Wherein I rant! : Bad Catechism and Confirmation

In plain English.....

It is incredibly sad that many students see the sacrament of Confirmation as a sort of "graduation" from catechism class. After all, they receive gowns, certificates (diplomas) get to walk across stage (along the altar rail), get dressed up, celebrate with family, get to take pictures at the end, and never have to report with their catechism books and pencils ever again. After Confirmation, the Confirmation "CLASS" never again is required to attend "mandatory" class Masses, do homework about the Sunday Scripture, write essays about their "favorite" saints who most of them have no devotion to other than they share a name with a family member, or think about going to church. After all, no one is going to go after them if they don't go to church, and if someone does, they're a "Jesus freak" that is a loser for wasting time on Sundays when they should be hanging out at the local varsity football game. 

Throughout their catechism careers as students, these kids week after week (for the most part) fought their parents on going to class. Excuses being that they don't need any extra schooling, it's boring, and it's irrelevant to everyday life. However, most parents, though they themselves agree with those claims, force their kids to go to catechism for a number of different reasons. Common reasons are:
1. To get that picture of your son/daughter in a red gown that everyone else has in their living room.
2. I suffered through it; they should too.
3. What would happen if my mother (who goes to daily mass and is head of the Rosary Society) found out that I didn't send my kid to catechism.
4. Everyone else is forcing their kids to do it.
 and the mother of all reasons,
5. I want my son/daughter to be able to get married in church.

Since too many parents tend to agree with the idea that catechism, God  and church aren't important things in life, they let their kids treat Confirmation as a graduation and therefore an end of something rather than what it truly is, a beginning of something even greater. 

Confirmation can be summed up in 3 letters: GAP.
G  ifts of the Holy Spirit received- consecration to the Holy Spirit
A  dulthood spiritually- take complete responsibility in conjunction with sacramental grace
P  romises of Baptism renewed and made your own

All three of those points us to a new life in Christ, a spiritual adulthood if I may call it that. Confirmation gives us the tools to handle that spiritual adulthood. Those tools are the sacramental grace of the  7 Gifts of the Holy Spirit:

• Wisdom

• Understanding

• Counsel

• Fortitude

• Knowledge

• Piety

• Fear of the Lord

Yes, these are VERY important for someone to have!!! Therefore, it is very important that you take your Confirmation seriously because it's your life not mine, and these tools are gifts from above to make your life and the lives of others BETTER! 

It is with these very important tools, that I pray all confirmandi go out into the world and do God's will. Confirmation is the start of a new chapter of your life in which YOU have the reigns to steer your soul on the course of your choosing. Let that course be one in accordance with God's will. I pray that your life story and mine ends with heaven as our eternal epilogue. 

Congratulations on your Confirmation, and may the Lord's work be ever done through your hands.

May God bless and reward you! 

Can You Imagine?

 +JMJ+

"Fratres: obsecro vos ego vinctus in Domino, ut digne ambuletis vocatione, qua vocate estis."     -Ephesians 4:1

"Brethren: I beseech you, I, a prisoner of the Lord, that you might walk worthy of the vocation which you have received." -Ephesians 4:1

What's your vocation? What are you called to do with the life which was given to you?

Perhaps you're called to be a consecrated religious or cleric. Have you considered these options fairly if at all? In my opinion, if you're a girl, you haven't fairly considered the option of religious life as a vocation if you haven't checked out the group called "Imagine Sisters". 

From their website:

"Imagine Sisters is a grassroots, web-based movement to promote young women’s vocations to religious life. Our team is comprised of Sisters, young women, and seminarians from around the United States. We want to show the world the beauty, joy, purpose, and fun of becoming a sister in the 21st century!

The sisters featured on the Imagine Sisters website and films are from orders that have graciously provided our content and support for our movement."

Imagine Sisters isn't just for women to discern the vocation to active religious orders. They're very big on sharing info about contemplative life as well. It's mission is exactly as stated above: "to promote young women's vocations to religious life."  Ladies, I invite you to check out this amazing organization to help you see if religious life is you're calling. May God bless you, and may God bless the Imagine Sisters Movement!

Check it out!!

www.imaginesisters.org

Liturgical Music

On Monday, September 10, 2012 I embarked on retreat with a choral group that I belong to, Kellenberg Memorial High School's Gregorian Consortium. The retreat served a practical purpose because the following morning, the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2012 we went together to Point Lookout Beach to sing at the Town of Hempstead 9/11 Memorial Service. Naturally, as a liturgical choir going on retreat for the first time together, the theme of the retreat was music.

Monday night, we gathered in the retreat house living room and took 5 minutes to write down the names of a few artists whose music reached us emotionally on a personal level and why. We also had to come up with, in lieu of the annual letter of intent, a few reasons why providing liturgical music is important. Then we would all share.

My list was unique, to say the least. The Carpenters, The Bee Gees, L'Angelus, & the choir at St. Ladislaus (my parish). I explained that Karen Carpenter's voice was just enough to make me cry, how the Bee Gees reminded me of my grandfather who I love dearly, and how the power behind the music of L'Angelus was great and how when I think about that band, I see a musical family who seems to have a wonderful example of what Catholic joy is all about.

Then I got to the St. Ladislaus Choir. I said a little something like this:

"So, as some of you may know, I attend Mass that is said in a different rite than all of you. In the Extraordinary Form of the Mass, also affectionately called the Traditional Latin Mass, it's not like the English one because there isn't too much dialogue between the priest and the congregation. It provides a plentiful amount of time to pray and meditate on what is going on at Mass before you because as you follow along you don't have to worry about what to respond and such. It's generally very quiet. However, and this is especially true for Missa Cantata, or Sung High Mass... As for any of you that take Spanish, "cantar" means "to sing". ... Anyway, there is plenty of time for you to be there absorbing the sacrifice that is going on before your very eyes, and to allow the music provided to permeate every fiber of your being. And when you encounter the beautiful music in a way you are encountering the Divine. Because "God is Ultimate Beauty". Art matters because it elevates your spiritual experience by exposing you to the beautiful which is in a sense exposing you to God."

I would like to share that with all of you because many people out there in the Church are involved with or are exposed to Liturgical music ministry in some way shape or form. When we encounter beautiful music, we experience God in a similar way to when we encounter truth and love. Please support those who provide liturgical and religious music to your parishes and in your schools and universities. Whether that be by joining their ranks or making a donation or other contribution to bringing what is beautiful to the faithful.

 Kellenberg Memorial High School Gregorian Consortium

We Are Catholic

Catholic Identity needs to be shared among all those who call themselves Catholic. If you're curious about Catholicism, fallen away from Catholicism or are looking to deepen your Catholic faith, please feel free to contact me, and I can help you find someone or something to aid you on your way! 

How Do You Measure Up?

+JMJ+

Feast of the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary 

How does your life measure up to the lives of others? In the race to have the biggest yet thinnest television set on the block for Sunday football, are you leading? Do you have the most expensive car on the street? Are you living in the biggest house in the neighborhood? Is your boat the newest at the marina? Is your spouse in better physical shape than your co-worker's? Are your kids top of their class? Is your relationship with your spouse better than your romantic neighbor's?

We are constantly bombarded with these questions about how we measure up to others in society. We can so easily be distracted by a desire to be on top of everything! This desire stems from our human narcissism which we have thanks to good old Adam and Eve. (if you know what I mean) The real question we should ask ourselves is how are we living comparatively to  the way God wants us to live.

We are not meant to compare ourselves to other people. If we do that, we can be lead astray from the path which God has personally designed for us. But what does that have to do with coveting your neighbors goods and/or wife?

What your neighbor has, according to Christ, comes with a responsibility. That responsibility is to do God's will with it. Naturally, that gets more and more difficult with the more that you have because the more you have, the less likely you are to give ALL of it away. Now, we know that that does not mean give everything you have to charity, it means that you should use everything you have FOR THE GREATER GLORY OF GOD, by using it to care for physically, mentally, and emotionally, the people of God on earth for "whatever ye shall do to the least of these my brethren ye shall have done it unto me."

Think about it the next time you turn green with envy at the sight of someone else's new iPhone or anything else. Rather than dwelling on how you'd like to have that, perhaps you should assess how you're using what you currently have to serve our Lord.

Lying in the New Testament

I know that we have already covered the seventh commandment, but I would like to share with you a story from chapter 5 of the Acts of the Apostles. It seems to be more about lying then about stealing, anyway. The New American Bible footnote reads "the sin of Ananias and Sapphira did not consist in the withholding of part of the money but in their deception of the community. Their deaths are ascribed to a lie to the Holy Spirit, i.e. , They accepted the honor of accorded them by the community for their generosity, but in reality they were not deserving of it."

So, here's the story…

A man named Ananias however, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property. He retained for himself, with his wife's knowledge, some of the purchase price, took the remainder, and put it at the feet of the apostles. But Peter said, "Ananias why has Satan filled your heart so that you lied to the Holy Spirit and retained part of the price of the land? And when it was sold was it not still under your control? Why did you contrive this deed? You have lied not to human beings, but to God." When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last, and great fear came upon all who heard of it. The young men came and wrapped him up, carried him out and buried him. After an interval of about three hours, his wife came in, unaware of what had happened. Peter said to her, "tell me, did you sell the land for that amount?" she answered, "yes, for that amount. "Then Peter said to her, "why did you agree to test the Spirit of the Lord? Listen, the footsteps of those who have buried your husband are at the door and they will carry you out."at once, she fell down at his feet and breathed her last. When the young men entered they found her dead, so they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. And great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things.

Acts 5:1-11

Why Hollywood Matters

"Why do pagans make the best Christian themed movies?"

"It's Ninevah. Trust me; I live there."

Share this video with a friend if you believe God is ultimate beauty!
Especially share this video with a friend if "man-hands-mary" almost made you cry because it's so ridiculous!

You know, when it comes down to the people making the movie (towards the end) that didn't want to pay for it, relying on the intercession of St. Therese... I think God might be offended by us not offering everything we can possibly offer for him to work with even if that includes money to hire help. Granted, God is good to rely on to make a movie, but he wants to work through YOU!