Pope Benedict XVI's first Papal Encyclical

The Pope reflects and teaches about that true nature of love HERE.

Let us first of all bring to mind the vast semantic range of the word “love”: we speak of love of country, love of one's profession, love between friends, love of work, love between parents and children, love between family members, love of neighbour and love of God. Amid this multiplicity of meanings, however, one in particular stands out: love between man and woman, where body and soul are inseparably joined and human beings glimpse an apparently irresistible promise of happiness. This would seem to be the very epitome of love; all other kinds of love immediately seem to fade in comparison. So we need to ask: are all these forms of love basically one, so that love, in its many and varied manifestations, is ultimately a single reality, or are we merely using the same word to designate totally different realities?

“Eros” and “Agape” – difference and unity

That love between man and woman which is neither planned nor willed, but somehow imposes itself upon human beings, was called eros by the ancient Greeks. Let us note straight away that the Greek Old Testament uses the word eros only twice, while the New Testament does not use it at all: of the three Greek words for love, eros, philia (the love of friendship) and agape, New Testament writers prefer the last, which occurs rather infrequently in Greek usage. As for the term philia, the love of friendship, it is used with added depth of meaning in Saint John's Gospel in order to express the relationship between Jesus and his disciples. The tendency to avoid the word eros, together with the new vision of love expressed through the word agape, clearly point to something new and distinct about the Christian understanding of love. In the critique of Christianity which began with the Enlightenment and grew progressively more radical, this new element was seen as something thoroughly negative. According to Friedrich Nietzsche, Christianity had poisoned eros, which for its part, while not completely succumbing, gradually degenerated into vice.[1] Here the German philosopher was expressing a widely-held perception: doesn't the Church, with all her commandments and prohibitions, turn to bitterness the most precious thing in life? Doesn't she blow the whistle just when the joy which is the Creator's gift offers us a happiness which is itself a certain foretaste of the Divine?

Money don't make things mo betta

Here is a sad tale that illustrates an important truth. Changing one's outer circumstances will not make one happy. Again, the mystery of happiness is found in one's character not one's situation.

William "Bud" Post, who died on January 15 aged 66, was, like Vivien Nicholson in Spend, Spend, Spend, a warning that a huge financial win does not guarantee happiness.

In 1988 Post, who had $2.46 in his bank account at the time, pawned a ring for $40 and handed the money to his landlady to buy tickets for the Pennsylvania state lottery. He won $16.2 million, to be paid in annual installments of $500,000 a time.Within two weeks, he had spent $300,000 of it; within three months, he was $500,000 in debt.

Here's the tale.

INFLUENTIAL CHRISTIANS

Here's an interesting list (thanks to Hugh Hewitt) that names the 50 most influential Christians. The interesting thing to note is the direct proportion of media exposure to "influence." That is, of course, not surprising. But, given the identity of some of the top influential "leaders," one can bemoan the platform that media access affords. Here is the link.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

TODAY IS THE FIRST DAY AFTER EPIPHANY (JAN 6), in which we recall the revelation of Jesus Christ to all the world.

I resolve to live each day with a renewed sense that Jesus Christ is, indeed, Lord of all Creation.

I will not serve lesser things. I will not desire inferior joys. I will not commit myself to anything but the way of Christ in the world.

By God's grace I shall live humbly before God, gently with my brothers and sisters, courageously in the face of life, faithfully in the midst of temptations, justly in a world filled with injustice, and confidently because of the promise of God's love and presence with me through Christ.

I pray that the Love of God in Christ will fill my life and flow out of my life so that others might be able to believe in the God who is Love.

How about you?