Fr. Barron On "The Hobbit"

For Freedom...

Conversion is a life-long process which is why St. Paul reminds us:  For freedom, Christ has set us free, so stand firm and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery. (Galatians 5:1)
And St. Peter warns us to be on guard: Be sober and vigilant.  Your opponent the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.  Resist him, steadfast in faith, knowing that your fellow believers throughout the world undergo the same suffering. (1 Peter 5: 8-9)
Temptations, memories, accusations, etc. will be thrown at us to discourage us, but never forget that God's love and mercy are always more powerful than our own sins and weaknesses:

Emotional Chastity/Virtue

Girl meets guy.  Girl immediately starts planning the wedding and writing her first name with his last name all over her notebook to see if it flows well.  Girl puts guy on pedestal and thinks he can do no wrong (which puts way too much pressure on any person).  And thus begins a story that involves a lot of wounds and heartache.

I don't think I've ever met a girl (including myself) who hasn't, in some varying degree, dealt with this at some point or another.  Guys, you're not off the hook either, you can just as easily dream up some idea in your head as well.  So what, pray tell, must be done?  Emotional Chastity/Virtue.  Live in reality and strive for truth, beauty and goodness.  Reality can actually be quite good and allows a relationship to flourish and blossom because neither person is putting too much pressure on the other to be perfect (which helps when apologies and forgiveness are necessary) and when each person sees the other for who they really are then they can both make an honest choice to love each other where they're at and help one another become more virtuous and be the saints they were made to be.  There is a lot more that could be said on this topic, but unfortunately I don't have time to write out a discourse on it right now. So for now, I point you to the following:

Women have a unique ability to identify and draw out the good in another person, thereby contributing to others’ personal growth.  Furthermore, desire for love is in itself natural, good, and even noble. Women court danger, however, when they fill their minds with unbridled sentimentality that ignores the truth about their relationships.

Why would sentimentality or a romanticized vision of love be such a bad thing?  Consider a necessary distinction between romantic sentiment and sentimentality. Sentimentality can easily be detached from reality, thereby threatening healthy relationships, as it is primarily a disproportionate emotional response to sexual attraction.  Emotional sentiments may spontaneously happen to a person and provide a distraction from developing authentic interpersonal interaction, which is rooted in choice, healthy decisions and habits. The role of romantic sentiment, on the other hand, can be a positive one.  Romantic sentiment, if properly integrated into a relationship that also includes mutual knowledge, healthy trust and commitment levels, and true friendship grounded in virtue, comprises one of the key ingredients in authentic love and indeed can be the seed from which authentic love blossoms. If left unchecked, however, sentimentality becomes divorced from reality and this departure from truth about the situation can be harmful.

Read the rest here.
Also check out Emotional Virtue, a website by Sarah Swafford.

Joy of the Presence of the Holy Spirit

When we do the will of God our lives are filled with joy:

What/Who Fills Up Your Life?

"My disability doesn't define who I am."

Often we allow our weaknesses and/or our strengths to be the defining factors of our identities, but it is never what we can or can't do, how we look or don't look or even how we feel or don't feel that defines us.  Who we are is defined by Who made us: we are children of God.  We are made in his image and likeness and our purpose is simply to love and be loved.  When everything else follows in order from that reality, your true greatness shines through:

He is Waiting For You...

The Joy of Chastity

Chastity is not a restriction.  It is the freedom to be joyful.

Jason and Crystalina Evert shared this video of a girl who listened to one of their chastity talks when she was in middle school and promised to live a chaste life.  This is a glimpse into the joy such a decision brings: