New Search Engine–Kartoo Different and rather …

New Search Engine–Kartoo

Different and rather entertaining. It uses as many search engines as you wish. The results are displayed in a unique way. Give it a try.

From Musings of a Catholic Seminarian: I am now…

From Musings of a Catholic Seminarian:

I am now reading Goodbye Good Men. It is really making waves in the seminary because at last we feel the story is getting out. I can’t comment as to whether each individual story is true but I can tell you that the general practices do happen in ways very similar to how they are described. I have either had similar situations happen to me personally or have seen it happen to others.

I don’t attend any of the seminaries mentioned in the parts I have read, but I know their reputations amongst seminarians well. My only regret is that I know this will scandalize a lot of lay faithful. Two key points I have found helpful in dealing with scandalous situations in the Church are:

1)Christ promised not to let the gates of hell prevail against the Church. – In short we either believe him or we don’t. I do. We will get through scandals and come out stronger and hopefully purified. Matt 16:18 and Sirach 2:1-11

2) Ex Opere Operato

From the lighter side: While visiting England, …

From the lighter side:

While visiting England, Al Gore is invited to tea with the Queen. He asks her what her leadership philosophy is. She says that it is to surround herself with intelligent people.

He asks how she knows if they’re intelligent.

“I do so by asking them the right questions,” says the Queen. “Allow me to demonstrate.” She phones Tony Blair and says, “Mr. Prime Minister. Please answer this question: “Your mother has a child, and your father has a child, and this child is not your brother or sister. Who is it?”

Tony Blair responds, “It’s me, ma’am.”

“Correct. Thank you and goodbye, sir,” says the Queen. She hangs up and says, “Did you get that, Mr. Gore?”

“Yes ma’am. Thanks a lot. I’ll definitely be using that!”

Upon returning home, he decides he’d better put some of his old friends to the test. He calls Bill Clinton and says, “Hi, Bill, I wonder if you can answer a question for me.”

“Why, of course, Al. What’s on your mind?”

“Well, your mother has a child, and your father has a child, and this child is not your brother or your sister. Who is it?” Clinton hems and haws and finally asks, “Can I think about it and get back to you?”

Gore agrees, and Clinton hangs up. Clinton immediately calls members of his old staff, and they puzzle over the question for several hours, but nobody can come up with an answer. Finally, in desperation, Clinton calls Colin Powell at the State Department and explains his problem. “Now look here, your mother has a child, and your father has a child, and this child is not your brother or your sister. Who is it?”

Powell answers immediately, “It’s me, of course, you idiot.” Much relieved, Clinton rushes back to call Gore and exclaims, “I know the answer! I know who it is! It’s Colin Powell!”

And Gore replies in disgust, “Wrong, it’s Tony Blair.”

A brush with death. I’m driving to work this mo…

A brush with death.

I’m driving to work this morning when all of a sudden a car crosses the yellow line heading straight for me. Then the driver, a woman, lowers her gigantic coffee cup (must have held at least 40 ounces) and swerves back into her lane. Why do people need GIGANTIC drinking cups–are we the biggest gluttons ever in the history of the world?

Father Casey of St. Dominic’s — combines Wings an…

Father Casey of St. Dominic’s — combines Wings and prayer, from the Detroit Free Press:

Father Pat Casey began seeing signs in the middle of Mass on Saturday. Nobody else saw them. They bore messages he felt a need to share with his parishioners. Urgent messages.

And so, in the middle of Mass, he intoned: “Red Wings 3, Avalanche 2.”

And then, “Red Wings 4, Avalanche 2.”

And then the Red Wings won Game 1.

And the crowd was pleased.

And Father Casey, wearing a winged wheel on his vestment, was pleased as well.

I’m a big sports fan of a number of teams, but this is inexcusable in my mind. It makes a joke of the liturgy which is for all people, not just fans of the Red Wings.

This is a continuation of the 73 Steps to Spiritua…

This is a continuation of the 73 Steps to Spiritual Communion with God. The previous posts are below and in the archives to the right. This is the 34th step:



(34) Not to be proud…

I do not think that it is a mistake that pride is mentioned right after persecution. There are tales that at the times in the early Church, when persecution was waged against the church, that some Christians actively sought to be persecuted and martyred. This was against Our Lord’s command: “When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next,” (Matthew 10:23), and here St. Benedict cautions us not to be proud.

This is a fundamental principle to the Spiritual Life. You can not be proud. Once you start to gloat over the spiritual gifts that you are blessed with, or how well you are doing in prayer, or how much better you are, or how high you are up on the spiritual ladder—you are right back at the bottom of the pit. Your ego has won again and God is very distant from you.

There is a prayer to pray when you feel “proud ” of your spiritual accomplishments. Not surprisingly it comes from God Himself in the person of Jesus. Jesus tells his disciples, “when you have done all that is commanded you, say, `We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty,’” (Matthew 17:10).

We must avoid pride, because it is a great obstacle to be open to our great and unrelenting need for God. Pride at its root seeks to cut God out of the picture. It goes without saying then that pride is the greatest enemy to our communion with God, but it also needs to be said that it is a great temptation when we find our lives becoming so much better because of our communion with Him.