Take Five, Meditations with Pope Benedict XVI – A Book Review

WOW!! This book made me really look into my faith basis and re-align my thoughts and actions!! Reading some of the words of the current Pope and Scripture that backs his words was very enlightening.

This book is well written, by Mike Aquilina and Father Kris D. Stubna, has a very strong message, and “supporting documentation” for that message. It is a very easy read, fits in your pocket so you can keep it with you to ponder upon through your daily activities, and it translates the Pope’s writings an speeches into English in a readable manner. This books is written “for the Catholics”, but I am confident that any Christian would gain from it as well.

This review was written as part of the Catholic book Reviewer program from The Catholic Company. Visit The Catholic Company to find more information on Take Five – Meditations with Pope Benedict XVI.

Dressing right for the occassion…

When you go to visit the President of the United States at his house, you will more than likely be dressed to the best you can. If you were invited to meet the Queen of England you would put on your best suit or dress and get all cleaned up for the event. If you go to visit the President, King, Queen or leader of any nation at their home, I am pretty sure in most cases you will dress up for the event.

These last few years I have seen the clothing at the Christian churches I have gone to or go to diminish to the point of people wearing shorts, t-shirt, and shower shoes. (I don’t care what you say, flimsy, plain (and in many cases “designer”) flip flops are shower shoes. Not street shoes…) Now, I am told by many that I should be happy that the person is even coming to Church. This I have to agree with. But I don’t agree with the clothing choice, and what I feel is disrespect they are showing to God. It looks like to me they are saying “Oh, I guess I better go make an appearance, so let me through my comfy cloths on so I am at least comfortable while I am there.”

The Christian faith, in general, considers God our King. The Church is by biblical announcement the House of God, our King. Give our FOUNDING King the same respect we give our Secular Kings, if not more respect! Church is not a place to be comfortable and all relaxed. It is a place to worship God in community and a place to show your respect to God. Do so with your clothing, your thoughts and your actions, not just your actions (of showing up).

Now, don’t get me wrong. If you are of low income and can’t afford a suit, nice dress, etc. Clean your best clothes you have and come to Church. BUT, if you have a nice dress or a nice suit, or can afford the same, wear it in respect of your true King!

Look back at the pictures of prior to about 20 years ago of people in the US and around the world. (I don’t know if this is happening all over the place, but it sure is all over the US as I see it!) You see each person, from the youngest child to the oldest person present wearing, proudly, their best clothing. They are PROUD of what they are wearing and they are HAPPY to wear it. Now, I understand the kids, and many of the adults, can’t wait to go home and get out of these “uncomfortable” clothes, but they are proud of what they are wearing to Church.

I can remember seeing people wearing those clothes to the after Church events such as picnics, etc, playing in the Church yard, etc. After Church and the events afterwords were over they went home and changed. If the Church had a Church meeting that evening, they remained dress and would go back to Church again, still dressed up.

Why have we gotten so self centered and moved away from showing God, our King, the respect we would show our secular Kings (Presidents/etc)?

In Christ…

Jesus’ command to be one Church…

One thing I like about the Catholic Church is that you can go to any Church, anywhere in the world on the same day and hear the same readings from the Bible. If you go to Mass every day of the year, you will have been read the Bible pretty much completely through.

One of the things that has been foremost on my mind for about three years, is the number of Christian based religions that all say they are the true Christian Church, yet most of them are less than 500 years old. The oldest Christian Church is the Catholic, or Universal Church. This Church has stated that it wants to bring all the Christian Churches “back home”, yet does many things to stop that from happening, based on comments, actions, and in some cases doctrine. (Priest not being able to marry being one such doctrine that has many outsiders, and some insiders not happy.)

Today’s Gospel reading is John 10:11-18 [show]John 10:11-18 [11]I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. [12]He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. [13]He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. [14]I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, [15]just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. [16]And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. [17]For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. [18]No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father." (ESV)
, which points even harder to merging the Christian Churches back into one Church, specifically: 16: “…and there will be one flock, one shepherd.”

Actually many of my readings of late keep pointing to the need for the Christian Churches to merge again and become one in Christ, with one Shepherd.

How do we make that happen?

What a find!

For the last two and a half years, I have spent a lot of time at a couple of the local libraries studying various aspects of Theology as it was required by the Order I was in, or as I found an interest. During that time I got to know several of the staff pretty well, and have become close friends with a couple of them.

Yesterday one of them brought me two books:

The second book has me VERY excited. It is a book that has a photo copy of one of the original printings of William Tyndale’s initial translations of the Greek text of the New Testaments to the Bible. The history of the text and notes at the beginning of the book are also very interesting reading.

I am very excited that Charlie gave me this book. And it is in almost new condition, with no writing in it or other such marks! Very nice of him to give these two books, especially the New Testament one!

Homeless..

For the past twoish years I have been apostatizing amongst the Homeless People here in Pompano Beach, and somewhat in Ft. Lauderdale. In apostatizing, I mean I spend a lot of time walking with them, talking with them, and hanging out with them. We talk, in some cases we pray together, we may read the Bible together, we talk about God/Jesus, or we just “hang out”.

In this two years I have come to understand the homeless situation much better than when I started looking at the homeless. My initial impression of homeless was that they were drunks, druggies and lazy.

Many of them ARE drunks or on drugs, but not for the reasons many of us think. Many use alcohol as a means to “stay warm” (or cool), forget their worries, or ease pain in the body. Same thing with the drugs. And both tend to become addictive as we all know from the news, books, press, etc. But many of the people I’ve been talking to want OFF the drugs or booze, if they were able to get cleaned up and land a paying job. The problem is being able to spend a couple of months getting cleaned out and still live, and then find a job.

As to the lazy tag. Many of these people, wandering the streets, are far from lazy. They spend the day walking, or riding a bike, from point A to Z and back again looking for money. They spend hours on the streets begging for money. They stay busy all day to stay warm (or cool). And they do tend to drink a lot, when they are able to buy the beer.. But most are not actually lazy!

I know one guy, who has a booze problem, and rarely a drug problem, that is a “Weaver”. He walks along the beaches climbing the palm trees and cuts down the dead palm fronds, living coconuts, then he takes the fronds and weaves hats, belts, skirts, and other things for the tourist. He shaves the coconut and opens it up, serving the coconut milk. He will add rum to it if you want, for a great tropical drink. He stays sober while he works all day. He works into the evening, making roses for the ladies from the fronds, selling them to the guys for their dates. Once he has his roses sold, he goes and buys some beer (or other booze) and drinks the rest of the night away. This man if FAR from lazy! He got into this life after doing some prison time and no one wanting to hire him, because he was a felon. Now he gets harassed by cops daily, and arrested often. He would be HAPPY to “Get a real job”. (Although his job is real, and much appreciated by the locals and tourist that go to the beaches down here.)

There are some homeless that just plain LIKE living on the streets. I talk to one that has been on the streets for about 14 years now. He isn’t a heavy drinker (only drinks of Fridays and Saturdays, and not heavily), doesn’t do drugs, but does panhandle and other wise work the streets, and sleep on the streets. He doesn’t want to change his life, and doesn’t plan on changing his life. He lives by a very strict set of personally made rules about where and how he sleeps, where and what he does, and how he panhandles. He had to see me walking around on the streets with other homeless for over a year before he would even talk with me, as I was outside of his rules. We now talk often.

Another class of homeless is what bothers me. There are MANY on the streets that belong in mental institutes for sever mental problems. The problem is, there are so few psychiatric hospitals out there, and someone must pay for those, so that leaves that these people out running around on the streets fending for themselves. Several years ago we had many psychiatric hospitals for mentally unstable people. Over the last 20+ years our political system has had these places shut down because of the cost of keeping them open. (Bipartisan, not just one side or the other!) I know of one facility that closed a few years ago in Annapolis MD area. When they closed, they moved less than 1% of the patients to another facility (that was closed a year later), family members moved another 25-30% to other facilities on their own, and the rest were given the option to be on the street, find their own place to be, or try to get back with family. In some cases there was no family to go back to. These people pretty much ended up on the streets. On way day they had a home, the next they were shown the door, given what little they had in possessions, and told to leave. I watched this happen myself!

I have heard many people say that they would give the homeless on the side of the street money, but the person would then use it for drugs or alcohol. IF you were going to give someone money out of the kindness of your heart, does it matter what they use that money for? It shouldn’t. For these people that alcohol or drug might be what they need to stay alive at that time. It is not for us to judge what they do with their lives. Now, I’ve heard others say that they will give them coupons to McDonalds, etc. This is good, but then you are telling them what they need. Is it your position to tell them that? Again, aren’t you judging for them?

For many of these homeless people, living on the street, or trying to, is the only thing they can do. Many want to be there, as the other homeless are their only support. And that support is shaky at best! Today someone can be your best friend, tomorrow they are not! But it is better than none!

You may ask why they don’t go to the various shelters and programs out there? Well, from what I am seeing, first there aren’t enough programs out there for the number of people on the streets. Second, getting into these programs can be VERY hard, especially if you have an alcohol problem or drug problem, and many COST the homeless money to be there. (They wouldn’t be homeless if they had money…) The programs, at least here in Pompano Beach/Fort Lauderdale, that help bring in people from the streets, dry them out (from either drugs or alcohol), give them beds, food, clothing and work to do, are almost always full. They may have frequent openings when a person can’t get through the withdraws of their habit, but those openings are grabbed quickly by people wanting to try. Many of the “Graduates” from these programs get back into productive life. Some don’t.

The “half way houses” out there that I have seen are jokes. These are supposed to be places where a person can go to get shelter, and attempt to get their life back in order. The person must get a job and pay “rent”. Yes, the rent is low. But in many cases, the house “manager” is a street person still on drugs or alcohol and is not better at managing a business (which these houses are, very profitable, for the owner, businesses) than he is manage his own life. There are more problems in these houses, more drugs, more booze, more issues, than there should be, by a long shot. I have yet to see one that is clean, orderly and well run. (I’m sure they are out there, but the ones the people I have been dealing with have been trying to go to have not been good.)

Then you have programs like this one down in Miami that works it’s way throughout Miami-Dade County and Broward County. This guy brings the vagrants in, gives them a place to crash, takes any income they have (social security, etc) and their food stamps from them each month. They are to pay an extra $50 a week for food (on top of the food stamp money they already have given through the cards!). He then gives them a “Route” to work as a panhandler or a “product” to sell. He demands 80+% of what that person brings in. He puts some of it in a “in house” bank for the homeless guy, but from what I hear, it can be pretty hard to get that money out in the end, and it often stays with this guy. And this guy is backed by the local government. He teaches no skills, just takes, and barely gives back. Add to that, I hear the housing is pretty pour to boot!

So, when you see these people on the street, think of our system for helping the mentally insane, think of our system for helping these people, and consider giving them a hand. Let them figure out how to use that hand!

Catholic Statistics…

A Order Brother sent me an email with a bunch of statistics about the Catholic Church. It is attributed to a non-Catholic person that is actually Jewish. I was not able to verify that info, and somehow don’t think that is who originally authored it, but I did verify the statistics:

Proud of Being Catholic

Excerpts of an article written by Sam Miller,
prominent Cleveland Jewish businessman -( NOT CATHOLIC )
Submitted by Dee Lynd.
18 April 2008

Why would newspapers carry on a vendetta on one of the most important institutions that we have today in the United States, namely the Catholic Church?

Do you know – the Catholic Church educates 2.6 million students everyday at the cost to your Church of 10 billion dollars, and a savings on the other hand to the American taxpayer of 18 billion dollars. Your graduates go on to graduate studies at the rate of 92%, all at a cost to you. To the rest of the Americans it’s free.

The Church has 230 colleges and universities in the U.S. with an enrollment of 700,000 students. The Catholic Church has a non-profit hospital system of 637 hospitals, which account for hospital treatment of 1 out of every 5 people – not just Catholics – in the United States today.

But the press is vindictive and trying to totally denigrate in every way the Catholic Church in this country. They have blamed the disease of pedophilia on the Catholic Church, which is as irresponsible as blaming adultery on the institution of marriage.

Let me give you some figures that you as Catholics should know and remember. For example, 12% of the 300 Protestant clergy surveyed admitted to sexual intercourse with a parishioner; 38% acknowledged other inappropriate sexual contact in a study by the United Methodist Church, 41.8 % of clergy women reported unwanted sexual behavior; 17% of laywomen have been sexually harassed. Meanwhile, 1.7% of the Catholic clergy has been found guilty of pedophilia. 10% of the Protestant ministers have been found guilty of pedophilia. This is not a Catholic problem.

A study of American priests showed that most are happy in the priesthood and find it even better than they had expected, and that most, if given the choice, would choose to be priests again in face of all this obnoxious PR the church has been receiving.

The Catholic Church is bleeding from self-inflicted wounds. The agony that Catholics have felt and suffered is not necessarily the fault of the Church. You have been hurt by a small number of wayward priests that have probably been totally weeded out by now.

Walk with your shoulders high and you head higher. Be a proud member of the most important non-governmental agency in the United States. -Then remember what was written in Jeremiah:’Thus says the Lord: Stand by the earliest roads, ask the pathways of old. Which is the way to good, and walk it; thus you will find rest for your souls.’ (Jer 6:16 [show]Jeremiah 6:16 [16]Thus says the LORD: "Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls. But they said, 'We will not walk in it.'
).

Be Proud to speak up for your faith with pride and reverence and learn what your Church does for all other religions.
…… Be Proud That You’re A Catholic……

These are trueish numbers. The number of students may be up or down each year, but the rest of the numbers are pretty close to the “real” numbers.

I’m back!!

After an extremely long, longer than expected, absence I am back at the computer. Over the next few days you should start seeing postings here again.

I did want to call attention to a very good friend of mine and his new Blog. Ed created a company a few years ago called Oasis International that distributes Bibles and other Christian based books to many parts of Africa. He recently went modern and created a Blog that I would like to share with you: http://oasisinternational.typepad.com/ Please drop by and check them out. If you can, help them acquire the building/compound they are currently in and about to lose!!

Stay tuned!

Speaking in Tongues.

Over the last few weeks I’ve heard several comments from people that they have heard people speaking in tongues through the Divine Will of God. When these people are “speaking in tongues”, they are speaking in gibberish to those listening and no one knows what is being said. Often the speaker seems to be in a trance and when they are done, they say that God was directing them and what they had to say.

Now, I’ve read the Bible now a few times. And it does in fact talk about speaking in tongues. But this is how I read that part of the Bible. When the Disciples were talking to the Masses, they spoke in their native language, but each listener heard it in theirs. For example:

I am a native English (ok American English for those Brits that may be reading this) speaking/listening person.
The person to my right is Spanish speaking.
The person to my left is German speaking.
You, the speaker are Russian speaking.

None of us speak the other’s language. When you speak, you speak in Russian, I hear it in English, the person to my right hears it in Spanish and the person on my left hears it in German.

THIS is speaking in tongues! When God wants someone to speak on His behalf, I’m pretty sure He wants EVERYONE to understand what is being said, not just the speaker… In Acts 2:7-8 [show]Acts 2:7-8 [7]And they were amazed and astonished, saying, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? [8]And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? (ESV)
it is said: “And they were all amazed and marveled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galileans? And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?” This leads me to more and more believe that when God speaks to us through others He wants us to understand Him.

When I hear someone “Speaking in Tongues” via gibberish, I automatically start walking away, as it is far from real in my eyes and ears.