“Teaching that a sin is not really a sin is a heresy, and it is a heresy that closes off the possibility of repentance for those who believe it. You can’t repent of a sin that you don’t believe to be a sin.” ~ Fr. John Whiteford [Read more…]
Christianity
God’s Will Be Done, The True Path to Joy and Peace
by Peter Kreeft –
In heaven (and in heaven on earth, the sanctified soul) our will conforms to God’s, not God’s to ours. The reason the saint’s desires are satisfied and he has joy is not that God is a divine dispensing machine and the saint has learned to press the right buttons but that he has learned to desire “the one thing necessary”, God’s will, and therefore always gets what he desires, for God’s will is always done.
“Thy will be done” is the infallible road to total joy.
It is testable and provable in daily and hourly experience. Time after time, active willing God’s will, “Yes” to God, leads out of meaninglessness, passivity, depression, or sorrow into joy. And time after time the pursuit of joy as if it were mine leads to disappointment, emptiness, and restless boredom. Life teaches us by millions of repetitions, yet we need millions more.[Read more…]
Speak Out Against Evil and Reproach Evildoers To Preserve Justice
“In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousand fold in the future.
When we neither punish nor reproach evildoers, we are not simply protecting their trivial old age, we are thereby ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations.” ~ Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn
If You Fall, Rise Up, Don’t Despair, Wait on Christ
by St. Peter of Damascus –
If you fall, rise up. If you fall again, rise up again. Only do not abandon your Physician, lest you be condemned as worse than a suicide because of your despair. Wait on Him, and He will be merciful, either reforming you, or sending you trials, or through some other provision of which you are ignorant.
For the devil is in the habit of promoting in the soul whatever he sees is in accordance with the soul’s own disposition, whether this be joy or self-conceit, distress or despair, excessive toil or utter indolence, or thoughts and actions that are untimely and profitless, or blindness and unreflecting hatred of all that exists.
Quite simply, he inflames in the soul whatever material he finds there already, so as to do it as much harm as he can, even though in itself the thing may be good and acceptable to God, provided that it is used with due restraint by one who is able to judge things and to discern the intention of God hidden in the six passions that surround him – those, that is, above him and below, to his right and to his left, within him and without. [Read more…]
Christianity Has Nothing to Say to People Who Don’t Understand Sin
“Christianity tells people to repent and promises them forgiveness. It therefore has nothing (as far as I know) to say to people who do not know they have done anything to repent of and who do not feel that they need any forgiveness.
It is after you have realised that there is a real Moral Law, and a Power behind the law, and that you have broken that law and put yourself wrong with that Power – it is after all this, and not a moment sooner, that Christianity begins to talk.” ~ C.S. Lewis (Mere Christianity)
Christian Martyrdom in Modern Age: Be Pious, Chaste, Moral, Faithful to God
by Chris Banescu –
“If you never chase God out of your house, your soul, and your heart, it is the last and greatest martyrdom.” ~ Fr. Calistrat Chifan
We often think of Christian martyrs as men and women who lived long ago and courageously gave up their lives in defense of their faith. We think of saints and disciples who were fed to the lions, tortured, maimed, burned alive, dismembered, or slaughtered for proclaiming Christ as Lord and Savior or refusing to renounce Christianity.
We also witness similar modern day martyrdom of Christians living in the Middle East, Africa, and China. Like their ancient brethren these innocents are persecuted, shot, decapitated, tortured, blown up, burned alive, and murdered for simply being Christian or daring to publicly proclaim the Gospel.
Few of us would think of modern Christians living in North America, South America, Europe, Russia, Australia, or other parts of the world, where there’s no widespread oppression or persecution of the faithful, as doing anything worthy of the title “martyr.” We have freedom and religious liberty to worship God as citizens or residents of secular democracies or constitutional republics, where Christianity is either protected (in Russia, Romania, and a few other Eastern European countries) or tolerated, at least for now (in other Western countries). [Read more…]
When The Church Denounces Corruption and Fights Evil She Strengthens
When the Church is silent, complacent, or indifferent about immorality, corruption, and evil, she always weakens and atrophies. When the Church boldly proclaims the Truth, denounces immorality and corruption, and fights evil, she always strengthens and flourishes. ~ Chris Banescu