New Rick Santorum Ad

This was important to post ASAP, but don't forget about Miss America or MacBeth. Even though it may not have started out that way, this blog is more for others than for myself, which is probably the way it should be. I like teaching and writing is a way to teach, but I seem to be learning more about myself, and my relationship with God, by reflecting on what I have written in the past. Hopefully, the Holy the Spirit can help others get something out of what I have written for themselves, whether it was what I intended to pass along or not.

There isn't a proper structure to follow for blogs, but I tried to adopt a structure. Early on I wrote about whatever was on my mind, often within the theme of what Mary said most recently at Medjugorje. That often became redundant, depending on how much time passed between messages, so then it became whichever daily reading appealed to me most. Then those began to repeat with some of the daily readings being the same as the previous week. So then I focused on the divine office readings which only repeat every two years, when I expect new insights would be relevant. However, other things in my life were dominating my thoughts and I often knew what I was going to write about before reading that days' reading. Therefore, I began just posting certain requests and tried to keep them at the top of my blog, so anyone who visited would be sure to see them.

So I don't know where that leaves me or where I am going from here, but hopefully you and I get whatever it is we are supposed to get from this now and in the future.

Miss America

In addition to my friend's movie campaign below, a former student has asked for help in her quest for Miss America. She's always seemed like a nice girl and is representing Pennsylvania this year. You can vote for her once from any computer (but more than once if you have access to more than one computer) at: http://missamerica.org/videocontest/ Thanks again and I'll resume blogging at the end of this campaign January 12th. Merry Christmas!

Rum Cake

Although my friend's campaign mentioned earlier is still running, I wanted to post this timely thank you to another friend, Jenna. I've been itching to have a reason to write a poem and this did it.

Thanks for the Cake

Students are special
And so is their taste.
Some bring us apples
And others: toothpaste.

Some bring us rum cake,
Not one year, but two.
You have to accept it,
But then what to do?

Some may just pitch it
‘Cause no one would see,
But you passed it on
To someone like me.

So I called my girls.
Around it, we sat.
Then my wife scolded,
“Don’t let them eat that!”

“We won’t eat it all.”
“We’ll save some for you.”
But Google said, “No.”
And I thought, “Who knew?”

Rum, even rum cake,
Is not good for them.
Surely Nance will help.
She’s really a gem.

But she wouldn’t waste
Calories on that.
So late Friday night…
A man and his cat.

We finished it all.
I, the lion’s share.
I offered Fern more,
But she didn’t care.

Wanted to thank you
And didn’t know how,
But after the rum,
I think I know now.

Not good at cooking.
Not much I can make.
Better at poems,
So thanks for the cake.

Forks in the road

I realize my friend's campaign isn't done yet and I encourage you to check it out if you haven't already, but I wanted to thank all of you for reading this and for those of you who write your own blogs. You see, I thought I had wanted a principal job, but turned down the first one I was offered and haven't looked since. I started my path towards a principal position before I was married and had kids. After I completed my master's and certification program, I didn't stop to think if that was what I still wanted until I was faced with the decision. I make enough to support my family teaching and value my time with them more than I would the raise that would come with being a principal. I still imagine what I gave up, but I know someone who gave up his dream principal position to stay home with his kids. It would be nice to have the best of both worlds, of course, but both he and I made the choice God wanted us to make. Hopefully, this blog helps us reach more than we would have as principals or wherever that path may have taken us.

Rick Santorum

Even though my friend Jason's movie campaign isn't done yet, neither is Rick Santorum's, so I thought I had to post this since so many of those following this blog would appreciate the pro-life message inherent in this video on Rick Santorum's family.

http://youtu.be/X7LyoAEIskw

Mysterious ways

http://igg.me/p/35725?a=279852&i=shlk

So I've been thinking more about the MacBeth film that my friend is making in LA for the big screen. Just like I supported my school's campaign for a grant, I feel I should do the same for a friend, so the link is above. For the time being, I intend to leave this link at the top of my page for the duration of the campaign, which is 82 more days. There's no specific Bible passage to relate to this because this is one of those topics that has been dominating my mind and was going to relate no matter what the passage was today. Of course, my intent has been to help others (through God's Word). However, the more time that passes, I think looking back at my posts is going to help me understand myself and my relationship with God better more so than it is going to help others.

God works in mysterious ways in the present that often become clearer with time. I was trying to do a good thing for others and end up doing more good for myself. At least it removed the plank from my eye, so that at a later time I may be able to better help others remove a bit of dirt from theirs through God's words and mine.

Kindness vs. Honesty

http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0839/__PU9.HTM

Aside from today's scripture reading, I am also reading "Leading by Kindness" by Baker and O'Malley. Their definition of kindness focused on honesty. It isn't kind to not tell people the truth even if it is tough to hear, although there may be kinder way of addressing it than others. In education, for example, kind leaders look out for their employees, which involves the foresight to see what's coming. So when the Pennsylvania legislature allowed districts to delay retirement payments for five years, plans should have been made to pay off the 35% on time if paying 7% in a particular year proved difficult. Another deal had to be reached paying about 14% over the next 5 years since some districts paid 0% for 5 years and didn't save up 35% to pay later this school year. It would have been better to deny some requests for materials or professional development the past five years rather than taking a hatchet job to those programs now out of necessity. Other district less fortunate than mine took the hatchet to jobs this year out of necessity. That type of irresponsibility was unkind.

Weighing on my mind

http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0839/__PPL.HTM

It's early in the morning and there are already a lot of things weighing on my mind. Sometimes I find myself thinking about illegal immigrants because I just took a survey concerning them yesterday and today's reading talks about not oppressing them. I think illegal immigrants should be treated fairly, but I don't think that means giving them a free ride. I can only imagine what it must be like to be an illegal alien, but I feel I would want a sense of respect. I would want to feel I earned what I got. I wouldn't want hand-outs, but I would be open to a hand-up. Show me how I can earn the handouts others offer.

Now without a proper transition because my thoughts don't transition properly, my friend is seriously making a movie of MacBeth for the big screen. I want to help him, but I don't know if spamming my other friends is best. I'd much rather front an amount of money that I think spamming my other friends would generate to help him out since the donation is tax-deductible. On the other hand, I have never donated money to the arts because I always felt that if I had money to donate it should feed the hungry and teach them how to escape poverty, so they aren't hungry again. Of course, I invest money instead of giving it away sometimes, so I'll have more money to give later, but I don't think donating to the arts will have as great a return to the needy as direct donations or investing in my education would have because I don't think those benefiting from the movie would contribute as much as I do, but I have nothing to support that claim. I don't know if these are generous people or not. I just know that my friend is a good friend, so I think I've talked myself into praying for his efforts, of course. I am also going to pray for guidance for myself, so that I continue to be the best steward of the gifts God has given me as I can be.

The Real Deal

http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0839/__PPI.HTM

So my principal is talking to someone else and refers to me saying, "He's probably laughing at us because he's the real deal. He's probably read the Bible a couple of times and understood it." If I had been prepared, I probably could have added something to that conversation besides smiling politely and continuing on to where I was headed. My thoughts were along the lines of, well, I have read the Bible few times, but each time I read it, I understand it more. I understand it enough to not laugh at someone who is trying to understand it better even if they have never opened a Bible before.

I can't tell how this will come off in print, so I feel the need to clarify that the comment was good-natured. I have spoken with my principal about faith on several occasions. I found out he even used to go to weekday mass even though he was a Protestant because "it was a nice way to start the day." He's a good guy.

Patient and Persistent

http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0839/__PPF.HTM

You are never too young to do what's right. In today's reading, Jeremiah tries to make the excuse that he is too young to do what God wants him to do, but God God naturally convinces him that he can do it because God will be at his side. That is true for us as well. I am still hesitant to speak up at times because I am so much younger than some of my collegues at work. I have gained the trust of some and occasionally share my ideas with them, so that they can share the idea with others who may not consider it if it came from me. It's an effective strategy for me. I always get credit for it in the end. It's just a way around an obstacle that God provided for me. There probably isn't the same way around the obstacles facing you, but God is a way around the obstacles facing you that God is providing somehow. That way may be to wait it out, so be patient while being persistent in looking for the solution God wants you to find. God bless you.

Time-Outs

Of course, you should do what's right because it is the right thing to do, whether you could get away with doing the wrong thing or not. It's easier for us as parents to do that than it is to make our kids do that. My girls, who are 6 and 4 often do what they are supposed to because they will get a time-out if they don't. Time-outs will used with our one-year-old when she turns two. Nevertheless, it's important for parents to instill what's right in our children, using punishment when necessary, because the rewards that come from doing good usually gets them doing the right thing for the right reasons as they get older.

It seems like God treated earlier generations like children, relying on punishments much worse than time-outs because that's what they could understand. As civilization got supposedly more sophisticated, he gave us Jesus to encourage us to do what's right out of love for him. Today's reading from the old testament reflects that truth.

http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0839/__P9L.HTM

Continued

The same theme of taunting continues in today's reading from Isaiah 37:21-35. Naturally, the first thing that came to my mind yesterday was personal attacks. Today, with Open House tonight, I am thinking about professional attacks. I teach 7th-8th grade math to students that struggle, whether it be because of a learning disability, mental retardation, autism, or some other reason. I have worked with a lot of great teachers over the years. Not every special education teacher is so lucky, nor is every student for that matter. Education comes under attack from some parents, some politicians, and others. Whether it is calculated or just out of ignorance, it is still upsetting that most of the accusations are unfounded, yet take time away from teaching because they still have to be addressed, especially when they come from the Governor of the state. I feel like saying, "I don't know what else to do, but pray," but I should say, "At least I know what to do: pray."

Taunting

Today, in 2 Kings 19, those who taunted are discussed. They couldn't see a way to be saved from the taunter, but had faith that they would. That's hard to do, especially for kids. I used to get upset a lot, but I don't have to any more because I have an inner confidence that doesn't rely on what peers think. I've also come to consider people that are rude enough to taunt beneath me and not worthy of the term "peer" whether they are my age or not. That inner confidence again isn't mine, but it comes from God and is available to anyone who seeks it from him...even you if you are reading this and don't think you have what it takes. I don't have what it takes either, but God gave me the strength that it takes and can do the same for you.

This confidence of yours

"On what do you base this confidence of yours?"
-2 Kings 17:19

There's a fine line between arrogance and confidence that the confident walk and that the arrogant fall across. At my last confession, the priest asked me if I struggled with pride. Without much thought, I answered, "I am good at a lot of things, but I know all good things come from God, so he deserves all the credit for it." I usually regret speaking before thinking. Fortunately, this must have been divinely inspired.

Welcome back

I haven't posted here in a while because I wanted all visitors to see my post about my school's grant campaign and vote. However, we were not among the top ten vote-getters. So that campaign is done...and these posts return.

I have also decided to leave facebook for an indefinite period of time. I used to post links to this site on my wall, but that was all I was really using it for. This makes the communication process better for me by not replying to comments in two places and better address what I feel is my target audience: you.

Not all of my friends appreciate my faith. They have been told about the Good News from me and countless others, but reject it. These posts have never been intended to convert as much as to encourage. They were not to encourage those I already know (and already encourage in other ways), but to encourage those that I felt God was telling me were out there and needed to hear what I felt he was telling me write.

On that day the Lord called on you to weep and mourn, to shave your head and put on sackcloth. But you feast and celebrate. You eat meat and drink wine: "Eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!" This reaches the ears of the Lord - You shall not be pardoned this wickedness till you die, says the Lord.
-Isaiah 22:12-14

One of my good friends, who does appreciate my enthusiasm for my faith, told me I go deeper with my reflections. The problem with that for me is that I see things as simply as I put them. I don't have any deeper to go. My faith is accurately reflected in my actions.

Deep debates surround a lot issues between Catholics and Protestants like whether Mary was the mother of God or the mother of Jesus. Catholics prefer the mother of God, while Protestants prefer the mother of Jesus. Either way, it doesn't change how I live my life.

I believe you should do what God tells you to do. If he tells you it is time to mourn, you should mourn and not party. I realize parts of scripture use figurative language and are not to be taken literally, but other parts are to be taken literally. The Church fathers and Biblical scholars can provide more thorough reasoning for why it should be interpretted one way or another, but my reflections, as simple as they may be, don't contradict what they have to say, but provide a bridge for those unfamiliar with such sources.

I wish I could be all things to all people like Paul, but that's not my role to play. Others have deeper insights that are necessary for their faith journey and others' journeys as well. There may come a time as I mature in my faith that those deeper insights will be able to fill a void that I don't even realize I have in myself right now. In the meantime, I feel I have been given a gift of putting things simply and bridging the gap from where some are to the next step they are to take.

Refresh Everything

"Woe to the complacent, to the overconfident, those favored from the first!"
-Amos 6:1

When I go over the Biblical readings for the day, it's hard to say whether what I read makes me think of something that relates to my life or whether what's going on in my life makes something I read jump out at me. My intent is to read with an open mind, but I have a feeling that some of my posts stretch to find an reflection that best fits what I want to say versus being open to what God wants me to write. This is where complacency and overconfidence come into play.

After drumming up as much support for a book on faith last week, now I am drumming up as much support for a Pepsi Refresh Everything grant for my students that is voted on by the public this month. The book, which had been posted since March, tripled its audience in one week from over 200 to over 600. My students will need more than those 600 votes to secure the grant, so no one is being complacent or overconfident about promoting our cause: http://www.refresheverything.com/oblock.

So, in this case, even though I naturally want to promote the cause, I don't feel it's at the cost of denying what God wants me to say. I often pray that my will be united to his because I want to want what he wants. Of course, I have to be vigilant in discerning whether each of my desires is one from God or from my own human ambition. In this case, I feel like praying for the success of my students' cause is like praying to win a football game. It's okay to pray for success, but we won't be upset if another worthy opponent is successful over us. We even partnered with four other organizations (http://www.refresheverything.com/mobilelearninglab,
http://www.refresheverything.com/sandyrollman,
http://www.refresheverything.com/middlecreekareacommunitycenter, and
http://www.refresheverything.com/roboticslearningcenter#)since individuals get 5 votes a day, but only 1 vote per idea a day. Hopefully, we'll all win, but doing your best will always make you better down the road whether you win this particular battle or not.

Blame

"Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor shall children be put to death for their fathers; each one shall die for his own sin."
-2 Kings 14:6

You only have yourself to blame may be one of the tough-love lessons to take away from this verse. Too many children (and adults) blame their parents for everything. Parents are certainly influential. So if a parent is one who leaves the mother with the kid, there will be an effect on the kid. If the mother gets involved with another man, who fathers another child, and then also leaves, there will be an effect on the children. If that mother leaves the kids with the grandmother, only to come back into their lives periodically, raising their hopes, staying long enough to undermine the grandmother's authority, and leaves again, the children will have a lot to deal with. All of this may explain why the child is the way he is, but the real world isn't going to excuse him for being a jerk because of it. He needs help to overcome the obstacles that have been put in his way and avoid the path of his parents. There's no glory in being a failure and being able to blame your parents for it. It would be much better to become a success and be able to take credit for it (or give the credit to God).

Tonight marks the end of my summer. I return to school tomorrow to get ready for my junior high students on Wednesday. We were able to get kid number one through successfully last year. His brother starts the junior high this year. Hopefully, my prayers and others' will continue pay off for him and his family.

Right Pride

"Draw your strength from the Lord and from his mighty power."
-Ephesians 6:10

The last time I went to Confession and the priest helped me make a better examination of conscience, one of his questions to me after I shared the sins I could recall was whether I had a problem with pride. Some of the other questions he posed I answered with a simple, "No." But with this question, I added, "No, but I make a conscious effort to keep that in check because I am good at a lot of things, but I know all good things come from God, so my confidence lies in Him."

The priest responded with, "Praise God."

The fine line between sinful pride and healthy confidence doesn't lie so much in the amount of self-esteem a person has, but where that self-esteem comes from. If you think you can do anything because you're all that and then some, you're wrong (sinful pride). If your faith tells you that you can do anything because all things are possible with God, you're right (healthy confidence). God will help you do anything to accomplish his plans. If your plans are different than his, like if you want to play for the Celtics in Boston instead of teaching 7th grade math, you probably won't get to take the easy road and play for the Celtics, but he'll give you an even more amazing experience in a small classroom in the Plum suburbs of Pittsburgh.

Of course, a lot of you are anxious to read my book when it comes out, but the road to publication could take three or more years for one like this. We are trying to drum up as much buzz about it this month as we can by getting as many reads at http://www.scribd.com/doc/50323329/Chapter-14-Praying-for-the-Dead by the end of this month. So you can go there now and I hope to see you back here again. God bless you.

College Peer Pressure

"So do not be associated with them."
-Ephesians 5:7

With a number of my former students heading off to college for the first time this month, this quote caught my attention. I don't know how many of them are considered followers of this blog, so hopefully they don't need to be told this, but a lot of smart kids do dumb things in college trying to fit in with kids dumber than they are because of peer pressure. Now I like to belong, maybe not as much as the next guy, but at some level I like to fit in with those around me. However, I've been fortunate to go to school and work in places with like-minded individuals and didn't have to try to fit in with those whose short-term priorities didn't mesh with my long-term priorities. Before leaving my high school summer job as a janitor, my boss's advice to us was don't be afraid to be a nerd in college. I told him that shouldn't be a problem. I found a few other "nerds" freshmen year, who were with me all four years as we saw the others disappear after first semester or freshmen year. Even today, I tend to associate with like-minded people who "pressure" me to be my best and let the others do their own thing if they don't want to join us. So whether you are starting college or somewhere else on your journey, I hope those you call friends are making you better.

Joel Osteen

"And he gave some as apostles, others as prophets, others as evangelists, others as pastors and teachers, to equip the holy ones for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of faith and knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the extent of the full stature of Christ, so that we may no longer be infants, tossed by waves and swept along by every wind of teaching arising from human trickery, from their cunning in the interests of deceitful scheming."
-Ephesian 4:11-14

We all have a role to play in a plan as big as God's. We can't do everything ourselves. We need eachother and we need him. Otherwise, we may be mislead by half-truths.

The prosperity gospel preached by evangelists like Joel Osteen, who is coming to my town next month, is the truth, but it is incomplete. God does want to meet our needs, but he defines those needs differently than some of us do. I can't say I listen to Joel Osteen often because I read his book on a recommendation from a friend and it frustrated me more than any other book I can recall. The parts that stick out in my mind most is when God wanted him to have a bigger house and when he was embarrassed about not dressing up better to go to the grocery store and was seen by some of his followers. Physically, God wants everyone to have appropriate shelter and clothing, but once we use the money God has given us to meet our needs, perhaps we should use his money to meet others' needs and not meet our wants, even though our wants may not be bad in and of themselves. Which is the better good: buying fancier clothes for yourself or donating the money saved to charity to clothe others? I believe I should donate to charity to meet others' physical needs and help meet my spiritual needs, which are more valuable than the physical needs emphasized in the prosperity gospel.

The prosperity gospel seeks happiness. The gospel seeks joy. The temproal things of this world can bring temporal happiness, but they remain dependent on circumstances. True joy goes deeper than circumstance because it comes from God, deep within, which circumstances can't take away from you. No matter what situation you find yourself in, if you accept that Jesus died for your sins and you are saved, it's hard to be down over something so little as whatever earthly situation you find yourself in.

Garage Sale Theology

"I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that he may grant you in accord with the riches of his glory to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner self, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the holy ones what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God."
-Ephesians 3:14-19

First of all, I wonder how many five verse sentences are in the Bible. But more importantly, I thought it was interesting that every family on earth is named after the Father. As such, we should make him proud in everything we do, public or private. When reading about online behavior, the article's advice was if you wouldn't want your grandparents to see your profile, make it private. Perhaps better advice would be to not do it at all if you don't want your grandparents to know. Although we may not think of it at the time, God knows everything, even if you never get caught (and you're going to get caught eventually anyway), so if it God would be upset by it, don't do it.

This could come into play today at our neighborhood garage sell. Most people put out some things that aren't good enough for them anymore. If it's not good enough for you, why would it be good enough for someone else. One example was one of those blinds that go in a car window to keep the sun out of a baby's eyes. The police told us those are dangerous in an accident, so we thought about selling it, but if we're getting rid of it because it's not safe enough for our kids, why would we want another family to have it (let alone pay to have it) just because they didn't know it wasn't safe like we did when we bought it. Another example was a pillow that we ended up with that had a saying that we didn't agree with and didn't want in our house. Again if we don't want it in our house, why would we want it in someone else's house? Of course, people that wanted such things could get them elsewhere, but at least we're not enabling them to do so. That makes God a little happier.

Called

"When you read this you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to human beings in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit, that the Gentiles are coheirs, members of the same body, and copartners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel."
-Ephesians 3:4-6

So if you must be either Jew or Gentile, that means that all are coheirs, members of the same body, and copartners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. Today we have many more divisions like Muslim and Buddhist along with Christians and Jews (and even divisions within those divisions). Nevertheless, everyone is called to do their part in God's plan. Whether they answer the call or not is another story for another day.

Peace

"He came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near, for through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father."
-Ephesians 2:17-18

It's hard to say whether I was one of the ones far off or near. I know some who seem to have been farther off than I was, but know others who have always seemed closer than I have been. No matter where you feel you stand, you're never too far for peace and never too close to judge others who seem not to be.

Capital Punishment

When the Arameans came down to get him, Elisha prayed to the LORD, "Strike this people blind, I pray you." And in answer to the prophet's prayer the LORD struck them blind.

Then Elisha said to them: "This is the wrong road, and this is the wrong city. Follow me! I will take you to the man you want." And he led them to Samaria.

When they entered Samaria, Elisha prayed, "O LORD, open their eyes that they may see." The LORD opened their eyes, and they saw that they were inside Samaria.

When the king of Israel saw them, he asked, "Shall I kill them, my father?"

"You must not kill them," replied Elisha. "Do you slay those whom you have taken captive with your sword or bow? Serve them bread and water. Let them eat and drink, and then go back to their master." The king spread a great feast for them. When they had eaten and drunk he sent them away, and they went back to their master. No more Aramean raiders came into the land of Israel.
-2 Kings 6:18-23

So how does this story apply to today? We certainly shouldn't kill prisoners if we already have them captured. Police would only have to do that if a criminal is on the loose and firing shots at people, for example. One would think that since the majority of Americans are Christian, it would be obvious that capital punishment is wrong. However, since the majority of those Americans can't see that abortion is wrong, something deeper has to be addressed first before anyone can really deal with the glaring symptoms on the surface of our society. Whatever it is, those closest to Jesus are going to have to be as they can be to allowing his power to work through them to conquer evil like this.

Eucharist

The prophet sent him the message: "Go and wash seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will heal, and you will be clean."

But Naaman went away angry, saying, "I thought that he would surely come out and stand there to invoke the LORD his God, and would move his hand over the spot, and thus cure the leprosy. Are not the rivers of Damascus, the Abana and the Pharpar, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be cleansed?" With this, he turned about in anger and left.

But his servants came up and reasoned with him. "My father," they said, "if the prophet had told you to do something extraordinary, would you not have done it? All the more now, since he said to you, 'Wash and be clean,' should you do as he said." So Naaman went down and plunged into the Jordan seven times at the word of the man of God. His flesh became again like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.
-2 Kings 5:10-14

Do we sometimes expect more to be done or expect more to be asked of us for so great a reward as salvation? With an act as seemingly simple as consecrating the bread and wine to turn it into the body and blood of Christ, many take it for granted. I try to remind myself everyday what the Eucharist really is, so I can be cleansed internally the way Naaman was cleansed externally in the story above.

Feeding the hungry

A man came from Baal-shalishah bringing the man of God twenty barely loaves made from the first fruits, and fresh grain in the ear. "Give it to the people to eat," Elisha said.

But his servant objected, "How can I set this before a hundred men?" "Give it to the people to eat," Elisha insisted. "For thus says the LORD, 'They shall eat and there shall be some left over.'" And when they had eaten, there was some left over, as the LORD had said.
-2 Kings 4:42-44

I must have forgotten that God was doing this kind of thing long before he sent his son. I only remember hearing about Jesus multiplying the bread and fish on two occasions in the Gospels. Reflecting on what I am supposed to get out of a story so simple, the fact that there is always something left over has grabbed my attention. It seems wasteful because there are people going hungry in today's world. Perhaps it wasn't so wasteful then because their system didn't leave one group with an abundance and another in want. It seemed like the harvest was good for everyone or there was famine for everyone. Forgive me if I think aloud further. The only time people traveled from one land to another for food was when Joseph had stored up food in Egypt. Egypt was also getting poor harvests, but was relying on what it saved.

There's more than enough food today to feed everyone. It's just not getting to them and they aren't able to come to it. Now some organizations have figured out a way to feed a certain area in need and they extend their area of service as funds allow. If everyone pitched in, organizations like these could feed the rest of the world in need. We can't control what everyone else does, but we can do our part.

The two organizations I like most are CrossInternational.org and AmazonRelief.org. Cross International provides the most bang for your buck in the poorest communities in the world because food is cheap and they only have an overhead of about 2-3%. The two things I like about Amazon Relief is that even though food costs a little more in Brazil than other parts of the world, they have 0% overhead and serve a population where jobs are available to break the cycle of poverty. This is a great way for us to perform the corporal work of mercy of feeding the hungry.

Parents Influence: Good or Bad

"He did evil in the LORD'S sight, though not as much as his father and mother."
-2 Kings 3:2

It was not so much this quote as others that made me think of all the times the Bible refers to children being punished for the sins of their fathers. It's not so much God punishing the children as allowing punishment to take place. From all the children I have worked with over the years, I appreciate how hard it is to overcome a rough upbringing...the most extreme example being a boy watching his mom shoot his dad and run away when he was three and his sister was one, leaving them to be raised by their grandparents. The boy is a handful, but knowing the background makes you feel more sympathy than anger towards him when he acts up. It helps me think twice before I pass judgement on any other kid since I may not know his or her background as well.

The good news is that the effects of good parents last for many more generations than the effects of the bad ones according to Scripture. Occasionally, a prodigal child seems to go astray for a period of time, and it may seem like a long time when you are going through those times. However, the positive influence that has been shown into that child's life will usually bear good fruit in the end.

So no matter what kind of parents you had (and I had great ones), God will give you the grace needed to be that good "parent" that leads to good children growing up to be good "parents." Parent(s) was put in quotation marks because we are all called to take care of God's children and some people without children of their own are great "parents" to the children in their lives. God bless you all.

Answered Prayers

"Give thanks to the Lord for his mercy endures forever."
-2 Chronicles 20:21

No, I didn't get the job I spoke about in the last post. I don't know if I'm getting called back for a second interview yet or not, but it's clear it's not the job I thought it was. I'm thankful it was made clear now before I found myself trapped. So for the time being, I'm sticking with teaching for the district and will try to help the district as much as I can from that position.

Patron Saint of Job Seekers

"If anyone thinks that he is a prophet or a spiritual person, he should recognize that what I am writing to you is a commandment of the Lord."
-1 Corinthians 14:37

Naturally, the context of the quote above is important. Basically, it says we should humbly accept the gifts God gives to us and to others. I agree with this, of course. However, even though it is not included in the Biblical reading for today, it's still beneficial to pray to God for what we want, enlarging our capacity for whatever he has in store for us.

Now I have a job teaching where I can benefit a number of young people each year, students that have a lot of problems and need the kind of special attention I can provide in a smaller setting. I am certainly getting to use some of my gifts, but not a lot of my gifts. There's an opportunity to use even more of my gifts that I want to pursue and I feel this is the year to ask St. Cajetan to help me again.

This is a special year because the memorial of St. Cajetan, the patron saint of job seekers, falls on a Sunday. Four years ago, when I was looking for a job closer to our families in Pittsburgh, I began to pray to St. Cajetan after looking for a year without success. The school district I work for now actually turned me down for a Social Studies position the year before when I was trying to win the job on my own, without prayers or intercessions. Ironically, the day of his memorial, August 7, I got a call to come in the next day for an interview, but I couldn't because Nancy was having her C-section that day, so they asked if I could come in now. I jumped into my suit, hopped into my car, and basically won the job that day. When I came back for the second interview, they had the contract ready and I signed it on the spot.

St. Cajetan may have been looking out for me the whole time because there were other jobs, like the Social Studies position, that I thought I wanted that would have put me back on step 1 of the salary schedule. This job required two and preferred three of my certifications, which allowed them to keep me at step 7 of the salary schedule, even though I still had to take a pay cut paying for health insurance. It was a good long-term decision that put us closer to family.

Likewise, the same may be true this year. There have been a couple opportunities that I have had to keep quiet on, praying for the job myself, but open to the idea that if I didn't get it, something better would be in store eventually. Since I don't have to keep quiet about this one, and since specific goals lead to better results, perhaps specific prayers do too, enlarging our specific capacities for what God intends. So even though I pray for all of you in a general sense (unless you had a specific prayer request) and you likely pray for me in a general sense, I am asking you to pray for me in connection with this new job opportunity, through the intercession of St. Cajetan if you are comfortable with that, or however you are most comfortable praying. My first interview for Director of Educational Technology is this Tuesday at 2:30 PM EST. God bless you.

National Debt

The king, however, replied to Araunah, "No, I must pay you for it, for I cannot offer to the LORD my God holocausts that cost nothing." So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty silver shekels.
-2 Samuel 24: 24

I wish I could better appreciate the national debt crisis. I was registering for a workshop recently and there was a link for government employees to click, which I clicked out of curiosity. The workshop was sponsored by Oracle and they were providing a breakfast and free promotional items valued at $75, but they would accept $75 from any government employee that wanted to attend to comply with ethics regulations. Now the comparison between this example and David is not direct, but it made me think of this because debt can be a moral issue.

I'd be uncomfortable cutting Medicare benefits because people depended on those being there, unless there was a way to protect those in the program and pro-rate it for those not yet in the program. Social security isn't one of the hot topics being discussed, but that eventual crisis could also be solved by pro-rating benefits. For example, you expect to get a certain amount when you are 65 and you are 61 now. Since you've been paying into the system for 45 out of the expected 49 years, you should get 45/49 of the old benefits plus 4/49 of whatever the new (less) benefits are calculated to be. Pennsylvania School Employees just worked out a deal like that for our pension fund. If our union representatives could do it for us, our political representatives should be able to do it for all of us. Spending money without a plan to pay for it seems like stealing. If the plan no longer works, not fixing it would also seem like stealing.

The Bathsheba Dilemma

The LORD sent Nathan to David, and when he came to him, he said: "Judge this case for me! In a certain town there were two men, one rich, the other poor. The rich man had flocks and herds in great numbers. But the poor man had nothing at all except one little ewe lamb that he had bought. He nourished her, and she grew up with him and his children. She shared the little food he had and drank from his cup and slept in his bosom. She was like a daughter to him. Now, the rich man received a visitor, but he would not take from his own flocks and herds to prepare a meal for the wayfarer who had come to him. Instead he took the poor man's ewe lamb and made a meal of it for his visitor."

David grew very angry with that man and said to Nathan: "As the LORD lives, the man who has done this merits death! He shall restore the ewe lamb fourfold because he has done this and has had no pity."

Then Nathan said to David: "You are the man! Thus says the LORD God of Israel: 'I anointed you king of Israel. I rescued you from the hand of Saul. I gave you your lord's house and your lord's wives for your own. I gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. And if this were not enough, I could count up for you still more. Why have you spurned the LORD and done evil in his sight? You have cut down Uriah the Hittite with the sword; you took his wife as your own, and him you killed with the sword of the Ammonites. Now, therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah to be your wife.' Thus says the LORD: 'I will bring evil upon you out of your own house. I will take your wives while you live to see it, and will give them to your neighbor. He shall lie with your wives in broad daylight. You have done this deed in secret, but I will bring it about in the presence of all Israel, and with the sun looking down.'"

Then David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the LORD." Nathan answered David: "The LORD on his part has forgiven your sin: you shall not die. But since you have utterly spurned the LORD by this deed, the child born to you must surely die."

-2 Samuel 12:1-25

New details jumped out of this familiar story. First of all, Veggie Tales has a version of this that reminds me of the basics of the story. Some of the details that were omitted for good reasons was that David's wives were going to be given to someone else to punish him and that the child that he shouldn't have conceived died to punish him. I can't imagine it was very rewarding for his wives or the child, but who can judge that. Heaven is better than Earth, so death could be considered better than living if you are called there on God's time. Likewise, an argument could be made that even though men were permitted to have more than one wife, perhaps only David's wives after his first wife were to be given away since they wouldn't have been lawful marriages in light of the Gospel. I don't know enough to draw any conclusions, but since this made me think, I thought I would share it to see what it made you think.

God is Great

“And so – Great are you, Lord God! There is none like you and there is no God but you, just as we have heard it told.”
-2 Samuel 7:22

I know in our prayers we are to do one of four things: 1) praise God because he is God, not because of what he has done, 2) thank him for what he has done, 3) ask forgiveness for our sins, and 4) petition him for all our other desires if they are in line with his will. The quote from David above is an example of praising God just because he is God, but it comes right after God told David his reign will live forever. It’s also a good time to praise God when we are suffering like Job. When I think to do so, I try to include all four things in my prayer. Praising God is the most straight-forward, so it is usually the shortest. Thanking God always seems longer than petitioning God because God has given me more than I knew to ask for in a wife and children. Asking for forgiveness sometimes takes a lot of thought in discerning whether something was sinful or not, being careful not to rationalize with myself, but doing this regularly makes my time in confession more efficient.

I am always looking to be more efficient. I like blogging, but have other priorities in the summer that make it difficult to do so as often as during the school year. I also set a July deadline on myself to finish editing my book, so I have spent most of my writing time on that first and blogging second. During the school year it was the other way around because the deadline was so far off. Either way, the deadline has been met and if you haven’t shared your opinion yet, I’d like to hear which title you think is the catchiest, so I can name the book accordingly:

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Closed-minded Goliath

"When he had sized David up, and seen that he was youthful, and ruddy, and handsome in appearance, he held him in contempt."
-1 Samuel 17:42

It's not so surprising that Goliath held David in contempt, but it is interesting why. Children don't often get the respect that thier ideas warrant because of their appearance. Even when I was new to a job, certain groups didn't seem open to my ideas because of my age or experience. Fortunately, I could usually put my ideas through to someone who wasn't so closed-minded and who the group was also receptive to, so the idea could be implemented for the greater good. I like writing for similar reasons. I wish there was a way to make more people open-minded to what was being said and not on who's saying it. Granted, some kids are immature, but some are more mature than other adults I know. Maturity doesn't always come with age. Being more open-minded is a good way to make sure you grow in maturity in your faith as the years go by, so you can better articulate why you believe what you believe.

Death Penalty

"No man is to be put to death this day, for today the LORD has saved Israel."
-1 Samuel 11:13

Everyday God saves us from something, whether we realize it or not. Without the protection of his angels we couldn't survive the unfounded hate leveled against us. That's why it's easy for me to be against the death penalty, despite the satisfaction that families of victims think they will find in the death of the perpetrator. The killer of three Pittsburgh policemen is on trial now with the jury deciding between death or life in prison.

I think it would actually be in the defendant’s favor to make jail less hospitable because as unfair as letting him live may seem to those that lost a loved one, it seems even more unfair that he gets more meals than my students get, cable (which I don’t have), exercise equipment (which I don’t have), and porn (which I don’t think anyone should have). I would like to see convicts be given a simple cell with access to books, including books on tape for those that are illiterate, if they wish to better themselves. Anything deemed lewd, like porn, can be eliminated. No TV. No exercise equipment. Low calorie meals, since they won’t be burning as much.

I realize this wouldn’t deter crime because criminals are usually too impulsive to care about things like that. Since the criminals have already taken away so much from the innocent public, it seems fair that taxes provide them with the bare minimum rather than making cuts to other programs like Pennsylvania is doing. Pennsylvania has about 46,000 inmates and each costs $32,000/year. That’s about $1.5 billion dollars. There has to be room in that budget to make cuts if cuts are needed.

Since school has ended, I have had trouble finding time to do everything I used to, so things like checking email and blogging regularly have gone by the wayside because they were less important than other things like attending to my wife and kids. I had set a deadline to finish the first draft of my book and that is done. Now I just have to meet the next deadline(s) I set for myself.

Semantics

"Does God belong to Jews alone? Does he not belong to Gentiles, too? Yes, also to Gentiles, for God is one and will justify the circumcised on the basis of faith and the uncircumcised through faith."
-Romans 3:29-30

This is just further evidence that God doesn't necessarily belong to one religion. Of course, that doesn't mean that everyone gets in to heaven, but he judges everyone appropriately.

Rotten Catholics

For, as it is written, "Because of you the name of God is reviled among the Gentiles."
-Romans 2:24

In my research, I have compared the Catholic faith to other denominations and religions enough to my satisfaction. The Catholic faith, as defined by the Catechism, seems irrefutable to an open and critical mind compared to the arguments in favor of any of the other denominations or religions. The reason people still try to refute the Catholic faith is because of "Catholics." Some are simply unknowledgeable about the Cathloic faith. Others consciously reject certain beliefs while retaining the title "Catholic." Still others are knowledgeable, but cause the Church to be criticized unfairly because of their personal sins. All Catholics, including the Pope, sin like all people do, but that doesn't mean they approve of those sins or that the Catholic Church approves of those sins. Many reading this are already Catholic, some may even by familiar with the Catechism, but either way, the Catechism is the best place to get the facts on the Catholic faith to support or refute an argument concerning the Catholic faith. Some congregations had set out to read the writings of the fathers of the church, which constitute the foundation of the Catechism, with the intention of illustrating why Catholics are so wrong. Once they got into the readings, the Holy Spirit guided them to the truth and entire congregations joined the Catholic Church. Wherever you are in your journey, I hope you are getting more than this simple blog provides because there's a wealth of information that the Holy Spirit can use to bring you closer to God.

Expectations

"For when the Gentiles who do not have the law by nature observe the prescriptions of the law, they are a law for themselves even though they do not have the law. They show that the demands of the law are written in their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even defend them on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge people's hidden works through Christ Jesus."
-Romans 2:14-16

In discussing different groups of people like we did in yesterday's post, a subject that often comes up is who gets into the heaven and how. I understand in the past some Catholics believed only Catholics got into heaven. Today, that's not the case, but other denominations still believe they are the only ones that get in (and Catholics especially would not). We will be judged by our works and by the gifts we have been given, so since not everyone has been given the same gifts of faith, not everyone will be judged the same way, but everyone will be judged fairly. In the parable of the coins, the man given more had more expected from him and the the second man had less expected from him. Both of these men doubled what was given to them and were equally rewarded even though the one who had more made more and the one who had less made less. Likewise, Catholics who have been given the gift of faith are expected to live up to certain expectations like attending Mass on Sundays and other Holy Days of obligation, but there are other more general expectations of all human beings written on our hearts whether we ever heard of Jesus or not. Even unschooled barbarians had been known to hide to avoid being caught stealing. No one taught them it was wrong to steal, but they still knew it deep down. There are a lot of good people who have not been given the gift of Catholic faith that I wouldn't be surprised to see in heaven and there are a number of rotten people that call themselves Catholic that I wouldn't be surprised to never see again if I make it to heaven.

Happy 8th Anniversary

"Therefore, God handed them over to degrading passions. Their females exchanged natural relations for unnatural, and the males likewise gave up natural relations with females and burned with lust for one another. Males did shameful things with males and thus received in their own persons the due penalty for their perversity."
-Romans 1:26-27

I understand comedian Tracy Morgan is taking a lot of heat for offending the gay and lesbian community with a stand-up routine, so perhaps this post can add to that conversation. I haven't gotten the details of what he said exactly, but it seems like it was more ugly and violent than funny. Although I believe we shouldn't condone homosexual acts, we definitely shouldn't promote violence against any group of people. That's as bad as those misguided pro-life supporters than kill abortion clinic doctors. It's another example of hate the sin, but love the sinner. Being gay, something you can't choose, isn't any more sinful than lust in heterosexuals. I'm celebrating my 8th wedding anniversary with Nancy today, but I suppose it's okay to acknowledge that I still notice good-looking women. I went to mass at Fr. Dan's parish this morning and he acknowledged as much in one of his talks (another couple was celebrating their 25th anniversary), but emphasizes that married people choose to remain faithful to their spouse just like he chooses to remain faithful to his spouse, God, by remaining celibate, just as all single people are encouraged to remain celibate unless they later choose to marry, no matter what their sexual orientation may be.

Happy Pentecost

"I consider that the sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed for us."
-Romans 8:18

If a thousand years are like a watch in the night, our life is less than a night, so we should be able to put up with anything if we remain focused on splendor that awaits us in the morning (at the end of our lives). With little kids around the house, sometimes both the nights and days seem long. One parent of a two-year-old honestly didn't seem to know how I did it with girls 1, 4, 6, and 31 in my house. First of all, I've gotten used to it, but I got used to it because God gives me everything I need. Before I got married or had any of the kids, I didn't have an accurate picture of what it was going to be like, but when the time came I always felt confident I could handle it. Aside from just surviving, some parents feel having more kids might take away the love and attention they give their other kids, but God seems to give you more love to give away, so no one is losing out on love, although they might not be getting as much inheritance money when it's all said and done. By that time though, the inheritance money won't seem important anyway, because even though thousands of dollars seems like a lot when you are saving your quarters for a new Disney toy, thousands of dollars usually aren't a big deal when inheritances typically come people's way.

Ordination

"Beloved, I hope you are prospering in every respect and are in good health, just as your soul is prospering."
-3 John 2

Online, I just witnessed my father-in-law be ordained deacon in the Diocese of Pittsburgh. There were 43 other men that also put in more than five years of formation to reach this point. It was encouraging to see these men and all of their families and supporters in one place for the 4-hour ceremony. That, by the way, is why I was home watching online and not at the Cathedral with my wife because Claire, Sarah, and Emily do a commendable job at one-hour masses, but quadrupling that seemed unreasonable.

So on this happy occasion, just as these souls are prospering, I hope yours is too, as well as your relationships, finances, health and all other matters important to you because I am confident that your priorities are in the right place and if it's important to you, it's because you responded when God put it in your heart.

I suppose I have always struggled with friendships on some level because I tended to see things from only my perspective and mistakenly thought that everyone saw things the way I did. For example, I remember how mature I was at a certain age and used to assume all of my students of that age were equally responsible. Some were. Some weren't. Likewise, everyone older than myself must be equally responsible. Many are. A few aren't.

This awareness has helped, of course, but has also shed light on how much more I don't know about people. Looking back at my school days, I never did anything to create enemies, thinking that I was friends with all the people I got along with, whereas we were probably just acquantances that shared similar interests. I never recall doing something to be friends with someone else. I became friends with someone else because they were doing something I liked.

It wasn't selfish in the sense that it took something away from someone else. My sense of justice was out of proportion to my sense of mercy. Aside from standing up for myself, I started standing up for my friends or my sisters' friends because I could. I could have also turned the other cheek or some other alternative. My actions are explainable, even understandable, but not excusable.

So now with this lack of experience and an awareness that I am not as adept socially as others, I am beginning to feel a need to nurture friendships and not just avoid creating enemies (like doing good works and not just avoid sin). So let's say I want to be friends with someone at work. I ventured into the teacher's lounge one day and a conversation surrounding the Bachelorette. I like the people, but had nothing to add to the conversation. The guys, don't eat in the teacher's lounge, they take their food to another teacher's room and talk sports. Now I used to enjoy playing sports, but I don't follow them now and the conversation is rarely about the 1990 Pittsburgh Pirates, so again I have nothing to offer.

I like talking about faith. I invited everyone in my building to morning prayer with me. No one accepted. However, one guy did invite me to a weekly Men's faith-sharing group, which was and is great, but it's once a week and covers topics that aren't going to come up when you pass in the halls or sit down for lunch.

So I'm not into what they're into and they're not into what I'm into. I have connected with a couple of teachers that can follow my line of thinking when we are talking about education, which is great while it lasts, but I feel a little uncomfortable hanging out with them socially when they invite me to go Segwaying with them or something. We're all married, half of them have kids, half don't, but they all do a lot more outings without kids and Nancy and I like to do most of our outings with the kids. We might go to Idlewild or the zoo with some of them this summer, two places fun for kids and animal lovers without kids. This is as close to a middle ground as I have found in quite some time.

If you have been able to follow this line of thinking that started with an ordination and ended with Idlewild and the zoo as a social compromise, I suspect you are among a very select few. I already feel better having written this, as if someone's listening, even though I know no one has yet because I haven't hit the publish button. Perhaps, articulating it for my own good helps me know that God is listening and helping my soul prosper just as he has blessed my marriage, health, and even finances in the sense that we are happy with what we have.

Always ask for help

“In this way we know that we love the children of God when we love God and obey his commandments.”

-1 John 5:2

 

God will judge us by our actions.  If you say you believe that Jesus is God, your actions should support that.  The devil knows Jesus is God, but refuses to obey God’s commandments and suffers the consequences of his free will.  Our free will should have us ask God for the strength to follow his commandments because our will isn’t strong enough to resist the Devil without his help.  So it’s demonstrating our trust in Jesus by always praying to him for his help, whether those prayers are in words, thoughts, or deeds.

 

You can hate

"If anyone says, "I love God," but hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen."
-1 John 4:20

With this in mind, a number of what-if questions come to mind, especially if brother is interpreted as neighbor is in the Good Samaritan parable meaning all people.  What about those people that hate God?  You can still love the sinner and hate the sin.

All you need

"Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love."

-1 John 4:8

 

If God is all you need...all you need is love...da - da da da da.  I believe that's my first Beatles reference.  Fr. Matt always jokes with my parish when he begins with the phrase, "There was a great theologian..." because the message usually come from someone like Van Halen like it did this past weekend.  Nevertheless, if a simple Beatles jingle can help you to remember to love a little more, their work and/or my work is done.

Critical Thinkers

"And he gave some as apostles, others as prophets, others as evangelists, others as pastors and teachers, to equip the holy ones for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of faith and knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the extent of the full stature of Christ,  so that we may no longer be infants, tossed by waves and swept along by every wind of teaching arising from human trickery, from their cunning in the interests of deceitful scheming."
-Ephesians 4:11-14
 
One way public school teachers can best minister is to teach their students to be critical thinkers.  Everyone is inundated with advertisements or propaganda, which can consist of all sorts of human trickery.  Critical thinkers will less likely be decieved and will often come to believe, if they aren't believers already.  Studying the life of Jesus, for example, has to lead one to conclude he was God or a fraud.  An objective look at the evidence we have available would lead most to conclude he was God, with or without the help of the gift of faith from the Holy Spirit (not that faith, no matter how it is attained, can ever really be separated from the Holy Spirit).

Loopholes

"I write to you, children, because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong and the word of God remains in you, and you have conquered the evil one."
-1 John 2:14

I try to read the Bible as if each passage were written for me because, well, thanks to the Holy Spirit it is.  Nevertheless, it's nice when a passage seems very clearly written for me compared to a list of Jesus's ancestry, for example. Of course, only some of us are fathers and young men, but we are all children. So we all know the Father and cannot blame any of our sins on ignorance for his laws are written on our hearts. Some try to argue the letter of the law to find loopholes to serve their own purpose, like Wisconsin's middle-of-the-night law abolishing collective bargaining until it was struck down by the courts. With God's law written on our hearts, there are no loopholes because God is judge and jury. No matter what you want a passage to mean, deep down you know what it means, and that is how you will be judged.

Fridays at the Pentagon

Then the angel showed me the river of life-giving water, sparkling like crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of its street. On either side of the river grew the tree of life that produces fruit twelve times a year, once each month; the leaves of the trees serve as medicine for the nations.
-Revelation 22:1-2

Given how much the above quote relates to an email I just received, I decided to give the rest of this space to it:

Mornings at the Pentagon

By JOSEPH L. GALLOWAY
McClatchy Newspapers

Over the last 12 months, 1,042 soldiers, Marines, sailors and Air Force personnel have given their lives in the terrible duty that is war.

Thousands more have come home on stretchers, horribly wounded and facing months or years in military hospitals.

This week, I'm turning my space over to a good friend and former roommate, Army Lt. Col.. Robert Bateman, who recently completed a yearlong tour of duty and is now back at the Pentagon.

"It is 110 yards from the "E" ring to the "A" ring of the Pentagon. This section of the Pentagon is newly renovated; the floors shine, the hallway is broad, and the lighting is bright. At this instant the entire length of the corridor is packed with officers, a few sergeants and some civilians, all crammed tightly three and four deep against the walls. There are thousands here.

"This hallway, more than any other, is the `Army' hallway. The G3 offices line one side, G2 the other, G8 is around the corner. All Army. Moderate conversations flow in a low buzz. Friends who may not have seen each other for a few weeks, or a few years, spot each other, cross the way and renew.

"Everyone shifts to ensure an open path remains down the center. The air conditioning system was not designed for this press of bodies in this area.

"The temperature is rising already. Nobody cares. "10:36 hours: The clapping starts at the E-Ring. That is the outermost of the five rings of the Pentagon and it is closest to the entrance to the building. This clapping is low, sustained, hearty. It is applause with a deep emotion behind it as it moves forward in a wave down the length of the hallway.

"A steady rolling wave of sound it is, moving at the pace of the soldier in the wheelchair who marks the forward edge with his presence. He is the first. He is missing the greater part of one leg, and some of his wounds are still suppurating. By his age I expect that he is a private, or perhaps a private first class.

"Captains, majors, lieutenant colonels and colonels meet his gaze and nod as they applaud, soldier to soldier. Three years ago when I described one of these events, those lining the hallways were somewhat different. The applause a little wilder, perhaps in private guilt for not having shared in the burden ... Yet.

"Now almost everyone lining the hallway is, like the man in the wheelchair, also a combat veteran. This steadies the applause, but I think deepens the sentiment. We have all been there now. The soldier's chair is pushed by, I believe, a full colonel.

"Behind him, and stretching the length from Rings E to A, come more of his peers, each private, corporal, or sergeant assisted as need be by a field grade officer.

"11:00 hours: Twenty-four minutes of steady applause. My hands hurt, and I laugh to myself at how stupid that sounds in my own head. My hands hurt. Please! Shut up and clap. For twenty-four minutes, soldier after soldier has come down this hallway - 20, 25, 30.. Fifty-three legs come with them, and perhaps only 52 hands or arms, but down this hall came 30 solid hearts.

"They pass down this corridor of officers and applause, and then meet for a private lunch, at which they are the guests of honor, hosted by the generals. Some are wheeled along. Some insist upon getting out of their chairs, to march as best they can with their chin held up, down this hallway, through this most unique audience. Some are catching handshakes and smiling like a politician at a Fourth of July parade. More than a couple of them seem amazed and are smiling shyly.

"There are families with them as well: the 18-year-old war-bride pushing her 19-year-old husband's wheelchair and not quite understanding why her husband is so affected by this, the boy she grew up with, now a man, who had never shed a tear is crying; the older immigrant Latino parents who have, perhaps more than their wounded mid-20s son, an appreciation for the emotion given on their son's behalf. No man in that hallway, walking or clapping, is ashamed by the silent tears on more than a few cheeks. An Airborne Ranger wipes his eyes only to better see. A couple of the officers in this crowd have themselves been a part of this parade in the past.

"These are our men, broken in body they may be, but they are our brothers, and we welcome them home. This parade has gone on, every single Friday, all year long, for more than four years."

Cowards

"But as for cowards, the unfaithful, the depraved, murderers, the unchaste, sorcerers, idol-worshipers, and deceivers of every sort, their lot is in the burning pool of fire and sulfur, which is the second death."
-Revelation 21:8
 
I wouldn't typically consider cowards as sinful as murderers.  How often do we not do the right thing because we are afraid of ridicule?  It serves as a reminder that there is always something that needs to be improved in us with the help of Christ and if we stop looking to Christ for help (for something we may consider minor like cowardice), that may be what prevents us from entering heaven.

Rapture

"Then there were lightning flashes, rumblings, and peals of thunder, and a great earthquake. It was such a violent earthquake that there has never been one like it since the human race began on earth."
Revelation 16:18
 
I find it interesting that the Church has me in the middle of Revelations leading up to one's prediction of the end of the world.  Before I looked into it, I thought that no one knows the time and place and anyone who claims to is a false prophet, but the guy predicting it now had already predicted it before in 1994.  He says he made a mathematical error last time, but this time he's sure he got it right.  To save you the time, skipping over the fuzzy math and supposed biblical references, the Rapture is supposed to happen with an Earthquake on the Pacific Rim at 6 PM local time and move across each time zone acordingly.  All the good people will be assumed into heaven (about 200 million or 3% of the population) and the rest will be left behind with worse things to worry about later. 
 
The point is, if there is one, if we live every day as if it is our last, eventually we are going to be right.  If I knew someone who believed this, I thought it would be a good practical joke to rent a car and disappear for a few days vacation, but alas, no one close to me believes in this, so there's no one to play the practical joke on.

666

"Wisdom is needed here; one who understands can calculate the number of the beast, for it is a number that stands for a person. His number is six hundred and sixty-six."
-Revelations 13:18
 
Part A caught my attention because wisdom and understanding is always helpful and can never be said too often.  However, I also thought it was neat to show where the relationship between the devil and the number 666 originated.

Guardian Angels

"Then war broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels battled against the dragon. The dragon and its angels fought back, but they did not prevail and there was no longer any place for them in heaven."
-Revelations 12:7-8

I pray the St. Michael Chaplet ( http://www.ewtn.com/library/prayer/mikechap.txt ) daily to protect my family against what I can't protect them against. I think the evidence would indicate that it works. It does involve saying some Hail Mary's, which most Protestants don't pray, so perhaps it could be adapted accordingly. The most important thing, as always, is to pray with faith and have less concern for the specific words used.

Don't celebrate yet

"The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and be glad and exchange gifts because these two prophets tormented the inhabitants of the earth. But after the three and a half days, a breath of life from God entered them. When they stood on their feet, great fear fell on those who saw them."
-Revelations 11:10-11

Too often we celebrate the battle as if we won the war. It has been a roller coaster recently for Pennsylvania teachers. We have always contributed to our defined benefit pension, but almost had it taken away this summer while Governor Rendell was still in office, who was relatively supportive of education. Now we have Governor Corbett, who does not support education as much as he thinks he supports taxpayers, as if education does not benefit taxpayers. Most expected small cuts across the board, but what he proposed was huge cuts to K-12 and higher education and pay raises for his personal staff, while still emphasizing that all must give and all must sacrifice in these hard times.

So school districts are trying to make plans based on how low their budgets might be come July 1. The legislature is trying to restore some money because schools are laying off 15% of their teachers, cutting foreign language, music, and other programs. My district was preparing to furlough 41 teachers on top of the 10 already retiring out of 289 teachers total. Fortunately, enough teachers at the top of the pay scale decided to retire early and take a long-term penalty to save jobs for their friends. Most will get other jobs because the defined benefit does not increase with inflation like social security. Some teachers that retired a long time ago are trying to live off of $8,000/year. It's what they signed up for, so few complained, but it's frustrating when Governor Corbett says that teachers' pensions are extravagant.

The point is: a thousand years are like a watch in the night to God, so whatever the success or failure is today, keep it in perspective. We kept our pensions this summer, but they could just as easily be taken away in the future. We may have to take some losses next year, but we can win those gains back for the students in other years.

Change your ways...or else

"Locusts came out of the smoke onto the land, and they were given the same power as scorpions of the earth.  They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or any tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads.  They were not allowed to kill them but only to torment them for five months; the torment they inflicted was like that of a scorpion when it stings a person.  During that time these people will seek death but will not find it, and they will long to die but death will escape them. 

 

"The first woe has passed, but there are two more to come. 

 

"Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice coming from the [four] horns of the gold altar before God, telling the sixth angel who held the trumpet, "Release the four angels who are bound at the banks of the great river Euphrates."  So the four angels were released, who were prepared for this hour, day, month, and year to kill a third of the human race.  They wore red, blue, and yellow breastplates, and the horses' heads were like heads of lions, and out of their mouths came fire, smoke, and sulfur.  By these three plagues of fire, smoke, and sulfur that came out of their mouths a third of the human race was killed.  The rest of the human race, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, to give up the worship of demons and idols made from gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk.  Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic potions, their unchastity, or their robberies."

 

-Revelations 9

I know some parts of the Bible are never read in Church and this chapter must be one of those selections.  Now it wouldn't be better to die if you are being punished for wrongdoing, unless you have repented.  However, I can't imagine that it would be pleasant to be in the other two-thirds that witness a third of humanity being wiped off the face of the Earth even if it is justified.  I guess we should do our best (pray) to make sure ourselves and our loved ones aren't among the damned.

Signs

"Do not damage the land or the sea or the trees until we put the seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God."

-Revelations 7:3

 

Some believe that some of the signs we see today are pointing to 12/12/2012 being the end of the world, but people from the past have wrongly predicted dates that have already come and gone, so there's little reason to be certain that date is it.  Either way, it shouldn't matter because we should always be doing what we are supposed to be doing because we don't know when our life is going to end (which is infinitely more important than when the world is going to end because each of us has a soul and the world does not).  I could even see the argument for God showing people things that may be interpreted as the signs if it gets more people to convert before they die, whether the world ends then or not. 

 

I saw a rerun of Taxi once when the hippie cab driver Jim made all these predictions about fellow cab driver Alex, some of which seemed to be coming true like a beautiful girl falling into his arms - she got knocked over in a crowded restaurant.  The trouble was the end of the dream was also the end of Alex: Thursday, 8 PM in his apartment.  Now Alex didn't believe in superstition, but their boss Louie was concerned and didn't want Alex to be home at 8 PM that night.  Alex wasn't planning on being there anyway because he had a date with the girl, but then she cancelled at the last minute.  Still, as Louie tried to convince him otherwise, Alex was set on doing what he would have done if there was no prediction, which was watch TV at home, especially since the other predictions leading up to his death seemed so ridiculous: being mistaken for a girl and then wearing a dress doing the can-can.  Of course, a wrong number asking for "Susan" put Louie over the edge.  Alex was so fed up about trying to convince Louie that there was no such thing as fate, that he was going to tempt fate: he put on a dress and started the can-can when his clock chimed 8 PM and nothing happened.  Louie was about to apologize when there was a slow, but firm knock-knock-knock at the door.  Despite Louie's pleas, Alex opened the door only to find a girl scout selling cookies.  There was nothing to the predictions.

 

I suppose the first paragraph would have served the purpose of this entry, but I really enjoy telling the Taxi story.  In any case, I hope all of us get that seal on our foreheads if we are around for the end times.  I know the mark that they used to indicate the chosen in Ezekiel was a Tau.  Franciscans, like me, wear a Tau as a sign that we are Franciscan (which should mean we are part of the chosen just like others who wear traditional crosses or other signs of their faith).

Bin Laden

"But this one offered one sacrifice for sins, and took his seat forever at the right hand of God; now he waits until his enemies are made his footstool."
-Hebrew 10:12-13

This has definitely been one of the longer gaps between posts in quite a while for me. A lot has happened in the greater world. Yet my world remains the same. If news had not reported 9/11, I still would not know about it. No one I know was affected by it, or if they were it has never come up in conversation with me.

Of course the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are due in great part to 9/11 and I do know some relatives that went over there and came back seemingly the same as they did when they left. Because of the media though, I realize their service is far from nothing and provides the level of freedom that we enjoy and subconsciously take for granted. Sometimes I think we take what God provides us for granted as well.

Bin Laden took a lot away from people, but he didn't do it single-handedly. Capturing him would have been little reason to celebrate because he didn't carry out any attacks himself and the kinds of people that acted on his plans are still out there. Some say the numbers are even greater than before, but whether that's true or not is of little consequence.

I was angry when I saw certain Muslims watching the towers fall in New York and celebrating. I was not as angry when I saw Americans celebrating the death of Bin Laden, but I wasn't celebrating either. Being pro-life, I am against the death penalty, but I am more offended by abortion because that is taking innocent life. Bin Laden took innocent life. His life was far from innocent.

In all fairness, I don't believe Bin Laden would have ever repented, so taking his life likely didn't change anything, but I still don't believe that any person had the right take it from him. Perhaps the plan was to capture him alive and his death could be considered self-defense since he was moving towards a weapon and not surrendering. On the other hand, if one had the ability to incapacitate his wife in the leg and then put a bullet in his eye, did they have the ability to incapacitate him as well? I give the SEALS the benefit of the doubt like I give the police the benefit of the doubt. Pittsburgh especially has seen more than its share of police officers killed or wounded on duty, so I feel if they shot to kill in the line of duty they would be justified.

Typically, my posts have a clear message, but even with the time I have had to reflect since my last post, I feel left with more questions than answers. Like the quote above suggests, maybe we don't have the answers yet because we are still waiting for our enemies (if we are on God's side) to be put under his feet.

Honor your spouse

“Likewise, you husbands should live with your wives in understanding, showing honor to [them], since we are joint heirs of the gift of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.”

-1 Peter 3:7

 

I don’t know how many husbands read this because the majority of comments left here and on Facebook are by women.  Nevertheless, the advice probably went without saying to women back then, who had to show honor to their husbands.  Being subject to so much here on earth, their prayers were undoubtedly heard by God just as those less fortunate (of either sex) are heard by God today.  So show honor to your spouse if you want God to hear your prayer.  For example, since the Penguins were eliminated from the play-offs last night, I shaved my beard, which made my wife very happy.  However, I suppose my making my wife happy shouldn’t have been dependent on the Penguins losing in the first place.

 

My prediction

"The Lord GOD is my help, therefore I am not disgraced; I have set my face like flint, knowing that I shall not be put to shame."
-Isaiah 50:7

I have confidence that good will prevail. This is timely because my union proposed a retirement incentive that would save the district $1.19 million by eliminating 14 of the highest paid teachers, whereas the board would have to furlough 29 of the least experienced teachers to save as much. The proposal is good for the 14 because it pays an extra $26K over three years and good for the district because eliminating only 14 teachers instead of 29 helps to save the number of programs we offer the students. It was tabled by the board yesterday instead of approved, which made people think they were either intending to cut programs and all the teachers involved in those programs to save even more money or hoping legislation in Harrisburg allowing them to furlough the highest paid instead of the least experienced would help them save more money by reducing the quality of the programs. As a sign of my faith, I posted a prediction on my wall last Friday stating that the board will ultimately furlough nobody and rehire the two teachers allegedly furloughed illegally last year.

You're Low

“God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong, and God chose the lowly and despised of the world, those who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those who are something, so that no human being might boast before God.”

-1 Corinthians 27b-29

 

In this case, being low isn’t such a bad thing.  All good things come from God, but it’s easier to believe when those that seem incapable of doing great things do great things.  They (people like us) couldn’t do great things alone, so it must be a miracle when things go right.  It must be God in control.  Yesterday’s quote talked about how God takes revenge, we don’t take revenge ourselves on those who do wrong, but in some situations, God may work through us or other people to humble the proud.  We can’t volunteer ourselves for that job, but we can be open to it if God calls our number.

 

Vengeance

"But, you, O Lord of hosts, O just Judge, searcher of mind and heart, Let me witness the vengeance you take on them, for to you I have entrusted my cause, O Lord my God!"
-Jeremiah 11:19-20

This doesn't seem very Christian, but I guess that's because it's Old Testament. One thing that's important is that Jeremiah isn't trying to take revenge himself. He's still letting God judge, even though these people are just like those people who we have been talking about the past two days (the rude ones that drive us crazy). Nevertheless, he does want to be there when justice is served. I guess that's OK.

For example, when someone speeds by me or cuts me off in traffic I try to remind myself to say, "God bless them anyway." I picked that up driving around with a priest in high school. However, when I see that same car pulled over to the side later on down the road, I still get a sense of satisfaction from it.

Venting

"I have stretched out my hands all the day to a rebellious people, Who walk in evil paths and follow their own thoughts, People who provoke me continually, to my face."
-Isaiah 65:2-3a
 
As important as it is to have poise in the moment (referring to yesterday's post), I guess you are allowed to vent to your journal or to God about those rude people in your life that drive you nuts as Isaiah seems to do.

Poise

"When he was insulted, he returned no insult; when he suffered, he did not threaten; instead, he handed himself over to the one who judges justly."
-1 Peter 2:23

I don't even know if poise is the best word to describe what I'm thinking. I know it's the best word I can think of though. As a junior high teacher of students with various special needs, sometimes it seems like those needs are manners. So I hear a lot of insults. When the someone insulting you with words is obviously less adept at the English language than you, it would be difficult to not embarrass that person publicly if your objective was not to serve God in the best way possible.

God doesn't want you to be the judge because he can exact a more suitable punishment for those who reject his word than any embarrassment you could inflict and a more suitable reward for anyone who tries to follow his word than any satisfaction gained from besting someone of inferior skills. In some of the situations that I'm envisioning in my mind, God may not punish them because they may honestly be oblivious and not know what they are doing, despite my best efforts to teach them how to act properly in what I consider society. What I go through is a far cry from what Jesus went through in the Passion, so if he was able to pray for those people, I believe he will give me the strength to continue praying for my students.

Dumbo's Green Scapular

"God chose the lowly and despised of the world, those who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those who are something, so that no human being might boast before God. It is due to him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, as well as righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, so that, as it is written, 'Whoever boasts, should boast in the Lord.'"
-1 Corinthians 1: 28-30

It has been said before that the only thing we can take credit for is our sins. All good things come from God, so anything good that we do is thanks to him. Lately, I have felt a new sense of faith in God working through me. Certainly, he was capable of working through me before, but I think my faith was too weak to allow him to do much. Specifically, the green scapulars are an amazing tool to help strengthen faith and cure physical and mental illnesses, but their power comes from faith of those that distribute it and/or those that receive it.

It's like Dumbo's magical feather that convinced him he could fly if he had it. Even after he lost it, he was still able to fly. The feather was just a tool to strengthen his faith as the green scapular is for us.

I have green scapulars for any one who wants one.

Resistance

"So submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."
-James 4:7

This is still as straight forward today as it was when it was written, so it's not as critical for me to share my reflections on it as much as it is for you to read the quote itself. God bless you.

Far from worthless

"Do everything without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine like lights in the world, as you hold on to the word of life, so that my boast for the day of Christ may be that I did not run in vain or labor in vain."
-Phillipians 2:14-16

When working with students with special needs, you may feel that your work is in vain because you don't get the same results as you get with other students. With success being measured so often by test scores, you may not get the consolation you desire because you are looking for it in the wrong places. I don't remember what I got on my eighth grade standardized tests, although I remember they were never good enough to be considered "gifted." I do remember certain teachers because of the emotions associated with them, more so than any specific lesson or piece of information I may have gotten from them. They at least made me a better person, if not a smarter person. I hope that the people who come across my path and your path learn something about how to be a better person. That's worth more than test scores or anything else of this world. Goodness is divine because all good things come from God.

Sorrow

"Rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the LORD, your God. For gracious and merciful is he, slow to anger, rich in kindness, and relenting in punishment."
-Joel 2:13

You can't buy forgiveness from God, no matter how much money you donate. Donations are good and necessary while we are down here, but God wants you to be sorry for your sins, not just make up for them. You can't earn your way into Heaven by never sinning because none of us have never sinned, regardless of original sin. Even though those sins were wrong, hopefully God brought some good from them by helping us realize how much we need to rely on him, which should make us feel sorry when we let him and ourselves down.

Mind over lunch

"I urge you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship. Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect."
-Romans 12:1-2

Our bodies can be our prayer. That's especially comforting when we feel too busy to "pray" as long as we are busy doing God's work. I've been too busy helping others at work to remember to eat lunch, but I don't know if I can call it a sacrifice because I didn't even realize I was hungry until I got home one time and found my lunch still in my bag.

Jesus, the ultimate tag-team partner

"No, I drive my body and train it, for fear that, after having preached to others, I myself should be disqualified."
-1 Corinthians 9:27

We have to walk the walk and not just talk the talk. We need to learn how to resist all earthly temptations, not just temptations of the flesh that Paul usually infers. That kind of training can never end because the devil is always presenting new temptations, perhaps more subtle each time, until we let our guard down and he gets a hit in. We must be vigilant and rely on Jesus as our personal trainer to get us ready to handle it ourselves or tag Jesus in when it gets to be too much for us.