We should not be satisfied merely to keep the commandments of God, but should always be ready to do good deeds, even when they are not commanded. The commandments of God state the minimum requirements for salvation. They should be kept not merely according to the letter, but also according to the spirit, which obliges us to strive for greater perfection.
Actual sin is any willful thought, desire, word, action or omission forbidden by the law of God.
3 Conditions for Mortal Sin
Grave matter
Full knowledge
Deliberate consent
Note: From the Catechism of St. Pius X, "The Main Kinds of Sin," Question 9-10:
Q: What injury does mortal sin do the soul?
A: (1) Mortal sin deprives the soul of grace and of the friendship of God; (2) It makes it lose Heaven; (3) It deprives it of merits already acquired, and renders it incapable of acquiring new merits; (4) It makes it the slave of the devil; (5) It makes it deserve hell as well as the chastisements of this life.
Q: Besides grave matter, what is required to constitute a mortal sin?
A: To constitute a mortal sin, besides grave matter there is also required full consciousness of the gravity of the matter, along with the deliberate will to commit the sin.
The Seven Deadly Sins
I.PRIDE: Unrestrained appreciation of our own worth.
II.GREED: Immoderate desire for earthly goods.
III.LUST: Hankering for impure pleasures.
IV.ANGER: Inordinate desire for revenge.
V.GLUTTONY: Unrestrained use of food and drink.
VI.ENVY: Sorrow over another's good fortune.
VII.SLOTH: Laxity in keeping the Faith and the practice of virtue, due to the effort involved.
THE FOUR SINS CRYING TO HEAVEN FOR VENGEANCE
I.Willful murder (including abortion)
II.The sin of Sodom.
III.Oppression of the poor.
IV.Defrauding laborers of their wages.
THE SIX SINS AGAINST THE HOLY SPIRIT
I.Presumption of God's mercy.
II.Despair.
III.Impugning the known truth.
IV.Envy at another's spiritual good.
V.Obstinacy in sin.
VI.Final impenitence.
NINE WAYS OF BEING ACCESSORY TO ANOTHER'S SIN (Not often spoken of..yes this is still a part of Church teaching and must be followed to be in union with Her.)
I.By counsel.
II.By command.
III.By consent.
IV.By provocation.
V.By praise or flattery.
VI.By concealment.
VII.By partaking.
VIII.By silence.
IX.By defense of the ill done
11/19/2004 (Six years ago, what have we learned since......?)
Addiction to porn destroying lives, Senate told
Experts compare effect on brain to that of heroin or crack cocaine
WASHINGTON — Comparing pornography to heroin, researchers are calling on Congress to finance studies on “porn addiction” and launch a public health campaign about its dangers.
Internet pornography is corrupting children and hooking adults into an addiction that threatens their jobs and families, a panel of anti-porn advocates told a hearing organized Thursday by Senator Sam Brownback, chairman of the Commerce subcommittee on science.
Mary Anne Layden, co-director of a sexual trauma program at the University of Pennsylvania, said pornography’s effect on the brain mirrors addiction to heroin or crack cocaine. She told of one patient, a business executive, who arrived at his office at 9 a.m. each day, logged onto Internet porn sites, and didn’t log off until 5 p.m.
Layden called for billboards and bus ads warning people to avoid pornography, strip clubs and prostitutes.
“We’re so afraid to talk about sex in our society that we really give carte blanche to the people who are producing this kind of material,” said James Weaver, a Virginia Tech professor who studies the impact of pornography.
Brownback, a Republican from Kansas and an outspoken Christian conservative who has championed efforts to curb indecency on television and the Internet, said the public is beginning to realize “they don’t just have to take it.”
But he acknowledged the First Amendment right to free speech has limited congressional efforts.
In June, the Supreme Court blocked a law designed to shield Web-surfing children from pornography, ruling that requiring adults to register or use access codes before viewing objectionable material would infringe on their rights.
Brownback said scientific data is needed to help his cause.
Weaver acknowledged that research “directly assessing the impact of pornography addiction on families and communities is rather limited.”
But he pointed to studies that show prolonged use of pornography leads to “sexual callousness, the erosion of family values and diminished sexual satisfaction.”
There has been a dramatic increase in the viewing of pornography in recent years in Sri Lanka, Ranil Weththasinghe, a Family Planning Association Psychologist and a Counsellor said. School-going children are more vulnerable for addiction to pornography as there are many avenues to access it.
They visit porn sites on the promise that "It is common and hurts no one, and is socially acceptable. There is a widely held view by males that the female body is for male entertainment and sex is not about intimacy but self-esteem.
And as with any addiction, the more pornography, the more the appetite grows," he said.
Sri Lankan children know how to download porn material than adults. Adults are not educated on the technological side and they have very limited knowledge on how to access porn. It has given the opportunity to children to visit porn sites freely even in their homes, he said.
The mobile phones and portable video devices, particularly laptops, help the young to visit these porn sites which have been designed to attract more people particularly the youth, he said.
Explaining possible preventive methods, a spokesman for the Children and Women's Bureau of the Police Department said that the police make sudden checks on mobile phones to see whether any pornography are contained in them.
In such cases the culprits are produced before the court and fined, he said. The police arrested many individuals who were carrying porn materials in their mobile phones during the last two months.
Alarmingly even little children are addicted to pornography and the parents allow them to use sophisticated mobile phones irrespective of the risk of corrupting their minds, he said.
A spokesman for a key mobile network provider said it is difficult to block porn sites since there are innumerable and unaccounted porn sites.
But we have taken action to prevent accessing certain identified sites and also discussions are under way to take action to prevent all possible ways in accessing porn sites.
He was optimistic that after a common agreement of all network providers action could be taken at least to minimize visits to porn sites, he said.
His Eminence Marc Cardinal Ouellet
Archbishop of Québec
Primate of Canada
Marc Ouellet, PSS (born 8 June 1944 in La Motte, Quebec, Canada) is a Canadian Cardinal of the Catholic Church. He is the present Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops and President of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America since his appointment by Pope Benedict XVI on 30 June 2010. Previously, he was Archbishop of Quebec, and thus Primate of Canada. He was elevated to the cardinalate, by Pope John Paul II, on 21 October 2003.
Early life and ordination
Ouellet was born in 1944 in La Motte, a small village near the city of Amos in northern Quebec. He attended the Teacher Training College, earning a baccalaureate in education, before obtaining a license in theology from the Grand Séminaire of Montréal. On 25 May 1968, he was ordained a priest by Bishop Gaston Hains of Amos.
Professor and theologian
Ouellet spent most of his priestly career as a professor and rector in seminaries. He also received a license in philosophy from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) (1976), and a doctorate in dogmatic theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University (1983).
Bishop
Ouellet was named titular archbishop of Acropolis and Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity on 3 March 2001. Pope John Paul II personally consecrated him as an archbishop, with Cardinals Angelo Sodano and Giovanni Battista Re as co-consecrators, on 19 March of the same year in St. Peter's Basilica.
Archbishop
On 15 November 2002 he became Archbishop of Quebec and Primate of Canada (installed on 26 January 2003), and has been one of the most staunch defenders of the Catholic faith in the Canadian hierarchy.
Ouellet is fluent in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and German. He is known for his missionary work in South America.
Cardinal
He was created Cardinal-Priest of Santa Maria in Traspontina by John Paul II in the consistory of 21 October 2003.
He was a cardinal elector in the 2005 papal conclave, and numerous observers believed that Ouellet was papabile himself. A report said that Ouellet had supported Joseph Ratzinger, who became Pope Benedict XVI. Cardinal Ouellet remains eligible to vote in any future papal conclaves that begin before his 80th birthday on 8 June 2024.
Ouellet serves as a member of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, the Congregation for Catholic Education, the Congregation for the Clergy, the Pontifical Council for Culture, and the Pontifical Committee for International Eucharistic Congresses. He takes part in the (generally annual) meetings of these bodies, held in Rome. He is also a member of the Council of Cardinals for the Study of Organizational and Economic Affairs of the Holy See.
A Eucharistic Congress took place in 2008 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the foundation of Quebec City.
Cardinal Ouellet was elected the recorder, or relator-general, of the 12th Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in Rome in early October 2008.
Roman Curia
He is the present Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops and President of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America since his appointment by Pope Benedict XVI on 30 June 2010. He took over from Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, who had reached the age limit.[1]
Ouellet is associated with Communio, a journal of theology established by Catholics after the Second Vatican Council, and with Hans Urs von Balthasar, a renowned twentieth-century Swiss theologian.
Quiet revolution
He has suggested that changes around the Quiet Revolution in Quebec in the 1960s went too far.
Liturgy
Ouellet has supported a return to Eucharistic adoration and Gregorian chant.
Pastoral approach
A report by the National Catholic Reporter anticipating the 2005 papal election placed Ouellet among twenty papal possibilities ."[P]eople who have worked with Ouellet," said the report, "describe him as friendly, humble and flexible, and a man not so captive to his own intellectual system as to make him incapable of listening to others."
Catholic education
Ouellet was sharply critical of the Ethics and religious culture course of the Quebec education ministry, saying that it relativized the role of faith within the realm of religion and culture. [2]
Church persecutions
Ouellet has argued that the Catholic Church is persecuted in contemporary secular Quebec for telling the truth.[3]
Public apology
In a letter published in Quebec French-language newspapers on November 21, 2007, Cardinal Ouellet publicly apologized for what he described as past "errors" of the Roman Catholic Church in Quebec. Among the errors he wrote about were attitudes, prior to 1960, which promoted "anti-Semitism, racism, indifference to First Nations and discrimination against women and homosexuals."[4][5][6][7] Cardinal Ouellet said his letter was written in response to the public reaction to the statement he submitted to the Bouchard-Taylor Commission, and that it was inspired by a similar letter issued in 2000 by Pope John Paul II.[8]
Abortion
In May 2010 Ouellet stood by his comments that abortion is unjustifiable, even in the case of rape, and urged the federal government to help pregnant women keep their child. He said that "Governments are funding clinics for abortion. I would like equity for organisms that are defending also life. If we have equity in funding those instances to help women I think we would make lots of progress in Canada." Having earlier applauded Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government for its stance against funding abortions in the developing world - praise from which Ottawa quickly distanced itself - he said:"If they do not want to fund abortion abroad and they do not bring at home more help to women to keep their child, I think they are incoherent,.[9]
The more people I speak with, the more it seems that light needs to be brought to this subject. I can understand why it is kept so quite - it is a very difficulty sin and addiction to overcome, there are many feelings of guilt, shame, and weakness tied to it. Most often though, I don't think people actually recognize the damage that viewing pornography actually does to both sexes - or for that matter the way in which they view each other in general. So, to that end, I will be posting more frequently on this topic. I encourage any reader who struggles with this to not lose hope. There are ways to free yourself from this addiction. There are ways to heal your marriage. There are ways to feel pride as a man, husband, and father again. There are ways you can protect others from falling into the trap. Don't hide, find someone you can trust to hold you accountable, get to Confession and Mass, seek the healing the Church provides.
An hourglass figure activates the reward center in his brain
By Charles Q. Choi
updated 2/23/2010 1:23:02 PM ET
Watching a curvaceous woman can feel like a reward in the brain of men, much as drinking alcohol or taking drugs might, research now reveals.
These new findings might help explain the preoccupation men can have toward pornography, scientists added. Shapely hips in women are linked with fertility and overall health. As such, it makes sense evolutionarily speaking that studies across cultures have shown men typically find hourglass figures sexy.
To explore the roots of this behavior, researchers had 14 men, average age 25, rate how attractive they found pictures of the naked derrieres of seven women before and after cosmetic surgery that gave them more shapely hips. These operations did not reduce weight but just redistributed it, by implanting fat harvested from the waists into the buttocks.
Brain scans of the men revealed that seeing post-surgery women activated parts of the brain linked with rewards, including regions associated with responses to drugs and alcohol.
It might not be especially surprising that evolution wired the male brain to find attractive bodies rewarding.
"Hugh Hefner could have told us that by showing us how many zeroes are in his bank account," said researcher Steven Platek, an evolutionary cognitive neuroscientist at Georgia Gwinnett College in Lawrenceville, Georgia. "But there's more to it than buying Playboy, Maxim, or FHM."
For instance, "these findings could help further our understanding pornography addiction and related disorders, such as erectile dysfunction in the absence of pornography," he explained. "These findings could also lend to the scientific inquiry about sexual infidelity."
The scientists also found that changes in a woman's body-mass index or BMI — a common measure of body fat — only really affected brain areas linked to simple visual evaluations of size and shape. This may be evidence that body fat influences judgments of female beauty due more to societal norms than brain wiring.
"The media portrays women as wholly too skinny," Platek said. "It's not just about body fat, or body mass index."
What do women think?
Future research could also investigate the effects that attractive figures have on the female brain.
"It turns out women find similar optimally attractive female bodies as attention-grabbing, albeit for different reasons," Platek said. "Women size up other women in an effort to determine their own relative attractiveness and to maintain mate guarding — or, in other words, keep their mate away from optimally designed females."
These findings should not be construed as saying that men are solely programmed by their biology, nor that "women without optimal design should just hang up their mating towel," Platek added.
Platek and his colleague Devendra Singh detailed their findings online Feb. 5 in the journal PLoS ONE.
"Toward the Heights"............
A common phrase used to describe Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati's life. Bl. Pier Giorgio saw life as a way to always reach the top - whether it be climbing the Mountains of Europe or, more importantly, reaching the heights in his Spiritual Life as well.
May the man of Beatitudes pray for us that we may have the same drive and desire to serve Our Lord as we serve others.
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