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Showing posts with the label being Catholic

Mass Murder: No Fast Fix

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This year's Ash Wednesday and Valentine's Day were the same day. Folks exchanged greeting cards. Many got their foreheads marked with ashes. And 17 were killed at a high school. Someone's already called last Wednesday's mass murder the 'Valentine's Day Massacre of 2018.' The famous Valentine's Day Massacre was in 1929 . It happened when a Chicago gang tried resolving a disagreement over bootleg booze. It didn't succeed. Not quite.... ...I'm quite sure the 17 folks killed at Stoneman Douglas High School will be missed by their families, friends, and acquaintances.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Lent: Not Doing Too Much

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Quite a bit happened this week. We started Lent's 40-day stay with our Lord in the desert. Not literally. That's mentioned in today's Gospel: Mark 1:12 - 15 . I've talked about deserts and Deuteronomy, penance and porridge, before. ( February 11, 2018 ; February 26, 2017 ) There's a more technical — and more useful, probably — discussion in Catechism of the Catholic Church 538 - 540 .... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Skydiving and Lent

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Lent is fast approaching. How I see it and what I do is up to me. Ash Wednesday is next week, so I don't have much time to decide. Christians, Catholic and otherwise, in my culture generally change what we eat for this season. I'm a Catholic, so I've got rules. But not all that many. Mostly they're guidelines. I put a link to my territory's rules about diet under ' Fast & Abstinence ' near the end of this post.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Changing Rules

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Today's tech and social norms aren't what they were in my youth. It's exciting. Or bewildering. Or unstable. Or dynamic. or any of a myriad other options. Change happens, even if I don't approve. What matters is making good choices. More about that later. These are the 'Good Old Days' I'll indulge in nostalgia. Occasionally. Parts of my past are nice places to visit. But I wouldn't like living there. Taking a stroll down memory lane lets me see the best times places, people and experiences. It's a 'best-of' selection. But I certainly don't yearn for the days before social media, smart appliances, and online search software. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Remembering Wisdom

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I'm a Christian. So why, one might ask, am I not denouncing something most folks enjoy: like demon rum or Bingo? Or playing the Grinch for Halloween? Or enjoying a friendly pint with the boys, but adding my voice to the ensemble 'prophesying' the purported perils of fantasy and imagination? Or at least stalwartly refusing to learn anything we didn't know before the 18th century.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

God Doesn't Make Junk

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We live in a material world. I like it, a lot. Quite a few folks have felt the same way. "You adorn the year with your bounty; your paths drip with fruitful rain. "The meadows of the wilderness also drip; the hills are robed with joy." ( Psalms 65:12 - 13 ) Some get overly impressed. Others apparently think it's icky. Earnest folks have celebrated and condemned it. Not necessarily the same folks, and probably not at the same time. Not usually. That'd be a problem by itself. Plato thought about the reality we live in, artists have been inspired by it. That's given us a theory of forms, George Harrison's "Living in the Material World" and Madonna's "Like a Virgin" albums, and the "Material World" 1990s sitcom. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

"Imagine All the People"

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Someone's 'Tweet' about sin and how someone responded showed up in my Twitter feed Sunday. I noticed an unusually goofy item in my Google news feed that evening. Instead of expressing outrage and (self?)-righteous indignation over either or both, I made a few notes and went on with my day. That's no great virtue on my part. I'm no fan of emotional outbursts. I like them even less when I'm the one melting down. Avoiding that sort of eruption is much easier now.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

"Do Not be Afraid"

4th Sunday of Advent, 2017 By Deacon Lawrence N. Kaas December 24, 2017 Good! Now try to imagine yourself describing the scene in which the Angel Gabriel seeks and speaks to Mary as one that could be played out spectacularly on film or a TV program, it would begin with the panoramic vision or an overall view of the world that solemnly zooms in and spotlights in one tiny little place. We could imagine the overview from the film score to the mission behind Google Earth.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

The Magi, Meds and Me

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It's Epiphany Sunday. It's not about the magi, wise men from the east. Not exactly. They're involved; along with King Herod, religious experts, Mary and Jesus. But they're not what this is all about. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Presenting the Holy Family

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Today's official name is the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. That's a mouthful, so folks around here generally call it Holy Family Sunday. We don't see much of the Holy Family in the Gospels, or anywhere else in the Bible. Luke 2:22 - 40 — The Presentation in the Temple 1 — is one of the exceptions. It's today's Gospel reading. The others are Sirach 2:2 - 6 ; and Colossians 3:12 - 21 . There's a lot to say about all three, but I'll leave nearly all of that for another day. Just the first two verses from Luke are more than enough for a post.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Celebrating Ever Since

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We hear quite a bit of Luke 2 during the Christmas Masses, including this.... ...The shepherds went to see what was going on, and liked what they saw. So did the magi and Simeon. Jesus didn't stay in the manger, of course.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Bah! Humbug?

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'Tis the season to kvetch about Christmas: because it's too commercial, too religious, or whatever. I won't do that. I'll look at why we celebrate instead. Also Scrooge and "A Charlie Brown Christmas." Besides, I think enjoying the holiday and doing what I say I believe makes more sense...." More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Advent: Our Long Watch

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'Tis the season for frantic shopping, eye-popping light shows in suburban front yards, and Christmas television specials. It's also the start of Advent. This is a season when we look back at ancient hopes for a Messiah, and our Lord's first arrival. And look ahead to when Jesus will be back.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Seeing the Big Picture

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Today's Mass is something new, introduced by Pius XI in 1925. We've had it on the last Sunday in Ordinary Time since 1970. Focusing on who and what our Lord is seems like a good way to wrap up the Church calendar. That's how I see it. Today's Gospel reading is Matthew 25:31 - 46 . That's the one starting with "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him...." It's an important part of the Gospels, and not what I'll be talking about today. I'd better explain that. I'm okay with what the Church says about Mass, including how the annual schedule works. I'm not a religious scofflaw, disdaining the laws of God and man. But I don't try to coordinate these 'Sunday' posts with what happens in Mass. I figure it's not a problem, since I'm a Catholic layman — and you're probably not here looking for a homily.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Disorders, Decisions

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Whether you call it mental illness, lunacy, or insanity, being crazy isn't fun. It's not a lifestyle choice either. Not for most. Certainly not in my case. I'll get back to that.... ...Somewhere along the line "mental hygiene" got repackaged as "mental health." I think it wasn't just a new coat of paint on old ideas. We were learning more about how minds work, and sometimes don't. We were also learning what we can do: and what we shouldn't.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

The Dream

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He woke, heart racing, breathless, wet with sweat, in the starlit time before dawn. He shuddered when something touched his arm. It was his wife. "Again?" she asked, rolling her belly onto him. Soon she would bear his first child. "Again," he gasped. He waited until his breath came more easily. "The same thing. It was awful." She waited. He would talk soon. Perhaps then he would sleep. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Science, Faith, and Me

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This universe is bigger and older than some folks thought, a few centuries back. I don't mind, at all. Besides, it's hardly new information. We've known that we live in a big world for a long time. " 4 Indeed, before you the whole universe is as a grain from a balance, or a drop of morning dew come down upon the earth." ( Wisdom 11:22 ) If that bit from Wisdom doesn't sound familiar, I'm not surprised. It's not in the Bibles many Americans have. The one I read and study frequently is the unexpurgated version.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

On the Halloween Express

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Tomorrow is Halloween. I hope you have a good one. I mentioned St. Wolfgang of Regensberg, All Hallows' and All Souls' Day, and the autumnal equinox, last year. Also Gaelic and Welsh traditions, jack-o'-lanterns, and Easter eggs. Enjoying my culture's traditions, within reason, makes sense. To me. It's arguably better than bitter bewailing stuff I can't change: and don't want to.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Wanting Truth

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I think truth is important, so do many others. Some see truth in ways that doesn't line up with my views. Sometimes I can respect how they reached their conclusions. But I still think I'm right. Closer to what's true, at any rate. That doesn't make me one of humanity's paragons of candor and acceptance.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

New Windows

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(Adoration chapel windows in Sauk Centre, Minnesota.) I've spent an hour at the adoration chapel almost every week for a few years now. Signing up seemed like a good idea at the time. It still does. But this sort of spiritual practice doesn't come naturally to me. That's not a criticism of anything or anyone. We're "all one in Christ Jesus," as Galatians 3:28 says. And we're not all alike. This is a good thing, or should be.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .