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The Meaning of our Bodies and the Meaning of Marriage
 Retreat Talk for Teens Monica Ashour MTS; M Hum ©2008 I.

Introduction—True story—Pushing blazer out of the snow bank. There are 3 things I am hoping you will take from this talk: 1. Matter matters (The brilliant way God decided to make us humans…our bodies mattering and “speaking” to us about who we are). 2. Holy Moly Marriage!! (The sacredness of marriage) 3. Pro-life=happiness; anti-life=sadness (The opposite of living the language of the body will bring sadness, living in a pro-life way brings joy).

II. Matter Matters
 A. The body “speaks” a language…can we say, sings, a language. (Get a sanguine boy and a sanguine girl to come forward and sing hi (boy) low (girl) then the opposite.) There is a difference. God even put it in our vocal chords.
B. Guys are rough, tough, and buff! (Get a man with a beard who does not mind being made fun of). Wouldn’t you say that he is rough, tough, and buff??!! Describe men. (Get a boy to arm-wrestle me). What does this say about guys? Your body is letting you know some of what you are supposed to do: protect and provide, especially for women and children. (Examples of moving big boxes—call my 3 brothers, not my 2 sisters. Got stuck on this big rock once in Minnesota—a man carried me down, not the 2 other women with me). (Caveat—we women are not wimps. “We women not wimpy!” My story of the snow bank!) Story of Fernando. Flesh and blood. Guys, you can start living this right now—sticking up for those who are not as cool, especially girls in your class. Serving your mama. Helping your sister. Etc. Think about the opposite of protecting and providing for girls: using them. I am not only talking about boys who say, “Come here baby, let’s do this.” Let me tell you. Some of my female students share such mistakes and are so hurt; they are not protected; they are damaged. Guys. Live according to your rough, tough, and buff body. Don’t listen to society’s idea of inter-relating with girls. Those are lies. Lies too are prominent at the abortion mill too. When I have gone to talk to guys walking up with girls, one thing I try to convince them is that they think they are helping their girlfriend/wife, but in fact, they are doing the opposite. This I realized from 7th grade boys about 5 years ago when I was teaching them rough, tough, and buff. They said, “Miss Ashour, guys who let a girl have an abortion are not protecting. They are afraid of a baby…the tiniest human. They are not reading the “language of their body.”
 C. Girls are hiding and inviting. (Even the description of us is so much prettier!) We can’t be like our brothers—growing up, didn’t you think before you knew/understood modesty, “Well, Johnny gets to take off his shirt when digging in the garden. Why can’t I?” So, even then our mothers were teaching us to be female is to be hiding. Our attire should not be too revealing nor too frumpy but flattering. (Be funny about guys closing your ears…you may not know this about women). Every female here has a womb! It’s true. We invite the unborn baby to live in his first home, inside the woman’s body. We are inviting. And after the baby is born, we can nourish the baby with our own bodies. Amazing. So, what is God saying to us women, just by us understanding our bodies more? We are to welcome and nurture others. Not many of us in this room have had babies. I have never been married and so have not had a baby, but I know that by virtue of being a woman, by understanding my body, that I am meant to welcome and nurture others. I do that by giving talks, being a good teacher, being a loving aunt, etc. You, too, girls can be more and more attuned to your body but welcoming those friends who need your shoulder to cry on, by welcoming those classmates who others treat poorly, by going up to those who don’t have many friends and trying to let them know someone cares. And know, girls, that you and I, too, can go against the language of the body. Do you only talk to people for what they can give to you? (wii, i-pod, cool car?) And think about the poor women who violate their femininity when they have abortions. The womb should be the safest place on earth, but it becomes a Dachae, a concentration camp with bloodshed. Instead of welcoming and nurturing, she does the opposite of her language of the body. (Caveat: The college student who told me she had an abortion and I was privileged to walk with her as she became Catholic, crying with her after she finally got to go to Confession.)

III. Holy Moly Marriage: The Meaning of Marriage
 A. Marriage as the Best Natural Sign of Who God Is. Now that we have considered that our bodies, male and female, are “messages” to us of how to live, think about them both together. Pope John Paul in his Theology of the Body says that marriage is the best natural sign of who God is in his very essence. Remember, we spoke of that before. We are not orc with horns; we have arms, legs, ears to help us love, to be a gift of self which makes us like God. Similarly, Pope John Paul saw that men and women were made for each other. We don’t need sex education here! Male and female bodies go together. God wants men and women to fall in love, get married, and have babies! He wants families! And guess what, John Paul said that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit form the first family. Again, families are to bring life and love to others…the reason that is the case is because all families can love and give life because they rely on the Blessed Trinity. (Remember, too, that you and I who are not married also live out that life by loving all those in our lives.) This is why abortion is so wrong. It rejects the fruit of love, the life of love, and so is the total opposite of the Blessed Trinity. (Here, I do not mean to be mean-spirited…I am sure people who go into an abortion mill don’t think, “I am about to be an anti-image of the Blessed Trinity.” But I want to tell you so that you can help others, even before they get into trouble and consider hurting themselves and their baby.)
 B. The Sacredness of Marriage (Holy Moly Marriage) I need to wrap up this talk, but before I do, I want to make one more comparison. Just as the Eucharist is a sacrament, so too is marriage a sacrament. You would never dream of going to a “fake” Mass---like someone who pretends to be a priest but is not. (Not talking about “playing Mass when you were little). That would be a desecration. Then, why would you “fake” marriage…by engaging in acts that God made for a married couple. And think about this. When we receive the Eucharist, we are renewing our baptismal vows…it is a sacred act. You would never dream of taking the Eucharist and desecrating it. Never. Then, why, when the marital embrace is a renewing of vows that the couple made on the altar, would you participate in an act which desecrates the body and marriage.

Instead, live your life being pro-life, waiting until the sacredness of marriage. I will end with a true story of Zack and Erin. I was Erin’s spiritual director and was hesitant in affirming that she should marry Zack, even though he was a fabulous guy. The reason: he had Cystic Fibrosis…Erin would be a widow in only a short amount of time. They were happily married…so very happy. Sure enough, his disease began to wear him down. Finally, he was in the hospital dying. I remember going often to St. Paul’s Hospital in Dallas to be with Erin and Zack. He witnessed to me what it meant to be a man. Even though his rough, tough, and buff body was failing, he provided for his wife…the most important thing he provided was his faith until the bitter end. He would tell us we needed to pray by turning his palm over, even when he could hardly move and could not speak. We would then pray..he led to the end. Finally, on June 20th, the same day Fernando shed his flesh and blood for his sister a year previous, Zack died…that was on the 4th anniversary of his and Erin’s wedding. He died, I witnessed it, as Erin gently kissed him for the last time as he took his final breath. That is marriage. That is living according to the language of the body. You too can do the same.

The Sacrifice of the Mass

357. What is the Mass?

The Mass is the sacrifice of the New Law in which Christ, through the ministry of the priest, offers Himself to God in an unbloody manner under the appearances of bread and wine.

For, from the rising of the sun even to the going down, my name is great among the Gentiles; and in every place there is sacrifice and there is offered to my name a clean oblation. (Malachi 1:11)

358. What is a sacrifice?

A sacrifice is the offering of a victim by a priest to God alone, and the destruction of it in some way to acknowledge that He is the Creator of all things.

359. Who is the principal priest in every Mass?

The principal priest in every Mass is Jesus Christ, who offers to His heavenly Father, through the ministry of His ordained priest, His body and blood which were sacrificed on the cross.

And having taken bread, he gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body, which is being given for you; do this in remembrance of me." In like manner he took also the cup after the supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which shall be shed for you." (Luke 22:19-20)

360. Why is the Mass the same sacrifice as the sacrifice of the cross?

The Mass is the same sacrifice as the sacrifice of the cross because in the Mass the victim is the same, and the principal priest is the same, Jesus Christ.

361. What are the purposes for which the Mass is offered?

The purposes for which the Mass is offered are: first, to adore God as our Creator and Lord; second, to thank God for His many favors; third, to ask God to bestow His blessings on all men; fourth, to satisfy the justice of God for the sins committed against Him.

362. Is there any difference between the sacrifice of the cross and the Sacrifice of the Mass?

The manner in which the sacrifice is offered is different. On the cross Christ physically shed His blood and was physically slain, while in the Mass there is no physical shedding of blood nor physical death, because Christ can die no more; on the cross Christ gained merit and satisfied for us, while in the Mass He applies to us the merits and satisfaction of His death on the cross.

For we know that Christ, having risen from the dead, dies now no more, death shall no longer have dominion over him. (Romans 6:9)

363. How should we assist at Mass?

We should assist at Mass with reverence, attention, and devotion.

364. What is the best method of assisting at Mass?

The best method of assisting at Mass is to unite with the priest in offering the Holy Sacrifice, and to receive Holy Communion.

364a. How can we best unite with the priest in offering the Holy Sacrifice?

We can best unite with the priest in offering the Holy Sacrifice by joining in mind and heart with Christ, the principal Priest and Victim, by following the Mass in a missal, and by reciting or chanting the responses.

365. Who said the first Mass?

Our Divine Savior said the first Mass, at the Last Supper, the night before He died.

SUFFERING: How to Make the Greatest Evil in Our Lives
Our Greatest Happiness
by Fr. Paul O’Sullivan,O.P.

Suffering is the great problem of human life. We all have to suffer. Sometimes small sorrows, sometimes greater ones fall to our share. We shall now tell our readers how to avoid much of this suffering, how to lessen all suffering and how to derive great benefits from every suffering we may have to bear.

The reason why suffering appears so hard is that, first of all, we are not taught what suffering is. Secondly, we are not taught how to bear it. Thirdly, we are not taught the priceless value of suffering. This is due to the incomprehensible neglect on the part of our teachers. It is surprising how easily some people bear great sufferings; whereas, others get excited even at the smallest trouble. The simple reason is that some have been taught all about suffering; others have not.

SUFFERING IS NOT THE EVIL WE THINK IT IS
First of all, then, suffering is not simply an evil, for no one suffered more than the Son of God Himself, more than His Blessed Mother or more than the Saints. Every suffering comes from God. It may appear to come to us by chance or accident or from someone else, but in reality, every suffering comes to us from God. Nothing happens to us without His wish or permission. Not even a hair falls from our heads without His consent.

WHY DOES GOD ALLOW US TO SUFFER
Simply because He is asking us to take a little share in His Passion. What appears to come by chance or from someone else always comes because God allows it. Every act in Our Lord’s Life was a lesson for us. The greatest act in His life was His Passion. This, then is the greatest lesson for us. It teaches us that we too must suffer. God suffered all the dreadful pains of His Passion for each one of us. How can we refuse to suffer a little for love of Him!

SUFFERING IS THE GOLD IN OUR LIVES
Secondly, if we accept the suffering, He sends us and offer them in union with His sufferings, we receive the greatest rewards. Five minutes’ suffering borne for love of Jesus of greater value to us than years and years of pleasure and joy. The Saints tell us that if we patiently bear our sufferings, we merit the crown of martyrdom. Moreover, suffering borne patiently brings out all that is good in us. Those who have suffered are usually the most charming people. If we bear these facts clearly in mind, it certainly becomes much easier to suffer.

GOD ALWAYS GIVES STRENGTH TO BEAR OUR SUFFERINGS
Thirdly, when God gives us any suffering, He always gives us strength to bear it, if we only ask Him. Many, instead of asking for his help, get excited and revolt. It is this excitement and impatience that really make suffering hard to bear. Consider that we are now speaking of all suffering, even the most trifling ones. All of us have little troubles, pains, disappointments, every day of our lives. All these, if borne for love of God, obtain for us as we have said, the greatest rewards.

HOW TO BEAR SUFFERING
Even the greater sufferings that may fall to our share from time to time become easy to bear if we accept them with serenity and patience. What really makes suffering difficult to bear is our own impatience, our revolt, our refusal to accept it. This irritation increases our sufferings a hundredfold and, besides, robs us of all the merit we could have gained thereby.

We see some people pass through a tempest of suffering with the greatest of calm and serenity; whereas, others get irritated at the slightest annoyance or disappointment. We can all learn this calm and patience. It is the secret of happiness. An eminent physician, in a conference which he gave to distinguished scientists and fellow doctors, told them that he owed all his great success in life to the simple fact that he had corrected his habit of impatience and annoyance, which had been destroying all his energy and activity. Everyone, we repeat, without exception, can learn this calm and serenity.

PENANCE
We must all do penance for our sins. If we do not, we shall have long years of suffering in the awful fires of Purgatory. This fire is just the same as the fire of Hell. Now, if we offer our sufferings the very little ones as well as the greater ones–in union with the sufferings of Jesus Christ, we are doing the easiest and best penance we can perform. We may thus deliver ourselves entirely from Purgatory, while at the same time gaining the greatest graces and blessings.

LET US REMEMBER CLEARLY THAT:

1) Sufferings come from God for our benefit.

2) When we are in the state of grace, we derive immense merit from every suffering borne patiently, even the little sufferings of our daily lives.

3) God will give us abundant strength to bear our sufferings if we only ask Him.

4) If we bear our sufferings patiently, they lose their sting and bitterness.

5) Above all, every suffering is a share in the Passion of Our Lord.

6) By our sufferings, we can free ourselves in great part or entirely, from the pains of Purgatory.

7) By bearing our sufferings patiently, we win the glorious crown of martyrdom.

Of course, we may do all in our power to avoid or lessen our sufferings, but we cannot avoid all suffering. Therefore, it is clearly necessary for us to learn how to bear them.

In a word, we must understand clearly that if we remain calm, serene and patient, suffering loses all its sting but the moment we get excited, the smallest suffering increases a hundredfold. It is just as if we had a sore arm or leg and rubbed it violently; it would become irritated and painful; whereas, if we touch it gently, we soothe the irritation.

We suffer from ill-health, from pains, headaches, rheumatism, arthritis, from accidents, from enemies. We may have financial difficulties. Some suffer for weeks in their homes, some in hospitals or nursing homes. In a word, we are in a valley of tears, Almighty God could have saved us from all suffering, but He did not do so because He knows in His infinite goodness that suffering is good for us.

PRAYER
We have a great. great remedy in our hands, that is, prayer. We should pray earnestly and constantly asking God to help us to suffer, to console us. or if it pleases Him. to deliver us from suffering. This is all, all important.

A very eminent doctor, in an able article he recently published in the secular press, says that "Prayer is the greatest power in the world." He says, "I and my colleagues frequently see that many of our patients whom we have failed to cure or whose pains we have failed to alleviate, have cured themselves by prayer. I speak now not of the prayers of holy people, but the prayers of ordinary Christians."

We should above all pray to Our Lady of Sorrows in all our troubles. We should ask her, by the oceans of sorrow she felt during the Passion of Our Lord to help us.

God gave her all the immense graces necessary to make her the perfect Mother of God, but He also gave her all the graces, the tenderness, the love necessary to be our most perfect and loving Mother. No mother on earth ever loved a child as Our Blessed Lady loves us. Therefore, in all our troubles and sorrows, let us go to Our Blessed Lady with unbounded confidence.

THE MEMORARE
Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thy intercession was left unaided. Inspired with this confidence, I fly unto thee, O Virgin of virgins, my mother. To thee do I come, before thee I kneel, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer them. Amen.

Christmas Reminders

May the Christmas presents remind you of God's greatest gift, His only begotten Son.

May the Christmas candles remind you of Him who is the Light of the world.

May the Christmas tree remind you of another tree, on which He died for you.

May the Christmas cheer remind you of Him who said, "Be of good cheer."

May the Christmas feast remind you of Him who is the Bread of Life.

May the Christmas snow remind you of the cleansing power of Christ.

May the Christmas bells remind you of the glorious proclamation of His birth.

May the Christmas carols remind you of His glad tidings which we proclaim to all mankind.

May the Christmas season remind you in every way of Jesus Christ your King.

How Old is Your Church?

If you are a Lutheran, Martin Luther, an apostate of the Roman Catholic Church, founded your religion in Germany, in the year 1517.

If you are a Mennonite, your church began in Switzerland with Grebel, Mantz, and Blaurock, in the year 1525.

If you belong to the Church of England, also know as Anglican, your religion began with King Henry VIII in 1534, who established his own church because the Pope could not grant him a divorce with the right to remarry.

If you are a Presbyterian, your religion was founded by John Knox, in Scotland, in the year 1560.

If you are a Congregationalist, your religion was founded by Robert Brown, in Holland, in 1583.

If you are a Baptist, you owe the tenets of your religion to John Smyth, who launched it in Amsterdam, in 1606.

If you are a Unitarian, John Biddle in London founded your religion in 1645.

If you are an Episcopalian, your religion was an offshoot of the Church of England, founded by Samuel Seabury in the American Colonies in the 17th century.

If you are a Quaker, your religion was founded by George Fox, in England, in 1647.

If you are a Methodist, your religion was founded by John and Charles Wesley, in England, in 1739.

If you are a Universalist, John Murray founded your religion in New Jersey, in 1770.

If you are an Evangelical, you owe the founding of your religion to Jacob Albright, in Pennsylvania, in 1803.

If you are a Mormon (a "Latter Day Saint"), then Joseph Smith started your religion in Palmyra, New York, in 1829.

If you are a Seventh Day Adventist, your religion originated in New York, by William Miller, in 1831.

If you worship with the Salvation Army sect, then you acknowledge William Booth in London as your originator, in 1865.

If you are a Jehovah Witness, then your church was founded by Charles Taze Russell, in 1872, and renamed in 1931 by Judge Rutherford, his successor.

If you are a Christian Scientist, then Mary Baker Eddy founded your religion in Massachusetts, in 1879.

If you belong to the Assembly of God religion, then a General Assembly in Arkansas started it in 1914.

If you claim the Church of the Nazarene as your religion, then Union at General Assembly launched it in 1919.

If you are an Evangelical Reformed, then Union at General Assembly created it in 1934.

If you belong to "Pentecostal Gospel," your religion is one of the hundreds of new sects founded by men in the last 100 years.

If you are a Roman Catholic, you know that your religion was founded in the year 33 by Our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Alas, my dear brethren, what have we become even since our conversion? Instead of going always forward and increasing in holiness, what laziness and what indifference we display! God cannot endure this perpetual inconstancy with which we pass from virtue to vice and from vice to virtue. Tell me, my children, is not this the very pattern of the way you live? Are your poor lives anything other than a succession of good deeds and bad deeds? Is it not true that you go to Confession and the very next day you fall again -- or perhaps the very same day? .... How can this be, unless the religion you have is unreal, a religion of habit, a religion of long-standing custom, and not a religion rooted in the heart? Carry on, my friend; you are only a waverer! Carry on, my poor man; in everything you do, you are just a hypocrite and nothing else! God has not the first place in your heart; that is reserved for the world and the devil. How many people there are, my dear children, who seem to love God in real earnest for a little while and then abandon Him! What do you find, then, so hard and so unpleasant in the service of God that it has repelled you so strangely and caused you to change over to the side of the world? Yet at the time when God showed you the state of your soul, you actually wept for it and realised how much you had been mistaken in your lives. If you have persevered so little, the reason for this misfortune is that the devil must have been greatly grieved to have lost you because he has done so much to get you back. He hopes now to keep you altogether. How many apostates there are, indeed, who have renounced their religion and who are Christians in name only!

But, you will say to me, how can we know that we have religion in our hearts, this religion which is consistent?

My dear brethren, this is how: listen well and you will understand if you have religion as God wants you to have it in order to lead you to Heaven. If a person has true virtue, nothing whatever can change him; he is like a rock in the midst of a tempestuous sea. If anyone scorns you, or calumniates you, if someone mocks at you or calls you a hypocrite or a sanctimonious fraud, none of this will have the least effect upon your peace of soul. You will love him just as much as you loved him when he was saying good things about you. You will not fail to do him a good turn and to help him, even if he speaks badly of your assistance. You will say your prayers, go to Confession, to Holy Communion, you will go to Mass, all according to your general custom.

To help you to understand this better, I will give you an example. It is related that in a certain parish there was a young man who was a model of virtue. He went to Mass almost every day and to Holy Communion often. It happened that another was jealous of the esteem in which this young man was held, and one day, when they were both in the company of a neighbour, who possessed a lovely gold snuffbox, the jealous one took it from its owner's pocket and placed it, unobserved, in the pocket of the young man. After he had done this, without pretending anything, he asked to see the snuffbox. The owner expected to find it in his pocket and was astonished when he discovered that it was missing. No one was allowed to leave the room until everyone had been searched, and the snuffbox was found, of course, on the young man who was a model of goodness. Naturally, everyone immediately called him a thief and attacked his religious professions, denouncing him as a hypocrite and a sanctimonious fraud. He could not defend himself, since the box had been found in his pocket. He said nothing. He suffered it all as something which had come from the hand of God. When he was walking along the street, when he was coming from the church, or from Mass or Holy Communion, everyone who saw him jeered at him and called him a hypocrite, a fraud, a thief. This went on for quite a long time, but in spite of it, he continued with all of his religious exercises, his Confessions, his Communions, and all of his prayers, just as if everyone were treating him with the utmost respect. After some years, the man who had been the cause of it all fell ill. To those who were with him he confessed that he had been the origin of all the evil things which had been said about this young man, who was a saint, and that through jealousy of him, so that he might destroy his good name, he himself had put the snuffbox in the young man's pocket.

There, my brethren, is a religion which is true, which has taken root in the soul. Tell me, if all of those poor Christians who make profession of religion were subjected to such trials, would they imitate this young man? Ah, my dear brethren, what murmurings there would be, what bitternesses, what thoughts of revenge, of slander, of calumny, even perhaps of going to law.... They would storm against religion; they would scorn and jeer at it and say nothing but ill of it; they would not be able to say their prayers any more; they would not be able to go to Mass; they would not know what more to do or to say to justify themselves; they would collect every item of harm that this or that person had done, tell it to others, repeat it to everyone who knew them in order to make them out as liars and calumniators. What is the reason for this conduct, my dear brethren? Surely it is that our religion is only one of whim, of long-standing habit and routine, and, if we were to put it more forcefully, because we are hypocrites who serve God just as long as everything is going according to our wishes. Alas, my dear brethren, all of these virtues which we observe in a great many apparent Christians are but like the flowers of spring, which one gust of hot wind can wither.

10 Suggestions to Help Develop a Healthy Self-Image

Here are 10 suggestions to help you develop and maintain a healthy self-image. Read them slowly. Meditate on them regularly.

1. Hate your sin, but never hate yourself.

2. Be quick to repent.

3. When God gives you light, walk in it.

4. Stop saying negative things about yourself. God loves you and it's wrong to hate what He loves. He has great plans for you, so you're in conflict with Him when you speak negatively concerning your future.

5. Never be afraid to admit that you've made a mistake and don't always assume that when things go wrong, it must be 'my fault'.

6. Don't meditate excessively on what you've done, right or wrong; both of these activities keep your mind on you! Center your thoughts on Christ.

7. Take good care of yourself physically. Make the best of what God gave you to work with, but don't be obsessed with your appearance.

8. Never stop learning but don't allow your education to become a point of pride. God doesn't use you because of what's in your head: He uses you because of what's in your heart.

9. Realize that your talents are a gift, not something you have manufactured yourself; never look down on people who can't do what you do.

10. Don't despise your weaknesses they keep you dependent on God.

SEVENTEEN RULES FOR A BETTER WAY TO LIVE! Copyright © Og Mandino, from his book, "A Better Way To Live" Rule One... for a Better Way to Live: Count your blessings. Once you realize how valuable you are and how much you have going for you, the smiles will return, the sun will break out, the music will play, and you will finally be able to move forward the life that God intended for you... with grace, strength, courage, and confidence. Rule Two... for a Better Way to Live: Today, and every day, deliver more than you are getting paid to do. The victory of success will be half won when you learn the secret of putting out more than is expected in all that you do. Make yourself so valuable in your work that eventually you will become indispensable. Exercise your privilege to go the extra mile, and enjoy all the rewards you receive. You deserve them! Rule Three... for a Better Way to Live: Whenever you make a mistake or get knocked down by life, don't look back at it too long. Mistakes are life's way of teaching you. Your capacity for occasional blunders is inseparable from your capacity to reach your goals. No one wins them all, and your failures, when they happen, are just part of your growth. Shake off your blunders. How will you know your limits without an occasional failure? Never quit. Your turn will come. Rule Four... for a Better Way to Live: Always reward your long hours of labor and toil in the very best way, surrounded by your family. Nurture their love carefully, remembering that your children need models, not critics, and your own progress will hasten when you constantly strive to present your best side to your children. And even if you have failed at all else in the eyes of the world, if you have a loving family, you are a success. Rule Five... for a Better Way to Live: Build this day on a foundation of pleasant thoughts. Never fret at any imperfections that you fear may impede your progress. Remind yourself, as often as necessary, that you are a creature of God and have the power to achieve any dream by lifting up your thoughts. You can fly when you decide that you can. Never consider yourself defeat again. Let the vision in your heart be in your life's blueprint. Smile! Rule Six... for a Better Way to Live: Let your actions always speak for you, but be forever on guard against the terrible traps of false pride and conceit that can halt your progress. The next time you are tempted to boast, just place your fist in a full pail of water, and when you remove it, the hole remaining will give you a correct measure of your importance. Rule Seven... for a Better Way to Live: Each day is a special gift from God, and while life may not always be fair, you must never allow the pains, hurdles, and handicaps of the moment to poison your attitude and plans for yourself and your future. You can never win when you wear the ugly cloak of self-pity, and the sour sound of whining will certainly frighten away any opportunity for success. Never again. There is a better way. Rule Eight... for a Better Way to Live: Never again clutter your days or nights with so many menial and unimportant things that you have no time to accept a real challenge when it comes along. This applies to play as well as work. A day merely survived is no cause for celebration. You are not here to fritter away your precious hours when you have the ability to accomplish so much by making a slight change in your routine. No more busy work. No more hiding from success. Leave time, leave space, to grow. Now. Now! Not tomorrow! Rule Nine... for a Better Way to Live: Live this day as if it will be your last. Remember that you will only find "tomorrow" on the calendars of fools. Forget yesterday's defeats and ignore the problems of tomorrow. This is it. Doomsday. All you have. Make it the best day of your year. The saddest words you can ever utter are, "If I had my life to live over again..."Take the baton, now. Run with it! This is your day! Rule Ten... for a Better Way to Live: Beginning today, treat everyone you meet, friend or foe, loved one or stranger, as if they were going to be dead at midnight. Extend to each person, no matter how trivial the contact, all the care and kindness and understanding and love that you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again. Rule Eleven... for a Better Way to Live: Laugh at yourself and at life. Not in the spirit of derision or whining self-pity, but as a remedy, a miracle drug, that will ease your pain, cure your depression, and help you to put in perspective that seemingly terrible defeat and worry with laughter at your predicaments, thus freeing your mind to think clearly toward the solution that is certain to come. Never take yourself too seriously. Rule Twelve... for a Better Way to Live: Never neglect the little things. Never skimp on that extra effort, that additional few minutes, that soft word of praise or thanks, that delivery of the very best that you can do. It does not matter what others think, it is of prime importance, however, what you think about you. You can never do your best, which should always be your trademark, if you are cutting corners and shirking responsibilities. You are special. Act it. Never neglect the little things. Rule Thirteen... for a Better Way to Live: Welcome every morning with a smile. Look on the new day as another special gift from your Creator, another golden opportunity to complete what you were unable to finish yesterday. Be a self-starter. Let your first hour set the theme of success and positive action that is certain to echo through your entire day. Today will never happen again. Don't waste it with a false start or no start at all. You were not born to fail. Rule Fourteen... for a Better Way to Live: You will achieve grand dream, a day at a time, so set goals for each day -- not long and difficult projects, but chores that will take you, step by step, toward your rainbow. Write them down, if you must, but limit your list so that you won't have to drag today's undone matters into tomorrow. Remember that you cannot build your pyramid in twenty-four hours. Be patient. Never allow your day to become so cluttered that you neglect your most important goal -- to do the best you can, enjoy this day, and rest satisfied with what you have accomplished. Rule Fifteen... for a Better Way to Live: Never allow anyone to rain on your parade and thus cast a pall of gloom and defeat on the entire day. Remember that no talent, no self-denial, no brains, no character, are required to set up in the fault-finding business. Nothing external can have any power over you unless you permit it. Your time is too precious to be sacrificed in wasted days combating the menial forces of hate, jealously, and envy. Guard your fragile life carefully. Only God can shape a flower, but any foolish child can pull it to pieces. Rule Sixteen... for a Better Way to Live: Search for the seed of good in every adversity. Master that principle and you will own a precious shield that will guard you well through all the darkest valley you must traverse. Stars may be seen from the bottom of a deep well, when they cannot be discerned from the mountaintop. So will you learn things in adversity that you would never have discovered without trouble. There is always a seed of good. Find it and prosper. Rule Seventeen... for a Better Way to Live: Realize that true happiness lies within you. Waste no time and effort searching for peace and contentment and joy in the world outside. Remember that there is no happiness in having or in getting, but only in giving. Reach out. Share. Smile. Hug. Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on others without getting a few drops on yourself.

Honoring the Saints, Relics, and Images 214. Does the first commandment forbid us to honor the saints in heaven? The first commandment does not forbid us to honor the saints in heaven, provided we do not give them the honor that belongs to God alone. For, behold, henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. (Luke 1:48) 215. Why do we honor the saints in heaven? We honor the saints in heaven because they practiced great virtue when they were on earth, and because in honoring those who are the chosen friends of God we honor God Himself. 216. How can we honor the saints? We can honor the saints: first, by imitating their holy lives; second, by praying to them; third, by showing respect to their relics and images. Brethren, be imitators of me, and mark those who walk after the pattern you have in us. (Philippians 3:17) 217. When we pray to the saints what do we ask them to do? When we pray to the saints we ask them to offer their prayers to God for us. 218. How do we know that the saints will pray for us? We know that the saints will pray for us because they are with God and have great love for us. 219. Why do we honor relics? We honor relics because they are the bodies of the saints or objects connected with the saints or with Our Lord. 220. When does the first commandment forbid the making or the use of statues and pictures? The first commandment forbids the making or the use of statues and pictures only when they promote false worship. Thou shalt not have strange Gods before me. Thou shalt not make to thyself a graven thing, nor the likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, nor of those things that are in the waters under the earth. (Exodus 20:3-4) 221. Is it right to show respect to the statues and pictures of Christ and of the saints? It is right to show respect to the statues and pictures of Christ and of the saints, just as it is right to show respect to the images of those whom we honor or love on earth. 222. Do we honor Christ and the saints when we pray before the crucifix, relics, and sacred images? We honor Christ and the saints when we pray before the crucifix, relics, and sacred images because we honor the persons they represent; we adore Christ and venerate the saints. 223. Do we pray to the crucifix or to the images and relics of the saints? We do not pray to the crucifix or to the images and relics of the saints, but to the persons they represent.

FRATERNAL CHARITY – Supernatural love of neighbor out of love for God.

 

=PRACTICE OF FRATERNAL CHARITY=

1.)  Avoid rash judgement – conclusive suspicion about unknown situation of the other.

2.)  Avoid antipathies – conclusive dislike of the other.

= resist emotional tendencies and treat them as means of temptation

3.)  Avoid bitter words

A.)            Words of ridicule – nakakaasar

B.)Words of contempt – nakakapuwing

C.)            Excessive criticism – pamumuna

4.)  Avoid discusions

a.)   Give way to non-sensical argumenst

b.)  Accept your failure

c.)  Listen to opinions and arbitrations

5.)  Aviod rivalries – self – rivalry or karibal

6.)  Avoid listening to or spreading false repost – avoid tsismis

7.)  Avoid discordial indiferrence.

 

=QUALITIES OF FRATERNAL CHARITY=

1.)  Fraternal charity is prevenient

a.)   Desirous of the good of others person – isipin and kapakanan ng iba

b.)  No partiality

2.)  Fraternal charity is compassionate

a.)  marunong maawa

b.)forgive and forget

3.)  Fraternal charity is generous

a.)  It is sacrificial = familiar charity, iniisip ang kapakanan ng iba

b.)It is self – less = clothed into a new man

c.)  It is non – profiting = no self-interest

d.)It is always ready to give.