This Thanksgiving, my son Gabriel should have been 10 weeks old.
Instead, this Thanksgiving was the 3 week anniversary of his death.
November 6th, 2014, we woke up to get ready for our day, and Gabriel didn't. There is an abyss waiting for me in that moment, waiting to swallow me.
Fortunately, this guy's watching over his daddy. Maybe it's just me, but that looks like a guy who gets his way. "Really, dad? Despair? You know where I am!"
I know son. Doesn't make me miss you less.
What is there today for us but sorrow? The one we have loved is dead, and with Him our hope.
Today is Mary's day. Her Son was just murdered. The body she made for the Son of God in the secret depths of her womb is now lying in a tomb. The blood that flowed through her veins and into her baby boy is now poured out upon the ground. Her body, her blood, her heart pierced by a sword of sorrow as His was pierced by a spear.
When one hears things in context, one is less likely to be blind-sided by things like this article from LifeSite News. From the American political perspective, the "left" will be shocked that "Papa Frank" is not "The fluffiest Pope evahr" (to steal a phrase from Fr. Z), and the "right" will be shocked that he is not " the great enemy of morality and the free market."
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| Love him, hate him, you can't ignore him. |
This is the core of what heresy means - to take away; specifically to "take out" what you don't like, and leave the rest. It is to take a true thing, a fact, and take it out of context. Heresy - like all the best lies - is not dangerous because of the falsehood, but because of the truth with which it is wrapped.
To put it another way, "The devil doesn't come dressed in a red cape and pointy horns. He comes as everything you've ever wished for."
The time is accomplished, and the Kingdom of God is at hand: repent, and believe in the gospel.
How often do we actually listen to the words of our Lord? How many times does the same passage of scripture come up again, and we think, "Oh, I know that verse!" and proceed to tune out the actual reading?
I know, I know, so judgmental! But if I judge in this matter, I also judge myself. I mean, the Sermon on the Mount? Really? The Beatitudes? That's just another way for people I don't like to beat me over the head with how all Christianity is about is being a nice person, and how I shouldn't judge and stuff. Right?
Wrong.
I recently gave a talk to the young men of my church preparing for the sacrament of Confirmation, and I thought I would share some of the reflections I had while preparing.
I was blessed with the opportunity to speak only to the young men. I have spoken to mixed groups before of course, and there are many very insightful young women in our confirmation and youth group programs, but sometimes a man just needs to speak to those becoming men, to call them out into their masculinity. That is in fact the only way they will ever become men, if they are called.
This is part 3 in a series on sex (because I promise that talking about sex will not turn you into a porn fiend. It will probably do the exact opposite). Part I. Part II.
So, sexy Catholic sex. This is the middle ground, the liberal and pure as opposed to the libertine or puritan. This isn't even really Catholic sex insomuch as it is HUMAN sex. Like I said last time, sex is marriage, and marriage is what we call a "natural" sacrament, that is it comes from our nature and was ratified by Jesus as a sacrament (as opposed to the Eucharist or Ordination which was directly instituted by Him as a new thing).
So Sex. Marriage. Love. There are so many ways to get it wrong, how do we get it right?
At the insistence of a friend who complained that Popular Sex was too short (I blame the estrogen in the water), here is part two, wherein we take a look at our Puritan heritage in sexual mores.
Last time we dealt with crappy sex. How do I know it's crappy? Gotta be, come on! It's gotta be! Why? I’ll tell you why. Here we are. All of us are basically alone, separate creatures just circling each other. All searching for that slightest hint of a real connection. Some look in the wrong places...
Ten points if you correctly identify the source of the above line.