S E S S I O N 25The True Man After God’s

Own Heart

What an incredible Lenten Journey!

What an incredible year!

It is hard to believe the material we’ve covered!

The Vision of the Human Person• “The human person, created in the image of

God, is a being at once corporeal and spiritual. The biblical account expresses this reality in symbolic language when it affirms that ‘then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life’” (Catechism #362).

• Man “is capable of self-knowledge, of self-possession and of freely giving himself and entering into communion with other persons (Catechism #357).

The Four Types of Formation

Human FormationNatural formation of the material nature of man.

Intellectual FormationFormation of the human

intellect to embrace truth.

Pastoral FormationFormation in mercy to live

together harmoniously.

Moral FormationSpiritual formation of the will to

embrace the good.

Formationof the

Human Person

• “Parents should teach their children to subordinate the ‘material and instinctual dimensions to interior and spiritual ones.’ Parents have a grave responsibility to give good example to their children” (Catechism #2223).

• The human person must be formed in the virtues, especially temperance, justice, prudence and fortitude.

• Children learn virtue from their parents.

Natural Formation and Virtue

• “Except for a few cognitive instincts, newborns pretty much just perceive and react … Cognitive development is the product of two interacting influences – brain growth and experience.”

• “The brain continues to change in response to experience throughout the lifespan. We are in lifelong development, as reflected in the ever-changing structure of the brain throughout our lives … attachment relationships are the major environmental factors that shape brain development during its period of maximal growth.”

Intellectual Formation and Communion

Source: Eliot, E., “What’s Going on in There? How the Brain and Mind Develop in the First Five Years of Life,” Bantam Books, New York, 1999, p. 392 and pp. 412-414.Siegel, D., “The Developing Mind: How Relationships and the Brain Interact to Shape Who We Are,” 2nd Edition, The Guilford Press, New York, 2012, pp, 35 and 112.

• “Man cannot live without love. He remains a being that is incomprehensible for himself, his life is senseless, if love is not revealed to him, if he does not encounter love, if he does not experience it and make it his own, if he does not participate intimately in it” (St. John Paul II, Redemptor Hominis, #10).

• “Self-mastery … is a training in human freedom. The alternative is clear: either man governs his passions and finds peace, or he lets himself be dominated by them and becomes unhappy” (Catechism #2339).

Moral Formation: The Freedom to Love

• “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples” (John 13:34-35).

• We are called to form our children so that they can form their own families and harmoniously live together.

• We must form them in mercy by offering them mercy.• To offer mercy to others, we must receive mercy

ourselves.

Pastoral Formation and Mercy

Considering the communion of love we are called to live led us into the mystery of the family. So we

traveled down the path leading to Nazareth.

The Home at Nazareth as Paradisus Dei

• The Holy Family “was a heaven, a paradise on earth, endless delights in this place of grief; it was a glory already begun in the vileness, abjection and lowliness of their life” (Monsignor Jean Jacques Olier).

• “It is in the Holy Family, the original ‘Church in miniature (Ecclesia Domestica), that every Christian family must be reflected. ‘Through God’s mysterious design, it was in that family that the Son of God spent long years of a hidden life. It is therefore the prototype and example for all Christian families’” (St. John Paul II, Redemptoris Custos, #7).

Source: Doze, Fr. Andrew, “Saint Joseph: The Shadow of the Father,” Trans. Audett, F., Alba House, New York, 1992, p. 52.

The Characteristics of the Home at Nazareth

1. The Presence of God:• “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us … we

have behold his glory” (John 1:14)

2. Holiness – evil remains on outside the home:• Jesus is the Word Incarnate (Cf. John 1:14).• Mary is the Immaculate Conception (Cf. Luke 1:28).• Joseph is the just man in Scripture (Cf. Matthew 1:19).

3. Superabundant Joy:• “God will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and

death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:4).

Don Bosco as a Light for our Day

• “By listening to the woman I shall send to you, you will do everything with ease’ … he turned to find a beautiful and gracious Lady at his side. ‘Don’t be afraid,’ she said … ‘What I shall do for these animals, you must do for all my children’ … When she had finished speaking, he saw that the wild animals had indeed been changed to lambs.”

• “The special tenderness and commitment to young people that are characteristic of Don Bosco’s charism must be expressed in an equal commitment to the involvement and formation of families. Your youth ministry, therefore, must be decisively open to family ministry” (Pope Benedict XVI).

Source: Lappin, P., “Give Me Souls: Life of Don Bosco,” Salesiana Publishers, New York, 1986, “The Lady and the Dream, prior to Chapter 1.Message to the 26th General Chapter of the Salesian Congregation, March 31, 2008.

A Home Filled with Joy• “The preventative system consists in making the

laws known and then watching carefully so that the pupils may at all times be under the vigilant eye of the Rector, who like loving fathers can … place the pupils in the impossibility of committing faults” (St. John Bosco).

• “Let the boys have full liberty to jump, run and make as much noise as they please … ‘Do anything you like,’ the great friend of youth, St. Philip [Neri] used to say, ‘as long as you do not sin.’”

Source: Lemoyne, G., “The Biographical Memoirs of St. John Bosco,” v. 4, Salesiana Publlishers, Inc., 1967, p. 381.Morrison, J., “The Educational Philosophy of St. John Bosco,” Salesiana Publishers, New York, 1979, p. 113.

The Seven Covenants of TMIY1. Honor your wedding vows.

2. Use money for others.

3. Give God some of your time.

4. Set your mind on the things above.

5. Find God in yourself.

6. Find God in other people.

7. Make it easy to be good and hard to be bad.

As we considered these steps, we saw that the heart of man is very important. The battle is over

our heart. There are weeds in the garden.

A Strike at the Heart of Man• “Man, tempted by the devil, let his trust in his

Creator die in his heart and, abusing his freedom, disobeyed God’s command. This is what man’s first sin consisted of. All subsequent sin would be disobedience toward God and lack of trust in his goodness” (Catechism #397).

• “Adam wanted to be like God [but] without God” (St. Maximus the Confessor, Catechism #398).

Mortification of the Flesh• “For all that is in the world, the concupiscence of the flesh and the

concupiscence of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world” (1 John 2:16).

• In our fallen state, we tend to seek sensual pleasure as its own end, which is in opposition to the will of God and to right reason.

• Mortification is to “put to death” these tendencies (Cf. Colossians 3:5) by voluntarily giving up things we desire or doing things we find unpleasant.

• Mortification should involved all five senses, but be adapted to the individual person and situation.

• Historical practices have included food and drink and those things causing comfort or discomfort.

• A perfect means, which attacks disordered desires at their root, is to give your time to God and the family.

Charity and the Spirit of the World

• “For all that is in the world, the concupiscence of the flesh and the concupiscence of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world” (1 John 2:16).

• In our fallen state, we seek worldly success (and the goods it brings) as a means to build ourselves up in the eyes of others or to make us “popular.” We seek to constantly compare our success with the success of others.

• Early monks fled from the world to live in caves and monasteries.• We must flee the “spirit of the world,” which is manifest to us in a very

intense way through the media. We must minimize media consumption.• We should always seek to live below our means (house, car, clothes,

electronics, vacations, eating out, etc.).• We should rejoice at our neighbor’s good fortune and publicly praise him

for it.

Prayer and the Pride of Life• “For all that is in the world, the concupiscence of the flesh and the

concupiscence of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world” (1 John 2:16).

• In our fallen state, we tend to insist on our own thoughts and opinions and believe in our own self-sufficiency.

• These tendencies extend both to other people and to our relationship with God.

• The first goal is to bring our will into harmony with God’s will, which will require considerable time in prayer.

• Unless the will of God and/or true good of neighbor is at stake, we should not insist on our will or way of doing things.

• We should help others cultivate their talents to be put to use for the sake of souls and the Kingdom of God.

When we considered the heart of man we were led to the heart of St. Joseph. In him we

discovered the true man after God’s own heart.

A Man after God’s own Heart1. “I have found in David … a man

after my heart, who will do all my will” (Acts 13:22).

2. “Bathsheba came to David and, and he lay with her … that Uriah might be struck down” (2 Samuel 11:4-15).

3. “The Lord send Nathan to David” (2 Samuel 12:1).

4. “Thus says the Lord: Would you build me a house to dwell in … the Lord will make you a house” (2 Samuel 7:5-11).

1. “Joseph did as the angel of the Lord commanded him” (Matthew 1:24, 2:14, 2:21, 2:22).

2. “Mary was found to be with child … Joseph, being a just man … resolved to send her away quietly” (Matthew 1:18-19)

3. “An angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream” (Matthew 1:20).

4. “Jesus went down with them and came to Nazareth … and increased in wisdom and in stature … with God and man” (Luke 2:51-52).

King David Joseph: “Son of David”

St. Joseph and the Mystery of the Temple

• “After three days they found Jesus in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions” (Luke 2:46).

• “Everything happens as if Mary were helping Jesus to choose this carpenter he had just left to be his guide and educator in preference to the learned of the Temple” (Fr. Andrew Doze).

• “Jesus went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them” (Luke 2:51).

• “He said to them, ‘It is written, `My house shall be called a house of prayer`, but you make it a den of robbers’” (Matthew 21:13)

Source: Doze, Fr. Andrew, “Saint Joseph: The Shadow of the Father,” Trans. Audett, F., Alba House, New York, 1992, p. 82.

St. Joseph and the Life of Prayer

“The same aura of silence that envelops everything else about Joseph also shrouds his work as a carpenter in the house of Nazareth. It is, however, a silence that reveals in a special way the inner portrait of the man. The Gospels speak exclusively of what Joseph ‘did.’ Still, they allow us to discover in his ‘actions’ … an aura of deep contemplation … The total sacrifice, whereby Joseph surrendered his whole existence to the demands of the Messiah’s coming into his home, becomes understandable only in the light of his profound interior life.”

St. John Paul II, Redemptoris Custos, #25-26.

Next WeekParadisus Dei

Small Group DiscussionStarter Questions

1. How are you going to allow St. Joseph to help you to develop the interior life?

2. How are you going to implement the Seven Covenants of That Man is You?