Year of Faith: A living encounter with Jesus Christ

Over 250 people just finished participating with Benedict XVI in the General Synod of bishops on the New Evangelization. The Synod kicks off the year of the faith which opened in early October and will last most of 2013. How can we share our faith in today's world?

The Holy Father has also made it the theme of all of his Wednesday audiences. Every Wednesday, he will talk about some aspect of faith.

Here's a short excerpt from last Wednesday:

In our series of catecheses for the Year of Faith, we now consider the nature of faith. More than simply knowledge about God, faith is a living encounter with him. Through faith we come to know and love God, who reveals himself in the life, death and resurrection of Christ, and in so doing reveals the deepest meaning and truth of our human existence. Faith offers us sure hope and direction amid the spiritual confusion of our times. Before all else, faith is a divine gift which enables us to open our hearts and minds to God’s word and, through Baptism, to share in his divine life within the community of the Church. Yet faith is also a profoundly human act, engaging our intelligence and freedom. When we welcome God’s invitation and gift, our lives, and the world around us, are transformed. May this Year of Faith help us to live our faith fully, and to invite others to hear and welcome God’s word, opening their hearts to the eternal life which faith promises. Benedict XVI, 24 October 2012

Tell me what faith means for you!

Giving and receiving new life: What is baptism all about?

Should I tell them that it was my first time or not? When to do it? It would be a great opener, and everything seems more special. But they might get nervous. I could tell them at the end, but by that time it wouldn’t mean much. 

Here I was about to perform my first baptism, both nervous and excited. We, men, like to achieve things, to do things for others. We like to be able to accomplish things that support and sustain others – earn a living, raise children, be the best.

When life gets tough: Travis Mills starts walking again.

I've been meaning to post about this story for a while. When I watched this video, I couldn't wait any longer.

Rimsha Masih: faith, freedom, music, and what's really going on.

Each day we hear of more intolerance and persecution of religion. It can be more subtle in the failure to respect freedom of conscience in providing health care or not allowing politicians to express their beliefs openly.

Other times, it is dramatic and violent like we've recently seen in Syria and Pakistan. The latest seems to be the story of Rimsha Masih, a young handicapped girl in Pakistan accused of blasphemy for carrying a rubbish sack that contained burnt fragments of the Koran without her knowledge.

Ooberfuse, the same music project that I blogged about a couple of months ago (His Blood Cries Out) has released a new single in less than a week's time responding to the call for justice and charity.

They have hit it on the head, in the face of these incredible injustices, it's clear that we must:

Turn the tide of hate to the tide of love!
Set her free!

Diving, survival, and success - Chris Mears

January 2009. Chris Mears participates in the Youth Olympic Festival in Australia. The British diver is one of the best. But as the 16th year old dives of the platform, he has no idea what is about to unfold.
 
As he hits the water, something's not right. Something is terribly wrong. He ruptures his spleen and is hurried to the hospital.

But the nightmare continues - he loses 5 pints of blood and is rushed into surgery. But a 7 hour seizure and 3 day coma follow.

His slow recovery only starts after a month long stay in a Sydney hospital. But a lot has happened in three years.

The Olympics: Gold Medals, Character, and What Really Matters

We've been glued to the screen for a few days now, at least when we can. The thousands competing in London for Olympic gold captivate our spirit.

There is something noble about the human body, the human person, straining with everything reach new records and conquer new heights for self and country. We would all like to stand tall on the platform, where that medal, watch the flag, and hear our anthem.

But only a select few make it to the Olympics and even less leave with gold. What makes the difference? Why do some end in tears, others in exultation?

For the next couple of days, I hope to write about what drives Olympic athletes and so many others to achieve true excellence.

What do you think? What is true success? How can it be achieved?

Living the (Extra)ordinary: LC Deaconate Ordination 2012

It's hard to write again after so long. I've been a deacon for just over a month. My life hasn't changed a lot, then again, it's been completely transformed.

I'm still studying, working, eating, sleeping, praying, and playing. Just that, I'm a deacon and will be forever. But what does that mean?

This seems to be the story of our lives. I shared this in one of my first homilies because we all experience it. Often the most meaningful moments of our lives come and go with the most normalcy. We spend hours, weeks, and even years preparing for something that happens in the blink of an eye. Then it's over, and nothing seems different though we know that everything has changed. Marriage, birth, death, and so on.

Perhaps it hit me hardest in the actual ceremony of the ordination to the diaconate.

What's my vocation? Dear 17 year old me...

Yesterday was World Day of Prayer for Vocations. Late again, but hopefully you said a prayer for me anyway! What is vocation? It comes from the Latin to call. It's not just the vocation to the priesthood - we all have a one!

Last night, I got to tell my story for the umpteenth time. It's funny, I don't get tired of repeating. Not just because I get to talk about myself - finding happiness and fulfillment is what's most important to everyone.

Two fellow seminarians and I went to dinner with a wonderful couple from Idaho. Before the appetizers reached the table, Br. James was well along in recounting his vocation story, and Br. Andrew didn't stop until we had finished our pasta. His was already cold.

Then it was my turn! Just that morning, I was thinking about what a vocation really is. But wait a second, let's back up a bit...

A pilgrimage to remember: Church-a-thon

Thanks for the support, and thought you might enjoy this!

Check out the details: Our journey.

The Original Church-a-thon 

Priorities - Who to love?

Life's busy! We have to do what's most important. Sorry, I haven't blogged recently. I figure that finishing my studies and getting ordained a priest is the priority for now. I hope you will agree - I'm counting on the prayers.

Now that I finished THE paper for my bachelor's in theology on St. Augustine's view of the human will, I hope to have a little more time.For now, I read this yesterday in the breviary. It's worth reading once, twice, three times!

His Blood Cries Out: Ooberfuse and what happened to Shahbaz Bhatti.

They wrote the theme song for the Pope's visit to England. They peformed center stage in Madrid, and last summer ooberfuse was asked to perform at a high-profile peace rally in London’s Trafalgar Square.

The occasion was the 1st anniversary of the assassination of Pakistan’s Minister for Minorities, Shahbaz Bhatti. Ooberfuse is a music project that blends ingredients together that are usually kept apart. Whether it be the introduction of eastern flavours into western pop or faith inspirations into secular traditions the music challenges the tired conventions and formulas of regular everyday pop music. Hopefully the result of this experimentation, an explosion of soulful ryhthmic sounds, raises minds, hearts and souls.

Happy Easter!

Strength for the Journey: What Fortitude, Church-a-thon, and Holy Wednesday have in common (Lenten Virtues Part 2)

Holy Wednesday - April 4, 2012

You're probably asking what the Church-a-thon has to do with Holy Week let alone the virtue of fortitude. One reflection from the pilgrimage sums it all up? I've always wondered why Christ got up from a fall while carrying the cross.

Why not just die lying there? Getting up doesn't seem to make things any better. He just has to prolong his agony. Yet, he was a man on a mission - a mission of love. He wouldn't rest until he had given all he had.

Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. John 13:1

Fortitude is a virtue that can be considered a kind of firmness of spirit that allows us to pursue and obtain a difficult goal even when it's dangerous. But it's also a gift of the Holy Spirit that gives us strength in practicing virtue, rids us of mediocrity, makes us courageous before enemies and obstacles, enables us to suffer with patience and joy, and gives us heroism in the great things and the small things.

We need fortitude whether it be a pilgrimage to thirty Churches, our daily cross, the pilgrimage of our lives, or an incredibly difficult sacrifice like Christ made on the cross.

3 simple steps to forming fortitude

1) Fulfill your duties with perfection no matter how difficult.
2) Rather than asking God to take away your cross, ask for the strength to carry it.
3) Voluntarily and faithfully practice self-denial to become more like Christ.


No back to the Church-a-thon and how I formed just a little more fortitude while praying for all of you!

5:10: Waking up... late.
Beep, beep, beep! The obnoxious noise finally ended as I hit the snooze button. Wait, we're already late. We're supposed to leave in 10 minutes. There is no way that is going to happen!

Strength for the Journey - Church-a-thon and Fortitude

A pilgrimage evokes the believer's personal journey in the footsteps of the Redeemer…the pilgrim progresses along the path of Christian perfection, striving to attain, with the support of God's grace, “the state of the perfect man, to the measure of the full maturity of Christ” (Eph  4:13).

John Paul II, Incarnationis Mysterium, 7

Thanks for all of your prayer and support. We had a great pilgrimage to 32 churches in Rome starting with Mass at St. Mary Major - the last Station Church.  

More coming soon on the journey, the virtue, and Holy Week!

 

What is love? Two easy steps (Lenten Virtues Part 1)

The last serious post was almost a month ago, Lent, grace, virtue, and so on. I haven't come down with a strange Asian flu. I haven't been abducted my a strange sect, and my social media accounts have not been hacked. I have, however, been very bad about blogging. Better late than never, I guess.

I promised to talk about virtues. Well here's the first: LOVE!

Yes, it's a virtue, not a catchword or a feeling. We sometimes equate love with happiness, emotion, even sex. Sometimes, it seems like we're on the outside looking in - we long to love and be loved. It just never seems to work. These are not love although they can be related.

Annie Asmussen: adventure, love, joy, and peace - where to find it.

Life's been busy, and blogging hasn't. I figure that there are priorities and life, and living them is more important than writing about them. Exams have been very interesting, and I have one more on Baptism. Preparation for ordination continues to be intense, and life always brings surprises.

One of these surprises has been the story of Annie Asmussen. A young woman giving her life full-time  to God and others. I got the chance to ask her a couple of questions, and here are the answers. You can find out more on her blog: Way of Love.

"So I am a missionary to love the empty, unhappy, and falsely happy. I've seen the most hardened hearts find peace, freedom and joy in Jesus."

Church-a-thon

I'm busy studying and working, and therefore, not blogging. Hope to change that this week, but in the meantime...

We’re organizing a Church-a-thon.

890 Churches spread across an area of 5.4 square miles – that’s Rome! We plan to visit 30 by foot on one Saturday—no subway, no cars, no hitch-hiking… and no motorinos (Italian for moped).
 

Here is where you can help me.  I need your prayer intentions: people who need prayers - family situations, projects, or worries to put before Christ on the altar.
 

Find out more and please send this on.

Dating fast: filling our heart - sex, food, or true love?

Pleasures almost seem to have become human rights!

We not only have the "right" to food but any kind of free sexual expression. Topping the charts right next to abolishing hunger are the attempts mainstream abortion, contraception, and homosexual marriage. Somehow, it's all the same level.

What does fasting and Lent have to do with this? Reminding us that MAN is more than an animal. We don't just feed ourselves and reproduce. We were made to love, and love involves sacrifice. In Lent we are reminded of Christ's ultimate loving sacrifice on the cross, and we're called to imitate him in some small way!

Author Katherine Becker has a really neat take on things in the Dating Fast.

"The Dating Fast challenges each of us to exercise the courage needed to trust in God and trust in Him to lead us to the fulfillment of our hearts' desires."  

    —Fr. Luke A. Spannagel

Kevin McShane: Walk-on to Captain, a story of determination and passion.

“The first thing is, if you’re on time, you’re late. If you’re early, you’re on time.

"Come to practice early not because coach has you get up early or because someone else is getting up early. Get there early because you want to work hard and you want to get better.

"And if you are going to get to the gym early, bring somebody with you. It's really important to make this team and this whole Beaver atmosphere feel like a family and a brotherhood.''

Kevin McShane is an ordinary athlete with an extraordinary attitude. He plays basketball for the Oregon State Beavers. It's not the playing time, the points, or the rebounds that stand out. He walked on, and in fact his college career didn't get off to a good start.

But he was determined. “I was told it was going to be hard. I was told by my own father that it was going to be too hard and I didn’t want to do it.’’

But he did it. He's the lone senior on the team and receiving a basketball scholarship. 

What do we really want? Are we convinced of ourselves. What effort do we put in?

Read more here.

Lent, Grace, Virtue, and Pelagianism: God's role in making us happy and holy.

Back to Tebow, just for a moment. Tebowing on the sidelines and preaching in front of the cameras, some seem to think every ball to leave his hand is divinely guided - nothing short of a miracle.

But is the football really some divine remote-control hovercraft, Tebow really a kind of divine puppet?

The expense is reckoned, the enterprise is begun; it is of God; it cannot be withstood.

Edmund Campion was a man on fire! He couldn't be stopped. As a Jesuit and a missionary, he was a man convinced of who called him, who he was, and the task at hand. Nothing was going to get in his way! 

"And touching our Society, be it known to you that we have made a league—all the Jesuits in the world, whose succession and multitude must overreach all the practice of England—cheerfully to carry the cross you shall lay upon us, and never to despair your recovery, while we have a man left to enjoy your Tyburn, or to be racked with your torments, or consumed with your prisons. The expense is reckoned, the enterprise is begun; it is of God; it cannot be withstood. So the faith was planted: So it must be restored."

This reminds me of the Gospel Quote:

Can anything cut us off from the love of Christ -- can hardships or distress, or persecution, or lack of food and clothing, or threats or violence;  as scripture says: For your sake we are being massacred all day long, treated as sheep to be slaughtered?

Rm 8:35-37

What about us? What's our mission? Are we convinced?

As a side note, please comment if you have any suggestions on the logo.

Michael Murphy and the Ultimate Sacrifice: A Navy Seal on a Mission.

Read Lone Survivor? The harrowing story of a Navy Seal team on a special mission takes Marcus Luttrell to the brink of death. His comrades, however, never made it to tell the story.
 
After long months of preparation and elite training, they thought they were ready for anything.

On June 27, 2005, Lieutenant Michael Murphy was called to make the ultimate sacrifice. As part of the four-man SEAL team that infiltrated deep into the Afghan mountains in Operation Redwing, he made a phone call that would cost him his life to give his comrades a chance of rescue.

From the citation

Ignoring his own wounds and demonstrating exceptional composure, Lieutenant Murphy continued to lead and encourage his men. When the primary communicator fell mortally wounded, Lieutenant Murphy repeatedly attempted to call for assistance for his beleaguered teammates.

Realizing the impossibility of communicating in the extreme terrain, and in the face of almost certain death, he fought his way into open terrain to gain a better position to transmit a call. This deliberate, heroic act deprived him of cover, exposing him to direct enemy fire. Finally achieving contact with his headquarters, Lieutenant Murphy maintained his exposed position while he provided his location and requested immediate support for his team.

For more information.

Tebowing or Zaching - what to do, and why to do it.

Thousands have taken a knee recently - seriously or in jest. Not everyone likes the gesture or the man, but it stands for something. Tim Tebow has become a national, I dare to say, global figure of hope that faith cannot not only be reconciled with success but is a necessary element.

Recently, an eighteen year old freshman at the University of Maryland, Zach Leder patented another gesture. Zaching has swept the country in an outpouring of support.

Silence: iNoise and the battle for our soul. 4 Simple Steps.

Reading this on the computer? On the iPhone? You only sat down for a moment, but someone already Tweeted you. Now, a FaceBook friend request - accept or decline? But here's a blog post from some seminarian in Rome. Sounds like the phone, and out comes the earbud. Back to FaceBook, and wow, that’s a great picture…

STOP! We need a brick wall to stop our mental freight train.

Our world is full of frenzy, distraction, and gratification. Every day more Tweets, IM's, texts, FaceBooks (don’t know if that works in the plural), and calls flood into our heads.

Silence! “Why?” you ask.

Anthony Robles: What it really takes to win!

Some of dream of being National Sport Champs, but most of us never made it despite the fact that we have two arms and two legs. Anthony Robles has one leg, and he made.

In high school, he won two State Titles and was took fourth and seventh place in the past two seasons at Arizona State. But this year he finally took the NCAA title in the 125 pound class.

Will he continue? Yes, he will the battle's not over. But now instead of on the mat, he will be at the microphone as a motivational speaker for young people. "I want to help those kids rise out of nothing and achieve their goals, especially in wrestling. So I'll definitely be around."

How to pray II: Okay, I'm kneeling, now what?

Got a little long winded on prayer last week - sorry. It's like an oral exam when the teacher asks an unexpected question. We may not have a great answer, but we go on and on to show you know something

This time, I'll keep this short - three questions on prayer and three answers. (1) It's not that easy, any suggestions? (2) Okay, I'm kneeling (sitting or standing for that matter), now what? And (3) Where can I read more about this?

A Hero's Defense of the Faith - Edmund Campion's Ten Reasons

Edmund Campion came to England a fugitive but an apostle determined to preach the truth. His first writing upon arriving from Rome was his Brag, but The Ten Reasons were his last and most deliberate defense of his heroic mission to England and to his faith. The conclusion of that work. What fire!

Gold, glory, pleasures, lusts. Despise them. What are they but bowels of earth, high-sounding air, a banquet of worms, fair dunghills. Scorn them. Christ is rich, who will maintain you: He is a King, who will provide you: He is a sumptuous entertainer, who will feast you; He is beautiful, who will give in abundance all that can make you happy. Enrol yourselves in His service, that with Him you may gain triumphs, and show yourselves men truly most learned, truly most illustrious. Farewell.

Campion, the Priest

Campion, the Hero

Great Quote from the Brag

Lessons from the Cockpit: Flying and writing to give us a new perspective on life.

I'm new to blogging. Finding a new blog and thus, blogger is like uncovering hidden treasure. New perspective, experience, difference, and similarity. Things we agree on and things we don't! But all with a lot of insight to teach us. 

Christopher Laney and www.lessonsfromthecockpit.com
offer new insights on flying and life. See what he has to say.

Feb. 3, National Holiday? Four Soldiers and Men of God and their Ultimate Sacrifice.

I just missed a National Holiday. February 3rd came and went just like any other day despite the unanimous resolution of the American Congress in 1988.

Feb. 3, 1943, when one of the most remarkable and inspiring acts of heroism in the history of warfare took place during World War II. It is a day to honor the heroism of the Four Chaplains, who selflessly gave their lives “that others may live.”

NFL Super Bowl vs. Pro Bowl - a difference? We play like we live and we live like we play!

The Pro Bowl seems less and less a sporting event - at worst, a farce and at best, a full payed Hawaiian vacation for fan favorites. 

But football and sports in any shape continue to fascinate millions - why? There is some competitive element deep down in man that has to battle it out on the field. He has to prove his mettle to himself and others.

How to pray: FaceBook, Twitter, What it isn't, and 6 Steps to Communicating with God.

We're constantly communicating with people. We prove that man is a social animal with the thousand different gadgets to talk and chat. We have computers, FaceBook, SKYPE, instant messengers, cell phones, IPads, and just about anything else possible to stay in touch.

But are we in touch with God? He's the most important person in our life, considering that he created, redeemed, and keeps us alive. Yet numerous excuses jump to mind - I don't have time; I don't know how.

He's not on FaceBook. He doesn't have email. We don't know his cell number. So how can we stay in touch with him?

Prayer! A whole lot could be said on the subject, but let's start with the basics of how to start a conversation with God.