love of neighbor

St Augustine Confessions Book 10
Morality

St Augustine’s Confessions: On Soul, Mind, Memory, Stoicism, Salvation, and True Happiness, Book 10

Bruce Strom 0

St Augustine is my favorite Catholic saint because in every major work he explicitly states that the foundation of the Christian faith is the two-fold Love of God, and love of neighbor, where we love our neighbors as ourselves. In Book 10 St Augustine prays to God that “you want us not only to Love you, but also to love our neighbor,” and he repeats this in other books of the Confessions. St Augustine prays to God: “Give me the grace to do as you command, and command me to do as you will!” […]

Ladder of Divine Ascent Steps 8 9 SMALL Anger Remembrance of Wrongs
Ladder of Divine Ascent

St John Climacus, Ladder of Divine Ascent, Freedom from Anger, Meekness, Remembrance of Wrongs, Steps 8 and 9

Bruce Strom 2

A recurring theme is the Ladder of Divine Ascent is the climb is not a one-time conversion vaulting us to the top of the ladder, but is rather a process, a changing of habits, that we practice for the rest of our lives, ever climbing, until we reach the great IMAX theater in the sky with screens forty feet wide and forty feet tall that replays  the major events in our lives at the end of days.
Step 8.23. “The beginning of blessed patience is to accept dishonor with sorrow and bitterness of soul. The middle stage is to be free from pain in the midst of these things. But perfection, if it is possible, is to regard dishonor as praise. Let the first rejoice; let the second be strong; blessed is the third, for he exults in the Lord.” […]

St Augustine’s Confessions, His Conversion, Baptism, St Monica’s Death, and Philosophy, Books 8 & 9
Morality

St Augustine’s Confessions, His Conversion, Baptism, St Monica’s Death, and Philosophy, Books 8 & 9

Bruce Strom 1

Baptism and confession in ancient Rome were very viewed much more seriously in the ancient world than they are today, as the Christian persecutions were in living memory. St Augustine was baptized in the year 387 while the former Emperor Constantine the Great started favoring Christianity in the year 312, putting to an end the vicious persecution of Christians under the preceding Emperor Diocletian, which was only seventy-five years ago.

Although the severe Diocletian persecutions were fading into history, many Christians had parents or grandparents who suffered and martyred for their Christian faith. There was a strong feeling among the Christians that they needed to be serious about baptism, that committing mortal sins after baptism could endanger their immortal soul. Constantine was baptized on his deathbed since he feared damnation for those enemies that were killed on the battlefield. Monica had delayed her son’s baptism because she was not sure he could repent of the inevitable sins teenagers with raging hormones would commit, and he declined to be baptized until he left the Manichean heresy in his middle age. Many Christians in the time of St Augustine desired to be as serious about their faith as the martyrs were about the faith that they sacrificed their life for.

This explains Augustine’s anxieties as he prepares himself for the challenge of living as perfect a Christian life as possible after his baptism. His anxiety was that he could not control his passions, a common concern in a Roman world so deeply influenced by Stoic philosophy. St Augustine tells us several conversion stories that were shared with him before his own conversion story. […]

Morality

St Augustine’s Confessions: Mother Monica, Concubine, Marriage, and Philosophy, Books 6 & 7

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The Confessions were written soon after St Augustine was drafted to be the co-bishop of Hippo, near Carthage. The Confessions are not only a confession of faith and a confession of sin and sinful longings, but also a mirror into his soul, exploring his innermost motivations. The style is unique, Bishop Augustine addresses his Confessions as a prayer to God, addressing God directly, imbedding verses of Scripture and the Psalms directly into his Confessions as he writes these words on his soul. […]

Ladder of Divine Ascent, SMALL Steps 6,7, 13
Ladder of Divine Ascent

Ladder of Divine Ascent, Remembrance of Death, Joy Making Mourning, and Despondency, Steps 6,7, & 13

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St John Climacus continues:
Step 6.3. “Fear of death” “comes from disobedience, but trembling at death is a sign of unrepented sins.” Those who fear death the most are the disobedient who live only to party, who live for today, who live for themselves, and do not live for others, they are the unrepentant who tremble at death’s gates. Even “Christ fears death, but does not tremble,” so He can show us that he is both God and man.
Step 6.24. “It is impossible, someone says, impossible to spend the present day devoutly unless we regard it as the last of our whole life.” […]

St Augustine Confessions Books 345
Morality

St Augustine’s Confessions: Manichaeism, NeoPlatonic Philosophy, and Monica’s Prayers, Books 3, 4, and 5

Bruce Strom 5

The Confessions were written soon after St Augustine was drafted to be the co-bishop of Hippo, near Carthage. The Confessions are not only a confession of faith and a confession of sin and sinful longings, but also a mirror into his soul, exploring his innermost motivations, and thus are included in many introductory psychology courses as one of the first explorations of our subconscious drives. The style is unique, Bishop Augustine addresses his Confessions as a prayer to God, addressing God directly, imbedding verses of Scripture and the Psalms directly into his Confessions as he writes these words on his soul. […]

Building Bridges Between Church and LGBTQ Community
Catholic Catechism

The Church, the Catholic Catechism, and the LGBT Community

Bruce Strom 1

How should this two-fold Love of God and love of neighbor affect how we enforce moral laws in our faith and civil communities? When should these be enforced?

Simply put, in the Judeo-Christian tradition, they should be enforced so they increase in our hearts the two-fold Love of God and neighbor. This certainly means we should discourage sexual abuse and punish serious sexual abuse that is proven. Certainly, it means we should seek to be compassionate rather than cruel, because compassion is loving, while cruelty is hateful. […]

Ladder Of Divine Ascent Step 4 Obedience
Ladder of Divine Ascent

Ladder of Divine Ascent, St John Climacus, Rung 4 on Obedience

Bruce Strom 2

Obedience precedes repentance in the Ladder of Divine Ascent. Without obedience, there is no repentance. With repentance comes obedience. When we sinned, we did not obey; now we repent, and obey. It is interesting that in the Decalogue the commandment of honor our father and our mother, and all those in authority, connects the commands to Love God with all our heart and with all of our soul and with all of our everything to the commands to love our neighbor as ourselves.

Step 4.3 As John Climacus teaches us, in obedience we renounce our desires, what we want, what we need: “Obedience is unquestioning movement, voluntary death, a life free of curiosity, carefree danger, unprepared defense before God, fearlessness of death, a safe voyage, a sleeper’s progress. Obedience is the tomb of the will and the resurrection of humility.” […]