My Catholic Life

When I lived in Tennessee I did not have a car to get to work. My job was about 1 ½ miles from were I lived so I walked there almost every day. Rain or shine, cold and snow, I never missed a scheduled day in 2 ½ years. Now and then somebody I knew would stop and give me a ride. On occasion my manager would leave the store and come and get me if the weather was really bad. Mostly I walked. Even on my days off, to go shopping, do my laundry or go to the bank, I would walk. I usually spent the time as I walked praying, conversing with the Lord and joining my footsteps to the footsteps of the Lord as he walked this earth. A good part of the walk to work was on an uphill grade but some parts were easier than others. I started out walking through the park across the street from my apartment which was relatively flat. After the park I had a choice. There was an extremely steep hill a couple of blocks long and then there was the way that was just a little longer but sloped at a much easie...

The lips of an adulteress drip with honey, and her mouth is smoother than oil; but in the end she is as bitter as wormwood, as sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death, to the nether world her steps attain; lest you see before you the road to life, her paths will ramble, you know not where. Pr 5:3-6 When most people hear the word adultery they think of the sex thing. That a married person went out and had sex with someone other than their spouse. It does happen that way. In the bible adultery is used to describe the unfaithfulness of the people of God. It’s synonyms are unfaithfulness, disloyalty, infidelity, falseness, treachery, betrayal, deceitfulness, faithlessness, breaking faith. When you have experienced the impact of adultery you come to the realization that the sex thing was the end result but the real thing was something else and that it doesn’t occur just within marriage. It doesn’t come about through sex, it comes about through words. Unfaithfulness is when s...

The Eucharist. We talk about transubstantiation. We talk about matter, form, substance and species. When you come right down to it, though, you just have to say that it is a miracle. How else does bread and wine become the very body and blood, soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ except that it is a miracle? We cannot perceive it with our senses. At the consecration there is no thunderclap, no voice from heaven, no heavenly rays of light. Now and then there have been some astounding, miraculous manifestations of Eucharistic phenomenon where it takes on the appearance of flesh and blood, or there is emanating light etc. At any given Mass on any given day, however, appearance is not what we can rely on. In what, then, do we place our confidence that bread and wine become the body and blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ? In the fact that Jesus said so. Jesus said it, we take him at his word and we believe it. For what else is the basis of Christianity except that we believe w...

It seems I am still on my give the Pope a break kick. According to a sede-vacantist site on the internet, which will remain nameless to protect the innocent from looking them up out of curiosity, Pope Francis is a tango loving, 60’s hippie liberal and that is one of the reasons that he can’t be a legitimate pope. Sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me. Seems that in by gone days young Jorge loved the night life (I got to boogie), had a girlfriend and was a bouncer in a bar. Misspent youth? Heavens, who knows. But even if that were so he can sit next to me on that bus, along with St. Augustine whose mother used to stand praying outside of his keggers. But Jorge is all grown up now, he’s the Pope and he still loves the tango, says it’s a part of him. Wasn’t the tango condemned by the Catholic Church in 1907? Isn’t that really, really, really bad? Omg. He’s from Argentina! The tango dance and tango music are part of the cultural art. All I can say is that I woul...

You’ve heard about it, right? The survey the Vatican has put out asking our opinion on gay marriage so that they can change their teachings on that issue if everybody is in favor of it? Because that’s how the Vatican rolls. They come up with our teachings according to public opinion. Don’t forget to fill out the survey so we can be sure the Vatican knows what we want. It is certain that the reason the Vatican has not allowed same sex marriage, contraception, cohabitation of unmarried couples, etc is because they have been unaware up until now that society has fully endorsed these things and the Catholics in the pews concur. They have been waiting for an opportunity to cave in on these issues. They need this survey to give them a credible excuse. For sure. Heaven help us if that is what we think the Church is doing. Are we really that gullible, that uncertain, that insecure in the Church that we would make such assumptions? Or believe those who have? The Church is facing ...

Everybody’s talking at me, jive talking, telling me lies. A ball of confusion, that's what the world is today, full of sound and fury signifying nothing. Ok, somebody has got to give me some props for that one. I don’t know if you noticed but I managed to quote three songs and Shakespeare in my first two sentences. Of course, a lot of the youngsters might not recognize the lyrics of Nilssen, The Bee Gees and The Temptations. My witty banter aside the point is baby, baby it’s a wild world and a lot of nice things turn bad out there but just remember there's a lot of bad and beware. As may be apparent by some of my most recent posts, I have been quite distressed by what seems to be an overly harsh, and often defamatory, critical view of our Pope. So a-Googling I went over the last couple of days and I have come across evidence of many, who consider themselves good Catholics, that advocate not only criticism, but resistance and disobedience, to our dear Holy Father. They ...

I am so tired of all this Pope stuff. Not our Pope himself, that man has my total, unreserved, unequivocal support. Because he is good? Because he is wise? Because I think he is a great leader? Because I think that he will take this Church to were it is supposed to be? Because I am in denial and have blind faith and obedience to a man who some believe at the very least cannot keep his foot out of his mouth or at the worst speaks error and heresy? No. Because it is what Jesus prayed for, it is what Jesus wants. If Jesus wants it we can know the Father wants it. If the Father and Jesus want it than the Holy Spirit works for it and I will assent to it, I will say Amen. What I am tired of is what we are doing to our Pope and to the Mystical Body of Christ by refusing to be united to him. Because it is only in unity that we ARE the Mystical Body of Christ. Our Pope, our Magisterium, our clergy are in persona christi capitis, (The person of Christ the Head). We are persona christi ...

I recently watched a documentary entitled “Pope Michael”. Apparently there is a man in Kansas that says he is the legitimate Pope. David Bawden aka Pope Michael, believes that through heresy and corruption that the Church has forfeited it’s authority. The Church, the magisterium and the Pope are not the Pope of him. As a matter of fact he believes that there has not been a legitimate Pope since the death of Pope Pius XII in 1958. So the last six popes have not been the Pope of him. In 1990, in order to fill the seat of St. Peter that had been vacant for 32 years, a conclave was held. The conclave consisted of Bawden, his parents and three friends, all of them laity as Bawden had never been ordained. So, there you go, that’s how you make yourself Pope. How about that? You learn something new every day. For the past 23 years there has been a Pope in Kansas. According to reports there are about 30 people in Bawden’s flock, including his mother and possibly two seminarians studying un...

Boy we’ve got a lot to do everyday, don’t we? I take care of six of my grandchildren all day almost every day and that includes home school. Now if all I had to do was to keep them alive until the end of the day I suppose I would have more time. Nope, there are dishes, laundry, trying to keep the house looking just short of a disaster area, meals, baths, kids wanting to do this, kids wanting to do that, kids needing this and that, potty training, kids who are supposed to be potty trained and forget now and then, mediating disputes, planning curriculums, implementing curriculums and the list goes on and on. Standard taking care of children day. That doesn’t leave much time to set aside for regular prayer. All those who find time to pray raise your hand…you are doing better than me. Finding time alone to pray would actually be a welcome mini-vacation for me. We’ve got a lot of things to pray for too, don’t we? Praying for ourselves, for our families, for our friends, for our churc...

"No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends (those whom we love) Jn 15:13. Have you ever stopped to think about the phrasing of this verse? Have you wondered why Jesus used the words "lay down one's life' or "to give one's life" rather than just simply use the words to die? Jesus is about to physically lay down his life, to die, for those whom he loves, mankind, us. But physical death is not the only manner of laying down one's life, of giving one's life for another. Jesus gave us this example not just in his death but also in his life. He died for us, yes, but he also lived his entire life for us. Dedicating his life for us, giving up his own wants and desires for us, for our benefit, for our sake. In the preceding verse, Jn 15:12, Jesus says " This is my commandment: love one another as I love you" . We are commanded not only to love, but to love as Jesus loved. All Christians are called to...

Even to the death fight for the truth, and the Lord your God will battle for you. Sirach 4:28 People don’t get me….a lot. It’s not easy to march to a different drummer. More often than not, someone like me, has tried really hard to fit in. But no matter how hard we try we don’t, we can’t, that other drummer just won’t let us. It is a voice that tells us that we are not being true and a sense of integrity will not let us pretend. Sometimes we think we have found a place, a place were we are the same and then something happens and we find out that we are being called to be different there as well. Different drummer marchers are often warriors. Along with that drum we hear trumpets, bugles and shofars. We hear reveilles and calls to arms. We fight with all our might and we fight for what we think is right. Often you think we are fighting for one thing, to be right, to win, to be in charge or control, but we are not. We are usually fighting for an underdog or a principle or for yo...

May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to think in harmony with one another, in keeping with Christ Jesus, that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Romans 15:5-6 It seems I have been inspired to write on the subject of unity in the Body of Christ today. I don’t think we realize how powerful that unity is in our prayers, how praying in “one voice” can bring us into the presence of the Lord. Or how the sound of the many in “one voice” strikes fear in the heart of the enemies of our soul. The Church from it’s earliest days has been attacked by disagreement, division, dissention, heresy and schism. Jesus said “ a house divided cannot stand” (Mt 12:25, Mk 3:25, Lk 11:17) and the Epistles are full of verses calling us to remain as one, one with each other and one with the teachings of the Church. This unity is such a position of strength for us, so great in its power that satan does his very best that it not be so....

Am I the only one to see a significance in the fact that we currently have two living popes? I am intrigued by what I have seen between Pope Francis and Pope Emeritus Benedict. I am wondering if events have transpired in this way in order to assist Pope Francis in a special and extraordinary way right now. The next question would be what is happening in the world and in the Church, or what is going to happen, that Pope Francis would have need of such extraordinary assistance? When Pope Benedict announced his resignation I was as surprised and questioning as anyone else at this rare occurrence in the Church. Why would the Pope feel led to resign for reasons of declining health and strength when almost all other popes had suffered through such things as well, yet still retaining their office until their deaths? There have of course been speculations ranging from Benedict’s mental capabilities to conspiracy theories that he had been forced out of office by corrupt men in the Vatican. I h...

Before I get to my thoughts on how we need eyes of faith to recognize God‘s action in our lives, I have some random stuff in my head that I would like to share. Maybe it will tie in somehow, maybe not. Yesterday, I finally got to listen to a live Vericast podcast. I found Vericast a couple of weeks ago and have been checking out their videos and recordings of past shows. Vericast for those who don’t know is “the hardest -hitting Catholic podcast on [or off] the Internet.” For my readers who haven’t seen it you should check them out at Vericast.net. I’m sure they won’t mind if I give them some props and pass along where to find them. My readers who do know Vericast, well, you are already in the loop. Anyway, I finally catch a live show. I don’t enter into the chat although I do follow it. I usually lurk at first, I like to get the feel of people sometimes before I just jump in. I was a shy child. Most people don’t believe me when I tell them that. Well, there is nothing ...