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Baptism by Balloon
[youtube=http://youtu.be/NUKrZ1bVNRg] This is the EDGE middle school youth group, and this night we were learning about the Sacrament of Baptism, obviously. I think this raises some serious questions about the legitimacy of celebrating the Sacrament under the matter of throwing water balloons.
Right?
"Say What?" Monday Catechism Series #3
A new series on this blog. Each Monday I'll be posting a gem from our Catechism of the Catholic Church that is interesting or remarkable.
This week's Interesting Catechism talks about nations involved in arms races. What does the Church teach about amassing weapons to deter potential adversaries from war?
2315 The accumulation of arms strikes many as a paradoxically suitable way of deterring potential adversaries from war. They see it as the most effective means of ensuring peace among nations. This method of deterrence gives rise to strong moral reservations. The arms race does not ensure peace. Far from eliminating the causes of war, it risks aggravating them. Spending enormous sums to produce ever new types of weapons impedes efforts to aid needy populations; it thwarts the development of peoples. Over-armament multiplies reasons for conflict and increases the danger of escalation.
+JMJ
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"God, Help Me: How to Grow in Prayer" - Review
"God Help Me: How to Grow in Prayer" Jim Beckman Servant Books 168 pages
This short book by Jim Beckman is one of the few life changing books that I have gone back to multiple times, read cover to cover multiple times, and even used it for a high school small discipleship group several times.
Jim balances intense practicality with brief punchy stories that put flesh on the ideas contained in this short blueprint on prayer. It is based on Ignatian spirituality and specifically St. Ignatius' rules for discernment of spirits and his advice concerning consolation and desolation in prayer.
From the Heart
A real eye opener was Jim's point that we can only offer two things to prayer, only two things we do determine whether we are praying "well", and they are consistency and honesty. We can only show up consistently and be completely honest and open with God, everything else is up to him.
Another of several huge foundational take-aways from this book is the map of our heart (borrowing from Fr. John Horn, S.J. whose explanation is included in the appendix) that is laid out to help us see the different levels our thoughts or affective movements can come from.
When we were reading this book in a high school discipleship group, I drew my own version to show the teens. Surface, or level 1, feelings or thoughts are transient and superficial, easily swayed by external stimuli. The thoughts and feelings on level 2 are fundamentally psychological feelings that are more complex and have to do more so with our personal psychology and the way we might uniquely perceive or react to a situation. Level 3 of the human heart is the level of spiritual experience. This is were the Holy Spirit moves in us and God's voice is heard. The Holy Spirit is dwelling within us and moves us to perceive spiritual truths at the very center of our hearts.
One of Those Life Changing Books
This book should be required reading for most Christians. Jim gives you so many simple tools and lays such a complete foundation for prayer that throughout the book things are clicking and you find yourself excited to put it down and get to the nearest chapel. Read this book once a year.
If you want to know how to discern the voice of God in prayer from the devil's voice or your own, to understand the basic rhythm of prayer is (acknowledge, relate, receive, respond), learn how to discern and deal with consolation and desolation, and begin experiencing a type of prayerful relationship with God that makes a difference in your life - READ THIS BOOK. It's a short read, only about 120 pages without reading the appendixes (which are great as well).
+JMJ
###Do you know any other good books on prayer I should read?
New Evangelization Must Be Cheese
The New Evangelization has been called many things, but cheesy is not one of them, and this is a shame. If the New Evangelization is to accomplish the task of re-evangelizing the cultures and communities of today, then the New Evangelization should be more like good cheese.
“In each inn the cheese was good; and in each inn it was different.”
G.K. Chesterton wrote some interesting things about cheese after a trip giving lectures around England. During his travels he lunched in several roadside inns across England that offered nothing but bread and cheese. He found in these cheeses a quality he describes as “the very soul of song.”
Chesterton saw in the cheeses two things:
1) Each cheese was local and therefore diverse, taking on the flavor of the surrounding culture.
The “noble” cheese of Wensleydale was a different happy expression of cheese than that of the cheese of Cheshire, or the cheese in Yorkshire, or the cheese in any of the inns. Chesterton believes that universal truths are best expressed through customs and civilizations when they are living, varying, and diverse. The cheese becomes exquisite because it communicates truth and beauty in a way that is in touch with reality and its local surroundings. The divine and universal idea of cheese takes on the human nature of the town and the people that labored to lovingly produce the cheese.
“Bad customs are universal and rigid, like modern militarism. Good customs are universal and varied, like native chivalry and self-defence… But a good civilization spreads over us freely like a tree, varying and yielding because it is alive. A bad civilization stands up and sticks out above us like an umbrella - artificial, mathematical in shape; not merely universal, but uniform.”
2) Each cheese was the object of a loving art, and therefore was very high quality.
"Now, it is just here that true poetic civilization differs from that paltry and mechanical civilization that holds us all in bondage." Chesterton noticed that industrial cheese found in a large city, much like soap that is mass produced and sent all around the world, did not have the same eclectic and local flavors of the cheese he encountered at the inns and was not very good either.
Not only did the cheeses of the city lack an exquisite taste, but the people that served the city cheese took no pride nor showed any reverence toward their cheese. Chesterton laments about a waiter that served him cheese on what was basically a cracker. After dining on the magnificent cheese of the inns served with what most likely was hearty breads, Chesterton was more than a little upset to get a bland cheese on a lifeless cracker.
“I addressed the waiter in warm and moving terms… I asked him if, when he said his prayers, he was so supercilious as to pray for his daily biscuits. He gave me generally to understand that he was only obeying a custom of Modern Society. I have therefore resolved to raise my voice, not against the waiter, but against Modern Society, for this huge and unparalleled modern wrong.”
Industrialized Ministry
For too long we have been searching for an answer to the task of evangelization that is more like a microwave dinner than well made cheese. We want to take it out of the box, plug it into the parish, let it run, and reap the rewards of a vibrant ministry. We want a one-size-fits-all answer to evangelization that requires little thinking, no volunteers, and little effort.
There is a place for these resources, and they are a gift to the Church, but they should not be used as crutches or be the primary thrust of a parish's evangelization efforts.
Good Old New Evangelization Cheese
1.) Evangelization should be local and therefore diverse, taking on the flavor of the surrounding culture.
Christ was one man, and yet he finds infinitely varied and true expressions in the lives of the Saints. From the poor St. Francis to the richer St. Thomas Moore. From the silent and anonymous Benedictines hidden from the world in monasteries, to the preaching Domincans.
People want to encounter a living and active faith, not one that is recorded on dvd's and mass produced somewhere in Spain and shipped all over the world. These resources are great to supplement a parish, but they should not be the sole expression of a living and evangelizing culture of a parish.
We need to make each of our Churches a Saint. Our parish community should become a unique expression of Jesus Christ lived out in a life-giving and profoundly beautiful way. Our individual parishes need to engage and transform the surrounding culture into something sacred, something worth attracting the attention of modern man who is so jaded by industrialized, commercialized, and mass produced ideas.
Where have all the local celebrations and popular devotions gone? Most parishes are named after a Saint, but that is as far as the Saint's influence goes. Where is the loving expression of unique devotion? We have lost our culture, we have begun to mass produce our cheese. Where is the St. Francis Parish making fools for Christ? Where is St. Joseph's Parish devoted to producing holy fathers? Where is St. Stephen's Parish celebrating martyrs all year long and lighting a fire of zeal in its parishoners who would rather be stoned than betray their Lord?
What happened to Corpus Christi processions at Corpus Christi parishes? Why doesn't the Church in the country become the greenhouse of holy farmers? Why doesn't the Church in the city produce another Mother Teresa? Do you have a lot of doctors and nurses in the area? Why not start traditions and devotions to St. Gianna?
How often do we address the unique needs and capacities of our community members before trying to figure out how to minister to them? Do we send out surveys asking what they desire to learn more about, or what questions or problems the parish as a whole are facing?
2.) Evangelization should be the object of a loving art, and therefore high quality.
If we have the boldness to believe that we are involved in the sacred and holy task of transmitting Christ to others, we need to really reevaluate how we are accomplishing this. Do not make bad cheese, and do not serve Christ up on a cracker.
We need to have a more profound and deep reverence for what it is we are doing when we attempt to evangelize. Jesus Christ deserves much more than a clip art presentation thrown together at the back of the social hall.
We need authentic and beautiful culture. Why not encourage local art at our parish? Why not devote time and energy into fostering local spirituality: a spirituality of the fields, of the hills, of the city, of the farmer, of the rich, of the poor, of the community in your specific area that is more than just a thrown together prayer service, but is the work of a loving art?
The methods and modes we use to evangelize should be crafted and perfected - the object of a loving art. The way we speak, write, and advertise should all be approached with a awed humility. We are announcing the Most High, we should remember that we share this task with angels.
Prudence and Zeal
I won’t shy away from saying these things, even though some will read this and think “Yes, we need banjos in Mass and a kid with a streamer to dance during Father’s homily, and clowns, lots of clowns!” I am not advocating for the type of unique expression that is a mutilation of the truths of the faith. Zeal for authenticity and vibrancy must not mean the sacrifice of orthodoxy and universality.
I will leave you with the cheesy words of the Church:
From the Conclusion of the recent Synod on the New Evangelization
No one person or group in the Church has exclusive right to the work of evangelization. It is the work of ecclesial communities as such, where one has access to all the means for encountering Jesus: the Word, the sacraments, fraternal communion, charitable service, mission.
In this perspective, the role of the parish emerges above all as the presence of the Church where men and women live, “the village fountain”, as John XXIII loved to call it, from which all can drink, finding in it the freshness of the Gospel. It cannot be abandoned, even though changes can require of it either to be made up of small Christian communities or to forge bonds of collaboration within larger pastoral contexts. We exhort our parishes to join the new forms of mission required by the new evangelization to the traditional pastoral care of God's people. These must also permeate the various important expressions of popular piety.
40. The obvious importance of the content of evangelization must not overshadow the importance of the ways and means. This question of "how to evangelize" is permanently relevant, because the methods of evangelizing vary according to the different circumstances of time, place and culture, and because they thereby present a certain challenge to our capacity for discovery and adaptation.
63. The question is undoubtedly a delicate one. Evangelization loses much of its force and effectiveness if it does not take into consideration the actual people to whom it is addresses, if it does not use their language, their signs and symbols, if it does not answer the questions they ask, and if it does not have an impact on their concrete life. But on the other hand, evangelization risks losing its power and disappearing altogether if one empties or adulterates its content under the pretext of translating it
+JMJ
"Say What?" Monday Catechism Series #2
A new series on this blog. Each Monday I'll be posting a gem from our Catechism of the Catholic Church that is interesting or remarkable.
This week's Interesting Catechism concerns faith and science. Are the two in opposition? Are faith and reason contradictory?
159 Faith and science: "Though faith is above reason, there can never be any real discrepancy between faith and reason. Since the same God who reveals mysteries and infuses faith has bestowed the light of reason on the human mind, God cannot deny himself, nor can truth ever contradict truth." "Consequently, methodical research in all branches of knowledge, provided it is carried out in a truly scientific manner and does not override moral laws, can never conflict with the faith, because the things of the world and the things of faith derive from the same God. The humble and persevering investigator of the secrets of nature is being led, as it were, by the hand of God in spite of himself, for it is God, the conserver of all things, who made them what they are."
+JMJ
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Toledo Diocese Publishes Video of Real Ghost
[youtube=http://youtu.be/YMcM2yEaW1E] It's hard to figure out just where my beliefs lie after viewing this video. Shocking. Truly shocking.
Happy Halloween!
Why Hurricane Sandy Made Us Happy
“Hurricanes, which are very bad things, somehow neutralize the other bad thing which has no name.”
— Walker Percy, Lancelot
Marc Barnes has the rare gift of explaining deep seated feelings you have always experienced but never put to words or even thought much about.
Drawing from Walker Percy, Marc shows us why we get (at least initially) a little excited about natural disasters and impending destruction.
The hurricane relieves us. The things we seek to fend off despair with, the things we secretly doubt have any ability to bring us happiness, all of these are decimated in the face of the Frankenstorm. What does your money matter, when there is a whirlpool of destruction bearing down on rich and poor alike? What does your college education matter — certainly supposed to bring you happiness — when the ice giants are uprooting trees? What does your neighborhood and your good school system matter, your wardrobe, your iPhone, your car, your savings, your humanistic outlook, your eternal politeness? Hurricane, dammit!
Delight in the danger of the full article here.
"Say What?" Monday Catechism Series #1
Introducing a new series on this blog: each Monday I'll be posting a gem from our Catechism of the Catholic Church that is interesting or remarkable.
This week's Interesting Catechism is about discrimination against those with homosexual tendencies. It may come as a shocker, but the Church actually does believe that homosexuals should be accepted and loved. But this paragraph is followed by another that explains that acceptance does not mean honoring or promoting same-sex marriage, nor is the Church saying that those with homosexual tendencies should act on them. Persons with homosexual tendencies are called to chastity and Christian perfection.
2358 The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God's will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord's Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition.
2359 Homosexual persons are called to chastity. By the virtues of self-mastery that teach them inner freedom, at times by the support of disinterested friendship, by prayer and sacramental grace, they can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection.
+JMJ
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"One Body, Many Blogs" - Review
I love the elegance of this little ebook compiled by TJ Burdick who is also one of the many contributors. TJ asked several successful Catholic bloggers one question "In your opinion, what are the 'ten commandments' that Christian bloggers should keep in mind while pressing on in their digital mission?" This question combined with a diverse group of Catholic bloggers creates a broad range of blogging advice ranging from profound to profoundly hilarious.
The contributors include T.J. Burdick (TJBurdick.com), Deacon Greg Kandra (The Deacon’s Bench), Lisa Hendey (CatholicMom.com), Devin Rose (St. Joseph’s Vanguard), Kevin Knight (New Advent), Frank Weathers (Why I Am Catholic), Jeff Miller (The Curt Jester), Katrina R. Fernandez (The Crescat), Brandon Vogt (BrandonVogt.com), Marc Barnes (BadCatholic and 1flesh.org), and Susan Windley-Daoust (Ironic Catholic).
If you are a Catholic blogger this ebook will give you some good food for thought, and if you are considering starting a blog this ebook will give you a good foundation of blogging principles to start from.
So check out the One Body, Many Blogs website and buy the book here. All the proceeds go to support the San Jaun Diego Academy, a Catholic immigrant school in Michigan.
My Favorite Commandments from the Ebook
TJ Burdick 5. Jesus should be your only focus Think of your blog as a way to portray your relationship with Christ so that society can understand that relationship. People are looking for truth and the best way they can find it is by living it vicariously through your blog. In order to do that, they must be able to connect with your writing. Make your posts relatable and the truth seekers on the web will find the Truth of Christ in your words. If He is interested, Jesus will make your work known. If not, then know that He is content with having it for Himself.
Deacon Greg Kandra VIII. Pray. Before any post, any comment, any reaction, take a moment and take a deep breath and offer a quick prayer for heavenly intercession and guidance. The act of blogging can really be a kind of prayer, if we work at it. And: I think we should.
Marc Barnes 1. Don’t suck. There is a tendency within the Christian world to think the work we do will be good work, if only we do it for God. This is not true. Whatever work we do will be good work if and only if we do it well. Truly “writing for God” is not something lackadaisical. It does not come with holy feelings. Writing for God means harnessing the intellect, making full use of the talents He endows us with, seeking inspiration in Him, and producing excellent writing, in both style and content. Anything less is no service to God, no matter how well we think we are witnessing, giving testimony, or whatever Christian euphemism we want to use to disguise the fact that we can’t be bothered to make something awesome.
The Vatican 1. Silence and word: two aspects of communication which need to be kept in balance When word and silence become mutually exclusive, communication breaks down, either because it gives rise to confusion or because, on the contrary, it creates an atmosphere of coldness; when they complement one another, however, communication acquires value and meaning... In speaking of God’s grandeur, our language will always prove inadequate and must make space for silent contemplation. Out of such contemplation springs forth, with all its inner power, the urgent sense of mission, the compelling obligation “to communicate that which we have seen and heard” so that all may be in communion with God (1 Jn 1:3). Silent contemplation immerses us in the source of that Love who directs us towards our neighbours so that we may feel their suffering and offer them the light of Christ, his message of life and his saving gift of the fullness of love.
From Pope Benedict XVI, Message of His Holiness for the 46th World Communications Day, Silence and Word: Path of Evangelization. May 20, 2012
Devin Rose 1. Pray before writing each post. Is this a good post? Are you trying to just be sensational or jump on the latest Catholic blogosphere buzz to get more visitors? Discern whether what you are planning to write about is helpful or not.
Susan Windley-Daoust 2. Don't take it too seriously. It's just a blog. Really, it's your scribbles on whatever came to mind that you self-published on a computer. That's it. Any thoughts of how you will change the face of the culture or Catholicism or liturgy or politics is probably prideful wish-fulfillment. Humility is the queen of the virtues, right? It's a BLOG, not Homer's Odyssey.
Does Jesus Hate Tattoos?
Check out this great article on tattoo taboos, Leviticus, and the tattoo on Jesus' thigh by the world renowned Nate Addington.
"Every so often someone, usually of the elderly female variety, will raise one of three standard objections to tattoos.
1.) Someday you are going to regret that
2.) When you are old those are going to look horrible
and of course
3.) You know God does not like tattoos, it just isn’t Christian.
To which I always respond that I have never regretted, even for a fraction of a millisecond, any of my tattoos. Furthermore, when I am old and orchestrating wheelchair street races in the local nursing home, me and all my geriatric buddies will stretch out our wrinkled skin, take a shot of our prune juice, and share the stories of our tattoos while reminiscing about the good ole’ days when we were young and gas was only $4.00 a gallon."