Why was it necessary to suffer to save the world?

by Benedict XVI, Val D'Aosta 2009.

Why was it necessary to suffer to save the world?

It was necessary because there exists in the world an ocean of evil, of injustice, hatred, and violence, and the many victims of hatred and injustice have the right to see justice done. God cannot ignore the cries of the suffering who are oppressed by injustice. To forgive is not to ignore, but to transform.

God must enter into this world in order to set against the ocean of injustice a larger ocean of goodness and of love. And this is the event of the Cross: from that moment, against the ocean of evil, there exists a river that is boundless, and so ever mightier than all the injustices of the world, a river of goodness, truth, and love.

Thus God forgives, coming into the world and transforming it so that there may be a real strength, a river of goodness wider than all the evil that could ever exist.

So our address to God becomes an address to ourselves: God invites us to join with him, to leave behind the ocean of evil, of hatred, violence, and selfishness and to make ourselves known, to enter into the river of his love.

Ratzinger: Basis and goal of reality: love and reason

At the most profound level, [Christianity's] content will necessarily consist--in the final analysis, just as it did then--in love and reason coming together as the two pillars of reality: the true reason is love, and love is the true reason.

They are in their unity the true basis and the goal of reality. -- Truth and Tolerance, p. 183.

Benedict XVI: Shroud corresponds to everything that the Gospels say of Jesus

After venerating the Shroud of Turin, Pope Benedict XVI said:

the Shroud is the icon of this mystery, the icon of Holy Saturday. It is in fact a winding sheet, which covered the corpse of a man who was crucified, corresponding to everything that the Gospels say of Jesus, who was crucified about noon and died at about 3 in the afternoon.

He then gives this meditation:

This is the mystery of Holy Saturday! It is from there, from the darkness of the death of the Son of God, that the light of a new hope has shone: the light of the Resurrection. And it seems to me that looking upon this cloth with the eyes of faith one perceives something of this light. In effect, the Shroud was immersed in that profound darkness, but it is luminous at the same time; and I think that if thousands and thousands of people come to see it -- without counting those who contemplate copies of it -- it is because in it they do not see only darkness, but also light; not so much the defeat of life and love but rather victory, victory of life over death, of love over hatred; they indeed see the death of Jesus, but glimpse his resurrection [too]; in the heart of death there now beats life, inasmuch as love lives there.

This is the power of the Shroud: from the countenance of this “Man of sorrows,” who takes upon himself man’s passion of every time and every place, even our passion, our suffering, our difficulties, our sins -- “Passio Christi. Passio hominis” -- from this moment there emanates a solemn majesty, a paradoxical lordship. This face, these hands and these feet, this side, this whole body speaks, it is itself a word that we can hear in silence.

How does the Shroud speak? It speaks with blood, and blood is life! The Shroud is an icon written in blood; the blood of a man who has been scourged, crowned with thorns, crucified and wounded in his right side. Every trace of blood speaks of love and of life. Especially that large mark near the side, made by blood and water that poured copiously from a great wound caused by a Roman spear, that blood and that water speak of life. It is like a spring that speaks in silence, and we can hear it, we can listen to it, in the silence of Holy Saturday.

Dear friends, let us praise the Lord always for his faithful and merciful love. Departing from this holy place, we carry in our eyes the image of the Shroud, we carry in our heart this word of love, and we praise God with a life full of faith, of love and of charity.

source: http://www.zenit.org/article-29116?l=english

The primacy of the logos

Some quotes from Ratzinger's Introduction to Christianity

If Christian belief in God is first of all an option in favor of the primacy of the logos, faith in the preexisting, world-supporting reality of the creative meaning, it is at the same time, as belief in the personal nature of that meaning, the belief that the original thought, whose being-thought is represented by the world, is not an anonymous, neutral consciousness but rather freedom, creative love, a person.

Accordingly, if the Christian option for the logos means an option for a personal, creative meaning, then it is at the same time an option for the primacy of the particular as against the universal. The highest is not the most universal but, precisely, the particular, and the Christian faith is thus above all also the option for man as the irreducible, infinity-oriented being. And here once again it is the option for the primacy of freedom as against the primacy of some cosmic necessity or natural law.

Thus the specific features of the Christian faith as opposed to other intellectual choices of the human mind now stand out in clear relief. The position occupied by a man who utters the Christian credo becomes unmistakably clear.

But if the logos of all being, the being that upholds and encompasses everything, is consciousness, freedom, and love, then it follows automatically that the supreme factor in the world is not cosmic necessity but freedom.

The implications of this are very extensive. ... this again means that one can only comprehend the world as incomprehensible ... Incalculability is an implication of freedom; the world can never--if this is the position--be completely reduced to mathematical logic. ... A world created and willed on the risk of freedom and love is no longer just mathematics.

As the arena of love it is also the playground of freedom and also incurs the risk of evil. It accepts the mystery of darkness for the sake of the greater light constituted by freedom and love.

The Truth of Christianity by Joseph Ratzinger

http://www.univforum.org/pdf/the_truth_of_christianity.pdf

POSITION PAPER ON THE REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH BILLS

POSITION PAPER ON THE REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH BILLS
Highest levels of scientific expertise to resolve issues of the highest importance

Principle: To resolve specialized technical issues of the highest importance, the State has the obligation to trust only the highest levels of scientific expertise.
The Reproductive Health Bills’ proposal for an enforced distribution of birth control devices has raised crucial issues in the realm of science: Does the pill kill children or not? Does it cause health or sickness of women? Does availability of contraceptives strengthen or destroy families? Do they improve quality of life or create more poverty? Do condoms prevent or promote AIDS at the country level? Is population control a solution to poverty or a misuse of limited funds?
These crucial national questions cannot be left to the opinion of just any expert.
Based on rational criteria, the State must choose science experts who possess:
(1) specialized expertise corresponding to the question,
(2) highest international prestige (e.g. Nobel Prize winners, peer-reviewed science journals of prominent science organizations),
(3) objectivity, i.e. the expert should not be influenced by ideology, religion, commercial interests, political advocacy, international pressures. Scientific findings that tend to go against their personal biases are more credible.
We, the undersigned scientists, academicians, scholars, and professionals, would like to share with the State the findings of specialized, internationally recognized and objective scientists on the questions raised by the Reproductive Health Bills.
1. The pill and the intrauterine device kill young human life. The pill has a secondary “postfertilization effect”, according to Walter Larimore and Joseph Stanford who performed a systematic review of 94 studies published at the peer-reviewed scientific journal of the American Medical Association, year 2000. The intrauterine device brings about the “destruction of the early embryo” (American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology).
The American Medical Association is the largest medical association in the United States. The main author is Walter Larimore, who begun the study in order to “disprove” claims that the pill has a postfertilization effect after having prescribed the pill since 1978 and used it with his wife. The American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology is the peer-reviewed journal of seven American medical associations.
Please take note that among the highest levels of scientific expertise in biology, genetics, embryology there is “overwhelming agreement” that fertilization is equal to conception and that this is the moment when human life begins. Among 57 international experts invited by the US Senate in 1981 (among whom were scientists from Harvard Medical School, Mayo Clinic and the Father of Modern Genetics, Jerome Lejeune), 56 overwhelmingly agreed to this point. The same thing happened (19/20) in the First International Conference on Abortion in 1967, a fact mentioned in the Records of the Constitutional Convention, to which the commissioners also agreed.
2. The pill causes cancer, stroke and heart attacks. The International Agency for Research on Cancer in 2007 reported that the pill causes cancer, giving it the highest level of carcinogenicity, the same as cigarettes and asbestos. This study was conducted by 21 scientists from 8 countries under the International Agency for Research on Cancer. The pill also “confers the risk of first schemic stroke” (Stroke, journal of the American Heart Association), and significantly increases the risk of heart attacks (Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism).
3. Wide use of contraceptives leads to the destruction of families, and indirectly to greater poverty. Nobel prize winner in behavioral economics, George Akerlof (a liberal) showed that the contraceptive pill was a “technology shock” that led to more premarital sex. And since the pill is not 100% effective or some women choose to have a baby, it also meant more fatherless children and single mothers, and thus greater female poverty. For women who choose not to have a baby, it has led to more abortions. Akerlof also showed that this new technology led to a decline in marriage, less domestication of men, increase in substance abuse, more arrests for violent crimes and for drinking. All these led indirectly to more social pathology and poverty.
4. Countrywide condom use is not effective in stemming the spread of HIV/AIDS, and can worsen it. The “best evidence” proves this conclusion, according to the Harvard Director for AIDS Prevention, Edward C. Green, an agnostic. Green said: "There is a consistent association shown by our best studies, including the U.S.-funded Demographic Health Surveys, between greater availability and use of condoms and higher (not lower) HIV-infection rates.” He explained that “this may be due in part” to the fact that availability of condoms provides a sense of security that makes people take wilder sexual risks, thus worsening the spread of the disease.
5. There is “no clear association” correlation between population growth and economic development. This is the conclusion of the studies of Simon Kuznets, Nobel Prize winner in the science of economics. Many later studies confirmed this. Indeed there are many other economists who say the contrary, like Jeffrey Sachs, Head of the Millennium Development Project. However, there are no Nobel Prize winners who have studied this issue and have established a correlation.
6. Population control is not one of the ingredients for high economic growth. 2008 Commission on Growth and Development headed by Nobel prize winner Michael Spence found five factors for growth: governance, openness to knowledge, stable finances, market allocation, investment and savings.

Because of the strength and validity of these findings, and the highest levels of scientific authority possessed by the experts and organizations who pronounced them, we submit that the State should abandon, once and for all, the Reproductive Health Bills.

Raul Nidoy et al
Science and Reason for Human Beings

Science and Reason for Human Beings is a group of scientists, economists, doctors, academicians, lawyers and other professionals who have united to protect and enhance the life of human beings with the use of science and rational discourse.

Friendship

It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

The only way to have a friend is to be one.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship.
Saint Thomas Aquinas

Friendship is a single soul dwelling in two bodies.
Aristotle

I don't need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod; my shadow does that much better.
Plutarch

One thing is needful: Be with Jesus, praying

John Paul II - Ours is a time of continual movement which often leads to restlessness, with the risk of "doing for the sake of doing". We must resist this temptation by trying "to be" before trying "to do". In this regard we should recall how Jesus corrected Martha: "You are anxious and troubled about many things; one thing is needful" (Lk 10:41-42). It is important that what we propose, with the help of God, should be profoundly rooted in contemplation and prayer.

Benedict XVI - Time devoted to God in prayer not only does not detract from effective and loving service to our neighbour but is in fact the inexhaustible source of that service. It is time to reaffirm the importance of prayer in the face of the activism and the growing secularism of many Christians.

Benedict XVI - Anyone who wishes to give love must also receive love as a gift... Yet to become such a source, one must constantly drink anew from the original source, which is Jesus Christ, from whose pierced heart flows the love of God... Only in the way of contemplation will he be able to take upon himself the needs of others and make them his own.

Benedict XVI - Strange to say, I often think that prayer - the unum necessarium - is the one aspect of vocations work which we tend to forget or to undervalue! Nor am I speaking only of prayer for vocations. Prayer itself, born in Catholic families, nurtured by programs of Christian formation, strengthened by the grace of the sacraments, is the first means by which we come to know the Lord's will for our lives. To the extent that we teach young people to pray, and to pray well, we will be cooperating with God's call. Programs, plans and projects have their place; but the discernment of a vocation is above all the fruit of an intimate dialogue between the Lord and his disciples. Young people, if they know how to pray, can be trusted to know what to do with God's call.

Why should prayer be the number one priority task of each day?

Reasons:

1) God is the end-goal of our lives. Better make sure we talk with him to keep focus on this ultimate goal. We do all our tasks for a goal, whether that task is reply to an email, prepare breakfast, or to sleep. All these goals end up contributing to one final goal. And the true goal of all human tasks is God.

2) We cannot reach God, nor any other goal, without God. Without me, he said, you can do nothing. And that is really true. We were made from nothing, and at every moment, we need God to continue existing and to continue doing anything.

to be continued....

I soared so high, high above that I at last caught my prey

By Saint John of the Cross


Full of hope I climbed the day
while hunting the game of love,
and soared so high, high above
that I at last caught my prey.

In order to seize the game
-- the divine love in the sky --
I had to fly so high, high
I floated unseen and became
lost in that dangerous day;
and so my flight fell short of
height -- yet so high was my love
that I at last caught my prey.

Dazzled and stunned by light
as I rose nearer the sun,
my greatest conquest was won
in the very black of night.
Yet since love opened my way
I leapt dark, blindly above
and was so high, near my love,
that at last I caught my prey.

In this most exalted quest
the higher I began to soar
the lower I felt -- more sore
and broken and depressed.
I said: None can seize the prey!
and groveled so low, so low
that high, higher did I go,
and at last I caught my prey.

By strange reckoning I saw
a thousand flights in one flight;
for hope of heavenly light
is achieved by hoping now.
I hoped only for this way
and was right to wait for love,
and climbed so high, high above
that at last I caught my prey.

Christianity is the Religion of the Logos (Reason)

by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger

From the beginning, Christianity has understood itself as the religion of the Logos, as the religion according to reason...It has always defined men, all men without distinction, as creatures and images of God, proclaiming for them...the same dignity.

In this connection, the Enlightenment is of Christian origin and it is no accident that it was born precisely and exclusively in the realm of the Christian faith....It was and is the merit of the Enlightenment to have again proposed these original values of Christianity and of having given back to reason its own voice. In the pastoral constitution, On the Church in the Modern World, Vatican Council II underlined again this profound correspondence between Christianity and the Enlightenment, seeking to come to a true conciliation between the Church and modernity, which is the great heritage that both sides must defend.

Given all this, it is necessary that both sides engage in self-reflection and be willing to correct themselves. Christianity must always remember that it is the religion of the "Logos." ...Today, this should be precisely its philosophical strength, in so far as the problem is whether the world comes from the irrational, and reason is not other than a 'sub-product,' on occasion even harmful of its development—or whether the world comes from reason, and is, as a consequence, its criterion and goal.

In the so necessary dialogue between secularists and Catholics, we Christians must be very careful to remain faithful to this fundamental line: to live a faith that comes from the Logos, from creative reason, and that, because of this, is also open to all that is truly rational.

=========


Pope Benedict's role in history, as seen by many cardinals and intellectuals, is to help bring about the conversion of the secularist West (as JPII brought about the conversion of the Marxist East). And the emphasis on Christianity's reason is one of the key strategies for this victory over secularism.

Our country which is strongly religious and faith-based has a tendency not to emphasize reason, or even to distrust it. There is a big opportunity for formation here.

In the beginning was the Word (Logos) and the Word (Logos) was with God, and the Logos (Reason) was God.

Source: http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/politics/pg0143.html

Nuggets of Wisdom of St. Thomas Aquinas

My little collection. I published it here on January 28, 2011 in the Philippines, on the feast of St. Thomas Aquinas, the patron saint of the University of Santo Tomas, which is celebrating its 400th anniversary this year on April 28. This is dedicated to my friends who are from this royal and pontifical university, the first university in Asia.

The Catholic Church considers St. Thomas as its universal doctor, which means that he is a teacher for everything and everywhere and all times, because his powerful mind, like that of angel, has clearly seen the truth of things and passed them on so generously to us all.


Practical points
• It is requisite for the relaxation of the mind that we make use, from time to time, of playful deeds and jokes.
• Sorrow can be alleviated by good sleep, a bath and a glass of wine.
• To live well is to work well, to show a good activity.
• If the highest aim of a captain were to preserve his ship, he would keep it in port forever.

Friendship, happiness and music
• There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship.
• Friendship is the source of the greatest pleasures, and without friends even the most agreeable pursuits become tedious.
• Not every love that has the character of friendship, but only the love which includes benevolence, by which we love someone so as to will some good for him.
• Happiness is secured through virtue; it is a good attained by man's own will.
• Man cannot live without joy; therefore when he is deprived of true spiritual joys it is necessary that he become addicted to carnal pleasures.
• How can we live in harmony? First we need to know we are all madly in love with the same God.
• Music is the exaltation of the mind derived from things eternal, bursting forth in sound.

Living life
• The things that we love tell us what we are.
• The human will can be protected from sin only when the reason is preserved from ignorance and error.
• In the physical life, one who is sick and does not take medicine, dies. So in the spiritual order, one becomes sick because of sin. Thus, medicine is necessary for recovery of health. This is the grace which is given in the Sacrament of Penance.
• Men could not live with one another if there were not mutual confidence that they were being truthful to one another.
• The highest manifestation of life consists in this: that a being governs its own actions. A thing which is always subject to the direction of another is somewhat of a dead thing.
• An evil action cannot be justified by reference to a good intention.
• It belongs to the perfection of moral or human good, that the passions should be controlled by reason.
• When the devil is called the god of this world, it's not because he made it, but because we serve him with our worldliness.
• To convert somebody, go and take them by the hand and guide them.
• Better to illuminate than merely to shine, to deliver to others contemplated truths than merely to contemplate.

Love and faith
• To love is to will the good of another.
• Creatures came into existence when the key of love opened his hand.
• The goal of human existence is union and eternal fellowship with God.
• God alone satisfies.
• To love God is something greater than to know Him.
• Faith is a foretaste of the knowledge that will make us blessed in the life to come.
• Three things are necessary for the salvation of man: to know what he ought to believe; to know what he ought to desire; and to know what he ought to do.
• What does it take to become a saint? Will it.
• The more perfect action causes more perfect pleasure.
• The truth of our faith becomes a matter of ridicule among the infidels if any Catholic, not gifted with the necessary scientific learning, presents as dogma what scientific scrutiny shows to be false.
• The discipline and moderation of the miser, which restrain the desire for intemperance because it may cost money, are not true virtue…There can be no true virtue without charity.

Jesus Christ and his Church
• Every action of Christ contains a lesson for us.
• Nothing is truer than the word of Truth.
• The Lord's Prayer [the Our Father] is the most perfect of prayers. . . . In it we ask, not only for all the things we can rightly desire, but also in the sequence that they should be desired. This prayer not only teaches us to ask for things, but also in what order we should desire them.
• There is but one Church in which men find salvation, just as outside the ark of Noah it was not possible for anyone to be saved.
• The Church has ever proved indestructible. Her persecutors have failed to destroy her; in fact, it was during times of persecution that the Church grew more and more; while the persecutors themselves, and those whom the Church would destroy, are the very ones who came to nothing.
• God permits evil in order to draw forth some greater good.
• Clearly the person who accepts the Church as an infallible guide will believe whatever the Church teaches.
• The angels work together for the benefit of us all .
• The effect proper to this Sacrament [of the Eucharist] is the conversion of a man into Christ, so that he may no longer live, but Christ lives in him
• Grace is nothing else but a certain beginning of glory within us.
• A sacrament is a sign that commemorates what precedes it - Christ's Passion; demonstrates what is accomplished in us through Christ's Passion - grace; and prefigures what that Passion pledges to us - future glory.
• The Eucharist is the Sacrament of sacraments: all the other sacraments are ordered to it as to their end.
• Religious worship is not directed to images in themselves, considered as mere things, but under their distinctive aspect as images leading us on to God incarnate. The movement toward the image does not terminate in it as image, but tends toward that whose image it is.
• The seventh Sacrament is Matrimony, and in it men, if they live uprightly, are saved; and thereby they are enabled to live without mortal sin.

Morals, law and reason
• Reason is man’s nature. Hence whatever is contrary to reason is contrary to human nature.
• Chastity takes its name from the fact that reason "chastises" concupiscence.
• The more necessary something is, the more the order of reason must be preserved in it. Sexuality is most necessary for the common good, that is the preservation of the human race. Thus there is the greatest necessity for observing the order of reason in this matter.
• All sin arises from some ignorance.
• A human law has the character of law to the extent that it accords with right reason…. Insofar as it falls short of right reason it is said to be an unjust law, and thus has not so much the nature of law as of a kind of violence.
• Law is an ordinance of reason for the common good, promulgated by the one who is in charge of the community.
• If a man in self-defense uses more than necessary violence, it will be unlawful: whereas if he repels force with moderation, his defense will be lawful. . . . Nor is it necessary for salvation that a man omit the act of moderate self-defense to avoid killing the other man, since one is bound to take more care of one's own life than of another's.
• Because of the diverse conditions of humans, it happens that some acts are virtuous to some people, as appropriate and suitable to them, while the same acts are immoral for others, as inappropriate to them.
• When the will sets itself upon something that is of its nature incompatible with the charity that orients man toward his ultimate end, then the sin is mortal by its very object . . . whether it contradicts the love of God, such as blasphemy or perjury, or the love of neighbor, such as homicide or adultery.
• As a matter of honor, one man owes it to another to manifest the truth.

PRAYER OF ST. BONAVENTURE (A new translation)

Here is a new translation I prepared in connection with the General Monthly Intention of Opus Dei last year 2010 which goes up to February of 2011. The intention is to pray and do something so as improve our thanksgiving after communion in order to pass on to many others the hunger to deal with God.

St. Bonaventure's Thanksgiving after Communion famously focuses on that hunger. Since the traditional translation uses English words and turns of phrases that are no longer that common, which may not be that appealing to the modern audience, I put together this modern translation with the aid of Whitaker's Latin Dictionary, the meaning found in the other translations (Italian and Spanish), and other aids.



Prayer of St. Bonaventure


Pierce the depths of my soul, O sweetest Lord Jesus, with the most delightful and most wholesome wound of your love, with true, serene, and most holy apostolic charity, that my soul may always languish and melt with love and longing for you. May it yearn for you and swoon for your courts, and long to be detached and be with you.

Grant that I may hunger for you, the bread of angels, the refreshing food of holy souls, our daily, life-sustaining bread, containing all sweetness and relish, and all delicate delight.

May I always hunger for you and feed on you--you on whom the angels desire to gaze. May the depths of my soul be filled with the sweetness of your taste.

May my heart always thirst for you, the flowing source of life, the fountain of wisdom and knowledge, the fountain of eternal light, the gushing stream of pleasure, the abundance of the house of God.

May my heart always desire you, seek you and find you. May I run to you and reach you; meditate on you, speak of you and do all things to the praise and glory of your name, with humility and discretion, with love and delight, with ease and affection, and with perseverance until the end.

May you always be my only hope, my complete assurance, my wealth, my delight, my pleasure, my joy, my rest and tranquility, my peace, my delicacy, my fragrance, my sweetness, my food, my refreshment, my refuge, my help, my wisdom, my inheritance, my possession and my treasure--in you, may my mind and heart be fixed and fastened and immovably rooted now and always. Amen.


Annex


Oratio Sancti Bonaventurae (original Latin)

Transfige, dulcissime Domine Iesu, medullas et viscera animae meae suavissimo ac saluberrimo amoris tui vulnere, vera serenaque et apostolica sanctissima caritate, ut langueat et liquefiat anima mea solo semper amore et desiderio tui, te concupiscat et deficiat in atria tua, cupiat dissolvi et esse tecum.

Da ut anima mea te esuriat, panem Angelorum, refectionem animarum sanctarum; panem nostrum cotidianum, supersubstantialem, habentem omnem dulcedinem et saporem, et omne delectamentum suavitatis.

Te, in quem desiderant Angeli prospicere, semper esuriat et comedat cor meum, et dulcedine saporis tui repleantur viscera animae meae; te semper sitiat fontem vitae, fontem sapientiae et scientiae, fontem aeterni luminis, torrentem voluptatis, ubertatem domus Dei.

Te semper ambiat, te quaerat, te inveniat, ad te tendat, ad te perveniat, te meditetur, te loquatur, et omnia operetur in laudem et gloriam nominis tui, cum humilitate et discretione, cum dilectione, et delectatione, cum facilitate et affectu, cum perseverantia usque in finem; ut tu sis solus semper spes mea, tota fiducia mea, divitiae meae, delectatio mea, iucunditas mea, gaudium meum, quies et tranquillitas mea, pax mea, suavitas mea, odor meus, dulcedo mea, cibus meus, refectio mea, refugium meum, auxilium meum, sapientia mea, portio mea, possessio mea, thesaurus meus, in quo fixa et firma et immobiliter semper sit radicata mens mea et cor meum. Amen.



PRAYER OF ST. BONAVENTURE (Traditional English translation)

Pierce, o most sweet Lord Jesus, my inmost soul with the most joyous and healthful wound of your love, with true, serene, and most holy apostolic charity, that my soul may ever languish and melt with love and longing for you, that it may yearn for you and faint for your courts, and long to be dissolved and to be with you.

Grant that my soul may hunger after you, the bread of angels, the refreshment of holy souls, our daily and supersubstantial bread, having all sweetness and savor and every delight of taste; let my heart ever hunger after and feed upon you, upon whom the angels desire to look, and may my inmost soul be filled with the sweetness of your savor; may it ever thirst after you, the fountain of life, the fountain of wisdom and knowledge, the fountain of eternal light, the torrent of pleasure, the richness of the house of God; may it ever compass you, seek you, find you, run to you, attain you, meditate upon you, speak of you, and do all things to the praise and glory of your name, with humility and discretion, with love and delight, with ease and affection, and with perseverance unto the end; may you alone be ever my hope, my entire assurance, my riches, my delight, my pleasure, my joy, my rest and tranquility, my peace, my sweetness, my fragrance, my sweet savor, my food, my refreshment, my refuge, my help, my wisdom, my portion, my possession and my treasure, in whom may my mind and my heart be fixed and firm and rooted immovably henceforth and forever. Amen.


Spanish translation

Traspasa, dulcísimo Jesús y Señor mío, la médula de mi alma con el suavísimo y saludabilísimo dardo de tu amor; con la verdadera, pura y santísima caridad apostólica, a fin de que mi alma desfallezca y se derrita siempre sólo en amarte y en deseo de poseerte: que por Ti suspire, y desfallezca por hallarse en los atrios de tu Casa; anhele ser desligada del cuerpo para unirse contigo. Haz que mi alma tenga hambre de Ti, Pan de los Angeles, alimento de las almas santas, Pan nuestro de cada día, lleno de fuerza, de toda dulzura y sabor, y de todo suave deleite.

Oh Jesús, en quién se desean mirar los Angeles: tenga siempre mi corazón hambre de Ti, y el interior de mi alma rebose con la dulzura de tu sabor; tenga siempre sed de Ti, fuente de vida, manantial de sabiduría y de ciencia, río de luz eterna, torrente de delicias, abundancia de la Casa de Dios: que te desee, te busque, te halle; que a Ti vaya y a Ti llegue; en Ti piense, de Ti hable, y todas mis acciones encamine a honra y gloria de tu nombre, con humildad y discreción, con amor y deleite, con facilidad y afecto, con perseverancia hasta el fin: para que Tú sólo seas siempre mi esperanza, toda mi confianza, mi riqueza, mi deleite, mi contento, mi gozo, mi descanso y mi tranquilidad, mi paz, mi suavidad, mi perfume, mi dulzura, mi comida, mi alimento, mi refugio, mi auxilio, mi sabiduría, mi herencia, mi posesión, mi tesoro, en el cual esté siempre fija y firme e inconmoviblemente arraigada mi alma y mi corazón. Amén.


Italian translation


Trafiggi, o dolcissimo Gesù, la par­te più intima dell'anima mia con la soavissima e salutifera ferita del tuo amore e con la verace, apostolica e santissima carità, affinché la mia ani­ma languisca e si strugga per il solo amore e desiderio di te Te solo brami e si consumi per il desiderio della tua casa, aspiri a libe­rarsi dai legami del corpo e a restare sempre con te. Concedimi che l'anima mia abbia fame di te, pane degli Angeli, nutri­mento delle anime sante, pane nostro quotidiano, che ci dà forza e contiene in sé ogni dolcezza, ogni delizia e ogni soave sapore, lì mio cuore brami solo di cibarsi di te, in cui gli Angeli desiderano fissare lo sguardo e la mia anima sia ripiena della dolcezza del tuo sapore. Che io abbia sempre sete di te, fonte di vita, fonte di sapienza e di scienza, fonte di luce eterna, torrente di ogni delizia, abbondanza della casa di Dio. Che io aneli sempre a te, te cerchi, te ritrovi, a te sospiri, a te giunga, te mediti, di te parli, e tutto compia a lode e gloria del tuo nome, con umiltà e discrezione, con amore e diletto, con facilità e affetto, con perseveranza sino alla fine. Tu solo sii sempre la mia speran­za, tutta la mia fiducia, la mia ricchez­za, la mia delizia, la mia gioia, il mio gaudio, la mia quiete e la mia tranquil­lità. Tu sii la mia pace, la mia dolcezza, il mio profumo, il mio cibo, il mio nutri­mento, il mio rifugio, la mia possessione. Tu finalmente sii il mio tesoro, nel quale la mia mente e il mio cuore re­stino fissi, fermi e immobilmente radi­cati per sempre. Amen.

Early morning run: it's really good!

By David Dack



> Your schedule is typically clear in the early morning-you don't have much errands to run or commitments to keep up at 5AM! Therefore, you can keep your running schedule consistent and uninterrupted.

> You can breathe in the clear and soothing air of the early morning. You can also enjoy the scenery and take in the beauty and the magnificence of the morning glory.

> You can boost your productivity and mental function by training in the morning. Many mental performances recommend doing some aerobic exercise first thing in the morning. Anthony Robbins calls it "the power hour".

> According to Tony Schwartz, the author of the book The Power of Full Engagement, the best form of emotional renewal is rising up your heart rate for a sustained amount of time. No wonder many runners enjoy a happy life with less emotional issues.

> You could also boost your metabolism levels by working out in the early morning. This means that you will be burning up calories at higher rates, leading to more weight loss and overall sense of confidence and accomplishment.


Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?Early-Morning-Run---Advantages-and-Disadvantages-of-Running-in-the-Morning&id=5176184
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10 Benefits of Rising Early, and How to Do It


“Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise” – Ben Franklin, famously

“Put no trust in the benefits to accrue from early rising, as set forth by the infatuated Franklin …” – Mark Twain


Recently, reader Rob asked me about my habit of waking at 4:30 a.m. each day, and asked me to write about the health benefits of rising early, which I thought was an excellent question. Unfortunately, there are none, that I know of.

However, there are a ton of other great benefits.

Now, let me first say that if you are a night owl, and that works for you, I think that’s great. There’s no reason to change, especially if you’re happy with it. But for me, switching from being a night owl to an early riser (and yes, it is possible) has been a godsend. It has helped me in so many ways that I’d never go back. Here are just a few:

1. Greet the day. I love being able to get up, and greet a wonderful new day. I suggest creating a morning ritual that includes saying thanks for your blessings. I’m inspired by the Dalai Lama, who said, ” Everyday, think as you wake up, ‘today I am fortunate to have woken up, I am alive, I have a precious human life, I am not going to waste it. I am going to use all my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others, to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings, I am going to have kind thoughts towards others, I am not going to get angry or think badly about others, I am going to benefit others as much as I can.’ “

2. Amazing start. I used to start my day by jumping out of bed, late as usual, and rushing to get myself and the kids ready, and rushing to drop them to school and come in to work late. I would walk into work, looking rumpled and barely awake, grumpy and behind everyone else. Not a great start to your day. Now, I have a renewing morning ritual, I’ve gotten so much done before 8 a.m., my kids are early and so am I, and by the time everyone else gets in to work, I’ve already gotten a head start. There is no better way to start off your day than to wake early, in my experience.

3. Quietude. No kids yelling, no babies crying, no soccer balls, no cars, no television noise. The early morning hours are so peaceful, so quiet. It’s my favorite time of day. I truly enjoy that time of peace, that time to myself, when I can think, when I can read, when I can breathe.

4. Sunrise. People who wake late miss one of the greatest feats of nature, repeated in full stereovision each and every day — the rise of the sun. I love how the day slowly gets brighter, when the midnight blue turns to lighter blue, when the brilliant colors start to seep into the sky, when nature is painted in incredible colors. I like doing my early morning run during this time, and I look up at the sky as I run and say to the world, “What a glorious day!” Really. I really do that. Corny, I know.

5. Breakfast. Rise early and you actually have time for breakfast. I’m told it’s one of the most important meals of the day. Without breakfast, your body is running on fumes until you are so hungry at lunchtime that you eat whatever unhealthy thing you can find. The fattier and sugarier, the betterier. But eat breakfast, and you are sated until later. Plus, eating breakfast while reading my book and drinking my coffee in the quiet of the morning is eminently more enjoyable than scarfing something down on the way to work, or at your desk.

6. Exercise. There are other times to exercise besides the early morning, of course, but I’ve found that while exercising right after work is also very enjoyable, it’s also liable to be canceled because of other things that come up. Morning exercise is virtually never canceled.

7. Productivity. Mornings, for me at least, are the most productive time of day. I like to do some writing in the morning, when there are no distractions, before I check my email or blog stats. I get so much more done by starting on my work in the morning. Then, when evening rolls around, I have no work that I need to do, and I can spend it with family.

8. Goal time. Got goals? Well, you should. And there’s no better time to review them and plan for them and do your goal tasks than first thing. You should have one goal that you want to accomplish this week. And every morning, you should decide what one thing you can do today to move yourself further towards that goal. And then, if possible, do that first thing in the morning.

9. Commute. No one likes rush-hour traffic, except for Big Oil. Commute early, and the traffic is much lighter, and you get to work faster, and thus save yourself more time. Or better yet, commute by bike. (Or even better yet, work from home.)

10. Appointments. It’s much easier to make those early appointments on time if you get up early. Showing up late for those appointments is a bad signal to the person you’re meeting. Showing up early will impress them. Plus, you get time to prepare.

How to Become an Early Riser

* Don’t make drastic changes. Start slowly, by waking just 15-30 minutes earlier than usual. Get used to this for a few days. Then cut back another 15 minutes. Do this gradually until you get to your goal time.

* Allow yourself to sleep earlier. You might be used to staying up late, perhaps watching TV or surfing the Internet. But if you continue this habit, while trying to get up earlier, sooner or later one is going to give. And if it is the early rising that gives, then you will crash and sleep late and have to start over. I suggest going to bed earlier, even if you don’t think you’ll sleep, and read while in bed. If you’re really tired, you just might fall asleep much sooner than you think.

* Put your alarm clock far from you bed. If it’s right next to your bed, you’ll shut it off or hit snooze. Never hit snooze. If it’s far from your bed, you have to get up out of bed to shut it off. By then, you’re up. Now you just have to stay up.

* Go out of the bedroom as soon as you shut off the alarm. Don’t allow yourself to rationalize going back to bed. Just force yourself to go out of the room. My habit is to stumble into the bathroom and go pee. By the time I’ve done that, and flushed the toilet and washed my hands and looked at my ugly mug in the mirror, I’m awake enough to face the day.

* Do not rationalize. If you allow your brain to talk you out of getting up early, you’ll never do it. Don’t make getting back in bed an option.

* Have a good reason. Set something to do early in the morning that’s important. This reason will motivate you to get up. I like to write in the morning, so that’s my reason. Also, when I’m done with that, I like to read all of your comments!

* Make waking up early a reward. Yes, it might seem at first that you’re forcing yourself to do something hard, but if you make it pleasurable, soon you will look forward to waking up early. A good reward is to make a hot cup of coffee or tea and read a book. Other rewards might be a tasty treat for breakfast (smoothies! yum!) or watching the sunrise, or meditating. Find something that’s pleasurable for you, and allow yourself to do it as part of your morning routine.

* Take advantage of all that extra time. Don’t wake up an hour or two early just to read your blogs, unless that’s a major goal of yours. Don’t wake up early and waste that extra time. Get a jump start on your day! I like to use that time to get a head start on preparing my kids’ lunches, on planning for the rest of the day (when I set my MITs), on exercising or meditating, and on reading. By the time 6:30 rolls around, I’ve done more than many people do the entire day.

Constitutional Commission: Conception = Fertilization

Records of the Constitutional Commission

Thanks to Senator Joey Lina and son for copying the original text and sending it to the prolife coalition.

R.C.C. No. 85
09-17-1986

...MR. AZCUNA: Commissioner Villegas is not in the hall at the moment, but the committee will be willing to answer.
MR. GASCON: Thank you, Mr. Presiding Officer.
As I mentioned in my speech on the U.S. bases, I am definitely pro-life, to the point that I would like not only to protect the life of the unborn, but also the lives of the millions of people in the world by fighting for a nuclear-free world. I would just like to be assured of the legal and pragmatic implications of the term "protection of the life of the unborn from the moment of conception." I raised some of these implications this afternoon when I interjected in the interpellation of Commissioner Regalado. I would like to ask that question again for a categorical answer.
I mentioned that if we institutionalize the term "the life of the unborn from the moment of conception," we are also actually saying "no," not "maybe," to certain contraceptives which are already being encouraged at this point in time. Is that the sense of the committee or does it disagree with me?
MR. AZCUNA: No, Mr. Presiding Officer, because contraceptives would be preventive. There is no unborn yet. That is yet unshaped.
MR. GASCON: Yes, Mr. Presiding Officer, but I was speaking more about some contraceptives, such as the intra-uterine device which actually stops the egg which has already been fertilized from taking route to the uterus. So, if we say "from the moment of conception," what really occurs is that some of these contraceptives will have to be unconstitutionalized.
MR. AZCUNA: Yes, to the extent that it is after the fertilization, Mr. Presiding Officer.
MR. GASCON: Thank you, Mr. Presiding Officer.
My second question is with regard to the population program. How would this provision affect the existing population program being implemented by the Population Commission? Second, if there is an approval of this provision here, because Commissioner Villegas said that he shall make a motion for deletion of that provision on population at the proper time, does it necessarily mean that the provision in the General Provisions Article on population will have to be deleted?
MR. NOLLEDO: Mr. Presiding Officer, not necessarily because family planning is consistent with the provision in Section 9 that there should be protection to the unborn. Before this proposed provision was formulated, taking into account the pertinent provision of the 1973 Constitution, family planning would include preventive pregnancy and even killing the fertilized ovum. But now, if we adopt the second sentence of Section 9, family planning would refer respectively only to preventive pregnancy as stated by Commissioner Azcuna. LLphil
MS. ROSARIO BRAID: Also, at the proper time, in the General Provisions we will discuss the population policy. The Commissioner will note it is no longer population control but population policy, which means that there are other ways of limiting population such as economic development, improving the education of women which is an indirect means of population control; or as in the case of Singapore, at one time it had a 1-2 child policy, but today they realize that they need to increase their population. And so, their population policy now is to have more children, whereas, 10 years ago they were limiting; they are now increasing. So, population policy would, therefore, mean that at a certain time when our population shall have stabilized, we can even have a policy towards increasing population. We will discuss this at the appropriate time in the General Provisions.
MR. GASCON: So, Mr. Presiding Officer, what this provision merely implies is that there will be certain programs as they are being implemented now which will have to be stopped, but not the whole program itself.
I have one last point on the issue of abortion, Mr. Presiding Officer. Have there been studies made with regard to the issue of the legalization of abortion being directly proportional to the population rate of other countries? I notice that in the past, about five or ten years ago, the trend was towards world population control program in industrialized countries; but now because they have succeeded, in one way or another, through population control programs or through legalization of abortion, they have a problem of a lull in their birth rate to the point that they are, as mentioned already, encouraging more births than discouraging births.
MR. AZCUNA: Yes, Mr. Presiding Officer, with respect to population policy, the studies have been made but the correlation coefficient is not conclusive. Suffice it to say that what is known as ZPG, zero population growth, is somewhere at 2.2 percent, the .2 percent being what is required to replace in addition to the father and the mother who do not reproduce, like the celibates. At 2.2 percent, population is maintained at its present level regardless of natural attrition. So, if a country falls below 2.2 percent in population growth, then it is actually decreasing in number. It is below zero population growth. Also, what is important in demography is what is known as the net reproduction growth rate; that is, the number of girls who will be born and who will bear children. That is very important. Is the net reproduction growth rate — the number of girls that are born and will bear children.
MR. GASCON: So, abortion does not have any direct relation to population growth.
MR. AZCUNA: As I said, the studies are not conclusive on the correlation coefficient.
MR. GASCON: Thank you, Mr. Presiding Officer...
___

R.C.C. No. 86
09-18-1986

MR. OPLE: The answer is satisfactory. I would like to proceed to the next sentence closer to the heart of Commissioners Bacani and Villegas which reads:
The State shall equally protect the life of the mother and the life of the unborn from the moment of conception.
Yesterday, I had the good fortune to listen to some of the interpellations precisely on this sentence. Commissioner Villegas on behalf of the committee then said, "This could be related to some statements in the general provisions on family planning." Does this mean that, in providing for the protection of the life of the unborn from the moment of conception, this is going to be taken as a signal to dismiss the relevance and validity of all family planning programs in the Philippines? Is that how the committee views this?
MR. VILLEGAS: No. As we made it very clear yesterday, any contraceptive that is not abortifacient can still be legal, according to this specific provision.
MR. OPLE: I will vote for this provision, Madam President. I think that in writing a constitution, we write not only provisions of a fundamental law. We set the tone whether we like it, or the tone of a whole civilization, and that is why I also voted for the elimination of the death penalty under certain conditions, subject to certain powers of Congress to provide for exceptions in the case of heinous crimes. Overall, we should raise the tone of our public and social morality through a constitution; and the reverence for life, that time and life is, of course, being rendered cheap by all the threats to our safety in a very disorderly environment. Still a commitment to the protection of life, even in its incipient stage, is a declaration of a commitment to a higher tone of our civilization. But at the same time, I would be very concerned if the committee now taking off from its forthcoming victory on this Section 9 will start considering this as a mandate to discredit, to actually dismiss family planning programs in this country. I heard Commissioner Villegas say that purposeful programs to limit the size of families have failed everywhere. He quoted President Reagan, whose wisdom might lie in other fields than in family planning, as having said that social and economic development is the only key to the reduction of human populations. He referred to the new U.S. policy, which is driving Mr. Salas and his UNFPA to a new lookout. He has applied to be transferred to Tokyo because of this new restrictive atmosphere on family planning in the United States.
But, of course, may I say that family planning is not a rigid idea. May I tell the body that in the Soviet Union, which I know a little bit since I have traveled there no fewer than seven times, even within that vast country, there are two kinds of population crises. In the European part, it is the crisis of a steadily diminishing population; and, therefore, the State holds up medals of heroism for heroic mothers who would give birth to more than eight children. But in the Asian part of the Soviet Union, there is a reverse problem. They are reproducing at a faster rate. This possesses momentous political and economic implications for the Soviet Union after the year 2000, when the Asiatic population begins to match the European population. And what will we have — crisis of leadership about distribution of leadership and power, especially in the higher strata of the Soviet policy and bureaucracy. But India is different. Japan is different. The Philippines is different. We are a developing country. If my data are still current — I used to sit in the Population Commission — about 10 years ago, our population growth rate was 3.5 percent according to the University of the Philippines. Then it declined over 10 years to only about 2.6 percent. The NEDA now says it is 2.4 percent if I am not mistaken. And yet, these were years of stagnation in manufacturing. As a matter of fact, Philippine manufacturing has never exceeded 14 percent of the total employed force of this country since 20 years ago. Commissioner Villegas is an authority on that. He uses this argument very fiercely in the debates on protectionism.
Since we did not really grow spectacularly in those 10 years, still the rate of growth of the population dropped precipitously from 3.5 to only 2.4 percent at this time. Will we not give the population policy of the government and of the nongovernmental organizations some credit for having accomplished this small miracle in population control?
MR. VILLEGAS: That is one of the most statistically debatable issues. Although this is a completely separate question which is not related to Section 9 of the Article on the Declaration of Principles, still my position is that it is subject to the flux and the changes in economic policy, in urbanization and in industrialization. It should be something that should not be found in a constitution, but should be subject to legislation. If family planning is found necessary, let it be in the legislative process. However, as I said, that is a completely separate question. LLphil
MR. OPLE: This is a slight revision of the views which the Commissioner gave yesterday, but I hope this is the official one.
MR. VILLEGAS: What I stressed yesterday was to support in the separate discussion on the Article on the General Provisions the idea of deleting any reference to population policy precisely because today it may be that we want to limit population. Tomorrow it may be that we want to increase population.
MR. OPLE: Thank you very much for that clarification.
I want to ask now: Does this belong to the province of Commissioner Villegas or Commissioner Bacani? We say, "Protect the life of the unborn from the moment of conception." Is there in jurisprudence anything now that will help us visualize the precise moment, the approximate moment when conception begins and, therefore, the life of this new human personality entitled to all the protection of the laws in the Constitution begins? Is there any standard legislature or jurisprudence that will support an interpretation of the moment of conception?
MR. VILLEGAS: Jurisprudence? None. Precisely, this is one thing that we have to obtain from the declaration of natural scientists. In this regard, I would like to read this specific statement by natural scientists about when human life begins. This is taken from the Handbook on Abortion by Dr. and Mrs. J.C. Wilke. The most distinguished scientific meeting of recent years that considered this question of when human life begins was the First International Conference on Abortion held in Washington D.C. in October 1967. It brought together authorities from around the world in the fields of medicine, law, ethics and the social sciences. They met together in a think tank for several days. The first major question considered by the medical group was: When does human life begin? The medical group was composed of biochemists, professors of obstetrics and gynecology, geneticists and so forth, and was represented proportionately as to academic discipline raised in religion. For example, only 20 percent were Catholics. Their almost unanimous conclusion, 19 to 1, was as follows:
The majority of our group could find no point in time between the union of sperm and egg which is the fertilization or, at least, the blastocyst stage and the birth of the infant at which point we could say that this was not a human life.
Parenthetically, the blastocyst stage is shortly after fertilization and would account for twinning. They continued:
The changes occurring between implantation, a six-week embryo, a six-month fetus, a one-week-old child or a mature adult, are merely stages of development and maturation.
There has not been before a more important or a more qualified body of natural scientists who, as a group, has thoroughly discussed and come to conclusion on this subject until such time as some other groups of equal scientific importance might possibly come to a different conclusion. We believe that the abortion debate from a scientific standpoint must proceed on the assumption that this is human life. So, human life begins at fertilization of the ovum.
MR. OPLE: But we would leave to Congress the power, the mandate to determine.
MR. VILLEGAS: Exactly, on the basis of facts and figures they would obtain from experts.
MR. OPLE: Yes, to legislate a kind of standard so that everyone will know what moment of conception will mean in terms of legal rights and obligations...
___

R.C.C. No. 95
09-29-1986

...MR. RAMA: Madam President, may I call on Commissioner Uka to present an amendment.
THE PRESIDENT: Commissioner Uka is recognized.
MR. UKA: Madam President, Commissioner Treñas and I are cosponsors of this motion to delete Section 13.
There are valid and strong arguments against inserting the provisions of Section 13 of Proposed Resolution No. 531 in the new Constitution, the most cogent among which are the following:
(1) There is a wealth of statistical evidence that proves that population growth has been a major stimulus for economic development and progress in countries that are now industrialized.
(2) The major determinants of a country's economic development are economic policies and political system. Very densely populated countries like Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Hongkong and Singapore reached heights of economic progress much before any organized population programs.
(3) It is very dangerous to give the State a constitutional mandate to determine what is an optimum population. This can lead to a gross violation of human rights like in the case of some Asian countries that implemented forced sterilization programs, such as the more recent attempt of an Asian leader to limit childbearing only to the educated women, making the extremely objectionable assumption that poor women give birth to less intelligent babies.
(4) In the Philippines, population control programs have been an unmitigated disaster. Hundreds of millions, as a matter of fact, close to P340 million, have been spent for these population control programs from 1981 to 1986. And, of course, hundreds of millions of pesos have gone down the drain without any real impact on alleviating mass poverty.
As the current Minister of Social Services, Mita Pardo de Tavera has recently declared, funds for population control are better utilized in providing social services to the existing population. Population policies should be exclusively population welfare policies. It has been proved beyond statistical doubt that economic development and social justice will automatically lead to the slowing down of population growth as increased urbanization and industrialization are achieved. There is no need for the State to take an active role in determining the optimum level of population. Once the State is wrongly given the mandate to interfere in the basic rights of parents to determine the number of children they will have, all the qualifying limitations about respecting individual consciences are often more honored in their breach as can be gleaned from the experience of developing countries in Asia.
The 1935 Constitution did not include any provisions on population. The only reason why a population policy was included in the 1973 Constitution was that there was a strong lobby supported by the USAID, which at that time was aggressively committed to population control. Since that time under the new policy of President Reagan, American aid programs have been focused on such positive solution as food productivity and the development of small-and medium-scale industries.
Very recently, America stopped all financial support to the U.N. Fund for Population Activities because of the latter's involvement in China's population program, which the United States has reason to suspect, contains the widespread use of compulsory abortion.
The new Reagan doctrine on population was first announced in the 1984 Population Meet in Mexico. It states that the most effective solution to the population problem is economic development and social justice.
Given appropriate policies in economic development and social justice which have been our concern in this Constitution, the Philippines today can comfortably accommodate as many as 100 million Filipinos given the present technology. The Philippines is far from being overpopulated. Existing mass poverty in the Philippines can be attributed to an unenlightened economic policies and the wrong political leadership in the past. CDTInc-
THE PRESIDENT: Commissioner Uka, I am sorry I have to interrupt you because your three-minute time has expired.
MR. UKA: One minute more, Madam President. What is one minute among friends.
THE PRESIDENT: The Commissioner is granted a one-minute extension.
MR. UKA: Thank you, Madam President.
Today, every major nation is both modern and free; it is also on a fertility trap, which will lead to a substantial loss in population. Why should we target our CPG when other nations want to have more babies? In fact, President Francois Miterrand of France recently argued that the decline in birth rate constitutes a grave menace to the West.
So we can see that the modern nations in Europe are even having a problem of decline in population. And some of them are even sending their people here to adopt Filipino children. What does this mean? If Rizal said that the youth, the conceived child in the womb included, is the fair hope of the Fatherland, then the Western contraceptive is already preventing that to happen in our country. There will be no more hope — children or youth — for our Fatherland.
I cannot resist the temptation to quote Jesus on this subject when he said:
Suffer little children and forbid them not to come unto me for such is the Kingdom of Heaven.
We should welcome children, not kill them...

Wikipedia on the Reproductive Health Bill

Take a look at this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reproductive_Health_Bill_%28Philippines%29

It shows many of the arguments pros and cons. It is neutral. It does not take a stand. It contains a lot of readings that can guide people to make the right choice.

Anthropological Differences between Contraception and Natural Family Planning

http://www.uffl.org/vol10/fehr-kurz10.pdf

The Miracle of Our Lady of La Naval: Grand procession on October 10

If you have not yet gone on Pilgrimage to La Naval, in Santo Domingo Church, on the day of the big yearly procession, I encourage you to go there this Sunday, Oct 10. The procession starts at 4pm. We went there by sheer coincidence last year and were pleasantly surprised to find the fervor of thousands of people. They expect 7k to 10k this Sunday. The procession is not rowdy, it is in fact very orderly and well organized. And its highly inspiring to sense the gratitude and the devotion of our country men.

We owe our continued Catholicism to the miracle of La Naval in 1646, and this great procession has been going on for more than 3 centuries! The event --victory of 4 Spanish ships vs 18 Dutch ships; Catholic vs Protestant warriors-- was officially adjudged a miracle by an Ecclesiastical Council on the same year.

The best route is to pass through the back streets leading to Santo Domingo. It's your option to join the procession or just go there to visit and pray.


See story below:

In the Philippines of 1646, there were not only hostile Muslims in the South, but also Dutch and English privateers who wanted the riches of the archipelago and who wanted to replace Catholicism with Dutch Protestant Calvinism. During this year, there were five bloody naval battles between the greatly outnumbered Spanish - Catholic - Phillipine forces and the Dutch marauders. Only fifteen of the defenders of Manilla were lost in all of the battles. The Dutch, then political enemies of the Spanish, retreated, and never again threatened to destroy the integrity of the islands by annexing them to the Dutch East Indies.

Before each of the battles, the intercession of Our Lady was fervently sought. Crew members -- Spanish soldiers, religious, and Filipinos -- vowed special homage to Our Lady for a victorious battle. True to their Latin heritage and Catholic pride, the victorious defenders petitioned official church recognition and declaration of the naval victories of 1646 as miracles worked by the Mother of God. The Ecclesiastical Council in Cavite, with the help of doctors of theology, canonical experts, and prominent religious, deliberated and examined written and oral testimonies from all eye-witnesses. Finally, on April 9, 1662, the Council ordered that the five naval victories of 1646 be declared as miraculous, "granted by the Sovereign Lord through the intercession of the Most Holy Virgin and devotion to her Rosary, that the miracles be celebrated, preached and held in festivities and to be recounted among the miracles wrought by the Lady of the Rosary for the greater devotion of the faithful to Our Most Blessed Virgin Mary and Her Holy Rosary." This decree was signed by all eight members of the Church Council.

As ordered, these miracles have been preached and celebrated in solemn festivities for over three centuries. Through the centuries, there have been a number of political upheavals in Catholic Phillipines. Still, the people have retained the tradition of celebration of La Naval de Manila.


The full story is further below.

The procession announcement is here: http://lanavaldemanila.blogspot.com/2010/09/la-naval-2010-procession-route.html


The Story of La Naval

Of all the famous Marian images in the Philippines, La Naval stands alone as a "native virgin". Although her clothes mark her readily as a product of the 17th century Spanish "Golden Age", her oriental features reflect the uniqueness of her position as a truly indigenous queen of the Philippines.

In 1593, on the death of his father, the Spanish Governor General Luis Perez Dasmarinas commissioned Captain Hernando de los Rios Coronel to have a Marian statue sculpted. He wished to give a religious imprint to his regime in the Philippines. A non-Catholic Chinese sculptor was found to make the statue. This sculptor later became a convert through the intercession of the virgin.

The beautiful image was presented to the Manilla Dominicans and enshrined in the old Sto. Domingo Church by the Pasig. The image is about 4'8" tall and is made of hard-wood, with ivory face and hands. Over three centuries have mellowed the ivory to a delicate brown. The Oriental- Filipina face is almond-shaped, with high-set cheekbones and slanting eyes. The image is dressed as a royal lady of the palace of King Philip of Spain. On her left arm, she holds her beloved Holy Child Jesus. With her right arm, she holds a royal scepter and staff and her Rosary. The statue is covered with jewels, tributes from her throngs of devotees through the ages. Each jewel has its own story. The halo issurrounded by 24 stars, and she wears a queenly crown.

In 1571, the armada of the Cross under John of Austria, brother of King Phillip II, met and defeated the naval armies of the Crescent under Selim the Sot off the gulf of Lepanto between Itally and Greece. Saint Pius V, the great Dominimcan Pope, ordered the public praying of the Rosary throughout Christendom in support of the Christian navies stopping the onslaught of Islam. Although aged and ill, he himself led, on foot, a rosary procession through Rome. After the victory fo the Christian forces, the church was quick to acknowledge the help of Our Lady, and instituted October 7 as the feast of the Queen of the Most HOly Rosary, a feast around which naval traditions have gravitated through the centuries. From this, the name "La Naval" came to be known as a special title for Our Lady, helper of Christian Navies.

In the Philippines of 1646, there were not only hostile Muslims in the South, but also Dutch and English privateers who wanted the riches of the archipelago and who wanted to replace Catholicism with Dutch Protestant Calvinism. During this year, there were five bloody naval battles between the greatly outnumbered Spanish - Catholic - Phillipine forces and the Dutch marauders. Only fifteen of the defenders of Manilla were lost in all of the battles. The Dutch, then political enemies of the Spanish, retreated, and never again threatened to destroy the integrity of the islands by annexing them to the Dutch East Indies.

Before each of the battles, the intercession of Our Lady was fervently sought. Crew members -- Spanish soldiers, religious, and Filipinos -- vowed special homage to Our Lady for a victorious battle. True to their Latin heritage and Catholic pride, the victorious defenders petitioned official church recognition and declaration of the naval victories of 1646 as miracles worked by the Mother of God. The Ecclesiastical Council in Cavite, with the help of doctors of theology, canonical experts, and prominent religious, deliberated and examined written and oral testimonies from all eye-witnesses. Finally, on April 9, 1662, the Council ordered that the five naval victories of 1646 be declared as miraculous, "granted by the Sovereign Lord through the intercession of the Most Holy Virgin and devotion to her Rosary, that the miracles be celebrated, preached and held in festivities and to be recounted among the miracles wrought by the Lady of the Rosary for the greater devotion of the faithful to Our Most Blessed Virgin Mary and Her Holy Rosary." This decree was signed by all eight members of the Church Council.

As ordered, these miracles have been preached and celebrated in solemn festivities for over three centuries. Through the centuries, there have been a number of political upheavals in Catholic Phillipines. Still, the people have retained the tradition of celebration of La Naval de Manila.

After the 1896 Revolution, the large processions in her honor were toned down, but never suspended. In 1906, La Naval was crownded canonically by Rome's Apostolic Legate. In l941, her shrine in the old Sto. Domingo Church in Manilla was bombed. La Naval was safely hidden for a time in the old church's vault, and later transferred to the chapel of the University of Sto. Tomas. Here, thousands of her devotees flocked to honor her in her third Centennial in l946. In l952, the cornerstone was laid for a new shrine at the Sto. Domingo Church in Quezon City.
In l954, in a boat shaped carriage, La Naval was led in solemn procession by the Phillippines hierarchy, public officials, priests, nuns, and thousands of devotees to her new home. This shirne was declared by the Philippine bishops as the national shrine of the Queen of the Holy Rosary of the Philippines.

During her feast in October of 1973, La Naval was acknowledged as the patroness of the capitol city of the Philippines. In l974, she was enshrined in a safer vault- altar because of recent sacrilegious robberies of churches and sacred images in the area.

In l985, a year long celebration was held in the Philippines for the Marian year. Shortly thereafter, in February of l986, Cardinal Jaime Sin, archbishop of Manilla, called for "people power" in a pastoral act designed to avoid bloodshed. The phenomenon surfaced, and people armed only with the weapons of love ---rosaries, icons of Jesus and Mary, flowers and food --were able to stop tanks and troops in battle gear. Rosary vigils and nightly processions of a replica of the antique image of La Naval were led by the Filipino Dominicans outside the gates of the Presidential palace. Many Filipinos attribute the victory in the peaceful revolution to divine intervention.

Two of the most prominent church leaders in the Philippines, Cardinal Sin and Cardina Ricardo Vidal, archbishop of Cebu, have said they see the church's role in the Philippines in traditional terms of nonviolence and prevention of bloodshed. They encourage their people to work together for peace. The Dominicans and the devotees of La Naval implore their special patroness here to bring them this fervently sought for peace.

Means for Practising Purity

Council of Trent

Avoidance Of Idleness

We now come to the remedies which consist in action. The first is studiously to avoid idleness; for, according to Ezechiel, it was by yielding to the enervating influence of idleness that the Sodomites plunged into the most shameful crime of criminal lust.

Temperance

In the next place, intemperance is carefully to be avoided. I fed them to the full, says the Prophet, and they committed adultery. An overloaded stomach begets impurity. This our Lord intimates in these words: Take heed to yourselves, lest perhaps your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness. Be not drunk with wine, says the Apostle, wherein is luxury.

Custody Of The Eyes

But the eyes, in particular, are the inlets to criminal passion, and to this refer these words of our Lord: If thine eye scandalise thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee. The Prophets, also, frequently speak to the same effect. I made a covenant with mine eyes, says Job, that I would not so much as think upon a virgin. Finally, there are on record innumerable examples of the evils which have their origin in the indulgence of the eyes. It was thus that David sinned, thus that the king of Sichem fell, and thus also that the elders sinned who calumniated Susanna.

Avoidance Of Immodest Dress

Too much display in dress, which especially attracts the eye, is but too frequently an occasion of sin. Hence the admonition of Ecclesiasticus: Turn away thy face from a woman dressed up. As women are given to excessive fondness for dress, it will not be unseasonable in the pastor to give some attention to the subject, and sometimes to admonish and reprove them in the impressive words of the Apostle Peter: Whose adorning let it not be the outward plaiting of the hair, or the wearing of gold, or the putting on of apparel. St. Paul likewise says: Not with plaited hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly attire. Many women adorned with gold and precious stones, have lost the only true ornament of their soul and body.

Avoidance Of Impure Conversation, Reading, Pictures

Next to the sexual excitement, usually provoked by too studied an elegance of dress, follows another, which is indecent and obscene conversation. Obscene language is a torch which lights up the worst passions of the young mind; and the Apostle has said, that evil communications corrupt good manners. Immodest and passionate songs and dances are most productive of this same effect and are, therefore, cautiously to be avoided.

In the same class are to be numbered soft and obscene books which must be avoided no less than indecent pictures. All such things possess a fatal influence in exciting to unlawful attractions, and in inflaming the mind of youth. In these matters the pastor should take special pains to see that the faithful most carefully observe the pious and prudent regulations of the Council of Trent.

Frequentation Of The Sacraments

If the occasions of sin which we have just enumerated be carefully avoided, almost every excitement to lust will be removed. But the most efficacious means for subduing its violence are frequent use of confession and Communion, as also unceasing and devout prayer to God, accompanied by fasting and almsdeeds. Chastity is a gift of God. To those who ask it aright He does not deny it; nor does He suffer us to be tempted beyond our strength.

Mortification

But the body is to be mortified and the sensual appetites to be repressed not only by fasting, and particularly, by the fasts instituted by the Church, but also by watching, pious pilgrimages, and other works of austerity. By these and similar observances is the virtue of temperance chiefly manifested. In connection with this subject, St. Paul, writing to the Corinthians, says: Every one that striveth for the mastery, refraineth himself from all things; and they indeed that they may receive a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible one. A little after he says: I chastise my body and bring it into subjection, lest, perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway. And in another place he says: Make not provision for the flesh in its concupiscence.

Christopher West and Company Vs. ‘Custody of the Eyes’

Life site news

July 27, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In her Theology Master’s thesis, written for the DC Dominican House of Studies, pro-life personality Dawn Eden has critiqued Christopher West’s take on Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body, which is also spread by the Theology of the Body Institute.

A dispute over West’s methods erupted in May 2009 after ABC aired an interview with the prominent Catholic apologist, in which he appeared to make several highly controversial statements. Although West later clarified and said the statements in question were taken out of context, one of West’s former professors, David Schindler, of the Pontifical Institute for Marriage and the Family in D.C., took the opportunity to express concerns about various aspects of West’s approach.

In her thesis Eden, like Schindler, specifies that she does not question West’s intention to be orthodox. Rather, she proposes corrective measures which she suggests would redeem the “unwitting flaws” in West’s catechesis, which “detract from his intended message.”

For Eden, one of the main contentions with West’s approach is that it opposes traditional conceptions of modesty and the recommended practice of looking away from immodesty (‘custody of the eyes’).

Eden notes that the Catholic Church has traditionally stated that chastity education should include instruction on avoiding occasions of sin. “West states, by contrast, that mature purity is found only in those who are willing to ‘risk’ concupiscence so that they might reap the benefits of ‘union with Christ and his Church.’"

Citing examples from West’s writings, Eden explains that, “By ‘risking,’ he means specifically that men who struggle with lust should practice looking at beautiful women so that they might learn to raise their thoughts and feelings from lust, to joy at encountering the image of God in female beauty.”

In her thesis titled, "Towards a 'Climate of Chastity': Bringing Catechesis on the Theology of the Body into the Hermeneutic of Continuity," Eden argues that such advice runs contrary to traditional Catholic teaching. In the ninth chapter of the Book of Sirach, Eden points out, men are encouraged to look away from shapely women.

Furthermore she points out that Pope John Paul II, who originated the Theology of the Body, has pointed out that after the loss of original grace, man and woman have a “specific necessity of privacy with regard to their own bodies.” Eden states that John Paul’s “understanding of modesty—seeing it not merely as a reaction to the potential lustful ‘look,’ but as a requirement for a ‘truly human culture of morals’—is absent from West’s TOB.”

One of the central arguments West uses in making his point about the necessity of taking the “risk” of “trusting our own freedom to control concupiscence and to choose the good,” is the story of “two bishops.” Eden’s thesis quotes West relating the story:

The following story illustrates what mature Christian purity looks like. Two bishops walked out of a cathedral just as a scantily clad prostitute passed by. One bishop immediately turned away. The other bishop looked at her intently. The bishop who turned away exclaimed, “Brother bishop, what are you doing? Turn your eyes!” When the bishop turned around, he lamented with tears streaming down his face, “How tragic that such beauty is being sold to the lusts of men.” Which one of those bishops was vivified with the ethos of redemption? Which one had passed over from merely meeting the demands of the law to a superabounding fulfillment of the law?

West explains that “the bishop who looked away was continent, but the bishop who saw rightly was virtuous.”

Eden argues, however, that the story, as presented by West, is misleading. She writes that West says the story is “adapted from the story of Bishop St. Nonnus of Edessa and the harlot Pelagia” and he cites Helen Waddell’s account of Nonnus and Pelagia in The Desert Fathers.

However Eden points out that Waddell’s account of Nonnus and Pelagia differs significantly from West’s. “Pelagia, in Waddell’s account, does not notice that Nonnus looks at her on the street,” writes Eden. “Her conversion comes about afterwards, when she hears him preach.”

Eden adds, “Most significantly, when Pelagia then writes to the bishop and asks to see him, he agrees only on the condition that there be other bishops present. ‘[S]eek not to tempt my weakness,’ he writes.” Eden explains: “It is not surprising that West omits that last detail, as, by his own definition, it would mean Bishop St. Nonnus was insufficiently virtuous.”

Eden suggests that a possible motivation for what she says is West’s over-sexualization of Theology of the Body and shunning of traditional practices of custody of the eyes could be the fact that he lived with his parents in an overly-restrictive community which was condemned by the local bishop. Writes Eden, “West told the Washington Post that, after spending years living in the community and submitting to its leaders' control of his social contacts, his work, and his studies, he realized, ‘It's a cult. I've been living in a cult.’”

Eden presents her thesis as contributing to the necessary amendments to West’s popular presentation. She says she is hopeful about the six-month sabbatical that West has undertaken to (in the words of his institute) “reflect more deeply on fraternal and spiritual guidance he has received in order to continue developing his methodology and praxis as it relates to the promulgation of the Theology of the Body."