Vivat Agnus Dei

  Psychological and Moral Implications of Chronic Pursuit of Instant Gratification on Self-Control and Ethical Decision-Making in Adolescents “In a society that, for various reasons, fosters doubt and cynicism, fear and helplessness, immaturity and childishness, some young people tend to stay at the level of primary gratification.”[1] It is well known that chronic pursuit of instant, primary gratification (CPIG for short) is a constant between our phones, social media accounts, and spending habits. What exactly is instant gratification? This immediate desire for gratification is characterized by a shallow focus on oneself, not through (often at the expense of) thoughtful introspection, reflective prayer, or long-term foresight and benefit, but an attempt at satisfying the fickle and fleeting physiological/primary desires born of perceived need, often inspired by a negative emotional state.[2] It leads individuals to neglect deeper or more arduous pursuits such as willing the good o...

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed. How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! I try to count them—they are more than the sand; I come to the end—I am still with you. Jeremiah 1:5, Psalm 139:13-18 From before you were conceived, God loved you because He knew you and was prepared to choose good things for you, knowing our every sin and seeing the hurt and confusion they often come from.[1] There is no love song, poetry, Bible verse,...

The ministry of Sr. Miriam Hiedland greatly blesses the Church in the US. If you are unfamiliar with this ministry look up any of her talks on YouTube and you will likely agree. I have been enamored with her work and have benefited from it. She makes a few key distinctions that form the essence of her pastoral ministry, and I would like to look at that with you. She treats brokenness with reverence and understanding and at the same time recognizes the truth of the context. These key points are not only the basis of her ministry of the Church's understanding of love and mission First, it is paramount that any brokenness is treated with reverence and revived with tender compassion. Our world shuns suffering, and sometimes even the people who care about us the most don’t receive our hurts and at the same time expect us not to act out of this brokenness. However, this is not how Christ encounters anyone nor anyone who is truly your friend. On the contrary, if with regard to ourselves. ...

"No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends." (John 15:13) We have already discussed the call to love as Christ has loved and how God loves sinners . Our topic, i.e., this verse, builds on such concepts but in a way surpasses them. It is fascinating that Christ asks His broken-sinner followers to not only imitate His love but also clarify that with a romantic description of the greatest love possible. The truth is man was made for a kind of love he seems to find himself incapable of without Christ. Even Mother Teresa has said, "Love has to suffer to be real". The love described here involves seeing others as more important than oneself and at times may truly require its literal application. First, let us consider what it means to consider the lives of others as more important than oneself. We can rarely express the greatest possible love in a literal and ultimate fashion as Christ dying on the cross after a romantic, candle-lit, sac...

Love is sufficient of itself, it gives pleasure by itself and because of itself. It is its own merit, its own reward. Love looks for no cause outside itself, no effect beyond itself. Its profit lies in its practice. I love because I love, I love that I may love. Love is a great thing so long as it continually returns to its fountainhead, flows back to its source, always drawing from there the water which constantly replenishes it. Of all the movements, sensations and feelings of the soul, love is the only one in which the creature can respond to the Creator and make some sort of similar return however unequal though it be. For when God loves, all he desires is to be loved in return; the sole purpose of his love is to be loved, in the knowledge that those who love him are made happy by their love of him. The Bridegroom’s love, or rather the love which is the Bridegroom, asks in return nothing but faithful love. Let the beloved, then, love in return. Should not a bride love, and above al...