In all things charity

Perhaps there are more readers than I think. I have been asking myself if anyone from St. Jude has heard of this blog, as of yet? I keep asking myself, "Why put the time in to writing these things?"

Luckily, God is very merciful and good. I found an article in the beautifully written magazine First Things - that bastion of clear thinking and sound religiousness - which answered my questionings. Here is the basic jist given in an excerpt:

"As the presumed moderator of public discourse, [Vice President] Al Gore declares that the argument is over and his side has won. Writing in the Boston Globe, Ellen Goodman goes further, comparing global-warming skeptics with Holocaust deniers. They are not only ignorant, the are culpably ignorant. In fact, they are evil. One detects a growing pattern of refusing to engage in arguement by declaring that the argument is over. It is not only global warming. Raise a question about the adequacy of Darwinian theory, whether scientifically or philosophically, and be prepared to be informed the argument is over. Offer the evidence that many who once coped with same-sex desires have turned out, not without difficulty, to be happily married to persons of the opposite sex and you will be told politely - or, more likely, impolitely - that the argument is over."

It seems Mr. Gore has formed the opinion that he has the charism or gift of papal infallibility. Fortunately, for us Catholics, we know that Papal infallibility only applies to matters of faith and morals and NOT matters of science. As well, I hope most of us are aware that Al Gore is not the Pope.

What is one to make of all this with regards to my self-reflection on continuing this blog for St. Jude? Well, I essentially came to the conclusion that we cannot cease discussion in general. I want to have a place for parents and/or RCIA participants to pose questions and concerns about all that is happening here at St. Jude Catholic Parish in Lakewood CO. Unlike, ostensibly, Mr. Gore I cannot - nor, I might add, does Holy Mother Church want me to - assume that what I say is absolute truth. Certainly, I am just as fallible as Mr. Gore. However, presumably, I have good intentions in proposing all that I do to take place at St. Jude, whether in RCIA or in the Elementary Religious Educaiton program. This blog is not meant to be so much about me having a soapbox upon which to stand - though in some ways it is obviously that, rather it is more about keeping the line of communications open between myself, parents and RCIA participants.

Perhaps one might find a clearer insight into my thinking through the annals of this blog. Who knows? At any rate, I hope that at least Jon (my only known faithful reader) will find my humble musings of some use to growth in his spiritual life, but as well for any other reader who virtually appears.

For certainly, though global warming is debatable, the Spiritual life is as real as Jesus Christ having lived in this world - regardless of what you make of the question, "Who do you say that I am?"

By the way, the picture attached to this post is a sculpture located in a Church known affectionely by many Romans as "Il Gesu." It was the first Church utilized by St. Ignatius of Loyola in Rome. The image is of a woman, allegorically Religion, conquering hatred (above) and heresy (below). I think it is beautiful and reminds us of the the Truth of Jesus Christ.

The Wisdom of the Saints

I love the Saints. I mean come on, how cool (to use a colloquialism) is it that we are united to all the people in heaven!? They are truly are brothers and sisters in Christ as we have been united to Christ. They each have such cool things to say and contemplate.

Take, for example, St. Catherine of Genoa, whom I decidely have named my daughter after (though my wife claims it was for Catherine of Siena). She wrote very little during her life, but her manuscripts help to explain the Church's teachings about Purgatory & Purgation. This was done in a little book called, what else, Purgatory & Purgation. Again it is not a long read, but it has great wisdom about why God has given us such mercy as to have a "safety net" like purgatory. In another text, called The Spiritual Dialogue, she gives an account of her own life as it comes to an end.

Here are some sweet excerpts (and these may be just for you Jon as no one else has posted comments or appears to have heard about this blog yet.):

"For God is terrible in dealing with sin, since in His presence there cannot be the slightest stain. Sin and sin alone is the object of God's hatred, for it prevents His love from transforming us."

"Although man inherits limitless pain in an infinite time, God's mercy puts a limit not to the time but to the suffering."

"Once the soul is emptied of love, however, it becomes as evil as love is gentle. I say almost, for God still shows it some mercy."

" The more God draws the soul up to Him, the more He instills in it the desire to be drawn up; once God has led the soul to the last step, when He wishes to release the soul and have it come home, the soul is so impatient to find itself in God that it experiences the body itself as purgatory."

You gotta love that some human people have loved God so much that they have a particular insight into His relationship with each of us. By standing on the shoulders of these spiritual giants we can understand the Christian Tradition much more clearly. And in our modern world, there is, unfortunately and demonstrably, a lot of confusion about our Catholic Faith.

One needs only see some of the recent books published, such as The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins who decidedly is atheist. However, as some Catholics have read through his arguements, they report that most of them are misinformed diatribes. Certainly, many of our contemporaries, however, will read this book and have their prejudices against Christiainty reconfirmed, even if it is through mis-information. Who besides you and I can take the Truth to them? For the only Truth, at the twilight of our lives, that will truly matter is having known the Way, the Truth and Life who is Christ Jesus himself. May we each approach this upcoming Holy Week seeking to find Him more fully in our lives.

What if it is true?

In the publication First Things, this month there is an article about a recent book by Catherine Albanese called A Republic of Mind and Spirit: A Cultural History of American Metaphysical Religion. The review is written by the Editor in Chief of First Things, Fr. Richard John Neuhaus. While it is quite an intriguing article, I refer you to one point which Fr. Neuhaus quotes of an author by the name of Harold Bloom, writing in his 1993 book The American Religion. Mr. Bloom, apparently, points out that "most American Christians are, whether they know it or not, gnostics."

What is a gnostic? Webster's online dictionary states that a gnostic is one who adheres to gnosticism, which the lexicon defines as "the thought and practice especially of various cults of late pre-Christian and early Christian centuries distinguished by the conviction that matter is evil and that emancipation comes through gnosis" or knowledge. Could this be true of some of here at St. Jude?

Gnosticism, from the earliest days of the Church, has been threatening us in some form or another as a heresy. As humans, we seem to have a real difficulty in understanding what the Church means by a mystery. In the R.C.I.A. we point out what the Catholic Church means by mystery: it is something which can be comprehended, but never fully known. Consider the nature of love: we can understand what it means to love, and we might even claim to be in love. But try to explain how one knows one is in love and most every attempt falls short of the reality - in other words, it is a mystery. This is also the case with the Holy Trinity. One Triune God and yet three distinct persons within our one God - Mystery!

So too is this true of the Catholic Faith. We can comprehend the basic teachings of the Church, they are laid bare for all. But the depth of what these basic teachings mean can never be plumbed, they are too deep for our own human comprehension. This DOES NOT mean however, that there is some secret behind all the faith of the Catholic Church. It is laid bear by the Church. There is no secret mystery of the Holy Grail, despite Dan Brown. One can read the Catechism of the Catholic Church and find the most basic of Christian teachings laid out. Why is this possible? Because the Catholic Faith, at the end of the day, is not about teachings per se. That is to say, the teachings do not lead us to conformity to mere teachings, rather they lead us to a person. The person of the Risen Christ Jesus. HE IS ALIVE!

We will soon commemorate His passion and death and glorious resurrection. In the resurrection, Christ becomes available to each of us. He pours out His own Holy Spirit, which He sends in union with the Father, to us so that we might have intimate knowledge of Him. He is, to quote a professor of mine, "present in absence." He is more present now that His Spirit is with us, than when He was here bodily on earth. Of course, He is most fully present in the Holy Eucharist - Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity.

What then is the point of all those pesky teachings of the Catholic Church? If we are supposed to find a person in the Catholic Church, namely Jesus the Christ, then why have all kinds of moral and ecclesial (i.e. Church) laws? Well, the point is that when Christ comes to give us new life, He does not allow us to just receive a medal or a cupie doll in our baptism; we don't just plateau, or (to use a more familiar phrase) we are not just saved by "accepting Jesus as our personal Lord and Savior." We must also live out that faith.

The Lord Jesus, establishing a Church upon St. Peter, gave us a new way to live. In justice, he also taught us and continues to teach us how this new life is to be lived out through the teachings of the Catholic Church. It is a true lifestyle - even most of our separated brethren (the Protestants) recognize that. No one of us can merely say we are Catholic and then ignore the moral or ecclesial or liturgical laws. We must learn to conform our lives to the teachings the Spirit of Christ continues to maintain through the constant teaching of the Catholic Church.

But why must we be SOOOOOO oppressed by the Pope? Well, the reality is if we see the Pope as a figure of oppression by this nasty Church then you will see yourself as oppressed. However, if you recognize that the reason the Catholic Faith is a lifestyle is because we have become a new creation in Christ, and the Pope thus becomes just like St. Joseph, then you will see that we have been given a great gift in the Pope. God gives us the gift of someone who will is able to lead the Church and define what must be believed even while we are alive, someone we can go and see and appeal to if things go sour. AND, I might add, we can appeal to the Pope when things go very wrong in the Church (although one must first go through the proper channels to do this)!

St. Joseph watched over the Holy Family, the sinless Mother of God and the Son of God, though he himself was a sinner. If Jesus in his divinty was obedient to a papa, then should we be any different in our humanity?

To go back to my original point, there is no secret to the Catholic Church. Any less is there a secret to life, despite the recent book called The Secret. Rather, it is only in Christ Jesus that we find new life, and that new life is offered to all - this especially must happen through those of us who have met Jesus Christ, received the Catholic Faith and desire for Christ to be known within that Catholic Faith. It is obvious to the modern world this love of God is a scandal and stumbling block. Yet the world will hear it if we who believe in Christ take this message to the world. I await for this to happen at St. Jude, and the way I will know that it is happening is that R.C.I.A. will begin to overflow. No one of us can be idle! No one can afford to be idle! Let no one be idle! For the hope of the world depends on us who are witnesses to the real reality of the Risen Christ. As Pope Paul VI said, "Modern man listens more willing to witnesses than he does to teachers, and if he listens to teachers it is because they are witnesses (#41)."

The Great Global Warming Swindle?

If anyone hasn't seen this, then you might check this out. I think it is quite an interesting video.

Down, down, diggy diggy down down....

You know what I love? I love that technology is such a witness to us of what this world has to offer. The last few days our internet has been down here at the parish. Like our own lives, some people get extremely upset when things like this happen to your computer or your camera or cellphone or anything else modern technologically has to offer. But it only reminds us that technology is not the be all end all of life, as if you needed me to remind you of that. However, it also grants us the opportunity to see just how addicted we are these technological wonders. Yes, they can offer us great wonders - to be certain. However, we can never see such things as the sole reason for our lives. Life is much than what you will eat or drink or surf on, so says Jesus - though I did paraphrase that last bit...

Our relationship with the Son of God, who came to give the only true spiritual light, far surpasses anything in our lives. Having the internet go down, is in some analagous ways, like committing a mortal sin. Just as we are cut off from the rest of the online world, we are cut off from God's love when we commit mortal sin. Yet, like the greatest computer technician, Christ Jesus restores us and reconnects us to living life abundantly in the Sacrament of Confession.

I am glad to be back online, because we only have dial-up at our home and it doesn't compare to using the parish's High-speed! I use the internet quite a lot for the various powerpoint presentations I put together for the RCIA, as those of you in RCIA know. At any rate, if you happen to read this post, let me know. It is a bit discouraging to have had only one comment, and I recently changed my settings so now anyone can comment now... please comment!

Oh, and the title to this post is a song my wife always sings... I was just thinking about her when I wrote this post.

Happy Solemnity of St. Joseph!

Today, the Church celebrates the Solemnity of St. Joseph, husband of Mary. Mary was the Mother of God, as you probably know, and St. Joseph is truly one of the most profound saints to ever walk the face of the planet earth. Why, you might ask? Because think about it: Of all the persons in the Holy Family, Jesus, Mary and Joseph, only one of them has not been declared by the Church to be without sin - St. Joseph. And yet, he was entrusted with God's only begotten Son & the Mother of God. What is so cool about this is that a certain "Josephologist" [yes, it is a real branch of Sacred Theology] points out that St. Joseph fatherhood was not an adoptive fatherhood, because adoption always refers to having been brought into a family from another family. Rather, God the Father specifically chose "the Just man", St. Joseph, to be the foster-father of the Son of God. It was a real fatherhood, just not a physical fatherhood. St. Joseph alone was given such a great dignity to be entrusted with the care of the Mother of God and the Redeemer of mankind.

Early Christian tradition tells us that St. Joseph died before Jesus began his public mission. As a man and father, I can only imagine how proud Joseph must have been of us his son. Like every dad, I am sure he had great hopes for his son.

I love that the Church proposes this day, deep in the heart of Lent to think about the foster-father of Jesus. Then in the glory of the Resurrection on May 1st, we are also asked to think about St. Joseph the Worker. On that second Feast of St. Joseph, we consider the work of St. Joseph in providing for his family. So too must we think about our providing for God's family and the body of Christ in the Church. Whether it be materially, monetarily, or with our talents, we should not think that we are not connected to the Church, rather we are intimitely bound to her. Analgous to St. Joseph, we are to care for our Holy Mother Church and for the baptized, the children of Christ Jesus. There is nothing as beautiful, nor as masculine, nor as human as the Mystery of Christ entrusted to St. Joseph!

Who among us can't receive some healing from the hurts of our own family in the recognition and healing of the Holy Family to which we now belong by our Baptism. We are baptized into Christ, and thus we now have Mary as Mother and St. Joseph as our Foster-father, as well. May you and I both turn to heaven and recognize our new family and live more fully for it. For by doing this we live the life of Christ we have been given in our baptism.

A few thoughts...

Having spent some time reading the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation by our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, this weekend I must say I found it quite encouraging. The document is not difficult to read, if you have never read a Papal document before. There are a few Latin phrases strewn throughout, but most of which have translations accompanying them.

In the past these sorts of documents where often addressed only to the bishops, primarily because all bishops knew Latin and these sorts of documents were written in Latin. Unfortunately, in our own day, much of our Catholic Patrimony in the form of having a working knowledge of Latin has been left by the wayside for some of our Bishops. For this reason, these documents are often published in the various vernacular languages - though the official text is still in Latin. A positive of vernacular publications is that we layfolk have an opportunity to read these things. No one is meant to be left out of the loop with the recent or upcoming papal documents, and in fact if you just look at the beginning of this document you will notice that it is not addressed solely to bishops or the clergy, rather also to religious and the lay faithful. We all are supposed to take-up this document and be "edified" by it, that is "have our faith built up."

There are many points which are very beautifully put in this document. One of note, which will be affecting the RCIA next year, is the Holy Father's comments in #20. He speaks of the Church Fathers calling Reconciliation "laboriosus quidam baptisimus" - a certain laborious thing of the baptized. In other words, as baptized Christians, our labor is to be reconciliation. That is the very essence of what it means to bring the world to Christ - to reconcile God and man. Have you ever thought that this is the case? One is challenged by a great many things who takes this vocation seriously, but as St. Paul tells us "I can do all things through him who strengthens me."

Another beautiful point speaks to the reality of the Gift & Mystery of receiving the Holy Eucharist. It is profound to consider the Holy Father's point that we are drawn to Christ in the Eucharist from the moment of our baptism. In this sense beauty is fundamental to the Church's liturgy. For, as the pope states, "The truest beauty is the love of God (#35)."

From this flows our necessity to have a continuing conversion throughout our lives (#55). For precisely in this slow dying to our sinful desires, we find the glory of the resurrection and living the life of Christ. If we do not die to ourselves, then we will not be living for Christ. This is not necessarily an easy thing to do, however as we overcome our pride and passions we will realize, as 2000 years of Christians have, that God's wisdom really does yield the greatest joy in our lives. If you like, our investment in the divine Lord Jesus, yields the greatest spiritual returns.

There are so many other points of beauty and light given to us in this document, and I encourage all who might read this post to consider reading it for themselves. I am always available here for any questions you might have, about the Latin, theology or any question about this document you might have.

The final point I want to refer you to regards the mention by the Holy Father of some martyrs of North Africa who were killed for attending Mass in the days of Imperial Rome. He quotes them as saying, "Sine dominico non possumus." Could we also unite ourselves to this declaration, "without the Lord (in the Eucharist) we could not live?" How serious are we about our Catholic Faith? This is not a matter of guilt, rather it is a matter of spiritual purification and asking God to give us the grace to see what it is that these martyrs saw. The world is passing away and yet our Lord Jesus has given us a way to overcome the sin and temptation of this world, and yet, we are left to make the choice to follow the road to salvation or to meander into the pitfalls of this world. If love has been given to us, and it has, then we must ask ourselves will we respond in love or remain idle and indifferent? Only you can make that choice, but the Sacrament of Love remains and beckons you to the union of heaven.

Don't worry the devil hates Latin too

If anyone has been readin this blog so far, I apologize for not getting to it today. I am planning on blogging everyday that I am at work. However, it is now officially Friday (12:01am). Friday is the only day I do my absolute best not to come to work. In fact, I will likely spend the day with my son. This are few things in this life that can bring one more joy than really enjoying a day with someone you love, but rarely get to see.

No truer is that statement than with God himself. When we see Him on Sunday (or everyday if you make it a priority) He has been awaiting us to be with Him. Yet, do we truly spend time with Him? So many of our separated brethren (Protestants) seem to pray a lot more than we do as Catholics, perhaps it is only because as you flip through the channels on TV you see them doing so. But where is the intimate union that Jesus came to give us with God the Father. Jesus said, "If you have seen me, then you have seen the Father." Yet for us Catholics, do we realize that whenever we go to Mass our Catholic Faith tells us Jesus is truly present -body, blood, soul and divinity - in the Holy Eucharist?

Jesus also told us, "I will not leave you orphans, I will come to you." I love pointing this out in the RCIA, because it reminds us that we do not just belong to the Catholic Church, but we have been united to God as His children by our baptism. Moreover, He remains with us even today at St. Jude or any Catholic Church where His precious body and blood are.

Our Catholic Faith must be a way of life, what we commonly call today: a lifestyle. This I think is the beauty of the Latin language - bear with me here: One of the councils of the Church talked about how in the Catholic Church we are healing the wound of the Tower of Babel because we come to meet THE Divine Physician, Jesus. The beauty of the Latin language is that, though it is a so-called "dead language" it truly unites us to all of our brothers and sisters in Christ throughout the entire world. This is largely why Pope Benedict XVI has asked all of us to learn some of the most ancient prayers in Latin, for the upbuilding of our unity in the affluent soceity where travel is far more possible than any other time in history. I have first hand experience of this, having lived in Rome.

Sometimes we can think, as Americans, "when will I possibly ever pray with someone in Latin?" However, we would be forgetting all those other affluent people across the face of our planet who are able to visit our own country if we did say that. Moreover, who knows when one might come into money and desire to travel somewhere foreign (which we should do as Americans). If we are serious about our faith, as we should desire to be, then we will want to go to Mass wherever we go. We would do well to learn a few prayers in the Official Langauage of the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church, to which we (presumably) belong. I don't know a ton of Latin, but I want to learn more. My son and I often read "Virent ova, viret perna" which is a translation of "Green eggs & Ham" into Latin. He loves it and so do I! We are now working on Cattus Pettasatus (i.e. The Cat in the Hat). Oddly enough he likes the "Ave Maria" better than the "Hail Mary," as well.

A dear friend of mine has shirts for sale with the title of this post. I think its sort of funny how afraid of Latin we are as Americans. How else will the Church help us to overcome the wound of the Tower of Babel? If it is not in Christ, especially through the teachings and traditions of the Catholic Church He established, then I sure wish someone could tell me another way!

I want to relate this to the new Post-Synodal exhortation "Sacramentum Caritatis," but I haven't read it yet. I have to have something to do this weekend, when my son takes a nap, don't I?

Jonah

Have you ever actually read the story of Jonah in the Old Testament? It is quite an amazing little 2 page book. I am about to teach on Jonah for today's Children's Catechumenate class. This is the class for those kids over the age of seven who desire to be baptized & children who have no previous Religious Education.

Jonah is a great role model for them and each of us. No one of us is comfortable with telling others about the sins in their lives. However, if we truly have fallen in love with the Living God who has created us, then like Jonah it sure makes it a lot easier to go out and tell the world about God's love for every creature.

If one goes back and even looks at the story of the Old Testament, as a whole, it is interesting to see just how much the God who created mankind has shown His mercy throughout the history of the world. We humans always seem to think we know what is best over and above the Living God who created the entire world - myself included. If only we could abandon ourselves to the love of God the Father who reveals for us, as a loving parent, all that we need to do to truly have a life filled with joy! The Eternal God never stopped inviting His people to accept this revelation. Yet even today we place many things above God.

Jonah is a great role model for us to think about all the things we do that show us not to be childlike before the one True God. Rather, those things reveal, like Jonah, that we think we know much better how things should be run in the universe. Let no one of us be so filled with pride as to never consider there is a God, and he is neither you nor I!

Moreover, Jonah reminds us that God really does care for you and I and every living being on the face of our planet. God was not happy having merely a people called the Jews, but He sought to save all that was lost through the sin of Adam & Eve.

Working for the Parish

For those of us who are adults (or at least wannabe adults!) we all know that working amongst other professionals is often a challenging and sometimes frustrating task. However, it is always very edifying when someone is human enough to recognize their faults and asks for forgiveness.

I think this is one of the most beautiful things about Confession in our Catholic Tradition. What human person can honestly deny that they don't respect someone who takes responsibility for their offenses to others, or what we call as Catholics - their sins. No one of us is free from sin. The great Catholic writer G. K. Chesterton once said that sin is the only Catholic doctrine that we can actually prove - just look at the world and even at your own life! We know, as St. Paul says, that our body often does not do what our mind would like to - and sometimes vice versa.

G.K. Chesterton also wrote: "[Modern philosophers] essentially deny human sin, which they can see in the street. The strongest saints and the strongest sceptics alike took positive evil as the starting-point of their argument. If it be true (as it certainly is) that a man can feel exquisite happiness in skinning a cat, then the religious philosopher can only draw one of two deductions. He must either deny the existence of God, as all atheists do; or he must deny the present union between God and man, as all Christians do. The new theologians seem to think it a highly rationalistic solution to deny the cat."

For us Catholics, especially as a parish of St. Jude, we must ask ourselves what do we believe? If we believe there is sin, then we must know that God has sent a redeemer from that sin - Our Lord Jesus Christ. If this is so, then, in justice, Jesus must have told us how to live in order to overcome that sin - and so He has! However, we must be docile enough to hear what He tells us, for this new way of life is not a merely a simple choice, but a true lifestyle. This perhaps is the hardest of all things for adults & professionals: "Amen I say to you, unless you convert and become like little children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven (Mt 18:3)."

Living the Catholic Faith Conference

I return to work today after having attended the Living the Catholic Faith Conference. There were many deeply inspiring talks given. Particularly, I enjoyed Deacon Alex Jones who wrote the book No Price to High. He was deeply moving and truly brought to the fore our need for Catholics to understand their faith more fully. As a Pentecostal preacher he had sought to offer worship in the way in which the Apostles themselves would have offered worship to Christ our Lord. As he began to search through the earliest Christian accounts found in the Church Fathers such as St. Ignatius of Antioch, St. Justin Martyr, and as well in writing such as the Didache he began to realize that two things had been maintained from the time of the Apostles: Apostolicity and Perpetuity. The Catholic Church had been established by the Apostles and everyone of the early Church Fathers went through great lengths to show that they were in a line of apostolic succession.

Moreover, as Pentecostal Pastor Alex Jones began to look at the scriptures he truly began to see what Jesus meant in Matthew Chapter 16 "...I build my church upon this Rock and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it." The Catholic Church finds its roots directly from Jesus Christ establishing it on St. Peter. Every other denominational Church was started by a man or woman who protested the authority of the Church.

The Catholic Church now seeks to reestablish the unity which Jesus prayed for in the 15th Chapter of St. John's Gospel. It is interesting to note that it is the Catholic Church who makes the greatest efforts in this reconciliation. We Catholics must therefore know our faith to continue this mission of uniting the denominalized Churches. We are the "nomination," you might say, not a "de-nomination."

For this reason, we must make an effort, as adults especially, to engage our faith intellectually and in prayer. Many of our separated brethren are so misled and informed regarding what we actually believe in the Catholic Church. However, if one can come to understand the wisdom found in every doctrine of the Catholic Church, one will encounter and see Jesus Christ more clearly during this life.

What was most inspiring about Alex Jones - Pentecostal Pastor become Catholic who has become a Deacon - is what he tells us. There is "no price too high" to follow Jesus with your whole heart, even if it means overcoming your prejudices and presumptions about the Glory of the Catholic Church, the glorious Bride of Christ!

I love Smartfood!

Its funny how the things of this world can so easily drag us in. My wife likes to jokingly make fun of me because I like commercials, though I hate the consumerism which they promote. Have you ever had Smartfood? It is a cheesy popcorn snack that is delicious. I have to admit, as well, that the name is catchy - as if some popped fruit could increase our brain's capacity and/or functionality. While I don't really believe that it can do it, it is always sort of fun to pretend that it does.

This is sort of like how we can be with our faith. There are many things which we can pretend do us so much good in this life. So many of our children's baseball, basketball, football, and every other kind of ball can lead us to think they are more important than the belief that there is a God who loves us and who has revealed how we are to respond to this love in our Catholic Faith. We can sometimes think that these activities, as well as others, are more important that the practice and knowledge of our faith. Like Smartfood, we can sometimes pretend that they really do something great for us. While in reality, like Smartfood, they only provide a very marginal sustenance and benefit compared to our real life experience.

Of course, this is not to say sports of all kinds or other activities aren't important. Like snacks - such as Smartfood - we need something to keep us going and give us a little extra pick me up. However, we must realize that if we place the fantasy of Smartfood or of sports above reality, then we are only fooling ourselves.

There is no greater reality in this life than coming to know the one True and Living Triune God. Just as sports are good for the body, there is nothing better for our souls than to know God. This is why Jesus tells us, "I came that they might have life, and have it more abundantly." However, we must never place anything above our service to Him, especially as Catholic parents. When we do, what we show our kids is that the Mass we should be attending each week, the charity that we treat others with, and the practice of virtue really isn't worth much.

In other words, there is nothing necessarily wrong with sports or Smartfood, as long as they don't effectively become idols which mean more to us than the real good of having our souls fed by Jesus in the Eucharist.

Welcome

Today, St. Jude hits the digital age. I hope that this blog will assist all those parents and all those in the RCIA who have questions and/or comments regarding the Religious Education Department or the RCIA at St. Jude. If there is enough traffic, then perhaps I will one day separate the two and add another blog. I hope this will be of some service for both of us as we do our best to love and serve our Lord Jesus Christ.