Guess what kids? It doesn't need to be 1960 to make it a hate crime.

Not even a year ago, a colleague of mine was graduating from a society that I frequently have referred to as my own.  We, this society, have PRIDED ourselves on being a group of people who are "humanitarians" and "diverse" in our circle.  When this friend of mine spoke at the convocation, she proudly stood and spoke of how every other job she had been at had been guilty of some sort of flaw where not all were loved equally, or someone was not treated fairly, but she prided our little group.  She even went as far as to say we were almost "utopian" in our lack of judgment on each other.  Oh, friend, how sad you would be to hear of this new incident as it has been brought to my attention.  

I was recently in my place of business, this once "utopian" looking society to find one of my younger peers a little on the mopey side.  After further discussion, she shared with me that one of our other staff members had written her off because of a comment she had made that somehow revealed her as a believer.  

Readers, it made me sick.  Now, just a few weeks prior to this, there was a staff meeting of sorts ADDRESSING THIS VERY THING... only the victim was muslim.  Sucks, right? everyone agreed this was not an okay thing to happen.  And now, a mere WEEK after this previous conversation, almost the same thing occurs, only it is 1) Peer to peer (as opposed to stranger to peer) and 2) The victim was christian.

Maybe I'm crazy, but just because we don't wear head scarves doesn't make us any less immune.  It's STILL ignorance.  And it shouldn't be tolerated. 

My heartbreak happened on so many levels.  One: People who have the similar ideas and views form clubs, where this society, so proud of their "diversity" was built so that we could learn from each other.  It FRIGHTENS me also, that someone with this amount of intolerance is supposed to be representing the University in a positive light.  

As a member of the faith, I know I can let it go because persecution and judgement go with the territory.  However, as a staff member of the University, this issue needs to be addressed.  

The term "University" came from two words "Unity in Diversity", the idea being that diverse minds could come together when practicing the reasons they are diverse (39 Geisler Bocchino).  Clearly in this situation, there was a major lack of that.  It is very unsettling to know that a supposed scholar of higher caliber could be so ignorant, and ACTIVE in their distaste.  

I am not suggesting that everyone agree with me... but I am suggesting that Christians face JUST AS MUCH persecution as our muslim friends.  Friends, the way is not a smooth road, but God promises us that it will be worth it.  

Say a prayer for the offender tonight.  Also, say a prayer for me.  No society is perfect, but one that so easily writes off their peers... I am not sure I want to stay affiliated with such a group.

Ya know, those guys with the signs have a point.

On my liberal campus, I frequently walk by a group of people with signs that often say things like, "REPENT" and "THE LORD SAVES" and "GOD HATES..." with a list of all sorts of sinners listed underneath.  These people with the signs are often shouting things like about how we are sinners and totally screwed up and we need to repent or we will burn eternally and everything we do is wrong.  I often hear about how these preachers are harassed and ridiculed by other christians.  Some students were even so bold as to debate with these preachers with the picket signs.

I used to get really irritated by those preachers.  I thought they were SO off in there thinking because I know that God loves, so how could they have missed the mark.  

And then I read Joel.

Joel, was a prophet out of the Old testament.  And when I started reading Joel with my bible study at the beginning of this semester, I didn't realize what I was in for.  I think its interesting how many Catholics act like the Old Testament is very out dated.  After reading these 3 short chapters, I realized not much has changed since the days in Israel. 

Joel, was a prophet who spends THREE Chapters telling of the wrath of God.  His message is Clear: GOD is pissed.  No, bad word choice.  God, is sad.  And FRUSTRATED.  He is frustrated because he LOVES us.  He gave us all these beautiful things, and then gave us choice.  And guess what we did.  We got greedy.  We needed 2 wives.  We needed not just our sheep, but our neighbors.  And he got frustrated.  

Now, what does sheep and wives have to do with today? EVERYTHING!  In Joel's day, God sent wrath and trample and uproot things to start from scratch.  Today, he doesn't HAVE to because we are SOOOOOO selfish we pretty much have the punishment thing down.  

God calls us out.  He says "Look kids, just 'cuz you are good for an HOUR on sunday does NOT make up for the rest of the week."  

If I hear one more person ask, when talking about natural disaster, "Why is GOD doing this to us?" I might laugh in there face...

GOD doesn't create the natural disaster.  They are Ramifications of STUPID decisions we have made in our selfish attempts to have EVERYTHING.  WE are STILL less than perfect.  FAR less than perfect.  If you turn on ANY "popular" television show you'll see not much has changed: people are STILL sleeping around, lying to each other, and beating up on the little guy.  

And yea, its a harsh message, but guess WHAT: it's TRUE! Those guys with their signs, they *sorta* know what's up.  I can imagine Joel outside some Bazaar back in the day in desperation trying to warn people of God's wrath, and them doing the SAME THING we do today: ridicule, harassing, taunting.  

I never stand around long enough to hear the end of the street preachers today, but I can only hope that they are sending a message of Hope too.  Joel says, after 2 chapters of wrath, "The LORD roars from Zion, and utters his voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the Earth Shake.  But the LORD is a refuge for his people, a stronghold for the people of Israel." 

So yea, he's angry.  The same way if your parent gave you something important and you broke it.  But they still love you.     He still Loves you.  But he doesn't like you harassing your brothers and sisters.  

Leave those radicals outside the amphitheatre alone.  They may be extreme, but they aren't wrong.  And guess what? We need to hear it.  

Back with the answer: LOVE

After a long break from my computer I have, without fail, returned to the world of blogging.  I have come back with one simple answer: Love.

 

Seriously, it's so simple. To say (as are most things with this religion, eh?).  Everyone religion, cult, pop icon, random guy on the street has something to say about love:

"All you need is love" - the beatles

"In real Love, you want the other person's good. "- Margaret Andreson

"The only true gift is a portion of yourself" - Ralph Waldo Emerson

" The best and most beautiful thing of the world can't be seen or even touched. they must be felt with the heart" - Helen Keller

"There is no remedy for love but to love more" -Thoreau

but we all know my feelings on words: They are meaningless unless you back it up.  

This Morning in Romans (one of my favorite books) I think Paul pretty much answers WHY everyone seems to be so obsessed with love.  Pauls says that the answer lies in love.  All those countless rules that God puts before us, that Jesus teaches us, all bottom line to the same message: If you can love one another like you would love yourself, All the silly rules fall into place.  Those ten commandments, are redundant if he just started by saying "Love one another as I loved you" because, well can you imagine how the rest of that conversation might have gone

Moses: Ok God, rule one, Love each other the way you love your self... anything else?"

God: Yes, thou shalt not kill...

Moses: uhhh... God, I wouldn't kill me, and I certainly don't think anyone else would want to kill themselves, that seems a little silly... anything else.. 

God: um, yea, no stealing, or lying, or taking your neighbor's stuff

Moses: .... God, seriously, you crack me up, if I am loving my neighbors like myself, I most certainly am not going to be lying to them, killing them, or taking their stuff without asking.

God: well... then, no exceptions to the rule, just love each other.

Wow.  Good work God.  It seems so simple.  the last part being the trickiest: NO EXCEPTIONS.  that is where the teachings come in.  Love everyone: even if they don't believe, are cranky, smell bad, speak funny, whatever.  

All rules have exceptions... except this one.  Love EVERYONE: no exceptions.  :)

Good to be back.  Live it and Love it.  Captain Q, out

You who are so quick to judge...

Friends and readers-

I feel like I must first apologize for being so negligent to posting.  I have a reason (good or not, take it or leave it...) but I have been hearing a running motif over the past week that I feel needs to be addressed.  

I recently had a conversation with a very close friend of mine about faith.  They do not identify with any particular religion, but they were raised non-denominational.  I could not help but wonder what it was that turned them off to the religion, as I am always curious.  I have found in my years of teaching that lots of people turn their back on God when the going gets tough, when I say, if the going gets tough, pull your head out of out of your ego, realize you can't do it alone, and ask for some help... makes sense to me

They gave me an answer about how everyone he knew where he came from was a huge hypocrite.  Fair enough.  We all are... not on purpose mind you, but when you are raised in the church I think its safe to say we all recognize our imperfection, which is why we are there to begin with.  People who are not so familiar often have a hard time coming to this realization.  ANYWAYS,  my friend said they did not want to be a part of a group of people who said one thing and did another.  My friend went on to tell me about a buddy of theirs who writes off people "like us" (meaning artists, who may express themselves through outward appearences).  This is where it gets almost humorous, my friend said their buddy was super conservative though... like a "catholic mormon"... and then I saw them start to sweat... realizing I am a Catholic.  

Fear not friend, I am not about to judge you, because I understand catholics are getting a bad rep... so CATHOLICS, THIS NEXT PART IS IMPORTANT!

We, catholics, know there is no way for said friend could be a catholic mormon... the 2 are like day and night.  When I ask for clarification, my friend said what they meant by that phrase was the conservative judgemental views  that both religious groups had (in their opinion, from what they had experienced...)  

Brothers and Sisters, my heart broke a little when I heard this...  And I feel like my guardian angel on my shoulder wept a little as well... I normally don't discuss my faith or political views with friends, but it was one of those moments I needed to set this poor friend of mine straight about our faith...

Readers, we were compared to mormons... and not in a good, way.  This is the biggest fault in the book.  Friends, "they will know we are christian by our LOVE"... not by our Juicy, our Pradas, or our Egos... Being Catholic makes you SAVED, but by no means does it make you BETTER.   It is not ok to go to church for an hour and then flip someone off on the way out of the parking lot.  And it does NOT make it ok for you to turn up your nose at anyone who is not catholic... JESUS ATE WITH SINNERS AND PROSTITUTES.... WE should BE so lucky that Jesus gives us the time of day (see my last blog for why) 

"But you're not hypocritical, Nat, ur very true to urself... so ur fine."

It's true, I work very hard to stay true to myself, and most people see my tattoos and numerous piercings and then pick their jaw up off the floor once I tell them I worked in the church for 8 years, BUT, I am the biggest hypocrite of them all, right? (see last post again.) Friends point was not that flawless only that I keep it real.  

Well played on me, right? Here's the secret.  Pay attention: Love your neighbor. 

Do it.

Seriously, my grandma once told me "Natalie, the only commandment you need to remember is love your neighbor as yourself.  When you get that right, everything else falls into place"

SO TRUE, Grams! If you love your neighbor the way you love yourself, stealing, fighting, all that isn't an issue.  Which is true.  If you call me say Nat, it's an emergency, I NEED you... you bet your BALLS I will do everything to move heaven and earth to help you out, be it noon, 7 a.m. or 2:30 in the morning... because if I called someone with those words... I hope, nay, KNOW they would do the same for me.  

Friends, WE ARE THE CHURCH... I'll say it again, WE ARE THE CHURCH.  My friend has been wronged, they was either judged or denied something by us, and felt unloved... THAT IS NOT THE POINT.  SHOW ME LOVE.  Words are nothing but symbolic unless you have the action to back it up with.  And I KNOW my buddy is not the only one, I hear it ALL THE TIME.  

to sum it up: be a Catholic with ur heart, huh? And if you ever hear this... don;t be afraid to say something about it... otherwise all the misconceptions are going to keep living.  Stop it in its tracks, tell people we are LOVING, and then you BETTER back it up with your actions!

Good talk, go team!

GUEST POSTER

I know you all have missed the last 2 weeks of Blogging, and to tell you quite honestly, so have I.  However, auditions and school have been getting the better of me, so I actually asked my roommate if I could borrow some of her thoughts for today.  While it is not reflective of this week gospel, it is still amazing, and maybe even more pertinent to ideals of today.  I invite you to read Jolie Milligan's thoughts entitled "I am a prostitue":

I thought the title might intrigue you...

I may not be a prostitute literally but figuratively I'm as used as they come.

My all time favorite book in the bible is Hosea.  I wouldn't call it the most well known or the most read... but it should be.  Despite it's rough edges and hard to swallow accusations there lies a beautiful truth.  

If you are feeling:

Unworthy

Unwanted

Unloved

Heavy

Ashamed

You should read it.

Let me break it down for you.  Hosea is a minor prophet, one of the last in the Old Testament. God asked Hosea to do something crazy; marry a prostitute.  Hosea did it.  He trusted the Lord and took a leap.  He fell MADLY in love with a less than reputable girl named Gomer.  Things were going really well. She seemed to be done with her previous lifestyle... and they had a couple of kids.  God was very specific as to what Gomer and Hosea were to name their children:

Lo-Ruhamah (Not loved)

Lo-Ammi (Not my people)

Hmm... interesting names... can you imagine what Hosea's friends and neighbors must have thought about this!

"Hosea is off his rocker! First he says Gods speaking to him... then he marries that prostitute... now this!? Poor guy, lost his mind!"

Gomer got sick of the home-life and ran off with another man.  Hosea was devastated.  Heart broken. Depressed.  Can you imagine? Someone God chose for you, someone you loved deeply, passionately, someone you would lay down your life for turns their back on you and leaves.  

Hosea is so in love with this woman that he even gives her new lover money to take care of her.  All he wants is for her to be happy.  

So why would God put Hosea through all this agony? To prove a very important point. 

During this time Israel (the people) had been less than faithful to God.  God had gotten down on his knee and asked Israel to be His bride.  She willing accepted this covenant and was so excited to be one with this dreamy God.  But when the honey moon was over she got a little bored and decided to dabble in a few extra marital affairs.  

the israelites would go through the rituals that God had asked them to perform... but they would also partake in other rituals performed by worshipers of other gods.  

God was a broken hearted lover (and still is for that matter).  

We break his heart everyday with things we do.  We put money, work, friends even relationships before Him.  We are no better than prostitutes.  

But there is hope.  

As Hosea was walking in his village he saw a man trying to sell his half naked wife.  God told Hosea "Go show your love to you wife again." He purchased her back for 15 shekels.  The first thing he did was tell her he loved her.  He said that she would live with him and stop this unfaithfulness because she would never find anyone that loved her as much as him.

If there is hope for Gomer, there is hope for us.

Despite our pitiful shortcomings, regardless of our promiscuity, God loves us more than we have the compactly to know.  Even though we break his heart he brings us close to him and says "I still want you".

He brought us back when we were in the arms of another lover.  He did not pay with silver, but rather with blood.  He gave up the life of his Son, Jesus Christ, to purchase us back.  

It is both the heart breaking and the uplifting to know that we are so deeply loved by God.

I'm feeling a bit like a Pretty Woman right now...

Even Jesus had finals

I don't know about you... But there is a time in a college students life when all you want to do is eat high fructose corn syrup, Listen to Queen's "Bicycle Race" song, and do something that is not going to make your brain feel like mush (My apartment chooses Longboarding)... 

That's Right.  It's Midterms.  

Most teachers give midterms right before spring break.  And for the past week I, along with about 30,000 other students have been studying my pants off in hopes to achieve some solid grades before a week of anything but school.  The week before these test is full of questions (What is she talking about?), self-doubt (There's NO WAY i can do that), and sacrifice (Yea, I really DO want to go to that concert... BUT I have a class tomorrow morning at 8:30... sorry) in order to get to the light at the end of the tunnel... spring break.

Sound Fimiliar?

Today is Holy Thursday, the beginning of the Triduum, the most important time for Catholics everywhere.  On top of the last week of midterms, I have also been through 6 weeks previous known as Lent.  This is my own reflection on what I did for lent: Sacrifice, Reflection, and Sacrificial Giving.  

This lent I gave up meat.  The original idea behind giving up something for lent is to give up something that maybe one day you could give up for good.  Every time you crave that sacrifice, you remember the sacrifice Jesus suffered for us.  Now, to avoid sounding like a crunchy granola hippie, I will avoid telling you all the books I have read on how meat is good, but not an everyday thing. Giving up meat turned out to be much easier than I expected.  But don;t get me wrong, I had been planning this.  I did not just wake up ash wednesday and say "I'm giving up.... mmmmm... MEAT"  I planned ahead, thought about it, and found lots of substitutes to get the nutrients I needed (spinach and egg whites, namely).  Much like my midterms, the ones I planned for and went into prepared, I succeeded at.  The test I do not plan for, like my sacrificial giving... not so much.

Along with giving up something, it is also customary for Catholics to give something of themselves.  Time, Prayer, money... anything that might be difficult.  I thought about what I might give... I didn't have much time or money, and then the events of my reflection and lent led me to a more spontaneous decision.  

I have a very love-hate relationship with my hair.  I never do anything with it because of my rigorous schedule, but for some reason people always told me I had fantastic hair.  So, February 29th, almost exactly half-way through lent, I chopped off a foot and donated it to Locks of Love, the cancer foundation that makes wigs for children with lukemia.  

So what, right? wrong.  If you talk to any woman they might tell you how important hair is. We know it grows back and all that, but the decision was one of the hardest I've ever had.  What if it doesn't look good? What if's ran through my head when I finally decided, these are silly, just chop it off and if you hate it... It will always grow back. 

Who cares about hair.  All I am saying is, it took a HUGE leap of faith.  As ridiculous as that sounds, being the vain person I am, this was a big step.  And while it was scary, and frustrating at times, I knew in my heart someone was benefitting from it, and I was doing the right thing.  

Jesus, suffers tenfold. We have spent the last couple weeks with him in the desert being tempted by Satan, and now we walk with him as he goes from teacher, to Criminal, to savior.  He saved us.  He underwent the biggest leap of faith.  My hair will grow back, and I thought that was scary.  Jesus knew he would come back from the dead, but you bet he was terrified.  

What have you done with your lent? How was your 40 days in the desert? How was your sacrificial giving? 

Take some time to reflect on it.  Where do you stand? And are you prepared? I think I said earlier that Jesus reminds us to "Stay awake" because we do not know the hour.  But, like a test or midterm, we prepare mentally and spiritually, and everything works out.  

Peace friends. In three days he will rise! 

Life's lessons can be learned from the tennis court

Wayne Cope is a man of few words. The fifty-something year old is a creature of simplicity and habit. When his afternoon slot opened up I thought it would be fun to hit with him for an hour, as his expertise are a hot commodity at work. Little did I know that he was about to bestow on me some of life's lessons in the form of a tennis match. Now, he did not bring me out there to lecture me, BUT being a performer and trying to keep my mind open to the world, if you think in metaphors, some of the advice he gave to me in the hour I hit with him were things I could easily apply to my life. Twyla Tharp says, "Metaphor is the vocabulary connecting what we experience now to what we've experienced before." Keep that in mind

It seems pretty simple, right? Hit the little green ball over the net to your opponent (When hitting, as opposed to a game, where you want to hit it NOT to your opponent).
"You're very good," Wayne told me while hugging his racquet, "because you have balance. Lots of people when going after the ball get tired and cannot recover as quickly because they are not so in balance. But you have that going for you."
Balance is so important in life. Learn what your priorities are and keep yourself in check.

Soon after we started the wind picked up. "Hitting with the wind is difficult," Wayne said, "Because you have less control. You might tell the ball to go one way, but the wind carries it somewhere else, so we need to adjust. Don't get frustrated though, with some time and practice, you can learn to read the wind, and anticipate enough to adjust before it's too late."
Some things we just don't have control over. Life happens. It's random and unexpected. But sometimes, if we adjust quick enough, we don't lose sight of our objectives. In my case, a little green ball.

I started thinking about all this and soon Wayne called me to the net. "Now, something has happened in your playing in the last 10 or 15 minutes of play. Are you upset? Something on your mind? Because you seem a little distracted." I shook my head no, I was thinking about tennis (sorta). "Well, you see," Wayne said, "I can tell sometimes when someone isn't truly present in the game. They seem distracted and miss the ball more often. So if you need to stop and reorganize your thoughts we can do that. Otherwise I challenge you to hit as many balls to me as possible without messing up. Think you can do that?"

"I can do it!" I retorted, not wanting our session to be over just yet.

So I went back to my side of the net and took a deep breath. I am infamous for this last one. I look back on my high school career, and the amount of work I loaded onto my plate in order to ignore my surroundings. My work ethic to work to get to a finished product and not learn from the experience. I work in the future, and almost never live in the present. This is something I have been working on for a while now, but Wayne caught me. I am guilty as charged. So I put the draft of the blog in my head on save for a moment to finish our hour of hitting.

"Well done," Wayne said at the end. "I knew I could get you to focus. Normally when you present someone with criticism, they rise to your challenge. I could tell you were with me that last round. Good work for today. With practice, you could do this."

When you receive criticism, it is normally with love. Mentors and teachers will try and change you for the better, and sometimes they have an eye for something you can't see. See their challenges. Rise to the occasion.

As I left after the hour, I realized my blog might not be full of every word of wisdom bestowed on me by Wayne, But I would settle for 3 main points since I was trying to focus on the here and now, instead of my mind-numbing to do list. I cannot stress as wayne did the importance of staying focused. Jesus says "Stay awake, for you do not know the hour when the Lord will come." If we waste time, sometimes we miss life. Don't miss life.

Harold Hill in "The Music Man" sums it up by saying "Pile up enough tomorrows and you'll find you've collected nothing but a lot of empty yesterdays. I don't know about you, but I'd like to make today worth remembering."

Wayne is not a philosopher by any means, but the simplicity in his tips were so profound, that i can't help but hope that someone cancels on him again in the near future so I can learn from him again.

God is perfect. And he weeps.

Today's gospel we hear about Lazarus being raised from the dead.  Important of course, but I would like to focus on something we might not have heard this weekend. in Homilies, but something everyone I have met struggles with.  

  

Star wars.  Lord of the Rings.  Mission Impossible.  What do they have in common? Other than being MAJOR blockbuster movies (trilogies, actually) they have one major theme in common: Good vs. Evil.  White vs. Black. Dark Vs. Light.  This makes everything very simple and clear cut.  It either is one thing or the other.  While this makes complex plot lines fairly easy to follow, there is something that is missing: REALITY.  Think about it.... How many things in life are 100% good or 100% evil? I can't think of one. Not one.  Pretty Roses have thorns.  Cuddley kitties have razor sharp claws,  Tastey Twinkies are still the worst things to put in your body.  

This idea of black and white is a very westernized way of thinking.  I won't bore you with a history lesson, but know that most eastern religions believe in the yin and yang.  I'm sure you've heard of this.  It's the idea that you need one to appreciate the other.  There needs to be a balance.  

What does this have to do with Lazarus?

The biggest question posed to me as a teacher, believer, whatever, is always "If there is a god, how does he let his people suffer?"  The answer is: he doesn't.  People do not suffer by God's hand.  There is this thing called "free will" he gave us, so that we are not just following him like lemmings, he gave us a choice to do "good", "bad", whatever.  So suffering is the reaction to someone else's action, and how you interpret it is what it is.  But who is really to say what is good or bad?  I am not saying World hunger and War is not horrible, I am merely saying that it is not on God.  Going back to my previous statement about god, the character Jamie Sullivan in "A Walk to Remember" says, "Without suffering, we cannot know compassion." We need the thorns to appreciate the rose.  And while the catholics try and portray God as a loving god (which he is), let's not forget about his wrath also.  God is the Alpha and Omega.  The beginning AND the end.... the Creator AND destroyer.  Yin... and yang... Clear?

Secondly, going Back to the story of Lazarus: we read today that Jesus does not make it in time to heal his friend, and he dies.  Jesus, literally, brings him back to life.  But before that, he weeps.  

WHAT? 

God.  He cries.  and it is not just a single tear.  Weeping is to express grief, emotion, or distress by exuding tears.  EXUDING! Streams and ponds, here, people! What do we think of that!

God = perfect.  God also cries... nay, god weeps.  This to me says its ok to feel.  Its ok to cry.  I know I know, I above all people think this is a forgein concept.  BUT.  there it is, In print, clear as black and white... Jesus Wept.  God Wept.  So he brought his friend back.  

It's ok to feel.  God Shows us that.  What is it that ur feeling?

Jesus with a Sport Top!

Being thirsty sucks.

What? It's true.

Dry mouth. Bad breath. Muscle cramps. Headaches. I mean, these are only a few of the problems with being thirsty right? If you've ever had heat stroke, you know the ramifications. It is proven that sometimes humans eat food and do not get satisfied because they misinterpret their thirst for hunger. Drinking Enough water has benefits of clearing up skin, and can flush up to 15 extra pounds out of your system A YEAR!!!

So what? For starters, drink your 32 oz. minimum of water a day!

For seconds, think about what this means for you spiritually. We are moving away from metaphors, kids! What's Jesus telling us?
He's telling us he can make us NEVER thirst AGAIN.
Sounds pretty cool, but you have NO idea...

I just told you what SUCKS about being thirsty. Physically. Now, Jesus tells us that while this body is important, so is our SPIRIT. In fact, the SPIRIT may be even MORE important, because when we DIE, the spirit keeps on living.

Stay with me.
SO, if we need the spirit to keep running efficiently, we need to FEED and WATER it the way one might feed and water our body. And Jesus is telling us that he wants to Provide us with the water.

What does that mean? Well, first of all, think about the good things that water does for the body. NOW think about all the metaphorical WATER that we could get. And not just any old Spiritual water. This is not south of the boarder, Parasite ridden, come back with a tape worm kinda water! This is pure, fresh, clean, right off the mountain and into your body through a spiffy looking sport top! You might know it as the Holy spirit!

Sounds good! sign me up right?
If you're reading this you're probably are covered. Crack open your bible. See what you can find. Pick a passage, ANY PASSAGE, see what moves you. ASK YOURSELF QUESTIONS. If it doesn;t make sense in your head, READ it out loud. What makes you less thirsty about it. Bada-bing! Eternal water via bible.

Do it, to it. although I don't recommend reading ur bible and drinking water.... the bible is more of a oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and milk kinda book :)

Loving your neighbor is a two step process

Readers-

I recently started taking a class on listening (I know I know, as if I didn't have enough to do...)  But, I like to talk, and I am pretty comfortable listening, but it could never hurt to try something new and it is only an hour out of my week.  That's not the point to my story...

Had I been still teaching, I would have had Jr. High tonight (I am SOOO sorry that I never got to say bye to them too, by the way...).  Anyways, I had scheduled tonight that our topic of conversation would be about "Loving your Neighbor", as it is lent.  So we might reflect on WHO our neighbor is and WHY we need to love them... Sounds like a pretty good thing to do, right?

And then I went to this class.  

At the end of this class the exercise was for one person to talk for 4 minutes about a time when they felt good.  WHOA! I mean, most people can talk about themselves... but GOOD things... and for 4 minutes.  Unheard of.

Think about it. Everyday we put ourselves down.  Advertisements tell us how we can look better all day long.  Which got me to thinking... How am I supposed to love my neighbor when I don't even love myself? Not to say that I DON'T love myself (I mean, seriously, what's NOT to love..? kidding.), but it was hard to think of 4 minutes worth of"Good things" to share.  So, had I been able to reformat my original thought, maybe a better plan would have been to talk about loving ourselves first, and being able to acknowledge... and THEN worrying about our neighbor.  

So I am challenging YOU to think of a time when you felt good about yourself.  If you can change your attitude about how you perceive yourself, it make loving your neighbor way easier.  Seriously, let me know how this goes.  And while your at it, let me know how not complaining is going too :)

the best way I can sum this up is to pull lyrics from Incubus' song "Warning":

 "I suggest we learn to love ourselves before its made illegal" 

Greetings and inspirations: this isn't going to be easy

Readers-
Hi and welcome to the blog. I must start off by saying that I am very new to blogging. I feel like disclaimer is needed since I am talking about Religion in an opened venue. I will say that what I write is not supposed to be Cannon Law. I will specify words that are quoted, look up documents if needed, but what this is essentially for is a way to break down and interpret the word into layman's terms and answer the question: "So Why should I care?"
Anything that is not cited is merely the knowledge and insight of what I know in my 21 years of living a life of faith.
Now that I we've gotten that out of the way, let's get to it:

This blog was inspired a week ago when I got off a retreat with several students of mine. The point of retreat is to do simply that: go AWAY from the hang-ups and distractions of life and try and remember what it is you are meant to do. Now on one hand, this is a really great way to teach the faith because you are surrounded by supportive people, who believe and share these ideals. And you go, and sing songs, and feel better about yourself at the end and commit life to chirst. It's so easy to be good on retreat.

On the other hand, this is not what Christ intended.

Christ did a lot of footwork. He ate and drank with sinners. And while he does take some time to go off and think and pray (40 days to be exact), this was not his messege. Christ challenges us to go OUT and spread his "light" or his "word" (Depending on what gospel your reading). Retreats only happen every so often, and we cannot live life on retreat. And the furthur and furthur you get from retreat... the easier and easier it is to forget what you learned. And MAYBE you forget your commitment you made.

Retreat is a refresher on how to make things work. So HOW can we get our retreat like atmosphere to keep us good in a not-always-so-good world? Let's look back at our elements of retreat: People who believe the same ideals, songs, commitment to God....

Don't get me wrong... but doesn't that sound a little like church?

Who knew? An hour out of your day, one day a week, and we get a little refresher on what Jesus says about life, and it gets EASIER to carry out his messege... And by COMMITTING that one hour out of your week to "retreat", its making that catholic guilt less prominent the next time you go to retreat and commit your life to god:) (If you've ever been to church camp, you know what I am talking about)

So what: All I am saying is, if you have Jesus' word once a week at LEAST, it makes being a Christian through actions a little bit easier. And trust me. No one said this was going to be easy. :)