The Ilocos Times

ONCE again , we celebrate the very wonderful Solemnity of the Assumption of our Lady to heaven, reminding us that like her, we too are meant to be both body and soul in our definitive state of life, hopefully in heaven, at the end of time. Let’s remember that man is always a unity of body and soul. He is not just pure body nor pure spiritual soul. And as our Catechism teaches us, the body, properly animated by the spiritual soul, shares in the dignity of the “image of God.” (cfr. CCC 364) This is how the Catechism explains it: “The human body shares in the dignity of “the image of God”: it is a human body precisely because it is animated by a spiritual soul, and it is the whole human person that is intended to become in the body of Christ, a temple of the Spirit. Man, though made of body and soul, is a unity.” The Catechism further teaches that, “Through his very bodily condition he (man) sums up in himself the elements of the material world…He is obliged to regard his body as go...

By Carlos V. Cornejo A good book in managing our negative emotions is the one authored by renowned psychologist Susan David, entitled “Emotional Agility”.   In her book she gave four ways to deal with destructive emotions such as anger, sadness, boredom, self-pity or nervousness.   First, she suggested we need to be more accurate in describing our emotions.   That we should be able to distinguish sadness from boredom, anger from hatred, anxiety from loneliness, etc. in assessing our emotions.   Describing more accurately our emotions is like describing symptoms of our sickness to a doctor.   A well-defined problem will be a much easier problem to solve. Second, she advises us to accept our negative emotions.   Don’t run away from them by distracting ourselves with smartphone, use of social media or watching Netflix.   Running away from it would just make it come back with a vengeance.   I would want to inject a Christian remedy here.  ...