Virtues At Work

Virtues At Work - Jeff Montgomery - HSI

A tremendous guide to living the holy life exists in the theological and cardinal (or human) virtues. If you'll remember, the theological virtues are faith, hope, and charity, and the human (or cardinal) virtues are temperance, justice, prudence, and fortitude. Living these virtues helps us in all aspects of our life, but I'd like to focus in on how they can help us be holy at work.

I think that work provides us with many challenges in living a holy life. The modern workplace is a constantly changing environment, to the point where there is an entire industry dedicated to helping us learn how to deal with change. (I have several books on my bookshelf about change.) We also must deal with a variety of people during our workday, some of who don't share our beliefs or even our own ideas of what ethical behavior is.  Read on...

Story of Blessed Pedro Calungsod

    

Pedro Caungsod was a young boy from the Visayan region. The Jesuits who were evangelizing the Visayas in the 1600 have trained young boys as assistants or catechists to help them in their missions. The training was in Jesuit-run boarding schools for boys. Pedro could be one of the boys who attended the school. He was among those brought by the Jesuit priest Fr. Diego Luís de San Vitores to 

start the Mission at the Ladrones Islands together with other Jesuits. 

Fr. Diego Luís de San Vitores was assigned in Antipolo. Fr. Juan Lopez, OP, the bishop of Cebu at that time, manifested his willing support to the Mission organized by Fr. Diego since the Ladrones were then part of the ecclesiastical territory of the Diocese of Cebu. The bishop himself may have sent boys from the Visayas to support the Mission. Another possibility is that the Jesuits in the Visayas themselves may have sent the boys to their fellow priest Fr. Diego.Overcoming all difficulties, the missionaries left with the ship named “San Diego” from the port of Cavite on August 7, 1667. They sailed first to Acapulco in Mexico to get some provisions for the Mission. They arrived in Acapulco on January 6, 1668 and stayed there until March 23, 1668 when they left for the Ladrones. They reached the island of Guam in the Ladrones on June 15, 1668. 

A Chinese quack, named Choco, envious of the respect that the missionaries were gaining among the Chamorro, started to spread the talk that the baptismal water of the missionaries was poisonous. In addition, since some sickly Chamorro infants died after baptism, many believed the calumniator. The Macanjas, and Urritaos supported the evil campaign of Choco. Together with the apostates, they began to persecute the missionaries, to the point of killing them. 

The missionaries were able to persevere in the Mariana Mission because of their firm spiritual life. They were fervent in their prayers and sacrifices for the salvation of souls. They were faithful to the daily celebration of the Holy Eucharist. They regularly and frequently received the Sacrament of Confession, which helped them be at peace with God and always prepared for death. Moreover, they were so devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary as their inspiration and protector. 

The most unforgettable attack happened on April 2, 1672, the Saturday just before the Passion Sunday of that year. At around seven o‟clock in the morning, Pedro who was about seventeen years old, and the superior of the Mission, Padre Diego, came to the village of Tomhom in Guam. They learned that a baby girl was recently born in the village. They went to ask the child‟s father, named Matapang, to bring out the infant for baptism. Matapang was a Christian and a friend of the missionaries, but having apostatized, he angrily refused to have his baby christened. 

To give Matapang some time to cool down, Padre Diego and Pedro gathered the children and some adults of the village at the nearby shore and started reciting with them the truths of the Catholic Faith. They invited Matapang to join them. 

Matapang shouted back that he was angry with God and was fed up with the Christian teachings. Determined to kill the missionaries, Matapang went away and tried to recruit in his cause another villager, named Hirao, who was not a 

Christian. At first, Hirao refused, aware of the kindness of the missionaries towards the natives. However, when Matapang called him a coward, he got irritated and so he consented. 

During that short absence of Matapang from his hut, Padre Diego and Pedro took the chance of baptizing the infant with the consent of the Christian mother. When Matapang learned of the baptism, he became even more furious. He violently hurled spears first at Pedro. The lad avoided the darting spears with remarkable skill. Witnesses said that Pedro had all the chances to escape because he was very swift, but he did not want to leave Padre Diego alone. Those who personally knew Pedro believed that he would have defeated his fierce attackers and would have freed both himself and Padre Diego if only he had some weapon because he was a brave boy; but Padre Diego never allowed his companions to carry arms because they were missionaries of peace. Finally, a spear hit Pedro at the chest and he fell to the ground. Hirao immediately charged towards him and finished him off with a blow of a short sword on the head. Padre Diego could not do anything except to raise a crucifix and give Pedro the final sacramental absolution. After that, the assassins also killed Padre Diego. Matapang took the crucifix of Padre Diego and crushed it with a stone while blaspheming God. 

Both assassins stripped the bodies of Pedro and Padre Diego, dragged them to the edge of the shore, tied large stones to their feet, brought them on a proa to sea and threw them into the deep. Their remains were never found. 

When the fellow missionaries of Pedro learned of his death, they exclaimed, “Privileged youth! How well rewarded his four years of persevering service to God in the difficult Mission are; he has become the herald of our superior, Padre Diego, in Heaven!” 

They remembered Pedro to be a boy with a very good character. He was a righteous catechist, a faithful assistant, and a good Catholic whose perseverance in the Faith even to the point of martyrdom proved him a good soldier of Christ. 

No one knows from where Pedro was from. However, “bissaya” may be just the perfect description of who Pedro was and who he should be to us today. For according to Fr. Ignacio Francisco Alcina, SJ, who worked in the Visayas during the time of Pedro, “bissaya” means “a happy man”, “a man of fine and pleasant disposition.” Pedro as described by his companions in their accounts of his martyrdom: that he was a lad of “very good disposition”, and that he was a “fortunate [happy] youth” because he lived and died for the Christian Faith.

source:  http://sanpedrocalungsod.com/?p=491

THE IMPORTANCE AND BEAUTY OF OBEDIENCE

Virtue of the Day: Obedience

“My God, I choose all. I do not want to be a saint by halves.  I am not afraid to suffer for you.  I fear only one thing – that I should keep my own will.  So take it, for I choose all that you will.”  - St. Therese of Lisieux

            Perfection consists in the conformity of our will to the will of God.  Now the surest way to know the will of God and how to live it is obedience to our lawful superiors.  As said by St. Thomas, “nothing is dearer to us than the liberty of our will,” we can offer to God no more acceptable gift than this very liberty.”

            “Obedience is better than sacrifices,” says the Holy Ghost (1Kings 15:22); that is to say, God prefers obedience to all other sacrifices.  When we give to charity, bearing faults of others, fast and penitential works, we are giving part of ourselves to God.  But when we obey, this means offering to God our all what we have left.  By the virtue of obedience, other virtues follow.

A Great Reward and a Source of Merit

            The reward of obedience is similar to that of martyrdom according to the Venerable Sertorius Caputo.  In martyrdom, we offer to God the head of our body; by obedience we offer Him our will, which is the head of the soul.  An obedient soul escapes the punishment of Hell.  Satan was sent to hell because he was too proud to obey.  Hence, obedience is following the examples of Jesus and Mama Mary while disobedience makes disciples of Satan.  “You are my friends, if you do the things that I command you.”  - John 15:14

            Obedience is our greatest freedom.  It is much more secure to be in a state of subjection than in authority.  Our accountability is even lesser than when we are the one giving the order.

            It is more meritorious to pick-up a straw from the ground, out of obedience, than from self-will to make a long meditation or scourge ourselves to blood. St. Teresa was therefore right in saying that obedience is the shortest way to perfection.

Qualities of Obedience

v  Must be supernatural – by faith we must believe that in obeying the Church, our parents, our confessor, we are actually obeying God.

v  “Obey, not serving to the eye, as it were pleasing men, but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.” (Eph. 6:6)

Obedience to Parents

            “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is just.” (Eph. 6:1).  This is to say we must have obedience to the parents in as much as it does not displease the Lord. 

St. Thomas teaches that children are not obliged to obey their parents when there is a question of the choice of a state of life. 

With reference to married life, Pinamonti with Sanchez, Konink and others, maintains that young people are obliged to consult their parents since they are more experienced, and may often prevent serious mistakes.  Moreover, to ignore them in a matter which they have so much at heart is most certain to wound them keenly.

            But with regard to vocation to the religious life, a child is not in the least bound to ask his parents’ advice, because such a choice is responding to a higher call for obedience.  Parents who unreasonably prevent their children from following a vocation to the priesthood or the religious life are guilty of unspeakable cruelty towards their own offspring.

Obedience to our Spiritual Director

            Obedience to our spiritual director is of the greatest importance if we desire to please God and make progress in perfection.

            It is indeed a great grace that God bestowed for His people His representations or instruments here on earth that we may not go astray or abuse our spirituality.  He tells us that by obeying our spiritual director we are obeying Him: “He that heareth you, heareth Me.”  St. Teresa tells us that she herself, by obedience to her confessor, learned to know and love God.

            - Sources:  12 Steps to Holiness and Salvation by St. Alphonsus Liguori, Story of a Soul by St. Therese of Lisieux, Imitation of Christ by Thomas Kempis  

Pope explains how Mary’s queenship points to Jesus :: EWTN News

Pope explains how Mary’s queenship points to Jesus :: EWTN News





Pope Benedict XVI recommended that Christians look to the queenship of Mary, who is “queen in the service of God to humanity,” as a sure guide towards her son.


“Dear friends, devotion to Our Lady is an important part of spiritual life. In our prayer we should not fail to turn to her, confident that Mary will intercede for us with her Son,” the Pope said to pilgrims during his Aug. 22 general audience at Castel Gandolfo.


“Looking upon her, let us imitate her faith, her complete openness to the loving plan of God, her generous welcoming of Jesus. We learn to live from Mary.”


The Pope recalled how the establishment of a particular day to celebrate the queenship of Mary is actually a “recent establishment,” even though it has “an ancient origin and devotion.” When Pope Pius XII created the feast in 1954, he originally placed it on May 31, at the end of the month dedicated to Mary.


“On that occasion he said that Mary is Queen more than any other creature for the elevation of her soul and for the excellence of gifts received. She never ceases to bestow all the treasures of her love and of her care on humanity,” Pope Benedict said.


Following the Second Vatican Council the feast day was moved by Pope Paul VI to Aug. 22, so that it would be “eight days after the Solemnity of the Assumption to emphasize the close relationship between the royalty of Mary and her glorification in soul and body next to her Son.”


The fact that Mary is “uniquely bound to her Son” both on earth and in Heaven lies at the root of today’s feast, said the Pope, since she now participates in “God’s responsibility for the world and the love of God for the world.”


Just as the kingship of Jesus “has nothing to do with that of the powerful of this world,” as evidenced by his washing of the disciplines feet or death on the cross, so the queenship of Mary “is not (one of) wealth and power” but is “a service of love,” Pope Benedict taught.


She is “queen in the service of God to humanity, is queen of the love that lives the gift of self to God (so as) to enter into the plan of salvation of man. To the angel she replies: I am the handmaid of the Lord.”


This love is expressed, suggested the Pope, in the fact that Mary is continually “watching over us, her children, the children who come to her in prayer, to thank her or to ask for her maternal protection and heavenly help, perhaps after having lost their way, burdened with grief or anguish amid the sad and troubled vicissitudes of life.”


It is the queenship of Mary that we should turn to throughout life, he said, “so that from her Son we may receive every grace and mercy necessary for our journey along the roads of the world.”


“To him who rules the world and holds the destinies of the universe we turn with confidence, through the Virgin Mary.”

Read more: http://www.ewtnnews.com/catholic-news/Vatican.php?id=6022#ixzz24TdA26a5

The Catholic Position on the RH Bill: Bo Sanchez versus the RH Bill

The Catholic Position on the RH Bill: Bo Sanchez versus the RH Bill: From Bo Sanchez's talk at the March 25, 2011 rally for life at Quirino Grandstand:

12 Reasons Why We Should Oppose Reproductive Health Bill 5043 (or Whatever Number/Name It Assumes in the Next Congress) By the Alliance for the Family Foundation Philippines, Inc. (ALFI)

1. HB 5043 is based on flawed data on population growth rates and fertility levels. It ignores the negative impact on the economy and society of an aging population, as experienced in many developed countries. If we spend our scarce resources towards birth control, we would be promoting the undesirable outcome of depopulation. RP’s population growth rate (PGR) has declined since the Year 2000 census which was
at 2.36 percent. The correct PGR is lower. UN states it at 1.8 percent, while the National Statistics Office reports 1.94 percent for its 2005-2010 projection. RP’s total fertility rate is not 3.5. It is 2.6 (based on UN) or 3.2 (based on NSO). In a few decades, fertility rate will be at replacement level of 2.1, and will still continue its irreversible decline, leading to impoverishment of the elderly and economic decline.

2. HB 5043 places an overwhelming emphasis on contraception at the expense of all other values, including medical care for the sick and the dying. Top 10 causes of morbidity/death among women in the Philippines lists pneumonia, bronchitis, diarrhea, influenza and hypertension. There is a distortion of human values if we prioritize the prevention of procreation over saving lives.

3. HB 5043 promotes abortion. Hormonal contraceptives act as abortifacients. They do not prevent ovulation 100 percent of the time and thus, fertilization can still occur. When the fertilized ovum is prevented from implanting in the uterus because of the effect of the pill, this ovum is expelled. This is plain and simple abortion. (Note:  Research shows that ovulation still occurs during pill use in six out of 210 menstrual cycles. Even among women who observed strict compliance with pill intake, breakthrough ovulation rate could be as high as 34.28 ovulations for every 100 women taking the pill for one year. Hence, there remains a grave risk of the abortion of undetected pregnancies.)

4. It is not true that widespread use of contraceptives will reduce illegal abortion and help control the spread of HIV/STD. In every single country where contraceptives became widely available, cases of abortion, teenage pregnancies and HIV/STDs increased because of the contraceptive mindset being promoted in society.

5. HB 5043, with its two-child ideal (Section 16), will result in social stigma and discrimination against large families. The ideal family size is what parents responsibly decide. This is not to be mandated nor encouraged by the State.

6. HB 5043 legislates mandatory reproductive health and sex education from Grade V to 4th year high school (Sec. 12). This includes discussion of topics on how to “prevent unwanted, unplanned and mistimed pregnancies,” “use and application of natural and modern family planning methods,” “desired family size,” etc. Teaching youth about abstinence and, at the same time, discussing how to avoid pregnancies sends mixed messages that will, in the end, lead to serious consequences for many. It also undermines the right of parents to be the primary educators of their children and “the right of spouses to found a family in
accordance with their religious convictions and the demands of responsible parenthood,” as stated in our Constitution.

7. HB 5043 provides that any person who publicly or even privately disagrees with its premises, conclusion or implementation is subject to fine or imprisonment (Sec. 21.e.). It also imposes a tax burden on taxpayers, who, in the exercise of their religious conviction, are opposed to the RH bill.

8. HB 5043 seeks to classify hormonal contraceptives, intrauterine devices, injectables, etc. as “essential medicines” (Sec. 10) even if they pose health risks to women. The World Health Organization has also concluded that hormonal contraceptives cause cancer, warning level 1, according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).

9. HB 5043 forces all health care service providers, including private doctors, nurses, clinics and hospitals, to make referrals for the provision of abortifacient drugs and devices (Sec. 21.a.5.). Refusal will be punished by fine and/or imprisonment. This violates a person’s freedom of conscience.

10. HB 5043 violates the Constitutional safeguards for life and family (Article II, Sec. 12 & 13; Article XV, Sec. 1 & 3). It allows anyone to avail of RH services like vasectomy or ligation without the consent
of the spouse (Sec. 21.a.2.), thereby creating artificial conflicts between spouses and thus effectively destroying the meaning of marriage. Similarly, an abused pregnant minor may also avail of any of the
“reproductive health care services” without the need of parental consent (Sec 21.a.3.).

11. Poverty and hunger are not caused nor aggravated by overpopulation, but by the wrong economic policies, poor governance and systemic corruption. Numerous economic studies have shown that there
is no correlation between population, the incidence of poverty and GDP growth.

12. Finally, HB 5043 ignores the mandate of Sec. 12, Article II of the Constitution, which provides as follows:
Sec.12. The State recognizes the sanctity of family life and shall protect and strengthen the family as a basic autonomous social institution. It shall protect the life of the mother and the life of the unborn from conception.

This provision leaves no room for the State or any of its agencies to get involved in any family planning program that promotes contraceptives that endanger the health of the mother and the life of the unborn from
the point of conception.

Alliance for the Family Foundation Philippines, Inc. (ALFI) is a multi-sectoral organization committed to preserving Filipino family values by awakening as many concerned Filipinos as possible to the negative consequences of harmful legislation, programs and projects concerning family and life; through pro-active measures to preserve the family; and through a sustained and vigilant stand against all threats to family and life. For comments/reaction, email allianceforthefamily@gmail.com or call (632) 807-6848. Visit also their website: www.alfi.org.ph.

DAMULAG ng Brevs: the [M.O.B.] Rules - no. 49

DAMULAG ng Brevs: the [M.O.B.] Rules - no. 49: Hi Brevs! Our 49th the [M.O.B.] Rules , our quarterly recollection-meeting, with the the"BELIEVE" will be on the 19th of August 2012, Sun...

The Catholic Knight: Pray for the Holy Father

The Catholic Knight: Pray for the Holy Father: THE CATHOLIC SQUIRE: Our beloved Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI , is rumored to be working on his fourth Encyclical. This encyclical, according to the rumors, will be on the theological virtue of faith.  Read on...

PRAYER

          

            “For me, prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a simple look turned toward heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy.”

                                                                                                - St. Therese of Lisieux

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Prayer is the raising of one’s mind and heart to God or the requesting of good things from God.  He who humbles himself will be exalted; humility is the foundation of prayer.  Only when we humbly acknowledge that “we do not know how to pray as we ought to “(Lk. 18:9-14) are we ready to receive freely the gift of prayer.

            It is indeed a blessing that the topic Prayer is included in our Big Tent Festival.  Let us recall salient points from Bro. Leo Ferrer’s talk on this subject.

A – Adoration is praising and acknowledging God as God

C – Contrition is the act of being sorry for the sins committed and confessing   them before the Lord; we ask for purification on this part

T – Thanksgiving is expressing our gratitude to God; Always remember the

      giver, not the gift.  “I decrease and you increase.”

S – Supplication is when we lay down before God our petition

S – Silence is the moment when we contemplate and simply wait for Him to talk.

          In prayer God wants us to STOP, LOOK, LISTEN, and GO just as He had called Moses to deliver His people from Egypt.

Stop – forget a while everything that we are doing

Look – be focused on God

Listen – let God do the talking

Go – after hearing His message, “do whatever He tells you…” (John 2:5)

                                                                                   

Prayer of Intercession

brev cHacHi, brev broA and brev Lynelle

            According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “Prayer of intercession consists in asking on behalf of another.  It knows no boundaries and extends to one’s enemies.”

            It is so amazing how intercession works.  Even St. Jeanne Marie Vianney claimed that intentions for other people are answered quickly compared when he prayed for himself.  Prayer of intercession can even stop the greatest destruction that can beset our world.  This kind of intercession was done by Abraham and also during the time of Jesus Christ.  Up to this present, by faith we believe that Mother Mary and all the saints in heaven are interceding for us.  The power of intercession even extends to those souls in purgatory.  Every prayer said for the poor souls is a source of consolation. Moreover, it speeds up their entry to heaven.

-       Brev Lynelle and Brev cHacHi