Do Unto Others

Born Again

Give Thanks

I’ll let this one speak for itself.

In case you missed it, check out our very first post, parallel concept…
Think about your life <link>.  It is worth repeating.

Death and Acceptance

         I meant to post this last week, but things got kind of crazy- so, I am posting it now.  Almost 1 year ago, one of my best friend’s lives had changed.  I’m not going to go into too much detail, but in a tragic car accident, she lost her father and her mother is disabled (although on the surface, one wouldn’t be able to tell)

            The two of us were talking about the weekend, and knowing that it was Father’s Day that Sunday, I tried to avoid that topic.  She was talking about how the Laker’s better win :( and how they were planning a big party for Sunday.  Well, I thought it was a Laker party, but it was a Father’s Day party.  Her exact words were, “Georgie will be partying with the Greatest Father and I’m sure he’s having a heezy.”  I was pretty thrown back by the acceptance of her father’s death.  She also said, “God loves my dad more than any of us ever could.”

            My friend kept her family strong during the difficult times when her mom was hospitalized down in Las Vegas and then flown back for more intensive recovery and rehabilitation here in LA.  She made all the funeral arrangements for her father and has since taken care of her mother.

            I asked her, “How do you stay so strong?”  She replied, “I am not strong, but I have faith knowing that everything will be okay.”  WOW!!!  On one end of the phone is a theology major, and on the other end, a person who summed up what it means to have true faith in God in one sentence:  “Faith is not believing God will- Faith is KNOWING God will.”

Dance Cha-Cha With Me

I love to dance, including cha-cha.  But I’m gonna talk about a different kind of cha-cha…

Chastity - Looking at the subject index in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, these are some topics that fall in the category of chastity:  fruit of the Holy Spirit; cultural effort; gift of self; grace of God; preservation of the integrity of the person; vocation of all the baptized; importance of friendship; lust.  But somehow, most of us think of chastity as just being celibate.  There is so much more to it and I would quote again from an article from The Tidings (June 13, 2008), ‘Chastity and the Enchantment of Life’ by Father Ronald Rolheiser:  “To be chaste is to experience people, things, places, entertainment, the phases of one’s life, life’s opportunities, and sex, in a way that does not violate them or ourselves … Chastity is respect and reverence.”

Charity - ‘the theological virtue by which we love God above all things for his own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God’ (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1822).

Shall we dance?

For the Sacristan at Heart

http://romansacristan.blogspot.com/

From the About Me on this guy’s blog:
Grizzly young sacristan who loves liturgy and liturgical tradition. I have a bachelor’s degree in Catholic theology from the University of Dallas (a Catholic college with a solid theology department). I’ve worked as a Sacristan in four different parishes in the U.S. and at a shrine in Italy. I’m hoping to make this blog a resource for priests and laity who want to introduce Latin into their parishes, as well as being a resource for doing liturgy correctly, especially in the Mass according to the 2002 Roman Missal, as Pope Benedict XVI called for in his accompanying letter to bishops on “Summorum Pontificum.”

RS

I found bits of this interesting, maybe you will too.

Newbie

Coldplay

So today, well, yesterday, I was having a day that was pretty much the same as any other day.  You know the ritualistic happenings.  Open and rub eyes, stretch, get up, brush teeth, wash face, get dressed, skip breakfast and prepare backpack for a class that you’ve lost interest in since your first D on a test.  It was deja-vu all over again.  It gets tiring really. 

But let’s back track.

In a world where everything will never go your way you have to think about your future and how your plans will, if ever, will be taken into effect.  There’s going to be days when it’s going to go to waste.  There’s going to be semesters where my interest will fade.  Insipiration has left me completely these days.   And there’s a void within my being that has been purposely, or unpurposely, I’m not entirely sure, emptied.  My breathing was shorter because of the heavy burden of thoughts that seem silly now.  Those thoughts were the reason for my disconnection with someone close to me.  And that was the day I decided to leave confirmation after going through training and enroll full time as a student, thinking I wasn’t going to have enough time, which I didn’t, but I still could have made time.

Today.

When you listen to Coldplay, you’re bound to feel emotions that you’ve never felt before, or quite possibly repressed in hopes of saving face from your family and peers.  So, throughout a troubled semester, I discovered Coldplay.  I’ve never really listened to any of their material, but one of their songs today spoke to me in the most amazing and uncanny way.

After coming home from school and feeling overwhelmed from the everyday stresses of life that have been seeping their way little by little with every waking breath, I decided to pay a visit to St. Dominics and just reflect.  On Jesus, me, my family struggles, my future, my job, my education, my friends, and past.  I walk into the vestibule and notice it’s irregularly dark, that’s because I forgot to remove my sunglasses.  Once I did, I felt my eyes travel past the aisles across the church and unto the cross and Christ’s image.  And I kept my gaze on His image, even when the sun shining through the stained glass darkened my vision.  I dropped my things on the first front pews of the altar and kept moving towards the feet of Christ.

I was quiet for a few seconds thinking of what to say, like some prodigal son with his tail between his legs.  “Tell me the truth.”  I began.  I could feel my heavy breaths slow.  “Because, I’ve forgotten me, how to feel, my righteous footing, you.  I don’t want to forget you.“  Now my wording isn’t as accurate as I hoped it would be for my sharing, but bare with me.  I swear to you I’m not making this up. “Tell me any truth.”  I needed some answers before anyone else entered the church and saw me.  I kept hearing noises of doors closing behind me, probably parents picking up their kids. 

I find my way back to my backback and just sit and look behind me and see a mother and her daughter entering.  I thought to myself asking if they saw me. 

Insert Coldplay.

“Fix You” is playing on my Zune (Yes, Zune, not iPod).  And before the Chris Martin starts singing there was a different song playing called “Death and All His Friends.”  I started to feel a bit hot and teary eyed.  I suppose it was a spiritual awakening.  I know it was the holy spirit, God’s hand on my heaviness and breathing.  I wept.  For me, my brothers, mother and father, my friends, my church, country, education, past, present and future.  In comes Mr. Acosta, just as the openning of “Fix You” comes on, and I feel a little embarrassed showing emotion in front of the guy.  He walks straight into the Sacristy (sp?) and as Chris Martin sings “lights will guide you home” he turns on the lights.  It was the most beautiful soundtrack of my day.  It was the most reveiling sign that God’s home is where I am complete.  It is at His home where He fixed me.  And “tears stream down your face.”  They did.  I cried for a good 6 minutes before feeling lighter.  My heaviness was gone.  My breathing was normal again, more profound and I was able to taste the freshness of the wind and the warmth of the sun’s rays seeping through the trees.  I found a piece of me that I thought I lost, but in reality should have been looking under my nose.  (I’m totally going to reword this and write something of an extension.)

I will never forget yesterday.  It was a revelation of how God can work through music, environment, and others.  All the answers I want are a question and a shuffled playlist away (That’s a little extreme but when I exited the church Speed of Sound started to play).  It’s probaby all coincidence, but I have never been able to cry and to feel His presence since I don’t know when.  It was a good day.

In closing, God + Coldplay = religious experience for Paul.

Two of a Kind

First Supper