Quote for the Day

[odhiambo]

"Priests have received a power which God has given neither to angels nor to archangels.
 It was said to them:
 ‘Whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever you shall loose, shall be loosed.’
Temporal rulers have indeed the power of binding; but they can only bind the body.
 Priests, in contrast, can bind with a bond which pertains to the soul itself and transcends the very heavens.
Did [God] not give them all the powers of heaven?...What greater power is there than this?
 The Father has given all judgment to the Son.
 And now I see the Son placing all this power in the hands of men.
They are raised to this dignity as if they were already gathered up to heaven"

St. John Chrysostom

[odhiambo]

Let us therefore give ourselves to God with a great desire to begin to live thus, and beg Him to destroy in us the life of the world of sin, and to establish His life within us.
St John Eudes

[Shin]

It's a prayer!

[Shin]

'The soul's immortality resides in dispassion and spiritual knowledge; no slave to sensual pleasure can attain it.'

St. Thalassios the Libyan

[odhiambo]

“One must attend first to the salvation of the soul and only then to the salvation of the body”
St. Giuseppe Moscati,
"The Holy Physician of Naples"

[Shin]

Certainly! The two goals can be in opposition! After all, one of the three great enemies is 'the flesh'!

'If you have promised Christ to travel the straight and narrow road, then keep your stomach in check; for if you give in to it, oif you enlarge it, you are breaking your promise. Listen and hear the word of warning: "Wide and spacious is the road of gluttony. It leads to the catastrophe of fornication, and there are many who travel that way. The gate is narrow and the way of fasting is hard, that way leads to the life of purity, and there are few to make the journey" (cf. Matt. 7:13-14)

The fallen Lucifer is prince of the demons, and gluttony is prince of the passions. So when you sit at a well-laden table, remember death and remember judgment, and even then you will only manage to restrain yourself a little. And when you drink, keep always in mind the vinegar and gall of your Lord. Then indeed, you will be either temperate or sighing; you will keep your mind humble. For you must not fool yourself. You will not escape from Pharaoh and you will not see the heavenly Passover unless you constantly eat bitter herbs and unleavened bread, the bitter herbs of toil and hard fasting, the unleavened bread of a mind made humble. Join to your breathing the word of him who said: "When devils plagued me, I put on sackcloth, humbled my soul with fasting, and my prayer stuck to the bosom of my soul" (Ps. 34:13).'

St. John Climacus

[odhiambo]

Certainly! The two goals can be in opposition! After all, one of the three great enemies is 'the flesh'!

'If you have promised Christ to travel the straight and narrow road, then keep your stomach in check; for if you give in to it, oif you enlarge it, you are breaking your promise. Listen and hear the word of warning: "Wide and spacious is the road of gluttony. It leads to the catastrophe of fornication, and there are many who travel that way. The gate is narrow and the way of fasting is hard, that way leads to the life of purity, and there are few to make the journey" (cf. Matt. 7:13-14)

The "public opinion" ( big bellies are also called "public opinion"  )  in these parts is that fat bellied men are rich.
Which possibly means they can afford to drink as many bottles of beer( the supposed culprit), as they want.
( completely oblivious of Mattew's advise )  

[odhiambo]

"Don't you long to shout to those youths who are bustling around you: Fools! Leave those worldly things that shackle the heart - and very often degrade it - leave all that and come with us in search of Love!"

Saint Josemaria Escriva

[Shin]

The "public opinion" ( big bellies are also called "public opinion"  )  in these parts is that fat bellied men are rich.
Which possibly means they can afford to drink as many bottles of beer( the supposed culprit), as they want.
( completely oblivious of Mattew's advise )  

Whenever I hear of certain times and cultures where fatness is admired all I can do is shake my head!

[odhiambo]

The "public opinion" ( big bellies are also called "public opinion"  )  in these parts is that fat bellied men are rich.
Which possibly means they can afford to drink as many bottles of beer( the supposed culprit), as they want.
( completely oblivious of Mattew's advise )  

Whenever I hear of certain times and cultures where fatness is admired all I can do is shake my head!

And who can blame you  
Where as that may be true in the case of "well covered women"  as they are sometimes referred to, for men, it is just an observed fact that they tend to be well of; I do not think that they are admired, not if it is a consequence of overindulgence.

[Shin]

'As for those who run after visions, dreams, and the like, we must lay hold of them by the feet and pull them to the ground by force, lest they should fall into the devil's net.'

St. Philip Neri

[odhiambo]

'As for those who run after visions, dreams, and the like, we must lay hold of them by the feet and pull them to the ground by force, lest they should fall into the devil's net.'

St. Philip Neri

Very true and yet we know too that God can talk to a select few through this very same medium.

[odhiambo]

"Give something, however small, to the one in need. For it is not small to one who has nothing. Neither is it small to God, if we have given what we could."
St. Gregory Nazianzen

[odhiambo]

No earthly pleasures, no kingdoms of this world can benefit me in any way. I prefer death in Christ Jesus to power over the farthest limits of the earth. He who died in place of us is the one object of my quest. He who rose for our sakes is my one desire.

Saint Ignatius of Antioch

[Shin]

This is very true.

May people learn to recognize this! And recognize this feeling within their heart! So that it may take ahold of their whole heart.

And so too my poor heart. Amen.

[odhiambo]

This is very true.

May people learn to recognize this! And recognize this feeling within their heart! So that it may take ahold of their whole heart.

And so too my poor heart. Amen.

often times one knows that "earthly pleasures and  the kingdoms of this world" as Saint Ignatius of Antioch puts it are but of a temporary nature, no use to us at all spiritually; the problem is that such earthly things seem to have an attraction that is difficult to resist for most of us.  It is a never ending struggle.