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The Struggle between God and the Devil
In his homily Pope Francis traced the path that led to the death of the first martyr of the Church, a death that was the exact replica of Christ’s. He, too, like Jesus , he said, had encountered “the jealousy of the leaders who were trying" to eliminate...
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The Sinner and Holiness
Saints are not heroes, but are sinners who follow Jesus along the path of humility and of the Cross and thus allow themselves to be sanctified by Him – because no one is able to sanctify himself. This was the message of Pope Francis in his homily at daily...
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Beginnings of Philosophy
The first steps that we make in philosophy are therefore to try to understand man as an artist, capable of making the world habitable by his work. First of all, man is someone who fabricates huts, tools, wheelbarrows! Through this, he looks at the universe...
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Art and Ethics
To realize something and to act are different, because to make something is an act that passes into an exterior material…, while ethical action is an act that remains within the agent. St. Thomas, Summa Theologicae I-II, q.57 a. 4 . It is not necessary...
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Art and Ethics (II)
The philosophy of “to do” and ethics today finds themselves in very different situations. The first one does not have a need to manifest the existence of a productive activity of man, while one must justify a moral activity distinct from productive activity...
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The Temptation of Art
Even after rising to pure speculative knowledge, even after having known a veritable spiritual love with regards to God, to a friend, man always remains capable of letting himself be seduced again by artistic activity that so deeply enchants him and which...
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Art and Friendship
If I write to a friend, it is obviously because I love him; but the affection that I have for him does not necessarily mean that I would write to him. There is no absolute link of necessity between the affection that I have for my friend and the letter...
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Is work a human activity?
The same discernments can be done with regards to human activities that consist in formulating a language, to make gestures, to cut wood, to play or do gymnastics…Such activities possess their own originality that are distinct from moral intentions or...
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Honesty, Glory, and Work
"...two orientations in work are always possible. In fact, they come from the deep intention of lthe life of 'working man': either he works to allow himself and his family to live humanly, or he works to glorify himself. When this is the case, he is not...
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Music, a way to heal despair
Everything that is true of a painter, who is a visionary by way of his art, can be said of all the great artist in the proper development of each of their arts. The musician, thanks to the development of his art, can live in his own world: a world of...
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Nature and the Tyranny of Technolgy
Our universe is both a natural cradle, the good earth, but also a terrible storm that can destroy everything, that takes revenge because it is not acknowledged; it has been butchered by man, it has been cruelly repressed by an omnipresent and tyrannical...
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The Borgia Dynasty
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Artistic Taste and Talent
Taste, which is synonymous with sensitivity is neglected whenever talent is discussed. I cannot recall an occasion when this has not taken place. Yet every mark, brushstroke one registers on the canvas requires the utmost taste and sensitivity to produce...
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Infinity of Love
These demands of the intentionality of love, if they are seemingly opposed to one another, profoundly call for each other and imply a deep order, an actual harmony at the heart of a certain tension-which allows us to understand how, when this harmony...
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Who am I and what is my "self"?
But let us return to “self-love.” Can it be real love? Is not this affection for oneself in opposition to the ecstatic requirement of love, and even with love’s interiority? Is not the “self” indeed linked to our intelligible immanence? Love is directed...
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The Goodness of Who I Am
All true love aims at a true and known good, capable of perfecting the one who loves it. How can the “I” be such a good? Does not this “I” of ours become “good” insofar as we love it? Does not it reveal itself to us as “good” only in the measure in which...
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Faith and Today's World
So often we today can find our faith challenged by the world, and in countless ways we are asked to compromise our faith, to water down the radical demands of the Gospel and to conform to the spirit of this age. Yet the martyrs call out to us to put Christ...
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Self-Love and the Poet
In order to better understand what we have so far expressed, it would be interesting to see how the personal self of man can, in fact, be realized according to various modalities: there is the personal self of the artist, the personal self of the friend,...
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Is Love of Self or Love of Friendship First
Can we say that in the love of friendship, the love that the friend has for himself comes before the love which unites him with his friend? If the friend should love himself for the love of his friend who loves him, is not this self-love no longer fundamental?...
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Self-Love, Plato, and the Creator
Let us last of all consider for a moment the ultimate aspect of self-love; let us consider it from the religious point of view and in an ultimate vision of theology, of wisdom, in the manner of Plato and Bergson. In this perspective, we can specify that...
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Wisdom and Love of Self
Nevertheless, to love oneself in this light calls for a going-beyond, and for a going-beyond in such a way that this self-love will require a total remitting of oneself to Him who has given us everything. To love oneself in this ultimate way requires...
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Philosophy, Prophets, Atheism, and the Church
Philosophy and Prophecy Today it is undeniable that philosophers play the role of prophets. In a civilization where faith diminishes, and one which is no longer enrooted in the Word of God as it was in the middle ages, the philosophical intelligence plays...
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Language and Encounter
Speaking the language of the men of our times Evidently, such an extreme position cannot be accepted. It shows, as a caricature, the option of certain theologians today. All are not conformed to this caricature; however, as with every caricature, it is...
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Who Can Be Saved?
We do not baptize ideologies, but men Moreover, let us make precise that we do not baptize ideologies: we baptize men; we baptize a man capable of loving, and not only capable of having ideas. It is imprecise to say that St. Thomas has baptized the Aristotelian...
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Philosophy, Theology, and Life
The Necessity for a Realistic Philosophy We therefore can see all of the theological problems which can be asked of our time period, and we can see how difficult it is to keep at the same time an apostolic generosity that wants to rejoin today’s world...
