Oh... now it is getting good...

The secularists and atheists are now not just protesting but attacking World Youth day! "Blessed are you when they persecute you, and utter every kind of curse against you." Let the world battle with the Catholic Faith... it has already lost...

This weekend some protested the Pope , and the pilgrims who came to pray with him, for things that make no sense. But in spite of it all, an army of youth, dedicated and dedicating their lives to Christ has now been sent forth.

HOLY TOLEDO?!?!?!

Michael Voris, over at RealCatholicTV.com has been covering the World Youth Day celebrations in Spain. In the run-up to the Sunday Mass with the Pope, however, he has been doing some reporting on life and culture of the Catholic Church in Spain. I found this report about receiving the Holy Eucharist on the hands particularly interesting:

To be sure, this practice has been allowed for by the Vatican in the document Memoriale Domini. Of particular note, is that the Congregation makes quite clear that: "However, the Church's prescriptions and the evidence of the Fathers make it abundantly clear that the greatest reverence was shown the Blessed Sacrament, and that people acted with the greatest prudence." Given the crisis in faith in the Holy Eucharist today for many people, one wonders whether this might not be of concern again today in 2011. In general, there has been a desacralization of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, as one need only look at the attire that has changed and become the norm over the last 50 years. What was once shirt and tie for men has become shorts and a t-shirt/tank top many times.

Again, to be absolutely fair, in this document which is the basis for the Church allowing for Communion on the hands, the Congregation for Divine Worship also noted historically that:

Later, with a deepening understanding of the truth of the eucharistic mystery, of its power and of the presence of Christ in it, there came a greater feeling of reverence towards this sacrament and a deeper humility was felt to be demanded when receiving it. Thus the custom was established of the minister placing a particle of consecrated bread on the tongue of the communicant.

This method of distributing holy communion must be retained, taking the present situation of the Church in the entire world into account, not merely because it has many centuries of-tradition behind it, but especially because it expresses the faithful's reverence for the Eucharist.

Looking around today, one rarely sees people maintaining this practice, however. It is unfortunate, i think, because nature itself demonstrates the beauty of being fed by one's mother. Consider the little baby birds, before they can fly they merely open their mouth for their mother who has flown the heights and depths of the sky and has wisdom to share merely open their mouth to receive what is being offered to them so that they too can one day fly.

Fr. Z over at the blog called "What does the Prayer really say?" had an interesting article about his take on the allowance for Reception of Holy Communion on the tongue. To sum it up: he is against it. It is important to note that Communion on the hand is not an absolute right, and in fact, as the article Fr. Z is commenting on points out in the document Redemptionis Sacramentum the church made it clear that it is only allowed in places where the permission has been granted. We do live in a place (The good ole US of A) where this permission has been granted, by the way. Nevertheless, it is worth re-considering the weight of the Tradition and the significance of allowing ourselves to be taken care of by Holy Mother Church. To be fed by our Lord is always a good a thing, and never more excellent than at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass with his own Body & Blood.

Perhaps, by our choice, we might consider receiving Holy Communion on the tongue as a sign of personal submission and humility to Christ and His Church which feeds us with the Sacrament of Redemption, the Holy Eucharist.

Assumption Novena 2011!

I am joining over 2800 Catholics to pray the Assumption Novena in preparation for the Feast of the Assumption.

I’m pretty excited to pray this with so many faithful Catholics around the world and I thought you’d like to join too!

There are thousands of people praying through this novena website and there will be millions praying around the world.
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+ Sign up for handy email reminders to get the the novena prayers here: http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifAssumption Novena
+ If you have a website, post about it there!
+ Email your friends and family and get them praying too!

Let’s get all the Catholics we know to pray this novena together for the Assumption!

The score: Sisters 1, sin 0!

And now a quick video from WYD!


You gotta love it when sisters enjoy themselves for the glory of God!

Knights, oh, Knights.... WHY!?!?!??!

I don't have much to say about this. I am disturbed by this reality, and will definitely be needing to reconsider my membership...

if you want the link to the article.. it is here.

Because we will spend eternity with them...

I thought, for those who have never read Modern Day Saints Part I or II by Ann Ball, that all of us could benefit from this video I found today while trying to find something else. It is a video of many of the modern saints, and most beautifully, it holds many of their actual photographs! I love that because Saints are no longer in the distant past, great though they were in their day (and really they still are today), but for all of us we can come to know their earthly faces and consider the story of their lives by more means than merely reading about them.

I hope you enjoyed this short montage of pictures, because one day, should we be obedient to God's grace, we too will meet these folks in heaven. May they pray for each of us!
By the way, this is a little bit out of date as I had the great blessing of being at the Canonization of both St. Damien of Molokai and St. Andre Bisette! Thanks be to God!

RATS!!! or ... not...

The funny thing about Michael Voris, if you haven't noticed yet, is that sometimes you secretly want him to be "too harsh" so that you can disagree with what he is saying. Praise God that those seem to be the times when he is dead on. Consider today's episode of The Vortex over at RealCatholicTv.com:

Are you and I one of those "contemporary Catholics" he is speaking about? Do you understand the difference between belief and acceptance by your experience of Jesus Christ?

In the Catholic Church today, one must wonder how we have got to a point today where only 25% (or so, depending who you ask) of self-identifying Catholics believe in the most fundamental of all Catholic teachings: the Real Presence of Jesus, body, blood, soul and divinity, in the Holy Eucharist. What many of our Protestant brothers and sisters exclaim about Catholics is that we worship "the bread god". Sadly, they don't seem to understand and/or believe the unity of the Gospels, since Jesus himself explained this both in John chapter 6 and then later at the Last Supper, when he prayed over the bread and wine and said, "this IS my body" and "this IS my blood." You can't argue it in the Greek in which the New Testament was written. Jesus is not explaining a symbol, but it is actually, substantially and really his own body and blood. We can know this from the fact that he did not dissuade some of his followers from leaving his company (including his own Apostles!!!) because they had difficulty accepting this teaching [see Jn 6:66 and following). It is important for us as Catholics, no matter where we are in our pilgrimage to Heaven to reassess whether we "BELIEVE" or whether we "accept" the Lord's teachings. Perhaps, we can remember this when a priest offers the Holy Eucharist to us. Instead of a half hearted or mumbled response, we can say with clarity and conviction: "AMEN!"

"Leah", what are you thinking?

So, as a part-time job, I drive a rickshaw downtown, also known as a pedi-cab. It is a great job, primarily because I get paid to excercise. It is also, however, a very tiring job. Often one works about 6 or more hours for the night as you peddle around downtown for most of that time. On the weekends you can go for as long as 10-12 hours, and if you are busy you don't really stop peddling too often. It is great excercise!

But what I find more exciting is meeting all sorts of different people. I had the pleasure of meeting a couple from Idaho who own their own business where the gentleman makes parts for rock crushing. They were a very kind and generous couple that I spent about 3 hours hanging around with - they even bought me dinner. That was a great evening. I also met a gentleman from Boulder who had gone to a rock concert and decided he was hungry at 2:00 in the morning and invited me to dine with him at the Denver Diner. That was an interesting night. Often people invite me for a drink, and that has always been a nice experience, which often leads to a discussion about what I do for my daytime "gig" here at Notre Dame. Sometimes people are open to hearing about what I do in teaching people how to become Catholic. Other times people get very annoyed that a Christian is talking to them about their faith at a bar/restaurant. Yet again another example of the crazy adventure that is the Catholic Faith lived!

Last Friday night, however, I was out late and giving people rides home from a night out. I happened to have two very interesting rides to end my night, which I found to be very indicative of our culture. First, I picked up a young man who had been drinking what seemed to be significant amounts, though he seemed coherent enough, as he had the wherewithal to have a bike-taxi take him home. However, he invited some young ladies to join him on the ride toward his home. I often tell people, "I am not there to judge anyone, I am just there to give rides." I always reflect on the Lord's admonition to "judge not lest you be judged (Mt 7:1)," whenever I say that. Nevertheless, I began to pray for these people. Interestingly, at a certain point the young man said, "I never said I would pay for you,... (for charity's sake, let's say he said "ladies")!" At which I point I took him to where he needed to go a few more blocks while the two young ladies berated him for his "change of heart" in having their company on the ride home. Luckily, they didn't live too far and I was sure they were just wanting to get the free ride home any way, as I believe they had been drinking slight amounts of alcohol, as well.

This for me was a great sign of the promiscuous activities of some people who frequent some of the downtown establishments. This quick loss of respect for the dignity of these two feminine persons was a profound one! I had no idea what caused this young man to suddenly find a deep disrespect for these young ladies! But it was both quick and significant dislike for these ladies. Interesting.

Immediately after this, I picked up four people who needed to get home: two men, and two young ladies. As I dropped them off, one young lady, whose name is "Leah" (let's say) decided to start asking me questions. Interestingly, she began to tell me the story of how she was now dating a married man who was cheating on his wife with her. She surprisingly noted how she was in a "full blown adulterous relationship." Initially, he didn't tell her, but she found out after a "rendezvous" or six. Her question to me, "What do you think I should do?" Naturally, I began to explain to her that she was worth so much more than being a mere "piece of meat" to this "guy" who was not living up to his commitments. I also noted how he was acting as a "mere child" who wanted to "have his cake and eat it too," so to speak. I recalled for her why do Americans like and celebrate Marines, or anyone in the military? It is because for us Americans, they symbolize commitment. They are willing to live and die for something! This is the stuff that "men" were once made of! Unfortunately, in our modern world, though, now so-called "gentlemen" go to "clubs" that somehow have been set aside to cater to their passions and illict desires. No wonder then this young man seemed to have no problem being with Leah and his wife. Sadly, she even explained how he even took her into public places and "displayed his affection for her." Nevertheless, Leah seemed to not get that there was even a problem with any of this behavior!

It seems to me that this is not unusual in our modern day. For Leah, as for many people, "marital relations" are not marital and barely are relations. So many people miss the profound beauty of withholding yourself until you commit to the joy of giving oneself entirely in service and receiving another of the opposite sex in Holy Matrimony. But how could we come to this point in our society? If you have kept up with my blog then you would know that Michael Voris has something to say about these things, especially his recent expose on "The Contraception Deception." Whatever was the cause, however, I would suggest to you, dear reader, that it is incumbent on each of us, as Catholics, to BE THE ANSWER! We must take the gospel to all places! From our workplaces, to the nightclubs, to the comedy clubs, to the bars all over the city of Denver. We can not think that we should be lax or comfortable with where our Lord's Kingdom is at the moment. It must be expanded!!! And we are the ones who must go into the world to proclaim the Good News of salvation and redemption in Jesus Christ. If we are not doing that, then we only have ourselves to blame for the Leah's of the of world, who enter into adulterous or promiscuous relationships and are aware something is wrong, but can't quite convince themselves of it. In fact, she seemed to know in her heart of hearts that she was in something bad, but was trying to convince me that it really wasn't that bad!


As for me, I had to be clear with Leah and invited her to stop this "affair" before she ruined a marriage and found herself heartbroken. I can't say that she definitely did, because moments after I finished my exhortation to her, the young husband, at 2:30 in the morning, showed up in front of her apartment. He introduced himself to me. I said, "Hello," casually and pedaled off into the night praying for Leah to have the grace to make the right decision. It was a great moment to reflect, it seems to me, that we are to be about the business of planting seeds in people's lives, it is up to God to water them with his grace. As for the other young man, I think we must understand how disposable people see their "love interests" these days, because it speaks to the lack of respect and cherishing the goodness of the opposite sex in a holy way. May you and I see our ambassadorship for Christ's kingdom more clearly, because the world is wallowing in sin and mankind awaits the healing of their hearts and fulfillment of their souls in Jesus Christ! By they way, please join me in praying for "Leah," as her soul was graced enough to see clearly that something was not right in her life. Let us pray she has the grace to act in repentance.