The Building No One Built… ?

Wow…. I’ve been away from the blog awhile! A sure sign that school’s wrapping up and life has been busy busy busy! But come June 7th, sweet freedom! (no offense boys, it’s been another great year at Malvern). Anyhoo, let me toss this thought out into the blogosphere and see if I get any bites.

I’ve been reading randomly from two very different books: 1. The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins and 2. The Evidential Power of Beauty by Thomas Dubay. They are as alike as a granite boulder and a piece of cheese. One looks at life in the universe as happening purely by chance (no God or gods, no supernatural presence whatsoever), and the other sees God present all the while, supercharging every proton and particle that is, peering like a lover through the lattices of all things created. (Can you guess which book I’m diggin’?)

Now this is just a thought (a weak analogy, actually). I want to put it out there without a hint of sarcasm. I am serious. Let’s get beyond agendas, either to the right or left, materialist or theist. Let’s strip away everything but a desire for the TRUTH.

Look at a building. Think of its foundation, the complexity of its structure, the electrical system, the plumbing, all of these parts working in harmony to provide shelter and comfort for people. You could conceivably live and breathe and move about in this building your whole life and not once find any trace of the architect. Perhaps you might see his likeness on a wall, a painting of him from the early days of the building’s history. Maybe there are those in the building who remember hearing stories of how he once visited the place and walked around the halls and even took the elevator once or twice when the place was still new. But none of it can be proved now, seemingly. At least you’d have to go on human faith and trust that the Man made the place. It just shouts of a designer from every delicate curve and arch, from the lighting to the fountain in the lobby, to the care put into each office, each room, each resting place.

But you’ve never seen the Man Who made it. Would you conclude that the building had no maker? Would you conclude that particles of steel and iron and glass must have randomly coalesced over the years and happened to form by chance this magnificent structure, with its indoor plumbing, electricity, spa and fine cafeteria?

To my mind that would just be… silly. Kinda ridiculous. I’m not being sarcastic here. I’m being a realist. I’m using my reason. It’s only logical to admit in the midst of such design a designer.

This admittance, like it or not, will take us into a number of other places…. which we can comment on tomorrow…. I hope.

I love this stuff.

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Inspiration for the New Evangelization
http://www.missionmoment.org

Tonight’s Radio Show – May 29

Tune in tonight from 5pm to 6pm EST for The Heart of Things Radio Show, live @ 800AM or log in live at 5 @ www.catholicinternetradio.com

My guest will be Fr. Kevin McGoldrick, a gifted young priest from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. We’ll speak on his vocation story, music ministry, the New Evangelization and working with teens and young adults in the Church today (how to get the Gospel through the culture and to the kids!)

To call into the show with your thoughts or questions….. in the Philadelphia region: 610-527-2906 or outside the Philadelphia region, call toll free: 888-343-2484

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Inspiration for the New Evangelization
http://www.missionmoment.org

Snapshots

Happy Memorial Day Weekend 2007! Hope yours was safe and swell (let’s bring that word back into vogue!) Here’s a few snapshots of our time up in NY state…

+ babysitting for Peter and Ali, watching little Aileen and Michaela at the house Peter built in the woods. Singing Michaela to sleep to the sound of the crickets “sleep sleep…. sleep sleep.”

+ eating chips and watching Planet Earth with the father-in-law. Those snow leopards are awesome!

+ sleeping at the lakehouse, sitting on the dock before the cool, clear water, watching the sky moods reflecting in its watery face

+ Pentecost Sunday at the little country church, which is really a kind of gym. Standing room only, and Jesus in our midst

+ breakfast at Benny’s in Wurtsboro with the relations. Teaching Taylor and Travis the drawing game on the placemats (great homefries, by the way!)

+ laughing at Friday’s, that huge mojito, popping into Barnes & Nobles for the Pope’s new book, and Tolkien’s too!

+ the town parade, and little Hanna waving. And for the troop of bagpipers, blasting their shrill cries through that sleepy mountain town

+ sunburn and windburn

+ spotting orioles today in the trees

+ bald eagles sweeping over the island, swirling over our cameras

+ the kids making mud castles, swimming and splashing on the edge of Yankee Lake

+ ambrosia with cherries

+ for my wife and her tenderness, her attentiveness in everything, and for the way she holds those little babies, her nieces, Aileen and Rebecca.

+ for the desires we have for a family of our own, which only grow stronger day by day.

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Inspiration for the New Evangelization
http://www.missionmoment.org

Pope’s New Book: Jesus of Nazareth

I’m excited about picking up Pope Benedict’s new book on Jesus. Here’s a little excerpt:

“…the great question that will be with us throughout this entire book: But what has Jesus really brought, then, if he has not brought world peace, universal prosperity, and a better world? What has he brought? The answer is very simple: God. He has brought God! He has brought the God who once gradually unveiled his countenance first to Abraham, then to Moses and the prophets, and then in the wisdom literature—the God who showed his face only in Israel, even though he was also honored among the pagans in various shadowy guises. It is this God, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, the true God, whom he has brought to the peoples of the earth. He has brought God, and now we know his face, now we can call upon him. Now we know the path that we human beings have to take in this world. Jesus has brought God and with God the truth about where we are going and where we come from: faith, hope, and love.”

I haven’t read any reviews yet but I know it will be a powerful portrait of Our Lord. Here’s the link to Ignatius Press if you’re interested. Come on, let’s be Catholic Nerds and bring this book to the beach this Memorial Day weekend! What do ya say??? Woohoo!!

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Inspiration for the New Evangelization
http://www.missionmoment.org

Protestant and Catholic Heaven

Sorry for the dry week of blogs. School’s rapping up and time has been tight! So here’s a little silliness for your Friday. It’s completely irreverent but nonetheless hilarious. Ironically, it captures the essence of the Catholic Church… which is Her catholicity, or universality. Sometimes the Simpsons just nail it, don’t they? Enjoy the holiday weekend (and stay off that Jersey Turnpike!)

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Inspiration for the New Evangelization
http://www.missionmoment.org

This Week’s Radio Guest

I’ll be speaking with award-winning journalist and author Susan Brinkmann on The Heart of Things radio show this Tuesday evening from 5-6pm Eastern Standard Time at www.catholicinternetradio.com or for southeastern PA, NJ and Delaware at 800 AM from 5 to 6pm EST.

Susan is the special correspondent to the Catholic Standard & Times newspaper in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, as well as the author of several books, including “The Kinsey Corruption.” She has written numerous children’s plays, as well as a beautiful devotional on prayer entitled “Lord Teach Us to Pray.”

Susan received the Barnardin-O’Connor Award for Pro-Life Journalism in both 2002 and 2003. She became a professed member of the Secular Order of Discalced Carmelites in October 2000. Join in on our conversation as we discuss a variety of topics, from prayer and vocations, to the struggles of a daily practice of faith in American culture today.

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Inspiration for the New Evangelization
http://www.missionmoment.org

Words of Witness from Fr. Cantalamessa

Great words from Fr. Cantalamessa, the Preacher for the Papal Household at the Vatican. He offered this reflection yesterday:

“The witness is one who speaks with his life. A believing father and mother must be “the first witnesses of faith” for their children. (The Church asks this for them from God in the blessing that follows the rite of matrimony).

Let us give a specific example. At this time of year many children are preparing for first Communion and confirmation. A believing mother or father can help the child review the catechism, explain the meaning of the words to him, and help him memorize the responses. Such parents are doing a beautiful thing and if only there were more who did this!

But what would a child think if after all that his parents said and did for his first Communion, they never go to Mass on Sunday, they never make the sign of the cross and never pray? They have been teachers, but they haven’t been witnesses.

Naturally, the testimony of the parents must not limit itself to the time of the first Communion or confirmation of their children. With the way they correct and forgive the child and forgive each other, with the way they speak with respect of those who are not present, with the way they conduct themselves before a poor person begging for alms, with the comments they make in the presence of the children when they are listening to the news, parents have the possibility of bearing witness to their faith every day.

The souls of children are like sheets of photographic film: Everything they see and hear in the years of childhood leaves a trace and one day the “film” will be “developed” and will bear its fruits — for good or for bad.”

– from http://www.zenit.org

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Inspiration for the New Evangelization
http://www.missionmoment.org

A Beautiful Voice

My friend Scott has a niece in voice training and he shared a video of hers with me the other day. What a gift! American Idol, eat your heart out! Her name is Marian.

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Inspiration for the New Evangelization
http://www.missionmoment.org

Love One Another…. That’s It?

One of the Gospel readings from daily mass last week had some spiritual dynamite in it. We heard from John, chapter 15:

Jesus said to his disciples: “This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends…. This I command you: love one another.”

I remember hearing a story about St. John the Apostle, who in his older days was exiled to the island of Patmos. Legend says the local community would carry him out each week for prayer, supporting his aging and frail body, like Simons bearing a human cross. Then St. John, the last of the Twelve Apostles, would simply say to the crowds around him “Love one another.”

That’s it.

A new member of the community grew a little impatient with these seemingly tedious and unoriginal sermons, mumbled softly every week. So he asked if John ever said anything else.

“What else is there to say?” said a woman beside him.

Whoa…. what else IS there to say? If we stop and think about all the nonsense, the bickering, the sarcasm, the anger, fear, lust, laxity and indifference in the world, and asked ourselves what’s missing here, what’s the antidote to this poison of angst and indifference, the answer would be love. Oh yes it would.

What the world needs now is love, sweet love. The sad thing is, it’s the only thing that there’s just too little of!

I think sometimes we imagine we know what “luv” is and assume it just hasn’t worked. But remember, it’s not “Be nice to one another, as I have been nice to you.” Laying down your life for someone isn’t “nice.” When Ben Kenobi took a lightsaber for the team and the Star Wars gang escaped from the Death Star, Luke Skywalker didn’t yell “Ben! That was so nice of you!” He just yelled “Beeeeeeeennnnnnn!!!!!”

I’m learning about this real love more and more each day. Marriage is teaching me this in a very real way. Marriage is a school of love. And this can be a messy classroom. More like a workshop actually. I’m learning that I can try to love on my own, using my own tools, but I’m a greedy guy and a selfish one. I think the power tool is always the way to go, but sometimes love just needs a hammer and a nail, if you know what I mean.
When my attempts at real love fail, I turn to Jesus. Here’s the source of Love. When I sit with Him, read the gospels in His presence, letting Him slip in between the words of the scriptures, or let my heart get filled up with Him in the Eucharist…. then BLAM! that power comes too. His power to love.

As Rebecca always says, “It takes three to get married” …. oooo, ponder that one!

I still get in the way, a lot (ask my wife). But I know I must look to Jesus if this love revolution is to be successful, triumphant, victorious! (in me first, then anyone in my vicinity) I think the saints are like love grenades…. boom. They hit those nasty encampments of sin with a dynamo of selfless love, blast ’em with beatific love, and the shrapnel of sanctity goes flying.

Like a peeled orange people look up when real love is in the room. “Who’s peeling an orange?” We smell it and know it, and it diffuses so quickly! Faster than the rancid smell of sin. Love is like a fragrant wine. Is this making any sense?

Maybe I should have just said “Love one another?”

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Inspiration for the New Evangelization
http://www.missionmoment.org

Tuesday Night’s Show

Our culture loves to polarize things; it makes for good drama, which makes for enticing news. One of the long-standing faceoffs in the secular mind is the whole God vs. Science, Faith vs. Reason debate.

Can Catholics believe in the theory of evolution? Is creationism the only alternative? What’s Intelligent Design all about?

If you want to hear the skinny on this one, tune in to 800AM or log in at www.catholicinternetradio.com tonight, Tuesday, May 15, for the Heart of Things Radio Show. My guest is Mr. Tom Stewart, a science teacher, Catholic layman, and colleague of mine from Malvern Preparatory School. We’ll be discussing the ideas of evolution, creationism, and Intelligent Design. We’re not experts, but we’ll be looking at a variety of sources to shed light on just what the Church believes about our origins. You might be surprised!

To call into the show…

In the Philadelphia region: 610-527-2906
Or outside call toll free: 888-343-2484

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Inspiration for the New Evangelization
http://www.missionmoment.org