A Texan in Wisconsin

Reading and driving...

2010-06-30T17:51:00.001-05:00

...worse than taking a picture of someone reading and driving?

I wish I were an Oscar Meyer weiner...

2010-06-23T15:55:00.001-05:00

Oscar Meyer weiner mobile

In one week...

2010-06-19T22:42:00.000-05:00

...we walk

In two weeks...

2010-06-12T22:16:00.000-05:00

...forever* begins anew

*and by forever, I mean "until death do you part" -- but that doesn't sound as good.

In one month...

2010-05-26T20:52:00.000-05:00

1 + 1 = 1

"Believe what you read, teach what you believe, and live what you teach"

2010-05-25T15:39:00.002-05:00

Just wanting to remember this phrase by making a blog post with it. I believe it's spoken to deacons at their ordination. Pretty awesome.

Blessings,
Isaac

Pentecost - On Fire

2010-05-23T22:57:00.001-05:00

Today we celebrate the realization of the Gospel commissioning to go out and make disciples of all nations: Pentecost. As I was in Mass today I was taken by the list of languages and civilizations that were present at the Apostles first speech following the Spirit's entrance in the Upper Room. The utter transcendence accomplished by God in the Descent of the Holy Spirit grabbed me and the phrase "The Spirit speaks the language of the heart" entered into my being. It was this language that inflamed the hearts of the two on the road to Emmaus and again the language that spoke to hundreds of peoples that fateful day when the Church was born. This language destroys barriers we put up and unites us with those unlike us, so long as our hearts and their hearts are open. Differences, however real they may be, are somehow and in someway disregarded when the Spirit speaks and polar opposites are united, like Mr. Penguin and Ms. Polar Bear.

May God continue to speak that language in our lives and may we, like the Apostles before us and all the Disciples of Christ since, allow the Word to emanate from our hearts through our being to all of humanity.

As today is Pentecost, Switchfoot's "On Fire" is very appropriate:

Blessings,
Isaac

In 40 days...

2010-05-17T22:15:00.001-05:00

...long distance becomes no distance

Go Brewers!

2010-05-11T20:34:00.001-05:00

Miller Park!

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Fear The Dear

2010-04-30T18:19:00.001-05:00

The Bradley Center is rocking for the game tonight!

Other6: Simple and effective

2010-04-27T12:00:00.000-05:00

I came across a prayer type of website, Other6. It's simplicity is amazing and it's opportunity for reflection and making explicit the movement of God in our lives grabs my attention and my spirit. This is a fantastic catechetical initiative done well -- and in an interactive and easy to use format familiar to 21st century audiences.

Check it out!

Blessings,
Isaac

In Two Months...

2010-04-26T23:04:00.001-05:00

..."I will" becomes "I do"

Best before June 26 2010

2010-04-19T22:41:00.001-05:00

Expires on the wedding. Awesome.

Like a Pokemon

2010-04-16T22:27:00.001-05:00

Dezzie: Our relationship is like a Pokemon.
Isaac: It evolves.

8-). Blessings,
Isaac

Invites

2010-04-16T09:09:00.002-05:00

The first batch of Wedding Invitations

Leaving San Antonio/St. James

2010-04-10T23:07:00.000-05:00

The words that José Gomez penned in the San Antonio Express-News about leaving being named the coadjutor bishop of LA (AKA the next Archbishop of LA) and leaving San Antonio resonate with me and with my feelings about going to the East Coast and leaving St. James. You can find his original message here and my edited version follows:

The story of redemption began with a heroic "Yes" by a young girl named Mary, when, in the spirit of humility and obedience, she said to the angel's message announcing that she would be the mother of Jesus: "May it be done unto me according to your word." And then when the purpose of her "Yes" was about to be fulfilled, on the night before Jesus was to be crucified, the ultimate act of humility and obedience came in the form of a prayer: "... not my will but yours be done."

I write this column to wish you all a "Happy Easter." I know that the Easter candy is already marked down to half price, and in San Antonio our minds are turning toward Fiesta, but for us Catholics the greeting "Happy Easter" is a tradition that continues for the 50 days of the Easter season. In our churches you will continue to hear "Alleluia" and "Glory to God."

During this Easter season, and throughout our lives, we are called to the same humble obedience and sacrificial love that come with the cross. Certainly, most of us will never be called to obey to the extremes of the many martyrs who have faithfully said "Yes" before us. But we are called to listen for God's voice in our lives, discern his will and fulfill the mission he has given us.

This past week, [Echo] announced that I was being asked to leave the Archdiocese of [Milwaukee] and take on new and challenging responsibilities [on the East Coast]... This was a personal test of my willingness to follow the will of God and in humble obedience say "Yes."

Tuesday I reflected on my feelings of profound gratitude to [Echo], my excitement in serving the people [on the East Coast] and my sadness in leaving [St. James]. I thank the Express-News for giving me the opportunity to say these words directly to you: "The people of [St. James] have a special goodness and grace that will always keep you close to me in my heart. In your patience and generosity, you taught me how to be a [minister]. I will never forget you, and I will never stop thanking God for the privilege of having served you."

God willing, there will be time between now and my departure in late May to reflect on the specific memories, accomplishments and challenges that we have shared in the past [two] years, but for now I ask that you keep me in your prayers so that I will remain faithful to the "Yes" the Holy Spirit strengthened me to say, when God called me to serve his people in this new and challenging way.
---
The omega is near!

Blessings,
Isaac

50 Days / 80 days / 115 days

2010-04-07T16:54:00.000-05:00

I a mere 50 days, I will be finishing my goodbyes and loading my car for the beginning of life in DC.

In 80 days I will be married to to love of my life.

And in 115 days, I will say my goodbyes to the Echo community.

Transitions all around. Lord have mercy.

Blessings,
Isaac

Receive the Light of Christ

2010-04-04T16:58:00.000-05:00

Happy Easter!

Blessings,
Isaac

There is but one vocation for a Christian

2010-03-30T00:57:00.000-05:00

"There is only one vocation. Whether you teach or live in the cloister or nurse the sick, whether you are in religion or out of it, married or single, no matter who you are or what you are, you are called to the summit of perfection: you are called to a deep interior life perhaps even to mystical prayer & to pass the fruits of your contemplation to others" -- Thomas Merton

May we pass to each other the fruits of our contemplations that we may know God more deeply always.

Blessings,
Isaac

The Truth Will Set You Free

2010-03-29T22:00:00.005-05:00

On the Main Building of the University of Texas' campus is the quote from John from a Gospel from last week, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free." A few years ago when I was visiting UT, I found it odd that a quote from the Bible would be on the campus of a secular school, not only on campus, but prominently displayed on the main building. Then again, as an institute of higher learning, UT and all other Universities should be committed to search out the truth, because knowing the truth set us free.

However. As we heard in this Sunday's Gospel (Lk 22:36-38), Jesus often doesn't like being taken literally. Jesus is not talking about an academic truth, something we can run scientific studies to verify or search for clues via archaeological digs. Jesus reveals a need to know a deeper Truth, so deep we capitalize the T. It's a Truth that once we know, we a truly set free, no longer slave to sin. That Truth is Jesus, who later in the Gospel of John says "I am the way, the truth, and the life" (Jn 14:6).

Through the grace and mercy of God in Jesus, sin cannot hold us back. We will sin, we all do. But we don't need to stop there. I like to think about conversion as cleaning a room. You can ignore the mess for an long time. You'll still know where everything is in your room, but there's trash on the ground and you have to walk around everything. Looking at that room just makes you feel bad. Once you decide to clean the room, you can either shove stuff in drawers, categorizing your mess by function, color, shape, or smell. Your other option is to actually clean, deciphering what should be properly put away where, clearing out the closet and drawers, and taking out the cleaning supplies and scrubbing.

Taking time to sit and sort through the mess that can be our souls and our consciences is a lifetime of work. It's never 100% clean. There are always new things to sift through and old things to throw out. This week, Holy Week, is a wonderful opportunity to do that sifting and sorting. It is when we actively allow God to work through us and change our hearts and minds that we find freedom, little by little. Rarely does a conversion happen overnight; rarely is freedom realized in an instant. But slowly, gradually, as we come to know the Truth, come to base our lives on that Truth, we come to know freedom, the authentic freedom that allows us to be true selves and to live out of the core of our being, from our heart.
----
Reflection Questions:
Where do you need to clean?
Is there a major item in your room that you need to throw out?
Are you free?
How is your relationship with Truth?
----

Jars of Clay - This Road
----
Blessings,
Isaac

Where do you need new life?

2010-03-28T21:44:00.000-05:00

Where do you need new life?

Maybe you’ve recently been in a fight with a friend or a family member. Things got heated and you said things you didn’t mean to say – or texted things you didn’t mean to text.

Maybe you are struggling with the pressures of school or work, trying to balance expectations that are laid on you by others – or yourself. You feel that this week is going to be so impossible that you don’t know how you’re going to face it.

Maybe you feel constantly misunderstood and taken for granted. “No one understands me!”, you say. “No one knows the pain that I’m going through or the difficulties I face!”

Maybe you are in unbearable pain – physical pain, emotional pain, mental pain. It’s a struggle just to go forward, just to keep going. You feel weak and lonely.

Agony; despair; loneliness; being misunderstood; abandoned; in pain; or under unbelievable pressure.

During Holy Week, which is this week, we remember Jesus as he undergoes some of these very same feelings:

Broken relationships: Yup. All of Jesus’ best friends left him. One sold him to his death for a few coins. Another betrayed him by not admitting that he was a follower.
Dealing with pressure: Check. Jesus prays for this cup, for his future, to pass from him if it were possible. Angels even came to strengthen Jesus.
Misunderstood: Yep. The disciples don’t understand Jesus’ words and Jesus is tired of it. Then of course he is judged and put to death wrongly.
Pain: Yes. The Cross Jesus carries creates unbearable physical pain, but the pain felt by the absence of his best friends was also awful. In all this pain, someone had to help him.

Bring those feelings and those sufferings to the Cross this week and unite them with Jesus’ sufferings. We have a God who knows how you feel because God went through those feelings. We have a Savior who understands because he was there. And all because God loves us!

What does this suffering and pain stuff have to do with new life? Jesus’ story doesn’t end with pain and death, but with resurrection with new life! As Jesus went through suffering and pain to find new life, so must we. Of course we don’t seek put pain and we don’t seek out the Passion, but it will come to us. When we feel accepted and when our friends are with us, when we feel like we are really known; when we feel loved and are loved and love others, that’s when we have life.

Where do you need new life?

Think about it. Where do you need new life? Go to God this week and go to other people who love you. Allow God and others to come to you. Open your heart about half a crack, and God will come in and make all things new.

God brings us to new life and when we have new life we will feel called to go to God to give thanks and praise.

O Jesus, where art thou?

2010-03-19T23:49:00.000-05:00

Jesus has gone missing -- where is he?

That's the story line in today's Gospel (or at least one of the two options for today, the FEAST DAY OF ST. JOSEPH!). On the way home from a festive visit to Jerusalem, Mary and Joseph somehow lose track of their only son. I imagine a mother and father with broken hearts, asking everyone they know and don't know to help them look for Jesus. God kinda dropped him on their lap, so they don't want to lose him for good.

Their vocation to parenthood in question (how can you lose a child for three days?) and in tears, they finally head back to the temple only after three days and find Jesus. Seeing Jesus, they run to him and embrace. Questions come and confessions too: "Jesus, you've caused us great anxiety." But Jesus says "Why were you looking for me? Did you not know I must be in my Father's house?" Mary and Joseph don't understand. And the fifth mystery of the joyful mysteries of the rosary is born.

What are we to take from this happening? That Joseph and Mary were poor parents? No, I don't think that's it. That Jesus is a Jewish ninja, able to slip away from a caravan of friends and family? Probably not. Jesus' response is telling. "Why were you looking for me? Did you not know I must be in my Father's house?"

Where do we look for fulfillment? As Christians, we believe that our ultimate fulfillment can only be found in God, in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Looking elsewhere will do us no good, we will only be let down. Even the most beautiful of situations and circumstances here on earth will set us up for a let down. There could be world peace, no violence, and a no poverty and we would still not find what we're looking for. The anxiety of the heart would still pull on us. We are a people in constant need of a Savior; a people journeying in the wilderness, waiting for the Promised Land.

We look for fulfillment and satisfaction where there is none. 1 John 2:15-16 gives three categories where we seek fulfillment: lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Or, more easily understood, physical pleasure (sexual, gastronomical, through drugs or alcohol), inordinate desire for material goods ("retail therapy", hoarding, intense attachment to X,Y,Z), and the desire for power or social standing.

After we spend our three days, three weeks, three months, three years, or thirty years searching with great anxiety for our chief fulfillment, we can still enter into the temple and find the life of Christ waiting for us in a way we don't understand. No, for now we can just rejoicing in the presence of God. We'll grow in understanding, and in love, but also in union with Christ. And that's what it's all about.
----
Reflection Questions:
Have I lost Jesus?
Where am I looking for fulfillment?
Which of the threefold desires from 1 John 2:15-16 do I struggle with?
----

Danielle Rose - The Finding
----
Blessings,
Isaac

Dry land, trickle, walking, wading, or swimming

2010-03-17T21:58:00.000-05:00

There are five approaches to God. We can either stand on the shore, on dry land where there is no water; go to the temple and find a trickle of water, enough to know there is more than what's presented at the temple; walk in ankle deep water, enough to get our feet wet but not enough to make it difficult to walk; wade in waist high, half way in but still able to breath safely; or we swim, treading water, on the verge of drowning.

Today's reading from the Old Testament may be one of my favorites, as it describes Ezekiel moving from the temple, where there is a trickle of water, to the source of the water, the stream. An angel guides him as he continues to move east where the water becomes more and more difficult to approach.

Thus it is with our God. If we fail to approach to temple, we will never find the living water but will be left to our own devices. If we only stay at the temple, we will get a trickle of the living water, but will be missing out on so much more. The temple is important because we know for sure that we can find the living water at the temple. When we lose our way it's important to know that we have a sure bet.

Traveling further, we find ourselves walking in the water, ankle deep. Our toes enjoy the coolness and our feet are glad they no longer have to stand on the hot sand. But what about our legs, our arms, our head? They too desire protection, desire coolness, desire refreshment.

Further still we start finding it difficult. Wading through waist deep water is treacherous,
which is why people do water aerobics and do water therapy, because there is a certain amount of resistance that helps build muscle and get the heart rate up.

Finally, we have our ultimately destiny, swimming and treading water. When we don't know how to swim, we're amazed that any individual could do so. Treading water takes so much energy. The entire prospect is dangerous, danger lurking around every splash. What if we sink? What if we get tired? What if we die?

God doesn't want any sort of action from us. Yes, we need to love each other and we do that through actions. But God wants us. He desires creates us and unleashes us into the world that we might freely return. That means going to the temple, following the trickle, walking in the water, wading deeper and deeper until we find the very source of Living Water. We are to dive into that water head first, without trying to save ourselves. If we try to save our life, we will lose it, but if we lose our life, we gain it.

Life comes from death. Truly living comes from truly dying. In all our daily circumstances, in the larger picture issues, in our prayer, with our pocket book, with everything that pulls at us, we must die. As much as we're hidden in Christ, as much as we die with Christ, is as much as we will appear before God as pure, as much as we will resurrect. Graces pours forth from our wounds.

We follow a Savior who knows his way out of the tomb. Do not be afraid. Dive into the living water head first and don't try to save yourself. Have no fear of drowing, but know that it's the breathing that takes all the work.
----
Reflection Questions:
Where do I need new life?
Where do I need to die so I can experience that new life?
Am I on dry land, in the temple, walking in the water, wading, or swimming?
----

Jars of Clay - Work
The music video is perfect for the imagery of the dry land, trickle, walking, wading, or swimming.
----
Blessings,
Isaac

Lent Reflection: Third Wednesday of Lent

2010-03-10T21:20:00.000-06:00

Christianity in the 21st century is about remembering. All aspects of our faith, whether creed, moral code, relationships, or ministry, comes down to remembering. Today's reading from the Hebrew Scriptures suggests the same.

"However, take care and be earnestly on your guard not to forget the things which your own eyes have seen, nor let them slip from your memory as long as you live, but teach them to your children and to your children’s children."

"Remember. Remember these laws, these gifts from God. Not only remember them on a personal level, but remember them communally by passing them down to your children and your children's children."

In the Silver Chair, in the Chronicles of Narnia [plot spoiler alert], Aslan tells Jill and Eustace to recite four signs every day, for these are the signs that will help them out along their journey. Slowly they come to forget to recite these signs and eventually find themselves in a dark situation -- being cast under an enchantment by a witch in a cave deep inside the world. It takes a third character, a rugged soul, to break this spell by remembering that there is a better place elsewhere, that there is such a place as Narnia, and there is such a person as Aslan. As it turns out, had Jill and Eustace remembered these signs all along, they wouldn't have come so close to almost being enchanted by a witch.

Christianity is about remembering. Remembering that Jesus is our Lord and Savior in and through everything in life. Remembering that there is a heaven so that this life on earth isn't meant to be perfect. Remembering that we are sinners, so we need to reconcile ourselves with each other. Remembering that there are people in need and so we need to help them. Remembering that our faith is about love so we should love all we come in contact with. Remembering that Jesus didn't die just for me but for us, so in community we can find God. Remembering that everyone else in life is also struggling with something, so love one another.

What do you need to remember?
----
Reflection Questions:
What do I need to remember?
Who do I need to remember?
What signs do I need to repeat?
Am I losing sight of the reality of Narnia (a heavenly place where God acts)?
----

Switchfoot - This is Home
----
Blessings,
Isaac

Lots of mail

2010-03-06T11:03:00.001-06:00

Save them dates!

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Lent Reflection: Second Friday of Lent

2010-03-05T22:04:00.001-06:00

The responsorial psalm for today was written in response to the story of Joseph from Genesis. It talks, in wonder and awe, of the majesty of God's plan, how God sustained the peoples of the world through this one man; how even out of the most terrible time in the life of Joseph God was there directing his life. "Remember the marvels the Lord has done".

Sometimes things just line up perfectly. Like clockwork, you lose interest in a job, hear about an opening and a few weeks later are in a place better suited for your gifts. You decide to hang out with some friends even though you would rather be asleep and meet the most perfect person for you. By chance, you hear about a conference at a college campus, fall in love with it, and eventually decide to go to school there. "Remember the marvels the Lord has done."

Our faith calls us to reflect on our past and notice the hand of God at work in it. Through this thoughtful reflection, we can see how God works in our life and perhaps notice a pattern. As we live and grow we can start to notice that pattern in real time and see God at work in any given moment. When we know that at any particular moment we are within one of these patterns we can better thank God and be better prepared to meet whatever is coming with open hearts and a joyful disposition.
----
Reflection Questions:
How has God worked in your life?
Do you notice a pattern?
Are you in one of those patterns right now?
----

Switchfoot - This is your Life
----
Blessings,
Isaac

Lent Reflection: Second Thursday of Lent

2010-03-04T22:41:00.000-06:00

The story of Lazarus is today's Gospel. You know, the one where the guy who eats well and drinks well, who throws away food enough for other people to eat, and who wears fancy clothes. He fails to help Lazarus, the poor man who is at his door who he knows well enough to know his name but nothing else. Passing him everyday of his life, he ignores Lazarus who is in need of some serious medical care and the necessities of life.

Sound familiar?

We all do it, pass that guy day in and day out, the one that begs for money or food or clothes. It's easy and it's painless. And I don't think the point of Jesus telling the story is to talk about the torments of this rich man but instead to show the need for authentic conversion of heart present in all of us. We shouldn't be so blind to the needs of others, whether its the guy we pass every day or our coworkers we talk to every day. Everyone's got some pain and everyone's in need of love. And as Christians who live in the post-resurrection world, the question we need to answer is will we listen if someone should rise from the dead? Or rather, how can we better listen to the Gospel message now that someone (Christ) was resurrected?
----
Reflection Questions:
Who is my Lazarus?
Do I ignore the needs of the poor?
Do I truly listen to the One who rose from the dead?
----

U2 - Crumbs from Your Table
----
Blessings,
Isaac

Notre Dame to help Latino students graduate

2010-03-03T21:33:00.000-06:00

I came across a video on the ND website that talks about Notre Dame's commitment to Latino education. It's so awesome and such an amazing initiative that ND is launching. I hope Americans everywhere will reap the benefits.

Blessings,
Isaac

Lent Reflection: Second Wednesday of Lent

2010-03-03T21:16:00.000-06:00

The disciple's in today's Gospel reading fail to see the gift that is in front of them. Jesus is busy predicting his passion while the Sons of Zebedee (James and John) are busy scheming. They want power so that when Jesus raises a new political power they may be there not merely as witness but in great position to accomplish their will.

James and John want to be set for life. That isn't such a bad thing. No one desires struggle, no one wants to fight for every scrap of food or not know where their next meal is going to come from. But the failure of the Sons of Zebedee is a failure to recognize He who is the way, the truth, and the life. In wanting to be set for life according to how they wish to live, James and John lose sight on the greater good, Life Himself. The apostles are blind to what is actually happening, a deeper reality they experience but that they can't see -- almost like oxygen. Instead of seeing Life, they see a way to the top.

James and John do what we do so often when we don't see someone for who they are but instead as a way to move up in the world, as a commodity, or as a means to an end. In Love and Responsibility, Karol Wojtyla (John Paul II) says that the opposite of love is not hatred but rather use. God is not some sort of clown that we call upon to entertain us, to take up our time. God is not a slot machine, we don't put in prayers, pull the arm and hope for the best. God is not a genie who grants us wishes. God is a person who is dying to enter into relationship with us. Our response should never be, "God, I'll do this or that for you, but please grant me a position in your Kingdom." God's love for us is complete and total and our response to that love should be the same. No strings attached, no deals, no gimmicks, just love.
----
What has been my experience of being James and John?
Do I fail to see the dignity of all people? What about the annoying ones?
What are my Lenten practices directed toward this Lent? Building my relationship with God or something else?
----

Jars of Clay - Sad Clown
----
Blessings,
Isaac

Lent Reflection: Second Tuesday of Lent

2010-03-02T21:54:00.000-06:00

"Why do you recite my statutes,
and profess my covenant with your mouth,
Though you hate discipline
and cast my words behind you?"

With these words the psalmist hits on one of the core issues for all humans, religious or otherwise: why do we profess something to be true only to not put it into practice? For some reasons, no matter who you are, we fall short of our expectations for who we should be. We hate discipline and throw aside those words that we don't like, words that challenge, words that bind, words that demand. Even the very language of demand and discipline many people are strongly opposed to using for these words are harsh and those sayings are difficult, how can anyone follow them?

Yet, self-proclaimed Christians are called to be disciples, that is, called to be disciplined in the ways of Christ. It takes hard work and Christ places heavy demands on us -- after all, Jesus wants us, not just some of our time. Being a Christian isn't a 9-5 job; being a Christian is being a daughter or a son of Abba, Our Father. It is this relationship that needs discipline. It is this relationship that places heavy demands on us, not unlike a newborn places heavy demands on new parents or forces families to be more disciplined ("Hey, you can't leave those small toys laying around, Jr. might be crawling around and could choke on that!").

As we continue Lent and approach its two week mark tomorrow, our Lenten promises require more vigilance. Right around now it's so easy to give up, to throw in the towel, to cast the words of the Lord behind us--words of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. By the grace of God, we can make it. We can keep watch with Jesus for just one hour, we can continue saying no to the lesser good so to say yes to the greater, and we can give and not count the cost. This Lent, let us put the discipline back into disciple.
----
Reflection Questions:
Am I afraid of discipline?
Do I cast the words of the Lord behind?
How am I doing with my Lenten promises?
----
Danielle Rose - Reason to Believe
----
Blessings,
Isaac

Lent Reflection: Second Monday of Lent

2010-03-01T23:00:00.000-06:00

Today's Gospel reading calls us to reflect on our relationship with others. Are we merciful or are we vengeful? Are we judgmental or are we loving? Do we condemn or do we accept? Do we forgive or do we hold grudges? Do we give and not count the cost or do we reserve ourselves and our gifts for "special" people? Are we ready to be judged based on our judgments of others -- from incomplete, inconclusive, and mixed data?

Don't be to quick to pass by this reading. Sit with it. You have time right now. You're reading these words I'm typing. Reread the Gospel. Where are you?
----
Reflection questions:
How am I righteous?
When do I judge others unfairly?
Do I seek God first?
----

Danielle Rose - Litany of Humility
The Litany of Humility prayer can help us as we try to be merciful, for from a proper understanding of ourselves, from humility, we can love others better.
----
Blessings,
Isaac

AFK until Monday

2010-02-26T23:59:00.002-06:00

I should have posted this earlier, but I'll be away from keyboard (AFK) until Monday. I'll be back to the reflecting soon.

Blessings,
Isaac

Fun with dates

2010-02-24T22:56:00.000-06:00

From the day Dezzie and I became engaged (November 22, 2007) until the day we're getting married (June 26, 2010), 947 days will pass by. That is 2 years, 7 months, 4 days. Or 2.592 years. Or, in regular person speak, a very long time.

Thanks to WolframAlpha for making this possible.

Blessings,
Isaac

Lent Reflection: First Wednesday of Lent

2010-02-24T21:33:00.001-06:00

The responsorial psalm today says "A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn." This is the bridge between the first reading and the Gospel, a piece that syncs the two together. Nineveh repented with a humble and contrite heart and thus was not spurned. Jesus calls us to have the same humble and contrite heart. But how do we go about doing that?

In lieu of reflecting extensively today, I'm going to link to an excellent, excellent article I read about preparing for the Sacrament of Reconciliation as an adult. It's a method I plan on using the next time I am preparing to go to participate in the Sacrament. Check out the link -- in fact the entire Archdiocese of Washington blog is dynamite. I hope one day to be able to work in that fine archdiocese or one near it.

Blessings,
Isaac

Lent Reflection: First Tuesday of Lent

2010-02-23T21:39:00.000-06:00

Today's Gospel contains the Our Father, one of the central prayers of the Christian faith. But that's not what draws my attention, but rather the words Jesus use the introduce the Our Father: 1) Do not babble; speaking many words doesn't mean you will be heard; 2) Your Father knows what you need before you ask him; 3) This is how you are to pray.

Words /= prayer (that's a doesn't equals sign: Words doesn't equal prayer). Jesus tell us that just because were moving our lips doesn't mean we're praying. We may be saying prayers precisely and accurately, but prayer isn't just some exterior action. Parrots can repeat words precisely and accurately but parrots don't pray. This parrot says "Thank you, Lord" and other short prayers, but is this parrot praying? I don't think so. And our prayer? If you're like me, you often drift off while in prayer, moving your lips or reading the words with your mind wondering, thinking about anything and everything but what the prayer is calling you to do -- to praise God, thank God, ask God, seek forgiveness from God, be with God, etc. Prayer is not just an exterior thing but requires an interior movement.

Yet, Our Father knows what we need before we ask. Some people might say, "Well, why do we pray then? God knows, so I'm good." I think this errs in the opposite direction, where we don't even try to pray but say that God has it under control so it's all good. Yes, God does know what we need before we ask, but then again so does a doctor before we go to the doctor's office or the emergency room. We just want to be healthy! Or a mother before a child asks for some food. We just want to be fed! And a significant other before a kiss. We really do love you! The doctor knows before, the mother knows before, and the significant other knows before, but we still follow through with the action and with the asking. We must set the doctor's appointment to start the movement towards health; we must ask mom for food when we're a kid to receive sustenance; we must show affection to say I love you; and we must present ourselves and our needs to God in prayer to receive blessings. "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened" (Matthew 7: 7-8).

So our prayer needs an interior element and we do indeed need to pray, so how to we do that? Jesus teaches us how. Jesus doesn't say, these are the words you say when you pray, but gives a how-to. The inside (our hearts) should match the outside (our words). When we say "Our Father who art in heaven" we proclaim the reality that God is not my father, but our father; we are united together in a common humanity. We also proclaim that we are adopted sons and daughters of God and the existence of heaven, which isn't a place where we polish our halos and tune our harps, but heaven is a place of eternal joy and communion with God. All the while, when we pray these words on the outside, our hearts should be lifted up to the Lord, they should raise up to Our Father, who art in heaven. Our focus and concentration should be not on the job we have to do when we're done praying or the grocery list or the Winter Olympics, but on Our Father, who art in heaven.

When Jesus teaches us how to pray, he doesn't just teach us what to say but teaches us that prayer involves our entire selves, mind, body, heart, and soul ascending to God not only in a mystical way but in a practical way.
----
Reflection Questions:
How do I pray? Do I focus too much on the words?
Am I afraid of silent prayer? Am I afraid of prayer with others?
----

Jars of Clay: Unforgetful You
----
Blessings,
Isaac

Lent Reflection: First Monday of Lent

2010-02-22T21:56:00.000-06:00

Today's Gospel poses the quintessential question for Christians from the mouth of Jesus: "Who do you say that I am?" The core of Christian is the person of Christ, not a moral code, not a liturgical tradition, but the person of Christ. What we say about Christ affects what we say about everything in our faith. If we were to think of Christ as only human or only divine, we would lose that intimate connection with God that we get through Christ, the primary mediator between God and humanity. If we think of Christ as someone who didn't have a body but was just some sort of spiritual being, Jesus becomes an angel, Jesus becomes unhuman. An image of Christ the King elicits a different response than an image of Jesus in the bread line or an image of Jesus, the Good Shepherd.

What we say about Jesus matters. There's a huge schism between the East and West Churches stemming from the West's belief that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son (Filioque). That was a thousand years ago. Christians today still feel the effects of that time.

And you? Who do you say that Jesus is?
----
Reflection Questions:
What image of Christ speaks to me?
Who do I say that Jesus is?
How do I profess that belief in my daily life?
Do I focus the particulars of my faith more than Jesus?
----

----

Blessings,
Isaac

All of this, all of this will be yours

2010-02-21T22:25:00.000-06:00

No reflection for today, but some music that coincides with today's Gospel reading, Jesus' temptation:

All of this, all of this will be yours. Sound familiar?

Blessings,
Isaac

Test msg

2010-02-20T22:47:00.001-06:00

Test

This message has been sent using the picture and Video service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

Note: To play video messages sent to email, Quicktime@ 6.5 or higher is required.

Catholic Church statistics

2010-02-20T22:34:00.000-06:00

Note an article that quantifies some trends in the Universal Church, including an overall increase in the number of seminarians and an overall decrease in the number of consecrated religious. I'm not sure if there's anything to make of it, as numbers don't tell the entire story. Some hope, perhaps, that there are more seminarians? I'll go with that.

Blessings,
Isaac

Lent Reflection: Saturday after Ash Wednesday

2010-02-20T20:42:00.001-06:00

In today's Gospel reading, Jesus says "Those who are healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do." An essential part of being a Christian is to realize that we are in need of healer, in need of a God. We are not healthy people -- or at least we cannot maintain our health ourselves. Even physical health requires proper nutrition and exercise too. That nutrition doesn't come from within that person, but can only come from the outside. All animals need things outside themselves to live; all plants need things outside themselves to live.

We need Jesus to keep our spiritual health up where it should be. It's more than just going to Mass or to Service once a week to receive a shot of Jesus in the soul, it's a way of life. Someone who exercises once a week and only once a week will not get healthy, especially if they don't eat correctly. Likewise for the spirit. If we do spiritual exercise only once a week we cannot expect to get healthy, especially if those other things that enter into our body though our eyes and mind don't line up with our overall goal of spiritual health.

Unfortunately, this all requires hard work. Fortunately, God gives us grace. It's still a matter of engaging in the struggle for spiritual health, but it is a good struggle, even when we are worlds apart from where we are and where we are called to be. No athlete is born with perfectly molded muscles, but instead they cooperate with the genetic gifts God gives them to mold those muscles. No Christian is born with a perfectly molded relationship with God, but instead they cooperate with the spiritual gifts God gives them to grow in this relationship.

We must strive to realize that we are in need of healing forever. It isn't a one time conversion that we're called to, but a lifetime of conversions, a lifetime of healings.
----
Reflection Questions:
Where do I struggle in my relationship with God?
Where can my relationship with God grow?
Where do I enjoy my relationship with God?
----

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0fPAdEmCz8&feature=player_embedded
----
Blessings,
Isaac

Lent Reflection: Friday after Ash Wednesday

2010-02-19T21:43:00.001-06:00

Fasting is throughout the text in today's readings.

The Old Testament reading calls us to a renewed sense of fasting, so that it is not only something that we do but an attitude that should be carried throughout the day. When the people of Isaiah's time fasted, God responded, through the prophet Isaiah: "Lo, on your fast day you carry out your own pursuits, and drive all your laborers." When we fast, we should strive to reorient ourselves to God, not merely to give things up so that we can lose weight, eat healthier, or attain some goal that we have in mind for ourselves. Those are all fine and good in their own right, but when we fast with those ends in mind we have received our reward. Instead, through our fasting, we should worship God and through that worship of God bring about the Kingdom of God on earth AKA work towards a more just society. But how?

This, rather, is the fasting that I wish: releasing those bound unjustly, untying the thongs of the yoke; Setting free the oppressed, breaking every yoke; Sharing your bread with the hungry, sheltering the oppressed and the homeless; Clothing the naked when you see them, and not turning your back on your own.

When our fasting truly becomes worship and our worship calls us out to serve our brothers and sisters everywhere, then we shall know God intimately, and "Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer,you shall cry for help, and he will say: Here I am!"

And yet, when Christ walked upon the earth way back when his disciples didn't fast, but instead Jesus invokes wedding imagery -- they feasted. What are we to do with this? I thought God wants us to do all those things above, clothing the naked and all that jazz? Yes, they will, but that doesn't come up until later (see the Book of Acts). Right now the disciples are worshiping God. They have ordered their entire life to following Jesus, the second person of the Trinity made incarnate. There is no need to fast in the presence of Jesus, instead there must be celebrating, there must be feasting! There will be a time for fasting, as Jesus says, but right now isn't the time for his disciples. But right now is the time for us.
----
Reflection:
How is our Lenten fasting? Do I need to rededicate ourselves to that practice?
Why do I fast? For selfish reasons or to reorient myself to God?
----

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJnUea_zF98&feature=player_embedded
Blessings,
Isaac

Lent Reflection: Thursday after Ash Wednesday

2010-02-18T19:11:00.001-06:00

From today's Gospel:

Then [Jesus] said to all, “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me."

Do you wish to come after Jesus? A wish isn't as strong as a commitment, but the beginning of a willed action and way of life. Before I get out of bed I have to wish to do so; before I put pencil to paper I have to wish to do so; before I make a life altering commitment I have to wish to do so. Jesus isn't speaking solely to those committed disciples, who also continue to wish to follow Christ, but to those on the outskirts, those who want come after Christ but are being held back by the family, by fear, or by the past.

Once we recognize this wish to come after Christ, Jesus tells us we must deny ourself. This is not an option. Denying self is not just for the hierarchy, not just for those who "have it all together", and not just for the saints but for all of us. But this is where we struggle, which part of myself should I deny? What aspect of who I am or what I do should I deny?

All of it.

In his spiritual autobiography The Pilgrim's Regress, CS Lewis' character, on the verge of baptism, says "I have come to give myself up". In baptism we don't come to give up part of ourselves, but all of ourselves. Our entire self without reserve. To help with this process, St. Ignatius prays:

Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory,
my understanding, and my entire will.
All I have and call my own.
Whatever I have or hold, you have given me.
I return it all to you and surrender it wholly
to be governed by your will.
Give me only your love and your grace
and I am rich enough and ask for nothing more.

But when we deny ourselves we must not fret, we are not left in the desert, abandoned and alone. Our Savior continues, "take up your cross daily and follow me. It will be difficult, you will fall, you will bleed, you will struggle and feel pain. But you must rise again and again and again. Follow me, follow what I have in store for you. Trust in me. I know the way from the cross to the tomb -- I traveled it myself. But I also know the way out of the tomb. Do not pay attention to those lesser things, the world which tells you to focus on yourself and your own improvement through their means. I have heavenly plans for you. Deny yourself; open yourself to my grace. Allow me to work in you and through you. Come and follow me."

My God be with us as we struggle with self-denial and rending of our heart.
----
Reflection Questions:
Do I wish to follow after Jesus?
How did I deny myself today?
What do I still cling to that I need to release?
----

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjXWpfYfgXQ&feature=player_embedded

Blessings,
Isaac

Lent Reflection: Ash Wednesday

2010-02-17T21:17:00.001-06:00

In Lents past, I found it meaningful to take a few moments out of my day and reflect on the readings for that day. This Lent, I will continue this practice but post them on the blog as well, amidst any other blogging I may or may not do. Without further ado...

From today's first reading:

"Even now, says the LORD, return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, and weeping, and mourning; Rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the LORD, your God."

To rend is to rip open violently and with painful feelings. We are called to rend our hearts, that which is inside of us, not the exterior or superficial, not the garments. Lent is a time of deep and intense interior reflection, participation with grace, and subsequent action. We are called to a renewed sense of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. God calls us to return not half heartedly, but with our whole heart; with all that is within us, the pain, the suffering, the joy, the busyness, the moments of despair, the moments of hope; all that makes us who we are and all that holds us back from becoming who we are meant to be. Bring it. Now is the acceptable moment, now is the acceptable time. Don't wait until a future Lent to open your heart. Do it now. Now is the time of our salvation.

Fight the good fight this Lent. Dig deep into yourself. Rend your heart. Be opened and allow God to fill you. Do not be afraid to fast, for when our bodies are hungry we are reminded sacramentally that our spirits hunger for God in an even more intense way. Do not be afraid to pray, for one day within God's courts heals a thousand elsewhere. Do not be afraid to give alms, for what we do for the least of our brothers and sisters we do for Christ.

Repent and believe in the Gospel. Open your heart to God. Be empty that you may be continuously filled.
----
Reflection Questions:

Does my prayer strive to connect me to God or is my prayer ritual an idol?
Does my fasting lead me to immoderate feasting of something else?
Am I afraid of giving too much of my money? too much of my time? too much of my emotional self?
Am I open to God working in my life in new ways this Lent? How?
----

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJH9BLrN83U&feature=player_embedded
----
Blessings,
Isaac

File this in the "So Good" category

2010-02-11T23:54:00.000-06:00

The Archdiocese of Washington's blog. Amazing. Check out their piece on Fear of the Lord. For all you Echo people out there, it's like an In Brief on Fear of the Lord.

So good. I'm going to have to start reading it on a regular basis.

Blessings,
Isaac

Are Husbands Taken for Granted?

2010-01-24T23:04:00.000-06:00

According to Danielle, that seems to be the case, at least in the society at large. The media often portrays us men, but especially husbands, as bumbling idiots who can't get anything right.

As someone entering into a lifelong, committed relationship, I wonder what my experience of this will be like. I don't think Dezzie will take me for granted. She is often very appreciate of me and I of her. And at the end of the day, I think that's what matters. The media will cycle through to something else, likely more crude and demeaning to man, woman, and child, but that too will pass. Love wins.

Blessings,
Isaac

New Plow album

2010-01-23T23:28:00.000-06:00

I listened to the new Plow album (the first one w/o a touch of Isaac =-o). I really, really like the song "That's Heaven". It's no where online, but I think it's one of the best we've done. Very theologically deep and just a pleasant song to listen to and reflect on what foretaste of heaven is like here on Earth. Spark is also a tremendous song, especially for all the church workers out there, most especially those who work with the youth.

I may write a CD review of the entire CD at some point, but until then, you'll have to wait.

Also just got back from a retreat. It was good, but it makes me long for the days of retreats with Bob, Nas, Ricky, sis Rita, and the rest of the gang. Those were excellent and I haven't quite been on a retreat like those since those. Except for NDVision perhaps, but that's not a fair comparison. Either way, STP has got it good.

Retreat ends tomorrow with 10:15 Mass. I hope the youth will show up for it.

Also, I've said this 100 times before (well, probably about 4), but I hope to begin the blogging machine again soon and get some more posts rather than just an average of one a month. Who knows, maybe I'll reach 1,000 before I change the blog name to "A Texan in DC".

Blessings,
Isaac

I fell called to...

2010-01-13T15:13:00.000-06:00

Have you ever heard the phrase “I feel called to…”. Be a teacher, a fireman, a doctor? Most parents of teenagers and young adults probably have. There’s something funny about this phrase. It takes two people to communicate, a caller and a callee (the one who receives the call). So, when we say, “I feel called to…”, who is the one doing the calling? I know I’m receiving this desire to do and to be, but who’s the one giving this to me? Psst. It’s God.

This idea of calling we Christians have given a fancy word you may be familiar with: vocation. Vocation is a calling from God. We hear this word mostly when we talk about priests and nuns. It seems very obvious that priests and nuns have a calling from God because they usually work in a Church or otherwise are associated with Church-y things. But vocation is much more than that.

In today’s Gospel we hear about the baptism of Jesus. This baptism marks the beginning of Jesus’ public life, His acceptance and inauguration of His vocation to be the suffering Servant of God. It’s no coincidence that today marks a transition point from the Christmas season to ordinary time in the liturgical year. Jesus’ baptism marks the end of the beginning of His life. Now, He transitions into a new role into a new community, leaving behind decades of familiarity to embark on a new calling from God; a vocation.

Our baptism in Christ calls us to a new beginning too, a new life in Christ. There comes a point in our lives where we leave behind years of familiarity to embark on a new journey – we go to Kindergarten. We learn, we grow, and we develop as people. And as we mature as Christians, we grow in the Body of Christ. And in that Body we each have a function, a calling, a vocation. Regardless of how prestigious, difficult, or lucrative our vocation may or may not be, all of us are called to do or to be something.

If you’re like me, right about now you’re cringing. Maybe you’re thinking, “Yes I know I am called to something, but I just don’t know what. My life is busy with so much STUFF. I’m confused and pulled in so many directions. I don’t know where I’m going and I don’t know where I will be in a year, five years, ten years.” [Pause; sigh]

But we gather as a people in transition, always in transition. As we live our lives, we should keep an ear open for God’s calling. But often it takes more than an open ear. Discerning vocation is not easy. You probably won’t see heavens open, time stop, and hear a deep voice say, “Ok dude. You are going to graduate high school, go to Madison, meet your spouse on May 8th of your freshman year, become an engineer, and live happily ever after.” God usually doesn’t speak that way to people. God calls us silently, through the workings of our hearts and our minds, through our interests and our desires. In order to find out how God calls us, we must look within ourselves and discern.

There are three questions to answer when discerning vocation: Number 1) Does this bring me joy? Joy is a thing deeper than happiness, that goes down to our heart. Joy is a byproduct of being in right relationship with God, others, and self. We cannot find joy by seeking joy itself. Joy is the feeling we get when we feel like what we’re doing or how we’re being matters and is significant. Joy is a gift from God because joy makes us more alive and Jesus came that we might have life and have it more abundantly.

Number 2, do I have an ability to do this and can I grow in this ability? I am terrible at learning foreign languages. I sometimes wonder how I learned English. I do enjoy speaking Spanish – all six phrases that I know. I am not very good at it and don’t have much room for growth. I have accepted that I am not called to be a linguist.

Finally, does the world need this? Being skilled at the art of making paper airplanes with your feet while blindfolded is very impressive and it may even bring you joy. But I’m not convinced the world needs another feet folding paper airplane maker. I’ve got that market cornered. I’m kidding of course. But our vocation should meet a genuine need in the community.

Community is VERY important when discerning vocation. Talk to those in your community—your friends, your coworkers, your family, everyone you interact with. Listen to their significant compliments. Not “you’re hair looks nice” but “you did a really good job on that presentation”, or “you have a knack for math”, or “I feel like I can tell you anything”. And don’t be afraid to give significant compliments and affirmations to others. We need this in the world today. As a community, we need to be with each other and help each other discern who we are and how God is calling us.

One way we can do that today is with these cards. [Hold up red card]. Since we are a Church community, I will talk about the Church. We are in constant need of leaders in the Church. Do you know someone who you think would make a good priest? Sister? Brother? Deacon? Lay minister? Fill out this card and put it in the collection basket. That’s you’re homework for today.

One of the categories of leaders I mentioned is lay ministry. I feel called to be a married lay minister in the Catholic Church. I am full of joy when I have an opportunity to be with people of faith and to share my faith with them and vice versa. God has blessed me with wonderful opportunities to grow in my ability to minister – during high school when I was active in my youth group, throughout college in my theological studies, and now through an apprenticeship at St. James parish in Menomonee Falls. And there is most DEFINITELY a need in the Church today for young people, young lay ministers.

This is my vocation. This is my passion. I admit to something somewhat embarrassing. In addition to praying, sometimes before a major catechetical event I pump myself up like you see athletes on TV. It’s kinda funny, actually, and I laugh at myself all the while. But lay ministry is my bottom of the 9th with two outs and the World Series on the line. It is my three-point shot at the buzzer in the championship game. It is my fourth-quarter drive to win the Super Bowl for the Green Bay Packers.

Of course, there is no glory without sacrifice, no vocation without challenges. Jesus’ vocation involved much suffering. The first reading for today from Isaiah is also read the Monday of Holy Week during Lent this year, not a coincidence. Jesus’ baptism leads him to his death, but also to his resurrection. And that’s a great thing. This is the mystery of our faith. “Christ has died! Christ is risen! Christ will come again!”

Our vocation leads us to resurrection in Christ. But we must die before we rise. No matter the vocation, there will be mundane, annoying and downright irritating tasks we have to do. You know, those things at work you hate doing but you gotta do them to do your job. Yea, that thing you’re thinking about right now. It’s important to be faithful in those small things, even if we don’t like them, for whoever is faithful in small things will be faithful in large ones.

And sometimes our vocation directs us to unknown, scary paths. I am a native Texan, born and raised, who went to school at the University of Notre Dame in Northern Indiana and somehow, by the grace of God, ended up in Waukesha County. Huh? This journey is not only strange but difficult. Having no family in a thousand miles any direction is a challenge, a type of death of self. I have to put my desire to be near loved ones on hold for what God is calling me to do here in Wisconsin. This deeper calling from God is something I need to follow, just like I need to breathe, despite the pain of leaving decades of familiarity. And in my faithfulness to this calling, God has blessed me with a beautiful fiancée who I met at Notre Dame. God is good.

I must come clean though. Before meeting my fiancée, I was discerning priesthood. *Gasp* If you’re a guy out there thinking about thinking about being a priest, give it a shot. It’s not too scary. And what if God is calling you to be a priest? Abundant Joy!

But no matter your calling, be not afraid. Do not be afraid. God is there. God loves you deeply and passionately. God wants you to get to know Him. God doesn’t ask us to make a choice between God and something else. God just wants to be included.

Include God in your workplace. Maybe you’ve thought of your job as your calling from God for a while now. Great! Even if you haven’t, I invite you now and this week to observe, reflect, and pray about your vocation, your calling. Realize that right now we are all being called by God to something. I quote from Martin Luther King Jr.:

"And when you discover what you will be in your life, set out to do it as if God Almighty called you at this particular moment in history to do it. Don't just set out to do a good job. Set out to do such a good job that the living, the dead or the unborn couldn't do it any better.

If it falls upon your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures, sweep streets like Beethoven composed music, sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry. Sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will have to pause and say: Here lived a great street sweeper who swept his job well.

If you can't be a pine at the top of the hill, be a shrub in the valley. Be the best little shrub on the side of the hill. Be a bush if you can't be a tree. If you can't be a highway, just be a trail. If you can't be a sun, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win or fail. Be the best of whatever you are."

All of us are called to do or to be something. Find what that calling is for you and say yes. Live it out each day. I leave you with a question to continue to think about for the next 20 or 30 years. God is calling YOU, how will you answer?

Who will win the championship tonight?

2010-01-07T18:45:00.000-06:00

The team who wins the majority of these battles:

Offensive line vs. opponents Defensive Line
Defensive line vs. opponents Offensive Line
Special Teams

Everything else is a wash essentially. 9/10 football games are decided in the trenches and on special teams.

So who has the edge? My guesses:

Alabama's DL over Texas' OL
Texas' DL over Alabama's OL
Special Teams: Push

Yes, I wimped out. But that's okay. It'll be a good game.

Blessings,
Isaac

2009-12-29T15:03:00.001-06:00

I haven't mBlogged in a while. It's almost like Twitter except I can put pics, use 160 chars and it isn't as annoying. It's also more 1337. No one txts blogger.

Love Makes Us Beautiful

2009-12-21T01:49:00.000-06:00

What started with this: http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=4969
Lead me to look up Chiara Badano (1971-90), a laywoman of the Focolare Movement

The word laywoman jumped out at me, as did the dates. So a quick Google search yielded:
http://focolare.org/En/sif/2000/20000323e_b.html . An amazing story which included the purported words of St. Augustine, "love makes us beautiful". Chiara seems to be a woman in the mold of St. Therese, the little flower. Check out her story. Do it. It's a love story, and a love story of the best kind.

A quote from that story, attributed to Abbe Pierre: "Saints are not all listed in a catalogue: in all probability we come across them every day."

That led to a conversation with Rita, which turned up http://ashleyconsumedbygrace.com/index.php.

Who is saintly in your life? Whose love makes you beautiful? Does your love beautify others? Yourself?

Blessings,
Isaac

Classic Weis: Part II

2009-11-28T22:26:00.000-06:00

Hughes, 13 carries, 74 yards, 5.7 ypc
Riddick, 6 carries, 36 yards, 6 ypc

Great Notre Dame coaches hired every 23 years

2009-11-28T12:11:00.000-06:00

Check this out:

Rockne (1918-1930). 1918 + 23 = 1941
Frank Leahy (1941-1953). 1941 + 23 = 1964
Ara Parseghian (1964-1974). 1964 + 23 = 1987
Lou Holtz (1986-1996). 1986/7 + 23 = 2009/10

10 of 11 Notre Dame National Championships have come from these coaches. Notre Dame, just like any school, goes through cycles. We're cycling toward an upswing right now. So says then numbers at least.

Blessings,
Isaac

Classic Weis

2009-11-14T22:58:00.000-06:00

A Allen: 14 Carries, 77 yards, 5.5 YPC.

Running Allen a little more would be nice.

Blessings,
Isaac

Theological Implication of Aliens

2009-11-10T15:38:00.000-06:00

For the two or three people who might find this interesting, the Vatican Observatory examines the theological implications of finding alien life.

Or you could just read CS Lewis' Space Trilogy. That gets the job done in an attention getting fashion.

Blessings,
Isaac

NYC marathon winner honors Notre Dame graduate Ryan Shay

2009-11-02T22:43:00.000-06:00

Meb Keflezighi won the New York City Marathon in honor of his fallen friend, Notre Dame graduate Ryan Shay. There's a great article in Sports Illustrated about it. Check it.

Enticing quote:

If you're 34-year-old Meb Keflezighi, what tribute could you possibly come up with that would be a fitting honor for your friend and training partner Ryan Shay, who collapsed and died in November 2007 during the U.S. Olympic marathon trials in New York City?

In a news conference before the 2009 New York City Marathon, you could ask for a moment of silence in his honor. Check.
...
And then, less than a mile later at the bottom of Cat Hill, now that you are solidly in the lead with the television cameras -- and the eyes of the world -- on only you, you can make the symbol of the cross on your chest as you fly by the spot where Shay, a Notre Dame grad, fell. Even though Shay's father, Joe Shay, isn't watching the race -- there are too many faces he painfully recognizes -- he might say afterward that you are "one of the class acts in all of sports" and that your gesture is "just so significant." Check.

Blessings,
Isaac

Faith is not an intellectual exercise

2009-10-21T13:26:00.000-05:00

“At times we think we can resolve the fundamental questions about God, mankind and the world using only the power of reason. St. Bernard however, solidly rooted in the Bible and the Fathers of the Church, reminds us that without a deep faith in God, nourished by prayer and contemplation, an intimate relationship with the Lord, our reflections on the divine mysteries are in danger of becoming a futile intellectual exercise, and lose their credibility."

From Pope Benedict's homily on St. Bernard of Clairvaux.

Blessings,
Isaac

It's the smell

2009-10-19T18:22:00.000-05:00

I regularly read the article by Fr. Ron Rolheiser that's posted in the Catholic Herald, the Milwaukee archdiocesan newspaper. Usually they're pretty good, but this one is particularly awesome. Read the entire article on private integrity.

A good quote:

We should never delude ourselves into thinking that the things we do in private, including very small actions of infidelity, of self-indulgence, of bigotry, of jealousy, or of slander, are of no consequence since no one knows about them. Inside the mystery of our interconnectedness as a human family and as a family of faith and trust, even our most private actions, good or bad, like invisible bacteria inside the blood stream, affect the whole. Everything is known, felt, in one way or another.

We're all in this together. Let's all do our part and love each other.

Blessings,
Isaac

Houston's QB has the best quarter in the history of football

2009-09-29T14:24:00.000-05:00

....that is, if you believe ESPN:
http://www.thewizofodds.com/the_wiz_of_odds/2009/09/case-closed.html

For His Glory,
Isaac

Michael Floyd's Tattoo

2009-09-18T16:02:00.000-05:00

Floyd is a heck of a player. While I'm not personally crazy about tattoos, I like the text of his:

I am the Lord's warrior. I am confident beyond conviction, a disciple beyond determination. I am confident beyond reason because my confidence lies in Christ. The results of my efforts must result in His glory.

Amen.

For His Glory,
Isaac

This legitimately excites me: Catholic-Orthodox Unity

2009-09-15T17:06:00.000-05:00

Check out the article on the prospects of communion between the Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox Churches. For some reason, this makes me really happy and glad. I guess the potential of overcoming 1000 years of non-communion (excommunion?) is awesome and wonderful and provides a witness to the world that even longstanding differences can be resolved peacefully.

Here's to it!

For His Glory,

Isaac

Michigan Letter

2009-09-11T14:06:00.002-05:00

" This is why we don't approach the Michigan game with the same tradition-laden respect, the pomp and circumstance, or the "contest of equals" honor reserved for the Southern Cal game. Rather, like Inigo Montoya closing in on the six-fingered man, we come with a singular focus. We are Notre Dame Football. You tried to kill us. Prepare to die."

Read the whole thing, a brief history of the Notre Dame/Michigan rivalry.

For His Glory,
Isaac

Game Console Failure

2009-09-02T10:42:00.002-05:00

Every time you turn on your Xbox 360, you have about a 1.35% chance of failure -- or at least that's what the numbers come out to. Check it out:

Xbox 360 'Least Reliable' Console.

For His Glory,

Isaac

How Texas (and other teams) pass the football

2009-08-29T22:54:00.002-05:00

I ran across this website called Smart Football that I think I'll peruse throughout the football season. They wrote an article breaking down some of what Texas does throwing the ball: Colt McCoy's Texas passing game

One more week until game time!

For His Glory,
Isaac

Origin for the Year of the Priest

2009-08-29T00:30:00.002-05:00

I found this fascinating, interesting, and important:
Cardinal Bertone reveals origin of Year of the Priest

For His Glory,
Isaac

Last first words

2009-07-31T01:56:00.002-05:00

My first two words on my final paper for my Masters degree are "Dream Theater". How great is that?

For His Glory,
Isaac

Catholic Respiration

2009-06-29T21:09:00.004-05:00

Catholic Respiration

The Eucharist is Catholic breathing and breath:
   both noun and verb.

Inhale -- God enters.
Exhale -- Help me decrease
Inhale -- that You may increase.

Voluntary but required
   Unconscious but needed
Difficult but always present

We receive to act.
   We breathe to move.
As oxygen runs through our veins and replenishes us
   So too does the Eucharist.

Stop breathing and die.
   Stop Eucharisting and wither.

Life blood, life force, life giving, Life Giver, life after death, death into
   LIFE.

Foretaste but wonder; mystery but reality; universal but here.

Openness and more openness.
Vulnerability into transparency.

Let it be You who lives in me.

I need you Lord, like my brain and body needs
   Oxygen.

Eucharist is Oxygen.

-- Written before the Eucharist
-- Monday, June 29, 2009

Prayer from St. John of the Cross: Toda y Nada

2009-05-18T13:42:00.001-05:00

In order to have pleasure in everything
Desire to have pleasure in nothing.
In order to arrive at possessing everything
Desire to possess nothing.
In order to arrive at being everything
Desire to be nothing.
In order to arrive at knowing everything
Desire to know nothing.
In order to arrive at the wherein thou hast no pleasure
Thou must go by a way in which thou hast no pleasure.
In order to arrive at that which thou knowest not
Thou must go by a way that thou knowest not.
In order to arrive at that which thou possessest not
Thou must go by a way that thou possessest not.
In order to arrive at that which thou art not
Thou must go through that which thou art not.
- St. John of the Cross (quoted by Thomas Merton in The Ascent to Truth)
-------
For His Glory,
Isaac

Homily on Mark 8:34 - Take up your cross

2009-05-14T14:57:00.003-05:00

For my online class this semester (called Patristic Exegesis) we had an assignment to write a homily on something in the Bible. I wanted to write on more than just a verse, but the verse just happened to be enough to write on.

I wanted to share it with you, whoever you are.
----
“Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me” (Mk 8:34b, NAB). Christ presents a threefold command. This command is spoken not to just a select few, not to only those whom he has selected as his followers, not to solely Peter, James, and John. Jesus the Christ speaks to all those who are willing to listen, everyone who may be in the crowd that day, the rich, the poor, the passerby, the disciple, the chosen, the children, the busy, the traveler. The commonality is the willingness to listen to Jesus, to ascent to his call, for it was Jesus who “summoned the crowd” (8:34a). Even before saying “follow me”, Christ asks them to follow him into the crowd, to be receptive. “Join the people gathered,” Christ says, “and hear what it is I have to say. You too; you too are included in those I wish to speak. My message is not for only the twelve who I call disciples, but for the lost sheep of Israel” (Mt 15:24).

Upon gathering up all those open to his word, Christ says “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me” (Mk 8:34b). All those gathered, the disciples and non-disciples alike, are made equal. Whoever has ears are invited to listen to Christ’s words, and whoever wishes to come after Christ are invited to act up on them (cf. Mk 4:9). Those in the crowd are not forced into submission, their freedom is never hindered, but instead Jesus invites those gathered, and us today, to reflect. “What is it that you truly wish?,” Christ asks. “What do you really desire?”

And so let us think. Are our wishes grand enough for God? Are we going to find happiness in abundance of corn and new wine (cf. Ps 4:8)? Shall we build up our riches here in the earthly kingdom or for the heavenly kingdom (cf. Lk 12:33)? Those gathered are asked to reflect on whether they wish to come after Christ, who they know to have fed four thousand with seven loaves, cured the blind man at Bethsaida, healed a deaf man in Decapolis, fed another five thousand with five loaves and two fishes, healed demoniacs, people with deformities, lepers, and drove out demons throughout all of Galilee. The crowd knows Christ as a healer, among other titles, but they don’t know Christ the Risen Lord. We have that benefit. Yet we who do know the Risen Christ are asked the same question, the question that echoes for all ages. Do we wish to come after Christ? Do we wish to go where he goes? We, who in faith know of our ultimate end with God, hear the words of Christ differently, for we know and believe that he has the words of eternal life (cf. Jn 6:68). Christ invites us to receive those words. But moreover Christ invites us to desire those words and to follow those words back to the speaker, back to himself.

Once our desires are set correctly and we wish to come after Christ the threefold command takes on a new meaning. Simply wishing to come after Christ is the beginning of our faith, but not the final destination. Let us examine what it is this threefold command asks.

Christ demands those who wish to come after him to “deny himself”. After our ascent to Christ, after placing coming after Christ as our ultimate wish – for failure to have this as our most important desire means that we are not actually desiring coming after Christ – after freely wishing to come after Christ we are called to deny ourselves. Who are you? Who are we? By choosing to come after Christ we can call ourselves Christians, our identity becomes more closely bound to Christ. So this is not that part which should be denied.

We must deny our SELVES. We must put ourselves aside for something bigger. Abraham, when asked by God to sacrifice Isaac, denied himself. He denied his identity, which was so closely tied up with his offspring and God’s own promise to make his descendents more numerous than all the stars. John the Baptist denied himself. While he had all the makings of an important figure, instead of cultivating the attention, he points to Jesus. Paul, in his call to conversion from Christ, is asked the same. He is asked to go against everything he has worked for, to fight for the other side.

These three deny their identity in faith; they deny their selves in response to God’s call. But it wasn’t easy. Abraham struggled the entire journey to the sacrifice site. Paul and John the Baptist were both imprisoned, while Paul and beaten to the point of physical deformation. And so our wish to come after Jesus likewise will often lead to struggle and sufferings. Letting go of self leaves us open and vulnerable, our hands not tied to ourselves anymore, like Jonah thrown overboard into the sea. With no identity, with no self to cling onto, we can drift away into emptiness, into loneliness, into meaninglessness. But we have a God who “so loved the world that he gave his only son” (Jn 3:16). Our God throws us a life preserver, wood in the form of a cross, and the imperative to take it up. In this ocean of selflessness taking up our cross is the only way, the cross our only hope. The struggle that ensues from denying our selves is our cross. Yet it is not the Cross of Christ. By taking up our cross, we do participate in Christ’s taking up of his Cross, but our crosses are not as large as the cross of Christ. Christ calls us to take up OUR cross, never someone else’s.

“Take up your cross,” Christ says. He speaks this to those who do not know about the Resurrection. For them, the exhortation to “take up your cross” cannot be meant to connect their lives to the crucifixion, as it has not yet happened. So what is the cross, then? The pain that comes from denying ourselves can help us identify our cross. Abraham was told to sacrifice his son, and so his cross was losing his son Isaac and his identity. He had to walk with this, struggle with this. Paul carried the cross of his old identity, the pain from murdering followers of Christ, those, who, like Stephen, had already desired to come after Christ, denied themselves, taken up their cross, and followed Christ. The cross is a cross of love, a cross of continual self-denial, a cross that calls us to obedient unto death of self, even death on a cross (cf. Phil 2:8).

If we were only to wish to come after Christ, to deny ourselves, and to take up our cross, we would be like the seed which falls among thorns, growing but choked, life leading to only death (cf Mk 4:7). But we are called to follow Christ. For the crowd, following Christ could be taken literally. Leaving everything behind to physically follow Jesus would be feasible: denying the whole identity of self and all of its ties, taking up the cross of self-LESS-ness and following the Man and his teachings.

Let us not believe this is the only way to follow him. Now we face a different reality. We believe and follow the same Christ, but we know we follow a Savior who knows his way out of the tomb. Following Christ will lead us to new life. The struggles will come, the pain will come. “But I consider that the sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed for us” (Rom 8:18).

Mark the Evangelist recapitulates this message in the next verse: “whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it”. So Christ calls us to follow him by denying our selves. Let us enter into the struggle of following Christ, listening to his words, imitating his actions and conforming ourselves to he “who takes away the sins of the world” (Jn 1:29b). Let us join our voices with John the Baptist’s, praying that Christ increase, and we decrease (cf. Jn 3:30). And let us join in the Baptizer’s willingness to deny himself amidst claims of importance and greatness, his resoluteness in taking up his cross by preaching a difficult message, and his faithfulness in following Jesus. May we who struggle to carry our crosses trust in him who strengthens us; may we continue to follow Christ, “for from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen” (cf. Phil 4:13; Rom 11:36).
----
For His Glory,
Isaac

Both And

2009-05-13T15:09:00.002-05:00

One of the columns in the Catholic Herald (the weekly newspaper serving the Archdiocese of Milwaukee) that I enjoy reading is the one by Fr. Ron Rolheiser. They're all really good. I thought I'd share one of his latest ones called There's a Season for Everything.

I like it because it embodies the "Both And" approach that is essential for our Catholic faith. We uphold both celibacy and marriage, both Scripture and Tradition, both feeding the poor and spiritual progress. Check it out.

For His Glory,
Isaac

ND and Obama: CSC Superior responds and I comment

2009-04-01T16:34:00.006-05:00

The University of Notre Dame was founded by the Congregation of the Holy Cross (CSC). The superior of the CSC, Fr. Hugh Cleary, wrote an open letter to Barack Obama about his visit that is worthy of sharing.

In particular, there were a couple of paragraphs that expressed some of my own thoughts, not only on this matter, but on others as well.

The first one is about voting:

President Obama, I found the entirety of your remarks at the prayer breakfast truly inspiring and motivating. In your words I found, in summary form, the reason of my admiration and esteem for you and the root of my patriotism. With your words, however, I also found, in summary form, the reason I could vote neither for you nor the Democratic ticket nor the Republican ticket. In fact, as a Catholic I believe myself disenfranchised from my government and disillusioned with what I perceive as a great gap between the rhetoric of our founding national ideals and the hubris of our so-called national convictions which more and more seem simply to enshrine our self-interest for prosperity over democracy. As an American Catholic, will I ever be able to vote again for a nominee of a major political party when each party, in my view, fails the consistency test in promoting the rights and dignity of all human beings from conception to natural death?

I am embarrassed to confess that I sat out the last election cycle. I am finding it more and more difficult to vote for the candidates of our major political parties. My friends tell me to vote by all means, vote for the lesser of the evils. Unfortunately today's evils seem so much larger than my conscience can bear, whether they be on abortion, the death penalty, euthanasia, immigration, the economy, housing for the poor, health care for the uninsured, the environment, war or weapons of mass destruction. I do love my country and I do want to vote. I just don't know how to vote while remaining true to my conscience formed by my faith convictions.

The second is about hatred for the University and towards people who disagree with the Catholic position on abortion and other life issues:

There are some people who hate the life of a child in the womb due to the unwanted consequences of sheltering, nurturing and forming that new "intruder," that new guest, who is now forever altering the agenda of one's personal life as well as the life of our larger society.

There are some religious people who now hate Notre Dame for inviting you to speak at the 2009 graduation and receive an honorary degree. I fear their hate will beget further hate. Will their hatred ultimately destroy their souls in the guise of self-righteousness, just as powerfully as abortion destroys the physical life of a newly conceived child?

How do we best love in this situation? How do we soften our hearts? What action, thought, or belief will make us grow in the image and likeness of God? What would be the most loving and prudent move? How could we, as American Catholics, best love the nation and the entire Catholic population? What would be the most prudent action? I don't know and that's probably why I'm not in charge of making that decision.

A lot of me is sad about the entire situation -- so much division is coming out of a commencement speech. Some of me is excited -- he is an excellent speaker and the first black President of the US. But most of me is disappointed. Disappointed at Notre Dame is honoring a strongly pro-choice president. Disappointed that people are making this into a political thing when I'm not sure it should be. Disappointed that we're losing focus on the need to provide support and love for mothers contemplating abortions. And those who already have and are broken and full of pain. I'm disappointed in a way that I don't know how to describe: a disappointment that comes deep within me. But a disappointment that calls me to love the University more. And to love our President more, despite our disagreements.

Many people will see this as a fall from grace for Notre Dame, that ND is no longer Catholic, despite it's deep commitment to its Catholic identity: Campus Ministry, the center for Social Concerns, the various social outreach programs, ACE, Echo (I had to include it in the list 8-)).

If Notre Dame has sinned by inviting a pro-choice president to speak and honoring him with a honorary degree, are we to throw stones at the University? Or are we to love the sinner and hate the sin?

For His Glory,
Isaac

A Little Way Through Lent

2009-03-16T18:34:00.002-05:00

I ran across this article that combines Thérèse's little way with Lenten devotions. It's pretty good. I hope that I'll be able to better emulate that Little Way during Lent and beyond.
For His Glory,
Isaac

June 26th, 2010, 3PM = Wedding

2009-03-02T08:32:00.001-06:00

This is the day the Lord has made! Let us rejoice and be glad!
Blessings,
Isaac

The day before

2009-03-01T23:50:00.002-06:00

Here we are, March 1st, 2009. Tomorrow is the first Monday of March. To most people it'll be a normal Monday, but to a handful of people, it much more than a normal Monday. I count myself among those.
What's so special? Monday, March 2nd, 2009 is the day that people can start reserving the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Notre Dame for weddings. Needless to say, we're pretty excited. I'll be waking up in a little more than 6 hours, ready and excited, gearing up to call. And so will some of my closest friends and family members.
This entire this is very exciting. I mean, the calling will be thrilling: "Will I get to talk this time? What will I say? Etc." And then of course sharing the news with the family and the friends too. That will be something great. Memorable.
Then there will be a true countdown. Then we'll be able to more intentionally prepare for marriage instead of it being some far off thing. It'll be a little more real once we have a date set. Then we'll get reception places lined up, and all those sort of fun things. Sweet!
May God help all those who are calling, both for me and for other people, that all couples who receive a wedding date may receive it in peace.
Blessings,
Isaac

Pope Benedict's 2009 Message for Lent

2009-02-24T13:22:00.002-06:00

Check out the message that Pope Benedict XVI has for us for Lent this year. It's about fasting and the true meaning of fasting. I'd link to the Vatican webpage, but it's harder to read from there than from the Catholic Education website.

Happy Lenting!

For His Glory,
Isaac

Wedding Calling Party!

2009-02-19T19:54:00.000-06:00

2009-01-21T16:36:00.001-06:00

Let's count the states-and non states-I've been in this week: WI, IL, IN, OH, PA, MD, Washington DC (non state), NJ (first time), and NY (first time). Crazy.-IG

Best Value?

2009-01-09T15:04:00.002-06:00

Apparently, Notre Dame came in 14th for schools with the best value.

Wow. That means my education must have been tremendous, for the amount of loans I still have is higher than what my brother Zach will pay for the rest of his education, even if he didn't get another dime of financial aide.

For His Glory,
Isaac

2009-01-06T14:32:00.001-06:00

That previous message is brought to you by Henri Nouwen. - IG

2009-01-06T14:30:00.001-06:00

Prayer as an articulate way of being useless in the face of God brings a smile to all we do and creates humor in the midst of our occupations and preoccupations

2009-01-04T22:23:00.001-06:00

I think it's ironic that the History channel has an Armageddon Week. -IG

2008-12-26T00:39:00.001-06:00

Merry Christmas! I think this is my first attempt at a mobile blog post. Hopefully it works. I don't know how to do paragraphs, but hopefully you understand.-IG

St. Joseph prayer service with an Advent theme

2008-12-18T11:22:00.004-06:00

By the grace of God, I cooked up this prayer for today. I thought I'd share it with whomever wants to pray. It has an Advent twinge.

+ Reflection +

The silence of Saint Joseph is a silence drawn from his contemplation of the mystery of God in an attitude of complete availability to the divine will. In other words, Saint Joseph's silence is not a sign of interior emptiness but, to the contrary, of the fullness of the faith he carries in his heart and that guides each of his thoughts and actions. It is a silence due to which Joseph, together with Mary, keeps the Word of God made known through the Holy Scriptures while confronting them all the time with the events of Jesus' life. It is a silence woven of constant prayer, of prayer blessing the Lord, of adoration of his holy will and of total trust in his providence.

Let us allow ourselves to be “infected” by Saint Joseph's silence! We have such need of it in a world that is often far too noisy, unsupportive of listening in recollection to the voice of God. At this time, as we prepare for Christmas, let us cultivate an interior recollection that we may welcome and keep Jesus in our lives.
Pope Benedict XVI, December 17, 2008

• In this busyness of the Christmas Season, how can we keep Jesus in our lives?
• How can we keep Jesus in our lives at home? With the family?

+ Period of silent contemplation +

+ Faith Sharing +

+ Prayer +

O, St. Joseph, whose protection is so great, so strong, so prompt before the Throne of God, I place in you all my interests and desires. O, St. Joseph, do assist me by your powerful intercession, and obtain for me from your Divine Son all spiritual blessings, through Jesus Christ, our Lord; so that, having engaged here below your heavenly power, I may offer my Thanksgiving and Homage to the most loving of Fathers.

O, St. Joseph, I never weary of contemplating you, and Jesus asleep in your arms; I dare not approach while He reposes near your heart. Press Him in my name and kiss His fine head for me and ask him to return the Kiss when I draw my dying breath.

St. Joseph, patron of departing souls, pray for us. Amen.
---
O Adonai, come quickly.

For His Glory,
Isaac

God becomes a baby

2008-12-08T15:15:00.002-06:00

That's what Christmas is about. Well, not really, but that's what happened in the birth of Jesus.

God's sign is simplicity. God's sign is the baby. God's sign is that he makes himself small for us. This is how he reigns. He does not come with power and outward splendour. He comes as a baby - defenceless and in need of our help.

From this article about Benedict XVI's 2006 Christmas homily. Actually, it's his homily but shortened.

It's pretty awesome. Give the homily a read.

For His Glory,
Isaac

Catholicism AND football

2008-12-08T15:09:00.002-06:00

See Dezzie, I post not only about God and football, but about both.

This sweet Commonweal spoof about ND football and the coaching change/coaching search -- or rather the lack thereof.

For His Glory,
Isaac

College Football Bowl Pick 'em 2008

2008-12-08T13:43:00.000-06:00

Feel free to join:

http://football.fantasysports.yahoo.com/bowl/register/joinprivategroup_assign_team?GID=26789&P=goirish

For His Glory,
Isaac

Gotta Love Wisconsin

2008-12-07T10:42:00.003-06:00

Check out the weather forecast for Brookfield. For the next 10 days, there's only 1 day that we have less than 30% chance of snow. And thus far, seemingly every day that has 30% chance of snow it has snowed...

Crazy times.

For His Glory,
Isaac

Hierarchy

2008-12-05T14:29:00.001-06:00

I'm preparing for an RCIA session on the Church and Vocation. Invariably, I will be talking about the hierarchy. I had a teacher who said something awesome about hierarchy, but I don't remember and can't find it in my notes. But this article on hierarchy is sorta what he was saying.

Blessings,
Isaac

This past weekend

2008-11-10T22:28:00.002-06:00

What a crazy weekend it was. On Friday I prepared a presentation on China for the SOAL group at St. James. It went pretty well. It's fun to tell them stories about our trip, including the infamous Super Girl picture below:
Ahh, what a fun trip. Trips, I mean. Snarbin uploaded pictures up to Facebook from my second tour of China. That was also a fun trip.

Friday after work my mentor's husband came and fixed our dryer. It had been broken for well over a month. The only load of laundry I did was some underwear. And I hung those out to dry. Needless to say, today when I was doing my laundry it took me a really long time.

After the fixing of the dryer I went back to St. James where the first Confirmation retreat began. We went to Adventure Rock for some group building activities. There were some good games and I have some ideas for future activities involving running around and the like. And the climbing was good too. I think I might try and go back a couple of times a month or something. Or maybe not. Either way, it was a lot of fun and I'm glad I was a part of it. I can usually climb up the wall pretty well. It took my body about three days to recover. Sick.

Saturday came and I spent the entire day at the retreat. What an exhausting day. I did a talk thing about confirmation, what it means me and how I've come to understand it. I showed a video clip from The Matrix, the one about the red and blue pill. Confirmation is like that. Taking the blue pill. Or at least it was for me some six years ago. I took the blue pill and now I keep seeing just how deep the rabbit hole actually goes. The decision is a one time decision, but it is also an every day decision. Yea, it went well.

My small group was pretty awesome. They shared some meaningful things and we discussed some good stuff as well. It surprises me how open that 11th graders could be about the challenges of their life and their family life.

I rushed back home in hopes of catching the end of an exciting Notre Dame/Boston College game. Instead, I came back to a 17-0 debacle. I could watch the game but I'm choosing not to, because so many people on ND Nation say that this is the game that was the turning point (in a bad way) for Weis. Not that I don't want to be informed, but I have better things to do than to spend a couple of hours watching us be terrible when I know the outcome. I still retain some hope. But I think that Weis is going to have to make some coaching changes in the offseason.

Sunday. Woke up early again. My 10th grade class and I headed out to the Cathedral in downtown Milwaukee. It's a pretty nice Cathedral. I really liked the stained glass windows of the 12 apostles. I still don't know what to think of the crucifix. It is certainly unique. And it is nice to see different takes on Jesus on the cross.

After 9:30 Mass we went upstairs and helped out the cafe dealy, which serves a free hot meal to anyone who walks through the door. It's an eyeopener to the youth and it's good to see them breaking down walls because when it comes down to it, we're the same as they are, we just have more money. But money doesn't last, we do. So it's kinda odd, we might be in heaven with the people we passed by on the streets and refused to make eyecontact. Imagine, in purgatory, we'll probably cry tears of sorrow for not looking that person in the eye or giving up a couple of bucks. When it all comes down to it, we're equally as human as they are. Saying anything else makes us a pig on Animal Farm.

That lasted until 1:30. I came home, exhausted from the driving, the weekend, and the everything. I took an on and off three or four hour nap while watching snippets of NFL games with Mike. Well, he did most of the watching. Last night I slept something like 10 hours. It was so awesome. Made up for all the sleep I missed during the weekend that was much thicker than normal.

Monday was an off day from work. Yay! Laundry + exercise + cleaning of room + cleaning of kitchen + talking to Dezzie + guitar + Mario Kart Wii + eating + so many more things. It was good.

I should call my family and friends more. If you're reading this, hello. Hopefully I'll talk to you soon.

In the meantime, it's almost time to go downstairs for night prayer with my community. Until later.

For His Glory,
Isaac

Christianity: Not for Couch Potatoes

2008-11-06T12:11:00.002-06:00

So says Pope Benedict XVI in this article about the everydayness of Christianity. It's not something to be lazy about. Christianity is a daily decision, a daily faith. When we try to be Christians, we make daily affirmations of our faith through our beliefs, through our prayers, through our interactions with all those we come in contact with. And because of this, "Christians are not spared suffering; on the contrary, they get a little extra," so says Pope Benedict XVI quoting St. Augustine.
Just wanted to share this good article.
For His Glory,
Isaac

The Comeback

2008-10-24T10:58:00.001-05:00

I think I'm going to start blogging again. I changed the title to reflect my new location in life: Wisconsin. I might actually end up changing it in a couple of years when I get married. Hah. A Texan in DC? Crazy times.
There may or may not be more to come. But be on the lookout.
For His Glory,
Isaac

Golden Domer brings home the first gold for USA

2008-08-09T10:30:00.002-05:00

I wasn't really surprised when I read that classmate of mine Mariel Zagunis won the gold medal in sabre. But it's pretty cool that she was the first American to win the gold for this Olympic games.
You can read the story about the entire sabre competition.
Well, gotta get back to packing and doing things. Leaving tomorrow! And Dezzie's coming today! Awesome.
For His Glory,
Isaac

I also like the Pope

2008-07-21T19:19:00.001-05:00

A better way to ask the big questions

"Where can we look for answers?" Benedict asks. "The Spirit points us towards the way that leads to life, to love and to truth. The Spirit points us towards Jesus Christ. In him we find the answers that we are seeking, we find the goals that are truly worth living for, we find the strength to pursue the path that will bring about a better world."

I like the new AD for Notre Dame

2008-07-16T15:54:00.001-05:00

Press Conference Quotes :: Quotes from the press conference with new Director of Athletics Jack Swarbrick.

The challenges here are significant. ... But they're challenges of the best kind. They're challenges born not of problems, not of shortcomings, but of great striving, of high goals. I believe that I accept this job on the threshold of extraordinary change in intercollegiate athletics in America.

Liturgical Awesomeness

2008-07-08T01:40:00.002-05:00

In Brief, here's what I want to post about my class called Liturgically Year, which I have been calling liturgically awesomeness long before I know that it would meet and surpass it's name all in one class period.

The Paschal Mystery is Passion, Death, Resurrection, Sending of the Holy Spirit, and the start of the Church all in one.
Every time we celebrate Mass we participate in this.
Jesus' resurrection was the doing of God.
The Holy Spirit went through Jesus and since he was completely empty due to His sacrifice on the cross, the Holy Spirit came out of Jesus and into all believers.
The big one though: The extent with which we are dead is the extent with which we are resurrected.

That last one is huge, but I need to get sleep so I can stay awake and learn more.
For His Glory,
Isaac

Litany of Humility

2008-06-26T20:52:00.001-05:00

There's this really amazing prayer called the Litany of Humility that I've been praying recently via the Danielle Rose song by the same name. It's been a blessing for me to reflect on during the day and right before I go to sleep.

O Jesus! meek and humble of heart, Hear me.
From the desire of being esteemed,
Deliver me, Jesus.

From the desire of being loved...
From the desire of being extolled ...
From the desire of being honored ...
From the desire of being praised ...
From the desire of being preferred to others...
From the desire of being consulted ...
From the desire of being approved ...
From the fear of being humiliated ...
From the fear of being despised...
From the fear of suffering rebukes ...
From the fear of being calumniated ...
From the fear of being forgotten ...
From the fear of being ridiculed ...
From the fear of being wronged ...
From the fear of being suspected ...

That others may be loved more than I,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may be esteemed more than I ...
That, in the opinion of the world,
others may increase and I may decrease ...
That others may be chosen and I set aside ...
That others may be praised and I unnoticed ...
That others may be preferred to me in everything...
That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should…

Onward to papers and homework (and hopefully talking to Dezzie).
For His Glory,
Isaac

Do you really know him?

2008-06-24T18:40:00.001-05:00

Matt Hayes poses the question: You hate Charlie Weis, but do you really know him?
That's a pretty good question. I hear people call Weis all these different names and whatnot. But this article is excellent and really reaches to who Charlie Weis is.
It's a good read. That, and I expect we will win at least 8 games next year. But I guess we'll see.
For His Glory,
Isaac

Exchange with Matt Cashore

2008-06-22T22:21:00.004-05:00

Today was a beautiful ND today. There was a storm right before sunset. It stopped around 9pm, at which point I ran (yes ran) outside with my camera to take some sweet pictures. Of course, I knew I'd meet Mr. Cashore out there because, well, it's not every day that you see a horizon to horizon rainbow, or a double rainbow, by the Golden Dome.
Here's the exchange:
Me: I had a feeling I'd see you out here
Him: Well, the magic is happening
Magic indeed. I thank God for the amazing beauty in the world and hope to share it with you soon.
For His Glory,
Isaac

Do you want it?

2008-06-22T00:19:00.001-05:00

I love getting this little quotes from St. Escriva on my homepage. This one is really good. How badly do you want it?

More About Interior Life
You tell me, yes, that you want to. Very good: but do you want to as a miser longs for gold, as a mother loves her child, as a wordling craves for honours, or as a wretched sensualist seeks his pleasure ?

No? Then, you don't want to.
– St. Josemaria Escriva, The Way, #316

For His Glory,
Isaac

St. James here I come!

2008-06-21T22:25:00.003-05:00

I found out my parish assignment for Echo: St. James Catholic Church in Menomonee Falls, WI (I think I spelled that right?). (Map) I'm super excited and pumped up to be working there. Although I don't know anything about the community as of yet, I trust the leaders of Echo to put me in a great place. That and St. James is awesome.
For His Glory,
Isaac

"Mindless" Videogames

2008-06-06T22:44:00.001-05:00

I ran across this article today talking about video games. Some of the video games I play have a story behind them, while others do not and are merely car racing games or sports games. Nevertheless, the author makes a good case for video games counting as an artform--or at least some of them. Check out the article linked below: InsideCatholic.com - Those "Mindless" Videogames
For His Glory,
Isaac