God is my strength

Living out one's life as a Christian in today's society is difficult. There is no way, for us as human individuals, to stand against all the challenges that currently exist. We are told every day by our culture and the people around us that pleasure is the only goal, that our individually decided rights are paramount and that individuals create their own morality.

So many of us have been completely hoodwinked into believing the current narcissistic world view, that we hardly know any more what is right and what is wrong. Like the frog in the pot of water, our environmental change has been so incremental and so pervasive, that we don't realize we are dying as a society.

When our universities, which are supposed to be places of free exchange of ideas, no longer pass on Western culture and refuse to engage in any kind of dialogue which includes the world views of either students or faculty who are believers, when we are bombarded with nihilism, violence and pornography in media marketed to all audiences, when living out anything approaching a morally principled lifestyle is undermined and mocked at every level, both in public and in private, how close to the collapse of our society might we be?

Pope Benedict XVI frequently talks about the dictatorship of relativism that passes for culture in the West. If there are no absolutes, society, by definition, becomes anarchistic and chaos is the result.

For myself, I have realized that I am powerless to affect any change. The only solution is to throw myself at the feet of Our Lord and beg Him to give me the strength to live out my life as He would have me live it.

God is my strength.

God is my strength

Living out one's life as a Christian in today's society is difficult. There is no way, for us as human individuals, to stand against all the challenges that currently exist. We are told every day by our culture and the people around us that pleasure is the only goal, that our individually decided rights are paramount and that individuals create their own morality.

So many of us have been completely hoodwinked into believing the current narcissistic world view, that we hardly know any more what is right and what is wrong. Like the frog in the pot of water, our environmental change has been so incremental and so pervasive, that we don't realize we are dying as a society.

When our universities, which are supposed to be places of free exchange of ideas, no longer pass on Western culture and refuse to engage in any kind of dialogue which includes the world views of either students or faculty who are believers, when we are bombarded with nihilism, violence and pornography in media marketed to all audiences, when living out anything approaching a morally principled lifestyle is undermined and mocked at every level, both in public and in private, how close to the collapse of our society might we be?

Pope Benedict XVI frequently talks about the dictatorship of relativism that passes for culture in the West. If there are no absolutes, society, by definition, becomes anarchistic and chaos is the result.

For myself, I have realized that I am powerless to affect any change. The only solution is to throw myself at the feet of Our Lord and beg Him to give me the strength to live out my life as He would have me live it.

God is my strength.

pink and ubiquitous
the dry paint recoils from the walls
barely hanging on

Hmmm, Hypocrisy , Much?

For more of these insightful cartoons, go to Jill Stanek's site.

Hmmm, Hypocrisy , Much?

For more of these insightful cartoons, go to Jill Stanek's site.

Happy Birthday, Blessed Mother

Tomorrow is the day that we traditionally celebrate the birth of the Virgin Mary. Tradition tells is that Mary was born to Joachim and Anne, a holy couple who had not yet been blessed with a child when she was conceived in their old age. She was said to have been dedicated at a young age to the temple in thanksgiving for her birth. This is also used by some to explain Mary's perpetual virginity--that she had been dedicated and promised to God for life at a young age.

Each year at this time, I fondly remember a story in my second grade reader, just before all things Catholic disappeared from my school. In the story, a boy comes home from school to find his mother baking a cake. (I'll never forget it. It was layered, round and pink.) Puzzled, the boy wonders whose birthday it is. The mother confesses that it is not the birthday of anyone in their family, but of the Virgin Mary. At dinner, they sing happy birthday to Our Lady and eat the cake. After dinner, they say the Rosary as a family.

That always made me a bit nostalgic for that type of unapologetic family Catholicism, even at the time.

The story of Mary's birth, like many in Scripture, shows us how precious each life is and what a gift each child is to his or her family. Children grow up so fast, and the window of opportunity is so short.

Happy Birthday to our Blessed Mother!

Happy Birthday, Blessed Mother

Tomorrow is the day that we traditionally celebrate the birth of the Virgin Mary. Tradition tells is that Mary was born to Joachim and Anne, a holy couple who had not yet been blessed with a child when she was conceived in their old age. She was said to have been dedicated at a young age to the temple in thanksgiving for her birth. This is also used by some to explain Mary's perpetual virginity--that she had been dedicated and promised to God for life at a young age.

Each year at this time, I fondly remember a story in my second grade reader, just before all things Catholic disappeared from my school. In the story, a boy comes home from school to find his mother baking a cake. (I'll never forget it. It was layered, round and pink.) Puzzled, the boy wonders whose birthday it is. The mother confesses that it is not the birthday of anyone in their family, but of the Virgin Mary. At dinner, they sing happy birthday to Our Lady and eat the cake. After dinner, they say the Rosary as a family.

That always made me a bit nostalgic for that type of unapologetic family Catholicism, even at the time.

The story of Mary's birth, like many in Scripture, shows us how precious each life is and what a gift each child is to his or her family. Children grow up so fast, and the window of opportunity is so short.

Happy Birthday to our Blessed Mother!