joy of nine9

• I have had someone in the Catholic School System for 29 years.!!! That’s right with nine kids, 15 years apart, the oldest started junior kindergarten 29 years ago! Tomorrow is the last day of exams for my  daughter who is in grade 12. It is hard to believe that it is the end of grade school for all of my children.

• Excuse me while I boast for a minute; my youngest has a 90% average and was accepted way back in the fall to the best journalism school in Canada at Carleton University in Ottawa, the capital. All my kids live the greater Ottawa region about an hour from our country home, so she will be in good hands.

• I posted my youngest daughter’s last essay for religion class yesterday but for the edification of all here posting at 7 QT Friday, I proudly offer an excerpt.

•  In conclusion people must defy the odds, become the small percentage that will do the right thing in a ddifficult situation and exercise their conscience to create a just, humane, loving society. This can be done through seeking your inner truth and remaining true to it and reflecting on your actions, thoughts and beliefs to ensure your ego accepts this reality. At its core, to exercise your conscience is to act out of love, 
  

  “Deep within his conscience man discovers a law which he has not laid upon himself, but which he must obey. Its voice, ever calling him to love and to do what is good and to avoid evil, tells him inwardly at the right moment: do this; shun that. For man has in his heart a law inscribed by God.” (Cf. Romans 2.15-16).

   Our choices are simply that, ours. We make our own choices; we must judge all the factors and decide how to act is based on what is right. However, right and wrong are opinion based and the church accepts this, 

  
  I believe we will not be condemned for our lack of knowledge, but will be responsible for our acts out of our knowledge, awareness and the process with which we make decisions. I also believe we should  act out of love, for if we love and act out of this love, no matter the outcome our intentions are true which is something to take pride in.

“Yet it can happen that moral conscience remains in ignorance and makes erroneous judgments about acts to be preformed or already committed” (Catechism #1790).

As St. Augustine said,

“Love and do whatever you want”.

This is how we become individuals, no longer another number in a world filled with over seven billion people.

• It is interesting that I had just written a similar article the day  I saw my daughter’s A+ essay. Pope Francis actually upset many people by proclaiming biblical and encyclical truths on atheists. It was quite odd that people were shocked by simple truth. Vatican tried to cover up but Pope Francis did not misspeak, not at all.

• P0pe Francis:“The Lord has redeemed all of us, all of us, with the Blood of Christ: all of us, not just Catholics. Everyone! ‘Father, the atheists?’ Even the atheists. Everyone! And this Blood makes us children of God of the first class! We are created children in the likeness of God and the Blood of Christ has redeemed us all! And we all have a duty to do good. And this commandment for everyone to do good, I think, is a beautiful path towards peace. If we, each doing our own part, if we do good to others, if we meet there, doing good, and we go slowly, gently, little by little, we will make that culture of encounter: we need that so much. We must meet one another doing good. ‘But I don’t believe, Father, I am an atheist!’ But do good: we will meet one another there.”

• God sees our hearts.  He is kind and slow to anger, rich in mercy and understanding. His thoughts are not our thoughts; His ways are not our ways. Thank God for that. Thank God that Pope Francis is not a mere intellectual but a humble man of prayer who listens to the Holy Spirit and does what He tells him to do and speaks the words given to him.