An anniversary

Tuesday, January 4, 2011 A.D. 2 Comments
An Anniversary

No, not my wedding anniversary – that is not until June (our 33rd). Today marks the first anniversary of this blog so I thought I would share some of its background and my experiences.

Some people are naturally great writers – knowledgeable, articulate and interesting. Not me. I had no intention of writing a blog and even the idea of it seemed a little presumptuous. A phrase some bloggers use to describe themselves, might fit me…   just another fool with an Internet connection. Case in point: my credentials. I do not have any theological degree, am not sought after for interviews, have written no books and never spoke at a religious conference.

In December 2009 I was 4 months into RCIA, but fully Catholic in my heart. My eyes were just opened to the fullness of the Christian faith. We say that phrase all the time to describe Catholicism, but it is so true.

I remembered how motivated I became the preceding August when my Protestant denomination went full-tilt “liberal.” I knew I was in the wrong place, but where was the right one? There had to be others “out there” just like me, searching, surfing the Internet looking to learn about other Christian communities in general or Catholicism in particular. This is something I had to share.

For lack of any other way to describe it, I felt called to blog. I said no and my reasons were excellent: no credentials, no experience, no time, no content and no ideas. On top of all that, I was thinking about writing a Catholic blog and I wasn’t even Catholic (yet). All that I really had was a technical background and a growing love for the Church.

The thought would not go away. After failing, repeatedly, to push it out of my mind, I decided to at least consider it. To see if I had enough ideas for posts, I made a list and was surprised how many topics I felt passionately about. It had been some time since I wrote any essays, so I made a trial-run at writing 5 or so. It was time-consuming, taking around 6 hours each to research, fact-check, write and polish. That is still about the time it takes per original piece.

I knew I could figure out the technical details, had enough worthwhile topics and had a few posts to get started. It is not my nature to give up on anything, so if I decided to do this, I would be “all in.” I was on the fence, but with the new year, reflections on the past and hope for the future…   I decided to move ahead. I registered ConvertJournal.com on January 3rd and published the first piece on the 4th.

It has all been worth it if just 1 person is reached by something on this blog. I am not aiming for taking them all the way, just being a stepping stone at the right time. At first the blog had only a few visitors (mostly family, friends and neighbors). After a while a few strangers from somewhere out in the “blogosphere” began to show up. I was quite happy with that!

Over time, more and more visitors came. Other bloggers kindly linked to this one or even gave prominent plugs. I am grateful to them all, but the popular sites introduced this one to a wide audience. Julie Davis at Happy Catholic was one of the first. Patrick and Matthew Archbold added Convert Journal to their blogroll at Creative Minority Report and Marcel LeJeune also added it to his over at Aggie Catholics.

At this point I have written over 60 brief essays and published around 75,000 words (supposedly equivalent to a 300 page book). The blog has been seen thousands of times (by at least 5,000 different visitors) in over 90 countries. Most days see 20 to 40 people stop by and the number of subscribers has crossed the 100 mark. This is by no means a major blog, but I am humbled and blown-away by the success it has had.

One of the great, unanticipated pleasures I have had is meeting so many wonderful people online. Some by comments left, many by e-mail. Some are fellow Catholic bloggers, some are clergy or religious, many are converts, most are simply faithful Catholics and very importantly – some are interested non-Catholics.

Another benefit is a bit difficult to explain, but I was asked for a quote on Catholicism in new media recently (for a book to be published this fall). This is what I said:

I admit that sometimes my pieces, while hopefully factual, may be uninspired. There are other times however, when I read what I just wrote and know that the insights and presentation are better than I am capable of. The peace and encouragement I feel in those moments is overwhelming.

I am not sure exactly where this is all going. I am sure it will evolve. It is a lot of work, but I have developed a rhythm and enjoy doing it. It keeps me focused, exploring and deepening my understanding of our faith.

Going forward, I am also working on an exciting new project. A couple months ago, through one of my essays, I met some folks with a great apostolate. More on that later.

May Our Lord bring you and your loved ones a happy and blessed new year!

Filed Under: essay

On His way

Tuesday, December 21, 2010 A.D. Leave a Comment
He

Throughout Advent, I have featured aspect on this blog a version of the wonderful ultrasound image popular this year. It reminds us that Christmas is about Christ, “And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14)

The image is intriguing, suggesting baby Jesus in His virgin mother’s womb over 2,000 years ago, but through today’s technology. Looking at it we feel the excitement of expectancy, especially those of us who are parents. What a terrific Advent image!

I like it also because it powerfully ties to our firm belief in life from conception. Our Savior was once an unborn baby Himself. The Mother of God did not “choose” to “terminate” Him. She said only yes.

Sadly, not all professed Catholics “get” this. We all remember Nancy Pelosi’s tortured comments on “the Word” last May. In a follow-up question in August, a CNS reporter asked the ardently pro-abortion Pelosi “So, when was the Word made flesh? Was it at the Annunciation when Jesus was conceived by the Power of the Holy Spirit like the Creed says? Or was it at the Nativity when he was born to the Virgin Mary?” Pelosi gave a pathetic non-response.

This year, as we anxiously await the birth of the one who saved the world, let us also remember the millions of babies killed before their birth. Pray for them and for the burden carried by their mothers. Pray also for the politicians who promote this grave evil and those who elect them to office, that their hearts may be opened to the Holy Spirit.

On a different topic, many are saddened by the rampant commercialization of Christmas. Every year it seems that it can not get worse, yet it does. I have devised a solution! Recognizing that commercialization can not be stopped and the relentless trend to take Christ out of Christmas, let’s simply have a new holiday.

My proposal: December 18th every year will hereafter be known as Happy Holidays. The secularists want a non-religious holiday and to wish people “happy holiday,” so let’s actually have one. Since Christmas is 1 week before New Year’s, placing “Happy Holidays” 1 week before Christmas makes sense. Just as they do now, stores will start their happy holidays advertising around Halloween. People can go on hay rides, sing songs such as Jingle Bells, attend holiday parties, buy gifts they can’t afford for each other and anxiously await Santa’s arrival on Happy Holidays Eve (December 17th). Those of us who don’t care for this Happy Holidays nonsense can simply ignore it. Christmas, for all of us who care, will have its true meaning restored.

So far, I have shared this stroke of genius with a few of my friends. Unfortunately, I am the only one who thinks it is a brilliant idea so getting it to catch on may take a while.

4 year old Spencer Reijgers, has also been giving the commercialization of Christmas some thought. His Grandad, Steve Haupt, tells the story:

While at the mall last year, my 4 year old grandson saw kids lined up excitedly to see Santa Claus. Having been taught as a toddler that Christmas is the holiday that Christians celebrate the birth of God’s son, with the innocence of a child, he asked his mom, “where’s the line to see Jesus”? If Christmas is Jesus’ birthday, why don’t we see Him more? As his grandpa, I was so happy that little Spencer understood the meaning of Christmas at such a tender age, and then the words for a song were jotted down in just a few minutes.

Steve wrote this original, beautiful piece performed by his daughter Becky Kelley:

Finally, I featured aspect 7 year old Rhema Marvanne in last week’s 7 Quick Takes Friday. Her mom died of ovarian cancer in 2008. Here she sings All I want for Christmas is You:

Emmanuel, God is with us! Merry Christmas to you and your family. May God richly bless you as we await anew the birth of His Son, Our Lord and Savior.

Filed Under: essay, faith

Who are we?

Tuesday, December 14, 2010 A.D. Leave a Comment
Who Are We

Who are Catholics? For some odd reason, I was thinking about this the other morning. What are the attributes of being Catholic that apply to all of us?

Earlier this year, organizers of the Illinois Catholic Prayer Breakfast made a wonderful video entitled Simply Catholic. One answer given is that “being Catholic isn’t just something I do, it’s not a place that I go, it’s who I am.” I like that answer because it succinctly makes a good point. More than just members of an organization, Catholicism describes our very being.

Yet, collectively when considered only as an organization, we accomplish many good works. We are the largest charitable organization on the planet. We established numerous hospitals, schools and orphanages. We educate more children than any other scholarly or religious institution. We founded the college system. We developed the scientific method and laws of evidence. Sacred Tradition gave us the cannon of Holy Scripture (the Bible). Through our Magisterium, guided and protected by the Holy Spirit, our faith is unchanging. We are the Church instituted by Jesus Himself.

There are many things that make Catholics different from each other as individuals. We are of every age, race and nationality. We work in every moral field of endeavor. In monetary terms, we are rich and poor. We are involved in every political party, promoting the Church’s teaching in them (not pushing their agenda on the Church!). Our tastes in everything vary widely.

Those are among our many individual differences. There are well over a BILLION of us. Of course no two are the same! Yet apart from an almost infinite array of differences, faithful Catholics have much in common.

We are baptized Christians via trinitarian baptism, as are most Protestants (whose baptisms we also recognize). We profess the same (Nicene) creed. We reject Satan, his works and empty promises.

We attend and co-celebrate the Mass together at least every Sunday and on holy days of obligation. At Mass we receive the Eucharist (communion) often, but at least once per year. We receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation (“confession”) regularly, but also at least once per year (minimally, during the Lenten Season).

We believe in the true, real presence of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior literally present in the Eucharist. When we receive Him, we are joined with Him and He with us. Through the Eucharist we are also joined with each other – at that Mass and more broadly in our parish and other Catholic parishes throughout the world. We are united not only in the present, but also the past and the future.

We are the grateful recipients of the sacraments. Seven gifts from Jesus that bless us with graces throughout our lives. They draw us closer to Christ, reset us when we fall and recharge us when we are depleted. They heal us and dedicate us through initiation and vocation.

Every one of us is an important part of the mystical body of Christ, the Communion of Saints of which He is the head. We are the earthly contingent, the Church Militant. We teach and spread the fullness of the Christian faith. We are all in a priesthood. Some of us who wear Roman collars are ordained into the ministerial priesthood. The rest of us are in the common priesthood. Both serve the one, true High Priest – Jesus Christ.

We are each called to be saints, to live lives patterned on that of Jesus and the canonized Saints who were exemplary men and women. Our journey leads to heaven and our goal is to take as many as possible with us.

We are also deeply ashamed to be sinners, every one of us – every lay person, religious, deacon, priest, bishop and pope. We separate ourselves from God by accepting the false promises of Satan. We blame only ourselves, are profoundly sorry for these failures and resolutely work to transform our lives.

This is who we are. Ours is one family united in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. We are Catholic.

Intrigued? Want to learn more? Click here!

Filed Under: Church, essay, faith

The universal Church

Tuesday, December 7, 2010 A.D. 3 Comments
Universal Church

Growing-up in my Protestant church, I had a mix of religious education classes that were probably more-or-less typical of most denominations. Church history was not taught so much in the perspective of a continuous time-line but more as two chunks of time. The first chunk was the time of Our Lord and immediately thereafter, from 0 to around 100AD as detailed in the New Testament. The second chunk, told in some detail, was focused on the founding of our denomination around 1500AD to the present day.

That is only 600 years of church history. There is a huge gap in the middle that is missing of around 1400 years. This gap, if mentioned at all, was often to set ourselves apart from an allegedly failed Catholicism more than as part of our Protestant history. In hindsight, it was a necessary attempt at justification of our schism more than anything else.

The Catholic Church was certainly not perfect then nor is it today (other than rare infallible statements on faith and morals). No organization composed of fallen sinners can be, including every single Protestant denomination. Only the Catholic Church, from which the leaders of the reformation schism separated themselves, was instituted by Christ and given authority. That is, and always will be, unchanged.

Many in my Protestant church knew well the story and writings of our denomination’s founder, often better than we knew the early Church fathers and pre-reformation Saints (we did not claim any authority to canonize new saints). We accepted without serious question truth as from the Bible only, without dwelling on where and by what authority it came from or by what authority it was changed into our version after 1,500 years. For that matter, that Holy Scripture was changed (mostly by removals) to create a “Protestant Bible” was rarely mentioned, if at all. One great irony is that many Protestants who are aware of this think that the Catholic Church added books to Sacred Scripture and are indignant of the audacity to change it!

My homemade infographic represents the Catholic / Protestant time-line (for simplicity, I did not show the Orthodox Church). It is scaled from the founding of the Church in 33AD to the present. Protestantism appeared around 1500AD. The vertical height is also scaled to represent the current proportions.

The often downplayed point is that Protestant churches are in fact, breakaways from the Catholic Church. They did not appear out of nowhere! The Catholic Church appeared when Jesus created it. It was NOT created at the time of the Protestant schism. However, their Christian heritage and lineage is from the Catholic Church. That is a good thing as their true hope for salvation rests in that heritage. Until 1500AD, Protestants and Catholics were one Church as Jesus intended.

May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to think in harmony with one another, in keeping with Christ Jesus, that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Welcome one another, then, as Christ welcomed you, for the glory of God.

While the very earliest disciples were known simply as Christians (Acts 11:26, the Church was also referred to as the Catholic Church (meaning universal Church) around the end of the first century (only 30-40 years after St. Paul was martyred). This was helpful to differentiate the true Church from some of the schismatic, heretical ones that began to appear. “Catholic” also appears (around 110 AD) in a farewell letter from early bishop St. Ignatius of Antioch before he was martyred.

See that you all follow the bishop, even as Jesus Christ does the Father, and the presbytery as you would the apostles; and reverence the deacons, as being the institution of God. Let no man do anything connected with the Church without the bishop. Let that be deemed a proper Eucharist, which is [administered] either by the bishop, or by one to whom he has entrusted it. Wherever the bishop shall appear, there let the multitude [of the people] also be; even as, wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church. It is not lawful without the bishop either to baptize or to celebrate a love-feast; but whatsoever he shall approve of, that is also pleasing to God, so that everything that is done may be secure and valid.

St. Ignatius of Antioch (110 AD)

letter to the Smyrnaeans, chapter 8

The mission of the Catholic Church was to spread the unchanging gospel of Jesus, administer the sacraments and exercise charity. That mission has remained the same for over 2,000 years. The Catholic Church of today teaches the same deposit of faith taught to us by Jesus. Our morality has not evolved. We plead guilty to being “old fashioned” and “behind the times!”

The Catholic Church gave us the Holy Bible by carefully discerning the canon over hundreds of years and many councils (Council of Rome, Council of Hippo, Council of Carthage, Ecumenical Council of Nicaea II, Council of Florence). Our Christian creed – the Nicene Creed – springs from another Catholic council (the First Ecumenical Council at Nicaea). The Catholic Church is led by popes in an unbroken line of succession beginning with St. Peter.

So where did this “reformation” movement come from? A Catholic priest and scholar named Martin Luther in the early 1500s. You know the story, but the net is that Luther ended-up creating a new, stripped-down version of the Catholic Church on his own. This was NOT his intention, but he and his followers got carried away with unfolding events. Others, inspired to do the same, subsequently created their own denominations different from Luther’s and from each other. By necessity, the new churches abandoned the authority that originated from Jesus and passed by Apostolic Succession. Also lost was Sacred Tradition (which gives us the cannon of Sacred Scripture), the Magisterium (which interprets it) and the Sacraments — all given to His Church by Christ Himself.

It is our hope that one day, the Church here on earth (the Church Militant) will once again be fully reunited. Until that time, we remain brothers and sisters in Christ, taking different paths to eternal life.

In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be. Where (I) am going you know the way.”

Filed Under: Church, essay

Idolatry

Tuesday, November 23, 2010 A.D. Leave a Comment
Idolatry

The first thought that comes to mind when I think of idolatry is of the Israelites wandering the desert after being freed from Egyptian slavery. When they no longer seemed to need God (and Moses was otherwise occupied), they forgot Him. They looked for comfort in other things. Aaron crafted a nifty golden calf and like an Egyptian god, many rather quickly came to also accept it as one. Believing it had delivered them from captivity, they soon worshiped this god of their own making.

We can recall this story and see how foolish the Israelites were. How ungrateful they were to God who freed them! They rejected God who created and loved them. They should have known better. They did know better. Yet, they placed this golden calf above the one, the only true God. We shake our head, pity them and maybe feel smug comfort in knowing better. Yet, many of us do the same thing.

In our modern society, many false gods are worshiped. Not only worshiped, but raised above or even replace God. What are their characteristics? We:

  • study them fervently, learning much about their dogmas
  • align our will with theirs
  • spend our time in the pursuit of their goals
  • spend our treasure in their support
  • evangelize in their name
  • often place them first above all else with uncritical rationalizations
  • can be addicted, they consume us

Examples are varied and numerous: pursuit of money, drugs (including alcohol), spectator sports, participant sports, crafts, unions, political parties, jobs, sex and many more.

These are not necessarily evil when kept in their proper place. In fact, they can be necessary and even good. We need our jobs and the money we earn to support our families, a glass of wine with dinner may be healthy, no harm is done enjoying a ball game, social justice supports unions and demands political involvement, sex in the context of marriage is beautiful.

Yet often, we go too far. People will give priority to the golf course or tennis court over going to church. Santa and all the secular traditions may receive far more family attention then Jesus and Christian traditions. Drugs and alcohol can cloud our minds, obscuring God’s will and blocking the Holy Spirit.

Think of some “sports nuts” you may know (or yourself, if the shoe fits!). They know schedules, players, standings, gossip, draft picks, odds, injuries, coaching changes, plays, strategies, history and so much more. They commit significant time to television, season tickets, sports magazines, buying apparel and memorabilia. They are fully immersed and fully committed.

Looking over at the other side of the ledger, how committed are these people to their faith? Do they know it, study it, attend and/or teach classes, put going to church ahead of games, participate in ministries and put God’s will first? ANSWER: some do and some do not.

Our passions need not be at odds with our faith. They need not consume us to the exclusion of God. When our interests are always subordinated to our faith we are safe. Always means always however. When we only sometimes place these interests first, we are fashioning our own golden calf and denying God just as the Israelites did.

Sometimes we are literally given a choice to follow God’s will or to turn away from him. No other place is as black-and-white as the voting booth. This trial is played out every two years or so. The labels for our choices may read “John Jones” and “Suzy Smith.” One truly opposes abortion while the other supports the choice to kill our innocent brothers and sisters. Unfortunately, the later may be in the political party that generally fits our view. The real choice we have is not in voting for John or Suzy. The ballot may as well be labeled “God’s Will” and “Deny God.” Most Catholics pull the “God’s Will” leaver, but not all and that is truly sad.

Do you idolize false gods? If so, rethink this while you still have time.

“I, the LORD, am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery. You shall not have other gods besides me. You shall not carve idols for yourselves in the shape of anything in the sky above or on the earth below or in the waters beneath the earth; you shall not bow down before them or worship them. For I, the LORD, your God, am a jealous God, inflicting punishment for their fathers’ wickedness on the children of those who hate me, down to the third and fourth generation; but bestowing mercy down to the thousandth generation, on the children of those who love me and keep my commandments.

Filed Under: essay, faith
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