TOB: The Journey Continues

"The body, in fact, and only the body, is capable of making visible what is invisible: the spiritual and the devine. It has been created to transfer into the visible reality of the world the mystery hidden from eternity in God, and thus to be a sign of it." (TOB 19:4)

A couple of years ago I was introduced to Pope John Paul II's important work entitled "Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body."(TOB) The concept behind this work amazed and yet baffles me. JP2 spent five years (9/5/79 to 11/28/84) to deliver a series of talks during his Wednesday audiences. The text is thick so, needless to say, I haven't made it through the entire thing. I'm picking it back up and, with the help of a commentary authored by Christopher West, I hope to finish this time.

With the start of Lent this week, this may be the best time to reflect upon the meaning of the body and the fact that, in the Incarnation, God took on a body and later gave it up in the single greatest act of love man has ever seen. It wasn't just a spiritual act; it was physical. And that physical act would not have been possible without a body.

I'll be using this blog as a place to log my reflections, ask questions and hopefully, come to a greater understanding of who I am and who God is.

If you'd like to join me, feel free to do so in the comments. A converstion is much better when others contribute.

John Paul The Great-- pray for us!

Give What You Have

As it has been with all of our children, it's safe to say that my family is in a "transition period." It simply takes us time to adjust to having a new little one in the house.

My wife wasn't feeling very well so I ventured to take my four older boys to Mass. Now, my wife's parents were there so I wasn't left to manage the boys alone, however, it is usually a challenge nonetheless.

All in all, I'd say that the boys behaved pretty well. My two year old was a bit wiggly, but he made it through without my having to excuse the both of us. I did find it difficult to focus, though. At times when I would have wanted to offer my intentions, I found myself offering my son some sort of distraction so he'd stay quiet. The distraction would usually consist if a question like, "where's the cross?" or "can you point to the altar?" I try to draw his attention to the beauty of the church or the mass in genneral. Sometimes it works; sometimes, not so much.

Anyway, I often leave mass with the feeling that I didn't really participate because of all the attention I have to devote to my son. That's changing. I am reminded of the widow who gave a little, but gave from her want and it was counted to her as a great gift-- as opposed to those who give much, but give from their abundance.

I suppose my offering at Mass is just that. I give what I have: my distracted self. That's enough because anything I lack, He provides.

What Can't You Do With an iPhone?

Last summer I broke down and bought an iPhone. No doubt, it is a fun tool to have, but it can be a real time sucker. When the ads claim, "there's an app for that," they're telling the truth. In fact, I'm writing this post from my phone. All the pictures in this post are from my phone.

Recently, I purchased two applications that I know I'll get plenty of use from. The first is the Catholic Missal ($4.99).

This app not only has the liturgical calendar built into it, but it has the daily mass readings with audio. The other day, my boys and I listened to the readings while I drove them to school.

The second app I really enjoy is the Divine Office ($9.99).





This app contains the entire liturgy of the hours with audio as well. When I would try to do morning prayer from book of Christian Prayer, I'd usually skip the hymns for obvious reasons. But I can now read along and pray the office antiphonally. Another cool feature is that you can see who else is praying along with you using the app:






A third app I have yet to really try out was just released by the Logos bible software company and I just loaded it today (Free). This app contains an incredible library of not only different bible translations, but different scripture study tools as well.






So, while being connected can be, and often is, a stumbling block, having these tools at your fingertips can also be a blessing. My challenge is to be sure to avail myself to Our Lord through prayer and scripture study each day with the same diligence that I check the conversations on Twitter and update my Facebook status.

In this age if information, we must be sure to take time to slow down and hear the "still small voice" even if we are using technology to do so. After all, in the 1600's, a book was considered a technological advance.

Pray for me!

For Unto Us...

I've been off the blogging grid for a while due to just being plain ol' busy. In the meantime, we welcomed our newest son:
Bohdan Isaiah Cox. Bohdan was born 11/11/09 and weighed in at 6lb 12oz and 19.25".

Preparing for Christ's Birth

It's a story familiar to all of us. The tale of a virgin giving birth, a child laid in a manger and shepherds greeted by angels. But what if we had never heard the story before? Lets place ourselves as first century Jews who are hearing this plot for the first time. Were the events prior to Christ's birth a fulfillment of what had been prophesized for centuries? Let's all try and go back into the first century Jewish world so as to discover many of the spiritual treasures by looking more deeply into the mystery of Christ's coming in Scripture.

Daniel 9: 20-23

20 While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the LORD my God for the holy hill of my God; 21 while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the first, came to me in swift flight at the time of the evening sacrifice. 22 He came and he said to me, "O Daniel, I have now come out to give you wisdom and understanding. 23 At the beginning of your supplications a word went forth, and I have come to tell it to you, for you are greatly beloved; therefore consider the word and understand the vision. "

24 "Seventy weeks of years are decreed concerning your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place."

Malachi 3:1

BEHOLD, I send my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts

Luke 1:8-23

8 Now while he was serving as priest before God when his division was on duty, 9 according to the custom of the priesthood, it fell to him by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense. 10 And the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense. 11 And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. 12 And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him. 13 But the angel said to him, "Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer is heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. 14 And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth; 15 for he will be great before the Lord, and he shall drink no wine nor strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb. 16 And he will turn many of the sons of Israel to the Lord their God, 17 and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared." 18 And Zechariah said to the angel, "How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years." 19 And the angel answered him, "I am Gabriel, who stand in the presence of God; and I was sent to speak to you, and to bring you this good news. 20 And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things come to pass, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time." 21 And the people were waiting for Zechariah, and they wondered at his delay in the temple. 22 And when he came out, he could not speak to them, and they perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple; and he made signs to them and remained dumb. 23 And when his time of service was ended, he went to his home.

[1] Edward Sri. Dawn of the Messiah. Servant Books. Chapter 1.

49,551,703 and Counting

A "holocaust?" Are you kidding me? The more I think about these comments by Rep. Grayson, the more frustrated I become. At first I wondered if he understood the irony in his comments. After all, there have been 49,551,703 abortions in the United States since 1973--an average of 1,376,436 per year and he happens to be a proponent of abortion rights. Rep. Grayson says that there have been 44,789 deaths every year due to lack of health care. Of course no one thinks that preventable deaths are acceptable. But there is a huge difference between a person dying because of omission and the willful taking of an innocent life. He makes it clear that he understands the connection between the abortion and health care debates when he says, "We should care about people even after they are born."

To say that the health care situation is even close to a holocaust is ridiculous. No one's life is being taken. However, I can think of over 49,000,000 examples of a true holocaust.

BloodMoney Trailer

Providence

Last summer I spent a lot of time reading blogs and entering into the discussions that took place. One of the blogs that I followed was that of a fellow Catholic convert, Steve Ray. It didn't take too long before he linked to a very interesting conversion story. The Woman at the Well fascinated me. Her story was nothing like mine, but somehow, I felt like I could relate. If you haven't read this story before, stop now and go read it.

Fast forward one year.

Jennie and I decided to take the boys to the coast for a couple of days. She worked her usual magic in finding the best possible place in the best possible location for the best possible price. She even managed to find a hotel that threw in breakfast--which is nothing to sneeze at when you have four growing boys. Anyway, once we checked in we went through our normal routine of Dad unload the Sienna while Mom keeps the boys under control (wouldn't want to get thrown out the first night, right?). Right about the time I finish unloading the van, Jennie reassures me that maybe we will be ok, because she just saw a family with children come in from the parking lot. Fantastic! we won't be the only ones making noise around here.

Now off to the beach. As we come down the steps, I notice a Sienna parked right next to ours. And what do you know, they have two bumper stickers I dig--catholicvote.com and Yes on 8! So I hit the remote to unlock my door just as the guy who owns the van next to ours hits his. He says to me, "Nice choice in van." I look over at him and his four--What, this guy has four boys too?--and say, "it looks like we are carrying the same load too." So we exchange pleasantries and introduce ourselves and it turns out that he's a convert too! Oh, man we gotta meet up at the pool tonight. Let the kids swim and let's exchange stories. So that is exactly what we do.

Jennie was feeling a bit tired by the end of the day, so we put Jabin to bed and let her put her feet up. The rest of the clan and I head down to the pool and shortly my friend and his boys join us. It turns out that the age range for his boys is 9 to 4 and mine is 10 to 4. Our kids hit it off immediately. Which is great because that allows my friend and I to talk without putting out a bunch of fires.

After a while, his wife joins us and I feel as if I already know this couple. They are great. We are so different, yet exactly the same.

He's a convert; I'm a convert.
He's a teacher; I'm a teacher.
4 boys; 4 boys.
He's a musician; I own a guitar.
He's an artist; I can color inside the lines.
And you can't foget the vans.
But most importantly, we are two families who are desperately depending on God's grace to live out our Catholic faith. That makes us identical.

It turns out that as my friend's wife shared more of her story, I felt like I had heard it before. She tells me that she has written about it on her MySpace page. You guessed it--she's the Woman at the Well!

This whole encounter just blows me away. I have visited MySpace two times. Once to hear some music written by a former student and the other to read The Woman at the Well's conversion story. What are the chances?

It's not chance; it's providence. I just got a first hand glimpse of what being conformed to the image of Christ really means. God can take four people who come from completely different backgrounds, give them a burning desire to follow Him, conform them into the same family, put them in their mini vans and send them to the same floor of the same hotel at the same time. And just to prepare me for this encounter, He had me read about them a year in advance.

I can't stop thining about this...

Catholics and Crucifixes

Crucifixes are crosses which have the corpus (body) of Jesus on them to represent the historical crucifixion of Our Lord. The cross alone, with no body, has been a symbol of Christianity since antiquity. The very instrument of capital punishment and horrible torture by the pagan Roman Empire became a symbol of the loving and forgiving crucified Savior.

Catholics are not the only Christians to use the crucifix in church for public worship or in their homes. Eastern Orthodox, Anglican (Episcopalian) and Lutheran Christians also use the crucifix, while most Reformed Protestant Christians will only have a cross and never with a corpus.

The main goal of the crucifix is not to shock or frighten believers, but to remind them of the ultimate price paid for their salvation. Redemption was expensive. Jesus sacrificed His very life and He endured a painful and horrible death just so we could go to heaven. The crucifix brings home the reality that sin caused us to be lost and ony the death of the Savior could save us. Celebrating Christian worship on Sunday (rather than on the Sabbath, Saturday) and calling it the day of the Lord is how Christians honor the Resurrection.

Found: The Bones of St. Paul

This Post was taken from Thomas Moore's Blog, American Papist-Not Your Average Catholic. Cool Finding . . .

__________________________________________


Again, a story that slipped through my fingers.
Happily, St. Paul did not manage to permanently slip through the fingers of the Church (it seems):

Pope Benedict XVI said last night that bone fragments found inside the tomb of St Paul in Rome had been carbon dated for the first time, "confirming the unanimous and uncontested tradition that they are the mortal remains of the Apostle Paul".He said that archaeologists had inserted a probe into the white marble sarcophagus under the Basilica of St Paul's Outside the Walls which has been revered for centuries as the tomb of St Paul.The pontiff said: "Small fragments of bone were carbon dated by experts who knew nothing about their provenance and results showed they were from someone who lived between the 1st and 2nd century.

This seems to confirm the unanimous and uncontested tradition that these are the mortal remains of Paul the Apostle."The Pope, who said the discovery "fills our souls with great emotion", made the unexpected announcement during Vespers at St Paul's Basilica last night, marking the end of the Pauline year held in honour of the apostle. He said that as well as bone fragments, archaeologists had found grains of red incense, a piece of purple linen with gold sequins and a blue fabric with linen filaments in the tomb. (UK Times)

St. Paul: always full of surprises!

Can we say "pilgrimage site"?Related: New Discoveries. Why St. Paul Was Given a Philosopher's Face by Sandro Magister:

"The oldest depiction of the apostle has been found just a short distance from his tomb, which is also the object of new investigations. The Church wanted to represent him as the Christian Plato. A daring decision. And still extremely relevant, even today"

The Gospel of John: Unity of Christendom

John 17:20-23: v20 "I do not pray for these only, but also for those who believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. 22 The glory which thou hast given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and thou in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them even as thou hast loved me."

The Reformation principle of "each man with a Bible and his own interpretation" has brought about the tragic results we see today among numerous Christian denominations. There are over 30,000 divisions and denominations in Christendom that are ripping and tearing the Body of Christ.

In the Gospel of John, Chapter 17, notice that Jesus prays for the future generations of Christians, that they be "One" and "Perfected in Unity", not ripped apart by divisions and denominations. Those who continue to "protest' against the Catholic Church are like a nation that divides into tens of thousands of competing, disagreeing factions but that still claims to have an invisible unity. St. Paul also condemns factions and divisions in the Church in his first letter to the Corinthians. All of this has unfortunately lead to the new and radical theology of the "invisible Church", where one only needs his bible and love for Christ. No Church, no community, no gathering, "just me and Jesus, and my bible." Where will the results of Sola Scriptura lead to next?

About a year after his Ninety-Five Theses, Martin Luther wrote a letter to Pope Leo X about his concern of the schism brought about by his teachings. Luther in writing to Pope Leo X said, "I never approved of a schism, nor will I approve of it for all eternity. . That the Roman Church is more honored by God than all others is not to be doubted. . Though nowadays everything is in a wretched state, it is no ground for separating from the Church. On the Contrary, the worse things are going, the more should we hold close to her, for it is not by separating from the Church tha twe can make her better. . There is no sin, no amount of evil, which should be permitted to dissolve the bond of charity or break the bond of unity of the Body."

[1] Letter of Martin Luther to Pope Leo X. January 6, 1519. Patrick O'Hare. The Facts about Luther, pg 256.

[2] Crossing The Tiber. Stephen K. Ray. Ignatius.

New statistics show U.S. Catholics increase in numbers

From the Catholic News Agency. Read full article here

The 2009 Official Catholic Directory has released new statistics on the Catholic population. The directory shows that there are 68.1 million Catholics in the United States, an increase of about one million from the previous year which maintains Catholics as 22 percent of the U.S. population.

The directory, also known as the Kenedy Directory, reports that there are 41,489 diocesan and religious order priests, 60,715 religious sisters, 4,905 religious brothers and 16,935 permanent deacons. In 2008 there were 887,145 infant baptisms, 42,629 adult baptisms, and 81,775 baptized Christians who entered full communion with the Church. The Kenedy Directory lists 18,674 parishes, including 91 new parishes, and 189 seminaries with 4,973 students.

Over 722,000 students are in high school religious education programs, while over three million are in elementary school religious ed.

There are 6,133 Catholic elementary schools and 1.6 million students. The country’s 1,341 Catholic high schools educate over 674,000 students, while 234 Catholic colleges and universities serve, over 795,000 students.

U.S. Catholic hospitals number 562 and serve almost 85.3 million patients, while 3009 Catholic social service centers assist 27.2 million people annually.

According to a press release from the U.S. bishops' conference, Catholic organizations in the United States provide an estimated $28.2 billion in services through institutions represented by the Catholic Health Association ($5.7 billion), Catholic Charities USA ($3.5 billion), and the National Catholic Education Association ($19.8 billion).

These figures do not include assistance provided through parishes and other organizations such as the Knights of Columbus.

"He Descended Into Hell (in Greek - Hades). . "

We always begin the rosary with the sign of the cross. After making the sign of the cross we then say the Apostles Creed. It's at this time, during the Apostles Creed where I seem to make an involuntary pause around the 4th line of the prayer. After we announce that Christ was crucified, died and was buried we say, "He descended into hell (in Greek, Hades)." This part of the prayer has always caused me to stammer because I've never fully understood it. I even remember having trouble explaining this to Melissa during her conversion. As always, having a little background and looking towards scripture can help all of us come to understand more about our Catholic Faith.

The word "hell" (in Greek, Hades) refers to the place of the dead prior to Jesus' resurrection (Acts 2:27). Hades was the place where all souls, both the righteous and the unrighteous, were detained immediately after death. No soul could go to heaven until Jesus appeased God's wrath against sin by His propitiatory sacrifice, and was raised from the dead.

By virtue of His death and resurrection, God gave Jesus the "keys of death and hell (Rev 1:17-18)," which represents Jesus' power to release these souls from Hades. This is why, immediately after He died (He was crucified, died and was buried), Jesus "descended into hell" and preached the Gospel to the souls in Hades! The righteous souls were now released to heaven, while the unrighteous souls were condemned to eternal punishment. The gates of hell, which formerly kept souls from heaven, can no longer do so because Jesus has the Keys.

I hope this helps all of us understand the Apostles Creed a little more. And if for some reason, Matthew 16 came to mind after just hearing about; keys, hell (hades) and the idea of authority over souls, you're on the right track. We'll touch on that on a later post.

Thank You for Our Gift

During the week I homeschool a fourteen year old girl and today, my homeschooler is doing her California State Testing for mathematics. She is a bright girl who can understand most of the concepts, but "big numbers" in word problems throw her off. So I am constantly telling her to re-create the problem using the same situation, but with smaller numbers. Instead of saying that Suzie ate 13,452 pieces of candy in 782 days, I would have her work out something like "If Suzie ate 120 pieces of candy in 20 day, about how many pieces of candy did she eat each day?"
Then she gets it! She now knows that all she has to do is divide, when before, her mind was paralyzed with confusion!

I guess those numbers were just so overwhelming, that she forgot how simple of a concept it really was. I think that a lot of times we do the same thing with our Blessed Mother. Many can not understand the love and the honor that we Catholics give to Our Lady. So to better understand our veneration, I propose that you simply "make the numbers smaller."

Our Mexican-Catholic brothers and sisters have a beautiful devotion to Our Lady of Guadelupe, as do many other cultures, and rightfully so. But because Our Lady appeared in their native land, their love for her is especially great. Here, then, is where I choose to set up my "word problem." If you do not know the complete story of Our Lady of Guadelupe...please look it up. For the sake of brevity, I will say only that Our Lady appeared to Juan Diego with a mission. The Church has approved this apparition (declared it valid and true) and as a result of her visit, 6 to 8 Million people were converted to Christianity!!

Now, lets pull out the essential information: We have a Gift, a giver, and a recipiant. Mary brought the saving love of Jesus to the Native people. Indeed, Mary's "yes" brought Jesus to the whole world! Remember, she didn't have to say "yes." But this is still too big to grasp, so let us simplify this problem so we can understand the concept.

Imagine Chrismas morning, Grandma comes to visit her twin 8 year old grandsons. She brings them each a gift. The first boy opens up a bright red sweater with a big yellow bird stitched right on the front. The second boy opens up the newest gaming station: wiiX3. Can you imagine their respective reactions? The first boy may manage to give his grandma a tight lipped smile and a quiet "thank you," while the second boy, on the other hand would barely be able to contain himself. He would be jumping all over the place, kissing his grandma on the cheek, repeatedly throwing out shouts of gratitude all the while keeping his eyes fixed on his new gift.

We can see here so clearly that their reactions were indicative of how much (or little) they valued their gifts. Can we not use this simple reasoning then, and apply it to the gift given to us by our Blessed Mother? I want to jump up and down and kiss my Mother Mary on the cheek and sing beautiful songs of gratitude to her! For truly, I have never been given such a Gift as this! Thank You Jesus for coming to us! And thank you Mary for letting it be!

Happy Feast Day of Our Lady of Fatima!