Posts Tagged ‘catholic’

This is how the holy spirit works

Posted: February 27, 2011 by datechguy in catholic, personal
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As anyone in business can tell you one of the things you notice in hard times is that the bills you owe always tend to come on time but the checks that you have coming tend to lag a bit.

When your business is your primary source of income the cash flow issue is a source of a lot of worry and tension, particularly with a new business. It can eat you alive.

This morning when I got up more snow was falling, I just got a big batch of bills and was feeling very low. I headed to mass with my son to church and almost got stuck going up the hill. When we got to Mass today’s Gospel Was Matthew 6:24-34 where Jesus says:

No one can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat (or drink), or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?

Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you more important than they? Can any of you by worrying add a single moment ton? Why are you anxious about clothes? Learn from the way the wild flowers grow. They do not work or spin. But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was clothed like one of them. If God so clothes the grass of the field, which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow, will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith?

So do not worry and say, ‘What are we to eat?’ or ‘What are we to drink?’ or ‘What are we to wear?’ All these things the pagans seek. Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom (of God) and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides. Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for a day is its own evil.

During his sermon after the Gospel Fr. Bob pointed out that this doesn’t mean do NOTHING, it means do instead of worrying when you can and when you can’t, put it in Christ’s hands. As he said in the Bulletin:

Worry is like a rocking chair–you pass the time but you don’t go anywhere. That was one of my grandmother’s favorite sayings. Those old folks had a lot of wisdom, you know.

Whenever we are faced with a dilemma and we find ourselves worrying, that’s the time to step back from the situation and ask ourselves: “Is there anything I can do about it right now?” If there is , do it. You’ll feel better. If there is nothing you can do, then what good will worrying do? Nothing at all.

“But I have to do something! I’m a nervous wreck!” So, that’s when we pray for serenity and peace. As Jesus taught, “Seek, first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you besides.” If our prayer life is in order, everything else will follow as God directs. “Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take are of itself.”

It’s quite a coincidence that this would be the Gospel today when I was even talking to my oldest about the family financial issues and wondering if the my own set of bills were going to be paid on time. Then again I would suggest it isn’t a coincidence. The Holy Spirit knows what you need and tends to put you in the right place at the right time, if we only have eyes to see it.

What I missed, what they missed

Posted: February 15, 2011 by datechguy in catholic, special events
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Up early today and noticed Stacy McCain’s post on festivities at CPAC. There were an awful lot parties and I missed nearly all of them but Stacy has a ton of pictures.

Despite getting back to my Hotel in Largo at 3 a.m. one thing I didn’t miss was mass. The last time I was at one of these national events the next week I went to confession. I had been struggling with a particular sin and was rather pleased at my progress (spiritual pride, very dangerous) and was able to confess that my big sin was only missing mass.

Long shot National Cathedral


Fr.Bob looked at me and told me bluntly, “You had time for this event, that event, you made time to see the monuments and historical sites but you couldn’t find one hour for God?”.

I was deflated really fast and was determined that I would not make that mistake. My friend Steve who now lives in the area told me he would pick me up at 8 a.m. for at 9 a.m. Mass at the national cathedral.

If you’ve never been (and I hadn’t) you can’t imagine the place. By the time I was on the steps I could physically feel the presence of the Holy Spirit. Once I was inside my jaw spent the majority of its time on my chest.

One of the many sights above

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By arriving early I had time to gape at the chapels inside the church where mass can be celebrated. I was very taken by the individual displays of the mysteries of the Rosary.

The Annunciation

The Mass itself had a dozen celebrants and the ushers were all members of the Knights of Columbus. The cantor was incredible and the sermon was pretty solid. I love to sing and I really let myself go but I also found myself choking up a bit.

After Mass we had breakfast downstairs (it was incidentally the best meal I had in DC) I was a bit surprised to see speaker Gingrich eating at the table next to mine and was also able to grab a replacement Angelus prayer card in the gift shop.

Steve and I after mass

One thing that struck me as important. Just before you get to the Cathedral there is a small church (St. Anthony’s). For all of the presence of the holy spirit for all of the emotional and spiritual reaction I had in the Cathedral one must never forget the mass down the street is the same mass, the presence of Christ in the blessed sacrament is no less holy. The difference between empathy and saintliness is the ability to feel the presence of the spirit in the small church like the still small voice. That is the goal.

If I can afford CPAC next year maybe I’ll see about getting making a regular trip and arranging a trip to Mass for Sunday Morning Mass for bloggers who want to come. I don’t know how many I’d get but it would be fun to find out.

Meanwhile here is a slideshow of all the shots there:

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My hits are up so I’d better take the Pope to heart

Posted: January 26, 2011 by datechguy in blogs, catholic, internet/free speech
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By an odd coincidence just as my hits are way up the Pope warns me all that glitters are not hits:

Pope Benedict XVI told Catholic bloggers and Facebook and YouTube users Monday to be respectful of others when spreading the Gospel online and not to see their ultimate goal as getting as many online hits as possible.

Echoing concerns in the U.S. about the need to root out online vitriol, Benedict called for the faithful to adopt a “Christian style presence” online that is responsible, honest and discreet

When you are a public Catholic it is important to act like one, particularly if you call out other public Catholics who don’t.

In addition he warns of making a virtual reality for oneself:

“It is important always to remember that virtual contact cannot and must not take the place of direct human contact with people at every level of our lives,” Benedict said in the message for the Catholic Church’s World Day of Communications.

He urged users of social networks to ask themselves “Who is my ‘neighbor’ in this new world?” and avoid the danger of always being available online but being “less present to those whom we encounter in our everyday life.”

It reminds me of Screwtape #6 to wit:

Do what you will, there is going to be some benevolence, as well as some malice, in your patient’s soul. The great thing is to direct the malice to his immediate neighbors whom he meets every day and to thrust his benevolence out to the remote circumference, to people he does not know. The malice thus becomes wholly real and the benevolence largely imaginary.and the theory where to put things

The Pope’s full message is here.

A post and an answer

Posted: January 23, 2011 by datechguy in catholic
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In response to my post concerning my neighbor the Jehovah’s Witness Lisa Graas wrote an interesting post:

For two millenia, the Catholic Church has named countless saints. These are people we know to be in Heaven. It is important to note, though, that the Church has never once named any individual to be in Hell. There is a reason for that. God saves whom He will.

The saints are people who lived lives of heroic virtue. DaTechGuy’s neighbor demonstrated an act of virtue. He did something that was ‘saintly’. Is he going to Hell because he is a Jehovah Witness? I have no idea. Having said that, I also don’t know if Attila the Hun is in Hell. I do know that St. Augustine is in Heaven. I know that St. Ambrose is in Heaven. I know that St. Jerome is in Heaven. St. Maria Goretti, the Martyrs of Cordoba, St. Joan of Arc, and St. Gemma Galgani are all in heaven ….and so on, and so on, and so on. They were all Catholic. Even Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha was Catholic.

That’s what we know for sure.

That is certainly true, it is also true by definition a Saint is a person who is in fact in heaven. There are a large amount of saints that we have never heard of or may never hear of.

She is also quite correct in the doctrinal errors of the Witnesses. I have regularly debated these errors with them when they come to the door and I let them in as I do with all the Millerite religions.

One must remember however that one of the requirement for Mortal Sin is an understanding of the sin, there is a difference between not knowing the truth and denying it. There is also the question of Baptism of intent as I wrote before:

The final method of baptism is called Baptism of desire and is explained here:

1260 “Since Christ died for all, and since all men are in fact called to one and the same destiny, which is divine, we must hold that the Holy Spirit offers to all the possibility of being made partakers, in a way known to God, of the Paschal mystery.”62 Every man who is ignorant of the Gospel of Christ and of his Church, but seeks the truth and does the will of God in accordance with his understanding of it, can be saved. It may be supposed that such persons would have desired Baptism explicitly if they had known its necessity. emphasis mine

Thus a Muslim, a Hindu a Jew or a person of any denomination who does not know the Gospel of Christ or a native of Tahiti before the time of Captain Cook would all qualify assuming that they, seek the truth and does the will of God in accordance with his understanding of it so in the eyes of the Catholic church anyone who does this IS a considered a baptized member of the church (although not in full communion with the Catholic Church).

Many non Catholics and non Christians are offended by this (as are some Catholics) then again some are offended by the teachings on adultery or on celibacy or holy communion or whatever. The church doesn’t change its doctrine based on feelings or polling..

Thus my friend across the street (assuming his Baptism is not considered valid) may in fact qualify as Baptized via this method.

All of this doesn’t change what I have said over and over: There is only one reason to be a Christian in general and/or a Catholic in particular. Because it is true and on that note there is no compromise, there is no equivocation.

This is an excellent opportunity to bring up my pastor’s excellent message from the Jan 16th bulletin on the subject:

Dear Friends,
John the Baptist makes a claim about Jesus which every Christian must affirm: “Now I have seen and testified that He is the Son of God.” Jesus is categorically different from any other great religious teacher because He claims for Himself Divinity, to be the fully divine incarnation of God on earth. Either He is delusional or we have to take Him at His word.

There is no middle ground. We cannot say He was mistaken in His core beliefs about who He was while at the same time assert that He is a great teacher. You can’t have it both ways.

There is a very important difference between saying all religions should be respected and all religions are the same. As Catholic Christians, we insist on complete freedom of conscience and religious freedom for all. That is not the same thing as saying all religion is the same. All religions have the same rights, but as Christians, we must assert that Jesus Christ is the unique Savior of the entire human race. In a world of intellectual relativity, where nothing is fact and all is opinion, that seems to be the height of arrogance. But there is also such a thing as Truth. Truth cannot be imposed or forced on anyone. We are called to be witnesses to the truth with love. We are called to affirm our faith in Jesus Christ and to make Him known.

It is the duty of every Catholic in particular and every Christian in general to proclaim the gospel of Christ. As St. Francis of Assisi said:

Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words

Works for me.

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