psalm123

This is worth a double post.

I heard about this little fella through my Church. My 8th grade catechism students made Noah some great Christmas cards.

Noah is 5 yrs. old and is in the last stages of a 2 1/2 year battle with Neuroblastoma cancer. His family is celebrating Christmas early this year (next week), and Noah's wish is to get LOTS of Christmas cards. Please help out and send one!!!! His address is Noah Biorkman, 1141 Fountain View Circle, South Lyon, MI, 48178 Thanks!

The American Civil Criminal Liberties Union is at it again.  People should fight this absolute insanity.  We have freedom of religious expression in this country.

A principal and an athletic director are facing criminal charges for a lunch-time prayer

Last year, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against Pace High School in Santa Rosa County, Florida. The ACLU claimed some teachers and administrators were endorsing religion, but the school chose to give in to the ACLU's demands rather than fight them in court.
 
According to the settlement, all school employees are banned from engaging in prayer or religious activities before, during, or after school hours. Now two school officials are facing criminal charges for offering meal-time prayers at an appreciation dinner for adults who had helped with a school field house project. Principal Frank Lay and athletic director Robert Freeman are scheduled to go on trial next month on criminal contempt charges. If convicted, both are subject to fines and imprisonment.
 
Matt Staver is founder of Liberty Counsel, which will argue the court order prohibiting prayer at school-related events violated Lay's and Freeman's constitutional rights.
 
"In this particular case, Principal Frank Lay asked the athletic director to have a prayer for the meal at an honorary luncheon in celebration for some of the athletic achievements. And then in [another] situation, the clerical worker at an event where some employees of the school were present asked her husband, who is not an employee of the school, to have a blessing over a meal," he explains. "Because of those two events, these individuals now face criminal contempt."
 
Staver believes that the accusers in this case are students who recently graduated. If that is the case, he says the case is moot. However, Staver adds it is outrageous to punish a school official with potential jail time for simply praying.

 

This should be interesting to follow.

“We are getting a glimpse of what happens when Muslims who refuse to accept American values and principles gain political power in an American community. Failure to renew coach Marszalek’s contract had nothing to do with wrestling and everything to do with religion.”

Wrestling coach charges Muslim principal with anti-Christian bias after losing job

Dearborn, Mich., Jul 29, 2009 / 06:09 am (CNA).- A federal lawsuit has been filed against a Michigan high school and its Muslim principal, charging that a respected wrestling coach’s contract was not renewed because of anti-Christian bias and his association with another coach who ran a wrestling camp where a young Muslim converted to Christianity.

( Read more... )

Classes have been over for a couple of weeks. What have I been doing the past week or so?  I've been listening on my mp3 player to a class I took last year!  I can't help it, it was a great class and now I can take in things I may have missed before. The instructor Fr.  Mark Hamilton was excellent. Actually, all of the priests I have had as instructors at the seminary have been exceptional. If we had guys and women (sisters) like this in our grade schools and high schools, young people would not only know their faith, they would love their faith.  They would also be more easily drawn in to the religious life as they would have role models of priests and religious sisters who love living out their vocations in the Church. Of course overall, the lay instructors at the seminary have been great as well.

Aside from the couple of posts already today, I have been so busy lately that I haven't been keeping up on discussing a lot of newsworthy stories of the past couple of weeks. Currently, I have a more than full caseload of patients to care for, two classes at the seminary, a catechism class to teach on Sundays, combined with some semblance of a social life.  I will need a nice sunny beach type vacation come Springtime.

I am continuing on with another Philosophy class this semester. Moving on from ancient and medieval Philosophy, it's now time to take on modern Philosophy. This puts us in the 17th Century with Rene Descartes. We will also delve into the skeptical empiricism of David Hume and finish up with Immanuel Kant. I guess contemporary Philosophy will be next.

I know I am going to like this class. How do I know that? Well, just like the previous Philosophy class I took, I was completely lost shortly after going over the syllabus and hearing the first 5 minutes of lecture #1!  I ended up really enjoying ancient and medieval philosophy and ended up with an A. I put in a lot of time and effort and I learned a lot. I learned to think more deeply about certain things. The critical thinking and reasoning ability I had honed in nursing school and I use every day on the job as an RN was taken even further by studying Philosophy. Philosophy stretches ones mind to think and to reason. The study of Philosophy goes hand in hand with Theology. Believe me, after all the studying, philosophizing, reasoning and reflection I have done, I do not have a "blind" faith! Shhesh, I'm not going to even entertain that silly argument anymore! lol. To think that the seminarians have to study 4 years of Philosophy before they learn Theology!  I don't think many people know that. That's a lot of mind-bending philosophizing!

Peace,

Dave

It looks like I may have a class of my own to teach this year. I was originally going to assist the regular 8th grade catechism teacher with her class. Now it looks like I may have a seventh grade class that I will be responsible for.  My Sunday mornings might just have been booked until May.  Today's class went pretty well.

This evening I attended the Confirmation mass for my students at Divine Child parish in Dearborn. The mass was celebrated by Bishop Daniel Flores. The liturgy was very well done.  I really can't believe that a whole school year (catechism) is over. Wow, the time flew by.  If you would have told me a few years ago that I would be teaching 8th grade Catechism, I  would have thought that you were way off in your prediction. The experience was challenging at times. I was privileged to be able to assist in preparing the students for the Sacrament of Confirmation.  I learned a lot about how to teach 13-14 year-olds about the Catholic Faith. I'm going to miss them. We had some real good kids.  I think I am going to give this teaching thing another go in the fall. I have the summer to come up with some good lesson plans. 

Paris & Padre catching some rays.

 

This is what I'm doing.



Final Exams!

 

Taken from one of many Catholic web sites I visit frequently.  A little commentary on this letter coming soon.

Some Advice from a Parishioner

For the last few years I (Fr. Bugarin) have published an anonymous letter I
received from a parishioner during Lent in 2005. Usually I toss anonymous letters right away but this one escaped that fatal ending.

“Fr. Bugarin, I was very moved by your homily on Sunday, February 13, 2005, regarding Hell, Satan, and the response of faithful people to temptation. I am the father of an adult son and daughter, and it pains me to think of the mistakes my wife and I made in raising our children. We thought we had a clever, well thought out solution to the dangers and evils of the world, but instead we were victims of our over estimation of our own perceived abilities and power. In so doing we neglected the saving power and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the intercessory power of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

“Knowing the evils and temptations of our world, my wife and I sought to shield our children through endless activity. Like many other parents, we got our son involved in hockey and our daughter in dance; our goal was to keep our children busy and thus not give them a chance to get in trouble. However, I now realize that in engaging in a futile attempt to shield our children from battle with the Devil we were instead merely failing to equip our children for their inevitable battles with Satan. We attempted a human solution
to a spiritual problem, and our human limitations and inadequacies resulted in failure. We failed to fill our children with Christ, and instead left a vacuum too easily exploited by Satan.

“In focusing our children on endless activity we created selfish, self-centered children. By failing to involve them in Catholic charitable works we taught them to believe they were the centers of their own universes. We replaced rosaries, adoration and bible study with ice time, games and recitals. We missed Sunday masses for tournaments and catechism for performances, and we rationalized it by asserting that it was ‘for the best.’ How wrong we were.

“Today, both of our children have left the Church. Our daughter is living with a man and has had an abortion; our son has experimented with drugs and regards the Church with contempt and cynicism. Our first priority should have been to pass on the faith and to teach trust in the Lord; instead, we relied on our human intellect and put our faith in schemes of this world.

“If I could only go back in time I’d make every Sunday mass as a family, lead my family in a weekly rosary, take my children to pray in front of an abortion clinic, lead them in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, and help them volunteer at a soup kitchen. For despite our best efforts and intentions there still were times my children were alone and lonely, tired and weak, hungry and desirous. I failed to anticipate and prepare my children for those inevitable times of temptation, and the Devil had been patiently waiting.

“Father, please print my letter in the church paper. If it will serve as a warning to at least one family it may help them to avoid the pain and regret my wife and I have experienced.

An Anonymous St. Joan of Arc Parishioner.”

I haven't forgotten about this journal. I am taking the summer off from study at the seminary. I can't wait to go back in the fall.  I hope to start posting on here soon. 

In the meantime, here is Fr. John Corapi, I love listening to him.  He's a Catholic priest who travels the world preaching. He has a very interesting life story. From a military man to making millions in Hollywood Real Estate. Then battling drug addiction and eventually becoming homeless on the street prior to his conversion.
He is a great speaker.  The short clip I have linked to is very light theologically. I like how he faces the questions about sex. It's a funny clip. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Y8npzN637k&mode=related&search=

Wow! It's been awhile since I posted on here. I do hope to keep a more regular schedule of posting to this journal. Recently, I allowed myself to become a bit overwhelmed with work, school, and life in general.  I believe I need to finish up my call back to faith post.

My call back to the faith part 2.

The call back to my faith was something that took place over the span of a year or so.  During this period of time,  there were two major categories of influencing factors in my life 1. Internal and 2. External.  Starting with the external things that helped nudge me in the direction back towards God. I definitely have to start with my parents. Both my parents embody what I consider to be model Christian behavior in their everyday lifes.  They live lives of high virtue, self sacrifice in tending to the needs of others, and they do so in a very humble manner. Their attendance in Church over the years is impeccable as well.  So, as I began to turn my own life back over to God, I found myself trying to model my parents lives.  

The second category of influence in my call were external in nature. I can only describe this as a very strong desire to know God better.  I have always had faith in God.  Total faith in God has never been a problem for me. However, I had let myself get separated from him by the way I was living life. I wasn't involved in any major vices or immorality because that's just not who I am. I am human just like you, and I have weaknesses and faults as all humans do. I was probably having a bit too much fun in life! lol. MOst importantly, I wasn't actively including God in my everyday life. I  allowed myself to slip into being a part time Catholic. I didn't have any ill will or grievances against the Church, rather I had simply allowed my active faith become an afterthought.  Soon, the desire I was feeling to know God better guided me to make choices that were ultimately good for me. I began to study my faith on my own. I also began to reach out to spiritual persons to whom I am acquainted with through work.  This led to me receiving good spiritual advice from people of many different religious backgrounds. Who says Catholics don't play well with others? ;)  Eventually, this led to me setting up a meeting with a local Bishop to discuss this burning desire in my heart to become closer to God. The meeting with the Bishop went well and it was at this point that I truly began to pursue a serious consideration of a religious vocation.  I continued to learn about my Catholic faith on my own. I began to seek out new social experiences that would specifically involve Christian people.  I began to pray everyday. I'll be honest, this was tough to do at first.  I wasn't accustomed to daily prayer....or even prayer outside of weekly mass. Remember how important I said humility is?? Well, it made prayer seem much more natural and desirable. The Lord does respond when we speak to him. Much more on that to come! :)

Well, I really could go on and on but I'll end the post here. If at any time you have questions regarding anything I have written, feel free to ask. You can always ask something that isn't on the table of topics and I will do my best to get back with you in a reasonable amount of time.  Just fwi. All responses are screened first. :)  Now I can start getting to some teachings of the Church and maybe some basic apologetics.

Take care.