Love Letters to Lukewarm Souls

ONE OF THE THINGS that I found interesting reading Sherry Weddell's book "𝙁𝙤𝙧𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙄𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙖𝙡 𝘿𝙞𝙨𝙘𝙞𝙥𝙡𝙚𝙨" is the term "𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙎𝙥𝙞𝙧𝙖𝙡 𝙤𝙛 𝙎𝙞𝙡𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚." The "𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙎𝙥𝙞𝙧𝙖𝙡 𝙤𝙛 𝙎𝙞𝙡𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚" is a well-known communication theory by political scientist Noelle-Neumann. She found that 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘷𝘰𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘢𝘯 𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘯 𝘢 𝘵𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘤 𝘪𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘺, 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘧𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘪𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘫𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘺.   Isn't this the truth (or at least makes perfect sense) particularly in politics and especially in religion? In politics, many seems to go along with what the secular worldviews and media's talking points are, which tend to be more left and liberal. In religion, many feel awkward sharing or talking about Jesus in gatherings or social media for fear or shame they ma...

"My Nightly Examination of Conscience: A Prayer, Meditation, Examen & Gratitude Journal in One to Intentionally Cultivate Saintly Virtue, Grow in Holiness & Transform your Life Before Bedtime" is now available at Amazon. The only companion you'll need for your evening prayer, meditation, examen and gratitude journaling, all in one notebook!   Get a copy by clicking this link: https://amzn.to/3go5ti4 or click the image above.   This multi-purpose journal book is created with the following objectives in mind:   Contains only the necessary, useful, self-explanatory, and straightforward guided prayer prompts to get you started right off the bat and help you cultivate a more productive and efficacious prayer time and reflection to grow in your faith and holiness.   The format is inspired by the spiritual exercises and principles of St. Josemaria Escriva, St. Ignatius of Loyola, and Catholic contemporary Matthew Kelly. The Opening and Clo...

This lenten season, it's a perfect time to try using Catholic apps to help organize and strengthen our interior need and Catholic faith. We are living in the modern era of digital tech, after all. Here's my top Catholic apps I am using that I hope you might like, or even love. In no particular order... ESCRIVA LITE If you are a St. Josemaria Escriva and Opus Dei fan like I am, this free app is for you. The app contains daily mass readings in a clean, bold, super organized, minimalist interface, with St. Escriva related excerpts according to the readings of that day, taken from his various books and homilies, which are a gem of St. Escriva freebies of wisdom. Get yours here on Apple or Google Play app links provided below.   DOWNLOAD Escriva Lite HERE: https://apple.co/3ssgId1 DOWNLOAD Escriva Lite Here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=appleia.com.escrivalite   GREAT CATHOLIC MUSIC Looking for all Catholic Songs, Hymns or Music? This non-stop, livest...

This was an exhortation I gave last March 1st, 2020 in a Christian community where I led a prayer meeting session, some portion were edited and revised for the purpose of this blog.  The very 1st Christian community I had been with was back in High school. It was in a group called Opus Dei (perhaps some of you might have heard of it or familiar with it. It was even mocked and fictionalized in the popular book and movie by Dan Brown years ago called the DaVinci Code). Photo courtesy of Juniverse © 2020 Opus Dei was founded by St. Josemaria Escriva and it is a Latin phrase which means "Work of God". The basic precept of Opus Dei is for laypeople like you & me to foster and aspire for holiness in our everyday ordinary circumstances and profession. Wherever you are or whatever you do, whether you are in school, at work, at home, washing dishes, doing the laundry, even doing number 2 (jokingly speaking, but you get the point: Everything you do), all of our activ...

Quite a few times I've heard and read over in social media the challenge posted by agnostic/atheist relatives and friends against us Christian counterparts the common objection "If there is a God, why is there evil and suffering?" or something to this effect. And therefore conclude that there is no God, and to believe in such supernatural being is irrational and illogical. Many also have their faith shaken because of this and have turned away from God altogether to join atheists and embrace its worldview instead. Recommended Book. Visit Amazon https://amzn.to/3o8Cu5V As Christians, we understand where they are coming from and share in their sentiment as well, as nobody--whether you are a believer or not--are exempted from evil and suffering in this world. There are already multiple apologetics concerning this topic you may easily find in books and online that have philosophically and theologically answer probably and arguably the most difficult theological ...

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...

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...