Feast of the Annunciation

Yesterday was March 25 (for those of you who missed it it will come around again in another year or so) which just so happens to be the Feast of the Annunciation here in the Catholic world. It is an amazing full blown Solemnity right here in the middle of Lent, designed to give hope and joy to our lives as we plod on towards Easter. When a solemnity goes cruising by in the normal liturgical year (and by normal I mean not Lent), most of us tend to blow it off and pretend like it's not really a big deal. At least that's our reaction if we ever new it was a solemnity at all. One of the great things about Lent, however, is how it call us to a slightly different standard than Ordinary Time. It calls us to the standard of holiness that revolves fasting, abstaining, and extra alms-giving. When a Solemnity rolls around during Lent we get to indulge in whatever it is that we gave up; and if it happens to fall on a Friday we even get to eat some meat. Yesterday evening was about 40 degrees here, but that didn't stop me from firing up the grill and throwing on some Polish sausages because hey, it was the Annunciation and a Friday all rolled into one. I even contemplated making a cake to celebrate. What really makes me laugh are the people who was consider such a celebration to be cheating God. These are generally the same people who give me condescending looks when I tell them they don't have to fast on Sunday's during Lent. The look is usually followed by some comment about how real Catholics fast every day during Lent and don't look for excuses not to suffer for God. When I respond by telling them how real Catholics practice this funny thing called obedience and quit trying to be holier than the Church they usually get mad and walk away. This is why I don't have very man friends. It does continue to make me wonder why so many people seem to be against having fun in the name of Christ. Christ himself was at a wedding feast and when they ran out of wine, He made some more. Heaven itself is described as the wedding feast of the Lamb. I pray for those people who feel that holiness is 2 parts sad face and 1 part judgmental attitude towards those celebrating. Someday they will realize that it is 3 parts awesome, and that should be enough for anybody.

Modern Misguided Morality: thoughts on smoking, drug use, and murder

I recently watched a short movie with my middle school youth group. The movie was called Most and was a European film done in Czech with English subtitles. If you ever have the opportunity I recommend seeing it. You can catch the shortened version on YouTube, it is The Bridge. It is about a man who works on a railroad drawbridge and one day his son convinces him to take him with him to work. Unfortunately a train fails to stop when the bridge is open for a boat. The son tries to pull the emergency release lever on the bridge because his dad doesn’t see the train coming. Unfortunately he slips and falls down into the machinery that runs the bridge. The dad sees the train and sees his son fall into the bridge. He knows if he closes the bridge to the train can go over, he will crush his son. If he leaves it up everyone on the train will die. He chooses to sacrifice his son in order to save everyone on the train. The point of the movie is to show how everyone on the train is from different walks of life. You have joyful college students, abandoned boyfriends, drug addicts, elderly people, and young children. All of humanity is represented. The Father sacrificed his Son to save everyone. After we watched the movie I did an explanation and then began to answer questions. However, one of the predominate questions and attitudes was one that completely blindsided me. I expected anger and frustration that the little boy had to die in order to save everyone on the train. What I didn’t expect was the hostility towards some of the trains passengers, at least not the passengers I expected. Far and above the most hated group on the train was the happy go lucky college students who were having a smoke and enjoying each others company. Not the drug users, prostitutes, or soldiers but the smokers. “How could he have killed his son to save a smoker” someone asked. “Smokers all deserve to die anyway. They are killing themselves and us already” said another. I was floored. I guessed I missed the point in our culture where smoking suddenly became a sin so grievous and unnatural that it put one beyond the salvation of God, or somehow made one less of a person. Someone that deserved to die. I am not trying to enter the debate on whether smoking is good or bad, right or wrong (I don’t think most people would care for my thoughts on that anyway) but simply that we have made it a cultural sin of momentous proportions. How we can hate tobacco this much and want to legalize marijuana is beyond me or logic. On the flip side I am constantly saddened by how many people support abortion. Why does our culture present something that is merely unhealthy as worse than something that kills one innocent human being and mentally scars another for life, resulting in higher rates of depression and suicide? When middle school students think that smokers deserve to die and go to Hell, while abortion deserves to be protected as a basic human right I think we have serious problems in our schools. This Christmas pray for the conversion of these souls. Pray for the light of Christ in their lives. “A nation that kills its own children is a nation without hope.”

~ Mother Theresa

Adventures in Materialism; an amazing resource for your faith(potentially) in your pocket

As much as I hate to admit it, one of the constant battles I face in my life as a Catholic is with the ever present sirens (think beautiful ocean girls singing men to their doom, not police and fire trucks) of materialism. I recently gave in to the call of the sirens and purchased an ipod touch from Apple. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the ipod touch, it is device that plays music and movies. It can also connect to the internet, allow you to check your email, and run programs called “apps” which is short for applications. There is only one button, everything else involves a touch screen interface. I think it was the shiny touch screen that really sucked me in and dashed me against the rocks of consumerism. Anyway, after acquiring my ipod touch, I discovered that it could, if fact, enhance certain aspects of my spiritual life. There are several of the “apps” which are specifically Catholic and designed to help us keep our faith with us on the go in the modern, busy world. For example, iPieta contains the entire Catholic Bible (in English and Latin), a liturgical calendar (so you will always know who's feast day we are celebrating), a plethora of prayers, novenas, and devotionals (some of which even I had never heard of), The entire Summa Theologica of St. Thomas Aquinas, most of the writings of the last 12 Holy Father's, as well as writings by many of the Church's most well known Saints, mystics, doctors, and fathers. All for less then the cost of a latte (and it doesn't have to be a large latte either). Another app that has come in handy to me over the last couple of days is called A4C, which stands for Answers for Catholics. It is an apologetics resource that helps you quickly locate the biblical basis for many Catholic teachings like confession, the Eucharist, prayer to the Saints, etc. The app, however, that has gotten the most use from me so far is called iBreviary. I have to update it each day, but that usually only takes about 20 seconds in the morning. It gives me the complete Liturgy of the Hours, including the Divine Office. It also gives me the the Mass readings for the day in case I am too lazy to make it to morning Mass, which usually I am. In case you are worried about how much all this will cost you let me put your mind at ease. A4C and iBreviary are both FREE (at least they were when I downloaded them), so if you have an ipod touch you have no excuse not to have these excellent resources. A couple of other free apps I picked up because I am a giant nerd are: The Confessions of Saint Augustine, The Complete Works of Shakespeare, The Stations of the Cross, and several works of Plato and Aristotle. I can honestly say that I practically carry a library of some of my favorite books in my pocket. I even found 101 classic novels for $0.99 (for the whole bundle) and have started in on the original Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Now granted, the ipod touch is not my favorite way to pray or read a book, but I must admit that it is one of the most convenient resources for the faith that I have ever encountered, especially when it all fits into my pocket.

Even Jesus had a Judas

In the life of the Church we are often tempted to think that everything should be perfect, holy, pure and most importantly, the way we want it. While deep down we are always going to know that we can’t have everything exactly the way that we want it, we are still tempted to ask for it and still frustrated when we don’t get it. The reason I bring it up is the recent accusations against our Holy Father saying that he knew about the inappropriate conduct of other priests and bishops, and willfully did nothing. Since I haven’t had the chance to speak with the Pope personally about these accusations, I feel that it is my duty as a Catholic to assume his innocence until someone can prove him guilty beyond a shadow of a doubt. Unfortunately I know that many of my Catholic brothers and sisters do not agree with me. For them the mere thought that the Pope participated in scandal, even though there is no real evidence, is enough to make them foam at the mouth and begin barking for his resignation. Sometimes we tend to forget that the Pope isn’t some elected official who is at the beck and call of his constituents. Rather he is the vicar of Christ himself and answers to God. However, the point remains that this is only one of many things that can dissolution many faithful and holy Catholics. Not just that the Pope could be accused of participating in covering up a scandal, but that a scandal could have occurred at all, and for some within their own parish and with their beloved priest. How do we deal with the fact that those who are our spiritual leaders sometimes let us down, and on occasion in very big and catastrophic ways? The answer is thus, Even Jesus had a Judas. Now I do not say this in an effort to in any way diminish the suffering of victims, but instead to help us remember and grow in holiness. The name of Judas Iscariot will forever be marked as one of the greatest traitors of all history. Sometimes I like to think that Jesus never wanted Judas as a disciple and that he was somehow tricked into it, but I know that isn’t true. You can’t trick Jesus. Rather he willingly chose him as one of the Twelve Apostles. When Judas betrayed him he not only betrayed his God, but also his friend and companion. He turned him over to the scribes and the Pharisees to be tortured and eventually crucified. What is it that makes us think that there are no more Judas’s in the world? We see them everyday in secular society. People who will stab their friends and clients in the back to make a quick profit, and we think nothing of it. It is normal and we pray for such people. Why do we assume that the Church is exempt? None of us are perfect, and some of us less so than others. What we have to avoid at all costs is the temptation to let Judas keep us from following Christ. We are not called to put our faith in men, but rather in Christ and his Church. Christ and his Church are perfect, not the men and women in it. This is why the Sacrament of Confession is so important. That being said, I encourage you all to pray for our Holy Father as he endures this time of trial and persecution. Long live Peter!

Beware the Lucky Nut; Sometimes we all just need to be purged (Easter Sunday Rant)

My son Thomas has a favorite book about a couple of pigs named Toot and Puddle. As I recall the book is called I’ll Be Home for Christmas and is about Toot trying to get back home to his friend Puddle at Christmas time. Yes, I am very aware that it is Easter and I am talking about a Christmas book, but anyone who is such a liturgical season Nazi that they are offended by Christmas books in April will just have to stay mad at me. In the end it is their choice. I bring up the book only in reference to Toot’s lucky nut, which he receives as a gift from his Great Aunt Peg. Ever since Thomas started really enjoying his pig book, all nuts have become lucky and as soon as he gets his hands on them they find there way into our living room. Now the nut may be lucky to Thomas, but to his clumsy oaf of a father (me) they are, in fact, very unlucky. My feet specifically find them unlucky, especially early in the morning when I am stumbling around in the dark trying to find the coffee pot and the light switch, the former being more key to my existence than the latter. To put it simply, I hate the “lucky nuts.” Thus when Katie and Thomas went out of town this past week to visit the grandparents a rare and unforeseen opportunity suddenly struck my household. A chance to purge myself of those cursed nuts that are constantly causing me varying amounts of pain. As I went about my apartment hunting down lucky nuts, I started thinking about Lent, Easter, and Holy Week. I also started thinking about how my hunt for the nuts was a very imperfect example of our relationship with God. Sometimes we have things in our lives that we really enjoy, like Thomas’ lucky nuts. The thing is, they aren’t always good for us, or those around us. Lent is kind of like Thomas and Katie getting out of the apartment for a few days. It gets us out of the way and gives God a chance to move in and clean up all the junk. That way when we come back after Easter we are ready to make a fresh and clean start. The biggest challenge is for us to not be like Thomas, who will almost without a doubt find a lucky nut or two in the parking lot and kart them inside, much to the chagrin of my poor feet. Once we have been purified during our Lenten journey, the trick is to avoid falling back into old habits that can lead us back away from Christ. Like I said, I know that it is a VERY imperfect example of Lent and Easter, but it came to mind the other day while I was on my search and destroy mission for lucky nuts. And don’t worry about how mean it might sound that I am throwing away something that belongs to Thomas. No doubt he will relish the opportunity to begin his little collection of torture devices all over again. That being said, I pray that you all will have a truly blessed and wonderful Easter.

Adore 2010: a call to be authentic Catholic men and women

When I think about the ADORE 2010 retreat that was co-sponsored by St. Joe’s and Holy Apostles last weekend, one specific thing stands out in my mind above all others, and that is a call to once again discover an authentic manhood and womanhood. This call flies in the face of modern feminism (which actually degrades women) and its desire to reduce masculinity to politely opening doors, well manicured finger nails, and impeccable manners. While I missed out on what was said during the women’s session talk (for obvious reasons) I was able to glean that one aspect of womanhood that was discussed was a woman’s mysteriousness. Now this isn’t some kind of bizarre cloak and dagger sort of mysteriousness, but rather a mysteriousness that accentuates a woman’s feminity. One specific example I can think of where mysteriousness might play a role is in modesty of dress. A woman of God does not live by the philosophy of “if you’ve got it flaunt it.” Rather she understands that flaunting attracts lust, not love; and that Prince Charming is not a man to be attracted to a girl who only knows how to flaunt her body. Instead Prince Charming should be the kind of man who wants to fall in love with a girl who has some degree of self confidence. A girl who dresses modestly to protect both her body and her heart from being taken advantage of. To me this is the kind of mystery a true woman of God possesses. A mystery that invites men to come and get to know the real woman, rather than trying to seduce them with purely external and physical appearances. As a culture our perception of what makes a woman beautiful has been distorted to encourage men to only look at this external aspect of femininity, completely neglecting her true womanhood. This is where our men’s session talk kicked the guys in the backside. We talked about how our society doesn’t really want a group of men who know how to love. Men who know how to love know how to sacrifice everything for their beloved. Men who know how to sacrifice everything also know how to stand up for their beloved. They know that true love means not being controlled by their passions and desires, but rather putting their passions and desires at the service of others. This is where things like pornography come into play. Pornography aims at keeping men acting like little boys. Little boys let their passions and desires rule their lives and determine their relationships. Just ask my son about chocolate milk and you will see someone easily manipulated by his physical passions. He doesn’t think, he just wants more and more. There will never be enough, until it makes him sick. Once he recovers he will want more again, until he learns the truth about chocolate milk making him sick when he drinks too much. Our society treats lust the same way. It encourages men and women to give in to lust rather than love because lust is easier and completely selfish. Pornography degrades women down to merely physical objects and tells men that this is ok to treat them as such rather than loving them. After the retreat I was reminded that every man can be a Prince Charming if he wants to, and every woman is a princess worthy of a Prince Charming. Let’s not settle for the lie anymore.

Only at Ave Maria: Why I love my Alma Mater

As lent carries on (and I feel like it has already been carrying on for about forever) I just wanted to take a moment to bring to light a rather humorous email conversation that I have recently been part of from Ave Maria University, of which I am an alumnus. Let me also add, less anyone think that I am writing this as an attack, that I love Ave Maria and wouldn’t trade my time their for anything. I share this with you because I just wanted to point out how different some of the people are that go there, and I mean that in a good way.
Subject: The Renaissance Ball on Saturday will lead to Excommunication!

Dear fellow Ave Maria Community,

As you may have heard, on this upcoming Saturday Ave Maria will be hosting a Renaissance Ball. Among the attractions are dancing, dinner, and dueling. Those who take part in this event will be blatantly and sinfully disobeying the teachings of the Church! Please do not allow this sinful event to take place upon our campus!

The 25th Council of Trent clearly states that "dueling, introduced by the contrivance of the devil, may accomplish the ruin of the soul, shall be utterly exterminated from the Christian world."

The Council of Trent also declared that: "As to the persons who have fought, and those who are called their seconds (sponsors), they shall incur the penalty of excommunication, and of perpetual infamy, and are to be punished as homicides, according to the sacred canons."

As Catholics, we must avoid excommunication, and we have a moral obligation to ensure that our friends and fellow students also avoid excommunication. This is a serious matter, and we should not blatantly disregard the teachings of the Church.

Name Removed is in charge of this Ball, and please encourage her not to proceed with this blasphemy!

Excommunication with the Church puts one's soul in mortal danger!

Subject: RE: The Renaissance Ball on Saturday will lead to Excommunication!

Oh Ave.. can you please be normal for like one a day!
Thanks,

Apparently there was going to be some mock sword fighting taking place during the Renaissance Ball, which offended the moral sensibilities of one of the students. I have only included one of the many replies that floated through my inbox. Many contained witty responses that were far too long and humorous to be printed here. But I ask you this, how many other “Catholic” colleges and universities out there are going to contain public outrage over a violation of the Council of Trent in the area of dueling? I am going to take a guess and say not very many. In fact I doubt most students at most “Catholic” colleges and universities could even tell you when and why the council of Trent occurred, let alone know that it laid down the law on dueling. The real message here is quite clear. Don’t duel during Lent, because no one wants to be excommunicated at Easter.

p.s.I love Ave Maria, I hope it never goes “normal.”