Bound in Love

Man and Wife, Claimed by Christ, Bound in Love, Stumbling toward Heaven

  • Envy

    Sorrow for another person’s good. (Looking at things the wrong way.) A spirit of competitiveness rather than brotherly love. The object of both charity and envy is our neighbor’s good, but by contrary movements, since charity rejoices in our neighbor’s good, while envy grieves over it. Scriptural/Doctoral “self-inflicted pain wounds the pining spirit, which is Continue reading

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  • Avarice/Covetousness

    Inordinate love of possessing external goods that are useful for an end but are not ends in and of themselves. “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s goods.” (Ex 20:17) It is excessive love of possessing riches. Remembering that the goodness of things relates to a due (just) measure, evil results from either an excess or Continue reading

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  • Lust

    Inordinate desire, especially venereal pleasures. The order of reason consists in its ordering everything to its end in a fitting manner. When the lower powers are strongly moved towards their objects, the result is that the higher powers (reason and will) are hindered and disordered in their acts. Scriptural/Doctoral it is listed among the “works Continue reading

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  • Gluttony

    Inordinate desire for physical pleasures. Can be deadly (to our immortal souls) when a person lets his concupiscible appetite run amok to the point that the pleasures of gluttony become his end and he will disobey God to obtain those pleasures. Can be something other than simply too much: “Hastily, sumptuously, too much, greedily, daintily.” Continue reading

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  • Vices and Virtues

    I will add the text, but for now I will just add the slides. We talked about what a virtue is and how we categorize some as natural virtues because we can make sense of them by our own human powers. We categorize some as theological virtues because they operate above our natural reasoning abilities Continue reading

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  • The Law of the Lord v. the laws of men

    Our reading from Nehemiah today is the story of the day when the Israelites have been allowed to return to Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile. Ezra the priest brings out the books of the law and reads from them. The Books of the Law told the Israelites how they should live if they wanted to Continue reading

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  • Failing to Perfection

    Good morning men! Our retreat theme is the virtuous man, or the man of virtue. And these words are deeply connected, as the root of the word virtue is the Latin word for “man” where we get words like “virility” in English. So a virtue is the excellence that an excellent man should manifest or Continue reading

  • Catholic Thinking

    Today, I want to introduce another important aspect of our Catholic Faith that distinguishes us from our non-Catholic brothers and sisters, and also from the pagan secular world. One can think of it as the “toolbox for thinking about things” or the analytical framework for philosophical inquiry and discussion. This may not be your absolute Continue reading

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  • The Model of the Holy Family

    Yesterday we celebrated the Incarnation. It is also the Nativity of the Lord. It is a solemn celebration of the mystical reality that God became man, that God, who is the author of all creation, sent himself, his only son in human flesh, to live with us and share our earthly experience. And he came Continue reading

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  • Mary and the Incarnation

    The teachings about Mary are ultimately about her Son, Jesus, and December is a great month, full of feasts, to bring our hearts and our minds to the utterly awesome — but difficult — teaching on the Incarnation. And, once we are thinking about the Christian claim that God became Man, there are derivative claims Continue reading

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