Heh. This is another reason, in addition to the post below, why I am a political 
atheist. (H/T Mark Shea)
All that Power that you didn’t like when someone else had it, you decided to keep it. Oh my God you are Frodo. Jon Stewart, The Daily Show.
I can’t embed this one. Here is the link: respect-my-authoritah
While I believe that our faith should inform our political choices, politics should not 
inform our faith. In the increasingly divided country that we live in, Christians are too often influenced by the tribal party that they identify with instead of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Consequently people who are Pro Life defend politicians and parties that are decidedly pro abortion. Other people who are, also, Pro life, play mental Twister to defend politicians who advocate torture.
Yes the Church does encourage us to vote. Sometimes the only choice is none of the above.
When Bush was President I could not believe the hatred that spewed from the mouths and keyboards of some Christians. And I can’t believe the vitriol that is directed against President Obama.
I take issues with both Presidents. Both Presidents are part of the fallen human race. President Bush tried to do what he believed was right. President Obama is acting on what he thinks is right. Neither is anymore evil than the rest of us.
Just like the rest of us, they are in need of God’s mercy and forgiveness. We should pray for our President and our leaders even when we disagree with their decisions.
All Christians are called to the vocation of love. But the diversity that we enjoy as citizens of this country has a dark side. It is dividing people into enemy camps. Us vs. them. Too many Christian blogs are venues for people to vent feelings of anger and hatred.
In the extreme we find this disgusting load of rubbish:
Jimmy Akin, apologist extraordinaire, takes video kooks argument apart:
I don’t know who is behind the video, but whoever it is clearly has only the most rudimentary understanding of the things he’s talking about, and he makes mistakes left and right. (Put another way: He’s totally out of his depth.)
Read the rest here
This is what happens when we put our trust in worldly princes, and political parties, instead of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
For the past forty years, Catholics have endured Barney theology. Catechesis that ignores the rich Tradition of the Fathers, of the centuries. Catechesis that fails to go any further than “Jesus loves you”. We condescend to our young people and deny them a real education in the faith, and then we wonder why more people are not on fire for the faith.
Several years ago Dr. John Cavadini, Professor of Theology at Notre Dame, lamented the fact that most students, even those who attended Catholic High schools, arrive at Notre Dame ignorant of their faith. They don’t even know the basics.
Perhaps the religious illiteracy of so many
otherwise well-educated young Catholics is too
familiar to bear mentioning again. One has
come to expect that even at elite Catholic colleges
and universities, entering students will not
know what is meant by the “Immaculate Conception”
– hardly anyone knows that anymore.
No surprise, either, when students do not know
the proper number of natures and person in
Christ, Mary, and the Trinity – what’s an extra
nature or two here or there? Besides, who’s
counting? It’s not a chemical formula and it
doesn’t take rocket science to believe God
loves me anyway. As for ignorance of more
technical terms, for example, confusing homoousios
with a Near Eastern dish made of chickpeas
(a good guess), or conflating the temperature
at which paper burns with the date of a
church council, who can worry? Still, when
more than a third of the students have to guess
how many Gospels are in the Bible, or think
that the phrase “original sin” refers to sex; when
more than half have no idea what is meant by
“Incarnation” unless it has the prefix re-; when
only ten out of a class of fifty know what
“Exodus” refers to, or what is meant by the
phrase “Real Presence,” and only a slightly
higher percentage can give a credible definition
of “sacrament”; when one student can convince
a large group of classmates that “Catholic Social
Teaching” refers to restrictions on same sex
marriage – we can perhaps bear to mention
the problem of religious ignorance yet again.
Read the whole article here.
I had hoped that things had improved since that article was written. But Fr. Barron doesn’t seem to think so.
It is important to continually study our faith, so that we can grow in understanding of the great mysteries. This book is a good place to start:
But please stay away from the “Catholicism for Idiots” it will leave you ignorant.
I will be posting more later today, but I am getting off to a slow start today. Here is a funny post from the Curt Jester:
I think there must be a new Olympic event that many Catholic parishes are preparing for. It seems that no matter what parish I go to I observe what must be some form of training. This form of training occurs after Communion. What I refer to is Synchronized Sitting.
Read the whole thing here.
If you are not Catholic, and you are puzzled by why we stand, kneel, and sit throughout our Mass watch this video:
I have this posted over my desk :
Be kind for everyone you meet is fighting a 
great battle.
The quote is sometimes attributed to Plato, but I can’t verify it. But I think that it is profound. It reminds me to try and see Christ in everyone that I meet even when they are not behaving in a Christian manner.
I pray that God will increase my heart every day. This man has heart and then some:
In those bleak moments when the lost souls stood atop the cliff, wondering whether to jump, the sound of the wind and the waves was broken by a soft voice. “Why don’t you come and have a cup of tea?” the stranger would ask. And when they turned to him, his smile was often their salvation.
For almost 50 years, Don Ritchie has lived across the street from Australia’s most notorious suicide spot, a rocky cliff at the entrance to Sydney Harbour called the Gap. And in that time, the man widely regarded as a guardian angel has shepherded countless people away from the edge. Read more here.
It never ceases to amaze me how the simple gestures–simply reaching out to a person–can have a huge impact. Too often we do not reach out to a troubled person out of fear. Fear of rejection. Fear of intruding.
I don’t know if Don Ritchie is a man of faith. But he is a man of heroic virtue.
Bikini or Head Scarf? How about old fashioned Modesty?
I just discovered that CNN has a religion blog (H/T Get Religion ) It has some thought provoking articles. Great. Just what I need; another rabbit hole for me to get lost in.
Krista Bremer writes for (shudder) oprah.com. Yes hell is freezing over yet again. 
Krista is a Christian married to a Muslim and they have a nine year old daughter. Krista and her husband are letting their daughter decide to choose whose religion and/or culture to embrace:
“We named her Aliya, which means “exalted” in Arabic, and agreed we would raise her to choose what she identified with most from our dramatically different backgrounds.
I secretly felt smug about this agreement — confident that she would favor my comfortable American lifestyle over his modest Muslim upbringing.”
Well Aiya, it seems, is identifying with the faith of her father. She wants to wear the headscarf. Mom is having a hard time. But Mom is learning that, perhaps, modesty is more freeing for women than the less is best fashion mentality of today. Read the full article here.
FYI: There are days that I wish that I could cover up in the burqa. Oh vanity, vanity. Yup that’s me. Even at my age. At least I am in good company. Teresa of Avila was likewise afflicted, and she is a Saint.
Although I found the article interesting, I think that it makes a false choice. Bikini or headscarf. Really? We can only choose from extremes. How about just dressing modestly. Snark alert: how about dressing period!
What does it mean to dress modestly?
The Church holds a deep respect for the uniqueness of each person. The Church also teaches that modesty is a fruit of the Holy Spirit and that “Teaching modesty to children and adolescents means awakening in them respect for the human person (Catechism of the Catholic Church #25234).
The Catechism of the Catholic Church further defines modesty as:
Modesty protects the intimate center of the person. It means refusing to unveil what should remain hidden. It is ordered to chastity to whose sensitivity it bears witness. It guides how one looks at others and behaves toward them in conformity with the dignity of persons and their solidarity. (2521)
Modesty protects the mystery of persons and their love. It encourages patience and moderation in loving relationships; it requires that the conditions for the definitive giving and commitment of man and woman to one another be fulfilled. Modesty is decency. It inspires one’s choice of clothing. It keeps silence or reserve where there is evident risk of unhealthy curiosity. It is discreet. (2522).
It seems that the concept of modesty has long been forgotten. I am continually shocked at how parents let their daughters dress. Very little is left to the imagination. Very little is left of their dignity.
Back when I was a Director for Religious Education at another parish, I issued a dress code for confirmation. I learned that this was necessary after my first year. A girl lectured at confirmation wearing a low cut blouse and a skirt that was a belt. It was not a pretty sight.
Well you would have thought ,when I established a dress code, that I was invoking sharia law. A parent actually shouted out: why don’t you have them wear burqas?
I was speechless. Yup me speechless.
The lack of modesty in our culture really has concerned me. Believe it or not, Europeans do not dress quite as scantily as Americans.
The manner of dress, or lack thereof, is particularly revealing at mass. Many people, male and female, dress as if they were going to the beach.
I often ask, how would you dress to meet the President? The Queen of England? We go to Mass to meet and receive the King of Kings. So how should you dress?
So. What do you think? What is modesty? How should you dress? Discussion please. Just observe the rules.
Update: It is worse than I thought.
Immodesty is a crisis in our culture today. I issued a dress code for Vacation Bible School for adults and children!
The above comment was left on the rules page. Scary isn’t it? What do you think? Please leave comments on this post (see below)
Pope Benedict has approved nine beatifications–the step before canonization to sainthood. It is awesome that four are lay people!
One of them, Manuel Lorenzo Garrido (Lolo) was a journalist. He was severely disabled, but he was unstoppable. Here is a video about him:
Our daughter, who lives in Ireland with her family, called me yesterday. The
Deacon Dad, Daughter her husband and baby ella
economy is very bad in Ireland. She is a stay at home Mom, and her husband has his own business (electrical and mechanical engineering design). He went in to business before the bubble burst.
She is worried. I feel so helpless. I wish that we had the means to help her, but God has never trusted me with money.
It is so hard to be the parent of adult children. I have never gotten the hang of it. My eldest turns 37 this year, so I guess that I am a slow learner. Perhaps it is because of the distance involved. Both of my children live across the pond; my son and his family live in Scotland.
I don’t want to be a helicopter mom. But I don’t want to go to the other extreme either. I have not found the right balance. I don’t want to be too distant. But I fear that I come off that way.
So what does this have to do with “all things Catholic”? Well my daughter mentioned that they might consider taking a job outside of the country, in the Middle East. I wanted to say don’t. Much of the Middle East is not women friendly at least not by western standards. But that is not the reason. My daughter comes from a long line of strong assertive women. Heck It takes loving but very strong men to handle us. So I know that she can handle anything short of harm coming to her children.
I wanted to say, beautiful daughter, cast down your bucket where you are. It is part of my Theology of Staying. Work it out, if you can, where you are. Cast down your bucket. Perhaps there is a solution.
But I didn’t say anything really. Deacon and I really don’t have any credibility. As my daughter once said,
“I grew up and my parents left home”.
She is right. The kids were in college and things were getting rough in Ireland. My husband, after working for sixteen years in the US, never really adjusted to returning home. Thomas Wolfe was right, you can’t go home.
My children were in college, and they had already met their true loves. So back we came to the United States. We certainly didn’t cast down our buckets. I know the allure of an imagined bright future somewhere else.
My daughter is living in a place where her husband has roots. He was born and raised near where they are living. His parents are only five minutes away. She has lived there since she was 14. That is a record for our family!
Talk about a white picket fence! The one thing that has made living so far away from my children bearable is that they are both happily married to wonderful people. They both have been loved and embraced by their spouses’ family. I know that they have the support that my husband and I can’t give them. I know that my grandchildren have grandparents that are part of their lives. It is such a comfort to know that.
Okay. I admit it. It sometimes makes me feel just a wee bit jealous. I never said that I was a saint. They won’t be erecting any statues with my name on it.
Anyway, I pray that they can find a way to cast down their bucket where they are. But God may have different plans. The Father does know best.
Our Bishop, Bishop Pates has strong words ,in his pastoral letter on adolescent catechesis, on the importance of participating in the Sunday Eucharist:
Archbishop Timothy Dolan of the Archdiocese of New York in a recent letter commented, “If you want your faith to wither up and die, quit going to Sunday Mass. As the body will die without food, the soul will expire without nourishment. That sustenance comes at the Sunday Eucharist.” The Sunday celebration of the Eucharist ought to be something that feeds our entire week. From it we should draw strength, communion, and sustenance. Celebrating the Sabbath around the table of the Lord affords us all the opportunity to know again the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharistic feast, in the Word of God proclaimed, in the worshipping community and through the presider.
But too often we take the Eucharist for granted. We treat Church like a social club instead of where we encounter God and receive the grace to do the hard work of being a disciple.
Monsignor Pope on the Diocese of Washington D.C blog, has a video from Igniter Media Group. The video asks Is the Church a Cruise Ship or a Battle ship? Now the Church is often called the Barque (boat) of Peter. But a Cruise ship or a Battle ship? This video is from the perspective of our separated Protestant fellow travelers, but it gives us something to chew on.
A Deacon's Wife 