Lent

Since Advent, I've been reading a chapter of Thomas à Kempis' Imitation of Christ as a part of my daily spiritual readings and devotions. It is packed with insights on living a holy life, as well as plain and clear moments of the Spirit speaking and convicting me. The chapter I read for Ash Wednesday was one such reading:

Having Confidence in God When Harsh Words Assail Us

Christ:
Son, stand firm and trust in Me; for what are words but words: they fly through the air, but hurt not a stone. If thou art guilty think that thou wilt willingly amend thyself. If thy conscience accuse thee not, think that thou wilt willingly suffer this for God's sake. It is a small matter that thou shouldst sometimes bear with words, if thou hast not as yet courage to endure hard stripes. And why do such small things go to thy heart, but because thou art yet carnal, and regardest men more than thou ought! For it is because thou art afraid of being despised that thou art not willing to be reprehended for thy faults, and seekest to shelter thyself in excuses.

But look better into thyself and thou shalt find that the world is still living in thee, and a vain desire for pleasing men. For when thou art unwilling to be humbled and confounded for thy defects, it is plain indeed that thou art not truly humble, nor truly dead to the world, nor the world crucified to thee. But give ear to My word, and thou shalt not value ten thousand words of men. Behold, if all should be said against thee which the malice of men can invent what hurt could it do thee if thou wouldst let it pass, and make no account of it? Could it even so much as pluck one hair from thee?

But he who has not his heart within, nor God before his eyes, is easily moved with a word of censure. Whereas he that trusts in Me, and desires not to stand by his own judgement, will be free from the fear of men. For I am the judge and the discerner of all secrets, I know how the matter passeth; I know both him that offers the injury, and him that suffers it. From Me this world went forth: by My permission it happened, that out of many hearts thoughts may be revealed. I shall judge the guilty and the innocent, but by a secret judgement I would beforehand try them both.

The testimony of men oftentimes deceives; My judgement is true, it shall stand and not be overthrown. It is hidden for the most part, and to few laid open in everything; yet it never errs, nor can it err, even though to the eyes of the unwise it seems not right. To Me, therefore, must thou run in every judgement and not depend upon thy own will. For the just man will not be troubled whatever happens to him from God. And if anything be wrongfully pronounced against him he will not much care. Neither will he vainly rejoice if by others he be reasonably excused. For he considers that I am He Who searcheth the heart and the reins; Who judgeth not according to the face, nor according to human appearance. For oftentimes that is found culpable in My eyes which in the judgement of men is esteemed commendable.

Disciple:
O Lord God, the just Judge, strong and patient, Who knowest the frailty and perverseness of men, be Thou my strength and all my confidence, for my own conscience suffices me not. Thou knowest that which I know not, and therefore in every reprehension I ought to humble myself, and bear it with meekness. Pardon me, I beseech Thee, in Thy mercy, as often as I have not done thus, and give me again the grace to suffer still more. For better to me is Thy plenteous mercy for the obtaining of pardon, than the justice which I imagine in myself for the defence of my hidden conscience. Although my conscience accuse me not, yet I cannot hereby justify myself; for setting Thy mercy aside, in Thy sight no man living shall by justified. --Book 3, Chapter 46

Too often I've given too much thought and regard to what others say of me (both good and ill). On the one hand, I've been criticised and attacked for my faith and zeal, while on the other I've been complimented and lauded for my faith, my writing, my intellect, etc. And now, as I look for a job, I have competing voices from all sides telling me "be this, do that, you'd be good at..."

Through it all, I've risen in pride, and sunken in despair. I've lashed out in anger at offended pride, and secretly nourished the flattery I've received in my own heart. Truly, as Christ told Brother Thomas, the world has not been fully crucified to me.

About something quite different, Albert Einstein once said, "All I want to know are God's thoughts. The rest are just details." Yet the sentiment applies to me.

What am I giving up for Lent? My pride. Hopefully after 40 days, I won't pick it back up again.

God bless,
Gregory

Yes, I'm still around...

Hello to all those who (used to) faithfully read Grace for the Wayward Heart. I'm sorry I haven't been around that much lately.

This blog originally was started in order to chronicle the talks, events, and other announcements that I gave as the Youth Minister of St. Andrew's Parish, in Oakville. However, as of December 31st, I have not been the youth minister there anymore. The church decided not to renew my contract for various reasons.

As such, I am currently unemployed. Because of this, most of my time has been spent in the pursuit of new work, and not in blogging. Once I have a new job, my blogging will resume in some form, both here and at The Barque of Peter, my Catholic Apologetics blog. That blog has a much more distinctive "polemical" feel to it--meaning that the posts there are thorough defences of Catholic practice and theology against attacks on it from other groups--be they Protestants, Mormons, Muslims, Atheists, or whathaveyou. Now, that sort of thing is not everyone's cup of tea. They prefer a more reflective, devotional, and encouraging message, to help inspire them to greater devotion to Christ and His Church. And that's what I intend to make Grace for the Wayward Heart into.

Noted, that won't be much of a transition, since most of the posts here were of that sort anyway. The main differences will most likely be 1) it will be less specifically geared to the youth group (though, by that I mean simply I hope it will appeal to more people rather than less, so any readers from the St. Andrew's YG, don't take off, either), and 2) it will be a bit more personal. I won't feel that a personal comment about something, or an anecdote from my life, or perhaps a rant about something that bothers me, or a more light-hearted quiz or meme (such as the Dante's Inferno Hell Test just before this post) is out of place here because of a pre-set agenda.

So what's the plan for the immediate future? Once I find a job, I'll post the leftover martyr talks that I'd given at St. Andrew's schools (St. Thomas More, St. Jeanne D'Arc, and St. Charles Lwanga and Companions), and then we'll see from there. I want to eventually post up here the other Bible Studies that I'd led at St. Andrew's in a similar format to the Revelation Bible Study already posted here (The Gospel of St. John, Paul's Letter to the Philippians, and the Old Testament book of Tobit), and then eventually, to host here Bible Studies of all the books of the Bible :) but that's getting ambitious and far-off. I'll also post here the talk on having a Personal Relationship with Jesus through the Holy Spirit that I'll be giving at the Alpha Program's Holy Spirit Weekend Retreat at St. Marguerite D'Youville in Brampton, on Friday, March 2nd.

It's Lent now, and I still haven't decided what to give up. I'd love to say, "I gave up Unemployment for Lent" but that's slightly out of my control. St. Joseph the Worker, pray for me. So we'll see.

Anyway, that's my update for you all. Please pray for me as I try to sort out God's Will for my future.
God bless you all,
Gregory

Faith

Before I became the Youth Minister here at St. Andrew's, I used to run a Drop-In Centre up near Guelph, known as "The Rock," for "unchurched" kids. Basically, it was a weekly drop-in, put on by local churches, in order to provide a place for teens to hang out on a Friday night. I ran it for a little over 2 years, and it was great.

Recently, one of those kids was doing a Philosophy project for his high school class on whether God exists. This guy is not a Christian, by any stretch of the imagination. He calls himself an agnostic. In doing this presentation, he posted his thoughts from his studies on his blog, "Kataron's Blog". One of our mutual friends, Eric, sent me an email saying that I should check Nate's blog out and comment. So I did, and I read this article:

More God Stuff
I'm too tired to continue my earlier stuff, but after a few comments on that post, I have something on my mind.

One of the things that bothers me most about people is when they assume that they're right, that they have some sort of knowledge that others do not possess. In the case of the comments on the last post, it's Christians assuming themselves correct about all things God. And, of course and to be fair, it's not only Christians, it's a whole lot of other people, but in this case right here, it's Christians. And I understand, I guess. It's what they believe. But it's always just irritated me when somebody tries to tell somebody something with no evidence to support it whatsoever.

And let's face it, religion in general, and I'm talking all religions around this globe of ours, runs on little to no evidence. The Bible? I'd hardly count that as evidence, it's a book. Besides, if we're to believe everything that's written in the Bible...Well then. Too many things in there are just too unbelievable to even be considered as truth. In my oh-so-humble opinion, they're stories on how to live your life. Like fairy tales with morals and such. Don't trust strangers, don't set fire to your pants, etc. But of course, I could be wrong. Everything there could be absolutely true. It's absolutely impossible to know.

This is why I can't believe in any sort of God. I'm an empiricist. I can't believe in anything without evidence. Not really. This goes back to my whole philosophy that I've discussed oh-so-many times. Where everything out of my immediate sensory range does not exist. So right now, as I write this, none of you exist. It's a bit weird if you're...well, sane, but I like my philosophy. But yeah.

I can't believe in anything that I don't have evidence for. That's part of why I go to the youth group, part of why I chose this seminar topic. I'm trying to figure out exactly what's what in the universe at large, but none of the quote unquote "evidence" I find just doesn't cut it for me. Proof is very difficult to come by. With...Well, anything.

But that's what irritates me about people, they firmly believe in these things that they have literally no evidence to support. Because I can't. I can't believe in anything without this evidence. So it usually ends up bothering me when people demonstrate that they can indeed believe in these things without proof. But I guess that's why it's faith, isn't it? But I can't freakin' do that. I can't have faith in anything.

So...Could somebody, Dave, or Eric, or somebody, tell me exactly how it is that you can believe in something without evidence? I don't understand. You can't possibly know this for sure. So how can you believe, how can you have faith in these things?

F*** I'm tired. I don't even remember half the things I said up there. I'm just gonna go sleep, and hope that it makes some sort of sense.

Until next time,
Indeed.
~Kataron

I was trying to think through a "why you should believe with absolutely no evidence" response. But I didn't get too far. Namely, because I don't believe you should believe something with absolutely no evidence.

Christianity, contrary to many people's opinions, is not "blind faith" (I mistyped while I was writing that, and almost said "blond faith". It's not that, either, I assure you). In fact, looking throughout history, Christianity has been believed by some of the most intellectual and intelligent people who have ever lived. Beyond specifically Christian faith, theism (the belief in God) of some sort has been believed by an even greater number of intelligent, thinking, and even empirical people.

But people, like my friend Nate, still believe that believing in God takes an enormous leap of faith, across a wide, bottomless chasm, with alligators in it. The leap is so dangerous or ridiculous in their minds, and impossible to actually make, that they don't even try.

However, throughout history, many of the brilliant men and women who believe in God, have thought out "proofs" that God exists (which is a bad term to describe them, since in contemporary usage, "proof" equates to "indisputable fact", whereas back in the renaissance era, when they were first known as "proofs", "proofs" merely meant "evidences"). Briefly, I'll examine the four major ones:

The Cosmological Proof
Initially presented by none other than Aristotle, the Greek Philosopher, this proof basically says that all matter comes from somewhere. Everything is caused by something. You're here, for example, because your parents fell in love, and, sparing you the details, had a baby. They're here because their parents did the same, and so on and on back to the original people. All life is the same, and so is all non-life. Everything that is around us had a beginning. Everything had a cause. Now, Aristotle says, we cannot keep going back forever with our causes. It is necessary that there be a First Cause--and that First Cause is what Aristotle called "God". So, in a nutshell, because there is a world, and that world had to come from somewhere, there must be a God to have made the world.

The Teleological Proof
Taking the Cosmological Proof one step farther, the teleological proof (yes, I know they have weird names. That's because philosophers love making up fancy-sounding names to make themselves seem even smarter) looks at this world, and sees how amazingly intricate and complex it is. That kind of complexity could not be the product of simple chance, but indicates a designer. Often this proof is known as the "Watchmaker Argument" because that is its most common analogy. If you found a watch lying on the ground, looking at its gears and springs and hands and numbers, and seeing how they all work together to make the watch keep accurate time, you would logically assume that someone designed and built that watch, rather than thinking that it was the result of some random convergence of metal pieces. So with the watch, so with the world: the way that everything works, from our solar system down to our DNA, and each piece fitting together and playing its part, indicates to us the presence of a Great Designer who made all of this. That Great Designer is God.

The Ontological Proof
This one is kind of my favourite, but not too many other people like it. Personally, I think that's just 'cause they don't get it. It was first thought out by St. Anselm of Canterbury in the Middle Ages. Basically, it goes like this: God is defined as "that which nothing greater can be conceived." That is to say, God is completely perfect, and if you listed a bunch of attributes or qualities, and compared which would be better, then God would possess the best attributes. So, what is better, for something to be physical or spiritual? Spiritual, therefore God is Spirit. What is better, for God to be evil or good? Good, therefore God is Good. What is better, for God to be all-powerful, or not? Obviously, all-powerful. And so on. Now, the clincher of this argument comes with the question, which is better, for this perfect being to exist, or not to exist? Obviously, such a being existing would be better than that same being not to exist. So since the definition of God used is "that which nothing greater can be conceived", and I can think of a God who does actually exists, and a God that is only imaginary, and that the imaginary God is obviously inferior to the real God, then, by definition, God must exist.

Think of it this way:
A: God = that something which nothing better could ever be thought up.
B: It would be better for something to exist than to just be imaginary
C: Therefore, if there is the choice between something which nothing better could ever be thought up, actually existing or not, then the one that exists is better than the one that doesn't
D: God, then, by definition has to exist.

I know, it's confusing. So on to the last proof:

The Moral Proof
This one was made popular by C. S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia guy) in his book, "Mere Christianity". He points out that all people throughout the world have an inate sense of right and wrong. This sense of right and wrong is amazingly consistent throughout all cultures and all times, so much so that if your at the mall, trying to find a parking spot, and you are waiting for a person to get into their car so you can have their spot, and when that car pulls away, someone else swoops in and takes your spot, your immediate reaction is "That's not fair!" Why? Just because you didn't like what they did? No, but because you and the other person both recognise that your being there first entitled you to that spot. This premise of a moral law is how societies make their laws.

Now, the fact that each person is programmed wtih this law in their hearts is evidence that there is a Lawgiver who wrote that Law. Otherwise, morality would simply be a matter of choice, and there would be no ability to appeal to anyone's sense of fairness or decency--no one would have such a thing! So the fact that, whether we live by the morals we instinctively know to be right or not, we all know them, and therefore know that God has given them to us.

So this is some of the evidence for God. However, that evidence is "circumstantial." It proves that there is a likelihood of X conclusion, but does not do so without the possibility of other explanations. Without direct evidence, these proofs aren't enough to convict.

When we look at that bottomless pit of alligators that we call "faith", however, the logic of these and similar arguments drastically closes the gap. But as I said, the evidence could possibly be interpreted to fit different conclusions (the question isn't, "what's possible?" though, it's "what's most probable?"). So the great chasm is narrowed. For some people, it might be narrower than for others. The thing of it is, it's not closed. A leap of faith is still necessary.

But God is aware of this, and so He has taken it upon Himself to narrow the gap even further. He has, throughout history, revealed Himself to us--through prophets who speak in His name, through miraculous signs, and finally and most fully through Jesus Christ, who was God-in-the-flesh, who came to reveal the fullness of truth about God! Through that Revelation, God has closed the gap still further. Now the great Leap of Faith is much more of a simple step. But just as logic didn't take us all the way to belief, God doesn't reveal Himself so as to take away the necessity of faith. He makes faith in Him easier to have, but leaves faith as a necessary requirement. Why?

Because, as the Bible tells us in Hebrews 11:6:

Now it is impossible to please God without faith, since anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and rewards those who seek Him.

So, in my mind, there are two options. Have faith and wait for greater evidence, or wait for greater evidence in order to have faith.

As a Christian, I chose route #1, and I believe that I got the further evidences that follow. Our good buddy, St. Anselm, when writing his proof (see the Ontological proof above), said this: "Credo ut intelligam." In case your Latin's a little rusty, that's "I believe in order that I might understand." Not much of an empiricist, he was. But he understood the truth that I've been trying to relate above. On the one hand, God has, as one writer has put it, "left His fingerprints all over the world." On the other hand, that same God, who longs to know us, paradoxically hides from us. Why? To see if we'll take that step of faith and seek Him. God is not an academic abstraction. He is a person, who desires a relationship with us. But we have to reciprocate that, and we do that by faith, and seeking Him. God is playing hard-to-get.

Think of it this way: popular culture, many movies, etc. and many people believe in the concept of a "soulmate." They believe that out there somewhere is the person whom they are destined to be with. Now, if that's true, and a person believes it, then they have a level of "academic" or "theoretical" certainty. However, unless that person, in believing this truth about their "soulmate", acts on that "faith" and tries to seek this other person out, they will never find their soulmate. If there is a soulmate for that person, and that person is destined to be with their soulmate, that does not lead to the conclusion that the soulmate will simply fall from the sky into their lap. They have to participate in the search. And, perchance the soulmate did happen to fall from the sky into the person's lap (maybe the soulmate's into skydiving), the two people must still continue to work in order to make a relationship work.

The prophet Jeremiah, speaking for God, says this:

"When you search for Me, you will find Me; when you search wholeheartedly for Me, I will let you find Me" (Jer. 29:13-14, emphasis mine).

An atheist is not going to find God, unless he begins to search for God. But even in the searching, the atheist is no longer an atheist, because to search for something, you have to believe that it's there to find! The same is true for the agnostic. In some ways, the agnostic may actually be farther from finding the truth, because they, by definition, are committed not to a stance of "convince me", but "you can never convince me."

Only the romantic will find his soulmate, because he will be searching.

Only the theist will find God, because he will be searching.

God bless.

Catholic-Protestant Discussion

Recently I emailed all the youth at St. Andrew's whose addresses I have (if you want emails from me, give me your addy!) to tell them about a radio show that airs from 1-5 on Saturdays on the local Christian radio station, Joy AM 1250. It's called the Drew Marshall Show, and it's a Christian call-in talk-back show, and Drew is a great host who digs up some of the most interesting and controversial topics in the Christian Church today! I highly recommend it no matter what subject he happens to be tackling.

In particular, though, two Saturdays ago, he discussed Catholicism and Protestantism. It's tempting to say "vs." but it really didn't amount to that (except in the minds of some of the callers). Rather, it was a very fair look at Catholicism to see if we were really that different from our Evangelical brothers and sisters in Christ. To help him with this, he had Dr. Suzanne Scorsone, the spokeswoman for Aloysius Cardinal Ambrozic, Archbishop of Toronto, and Dr. George Vandervelde, Professor at the Institute of Christian Studies in Toronto. Now, the great thing about the Drew Marshall Show is that he puts his shows online, so I really encourage you to go to www.DrewMarshall.ca/Listen. The show, where Drew himself interviews the guests, is the first listed item under the November 26, 2005 banner. To hear all the callers and how they were answered, scroll down a little further to the first item listed under "Talkback".

I have to say, my favourite part of the show was right off the bat. Drew commented that he wasn't sure he was going to do the show this weekend until the previous Sunday, when he actually went to Mass. It seems to have been cut out of what he put on his site, so I'll try my best not to misquote him.

He said: "In the Evangelical Church, we're always complaining and saying 'We need more Jesus; we need more Bible in our services!' Well, if you want more Jesus and you want more Bible, go to Catholic Mass! It's all Jesus, it's all Bible!." I thought that was pretty cool.

Anyway, Mr. Marshall, if you happen to read this, and I did happen to misquote you, let me know! I laughed out loud in my kitchen when I heard you say it, and said "Yeah! Right on!"

Anyway, giv'er a listen!
God bless
Gregory

Impressed!

"Let no one despise your youth, but set the believers an example in speech and conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. Till I come, attend to the public reading of scripture, to preaching, to teaching." --1 Timothy 4:12-13

Shortly after I began my job at St. Andrew's Church, Father Coughlin, the pastor here, asked if I would start and lead a Bible Study. It's not just for the youth, but for everyone in the parish who is interested. We've been going through the Gospel of John, and last night (Thursday), we studied chapters 14 and 15. I love the group, because it's a mix of people. Last night, for example, there were 8 people out. Three adults plus myself, and four of the kids in the youth group.

Because the kids all sat at the back, one of the ladies present remarked that they weren't actually here to study the Bible, but to goof off. I denied this, saying that she should have more faith in them. As we went on, we had a really good Bible Study, until we ended up in a debate about God causing suffering or merely allowing suffering--and the overarching question of whether suffering is ever God's will. We all agreed that God doesn't cause suffering, but does allow it. The debate was over whether or not suffering could be considered as "God's will" and yet not "caused by God." It was a debate that was fruitless and really went nowhere, because we meant different things by our phrases (as is so often the case).

Anyway, the kids all got frustrated with this display, so all four of them got up and walked out. We felt bad about this, but it prompted the lady who was critical of them initially to remark that if they were serious and mature about this, that they should have stayed and listened, or participated! I tried to correct her, and then we went on with the Bible Study. About five or ten minutes later, the kids all marched back in and sat down. I asked where they had gone, and they said, we went outside and finished the Bible Study questions by ourselves!

I could have cried. I was so proud of them. Rather than goofing off or being disinterested in Scripture, they cared more about what the Bible said than two know-it-alls who wouldn't shut up! (Yes, I'm one of those know-it-alls!)

"Let no one despise your youth." Last night, these four kids showed us real dedication and maturity. They truly did "set the believers an example in speech and conduct, in love, in faith, in purity."

And it turns out, when I was talking to them afterward, that they understood the debate, had definite opinions on it, and just didn't want to get involved. In that regard, they modeled an injunction from Scripture that I would do well to keep in mind myself: "Have nothing to do with stupid, senseless controversies; you know that they breed quarrels" (2 Timothy 2:23).

Lauren, Mel, Joe, and Dez, you guys rock! Never let anyone look down on you because you're young!

God bless!

On my Blog and Making Comments!

Okay, in my last post I mentioned that I was going to post about upcoming stuff in the YG, as well as stuff about the blog itself. By the end I realised that I'd bored everyone enough that maybe I should leave the actual blog stuff for its own post. That way any visitors who aren't involved in the YG would still see it.

The reason for this is that I know that once in a while, or more often, friends, acquaintances, and total strangers stop by to read stuff. That's awesome! Many of these people are not themselves Catholic, and so you may not agree with everything that I've posted here. If that is the case, and you want to learn more, please, feel free to post questions in the comment section. That's what it's for! This site, as well as the YG in general, isn't designed so much for defending the faith, as for explaining it to those who already believe and have a basic grasp of Catholicism. I want to encourage that basic level faith to grow. I want to encourage your level of faith, no matter what level you're at, to grow!

But this site is not primarily apologetic in nature (apologetic in the sense of "This is why we're Catholic and why we believe what we believe", not "I'm sorry we're Catholic", just in case there was any confusion as to the term "Apologetics" which means defense). But I love apologetics and debating (maybe too much) and if you have questions or concerns, don't hesitate to voice them. In the comments section I will take the time to interact with your concerns, arguments, and opinions, and try to defend Catholic teaching with regard to them. A good example of this so far is the dialogue I've had with my buddy Jake on our Blessed Mother, Mary. Again, this is what the comments are for. That's not to say that if you agree with everything I say you shouldn't comment! I can always use some encouragement! :D Let me know you're reading, if you're reading! It gets lonely over here.

The subject of this thread is primarily based on a couple of recent debates I've had with a fellow named David. I've never actually met him (he's from the States), but he posted at The Daily Disciple about the "difference" between "being religious" and having a relationship with Jesus. I understand the point he was attempting to make. It's a popular point among Protestants (especially the Pentecostal brand that I came out of when I converted to Catholicism). I'm not entirely sure what denominational stripe David is. That's not really important. But at Daily Disciple I posted an argument.

Then I looked up his blog (because he left the addy) and saw that his most recent post was on the same subject. So I posted to his comments about how I disagree. I personally believe that while it is possible to be "religious" without really knowing Jesus, it is impossible to really know Jesus without being religious, in that our religion (Christianity) is how we live out our relationship with Jesus. If the Church is the body of Christ, then we cannot separate the head from the body, adhering to one and not the other. This debate went on for a while until he called it off.

Then he posted about salvation and made a point about saying "the sinner's prayer" will invite Jesus into your heart and you will be saved. So I asked where that concept is found in the Bible, and we got into a debate about what exactly saves us, faith alone, baptism, following the Law, yada yada yada. It really was a fruitless debate and I was being rather wrong and uncharitable in pursuing it. I find it really hard to back down from a good debate. Finally, David again said enough. He said that if I had any further comments, to make them on my own blog. That is good and sensible. David, if you read this, I apologise for my behaviour. It was indeed uncharitable.

The reason that this comes up, though, is that David told me that he had come here, and disagreed with a lot of what I had written, but that he hadn't posted out of respect for my readership.

David, and anyone else reading this, please don't take that approach here! I welcome the debate (though, and I need to follow this too, let's keep it friendly). My "flock" is more than welcome to participate in the discussions that follow. Seeing opposing sides to your viewpoint is a wonderful way to grow and to develop critical thinking skills that often aren't ably taught in the school system. So seriously, voice concerns, objections, and arguments. Think through the issues. Here is a safe forum for that!

I enjoyed our discussions over at Dave's blog, but he's right. That's not the place for them. So I submit that this is, to a degree. The main page is for teaching. The comment sections are for going deeper, disagreeing, or debating the teaching. Maybe we'll never reach an agreement or a conclusion, but hopefully we'll better understand the other's perspective and grow from the process!

God bless!

(For those interested, and if David doesn't mind, his blog is at www.getoutoftheboat.blogspot.com. He does have a lot of good things to say. Our debates were in the topics "It's Personal" and "More on Forgiveness". Read up if you want, but don't continue the arguments, since he's requested they be finished.)

Random Things and Information

Hello one and all. I'm just posting randomly to try and organise some thoughts regarding the Youth Ministry and this blogsite.

This past weekend was hugely busy and I'm wrecked from it! Friday night my buddy Eric (who co-produces www.dailydisciple.blogspot.com -- check it out for some insightful Christian advice by a couple 15 year olds who are wise beyond their years!), a man from my church, Henry Karabela (Cool guy, very devout and friendly) and I drove down to see Dr. Scott Hahn talk on marriage and family and such. Good topic. I didn't go for the subject though, but because I really wanted to meet Scott Hahn, who is my favourite author and Catholic apologist and teacher. It was one of his (many) books that brought me to my faith in the Catholic Church. I'll go into that more in detail in my next post (which will be my testimony, because as I've said, the point of this blog is to post my talks from YG meetings, and Sunday, our first meeting, I gave my testimony).

But this book in question by Scott Hahn was Hail Holy Queen: The Mother of God in the Word of God. It's about how the Church's teachings on Mary are based on Scripture and what they really teach and how those teachings give glory to Jesus. Dr. Hahn, a former Presbyterian minister before his own conversion to Catholicism back in '86, is a master at biblical theology, interpretation and teaching, and his books, especially Hail Holy Queen, really opened up the Bible to me in a way I'd never even thought of (and I thought that's what getting a Diploma in Biblical Studies would have accomplished)! There is so much depth and meaning in the Love Letter that God wrote for us! Anyway, after Scott Hahn's talk, I got to meet him, briefly, and get him to sign my copy of Hail Holy Queen, and shake his hand, and profusely thank him for his part in my own conversion! It was awesome!

After the meeting, we drove back to Oakville (the talk was in Toronto) and I dropped Henry off at his home (Matt and Madeleine, if you read this and think it's really weird that I call your dad Henry, sorry. It's weird to me, too, but he won't let me call him Mr. Karabela lol). Then my buddy Eric and I went on to Burlington to a Pizza Pizza/Tim Hortons where my old Pentecostal Youth Group hangs out after their Friday Night Youth Services. One of them is interested in Catholicism, and a little while ago I got him a Catholic Bible (one with all the books). He wanted to discuss Catholicism, which I'm always up for--except that night, since Eric and I had to be up extremely early the next morning for the Lift Jesus Higher Rally in Toronto. However, this guy, Lazarus (that's really his name! Cool, eh?) is a talker--so much so that it makes it really hard to teach him anything about the faith, 'cause he hardly stops to listen long enough! LOL!

So as it happens, some of our other Protestant Pentecostal friends sit down, and before I know it, I'm fending off attacks on the Catholic faith from 3 different fronts. One person wanted to know why we confess to priests, why the priests can't get married, and anything else I might want to add about the priesthood. Another was on and on about the sacraments, baptism in particular, and about faith vs works salvation (which is a complete misrep of Catholic teaching, btw), while in a third strain, the concept of authority and the Bible Alone was being argued. My head was spinning. Eric, bless his heart, was doing a pretty good job backing me up (even though he's not a Catholic yet) and so was Laz, who kept trying to somehow relate every Catholic doctrine back to St. Michael the Archangel (who is Laz's hero). Good times. Speaking of the time, Eric and I didn't fight our way out of there until the wee hours of the morning (2:30!) and finally arrived back at my home around 3:00 AM! We figured that if we had to be up at 5:30 to get to Oakville by 6:45, we might as well stay up all night, because we'd just be more tired after such a little amount of sleep. That lasted until 4:30, when we caved in and slept for an hour and a half, waking up at 6! We got to St. Michael's on time to catch their bus down to the Rally, and had a super good day of exhaustion!

The Lift Jesus Higher Rally was super cool. We had a blast with 1500 or so teens from all over coming together to do just what the rally says, Lift Jesus Higher! The worship was fantastic, by the Mustard Seeds, the NET team was great in their presentations of drama and testimony, and the talks were amazing and inspiring. One of the speakers, Alex Jones, used to be a Pentecostal minister, but he converted, as well as his wife, and 54 members of his congregation! During his talk he talked about living for Jesus, and then he said he felt led to have people respond if they felt a call to the priesthood or religious life. Right then and there he had an altar call and called those people up for prayer. Eric, who was with me, went up for prayer--and he's not even a Catholic yet! God is amazing!

The best part, though, were the celebrations of the sacraments. They had an opportunity for Confession, which I took up, and the priest I had as a Confessor was excellent, and helped a lot. Then we has Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, and if you've never done that before, I seriously encourage you to check it out when you can! Spending an hour in the Real Presence of Jesus is like nothing I've ever experienced before (and when it comes to spiritual goodness, I've experienced a lot--not to be boastful)! Finally, we ended with a celebration of Mass, and were blessed to receive what we had just spent time worshipping--Jesus Christ Himself! Man, I love the Mass!

So afterward I drove Eric home, and lent him Hail Holy Queen. Then I went home and slept! And I slept through mass Sunday morning (which spiritually is okay, because the Mass at the LJH rally was the Sunday Obligation Mass, but for me as the youth minister, isn't so cool, because some people wanted to make sure the YG meeting was still on and my absense sent out the wrong message. Reeeaaaaallllyyyyy sorry about that one!).

Then we had the first YG meeting. I think it went well, but it certainly could have been better! Soon we'll be having times of praise and worship, as well as other fun (so it won't always just be me talking!).

Speaking of that, just to let you know what's coming up talk-wise, I have a schedule of talks made up to provide some direction for the YG. Starting this Sunday, I'm beginning a series on our identity as Catholic Christians titled "Who We Are Instead", which comes from the track, "Trouble Is", from my favourite band (Jars of Clay)'s second to latest album called (amazingly) "Who We Are Instead". The chorus makes the point that often we don't live our lives as Christians to the fullest potential because, "Man, the trouble is / We don't know who we are instead."

April 17th: "Who We Are Instead" pt. 1 We'll be looking at our identity and our self-image as Children of God. When we really understand who we are, it affects everything we do!

April 24th: "Who We Are Instead" pt. 2 We'll talk about God's Grace, and how that alone gives us the power to be who we are instead.

May 1st: "Who We Are Instead" pt. 3 We'll discuss how living for Christ will make a difference in the world!

May 8th: It's my birthday, so I'm taking the day off! No, that's not why! It's Mother's Day, and as a Youth Minister, I believe that Family comes first. Next to God, our families are most important (as evidenced in the 10 Commandments. Once God lays out the first 3 commandments, with regard to our behaviour toward Him, He starts the next part off by saying "Honour your Mother and Father". So spend Mother's Day with your moms!

May 15th: "Who We Are Instead" pt. 4 Jesus told us in John 10:10 that He came so that we might have life, and life to the fullest! Yet so many people look at Christianity and think that it's boring and you can't have any fun! I'm here to tell you otherwise!

May 22nd: "Who We Are Instead" pt. 5 We are called to be Saints! How do we get there? This ends the series!

May 29th: This is the Feast of the Body and Blood of the Lord, so, appropriately, we'll be discussing the Eucharist! If I can swing it, we'll practice what I just preached above, and see if we can Adore the Blessed Sacrament!

Don't forget, May 21st is Christian Day in Wonderland, with 5 stellar bands rockin' out the grounds, plus full access to the park! Please talk to me ASAP about wanting to go so that I can order tics and everything.

God bless!

The Culture of Death

Sorry for the rapid-fire posting--No, no I'm not.

Last night I was at the Charismatic prayer meeting here at St. Andrew's. Coming from Pentecostal roots, every now and again I need a quick fix ;)

Last night at the meeting we meditated on Joshua 1:3-9, where God commands Joshua to take the Promised Land, and assures him that He will be with him and to not be afraid. Three times God tells Joshua to be strong and of good courage! God also tells Joshua not to stray at all from the Law He gave to Moses.

After a small discussion time, people were invited to go up and say what this passage said to them. This is what I said:

The Christian Life is a battle. Jesus said that the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence and violent men take it by force! We need to be those violent men and women, who stand up, are counted, and fight for the Kingdom! The Holy Father has referred to our world as the Culture of Death, and we see it every day in the abortions, the stem cell research, the wars, school massacres, and the situation with Terri Schiavo! But God has promised to be with us as He was with Joshua! He has commanded us to be strong and of good courage! He has also equipped us with His Word, which He ordered Joshua to not only follow, but to make a part of himself. In the New Testament, St. Paul writes about the same thing, calling it armour. We need to take up the armour of God, and lastly, the Sword of the Spirit, which, he says, is the Word of God! It is our primary weapon, and we need to make it a part of us! We are soldiers in God's kingdom, and we need to wage war against the Culture of Death!

Earlier today I was looking at some blogs that I read every now and again, and I noticed that this topic had come up at my friends' blog, www.dailydisciple.blogspot.com. Later I was looking at www.socrates58.blogspot.com, which is the blog of Uber-Catholic convert apologist, Dave Armstrong, whose blog and website, www.biblicalcatholic.com, were instrumental in my own conversion. So anyway, on his blog he went long and hard after the Culture of Death, especially as it relates to Terri Schiavo. I'm noticing a theme in my life, and one I want to take to the youth group!

In that vein, I want to link to Mr. Armstrong's appeal on his blog. Read it, it's inspiring, and it's gonna come up again and again at youth group meetings!
http://socrates58.blogspot.com/2005_03_20_socrates58_archive.html

I'll leave you with the words to the song Rev. Larebil, by one of my favourite bands (who I happen to be listening to as I type this) Critical Mass. I think they manage to say almost exactly what Dave Armstrong does at the link above, but with more rhyme and alliteration!

Reverend Larebil
-David Wang, Matthew Devine, Andrew Horrocks

Hey Reverend Larebil
I think you've got it backwards
You philosophise, theologise, think you're wise
You claim Jesus Christ didn't rise
You have your Jesusless Seminar
How did you drift so far?
Intellectualise, hypothesise, lobotomise
Your rhetoric makes me sick!

Chorus
You may not like the message we teach or the words we speak,
The way we live our lives and the way we preach
But after decades of your watered down voice,
It's time the listeners had another choice, Rev. Larebil!

Rap Chorus
It's time to take a stand, to take a total stand now
To critically catechise in the Catholic know-how
Dwell deeply on the divine, drive out the demons inside
It's such a slippery slope, Satan's suicide slide
Break Beelzebub's bonds, believe and be reborn
Grasp God's Grace gratefully, the great gratuitous gift
We're the Lord's loyal laity, layin' the law down
Let's radically rock the roots, replace the rot with solid ground

Dr. Hypocritic Oath
You swore you'd do no harm
You sterilise, euthanise, infanticide
Your medicine tastes like poison
You keep promoting your safe sex
You just fuel the epidemics
There's our STD's like HPV and HIV
The only cure is to be pure!

Chorus

Rap Bridge
The media grab a hold of your insanity
Headlines rage, "Misguided Piety"
Even Thomas believed when he saw the hands
Jesus doesn't measure up to your demands
You use the abusive pseudo-clergy
To bash the entire male hierarchy
You say our sexual standards are out of fashion
So you can give in to your depraved passion
I'm so flippin' angry at it all,
When was it that you lost your call?
If you deny Tradition and the Church
Where is the foundation for your search?
You dis' Confession and the Eucharist
But it's the altar of yourself you've kissed
It's time for us to make our final stand
And crush all your false idols back to sand!

Hey Mr. Chamelion
You want to lead our land
Your empty lies, compromise, virtue dies
You roll to the nearest poll
It's nothin' but a game
You're really all the same
We sit there dumb, feel so numb, vote for scum
We feed the greed that you need

Chorus
You may not like the message we teach or the words we speak,
The way we live our lives and the way we preach
But after decades of your watered down voice,
It's time the listeners had another choice, Rev. Larebil!

Lazarus....COME FORTH!

Sunday's Gospel was the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. For his homily at the 10:30 mass (and Saturday night's) Father Watters gave a reflection on the Gospel that he had given to the Students at Holy Trinity High School when he went there for the Sacrament of Reconciliation. When I heard it at mass, I thought it was worthy to be published here--and it makes a great segue between last week's topic on sin, and this week's topic on conversion.

John 11:1-45

How do some of your decisions keep you in the tomb? Do you refuse to respect other people? The earth? The earth's resources? Do you litter and show a poor interest in taking care of the environment? Do you refuse to respect yourself--in ways of physical, emotional, and spiritual health? Do you favour materials over people?

How big is the "stone" that keeps you in your tomb? What does the stone symbolise for you: Pride? Arrogance? Stubbornness? Selfishness? Prejudice? Materialism? Do you doubt God loves you because of the "stone" between you and God? Do you doubt the power of God's love to transform you or the situation? What is it about God and His Love that keeps you away from Him? Why?

Are you frightened of the "stench" that dealing with your mistakes will cause? Are you scared of other people's reactions to your mistakes? Do you doubt other people can still love you in spite and despite your unhealthy decisions in the past and present?

In what ways do you have to be unbound from your fears? What is keeping you from letting go, from making the leap of faith into God's Love?

I hope that we all can have the courage to respond to Jesus' call, to come forth out of our sins and fear and into the light of God's marvelous love and forgiveness!
God bless
Gregory

Reflections on Snow

Well, last night we got dumped on here in Southern Ontario, which means an early morning shovelling the driveway, and a late morning to work. I like shovelling the driveway, though. Especially when I don't have to hurry. It gives me time to think, in the quiet winter morning, or evening, depending on when I get around to it. We have a fairly large driveway (holds about 10 cars) so it's a lot of time to think, or to pray, or to listen to God.

This morning was one such occasion. Because of my recent conversion to Catholicism from Protestantism, I have a lot of Protestant friends still, and we often get into discussions or sometimes even heated debates. Actually, my comments on the Covenant and the Eucharist prompted some among good friends of mine. So when I was out shovelling this morning, I had these people, and these discussions on my mind.

I also had next Sunday's talk related to The Passion of the Christ on my mind. This week's topic is "Sin and Satan", and how Jesus defeats Satan by the cross, and frees us from our sins. Stated simply like that, our Protestant brothers and sisters agree 100% with us Catholics. It's in the details of how this Grace is bestowed that we differ. It was these differences that I was ruminating on this morning as I shovelled snow.

I looked around at the world, covered under a deep blanket of snow. It reminded me of our sinfulness and God's salvation. The prophets described the cleansing of our sins as being made white like snow (Isaiah 1:18), and indeed, at first glance, the world did look white, pure, and peaceful. The trees, formerly black bark and leafless, now seemed to glow with a radiant splendour. But when I looked at the trees closely, I saw that the bottoms of the branches were still black and leafless. The snow hadn't actually changed the tree into something beautiful, but covered the tree with something beautiful.

When I was a Protestant, this is how I looked at salvation. When we come to Jesus, and "ask Him into our hearts" as the saying goes, Jesus bestows His righteousness on us, and we wear it over our sinfulness like a cloak. Then, at the judgement, God declares us righteous, because He sees not our sinfulness, but Jesus. No intrinsic change has been made in us. We are "justified by faith" and God "reckons it to us as righteousness." In this scenario, it is no more than a legal fiction. Then, my protestant pastors, teachers, and theologians would tell me, the work of "sanctification" begins, where we gradually become more and more like the cloak-that-is-Christ that we've put on. We become more and more holy--but, they stress, this process of becoming more holy is a separate event from our salvation, which is our justification.

To me, though, that seems like being a tree covered by snow. So the question becomes, I think, what happens to the deathbed Christian, the thief on the cross, for example, who is "covered" by Jesus' righteousness, but no inward change has taken place? What happens when his sinful humanity still under the snow meets God's consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29)? It's one thing to have our righteousness "imputed" to us as some sort of "legal fiction" loophole. But when that fiction meets reality, it must be exposed. In that sense, it seems to me that Protestants are more in need of a doctrine that they got rid of -- Purgatory -- than Catholics are!

In Psalm 51, which David composed after having his affair with Bath-Sheba and then killing her husband, he cries out to God in repentance for his grave sin. In verse 9, he says, "Cleanse me with hyssop, that I may be pure; / wash me, make me whiter than snow" (italics added). David isn't content with being even as pure as the driven snow, as the saying goes. He wants to go deeper, to go farther. "Why? Because snow is white, but it quickly turns black and filthy with any dirt," as St. Ambrose points out. And, at best, snow only covers us. It cannot change us (unless it gives us frostbite, and that's not a change for the good). David cries out for something deeper. He knows that he needs a change from the inside out, just like all of us.

Catholicism teaches that when we are saved, we are both justified and sanctified. The two, in the Bible, are interchangeable terms--two sides of the same coin. God declares us righteous based on Jesus' victory on the cross, but He also literally infuses us with Jesus' righteousness. It actually becomes our own! Granted, it is an ongoing process that never ends until we're dead (or after, in Purgatory), but Catholics, unlike many Protestants, do not believe that Salvation is a one-time event in our lives, but a lifestyle and a process. It has a definite beginning, which is baptism. It is at this point that we are born again, according to the Bible. It is here that, not only does the righteousness of Christ cover our sins, but actually, literally, washes them away!

Ezekiel prophesies about this in his 36th chapter: "I will sprinkle clean water upon you to cleanse you from all your impurities, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. I will give you a new heart and place a new spirit within you, taking from your bodies your stony hearts and giving you natural hearts. I will put My Spirit within you and make you live by My statutes, careful to observe My decrees" (Ez 36:25-27). God tells His people that He will wash them with water, removing their sins and giving them His Spirit.

This passage is explicitly fulfilled when St. Paul discusses God's salvation with St. Titus, in the third chapter:

"But when the kindness and generous love
of God our Saviour appeared,
not because of any righteous deeds we had done
but because of His mercy,
He saved us through the bath of rebirth
and renewal by the Holy Spirit,
whom He richly poured out on us
through Jesus Christ our Saviour,
so that we might be justified by His grace
and become heirs in hope of eternal life.
This saying is trustworthy" (Titus 3:4-8a italics added).

This "Bath of Rebirth" is what Jesus was talking about in John 3, when He was talking to Nicodemus: "Jesus...said to him, 'Amen, amen, I say to you, no one can see the Kingdom of God without being born from above.' Nicodemus said to Him, 'How can a person once grown old be born again? Surely he cannot reenter his mother's womb and be born again, can he?' Jesus answered, 'Amen, amen, I say to you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit'" (John 3:3-5, my italics again).

This phrase, "Born of water and Spirit," refers to baptism, and all the earliest Christians, right up until well into the Reformation, understood it so--and the Catholic Church still teaches this. My Protestant friends tell me (and I used to believe it myself) that the "water" meant either the Word of God or the amniotic sac that the baby is encased in in the womb. But these do not make much sense, especially in light of the passages quoted above. Moreover, one still has to explain why the earliest Christians, including the Apostles themselves, interpreted this to mean baptism, and have done so for nearly 2000 years.

According to St. Paul, Baptism takes the place of Jewish Circumcision (Colossians 2:11-15), and is our entry into the New Covenant that I talked about below. Through this sacrament, we are forgiven our sins, born again, and made heirs of the Kingdom. But we must continue in the faith that we were baptised into. This is why our salvation is a process. Initially, it's all about God's grace, and not our works. He gives us the grace of forgiveness of sins, and the grace to accept that forgiveness in faith, and the grace to act out that faith in our works. But, that grace comes with the responsibility to use it, to participate in our own salvation, as St. Paul writes, "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling" (Philippians 2:12b). But God doesn't expect us to do that alone, as the next verse says, "For God is the one who, for His good purpose, works in you both to desire and to work" (v.13).

All that is to say, snow looks pretty, and adds some flavour to the bland death of winter, but it is no substitute for the inward change that Spring brings, when the trees burst forth with New Life. May we all, "like [trees] planted near streams of water," burst forth in the New Life that Christ has given to us, and "yield [our] fruit in season" (Psalm 1:3)!

For we have been saved, we are being saved, and we will be saved! Alleluia!
God bless.

This post makes a nice segue between "Why did Jesus Die?" and "Sin and Satan" -- Due out next Monday!