Author: Kevin Aldrich
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The Four Levels of Happiness: Ego gratification
For a Doctrinal Homily Outline for the Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary time, click here. The themes are Central idea: Be awake and prepared to meet Christ. Doctrine: Christ will make all things subject to him. Practical application: Prudence. Ego gratification The second and higher level of happiness Fr. Spitzer’s recognizes he calls ego gratification. Right off the bat this…
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Four Levels of Happiness: Physical Pleasure
Here is a link to the Doctrinal Homily Outline for the Thirty-First Sunday in Ordinary, titled Priests of Christ are to be leaders who serve. Back in September, I introduced Fr. Robert Spitzer’s four levels of happiness. I can finally resume. Only four? It might seem limiting to claim there are only four basic kinds of…
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Good News
Thanks to the DreamHost Professional Services team, Doctrinal Homily Outlines has been restored and is working normally. As you will notice, the website looks different. A standard (rather than custom) set up went with the reinstallation. I will work on giving the site a more professional and customized look as soon as possible. This homiletic…
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Update
Dear Readers of Doctrinal Homily Outlines, The reason you have not received any notifications in the last few weeks is because the website has been hacked and possibly virtually destroyed. If you receive this, you will probably see links for bogus websites or products at the bottom. I would not click on any of them.…
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Four levels of happiness
The four levels of happiness One of the wisest Catholic writers alive is Fr. Robert Spitzer, S.J. Just one of his many insights into human nature and our salvation and sanctification is his model of the four levels of happiness. These four types of happiness, ranked in their natural order of value and importance, are…
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The Gift of the Holy Spirit of Understanding
This is the last of seven little reflections on the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. Etymologically, to understand means to stand-under, but the older meaning of under is in the midst of. When you understand something, you are standing within it. You are intellectually grasping what is around you. You get “it,” it being the…
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The Gift of the Holy Spirit of Wisdom
The word wisdom is one we may use casually without really thinking about what it means. If we reflect on how we use it, the word wisdom relates to truth. It has to do with seeing the truth about something. The truth about that something might have many dimensions. In addition, we are not wise…
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The Gift of the Holy Spirit of Knowledge
There is a famous (or infamous) meme that runs, “That’s what I do. I drink and I know things.” In reality, to be true, we should change this saying to “That’s what we do. We think and we know things!” Ordinary knowledge is when a person assimilates something outside one’s mind into one’s mind. Assimilate…
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The Gift of the Holy Spirit of Counsel
As a natural virtue, counsel is the good intellectual habit of seeking advice. The Latin word consilium means deliberation or advice. A person may take counsel in himself by thinking things through. One can also get good advice outside of oneself. This is why we call a lawyer a counsellor. As Fr. John Hardon, S.J. puts…
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The Gift of the Holy Spirit: Piety
Like the word prudence, piety has been given wholly undeserved negative connotations in our modern irreligious, hateful, and ungrateful world. Let’s fix that. The term “piety” is used for both a natural virtue, a supernatural virtue, and a Gift of the Holy Spirit. As Fr. John Hardon, S.J., points out, piety as a natural virtue…
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The Gifts of the Holy Spirit: Fortitude
Since the order in which I am presenting the gifts of the Holy Spirit is the order which I find easier to understand (under the assumption that others have the same difficulties that I do), the next gift I will try to explain is the gift of fortitude. Note that there is the natural virtue…
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The Gift of the Holy Spirt: Fear of the Lord
One of the easier gifts of the Holy Spirit to understand, I think, is the last listed, the gift of fear. Fear of God is one of the gifts that pertain to a person’s will. With our human will, assisted by God’s grace, we have the freedom to choose good actions that lead to our…