This is too good...;)

I can't help uploading a link to this little ditty I found while looking for a picture of a Roman Missal. I hope you enjoy the link and you learn to sing-a-long as I have! Check it out! I haven't had much time to post lately with the Carnival and trying to catch up afterwards. I look forward to writing more hopefully tomorrow. But for now enjoy!

Its on its way...

Some parents have been upset that I show every year at the Parent Orientation meeting for Elementary Religious Education a video showing the notion that Secular Humanism is infiltrating public education in America. Nevertheless, as I have mentioned at these same meetings, in the last year I have been confirmed in speaking up about this ill of our modern world. As I said before, one of the 5th graders last year told me how in his public school class he was reprimanded for writing "BC" meaning "Before Christ" - which is a statement of faith. He was told instead that he was to write "BCE" which means, ostensibly, "before common era." An innocuous statement of history. A second instance was that last year one of the parents mentioned that her husband was involved with the NEA (National Education Association) and they had on their 2006-07 agenda how they might incorporate lesbianism into the public schools!

At times I often wonder if these things could be real myself. But we should not be surprised that those who reject or ignore the teachings of Christ should be inadvertantly attacking all that our Catholic Faith holds dear. In fact, a very dear friend of mine recently posted on his blog an alarming story that he directed to me. Again, this seems like an outrageous story but I leave it to your own viewing: click here.

Could it be true? Would such lunacy pass for public school education? Certainly, in our modern society, as some call "post-Christian" society, it is clear that many people think they need to leave old notions of morality and personal boundries aside in the name of "humanistic education." Never more important has it been for us to become learned in the basics of our Christian Faith. When people have come to a point where such madness is becoming widespread and soon will arrive here in America -that is almost guaranteed.

The world is seeking Truth. We Catholics should know that it is Jesus Christ - but not just knowing about Him is enough, we need to have the intimate knowledge that He has come to give us in the teachings of our Catholic Faith and in the Holy Sacraments. We need to have that substantive relationship that allows us to reject all things to the contrary. You can think of it in the image of a friend, even your best friend: you would first trust your best friend (though in this image He died and rose from the dead for love of you) before believing the calumnies and lies that everyone else spoke about them. You would do you're very best to hear your friend's explanation and try to see their point of view. No less respect should we show to the Savior of all Mankind, Our Lord.

I love it when people email me or ask me questions, it is very edifying thing. It helps me to know that people are really seeking to know the Truth. I know Father and the Deacons all feel the same way. If you have questions, don't let them boil and simmer inside of you until someone offers you an answer that is misleading or, worse, false! "Seek first the Kingdom of God, and all else will be given you besides," so says the Word of God who became man so that you would know God!

Perhaps one of the saddest movies ever...

One of things about our modern time is that people are able to show real life - unadulterated, as it were. As a Catholic educator, it is challenging to teach kids in our modern culture that explicitly ignores the one living and true Triune God. If you need proof that even amongst Christians, look no further than the youth of our day. There are in many schools and even in some s0-called Catholic Schools many teens who today aren't even challenged to consider the possiblity of the Catholic Faith. Check out this YouTube Video that one teenager put together as a school project, apparently. It appears that it was filmed at a Catholic School, or at least a Christian school of some sort, and this is what makes it very sad.

I love laboring here at St. Jude because I know the kids at this parish come from good families who earnestly want their kids to learn the life-giving Catholic Faith, passed on from the time of the Apostles. But how many kids are not even being challenged to live up to understanding the Catholic Faith. I laud Anthony Gallegos, our youth minister, for all of his efforts, especially since I have seen the good fruit of his program. I know that he is laboring with all of his effort for his program and for the youth of St. Jude to understand and take seriously the Catholic Faith.

Nevertheless, we should not delude ourselves into thinking that Anthony can conquer the world alone. Each of us, parishioners of St. Jude & Catholics worldwide, need to do our part to support Anthony and the youth in understanding the glory of the Holy Catholic Faith. We must know and defend against those many out there who are actively trying to tempt our kids into renouncing their faith, whether implicitly or explicitly. Let us step up our prayer life that God may pour out graces on those who would hear his call to fight the war against sin and temptation, those who desire to become saints, as Jesus has established the Holy Catholic Church for no less a reason.

A good witch?

Today, I was asked by a gentleman to have lunch. At the restaurant, his favorite apparently, I was introduced to a so-called witch. A lady who is in the practice of Wicca. For those who may not be aware, Wicca is the practice of pagan worship of nature. It is also, more commonly, referred to as witchcraft.

There are numerous things we should be aware of when it comes to witchcraft, if only to help others steer clear of this ancient deception of false gods and godessess. For more information I found this article: http://www.catholicculture.org/library/view.cfm?recnum=1289 which I think does a pretty good job of dispelling some of the basics of this pagan religion.

However, I found her arguments very interesting. The gentleman who introduced me to the waitress told her I was an "expert in Catholicism." To which she immediately began to attack the notion of Catholicism because of the death of so-called witches during the Middle Ages. What I find interesting about this position is two things:

1) Arguements based on the acts of adherants to a religion do not make a religion false. Certainly, there are many witches, Protestants, Muslims, & Catholics, et al. who do horrible or just bad things in the name of their religion. However, this in no way makes the religion somehow false. This is precisely what Jesus meant when he said, "Judge not lest you be judged," I think. We do not know people or their reasons for why they do things. The deeper and more fundamental question is what does a religion propose and is that teaching itself correct or erroneous. This brings about a whole slew of further questions, which I won't go into here.

Suffice it to say, Jesus teaches us, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life." For this reason, a teaching which no other religion proclaims with its accompanying proofs, we Christians firmly can hold that the Christian Faith itself is certainly true. Jesus Christ has risen from the dead and established a Church for all, a universal Church (or in Greek a "Catholic" Church).

2) This lady's argument about the Catholic Faith was all based on emotion. She continued to return to the idea that Catholics had killed women in the name of religion. And she tried to also bring in St. Joan of Arc as an example of how bad the Catholic Church is. It was very interesting, because I noticed if I were her I would have at least begun to explain how Wicca was the superior religion, not in arrogance, but because I would want my listener to understand how good it is so that he or she might join too. We call this in Christianity an "apology." Not an "apology" as we understand it in English, which declares our sorrow for an action done, rather an apology in the Greek sense of an "apologia", that is a reason for why I believe what I do. This kind of apology aims at explaining that what I believe is sensible and intelligible.

At this restaurant, though it was painful not to, it would have been inappropriate to engage in a discussion of this because I was there with the gentleman who had invited me, and we were already engaged in a discussion, when this lady was introduced. For me this was an example of prudence, I had to choose which battle "to fight." It was clear this woman had a lot of issues with the Catholic Faith and no 2-minute conversation would clear anything up. Please pray for her, as I will.

Nevertheless, it was interesting that one other argument she tried to put forward was that 7 of the witches in her group, which I presume she was referring to her "coven", are former Catholics. As I said to her, it is not at all surprising since if we misunderstand the Catholic Faith then it is very easy to reject it outright. If we have half-truths about what it means to be Catholics, it is very easy to think one is wisely rejecting the "silly" Catholic Faith. But if one has the opportunity to fully consider what it means to be a Catholic then it can change our lives.

It is incumbent on each of us, as Catholics, to learn our faith well. The world is dying for the answers that Jesus provides in the Catholic Faith. For no other faith is so clear and so challenging as to ask us to "take up our cross, and follow [Jesus] daily." Yes, the Catholic Faith is challenging because we have to "die", so to speak, to our selfish way of thinking, and learn to live the all-encompassing love that God himself asks of us. BUT, we are not left to our own devices to do this! This is the whole purpose of the Eucharist - really of Jesus! God comes to us to teach us and give us the grace to overcome ourselves and to live a life filled with His love for humanity. But this means that we must first accept that gift! Many people have various reasons for why they reject the Catholic Church. If Catholics and Christians are to live the Christian Faith fully, then we must learn to live for Christ; we must be able to say, with St. Paul, "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me (Col 1:13)."

By the way, the picture at top is a picture of St. Boniface taking a hatchet to a tree which the people believed was where their God, Thor, lived. St. Boniface famously said, "Where is your god now?" as he chopped the tree down! The story behind it is here!

So...

Any thoughts on who to vote for next year? I would be interested to know who people at St. Jude are voting for and why?

Yipes!

I didn't realize how few posts I have been putting on this blog. I just today took a look at the number of posts I have put on here which you find to the right --> of this column. I guess if this blog is published in the Church bulletin and our website I should get on this more frequently.

I guess my only excuse is that it has been a busy few weeks in the RE & RCIA departments. This year, for some reason, has been a difficult one for the RE department. We have had many teacher absences and registration has been kind of a mess due to many late registrations - don't get me wrong we are happy to have people in RE, but it is very difficult for our record-keeping and organization when people keep coming to classes late. It throws off all of our records, budget and materials. It has just been very busy that is all.

For RCIA, I am encouraging the adult catechists to engage more teaching activity this year. It is a real blessing to allow people to think about a given topic and observe them teach on it. It gives someone a chance to think about a given doctrine of the Church in a different way. Its one thing to hear about a teaching of the Church, its another to think about it, but it is another still to try to teach it to others in a concise and personal way. If you have never been to the RCIA, then please feel encouraged to visit sometime. If you have, then please let me know what you thought by posting a comment on this blog (below).

At any rate, I love this job. I love teaching the Holy Catholic Faith. There is so much to know and the more you know the more exciting it is to know Jesus the Son of God established this Church to fulfill not only our emotions and our hearts but also our intellect.

The funny thing about emotions is that they change so rapidly, no clearer is this seen than in teenagers. And, as one professor of mine put it, the Faith "doesn't give a fig about how you feel in the morning." This is what I think is pretty cool. The Catholic Faith will never change and does not adjust to our feelings or whims. We must allow our emotions to be satisfied in knowing the stability and the solidity of the Teachings of Jesus Christ. Even if sometimes this means we have to overcome emotion to understand why a teaching is proposed by the Holy Spirit through the Catholic Church for all humanity.

"Your my obessesion... "

I remember a song from the 80's called "Obsession." It was one of those songs of my youth that I never really liked, but at one point I just couldn't get it out of my head. It was emblazoned on my mind. Obsession is such a curious thing. How is it that love can become obsession? And in a sense, obsession is love - though it is a disordered love. What a mystery! God is love, says St. John's letter in the bible, but certainly God is not obsession in "a bad sense." And yet God is in a certain sense obsessed with love for each of us.

St. Catherine of Siena spoke of Jesus being a "divine madman" filled with love for us, willing to do whatever it took to bring us to heaven - short of forcing us. Now certainly, we can't take that to literally - primarily because no one is more sane than Jesus; neither is anyone more loving. Yet there is element of both of these which are true. From our point of view, Jesus is "mad" or "crazed" in that he would be willing to die for our sake so that we could go to heaven, even if we continue to ignore or reject him by our sin. He is obsessed with trying to fulfill us. As one poet put it, its as if there was a "hound of heaven" who continually chases after us.

Yet, in spite of all this, the Holy Triune God never forces. He tries to persuade, tries to invite, and offers grace - but never forces.

I came to think about all these things because my wife and I watched "The Prestige" last night. This is a very interesting movie about two magicians who become obsessed with learning each other's "tricks of the trade." It was, however, also a very dark and engrossing movie. I won't give away the ending, for anyone who might wish to see it, but it is one of those movies which helps us to re-consider our own obsessions. What do we put our time and effort into? Some people may never stop to think about this, I fear. And all of us have obessesions. For us Catholics, the Church does not ask us to deny these obsessions, only to maneuver them to something constructive. And, Holy Mother Church also gives us "models of obsession" - those people we refer to as Saints.

The Saints had an obssesion, but not an obsession that caused them to reject everyone else for the sake of their own desire. Rather, their obsession was their desire to love God by serving everyone else! Its quite an interesting thing when you think about it. Sometimes people portray us Catholics as being "fanatics." But what the world has a hard time understanding is that there is a difference between someone who belongs to the Catholic Church and someone who is a practicing Catholic - and that difference is vast. The practicing Catholic is one who desires nothing less than the establishment of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in every soul, so that every soul knows and grows in union with the love of God. While a Catholic, who is not practicing, may belong to the number of people whom Jesus has given his life in this world through baptism. We cannot be satisifed with merely belonging to the Catholic Church. If we are to live up to the life that Jesus gave to us then we must desire growth in that life. This means seeking to grow in union with God. The most primary way is through prayer - especially through the Holy Sacrifice of Mass.

In many aspects of life, if we focus on one thing too much then a lot of other things suffer in our lives. For example, if I want to be the best football player, then I must work out and practice and spend lots of time at those things. However, to be a good Catholic, Jesus tells us, "Seek first the kingdom of God and all else will be given to you." Even so, Jesus also added, "Your Heavenly Father knows what you need." In other words, to seek to be a saint is our purpose and our goal. God has given us the means to accomplish this, but we must be patient with ourselves. If we need to go to Confession, then we must go. Just as a football player must go to the gym, even if he or she doesn't enjoy it.

I guess what I am getting at is that we must think about where our efforts lie. Many times we can chase the good things of this life, but ignore our spiritual life. By focusing more on our spiritual life, we can learn to grow in the things which we know are the most important for us - namely loving God and neighbors. In the Catholic Spiritual life, "obssession for God" can become a real problem because our disproportionate desire can give us a mental complex about our service of God. But if from obsession we can transition into "devotion" then we will well be on our way to following in the company of the Saints. This because devotion denotes an active love and relationship with Our Lord; where obessesion ignores the other and seeks only selfish desire. This, unfortunately, is the saddest and darkest part of the movie "The Prestige." It leaves you realizing that these two magicians sought only their own selfish fulfillment. Let us not seek our own fulfillment, but as good servants of God let us seek His will and that His kingdom be established, for in seeking this "all else will be given us besides."