Thought of the day

Place no hope in princes of the world...it's really showing lately

A blessed Father's Day

The above is an icon of St Joseph and the Christ Child, which was given to everyone for Father's day. I share some thoughts for today probably because I've been reflecting on this for the past few days.

a. A Father leads.

A father first and foremost leads with his heart....A father is willing to give his life for his family, a father conforms himself in the image of Christ by willing to sacrifice himself for the greater good of the whole.

While I'm most certainly not at will to share this conversation, I can only think of talks with my dad relatively recently about what he went through with my mom suffering. It was most certainly heroic, and by no means easy, leading in the way that he knew how.

Looking at the Icon of St Joseph, we see Christ grabbing onto St Joseph's beard. I can only imagine It was St Joseph who taught Jesus how to carve wood, and St Joseph who gave Jesus an example (remember Jesus is both fully human and fully divine)....A father loves with all of his heart, we see this clearly with the icon of St Joseph and Christ Child.

b. A father protects

A father puts himself on the line for his family. A father protects his family from the wolves that attack them. I'm thinking of priests and our bishops who protect us from the wolves that surround us (some better than others)....A father does whatever is in his power to protect us from the wolves.

Think of St Joseph leading the Holy Family into Egypt, protecting Jesus from the wrath of Herod.

Our Example ultimately is Christ, and I know for some of you, your Fathers have not been perfect examples of the Love of the Holy Trinity and the love of St Joseph, but we only have one set of earthly parents....We love our parents as the 4th commandment commands us to do....

So I thus wish all of the Fathers a blessed Fathers day! Those with children, our spiritual fathers, and all that participate in the Fatherhood of God. Amen!

Immediate Prayer Request!

Please pray for my friend Tara and her husband Jim who was just shot today, as well as for Fr Erik and his parish.

Thank you for your charity!

Joe

Some thoughts...

I. On the list of things that happen to personally (pun intended) annoy me is when the good intentioned protestants ask "do you PERSONALLY know Jesus" as if the Faith doesn't allow you to get close to Jesus.

a. The sub-conscious level

There are many functions that we do without thinking about them consciously. Breathing, our daily routine, various things, for me, math, physics, and various other things. When things are on the sub-conscious level, it simply means that things have gotten to be in a pattern where it no longer needs to be at the conscious level. 

Things like making the Sign of the Cross, genuflecting (Roman Rite), bowing (Byzantine Rite) are things we have done so many times that these things occur naturally to us without us really taking the time to think about it. Does it mean that we are doing these things in vain? No, it means that we do them, where we don't have to think about them, so our minds can focus on other things. 

There is a saying that if you don't use something that you will lose it. Our Faith is just like that, if it's not something that we use, or put into practice, more than likely we are to lose our Faith.*

But here's the thing about being Catholic, a sense is built that no matter whether one is a practicing Catholic or whether one isn't, there is this strange ability to relate to one another, even if one doesn't have all of the theological knowledge....

The other day, I was having a conversation with a lapsed Catholic, (whom I did invite to the Divine Liturgy) and our discussion was on the world and what was going on. He seems to get the bigger picture, even though at present, he doesn't seem to be going to a Catholic parish (with the state of Liturgy can you really blame him?)...

I think when the Faith penetrates the sub-conscious it's a good thing, while most certainly it isn't everything, and I'm by no means advocating that everything be done on this level, I think having somethings down where it is not necessary to think about them is a good thing...

The only downfall is that in this particular situation a form of intellectual idolatry can easily come about...But to presume that people have this intellectual idolatry because of doing certain things subconsciously is to be judgemental, which we're not supposed to be :p....

To quote a friend of mine "Jesus is not our therapist"...It's a healthy thing to be able to do things without thinking about them, but of course, lest you lose the meaning of things, it's always good to go back and review the basics just so you don't lose the little things....(Hence the reason I'm always happy to assist people in lower math classes, I like to remember the mechanics of the little things)

II. While the topic is on my mind...

b. Perpetual reminders from people in relationships, that they're in relationships.

I must say, it drives me absolutely insane that people are constantly public about their relationship. For goodness sake, I already know, I don't need 24/7/365 reminders that you're in one. Once is enough...the constant pictures of your b/f or g/f seriously approach the point pissing me off to no end. It doesn't mean you need to be private about your relationship, just tone it down a bit (and by a bit I mean a lot)...True love doesn't need constant reminders :)....As I've stated before, love is an act of the will, it is something that one must choose freely. If it is merely based on a emotional high or low, it will fail....

III. Pope Francis stated the obvious

Well, duh there's a homosexual mafia in the Church, isn't it blatantly obvious at this point? I'm pretty sure the Pope doesn't read this blog, but if he did, here's some advice...

Bring back the Inquisition (thanks to Mundabor) with Cardinal Ranjith, Bishop Schneider, Archbishop Mennini (Nuncio to Great Britain), Cardinal Burke and Archbishop Gullikson as heads....(the only Bishops with enough balls to do this)....Give them one simple order "clean house" ....

Thought of the day

Persevere, through all trials, through all struggles...finish the race!

This is how to address problems....

Thought of the day

You know, constant nudges of our sinful nature, are probably a good way to get one to go to confession :)