This link is to a story in the Daily Mail that advocates killings babies by Francesca Minerva - the medical ethicist who has argued the case for 'after-birth abortions' - the killing of disabled or unwanted newborn babies. What does this say about us?
Sunday, March 11, 2012
For those of you who have visited this blog before and now notice something different it's because I have reverted back to my original 2010 Deacon.
After much prayer and thought, I have decided that 2010 Deacon is still the most appropriate title as that was the year of my ordination.
The url of the blogspot will continue to be "deacon2be" as that is more reflective of the journey I have been on since formation began and the journey I will continue to be on until I die, a deacon2be.
After much prayer and thought, I have decided that 2010 Deacon is still the most appropriate title as that was the year of my ordination.
The url of the blogspot will continue to be "deacon2be" as that is more reflective of the journey I have been on since formation began and the journey I will continue to be on until I die, a deacon2be.
Homily - 3rd Sunday of Lent_11 March 2012
This is the homily I gave at 3 Masses yesterday and today (10 & 11 March 2012 ).
“I, the Lord, am your God...you shall not have other Gods besides me.”(1) There is only one God.
I think it is fair to say everyone has heard of the recent HHS mandate concerning the rejection of Catholic’s, indeed, other peoples of faith, religious liberties.
In our first reading today we hear of the giving of the 10 Commandments. Those rules have been a bedrock of Judeo-Christian belief for centuries.
They have been discarded. In fact, our government just took away our guaranteed 1st Amendment rights under our Constitution. Our government has just substituted human law for Divine law.
The first commandment says: “… You shall not have other gods besides me.” Our government says it is a god. It amends Divine Law to make itself the god who dispenses law.
God says keep holy the Lord’s day. The government says you can’t practice religion as you choose.
God says honor your father and mother. Government says you don’t need a father and a mother. Remember the Defense of Marriage Act, the law of the land that defends marriage as between a man and a woman. Remember, the Attorney General of the United States came on TV (23 Feb 2011) (2) and all of the media and said the government would not defend lawsuits against that act: the law of the land would not be defended by the officers of the government that had sworn they would defend the laws of the land. They, the government, acting as god, said they were changing that law by attrition.
God says you shall not kill. Government says you can kill your unborn baby anytime you want. There are some “intellectuals” that are now advocating there is right to kill a baby just born (3). In some states and countries you have a legal right to kill yourself. (4) Once again, the government substituting human law for Divine Law.
God says no adultery. Government says we can do anything we want, with anyone we want, married or unmarried, and we’ll mandate employers, or insurance carriers (you pick which definition you would like to use), to provide the means to make sure there are no consequences for your act. Shoot, we won’t defend the marriage act so basically, we say, there is no morality. And, oh!, if you get pregnant we’ll just abort the baby, no harm, no foul.
God says don’t steal. The government says we’ll steal your tax dollars to give to irresponsible banks, irresponsible companies and individuals.
God says don’t lie. The government gives us lies and says it’s the truth because I say so.
God says don’t covet. The government encourages coveting in the form of class warfare. If you have it, I’ll take it and give it to someone who wants it.
So, the government has set itself up as god and now tells us - don’t listen to your conscience or your bishops (our rightful teachers and direct descendants of the Apostles) - listen to me. I’ll tell you what to think and do.
Our government has just abolished our 1st Amendment right to religious liberty. Our founders left countries to come here and found this one because of their former country taking their religious liberties. Our government has just said we’ll tell you what your religion will consist of. We’ll tell you what commandments this religion will consist of - not God. If your conscience won’t let you, as an individual with God given rights, do what we dictate - too bad. We’ll fine you or imprison you or both.
If our government can abolish our God given right to religious liberty, what will they decide we need or don’t need next? After all, they have declared themselves to be a god.
Let’s look at what they have done recently: taken our money as I mentioned earlier, then they took our ability to choose our own medical care, now they have taken away our religious liberty. Notice a pattern here: our government has declared the 10 commandments null and void. In the place of Divine Law we get mere human law.
This is not about contraception, as many TV outlets, newspapers, TV pundits, internet sources would have you believe. This is about our religious liberty, guaranteed by our Constitution and God himself. This is about our ability to worship our God as he has commanded us to, and not what the government dictates to us.
What do we do?
Cardinal Dolan has asked us all to get involved in the political process. We need to inject our catholicity into the public square. We still have a representative government. Write or call your elected officials and let them know what you think. This is an election year and they’ll be more sensitive to our thoughts and desires.
Speaking of elections, we have a monumental national election coming up in November and a local election coming in two weeks. We must be informed voters. Elections are not popularity contests or about who has the best hair, who is the best looking candidate or the whitest teeth.
Elections mean things, elections have consequences and we have a duty to be informed voters. Pope Benedict has stated “It is imperative that the entire Catholic community in the United States comes to realize the grave threats to the Church’s public moral witness.” (5) Another quote from our Pope: “threats to freedom of conscience, religion and worship need to be addressed urgently so that all men and women of faith, and the institutions they inspire, can act in accordance with their deepest moral convictions.” (6) There are numerous avenues of information available to us: internet, TV, newspapers, magazines, radio talk shows. All of these are windows of opportunity to find out where candidates stand on the issues.
We can’t fall for the touchy, feely slogans. We have to ask what do they mean, now and in the future.
In WWII, when the Nazi party set itself up as a god for the German people and the German intellectuals said nothing as groups of people and institutions were targeted purged, group after group (and we are targeted, as the Amish are free and clear under this mandate (7)), Lutheran Pastor Martin Niemoller coined this:
First they came for the communists and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.(8)
(1) Exodus 20:3
(3) Francesca Minerva, from Melbourne University and sometime of our very own Oxford, and her colleague Alberto Giubilini, argue in the British Medical Journal that 'after-birth abortion' should be permissable in all cases that abortion is. As 'potential persons', newborn babies share the same moral status as foetuses, which are not 'actual persons', in that they have no sense of their own existence.
(5) Columbia, front cover
(6) http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1200971.htm - 0420, 11Mar2012
Monday, January 16, 2012
Stars and the Excess of Clarity
Stars and the Excess of Clarity - this is worth reading, especially the link to Deacon Greg Kendra's homily!
Friday, December 30, 2011
I have decided to change the title of my blog to the year of being a deacon. I originally thought I would try to change the blog registration from deacon2be to 2010deacon, the year of my ordination.
I chose the deacon2be name as I was still in formation and thought "I'll just change to 2010 deacon after ordination as I will, finally, be an ordained deacon in the Catholic Church."
However, I have decided to go with the year of being a deacon as I am not the same deacon I was at ordination and all of 2011 and I am still a deacon2be. I'll always be a deacon2be and each year I will be a little different than the previous year.
I have grown and hopefully in a very positive way.
So, from now on, every December 30/31 I will change the title to the current year. So, in 2012 I am the 2012 Deacon.
I chose the deacon2be name as I was still in formation and thought "I'll just change to 2010 deacon after ordination as I will, finally, be an ordained deacon in the Catholic Church."
However, I have decided to go with the year of being a deacon as I am not the same deacon I was at ordination and all of 2011 and I am still a deacon2be. I'll always be a deacon2be and each year I will be a little different than the previous year.
I have grown and hopefully in a very positive way.
So, from now on, every December 30/31 I will change the title to the current year. So, in 2012 I am the 2012 Deacon.
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Beautiful reasons for Praying the Rosary
This from father Gabriel Amorth, Chief exorcist of the Vatican. If one needed a little extra incentive to pray the Rosary, here is some help!
Beautiful Reasons for
Praying the Rosary Even More Often
Father Gabriel Amorth,
Chief Exorcist of the Vatican writes: One day a
colleague of mine heard the
devil say during an exorcism, "Every Hail Mary
is like a blow on my
head. If Christians knew how powerful the Rosary was,
it would be my end."
The secret that makes
this prayer so effective is that
the Rosary is both prayer and meditation.
It is addressed to the Father,
to the Blessed Virgin, and to the Holy Trinity,
and is a meditation centered
on Christ.
I write in addition to
the above: Please enunciate each word of
the Rosary clearly and distinctly. Do
not trample on the heels of the words
of anyone with your words.
Do not speak over the
leader if you are following
or the respondent if you are leading the Rosary.
Remember that they
also are
having a conversation with Mary Our Mother and it is not polite to
speak
when someone else is speaking.
In the case of the
public Rosary there are only two people speaking: the
Leader and the
respondents. Each is speaking to the Blessed Mother and
listening carefully to
her response within their hearts as they meditate on
the scene before them in
their consideration of the mystery being spoken of
and interpreted and
translated into their lives.
Spread this powerful
prayer
of exorcism, the Rosary, which contains the Our Father, the Perfect
Prayer,
prayed five times in the recitation of each set of the Rosary's
Mysteries,
backed up by the powerful prayers of Our Mother who prays with us as
we pray
53 Hail Mary's.
The Eternal Father described to a group of us, through a Visionary
Friend of
mine, what happens when we pray the Rosary, saying, "When you
pray Holy Mary
Mother of God, pray for us sinners now....., the Blessed Mother
comes
instantly to your side to pray with you.
And she does not come alone.
She
brings angels with her. And not just one or two for she is the
Queen of
Angels, so choirs of angels come with her.
And she and Jesus are joined at
the heart and cannot be separated
so she brings Jesus with her.
And Jesus
cannot be separated from the Trinity so He brings
the Father and the Holy
Spirit with Him.
And where the Holy Trinity is, all of creation is, and you
are
surrounded by such beauty and light as you cannot imagine in this life.
Your Mother comes as Our Lady of Grace with her hands outstretched.
Rays of
light emit from her hands piercing your body, healing you
and filling you
with graces.
This is your inheritance which was poured out from the heart
of
Jesus on the Cross, when the centurion pierced His Heart with the
spear,
into the only pure vessel ready to receive such graces at that time,
Your
Mother.
Now as you pray the Rosary, or even just recite one Hail Mary,
you
receive your portion of these graces.
He also said at this time, "Anyone who
goes to Mary and prays
the Rosary cannot be touched by Satan."
Is it any
wonder that anyone who prays the Rosary from the heart is
so blessed and
protected and powerful in their prayers for others?
Friday, November 4, 2011
Noise vs. Silence: Where will You Find God?
This is very good and something I think we are all guilty of: too much noise in our life!
Monday, October 31, 2011 "Make a Concerted Effort to Silence the Noise in Your Life" (from "Extreme Makeover")
The following is an excerpt from Chapter 7 of Teresa Tomeo's book, Extreme Makeover: Women Transformed by Christ, Not Conformed to the Culture (also available in electronic book format): Make a Concerted Effort to Silence the Noise in Your Life | Teresa Tomeo
On the cover of my first book, Noise: How Our Media-Saturated Culture Dominates Lives and Dismantles Families (mentioned in chapter 1), I have a thought-provoking quote from Pope Benedict XVI: “We are no longer able to hear God. There are too many different frequencies filling our ears.”
Think about that.
The first thing we should be doing when we awaken is get down on our knees or bow our heads in a prayer of thanksgiving for another day.
Instead, most of us hop out of bed and turn on the TV, the radio, or both.
Many also hop on the Internet to check email and turn on their cell phones to start calling or texting a friend or a coworker about this, that or the other thing.
Given the fact that, as we discussed in Chapter 2, children are using media on average 53 hours a week, it’s not a stretch to say that your son or daughter is probably online or in front of the television set before leaving for school.
So now you have all the noise from the media plus the inherent noise of one of the busiest parts of the day coming at you full speed ahead – noise, noise and more noise.
We rush to work and to school with the radio blaring and the cell phone ringing; and before we know it, the day is well under way and we haven’t even taken time to hear what God has to say to us. Then we get angry with God or frustrated when life doesn’t go our way.
We have to silence the noise in our lives if we want to hear from God and live a more peaceful and less stressful life.
Blessed Teresa of Calcutta said that God cannot be found in noise and restlessness: “God is the friend of silence…. See how nature, the trees, the flowers, the grass grow in deep silence…. We need this silence in order to touch souls.”
This is where our “media reality check” enters the picture.
Silencing some of the noise in your life will help you in your prayer life and allow you, as well as your family, to have some beneficial quiet time.
Wouldn’t it be nice to just walk into the house and not have to shout over the television? When was the last time you ate dinner with your family without some interference from modern media technology?
This media reality check, if you’re honest with yourself, will help you and your loved ones assess just how much time you spend watching TV or “friending” people on Facebook.
It will help you detox in terms of learning to limit the amount of time spent with media. The media is a great tool for evangelization, communication, and faith education; unfortunately, most Catholics are not spending their media time listening to Catholic radio or visiting Catholic websites.
That’s why most of us can benefit from applying a media reality check:
• Build a “media-free zone” into your daily routine at home or at work. Silence the noise and allow yourself quiet time (start with 15-30 minutes) with God.
• Take control of the media outlets in your home by taking TVs and computers out of the bedrooms (including yours) and putting them in a central area that allows regular monitoring.
• Set and keep media guidelines in terms of time limits. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no more than two hours a day of TV for children in grade school and high school, and no TV for children younger than two years of age.
• Keep Family meals completely media free. Turn off the TV and the cell phones. Let voice mail handle your calls.
• Don’t make the TV or the computer the main focal point of your home.
• Think WWJW, or what would Jesus watch?
Spending time soaking up movies or TV programs loaded with sexual or violent content is offensive to God and offensive to your spirit.
What we take from the media on a regular basis can impact our thoughts and behavior. Garbage in, garbage out, is the best way to put it.
That means that our media habits, if they’re more negative than positive, could lead to our not taking our faith or our time with God as seriously.
Conducting a media reality check at least once or twice a year can really boost that spiritual makeover and make it last for a long time to come.
Advent and Lent are great liturgical seasons to do this.
If you have children, why not make the media reality check a family event?
This will help instill solid habits in your children, habits that just might prevent them from needing a major spiritual makeover later in life.
(© 2011 Ignatius Press, San Francisco – All rights reserved. This excerpt can be downloaded as a PDF file from the book's website.)
Posted by Carl Olson on Monday, October 31, 2011 at 12:01 AM | Permalink Digg This | Save to del.icio.us
Monday, October 31, 2011 "Make a Concerted Effort to Silence the Noise in Your Life" (from "Extreme Makeover")
The following is an excerpt from Chapter 7 of Teresa Tomeo's book, Extreme Makeover: Women Transformed by Christ, Not Conformed to the Culture (also available in electronic book format): Make a Concerted Effort to Silence the Noise in Your Life | Teresa Tomeo
On the cover of my first book, Noise: How Our Media-Saturated Culture Dominates Lives and Dismantles Families (mentioned in chapter 1), I have a thought-provoking quote from Pope Benedict XVI: “We are no longer able to hear God. There are too many different frequencies filling our ears.”
Think about that.
The first thing we should be doing when we awaken is get down on our knees or bow our heads in a prayer of thanksgiving for another day.
Instead, most of us hop out of bed and turn on the TV, the radio, or both.
Many also hop on the Internet to check email and turn on their cell phones to start calling or texting a friend or a coworker about this, that or the other thing.
Given the fact that, as we discussed in Chapter 2, children are using media on average 53 hours a week, it’s not a stretch to say that your son or daughter is probably online or in front of the television set before leaving for school.
So now you have all the noise from the media plus the inherent noise of one of the busiest parts of the day coming at you full speed ahead – noise, noise and more noise.
We rush to work and to school with the radio blaring and the cell phone ringing; and before we know it, the day is well under way and we haven’t even taken time to hear what God has to say to us. Then we get angry with God or frustrated when life doesn’t go our way.
We have to silence the noise in our lives if we want to hear from God and live a more peaceful and less stressful life.
Blessed Teresa of Calcutta said that God cannot be found in noise and restlessness: “God is the friend of silence…. See how nature, the trees, the flowers, the grass grow in deep silence…. We need this silence in order to touch souls.”
This is where our “media reality check” enters the picture.
Silencing some of the noise in your life will help you in your prayer life and allow you, as well as your family, to have some beneficial quiet time.
Wouldn’t it be nice to just walk into the house and not have to shout over the television? When was the last time you ate dinner with your family without some interference from modern media technology?
This media reality check, if you’re honest with yourself, will help you and your loved ones assess just how much time you spend watching TV or “friending” people on Facebook.
It will help you detox in terms of learning to limit the amount of time spent with media. The media is a great tool for evangelization, communication, and faith education; unfortunately, most Catholics are not spending their media time listening to Catholic radio or visiting Catholic websites.
That’s why most of us can benefit from applying a media reality check:
• Build a “media-free zone” into your daily routine at home or at work. Silence the noise and allow yourself quiet time (start with 15-30 minutes) with God.
• Take control of the media outlets in your home by taking TVs and computers out of the bedrooms (including yours) and putting them in a central area that allows regular monitoring.
• Set and keep media guidelines in terms of time limits. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no more than two hours a day of TV for children in grade school and high school, and no TV for children younger than two years of age.
• Keep Family meals completely media free. Turn off the TV and the cell phones. Let voice mail handle your calls.
• Don’t make the TV or the computer the main focal point of your home.
• Think WWJW, or what would Jesus watch?
Spending time soaking up movies or TV programs loaded with sexual or violent content is offensive to God and offensive to your spirit.
What we take from the media on a regular basis can impact our thoughts and behavior. Garbage in, garbage out, is the best way to put it.
That means that our media habits, if they’re more negative than positive, could lead to our not taking our faith or our time with God as seriously.
Conducting a media reality check at least once or twice a year can really boost that spiritual makeover and make it last for a long time to come.
Advent and Lent are great liturgical seasons to do this.
If you have children, why not make the media reality check a family event?
This will help instill solid habits in your children, habits that just might prevent them from needing a major spiritual makeover later in life.
(© 2011 Ignatius Press, San Francisco – All rights reserved. This excerpt can be downloaded as a PDF file from the book's website.)
Posted by Carl Olson on Monday, October 31, 2011 at 12:01 AM | Permalink Digg This | Save to del.icio.us
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