I have gotten to know Ruth Institute and its chief Jennifer Roback Morse over the years at Acton University. I direct the married and the engaged, and those who sense that their vocation is to the married life, to this fine talk by Betsy Kerekes – threaded with good humor – on how to deal with daily tensions between spouses and kids.
“Tips for Happy Marriage and Effective Parenting.” HERE
Check it out.
I was also very much in favor of their graphic:
Go to Confession
So who is the bald guy at the top of this newsletter?That is St. Thomas Aquinas, 1225-1274. He is widely considered the smartest man in the Western world since St. Augustine, who died in 430.
What is he talking about, “sin makes you stupid?”
He’s making an astute observation about the human condition. When we do things that we know to be wrong, we go into self-protection mode: we kid ourselves, rationalize, refuse to see things that contradict our predilections, and generally act like idiots.Did he literally say that?
No. Actually, he said “sin darkens the intellect” and a whole lot of other intelligent stuff too. Check out his Summa Theologica. (Don’t worry: only the title is in Latin. You can get it in English.)I don’t even believe in sin. I don’t have to believe this Catholic stuff.
That’s true. You don’t have to believe it. Check it out for yourself. Watch and see: when people do something against their own value system, they quite often lose their minds. Unless and until they make amends.[…]
So… listen and check them out.
