Many interesting stories in the world today...

As we prepare for the Lenten season to begin tomorrow (in which I have a Day of Recollection and therefore will not be posting tomorrow) I thought it'd be good to look at some of the current events affecting the Church and the Culture of Life. For each of these topics, I will simply point out the issue and give a link to the article from which I obtained this information. I would really enjoy comments or your take on any of these issues. I have blogged on each of them numerous times, but I am always interested in knowing how my readers feel. Please feel free to comment anonymously and rest assured that, unless you post something obscene or vulgar (which I will remove from the comments section), I respect and value your opinion, no matter what it may be.

I'll begin with the Supreme Court ruling this morning against abortion clinics who tried to use federal extortion and racketeering laws as a means to block pro-life groups from gathering at abortion clinics (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,186278,00.html).

Another abortion-related story is the call to pray for the abortionists who perform the abortions (http://www.catholicexchange.com/vm/index.asp?vm_id=1&art_id=32034). Fr. Frank Pavone, a good friend of mine, is the Founding Director of Priests For Life and he is calling for a Day of Invitation for Abortion Providers in which they are invited to repent and seek the healing grace of God.

Cardinal-designate Levada, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, gave a homily at the North American College (the seminary for for theology students from North America) discussing the difficulty of a priest openly professing himself as homosexual and yet trying to represent Christ (http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0601153.htm).

Lastly, as we begin the Lenten season tomorrow with Ash Wednesday, the central them is simplicity. We are asked to have simplicity in our activities (ie. no huge wild parties and usually no weddings during the season), simplicity in our eating both in the number of meals and in our consumption of meat and even simplicity in the celebration of Mass. Music, the use of incense, elaborate processions, etc. that often accompany Mass are set aside during Lent. Pope Benedict gave a short address after last Sunday's Angelus blessing in which he briefly spoke about how to live Lent (http://www.zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=85113). It is a good, short, address that I encourage you to read and that I hope helps to put you in the right spirit for Lent. Until next time...Happy Mardi Gras and a blessed beginning to the Lenten season. God bless.

posted by: crossman at 12:42 | link | comments |

A preview of upcoming events

Its been a busy weekend at the seminary and this coming week will continue to be busy. Friday and Saturday evening we had our Seminary Variety Show, which was a big success. We were in our parishes this morning to assist as Masses. This evening we have solemn evening vespers that is open to public. Also, this week begins our midterms. Lastly, Lent begins with Ash Wednesday this week and we have a 40 hours devotion this coming weekend.

Despite the busy schedule, I plan on blogging three or four times this week. I want to return to our topic on Islam and Muslims one more time. The reason for this is that on Friday afternoon we had what the school called a Day of Theological Conversation. All the seminaries in the St. Louis area (ie. the Luthern seminary, the Methodist seminary, the Dominican seminary, etc.) were invited to this talk. We had three guest speakers that each spoke for about 20 minutes. The first was Jewish Rabbi Mark Shook. The second speaker was Dr. Ghazala Hayat, a Muslim and native of Pakistan. The last speaker was Fr. Andre Mhanna, a priest of the Marionite Rite and native of Lebanon. The theme of the talk was, "The Semitic Experience in America" and each had some very interesting comments on Arabs, the Middle East and the Muslim faith. I want to explore this some in my next blog.

I also want to return to my series on "Attacks on life" in order to discuss capital punishment and euthanaisa, which are two hot topics in our country today. Lastly, this Friday is the first Friday of Lent and, as I promised, each Friday during Lent I am going to introduce and explain one of the six promises that I and all deacons make at their ordination. I hope to both explain what the Church is asking of us when we make these promises and also to give you some insight as to what these promises mean to me and for me as I take this final step toward priesthood.

Anyway, that is a quick glimpse into what I'll be blogging on this week. As always, I welcome questions, comments, suggestions and such. Until next time...God bless.

posted by: crossman at 21:55 | link | comments |
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Muslim - Catholic relations

Since we have been discussing the Islamic faith, I thought it'd be good to explore the relations between Muslims and Catholics. I figured that since I am Catholic and will soon be a minister in its Church, God willing, it might be good to understand just how each religion views the other, what we agree upon and what we do not.

I begin with a quote from Pope John Paul II when he visited Syria in 2001:

Interreligious dialogue is most effective when it springs from the experience of “living with each other” from day to day within the same community and culture. In Syria, Christians and Muslims have lived side by side for centuries, and a rich dialogue of life has gone on unceasingly....For all the times that Muslims and Christians have offended one another, we need to seek forgiveness from the Almighty and offer each other forgiveness. Jesus teaches us that we must pardon others’ offenses if God is to pardon us our sins (http://www.usccb.org/seia/borelli.htm).

From this quote alone, one can see that not all Muslims hate Christians and seek to have them killed. Muslims and Catholics have dialogued with each other for centuries, mostly informally but at times in formal settings as well. In recent years, there have been some important recognitions from both the Muslims and Christians regarding each other's beliefs. I will highlight just a few of them, but you can read all of them by going to the link shown at the end of the quote above.

1. Muslims are particularly eager to tell Christians that Islam is not a new religion and that they venerate all the prophets, including Jesus and his mother Mary.  Muslims are particularly eager to tell Christians about their respect for Jesus. Over the centuries, Christians have been making incorrect statements and Muslims want to educate Christians about Islam.
2. What Muslims are truly looking for in religious individuals is God-consciousness or fear of the Lord as Christians might call this virtue. That is what is important for Muslims.
3. Muslims look upon Christians pretty much as one group so if one Christian says something or does something very negative with regard to Islam, Muslims expect other Christians to correct that person or by our silence we are expressing agreement with what has been said.
4. The word “mission” functions in the same way among Muslims as the word “jihad” does among Christians. Both are beautiful words but in their use or perceptions there are implications of violence which are difficult to avoid.
5. Christians and Muslims often judge one another by the extremists. This can happen between any two groups, but because of the particular history they have had and the way strife has been promoted as a way of dealing with one another, they each make the mistake of judging the other(s) worst by their own best. Christians and Muslims have let the extremists too often do all the talking in public discourse.

This last point is of particular importance because the violence we are seeing in the news recently is being instigated and encouraged by Muslim exstremist groups. There is support for this belief in the fact that these caricatures were actually published in an Arabic newspaper in Egypt last October. The editors critized the cartoonists, but there was no massive outrage, violence or riots. Even more interesting is that this Egyptian publication occurred during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in which Muslims belief that a jihad during this time warrants even greater glory from God. A WorldNetDaily article had this to say: "This irrelevant outrage timing is but a sign that this violent response to the cartoons is politically motivated by Muslim extremists in Europe and the so-called secular governments of the Middle East" (http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=48746). If this isn't proof of the extremists abusing and hijacking the Islamic faith for their own evil and political purposes, then I don't know what is.

We cannot let our relations with other faiths be influenced by our preconcieved notions or by misinformation, especially regarding non-Christisan faiths. It is more difficult for us in the United States (not to exclude my other worldwide readers) because most of us do not live in an environment that is strongly Muslim. Christianity is by far the dominant religion in the U.S. But in other places around the world, including those places in which many of my readers live, those who are Muslim and those who are Christian live together without rioting, violence and hatred. They certainly disagree about the tenets of each other's faith, but we don't even agree about elements of our faith among Christians (or somtimes even among Catholics!) Some of my faithful readers have even posted in the past few days about their friends who are Muslim and who they converse with about their faiths. This is how the two faiths should exist.

As always, I welcome and comments, criticisms, disagreements or insights. If there is still interest, measured by whether I get comments or not, I will continue the discussion on Muslims and our respective faiths in the upcoming blogs. If there doesn't seem to be any further interest, I will proceed with another topic, probably determined by whatever whim strikes me for that day. Until next time...God bless.

posted by: crossman at 17:15 | link | comments (4) |
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More on Islam...a lesson in the faith

I'd like to return to our topic on Islam for the next couple of blogs. It seems to have generated some interest, both within my blog and in the wider community. First, thank you to those who posted comments on the previous blog about Islam. I greatly enjoyed the insights and I shared them with my World Religion class who found them very insightful as well. I continue to encourage you to please post your comments...it gives me something new to read too :-)

The news this morning reported the terrorist attack on the Askariya shrine in Iraq (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060222/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq). This mosque is a Shiite holy shrine and is especially prominent becuase of its golden dome that could be seen throughout the city of Samarra. Unfortunately, the explosion all but destroyed this beautiful dome.The Shiites blame the Sunnis for the attack as well as placing some of the blame on the U.S., of course. The Shiites responded by attacking numerous Sunni mosques throughout the area.

There are a couple of reasons I bring this up. First, it is another example of how violence is being used in the 'name' of Islam. Again, this is a sad distortion of a faith whose true focus is that of peace. In fact, the standard greeting given by a Muslim is as-salamu 'alaykum meaning "peace be upon you" which is quite similar to our opening greeting at Mass.

My second reason for bringing this up is to point out that Muslim radicals are seeking not only to destroy Western infidels, but also attack their own, fellow Muslims. Much of the motivation behind these attacks is political although it is also doctrinal. Regarding the political element, these attacks alway come with them some type of blame against the U.S., Israel and Western nations in general. I remind you, this is NOT the bulk of Muslims, rather the radical and extremist 'followers' of Islam.

To better understand this 'civil war,' we need to briefly explore the Shiite and Sunni sects. Both the Shiites and Sunnis are followers of Islam. They both believe in the three core tenants of the faith: oneness of God, the belief in the revelations of Muhammad, and the belief in resurrection on the Day of Judgment. There are some important differences, though, that separate these two sects. I'll try to give a crash course in their differences...and I do mean crash course as I had a one, single day of it in my World Religion class.

The Shiites believe that Muhammad's son, Ali, was the legitimate successor to Muhammad. The problem is that after the death of Muhammad, three others were appointed as his successor (caliph) before Ali became the fourth caliph. Shiites reject the first three caliphs and any caliph after Ali that is not a descendant of Ali's bloodline. For the Shiites, only those who are descendants of Ali are legitimate and are referred to as iman whereas the Sunnis use this term to refer to any of the spiritual masters of the faith. Another important factor is that Shiites often rely on sources outside the Qu'ran for their guidance, especially the imans, who they believe, as descandents of Muhammad, have a closer connection to the divine. Sunnis rely soley on the Qu'ran and hadith, the holy sayings and actions of Muhammad. They also rely on the interpretation of these two by theological and juridical schools of Islamic study. In fact, the Shiites and Sunni even have a different set of hadiths which further complicates things. Lastly, they even differ on their prayer. Shiites pray three times a day whereas Sunni pray five times a day.

Sunnis make up about 85% of the Islamic faith & Shiites make up about 10 to 12% of the faith, but this number is misleading as these sects are not evenly distributed throughout the Muslim world. For example, in Turkey the vast majority of Muslims (90%) are Sunnis. In Iraq and Iran, the Shiites make up the majority of Muslims (nearly 88%). Since these countries are fairly close together, one can see how disputes can easily arise.

I made that rather complicated description of the Shiite and Sunni beliefs so we could better understand the conflicts and almost civil war like disputes going on in our world today, especially in Iran and Iraq. A weak analogy of the primary difference regarding leadership for these two sects might be the Catholic belief in the popes as successors to Peter as opposed to Protestants who believe in no successor of Peter or in the legitimacy of the popes. We both believe in Christ as the Son of God and the core of our faith, but after that many differences arise.

Well, I hope that wasn't TOO boring, but I thought that if we're going to continue discussing the Islamic faith, and it seems we are since it is a topic of interest both on my blog and certainly in the world lately, it'd be nice to have some basics to go from.

I would ask that if anyone is very knowledgable of the Islamic faith and sees that I have misrepresented either sect or forgotten any important elements that they please feel free to correct me or add any necessary information I left out. I am learning about this faith just as we all are. For everyone else, as always, I welcome comments, insights, thoughts, etc and always look forward to hearing from my readers. Until next time...God bless.

posted by: crossman at 20:02 | link | comments (3) |
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Abortion: the attack on life coming into the world

Before I continue my series on 'attacks on life,' I wanted to point out that I have made some additional comments to my previous post on the Islamic faith. I would welcome any comments, insights, thoughts or additional information from anyone who would like to add their input. I'd especially like comments from any Muslims who might be readers of my blog (I am not sure if there are any, but I do have dozens of readers from every continent in the world).

As the title says, I want to briefly discuss abortion. I have blogged on this topic in the past and I promise I will continue to blog on this topic at least until Roe v. Wade is overturned. Even then, our fight for life is not over, so we must ALWAYS fight for life.

With the recent appointments to the Supreme Court, there is great hope, and fear if one is pro-abortion, that this new make-up of Justices will overturn Roe v. Wade or at least substantially restrict abortion in the U.S. The initial warning shots of the coming battle can be seen in the announcement that the Supreme Court will take up the law adopted by many states banning partial-birth abortion (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060222/ap_on_go_su_co/scotus_abortion). Let me briefly explain just what is partial-birth abortion (WARNING: for those who do not like graphic, grotesque and horrifying things skip the next paragraph colored grey):

A partial-birth abortion, also known as Intact Dilation and Extraction, is an abortion occurring in the third trimester of a pregnancy. The procedure is that a physician delivers a baby to the point where only the head remains inside the womb but then punctures the back of the skull and removes the brain before completing delivery.

This procedure is so barbaric and inhumane that one can hardly believe that persons with a conscience and a soul could undertake such a heinous act. Yet, these are so common that statistics indicate nearly 3,000 of these killings are performed a year in the U.S. or about 10 per day. Opponents of the proposed ban claim that there needs to be an exception to the ban for the health of the mother. Responding to this, former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop and other eminent medical authorities told Congress: "Partial-birth abortion is never medically necessary to protect the mother's health or her future fertility. On the contrary, this procedure can pose a significant threat to both." Furthermore, in a Gallop poll, over 70% supported a ban on partial-birth abortion.

I bring up partial-birth abortions in my series on life because this evil killing of an innocent child is the most immoral, unethical, demented, evil and uncaring killing one human being can commit against another. This is the ultimate in attacks on life. Those who perform this evil killing do not care about life in any form. Women who are conned into this type of abortion have massive emotional and mental repercussions in the years that follow.

How do we fight this era of abortion? We MUST pray. We must pray that our country realizes the immorality of abortion and the absolute evil of partial-birth abortions especially. We must pray that those who perform these killings will be turned away from their actions and that God will have mercy on their souls. Lastly, we must pray for the mothers who have abortions that God may give them healing, help them to know His eternal forgiveness and strengthen them to embrace life.

As always, I value any comments, insights or thoughts. Until next time...God bless.

posted by: crossman at 20:15 | link | comments |
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Violence in the world today

One of my readers posted a comment to my previous blog saying: "You wrote that your next series of blogs will be about 'attacks on life.' Since this is sort of a related topic, I'd like your thoughts on the current violence by Muslims against the lives of many innocent people over this cartoon." I begin by saying THANK YOU for posting a comment on the blog. I value greatly insights and opinions from my readers so I don't spend all the time rambling like a loon in my blog posts. I encourage other readers to post your comments as often as you'd like. You can do it anonymously and I would enjoy your opinions.

Now, in response to my reader's request, I was planning on writing this blog entry on abortion, but I will postpone that entry until next time in order to give my views on the current rioting. I am by no means an expert on the Islamic faith. I am taking a class here at the seminary on world religions and we just began discussing the Islamic religion. That being said, I will give a few of my feelings on this current situation.

First, I deplore the actions of these rioters. While they are rightly upset over these improper and inconsiderate cartoons, responding with attacks, riots and killings not only seems to prove the point of the cartoonists but also depicts Muslims as barbaric and hateful. From all I have read on the Islamic faith, the Koran and Muhammad preach peace, justice and and faith in God. These rioters are not a fair representation of the Islamic faith, from what I can tell. Rather, these are the 'squeaky wheels that get the oil' or in this case, the extremist 'Muslim' activists that are getting the attention because of their actions.

Secondly, from what I have learned, the vast majority of Muslims are holy, devout and very prayerful people who live their faith daily and who seek only to do good in the name of God. Unfortunately, these rioters as well as the terrorist extremists who are stirring up and encouraging these riots are not good Muslims or even good role models. The Koran speaks of compassion, mercy and love, but these extremists show hate, anger and vengefulness. True Muslims offer help to the poor, oppressed and needy. The extremists offer violence, havoc and their own personal gain.

Lastly, I read alot of various city newspapers online from all over the country. I often glance through the editorial section of these papers, usually looking for editorials on faith or Catholicism. Interestingly, I came across an editorial in the Los Angeles Times in which the author tends to agree with what I have just pointed out. What is even more interesting is that this editorial writer is an American Muslim with Pakistani ancestry. You can read his article here: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-ijaz18feb18,0,6492979.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions

My final thoughts on the current riots, demostrations and killings are that the Muslim faith is being greatly distorted and abused by these people. Secondly, these rioters are not even living the faith they claim to be 'defending' and are actually doing as much irreverance to Muhammad as the cartoonists did. Lastly, The rioters are not defending their faith, but using this incident as an excuse to commit acts of terror and violence on Westerners, again contrary to the true followers of the Islamic faith.

That's the way I see things. I would value anyone else's opinion or insights on this topic. I will continue my series of 'attacks on life' in my next blog post with a discussion of abortion. Until next time...God bless.

posted by: crossman at 17:03 | link | comments (4) |
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Attacks on life continue...

With the confirmation of Justice Alito, it seems the media have taken him out of the spotlight. Of course, the reason for this is because the controversy and tug-a-war between pro-life and pro-abortion over his nomination no longer is an issue now that he is on the bench. But there is another reason I see for getting him off the radar. During his nomination process, he was generating alot of interest in life issues, especially abortion, the death penalty and stem-cell research. The press, at the time, used this as fodder against him. After his confirmation, though, it serves counter to their Culture of Death agenda the media promotes. The result is, to a certain extent, that the Culture of Life issues fall off the radar too. Well, I want to make sure my readers at least know that the Culture of Life is not off the radar and that there is still a great need to fight for life from natural conception to natural death. Over the next few blogs, I want to point out some ongoing struggles in our country of Culture of Life vs. Culture of Death.

Stem-cell research:

Many states and advocacy groups are trying to do whatever it takes to allow any type of stem-cell research that is legal under federal law. Many of these groups are using deception to forward this agenda. In Missouri, for example, an advocacy group called "Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures" is trying to block legislation currenty before the Missouri legislature that would ban Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer or SCNT (for a wonderful PowerPoint to learn about SCNT, see http://www.stemcellresearch.org/testimony/prentice_2005-07-18.pdf). SCNT is the same as embryonic stem-cell research, but stem-cell advocates know that using the term 'somatic cell nuclear transfer' is much more appealing because all references to an live embryo are removed. Fortunately, this group is meeting with alot of resistance, especially from some of Missouri's state senators. Sen. Matt Bartle made the following very valid point:

"I believe that a human embryo is worthy of legal protection," said state Sen. Matt Bartle (R), who vows to press the fight. "Western medicine has been founded on a principle: First, do no harm." (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/09/AR2005080900793.html).

But, just because there is strong resistance in some states doesn't mean that the Culture of Death is not pushing strongly for unlimited SCNT research. The Minnesota Daily (my mom is a native of Minn.) has a great article about the fairy tales of stem cell research. I would encourage everyone to read it at: http://www.mndaily.com/articles/2005/07/27/64848. Lastly, if you want more information on stem-cell research and its current state of acceptance, please visit http://www.stemcellresearch.org/ and check out some of their insightful articles regarding the truth of stem-cell research.

My next blog is going to explore abortion and the current misconceptions that are being promoted by many pro-abortion groups, most notably Planned Parenthood, as well as the liberal media. Until next time...God bless.

posted by: crossman at 08:35 | link | comments (1) |
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Odds and ends...

This blog entry is going to be a hodgepodge of various things I have been wanting to promote or announce for the past few weeks. I have some friends who have started their own blog sites and I want to turn you on to these sites. I also I want to promote a few web sites that have caught my interest recently. Lastly, I want to give you a sneak peak into the maturing of our blog that will be taking place in the coming months.

Let's begin with new blog sites. Many of my friends have followed my blogging since I began nearly a year ago. They were reluctant to start their own blogs, but when they saw that I had been blogging for quite awhile and was no worse for wear (mostly due to my kind and frequent readers) they decided to give it a go themselves. The first blog I want to promote is a seminarian friend who is studying at St. Vincent's Seminary in Latrobe, PA. His blog, like mine, is about the Catholic faith and about being a seminarian. You can access his blog at: http://kyseminarian.motime.com/ and if you are a Lord of the Rings fan you will understand his blog title, which is Muster the Rohirrim.

The second site I want to promote is a close friend who is a former seminarian here at Kenrick. He comes from a family who has been in the car business for over 80 years, so naturally his area of expertise is automobiles. What better focus for a blog site than cars. His new blog, Tips From A Car Guy, is a great place to learn about the automotive industry, to learn about cars and to ask any of those car buying/owning questions you might have. Dan is a very good person and a close friend so I urge you to go check out his site at http://carguytips.blogspot.com/.

Associated with both of my blogging friends are their personal web sites. My Latrobe friend has a web site about the Catholic faith that features a beautiful picture of St. Vincent's Seminary. You can take a look at in by going to http://home.everestkc.net/mcushing/. My car friend, Dan, has a nice eBay store with many wonderful and cheaply priced items. If you have a girlfriend and want to surprise her with some perfume or if you are just looking for some nice stuff, check out Dan's store, Just Stuff, by pointing your browser to http://stores.ebay.com/The-Just-Stuff-Store.

My final topic for this post is to give you a sneak peak into some of the changes and upcoming topics on my blog. First, some of my friends here at Kenrick are interested in adding some new features to my blog site. They have some great insights into the Catholic faith and just needed a place in which to share these thoughts. I offered my blog space. Specifically, the first of these two new features will be a Catholic viewpoint on new movies, books, music, etc. that are being released. His insight will be both to point out elements that may disagree with the Catholic faith, but also to point out that which advances the beliefs and morals of the faith. Our second new feature will be from another seminarian friend here and its purpose will be to educate our readers on elements of the Catholic faith. Did you ever wonder why Catholics genuflect before entering a pew in church? Have you wondered why we don't eat meat on Fridays during Lent? If you have these or other questions about the Catholic faith, whether you are Catholic or not, this new feature will be designed to answer them. It is my hope that the new features will be starting up just after Ash Wednesday (Mar. 1). They'll be posted in my blog column, but will have a tag separate from the blog tag (a tag is the category I use to classify my postings - it appears at the bottom of each of my posts and in my archives section to the left of the posts).

Lastly, I wanted to mention that during each Friday in Lent, I am going to be doing a blog post on the Rite of Ordination to the Diaconate. Specifically, the candidate being ordained to the diaconate makes six promises to his bishop. I am going to discuss one of these promises each of the six Fridays during Lent (nice how I have six promises to make and there are six Fridays in Lent ). In these discussions, I will cite the promise and then discuss its meaning both in general and what it will mean for me when I make that promise on May 27th in the presence of my bishop.

Well, that should be plenty for my readers to chew on in the coming days. Again, I invite comments and suggestions as well as questions. Until next time...God bless.

posted by: crossman at 20:45 | link | comments |
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Pet peeves of our faith...

First, a big YEAH for the fact that I am typing on my own computer again. It is a healthy, happy computer and as such so is its owner. I can now go back to ignoring my room and the world around me and re-enter the cyber-world. Let's hope not...hopefully the lack of my computer has taught me to be more aware of the world around me.

Well, on to the blog. As the title, might suggest, this is going to be one of my rant blogs. I have noticed in the past few weeks an increase in some of what I consider abuses or misunderstandings of our faith, especially in the Mass. Now some of these are committed by the congregation that simply may not know or understand the reasons around the abuse. On the other hand, some of these abuses are committed by priests and deacons who certainly know and understand the nature of these abuses. Let me elaborate by giving a couple of my peeves.

The first is one committed by many of the faithful. In fact, I heard it this morning at our own Mass at the seminary. Within the Mass, there are times when prayers are addressed directly to God. One such time is after the preparation of the gifts. The priest says:

Pray brethren that our sacrifice may be acceptable to God, the Almighty Father.

Our response is supposed to be:

May the Lord accept the sacrifice at your hands for the praise and glory of His name, for our good and the good of all His Church.

To be politically correct or inclusive or whatever, I have heard:

May the Lord accept the sacrifice at your hands for the praise and glory of GOD'S name, for our good and the good of all GOD'S Church

What annoys me about this is that the person saying this usually thinks we are sexist assuming God is a male when God may very well be a female. The reality is this: GOD ISN'T MALE OR FEMALE!!! God is a purely spiritual Being and as such has no gender. The reason God is referred to as He is threefold: First, Jesus Christ Himself refers to God as his Heavenly Father. Not only does He refer to God as Father, he TELLS us to refer to Him as Father by teaching us the Our Father prayer. Secondly, Jesus is called the Son of God, but he is also called the Son of Mary. Basic biology dictates that there is a mother and a father for every child. Since Mary is the mother, referring to God as Father only makes sense. Again, this does not imply that God is a He or She because God has no gender. Thirdly, God is referred to as the Bridegroom (see Isa. 62:5 and Rev. 21:2) as is Jesus and we are referred to as His bride. Specifically, The Church is referred to as the bride of God who is the bridegroom. This is why we refer to the Church as She and also as Holy Mother Church. The entity that is the Church is no more female than God is male. Yet, I hear some in the congregation change the Mass to make it inclusive. The faithful I can excuse, because they may not have known what I just explained. Priests and deacons, on the other hand, I cannot excuse. They know better. I actually heard a priest, at the end of the Eucharistic Prayer, pray:

Through God, with God and in God, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory is yours Almighty God forever and ever.

My second pet peeve is at Communion. When serving as an extraordinary minister, I see many strange things. To be sure, I see many very holy and reverant people who recognize the Presence of Christ in the Eucharist and approach with humility and love. Unfortunately, I also see persons who seem to think they're in the checkout line at Wal Mart. Some come up to receive and do one of the following: they hold out their hand like they're going to shake my hand or in some other manner that doesn't serve well to receive the Body of Christ. While I receive on the tongue, the Church permits reception in the hand, although I note that this is described in the reburics as the extraordinary method. Many who approach to receive the Blessed Sacrament hold their hands or only one hand with their fingers spread wide apart like one might when playing with sand on the beach. This does not show one is ready or prepared to receive the Body of Christ. Great care should be taken to protect His Body. It is said best by the words of St. Cyril of Jerusalem: "When you approach, take care not to do so with your hand stretched out and your fingers open or apart, but rather place your left hand as a throne beneath your right, as befits one who is about to receive the King. Then receive him, taking care that nothing is lost." The other abuse I see in reception of the Eucharist is those who come up and actually snatch the Blessed Sacrament out of my hand. There is a reason the Church speaks of Communion as the 'reception of the Body of Christ' and not the 'taking or snatching of the Body of Christ.'

That is probably enough ranting for tonight. I welcome any comments, both positive and opposing in view. I also extend an invitation to use the comment section to add your own pet peeves or abuses at Mass as well as to ask questions you may have on the Mass. I may not have all the answers, but I am sure the Church has the answer. After all She is the Body and Christ is the Head. Until next time...God bless.

posted by: crossman at 21:32 | link | comments |
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Living in the stone age...

The title might seem to be an odd one, but as you read on I think you'll understand it.

I have been without my computer for nearly a week now. My Sony laptop is less than 4 months old and last week it basically went haywire. I was forced to take it to Circuit City to be diagnosed, which, for those who know me, my taking a computer in for repair means there is something MAJOR wrong with it. Anyway, I have yet to get it back and as such have been unable to blog. In fact, I am in the seminary library presently typing this blog on one of their computers.

I never realized how reliant we have become on computers. After my computer went into the shop, I found that I didn't have a TV to watch (I have a TV card in my computer and had used it to watch television), I wasn't able to keep up on the weather (of course, there are always local weatherpersons on TV, but that just leads back to my first problem), email and communication with friends in general is almost non-existant (this is mostly due to the fact that, like me, my friend's lives are so busy that email is the most convenient for both them and me) and lastly, homework and classes are a major chore when you have to revert to using these archaic devices, such as pencils and paper.

On the other hand, I did discover many interesting things since I have been without a computer. For example, I have books in my room!!! While I had seen these on the bookcases in my room before, I kind of thought they were for decoration purposes. Of course, in reading a couple of these books, I wanted to know more information on certain things and kept looking for the hyperlink to a URL about them. Unfortunately, books don't seem to have hyperlinks. I also discovered that I don't live in a vacuum and that there are actually others living on my floor. You can even converse with them and they converse back. They don't seem to understand chat room phrases, such as LOL or ROFL, though. Oh well, I guess you cannot have everything.

Overall, I have found my not having a computer to be frustrating, somewhat unsettling but also educational. Hopefully I will not be without my computer for very much longer, though. Beyond the fact that I have most of my seminary notes and my Master's Thesis on the computer, I am also worried about compupter withdraw. I don't look forward to the cold chills, dry mouth and halluncinations I have been told about when one quits cold turkey.

Well, I hope to have my computer back shortly, but if not, I will try to blog again Friday or Saturday. For those who usually read my blog because of its good Catholic insights, you must be smoking something and not sharing. Seriously, I plan on blogging soon about Justice Alito (thank God...our country has hope yet) as well as some insights on the Supreme Court's first ruling with the new Justices on a stay of a scheduled execution. Until then...God bless.

posted by: crossman at 19:47 | link | comments |
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