Category: Uncategorized

That’s me. I was at work yesterday finishing up a project with some of my people, well God’s people really but I am responsible for what they do at work. A guy who goes to an evangelical church asks me, “What’s the difference between Christians and Catholics?” I ramble on for ten minutes about the authority of scripture and tradition, where the New Testament came from, apostolic succession, and the papacy. My colleague slipped into a coma by the time I was done. He didn’t ask any questions. He said “mmmhmmm” and went back to his work. I don’t suppose he’ll be asking me about any matters of faith or religion in the future.

May God have mercy on me!

Today during the announcements, our associate pastor had to announce that tickets were on sale for the summer musical: Damn Yankees.

Waynesboro, VA was the location of my Father-in-Law’s 92 birthday party. He drove himself 30 minutes to get there from Charlottesville. All his children were there, with their spouses and a couple of the grandkids. His good marble to desired good marble ratio is 99/100, the only problem is he hates wearing his hearing aids. I can always tell he isn’t wearing them when I call:
“Hi Fritz it’s John”
“I’m doing fine, thank you”
“Great – we’ll be there at 2:30, is that ok?”
“When will you be here?”
“Do you have your hearing aids in?”
“What?!?”
“Put your hearing aids in, Fritz”
“Why are you bringing Kibbles and Bits?”
My dog is very happy to get the long car ride with us to Waynesboro because like all dogs she loves the steady whir of the engine and the fact there are 50 billion new smells just minutes from our house. The party was at my sister-in-law’s house and after dinner a few folks got in the pool, which drives my dog crazy because she wants to play but hasn’t taken to swimming just yet. So after a few minutes of barking, running around the pool and acting crazy I just threw her in. She’s got a black coat like a Belgian Shepherd, when she got out of the pool she looked like a big black wet rat. And she wouldn’t shake until she was right next to someone.
Time to get ready for Mass.

Airlinemeals.net

Just when you thought you had seen everything there was to see on the in-TAR-net along comes this site where you can view and post pictures of meals you’ve had on flights. Some of them make your seat cushion (which can be used as a floatation device) look quite tasty.

In the grand scheme if the music we are playing and singing in church is pedestrian and about us rather than God, then yes, the style does matter. There is a widespread misunderstanding in the Church today about what the Mass actually is. The Sacrifice of the Mass was given to us by God, it is not us giving it to Him. It is not about “fellowshipping” or singing about how great we are. It is the perpetual sacrifice of Christ re-presented to the Father. It is the prayer of God the Son to God the Father.

It’s clear that the styles we have been singing in (combine with the lyrics and the decline in the quality of catechesis) truly do matter.

So why haven’t the Bishops spoken up on this?