Living a Catholic Life in the Modern World
The Simple Summer Fling Day 7 – I have two windows in my office with deep sills and they end up accumulating stuff. This is the other half of the second window
here is the result so far.
after
Next I am cleaning the whole thing off and making it lovely.
OK, I have a question for you: what might an associate professor at the University of Minnesota and a depressed and slightly delusional, 15 year old girl, who fancies herself a witch, have in common? They BOTH want to desecrate the Eucharist… only the professor doesn’t have the balls to get the Host himself and instead asks his blog readers to do that part for him. I know I am rather late to this story, but I just have to say something. Paul Myers, it is too bad he can’t see what he is doing. His illogical bigotryis showing and it is quite sad. He could disagree that the Host is sacred, he could even say that from the top of the bell tower if he liked, or publish it on his blog. But when he does something he knows will be inflammatory and offensive to a great number of people he is showing his disdain for the feelings and humanity of those people. He is saying that he doesn’t just disagree with them but he has no respect for them or their beliefs and opinions. That steps across the line from discourse and disagreement into bigotry.
It is obvious that the genius professor hasn’t a clue about how people of faith think (and yes we can and do think). You will not show the world how the Eucharist is nothing but a cracker no matter what you do to it. Drop it in the Cuisinart, tack it to your cork board, burn it, crumble it… do what you will. Christ and his followers have endured physical torment and even death for that little cracker. St Tarcisius, at twelve, died rather than let his friends have the Eucharist and he is one of many and just a boy at that. You aren’t exactly going to prove that it has no power by showing to the world the power it has by creating a furor over whatever it is you plan to do. Talk about cutting your nose off to spite your face.
“Always remember, my dear young friend, that Almighty God loves you very much: for love of you He created the world, the sun, the stars, and everything else that exists. He made your parents; He made you; He gave you your soul and your body.
Therefore, your most important duty is to know God, to serve God, and to love God with all your heart.”
Bishop Morrow — My Friend, published 1949
Bernhard Plockhorst — The Good Shephard
I have always noted that in the dystopia literary works (Brave New World, 1984 and the like) that human relationship, human love is suppressed or redirected in some way. A people comfortable and confident in their love for one another and their love of God and of God’s love for them are not easily led away from what is good. We are made to love God and to love one another. The catechism itself begins with the exhortation to love and serve God. It is in this act that we find the expression of who we are, who we are meant to be, why we are here. All those pressing questions are answered so succinctly we are here, made, born, fashioned and formed to love and serve God. The life of every Saint points to this inevitable conclusion: nothing is more worth living or dieing for than the love of God and service to Him.
This is the most elemental, the most basic tenant of Catholic life. I don’t say that to exclude non-Catholic Christians or even non-Christians. The Church teaches that God has written the natural law in all human hearts, it is our natural state to long for what is good. But the Catholic expression has a fullness that exists no where else. We have the Sacraments instituted by Christ. We have the Eucharist.
The Eucharist is a miracle. It exists outside of time and space. It exists wholly and completely in the supernatural realm. It is a tangible expression for us to be able to partake in the divine love of God’s self-sacrifice over and over, it reconciles the beautiful impossibility of Christ being anointed the priest who sacrifices and the lamb that is sacrificed and the fruit of the earth feeding our body and the fruit of the spirit feeding our souls. All this bathed in love. For God so loved the world.
God became one of us, lives in all of us, we serve Him when we serve one another and when we fail to serve each other we fail to serve Him. He takes upon us each of our sins when we let Him. And it is this that makes it impossible for us not to be willing to forgive others when they harm us. How can I not forgive my fellow man when Christ has paid for those wrongs with His own blood? It is one of the mysteries of the Passion. When Christ paid for all my sins He paid for all my enemy’s sins as well. To hold those hurts against me against my fellow man is to hold them against Jesus Himself. Thus Christ redeems us not only for ourselves, but heals the hurts we have between one another allowing us to love without limit.
I saw this over at Happiest at Home. So I had to join in. Tightwad Tuesday is hosted by Mary at Raising 4 godly men.
I have two almost painless ways to save.
The Magic We Need List – I keep a list in my day planner of things we need or would really like. Not things like groceries, but things like “a new 24″ bike” or “A china cupboard” . This helps me keep from impulse buying and helps me plan major purchases. I also keep a list of the “specs” of items we need infrequently, like the children’s shoe sizes, the size of the light bulbs in the office, the printer cartridge numbers in my planner so I can pick them up when I see them on sale without having to wait to be sure I have the correct item.
Craig’s List– We have found so many great deals on Craig’s list. We got a cargo carrier for the van at a sixth of what it would have cost us. My brother got a new oven – my friend found a bunch of life-vests for her kids. It is just a great way to find items that we need (things on The Magic We Need List). It is like the never ending garage sale.
Simply Catholic 
