I’m not going to add in my two-cents about Obamacare because the whole Catholic blogging community is abuzz and it should be pretty clear what my position is since I’m a practicing Catholic.
Romney 2012
Monthly Archives: June 2012
Obamacare
Categories: Miscellanea
Tags: 2012, Election, First Amendment, Obama, Obamacare, religious freedom, Romney, SCOTUS
The Boy Whose Skin Fell Off
Watch this video. It is very sad, but very inspiring. It is a video that really has gotten me thinking, especially about abortion.
It’s not just a disabled child that is being born, it is disabling an entire family.
At first glance it is difficult not to sympathize with this sentiment. It’s hard to look at Johnny’s extreme pain and suffering and not think that perhaps it would have been easier not only for him, but for those around him if he had not been born but been slaughtered in the womb. I mean just look at his wounds and sores, look how much pain in is his face from having his bandages changed. After 36 years the pain is just as intense, something he never got used to. Think of his brother and the brother relationship that he never had. Think of the money and the time that his mother had to spend on Johnny, the misery she went through watching him suffer. Certainly it is not difficult to see why someone would want to choose abortion.
Yet, the picture here is incomplete. We must consider a few things. First is that because Johnny was born, the lives of those around him changed for the better. Johnny helped people to be less selfish and more giving. He taught them about joy and how to be cheerful. His pain transformed others into more patient and loving people. He opened people’s hearts to a deeper reality, the reality of a soul that is much more than just a body racked with sores. In short, Johnny’s life served a great purpose, a purpose that may be greater than the lives of many normal people: he helped make others become better people. There is no doubt that his mother, his brother, and his friends would not be the same people that they are and they would be worse off for it if Johnny had been killed in the womb.
And though Johnny would have slipped into the abyss of God’s paradise had he been slaughtered innocently in the womb, he had the opportunity to become holier by being allowed to suffer pain on this earth. His greatest pain became his greatest blessing.
Now some may say that it is not our place to force a child to bear this sort of pain by allowing them to be born. But I counter that it is also not our place to deny a child the right to accept such suffering and to deny them the opportunity to grow in character and virtue. It is not our place nor our duty to eliminate suffering. It is only our duty to alleviate the suffering of those who suffer through our acts of kindness and humility.
It would have been wrong to abort Johnny in the womb and it is wrong to abort any other child who is disabled. It is not up to us to decide that their life is not worth living or is better off ending before they are allowed to suffer on this side of the womb. It is only up to us to get past the discomfort we feel when we see someone suffering and help them, not kill them.
Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.
Categories: Miscellanea
Tags: Abortion, Choice, disability, Johnny Kennedy, Life, prenatal screening, Pro
Tired
Who else is tired of hearing about this imaginary war on women?
Categories: America
Tags: Democrat, lies, war on women
So Close
I’m so close to having a car that was built in this century. If only the bank approves my application. Please, please, please!
Categories: Miscellanea
The Benefits of All Vocations
Someone once said that if you are a Catholic man not called to marriage, then you should be ordained a priest, that essentially if you aren’t popping out children in marriage you need to be popping out Sacraments in the Priesthood. I wish I could remember who told me this because in my opinion, it is a bunch of rubbish. This kind of thinking completely eliminates the value of ALL the vocations that the members of the Body of Christ can be called to. Furthermore, it is completely offensive to those of us who are not called to Priesthood and yet, still not called to marriage. It is as if to say that the actions and the prayers of a religious brother or a single man in his fifties are second-class to those who are married, that their time and efforts aren’t as valuable as they could be.
It is important to remember that marriage and the Priesthood are not the only vocations. It is also important to remember that only God truly knows what someone’s vocation is. No matter how well we think we know someone and how well we think we understand what each of the Church’s vocations are, we can’t really tell someone that they should do this or that vocation, and we certainly shouldn’t belittle other vocations simply because we cannot or refuse to see the intrinsic values of these vocations.
A vocation is not a choice, it is a calling.
Categories: Miscellanea
Tags: marriage, Priesthood, religious life, single life, vocation
I Kind of Knew
Though I didn’t really know about Catholicism at this point, but I kind of knew at this point that I would probably be Catholic some day.
Categories: Miscellanea
The Prayer of the Church Venerates the Heart of Jesus
The prayer of the Church venerates and honors the Sacred Heart of Jesus. This occurs in two ways. The first is that in a general way, the movements of the Spirit within the Church causes her members to venerate the Heart of Jesus in a spiritual capacity. In litanies, feast days, consecration, and other acts, we give worship to the Sacred Heart. This is what the Catechism means when it says that the prayer of the Church venerates and honors the Sacred Heart of Jesus (CCC 2669).
In another sense, a more “real” sense, the prayer of the Church is the Holy Mass and in the Holy Mass the Church venerates the Heart of Christ. The speaks to the fact the Eucharist contains the Heart of Jesus because it is the Eucharist which the Church venerates and adores in the Holy Mass. By venerating and worshiping the Eucharist we are really venerating and worshiping the Heart of Christ. In every celebration, then, of the Mass, the entirety of Christ’s love, which is contained in his Heart, becomes present where bread and wine used to be. This one simple realization opens infinite dimensions to our own hearts in the Mass. Every facet of God’s love is present and able to be contemplated in the Mass. It is overwhelming to realize the intensity that persists in each Mass and in each moment in front of the tabernacle and the monstrance.
But it is not just Christ’s love that is present, but it is every single characteristic of the Godhead that is present in the Sacred Heart as the Litany to the Sacred Heart professes. The Godhead finds its fullness in the Heart of Jesus. The Father and the Holy Spirit are present with the Son in his Heart. God’s love. God’s Justice. God’s Wrath. God’s Peace. God’s Creativity. God’s Majesty. God’s Thoughts. God’s Wisdom. All of it. Present in the Eucharist.
As we are sent from the Mass, the effects of the Eucharist are intended to revitalize every part of our prayer. The Heart of Jesus becomes infused in our prayers. Every prayer we pray by thought, word, or deed venerates the Heart of Jesus and seeks to adore and bask in the entirety of God’s being.
There is no prayer which does not originate then from the Heart of Jesus. And there is no prayer which does not return to the Heart of Jesus.
Categories: Miscellanea
Tags: Adoration, Eucharist, Jesus, Mass, Prayer, Sacred Heart
Whatever Happened, Happened
As I begin discerning my vocation again, I just have this impending fear of the priesthood. A fear that springs from my rejection from the seminary last summer. I am afraid that maybe God wasn’t telling me that I shouldn’t be a priest, but that I wasn’t supposed to be a priest then. So I’m afraid of going through all of that again, of starting over with the priesthood, and eventually applying to the seminary again.
But I’m being stupid.
One of the things that Fr. Wilhelm told me during spiritual direction about discernment is that I need to discern a vocation until I come to the end. That came last summer. I spent two years discerning the priesthood and the end came last summer. I discerned to the doors of the seminary and I was locked out. Whatever happened, happened. I need to accept that. I joyfully accept that. I’m glad I’m not called to be a priest.
I need to be able to walk confidently into discernment knowing that the priesthood is off the table, and begin to focus on the three remaining possibilities.
Categories: Miscellanea
Tags: discernment, marriage, Priesthood, religious life, single life, vocation
King Henry VIII, the HHS Mandate, and the Catholic Church
Here is a repost from one of my favorite blogs, Canterbury Tales:
Here in America, there is a growing awareness that our government at the federal level is seeking to dislodge the last remnants the Catholic Church’s influence by means of federal regulation of medical care. Most recently the Health and Human Services (HHS) controversy has revealed that the government is hitting the American bishops where it hurts most: the moral issues of contraception and abortion.
The HHS controversy is frequently hailed as a “religious liberty” crisis, but it’s more profound than that. The Obama administration knows that American Catholics by and large do not submit to the Catholic teaching regarding contraception. This is the weak underbelly of American Catholicism and the powers at large have honed in on this sad reality.
This is not the first time that the government has exploited sexual sins to foster confusion, anger, heresy, and worst of all, schism. King Henry VIII of England also attempted to break the influence of the Catholic Church in his nation. Like the current administration, Henry VIII began by restricting the activity of the clergy. First, Henry VIII pressed the bishops into a compromise, next he made it illegal for tithes and ecclesiastical judgments to leave England – for example annulments and controversies over succession and wills could not be referred to Rome any longer. While not officially creating a schism at this point, Henry VIII practically separated the bishops of England from Rome.
The next step was for Henry VIII to request the title “Protector and Supreme Head of the English Church.” Although compromised, the bishops rightly refused and Bishop Saint John Fisher led the charge. Then Henry VIII asked for the title, ”Protector and Supreme Head of the English Church - quantum per legem Dei licet - so far as the law of God permits.” The “so far as the law of God permits” addition alleviated the consciences of the bishops. The bullied bishops submitted in 1531 and against the wishes of the Pope granted the title to Henry VIII. The clarification ”so far as the law of God permits” was, of course, quickly forgotten.
Four years later all the bishops except for Saint John Fisher capitulated. Saint John Fisher and Saint Thomas More’s heads were on pikes over the the river. Mother Church lost England…
What can we learn? Civil persecution starts slow and subtle. It’s built on small, tiny compromises. The bishops in the time of King Henry VIII were neither malicious nor fools. Almost all to a man had studied at either Cambridge or Oxford. The Chancellor was a genius, revered diplomat, and a saint. England at this time was renowned throughout Europe for its devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Pilgrimages, daily Mass attendance, church buildings were at a high, according to historians.
What happened? The king wanted something and he would stop at nothing. He worked slowly and perseveringly. Henry VIII did not attack the Church outright. He waited year after year.
This HHS controversy in America is not really about religious liberty. They want us to think that. The HHS mandate is the beginning of many subtle attacks against the Catholic Church in America. The HHS mandate is designed to remove the Catholic Church from the public realm of medicine (and hence medical ethics) and eventually divide the Church over “reproductive rights” or “contraception.”
Something similar may likely happen in the realm of education in the coming years – perhaps a mandate that Catholic schools must submit to a “lifestyle diversity agreement” in order to retain their accreditation and ability to receive government loans. Catholic colleges are another huge weak spot in the landscape of Catholic America. You can be sure that the devil has plans there, too.
What do we do about it? We must be humble about everything. “God resists the proud” (Jas 4:6). God resists the proud even when they are magisterial Catholics who attend daily Mass and tithe. Pride comes before the fall. If we our proud, God will resist us even when we are right.
We must pray for our bishops. They are already uniting against the threat. They need prayers. We have no idea as to the difficulty and stress they are under. We cannot complain or judge. Again, we must be like their humble children. We can piously aid them and pray for them. That is what Christ expects from us.
We pray the Rosary daily. Most of all, we try to attend the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Saint John Vianney once said, “All good works taken together cannot equal the value of one Holy Mass, because they are the works of men, but the Mass is the work of God.”
Saint John Fisher, the nemesis of King Henry VIII, once shared with a Carthusian that he wished that he had not spent so much time writing theological works defending the Catholic Church, but had instead used that time for prayer. “Prayer would have done more good and was of more merit.”
As lay people, our ingenuity won’t accomplish much. Instead, humble prayers will break the snares of the devil.
Saint John Fisher and all holy martyrs, pray for us.
-Written by Taylor Marshall-
Categories: America
Tags: Abortion, Anglicanism, birth control, Church History, contraception, Henry VIII, Saint John Fisher
Getting Back on That Train
After a rough summer last year I kind of got off the vocational discernment train. No, I leaped off and then rolled down into a ravine full of thickets. I got out of found my way into a land full of…well…bad drivers.
I figure that maybe its time to get back on the train and figure out if I’m called to marriage, the religious life, the single life, or…so help me God if you lead me this way again…the priesthood. Wait, does “so help me God” make sense if you’re talking to God? Hmmm, I guess I’m not sure.
Anyway, its kind of scary. No, its really scary. After the dramatic events of last summer unfolded I kind of failed the test and rather than trusting in God I’ve actually held onto control of my life pretty tightly. I want to do what I want, go where I want, say what I want, work where I want, watch the tv that I want, and well, you get the picture. But deep down I know that that’s not necessarily what God wants. In fact it is probably not anything like what God wants.
But right now I have a specific plan for my life. I want to get a job in wildlife ecology or be in school for a Masters in wildlife ecology by the fall of 2013. This is my plan since last summer’s plan fell through. But something tells that some of this will be messed up if I start discerning my vocation again. I just need your prayers right now as I once again attempt to board the scary train.
Categories: Miscellanea
Tags: discernment, vocation
Saint Paul
ORA PRO NOBIS
Saint Kateri
ORA PRO NOBIS
Blessed Pier Giorgio
ORA PRO NOBIS
