Did You Know?

Fratelli Tutti – Pope Francis’ new Encyclical – On Fraternity and Social Friendship
“Chapter 3 – Envisaging and Engendering an Open World
The unique value of love
93. Saint Thomas Aquinas sought to describe the love made possible by God’s grace as a movement outwards towards another, whereby we consider “the beloved as somehow united to ourselves”.[72] Our affection for others makes us freely desire to seek their good. All this originates in a sense of esteem, an appreciation of the value of the other. This is ultimately the idea behind the word “charity”: those who are loved are “dear” to me; “they are considered of great value”.[73] And “the love whereby someone becomes pleasing (grata) to another is the reason why the latter bestows something on him freely (gratis)”.[74]
94. Love, then, is more than just a series of benevolent actions. Those actions have their source in a union increasingly directed towards others, considering them of value, worthy, pleasing and beautiful apart from their physical or moral appearances. Our love for others, for who they are, moves us to seek the best for their lives. Only by cultivating this way of relating to one another will we make possible a social friendship that excludes no one and a fraternity that is open to all.”  http://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20201003_enciclica-fratelli-tutti.html   



Catholic WORD of the Week

Efficacious Grace – The aspect of actual grace in which free consent is given, so that it produces the desired effect.  Báñez and the Dominicans held that the efficacy of such grace depended on the grace itself, while the Jesuits and Molina contended that it is given in situations congruous to the dispositions of the recipient.  Both agreed that the act of the will was not necessary and that it would achieve its results without the volitional act.”` Our Sunday Visitor’s CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA, page 34