'RC' or 'cc' ? ..

We challenge the laws when they challenge us!

The law that rubs us the wrong way or interferes with our plans or thoughts are the ones we spend time quarrelling about. It is like that in society and in the Church.

This is the reason for the ‘cafeteria catholic’ syndrome.
We might generally agree with the Church except for a few nagging issues.
In order to justify things we become the ‘pope’ for our little own ‘church’.
We belong according to our schedule, and moral issues as we see fit.
That is the great thing about being a ‘cafeteria catholic’; we are never wrong.

Sin becomes a thing of the past.
Why drudge up all these transgressions?
‘We’ (the cafeteria ‘we’) will only recall some sins of past Church members to help us rationalize our ‘modern thoughts’. The inquisition, or bad popes, or a corrupt priest can help to defend our opinion.

It becomes so easy to point a finger and judge.
But we must always remember and remind ourselves that there is only ‘One’ that may judge and God is not accepting applications. Even His Vicar does not judge, he serves!

This might take some of the fun out of the ‘life is short’, or ‘if it feels good, do it’ mantras.
But it is short when compared to forever…and it’s living a lie as a peripheral Catholic.
We can do our due diligence now and let the flames of purification mold our being.
Yes we can still choose like the ‘cafeteria catholic’; but decide for our ‘self’ rather than our selfish tendencies.

The next time you find yourself in that ‘cafeteria’ line look around and see how many other ‘little popes’ are standing in their own ‘little churches’. Decide instead for a different banquet; where priests and the ‘Vicar’ serves and Our Lord awaits…

the invisible war..

TV stations on satellite or cable or free
Media blogs on computers, ‘blackberrys’ you’ll see
Music on your head, your phone, or ipod
Movies at theatres, car, on demand you nod
Gaming for junkies, computer nerds and sport fans
Pictures snapped in every place not imagined..or planned

What is this sword’s edge we live on?
On what side shall we go?
Do we get split down the middle?
Halved or uneven, do we know?

Pick a topic
And think it through
Run from the noise
And choose what is true

What are these choices?
Why are they harried?
If options could form us
Would they be varied?

Off in the distance
Alone in the notion
Urge excess unending
Aligning this potion

These choices may drown us
The amounts are legion
This surplus screams prudence
In all of our regions

The battle is storming
This incoming tide
Our ship taking water
For the life of our ride

So batten the hatches
Bolt all the doors
Ready the castle
For the invisible war

decide...!

what's our mark?

What is the most important text, symbol or mark on a tombstone?

Some would say, the maxims added by the family; like ‘A loving father and husband’, or ‘Forever Remembered’. Some would say perhaps that it is our surname that explains our life’s ‘DNA’. Still others would insist that it is the day of our birth; the day we sprang to life in this world.
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But what of the dash or hyphen that’s engraved between the date of birth and the date of death? That little inconspicuous mark says nothing but contains everything. This mark signifies our entire life. And only God knows precisely what this mark stands for.
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Another important (maybe more so) mark on the tombstone is the date of death. In the Church, we celebrate a saint’s feast day on their anniversary of death not birth? This date marks the day of entrance into eternal life. It should actually be referred to as the date of our re-birth rather than death!
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I’ll explain using words from Bishop Sheen; ”To a pagan, this world is everything and death deprives him of all there is; to the Christian, this world is only a scaffolding through which souls climb to the Kingdom of God. All during life, the pagan is moving toward death; but the Christian is moving backward. He starts with the fact that he must die and render an account of his (life) stewardship; knowing that he will die, he plans his life accordingly.”
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In essence we (as Christians) live our life in reverse. With God time is irrelevant, so the direction of it is also extraneous. By the act of living, we move towards the beginning of our undying life. Therefore if we looked at our life in reverse; beyond our birth is really an end or using the thesaurus suggestion for ‘end’, our ‘death’. To summarize, our beginning in this world is actually our end, with no end going forward! All clear now?
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I guess this is more to ponder..

.. jottings and thoughts

About Lent

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A reminder of sin in our world..

A reminder of holiness in our world..

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But just like the offer of God’s grace..

We’re far too busy to accept the offer..

While we spend time in search for happiness..

We’re busy in the pleasure of our pleasures..

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The scientists have got it all wrong..

Life revolves around us..

We (humans) are at the center and life spins about us..

We resist grace because it gets in the way of our ‘selves’..

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We try to feed this passion to ‘ourselves’ at the detriment of all else..

We can believe that we are free; however we’re headed for an ambush..

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The trap tightens and pulls us to its vortex..

We don’t try to pull away..

We’re like bugs attracted to the headlights..

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But Lent can save us..

It can cleanse our souls..

Sacrifice for others, meditate for enrichment..

Look to open up to the grace that awaits us..

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God’s grace is best received on an empty soul..

Start with the sacrament of confession..

Then soak it up and share..

God?

pondering..

Each life, its own merits

Each life, its own reward

No suffering goes unnoticed

No innocent cries unheard

Shall retribution be silent?

Not to punisher, nor the punished

For the unseen goes on seeing

Tabulations do carry on

Straining to gather reason

Reason to intersect faith

An insect meets our footprint

And sees our huge design

We lift this bug to our hand

Purposely peer at this pest

How could a bug grasp our mind?

How could its being fathom ours?

We look to the heavens and wonder

With such an unsolvable stare

We look with the eyes of an insect

Grasping with might and with dare

Still nothing is clear revelation

Accountable, unsettled, but true

We live with an unknowing sureness

Explain to the bug now, would you?

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'yourverse'

What would a world be like if we could create one?

Let us imagine that on the day that you die and meet God you are given a reward for having lived a faithful life. And let us imagine that God gives you the power to create your own unique universe, complete with planets, solar system and life in this system. Let’s call your unique universe ‘yourverse’.

What rules or laws would you build into ‘yourverse’? What sort of measuring sticks would you employ. Would time exist as we now know it? What sort of planet would you introduce life into? Could you handle this responsibility, or would you ask God for His recipe? Remember that every decision going forward will have an infinite ripple effect throughout the lives and history of ‘yourverse’ Each and every detail would be related directly or indirectly as well as adversely or favourably. Would you allow Newton’s Law, ‘for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction’? What other laws would you set up to govern yourverse?


Perhaps you’d tolerate the identity of each being? To be fair each being could have their own weighted importance in this grand scheme. Suppose you would permit ‘yourverse’ beings to choices, but with ramifications? Their choices would almost certainly entail some limits. How much power (compared to yours) would you allow these beings to have? Could 'yourverse' enjoy beings that live in complete harmony?

How would you reveal yourself to your beings or would you? With this power to create, let’s also recognize the fact that you would know how things will turn out. If you also realized that inevitable destruction is awaiting your creation, would you offer yourself to your ‘mini-yous’ so they could know hope? Would you become one of them in order to save them all? Of course knowing full well that all will not be saved; some will reject your offer. Would you come as a king or peasant?

Is there to be a ‘final judgment’? What sort of forgiveness is planned? Will you listen to their pleas? Without even looking at any of the details this appears to be quite an overwhelming task.

Maybe we should take the straightforward advice of Johann Wolfgang Goethe: “The greatest act of faith takes place when a man finally decides that he is not God.”

who wins?

No matter the genius.. no words, writings, deeds, philosophy, posterity, fortunes or conquerors have had the effect that Our Lord did with His Sacrificial Life. With no press conference or media hype, a baby came into and changed our world. A simple ‘sport celebrity signing' or ‘movie premier’ generates much more splash but the effect is truly superficial. Never listed as ‘Person of the Year’ or the recipient of a ‘Nobel’ peace prize but generation after generation is loyal unto death.

Christianity does not win the current ‘popular vote’ but enlists more soldiers every day, every hour. No so called ‘world leader’ king, queen or political figure has commanded so much respect with so little ammunition or weaponry. With ‘humility’ and ‘truth’ He conquered our world and we remain indebted. In a world that measures by wealth the real power rests with the humble..

Vocal atheists come and go but no generation of civilization can create a replacement for God. Many have tried, but their clocks wind to a conclusion before their desires are incubated.

Words in any combination or any number of attempts cannot properly describe this conviction of ‘faith’. Faith in God is un-measurable; words are inadequate, belief is implicit and the testimony unarguable.

if only..

secular catechesis

The problem with the culture of today is that too many people are getting their religion from the news headlines. This is a main-stream dilemma that grows into a way of life, as many adults suffer from attention deficit. We become drawn into this premise as if it is life sustaining. The hustle of living grabs so much of our attention that we merely skim the surface of existence.
Years accumulate, but we lose the opportunity to absorb any meaningful experiences and this leads to hasty judgments in our pre-occupied brains.
If we listen to conversations nowadays the proof becomes positive. Comments in newspapers and call-in radio shows and TV talk shows are filled with the same shallow biases. When the topic of religion is broached, out come the usual barbs. And they are so predictable: they point to some mistakes of the past, and say: ‘sell everything at the Vatican and spend it on the poor’, ‘they should get with the times’, or ‘why would a good God allow all this?’ It really is so monotonous; it‘s as if they are all reading from a sound-bite recording. Trotting out these stone throwing clichés seems to somehow make some people feel larger than they really are.
Some blame goes to irresponsible reporting. Media minds go for the controversy and throw out tag lines to grab attention and ratings. We (busy important humans) are on the run so much as we barely hear the news leads and skim them in our newspaper or listen to Oprah’s gospel hour, and then form an obvious follow-the-leader conclusion.
If this is truly where we get our religion; then we fairly get what we deserve. Society needs to slow down the pace and take time to study or take the interest to find more info before we rush along with the crowd. We (society) are becoming too simple and ‘dumbed-down’. Get behind the stories; instead of throwing insults like ‘take care of your pedophile priests’ you can find that the Church is taking the problem very serious and are dealing with this scandal. The Holy Father has approved changes to entry requirements to the priesthood and made it easier to expedite trials or dismissal of offenders. Remember that the Church is made up of sinners and that includes all present members, myself included.
At issue are the loud mouths that are indeed just that: blow hard loud mouths that enjoy being loud. Most people will let these loud-mouths do our thinking. You’ve heard the expression ‘put first things first’; we need to take the time to decide what should be first! Hint: this usually involves effort.
Claims such as; ‘I am intelligent enough to decide for myself’, come from the same people who will complain to their friend after stepping in dog excrement ‘why didn’t you tell me it was there?’ We should all be intelligent enough to make our own informed decisions but we’ve become too lazy or fatigued to actually do so.
Use the intellect we have and don’t just accept the ‘pablum’ of society’s thoughts. The sleek secular feel good society tries to fill us with instant satisfaction, but the pleasure evaporates as we tirelessly chase the rainbow. If we seek the catechism of civilization, the result is swift, certain and finite.
The thing to remember is that life is temporary because this is not our permanent home. We may say we’re so busy; but the real word’s consumed.

why?

...For those who ask why are we here?There must be a stimulus that begs the question.There must be a responsibility for our place in time; our source of parents, our family. Why are we on this place called earth? Could it be the result of happenstance? Can science answer this? I think that science has enough problems and has more questions than answers, more theories than solutions. What is fate, or chance or a coincidence? Are these things viable?All of life by default, must have a ’motivator’ and ‘sustainer.’If we are truly asking ‘why’; when life is analyzed we can only look on as an observer. Once life is presented to us, we can only ‘react’ or ‘live’ our lives; we had no say in ‘becoming’We can choose or decide our destiny with one condition; life must be given to us. God is the first nudge or momentum of all life and the ‘continuance’ and ‘constant’ of life. He is Life’s motion and activist.Friedrich Nietzsche proclaimed that ‘God is Dead’; but the reality is ‘Nietzsche’ is dead.Without the perpetual presence of God, the whole universe would be scattered and deficient. The order of life then becomes a chaos that would cease to exist.To paraphrase St.Augustine:’ These questions are written in our hearts and our restless heart hunts for the answers to fill this void.’To the atheist who says: ‘Prove to me that your God exists’; I’d pose the statement, “That is the easier of the two possibilites, It would be harder to prove He does Not!”As G K Chesterton put it so well; ‘If it weren’t for God, there would be no atheists.’