Blessed Feast of Saint Alphonsus de Liguori ( today August 2 )

Father Liguori is the Marian and Morality Doctor of the Church. No other doctor wrote more books or was more particular in his devotion to our Lord and his Blessed Mother. He lived to be the oldest doctor and his books cover many subjects including the Blessed Sacrament, and The Early Martyrs of the Church. Some of his significant theological writings are and listed in the Dogmatic Constitutions of the Catholic Church from the Councils. Before Liguori established the Redemptorist Order, that is a great pillar and mainstay of the church, he practiced law in Italy. It was his custom to attend the holy sacrifice of the mass before he went into the courts. He is best known for his moral theology, but he also wrote well in the field of spiritual and dogmatic theology. St.Alphonsus Liguori is a most distinguished, Catholic, doctor in matters of morality because of his absolute surrender to God in faith and his conscience. Moral philosophy focus is on ethics and the discipline dealing with good and bad and with moral duty and obligations. The Ten Commandments are not a wish list. Christ crystallized them for us by saying they are summed up in love for God and neighbor. We can not attain our victory over immorality unless we possess virtue. Virtue is moral excellence.
St. Alphonsus' writings on the Stations of the Cross and martyrs are most touching and redemptive. Christ's death, and the process that lead to it in the carrying of the cross, should move our conscience profoundly. It was constantly in his thoughts as they are in all sincere Christians. The stations according to some authors and historians actually got started by Jesus' mother, Mary. She wanted to keep the memory of her Son alive and she frequently traced his actual steps in Jerusalem. The closing down of the holy lands during a period in the church's history was another reason the church rejuvenated the Stations of the Cross locally. We do not have to wait for the Lenten season to think or make the stations. There are hardly any catholic churches in the world that do not display the journey that led to Christ's final agony and victory over sin and death. This is Jesus' heroic and dramatic struggle up Calvary. It is a cordial reminder of love bestowed by three mothers: God, our Divine Mother and Author of all creation and redemption, the Mother of God, the holy, Virgin Mary, and the Mother of our mystical life, the Church.
God's will can not be known and achieved without prayer, grace and God's favor.
We are often caught between what the law permits and what are God's laws.

Blessed Feast for everyone !