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'Kids these days! Nobody takes responsibility! Back in my day, nobody tried blaming the other guy!' I've been hearing variations on that complaint for more than a half-century now. I started wondering if it was true in my teens. By now, I'm pretty sure that it's not: partly because now I remember the 'good old days:' and like I've said before, they weren't. One of 'Those Crazy Kids:' Five Decades Later I was one of "those kids" in the late '60s and early '70s. Some of us were lazy bums, and others were only too eager to blame our parents, the government, or anyone else, for our problems. But others were "irresponsible" only in the sense that we wouldn't accept the status quo. That attitude didn't appeal to folks who believed in buying stuff they didn't need, with money they didn't have, to impress people they didn't like. We thought we could reform the world: and certain that we

Today was a rough one.  But I knew it would be, I had been warned ahead of time.  I went to Holy Mass and as usual, I stay after and pray.  This situation is ideal, because no one sees me.  This is important.  If you are truly seeking the good of another soul in your petition to God, and nothing for yourself, then your petition, ideally, should just be between you and God.  Hidden from the eyes of everyone.  No guile, no hidden agendas, just you and God as you plead to Him for His mercy on those He has chosen you to pray for.  (Oh yeah, you usually don't get to pick whom or what you pray for.) .... to find out what happened when praying the stations , CLICK HERE!

(From John Martin, via WikiMedia Commons, used w/o permission.) ('Now that I have your attention ....') God is occasionally presented as violence-prone, with serious anger management issues. Some folks who describe the Almighty this way seem to think that we should worship God because the alternative is getting squashed like bugs. Others claim that God is a make-believe bogeyman , invented by charlatans to frighten people. I think both claims are missing an important point. God is just, God is merciful: and sometimes God has to get our attention. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

All... I was afraid to write some of the posts I have posted lately.  Part of me didn't want to write them, because of what they could cost me.  Yes, I have written the truth, I will not deny that, ever.  And I was commanded to write.  He said,  "You MUST write."   "OK I will." And write I shall.  The truth I tell could cost me dearly.  It has already begun to cost me, but because of my love, I will be obedient.  The Mathematics I love, may be only a dream, a certificate on the wall.   I may never get to use it.  Not my will but yours.  When you know the truth, any pain of any loss is small compared to the pain of the state of souls in the world. .... READ MORE.

" The avenger of blood may execute the murderer, putting him to death on sight. " ( Numbers 35:19 ) I ran into that bit from the Pentateuch in "Judas on a Pole," an episode in the second season of Bones . The writers used an 'Olde Englishe' translation that many Americans perceive as 'Biblical,' and that's another topic. If someone murdered a member of my family, I would be very angry. There'd be something wrong with me if I wasn't. Anger, Sin, and Getting a Grip Anger is a "capital sin," a sin that's particularly serious because it leads to other sins. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1866 ) That doesn't mean that I've committed a sin every time I experience anger. I'm human, so I experience emotions. Emotions aren't good or bad by themselves. What matters is what we do with them. (Catechism, 1767 ) If I hang on to anger, let it build into a desire to harm or kill someone else: that's

A religious acquaintance of mine recently told a friend of mine he didn't think I should waste my time trying to alter the direction of our local public schools because even if this latest problem were solved, another problem would crop up.   The thing is, God calls us to do His work of justice and mercy, places outside church doors. Sometimes, the work we do unexpectedly helps to draw those we encounter back to Christ. That's God's doing, not ours. This was today's Christmas miracle at the 11 a.m. Mass for me. Read more here...

I am at war.  Although I may not look like it, trust me I am in a great war that never ceases around me.  I fight a battle everyday for the souls in purgatory and the lost souls that fall into hell everyday.  The loss of souls is one of the greatest tragedies in the universe.  Because God's justice is perfect, lost souls are in hell of their own volition.  There is nothing more heartbreaking to realize that this sentence is for all time.  Those that are falling into hell right now will still be suffering there 1 million years from now, and 100,000 x 100,000 million years and so on.. Stepping on the battlefield for lost souls  is one of the most treacherous things you can do in relation to the status of your own salvation.  The reason for this is that you can't do anything for God.  You aren't doing God any favors by your prayers, even if 1000 souls where to be released from Purgatory with your prayer, you didn't do it, God did.   You just asked that the battle be

God's Justice.  As God is complete in all that He is, we are not able to take away or add to His measure.  Since this is so, then God is whole. If God is perfect then His attributes must also be perfect.  God is one, God is the divine Trinity, the three divine persons in one God.  God is pure, and His purity must be perfect, with nothing lacking.  God is just, and His justice must also be perfect.  So God is pure, just and perfect.  As a result, if God's justice is perfect then His justice must not allow any one who is impure, vile or sinful into his presence, for this would not be just and it would be torture for the soul stained by sin to behold the beatific vision of God.   God is also mercy, and His mercy, because He is timeless is for all time God's mercy must also be infinite.  The fact of God's infinite mercy has lead souls down the path to the conclusion that no matter what they do, God's mercy is infinite and God will not allow them to go to Hel

Dives and Lazarus , c.1595, Leandro Bassano Readings   (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)                                   Readings   (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England &Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa) Gospel  Luke 16:19-31  (Revised Standard Version – Catholic Edition) Jesus said to the Pharisees: "There was a rich man, who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, full of sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table; moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried; and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes, and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus in his bosom. And he called out, 'Father Abraham, have mercy upon me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water a

To understand why Jesus has to be God, we have to understand the Father also.  The Father is infinite, with no beginning and no end.  Therefore, his attributes are also infinite.  His knowledge is infinite and, most important to us, his memory is infinite.  We were created, and we have a beginning, but with a soul that shall exist forever.  God is the creator of life, and if the angels shall not taste death or annihilation, then neither shall we, to say that our souls face an annihilation is not consistent with the nature of God as creator of life.  We shall be "somewhere" for all time.  A short time, (very short when you think about it) in the flesh, and then eternity either with God or banished from His presence.   So let's go back to the Father's memory.  The Father's memory is infinite, which means He will remember all things for all time.  (He is actually not bound by time, but that is another blog post) So think about that, what you do in the flesh G

This afternoon in the tea aisle at an HMart, I spotted an old colleague from behind, wearing his yamulke. I called him by name "Isaac?" (not his real name) He turned around and we smiled at one another and chatted for several minutes. He said he was looking for a certain kind of tea, but he only knew its name in Korean. I found a Korean-speaking employee for him and we figured out it was barley tea he was looking for. I hadn't seen Isaac, a married father of three, in months. We stopped working together years ago. In March, he was charged with sexually assaulting two teenaged girls. Read more...

I grew up in a family with three girls and one boy and the atmosphere was weighted toward the feminine: my sisters and I played with Madame Alexander dolls, hosted singing "concerts" in our basement, wore Lanz of Salzburg nightgowns and, when we girls were teenagers, experimented with dozens of brands of shampoo. Now, I'm raising two sons. The experience is filling out my understanding of childhood. Consider this.   Read more here...

"Passions are morally good when they contribute to a good action, evil in the opposite case."                                          Catechism of the Catholic Church  # 1768 All human beings get angry, it is part and parcel of being human. Anger, in itself, is not a sin, it is simply an emotion. Unfortunately, because of our fallen nature it often leads us into sin. We have all heard the expressions: blowing our tops, flying off the handle, or hot under the collar. Anger becomes sinful when we dwell on it and get carried away by it; we fail to bridle our tongue and scream ugly things, yell at our children and act in an unloving manner. Road rage, revenge, and murder....these are all things that begin with anger. Does anger always have to lead to sin? Of course not. Anger can propel us into positive action, also. It can stir us into taking steps to correct an evil and with God's grace can even be turned into a great zeal for justice. Look at Saint Paul. There are si