Digital Catholic

Carmelite T-Shirts

2010-09-12T08:12:00.000-07:00

Carmelite Long Sleeve T-Shirt by digitalcatholic

Carmelite Woman's Long Sleeve T-Shirt by digitalcatholic

Carmelite Woman's Casual T-Shirt by digitalcatholic

Carmelite Woman's T-Shirt by digitalcatholic

To Save a Life and Sarah's Choice...

2010-03-04T14:50:00.000-08:00

Two movies have been released recently that deserve a lot of attention. First, New Song Pictures gives us To Save a Life . This movie is one of the most inspirational and well-made films that I have seen in recent years. It has been released to all theaters in the US and has been starting to make a difference in the lives of teenagers who can relate to scenarios in this movie. "To Save A Life" deals with all the issues that high school students are dealing with these days and gives positive solutions to those problems. From suicide to abortion, there is little that this movie does not cover. Here is the trailer:
(click here if you cannot see the movie)

Also, here are some reactions from teenagers who have seen "To Save a Life": (found on the To Save a Life Website)

"When I was in junior high, I was bullied to the point of suicidal thoughts. God is who stopped me from following through. I had previously just pushed the memories behind me and acted like nothing ever happened, but now I want to do something. I want to make sure no one else feels the way I once did. This movie changed the way I look at life. Save a Life! "
- Dale

"The To Save A Life Story means a lot to me, because I was the one that needed saving last year. If people could only understand how far one small act of kindness could go, the world would be a better place. I love that this movie is bringing real-life issues that people rarely talk about to light and showing teens how to deal with them. You never know who around you feels he is the outcast - treat others as you would want to be treated. Save a life. This movie is going to change our teenage population for the better."
- Sara

Similarly, the less widely distributed Sarah's Choice is another movie that seeks to push back the curtain on abortion and show it for what it really is. "Sarah's Choice" is now available on DVD. Here is the trailer:
(click here if you cannot see the video)

The Power of Sacred Music...

2010-02-04T17:57:00.000-08:00

I believe that one of the most important ways to communicate the Gospel is sacred music. It has an immense power to draw us into another realm and makes us desirous of something more than our ordinary life on earth. Especially today in our media centered culture, we need the sacred to overpower our senses and drive us towards Heaven. Therefore, we need to cultivate sacred music as well as sacred art. Even atheist Bernard Holland of the NY Times understands this basic concept:

Beauty of musical color, elegance of harmony, soundness of construction and exquisiteness of originality once worked as the lure that would draw the faltering worshiper nearer. Music, as well as architecture and visual art, represented heaven to the earthbound, something dazzling and unapproachable, an advertisement for a paradise still held at arm's length." (NY Times, 23 September 2007) (NLM)

True beauty has such a power over the soul and as Catholics we must support the sacred in our liturgical life. The musical style of Gregorian chant has that power and is a most valuable resource as Bishop Edward Slattery of the Diocese of Tulsa explains:

"I ask...to pay special attention to the Council's liturgical norms....and what the Council Fathers actually wrote concerning the requirements of proper liturgical music, and in particular the principle which places the text in importance over the melody, thus acknowledging the primacy of Gregorian chant among the Church's musical traditions, not merely from the position of its great venerability and beauty, but also because chant, having no rhythm, never forces the text to be rewritten to fit a specific meter. Chant allows us a certain sacred space within which that Word which God spoke in ancient times can be heard today with greater clarity and fidelity."
(Eastern Oklahoma Catholic, 6 March 2006) (NLM) [Emphasis added]

To learn more about the beauty that is possible in sacred music, check out this full length documentary on nineteenth annual Sacred Music Colloquium, sponsored by the Church Music Association of America, that was hosted at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. I highly recommend watching this hour long documentary if you have the time. As Jeffrey Tucker of the New Liturgical Movement says, "I really do believe that this is the most important film to hit the Catholic world in a very long time."

(Click here if you cannot see the video)

SACRED, BEAUTIFUL, & UNIVERSAL: Colloquium XIX from Corpus Christi Watershed on Vimeo.

For those who don't have the time to watch the video above, here is a short proof that sacred music is something for all ages:

(Click here if you cannot see the video)

Avatar and the Desire for Heaven...

2010-01-31T10:46:00.000-08:00

So what is it about the blockbuster hit Avatar? This sci-fi fantasy film has not stopped breaking box office records, and has continually awed the audiences that go to see it. So what exactly is it that draws in the hundreds of moviegoers week after week? Simply put, Beauty. The viewer is immersed into a world of overwhelming beauty that most of us have never seen before. It is truly a sight to see, but one that has put many people longing for more. Steven D. Greydanus of Decentfilms took an interest into Avatar when he noticed a trend of viewers of the film who became depressed because of their inability to be inside the world of Pandora. For example, a viewer was quoted by CNN.com saying:

One can say my depression was twofold: I was depressed because I really wanted to live in Pandora, which seemed like such a perfect place, but I was also depressed and disgusted with the sight of our world, what we have done to Earth. I so much wanted to escape reality. (Decentfilms)

Greydanus responded to this reaction of the film by saying:

What’s going on here? A number of things, it seems. On the one hand, we have a youth who has dedicated a significant chunk of his young life to unreal worlds encountering one that tops them all, and finding the experience so overwhelming as to eclipse the goodness of the world and the meaningfulness of life. Mixed up with this are environmental and perhaps political and social concerns which may be partly valid and partly exaggerated.

On the other hand, such reactions aren’t necessarily all bad. Take the comment “I live in a dying world” — quite true, and perhaps telling. Never mind that, cosmologically speaking, Pandora would be be a dying world too. It seems that Pandora has nonetheless evoked a young man’s dissatisfaction with living in a dying world — a dissatisfaction ultimately rooted, in Christian thought, in God having placed eternity in our hearts.

Pandora is not Heaven, nor is it Eden. It’s an exaggerated playground fantasy world with mixed New Age overtones. Even so, in this young man’s response to Pandora may be, whether he knows it or not, a kind of homesickness, a longing for our true home.

In the litheness and impossible acrobatics of the Na’vi we may glimpse a hint of the eschatological agility of glorified bodies in the resurrection. The heightened splendor of Pandora, with trees like mountains and mountains like clouds, may evoke the unimaginable glory of the new earth of which the beauties of this present world are only a foretaste.

When a young man says he wants to “escape reality,” could the diagnosis be less than entirely accurate? The longing for escape may be unmistakable enough, but is it necessarily “reality” he wants to escape, or only the fallen reality of the world as we know it? Granted, if it leads him or anyone else to contemplate suicide, or other unhealthy forms of escapism, it may not much matter (or perhaps again it may; God will be the judge of that). (Decentfilms)

In the end, while Avatar is simply a movie, it has awoken in many a desire for the eternal. A desire for a world that is beautiful beyond belief and a world that can finally fulfill our deepest desires.

Our consolation should be that even though Avatar does not exist, our true home, Heaven, does exist and is the destination that we are all striving to attain.

The Babies Are Coming...

2010-01-31T10:39:00.000-08:00

I am looking forward to this new movie, slated to release April 16th in limited theaters:

Everybody loves... BABIES. This visually stunning new movie simultaneously follows four babies around the world - from first breath to first steps. From Mongolia to Namibia to San Francisco to Tokyo, BABIES joyfully captures on film the earliest stages of the journey of humanity that are at once unique and universal to us all. The children are, respectively, in order of on-screen introduction: Ponijao, who lives with her family near Opuwo, Namibia; Bayarjargal, who resides with his family in Mongolia, near Bayanchandmani; Mari, who lives with her family in Tokyo, Japan; and Hattie, who resides with her family in the United States, in San Francisco.(Yahoo! Movies)

Click here to check out the trailer (or watch below)

In a culture that tends to devalue the importance of babies, this film could help turn that around.

New website dedicated to fostering positive movies...

2010-01-06T06:50:00.000-08:00

Jason Jones, founder of HERO, has started a new website that is focused on encouraging people to support quality films that respect the dignity of the human person. Here is the description from the website:

Movie to Movement is a resource that identifies and harnesses movies like The Stoning for this purpose:

To use art as a means of fostering and encouraging the promotion of human dignity through the easily consumed movie medium.

Art is a reflection of the soul—and Movie to Movement will ensure that through art we will see a real reflection of the inherent dignity of each human being.

I believe that this is a very promising website for those who are always searching for good movies that promote a Culture of Life. While it has just recently started and does not have a plethora of featured movies, it is still worth a visit. Check it out!

Mary and the Media...

2009-12-09T16:12:00.000-08:00

On the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Pope Benedict had some beautiful words to say about how important the Immaculate Virgin is in this world of negative media that exploits people for their downfalls and broadcasts them so that everyone can see.

Here is an excerpt from his address delivered at Rome 's Piazza di Spagna, in front of a statue of Mary:

"What does Mary say to the city" What does her presence call to mind?" the Pope asked. "She reminds that 'where sin increased, grace abounded all the more'. ... She is the Immaculate Mother who tells the men and women of our time: do not be afraid".

"What need we have of this beautiful piece of news!" the Holy Father exclaimed. "Every day, through newspapers, television and radio, evil is recounted, repeated, amplified, making us accustomed to the most terrible things, making us insensitive and, in some way, intoxicating us, because the negative is never fully purged and accumulates day after day. The heart becomes harder and thoughts become darker. For this reason, the city needs Mary who ... brings us hope even in the most difficult situations".

The Pope went on to recall how our cities are inhabited by "invisible men and women", people who "now and again appear on the front pages or on television screens, and are exploited to the last drop for as long as their news and image attract attention. This is a perverse mechanism which unfortunately we find difficult to resist. The city first hides people them exposes to the public, without pity or with false pity", when the truth is that "each human story is a sacred story and calls for the greatest respect.

"The city is made up of us all", Benedict XVI added. "Each of us contributes to its life and its moral climate, for good or for evil. The confine between good and evil passes through each of our hearts". Yet, "the mass media tend to make us feel as if we are spectators, as if evil only concerned others, and that certain things could never happen to us. Whereas we are all 'actors' and, in evil as in good, our behaviour has an effect on others".

After then asking Mary Immaculate to help us "rediscover and defend the profundity of human beings

Read More...

Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader....

2009-12-03T16:00:00.000-08:00

Next year at about this time, the next Narnia movie is set to hit theaters. The title of the movie is "The Chronicles of Narina: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader"; once again following after C.S. Lewis' popular children's book series. As long as the directors and producers of the film are faithful to the original book, it is expected to be a very good movie with many Christian values displayed in the main characters. As a little sneak peak of what we can expect next year, here are some recent set photos (from NarniaFans):

King Caspian and Edmund

Lucy

The Dawn Treader

[Photos: NarniaFans]

Favorite Advent & Christmas Wallpapers...

2009-12-02T15:00:00.000-08:00

Post your favorite Advent and Christmas Wallpapers in the comments below!

If you have a favorite Wallpaper that either fits the Advent or Christmas season, please post a link in the comments to this post so that everyone else can share in the beauty that you have found!

Here is the Advent Wallpaper currently featured on Digital Catholic:

For additional sizes of the Advent Wallpaper check out: http://www.digitalcatholic.net/wallpapers.html

The Blindside is truly an eyeopener...

2009-11-24T14:13:00.000-08:00

This past weekend I saw the movie "The Blindside" with Sandra Bullock. At first I didn't know what to think of the movie, but by the end of it I was ready to name this movie one of the most inspirational and all around "good" movies I have ever seen. Here is the movie description from PositiveMedia:

"The Blind Side" depicts the remarkable true story of Michael Oher, a homeless African-American youngster from a broken home, who is taken in by the Touhys, a well-to-do Southern family who help him fulfill his potential. At the same time, Oher's presence in the Touhys' lives leads them to some insightful self-discoveries of their own. Living in his new environment, the teen faces a completely different set of challenges to overcome. As a football player and student, Oher works hard and, with the help of his coaches and adopted family, becomes an All-American offensive left tackle.

The real life struggles of Michael Oher come across the movie screen extremely powerful and moving. Also, Sandra Bullock does an excellent acting job and is one of her best films. Not only that, but there is hardly anything objectionable. Besides a few crass lines and some foul language, "The Blindside" does not disappoint. I encourage everyone to see this movie. It is one of those rare movies that is highly entertaining, very well done and touches your heart.

Check out the trailer below and then go watch it in Theaters!

Updated Music Page...

2009-11-23T17:44:00.000-08:00

Well, I finally got around to updating the Music page (the TV page is still in progress). Check it out! It isn't an exhaustive list of recommended musicians, but just enough for the moment. More to come in the future.

The Twilight Saga: New Moon...

2009-11-19T14:46:00.000-08:00

One of the most highly anticipated movies of the year comes out at midnight tonight: The Twilight Saga: New Moon. Teenagers everywhere are lining up at movie theaters tonight and tomorrow to immerse themselves in the world of forbidden love with vampires and werewolves. While this might be one of the most popular movies of the year, the question arises, is it a movie that promotes Christian values?

Here is what the USCCB has to say:

[T]his latest chapter in the love story of well-mannered vampire Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) and mortal high school student Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) is -- like its 2008 predecessor "Twilight" -- remarkable for the innocence of their interaction. (Edward fears that temptations of the flesh, if indulged beyond the occasional kiss, might give way to temptations of the blood.)
What makes it sad is the thought of how rare the portrayal of such a restrained relationship has become, even in entertainment aimed at the young. And then, of course, there's the fact that it takes an occult contrivance to compel and enforce the couple's chastity.
The film contains considerable action violence, a vague sexual reference and at least one mildly crass term. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-II -- adults and adolescents.

As mentioned, the interesting part about the Twilight series is the restraint of the main characters' sexual passions. Even though they greatly desire each other, they remain chaste. Yet, although this is a good thing not often seen in movies, the series does have a downside. Steven D. Greydanus has more:

Twilight and New Moon are essentially uncritical celebrations of that overwrought, obsessive passion that is the hallmark of immaturity—passion that wholly subordinates all sense of one's own identity and elevates the beloved to summum bonum, or even the sole good; passion that leaps as readily to suicidal impulses and fantasies as to longing for union.

The theme of suicide pervades New Moon. Both the book and the film open with an epigraph from Romeo and Juliet ("These violent delights have violent ends / And in their triumph die, like fire and powder, / Which, as they kiss, consume"), and references to Shakespeare's play (the current subject in Bella and Edward's English class) occasion an early remark from Edward envying Romeo the ease of his suicide. It then comes out that Edward has given practical consideration to the difficulties of vampire suicide, when Bella's life was threatened at the climax of Twilight—since, of course, for Edward life without Bella would be not so much unthinkable as a mere oxymoron.

As you can see, Twilight takes love to an unnatural level and sets the beloved on a platform that neither of them can ever live up to. Edward and Bella desire each other so much that they are willing to forsake everything for a complete union. While this is not always a bad form of love, it can turn bad once the beloved is put above even God and the beloved is made into a "god."

Edward too often makes Bella into a "god;" something that put into practice in the real world will cause grave consequences. The moment that your boyfriend realizes that you are not perfect and are actually human, is the moment when he can very easily leave the relationship, because the fantasy has been lost and has revealed the truth. Putting these unhealthy and unrealistic demands on a relationship is not good and can very often lead to disappointment and regret. We are human and only through a relationship with Christ can we ever be able to love beyond ourselves.

Love without God very often turns into the worship of each other and that worship will soon be disappointed, because both will find out the other is not God.

[Photo: Yahoo! Movies]

A Christmas Carol & 2012...

2009-11-18T18:35:00.000-08:00

This month two anticipated films were released: A Christmas Carol, featuring Jim Carey and the end of the world movie, 2012. One movie is worth seeing, while the other is not deserving of $7.

Here is what Steven D. Greydanus at Decent Films Guide has to say about them:

2012

...
2012 is Emmerich at his most existential — and his most laughable. I don’t mean only the premise, which blends silly technobabble about solar flares and neutrinos with a few actual science facts (like the volcanic hotspot under Yellowstone) and a concatenation of New Age anxieties around the year 2012 supposedly connected to the ancient Mayan calendar, in roughly the same way that the Heaven’s Gate cult’s anxieties around the Hale-Bopp comet were connected to the Bible.

Nor do I mean the jaw-dropping set pieces, which go way beyond conventional action-movie impossibilities like outrunning fireballs. In two of the movie’s best scenes, the heroes race through a disintegrating landscape, literally riding the event horizon of a rolling cataclysm consuming the earth directly under their vehicles’ wheels. Crumbling buildings, tumbling vehicles and heaving shelves of rock and earth extend the crisis into four dimensions. Whether action movies should aspire to the condition of theme-park rides is highly debatable, but they do, and the set pieces in 2012 set a new standard for what is possible in this respect.

Read More...

A Christmas Carol

The most surprising thing, arguably, is the soundtrack. Not the official track listing offered by Walt Disney Records: a lineup of themes, composed by Alan Silvestri, inspired by episodes from the story (“Flight to Fezziwigs,” “Who Was That Lying Dead?” etc.). I mean the actual songs sung and played throughout the film. This is a Christmas Carol with actual Christmas carols. “Venite, Adoremus/O Come All Ye Faithful.” “Good Christian Men, Rejoice.” “Joy to the World.”

It’s almost a shock to hear the words “Christ the Savior is born” in a big-budget Hollywood movie today, even a time-honored period piece like A Christmas Carol. Only five years ago, Zemeckis’ own The Polar Express rang with “Silver Bells” and “Deck the Halls,” but not so much as a “rum pa pum pum” from the stable at Bethlehem (not even at Santa’s North Pole home, where everyone celebrates Christmas).

[...]

Now Zemeckis and Carrey have given us a Christmas movie that’s actually aware of the reason for the season, that doesn’t reduce street carolers to crooning “O Tannenbaum” and “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” Even in the score, if I remember correctly, are strains of “Good King Wenceslas” and “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen” (though at times arranged for action-movie tension). Musically speaking, it might just be the most Christmas-y Christmas Carol yet.

Read More...

The USCCB gave 2012 an A-III while A Christmas Carol received an A-I rating.

[Photo: Yahoo! Movies]

Patron Saints of Digital Catholic...

2009-11-18T15:36:00.000-08:00

As with any endeavor, it is highly encouraged to ask certain Patron Saints to pray before the Heavenly Throne for God's blessings over whatever you are doing. Therefore, I have enlisted a couple Saints who are connected to modern mass media to pray for this apostolate of Digital Catholic:

Saint Maximillian Kolbe - Patron Saint of Journalists

John Paul the Great - Advocate of Evangelizing the Gospel through the Modern Media

Blessed Timothy Giaccardo - Media Apostle

May St. Maximillian Kolbe, Bl. Timothy Giccardo, and John Paul II pray for us!

[Photos: John Paul II, Bl. Timothy]

Looking for Movie Reviews?

2009-11-16T18:08:00.000-08:00

Going out to the movies but don't know if you should even bother going to a movie that is morally degrading? Check out these movie review sites to find out what other Catholics suggest:

Decent Films Guide - A very good and thorough movie review site from a Catholic perspective

USCCB Movie Reviews

Life Teen Movie Reviews

If you can't find your movie on any of those sites, I suggest going to Christian Spotlight for a good Christian movie review.

Updated YouTube page...

2009-11-16T18:03:00.000-08:00

Slowly but surely I am updating the various pages of Digital Catholic. I just added a few more YouTube videos to the YouTube page. Check them out! Once again, if you have any suggestions of videos that I should add, please use the comments and paste the link to the video there.

I hope you enjoy them!

Movies and Short Films...

2009-11-16T17:41:00.001-08:00

I had some time today, so I updated the "Movie" webpage of Digital Catholic with a couple movie recommendations as well as some short film recommendations. I hope to continue to add to the list to be able to provide a complete listing of movies and short films that truly promote life and a Catholic view of the world. If you have any suggestions as to different movies or short films to add, please use the comments.

Click here to check out the updated Movie webpage.

New Blog. New Website. New Content.

2009-11-15T19:15:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the completely new Digital Catholic!

Today marks a new chapter in Digital Catholic. Instead of being focused entirely on wallpapers, t-shirts and posters, Digital Catholic now has the new mission of "Finding God in the Media." This includes exploring the latest movies, music, TV Shows and even YouTube, in order to find the media that ultimately points to God. Currently this is a work in progress, with only a small amount of content actually uploaded to the new website; but in the coming days and weeks there will be much more added.

Also, this blog will be used for updates to the website and will feature different articles and news stories about the latest movies, music, etc. that promote a culture of life.

And finally, my former blog "Inflated Tires" ceases to exist. All of the posts that I made in that blog have been moved to Digital Catholic. I will still have much to say about the Theology of the Body in this blog, but the content will be much broader.

I hope that this new shift of focus for Digital Catholic will offer an increased chance of encountering God and being lifted up in heart and mind to our true home of Heaven.

Stay tuned!

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam!

I Am Whole Life...

2009-11-03T16:31:00.000-08:00

Recently I was informed about a beautiful new movement that has started under the direction of Jason Jones, an executive producer of the movie Bella. This brand new movement is called "I Am Whole Life". It is so brand new that they haven't started their advertising campaign yet and their website is not fully complete. In any case, here is an excerpt from their website which describes this amazing new initiative:

ABOUT THE WHOLE LIFE CAMPAIGN

The mission of the Whole Life initiative is to promote a respect for the intrinsic dignity of the human person regardless of ability, age, status, ethnicity or gender.

OVER THE NEXT 20 YEARS WHOLE LIFE AMERICA AIMS TO

Remove the overriding apathy of the upcoming generation by teaching them the dignity of human life.

Shift the perception of the economic value of human life.

Being Whole Life means that you want to respect and promote human dignity—for everyone. Abortion is directly contrary to this in at least three aspects:

1) The dignity of the woman. Abortion is painful and it hurts women—just watch the third installment of The Godfather trilogy, Juno, or a South Park episode, or listen to Kid Rock, Ben Folds, or Ani DiFranco among many and you will see that this choice only leads to destruction and pain.

2) The dignity of the man. Abortion is painful and hurts men. Again listen to our artists—the Sex Pistols, Tim McGraw, or Flipsyde—their songs are painful, difficult to listen to. Their songs are about abortion.

3) The dignity of the child. Abortion is painful and hurts children. We don’t have children from the womb telling us how painful it was—they can’t. Their voices have been silenced.

Featured on the website are numerous YouTube movies that deal with being "Whole Life" and in the future they plan on having celebrity testimonies on why they are "Whole Life." The very first celebrity who has already produced a testimony is Angela Baraquio Grey, former Miss America from Hawaii.

For more information about "I Am Whole Life," check out their website here.

Digital Catholic Commercial...

2009-11-01T18:04:00.000-08:00

The First Ever Digital Catholic Commercial...

Brand New Catholic T-Shirts!

2009-11-01T13:01:00.000-08:00

Here are some new t-shirts from Digital Catholic Designs:

Saint Paul T-Shirt v2 by digitalcatholic

St. Joan of Arc Signature Shirt by digitalcatholic

St. Joan of Arc Signature Shirt for Men by digitalcatholic

Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati by digitalcatholic

Saint Peter T-Shirt

Theology of the Body T-Shirt

2009-10-28T17:26:00.000-07:00

Here is a Theology of the Body inspired T-Shirt:

Earthly and Heavenly Marriages T-Shirt by digitalcatholic

This t-shirt is inspired by the teaching of the Theology of the Body where the earthly marriage of man and woman is said to be a foreshadowing, a foretaste, of the heavenly banquet. That heavenly banquet is previewed in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, where Christ comes down to be united His bride, the Church.

Christopher West Responds to Criticism...

2009-10-22T18:10:00.000-07:00

Well, here it is; Christopher West responds to the heated criticism of his technique of promoting the Theology of the Body:

The Theology of the Body Debate: The Pivotal Question

When the public conversation about my work unfolded following my appearance on Nightline last May, I did not think it was wise for me to respond until I had submitted the matter to my local bishops. Now that Cardinal Justin Rigali and Bishop Kevin Rhoades have issued a statement, it seems appropriate for me to offer some reflections as well.

Read More...

Reflection for October 18th:

2009-10-17T12:45:00.000-07:00

Once again, I encourage you to check out this reflection by Prof. Michael Barber of the John Paul the Great Catholic University on the readings for this upcoming Sunday, October 18th:

Sunday, October 18, 2009: Liturgy Reflection from JP Catholic University on Vimeo.

National Health Care Plan, what it means for Americans...

2009-10-03T09:03:00.000-07:00

Well, as National Health Care continues to be debated in America, there are two things that should be kept in mind: the protection of the unborn and the quality of health care that will be offered to all.

What are the facts when it comes to these two issues? Here are two commercials that hit the issues right on the button:

Protection of the Unborn:

Quality of Health Care: (this sarcastic video is in response to Will Ferrell's sarcastic TV Ad in support of Health Care. )

Is 'Going Green' always ok?...

2009-10-02T12:18:00.000-07:00

While the move for a greener, more organic way of life is generally a good thing, there are many problems when taken to the extreme. For example, many will use this opportunity to push birth control, because according to them humans are putting too much stress on the environment. This extreme in the 'Green Movement' is apparently founded on cold hard facts. However, that is not the case. In reality, it is a perpetual myth. Steve Pokorny has more:

I have long held suspicion about the so-called “Green Movement.” In case you need a refresher, it is beyond question for some members of the “intellectual elite” that the world is undergoing global warming at an alarming rate. And based on the words of Barack Obama to the U.N. recently, it would appear that the sky is falling. All of this is based on a the preconceived notion that all of the scientific community is completely in union on this scientific “fact,” even though at least 31,000 scientists beg to differ.
Now, I don’t claim to be a scientist, but a simple Google search will reveal that the idea that global warming is primarily manmade is hogwash. That’s right, it’s a myth.

[...]

So if it’s all just made up, why are people buying into this drinking The Green Agenda Cool-Aid like its going out of style? Like all myths, if it’s not grounded in reality, there simply has to be a good spin machine used to manufacture the publicity to conjure up feelings of fear, blame, and uneasiness to get people to pay attention. And one quick look at your major news outlets will reveal one heck of an ad campaign being hoisted onto an unsuspecting public.
While it is possible that human beings may play a very small role in the heating up of our planet, it is vital that we as a Christian community wake up to the huge agenda that is being rammed down our throats, and it boils down to this: The green movement is all about reducing the world’s population.

Read More...

[Sources: Photo]

New Year of the Priest Poster For Sale!...

2009-10-02T12:12:00.000-07:00

Check out this new Year of the Priest Poster that is for sale!

Year of the Priest Poster by digitalcatholic

Praying with our bodies...

2009-09-25T18:43:00.000-07:00

Prayer means a lot more than lifting our hearts to God. For Catholics it means praying with our entire selves, body and soul. Our body movements during prayer have a lot of merit and should never go unnoticed. TOB writer Joel Haubenreich has more on this subject in his latest article on TOB Exchange:

Crucial to the understanding of the necessity of physical prayer is the fundamental Christian belief that we do not merely have bodies, but in fact are bodies. At Mass we profess our belief in the resurrection of the body, our hope in the reunification of our whole persons. Our bodies will on that day be rejoined to our souls, and we will once more be complete. Our bodies, then, here on earth must have a part in every action, even spiritual actions. We must, taking seriously Jesus’ charge to “love the Lord you God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind,” commit ourselves fully to his service, using every faculty given to us.

Read More...

Reflection for this Sunday...

2009-09-25T18:35:00.000-07:00

Once again, I encourage you to check out this reflection by Prof. Michael Barber of the John Paul the Great Catholic University on the readings for this upcoming Sunday, September 27th:

Sunday, September 27, 2009: Liturgy Reflection from JP Catholic University on Vimeo.

Dominican Republic Passes Pro-Life Constitutional Amendment...

2009-09-21T07:57:00.000-07:00

Good News:

SANTO DOMINGO, September 18, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Dominican Republic has given the final approval to a constitutional amendment protecting the right to life.
"The right to life is inviolable from conception until death. In no case can the death penalty be established, pronounced, nor applied," the amendment states.
The vote, which took place last night in a constitutional assembly created to revise the nation's charter document, was an overwhelming 128-34, despite heavy campaigning by international pro-abortion groups and rumored pressure from the United States.
[...]
The former human rights organization "Amnesty International," which is now a pro-abortion lobbying group, attempted to pressure the government in the days preceding the vote, claiming that the amendment will "put women and girls at risk and potentially increase maternal deaths in the country."
Read More...

Cardinal Rigali and Bishop Rhoades give their support of Christopher West...

2009-09-18T16:35:00.000-07:00

As the controversy over Christopher West's presentation of the Theology of the Body continues, two bishops have publicly given their support of West's method of evangelization. Cardinal Justin Rigali of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and Bishop Kevin Rhoades of the Diocese of Harrisburg wrote in their letter of support that, "Christopher West...has been given a particular charism to carry out this mission" of making John Paul II's Theology of the Body, "more accessible" to the "average person."

In the end, the two bishops stated their, "full confidence in Christopher" and that the TOB Institute and Christopher "work with our episcopal blessing."

While many people persist in their stance that Christopher West is doing more harm than good, these two prominent bishops believe that West is working for the greater glory of God and that his apostolate in invaluable to the Church.

To read the full letter of their support of Christopher West, click here.

Reflection for September 13th...

2009-09-14T04:51:00.000-07:00

Check out this reflection by Prof. Michael Barber of the John Paul the Great Catholic University on the readings for this past Sunday, September 13th:

Sunday, September 13, 2009: Liturgy Reflection from JP Catholic University on Vimeo.

Proposed Personhood Amendement to Florida's Constitution...

2009-09-13T06:40:00.000-07:00

[Catholic Online]
TALAHASEE, Fl. (Christian Newswire) - God is the author of all human rights -- mine, yours -- every human being's from their very beginning. First among these, and upon which all others stand, is our right to be recognized as persons -- as children of God, made in His image and likeness.

Our Floridian Founding Fathers laid upon our shoulders the right, better yet the responsibility, to defend life -- of every human being.

"We, the people of the State of Florida, grateful to Almighty God for our constitutional liberty, in order to secure its blessings and to form a more perfect government, insuring domestic tranquility, maintaining public order, and guaranteeing equal civil and political rights to all, do ordain and establish this Constitution. All men are equal before the law, and have certain inalienable rights, among which are those of enjoying and defending life." (Florida State Constitution 1885)

[...]

PersonhoodFL is a Christian grassroots non-partisan organization founded to establish personhood efforts across Florida to create protection for every child by love and by law. PersonhoodFL is committed to assisting and supporting Personhood Legislation and Constitutional Amendments and building local pro-life organizations through recognizing personhood of the pre-born.

Read More...

Year of the Priest: Holy Hours for Priests...

2009-09-07T17:55:00.000-07:00

Every time you buy a Year of the Priest T-Shirt, you have the option of e-mailing me the name of a priest or seminarian. Upon receiving the name (first names are sufficient) of the priest/seminarian, a Holy Hour in front of the Most Blessed Sacrament will be made for the physical and spiritual well-being of the priest/seminarian. In this Year of the Priest it is a great duty of the laity to pray for our priests so that they may continue to draw us closer to Christ!

For More Information, Check out Digital Catholic Online Store!

Marriage, the "Natural" Vocation...

2009-09-07T16:46:00.000-07:00

Check out this article by Joel Haubenreich as he explains the recent shift in labeling marriage as a "vocation:"

Traditionally, I am told, within the Church the term “vocation” has been reserved for a call to the priesthood or religious life. Marriage was not called a vocation per se because it is the natural state of things. Marriage is the norm, and it is those select few who are called to something different, something higher.

But popular usage of “vocation” these days includes marriage. It is not, I think, that until recently people discerned whether they had a calling and, if they did not, were met simply with Divine silence. Rather I think discerning persons today more explicitly acknowledge that God’s “No” necessarily implies a “Yes” elsewhere—for marriage, while still the “natural” state, is still very much a part of His plan for us.

Thus this newer use of “vocation” is no rejection of past usage. It is a broadening, with respect to Providence. But what is that “Yes?” In what sense is it not a superfluous “Yes: go about your business”? Why isn’t, in other words, the “call” to marriage nothing more than silence? Why is it not enough that God has not called a person to something higher? There isn’t room here to extol the great necessity of the family, the awesome responsibility of parents—and if I tried to do so I would at best produce a feeble echo of what abler thinkers have said. Suffice to mention such glowing example as the Holy Family, Sts Anne and Joachim, St Monica, and on and on.
Read More...

Reflection for September 6th...

2009-09-07T16:37:00.000-07:00

Check out this reflection by Prof. Michael Barber of the John Paul the Great Catholic University on the readings for this past Sunday, September 6th:

Sunday, September 6, 2009: Liturgy Reflection from JP Catholic University on Vimeo.

New "Prayer Book for Spouses" encourages married couples to pray before having sex...

2009-09-04T08:35:00.000-07:00

Via American Papist, I found this encouraging story about how Catholics in the UK are trying to spread the truths of the Theology of the Body to a culture badly in need of a proper view of sexuality:

Give us this day our daily... Catholic church issues prayer for faithful to say before sex

By Simon Caldwell
Last updated at 1:06 PM on 03rd September 2009

Roman Catholic couples are being encouraged to pray together before they have sex.

A book published by a prominent Church group invites those setting out on married life to recite the specially-composed Prayer Before Making Love.

It is aimed at 'purifying their intentions' so that the act is not about selfishness or hedonism.

The prayer, which appears in the Prayer Book for Spouses, implores God 'to place within us love that truly gives, tenderness that truly unites, self-offering that tells the truth and does not deceive, forgiveness that truly receives, loving physical union that welcomes'.

It adds: 'Open our hearts to you, to each other and to the goodness of your will.

'Cover our poverty in the richness of your mercy and forgiveness. Clothe us in true dignity and take to yourself our shared aspirations, for your glory, for ever and ever.'

The 64-page book has been published by the London-based Catholic Truth Society.

Read More...

Mary, the Archetype of Woman Part 4: Spiritual Motherhood...

2009-09-04T07:44:00.000-07:00

[This Post is the Fourth Part of a Four Part Series]
[Click here for Part Three]

Mary’s innate tendencies led her to be not only the Mother of God, but also the Mother of All Creation. Once again, this spiritual reality had its roots in her biology as a woman. For example, studies of a woman’s brain have found that her brain puts the “emphasis on the personal and the emotional [which] enables her to embrace a wide variety of relationships without denying or diluting any of them” (Moir and Jessel 143). Edith Stein noticed this trend as well and saw that “woman naturally seeks to embrace that which is living, personal and whole” and “to cherish, guard, protect, nourish and advance growth is her natural, maternal yearning” (Stein 43). Prudence Allen as well, commenting on John Paul II’s teaching, notes that on account of a woman’s cycle of ovulation, her “body disposes her to receive new life these many times, even if she never gets pregnant” (Allen 20). As a result, we can see that Mary chose to embrace her natural longings and to hold within her self not only her son Jesus, but the entire living world. She continually put the emphasis on the personal and strove to encompass all living things inside her grasp.

Evidence for this is in St. John’s Gospel where, as John Paul II affirms, her “motherhood according to the spirit and not just according to the flesh” became evident where she displayed “solicitude for human beings” (RM 21). This took place at the wedding feast at Cana, where Mary recognized the need for more wine. She motioned to her son, telling him that “They have no wine,” in hopes that He would respond (John 2:3). Not only was this a practical concern, but it also “has a symbolic value: this coming to the aid of human needs means, at the same time, bringing those needs within the radius of Christ's messianic mission and salvific power” (RM 21). Mary truly cares about the growth and nourishment of all human beings and desires that they be brought into the saving power of Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection. This becomes even more prominent after her assumption into Heaven where she sits next to her son so that, as the prophet Simeon said, “the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed” (Luke 2:35). As a result, Mary responded to her innate call to motherhood not only by embracing her own biological child, but most importantly by enfolding the entire human race underneath her loving care.

To conclude, Mary has proven to be the leading archetype for all women in responding to their innate call of obedience in service, receptivity, “master of her own mystery” and motherhood. The Blessed Mother did not suppress her natural desires and inclinations, but she cultivated them and allowed them to flourish and bear much fruit. In her “fiat” at the Annunciation she pledged her life to God in perfect obedience, and accepted her role as a servant in Christ’s plan. She also was the “keeper of her own mystery” and responded to God’s invitation by being receptive to His desire for union and allowed Him total access to her “garden;” thus, paving the way for the Word made flesh. Finally, she fulfilled her inborn disposition to motherhood not only in the physical sense, but most of all in her spiritual motherhood. Mary encompassed every living thing within her care and continues that mission in Heaven by listening to all the wants and desires of God’s children. Consequently, Mary is the true archetype for all women and is a much needed example of what it is to be a woman. While women of today’s world struggle to find their identity and continually search for models to fashion themselves after, the Blessed Virgin Mary stands as an image that could answer all of their problems. If only the modern day woman could recognize the innate desires of her heart and see that there is a woman who has lived out those desires completely.

[Sources:
Photo: Source

Allen, Prudence. “Mulieris Dignitatem Twenty Years Later: An Overview of the Document and Challenges.” Endow Catholic Women’s Conference. Denver, Colorado.18 October 2008.

John Paul II. “Redemptoris Mater: encyclical letter of the Supreme Pontiff John Paul II on the Blessed Virgin Mary in the life of the pilgrim Church.” 1987.

Moir, Ann and David Jessel. Brain Sex: The Real Difference Between Men and Women. New York: Delta. 1992.

Stein, Edith. “Essays on Woman.” The Collected Works of Edith Stein. Ed. Dr. L. Gelber and Romaeus Leuven, OCD. Vol. 2. Washington: ICS Publications. 1987. 41-85.]

Mary, the Archetype of Woman Part 3: Physical Motherhood...

2009-09-03T06:22:00.000-07:00

[This Post is the Third Part of a Four Part Series]
[Click here for Part Two]

Finally, Mary is the archetype of woman on account of her perfect expression of the vocation to motherhood; both physical and spiritual. To begin with, Mary being a female was biologically predisposed to motherhood. Her entire body spoke of this call to both nurture and give birth to new life. The specific female anatomy which she possessed is undeniably ordered to that end. Not only that, but her biology affected her mind and soul as well. For example, it has been scientifically proven that “female hormones are profoundly and inextricably bound up with the need to care for her child;” making a women “better equipped in all her senses for the task of child-rearing” (Moir and Jessel 144). John Paul II noticed this as well and stated, “Scientific analysis fully confirms that the very physical constitution of women is naturally disposed to motherhood - conception, pregnancy and giving birth -” (MD 18). As a result, Mary being already prepared to act as a mother, only needed the chance to fulfill that calling. It did not take long until she responded to that innate desire for raising a child by allowing the Holy Spirit to “overshadow” her and thus conceived Jesus the Christ. Therefore, as John Paul II asserts in his encyclical letter Redemptoris Mater (RM), since Mary “conceives Jesus in her womb, gives him birth and nurses him,” she is able to express that motherhood which is bound up within her biology (20). Mary becomes a biological mother and lives out that vocation to the full.

We do not know much about the exact happenings during the early years of Mary’s life with her son, but since her son grew up to become a full fledged man, we can assume that she nurtured and cared for him throughout his childhood. If that wasn’t the case, Jesus would have been a rather physically weak and destitute man; not able to endure any type of physical suffering. In contrast, Jesus eventually underwent the most horrible of afflictions and persevered to the end; revealing a strong and healthy upbringing. On the other hand, we do know of one episode during the formative years of Christ that reveals Mary’s response to her biological motherhood. Around age 12, the “boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it” and finding that he wasn’t with them, “returned to Jerusalem to look for him” (Luke 2:43, 45). Upon finding the boy in the temple, Mary exclaimed, “‘Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety’” (Luke 2:48). In this, we can see Mary’s loving care that she had for her son, even becoming anxious at the thought of losing him. Once she realized that Jesus was not with her, she quickly responded and desired to have him close to her. This again reveals the innate structure of a woman and how a mother is “naturally responsive to the baby’s needs” (Moir and Jessel 144). Yet, even though Mary fulfills her call to natural motherhood quite well, her motherliness has an important spiritual character about it that can apply to all women, whether natural mothers or not.

[Sources:
John Paul II. “Mulieris Dignitatem: apostolic letter of the Supreme Pontiff John Paul II on the dignity & vocation of women on the occasion of the Marian Year.” 1988.

John Paul II. “Redemptoris Mater: encyclical letter of the Supreme Pontiff John Paul II on the Blessed Virgin Mary in the life of the pilgrim Church.” 1987.

Moir, Ann and David Jessel. Brain Sex: The Real Difference Between Men and Women. New York: Delta. 1992.]

Reality TV Show family has the "audacity" to be open to life...

2009-09-02T12:04:00.000-07:00

19 Kids and Counting, the Duggars are under attack for their ability to remain open to whatever God has in store for them..even if that means 19 children:

SPRINGDALE, Arkansas, September 2, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar told US news service MSNBC they are delighted to discover the impending arrival of their 19th child. Described by the Today program as "glowing," Michelle Duggar said, "I'm feeling sick and tired, which is a good way to be feeling about right now."

[...]
The family stars in the reality TV show "18 Kids and Counting" airing on TLC. The family are members of the Quiverfull movement among US Protestants that rejects the modern anti-child philosophy and allows God to decide how large their families will be.
The news of Michelle's pregnancy, only eight months after the birth of their last child Jordyn-Grace, was followed by that of the family's eldest son, Josh, who announced that his new wife Anna is expecting their first child, who is due on October 18. "Children are a blessing and a gift if you raise them right, and I think my parents have definitely shown that," Josh Duggar said.
But not everyone is smiling. When the story was published on the website of the left-leaning Huffington Post, commenters did not hesitate to express their hostility to the Duggar's openness to life. 1081 commenters responded with nearly uniform outrage that the Duggars, who have no financial problems, live in a large house they built themselves and are not in debt, have the audacity to be happy with their large family.
"Nothing but pure selfishness," said one. "How about adopting a klan of white children who actually NEED homes?" followed another.
Read More...

Mary, the Archetype of Woman Part 2: Receptivity....

2009-09-01T07:21:00.000-07:00

[This Post is the Second Part of a Four Part Series]
[Click here for Part One]

Secondly, Mary is the archetype of woman through her receptivity and being the “master of her own mystery.” To begin with, Mary’s female anatomy predisposed her to receive. For example, a woman’s genitals require receptivity in allowing the man to penetrate her body in the sexual act. This physical disposition also affects the woman’s character and directs her towards receptiveness. Thus, even though Mary never had relations with a man, she still retained the feminine character of receptivity. She displayed this most at the Annunciation where she allowed the Word to be made flesh within her womb. During the encounter with the Archangel Gabriel, Mary was open and received the Word of God into her own body. She was receptive and allowed God to enter within her. This type of pure receptivity to God is what marks a woman and allows her to be in one accord with her nature.

On the other hand, this openness is not unrestricted or uncontrolled, for a woman is the “master of her own mystery.” Mary possesses this control as well and it is eloquently played out in the Song of Songs. Evidence for this is made manifest “in both [the] liturgy and theological tradition [of the Church, which] recognizes [Mary] as the embodiment of the bride in the Song of Songs” (West 70). The bride in the Song of Songs “holds the key to her own ‘garden’, which remains closed until she—and she alone—wills to open it” (West 71). In other words, as John Paul II articulates, “The bride presents herself to the eyes of the man as the master of her own mystery” (West 71). For Mary, this meant presenting herself before God who desired a union with her that was unparalleled in all of mankind. God yearned to be within her to form a complete and total union that for us is only possible after death. Yet, He had to “submit his yearning to her, entrusting himself to her as a gift, placing himself entirely at her mercy—awaiting and respecting her response” (West 70). God respected Mary by participating in an interpersonal dialogue with her, which allowed her the chance to use her own free will to either accept or deny the gift of God. In other words, through this dialogue, Mary “exercises her free will and thus fully shares with her personal and feminine ‘I’ in the event of the Incarnation” (MD 4). Consequently, she is able to give her “fiat” that allows God complete access to her “garden enclosed” that results in the Word becoming flesh. This ability to be the “master of her own mystery” can be extended out to all women as well “in-as-much as every woman shares in Mary’s dignity” (West 70).

[Sources:
West, Christopher. Heaven's Song: Sexual Love as It Was Meant to Be. West Chester: Ascension Press. 2008

John Paul II. “Mulieris Dignitatem: apostolic letter of the Supreme Pontiff John Paul II on the dignity & vocation of women on the occasion of the Marian Year.” 1988.]

Mary, the Archetype of Woman Part 1: Service....

2009-09-01T07:04:00.000-07:00

[This Post is the First Part of a Four Part Series]

Women of today’s world are starving for a role model to look up to. They thirst for a standard who can reveal to them what it means to be a woman. Numerous Hollywood stars and popular musicians have continually presented themselves to the women of the world as exemplars of what a woman truly should be. Yet, are they the true archetypes of woman? Do they represent what women were created to be from the beginning of the world? In short, no; only one woman can claim that title and she was conceived without original sin. Her name is Mary, the Blessed Virgin who gave birth to the God-Man, Jesus Christ, over 2000 years ago. She is the one woman whom all other women can strive to image in their own lives. Mary is the archetype of woman and she retains that title because of her perfection in living out a woman’s call of total obedience in service, receptivity, being the “master of her own mystery” and motherhood. These aspects of what it is to be a woman are what make Mary the prime image and archetype which all women of the world are to aspire.

First of all, Mary is the archetype of woman because of her total obedience in service. Edith Stein comments on this when she says that woman has a “natural tendency towards obedience and service” which is directed towards the “enterprise” of the man (Stein 43). Ever since the beginning of Creation, woman was destined to be the “helpmate” of man and to assist him with the tasks set before him. At first this was accomplished in one accord, in a total communion of love. However, after the Fall the relationship between man and woman changed and led to a disordered subjection of woman by man. Therefore, there needed to be a restoration of the original communion of love and service that existed in the beginning. John Paul II states in his apostolic letter Mulieris Dignitatem (MD) that this came about through the Annunciation where Mary in a dialogue with the “heavenly messenger,” responded with her “fiat” (5). In that act, Mary became “the authentic subject of that union with God” and took “her place within Christ’s messianic service” (MD 4). As a result, Mary restored the original call to obedience in service and became the “handmaid of the Lord.” She re-established the vocation to be the “help mate” of man and dedicated herself to the service of Christ and His “enterprise.” As a result, all women can learn from this example by allowing service to man become a vital part of their lives. This type of service is not restricted to one man, but follows the command of Christ to “love one another as I have loved you” (John 13:34). Therefore, this new type of obedience does not lead to the subjugation of woman by man, but brings the woman to the service of Christ’s “enterprise,” which is an undertaking of love.

[Sources:
John Paul II. “Mulieris Dignitatem: apostolic letter of the Supreme Pontiff John Paul II on the dignity & vocation of women on the occasion of the Marian Year.” 1988.
Stein, Edith. “Essays on Woman.” The Collected Works of Edith Stein. Ed. Dr. L. Gelber and Romaeus Leuven, OCD. Vol. 2. Washington: ICS Publications. 1987. 41-85.]

Reflection for August 30th...

2009-08-28T16:43:00.000-07:00

Check out this reflection by Prof. Michael Barber of the John Paul the Great Catholic University on the readings for this Sunday, August 30th:

Sunday, August 30, 2009: Liturgy Reflection from JP Catholic University on Vimeo.

God Loves Us First...

2009-08-28T04:49:00.000-07:00

Check out one of Christopher West's latest articles on the reality that God is the one who first loves us and our love of God is only a response to His love:

In and of ourselves, we aren’t able to love God. Our loving God can only be a return of the love he pours out on us. "This is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us" (1 Jn 4:10). As the Catechism states, "God’s initiative of love always comes first; our own first step is always a response" (CCC 2567).

[...]

In his book Faith, Hope, Love, Catholic philosopher Josef Pieper put it this way: "Need-love, whose goal is its own fulfillment, is also the nucleus and the beginning in all our loving. It is ... set in motion by the act that created us. Hence, it is fundamentally impossible for us to control it, let alone annul it." Pieper continues, "The call for an utterly disinterested, unmotivated ... love that wishes to receive nothing ... simply rests upon a misunderstanding of man as he really is. The error, it must be noted, consists not so much in mistaking man’s empirical imperfection as in failing to recognize that the human condition is that of a created being."

[...]

We have nothing to offer God (or anyone else for that matter) that we have not first received. This is why, in the biblical analogy of spousal love, we are always the "bride" (even men!) and God is always the Bridegroom. For, according to the theology of our bodies, the bride is the one who receives the gift of the bridegroom and conceives life within. As John Paul II put it, "the husband is above all the one who loves and the wife ... is the one who is loved" (TOB 92:6).

Read More...

To sum up, once we realize that God has loved us first, then and only then are we able to love God in return.

What's wrong with girl-watching?...

2009-08-28T04:35:00.000-07:00

Here is another hilarious and informative Young Catholic Minute featuring the topic of: What's wrong with girl-watching? God made them pretty on purpose, right?

Click here to listen to this minute long segment to find out the answer.

For more funny and instructive audio clips, check out Young Catholic Minute.

Hollywood Screenwriter to Write a New Film on Our Lady of Guadalupe...

2009-08-26T09:00:00.000-07:00

It is not very often that you hear of Hollywood conversions, where an actor, director, or writer decides to end his/her life of sin and to use his/her talents for the glory of God. Yet, it does happen and recently famous screenwriter Joe Eszterhas has changed his own life to the service of God. Eszterhas became infamous for his hit movies Basic Instinct and Showgirls, but soon after had a conversion and sought to change his life around:

(LifeSiteNews) Known for living the full 'Hollywood lifestyle', Eszterhas gave it up to move home to Ohio with his wife and children in the late 1990s.
In 2001, faced with throat cancer resulting from his smoking and alcohol addictions, which threatened to kill him, Eszterhas turned to God in desperation.
"Seven years ago, I sat down on a curb near my home, sobbing, and asked God to help me," he writes in a September 2008 Washington Post article. "I cried and begged God to help me ... and He did. I hadn't prayed since I was a boy. I had made fun of God and those who loved God in my writings. And now, through my sobs, I heard myself asking God to help me ... and from the moment I asked, He did."
God, he says, cured him of his disease, but, more than that, He gave him the strength to turn away from his worldly life and back to the Catholic faith. "Not only did He give me the strength to be able to defeat my addictions," he wrote, "He saved my life. My throat surgeon ... told me seven years after the surgery that I am 'cured.' Not that I am in remission, but that I am cured. ... My life has turned inside-out. I have stopped my excesses and replaced them with prayer and long walks. I am carrying the cross as often as they'll let me at Holy Angels Church in Bainbridge Township, Ohio. And I have written a book as a thank-you to God. Not just for saving my life, but for saving me."
[...]
This summer it was revealed that Eszterhas will be writing the screenplay for a new movie about Our Lady of Guadalupe. He is calling it a "labor of love," and has indicated that he had been "hoping for some time to write a film that is both entertaining and inspiring."
Read More...

Kourtney Kardashian decides to keep her baby...

2009-08-20T07:35:00.000-07:00

Via American Papist, I found this article in People Magazine where reality TV star Kourtney Kardashian explains the agony she went through when confronted with an "unwanted pregnancy." After much deliberating, in the end she knew she had to keep the baby and could not go through with an abortion.

"I definitely thought about it long and hard, about if I wanted to keep the baby or not, and I wasn't thinking about adoption," Kardashian, 30, who was shooting E!'s Kourtney & Khloe Take Miami at the time, tells PEOPLE exclusively.

[...]

"I can't even tell you how many people just say, 'Oh, get an abortion.' Like it's not a big deal."

[...]

"I looked online, and I was sitting on the bed hysterically crying, reading these stories of people who felt so guilty from having an abortion," she recalls. "I was reading these things of how many people are traumatized by it afterwards."

After scouring the Internet, Kardashian says she started to realize that an abortion wasn't an option for her. "I was just sitting there crying, thinking, 'I can't do that,' " she says. "And I felt in my body, this is meant to be. God does things for a reason, and I just felt like it was the right thing that was happening in my life."

Read More...

Kourtney should be praised for her decision to choose life instead of death. She went against those who wanted her to have an abortion and did not waver when it came to sticking to her decision. She chose the truth instead of the lie and persevered through any suffering she might have gone through. This is an important example to all those who are considering abortion and hopefully will give those women the strength to choose life!

[Photo by: Splash News Online]

Reclaiming Dignity in Fashion; the Pure Exposure Fashion Show in Toronto...

2009-08-19T09:09:00.000-07:00

Check out this new fashion show that is attempting to demonstrate how young women can dress modestly, respect their innate human dignity and still wear the latest trends:

TORONTO, August 18, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Nearly thirty models are keyed up and ready to walk the runway this Thursday evening as part of a unique fashion show organized by the summer youth interns at Campaign Life Coalition,
Toronto. The goal of the show is to present today's youth with attractive alternatives to mainstream fashion trends that tend to degrade human sexuality.

Event coordinator Jenna Murphy spoke to LifeSiteNews and explained the reasoning that compelled her to initiate the organization of the show. "Whether or not we realize it," she said, "the way we dress affects the way we behave, how we perceive other people, how we perceive ourselves. So if we dress in such a way whereby we are sending a message to the world that we respect ourselves and that we do deserve respect in return, I think that you are upholding a framework."

Murphy referred to the importance of the concept of modesty. She said, "If you take away the bottom rung of the ladder, which is modesty - how you present yourselves to the world - you are causing some kind of collapse."

The negative way women are treated in today's society was noted by Murphy. "Athough that is not entirely due to a lack of modesty," she said, "it does play a major part. It is a piece of a framework that has been missing. A lot of young women have lost their sense of identity; they are making themselves look how they think everyone wants them to look, and as a result of that they are not being treated how they deserve to be treated."

Read More...

Reflection for August 16th...

2009-08-16T06:57:00.000-07:00

Check out today's reflection by Prof. Michael Barber of the John Paul the Great Catholic University on the readings for this Sunday:

Sunday, August 16, 2009: Liturgy Reflection from JP Catholic University on Vimeo.

The Man wants to "Give" and the Woman wants to "Recieve"...

2009-08-13T18:54:00.000-07:00

“While the young man is psychically wired for lots of ‘giving forth’ activity, the young woman is psychically wired for lots of receiving” (Joyce, 76).

Robert Joyce in the passage above is able to summarize his view of what differentiates the sexes. He believes that men and women are not only “wired” in the psyche differently, but also that even their bodies reveal a certain distinction that leads to a specific way of being. According to Joyce, men possess a body and a psyche that are inclined towards giving. For example, in coital intercourse the man gives his body to the woman. The male body is created to “give” and this affects his psyche as well. When a man falls in love with a woman, for instance, he tends to “want genital union with her” and “would like to say, ‘Come on, Baby, let’s give!’” (75,76). The way in which he expresses his love always emphasizes giving and action. Women, on the other hand, are inclined towards receiving. Her body during intercourse is designed to receive the man's body and the ovum she releases waits to receive the seed of the man (74). This affects her psyche as well and the woman’s psyche is consequently more disposed to receive. For example, a woman will desire to receive plenty of “affection, tenderness, and devotion” from a man and longs to “receive each other as a special kind of unity of oneness” (76). As a result, her expression of love is based on receptivity.

To conclude, according to Joyce, men and women are different and have different ways of being. Both receive their being from their bodily sex and are affected by it in many ways. In the end, men desire to be givers and women want to be receivers. Created as they are, they act according to the nature that was written within their very bodies.

[Source: Joyce, Robert. "The Meaning of Man and Woman." Human Sexual Ecology: A Philosophy of Ethics of Man and Woman]

US Evangelicals push for early marriage...

2009-08-12T13:58:00.000-07:00

One of the factors contributing to the increase in promiscuity and early pregnancies among teenagers and young adults is the tendency among many young people to push off getting married until their late 20s and early 30s. While this is not the only reason for the rise in pre-marital sex, it certainly does enable this type of lifestyle.

In response to this situation, Evangelical Christians in the US are calling for "early marriage" and are encouraging young people to get married earlier instead of waiting until later in life. Here is more of the story:

August 10, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) -
Young people who, under the sway of raging hormones, simply cannot hold back from having sex should just get married say some US Evangelical leaders. An article in Christianity Today magazine, the flagship publication of the US Evangelical protestant world, titled, "The Case for Early Marriage" says that more "chastity training" will not work to keep young people from having sex before marriage.

Mark Regnerus, a professor of sociology at the University of Texas and author of the book "Forbidden Fruit: Sex & Religion in the Lives of American Teenagers", wrote that while over 90 per cent of Americans have pre-marital sex, despite a strong official enthusiasm for chastity and virginity in the subculture, a majority, nearly 80 per cent, of conservative Christians in the US, do not wait until marriage.

Regnerus asserts that the emphasis on "discouraging" and "delaying" marriage among Americans, including Evangelicals, has damaged the institution. He says the community has to return to encouraging young people to marry, a daunting prospect, he says, given the hostility the suggestion garners among the general public.

"To esteem marriage in the public sphere today is to speak a foreign language: you invoke annoyance, confusion, or both," he wrote. But, despite Christians making "much ado" about sex, they are becoming "slow and lax" about marriage.

[...]

In the Catholic Church, it was once common for clergy and parents to encourage their children to marry. But the culture of feminism and careerism has made advances in the Catholic community. Fr. Michael P. Orsi, a chaplain and research fellow in law & religion at the Ave Maria School of Law in Michigan, maintains that the trend for later marriage "or no marriage has been the cause of a great deal of our social deterioration".

Read More...

This is an important issue both in the US and abroad as most people are afraid to get married young and tend to put it off until they are "established." Yet, for many that won't be the case until they are 60 or 70 and retired! If everyone waited that long, there would hardly be any family life or any children to bring forth the next generation. Therefore, money or jobs really should not be a criteria for most people's vocation to marriage. If God is calling you to marry, trust in Him and He will provide! God will not lead you astray!

Theology of the Body Missionaries...

2009-08-10T10:03:00.000-07:00

One of the many difficulties of promoting the Theology of the Body, is finding ways to "bring it to the people" so to speak. Even with evangelizing through the internet, various speaker events and study groups, there are still numerous people who will never hear the Good News of the Theology of the Body. In response to this situation, a group of young people have formed the Missionaries of the Eucharist. Their goal is to "proclaim the beauty of the Catholic faith to everyone we meet, specifically through the Theology of the Body".

To better explain this great apostolate, here is an article about them featured on Catholic Exchange (found via TOB4U):

There are, at the time of this writing, seven young Catholic men and women walking through the northeastern United States. They are the Missionaries of the Eucharist, and they are taking the Theology of the Body to the streets.

If someone were to ask you what exactly the Theology of the Body is you would not place on the table the 800-page tome bearing that title; you would not content yourself to say, “A Christian anthropology;” and you would not offer a spiel beginning, “In the first five years of his pontificate, John Paul II gave a series of Wednesday audiences to combat such modern heresies as Cartesian dualism” (Pitiful experience has shown me the error of these approaches). Rather, you would offer the same explanation you would offer a child. For that offered to a child is neither the whole in its complexity nor just a watered down version thereof. What is offered is a foundation, rich in its broad simplicity, which instead of implying it is the whole, invites deeper study and reflection.

Of course, the question is not always asked. But whether it is or it isn’t, its answer may always be shown. This is the mission of the Missionaries of the Eucharist.

It was envisioned, at its creation, as an organ for the teaching of the Theology of the Body. It became, in practice, a living of the Theology of the Body. The interest of persons on the street to talk about their children or the fact that they are homeless often trumps their interest in discussing the words of a Polish Pope, however crucial those words are. Its founders sought to give an answer to the question, “What is the TOB?” through words, only to end up being an answer in themselves.

Read More...

For more information about the Missionaries of the Eucharist and to follow their journey, click here.

[Photo: Catholic Exchange]

How far is too far?

2009-08-10T09:41:00.000-07:00

Many teens and young adults ask the question, "How far is too far?" In doing so they always want some specific guidelines on what they can "do" with their girlfriend/boyfriend before getting into sinful territory. To answer this popular question, Young Catholic Minute has provided a short skit that is both funny and informative on how to approach this issue:

(Click here if you can not see the video)

For more videos, check out Young Catholic Minute.

Original Solitude and the Communion of Persons...

2009-08-09T20:36:00.000-07:00

“In the Bible narrative, solitude is the way that leads to that unity which, following Vatican II, we can define as communio personarum” (JPII General Audience 11/14/79).

Pope John Paul II in his weekly general audience above introduces the idea that solitude is the means by which we, as humans, are to experience a “communion of persons.” In order to explain his point, John Paul II takes the Book of Genesis as his starting point and launches into an account that shows how the original solitude of Adam and Eve are a pre-requisite for them to experience unity. He goes on to say that “in this solitude, [man] opens up to a being akin to himself…‘a helper fit for him’” (JPII). In other words, it is in that original solitude felt by man that he is opened to receive a “helper” who is like him in being another human person. This solitude is not only an opening up to another, but it is also an “expectation of a ‘communion of persons,’” thus creating a desire and need for another person (JPII). Consequently, Adam after naming and distinguishing all of the other living things from himself was in want of another human person who shared in his solitude; his distinctness from everything else. God then created Eve to be Adam’s helpmate in order to form that “communion of persons” which Adam desired and which no other living thing could fulfill. Since Adam and Eve shared that “‘double solitude’ of man and woman” they possessed the “possibility of being and existing in a special reciprocity” (JPII). As a result, from their solitude they were able to express their desire for unity and become an “image of an inscrutable divine communion of persons” (JPII).

To conclude, John Paul II affirms that man after being “subjected first to the experience of original solitude” is destined to be that “image of God” which is fully “expressed in giving life to that communio personarum that man and woman form” (JPII). Uniting together in a reciprocal “help,” man and woman are thus able to image God and find meaning to their solitude.

Reflection for this upcoming Sunday...

2009-08-06T18:50:00.000-07:00

Check out this excellent video reflection featuring Prof. Michael Barber on the Mass readings for this Sunday, August 9th, provided by the John Paul the Great Catholic University. Thanks goes to Martin for e-mailing me the link.

Liturgy Reflection: Sunday, August 9, 2009 from JP Catholic University on Vimeo.

Condoms are bad for mental health, researcher finds...

2009-08-06T08:26:00.000-07:00

Here is further proof that birth control is going against nature and what God intended for the marital act:

PAISLEY, Scotland, August 4, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Research from Scotland finding that heterosexual sex without using condoms is more likely to make people happy than "safe sex" with condoms, has stirred controversy among "sexual health" campaigners. The lead researcher wrote of the survey respondents, "The more often they have sex without condoms, the better their mental health."
[...]

Brody wrote, "The more often they have sex without condoms, the better their mental health." His findings suggest that condom use negates the mental health benefits of what he called "evolutionarily relevant sex." He theorized that there is a direct biochemical response in natural heterosexual relations that is blocked by condoms.

Brody wrote in the study, "Possible explanations for the interference of condoms with the health benefits of PVI include blocking of antidepressant and immunological agents in semen and genital secretions, reduced sexual satisfaction and intimacy, and psychopathology-prone persons who are more psychologically immature and/or heterosocially anxious being more likely to use condoms for PVI."

In an interview with the UK's Independent newspaper, Brody responded to criticisms from sex-campaigners at the Family Planning Association that his findings, if they were acted upon, would result in increases in sexually transmitted diseases and unplanned pregnancies.

"I have an interest in the best possible science," he said. "I don't want to let anything get in the way, whether its political correctness, or religion. I have deliberately not used the term 'heterosexual sex'," he said.

"Evolution is not politically correct, so of the very broad range of potential sexual behaviour, there is actually only one that is consistently associated with better physical and mental health and that is the one sexual behaviour that would be favoured by evolution. That is not accidental."
Read More...

Once again this shows that the more we abuse our bodies and use them for our own selfish pleasures, the more harmful side effects there will be for both our bodies and our souls. As humans we are a composite being with a body and a soul, if we use our bodies in the wrong way, our souls and minds will suffer in a similar way.

Therefore, let us respect our bodies and follow God's divine plan for human sexuality! Only then will we be able to live life to the full and experience what God has destined for us!

Time Magazine and Marriage...

2009-08-03T06:23:00.000-07:00

Back in July, Time Magazine ran an article about marriage that focused on how the current state of the family has been eroding society and that we need to put our emphasis back into the sacred institution. This seems a bit odd since most of the magazines, TV shows, and news stations in America are trying to destroy marriage and are attempting to recreate it in their own image. Consequently, it makes sense to delve into this article and see what many of us in America have been missing about marriage which apparently Time Magazine already knows.

To do this, here is Christopher West and his comments on the Time Magazine article below:

There has been less chatter in the Catholic press than I had expected about Time Magazine’s July 13th cover story. Above a wedding cake with plastic bride and groom sinking below the icing, the headline read: “Unfaithfully Yours – Infidelity is eroding our most sacred institution. How to make marriage matter again.” Inside, the five-page piece by Caitlin Flanagan was titled “Why Marriage Matters.”

This surprisingly insightful and markedly “un-PC” essay may well mark a turning point in the secular culture’s discussion about sex and marriage. Finally, someone is looking at the facts and being honest about how our sexual misbehavior is destroying marriages and families. “How much does this matter?” Flanagan asks. “More than words can say. There is no other single force causing as much measurable hardship and human misery in this country as the collapse of marriage.”

And most of that misery falls to children. Citing “groundbreaking research on the effects of divorce on children” Flanagan reveals, as she admits, “truths that many of us may find uncomfortable.” Why uncomfortable? Because these truths compel us to look in the mirror and examine how our sexual choices actually impact others. She cites the late writer Leonard Michaels: “Adultery is not about sex or romance. Ultimately, it’s about how little we mean to one another.

The reason we need solid, lasting marriages is simple, Flanagan asserts: “on every single significant outcome related to short-term well-being and long-term success” – she cites drug abuse, school performance and dropout rates, teen pregnancy, criminal behavior and incarceration – “in all cases, the kids living with both parents drastically outperform the others. Few things hamper a child as much as not having a father at home,” she concludes.

Read More...

Pro-Life Film Contest Winners...

2009-08-03T06:01:00.000-07:00

Recently, the Susan B. Anthony List along with 12-year old Lia Mills held a national Pro-Life short film contest to allow kids from across the country to get their chance to tell the truth about abortion. The winners of the contest were awarded a $1,000 scholarship. Below are the two winners of the Pro-Life film contest:

Click here to view the videos of all of the finalists.

Overpopulation is a Myth...

2009-07-28T09:07:00.000-07:00

Many people in today's world believe that humans are going to overpopulate the world, which will result in the destruction the earth. It is a very popular myth that many people want to believe in, especially for environmental reasons. They fear more the extinction of the various plants and animals of the earth than of the lives of human beings. However, overpopulation is simply a myth that has been held up as truth for too long of a time and has led to drastic policies both in various countries of the world as well as the United Nations.

Check out this video below (found via American Papist) produced by the Population Research Institute, which seeks to dispel this myth of overpopulation:

(Click here if you can not see the video)

For more information about the myth of overpopulation, check out their website at: Overpopulation Is A Myth

Study finds that divorce damages health...

2009-07-28T08:10:00.000-07:00

Check this out:

CHICAGO, July 27, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Divorce and widowhood have a lingering, detrimental impact on health, even after a person remarries, research at the University of Chicago and Johns Hopkins University has shown.

"Among the currently married, those who have ever been divorced show worse health on all dimensions," said University of Chicago sociologist Linda Waite and co-author of a new study on marriage and health. Further, "Both the divorced and widowed who do not remarry show worse health on all dimensions," she said.

[...]

The study found that divorced or widowed people have 20 percent more chronic health conditions, such as heart disease, diabetes, or cancer, than married people. They also have 23 percent more mobility limitations, such as trouble climbing stairs or walking a block. Further, people who remarried have 12 percent more chronic conditions and 19 percent more mobility limitations, but no more depressive symptoms, than those who are continuously married.
The impacts of marriage, divorce and remarriage on health are based on the ways in which the various illnesses develop and heal, study co-author Linda Waite said. "Some health situations, like depression, seem to respond both quickly and strongly to changes in current conditions," she said. "In contrast, conditions such as diabetes and heart disease develop slowly over a substantial period and show the impact of past experiences, which is why health is undermined by divorce or widowhood, even when a person remarries."
Read More...

Theology of the Body and Health Care Reform...

2009-07-27T08:05:00.000-07:00

Amidst all the debate over the new health care reform in the US, Fr. Thomas Loya offers his advice of what the country should really be looking for in a health care plan; a plan deeply rooted in the Theology of the Body:

Politicians and even many medical professionals are missing the mark about healthcare for this nation. Unless we look at healthcare through the prism of the theology of our bodies you can just forget about any type of real healthcare in the United States of America. It is very simple: Read the language of the theology of our bodies, be honest to that language and we will be guaranteed to have great healthcare in our nation. Being honest to the language of our bodies always results in happiness. Regrettably, though, our approach to healthcare is not honest to the language of our bodies and as a result healthcare costs are out of sight.

Our bodies speak a language. They tell us how they work and what they need. All we have to do is listen to that language and do two things: give our bodies what they need and secondly don’t give our bodies what they do not need. When we do this we are guaranteed to be healthier which means we will rely less on a medical system or man-made healthcare programs. This in turn will dramatically drive costs downward and make healthcare more affordable for everyone, especially the poor. However this approach to healthcare requires self-discipline and virtuous and honest living. It requires changing some of our habits and re-educating ourselves about food, our bodies and our personhood. But this requires various forms of self-discipline and self-denial and politicians do not want to tell you that. Real healthcare is wholistic. It involves the whole person, mind, body, soul, spirit, emotions, habits, etc. This in turn calls us to look even at our whole culture. What aspects of American culture promote or work against wholistic health?

Read More...

Shanghai's One Child Policy Expands To Two Children In Face Of Depopulation...

2009-07-27T07:45:00.000-07:00

The repercussions from Shanghai's one child policy are finally being felt in the city as the number of youth able to work is dwindling and as the government is struggling to support the aging population. LifeSiteNews has more:

SHANGHAI, July 24, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Although 2009 marks the thirtieth anniversary of the one-child policy, China's second largest city is not celebrating. Far from it. The Times Online reports that far from fearing overpopulation, the city of Shanghai has pleaded with married couples to help them stave off the looming crisis of demographic implosion by having a second child.

[...]

"We advocate eligible couples to have two kids, because it can help to reduce the proportion of the aging people and alleviate a workforce shortage in the future," Xie Linli, director of the Shanghai Population and Family Planning Commission, told the Times.

[...]

According to the Times, the US-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies released statistics earlier in April that presaged the Chinese fears. The group predicted that by 2050 China will have just 1.6 working-age adults to support every person aged 60 and above, a steep decline from the 7.7 adults per pensioner back in 1975, just a few years before China instituted the one-child policy. By 2050, over 438 million Chinese will be over the age of 60.

[...]

In one chat-room debate observed by the Times, participants expressed fear that very soon children will no knowledge of "uncles" or "aunts," and that the cost of living and education have made having children a prohibitive cost for even couples who want children. Another online poster remarked upon the stark difference between the China of Chairman Mao, who appealed for Chinese to have large families of five or six children with China's situation today saying, "In the future we may not be willing even to have one and it will be like the West with a falling population. Terrible!"

Read More...

Liberal academic says the Pope is right about Africa and Condoms...

2009-07-24T08:44:00.000-07:00

Check this news story out: (found via Headline Bistro)

According to Harvard professor Edward Green, Benedict XVI tells the truth about fighting the plague of the millennium in Africa: fidelity and abstinence promotion are better weapons than preservatives

During his latest visit to Africa pope Benedict XVI told the journalists: “Condom distribution is not the solution to Aids, on the contrary they worsen it”. An editorial comment of The Lancet retorted that the Pope's comment was “outrageous and wildly inaccurate”. Based on your experience about the issue, is the Pope right or wrong?

As I have said in the Washington Post and elsewhere, the Pope is basically right – about Africa.
[...]
There’s no evidence at all that condoms have worked as a public health intervention intended to reduce HIV infections, at the “level of population.”
[...]

What are the most important things about Aids and Africa that the outside world, and especially journalists, seem not to understand?

That we cannot have complete Sexual Freedom and effective prevention at the same time; that Africa is different from the rest of the world (because condoms do work quite well in some types of epidemics); and that sexual behavior must change in basic ways for HIV infection rates to decline...

Read More...

John Paul the Great T-Shirts...

2009-07-23T12:08:00.000-07:00

For those who love John Paul II and are patiently awaiting his Beatification, here is the T-Shirt for you! Available in multiple styles!

John Paul the Great T-Shirt by digitalcatholic

John Paul the Great T-Shirt for Women by digitalcatholic

*Value T-Shirt* John Paul the Great T-Shirt by digitalcatholic
If you have a tight budget, this is a cheap alternative.
For More Value T-Shirts, Click Here!

Stop the Abortion Mandate!

2009-07-22T18:14:00.000-07:00

Spread the news:

Join the URGENT nationwide webcast event on Thursday,
July 23, to prevent Washington D.C. bureaucrats and abortion industry lobbyists from forcing YOU to pay for abortions

In an historic display of unity, pro-life and pro-family organizations are joining together for the Stop The Abortion Mandate webcast. During the event you will hear from nationally known and respected leaders including...

* Dr. James Dobson, Focus on the Family
* Dr. Charmaine Yoest, Americans United for Life
* Fr. Frank Pavone, Priests for Life
* Wendy Wright, Concerned Women for America
* Tony Perkins, Family Research Council
* Peggy Hartshorn, Heartbeat International
* Dr. Richard Land, Southern Baptist Convention ERLC
* Melinda Delahoyde, Care Net
* Jim Sedlak, American Life League/STOPP
* Kristan Hawkins, Students for Life
* Congressman Chris Smith
and more...

Click here to learn more about this most important pro-life event.

The United States of America is one step closer to funding abortions as a part of health care reform. It is our imperative to see to it that it doesn't happen! Lives are at stake!

True Love Desires To Bear Fruit...

2009-07-22T05:30:00.000-07:00

Continuing off of my previous reflections on Fulton Sheen's book "Three to Get Married," today I want to focus on the nature of love as expressed by the Archbishop. For Sheen, love is not love unless it perpetuates itself in another. In other words, true love desires to bear fruit.

Sheen puts it this way, "All love ends in an incarnation, even God's. Love would not be love if it did not escape the limitations of individual existence by perpetuating itself, nor if it did not achieve a kind of immortality in progeny, wherein death is defeated by life" (134). Love by its nature desires eternity, to live on well after the death of the lovers, and so to achieve that love begets children.

Children are the natural fruit of love, for when woman and man come together in love, a child is the result of that union. Of course that is not always the case for many reasons, but if a couple does not intentionally restrict love from multiplying or refuses to recognize the true nature of love, their union is bound to bear much fruit. The love of man and wife wants to see their love manifested in new life and so a married couple truly in love will always desire children.

This is the case in terms of those who lead celibate lives as well. For a priest who loves the Church desires to have numerous spiritual children. These "children" of his are born from the fiery sermons he gives and the time he spends dispensing the Sacraments to his flock. The priest is called "Father" for a reason and is not merely as a sentimental gesture.

Even in secular terms, a person who loves Harry Potter wishes that all the world would share his love of it. He soon begins to teach his friends how to become a true wizard just like a father teaches his children how to walk. True love desires to expand and to bear much fruit in others.

In Sheen's words, "the begetting of new life is a sign that the heart is so full of happiness and love that it will die unless it overflows." True love cannot be bridled and kept in a stable, but must be allowed to burst out of its gates and bring forth new life.

Whether it be physical or spiritual generation, love must grow beyond itself. If it does not, it turns inward and seeks exclusively the betterment of the ego. This selfish love does not desire anything but itself and therefore ends in death.

Fr. Thomas Loya gives his take on Christopher West...

2009-07-21T19:18:00.000-07:00

Well, over the past couple weeks the controversy over Christopher West's original appearance on ABC News has died down a little bit, but many are still unconvinced of the validity of West's approach to the Theology of the Body. Consequently, more and more theologians are coming out in support of West and are trying to lift the shadow that has been hanging over the name of Christopher West. Fr. Thomas Loya, a national speaker on the Theology of the Body, has recently given his opinion on the matter:

With so much written about Christopher West since his May 7 appearance on Nightline, do we really need another article? Yes, because few have recognized that West’s Nightline appearance represents a watershed moment for the Church in America.

Providentially this interview happened during the Year of St. Paul. The Areopagus was the “secular media” of St Paul’s day, and St. Paul’s fearless entrance into this arena began the era of the Church’s evangelization of the Greeks in the language they understood. On May 7, West entered the modern-day Areopagus and introduced millions of viewers to another explanation of the “unknown god” of human sexuality.

The Nightline interview made West the first man teaching TOB (since Pope John Paul II!) to gain broad access to the masses through the secular media. For this, West has taken some heavy hits. Some have responded to his valor with the incredible verdict that he presents a problem for the Church. West doesn’t present a problem as much as a tremendous opportunity to present the profound theology of John Paul II in a language those most needing to hear it can understand. This is the New Evangelization at work.
[...]
Hugh Hefner’s “Ache”

I cannot conclude my treatment of West without addressing his statements regarding Hugh Hefner (to hear the full context of what West says, watch “The Playboy and the Pope” on YouTube). There are those who want to have nothing to do with “wretched sinners” and there are those who, like Christ, want to dine with them. Christopher West is one of the latter. Instead of an unthinkable mixing of the unholy with the holy, West’s gaze at Hefner is the same kind of gaze that Christ had for “wretched sinners.” He recognizes Hefner’s “ache” for love, but he clearly despises the path Hefner has chosen to fill that ache. And he longs for people like Hefner to embrace the Good News. In the days of Bishop Sheen, cultural icons were converted, and if it is going to happen today, it will most likely happen because of someone armed with the TOB.
Read More...

The Family, Children, and the Fall of Democracy...

2009-07-21T08:22:00.000-07:00

Recently I have been reading a marvelous book by Fulton J. Sheen entitled, "Three to Get Married." In it he focuses on the beauties of married love and explains how true love stems from Divine Love itself. In addition to his reflections on the nature of love, Sheen also makes a correlation between respect for the family and the fall of democracy. He makes the point that, "the decline in the permanence of family life is, therefore, intrinsically bound up with the decline in democracy" (114). What he means by "democracy" is "a system of government understood, in its philosophical sense, as a system of government that recognizes the sovereign worth of man" (114). Since the family for Sheen is a place where a person is valued not because of his/her talents, wealth, or well being, but principally because that person exists and is alive, the decline of the family results in the decline in democracy. If a person cannot be respected in the home, how can he/she be respected by the government?

For Sheen, "the family is the training school and the novitiate for democracy" and so if people are not taught in the home how to value other people for their intrinsic value, how can we expect democracy to survive?

As a result, the government is then put in charge of the caring for the most vulnerable amongst us and since families have not taught their children how to respect people because of their innate worth, the State chooses to treat people according to their economic value.

Sheen then makes the conclusion that this type of "state socialism, understood as State control not only of the means of production but also of life itself, is the political expression of psychological laziness and irresponsibility first manifested in the family" (114-5).

Children and Freedom

Along with the family, children become a vital part of the success and freedom of democracy. As Sheen puts it, "love exists only where there is freedom...since the child is the flower of love, it is the earth's sacrament of freedom" (158). Therefore, "as the cradles come back into the world, freedom will come back" (158). This is the case because, "in each child God whispers a new secret to the world; adds a new dimension of immortality to creation; and makes the clinging hearts of husband and wife feel a little freer, as they look into that strange and mutual hope that has come to them from God" (158).

Currently, the great politicians and minds of the world are still afraid of children, for "they stay away from children for the same reason they stay away from God. They cannot bear the vision of the source of life" (159).

As a conclusion, the more democracy is exercised in the home, the more democracy will be prevalent in the world. Only when people are viewed for their intrinsic value of being a human and being alive can the world take a step away from oppressive governments. In the end, democracy will only be possible once nations recognize the beauty of family life and of children.

New Year for Priests T-Shirts...

2009-07-19T15:58:00.000-07:00

Check out these new Year for Priest T-Shirts that I just designed. They feature a priest celebrating Mass ad orientem and could be either in the ordinary form or the extraordinary form!

Year For Priests T-Shirt by digitalcatholic

On the back of this one, there is a quote by Saint John Vianney.

Year For Priests T-Shirt (w/o quote) by digitalcatholic
This one does not have the quote.

Natrual Family Planning Awareness Week: July 19-26...

2009-07-19T09:20:00.000-07:00

Today marks the beginning of the Natural Family Planning Awareness Week here in the United States. Throughout this week (July 19-26), efforts will be made across the nation to bring awareness to this precious tool that has been made available to married couples around the world in hopes of revitalizing their marriages and helping those couples prayerfully plan their families. It is a tool that allows for an increase in communication between the spouses and also for a greater depth of knowledge and respect for the bodies that God has given us. The USCCB's website foryourmarriage.org has more information on this most beautiful gift of NFP:

Marriage is an intimate, lifelong partnership in which husbands and wives give and receive love unselfishly. The sexual relationship expresses their married love and shows what it means to become "one body" (Genesis 2:24) and "one flesh" (Mark 10:8, Matthew 19:6). The sexual union is meant to express the full meaning of a couple's love, its power to bind them together "the unitive aspect of marriage "and "its openness to new life" the procreative aspect.

What is Natural Family Planning?

Natural family planning is a general name for family planning methods that are based on a woman's menstrual cycle. NFP methods are based on day-to-day observations of the naturally occurring signs of the fertile and infertile phases of the menstrual cycle. It takes into account the uniqueness of each woman. A man is fertile throughout his life, while a woman is fertile for only a few days each cycle during the childbearing years. A woman experiences clear, observable signs that show when she is fertile and infertile. To avoid pregnancy, the couple abstains from intercourse during the fertile phase. Couples can also use NFP to achieve pregnancy because it identifies the time of ovulation.

Read More...

Population Growth and "Caritas in Veritate"...

2009-07-17T07:28:00.000-07:00

I recently found this interview on Zenit (via HeadlineBistro) with Riccardo Cascioli, the president of the European Center for Studies on Population, the Environment and Development, which presents his evaluation of the Pope's most recent encyclical, Caritas in Veritate. In it Riccardo Cascioli agrees entirely with the Pope's conclusion concerning world demographics and how the falling birthrate has greatly contributed to the economic downfall. Below is an excerpt from the interview:

ZENIT: The economist Ettore Gotti Tedeschi maintains that the Pope deserves the Nobel for economy because of highlighting the relationship between the crisis and the falling birthrate. What do you think?

Cascioli: I think he is entirely correct. There is truly a demographic crisis, and it is that of the developed countries, which for more than 40 years have a birthrate lower than that of the generational replacement level. The encyclical brings us to see how this is the fundamental factor in the current economic crisis. And the answer cannot be merely "technical." In recent years we have understood how the sinking birthrate influences the problem of pensions, for example, but this is only one aspect of a crisis that is much broader and bound to worsen in the coming years. Governments -- and economists -- need to reflect on this point.

ZENIT: For some decades, international institutions have maintained that to favor development it is necessary to reduce births. What are the results of these policies?

Cascioli: Currently, there are many developing countries whose birthrates have dropped below the generational replacement level. Also in general, all the countries of the world -- except for a few rare exceptions -- have experienced a drastic descent in the number of births in recent decades. But not even one country has overcome poverty and underdevelopment thanks to these policies. On the contrary, controlling births has diverted important resources needed to promote true development projects. Moreover, the savage application of these policies -- as in the cases of China, India and other Asian countries -- has caused grave social disequilibrium, of which the absence of hundreds of thousands of women is merely the most striking aspect. It is not coincidence that this encyclical does not use the concept of "sustainable development," which is based precisely on a negative view of population. This is an important aspect, because even from certain Catholic environments, there is pressure to accept the ideology of "sustainability."

Read More...

Catholic Vote's New Commercial...

2009-07-16T08:14:00.000-07:00

Life. Imagine the Potential. Here is the third commercial by Catholic Vote, produced by Grassrootsfilms:

(Click here if you can not see the video)

The "Father Wound"...

2009-07-16T08:04:00.000-07:00

I recently found an article on Catholic Exchange by Fr. Thomas Loya that does an excellent job explaining the true nature of Fatherhood and delves into the deeper meanings of what it is to be a man. Check it out:

In recent days as a nation we have journeyed a bit into “Fatherhood.” There was
”Father’s Day.” Then there is the Fourth of July celebration in which we commemorate the work of the Founding Fathers of our nation. A journey into Fatherhood is good and indeed urgent in our world today because perhaps nothing in our world today is more maligned, mocked, eroded, and disintegrated than fatherhood. In fact, what lies behind most of the ills of our society is the phenomenon of “father wound.” The origins of “father wound” actually go back to “original” sin. But the healing balm for this wound lies, as with everything, in understanding the theology, the language, of our bodies.

The theology of the male body can be understood in one word—externality. This is especially helpful for the ladies because by thinking “externality” women can come to understand and love their men more deeply. Externality can also help us to understand authentic fatherhood and conversely, “father wound.” The male brain is hardwired to see the point of things, to accomplish tasks, defend, protect. The male gaze tends to be further and more single-focused than the female gaze. The defining parts of the male gender are external to the male body in contrast to the female body whose defining parts are more internal. Men’s bodies are designed to take the hits, to act upon the external environment. In general, as spoken by the language of male sexual organs, we can say that men function from an overall phallic orientation to life. This means that the basic orientation of males is one that moves out beyond itself, to what is external, transcendent, to what has to do with the order of things, authority, justice, fairness, etc.
Read More...

Pope gives document on bioethics to Obama...

2009-07-10T17:07:00.000-07:00

During Pope Benedict's meeting with President Obama today, gifts were exchanged and a copy of the Vatican document "Dignitas Personae" (On The Dignity of the Person) was given to the President:

Not only did Benedict press his pro-life case with his words to the president, but he even found a way to make the point with his gift, offering the president a copy of a recent Vatican document on bioethics. (NCR)

This Vatican document details the Church's stance on abortion, stem-cell research and other life issues. The Pope used this opportunity to hopefully encourage President Obama to follow through with his claim to want to "reduce the number of abortions." However, it appears that Obama was not immediately changed by the visit as Deputy National Security Adviser Denis McDonough detailed how:

When asked if the meeting is likely to change Obama's opinions on issues like abortion, McDonough responded: "The president, as he said in Notre Dame, has thought long and hard about these issues and he has his views on it. ... At the end of the day, it may just be that there's issues that they can't come to agreement on, but I think he believes that you can... disagree without being disagreeable." (ABC)

In summary, Let us pray that Obama's stance on abortion will be affected by this visit with the Holy Father so that many millions of lives can be saved.

"Caritas in Veritate" and Pixar's Short Film "Partly Cloudy"...

2009-07-08T10:00:00.000-07:00

Via American Papist, I found this article on The Anchoress about the correlation between Pope Benedict's latest encyclical and Pixar's short film called "Partly Cloudy" that ran in front of the movie UP.

Watch the movie below and then check out the article here.

Pope Benedict Explains His Encylcial "Caritas in Veritate"...

2009-07-08T09:57:00.000-07:00

Today during his weekly general audience, Pope Benedict XVI explained his latest encyclical "Caritas in Veritate" (Charity in Truth). Here is the video of the Pope's address in English:

(click here if you cannot see the video)

Pope Benedict XVI Proposes New Environmentalism in Encyclical...

2009-07-07T17:39:00.000-07:00

Pope Benedict in his most recent encyclical Caritas in Veritate, challenges the world to rethink its definition of environmentalism and to put the dignity of humans at the center:

In order to protect nature, it is not enough to intervene with economic incentives or deterrents; not even an apposite education is sufficient. These are important steps, but the decisive issue is the overall moral tenor of society. If there is a lack of respect for the right to life and to a natural death, if human conception, gestation and birth are made artificial, if human embryos are sacrificed to research, the conscience of society ends up losing the concept of human ecology and, along with it, that of environmental ecology. It is contradictory to insist that future generations respect the natural environment when our educational systems and laws do not help them to respect themselves. The book of nature is one and indivisible: it takes in not only the environment but also life, sexuality, marriage, the family, social relations: in a word, integral human development. Our duties towards the environment are linked to our duties towards the human person, considered in himself and in relation to others. It would be wrong to uphold one set of duties while trampling on the other. Herein lies a grave contradiction in our mentality and practice today: one which demeans the person, disrupts the environment and damages society.

Read More...

Pope's New Encyclical "Caritas in Veritate" is now available online...

2009-07-07T06:17:00.000-07:00

Pope Benedict's new "social" encyclical entitled "Charity in Truth" has now been officially published. It is available on the Vatican's website here.

While looking at the contents of the document, American Papist pointed out an interesting paragraph that deals with Population and Marriage and is certainly worth reading:

44. The notion of rights and duties in development must also take account of the problems associated with population growth. This is a very important aspect of authentic development, since it concerns the inalienable values of life and the family. To consider population increase as the primary cause of underdevelopment is mistaken, even from an economic point of view. Suffice it to consider, on the one hand, the significant reduction in infant mortality and the rise in average life expectancy found in economically developed countries, and on the other hand, the signs of crisis observable in societies that are registering an alarming decline in their birth rate. Due attention must obviously be given to responsible procreation, which among other things has a positive contribution to make to integral human development. The Church, in her concern for man's authentic development, urges him to have full respect for human values in the exercise of his sexuality. It cannot be reduced merely to pleasure or entertainment, nor can sex education be reduced to technical instruction aimed solely at protecting the interested parties from possible disease or the “risk” of procreation. This would be to impoverish and disregard the deeper meaning of sexuality, a meaning which needs to be acknowledged and responsibly appropriated not only by individuals but also by the community. It is irresponsible to view sexuality merely as a source of pleasure, and likewise to regulate it through strategies of mandatory birth control. In either case materialistic ideas and policies are at work, and individuals are ultimately subjected to various forms of violence. Against such policies, there is a need to defend the primary competence of the family in the area of sexuality,111 as opposed to the State and its restrictive policies, and to ensure that parents are suitably prepared to undertake their responsibilities.

Morally responsible openness to life represents a rich social and economic resource. Populous nations have been able to emerge from poverty thanks not least to the size of their population and the talents of their people. On the other hand, formerly prosperous nations are presently passing through a phase of uncertainty and in some cases decline, precisely because of their falling birth rates; this has become a crucial problem for highly affluent societies. The decline in births, falling at times beneath the so-called “replacement level”, also puts a strain on social welfare systems, increases their cost, eats into savings and hence the financial resources needed for investment, reduces the availability of qualified labourers, and narrows the “brain pool” upon which nations can draw for their needs. Furthermore, smaller and at times miniscule families run the risk of impoverishing social relations, and failing to ensure effective forms of solidarity. These situations are symptomatic of scant confidence in the future and moral weariness. It is thus becoming a social and even economic necessity once more to hold up to future generations the beauty of marriage and the family, and the fact that these institutions correspond to the deepest needs and dignity of the person. In view of this, States are called to enact policies promoting the centrality and the integrity of the family founded on marriage between a man and a woman, the primary vital cell of society, and to assume responsibility for its economic and fiscal needs, while respecting its essentially relational character.

For the rest of the document, click here.

The Vitae Monologues...

2009-07-05T12:10:00.000-07:00

Check this out this new play that seeks to be a beacon of light in this world of darkness:

THE VITAE MONOLOGUES is a groundbreaking 2-person drama featuring international performers Jeremy Stanbary and Sarah Stanbary, based on compelling true stories of women and men who deserve a voice within our culture, exploring the difficult reality of post-abortion trauma as well as the healing that's possible after abortion. This powerful, non-political, nondenominational play speaks to people of all backgrounds, serving as a beacon of light within our culture and engaging audiences to think about this controversial subject from a new and very real perspective. Audiences will be touched and inspired by this play in ways they have never expected!

One audience member had this to say. "I walked out of the auditorium feeling like I'd been turned inside out. I was wiping away tears. This is a powerful play, but the word 'Play' doesn't fit. This is drama. These are real stories from real people. They will speak to everyone who sees The VITAE Monologues."

Here is a preview of the play:
(click here if you can not see the video)

For more information about this compelling live-action drama and how to book a showing at your school or event, click here.

Primary Schools in the UK are having problems with "Inappropriate Sexual Behavior"...

2009-07-05T11:35:00.000-07:00

Our sexualized culture is bearing fruit...unfortunately not good fruit at all:

LONDON, June 30, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A U.K. government report has described as "worrying" the discovery that children in the youngest grades of primary school are being removed from class for "inappropriate sexual behaviour." According to the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted), 14 out of the 69 schools surveyed had related problems with children as young as four acting out.

[...]

The report says that teachers who contacted social services over worries about the children's sexualized behavior were often turned away, with one being told that the child would "grow out of it."

[...]
The revelation comes at the same time as government plans to introduce explicit "sex education" to children as young as five are moving forward.
[...]
Norman Wells, head of the Family Education Trust (FET), told LifeSiteNews.com (LSN), that the problem is more systemic than isolated cases of child abuse. "Inappropriate sexual behavior among young children in primary schools is all part of the price we are paying for our highly sexualized culture," he said.
The FET is a research and lobby group that investigates the causes of family breakdown in the UK. Wells accused the government of "caving in to the demands of the sex education lobby" in its plans to expand sex education in the national curriculum.

"We are failing to learn the lesson that introducing children to sexual language and imagery, whether on television, videos, DVDs, the internet, or in formal school lessons will inevitably break down children's natural sense of reserve."
Read More...

Most importantly, these children are not being given the correct knowledge and example as to how they should think of themselves and their sexuality. All they see is what the culture gives them and their parents remain silent. They are not given the true "Theology of the Body" or the tools necessary to cherish and protect their sexuality. Instead, the children are left confused and end up abusing their bodies, not knowing what they are created for.

That is why now more than ever we need to educate our children in the Theology of the Body. We need to teach them the dignity of their bodies and what God has destined them for: a love that is truly self-sacrificing and entirely concerned about the other. Our bodies are meant to help us express the love of God and not to be used for our own personal enjoyment. Children should be taught this their entire lives; from the moment they come forth from their mother's womb, until they leave home to pursue their vocation. The trick lies in communicating these divine truths in a way in which they understand.

Nevertheless, we should never tire in speaking to our children about their sexuality and how special and sacred their bodies are.

General Electric to use Embryonic Stem Cells for drug testing instead of rats...

2009-07-05T11:15:00.000-07:00

Recently, General Electric has made the decision to use human embryos for scientific testing instead of continuing to use rodents to test drugs:

BOSTON, Mass, July 1, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - General Electric has announced that it will use embryonic stem cells provided by Geron Corporation for the purpose of testing toxic effects of drug treatments.
GE issued a statement, attempting to preempt criticism over the decision, saying, "We acknowledge the considerable debate and take very seriously the ethical and societal issues associated with research using stem cells derived from embryonic or fetal tissue."
"We conduct our research in an ethically and scientifically responsible manner," the statement said.
[...]
Konstantin Fielder, General Manager of Cell Technologies at GE Healthcare said that stem cells harvested from human embryos could even replace lab rats as the primary scientific testing method.
Read More...

This move by GE proves that humans are increasingly being viewed by many as objects to be used for the welfare of the powerful. Human life is no longer to be cherished and received from God, but to be cultivated and produced by the hands of men. They are taking advantage of the most vulnerable among us, human embryos, and sacrificing their lives for the sake of "efficiency."

A human being is a person of inestimable value, no matter how small. Therefore, the ends will never justify the means.

Senator is attacked for proposing 'Office of Unborn Children's Health'...

2009-06-29T06:51:00.000-07:00

Check this out:

WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews.com) - Abortion proponents are reacting with fury after Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) filed an amendment this month to the President's healthcare reform package authorizing the institution of an Office of Unborn Children's Health.

[..]

Abortion proponents lambasted the amendment by the "anti-choice" Coburn, who is also a medical doctor.

"We got a small taste of how much fun is in store when more than 30 amendments were filed in the Senate this week to alter the health reform legislation, and further erode women's access to reproductive health care," wrote Richards. "There was a lot of competition for the worst one, but our office favorite was Senator Tom Coburn's amendment to create an 'Office of Unborn Children's Health.'"

Read More...

Pope Signs New Encyclical...

2009-06-29T06:44:00.000-07:00

Today, on the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Pope Benedict XVI signed his next encyclical entitled "Charity in Truth." This encyclical seeks to be a light in this age of globalization and address issues that have come up lately with the economic crisis. In particular, the Pope focuses on the need for solidarity and the need to ensure the rights of the poor. Here is more on the encyclical from The Washington Post:

VATICAN CITY -- Pope Benedict XVI signed his latest encyclical Monday, a text on ways to make globalization more attentive to meeting the needs of the poor amid the worldwide financial crisis.

The document, entitled "Charity in Truth," is expected to be published soon.

The pope has said his third encyclical will outline the goals and values that the faithful must defend to ensure solidarity among all peoples.
Benedict has frequently spoken out on the financial crisis, urging leaders to ensure the world's poor don't end up bearing the brunt of the downturn even though they are not responsible for it. He has said the downturn shows the need to rethink the whole global financial system.

Read More...

FLASHBACK: 1950s Marriage Preparation...

2009-06-25T06:47:00.000-07:00

For your viewing pleasure, here are two marriage preparation videos that were produced in the 1950s. It is really amazing to see the different culture that existed back then. While at times the videos seem to be quite idealistic, they do offer some very good advice to young couples; advice that has been lost over the decades. Check them out for some good laughs and classic wisdom of the 1950s.

(click here if you can not see the video)

Click here for Part 2

(click here if you can not see the video)

Click here for Part 2

John and Kate Separate...Can Marriages Survive in Today's World?

2009-06-24T08:45:00.000-07:00

Recently one of America's most loved couples, John and Kate Gosselin from the TV Show John and Kate plus 8, decided to end their marriage and to "turn a new page" in their lives by separating. This comes at a time in America when the majority of the populous are getting divorced at an alarming rate and the state of marriage is increasingly looked upon as an archaic institution. Many viewers will come away from this public demise of John and Kate's marriage greatly discouraged and see it as further evidence that marriage is not a viable option.

What then can be done in today's divorce culture? Can marriages be saved? Should anyone get married at all?

To answer these questions, I will ask another question, "What have you done for your marriage today?"

Too often marriages fail because the couple never put any effort into their own marriage. Kids come, love quickly dies and the two who were once one flesh become two individuals living under the same roof. Children take precedence (as in the case of John and Kate) and the marriage fails for lack of attention. In the end all they needed to do was to work hard in loving the other. We often have this illusion that once we get married it will be easy to love our spouse, when in reality it will require a lot of hard work. As a result, once love becomes too hard and requires too much sacrifice, the couple opts out and seeks divorce. While there are always numerous other exterior factors that are involved in a break-up, one of the most fundamental reasons for divorce is a lack of effort put into the marriage by the couple.

What should a couple do then when love gets tough? Well, here is a website that seeks to answer that question: www.foryourmarriage.org

The USCCB has created this website with the intention of saving marriages from divorce and encouraging married couples to do things for themselves that will inflame that fire of love that started it all. It offers daily marriage tips as well full length articles that all seek to preserve that precious gift of marriage. I encourage anyone currently in a marriage or any who are seeking marriage to check out this helpful website!

[Photo: Karen Alquist / TLC]

Lenny Kravitz and Remaining Pure...

2009-06-22T08:16:00.000-07:00

How often do you hear of a popular rock star starting out as a ladies man who sleeps around with any woman he sees and then suddenly makes a commitment to remain celibate until he gets married? Not very often I assure you. Via The New Sexual Revolution, I found a marvelous interview with popular rock musician Lenny Kravitz that details his decision to remain pure. In the interview he recounts his constant struggle to save sex for marriage and explains what triggered his desire to seek chastity. Here are some of the highlights:

No one nailed the rock idol act like Lenny Kravitz. Love god, guitar hero, wild thing, he lived the life – multiple women, homes and Grammys. Then he revealed last year that he had been celibate since 2005. The Telegraph visits him at his Bahamian retreat and discovers the roots of his newfound purity.

[..]

'But I wasn’t being celibate then at all,’ he clarifies. 'It took years to get it right. To actually do it, and really try to walk the walk and not just talk it. It’s not like it’s not important – I think sex and intimacy and all that is very important. It’s just that I’m going to do it with my wife.’ He laughs. 'And not everybody else.’

This summer, not long after he turns 45, it will be four years. The final trigger came after a night in the Carlyle Hotel in New York. (His apartment was under renovation.) 'I was doing my normal thing and I was with somebody, and I remember waking up in the morning thinking, “What am I doing?” It’s not that I was all over the place. It’s not, like, groupies or somebody you’d pick up on the street. I didn’t carry on like that. It was somebody that I know. But it was still, “What am I doing? And why?” And that morning I was just talking to God, as I do, and I said, “You got to help me to stop this. I just really want to stop this.” And that was the day that it changed.’

[...]

Can you put your finger on what, at that moment, seemed upsetting about what you had been doing?

'I knew it was not consistent with my beliefs. So that’s hypocritical, and I don’t want to be a hypocrite. And I could just feel the emptiness… it didn’t feel good. The feeling afterwards. Just that empty sort of… weird space. And I’d had enough.’

Read More...

[Photo: The Insider]

Love and . . . Responsibility?

2009-06-22T08:04:00.000-07:00

Here is an article I found recently by Edward Sri on a very important aspect of marriage and marital love, namely, the responsibility for the good of the beloved that comes along with marriage:

A great marriage is not one that simply stays together. A great marriage is one in which spouses experience deep personal communion with each other. We want marriages in which people 10, 20, 30 years into their married life can say, "I love my spouse more now than I did when we were first married."

For Pope John Paul II — then Karol Wojtyla — the key to personal communion in married life is mutual self-giving love and the accompanying sense of responsibility for each other as a gift. Indeed, this theme of responsibility is so important that he put it in the title of his book about love, marriage, and relationships between men and women. The book is not called simply Love, but Love and Responsibility.

What is this responsibility? And how can it transform relationships between spouses, fiancés, and "significant others"? That's what we will explore in this reflection.

Responsibility

Think about what happens in betrothed love. In our last reflection, we saw that the fullest sense of love involves two people giving themselves to each other. And this self-giving is nothing less than a total entrusting of one's self to the other person — a surrendering of one's own preferences, freedom, and will for the sake of the other.

This means that in betrothed love, my beloved totally gives herself to me. She freely and lovingly gives up her autonomy and commits her will to the good of our marriage and the good of our family. Therefore, since my beloved completely entrusts her life to me in this unique way, I must, in turn, have a profound sense of responsibility for her — for her well-being, her happiness, her emotional security, her holiness. As Wojtyla explains, "There exists in love a particular responsibility — the responsibility for a person who is drawn into the closest possible partnership in the life and activity of another, and becomes in a sense the property of whoever benefits from this gift of self " (p. 130).

Here, Wojtyla offers a standard for love that is counter-cultural: "The greater the feeling of responsibility for the person the more true love there is" (p. 131). Notice how he didn't say the more powerful the emotions, the more powerful the love is. The true measure for love is not how much one enjoys being with his beloved or how much pleasure he receives from her. Authentic love is not so self-centered, constantly looking inward at my own emotions and desires. Rather, true love looks outward in awe at my beloved who has entrusted herself to me, and it has a deep sense of responsibility for her good, especially in light of the fact that she has committed herself to me in this way.

Read More...

Fatherhood...

2009-06-20T04:56:00.000-07:00

Happy Father's Day!

A reflection on Fatherhood from Bill Donaghy...

Right now, a child sleeps just feet away from me. Unbelievable. My vocation has made its “quantum leap”… has passed a test and is being given a new one. I feel this inspired instinct, this primal proclivity to guard and protect, to sacrifice and to serve my family at a new and deeper level than before. It’s amazing! And I can see the design here, the plan of God that allows us massive opportunities for grace. Life is meant to be, in the words of Pope Benedict XVI, an “an ongoing exodus out of the closed inward-looking self towards its liberation through self-giving, and thus towards authentic self-discovery and indeed the discovery of God.” It can begin in the self-gift of marriage, and continue for a couple in the gift of children.
Thank God for this plan, the plan of fatherhood and motherhood, of self-gift and self-emptying love! Like the vocation to celibate love, to spiritual fatherhood and motherhood in the priesthood and religious life, the vocation of marriage allows us to break free of the bonds of self-gratifying gravity and into the Great Wide Open of Selfless Love. It is this kind of love that makes the world go ’round, and that builds a culture of life and love.
Read More...

Reflections on the Heart of Christ...

2009-06-18T07:16:00.000-07:00

As the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus approaches, it is good to recollect what this great feast signifies: the pure love of Christ for every human person. He indeed loves us all and gave Himself up in total sacrificial love for our salvation. Here is how the Catechism puts it:

The heart of the Incarnate Word

478 Jesus knew and loved us each and all during his life, his agony and his Passion, and gave himself up for each one of us: "The Son of God. . . loved me and gave himself for me."116 He has loved us all with a human heart. For this reason, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, pierced by our sins and for our salvation,117 "is quite rightly considered the chief sign and symbol of that. . . love with which the divine Redeemer continually loves the eternal Father and all human beings" without exception.118

Also, this love from the Heart of Christ should impel us to love our neighbor as well, not on account of an obligation imposed upon us from without, but a longing to love one another that comes from within. Pope Benedict XVI talks about this in reference to workers in charitable organizations in his encyclical Deus Caritas Est:

Those who work for the Church's charitable organizations must be distinguished by the fact that they do not merely meet the needs of the moment, but they dedicate themselves to others with heartfelt concern, enabling them to experience the richness of their humanity. Consequently, in addition to their necessary professional training, these charity workers need a “formation of the heart”: they need to be led to that encounter with God in Christ which awakens their love and opens their spirits to others. As a result, love of neighbour will no longer be for them a commandment imposed, so to speak, from without, but a consequence deriving from their faith, a faith which becomes active through love (cf. Gal 5:6).

b) Christian charitable activity must be independent of parties and ideologies. It is not a means of changing the world ideologically, and it is not at the service of worldly stratagems, but it is a way of making present here and now the love which man always needs.

Waldstein delivers a second defense of Christopher West...

2009-06-16T06:33:00.000-07:00

Dr. Michael Waldstein, translator of John Paul II's writings on the Theology of the Body into English, recently made a second defense of Christopher West and his career of presenting the Theology of the Body. This second article in written in response to David Schindler's criticism of West. In this piece, Waldstien mainly focuses on his own personal encounter with West and even his coorespondence with him after the firestorm of debate over his work started to rage.

That West and I would spend a weekend together at Saskatoon right after the controversy about his Nightline interview had exploded was, of course, extremely interesting for me. I could see West in action with a popular audience. I attended all four talks, each of them an hour long. I felt like the mythical Greek giant Argus Panoptes, Hera’s watchman, whose whole body was covered with sleepless eyes (except that mine was covered with ears as well). With all the objections against West vividly in my mind I paid close attention to every detail of his presentation. I could not see anything that corresponded to the accusations against him; I could not detect any of the pattern of Schindler’s list. What I saw was what I had felt from a distance when I met the Notre Dame undergraduates in 2003. I saw a teaching centered on Christ, faithful to the text and spirit of John Paul II.
After his talks, West and I read and discussed Schindler’s second piece, in particular the second half, in which Schindler spells out his own theological vision of the Theology of the Body in more detail. Neither of us disagreed with the important points he was making. In fact, I was all the more confirmed that Schindler was critiquing a Christopher West other than the one I know. For I had just witnessed West in his four compelling and passionately delivered presentations, making most of the points and offering many of the important qualifications that Schindler believes are lacking. The disparity between the West that Schindler describes and the West I know is considerable.
Read More...

For more information on this recent debate, click here.

Janet Smith calls for "Fair Treatment of West"...

2009-06-15T05:52:00.000-07:00

This entire debate over Christopher West's presentation of the Theology of the Body is starting to get a little out of hand. Many people are using this opportunity to rant about Christopher West and some are even trying to bring about West's complete ruin. One thing that is common about all of these comments is that very few want to assist West in his apostolate. Very few actually want to help him find the proper method of evangelizing the Theology of the Body. Consequently, Janet Smith has just released another article that seeks to respond to this harsh method of criticism and calls for "Fair Treatment." She also responds to Schindler's article and his concerns. Below are a few excerpts:

It surprises me that Prof. Schindler defends his use of unsubstantiated examples taken out of context in his critique of the work of West. As he notes, West has published books and has many CDs and DVDs. Those should be more than sufficient to find missteps if there are such. I once served on a Special Commission of the Holy See. We used only published works as evidence for positions of those we investigated. We believed it would have been irresponsible to have relied upon anything else. There was a great deal at stake: jobs, apostolates and reputations. Schindler is raising the possibility not only that there are elements of bad taste in West’s work but that there may be serious theological errors as well. I continue to think he has not made a sufficient case for either and I continue to question his choice of an Internet blog to raise his questions.

[...]

I know that West’s talks have elements that challenge the sensitivities of many. When I heard West in his first series of talks claim that the submersion of the Easter Candle into the holy water font was sexual imagery used by the Church to show that, through baptism, spiritual children are born, I was appalled. Actually any reference to phallic symbols appalls me – I think mine may be a prudish response – and, in this context, I thought it was vulgar and irreverent. Imagine my surprise to learn that liturgists and theologians from the early days of the Church have understood the Easter Candle just as West does. Recently a priest – one who is a great public apologist for orthodoxy – told me that he thinks many priests are acutely aware of the sexual symbolism of the Easter candle/holy water font imagery during the Easter liturgy. I was humbled when I realized my judgment had been based upon ignorance and prudery. I think giving a list of phrases that will shock without context invites people to make judgments based on ignorance and prudery. I don’t in fact know why Schindler objects to West’s claim about the tradition of the Easter candle.

[...]

I know some people say that Prof. Schindler has articulated what they have felt to be troublesome about West’s work but when I press them for substantiation they refer to impressions they have about West’s work. Most of them were exposed to his work some ten years ago and have not listened to or read any more recent presentations, so it is difficult to know if what they first perceived remains true. I mean neither to suggest that West’s work is above criticism nor that those who do a close study of West’s work would find it unproblematic. But when so much is at stake, great care must be taken to ensure that criticisms made are based on reality, not perceptions. No one doubts that West sincerely wants his presentation of the Theology of the Body to be free from serious theological error. He must be given very clear guidance in what ways his works might fail in that regard; to do any less is not to serve him or his audience well.

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Matthew Pinto weighs in on Christopher West..

2009-06-14T06:00:00.000-07:00

As the debate continues to rage over Christopher West's use of the Theology of the Body, Matthew Pinto, president of Ascension Press, weighs in on the subject and gives his own argument for Christopher West:

By His Fruits You Shall Know Him: A Defense of Christopher West

by Matthew Pinto

Over the past few weeks, I have watched a friend and fellow soldier in the Church get assaulted by his own troops, ironically due to his breakthrough appearance on ABC News’ Nightline, the kind of program we in the Catholic media have long been targeting as an instrument for communicating Catholic teaching in general, and Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body (TOB) message in particular.

As one of his publishers (along with the Daughters of St. Paul and Servant/St. Anthony’s Messenger), I have witnessed firsthand the dynamic impact Christopher West is having on people worldwide, both married and single. Few Catholic authors/evangelists can match his track record of eyes opened to Truth and hearts turned to Christ. Fewer still have shown the courage to battle the colossal dragon that is modern society’s dissolute sexual culture, a beast that threatens to devour the souls in its path, including those of our children.

When Archbishop Sheen would be told by agitators back in his day that they had left the Faith, he would reportedly reply, “Oh, what was your sin?” Most, undoubtedly, were sexual in nature, for the Church’s message of sexual restraint has never been an easy teaching. But here Christopher comes forward with an urgent message of sexual healing and renewal from the very heart of the Church, and he is vilified by
certain quarters of the Catholic apostolate. All one can do is marvel.

Breathtaking Results

[...]

Each year, more than 55,000 engaged persons in over 40 dioceses are being introduced to the authentic Catholic vision for marriage contained in Christopher’s marriage preparation program. Of the 91% who have entered the program sexually active, more than half of these couples said they will forego ongoing sexual relations until they are married. Nearly a third of these couples state that they will employ “Natural Family Planning” methods once they are married. And fully 61% made a deeper commitment to Christ because of the program. This is powerful vangelization.
Moreover, tens of thousands of college students on both Catholic and secular campuses have heard, perhaps for the first time, what “sexual freedom” really means! Cardinals and bishops from around the U.S. have invited Christopher to address the priests in their dioceses, and as a result, more than 3,600 priests in 31 dioceses have been given new tools to minister to a Catholic community that has, by and large, jettisoned much of the Catholic sexual ethic. The most consistent comment in surveys of these priests has been: “This was the single best continuing education day I have experienced in my entire priesthood.”

More than 25 bishops have taken time from their busy schedules to attend day-long seminars given by Christopher. One Midwestern bishop said after a seminar – and in front of a crowd of 600 – that Christopher is simply “one of the best Catholic evangelists in the Church today.”

Beyond that, more than 1,100 lay church leaders have attended Christopher’s weeklong course at the Theology of the Body Institute – and have given him an approval rating of over 96%. These leaders emerge substantially equipped to run TOB studies at their parishes, spreading John Paul II’s urgent message even deeper into the Catholic grassroots.

And these statistics do not even include the tens of thousands who have undertaken a personal or group study of the TOB via West’s books and workbooks – which bear Imprimaturs from bishops such as Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver, Sean Cardinal O’Malley of Boston, and Justin Cardinal Rigali of Philadelphia.

As we know from the Acts of the Apostles, if a work is not of God, it will fail (5:38-39). Yet in this time of historic sexual anarchy, Christopher’s critics remain disinclined to attribute his overwhelmingly positive results to a blessing by
God.

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The Holy Eucharist and Marriage...

2009-06-13T04:00:00.000-07:00

Continuing off of my post from yesterday which focused on the link between the Eucharist and the Theology of the Body, here is paragraph 1621 from the Catechism of the Catholic Church that makes a similar connection:

1621 In the Latin Rite the celebration of marriage between two Catholic faithful normally takes place during Holy Mass, because of the connection of all the sacraments with the Paschal mystery of Christ. In the Eucharist the memorial of the New Covenant is realized, the New Covenant in which Christ has united himself for ever to the Church, his beloved bride for whom he gave himself up. It is therefore fitting that the spouses should seal their consent to give themselves to each other through the offering of their own lives by uniting it to the offering of Christ for his Church made present in the Eucharistic sacrifice, and by receiving the Eucharist so that, communicating in the same Body and the same Blood of Christ, they may form but "one body" in Christ.

Corpus Christi and the Theology of the Body...

2009-06-12T07:53:00.000-07:00

This weekend, the Church celebrates the feast of "Corpus Christi," otherwise known as the feast of "The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ." This marvelous day of celebration is dedicated to renewing our love and reverence for Christ's gift of Himself in the Holy Eucharist. Consequently, it is a good idea to meditate further on this most precious sacrament and its relation to the Theology of the Body. To do this, I have provided an excerpt from an article by Marshall Fightlin that examines the relationship between marital intimacy and the Holy Eucharist:

Christ has redeemed the institution of marriage. Since conjugal intimacy is the unique expression of marriage, Christ has redeemed conjugal intimacy. St. Paul says in his letter to the Ephesians: “Husbands should love their wives as they do their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. Observe that no one ever hates his own flesh. No, he nourishes it and takes care of it, as Christ cares for the Church, for we are members of his body.” The husband must love his wife’s body as his own body. This presupposes that he loves his own body. Our bodies are sexual and fertile. The fertility dimension of the body is an integral part of who the husband is and who his wife is.

Therefore, the husband must not “hate” his own fertility, but must “nourish” and “take care of it.” And he must treat the fertility of his wife’s body in exactly the same way. From a Eucharistic perspective, the marriage between Christ and his Church, which took place on Pentecost, is consummated in every Holy Communion.

Each Eucharistic celebration is a mystical consummation of the marriage between Christ and his Church. The Eucharist expresses the conjugal intimacy between Christ and his Church. In the Eucharist Christ shows his sacrificial love and he enters into a communion “two in one flesh” with his Church. We become one body with his Body, given for us. In this way, marital imagery sheds light on the mystery of Christ and his Church.

This is the vision that the Church presents to us of conjugal intimacy. It is a natural sacrament of marital commitment. It is a reflection of the love that God has for us. It is a reflection and a participation in the love that Christ showed for his Church when he gave himself on the cross. It is worthy to be compared to Holy Communion. Just as Christ enters into conjugal intimacy with his Church through Holy Communion — the body union of a Christian and Christ — so the couple celebrate a little communion in their conjugal intimacy.

This is a compelling vision of conjugal intimacy.

Read the entire article...

[Photo: Wikimedia Commons]

Love is a Garden...

2009-06-11T08:29:00.000-07:00

Praised be Jesus and Mary!

Today I will simply leave you all with a video of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen entitled "Love is a Garden." This video on YouTube is a first in a set of three videos that is a recording of one of Sheen's famous "Life is Worth Living" episodes. It is a great episode on the subject of love, featuring many glimpses of the Theology of the Body. Fulton Sheen has a wonderful gift for story telling and this episode is a great illustration of that.

For the rest of the series, click here.

Marriage and the Call to "Communio"...

2009-06-10T05:19:00.000-07:00

“The essential feature of a marital communio is fidelity in reciprocal and passionate self-giving love, a reciprocity called for by the strict equality of husband and wife as human persons” (Rousseau, 224).

Mary Rousseau puts forth in the above quote a critical statement that reveals the true nature of marriage and marital love as it is meant to be: total reciprocal self-giving that respects the personhood of the individual.

Commenting on Mulieris Dignitatem, Rousseau believes that marriage, as well as all human relationships, is intended to be a “communio” or in other words, “a many turned into one without ceasing to be many” (215). In simpler words, "communio" can be expressed as a "unity among persons." What this means is that men and women are called to give of themselves in love to each other so that they may become one, a unity, but doing so with the realization that each subject of love is an individual person.

This call to “communio,” Rousseau points out, stems from our relationship with the Creator who “calls us, then, to communio with Himself, as well as with the whole of His creation” (217). Consequently, Rousseau goes on to say how men and women both in marriage and in relationships must display this “communio” in all their interactions with one another by having “a quality of faithful self-giving about [them]” (224).

What this entails is a constant respect of the other person and always being willing to do some sort of sacrifice for that person, both in marriage and in daily interactions. This type of sacrifice must be "reciprocal," meaning that both parties are to act in the same manner. Only then can true "communio" be established.

To sum up, we are called to give of ourselves to each other in mutual love and by doing so we can experience that unity which we all desire.

Sources: Rousseau, Mary F. "Pope John Paul II's Letter on the Dignity and Vocation of Women: the call to communion." Communio 16 (Winter 1989)

The Pill Kills...

2009-06-09T10:41:00.000-07:00

This week all across the nation people are protesting the pill and trying to inform the populace about the harmful effects it is having on women. In reality, the pill that is used to avoid pregnancies is not only killing babies but is actually killing the women who use it. Here are some of the cases from thepillkills.com:

Why is it that Julie Hennessey, a 31-year-old Irish woman, died of a blood clot after taking the birth control pill? The pill caused her to develop deep vein thrombosis. 2

What about Ashley Lewis, a 17-year-old high school junior from St. Louis, Missouri? Ashley died after developing a blood clot in her lung, because she was wearing the birth control patch for six months. 3

Tanya Hayes, a 24-year-old Australian woman who died from a pulmonary embolism because of the combination of the birth control pill Yasmin and another drug, Accutane. 4

A 24-year-old mother of two children had been taking oral contraceptives for several years and had been doing so up to one month before having an operation. This young mother died seven days after the operation. It was determined that she had an increased risk of postoperative venous thrombosis, due to taking the oral contraceptives. 6

Zakiya Kennedy, an 18-year-old fashion student from New York who hoped to be a model, died after using the patch. 7

Not only that, but "Studies show that most women who have died from the use of the pill or other birth control products have died from blood clots, heart attacks, and pulmonary embolisms. As you can see on our side effects link, the pill also causes many other serious problems such as cancer, pelvic inflammatory disease, depression and much more." (the pill kills)

For more information on the pill and its side effects, click here.

The love of the Trinity is imprinted within us, says Pope...

2009-06-09T07:03:00.000-07:00

Very often we get this idea of God being this old man with a long beard, sitting upon His throne in Heaven and forcing us to do His bidding. How far that is from the truth! In reality, God is Love!

Pope Benedict, in his most recent Angelus address, expounds on this truth that the divine love of the Trinity is imprinted in all of creation, especially humans:

VATICAN CITY, JUNE 7, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Each person carries an imprint of the Trinity and its tendency toward love in his genetic material, affirms Benedict XVI.[...]

Christ revealed that "God is love 'not in the unity of a single person, but in the Trinity of a single substance,'” the Holy Father said, quoting the preface.[...]

"Three Persons who are one God because the Father is love, the Son is love, the Spirit is love. God is love and only love, most pure, infinite and eternal love."

"The Trinity does not live in a splendid solitude," he added, "but is rather inexhaustible font of life that unceasingly gives itself and communicates itself."[...]

"The 'name' of the Most Holy Trinity is in a certain way impressed upon everything that exists, because everything that exists, down to the least particle, is a being in relation, and thus God-relation shines forth, ultimately creative Love shines forth," he said.[...]

Benedict XVI affirmed that there is proof that human beings are made in the image of the Trinity, because "only love makes us happy, because we live in relation, and we live to love and be loved."

"Using an analogy suggested by biology," he concluded, "we could say the human 'genome' is profoundly imprinted with the Trinity, of God-Love.”

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Our distorted vision of beauty...

2009-06-08T09:12:00.000-07:00

In our world today, we have a false sense of beauty. This sense of beauty tends to make an unreasonable demand on men and women of all ages. Our culture requires us to look so perfect that it is unrealistic. The media does this by equating self-worth and dignity with the standards of beauty that they artificially create. As a result, we end up distorting ourselves and our very God-given beauty that we were created with in order to conform to the standards of the world and to be loved others.

This is not how it is supposed to be.

Above all, people should not love us based on our exterior perfection that in the end is merely an artificial facade, but instead love us because we are human persons, made in the image and likeness of God. We are of infinite value and worth, no matter what the standards. Even the most dejected of society have infinite worth because they are humans. Our very nature as human beings puts us even above the angels in Heaven!

We should not have to change ourselves so radically in order to be beautiful. When it comes down to it, we are humans and therefore infinitely beautiful!

To help illustrate the insane amount of artifical beauty that is manufactured in today's world (which in the end makes unreasonable demands on the people), here is a great commercial by Dove that shows the evolution of a woman as she is prepared for an advertisement.

As the Year of the Priest approaches...

2009-06-05T09:28:00.000-07:00

ROME, JUNE 4, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Priests need to know that the Church loves them and is proud of them, which is why Benedict XVI has called for a Year for Priests, according to the prefect of the Vatican's clergy congregation.

This celebratory year begins in just over two weeks, with vespers on the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, June 19. It will close in June of 2010.

[...]

This initiative from the Pope takes place in a moment of a great expansion of a new culture: Today a postmodern, relativistic, urban, pluralistic, secularized, laicist culture dominates, in which priests must live their vocation and mission.

The challenge is to understand how to be a priest in this new time, not to condemn the world but to save the world, like Jesus, who did not come to condemn the world but to save it.

The priest should do this from his heart, with a lot of openness, without demonizing society. He should be integrated within it with the missionary joy of wanting to bring Jesus Christ to the people of this society.

It is necessary to have this opportunity so that everyone prays with and for priests, to convoke the priests to pray, to do this in the best possible way in the current society and, moreover, eventually to come up with initiatives so that priests can have better conditions to live their vocation and mission.

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