Tag: Catholic

Temperance is the virtue which moderates in us the inordinate desire for sensible pleasure, keeping it within the limits assigned by faith and reason. Sin has produced in us the great discord by which the inferior part tends to rebel against the superior, and craves what is contrary to the spirit. We will never be able to defend ourselves against the attractions of pleasure without the help of this virtue, which God has infused in our souls for the express purpose of enabling us to regulate our disordered tendency to pleasure. 

We are called to a different way of life. One that reorders our thoughts, impacting our actions and softening our hearts in order to understand love in its purest state. Christ’s love attracts us to a different way of life, a life of simple poverty.

Faith is believing in the unseen until it can be seen or known. We are given faith by our birthright but living in our humanity, it can be hard at times to practice this, especially when it comes to valuing and accepting my body. I’ve always struggled with accepting my body and the current limitations of aging are no exception. But by faith, I’m surrendering to acceptance that I’m where I need to be, right now, exactly where I am. Whether I weigh more than I did six months ago, can’t do the yoga that I love due to a bad knee or am recovering from Covid and need to take it easy, I’m accepting I’m where I need to be today. Acceptance is a mindset.

Looking for God’s Goodness in contemplation and prayer. A Contemplation on Honoring the Body.

The practice of honoring the body is born of the confidence that our bodies are made in the image of God’s own goodness. As the place where the divine presence dwells, our bodies are worthy of care and blessing and ought never to be degraded or exploited. It is through our daily bodily acts that we might live more fully into the sacredness of our bodies and the bodies of others.

My body is a gift to God and to others. How will I honor this gift today?

If I’m not separate from my God, why does my thinking say otherwise? If I’m not attached firmly to the spirit then I’m living a disconnected life. A life where my base desires run the show, usually wanting more, more, more.

Episcopal priest and Center for Action and Contemplation teacher emerita Cynthia Bourgeault writes of the difference between our modern understanding of emotions and the teachings of the Desert Fathers and Mothers in the following reflection:

In contemplating Rembrandt’s painting of The Prodigal Son, do you identify with the younger son or the older son from the Parable of Two Brothers that we know so well from the Gospel of Luke (15:11-32)?