefore involves the integrity of the person and the integrality of the gift. 

The integrity of the person
 
2338 The chaste person maintains the integrity of the powers of life and love placed in him. This integrity ensures the unity of the person; it is opposed to any behavior that would impair it. It
tolerates neither a double life nor duplicity in speech.¹²⁵
 
2339 Chastity includes an apprenticeship in self-mastery which is a training in human freedom. The alternative is clear: either man governs his passions and finds peace, or he lets himself be dominated by them and becomes unhappy.¹²⁶ "Man's dignity therefore requires him to act out of conscious and free choice, as moved and drawn in a personal way from within, and not by blind impulses in himself or by mere external constraint. Man gains such dignity when, ridding himself of all slavery to the passions, he presses forward to his goal by freely choosing what is good and, by his diligence and skill, effectively secures for himself the means suited to this end."¹²⁷
 
2340 Whoever wants to remain faithful to his baptismal promises and resist temptations will want to adopt the means for doing so: self-knowledge, practice of an ascesis adapted to the situations that confront him, obedience to God's commandments, exercise of the moral virtues, and fidelity to prayer. "Indeed it is through chastity that we are gathered together and led back to the unity from which we were fragmented into multiplicity."¹²⁸
 
2341 The virtue of chastity comes under the cardinal virtue of temperance, which seeks to permeate the passions and appetites of the senses with reason. 

2342 Self-mastery is a long and exacting work. One can never consider it acquired once and for all. It presupposes renewed effort at all stages of life.¹²⁹ The effort required can be more intense in certain periods, such as when the personality is being formed during childhood and adolescence. 

2343 Chastity has laws of growth which progress through stages marked by imperfection and too often by sin. "Man . . . day by day builds himself up through his many free decisions; and so he knows, loves, and accomplishes moral good by stages of growth."¹³⁰
 
2344 Chastity represents an eminently personal task; it also involves a cultural effort, for there is "an interdependence between personal betterment and the improvement of society."¹³¹ Chastity presupposes respect for the rights of the person, in particular the right to receive information and an education that respect the moral and spiritual dimensions of human life. 

2345 Chastity is a moral virtue. It is also a gift from God, a grace, a fruit of spiritual effort.¹³² The Holy Spirit enables one whom the water of Baptism has regenerated to imitate the purity of Christ.¹³³
 
The integrality of the gift of self
 
2346 Charity is the form of all the virtues. Under its influence, chastity appears as a school of the gift of the person. Self-mastery is ordered to the gift of self. Chastity leads him who practices it to become a witness to his neighbor of God's fidelity and loving kindness.
 
If people take it upon themselves to change or ignore the rules, they can no longer call themselves Catholics.

Psalm 19

    the precepts of the Lord are right,
    rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the Lord is pure,
    enlightening the eyes;
 the fear of the Lord is clean,
    enduring forever;
the rules of the Lord are true,
    and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold,
    even much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey
    and drippings of the honeycomb.
Moreover, by them is your servant warned;
    in keeping them there is great reward.

Steadfastness

If or when something manifests itself in our lives, which by worldly standards are not
supposed to be possible, it is very important to keep going.
Because although Divine Life starts to grow in us, The Evil One has not gone away.
Watch out for the Fear, often the number One.
Stay in control, do not  allow it to take you over.
You are safe now, God Himself is minding you.
Stay open, relaxed and alert, be always ready. Every moment is NOW.
Every time you feel the fear, see yourself on your death bed facing death in the face.
This is not being morbid, or wanting to die, it is simply reminding us of reality,
which helps us to put things in perspective now.
This is why we pray at the end of the "Hail Mary":
"pray for us sinners, now, and at the hour of our death."
It is to remind us, so that we do not forget.

Look what happened to Peter. When Jesus walked on the water, Peter walked towards Him, also on the water, until he became afraid.

^"25 Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. ²⁶ When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.
²⁷ But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”
²⁸ “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”
²⁹ “Come,” he said.
Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. ³⁰ But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”
³¹ Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”
³² And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. ³³ Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”
Praise The Lord with song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-yYRUyLRvQ

Pharisees and Scribes

For us Catholics, the Mother of Christ; the Mother of God, is also our Mother.
She is our model of how to be in the world.

She did not say a lot, she was certainly never seen on a pedestal,
her attitude and life spoke louder than words.

She is known for her readiness, her willingness.

One of the few things she said was:

"Do as He tells you" referring to her son Jesus, addressing herself to the servants
at the wedding in Cana when they ran out of wine.
Jesus is the perfect physician and therapist, there is never a risk that He will make a wrong diagnosis.

The spiritual teaching of the Catholic Church tells us to master all our feelings, reactions and impulses of all kinds.

Do not constantly justify or defend yourself
Forgive
Do not take revenge for any wrongdoings against you
Be present and willing to suffer whatever feelings you have, no matter what their origins.
Tolerate others when they put themselves up on their pedestals, because
there are still some pharisees in the Church, proclaiming the Word of God.

What is important to God is what is in a person's heart, what is the real motivation for the things
he does, including participation in the Church.

Titles such as "Your Reverend" "Your Excellence" etc. given to bishops and cardinals make me feel uncomfortable. For me it is a barrier.
Even now some people might be encouraged to make idols out of them.  
We must not have false gods, we must not revere men, nor put our trust in them.
Only in God.
Idolatry is the worship of an idol or cult image, being a physical image, such as a statue, or a person, in place of God.


Our Lady's Magnificat:

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
My Spirit rejoices in God my Saviour
For He has looked with favour on His lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed:
The Almighty has done great things for me,
And holy is His Name.
He has mercy on those who fear Him
In every generation.
He has shown the strength of His arm,
He has scattered the proud in their conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,
And has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
And the rich He has sent away empty.
He has come to the help of His servant Israel
For He has remembered His promise of mercy,
The promise He made to our fathers,
To Abraham and his children for ever.

"Just Google it"

The Catholic Faith is referred to as a Faith of Mystery.

In the world we live in now, there are no more mysteries. Anything that we do not know about,
we just Google it, and then we find out.

In the Creed we professe to "believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, 
of all things visible and invisible."
Since Jesus's Kingdom is not of this world, in order to try and find it
we have to work in a way that is in contradiction to how things normally work.

It takes time, attention, patience and perseverance to come to uncover a bit of the Mystery;
but the little bit will be enough to motivate us to go on, however we will never "know it all".

Curiosity can also be a good motivator in this work.
Curiosity about who we are;

Psalm 8:4-8:

"What is man that You are mindful of him,
And the son of man that You visit him?

For You have made him a little lower than the angels,
And You have crowned him with glory and honor.

You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands;
You have put all things under his feet,

All sheep and oxen—
Even the beasts of the field,

The birds of the air,
And the fish of the sea
That pass through the paths of the seas."

Mental Health

During this week I heard  the result of a study on mental health announced on the news.
They said that people that attend mass regularly have better mental health than people that do not.

This is not surprising.

The underlying causes of  most mental health problems are addressed by the teachings of the
Catholic Church.

We are told what to do about ALL manifestations of

Fear (Let go of all fear, Trust in me, Jesus said)

Guilt ( Confesse your guilt, and you will be pardoned)

Shame ( Jesus took our shame on Him)


Arrogance (Practice humility, Our Lady is our teacher)

Jealousy (Practice gratitude, jealousy is like a cancer)

Anger ( practice self control)

Bitterness (forgive others, and you yourself will also be forgiven for the wrong you have done)

etc.......

And what you end up with is an immense HOPE where depression and darkness cannot survive.

Yesterday there was yet another 2 mass shootings in America, in one of them the gunman even shot his own sister.
In response the people responsible for Law and Order over there are not so much talking about
white nationalism, as they are about the underlying real issue of mental health.

"The problem of mental illness is on the increase" they say.

This is not a mystery; it is the effect of living in a deeply sick and schizophrenic world.

In America for example Michelle Obama is highly respected and even revered as a role model for women, yet she is a fierce champion, crusader, promoter and protagonist for abortion.

Every human being knows in his heart that it is wrong to kill.
There are no grey areas; it is wrong.
To even put forward the notion that the killing of living babies in the womb is "health care" is sick, twisted and schizophrenic.
Now that the Irish people supported it by voting it into legislation also in Ireland,
(Ireland was the last bastion of human decency), means that it is all over.

Definition of  schizophrenia:

Long-term mental disorder of a type involving a breakdown in the relation between thought, emotion, and behavior, leading to faulty perception, inappropriate actions and feelings, withdrawal from reality and personal relationships into fantasy and delusion, and a sense of mental fragmentation.

Since innocent, living, feeling, babies  are being slaughtered legally in the hundreds of thousands every day in slaugherhouses called hospitals, I can't see how these mass shooting are any worse.
In fact, it is in line with it.

Kissing the face of God

What is Mass?

One complaint that one might hear,  is that Mass is "boring".
That reminds me of a homily that a french priest held as he was addressing himself specifically to children during a Children's Mass.
He was telling them that when he was at Seminary in the south of France, (he was himself from Normandy ),  all the young seminarians were very into rugby, they were all watching the rugby matches with great enthusiasm. But he himself found it completely boring, because he did not understand it, and did not know the rules.
Then someone took the time to explain it to him, and after that he got "into it".

So what is Mass?
Mass is A Sacrifice, An Offering, A Memorial, Worship, Celebration.

The sacred scriptures are read, and while some people's minds might drift away, thinking that they "have heard all those stories before a hundred times", they are only bored because they do not understand.

 'For the hearts of this people have grown dull.
Their ears are hard of hearing,
And their eyes they have closed,
Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears,
Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn,
So that I ^[a]should heal them.’

(Matthew 13:15 New King James Version (NKJV))

“Son of man, you dwell in the midst of a rebellious house, which has eyes to see but does not see, and ears to hear but does not hear; for they are a rebellious house.

(Ezekiel 12:2 New King James Version (NKJV))

‘Hear this now, O foolish people,

Without ^[a]understanding,
Who have eyes and see not,
And who have ears and hear not:

(Jeremiah 5:21 New King James Version (NKJV))

What we can eliminate as what Mass is not:  it is not about making you feel anything.

(Another thing one might hear: "I do not feel anything, I get nothing out of Mass")

The truth is that if you are willing ( we have free will, why not make use of it) 

to offer up the time of the duration of 

the Mass by giving it your full attention,  being awake and alert, the words pronounced at Mass 

will, with continued perseverance, eventually penetrate our minds and finally enter into our hearts, where they will change us, we will be born again.

Because of the heavy machinery of the Mind; whose function it is to downloads programs and formats and contains our individual particular conditioning, preconceived ideas and concepts, we have to be mindful.

I am Willing, I am Here, I am Now ( I am not thinking about something else).

If  you feel your own resistance to the Present, (what am I doing here, I have a lot of other things to do, etc.....) fine, stay with it, accept it, be with it.

If we find the other people in the congregation challenging, we offer that up as well, we are willing 

to "suffer" it.

And even if we do not understand a lot of it, or even most of it, we know that it is normal, 

the understanding (the enlightenment) will follow, gradually.

 

We have to go beyond the Mind, otherwise we will become victims of it. 

(I do not want to fall victim to a machine!)

If we repeat; do and say the exact things that our parents did and said when we were little, without any reflection, then we are asleep, unconscious. 

But those things have been downloaded into our minds, and they determine our decisions and our speech on a daily basis.

But are they relevant to us, here and now? Some of them might be, but think about it.

If my parents were atheists, does that mean that I have to be one too? Were my parents right about everything?

 

Some configurations of the mind are VERY heavy obstacles to attaining God:

Pride, Arrogance, Snobbery, Materialism, Ambition, Greed, Blaming others, Bitterness (Unforgiveness).

Other serious blockages are Feelings, for example:  Fear, Guilt, Shame, Anger, Jealousy, Envy.

That is why confession is vitally important. We are forgiven!

 

Addictive behaviour, which is just basically overdoing things, (whether it is drink, food, sex, gambling, shopping, etc, just means that you have lost control of yourself.) 

The ability to control oneself, is at the heart of the Catholic Faith's spirituality.

When we don't have instant gratification of our biological drives, for example, it helps us to center ourselves, in the deepest part of ourselves, where God resides. 

The reason why Catholic priests are asked to sacrifice a sex life, is because the more they give of themselves, the more God can act in them. It is metaphysical.

The sad and tragic fact that so many of them have not been able to carry this through, is not because it is impossible, because the vast majority are in fact successful.

If/when suffering comes our way, any kind of pain or loss, included physical pain,  
if we really accept it internally,

(we have to become aware of our defense mechanisms of avoiding pain, which have often 
become unconscious and automatic)

we can come close to God. 

(One of the principal teachings of Jesus's Stations of The Cross)

To master our feelings and reactions to things, people and events, on a daily basis, 

is to be truly Mindfull.

The wisdom of the world often says "to follow your feelings"

I do not think it is a good idea to put one's trust in one's feelings, because
feelings change, ( I loved you, I do not love you anymore...)  

only God is constant. ( As it was in the Beginning, is Now, and ever shall Be, world without end)

The Catholic Faith says to trust only in God, and His Only Son; Jesus, our brother.

Cooperation

We are made in the image of God. 

Our sickness; our sins, are creating such a dense barrier, that most people have no longer the sense of being related to God in any meaningful way.

But our souls belongs to God, and in the same way as a sheet of paper are of the same substance as a tree, 

our souls are of the same nature as God.

That renders each individual capable, if he wants to,

to enter into a close communion with God, while on earth.

That means that we might get to know Him personally, in  life beyond the earthly dimension of time,

it is timeless. (Eternal Life)

"I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.»

(John 15:5 NIV)

 

The Church has done much damage, in practicly every country of the world, not just with the child sex abuse scandals and all the cover ups, but much more. 

The conduct of priests in the past was sadly often permeated with personal pride and a sense of power over people;

the exact opposite of the teachings and behaviour of Jesus.

The sickness of the soul spread, like a virus, to all people, the moment Man fell from Grace.

The most important aspect of the Catholic Faith is humility, 

this is constantly repeated, but it seems

to be the most difficult to understand and practise.

The trite and banal attitude of the media regarding God

I just watched a tv program on the subject of God in Ireland.

It was supposed to explore and give an account of how the population of Ireland are "divorcing" themselves from the Catholic Church.

It was utterly superficial and not surprisingly; revealed a total lack of understanding of the teachings of the Catholic Church.

The way the presenter talked with people regarding welcoming other religions and being "open minded" gave the impression at the end of the program that all religions are equally good, and mixing eastern philosophies with Christianity is better than the way it was before in Ireland.

The teaching around sexuality was brought up, and again, it was obvious that the presenter had no clue why the Church have these rules, and there was no one else on the program either who shed some light on it.

The presenter was, of course, gay, as it seems to me as one have to be these days, to get on the telly.
(I am getting tired of all these sob stories of how hard it was/is  to be gay.) (Life is tough)
The presenter talking about the issues of the ban on "sex before marriage, and having children outside marriage" again exposed his own childish and naive simplification of the teachings of the Catholic Church.

According to the media, Ireland are now delighted to be embracing secularism, and are equally delighted to welcome all religions of the world with open arms into this country.

In France one is not afraid to denounce Islam, because it's aim is a political one.
This is a threat to all countries, as France and other European countries knows only too well,
but Ireland are still innocent and ignorant about this.
There are no similarities between my God: Jesus, and Mohammed, they are the direct opposites.

What was important for Ireland was to be seen to be modern, in other words: to imitate all the "modern countries" and therefore it voted for same sex marriage and abortion as a means to be so.
But there are also a lot of people who still have common sense; that knows that to oppose those things has nothing to do with being old fashioned or traditional, but are just simple common sense;
that a marriage is for a man and a woman, and it is wrong to kill.
Nothing complicated, judgemental or homophobic about that. 
Again, in France,  people were out on the streets demonstrating in huge numbers against same sex marriage, as it was an affront to their common sense, and it was not the "traditional catholics" who demonstrated.  But it was brought in anyway, not by a vote, as it would have been voted down, it was just brought in.

The media are doing their brainwashing; trying to tell us that this is the way it is now, but what I see
is that people are coming to Mass in droves, and no, it is not because they are "traditionalists"
(whatever that means), or are coming for the social aspect.


Sorry RTE; you are just going to accept the reality that people are going to Mass because they believe in the one true God that can only be attained by following Jesus.
Yes, of course you can be a very good person without believing in Jesus, and you can be centered and relaxed with other things, e.g. eastern philosophies meditation, but you will never find God.

The Mystery of Faith

The expression "To lose one's mind" is often associated with mental illness.

But it can also mean the exact opposite:

Because our minds are full of concepts and judgements about almost everything, and
constantly exposed to input of others and to brainwashing.

To go beyond our minds, there is only one way: we have to go through it, and everything that is inside it. This is the only way it can genuinely "open up".
Behind it, there is true freedom, deep joy, infinite love, creativity: God.

It is hard work, and few people are willing to do it, or they only go "so far",
and the mind will certainly support you in convincing you that it is not worth it.
This is what we call "The Devil": the going spirit of "the world".

"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."

(Matthew 7, New International Version)

"And there will be a highway called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not travel it, only those who walk in that Way--and fools will not stray onto it."

(Isaiah 35:8, N.I.V.)

If we can be in control of the inspirations and machinery of our minds and our feelings,
emotions and opinions, and if we can also be in charge of the impulses of the body, will find
behind it all, underneath it;  ourselves again, in all our original simple, pure and clear sighted
state. This is where God resides.

God can only be found by following the teaching of Jesus, His Only Son: true God and true man:
our brother.

By faithfully praying the prayers of the Catholic Church, we will find again our real home with our Maker, while still here on earth.
That has to be done with our full presence and cooperation, there is no way you can get there by being half asleep or half resistant.

To offer oneself, to give everything to God, to have the courage to trust Him always, and to be willing to suffer when pain comes our way, not to take the easy way out, because we always have the choice to do that in any given situation.
It is we who decide. Things do not happen by chance. There is always Cause and Effect.

Our faith is a faith of Revelation.
What you will discover will "blow your mind away."

When personal nothingness is all that is left

On Holy Thursday this Easter the priest spoke about the significance of Jesus washing his
disciples feet.

He said that at the time of Jesus, when having slaves was normal, not even the slaves were asked
to wash the feet of their Masters, that is how low this act was considered to be.

Contrary to what I thought, the priest said that the Masters washed their own feet.

The significance of this act goes beyond deep humility, it is an act of total surrender of everything that is attached to earthly, human values: personal pride, ego, status.

Before He sacrificed Himself for our sake, He emptied Himself of all that is human.
Because He was God, but He was also a man, like us.

In what ways can we imitate this act?

Who is different?

I have heard a few times said that we must pray for those that "are different to us".
It gives me the sense of barriers and of judgement; it seems to say: there is us and
then there are those who are different from us.
Do the people that say this think that they are identical to all the people that they group
themselves with?
This is not even about race or culture, it is about people that are being judged as being
"different" because they are not being understood.
They are not being understood because those people do not really want to understand.
They are faced with their own prejudices and so just decides that some people are "different."

Every single person on earth is completely unique, that is a scientific fact.
Not even identical twins are identical.

"Recent research presented at the 2012 American Society of Human Genetics meeting, however, suggests that identical twins may not be as genetically similar as hitherto suggested. Identical, or monozygotic, twins come from the same fertilized egg. So, at some point during cell division (before 14 days post-conception), identical twin embryos share virtually all of their DNA. During early fetal development, however, identical twins undergo more than 300 genetic mutations, or copy errors, on average. As human cells divide trillions of times during their lifespan, a few hundred genetic mutations could lead to millions or trillions of genetic differences in the DNA of identical twins over the years. Chemical factors can furthermore activate or suppress gene expression, which means that the same subset of genetic material can lead to the formation of different proteins."

(https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-superhuman-mind/201211/identical-twins-are-not-genetically-identical)


 Psalm 139:13-15:

"For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."

As we know ;culture, nurture, upbringing and other personal circumstance all play a part, but this old fashioned idea that some people are different and "we must pray for them", is

stupid and arrogant.

It is better to pray that God will open our eyes so that we can see our own faults and attitudes that hinders His work in us.

Heresy

An adult that I know announced that he wanted to be baptized.
He had to put together a team of people to accompany him on the journey of instruction in the Faith.

One of them said to him: "the most important thing about your decision is that you feel comfortable about the Church, and if you do not, then do not proceed with it."

I often get the feeling that the very active people in the Church believes that the Church = it is them.
In other words; if you do not like us, do not join us.
"Who do they think they are?" is my reaction.
These people are barriers to new people who wants to come in.

The use of the word comfortable struck me. The authentic teaching of Jesus does not indicate that first you have to find the comfort, and then you choose that, because it suits you.

The Church is not an association or a club; it is about radical CHANGE, CONVERSION.
That is very rarely comfortable.

The role of the Church is to deliver the teaching, to transmit it to us in order that we can continue to  hand it down.
The best way to transmit something is by example. So a person who priorities comfort, will by their very person, prevent the transmission of the complete understanding of Christ's message.

Essentially, it all amounts to surrender.
Abandoning oneself to God, means that one is empty of oneself inside, and that one accepts whatever comes.

When we say in truth: "God, it is you I want", we are throwing ourselves out on the deep end, and we do not know what is going to happen next.
It could even be extremely uncomfortable, who knows?
The point is that one accepts internally whatever comes our way, good and bad.
Because we know that life is like that for everybody, we are not exceptions just because we adhere to the Church.

Obedience of Rules

It is understandable that one would revolt against rules that one does not understand.
The big controversial one in the Catholic Church, the one that poses a problem for most people,
is the rule around sexual relations that the Church imposes.

If it is not understood, then it is more or less impossible to adhere to.

With so much sex abuse and cover up in the Catholic Church, it might seem a bit rich to
continue to impose rules in this regard on ordinary, normal functioning people.

The thing is; they do not impose anything on anybody.
We decide ourselves, as adults, if we want to adhere or not.
Just like the priests who have made the vow of celibacy; they have to make a choice if they fall
in love with a woman; they have to decide if they stay or if they go, they are free to choose.

The teachings of the Catholic Church provides rules that takes in every single aspect of the human person.

The idea with that is not, as some people still thinks, that "these people" wants to dominate and interfere in people's life.  They do not, they are simply transmitting the true teaching of the Church.
It is their job. But it is not for nothing that they do that, because the ultimate goal is our unification with God.

God lives in the center of our Being.
He can only be accessed through His only Son, Jesus Christ, true God and true Man, our brother,
if we adhere to his commands, and do all that he tells us to do.

That can not happen on the superficial, external level of our life, only in the depths of our hearts
and souls, when we employ our willpower and the control of ourselves, in all situations of our daily life. This includes also our feelings, reactions and perceptions.
It is why that to "follow your feelings" is normally not a good idea.
Due to their very changing and volatile nature, if you "follow your feelings" you could easily lose
your way and the run of yourself.
But it is important to be present with your feelings, accept them totally, especially the strong ones, the difficult and painful ones. (for example rage, revolt, fear, grief )

With the conscious use of the willpower and with great awareness, not always giving in to
biological and physical impulses, to control them, helps us to center us in the core of our being, where God lives. 
This is also why gluttony; overeating, is classified as a sin.
A sin, simply defined, is whatever thought, action or omission we commit that creates a barrier between us and God.

"The rules" are a set of spiritual practices, that if, faithfully adhered to, and in a spirit of trust and surrender to the will of God, will bring us closer to God. 
 

Updates

The updates that installes themselves on our computers are imposed on us, it is normally not we that
thinks about doing them. They are crucial to the efficient functionality of the computers, which as we know, do not operate in an individual or separatist fashion, but are part of a world wide web network. If the updates for some reason do not take place, the functionality of the computer will be drastically reduced.

In this respect, human beings  are not that different from computers.
The initial downloading of our programs, the configurations, that forms our thinking, beliefs and habits that takes place when we are young, needs to be regularly updated in order for us to function  properly in every new situation that might ressemble the initial situation.
Because the old original program does not help us to act correctly to the new situation,
due to the lack of updating.

Sometimes we see old people saying and doing exactly the same things that their parents did before them, without reflection, they believe fully that the world really is as they see it, and not as somebody else sees it.

Awareness in all things, especially the "small" things is the antidote. When one becomes aware of one's thoughts and one's words, the awareness will grow from there.
This awareness program will result in a growing updating to the new realities of a world that is constantly changing.

I am not here talking about acquiring new technology, neither I am talking about integrating
changing worldly trends of what is "acceptable", "cool", or "worthy" at any given time, because that is superficial, and has nothing to do with true consciousness.

I am talking about a process in the interior of the person, in the true awareness of things, as they really are.

Church Abuse

This week yet another court case is taking place regarding the cover-up of clerical sex abuse.

It used to be hard to imagine that the rape of children could be made even worse by having
another crime added on to it.

In the Catholic Church, we know that often other priests had knowledge of abuse taking place,
and the bishop too, and yet nobody did anything to stop and prevent it, but instead denied it.
It is this last fact that has caused hundreds of thousands to turn  away from the Church, never to return.

The same pattern of denial and silence that accompanies every new case, is a completely counterproductive exercise. 

Brainwashing

A definition of brainwashing is: Persuasion by Propaganda or Salesmanship which
implies that one has given up individual independent  though process.

I find that scary, because my mind and my intelligence are things that I value. 

Old fashioned things like freedom of speech, where in the attitude of respect of others, 
and in a democratic mind-set, one could agree to disagree on issues, seems to exist no longer.

I expressed a few years ago that I did not see the relevance in the demand for 
gay marriage, because the definition of marriage is a life long union between a man and a woman.

Christmas

Apart from the Mass, I do not like Christmas very much.

What we are celebrating at this time, is the miracle of life, a miracle that is unfolding
every moment of every day.

The celebrations endeavors to bring to our awareness that

because of Jesus's coming, 

we too have the possibility and potential to live in union with God. That means that

In reality every day is Christmas

What I dislike about this period is the excessive food and drink that people seem to think that 

they are obliged to indulge in.