Long time away

It has been a long time since I have posted on here. Mainly due to a lot of things going on and all of them happening at once, I kind of lost sight of what I was doing here and how I was trying to reach the world and talk to people. I am sorry for that. It is crazy to sit back and think that if for one day you didn't call the same person you called everyday( you all know there is that one person) Or if you didn't text anyone or answer the phone when anyone called. How soon do you think it would be before the police were knocking on your door doing a welfare check and just making sure you were still alive? How come no one called the cops for me? Just kidding. But back to the serious subject. What if you dropped off of the face of the world for a day? Who would you talk to? If I ever did that there is only one person I would still talk to and that is God. I would still get on my knees and talk and converse with him and then everything I did that day would still make me think of him. I am sure that I actually would have a lot more conversations with him if I did this with having all of the other people and everything cut off for a day. Who would you miss talking to the most? Hopefully your answer to that question is not God because hopefully you would still keep in contact with him... Just thinking.....

Kinda funny

Give up?

Have you ever wanted to just give up on everything? Does it feel like no matter what you do all that happens is you get worse off than you were the day before? I seem to have this feeling a lot lately. Sometimes I want to just run away from all of my problems and responsibilities in this world and never look back. I want to just hide from everyone and everything. It seems like sometimes it would be much easier to do that than to try and deal with and fix all of the problmes we face each day. Now I know that that is not the right thing to do and that is why I have never done that. I stand as strong as I can and try to do what I need to do to get things done the right way. The only reason I stand is because of Christ. If he were not holding me up and pushing me forward I would fall flat on my face and I would be a pathetic waste of existance. Luckily I have been blessed with the gift of knowing and growing close to my creator. This alone is the reason I breathe. Nothing in this world and I mean absolutely nothing is nearly as important as him. I could care less about making money, or having a sweet car, I just want to do my best while im on this planet to love God with my whole heart and soul and nothing else. But still for some reason the desire to get away from it all is still here. Why is that? Does anyone know?

Come Holy Spirit

Tonight I was blessed with spending good quality time with one of my very very good friends from high school. I say blessed because the beauty of a good friendship is one that is awe inspiring. While we were hanging out we got into a discussion of faith. I know this friend is a Catholic but has not been involved in the faith in quite some time. His life and certain things that have been happening in it are calling him to a deeper conversion into the faith. I was sitting here listening to him speak about the many ways God is working in his life, which by itself is incredible because it is very hard to actually see God's work in your life if you have been away for a while. We were talking about his desire to come back to the Church and it brought me to tears listening to him talk about what he wants. He has a desire that I honestly see as amazing. The reasons he wants to come back will remain between me and him but to realize what the most important thing in life is and actually go for it is so beautiful. In this friend I not only share the same common interest's but also Christ! That alone is grounds for taking the time and care that is required to develop and nurture this friendship to a much deeper level. I hope that Christ continues to work in his life and show himself to my friend and I pray that he continues to see this happening. I also want to thank him. For being my friend. Not only that, but for being a Great friend. I ask and beg all of you to pray for him and his conversion into the faith and that his desire continues to grow with his faith. I titled this post "Come Holy Spirit" because I know that the Holy Spirit is working in his life so strong right now and gently leading him by the hand to the church that praying directly to the Holy Spirit will give him much more encouragement and much more enthusiasm to continue this journey.

He said he wanted to do "Hoodrat" things with his friends...

Standing up for God

I got this email from one of my really good friends, it is funny, but it also makes me think of standing up for God and if I do it enough.

Here is the email:

A United States Marine was attending some college courses between assignments. He had completed missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. One of the courses had a professor who was an avowed atheist. One day, the professor shocked the class when he came in, looked to the ceiling and flatly stated, 'God, if you are real, then I want you to knock me off this platform, I'll give you exactly 15 minutes.' The lecture room fell silent. You could hear a pin drop.
Ten minutes went by and the professor proclaimed, 'Here I am God, I'm still waiting.' It got down to the last couple of minutes when the Marine got out of his chair, went up to the professor, and cold-cocked him; knocking him off the platform. The professor was out cold. The Marine went back to his seat and sat there, silently. The other students were shocked and stunned and sat there looking on in silence.
The professor eventually came to, noticeably shaken, looked at the Marine and asked, 'What the heck is the matter with you?' 'Why did you do that?' The Marine calmly replied, 'God was too busy today protecting America 's soldiers who are protecting your right to say stupid stuff and act like an idiot, so, He sent me.'

While getting up and cold-cocking someone is a very extreme way of standing up for God, It makes one think of what they would do when it came down to defending their creator. We don't have to go around knocking people out, or going around hurting people, but lets think of leading by example. When we do things that go against the norm of society we are giving an example. When we don't look at a girl as a piece of meat and say things about her to our friends we are making an example. When we cross ourselves while sitting alone in the food court at the mall and people stare at you we are making an example. When we kneel down to pray when no one is around we are making an example. We don't need to be standing on soap boxes and shouting about fire and brimstone on the street corner to convert people. I fell that all we need to do is live out our faith at every moment and in every situation we come across in our days. I think this will honestly bring the light of Christ to more people.

"For the Catholic there is no room for cowardice"

I saw this quote a while ago and it has had me thinking about it ever since I read it. What does it mean? How does it apply to the lives of Catholics? Well I think there is a lot of ways that it can work in our lives. Our beliefs as Catholics are ones that are under constant criticism and ridicule. I mean seriously, I don't know how many times I have gotten a weird look from people when I talk about being pro-life, or why I go to Mass every Sunday no matter what. I think the biggest one that twists peoples faces is the Eucharist. "Wait, your telling me that you believe your eating his actual Body and drinking his actual Blood? That means your cannibal right?" Or something of that nature. It is hard to understand but right now I don't want to go into the Eucharist I want to talk about what I have started. As Catholics we need to be firm and un-wavering in our beliefs. We believe what we believe because we know its true. For the most part people who do not agree with our beliefs do so because they do not think they are true. Why would you believe in something that you don't think is true? I know the sky is not neon pink, so I don't believe that when I get up tomorrow and look out of my window that I will see a neon pink sky. If someone does not believe that when the Bread and Wine are prayed over in the prayer of Consecration that it actually turns into the body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ, then they probably don't "believe" in the Eucharist. As catholics we need to do everything with our whole heart and not back down from anything. If we are confronted about life issues, we need to stand by the church and her teachings and beliefs on that matter. We cannot back down or give half truths about things as important as abortion. We also need to stand firmly for our beliefs on things such as the Eucharist, or the the importance of Mass. But most importantly we need to be strong Christians. We need to let people know without a doubt no matter what the consequences are that we are in fact Catholic. We need to stand up for the most important thing in this world. Christ. He needs to be our main objective, and I do not really see a way that we can make him that if we are weak and unsure of our faith. The quote is sweet and simple. But the meditations on it are amazing. Take that thought with you through the day and see if you are strong in your faith, or if you are kind of weak. It will amaze you and open up awesome doors to perfect your relationship with Christ.

Mass. To go or not to go. That is the question...Unfortunately

Why is it that Mass has now become a thing of unimportance in our world? I have been blessed with the chance to teach Religious Education at the parish I attend for the last three years. One of the unfortunate things I have come to relaize from teaching this class is that hardly anyone goes to Mass anymore. I know there are people that go but I mean that there seems to be less and less people who actually go. In my class every week I ask the kids who went to Mass this weekend and rarely more than one, if one raises their hand. This is not the kids fault though as a second grader should not be expected to get themselves to Mass. The blame falls upon the parents. Missing Mass is a mortal sin. I ask the kids why they did'nt go and the reasons I hear litterally make me sick to my stomach. Just to bring this into perspective I will list some of the reasons I hear repeaditively. "My mom said we could'nt go because we had to do housework." "I didnt go because my mom had to do laundry." "my dad does'nt like going so we never get to go." "My mom said we had to go to the mall instead." This one is the most common, and the most troubling becuase it is so pathetic, "We forgot." How do you forget? Church is like the universal thing that people say they have to do on Sunday's. Its not like Mass used to be on Tuesdays and just now got swithced to Sundays and you were confused by the change and forgot. You just didnt want to go. People have mpre important things to do. What if the tables were turned? What if on the day of his crucifixion Jesus had to many errands to run, or He just plum forgot to go to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray where he was later turned over to be killed? Then we would have no life. No salvation! Nothing! We would have no purpose for life becuase there would be no possibility for us to go to Heaven. We need to look at what is most important here. We need to see what needs to be done and we NEED TO DO IT! I beg that anyone who reads this blog to pray fervently for the kids who are subject to this, and just as hard for the parents who have lost sight of their faith and are not teaching their kids the biggest lesson in life.

Prayer, is it a waste of time? Or is it one of the most direct ways we can come to know our God?

I was thinking about prayer the other day. I was thinking about how it fits into the busy lives of Americans. Or the way it does'nt fit into the lives of most Americans. With work, paying bills, getting the kids to and from soccer practice, and the general hustle and bustle do we take the time out of this to give to God? I have noticed an increassing ammount of things piling up on my plate and have noticed that when things get really heavy and I get really stressed out at the end of the day the last thing on my mind is prayer. When in actuality that should be the first, second, and third thing on my mind. I should be asking God to guide me through these times and to help me keep my sanity, but instead I focus on what I need to do. That is entirely the wrong thing to focus on. I think that a lot of us loose the ability to give ourselves wholey to God, and we instead work on everything on our own and we do not let him have any part of it. When we do this we are setting ourselves up for failure. Without God we are nothing, and the things we try and do without God also become nothing. We need to offer ourselves to the Father and let him take total control of our lives. You can think of it this way, remember when you were a kid and you were just learning how to ride a bike? You probably had training wheels on you bike to help keep you from falling, and a few of the very first times you rode you had either your Mother or Father behind you pushing you along and helping you get going. We can kind of think of our life like learning to ride a bike. At first when we start out we are wobbly and all over the place until we learn to trust in out training wheels. This can be viewed as us learning to live in this world of sin. We are wobbly and we fall into sin, and we do things that are not glorifying to God. Then we learn to trust in our savior, and the redemption earned for us by his dying on the cross. Then an we get older we begin riding our bike faster! Doing more things, going different places and we are ready to get rid of the completley embarrassing and out-dated training wheels. We start going faster, school is starting to get very stressful and we are making all kinds of new friends, especially that one of the opposite sex who keeps looking over here at us. Then we soon realize that we are pretty self sufficient without our training wheels and we can do pretty well without them so we start falling even farther away from the things that helped us get going like God, and Mass and so on. Then one day we are crusing down a steep hill, doing well, no one helping us just all on our own when all of a sudden we hit something. We don't even see it coming, and we crash hard. After a small recovery we begin to think and wonder what happened that made us crash. What did we do? I'm a good rider, I have'nt crashed in years, but once we think harder and harder we realize that we lost something. Maybe we lost focus of what er were doing or what was around us and that's why we crashed. Or maybe we turned our back on something and it came back to get us. The main thing is, something is wrong. Now in the spiritual life we can look at this and see that we fell, either into sin, or we fell into hard times, or we can even be feeling that we are worthless and that there is really no reason for us to be here. After we fall what do we do? Do we brush ourselves off and think that we just need to pay more attention to things? Or do we stop and think that whatever we have just encountered is something from God. Be it good or bad. If we do not understand what is going on or why something in our life has happened the way it has then we should ask God to show us what has happened. Or why it has happened. When we pray to God we get to learn all kinds of things. Things that we otherwise would be troubled by, or totally confused by. When we pray we develop a a strong relationship with God and we begin to see this world with a more clear view, and a sturdier grip on reality. After we have established this relationship with God we need to keep it alive and strong. We need to keep talking with him and we need to become more and more open to him and with him. Once we do that I think that the purpose of prayer, and the meaning of it will come much more easy, and we can then answer the question, is it a waste of time? Or is it one of the most direct ways we can get to know our God?

Who is in control?

A few things have been happening in my life that have made me realize that I truly am not in control of my life, God is. This can be both a scary feeling and a totally liberating one. We as humans ahave a very strong tendancy to rely completly on ourselves for everything. That is no good. We ned to give everything to God. We need to let him have a part in everything we do. Why wouldnt we want him there? He knows what is going to happen to us, and he knows what will be the outcome of everything so why not let him work in our lives. As I have stated many times before, and it goes for this too. Im not trying to act like I have surrendered eveything to him but I have recently had the great blessing of being faced with some things that were completely out of my hands and when I asked God to help me and I gave him my fears and concerns, insted of feeling lost and scared, I was comforted with the tasks I have infront of all of me. God sent the Holy Spirit down upon me that day and totally blessed me with his presence. All of this reminds me of a poem that is very famous which I am sure you have heard before, but just incase some of you havent I wanted to put i on here becuase I think it speaks volumes to this topic. The poem is call "Footprints in the sand" and here it is:

"One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord.
Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky.
In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand.
Sometimes there were two sets of footprints,
other times there were one set of footprints.

This bothered me because I noticed
that during the low periods of my life,
when I was suffering from
anguish, sorrow or defeat,
I could see only one set of footprints.

So I said to the Lord,
"You promised me Lord,
that if I followed you,
you would walk with me always.
But I have noticed that during
the most trying periods of my life
there have only been one
set of footprints in the sand.
Why, when I needed you most,
you have not been there for me?"

The Lord replied,
"The times when you have
seen only one set of footprints in the sand,
is when I carried you."

In case you have never heard this poem you should really consider meditating on its meaning, and what it has to say to you today, in this life.

The church of Oprah......?

True definition of Love

Jn 19:16-30 "So they took Jesus, 17 and carrying the cross himself he went out to what is called the Place of the Skull, in Hebrew, Golgotha.
18There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, with Jesus in the middle.
19 Pilate also had an inscription written and put on the cross. It read, "Jesus the Nazorean, the King of the Jews."
20Now many of the Jews read this inscription, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek.
21 So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, "Do not write 'The King of the Jews,' but that he said, 'I am the King of the Jews.'"
22Pilate answered, "What I have written, I have written."
23 When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and divided them into four shares, a share for each soldier. They also took his tunic, but the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from the top down.
24So they said to one another, "Let's not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it will be," in order that the passage of scripture might be fulfilled (that says): "They divided my garments among them, and for my vesture they cast lots." This is what the soldiers did.
25Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala.
26When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved, he said to his mother, "Woman, behold, your son."
27Then he said to the disciple, "Behold, your mother." And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.
28After this, aware that everything was now finished, in order that the scripture might be fulfilled, Jesus said, "I thirst."
29There was a vessel filled with common wine. So they put a sponge soaked in wine on a sprig of hyssop and put it up to his mouth.
30When Jesus had taken the wine, he said, "It is finished." And bowing his head, he handed over the spirit."

What kind of day will I have today?

I received an email from my sister today that I think is worth thinking about. It is kind of cheesy, but if we put Christ into these thoughts, and other thoughts that come into play during our day I think it is actually a very very beautiful way to view our day here is the E-mail:

I woke up early today, excited over all I get to do before the day ends. I have responsibilities to fulfill today. I am important. My job is to choose what kid of day I am going to have.

Today I can complain because the weather is rainy or... I can be thankful that the yard is getting watered for free.
Today I can grumble about my health or... I can rejoice that I am alive.
Today I can mourn my lack of friends or... I can excitedly embark upon a quest to discover new relationships.
Today I can whine because I have to go to work or... I can shout for joy because I have a job to do.
Today I can murmur dejectedly because I have to do chores or... I can feel honored because life has provided shelter for my mind, body, and soul.

There is a saying that I have heard for a long time, I do not know who said it, or where it originated but I love what it says, "Today is a day the Lord hath made, Let us rejoice and be glad in it!" I think this directly applies to everyone of the things laid out in the E-mail. For that matter I think it applies to everything we do, everyday. If the weather is not what we want or what we expect to have, be glad! We have water for green grass that is beautiful to look at and play in. We have sunshine that is great for going outside and spending time together, or for going outside to just realize that simple things like that, which I for one, and a lot of others take for granted, are able to make our days beautiful. We do have our health, we are alive, and we are living in this world that God created and gave to us. Even if our health is not perfect, maybe we have some limitations that health brings, but so what? WE ARE ALIVE! We need to offer all of this up to God and thank him for all of these beautilful, yet simple gifts. On the subject of friends. If we feel that we do not have enough friends or that we need more we need to realize that we have a friend in Christ. He is always there, and we should turn to him on the good times and in the bad times to offer every part of our day upto him. We also need to thank him for the people that come into our lives and recognize every friendship we have and ever acquaintance we make is becuase of him and nothing else. Work can be boring, and it can end up being dreaded because of the things that it puts us through. But think of this, there are people who wake up in the morning not knowing when there next meal will be and have no clue how they are going to shelter and feed their families. We should be so lucky to have a job, no matter what is and we should take time to make a concerted effort at making every day there a joyful one, not only for us but for the people we encounter. I said this in a blog a while ago, but smile at someone today. A real genuine smile and see what their reaction is. When was the last time someone smiled at you? Not for doing something nice for them, or for smiling at them first, but just smiled because they are happy? Having a hard time remebering when that was? Maybe becuase it is such a rare thing in this world. Chores. Who likes them? I dont. I hate cleaning my apartment, I dont like spending time on things like making my bed, or sitting down and paying bills. But the reasons we do these things is because we have been given the place to live, the heat, the bed to sleep in, and the food to eat from God and we need to do that as a way to show our appreciation and respect for the gift God gave us. I think this world could be such a more wonderful place if we could just focus in on all of this. I know its hard. Im not saying that I do this all the time, or that I'm doing this and you should too because I'm tired of being the only one. I'm saying it as a plead for all of us to work as a team, and build up this world to a loveing, caring and happy place that God intended for it to be. Take into consideration the things you do today and realize they are gifts from God. Thank him for the gifts he gives you.

Technology: The good, the bad, and the evil

I was thinking today about how much we depend on technology. We use it every single day, no matter what. With cell phones and computers being the main means of communication, have we lost the value of actual human, face to face communication? I was thinking about my interactions with people, and then I was thinking about how I communicate online. It seems that for me at least, it is easier to express my feelings and say what I want to say hiding behind my monitor, rather than saying it to someone in person. I dont know if this goes for anyone else out there, but I noticed it in my life. Also, Computers are the main way we communicate, what happens if we loose our computers for a day? Lets say the World Wide Web just all of a sudden stops for a day. What would you do? Would you be able to function? I wonder what would happen. I know I would have a hard time, I wouldnt be able to check my E-mail box which is always filled with the same, non important junk, I wouldnt be able to watch videos on YouTube. I would probably have to get off of my butt and go do something. Wow. What a dilema. I think that technology serves as a good thing in some cases, but overall I think this world has become way to reliant on it. I think that we need to devolpe communication skills again, and we need to learn how to interact with other people! I would like to see what others thoughts on this are, so please, feel free to comment, and voice your opinion.

Congratulations

I would just like to congradulate my Father on receiving Confirmation and First Holy Communion this evening. I am so proud, not only as his son, but as his sponsor to see how much he has grown, and see how much his life has changed after he let Christ into it. Big up's Dad. This man has come through a lot. I truly have just seen one of my prayers answered to its fullest extent. Thank you very much Lord for granting not only me, but my Father with the wonderful gift of yourself. I ask only one thing tonight. May the Lord's blessings be upon everyone who was confirmed and brought into full Communion with the Church tonight, I ask that they act as beacons shining through the darkness of this world and bring more and more people into the light of Christ. I love you Dad. I love you very much!

Confession and the loss of fingernails

I would like to apologize to all of my faithful readers. The millions of you out there who's definition of a complete day hinges solely upon the reading of my blog. I'm sorry that I havent posted in a few days I have had a lot of things going on and unfortunately this was pushed to the back burner. But now to the good news! I am back. How do you like me now? Okay, onto something more important. I went to confession today, and while waiting in line I noticed I was nervous. I dont know what specifically was making me nervous, or what I was worried about but I was honestly nervous. I have been to confession many times before, so it was not something along the lines of not knowing what was going to happen when I got in there, or worrying about saying my act of contrition right. I added the fingernails thing in there becuase I unfortunatley have the disgusting habit of gnawing my fingers down to the second knuckle when nervous, well actually I kinda do it whenever it seems like the thing to do at the time. Back to the topic at hand (no pun intended). After noticing what I was feeling I started to try and think back to my last confession and see if I could remeber being nervous. The more I thought about it I realized that I actually get nervous before confession everytime I go. What am I nervous about? Is it the fact that in a few seconds im going to be telling my sins to another man? No, because I know when confessing im not talking to another man im talking to Christ truly present throught the Priest. Is it becuase im affraid of what the Priest will say? No because I know he is there to help me and isnt going to reach through the divider and shake me around for my sins. I wonder what scares me. I wonder if it has something to do with the connection of verbalizing your sins and the realization of God's mercy and seeing how much he loves us. I dont know. I was wondering if this happens to anyone else. If it does, what do you think scares you? What do you think is the nerve racking thing is that gets us? Let me know. Im very curious. Also please keep my father in your prayers as he is getting confirmed tonight and receiving his first Holy Communion. Just ask Christ to help him see all of the wonderful gifts he is receiving tonight. I thank you for your prayers...

Please pray for those who do not see Christ

I received this email after telling someone I have known for a while about my blog, no names because it is not important who it was, but please pray for them that they may one day come to a realization that Chirst and his church are not just "crutches" and that its not only good for people to help them "get through life", but that a Relationship with Christ is what will bring them true happiness and peace. Here is the E-mail:

Jon, don't take this too personally. In my opinion organized religion is the biggest hoax ever perpetrated on mankind. I am certainly not an Atheist, but history has proven to me religion is responsible for millions of deaths for centuries. Just look at the middle east today. I think it was in the 16th century where they would string you up for publicly saying the "world was round and not the center of the universe" (just an example).
Having said that, religion can be a good thing too. It's a great "crutch" for some, and very helpful to get through life.

Your blog has a fatal word, and that was "Christians" for something. Not interested.

I did not take this persoanlly, I did not put this on here to call someone out on what they beleive. The reason this is on here is because I want everyone who come across this blog to pray for this person. That is the only reason.

Why?

Why are we here? What is our purpose in life and what should we strive for? I'm sure this question, at some point has crossed your mind. A lot of people would answer this by saying that we are here to live life to its fullest! We only live once and we need to have as much fun as we can, make as much money as humaly possible, and we are to accumulate as much material wealth as possible. Well some parts of that are true to some extent. Living life to its fullest is one part that is true, but not in the sense that we need to do everything we are offered. Unfortunately a lot of people apply this to drugs. We need to try every drug we can just to see what its like. I disagree. The reason that drugs are not a good idea is because as the Cathechism says in #2291 "The use of drugs inflicts very grave damage on human health and life. Their use, except on strictly theraputic grounds, is a grave offense. Clandestine production of and trafficking in drugs are scandalous practices. They constitute direct co-operation in evil, since they encourage people to practices gravely contrary to the moral law" This may now lead you to asking, what is Moral law? Well if we look in the Cathechism at #1954 "Man participates in the wisdom and goodness of the Creator who gives him mastery over his acts and the ability to govern himself with a view to the true and the good. The natural law expresses the original moral sense which enables man to discern by reason the good and evil,the truth and the lie:

The natural law is written and engraved in the soul of each and
every man, because it is human reason ordaining him to do good
and forbidding him to sin.
... But this command of human reason would not have the force
of law if it were not the voice and interpreter of a higher
reason to which our spirit and our freedom must be submitted."

When we engage in the use of drugs, we are taking ourselves out of the state that God created us in. He created us with the will and the intelect to do right. We forfit the gift God gave us by doing drugs. God did not intend for us, his creation, to be in a state where we are not able to discifer between good and evil. He wants us to be able to choose right at all times. This to me does not only apply to the use of drugs, but the excessive use of alcohol too. Let me preface the rest of this by stating that I am not saying drinking is bad, what I'm saying is being drunk is bad. When we get drunk, just like getting high, we loose the ability to decide what is good and what is bad. We choose to do things that we would probably not even consider doing when sober. We as humans lead by example. People see others getting drunk and they see nothing wrong with it. If you do not beleive me, look at some of the statistics of fatal drunk driving accidents. Colorado State Patrol says this: "In 2003, 56.7 percent of DUI-caused crashes resulted in fatalities or injuries. When DUI was not the cause of the crash, only 29.6 percent resulted in fatalities or injuries."( http://csp.state.co.us/trafficsafety.cfm?Page_ID=4) When we are intoxicated, we put not only ourselves at risk, but everyone else around us. Alcohol is fine as long as it is used responsibly, and we drink in moderation. Going out to dinner and drinking a beer with friends, or drinking as a means of celebration is fine. Just remeber, MODERATION. The material and financial wealth that this world is so obsessed with is also a very very serious situation. Our main goal in life is to follow Christ, and to do his work. When Christ walked this earth, he was not actaully rolling around in a brand new Cadiallac Escalade with 22's. He walked, and anytime he was not walking he was more than likely riding a donkey. He was the king of this earth. When he entered this earth he did not come and present the qualities a king of that time possesed. He did not have a huge beautiful crown, or a huge castle to live in, he came humbly. He came as a regular man, and lived his life the way we are to live ours. We should take a look at our lives, and the way we lead them. Check and see if we are following Christ, or following this world and all of its possesions.

Well worth your time

Why do I always get the feeling that someone is watching me?

Have you ever wondered this? Well maybe the quickest and easiest answer to this question is, beacuse there is someone watching you. God watches over all humanity, he sees everything we do, he knows everything we think and guess what? He knows all of it beofore we do it! So I ask this, why is it that people walk around this world doing terrible things to others, and doing things in the dark behind peoples backs like no one can see them? Maybe it is a lack in faith and they do not beleive they have a Father in Heaven watching over them, or maybe they just dont care one way or another. What if the light of the world could pour out from us? What if at all times, we could be radiating Christ. as St. Francis of Assisi said, "Preach the Gospel at all times, use words when necessary". What a cool thought, that we could be preaching the Gospel of our Lord without even opening our mouths. It kind of makes you wonder how you are going about your buisness now doesnt it? Maybe there isnt just the Heavenly Father watching us, maybe it is our little brother or sister, son or daughter, neice or nephew etc... Maybe they are the ones who are looking up to us for guidance. Maybe they want to be just like us and emulate everything we do, and if living our faith is the biggest and most prominent thing we do, hopefully they will develope a stronger, deeper realtionship with God, and they will carry that into their lives. So maybe today, while your at work, at home with the kids, or just driving down the road, try and think about all of the people watching you. Think how you could act, or how you could treat them, to bring them joy. One more question. When was the last time you smiled at someoe you didnt know? Try it. Their response may surprise you.

Friends or foe's?

Has anyone ever noticed that the people closest to you are usually the first to turn on you, or criticize you? Like your best friend, of the same faith or not, who knows everything about you, knows how important your faith is to you and knows what you stand for and why? Then when you are doing what is right in certain situations, they give you a hard time, or they make fun of you for it. How many of those times is it because there is another friend there? Like they are trying to show off for that other person, even if it means turning on you. But when it is just you two, they have no problems with your beleifs, or the things you do because of them. Family members also have a tendency to do this. Maybe your parents brought you up as a Catholic because that is what their parents did, not because it was in your best interest. Maybe they have a very weak faith due to poor catachesis, or they see the church as being outdated or just a Christmas, and Easter event. Maybe when you try to do things to better your realtionship with Christ, or maybe ask to pray or go to Mass together they get defensive, or maybe just completely silly things come in between your realtionship with them and they dont even seem to care. When things like this happen, I beleive Christ is presenting us with a beautiful gift. He is giving us a chance to be a witness. Not only is it a gift, but he is asking us to do something for him. Stand up for him, bring his good news of salvation to all the ends of the earth, no matter if you start in your circle of friends, or in your own home. Just the chance to do something for Jesus is awesome. If in doing this, we suffer, either due to loss of friends or what have you, the sufferings we endure are great ways to build and strengthen our relationship with God. Offer those sufferings up, and unite them with the sufferings of Christ, and you will see the beauty in living your faith no matter what the cost.

Intro

The reason I titled my blog "wrestling with Christ" is because as young adults, and young Catholics particularly in this world, sometimes finding,developing, and living our faith can be kind of like a wrestling match. We go through trials and tribulations, we struggle to do good in this world and represent Christ in all of our day to day actions, and encounters. I think it is especially hard for teenagers and young people of this world to do this, with all of the peer pressures, and all of the junk the media feeds us it is hard to live out the Catholic faith. With this said, I would like to invite all to read, comment, or whatever you feel comfortable doing, so we can start to build a stronger populatoin of young Catholics. I will say this now, I'm no theologian, I'm no scholar, but I am a young Catholic, trying to live out my faith in this secualr world. I would love to hear the opinions and feelings of others like me and discuss the things that we face. So I invite you to check back and comment as much as possible.