Traditional Roman Catholic Thoughts

Traditional Roman Catholic Thoughts

Reintroducing Logic and Reason to the Age of Sentimentalism

Breakup of the Political Parties

I’m beginning to question the two party political system that we have in the United States.

Republicans and Democrats are the only
two choices for voters.

Too often we have two candidates, one from the Republican’s and one from the Democrat’s running, and  to be generous, they are both….lacking. Yet, because of the dominance of the two parties, picking a third option is considered a “wasted vote”, and the fear of the other party winning prevents most voters from going this route.

Frankly, I’d like to see a break up of the Republicans and the Democrats. I’d like to see multiple parties running side-by-side (yes, I know what you are saying, “but there are Independents and Greens and Libertarians and etc, etc”) that are all viable choices.

Right now, the two parties are too polar, and by this I mean they are complete opposites of each other. There hardly is bi-partisan work being done. Its pretty much if you are Republican and a Democrat bill comes up, vote it down, and vice versa. I understand to some extent that because of the differing opinion between the two parties, but there are many bills that get turned down due to this.

Maybe this is a bad idea, maybe I’m on to something, or maybe the system is working great the way it is. I’m not sure. It just seems like far too often I’m tired of seeing the hypocrisies that come out of both camps.

I leave the comments open for you to discuss…

Jeff August 30, 2012 1 Comment Permalink

Spiritual Discernments

I’ve been trying to figure out what direction I am being called within many things. There are a lot of things going on within the realm of my Catholic spirituality that I’m trying to figure out. Mostly the things I want to talk about, the talks I’d eventually like to give, potential books I’d like to write, the Young Adult group I’m trying to start, my faith life, my career direction and even my current prayer routine (yes, our careers are part of our faith journey as they are our vocation).

Its kind of frustrating to some point. I’d like to be able to say “yes, I will write Saturday for two hours between the hours of noon and two”, but of course, you can’t always force the keys on the keyboard to input into the text editor to display onto the screen the words that you’d like to say or that the Holy Spirit is guiding you towards, they are either there or they aren’t (although sometimes they can be summoned). So, I’d like to at least keep up putting out a post a week at minimum, but its tough. The frustrating part about it is that a lot of times I’ll have something incredibly awesome I’d like to share, pull up the editor and *poof* its gone. Incredibly frustrating.

So, I think what I need to do, is spend more time pulling out the laptop when I come up with something and just start writing it down. That, or when I do spend the time writing I just write what comes to mind. I want the words to flow forth like that of St. Paul, St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, but alas, I am not them. I think that is the most difficult thing for me to realize is that I am me and my writing habits are different. They were also much older and all I have heard about are their successes and not their defeats. Who knows how many times St. Augustine put the ink quill to the parchment before coming up with his masterpiece “Confessions”? I suppose it’ll take time, and I believe that my writing is improving as I am discovering myself through this process.

Eventually, I’d like to give talks on my conversion story and other aspects of Catholicism. It is something I am passionate about. I love discussing and teaching the Faith, which is why I began teaching Religious Education two years ago. I am taking the year off as my plate is already full, that with the Young Adult group and other ministries that I am hoping to be a part of. But, I feel that I have the gift of speech, as I have noticed I seem to be able to find common ground with my audience and bring them in when I talk. Or maybe I’m just full of myself, you tell me.

I think the biggest part of my life is getting into a good prayer routine. I discussed this awhile back about figuring out what you want to do with your prayer life, and when you figure that out, to keep a note about it somewhere. This is important, and I’m beginning to question if a month is too long to determine if something is too much or too little. Some weeks, nothing is going on, and it would make more sense to add more, and some weeks there is a lot going on and it’d make more sense to drop a few items. I say this as I have yet to complete an accurate one month portrayal (I’m currently half way through), as I seem to make it about a week, before forgetting about it and getting off track. Trial and error is apart of life as it is a part of our spiritual journey. Remember that.

I’m currently working on a bunch of posts simultaneously. I’m hoping to have another post this week of something with a bit more substance, just because I have such a huge back log of posts that I want to put out, and because I want to be more regular with posting. There are many things going on in my head.

If you could offer up some prayers for me, I’d greatly appreciate it.

Jeff August 28, 2012 Leave A Comment Permalink

What Was The Original Sin?

We as humans have been born into Original Sin. We as Catholics talk about it all the time, yet we never really talk about what EXACTLY the Original Sin was. Sure, we know that God told Adam and Eve that they could eat off of any of the trees in the Garden of Eden except for one. The snake told Eve to go ahead and she grabbed it, ate it and gave it to Adam. Obviously, the sin was not listening to God. However, there is more to it then that. Looking at what scripture says, we read:

Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the animals that the LORD God had made. The serpent asked the woman, “Did God really tell you not to eat from any of the trees in the garden?” The woman answered the serpent: “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; it is only about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden that God said, ‘You shall not eat it or even touch it, lest you die.'” But the serpent said to the woman: “You certainly will not die! No, God knows well that the moment you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods who know what is good and what is bad.” The woman saw that the tree was good for food, pleasing to the eyes, and desirable for gaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized that they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves. Genesis 3:1-7

The serpent being Satan, for those of you who don’t know, is quite a tricky one. He tempts us with whatever it is that will be our biggest and greatest down fall. Upon inquiring if God really said that (notice the doubt that he throws at us to wonder if God is tricking us) and after Eve’s response of what exactly God said that “they will surely die”, Satan comes back with the lie “You certainly will not die!”. Now, Satan knows very well that God did not mean a literal death, but a spiritual death. In Genesis 2:25 Adam and Eve were naked and without shame. Now, after eating the fruit, they realized they were naked, and they felt shame.

When we sin, we disconnect ourselves from God. Satan knows this. He despises us and wants us to feel disconnected from God. He has pride issues. This is why he threw this at us.

Before I continue further, I haven’t answered the initial question. What was the original sin? Well, it says so right there “No, God knows well that the moment you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods who know what is good and what is bad”.

“You will be like gods”, or, the desire to be a god, determining what is good and what is bad. This is the original sin.

How often do we see society determine what is good and what is bad? All the time. We (as a society) say things like “Sure, the Catholic Church says this is wrong, but what do you believe?” Well, frankly, it doesn’t really matter what you believe. Belief in something, does not constitute a moral good. Yet, we constantly hear “well, I don’t believe that!”. What constitutes a moral good is whether it is indeed good or evil. Obviously, if it is evil, it doesn’t matter if someone believes it to be okay, for an act of evil, no matter what the intention may be, is always an evil act.

It is becoming more and more difficult to pick a mortal sin that society would agree is an act of evil, but I would imagine that most people would agree that murdering somebody for the sake of murder would be an act of evil. It doesn’t matter if a small minority of the population believes it to be a good thing, it is still evil.

You can look all through history and notice that there were acts of evil that were legal at one point or another (slavery, prostitution, death penalties), as well as agreed upon evil acts that are now legal (abortion).

The Church has always come out to condemn immoral activities. That is her mission, to spread the Gospel to all that will hear. The Church hates the sin, not the sinner, and this is how we are all supposed to view sin. However, there are many people who are committing the Original Sin of becoming gods to know what is right and wrong.

How many Catholics are there who are actively using birth control in their marriages? Translation: I determine what is right and wrong!

How many Catholics are there who are actively in support of abortion? Translation: I determine what is right and wrong!

How many Catholics are there who (insert favorite Catholic Church not supported activity here)? Translation: I determine what is right and wrong.

Every time we sin, we are falling into Original Sin. As every time we sin, we basically spit in God’s face and say “I don’t care if you say its wrong, I choose this!” It is important that we recognize this. I’m not perfect, I’m far from it. What I can tell you though, is as a sinner, I need to realize that when I choose to sin, I am turning my back on Christ. You do the same as well.

But, there is good news in all of this sadness and despair. The Sacrament of Reconciliation (confession) can save you. Christ came to forgive you and to take upon your sins. When you confess your sins to a priest, you are forgiven of those sins and are reborn as a new person. Your old sinful self dies, to be resurrected as a brand new person, free from those attachments. The memories will still be there, but the guilt and the spiritual consequences will be lifted from you. I urge you to go! No sin is too big for Jesus.

Jeff August 22, 2012 2 Comments Permalink

The Chick Fil A Debate

I always seem to be a day late and a dollar short whenever I comment on anything that’s going on within current events on this blog.

A lot of the times I take my time writing something, for starters, because I don’t have the time to write about it when it first comes out. Other times, I’d rather wait until I get all the facts and spend some time thinking about it and praying about it before I comment, as I hate to look like a fool when I’m wrong. And other times I don’t write on something because everyone else seems to have a comment.

Without further ado, I’ll state my comments and thoughts on the latest Chick-fil-a controversy. However, I’m going to try something different this time. I’ll do my best to give a more thorough analysis of the events that have been occurring.

On July 17, in an interview with the Baptist Press, Chick-fil-a President Dan Cathy responded to the question, what his stance on homosexual “marriage” was. As a practicing Christian, he responded honestly, that he didn’t believe that homosexuals should marry.

As you have already heard, this caused a huge media firestorm surrounding Chick-fil-a being a “hate” organization and somehow wanting to eliminate all homosexuals. Not really sure how this conclusion came about as there was nothing said that would imply this, but this is how knee-jerk reactions occur. From this, many groups were urging boycotts of Chick-fil-a.

After hearing a lot of noise on the internet, it seemed like everybody was boycotting the restaurant. However, August 1 was Chick-fil-a day, in which those that supported the company went to eat some tasty chicken, and on top of that, support free speech as well as traditional marriage. Chick-fil-a saw record sales for the day as a whole. Interesting!

Meanwhile, there was a man who berated an employee through the drive-in and thought it was a great idea to post this video on YouTube, in which he was properly berated by the internet and properly labeled an arse. He later lost his job, and the woman who was berated went on Fox News and forgave him. How awesome is that.

Now, here we are, several weeks later, and Chick-fil-a is no longer in the news as Paul Ryan being Mitt Romney’s Vice Presidential pick is now the hot item for the day (literally).

I firmly believe that everybody has a right to voice their opinions on what they believe in, for example, Starbucks, General Mills and a whole bunch of other company’s have come out in support of gay “marriage”. There aren’t lines of people who are boycotting these companies. (Although in Minnesota there was a nice boycott outside their office in which people “returned” GM products by throwing them in a dumpster (which later was given to a food shelf to help those that needed it)).

But, here’s a question that I ask the ENTIRE Christian/Catholic community.

If the small groups of people that firmly believe that everything that is contrary to natural law and Christianity has to make a lot of noise and threaten boycotts and lawsuits against companies that stand up for this, how come we aren’t doing the same when it comes to companies that support gay “marriage” and the like?

We should be boycotting Starbucks, General Mills and other companies that go out in support of gay “marriage”. From what I understand, those that support Traditional Marriage outweigh those that don’t. When you hear the liberal groups come out, it sounds like a whopping majority are in support, which in turn draws in more support as a lot of people like to be in the majority. So, if we had HUGE boycotts of these companies, how much louder would we be, the actual majority?

I think its important that we start standing up for traditional values and urge the companies that we buy from to support these values. After all, when a company profits off of your sale, and they use those profits to support their “values”, you in turn are supporting these values whether you think you are or not.

So, let’s start having our voices heard. Let’s be vocal! Preach the gospel!

Jeff August 14, 2012 2 Comments Permalink

Petition Alert: Dis-invite President Obama From Catholic Fundraiser

President Obama, who is the most pro-abortion President that we have ever had, as well as the President who has declared an all-out war on the Catholic Church, has been invited to a Catholic fundraiser in the Archdiocese of New York.

Below is a petition to Cardinal Dolan, requesting that he immediately dis-invite him. Please, if you have a moment, sign this and share with as many people as you can.

Seriously, what kind of Catholics are these people? Clearly they are misguided, or they are anti-Catholic Catholics.

Jeff August 6, 2012 Leave A Comment Permalink