Guardian angel spiritual protection from the day of birth

Tag: religion

  • Faith and young people, do-it-yourself religion

    Faith is affected by historical conditioning, situations, and experiences that are lived. Finding and living one’s faith authentically today is certainly very difficult. To arrive at a conscious faith it is necessary to take a path that convinces. Young people today are very interested in the themes of faith, but this is less and less associated with a specific religious affiliation.

    They seek an open dialogue, but too often they do not find it, they seek concrete answers, but too often they have simplistic ones. Young people are not satisfied, they are skeptical, they want credible explanations, they want to know. Faith very often fails to enter young people, despite the fact that young people are predisposed to accept it.

    The strong responsibility of religious institutions is evident, believers who do not identify with a church are clearly increasing and an individual relationship with the divine dimension is increasingly gaining ground. For young people, family educational contexts are also important, but they seem to be less and less disposed towards religion. The latest surveys show how the importance of faith is weakening in the passage from one generation to the next.

    Young people and faith today

    The crisis of faith in recent years has doubled the percentage of young people who say they do not have faith in ecclesiastical institutions and also the majority of religious figures have little consensus. The difficult relationship with the faith is also manifested through the widespread intolerance of young people in the face of the political role played by the ecclesiastical hierarchies.

    This explains on the one hand the growing process of creating opposing groups whose positions for or against are consolidating. On the other hand, the obvious trend for which occasional participation in events and initiatives promoted by religious bodies is increasing, a sign of the emergence of a more individualistic search for the sacred.

    What is faith for young people?

    Many young people respond to this question by emphasizing the value of the faith’s psychological and relational support, as well as its fundamental function of guiding and offering hope. Religion, on the other hand, seems less and less a point of reference for moral doctrine, and in particular, precisely for those aspects on which it insists most in the public debate.

    This confirms how the lack of effective and credible guides in the perception of young people undermines the desire for faith. As already mentioned, a widespread sense of religiosity emerges among young people, but it does not conform to traditional styles. Religion is perceived as an institutionalized system of beliefs, practices, rites, and traditions and young people tend to shy away from anything that appears to be an institution or discipline.

    Young people need a more open and flexible relationship with faith to access it. The individualistic approach also often takes the form of independent reading of the Bible. Perhaps to better understand something that has not been clearly explained, to seek direct answers to their doubts. The fact is that we cannot speak to today’s young people about love, strength, hope, faith if we do not discuss with them the substance hidden behind these great words. In fact, many do not lack the goal, they lack the tools to achieve it.

  • Popular religiosity between religion and superstition

    Popular religiosity has at times been seen as a pure expression of faith and devotion on the part of the people, and at times as a deviation from the orthodox principles and rites of the Catholic religion. But what are the expressions and manifestations of popular religiosity? And how deeply rooted are they in our culture and our religious tradition?

    Pope Pius VI expressed himself about popular piety – Particular expressions of the search for God and faith are found among the people. For a long time considered less pure, sometimes despised. – Popular piety – popular religiosity – popular religion – are different expressions that often have ended up designating all the same thing. Demonstrations of faith that originate from the lower strata of the population and that often did not find space and recognition on the part of Catholic orthodoxy.

    Popular religiosity has its own rites, symbols, and languages ​​that express purity and spontaneity, but which are far from randomness or improvisation. They are rites deeply rooted in popular culture and also for this reason they allow a less formal and less intellectual approach to religion. They embody the profound spirituality of the humblest people and having popular roots, they are often linked to nature, the earth, and the passing of the seasons.

    Rites and language of popular religiosity

    The rites of popular religiosity have not always been opposed by the official Church. Often certain customs have become part of the actual religious rites. Think of the use of kissing and touching sacred statues, images, relics, or other sacred objects. To the habit of accompanying the saints in procession or to go on pilgrimage to sacred places. Even presenting offerings and votive gifts or kneeling in an act of prayer are symbols and expressions that come from afar and that have been handed down from generation to generation.

  • Religious freedom is a kind of heaven on earth

    Religious freedom is a mirage or a kind of heaven on earth. Man has always tried to create a relationship with the absolute, giving different explanations to existential questions. However, these roads collide with each other. Why can’t we live together? Is the problem religious or social?

    The theme of religious freedom, although it starts from the spiritual sphere, is absolutely not resolved in it. Clashes based (or justified) by religious incompatibility are the order of the day. Some of us were born with these clashes going on and who knows if the end will be seen. The problem is far more serious than one might imagine.

    According to some experts, there are 56 countries with a level of at least medium risk for the violation of religious freedom. The improvements that are occasionally glimpsed are mostly the result of local initiatives which, however, fail to expand their range of action at least at the national level.

    To understand what stands in the way of total religious freedom, we can deepen some mechanisms of group psychology. If applied in an absolutist way, they close any opening.

    Religious involvement

    If we leave out all the earthly reasons that lead to a clash between groups, the greatest obstacle to religious freedom is certainly the attitude of believers. What is religious orthodoxy based on? Gerard Lenski identified a fundamental difference between devotionalism and devotional orthodoxy.

    Being devout is based on the feeling of an important private and emotional connection with God, while orthodoxy emphasizes intellectual consent to the theological doctrines of a given religion.

    Starting from this distinction it is possible to reconstruct two ways of participating in the religious group.

    • Associative involvement based on participation in the ritual and institutional activities of a community.
    • The emotional involvement that sees religion more linked to the intimate and personal sphere.

    These two orientations are totally independent and cause opposite behaviors. Those who feel attached to the doctrine will hardly jeopardize it with a different version.

    Affiliation and membership

    Regardless of what the individual seeks in religion and religious groups, there are different methods by which the group seeks the affiliation of believers and grounds their membership in the group. Let’s see 4 perspectives.

    • Charismatic groups, all those who take on religious principles in a total way in daily life and without any adaptation, often make use of extreme persuasive processes. The goal is to bring the whole life of the individual back to participation in the group through control and isolation.
    • The perspective that bases affiliation on granting rewarding answers to the person’s problems.
    • The affiliation that is also formed on the possibility of transforming one’s life. In a particular moment of one’s existence characterized by a need for growth or change, religion becomes an engine of growth. It will be the personal history of the individual that will dictate the direction of this change.
    • The fourth perspective emphasizes the religious practices that a group offers. The simple fact of finding more suitable for our personality pushes us towards one choice rather than another.

  • Religiosity is an important area of ​​individual life

    Religiosity is an important area of ​​individual life and psychology tries to understand its characteristics. Religious experience can receive a push from within or without. Let us try to understand what intrinsic religiosity entails.

    Religious orientation is a fundamental object of investigation for human beings. As it aims to understand how one of the fundamental experiences is lived to answer the existential questions concerning our life. How and why do we respond so differently to these needs? The first difference concerns the source of the spring that pushes us towards religion. Here then is what intrinsic religiosity means.

    Religiosity – a personal and social issue

    A first consideration that must be made when speaking of intrinsic religiosity concerns the sphere that the religious sense occupies in the life of an individual. The term intrinsic can mistakenly lead us to think that it is the personal sphere as opposed to the social one. In reality, intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity are both individual ways of living religion.

    Religion and religiosity in its social being refer to phenomena that include groups, a group identity, and their collective actions. For this, we could ascribe phenomena such as orthodoxy, pacifism, and religious fanaticism. In this sphere at an extreme level and far from true spirituality, we also find religious sects that try to annihilate the individual in a group totally devoted to the holy man.

    The intrinsic orientation

    Inherent religious orientation is a personal way of experiencing spirituality and was described by Gordon Allport. Those who have an intrinsic orientation consider religion as an absolute value on which life rests and which gives value to it. There is no utilitarian intent of religion, only the fulfillment of man.

    These people experience religion as a practice embodied in everyday life and who feel the presence of the Absolute in their existence. Everything then manifests itself as a personal and inner conviction. Allport himself has built a scale to measure the type of religiosity of a person and the intrinsic orientation is traced back to high levels of agreement to such sentences.

    • It is not very important what I believe in, the important thing is to be a good person.
    • It is important for me to spend time in meditation and prayer
    • I often had a strong feeling that God was present.

    Religion and prejudice

    Further consideration of Allport concerns the relationship between religious orientation and the phenomenon of prejudice. Prejudice is a cognitive phenomenon for which a priori beliefs are created about specific groups or people with certain characteristics. According to Allport, intrinsic religiosity becomes the substratum for a more tolerant and open orientation.

    Extrinsic religiosity leads man to use religion for his own purposes (not necessarily evil, only more utilitarian), this leads to a greater propensity to believe that others also have purposes in relating to us regardless of what they really are.

  • Syncretism spread thanks to the New Age

    Syncretism spread thanks to the New Age

    For syncretism, it is not important to which creed one belongs, but the actual commitment to inner research. Syncretism is a religious form that mixes doctrines, liturgies, and spiritual practices of different origins.

    By syncretism, we mean the integration or fusion of doctrines of different origins into a new doctrine, both in the sphere of religious beliefs and in that of philosophical conceptions.

    More particularly, in the history of religions, syncretism means the fusion of two or more religions or even the partial contamination of one religion with elements of others.

    However, the term syncretism has spread in modern times thanks above all to the New Age movement, which attributes a particular meaning to syncretism.

    New Age and syncretism

    In fact, the New Age doctrine represents a form of religious syncretism because it mixes elements of various origins. It takes up elements of Eastern wisdom – Buddhism, Hinduism, Yoga -, of the esotericisms of the Western tradition – theosophy, anthroposophy, occultism – of Christianity and of the religions of the primitives – shamanism, animism, magic.

    In this vision, God is real, exists, and is part of nature and man. God is seen as an energy that permeates all things – the sum of the consciousness existing in the universe. Man’s transformation lies in learning to recognize divine energy in oneself and in nature.

    For the New Age, the best part of any religion is its esoteric, secret, and mysterious side. At the same time, the more modern meaning of syncretism simply indicates that the substratum of all religions is unique.

    For the effects of syncretism it is therefore not important to which creed one belongs, but the actual commitment to the inner search within the religion or doctrine in which one is established, by choice or culture.

    Religious s yncretism affirms the substantial unity of all faiths and schools of thought, beyond dogmas and formal and external differences.

    According to the syncretistic view, the founding concepts and principles of every creed – such as the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of men, the value and importance of prayer, universal love, etc. – are the only and the same.

  • Prosperity theology teaches that God wants us to win

    Prosperity theology teaches that God wants us to win

    Prosperity theology teaches that God wants us to win, Always. A certain false idea of ​​Christianity has accustomed us to despise money. The Theology of Prosperity, of Protestant origin, is of the opposite opinion. Prosperity Theology teaches that everyone has the right to economic well-being because physical and spiritual reality are seen as inseparable.

    It is not bad to ask God for money and prosperity. A doctrine in contrast with Christian churches which teach a false concept of poverty. Poverty is actually the detachment of the heart from material things, not misery and mediocrity. If a man or a woman is successful – they earn very well and with this money they employ others and do good – God is very happy with that.

    He only waits for those who have faith and ask Him the same thing to fill him with his favor and open doors for him that are impossible for men. Money is just a medium that amplifies what the person already is. With a lot of money you can give work to others, you can carry out projects that are useful to millions of people, you can set up philanthropic foundations, research centers and universities, set up university faculties, etc.

    According to a new study by an American social research institute, there is a relationship between personal economic well-being and religious faith. Wealth and religion would be inversely proportional.

    The more religious countries are those with a higher rate of poverty and vice versa, while the richer ones are more prone to atheism. The only exception is the United States of America, where despite the high wealth, 54% of the population affirms the great importance of religion in their lives.

    In the sociological text – Sacred and popular. Religion and politics in the globalized world – the authors point out that participation in religious practices records higher rates among people who are more uncertain economically and who face more health and poverty problems.

    In the general hypothesis, the decline in the value of religion, faith, and religious activities depends on the long-term change in existential security. With the process and progress of human development, the importance of religion in the life of individuals gradually decreases.

  • Jainism one of the oldest religions in the world

    Jainism one of the oldest religions in the world

    Jainism is a religion born in India in the same historical period in which Buddhism was born. It still counts many followers today and the most important principle of this belief is non-violence, as illustrated in the symbols of the open hand and the wheel of the Dharma and the Swastika.

    An open hand with a dharma wheel and a svastika are symbols of one of the oldest religions in the world, although still widely practiced. His followers, who lead a sober, humble and simple life, aim at innate knowledge in the soul and at liberation from the cycle of reincarnations.

    Let’s find out more about Jainism

    Very often, in a too simplistic way, we link India to Hinduism, but in reality this nation, often considered as the guru of all nations, has given rise to an endless variety of spiritual pursuits. Some of them have remained currents of Hinduism while others have managed to reach the rank of true religions.

    One of these religions born in India is Jainism or Janism, founded between the eighth and seventh centuries before Christ, more or less during the founding of Rome and the drafting of the Hebrew Bible.

    The backbone of Jainism revolves around the doctrines of the twenty-four Tirthankaras or spiritual masters and saviors of the dharma, among which Mahavira, a contemporary of Buddha, stands out.

    Mahavira left everything at the age of thirty to devote himself to the search for spiritual truth, meditating for twelve consecutive years before reaching what in Jainism is called omniscience, or the state of direct wisdom implicit in the awakened soul.

    After attaining such enlightenment, Mahavira preached Jainism for three decades before attaining moksha or liberation, thus leaving our world.

    The fundamental principles of Jainism

    They are above all non-violence (aimsha), so important that it has graphically become the very symbol of religion (the palm of a hand bearing the wheel of dharma). This precept can push practitioners to wear masks in front of the mouth and nose to avoid compromising the existence of insects and other minute forms of life.

    There follows a philosophical principle called anekantavada, that is the awareness that truth is expressed in a complex multitude of aspects, sometimes contradictory, and is never univocal. This principle avoids dogma.

    The doctrine of Jainism

    Other precepts of a character nature follow, such as non-attachment and the non-pursuit of pleasure, together with adherence to the truth (do not lie) and the prohibition of stealing. We note in many of these aspects characteristics common to some ancient Christian currents such as that of the Cathars.

    According to the Jain doctrine, which can be defined as transtheistic, or neither theistic nor atheist, the material universe is made up of six basic elements. That create a framework for the principles of existence in which souls reincarnate experiencing the effects of good and bad karma within samsara.

    Until the achievement of a liberation-salvation through three principles, a correct perception that leads to a correct knowledge which in turn generates a correct action.

    Like Buddhism, of which it is contemporary, Jainism detaches itself from Vedic Hinduism based on caste, distancing itself from any kind of distinction between human beings, whether social, gender, religious or ethnic.

    Even members of the same family, when engaged in religious practices, call each other brothers and sisters, even if there are different degrees of kinship.

  • Hahahel Guardian Angel Born October 14 to 18

    Hahahel Guardian Angel Born October 14 to 18

    Hahahel offers the joy of spirituality that is obtained by living life as a celebration of beauty, of goodness, of all that is beautiful in creation and in what surrounds us, of all that exists, that has been given to us, and that we ourselves we are. It is said that its essence is the authentic priesthood, that is, the understanding that everyone is a priest in the context of his own life.

    As it binds to love, favors its discovery, and helps focus on a goal. It fights forces hostile to faith and spirituality. Makes intuitive and compassionate and dominates the universal religion. In fact, it protects all those who, through any idea, creed, or religion, love, preach and work for unity by revealing the truth of love and the universal God, rejecting any violent use of religion.

    The consciousness of the person protected by Hahahel angel (his solar-type energy) captures the wisdom-love inculcated by Uranus; therefore he will not love purely material things (wealth, professional or social affirmation), because he will have intuition or awareness that his kingdom is not of this world.

    Hahahel Angel personality

    For these reasons the Hahahel guardian angel personality is not made for worldly roles, it will feel uncomfortable in earthly society until its conscience leads it to the realization of disinterested works: and it is here that it will achieve success, his words will be bearers of Peace, his hands can heal.

    What we seek in others is the joy of sharing and our psychic unity. The subjects who, coming close to us because illuminated by Hahahel, find their way will become our friends. And they arrive motivated by the intellect, which is at a more advanced level than the emotions.

    In fact friendship, according to this scheme, is superior to that which is sentimental love, and which is still a reflection of Love, but subject to the storms of passion.

    Once the inner peace has been achieved, the gaze is directed towards the internal mechanics of the Universe and, to those interested in this type of research, everything else seems to be of secondary importance, so that it does not hesitate to drop social life with its rituals.

    The absolute priority goes to the psychic, mental, animistic life; external needs are of secondary importance, except for the work necessary for survival. Within this thirst for love and knowledge, if invoked, Hehahel grants practically everything…

    Hahahel Prayer – Psalm 119:2