Opening Acts

I was recently down in Des Moines (,Iowa) at a comedy club and things worked out exactly as they should have. They had an opening act that made us all laugh and then had a disappointing second act. But the main comedian was hilarious. It worked a lot better than Marshalltown High School football games where the team was awful but the marching band was awesome.

This time of year makes us aware of some opening acts. There's Mary in the Immaculate Conception and Our Lady of Guadeloupe. The Immaculate Conception reminds us that Mary, in order to be a vessel for the savior of the world, must have been uniquely gifted with freedom from original sin. With the celebration of Our Lady of Guadeloupe, the church remembers Mary's appearance to Juan Diego which had such a profound effect on the Mexican people. Mary's message to build a church in Guadeloupe, Mexico bridged the divide between church and society.

Today's opening act is John the Baptist. We hear a snippet from this fiery prophet who preached repentance and being prepared. He engendered a great deal of faith from the Jewish people of Jesus time and built up quite a base.

Yet, both of these opening acts have one thing in common: both understood that they were preparing the way for someone greater, a son and a cousin. The mark of a good prophet, after all, is to point to something larger than yourself, to God, and help people to prepare for it. This is, in many ways, what the first reading was all about. While the first part of that reading emphasized that the bad will be punished, the second parted seemed to indicate a return to primordial Eden.

"the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the kid;
the calf and the young lion shall browse together,"

And, despite the fact that this is a beautiful scene of cooperation, there's a part of me that wonders if this was code for different tribes. Like, if today, we said,

the bear will be a guest of the viking
and the hawkeye shall lie down with the gopher
the cyclone and the sooner shall browse together.

Perhaps the prophet was saying that tribes that normally don't get along will be able to. One thing that Christians have seen in this is that a little child that will guide them. As Christians, we believe that even Isaiah pointed us to the Christ child.

During this time of opening acts for him, dont' get lost. They're just here to remind us how they prepared for him. We prepare for him by going to reconciliation and by repairing relationships with family and friends that have been lost throughout this year. We also need to find time amidst the chaos of this time of year to make straight our path in prayer, to not let the opening acts of this season of gift giving and Christmas parities distract us from what really matters, the coming of Christ

A few thoghts about being spiritual but not religious

I heard on the Busted Halo Podcast #30 a few people help me to understand with greater clarity the distinction people make between being spiritual and being religious. I have always thought someone who was religious was committed to belief in God while someone who was spiritual was rather uncommitted. In fact, I thought someone who was "spiritual" rather than "religious" was one step away from being "agnostic" because, if you don't practice something and keep thinking about it, you will abandon what you have already learned.

But, according to the people they interviewed, being spiritual is more about making your own path to God while being religious is more communal but also more possible to be corrupted. They cited all kinds of rules that get in the way of their spirituality as an example of religion being corrupted. And, while this is very possibly true, I would think there is just as much corruption in personal spirituality as there is with communal. Perhaps one could argue that personal spirituality has less potential for large acts of aggression as a more communal, religious attitude.

The easy response that I have is that this presumes both are dependant on human creation of the religion and don't take into account the presence of God. I mean, if faith is faithful than it demands that God be more than a passive agent. God is the author of faith, after all. If God plays anything more than a passive role in faith, then it should involve more than just the two of us. Healthy relationships are ones that involve more than just two people. The relationships that scare the heck out of me for marriage prep are when a couple think that they'll get married and won't need others to be part of their relationship. That basically means that everyone else becomes either an obstacle or a compartmentalized component of life, both attitudes which are problematic.

Religion should be a more open experience in common with God. It means that God is not simply a passive component to my life nor a compartmentalized component that has nothing to do with the rest of my life. God is not your imaginary friend. Religion gives us the space to bring the integral relationship we should have with into conversation with the rest of our relationships.

The feeding of the 5000 and the Exodus

I have a feeling I'm the not the first to notice this and that I'm stealing this from someone but here goes....

Today's readings reminded me of the story of the giving of the manna in Exodus 16. And here's why...

2 Here in the desert the whole Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron.
3 The Israelites said to them, "Would that we had died at the LORD'S hand in the land of Egypt, as we sat by our fleshpots and ate our fill of bread! But you had to lead us into this desert to make the whole community die of famine!"
It took the Israelites grumbling for God to give them bread. In the gospel, Jesus anticipates their need and freely gives them bread.
4 Then the LORD said to Moses, "I will now rain down bread from heaven for you. Each day the people are to go out and gather their daily portion; thus will I test them, to see whether they follow my instructions or not.
So, this is a test: Will they take more than they need because they don't trust that God will supply the amount that they need tomorrow. Or will they follow God's word.
5 On the sixth day, however, when they prepare what they bring in, let it be twice as much as they gather on the other days."
In the Gospel, God gives them SEVEN basket's full extra. Here, they are only given one extra portion on the sixth day to prevent work on the sabbath. In Christian typology, Easter (of which the Eucharist is always our connection) is seen as the eighth day, the day of recreation. I think this is pointing to this. God only gave his people extra on the sabbath. But, on the eighth day, the Lord supplies overflowing amounts.
6 So Moses and Aaron told all the Israelites, "At evening you will know that it was the LORD who brought you out of the land of Egypt;
7 and in the morning you will see the glory of the LORD, as he heeds your grumbling against him. But what are we that you should grumble against us?
8 When the LORD gives you flesh to eat in the evening," continued Moses, "and in the morning your fill of bread, as he heeds the grumbling you utter against him, what then are we? Your grumbling is not against us, but against the LORD."
They will know that it was the Lord when he gives them his flesh to eat. This is why, as Catholics, we maintain the eucharist as our focal point of worship, because God gives us HIS FLESH and, through that, we know that he has given it to us.

On that day it will be said:
“Behold our God, to whom we looked to save us!
This is the LORD for whom we looked;
let us rejoice and be glad that he has saved us!”
For the hand of the LORD will rest on this mountain.

Spe Salvi

The Pope has written a new encyclical with the above title on the topic of Christian hope. I sat down and started to read it and made it a while but, much like many of this present Pope's other writings, I find myself pausing often to think about what he is saying fairly often. Here's just one example from paragraph 4...

"We have raised the question: can our encounter with the God who in Christ has shown us his face and opened his heart be for us too not just “informative” but “performative”—that is to say, can it change our lives, so that we know we are redeemed through the hope that it expresses? Before attempting to answer the question, let us return once more to the early Church. It is not difficult to realize that the experience of the African slave-girl Bakhita was also the experience of many in the period of nascent Christianity who were beaten and condemned to slavery. Christianity did not bring a message of social revolution like that of the ill-fated Spartacus, whose struggle led to so much bloodshed. Jesus was not Spartacus, he was not engaged in a fight for political liberation like Barabbas or BarKochba. Jesus, who himself died on the Cross, brought something totally different: an encounter with the Lord of all lords, an encounter with the living God and thus an encounter with a hope stronger than the sufferings of slavery, a hope which therefore transformed life and the world from within."

There are so many things that the Holy Father is saying in this paragraph. The first deals with salvation. As Catholics we don't really have certainty of personal salvation like the evangelicals claim to have. We have "hope" for salvation. The Pope is setting up this encyclical to address what that means.

Also, by using the phrase "political liberation" and not citing the (principally) South American "Liberation Theology" movement, he seems to be addressing the kind of false hope that they put forth. Instead of citing Oscar Romero or one of the Jesuit martyrs, Pope Benedict points to an African slave who was freed by her Christian owners and went on to be a very effective witness to Christian liberation sans Marxism. The reference to Bar Kochba reinforces this. Bar Kochba led the second Jewish revolt by which they were thrown out of the entire country of Israel and their hopes for a renewed Temple were dashed for good. He thought he could, militarilly and politically, bring about a change in status. But he could not. The Pope is asking us to consider that Christ came to liberate us through a holy encounter.

Homily podcast

We've decided to make our homilies available via podcast. So, if you're tired of reading them, you can hear them now here.

Expectant waiting

When you are waiting in a line, are you the type of person who sits and hopes that everyone else will somehow be moved out of the way and you’ll get through or someone who hopes that somehow a new line will open up that is exclusive to you; The Father Dennis line at the gas station. You might know what I mean if you tried to go to a grocery store on Friday. That was the day that everybody in town realized that the storm was coming and that it was time to store up food in case we are stuck in our houses until mid May. So, you may have found yourself four or five people deep at the front of the store with an apple and a can of beans waiting while the person ahead of you has an overflowing cart unloaded on the conveyer belt and the poor cashier, who is doing her best to get people through as quickly as possible, has to find out if that was a braeburn apple or a red delicious.

I think this is kind of similar to the dilemma in the readings today. We hear the first reading about God establishing the Temple Mount as the highest mountain. And, since all gods lived on mountains, the one true God is establishing his as the most important of them all. Then all people will know who the real God is and stop worshipping false gods like Baal and Zeus and Ai. Of course, as Christians, we see in this an image of what heaven will be like. We take comfort in the idea of a time of unparalleled peace; swords into plowshares, spears into pruning hooks, nuclear weapons into space ships. Ironically, this is often what atheists will most fault us for. They say this “pie-in-the-sky” theology amounts to escapism, the notion that we will eventually conquer the forces of oppression but only when we are in heaven. They criticize us and say that we have no stake in the present world because we are constantly obscuring the view of the future.

This, it seems to me, is countered in some measure by the first part of the gospel when Jesus seems to say, not that we need to wait for a more peaceful, hopeful heavenly future but that we need to wait when God will wipe away all the evil from this world. In the days of Noah, people were living their sinful lives, doing what normal people do, and then they found out that God was coming to remove them from the equation, if you will. This is the way it will be when Jesus comes again. People who think they are prospering and living lives without acknowledging God will simply be removed from the equation. That’s what’s truly regrettable about those “Left Behind” books. They’ve completely missed the point of this passage. Jesus isn’t saying that the ones that are taken are taken to heaven. In fact, in context, they are going to be just like the unfortunate people during the time of Noah. They’ll be the ones taken to that place of torment whose name we don’t mention in pleasant company. So, an uncritical reading of Jesus message could be that we need to “be ready” or get prepared for h-e-double right angles. This, of course, leads people to a different type of criticism. Namely, people say that this leads more to a dread of condemnation than to actual faith. And, certainly Jesus doesn’t want to see forced conversion out of fear of punishment. The God who is love would never want someone to be forced to believe simply because they don’t want to be tortured. That’s the way a terrorist organization operates not a God who has given us the free will to choose him.

So, where are we? We don’t want to be pie-in-the-sky Christian simpletons and we don’t want to be hunkered down in fear either. How are we to be prepared? I would suggest that, far too often, people fail to appreciate that the preparation itself is the point. We aren’t simply working toward heaven. We are experiencing God in the here and now, albeit in an incomplete way. The master of the house is exhorted to be prepared, to stay awake and be prepared to keep the thieves out of his house. It seems to me that one of the ways that we do this is to prepare ourselves during this season of Advent. To paraphrase Paul in the second reading: Let us conduct ourselves properly as in the day, not in orgies, drunkenness and other abusive excesses, not in promiscuity, lust and other sexual abuses, not in rivalry, jealousy and other abuses of relationship.

Being a Christian is not simply standing in line waiting for some better life ahead. Nor is it a life of trying to find the path of least resistance in order to avoid the pains of hell. There, I said it. Being a Christian means being prepared all the time. The preparation itself has meaning. “So too, you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.”

A direction for bible study?

Each semester, a group of between 10 and 25 students study one of the books of the bible for six or eight sessions, depending on whether the group wants to turn into a group what is intended to be personal study. Last semester we did the book of Tobit and, since I couldn't find a series that would cover this topic, I ended up doing the research all myself. And, while that was good for me intellectually, it did take a lot more time than I really had to devote to such a project.

So, this spring, I was going to put together another Bible study on the topic of one of the deuterocanonical books of the bible (those Old Testament books particular to Catholic and most Orthodox Bibles); either 1 or 2 Maccabees or Judith. But, then I had another idea.

You may remember, faithful readers, that I was very excited about Pope Benedict's book "Jesus of Nazareth." And, while I found it fascinating, I was also sad that I wasn't sure how I could utilize it for my ministry, other than using his insights in preaching. And then I got this idea. I could put together a Bible Study using the passages the Pope does but then use Pope Benedict's commentary to help guide the Bible study. I'm writing to the publishers to hear what they say. Hopefully they'll let me use passages for free...or at least for a decreased cost. Let's hope this happens.

Remembering our soldiers

I got this link from a staff member. It's a video reminding us that the term "troops" is not just a cliche but is, in fact, another term for people. I have four of "my boys" getting ready to go to Iraq and one of my brother priests is already there getting ready to come home. I don't like being in a war and I know I couldn't serve in it. But, regardless, our soldiers deserve our support.

No Preaching

Because I was in Illinois, I didn't have to organize a homily. And I'm kind of glad because I'm not sure what I would have preached about. I don't remember that being a problem when I was a kid. I could always come up with something that I would preach about when I was critiquing.

But, I'm starting this weekend's homily early. Hopefully, I'll come up with a salient point that will make all the parishioners think, to ponder the gospel anew.

Fun in Ill Annoy

I don't like the state of Illinois. I have had some of the worst experiences of my life in this state. I know it's not this state's fault but it just seems like bad things happen to me in this state. And tonight I added on to it.

I'm staying in a hotel in one of the suburbs of Chicago and, at 11:44 pm the fire alarm went off. Being an obedient person, I went down to the front desk area and was told not to go out in the cold air. I waited until the fire department came and they had to check out mysterious smoke on second floor. As I was standing in the lobby (which is also partially a bar) I overheard the bartender call the security guard. I looked over and saw the security guard getting in the face of an obviously drunk guy while his girlfriend (I later found out that was who she was) was telling him to sit down. Then a manager came and started pushing him out of the bar telling him that the comments he was making were the reasons someone would get thrown out. I started to walk away and I heard the drunk guy sprint at the other guy. The manager was yelling "Call the police!" and the drunk girlfriend was somehow standing beside me saying she had just punched a guy and her boyfriend was going to go to jail. The fire department called for a police over their walkie talkies and came to help in the bar area. I was cold and annoyed and afraid I would get pulled into a fight that I was trying to get away from. Thankfully, no sooner had the firemen begun to ensure that the drunk guy couldn't do any more damage, then another fireman came to tell us we could go back up to this room.

I've been in a car accident in this state. I've been pulled over for doing 2 miles an hour over the speed limit while going down a hill. The police officer gave me a warning. If I didn't have great friends from this state I would boycott it for the rest of my life. I should probably learn two lessons from this

1. Go outside in a fire alarm
2. Stay in a rectory with other priests

Those tricky Beatitudes

To be a truly "sola-fides" protestant is to believe that our conduct has nothing to do with our salvation. It is, at best, an afterthought. Someone who is saved will act in a certain manner but the act itself does not show a willingness on our part to accept the salvation offered us, a willingness to lead a "saved" life. It's just like the exhaust from a car.

I've always wondered how these Protestants deal with those passages of scripture that seem to intimate the necessity for an active love in order to live a holy life. I'm sure that there are a myriad of ways of answering that question, especially in a group that has eliminated an interpretive magisterial voice. But, the most creative way that I heard this past Sunday came from a pastor preaching about the Beatitudes. I wish I could find his name or something since we could probably also find the text of what he said online. Nonetheless, according to him, the key word of the Beatitudes was "brothers". He said that the way we treat the Jews (Jesus brothers) will be the way we are judged. For the moment setting aside the fact that we are moving back into the realm of works salvation and that Jesus, in teaching in the Galilee, is likely surrounded by both Jews and Gentiles close to the Decapolis) and that there is no use of the term brothers in either Luke or Matthew and that Jesus explicitly includes "whoever does the will of my heavenly Father" as his brothers, there is a larger agenda going on here that we Catholics need to know.

Some Protestants are trying to force an apocalyptic agenda down the throats of the church that involves "restoring" Israel and the Temple so that Jesus will come again. They are sending huge sums of money to Israel in an effort to force this end-times agenda. Yet, ironically, the Catholic Church is the one turning to our younger rebellious brothers and sisters to remind them that you can't force God to do anything simply by putting together what you believe to be the perfect end-times formula. I think this is why the Catholic Church so often emphasizes phrases like "Do not be afraid" and "Do not be terrified" we we have these end-times formula. We do no know when Christ will come and believing that we can somehow coerce him into coming is not just silly, it's heretical.

The Sun of Justice will rise

Apocalypse! End of the World! What images or thoughts come to your mind as you hear these words? Fear? Frustration? I’ve had several conversations with people recently on topics related to these concepts. Some people talk about Nostradamus and how he predicted that the world would end in the not too distant future. I’ve even heard the year 2023 thrown around as when he predicted it would end. Of course, if that date is true, it means that I still have 15 years of sinning before I shape up and get ready for the coming of the Lord. Other people see things like global warming and an ever-increasing need for fossil fuels as leading to the end of the world. They say that if we don’t switch to cleaner, renewable fuels and reduce greenhouse gas emissions we will bring about the end of the world. Others are concerned about the global terrorist threat and the threat posed by rogue, radical Islamist movements acquiring nuclear weapons. They see the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as key components to defeating the possibility of the third world war being the charm, if you will. And, while I have no doubt that all of that could bring about the end of the world, I always have to caution people that this is not exactly what we hear in the readings this time of year.

Yet, even as I make that statement, I know that there’s a great deal of hesitancy in Catholic clergy to actually talk about this. Our evangelical brothers and sisters make up for it, however, since some of them seen almost unhealthily fixated on the end of the world. I remember sitting down in Dubuque during college and watching a husband and wife team that would read a passage, usually either from the book of Daniel or the book of Revelation, (You know, those scary books of the bible) and then they would show how world events are directly related to them. Just to give one example that I remember from their program, there is an image of a dragon awaiting the birth of a child. In their interpretation, the dragon was President Clinton and the mother was any mother considering abortion. I was glad to learn in my scripture class that we didn’t share this one-for-one, belief that images in scripture point to concrete people nowadays.

We tend to believe that the images are timeless, that a one-for-one identification of these prophesies is, in general, more detracting from the meaning than adding to it. So, for instance, we hear in the gospel today that “"Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.
There will be powerful earthquakes, famines, and plagues from place to place; and awesome sights and mighty signs will come from the sky.” A fundamentalist would say that the nations Jesus is clearly talking about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the community of nations that were brought to fight against them. They would point to the tsunami that happened a few years ago in Malaysia because of an earthquake and the resulting famine and plagues there, as well as elsewhere, as mighty signs.

I think this is part of the reason that Catholic priests don’t like to talk about this topic at all. We focus on our own mortality or sin and avoid the topic of end times altogether. But, what should we say instead? If I read the gospel right, we shouldn’t be so focused on future events and signs that we lose sight of today. We must pay attention to Jesus when he says, “many will come in my name, saying, 'I am he,’ and 'The time has come.’ Do not follow them! When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for such things must happen first, but it will not immediately be the end." We shouldn’t be so afraid of the end of the world that we lose sight on today, on the preparation that we can do today. It’s like the distance runner who becomes so fixated on the end of the race that he forgets to look down and notice the pothole right in front of him. We should be constantly prepared for the God whose coming won’t be cloaked in shadows. When God comes it will be as clear as the sun rising in the East. We, Christians, shouldn’t be afraid of that thought. As the prophet Malachi said, “for you who fear my name, there will arise the sun of justice with its healing rays.” We have been shown the love of the Son of God who has healed out sins and invites us into a new relationship with God as our Father. Now is the time to repent. Don’t put it off to some fictional time invented by a seer. Now is the time to have reverent love for the God who first loved us and calls each of us by name. Now we are in the end times, a time of hope and reconciliation. Don’t be terrified. By your perseverance you will secure your lives.

Beginning Thanksgiving break

Iowa State gives their students one full week surrounding the Thanksgiving holiday to go home, rest, and relax. It's also a time for the campus ministers to rest and relax. I'm going to use the time to work on the second semester bible study and a project which will likely be my November project for the rest of my life.

I have gone to several priest funerals in my first five years of priesthood and I've noticed something infuriating. Despite our consistent insistence that family members shouldn't give eulogies during mass (it should happen at the wake), priests ALWAYS eulogize their brother priests. So, I'm going to start writing my own homily that the vicar general will read. I don't care who the vicar general will be when I die. I just want people to believe more in Jesus Christ and the salvation he gave to us than in Dennis Miller and any salvation I have...because I have none to give. It probably seems a bit depressing to want to write your own funeral homily but I think it will be similar to my "opus," if you will. It won't be exceptionally long. It will just draw people more to Christ's resurrection than to my own.

sorry for the long absence

I wish I had a better excuse for not blogging but the best I can do it general hectic schedule. October is a busy month for campus ministers. I'm hoping to catch up some in the upcoming months because things have definitely calmed down. I hope to comment upon the news that I heard recently about the sacramentary as well as about something I was thinking about on my walk the other day...if only I can remember it. So, consider the the "please stay tuned" post in my blog.

Antioch...where the Christians were first called Christians

Our staple retreat here is a three day event called "Antioch". It's a typical three day conversion type of retreat that Catholics have been doing since the early to mid eighties. In some ways, the weekend is fairly predictable and the results are pretty good.

What surprises me each year is not that something drastically new happened. It's the connections that are made. People whose faith is drifting decide to start up again. People who need a reason to darken the church find one. It is a truly joyous time to see it happen. And it's always inspiring to me to hear college students talk about their own faith struggles and successes. I see the college students find a connection with someone their own age and see a college student who has been struggling with what message he or she wants to convey finding the voice they didn't know they had. I'm glad that this is moving into being a permanent part of my ministry here at St. Thomas.

I generally get sleep deprived, however, on these weekends so that, by Sunday, I'm a little silly. And the title to this post just cracked me up when I said it on Sunday while explaining where I was. I think they call it being "punch drunk". I just thought it was hilarious. I mean, what were the Christians before they were Christians? What would we be called if Antioch never happened?

Saying goodbye to my son

I learned on Wednesday of the death of my son. He wasn't my biological son since I don't have any of those. He was my spiritual child. Ryan was the type of kid that lit up the room when he entered. He was faithful in terms of mass attendance, even enduring the constant Iowa State Cyclone joke I told despite being a ardent Iowa Hawkeye. He had numerous health problems and died from one of them.

Ryan showed me what it means when they call me father. He often came into my office and unloaded problems onto my shoulders. School was hard and, even though he was not the type of person that gave up easily, he eventually had to go to a smaller school with more personalized attention. I helped him come to peace with that decision and mourned when he left to go across state, vowing that I would stay in touch. Now I mourn that he has left forever. I will miss him.

But, I have learned from him and I will remember him. Whenever I ask someone to hold my book at our 10:00 mass on Thursdays, I will think of how he used to do that. When I see someone walking towards me chewing gum in the student center, I will think of him. I will thank God that he put someone like Ryan into my life and let me be his father.

Why full immersian baptismal fonts aren't necessarilly good for the catholic church

We have a mass at 10:00 on Thursday nights. At the end of mass, before the final blessing, we allow students to make announcements about the events that are coming up. But, we limit the time because it can take up to ten minutes to get through them all. And, I'm exhausted.

There was one student who was taking soooo long to get his announcement in and, when we told him that, he slowed down. So, I flawlessly jumped the font and took the microphone away from him. I handed it on to the next person and started to jump back to the other side.

I say "started" because I FAILED! I ended up with my legs in the font and my torso on the other side. I felt totally embarrassed and wished that I could have just fallen through the floor into the basement. The students made me feel old because they were more worried about making sure I was alright than they were about mocking me. I deserved to be mocked. But, I did get my point across. Keep the line moving!

Sisters of Perpetual indulgence

I heard about this story the other day. To make a long story short, Archbishop George Niederauer of the San Francisco Archdiocese gave communion to two people wearing costumes that made it clear that they openly dissented from church teaching. The group that these two belong to call themselves the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, which is a pro-gay group that dresses in a mock version of the traditional catholic habit that most nuns in this country wore at one time. It's very easy, for this reason, to know who is part of this group and know who is not so people believe the Archbishop should not have given them communion. The fact that he did has caused a great deal of scandal to the church and is a great tragedy. I may be naive but I imagine the Archbishop has no idea what this group really advocates. I watched two incredibly scandalous youtube videos where the group describes themselves and it's so obvious that their mission is completely foreign to the mission of Jesus Christ and his church. If you want to see them, you can click on these two links...

Please don't watch them if you are not an adult!

here

and here

and they'll take you to them. I have the time to research this. I bet the Archbishop had no idea of the true malice this group has for the church. It represents everything that is ugly about the pro-gay movement in the world and seems to cement for me why we shouldn't endorse this movement in any way. It's one thing to say that we shouldn't persecute people for any reason but this group is a great example of why we also cannot accept all movements as genuine and from the spirit. These are lost souls in need of contrition and they openly admit that they believe they want "guilt free" religion in the first video. They say that we just shouldn't feel bad about themselves. We believe all have fallen short of the glory of God.

Let us pray for the people of San Francisco and their Archbishop.

thoughts on the US Catechism of the Catholic church

I discussed chapters 2 through 5 of the US Catechism. It moves from revelation to the relationship of scripture and tradition to the definition of faith. It's moving us toward a study of the creed. The US catechism isn't as definitively connected to the creed as the universal catechism.

I was fascinated with the discussion that happened. We really discussed the chapters and I got them to talk. That never seems to happen in seminars. It was a lot of fun and I feel like I got an important point across, the difference between dogma, doctrine, and theological opinion. People learned a little theology. We clarified the importance of the Magisterium. And all people walked away a little better off.

Which was really good since one of my students died last night and I've had a lot of trouble dealing with it. He was a great young man and I will miss seeing him visit. It was hard to hear that and keep being a priest to everyone else. But they needed me to do that so I did what needed to be done and I'm thankful that God was there through it all.

Let us give thanks to the Lord our God

My homily this weekend focused on the idea of thankfulness, which makes sense since the gospel was about lepers that were rather ungrateful. Nine received healing and never went back to thank Christ whereas one, a foreigner, went back to thank him.

I think one of the ways we thank God is in the little things. The phrase "Thank God!" is used more in sarcasm than any other. I suggested that students could thank God after a hard test, that adults could thank God before and after a hard day of work and we could all take the time to Thank God when we turn on and off the TV. I thank God that I remembered to post my homily, even if it's just the summary version.