Monthly Archives: November 2011

Christmas Gift Guide: For the Lukewarm Young Catholic

Posted on November 29, 2011 by Mary| 4 Comments

This post is for all of you mothers, aunts, grandfathers, or loving friends of young (albeit selectively practicing) Catholics.  In addition to getting them those new shoes, or whatever it is they may have wanted, this year, try one of these gifts to remind them of the family they will always belong to in the Catholic Church—no matter their doubts or shortcomings.

A Wall Crucifix
Every young person should have a crucifix hanging in his or her room.  It serves as both a constant reminder of Christ’s sacrifice, and as an invitation to prayer and mediation each time the recipient of this gifts looks at it.  Be sure to have it blessed by a priest before giving it to them.  Bonus: If you are shopping for your son, daughter, brother or sister, they really have no choice but to hang it up (since you’ll obviously see whether they do or not).  Nothing wrong with a little Catholic guilt every now and then :)

A Rosary with Special Significance
God knows that we are physical beings as well as spiritual.  Sometimes we need the shiny, pretty, or “cool” material things to bring us to the deeper spiritual significance that we truly long for.  This is why a rosary is often a great gift for the young person in your life who may not know or be so into his or her faith.  Make sure it’s not just any generic rosary, though.  It has to be special and specific to them.  Make one yourself (or pick out the beads you want and find someone who can make it for you).  Again, make sure to have it blessed by a priest and to include a short, clear, guide on how to pray the rosary with it as well.

A Small, Leather-Bound Bible
Today’s young person is constantly on the go.  A compact, portable Bible is a must.  I recommend the Ignatius Catholic Bible – RSV that you can find on Amazon.  It is small and zips up.  Perfect for fitting inside of a backpack, keeping in the car, taking to the beach, or for pretty much anywhere.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church
Why buy a Catechism for a lukewarm Catholic?  Because it likely answers almost every question or doubt they have about the faith.  Sure, at first it may be little more than a paperweight to them—but at least it is their paperweight.  If you want to give the young person in your life some ownership of the faith into which they were baptized: buy them their own Catechism.

The young person on your heart already have all of these items?  Great!  Stop worrying so much and just continue praying for him or her.  No amount of wall crucifixes or pages memorized out of the Catechism will ever amount to what God’s grace can do as a result of your prayers.

Posted in Other Rants, Pop Culture, Stuff Catholics Do

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More Than Turkey and Pilgrim Hats :)

Posted on November 24, 2011 by Mary| 3 Comments

Did You Know?  Abraham Lincoln instituted the first Thanksgiving in 1863, not simply as a remembrance of Pilgrims and Native Americans, but as a reminder to thank the God who gave us everything we have.

From his Thanksgiving Proclamation:

I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

-Abraham Lincoln, 1863

Translation: Give thanks to God for all of the blessings in your life today; trust in His Divine Providence to take care of everything you need; and pray for true peace and healing in the lives of all.

For thanks to mean anything, it has to be directed to someone :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Posted in Pop Culture, Stuff Catholics Do, You & God

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Word.

Posted on November 22, 2011 by Mary| 3 Comments

Humanly speaking, the word, our human word, is almost a nothing in reality, a whiff of breath. No sooner said, it vanishes. It seems to be nothing. And yet the human word has an incredible power. They are words that make history, they give shape to our thoughts, thoughts which give rise to words. Words shape history and reality.

-Pope Benedict XVI

It’s a bit ironic for me to be writing about this, since I’m sure, as a blogger, I waste words all the time.  However, I wanted to write a post about words.  How we use our words, what our words mean, and how we can [hopefully] waste fewer words.

I have two main reasons for coming to this topic.  The first is profanity; the other is Facebook (and, oh my, when the two combine…).

To be honest, I’ve always found profanity unattractive and, quite frankly, pointless.  Usually the defense of people who use profanity is something along the lines of, “So what?  It’s just a word.  How can a word be ‘bad’?”

And that sort of gets at the heart of my pet peeve.  Words are supposed to have meaning. If they didn’t, well then I couldn’t be writing this post, no one would be able to talk to each other, and the world would pretty much stop functioning.  It is a very good thing that we assign meaning to words.

But probably even more upsetting than when we try to devalue words and their meaning, by using profanity, is when we do it without even realizing—to our most personal thoughts.  And thanks to the age of social media, we now do it all the time.  Whoever said the saddest words are those unspoken clearly lived in an age before the Internet.  As powerful as words have the potential to be, we actually devalue our deepest desires, thoughts, and feelings when we subject them to a Facebook status or tweet for 1,000+ other people to read, pass judgment on, or comment on.  The really tragic part is that we don’t fully realize what we are doing until it’s done.  Our tweet is another one in a million; and suddenly the worth of our thoughts are determined by the number of times they get retweeted.

It’s so important to be able to speak your mind.  But it’s just as important to guard your heart.  Words are often where the two meet.  So think before you speak (or tweet).  Your words are too precious to waste.

 

Posted in Pop Culture, Youthful Antics

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Animals

Posted on November 17, 2011 by Mary| 2 Comments

 

Man is often said to be the intelligent animal.  But when he decides he wants to be like the rest of the animals, and chooses to pursue selfish and base desires, he becomes the worst animal of all.

Think about it.

Posted in Youthful Antics

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Waiting To Be Loved

Posted on November 15, 2011 by Mary| 8 Comments

It’s Human Nature 101:  We all have a desire within us to give love and to be loved in return.  And while we may seek to fulfill and express this desire in many different ways (some ways healthy and good for us… many twisted and damaging to us) it usually all comes back to this basic principle.  We’re human.  We need love.

And when it comes to love, there is often a lot of emphasis in our society placed on “waiting”.  Obviously at this point I could point to how us Christians talk an awful lot about “waiting” until marriage.  After all, true love waits, right?  But we also hear a lot of talk about “waiting” in our secular world, too.  When things don’t work out with what’s-his-name, for whatever reason, it’s ok, because we tell ourselves that Mr. Right will come along eventually.  We just have to wait.  It’s classic Disney.  “Someday my prince will come.”  But until then, I’ll just wait.

This is all well and good.  And it is certainly true that love is patient (1 Corinthians 13, anyone?).  However, in all this talk about waiting for marriage, and waiting for Mr. (or Miss) Right, it seems we all too easily forget that Love is waiting for us, too.  And in this case, a response is required on our part—right now. (And later today.  And tomorrow.  And every day for the rest of our lives)

You don’t have to wait another minute for your love story to begin, because Love has been waiting for you since the moment of your conception (talk about Love being patient!).  This Love waits on you even when you refuse it and turn away from it.  This love waits on you even when you spit in its face.  The one who created you loves you more than you are capable of understanding.  And until we begin to realize this, we’re really missing the bigger picture of this whole “love” thing anyway.

If God does one day call you to marriage, I’m sure that your Mr. (or Miss) Right is going to be amazing and is going to love you more than you even know.  But, whether you believe it or not, the fact that God loves you is always going to be a bigger deal.  (And the right “Mr. Right” will tell you that himself).

So pray for your vocation.  Pray for your future spouse.  But most of all, pray that God will open your heart to receive His love, and pray for the grace to love Him in return.

***BY THE WAY…that picture up top?  Ya know…The main idea from this post? STOLEN.  His name is Tyler, my dear readers.  And, well…he’s pretty neat :)

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in Dating & Relationships, You & God

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