The next St. Pius X Young Adult event will be Stations of the Cross on Friday. Stations start at 7pm. We’ll go to dinner after Stations, restaurant TBD.
Come and join us in this popular Lenten prayer service.
February 2008
Monthly Archive
February 27, 2008
February 27, 2008
Just a friendly reminder that Lent is a great time to enjoy the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Services are held throughout the Triad over the next couple weeks. Here’s the schedule:
St. Paul the Apostle March 3rd 7pm
St. Benedict March 5th 7pm
St. Joseph (Asheboro) March 10th 7pm
St. Pius X March 10th 7pm
Our Lady of Grace March 11th 7pm
Christ the King (HP) March 12th 7pm
St. Mary March 13th 7pm
February 21, 2008
A neat article from the NY Times about a church in New Mexico that is known as the “Lourdes of America.” It’s oddly titled as “A Pastor Begs to Differ With Flock on Miracles” and starts out
“It’s not the dirt that makes the miracles!” the Rev. Casimiro Roca said with exasperation.
From this you might assume that the miracle story is bogus but
Father Roca believes in miracles, too, but, he said, “They are the work of the Good Lord.”
“I always tell people that I have no faith in the dirt, I have faith in the Lord,” he said. “But people can believe what they want.”
I love to find stories like this. We think of this country as an overwhelmingly Protestant country and sometimes mistakenly think that there are not holy places to visit just around the corner. I wish I would have known about this church I would have loved to stopped when I made my cross country road trip eight years ago.
If you know of any other holy places around the country please share them with me.
February 20, 2008
The Women’s Book Study is set to begin tonight at 8pm at Deb’s house. They will be discussing the book Mary and Me. If you have any questions call Deb at 286-3687.
February 18, 2008
From an interview of N.T. Wright in Time Magazine
N.T. “Tom” Wright is one of the most formidable figures in the world of Christian thought. As Bishop of Durham, he is the fourth most senior cleric in the Church of England and a major player in the strife-riven global Anglican Communion; as a much-read theologian and Biblical scholar he has taught at Cambridge and is a hero to conservative Christians worldwide for his 2003 book The Resurrection of the Son of God, which argued forcefully for a literal interpretation of that event.
I have to interject that The Resurrection of the Son of God is indeed a very good book from a conservative theological point of view. The article continues.
In his new book, Surprised by Hope (HarperOne), Wright quotes a children’s book by California first lady Maria Shriver called What’s Heaven, which describes it as “a beautiful place where you can sit on soft clouds and talk… If you’re good throughout your life, then you get to go [there]… When your life is finished here on earth, God sends angels down to take you heaven to be with him.” That, says Wright is a good example of “what not to say.” The Biblical truth, he continues, “is very, very different.”
In the Bible we are told that you die, and enter an intermediate state. St. Paul is very clear that Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead already, but that nobody else has yet. Secondly, our physical state. The New Testament says that when Christ does return, the dead will experience a whole new life: not just our soul, but our bodies. And finally, the location. At no point do the resurrection narratives in the four Gospels say, “Jesus has been raised, therefore we are all going to heaven.” It says that Christ is coming here, to join together the heavens and the Earth in an act of new creation.
Go click on the time.com link and read the whole article. There’s much more there than I quoted. But, I have to say that nothing in the above paragraph strikes me as contradictory to anything in the bible.
So I want to ask a few questions. Do you think N.T. Wright is right? If he is right, how does that affect your faith? How does the idea that heaven will involve more work sound to you, rather than laying on clouds plucking at harps?
February 16, 2008
It’s been a few years since I was so viscerally affected by a movie. Chigure, the antagonist, is a figure straight out of Beelzebub’s dreams. In fact he is Death personified. He is introduced to us on a pale horse (well a Cadillac, but same difference). Anyone who sees him dies. One of his victims asks if he is going to kill him and Chigure’s response is, “Did you see me.” His wickedness is amplified by the bizarre weapon he uses; a pressurized air gun that is normally used to kill cattle. And that is all this is to Chigure. This rampage of death and destruction is merely his job. And the killing of people is of no more consequence to him than the death of a cow is to a meat processor.
This movie is a reflection on death. I can’t say exactly what the movie’s point of view on death is because of a jerk moviegoer who has talking and walking around during the most important dialogue. But it’s not often that a movie affects my mood for hours on end after the film has ended. I could not fall asleep last night, not out of a sense of fear like from a good horror flick, but a sense of unease awakened by the movie. An unease that I am not prepared for death. In that sense this is actually a very good movie for the Lenten season as the Lenten season calls us evaluate our lives and make ready for the resurrection.
This movie also shares a common theme with another of the Coen Brother’s best films. As in Fargo it is one simple step into the criminal world that wreaks havoc in the main character’s life. What the character’s assume is a contained criminal act opens their lives to murder and mayhem running amok.
Life lesson from the movie: Just remember when you come across a couple million dollars from a drug deal gone bad call the cops and leave the money.
February 10, 2008
Dinner and a Movie at Carolina Theatre
When? Tuesday Night (February 12th)
Time: 5:30 Dinner at Liberty Oak
7:30 “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”
Cost: Dinner and $5 for the movie
E-mail or Contact Heather at 340-6097 to RSVP
February 10, 2008
Prayer, Fasting, and Almsgiving
When you’re thinking of what to do this Lent, and it’s not too late to think about adding Lenten resolution, think of these three pillars.
Prayer – There are countless ways to better your prayer life during Lent here are a few suggestions.
- Begin praying the Morning or Evening Prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours
- Pray for — by name — people you don’t like and for people that don’t like you.
- Pray for those, e.g., children, parents, spouse, siblings, who have left the church.
- Pray the news — for the people whose stories of hardship are reported daily and weekly.
- Observe five minutes of silence every day.
- Develop a prayer list.
- Begin (or begin again) the daily Rosary.
- Choose one extra devotion per week during Lent: Stations of the Cross, Eucharistic adoration or a weekday Mass.
- Make a commitment to reading the Sunday readings before you go to Mass.
- If you don’t have a cross in your apartment or house, buy a simple one and put it in your bedroom.
Fasting – I’d like to start with a quote by Melissa Nussbaum
Ask most Catholics about Lent and they will talk about fasting, so let’s begin there. And, more precisely, let’s begin with fasting as a canonically sanctioned “diet,” or as a good opportunity to stop some bad habits. “I’m going to give up cigarettes for Lent,” is a common refrain. Very utilitarian, and very American, but not very Catholic. For we never fast from the dangerous, the harmful or the hurtful. If I tell you that I’m going to give up slapping the baby for Lent, you would be right to admonish me that I ought to stop hitting the baby. Period. Regardless of the liturgical season. I don’t fast from slapping the baby during Lent only to pick it up again when Easter arrives!
We are to fast from foods and practices that are good for us so that we identify with Christ’s suffering. We abstain on Friday’s because that is the day Christ died.
Almsgiving – Is fairly easy to understand. Give money to charities and to those in need. It can also mean giving of your time and talents. I know of accountants who give up their time to complete tax returns for the poor. So think not just of the treasure you can give but also of your talents that you can give.
I hope everyone has a blessed Lent.
February 9, 2008
I saw a great film yesterday titled “There Will Be Blood.” Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson and starring Daniel Day Lewis. Paul Thomas Anderson also directed “Magnolia.” The reason I bring this up is that Magnolia especially toward the end made some explicit biblical references (the frog rain). And this film I think can best be understood by realizing that it is morality play about envy.
In a conversation with his brother the main character (Daniel Plainview) says “I have a competition in me. I want no one else to succeed.” Now don’t get me wrong Daniel embodies other deadly sins but it is envy that drives him. And it is ultimately the only emotion that fills his destructive and empty life. I think the movie has been misunderstood as an attack on greed and televangelists. But these are mere foils for the acting out of Daniel’s envy. Daniel is greedy because success is defined by wealth, you can not take what others have without attaining wealth. And Eli Sunday, Daniel’s nemesis in the movie, is merely the vehicle for Daniel’s humiliation and ultimate destruction.
What this movie implies is that capitalism is tainted by envy. Isn’t competition good for the economy. Keep up with the Jones’s, isn’t that another way of saying being envious. The want for what others have drives Americans to spend beyond their means and drives the growth of our economy. And let us remember the warning of Adam Smith, the father of economics, “An investment is by all right-minded people to be commended, because it brings comforts and necessities to the citizenry. But, if continued indefinitely, it will lead to the endless pursuit of unnecessary things.“
This is not to say that capitalism is wrong and socialism is right. It’s to say that there is a flaw in capitalism that needs to be watched and controlled, if possible.
February 8, 2008
This is a new way of communicating with the Greensboro Young Adult Community. I am Tom Buller a member of the St. Pius X Young Adult Ministry Team. I am aiming to do a few things with this blog.
1) Give you updates on Young Adult activities on this page (St. Pius, ToT, and others).
2) Post once a week an article on faith, the catholic church, morality, or some other applicable topic. Please join in on commenting on said article.
3) I will be providing book and movie reviews when I have the time to enjoy those pastimes.
I hope you all enjoy this blog and I look forward to sharing my thoughts with you.
