God sent the perfect book to me at the perfect time!! I finally got done with the book "Rabbi Paul" by Bruce Chilton (which I would NOT endorse) and am now on "From the Angel's Blackboard: the Best of Fulton J. Sheen". It's basically amazing so far, and I'm not even far into it. The book is divided into 3 parts: Mind, Heart, and Spirit, and have to do with his teachings from his seminars/tv show on each subject. And, as God would have it, Habit is near the beginning of the Mind! Ahhhhhh God is good! I think every other sentence I'm tempted to put as a status! Anyways, I really don't know how much is ethical to write from books without totally over-doing it, but I'll write a few of my favorite paragraphs from the Habit section. It hasn't quite clarified for me if habits are intrinsic to the human person, but it has confirmed for me that they do at least mirror your spirituality. Read on:
"How do we break bad habits and cultivate good habits? There must be a new ideal or else a revival of an ideal that has been forgotten. Without a motivation or reason, there is no impetus or challenge to change our habits."
"The psychological fact is that we act upon our beliefs. If beliefs and ideals are wrong, our actions will be wrong."
"Once we are caught in the clutches of an evil habit and travel in the direction of vice, it takes a divine power to turn us round and make us go in another direction...The mind cannot educate itself without teachers, nor can evil habits be overcome except by what is called the grace of God, which is the infusion of a Power that makes us participate in the divine nature."
"Should the breaking off of the evil habit be gradual or immediate? The answer of Our Blessed Lord is that there should be an abrupt breaking. 'If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away' (Mt 5:29). If there is anything that causes us to stumble, for example, neglecting study because of excessive novel reading, the remedy is an entire excision."
"One must put oneself in an environment suitable for the development of a good habit. The habit of temperance cannot be developed at a bar, nor the habit of study at cocktail parties. Vigilance is necessary; so is the avoiding of 'occasions of sin'..."
"Character is not in the intellect; character is in the will. Our choices, decisions, or motivations make us what we are. If our decisions are wrong, our characters will be wrong, regardless of how much we know."
"As St. Augustine said, 'Love God and then do whatever you wish,' because if you love God, you will never do anything to hurt Love."
Ironically, this chapter was an excerpt from his teaching on Love, Marriage and Children.
GREAT post. (Sorry I still haven't commented on the emotional chastity ones). This is good stuff though. I think the best way to weed out a vice, is to focus on developing virtue. All these quotes are great, thank you for sharing them. I hope you realize what a blessing it is for you to have so much time to devote to reading and study. Props for taking advantage of it and using your time in such a spiritually edifying way.
ReplyDeleteGod bless!
Thanks Monica! I got this book and the Rabbi Paul book from the library...I'm in the middle of about 10 other books...I'm constantly cross-referencing, researching, and connecting them when I can lol. As I continue in my theology studies at school, I've been finding it helpful to become well-rounded in several topics concerning theology so I can weed out some of the, uh, not so Catholic view points of professors (or at least see where they are coming from).
ReplyDeleteThe Rabbi Paul book really got me though. Lots of assumptions based on a few passages of Paul's epistles. And the author made several claims that James was the brother of Jesus, James was the real man in charge, not Peter...it was helpful to cross reference (there I go again) with some of my apologetics books.