ZENIT - Pope to Parents: Take the Kids Outdoors
Our German shepherd, Pope Benedict XVI encourages parents to take advantage of the fair weather and lack of school commitments common in many families for the rest of the year by showing their children the splendor and beauty of the great outdoors. This is something I always enjoyed as I was growing up; we began taking annual camping trips to national parks throughout the Southwestern United States, hiking in the mountains, exploring caves, and playing in rivers all over the place. And it was on these trips that the only mention of the priesthood as a possibility for my vocation ever came up - that I might bring my kids back to these places, or maybe I might be a priest.
How good God is, and how much we can agree with His reaction when He created the earth and the plants and animals, as He looked out saw that it was good!
Love the Immaculata!
Mariam cogita, Mariam invoca
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Monday, July 04, 2011
Independence!
Happy Independence Day!
As we prayed yesterday, while we recognize our achievement of political independence from England, we must further recognize our essential dependence on our Creator, the giver of life. Freedom, in the deepest sense, is the capacity to choose from good alternatives, as well as bad ones, ready for the consequences of each. It is also the ability to choose the good, not being forced to choose the bad.
So often independence and freedom are chalked up as an encouragement to do whatever feels good or desirable, on any level. The rich history of philosophical thought shows us that everything a person does is desired by that person for some reason, even things that society sees as evil - many times some harm is done to oneself or another person because of a desire to alleviate suffering for oneself or someone close. That is to say, nothing that any person does is undesirable on every level. But as an entire culture, especially what is frequently represented on broadcast media and visible in many partial ways in the underlying mindset of many individuals here, Americans need to elevate their evaluation of what is acceptable conduct and what is desirable conduct among the members of American society for its own preservation. In politics, education, the family, and the work ethic, this society has turned to so many policies that are unsustainable - shockingly ironic given the tremendous push for so many elements of our physical infrastructure to be sustainable.
Let us pray and work toward a society that is more sustainable - inevitably more in line with the eternal plan for the whole human race, the plan ordained by our Creator and sustained by His Grace, with our cooperation. And such a Creator sent His Son and the Divine Person who is the love between them to guide us along this path, in the loving arms of so good a Mother. Let us follow them in Faith, Hope, and Love - verus amor!
Love the Immaculata!
Mariam cogita, Mariam invoca
As we prayed yesterday, while we recognize our achievement of political independence from England, we must further recognize our essential dependence on our Creator, the giver of life. Freedom, in the deepest sense, is the capacity to choose from good alternatives, as well as bad ones, ready for the consequences of each. It is also the ability to choose the good, not being forced to choose the bad.
So often independence and freedom are chalked up as an encouragement to do whatever feels good or desirable, on any level. The rich history of philosophical thought shows us that everything a person does is desired by that person for some reason, even things that society sees as evil - many times some harm is done to oneself or another person because of a desire to alleviate suffering for oneself or someone close. That is to say, nothing that any person does is undesirable on every level. But as an entire culture, especially what is frequently represented on broadcast media and visible in many partial ways in the underlying mindset of many individuals here, Americans need to elevate their evaluation of what is acceptable conduct and what is desirable conduct among the members of American society for its own preservation. In politics, education, the family, and the work ethic, this society has turned to so many policies that are unsustainable - shockingly ironic given the tremendous push for so many elements of our physical infrastructure to be sustainable.
Let us pray and work toward a society that is more sustainable - inevitably more in line with the eternal plan for the whole human race, the plan ordained by our Creator and sustained by His Grace, with our cooperation. And such a Creator sent His Son and the Divine Person who is the love between them to guide us along this path, in the loving arms of so good a Mother. Let us follow them in Faith, Hope, and Love - verus amor!
Love the Immaculata!
Mariam cogita, Mariam invoca
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