tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51882512011-07-30T19:00:38.580-07:00Thoughts of Apolonio Latar III"...take every thought captive in obedience to Christ..." (2 Cor. 10:5)
copyright © 2010Aphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04226017144967122488noreply@blogger.comBlogger228125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5188251.post-44359862117287295952010-08-17T08:25:00.001-07:002010-08-17T08:25:35.914-07:00The Assumption of MaryThe proclamation of this Marian dogma, like the event of Christ, came as a surprise. A surprise is not a casual event. It is an unexpected desired event. When Christ came to this world, it interrupted our logic, but it made sense to our history. It united the fragmented parts of Israel's life, and therefore explained it more than she can herself. So too with the event of theAphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04226017144967122488noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5188251.post-81724127060753983422010-07-15T12:57:00.000-07:002010-07-15T12:58:55.634-07:00Thoughts on the Natural LawPope Benedict, when he was in America, encouraged the attempt to reconcile the biblical faith and the natural law. It will take time to do so since we are dealing with a wonderful mystery: what is the relationship between faith and reason? This, no doubt, deals with the relationship between nature and grace as well as the unity of the divine and the human in Jesus Aphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04226017144967122488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5188251.post-33186839238496855932010-05-11T23:36:00.002-07:002010-05-11T23:37:50.706-07:00Drawing Near to OthersAphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04226017144967122488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5188251.post-85060188050289364742009-12-24T18:24:00.001-08:002009-12-24T18:25:41.026-08:00Christmas 2009 from Pope Benedict Source: http://www.zenit.org/article-27943?l=englishDear Brothers and Sisters!"A child is born for us, a son is given to us" (Is 9:5). What Isaiah prophesied as he gazed into the future from afar, consoling Israel amid its trials and its darkness, is now proclaimed to the shepherds as a present reality by the Angel, from whom a cloud of light streams forth: "To Aphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04226017144967122488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5188251.post-24735913134220828172009-12-22T17:05:00.000-08:002009-12-22T17:11:43.807-08:00Philosophical MusingsWilliam Rowe, in Can God be Free? (2004), gives us three propositionsA) There necessarily exists an essentially omnipotent, essentially omniscient, essentially perfectly good being who has created a world.B) If an omniscient being creates a world when there is a better world that it could have created, then it is possible that there exists a being morally better than it.C) Aphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04226017144967122488noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5188251.post-60748296792590250252009-12-10T08:03:00.000-08:002009-12-22T16:02:23.548-08:00“Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.”“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,” says the Scriptures. Fr. Massimo Camisasca, in his book Terra e Cielo, says, “In the irresistibility of the sacrament, in his continuous donation, we learn that when there was nothing there was love.” In the beginning was the Word. In the beginning, Aphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04226017144967122488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5188251.post-54391596391146464612008-12-24T09:42:00.000-08:002008-12-29T07:17:19.354-08:00The Word was Made FleshNo one has ever seen love and God is love. “Why sketch an outline, why arrange limbs, why provide him with an acceptable stature, why imagine a beautiful body? ‘God is love.’ What color has love, what outline, what shape? We see none of these things in it, and yet we love” (Augustine, Sermon 34.3). Unseen, the heart sighs. “No one can see glory but he who is in glory; thereAphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04226017144967122488noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5188251.post-10289292308000541682008-12-05T20:11:00.000-08:002008-12-05T20:15:24.513-08:00Musings on AdventThere is a tendency to think that the Christian's response to the materialistic utopia is activism; the response to the world that is obsessed with "having" is "doing." Especially during Lent, we often hear people not simply giving up such and such an object or activity, but making promises such as “I will be kinder to my co-workers,” “I will try to obey my parents,” “I will be Aphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04226017144967122488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5188251.post-24081151359254453922008-10-30T13:58:00.000-07:002008-10-30T14:02:59.190-07:00Christ and Inter-religious DialogueThis speech was given to the Aresty Research Symposium in Rutgers, Spring 2008.Ever since the beginning of Christianity, one of the main problems was evangelization. How were Christians supposed to propose what they call the “gospel,” the “good news” to all people as Jesus commanded them to (Matt. 28: 19-20)? Most of Jesus’ disciples were practicing Jews, that Aphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04226017144967122488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5188251.post-28431230702433148362008-08-29T05:46:00.000-07:002008-08-29T05:49:32.928-07:00New Blog!There is a new blog on Catholic philosophy, Philosophia Perennis:http://perennis.wordpress.com/Now you can read your favorite authors in one blog.I'm not going to lie to ya...reading the list of rosters in that blog, comparing myself to all of them, I feel stupid!Aphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04226017144967122488noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5188251.post-64811698695607043422008-08-07T10:19:00.000-07:002008-08-07T10:25:09.785-07:00Notes on NietzscheThe question, “Is Zarathustra ‘higher man,’ ‘last man,’ or ‘overman’?”, tempts a person to give a definitive answer as a matter of fact and falls into what Nietzsche calls the will to truth, something which he likes to get away from because it does not concern what is life-enhancing but the object in itself. Answering the question with either the higher man, last man, or overmanAphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04226017144967122488noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5188251.post-64194428314903189972008-08-02T20:14:00.000-07:002008-08-02T20:21:32.570-07:00The Christian and Nietzsche on the Child: A Short EssayThe image of a child is attractive to both Christianity and Nietzsche. Jesus is famous for making childlikeness as a necessary condition to enter heaven: “Whoever does not receive the Kingdom of God like a child will not enter it” (Mk. 10:15). Nietzsche is famous for his three metamorphoses, the child being the last stage of the Aphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04226017144967122488noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5188251.post-55047737345751405512008-06-30T00:36:00.000-07:002008-06-30T00:40:40.221-07:00Some Thoughts from Last Semester (unedited)(Response to a person’s experience on art, March 13, 2008)It may very well be that the creative risk is the greatest risk. God, after all, had to consider whether He should create the universe filled with people who will reject Him. Traditionally, it was thought that Satan failed to worship God because he did not want to bow down before the incarnate Aphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04226017144967122488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5188251.post-32830256709684033282008-06-06T22:44:00.000-07:002008-06-06T22:52:51.548-07:00World Without ChristI was asked this week whether a person can be happy without Christ. I answered with an example from the Gospels. (I have written this elsewhere)Jesus and his followers were walking towards a city called Nain. There was a large crowd walking with him because they did not want to leave him. They found this man to be exceptional, someone who corresponded to their hearts. They Aphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04226017144967122488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5188251.post-83469453634826770452008-04-12T09:22:00.001-07:002008-04-12T09:26:03.581-07:00N.T. Wright InterviewHere is a nice interview with Tom Wright. It includes a little interaction with Piper's book.http://www.asburyseminary.edu/chapel/ntwright.phpAphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04226017144967122488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5188251.post-41473544509377562522008-04-02T11:31:00.000-07:002008-04-02T11:35:24.361-07:00On ObedienceTo Pilar Timpane, for her birthdayWhat does it mean to obey, to be faithful to Christ? Our obedience depends on our certainty of God’s faithfulness. This is what the great words “Thy will be done” really mean. They are a reminder of our original dependence and most of all, His faithfulness which is His affection, for us. How do we know that He is faithful? How do we know that He caresAphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04226017144967122488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5188251.post-6636270275912723692008-03-19T00:18:00.001-07:002008-03-19T00:22:06.443-07:00Meditation on Christ's Experience of Abandonment: A PoemThe Garden After Eden Who can die my death?On the borderline of the heavens and the earthis solitude.Near Sheol,Prayer becomes a monologueAnd the eyes of the peacock closeAphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04226017144967122488noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5188251.post-82568167993426372702008-03-13T22:57:00.001-07:002008-03-13T23:04:30.643-07:00Good FridayWhat are you doing on Good Friday? I hope to see you here:http://www.wocbrooklynbridge.com/Also, here is a nice meditation on the crucifixion of Jesus:The man who embraces the cross is always alone,looking up at one who is not looking down,but who is in turn looking upward towards the God who has forsaken them.That is the important thing:that he lifts our abandonment into his ownAphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04226017144967122488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5188251.post-32376505007054418122008-02-22T21:09:00.000-08:002008-02-22T21:11:11.981-08:00Reflections on John 4To Alexi-NoelleChrist did not come to this world with a type of spirituality but a penetrating gaze that infuses into the human heart a love that lasts forever. In the eyes of Christ, we encounter God’s human sympathy that shatters the hardness of the heart and our indifference towards our destiny. The more we look into his eyes the more we become certain of our vocation, ourAphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04226017144967122488noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5188251.post-78470595906839511362008-02-07T23:31:00.000-08:002008-02-07T23:43:28.159-08:00Lent as Education of our FreedomLent seems to be a gloomy season. A month ago we were celebrating Christ’s birth and now we are fasting. We didn’t get to see Christ grow. But the Christian is one who has his heart ready to adapt to God’s tender will. He must accept God’s absolute freedom because it is in God’s freedom that he will be liberated from his inhumanity.I have always thought of Lent as Aphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04226017144967122488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5188251.post-47167750655557512592008-01-11T22:38:00.000-08:002008-01-11T22:41:57.594-08:00Notes for Independent StudyThe purpose of revelation is to bring us to what we yearn for: eternal happiness (quote Bonaventure). Because eternal happiness is not simply a matter of the intellect but rather must be felt (quote Dietrich von Hildebrand), anything that is a glimpse of heaven requires some kind of experience; revelation must be experienced. The question for the Jews was not: how is itAphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04226017144967122488noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5188251.post-72326424472390589712007-12-28T08:05:00.000-08:002007-12-28T08:09:30.869-08:00Christmas ThoughtsDuring Advent, we had our heads erected and stood still as we waited for our Lord’s coming, our redemption. We were reminded that we are to live in hope, that hope gives us the intensity and courage to be alive at any circumstance. What is it that we are looking for? What is it that we are hoping for? In the end, we do not hope for a good situation, but a happy life, a presence Aphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04226017144967122488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5188251.post-86497027614505686572007-12-17T00:58:00.000-08:002007-12-17T00:59:41.623-08:00Christmas and HospitalityChristmas is a time of visiting and visits. We will see family members we have not seen for quite some time, those we love, and those we do not like. I know what you are thinking: “Oh, you’re going to tell me to reconcile the differences I have with my family members huh?” Well, not quite. Reconciliation is grace. It is not something we do on our own. Most of the time Aphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04226017144967122488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5188251.post-53431615720898565022007-12-13T23:00:00.000-08:002007-12-13T23:06:26.414-08:00Meditations for Advent 2007On the third Sunday of Advent we read the story of John the Baptist asking his disciples whether Jesus of Nazareth, his cousin, is really the Christ, the One who is to come. We remember that this is the same John the Baptist who proclaimed that there is someone mightier than him who is coming. Like the Jews at his time, he probably thought of the messiah as one who willAphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04226017144967122488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5188251.post-41109636420146728132007-12-08T22:23:00.000-08:002007-12-08T22:35:33.636-08:00School ProjectWhat would I write if I were to write a new Gaudium et Spes? Well, that was a project assigned to me in my Catholicism and the Modern World class. Here is what I have written. I wrote this before I read Pope Benedict's new encyclical and compared to it, my document looks like crap.PASTORAL CONSITUTION OF THE CHURCHFEAR NO MOREDRAFTChrist Draws All Men to Himself1. “Fear no more,” (Aphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04226017144967122488noreply@blogger.com1