From an address given by Pope Benedict XVI at the welcoming celebration of World Youth Day in Sydney, July 17, 2008:

"I ask myself, could anyone standing face to face with people who actually do suffer violence and sexual exploitation 'explain' that these tragedies, portrayed in virtual form, are considered merely 'entertainment'?"

Lord, I am broken, fix me.
My ears are deaf, help me to hear.
My eyes are blind, help me to see.
My heart is hardened, help me to love.
Lord, reach out with your healing hand, and remake me in your image.

From the homily of Pope Benedict XVI during Mass at Nationals Park in Washington, DC April 17, 2008:

"In the exercise of my ministry as the Successor of Peter, I have come to America to confirm you, my brothers and sisters, in the faith of the Apostles (cf. Lk 22:32). I have come to proclaim anew, as Peter proclaimed on the day of Pentecost, that Jesus Christ is Lord and Messiah, risen from the dead, seated in glory at the right hand of the Father, and established as judge of the living and the dead (cf. Acts 2:14ff.). I have come to repeat the Apostle's urgent call to conversion and the forgiveness of sins, and to implore from the Lord a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the Church in this country. As we have heard throughout this Easter season, the Church was born of the Spirit's gift of repentance and faith in the risen Lord. In every age she is impelled by the same Spirit to bring to men and women of every race, language and people (cf. Rev 5:9) the good news of our reconciliation with God in Christ."

From a letter to legislators:

Wife, husband, child-these are not historical holdovers from a bygone era, but realities rooted in our human nature.

Commitment and sexual acts do not by themselves establish marriage-they must correspond to human nature, a reality discerned from observation and right reason. Applying this natural law, society has come to recognize that a parent should not marry their own child, that an individual should not marry their blood sibling, and that an individual should not have multiple spouses. Likewise, it shows us that an individual should not marry a member of the same sex.

Proponents of marriage between members of the same sex want us to ignore these realities of our human nature. But it is not without significance that our species has two sexes, male and female. That between these two sexes we observe differences, most obvious on a biological level, but on additional levels as well. That these differences are not contradictory, but complementary, and that from the natural biological complementarity of the sexes, new human life is brought forth. And of that new human life, we see that it is best nurtured and developed within the lasting union formed by its biological parents, who themselves grow and develop by this union. In this structure we call family, the child finds identity, protection, provision, and the inimitable loving care of a mother and a father. Proponents would have us ignore that this is the optimal environment to raise children, and that while practical considerations can sometimes prevent this from happening, it is a model we nevertheless recognize and strive toward, not away from. The nature of homosexual relations contradict these realities, and therefore marriage between members of the same sex is equally contradictory. The same can be said of bisexual relations, transgendered, foursomes, and other practices.

These are only a few of the reasons that I ask you to support legislation which protects the definition of marriage and family consistent with human nature, and oppose legislation which would cause the civil law to contradict human nature through marriage between members of the same sex, or its equivalent form, civil unions.

Recognize sin for what it really is: a way to strip you of grace, goodness, and happiness. It may come in different packages, it may carry various promises, it may appear a delight to the eyes and good for food, but it's simply a means to deprive you of life and wholeness.

The measure we use to give, is the measure with which we receive--you cannot receive the fullness of God, without a full gift of self. To the extent we withhold, we cannot receive, because we withdraw ourselves from God through a conscious decision. This is sin, and its attachment. The whole of Love invites us in, but our sharing in communion is in proportion to the degree we give ourselves completely. If we only knew the suffering it caused God, our Beloved--the passion--we would not sin.

Don't all laws 'tell someone what to do with their body'?

How does a mother have a right to kill her child, simply because it's her child?

How can the reproductive act between a man and a woman produce anything other than a human?

If an embryo is not truly a human person, what reason is there for an abortion?

Why do some folk say they don't know how human life starts? Did they not get the 'birds and the bees' talk?

Why do we have laws to protect unhatched bald eagles, but not unborn humans?

Why is the scientific fact that DNA uniquely identifies every human person, suddenly forgotten when we talk about humans in the embryonic stage?

How are zygote, blastocyst, embryo, newborn, infant, toddler, child, teenager, young adult, adult, and senior different?

How can personal choice trump an innocent baby's life?

O my God, I firmly believe that you are one God in three Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I believe that your divine Son became man and died for our sins and that he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe these and all the truths which the Holy Catholic Church teaches because you have revealed them who are eternal truth and wisdom, who can neither deceive or be deceived. In this faith I intend to live and die. Amen.

Man was created with an immortal nature, being in the image and likeness of God. By his own decision, eternal life was lost by him at the fall, and death entered the earth. He now knew corruption: his body subject to decay, and his soul wounded and darkened. A Savior came to earth to rescue man from this state, and return him to his intended place in God's creation. It was God Himself. He laid aside his Godhead, and experienced all we experience, except sin. He entered even into death, saying, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?".

But he broke out the other side. The particles of death, death which had taken its hold on man, were dissembled, and life and light burst forth. He is our forerunner, and we too now can pass through death to new life; we can exit out the other side. Mankind which was made subject to death by Adam's fall, can now move through to life by the new Adam's rising. Our dignity, place in creation, and immortal nature are redeemed through unity with our Lord and God, Jesus Christ.

Posted Mon, Sep 17, 2007 under /message category [permanent link]