|
|
|
Fear |
Healing |
Therapy |
Spiritual Counsels |
Books |
About CSF
The Demand for Spiritual Fruits |
The
Eucharist |
The
Passion |
Repentance |
A Holy
Lifestyle
 RUE
Christianity is far more than a collection
of intellectual assertions; it demands a way of life that produces real
spiritual fruits. Therefore, if you
say you love Christ, and if you want to follow Him, and if
you are willing to do anything it takes to live a holy life, then
cling reverently to the following four fundamentals of Christian life. For
the sake of your own soul, shun any teaching that neglects these fundamentals.
Be wary, too, of any bishop or priest who advocates any teaching that neglects
these fundamentals.
The
Eucharist
The entire mystical basis of
Christianity is Christ’s real presence in this world. He came into this
world in the form of real flesh and blood, as an act of divine love, on a
mission to save us from our slavery to sin. And,
on the eve of the day when He would be tortured and crucified by His enemies,
He instituted the Eucharist, so that His
Church would never be without His real
presence.
“Jesus said to them,
“Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man
and drink His blood, you do not have life within you. . . .
Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood remains in Me and I in him”
(John 6:53, 56).
 F YOU WANT to live a Christian
life, then adore and receive the Blessed Sacrament with
chaste purity of heart, making the
Eucharist the core of your life.
The
Passion
 When Christ shed His
blood for us, He fulfilled a triple purpose. First, He gave us
life—that is, freedom from our bondage to sin. Christ’s
death was a glorious mystery that reverberated from Heaven down to earth,
for “obliterating the bond [of Original
Sin] against us, with its legal claims, which was opposed to us, He
also removed it from our midst, nailing it to the cross” (Colossians
2:14). Second, the redemption worked in Christ’s
death was an example to us. It showed us, in a way that
no event in the world has ever shown before or since, how we, in our
hearts—the very hearts God has created—and through our own free
will, constantly injure others and defile, mock, and execute divine love
in every moment of our lives. Third, Christ died in order to be raised
again, to show us that God raises into His glory only those who, without
obstinacy or presumption, without cunning or intrigue, without strife or
schism, empty themselves of all their social
illusions in
humble, obedient service
to Him.
F YOU WANT to live a Christian
life, then meditate on Christ’s Passion, thinking His thoughts,
participating in His mission, and, by repeating
what He suffered, being filled with Him, over and over, day after day, praying
for the salvation of all (even your enemies),
persevering until the
end.
Repentance
Repentance is the key to the
redemption worked in Christ’s Passion. Those
who understand the reality of their sins can then repent those sins,
dying to the old way of life that is caught
in pride of self, to be purified of all that is
not holy, so that the desire for holy love will
grow and overshadow every other desire.
Come now, let
us set things right,
says the LORD;
Though your sins be as scarlet,
they may become white as snow . . .
Let the scoundrel forsake his way,
and the wicked man his thoughts;
Let him turn to the LORD for mercy;
to our God, who is generous in forgiving. |
—Isaiah 1:18, 55:7 |
But we can’t do any of this
if we tell ourselves that the sins we are committing are not really sins!
We can’t repent our sins if we condone
sin.
F YOU WANT to live a Christian
life, then recognize sin for what it is. Only the Catholic Church preserves
the teaching that tells us what
sin really is, so fidelity to the
Tradition of the Church, unless it be absolute,
is no faith at all.
Holy
Lifestyle
Every sin you commit after your
baptism will be accounted for, and you will
pay for them all, either in Purgatory or in hell,
depending on whether you repent or
not.
F YOU WANT to live a Christian
life, first repent and confess all of your past
sins and then do anything it takes thereafter
to avoid sin and remain pure of heart. Well, the only way to do this is to
live a lifestyle of chastity,
humility, prayer, and
self-sacrificial service to others, in imitation
of Christ Himself—and in imitation of His mother, the Blessed Virgin
Mary, Mother of the Church. It’s that simple.
|
