Traditional Roman Catholic Thoughts

Traditional Roman Catholic Thoughts

Reintroducing Logic and Reason to the Age of Sentimentalism

A New Man

Well, I have returned. For those of you who were wondering why in my recent post I mentioned I was going to be gone for so long, I can now give you the answer.

I’m married now! Hooray! I married my best friend on July 14. It was a beautiful Mass (which I will recollect later in greater detail) as well as reception. Not to mention the Honeymoon was amazing as well as we set sail on Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas for a 7 night Eastern Caribbean cruise.

I will talk about the cruise in greater detail as well, as I did learn a new outlook on life, which I think could be quite practical in how we view our day to day worldview. I learned to be much more appreciative of what I have in life and to be thankful for everything that I have.

On top of that, I can already tell that I am different. There are habits that I have noticed that have already disappeared, which surprises me. I knew that marriage would make me grow more in my faith, and give me graces that I didn’t have prior, but I did not expect them to happen this fast, I figured I would need more time in order for them to sink their roots.

So far, being married is great. It is nice to be with the woman of my dreams at every possible second and not have to worry about when she has to go home. She is always home, which warms my heart thinking about. The one thing I am looking forward to completing soon, would be the whole legality of becoming married (bank accounts, licenses, insurance, etc). But, with time it’ll slowly get done and before we know it that’ll be over.

Marriage is wonderful. I want to talk more about it, but I will wait til later when I can dedicate the proper amount of time to discussing its wonders, as well as spend some more time in thought (I know you expect quality when you come here).

I was also requested a couple of ideas for future blog posts. At my wedding, our wedding coordinator after talking with her wanted to hear my conversion story. Obviously, I couldn’t tell her everything because we didn’t have an hour or two to give my entire story. She asked if I had it here, in which I told her no, and so, needless to say, she requested it. I’ll start working on that soon, as I have several versions and I need to pray about which version I am going to post to make public. Granted, I have already made the most intense version public in a talk I gave, but I will probably give that here. Some time needs to pass before I can post it here.

I still have to write some more on Mortal Sin as I haven’t touched any of that for awhile. So, I have quite a few things to write about and I will get started here soon. Right now, I am busy getting everything reorganized, but, I’m not super worried.

Things are going well as a married man. Its much better so far than I thought it would be (not that I had anything negative to worry about, I knew it’d be good, just didn’t realize HOW good). If you have discerned that your vocation is marriage, you will enjoy it. It is a great experience and it will begin an entirely new chapter in your life (heck, I’d argue it begins a whole new book in your library).

Jeff July 31, 2012 1 Comment Permalink

Where Did Father Corapi Disappear To?

What happened with Father Corapi? I had completely forgotten about him until I was talking with a priest on Friday and his name came up.

Father Corapi appears to have completely dropped off of the face of the earth. After the scandal hit last summer, he was in the news quite often, at least within the Catholic blogosphere. He even started his renegade website under his code name “The Black Sheep Dog”, and ran his own Facebook campaign denying everything.

After his order the SOLT (Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity) ruled that he was guilty, along with violating his vow of poverty, Father Corapi went even more renegade and argued that they had no right to intrude into his private life. The ironic point in this statement is how all Catholics are called to be obedient to the Church authority, depending on our state in life. Not to mention, when you belong to an order, you have to follow the order’s rules, which he did not…

Looking around on the internet though, I have not been able to find any information of Father Corapi’s Black Sheep Dog website or Facebook page. It seems that the site looks to be an auction site now…go figure. It is interesting how Father has somehow managed to completely disappear without even a mention. There are still a lot of tribute Facebook pages asking for prayers and his return, but not much mention on what is currently going on in the sad state of affairs.

I really hope that his disappearance is a sign that he is in some way trying to reconcile himself with the Church and is in the process of returning to the State of Grace and rediscovering himself (all in the positive, of course). I believe we should keep him in our prayers still, and who knows…maybe he’ll return?

The Church is made up of sinners, no matter how often we want to overlook this simple fact. St. Paul constantly wrote about his difficulties in his epistles. St. Augustine constantly struggled with his past as well. Saints are normal people who fight off their temptations when they arise and turn to God. I’m not saying that Father Corapi is a Saint, because we know that he is not. A good determining factor on if you are a Saint is if you are reading this blog. If you are reading this, you are not a Saint, but hopefully, you are a Saint in Progress.

I really do hope that Father Corapi returns. His talks are always amazing and inspirational. Not to mention, they are jam packed with the Truth of the Catholic Church. Hopefully, he realizes this and makes a strong comeback. He could always use this experience to talk about how even when we are doing well, we must always stand up against Satan as he attacks us always.

I guess only time will tell at this point. Father Corapi, I’ll be praying for you.

Jeff July 18, 2012 1 Comment Permalink

A Brief Update

So much is going on right now that my head feels like it may explode. So, needless to say, I will not be able to blog for the next few weeks. Its not that I don’t want to or that I have run out of things to say (although it does seem funny that the literal second I sit down to write something my head goes blank), but more that I don’t really have the time as of right now to keep up with everything.

I will be on vacation for a few weeks. If I happen to have time to comment or share something, I will. Politically, there is much going on. However, I don’t want this to be a political blog. I will try my best to only comment politically when it involves the Church or Christianity or some form of government overstepping its boundaries to hurt a people of faith. I feel that the commentary I have done thus far has proven this.

Now, nothing bad is going on. In fact, it is a celebration as I am getting married. God led me to a beautiful woman who I will get to share the rest of my life with. This is an amazing gift as I am really lost without her. Prayers are greatly appreciated as the stress of all the last minute details are beginning to get to us. Ultimately though, we have placed everything in God’s hands. I’m very excited for this next step in my life. It will be wonderful.

I suppose I could tell the story of how we met, or what our wedding was like (liturgically speaking ;)), but I don’t have time for that as of right now. So, if you are interested, leave a comment as to what you want. Heck, if you have a specific request, feel free. I find that I can write better when I have a clear topic to discuss.

So, until next time, which who knows when that’ll be. Cheerio!

Jeff July 11, 2012 1 Comment Permalink

Book Review: Rediscovering Catholicism

UPDATE: I have since read many other books and have come to realize that Matthew Kelly’s version of Catholicism is not the solution and is barely even Catholic. While I do not believe in removing posts that I have published unless absolutely necessary, I will leave this here so you can see what I thought at this point in my life. I will have the record show that I no longer agree with this review, so keep that in mind when you read it.

I just finished reading Rediscovering Catholicism the other day. So, I thought I’d give my thoughts on it.

The book is quite possibly one of the best books that I have read on Catholicism (UPDATE: No it isn’t, I hadn’t read many good Catholic books at this point in my life, and in hindsight, this book isn’t the best. Not even close.). Matthew Kelly gives a very simple, yet highly informative look on the traditions of our faith, as well as the importance of it. He doesn’t get highly technical, which is fine, because the purpose of the book is for those who have drifted away from the faith, or who haven’t really been that active in the faith, to understand it, and take off with it.

The simplicity of this book gives it incredible power, seeing as it doesn’t matter where you are at in your faith journey, you will be able to readily and easily pick it up. I almost wish that my first Catholic book was this easy, but, who knows if I would have converted.

Matthew Kelly picks up all the important parts of the Catholic prayer life: Mass, Confession, the Rosary, just to name a few. He discusses the importance of each one of these Sacraments or sacramentals and gives reasons for embracing them. As always, he uses good examples to go along with it.

There is a section on talking about his favorite Saints. He gives a pretty decent length bio of each one and talks about why they are important to him. After this he mentions how we each need to pick up a few Saints that admire us and learn about them. After we have finished with this piece, it’s time for us to start praying to them as well as to begin allowing them to inspire us to become Saints or “the-best-version-of-ourselves” as he has coined the term.

I have a list of books that I believe are beneficial to me and help me to grow as a person. I have a “Read Every Year” list as well as a “Read Every 5 Years” list. This book will be going on the first list, but I have reason to believe that realistically I’ll probably get to it more every 5 years. I’ve never been inspired so much and a lot of the posts that I have been discussing lately are because of this.

This is a book for all Catholics, no matter where you are at in your faith journey or how much you practice or don’t practice. I believe you will be inspired regardless of where you fall in the spectrum. I do not think that this is a book you would give to your Protestant or Atheist friend. I say this because you sort of need to be Catholic in order to read it, but, as I always say, if they are willing to read it, then go ahead. I suppose it depends on the situation. I would recommend lending it to fallen-away Catholics if they are willing to read it.

What is nice about this book is that through Matthew Kelly’s Dynamic Catholic program, you can get this book relatively cheap through his website, www.dyanamiccatholic.com. You can even order additional copies for relatively cheap. I purchased about a dozen copies myself as a gift for my Religious Ed Confirmation students, only to find out that at their confirmation, the Archdiocese had decided to give them this book as well. Luckily for me, I have a few people in mind that I can give copies to.

Jeff July 2, 2012 4 Comments Permalink