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Forwarded from  Catholic M8s
☘️ Happy Saint Patrick’s Day! ☘️

Today we celebrate St. Patrick, the beloved patron saint of Ireland, whose life was a powerful witness to faith, courage, and the love of Christ.

Captured by pirates and brought to Ireland as a slave, St. Patrick turned to God in his suffering. After escaping, he returned years later as a missionary, bringing the Gospel to the very people who once enslaved him. His deep faith, tireless preaching, and love for the Irish people helped to spread Christianity across the land.

St. Patrick is famously known for using the shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity — one plant with three leaves, a simple yet powerful reminder of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

On this day, let’s ask for St. Patrick’s intercession:

Prayer to St. Patrick
Dear St. Patrick,
You brought the light of Christ to a land in darkness. Inspire us to be bold in our faith, sharing the Good News with love and courage. Pray for us, that we may trust in God’s plan for our lives, just as you did.

St. Patrick, pray for us!

May the blessing of the Lord be upon you today and always.

“Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me.” — St. Patrick’s Breastplate
For those who were waiting on my long ago exposition on the theology of the body and human sexuality I accidentally did it in replying to somebody saying “Sex is not a blessing, children are”
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Forwarded from Socrates
Another person has commented from the catechism so the matter is put to bed however I would just contribute and expound upon the topic. By your logic, men would be talking turkey blasters and women merely incubators. This would obviously be an affront to human dignity and would be utterly usurious. The conjugal act is the way we create children, but physical union is the blessing, in a very real way children are the byproduct. Sexual union is the completion of the covenant of marriage, without it the marriage is not actually finalised. Sex is - and it is not blasphemy to say - the the spouses equivalent of the Eucharist. It is the spouses saying with their actions, quite literally, “This is my body, which will be given unto you”. If there were ever to be an 8th sacrament, it would be sexual union since, it is an outward sign of the inward grace of marriage itself; you enter into each other, you become one body as you are one soul, one mind. It’s really quite a beautiful thing which predates sin, remember how when Adam wakes up and see Eve he says “Bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh”, the Hebrew language does not have superlative words like greatest, biggest, best, etc. The way you therefore express the magnitude of something being exalted above other things is with repeating the adjective “Holy, Holy, Holy” and also with affirming specifically their greatness over things “King of Kings, Lord of Lords”. Consider then, when Adam says “Bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh” he is not simply observing the origin of his new “helpmate” (a term which itself is almost always a title for God), it is a passionate and exuberant expression of joy and saying she is the best and most perfected version of him. I don’t think it’s anachronistic to say that when he says “Flesh of my flesh” he’s considering getting as close to her as possible (namely one flesh), especially considering they’re both naked anyway.

Consider this, and I bring it up since it was the the first reading of Mass today (when I wrote this days ago) and I feel like that is God trying to encourage me to write this since I have been considering how to reply for about days now since your (don’t take this the wrong way) missing the point cut me to heart, both as the romantic and as a Catholic. Now, the ancient way to enter a covenant in the Near East was to cut animals in half and to walk through the severed halves, essentially saying “If I go back on this covenant cut me in half”. God requests to Abraham - as we know - to enter the covenant by cutting a few species of animals in half. The notable thing about the way Abraham enters covenant with God is that God walks through the two halves of the animal, I doubt Moloch would do that, but I digress. Consider then - as a metaphor, two halves of flesh divided, which then is entered into to consecrate the covenant. My friend, that sexual union, I’m sure you’re familiar enough with the female anatomy that I don’t need to elaborate on the metaphor further.

Humour me - if you are still reading, which I doubt - and let me go further. There are in 3 dimensions to sex. The first, which is prized by the church is the expression of a “total giving of self”, the entering into each other and into covenant with each other, this is partially always present in sex behind the ramp at the skate park aged 15, with a woman you met a few hours ago on tinder, if you dubious, remeber that “he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, ‘The two will become one flesh.’" (1 Corinthians 6:16). The marital act, with the sanctity of sex in tact with one’s wife is blessed, this leads on nicely to the 2nd dimension to the conjugal act; children. The conjugal act should - of course - always be open to life, children are used as a synonym for blessings multiple times throughout the Bible, but in couples who are sterile, sex is still permitted, if sex itself wasn’t a blessing in itself, the second your wife hits menopause the church would forbid the conjugal act.
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Forwarded from Socrates
The third - which is the one misappropriated most reprehensible by the modern world which (understandably) makes a pious person reactionary and then become somewhat puritan - is that sex is fun and enjoyable. There is a reason why “satisfaction” is a synonym for orgasm.

Any of these taken alone could lead to sin or misappropriation/misunderstanding the act, many plentifully - often degenerate - sexually active people do not actually understand the unitive act. However, the conjugal act should be all 3. Proper sexual unification recognises of the sacrality and seriousness of the act, it is open to the blessing of children - lest there not be a “Total gift of oneself” - and out of a spirit of love and respect, it is contrived in the ways known only to the couple and God to be as scintillating and enjoyable for each person, (((within reason))).

Sex is beautiful, get you a wife (if it’s your vocation) and enjoy her humanity and perfect your own. God bless fren
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Forwarded from °CATHOLIC FEMININITY°
°St Joseph, Patron Saint of Fathers
Pray for us°
My boss’ daughter has just been rushed to hospital, she isn’t breathing. Please I beg you pray for her
🙏2
Go to mass my dudes
Forwarded from Lord is my Light
Therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.

Joel 2:12-13
Forwarded from Άγγελα(♰+☧=♡) 
Joshua Charles 🔗:

St. Augustine: You cannot have God as Father without the Catholic Church as Mother
A brilliant exposition of timeless Christian belief by St. Augustine. Since Christ and His Bride, the Catholic Church, have become One Body, they can never be separated. There can be no later claims or justification of “divorce”, because they are forever one. “What God has joined, let no man tear asunder” (Matt. 19:6).

Here are St. Augustine’s words:

“Let us love our Lord God, let us love His Church: Him as a Father, Her as a Mother; Him as a Lord, Her as His Handmaid, as we are ourselves the Handmaid’s sons. But this marriage is held together by a bond of great love. No man offends the one, and wins favor of the other.

Let no man say, ‘I go indeed to the idols, I consult possessed ones and fortune tellers, yet I abandon not God’s Church, I am a Catholic’. While you hold to your Mother, you have offended your Father.

Another says, ‘Far be it from me; I consult no sorcerer, I seek out no possessed one, I never ask advice by sacrilegious divination, I go not to worship idols, I bow not before stones, though I am in the party of Donatus [heresy/schism]’.

What does it profit you not to have offended your Father, if he avenges your offended Mother? What does it serve you, if you acknowledge the Lord, honor God, preach His name, acknowledge His Son, confess that He sits by His right hand, while you blaspheme His Church? Does not the analogy of human marriages convince you? […]

Hold then, most beloved, hold all with one mind to God the Father, and the Church our Mother. Celebrate with temperance the birthdays of the Saints, that we may imitate those who have gone before us, and that they who pray for you may rejoice over you, that ‘the blessing of the Lord may abide on you forevermore’. Amen and Amen”.
St. Augustine, “Exposition of Psalm 89”