Danger Danger! In Your Pocket!

     

This Saturday I have the privilege of giving three talks to a group of middle school and high school students. One of the topics for a breakout session talk is addictions. As I've been praying for the Holy Spirit's guidance and reflecting and thinking about addictions I've been struck by the huge variety of addictions we have in our society. Some are obviously destructive, others more subtle, and others even more cunning and sneaking than the rest, so much so that as a society we don't even realize the addiction. From the cliche addictions of drugs and alcohol which although cliche are very much prevalent, to pornography, entertainment, food, sports, and technology especially phones. I hope to write on all of these topics, but first I want to focus on addictions to technology because I believe that smartphones and tablets have opened a whole pandora's box that most parents are unaware of. There is a clear and present danger that is inexplicably missed, ignored, or simply embraced and we are placing the most vulnerable in our society, the most precious right in the claws of this danger without educating or preparing the young to navigate these treacherous waters.

There and back again

       

Well, since it has been about a year since I've last done anything with this blog, I figured it was about time I write again. As much as I would like to say that I put my time into the highest pursuits of life, my time is often taken up with the demands and responsibilities of a job, a home, and the million little things that pop up right as soon as I think I am about to have some leisure time. I glanced at posts from the long distant past of last year and noticed that in just one week from tomorrow it will have been a whole year, can you imagine, a whole year since I have written anything of substance; well anything at all really and there was so much fodder for conversation this past year! Sporting events, political scandals, record breaking weather, entering into engagement with the love of my life, family gatherings,   world travels and much more were packed into the last year or so, yet it is gone and time to start fresh I think, since my memory will certainly fail me if I try and recount the many adventures the year of our Lord, two thousand thirteen held. So it's onward and upward, I hope you will join me for the ride!

Why not smile and say thanks?

Boy howdy is it nice outside! Weather is such an interesting phenomenon, it flits from windy to still, from the bitter cold to the soft warmth of a spring day all within a winter's week! As I sit here sipping on my morning cup of Joe which has turned into an afternoon cup of Joe as usually happens, I am so happy; so happy to be here, in this place, in this moment in time. Good gravy, as my father often says, it sure is so beautiful today! Because it is such an incredible day right in the midst of winter, I won't be writing for long, but I do think that the weather can teach us a valuable lesson and I'd like to share my short reflections with you because they came upon me in such a pleasant manner and made me smile.

Six Years

      

Six Years

      Over the New Year's holiday, I had the opportunity to visit Newtown, CT and to offer humble prayer for the people who continue to suffer so immensely at the sudden, tragic loss of life of those twenty precious children and six others. I was only in Newtown for about forty-five minutes and spent all of it inside St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church in prayer for the victims, their families, and for healing. It is hard for me to imagine the enormity of the suffering those parents, teachers, brothers, sisters, neighbors, and friends are enduring yet the outpouring of support, prayers, and compassion from all across the world is truly astounding. Even in legal circles and in Congress, the impact has been felt with arguments and propositions for improving the safety of children in their schools and in their communities. Even the President of the United States gave a stirring speech about the first duty of our society being to protect the most innocent, our children. So even in the midst of tragedy, there has been a response of love; the light surely shines in the darkness.
      However, I have recently stopped to wonder why the outpouring of support, the national and even international response to this tragedy has been so great? Sadly, there have been countless school shootings throughout the years, and countless attacks, murders, and massacres in our country against innocent people. So I have to ask, “Why has this mass killing elicited so much more of a response than others?” I assume that most will answer that this shooting took place at an elementary school and the victims were good, beautiful, innocent children no more than six or seven years old who have never harmed a soul in their lives. They were utterly and completely undeserving of the violence committed against them which cut short their so tender, so young lives. They had everything still ahead of them, laughter, learning, dances, college, weddings, jobs, families, countless adventures, joys, blessings, and experiences that can make like so full and so good. However, because of one young man's disturbed and deeply troubled existence, all of these dreams, all of these good things, these children’s lives were suddenly and harshly cut short. Truly, this makes the Newtown massacre one of great sorrow; indeed an indescribable sorrow.
       If I may be so bold, the massacre could have been even worse. What if the death toll was thirty or even fifty children? Would that not have increased the pain and sorrow? Surely it would have! What if the death toll was not one school but an attack on elementary schools across the country, with the rampage increasing the carnage to hundreds of children? Please be patient as I get to my point for I truly hope and pray that such scenarios as I am describing never do happen, but for the sake of understanding, I will go on. What, if instead of the shooting being at an elementary school, it took place at a pre-school daycare? Would that have made the shocking nature of such an evil even worse? What if there were shootings in every state on the same day each killing fifty innocent children? If I may be even more severe, what if these massacres were not the work of a man with a gun, but rather accomplished by the same man by means of a knife, or suffocation, or strangulation? I'm sure that some might be repulsed by these words and this description, but please at least consider how much worse that might make the killings? Just stop! Stop and imagine twenty five hundred children killed by such means in one day across our nation. How horrifying that would be, could we even comprehend how human beings could wreak such tragic death on the most innocent of our society? Would our nation ever recover?

       Even now, those in Newtown are still reeling from the blow of the tragedy they experienced and there will never be a ‘normal’ for them ever again. As I was praying at the Catholic parish, I met the Pastor of the Church, Monsignor Weiss, and the deep pain and sadness was so palpable in his bearing, and in his eyes that it broke my heart. Even while I was still there in the Church, several from the community approached him for consolation, with tears running down their cheeks and their faces drawn and haggard from the ever-present sorrow. How much worse and with what greater intensity would our nation be suffering if the massacre reached the proportions I described? While my heart goes out to the victims, their families, and their community and I will be criticized for using their sorrow and grief as the basis of making any point, it seems so clear to me, the injustice that is being done in our nation. I am convinced my point is necessary.

       I'm sure some would label the scenarios I described as sickening, and the product of a troubled mind and perhaps I'll even be labeled as disturbed for describing such evil. However, I propose to you that those scenarios are not of my own invention, but rather they are lighter, less gory, less horrifying versions of a shocking tragedy that occurred in our country and in fact is still in process. For some reason I cannot comprehend, our society, our nation, and yes, our world, is so shocked and so saddened by this tragedy and yet, we are almost entirely untouched, and unmoved by the death of over three thousand children every single day in the United States of America. Our country has made acceptable, and even supported through law, finance, and marketing, the wholesale killing of children in the womb, if I daresay, children, human beings who are even more vulnerable, even more innocent than the twenty children who were so tragically murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary school. Many will claim, "But that's different!" or "How could you use the poor children from Sandy Hook to make a point!?" "It was the parent's choice... etc." However, to me the difference is little. In fact, isn’t it worse that parents are given the ‘right’ to decide to have their child killed? What is the difference? Some may try and claim that the child in the womb is not a human person, yet the most modern scientific advances beg to differ.
                        So, I ask you again, what is the difference?           Six years.

            Six years of living outside the womb somehow makes the murder of these twenty children, worse than the murder of three thousand several-week-old children that happens each and every day. Six years is somehow the difference between making murder legal and illegal. Six years is the difference between good and evil. Six years is the arbitrary age that makes it so wrong and so evil to kill a child, while if those children had been aborted six years prior there would be no problem, no issue, no outrage. There would be nothing. America, where is your heart? America, where is your sorrow? My dear friends, what are you going to do? Do you still think it is radical to pray outside of an abortion clinic? Is it radical to March for Life in Washington D.C. once a year? Is it radical to adopt? Is it radical to fight with every ounce of strength and energy for those children who are so innocent and so vulnerable waiting for the time to be welcomed into this world with love? Let us follow the example of those heroic teachers who gave their very lives to defend their innocent, precious students. Dare to love! Dare to fight! Six years is the difference between life and death. Six years.

Ave Maria

I know I've posted this poem before... but it's just that good!

 

Ave Maria - John Jerome Rooney

Lady thy soldier I would be
This day I choose thy shield
And go thrice-armored for the fight
Forth to the world's wide field.


There I shall meet the dark allies,
the flesh, the fiend, the world,
and fiercely shall their darts of fire
upon my heart be hurled.

But I will raise my buckler strong
Betwixt me and the foe,
and with the Spirit's flaming sword,
shall give them blow for blow.

Lady, thy sailor I would be,
This day I sign my name
to sail the high seas of the earth
for glory of thy fame.

The tempest may besiege my bark
the pirate life in wait:
The perils of the monstrous deep
may tempt oerwhelming fate.

Yet wheresoe-er my ship may steer
Upon the waters wide
Thy name shall be my compass sure,
Thy star my midnight guide.

Thy poet lady I would be,
to sing thy peerless praise;
Thy loyal bard, I'd bring to thee,
Heart-music from all lays.

Soft melody outpoured in June
by God's dear feathered throng,
Would mingle with the organ's roll
to glorify my song

And Dante's voice and Petrarch's strain
And Milton's matchless line
Would lend to my poor minstrel note
A harmony divine

Lady, I choose to be thy son;
for Mother thee I choose,
O, for thy sweet and holy Child
do not my claim refuse.

Alone and motherless am I
Tho' strong, I long for rest
The thunder of the world's applause
is not a Mother's breast.

Ave maria! Shield us all.
Thy sons we choose to be.
Mother of grace, we raise our hearts,
Our hearts, our love to thee.

We Are Catholic.

Value in summer

      (published about two months late...)


       For all of the sweat, work, and tears that go into the work of a teacher during the year, summertime comes as a welcome respite. As my summer is just beginning, I wanted to take some time to write about leisure both for my own benefit as I begin a season of leisure of sorts as well as for you as some food for thought.
      It seems to me that for most, leisure is kicking back and flipping through the channels to see what's on, or perhaps clicking through friends' facebook profiles looking to see what they have been up to, or maybe even browsing through catalogs or stores looking for the next thing to buy in order to satisfy the restlessness of a heart not at work. Do these count as leisure or as true relaxation?
      As my time off from teaching begins I have realized that I want to spend my time well, even during the summertime. Rather than sit for hours watching television, movies, or surfing the net I want to use my time to grow as a person by developing my talents or discovering new ones. Almost every house in America you enter, the central point of the family room and perhaps bedroom, living room, and kitchen is a television. How many hours a month, week or day do we spend on such useless, mind-numbing pursuits as this? This summer I hope to spend my time, being open to adventures, developing my intellect, and pursuing dreams and goals. If we simply spent our free time on more fulfilling things such as music, reading, writing, hiking, or exploring, these things would not simply be 'pastimes'. Our time would be filled with satisfying some of the desires of our heart and opening us to more fully experiencing the world around us. Indeed, I think through leisure we can begin to live life as we're meant to live it... life to the fullest. Cheers!