Religion: October 2005 Archives

take heed, be not faithless

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A few weeks ago, I got tired of not being able to pull out the Bible and look things up quickly. I eventually need to get one for my palm, but I haven't found a readable Catholic version yet to download. So I bought a Catholic RSV with small print on bible paper, flexibly bound, and keep it in my purse now. It comes in handy.

Today at Mass, the first reading was from the book of Malachi. In his homily, father talked about the irony that today is one in which we are supposed to celebrate and support our priests, and the first reading is all about admonishing priests who are faithless and greedy. Anyhow, I took a few minutes later on to read the entire book of Malachi (easily done, it's only 4 chapters) and what struck me particularly was the segment below.
Malachi chapter 2 (RSV)
[13] And this again you do. You cover the LORD's altar with tears, with weeping and groaning because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor at your hand.
[14] You ask, "Why does he not?" Because the LORD was witness to the covenant between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant.
[15] Has not the one God made and sustained for us the spirit of life? And what does he desire? Godly offspring. So take heed to yourselves, and let none be faithless to the wife of his youth.
[16] "For I hate divorce, says the LORD the God of Israel, and covering one's garment with violence, says the LORD of hosts. So take heed to yourselves and do not be faithless.

What does God desire? Godly offspring.
It hit me really hard.
How does this happen? "Take heed to yourselve, and do not be faithless".
So often, the scriptures use the image of adultery as an image of how the children of Israel were faithless to their God. It seems to me that there is also a parallel here to the teachings of Jesus in Matthew 5 and the message of Ephesians 5.
I was mulling over Malachi 2 a little more, later today. It is a prophetic book, and I think that we can see in our culture the rejection of bearing offspring (because if you don't have any, how can they become Godly) and the widespread acceptance of infidelity and divorce. And what has happened? We are no longer offering the sacrifice that God desires. As mentioned in the first chapter of Malachi, we are offering the diseased and malformed to God, not the perfection and the first fruits.
A humble and contrite heart He will not refuse. Thank God! But I think that it becomes so easy to presume upon the forgiveness of God, and we fail to be truly contrite. I know that I have been guilty of this.
I hear in this scripture (as in Matthew 23:23 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faith; these you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.")the message that I really need to give from my substance, from myself, and not just from the extras.
As my husband would say, sometimes God needs to smack me upside with a 2 by 4.

This is WAYYYY overdue

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We'll all keep praying!
Cardinal Newman on the path to beatification
BBC's coverage
Father Paul Chavasse, the Provost of Birmingham Oratory, which was founded by Newman in 1848, said that a deacon in the Diocese of Boston in the United States had testified that he had recovered from a spinal disease after praying to Cardinal Newman. “At last we have a miracle cure,” he said.

I'm sure that Quenta Narwenian is dancing with glee!

From a book well worth reading in its entirety, which I did once but never got around to blogging.
Mohammed

Our Lady of the Rosary

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Today is the feast of our Lady of the Rosary - also know as Our Lady of Victory. The story goes that a great victory, and the preservation of Europe against the invading Muslim armies, was won at Lepanto through the intercession of Our Lady and the praying of the rosary.

Today is also the birthday of my youngest child. She turned 17. She invited over lots of her friends for dinner and cake. I made the dinner, she made the cake. Dinner was bean tacos (with shrimps available to those who so desired). Cake - she made her favorite recipe - the 1-2-3-4 cake from the Joy of Cooking, filled it with strawberry jam, and frosted it with citrus buttercream.

2 days ago was her next elder sister's birthday - 22 years old. It's been more than a year now since I've seen her. She lives on the other coast and it just hasn't worked to get together. Soon, sometime soon, I hope. Had I been aware of the feast of the rosary when she was born, I would probably have added "Rose" to her name.

If you have a chance, could you pray for my two opals?

I hereby offer to you a poem by G.K.Chesterton
Lepanto

my name is

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Legion

The TOTB has some answers for the questions the writer poses here.

Link via Julie D.

The author is speaking on EWTN right now!

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Swimming With Scapulars: True Confessions Of A Young Catholic

and, he strongly recommends Catholic blogs as a great faith resource!
it was on St Joseph radio presents
hope that they rerun it later

Catechetics et al

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Yesterday was Scott Hahn, and it was magnificent to hear him speak. It was also wonderful to be in a room full of other believing and practicing Catholics. God has sent me some wonderful opportunities lately - Patrick Madrid last week, Scott Hahn yesterday, and at the end of the month, Father Tad. I love the opportunities I've been given lately for adult catechesis - I really have been blessed.

I needed and still need the reinforcement. Today was the opening 'retreat' (4 hour session) for confirmation one, for which I volunteered to be an 'adult facilitator'. John will be doing likewise for the second year of the program. He has already gone through the two years once, and I decided to bite the bullet and volunteer. It looks to be interesting. We have just under 50 kids in the first year, and I have been assigned to a small group of ten of them, and this group will be together for the length of the program.

Today there was a focus on why bother with religious education, why bother with religion at all, how is this relevant to life as a teenager? I think that this is an important question, but I hope that as we go along we will be able to give these kids not just questions but answers - and answers that will not only make sense but (more importantly) be true. I don't want to be part of a catechesis that cheats kids out of their Catholic heritage. I'm worried that we will end up focusing more on feelings and not getting into facts. I will continue to keep praying...

One of the books that sold out at the Scott Hahn talk was this gem. I wish so much that we were using this as a textbook! We are using the Catholic Youth Bible. I just wish that we had the time and the funds to get into more depth. I can tell that there are a lot of foundational stuff that these kids don't have well established, even the ones who are in the Catholic HS and who are taking an organized theology class on a daily basis.

I was the age these kids are when I started to really search for God in my life. Fourteen is a rough age even in the best of times.

Please add us to your prayer list.

according to Jesse Romero

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"Men like the Gospel with testosterone - Death, Judgment, Hell and Heaven"
"The Catholic Faith is an all or nothing deal"
heard on EWTN.

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About this Archive

This page is a archive of entries in the Religion category from October 2005.

Religion: September 2005 is the previous archive.

Religion: November 2005 is the next archive.

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