Mind Cheetos

"You are what you eat" the saying goes.

I have found this to be false since I am not yet a Wheat Thin (my favorite since I was a kid). Of course, I'm not an anything thin at this point, and so maybe that's the point. 
Read more:

Meatless Friday Recipes: Country Corn Chowder

Lenten Series: Meatless Friday Recipes
Today we continue our new Lenten series – Meatless Friday Recipes to help you keep your Lenten abstinence from meat. We are pleased that Tom Neeb, author of Taste the Flavor Cookbook and owner of Food Flavor Fun and Luxury Palate will be sharing some of his great East Texas roots' recipes. Tom is by profession an Information Technology geek/manager with a large financial services provider. In his spare time and by necessity, he learned to cook. Why? “Because I like to eat! I like food with great flavor… And who does not like to have fun?” Tom is passionate about sharing his love for good food, good friends and good times.  Tom is also a member of our local parish, St. Catherine of Siena, and a regular attendee at Joe Catholic. You can follow Tom's blog and all his great recipe ideas at Food Flavor Fun or on Facebook and Twitter.

Greetings from Food Flavor Fun
Hi everybody.  My name is Tom Neeb and I’m really excited to get the opportunity to share some great meatless recipes with you for your Lenten Friday.  A huge THANK YOU to Joe Catholic for allowing me this opportunity.

I’m so glad you’ve found your way here.  Welcome!  Welcome!  Welcome!

Hardy Chowder
This week, I’d like to share a simple and tasty Country Corn Chowder.  This hardy chowder makes a great meal.  Add some crusty bread to go along side and this will make for some very happy tummies.  I suggest doing all the chopping prep up front.  That makes it simple to pull this together quickly and easily.  After you chop the potatoes, remember to put them in a bowl and cover them with water so they don't discolor.  Just also remember to drain them really well before adding them to the pot. OK, enough talk….Let’s get to the recipe.

Country Corn Chowder

Ingredients:

·       1 - 2 tablespoons unsalted butter

·       1 medium onion, chopped

·       2 cloves garlic, minced

·       1 - 2 stalks chopped celery

·       ½ cup chopped bell pepper

·       1/8 teaspoon dried sage

·       ½ teaspoon dried oregano

·       ½ teaspoon dried thyme

·       6 cups water

·       6 medium potatoes, peeled and chopped

·       2 vegetable boullion cubes

·       1/2 teaspoon sea salt (or table salt)

·       1/2 teaspoon Lawry's seasoned salt

·       10-15 turns of fresh ground black pepper from your pepper mill (about a teaspoon)

·       3 – 4 cups fresh or frozen corn

·       1/2 cup green onion, chopped (just the tops or green part)

·       1/4 cup heavy cream

·       1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill (optional)

Directions:
In a large stock pot over medium heat, add the butter and let it melt. Add the onion, garlic, celery, and bell pepper and saute until the onion is translucent, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the dry herbs and stir for another minute.

Add the water, potatoes and the boullion cubes. I crush them with a fork to help them dissolve quickly. Cover and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes or until the potatoes are tender but not mushy.

Take the pot off the heat. Remove 2 cups of the potatoes from the pot and set aside.

Using a boat motor (hand-help blender) or a stand-up blender done in batches, process the contents of the pot until smooth.

Put the blended contents back into the pot over low-heat. Add the corn and reserved potatoes. Simmer for 5 to 10 minutes or until the corn is tender, stirring to insure that the chowder does not stick.

Add the green onion tops along with the heavy cream and dill. Give the chowder a taste and re-season with salt and pepper.

Enjoy!

Video: Fr. Robert Barron on Original Sin

Father Robert Barron, host and author of the Catholicism Mini-Series, examines the state of our current culture in terms related to the fall of Adam and Eve, which is outlined in today's first reading from Genesis.

Lent Has Begun

Three Pillars of Lent
Lent is a penitential period of prayer, fasting (mortification) and almsgiving. Prayer orients us to God. Fasting or mortification orients our bodies to our souls and almsgiving orients us to others.

Saintly Reflection
For the last few years, I like to begin Lent with a reflection from St. Josemaria that I'd like to share:

We are at the beginning of Lent: a time of penance, purification and conversion. It is not an easy program, but then Christianity is not an easy way of life. It is not enough just to be in the Church, letting the years roll by. In our life, in the life of Christians, our first conversion — that unique moment which each of us remembers, when we clearly understood everything the Lord was asking of us — is certainly very significant. 

But the later conversions are even more important, and they are increasingly demanding. To facilitate the work of grace in these conversions, we need to keep our soul young; we have to call upon our Lord, know how to listen to him and, having found out what has gone wrong, know how to ask his pardon.

If you call upon me, I will listen to you," we read in this Sunday's liturgy. Isn't it wonderful how God cares for us and is always ready to listen to us — waiting for man to speak? He hears us at all times, but particularly now. Our heart is ready and we have made up our minds to purify ourselves. He hears us and will not disregard the petition of a "humble and contrite heart.

The Lord listens to us. He wants to intervene and enter our lives to free us from evil and fill us with good. "I will rescue him and honor him," he says of man. So we must hope for glory. Here again we have the beginning of the interior movement that makes up our spiritual life. Hope of glory increases our faith and fosters our charity; the three theological virtues, godly virtues which make us like our Father God, have been set in motion.

What better way to begin Lent? Let's renew our faith, hope and love. The spirit of penance and the desire for purification come from these virtues. Lent is not only an opportunity for increasing our external practices of self-denial. If we thought it were only that, we would miss the deep meaning it has in Christian living, for these external practices are — as I have said — the result of faith, hope and charity.
St. Josemaria Escriva, Christ is Passing By, 57

Video: The Meat Police

Every year the Texas state high school debate tournament would take place during Lent. I had a tradition of going out to eat with my old debate mentor, Alex Prichard, on Friday of the tournament. Every time we got together, I needed to remind him that I needed to eat somewhere that served fish or other meatless options. He would retort, "Do you think you are going to go to hell on a meat rap (charge)?" Glad I never gave in to the temptation, because now it is confirmed that there is a Meat Police.

Stations of the Cross

From Church of Notre-Dame-des-Champs, Avranches, Manche, Normandie, France

Lenten Tradition
Our parish, St. Catherine of Siena, like many Catholic churches throughout the world, traditionally prays the Stations of the Cross on Fridays during Lent. I particularly like our tradition of incorporating all three pillars of Lent: prayer, fasting and almsgiving. We begin our evening with a light Lenten meal, made and served by one of the Church apostolates or ministries. This accentuates the fasting. While we are eating, we are encouraged to donate to a local charity; each Friday during Lent is dedicated to a different local charity. This act encourages alms giving. Finally, we all walk over to the Sanctuary and pray the Stations.

Origin
The Stations of the Cross originated in the 14th Century, but the images of the Stations could be found in many churches before this time. The devotion has its roots in the Way of the Cross or Via Dolorosa. Shortly after the death of Christ, people began making pilgrimages to Jerusalem and tracing Christ's path to His crucifixion.  Pious tradition holds that the Blessed Mother would daily visit the site of Christ's passion.

Praying Perspectives
One thing that is fairly well established is that there are a total of fourteen stations. While this may be generally the case, the way one prays or reflects on the Stations can vary greatly. There are different ways of praying the Stations. For example, Joe Catholic led the Stations at our parish last night and we prayed the Stations from a Marian point of view. Blessed John Paul II had his own variation on meditating on the Stations based on sacred scripture. These are available in paperback on Amazon and as an iTunes app.

Saints & the Stations
Over the years, many of the saints have written their own reflections on the Way of the Cross. My personal favorite, available in the Handbook of Prayers and the Daily Roman Missal, was written by St. Josemaria Escriva. I like these because they assume a lectio devina approach. This version is available at EscrivaWorks or can be purchased as a small paperback at Scepter Publishers.

Ordinary Fridays
You don't need to wait until Lent to pray the Stations. Traditionally, many devout Catholics have prayed the Station on "ordinary" Fridays. If you can't make it to a church to walk around the Stations on the wall, you can use a prayer card, chaplet or other reminder to help you follow the Way of the Cross.

My mother told me about the Stations at Groom, Texas. I hope to take her some day soon.

Joe Catholic & the Catechism

Photo by Thicke

If you will notice from the image above, the Joe Catholic logo includes a representation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church - the green book with the keys.  We included this to symbolize that we are men faithful to the Magisterium of the Catholic Church. Yesterday morning, the men of Joe Catholic packed into a classroom to gather to break open the Catechism. Why? Because many of us had never even opened a Catechism let alone own one AND, more importantly, because our Holy Father instructed us to read the Catechism.

Year of Faith
When Pope Benedict announced that the Church would be celebrating a Year of Faith, he suggested we read the documents of the Second Vatican Council and that we read the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC). This makes sense because this year is the 50th anniversary of Vatican II and it is also the 20th anniversary of the promulgation of the Catechism.

Norm for Teaching the Faith
The CCC is only the second universal catechism handed down by the Church. The Catechism of Trent is the other and it was written in 1566 primarily for priests. The CCC is one of the fruits of Vatican II and it is intended as resource for ALL members of the Church. Blessed John Paul II called the CCC "a sure norm for teaching the faith" and he asserted that it would help "serve the renewal" of the Church. He continued in Fidei Depositum (Deposit of Faith), explaining that the CCC "is a statement of the Church's faith and of Catholic doctrine, attested to or illumined by Sacred Scripture, Apostolic Tradition and the Church's Magisterium."

Important Functions
According to the USCCB, the CCC serves several important functions. They include: 

• Conveying the complete, essential and fundamental content of Catholic faith and morals in a summative way.
• It acts as a point of reference for the development of national and diocesan catechisms like the "burgundy" one developed by the USCCB.
• It is a positive, objective and declarative exposition of Catholic doctrine.
• It aids those who have a duty to catechize, namely promoters and teachers of catechesis. I contend this includes parents, who are the primary instructors of the faith to their children.

Four Pillars of the Faith
Pope John Paul II called the Four Pillars of Faith the "four movements of a great symphony." They include: 

1. Profession of Faith (The Apostle's & Nicene Creeds) - what the Church believes 
2. Celebration of the Christian Mystery (The Sacraments & Liturgy) - what the Church celebrates
3. Life in Christ (Commandments and Beatitudes) - what the Church lives
4. Universal Call to Prayer (Our Father) - what the Church prays 

CCC's Organization
The Catechism is made up of 2,865 paragraphs. This is how we find things in the CCC - we look up the paragraph number that has been referenced. I liked the way the New Evangelizers referred to the CCC as being written like an encyclopedia, dictionary and history book all in one. In the back of the "big green" version of the CCC are a number of cross reference tools for scripture, papal documents and documents of the councils. It is written in easy to understand prose and calls upon Sacred Scripture and the writings of the Church fathers, the saints and the Magisterium.

How to Use the CCC

When you first look at the CCC, it can look a bit intimidating because it is as thick as many phone books (do people still use those or are they just thrown in the recycling bin?). While one can certainly read it from cover to cover as FlockNote has attempted through daily emails, it is not necessary nor intended to be read that way. Instead, it is meant to be used as a reference for studying or growing deeper in the faith. Have a question about faith and morals? Pop open the Catechism. 

Tips to Get Started

I recommend two ways to get started reading and utilizing the Catechism of the Catholic Church. First, I recommend sitting down with the family and just looking up answers to common questions you or your children may have. Make it fun. Let the kids ask the questions to see what you can find. Remember to be patient because so many of us have become spoiled by the likes of Google searches. You might actually have to narrow down or even change the key words or terms you are using to look up in the INDEX. For example, yesterday we were looking up cloning. There is no reference to cloning in the index, but there is one for LIFE and a subcategory for "snares of human life." That's where we found our answer.

During Lent we are urged to pray, fast and give alms. The Catechism is a great source for learning more about improving your prayer life. As we continue the period of Lent, we could read portions of the Catechism devoted to Prayer.

Plenary Indulgence

If you didn't have enough reason to open the CCC. Here's one more.  The Church has attached a plenary indulgence to the study of the Catechism. Joe Catholic intends to sponsor two more talks on the CCC in the coming months. Here are the requirements (remember that the other requirements of a plenary indulgence are required too):

(A) Each time they attend at least three sermons during the Holy Missions, or at least three lessons on the Acts of the Council or the articles of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, in church or any other suitable location. (USCCB)

Lent Has Begun

Lent seems to have gotten here a bit quicker this year. In case you forgot (because you were so focused on Valentine's Day right?) today is Ash Wednesday. For most of us this means today is a day of fast and abstinence. The Church defines fasting as partaking in one reasonably sized meal. If necessary you can also have a couple of light snacks that do NOT equal another meal.

Lent is a penitential period of prayer, fasting (mortification) and almsgiving. For the last several years, I like to begin Lent with a reflection from St. Josemaria that I'd like to share:

We are at the beginning of Lent: a time of penance, purification and conversion. It is not an easy program, but then Christianity is not an easy way of life. It is not enough just to be in the Church, letting the years roll by. In our life, in the life of Christians, our first conversion — that unique moment which each of us remembers, when we clearly understood everything the Lord was asking of us — is certainly very significant.

But the later conversions are even more important, and they are increasingly demanding. To facilitate the work of grace in these conversions, we need to keep our soul young; we have to call upon our Lord, know how to listen to him and, having found out what has gone wrong, know how to ask his pardon.

If you call upon me, I will listen to you," we read in this Sunday's liturgy. Isn't it wonderful how God cares for us and is always ready to listen to us — waiting for man to speak? He hears us at all times, but particularly now. Our heart is ready and we have made up our minds to purify ourselves. He hears us and will not disregard the petition of a "humble and contrite heart.

The Lord listens to us. He wants to intervene and enter our lives to free us from evil and fill us with good. "I will rescue him and honor him," he says of man. So we must hope for glory. Here again we have the beginning of the interior movement that makes up our spiritual life. Hope of glory increases our faith and fosters our charity; the three theological virtues, godly virtues which make us like our Father God, have been set in motion.

What better way to begin Lent? Let's renew our faith, hope and love. The spirit of penance and the desire for purification come from these virtues. Lent is not only an opportunity for increasing our external practices of self-denial. If we thought it were only that, we would miss the deep meaning it has in Christian living, for these external practices are — as I have said — the result of faith, hope and charity.
St. Josemaria Escriva, Christ is Passing By, 57

Spiritual Toolbox:The Triduum

Agony in the Garden, El Greco

This evening's Holy Thursday Mass marks the beginning of the shortest season on the Catholic Liturgical Calendar - The Triduum and the end of Lent. The term literally means "three days" and refers to the the three days of Christ's passion, death and resurrection. The main lesson we can draw about this season is that we should experience it in its the totality. I recently wrote in a post on holiness, in which I argued that God provides us with all the tools necessary to answer the call to be holy. One of those tools is the liturgy. I cannot think of a richer liturgy than that celebrated on the three days of the Triduum.

Perhaps, like me, you found yourself lacking this Lenten season. Maybe you failed to practice all the good intentions of more prayer, daily Mass, or some other spiritual exercise. While all those practices are all important to our spiritual growth, we can still realign ourselves through the liturgy of the Triduum. I haven't done all the research, but I suspect we can find a complete synthesis of Christ's entire teaching in the liturgy of these three days.

Make a commitment to yourself and to your family to attend Holy Thursday Mass, the Good Friday service (it's the only day of the year we don't celebrate Mass) and Easter. If you can make it I recommend you attend the Easter Vigil (more on that later).

Here are some additional resources on the Triduum:

Pope Benedict XVI's Address, EWTN News

Father Robert Barron, Word on Fire

I still think Father Corapi's Triduum talks on EWTN were some of the best on the subject. While he may no longer be in public ministry, that does not undermine the truth of what he taught. The talks used to appear on EWTN's audio library. If you do an Internet search, the talks can still be located.

Lenten Resources

Cross, Michael O'Brien

Today we begin the forty days of Lent. This should be a time of conversion in which we recall or prepare for Baptism and practice penance. The Second Vatican Council said as much in the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy:

The season of Lent has a twofold character: primarily by recalling or preparing for baptism and by penance, it disposes the faithful, who more diligently hear the word of God and devote themselves to prayer, to celebrate the paschal mystery. This twofold character is to be brought into greater prominence both in the liturgy and by liturgical catechesis. (SC, 109)

I have provided two comprehensive sites to aid in enriching your Lenten experience. Additionally, I have included a few links for the Three Pillars of Lent: Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving.

Comprehensive Resources and Links

• Aggie Catholics Lenten Mega-Post
• Catholic Culture Lent Workshop

Prayer

• Divine Mercy Chaplet
• Eucharistic Adoration
• Evening Examination of Conscience
• Liturgy of the Hours
• Mary's Way of the Cross
• Morning Offering
• Rosary
• The Way of the Cross

Fasting

• 101 Practical Fasting Ideas
• Church Teaching on Fasting and Abstinence
• E5 Men

Almsgiving

• Catholic Dictionary's Definition
• Catholic Encyclopedia's Explanation
• Fatherhood and Almsgiving
• Tithing: An Old Law or Today's Standard for Giving
• Tithing and Almsgiving

Ashes to Ashes

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust son, get where you're going by eternal combustion -Claude Clay, Town Undertaker from Tumbleweeds

Ashes started being used around 960 ad. In the 12th century the ashes began being made from the burnt palm leaves from the previous Palm Sunday.

Scriptural Basis

Ashes and/or Dust have been used since ancient times as symbols for both repentance and mourning, In some cases they have also been used for preparation. In 2 Samuel 13:19 we have Tamar, whose brother forced himself on her, and for her shame she rent her garments and put dust on her head. In Job 2:8 we have Job, afflicted by Satan with sores, sitting among the ashes. In Daniel 9:3 we have Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and supplications with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. The Maccabees, prepared for battle using ashes: "That day they fasted and wore sackcloth; they sprinkled ashes on their heads and tore their clothes" (1 Mc 3:47; see also 4:39). And in Matthew 11:21 Jesus says, "Woe to you, Chora'zin! woe to you, Beth-sa'ida! for if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.”

LENT
Lent developed in the Church as the whole community prayed and fasted for the catechumens who were preparing for Baptism. At the same time, those members of the community who were already baptized prepared to renew their baptismal promises at Easter, thus joining the catechumens in seeking to deepen their own conversion. It was natural, then, that the Order of Penitents also focused on Lent, with reconciliation often being celebrated on Holy Thursday so that the newly reconciled could share in the liturgies of the Triduum. With Lent clearly a season focused on Baptism, Penance found a home there as well.

The Order of Penitents were people that had fallen into serious sin after Baptism – they would confess to the bishop, and then do penance for a period of time – and would be known by the clothes they wore, by being sent from Mass after the readings, etc. So, there was a Baptismal sense to this originally – and ashes were a sing of penance.

In the middle ages the Catechumenate disappeared from the church's life and eventually the Order of Penitents with it. The tie to a Baptismal sense faded, but the penance part of Lent continued and was emphasized. Repentance was seen more in the light of escaping the punishment of sin than a renewal of Baptismal promises. The significance of the ashes changed also.

Ashes as A reminder of Mortality "Remember man that thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return."
The sense of mortality was emphasized to help encourage people to seriously consider their sins and make a firm amendment to change.

The Second Vatican Council
The 2nd Vatican Council restored the Catechumenate and with it a Baptismal focus. Since Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent, it is a natural spot to mark the beginning of a Baptismal focus – and this is reflected in the new formula – Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel. Or, Repent and hear the Good News. These formulations show a very pointed Baptismal focus as that is the whole idea behind becoming a Christian.

Symbol of Ownership.
In the Bible a mark on the forehead is a symbol of a person's ownership. By having our foreheads marked with the sign of a cross, we proclaim that we belong to Jesus Christ, who died on a Cross.
This is in imitation of the spiritual mark or seal that is put on a Christian in baptism, when he is delivered from slavery to sin and the devil and made a slave of righteousness and Christ (Rom. 6:3-18).

Ties to Revelation
"Then I looked, and lo, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him a hundred and forty-four thousand who had his name and his Father's name written on their foreheads." (Revelation 14:1)
This is in contrast to the followers of the beast, who have the number 666 on their foreheads or hands.
The reference to the sealing of the servants of God for their protection in Revelation is an allusion to a parallel passage in Ezekiel, where Ezekiel also sees a sealing of the servants of God for their protection:
"And the LORD said to him [one of the four cherubim], 'Go through the city, through Jerusalem, and put a mark [literally, "a tav"] upon the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in it.' And to the others he said in my hearing, 'Pass through the city after him, and smite; your eye shall not spare, and you shall show no pity; slay old men outright, young men and maidens, little children and women, but touch no one upon whom is the mark. And begin at my sanctuary.' So they began with the elders who were before the house." (Ezekiel 9:4-6)

X Marks the Spot The Greek symbol for X is called Chi, and Chi is the first letter in Christos or Christ.
The early Church Fathers seized on this tav-chi-cross-christos connection and expounded it in their homilies, seeing in Ezekiel a prophetic foreshadowing of the sealing of Christians as servants of Christ. It is also part of the background to the Catholic practice of making the sign of the cross, which in the early centuries (as can be documented from the second century on) was practiced by using one's thumb to furrow one's brow with a small sign of the cross, like Catholics do today at the reading of the Gospel during Mass. And so, we are marked with Christ, in the form of an X which is also the crucifix and which shows we belong to Christ.

Bishop Vann's Letter on Lent

David Jennings used Bishop Vann's letter in the North Texas Catholic as a guide to explain how to prepare for the Lenten Season.

Here is a link to that letter:

The Shepherd's Corner