Summer Time Spirituality
Since many of TrueManhood’s readers are in college, I think it’s important to take some time to talk about a spiritual life during the summer months. Many of you have a strong faith community and spiritual support system while on campus and many of you are heading home (or at least away from your group) for the summer; how do you keep a strong spiritual life going? Well, it’s easy to get back into old, bad habits when you go back into an old environment. Some of those old, bad habits might be as simple as forgetting to pray everyday. They might be more serious (with lasting effects on the rest of your life) like excessive drinking and promiscuous sexual activity. That said, here are a few suggestions of how to keep your spiritual life going – and growing!
- Pray daily. Take time (whichever part of the day is best for you) to make this a priority. As with any relationship, it requires that you speak and listen to the other person. God, in this regard, is no different. Talk to Him.
- Make Sunday Mass a priority, and get to daily Mass as much as possible. The grace received from the Eucharist will help you fight temptations toward old, bad habits.
- Stay in touch with your friends from campus. (Your good friends – NOT your nasty friends.) A support/accountability/prayer connection helps a person significantly. We are relational beings – created to be with one another. Your friends want to help you, so talk to them. It’ll probably end up helping them too.
- Do spiritual reading. Find one or more (good/orthodox) Catholic spiritual books and read. This might also include taking notes, journaling about what you read and/or about how it applies to your life or talking about it with someone else.
- Do your best to keep Christ first and foremost. I listed this last, but it’s not the least priority, but yet the highest priority. I write about Christ last so that you remember that it’s all about Him. Keep Him #1.
Man up!
Financial Decisions
Something that has been facing our family over the past few weeks and will continue to be a “hot topic” with us is our finances. We’ve made certain decisions that have and will lead to certain other decisions which have certain consequences, and so on. (Being vague… a graduate degree, family vacations over the summer, working part-time, daycare, etc.). For us, when it comes to finances, we always look at the big picture. The big picture shows us where we really are and what we really have… therefore, we know what we can really afford.
If I, as the husband and father, had a compulsive spending habit or made rash and/or imprudent decisions with money, I would be taking away from the welfare of the family. If this happened, I’d be setting the precedent for my wife and children, telling them that overspending, quick-spending, unnecessary spending, etc. is acceptable. “If Daddy does it, it must be okay.” It’s an important role to play in the family, playing the role of the CFO. The way that I stay sane and “with it” on our finances is that I discuss all purchases, decisions, investments, savings and future plans with my wife. She and I make up a great team that balances the budget, spends wisely, never has a deficit and has a sizable surplus. We shop sales, use coupons and use techniques of bargaining to get the best prices possible. My next post will be about how to save money in big and little ways.
I know many people that have big-time struggles with their finances and honestly, I believe it comes down to one of three things. Either, they are 1. Ignorant about Money and don’t understand how it works for/against them or 2. they are lying to themselves about what they can afford or eventually pay off or possibly 3. They have an unhealthy idea of what life is about (vanity usually comes in play here). If you have struggles with money, make today the last day that you make bad choices. You hold the power. Get some financial help from a professional until you are capable of making good decisions on your own again. Make a budget, stick to the budget. Make a plan for the future, make it happen. Take charge of your life, don’t let money rule you.
One belief that I hold very strongly is the belief that “if you give, God will repay you many times over”. The idea of generosity is becoming so foreign to our culture – where most people in society are simply out for themselves. I strongly believe that if people were more generous with their spoils, God would be more generous with them and in the end, they’d have more spoils and overall, a happier, more fulfilling life (because of giving and being blessed, not because they have money or “stuff”). For us, we make serious decisions about who we donate to. In just about every case, it’s to a Catholic-based organization, parish or group. Want some ideas of who to donate to? Check out FOCUS (Fellowship of Catholic University Students) out of Denver, CO, VirtueMedia out of Arizona, your local parish and/or your local diocese. If you’re feeling really generous and want to help pay for my master’s, I’d be delighted to accept it!
Man up!
"Life: Imagine the Possibilities"
Check out this video from CatholicVote.com. Grassroots Films does a great job with these videos. It gets a great message out and does it through uncompromising, yet non-aggressive tactics. This is an example for all of us who support and are part of the pro-life movement. Check it out.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIBZ-kJ6XAc]
Man up!
Being Great At What You Do
My father-in-law is great at what he does. He loves what he does. He eats, sleeps, breaths and talks about what he does. In his case, what he does and who he is really equal up. (That’s not usually the case in people.) I want to take a few words and honor his dedication to what he does and to how faithfully, fervently and excitedly he does it.
My father-in-law, Gary, is the Director of Catholic Music at the Air Force Academy. I have the privilege of working with him on the Catholic staff at the Academy and I know, firsthand, that he is incredibly dedicated to his portion of our ministry. See, what Gary does is he puts his passion to work for the Lord and he doesn’t hold anything back. Sunday was a great example of that when he showed his mastery of fine choral music with a concert by the Catholic Cadet Choir, Men in Blaque (a men’s vocal group from the Univ of California, Irvine), In the Stairwell (a men’s a capella group from USAFA) and the Cadet Orchestra. The concert was a resounding success and Gary is at the heart of that success. Yes, the voices and instruments make it, but he put his heart and soul into the logistics, planning, timing, musicianship and professionalism of the concert. To that, a job well done Gary!
My point with this today is that we should all be putting our passion to work for the Lord. Find what it is that God created you to do and do it, fervently and with joy! For Him! If more men would live out their passions in life, we’d all be better off.
Man up!
The People Only Make Up The Church…
The people only make up the Church, they don’t make it. Truth makes the Church. I have two examples in two days of people missing the boat on what “the Church” is all about. First example: I just watched a video of a pastor who spoke complete blasphemy about what the Church does. He said something like “the church is one of the biggest hindrances to conversion.” Obviously, this pastor is from a church that is wishy-washy and not centered in truth. (It appeared, from the video to be an amphi-theatre style mega-church where laser lights and smoke machines play the role of sacramentals.) His church, most likely, is centered on “whatever feels good” and “whatever it takes to “save” someone”. It’s sad, really. He’s missing the boat.
He told this story about a pastor who was fear-mongoring people into not having sex. The young lady that he took with him (a young, single mother in an extra-marital affair) wasn’t ready to hear that message, so this pastor was essentially blaming the Church for this poorly-delivered message, that most likely was “off” when it comes to sound doctrine. He’s aligning everything that one or more individuals may do with the Church as a whole and totally missing the point. See, Christ set up the Church to spread the Love of the Father, the Truth. He set it up to bring people to the Father, not to push them away from it. We grow closer to God through the Church.
Second example: yesterday, I was talking with a woman who said to me “I was raised Catholic, but I don’t go anymore. Is that bad?, it’s bad, isn’t it? I don’t like going because of all the hypocrisy… I’d see people there on Sunday and then they’d be talking bad about people the rest of the week.” This lady went on and on about it being “bad” that she doesn’t go any more. Then, she said to me “I used to like Fr. S0-and-So because his sermons were good. Once he left, I haven’t been back. Is that bad?” I said to her, the people only make up the Church, they don’t make it. If the people inside the Church are bad, it doesn’t mean that the Church is bad. You should go, give it a try again. It was very obvious to me that this lady doesn’t know what the Eucharist is.
It’s frustrating when people make condemning judgments (especially when they are made out of ignorance) like this that really affect the lives of others. In the first case, the pastor is going to have to answer for his blasphemy and how he led many people astray. The lady is going to have to answer for leading her kids astray, as well as herself. If you are reading this and understand what I’m saying, you realize that it’s a big responsibility to be a servant of the Lord. What are you saying or doing that may lead others closer to Christ? What are you saying or doing that make lead others away from Christ?
Man up!
Not-a-Catholic (Dame) University
Although I have some cousins that went to Notre Dame and frequently watch Irish football on NBC, I don’t have any direct ties to the school. I’ve been seeing plenty of traffic in emails, on Facebook and through the news about ND’s choice to have Obama visit and present the commencement speech in May. Lots of stink has been made about ND being a “Catholic” institution and how appalled people are at their decision(s). I heard it best from a fellow Catholic on Facebook: “Why is everyone getting upset now, after years of anti-Catholic behavior at Notre Dame? They haven’t been Catholic for a long time.” Just putting the title “Catholic” on something doesn’t make it, or any individual, actually Catholic. Being Catholic means that you profess, uphold and defend the True Teachings of the Church. [Ironically, their mascot appears to be “fighting”, but they haven’t fought to uphold Catholicism for years. I feel bad for actual Catholics that go there that have to deal with this.]
I came across this letter that backs me up on this… Thanks Bishop…
Reverend and dear Father Jenkins,
Permit me to add my name as well to the long list of Bishops of the Catholic Church who are utterly appalled at your dedication to immorality and wrong-doing represented by your support for the obscenity called “The Vagina Monologues” and your absolute indifference to the murderous abortion program and beliefs of this President of the United States.
The fact that you have some sort of past connection with the State of Nebraska makes it all the more painful that the Catholic people here have to see your betrayal of the moral teachings of the Catholic Church.
I can assure you of my prayers for your conversion, and for the conversion of your formerly Catholic University. I am,
Sincerely yours in Christ Jesus,
The Most Reverend Fabian W. Bruskewitz
Bishop of Lincoln
Man up!
Pontius Pilate, What You Did Was NOT Manly
I thought several times throughout Holy Week, as well as when I watched “The Passion of the Christ” on Friday night, that Pontius Pilate (pronounced pon-chus pi-lot) was not manly in his decisions to condemn Jesus to death. He tried, yes, at first, to tell the people that Jesus had done nothing wrong. Where he went wrong was when he worried about what sort of uprising the Jewish high priests would start and what the people would do. He let self-preservation win out over justice.
He’s infamously remembered by Catholics in our Creed (our profession of faith) “…He (Jesus) suffered under Pontius Pilate…“. This is because Pilate had the power to prevent Christ’s horrible torture, scourging, carrying of His cross and His death, but failed to act; all out of fear. He was a coward. Even the movie “The Passion of the Christ” (picture above from a scene with Pilate and Jesus) shows Pilate’s wife as a hero and a servant, with compassion and deep sorrow while Pilate simply looks on, worried about himself. Pilate leaves us with a good example of what not to do.
Christ tells us that we’ll be persecuted because of Him, because we follow Him and because we love Him. We should be ready and prepared to persevere. We prepare for this by training (prayer and fasting, mostly). When it comes down to it, who will you side with? Will you take the easy way out and deny Christ or will you stand firm in your beliefs, in your faith and in HIS love and witness for Jesus? Only time will tell.
Again, society tells men that we must look out for ourselves and self-preservation. Christ, the Church and TrueManhood.com say something different. We all say “defend Christ, defend Mother Church, defend Truth” – God will provide for us and will raise us up on the last day. A True Man does this. A man like Pontius Pilate doesn’t. What kind of man are you?
Man up!
