HAPPINESS
"The cultural milieu in which we live, the remains of an outdated rationalism which equates religiosity with superstition and Christianity with medievalism, acts as an immense corset which oppresses the concerns, which represses the instinct of eternity and the religious yearnings of the hearts of our contemporaries, thus giving rise to real pathological situations (...) up to now little has been said about the psychoses and neuroses produced by the repression of the instinct of eternity.
Victor Frankl - who was a Jew, not a Christian - the famous psychiatrist who succeeded Sigmund Freud in the chair of Psychopathology at the University of Vienna, verified the repressed religiosity among his patients. He tells us, for example, of a patient's dream. "She said: "I know which direction I must take, because there is a light shining in the sky, and I am going to meet it. This light shines brighter and brighter, and at last it takes the form of a figure". I then asked her what this image she saw was. She was visibly uncomfortable and, after much hesitation, asked me with a pleading look: "Do I really have to talk about it? Only after much prodding did she reveal her secret and murmured: "The figure was Christ. Her conscience, in dreams, demanded that she serve Christ, but she was wary or ashamed to talk about it. We see here and in many other cases that (...) there is (...) repressed religiosity. "One of my patients once confided to me spontaneously: "Why is it that I am ashamed of everything that is religious, why do I find it embarrassing and ridiculous? I myself know perfectly well why I am so ashamed of my religious yearnings: every psychotherapeutic treatment I have undergone for the last twenty-seven years has been based on the more or less tacit conviction that these yearnings are nothing more than unrealistic and unfounded speculations. As they say, there is only what can be seen and heard, the rest is nonsense, provoked by some trauma or escapist desire to escape from life. So, whenever I have expressed my longing for God, I was almost afraid that they would bring the straitjacket, as if I were a raving lunatic.
"In search of the meaning of life" - Rafael Llano Cifuentes
#HAPPINESS
"The cultural milieu in which we live, the remains of an outdated rationalism which equates religiosity with superstition and Christianity with medievalism, acts as an immense corset which oppresses the concerns, which represses the instinct of eternity and the religious yearnings of the hearts of our contemporaries, thus giving rise to real pathological situations (...) up to now little has been said about the psychoses and neuroses produced by the repression of the instinct of eternity.
Victor Frankl - who was a Jew, not a Christian - the famous psychiatrist who succeeded Sigmund Freud in the chair of Psychopathology at the University of Vienna, verified the repressed religiosity among his patients. He tells us, for example, of a patient's dream. "She said: "I know which direction I must take, because there is a light shining in the sky, and I am going to meet it. This light shines brighter and brighter, and at last it takes the form of a figure". I then asked her what this image she saw was. She was visibly uncomfortable and, after much hesitation, asked me with a pleading look: "Do I really have to talk about it? Only after much prodding did she reveal her secret and murmured: "The figure was Christ. Her conscience, in dreams, demanded that she serve Christ, but she was wary or ashamed to talk about it. We see here and in many other cases that (...) there is (...) repressed religiosity. "One of my patients once confided to me spontaneously: "Why is it that I am ashamed of everything that is religious, why do I find it embarrassing and ridiculous? I myself know perfectly well why I am so ashamed of my religious yearnings: every psychotherapeutic treatment I have undergone for the last twenty-seven years has been based on the more or less tacit conviction that these yearnings are nothing more than unrealistic and unfounded speculations. As they say, there is only what can be seen and heard, the rest is nonsense, provoked by some trauma or escapist desire to escape from life. So, whenever I have expressed my longing for God, I was almost afraid that they would bring the straitjacket, as if I were a raving lunatic.
"In search of the meaning of life" - Rafael Llano Cifuentes
#HAPPINESS
❤1
FORGIVENESS
"(...) Jean Vanier tells what happened in a high security prison in Kingston, Canada. He spoke to the prisoners about God's love. But one of the inmates, full of resentment, shouted at him: You have had an easy life, you don't understand what we live. When I was four years old, I saw my mother raped before my eyes. When I was seven, my father sold me to homosexuals; when I was thirteen, men in blue (policemen) came looking for me... And if anyone comes to this prison again to talk to us about love, I will kick his head in.
I listened to him without saying anything and prayed. Then I said to him: It is true that my life has been easy. It is true that I don't know your life, but what I do know is that everything you have just said is very important. Do you authorise me to tell outside what you have told me?
- Yes, he replied.
Then I added: "You have good things to tell us, but one day you will get out of here and you may need to hear certain things. After the talk, I shook his hand and I was inspired to ask him if he was married, and when he said yes, I said: "Tell me about your wife". And that violent man, who had so much hatred inside him, burst into tears and told me about his wife, who was in a wheelchair, lived in Montreal and whom he had not seen for two years.
This man, so full of hatred for society, felt love for his wife. It was enough to talk to him about her, to take an interest in her, for his hatred to break down. So how much love we can give to those who have been rejected and oppressed by others! How much good we can do with our love! More than words, others need the real witness of our love in order to forgive.
When German tanks invaded her family home in the south of France in 1940, Maïti Girtanner, a young French girl, rebelled and decided to join the Resistance. Some time later, she was arrested and tortured by a German doctor, whose speciality was torture applied to the central nervous system. She was the only survivor out of a group of 20 people, but from then on her life was marked by horrible and constant suffering. In 1984, she received a phone call in her small Paris flat and instantly recognised the voice of the German doctor. They met and talked. She was able to forgive him. In the meantime, he had been appointed mayor of an Austrian town. On his return, after visiting Maïti, he gathered his family and the villagers and told them all about his life. He died of cancer two weeks later (...)".
"Self-esteem, love and happiness" - Father Angel Peña O. A. R.
#FORGIVENESS
"(...) Jean Vanier tells what happened in a high security prison in Kingston, Canada. He spoke to the prisoners about God's love. But one of the inmates, full of resentment, shouted at him: You have had an easy life, you don't understand what we live. When I was four years old, I saw my mother raped before my eyes. When I was seven, my father sold me to homosexuals; when I was thirteen, men in blue (policemen) came looking for me... And if anyone comes to this prison again to talk to us about love, I will kick his head in.
I listened to him without saying anything and prayed. Then I said to him: It is true that my life has been easy. It is true that I don't know your life, but what I do know is that everything you have just said is very important. Do you authorise me to tell outside what you have told me?
- Yes, he replied.
Then I added: "You have good things to tell us, but one day you will get out of here and you may need to hear certain things. After the talk, I shook his hand and I was inspired to ask him if he was married, and when he said yes, I said: "Tell me about your wife". And that violent man, who had so much hatred inside him, burst into tears and told me about his wife, who was in a wheelchair, lived in Montreal and whom he had not seen for two years.
This man, so full of hatred for society, felt love for his wife. It was enough to talk to him about her, to take an interest in her, for his hatred to break down. So how much love we can give to those who have been rejected and oppressed by others! How much good we can do with our love! More than words, others need the real witness of our love in order to forgive.
When German tanks invaded her family home in the south of France in 1940, Maïti Girtanner, a young French girl, rebelled and decided to join the Resistance. Some time later, she was arrested and tortured by a German doctor, whose speciality was torture applied to the central nervous system. She was the only survivor out of a group of 20 people, but from then on her life was marked by horrible and constant suffering. In 1984, she received a phone call in her small Paris flat and instantly recognised the voice of the German doctor. They met and talked. She was able to forgive him. In the meantime, he had been appointed mayor of an Austrian town. On his return, after visiting Maïti, he gathered his family and the villagers and told them all about his life. He died of cancer two weeks later (...)".
"Self-esteem, love and happiness" - Father Angel Peña O. A. R.
#FORGIVENESS
VARIOUS ARTICLES
"Do things exist and do I know them as they are, or are they what I want them to be? (...) for ideology the first thing is not reality, but the idea I have of reality. Ideology puts on yellow glasses and says that reality is yellow. Ideology makes the box, and only then measures the dead man: if he is shorter, it stretches him; if he is longer, it cuts off his legs. Gender ideology is no exception (...) For gender ideology, natural data is irrelevant. What counts is how I perceive myself. What matters is not the reality - what I am - but the idea - what I think I am, or what I want to be. (...) If someone perceives apples as elephants, that's their problem: let them perceive them as they wish. But if that person tells me that I have to call apples elephants and that society must establish mechanisms -even legal ones- to make it so, there is where everything changes. (...) if what I am is based on my self-perception, my dignity is also based on it. And if the value of dignity depends on perception, what prevents us from moving from self-perception to the perception of the other? The other is no longer what he is, but what I want him to be, and he has the value I decide to give him. Hitler would have loved gender ideology (...) The fact that reality is what it is and not what I want it to be is not a limit to my freedom: it is a safeguard, a guarantee. If I am what I perceive and I perceive myself as a bird and I pretend to fly out of the third-floor window, reality imposes itself. If someone says to me: "No, you're not a bird", it doesn't take away my freedom: it preserves me from smashing my teeth against the pavement. "But nobody perceives themselves as a bird," someone will say. No, but "non-binary-trans-inter-bi-gender-fluid". Now that's reasonable, isn't it? [...]"
#VARIOUSARTICLES
"Do things exist and do I know them as they are, or are they what I want them to be? (...) for ideology the first thing is not reality, but the idea I have of reality. Ideology puts on yellow glasses and says that reality is yellow. Ideology makes the box, and only then measures the dead man: if he is shorter, it stretches him; if he is longer, it cuts off his legs. Gender ideology is no exception (...) For gender ideology, natural data is irrelevant. What counts is how I perceive myself. What matters is not the reality - what I am - but the idea - what I think I am, or what I want to be. (...) If someone perceives apples as elephants, that's their problem: let them perceive them as they wish. But if that person tells me that I have to call apples elephants and that society must establish mechanisms -even legal ones- to make it so, there is where everything changes. (...) if what I am is based on my self-perception, my dignity is also based on it. And if the value of dignity depends on perception, what prevents us from moving from self-perception to the perception of the other? The other is no longer what he is, but what I want him to be, and he has the value I decide to give him. Hitler would have loved gender ideology (...) The fact that reality is what it is and not what I want it to be is not a limit to my freedom: it is a safeguard, a guarantee. If I am what I perceive and I perceive myself as a bird and I pretend to fly out of the third-floor window, reality imposes itself. If someone says to me: "No, you're not a bird", it doesn't take away my freedom: it preserves me from smashing my teeth against the pavement. "But nobody perceives themselves as a bird," someone will say. No, but "non-binary-trans-inter-bi-gender-fluid". Now that's reasonable, isn't it? [...]"
#VARIOUSARTICLES
SPIRITUAL PERFECTION
"St Bonaventure says that there are some who have good intentions and desires, but never succeed in overcoming themselves and never find the strength to carry them out, according to the Apostle (Rom 7:18): I have the will, but I cannot find the way to do good. Often these are not true intentions or desires, but just a kind of whims, which would like to, but do not want to. The wise man says (Prov 13:4): The sluggard desires and does not want (Prov 21:25): Desires consume him, because he does not want to lay hands on work. Everything goes away from him with just desires. Bl. Father Maestro Avila compares these very well to those who in their dreams think they do great things, and when they wake up, everything turns upside down, according to Isaiah (29, 8): It happens that he who is hungry or thirsty is dreaming that he eats or drinks, but when he wakes up he finds himself as hungry and thirsty as before; so it seems to these in prayer that they desire to suffer, and to be despised and minusvalorated, and when they come out, when the occasion offers itself, they do everything backwards: they dreamed it, they were not true desires. Others compare them saying that they are like soldiers painted on parament, who are always with the sword on the enemy, and never finish discharging the blow, according to that of the Prophet (Ps 38:7), that man passes as a shadow and appearance. Thus some spend their whole lives in feigning and not giving. The Prophet Isaiah (37:3) compares them to a woman who is in labour and never brings forth her child. So these are always in labour and never finish giving birth. St. Jerome, referring to the words of St. Matthew (24, 19): Woe to those who are with child and to those who give birth in those days, says: Woe to those who do not bring forth the good desires they have conceived, but drown the children they have conceived, for never to bring them to the light of the work is to drown them and kill them in the womb".
"Exercises of Christian Perfection" - Father Alonso Rodriguez S. J.
#SPIRITUALPERFECTION
"St Bonaventure says that there are some who have good intentions and desires, but never succeed in overcoming themselves and never find the strength to carry them out, according to the Apostle (Rom 7:18): I have the will, but I cannot find the way to do good. Often these are not true intentions or desires, but just a kind of whims, which would like to, but do not want to. The wise man says (Prov 13:4): The sluggard desires and does not want (Prov 21:25): Desires consume him, because he does not want to lay hands on work. Everything goes away from him with just desires. Bl. Father Maestro Avila compares these very well to those who in their dreams think they do great things, and when they wake up, everything turns upside down, according to Isaiah (29, 8): It happens that he who is hungry or thirsty is dreaming that he eats or drinks, but when he wakes up he finds himself as hungry and thirsty as before; so it seems to these in prayer that they desire to suffer, and to be despised and minusvalorated, and when they come out, when the occasion offers itself, they do everything backwards: they dreamed it, they were not true desires. Others compare them saying that they are like soldiers painted on parament, who are always with the sword on the enemy, and never finish discharging the blow, according to that of the Prophet (Ps 38:7), that man passes as a shadow and appearance. Thus some spend their whole lives in feigning and not giving. The Prophet Isaiah (37:3) compares them to a woman who is in labour and never brings forth her child. So these are always in labour and never finish giving birth. St. Jerome, referring to the words of St. Matthew (24, 19): Woe to those who are with child and to those who give birth in those days, says: Woe to those who do not bring forth the good desires they have conceived, but drown the children they have conceived, for never to bring them to the light of the work is to drown them and kill them in the womb".
"Exercises of Christian Perfection" - Father Alonso Rodriguez S. J.
#SPIRITUALPERFECTION
RELIGIOUS ARTICLES
"(...) I laugh at certain modern theologians who point out as a great novelty the fact that some mental illnesses can be confused with diabolical possession. And so do certain psychiatrists or parapsychologists: they think they have discovered America with such statements. If they were a little more educated, they would know that the first experts to warn against this possible error were the ecclesiastical authorities. As early as 1583, in the decrees of the Synod of Rheims, the Church had warned against this possible misunderstanding, stating that some forms of suspected diabolical possession could simply be mental illnesses. But psychiatry had not yet been born and theologians believed in the Gospel (...)".
"An exorcist speaks" - Father Gabriel Amorth
#RELIGIOUSARTICLES
"(...) I laugh at certain modern theologians who point out as a great novelty the fact that some mental illnesses can be confused with diabolical possession. And so do certain psychiatrists or parapsychologists: they think they have discovered America with such statements. If they were a little more educated, they would know that the first experts to warn against this possible error were the ecclesiastical authorities. As early as 1583, in the decrees of the Synod of Rheims, the Church had warned against this possible misunderstanding, stating that some forms of suspected diabolical possession could simply be mental illnesses. But psychiatry had not yet been born and theologians believed in the Gospel (...)".
"An exorcist speaks" - Father Gabriel Amorth
#RELIGIOUSARTICLES
VARIOUS ARTICLES
OF THE NECESSITY OF THE USE OF FORCE ON OCCASIONS
"[...] If reasoning were sufficient to make men good (...) it would be necessary to provide them; but, (...) although it seems that they have sufficient force to exhort and stimulate generous young people and to instill enthusiasm for virtue in a noble character and truly lover of goodness, they are incapable of exciting goodness and nobility in the common people, who naturally obey not out of modesty, but out of fear, nor do they depart from what is vile out of shame, but out of fear of punishment. Since most men live at the mercy of their passions, they pursue the pleasures that are their own and the means that lead to them and flee from contrary pains and what is; beautiful and truly pleasant they have no idea, having never tried it (...) he who lives according to his passions will not listen to reason that tries to dissuade him, nor will he even understand it, and how can he persuade the one who has it to change this disposition? In general, passion seems not to yield to reasoning, but to force. (...) legislators must invite and exhort to the practice of virtue for the sake of good (to) those who are advanced in the formation of good habits; impose punishments and corrections on those who are disobedient and without a natural disposition for good; and banish the incurably miserable (...) the vile man who only aspires to pleasure must be punished with pain, like a yoke animal. That is why they say (...) that the pains that are inflicted must be such that they are as opposed as possible to the pleasures that they love".
"Ethics to Nicomachus" - Aristotle.
"But just as there are also rebellious individuals prone to vice, whom it is not easy to persuade with words, these had to be repelled from evil by force and fear."
"Summa theologiae" - Saint Thomas Aquinas.
#VARIOUSARTICLES
OF THE NECESSITY OF THE USE OF FORCE ON OCCASIONS
"[...] If reasoning were sufficient to make men good (...) it would be necessary to provide them; but, (...) although it seems that they have sufficient force to exhort and stimulate generous young people and to instill enthusiasm for virtue in a noble character and truly lover of goodness, they are incapable of exciting goodness and nobility in the common people, who naturally obey not out of modesty, but out of fear, nor do they depart from what is vile out of shame, but out of fear of punishment. Since most men live at the mercy of their passions, they pursue the pleasures that are their own and the means that lead to them and flee from contrary pains and what is; beautiful and truly pleasant they have no idea, having never tried it (...) he who lives according to his passions will not listen to reason that tries to dissuade him, nor will he even understand it, and how can he persuade the one who has it to change this disposition? In general, passion seems not to yield to reasoning, but to force. (...) legislators must invite and exhort to the practice of virtue for the sake of good (to) those who are advanced in the formation of good habits; impose punishments and corrections on those who are disobedient and without a natural disposition for good; and banish the incurably miserable (...) the vile man who only aspires to pleasure must be punished with pain, like a yoke animal. That is why they say (...) that the pains that are inflicted must be such that they are as opposed as possible to the pleasures that they love".
"Ethics to Nicomachus" - Aristotle.
"But just as there are also rebellious individuals prone to vice, whom it is not easy to persuade with words, these had to be repelled from evil by force and fear."
"Summa theologiae" - Saint Thomas Aquinas.
#VARIOUSARTICLES
👍1
HAPPINESS
"In nothing (...) should one be more careful (...) than not to follow, like sheep, the footsteps of the other sheep ahead lf us. Without paying attention to where the path is leading us, but rather, paying attention only to the characteristics of the path itself. For nothing entangles us in greater evils than to allow ourselves to be carried away by opinion, judging as good what we have received by the consent of many, following their example and governing ourselves, not by reason, but by imitation, which results in us running over one another, causing what happens in the great ruins of towns, in which no one falls without many others following him, the first ones being the occasion of the loss of all the rest. [...] If we turn away from the mob, we shall gain health, because the people are staunch defenders of their errors against reason, and this what happens in бюelections, in which the electors, when the weak favour returns to them, admire the judges whom they themselves have appointed. The same thing that we approved of before, we come to reprove. That this is the end of all business in which the greatest number of votes are cast. [...] When it is a question of the blessed life, it is not right to answer what is usually said when voting: "This is the opinion of the majority," for that is the worst thing, because the things of men are not in such a good state that the majority is pleased with what is best; but rather it is a sign of being bad to approve it by the mob. Let us seek what is well done, and not that which is more worn out; that which will place us in the possession of eternal happiness, and not that which the vulgar, the erroneous investigator of truth, classifies. And I call vulgar, not only those who wear vulgar clothes, but also those who wear precious ones; for I do not look at the colours with which bodies are covered, nor do I give credit to the eyes to judge of man; I have another better and surer light by which to discern the false from the true. (...)".
"Moral Treatises" - Seneca.
#HAPPINESS
"In nothing (...) should one be more careful (...) than not to follow, like sheep, the footsteps of the other sheep ahead lf us. Without paying attention to where the path is leading us, but rather, paying attention only to the characteristics of the path itself. For nothing entangles us in greater evils than to allow ourselves to be carried away by opinion, judging as good what we have received by the consent of many, following their example and governing ourselves, not by reason, but by imitation, which results in us running over one another, causing what happens in the great ruins of towns, in which no one falls without many others following him, the first ones being the occasion of the loss of all the rest. [...] If we turn away from the mob, we shall gain health, because the people are staunch defenders of their errors against reason, and this what happens in бюelections, in which the electors, when the weak favour returns to them, admire the judges whom they themselves have appointed. The same thing that we approved of before, we come to reprove. That this is the end of all business in which the greatest number of votes are cast. [...] When it is a question of the blessed life, it is not right to answer what is usually said when voting: "This is the opinion of the majority," for that is the worst thing, because the things of men are not in such a good state that the majority is pleased with what is best; but rather it is a sign of being bad to approve it by the mob. Let us seek what is well done, and not that which is more worn out; that which will place us in the possession of eternal happiness, and not that which the vulgar, the erroneous investigator of truth, classifies. And I call vulgar, not only those who wear vulgar clothes, but also those who wear precious ones; for I do not look at the colours with which bodies are covered, nor do I give credit to the eyes to judge of man; I have another better and surer light by which to discern the false from the true. (...)".
"Moral Treatises" - Seneca.
#HAPPINESS
VARIOUS ARTICLES
"It is rather enigmatic how a scientist can adopt scientism because science and scientism are incompatible. Science owes its success in large part to the fact that it adopts particular or restricted points of view, avoiding questions that fall outside its scope. Scientists concentrate on very specific issues and use rigorous methods to study them, avoiding extrapolations and unwarranted generalisations. In contrast, scientism is an unfounded generalisation, a bad philosophy that presents itself as science or as a consequence of science. To use Dawkins' terminology, scientism is a virus of the mind. Many scientists are probably somewhat accidentally and unconsciously so. But when scientism is taken seriously, it becomes a kind of pseudo-religion that provides a meaning to life and an ideal to strive for. Conversion to such robust scientism is usually due to two factors: disillusionment with some form of religion, and the discovery that science is wonderful and seems to provide meaning and values as well as knowledge".
"Oracles of science, famous scientists against God and religion" - Mariano Artigas and Karl W Giberson
#VARIOUSARTICLES
"It is rather enigmatic how a scientist can adopt scientism because science and scientism are incompatible. Science owes its success in large part to the fact that it adopts particular or restricted points of view, avoiding questions that fall outside its scope. Scientists concentrate on very specific issues and use rigorous methods to study them, avoiding extrapolations and unwarranted generalisations. In contrast, scientism is an unfounded generalisation, a bad philosophy that presents itself as science or as a consequence of science. To use Dawkins' terminology, scientism is a virus of the mind. Many scientists are probably somewhat accidentally and unconsciously so. But when scientism is taken seriously, it becomes a kind of pseudo-religion that provides a meaning to life and an ideal to strive for. Conversion to such robust scientism is usually due to two factors: disillusionment with some form of religion, and the discovery that science is wonderful and seems to provide meaning and values as well as knowledge".
"Oracles of science, famous scientists against God and religion" - Mariano Artigas and Karl W Giberson
#VARIOUSARTICLES
RELIGIOUS ARTICLES
"In the way of God, not to go forward is to turn back (...) He who has taken the cross and begun the way of perfection, and turns back, is not fit for the kingdom of Heaven (...) St. Augustine says: (...) we do not turn back when we strive to go forward, it is when we stop when we start to turn back (...) if we do not want to turn back, we must always walk and strive to go forward (...) St. Bernard follows this thought at greater length in two of his epistles....) if we do not want to turn back, we must always walk and strive to go forward (...) There he speaks to the (...) lazy and lukewarm man, who is content with a common life, and does not want to go forward in his own advantage, and he argues with him in this way:
- Dont you want to go forward?
- No.
- Then do you want to go back?
- No.
- What do you want then?
- I want to be as I am; I don't want to be better or worse.
- You want to do what is impossible to do. For in this world there is nothing that can remain (...) of God alone is that (...) All the things of the world are in continual change (...)
(...) Christ himself (...) while he was seen on earth and conversed with men, did he perchance stand still? No. (...) as he grew in age, so he grew in wisdom and grace before God and man (...) And the Prophet says that he prepared himself to run this way (Ps 18:6): He was glad as a giant to run his race. For if we want to remain with Christ, we must walk as he walked, says St. John (1 Jn 2, 6). For if, while Christ is running, you do not run after him, but stand still, it is clear that you will fall far behind him and be left far behind (...).
Jacob saw (Gen 28, 12) a ladder reaching from the ground to Heaven; and he saw angels on it, but none of them were sitting or standing, but they were either ascending or descending; only God was sitting at the top of the ladder (...) in this life in the way of virtue there is no middle way between ascending and descending, between going forward and going backward, but in the same case that one does not go forward, one goes backward (...).
Thus at sea, the calm is a kind of serious storm, (...) very dangerous for sailors, because they use up the provisions they had for the journey, and then they were left without provisions in the middle of the sea, and so it happens to those who sailing on the stormy sea of this world, who have become becalmed in virtue (...) consume and spend what they have acquired, and the virtue they had runs out, and then they are left with nothing in the midst of many waves and storms of temptations that arise and other occasions of sin, for which they were in need of more provision and more abundance of virtue. Woe to him who has become becalmed in virtue! (Gal 5:7). You were running well, who hindered you from obeying the truth? You began to run well at the beginning, when you entered into religion, and now you have run around and become calm in virtue (1 Cor 4:8): You have had your fill, you have become rich, and what you have is enough for you. See that you have a long way to go (1 Ry 19, 7), and many occasions will offer themselves to you for which you will need more humility, more patience, more mortification and indifference, and you will find yourselves unnoticed and far behind, at the time of the greatest need [...]".
"Exercise of perfection and Christian virtues" - Father Alonso Rodriguez S. J.
#RELIGIOUSARTICLES
"In the way of God, not to go forward is to turn back (...) He who has taken the cross and begun the way of perfection, and turns back, is not fit for the kingdom of Heaven (...) St. Augustine says: (...) we do not turn back when we strive to go forward, it is when we stop when we start to turn back (...) if we do not want to turn back, we must always walk and strive to go forward (...) St. Bernard follows this thought at greater length in two of his epistles....) if we do not want to turn back, we must always walk and strive to go forward (...) There he speaks to the (...) lazy and lukewarm man, who is content with a common life, and does not want to go forward in his own advantage, and he argues with him in this way:
- Dont you want to go forward?
- No.
- Then do you want to go back?
- No.
- What do you want then?
- I want to be as I am; I don't want to be better or worse.
- You want to do what is impossible to do. For in this world there is nothing that can remain (...) of God alone is that (...) All the things of the world are in continual change (...)
(...) Christ himself (...) while he was seen on earth and conversed with men, did he perchance stand still? No. (...) as he grew in age, so he grew in wisdom and grace before God and man (...) And the Prophet says that he prepared himself to run this way (Ps 18:6): He was glad as a giant to run his race. For if we want to remain with Christ, we must walk as he walked, says St. John (1 Jn 2, 6). For if, while Christ is running, you do not run after him, but stand still, it is clear that you will fall far behind him and be left far behind (...).
Jacob saw (Gen 28, 12) a ladder reaching from the ground to Heaven; and he saw angels on it, but none of them were sitting or standing, but they were either ascending or descending; only God was sitting at the top of the ladder (...) in this life in the way of virtue there is no middle way between ascending and descending, between going forward and going backward, but in the same case that one does not go forward, one goes backward (...).
Thus at sea, the calm is a kind of serious storm, (...) very dangerous for sailors, because they use up the provisions they had for the journey, and then they were left without provisions in the middle of the sea, and so it happens to those who sailing on the stormy sea of this world, who have become becalmed in virtue (...) consume and spend what they have acquired, and the virtue they had runs out, and then they are left with nothing in the midst of many waves and storms of temptations that arise and other occasions of sin, for which they were in need of more provision and more abundance of virtue. Woe to him who has become becalmed in virtue! (Gal 5:7). You were running well, who hindered you from obeying the truth? You began to run well at the beginning, when you entered into religion, and now you have run around and become calm in virtue (1 Cor 4:8): You have had your fill, you have become rich, and what you have is enough for you. See that you have a long way to go (1 Ry 19, 7), and many occasions will offer themselves to you for which you will need more humility, more patience, more mortification and indifference, and you will find yourselves unnoticed and far behind, at the time of the greatest need [...]".
"Exercise of perfection and Christian virtues" - Father Alonso Rodriguez S. J.
#RELIGIOUSARTICLES
VARIOUS ARTICLES
"Social networks have a preference for image, favouring exposure through images, in such a way that through images they propose to the user to represent everything: their life, their behaviour, their daily life, even their 'thoughts' with the famous 'memes', which are short messages accompanied by... an image. One perceives an absence of space for an expansion of the world of the idea, which requires a development for which there is no 'time' in the immediacy of the networks, where everything must be said now and hopefully in funny and creative ways... hopefully with images.
Even when topics are addressed that would require a greater argumentative development, as when on Facebook someone talks about abortion, for example, the comments area is full of people who want to settle the issue in two lines, the solidity of the idea matters little, what is sought is to impress with some short but witty phrase that crushes the 'opponent' or ridicules him in front of others. [...]
[...] We repeat that it is not our intention to elaborate here an apocalyptic plea against social networks, nothing of the sort. But we would like to draw attention to the model of 'thinking' that derives from their irrational use. And by 'irrational' we mean the use made of it by people who spend hours and hours daily in front of their 'networks', as if oblivious to the real world around them.
We believe that such a model of 'thinking' centred on the image, on immediacy, on the concrete, on the individual, etc., if turned into a habit through an almost addictive use of the networks, could inevitably lead to a weakening of the abstract capacities of human intelligence, negatively impacting not only the possibility of thinking in depth about transcendent and truly important issues, but at the same time, and given the connection between the cognitive and volitional spheres, reducing the person's actions to the material and sensitive universe, which is the one that belongs to the image sold by the networks. [...]"
Source
#VARIOUSARTICLES
"Social networks have a preference for image, favouring exposure through images, in such a way that through images they propose to the user to represent everything: their life, their behaviour, their daily life, even their 'thoughts' with the famous 'memes', which are short messages accompanied by... an image. One perceives an absence of space for an expansion of the world of the idea, which requires a development for which there is no 'time' in the immediacy of the networks, where everything must be said now and hopefully in funny and creative ways... hopefully with images.
Even when topics are addressed that would require a greater argumentative development, as when on Facebook someone talks about abortion, for example, the comments area is full of people who want to settle the issue in two lines, the solidity of the idea matters little, what is sought is to impress with some short but witty phrase that crushes the 'opponent' or ridicules him in front of others. [...]
[...] We repeat that it is not our intention to elaborate here an apocalyptic plea against social networks, nothing of the sort. But we would like to draw attention to the model of 'thinking' that derives from their irrational use. And by 'irrational' we mean the use made of it by people who spend hours and hours daily in front of their 'networks', as if oblivious to the real world around them.
We believe that such a model of 'thinking' centred on the image, on immediacy, on the concrete, on the individual, etc., if turned into a habit through an almost addictive use of the networks, could inevitably lead to a weakening of the abstract capacities of human intelligence, negatively impacting not only the possibility of thinking in depth about transcendent and truly important issues, but at the same time, and given the connection between the cognitive and volitional spheres, reducing the person's actions to the material and sensitive universe, which is the one that belongs to the image sold by the networks. [...]"
Source
#VARIOUSARTICLES
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VARIOUS ARTICLES
"The more talented a man is, the more he should listen to the advice of another. For talent puffs up and makes one think he knows everything. And, therefore, it exposes one to error in many things that a man of talent does not know. For to have talent is not to have wisdom".
"Formación de selectos" - Ángel Ayala
#VARIOUSARTICLES
"The more talented a man is, the more he should listen to the advice of another. For talent puffs up and makes one think he knows everything. And, therefore, it exposes one to error in many things that a man of talent does not know. For to have talent is not to have wisdom".
"Formación de selectos" - Ángel Ayala
#VARIOUSARTICLES
JUAN MANUEL DE PRADA
[...] Islam has for some time now been engaged in stirring up contradictions in the West, taking refuge in the doctrine advocated by Libya's Gaddafi: ‘Allah will guarantee the Islamic victory without swords, without guns, without conquest. We need no terrorists, no suicide bombers. The more than fifty million Muslims in Europe will turn it into a Muslim continent in a few decades'. And while the victory comes [...] Islam entertains itself by proposing Sadducean traps that will shorten those few decades [...].
[...] civilisations are founded by religions; and, with the decline of religions, civilisations die out, to the point of extinction. Human coexistence requires a collective bond, an adherence to a particular vision of the world that only a common religious belief provides: when such a common belief takes root, as in Islam, it is possible to undertake joint undertakings with enthusiasm; when such a common belief is disintegrated, corrupted or replaced by idolatries of different political sign, as in the West, not only is it impossible to undertake joint undertakings, but human coexistence itself becomes unsustainable. ‘A great civilisation is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within’, wrote Will Durant; and in Islam they know well how to precipitate that destruction [...].
‘Removing the veils from the eyes’ - Book “Swimming against the current” pages 55 to 56.
#CHESTERTONCASTELLANIJMPRADA
[...] Islam has for some time now been engaged in stirring up contradictions in the West, taking refuge in the doctrine advocated by Libya's Gaddafi: ‘Allah will guarantee the Islamic victory without swords, without guns, without conquest. We need no terrorists, no suicide bombers. The more than fifty million Muslims in Europe will turn it into a Muslim continent in a few decades'. And while the victory comes [...] Islam entertains itself by proposing Sadducean traps that will shorten those few decades [...].
[...] civilisations are founded by religions; and, with the decline of religions, civilisations die out, to the point of extinction. Human coexistence requires a collective bond, an adherence to a particular vision of the world that only a common religious belief provides: when such a common belief takes root, as in Islam, it is possible to undertake joint undertakings with enthusiasm; when such a common belief is disintegrated, corrupted or replaced by idolatries of different political sign, as in the West, not only is it impossible to undertake joint undertakings, but human coexistence itself becomes unsustainable. ‘A great civilisation is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within’, wrote Will Durant; and in Islam they know well how to precipitate that destruction [...].
‘Removing the veils from the eyes’ - Book “Swimming against the current” pages 55 to 56.
#CHESTERTONCASTELLANIJMPRADA
HAPPINESS
"The true good of the body is perfectly reconciled and harmonised with the good of the soul. The first good of the body is health, and nothing so procures and preserves health as the victory over the evil passions. Therefore, by condemning the passions and helping us to overcome them, the Church frees us from most of the destructive causes of our bodily well-being.
Let ambition, avarice, impurity, drunkenness, sloth, with all the evils which these degrading vices bring with them, be suppressed, and the majority of men will enjoy sweet well-being and true happiness. On the other hand, it is easy to prove that fortitude, prudence, justice, temperance, and the other virtues which flow from them, procure for the Christian pure and delicate joys, infinitely superior to the gross enjoyments of the senses.
Man is the happier the more industrious, the more sober, the more charitable, the less desire he has, and the greater the peace he enjoys. In former times, when religion was better practised than it is today, there were very many citizens who enjoyed this happiness.
As for the sufferings, which are inseparable from human life, the Church diminishes and alleviates them. She diminishes them by the resignation and patience which she inspires; she alleviates them by all the means of her inexhaustible charity.
Therefore, the Church procures for the man who practices her divine teachings happiness even on earth. [...]"
"Religion Demonstrated" - Father Hillarie
#HAPPINESS
"The true good of the body is perfectly reconciled and harmonised with the good of the soul. The first good of the body is health, and nothing so procures and preserves health as the victory over the evil passions. Therefore, by condemning the passions and helping us to overcome them, the Church frees us from most of the destructive causes of our bodily well-being.
Let ambition, avarice, impurity, drunkenness, sloth, with all the evils which these degrading vices bring with them, be suppressed, and the majority of men will enjoy sweet well-being and true happiness. On the other hand, it is easy to prove that fortitude, prudence, justice, temperance, and the other virtues which flow from them, procure for the Christian pure and delicate joys, infinitely superior to the gross enjoyments of the senses.
Man is the happier the more industrious, the more sober, the more charitable, the less desire he has, and the greater the peace he enjoys. In former times, when religion was better practised than it is today, there were very many citizens who enjoyed this happiness.
As for the sufferings, which are inseparable from human life, the Church diminishes and alleviates them. She diminishes them by the resignation and patience which she inspires; she alleviates them by all the means of her inexhaustible charity.
Therefore, the Church procures for the man who practices her divine teachings happiness even on earth. [...]"
"Religion Demonstrated" - Father Hillarie
#HAPPINESS
CHASTITY AND MARRIAGE
THE HUSBAND'S DECALOGUE:
1. Get your life sorted out - at least fundamentally - before you start a family.
2. Your work is important, but don't let it absorb you in such a way that it takes time that you owe to your loved ones.
3. Good humour, a permanent serenity of spirit, is the most valuable gift you can offer your wife and children.
4. Your wife should be your best friend and companion. And you should have at least the same attentions towards her as you had when she was just your girlfriend.
5. Respect her field of work. There are few things so ridiculous and harmful as a fussy husband who is meddling in his wife's own affairs.
6. If your wife is fit for a profession - except for housekeeping - let her have it.
7. In relation to your children, don't forget that educating is an art. A difficult and delicate art, made up of a little science, a lot of good sense and, above all, a lot of love.
8. Example is the key to education. Earn respect and obedience by your actions.
9. Be very manly in everything, but bear in mind that this is perfectly compatible with the signs of affection that your loved ones need.
10. And if you are fortunate enough to be a believer, may Christ be the light and joy of your life in the fulfilment of your duties as a father and husband.
THE WIFE'S DECALOGUE:
1. The home will be what you make of it. That must be the great work of your life.
2. The immediate administration of property is yours. Be far-sighted, prudent and with great common sense.
3. May your good taste and your care - more than your money - make your home a welcoming refuge for all those who make up your family.
4. Always try to remain your husband's bride. And let it show in your words as well as in your presentation.
5. Never forget that before your own children - and of course your parents - there is your husband.
6. May your words, your joy and your peace of mind be a relief and rest to all who make up your home, or come near it.
7. Your first duty to your children is called tenderness. On it, as a basis, it will be easy for you to exercise, together with your husband, that difficult and delicate art which is called education.
8. Don't shout and don't lose your temper. You will be better obeyed if you tell your children things calmly.
9. Take special care in the order and administration of the household: in mealtimes, and in prudent economy.
10. Finally, if you are fortunate enough to have faith, seek your support in God, for in Him you will always find the strength and grace you need to carry out your beautiful mission in life.
"To save your soul" - Father Jorge Loring
#CHASTITYANDMARRIAGE
THE HUSBAND'S DECALOGUE:
1. Get your life sorted out - at least fundamentally - before you start a family.
2. Your work is important, but don't let it absorb you in such a way that it takes time that you owe to your loved ones.
3. Good humour, a permanent serenity of spirit, is the most valuable gift you can offer your wife and children.
4. Your wife should be your best friend and companion. And you should have at least the same attentions towards her as you had when she was just your girlfriend.
5. Respect her field of work. There are few things so ridiculous and harmful as a fussy husband who is meddling in his wife's own affairs.
6. If your wife is fit for a profession - except for housekeeping - let her have it.
7. In relation to your children, don't forget that educating is an art. A difficult and delicate art, made up of a little science, a lot of good sense and, above all, a lot of love.
8. Example is the key to education. Earn respect and obedience by your actions.
9. Be very manly in everything, but bear in mind that this is perfectly compatible with the signs of affection that your loved ones need.
10. And if you are fortunate enough to be a believer, may Christ be the light and joy of your life in the fulfilment of your duties as a father and husband.
THE WIFE'S DECALOGUE:
1. The home will be what you make of it. That must be the great work of your life.
2. The immediate administration of property is yours. Be far-sighted, prudent and with great common sense.
3. May your good taste and your care - more than your money - make your home a welcoming refuge for all those who make up your family.
4. Always try to remain your husband's bride. And let it show in your words as well as in your presentation.
5. Never forget that before your own children - and of course your parents - there is your husband.
6. May your words, your joy and your peace of mind be a relief and rest to all who make up your home, or come near it.
7. Your first duty to your children is called tenderness. On it, as a basis, it will be easy for you to exercise, together with your husband, that difficult and delicate art which is called education.
8. Don't shout and don't lose your temper. You will be better obeyed if you tell your children things calmly.
9. Take special care in the order and administration of the household: in mealtimes, and in prudent economy.
10. Finally, if you are fortunate enough to have faith, seek your support in God, for in Him you will always find the strength and grace you need to carry out your beautiful mission in life.
"To save your soul" - Father Jorge Loring
#CHASTITYANDMARRIAGE
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EDUCATION
"From day to day there is a growth in the number of those who are convinced that present education devotes too much attention to the understanding of the young and neglects too much the formation of character, of the willpower of the young. Hence the sad fact that, in the society of educated men, there are more educated students than students with templance (...) "The real value of man does not depend on the strength of his understanding, but of his will. He who is devoid of it will only weaken with great intellectual endowments; and there is no more wretched, and sometimes more infamous creature in the world than a great intelligence to which character does not correspond (...)Do you know what education is? To incline the will of man so that in all circumstances he will decide to follow the good without hesitation and with joy (...) in the education of character, what is difficult is not so much the formulation of right principles for life, which is relatively easy to achieve, as the persistence in them through all obstacles (...) Sow a thought and you will reap desire; sow desire and you reap action; sow action and you reap habit; sow habit and you reap character; sow character and you reap your own destiny (...) He who arrives without firm character in the hustle and bustle of the world, loses even what little he may have had"
"The young man of character" - Father Tihamer Toth
#VARIOUSARTICLES
"From day to day there is a growth in the number of those who are convinced that present education devotes too much attention to the understanding of the young and neglects too much the formation of character, of the willpower of the young. Hence the sad fact that, in the society of educated men, there are more educated students than students with templance (...) "The real value of man does not depend on the strength of his understanding, but of his will. He who is devoid of it will only weaken with great intellectual endowments; and there is no more wretched, and sometimes more infamous creature in the world than a great intelligence to which character does not correspond (...)Do you know what education is? To incline the will of man so that in all circumstances he will decide to follow the good without hesitation and with joy (...) in the education of character, what is difficult is not so much the formulation of right principles for life, which is relatively easy to achieve, as the persistence in them through all obstacles (...) Sow a thought and you will reap desire; sow desire and you reap action; sow action and you reap habit; sow habit and you reap character; sow character and you reap your own destiny (...) He who arrives without firm character in the hustle and bustle of the world, loses even what little he may have had"
"The young man of character" - Father Tihamer Toth
#VARIOUSARTICLES
SPIRITUAL PERFECTION
"(...) St. Gregory says (...) Just as a debtor who owes a thousand ducats to another does not rest or gets the payment lifted (...) and until he has paid the whole debt he always walks with that weight; so we should not look at whatever good we have done so far, we have already paid part of the debt we owe to God, but not all the rest that we still have to pay; and that is what should make us careful and it is the thorn we should always keep pierced in our hearts. (...) Just as pilgrims and good wayfarers do not look at what they have walked, but at what they have yet to walk, and always keep it before their eyes until they have finished their journey, so we, as pilgrims and wayfarers on our way to our heavenly homeland, must not look at what we think we have walked, but at what we have yet to walk (...) for those who walk and intend to get somewhere will profit little by having walked a long way, if they do not finish what they have yet to walk. And see also that the prize of the race, which is destined for those who run best, is not won by those who have run very lightly through most of it, if they are weary at the end of it; so it will profit you little if you have begun to run well, if you become weary in the middle of the race (...)".
"Exercise of perfection and Christian virtues" - Father Alonso Rodríguez S. J.
#SPIRITUALPERFECTION
"(...) St. Gregory says (...) Just as a debtor who owes a thousand ducats to another does not rest or gets the payment lifted (...) and until he has paid the whole debt he always walks with that weight; so we should not look at whatever good we have done so far, we have already paid part of the debt we owe to God, but not all the rest that we still have to pay; and that is what should make us careful and it is the thorn we should always keep pierced in our hearts. (...) Just as pilgrims and good wayfarers do not look at what they have walked, but at what they have yet to walk, and always keep it before their eyes until they have finished their journey, so we, as pilgrims and wayfarers on our way to our heavenly homeland, must not look at what we think we have walked, but at what we have yet to walk (...) for those who walk and intend to get somewhere will profit little by having walked a long way, if they do not finish what they have yet to walk. And see also that the prize of the race, which is destined for those who run best, is not won by those who have run very lightly through most of it, if they are weary at the end of it; so it will profit you little if you have begun to run well, if you become weary in the middle of the race (...)".
"Exercise of perfection and Christian virtues" - Father Alonso Rodríguez S. J.
#SPIRITUALPERFECTION
HAPPINESS
"(...) a sincere atheist, the Frenchman Valery, in "Carnets", says: "If God existed, if I could only believe that He exists, I would be immensely happy. I could no longer be interested in anything but Him. I would be surrounded by tenderness and protection. The pleasures of the world would be nothing, death would be nothing. If I knew that God exists, if my life were but a delay of my meeting with Him, even if this life were painful, it would be as gentle as the long wait for a beloved woman, of whose arrival one is absolutely certain.
If God existed, nothing would matter to me. If God existed, it seems to me that I would be naturally good to everyone, like a man who is suddenly a millionaire, emptying his sacks of money all over the place for the sheer pleasure of it. If God existed, it seems to me that my faults would be absorbed in Him and forgiven, by the very fact that I would recognise them as faults.... If God existed, I would be eternally happy".
If God existed..., but he was not sure, that is why he admired and desired the faith of believers. And we must give him and others like him proof of his existence. Let them see that our way of life is impossible, if God does not exist".
"Lights on the way" - Father Ángel Peña O. A. R.
#HAPPINESS
"(...) a sincere atheist, the Frenchman Valery, in "Carnets", says: "If God existed, if I could only believe that He exists, I would be immensely happy. I could no longer be interested in anything but Him. I would be surrounded by tenderness and protection. The pleasures of the world would be nothing, death would be nothing. If I knew that God exists, if my life were but a delay of my meeting with Him, even if this life were painful, it would be as gentle as the long wait for a beloved woman, of whose arrival one is absolutely certain.
If God existed, nothing would matter to me. If God existed, it seems to me that I would be naturally good to everyone, like a man who is suddenly a millionaire, emptying his sacks of money all over the place for the sheer pleasure of it. If God existed, it seems to me that my faults would be absorbed in Him and forgiven, by the very fact that I would recognise them as faults.... If God existed, I would be eternally happy".
If God existed..., but he was not sure, that is why he admired and desired the faith of believers. And we must give him and others like him proof of his existence. Let them see that our way of life is impossible, if God does not exist".
"Lights on the way" - Father Ángel Peña O. A. R.
#HAPPINESS
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JUAN MANUEL DE PRADA
"While we pretend to do emotivistic things with handicapped children, we are dismembering them in a dark cellar. And I write 'deficient' because I believe that we will not succeed in combating this scourge as long as we cling to emotive pretendings. It is incontrovertible evidence that the make-up or embellishment of mental deficiencies with sappy euphemisms has run parallel to the extermination of the children who suffer from them. Words serve to confront us with realities; and when words are twisted to mitigate reality, it is so much easier to hide reality and throw it in the dustbin. And what we say about language applies to other forms of sugar-coating as well. It may sound sarcastic, but the truth is that deficient children are being crossed out of the book of life amidst syrupy tributes and seraphic politically correct jargon, to the sentimental relief of those of us who are massacring them. To combat this stealthy extermination, instead of varnishing the mental deficiency with smug euphemisms, we should start by facing up to the harsh reality. Then perhaps we would awaken the dormant heroism that is necessary to lovingly welcome these children that we are now so blithely crossing out of the book of life, while we weep in the cinema (...) It is a lie that these children are "like us"; it is sentimental hogwash to claim that they are "as capable" as the rest of us. To give birth to and care for a handicapped child may bring infinite spiritual rewards; but to attain them one must first make the most self-sacrificing sacrifices and the most painful renunciations; one must, in short, accept a form of surrendered life that our age abhors. To give birth to and care for a handicapped child, one must have the courage to renounce the freedom that our era celebrates, which is freedom understood as the exaltation of desire, and embrace the freedom that our era proscribes, which is freedom understood as responsibility and demand. To give birth to and care for a deficient child, one must dare to love and receive love with an unbridled intensity that intimidates our generation rotten with flabby emotionalism. It is natural that such a generation does not have the courage to have deficient children; and that it then needs to flood its hypocritical eugenic conscience with sentimental outpourings. [...]"
From the article "The extermination of the champions" - Juan Manuel de Prada
#CHESTERTONCASTELLANIJMPRADA
"While we pretend to do emotivistic things with handicapped children, we are dismembering them in a dark cellar. And I write 'deficient' because I believe that we will not succeed in combating this scourge as long as we cling to emotive pretendings. It is incontrovertible evidence that the make-up or embellishment of mental deficiencies with sappy euphemisms has run parallel to the extermination of the children who suffer from them. Words serve to confront us with realities; and when words are twisted to mitigate reality, it is so much easier to hide reality and throw it in the dustbin. And what we say about language applies to other forms of sugar-coating as well. It may sound sarcastic, but the truth is that deficient children are being crossed out of the book of life amidst syrupy tributes and seraphic politically correct jargon, to the sentimental relief of those of us who are massacring them. To combat this stealthy extermination, instead of varnishing the mental deficiency with smug euphemisms, we should start by facing up to the harsh reality. Then perhaps we would awaken the dormant heroism that is necessary to lovingly welcome these children that we are now so blithely crossing out of the book of life, while we weep in the cinema (...) It is a lie that these children are "like us"; it is sentimental hogwash to claim that they are "as capable" as the rest of us. To give birth to and care for a handicapped child may bring infinite spiritual rewards; but to attain them one must first make the most self-sacrificing sacrifices and the most painful renunciations; one must, in short, accept a form of surrendered life that our age abhors. To give birth to and care for a handicapped child, one must have the courage to renounce the freedom that our era celebrates, which is freedom understood as the exaltation of desire, and embrace the freedom that our era proscribes, which is freedom understood as responsibility and demand. To give birth to and care for a deficient child, one must dare to love and receive love with an unbridled intensity that intimidates our generation rotten with flabby emotionalism. It is natural that such a generation does not have the courage to have deficient children; and that it then needs to flood its hypocritical eugenic conscience with sentimental outpourings. [...]"
From the article "The extermination of the champions" - Juan Manuel de Prada
#CHESTERTONCASTELLANIJMPRADA
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CHESTERTON
"Capitalism becomes contradictory as soon as it is completed, because it consists in dealing with the mass of men in two opposite ways at the same time. When the majority of men are wage-earners, it becomes more and more difficult for the majority of men to be customers. For the capitalist always tries to undercut what his dependent asks for, and in so doing he undercuts what his customer can spend. As soon as he has difficulties in his business, as is the case at present in the coal business, he tries to reduce what he has to invest in wages, and in so doing reduces what others have to spend on coal. He wants the same man to be rich and poor at the same time. This contradiction of capitalism does not appear in the early stages, because there are still populations not subject to the common proletarian condition. But as soon as the totality of the rich employs the totality of the workers, this contradiction becomes apparent as an ironic fate and as an obvious flaw. [...]"
The Limits of Sanity, Gilbert Keith Chesterton; The Quiet Ox, 2010; pgs. 40-41.
#CHESTERTONCASTELLANIANDJMPRADA
"Capitalism becomes contradictory as soon as it is completed, because it consists in dealing with the mass of men in two opposite ways at the same time. When the majority of men are wage-earners, it becomes more and more difficult for the majority of men to be customers. For the capitalist always tries to undercut what his dependent asks for, and in so doing he undercuts what his customer can spend. As soon as he has difficulties in his business, as is the case at present in the coal business, he tries to reduce what he has to invest in wages, and in so doing reduces what others have to spend on coal. He wants the same man to be rich and poor at the same time. This contradiction of capitalism does not appear in the early stages, because there are still populations not subject to the common proletarian condition. But as soon as the totality of the rich employs the totality of the workers, this contradiction becomes apparent as an ironic fate and as an obvious flaw. [...]"
The Limits of Sanity, Gilbert Keith Chesterton; The Quiet Ox, 2010; pgs. 40-41.
#CHESTERTONCASTELLANIANDJMPRADA
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HAPPINESS
"...] "temporal goods seem desirable to us as long as we do not have them; once they are possessed, we discover their poverty, which cannot respond to our desire and produces disappointment, sadness and sometimes anger. The opposite happens with spiritual goods: they do not appear desirable to those who do not possess them and desire only sensible goods. But the more they are possessed, the more their value is realised, and consequently the more they are loved". For the same reason, while material goods (the same house, the same field) cannot belong simultaneously and integrally to more people, the same spiritual goods can belong at the same time and fully to everyone, and each one possesses them all the more the better he knows how to communicate them to others. (...) St Thomas says that in some men, like the miser, the lust for money is infinite, what shall we say then of the spiritual will? The more it rises to the knowledge of superior goods and of the supreme good, the greater this spiritual desire becomes; and the Christian faith adds that only God, seen face to face, can satisfy it. (...) The same aggregate, even simultaneous, of all finite goods and mixed imperfections would not be able to constitute the good itself, conceived and desired by us, just as a multitude of fools would never amount to a man of genius.... (...) true happiness, which man already naturally desires, cannot be found in any limited and restricted good (...) which made Saint Catherine of Siena exclaim: "if you want a friendship to last, if you want to continue to refresh yourselves in that vessel, make it fill itself unceasingly at the fountain of living water, otherwise it will not satisfy your thirst". (...) only God, seen face to face, can fill the deep emptiness of our heart, only He can fill the deep abyss of our will. [...]"
Source: Blog Itinerarium Mentis
#HAPPINESS
"...] "temporal goods seem desirable to us as long as we do not have them; once they are possessed, we discover their poverty, which cannot respond to our desire and produces disappointment, sadness and sometimes anger. The opposite happens with spiritual goods: they do not appear desirable to those who do not possess them and desire only sensible goods. But the more they are possessed, the more their value is realised, and consequently the more they are loved". For the same reason, while material goods (the same house, the same field) cannot belong simultaneously and integrally to more people, the same spiritual goods can belong at the same time and fully to everyone, and each one possesses them all the more the better he knows how to communicate them to others. (...) St Thomas says that in some men, like the miser, the lust for money is infinite, what shall we say then of the spiritual will? The more it rises to the knowledge of superior goods and of the supreme good, the greater this spiritual desire becomes; and the Christian faith adds that only God, seen face to face, can satisfy it. (...) The same aggregate, even simultaneous, of all finite goods and mixed imperfections would not be able to constitute the good itself, conceived and desired by us, just as a multitude of fools would never amount to a man of genius.... (...) true happiness, which man already naturally desires, cannot be found in any limited and restricted good (...) which made Saint Catherine of Siena exclaim: "if you want a friendship to last, if you want to continue to refresh yourselves in that vessel, make it fill itself unceasingly at the fountain of living water, otherwise it will not satisfy your thirst". (...) only God, seen face to face, can fill the deep emptiness of our heart, only He can fill the deep abyss of our will. [...]"
Source: Blog Itinerarium Mentis
#HAPPINESS
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