This is my second week of writing on Personhood. Last week, I wrote Part One: Personhood—Relational Being. Today, I will focus on Part Two: Personhood—Fallen Individuals. Next week, I’ll write Part Three: Personhood Redeemed. In part one, I talked about what it might mean to think of the human person as a relational being. This … Continue reading Personhood: Part 2
Personhood: Part One
This past week, we Catholics celebrated Trinity Sunday. The Trinity is the central mystery of our faith; three Persons—the Father, Son, and Spirit—in one God. Meditating on this mystery always brings me back to the mystery of persons. In honor of this Solemnity, I’m going to do a trilogy of posts. Part One: Personhood—Relational Being; … Continue reading Personhood: Part One
Happiness and Friendship
Happiness and Friendship Friendship In the Nichomachean Ethics, Aristotle argues that having true friendship is a necessary part of a happy life. Everyone can relate to that in some measure. We are social animals, affected positively and negatively by those around us. Since happiness lies in fulfilling what we are, our happiest happiness is never … Continue reading Happiness and Friendship
Desire
My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, Shakes so my single state of man That function is smother'd in surmise, and nothing is but what is not. ~Macbeth, Act I, Scene 3 ____________ Desire Sometimes, you look around and realize that you are content. You have a good family, a job, friends, “golden opinions … Continue reading Desire
Stoicism
Some things are in our control and others not. Things in our control are… whatever are our own actions. Things not in our control… whatever are not our own actions. ~The Enchiridion, by Epictetus ____________ Stoicism Stoicism was a popular philosophy in ancient Greece and, later, in Rome. The Stoic Epictetus taught the above dichotomy … Continue reading Stoicism
Education
The value of an education… is not the learning of many facts but the training of the mind to think something that cannot be learned from textbooks. ~Attributed to Albert Einstein ____________ Education A wise woman once complained to me that the problem with the education system in the United States is that we no … Continue reading Education
Confirmation
"What do you stand for?" That was the question that Bishop Robert Barron put to the Confirmandees who had gathered to “be sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit.” It’s a good question for anyone to ask themselves. What do I stand for? ____________ Confirmation Make firm In Confirmation, the Bishop invokes the Holy … Continue reading Confirmation
Adventure
We are plain quiet folk and have no use for adventures. Nasty, disturbing, uncomfortable things! Make you late for dinner! Bilbo, The Hobbit ____________ Some of the best adventure stories are those that involve reluctant heroes. People who were once content with their “normal world” are relatable. Like them, we prefer not to get involved; … Continue reading Adventure
Experience the Good
You must know that there is nothing higher and stronger and more wholesome and good for life in the future than some good memory, especially a memory of childhood, of home. People talk to you a great deal about your education, but some good, sacred memory, preserved from childhood, is perhaps the best education. From … Continue reading Experience the Good
Vanity VS Pride
Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves; vanity, to what we would have others think of us. Thus from Mary Bennet in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. It is not a helpful distinction … Continue reading Vanity VS Pride
