a. A blessed Christmas season.
One of the joys of being Catholic is that Christmas isn't merely a day long. We get the Liturgical Octvave of Christmas, and Epiphany tide. So thus, Merry Christmas to everyone. I hope that all of you have had many blessings bestowed upon you.
Christmas is the season to receive the Child Jesus.
I went to midnight Mass at St Mary's in Pendelton, best midnight Mass I have been to in a while. Benedictine arrangement, orthodox homilies, and the Communion Rail is get this used :D. Communion is distributed by Intinction at the rail kneeling....I wish all parishes did this...please keep Fr Clemens in your prayers. I'm sure it's going to be an uphill battle for him. I must say it was beautiful to see virtually everyone receiving on the tongue and kneeling at the altar rail.
b. Thoughts on the Sandy Hook shooting...
Stupidity can't be legislated against, but good can be. Those of us that are trying to do good often get punished by those that do evil or those that act contrary to the law. We need to be more attentive to the signs of mental instability. No, we do not need to have more gun control, but it's probably not a good idea to give someone who is depressed a gun, nor is a good idea to give someone with tendencies towards violence towards others a gun. The federal gov't can't even balance a budget, they certainly are not going to solve school violence. If anything, problems need to be solved at the local level. However as I said, these problems can't be solved by legislation. They have to be solved by a whole sale transformation of society.
c. The Fiscal Cliff manufactured by our own stupidity crisis
Any deal will ultimately be worse than the actual problem itself. The federal gov't spends more money than it takes in. Perhaps it should spend less to fix this problem. However we have a situation where many are dependent on the gov't for everything and that is a bigger problem. Again, these problems can't be legislated to be solved, they have to be solved by a changing of society. We need to get a society that will take responsibility for their own actions, assist others when they truly need such. Quite frankly, I think the real solution is to give the fedral gov't of $ 1. Then that will teach them how to spend money properly. No more debt ceilings, no more stupidity....While you can certainly tax your way out of prosperity, there is absolutely no way to legislate school shootings out of existence. Maybe we ought to learn something from previous generations and their violent cartoons, what did they do that prevented things like this from happening?
d. The top 10 lessons (not in any order, that happen to be in order) from 2012
1) Being untrue to your identity does not help you
Granted the 2012 election was fixed from the beginning, but let's be honest, the reason Mittens wasn't voted for was because he's merely a symptom of the problem that has infected the GOP. No ability to communicate their message. As the old saying goes, better to have an honest liberal, than a false conservative. At least with the honest liberal, you know it's intentional. :D
2) Don't let the gov't make up the rules, then get mad when they change them on you.
While the USCCB is getting better as a collective whole, as a collective whole they still don't get it. We have to convert ourselves interiorly (the Liturgy (by being faithful to the rubrics, the Doctrine (teaching all of it, and faithfully living it out), and various other matters) before we can convert exteriorly. How about this before we talk HHS mandate, we stop funding organizations that are contrary to Church teaching? Deo gratias for the Pope's Motu Proprio. How about we be faithful to the Church's Liturgy by following the darn rubrics? Now is the time to return and be faithful...then and only then will the message resonate and the faithful will follow ;).
3) It's still hard, any way you slice it.
There were a few 10 year anniversary things that happened to me this year. It's been painful for me to recall loss and to recall all of the events that have happened. It seems so close and yet so far away. Time does not heal all wounds, it does however extend them.
4) You can fail and succeed
Just look at Congress and the White House
5) No man knows the hour...
Yet again someone else tried to predict the end of the world. What part of No man knows the hour does not make sense? I often joke for every day that man tries to predict the end of the world, it gets one day longer. At this rate the world isn't going to end ;)
6) Work in progress, you betcha.
I've had plenty of opportunities to be reminded that I have a far way to go. It's like one step forward, two steps back on steroids. I'm not kidding when I say pray for me :D
7) Jordan Pruitt is still amazing
I don't hide my
8) The Lakers...real life version of dumb and dumber.
I don't know which hire was dumber, Mike Brown, or Mike D'Antoni? Neither coach is able to utilize the talent that they had. If only they hadn't burnt that bridge with Phil ;)....Oh well, I'm kind of enjoying the fireworks....At least from a distance.
9) Prayers do go answered.
At the parish that I was confirmed at, they ended the pouring of the Precious Blood from the glass kool-aid pitcher. This has been about a 6 year prayer finally made manifest. It doesn't matter to me whether it was a dictate from the Archdiocese office of LA, or a parish decison, I'm glad it was made.
10) Expectation and reality are often 2 different things.
I had a scheduled publishing date of the 12/28, but I have been intensely busy with re-editing after reviews from the higher ups. That will be delayed :). A better time to perfect everything else I guess.
e. New Years' Bucket List (or so called resolutions)
1) To get to Russia without gov't interference.
2) To attend a Pontifical High Mass in the EF.
3) To encourage more priests to celebrate the EF
4) To encourage priests to be faithful to the rubrics of the Mass in the OF.
5) To visit at least 3 other countries in Eastern Europe.
6) To blog at least 500 posts this year.
7) To visit Australia
8) To sin much less this year.
9) To give at least 10 full physics/math lectures in Russian.
10) To convert more people to kneeling to receive Him in Holy Communion :).
f. I have been sick for the past few days. Please pray that I do feel better soon :). I was also supposed to visit California and say hey to my friends back in Ca; however, thanks to a blown tire this can't happen :(.
g. I wish all of you a blessed Epiphany with my favorite propers of the Church Liturgical year interestingly enough.
h. I am behind on about 6 blog posts. I will post them in due time. Please pray for me.
Pax Vobis
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