Be Not Afraid: God is Always Present

Broken Tooth
I missed a Joe Catholic gathering I was supposed to lead a few weeks ago because I broke a tooth and I was intense pain. After jumping through all the insurance hoops, I was finally scheduled to see an oral surgeon to extract the tooth this morning. The above meme is how I expected things to go. I was very wrong.

Be Not Afraid
Yesterday afternoon, I was sorting out winter and summer clothes when I came across my black Xtreme Papa t-shirt that has the JP2 quotation "Be Not Afraid," which were the first words of his pontificate. I thought it was fortuitous in light of the fact that I was facing the dentist in the morning. Today, Stacey and I headed out to the oral surgeon's office and prayed Rosary on the way. I secretly asked St. Apollonia (patron of toothaches and dentists) for her intercession to guide the surgeon and to ease my anxiety. I was covering all my bases.

What Church Do You Attend?
After Dr. Walstad gave me the shots to numb my mouth near the tooth, he asked me what church I attended. I told him St. Catherine of Siena. He said he used to attend the parish at one time and still knew some of the members. He even mentioned some names of people I also knew. As he was pulling out my tooth he talked to me about his parish, St. Jude in Allen, Texas. We talked (I mostly listened and mumbled) about the Knights of Columbus, CRHP and the upcoming Dallas Diocese Capital Campaign. Before I knew it, the tooth was pulled and the wound prepped for my departure. We continued to talk about Catholicism for a few more minutes after the procedure.

God Was Looking Out for Me
As Stacey and I got in the car to head back home, I asked her, "What are the odds that I get a Catholic dentist who is open about talking about his faith?" I am sure that the t-shirt helped initiate the conversation. All I know is that God was looking out for me, because I didn't stress at all while I was having my tooth pulled. God is always present. We needn't be afraid.

Fortnight for Freedom:Standing Up for Religious Freedom

Fortnight for Freedom

Tomorrow begins the second annual Fortnight for Freedom, which was initiated by the US Bishops. According to the USCCB the purpose of the Fortnight for Freedom is to promote:

[A] two-week period of prayer and action, to address many current challenges to religious liberty, including the August 1, 2013 deadline for religious organizations to comply with the HHS mandate, Supreme Court rulings that could attempt to redefine marriage in June, and religious liberty concerns in areas such as immigration and humanitarian services.

Threats to Freedom
The USCCB cites a list of threats to freedom. We are already seeing infringements take place and more are likely in the near future. In just last year and half we've seen a court rule that a Catholic diocese cannot enforce its moral criteria (not to mention the employment contract) in the hiring and firing of teachers. We've recently heard of the IRS targeting Catholic speakers and possibly Catholic institutions. The HHS mandate deadline (August 1st) for religious organizations to comply is looming.

According to Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett, the keynote speaker at the National Religous Freedom Award Dinner, the threats are real:

There is no doubt that religious freedom faces extraordinary and novel challenges that grow out of increasing and aggressive secularism, coupled with fundamental redefinitions of core social institutions. These changes are putting some religious communities on a collision course with newly emerging social concurrences on matters of morality, equality and how we define fundamental civil and human rights.

Answer the Call to Holiness

Universal Call to Holiness at National Shrine

The Laity
The laity makes up the largest group of the Church and its members are defined as those not ordained (CCC, 897; LG, 31). Many lay Catholics today have heard of “the universal call to holiness,” yet few know what this phrase means, let alone how to rightly pursue it in their daily lives. This is evident in the current mindset that says, “I love Jesus, but I just can’t buy into the teachings of the Church.” Mindful of this crisis of faith, Pope Benedict XVI instituted a Year of Faith, in which we have been instructed, among other things, to spend time reading the documents of Vatican II (Porta fidei, 5). In so doing we can discover what this call to holiness demands and what role the Church serves in helping us become sanctified, for indeed we are all “called to be saints” (Rom 1:7).

Pray, Pay and Obey

Ask a regular Joe fifty years ago what the role the laity served in the Catholic Church and you were likely to get an answer similar to this: "To pray, to pay and to obey." The fact is that many still fill that way, but Vatican II emphasized that we are ALL called to holiness – ordained and laity alike (LG, 40).

Holiness Defined
Holiness means to belong to God, to be in union with Him for holiness is an attribute of God. To be perfect, as God the Father is (Matt 5:48), requires that one be in unity with God. This is precisely what John the Baptist was articulating when he said “He must increase; I must decrease” (John 3:30). This means enjoining one’s will with the will of God. Thus the ultimate expression of one’s gift of free will is freely returning it to the Father. Then and only then can we say that it is not us who lives, but Christ Jesus who lives (Gal. 2:20). Put another way, holiness is the process of ongoing conversion towards this union with the Father, this relationship with the Holy Spirit, this friendship with Christ.

God Calls Us
God initiates this call to holiness, which is essentially a call to a relationship with him. Since God calls us, it must be possible to answer. In his love for us, God provides man with the tools for sanctification. Primary among these are the sacraments which all draw us closer to him by availing us to his grace. He also gives us the liturgy so that me might learn how to pray, the essential tool to develop our relationship with the Lord. He provides the faithful with role models to follow in the lives of the saints. Their lives provide evidence that answering the call to holiness is possible for all.

JP2 on Holiness...In His Own Words

Evernote Clearly

De-clutters Webpages
Recently I have been using Evernote Clearly quite a bit for working on papers and research for blog posts. This extension for Evernote allows you to de-clutter a webpage you are reading. It removes the header and side panel and ads. You can also customize the text as you see fit. What I like most about this little app is that it allows me to "cut evidence" for articles, organize them and retrieve them later. You can do this by exporting the article to a notebook in Evernote.  I've recently incorporated using it for the WordCount Blogathon.

Research Tool
I use Clearly most often as I am reading other Catholic blogs or websites. After I have isolated the article, I can clip it to one of my notebooks in Evernote to read later. This gives me an opportunity to gather topical articles in one place so that I can read them more analytically. Additionally, it makes it easier for me to read them on my iPad. First, because I don't have to be online to read the article and secondly because the formatting is easier to read once it has been clipped.

Read Later
As I alluded to above, one other good use for Clearly is to use it to clip and save articles to read later. I have way too much content in my RSS feed to read at one time. Truthfully, I may not want to read all of it. Clearly allows me to isolate those I identify as worthy of reading later on my iPad. I do this especially when I am about to head out to the doctor's office or another appointment where I may have to wait. Again this is particularly useful, if you don't know if you are going to have wifi available.

Here's a video tutorial on how to use Evernote Clearly.

Turn the Other Cheek

Turn the Other Cheek by CatholicMemes

Turn the Other Cheek
Today's Gospel reading from Matthew is the famous "turn the other cheek" message from Christ. I offer two commentaries on this passage. The first is from the Navarre Bible. The second is embedded video from the USCCB Daily Reflections.

Navarre Bible
According to the commentators of the Navarre Bible:

38-42. Among the Semites, from whom the Israelites stemmed, the law of vengeance ruled. It led to interminable strife, and countless crimes. In the early centuries of the chosen people, the law of retaliation was recognized as an ethical advance, socially and legally: no punishment could exceed the crime, and any punitive retaliation was outlawed. In this way, the honor of the clans and families was satisfied, and endless feuds avoided.

As far as New Testament morality is concerned, Jesus establishes a definitive advance: a sense of forgiveness and absence of pride play an essential role. Every legal framework for combating evil in the world, every reasonable defense of personal rights, should be based on this morality. The three last verses refer to mutual charity among the children of the Kingdom, a charity which presupposes and deeply imbues justice.

USCCB Daily Reflection
I included this video so that you could also see the quality of reflections offered daily. I highly recommend watching or listening to these after reading the daily readings as part of your daily spiritual plan of life. They are available at the USCCB site.

Fatherhood Stirs Conversion

Kevin playing with Max, our first dachshund's father

Years in the Desert
Although, I was raised in a strong Catholic home where both my parents attended Mass regularly,  I drifted away from my Catholic faith when I went to college. I did not set out to leave the Church. At first, I simply claimed driving back cross town to attend Mass at my old parish was too far. Then I complained that the Catholic Church near SMU was too old and stuffy. Finally, I asserted that the campus ecumenical chapel wasn't Catholic enough to hold a "real" Mass. If anyone ever asked, I would say I was still Catholic. Even my dog tags in the Army were imprinted with ROMAN CATHOLIC. Before I knew it, I had wandered away, lost in the desert of sin for nearly 20 years.

Finally Home
Fast forward past those twenty years and I found myself at St. Catherine of Siena parish in Carrollton, Texas. I had already been sporadically attending Mass at St. Anne's, which was located in another diocese and miles away from the home we were leasing at the time. I didn't know about St. Catherine's until I happened to drive by it one day by accident. When I walked into the church for the first time and shook Sonny Cruz's hand as he greeted me at the door, I knew I was home.  It was not long after that +Stacey Gonzalez and +Kevin Gonzalez joined me and would eventually go through RCIA.

Why Catholic?
I very quickly got involved in the parish life: first as a reader and eventually as an adult formation catechist. My return to the Church gained warp speed after attending the Christ Renews His Parish retreat. Eventually, this would influence the formation of Joe Catholic. About this time, our parish began participating in the small faith group program, Why Catholic? While we were sharing at one of these sessions, someone asked me (I think it was one of the discussion questions) what brought me back to the Catholic Church. I had never had a good answer for this. I would just say it was a gradual thing. The Holy Spirit must have inspired me that night because I identified the event with pinpoint precision. I said Kevin moving in with me and Stacey motivated me to change. I figured out that this boy was looking to me for spiritual and moral direction and I didn't have anything to share with him. I had to get working on me so I could be there for him.

Fatherhood Stirs Conversion
So there it is, just add water and instant family – instant fatherhood. When I realized I wasn't just playing house with Stacey, that we were now a family, I had to get serious about becoming a better person, to become a real man, a real father. The Holy Spirit was guiding me towards conversion. I didn't use these words at the time– but they are fitting now – I needed to become more like St. Joseph who was a just man, a righteous man. Like Joseph, I was asked to raise a son who was not my biological son and raise him as my own. Eventually – and only time will tell how good a job I've done – this meant teaching him about our faith and morals.

Here's Kevin now, giving a talk on the North American Martyrs at Joe Catholic earlier in the year.

What We Can Learn From Our Dogs

My Dogs: Hobbes (L) and Calvin (R)

Dog Days of Summer
I can tell that the dogs days of summer are about to arrive here in the DFW Metroplex. The weather creeped up near 100 this week. Coincidentally or not, the hottest day of the year was also my first full day of Summer break. During the early part of my break, I just try and unwind, which means I get to spend a great deal of time with my dogs - Calvin and Hobbes.

GoD and DoG
I've joked with Stacey before that sometimes Hobbes will give me this look that suggests he's thinking "you know DOG is GOD spelled backwards?" Lest we get into a discussion about the anthropomorphization of our pets, let me move on. I think there is much we can learn about our relationship with God from our dogs.

Loyalty
One reason I have always preferred dogs as pets, is that they are very loyal. Dogs are known to travel miles, over rough terrain to return to their families. Others have been known to guard over their owners when the person has been injured. In one particular case, a German shepherd continued to attend daily Mass.

Unconditional Love
The attribute that dogs display above all other animals is unconditional love. They seem to have an ability to forgive us when we come home late or accidentally step on their tails. They also have an innate way of knowing when we are sick or feeling down. On those days when I am not feeling well, Hobbes will come lay in my lap.

The Real Example
What our dogs can really teach us is obedience. A good dog will do what his human asks of him, often because he wants to please him. We could learn from that. How obedient are we to our Lord's will. I am not sure that we frequently find ourselves saying, "Not my will Lord, but yours." Or "I must decrease so that You may increase." In the end isn't that what holiness is – enjoining our will to the will of the Father?