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Some say that to the gods we are like flies that boys idly swat on a summer day. Others say that not a feather from a sparrow falls to the ground without the will of the Heavenly Father." Those are the only two options."
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Peter Kreeft |
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The family that fights together stays together.
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Peter Kreeft |
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For the wise men of old, the cardinal problem of human life was how to conform the soul to objective reality, and the solution was wisdom, self-discipline, and virtue. For the modern mind, the cardinal problem is how to subdue reality to the wishes of man, and the solution is a technique.
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Peter Kreeft |
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Chesterton said once that there is only one unanswerable argument against Christianity: Christians. And
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Peter Kreeft |
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Science asks what and how, philosophy asks why, myth and religion ask who. Who's
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Peter Kreeft |
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All artists are mothers. To be an artist is to be a creator, whether of a symphony or a supper or a painting or a person. Motherhood is the primary art, the art of creating (procreating) people.
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Peter Kreeft |
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Conservatives often seem afraid of questions and liberals afraid of answers--which is even sillier, because that's like being afraid of food. Being afraid of questions is like being afraid of hunger. That's only cowardice.
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Peter Kreeft |
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1b1a183
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Love is supposed to bring us out of the dark prison of the "my will be done" ego into the joys of "thy will be done", both horizontally and vertically, toward both the human and the divine Other."
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Peter Kreeft |
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It hardly ever attaches to any other sin except one, and is never heard from any organized group of people except one.
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Peter Kreeft |
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murder and adultery are great crimes.
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Peter Kreeft |
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But a sneer can be a greater crime than a murder subjectively, for a sneer means "You are beneath contempt, you are sub-human, you are worthless scum, you are not even worth taking the trouble and time to kill", while a murder may mean "You are important and formidable and you are my enemy, and thus I must kill you." That can be a compliment, compared to a sneer."
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Peter Kreeft |
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247d186
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For instance, it is a "hate crime" to quote certain politically incorrect verses from the Bible, especially the Old Testament, in any public arena.)"
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Peter Kreeft |
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There is little passion for anything except pleasure and comfort and security. Indeed, passion is confused with fanaticism.
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Peter Kreeft |
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Paradoxically, sloth reigns most in our technologically busy world where leisure has been abolished and life has been programmed and scheduled down to the last detail.
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Peter Kreeft |
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ec9764f
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If the unhappiness of the wicked angels comes at length to an end, the happiness of the good will also come to an end, which is inadmissible.
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Peter Kreeft |
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that habituation is a slow, imperceptible sinking, whose point of no return is not clearly marked.
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Peter Kreeft |
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Unworthy" does not mean "undeserving", for we are all undeserving! It means "incapable of receiving."
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Peter Kreeft |
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Christ is the Word of God, the answer of God. All the words of the prophets, philosophers, and poets are echoes of this Word. In
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Peter Kreeft |
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De Caussade makes this matter of duty very simple, too, as he makes everything simple: "We have two duties to fulfill: we must actively seek to carry God's will into effect and passively accept all that his will sends us" (p. 73). That's all. That's it."
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Peter Kreeft |
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5055bd6
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Earthly life is full of soporifics, anaesthetics, pain-dullers. In fact, compared with Purgatory our whole life on earth will appear to have been life only half awake. In Purgatory we will be fully awake, fully sensitive, and fully cognizant of the evil of all of our sins. Our clear knowledge of God's brightness and beauty will make our clear knowledge of our own darkness and ugliness more painful than any similar light that shows up our mo..
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Peter Kreeft |
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9f19e61
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As C.S. Lewis says, "God whispers in our pleasures but shouts in our pains. Pain is his megaphone to rouse a dulled world."
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Peter Kreeft |
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917566d
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We too can love with the will even when we do not have loving emotions or feelings. We make this distinction toward ourselves quite easily, so we should be able to do it toward others too when necessary.
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Peter Kreeft |
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Christ deliberately hides Himself, disguises Himself, gives no physical sign of His Real Presence in the Eucharist, for a crucially important purpose: to test and elicit and strengthen our faith. If we saw miraculous signs in every Eucharist, or if the Eucharistic bread and wine had no taste, like other bread and wine, or even if we felt unique feelings each time we received the Eucharist, our faith would be less strong because it would hav..
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Peter Kreeft |
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war between paralyzed telepaths.
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Peter Kreeft |
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The soul is the form of the body and the body is the matter of the soul, somewhat as the meaning of a book is its form or soul and the words are its matter or body.
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Peter Kreeft |
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cd5dcad
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His divinity existed without His humanity before the Incarnation, but ever since the Incarnation His humanity is joined forever to His divinity. His Ascension was not the undoing of His Incarnation.
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Peter Kreeft |
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you have nothing worth dying for, you will die. If you have nothing worth living for except mere living, you will not live.
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Peter Kreeft |
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8624558
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Heidegger says that "the fundamental question of metaphysics" is "why is there anything at all rather than nothing?" The fundamental question is not, as Plato thought, "what" a thing is (every Platonic dialogue is about that, about an essence, a definition, a concept, such as justice or piety or learning) but why it exists, why anything exists. Plato never asked that ultimate question. And the answer is God." --
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Peter Kreeft |
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e3fd758
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Even if it were within her legal right and authority, it would harm more than help. It might be argued that it is like capital punishment today: the state has the right to use it if necessary, but since it is no longer necessary, it would do more public harm than good in the current war against the culture of death.
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Peter Kreeft |
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our primary practical commandment in this life, to love our neighbors: it is not only for their and our good in time, but also preparation for our and their eternal blessedness.
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Peter Kreeft |
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ea7d5b2
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Now in giving honor to one's parents or to the gods, as indeed the Philosopher says, it is impossible to repay them measure for measure; but it suffices that man repay as much as he can, for friendship does not demand measure for measure, but what is possible.
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Peter Kreeft |
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It is significant that in most languages there is a single word for the essential virtue regarding both of these two relationships, which are the only two relationships where we cannot pay all that is owed. The word is "piety" (pietas). It means honor to both ancestors and God, the authors of our life."
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Peter Kreeft |
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10435fa
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The claims the Catholic Church makes are a little like the claims Christ makes: so superhuman that it becomes impossible to take a comfortable, middle-of-the-road attitude toward them, unless we are either sleeping or dishonest. The man who claimed to be God is either God or a lunatic and blasphemer. And the Church that claims to be the body of the God-man, with divine authority to teach infallibly, to forgive sins, to make Christ
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Peter Kreeft |
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Because CPR resuscitates thousands today, it is now a commonly known "NDE" or near--death experience, that at the moment of death your whole life passes before you in an instant, with perfect clarity; and in this "life review" everything is seen truly, nothing is covered up. God is apparently sharing a foretaste of His own vision of our life with us, as He will do completely in Purgatory and / or Heaven; and repented and forgiven sins are p..
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Peter Kreeft |
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The purpose of Purgatory is to completely internalize, in your own individual soul, what Christ has completely accomplished in objective reality in His Passion. Nothing
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Peter Kreeft |
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All the way to Heaven is Heaven", said Saint Catherine of Siena. We"
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Peter Kreeft |
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In a sense "all the way to Heaven is Heaven" (St. Catherine)."
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Peter Kreeft |
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Aristotelian hylomorphic anthropology of soul and body as form and matter of a single substance, as distinct from a Platonic or Cartesian two-substance dualism, or simple materialism or simple immaterialism or spiritualism. All three alternatives to Aristotelian-Thomistic hylomorphism are logically problematic as well as not in accord with our experience.
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Peter Kreeft |
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Romans 8:28 (ESV): For those who love God all things work together for good.
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Peter Kreeft |
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Socrates' point is that there are only two kinds of people in this world: the wise, who know they are fools, and fools, who think they are wise. Wisdom,
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Peter Kreeft |
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When the worldly toys in which we foolishly place our hopes for happiness are taken away from us, our foolishness is also taken away, and this brings us closer to true happiness, which is not in worldly things but in wisdom.
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Peter Kreeft |
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God's Spirit is most powerfully at work in us during emotional troughs, the "dry" times, not the "high" times. All the saints teach that. When the aid of feelings is removed, we can move forward only by heroic effort of our will. This"
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Peter Kreeft |
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The Church also seems to be in the social service business, the counseling business, the fundraising business, the daycare business-dozens of the same worthy businesses the secular world is also in. Why? What justifies these things? The Church's ultimate end for all these things is different from the world's end; it is salvation. This is its distinctive "product." Why put out a product that is just the same as other compa- vies' products al..
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Peter Kreeft |
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d8b433b
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The idea of resolving conflicts by killing people (which is what war is) is not a just thing, a just idea. In that sense there is no such thing as "just war". But to wage a given war may be a just action."
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Peter Kreeft |