When you see "a Theology of Attachment" as the title of this article, you probably think I'm going to tell you what to give up for Lent.  It's too late for that.  Rather, I'm simply going to compare that which Satan clung to and that which Mary clung to.  (And yes, I know I just ended a sentence in a preposition, but remember what GK Chesterton wrote: "A preposition, I may remark in passing, is about the best thing in the world to end a sentence with.") Satan's Attachments: St. Thomas Aquinas wrote:  "But [satan] desired resemblance with God in this respect---by desiring, as his last end of beatitude, something [...]

Part One: Respect of Egos was about St. Thomas Aquinas' warnings against "respect of persons" which I consider to be an avoidance of "Respect of Egos." This leads into today's article on having fortitude of character. Many of you are probably familiar with the Milgram experiment in 1961 where normal Americans involved in a psychological experiment were pressured into delivering lethal doses of electricity to other Americans involved in that experiment.  At least, they believed these were lethal doses of electricity... but they were not.  The experiment (linked above) was rather a test on the would-be electrocuters to determine how many people would deliver a lethal dose of 250 volts [...]

This is a two part series on the "Respect of Egos." It is easy to misunderstand St. Thomas Aquinas' condemnation of "respect of persons." The notion we are to avoid "respect of persons" obviously does not mean we should disrespect anyone.  Nor does it mean that we are supposed to treat everyone the exact same.  Rather, in his section on Respect of Persons, St. Thomas Aquinas essentially teaches that the true Christian is to honor his neighbor in proportion to his level of virtuous living, not his social status. In the above link, St. Thomas Aquinas writes about how we are indeed permitted to prefer one person over another.  The [...]