Vivat Agnus Dei

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,...

"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...

You may look at the first word in the title and think, "Now I know he isn't speaking English". I would say that isn't entirely false, because I have only seen Aquinas use it, but he had a way of naming/applying terms well. The irascible power is a power of the soul that deals with overcoming obstacles and difficulties, fortitude is the habit of appropriately using this power. This power is the other side of the coin of the concupiscible power, which is oriented towards seeking pleasure and avoiding pain, the irascible power is concerned with resisting and overcoming challenges that impede the pursuit of good. It includes passions such as hope, daring, fear, despair, and anger, which are directed towards arduous or difficult (accomplishing/obtaining) goods and (avoiding) evils. What is irascible love then? Irascible love is the kind of love we need to truly love well because the full gift of self (in ways not-directly/inherently-biological) is found nowhere else than i...

If you have ever had any crosses of the psychological variety, even of the spiritual variety, it can be hard to keep from identifying with them. The truth is there is nothing we suffer that came from nowhere, no situation, action, or choice. Sometimes this is horrifying, but it is comforting in the grand scheme of things because afflictions do not spontaneously appear or disappear. Yet, it can be difficult even subliminal to find ourselves beholden to our materiality in terms of causality, pain, and behavioral or perspective strife. Sin is a somewhat personal reality when it comes to effects and certainly, we are the ones who commit them, but if you have ever asked the question why, then you know there is an element to sin that is more like a disease, a pathology, and an environment and it is us committing them and their effects which are truly the transgression against reality's order. The fact of the matter is whatever your nature is blessed to struggle with, you are not defined ...

"Then Jesus said, “There was a man who had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.’ So he divided his property between them. A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living. When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one ...