Love Letters to Lukewarm Souls

It's been in my shelves collecting dust for awhile. Just started reading it recently. When I initially picked it up from our church's rummage sale few years ago, I thought it's one of those same old, common self-improvement books how to comfort yourself or others who are suffering, but I was quite surprised. A mix bag of philosophy, theology, dialogue, etc. that reminds and widens one's perspective of the purpose and meaning of suffering in Peter Kree ft's (author of Jesus Shock) usual straight-forward, no non-sense style of writing & wisdom. Some quotes from the book: “Atheism robs death of meaning. And if death has no meaning, how can life ultimately have meaning? For death is the end of life here” “Haven’t you forgotten the first and most important lesson in all of philosophy, the lesson taught to all of us by Socrates, the father of philosophy? That you are wise only when you are humble, that the very first bit of wisdom and t...

THIS BOOK with a straight-forward title caught my eye right away when I saw it in our church's little book corner weeks ago. Because, you know, if you put together St. Augustine + his answers to questions + in a Q&A format that's readable and + the questions are of the classics such as "How do I know God hears my prayers?" or "Why must I ask for things God already knows I need?" etc., you can bet this is going to be a keeper. So far after a month of on and off reading (jumpin g from one book to another), I'm at around #63, some Q&A are not as breezy reading as I thought it would be and may require some repeat reading to comprehensively get the rich theology and philosophy of this old man. Especially when you are no theologian or philosopher and most especially to be reading the works of, many considered, the Grand Daddy of theology, the Theologian of theologians (alongside St. Thomas Aquinas). Yet knowing who St. Augustine a b...

Weeks ago, I was finally able to picked up the pace and finished reading the book by the late Joseph Cardinal Bernardin called “The Gift of Peace.” The book is basically about his reflections and insights of the events and happenings in the final 2 months of his life when he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He began in his book by recounting 3 years back of how he forgave the person face to face who wrongfully accused him of sexual misconduct that went public in the media. But for the most part, the book was about discovering his new personal ministry of how, as a man of God, he can continue to strive to courageously and consistently be a living witness and example to others in living out his faith even in the face of death, and even in the midst of all his fears, anxieties and exhaustion, so that whether in good times or bad, God’s power still manifest, and eventually him finding God’s gift of Peace in the process in embracing death. One of the things that struck me i...

Image by isaaComix. Purchase PNG here PART I *Months ago, I was visiting a favorite Catholic website of mine on Facebook and was reading a newly released article about our Blessed Virgin Mary. As I was reading various comments of Catholics regarding the article, I noticed one particular person who appears to be trolling under the comment box, unsolicitedly "refuting" different Catholic teachings to any one who would dare to read his comments and take the bait. As I skimmed through other articles of the site, I was baffled to see that same person trolling the comment boxes again under those respective articles, taking on anybody that challenges his varied assertions and accusations, one Catholic at a time that comes his way like in a one-man-versus-an-army martial arts fighting scene . I started to see his trend. If I recall correctly, he said he used to be Catholic and now belong to some strain of Protestantism (among the roughly 33,000 in existence today) and the Bi...

PART II  *Months ago, I was visiting a favorite Catholic website of mine on Facebook and was reading a newly released article about our Blessed Virgin Mary. As I was reading various comments of Catholics regarding the article, I noticed one particular person who appears to be trolling under the comment box, unsolicitedly "refuting" different Catholic teachings to any one who would dare to read his comments and take the bait. As I skimmed through other articles of the site, I was baffled to see that same person trolling the comment boxes again under those respective articles, taking on anybody that challenges his varied assertions and accusations, one Catholic at a time that comes his way like in a one-man-versus-an-army martial arts fighting scene . I started to see his trend. If I recall correctly, he said he used to be Catholic and now belong to some strain of Protestantism (among the roughly 33,000 in existence today) and the Bible alone (Sola Scriptura) is his s...