Christ the King

Christ, be my King.

In the end, a man is all that I am.

Christ, be my King.

Won't You Be My Neighbor?

I recently listened to a Peter Kreeft podcast on C.S. Lewis. This was a talk on Lewis' treatment of the three transcendentals: The True, The Good and The Beautiful.

One line from this sticks with me. I think it is particularly relevant for Lent. Kreeft said that after the Eucharist, your neighbor should be treated as the most holy subject. I do not remember if this is from Kreeft or Lewis or maybe a combination of the two. Either way, it is an indictment to me and I'm sure almost everyone reading this.

How often are we putting ourselves equal to, or above our neighbor? How easy is it to rationalize using principles of justice or fairness that reduce our responsibility for love and giving towards our neighbors?

Christ did not ask us to be fair or merely just. He asked us to be merciful and selfless.

I think we sometimes forget how different fairness is from mercy and justice from selflessness.


As for Kreeft, I would recommend pretty much every podcast on his website. My personal favorite is How to Win the Culture War

Ads

So, I put ads on here just for kicks and the off chance that some people might actually visit my blog...well, that doesn't happen much, but the kicks are kickin.

After I posted about strong drink, all the ads were about rehab. I didn't really want to do that again, so I'm using the euphemism of 'strong drink' but who knows, the power of google still might give me ads on 12 step programs.

I do not mean to make fun of 12 step programs. They have saved a lot of lives and souls from serious addiction. If you are reading this, and think you might need one, then go for it :)

What are you giving up for Lent?

I usually try to focus on the positive during Lent. Over the last couple of years, I've started doing more during Lent rather than just giving something up.

Many people think "Oh! It's Lent, I have to give something up!" This is kind of a knee-jerk reaction that is built in. I used to do the same with little more thought. The problem is that when we do this we run into the following situation: "Oooh, dough nuts...maybe I'll just have o...Damn it! I gave that up for Lent! Stupid lent!"

What is accomplished here? Anger at one's choice to give something up...that is about it. If our hearts are not transformed enough, we will receive almost nothing.

I think sacrifice is one of the higher spiritual disciplines that needs to be understood and incorporated into the spiritual life through out the year in conjunction with prayer and not just thrown in at Lent. Sacrifice for the sake of sacrifice is a waste of time.

I'm not trying to say that we should not sacrifice during Lent. That is a key component to the season. However, if someone is not as spiritually mature, I think it is more constructive for their spiritual life to focus more on the prayer in the "Prayer, Fasting and Alms Giving" triad.

Without a solid foundation of prayer, fasting can do more harm than good. I think we (the Church) tend to do a poor job of demonstrating this when we talk about Lent.

Lent is not just a second shot at your new year's resolution gone bad. It's not a means for losing weight for spring break by giving up sweets. It is an opportunity to willingly share in the sufferings of Christ. It is an opportunity to go deeper in prayer to build your relationship with God.

So, my advice is that if you're observing Lent by giving up sweets, and that's about it, then you should think hard and long about giving up some of your time every day instead. Give up the time that might be spent reading this blog, stalking people on facebook, or anything else and spend it with God. ushsbc login That is probably enough of a sacrifice, if not more, to replace the classic 'no sweets' penance. It will help you grow in your relationship with God and by the end of 40 days you won't be able to stop.

I recommend starting with 20 min/day.

The Judge

I am not he.

Getting Crunk

I have to say that alcohol is an enigma to me some times. Biologically speaking, it is toxic for our bodies. Scripturally speaking, Jesus turned water into wine. That was supposed to be a good thing.

There is sort of a dualism within Christian/Catholic circles. Some are more on the, hmm, what's the word, maybe conservative...well, I'll stick with that... Some are more on the conservative side and say 'no alcohol at all.'

There are others, on the opposite end of the spectrum that say God created alcohol and it is very good. Some are boarder line alcoholics and even attribute this to their Catholic heritage.

I think this is again one of those situations where we can apply the moral maxim of 'Virtue is in the Middle'.

I've been thinking about this more because I have been drinking more. No, I don't think I'm drowning my sorrows. But, I have spent more on alcohol in the last 6 months than I have the rest of my life. This is making me worry a little.

Good stewardship says that I should spend my money wisely. This is a fine line for me because I tend to be overly scrupulous in the realm of thriftiness. That's one issue.

The other issue is just putting myself in danger for alcoholism. There has been some family history in that area. I don't think I'm near that point yet, but I want to be careful. Sometimes I feel like it's taking over a little.

The question is whether or not it really is or if I'm just being scrupulous.

(What I'm talking about here is not actually getting 'crunk' but drinking in a moderate manner)

I'm not feeling it...

It's been a long weekend. I spent it with a wonderful friend who I don't see very often. We worked the whole weekend until this afternoon. Then we went to Mass at the Cathedral. I was pretty drained from working intensely for a couple of days and so was she. However, after Mass she was PUMPED just about God and Life. Now, for her, this isn't all that new. She's an intense individual who is very joyful. I, on the other hand, was not too pumped. I remained pretty lame, tired and such.

This made me think. They were talking about being so full of Joy. This was evident without their comments. But, my point is that I haven't felt that in a long time. And you know what...that sucks...

I am tempted whenever I think about this. I'm tempted to be prideful and think that because I'm holy I can take it. Which, clearly is not the case. I'm also tempted towards dispair.

Both of these temptations are obviously gravely disordered. It is still difficult.

Right now, we're at her apartment and several of us are singing praise songs. She just said that "St. Gianna said that if we have Jesus in our hearts, we will bear Joy." This is probably true. I've been running for a while. It's time to head back. I don't know how.

Getting It Done

It is often so difficult to get things done. There are too many distractions around to allow for concentration. I often find myself looking back on a block of several hours having accomplished nothing while feeling like I 'worked' basically the whole time. In reality, I just thought about trying to start working and got distracted over and over again.

I think the remedy, or at least part of it, is to lead a more balanced life.

"Virtue is in he middle." I believe St. Thomas Aquinas said something along those lines. I quote that line a lot and apply it to many situations to which it may not accurately apply. This may be one of those situations.

The remedy is keeping each aspect of my life balanced, that is, in the middle. This way there is room for everything that is necessary and good AND nothing dominates disproportionately. When that domination happens, eventually an overload occurs and those blocks of several hours, as mentioned above, begin to disappear for no good reason.

Instead of toiling/worrying away almost aimlessly in an ineffective way, I could have prayed, exercised and had a one on one conversation in the time that I wasted and I would be much better off.

I know this, but, as it is with many things, that knowledge is usually is not enough to break me out of the bad habit. I've become somewhat of a workaholic where I used to be a professional slacker.

Work is good, but not that good. If anyone has suggestions on how to improve the balance in my life please feel free to comment.

Dawn Eden Talk

Dawn Eden is speaking in D.C. later this month. If you're around, check her out. She has a great message and a different and refreshing approach from others. I'm a fan.

Also check out her book 'Thrill of the Chaste"

- bank sort code checker

Sin Sucks

How is it that sin always seems so real, so present and overwhelming when we're tempted? Virtue becomes an ethereal breath that is barely felt while vice overpowers. Once it's over, the sin turns from what seems to be a luscious spring of necessity to ash. Dirty ash from a bowling alley ash tray.

Why can't we see it for what it is when it comes so close? Why is virtue seemingly so distant?

Can you tell I recently fell from grace?

At times like these, I can understand the temptation to believe in the Calvinist doctrine of utter depravity. Sometimes it feels that way, but that is just what it is, a temptation. There is too much good in between to believe we're depraved.

I am a sinner.

Sin takes something good and twists it, breaks it, and changes it. There is an element of good still in it which the heart desires but the twisting causes the heart to miss the mark.

I think I might, might, post each time I sin big time. That might give me some accountability or at least give you some perspective.