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Bernard Fleury
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Joined EzineArticles on Jan 16, 2008 Heaven - The Goal of Our Conversion Journey
Self Improvement: Spirituality • Published: January 28, 2011
After we have drawn our last breath, our heart stops beating, our brain ceases to function, and our body is growing cold, we begin our final stage of our conversion journey, the stage that leads to Heaven. What is Heaven like? First, Heaven is flooded with the most brilliant light that emanates from the Being of Light, God himself. Though the light is brilliant it does not hurt us in any way. Rather, we are infused with a profound sense of peace, joy, and fulfillment. We're home at last!
The Commandments Of Catholic Christian Social Teaching And Our Conversion Journey - Part One
Self Improvement: Spirituality • Published: January 28, 2011
Catholic social teaching is all about bringing the love of Jesus Christ to a fractured world. In the March 14, 2010 issue of Our Sunday Visitor, Fr. William J. Byron, S.J., lists social principles that are an essential part of Catholic and other Christian denominations as well. The principles of human dignity, respect for human life, solidarity, and preferential protection for the poor and vulnerable are all required for the common good of humankind as whole regardless of culture. A conversion of heart that recognizes the value of the dignity of every human person, and the willingness to compromise are essential if our conversion journey is to really include the common good.
The Commandments Of Catholic Christian Social Teaching And Our Conversion Journey - Part Two
Self Improvement: Spirituality • Published: January 28, 2011
The foundational principle of Catholic Christian Social Teaching is respect for human dignity which includes human life, human solidarity (love your neighbor) and preferential protection for the poor and vulnerable (powerless). But other principles following from the foundational principle of respect for human dignity and enhancing it are also important. They are the principles of association, participation, and human equality. The principle of human dignity entitles each person to membership in the human family that is on its own collective conversion journey.
The Conversion Journey - The Beatitudes of Righteousness, Meekness, Peacemakers and Martyrs
Self Improvement: Spirituality • Published: January 20, 2011
Matthew Kelly wrote in his book Rediscovering Catholicism that we are all called to live "authentic lives". This life means that from an almost infinite number of possibilities we chose one that will, with the help of God's grace, result in each of us becoming the best version of ourselves, all each of us was meant to be. Living the Beatitudes will bring us to our goal of living an authentic life, that is, becoming the best version of the person we were meant to be.
The Conversion Journey - Living The Way Of The Beatitudes
Self Improvement: Inspirational • Published: January 20, 2011
The "way" of the Beatitudes is at the heart of Jesus' preaching. My understanding of their role in the Conversion Journey of every Christian has been shaped by many years of lived experience and the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The "way" of the Beatitudes is at the heart of Jesus' preaching. They reveal the face of Christ and shed light on the life and attitudes characteristic of the actively lived Christian life.
The Practice of Excellence - A Step Forward On Our Conversion Journey
Self Improvement: Spirituality • Published: January 14, 2011
The practice of excellence presumes that there are truths that are not arbitrary. It assumes that there is some truth or standard outside the individual person, (like the Ten Commandments) that exists, that can be discovered. When we do discover it we use it to judge or ascertain what is the truth according to that standard.
Finding Truth, Peace, and Love On Our Conversion Journey
Self Improvement: Spirituality • Published: January 14, 2011
Faith and reason are both intimately involved in searching for and finding the truth. We each grow up in some form of culture which shapes our perceptions and values. Through this culture we gain our understanding of the world and the human beings place within it. Our culture is made up of a community of like minded persons. I am one of them and through my interactions with others I work out my way of coping with the world and living.
The Conversion Journey - When Our Inner Light Matches The Will Of God
Self Improvement: Spirituality • Published: January 10, 2011
There are three antiphons in the Liturgy of the Hours which is prayed by every ordained Catholic clergyman several times each day. Among the many Antiphons in the Liturgy of the Hours, these three describe to me what my habitual behavior must be if my inner light is to match the will of God. Surrendering to God, turning away from evil, learning to do God's will, waiting for the Lord to lead then following in his way lead to a match between our inner light and the will of God.
Baptism - Entering The Christian Life On Our Conversion Journey
Self Improvement: Spirituality • Published: January 7, 2011
Beginning with the Apostles' Evangelization (hearing the "Good News" about Jesus), Conversion (coming to a belief in this person, Jesus, as the Savior) led persons to ask to be Baptized which they had heard was the way one became a Christian. These adults were baptized, received first Eucharist and became full members of the Church. When we are baptized we enter the Christian life as children of God, adopted by the Father through his son Jesus and empowered by the gifts of the Holy Spirit...
Learning To Know Jesus On Our Conversion Journey
Self Improvement: Spirituality • Published: December 17, 2010
All of the first Christian evangelizers were personal witnesses to the life and teachings of a person, Jesus Christ. They literally lived with him and followed him from place to place. They preached what they saw and felt as a result of their communication with him. Their written accounts of their Journey collectively became the New Testament - a witness to what Jesus did and who he was, the Son of God. It is Jesus who speaks out of the Bible.
The "Human" Who Makes the Christian Conversion Journey
Self Improvement: Spirituality • Published: December 9, 2010
There are some things that we are taught to memorize when we are young although we didn't understand their full meaning at the time. One of these things for me was the answer to the Baltimore Catechism question "What is Man?" Although I was only seven years old at the time, that answer began to form my concept of What Man (Human, Male and Female) is. It is a concept that remains grounded in the short Catechism answer some seventy years later. But my understanding of each part of the answer has deepened and grown as I matured intellectually and spiritually.
The Role of Wisdom on Our Conversion Journey
Self Improvement • Published: December 9, 2010
Wisdom is a person, Jesus Christ and a gift of the Holy Spirit. Jesus, Wisdom himself, is the creator, through whom and for whom all things were made. He who created the world and all that is in it claims for himself all that bears his image especially human beings whom he adopts as his own. Wisdom gives as a gift, discernment and insight into what is truly real and good. If we are open to him through Faith we believe in him and all that he said and did.
Life and Light - The Meaning of Holiness
Self Improvement: Spirituality • Published: October 13, 2010
Wholeness, a term synonymous with integrity or holiness, is part of the journey of Christian life. Holiness, never totally achieved in this life, is a quality the gospel asks us to strive for.
Life and Light-Conversion of Life From a Christian Perspective
Self Improvement: Spirituality • Published: October 13, 2010
This is why Christ died for sins once for all, a just man for the sake of the unjust: so that he could lead you to God Throughout Old Testament history, God made covenants with his people that they would be his people and he would be their God. These covenants revolved around Israel's obedience and God's faithfulness and protection over them. Again and again, however, the people turned away from God and gave themselves to idolatry.
Reaching the Fullness of Life: Mother Irene's Last Three Years
Self Improvement: Inspirational • Published: November 3, 2008
There was a lot of loss for Mother Irene which had begun with the death of her oldest daughter Rose in 2003 and personal suffering to match but she kept the same indomitable attitude, looking forward, never complaining, and grateful for anything anyone did for her. In 2006 her grandson, Don, who had lived with her and Pa as a teenager, returned as a military veteran to work and to live with and care for Mother as she became increasingly unable to do many things without assistance. One of her greatest sufferings ...
Mother, Marriage, Continuing College, Family, and Career
Home and Family • Published: November 3, 2008
In April of 1954 I decided to call Lida Healey, the last girl I had been dating prior to reentering the Seminary. We had broken up in the spring of 1953 when I found out that she had a boy friend in the Military Service whom she really cared about and I had been a convenient fill-in while he was gone for months at a time. I had really liked her and on impulse decided to call her because we had been friends for six years in our Grange Youth Group.
Mother Irene's Journey Home
Self Improvement: Inspirational • Published: October 27, 2008
It was evident in the early summer of 2005 when Mother Irene Carlberg was in her ninety-sixth year, that she was becoming increasingly feeble in body though her mind and spirit remained as sharp and deep as ever. She told me that she wanted to write the story of her life but couldn't manage it. She began to give me little notes of events in her life, pictures, and newspaper articles about her.
Mother Flora and the Coming of Age of a New Generation
Home and Family • Published: October 27, 2008
In 1980 I went back to school to become a member of the first class of Roman Catholic Permanent Deacons in my Diocese. I was ordained on January 15, 1983. Six weeks later my mother died from a heart attack and I was an orphan!
The Life of Mother Carlberg
Self Improvement: Inspirational • Published: October 27, 2008
America has been blessed with many bold, daring, ahead-of-their-time women. Irene Carlberg was one of those women who lived ninety-one years in the 20th Century and seven years and two months in the 21st Century. When she saw a biplane, she wanted to ride on its wings - a motorcycle, she had to drive it - another plane, she had to fly it.
Mother's Life From 1958-1976
Home and Family: Death Dying • Published: October 27, 2008
Mother's nest is emptied. I earned my Doctorate. Dad contracts Parkinsons Disease at age fifty-five in 1963 and dies in 1976. Mother Flora joins Parents Without Partners.
Mother Loses Her Dad, Frank King, Our Hero
Home and Family: Death Dying • Published: October 27, 2008
In the early summer of 1958, Gramp King began to complain to my mother that he had a sore throat that wouldn't go away. She took him to the nearest Veterans Hospital where he was told he had an infection in his ear.
My Second Mother - Irene Carlberg
Arts and Entertainment • Published: October 27, 2008
The story of how an eighty eight year old woman "adopts" a sixty seven year old man as her son. It was a relationship that lasted until the end of her life ten years later.
Mother During My College and Seminary Years
Home and Family • Published: October 21, 2008
I had wanted to be a priest since the age of ten. In the fall of 1949 I began a five-year discernment process at St. Charles, Univ. of Mass, and Stonehill College that ended when I left Stonehill in March of 1954.
Mom and Dad - Years of Love, Loss, and New Life
Home and Family: Parenting • Published: October 20, 2008
Mom and Dad and the Gift of the Maji. Last sibling Celeste is born. Gram King dies. Gramp King comes to live with us during my high school years.
Growing Up With My Mother Flora
Home and Family • Published: October 20, 2008
I grew up surrounded by a menagerie of animals, birds, and gardens, with a mother who did everything for her family including polishing their shoes. She was my major emotional support, always there with a big hug when I needed one.