TOPICS from A to Z

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Fighting for Purity - Mentors for Men in the Saints

On these Blogger pages we explore TOPICS in our desire to respond to Jesus' call to walk with Him in our world as his missionary disciples empowered by the Holy Spirit to bring to humanity the Good News of the Father's love manifested and given in Jesus, the Divine Mercy. G.S.

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Fighting for Purity July 31, 2013 Sam Guzman

St. Josemaria Escriva

“There is need for a crusade of manliness and purity to counteract and nullify the savage work of those who think man is a beast. And that crusade is your work.”- St. Josemaria Escriva The number one, soul-destroying problem men face is attacks on sexual purity. Immodesty is ubiquitous, pornography is easily accessible, and every form of media, including advertising, is filled with sexualized images. I could cite all kinds of shocking statistics showing the increasing rates of pornography addiction, the number of sexualized images teen boys sees by the age of 18, and much more. But I don’t think I need to do that. We all know it’s a problem that men struggle with, now more than ever in our depraved culture. I want to discuss this problem briefly, and then offer some rules for combating lust as a Catholic man. First, the tough stuff.

Take it Seriously

“Lust indulged became habit, and habit unresisted became necessity.” – St. Augustine

St. Bernard threw himself into an icy pond to preserve his purity.

Because moral standards are so low these days, we become numb to just how bad things have gotten. St. Therese of Lisieux, who lived in the late 1800s, said her father would not let her or her sisters leave the house if the sleeves of their dress were above the elbow. Now, young women regularly attend mass in mini-skirts that leave nothing to the imagination. Just because standards of modesty are lax now, though, does not mean we should take purity less seriously. Purity is a matter of spiritual life and death. While the world will tell you lust is harmless and natural, it is playing with soul-destroying fire—it is the ultimate slippery slope, the ultimate powder keg waiting to explode.

Entertaining and enjoying a brief thought or glance can very easily lead to doing an internet search for pornography. One little indulgence in pornography can very easily turn into an addiction. And before you know it, your life is spinning out of control and you can never get enough. While it doesn’t happen to everyone, there is a very real danger of becoming the next Ariel Castro.

In short, never just mess around with pornography or even lustful thoughts. It can destroy your marriage, your family, your spiritual life, and ultimately send you to hell.

Don’t Make Excuses

“Don’t say, ‘That’s the way I am—its my character.’ It’s your lack of character. Esto vir!—Be a man!” – St. Josemaria Escriva

Men, I want to challenge you not to make excuses when it comes to lust. Yes, it is undoubtedly a struggle to maintain purity in the modern world. Yes, the vast majority of women wear next to nothing these days, especially in the summer. Yes, pornography is easily accessible on your smart phone. Yes, almost every movie has a sex scene. But guess what—those things aren’t valid excuses for entertaining lust.

Today’s men are constantly looking to pass the buck on their sexual struggles. The Catholic Gentleman doesn’t make excuses, though. Take responsibility, man up, and confess your sins to a priest when you fail.

The Good News

St. Francis rolled in the snow to preserve his purity.

Now that I’ve beat you over the head, so to speak, there is some good news. And that is that there is a big difference between looking and lusting. While the ideal is perfect custody of the eyes, this is something we have to learn over time. Until we have mastered our eyes, however, we shouldn’t feel guilty about their being drawn to skin. In other words, it is very difficult to keep your eyes from being attracted to a flash of skin as a girl walks past in barely-there shorts. That is our natural concupiscence at work, and it isn’t a sin. What is a sin is that second, lustful glance—that willful choice to entertain and enjoy sinful thoughts. Other than staring at the floor (maybe that’s a good idea sometimes!), it can be almost impossible to never see any immodesty. We shouldn’t beat ourselves up if you we look and see things we wish we wouldn’t have. Don’t be overly scrupulous about seeing things you can’t control.

A Few Helps

While we all have our own spiritual walks and methods for combating temptation, here are a few time tested methods from the saints.

1. Run away – “In temptations against chastity, the spiritual masters advise us, not so much to contend with the bad thought, as to turn the mind to some spiritual, or, at least, indifferent object. It is useful to combat other bad thoughts face to face, but not thoughts of impurity.” – St. Alphonsus Liguori

2. Ask for graces to be pure – “Holy Purity is granted by God when it is asked for with humility.” – St. Josemaria Escriva

3. Be humble – ”Humility is the safeguard of chastity. In the matter of purity, there is no greater danger than not fearing the danger. For my part, when I find a man secure of himself and without fear, I give him up for lost I am less alarmed for one who is tempted and who resists by avoiding the occasions, than for one who is not tempted and is not careful to avoid occasions [of sin]. When a person puts himself in an occasion, saying, I shall not fall, it is an almost infallible sign that he will fall, and with great injury to his soul.” – Saint Philip Neri

4. Consecrate yourself to Mary – This is my own suggestion based on the lives of a number of different saints and my own experience. Give your purity our Blessed Lady. Ask her to safeguard it for you. On rising in the morning and before going to bed, say one Hail Mary for purity in your thoughts and choices.

5. Be radical – “And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it from you; it is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire.” – Jesus (An example from my life: I chose to stop going to the beach due to the immodesty everywhere.)

Conclusion

Every man struggles with purity, and it is harder than ever in our overly sexualized culture. The last thing we should do is be lax about it—it is far too serious a matter to take lightly. It’s literally a matter of spiritual life and death.

While we shouldn’t drive ourselves to despair with scrupulosity, we should strive to maintain our purity with everything we have. How do you combat lust? Do you take it seriously in your own life?

AUTHOR Sam Guzman

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© 2006-2021 All rights reserved Fr. Gilles Surprenant, Associate Priest of Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montreal QC
© 2006-2021 Tous droits réservés Abbé Gilles Surprenant, Prêtre Associé de Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montréal QC

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Sunday, March 3, 2013

Health Tips - Steps to Better Nutrition - Pour une Meilleure Nutrition

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STEPS TO BETTER NUTRITION PDF ENGLISH FILE FICHIER EN FRANÇAIS

Introduction In 1981 while suffering from the flu in seminary in Ottawa I was diagnosed with functional hypoglycaemia. From that point on I researched to better understand and manage my condition and learned the importance of a better balance of exercise, sleep, nutrition, attitude, and spirituality; as well as simple things like chewing food thoroughly until the mouth salivates and liquefies the food before swallowing.

We can cook a variety of dishes which are good to excellent. From a raw food point of view, we can assure we eat a variety in greens and fruit. It is also highly recommended generally to include beans and lentils and also avocado, which also provide protein as substitutes to meats and fish. It would be better for us to include in our diet more of raw greens with local naturally ripened fruits as much as possible, as well as nuts and seeds. It is a myth that nuts will make you gain weight.

So, what about our need for proteins, right? Well, it turns out that proteins are complex combinations of essential amino acids (there are 14), and these are abundant in greens, which are more easily and quickly absorbed by our metabolism than already combined amino acids in animal proteins. Instead of requiring our body to metabolize complex animal proteins to extract from them the amino acids, it is far easier, more direct and beneficial, for us to metabolize the amino acids themselves in their natural state in greens.

https://sergeiboutenko.com/30-day-green-smoothie-challenge/

https://sergeiboutenko.com/learn-how-to-forage-for-25-tasty-wild-edible-plants/

Dr. Michael Greger You will find below a talk (2003) given by Dr Michael Greger (1 hr 16 min) which corroborates much of what is promoted by the Boutenko's. Dr Michael Greger is quite entertaining in an idiosyncratic kind of way, and here are his essential points. This man is an MD and quotes mounds of serious scientific studies in the Harvard Medical Library or presented to the US government; so his findings are based on serious medical research. He is like a detective on the trail of a puzzle. Like most vegetarians and vegans (vegetarians who also avoid eggs and dairy products) he assumed that these two groups should be far healthier and live longer than meat eaters. He was shocked in going to the latest research to discover that vegetarians and vegans are dying just as much from fatal diseases – or even more so – such as coronary and vascular diseases as meat eaters and suffer more from brain disorders and osteoporosis as diagnosed in hip fractures.

I do not reproduce here the medical details, so you will need to listen to his talk to see what nutritional risks to health causing coronary and other fatal diseases are not being avoided by vegetarians and vegans and which are putting them at the same risk of early death as meat eaters. The advantages vegetarians and vegans obtain by their diets are lost because of additional risks due to their diets that don't affect meat eaters. Still shocked, he set out to go deeper into published scientific research to discover the underlying causes of those fatal diseases. Here is what he found and here are the nutritional recommendation emerging from these findings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7KeRwdIH04

1. One important health threat is when the ratio in our body of Omega 6 to Omega 3 polyunsaturated fatty acids is higher than 4 to 1 (both are polyunsaturated fats but Omega 3 is great for us while Omega 6 is not so good) : when the ratio is 4 to 1 or less our metabolism favours Omega 3 and stalls Omega 6, but when the ratio is higher than 4 to 1 our metabolism favours Omega 6 and ignores Omega 3 in us and causes or exacerbates coronary and vascular inflammation, which leads to a host of fatal coronary, vascular, and neurological diseases. Vegetarians and vegans can be just as prone to these risks as meat eaters or under certain conditions at greater risk.

Omega 3's are great for us but the Omega 6's are not so good. When we take in sufficient Omega 3 fatty acid an enzyme metabolizes it and produces EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) which prevent coronary inflammation, vascular plaque, and blood clots. For this reason, the most important thing we can do for our health and the most beneficial single change we can make to our diet is to take 1 to 2 tbsp of ground flax seeds a day (better source than fish and fish oils) on cereal, in a smoothie, or other ways.

This is the best way to increase Omega 3 fatty acid and avoid being overwhelmed by too much Omega 6 fatty acid. So we need to decrease using Omega 6 oils in favour of Olive or Canola oil (both mono-unsaturated which are good) and increase our consumption of Omega 3's, hence the ground flax seeds (ungrounded seeds are so tough they pass right through the bowel with no benefit to us at all.). Ground flax is very flexible: 1 tbsp mixed in 3 tbsp water = equivalent to one egg for baking. Heating does no damage to Omega 3 in ground flax seeds.

2. The other big threat to health and even more serious is homocystine (a very dangerous neuro and vascular toxin causing any number of health disorders such as arterial and coronary inflammation, oxidized arterial cholesterol or plaque, blood clots, arrhythmia, fatal heart disease, Alzheimer and other neurological diseases). Homocystine is a natural by-product of metabolizing amino acids.

Our body normally eliminates it through the metabolic action of Vitamin B6 and Choline (from animals and plants), Folic Acid (Folate from plants), and Vitamin B12 (from animals and insects).

A balanced diet of plants and meat probably gives us enough of these but vegetarians and vegans don't get any B12 from meats so they need to take supplements of Vitamin B12 (produced artificially). We can never get too much, so 100+ mcg per day or 2000+ mcg per week (liver stores it for a while) are recommended. Diets containing dark leafy greens, vegetables and fruits provide sufficient Vitamin B6, Choline, and Folic Acid (Folate) such that no supplements are needed to provide them.

Taking sufficient daily or weekly doses of Vitamin B12 prevents the entire process of injury to the heart, arteries, brain, and nervous system before the naturally occurring homocystine produced by the metabolism of amino acids causes injury which leads to inflammation which leads to oxidized cholesterol or plaque which leads to the formation of blood clots and finally to near fatal and fatal heart damage and arrhythmia and premature death.

3. Eating 3 cups of dark leafy greens and broccoli a day (the stem of kale and other heavy leafy greens should be removed as they are quite bitter and the benefit is in the leaves not in the stem) provides enough calcium, iron, zinc and other minerals. Daily consumption of greens, beans, whole grains, and nuts also provides iron and zinc. Brazil nuts provide selenium, so it's good to include them in our diet at least once a month. He said that beans are best sprouted or fermented, and nuts and seeds are best dry roasted or sprouted.

4. Saturated fats are to be avoided because they are injurious to our health (animal fats, coconut oil, palm kernel oil). Palm oil is used in a lot of processed foods as well as coconut oil. The benefits of vegetarian diet is avoiding transfats in the meat... all animal fats contain transfats and the ideal is to avoid them all.

5. Five large glasses of water a day reduce by half a number of serious even fatal diseases, since so much of the human body is composed of water and requires water for all the organs to function optimally. The consumption of 9 or more portions of fresh fruit and fresh vegetables a day reduces these risks by half again.

6. Chlorinated water destroys the iodine we might otherwise get from our drinking water, but we can prevent iodine deficiency by eating sea vegetables or living by the sea and breathing in iodized oxygen all day long, or by taking iodine supplements. Years ago I had a co-worker from Normandy in France who spent all her life living by the sea and when she came to Canada to live in Montreal her health quickly deteriorated and she was diagnosed with iodine deficiency and had to begin taking supplements which restored her to her former healthy condition. She admitted though to not feeling quite as vital and vibrant as when she had lived by the sea.

BRIEF DIETARY SUMMARY

Have daily: 5 large glasses of water, Supplemental Vitamin B6 & B12, 2 tbsp ground flax seeds, 3 cups or bunches of dark leafy greens & broccoli, 9 or more portions of fresh fruit & vegetables, olive oil & canola oil, whole grains, nuts, & seeds (including walnuts, chia and / or hemp seeds), avocados, beans & lentils, and sea vegetables for iodine.

Full Summary of Nutritional recommendations coming from Dr. Michael Greger's conference

AVOID Saturated Fats (animal trans fats & commercial hydrogenated oils: coconut* or palm kernel oil*) Omega 6 Poly unsaturated fatty acids (cotton seed oil*, corn oil*, safflower oil*, sunflower oil*) *hydrogenated cooking oils produced by the chemical industry

The only nuts to avoid are coconut and chestnuts.

FAVOUR Mono-unsaturated oils (nuts, avocados, olive oil, and canola oil)
Omega 3 fatty acids as in (dark leafy greens, fatty fish, walnuts, seeds: hemp, flax, chia)

Omega 3 is in fish, but with the added risks of heavy metals and other pollutants.

CONSUME 3 cups or bunches of dark leafy greens (Kale, Bok Choi, Collard) & broccoli daily (for calcium, Vitamin K, boron), beans, whole grains, nuts, & seeds (as meat substitute and for iron combined with Vitamin C rich foods to enhance iron absorption)

DRINK 5 large glasses of water per day

HAVE 9 or more portions of fresh fruit and vegetables per day

GET iodine from sea vegetables

ADD 1 to 2 tablespoons of ground flax seeds per day – flax is the best and most abundant source

ADD 1 to 2 tablespoons of ground flax seeds per day – flax is the best and most abundant source
Supplemental Vitamin B6 daily (50 to 100 mg per day)

Supplemental Vitamin B12 daily (100+ mcg per day) or weekly (2000+ mcg per week)

Supplemental Vitamin D daily (1,000 I.U. per day)

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The Boutenko Family This is a family of Russian émigrés to the USA who embraced the American way and all became sick. They saw many Americans were unwell like them while others seemed very healthy; so they asked them what they did to enjoy such good health. They came to put aside fast foods and the typical diet of cooked meats and vegetables in favor of raw fruits and vegetables, only to discover they were suffering from certain mineral and other nutritional deficiencies. They found that much of the nutrition they were still lacking is to be found in edible greens, which contain minerals and all the essential amino acids. Now they occasionally enjoy some cooked grains as well but favour a diet that combines dark leafy greens – preferably organic ones and those to be found in the wild, including plants we considered mere weeds – with fruits in a "green smoothie". They also add Chia and Flax seeds which provide Omega 3 fatty acids essential to good health.

Victoria Boutenko gives the nutritional content of edible greens compared to vegetables

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9TvJLIxs8s

Valya Boutenko gives a green smoothies workshop on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-uskrC9wm0

Sergei Boutenko’s family story, raw edible greens & fruits https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJa0ZeyyBe8

Sergei Boutenko gives a wild edible nature walk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pm57coskzw

Conclusion Well, dear friend, I have sent you these reports of my findings out of my own concern for healthy nutrition and living. Physical activity, daily exercise, proper rest, a lively faith and a healthy spirituality have not entered into these reports but are just as essential to living a healthy, holy, and vibrantly fruitful human life. It is my hope and prayer that you and your family with the Lord's guidance and grace will incorporate all of these elements into your lives, one step at a time. It is our Creator's design that we live in harmony with all the creatures with which He has surrounded us, that we care for them all, and of course for each other.

Originally composed May 24, 2015. Edited and modified December 14, 2017 & January 27, 2021.

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Saturday, January 9, 2010

Energy Budget - How to Manage Yours Each Day

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PDF file

How to Manage Your Energy Budget Every Day

First, I’d like to invite you to explore the theory and formation principles of the Institut de Formation Humaine Intégrale de Montréal, which was first known as the Institut de Formation et de Rééducation de Montréal when it was founded in 1976 by Dr. Jeannine Guindon. In the course of her very fruitful career, this amazing woman trained educators and helping professionals and worked with them, explored how the application of contemporary psychological and moral development principles in education and therapy might help people actually develop, and discovered ways to help people participate deliberately in their own development, wherever they left off when they became adults and left the formative years behind.[1] It is generally accepted now that we human beings live out our lives in four realms of human powers: body, mind, psyche or heart, and spirit or soul. In this light, I would see the six levels of human identity mapped out by the IFHIM correlating this way.

(Please consider these terms copyrighted to the IFHIM). The body identity and identity of the doer are rooted in the body. The individual identity and psychosexual identity are rooted in what we have been calling the heart, or psyche. The psychosocial identity is rooted in the mind and its host of composite abilities: intellect, understanding, imagination, memory, intuition, and consciousness. These five levels of identity come together finally in the sixth and composite identity, the identity of the self, which I believe to be rooted in the soul.[2] It seems so reasonable to believe that our highest human power, our will, be rooted here, in the soul; since there remains persistent evidence of will in human beings who suffer the debilitation or loss of just about every other human faculty, ability, or power.

In another time and place, may I suggest that you visit the stages of moral human development, which are an important parameter for assessing the degree of our development as human persons. It would also be good to consider what benefit there may be for each person to have their own “rule of life” to enshrine all the disciplines they consider essential to their ongoing human development and assure the time and energy needed to practice these disciplines, for a greater health and stability in life.

Let’s examine how the IFHIM suggests we manage our “energy budget.”

An innovative and very practical way to look at the management of our overall vitality, that is, the energy built up and expended by our body/mind/psyche/soul self is what the Institut de Formation Humaine Intégrale de Montréal calls the “energy budget.” The paradigm distinguishes three types of energy and ways of being:

Ø Mobile energy – colorful, emotional and imaginative impulse.

Ø Bound energy – awareness of moral, religious, work, commitment, and all other common and personal obligations and impressions of expected response.

Ø Autonomous energy – taking time to filter the other two forms of energy through the awareness of who I am, what is my condition and situation now, including what is my available time and what are my obligations and responsibilities, and the meaning and purpose I freely choose to give to my life – and then freely choosing a course of action and a timing for putting it into motion.

The operating principle here is that, while mobile and bound energy are integral parts of how we function as human beings, when we go directly from the mobile impulse we can lose sight of the reality at hand or the meaning and purpose of our life, and cause us to disturb others, forget responsibilities, or cause other kinds of troubles.

Similarly, bound energy can tie us up into knots if we act immediately upon it as an impulse, because then we become driven by obligation or duty, laws and rules, or other fixed motives that of themselves sap us of the vital energy that is only generated by freedom, interest, and generosity.

The goal then is to insert a discipline of awareness and reflection to follow upon the emergence of either and both mobile and bound impulses; in order to take other considerations into account, such as other duties, our available strength, the needs and wishes of others, and so on. Only then, in a moment of freedom, can we make a truly autonomous decision to act upon the impulse, or delay it, or qualify it with certain conditions.

The challenge is acquiring the disciplines that can help one resist the impulses generated by mobile and bound energy, by developing an internal “space of freedom” to stop, think, and discern what to do. For this, we need to find ways to recuperate from normal daily expenditures of energy. It is easier to be aware of impulses and resist them when we maintain stores of energy within our organism and psyche. Those energy reserves allow us the freedom to stop, consider, and decide what we want to freely choose to do in accord with the meaning and purpose we want to give to our life.

The IFHIM clarifies three different ways of expending and recuperating energy:

S Physical strain, effort, and work. S = fatigue S è rest, sleep, & sensory stimulation:

e.g. shower, music, dance

Ø Psychological attention. Ø = psychic drain Ø è change of pace, i.e. mindless

physical activity: e.g. doing the dishes,
cooking a simple familiar meal

o Affective charges. o = physical tension o è vigorous sustained movement

of the whole body in direct proportion to
the intensity of the affective charges:
e.g. swim, run, cycle, aerobics, etc.

[1] Read Dr. Jeannine Guindon’s own account of those years of discovery and development of her new and quite revolutionary formation, education, and therapeutic approaches and methods in “L’autonomie psychique ne s’acquiert qu’au prix d’une vie engagée.” (“Psychic autonomy is obtained only at the cost of a committed life.”) Conference of Jeannine Guindon, Foundress of the IFRM and directress of the programs at the Colloquium of 1986, in La Vie sans frontières. Les Forces Vitales Humaines. Histoire et développement. Tome 1. I.F.R.M. 1991, pages 41-46.

[2] As Dr. Jeannine Guindon herself writes: “Thus, psychic autonomy is only obtained at the cost of a life committed to a cause, in a profession, towards one or several persons, and further for believers, towards God. Thus, is acquired faith in oneself, faith in man and faith in God.” Ibid, page 46.

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I received and participated in this formation at the I.F.R.M. from 1986 to 1990 and wrote up notes with my first pc in 2000 from which I've taken the excerpt above, edited for these web pages January 26, 2021.

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TOPICS from A to Z

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Fighting for Purity - Mentors for Men in the Saints

Sunday, March 3, 2013

Health Tips - Steps to Better Nutrition - Pour une Meilleure Nutrition

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Energy Budget - How to Manage Yours Each Day

Why are Western societies disintegrating? Western civilization? America may provide the template or key to the paradigm.

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