Self-Knowledge, Self-Mastery, and Freedom

Recently the Church began the "Fortnight For Freedom," fourteen days of prayer, sacrifice, education, and advocacy for religious freedom.  For the opening of this campaign, Archbishop William E. Lori, recently-installed Archbishop of Baltimore, delivered this homily.  Please keep this intention in your prayers and take whatever actions are being suggested.

The Catholic Church is one of the last prophetic voices for sexual responsibility in the Western world.  We are silenced neither by the misdeeds of some of our clergy and religious, nor by people's opposition to Church teaching.  We continue to proclaim Jesus as the Way to Truth and Life.  We cannot help but note that the Way of Jesus is comprehensive; it is concerned with every aspect of human existence.  The Lord has assured us that we can--and must--continue to declare without fear that He is Lord of everything and Lord of all.

Wife, mother, and blogger Simcha Fisher has written about the subject of promoting sexual responsibility among young women by the tracking of their menstrual cycle.  One might wonder about the value of this activity, especially for chaste unmarried women.  Fisher addresses that and other questions in this article.

The title of my present post, "Self-Knowledge, Self-Mastery, and Freedom" reminds us that these three are meant to exist in a trinitarian fashion: inseparable, interdependent, and indispensable for the full flowering of the human person, regardless of religious affiliation.