FOOD FOR THOUGHT

November, 2008: On Cluttering the Spirit:

“If Christian health care professionals really knew Christ or understood what Christianity asks them to believe, they would understand immediately and intimately the spiritual dimension of the their work that stares them in the face. Spirituality is not an ethical dilemma. It is the substance of what health care professionals do.” So writes, physician and Franciscan monk, Daniel Sulmasy, in his recent book, A Balm for Gilead: Meditations on Spirituality and the Healing Arts.

What keeps Catholic physicians from seeing the spiritual dimension of their vocation? Dr. Sulmasy explains: "There is always a danger, especially in the 21st century Western world, that one may clutter one’s life in such a way as to dull one’s spiritual sense to God’s call. This is a particularly perilous professional liability in health care. This is how one may have the experience but miss the meaning. Classically, the only way to avoid this pitfall and keep one’s spiritual senses sharp is through prayer.”

September, 2008: On Using Our Gifts:

"Let me now ask you a question. What will you leave to the next generation? Are you building your lives on firm foundations, building something that will endure? Are you living your lives in a way that opens up space for the Spirit in the midst of a world that wants to forget God, or even rejects him in the name of a falsely-conceived freedom? How are you using the gifts you have been given, the “power” which the Holy Spirit is even now prepared to release within you? What legacy will you leave to young people yet to come? What difference will you make?"
---Pope Benedict XVI July 16, 2008 at World Youth Day. CLICK for more.

August, 2008: On Contraception:

"If you can understand the difference between killing grandma and waiting until she dies naturally, you can understand the difference between contraception and Natural Family Planning...Natural death and infertility are acts of God, but with euthanasia and contraception, human beings take the powers of life into their own hands, trying to be God." --Christopher West on the "Theology of the Body."
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