The end of a year...

I wonder what will become of 2007. You and I have both been living through it. Yet, it seems like so many people don't learn from the lessons that God has allowed them to live through. Take for example abortion and contraception. As we move forward to another year, still many of America's most defenseless children are being slaughtered. Yet some Catholics still fight for the side of so-called "freedom" which is really licentiousness. We have seen the death of Terry Schaivo in our own days, 2005 to be exact, and yet some Catholics think that we can allow the innocent lives to be destroyed in Abortion and that it won't affect us personally... forced euthanasia is already here, as Terry showed us.

In the November issue of "This Rock" magazine, a publication of Catholic Answers, Fr. Frank Pavone, M.E.V., spoke of 10 reasons to be hopeful to the end of the murder of the most obscure and weakest in our human society - the unborn. There are many good points that he makes, being as he has a good grasp on pro-life work in America. Yet, I think the greatest point he makes is to remind each of us that "Victory is our starting point." I quote:

"The biggest reason we are winning [the pro-life battle] is that we have already won. There is one among us who holds the keys of death and of hell. He was overwhelmed by the Culture of Death, and trampled death by death. Jesus Christ is risen from the dead! The pro-life movement does not simply work for victory; we work from victory. Victory is our starting point. We joyfully proclaim to the world that Christ is risen, and that for this reason, we must choose life. Then we work to apply that victory to every sector of society. We do not stand in from of the Culture of Death afraid, worried, and wondering how we will overcome it. Rather, we stand before it with victorious confidence and declare, "Begone! You have no room here, no place here, no further authority to menace the human family. You kingdom has been conquered, and Christ reigns!"

The reason I bring this up here on the 31st of January, still in the Christmas season & 3 days after the Feast of the Holy Innocents, is that this quote reminds me of the search of St. Joseph and Mary for a place to bear their child. A place where Jesus could be born into this world, and yet the world (or at least the folk of Bethlehem) denied them. As if to heal the wound of mankind rejecting Jesus' birth, now we, as disciples of Jesus Christ, MUST work to establish the Culture of Life which welcomes all newly conceived life. What Catholic among us can rightly say that abortion should be allowed, when the death of a soul is at stake - a soul for which Jesus Christ died that they might have eternal life.

I have been thinking of ways to commemorate the Anniversary of Roe vs. Wade this year. I thought one thing that we might do as a parish is to hold a rally right here on the parish grounds and perhaps hold pro-life signs along Garrison, especially during rush hour. This would probably take some approval from the city to hold this kind of rally probably, but I keep wishing there was something that could be done here at St. Jude where I am aware of certain Catholics who scandalously hold that abortion is something that should be tolerated.

For a human being, let alone a Catholic, it is intrinsically evil for us to offer innocent human life as a sacrifice to convenience, which ultimately becomes the main reason for almost every abortion. People might say, "Well, you aren't a woman! How can you impose your views on others?" Simple. I am a man, who has been faced with the decision to abort or to keep my child, but I knew that the human life was a gift of God - undeserving of me imposing my will upon him and her. Rather, it is far better for me to accept the gift and responsibility of accepting life. No one should have to feel like they must destroy a little soul's earthly life, this is in large part what the framers of the Declaration of Independence understood as the foundation of these United States when they wrote:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness..."

Yet, not only some Americans, but even some Catholics would have us reject life as dispensable when it is an incovenience. There is, of which I am aware, at least one parishioner who has even written a book trying to reject this basic teaching of the Church established by Our Lord Jesus Christ. As the Compendium of Catholic Social Teaching itself states in unison with the Catechism of the Catholic Church and Sacred Tradition (for example, the Didache - particularly chapter 2): "Promoting human dignity implies above all affirming the inviolability of the right to life, from conception to natural death, the first among all rights and the condition for all other rights of the person (#553)."

Let us hope and pray that as we begin 2008, this purpose and goal might be recognized to defend the right to life of every human life. Becuase whenever and wherever that right is offended a mother and father are wounded and a human life is lost.

If you happen to be keeping track...

Yes, this makes 3 posts today... but don't get too used to it :) . I will be taking next week off, though I may just try to post something next week from home on our laptop from 1999 on our dial-up internet.... I am so last century, I know...

Why can't more people get this?

I, apparently, cannot and probably should not endorse a candidate on this blog, since I am related to the Church, even if I am only employed by it.

Nevertheless, I have to admit that I personally, NOT officially in my capacity as an employee of St. Jude, am interested in Ron Paul. It is said that so many in the mainstream media do not consider this guy as a plausible candidate and thus either ignore him or deride him as a "nutjob" or "fringe candidate." Yet so much of what he says makes sense. I must admit I am not totally on board with everything he says. But there are things which I find very interesting which he states that no one else is saying.

The least of which is his support of Pope John Paul II... yes, you read that right. Check out this document apparently written by Dr. Ron Paul, MD.

Reading that document alone makes me more sympathetic to Dr. Paul. However, the fact that, as a doctor, he actually is honest enough to know and admit that human life begins at conception really makes me sympathetic.

Before you all start jumping on the bandwagon, there are a few things I am concerned with too, however (as if I have that much sway with anyone!). 1) That Dr. Paul is ostensibly in favor of legalizing prostitution and 2) he is also in favor of legalizing marijuana and, in fact, all illegal drugs (as I understand it).

Nevertheless, when one considers his political philosophy one can appreciate his position. That is to say, as I understand him to hold, that Government should not have a hold or impinge on our private lives and we should have the liberty to do as we please. Oddly enough, that idea, as such, appears to be in line with Catholic Social Teaching, which encourages us to live the virtuous life. As Dr. Paul himself asserts in various places, the government cannot legislate virtue. Nevertheless, the Church rightly proclaims that government's role is to guide people to virtue, and thus legalizing such things seems problematic at best. Moreover, what one worries about is whether our fellow countrymen and women have not been constricted so much that they wouldn't act as teenagers who just got left home alone for the first time without mom and dad? Nevertheless, one wonders...

Perhaps a few links are in order here:

http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Stossel/story?id=3970423&page=1

http://www.ronpaul2008.com/video-network?channel=1&video=105

You decide for yourself. I still haven't made up my mind except to say that as Catholics we cannot vote for a pro-abortion candidate no matter who that might be. If you would like some explanation on this you might check out: http://www.catholictradition.org/Christ/christ-king1.htm , which except for the focus on only the Traditional Latin Mass, every Catholic should appreciate if we take our faith in Christ the King seriously. The Traditional Latin Mass alone WILL NOT take away all of our woes in today's Church (before "Anonymous" accuses me again of this), but respect for both the Sacred Tradition of our Church and our country's founding political philosophy certainly are a step in the right direction.

What are your thoughts, St. Jude Parishioners?

You never know....

Why do I love being Catholic? One of the many reasons is because you never know what people are up to. Only the Lord Jesus Christ knows these things and He is so incredible in leading people to take care of so many things. Each of us, at St. Jude, have so much to be thankful. Each of us have so much more than we think, even when we think we don't have much at all - as a person who makes his living from working for the Catholic Church I can say this with much humility!

Nevertheless, as our eyes turn towards Christ anew and reality of his the celebration of his birth, known as Christmas, let us not forget those who have less. Not only less, but those little ones who are known only to the Lord.

Now most people when you speak of God's "little ones" think of children, and rightly so, for in a special way the creator of all life watches over them and seeks for their good in a very special way... what a blessing to be entrusted as a parent. But let us not forget those "little ones" who aren't so little. As one professor of mine used to refer to such people, in all charity, "the simple people." Many have such spiritual desires but are being led astray in so many ways. This Christmas, as we visit with families and friends, let us not forget the Spiritual works of Mercy, even while we remember the Corporal (bodily) Works of Mercy.

The Corporal works of Mercy are: feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, sheltering the homeless, clothing the naked, visiting the sick, visiting the imprisoned, and burying the dead. While the Spiritual Works of Mercy are: admonishing the sinner, instruct the ignorant, to counsel the doubtful, to comfort the sorrowful, to bear wrongs patiently, to forgive injuries, and to pray for the living and the dead

Its the first three Spiritual Works which I think this time of year often Catholics to action. We must be ready, as our First Pope said, "Always be prepared to give make a defense to anyone who calls you to account for the hope that is within you, yet do it with gentleness and reverance. (1Pet 3:15)" So many of us will find ourselves in family or social situations where we may be challenged about our devoutness: be it someone using the Lord's name in vain, someone disrespecting our Faith, someone not understanding the true meaning of Christmas - which is Jesus being born, some fellow Catholic neglecting going to Mass on Christmas, some family member who has left the practice of the faith, among so many other situations.

Sure, we all have moments of fear or even moments of temptation to not speak up. But I encourage any one who read this post to consider saying this prayer in preparation for any holiday gathering you may attend - even New Year's eve:

O my Divine Savior,

Transform me into Yourself.

May my hands your hands, Jesus.

Grant that every faculty of my body

May serve only to glorify you.

Above all,

Transform my soul and all its powers

so that my memory, will and affection,

may be the memory, will and affections of You.

I pray you to destroy in me

all that is not of You.

Grant that I may live but in You,

by You and for You,

so that I may truly say, with St. Paul,

"I live - now, not I - but Christ lives in me."

This prayer was written by the Martyr, St. Jean Gabriel Perboyre. I love it.

At any rate don't forget the "little ones" of God. Every human desires to know Christ, but how can they hear about Him if we don't proclaim him!?

In union with all of this, don't forget the "little ones" that are the materially poor as well. In particular, please say a prayer for the success of one of the parishioners of St. Jude whose website seeks to alleviate the suffering of some of these little ones: http://www.guatemalankids.com/ As I began this posting, you never know what the parishoner in the seat next to you is up to. Let us thank Christ our Lord for constantly calling all of us to radically change the world in His Love.

May God bless us this Christmas, each and every one!

St. Nicholas' not so well known helpers...

Today, Dec. 6th, is the Feast of St Nicholas across the face of the planet Earth. In America, when we think of jolly ole St. Nick, we often think of those lil' people that help him out, whom we call elves. However, in other ethnic traditions there is a bit of a different understanding. A friend of mine recently reminded me of the tradition, found in Germanic countries but especially in Austria, known as "the Krampus." Where we see jolly lil folks who load up Santa's sleigh, the Germanic people came up with a little different idea.
The Krampus are a group of demon-like figures that go around swatting little boys and girls who have been naughty during the year. The idea being that the on the Feast of St. Nicholas these guys show up on your doorstep and let the kids know that they have until Christmas to clean their act up - otherwise they will be back to dish out some justice, North Pole Style. You can read about them in the link above, but I think this is such an interesting idea.

Certainly, one can see A LOT of room for abuse with this tradition, but I think it sure beats the entitlement mentality that is promoted in America because of the tradition of buying each other presents, mainly promoted after World War II. When I was young we used to be told that we would get a lump of coal in our stockings if we were bad, but nowadays, judging from TV, one would think kids are supposed to expect their gifts regardless of their behavior.

One of the Krampus is called Knecht Ruprecht, which translated means "Servant Rupert." In particular, he seems to be one of the more scarier things that help St. Nick carry his toys around. This guy is meant to be at the service of St. Nicholas to help the kids shape up. And while having a demon-like figure may be a bit extreme to our American tastes, I do think that the notion of reminding our children that their behavior helps them to gain rewards is definitely a good concept to help them appreciate.

On the other hand, we remember that Christ came to us as a free gift to mankind. Thus, it is probably best to integrate these two ideas. Reminding children that our behavior will affect the rewards we receive can help them to think about the end of their life when they will go before their Judge - Christ our Lord. Everlasting life is a free gift given by Jesus, nevertheless, our actions will affect whether we recieve Heaven or not!

Remember, the idea of the Krampus is that they are helpers of St. Nicholas. He is after all a Saint, but these guys help to dish out the justice which sinful actions deserve - a swat, apparently. So if a child is trying to live their life in virtue and not in sin than presumably the Krampus are going to be on your side. They support the friends of St. Nick, who are living for Christ. Its one of those "parent mind-control tools" that are not such a bad thing in the end. Not because we want to control our kids minds for evil, but more importantly that we help them to see the right and wrong things we ought to do or not do, respectively, in this life.

The Krampus serve to remind us that, as sweet and wholesome as Christmas is, we must never forget the very real effects of our good and bad decisions. I wish we had something like this in America, or at least here in Colorado. Maybe I can come up with something yet.... rabid squirrel? Half-man, half-elk? who knows? In the mean time, here are some more lovely pictures of these "bad dudes" from the North: