Quick Update!
Hey all! I am still alive. At the same time, I am still unemployed :(
Scrap that, I've got a kind-of job with Credo Books, a local Catholic bookstore. A friend and fellow parishioner recently bought it and took it over, and while she can't hire me on in any permanent capacity, the previous owner didn't use a computer for anything. So Sunday I was over helping her clean up the clutter and ancient furniture that was literally falling apart, and she asked if I would come by on Wednesday to help begin digitising some of the hard-copy catalogues that needs to be done. Everything was done in hard copy there! So she said she'd pay me for it, and it'll help until I find something more stable. So, hooray for that Divine Mercy given to me on Divine Mercy Sunday :)
Speaking of Divine Mercy Sunday, which was yesterday, in thanks for helping at the store yesterday, the new owner also gave me St. Faustina's Diary, Divine Mercy In My Soul! Sweet!
Also related to that event of God's Mercy, I had the privelege Saturday night of preaching on Divine Mercy at the Praise and Worship event done by the St. Margaret Mary Youth after the Saturday Night Mass! It was pretty cool. I was nervous and a little out of form, though, since Fr. Trusz was sitting in the front row. Yikes! But people really seemed to enjoy it and get a lot from it--so thanks to God for that! My loving wife assures me that it wasn't because of me ;)
On the 2nd of March, I also had a speaking engagement, which I might have mentioned already, at St. Marguerite D'Youville parish in Brampton, for the "Holy Spirit Weekend" portion of the Alpha Program. I gave a (lengthly) talk on having a personal relationship with Jesus. Melissa says I was much better at that venue. Of course, the parish priest wasn't in the front row, there, either :p
Anyway, as such, possibly today, maybe tomorrow, I'll be putting those talks up here, because seriously, it's just been too long. And if there's one thing these occasions have reminded me, this (preaching, not blogging per se) is my vocation! I'm not sure how yet, but seriously, nothing brings life to me more than this!
In other news--to become another post soon--the Public School Board is petitioning the Ontario Government to amalgamate the Public and Catholic school boards. I'm not sure if it's just the Hamilton-Wentworth public board wanting to amalgamate the Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic board, or if it's the public boards across Ontario, but yeah, they're pretty serious about this!
The cover of today's Hamilton Spectator featured an article about the new "Character curriculum" that the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board wants to introduce to the schools. A list of ten virtues was drawn up through a survey to determine which characteristics kids in the public school system should be learning!!! I'm serious! Anyway, it's absurd, really. But I'll post more about that, today if I have time (I doubt it) but this week at some point!
So yeah, that's three new posts coming soon! Plus this one! Nice, eh?
And you thought I didn't love you anymore!
God bless
Gregory
Scrap that, I've got a kind-of job with Credo Books, a local Catholic bookstore. A friend and fellow parishioner recently bought it and took it over, and while she can't hire me on in any permanent capacity, the previous owner didn't use a computer for anything. So Sunday I was over helping her clean up the clutter and ancient furniture that was literally falling apart, and she asked if I would come by on Wednesday to help begin digitising some of the hard-copy catalogues that needs to be done. Everything was done in hard copy there! So she said she'd pay me for it, and it'll help until I find something more stable. So, hooray for that Divine Mercy given to me on Divine Mercy Sunday :)
Speaking of Divine Mercy Sunday, which was yesterday, in thanks for helping at the store yesterday, the new owner also gave me St. Faustina's Diary, Divine Mercy In My Soul! Sweet!
Also related to that event of God's Mercy, I had the privelege Saturday night of preaching on Divine Mercy at the Praise and Worship event done by the St. Margaret Mary Youth after the Saturday Night Mass! It was pretty cool. I was nervous and a little out of form, though, since Fr. Trusz was sitting in the front row. Yikes! But people really seemed to enjoy it and get a lot from it--so thanks to God for that! My loving wife assures me that it wasn't because of me ;)
On the 2nd of March, I also had a speaking engagement, which I might have mentioned already, at St. Marguerite D'Youville parish in Brampton, for the "Holy Spirit Weekend" portion of the Alpha Program. I gave a (lengthly) talk on having a personal relationship with Jesus. Melissa says I was much better at that venue. Of course, the parish priest wasn't in the front row, there, either :p
Anyway, as such, possibly today, maybe tomorrow, I'll be putting those talks up here, because seriously, it's just been too long. And if there's one thing these occasions have reminded me, this (preaching, not blogging per se) is my vocation! I'm not sure how yet, but seriously, nothing brings life to me more than this!
In other news--to become another post soon--the Public School Board is petitioning the Ontario Government to amalgamate the Public and Catholic school boards. I'm not sure if it's just the Hamilton-Wentworth public board wanting to amalgamate the Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic board, or if it's the public boards across Ontario, but yeah, they're pretty serious about this!
The cover of today's Hamilton Spectator featured an article about the new "Character curriculum" that the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board wants to introduce to the schools. A list of ten virtues was drawn up through a survey to determine which characteristics kids in the public school system should be learning!!! I'm serious! Anyway, it's absurd, really. But I'll post more about that, today if I have time (I doubt it) but this week at some point!
So yeah, that's three new posts coming soon! Plus this one! Nice, eh?
And you thought I didn't love you anymore!
God bless
Gregory
Labels: Announcements
posted by Gregory at 1:13 p.m.
9 Comments:
So, how does the Public School Board figure they're going to be able to make any of these 10 virtues (seems vaguely reminiscent of the decalogue) stick if God is a no-no?
Christopher
Well, that, I guess, is a part of the laughableness of the whole set-up.
They don't understand why there should be two boards, so they look at what the Catholic board has that they don't: morality. Yet the secular public board wants morality without religion, without God. So they compile a list of attributes to focus on through the school year (they had to survey "the community" to achieve this list) so they can have "character formation" in the public board, and thus contribute to making the Catholic board obsolete.
But morality without God is empty and meaningless (as John Martignoni makes wonderfully clear in his eletters titled "Was Hitler Right? (Or: Why Atheists Have No Rights)" Part 1/Part 2).
I'll be discussing these ramifications, as well as some other implications, in the upcoming post.
God bless
Gregory
Morality without God is meaningful still to the person holding to the morals. So in a particular case, it is still meaningful. The difficulty is that the morals have no referrence point other than themselves, or the person's preference. That leads to two problems:
1) Morals as arbitrary abstractions - a moral cannot be self-defined any more than I can create myself from nothing. Hence a moral as a self-referrencing abstraction is a logical impossibility. Morals need something outside themselves to validate them.
2) Morals based on preference, or trends apply solely to the person choosing. This leads to the difficulty of relative truth-claims: you have a set of morals because you believe them to be right for you; but how do you ever give, or receive criticism without imposing your standards on others? And in today's culture, that's a generally agreed-upon no-no. So all morals at that point have to be from the self, for the self, and to the self. Which kinda makes morality a bit of selfish gamble, and not highly moral (unless you're Ayn Rand and consider selfishness a virtue).
I wonder if they'll teach that in Pubothlic School?
Christopher
Yay! Posts!
Anyhow, I'm inclined to agree with a phrase misattributed to Dostoevsky: "Without God, everything is permissible," simply because, without divinity, there is no divine morality, and without divine morality there is no evil.
Gregory, sounds like much more a mom and pop or former mom and pop store than the one I work for but I am pleased that you have some work there and who knows where it may lead. God bless you.
O
::thrive
luminousmiseries
actually, virtues can be held even without God. There is a movement to study character and virtue (aptly called virtue ethics). There are several veins of virtue traditions, the big ones being: Neo-Aristotlean, Oriental, and Thomistic. Some of the most recent research has looked at the influence of religion or a higher power, and some has looked at how to cultivate virtues in a secular, or non-theistic setting (which is quite possible). It is quite fascinating. I googled the article you mentioned Gregory, and it is unfortunate that it seems that the top virtues were chosen not from a scholarly analysis (i.e. getting a consultant from a philosophy dept at a university who specializes in ethics) but from letting parents "vote". What I did find interesting was the comment that the public school is losing students to the catholic schools because of the character and values being taught.
On another note, I find it really strange that Ontario is able to offer both public and catholic without funding other religious education. If I'm not mistaken the United Nations took the Ontario government to task on this? Is it not another province (Alberta?) that actually funds all religious schools just like the public schools? Sorry for the vagueness, back in my M.RS days I took a course on education and faith because at that time the voucher system was a "hot topic" here and in passing Ontario and Alberta were mentioned as other areas working through this issue.
Completely off topic, have you thought about going to graduate school to take a degree in homiletics if this is where your passion is?
Peace,
Grail
Hey! Nice to know I still have readers!
Hidden One and Gavin, I'll be mulling over the possibility of ethics in a secular mindset in the post to come--and the particular ethics chosen by the public school.
Gavin, yeah, the UN has taken Ontario in particular and Canada in general to task for its funding of the Catholic School system, but at the same time, the Catholic School system is a part of our national identity and historical roots. But I'll also be weighing the pros and cons of public funding in said upcoming post.
Owen, yeah, Credo is a bit more of a "mom and pop op". It was founded by some Sisters way back when and then taken over by a lady from a local parish, who just decided to retire. So the lady from my parish now runs it. It has a pretty good reputation in town and does pretty well, despite the really poor store hours (9:30-5:30!). But the lady really wants to bring some fresh vision to the store, so hopefully that will help a lot.
And whatever help I can give will be cool, and a learning experience for me.
Gavin, I've taken some homiletics in Bible College, though not in a major way. I'm considering going back to school to obtain a Masters in Religious Ed at some point. I'm also considering ordination as a Permanent Deacon when I'm 31, and even considering becoming a Lay Dominican (the Preaching Friars). I'm just trying to suss out all the possibilities, and get a stable job in the meanwhile.
Man, I need a Spiritual Director!
God bless
Gregory
3 new posts coming soon, eh?
Yeah, I know you're really busy. This is so you know I care. :P
If the hour of Divine Mercy is at 3:00 PM, does it matter which time zone I am in. Which time zone is the hour of Divine Mercy?
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