The Moderate Mind

As unexpected as Trump's victory in the latest American presidential elections, it is also unexpected that once he is in the White House his rhetorical comments against his Democrat rival and her supporters will materialize. The reason is simply that responsibility of the superpower requires balancing priorities to ensure cooperation with other nations: those who need America; and those who America needs. America will not be isolated because America cannot be isolated. His movement, however,  inspires those who dare to challenge the ruling elites, their corporate supporters, and the false media. It is a restoration of an outlook to the absolute values in Christian civilization which have been challenged for over a century by relativism since Nietzsche's cry "God is dead."

Humanity since the early homo sapiens has gone through much difficulties with the environment, tribal rivalry, worship of mythical gods, and vengeance (see http://todayquestions.blogspot.ca/2016/07/todays-myths.html) - yet was able to overcome their differences in order to survive together. It is this prolife vision that makes humans stick together. In Christianity, prolife is more than this life as much as it is beautiful because there is a faith in the power of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ which promises eternal joy to those who choose to follow him.

In psychology, the latest school in America is known by the title "Positive Psychology" which emphasizes the positive attributes in the person such as hope for the future, happiness or contentment in the present, the capacity for love, perseverence, and spirituality...

Finally see my post on complex minds here:
http://todayquestions.blogspot.ca/2009/09/complex-projects-versus-complex-mind.html

Everyone needs to follow St. Augustine's rule: Be moderate in everything except in love".

The Influence of God

It is not a secret that we influence each other. By only watching TV, you can guess from the ads who moves opinions to make decisions. The political drama today is based on relativism, a post-modern phenomenon that claims there is no absolute truth. You make your own truth and I make mine. The more you have money and can invest it in influencing others, the more followers you have.
The influence of God manifested certain commandments or rules in ancient nations notably in Judaism. The influence of God has been growing since the death on the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ who spoke to his Apostles, and they, in turn, preached the good news of eternal joy from Jerusalem to Antioch, Rome, and Alexandria. They and their followers continue to confess the divinity of the risen man Jesus and his power with which he loved and loves everyone. He will come again a the end of the world to restore fallen humanity to his beloved Father (Revelation 21, 22).

The above should remind everyone that tomorrow Tuesday November 8 the presidential elections in the United States will take place. Although many deny that they do not influence anyone else nor care about what happens in the United Stated, everyone knows that the policy of the United States influences the world more than any other country as it is the hub of technology, military power, and economic influence. A prayer for the right person to be chosen will make a difference I believe. Between the extremely liberal Hillary Clinton with years of mismanagement of foreign policy after President Obama, and the conservative Donald Trump who promised to appoint 3 pro-life judges to the Supreme Court with a Conservative Congress that backs him up but who is also an extremely divisive person who wants to build walls to isolate/"protect" Americans from their neighboring countries among other things, it is hard to choose. None of us has an insight into the real intentions of the candidate. In meeting with George Weigel, I asked whether it was possible to replace Trump with his more balanced vice president Mike Pence, but he said this is not possible at this point. I hope the right person will be chosen to lead America.

I have been personally influenced by the late Archbishop Paul Antaki the Great (see http://todayquestions.blogspot.ca/2011/12/paul-antaki-great.html), the late Pope Shenouda III of the Coptic Orthodox Church (see http://todayquestions.blogspot.ca/2012/03/man-of-faith.html), Melkite Catholic Archbishop Joseph Jules Zerey in Jerusalem,
and Thomas Cardinal Collins Archbishop of Toronto who is a moderate prelate that may become the next Pope.

Among preachers, quite a few scholars have influenced me such as Fr. Henri Boulad, S.J., Fr. Ignatius Sarkis Najjar, Prof. Fr. Daniel Callam, CSB, Prof. Msgr. Robert Nusca, Prof. Fr. Georges Farah, and Prof. Fr. Samir Khalil Samir, S.J. There are more working hard to serve their churches and communities. . Among them I have been influenced by the young Fr. Ibrahim El-Haddad and his assistant priests at Jesus the King
Melkite Catholic parish. Service is not limited to priests. I have been influenced by quite a few women and men who humbly serve in different roles in church and community as well as in their own families. Parents can be examples for children. A number of organizations that impress us in their services include "Doctors without frontiers" whose  members are willing to take risk in order to treat the injured, or St. Vincent de Paul whose members visit the elderly and lonely and help them in many tasks. One such organization made up mainly of lay people that serve communities, needy, and persecuted people is the Knights of Columbus whose members influence millions in their services.

It is important that we work and pray for the right people to lead us in every country and everywhere. God is the Father who influences us as his Spirit helps us to do good and avoid evil. This is the Spirit of Christ in the world!

My Joy with the Beloved

On Sunday October 23, I had the joy of participating with my beloved wife in two special events organized by Fr. Ibrahim El-Haddad and his team at Jesus the King Melkite Catholic parish.
First: In the noon Mass, Fr. Ibrahim prayed for the past parish council of which I was a member. We prayed with the parishioners for our beloved families and friends everywhere and received the Sacrament of penance or reconciliation followed by the great Sacrament of the Eucharistic body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Homsy choir performed some of the most majestic hymns in English, Greek, and Arabic and, for me, the choir leader who knew my preferred hymns made sure the choir sang the Lord's Prayer (Our Father) in the way that his dad of blessed memory devised it. At the end of the Mass too, the Great Kyrie-Eleison was performed with such triumphant tone that you would think that the angels in heaven were also singing with us.
Following the Mass, my wife and I were invited, along with other past parish council members and their spouses to Mazza restaurant where we were greeted by the elegant owner, who is also a member of the Melkite Catholic Church and an active member on the Board of Jesus the King Knights of Columbus Council. There we were joined by a group of choir members including the choir leader and his highly-active wife who participated in the preparation of the event and served everyone. Many other parishioners joined us as we enjoyed together this get-together day. Although most attendees of the dinner party had to register and pay, they did it with joy and generosity which, I believe, is characteristic of the people who lived in, or are originally from, the Middle East. In spite of loud speakers, I enjoyed  the folkloric dance "Dabke" in which many people, young and old including Fr. Ibrahim, participated. The fellow who performed musical tones along the recorded ones left a good impact on his listeners.
It was an early well-prepared dinner, that started with a prayer to God by the mouth of the parish pastor Fr. Ibrahim and continued with a voice message from Most Reverend Bishop Ibrahim Ibrahim who is in charge of all Melkite Catholics in Canada. In his message, Bishop Ibrahim encouraged us and everyone in the community to continue the really-good work done over the past 20 years or so with Fr. Georges Farah principally who oversaw the purchase of the church and made significant contributions to our understanding of the meaning of life, and since the beginning of 2015 with Fr. Ibrahim El-Haddad, Fr. Michel Chalhoub, and Fr. Youhanna Hanna.
And I remembered the annual festival started by Fr. Georges Farah, the Catholicism Series which continue to be presented by Fr. Youhanna Hanna in addition to Fr. Youhanna's prayerful assistance to the sick which continues uninterrupted, and other talks by Fr. Michel Chalhoub, the weekly lectures in the hard questions of theology and philosophy that Fr. Georges Farah gave us, and the weekly lectures that I gave to the young adults and since 2008 to older generations too.
Following the voice message by Bishop Ibrahim, Fr. Ibrahim El-Haddad spoke of the good work and collaboration that he received from the past parish council members which continues today with his support. Fr. Ibrahim has also engaged teams of young adults to help the priests in teaching the children of the parish according to a program prepared by the Church authorities and, as far as I know, approved by Bishop Ibrahim. It is quite important that every bishop and priest provide the communication means to preserve our young adults and kids in the faith received from the Apostles.
Congratulations to the parish, the team who worked hard and the parish head for whom we thank God.
It was a day of joy with many of the beloved ones.

A Mother

“Humility is the mother of all virtues - purity, charity and obedience. It is in being humble that our love becomes real, devoted and ardent. If you are humble, nothing will touch you, neither praise nor disgrace, because you know what you are. If you are blamed, you will not be discouraged. If they call you a saint you will not put yourself on a pedestal.”

- Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa is a saint because of her courage to take the adventure of following Christ. She was born in Skopje, now capital of the Republic of Macedonia, and raised within Kosovo Vilayet in the Ottoman Empire. We see in her story the effect of upbringing in a simple one family and of daring to go on pilgrimage to the shrine of the Black Madonna where she often prayed as a young woman. At the age of 18, Agnes who would become Mother Teresa made a more daring step - we could say she stepped out of Plato's cave - to the "New World" of England as she left her mother and sister. Her father had already passed away. As she landed in Rathfarnham in Ireland to join Loreto Abbey, the words of Peter to Christ rang "Lord, To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life" (John 6: 68). She wanted to learn English, but the Lord destined her to use all her gifts for the destitute and   marginalized in India. From Macedonia all the way to India did not end there for she must tour the world to offer the services of love to the little ones and create homes for the unwanted. In 1937, she took her solemn vows and served as a teacher at the Loreto convent school near Calcutta until in 1946 Teresa experienced what she called "the call within the call" and in 1948 she began her missionary organization which Rome approved in 1950 calling it "the Missionaries of Charity". But where is her humility? She trusted God like a child as she continued to pray before the Blessed Sacrament although for 50 years she never felt his presence."Unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 18: 3). The most important message she gave was probably her acceptance speech of the Nobel Prize in 1979: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I36Nistc9wE If you listen to the entire speech you will notice how this woman and mother defends the unborn children. For more on her life see http://todayquestions.blogspot.ca/2008/11/third-teresa-woman-for-all-seasons.html

Today I received a call from a beloved cousin in Lebanon. After expressing my joy for the great Mass we had yesterday at Jesus the King Church followed by the social party organized by Fr. Ibrahim El-Haddad and his team as well as the encouraging messages by Bishop Ibrahim Ibrahim and Fr. Ibrahim (later on this), she told me about the miracle that she had in begetting her only boy through the intercession of another woman and mother, Saint Rita of Cascia, who was also the beloved saint of my beloved mother. Rita loved her husband even though he was unfaithful and loved her children praying for their salvation. On Saint Rita see: https://st-rita.org/the-story-of-st-rita-of-cascia/ and http://www.saintritashrine.org/life-of-saint-rita/ 

Who is a woman? She is not simply the external beauty that men see, but the internal beauty that expresses her love to the beloved with tears. St. Paul expresses the mystical union of the Church to Christ as the relationship of the body to the head (1 Cor. 12: 27). The committed woman attracts her lover to possess her. Yet she receives his seed in order to beget his child.  A woman is the foundation of home because of the bond that bonds her to her children. A woman strives to beautify everything around her as they reflect the inner beauty that comes from God. She enjoys the family and celebrates the success of everyone of them putting herself at the service of others. Her tears flow when in joy or in pain as well as when she loses a beloved member of her family and friends. It is proven physiologically that oxytocin, a hormone released in sexual mating, works for bonding man and woman and more so for bonding the woman to her children. See http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/275795.php

Fr. Henri Boulad, S.J. wrote that woman is the perfection of Man based on a proper reading of Genesis 2 in view of the development of life. Dr. Scott Hahn, founder of St. Paul Centre of Biblical Theology, portrays the first covenant of self-giving in the story of  Adam and Eve. And who else can tell us about the woman who is mother of all? Listen to Archbishop Fulton Sheen here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TG5-RSevDBI

It is a responsibility for Christians to open their ears to God's words for he always "knocks on the door" (Revelation 3: 20).

It is a message to Americans who are voting for the nominee for the presidential elections:

Who of the 2 candidates supports planned parenthood, abortion, and same-sex marriage?
Abortion, divorce, and same-sex marriage contribute to a childless society which means that there will hardly be any new generations that will grow, work, and pay taxes to support the infrastructure projects needed by society to survive.

Pray for America and the world!

Why Heterosexual Marriage is Important Or Why Trump Matters !

As the distinguished preacher Fr. Busch spoke at St. Michael's Cathedral Basilica in Toronto, I felt the air of sacredness which we lost in the world. It was the Mass on Sunday October 16. The Gospel reading was about the Parable of the unjust judge who did not respect God nor cared to be just with the seekers who wanted their rights restored (Luke 18: 1-8). Jesus explains the parable that God will render his merciful justice to those seekers as he "will see to it that justice is done for them speedily." However, Jesus warns his followers "But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

This is a deep point in the context of the development of history, and precisely in the civilization of the West where doubts about nearly everything lead to other doubts. Many people, especially young adults, question the faith and want everything given to them on a platter of silver. This past Friday on October 14, 2016, a lecture based on "Mere Christianity" by C.S. Lewis was presented at Jesus the King Church in Toronto. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeBU5yck2ss But some concepts were rather complex or academic for the ordinary persons who attended.The question that must be asked to most of us is "why do we want to limit ourselves to entertainment". People usually answer that they are highly stressed at work, and some do not work in their specialization, so they prefer to relax in the week-end. In the absence of a proper school system, our children who ask us about faith will have no answer. Faith is more than the Bible. It is more than what we know. It is a gift from God that needs to be cultivated in order to be fruitful. This is the meaning of the development of doctrine in the Church. Bishop Robert Barron explains it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MYMMcSI4MY - Most people have no time to think much. Too busy at work and many take up more than one job if available. However, this does not solve the problem of excessive doubt.  If we agree that we influence each other, we can trace the influence of the current scientific ideologies that are widely spread by the media to the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment had its good values such as literary criticism which entailed the historical criticism that emphasizes the context in which a Biblical book was written in history, and text criticism that researched the genre of text whether historic, poetic, or prophetic.   The Enlightenment had also negative currents whose scholars turned the Biblical Old Testament to nearly a collection of myths. 
From the Enlightenment, came the philosophical ideas of modernism and post-modernism (relativism). Two World Wars killed millions of people and destroyed countries but also created revolutions that seek vengeance. Radical feminism was born when women had to work in order to support their families after men died in the wars. This is the liberal movement that grew with the sexual revolution of the 1960s. Promiscuity and adultery found their ways into families, destroyed them by instituting divorce in most Western countries. Once legalized, so was abortion too. The liberal governments support the individualism of today. Today sexual education, to kids in schools of Ontario, Canada, teaches them that homosexual union is as natural as bisexual, transsexual and heterosexual marriage. Educators in Toronto are encouraged to get the male and female children in school to discover their own sexual organs by showing them to each other before they are in their high teens when they become sexually active...
Heterosexual marriage remains the only acceptable marriage in the eyes of the Church. It is one of the Church sacraments in which Man and Woman are sanctified in their love and are fruitful in begetting kids.
With the recent mutual insults and attacks on each other's personal life, the American Republican nominee and Democratic nominee have used every mean to destroy the other. Although many Americans especially those on the Democratic side claim that they do not like Donald Trump, they will have to face the truth before the presidential election only on this matter:
Who of the 2 candidates supports planned parenthood, abortion, and same-sex marriage?
Abortion, divorce, and same-sex marriage contribute to a childless society which means that there will hardly be any new generations that will grow, work, and pay taxes to support the infrastructure projects needed by society to keep its standard of living. Lack of workers means too that products   other than automated ones will not be enough to sustain the economy in a global competitive market. It also affects the pension of the elderly of society which would become a burden on the government and in turn would encourage assisted suicide and euthanasia. In brief it will kill society unless new comers or migrants are allowed to increase and eventually impose their own values and cultural stamp on the country - Which means a change from the Christian values on which Western nations were built to other non-Christian values and other laws such as Islamic Sharia the way it is interpreted by violent jihadists which once in place the country becomes a dictatorship managed by minds that will ensure a return to ancient times when women were treated as objects. The country, therefore, loses its democratic charter and citizens lose their liberty.

Of course, a better choice is another better candidate, but it is too late. America cannot lead the world the way it is now. Childless Europe has necessitated accepting immigrants. Generations of children are needed. Civilization requires a correction. If America must stay democratic and become a great nation, Americans need to elect a non-liberal candidate!
Again Jesus asks "But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”