Snowball Launched

We had a snowstorm (a minor blizzrd) like the type we would get when I was growing up. Not a huge storm. I compare everything to a real blizzard we had in early 1975. This would be more of an appetizer.

We had fun shovelling the driveway and throwing snowballs at Dad. The kids have been off from school for ywo days now and going on three tomorrow. I had the day off today, but I go in tomorrow at an early 7 am. The temp will be @ 10 below zero F.

Tis the Season

I am reading a wonderful book called Seasons of Grace : Reflections on the Orthodox Church Year by a terrific writer, Donna Farley. The seasons through the lense of the Liturgical year, there is nothing better. The world was created in seasons (each day something different was brought into being from nothing). We grow through the seasons, year after year, hopefully growing spirtually more mature.

I've always felt a tug of a new year on or before All Saints Day, maybe as early as the Feast of the Archangels followed by the Feast of the Guardian Angels. At least for me, it becomes a time of preparation, the time of fooling around is coming to an end, time for the good stuff to start. The season of Advent is very short. According to Donna Farley, the Orthodox begin their year on September 1st. I like that. The first major feast in this schema is the Nativity of Mary, a Feast day that is all but ignored in my church (tremendously sad to say that). The whole year should be one of preparing for the coming of Jesus, in the sense of Christmas and ultimately in His 2nd Coming or my own death,, whichever comes first.

Funny, huh?

During Lent a few years ago, our associate pastor gave a presentation on the history of the church. He handed out a sheet that diagrammed all the splits including the Eastern Orthodox church. The whole presentation was excellent.

The part that caught my wife and I of guard was one off the senior deacons asked Father if priests were still required to take an oath against modernity. It was a rhetorical question. The kernel of our parishes leadership was there (about the only people who did show up besides my wife and I), including some of our more experienced deacons, their wives and the liturgist/adult formation person and her husband. They all burst out in sardonic laughter. Father did not answer. I wanted to get up and take over the class, do a little Jedi formation right on the spot. Modernity is funny? Fighting one of the heresy that is all heresies in one is funny? We are so much smarter in the bleakness of post modern age of enlightenment. It's more than ironic that we call one the richest times in our history, the Dark Ages.

Why is it now the people who are most faithful to the teaching of the Catholic Church are seen as divisive, schismatic? How did that ever come about? It's smacks of the diabolical if you ask me. It's sheer evil genius.

I wish I had the gifts of the likes of St. John Vianney. That is what our parish seems to need. My wife and I started sending our oldest kids to this parish's school twelve years ago because the two other Catholic grade schools that were closer, were full. I've thought about going to a less protestant influenced parish, and just when I was really going to do it, I was asked to serve on the parish council - a 3 year commitment. I took it as God saying not yet, wait and see. My main point I stressed in my biography for the election was adult formation. I feel like a failure.

Feelings are deceptive. Things could be brewing unseen, at least that is what I am hoping and praying for. It's a delicate situation to say the least. Just before our family joined the parish, the members were feuding over whether the altar should be in the middle of the church or not, and I heard it was moved around a few times. Over the years the people who would be a bit more enlightened er I mean formed (knew what the heck was going on) have been weeded out. I know a deacon at a nearby parish who used to attend our parish and was asked to leave because he made a comment on the wrongness of what was going on (about the time the location of the altar was being fought over).

The one big improvement we have had is we have a few hours we can come into the church on Tuesday evenings and pray before the tabernacle. We keep Jesus safely closed up in this tabernacle so it's not the adoration I experienced in another parish where the maverick associate priest at the time held covert adoration (the pastor there was against adoration if you can believe that). We had benediction and the Blessed Sacrament in a monstrance that was Father's own. We prayed and we sang. It was awesome. Anyway, my next suggestion will be to upgrade our adoration time to actually letting Jesus come out with benediction.

If after my term is up, we might stay, or not. It's up to God.

Ahmadinejad

I remember the Iranian students taking the Americans hostage for was 444 days? It was a long time. I remember Jimmy Carter's inept bungling of the situation crowned with the very badly botched rescue attempt turned mass collision in a man made sand storm in the desert. I've seen film of the Iranian students leading hooded American hostages around and I could swear one of the Iranians looks just like a younger Ahmadinejad. He of course denies anything to do with it, but he is 52 now. He was 21 or 22 then.

Today I read Ahmadinejad demands an apology from Obama. It's seems to me Obama has nothing to apologize for and not only that Obama seems to be bending over backwards in his attempt to placate Ahmadinejad and the Iranian leaders. Ahmadinejad is obviously going to twist whatever we do or say into his own rhetoric to try to make this internal Iranian protest into a western influence thing.

"Do you want to speak with this tone?" Ahmadinejad responded Thursday, addressing Obama. "If that is your stance, then what is left to talk about?"

He added: "I hope you avoid interfering in Iran's affairs and express your regret in a way that the Iranian nation is informed of it."

First of all Ahmadinejad would like nothing more than for us to avoid interfering in Iran's affairs as much as Hitler wanted the world to simply appease or ignore what he was doing. The second thing is at this point, there is nothing we have to talk about. If we knew as much about Nazi Germany in mid to late the 1930s as we know about Iran now, we would have a similar situation.

Back to Jimmy Carter... with Carter and Clinton, when the doo doo hits the fan, these guys are not the kind of guys we needed as president. One of the first things that happens is they cut back on military spending. Morale goes down the toilet and training does too. Why did the rescue mission in the hostage time fail? The same reason Apache helicopters were crashing in the hills of Bosnia in the 90s. Lack of training. When Al Gore debating George W for the 2000 election, he said Bill and he cut the government by 1/3. He did not go into the details that about the only thing they cut were the military and our intelligence services. More than a bit misleading.

Bottom line is Ahmadinejad is a liar. Who knows what has really happened in the recent election and supposed landslide victory. It just seems to me if it was a landslide, why is there such massive protest. I would place Ahmadinejad in the top 5 most dangerous men in the world.

Nicole's 1st Communion

Diane, Bill, Sarah and Nicole are in front. I am holding Mary, next to Nancy and Ned.
Our parish is St. Bernard church which has very recently been renovated.




















Nicole was a bit nervous for her first communion. Nicole looks as if she is facing her martyrdom. I remember my first communion. I was probably just as nervous. Sarah shows her loving support. I told you Sarah is a saint.

It was very nice to have Nicole have her first Communion today on Easter. One boy from her class was there today as well. The rest of their class will have their first Communion on Divine Mercy Sunday. It's a big class.

The Mystery of Holy Saturday

The mystery of Holy Saturday is one if the most compelling "lessor" mysteries for me because it goes a long way in explaining the world and our state of affairs today. It's like the quiet part of the song by Boston before the song bursts out in Long Time. Where is Jesus? Where are all the Holy Angels and Saints?

We do not share in the resurrection of Jesus as of yet, not in it's fullness. It has been a very hard mystery for me to understand. But knowing a little bit more and understanding this has helped. So today we savor the quiet and wait in great hope and anticipation for the future. Today can be a tremendous salve for those who suffer from depression if the mystery is entered into with a gentle childlike spirit. We should all have the expression of awe and wonder like the picture of Sarah below, especially during Mass. That's my goal.

Tectors and Nados

All children are sensitive little souls. Sarah is afraid of loud noises amongst other things. Sarah's middle name is Therese (after St. Therese, the little flower). Sarah could live on marshmellows and is very much a gentle little soul, very much like a butterfly.

Once our smoke detectors were low on batteries and beeped periodically, of course at 2 am. We have ours interconnected so if one goes off they all go off. They would announce, "Low battery." Sarah recalls the 'terrifying' incident every now and then and says the 'tectors' said "Beep! I need a battery!" When she was invited into our neighbors house she stopped suddenly at there front door for there as one of those montstrous 'tectors' inside their living room facing their front door. Sarah would have none of that.

A month ago the morning news reported possible storms for the afternoon with a slight chance of severe weather, with an even slighter chance of isolated tornados. Later when the kids had come home from school and wanted to play outside, Sarah would not let them because we were going to get nados.

OK now my point. I've always wanted to write a nice little childrens' book that deals with stuff that is scary for kids and link it to faith in Jesus and how we all have guardian angels to protect us and call the book Tectors and Nados.

The picture above is of Sarah at our local Childrens' Museum. The look on her face is as they say, priceless.

The Swings

Here are Mary in pink, Sarah in orange and Nicole pushing the other two. I've got hundreds of pictures of my kids by now, but this one stuck out. So I thought I'd share it. Click on the picture to see what I mean.

Novena In Remembrance of Terry Schiavo - Priests for Life

Priests for Life will begin a novena on 3-23-2009 in remembrance of Terry Schiavo, more info here:

http://www.priestsforlife.org/novenas/terris-day.aspx

Terry died a few days (3-31-2005) before John Paul II the Great died (4-2-2005).

Here is the prayer:

Lord God, I thank you today for the gift of my life,
And for the lives of all my brothers and sisters.

I know that life is always a good,
and that it never loses its value
when it is beset by weakness or injury.

Lord, thank you for the life of Terri Schindler-Schiavo.
Even in her suffering and death
She revealed Your glory
and truth that life is always sacred.

As I remember Terri, I also commit myself
to be active in the pro-life movement,
And never to stop defending life
Until all my brothers and sisters are protected,

And our nation once again becomes
A nation with liberty and justice
Not just for some, but for all,
Through Christ our Lord. Amen!

Happy St. Cuthbert Day

I stole this from a priest I know: If you want to pray for the aid of a great saint that may have lots of free time, pray for St. Cuthbert to intercede for you. I did a bit of research when He said this and sure enough Cuthbert was a English monk who was a very holy man. I have grown to appreciate St. Cuthbert more as I get older and hopefully wiser.

Did you know that St. Patrick was Scottish? He was kidnapped and taken into slavery into Ireland. He briefly escaped and came back to convert the pagans and chase out the snakes (I always laugh when people take latter literally).

Bill the Terminator

Ahhhhhh! Bill the Terminator is going to get us!

Zap! Bam! Boom!

















Terminated!

Now that I have a new camera, the kids want to see pictures of themselves doing things like jumping off chairs or pretending to be dead. The two seemed to go well together with the red eyes and all. I thought it would be nice to post pics of Bill after I mentioned him in the previous blog.

Bill and the Big Gorillas

We were at the zoo today, one of our favorite spots. I remember when the zoo here in Omaha was nothing in the 60s. Now it is one of the best zoos in the world.

When Bill (my second son who is 5 now and in kindergarten) was 3, when it was time for bed we would scratch his back to get him to settle down enough to fall asleep. Bill loves the gorillas as much as I do especially when they play. One night I told Bill when people go home, the big gorillas scratch the little gorillas' backs. Another night (when my back was itchy) I was scratching Bill's back and told Bill sometimes the little gorillas scratch the big gorillas' backs. Bill being a typical child, thinking very literally, said very matter of fact, "No dad. The big gorillas' arms are long enough, they can scratch there own backs."

So I took this picture to show Bill was right. The big gorillas' arms are long enough to scratch there own backs.

Adoration

I am going in a minute here. We can actually get into our church from 7 pm until 10 pm every Tuesday. We can pray, read about saints who thought adoration of the Blessed Sacrament was a pretty good idea, maybe even listen to Jesus. It's crazy.

Iran Launches Satellite

Iran has advanced far enough in their missile technology to launch a satellite. It's just another step toward delivering nukes long range. The same missile that delivers satellites into orbit just happens to be great for nuclear warheads long range as well.

What is worth noting is they waited until Obama took office before they took this big step. Of course their nuclear program is strictly for nuclear reactors and electrical generation. Nor would this have anything to do with why we have troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, not at all. Not even close. Look at the map of the world and tell me what country lies between Iraq and Afghanistan.

Bella

What a great movie. What a beautiful movie. It's not overly sentimental and it has terrific acting. I love the flower references, when you know the quote by Blessed Mother Teresa "How can there be too many children? That is like saying there are too many flowers." I'm sure the screenwriter knows of this great quote.

Another quote from the movie is: "Women always love flowers." In other words it is extremely unnatural for women to kill their own babies in their wombs.

Here is another quote from Mother Teresa I thought of during the movie. "The most terrible poverty is loneliness and the feeling of being unloved." Tammy Blanchard's character lives this out especially when she gets fired for being late for work after she finds out she is pregnant and the father is never seen in the movie.

All it takes is Eduardo Verastegui's character to show some kindness, concern, warmth and the sense Tammy's poverty evaporates.

If the people making this movie were not thinking of Mother Teresa, well here are some more:

On helping others:
"It is a kingly act to assist the fallen."

Another on the poverty of being unwanted, unloved:
"Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty."

This movie is so worth seeing. It is heart warming and very down to Earth.

Rwanda - The Question of Evil

Rwanda is the best case to study how Satan operates in this world. Rwanda was not ruled by an insane maniac leader (Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot to name a few). Rwanda was and is very Christian. In so many ways, the people of Rwanda are like any of us. But to wrap one's mind around the genocide that happened and the world's lack of action is incomprehensible. I don't see how this could be anything but a bit of hell breaking out. I see Satan's hands in this without a doubt.

The key is how Satan was able to sway so many people. The Hutu people all say they were swept up into something bigger than themselves. The killers and the killed or injured all were neighbors, friends, coworkers, fellow parishioners. Were the people living in the state of mortal sin? I would say yes. How is that different from the US? I don't think there is a difference. Is there more? Probably. Drugs are a door opener for demonic influence. So is practicing witchcraft.

This is why Rwanda is a excellent case to see how Satan works. I think Satan is more powerful than ever in his ability to do things and I think in the US we are as susceptible to his work. It really would not be a stretch for something similar to happen here. I also see a snese of desperation. Satan does not know the end time but he's not an idiot and obviously the end is getting nearer. Normally Satan works by boiling us by turning up the heat slowly, appealing to our acedia and self-absorption. Rwanda is a rupture in this tactic and to me shows desperation. So Satan seems to think the end is getting very close. There were killings in Rwanda in the decades up to the 1994 genocide - rehearsal killings. Rwanda could be the rehearsal genocide for the world. It certainly gives us a window to the future to what could happen.

The whole of the 20th century certainly has been horrendous in scales never known starting with WWI and things like machine guns and mustard gas and ending the century in Rwanda with machetes. Who knew machetes, machine guns, and gas would be more deadly than nuclear bombs?

It is the state of the soul that should be the focal point, not the specific weapon. That's why Christianity in the fullness in truth is far superior than secular humanism.

Obama - Yo Mama

To show us how not pro-abortion he is, Barack waited a whole extra day to lift the ban on federal funding for international groups that promote or perform abortions, reversing a policy of his predecessor, George W. Bush.

I think it was quite Clintonesque to also not lift the ban yesterday on the 36th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision. Speaking of Clinton, Bill initially lifted this same ban within days of his taking office in 1993, a ban initially created by Ronald Reagan in 1984. So much for Barack being like Reagan, as if.....

So it is a game like pong. And more babies die each day around the world. Satan smiles and says, "Barack, you the man!"

Where Sin Abounds, Grace Abounds

I was a poorly formed Catholic. I went to CCD in the early 70s - blah! Boring! I went to a Catholic high school from the fall of 1975 and I graduated the day after Mount St. Helen blew up in 1980. We were taught fluff. I'm not in a minority by any stretch of the imagination. I spent from my late teens until my wife and I were married in 1992 mostly out of the church. And even after our wedding it was a struggle.

I explained this to a dear friend, a very holy priest. He said sometimes our fervor is like a slightly wet match. You strike the match and it sparks a little, but you keep striking it and eventually it catches fire.

So the soggy matches in this country helped to bring about what we have today. Problem is they don't know they are soggy.

I was thinking about the people I know who went to Washington DC for today. I did not. I worked. I talked to people and not a single person seemed to be aware of anything happening in Washington DC. Now contrast that to the Super Bowl that will occur a week from this Sunday. What is really worth getting "amped" about? What is more important?

Knowing the difference is a gift from God. For me, to get that gift was nothing less than having God hitting me upside the head with a 2 X 4. This got my attention. Many years ago somebody talked about a very dangerous prayer. It's very simple but very powerful and really it can be scary. "God change me, whatever the cost."

"Be not afraid", Pope John Paul II would repeatedly say. In regards to what I mentioned above, what would our church and what would our world be like today, had Karol Wojtyla not been elected pope in 1978? I don't believe I would be where I am now.

The First Black President - Barack Obama

Today on CNN people were saying Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream has been realized. I thought, this is a big step toward the dream but we still have a long way to go. This is a concrete step toward the dream. It would be a huge step if Barack was not so pro-abortion.

Barack made a name for himself when the senate voted on the partial birth abortion ban. Barack voted against the ban and had some choice words to say. At the time I thought he was just that evil, until he announced his candidacy for the presidential office. It was a very big stepping stone for him. A very big opportunity.

Did Barack win? Did we win?

Doubt

This is a good movie. It does not slam the Catholic Church. The acting is superb. Most movies rely on action or jokes to carry it along and if there happens to be good acting it's icing on the cake. The movie Doubt is great acting. Set in 1964, a year I remember well, at age 2 ... just the setting was worth seeing.

A very good friend of mine (I'll call him Tom) went to see the movie first. I went to see it so that he would have somebody to talk to about the movie. The movie does not definitively tell you one way or the other what actually happened. Tom and I both came to different conclusions. We even had different ideas of what the doubt was.

Go see the movie. Watch for all the symbols - the lights, the windows, the wind. It's terrific.

We Are at War

'The clergy have rationalized religion. They have destroyed its mystical basis. But they do not succeed in attracting modern men. In their half-empty churches they vainly preach a weak morality.' Alexis Carrel from his book Man the Unknown

And to paraphrase another quote I ran across at some time from a source I have forgotten but the statement is profound, pithy - 'we know more about things lesser than ourselves and less about things greater than ourselves'. Sounds like Einstein.

Thanks to modernity, the study of Moral Theology has become laughable. Virtues are for nitwits.

When I was younger I would have cringed at the idea of studying Moral Theology. Long story, short - I'm making up for lost ground. I was the nitwit when John Paul II said, "Be not afraid." I should say with God's grace, God's mercy, God's help, I'm finding real meaning in this simple but powerful statement. Did you know in Revelation 21:8 it lists cowards first for the second death. In Greek the most important are listed first. So cowards are listed before the unfaithful, the depraved and even murderers and more.

When is the last time you heard a homily or sermon on cowards or courage or perseverance? You are disqualified if you have listened to Father John Corapi recently.

Saint of the Day

St. Malachy (1094 - 1148) - wow I have a calendar that seems to have names of some very obscure saints. The other name for today is St. Macrina the elder (d. 340). I have a two volume set of books of names of saints that does not list either saint on this calendar. It does have a short quip for St. Macrina the younger who lived fro 330 - 379.

Gameshow - Who Wants to be a Saint. A wise old friend of mine years ago said it would be interesting if we had something that measured the amount of suffering a person had actually gone through. It would be a way of verifying how authenticate one's life story was.

I know the answer to this now. You may know the measure of one's suffering by the capacity one has to love, unless one's suffering leads one into despair.

Someone else had said that no situation (I plug in no one's life) is ever totally hopeless. There is always hope. I've held onto this (sometimes for dear life) and it has played out to be true in my life. I pray that it does so in others, like mine, especially those who need it most.

But back to the question - who wants to be a saint? Really.