4/29/2006

New Links

I have posted several new links in the "Links" section over to the right. The new links are;

United States Submarine Veterans Incorporated this is a resource site for Navy vets who are qualified in submarines.

United States Navy not really a need for an explanation

Submarine Group Nine this is the official site for Submarine Group Nine. A submarine group is a fairly large collection of submarines in a geographic region with certain missions. Group Nine is the most powerful force of warships in the world!!

The Vatican The official site of the Vatican. From this page you can choose between English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, and Portuguese. There is months worth of information at your disposal from writings of the Popes since Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903) to virtual tours through the Vatican museum.

The Coming Home Network This is the website for Marcus Grodi's ministry. He was formerly a Presbyterian pastor who now operates a ministry which helps current and former Protestant ministers in their investigation and or conversion to the Catholic Church. One of my favorite parts of his site is the conversion story section. In in there are literally hundreds of conversion strories from former Protestant pastors, theologians, seminary professors... the backgrounds of these people range from Anglican to Lutheran to Calvary Chapel to you name it, just look in the yellow pages under Church: Christian.

4/28/2006

Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free


Keep Immigration
Safe & Legal

explanation of my poem

I promised to explain my poem that I posted earlier.

the first line refers to the the moral tree of human rights. The root of these rights being the right to life. If the root is killed while attempting to nourish/cultivate other contingent rights such as the workers right to justice, then soon the right you are cultivating will die.

the second line line refers to those who attempt to reap the benefits of the fruits of others labors without nurturing, promoting, or otherwise preserving those who laid the groundwork for their advances.

The last line refers to those who hold hostage the public forum and manipulate the masses. These are the politictians, the media, the intelligencia, the amoralists, and the labor organizations.

Immigration, war, gas prices

There are several great debates going on in our country right now; illegal immigration, the war on terror, price of petroleum fuels, The Da Vinci Code...

Ha ha... for those of you who thought I was going to get political, I'm not. That will come later in my life as a blogger. Those of you who know me understand that I have some rather strong views on certain issues. Issues which are championed by different political parties. That makes for some interesting decision making for me at election time. But, here I will address the industry that is "The Da Vinci Code" henceforward referred to as "DVCI".

I have not read the book, seen the movie, or read any of the books written to counter "The Da Vinci Code", I have only read reviews, (both pro and con). In reviews I have learned that some things are promoted by the book such as Jesus never died by crucifixion, he married and had children, there was a big cover up of these truths. I constantly hear in defense of DVCI that it is only intended to be a work of fiction. I don't believe it. It is intended to make some people rich. It is intended to discredit the Church. It is intended to lead people away from Christianity.

Imagine if you will that someone wrote a book about _______________ (insert the name of an actual historical leader that you love and follow such as; your father, a former president, religious leader) purporting that they never did something that is key to their history. Then imagine that the story attests to the fact that they led a life 180 degrees opposite of their actual history. That is the DVCI.

As I stated earlier, I have never read the book but... in all works of fiction I have ever read there is a disclaimer. The disclaimer states that any resemblence to actual persons or events is simply coincidence. I doubt that this book has that disclaimer. If it does the writer should be sued. If it doesn't he should be sued.

If you are interested in reading some books or viewing some media which point out the errors of DVCI here is a list.

The Da Vinci Hoax
The Da Vinci Deception
Cracking the Da Vinci Code
De-coding Da Vinci: The facts behind the fiction of The Da Vinci Code
The Da Vinci Hoax: Exposing the Errors in The DaVinci Code
Fact and Fiction in the Da Vinci Code

4/26/2006

Deus Caritas Est

The mens fellowship group that I am part of just wrapped up a Bible study on the Gospel of Mark. The next several months will be spent doing a discussion/study of the Papal Encyclical, Deus Caritas Est which was published on December 12, 2005 by Pope Benedict XVI. As an overview, the encyclical reflects on the different types of love and the different ways to love as revealed by God. It also expresses "The Practice of Love by the Church as a Community of Love".

As a group we have been unable to find a good study guide or commentary to use as an assistance to our group discussion. The one guide I was able to find came from a website that has significant bandwidth dedicated to Joyce Rupp and her writings. I choose to follow the guilt by association judgement model and have automatically disregarded it as a reliable resource for use in our study.

Do any of you know of a good study companion for a small group to use in reading this encyclical? We want something that is faithful to the Magisterium.

4/23/2006

Todays Gospel

I heard an interesting sermon, (part of one at least) commenting on todays Gospel reading John 20: 19-31. It was the first day (Sunday) and all the Apostles were gathered together except for Thomas. So in a sense, it was Sunday and Thomas wasn't at church (it obviously wasn't Easter or Christmas). Maybe he was cleaning his house or watching a donkey race. He could have just been sleeping in because he was tired... who knows. Not being at church caused him to miss Jesus! He missed out on something wonderful. Imagine missing church and when you talk to someone who had been at church you hear this fantastic tale of Jesus appearing and doing some incredible things!! Thomas didn't believe what he was told, but he did go to church the next Sunday. You all know the rest of the story.

Don't wait to be told that something remarkable and out of the ordinary happened at church when you weren't there before you decide to go "check it out". Don't miss Jesus.

If you light yourself on fire... you might be a redneck!

This story really drives home the reason I don't ever need to worry about job security. I can honestly tell you I have been on more bizarre calls than this. The ability of people to not use their ability to think is sometimes unbelievable. Maybe we are all selling this kid short though. He could be a buddhist protester practicing immolation.

I have a large paper clip collection

This story really inspired me. Nice to hear about this rather than someone selling a body part.