Peters Blog

Why bother keeping a blog?

2010-10-12T10:37:00.000-07:00

I have decided to take up the blog again. I used to use this blog mostly for the purposes of saving my talks in a place where I could access them wherever I was- you can tell, because some of the older posts are even in point form! I figured that, despite the disjointed sentences, there was a possibility that someone may get something out of the notes- and indeed, people have (judging by the comments). I should mention too that I consider this blog tyo be an extension of my ministry at OLVC and at Sacred Heart Church in Wetaskiwin. As such, I do not mind comments that dissagree with what I am saying, however, if my commenters are so limmited in their vocabulary that they feel they have to include curses, or likewise- I will delete them! After all, I am even going to link this to my websites!

So, to begin the new era of blogging, I should mention why I have taken it up again. There is a part of me that is reluctant. It is somewhat self glorifying to think that people would be that interested in what I have to say, or whatever I am pondering on a given day. I only want to do things for the glory of God. But I sometimes wonder if the idea of only doing things for the glory of God sometimes prevents Chriustians from creating. we are so afraid of the secondary objective, that out of 'humility' we do nothing at all!

After all, "the Glory of God is Man Fully Alive" (St Irenaeus). Our dignity of man consists in being created in the image and likeness of God, which includes the creative potential that is unique to God. So as men we are not glorifying God unless we are using and developing our gifts. The fact that our motives are tainted (tainted may be a garve understatement) should not prevent us from doing the things which god uniquely created us to do!

So there it is. There is another reason that I have chosen to embrace blogging. Despite whether or not anyone will actually read this, it is good to develop clarity of thought and of expression through writing. In order to facilitate this, I have for many years been in the habit of keeping a prayer journal, consisting of letters addressed to God. Each time I fill a journal, I promptly destroy it(against the sagacious advise of others) because if I were to die suddenly, I do not want anyone to know the full extent of my sinfulness!

But prayer ought to have as it's focus the person to whom you are praying- that is God. Hence the fact that it is such a good practice to begin prayer with praise and worship- this raises your mind to think of God and who it is you are actually adressing. My prayers are most often intellectual ponderings or introspective naval gazing. Whereas a blog allows all of you to gaze at my naval! (I apologize for the disturbing imagery.)

So, this is it. Consider this a preamble to things to come. I will also be creating a new blog, "Ask Peter", in order to field questions from teenagers about their faith or how they live it! Please note that I am only a lowly Youth Coordinator, and no theologian... if you want better answers, I refer you to www.catholic.com or www.EWTN.com.

100huntley.com -

2009-10-08T09:24:00.001-07:00

100huntley.com - "Maisha" - Mully Children's Family Choir

Shared via AddThis

Praise and worship.

2009-08-26T15:06:00.001-07:00

I had written previously about the striking poverty I found in Kenya, and the conviction I now feel to live more simply. Now I would like to write about the matters of faith that I encountered.

An interesting thing in Kenya was the contrast of the faith. In Canada, Muslims and Christians, Hindus and Jews, all live side by side in near perfect harmony. This is the case despite the fact that often a difference in religion is manifested in a difference of skin tone or style. We are remarkably tolerant, overall. I was surprised when speaking to a beautiful, well educated girl in Malindi named Flavia, when she commented that she had never spoken to white people (mzungus) before. Malindi had a fair share of Italian Tourists, and despite being educated she could not find work so she worked as a cleaning lady in the hotel. So, I asked about the many Italians she must have spoken with.

However, those conversations did not count, as those Italians always treated black people 'like garbage'. She and others were astonished to learn that should they come to Canada, they would be treated like everybody else and in fact we likely wouldn't even really think much about it.

The first region we went to in Kenya was called Embulbul. It was cold there- the high altitude and the fact that it was winter (Kenya straddles the equator, but Embulbul is south) meant that the highs each day were only near 20 degrees, but for most of the day it was closer to 12 degrees. Despite being so far in land, Embulbul had a Mosque, which would sound it's call to prayer 5 times daily- most notably at about 4am. This trend continued so that in each place we stayed we were woken at that time every night. Of them all, Malindi was the worst, because there were at least 3 Mosques in the region, and each seemed determined to chant louder than the others. Loud speakers set at the top of the towers allowed that they would be heard clearly from wherever you happened to be, and even with windows shut, fan blowing, and ear plugs in, you would be awakened by the noise.

In contrast, the Christians were very quiet at 4am- they only started making noise at 7am. I admit, we were in part responsible for the noise. We were holding rallies in each of the towns, which they referred to as 'crusades'. Crusades are held in open air, often in the market place, so as to draw in those who are not of the faith and to evangelize. At first I was quite nervous about doing this in places where it seemed evident that Christians were the minority and Muslims the majority.

Crusades were a practice popular amongst the pentecostals. In fact, each morning on KBC (Kenya Broadcasting Corporation) video of a crusade could be watched. It consists first of all with Kenya style praise and worship- which, for us, meant keyboard music backed by keyboard drum and slightly shrill singing being played too loudly over a speaker system not equipped to handle the volume, and dance. The dance was in essence a line dance, wherein 10-20 members of the praise and worship team in matching t-shirts would follow one leader who would perform a rhythmic act over and over for a few bars, and then switch. It was not difficult to learn the dance, except that you had to figure out who was the leader so you could catch the switches.

It was fun, but I remember thinking that if I were an agnostic in Kenya, and I saw the Christians doing their silly dances and the wild eyed preachers who appeared to be scolding everybody, and then saw the somber and severe muslims with their disciplined call to prayer, I would be more attracted to the muslims. Here are some videos I found of what the music and dance was like- though these are more polished;

The last place we went was called Marafa- and we began the ministry there by going door to door and through the market inviting everyone to the crusade. There a group of children, let by a young man of about 20, literally came marching in just before the rally started, and took their seats at the front. When the music started, they went to the clearing area being used as a stage, and began their own line dance. It was as though they were competing with the praise and worship group that had come in, and, I have to admit, they were better.

They left as soon as the music ended, which was also odd because that is when the preaching would start. It was later determined that they were a protestant group, and that they were in fact in dirrect competition. Church planting is a big business in Kenya- everybody tithes, however poor or indebted they are, and so if you can begin a church and attract at least 10 followers, you would have a living wage. If you could attract more, you would be wealthy. And arguably, you would only have to work once a week. It was for this reason that it was so essential to teach people apologetics, because in Kenya there was much more at stake to motivate people to convert Catholics.

(It should also be mentioned that this same economic principal led to men desiring priesthood as a means towards social and economic advancement, and as such some of the abuses symptomatic of medieval Europe are found among he clergy.)

I became quite frustrated by the fractured nature of Christianity. The divisions are mostly caused by misunderstandings and myths, and political and economic motivations. This has so crippled the Christians in Kenya as to make them unable to properly combat the paganism, Islam, and social injustice that was rampant!

It is in part because of the ignorance and misinformation than a mission is so important. Before going, people would ask why an evangelistic mission to Kenya was necessary, as Africa has a reputation for having faith filled, Orthodox Catholics. I have seen now that this reputation is in large part unfounded, or simply based on he cardinals and bishops, but not the laity. Because the laity I encountered seemed inclined to obedience and enthusiasm, if only they were taught the truth.

Our mission consisted in two teachings in the morning, primarily apologetics, and the afore mentioned rallies in the afternoon. After the teachings, we would field questions. Apologetics was an important topic because of the competitiveness of the denominations. However, an even more important topic was Theology of the Body.

I discovered this to be the case after giving a chastity talk to teenagers in embulbul. I fielded questions after, and one of the first questions asked was ' Is it OK to have sex on the first date.”. Clearly for that girl, my message had been lost. But it also indicated to me that these teenagers had no idea what chastity was or what the Church taught about sex! And so many of the problems in Kenya- Aids, polygamy, overpopulation, poverty, could in part be alleviated by a propper education on these themes. The UN continues to maintain a philosophy of handing out condoms and hoping for the best. This would be like going into a region where there was drinking and driving problems, and making sure there was seat belts installed in all the vehicles. We the church must educate them! (both the Africans and the UN.)

I began including a teaching on Theology of the Body in the adult sessions- and it was that topic that raised the most interesting and telling questions. Here are a few gems.

“If my Husband cannot satisfy me sexually, can I find another man who can?”
“If my husband is impotent, may I create children with another man?”
“If I have 5 women, and I marry one of them, can I still sleep with the other 4?”
“Is aids Gods curse?”
“Why are men not satisfied by one woman?”
“If I am a Catholic woman, married a man who I didn't know was a polygamist and had several wives already, can I still receive communion?”

This last one was hard- I asked the Bishop of Malindi, and he said 'No'.

The long and the short of it is this- we must continue to go to Kenya to teach them the truth about Christianity, about sex, and about the charismatic movement (which is misrepresented by the pentecostals and by some rogue, undisciplined leaders) and we must bring them the truth of the hope of redemption, that they can be freed from their sins.

Reflections on Africa

2009-08-21T07:45:00.000-07:00

Perhaps it was a little Naive of me to think that I could just update this blog from Kenya while on mission. The people are poorer than I thought- most have absolutely no internet access, and so I did not have the opportunity to write at all along the way. Instead, here I am again at the end of the journey, and I suppose I might as well write some reflections!

Africa was absolutely amazing- the mission was one of the best experiences of my life. I remember a few years ago, my friend Shauna Page visited Ghana, and upon her return the thing that stood out most to her was the culture shock of returning. The culture shock arriving there is one thing, but it's when you come back and are suddenly confronted again with how superficial and consumeristic our culture is that you really feel it. In a sense, Kenya was more comfortable, because there we were just people without all the trappings and the social pressure.

At first, I was very intimidated in Kenya. We drove to a small suburb of Nairobi, called Embulbul. We stayed there at the Catholic Church, which is in a compound, and the first day, I was scared to leave the compound. I did wander a little ways, and found some children sliding down a dirt hill on garbage bags. This must be the Embulbul version of 'sledding'. I joined them for a run, and got very dirty. But that was right outside the compound, and being the only mzungu (white man) around, I was scared to go further. After all the assumption of most kenyans was that if you are white you must be wealthy... and therefore, what was to stop someone from mugging me? (This picture shows several children that were playing soccer in Embulbul. Their ball was nothing more than a bundle of bags wrapped in strips of fabric. We bought them a new one.)

People would come straight out and ask for money, ask for sponsorship for their various projects. I found myself protesting that though I was white, I was not wealthy- I was, after all a missionary, not a tourist. The difficulty is, that this was not true. For example, I have a car. I also have a nice condo. I have more than 3 outfits, and none of them have holes in them. (Note the girls in decades old dresses- this was typical.) I have running water, and a toilet that works consistently. In short, I have more than the wealthiest people I visited!

This is the difficulty. I always knew that there would be the desperately poor- but I expected a larger middle class. The middle class lived the way people on welfare do in Canada. I visited a medical doctor in his home- he had more than one room, a car, and a TV. No decent plumbing though, and his furniture and clothing were clearly 20-30 years old. No computer or ipod or any of these things we are accustomed to. That's what doctors have in Kenya.

I became embarrassed by what we have in Canada. I didn't want to tell people about my car or jobs or my problems, because it seemed so selfish. We drove for about four hours along dirt highways (few roads are paved in Kenya), passing village after village of grass huts and dillapidated tin rooves, and a river where every week another lady doing laundry of drwaing water is eaten by a crocodile. by the time we reached Malindi, our destination, I felt physically ill. Because it was all so ugly- and this is not something the people there drive through once, but where they live daily. (In this photo, you can see in the distance the grass huts. They don't look ugly in the photo, but it is sad to think that this is all these people had!)

Malindi was our third destination, so we had by then been in Kenya for 2 weeks. I was sad in Malindi to find that it was a tourist town, catering especially to Italians. I suddenly felt like the mzungus were fat and pale and ugly and frankly quite aweful. I me a beautiful 22 year old girl named Flavia there, who spoke very good English. (They teach English in schools, so most teenagers and young adults can speak it.) She told me that she had never had a conversation with a white person before, because she was intimidated by them because the tourists all treated her like garbage.

Perhaps this reflection makes me sound like I did not enjoy myself. I loved it, as it was a profound experience of love and meaning and richness, and I feel like my heart has expanded through it. However, the injustice in our society is more poignant to me now than ever. Mother Teresa used to say "Live simply so that others may simply live." She also said "It is a poverty that someone should die so that we may live as we like." I always thought the latter saying was about abortion, but now I wonder. People are dying all over the world so that we can maintain our lifestyle, own more cars, entertainment units, the latest fashions in clothing and furnishings. I don't want to be a part of this culture anymore. God has given me the opportunity to give so much- I pray for the grace to make real sacrifices, and so to grow in true charity as he has called us to.

Adventures in Africa 1

2009-07-29T01:33:00.000-07:00

I have decided to, as far as possible, keep a blog of my adventures while in Kenya, and leading up to that. I say 'as far as possible' because I do not expect to ghave frequent e-mail access upon arrival.

I am in the Gatwick airport now- spending £1/10 minutes to type this. I am always reminded that the only way to feel good about spending money in Europe or even the States is to pretend the exchange is on par. If I consider that I just spent £9 on breakfast, and that that works out to roughly $17, I'll feel ripped off. But if I just think of it as $9, well, it is still to be avoided, but more reasonable. And so it goes, when travelling.

I am traveling with Christopher Russel, husband of former Holy Spirit youth minister Bryanna Russel. Bryanna was kind enough to book pretty much everything for us, and I had a great sleep in the hotel we stayed at at Gatwick. Topher was still asleep when I got up, so I figured I'd just get out here and do some computer work. Once he gets up, we will spend the day touring London. Our flight to Dubai does not leave until this evening, and we will be traveling overnight.

Incredibly, the cheapest way to travel to Kenya is through London and Dubai. Clearly Dubai is determined to establish itself as a hub of tourism and travel, and I don't mind much the detour, since I imagine that it will be a fascinating place to see. Within a very few days, 3 all told, I will have been in 4 continents.

I am interested to see Dubai, but I am afraid that it may just be like Vegas. Very attractive to the materialistic and superficial, but for those of us trying to be counter cultural nothing but stress and dissapointment. I have to be honest here- I am gald that I am touring Londion and Dubai before actually doing the mission in Kenya, because I am certain that once I experience the poverty and lifestyle fior three weeks, my conscience will not easily allow me to be selfish with my money.

This is what I hope for out of this trip. I want top be changed. Of course, the trip is partly motivated out of a desire to evangelize to others. Bring some solid theology and hope to a people that, as I understand it, are largely confused. But I hope that I will see miracles, conversions, and perhaps even enough poverty that it will take a serious grip on me and make me adopt a more simple lifestyle. I have been compromising my standards of simplicity for some time now- particularly in the aquisition of a car, and the frequency with which I use it. It is not right that I should enjoy so many luxuries in life while others are starving. Especially since part of the reason I can enjoy so many luxuries is because of the oppression of those in 3rd world countries.

Also with the miracles. My faith can easily be reduced to an intellectual faith. I was listening to Hank Hanegraaff (the 'Bible answer man') the other day on the radio. He is a fundamentalist with a really funny quirk- he seems absoluetely convinced that he's right. Now of course, protestantism lends itself to this anyway- without a central wuthority, everyone interpretting scriptures for themselves, and everyone apparantly guided by the Holy Spirit, each individual is forced to the unlikely conclusion that they are right amd everyone else is wrong. But Hank will go even further, by stating that other popular protestant preachers are worng!

For example, in this particular broadcast, he was talking about Benny Hinn, a popular evangelist with an aparent healing ministry. According to 'The Bible Answer Man', Benny's healings could all be attributed to natural causes. I was stunned to hear the Hank Hanegraaff aparently does not believe that miracles continue to happen.

This tends to be my own stand, though. I am ever suspicious of those who say that they have recieved a miraculous healing or private revelation. But I understand that travelling with Renewal Ministries, I will likely witness these myself- the blind will see, the lame will walk, the posessed shall be exorcised. Just like in the days of the apostles!

Sitting here in the airport, it is hard to even imagine- like some bizaar, unbelievable story. Surrounded by well dressed people of every culture, and using a computer- do places like Kenya still exist?

If you have read this far, (which I tend to doubt that many will, but you never know!) then please pray for me. I am very insufficient for the tasks God has given me- and incredibly thankful that he has given them to me none the less!

choose your own jungle adventure

2009-04-28T07:14:00.000-07:00

This story reads like a 'choose your own adventure', books I loved when I was a kid. It was given as a talk at the OLVC youth Rally. After each choice, find the letters from the choice and go to that section to follow your decision.

1. You have won a once in a lifetime opportunity to experience the African Jungle for yourself, by rolling up the rim. You were flown in a chartered plane to Nairobi, and loaded onto a bus with 60 or so other teenagers, all excited about the opportunity before them. But to your surprise, the bus drops you off at remote camp, far from civilization. Your ipod, chewing gum, and cell phone are all taken away from you. At first you think “What is this, some sort of messed up cult?” but you decide to give it a shot. The Leaders tell you that the camp is training for going out into the Jungle.
This will be no regular Safari. You will not have a zebra looking bus to hide in from the animals. You will actually be sent out into the jungle and have to survive!
You find yourself getting into the camp, and making lots of friends. The last day of the camp, one of the leaders gets up. He is strong, charming and attractive, and very intelligent. A man of character. At 6’2, he towers over most of the teenagers at the camp. He is, of course, an adult, and he proudly ornaments his already strong jawline with a trim goatee and mustache. He wears thick rimmed glasses, which add to his mystique of intelligence, though they sometimes obscure his clear blue eyes. As he stands before you, his muscles rippling under his blue t-shirt with the sacred heart tattoo design on it, you begin to hear the girls around you giggling- undoubtedly because they are so attracted to him. You smile to yourself. You know well that the man is 30 years old, and married to blond bombshell, and even has an adorable baby- the kind that Anne Geddes would gladly mud wrestle with the CEO of Pablum for rights to photograph. But, you figure, some girls are just like that, always giggling and falling in love with celebrities. For you, you are simply in awe of his majesty.
Your leader begins talking, his baritone voice seeming so shake the very rafters of the building you are in. “It’s a jungle out there” he says. “A jungle that must be tamed. You are the alpha team. The ones chosen to go into the jungle and turn it into a garden. This weekend you have the opportunity to be at this camp, where you are safe. You will not be safe out there. We will not be there to protect you. That is why you must learn to protect yourself.”
The man lifts up a dusty backpack. “This is your survival kit. In it you have everything you need to survive the jungle. Don’t worry, we have been doing this for years, and have had few casualties. Relatively speaking. Follow our instructions, and you will survive. Now it’s time to go out there into the jungle. Grab your packs, people. You’re on your own now!”
Choice
A. Accept your intrepid leaders advice and bring a survival kit
B. Ignore your intrepid leaders advice, saying “Whatever, I’m pretty sure I can handle this on my own.”
B. Instead of taking your leaders advice, you stand up, stick your tongue out, and go “You’re not the boss of me!” Grabbing your ipod and forbidden chewing gum, you head out into the Jungle by yourself. Within 27 seconds, you’re lost. The jungle is so thick, you can’t see anything. You know that your dad always said if you were ever lost you should stay where you are. So you sit down and slowly die of starvation and exposure to the elements.
A. You stand and proudly say “Thank you, intrepid leader. You are both noble and incredibly good looking. I accept your kind offer of a survival kit.” Taking a pack, you find a place in the camp where you can go through it’s contents.
Inside you find a shot gun, which you’re very excited about. Also a machete, a mosquito net, a flask of water, a compass, tools for making a fire, and to your delight and surprise, a satellite phone. You feel a strong hand on your shoulder. It’s the intrepid leader. He looks you in the eyes and says “Go west. And keep in touch.”
“Thank you sir.” You say. “You are quite possibly the greatest man I have ever met.”
The man smiles, but says nothing. You realize that above all, it is his humility that you admire. You are sad to leave his company, but excited by the challenge ahead of you. With the gun on your back, and the machete on your belt, you sling the backpack over your shoulder and head for the jungle.
You remember your leaders words, “Go West.” But you have no idea which direction is west.
Choice
A. You spin in circles, 10 times, and wonder idly in the direction that you end up facing.
B. You make an educated guess, based upon which direction the sun set.
C. You see a part of the jungle that has large red flowers in it. It looks like the prettiest part, so you head for it.
D. You consult your compass
A. After spinning in circles, you feel a little dizzy, but confident that you are now certainly going the right way. You stumble into the jungle, go a few steps, and promptly forget which way you were going. “No problem” you think, doing the spin again. After repeating this process 5 or six times, you realize you are hopelessly lost. You have come to a gigantic swamp, which you would rather not cross. You sit on a log to try to figure out what to do next. The log turns out to be a Crocodile, which grabs you by the arm, drags you under water, and spins you under water until you finally die of suffocation. Then it buries you in the mud, to eat you at some later date.
B. You’re pretty smart, and you remember where the sun went down last night, and you know the sun always sets in the west, so you head out that direction. You make good progress, and feel confident that you are going to get where you are going. You choose a mountain that is roughly in the west, and choose to keep moving towards that mountain. You figure once you get there you can pick a new landmark which is roughly west and keep doing the same thing. However, as you head in the direction you’re pretty sure is west, you suddenly find yourself on a cliff, looking down over a huge valley. “Well,” you say to yourself, “This is roughly west, so I’d better climb down!” But as you begin to descend the cliff, the ground gives out under your feet, and you plummet to your death.
C. As you wonder amongst the giant red flowers, you congratulate yourself on making such a good choice. Even if it is not west, it sure is pretty! You take the time to sniff one of the flowers- beautiful. But you discover to your astonishment, that the flower is sniffing you back! You recoil in horror as you realize that every flower you past rotated as you passed it, and was still facing you! Moreover, there are flowers on every side, and they all seem to be sniffing you, and moving in as close as they can, being rooted into the ground. You pull out your machete, and begin swinging wildly. Out of one of the flowers, however, a green vine like thing darts like the tongue of an Ant Eater. It wraps itself around the wrist holding the machete, and sucks you into itself. The red flower closes around you, and you feel it tightening. It quickly gets very dark, hot, and hard to breath. With your one free hand you try to grab your gun, but the plant begins to squeeze you so tight that you cannot move. What starts as a strange tingling sensation is now turning to burning. The plant is emitting some sort of acid onto you. You cannot escape. You are slowly digested alive by the red flower. Your last thought is, “Just because one choice is attractive, that does not mean its right! It may trap you and kill you!” You have a very, very long time to think about this before you die.
D. You pull out your compass, and check to see which direction is west. To your surprise, you discover that west is a couple of degrees off of where you had expected. But you trust your compass. As you begin to head west, you consider that the compass is kind of analogous to life. You may try to guess what the right direction is in life, but without a clear guide, you might be wrong. You utter a little prayer to God, thanking him for the gift of the Catholic Church, which He had created to help us and give us direction. After all, you are so glad that you don’t just have to guess at what is the truth, or what is right. God didn’t want us to guess, he gave us the Church as our compass. And the Church in turn gave us the Bible and the Catechism. In fact, these tools are even on line, and searchable! You know that you will never have to guess at the answer, because you have a compass.
You are not walking long in the jungle, before you find that the plants are growing so close, they are seriously impeding your progress. They are scratchy, and obscuring your vision.
Choice
A. You push on through the Jungle, looking to your compass as a guide, but essentially walking blindly.
B. You grab your Machete, and use it to clear a path before you.
A. You push through the jungle foliage, but suddenly you fall face forward into a wettish mud. You didn’t see it coming! Your head surfaces, and you gasp for breath. It seems that this mud puddle is about shoulder deep. It should be no problem getting out. However, as you begin to try to move, you suddenly realize it is quick sand. Very slowly it is sucking you under, and your struggle against it only makes it worse! Theirs is no escape for you. You die of suffocation.
B. You pull out your Machete, and begin hacking away at the branches in front of you. Soon you are clearing a path, and you can see a few feet ahead of you. Using your compass, you make sure you are going in a straight line. You notice that there is a bit of a clearing directly ahead of you. With your machete, you clear the final branches so you can see what you are looking at. Quicksand! Your intrepid leader had warned you about this! It can look deceptively solid, and yet suck you in. You are grateful for your machete which cleared all of the obstacles in the way so you could see what you are looking at.
As you begin to blaze a trail around the quicksand, you realize that your machete is like your mind. First off, you have to use it. Second, if it’s not sharp, it’s useless. But if it is sharp- it will help you to see clearly where you are going. It could also be used as a weapon, if necessary. In life there are so many competing theories and ideas, which crowd in on you and make it difficult to find your way. A sharp mind is needed to prune these back. And of course, it must be used with the compass. With these two things you can find your way through the jungle!
Eventually you see another clearing ahead. With your machete, you make sure it is safe. It is a plain! You are happy for a bit of a break from the jungle. But now, without the cover of trees, you notice how hot it is! You look at your compass. To go west you will have to cross the plains. It should only take a couple of hours, but the African sun is still high in the sky, and beating down. And you are very thirsty and feeling weak.
Choice
A. You push on, ignoring your thirst.
B. You drink some water from your flask.
A. You continue to walk for quite some time. You know that there is water available to you, but you don’t want it. You’ve got your machete and your compass, you’ll be OK. Sun blazes down. Hot. Dry. The ground swerves before you. Sweat pours down your back, and you wish there was a breeze. You see all kinds of animals in the plain- giraffes, elephants, wildebeests. Vultures. Circling, waiting. You try hard to think of something, but can’t. The ground is dry- you feel it now with your hand. Did you fall? Vultures. The spinning. You’re dizzy. You close your eyes. Only for a moment….
B. You discover that the water in your flask is warm, and tastes dusty- yet it is remarkably refreshing. You feel energized now as you walk across the plain. You keep the water handy, knowing that you will need regular doses of it to keep your energy up. You marvel at all of the wonderful animals in the plain. Giraffes. Wildebeests. Elephants. You see vultures circling nearby- some poor animal must have died out there. You walk on. You find that every time you get tired, just a bit more water reenergizes you to keep going.
“Just like the Sacraments!” you think to yourself, with an uncanny ability to take your life experiences and create an analogy to the faith. “Sacraments are the source of grace you need to keep going, even when life gets hard. Some people try to go a whole year without even getting to Mass, only going at Christmas. That’s gotta be tough. They’re dying spiritually, and all they need is to get back to the sacraments and get recharged. No wonder the Church tells us to get to Mass every week!”
Suddenly, your thoughts are broken. There in front of you is a wildebeest, head down, foam at it’s mouth, stomping at its front hoof. You remember that back at the camp, the leaders had told you about mad cows, but you thought that was just a joke to keep people in bounds. Now there was nothing between you and it but open field, and it was getting ready to charge!
Choice
A. Turn and run, squealing like a school girl.
B. Grab your machete, and prepare to fight to wildebeest.
C. Take your gun and shoot it!
A. You turn and run, hoping to make it all the way back to the jungle. As you go, you let out a high pitched squeal like a school girl. Unbeknownst to you, the sound you make is very similar to the wildebeest mating call! Suddenly the whole heard is excitedly stampeding toward you! Much to your relief, your death comes by trampling, and not some other means.
B. You turn to face the animal. Your machete has served you well in the past- no doubt it will again. As it bears down on you, you jab at it with the blade. However, your blade hits it’s horns, and is knocked out of your hands! The animal knocks you down, and gores you to death with it’s horns.
C. You realize that this situation is out of your hands. You grab your shotgun, take aim, and fire. The animal crumples before you, it’s lifeless body skidding to stop at your feet. You take a moment to catch your breath, and suddenly realize what a fortuitous circumstance this is- wildebeests are made out of meat! You were wondering what you would eat for sinner that night! Already the vultures have noticed the dead animal, and hyenas could be heard with their laughter call to one another, announcing the arrival of dinner.
You know that it is not safe to stay there, so you take your machete and masterfully cut off the animal what will probably be the freshest steak you will ever eat, and leave the carcass to the predators. As you walk away, you think to yourself how wonderful it was that you had a gun. You were powerless on your own to stop this animal, even with your machete. Your gun, you realize, is like prayer. On the one hand it is a tool, but on the other hand it wields a power greater than yourself. Moreover, it can take a bad and even hopeless situation and turn it to the good, as it did by providing you with dinner.
“Prayer is one of the most important tools we have to stay alive in the jungle.” You say to yourself. However you realize that unlike the gun, prayer should not be a last resort, but should be used daily. God gave us the Holy Spirit, an extraordinary power beyond what our minds could understand. It is not enough to rely on our minds and our good resolutions, we need to tap into the power. People should pray every single day. “That way you’ll know how to use your gun when you need it!” You say, patting your beloved shotgun.
By the time you have crossed the plain, the sun is setting. You decide that it would be best to set up camp for the night. There’s a nice flat spot where you can lie down. You’re tired, but you’re also hungry.
Choice
A. Just go to sleep.
B. Eat your steak raw, then go to sleep.
C. Build a fire, cook your steak, eat your steak, then go to sleep, keeping the fire going all night.
A. You’re tired, and the idea of going to all the work to build a fire or even to eat does not appeal to you. You lie down with your head on your bag. It grows dark, and the sounds of the jungle change. Eventually, your eye’s grow heavy, and you’re asleep.
You wake up some time later with the feel of moisture on your face. Rain? It’s warm… you open your eyes to find the face of a grinning hyena staring down at you, drool dripping from his mouth onto yours. He can smell the steak in the pack under your head! He lets out his awful laugh, and you realize that you are surrounded by Hyenas! You are well aware that they are afraid of anything taller than them, but lying on the ground as you are, you are considerably shorter than them! You realize you must get up immediately… but before you can the one that drooled on you pounces, and eats your face.
B. Your tired, your hungry. Rather than going to all the work to build a fire, you decide to just eat your steak and sleep for the night. Your steak is tough and bloody, and still warm. You like rare steak, and besides, you figure the animal wasn’t dead long enough to have salmonella.
What you do not realize, is that unlike mad cow disease, mad wildebeest disease can be killed by cooking your meat. You finish your steak, and find that you are thirsty. You grab your flask, and chug the water, but your thirst cannot be quenched! You discover that your mouth is surrounded by white foam. You begin scratching at the ground, looking desperately for a spring of water. Nothing. You are shaking now, and you hear the idiotic sound of laughter. You have a moment to wonder if you are losing your mind. Then you see the source- a grinning hyena. It laughs again, and you laugh back. It looks at you, crawling and scratching and drooling and foaming, and you look at it, and you realize, you are one and the same. The pack surrounds you now, all grinning and nodding.
Accepted, you live out the rest of your days like a hyena, laughing maniacally and scavenging for carcasses.
C. You know well that fire is a good defense- most animals are afraid of fire.
You know also that cooking meat is generally a good practice before eating it. So, you take out the fire building supplies and get to work. Before long you have a small fire going, and as the night grows colder and darker, are glad for its warmth. Using your machete, you cut some branches and find fallen timber that you can use to keep the fire going. To keep the animals away, you will have to keep the fire burning all night, which means waking up every once in a while to stoke it.
You cook and eat your meat, and it is delicious. You hear something moving, probably smelling the cooked meat, but whatever it is, it does not come into the circle of light cast by the fire. You feel quite secure and glad for the fire. Finally, you settle down to sleep, keeping your gun and machete ready in case you need them. You know that you will have to stoke the fire every 2 hours to keep it burning high enough to keep the animals at bay.
As you drift off, you get thinking about the nature of fire. It’s kind of like zeal, you think. People talk about having the ‘fire of the Holy Spirit’ burning in them, especially after a retreat. They get all built up and excited about God and their faith. But then life goes on, and slowly the fire burns lower and lower- and eventually it goes out. It needs more fuel. Fuel like retreats and youth rally’s and other events that ‘fire you up’ about God. Sometimes too, you will feel to tired to go to all that work, but if you do it, you know that you won’t regret it. The bigger the fire, the more warmth and light it casts. But you gotta keep it going. You might as well plan for it. Just as you plan to get up every few hours to re stoke the fire, so you should plan every few months to stoke your spiritual fire by going on another retreat, and do smaller events in between. Just before falling asleep, you make a resolution to do that.
After a couple of hours you wake up, see the fire is low, throw some more wood on it, and lay down again. The fire keeps the animals away, except for these pesky mosquitoes. They buzz around you, land on you, bite you.
Choice
A. Set up the Mosquito net.
B. Tolerate the Mosquitoes and go back to sleep.
B. You choose to just tolerate the Mosquitoes. After all, this is not a life or death situation, it’s not a big deal. So a few little bugs take a bit of blood, who cares.
But they keep coming, swarming. You ignore them, ignore them, ignore them until finally you can’t sleep. You are itchy all over, and tired and irritable. You throw more wood on the fire to see your bites- you are astonished at what you see! These are not mosquitoes like you find in Canada- this is Africa! Every bite leaves a swollen red lump, the size of a loony! Impossible!
You find yourself feeling weak- could it really be from loss of blood? You decide that you need the mosquito net after all. You fumble with your bag, trying to open the zipper. Your stupid fingers are so bitten, they won’t bend or work properly! You can’t even grab a hold of the zipper! And these things are still biting you, still taking your blood and injecting their poison. They buzz around your head, they are on your neck, your arms, your feet. You swat mercilessly, but there are too many, and you hardly dare to breath lest you inhale them. There’s one on your eye- your eyelid begins to swell shut, so you cannot see. You struggle to protect your left eye, which is clear. Insanity! They are biting at your throat and your nose, and it feels like they are inside of you. Everything itches, and now your breathing passages are swelling. You start running, away from the fire and your gun and your machete and everything that should keep you alive. You eventually collapse, to weak to move. And you die, the victim of mosquitoes.
A. It is a bit of work to set up the mosquito net, propping it up with wood. But it creates a safe haven for you, and allows you to rest. Everyone needs protection, even from little things.
Spiritual life is like that, you realize. There are so many little things that pick at you, try to tear you down. Feed off you, and inject their poison into you, like mosquitoes. TV shows. Music. Websites. Books. Even friends. None of these are all that bad themselves, but slowly, they take your life from you and fill you with poison. Those friends that are always depressed and cynical, mocking your faith. Music that is full of negative messages. One song- no big deal. But over time, they just keep coming, tearing you down. Attacking your faith and your values. If only there was a mosquito net that kept these things away!
But you know that there isn’t one- you’ll always be bombarded by messages. Good thing you have your brain and your compass to help you sort through it all! But as your laying there, thinking about these things, you realize that at the end of the day there are some things that you’re just going to have to cut out. If it tears you down, get rid of it.
You make it through the night, keeping your fire going, safe in your mosquito net. You’re still sleeping in the morning when you hear someone saying “Wake up, sleepy head”.
“Huh, wha… have I been dreaming?” But as you shake the cobwebs from your mind, you realize that you remain even still in the jungle. The voice comes from a big black man, dressed in a loin cloth. He was decorated with red and yellow paint, a necklace of human bones, and another bone through his nose. He carried a spear, from which hung a human skull.
“Good morning” he said. A chorus of voices laughed at your stunned look, and as you look around you realize that there are no fewer than a dozen such men! “We were thinking about having you for breakfast. How does that sound?”
Unsure how to answer, you say “Depends on how you mean….”
More laughter. The pleasant fellow who woke you up smiles and says, “Ah, you are quite astute. Yes, as you suspect, we are cannibals, and intend to eat you.”
“I see” you say, still in your mosquito net. Your hand reaches for your gun. “I think I’d better not then…” but your gun is missing! As you look around again, you realize that one of the men is holding your gun, another your machete.
“Forgive us” the leader says, “we have taken the liberty of disarming you. Now we shall bind you, and hang you from a stick carried between two of us, like a wild boar, as we bring you back to our village.”
The men proceed to do so, and you discover that this mode of travel is quite uncomfortable.
As you travel, your guide describes the area, telling you what the trees are called, the names of the mountains, and the various animals that you see. At one point he says “You are wondering perhaps how it is that we speak English?”
You hadn’t been, but now that he raises the topic you certainly are. “Television” he says proudly. “We Cannibals are pleased to announce that we are progressing with the times.” You are pleased to hear that too, because from your position hanging from a pole carried by a man in very small loin cloth, you hope their fashion sense will soon catch up.
But then you have an idea. “If you are so well informed with modern customs, I am surprised that upon arresting me you did not read me my rights.” You say.
The leader smiles, and says “Of course! How very thoughtless of me. You have a right to remain silent, You have a right to a phone call. Anything you do say can and will be considered a tip as how best to cook you.”
“Thank you.” You say. “I’ll take my right to a phone call please.”
The crowd erupts in laughter, as the leader says “Yes, well, we don’t have very good reception out here, so….”
Choice
A. Mention the fact that you have a satellite phone, and make a call.
B. Decide that it is best to try to fight this on your own.
B. The leader jokingly hands you a banana, saying you can make a phone call on that. You realize that this is your chance for escape! You carefully peel the banana, using only your shoulders and teeth as your hands and feet are bound. Then you take a big bite. Dropping the banana peel carefully in the path of your rear guard, you spit the banana in the face of the leader.
The leader is temporarily blinded, as the rear guard slips on the banana peel, dropping his end of the pole upon which you are bound.
In one fluid motion, you manage to rip the other end of your pole out of your front guards hands, and before anyone has a chance to react, you are upright, still bound hand and foot to the pole. Unfortunately, it is impossible to run. Fortunately, you happen to be the provincial pogo stick champion for 3 years running, and you began madly pogo sticking away from your would be captors. Unfortunately, they still have your gun. They shoot you, in the buttocks, and you collapse in pain. The boil you alive, and inspired by your act of daring, eat you with a nice banana cream paste.
A. “I have a phone in my bag” you inform them.
Your leader stops the procession, calling to the man carrying your bag. “Well,” he says, “we wouldn’t want to seem uncivilized.” Interestingly, nobody laughs at this comment.
They put you down in such a matter that the bottom of the pole you are tied to is stuck into the ground, and you are upright. Placing the phone in your hands, you dial the number of your intrepid leader at the camp. Since your wrists are still bound to the pole, this is difficult to do, and the first time you accidentally dial Donnas Laser Hair Removal, but mercifully the cannibals give you a second call.
Within minutes, you hear the wonderful voice of your intrepid leader at the camp. You make small talk for a bit, get the results of last nights hockey game, then casually mention your predicament. He asks you where you are, and since you don’t know precisely, you ask the cannibals. The leader of the cannibals kindly gives you the precise coordinates, which you pass on to your friend.
All too soon the conversation is over, as the intrepid leader says his kraft dinner is boiling over and he has to go. You hang up the phone, sighing “He’s the most wonderful man I’ve ever met.” The cannibals nod their agreement, and once again you are hoisted onto the shoulders of your two guards, and the procession to the village continues.
Finally, you arrive at the village. Upon arriving, you realize that some of the people there are clothed even more inappropriately than your captors. But as they gather around, discussing who’s job it is to do the cooking, (You offer to do it yourself, but they don’t think you would know how)suddenly they are interrupted by the sound of a helicopter! There is your intrepid camp leader, still in his blue shirt, since unlike most people he does not sweat. He jams the controls of the helicopter so that it stays in one place, drops a rope ladder, and does a series of completely unnecessary acrobatic feats to descend the ladder. As he drops into the middle of the camp, all of the cannibals bow in worship!
You wish you could as well, but you are still tied to your stick.
Your intrepid leader speaks “People of cannibalism. I am not a god. However, if you wish to kiss my hand, I will allow it!” Of course everyone wished to, and that took quite some time.
While this was going on, more of your friends from the camp came into the village from the surrounding jungle. As one of them untied you (all of your guards were in the hand kissing line up), you whispered “How did you find me?”
“Intrepid texted us all.” Your friend answered.
“Wow.” You say to your friends gathered around you, as your rub your sore wrists. “Now I see why the phone is such a great tool to survive in the jungle! I did not go through the training camp by myself, but with all of these friends! Why would I try to survive it on my own? Now I know that just as I need friends to help me survive the jungle, so I need them to help me in my spiritual journey.”
Just then the leader of the cannibals approached you. He was fully dressed now, wearing a brown t-shirt, with blue writing on it that said preach the gospel always, when necessary use words. The man shook your hand and said “Now I know that cannibalism is wrong, and me and my people will all change our ways. Thank you for the witness you have been to us, and for loving and accepting us even though we were sinners.
“You’re welcome” You say.
“We will now go into the jewelry business, selling our wares to gullible tourists at safari sites. But for you, a free gift!” and before you could refuse, he pierced the middle part of your nose, and put a human bone through it.
And you still wear it today.
The End.

Destruction of Jerusalem

2009-01-21T09:10:00.000-08:00

Destruction of Jerusalem (45minutes)
(To be presented as an epic story.)
Read Matthew 24:1-28

Jerusalem, 70 AD. The city, it's name meaning 'city built by the God of Peace' had been established 2100 years before by a mysterious man named Melchizedek. Melchizedek was both a king, and a priest, and as a priest he honoured the one true God.

1000 years later, King David made Jerusalem the capital city of his empire. Israel was united under this one king. He was the wealthiest and most powerful king in the entire region. His was succeeded by his son, Solomon, who added to the glory of this kingdom. He built the temple there- the center for Jewish worship. It was believed that the most high God actually dwelt in the temple, in the Holy of Holies.

For another 1000 years, Jerusalem would be subject to wars and insurrections, overun in turn by Babylonians, Persians, Greeks and Romans. The city walls and Temple would be destroyed by war, its people deported. Then they would return, rebuild the city and it's temple. Its people would look with hope to the day a ruler, descended from David, predicted by the prophets and scribes, and anointed by God, would arise who would rule the whole world from Jerusalem. He would overthrow these foreign powers.

By 70 AD, Jerusalem had a population of 60,000. It was under the iron fist of the Romans, the greatest empire in history. Puppet kings were set up, since Jews were difficult to rule, and demanded that they live by their own rules. They spoke their own language, obeyed their own laws, worshiped their own God. The temple was one of the greatest structures in the world- known as one of the seven wonders. Jerusalem was the center of the world for all Jews. It was believed that when God separated the land from the sea, he did so by pulling up on the mountains upon which Jerusalem was built,and the rest of the world came up with it.

Jerusalem was the political, financial, spiritual and cultural capital for the Jews. To a modern day Catholic American, Jerusalem was the equivalent of New York, Washington DC, Hollywood and the Vatican, all rolled into one.

New sects were arising in Jerusalem. One, known as “The Way” or “Christians”, claimed that the Messiah had already come, and that the victory he had intended was not a political one. The Jewish hierarchy suppressed this sect. It undermined their very culture and reason for being.

Another one gaining momentum were the Zealots. Zealots hated the Romans, and all non Jews, or Gentiles. They felt that Jews alone were the chosen people, and that they should fight against foreign rulers with violence. Christians, who taught that all people of every race were welcomed by God, were perverting the faith. But the real enemy was the Romans, the foreign oppressors.

Strange signs had been seen in and around Jerusalem for some time. A comet flew over the city for several months, that looked like a sword. Heavy iron gates in the temple would suddenly swing open of their own accord, and require several men to close. There was a piece of scarlet thread which hung in the temple, which would turn white when the atoning sacrifice was made, indicating that God had accepted the sacrifice. It had ceased to do so for the past 40 years, since the time when the curtain which separated the holy of holies from the people had been torn in two by a great earthquake. Some took this to mean that God no longer dwelt in the temple. Christians pointed out that these things had taken place just at the moment that their Messiah, Jesus, had died.

Eleazar was a priest, the son of the High Priest. As such it was his job to offer sacrifices in the temple. Foreigners often offered sacrifices to God, because though they were not Jews, they respected the temple and the God it housed. However Eleazar had been influenced by the Zealots, and he refused to offer sacrifices for gentiles. So that when Caesar himself wished to offer a sacrifice in the temple, it was refused. This was considered a great affront to the Romans. Several high priests and other officials tried to persuade Eleazar to offer sacrifice, but he refused. He surrounded himself with like minded Jews, and formed a small army, which occupied the temple.

Around the same time, the Zealots managed to take Massada- a fortress on a high hill outside of Jerusalem. They killed the Romans who were there, and occupied it themselves. These two acts were construed as acts of war. The leaders of the Jews knew that Eleazar and his men must be put down- so they sent word to neighboring officials in Syria to send armies to fight Eleazar. They did send Syrian armies, who then warred against the Zealots throughout the country. The dead were piled up in all the cities in the country, but Eleazar and his men remained in the temple.

A Roman by the name of Cestius laid siege to Jerusalem with several legions of soldiers. Eleazar and his men were terrified, and ran away- at which point the Jewish leaders prepared to open the gates and welcome in the Romans, to put an end to the war. However, for no apparent reason, Cestius suddenly ordered his men to retreat. As they did so, Eleazar and his men were emboldened. They began to pursue the Romans, killing those who were in the back of the retreat. Before long, Zealots from all over the country were joining in the fight, throwing the Roman ranks into dissorder, and killing several commanders. Cestius realized that the army of his enemies was growing even while his own was shrinking, and so he knew that he would have to flee from the whole region as quickly as possible. He and his men boarded boats on the lake of Galilee, in order to cross it and escape. But the zealots pursued them, and engaged them in battle on the lake.

However, here the Romans found that they had the advantage, both in numbers, and in weapons. There were many more Romans upon the water than there were Jews, and while the Jews threw stones at the Romans, the Romans had archers who fired arrows at the Jews. As the arrows flew further than the stones, The Jews were unable to even get close enough to make an attack. The Roman ships were also equipped with a long, sharp pole at the front. which was used to puncture and sink the Jewish boats. The Jews were left to swim for it- but on the shore, there were more Romans. Some of them attempted to swim towards the Roman ships, but the Romans would use their swords and cut off the heads or the hands of these.

In the end, the lake of Galilee was so full of blood that it was said that the water had turned to blood, and the shores were lined with shipwrecks and corpses, bloated and purifying in the sun. All, whether Roman or Jew, were punished by the stench.

In the end, Eleazars army had grown in numbers and in confidence. His army consisted now not only of religious zealots, but also of robbers and mercenaries, who took over the temple and the surrounding area. Lawlessness reigned, and there was no one who could stop it. And Rome considered itself to be at war.

It was the time of the passover, and Jews from all over were pouring into Jerusalem, such that the city now contained well over 2 Million people. A new army, men known as Idumeans, under the command of a man named Simon, came to Jerusalem in response to the leaders who had asked for assistance against Eleazar. However, upon arriving at Jerusalem with some 10,000 soldiers prepared for war, they were denied entrance to the city. And so they were forced to camp outside.

While in their tents, a massive thunderstorm arose. All night violent winds shook the city, with an onslaught of rain, ongoing lightning and thunder all through the night. There was also an earthquake, and it was thought that the thunderstorm itself was so powerful that it had caused the earthquake.

By this time, many in Jerusalem realized that war was coming, and wanted to get out before it would happen. However, the Zealots saw to it that all of the gates were guarded, so that no one could desert. The rich were able to bribe their way out of the city, but the poor were trapped. Should they try to leave, the zealots would kill them. Then, they would pile their bodies in the streets as a statement to those who would resist or would desert. Anyone who attempted to bury the dead would end up dead themselves. It should be noted that there were over 1 million people in the city who did not even live there. Between the extraordinary crowds and the number of dead, disease broke out in the city.

While Eleazar and his men continued to rule over the temple region, and Simon and his soldiers were camped outside the wall, yet a third army rose up within Jerusalem! This one was composed of Galileans, under the leadership of a man named John. These men took advantage of the lawlessness in the city, and began looting and robbing and taking whatever they wanted for themselves. In fact, they abandoned all scruples and morality, and began crossdressing, and committing homosexual acts all over the city. They would dress as women, and walk in effeminate fashion, and make advances on men, but suddenly draw swords and kill those who resisted them!

Those that fled from John found Simon outside the city walls, and he would kill them lest they defected to the Romans.

Eventually the people in Jerusalem invited Simon and his army to come into the city walls, and to fight against the armies of John and Eleazar. Simon managed to secure the upper and much of the lower city. John found himself fighting armies on two fronts. Eleazar and his men were above him, on the Temple Mount. Simon and his men were below. Of course, it is easier when using arrows and catapults to fight the people below, rather than above, therefore Eleazar had the same advantage over John as John had over Simon. However, John had powerful engines of war, such as catapults, which could fire rocks and arrows right over the walls of the temple and into its courtyards. Thus the priests in the temple who continued through all of this offering their sacrifices did so in danger of being struck down at the altar. And many were struck down, and mingled their blood with that of their sacrifices.

Those in the temple were given to drinking binges. When they would get drunk, this would free John enough to be able to focus his armies on Simon. On one such occasion John succeeded in burning the buildings that housed Simon's grain supplies. In retaliating, Simon burned Johns supplies. In the end, all of the grain storehouses, which were kept in the event of a famine or a siege, were destroyed. There had been enough food in the storehouses to feed the entire populace for several years. But now a severe famine set in.

In the meantime, the Romans had gathered no fewer than 10 legions of soldiers under the command of Titus, and laid siege to the city. No more food would come in. In fact, the Romans destroyed the surrounding forests and gardens to such an extent that to this day Jerusalem is surrounded by desert.

In time John succeeded in taking the temple, while Eleazars men hid in subteranean passages under the Temple. Many of Eleazars men joined Johns army, including Eleazar himself, giving John a combined army of 8000 men. Simon meanwhile had 15000 men. The two factions continued to war with each other in the city, while the Romans camped outside. The romans had set up their engines of war, and they began to hail down stones weighing as much as 100 pounds on the city.

As the famine grew deeper, the soldiers inside the city began to go mad. They would search a house for food, and if they found it, eat it, leaving the occupants of the house to starve. If they did not find it, they would torment the occupants on the assumption that they had hidden it exceptionally well. There was no difference now between the rich and the poor, except that the rich were more likely to have food, and thus more likely to have their homes torn apart in search of it. If people looked healthy, it was assumed that they had food somewhere hidden. Only those who were clearly starving were left alone. Eventually they realized that people might pretend that they were dying, in order to be left alone, and so these were searched as well.

After this had gone on for some time, in one home the soldiers could smell that some sort of meat had been cooked. They confronted the woman in the house about it, and she showed them where she hid the meat. She had already eaten half of it. She had killed and cooked her own infant.

In desperation even the soldiers in the city began eating their shoes and their loin cloths, their leather shields and their dung. Many tried to escape the city and find food. Those the Romans caught were crucified outside the city wall. There so many crucified that eventually the Romans ran out of crosses and room.

Some of the starving actually managed to escape from the city, and made their way to Arab and Syrian cities. There they were given food, but some ate so much from great hunger, while their stomachs had shrunk, that they literally burst open. Upon doing so, it was discovered that they had smuggled gold out of the city by swallowing it, in hopes and getting it out of their dung later. Once that was discovered, it was assumed that all of the Jews escaping the city contained gold, and so the Syrians and Arabs cut them open to find it. In one night about 2000 Jews were thus dissected.

Meanwhile, those inside the walls had begun to throw dead bodies outside the gates. It is reported that from one gate alone, 600,000 corpses were thrown out. There were so many dead everywhere that the stench prevented the Romans from invading the city.

Another strange sign appeared. At sunset one day, horsemen and chariots were seen racing around the sky over Jerusalem. A man claiming to be a prophet told the people that they must go to the temple where God was going to save them by a miracle. He turned out to be a false prophet. Several other false prophets arose, set up on purpose by the armies of John and Simon. They were set up in order to give the people hope, so that no one would try to escape, and to reaffirm the idea that one of the two men was the messiah.
In the end, the Romans did invade. They brought their ensigns, their flags, and the symbols of their country into the temple and offered sacrifices to them as idols. They utterly destroyed the city, burning down the temple, plundering all of the wealth, removing every stone and digging up the very foundations so that you wouldn't even know there had ever been a building where the temple had stood. Those that were not killed became slaves, or were sent to the provinces to be killed by gladiators or wild beasts in the stadiums. Even among the slaves, there were so many, and so few buyers, that they went for very cheap, and many of them were denied food from their captors and died of hunger afterall.

Thus the city of Jerusalem was destroyed, and a new era began.

Gods Gift to Women

2009-01-21T09:09:00.000-08:00

Gods Gift to Women (90 minutes)

The 'chick flick phenomenon.'
1. Why are girls into boy bands and chick flicks, etc? Why do they swoon and literally feel like they are falling in love?
1. Guys may like to see movies with hot girls, but they don't want to marry them- they just want to have sex with them.
2. Girls actually daydream about marriage, and wan to know things like how many pets the actor has, and what his favorite colour is. They will even write letters to ask these questions!
2. Oxytosin.
1. Oxytosin is a hormone formed in women that creates a bond.
1. It is formed by breatfeeding, romance, sex, etc.
2. Movies and boy bands may actually create oxytosin in a woman, and make her want to “marry” people they don't even know!
3. Men and women were created for each other.
1. Women, even much more than men, go through their lives wondering who they will marry, what he will be like, etc.
2. When you get married, you will 'give yourself' to your wife.
3. If you were a father, and your daughter was getting married, what kind of guy would you want her to marry?
4. God who is all good and all knowing and loves your future wife more than anyone else in the world ever could... has chosen you to be the most important person in her life!
5. You are Gods gift to women! (Or, at least, to a particular woman!)
We were created to be a gift for women. We are supposed to give ourselves to them. This is love- giving yourself to another. The opposite of this is Lust- taking the other for yourself.
1. Theology of the body
1. JPII taught a lot about sex. He said that the way the human body was made reflects deeper realities about our spirits.
2. God chose to use sex to create more humans- which he could have done without sex. But he wanted to create humans from an intimate act of love between humans.
3. In sex, the man literally gives himself to the woman and she literally recieves him. Man is supposed to be a gift!
2. common struggles with lust.
1. Instead of giving ourselves as a gift, we try to take women and use them.
2. A lot of Christian men who are saving sex for marriage still struggle with lust in other forms.
3. Masturbating or looking at pornography may seem harmless, in that there is no victim, but we are still using women for ourselves rather than making sex a gift.
“virtue” as manliness
1. What starts out as a thought or one time action eventually becomes a habit.
2. If we have poor self discipline about sex when we are single, then we will have poor discipline when we are married.
3. As men, we need to develop virtues. The word 'virtue' comes from the Latin word “vir” which means 'man'. So to be virtuous is to be manly!
4. To become virtuous we must train ourselves. A lot of men will fast for example to gain self control.
5. If you struggle with lust, you may have to take drastic steps to protect yourself. You may even have to take the TV or computer out of your room!
Transformation in Christ.
1. Christ was 'fully God, fully man'.
2. Some say he would not really be fully man, because he never sinned
3. Everytime we sin, it takes something away from our manliness.
4. So Christ was actually the only 'real man' ever!
5. By being a Christian, praying, receiving sacraments and growing in virtue, we are becoming like Christ.
6. Christ was to transform us completely so that to be “Christian” will mean to be “other Christs.”
Honouring women.
1. lust- this is clearly dishonouring to women, because we treat them like objects.
2. flirting- Flirting and dating can be OK in the right circumstances, but we have to remember the oxytosin. Girls get a much bigger emotional bond through these things, which means it hurts them more when you don't end up dating.
1. Guys sometimes wish girls would just take them at face value, and see flirting as fun without reading too much into it. But girls can't because of their oxytosin! So flirting and dating without leading to a commitment is bound to hurt girls more than it hurts us. So if you want to honour women, make sureyour actions towards them communicate the truth.
3. respect
1. Men ought to honour women in a way that is even higher than the respect we give each other. Not only are we a gift to women, but they are the most precious gift that God can give us. So we should never take them for granted.
2. Look for little ways to honor women daily (let the guys brainstorm. Be sure to suggest that they carry the luggage for the ladies when it is time to go home on Friday.)
3. (have a plan ahead of time for how you can honour the ladies with the guys.)
4. Be a gift to women n everything you do.
Gods gift to women bracelettes.
1. Have bracelettes that say “Gods gift to women” for each of the guys. Challenge the guys to wear them, and to let them be reminders that they are a gift, and should live as such!

Jesus as Lord and Saviour

2009-01-21T09:08:00.002-08:00

Jesus as Lord and Saviour (Peter)

introduction
1. You may have heard the question “Have you accepted Jesus as your Lord and Saviour?” or something like it. Even though that quote is not exactly found in the Bible, it is widely considered to be the thing that sets Christians apart from everyone else. If you are a Christian, you will accept Jesus as your personal Lord and Saviour.
Jesus as Lord
1. Saying Jesus is Lord basically means he is the Boss.
2. In the Old Testament, the word “Lord” usually meant God.
3. Jesus is God.
4. Some people debate who Jesus actually was. Some say he was just a good teacher or a prophet. However;
1. Jesus claimed to be God- this is why he was put to death.
2. Jesus said other things which actually a good teacher would never say;
1. “Be like me, because I am humble.”
2. Whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers, that you do to me.
3. Wherever there are two or three gathered in my name, there am I in their midst.
5. “Come follow me.” Rabbis in Jesus' time would say this to people, as if to say “Come be my disciple, I will make you into a Rabbi just like me.”
1. Rabbis could choose how hard to make it for their followers. The things they would have to do would be called their “Yoke”. (A yoke is the thing you but on oxen when they till the ground in old farms. It's like something they have to carry/drag)
2. Jesus said “My yoke is easy”, as in, it's not hard to be my follower.
3. He also said “Whoever follows me will have to take up their cross”. In other words, the 'yoke' of Jesus is his cross.
4. If we say Jesus is Lord, we make him our Rabbi- which means we will become like him. But he died because he loved people. We may have to do the same if we want to be his followers!
Jesus as Saviour
1. Joke;
1. The Devil went to God with this complaint. “Jesus is totally out of date, he can't relate to the people at all anymore. He doesn't have facebook, or MSN- he can barely even type. I can prove that I am better than He is.” God agreed and I was decided that both Jesus and the Devil should have to compete to create a document which presents their case. They would have to use computers, and have a time limit.
2. So, the competition began. The Devil was working hard and fast, getting quotes on line, and citing them, creating graphics, even developing a power point in order to explain his brochure. Meanwhile, Jesus was doing the old two finger type. It was almost the end of the allotted time- the devil had created a sharp, full colour two sided document and accompanying multimedia presentation, and had nothing left but to print his document. Jesus had about 3 lines, with typos.
3. Suddenly there was a power failure. When it came back on, the Devil discovered that he had lost everything, but Jesus had not. Then God came in and said “Ok, lets see what you've got!” The devil protested, asking for more time, explaining that there was a power failure. But God declared Jesus the winner, due to his 3 lines. “That's not fair!” the devil cried, I had so much more!” “yeah,” God said, “but Jesus saves.”
2. We are “Saved by grace through faith”
1. Grace means “Gods free gift.” We don't earn salvation. It doesn't matter how good you are, you can never save yourself! No one deserves to go to Heaven!
2. We are saved through faith- this does not mean that if you choose to believe in Jesus that he will automatically save you. Jesus himself warned that a lot of his followers would not get into Heaven. On the other hand, it is possible that many no Christians will get there. To have faith means to believe that God can and will do what he promissed, and not to give up hope.
3. Saved from what?
1. When we say we are saved, we don't mean just saved from Hell.
2. The word in the bible that gets translated “saved” is also translated “healed,liberated, forgiven”
1. Healed- sin hurts us. Our own sins, those of others. Jesus can heal you from the dammage that sins have done to you. Some of you may have had serious sins committed against you- you may have been sexually abused, or bullied, or threatened, or had to choose between two parents in a divorce. Or you mayy have had an abortion. Jesus can heal you from the dammage of all of these things!
2. Liberated- Sins trap us. We might be addicted to sex or porn or drugs or alcohol or cutting or occult things. By the power of God, we can be set free from our sins! It may take time- Jesus never promised that it would be instant. But again, we are saved by faith, so we need to just keep on believing and hoping.
3. Forgiven- we might hate ourselves for what we have done. Again, you may have had an abortion, or maybe you had sex, or almost had sex, even just once and you hate yourself for it. Maybe you're ashamed because of your sins, and you think that no one who really knew you could ever love you. But God does. He will forgive you!

Freedom
1. Jesus wants to give us lasting freedom from sin. He does this not by forcibly preventing you from sinning, but by working with your free will to strengthen you and over time give you freedom!
2. Once you are set free, you will not even want to do the things you used to do. That is the degree to which Jesus can transform you!
Conclusion
1. In order to be a Christian, you have to make Jesus your own Lord and Savior. Make him your master, and let him save you from all sin! (End the talk with a prayer service, whereby you have people stand and be prayed over for each of the following things. Call out an issue, have those people who it applies to stand, and say a quick prayer of healing an freedom for them. They should not feel pressured to stand if they are embarrassed. Get someone to play background music and create the mood! People may stand for more than one issue)

Reconciliation

2009-01-21T09:08:00.001-08:00

Reconciliation (1 hour including examination)

We are all sinners in need of grace
1. The word 'sin' means to 'miss the mark'. In other words, it means being imperfect.
2. God created us to be in a perfect relationship with him- sinning hurts and eventually kills that relationship. Since God is love, life and truth, sin can eventually kills love, life and truth in us.
3. Just like any relationship, we need to be reconciled to God, and have our relationship restored.
4. God gives us grace, which means he forgives our sins and makes it possible for us to resist sin. Without grace, it would be impossible to not sin- and to sin seriously.
1. St Clement of Alexandria wrote in about 190 AD “A man by himself, working and toiling at freedom from passion, achieves nothing. But if he plainly shows his great desire and complete sincerity in this, he will attain it by the addition of the power of God. Indeed, God conspires with willing souls. But if they abandon their eagerness, the spirit which is bestowed by God is also restrained.”
1. In other words, it is impossible to defeat sin by your own power, but that does not mean that you do nothing and God just does it for you. Grace builds on nature, and God helps those who help themselves. If you want to be free from your sin, God wants to make it happen, and working together you will be!
Jesus instituted the sacrament of penance for the remission of sins. Through this sacrament, and others, you get the grace you need.
1. When Jesus forgave sins, people wee astonished, because no one has the right to do that but God. They didn't realize that Jesus was God. But Jesus passed that power on to his disciples, and so on to the Church.
2. Matthew 16:19 (Jesus speaking to Peter) “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of Heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in Heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in Heaven.”
3. Since the earliest times, Catholics believed that in saying this, Jesus gave the Catholic Church, and the Catholic Church alone, the authority to forgive sins.
1. Tertullian wrote in about 220 AD “'But', you say, 'the Church has the power of forgiving sins.' this I acknowledge.”
2. Firmillian wrote in 256 AD “Therefore the power of forgiving sins was given to the Apostles and to the Churches which these men, sent by Christ, established, and to the Bishops who succeeded them by being ordained in their place.”
some kind of external confession is required.
1. Despite the fact that Jesus gave the Church this power, a lot of people think they can just go straight to God for forgiveness. But the church has always taught that especially in serious matters an external confession is necessary.
2. Tertullian wrote “Thus, confession is a discipline for man's prostration and humiliation....Therefore, while it abases a man, it raises him; while it covers him with squalor, the more does it cleanse him; while it condemns, it absolves. In so far a you do not spare yourself, the more, believe me, will God spare you!”
3. In other words, we may find confession embarrassing- but this is exactly why it is so effective. We have to humble enough to admit, out loud, to another person, all of our sins, so that God can not only forgive us, but also help us to stop sinning.
4. Some people avoid confession because they are embarrassed. Or they don't tell all of their sins, or they kind of gloss over them. They might say stuff like “I was not nice to my sister” or “I didn't use my time well.” in order to say “I bully my sister and take her stuff and put her down in front of her friends, and I look at pornography on the internet and masterbate.” If it is embarassing, it is more important to say it! And you should go at least twice a year.
5. If you want to be right with God, you should go more often- at least once a month. But if you want to be a saint, try to get to confession every week!
Confession made to a priest followed by private penance.
1. On ocaision in the early years, people would say their confession in front of the whole church. And if, the sin was serious enough, they may even have to do some public act of penance. This would mean doing some sort of good work, or fasting, or even wearing sackcloth or something, to make up for the sin.
2. More commonly, confession happened one on one with a priest, like it does now. And your penance would be something less severe for sins that were less severe.
3. One of the Church Fathers, called Aphraates the Persian Sage had this to say about confession; “For anyone who has been wounded in battle ought not be reluctant to put himself in the care of a wise physician, because he was overcome and lost the battle. And when he has been healed, he will not be rejected by the king, but will again be counted and reckoned in his army. So also he who has been struck by Satan ought not be ashamed to bewail his folly, and to give it up, and to seek a remedy in repentance.” In other words, the priest is not going to judge you- he is like a physician, and you like a soldier. You need to keep fighting for God, trying to establish his kingdom on Earth. If you are too ashamed to admit that you are wounded, than you don't give the physician the opportunity to heal you and get you back into battle.

In a little while, you will have the opportunity to go to confession. Priests from all over Alberta will be here. Before hand we will have an examination of conscience, which will allow you to see what areas of your life you have sinned in.
1. We challenge you to take this seriously- this is your chance to be totally cleaned of all the sins you have ever comitted!
2. If you don't know what to do, or if you have never been to confession before, we want you to go anyway, and tell the priest that. He will walk you through, so don't be afraid.
3. Make a real and honest confession- don't leave anything out, or try to gloss over your sins so it is less embarrassing. That way you will receive a fuller healing.
4. Priests do this every day. They will not be surprised by your sins, or even likely remember them. They will not judge you, and are absolutely forbidden to tell anyone or treat you any differently for what you said!
1. Even if you confessed that you conspired with a terrorist who was going to hijack a plane and crash it into the Sears tower, the priest could do nothing to prevent this from happening! (But once you have repented, maybe you should do something!)

Theotokos

2009-01-21T09:07:00.000-08:00

Theotokos (45 Minutes)

Introduction to the era
1. Legalization of Christianity under Constantine
2. Heresies! A heresy is a belief that is based in Christianity, but is in dissagrement with the official teachings of the church.
1. Gnostics
1. This was one of the major heresies. They taught that Jesus was not really a man, but rather that he only pretended to be a man, but was actually pure spirit. This would mean that he didn't really die or rise from the dead- he just faked it.
2. Arianism
1. Arianism had a saying that went “There was when He was not”. In other words, they didn't believe that Jesus was God, but said that he was a created being
Councils- The Church would call councils, where all the bishops in the world who were able to would come together and try to settle issues. Jesus had promissed the Church through the popes and councils that the Holy Spirit would guide her to make the right decisions. Here are some examples of councils.
1. Council of Jerusalem- This is the first council, and took place in Jerusalem when the apostles were still alive. You can read about it in Acts 15. The debate was whether gentiles (non Jews) would have to become Jewish before they could become Christian, which would mean getting circumsized. They decided that that was no necessary.
2. Nicea- The council of Nicea settled the debate about whether or not Jesus was God. It took place in ????????. It is from this council that we get the Nicene Creed, which is why the Creed goes on so much about how Jesus is 'God from God, Light from Light, True God from True God, begotten not made, one in being with the Father.”
3. History of Bible; At first when St Paul and St John and others were writing their letters and Gospels, they had no idea that their writings might and up in Sacred Scripture. A lot of other Christians were also writing letters, and some even wrote Gospels and put the name of apostles on these Gospels (like the Gospel of Thomas) in order to make them look authentic. The Church had to decide which books actually belong. They did this in Church councils at the end of the 4th century. So anyone who thinks that the Bible is an authority should also agree that Church Councils are since they gave us the Bible.

Theotokos
1. Theotokos means “Mother of God”. Some Christians gave this title to Mary from early times, but others debated whether it was appropriate. They said it implied that Mary came before God, when she had clearly been created by God.
2. It was decided at the council of Ephesus in 431 AD that the title was appropriate.
3. “Mother of God”- Mary is Jesus' mother, Jesus was God, therefore she is Mother of God.
4. Does not imply that she came before God.
5. She did not give birth only to Jesus' humanity (human body and soul) but also to His divinity since Jesus is only one and cannot be separated.
6. This title was another way to honour Mary!
Honour of Mary in early church
1. Christians have always taught what the Church still teaches about Mary-
1. Immaculate conception- the teaching that Mary was created sinless and remained sinless
1. Consider this ancient hymn to Jesus, written in Nisibis in about 350 AD:
You alone and your mother
are more beautiful than any others
For there is no blemish in you ,
nor any stains upon your Mother.
Who of my children
can compare in beauty to these?
2. Mary remained a virgin after Jesus was born- some people today contest this.
1. St Athanasius referred to Mary as the “Ever Virgin” as early as 358AD.
history of Rosary
1. It is popularly believed that the Rosary was given to St Dominic, who introduced the devotion in the 13th century. However, historians point to even earlier origens, going back all the way to the desert fathers, who used prayer chains with 150 beads to keep track of their prayers. It is likely that Mary did appear to Dominic and have him pass on the devotion.
Conclusion
1. Since the earliest times, Christians have honoured Mary as their mother and mother of the Church. We must never worship anyone other than God. However, honouring his mother is honouring to God.

Thy Kingdom Come

2009-01-21T09:06:00.000-08:00

New Covenant/ Thy Kingdom Come. (1 hour)

Meaning of Covenant
1. We are in a covenant relationship with God.
2. A covenant is a type of relationship where two people give themselves to each other. A marriage is a covenant,
3. In a marriage, a husband gives himself to his wife, and vice versa. With God, He has given himself to us by being our God, by loving us, forgiving us, answering our prayers, etc.
4. We give ourselves to God by trusting Him, living our lives for him, praying, acknowledging him in public, etc.
Description of Old Covenant
1. The Old Testament is a description of the Old Covenant. It was very legalistic. The deal was this.
1. God would give the Jews special priveledges among humans, and let them live in Israel, and make them wealthy.
2. The Jews would obey everything God said, andbe different from the rest of humans by being circumsized, not marrying non Jews (Gentiles), never working on Saturday, not worshiping idols, and keeping a very particular diet.
1. This diet is known as “Kosher”. It means no pork or pig meat, ll blood must be drained from meat before it can be eaten, you can't have meat and dairy in the same meal (No cheese burgers), etc.
3. The Jews did not live up to their end of the bargain.
4. God allowed their country to be invaded and them to be deported, and did not defend them.
Promise of a new Era
1. Prophets promissed that one day a new covenant would be made- where God would include people of every race, and give them power to heal the crippled and the blind, and there would be peace.
2. A new Jewish King would rule the whole world.
3. Everyone in the new covenant would be prophets.
4. A Messiah would come who would start this new Era.
Establishment of new covenant, Messianic age.
1. This new Covenant was established by Jesus.
1. Jesus is the Messiah. The Greek word for Messiah is “Christ.”
2. Instead of being slaves like we were in the Old Covenant, in the New Covenant we are made children of God.
3. God loves us as a father. Like a perfect father, he forgives us when we screw up, but he wants us to keep trying.
4.
“Thy Kingdom Come”
1. Jesus taught us to pray, calling God 'Father'- something which had never been done before, and was considered blasphemy.
2. He said we should pray “Thy Kingdom Come.”
3. As messiah, Jesus is the Jewish King who would rule over everybody.
1. In ancient days, years would be counted from the beginning of a kings reign, so people would say “It was the 25th year of King David, or whatever.
2. This year is 2009 AD- AD stands for Anno Domine, or “year of our Lord.” Jesus' kingdom was established 2009 years ago!
4. As Christians, we are citizens in his kingdom.
5. This means that all the things that were promissed- that we could heal people and even raise people from the dead- applies to us!
6. If all the Christians in the world really lived out our faith, then we would eliminate poverty and hunger, and there would be peace.
7. Eventually everyone would realize that Christianity is true, and so the whole world would be part of the kingdom.

The Littlest van Kampen

2008-09-03T13:10:00.000-07:00

I am delighted to announce the birth of a beautiful baby girl, named Lucia Rose! The delivery was a little trying- Catherine and I had decided ahead of time to do everything as naturally as possible, even to turn down the epidurals. Catherines' water broke on Saturday when we were hiking in banff, and by the time we got to the hospital (5 hours later) the doctors thought it quite important that we be induced by a synthetic oxytosin. By 8 am Monday, Catherine had been in hard labour for about 27 hours, had gone 2 nights and a day without sleeping or eating, and still she refused an epidural! All of the nurses thought she was pretty phenomenal, especially because of her strength both of character and physical. We were 9cm dillated, so we were almost there! Catherines mom was with us, coaching her all they way, and she also deserves a heroes recognition for this.

But sadly, we never did get that last cm. The doctors tried several approaches, but none of them worked. Eventually they told us that they would have to preform a c-section. Obviously we were very sad about this. We had prayed the whole way through, but we said one last prayer, offering the whole thing to God. After all, if you have an idea of what is good, but an all powerful all good God does not give it to you, then there is nothing left to do but trust.

I cannot exagerate here Catherines composure throughout it all. Of course she was in pain, and we all cried about the c-section, but she remained positive and hopefull and loving and overall very inspiring to the entire hospital staff. I believe that we were a powerful witness. The photo to the right shows us just moments before the c-section.

And in the end, we have a beautiful daughter. The attached photo attests to that. 8lbs 14ounces. And Lucia (pronounced Lucy-ah) Rose is very happy and very healthy. The hospital has been wonderful- we have a private room, and I get to stay the whole time on a cot. We have recieved eucharist each day. And Catherine and I are very in love with our baby.

I was going to create a facebook account for Lucia, but I guess one day old babies are not eligible or something. Please continue to pray for Catherine as she recovers! We hope to be discharged tomorrow (Thursday) at about noon.

Peters parents with baby Lucia, one day old.

Catherines Mom with Lucia- 30 minutes old.

Marian Devotion

2007-12-25T19:14:00.000-08:00

In response to an article at http://www.challies.com/archives/general-news/a-short-history-1.php

Thanks for your insights in this matter. However, I think your representation of the history of Marian devotion is faulty. Until the reformation, the Catholic and Orthodox churches both honoured Mary- in fact, honouring Mary was never contested! The greatest Cristians for 1500 years had consistently developped a love for Mary, precisely because of their love for her Son, not in spite of it.

However, at the time of Luther, a new concept was introduced, namely Sola Scriptura. First off it should be noted that this doctrine is, ironically, not scriptural. Therefore it is self refuting. Secondly, it assumes the idea that every individual conscience is equally infallible, but the Church by no means is. What a dangerous assumption! The Church which gave you doctrines not found explicitely in scripture- such as Theotokos, the Trinity, and the Canon of Scripture- if this Church is capable of making mistakes, than these doctrines may be wrong.

Thus any Jehovahs Witness or Dan Brown has an equal claim on the truth to the practicing, proffessing Christian. It is a question of authority. Catholics claim infallibility, that Christ gave the apostles the power to ‘bind and loose’ and be protected from error, and this power was handed down for 2000 years. Who gave you, the individual protestant, such power?
In short, either the Catholic Church is Infallible- or it isn’t. If it is, then clearly it is the one true church it claims to be. If it isn’t, than we cannot accept anything it taught authoritatively- not even which books belong in the Bible. Because the church must be deliberately lying, and claiming authority from God- thus, it must be diabolical

Apologetics notes

2007-05-15T09:31:00.000-07:00

Apologetics

Objective: To help people learn to defend the faith in the 3 major areas of Church authority, the Eucharist and Mary.

Testimony
Raised Catholic
Little faith life
Attended protestant youth groups- began to know Jesus
Considered myself ‘non-denominational’
Intellectual journey- did not want to sing the “love songs”
Challenged by protestants
i. Faith and works
ii. Purgatory
iii. Penance
Discovered that the Catholics were right!
Bible School
Attitude towards apologetics
Little red book
Make Love your aim!
Church authority- If they believe this, they’ll believe anything!
Sola Scriptura
i. Play the sola sciptura game in apologetics.
1. Ignorance of Scripture is Ignorance of Christ!
ii. Taught by Luther
1. 95 Theses
2. Emphasis on Romans and Galatians
iii. Unscriptural- self refuting
iv. Bible history
1. To become deep in history is to cease to be protestant- John Henry Cardinal Newman- Convert from Protestantism
2. Table of contents?
3. Who canonizes scripture?
a. Augustine effectively forced his opinion on the Church by commanding three synods on canonicity: the Synod of Hippo in 393, the Synod of Carthage in 397, and another in Carthage in 419 A.D.
b. there was never any pronouncement by any central authority such as the Pope in all of Christian history as to which books belonged in the Bible, until 1443 A.D. at the conclusion of the Council of Florence.
c. Canon created when people already believed in Eucharist, honored Mary, believed in purgatory, etc. (there is evidence of this even in 4th century)
4. Marty Story
Peter as the Rock
i. Why would God want Popes?
1. Jehovahs Witnesses
a. Jesus is not God, but St Michael
b. Never rose from the dead
c. Only 144000 get to heaven- the rest of the JW’s stay in paradise on earth
d. No Hell
ii. Matt 16
1. 16:13 When Jesus came to the area of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 16:14 They answered, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 16:15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16:16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 16:17 And Jesus answered him, “You are blessed, Simon son of Jonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father in heaven! 16:18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. 16:19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever you release on earth will have been released in heaven.” 16:20 Then he instructed his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ.

iii. Primacy of Peter in other scriptures
1. Listed first
2. Peter and the others
3. John defers to Peter
Binding and Loosing
i. Authority to teach infallibly
1. infallibility of individuals?
ii. From HS
Continuity
i. Peter went to Rome- in code “Babylon” (1Peter 5:13)
ii. Recognition of earliest Church Fathers
1. Tertullian (AD 220)"[T]he Lord said to Peter, ‘On this rock I will build my Church, I have given you the keys of the kingdom of heaven [and] whatever you shall have bound or loosed on earth will be bound or loosed in heaven’ [Matt. 16:18–19]. . . . Upon you, he says, I will build my Church; and I will give to you the keys, not to the Church" (Modesty 21:9–10 [A.D. 220]).

2. Cyril of Jerusalem (AD 350)"In the power of the same Holy Spirit, Peter, both the chief of the apostles and the keeper of the keys of the kingdom of heaven, in the name of Christ healed Aeneas the paralytic at Lydda, which is now called Diospolis [Acts 9:32–34]" (ibid., 17:27).

3. Jerome (AD 393)
"‘But,’ you [Jovinian] will say, ‘it was on Peter that the Church was founded’ [Matt. 16:18]. Well . . . one among the twelve is chosen to be their head in order to remove any occasion for division"

4. Augustine (AD 416)

"Who is ignorant that the first of the apostles is the most blessed Peter?"

iii. Successor became Pope
1. Pope Innocent I"In seeking the things of God . . . you have acknowledged that judgment is to be referred to us [the pope], and have shown that you know that is owed to the Apostolic See [Rome], if all of us placed in this position are to desire to follow the apostle himself [Peter] from whom the episcopate itself and the total authority of this name have emerged" (Letters 29:1 [A.D. 408]).
2. Council of Ephesus (431)
a. you joined yourselves to the holy head also by your holy acclamations. For your blessednesses is not ignorant that the head of the whole faith, the head of the apostles, is blessed Peter the apostle’" (Acts of the Council, session 2 [A.D. 431]).
b. "Philip, the presbyter and legate of the Apostolic See [Rome] said: ‘There is no doubt, and in fact it has been known in all ages, that the holy and most blessed Peter, prince and head of the apostles, pillar of the faith, and foundation of the Catholic Church, received the keys of the kingdom from our Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior and Redeemer of the human race, and that to him was given the power of loosing and binding sins: who down even to today and forever both lives and judges in his successors’" (ibid., session 3).

iv. w/o contradiction!
1. "It is beyond question that he [the pope] can err even in matters touching the faith. He does this when he teaches heresy by his own judgment or decretal. In truth, many Roman Pontiffs were heretics." --Pope Adrian VI, 1523
2. Such was the case, for example, when Pope Clement XI (1700-21) confirmed King Philip V of Spain and then shortly thereafter King Charles III of Germany, both with the same titles and privileges, including the highly prized Bull of the Crusade. As a result, Charles went to war with Philip to claim the crown which the pope seemingly had given him. Clement even confirmed two different candidates, one proposed by each sovereign, for the same bishopric.
One would think that such blatant contradictions would be proof enough that the pope was not infallible.
3. On July 21, 1773, Pope Clement XIV issued a decree suppressing the Jesuits, only to have it reversed by a decree restoring them, issued by Pope Pius VII on August 7, 1814. Eugenius IV condemned Joan of Arch (1412-31) to be burned as a witch and heretic, but she was beatified by Pius X (1903-14) in 1909 and canonized by Benedict XV (1914-22) in 1920.
4. When the Pope (1) intends to teach (2) by virtue of his supreme authority (3) on a matter of faith and morals (4) to the whole Church, he is preserved by the Holy Spirit from error. His teaching act is therefore called "infallible" and the teaching which he articulates is termed "irreformable". (Dogma)

Assent of faith
i. Response of humility
ii. It is harder to submit your mind than to submit your will.

Eucharist
Daryl Story
Explicit at last supper
i. Also Corinthians version
John 6 narrative
6:52 Then the Jews who were hostile to Jesus 79 began to argue with one another, 80 “How can this man 81 give us his flesh to eat?” 6:53 Jesus said to them, “I tell you the solemn truth, 82 unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, 83 you have no life 84 in yourselves. 6:54 The one who eats 85 my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 86 6:55 For my flesh is true 87 food, and my blood is true 88 drink. 6:56 The one who eats 89 my flesh and drinks my blood resides in me, and I in him.

6:66 After this many of his disciples quit following him 112 and did not accompany him 113 any longer. 6:67 So Jesus said to the twelve, “You don’t want to go away too, do you?” 114 6:68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life.
Fulfillment of OT
i. Melchizedek
1. GEN 14:18 Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (Now he was the priest of the Most High God.)
ii. Bread of offering
iii. Manna- Exod 16
iv. Passover- especially paralleled with John
1. Lamb of God
a. Exod 12:3 Tell the whole community of Israel, ‘In the tenth day of this month they each must take a lamb 2 for themselves according to their families 3 – a lamb for each household.
b. John 1: 29 On the next day John 1 saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God 2 who takes away the sin of the world!
2. Hyssop
a. 12:22 Take a branch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and apply to the top of the doorframe and the two side posts some of the blood that is in the basin.
b. 19:29 A jar full of sour wine was there, so they put a sponge soaked in sour wine on a branch of hyssop and lifted it to his mouth.

3. No bone broken
a. Exod 12:46 It must be eaten in one house; you must not bring any of the meat outside the house, and you must not break a bone of it.
b. John 19:36 For these things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled, “Not a bone of his will be broken.”
4. Must Eat it!
a. Exod 12:46 It must be eaten
b. John 6
Explanation of Revelation
Historical evidence- Lanciano
Mary
Cloud of witnesses- Can we even talk to Saints?
i. Heb 12:1- “Therefore” makes reference to Heb 11
Why honor Mary?
i. Honor- not worship!
ii. Because God did it in her Luke 1
Mary in scripture
i. “Behold your mother”
ii. Queen Mother
Church has a responsibility to teach the truth even when it is not popular!
i. Immaculate conception, Mediatrix, coredemptorix
Mary as relational.
i. Testimony.
ii. Dare them to pray to Jesus for love of Mary.
Exhortation to love.

Easter!

2007-03-04T14:31:00.000-08:00

Objective- To inspire young adults to look with hope towards the promised ressurection.

1. Head Bone connected to the...

(a) E-ze-kiel cried, "Dem dry bones!"
E-ze-kiel cried, "Dem dry bones!"
E-ze-kiel cried, "Dem dry bones!"
Oh hear the word of the Lord.

The foot bone con-nected to the (pause) leg-bone,
The leg bone connected to the (') knee bone,
The knee bone connected to the (') thigh bone,
The thigh bone connected to the (') back bone,
The back bone connected to the (') neck bone
The neck bone connected to the (') head bone
Oh hear the word of the Lord!

Dem bones, dem bones gon-na walk a-roun'
Dem bones, dem bones gon-na walk a-roun'
Dem bones, dem bones gonna walk aroun'
Oh hear the word of the Lord

(b)Ezekiel 37
The Valley of Dry Bones
1 The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. 3 He asked me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" I said, "O Sovereign LORD, you alone know."
4 Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones and say to them, 'Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! 5 This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath [a] enter you, and you will come to life. 6 I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.' "
7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.
9 Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.' " 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.
11 Then he said to me: "Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, 'Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.' 12 Therefore prophesy and say to them: 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: O my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. 14 I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD.' "

(c) Baptism- Enter into the death and Ressurection of Christ!

(d) Freedom from Sin

"Saved"- Set free, healed, made whole, etc. Are we saved from sin?

Testimony.

Romans 7- 21So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22For in my inner being I delight in God's law; 23but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!

2. Abraham and stars- Gen 15

(a) 5 He took him outside and said, "Look up at the heavens and count the stars—if indeed you can count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be."
6 Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

(b) 12 As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him.

(c) Abram could not see the stars- neither could he see how Gods promises could possibly be fulfilled!

(d) Gods promises to us....

i) Victory over sin and sinners
ii) Ressurection and Heaven
iii) God works works all things to the good for those who love him.
iv) Cry to me and I will answer you.
v) If you ask for anything in my name, I will grant it to you.

3. Sadducees and Ressurection

a) Sadducees did not believe in the final ressurection

i) Paul used this against them in a trial
Acts 23:6 Then Paul, knowing that some of them were Sadducees and the others Pharisees, called out in the Sanhedrin, "My brothers, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee. I stand on trial because of my hope in the resurrection of the dead."

ii) Paul used the resurrection of Christ as proof that we would one day rise- 1 Cor 15:12-19

12But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. 15More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. 16For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. 17And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 18Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.

b) Jehoavhs Witnesses do not believe in physical ressurection

i) Flesh and blood will not inherit the kingdom
ii) Jesus' body must have just evaporated.
iii) "Spiritual bodies" - 1 Cor 15

35But someone may ask, "How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?" 36How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else.

42So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; 43it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.

4. Ressurrected Bodies
a) Speculative
b) Glorified Bodies- Christ was not recognized
c) Not limmited to space and time? Christ passed through walls, bi-located,
d) Could still eat

i) If JW's were right, then when Jesus ate fish, it woudl have fallen on the floor, and God would be like "Ok, Michael, what are you doing?"

5. Hope

a) 1 Cor 15: 55-56
55"Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?"[h] 56The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

b.) Hope as a theological virtue, intrinsically linked to Faith and Love.
i) Do you doubt Gods ability or his goodness?

6. Challenge
a) Continue to die to self during Lent, looking with anticipation to Easter.

Friendship

2007-01-25T19:36:00.000-08:00

Peters story:

In Junior High, i had almost no friends. At first I wasn't really aware of it. I thought I was fairly cool- sure, no one paired up with me for group work, and I always got picked last for sports teams, but that was OK!

Teacher :"What's wrong with you guys? Why are you so mean to each other? And why doesn't anyone like Peter? I think he's nice! Why isn't anyone his friend?"

I had 2 friends. they were imaginary. And they never played with me, they only played with each other.

You know how in your schools there's probably a few of those awkward people that no one really likes, everyone kinda thinks is a loser?

Those kids thought I was a loser.

Then I went to OLVC, and prayed a simple prayer- that I would be loved.

At that time popularity was the most important thing in the world to me! I wanted people to like me, and more than that, to respect me, and be willing to confide in me, to trust me!

In Grade 10, made a ton of friends! They became my life.

The 2nd commandment says that there should be nothing more important to us than God. My friends had become more important.

Friendship is a great gift from God- a very good thing. But we can sometimes not treat our friends right- we can treat them like Objects. Pizza Love? We have to love them for their own sake- not for what we get out of the friendship!

Fairweather friends- like us for what they can get. A true friend is committed to you even when it gets rough- especially when it gets rough, 'cause that's when you need them!

Love wants the best for other people.

Story- Jesus heals the paralyzed man.

Friends should be the kind of people who bring us to Christ.

2 implications-

1. We need to be the kind of people who bring our friends to Christ.

What if someone is no longer willing to be your friend because you try to evangelize them, or they are living in sin and you try to talk them out of it?

Must put the good of the person before the friendship!

Friends on drugs? Suicidal? living in sin?

It is a spiritual act of mercy to tell them so, and help them out!

Of course, be gentle, loving, compassionate, non judgemental. Being non jadgemental does not mean being unable to discern between right and worng- it means not assuming motives in the other.

Demonstration- Get someone to argue with me and prove to me that Gravity exists, and thus I should not jump off a cliff.

Act offended- tell them i am as convicted of my idea as they are, and therefore they are being ignorant and small minded, and I will do what I very well please, so stop being so preachy, or we can't be friends.

What is that friends duty?

Jen from Sacramento story- Florence.

2. Our friends should bring us to Christ.

Fellowship!

Blanket demonstration- the more friends we have supporting us the better.

Even Jesus had 12 apostles- and when he sent them out, he did it in 2's, so they were not alone.

Christians are like Bananas- they grow better in bunches.

Catherine story.

Jesus said "Greater love hath no man than he who lays down his life for his friends."

Are you willing to die for your friends? How about to give up the bigger slice of cake? How about to listen to them when they are emotionally unstable? Or preach to them when they need it!

Friendship is an incredible gift from God, a way that he helps us to get holy. But remember that it comes with a duty- to love your friend means to put their interests before your own, and to sincerely desire the best for them, even when they don't desire it for themselves. But ultimately even though your friends come before you, they should always come after God!

Filial Love

2007-01-25T13:47:00.000-08:00

Filial Love

Jesus said that the greatest commandments were to love God and to love others. John the apostle wrote that "God is love".

Today is going to be all about Love, and specifically about 4 kinds of love as found in the Greek language.

It will be about love as pertaining to a person- not Pizza love.

Define “Love”- (Ask Audience)

Pop Culture:
What is Love? Baby don’t hurt me, don’t hurt me, no more!
What’s love go to do with it…. What’s love, a second hand emotion.
You’ve lost, that lovin feeling….

“Love is not affectionate feeling, but a steady wish for the loved person's ultimate good as far as it can be obtained” C.S. Lewis

Love as a virtue- a virtue is a disposition of the will. That means that you can choose it. And the more often you choose it, the easier it gets- you develop a habit of choosing to love.

Want to acquire the virtue of love? Think of the person you find most difficult to love, of everyone you know. The one who gets on your nerves or makes you angry the most often.

Jesus said “Love your enemies.” If you can love that person, then you can teach yourself how to love. (True love comes from God, but we’ll get into that later. For now we’ll talk about the discipline of loving.)

A lot of people, if you ask them who in their lives is the hardest to love, will think of someone in their family. A brother, sister, parent….

GK Chesterton, a Christian writer, pointed out that while we can choose our friends, and we tend to choose people who are just like us, we don’t get to choose our families. We’re stuck with the ones we have! How many people here have family members that you can hardly believe are related to you because they are so different? The music they like, the way they dress, the things they think are funny or fun, the TV shows they watch….. the way they think about politics or religion or philosophy. The sports teams they cheer for! Imagine being related to someone who cheered for the Oilers- brutal!

When we speak of filial love, we usually mean the kind of love a parent has for a child. Parents will tell you that something weird happens when you have a baby- you love them
How many commandments are there?
What is the 4rth commandment?

Honour your Father and Mother.

Commandments are split into two sections- those that have to do with loving God, and those that have to do with loving other people. And the first one in the second category- before “Don’t steal” ‘Don’t Kill” and “Don’t commit adultery” is Honour your father and mother! So for some reason God thinks that this is pretty important.

Honour
- Obey
- Respect
- Honour in speech
- Serve
- Forgive

Catherines Story

Remember that forgiveness is a choice just like love. So, just like love, forgiveness is something you can choose to do even when you don't feel like it. And pray that the feelings will follow!

Lastly, you probably have some ideas about how you would like your family to run when you're a parent. Maybe you want to pray together with your family, or spend quality time together, or not have a lot of negative humour or fighting. As teenagers you are becoming adults- that means that your role in the family is beggining to be one of leadership, to some degree. Of course, your parents are still the boss, but if you want to see these things happen in your family, you can start to make it happen.

Pray for your family!

Responsibility

2007-01-08T10:53:00.000-08:00

Genesis 3:1- 13

The Temptation and the Fall

3:1 Now 1 the serpent 2 was more shrewd 3
than any of the wild animals 4 that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Is it really true that 5 God 6 said, ‘You must not eat from any tree of the orchard’?” 7 3:2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat 8 of the fruit from the trees of the orchard; 3:3 but concerning the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the orchard God said, ‘You must not eat from it, and you must not touch it, 9 or else you will die.’” 10 3:4 The serpent said to the woman, “Surely you will not die, 11 3:5 for God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will open 12 and you will be like divine beings who know 13 good and evil.” 14
3:6 When 15 the woman saw that the tree produced fruit that was good for food, 16 was attractive 17 to the eye, and was desirable for making one wise, 18 she took some of its fruit and ate it. 19 She also gave some of it to her husband who was with her, and he ate it. 20 3:7 Then the eyes of both of them opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
The Judgment Oracles of God at the Fall
3:8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God moving about 21 in the orchard at the breezy time 22 of the day, and they hid 23 from the Lord God among the trees of the orchard. 3:9 But the Lord God called to 24 the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 25 3:10 The man replied, 26 “I heard you moving about 27 in the orchard, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.” 3:11 And the Lord God 28 said, “Who told you that you were naked? 29 Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” 30 3:12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave me, she gave 31 me some fruit 32 from the tree and I ate it.” 3:13 So the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this 33 you have done?” And the woman replied, “The serpent 34 tricked 35 me, and I ate.”

Who’s fault is it that man is no longer in the garden? Men have often blamed women. In fact, that was the first response to the first sin ever- to say “It’s not my fault.” Adam blamed Eve- he also blamed God- “The woman whom you gave me…”. Eve blamed the snake. The snake didn’t have a leg to stand on.

It’s interesting that to this day, we still play the blame game. We don’t take ownership of our own sin. We need to learn to acknowledge our vices as being our own.

In the movie “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” the bad guy name is Frollo, a judge and cleric who wants to kill all the Gypsies. There is one seen where he is struggling with lust in front of his fireplace, and he feels guilty about it. And he says “It’s not my fault, if in (God’s) plan, he made the Devil so much stronger than a man!”

Some times it seems like this- like no matter what we do, we’re gonna sin. Se can’t help it. We’re week. Of course, no body is perfect- however, God commands us not to sin, and God makes it possible!

Gal 5:1
For freedom 1 Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not be subject again to the yoke 2 of slavery.

Eph 6:11
Clothe yourselves with the full armor of God so that you may be able to stand against the schemes 1 of the devil.
God promises that there is no sin so great that we cannot stand under it. In other words, we will never be tempted so strongly that we have to give in. We are not victims of our sins!

This is a great compliment, if you think about it. We are told that sin makes us slaves. In a sense, this is true, since all sins- weather drugs or alcohol, or sexual sins, or even judgementalism, materialism, or gossip- all sins are addictive! But there is always hope, there is always freedom, and there is all ways a point where we give our consent to the sin and that is why we fall.

So we can’t blame other people for our vices. We need to be men of strength, character and integrity. This is what the virtue of responsibility looks like. It means taking control of our lives and acknowledging our ownership of them! It means not making up excuses! People who make up excuses all the time are week, pathetic men. I admire a man who will stand up and say “Yes, I did this thing, and yes it was wrong. Forgive me.”

This is why the sacrament of confession is so important- We go to another human being, and we go to God, and say “here is what sins I have committed”. Then we do an act of penance- something concrete which turns our path around. The word “repent” means to turn around. But how can we repent if we don’t even admit that we’re going the wrong direction in the first place?

Responsibility is what separates men from boys. A child sits there in his mothers arms, and goes wherever she takes him. It’s not his fault if they go somewhere stupid. But when a child grows up, he has to start making decisions for himself- he needs to learn to take control!

This is why I had to leave the seminary. A few years ago I decided to study to be a Catholic Priest. I spent two years in the seminary, but in that time, I didn’t have to make a lot of decisions on my own. My food was purchased and prepared, money was provided, I had no taxes to pay…. Etc. In other words, I continues to live as an adolescent. But adolescence is supposed to be a transition period from childhood to adulthood. It’s not supposed to drag on and on.

Do you remember when you were a little boy, and you would think “I can’t wait until I’m a grown up, because then I’ll be able to stay up as late as I want- go places when I want to, spend money how I want.” This is what it means to be an adult- but in order for it to happen, you have to take responsibility.

What happens if you don’t? The world will take it for you. If you don’t learn how to responsibly control your money, for example. If you go into debt, and can’t pay your bills, and can’t keep a job- you will be forced to declare bankruptcy. In other words, you will have to let the government take over your money, and they will choose how much of it goes to debt, etc.

My Uncle did not learn to take responsibility for his life. He got into drugs and alcohol. He had several children outside of marriage. He went to jail a few times for different crimes. He never learned how to be a man! He still lived with his parents when he was 40 years old- he had a curfew, and allowance, and if he went anywhere, he had to tell them where he was going, for how long, and with who! Now he’s in rehab program in Medjugorie, where he needs to ask permission to do anything whatsoever- he can’t write a postcard without permission! This is because he was so out of control, that he needs to be treated like a child until he learns how to be under control.

Responsibility is a virtue- so like other virtues, it is a habit of the will. You can choose to form this habit by making little choices to be responsible. When something goes wrong- say you don’t have your full uniform or your caught talking in class- instead of saying it’s someone elses fault, just acknowledge your guilt, and make a choice to be more responsible. If you know you have trouble getting your homework done, choose ahead of time to take the necessary steps, like recording what needs to be done in your day planner, so that you can get control over it.

A lot of times people don’t take responsibility because they are afraid of it. They actually feel fear when they think about what they need to do. You need to counter that fear with courage, and with knowing that God is in control, and you need to trust him and put yourself out there.

There is a popular theory in philosophy that humanity is divided into 2 groups- the herd and the supermen. The herd just goes around blindly doin what they do, while the supermen are smart enough to see what’s going on, and can make real decisions. If you want to be a superman, than it’s time you took ownership of your own lives and decisions. Decide for yourself whether you believe in God and want to get holy, decide for yourself whether you want to succeed in school, decide for yourself if you’re going to let your relationships with people fall apart, etc.

You know the story of David and Goliath. The two armies, the Israelites and the Philistines, had decided that whoever won a man on man battle, that army would win. But The philistines had a giant on their side- some massive guy, like Shaquille O’Neil, and the Israelites were all scared to face him. The Philistines we’re going to be able to make the Israelites into slaves! Finally one Israelites decided to have the courage to fight- a little scrawny kid named David. He faced the giant, slung his sling, and he won! How? By the grace of God. So don’t be afraid to take responsibility and be a hero- God has promised you victory!

Forgiveness

2006-12-18T13:22:00.000-08:00

St Peter was talking to Jesus one day, and said "how many times should I forgive, 7 times?" and Jesus said (depending on which gospel you read) "Not 7 times, but 70 times 7 times."

Does this mean that we keep a little counter on us, and everytime we have to forgive an individual for the same offense we tally it until we reach 490, and then cut them off?

No, or course not. That would be ridiculous.

Peter thought that 7 would be a good number, since it's the perfect number, and evidently we can't just keep forgiving a person who continues to sin regardless. However, Jesus taught us essentially that to forgive is an act of love, and as such, it is something we need to do again and again.

Often people will think of someone who hurt them, and they will say 'I can never forgive so and so, since they have hurt me so badly." Well, without downplaying their pain, I think it should still be acknowledged that they must forgive that individual, as an act of the will, despite what their emotions dictate!

Now, what are some reasons that a person would want to not forgive a person? Vengeance. Vulnerability. Naivety. We know that when we forgive a person we are essentially opening ourselves up to letting that kind of thing happen again.

But here's the thing. Love is the greatest thing in all the world. And the greatest kind of love is Agape love- the love of God. God loves people who won't even love him back. And he forgives them again and again as an act of unconditional love.

In other words, if we love people so much that we continue to forgive them even though they might do it again, and we put ourselves on the line and make ourselves vulnerable, we are loving them with the love with which God has loved us- which is the greatest kind of the greatest thing, so we should be happy!

The Bible says we have to make 'love' our aim. Just as love is a choice, so forgiveness is a choice. You can choose to love someone even when you don't feel like it, and you can choose to forgive someone even when you don't feel like it. When you do this, pray that God will allow the emotions to follow. We tend to think of forgiveness as an emotion, and say "when I don't feel pain anymore, then I will forgive." But that is backwards! If we are ever going to learn to love, we have to learn to forgive!

Jesus tells a story about a guy who owes his master a bunch of money. The master is going to throw the guy into prison, but the guy begs him for mercy, and so the master forgives him his debt. Then the guy sees one of his buddies, that owes him some money- and he throws that guy in prison! Jesus says that the master will take the guy and throw him into prison until his debt is paid.

This is what the forgiveness of God is like. We expect God to keep forgiving us for the same things over and over again, but God says we have to forgive other people. "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those..." When you pray that, you probably don't think about it, but you are actually saying that you forgive anyone who has hurt you and you are making the forgiveness of God contingent upon whether you forgive someone else!

But again, we have an apparent contradiction- or at least a paradox. If love chooses to forgive, and Gods love is unconditional, then it follows that Gods forgiveness is unconditional, and therefore can not be contingent upon whether or not you forgive someone else. In fact, why should se even have to confess our sins, if God is just gonna love us and thus forgive us anyway?

When I worked in the group home for kids with behaviour problems, there was this 10 year old boy who was going nuts one day, wrecking the place, swearing at me, throwing things, trying to punch me. That evening when he had calmed down, he asked me to forgive him. I told him that I did forgive him- but that he would still have to serve his consequences.

This is the thing with forgiveness that a lot of people don't understand- forgiveness does not negate the consequences. If you break my window, and I forgive you, you still have to replace my window. If you betray my trust, and I forgive you, you still have to win back my trust. Relationships are damaged when you hurt someone- but once damaged, that damage will go deeper and deeper until you choose to forgive. It's like a cut. Left untreated, it could become infected and do more damage. Treated, it will still need to heal, but it can begin that process.

So in our relationship with God, God wants to forgive us, but that means he wants to begin the healing process. However, since what is healing is a relationship with God, we also have a role to play in that process. If we don't acknowledge our fault, or if we don't forgive other people, than even though God wants to forgive us, we are essentially preventing that from happening.

Similarly, in relationships with other people, it is good to actually ask for forgiveness when you've done something wrong. Most people will say something like "Oh, sorry for this." and the response is "That's OK." But the problem with that is, it does not actually acknowledge the fault. Instead I've developed the habit of saying "Will you forgive me for this", and the person replies "I forgive you." This way I'm not merely expressing sadness for what happened, I am humbling myself to ask for forgiveness for something I really did. And they are not merely dismissing it, they acknowledge what happened, but make an act of the will by saying "I forgive you." This is also what we do in confession, when we confess our sins, and actually get to hear Gods representative say "I forgive you". This is why Jesus implemented Confession! (CF John 20:23)

Now, what about people who have not asked for forgiveness? Chances are that if you look at your life you will recognize that there are people in it who you need to forgive who never have and probably never will ask for forgiveness. This could eat away at you. You need to choose to forgive those people! Maybe this will not entirely heal your relationship... maybe you still won't talk to them, or you'll still be distant from them, but you need to do this for your own sake. Unforgiveness is like spiritual cancer- and it has actually been linked to physical cancer. It sits in your soul, and eats away at your ability to trust, to be vulnerable, to love, and to be free. Choosing to forgive someone is choosing that freedom for yourself.

Lastly, you may need to go to someone to ask for forgiveness. The Bible says that if you go to the altar, and you know that someone has something against you, you need to go to that person first and ask them to forgive you. In other words, you're not even supposed to receive communion unless you have asked forgiveness of people! I know it is hard, it is humbling and even a little scary to do it, but that is the level of holiness that God has called you to!

Dating

2006-12-11T08:59:00.000-08:00

CS Lewis described 4 kinds of love. One of these is Eros, the love between a man and a woman. Though many people have debated the source of such love, or what that love is, few people argue that it exists.

So the question is, why does it exist? Why would God want us to have romantic love?

Most people will look at this in a fairly utilitarian fashion and say "So that we could have babies." Now clearly children do better in a family with both a mom and a dad. Clearly too, they come from sex. But did it have to be this way?

God could have made us capable of procreating in any number of ways. We could have been like an amoeba- your walking down the street one day, suddenly "Oh, I have a splitting headache" Slurp Pop "I'm beside myself!". Or we could have been like flowers. Giant insects could come and rest on our faces and gather pollen, then fly off and find some female and deposit the pollen, and she could get pregnant.

But God created romantic love, and sex. God was not bound to this structure, so he must have created it for a reason.

It is also found that while God calls some people to be celibate, and to serve the Church in that way, the vast majority of people are called to marriage. Now while it's possible that some people are simply not listening to the call, if indeed God calls most people to marriage, than this must be a very valuable thing in deed, and it must be sanctifying.

The thing with romantic love and marriage is that it teaches us what love is really about. There is this silly notion that people should get married when they feel like they are in love, and that when they no longer feel 'that lovin' feeling', they ought to break it off. But clearly this goes against marriage as a sacrament, and the fact that they made vows to each other.

Love is a virtue, not a feeling. So marriage shows us how to love in the way that God actually intends. Ephesians 5 says "Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the Church."

How did Christ love the Church? He died for it! In other words, husbands should be willing to die for their wives! Christ said that the greatest love was when someone was willing to give up their life for their friends. St Paul wrote that we need to make love our aim.

So how do we do this? Marriage teaches us about love every time we have to die to ourselves, and it shows us how to make love our aim. As we grow in love, we grow in perfection, and so come closer to God. So when you have to give up on how you want your house decorated, or to manage your finances, or spend your time- all of these little things are little acts of love which teach us how to love for real. A major part of marriage is not only 'giving in', but actually facing and resolving conflicts- when you are dedicated to loving someone, and they are dedicated to loving you, this is something you will have to learn how to do. This will teach you to love.

Now, most of you are not yet married, and probably don't plan to be for quite some time. However, it is generally agreed that the precursor to marriage is dating, and many of you have probably got thoughts about dating.

Why should two people date?

Clearly for love. Dating, they say, prepares you for marriage, since it teaches you how to love. But does it?

Think about it. Love, I said, entails the ability to sacrifice what you want for what someone else wants. Love is giving yourself for another person. But most dating relationships are not like this. Most people date just because they want to. They like the person, so they might as well date them.

In Marriage you commit to love the person you marry, no matter what. Even if the feelings are gone. That is how it teaches you about love. Because you have to learn how to resolve conflicts, and be humble, and sacrifice what you want. Does Dating teach this?

The problem with dating is that while there is a degree of commitment, if we look at relationships we realize that there are only 2 ways it'll likely end. Either in marriage, or with a break up. Generally people in High School or younger are not dating in order to marry, therefore they actually go into a relationship with the idea that they'll probably break up.

In other words, while in marriage the commitment says "I promise to love you in good times and in bad till death do us part" dating says "I promise to love you until I don't feel like it anymore, and then I'll let you know that it's over." So if a dating couple comes across major conflicts, or if they lose 'that lovin feeling', they figure they ought to break up.

How does this teach a person actual, self forgetful love? It doesn't. In fact, it teaches them the opposite! Because we said love is giving yourself for the other, but whatever this is is taking the other for yourself. Now you can call that lust or infatuation or whatever you like, but at the end of the day it remains unloving and selfish.

Chances are most people would think I was being too hard on dating, after all, people just do it for fun and we shouldn't take ourselves too seriously. Surely frivolous dating is not all bad?

Well, gentlemen, if you love someone, than you should desire to cherish and protect them. But if you date someone knowing full well that you will inevitably break up with them, is that cherishing and protecting them? Or have you become the very thing that they need to be protected from?

When I was in High School, I dated 6 girls between grade 10-11. Most of these relationships were pathetic, and not worth mentioning. The first one lived in Sherwood Park, and though we 'dated' for 5 months, we only saw each other once. The next one I met at a Christmas dance, and I jokingly said "Oh, I see you're under the mistle toe!" I was joking- she was serious- like a squid on my face. I figured that since we had 'french kissed' we might as well start dating. I didn't really like her that much, but figured it was worth a shot. That lasted 2 weeks.

And so it went. One girl asked me out, I said no. But she was really pretty, and she was like 'Oh, c'mon, all it means is that if you get up to go somewhere you give me a kiss goodbye'. That didn't sound to bad, so I agreed! The problem was, the next day she convinced someone else to give her kisses goodbye. Another girl asked me out, and I said no, but then thought "hey, she's cute. At least I can put her picture in my wallet and show off that I'm dating her!" So I changed my mind and said 'yes'. We lasted about 2 weeks before we broke up again. Then I met this other girl at a camp in BC. Her name was Sabrina, and she was from Dawson Creek, and I met her in a place called Malibu, but this was not just some TV show thing! She and I went for a walk in the forest, and started kissing, so I was like 'I guess this means we're dating now" and she was like "yeah, I guess so!"

2 days later she went spelunking with my best friend. Now there's 2 kinds of spelunking- there's the kind where you explore caves- but that's not the kind they tried. The did the one where you go to a beach, and throw a rock into the water, and you kiss until you hear it go "spelunk". Then you do it again, but throw the rock a little further, and kiss until you hear it go 'spelunk". The third time you pretend to throw the rock.

Anyway, she and I broke up, and I finally went "Wait a minute. This is stupid. Why do I keep dating people I don't even care about?" That day, in the summer between grades 11 and 12, I made a commitment that I would not date again until it meant something. In short, until I was capable of loving the girl for her own sake.

I believe that teenagers are theoretically capable of love- but rarely do they sincerely go into relationships in order to love. Rarely do they think of love beyond the emotional sense of the word.

What are some qualities that we look for in women?

Pretty, smart, funny, kind, holy, not superficial, nice smell, soft skin,likes hockey....

What would happen if you met a girl who had all of these qualities, and you fell in love with her?

What if you married her, and then some of these things changed? Maybe you realize that she's not actually funny, just giggling. And maybe she's smart in school, but sometimes she says or does things that are really stupid. Or maybe once married she no longer feels it's important to pluck her eyebrows, and she grows a unibrow... Then what? Do you no longer lover her?

Or, what happens if you meet someone even prettier, smarter, funnier, kinder, holier.... Would you fall in love with her? But you've already committed to the first girl!

Pope JPII actually warned us about the kind of emotional love we can have based in some list of qualities. He says that if that is what our love is based in, than our 'emotional love will turn into emotional hatred' (Love and Responsibility). The reason is, real love for a person can never be "pizza love"- where you love the thing as long as it pleases you and withdraw the love when it no longer does.

A person can never be treated like an object- anytime you objectify a person you are sinning against them. This means you cannot "use" a person. Whether it's slavery or prostitution or getting into a relationship with the idea that it is 'just for fun' and you're mutually using each other- this is sinful!

Each person is unrepeatable- not some list of qualities, and not something you can use. I was once describing a bunch of people to a friend- with each person I would list of qualities as if they defined him. She said "this is interesting- how would you describe me that way?" I discovered that I had known her for too long, and that I couldn't describe her that way, because qualities change and yet she remains herself. Even if all the qualities change, the person remains the same, unrepeatable person created in the image of God and worthy of your love.

Now a lot of people wonder at what age they ought to start dating. First of all, if your parents have instructed you to wait for a certain age, then do so. That would be the obedient and thus virtuous and thus the holy thing to do. However, if your parents have not given you guidelines, here is an equation that I suggest;

First off, a lot of people want to know what kind of age gap is appropriate, Evidently if a 16 year old is dating a 30 year old, that is disturbing. A 26 year old dating a 40 year old is less disturbing, and a 36 year old dating a 50 year old- well, that's probably OK. But the gap has remained the same.

Here is an equation that addresses that; x/2 + 9. 'X' Being the age of the older person.
So that way a 30 year old can date a 24 year old, but no one younger than 24! A 40 year old could date a 29 year old, and a 50 year old could date a 34 year old.

However, suppose you are 14. That means that the youngest person you could date is 16! But the youngest person a 16 year old could date is 17... and so on. In other words, it would be impossible to start dating before you are 18!

I'm only going by that equation- it is not Church teaching, neither is it Clear Water Teaching or even necessarily my own beliefs. If people waited until they were 18 to start dating, I wouldn't even exist!

However, this is my suggestion. Since an emotion based relationship without any real commitment cannot possibly teach you to love, but would in fact teach you the opposite, then wait until you are prepared to make a commitment based relationship where the emotions are a perk. In other words, wait until you are prepared to consider marrying the person- even if this down the line a bit. Wait until you are ready to resolve your conflicts, and to keep loving that person even when you don't feel like it. Do not date for purely selfish reasons.

Lastly, a lot of people date for their own self esteem. They want to feel loved, and to be acknowledged as being attractive enough for someone to want to be with them. And if this doesn't happen they are ashamed.

My fiancee never technically 'dated' anyone before me. She didn't have to. She's very beautiful, and was assured of her own worth without having to look for it in other people. I look back on my own dating relationships, and regret them because, because I wish that I could go to my fiancee and say "I never kissed anyone else, never told anyone else that I loved them...." I feel like those things would have more value had I saved them for someone I really did love and want to commit to.

When some girl dates you, and you let her do those things without meaning them, you are treating her as superficial- and you are treating yourself as superficial! Instead the love you have for her should come from a real commitment- and if that means holding off on the affection and dating until you are ready for that commitment, than do that.

Where there is no Vision...

2006-11-19T13:45:00.000-08:00

What is the purpose of life?

I've often heard that everybody at some point in their life wonders what it's all about. I'm not sure if everyone really does question it, but I know I do. Dagwood recently wondered that to himself, and was given a big kiss from Blondie. He decided that that must be what it is all about.

However, as much as getting a big kiss from a gorgeous blond may be a motivating factor, I've discovered in life that that is still not what it is all about. For those of you who think that when you find your spouse and maybe have kids, or get going in that career, or whatever, that life will suddenly become wrought with profound meaning, you are in for a dissapointment.

We know, of course, that what life is actually about is God. God is both our begining and our end. By that I mean that He is the one from whom we came and he is the one that we ought to be dirrected towards in everything. But what does this mean? The old Baltimore Catechism used to teach that we essentially existed to know and love God. And generations of people memorized this answer, so that had you asked them what life was all about, they could answer- but after Vatican II we recognized that this memorized answer did nothing to actually help the people who memorized it to get on with actually glorifying God or loving God with their 'whole heart, soul, mind and strength.'

At reunion we addressed the idea that we need to keep our eyes on the prize- that Christianity is like a race, and, like a race, that we have to keep looking at what we are going towards. Our prize is Jesus. We keep our eyes on Him, and make Him our goal.

But the thing is, you may have heard that, or something like it before, and still it has not sunk in to your interior.

"Where there is no vision, the people perish"- Proverbs 19:18

You may know intellectually that your eventual goal is heaven, or the greater glory of God, or love, or whatever, but do you play that out practically? The Bible says we need to have vision- we need to look ahead and see where we are going so that the little steps we make right now are in the right dirrection!

I also alluded to this at reunion. In the alegorical race, I tend to stop looking at my goal- Christ- and I start looking at myself. I may be trying to guage my own relationship with God and see how I am doing. Or i may just be thinking about how tired I am in the morning, how so and so misjudged me and that's not fair, how intelligent or good looking people think I am...

If we keep our eyes on God- then we'll start living deliberately so that we can get to God. What I mean is, we can start living in order to love God! This has got to be our vision! A lot of times we may want to do a thing that is not necessarily evil, but maybe imprudent- like stay up really late. If you begin to focus in on your vision, see where you wanna go, then you'll start asking if what you are doing at a particular moment is really bringing you closer to your goal, or just hindering your growth. And honestly, at 10pm on a Sunday, when you're already over tired, what wilol contribute better to your growth in holiness and love of God- a full nights sleep, or another episode of Family Guy?

Jim Carey once said "The people who make it are the ones who keep going". Now i by no means consider Jim Carey to be a font of life giving wisdom- but his point stands true in every field. If you want something, if you really want it, keep pushing, keep getting closer, keep making sure that every aspect of your life brings you closer to that goal!

Jesus as a Person

2006-11-01T14:59:00.001-08:00

How many people here would say they had a relationship with God?

Had you asked me that question 5 years ago, I would have had to honestly tell you that I didn't know if I had one or not. I mean, what does that mean, a "Personal relationship" with God?

When I was in High School, I used to go to various youth group type things where we would sing songs to God- Songs like "I Love you Lord" "and "Father, I want you to hold me" and "Wrap your strong arms around me" and frankly, I wouldn't want to sing it, since I wasn't sure if that was true. I loved the stuff of God- I loved reading the Bible and going to youth group and praying- I thought all that stuff was fun and exciting and drenched in meaning. But people would say things about a personal relationship with God, and I had to admit- I didn't have one.

After High School I went to the John Paul II Bible School where I learned that 'We are all called to be Saints' (Mother Teresa). There I decided that I wanted to be a saint. After that I started spending some real time in prayer- like an hour everyday, plus Mass. Because I wanted to be a Saint. After a couple of years I even joined the seminary, because I thought if I was gonna be a saint then the best way to do that was to be a priest.

Eventually, though, I thought I was being called to leave the Sem, and I figured that that was OK, as long as I kep getting holier.

So even after spending time in the seminary, I still didn't get it. What was everyone talking about when they talked about a personal relationship with God? I didn't feel like I knew God- Like He was a person at all.

I started wonndering if maybe this idea of a personal relationship was a protestant idea. Maybe it was just a bunch of emotionalism. There's a really cool website called EWTN.com which answers your questions about stuff like this. So I wrote them this question "Where in the Bible is the concept of a personal relationship with God? Is this biblical, or is it a historical development?"

Their answer? "Jesus died for you. How much more personal does it get?"

I was mad!

Later I realized that the Pope, JPII at the time, certainly jhad a relationship with God. And as I read the lives of the Saints, they had relationships with God. And after all, the first commandment was to Love God- not just obey Him! Love implies a relationship!

This is the difference between Christians and Muslims. The word Muslim means "One who submits." To be a Christian means to have a relationship with the person who is God. The problem was, I was trying to get holy, not because of love of God, but for the sake of holiness itself. In short, I had made holiness my God! as for Jesus, I thought he was a means to an end. That means I believed in God because I thought God could help me to accomplish my goal of holiness.

But no person can ever morally be a means to an end.

St Paul compares the spiritual journey to running a race. In a race you have to look where you are going. You can't spend your time looking behind you at where you came from. And you can't keep looking down at yourself and checking what it is you are doing to get where you want to be. You keep your eyes on the goal.

And the goal is God, a person. Everything we do should be done for the love of God- not for some other reason. Not even to become better men. I have asked a lot of you about what virtues you are working on right now. It's great if you work on virtues- but know this, no matter how obedient and charitable and joyful and dilligent and respectful and courageous you are- you are nothing without the love of God.

Many of you also have a prayer life- maybe you pray a certain amount every day. Good for you. But do you really talk to God? Do you really listen? Or do you just rattlke off some formula of a prayer?

A relationship with god is no different than that with any other person. reading about Him wont do the trick- and learning about Him, and even doing good things for Him- these will never give you a relationship with Him if you never spend time in genuine, open dialogue.

A good confession

2006-10-26T16:25:00.000-07:00

There's this funny notion that people have about God. This idea that if God is real, than it is up to God to show himself to man. As if the perogative somehow fell on Him. I actually had a friends who demanded a very particular sign of God, for proof of Gods existence, and when he didn't get that sign, he decided that therefore God must not be real.

Have you ever thought about this? First of all, if you don't believe in God and don't think he's real, then fine. Pray that God will reveal Himself to you, and see what happens. But don't 'demand'.

Imagine for a moment if you were God. You created a good and beautiful universe, and then you put your prime creation into the universe. And you loved this prime creation, and used many different ways to show this creation that you loved it. And then one day the creation demands of you that you prove that you exist. What?

Now wait a minute! God is existence- by His very nature! You can't ask whether God exists any more than you can ask whether existence exists! But more than that, you only exist because God holds you in existence. If God so chose, you could stop existing altogether- even your history could be erased, so no one would have any memory that you ever existed. God could go back in time and prevent you from getting conceived- who the heck then are you to demand that God prove himself? God is also all meaning, all joy, all love. People say "I refuse to believe in God until I receive irrefutable proof of His existence". By what right? Who gave you the right to choose for or against God?

As if God, the author of existence, owes you anything what so ever!

So why then does God bother to reveal Himself at all?

Because He loves us. That's what people do when they are in love. They reveal themselves to the other. They want to be known, understood by the other. And you've probably heard before that God does not force Himself on us. He does not force us to love Him, because that would not be love. Love has to be free or it is something else.

Then why do we force God to love us? Now, you might object that God is love, and therefore he has no choice anyway. True enough. However, by the nature of love, you cannot demand that he love you, any more than you can demand any person love you or open up to you. You can only indicate your openness, that you are ready to receive them and love them, and then wait to see what they will choose.

So yes, pray that God will reveal Himself to you, but pray with a disposition that is ready to love, and not with the arrogance of thinking that you can in some way push God around!

So, supposing God does reveal Himself to you... Then what? It's very possible that God has revealed Himself to you in the past already, that you already know Him at some level. Just as God has revealed himself to you out of love, now it's your turn to reveal yourself to God. Just as you want God to show you that he's real, God wants you to show Him that you are real.

But, you say, God sees all. How could he possibly ask us to reveal ourselves?

Always remember that love takes place in the will. Yes, God can see you- he sees every talent, every strength, every weakness, every sin, every secret....

The question is, when you are with Him, are you real? Do you let Him see all of these things? When you pray, do you kind of pretend to have some sort of piety or eloquence that you don't really have? Get real! And especially when you consider your sins- when you go to confession....

The point of the sacrament of confession is that it forces us to get real. A lot of people ask why we don't go straight to God with our sins. Jesus implemented the sacrament of reconciliation when He said to His apostles"Whosoevers sins you forgive, they are forgiven them, and who's sins you retain they are retained." He did it so that we would have to admit to another person what we did- we can't just kind of shrug off our sins without recognizing them. Say "God will forgive me" and not really repent. Confession forces us to acknowledge our sins and to say that we will repent from them- that we will try not to do it again. Just by doing this, this affects our will. It strengthens our commitment and our resolve, and gets us the graces we need to live up to what we said.

But what most people do when they go to confession is they kind of rattle off a few sins in a kind of vague manner. Often your confession when you're in grade 4 stays the same when you're in grade 12 and then as an adult. "I was mean, I was lazy, I didn't control my anger."

Now let's be honest- isn't there a bit more to it than that? Haven't our sins sort of matured?

But maybe now the stuff is too embarrassing. You may say 'love is openness, true, but I would never open up to my boyfriend or girlfriend and tell them all the sins I have committed. So why do I have to do it to God?"

First off, every sin you commit, you commit against God,. Secondly, God sees all your sins. On Team we have a little practice where if someone offends another Team Member, we have to go to that Team member and say "Will you forgive me for...." and that person has to say "I forgive you." You can't just leave it at 'sorry', 'it's OK". What this does is makes each person acknowledge that there was a real and genuine sin, and each person has to actually choose to recognize it and try to change it.

So with God. If you have not been to confession in a long time, or you have not made a good confession in a long time, where you admit exactly what it is that you did, then it is time for you to do that. It is time to get really honest and real with God.

There is this funny idea with God that we should first clean house, before he comes over. You know, first get rid of all of our sins, so that we're ready to talk to God. That would be like if house cleaners were coming, and you thought "I better make sure the house is clean for them!" Or better yet, if you thought you better get over your illness before you visit a doctor.

Jesus compared himself to a doctor, and said "Healthy people don't need a doctor, it is the sick that need him!". What's the point of going to s doctor if you're not going to let him know in what ways you are sick? If you're going to try to hide the symptoms?

We do this with God. We go to God and don't let him see some parts of us, because they are too dark, too dirty, too disgusting. Those are the very parts God wants to work in!

St Therese of Lisieux said we should offer ourselves, our whole selves, to God- even our sinful places! Let God see that stuff, and let God love us in our sinfulness. This is not the place that we should hide from God!

So my challenge to you then is to do an examination of conscience- a real, deep examination, digging up all the darkest and most embarrassing muck- and bring that stuff before God. If you have a sliver and don't deal with it, it could get infected. If you have a wound that is not treated, it could fester- this dirty mucky disgustingness that you think will go away if you ignore it is going to grown and start seeping into other parts of your life. If you have past sexual sins and you don't deal with them, this will affect future romantic relationships.

After thinking about all this stuff, don't wallow in it. I'm not saying that we should wallow around, getting all dark and depressed because we can't stand our own sinfulness. We open it up and give it to God. The bible says that God wants to purify us like Gold that is purified in fire. So it might hurt a bit to look at this stuff and show it to god, but what you do then is let God untwist it and restore you to your original purity and dignity.

Obviously the most concrete way to do this is by going to confession. We won't have a lot of time for confession this weekend, but at some point, maybe next weekend get there! If you need to call your priest and say "Priest! I got some dark, dirty, ugly garbage that I need your help to deal with, let's bring it!" and make an appointment for confession- do it!

Then when your done, and you do your act of contrition, you promise God that you are going to try not to sin like that anymore- mean it. Be determined not to sink back into the grossness!

(Close in prayer)

Holy God,

We pray that you would reveal our sinfulness to us, so that we can see it, and root it out, and deal with it. We pray for mercy, God, because we know we have sinned. We pray for the grace to be able to choose what is right. We thank you that you love us so much that you don't want us to stay in our sins, but you want to heal us and to make us whole. Do it.

We pray all this in Jesus name,

Amen.

Running the Race

2006-10-24T19:23:00.000-07:00

Last summer most people here made a commitment to live for Jesus. We gave you dog tags to remind you of your commitment, and prayed over each of you, etc. Now, 4 months have gone by- how are you doing?

There is a popular notion that once you make your commitment to Christ, that that's in- it's going to be easy. And by easy I don't mean that you won't get persecuted, that you wont sin, that you wont have to make sacrifices. Before you made your commitment, you all knew that that is exactly what was going to be demanded of you!

And yet, there's this notion that by the grace of God you'll just keep up the firm resolve you had in the first place, that you will always choose to reject sin and keep doing the right thing. But let's be honest- how has it been? Are you still "on fire" for God?

Some of you may have a vague memory of the emotions you felt as you made that commitment to God last summer. A bit of a God high, where you felt the love of God and were convicted that you were not living up to the potential for which He created you.

And so you resolved to be Gods- some of you said 100%. Some of you said "I'm committed to being a Saint!". And yet, 4 months down the road, some of you are probably tired and frustrated and disappointed in yourselves because for everything you resolved, you're still not Holy.

Well if that's you, then good! You're exactly who I am giving this talk for.

First of all, let me dispel the notion once and for all that you can make a decision one day on a God high and then not struggle. The truth is, that god high will go away- and that is where the real commitment comes from! It's when you don't feel the presence of God, well all evidence of the existence of God seems gone, that it is most important to be faithful to Him.

What you experienced at counselors week was real. Or maybe you experienced God somewhere else. I assure you- it was real! It was not simply some artificial emotion that we managed to conjure up to con you into believing in the things we believe in. God is a person, and as a person god touches each one of us in a different way. God is not just some impersonal "force" or "energy" like a lot of people would have you believe- so while one person may have felt a huge peace, and even laughter, another may have cried healing tears.

I believe that God wants to touch you again this weekend, and I believe that he will- if you are open.

But when you don't feel Him- remember the commitment you made while you did! St Teresa of Avilla said that she never felt the presence of God in her whole life. the way we feel God is referred to by the Saints as "Consolation". When we don't feel God at all, this is referred to as "desolation". St Teresa never felt that consolation, and yet- she continued to live her life as a Saint for God.

It's like when you get married. On the day that you get married, you will (hopefully) feel a rush of joy and of love to your spouse. After that time is the honey moon- I understand that is reasonably pleasant too. But in time they say that the "honeymoon" stage ends- you don't feel that love and emotion like you used to, in fact, just being with the person you committed to can sometimes seem like a chore!

Isn't that what happened with a lot of us in our relationships with God? We started off feeling all warm and tingly, probably went home from Camp, told some people that we loved them, hugged people we never hugged before, prayed every day- and slowly, the feeling faded, until one day we didn't even want to pray. It's dry. Boring. A chore.

This is reality. real love is not an emotion- it is a decision, a virtue. A virtue is a disposition of the will. In other words, it is a habit of choosing. If you have fallen away from God because you don't feel the emotional rush anymore, remember your commitment! A spouse can't (or shouldn't) divorce their spouse because they "don't feel the love anymore". This would mean that they never really understood what love was.

So, if the feeling is gone, and you have not been living up to your resolve, that's fine. Recommit anyway. This weekend will hopefully be something like a marriage encounter- a chance for you to get away and be with God in a quiet and beautiful place and start communicating again.

Now some of you may be in different shoes. You might be the kind of person who continually renews your commitment to God, and continually says "yeah, I can do better" and continually falls again. And you're frustrated. You're tired of fighting a losing fight! You are angry with yourself, and think "God could not possibly love me!" or you're saying "I'm sure god still does love me, but I don't deserve it, so I'm not going to let Him."

St Therese of Lisieux addressed this issue. Since before the time of Jesus, people have been trying to earn Gods love, and failing. The Pharisees were people who worked hard all day and night to do everything right and to not sin- so that they would deserve the love of God. But they did not understand what god was about.

God said "I desire mercy, not sacrifice!". God wanted to be able to just show them His love, to love them even though they couldn't possibly live up to it! Imagine again if you were in a relationship and your boyfriend or girlfriend kept saying "I'm not good enough for you, I keep screwing up, you shouldn't love me."

Wouldn't that be annoying?

God is Love. That is what his very nature is. God, by his very nature, wants to love you. The very fact that God holds you in existence means that he is loving you- every moment! And when you sin, he is not stunned! He is not scandalized! It's like a father trying to teach his son how to walk. If the son trips, the dad doesn't freak out, and say to the boy "You are no son of mine! You don't deserve my love". Instead the Father wants to get the son back on his feet and say "Try again Son!" Of course, when the boy finally learns to walk, the father will be thrilled- delighted! The boy will still fall sometimes, but as long as he keeps getting up again, the father will be pleased.

but wouldn't it be sad if the boy tripped and gave up- at 2 years old, deciding to never learn to walk. It's just too hard, just too frustrating. That's what we do in our sins!

St Therese says we shouldn't be surprised when we fall- of course we are going to fall! We are human! And it is not God that loves us any less. We should be happy that we have such a good and patient and loving God that he sticks by us and loves us all the more!

We should be happy, because God is all the more glorified by us when we fall, because he just gets to love us again, pour mercy on us again.

This is the thing. At some point, we need to recognize that it is not about us- it is all about God. God's love is what matters- not our own ability to respond to it. St Francis de Sales points out that when we get frustrated with ourselves, it is not love of God that is wounded- it is love of self! We are frustrated because we are not as good as we thought we were- well, stop looking at yourself, and start looking at God!

St Paul is an awesome example of a man who continued to deal with sin, even after coming to Christ.

Romans 7

15I do not know why I do the things I do. I do not do what I want to do. But I do the things I hate.
19I do not do the good thing I want to do, but I do the wrong thing that I do not want to do.

21So there is a law I find that it is at work in me. When I want to do what is right, I can only do what is wrong.
22In my own mind I am glad to obey the law of God.
23But I see that in my body there is another law fighting against the law in my mind. And that makes me like a prisoner to the law of wrong things in my body.
24I am a very sad man. Who will save me from this body that will make me die?
25Thank God for Jesus Christ our Lord who will do it!

So St Paul clearly recognized that even though he had come to know Christ and was living as a great Christian, he continued to sin, to 'do the things he hates' none the less! He knew on the one hand that he had to have hope- that Jesus would free him from his sin. But he acknowledged that it was a struggle for him.

In many ways the Christian life gets more difficult the deeper into it you go. People have this notion that once they overcome the initial obstacles to Christianity, that it will somehow get easier. Where did they get this idea?

Here's a question- was Jesus tempted more or less than most people?

On the one hand, Jesus did not have concupiscience. This is the tendency in us towards sin that we have from original sin. So, someone might say that he must not have been tempted as much.

However, St Josemaria Escriva, founder of Opus Dei, made the argument that when we are tempted, we are usually tempted pretty much until we give in or distract ourselves. Jesus never gave in to temptation. In other words, his temptation would have gotten worse and worse and worse.

This is likely what was happening to Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane. Remember that he was fighting to try to do the will of his Father. Some people think that he sweat drops of blood because he was so stressed about what was going to happen the next day. But Jesus always told us not to worry about anything. I think that what happened was that he was being tempted to give in, and not let them kill him, and he did not have the consolation of the presence of God- and the temptation was so intense, and he resisted it to the point of sweating blood.

So just as Jesus, though perfect, struggled big time against temptation, and just as Paul needed to remind himself that he had to have hope in Jesus that he would be saved from his sin, I think we need to have the same disposition.

St Paul compared the spiritual journey to a race;

1 Corinthians 9:24-27

9:24 Do you not know that all the runners in a stadium compete, but only one receives the prize? So run to win. 9:25 Each competitor must exercise self-control in everything. They do it to receive a perishable crown, but we an imperishable one.
9:26 So I do not run uncertainly or box like one who hits only air. 9:27 Instead I subdue my body and make it my slave, so that after preaching to others I myself will not be disqualified.

What tends to happen in the spiritual race is we keep getting distracted- either by things on the side lines, or by how we feel, or by how far we have come. We need instead to be like a runner who keeps his eyes on the goal. Our goal is not Sainthood itself. Our goal is the person who is Christ. If we continue to push on, looking to Christ as our goal, and making all the little sacrifices, and enduring suffering for love of Him, this is the Christian journey!

7 Dwarfs

2006-10-19T09:04:00.000-07:00

I want to talk about some of the bad habits Christians tend to get into in living out their faith practically. But instead of just listing them randomly, we're going to compare each of the habits we talk about to one of the Seven Dwarfs.

(grammatically, it seems to me that it ought to say "Dwarves", but apparently that's not how Disney did it!)

Who can name off the seven dwarves?

Doc, Grumpy, Dopey, Happy, Bashful, Sleepy and Sneezy

Doc- He's known for being the smart one, though he's always stammering.

The problem with being a "Doc" Christian is that they know everything about Christianity, but it's just a head knowledge. Doc Christians can tell you which book of the Bible I the longest, what the three Cardinal Virtues are, what the 7 deadly sins are... Etc, etc, Etc. But the Bible makes it clear that "If I have prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing." 1 Corinthians 13:2

Having faith in God is about way more than just knowing about what you believe- it is about knowing the person that you believe in. It's about love. And it should be a life transforming thing. A lot of people who become Christian fall in love not so much with Christ, but with the things of Christ. So they love reading the Bible, and learning as much as they can, and knowing the Church history, and being able to argue to defend the faith.

All of this is well and good, but the truth is that just because you know a bunch of stuff about Christianity, this does not actually make you a Christian! The word "Christian" means "one who is like Christ", and the things that really drew people to Christ was not how smart he was, though that was impressive, but how holy and loving he was.

Christians are often accused of pride or self righteousness. We want to know the truth not because we love the truth, but because we want to be able to impress our friends with how smart we are. What can happen is that we replace Jesus as our God and make our own intelligence our God. This is not actually dangerous, it is outright sinful! If the thing which excites you the most is how intelligent you are, it's time to give that over to the God who gave you your intelligence!

God has called us to love Him- but we fall into a trap of self-love. If we are reading the Bible, and memorizing it's verses, so that we can impress other people- this is wrong! We should be reading it in order to fall deeper in love with God. You've probably met people who can quote the Bible like crazy and argue anyone into the ground, but are they loving people by doing it?

I used to be like that. When I went to Bible School, I would read the Bible, Highlight passages, memorize them, and write them into a little red book that I carried with me. There were whole pages dedicated to different arguments- the Eucharist, confession, Divinity of Christ, etc. Then one day someone gave us a talk on being detached- and said that if there is anything, however small, that was holding us back from God, we had to get rid of it. I felt like God wanted me to get rid of my little red book. But I thought that didn't make sense, since this book was helping me to learn about God, and about the Bible, so clearly it was a good thing!

Later that day a lady approached me and said 'What things are you getting rid of?' I told her about some CD's that had inappropriate lyrics and things- she said "I think you should get rid of your little red book!" Weird, eh? So I did, I threw it out. And I realized that I had made my own ability to argue get in the way of loving God and other people. I started reading the Bible the way it was meant to be read, as a letter to myself from God.

Dopey

So while on the one hand we don't want to only know God intellectually, we don't want to be Dopey Christians either. There are some Christians who when asked stuff about God say "I don't know, God made it that way!" or whatever, and they say "Don't question the things of God!"

You probably heard about in the news how the Pope said something that made a lot of Muslims mad. He was talking about how it doesn't make sense to try to promote religion through violence, and he gave an example of an emperor who had complained about how Muslims would
kill people who refused to convert, or who tried to convert away from Islam.

The Popes point in this talk was that faith is rational- it is reasonable. There is a movement in Christianity today which says that God's reason is so far above our reason that we shouldn't even try to understand the things of God. Christians then become dominated by their emotions, and Christianity becomes something irrational. God is a God of Logic, and while we will never fully understand him with our puny brains, we do have the opportunity to begin to understand.

God wants us to question things, to use our minds and try to understand things. One of the greatest gifts that he gave us is our intellect and our ability to reason- this is the thing that philosophers say sets us apart from the animals. It is our gift of reason which allows us in turn to make real decisions of the will.

But a lot of Christians have bought into a kind of irrational an anti-rational faith, saying that since Christianity is a relationship, than we should rely entirely on emotions. Emotions too are gifts from God, but just like when you marry someone you can't be loving only when you feel the emotion of love, so in our relationship with God we need our intellect for when our emotions are not inspiring us to love God.

Grumpy

What is wrong with being a Grumpy Christian?

Well, obviously if we are grumpy, then other people are not going to want to be Christian. There are some Christians who have a very dark outlook of the world. They see the sins of other people, and the things going wrong in our own world, and they are mad. There are Christians who sit there in church every week with a scowl on their faith, and they don't even know that they're not being good Christians!

But Jesus said "I have come that your joy may be full." Jesus does want us to be joyful! He wants to fill us with joy! That's why there's a Christmas carol called "Joy to the World" and not one called "Anger and suppression to the world." Many people see Christianity, and all they see is the sacrifice, how we don't always get to do whatever we want, since some things are sins. What they don't see is that living a life of love and meaning brings way more joy than living a life of self indulgence!

Joy is also a virtue. So is mirthfulness- which means, laughing lots. Seriousness is not a virtue! So if we are the kinds of Christians who don't know how to have fun, then it is time that we began to practice the virtue of Joy! St Paul even wrote "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances." In other words, no matter what is happening, we should continue to have joy!

Happy

So, that said, what could possibly be wrong with being a Happy Christian?

The problem is, some Christians get the wrong idea. They think that since God wants to give us joy, then he must want to give us whatever will make us happy. And, if we are not happy, then God must not love us!

Now of course, God wants to give you every good thing. God loves you. But sometimes something that doesn't make us happy may in fact be a good thing. It's like if a mom said to her little boy "I want to give you good things" and the boy said "then give me candy and toys, and if you don't give me candy and toys, it means you don't love me!" The mom knows better- knows that it's better for the boy to have spinach and less material goods.

There are Christians who think that since we're Christian God won't let us get sick, we'll always have lots of money, bad things won't happen. This simply is not true! God uses suffering for the good, and a lot of times we may not even see any possible good from it. But we know that God, who is all good, and all powerful, loves us and has allowed it- therefore, it must be a good thing even if we don't see it.

To say that Joy is a virtue means that we should practice it even when things don't go so good for us. That's exactly the time that we will acquire the virtue from God as He intends! The difference then between being 'happy' and being 'joyful' is that you can be joyful even while crying because someone you loved died, but happiness is routed in external circumstances.

It should also be noted that you will not always feel happy. You may not always feel the love of God, or be on that God high- but your relationship with Him does not change. It isn't based in feelings.

Sleepy

What is wrong with being a sleepy Christian?

This one is probably a bit more obvious. God has work for us to do! We can't be lazy! There are a lot of Christians who become what I would call "consumer Christians". They go to Church and to OLVC and to Youth Group. They do praise and worship, and they look for the God highs. They do Bible studies, and may even evangelize to their friends.

But, as much as they love God and love the things of God, when it comes down to the work part 0f the faith they are more inconsistent. You know, helping people who are poor, or reaching out to less popular people, or keeping their room clean or doing the dishes without being asked. These are the kinds of things God has called us to do- but we're too tired. Jesus said "Not everyone who calls me Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom." In other words, just 'cause you have an active prayer life, and you feel a love for God, if it does not translate into works, it does not mean much.

James wrote that "faith without works is dead" and said 'what good is it to see a poor man, and to say to him "Be clothed and well fed" and not to provide for his physical needs?"

Let's be honest- Christians are often people who go to Church and pray, but in their day to day life live just like everyone else. We like our comforts so much- our coke, our TV, our Ipod- that we are unwilling to be generous with people who can't even afford to eat. We like resting so much, that we don't take the time to do the work that God has called us to do!

We cannot be Sleepy Christians.

Sneezy

Now, what could possibly be wrong with being a sneezy Christian? Does God have something against allergies?

What makes Sneezy sneeze? Pepper, loud noises, getting startled, flowers- pretty much everything. Some Christians react just as easily! Every little thing that happens, Christians freak out to! Every time someone swears, or there's a bit of violence on TV, or someone gossips, or there's some sort of scandal or weakness around. Some times it may not even be an actual sin that gets us all upset! What about the person who is distracting in church, saying the responses too loud? Or the one who won't sing? Or the one who raises their arms?

Of course, we need to try to root out sin- all sin. If there's sex or violence or inappropriate humor on TV, we need to ask if we should be watching it.

On the other hand though, Jesus said 'don't try to take the sliver out of someone else's eye, when you have a log in your own.' In other words, Christians get so choked up at other peoples sins that they don't try to take care of their own!

Christians are often accused of being self righteous. Self Righteousness is a kind of pride that does not recognize your own sins. The Pharisees were brutally self righteous. they didn't even want to associate with tax collectors and sinners! But who did Jesus associate with?

Let's be honest here! We Christians who react so much to the sins of other people, and look at them in disgust and disdain, often do not even recognize our own sins! We are not loving the sinners around us- in fact, we are not even capable of loving them. Jesus addressed this again and again. Like the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax collector in the temple, and the Pharisee walks around in arrogance saying "Thank you god that I am so wonderful and sinless, and not some lowly sinner like that tax collector!" while the tax collector says "God, I'm sorry I have committed so many sins!" Who is justified in Gods eyes?

But even though we've heard it, this is often how we are. Instead then of reacting to the sins of everyone else, maybe it is time for us to recognize that it is only by the grace of God that we do not commit the same sins. Jesus referred to himself as a doctor, and said "A doctor does not go to the healthy people, but to the sick." We need to admit that we need Christ so that we can accept Him and begin to love the sinners around us. We are all sinners, in need of the mercy of God.

So we cannot be a 'Sneezy' Christian, who allows the little things to bug us so much that we are unable to love the people around us.

Bashful

The last of the dwarfs is Bashful. what's wrong with being a Bashful Christian?

The great commission was when, just before going to Heaven, Jesus told us to make disciples of all nations. In other words, we need to tell people about the truth, and try to bring them to it.

But when you're confronted at school or work or wherever about being a Christian, how do you respond? Are you proud of it? Do you get excited and try to tell other people about Jesus? Or are you ashamed?

Christianity is treated like something that we should be ashamed of. It is something different, which people regard as being naive, or for the emotionally unstable. And so people either deny that they are Christian, or they admit to it in a kind of apologetic way, as though it were a disease or disorder. There is an expectation of rejection.

First of all, you will be rejected and persecuted and mocked for being a Christian. Don't like it? Too bad, it's part of the package. Jesus said that seeing as they persecuted the leader, they will naturally persecute the followers.

When you agreed to be a Christian, when you made your commitment to Christ, it included with it standing up for truth even at the cost of personal rejection. Why should we care if people reject us when God is pleased with us? Jesus said "If you deny me before men, I will deny you before my Father." In other words, don't go around being embarrassed of Christ- be proud!

Imagine if you had a Girlfriend or Boyfriend who was embarrassed of you. You liked them a lot, but and they'd go on dates with you and hold your hand, and tell you they love you, but when other people were around, they would treat you as some sort of a distant acquaintance, and say to people "Oh, this is my friend" or "This is my coworker." That's what we do to Christ, when we pray, and go to Camp and spend time loving him and then we go to school and pretend we don't even know Him.

We should be so proud of who Christ is and what he has done for us, that we just want to tell everyone! And when people mock us, we should be happy because that's what they did to Christ!

Snow White

So God does not want us to be a 'Dwarf Christian'- He wants us to be 'Snow White', since the Bible says "Though your sins were red as scarlet, I will make them white as snow."

If you have noticed that maybe some of these Christian bad habits are things you have acquired, then we need to go to God and give ourselves to Him and let Him transform us!

Salvation

2006-10-11T19:14:00.000-07:00

I've told a lot of people about this Life in the Spirit Seminar hoping that they would come, in hopes that we could get a new community going in south Calgary. But also because, frankly, I want this time to be a life changing experience for the people who come. I mean, if all it was was just a fascinating social experiment, that'd be ok. Just a weird cultural experience of what could be considered a sub-culture of Orthodox Catholicism in Canada. Or maybe it'll just be a time to get to know other young adults who are somewhat like minded- though, I know quite a few people here, and I know that you're not all necessarily "like minded", especially regarding the issues at stake. But I think it'll be more than that- for some of you these next 4 weeks could be a definitive time in your life when you decide for yourself who Christ is and what relevance that has for you.

Matt. 16Peter's Confession of Christ13When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?"14They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets."15"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?"16Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."17Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven."

Context- They are in Caesarea Philippi. The town is called that because it was built by King Herod Phillipus to honor Caesar. In the town is a large white temple dedicated to Caesar- Caesar was worshipped as a God by the Romans, and this worship was imposed on everyone the Romansruled. Thiss town is also near the place where the Jordan River starts- coming from underground streams. The Jordan river is the life force for all ofIsrael. Thiss area was also considered by the Greeks to be the birthplace of pan- the little "toot" guy with pig legs and goat horns from "Hercules". So this is where Jesus asks the question "Who do the people say that I am". The people listening to Jesus had lots of food for thought.

But I'm not gonna give you an apologetic talk explaining precisely why I believe that Jesus is God and not just an imposter. It's not unlikely that I could convince you, at least at a rational level, the arguments supporting Jesus as God are quite convincing. If anyone wants to engage in this type of discussion later, I'd be happy to talk to you.

But Jesus himself said "Not everyone who calls me "Lord, Lord" will enter the kingdom." And James wrote " 19You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that, and shudder". So obviously bringing you to a point of intellectual assent would not be good enough! Most people need to encounter Jesus for themselves- and that is precisely the thing that we are hoping will happen to you in these next four weeks. You will encounter Christ, some of you for the first time, many of you in a deeper way than ever before. Even I, as one of the speakers and small group leaders, fully expect to get from this seminar a deeper appreciation of Christ, and a deeper relationship with Him.

I encourage you then to just unload your preconceived notions, open yourself up, and for the next 4 weeks every Thursday say "God, I give you permission to do whatever you want to do in me tonight. Show yourself to me, bless me, Knock my spiritual socks off."

Jesus' 2000 year old question is being asked to you- "You- who do you say that I am?"

Now we've heard a lot of cliche answers over the years "Jesus is Lord, Jesus is God, King of Kings, Good Shepherd." Many of these answers have probably been so repeated they've lost all their meaning! But there's one that I want to unpack in particular- "Jesus as savior".

Some Christians like to evangelize to other people by running around asking them "Have you been Saved? Have you been washed in the blood?", which frankly doesn't mean anything to most people who hear it. What do we mean when we say "Jesus Saves"?

Most people think "Jesus saves us from Hell." Now this is true. People often get mad at God for sending people to Hell, but they got it backwards. God created people for Heaven. But Heaven is a perfect relationship with God. Hell, on the other hand, is the absence of a relationship with God. God loves us all, as we heard in Fr. Alfredos talk. He wants us to be in a perfect relationship with Him. But we choose not to be in a relationship with him. We choose to sin, and we cut ourselves off from God.

When I say Sin, the word means "Miss the mark." God is perfect, any imperfection whatsoever cannot exist in the context of a perfect relationship with God. Any sin severs that relationship- no matter how minor. Mother Theresa, then, 'deserves' to go to Hell. I was thinking about this one day, and I was frusterated with God, that all over the world people are going to Hell, and I said to God "Why don't you do something!"

And then I remembered- Oh yeah. God already did. He sent us Jesus.

Some how- I admit I don't understand how- Jesus' act of perfect obedience makes it possible for us to be in a relationship with God. Some people explain this in a kind of legalistic way, that Jesus took our place. Others say "he was perfectly obedient where our obedience was imperfect, and his perfect obedience makes up for ours." I honestly don't know how it works, but I know that Jesus gave himself to us in a total gift of self sacrifice, and that somehow through uniting ourselves with Him (Eucharist) we are 'saved' from Hell!

But the word "Saved" means more than that. In the original Greek in which the Bible was written, the same word is used for both "Saved" and "Healed" See, Jesus wants to save us from our sins and make us fully alive- in this life! He wants this life to be rich in meaning- not superficial and dull, as most of our lives are! He wants to save us not only from the consequences of our sin, but from the sin itself!

Now, most people today wouldn't get this. They'd think "I don't want to be saved from my sin. I like sinning. I don't wanna stop." Christians are accused of being self righteous if they say "Hey that's a sin! But don't worry, I know a cure!". Would it be self righteous of a healthy person to say "Hey, you have a cancer growth! But don't worry, here's a cure."?

Sin is a spiritual disease, and Jesus is the cure. People might not think they want to be saved from their sin- they think it's not hurting anyone- but what about the alcoholic who can't stop drinking? What about the guy addicted to pornography who's marriage is suffering? What about the woman who gossips so much that no one wants to share anything with her and be vulnerable? What about the person who is so guarded because of what other peoples sins have done to them, that they are unable to have a healthy relationship? What about the married couple who can't figure out why they keep fighting about little insignificant things, and they keep drifting farther and farther apart?

Believe it or not, Christianity offers a cure to all of these things. You think "Whatever, I know some disfunctional Christians"- think of them as being in rehab. The more you unite yourself with Christ, the greater freedom you will experience from sin.

Remember that God created us perfectly good, and perfectly free- he wants to restore us to that dignity- Christ is the way.

Lastly, I want to warn you against a danger that a lot of Christians fall into. Desperate to be free from sin, or to escape Hell, or to have meaning, or whatever, they look at Christ as a means to an end. I did this for the longest time. I remember asking Christ in virtual desperation one day while in Adoration "Jesus, you died to free me from my sins. Well you died for nothing, because I'm still a sinner."

For the longest time I missed the point. Heaven is a perfect relationship with God. Sin diminishes that relationship, clouds our minds so that we can't see clearly and we're likely to sin again, and closes us off to the love God has for us. Jesus' saving act was when he died on the cross, giving himself to us, body and soul, spirit and divinity. We receive Christ in the Eucharist. None of this is legalistic. None of it is a formula. You're not "saved" by believing the right thing. It's about getting to know a person- that person is Christ, who is God.

My challenge to you over these next four weeks is to pray every day- not just on Thursdays when you come here, but every day that you would be brought a little deeper into this relationship.

Who do you say that I am?

2006-10-10T14:20:00.000-07:00

Matt. 16
Peter's Confession of Christ
13When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?"
14They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets."
15"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?"
16Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."
17Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.”

Context- They are in Caesarea Philippi. The town is called that because it was built by King Herod Phillipus to honor Caesar. In the town is a large white temple dedicated to Caesar- Caesar was worshipped as a God by the Romans, and this worship was imposed on everyone the Romans ruled.
This town is also near the place where the Jordan River starts- coming from underground streams. The Jordan river is the life force for all of Israel.
This area was also considered by the Greeks to be the birthplace of pan- the little “toot” guy with pig legs and goat horns from “Hercules”.
So this is where Jesus asks the question “Who do the people say that I am”.
Who do people now a days say that Jesus is?
“Jesus is Lord”, God, prophet (Muslims), good man (Dan Brown), didn’t exist, records unreliable, liar, lunatic, cult leader, etc.
To those who say that Jesus did not exist or that the records of him are unreliable;
There are more historical documents about Jesus than about any other person from that era- Caesar, Alexander the Great, etc. To say that these documents are all wrong, that they are an elaborate collaboration created in order to deceive, requires more faith than to say that Jesus was God! You assume a thing to be true, and ignore the facts in such a manor as to support your assumptions. What benefit did anyone receive from creating the myth about Jesus? The apostles were all killed. The Roman Empire collapsed. Being a Christian was not considered beneficial in the worldly sense for the first 300 years of its existence! So why would anyone conspire to create this kind of a lie?
No good historian on the planet takes seriously the idea that Jesus did not exist.
Another set of theories that no good historian takes seriously are those suggested by people like Dan Brown- that the stuff in the Bible about Jesus was made up by people with an agenda and are not true. There are some people who think that the only true thing that the Bible says about Jesus was that he called God “Our Father”. They say that everything else must have been made up.
Why? Because according to the Bible, Jesus walked on water and healed the blind and rose people from the dead and eventually rose from the dead himself! Seeing as those things are impossible, obviously someone must have made it up, right? Again, this works with the assumption that Jesus was not God, and therefore he couldn’t have done those things. But what if he was God? Isn’t that the whole point?
So let’s assume that the documents referring to Jesus are as reliable as any other historical documents. Who then was this guy who once lived?
CS Lewis referred to this problem as a “trilemma”. (Term coined by Josh MacDowell) Jesus said he was God. So either he is God, or he’s lying, or he’s a lunatic. So what is He, Liar, Lunatic or Lord?
It’s funny if people think that he is just a good teacher, because what moral teacher would lie about being God? Think about the weird things Jesus said; “Be like me, because I am meek and humble of heart.” What kind of person goes around telling people how humble they are? “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.” How arrogant is it to claim to be the only way to God? Surely if he was a moral teacher he wouldn’t make such crazy claims! No other great teacher in history- Buddha, Confucious, Muhammed, Moses- none of these ever claimed to be God! It is too outlandish to say!
Unless it’s true. The question is, does Jesus seem like the type who would lie about such things? He told people to be perfect, as His heavenly Father is perfect, he taught them to love, he claimed to even be the truth and said that people should worship in spirit and truth- pretty strange things for a liar to teach people. Moreover, what did he benefit from his lie? He was crucified! Why didn’t he just admit the truth?

Of course, he could have been crazy. If he believed that he was God, but he was not God, this is like someone believing that they are a poached egg. It’s just crazy talk.
I met someone once who claimed to be God. The guy stood in the door of a downtown church in Ottawa, telling people that he was Jesus, and that they had to leave everything behind and follow him. I talked to him for a few minutes, but as it turned out I took too long to convert, and he eventually decided that I had missed my chance for salvation from him.
Now here’s the thing- he seemed crazy. He was inconsistent in what he said, he was angry, his eyes looked weird. Jesus, apparently, did not seem that way. When he told people to follow him, for some reason, they did! For some reason they thought he was right- so much so that it made the local officials mad, and they had to kill him! In fact, when the local officials would argue with Jesus, who would always say something clever and corner them. If he was crazy and inconsitent, the how come no one could point out the lack of logic in his arguments?
Then of course there’s the whole problem of miracles. Now maybe he faked all the miracles somehow- had people pretend to be blind, had rocks strategically placed in the water so he could “walk on it”, the storm just coincidentally stopped when he told it to… maybe all this happened, but it’s not likely. But even if he did… how did he ‘fake’ rising from the dead?
To me, this is the single strongest argument of the truth of Christianity. All of the apostles but one died for saying that they had seen Jesus risen from the dead. The last one was exiled. How is it that these 12 men did not crack and give in? Admit that they were making it up?
So here’s the thing. As far as I’m concerned, if Jesus rose from the dead, than he is who he said he was. If he didn’t, than maybe the whole thing is a lie. Did he? Even St Paul admits that everything hinges on that one idea. 1 Cor 15:17-19 “17And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 18Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.”
Here are the possibilities;
Jesus never died on the cross.
Jesus never rose- his body was still in the tomb.
Mary Magdalene went to the wrong tomb.
The disciples stole Jesus’ body for their lie.

Jesus never died on the cross:
Here’s the problem with that argument. First of all, a lot of people saw him die on the cross. There’s no real possibility that he wasn’t up there- that it was someone else and they were confused, etc. Some people say well, maybe Jesus was in so much pain, and had so much blood loss, that he fainted. Then, after lying in a nice cool tomb for 3 days, his strength was restored, and he got up and left.
Now think about it. The Bible tells us that a large stone was rolled across the front of the tomb, so large than when the ladies went there on the third day they were worried about who would help them move it. Are you trying to tell me that a guy who had been scourged within an inch of his life, then nailed to a cross, lay down for 3 days, didn’t eat or drink anything, and when he was done he got up and moved a massive boulder?
Jesus never rose, his body is still in the tomb;
Some people say the disciples just lied, that Jesus never rose and his body was still in the tomb. But if that happened, why didn’t the Pharisees and the enemies of Christianity just take people to the tomb and say “see?”
Mary Magdalene went to the wrong tomb;
Perhaps Mary went to the wrong tomb, and made the honest mistake that Jesus had risen. The problem is, the other disciples also went to the tomb, and a lot of people said they saw Jesus after he rose, and again the Pharisees could have just said “see?” if that happened!
The disciples lied, and stole the body;
First off, the disciples all died for their lie, (11 of 12 apostles were martyred, the other, John, was exiled). Also- how did they get the body past the guards? Roman Guards- professional soldiers who would suffer the death penalty for failure- were posted outside the tomb. Are we really supposed to believe that the disciples came and stole the body while the guards happened to be snoozing? In fact, the Bible tells us that when the Romans realized Jesus’ body was missing, they were instructed to lie and say that is what happened!
So here’s what I think. I think Jesus rose from the dead, and that he was who he said he was- God.
But, just ‘cause I think that, doesn’t mean that you have to.
I think a lot of times we hear a talk and think “Hmm, good points. This guy has a good reason to hold the opinion that he has.” But notice Jesus didn’t just leave it at “Who do other people say that I am.” He asked “Who do you say that I am.”
That’s my question to you. Who do you say Jesus is? Not your parents. Not the school. You. You have to start thinking for yourself now- you have to make a decision about this sometime. Is He the Son of God? Some obscure historical figure? A guy with good ideas? Someone who never existed? A cosmic abstraction?
Is Jesus relevant to your life? Have you got a personal relationship with Him?
This is between you and God. Pray about it, and see where you stand.

Youth and Orthodoxy

2006-10-02T14:22:00.000-07:00

My name is Peter van Kampen, and I am presently the Youth Coordinator at St Cecilia's parish, the program coordinator at Our Lady of Victory Camp, and the Dean of Students for the Boys at Clear Water Academy. When I was originally asked to give this talk several months ago, I was quite excited since youth ministry is obviously something very close to my heart.

I grew up in a strong Catholic family, the second oldest of 10 kids. We went to Mass on Sundays, obeyed all the rules and seasons of the Church, and often prayed as a family. As a little kid I would sometimes sneak off to St Cecilia's for Mass in the mornings (Mass was at 7:00am), and I wouldn't tell my mom, since I remembered the passage that exhorts us to pray 'in our rooms with the doors closed." I remember one time my mom caught me, and I thought I was ripped off since I wouldn't be getting my reward in Heaven!

However, despite this upbringing, when I reached my teenage years I began to question the faith a lot. This was not due so much to doubt about the truth, or to any form of intellectual integrity- I just thought Church was boring, and I didn't want to go. Of course, my parents made me go, but this illustrated the status of my faith- it was something imposed on me from the outside, and not something I had chosen.

In High School I befriended a group of protestant kids who invited me to their youth groups. At these groups I made more friends than I had ever made before. But more importantly, Christianity suddenly became something relevant to me- I saw other youth who actually chose to believe this stuff, and to live by it! I didn't have a particular isolated conversion experience, but through this time I began to take ownership of my faith, and in short, I chose it for myself.

Since that time I went to the JPII Bible School, spent 2 years with the Companions of the Cross in Ottawa, and have devoted much of my time to various youth ministries.

I believe that Youth Ministry is one of the most important facets of our Church today- and one that is often neglected. It is said that 90% of conversions- either for or against Christianity- happen in the Adolescent years. And this, of course, makes sense. Adolescents is by its nature a time of crisis and of choosing. You are growing from a child inot an adult- from someone who's decisions are made to someone who makes his own decisions. We have often heard that "love is a choice"- faith too is a choice. It is a virtue, therefore a quality of the will, and the will is, of course, the thing which makes choices.

So let's be honest- a person can choose to believe, and likewise can choose not to believe. We have probably all met people who choose to believe a thing despite all evidence to the contrary. This is because even faith is an act of the will, and they have willfully chosen to believe something which can be rationally shown to be false.

So adolescents are this period of choice. We, as a Church, have been given the 'great commission', to evangelize. The easiest target group to evangelize- and in many ways, the most important group, is youth. It stands to reason, then that the Church would place a high priority on youth ministry. But let's be honest- how are we doing?

I think it is important for us all to recognize that youth ministry is not the job of just the young adult guitar player that your parish hired.... it is the job of the whole church. JPII referred to the youth as not "The Church of Tomorrow", but as "The Church of Today". We as a church need to reach out to our youth, to challenge them, to give them a role in our parishes, and of course to love them. We need to try to look past their questionable fashion sense and taste in music and see "The Church of Today" which is in desperate need of evangelization!

I would like to ask all the Youth Ministers here to stand up. These are the people on the front lines in your parishes doing youth ministry, running the programs, teaching teens the Catechism. But now I want to ask anyone who is a teacher, or principle, or youth worker- anyone who works with youth top stand up. Now I want to ask all the parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles and older siblings of youth to stand up. Now everyone who has youth that attend Mass at your Church stand up.

Look around. These are the youth ministers at your Church. Not all of you are called to join youth ministry, and go bowling with teenagers- though a lot more of you probably are than are presently doing it. Every one of you represents the Church to these young people. The great commission is for you!

Have a seat.

Now here's the thing. We tend to look at our world, and we get a little depressed, especially about the state of youth today. Youth have problems today that didn't exist even when I was a teenager. Of course, drugs and promiscuity were already issues when I was a teen, but now we have drugs like Crystal Meth, which is more effective, more affordable, more available, more addictive, and more destructive, than the drugs that my peers dealt with. The internet has made a whole world of pornography available to youth, and this is a trap that grows increasingly perverted the deeper someone gets into it. And we live in a society which takes what was once regarded as a perversion- homosexuality- and now raises it to the level of a sacrament in marriage. This is the world that our teens are growing up in. How then can we Catholics hope to remain relevant?

And yet, JPII promised us a new spring time, and let me tell you, from the front lines of youth ministry, that new spring time is here! Things are taking off for youth in this diocese, all across Canada, and all over the world- and we are gaining momentum. I often visualize it as being flood waters crashing onto a levy with increasing force, and one day the levy is going to break, and there will be a flood of graces on our youth.

For those of you who know youth, that maybe you are tempted to give up hope on- let me assure you, the inclination to give up hope is, in fact, a temptation. Remember that hope, along with faith and love, is a "Theological Virtue". Notice it's not a 'theoretical virtue'. By "theological" I mean that it comes from God- we need to be filled with the Holy Spirit so that we can be filled with hope. By "virtue" I mean it is a disposition of the will. In other words, hope is not a feeling anymore than love is a feeling. We choose to have hope, and by the grace of God He gives us hope. To say that there is no hope is to lack confidence in the God who created all things and is above all things. From this moment on, I challenge you to choose to have hope for the youth, and to keep presenting them in prayer before our God!

So what is our mission then as Youth Ministers?

Our Mission is to bring Christ to the youth. We must never lose sight of our mission. Often we think our mission is to get as many teenagers out to our events as possible- the success of youth ministry is gauged in numbers. Or we think that our mission is to entertain youth, or keep them off the streets, and essentially do damage control. A temptation I often face as a youth minister is to think of youth ministry as being somehow about me- about attracting youth to myself, having youth think how cool and funny and holy I am.

But, if a youth were to wander into my ministry looking for Christ, and all he found was me- that youth would be royally ripped off. I will always remember an incident where a teenager came to my youth group in Ottawa, and it happened to be a 'social' night. We were running the Lifeteen program, which runs a 4 week cycle, and every fourth week is a social evening with the intent of drawing in more youth who would not otherwise come to a Church event.

Well on this particular evening, a youth came and saw us playing games- and left. He sent me an e-mail some time later saying "I don't understand. If I go to Mormon youth group, they teach me about what they believe. If I go to Jehovahs Witness youth group, they teach me what they believe. But I go to Catholic youth group, the Church which claims to have infallible access to the truth- and we play games." That youth felt ripped off because he came looking for the truth, and he was not given it.

My talk this morning is called "Youth and Orthodoxy." "Ortho" means "True" and "Doxy" means teaching. If we are going to present Christ to the youth, we must the uncompromised truth.

Now a lot of people think "You want the truth? You can't handle the truth!"- when it comes to youth. I used to be a part of a team called the Chastity Challenge Team. We traveled all over Canada, the USA, Ireland and England promoting the message of Chastity in High Schools. Imagine an issue more 'offensive' to youth. Based in Ottawa, we tried to get charitable status in Canada. The courts decision was as follows. We were not granted Charitable status because we 'only promoted one side of the issue.' The courts wanted us to say "Chastity is a good idea, but if you can't handle it, at least wear a condom." One reporter who covered the issue aptly pointed out that this would be similar to not granting Mothers Against Drunk Driving charitable status unless they agreed to say "Don't drink and drive, but if you do, wear a seatbelt."

Now here's the thing. There is an assumption that the message of chastity will be wholesale rejected by youth, because it challenges them. The message that youth clearly get from our society is this "You can't control your hormones, but at least you can diminish the consequences from your lack of self control."

Is this loving? Are we loving the youth when we tell them they are in capable of making a healthy moral decision? The Bible says "Love believes all things". Soren Kiekergaard added ""And believes them lovingly." If we genuinely love our youth, we will believe that they are capable of making a moral decision. It's like if you married someone, and they made a vow of fidelity to you, and you looked at them, smiled and compassionately said "That's nice dear. But since you can't actually control yourself, here's a condom for when you sleep around."

It is true that youth lack some of the moral discipline they need to acquire. Likewise, they lack some of the intelligence and education that they can gain. It is not compassionate to say to a youth "There is no such thing as knowledge" simply because they lack knowledge and we don't want to make them feel stupid. Likewise, it is not compassionate to a youth to say "There is no such thing as higher morality" simply because they are not functioning at the highest moral level. Rather, in both cases, we must educate our youth! We must bring them the truth!

I would love to do a skit some time for youth about Goldilocks and the 3 bears. Have the 3 bears open a restaurant, and Goldilocks visit it. No matter what she is served, she always has a complaint- too hot, too cold, too spicy, too salty, too sweet, too thick, too thin, too chewy, too tough- etc. Finally in exasperation Papa bear takes her food and puts it in the blender and creates a bland, lukewarm flavorless paste. Goldilocks, disgusted at this final insult, leaves the restaurant without eating.

The point of the skit would be this. There is a common opinion amongst some that Christianity ought to adapt to the times, be less offensive. Dare I suggest that it'd be much better if the times would adapt to Christianity! Christianity is by its very nature offensive. A fundamental precept of Christianity is the fact that every person deserves to go to Hell. Otherwise, salvation is meaningless. But telling people they deserve to go to hell is generally considered to be offensive. You could even be apologetic about it, and say "I don't actually want you to go to Hell, I am merely pointing out to you the objective truth, that you deserve to go to Hell."

What tends to happen is that people say "Alright, youth ministry is essential to the life of a Church, therefore let's be sure not to do anything that offends youth." In other words, let's not challenge youth to step out of themselves, let's allow youth to remain as they are, in their comfort zone. Youth ministry then gets reduced to mere entertainment. But as far as entertainment goes, how can we possibly compete with Hollywood? And as far as comfort goes, how can we possibly compete with ones livingroom couch?

God said in the book of Revelation "I wish you were either hot or cold, but since you are lukewarm, I will vomit you out of my mouth!" Are we seriously trying to sell God-vomit to the kids? We cannot compete with the world when it comes to entertainment or comfort- the only thing we have to offer is truth. Meaning. A life that is not lukewarm.

So we have to stop watering down the faith! The Church has the incredible gift of a infallible Magisterium which can teach the truth, without which, it's anybodies guess! Youth are not interested in listening to another tired old opinion. They are sick of being given pablum. They want meat. They want Truth. Even if it means, yes, they might have to work at it, they might have to chew.

But, if we offend some people, wont we lose them?

Sure. We probably will. Is that an acceptable loss? Consider for a moment Christ. Remember that our mission is to bring Christ to the youth- if we do anything else, if we're so afraid of offending the youth that we don't give them Christ, we have sold out, and likely we have made an idol of our own egos.

Christ spoke the truth even when it meant that he would be rejected. He was not crucified for saying "love one another"- that was not so offensive! You've likely heard the passage in John 6 quoted in defense of the doctrine of the Eucharist. Jesus tells people that they have to eat his flesh and drink his blood. the original Greek is actually a little more vulgar- it could be better translated "munch on my flesh' or 'gnaw my flesh'. People were so offended, they began to leave! But Jesus didn't take it back. This indicated 2 things. 1st, he meant it literally when he spoke about the Eucharist. Second, he spoke the truth even when it was offensive.

Consider too the story of the rich young man. He said he had obeyed all the commandments his whole life- basically, he'd been a pretty good guy. Jesus said "go, sell all you have and come follow me." That young man went away sad, because he did not want to have to give up his comfort to be a Christian.

Christianity calls us out of our comfort zones. It calls us to give until it is painful. It calls us to love when we don't want to. It calls us to make sacrifices, and not to obey every little whim that comes to us in the form of a temptation. And how many times do we Christians try to take this Christianity and make it comfortable so we wont offend people?

"But Peter" you argue, "we must be compassionate! Jesus was compassionate!"

Yes, Jesus was compassionate! When other people wanted to stone a woman for committing adultery, Jesus protected her! But then he said to her "Go, and sin no more". Our culture seems to think that compassion would have said to her "Geez, you poor thing. You know, adultery really isn't a sin, I mean, clearly you're in love with this other guy that you're not married to and who am I to deny you the right to sleep with him or to call it wrong? Don't worry about these merely human laws about marriage- let's celebrate the love you two have! It's not a sin!"

Jesus was very compassionate with sinners- but lets get real. He had very little tolerance for sinners- Scribes and Pharisees- who didn't acknowledge they were sinners.

The truth is that Christianity is hard. It requires big time sacrifice. And we need to present the truth to the youth. And I firmly believe that the youth will rise to the occasion! JPII wrote an encyclical, called "The Splendor of Truth". Truth though it challenges us, though it forces us to change, is attractive and exciting, and people hunger for it! And if we have denied youth that truth, we need to repent, and start giving it to them!

If my theory is correct, than you should be able to tell from the fruits. Which youth ministries are more 'successful'- which are creating more committed Christians- those which water down the truth, or those that are unreservedly faithful to the magisterium? I have been doing youth ministry in this country now for 10 years. I can honestly say that every single successful Catholic ministry I have encountered has been faithful to the magisterium. NET, CCO, Life Teen, OLVC, Companions of the Cross, Legionaries of Christ, Youth for Christ, Franciscan Friars of the Renewal- they all have this one thing in common. They bring Christ, unabashedly, to the youth, and they do not compromise the truth for the sake of anyone's comfort.

Success Stories.

Nathaniel

2006-09-28T13:57:00.000-07:00

Gospel reflection for Sept. 29 2006

John 1:47-51

Now when I first read this passage to prepare a reflection on it, I have to admit I saw very little potential in it. So I cheated, and did research on it.

Notice when Jesus sees Nathaniel, he says “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!”

Now think about this. If I was going over to meet some stranger and he said “Oh, here comes a Canadian in whom there is no deceit.” I’d probably be like “Where?”. A person who doesn’t know me couldn’t know there was no deceit in me, and a person who does know me would know there is deceit!

But Nathaniel is like “I’m sorry, have we met? How do you know me?”

What strikes me about this passage is that Jesus doesn’t just know Nathaniel at a surface level. We kind of see a person and say “Oh, there’s Jim, a chartered accountant with a wife and 3 kids” and eventually we might begin to see past those things and get to actually know Jim, but we never really see the heart. When the bible talks about ‘deceit’ it talks about how deceit is in the heart. Jesus sees right through everything else to what JPII referred to as the ‘unrepeatable person’- the heart. There’s a poster up in the school that says “Who you are begins with what you do.” I have to admit, I disagree. Who you are is not something that can be listed as a set of qualities, or even defined by your actions, but only in the dignity that you have in Christ, which is unaltered by either sin or accomplishment. But that wouldn’t have made as catchy of a poster.

Nathaniel is taken a back that Jesus would know him at all, and further that Jesus would know the state of his heart! The “I saw you under the fig tree” explanation does not indicate the state of Nathaniel’s soul. This is perhaps why it evokes the response from Nathaniel “You are the Son of God; You are the King of Israel.” Nathaniel said that because Jesus saw him under a fig tree? If someone seemed like they knew me, and I asked them how, and they said “I saw you when you were sitting under a tree”, this would not make me think he was the son of God. I would just think I hadn’t noticed him there.

So something more must have happened. Jesus appeared to be more than a man, more than even a wizard with psychic powers- Nathaniel felt known by Jesus in his depths, and Nathaniel knew that he was known as only God knows.

But Jesus makes this even more apparent. He says “Very Truly I tell you…” Whenever you see something translated as Jesus saying ‘Very truly’ or ‘verily verily’, or ‘I tell you solemnly’, what is being translated is not Greek, but is Aramaic, the term “Amen, amen.” So some translations will read “Amen, amen I say to you…”

Amen means, as many of you know, “So be it” or “I believe” or “this thing is true.” So if Jesus couples to amens together He’s basically saying “this thing is really true, and it’s important, so you’d better understand me and believe it, I am not speaking in Parables.”

And then he tells Nathaniel that he “will see Heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.” When in the Bible did someone see the heavens opened and angels Ascending and Descending?

Genesis 28: 11-13, 16-17

11 When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. 12 He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 13 There above it stood the LORD, and he said: "I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying.

16 When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it." 17 He was afraid and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven."

Jacob goes on to call the place Bethel, or “house of God”

So Jesus is making an amazing claim! He’s saying “I’m the gate to Heaven! I’m the house of God! I am the place where you encounter God!”

I always think it’s funny when people say that Jesus was just a good moral teacher. The claims he makes are outlandish and arrogant- unless they are true!

Here’s what I think we should take away from this passage;

God sees us as we really are with no pretense and no disguise. We encounter God most intimately in Jesus, who we encounter most intimately in the Eucharist. This afternoon, we are going to go to Mass, and probably we’re all going to be thinking about how we need to get the kids to behave and participate. But I challenge you to be aware yourself that Mass is the very place where we meet God. Jacob said “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” Even if the kids aren’t aware of what’s happening at Mass, part of our mission is to bring Christ to the kids, and the source and summit of that is in the Mass. But for yourselves too, I challenge you to open yourselves up to the grace of God at the Mass today, and let Him see you, see your heart. Give Him all those little things that maybe no one else ever sees.

Coffee and Conversation short bio

2006-09-21T10:05:00.000-07:00

My name is Peter van Kampen, I grew up here in Calgary, mostly in the Southeast. I am second oldest of 10 kids, and have been raised as a Catholic by my parents.

However, in my early teen years I started questioning a lot- and not so much out of legitimate intellectual integrity so much as out of a desire to not have to go to Church. Some friends of mine invited me to some fundamentalist protestant youth groups, and it was there that I first began to take ownership of my faith. Unlike some people, I can't isolate a particular day that my faith became important to me. It was an ongoing journey of getting deeper into the faith and coming to know God. But the fact that I had other Christian friends who sincerely believed the faith and lived it out was probably the biggest factor in my taking ownership of it.

It is perhaps because of this that I believe so strongly in the importance of youth ministry, and in particular of challenging teens to own their faith.

After High School I attended the John Paul II Bible School in Radway, Alberta. There I got a new love for Catholicism within the greater context of Christianity. Since then I have been involved in many forms of youth ministry- I joined the Team at Our Lady of Victory Camp, a catholic summer camp near Bentley, Ab. I also worked as the Youth Minister at St Peters Church in Silversprings, and as a Core Member with Life Teen at st Mikes.

However, two years after Bible School I felt strongly led to join the seminary with the Companions of the Cross, a new community of priests in Ottawa. I studied with them for 2 years, before discerning that I should leave that community. I finished my degree in Philosophy from the College Dominicain, in Ottawa. Within these years I also spent some time traveling with the Challenge Team- a Team of young adults who went into High Schools to promote Chastity from a non-religious perspective, throughout Canada, the USA, Ireland and England.

After having received my degree, I knew that I wanted to work in some form of youth ministry- however, there were no opportunities to do so in Ottawa at that time. So I became a Youth and Child Worker, working in a grouphome for boys aged 9-14 with behaviour problems.

I went on to become the Youth Coordinator at Annunciation of the Lord Parish in Ottawa. There we ran the Life Teen program, along with several sub ministries, including the Edge (grades 7-8), Bible Studies, Apologetics, a passion play and 2 chastity groups, one for guys and another for girls. The Chastity groups met once a week for six weeks to learn about Chastity, hold each other accountable, and finally at the end to make a commitment to Chastity in front of the parish.

Eventually I decided to move back to Calgary, and for the past year have had to work several combined jobs because I could not find full time work in Youth Ministry. So I have worked as the Youth Coordinator at St Cecilia's parish, the Program Coordinator at Our Lady of Victory Camp, and as a School Bus Driver.

I am very excited now to be starting work as a Dean of Students at Clear Water Academy. I first heard about the position from Becky Bienvenue, who was a teacher here last year. The school setting is new for me, though the issues that need to be addressed are not. I am excited for the opportunity to work more closely with individual youth in their personal development.

My vision for the School is that I will be able to help with the idea of integral development- that I will not merely be enforcing exterior discipline, but actually helping the boys to develop the kind of character they need to become men of God. I hope to help inspire them to own their faith, as I was inspired to do so when I was a youth. I believe firmly in the idea of character deplopment especially in the acquisition of virtues and, in turn, the elimination of vice. I also firmly believe that any real growth in this area will be rooted in a real and personal relationship with God.

I want to be able to go even further, especially with the older guys. I believe that teenage boys in particular enjoy rising to a standard of excellence, and need to be instilled with the confidence that this is possible. We hope to create a kind of mentoring program at the school, where the older students will help the younger students to become apostles. This will benefit the younger students, who already consider teenagers to be their role models, and it will help the older students who, I believe, will find the challenge inspiring, and through helping others to grow will come to a place of greater conviction regarding their own development.

This year the boys will have a chance to develop in these areas in apostolic classes, campaignes, apostolates, clubs, the mentoring program, and retreats that I will help to facilitate throughout the year. Thank you for your support of these programs, and please pray for the boys, especially on retreat days.

I will also have contact with you the parents. If there is a serious offence or concern, I will naturally call you. I will also be calling you if there are any notable achievements that I want to make you aware of. I would also like to invite and encourage you to contact me, either by phone or by making an appointment, if there is anything you would like us to be aware of with your son. My responsibility is to work most closely with your son in areas of discipline and character development, so if you have anything you wish to make me aware of, don't hesitate to call. You can also contact me if you have any concerns about other students in the class, should there be issues like bullying or inappropriate behaviour among your sons classmates.

I look forward to working with you and your children. Thank you.

Bullying and Charity

2006-09-20T08:52:00.000-07:00

Who can tell me what happened at Dawson college in Montreal this week? Who can tell me what happened at columbine a few years ago? Why did these things happen?

In both cases the young men acted because they hated their classmates, and, it turned out, they had been bullied.

Personal Story

When I was in grade 6, I was somewhat oblivious to the fact that I wasn't popular. It wasn't until one day a teacher was yelling at the class for lack of Charity, and he said "And why doesn't anyone like Peter? He's a nice guy! I can't figure out why no one likes him." That I realized that people didn't like me.

It got worse. In Junior High, people would make fun of me for my clothes, since I didn't have the name brands. I had a pair of jeans that were "spider" brand jeans- not a cool brand! Everyone made fun of me for them- so one day I realized that the brandnames on Jeans didn't really matter. So I took scissors, and cut off the tag that said "Spider". But underneath that tag was another one- and this one said "Alley Cat."!

You know how in most schools there are a couple of kids that nobody likes, that everyone kind of thinks is a loser? Those kids thought I was a loser! I basically had 2 friends. They were both imaginary. And they wouldn't play with me- they only played with each other.

Then one day, between the summer of grade 9 and grade 10, I went to a camp called "Our Lady of Victory Camp." At that camp there were tons of cool people- who thought I was cool too! I remember we did Jesus letters. That's where you write a letter to Jesus, and then at Camp we burn them, and they go up to God in smoke. "Holy Smoke!"

My letter was very simple. I wrote "Dear Jesus, I just want to be loved."

From camp I made a lot of good friends. And then in High School I mad lots of friends, and I actually became popular! Something changed between grade 9 and grade 10. Part of it was maybe the prayer- but more of it was that people in High School were more mature. They didn't care so much about stupid things like what brand my Jeans were. They cared more about people, and getting to know them.

At CWA there are a few bullying issues, both in this class and in other classes. We need to find a way to address it! As Christians, we can't just say we love Jesus and not let it affect our lives- our love for God has to be transforming. We have to become the kind of people who actually make a difference in others lives.

Get a scribe to write answers on the board:

What kinds of bullying are there?

- Physical
- Name calling- "Sticks and Stones"
- Ignoring
- Hiding peoples stuff.
- Just purposely being annoying
- Intimidating

Why do people bully?
- To feel better about themselves
- just to be mean
- because it's funny to watch the other persons reaction

How does someone feel if they are bullied?
- Embarrassed
- Mad
- Sad
- stupid
- hate people

What can we do to stop bullying in our school?

If you personally have the vice of being a bully, what virtue do you need to work on? Charity. Don't just try not to bully. If there is someone you have bullied in the past, ask that person for forgiveness, and purposely choose to do nice things for them!

Introduce Poster idea.

Split them into groups.

Holy Spirit Power!

2006-09-12T14:13:00.000-07:00

Today we're talking about the power of the Holy Spirit. Who is the Holy Spirit? (3rd person of the Trinity.) What difference does the HS make?

Pentecost- all the apostles were afraid! Gethsemane. Most of the apostles ran away. In fact, one of the apostles was so scared, he backed out of his robe, and ran away naked! Peter, the big, bold fisherman, was so scared of the little servant girl who asked him if he knew Jesus, that he denied it!

But, after Jesus died and rose again, he promised something new to the apostles. Power. "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you;"(Acts 1:8). He promised the apostles that they would be able to do greater things than even He did! That they would be able to drink poison and heal the sick and raise the dead, and move mountains and walk on water...

Even after seeing Jesus having risen from the dead, and all the other miracles they saw, and Jesus went up to heaven, and two angels were like "What's up".... they still didn't get it. They were still scared.

What changed?

Pentecost. One day, they were all locked in one room. Suddenly, there was a noise like a great wind, then tongues of fire came and rested on their heads. Can you imagine this? Nobodies hair caught on fire, but they all had fire on their head! And then what happened? They went out and preached! They were so excited, everyone thought they were drunk! But Peter was like "we're not drunk. What kind of person gets drunk at 9 in the morning?". And another weird thing- everyone understood what they said in their own language! It's like in the UN, how they all have translators- minus the translators!

But here's the biggest thing- 3000 people became Christian that day. Not bad for a days work!

So here we are today- Clear Water Academy. Are we filled with the Holy Spirit? Anybody here ever raise someone from the dead? Ever walk on water? (Frozen water doesn't count.)

(Once when I was a kid, I tried to walk on water, in my little swimming pool out back. It didn't work).

Why can't we do these things that Jesus promised us we would be able to do? Don't we have the Holy Spirit? How many people here have the Holy Spirit in them?

How many people here were baptized? If you were baptized, then you have the Holy Spirit. The question is, is the Holy Spirit making a difference?

Chocolate milk analogy.

Have you noticed, it is possible to have the Holy Spirit in you, and no one will even be able to tell! When you were baptized, you received the Holy Spirit. This is what is known as an 'indelible mark'. "Indelible" means it wont come off. If you fall asleep at a party, and someone draws a mustache on you with indelible marker, it won't come off! (Most markers, even permanent markers, wash off if you try long enough. Marker story, selling chocolate bars.)

So, if you have been baptized, then you have the Holy Spirit in you- forever. You can choose later to not love God, to commit all kinds of sins, to not even believe that God exists- but the mark of baptism will remain.

So like the chocolate milk, it should make a difference, but in order for it to make a difference, you have to keep it stirred up! This means you keep praying, keep doing examinations of conscience, etc.

So what difference will it make? Eventually, as you get holier, you might learn how to do miracles. Saints were just normal people who kept the Holy Spirit so stirred up that they could do extraordinary things. There's also a saying in Christianity "Grace builds on nature". So what is a natural gift you have?

God can make that gift supernatural! So, if you are a dynamic speaker, God can supercharge your speaking! If you are good at throwing parties, God can make you the best party thrower ever! If you're good at highland dancing, dance like crazy! Of course, God can do all these things- but you do it in God and for God. If you just want to be a good party thrower so everyone will like you better... well, maybe that won't cut it. But if you want to plan events that will bring people closer to God... now we're talkin!

However, even if you're doing all kinds of miracles, dancing like crazy, giving good talks, and throwing incredible parties... that's not why the Holy Spirit came to you!

1 Corinthians 13
1If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is an example of the fruits of the Spirit. God doesn't just want you to be some amazing magician- He wants to transform you into the kind of person He created you to be! What is a fruit? What is the fruit of the apple tree? Why is the apple the fruit, and not the leaves?

A fruit is the part that creatures other than the one bearing the fruit enjoy, it's like something that plant offers, and it bears seeds. Jesus said our good deeds were like fruit. If we are like a fruit tree, than what good are we if we don't have any fruit? Jesus once went to a fig tree to try to get some figs, but the tree didn't have any, so he cursed it, and it wilted! Jesus wants us to bear fruit, and He gives us the power to be able to do it- this is the Holy Spirit.

Galatians 5
22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. (To this list, the Church adds generosity, modesty and chastity)

Define each. These things could all be human virtues, but God gives us the grace if we live by the Spirit to have them at an extraordinary level! This is how the Spirit sanctifies us.

The Catechism also lists the 7 gifts of the Spirit.

1830 The moral life of Christians is sustained by the gifts of the Holy Spirit. These are permanent dispositions which make man docile in following the promptings of the Holy Spirit.
1831 The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord.

The Gift of Wisdom gives us insight into why things are as they are and what needs to be done.
The Gift of Understanding helps us to understand complicated things about the faith, like the Trinity or maybe moral things that we don't necessarily like or agree with.
The Gift of Counsel (*Right Judgment) Helps us to make good decisions which will in turn bring us closer to God.
The Gift of Fortitude (*Courage) is more than just bravery. Courage always works in regards to doing what is right.
The Gift of Knowledge helps us to know things we couldn't otherwise know. This helps us too to know the impact of sin on our lives, and the value of good things like life.
The Gift of Piety (*Reverence) means specifically having a devotion and love for God, but it also can mean respecting the traditions handed onto you.
The Gift of Fear of the Lord (*Awe In His Presence) is not an unhealthy fear that says "No! God is going to smite me!" but a rational fear that considers how incredible and powerful God is, and respects that power. A lot of people sin and think "who cares, God will forgive me!" These people lack the gift of fear of the Lord.

So here's what I propose. I want each of you to think of one gift and one fruit that you would like God to give you more of. Then ask the Holy Spirit to give you these things!

Obedience

2006-09-07T10:10:00.000-07:00

Every month at Clear Water we have what is called the "Virtue of the Month". We actually work on that virtue for 2 months at a time. The idea is that we will talk about and think about it, and all of us, (staff and students) will try to get better and grow in that virtue.

Can anyone tell me what a virtue is?

A virtue can be defined as moral excellence, or even better, a habit of moral excellence. So for example, if someone gives money to the poor, we might say that they are "generous". But if they make a habit out of doing generous things, they foster the virtue of "generosity", which means that they become the type of person who is generous- a virtue becomes a part of who you are, rather than just being something you do sometimes.

The opposite of a virtue is a vice. Can anyone name an example of a vice? Like a virtue, vices are habits which change the kind of person you are. This is why as Christians we need to fight against vices and try to form virtues.

Who knows what the virtue of the month this month is?

Obedience.

What does obedience mean?

Most people think of obedience as doing something that someone else wants for fear of consequences. But obedience as an actual virtue is more than that. Remember that virtue is about changing the actual kind of person you are- so just being obedient, like a slave or a dog- is not virtuous in itself. You want to become the kind of person who is obedient out of love and humility.

People you should obey are "Legitimate Authority." Who can think of some examples? (Teachers, parents, Deans, coaches, police, magisterium, etc.) What would be an example of illegitimate authority? (Dictators, bullies, anyone telling you to do things that is contrary to God's will.)

What makes the difference between legitimate authority and illegitimate? (Legitimate should themselves be obedient to God!) How should Legitimate authority behave?

Have you ever resented an authority- thought they were jerks or being stupid for telling you to do something? Why?

Personal testimony- The Seminary. Rules were subjective. Changed with the whims and ideals of the priests. Health food and Kombucha.

Arbitrary rules are hard to obey. Rules should have a good reason for existing. As a student or the child of your parents, it helps to understand the reason for the rules so that you can obey it whole heartedly. But, even if you don't understand the reason for the rules, remember that obedience is a virtue founded on humility and love. If you believe that the authority is A: Legitimate and B: looking out for your best interest- then it follows then it follows that you should be able to trust them and the rules they make!

What rules do you have to obey that you think are stupid?
How can choosing to obey those stupid rules help you anyway to be a better person?

A lot of times as Christians we will have to do things that we know exactly why they are good, and why we have to do them, and we still won't want to. By choosing to obey in little things, even when we don't fully get it, we will begin to establish the virtue, the habit of always choosing to do the good.

It also teaches us humility, that we are not the final authority on what is right and wrong. God has given us authorities, and in particular the Church, who have access to knowing what is right and wrong more than we do, and who have been given the authority to make decisions in that area. In regards to obeying the Church, we need to give what is called our "assent of faith"- which means we choose to believe them even when we don't understand. (This can be compared to us believing NASA about the roundness of the Earth, even though we don't notice it to be round on our own.)

Role Playing Obedience Game

Pick volunteers, assign them roles and situations. Have them illustrate disobedience first (or obedience out of fear of punishment), followed by the virtue of obedience.

Situations:

Class room disruptive student.
At home, kids asked to do dishes.
Police tell you to stop skateboarding in a certain place.
Priest teaching about a controversial subject (this scenario should vary according to age- younger can be 'attend mass', older can be "contraception".)

These situations should be used to teach about the value of obeying joyfully and willingly, demonstrating love and humility, being willing even to make sacrifices for obedience sake, and understanding that legitimate authority has a right to be obeyed.

In all of these things, it is important to remember that "Exterior Discipline leads to Interior Conversion." In other words, even if you don't want to do a thing, if you force yourself to do it, this can transform the kind of person you are by becoming a habit, a virtue. If you lack the virtue of obedience, than just force yourself to obey anyway, and eventually you will get it.

Obedience and Freedom- Bird Analogy.

Best example of Obedience- Jesus. Jesus was God, and yet he chose to become man, and as a human even he obeyed legitimate authority! He obeyed his parents (cf Lk2:51) and John wrote in his letters that Jesus was 'obedient, even to the point of death, death on the cross.'

"Not my will, but thy will be done"

Sponge

2006-09-06T14:05:00.000-07:00

Have you ever had a situation where someone does something that just ticks you off, and you kinda lose control- and then you are ashamed for having lost control? This happens to me sometimes. Like when I am driving, and it's hot, and traffic is taking forever to get somewhere, and someone come along and just cuts me off. I'm not one to yell things out the window, or flip them the bird, or even swear much. But I will likely express in some verbal manner my opinion of the other drivers idiocy.

For those of you who don't drive- have you ever run your but off to the bus stop, gotten there 2 minutes early- waited 15 minutes, and realized the bus was 4 minutes early?

And some times someone will politely point out the error in my ways, that I shouldn't be so mean to this person I do not know. I will feel a little ashamed, but mostly I will think it was the other persons fault anyway.

Sometimes, however, a person I really care about will just get on my nerves. They will criticize me, or demand something of me, or sometimes they just chew with their mouths open or comment on my flatulence- and I find myself suddenly saying something mean to them out of anger. Often I will actually go into a bit of a rant, naming all the faults related to the one in question, and throwing in a few extras to justify the extent of my anger.

This is not charitable! And it is not virtuous to lose my temper. However, how many of you, when told you shouldn't get so mad about a thing, are like "It's not my fault! If they wouldn't ...."

You know what? Jesus said that it was from the heart that man sins. In other words, you can't blame other people. I am ashamed of my lack of ability to control my emotions, because it means that I am not the well composed holy man that I like to pretend I am. I sincerely want to be holy, and I regret the times that I behave in ways that are not holy. But whatever exterior forces are working on me, whatever 'crunch' I'm under, it is in fact me who is behaving in an unholy manner, and it is in fact my own fault.

Jesus used to get so frustrated with the Pharisees. He called them "White washed tombs". What is a tomb? What is white wash? To a religious person in Jesus' day, if you touched a dead person or a tomb, than you would be decared to be "Unclean", and would not be allowed in the temple, amongst other things. It was like you were a leper.

So if Jesus called the Pharisees "White Washed Tombs"- that's a pretty harsh diss! That means that even though the Pharisees looked all good, they weren't, they were unclean death on the inside.

What was Jesus' problem? I mean, the Pharisees did all the right stuff. They didn't do drugs or drink or smoke or sleep around. They prayed all the time, gave money to the poor, or at least gave it to the Temple. Isn't this exactly the kind of people God wants us Christians to be?

But Jesus said they were like dishes that were washed on the outside, but not on the inside. They didn't believe it- they thought that they were so holy that they didn't need Jesus. And so they hated him, and had him crucified.

But after all, that was Jesus' fault, right? I mean, he pretty much goaded them on, calling them 'brood of vipers' and 'white washed tombs.' They can't be held responsible for their actions under those circumstances, can they?

This is the whole point about Jesus. He doesn't care nearly so much about what you look like on the outside as he does what you are like on the inside. Jesus said "You have heard it said, do not commit adultery, but surely I tell you, if you so much as look at a woman with lust in your heart, you have already committed adultery with her in your heart." Do you think he's just trying to be tough? Come out with a good catch phrase? Like let's think about this! What is in your heart? Do you sit there thinking about what jerks people are? Do you think about how anoying they are, or awkward, or geeky, or stupid? Or how over strict and unreasonable your parents are? Or how funny looking your youth minister is? Then you think "yeah, but I treat them nice!"

It is your heart that needs to change. Your actions might be Ok, but what happens to you under pressure? It's like a sponge. You could have 2 sponges, one filled with nice clean water, and the other filled with dirty, putrid water. They could look exactly the same! You might even look like a saint! You might be like the Pharisees- do all the right stuff, give money to the poor, say nice things, pray lots.... you look good, but are you?

Life starts to squeeze you- and it will! Your parents get mad at you for something that wasn't even your fault. your teacher gives you a bad grade on an essay that you were proud of. Your friends ditch you at the mall. You miss a bus, and get splashed by a passing car... life squeezes you. What comes out of your heart when it is squeezed? Is it pure, happy goodness? Or is it rotting, disgusting putrid mucus?

What is the theme song for transformers? More than meets the eye. God has called us to be transformers, to make a difference in the world. But how are we supposed to do that if we are no different from the world? Before we can become transformers, we need to be transformed. We need to be "more than meets the eye"- more than just the outward illusion of holiness. We need to get holy deep down inside where no one usually sees us.

And in order to do that, we need to go to the source of all holiness- God. In a few minutes, we are going to go to adoration. In Adoration, take the time to let God see your heart. I don't mean that you have to rip open your chest and take out your still beating heart and be like "See God?". I mean, go as deep inside of you as you can, where you are angry and hurt and lustful and putrid and stinky and impure and say "God, this is me. I want to be cleaned from the inside out."

Teen Dating

2006-07-31T18:00:00.000-07:00

I normally don't give talks on this subject, due to the fact that the Church, so far as I know, does not have a rule on it. The Church has never taught either "teens ought not date" or "teens need to experience dating" and therefore anything I say on the matter is mere opinion and does not have behind it the infalibility of the Church. However, St Paul once wrote that it was he who was writing and not God, so while what he was writing should be regarded as coming from a human source, Paul also had the boldness to assert that he was wise enough and holy enough to have something to say on the matter, and to deserve some regard.

This is the claim that I am making on this talk. If you dissagree with what I say here, well and good, you have every right to. But I think it is worth your consideration.

So, the question that is often put before me, especially by parents, is "should teens date?"

I think the reason that there is no rule about it in the Church is that there cannot be one. It is likely one of those things that has to be discerned on a case to case basis, with consideration being given to life circumstances, maturity, the development of conscience, etc. It should be pointed out- Mary was engaged and pregnant by the time she was 14, and this proved to be rather fortuitious.

What is the youngest age a person should date at?

What is the biggest age gap that should be allowed?

I heard a formula once that I kinda liked. The youngest person you should date is your age divided by 2 plus 8. So, for example, I am 28. Divide that by two, you get 14. Add 8, you get 22. The youngest person I could date would be 22. For a 60 year old, it'd be 38 (seems a little odd to me) For a 16 year old, it would be 16. For a 14 year old, it would be 15, but for that 15 year old it would be 15 1/2. In other words, it is impossible, abiding by that formula, to date until you are 16. (perhaps a more refined formula would be [(x) X 2/3]+6).

Anyway, enough algebra, let's get back to social studies. I think that what it comes down to is whether or not the thing works towards your life goal. What is the purpose of life?

The baltimore catechism says it is "to glorify God."

So, does dating glorify God?

First of all, does God want it? I think most people tend to discern dating by negation. "I want it, I hope God wants it, let's discern and if he doesn't tell us otherwise, let's assume that it is God's will." I personally have to admit that I have dated that way- and some times it seemed to work OK, but I had at least one dissasterous relationship that was clearly not Gods will.

we have to remember that a part of discernment is using your brain. God gave you intelligence for a reason, so just as if you are making a moral decision you should consider the factors, or if you're trying to find your way somewhere you should look at a map, so with discernment it should be more than just a gut instinct. Think! Does it really glorify God?

Of course people will tell you all kinds of nonsense a shrill about "love being beyond reason" and being "insurmountable reason itself." Holywood is full of movies that promote love as infallible, undeniable, and a force that allows us to overlook the complete idiocy of a situation and somehow we are spared the consequences. If you believe that this is love... you are not ready to start dating.

(to be continued...)

love and infatuation

unrepeatable person

Knowing your own dignity, and finding that in Christ alone.

love as sacrifice

love as commitment

dating as training for marriage (divorce)

How much do you want to keep special?

Justice and Mercy

2006-06-12T11:14:00.000-07:00

Who can think of an example of a person who deserves to go to Hell? Who is it? Hitler? Stalin? Charles Manson? Marilyn Manson? Bin laden? George Bush?

Please remember that hell is an eternity of suffering, it never ends. Do any of these people really deserve it?

Turn to the person beside you and say "You deserve to go to hell."

This piece of information may shock you, but it's actually true- you deserve to go to Hell. You all do. I do. Mother Teresa does.

I heard a guy on the radio the other day talking about Mother Teresa, and about how she's not really all that Holy, that it's just something the media kinda created. His arguments included things like her grumpyness, and the fact that she did not promote birth control and abortion to the poor people she worked with. (A lot of people have this funny idea that the best way to eliminate poverty is by preventing poor people from procreating.)

It is true that the media, or pious Catholics, will kind of create an artificial sanctity about holy people. For example, blessed Fr Damien, who went to Hawaii and worked with lepers. There's a story about him that when he was a little boy, his parents couldn't find him anywhere, and after having searched a long while, they found him praying in a church.

The truth? He and his friends played a game, where one boy would jump on the back of a horse carriage, while the others would throw rocks at the horses. The carriage would take off, and the boy would get a joyride, while the coachman tried to get the horses under control. Eventually the boy would jump off the carriage, and run away, and the coachman couldn't cath him since he was trying to calm down his horses.

Well one day the boy who would be Fr Damien jumped on the back of a carriage, and the coachman turned around and recognized him! Damien knew he would be in big trouble, so he went to the Church. When his parents got there, he declared "Sanctuary" and refused to leave until his parents promised not to punish him! And of course, they found him kneeling in fake prayer.

The point is, that while Mother Teresa was a very good woman, on average, she was not perfect. Therefore, she deserved Hell.

What is Heaven? Perfect relationship with God. What is Hell? No relationship with God.

Think for a moment about how huge the universe is. The universe is measured to be about 156 Billion Light years wide. A light year is how far light travels in a year- seeing as Light travels 299 792 458 m / s.... The universe is pretty darned big. And yet, God, who is infinite, and is existence itself, is enormous by comparison, as though the universe were a single grain of sand that wouldn't even exist if God decide not to think about it!

Now, within the universe, Hubble Telescope estimates that there are about 125 billion galaxies. Our galaxy is pretty average in size, if not small, with only 100 billion stars in it. Our star is a smallish sized star, that has 9 (or 10) planets orbiting it. Our planet is very small by comparison to some of the others (Jupiter is about 11 times the size of Earth), and on our planet there are about 6,521,769,318 on earth today (June 12th 2006) and it goes up about 6 million people a month. You are just one of those people. Now compare your age to the fact that the universe is between 11 and 20 billion years old. Why do you think an infinite and eternal God should even know you exist, much less want a relationship with you?

But for some reason, God does. When you hear Bible verses like "I have carved you in the palm of my hand" or God has counted every hair on your head"... For some reason, God is intimately and inexplicably in love with you! Even though you don't deserve it. So, like I said, you do not deserve a relationship with God- which is what Heaven is- you deserve to be without a relationship with God- which is what Hell is.

Now, wait a minute. Most people tend to think of Hell as a punishment for sin. Surely I have not sinned so badly that I deserve to suffer and burn for all eternity, right? And who am I to say that other people, Mother Teresa no less, deserves that?

Suppose a female friend came up to you and said "I really like this guy..." And you said "Oh yeah, waddya like about him?" and she told you this;

"He's pretty nice and attractive, and fairly intelligent. I mean, sure, he says nasty things about me behind my back. True, I've been in a relationship now with him for a few years, and the whole time he's been sleeping with other women, ignoring me for weeks on end, only coming to me when he needs something, and even then not telling me he loves me. Ignoring me when I need something, treating my name like a swear word, and, Oh yeah he's a lying murderer. But he's really nice."

What would you say to that?

"Dump him! He does not deserve a relationship with you!"

Well let's look again at our relationship with God, because you know what? That's exactly how we treat Him!

Now you might say "when did I ever ignore God when he needed something or say nasty things about him behind his back?"

Jesus said "whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers, that you do unto me." We've heard it so many times, it sounds like a feel good slogan, but the reality is, Jesus was telling that story in context of which people went to Hell, and which went to Heaven. you went to hell if you didn't feed the hungry, clothe the naked, give drink to the thirsty.

So you say "Ok, but I'm not sleeping around or murdering people, Get real!"

Jesus said "You've heard it said "Thou shalt not commit adultery" but I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman with lust in his heart has committed adultery with her." "You've heard it said "Thou shalt not murder" but anyone who thinks of another person and thinks "you fool" has murdered that person in his heart!"

Hard core, eh? How many people here can honestly say they've never thought "you fool" about another person? (Or something similar) Wait until you start driving! You will constantly be thinking that!

So, considering who we are, and who God is, none of us deserves Heaven, all of us deserve Hell! This is justice! The movie Match Point makes an interesting point about that. Even criminals want justice. There is something truly depressing about doing something wrong- and getting away with it by luck. Justice itself is a gift of god- it lends meaning to what would otherwise be a senseless and empty life.

The disciples realized this and said "Who then can be saved?" and Jesus answered them "For man, it is impossible. But for God, nothing is impossible."

When we talk about the mercy of God, what we mean is that even though we deserve to go to Hell, God wants us to be in relationship with Him anyway. God wants us to come to heaven. But here's the problem. In order to go to heaven, by definition, we have to accept God's mercy. Not because we prove ourselves to God or anything silly like that. But because without the mercy of God, we can't possibly get into Heaven. God wants to forgive us of all our sins- but he can't force his forgiveness on us!

Because people don't understand the idea of justice, they always ask how God could send people to Hell. They are 'hellbent' as it were- they are going to hell because of the way they are. It is not God's doings! Justice demands it! It's like if someone jumped off a cliff- could he be angry with God that he broke his leg? Of course not! People suspended in mid air have a nature which falls to the ground. People who are sinners have a nature which rejects God.

Supposing someone jumps off a cliff, and then God says "Here, let me save you!" and the person says "No way! I can save myself. I don't want your help." What is God supposed to do? Remove their free will?

People go to hell because they choose it, because they reject the mercy of God.

Mercy is the other side of justice. (See the Justice and Mercy Icon). There are two equal and opposite mistakes that we make regarding mercy and justice. One is to assume that we don't deserve to go to hell. The other is to think God cannot possibly have mercy on us. As if whatever we did is so big, God could not possibly forgive it.

This is blasphemy! Your sins, whatever they are, are like sand compared to the ocean of God's mercy. Think again about how big God is compared to us. The Bible says "God is love". God is all powerful. To say either that God cannot forgive us or that he does not love us enough to forgive us is blasphemy. This is the "unforgivable Sin" that Jesus was talking about, where we blaspheme the Holy Spirit. It is unforgivable because it is the sin which rejects forgiveness!

The heart of Christianity and of the gospel is that we throw ourselves on the mercy and the love of God. When we screw up, we recognize how small we are, and glorify god that much more for being merciful to us. This is the little way of St Therese of Lisieux, one of the greatest saints of modern times! Just admit how small you are, don't take yourself too seriously, throw yourself on the mercy of God.

Hearing the Holy Spirit

2006-05-29T15:46:00.000-07:00

When I got asked to give a talk on listening to the Holy Spirit, my first thought was "Oh, great". People sem to think that there should be some sort of a manual, some sort of a self help book, that teaches you a fool proof way to hear and understand what the Holy Spirit is saying. As if listening to the voice of God is little more than a step by step process that works for all people in all circumstances. As if it's just like changing a tire or putting together furniture from Ikea- so long as you follow these simple steps, you will get the desired result.

But the Holy Spirit is not a bedside table. The Holy Spirit is God, who created the universe! And if the univerese is not simple (and it's not!) than it is silly to think that it's creator would be simple!

Whenever you think in terms of relating to God, rmember that God is a person. Have you ever had someone relate to you as though you were merely a psychological case study? Like if they say the right thing at the right time, validate all your concerns, and try to understand your hidden childhood and how that may play into why you are the way that you are, they could basically reduce you to a formula and predict (and thus control) your behaviour. Who has had this experience? How did it make you feel?

Just as we need to have humility before each other and recognize that as persons we are unpredictable and not reducible to a formula, so we muist have that same humility before God. That is the first step. There is no formula, no equation- it is a relationship, and thus a matter of humility and love.

So, how do you know what God is saying to you? Basically, I'm going to relate to you my own experience in hearing God.

Throughout High School, when I first made a personal commitment to Jesus, I never really heard God, and I didn't think too much about it. I was a Christian, trying to live a Christian life, and I prayed- but my prayer time was kinda like a study time. I would read inspirational literature, or the Bible, and try to understand Christianity better. I loved god, but more specifically, I loved the things of God.

Who here has ever had a God High after a retreat? When I was in grade twelve, I was pretty much on a permanent God High, because I was always going on retreats or to youth group or doing something "holy."

After High School I went to John Paul II Bible School. There I realized that even when I read the Bible, I was reading it for the worng reasons. I was reading it to learn and to argue with people who dissagreed with Catholocism, which is OK, but the point of prayer is so that You get to know the author of the Bible- once again, a person.

I learned in Bible School that God has a plan for every individual. My mom had told me growing up that God had a calling for each person, and that only by obeying that calling would I be truly happy. So armed with this knowledge, I asked a scary question- what is Gods plan for me? How many people here have ever asked themselves that question? I prayed about it, and didn't really get an answer.

But I decided this. No matter what God wanted me to do, I would do it. I had a friend who used to say "I would throw rocks at a tree in Zibabwe if that's what God had called me to." This is what you need to do. God does not tell you the whole plan ahead of time. He does not seek your aproval. Part of Gods plan is to teach you to trust Him.

I recently got engaged. For the proposal I had planned this whole elaborate day, which started early in the morning. The day before I proposed, I told my fiance that I would pick her up at 8:00am. But she was tired. She had no idea what was planned for the next day, so she said "Can't we just sleep in tomorrow?"

I was like "no."

I could not think of any good reason. She kinda figured something must be up, so she consented to let me get her up early in the morning.

I remember think that this is what it is like for God. He has this elaborate plan for us- but he doesn't want to tell us the whole thing, because that would ruin it. We stress about not knowing what to do with our lives- but we just have to trust God instead and know that whatever we do it's His will anyway.

The first time I really remember 'discerning' anything was when I was 18 years old. "Discerning' means trying to figure out if a thing is what God wants you to do or not. When I was 18 years old, I really liked this girl named Sarah. And I wanted to know whether it was Gods will for me to date her or not. So I asked God for a sign.

Anybody ever see "Bruce Almighty"? "Bruce" is frusterated, and he's driving down the road, and he's praying, and he says to God "Give me a sign!" Just then a truck cuts him off with all these road signs in the back, reading "stop", "do not enter", "Yield". Instead of noticing that God was giving him a sign, Bruce goes "Oh what's this joker doing?" and he revs his sngine and goes around the truck.

I think it's funny that we ask God for signs. In the OT, this guy is trying to figure out what god wants him to do- so he puts out a fleece, (piece of sheep skin)and he says "If God wants me to do this, He'll make the fleece wet from dew in the morning, if he doesn't want me to do it the fleece will be dry".

What a weird way to make a decision! If someone came to me and said "I want to know if you think I should go to university, so to find out I'm gonna stick this piece of sheep skin outside." I'd be like "Great! If I want you to do it, I'll just piss on it, and then you'll know!"

Why do we ask God to do that? Why don't we just ask Him to tell us? I don't think it is God who has a communication problem- I think it's us. We don't listen very good!

So with Sarah. One night, I'm working up the guts to ask her out. We're at OLVC, sitting behind a cabin watching the stars and I say "You know, Sarah, I've liked you for a long time..."

Suddenly this shrieking owl comes out of no where and lands at our feet! And this thing is huge! It's about a meter tall, I swear, and it's 3 meters away! Then another one comes, and these two birds start scrapping! We watched this whole thing in stunned silence. The moment was totally ruined! We didn't finnish that conversation- we went to bed.

A couple of days later, Sarah and I were gonna try again. I was a team member, and I was on night patrol, so I told Sarah that I would meet her in the chapel when I was done. But the guys were unusually rowdy that night, and it took a long time to get them settled (Donegan...). By the time I got out, I made my way over to the chapel. The lights were off. I figured she'd probably gone to bed, but I would chack anyway.

However, above the door to the chapel is a little steeple with a cross on top. And there, sitting on the cross- a massive, shrieking owl! I couldn't believe it! The thing was just sitting there waiting to gouge some fools eyes out that dared to walk below it! So I went around to the side, and looked through a window, cause I was too scared to walk under the owl. I couldn't see Sarah, so I decided to just go to bed. Turned out she was in the chapel, and fell asleep, and spent the whole night in there!

That was at 11 year olds at Camp. I went home for 12 year olds, and was planning to come back for 13 year olds. In the meantime, I wanted to find out what kind of owls these things were. Now this was 10 years ago, so the internet was not as big a deal yet. Besides, waddya do, google "Monstrous Shrieking Owls"? So I looked it up in my moms "North American Wildlife Book." No good. Then I saw a "how to draw birds book". I flipped it open to the owls page, and it was the strangest thing. On the owls page, in pencil crayon, some kid had drawn not one, but two church steeples!

I swear the angels all had a good laugh about that and gave each other high fives or something.

But you know what? I dated her anyway. In fact, we dated for a year and a half! And, it was a good relationship! I still don't know if God was trying to tell me womething or not. The point is this. We treat God almost like He is superstitious concept. Does God give us little signs? Maybe. But I think he wants us to know him on a personal level. I think God wants us to mature past that point.

I had a friend who was convinced that god wanted her to date such n' such a guy. This guy, in turn, was convinced that he was supposed to be a priest. This girl would go on and on, lamenting how the will of God seemed clear! She'd say things like "Today, I was walking home, when all of a sudden, his dad drove by! It's a sign!" I was like "He lives in the neighborhood! It's not a sign!" Sure enough, she eventually married someone else, and he is still in the seminary studying for the priesthood.

So you know what? Rather than looking for all kinds of weird signs from God, try to get to know the person! That's what god wants! God's plan for you is not some arbitrary list of events! He wants you to be enriched, and he wants you to be loved, and he want5s you to learn how to love!

A year and a half after Sarah and I had started dating, I began to feel called to break up with her. Now I can't explain this feeling. There's was no owls, no sheep skin, no trucks full of road signs saying "Dumping permitted." I honestly didn't want to break it off. But we were begining to hinder one anothers growth towards God. She wanted to go to Bible school, and I didn't want to distract her from what God was calling her to do.

So one day, we're at this team meeting, and I'm in adoration, praying that I would have the courage to do Gods will. I felt like God was leading me to take her for a walk, and talk with her, and see what she thought. So I promised God that after adoration, i would find her, and I would do that.

Well, after adoration, I couldn't find her! I figured maybe she went to bed early! I thought 'wow! Must have just been my imagination! If she went to bed, i can't take her for a walk! Problem solved!'.

Then I saw her sitting with my friend Anita. I went over to talk to them, and on seeing me approach Anita said "Peter, I think you and Sarah need to go for a walk."

Darn.

So we went for a walk. I remember during that conversation feeling loike Abraham, when God called him to sacrifice Isaac- I didn't have to kill Sarah, but I did have to trust God and end a relationship that I did not want to end. And you know how at the last minute an angel appeared and was like "Here! Kill the goat instead!" I kept hoping an angel would appear and be like "here! Dump this goat!" But that didn't happen.

(For the record, I've never dated any goats. They don't share the same values. I'd be like "Merry Christmas!" and they'd be like "Baaa.")

But I trusted God, and I trusted that I had discened correctly, and so we broke up. Sarah said "Peter, I love you, but I love Jesus more. Let's do what He wants."

Here's the message here. There are two weird myths about what god wants you to do. One of them is that God always wants you to do the hardest thing. That's not true. God wants you to be happy, but He wants you to be fulfilled. He does not want your happiness to be fleeting and trivial, and so sometimes he will take a thing from you which you think will make you happy. Like a parent who does not let their child eat nothing but junkfood. The child thinks that will make them happy, but the parent knows better. God does want you to be happy, but He wants more than that for you. So when you're trying to digure out what God is saying to you, don't use the "do the hardest thing' aproach, and don't use the 'do the easiest thing' aproach either!

Now when I broke up with Sarah, even though the decision I was maing was kinda sad, God filled me with a kind of peace and joy. The saints know this as consolation. It is a kind of peace that the Bible says "Surpasses all understanding". It's like an upsurge of love. The opposite of this consolation is desolation. That's when you are unhappy, not at piece, desperately seeking a sollution.

The saints say that you should never make a decision in a time of desolation. That's because when you're all concerned about how badly everything is going, and filled with self pity, you are not able to listen properly to God. Have you ever tried to reason with somebody who is feeling sorry for themselves? It's impossible! They're having a little pity party, and they're not open to you! Well, we're the same way with God.

A few months after breaking up with Sarah, I ended up joining the seminary. By then I had it in my head that I wanted to be a saint, and the holiest thing i could do was to become a priest. That's not entirely true. While everyone here should be open to the possibility that God is calling them to the religious life- either as a priest or brother or as a nun- God sanctifies most people through the sacrament of marriage. I remember once saying to my Dad "the thing I like about being single is that I can do a great work of love anytime I want to!" You know, I was thinking go to africa and be a missionary or take someones place in a concentration camp like Maximillian Kolbe. My Dad said "Yeah, but when you're married, you have to do great acts of love when you don't want to."

Anyway, I figured I should at least give God a chance to make a priest out of me. So I visited the Companions of the Cross, a really cool communtiy of priests in Ottawa. While I was there I said to God "Ok, you have three days to convince me to become a priest."

My first day there, I was in Mass, and I said "God, whatever you want me to do with the next year of my life, I will do." The reading in Mass that day was "Go, sell everything bthat you have, and come follow me." I was like "Whoa..."

Now I didn't really have anything to sell that was worth anything, but what I noticed was that God was saying "Sell everything". I had told God I would give Him one year- but I realized He wasn't just asking for one year- He wanted the rest of my life! So, I gave that to Him.

The next day, I was starting to get pretty nervouse about the idea that maybe he actually was calling me. Now the thing most people are nervous about is the call to Chastity. To be single for the rest of your life. That didn't bother me so much. What got me was the call to obedience. By then I'd been living on my own with no curfew and stuff for a few years. Here I was considering joining a seminary where there was a curfew and a dress code and tons of rules.

I was lying in bed that night, thinking about how terrible it would be, and I said to God "God! I just wanna go where I wanna go when I wanna go there!"

Now, I was frusterated, but I figured lying in bed being frusterated wasn't going to help, so i would pray. Earlier that day a priest had told me to read John 21:15-19. So I flipped it open and started reading.

15When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon son of John, do you truly love me more than these?" "Yes, Lord," he said, "you know that I love you." Jesus said, "Feed my lambs."

Now, I knew this passage. I thought it was pretty uncreative of the priest to give it to a guy discerning the priesthood. Especially a guy named Peter. But I read on:

16Again Jesus said, "Simon son of John, do you truly love me?" He answered, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you." Jesus said, "Take care of my sheep."
17The third time he said to him, "Simon son of John, do you love me?" Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, "Do you love me?" He said, "Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you."
18Jesus said, "Feed my sheep. I tell you the truth, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go." 19Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, "Follow me!"

I was stunned. I had said to God "God, I wanna go where I wanna go." and He said "When you were younger you went where you wanted to go, but when you're older you're gonna go where you don't want to go." I realized that if I had really given God my life, then I was gonna have to give Him this too!

The next day was my last day there. I went to Mass, and before Mass I said "Ok God, seems like you want me to join the seminary. Here's the deal. I don't want to leave Calgary behind. I don't want to leave Alberta. I don't want to leave OLVC. And especially, I don't want to leave all my friends and family behind. I want you to address this in todays scriptures, and I will take that to mean you want me to join."

The day the reading was this. "Jesus said; "Anyone who leaves father or mother, brothers and sisters, for the sake of my name and for the gospel will recieve 100 fold.""

God had not only answered my prayer- He was being cocky. That day I decided to join the seminary.

Now, how did God speak to me? Through His word, through the Bible. Rememeber I said that when I was in Bible School I used to read the Bible like I was reading a textbook, learning ways to debate things with people. God is not interested in having us win debates. God wants us to learn how to love him. He wrote the book to communicate with us! So do you wanna be able to hear the Holy Spirit? Really? Read the Bible.

Now some people do this ridiculous thing I like to call "Bible Roulette." They take a Bible, ask God a question, and flip it open and see what it says! Like it's one of those 8 balls with the black liquid inside and a floating triangular prism with different answers. "What should I do with my life?" shake it up "All answers point to yes." With the Bible "What should I do with my life?" "Your hair is like a flock of goats moving down the slopes of Gilead. Your Belly is a heap of wheat."

I guess God's will is that I get a haircut and go on a diet!

You wouldn't do that with a book by Charles Dickens. "What is Dickens trying to communicate?" "Jacob Marley was dead to begin with. Deader than a doornail." I*f you want to understand the message, read it in context. Read the Bible, and you'll get to know what God is saying to the world. Better yet, pray to God, and read the Bible, and you'll get to know what God is saying to you!

The closer you get to God, the better you will be able to understand Him. After two years I felt led to leave the seminary- and I did. There were some little confirmations, but it wasn't as in your face as when I joined. But I was getting to know God, I was maturing as a Christian. Therefore, two things were happening. Just like a baby learning to walk, or a kid to ride a bike, God was letting go a bit, and letting me walk on my own. In time God called me to marry Catherine, the woman I am now engaged to. In some ways he let me choose it, without making it abundantly clear. But by faith in Him, I have confidence that it is His will.

Secondly, you get to know God better. Have you ever noticed that the more you know a person, the better you will be at knowing what they are thinking? You know what your parents are going to say when you're wondering if you should do something. Likewise with God. you get to know Him, and therefore you understand Him better. He weans you off of uncanny verses and shrieking owls.

Jesus made an anology of us that we are like sheep, following a shepherd. He said that we know the shepherds voice, and that is why we follow him. If we get to know Jesus, we will know his voice- we will know what He is trying to say to us.

Remember what I said before. Chances are, God does not even want you to know the whole plan ahead of time. It takes more faith and more love to follow God without a clear picture than knowing everything.

Now some people get frusterated because they say "I listen to God! I sit dead quiet, and tell God I'm listening, and He doesn't say anything!"

Think for a moment. God does not need to use words. We use words to convey a concept, an idea. Someone once asked Pierre Trudeau if he thought in English or in French. He said "I think in concepts." you know when you have an idea, but you just can't seem to articulate it? Words are how we communicate with each other, but they are limmitted. Often they don't express what we really want to say. I find this to be especially true with things like emotions, or profound thoughts- things that really matter!

God, on the other hand, does not need to use words. He can put the concept right into your brain! So why would He use words? Once you learn who God is, you will notice that there is a certain flavour to truth, or to the words coming from Him. In the movie the Passion, Pontious Pilate wrestles with thge idea of truth. He says to his wife "Do you recognize truth when you hear it?". It may sound arrogant if I say that I know the voice of God, but it's not by my own merits- it's not 'cause I am so holy or smart. I have learned to recognize it.

Now that said, it is silly to think that I may be right 100% of the time. While I can be confident that I am doing God's will, the prerequisite for hearing God is humility! If you lose sight of how broken and small you are, you will begin to mistake your own ideas for those of God!

Remember that God chooses to use other people. Maybe God will speak to you through your friends, your family. Maybe God has spoken to you through myself or another speaker. Whenever I do a talk I pray that god will speak through me. I don't know why God chooses to use people rather than just go the dirrect route- but I know that He does. He always has. Find some friends who are strong spiritually and who can help you to hear God. In the past, when I've made stupid decisions, I had the idea the whole time that my mature friends would think it was a mistake.

It's also a good idea to get a spiritual dirrector. That's someone who you can go to with things, and listen to their advice, and obey them! Remember how I said obedience was an issue for me in the seminary? Well if humility is a prerequisite for hearing God, obedience is a great way to learn humility! And, FYI, if any one thinks I got out of obedience by not becoming a priest, than your concept of marriage is quite innacurate!

So for a spiritual dirrector, try to get someone like a priest, your youth minister, an adult that you trust and who is spiritually strong. If someone asked me to be an SD, I would say no on the grounds that I do not yet believe that I am spiritually mature enough, but I'd be happy to give them advice!

Next, God is never gonna call you to do something that is sinful or against the Church or anything. If you think God is calling you to do something- like, say, to have sex outside of marriage- let me assure you that you are not yet in tune with the Holy Spirit. God has given us the Church to help us and to guide us, and we must obey it!

St Francis de Sales warns us about another danger. He says that Christians have this tendency to begin something good, then feel that god is calling them elsewhere, and so they move on, but don't finnish the first thing. This, he says, is a trick of the devil. The devil doesn't mind if you begin a lot of good works- provided you don't finnish them. If you discern that god has called you to do a thing, than be faithful to seeing that thing through!

In all your decisions, remember that the reason you exist is for the glory of God. St Ignatius of Antioch said "The Glory of God is Man fully alive." I used to work in a glass factory, driving a truck. the work was OK, but what I really wanted to do was youth ministry. I started praying about what I was called to do. My SD told me to do the thing that was life giving. I realized that the things which i find most life giving are (in no particular order) youth ministry, nature, prayer, and my fiance. So when I think about what God wants for me, and I think it's youth ministry, and my practical side says "You're engaged! There's no money in Youth Ministry!" I say "You know what? If this is truly what God is calling me to he'll take care of the details."

We all need to learn to trust God entirely with every detail of our lives. Our lives will be better guaranteed. I hope this rally will not have just been a good time with a lot of friends and a dance- My hope is that this rally will be a life altaring experience wherein you give yourself, your whole life, to God.

Close in prayer.

2006-04-08T10:33:00.000-07:00

Water drains backwards in the Southern Hemisphere due to the Earth's rotation

Myth: Not only is the Earth's rotation too weak to affect the direction of water flowing in a drain, tests you can easily perform in a few washrooms will show that water whirlpools both ways depending on the sink's structure, not the hemisphere.

Porcupines float in water.

Fact.

The Catholic Church persecuted Galileo for saying the Earth goes around the Sun.

Myth: The Catholic Church placed Galileo under house arrest for saying that science was the only reliable source of truth.

Mormons used to allow Polygamy

Fact.

A dog's mouth is cleaner than a human's

Myth: Despite a habit of licking things no human would dare, Fido's mouth is often touted as scientifically more sterile. Truth is, oral bacteria are so species-specific that one can't be considered cleaner than the other, just different.

Daddy Long legs are one of the most poisonous spiders, but their fangs are too short to bite humans.

Myth: Daddy Long Legs eat vegetables and things that are already dead- they don't need venom.

Hair and fingernails continue growing after death

Myth: Though hair and fingernails appear to keep growing after death, this is merely a morbid optical illusion at work. In death the human body dehydrates severely, retracting enough skin to expose more nail and hair.

Abortion is legal in Canada until the third trimester, meaning that a baby can be killed even as it is being born.

Fact

Kevin's lovable yet geeky sidekick in TV's "The Wonder Years" grew up to be Marilyn Manson.

Myth: Kevin's sidekick Paul was played by Josh Saviano. As for Marilyn Manson, his real name is Brian Warner.

Jehovahs Witnesses believe that 144,000 people go to heaven, and that entrance to heaven is based on getting converts. Everyone else goes to Hell.

Myth: Jehovahs Witnesses believe that 144,000 people get into heaven, and most of those spots are taken. The rest of the JW's get to live forever in paradise on Earth. They do not believe in Hell.

There was once a female Pope, known as Pope Joan, who disguised herself as a male, but fell off a horse and had a baby, which is how she was discovered.

Myth. This Myth was made popular during the reformation, but there is no historical evidence to back it, neither is there a place in history that it could have happened.

Most lipstick contains fish scales.

Fact!

The sloth (a mammal) moves so slowly that green algae can grow undisturbed on its fur.

Fact.

Cat urine glows under a black-light!

Fact

In the Early Church, there was a group of Christians called "Gnostics" who believed Jesus was human, but not God.

Myth: The gnostics believed Jesus was God and not human. Christians believe that Jesus is God and Human. Dan Brown (author of the Da Vinci Code) thinks Jesus is human and not God.

At one point in History, there were 3 people who claimed to be Pope.

Fact. This was a political move to try to centralize power in France, however two of the Popes were not legitimately ordained.

Slugs have 4 noses.

Fact

More Monopoly money is printed in a year, than real money printed throughout the world.

Fact.

Humans use only 10 percent of their brains

Myth: This media darling has been around for at least a century. Fortunately, it's just not true. MRI imaging clearly demonstrates—with fancy colors no less—that humans put most of their cerebral cortex to good use, even while dozing.

A penny dropped from the top of a tall building could kill a pedestrian

Myth: A penny isn't the most aerodynamic of weapons. A combination of its shape and wind friction means that, tossed even from the 1,250-foot Empire State Building, it would travel fast enough merely to sting an unlucky pedestrian.

Elephants can't jump.

Fact

The Great Wall of China is the only manmade structure visible from space

Myth:There are several variations on this folkloric statement, and they're all quantifiably false. Astronauts can spot the Great Wall from low-Earth orbit, along with plenty of other things like the Giza pyramids and even airport runways. But they can't see the Wall from the Moon.

It takes seven years to digest gum

Myth:While it may prove a bit more difficult to break down than organic foodstuffs, chewing gum gets no special treatment from the digestive system. Doctors figure this old wives' tale was invented to prevent kids from swallowing the rubbery substance.

Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying.

Fact.

A 'jiffy' is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second.

Fact

Lightning never strikes the same place twice

Myth: In fact lightning favors certain spots, particularly high locations. The Empire State Building is struck about 25 times every year. Ben Franklin grasped the concept long ago and mounted a metal rod atop the roof of his home, then ran a wire to the ground, thereby inventing the lightning rod.

Until Collumbus, everyone believed the world was flat.

Myth: Before Collumbus, the ancient Greeks believed the world was round, as did St Augustine, one of the greatest teachers in the Church. Most educated people believed it was round- only uneducated people believed it was flat.

Men think about sex every seven seconds

Myth: Males are driven to reproduce, evolutionarily speaking, but there is no scientific way of measuring to what extent that desire consumes their everyday lives. Thankfully, for world productivity as a whole, seven seconds seems a gross overstatement, as best researchers can tell.

Bats always turn left when exiting a cave.

Fact.

In the year 2000, Pope John Paul II was named an "Honorary Harlem Globetrotter."

Fact

Men are 6 times more likely to be struck by lightning than women.

Fact

Margarine is one molecule away from being plastic.

Myth: Margarine, like butter, is %80 fat and %20 waters and solids.

The original name for the butterfly was 'flutterby'.

Fact

A cockroach can live several weeks with its head cut off.

Fact: It eventually dies of starvation.

Brocolli is a cross breed of cauliflower and asparagus.

Myth: Broccoli is a member of the Cruciferae family which means it’s related to cabbage, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, etc. Broccoli has been around for more than 2000 years.

Ostriches bury their heads in the sand to hide, thinking that if they can't see us, we can't see them.

Myth: If threatened while sitting on the nest, which is simply a cavity scooped in the earth, the hen presses her long neck flat along the ground, blending with the background. Ostriches, contrary to popular belief, do not bury their heads in the sand.

The Bible used to be chained up in churches to prevent people from reading them.
Myth: Bibles were expensive- copied by hand, and usually inlaid with jewels. They were chained to the Churches so they wouldn't get stolen.

We're Engaged!

2006-03-27T09:45:00.000-08:00

After several years of theology, philosophy, and ministry, I finally understand the idea of giving a thanksgiving sacrifice. I think it's a very natural urge, when a person is extremely grateful.

Saturday, March 25th, 2006, I got engaged! But I know people want more details than that. I picked the date because it's the feast of the Annunciation, which is kind of appropriate. I really wanted to do it on a Feast day, and couldn't arrange for St Jospeh. Since it was a feast day, I didn't have to fast for Lent, so we could enjoy it a bit more! But mostly I just like symbolism and meaning, and this is ripe with it.

So, having selected the day well ahead of time, I made a fairly elaborate plan. I had ordered the ring (I got it custom made) on February 22nd, at which time they assured me it would be ready in 7-10 days. I finally picked it up on March 23rd- cutting it a little close!

I had a lot of plans, begining with Mass and Adoration in the morning. I had arranged for a priest to give us private adoration at Sacred Heart Church, since both Catherine and I have a devotion to the Sacred Heart (because we want to love each other with more than just a human love.)

Friday Night, after hanging out with some friends, I told her that I would pick her up at about 8:30am for Mass. But Catherine was tired, after having driven all the way from Saskatoon. So she asked if it was OK if I let her sleep in.

Now normally I try to be quite sensitive and accomodating, so when I said "No" and offered no explanation, I pretty much tipped her off that something was up for the next day. I drove home (when Catherine stays at my place, I stay at my parents') concerned that maybe she thought I was being a jerk. And the next morning, I remained concerned- but I knew that once we were in adoration, she would forgive me and be honoured. It was good, because at that moment I gave the whole day over to God, recognizing that what I wanted to do was ultimately to honour Catherine and for the glory of God, so I would be insufficient if left to my own devices anyway, but with God there was nothing to worry about! It also occurred to me that just as I had plans for Catherine that I did not want to tell her about, should telling her ruin them, but I just wanted her to go along with my leadings and trust me, so that must be what God desires of us!

Anyway, we went to Mass, and then to Sacred Heart Church. Sacred Heart Church is a quaint old Church (Built in the 30's- in Calgary, anything older than the 70's is old!) and the priest exposed the blessed sacrament in a monstrance which had a statue of the Sacred Heart for its base, and the host was framed by the Stations of the Cross. It was remarkably appropriate.

By this time, Catherine had concluded that I would certainly propose within adoration. But I didn't.

After benediction, the priest asked us when we planned to get married. I informed him that I had not yet proposed, but I didn't care that he had asked, since Catherine had put 2+2 together by then anyway. Then the priest gave us a thorough tour of his Church and facilities- I think he wanted us to book it for our wedding!

From there we went on to Banff.

My favorite Camp Ground in Banff is called "Two Jack". It's beautiful, located on the side of cascade Mountain, and heavily populated by Elk and Bighorned Sheep. We had lunch in a little shelter there- Roasting Hot Dogs over an open fire from the stove. How's that for classy!

From there we went to Lake Louise- probably one of the most gorgeous places in the world. (I could not find a photo that does it justice, but here's an idea.) We rented Cross Country Skis, though neither of us are avid skiers, and skied across the lake, to a place kind of between the 3 mountains on the far side. The sun was shining and warm, and there was even a little bird- a dipper- living up to it's name by dipping in and out of a creek, and singing a song. The snow was really heavy on the trees, and it was certainly a form of winter paradise. As we soaked it in, there was even a small avalanche on a nearby mountain! (We were in no danger, but it looked cool!) After enjoying the moment, and praising God for a bit, we decided to turn back. But I had taken my skis off, and when I went to get them, I stepped off the beaten trail- and fell up to my waste in soft snow! It was a bit off a job getting out.

After returning our skis, we enjoyed a beer and some bruchetta in the Chateaux Lake Louise, and listened to some cool Spanish Guitar renditions of Edelviess and Evita by a live musician. (When Catherine was in the bathroom, I bought his CD, and had him autograph it, writing "to Catherine- you are one lucky girl."

We then went to Emerald Lake Lodge, which was recommended by my sister in law, Laura. The Sun was setting as we arrived, giving us a spectacular sky. The restaurant is classy, but quaint, situated on a hill overlooking the lake. Even to get to it, we had to park some distance away and hike through cabin village of sorts.

Naturally, so beautiful a place was also quite pricey. As a Youth Coordinator, I am accustomed to the idea that I will never have a lot of money. Catherine and I agree that we need to embrace poverty as a cross but also as a gift from God. But I wanted to make this day special. I have never before, nor will I likely again, eaten in such luxury! I told Catherine to ignore the price, and simply to enjoy herself.

Imagine my embarrasment when my credit card was declined!

Since the establishment did not accept interact, and there was not even a cash machine amongst the little village, I had to go back to the car and retrieve Catherines Credit Card. (I payed her back the next day.)

From here we went to a Franciscan retreat center near Chocrane AB, where several of my friends (Notably Tara Close and Karla Valencia) were waiting. They had lit Candles all along the Stations of the Cross, so that Catherine and I could pray by candlelight. The candles were just tea lights in red glass containers, but looked awesome!

When we arrived, I saw my friends satnding on the hill. They were supposed to be hidden, but we had arrived too soon! Catherine had not seen them, so I turned off my headlights and backed up the car, in hopes of providing my friends with an escape route. Rather, they hid, by laying down in the snow.

Catherine and I prayed the stations, and on the 12th station (Jesus dies on the cross) I prayed about how Christ gave his life for the church, his bride, and asked God for the strength to do likewise, to love as Christ loved. And then I proposed.

Catherine reluctantly agreed.

Just kidding. She said "of course", and we hugged each other briefly, before she requested that we get off our knees in the snow. (I know it is customary for the guy to get down on one knee, but we were both kneeling before the crucifix.)

I did not at that moment give her the ring, partly because we were in a dark, snowy forest at night where she would not be able to see it and may lose it, and partly because we were not finnished praying the stations!

At the next station (XIII- Jesus is laid in His Mothers Arms) we consecrated our relationship to Mary, and then at the last station (XIV- Jesus is laid in the tomb) we considered our own mortality, and that even marriage is not eternal, but is a reflection, a sign of God's eternal love. This put everything in context.

After this we went before a statue of the Sacred Heart and prayed that everything in our relationship would be done for the Glory of God.

We then left, pausing briefly by the parking lot to yell "thank you" to our friends, who were waiting so they could clean up all the candles! (I have some amazing friends!)

We went back to my place, where we had Baileys Irish Cream and homemade Chocolate Dipped Strawberries (Tara Close taught me how!), and of course, I presented the ring- which is a size too large and is getting sized at the Jewellers. Here is a picture of a ring that looks nothing like the one I gave her. (The one I gave her is a solitaire, aqua marine, princess cut, set in yellow gold, with "In His Sacred Heart" inscribed on the inside... in case you care about stuff like that.

The next day we had a little celebration at my parents, and listened to the mix CD made for us by Carmen Shepherd (Thanks Carmen!).

So that is the tale of how it went down. Please pray for us! We plan to get married in December 30th of this year at St Phillip Neri's Church in Saskatoon.

Here is a picture of me trying to pursuade Catherine to have lunch with me some time.

You can see our other "engagement photos" at http://ca.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/iamnotcathy/album?.dir=/9bcd&.src=ph&.tok=phfLHsEBK_A4DQXs bcd&.src=ph&.tok=phfLHsEBK_A4DQXs

The Difference between Guys and Girls

2006-03-17T14:30:00.001-08:00

There s a myth in the world, that guys and girls are pretty much the same, in different wrappings. The idea goes that we have been socialized to behave a certain way, and that is why we act the way that we do. This myth was created in large part by the feminist movement, which, while battling legitimate discrepancies between men and women, began to view any difference as something which needed to be taken down. So feminists began to burn their bras, and to cut their hair short, and dress in “woman suits.” None of these things are necessarily bad in the first place, but the attitude was “Women are the same as men and thus they should be just like men.” Feminists went further, endorsing birth control and abortion, because if women kept having babies, this would merely serve to highlight the differences between men and women! Women had to have the ability to choose not to be open to life, so that they could do all the things men do. Pregnancy is very limiting.

However, our society is beginning to see through this myth. In the 70’s there were some children born with mutated genitals- say like half a penus. The doctors would have a choice- they could either surgically reconstruct the penus, or they could create the equivalent a vagina. Clearly, a vagina was the easier choice. They could then raise the child as a girl, and feed them the appropriate hormones to make sure they grew breasts and the whole bit.

These “girls” though, despite having all the hormones, and being socialized as girls, would hate wearing dresses and playing with dolls and would want instead to play with trucks and guns. (Some of these children later turned and sued their doctors and parents.)

The church teaches us that our bodies are ‘sacraments’ of our spirits. Any ‘sacrament’ is a physical manifestation of a spiritual reality. So baptism symbolizes washing away sins by using water, but it really does wash away sin!

So what do the differences in our bodies tell us about our spiritual realities? First of all, we need to move away from the dualistic culture we have created. By that I mean that we tend to think about our spirits as being eternal, and encased in a limiting container, the body. As humans, we are both spiritual and physical- and one reflects the other. Gentlemen, if you ever have the opportunity to learn about Natural Family Planning, you will learn all kinds of things about mucus that you simply never knew! And never wanted to know. And it’s weirs that god would choose to use mucus to create eternal human beings!

But he does. I think that if we could only move away from this idea that the physical is ugly and slimy, and if we could glory in the awkwardness of the physical. Men who do not deodorant, stink! Women, fart! So I understand. It’s never happened in my presence. We are physical, and need to come to terms with the physical.

After all, why would God create us male and female in the first place? For procreation? We could just procreate like amoebas. You could be walking down the street “of, I have a splitting headache” then suddenly “I’m beside myself!” God could do that!

But he didn’t.

For some reason God created us male and female. And our physical nature reflects our spiritual nature. And our nature, which is both physical and spiritual, reflects the nature of God. So it should be celebrated.

So whatever the physical differences are between men and women, this will tell you something about the spiritual differences. So what are the physical differences?

The most obvious one- boys have pee-pees.

For some reason, when we have create new human beings, when we participate the most in the nature of God, he wants us to have sex. And men have different roles in sex than women.

I was talking to a man recently, and he was saying that whenever a couple has sex, they are necessarily ‘roll playing’. I was like “Oh, let’s play police officer!” “Ok, you little siren. You have the right to remain silent.”

But that’s not what he meant.

When you have sex, it is necessarily the male who penetrates the female. This tells you something about our nature!

John Paul II said “Men need to love in order to accept love- women need to accept love in order to love.”

In other words, men need to initiate love. Women need to respond. There are two things that happen to men who do not initiate. First of all, ever since High School, I have been pretty popular with the ladies. A lot of ladies have wanted to date me, and have told me so! For a while, I thought “this shouldn’t be a problem. I’m getting to be a pro at letting women know I’m just interested in friendship.”

But here is what I discovered. The women who seemed the most determined to find a guy, were the least attractive ones to me. They might be cute physically, holy spiritually, cool socially… and yet something inside me would go “hmmm… I wonder what’s wrong with her!” The other day a friend told me “Peter, if you were single, I’d be a one man woman.” And I thought “you poor thing.”

Now, I’m dating an incredible women, who is beautiful, holy, intelligent, sociable, charming…. And when I consider what has attracted me to her, it is this. First off, I’ve known her for nine years, and I’ve always considered her ‘outside of my league’. I still kinda do! In all the time that I had known her, she never seemed interested in any of the men. I’m not saying ladies that you should come across as an ice princess- but have confidence in your own beauty and in Gods plan for your life! I’ll tell you what I find really attractive- a woman who considers celibacy as a vocation. I think many women shy away from that possibility, because they think it’s like admitting defeat. But a beautiful woman who desires holiness to that degree… there’s nothing better!

Here’s the second thing that happens to men if women initiate. They feel like they have nothing to give. Men cannot receive love without first giving it! The man wants to feel like he is the one providing for the women. The woman is beautiful, and the man wants her to rejoice in her beauty- and he wants to be the one to let her! Don’t kid yourselves ladies, men want to be romantic. They want to give you flowers, and dinner by candlelight. They want to lead you in a dance. But men are scared of how you will respond.

There is a lot of pressure in my family to propose to my Girl friend. And I keep telling them, that while she would say yes if I asked now, I want her to be thrilled. I do not feel assured that she would be thrilled, until I know that the love I have for her is a gift. Women often ask me how they can honour men- I’ll tell you sincerely, let men honour you. Be charmed by it. Be excited that a guy is man enough to hold the door for you. Then return the ‘love’ by simply thanking the man. You will affirm him in his masculinity in a way that no amount of cooking dinner for him would do.

So that shows why men want to initiate, but do women want to respond? The feminists feel that the responsive role is somehow one of lesser dignity. They feel that men and women should have the exact same amount of give and take, the exact same role in everything.

Recent studies have shown that stay at home moms are happier in the marriage than working moms. The academic community are astounded by this, because they have so long accepted the doctrine that men and women should play the same role.

But men have a natural desire to be the provider/protector. Evolutionists can attribute credit to the ‘cave man’ days for this phenomenon, but I think we’re missing the obvious. Men are by nature providers. Initiators. We were created that way. Our bodies point to that truth!

So women are happier too. Ladies, who amongst you would not be happier to have the man of your dreams pursue you, romance you, and sweep you onto his horse- than you having to do it yourself? Chick flicks are very telling. The woman melts when the man has the courage to actually initiate. “You had me at hello!”

I think part of the reason for this is the woman’s natural beauty. It is not just your imagination, women are actually better looking than men. You wanna talk about physical differences? Men have hair growing all over the place!

Men want to rejoice in a woman’s beauty. This little chemical reaction happens in a man every time he sees a beautiful woman. It’s called epinephrine. It is a hormone, which affects the mind, and gives the man a little emotional high. This is why pornography is so addictive for men.

Similarly, a woman wants a man to rejoice in her beauty. How many beautiful women have you ever heard complaining about their physical appearance? They want men to tell them that they are lovely, desirable. And when a man does, a little chemical reaction happens in the woman. A hormone, known as oxytosin, creates an emotional bond to the man who had just complemented her!

Why? Notice that the man desires to see, and the woman desires to hear! Now of course, the reverse is also true, but not to the same degree. I still appreciate it if a woman compliments me on how I look. And pornography is becoming an increasing issue for women. But overall, men are, as we say, visually oriented, and women are emotionally oriented.

This, ladies, is why you cannot wear your little thong bikini at camp. This is why, men, you have to avert your eyes when you see a woman wearing a thong bikini. As men, our entire nature is built to see, and to desire physical intimacy. Women don’t get it, because to a woman, there is nothing more unattractive than a man in a thong. So a lot of times, women won’t even know that what they are wearing is difficult for men to see. The epinephrine shot is already going. Ladies, if there is a man in your life who respectfully lets you know that what you are wearing is inappropriate, thank him, and take his word on it- ‘cause you’re never gonna get it.

However, it goes both ways. I mentioned before that what stimulates a woman is not visual, but generally verbal. Somehow, it is emotional. It is the man affirming her dignity and beauty as a woman. That’s what turns a girl on.

John Paul II taught that it is the mans responsibility, as the initiator, to see to it that the woman has the most pleasurable sexual experience possible. I used to think that this simply meant that the man has to make sure she climaxes- since women generally take longer, and men are pretty much gonna climax anyway. However, I am learning that there is more to it than that. As the initiator, the man must stimulate the woman in the manner in which she is stimulated until she desires to give herself back to him. No wonder so many women feel used in sex! If the man tries to stimulate her in the manner in which he is accustomed to being stimulated, puts on a thong and rubs his leg up and down the doorpost…. This isn’t gonna cut it. He has to communicate that he loves her, do it physically, verbally, whatever, and then she will by her very nature want to give herself back to him!

I recently heard a lady on a talk radio show, talking about how she coped with the fact that her husband was having an affair. She said the thing that bothered her the most about it was not that he was having physical sex, but that he was emotionally investing in another women. This indicates exactly what is important for the different genders!
However, what does that mean for those of us who are not married. Maybe you’re like “ooh… I gotta remember that! 10 years from now this knowledge will come in so handy!”

Just like guys have to be careful with looking at images, and women need to dress accordingly, so we need to be sensitive to what stimulates women. It is actually possible for a woman to want to marry a Backstreet Boy, or famous movie actor, that they have never met. In fact it is common. This doesn’t happen much with guys. Guys don’t want to marry Brittany Spears- They just want to have sex with her!

What’s going on in women is that they are getting their emotional stimulation from other means, much in the same way as men use pornography. Chick flicks are deadly. But no one ever talks about this danger!

Women complain that they could never compete with pornography, like men keep asking them to do. Well, you know what ladies? Men can never compete with Chick Flicks! Believe me, I know, I tried! I’ve tried to be spontaneous and sweet and romantic and charming…. And there is always something artificial and strange about it.

But the bigger problem becomes when women actually become addicted to the stimulant. Now, I’m not saying that anytime a woman is watching a chick flick, that it is necessarily wrong. Just like it is not necessarily wrong for a man to watch naked women on TV. But I betcha there are some ladies here who need to be brutally honest with themselves about it!

Women also have to be careful about how they see their guy friends- and guys, we need to be careful about how we treat women. I have long been of the opinion that if I have told a woman, in no uncertain terms, that my friendship with her is purely platonic, than she should be able to understand that I mean nothing when I am affectionate, emotionally intimate, and telling her that she is beautiful. Right? That just means I’m a really good guy.

But isn’t that like a woman saying she should be able to dress however she wants, provided that the men around her understand that she does not intend to sleep with them?

It doesn’t work like that. We’re wired differently. So men, we need to be careful how we treat women. A nice dinner just the two of us may be no different than having a nice dinner with another guy to us--- but when she looks at you, she might be trying to figure out what you’re children are gonna look like.

(I was actually interested in a girl once, and she let me know that she wasn’t interested back by saying “We’d have such ugly children!”)

Now here’s something important- a distinction between men and women. Men have more brain cells than women, but women have more connections between their brain cells. That is why guys are more likely to have learning disabilities, but women are more likely to suffer from dementia when they get older.

The consequence of this difference is that we think differently. Ladies always complain that men have ‘one track minds’, and its true! Men can only pretty much think about one thing at a time. But women multitask.

Basically, a mans brain is like a waffle. It’s all compartmentalized, and one thought is not really connected to another. A woman’s brain is more like spaghetti. Everything is connected!

What this means is that if the wife and husband have a fight in the morning, he leaves, works all day, and has a long series of unrelated events, and when he comes home from work, he has completely forgotten about the fight in the morning. She, on the other hand, goes about her day, and every little thing is somehow connected to the fight that day, and until she gets to talk to him about it, she just gets angrier and angrier! The man comes home from work, all chipper, and says “hi honey!”, and she thinks he’s being patronizing!

Another thing that happens is that women read into things that men do not. I had a girl one time tell me about a guy she liked in choir. “He said ‘Hi’ to me today! That’s a good sign!” I was dumbfounded. “I say hi to you every day! It doesn’t mean anything!”

This distinction between men and women is so important. Ladies, you might think you are sending off the clearest signals, and you can’t figure out why guys just don’t get it.

They never will.

And guys, careful how you scratch your chest,, or cross your legs, cause that’s definitely a sign. Never compliment a woman in public, and for crying out loud, never do it in private!

I’m clearly being facetious, but you get the idea.

Lastly, we think differently. Men and women experience stress differently. To a woman, she thinks that if she talks about how she feels, she’s connecting emotionally. Her stress level goes down. But to a man, programmed to be the provider, he thinks that if she comes to him with a problem, that she is clearly looking for a solution!

So supposing you’re at camp. I female team member may complain that a mop bucket is not working properly. The male team member says “why don’t you just get another bucket?”. The Male thinks she’s an idiot for not thinking of that herself. The female feels that he has just invalidated her concern by giving a simple answer. She’s not looking for a solution, she knows the solution. She wants emotional validation. It’s frustrating when a bucket doesn’t work, and you have to look for another one, when all you wanna do is finish chores. Another woman would know how to respond. She would say “Oh, I know! I wish we would just get some new cleaning supplies, around here.”

For the man, the more you talk about a problem, the more his stress level goes up. But the woman needs to talk about it to drive her stress level down!

So waddya do?

First of all, just knowing this will help. Then, remember, the man is the initiator. It is up to him to love the woman in the manner that she needs to be loved first. He needs to validate her emotions. Once he has done that, and listened to her, she will be more responsive to his advice on how to solve the problem. He will have earned the right.

The last thing I want to say is, that you will notice that every kind of sexual sin is a twist, a perversion on the right order. Men want to see women’s beautiful physique, but rather than emotionally investing, they flip on the computer. Women want to be told they are beautiful, so they sleep around just for the affirmation. And it goes on to explain the phenomenon’s, of birth control, abortion, homosexuality, fetishes, etc. We need to recapture the truth and goodness of our masculine and feminine natures if we want to restore our culture.

Faith like a Child

2006-03-17T11:22:00.000-08:00

Matthew 18 1-4 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

We've probably heard a hundred times that Jesus has called us to have "Faith like a child." I want to take a real look at what that means.

First if all, I want to talk about the word "Faith", and what it means.

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

Most people tend to think of faith as something like the creed. Their faith consists in what they believe. St Paul had to struggle against his own culture. Paul was a Pharisee. You've all heard about Pharisees. This is where they came from, and why they were not in the OT.

At the time of Maccabees, the Greeks, under Alexander the Great, invaded Israel. The Greeks realized that the best way to make sure no one ever rebelled against them was to make sure that everyone was just like them. So they made everybody speak Greek, worship Greek Gods, and study Greek philosophy. However, there was a group of Jews who absolutely refused to give up their Jewish Heritage. For example, Jews were not allowed to eat pork. This goes all the way back to the time when Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt. The Egyptians used to sacrifice pigs to their cow god, and then eat the pork. Moses made a law that said "You can't worship cows, or any other created thing, and you can't eat pork." You'll notice that when Moses came down the mountain with the 10 commandments, he found everybody worshipping a cow!

So the Jews said "we can't eat pork, because we need to be distinguished from people who worship idols." Flash forward again, the Maccabeans (so called 'cause the family in charge was the Maccabees family) said to the Greeks "no way! We're keeping our Jewish Customs. We will not do any of your pagan things to do!"

So not only did they choose martyrdom over eating pork, they also refused to work on the Sabbath. The Greeks eventually figured this out, and would always attack the Jews on the Sabbath, since no one would fight back! (eventually the Jews decided to fight after all.)

So the Pharisees were the intellectual ancestors of the Maccabeans. They basically thought that God had commanded a bunch of arbitrary laws on them, and that they best just obey these laws. St Paul was one of these "Pharisees", obeying meaningless laws, and killing Christians because Christians broke those laws! (Jesus healed people on the Sabbath, he touched lepers and people who were bleeding, he ate with sinners, etc.)

So God inspired Paul to write in Galatians and Romans about how we are not saved by doing a bunch of works prescribed by the law, but by faith!

1500 years later, Luther started the reformation, and one of his major claims was 'Sola Fides"- we are saved by faith alone. To Luther this meant that we don't have to go to Hell, no matter what we do, provided that we believe in Jesus. now Jesus clearly taught that not everyone who called him "Lord, Lord" would enter the kingdom, but only those who fed the hungry, clothed the naked, visited the imprisoned, etc. Clearly, faith requires a response. In fact, the only time in all of scripture that you see the words "Faith Alone", is in the letter of St James, where it says "We are not saved by faith alone." (Luther wanted that book taken out of the Bible.)

So even though we as Catholics know that what Luther was teaching was in error, his idea about what faith meant and what salvation meant have totally permeated our thought! The Jehovah’s Witnesses have even published a work called "Knowledge that Leads to Everlasting Life". This is essentially a return to an old heresy, called "Gnosticism"- the belief that you can be saved through knowledge.

So here's the thing- we are saved through faith- but faith is not knowledge! If I say to a person “believe in you"- does that mean simply that I believe they exist? Or does it mean that I believe in their integrity and their ability to do the good things that they intend to do? This is what faith is. It is trust in God... even when we don't see evidence, we trust him anyway.

Now part of this has to do with what we believe. For example, Jesus said "the truth will set you free." He also promised us that the Holy Spirit would lead us into all truth. Part of what faith is, is believing these promises- that God does indeed want us to know the truth, and that he is revealing it to us.

Descartes was the famous philosopher who coined the phrase "I think, therefore I am." Descartes basically felt that unless you can be absolutely certain of a thing, you ought not believe in it. Further, he felt that your senses were not reliable. Just because I see the table in front of me, does not necessarily mean it exists. My eyes could be playing a trick on me. However, Descartes figured that the very fact that he was thinking, is not something that is perceived by his senses, and he could not be thinking unless he existed, therefore he must exist.

After him came a group called the "empiricists" and they said that a thing can only be known to be true if it can be measured. Most people now a days agree with them. This is how science works. If you take something spiritual, which by definition means immeasurable, it is said to be 'unscientific.' But because it is unscientific, people say that it is not true.

So here we are- we live in a world without concrete evidence of God, because the only thing that can be accepted as evidence has to be measurable, and God by definition is not measurable. And yet, people refuse to believe in God because they do not have proof! They accept all kinds of things that lack proof- like the landing on the moon, the existence of the platypus, or that all animals evolved- and yet when presented with something that could not possibly be proven, they reject it for lack of proof!

This is why we need faith like a child. A child does not demand proof of everything. We have become so sophisticated in our own minds, that we think that God for some reason has a responsibility to prove himself to us, or we will not do him the honour of believing in him. We have made ourselves the reference for what is true.

But that is ridiculous! My belief in a thing has no bearing on whether it is true or not. Rather, what is true should have an effect on what I believe! But it requires me to trust that God is in fact revealing truth. This is where faith comes in.

People have this silly idea that the more intelligent people are the ones who are most likely right. Like intelligence gives one the best access to truth. I consider myself rather intelligent. The other night I was at a pro-life training discussion. The speaker, Jojo Ruba, was attempting to demonstrate how to defend the pro-life position, and we got to try to argue the pro-choice position. Suddenly, two guys who were walking by (this took place in a university classroom) poked their heads in, and asked what we were talking about. We told them 'abortion', and invited them in. But we did not explain what was happening.

I began challenging Jojo on his pro-life position, by saying that life begins when a creature draws it's first breath, and that the dignity of a creature depends on its self awareness, since we're all animals anyway, and therefore abortion is not nearly so morally objectionable as is, say, eating a hamburger. One of the guys who had walked in was clearly gesturing with his hands that he agreed with me! All the while I was arguing something that I did not believe was true!

So think about it. If a person has an agenda, or if they already believe in a thing, intelligence will be a detriment to them, because they will be able to believe in the thing all the more firmly. they will not be able to discover truth, because an intelligent person has the ability to persuade themselves of things that are untrue.

The only way that we can really know the truth is by being humble. I think the first requirement towards that is saying "I am not the final authority of truth. If I am to know the truth, it will only be because God has revealed it to me." But even then, there are many people running around, claiming that God has revealed such and such a thing. They all have a tendency to disagree with one another.

So humility requires us to submit to another authority on truth. this is where the Church comes in. Jesus himself appointed the Church with the guarantee that it would never teach wrong teaching. (CF Matt 16) For 2000 years, the Church has successfully not contradicted itself. If the Church says something that I am not comfortable with- say, like, her teaching on homosexuality or women’s ordination or contraception- I have to ask myself this question. Which source is more reliable? The one created by God with the guarantee of never being wrong and with 2000 years of non-contradiction.... or me, with my total of about 20 years of rational thought? Which answer do you think humility demands?

Faith like a child then means believing in God that he will reveal truth, and giving your assent of faith to the Church which God instituted. But it still means more than that.

There is a popular thought that if we simply believe in a thing enough, then God will make it happen. I have heard preachers say that when a woman was healed and Jesus said "your faith has healed you" that Jesus was trying to imply that it was faith itself, and not the god who is the object of faith. Now, I agree that there is power in positive thought. But let's not get all excited about our own faith, as if it is somehow us that saves!

When I was at Bible School a few years ago, a friend of mine was suffering from a problem with her knees. I decided that god ought to heal them. I thought at the time that what was necessary was my own faith- after all the Bible says "Faith can move mountains." So I made a deal with God, that to demonstrate my faith I would do something hard- jog 12 kilometers- and he would heal the girl.

I jogged my 12 kms, but she was not healed.

There is a funny thing about faith, an idea that we can just arbitrarily pray a thing, and god will simply do it because we had prayed. but this is not really faith in God... this is faith in our own faith, otherwise known as "credulity". Simply because I believe a thing should happen a certain way, does not mean that it will. We do not know the will of God. True faith in god says "I know you can do this, I believe it is your will, but I accept your will no matter what it is." Some people think they have a better idea of what is right for them than does God. That's not faith.

The Bible says "God works all things to the good of those who love Him according to his purposes." We need to trust not only that God can and does work for our good, but also we have to trust his purposes. I believe his purposes for us has more to do with our sanctification than our physical health.

Having faith in God means trusting God entirely, as a child trusts his father, to do what is best for us. It is up to God then to reveal the truth to us, to sanctify us, and to provide for our Earthly needs. Faith like a Child means we recognize how small we are before the enormity of God, place our lives in His hands, and then never worry.

Couragio!

2006-03-16T12:31:00.000-08:00

When John Paul II was first elected Pope, the first thing he said to the crowds in St Peters square was "Be not afraid".

Why? What were the people so afraid of? Having a polish man lead them?

But John Paul II had been made Pope during a tumultuous time in the life of the Church. Vatican II had created widespread confusion. Many people felt that the Church needed to change to accomodate our culture. Others saw this time as being the decline of the Church, the end of Christendom. Time Magazine had declared on it's cover "God is Dead." The Sexual Revolution had taken hold, and the people were convinced and living out of their convictions, which were founded in moral decline.

Here we are today, living in a world where Christians, hated, and persecuted all over the world. Did you know that there were more martyrs, more people who were killed for being Christian, in the last century than in all the others combined? Here in Canada we watch as our courts and our politicians time and again make decisions contrary to Christians values- what was once a Christian Country today wil not even say Merry Christmas in it's department stores!

But the Pope said "Be not afraid."

I believe that Christians are often paralyzed by fear. We know that God has called us to be Saints, we know he has called us to tell others about Him, but we are so scared about so many things.... that we don't. What if people don't like us? What if they don't respect us? What about financial concerns? Christianity is always and necessarily a risk. We need to pray for courage to face that risk!

One night, when in was in High School I was lying awake in bed, and I couldn't sleep, so I decided to go for a bike ride, and try to sleep in Fish creek Park. So I biked down there, and tried to find a place to sleep. First I tried laying on the grass... but it was too prickly, and the bugs were getting to me. Then I tried lying on a picnic table. Too Hard. I found a little shelter with benches in it. It smelled like pee. (I was kinda like Goldilocks!) I started biking all over Fish creek, trying to find a place to sleep.

But there was something moving in the bushes.

Now, I know that in Fish Creek the most dangerous things you'll ever see are Coyotes. But still, it was night time, and I was scared. So, I started whistling a tune, to scare away the animals. I found Christmas Carols to be the Easiest to whistle.

Eventually, I gave up on my plan of sleeping there, so I decided to leave. Only one thing.

I didn't have my glasses on.

I must have left them at one of the places I had tried to sleep!

So now, I'm biking through Fishcreek, whistling Christmas Carols, looking for my glasses. But my lips are getting tired of whistling, so instead every time something moves, I growl at it. I can't find my glasses anywear. It doesn't help that it's now really dark out, and I can't see very well anyway without my glasses! So I give up- and start biking out of Fishcreek.

By this time, I'm terrified. I'm biking so fast, growling at everything that moves. I come around a corner- and there, in the middle of the path, is a big, brown animal, taller than me, and it's moving! I'm going too fast, there is now way to stop, I've got to go right past this creature of the night. I let out a long, loud growl at the animal. It turns and looks right at me, and goes "hello."

I got out of Fish Creek, all out of breath, sitting on my bike under a streetlight. The creature had been simply a man, who had his shirt off. I wondered what some man was doing wandering around Fish Creek at 3 am with his shirt off. He, no doubt, wondered what some kid was doing biking around fish creek at 3am, growling at people.

I had felt fear that night. When I saw the man, I literally, went cold- complete, I believe, with goosebumps.

Another story...

A few years later, I was at OLVC, and I decided to pray a Rosary. At night. In the Rosary garden. (It was the weekend, I wasn't breaking any rules!)

The Rosary garden is surrounded by forrest, and usually has a few bats flying through it, but at night the stones seem almost irridescent. So, I was praying, and suddenly I heard something moving in the forrest nearby. This thing was big. This was not some rabbit or bird or squirrel. This thing was definitely bigger than a coyote or even a wolf. It sounded bigger than a deer!

Then, it grunted. It was very close to me. I could hear it breathing. But I couldn't see it.

But I thought- y'know what? I'm praying a Rosary. I am doing something Holy. My life is Gods. If God wants me to die today- that's His problem. I'm gonna keep doing His will.

So I finnished my Rosary. I found out the next day that the animal was a moose.

We say that "Courage is a virtue". That means that it is something God desires us to have. But it is different from 'bravery'. Bravery could just mean not experienceing fear. Courage, like all virtues, is dirrected towards the good. So Courage is doing what is right, despite your fear. It took courage for me to stay in the Rosary Garden, because though I was afraid, I believed that it was what God wanted me to do. It is not courage to go out and play in traffic. That is called "Stupidity".

God has called us to do something pretty radical. He has called us to live our lives in a manner that goes against everything we know- it goes against our culture, our own desires, even our very nature. This is Scary!

The Bible is full of stories about people being afraid. When Gabriel appeared to Mary, what did he say? "be not afraid." And when Jesus was walking on water, and all the disciples were like "Ahhh! It's a ghost! Paddle harder boys!" Jesus said "Be not afraid."

What do you mean "Be not afraid."? You come walking on the water in the middle of a dark stormy night? Why don't you just say "I'll be right back!"?

The Bible promisses us this; 1 John 4:18 "There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love."

What it coems down to is this. Fear is a lack of trust. Fear says "I don't believe that God can really do this." Jesus told his disciples over and over again not to worry. If God takes care of plants and birds, than he will take care of you! And if God has called you to do something, He will equip you!

There is a saying. "God does not call the qualified, he qualifies the called." In other words, God will give you everything you need to do His will. So stop living in fear! Stop letting fear paralyze you! When Moses was called to lead the Isrealites out of Egypt, we was like "God, I think you have the wrong guy." But God was like "I made you! I know you're the right guy! Trust me!"

And God made it happen.

Do you think God can't use you?

Lastly, I wanna talk about the apostles. This was a crew of regular guys. St Peter had a form of courage. When Jesus said he was gonna die, Peter was like "Don't worry Jesus, I'll stand by you no matter what." Then when Jesus was arrested, Peter took a sword and cut off some guys ear. But Jesus put a stop to that. The other apostles all ran away. The Bible tells us that one of the apostles was running, and one of the guards grabbed his cloak, and he turned backwards, so it was kinda like when you shirt someone in hockey- the disciple ran off naked, and the guard was like "I am not chasin' that." Then Peter denied Jesus 3 times, cause he was challenged by a little maid girl.

It's funny how we always imagine ourselves being heroic martyrs- if someone put a gun to our heads and was like "deny Christ" we'd be like "Never!", but when we're at school and someone's like "you go to Church" we're all like "yeah, my parents make me."

After Jesus died and rose again and went to heaven, even though the apostles all saw that even death was not the end for Christ, they were still scared! They all locked themselves into a room, and made sure no one was gonna find them in case they would kill them for being Christian. They probably had a little secret knock!

Then something changed. The Holy Spirit came down in tongues of fire on their heads, and they went out, and Peter, the guy who was too scared to tell a little girl he was a follower of Jesus, preached to a huge crowd... and 3000 people were converted! 3000 on his first try! Do you know what we would do if 3000 people showed up at St Cecilias for youth group?

This is the difference the Holy Spirit can make. We need to pray that the Holy Spirit would fill us, and set us on fire, and make us brave enough to stand up for what is true!

Revolution!

2006-03-15T09:19:00.000-08:00

You hear a lot of people complaining about our culture. They complain about how they wish our culture were more Christian, or that at least it didn't embrace everything anti Christian and mock those things that are Christian. But the thing is, we Christians have sat back for so long, or been on the defensive, that that is the only way the world could actually be!

What we need is a revolution. They say that art does not imitate life nearly so much as life imitates art. How many of you would agree with that statement? Somehow a few years ago trucker hats suddenly came in, and out, of fashion. And some people would trace this fact to Brad Pitt wearing a trucker hat. How did that happen?

Of course, trucker hats are not the greatest evil that we are presently combating. We are combating an entire culture. In the past, art has always been used to praise virtue. Consider for example any book by Charles Dickens. There's the virtuous hero characters, and then there's the Characters who are full of vice. If you read these books, you feel inspired to be a better person.

But what does art praise now? Remember that art includes journalism, books, photos, movies, music...

How is chastity generally presented? What about 'prudence'- which means making wise decisions? What about temperance, which means having self control and not getting drunk or doing drugs? What about Christianity in general? How are Christians depicted in art? Take Ned Flanders as an example- this is what people think Christians are like!

John Paul II always said that we were living in a culture of death. But, he spoke about a new springtime, when our culture would become a culture of life. Think about this analogy. In the winter, everything is cold and dead- but then spring comes, and life begins to push forth through the frozen ground, animals come out of hibernation, birds come back...

This is the new springtime- we are living in it! We are seeing the world start to change, start to accept life again.

Deut. 30

15"See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity;

So, we have to choose life. In every little choice we make, every time we are confronted with sin, we make a choice, to live more, or to die more. For some things it is obvious. It's obvious how choosing to do drugs is choosing to die. Or choosing to sleep around. Or even when you're married, if you choose to use contraception, what are you choosing? Is it life, or death? What about when you choose not to forgive someone who has hurt you? People will literally choose to let their relationships die. But God wants us to choose life.

We live in a world now where abortion is common, where divorce is expected, where sex is meaningless pleasure....

But it is starting to change!

This is the Revolution! We are a part of it! What kind of teenager gives up a week of their summer to teach 10 year olds about Jesus?

Every revolution that ever happened started with the youth. When Communists took over Russia, it started in the universities. Hitler knew this principle- he wanted to start a revolution, so he started the HJ- the Hitler Youth. Even our present culture knows this. Every time there is a new trend or a new train of thought, it starts with the youth. The hippies were youth, and look at what they did to our world!

Jesus was 30. His Apostle John was probably about 20. Mary was 14. These people started a Huge Revolution! Christianity was never a 'safe' religion. It was never a 'sell out' religion. The Jewish Authorities knew this, and persecuted the early Christians. Rome knew this, and did everything in their power to stop Christianity. And where is Rome today? Sure the city still exists... But Caesar is nothing more than a type of salad, and Zeus is a cartoon character.

Unlike the communists, the Nazis, or the hippies, the revolution that we are a part of is a revolution of life. The media is shocked when they go to a prolife rally and see that half the people there are youth. They can't believe it when the Pope throws a party called "World Youth Day", and 1 million youth from around the world get together in one city. The world is not ready for the revolution, but it is time!

Romans 12

2And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

A lot of people are frustrated with the Catholic Church, because the Catholic Church won't "get with the times", but you know what? It never will. It is time for the 'times' to get with the Catholic Church!

We are not going to be 'conformed' to this world. We're not gonna become a bunch of little icons of worldly values which do not last and mean nothing. We need to take a stand, and to be different. We need to rise up!

At World Youth Day in Toronto a few years ago, the theme was "Salt of the earth, Light of the world." And most people would probably look at that and wonder what the heck it means. Here's the passage it comes from.

Matthew 5
13"You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men.
14"You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden;
15nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.
16"Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

Why would Jesus call us salt? What are some good things that Salt does?

Gives flavor. Preserves meat. Melts Ice! (Jesus probably wasn't thinking about the 'melts ice' idea.)

As the "salt of the Earth" we are called to make a difference! But how can we make a difference if we are not "salty"- in other words, if we are not different? How can we preserve the world from moral decay if we don't respect sex, if we abuse drugs and alcohol, if we don't love our enemies, or put our reputations on the line to stand up for what is true....

What difference are we making? What difference does a light make if you turn it on and then put it under a bucket? We know that light casts out darkness. We know that our world is spiritually dark, and that some light has to be shone into it. But God chose us to be the means to do this. Are we ready?

This is the challenge I want to leave you with- To be people who make a difference.
To be revolutionaries!

(Close in prayer)

Why we have a Pope

2006-03-12T22:49:00.000-08:00

One of the major differences between Catholics and other Churches is the claim that Catholics make that they are the "One True Church." John Paul II said of all other faiths that they are "deficient", a claim that made a lot of people mad. But if you understand what the Catholics actually believe, it makes sense.

Catholicism is not simply one faith amongst faiths. It is not simply one denomination of Christianity, equal to all the other denominations. Catholicism claims to be infallible. This means that it can never make a mistake in faith and morals. (Explain.)

As you know, the Catholics have a Pope. This guy is not just the leader of the Catholics, apparently he is the 'vicar of Christ'... In other words, he has the authority of Christ on Earth! Of course, he does not always use that authority. If he were to wake up in the morning, and get offered Cherios and Corn Flakes for breakfast, and he said "cherios are better", this would not mean that all Catholics would have to eat Cherios and never cornflakes. It wouldn't carry that authority.

But even though the Church claims top have that Authority, how do we know that it actually does?

When Luther started the protestant reformation, one of his battle cries was "sola scriptura" which means "scripture alone". His point was that Catholics did not interpret the scriptures properly, and besides they did not really have the authority to interpret them. People should respect no authority on faith and morals except scripture. This is why they are called "protestants"- they protested against the authority of the Church.

Since then, many people have come up with many ideas about what the scriptures mean. Most protestants no longer believe in the true presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. They say that when Jesus says "This is my body", he means "this represents my body"- and of course, they can believe whatever they want, since they have no authority to help them to know what it means! Many Protestants do not even believe that Jesus was God. Many think that before the end of the world, all true Christians will suddenly disappear in what is called the rapture. Jehovahs witnesses believe that Jesus is actually St Michael The Archangel- even though we all use the same Bible! So by using the Bible alone as an authority, we have all kinds of different ideas of what is true. This is one good reason to believe that God
would give us an authority like the Church- because frankly the Bible is not that clear on everything!

However, even though God has a good motivation to give us an authority, it doesn't necessarily mean that He did. But the claim "sola scriptura" is self refuting. What that means is that it disproves itself! If you say "You should only believe stuff that's in the Bible" but the Bible doesn't say "You should only believe stuff that's in the Bible", then you cannot believe that you should only believe stuff that's in the Bible!

The other question is, who's to decide what books belong in the Bible? You've heard perhaps of the "Other Gospels." There was tons of literature that came out shortly after the time of Jesus, about Jesus. Someone had to decide which stuff was considered authoritative and scripture, and which wasn't. The following quote is from the Gospel of Thomas:

114. Simon Peter said to them, "Make Mary leave us, for females don't deserve life."
Jesus said, "Look, I will guide her to make her male, so that she too may become a living spirit resembling you males. For every female who makes herself male will enter the kingdom of Heaven."

Which books belonged in the Bible was decided by a council of Bishops in the 4th century. A council (like Vatican II) is when all the bishops get together to finalize a question about the Church. So the Nicene creed, for example, was written at the council of Nicea. That was before anyone even decided which books belong in the Bible!
If you consider the council which decided which nooks belong in the bible authoritative, than you must consider those bishops authoritative. If you don't, then you don't even know for sure which books belong in the Bible! You might be forced to believe that God wants to turn all women into men!

So we know that people who accept the bible as an Authority have to accept the authority of the Bishops. However, Catholics go a step further and say that there should be one Bishop over the rest- the Bishop of Rome, or the Pope. First of all, it should be clear that the councils have agreed that the Pope is infallible- therefore if you accept the authority of the Bible, you accept the authority of the Bishops, you must accept the authority of the Pope. But there are those who refuse to listen to logic, and still need the thing clearly laid out in scripture. I am happy to oblige.

Matt 16:
15He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?"
16Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."
17And Jesus said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.
18"I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.
19"I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven."

This is the passage where we get the idea that Peter stands by the gates of Heaven, letting people in or out.

But in the Bible, when it talks about the Kingdom, it's not necessarily talking about a place we go after we die. Jesus said "the kingdom is in your midst." It seems more like Jesus is saying "I have established my Kingdom on earth, and I'm giving you the keys!"

In biblical times, the 'keys of the kingdom" were given to the prime minister. The prime minister is not the king, but he is given all the authority of the king. So Jesus gave Peter his own authority!
Now where it says that he would have the power to bind and to loose. Some people think that this refers to the authority to forgive sins, which is pretty impressive in itself. But the rabbis, who were the Jewish leaders at the time, would say "Bind and loose" to talk about which things to teach and which things not to teach- they got to decide. For Peter the promise is bigger. What he binds, is bound in Heaven. The promise is that He will not teach anything that is not true! And then it says "the gates of Hades will not overpower it"- in other words, no lie, no deciet, no error will be a problem. Not because Peter is a genius. But because Jesus will protect him!

Peter was clearly the head of the apostles. He is mentioned more times in the NT than any other person (other than Jesus.) The apostles are refered to as "Peter and the Apostles." St Paul and St Peter didn't get along, but Paul still recognized Peters authority. But how do we know that the present Pope has the authority that Peter had?

Peter went to Rome, and was the bishop there, and there he died. That's why the Pope is the bishop of Rome. You can actually trace all the Bishops of Rome all the way back to Peter, and track where they got their authority. The amazing thing is- none of them ever contradicted each other! Ever. Once. In 2000 years. 266 Popes. Some of them were known to believe things contrary to the Churches teaching. But they never taught it.

Creepy.

Here's the deal. Catholics teach that the Pope, and the magisterium, are infallible, and that we have to obey them and give our assent of faith. The latter means choose to believe them first, then try to understand it. Of course, this is difficult and requires humility. But, we are called to holiness. That is difficult, and requires humility.