We did not plant these flowers:
We’re not sure how they got there. We don’t have any flowers like this in our yard:
It’s our little Easter Miracle! A reminder from God that He is out there and loves us all!
Today is Good Friday. The day that Christ died for our sins on the cross. For those who visit the site (instead of using an RSS feed) you’ll notice that the colors for today are black. It is the one day of the year where the Church colors are black.
Today the tabernacle is empty. God was killed for our sake today.
May this day, the pinnacle of the season of Lent and of the Triduum, help us to find forgiveness of our sins through God’s love of us. A love so strong that He gave his only Son for us.
I recently found out about CatholicsComeHome.org from Mark Shea’s blog (see blogroll) and I am amazingly impressed. I’ve asked myself for years why the Church is unable to put together well produced videos and the such that drive home the key points of the faith. CatholicsComeHome have figured it out. I’m most impressed by this video:
http://www.catholicscomehome.org/epic/epic120.phtml
The Church is constantly lambasted for a ton of things that are wholy inaccurate. The Church is responsible for so much good. Hospitals, Orphanages, Universities, Scientific Study, the order of Law, these are all things that found their current form under the guidance of the Holy Spirit through the Catholic Church. So often Catholics find themselves on the defensive in these areas. It’s nice to see a video that makes it clear that the Church is a both a pioneir and a steadfast rock that can be counted on. Beyond our history, there is also the immense good that the Catholic Church does every day in this world. While the press likes to criticize the Church for not handing out condoms in Africa, the Church is instead responsible for the feeding and medical care of millions of poor in Africa and around the world every day.
I am incredibly joyed at a 1-minute video can communicate this so emphatically and positively.
They’ve got additional videos that are good too. Also lots of articles and information for those interested in returning to the Church.
As most of my readers know, I’m active in RCIA at my parish. Helping those with interest in the Church is definitely my calling. God has given me many gifts and primary amongst these that he asks me to share is my conviction for the tenets of the faith. However, after seeing surveys showing former Catholics as the largest religious group in the country next to Catholics, I ask myself if perhaps some, if not all, of my effort should be going into helping former Catholics come home.
I ask you to pray for me for guidance.
Since I’ve already taken on one hot-button topic today, might as well keep the ball rolling:
One of the main complaints brought up when a bishop or priest threatens to deny the Eucharist to a politician who supports legislation that is contrary to Church teaching is that it is a violation of the separation of Church and State. This is another one of those ridiculous assertions that has no basis in the truth.
For there to be a violation of the separation, one or the other must have some authority in the other. As an example, if the bishop could say that the politician couldn’t be elected because of his views, THAT would be a violation of the separation. Similarly, if the state could dictate who could have Eucharist in the Catholic Church, that too would be a violation of the separation. But that’s not what is happening in this case.
All the bishop is doing is saying “Look, when you step inside my building, you’re now on the Church’s turf. Here, you play by our rules.”
That’s no different than the government saying to the bishop as he enters the court-house for his speeding ticket saying “God has already forgiven me”, the court can say the same thing to him.
Why is this so hard for people to understand?
With the California Supreme Court hearing arguments last week on whether it violates the California Constitution to disallow gay “marriage”, I thought it was wise to remind everyone things that the pro-gay agenda wants everyone to forget:
Pretty simple, yes? Government wants children raised by biological parents and gives benefits of marriage to those’s union has the potential to create those children. Gays can’t be biological parents, so gays can’t get married.
A further point:
When the government gives legal protections to a group, that convers certain things. It’s not just being tolerant of something, it’s ENDORSING that thing. It is a completely reasonable thing, speaking governmentally in a free society, that both gay people think their is nothing wrong with their behavior and that other people think their behavior is immoral. If the government says that gay “marriage” is acceptable, it is effectively saying that it is unacceptable for people to think gay “marriage” is immoral. When inter-racial marriage was finally allowed (and obviously good thing) it was a statement that other races are equal to whites. It is NOT ACCEPTABLE in the US to think that being black or hispanic (or pick your race) is a lesser race than whites. The same thing would happen with gay “marriage”.
As can be seen from countries like Canada where preachers are brought before “human rights commissions” for reading from the Bible, it is not acceptable in a society that allows freedom of religion to allow gay “marriage” and all that goes along with it. Gay “marriage” will lead to the outlawing of certain Christian beliefs.
Well, my fast continues apace and I’ve yet to break the rules of the fast: 1 meal a day, only drink is water.
There was one day were I came close, in fact I intended to break it when I started. It was a Sunday morning and I was starving. I wasn’t supposed to eat until dinner time so I sat down to have a snack. About 1/2 way through the snack I changed my mind and made it a full meal. The only catch was that I couldn’t eat dinner now and had to wait until tomorrow to eat. I had planned to each lunch the following day and then dinner the day after that to get back on track for eating dinner, but miraculously was able to last until dinner the next day to get back on track in one day.
I’ve also been surprised this year with my ability to do activities while fasting. Usually in the past I’ve pretty much been a stump on a log while fasting for sustained periods. My attempts at playing racquetball or going sailing clearly indicated that I was fasting and I performed beyond horribly. But this time, I’ve played racquetball a number of times with success and managed to build a bunch of shelves for the study. I haven’t gone sailing, which was partly planned and partly bad weather on the scheduled sailing days.
However, it’s pretty clear by my weight loss that whenever I exert myself I’m dipping into my reserves (so to speak). When I am not active, I find myself dropping a pound every 1/2 week or so. When I am active, I’ll drop up to a pound a day.
The downside of my lenten promises is that I’ve completely abandoned the Rosary and the Liturgy of the Hours. For whatever reason I haven’t been very good at that this time. While I’ve got no intention at this point at picking it back up for the remainder of Lent, I do hope at some point in the future I can get into a good routine.
Well I updated the blogroll by deleting dead-sites, changing links for moved sites and adding a new site.
I wanted to bring your attention to the new site, as it’s really good. It’s called Building Cathedrals and the site best describes it’s title:
“A mother is the most important person on earth. She cannot claim the honor of having built Notre Dame Cathedral. She need not. She has built something more magnificent than any Cathedral — a dwelling for an immortal soul, the tiny perfection of her baby’s body.” — Joseph Cardinal Mindszenty (as quoted by Danielle Bean)
If that doesn’t peak a parent’s curiosity, a summary of the authors may:
Seven young, Catholic mothers who graduated from Princeton University, seeking to build our families just as the architects of the great cathedrals built their detailed masterpieces: day by day, stone by stone, with attention to details that only He will see.
Seven bachelors degrees, four advanced degrees, and nearly 200 combined months of pregnancy have only convinced us of how much we have left to learn in matters of faith, family and vocation. We adhere wholeheartedly to every doctrine of the Holy Catholic Church, but the details beyond that, from co-sleepers and breast pumps to schooling options and professional life, are grounds for robust discussion with like-minded friends. Nothing written on this blog is intended to incite maternal guilt, anger or to advise on medical or legal matters. Virgin most prudent, pray for us!
The content of the site reflects the thoughtfulness of the title and summary. There’s a humility and honesty that is rarely found in their posts as they feel their way through parenting. Go take a look, particularly all you parents out there.
I’ve gotten a few comments (which means a message from just about every single reader of this blog) that things were messed up. Indeed they were. My hosting provider upgraded the servers and in the process changed a number of things that broke my website. What was noticable from here was that the posts were in the wrong order with the oldest posts first and the newest ones hidden in the archive.
I’ve managed to fix that problem and a number of other problems (leaving just one that only affects my other site ExcuseMeForMyVoice.com) and so am know mostly back in business.
What was most frustrating was that this all happened just as I was going to pick up where I left off on this blog. Expect a number of posts in the next few days…