Holiday Time Off

As we take time out for family and friends during this Christmas Season (and New Years) there are likely to be many times that we are placed in social situations where we are likely to be asked to defend or explain why we are Catholic.  I would hope that we can all come up with some pretty good reasons (how many can you think of?) after the study that we are undertaking on Apologetics.  In our never ending hunt for new information on "things Catholic" the following blog entry turned up today on New Advent:

http://www.ourcatholicfaith.org/reasons.html

This is titled "150 Reasons I'm Catholic, and You Should Be Too" by Dave Armstrong.
I am going to link his blog site to this one, as it has a wealth of information on it.  Please have a look at this and pull it up on your computer.  If you read it there you can click on the Bible verses referenced and they will pop up for you!  Neat!!

During our time off I do hope to get to finish up a list of blog and web site links for this web site so that they will all be in one place for you.

I hope that you all will take a little time out of your busy days and/or evenings for a little reflection on why you are Catholic, on what it means in your daily life, and on what you are doing to share this most important part of your life with those closest to you.

Have a Blessed Christmas! (and of course, A Happy New Year!!)

SLG

Visibly Catholic

As Christians, and as Catholics in particular, we are called to a life of constant prayer.  We are to continually engage in a dialog with our Heavenly Father, and with his only son Our Lord, and with the Holy Spirit.  Or at least try to!  It is not an easy task and we, the children of God, are more often continually distracted (instead of engaged) as we deal with our existence in this worldly world of ours.  Fortunately for us our Catholic Faith provides many opportunities and mechanisms for us to, often with a simple glance, redirect our focus toward God.

Last week I asked us to consider the phrase "and you call yourself a Catholic" for discussion.  We had a wonderful dialog about this yesterday which I will summarize below.  As I thought this over afterward, particularly with regard to the significance of the content of our discussion, it became clear to me that what we are really asking ourselves in this question is "how active is your prayer life?"  We have a wonderful set of customs and traditions available at our disposal, not for the purpose of "showing off" (Matt 6:5), but for assisting us in re-directing and focusing our thoughts and prayers Heavenward.  This is often totally misunderstood by our Protestant brothers and sisters.

As we go through our day we should be visibly Catholic as a consequence of our reliance on and love for God.  It should show forth to all (Matt 5:14-16) we meet.  Clearly a tall order and a lofty goal for sure, and how often we fall woefully short!  So here is our list (from the discussion).  These are the things we Catholics can keep about us to help put us back on track as we go through our day.  I have organized it by location.

Home:
Crucifix
Holy Water font
Icons
Statues of Mary, Martha and other favorite saints
Rosary
Brown Scapular
Holy Palms
Picture of the Pope
Bible and CCC
Library
Catholic periodicals and other reading materials
see office below

Car:
Rosary
Statue or medal, St. Christopher
Brown Scapular
Bumper Stickers
Candles (Advent wreath, votives)
CDs (Lighthouse and others)
Catholic Radio
Judy's patented Spiritual First Aid Kit
Holy Water
Crushed Palms
Scapular
Rosary

Office:
See home above
Desk top on computer
Home page
Programs
Background music

Activities:
Sign of the Cross
Prayer at meals
Pray Rosary

Jewelry and Apparel:
Crucifix
Miraculous Medal
Brown Scapular
Tee shirts
Headcovering in Church/home for prayer

Conversations:
Mention your Faith
Be light-hearted when called for
Show the joy and love of The Faith
See Christ in others and respond


So the question "and you call yourself a Catholic" has evolved to "which of these will assist me in having a more active and vibrant prayer life as I go through my day?"  Have a good look at the list and see if there is something you can add to your environment that will remind you of your Faith and will bring you, with a short thoughtful glance, closer to the presence of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

In his new book "Signs of Life" Dr. Scott Hahn discusses 40 Catholic Customs and their Biblical Roots.  We often know that what we have and do is distinctly Catholic, but really do not know much about the origins and significance of these things.  This wonderful, very readable, book by Hahn can help with this and makes a wonderful addition to your library!

So go have fun, and exude the enjoyment of your Faith and your prayer life!  Go be a light!  Our modern culture needs all the light it can get!

SLG

And You Call Yourself a Christian!

In my pagan college days I had a friend who lived on the same floor of my dorm who was a PK (preacher's kid).  He was tall, gangly, very smart and great fun to be with.  He was, however, a typical PK away from home and testing the limits of his new found freedom.  As most of us were prone to do, he was often doing something that was distinctly NOT in keeping with his Christian up-bringing.  We all took singular delight in pointing out what he, or anyone else for that matter, had done and always included the phrase "and you call yourself a Christian!" at the very end.  It got to the point that the phrase was all that was ever said.....the rest was understood and I am ashamed to admit how much "fun" we considered this to be.

Fast forward a few (I shall not count them up for fear of breaking the calculator) years to our discussion last week at OLM.  We started out discussing schism and apostasy, including what it means to truly be a Catholic, and ended up musing on how we can share our Faith with others.

  

Barb and I were discussing this on the way to Atlanta Sunday afternoon and she reminded me of a story from her childhood.  She had been to a party where some of the children present were Catholic.  She mentioned this to her mother when she got home and asked how she could tell who they were.  She remembers being told "you cannot tell someone is Catholic by looking at them".  Really?  Sadly, this is, for the most part, true.  But should it be true?

So I ask all of us to ponder this phrase....."and you call yourself a Catholic!".  So what does that mean to you?  How do you show it, or do you hide it?  On Fridays during Football season many of us are readily recognizable as a Vol, a Bulldog or a even as a, forgive me..... Gator.  Are we ever as visibly Catholic to the rest of our little world up here on Lookout Mountain or down off of the mountain while at at work?  If so, how, and if not, why not?

So let us give some thought to these questions and spend some time this coming week discussing the visibility of our Catholic Faith to those around us.

SLG

A Different Slant on the Tiger Woods Scandal

Here is the text of and link to a blog post I found on New Advent today.  

Personally Opposed

My Name is Tiger Woods. As many of you may have heard by now, I have been publicly accused of having numerous affairs with multiple women who are not my wife. Now, while we all might agree that adultery is not a desirable thing, we must recognize that it is often a difficult choice in the life of a man.

Sometimes, through no fault of his own, a man can find himself in a difficult marriage. He is sometimes faced with the difficult choice of staying faithful to his Swedish bikini model wife or committing adultery with barmaids and hostesses. This is particularly true for professional athletes.

There are those who think that they know what is best for every pro-athlete or even a regular man. There are women in high places, I think particularly of some female Buick Executives, who think they know what what every man should do in this situation. These women, who have never played professional sport at any level and cannot possibly understand the temptations, think they know what is best for ALL pro athletes. While some men may be in the position where they can choose to stay faithful, other men feel must make the difficult decision to commit adultery.

Now, while I am personally opposed to adultery, I do not believe that I can impose my anti-adultery views on the pro athlete community at large. I believe it is perfectly fine for a person to be privately anti-adultery, but as a prominent athlete I must be publicly pro-choice.

Some Buick executives suggest that because of my public position on adultery that they can threaten to withhold my paychecks because they say that I am in violation of the morality clauses of my contract. This is very unfortunate. I have been associated with Buick for many years and consider myself a Buick spokesman regardless of their threats. I am a Buick spokesman in good standing and to suggest otherwise simply because I am publicly pro-choice on adultery is ridiculous.

My contract states that I must be anti-adultery, and so I accept my contract. But this is a private contract and should have no bearing on the public policy I support or on my public behavior.

Perhaps, rather than trying to dictate to every pro-athlete how they should live their lives, Buick should just concentrate on making cars.

* * *

Sounds just as silly when Catholic politicians make the same argument about abortion.

POSTED BY PATRICK ARCHBOLD AT 11:20 PM 

Link:  http://www.creativeminorityreport.com/2009/12/personally-opposed.html

SLG