To be Catholic involves being viewed as a living bellwether of the Church. Even as our love grows questions and suspicions of many nonbelievers also grow. It is easy for a nonbeliever to forget the sacrifice of the cross and to live a life balanced between temptation, the bitterness of life without Christ, and the emptiness of materialism. It is an universal fact that all men have secrets and private memories of sadness and that all men have melancholy sighs which are not easily explained or understood; it is the cruelest comedy to watch false devotion. What did we learn from the Son of man? Have we no time to sacrifice, to suffer, to forgive, to love, to hope? Do we honor those whom we say that we love?
It is important to keep our souls in motion, moving toward God, leading our minds and body forward with grace, hope, purity. It is important to be prepared for any number of wounds physical and spiritual to test your faith. It is important to believe with the entirety of your being the beautiful mysteries of our Faith. It is important to allow the entirety of your being moments of natural pure hope.
Our duty is to love always. Our obligation is to love always. We are asked to act with the charity, humility, compassion of Christ. We are to live lives which encourages our souls to freely open to God; which allows others to see radiance of God’s love and mercy in the interactions of our lives.
Finding lives tender, humble, compassionate is a sweet, natural goal.
We must learn to master concupiscence.
Each day I pray to have more forgiveness in my personal interactions and to feel and encourage pure, gentle hope in my life and the lives of others.
A good Christian life requires our sympathy, empathy, and prayers.
I don't think concupiscense is ever totally mastered. It is a lifelong struggle. Rather, it is an exercise in self-mastery, which we live one day at a time.
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