An Open Letter to All Those Who Lead the Holy Rosary

Dear Leaders,

First of all, let me say that I am so appreciative of your willingness to lead others in contemplating the mysteries of our salvation by virtue of the Holy Rosary. Your "yes" to this call from God is a great reflection of your imitation of Jesus, Our Lady, and all the saints! I firmly believe that it does and will reap a great harvest, some of which will only be known in Heaven! PLEASE continue this worthy work at all costs for the sake of the world, which so desperately needs the beautiful effects of this highly favored devotion!

I'd also like to preface my statements by letting you know that this is not an angry rant or a criticism, but it is a plea that I can't keep to myself any longer. Please consider it a loving cry for consideration.

I have noticed a trend when praying the Rosary in a group setting; one that makes me, and several others that I have spoken with, especially students, very uncomfortable. Based on my/our observation, I have a request:

Please slow down!

I know it may seem unimportant, but it really isn't. One of the great beauties of the Rosary is that it gives us the opportunity take remove ourselves from the rushing current of the world and sit on the banks and simply bask in the light of the Truth of who and Whose we are. The trend seems to be to get through it as quickly as possible. But I ask you, how can we be spending time with God and His Word in the Holy Rosary if we are rushing through it? I am open to the idea that many people can do this, but I can't. Many of the students that I have spoken with can't either. So as leaders, please consider the urgent necessity of what you are undertaking and remember that there are those who cannot contemplate when they are out of breath from the speed of the prayer they "praying".

I am very confident that your leadership is an act of love and devotion, but the rushed style in which some people lead the Rosary can make it seem unimportant and something that we "just have to get through" to get to the "more important" parts of the day. If you are praying so fast that your words are indistinguishable, you are most likely making it very difficult for your group to follow along with you and really relish the time spent contemplating the beauty of Jesus with our Blessed Mother.

As an act of love, lets unite our hearts together in tender love and devotion for our mother and our queen in the way that she most prefers: by fixing our eyes, thoughts, hearts, and souls on her son, the Lord Jesus Christ who is “wonderful, counselor, mighty God, the prince of peace, the everlasting father”, the everlasting Lord, and only begotten Son of God. In doing so, let us avoid even the appearance of indifferent and lukewarm prayer for the cause of reminding the world of God’s great love shown to us in the prayers and mysteries of Mary’s crown, the Most Holy Rosary!

Yours in Mary’s Immaculate Heart,
RM

My Thoughts on Personal Happiness

So I just found this in my drafts...mights as well go ahead and publish it, I guess!

So I've been stewing in these thoughts for a while now, and I think it's time to share. Over the last few weeks, I've noticed something about myself: I am constantly thinking about what will make me happy. In which career can I see myself being happy? How much money do I need to make to be happy? Which food, at the moment, will make me happy? The list, of course, goes on and on and on and on. I guess there is nothing really inherently wrong about that, but the result has been nauseating. I've become obsessed with running my own life and making the plan that I think will work best, and I must confess ("...and I ask...you my brothers and sisters to pray for me to the Lord our God.") that I have concluded far too many thoughts and conversations about theology, morality, and politics with "Well, I think..." or "In my opinion..." etc. What I have come to realize is that I have no idea how to make myself or anybody else happy in the long-term. I know what feels good at the moment, but what about tomorrow, or next year, or twenty years down the road (if God sees fit to allow me to live that long!)? And here's the (very hard to accept) conclusion that I have come to:

I have no idea how to make myself happy, because I can't. Joy, real joy, is a fruit of the Spirit!! (Galatians 5:22) Unless I am plugged in to Christ and His Church, there is NO possibility for real joy; all there is outside of Him is a momentary impression of joy that doesn't last. So if I am to have real joy, I must prepare myself to be formed by the Holy Ghost into a vessel that can hold REAL joy...the kind that lasts, not the temporary fleeting kind that sin offers "for a short season". (Hebrews 11:25)

An update for updates' sake!

WOW! So...I stink at keeping up with a blog apparently! haha. I thought I might as well post an update, and who knows: I may actually start blogging again!

Ok..well...thanks be to God, I'm still Catholic and still ever so grateful for that tremendous grace!

I'm getting ready to begin my third year at Middle Tennessee State University in the Organizational Communication program. OH and I was just elected Internal Director for MTSU Catholic! It should be a great year!

I'm still praying and discerning God's will for my life after school, so who knows (but God) how that will turn out.

So yeah, that's the basic update. Hopefully, I'll be posting more "musings" soon!

Doctrine Continues! SOLA SCRIPTURA and the like

Ok…so I’m not so good with keeping up with the ole blog! I may be a few months off my mark for getting these entries in, but I’ll get there eventually! Anyway, I want to try a new approach. The other “doctrine” posts have taken me several hours to complete (which may be why I haven’t been as faithful to it as I should!), so I’m going to TRY to not be so technical on this post and see how that works! Here’s the thing. I’m not a trained apologist like the incredible folks at Catholic Answers. (NOTE – If you ever need to know ANYTHING about the Catholic Church, try listening to Catholic Answers Live or visiting Catholic.com!) What I am, is a man who is in love with the Catholic faith, so that’s really what my blog should be about: telling you what the Church is about and why I love it! That said, off we go to explore the ever-argued topic of “Sola Scriptura”!

~cracks knuckles~

During my years of life BC (Before Catholicism), I was a strict believer in what I thought was “Sola Scriptura” (Scriptrue Alone) which means that everything I believed concerning God and my faith came from Scripture. As it turns out, that was incorrect. What I actually believed, and what most Pentecostals believe, is called “Prima Scriptura” (Scripture First). This means that there are other sources of acceptable guidance besides scripture (i.e., your pastor, perhaps a message that comes by tongues and interpretation, the inner direction of the Holy Ghost in a person, etc) but all of these things are completely secondary to and must be tested by Scripture. For example: Let’s say that Pastor Smith says, “We need to do some fasting. Everyone please fast this week from _____.” Perhaps, the Holy Spirit speaks during the service and calls the church to fast and pray. OR maybe someone just feels in their heart that they should. The message is the same. “Fast and pray.” Now the Scriptures don’t say, “First Tabernacle Church of the Mighty Holy Ghost and Fire Baptized Believers in the Liberating Power of Jesus Name International Incorporated, LLC must fast the week of May 23, 2010 – May 30, 2010.” [ps…for those of you not familiar with Pentecostal humor, I made that church name up for example purposes. J] However, the Bible does teach us to fast, so it is perfectly acceptable to obey that guidance from the pastor and/or Holy Spirit. Conversely, if a pastor recommends or a person feels an inner urge to do something contrary to what scripture teaches as acceptable, then that guidance should be questioned because the Scripture is a higher authority than any man or feeling. Now that we established the difference between these two lines of thought, I will point out that while they both have admirable qualities, they are not the teaching of the Catholic Church.

The Church teaches something called “Sola Dei Verbum” (The Word of God Alone). As much as I love Latin and its translation, lets break it down a little. Shall we?

When I first heard of “The Word of God Alone”, I thought. “Right! Scripture Alone!”. While the concepts seem to be the same, they are actually quite different in doctrinal terms. You see, as Catholics, we believe that the Word of God consists of Scripture PLUS tradition. * pausing to allow ample time for the non-Catholics to cringe a bit before continuing * Allow me to explain via an entirely too brief look at how Church teaching has looked throughout the years. Jesus, who is THE WORD of God (John 1:1), taught the apostles the Truth about God. Of course, Jesus is also the Truth. So basically, Jesus taught the apostles [about] Himself! Then when he was about to ascend into Heaven, He told them, “Go therefore and teach all nations…teaching them to observe ALL that I have commanded you.” (St. Matthew 28:19) The book of Acts records a good deal of these first few years of the Church’s history. Knowing, that they were given the ability and obligation to teach THE faith with authority, the apostles did so by writing letters to the Churches AND preaching to them “in person”. Was their teaching less important if they didn’t write it down first? Of course not! Their teaching concerning Christ and His Church was infallible whether written or spoken and the churches were required to obey BOTH the written and spoken directions of the apostles (II Thessalonians 2:15). As the Church grew more men were ordained to take the care of the souls of the new faithful. (See Acts 1:15-26 to learn that the authority of the apostles, that of a Bishop, could, can, and must be passed on to others.) And that practice of ordaining new Bishops to keep, uphold, protect, and pass on the faith received from Jesus Himself continues today! That means that every validly ordained Catholic Bishop was ordained by someone who was ordained by someone who was ordained by someone else who was ordained by someone….who was ordained by an apostle who was commissioned by CHRIST! That is a POWERFUL testimony to the identity of the Catholic Church and her teachings! I said all that to say this [there’s a little more evangelical humor for you…if you don’t get it, don’t worry about it lol]: Jesus told the apostles to PREACH and they did, and their successors still are! Thankfully, the original leaders of the Church were moved by Holy Spirit to write as well as speak the truth about the Truth!

So why not believe in Sola/Prima Scriptura? There are many reasons, but I will just offer a few to get you started thinking. J First of all, if EVERYTHING that we believe must come from Scripture, then Scripture must say that, and it doesn’t. What it DOES say is to obey what is preached and written from the apostles. There was no indication that this COMMAND WRITTEN IN SCRIPTURE would be rescinded when the canon of scripture was completed. But how can we obey the unwritten “traditions and commands” of the apostles if we have no living link to them? We couldn’t if we didn’t have the Catholic Church to preserve and hand them down to us.

Secondly, if EVERYTHING we believe must come from Scripture, then the first 1500 years or so of Christians are lost! The canon (or official set of books) or Scripture wasn’t officially determined and declared “unalterable” in until the Council of Trent in 1546! And that was most likely because Martin Luther decided to “decanonize” some of the books that had been commonly accepted as scriptural since the 300s. So how did people learn the Word of God before the books were officially decided on and before most people were able to read and afford their own copy of the Bible? They went to Mass! That’s right! Every Sunday Mass has an Old Testament reading, a reading from the Psalms, a reading from the Epistles or the Book of Acts, AND a reading from the Gospels. Granted, the number and/or order of the readings were most likely different, but the principle stands that the CHURCH has been the way people learned truth throughout church history.

Thirdly, scripture is NOT the foundation of truth! THE CHURCH IS THE FOUNDATION OF THE TRUTH! (I Tim 3:15) Thus the Church is NOT a product of Scripture. Rather, the Scripture is a work of the Holy Spirit THROUGH the Church.

Finally, without the Church, one is left to interpret the Scripture privately, which St Peter forbids as destructive! (II Peter 1:20, 3:16). Take for instance the number of non-Catholic denominations—over THIRTY THOUSAND!!! I would venture to say that almost every one of them would say that they take scripture for their final authority for all things doctrinal, and yet there is almost no agreement between them on issues of baptism, salvation, Heaven, Hell, and sin! The Bible is not enough on its own…we must have a proper interpretation of it for it to benefit us at all. For “how can I [understand the scriptures] unless someone teaches me?” (Acts 8:30-31).

OK…well I think my soapbox is about to collapse! haha Anyway, for those of you who don’t know me personally, please understand that everything I write, even if its passionately presented, is written with love. I’m not writing out of hatred of others or a belief that they are stupid. I just really REALLY believe these things and want to share them with others.

May God grant us all the grace to believe “the Truth, the Whole Truth, and nothing but the Truth”!

The Church (part I)

OK! FINALLY! I decided to stop trying to lay this out perfectly and just show you what was going through my head at the time that I was considering the claims of the Roman Catholic Church. Like I said before, this is a multi-faceted topic, but I’ll eventually get it all done! First you’ll need a little background information. The basic idea of Church History in the Apostolic movement (which I was a part of) is that from the day of Pentecost until sometime after the death of the Apostles, Christianity looked like the modern day Apostolic Pentecostal churches. In other words, the belief is that the Apostles and most likely their successors taught the doctrines of “the Oneness of God” (as opposed to the doctrine of the Holy Trinity), salvation by repentance, baptism in the name of Jesus Christ (as opposed to baptism using the Trinitarian formula “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”), and reception of the “Baptism of the Holy Ghost (as evidenced by speaking in other tongues)”. Then at some point, the greatest majority of believers left the original teachings of Jesus and the Apostles. Some feel that this happened around the time of the Council of Nicea because this is when the doctrine of the Holy Trinity was “ironed out” and defined in response to the Arian heresy. I’m not sure if that particular time line was wide-spread, but I tended to lean toward that view personally. (Of course, most Oneness believers wouldn’t say that the doctrine was “ironed out” then as most believe that it was invented at that time.) Following this thought process, there remained small numbers of people who believed these doctrines through-out history, until just before the Azusa Street Revival in the early 1900s. At this time, people in the United States began to seek and experience the “Baptism of the Holy Ghost” again. A few years later, the Oneness Pentecostals “reappeared” on the scene in larger numbers and have continued to grow since then.

I had long since accepted these beliefs whole-heartedly as well as the views of Church History. Really though, history did not really play a significant role in my beliefs or the beliefs of my fellow Apostolics, because for us, Scripture was the only acceptable source of faith and doctrine.

As I read through “Rome Sweet Home” by Scott and Kimberly Hahn (a book I HIGHLY recommend for anyone who desires an in depth look at why someone would convert to Catholicism), I came across a question that forever changed the way I viewed the concept of “church”. Look at Matthew 16:18:

“…on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it.”

Of course I had heard this passage preached many times before, but I had never considered one idea. If the powers of death would not prevail against the church, where did “my church” go for over 1,900 years? I started to go through Church History, and there just was not a consistent presence of Oneness Pentecostalism to be found! If indeed the Apostolic movement is a continuation of the Church of the New Testament, how had it experienced such growth as to see thousands of people baptized in one day on at least two occasions and to have pagan rulers acknowledge that they had “turned the world upside down” only to drop to such small numbers that they couldn’t even be recorded as existing for almost 2,000 years?! Admittedly, there were a few groups who held similar one or two similarities here and there to the Oneness movement of today, but none that could be considered “Apostolic”. The closest was Sabellius in the 200s, but even they disappeared after a while. There just is no “church” in history that resembles today’s Apostolic churches against which the “powers of death” did not prevail.

Obviously, I was not happy about this. I had to ask the question now, “If we aren’t the New Testament Church, then who is?” Even though in the back of my mind, I knew the answer, I was not ready at all to admit it!

I continued to study and read books written by Catholics, Non-Catholics, Apostolics, and even Anti-Catholics. I still could only draw one conclusion. The only Church that has existed since the very beginning of Christianity and continues on today very much the same in structure and in major doctrine is the Roman Catholic Church! She still believes and teaches the traditions that have been handed down to her whether written or orally. She still operates under the leadership of Bishops, Priests (which the NT sometimes calls Elders) and Deacons, and councils. She still knows mercy through men of God who are ambassadors of reconciliation and who forgive sin in the name of Christ. She still believes and relies on the Body and Blood of Christ made present in the Eucharist, and she still baptizes for remission of sins as Christ commanded. And she will continue to do so until her bridegroom, the Lord Jesus Christ, returns in glory! Thanks be to God!

Next up on menu of doctrines about “The Church” will be the question of “Sola Scriptura”.

Seeing Jesus

Well I'm still working on “Doctrine Part II: The Indentity of the Church”. That, though, is such a vast topic that I'm trying to figure out how to organize it all so that it will be readable!

I've often wondered what it would have been like to live in the days of Christ and watch Him interact with people as He ministered to them. Don't get me wrong; I am MORE than glad to be living in modern times having the benefit of hind-sight in matters of faith. I just think it would have been cool to watch the stories of the Gospels be played out in front of me—but then would I have believed as readily as I did having heard them in a Christian family environment? Anyway, that’s not the point I’m making at all! (You’ll pardon me please if I am a bit scattered…this is just streaming thought at almost 4 am! Haha)

My point is that I think, in some way, I DID see Jesus this weekend! I made a visit up to the Salesians of Don Bosco, a Roman Catholic community of “brothers” and priests (and those working toward becoming one of the two) who minister primarily to young people. While I was up there I watched these guys interact with kids who mostly were not at all what you’d call “well-to-do” and with each other. I watched them treat each other kindly with love, and I watched them look with such compassion on the kids (even when they were being…lets call it “rowdy” haha). Now, I’m not going to idolize them. They are men, and as such I’m sure they have their “issues”. But seriously, with every conversation I had with them and with every game we played and pretty much every time I “turned around”, I saw someone that reminded me of Jesus! Its hard to put a finger on what it was exactly (the words “charity” and “compassion” and “peaceful” come to mind but don’t properly serve to convey what I’m trying to get across). I’m sure that it has everything to do with the emphasis on prayer and spiritual living there, and it is quite evident that they are a religious community. Here’s the kicker though: they weren’t the kind of religious people that make you feel like religious life is out of reach to all but them and a few other privileged few. For all the ways that they reflect our Lord, they really are “normal” guys. By “normal” I mean that they didn’t act lofty and unattached from the “real world”. In fact, then very nature of their ministry requires them to be in touch with the world around them. They truly are “in the world not of the world”.

Now I know that God is at work all around me at all times, but I left New Jersey last weekend feeling as though I had been face to face with Heaven all weekend watching Jesus work miracles before my very eyes. And isn’t it supposed to be that way?

I'm very grateful for the experience to say the least!

A few "Crumbs", if you will, from the Feast of Christ the King!

Again, this is a break from the Doctrine/Story theme that I started the blog with. Fret not! I am working on that part of it, but it takes quite a bit of thought power to set those concepts to “bloggable” terms. Soon though…I promise!

Today (November 22, 2009 and the last Sunday in ordinary time) the Catholic Church celebrates the feast of Christ the King. Somehow when I woke up this morning, I just knew that today was a special day. There’s just something about the words “Christ the King” that gives me great comfort and at the same time kinda stirs me up a little haha. So all through the Mass this morning I kept having these small experiences that were pretty cool. The first was during the Psalm. First let me just say this: hearing Bob O’Connor sing is enough to make anyone hear the voice of God! (He really is just an incredible singer!) Anyhow, the words to the response were “The Lord is King! He is robed in majesty!” I tried to imagine the Lord enthroned “high above the heavens” and “robed in majesty”. But I couldn’t! At first I was a little frustrated, because I have a very active imagination. That is generally how I interact with what I’m reading or hearing—by mental imagery. But our King, the Lord Jesus, reigns from a place that we have no capability of imagining! He is infinite and eternal, and we have only experienced the finite and temporal here. As much as I’d like to, and as hard as I tried/try, I just can’t imagine the matchless beauty and grandeur of God, pure and holy, seated on His throne, reigning sovereign, surrounded by unapproachable light, adored by saints and angels, and “robed” in majesty! For perspective’s sake (you know I love perspective!): I have seen some truly breath-taking sights on earth. The Grand Canyon is more than you could ever take in if you stared for hours! The Great Smoky Mountains at dawn are more than awe-inspiring! The scores of beautiful churches and cathedrals raised for the glory of God are a given! But all of these things are temporary at best! They will fade out, erode away, and eventually burn up at the end. But the Lord reigns eternal!! THAT majesty is forever. There has never been a time when He was dethroned and there never will be! I wish I could put this into words better, but I’m failing miserably. The best I can do is ask you to take a moment and try your best to imagine God’s “throne room” and the splendor that must be there! Then realize that your brain is not able to imagine that scene, and whatever you imagined could be multiplied exponentially and probably still wouldn’t come close! There’s just something about that thought that makes me so proud to serve Him, and humbled that He would allow me to!

The second moment I had was during the short time for meditation that I had between receiving the Lord in Holy Communion and having to sing the “communion hymn”. It just dawned on me during that short time of contemplation on “Christ the King”: He truly is the SOVEREIGN KING! No really! He is! Haha I know that’s simple, but let me explain. I was raised in the evangelical south, and there is a lot of talk about “making Jesus the Lord of your life” and so forth and so on. So I guess somewhere along the way, I picked up this idea that He is only King if I allow Him to be, as if He were some kind of New Age idea that only becomes real if I believe Him to be so. What a horrible horrible misconception!! The truth is that “The Lord is King and He is robed in majesty!” Whether I believe in Him or not, He is still the King! Whether I like it or not, He is still sovereign, and He is still the world’s (only) Salvation! What a comfort to know that I am not left with the responsibility of creating my own God. He already is, and in fact, is MY creator!

“To Jesus Christ our Sov’reign King who is the world’s salvation! All praise and homage do we bring with thanks and adoration!

Christ Jesus victor! Christ Jesus ruler! Christ Jesus Lord and Redeemer!

To you and to your Church oh Lord we pledge our hearts’ oblation! Until before your throne we sing in endless jubilation!”