Hello all, sorry I haven’t posted in a while, been kinda busy here at the seminary.

In the Obamessiah’s victory speech he promised his daughters a puppy. Apparently Mrs. Obamessiah has said that she would like to get rescued puppies. Fox news reports,

In his election victory speech Tuesday night, President-elect Barack Obama promised his two daughters that they’d be moving into the White House with a new puppy. Now the dogosphere is engaged in widespread speculation over the breed of the presidential pooch-to-be.

Or pooches-to-be. The American Kennel Club hopes that the pet will turn out to be a pair of 6-week-old toy poodles, rescued by Flora’s Pet Project/Poodle Rescue in Connecticut. First lady-to-be Michelle Obama said in an interview last month that the family was interested in adopting a rescue dog after the election.

For the rest check out FoxNews here: http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/11/06/presidential-pooch/

I know that I will be able to sleep at night knowing that in this new reign we won’t have to worry about the homeless poodles… Wait a minute there is still something wrong about this isn’t there? What about all the unborn that are slaughtered every day? Are we really putting white balls of fur with four legs ahead of our own species?

Attended Mass at St. Joseph’s of Nashville (Tennessee, USA) yesterday morning, and was interested in a letter Father Joseph read to the community at the end of Mass, straight from the Bishop.

An “ecumenical catholic church” has started in the Nashville area (apparently a few of them have) and the Bishop put out this letter to clarify for the faithful that they cannot receive valid sacraments at these churches.

Here’s an article from The Tennesseean about it.

And here’s the piece de resistance from the Bishop’s letter (just scroll down past the first story):

These groups are misleading people into thinking that they are Catholic and that they offer valid sacraments. Neither claim is true. They could call themselves a cantaloupe but the claim would not make them such.

Methinks the Bishop’s lunch included cantaloupe the day he wrote this letter.

Father Pfelger, pastor of something called “Faith Community of St. Sabina” spoke recently at Trinity UCOC – better known as the church Barack Obama has attended for 20 years (but never when Rev. Wright said something controversial.) Pfelger, to put it simply, has several big problems with his priesthood. First of all, he’s ridiculously pro-abortion by virtue of his support of Obama. Further, he called for the murder of a gun shop owner. Third he is apparently a racist, based on his statement on the home page of “St. Sabina Faith Community” that “St. Sabina is a Word-based, Bible teaching African-American Catholic Church…” Fourth, he is apparently anti-semitic based on his statement in support of Farrakhan. And of course the list goes on. Suffice to say, he comes of sounding downright nutty, and not at all like a Catholic priest. Cardinal George ought to do something about this. But I bet he won’t.

By the way, apparently “Faith Community” means something similar to “church.” And apparently, it’s okay to advertise the race of your local parish. I’m going to go over to SMCRome.org right now and change it to say that we are a White European and Hispanic Catholic Parish. Watch how fast Father Jim would be on the phone calling me and telling me to change it!

Thank you everyone that has been praying for me. I will continue to pray for you all throughout my process. Also as Chris said, I will be in Honduras and I will try to send out a weekly newsletter to all of my family and friends, I will post it here as well.

Here is the link to Mission Honduras International.

I went to Confession Saturday evening.  We were over in Cleveland, GA, attending the La Leche League of Georgia Area Conference (Unicoi State Park, Helen, GA) and went to Mass at St. Paul’s.  We had the time, so we decided to go to Confession also.

The Pastor, Fr. Vincent, is a fascinating guy to listen to because he is Zimbabwean and has an interesting British accent.

Anyway, when I told him it was 5 months since my last Confession, he told me I should come once a month, and that the Pope comes weekly.  He said, “this is a sacrament you should come to because of greed, because of selfishness.  Because you see, this sacrament allows you to get rid of the stuff that keeps you from being the person God created you to be – so it is out of a thirst to be the person God created you to be that you should come to Confession often.”

Amazing what you’ll find on Facebook. An old acquaintance of mine who happens to be a “friend” on Facebook posted a rather lengthy manifesto after her experience at the Passion Conference this past weekend. For the uninitiated, the Passion Conference has been going on for some years now, led by Louie Giglio (whom I am told is quite a speaker in the church growth movement) which features a lot of rock-type “praise” music, powerful preaching, and so on. Never been to one, but this is the impression I get from folks who have been there. My boss says the music is all 7-11 songs. The same seven lines, sung eleven times. Anyway, here’s what she wrote:

This weekend was Passion Regionals in Atlanta and I had the opportunity to volunteer. It was an amazing weekend of renewal mixed with personal challenge. Speakers included Louie Giglio and Francis Chan and worship leaders Chris Tomlin, Charlie Hall and David Crowder. God was certainly glorified!

So today I started reading Francis’s new book, Crazy Love, which I picked up at the conference. I’ve only read the first chapter, and already I’m starting to remember the untruths I believed about God, Christians and the Church when I was growing up. I’m not blaming my church; without them I wouldn’t have necessarily experienced the fundamentals that I now take for granted (I’m learning that over and over, and repenting for it!). Don’t get me wrong; my parents never taught me these things overtly, nor did the church. However, here are the top 5 myths about God, Christians and the Church that I came up with:

1. God is big and powerful, and he lives up in Heaven, but is somewhat disconnected from us.

2. To be a Christian, there are all kinds of rules to follow, most of which involve a long list of things not to do.

3. Church is where Christians go on Sunday and if you don’t go, you’d better be hospitalized or gravely ill.

4. Don’t hang around people who don’t go to church because they will be a bad influence on you.

5. Worship = Hymns (verses 1, 2 and 4) or Latin Songs that nobody understands.

Now this may all seem absurd to some of you, but how many of us are still living as if these “myths” are reality? For example, how many of us have meaningful relationships with people who aren’t believers? Or how many feel that God takes attendance at church every Sunday and if you’re not there, you’ll be punished? And I’d venture to say that lots of believers say that they have a relationship with God, but still feel at times, really disconnected from Him.

I’m confessing now with a repentant heart that I do not believe these lies anymore. God is very near to my heart now, and having a relationship with Him isn’t about what NOT to do, but rather how to ENJOY His love and all He can do through me. I missed church today, but still had fellowship with Him and other believers. I am intentional in developing relationships with those who don’t yet know the love of Christ. And I know worship can involve singing, clapping, jumping (as demonstrated by the students at Passion!), or…watch out now…raising your hands! Who would have known?!

Ok, now for the record, she and I are on exactly the same page with regard to having friends of different beliefs. I have lots of non-Catholic friends and family members and try to be a good representation of the Faith without ramming the Truth down their throats (and the last part of that statement was written with tongue planted firmly in cheek.) Taking her “lies” on a one-by-one basis:

1. She’s right – we shouldn’t consider God to be “disconnected” from us. But, by the same token, too many folks take the “accepted Jesus Christ into your heart as your personal Lord and Savior” thing too far, to the exclusion of all else – like what you DO as a result of that relationship, for example. I have a co-worker who, whenever I speak of anything liturgical with Methodist of Presbyterian co-workers, says “I just love Jesus.” Something there about babies who aren’t ready for solid food. Of course there’s more to it than just loving Jesus – there’s work you do following him, the sacraments, and so on. Sanctification. Shouldn’t place so much focus on the “personal relationship” that we forget about serving Him.

2. This is like #1 – if you’re so wrapped up in the personal relationship aspect of the faith, you miss out on the fact that you are supposed to “do” and “not do” certain things. No, the rule book is not the primary focus of the faith, but it is there, and it’s there for a reason. Sanctification. Of course, coming from a sola fide mindset it’s hard to consider that one might have to do anything at all (except believe, which is a work itself, and I’ve gotten into the convoluted thought processes behind this in previous posts. I’ll spare you now.)

3. Well, Jesus is there at Church. He asks an hour a week. He wants to be physically present to us and in us. He gave us the Eucharist. If you miss that, then obviously, going to church on Sunday would be a matter of personal preference. If you’re just going to hear someone preach, you can do that equally well on the sofa at home or at a rock concert masquerading as a worship service.

4. Personally, I think it’s a good rule for teenagers to follow, not to hang out with people of a different value system, as they will be a bad influence on you. Teenagers of course think that they have it all figured out (though for some reason I never really had that feeling as a teenager, I have known enough to know that most do) and that they can avoid negative influences. Or, they excuse it with “I am sharing the gospel with them so I should spend time with them.” Simple fact is, to a teenager, the things that teens of a different value system tend to do are a heck of a lot more fun that the things that a solid Christian teenager tends to do. And, being exposed to such stuff as a teenager can result in developing a greater sense of moral relativism and “tolerance” (2007 definition, not the dictionary definition) which will make the liberals very happy but which results in someone ultimately drifting away from their faith because, hey, what’s the point?

5. In college I went through a period of thinking that rock music could be a legitimate part of a church service. Then what I realized was that the rock music was creating an emotional high that felt good but had no real depth or impact on my faith. Now I have gone back the other way…I have seen how Life Teen music done in the most flamboyant of ways waters down the awesomeness of what happens at Mass (and thankfully, many teen and college types are seeing the same thing,) and essentially, rock music at Mass insults the intelligence and spiritual depth of the communicants, because it says “you need to be attracted by this music because nothing else that’s going on here would interest you.” All that said, I still to this day think that “praise choruses” have a legitimate place in worship services/concerts which are separate from Mass or any other formal church service for that matter. As for Latin songs that no one understands, it’s very easy to find out what the Latin means if you’ll go to the trouble. Latin’s part of the universality of the Church which has been rejected for 500 years by Protestants.

Standing for the processional hymn this morning, for the 6th year in a row, we sang “Jesus Christ is Risen Today.”  Once again, I thought to myself about the many years of singing “Christ the Lord is Risen Today” in the Baptist church, and how these lyrics still seemed weird to me, though I love the music (though the parish I attended this morning is utterly stuck in funeral dirge mode…we wouldn’t want an up-tempo, joyous (but reverent) hymn on the most important day on the calendar, now would we?  Seriously – the mass would have been 15 minutes shorter if the hymns had been sung at a comfortable tempo.  We’re talking painfully slow.  Sort of like this painfully long parenthetical.)

Anyway, as I was singing from the Gather hymnal, I figured this was one of the many hymns butchered by the Oregon Catholic Press for being “too Catholic” or “too gender specific.”  I’ve come to be greatly annoyed with some of the hymns in Gather, due to sometimes arbitrary butchering of hymns.  Many are “gender neutralized.”  Others just have weird changed in them.  “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross” comes to mind – I am used to “were the whole realm of nature mine, that were a ransom far too small, love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life my all.”  Gather has us sing “were every realm of nature mine, my gift would still be far too small…”

And in my home parish, about half the folks know one set of words and sing them by habit…and the other half sings what’s printed on the page.  It can be messy.

So anyway, I figured this was just another situation where OCP decided to edit the hymns to make them more cosmopolitan.

Good news is, I was wrong.  Catholics have been singing “Jesus Christ is risen today” for 700 years in Latin, and for 300 years (300 years this year in fact) in English.  “Christ the Lord is Risen Today” has only been around since 1739, originating the John Wesley’s hymn book. Interestingly, at least one website I found lists the 3 original verses of “Jesus Christ is Risen Today” as the last 3 verses of “Christ the Lord is Risen Today.”

So, I learned something new today – that Gather can do some things right…and learned more about the authenticity of the Catholic heritage.

For those of you who’ve never seen “Christ The Lord Is Risen Today,” check out the link.  You can read over the words.  I like many of them myself.

Wonder if they had to insert apostrophes into the original Latin texts in order to fit syllables to the music?  After all, we have to sing “risen” as a single syllable in order for it to fit.  “ris’n.”  Wonder if every time a hymn writer does that, God kills an English teacher?

“Jesus Christ is Risen Today”

“Christ the Lord is Risen Today”

(important to note that at least in the USA we use the “Easter Hymn” melody for both versions.)

This past weekend I had the awesome experience of going to Mount Saint Mary’s Seminary. A youth minister that I know said that she had some extra money in her budget to bring me along for their annual retreat, Mount 2000. This year’s theme was Seeking the Face of Christ. Now this is a retreat aimed at young adults, but mostly high-schoolers attended. It was not as much of a discernment retreat as I had thought it would be, rather just your typical youth conference. However, my spiritual director, an alumnus, had contacted one of our Archdiocese brothers to show me around. All I can say is that I have never felt more called to be somewhere. The men there made me feel so welcome. They were all like me, granted most of them were a good bit older. I felt that the Lord is really calling me into this more and more. One guy told me that the only bad thing he thought is if you come in with an attitude of conservatism and like to do things the RIGHT way that the Mount wouldn’t really break you of that. Now I don’t at all see how that could be a bad thing. Our seminaries SHOULD rule out any mediocrity and “Spirit of Vatican II” liberalness.

The retreat itself was great except for the music. Now I understand–as was the case when I was only a few years younger– that when having high-schoolers the praise and worship music is a must to grab their attention (unfortunately). I just think that at a seminary they should really be able to differentiate for the youth that Mass is not a concert, but rather the most solemn and prayerful experience that we have. Of course though, the guy that they hired for the music was more of a “lets clap during the Gospel acclamation and the Kyrie and the Lamb of God Kind of guy.” Now when the National Catholic Youth Conference was held here in Atlanta, I thought that it was done very well. There were times for the Praise and worship Concerts, but when it came time for the Mass, it was toned down. They certainly didn’t rewrite the Kyrie as this guy did. As I said though, aside from that it was great. They had nocturnal Adoration; and before they presented the Blessed Sacrament they had a forty-five minute Eucharistic Procession. This was a phenomenal experience. It was just such an awesome feeling to have Jesus right in front of you and moving through the crowds as if He would do when He was on earth teaching. Also we had Mass every day, and Confessions were heard throughout the duration of the retreat. They said that over six thousand confessions were heard.

Now I won’t be there for another three years, I have to finish out my undergrad, but I really do look forward to being there.

In the small alcove on the right side of our church, where the prayer candles are, we have some of the precious little statuary in the whole place.  We have one of Our Lady of Guadalupe hanging on the wall above the candles, and to the left of the candles we have a freestanding statue of Joseph holding the child Jesus.  Jesus is holding a small cross.

Following Mass this past Sunday, I went to speak to one of the acolytes for a few minutes.  My wife and daughter lit a candle, as has become our custom, because my daughter wants to pray for her soon-to-be-born baby sister.  After lighting the candle and kneeling for prayer, my daughter and my wife were talking a bit about the statuary, and rather out of the blue, my daughter said, “The statue of Joseph and Jesus is a nice statue.  May I kiss the cross?”

Good Friday comes early?  She’s never seen anyone kiss the cross before, at all.  She’s never been to Good Friday services, and even if she had, she wouldn’t remember.  Where, then, does something like this come from?  I’m not complaining, don’t get me wrong.

Y’know how only a third of Catholics believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist?

Well, apparently this factoid is based on faulty survey techniques…and Jimmy Akin explains it, along with a new survey revealing that some 81% of Catholics believe in the Real Presence!