Author Archive

Media vs. The Church – Chris Matthews vs. Bishop Tobin

Author: Chris

Nov 25

Earlier this week, Bishop Tobin of Rhode Island was interviewed on MSNBC by Chris Matthews of Hardball.  The interview was in regard to Bishop Tobin “banning” representative Patrick Kennedy from receiving Communion.  I just got to watch part of this interview today and was appalled.

First of all, Chris Matthews completely misses the point of the whole situation.  Matthews focused solely on the aspect of “the law” and the face that the Church should not be telling people how to write the law.  Matthews repeatedly berated Bishop Tobin with questions in regard to what punishment a woman having an abortion should get if abortion was illegal and things of that nature.  Matthews also stated something to the affect of “if you can’t answer the question, because you aren’t someone who writes law, maybe you should do more research before telling people how to write laws.”

The real issue at hand has NOTHING to do with the voting record of Kennedy in public law.  It has EVERYTHING  to do with Catholic moral teaching, and someone professing to be Catholic, going against the teachings of the Church.  If anything, Bishop Tobin is enforcing Church law, not telling someone how to vote.

The fact is this.  Representative Kennedy is stating that he believes what the Church teaches, by stating that he is Catholic and through the act or receiving the Eucharist.  The Eucharist unites us with the Body of Christ and the Body of Christ is the Church, of which we are all members.  By Kennedy receiving the Eucharist, he is saying “I believe in the Church, her teachings and in the teachings of Our Lord, Jesus Christ.”  However, if Kennedy believes in Church teaching, then he wouldn’t support murder through abortion.

To assist in abortion in any way, be it by bringing someone to a clinic, or supporting legislation in regard to it, is a grave matter and a mortal sin.  Being that it is a grave matter, by engaging in that activity, you have separated yourself from the Church and from sanctifying grace.  Basically, you have severed your relationship with God and turned away from Him.  Because of this action, you excommunicate yourself.

You cannot receive Christ in the Eucharist if you are devoid of God inside you, due to mortal sin.  If I commit a mortal sin, I abstain from the Eucharist because to receive in such a state is sacrilege and is sinning not only against Our Lord, but the entire Catholic community united in His body.  By committing a mortal sin, you remove yourself from the Body of Christ, and therefor, can’t receive the Body of Christ.

Bishop Tobin is simply re-enforcing a spiritual truth.  Kennedy has excommunicated himself through his actions.  Bishop Tobin is simply publicly banning Kennedy from the Eucharist for Kennedy’s own good.  The more Kennedy takes the Eucharist in his moral state, the worse shape his soul will be in.

The Church is NOT telling Kennedy how to write laws.  The Church is simply enforcing HER law, God’s law.  If you claim to be a part of the Church, then you need to abide by Her teachings and laws.  If you want to become a US Citizen, you have to obey the laws here.  Very simple.

If Kennedy, and other “Catholic” politicians want to pass laws in support of abortion, then they cannot be Catholic.  They can feel free to join some other church or engage in some other form of worship if they desire.  However, the point is, you cannot be in a state of mortal sin and receive the Eucharist.  You cannot be part of the Body of Christ and sin against it at the same time.  It is just a fact of life.

The Church has the right to enforce Her laws and teachings to protect the soul of the transgressor.  Bishop Tobin should be commended for his actions.  We should all pray for the soul of Kennedy and other “Catholic” politicians voting to support abortion.  We should also pray for Chris Matthews, who I truly believe has no idea what the issue is truly about.  This has NOTHING to do with US law, or the Church making US law.  It has everything to do with the Church enforcing her law so that Her members are protected.  The job of the Church is to guide souls to Christ and to protect those souls from further damaging their relationships with God and each other.

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Tech Review: LogMeIn.com

Author: Chris

Nov 22

Most of you who are reading this are probably fairly good with computers.  However, we all have friends or family members who aren’t.  The problem is that nobody has the kind of time or energy to drive to the person’s house and spend hours removing spyware, bloatware, viruses, extral toolbars, outdated applications and the other laundry list of things to do to fix the computer.  There are also the times where someone doesn’t understand or needs to be walked through something and, again, you’d have to be there to do it.  Now there is a way to make these things a bit easier by making it so you don’t have to go anywhere.

A friend at work cued me in on an excellent system called Log Me In.  Their site is at http://www.logmein.com .  Log me In is a website and an application that allows you to remotely connect to a computer.  The “host software” can be installed on up to 5 computers for free, and simply runs in the background, taking up little space and memory.  You can then sign in to the website at logmein.com and select the computer you wish to connect to.  You enter the security code you set up when installing the host program and BOOM, you have full remote access to the computer.

This way you can add or remove programs, run system updates or even walk someone step by step through something, without ever having to leave home!  The paid versions can do even more than that.  You can share files between computers and even print from the computer.  There is even an iPhone app that will let you remote in as well.

Now, I will let you know that this only works on MAC and Windows, and you must use either firefox or internet explorer for the website to work at its full potential.  But, it is free for remote access to up to 5 computers and is a great tool.

I am currently using it to work on my mom’s computer from home and it is great.

If you need remote access to your computers at home, or need to remote to a friend or family member in need, I highly recommend using Log Me In.  Check them out at http://www.logmein.com .

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Filed under: Technology

Book Review – The Neverending Story

Author: Chris

Nov 22

If you grew up in the late 80′s/early 90′s, one of your favorite childhood movies might have been The Neverending Story.  Now, about 15 years after I saw that exciting film as a child, I finally got to read the book it was based on.

Synopsis:

The Neverending Story is the tale of a young boy named Bastian Bathazar Bux, who when hiding from some school bullies, stumbles upon an intriguing book in an antique book shop.  He begins to immerse himself in the book in his school’s attic and joins in the adventures of Atreyu, another boy the same age who is on a dangerous quest to save his world from destruction.

The more Bastian reads, the more he finds himself linked to the book.  It seems that the characters can hear him, even see him at times.  In the end Bastian himself becomes a part of the story, and has his own adventure in trying to get back home.  However, he must do so before losing the memory of where home is, and who he is.

Review:

This book was AMAZING!  I can truly say that as a child when I first attempted to read the book, and got bored with it, I didn’t see the true beauty of the book and the story.

The first striking thing is the book itself.  Its text is printed in two colors, green and  purple.  The green is for the story within The Neverending Story world Fantastica and the purple is for the story of the “real world” in which Bastian lives.  The chapters all begin with a beautiful full-page illustration containing the first letter of the first word of the following chapter.

The story is very well-written and has interesting well-developed characters, some of which never made an appearance in the movie.  There is also a great moral point to the story in the end, that Love is something worth totally losing yourself over to learn and to share that love with others.  It is also a story of friendship and of deceit and above all, it is an adventure story.

Those who loved the original film, like I do, will be interested to discover that the first movie only covers the first half of this wonderful book.  In fact, as mentioned before, there are events and characters missing from the movie that are in the book.

The second part of the book covers the story of Bastian in Fantastica.  This was loosely interpreted in the second Neverending Story movie but, by loosely I mean REALLY loosely.  Some of the character names remain the same but the plot is completely different, as is the reason for Bastian’s loss of memory.  You really have to read the book to get a true idea of the story, which I will not spoil for you.

Overall it is an excellent book and is worth reading as an adult or as a child aged 10 or older, or as a book to read to your children.  The only thing that bugged me was how the author constantly tied up loose ends with the line “but that is a different story for a different day” or something to that affect.  Other than that, an awesome read that will truly suck you into the world of Fantastica.  I can’t recommend it highly enough!

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Further Reflections on Work

Author: Chris

Oct 2

Hey all,

If you listened to episode 55 of the Life on Fire show, you heard us talk about the idea of work being the use of our God-given gifts to work in communion with Him and His will for the benefit of one’s self, one’s family and most of all for the benefit of others who are less fortunate.

However, this made me think a lot more about the idea of work.  Lets face it, work is not simply the 8 hour job that we do 5 days a week.  If you own a home, it is a lot of work to keep that home in good condition and to make improvements upon it.  If you own a car, it is work to do oil changes, to change the air filter and to do regular tune-ups.

Our relationships with friends, family and with our spouses all take work to keep them going.  Would you consider someone truly to be your friend if you didn’t talk to them at least every once in a while?  What if you never worked to celebrate your wedding anniversary?

The same holds true for our faith as well.  In order to know God, and love Him, you must work to do so.  You must pray, go to Mass and do good works that stem from that love.  As James 2:20 states, “faith without works is dead”.

Many people refer to other bible passages such as Isa 64:6 which compare righteous acts to filthy or bloody rags.  However, this isn’t to say that God doesn’t want us to act.  It is saying that when you compare the good acts that we are capable of, to those of God, they are nothing, which makes sense in that level of comparison.  However, this does not hold true in God’s eyes.

Now, it is one thing if you are doing good deeds just to say that you have done them.  For instance, giving blood or donating to charity just so that you can say that you did it to friends and family.  When you do this, who are you giving glory to?  Who are you truly helping?  Are you helping others, or just your reputation?  Matthew 6:3 states that you should not let the right hand know what the left is doing, so that only God in heaven might know and reward you.

However, Jesus himself tells us in Matthew 23:40 to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, heal the sick and visit the imprisoned.  He also states that when we do this for the least of His people, we do it to Him.  So, it is imperative that we do work in our faith.  It is God’s will that we reach out to help those in need and to love others as God has loved us.

However, God does remind us not to do these things in vain or to be boastful.  It is one thing to tell someone that you “donate to charity” or “volunteer at a soup kitchen”, it is quite another to paint a picture of yourself as a saint and a “great Christian” because of it.

This is also in addition to the work that we must do to continue our relationship with God, through prayer and the Sacraments.  Without these, our lifeline to God is shot, and we cannot tell what His will is for us.  No amount of good deeds can erase our sins, only to help remove our inclination to sin.  Only Confession can remove sin completely.

So, in short, we must work to keep our faith, to grow in that faith and to help lead our families to do so as well.  Yes, our everyday jobs are important, and even necessary to our well-being, but, the work to keep from losing our faith is more important.

Remember in John 6:27 Christ reminds us “Do not work for food that perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give to you…”.  We must be willing to work for the physical food to nourish our bodies, as well as the spiritual, to feed our souls.  Without both, we will surely die.

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H1N1 Swine Flu

Author: Chris

Sep 26

There is a lot of stories in the media about the H1N1 Swine Flu and how it could prove to be a deadly threat to society over this year’s flu season.  The purpose in me writing this is to help clear up some of the myths and reduce the level of hype that the media uses to gain attention and ratings.

First of all, H1N1, or, Swine Flu, has nothing to do with pigs.  It is a normal strain of the flu, just like any other.  As with most viruses, there are multiple mutations or, strains, of the influenza virus.  It is the same with the common cold.  How do you think you can catch a cold so many times?  It is because you are not catching the same cold.  The good news about this is that once you catch a particular strain, your body then produces defense mechanisms called antibodies, which prevent you from getting the disease again, well, at least that strain.

So why the hype?

Well, it is because this particular strain is the one that is currently spreading more quickly and appears to be becoming the “dominant strain” of flu.  You may have noticed the push for flu vaccinations in recent years.  These vaccines are usually a combination of what scientists at the time feel are the most likely strains of the flu for a particular flu season.  Sometimes they are right, sometimes they are wrong.  The H1N1 is a strain that they may not have expected to proliferate as quickly as it did, and we did not have a vaccine ready to prepare people for the virus.  There should be one available in October.

The truth is, the H1N1 virus was first detected in the US population at the beginning of 2009, according to the CDC website.  However, it may have been present in other countries long before us.    It is just becoming the dominant strain of the flu, which wasn’t expected.

The Killer Flu?

There is a lot of talk about H1N1 becoming the “killer” flu.  A killer flu is a strain of the influenza virus that spreads rapidly among the population and is stronger than a common strain.

The fact is that almost every strain of the flu has the potential to be a killer.  The elderly, young children and pregnant women are especially vulnerable due to the fact that their immune systems do not function as well.  Most flu related deaths fall into those age groups.

A flu that spreads quickly gives little chance for preparations and precautions to be taken to help prevent  the spread of the disease, and the groups mentioned above tend to suffer more and be affected more by the virus.

What can I do?

First, if you are elderly, pregnant, or the parent of young children, consider getting vaccinated for H1N1 when the vaccine becomes available.  While all vaccines pose a small risk of causing a full-blown infection, it is not likely and may be worth looking into.  Please also keep in mind that some vaccines use embryonic stem cell lines in them so, be aware from a moral perspective as well.

If you are a normal, healthy adult, you will be fine.  You can get the vaccine as well, but, chances are, if you catch the flu, it will be a rough few days but, you’ll get through it just fine.  Just take the regular precautions you would take for any cold/flu season.

  • Wash your hands regularly
  • If you feel like you are getting sick, don’t go to church or crowded places
  • Avoid physical contact with others, wave during the sign of peace
  • Drink plenty of fluids and take extra vitamin C
  • If you have any question or feel really ill, see your health care practitioner

Finally, I do not claim to be a health expert or a doctor.  If you have real concerns or questions about the flu, you should call your doctor for additional information.  Also, refer to the Centers for Disease Control website at http://www.cdc.gov for additional information and facts about the H1N1 and other flu strains.

Have a safe and healthy flu season everyone, and don’t buy into the hype.  Maybe next year we’ll have White-Striped Duckbill Platypus Flu…who knows…

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