Are we Catholic? (June 8 2008)

“I could not bear the thought of this suffering child dying alone in a soiled utility room, so I cradled and rocked him for the 45 minutes that he lives,” Stanek told the U.S. Congress, describing one such case. “He was too weak to move very much, expending any energy he had trying to breath. Toward the end he was so quiet that I couldn’t tell if he was still alive unless I held him up to the light to see if his heart was still beating through his chest wall.”

The above is a section from an editorial that appeared in the May 18 2008 edition of the National Catholic Register. The process it is describing is one called Live-birth abortion. This occurs when an infant survives the actual abortion process. In 2002 the state of Illinois tried to outlaw the process described above through the Induced Infant Liability Act. This bill never became law. One man, at least, used his authority to make sure this protection never happened. That man is Barak Obama. Mr. Obama openly voted against the Induced Infant Liability Act. He openly voted in favor of allowing a small child who only wants the comforting embrace of its mother; to be allowed instead only to find the cold embrace of a solitary death; alone, somewhere, in a utility room. We commend these children to our Blessed Mother, may they find the lasting comfort in her arms that they were denied in their last moments here on earth.

I recieved a bit of criticism for publishing this article in the bulletin. Some people do not want us to speak the truth decause it is inconvenient or it doesn't fit with the fact that we want everyone to vote Democrat. If you are offended by this article or think that it is inappropriate or think I am corupting the youth, I will keep you in my prayers. If speaking the truth labels me as a corruptive force, then I proudly bear that label. It is better then coward, which is what I would be if I failed to respond to the call of God. My Question still stands, are we Catholic?

Merry Summer: Merry or Happy, what will your summer be like? (June 1 2008)

Today I was sitting around pondering the difference between “merry” and “happy”. Ok, while maybe I was doing more then just pondering this particular subject, the difference did cross my mind and I decided to go ahead and write about it. Since I didn’t really have the slightest idea what the difference was, I decided I had better turn to good old Websters for a bit of help and good advice, which I now want to pass along to you. If you don’t want advice or help from Webster’s, you had best stop reading right now. For those who do want help and advice (like myself) here is what I found. If you are like me, you probably thought that happy people and merry people were more or less the same kind of people, but that’s where you would be wrong. Happiness is described thus: “1. favored by luck or fortune 3. enjoying or characterized by well-being and contentment “ There are other parts to the definition, but you get the idea. “Merry” on the other hand is quite different. “2. enjoying or characterized by well-being and contentment 3. marked by festivity or gaiety.
Suggests cheerful, joyous, uninhibited enjoyment of frolic or festivity”
So when I mish you a “Merry Summer” this is what I want for you. Since we are all good Catholics and don’t really believe in things like luck or fortune (they imply another power that governs our lives outside of God) and I want more for all of you then just wellbeing and contentment, merry seems to be the more appropriate word choice. There is an intensity about the word merry that just seems to be lacking in the definition of happy. I want all of you to have a summer that involves a cheerful, joyous, uninhibited frolic or festivity. And why not? God loves you, he gave you a beautiful world to frolic and have festivities in, the days here are long and warm, and Ice cold lemonade is back in season. There is no possible reason I can think of to not have a merry summer. Even if you have to work, work merrily. Live your life with the joy of being truly alive. Jesus came so that we might have life and have it to the abundantly (Jn 10:10) Take hold of the abundance that Jesus is offering you and live out this summer in absolute merriment. I even have 4 fun tips to help you along the way.
1. Go to daily Mass. The Eucharist will change your life. Guaranteed
2. Stay involved with the youth group programs.
3. Honor your parents. I know this can be difficult, but it is worth it.
4. Go to Confession at least once a month. If you don’t need it, please give me some tips on attaining perfection.
There you go. Have a merry summer and I will see you at our summer events.

Where we Sit: Life after the Doner Haus

To all of you who have been crying yourselves to sleep over the past couple of weeks because I have written nothing in the bulletin except unsuccessful pleas for help at the D&oumlner Haus, have no fear. Today I will not ask for your help because we have a whole year for me to pester you. In fact, after a brief update on how things went, I refuse to mention fundraising for at least a month. Or maybe a week. Anyway, the net haul for 10 days of craziness and backed up youth ministry work came out to be around 3000 bones. I still have to split this money with the youth group from Holy Apostles, so our take will be substantially less. We were also forced to hire some guys to help out during lunch time during the week, which cost us $1200 that could have been added to the $3000 that we made. So all in all we went from bringing in around $4200 down to (and this is just a rough guess) less then $2000 into our program because I couldn’t get enough volunteers. I don’t really mind sharing with the Holy Apostles youth group. In fact they are all great kids and I really look forward to doing more events together and building up strong relations between the two programs. But the $1200 to hire outside help is just money down the tubes. It isn’t being used to help anyone draw closer to Christ. You guys as a youth group really did awesome helping out in the afternoons and evenings, so don’t think that this is really directed at you. What we need to do next year is work on getting parents, grandparents, and everyone else here at St. Joes involved in this. It just hurts me to know that we lost half of the money we could have made.

Alright, no more whining about money or things that are in the past and cannot be changed. On to bigger and better things, like stamps. Rubber stamps to be precise. This last Wednesday I was somehow tricked (I blame the feminine wiles of my wife) into buying my first rubber stamps. My wife probably owns around 100 different stamps that she uses for hand making her own birthday cards, invitations, thank you cards, etc. She loves it; and with the birth of Thomas she has had no end of reasons to ply her trade on unsuspecting gift givers. Somehow she infected me and now I find myself trying not to get excited about the thought of creating my very own line of greeting cards!!! This is an unacceptable abomination in my life! I know there must a cure somewhere, and I fully expect that it has something to do with hammers, nails, and duct tape. Maybe. Now if you will excuse me, my best friend needs a kick rock Thank You card of the kind only I can provide.