tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-49843919798038918882012-02-17T09:07:35.573+08:00TO KNOW GOD WITH THE INTELLIGENCE ENLIGHTENED BY FAITH; TO LOVE GOD WITH OUR HUMAN FREEDOM AIDED BY GRACE; TO SERVE GOD WITH ALL OUR BEING, ALL OUR STRENGTH, ALL OUR PASSIONS, ALL OUR POSSESSIONS, ALL OUR LOVES...cuyunonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04558210748834095540noreply@blogger.comBlogger381100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4984391979803891888.post-24159476992311094362010-05-13T23:45:00.006+08:002010-05-13T23:58:17.647+08:00

In laetitia, nulla dies sine cruce!, “In joy, not a day without the Cross!”, is an aspiration St. Josemaria would use to encourage himself “to carry the Lord's burden with generosity, always with good humor, though often it means going against the grain" (Letter, 2 Feb 1945, noted in Vasquez de Prada, The Founder of Opus Dei, Vol. 2, p.21). Objectively, the Redemption has been accomplished by

cuyunonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04558210748834095540noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4984391979803891888.post-34587677292632302712009-12-29T10:24:00.003+08:002009-12-29T10:27:58.857+08:00

The call to holiness, to union with God, which is addressed to everyone (“You must therefore be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” [Mt 5:48]), is a vocation to live the new law of Charity: love of God above all creatures and love of neighbor in and for God, i.e., the unity of contemplation and action, of prayer and work, of interior life and apostolate, of building a personal

cuyunonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04558210748834095540noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4984391979803891888.post-91488857234060686512009-08-31T19:46:00.003+08:002009-08-31T19:54:07.022+08:00

In the Gospel-story of the rich young man, we read: “And behold, a certain man came to him and said, ‘Good Master, what good work shall I do to have eternal life?’ He said to him, ‘Why dost thou ask me about what is good? One there is who is good, and he is God. But if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.’ He said to him, ‘Which?’ And Jesus said, ‘Thou shalt not kill, Thou

cuyunonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04558210748834095540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4984391979803891888.post-86604100206422234122009-08-09T15:38:00.002+08:002009-08-09T15:44:49.650+08:00

Edith Stein “saw” with her intellect (after having read the autobiography of St. Teresa of Avila) and converted from Judaism to Christianity. As “Teresia Benedicta ac Cruce” (Teresa Blessed of the Cross), a Discalced Carmelite nun, she died a martyr in a gas chamber of the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz (Poland) on 9 August 1942. She is still remembered as the brilliant writer and teacher

cuyunonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04558210748834095540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4984391979803891888.post-21680393739528436462009-07-26T21:18:00.006+08:002009-07-27T20:14:35.446+08:00

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“Holiness” or “sanctity” (Latin, sanctus, “holy”) can be defined or explained in various ways. It is “union with God”. It is also our “perfection” as human persons, which our Lord meant when He said, “You must therefore be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt 5:48); and this means acquiring all the “virtues” (habits or stable dispositions of doing good).To be holy also means

cuyunonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04558210748834095540noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4984391979803891888.post-10999458328061430882009-05-28T18:34:00.005+08:002009-05-28T19:04:03.951+08:00

Growing in one’s knowledge of God (really inseparable from loving God) means knowing God as God wants to be known, and not as reduced to the standards of some minimalist, nor as embellished according to the baroque leanings of some weaver of fantasies. Knowing God as God wants to be known happens to be beyond our natural human capacity, and is made possible only by a gift from God—the

cuyunonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04558210748834095540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4984391979803891888.post-88329161157995687922009-04-02T14:13:00.009+08:002009-04-10T14:18:11.631+08:00

The season of Lent is supposed to be one in which we intensify our struggle for sanctification, in accordance with the will of God: Haec est voluntas Dei, sanctificatio vestra, “This is the will of God, your sanctification. (1 Thes 4:3). This is also the Will of God at its most encompassing, at least from our standpoint. It is our highest “vocation”.“Vocation” comes from the Latin, vocare, “to

cuyunonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04558210748834095540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4984391979803891888.post-10958809870457847052009-03-18T14:31:00.002+08:002009-03-18T21:17:23.332+08:00

The most popular or familiar scriptural reference to St. Joseph could be that found in the Gospel of St. Matthew, in which the husband of Mary is described as vir justus, “a just man” (Mt 1:19), meaning he had all the virtues. But there is a line in the Old Testament referring to the Joseph sold into slavery by his brothers, and who became ruler of Egypt (second to the Pharaoh), which can be

cuyunonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04558210748834095540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4984391979803891888.post-82360848006077629652009-02-20T11:33:00.002+08:002009-02-20T12:30:35.520+08:00

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cuyunonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04558210748834095540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4984391979803891888.post-77394459857532778622009-02-05T10:06:00.003+08:002009-02-05T10:17:32.986+08:00

“Detachment” is one of the more important virtues in our struggle for sanctification—not, perhaps, by itself, but because its opposite, “attachment”, lies at the very essence of sin. “Sin”, following a definition given by St. Augustine, is a “turning away from God”, aversio a Deo, and “turning towards creatures”, conversio ad creaturas (Belmonte, ed., Faith Seeking Understanding, Vol. 2, p. 67).

cuyunonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04558210748834095540noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4984391979803891888.post-37474713720531945562009-01-03T11:03:00.003+08:002009-01-26T11:31:04.733+08:00

Existence in time is cyclical: geophysically, the earth rotates on its axis, the sun rises and sets each day; the earth completes its orbit of the sun every 365/6 days, and we begin another year. Morally, we stumble and fall, and rise and begin again, many times each day; but these cycles of falling, rising and beginning again, should spiral and bring each one higher, and closer, each time, to

cuyunonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04558210748834095540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4984391979803891888.post-1947142007715155052008-12-12T22:53:00.005+08:002008-12-19T18:29:37.986+08:00

“Advent has a twofold character: as a season to prepare for Christmas when Christ’s first coming to us is remembered; as a season when that remembrance directs the mind and heart to await Christ’s Second Coming at the end of time. Advent is thus a period for devout and joyful expectation” (General Norms for the Liturgical Year and the Calendar).The four weeks of Advent should then be for each of

cuyunonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04558210748834095540noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4984391979803891888.post-6033061637678215212008-10-22T16:44:00.005+08:002008-10-22T21:17:08.896+08:00

Whether we like it or not, whether we realize it or not, we will all die. But death is not only the separation of our spiritual soul from our material body; it is also our crossover from time to eternity.Of course, Sacred Scripture refers to certain characters who appear not to have died: “Enoch walked with God, and he was no longer here, for God took him” (Gen 5:24). “Elijah went up to heaven in

cuyunonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04558210748834095540noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4984391979803891888.post-53071305662580470202008-10-03T15:11:00.003+08:002008-10-03T15:18:18.473+08:00

Yesterday, October 2, was the feast of the Guardian Angels. The Gospel for the Mass tells us: “…And Jesus called a little child to him, set him in their midst, and said, ‘Amen I say to you, unless you turn and become like little children, you will not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whoever, therefore, humbles himself as this little child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And

cuyunonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04558210748834095540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4984391979803891888.post-81630176465804869512008-09-21T19:16:00.032+08:002009-02-10T15:34:52.600+08:00

Human life is holy because from its beginning up to its end—from conception to resurrection and eternity (the expression, “from womb to tomb”, implies that communion ends with the grave; pro tanto, it is not of the Catholic faith)—every human life belongs to God in a direct way.Human life belongs to God from its beginning because every human person is directly created by God, Who “breathed into

cuyunonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04558210748834095540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4984391979803891888.post-59384132339900813672008-07-25T16:14:00.003+08:002008-07-25T16:25:01.340+08:00

Today marks the fortieth anniversary of the encyclical Humanae Vitae (Of Human Life). Newspaper columnist John Nery nicely dubbed it “Pope Paul VI’s ardent, anguished love letter to an unchaste world” (Newsstand, “Worrying ‘Humanae Vitae’,” PDI 7/22/2008). Humanae Vitae is indeed addressed to the world (and 1968 was the heyday of the Pill, “free love” and hippie culture), not just the faithful,

cuyunonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04558210748834095540noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4984391979803891888.post-26526294862775042222008-04-21T17:11:00.010+08:002008-05-04T18:20:13.238+08:00

“Apostolate,” from the Greek, apostolos, “one who is sent”, is almost synonymous with “Evangelization,” from eu-, “good”, and angelos, “messenger” (whence the Latin evangelium, "good news"). “Angels” and “Apostles” are all “sent”, but we use the first to refer to those servants of God who are purely spiritual creatures and the last to God’s “human” messengers (i.e., spiritual souls in material

cuyunonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04558210748834095540noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4984391979803891888.post-32784284683588709692008-04-04T22:48:00.008+08:002008-04-08T09:48:39.506+08:00

“I believe in Jesus Christ…He descended to the dead. On the third day, He rose again,” we recite in The Creed. The 50-day season of Easter is the commemoration of the fact of the Resurrection of our Lord. It is the greatest feast of Christendom because –“The Resurrection of Jesus is the crowning truth of our faith in Christ, a faith believed and lived as the central truth by the first Christian

cuyunonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04558210748834095540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4984391979803891888.post-5699673346608754212008-03-20T23:29:00.008+08:002008-03-21T13:50:13.745+08:00

In the narrative of the Passion of our Lord in the Gospel of St. John (which is read in the liturgy of Good Friday), there is a scene where Pontius Pilate asks Jesus the question, “What is truth?” Quid est veritas? (Jn 18:38) Unfortunately, in obvious bad faith—that is, without wanting to know the answer—Pilate turns away before our Lord could give a reply, thus depriving us of what would surely

cuyunonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04558210748834095540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4984391979803891888.post-17063547916499775422008-03-05T14:00:00.002+08:002008-03-06T19:39:29.459+08:00

“The works of mercy are charitable actions by which we come to the aid of our neighbor in his spiritual and bodily necessities.” (CCC, No. 2447) Traditionally, there are listed seven spiritual and seven corporal works of mercy. The seven spiritual works of mercy are: (1) to admonish the sinner, (2) to instruct the ignorant, (3) to counsel the doubtful, (4) to comfort the sorrowful, (5) to

cuyunonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04558210748834095540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4984391979803891888.post-61842767633640604962008-02-21T10:52:00.001+08:002008-02-21T10:56:01.216+08:00

Lent is a season for intensifying our training in “prayer, fasting and almsgiving”. These Lenten tasks translate into the virtues of “piety” (or “religion”, the habit of giving due worship to God), “penance” and “mercy”. “Penance” also translates into “mortification”. Mortification, from the Latin, mors, “death”, means dying to one’s self (and one’s selfish tendencies); a renunciation of

cuyunonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04558210748834095540noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4984391979803891888.post-66666478043777754792008-02-13T22:01:00.003+08:002008-02-13T22:26:08.255+08:00

“Prayer” is commonly defined as “the lifting up of the heart and mind to God”. “Heart” here means the seat of our affections—our desire for God, sorrow for sin, gratitude, joy—but it also includes our intelligence and free will. In other words, prayer is the turning of our "inside" (which does not necessarily exclude our exteriors) towards God; a “union with God” or “being with God”—so as to

cuyunonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04558210748834095540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4984391979803891888.post-38290190083517754932008-02-06T21:37:00.000+08:002008-02-06T22:26:41.216+08:00

“Lent” comes from an Old English word, lencten, “springtime”, to designate the forty-day season before Easter in the liturgical calendar. Today, Ash Wednesday, we begin the season of Lent. The forty days of Lent recall the period that Jesus fasted in the desert (Mt 4:1-11; Mk 1:12-13; Lk 4:1-13). At the end of His fast, our Lord was tempted by the devil to sate His hunger by

cuyunonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04558210748834095540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4984391979803891888.post-55073263721643863032008-01-30T22:05:00.000+08:002008-01-31T20:44:52.534+08:00

The Eucharist (Greek, eu- , “good”, and charis, “favor”), the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ—the Lord’s Supper, Holy Sacrifice, Holy Mass, Holy Communion—is, in the words of St. Josemaria, “the center and root of a Christian’s spiritual life” (Christ is Passing By, No. 87). Prefigured by Melchizedek’s offering of bread and wine (Gen 14:18), the Passover Meal (Ex 12, 13), and the manna

cuyunonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04558210748834095540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4984391979803891888.post-47169325808536400242008-01-15T19:14:00.000+08:002008-01-15T19:29:18.406+08:00

Purity, or chastity, is the virtue (stable or habitual disposition) which firmly inclines a person towards the right use (or non-use) of the sexual faculty. Chastity in marriage means using the human capacity for sex according to its authentic nature and purpose; and, as Pope Paul VI enunciated in his 1968 Encyclical Letter Humanae Vitae, the ends of marriage, or more specifically, of the “

cuyunonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04558210748834095540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4984391979803891888.post-86234722988034222872007-12-31T11:08:00.000+08:002007-12-31T20:58:51.190+08:00

The Sunday in the octave of Christmas is the feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph (it is celebrated on December 30 when there is no Sunday between December 25 and January 1), the model for all families. It is an invitation to revisit Catholic doctrine on the family. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) states:“A man and a woman united in marriage, together with their children,

cuyunonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04558210748834095540noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4984391979803891888.post-72926075887896959152007-12-21T21:57:00.000+08:002007-12-21T22:58:18.101+08:00

Advent is a time of preparation for the arrival of the Messiah. One of the best acts we can do in this direction is to go to the Sacrament of Penance or Reconciliation.A Sacrament is a “sensible” (can be perceived by the senses) and “efficacious sign” (it effects what it also signifies) of “grace” (invisible help for our sanctification) instituted by our Lord. The seven Sacraments of our Faith

cuyunonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04558210748834095540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4984391979803891888.post-1096718123927286342007-12-14T16:35:00.000+08:002007-12-16T21:53:12.966+08:00

“Virtues” (from the Latin, virtus, for “strength”) are “habits,” “firm dispositions” or “habitual inclinations” in an individual to do what is good in every situation. Every good act is potentially a virtue, i.e., if it becomes a habit. Conversely, every bad act is potentially a “vice”, a bad habit, the opposite of virtue.To facilitate discussion, since there could be an infinite array of

cuyunonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04558210748834095540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4984391979803891888.post-70342838718134317912007-11-25T22:20:00.002+08:002007-11-25T22:40:26.979+08:00

Today is the thirty-fourth Sunday, the last Sunday, in Ordinary Time, and it is the Solemnity of our Lord Jesus as the King of the Universe. The Preface of today’s Mass raises certain points we can consider as central to the theme of the celebration:“Father, all-powerful and ever-living God, we do well always and everywhere to give you thanks./ You anointed Jesus Christ, your only Son, with the

cuyunonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04558210748834095540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4984391979803891888.post-57530585994230021732007-11-12T18:35:00.000+08:002007-11-12T18:51:32.768+08:00

November begins with the Solemnity (Great Feast) of All Saints (Nov. 1), and the Commemoration of All Souls (Nov. 2). The liturgical year is about to end; it is a good time to remember our beloved dead with special attention, and to meditate on the afterlife.Death does not sever the bonds of love among men (except with the damned in hell, who have, by their final choices, separated themselves

cuyunonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04558210748834095540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4984391979803891888.post-55170065134674806192007-10-25T19:10:00.000+08:002007-10-25T19:16:47.388+08:00

“Morality” comes from the Latin, mos (plural, mores), for “custom”. It is synonymous with “Ethics” (Greek, ethos), the science of the goodness of human acts (i.e., actions that involve our intelligence and free will).There are two bases for judging the goodness (or badness) of human acts: the objective (from the Latin, ob-, “in front of”, and –jectum, “thrown”) and the subjective (sub-, “under”).

cuyunonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04558210748834095540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4984391979803891888.post-82803331356224303012007-10-11T19:43:00.000+08:002007-10-11T20:44:30.615+08:00

Rosarium means “garden of roses” or, better, “bouquet of roses”. When we pray the Holy Rosary, we are offering our Lady a bouquet, each “Hail Mary” a fragrant rose that pleases her and our Lord, because we are praising His mother, our mother. October is especially dedicated to promoting the Rosary.The Rosary combines vocal prayers with mental prayer or contemplation. The vocal prayers principally

cuyunonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04558210748834095540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4984391979803891888.post-35382494910399474902007-09-29T15:59:00.000+08:002007-09-29T16:09:46.970+08:00

Today, September 29, is the Feast of the Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael.St. Michael is the leader of the angels who fought with the devil: “And there was a battle in heaven; Michael and his angels battled with the dragon… the ancient serpent, he who is called the devil and Satan, who leads astray the whole world; and he was cast down to the earth and with him his angels were cast down.”

cuyunonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04558210748834095540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4984391979803891888.post-80343201336841805422007-09-15T10:30:00.001+08:002009-02-06T21:24:10.833+08:00

A friend of mine once observed that there is much poetry in Catholicism. He was referring to the wealth of imagery in the Catholic Faith. This could be said also of Judaism and other Christian groups, but perhaps it is more pronounced in the Roman Catholic Church. The observation comes to mind because yesterday, September 14, was the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, logically followed

cuyunonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04558210748834095540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4984391979803891888.post-6981416532621868552007-09-08T20:22:00.000+08:002007-09-08T23:11:37.020+08:00

Today, September 8, is the memorial of the birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is a good time to consider why we need to show devotion to her. Within the context of the general motive of pleasing God, I can think of several specific reasons.First, we honor the Blessed Virgin Mary to give due adoration to the Blessed Trinity. We venerate (dulla) the saints to honor God, their Creator; more so in

cuyunonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04558210748834095540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4984391979803891888.post-82675021045153599512007-08-28T23:19:00.000+08:002007-09-08T23:13:35.988+08:00

Today, August 28, is the feastday of St. Augustine, Bishop and Doctor of the Church. It is a good time to call to mind what is perhaps the most famous line he wrote: “(Lord,) You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.” (Confessions, 1, 1) It is a very beautiful way of expressing the meaning, the final cause, of human existence.The ultimate purpose of human

cuyunonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04558210748834095540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4984391979803891888.post-61603144027555337892007-08-21T22:48:00.001+08:002007-09-08T23:21:22.608+08:00

St. Josemaria Escriva would insist that the foundation of our spirituality, indeed, the foundation of our sanctity, is our divine filiation, the fact that we are children of God.“For whoever are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. Now you have not received a spirit of bondage so as to be again in fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons, by virtue of which we cry,

cuyunonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04558210748834095540noreply@blogger.com1