The Psychology Behind Giving Thanks (Part 1)

THE HOLY FAMILY OF JESUS, MARY AND JOSEPH
December 29 – 30: Holy Family of Nazareth, Jesus, Mary & Joseph

The Psychology Behind Giving Thanks
Interview With Dr. Paul Vitz  (Part 1)

The spirit of thanksgiving contributes to mental health and ultimately leads to God, says a Catholic (and former atheist) psychologist.
Dr. Paul Vitz is a professor of psychology at the Arlington-based Institute for the Psychological Sciences and a professor emeritus of New York University. He has authored many books, and is co-editor of a new book called "The Self: Beyond the Post-modern Crisis" (ISI, 2006).




Q: As strands of modern psychology are rediscovering the effectiveness of the virtues in the well-being of the person, what interest has there been in the virtue of gratitude?
Vitz: Psychology has discovered gratitude as something to investigate probably only in the last five or 10 years. The best summary of what has been found is in the book that just came out this year and is called "The Handbook of Positive Psychology." In this book, Chapter 33 is a sum-mary of what is known about gratitude.
The authors, R. Emmons and C. Shelton, point out that there has been some popular interest in gratitude in the last five or 10 years, but relatively little serious research in psychology.
So if some psychologist wants to become Mr. Gratitude or Ms. Gratitude, it is one of those fields that are sitting there, ready to be looked at seriously.
Q: What is it about gratitude that makes it such a useful  virtue? 
Vitz: Gratitude is a very positive virtue. It has positive thoughts associated with it, and above all, positive emotions.
It's the emotion of thankfulness for what other people, or God, have given to you. It brings peace, and it brings a kind of quiet joy. I think it's very clear that those are good emo-tions, good things to have.
We now know that our emotions can also cause bodily changes in us, so I'm convinced that gratitude is not only a positive thought and mentality, but also something good for your body.
Q: In your experience as a psychologist, have you seen any instances where developing gratitude helped a person to overcome a difficulty or illness?
Vitz: I think I have, but you know that you would have to run a controlled experiment to show it, and I haven't done that.
But let's look at the meaning of gratitude in light of the Faith. The very word for the Eucharist, the translation of its meaning is "thanksgiving." And thanksgiving is a way of expressing gratitude to God.
So it's at the centre of the faith. The Eucharist is about Thanks-giving. It makes sense that Our Lord would have asked us to do something that was not only wise and spiritually sound, but psychologically good for us too.

(Concluded next week)

St. Faustina’s should bring warmth to our hearts on Christmas Day

THE NATIVITY OF THE LORD - CHRISTMAS DAY
December 24 – 25 :  The Nativity of the Lord.

This vision of St. Faustina’s should bring warmth to our hearts on Christmas Day

She saw the baby Jesus at Midnight Mass and experienced the beauty of God's love for her.

St. Faustina is best known for her miraculous visions of Jesus and his message of Divine Mercy. 
Yet, throughout her life she experienced many other visions that came to her in different forms. All the  visions expressed the infinite love of God for humanity and the particular love God has for each individual soul.
For example, at Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve in 1937, St. Faustina saw a glorious vision of the baby Jesus. She writes about it in her Diary and describes what happened.
When I arrived at Midnight Mass, from the very  beginning I steeped myself in deep recollection, dur-ing which time I saw the stable of Bethlehem filled with great radiance. The Blessed Virgin, all lost in the deepest of love, was wrapping Jesus in swaddling clothes, but Saint Joseph was still asleep. Only after the Mother of God put Jesus in the manger, did the light of God awaken Joseph, who was also praying. But after a while, I was left alone with the Infant   Jesus who stretched out His little hands to me, and  I understood that I was to take Him in my arms.  Jesus pressed His head against my heart and gave me to know, by His profound gaze, how good He found it to be next to my heart. At that moment Jesus disappeared and the bell was ringing for Holy  Communion.
It was a brief encounter, but one that communicated to Faustina an immeasurable lesson. It reinforced in her heart the immense love of God and showed to her the true meaning of Christmas.
Christmas is principally about welcoming the baby  Jesus into our arms and letting him rest upon our heart. It is not surprising that this vision occurred  immediately before Holy Communion, when Jesus can do exactly that. It is through the reception of the Eucharist that we can let Jesus rest upon our hearts and pour out his love for us.
As you approach the Eucharistic banquet on Christmas Day, remember this vision of St. Faustina and let it dominate your thoughts and prayers. By doing so, you can imagine the little baby Jesus opening his arms to you, waiting for you to pick him up. Then when you receive communion, you can let him rest on against your heart and receive his loving gaze.
Christmas will never be the same.

Philip Kosloski | Dec 18, 2018

When Padre Pio celebrated Christmas the baby Jesus would miraculously appear

FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT
December 22 – 23 :   4th  Advent:

When Padre Pio celebrated Christmas the baby Jesus would miraculously appear

Witnesses attest to seeing a vision of the Baby Jesus in the arms of Padre Pio.



St. Padre Pio loved Christmas. He held a special devotion to the Baby Jesus ever since he was a child.
According to Capuchin priest Fr. Joseph Mary Elder, “At his home in Pietrelcina, he prepared the crib   himself. He would often begin working on it as early as October. While pasturing the family’s sheep with friends, he would search for clay to use to fashion the small statues of shepherds, sheep, and the magi. He took particular care in crafting the infant Jesus,  making and re-making it continually until he felt he had it just right.”
This devotion remained with him during his entire life. In a letter to spiritual daughter, he wrote, “When the Holy     Novena begins in honor of the Baby Jesus, it felt as though my spirit were being born again to a new life. I felt as though my heart were too small to embrace all our heavenly    blessings.”

Midnight Mass in particular was a joyous celebration for Padre Pio, who celebrated it every year, taking many hours to carefully celebrate the Holy Mass. His soul was lifted up to God with great joy, a joy that others could easy see. Additionally, witnesses have recounted how they would see Padre Pio holding the Baby Jesus. This was not a porcelain statue, but the Baby Jesus himself in a miraculous vision.
Renzo Allegri recounts the following story.
We were reciting the rosary while waiting for the Mass.  Padre Pio was praying with us. All of a sudden, in an aura of light, I saw the Baby Jesus appear in his arms. Padre Pio was transfigured, his eyes gazing upon the glowing child in his arms, his face transformed by an astonished smile. When the vision     disappeared, Padre Pio realized from the way I was looking at him that I had seen everything. But he drew close to me and told me not to mention it to anyone. A similar story is told by Fr. Raffaele da Sant’Elia, who lived next to Padre Pio for many years.
I had got up to go to the church for the Midnight Mass of 1924. The corridor was huge and dark, and the only illumi-nation was the flame of a small oil lamp. Through the   shadows I could see that Padre Pio, too, was making his way to the church. He had left his room and was making his way slowly along the corridor. I realized he was swathed in a band of light. I took a better look and saw that he had the Baby Jesus in his arms. I just stood there, transfixed, in the doorway of my room, and fell to my knees. Padre Pio passed by, all aglow. He didn’t even notice I was there.
These supernatural events highlight the deep and abiding love of Padre Pio for God. His love was further marked by simplicity and humility, with a heart wide open to receive whatever heavenly graced God had planned for him.
May we too open our hearts to receive the Baby Jesus on Christmas day and let God’s unfathomable love overcome us with Christian joy.

Philip Kosloski | Dec 16, 2018 , Aleteia.

 

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 The Coincidence Argument

First, I asked Lapides whether it’s possible that Jesus merely fulfilled the [OT] prophecies by accident. Maybe he’s just one of the many throughout history who have   coincidentally fit the prophetic fingerprint. 

 “Not a chance,” came his response. ‘The odds are so astronomical that they rule that out. Someone did the math and figured out that the probability of just eight prophecies being fulfilled is one chance in one hundred million billion. That number is millions of times greater than the total num-ber of people who’ve ever walked the planet!”

 “He calculated that if you took this number of silver  dollars, they would cover the state of Texas to a depth of two feet. If you marked one silver dollar among them and then had a blindfolded person wander the whole state and bend down and pick up one coin, what would be the odds he’d choose the one that had been marked.?”

With that he answered his own question: “The same odds that anybody in history could have fulfilled just eight of the prophecies.”

 Lee Strobel, The Case for Christ.

 



The real face of Santa Claus

SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT
December 8 – 9 :   2nd Sunday of Advent:

In Images: The real face of Santa Claus 
New facial reconstruction tech-nology reveals the most realistic portrait of St. Nicholas.

Many are familiar with the image of jolly old St. Nick, popularized by the Coca-Cola company, but modern-day legends have obscured the reality of who Santa Claus was and what he really looked like.
St. Nicholas is currently buried in the crypt of the Basilica di San Nicola in Bari, Italy. Most of his bones were moved there in the 11th century when a group of sailors took his remains from Myra during a time of con-fusion. When the crypt was repaired in the 1950s, Nicho-las’ bones were taken out and examined by a team of pro-fessors. Thousands of measurements and x-ray photo-graphs were taken of his skull and bones and archived for future study.
Then in 2004 Professor Caroline Wilkinson at the Uni-versity of Manchester used facial reconstruction technol-ogy to visualize what St. Nicholas would have looked like based on the data previously recorded. Her findings were updated in 2014 and according to the BBC, this latest im-age “was based on ‘all the skeletal and historical material’ available” and “uses ‘the most up-to-date anatomical standards, Turkish tissue depth data and CGI tech-niques.’” The reconstruction was developed by the Uni-versity of Dundee and Liverpool John Moores University. Based on the findings St. Nicholas is described as “a Greek man, living in Asia Minor … about 60 years old, 5 feet 6 inches tall, who had a heavy jaw and a broken nose.”
What’s even more fascinating is how similar St. Nicholas’ face is to early icons of him. The St. Nicholas Center of-fers a comparative picture of the digital reconstruction alongside various icons of the 4th-century saint. The similarities are striking.

While he may not look like the jolly old St. Nick that the world is accustomed to, there do exist some features that are recognizable in popular representations and one could almost sense a twinkle in his eyes. 

 
Philip Kosloski

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December 12: Our Lady of Guadalupe:

“Hear and let it penetrate into  your heart, my dear little son: let nothing discourage you, nothing depress you. Let nothing alter your heart or your countenance. Also, do not fear any illness or vexation, anxiety or pain. Am I not here who am your Mother? Are you not under my
shadow and protection? Am I not your fountain of life ? Are you not in the crossing of my arms ?" 

 

 

 

The Blessed Virgin  speaking to Juan Diego, on Tepeyac Hill
(December 1531)