Category: agape
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Therapaedeutics
Do we have to “love ourself” first before we can love our neighbor? Note added 9/25/23 regarding self esteem.
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What’s Love Got To Do With It (2)
ST THOMAS AQUINAS says that God is the one in whom essence and existence are the same. “Ipsum Esse Subsistens” (Summa Theologiae, I, q. 4, a. 2) is the phrase in Latin. It’s part of a larger discussion where St Thomas is discussing the absolute simplicity of God: there is no part or “smaller portion”…
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What’s Love Got To Do With It? (1)
GOD IS LOVE. We know this. We don’t often follow it to a logical conclusion though: you did something I don’t like therefore I must remind you that God is love. We may never get around to exploring that the Love spoken of is always in the 1st person: it’s not something that we demand…
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Cancel Welcome
IT WAS SUCH A FEELING of power! Standing on the 38 Geary bus one night reading Vespers, a woman in front of me got up and moved over to a different part of the bus. She began to point and speak. I know very little Russian but the thing she was pointing at (and the…
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Our Accidents, Ourselves
Know yourself is one of the maxims of Delphi, γνῶθι σεαυτόν gnothi seauton, which has come down to us by way of Socrates and others: Know Thyself. Finding seems to be the first step to knowing. So, “find yourself” (a la the 1960s) and then “come in and know me better,” says the Ghost of…
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Eros Envisioned Beatifically
Several things presented themselves to your host this morning for contemplation and synthesis. They span several decades in terms of life experience, wrapping themselves around a playlist called “sacred heart”, wherein we avoid the sentimentality of many “Jesus is my boyfriend” praise and worship songs by going right for the eroticism of popular love songs.…
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Whose Side Are You On?
YOU HAVE TO ADMIT THAT life seems to be polarizing right now: socially, politically, and religiously. Everyone needs to be on a side and you’d better be on the right side as well. Generally, of course, the right side is my side. We are seeing this in all areas: if you don’t agree with me,…
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The Gift
ONCE UPON A TIME, back in the days when you could go to see Santa Claus in the department store and he would give you presents that were not just sticky candy, two best friends, Jimmy and Billy, went to their local Belks before Christmas. They stood patiently in line and, when their turns came,…
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Day 151: Parthenos
But I would have you without carefulness. He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord: But he that is married careth for the things that are of the world, how he may please his wife. – St Paul, I Corinthians 7:32-33 THESE THREE ESSAYS…
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So, about this wall…
✙ JMJ The Readings for Friday in the 5th Week of Easter (B2) Acts 15:22-31 John 15:12-17 Vos autem dixi amicos : quia omnia quaecumque audivi a Patre meo, nota feci vobis. I have called you friends: because all things whatsoever I have heard of my Father, I have made known to you. One thing I often…
Orthoparadoxy 