Hello everyone! I sincerely apologize for my absence. I’ve had an extremely hectic past year. I was engaged in a book project with a good friend and mentor of mine through the end of last year. I also took a new job working in a completely new industry. So there has been a lot of adjusting.
Anyways, I just wanted to share with all of you an exert from the book project. Currently, the title of book is Catholic You! Where Self-Knowledge and Fellowship Meet. The following is taken from the Introduction. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Enjoy!
SELF-KNOWLEDGE: WHAT WE SHOULD KNOW
“To know the truth of what I am – the truth of why my body and soul are in conflict – the truth of how they can be reconciled – the truth of how to find Divine Strength to overcome sorrow and sin and Divine Knowledge to overcome my mistakes – would mean I could be free to live.” - Venerable Fulton Sheen
Who are we? Self-knowledge involves taking an honest look at ourselves – our worldview, our temperament, our predominate sin, our inclinations to the Seven Deadly Sins – and how we relate to reality.
We are in the fight of our lives. Seriously. Not only are we in a fight, with unimaginable happiness or misery at stake, but we are also being soundly thrashed. Believe it or not, we are. We willingly side with our enemy every day. Don’t think so?
Sin is an offense against reason, truth, and right conscience; it is failure in genuine love for God and neighbor caused by a perverse attachment to certain goods. It wounds the nature of man and injures human solidarity (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1849).
How could an enemy be so powerful and clever as to dupe us into siding against ourselves? Pretty easy really; he seduced our first parents into committing that Original Sin.
Because our first parents failed to live the deeper love of obedience, our human capacity to love has been genetically changed. We became users instead of lovers. We inherited selfishness and self-centeredness, much like we inherited our genetic characteristics, from our parents, grandparents…first parents.
Original Sin explains why we do what we do.
Our bodies, despite their continual demands and desire for fleshy satisfaction, are really the more inferior side of who we are. Through Original Sin the body suffers and dies. Yet the deeper wound caused by Original Sin is to the soul (the more God-like side of us). Our intellects and wills have been seriously damaged. The truth is that without God’s help we would have been hopeless.
Yet we have this great hope – God loves us and sent His only Son to save us from our sins. He offers us His grace, that “free and undeserved gift that God gives us to respond to our vocation to become his adopted children” (ibid. pg 881).
Catholic You! Where Self-Knowledge & Fellowship Meet, through 7 steps, leads us deeper into ourselves and prepares us to become better channels of God’s grace.
I’ll be posting more exerts over the next couple months. I’m also working on making the book available in a downloadable format soon.
May God bless and keep each and every one of you.
