Back to Blogging

Friends, I haven't seriously blogged in thousands of years. Ergo, for Lent, this holy season that too many believe is a great "giving up" of stuff, I shall be "giving." Blogging. Every day, for 40 days, and if the Lord wills, for thousands of years after this holy season of Lent 2014.

I used to blog.... when the blogosphere was young and fresh and held no sarcastic com boxes. Just kidding, that time never was... THANKS ORIGINAL SIN!!!

But I was witty then, resourceful, appropriate. Occasionally.

Then children came to us, great gifts of the God of Love, and they stole my heart.... and 99.76 percent of my free time. But I'm BAAAACK! In these 40 Days I aim to please, to punch these keys and to puncture the heart and maybe even the conscience (my own first) of anyone who clicks in. To get back to the Heart of Things, as it were. My purpose? To the glory of Love, Hope, and Humor in these foggy days of the early 21st century. God knows we need all three.

Much has happened in these hidden years.... 3 children (Boy Wonder, age 5.... Princess Buttercup aka Clare Bear, age 3.... and our Sweetpea Sheila, 1+ years).

My beloved bride and I have been blessed and broken like a Eucharistic host in the daily mass of our family life, and at times we've resisted, reacted, and the old self got rekindled when our patience was/is pushed to the edge. But honestly, it's been an incredible ride. Wow. God continues to show us ourselves, our absolute need to rely on His Grace and the grace of our sacramental marriage, and these little souls.... these achingly beautiful treasures He's given us to steward. They have slain us with their wonders. And sometimes roundhouse sleep-kicks in our bed at 2:30am.

Back to the main narrative: 
I shall attempt to "give" myself again to this digital diary of sorts, and I can only hope the gift is worthy of your 2.5 minutes of reading during the morning commute, or stoplight/traffic jam on (insert road of choice). In this attempt then of 40 Days of Blogging, I'm sure stories from the Crucible (aka our home) shall surface. Enjoy them, none shall be embellished. It's raw and real.

BREAKING NEWS THAT BROKE SEVERAL MONTHS AGO!
After 8 wonderful years, I made the leap out of teaching at a private boys school in Malvern, PA (what a blessing that was!!) I have transitioned this past summer into full time work for the Theology of the Body Institute (having taught and spoken across the continent for TOB for the past 8 years part time). Now I serve the job of my dreams as a curriculum specialist, faculty member and speaker for Blessed John Paul II's epic vision of the human person. Learn more here!

This vision has always permeated my thoughts, words and I hope actions, (and this blog in the past) and I know it shall do so again. Be warned!

See you in the morning ;)

Family Ties and Their Loosening

The family is the authentic setting in which to hand on the blueprint of human existence. 

- Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI

 

The thought of Pope Emeritus Benedict above is one that for millennia would have been quite easily accepted. It would almost be considered, if the expression had been in back then, a "no-brainer." 

I often quote the great wisdom of that Saturday morning cartoon series that was sandwiched in between Spiderman and his Amazing Friends and Dungeons & Dragons, "Schoolhouse Rock." The refrain from the song Three is a Magic Number sings: "A man and a woman had a little baby.... yes they did. They had three-ee-ee in the family. That's a magic number"

Sexual complementarity, man and woman, masculine and feminine... such cosmic mysteries are as pregnant with power and meaning as sun and moon, earth and sky, the seed and the soil wherein a giving dies and its receiving in the womb of mother earth becomes new life. But this blueprint is being torn apart by new ideas and new agendas. The attempted disunion of this original communion is one of the hottest items of the day throughout the secular press and popular media. The following may be fringe statements, too intense to make the CNN sound byte, but they are out there:

"Being queer means pushing the parameters of sex and family, and in the process, transforming the very fabric of society... We must keep our eyes on the goal... of radically reordering society's views of reality."- Paula Ettelbrick, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force

"... fighting for gay marriage generally involves lying about what we are going to do with marriage when we get there - because we lie that the institution of marriage is not going to change, and that is a lie. The institution of marriage is going to change, and it should change. And again, I don't think it should exist."- Masha Gessen, journalist, during a panel discussion at the Sydney Writers Festival

We have come to a place of decision. It's a crossroads and I mean that in every sense of the word. A line has been crossed, and a boundary transgressed. Again. Do we hear the whispered words "Take and eat.... for you shall be like gods"?

As for me and my house, we will serve the Love that wrote those original blueprints; the Father in Whose house we dwell, and Who has given us so much. An almost limitless freedom has been given when we read our Genesis rightly. But to rewrite our code? To restructure our very relationships into something that can only bring forth life through technique? Through a science in a lab by a third party? That is, if new life is actually sought at all... 

As Dr. Peter Kreeft has often pointed out, the ancients patterned their lives on reality and were more at peace with it. We moderns try to change reality to conform to us, and we are unhappy. I think it's time we go back to the drawing board. The blueprints are laid out for all to see. 

"Unless the LORD build the house, they labor in vain who build."- Psalm 127:1 

The Raising of the Cross

This early 17th century baroque piece, The Raising of the Cross by the Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens, is a dynamic whirlwind of emotion and energy. The central panel draws us in with its dramatic diagonal slant. The artist has Christ's body gleam, rippling with strength and power, even in this moment of supreme weakness (for "power is made perfect in weakness" as St. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12). Gathered about the Savior is a host of men, equally virile, lifting the Cross high, like a flag of victory over a field where much blood has been spilled. It is the field of the world, and the fight lies within each one of us... "The 'heart' has become a battlefield between love and concupiscence" (TOB, 32:3).

The side panels show us the weeping women on the left, and on the right, Roman soldiers carrying out their duty. With the lens of the Theology of the Body, however, we see much more. The feminine panel glows with warmth, fragile beauty, and heartfelt concern. They are moved by the pathos of the Christ deeply. They receive it, feel it, internalize it. The masculine panel is bristling with raw energy, banners clap in a storm wind, sun and moon wrestle in the clouds as an apocalyptic eclipse ensues. But mirroring the outstretched hand of Michelangelo's Adam, who clearly influenced Rubens in this work, we see a man yearning, reaching out to touch that redemptive gift of the Christ as he is lifted up. We all must pine for him, for he is our peace! May all men and women appropriate this great gift of the Christ! And like the figures of Our Lady and St. John, situated on the "feminine" side, let us recall that, before the Lord, all our hearts are called to the feminine first. To receive, to take within, then to bring forth again in fruitful, faithful, self-giving love!

"And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all unto me." (John 12:32)

___________________________

Originally published for the Theology of the Body Institute newsletter, September 2012.

Registration Open for TOB Immersion Course!

I'm happy to announce an upcoming course I've been invited to teach again: The Head and Heart Immersion Course on Pope John Paul II's Theology of the Body. It's already opened for early registration and will be offered at Black Rock Retreat Center in beautiful Lancaster County, PA. It runs from June 12 to the 17th. You can download the flyer with all the info here. To register online, simply click here. All our week-long retreats include:


• Five days of learning and interactive lecture (30 hours of classroom time).
• Time for relaxation and networking with others surrounded by 100 acres of beautiful wooded countryside at Black Rock Retreat Center in Quarryville, PA (50 miles west of Philadelphia).
• Daily Mass, adoration, and confession will be available.
• Round trip shuttle from the Philadelphia Airport is available.


Teaching the late Pope's meditations on the gift of human sexuality and its connection to Divine Love will take on a whole new light this June. It will be just a month after John Paul II's beatification on May 1 in Rome! So I'll be relishing quoting again and again "Blessed" John Paul II! 




What is the Theology of the Body? Basically, a reflection on what it means to be human, male and female. Where did we come from and where are we going? It looks at the two greatest questions we can ask; "Who am I?" And "Who is God?" The starting point for getting to the answers is us. It looks at the human body not just as a biological organism, but as a theological reality; a work of God. We look at what it is about us that makes us so restless in this world, different from the animals, always hungry, always searching for More? And then it looks at love as a lead into the answer. The Pope says that in our call to communion with each other as man and woman, in human love, there is something of the Divine, something touching on the Infinite. All human love is a sign, an icon, a pointer to Something Beyond ourselves.


God has stamped right in our bodies a mystery that reveals Who He is! You see, a man is called to be a gift, in his very body, for the woman. And the woman is called to receive this gift right in her very body as woman. And this beautiful coming together of husband and wife creates new life! And the union, as beautiful, powerful, and wonderful as it can be, is really just the first sparks of the Love that we are made for beyond this world. The Church says that in the joys of their love, God gives spouses and families a foretaste of the joys of Heaven!


I hope you can join me for this powerful week of prayer and reflection. Those who attend find it a life-changing experience, and a transformation in the Spirit for both head and heart! Indeed, the whole person! To learn more about this teaching of Pope John Paul II's, visit TOBInstitute.org

The Bewildering Bizarreness of BEYAZ Birth Control

Just when you thought it couldn't get more bizarre, here is the latest from the oral contraceptive spin doctors. Young ladies stroll through a store of apparent sexual freedom and worry free bliss. They can pick out boyfriends, trips to Paris, picnic dates under waterfalls, and they can neatly and politely choose to ignore the Stork carrying the baby if they like. Really.

Now the freedom to shop around is not so bizarre actually, if in fact that shopping involves our education, or where we want to live, or what we want to be when we grow up. If it's meant to discover who we are and where we are going. But shopping for boys and treating them like toys, with a smiling sexual promiscuity along the way, have been statistically proven to break our hearts not build bright futures. More bizarre than this consumer mentality about the human person is the juxtaposition of words with images in this commercial. Watch it with no sound, and it's cute, albeit odd with that snubbing the Stork moment. Watch it with sound and no sight and you'll want to vomit: 

"Beyaz increases the risk of serious conditions including blood clots, stroke, and heart attack. The risk of blood clots is highest during the first year of use... the most common side effects were headache/migraine, menstrual irregularities, nausea/vomiting, breast pain/tenderness, fatigue, irritability, decreased libido, weight gain and mood changes."

Watching the two streams together is just... beyaz. What are we doing to ourselves? Ladies, your fertility is not a disease or a stumbling block to happiness and freedom. And if the guys in your life are pushing you to such a pill, then I'd suggest breaking the shackles of that relationship and really finding freedom. Trust me, it lies far beyond Beyaz!

Visit www.theologyofthebody.com!!!