Off for Thanksgiving

Well, starting Tuesday, I will not be blogging for a bit. I will be out of town on Thanksgiving (at a secret location oooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooo.) I know I haven't been blogging a lot lately, but I'm hoping to pick that up when I get back. I have gotten several books on the various rites of the west that existed before Vatican II that I will be highlighting on this blog. Although they will by no means be exhaustive, I'm hoping that they will be a bit informitave. I hope to see you all when I get back!

+Oremus pro invicem +

Gloria! Gloria! Gloria!

I just saw this on youtube. This is one of the most magnificant gloria's I've ever heard. Check out these three video's in order to hear it:

Video 1 Video 2 Video3


If I were pope I would so use this for my easter vigil Mass. That's about the only context this makes sense in because the gloria is over 20 min long.

Prayer Request

My dear friends,

Please keep a special friend named John in your prayers for me. He recently underwent a traumatic experience and he is in ICU and is in great need of prayer. His family has set up a blog to update friends and family as to his status. You can view it here. Please pray for him, and let his family know that you're praying for him via their blog. Thanks and God bless.

A Lovely Song

I just saw on another blog this video. I think it's pretty cool and I wanted to share it with all of you.

Little Altar Boy

Serious Faith or Mockery

Wow, I haven't blogged for a really long time. I almost forgot I had one! Seriously, though, I've been in a slump about what to blog about. Not to mention, I've been a bit disorganized as of late. Not to disappoint any of my readers (who have probably given up on my blog thinking it was closed) but I won't be posting anything about my trip to Denton last October. My reasons are my own.

I am however going to speak about this video. I saw this on another blog (and subsequently through youtube) and was disgusted. This video is the most absurd thing I have ever seen. I was watching it with a friend of mine and asked him "When did the Catholic Church stop taking itself seriously?" This is an important question. I can say, coming from a background which includes protestantism as well as extreme secularism, that any non-catholic who saw this would never feel any ounce of a pull to become involved in the Church.

This video reminds me of when I was in high school and would see such things. Jesus Jams, Youth Rallies; they're all a bunch of crap. I apologise for the harsh language, but my feelings about such things are coming to a head. This is because the mecca for such patronising crap geared toward young people, the National Catholic Youth Conference, is coming to Columbus. Just before leaving the Josephinum, I got to see the promotional video for this. You can see it here.

I'd like to know who plans these things. Are they seriously trying to convince young people that the Apostles and saints died for this emotional high Mickey Mouse crap!?!

It really is patronising if you think about it, and it isn't going to increase the attractiveness of young people to the Church. I would bet my life that the majority of the young people in the above video will either be in this situation in less than 5 years. They will more than likely not regularly attend Mass and will probably approach a priest within that time asking to be married while cohabiting and using birth control. This isn't the way to approach young people.

I remember when I was young(er than I am now) all I wanted to do was be an adult. I wanted to do what adults did. I wanted responsibility. I wanted my life to be a serious thing heading for a serious good. I would look at these goofy gospel rallies and laugh. I always thought then that, quite obviously, faith was not something people took seriously. It was a game, and that game looked boring to me. I could find 1000 things more fun to do than go to something like that. And I did.

I didn't know that faith could be serious until I met some people who were serious about their faith, and unfortunately, at first, those people weren't Catholic. I only say this as an example to the opportunities that the Church truly has to reach out to young people thrown out the window. Not only that, but I wasn't entirely sure I made the right decision until I saw the faith taken seriously like this , and this. Thank God for faithful priests and bishops who take their faith seriously.