EWTN Making Choices Clear

Click on picture to see a larger image. Compare EWTN and WGN at 8pm in the picture for a real choice in TV. Leave it to EWTN to make the choice clear. :-) Tags: Catholicism, Christianity, TV, EWTN

Fun Art Personality Test

I saw this at Ironic Catholic. This fits, but these things are so full of Barnum statements. Still, they are fun. You Are Impressionism You think the world is quite beautiful, especially if you look at it in new and interesting ways. You tend to focus on color and movement in art. For you, seeing the big picture is much more important than recording every little detail. You can find inspiration anywhere... especially from nature. What Art Movement Are You?

Equality & Worth

Adoro Te Devote had an interesting post on equality. I have posted on that topic as well, but something she said triggered a thought in me. Let me start by saying that I am so inadequate compared to so many men AND women on so many different things. Adoro reminded me of something my dad taught me - at any given task there will always be somebody better than me and somebody worse than me. So why are people hung up on insisting we are all equal? Here is what we are doing. We have in our mind scores on an each ability or attribute. We also have a certain value/importance for that attribute. We have these unspoken scores on lots of attributes, each with it’s on importance weight. Well if I add up all of my scores weighted by the attribute importance I get my “value” as a person. This conception of determining value is exactly what goes on implicitly in society. This implicit equation is wrong from a modern relativist perspective. You will get one of two arguments here. One is that there are no real differences - that all differences are made-up to enhance or repress a particular class. There is not really a denial in the equation. There is wishful thinking that there are no differences - because then we would all be interchangable, the same, equal. You will hear others argue that we can't place "value" on different attributes. Sure there are differences, but who gets to say what "value" each should have. When it comes to particular task, this is nonsense. I want really strong firefighters to rescue me, and really smart doctors, and very compassionate and experienced nurses (I would be terrible at all three jobs). The implicit equation is also wrong from a Christian perspective. From the Christian perspective the separation comes, not in discussing the value of an individual for a given task our purpose - but in believing that it implies the value of a person. The value of a person is NOT determined by what he or she can do. Value comes in being beloved of God, and it is inherent and infinite. If we can accept that our worth is not tied to what we can or cannot do, but because we are children of God - then we are liberated. Then we can say it is OK that certain people are better suited to different tasks. We no longer need to "prove" our worth. But believing this is not easy, because we keep trying to "prove" ourselves. We have nothing to prove. All we have to do is accept. You are beloved of God. Nothing that you can do will add to or subtract from this. Tags: equality, God, love, Christianity

Football

As most of my friends know, I love college football. Now you may think I am crazy, but I root for both Notre Dame and USC. Being a good Irish Catholic, I was raised to love the Blue & Gold. But I am in So Cal, and have actually attended USC (no degree from there- but I still owe on the student loans). And after living in Georgia, I understand the importance of college football. Saturday, I was flipping back and forth between the Florida/Auburn and USC/Arizona State games (I was pleased at the outcome of both). During the halftime shows, there was a clip from a brawl between Miami and Florida International. The first question is how can Miami get away with playing such a school and have it count. A second question is how the coaches at both school could let a brawl like this get so far out of hand. Regardless of the answers to the above questions, they did play them and they did get into a brawl. During the brawl, I saw students using helmets as weapons (like clubs), and worse – stomping on players with their cleats. At the time, I was certain that these students would be dealt with severely. So, the punishments are out – 13 players from Miami and 18 from FIU are suspended for one game. What the heck. Did they not see what I saw? How about expulsion from the school or at the least from the team? How about criminal charges? They were STOMPING ON PEOPLE! Something certainly stinks in the State of Florida. What happened to sportsmanship? What happened to self-respect? Respect for your opponent? I guess I must be missing something. A one game suspension. Wow!

An Intended Life

Click on picture to see a larger image. Socrates is credited with saying "The unexamined life is not worth living." I beleive that every life is a gift from God and inherently worth living. Still, there is truth that examining one's life is of tremendous value both to the self and to others who can benefit from our examination. But I think there is something that needs to come before examining life, and, IMHO, is more important than an examined life. It is an intended life. If I simply do, and later examine - that is valuable. I may learn. Others may learn. But it is reactive - I wait until after the fact to determine my motivation. This is backwards - it puts action before thought. In contrast, and intended life is purposeful. It strives to reach, to achieve. It is active. In my Superordinate Goals post I wrote about the two goals that I believe stand above all goals. I also wrote about how to walk back using my "Four Year Old's Interview" moving from behavior - to uncover what goals may be motivating what we do. There is another way to move between motivation and behavior. Rather than start with behavior and work backwards by asking why, start with the highest level goals and ask how. What do you want to do? How are you going to get there? So you want to get to Heaven - Great! How? Be a priest/nun? Be a good spouse/parent? Develop a deeper prayer life? Be a witness to my faith? Be a servant to others? In turn, how do you want to achieve each of these? When asking why we do what we do, and comparing that to what we want and the plans we have to get there, we can be surprised by the incongruence: For example, starting with behavior: I work long hours Because I want resources Because I want to provide for my family Because I want to be a good husband/father If I start from the other end, at the goal: I want to be a good husband/father So I want to spend more time with my family So I need to spend less time working. Of course life is a tad more complex, but it illustrates how we can get different answers when we start at different places. Here the goals are the same (though this is not always the case), but the behaviors are diametrically opposed. If we stay with looking backwards - just examining our lives, we can be complacent. Sure we can uncover behavior that does not align with who we want to be, but it does not lead to new behavior. To really move forward we need to not only examine our lives, but seize the initiative. We must identify our goals, and move toward them. Of course identifying our goals is the first, and perhaps hardest task - I want to be a better Christian. Now, HOW do I do that? What are YOUR goals? How are YOU moving toward them? Tags: motivation, goals, intended life

10 Rules for handling disagreement like a Christian

Check out this wonderful article written by Bishop Allen H. Vigneron from Oakland, CA for that Diocesan newspaper, The Catholic Voice It looks like this is from back in 2005. Still good stuff. Here is the summary: 1. The Rule of Charity: “Charity is primary.” 2. The Rule of Publicity: “Think with the mind of the Church.” 3. The Rule of Legitimate Freedom: “What the Church allows is not to be disallowed.” 4. The Rule of Catholic Freedom: “There’s something for everybody, but not everything is for everybody.” 5. The Rule of Modesty: “Not all of my causes are God’s causes.” 6. The Rule of Integrity: “To do evil in order to accomplish good is really to do evil.” 7. The Rule of Realism: “Remember that Satan is eager to corrupt my efforts to build up the Kingdom, and he’s smart enough to figure out a way to do it. 8. The Rule of Mystery: “Not all the habits and attitudes which belong to a society governed by a representative democracy are appropriate in the Church.” 9. The Petrine Rule: “Nobody ever built up the Church by tearing down the pope.” 10. The Eschatological Rule: “The victory is assured; my job is to run out the clock with style.” Click on any of the rules to go to the original. Read the whole thing. It is worth it. I found this through Love 2 Learn Mom at Studeo She found it at DarwinCatholic

Advice wanted

Click on picture to see a larger image. Give me your advice here. Tell me what would you do. I have been back in CA for almost two years now. When we came, we got our kids into the Catholic school at the parish we had been at before we left for ATL (we had been at that parish for about a year). There was something odd when we got back – the parish had changed. There is a couple who are “running” the parish with some of their “group.” The man in this couple drives me up a wall. He is rude, arrogant, controlling, and (IMHO) disrespectful on the altar (not a good thing for the head of the Eucharistic Ministers and RCIA). He also seems to be able to control the pastor (what this guy says, Father goes along with). It is the least welcoming parish I have ever been in. I still feel an outsider and I am a lector, work bingo, was just put on the School board, and attend weekday Mass there. Lynn teaches music part-time at the school and is involved in the music ministry. Lynn and I both grew up in strong community parishes. Part of the strength came from the integration with the school and the parish. I am a STRONG supporter of Catholic school. I want God talked about in my kids’ school. I want them to go to Mass with the school. I want school prayer. I want their faith taught and to permeate activities throughout their day. I also highly value the additional opportunity to build community that a school tied to a parish provides. Recently the pastor has done several things that look like he is against at least this Catholic school. There are no parents on the parish council. He has disallowed school fundraisers. For example he won’t allow the school to sell tickets to an upcoming fundraiser after Mass (even though Religious Ed does for their golf tourney, and the Boy Scouts sell tickets to their breakfast, or the Filipino Association sells tickets to their events). He also canceled a hugely successful after-school Jog-A-Thon fundraiser (raised $20,000) because it ended at 7PM and the head of RCIA (mentioned above) complained that he couldn’t park (his event was at 7PM) – actually he yelled at school members who were organizing it while it was going on. Instead of coming to a Christian compromise (like next year end at 6:30), Father forbid the event if Religious Ed had any activities at any time on a given day (they reserve time everyday, even when they don’t use it – Catch 22). Oh, there are lots of other examples as well, but this gives the flavor. This has frustrated me to no end, and I have been praying for patience and restraint. Several people have told me that Father would not mind at all if the school closed. I am not sure what to do. This is counter to one of my core values in raising my children and is directly counter to my desire to build community (oh my, is this one in shambles). What should I do? When I moved back to So Cal, we got the kids into school first, and then tried to get a home in the parish. We were close, but our home is actually located in another parish. That parish has a strong school that feels a part of the parish AND they have far more respectful Masses. There are other minor pluses as well. My wife and I went to Mass there today, and the sense of community, the welcoming faces, and the more respectful liturgy all left us (me, Lynn and the kids) with a good feeling. But we have invested time at the other parish (often with frustration – at least on my part since Lynn is more patient than I am). My wife is a part-time music teacher, and I have been asked on the school board. Do I stay in frustration in what may be a lost cause if the school closes in a couple years? Do I uproot the kids and move to a place where we can build the community we so want, and where our values are more in sync? How do I approach my priest to talk about this? Do I talk to him about it at all?

Superordinate Goals

Click on picture to see a larger image. There are two superordinate goals in life. All other goals are subordinate to these or detract from them. The first is to get to Heaven. The second is to help other people get to Heaven. My dissertation was on goals and how people achieve them and their relation to personality. One of the things I used to do in my research was conduct what I called my "Four Year Old's Interview." I even taped a couple of interviews doing this. I would start by asking people what they did yesterday. I then asked why, and the answer had to start with "I want/wanted to...". This would repeat until we could go no farther. An interesting phenomenon occurred. What people did boiled down to only a few core motivations - e.g., "to take care of my family." Why did you stop to get coffee - because I wanted to be able to keep going during the day. Why did you want to keep going during the day - because I want to do well at my job. Why did you want to do well at your job - because I want to provide for my family. Why did you want to provide for your family - geez, that's what I want. I love them. Of course real life is a bit more complex than this example and these ladders actually branch out (e.g., I want to socialize with friends AND keep going at work when I get coffee), but at the ultimate motivation level they kept coming back to the same small set of motivations. Each person's life is rooted in certain goals that guided much of what they do. This was not depth psychology (looking at hidden motivations), but it was insightful to watch how people would get to a where they could go no farther - and how it fit each person distinctly. Why do we have these goals that guide us? Those who refuse God have no answer here. They are stuck with "geez, that's just what I want." It either feels right, or feels good, or because society tells them too - all very dissatisfying answers. But for those who are open to God, there is an answer! I take care of my family because I want to spend eternity with God and I want them there too. I do what charity I do because I want to go to heaven and I want those I am helping to go as well. I build loving friendships because that is how I can experience God - it helps me get to Heaven (and hopefully my friends too). If we can't tie our motivations back to these two goals we are wasting our time and the time of others. If our motivations do not have these ultimate goals, then what we do is meaningless. It may feel good, it may help me get by, but it really doesn't matter. If what we do is counter to these two goals, then I would call it sinful. What did you do yesterday? Why did you do it? Tags: motivation, Heaven

Today's Catholic Quote

By nature all men are equal in liberty, but not in other endowments. Saint Thomas Aquinas Tags: Catholic, Quote