To my children...

Story

sanktbartholomus — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 03:30:41 +0000

Today, my eldest (17 months) read to me. Granted the words weren’t immediately recognizable. I’ve long forgotten that angelic language we’re born with, but I knew you wanted to share story with me. That was wonderful. You made me melt.

I love you

Religion vs Relationship (part I)

sanktbartholomus — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 19:21:56 +0000

When someone asks if you are for or against something — be sure that they have actually given you two things that contradict one another. Questions like “are you a Republican or a Democrat” or “are you a librarian or a lawyer” are rather silly questions, because there are a host of things not accounted for in their questioning. Often such funny formulations mask the more important differences between disparate opinions and points of view. Such a false dichotomy exists in a popular declaration that you’ll find on print, radio, music and movies. It is the false dichotomy of religion and relationship. Our well-meaning non-Catholic Christian brethren sometimes use this as a defining principle upon which is built unorthodox theology (outside of the prevailing tradition and teaching of the Church). Beneath the smoke is an important question — what does the Christian religion have to say about our relationship with God? In each section, I will work through several definitions for religion to present my point.

In subsequent entries, I’ll deal with the definition of religion from dictionary.com. Here’s the first one so that you can read it without my assessment and see if you find a contradiction between it and a relationship with our Blessed Savior.

re·li·gion

1. a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, esp. when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs.

That’s all for now. I love you.

hard work…

sanktbartholomus — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 03:47:35 +0000

You can’t go wrong with working hard. The pain of enduring temporal dissatisfaction is worth it. There will be books, lecturers and prophets attempting to seduce you to constantly live on a whim. This philosophy is misguided. What they often leave out is that even a planned life is unpredictable and full of surprises. In fact, many great epics revolve around plans turned upside down (see the Odyssey or The Aeneid). While it is possible to arrange your life around a schedule, it is impossible to plan life too precisely if there are any people involved it.

Plan to work hard. Plan to have fun. In God’s great mercy, he will often permit the hard work to become enjoyable.

I love you.

here today…

sanktbartholomus — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 22:20:59 +0000

Inspired by thoughts of you growing up, I set to write down a few reflections. I suppose you will get much of this from our hugs, dinners, plays and celebrations. Occasionally, you may want to ask me a question without getting my long-winded history-of-the-world speeches. Let this be a third place. Don’t neglect asking your mom anything. She knows the world. She is like the sun, wisdom and the sea– lovely, radiant and deep.

I love you.