Because Christ is With Us When Two or More Gather

Measured one way, the family potluck I organized after the 5 p.m. Mass in my parish tonight was a bit of a bust. We thirteen took up three small tables in the large Parish Hall. Two sets of brothers showed up, along with our 14-year-old son. Three moms came, too. My own husband couldn't make it because our 10-year-old was playing a travel soccer game 30 miles away.

Because I’m Billy Jack (Not Francis of Assisi)

A while back, I wrote a post where I said that I became a Catholic because I discovered that Christ, and His Church, wanted 100% of me. My whole heart, soul, mind and strength. The full-spectrum of Frank, warts and all. I needed to change, but I didn't have to stop being a man.

I'm especially thankful for this, as I don't fit the mold of modern-day milquetoast Christian guy. Namby-pamby, pacifistic, always gentle and kind. The ancients counseled “Know thyself,” and I know this about myself: I'm more like Billy Jack than I am like St. Francis of Assisi.

To Convert, like Thérèse

I have friends, good Catholic friends, who seem to relish nothing more, especially after a couple of beers or in the case of our men’s group while chomping coffee and donuts, than to bemoan the pitiful state of contemporary culture. You know the litany. A conservative Catholic cultural critique can be merciless. (A liberal Catholic cultural critique is an oxymoron.)

I’m pretty sure now, after nearly three years a Catholic, that all such criticism is worthless.

YIMCatholic Book Club Poll Results

Thanks to the 44 of you who voted for our next Book Club selections! The polls have closed and here are the results:

Flannery O'Conner's Wise Blood led the field with 15 votes. As such, this will be the first book we read to start the YIMCatholic Book Clubs fiscal (biblio?) year. Head to the book store, friends, so we can get started with the discussions, say by October 21st, which will continue for approximately once per week for four weeks.

Thanks for the Faith of Andrea Doria and the Rosary Prayers of Christiandom

—Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary  

When I was a kid, I really enjoyed reading history. Usually, I wasn't reading the history that I was supposed to be reading in the classroom.  I really didn't do that well in school until I served two hitches in the Marines and then decided to get out and go to college. Grade school and high school? Homework, schmomework!

When Christmas loomed in our house though, my mom knew what I was interested in and what presents to get me: military history books. Ships, planes, tanks, armies, navies and air forces were her sure-fire ticket to success for Frank. In one of those books I learned about the Andrea Doria. 

For I Was Blind And Could Not See

—Feast of St. Faustina

My youngest son and I went camping with the Cub Scouts last weekend. The weather was spectacular and although the leaves in the forest haven't turned their brilliant Fall colors quite yet, the air was crisp and the sky was cloudless.

On Saturday afternoon, after a morning hike and a lunch of vienna sausages, trail mix, and other camping fare, the boys played organized games in a field next to our campsite. Several of these games included wearing blindfolds. One of them struck me particularly as an analogy for one of the reasons why I am Catholic.

To Listen to Stephen Foster (Music for Monday)

-Feast of St. Francis of Assisi

I’ve written about Pandora Radio before. Through Pandora, an internet service that allows you to create your own radio stations, I learned about Olabelle, now one of my All-Time Favorite Groups.

So, I was listening to an Ollabelle-heavy station on Pandora a few weeks back when I heard the unmistakable sound of Ollabelle singing a song I had never heard, “Gentle Annie,” by Stephen Foster (left). That set me on a hard search for the Ollabelle album containing that song. And there is no such thing.

To Pray for Tyler Clementi and his Alleged Perpetrators

   -Feast of Saint Mother Théodore Guérin

Tyler Clementi's apparent suicide has become worldwide news. The 18-year-old's body was found in the Hudson River this week, after he jumped off the George Washington Bridge, which is several miles from his northern New Jersey home. The allegation is his Rutgers roomate had recorded the teenager's sexual encounter with a young man and transmitted it on the internet.

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

My family lives a stone's throw from the Rutgers campus, where Tyler had begun his studies weeks before. This morning, my parish priest took the unusual step of talking about a topical issue. Generally, he hews closely to the Gospel reading and speaks in general terms about how the words apply to our lives.

For All the Saints: Thérèse of Lisieux

I have been wrestling with the angel named Vocation. In August, my wife and I sold our small publishing business, and just this week I completed all but the proofreading for the biggest writing project I’ve ever tackled. Meanwhile, Katie and both of our daughters are on the first steppingstones of new life paths. For our entire family, the future is an open book. The only thing I know is, I have to work.

Thérèse of Lisieux: the Mind of Lao Tzu, with the Heart of Confucius

—Feast of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus

Today we celebrate the feast of a Doctor of the Church, the little nun who could, the Little Flower, Thérèse of Lisieux. Responsible for countless conversions to the Faith, she bowled over Thomas Merton, pulled a fast one on Webster Bull, and sank, for all intents and purposes, John C.H. Wu's battleship, with a direct hit amidships.

Do you have friends that left the Church to follow the lights of Eastern Spirituality? Introduce them to the Little Flower. John was so impressed with her Story of a Soul, that he immediately resolved to become a Catholic as soon as possible.