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• The current era is described as a "post-truth society," where authority is often questioned or rejected.
• Personal opinions and beliefs are highly valued, leading to the creation of "echo chambers" on social media and dialogue becoming impossible with veracity being replaced by popularity.
• Universal values are fading, resulting in a crisis of relativism where objective truth is doubted or denied.
• Relativism in faith involves questioning or rejecting authority and it exalts personal opinion or belief.
• The "echo chambers" effect is present, dialogue becomes impossible, and universal values are dismissed.
• Relativism in morals stems from relativism in faith, denying moral absolutes and equates moral judgment with moralism, which leads to indifferentism, loss of morality, and the rule of power over reason.

Spirituality of Truth

• Boethius, in 475-535 AD, lamented the loss of good fortune, but philosophy stated that fortune is naturally changeable and the goods of fortune are not true goods.
• Philosophy seeks to define true goods by examining false ones, since everyone desires happiness, which satisfies completely.
• People mistakenly pursue happiness through wealth, public office, kingship, celebrity, and pleasure, which only provide partial satisfaction.

Spirituality

• Generally, it involves being aware that people have a soul and acting accordingly.
• In Christianity, it means developing a growing relationship with Christ leading to holiness.
• In Catholicism, it means living out baptismal promises in various ways.

3 Movements of Spirituality

• Identity (Who am I?) involves introspection and rational/conscious awareness.
• Destiny (Why was I created?) involves knowing, loving, and serving God for ultimate happiness in Heaven.
• Relevance (For whom am I?) involves relating to others and acting intelligently by, with, and for them.

Religion according to Summa Theologiae

• Re Lego/Re-Legere means "to read again" and "to consider carefully".
• Re Ligare means "to bind again".
• Re Eligere means "to choose again".
• Religion is considered a moral virtue, not a theological one.
• Religion is the virtue by which people give due worship to God.
• Religion unites people with similar beliefs versus spirituality that is a personal journey.
• Religion typically requires a structured format, while spirituality does not demand a distinctive organizational format.
• Authentic Catholic Spirituality views religion and spirituality as interconnected, emphasizing that rules and relationship go together.
• Rules and relationship go together because a relationship without rules or parameters leads to contempt and abuse, that is why revealed ways connect with God.
• Spirituality is formed by conforming to a manual (The Word of God) and not through human experience alone.

Spirituality of Truth characteristics

• Universal meaning it is consistent across places and times
• Objective meaning discovered rather than created
• Transcultural meaning consistent for all people.
• Not looking for truth results in being slaves and being guided by other interests or fears, or the pressure of the crowd, of the media, of power, of self-comfort
• Truth should be a way of life because relativism is the belief that permanent or universal truths do not exist.
• Relativism says truths are individual, based on popular opinion, society, or culture, and not on the Word of God.
• Relativism says that all opinions are equally valid, with no permanent moral values with non-relativists labeled as intolerant.
• Holding a clear faith is labeled as fundamentalism amid an environment that builds a dictatorship of relativism that does not recognize definitive aspects of goals consisting solely of ego and desires.

Types of Relativism

• Descriptive Relativism means that one can observe different moral norms
• Metaethical Relativism that states that there are no universal or extra-cultural moral truths
• Normative Relativism that states that we have to "live and let live"
• There is no absolute Truth in Relativism in Faith
• There is no absolute Right and Wrong in Relativism in Morals
• Religious Indifferentism promotes Practical Atheism saying that one religion is just as good as another
• Cafeteria Catholicism believes that people are free to align with teachings or reject Church practices that do not suit their taste.
• Utilitarianism & Hedonism believes that what is useful or pleasurable is good, justifying the end.
• Practical Relativism is self-centered, self-indulgent, grounded on convenience and material security.
• Moral Relativism contrasts with the Church's insistence on objective moral norms valid for everyone in which in our culture this is portrayed as being unjust and being opposed to basic human rights with practical relativism acting as if God and the poor did not exist.

Truthfulness

• Speaking only what is honest and factual
• Without God, statements like "being truthful is good" and "stealing is evil" loses objective meaning.

What is Truth

• Correspondence involves truth corresponds to facts.
• Coherence involves truth aligns with the rest of knowledge.
• Pragmatics involves truth is what works, or serves purposes

Truth According to St. Thomas Aquinas

• Logical Truthfulness: A person's mind aligning with reality.
• Moral Truthfulness: A person's actions reflect what is in his mind.
• Ontological Truth: Something corresponds to the mind of its maker.

Spirituality of Truth involves

• Verifying the Truth (logical)
• Living out the Truth (moral)
• Actualizing the Truth who one is (ontological)
• Truth (Veritas) became incarnate in person of Jesus Christ.
• Christianity means being convinced that there is no other way but Jesus.
• Jesus Never Existed is considered a legend with his life and teachings as fabrications and later were made into ethical doctrine with Jesus of Nazareth as a historical person.
• Jesus' Claims Were False with Jesus considered as Liar: He knew he was not what he claimed to be or Lunatic He did not know his claims were false.
• Jesus' Claims Were True: Jesus is indeed God, truth, way and life.

If Jesus is Lord, One Must

• Worship Him
• Obey His Teachings

Hedonism

• Originates from the Greek word hēdonē meaning pleasure
• It states there is a spirit that beguiles men into thinking that life is nothing more than the quest for pleasure and the satisfaction of human passions.
• The doctrine promotes that sensual pleasure is the ultimate goal of life.
• Devotion to pleasure and self-gratification as a way of life is often promoted through advertisements saying such as "I am here for one purpose: to get as much out of life as I can. Pain and suffering are evils that must be avoided at all costs. The main thing in life is to always feel good."
• This philosophy promotes avoiding any forms of suffering in life with hedonists wanting to always have a pleasurable life.

Hedonism's Effects on the Human Person

• This attitude is disastrous
• Its evil effects on soul and body are undeniable.
• It promotes rejecting total technical dominion over nature because the natural environment is more than raw material to be manipulated.
• Today much harm is done to development precisely as a result of distorted notions, which invites contemporary society to a serious review of its lifestyle.
• Many parts of the world are prone to hedonism and consumerism, regardless of their harmful consequences.
• Lacking an appreciation of human life's value leads to losing interest in both others and the earth itself.
• Treating the environment poorly influences how humanity treats itself.
• Reducing nature to only contingent data leads to violence to the environment, failing to respect human nature itself.
• Our nature is not only matter but also spirit, making it normative for culture.
• Humans shape the natural settings through culture directioned by freedom.
• Temperance and simplicity of life are the dictates of sound policy.
• Egoism denies we can be motivated by a concern for others with everyone one only acting to for his or her own advantage with the goal of self-promotion as its goal.
• Ethical egoists believe that people should not be their brother's keeper with its a world of only every man for himself.
• Consumerism says the equation of personal happiness comes with the purchase of material possession and consumption.

Negative Effects of Consumerism

• On Society: Global Inequality
• On Individuals: Obesity
• On the Environment: Pollution and Resource Depletion
• Throwaway Culture & Environmental Degradation ruthlessly consumes, exploits, and discards human life and our natural resources as one of the root causes
• The world is seen as disposable with landfills as obvious signs, broken relationships, forgotten people to the far-reaching effects of the throwaway mentality.
• Wasteful Consumption "quickly reduces things to rubbish," making our home like an immense pile of filth with the present of waste management as a source of disposal.
• The HAKOT/TAMBAK system, also known as collect and dump system, is not ecological with it the father and mother of Payatas and Smokey Mountain.

Indicators of a Throw-Away Culture

• Wasting of resources due to fueled consumerism
• Contraception and Abortion
• Discarding Genuine Relationships of Married Love and Marriage vows
• Abandonment of the Elderly and the Handicapped
• Exclusion of the Poor, Exploitation of the Weak
• People deemed "useless" are excluded or "thrown-away"

How to improve

• Responsible Consumption: One must protect God's gifts so that future generations may continue to enjoy them
• Culture of Solidarity: Everyone is brother/sister with everyone being one is disposable
• Culture of Encounter active concern for the poor, the weak and the vulnerable
• Jesus is the Face of the Father's Mercy (Misericordiae Vultus, April 11, 2015)

Mercy in the Bible

• "CHESED" (Hebrew) - loving kindness, steadfast loyalty, unfailing love despite unfaithfulness of beloved
• "RACHAMIM" (Hebrew) - pity, compassion, to forgive when one has all the right to be angry
• "ELEEOS" (Greek) - combines the concept of "Chesed" and "Rachamim"
• "SPLANKA" (Greek) - denotes feelings from the inmost core of a person

"misericordia" meaning "a miserable heart

• Affective mercy is an emotion: Pity for the plight of another
• Effective mercy is and positive action for doing good for another, taking steps to relieve the miseries or meet the needs of others.

Characteristicts of Mercy

• Rooted in Right Reason:
• Proven in Effective Action
• Towards Contemplation
• The divine Persons are subsistent relations the world relates to the divine model.
• As believers, we are joined together with fellow creatures.

Obstacles to being merciful

• Self-Centeredness
• Self-Pity
• Pride
• Selfishness
• Mercy is the greatest in relation to all that exists in creation

Three Kinds of Human Misery

• Suffering against ones natural appetite for existence and life
• Suffering that suddenly and unexpectedly strikes a person
• Suffering that strikes a person when he consistently pursues the good, yet he meets only overpowering evil

Throw-Away Culture (Sawa) vs Culture of Mercy (Awa) with:

• Objectification versus Contemplation
• Consumption vs. Compassion,
• Maximization vs. Care
• Disposal vs. Communion.
• The text mentions importance to be Living "The Primacy of Mercy".

Spirituality of Communion

• Communion describes a state of fellowship with God with "Communio" as sharing in common.

Aspects of Communion

• Communion with God
• Communion among Believers
• Communion in the Body and Blood of Christ
• Communion of Saints
• Communion of Churches
• God is a Communion of Persons
• Human Beings are the Image and Likeness of God
• God willed humans to beings to live in Communion with Him and with one another
• Sin Destroyed Communion and led to Alienation
• Gods Plan Of Salvation: To Gather His Children Scattered By Sin
• The Church gathers his scattered children, ergo for restoring Communion
• The Israelites saved from from Egypt to be his people.
• Women and Men being called to Communion in the Church of Jesus Christ.
• Church
• Life of Christ and of One Another.
• The Church Is The Bride Of Christ
• One thrust a lance into his side and immediately blood and water flowed out.
• The Two Shall Become One
• Vertical Communion: Communion with God
• Horizontal Communion: Communion with All Baptized

The texts presents those sharing in the Church as

• One Lord
• One Faith
• One Baptism
• One God
• Communion With One Another
• The texts presents the Holy Spirit's roles as:
• Vivifies The Church
• Unifies The Church
• Moves The Ministries Of The Church
• Holy Communion: The Act Of Reception Of The Sacrament Of The Holy Eucharist
• Sacrament - Visible Sign
• Communion Among Churches

Presents aspects of Churches as

• THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
• THE SEPARATED CHURCHES
• THE ECCLESIAL COMMUNITIES
• Those of The Church include:
• Those in good standing of The Church who are Catholics
• The Non-Church's Members: the people who have received baptism in the name of Jesus Christ
• Members of other Churches or denominations
• The non-members of other churches or denominations

Important points related to the Roman Poniff

• The Catholic Church is a Communion of Particular Churches
• Is the source of unity through a Communion of Churches

Points that relate to individualsim

• Individualism: the belief that the individual is the primary unit of reality and the ultimate standard of value
• Individualism is not necessarily a negative thing
• Individualism becomes a vice when extreme
• Crisis of Individualism Today is that people feel ashamed or embarrassing to depend on others
• In todays world individuals take high precedence causing people placing a greater emphasis on standing and unique
• This leads to disregard that we're all created equal, the goal is to have Common Good, so that everyone is united in Solidarity.