Father

Evangelicals seem to have short memories. I say this because they have strong reactions to things like The Hail Mary prayer, which is just parts of Luke chapter two. I guess they are against Bible memorization? 

Another misconception out there that is even more ridiculous is the reaction to calling a priest Father. I see memes and comments vehemently claiming that NO one should be called Father but God. That's funny, the Bible does not agree. 

Genisus 17:5 Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee.

Genesis 27:32 And Isaac his father said unto him, Who art thou? And he said, I am thy son, thy firstborn Esau. 

Genesis 45:4-8  4 And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt. 5 Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life. 6 For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest. 7 And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.8 So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.

Jesus and the apostles also referred to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as a fathers of the faith. 

There are a lot of other arguements for allowing Catholic priests to be called father but this is the best one. 

Confession, the Misunderstood Sacrament

Part 2 of our series on Catholic Culture is about one of our practices. I wish it were our most popular practices. It is commonly called confession but the official name is the Sacrament of Reconciliation. 

Catholics are encouraged, rather strongly to partake of this sacrament at least twice a year, once during advent and once during lent. Vocabulary side note: Advent is the 25 day preparation period before Christmas in which we prepare ourselves for the second coming of Jesus Christ and Christmas, simultaneously. Lent is the 40 day period from Ash Wednesday until roughly Easter (take away the Sundays and a couple others). 

Why do we do this, you may ask. Because we know that we are sinners and we want to be better people. Yes we do believe that we can just ask Jesus to forgive us. But we also want to grow in holiness. Hiding your sins inside your own mind is NOT going to help you grow in holiness, just like not going to church or being part of the body of Christ and participating in parish life is not going to grow you in holiness either. 

We also want to be like Jesus and his disciples who showed us examples of how we ought to live. Jesus lived with other people and spent His days with them. He "walked in the light" so to speak. We take the admonitions of John and James very seriously, John, in his first letter tells us " If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all[b] sin." Confessing your sins to someone in private is a way to walk in the light. 

And Lastly, James reminds us " Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. ... And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 16 Therefore,confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.  A priest is given gifts when He is ordained, one of them is to give good counsel. There are some great benefits to confession that I have enjoyed, also. You can, of course unburden your conscience, that is the most well known benefit. Lesser known benefits are the reassurance of having a brother in Christ tell you that you are indeed forgiven. 

The priest additionally stands in for those that we have offended that we cannot contact. Our sin can send out bad effects outside of the immediate person we have offended. For instance gossip, once let loose on the world can travel the world over. If we are later sorry we gossiped we can't take it back and it could have uncountable effects on unknown persons. 

We can, however repent to the priest and enlist his prayers for reparation of our wrongdoing and he can forgive us for the community that we have offended. 

As you can see all of the practices of Catholics are firmly grounded in scripture. Since we brought the Bible safely from Jesus and the Disciples all the way to the modern era, we helped make sure it got written down and preserved for future generations, we are pretty well grounded in it. 

Tomorrow I will post the Meme that got this started. Blessings upon you and please pray for me. 

Starting a New Series

So a Facebook meme, as they often do, has gotten my ire. I have decided that this ignorance of other cultures has gone on long enough in these United States and I can be a small part of the solution. Especially since it is my culture that is being misunderstood. 

Were you aware that Catholicism is a separate and distinct culture within American life? We have a different vocabulary and style of living (more about that later). 

Many of the common terms that we used are completely misunderstood. Take the word "pray" for instance. I see strong reactions among normally sane Americans to  common uses of this term by Catholics. 

Some words, like this one, are misunderstood simply because the usage of the term has changed over time. Less than one hundred years ago this term meant to request or to petition something from someone. It did not imply that the person you are addressing is superior to you, nor did it imply that the person you are petitioning is some kind of Supreme authority. Catholics mean it like that, regularly. 

We pray to this or that saint, God, and even angels, and it means we are asking for help, usually prayers or intercessions as they can give. Now it used to be universally understood that Christians live forever, Catholics still believe that and act upon that assumption.

I think that it used to be common knowledge among all Christians that  the Bible tells us that the prayers of the saints rise like incense before God (Revelation 8: 3&4). Indicating not only do the saints pray, but that it is a pleasing fragrance to the Father.

The last point I want to make on prayer is that Catholics love Jesus Christ. He is the one we turn to for life, hope, salvation and healing. He is our rock and out redeemer. When I wake up every day, I greet my Lord, I read His word, and I pray to Him. If I ask the intercession of a saint or an angel, it is a secondary or supplementary approach to getting a need met. 

In future posts in this series I will address other misconceptions on the Catholic way of life and our special vocabulary. God bless you all. Additionally, I will quote the pope in his trademark statement, Pray for me. 

Since I am aware that most internet readers do not read long posts I will save more for another post. 

The Holy Spirit's Choice
It seems like everybody is chiming in on their favorite choice for pope these days. I have read profiles of various cardinals and thought that I would personally prefer one or another. 

But the spirit inside me has called for calm. I think that if we are praying, of course I have adopted a Cardinal and pray for him pretty much daily, God will not abandon His Church! 

Don't panic and have your towel on hand... ok you probably will not have to hitch a ride on the next spaceship that passes, yet.  However, when the cry becomes "Habemus Papam" in the Vatican Square, and you find out that the Cardinals did not elect your favorite man, be patient and trust God. After all, each of these men have lead large groups of parishes in the past with diverse congregations. Some traditional and some liberal. They have had to be diplomats, statesmen and confessors, they were ordained as shepherds of God's flock and whoever they are, they must be gravely humbled to accept this office. 

He, whoever he is, has just spent a number of days in prayer, seeking God's will and the leading of the Holy Spirit. Let us seek God in that same humility and submission to the will of the Father. He will take care of us! 

I got an opportunity to speak with a young lady today outside the abortion clinic. We were there to peacefully pray and be available if anyone wants help. It is a program called 40 Days For Life (see below for more information), She wanted to know what we believed and if we were Catholic, I invited her to our parish, because she said she grew up Catholic. I made sure she knew it was all about LOVE, love for the moms, love for the babies  love for the staff at the clinic. We wish for all to be saved and to live! 

We offer alternatives, support, and love!

Starting Over

To do your will, O my God, is my delight,
and your law is within my heart!" ~ psalm 40.

I am starting over. After several years of being depressed and letting my mind beat me up with "what might have been". I am starting over. 

I am facing a future that is uncertain, and a past that I do not know how to interpret, but I am starting over. 

In order to accomplish this I have been forcing myself to think of other things, mostly scripture and how I can serve my parish. I am attending mass more often, and adoration as often as possible. I am trying to get out more and think about what other people need and how I might meet those needs. It is a much happier way to live. I have tried withdrawing and being off by myself and escaping life as much as possible but that was just not doing a thing for me. 

I am also studying scripture more. I recently acquired the first two books in Carroll's The History of Christendom series. Highly recommended by a well-regarded Catholic Theologian that i know. I am re-reading the first book slowly and with much thought (The Founding of Christendom) in conjunction with Bright's A History of Israel. I always wanted to know more about the Bible and get more in depth with it. 

Being Presidential or Being Ashamed

So, two days ago terrorists stormed our Embassy in Cairo Egypt, tore down the flag of our Sovereign Nation, desecrated it and replaced it with their own terrorist flag. 

THIS IS AN ACT OF WAR!

O say does that Star Spangled Banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? 

NO! It was taken down 3 1/2 years ago when a man took office who is not proud of that flag, who is not looking out for our freedoms. Who is not protecting the lives of the weak and the innocent. Who does not stand for the freedom and democracy that made this nation great!. 

I am sorry, I was proud that we could elect an African American to be our president. I was proud that we could all share in that historic event. But also, i was cautious. There were signs that this man was not presidential material all along the campaign trail. 

I researched him on my own. I was curious, I wanted to get behind the movement to elect him. Hearing that he was an advocate of  the so-called Pro-Choice crowd, i was alert that all may not be as it should be. Then I heard the kind of hate filled preaching that he has been subjected to for many years and seemed to support. Then i heard that he consorted with known terrorists. 

I hunted for articles on him and found one in the Chicago Sun-Times about a man, reputed to be a mafia member, named Tony Rezko who had been indicted, at the time for some dirty tricks in Chicago. I read that this Tony Rezko bought a piece of property for Mr. then-citizen Obama for over a Million dollars and sold the parcel that Mr. Obama wanted to him for much less money and took a significant financial loss by keeping the worthless portion of the land for himself. Hmmm. "Does this mean that Mr. Obama owes a debt of gratitude to Mr. Rezko?" I asked myself. 

I tried to speak out about this but who am I? Just a single mom in a medium sized city with no importance. I was a grain of sand hitting a giant wall. 

I sat and watched what this man would do after all the celebration at his inaugurationI . I saw him make abortions MORE available around the world and offer MY tax money to use for them. I was heartbroken for the little ones. 

Then, I watched him woo the weak in faith in my own Roman Catholic Church into his fold. Then I watched as he attacked the foundation of our faith here in the United States, Our Catholic Hospitals, the Knights of Columbus( who provide Catholic Insurance), even our very Bishops who stood up to him for our true teachings. I was proud of our Bishops but heartbroken for our Church and our nation. 

Now I am ashamed, ashamed that our flag was not defended in Egypt. Ashamed that a man who gave his life for the Foreign Service died with a mob of  hatred around him. I am ashamed that one man stood up and was PRESIDENTIAL and defended our flag and our nation and now he is being browbeaten for it. I am ashamed of our media.