When I talk with people about the Christian responsibility to the poor, I usually get two very opposing responses. One person will state that most of the poor around us are poor of their own fault. They are poor because they don’t work hard or manage their lives wisely. Another person will state that people are poor because of the injustices of society and that those in power are keeping others down. I have learned that neither of these accurately portray the state of the poor around us, and that our opposing, yet equally delusional, view of the poor keep us from actually helping them. The truth is the poor are truly poor, not because they don’t have money, but because they don’t have love.

Now I grew up in a very conservative community, so I know half of you out there just cringed at that last sentence, so please bear with me. I have struggled with money. just like almost everyone else. I have even gone through bankruptcy. Once, while walking downtown and indulging in some self-pity, I passed a beggar and thought to myself, “this guy probably has a greater net-worth than I do, he is at zero while I am negative by thousands”. Which was immediately followed by an epiphany, “Wait! This guy has nothing, while I owe thousands… so why am I better off?”

This thought followed me for a while and throughout the next couple years as I picked myself up, moved on, and rebuilt a business from the ground up. Even though I have less money (from a purely mathematical point of view) than a homeless man on the street, I was rich because I had an education, a clear view of my own path, a skill, a craft, an understanding of the world around, and most of all… a family that loved me.

Discovering Poverty

I spend 2 years mentoring kids in the Indianapolis Public School system through a program that identified at-risk youth. The adults I worked with, both the parents of the kids (if they had any) and the volunteers in the program, had a very negative and helpless view of the business world. I was often listening to conversations about how the rich are keeping them down, how they are poor because they are helpless, and how no one will give them a break. I never, of course, shared this point of view, but I began to understand why they had it.

My parents, who run their own small business, raised me with a sense of responsibility, work ethic, fair trade, how to manage business relationships, and some understanding of how the the economy functions. More than education, my family gives me confidence, pride, and the strength of will to stand up for myself while also showing grace to others. When people grow up without families, or even those they can love and trust, they grow up both without a practical education and the internal strength to survive in a truly hard world.

I remember training one young man to get a good job, one of the things I had to teach him was, “Stop calling people ‘sir’. As soon as you call me ‘sir’ you are placing yourself under me. You are my equal, and you have to make sure I know that. Respectfully introduce yourself to someone and then ask for their name if they do not offer it. ” Of course, he learned to call people ‘sir’ from police and school authority figures in his past, who wanted him to be submissive. He was beat down and used to begging people to survive, he did not know he had the power to take relationships into his own hands.

I learned a long time ago that what makes me rich is who I am. No matter how bad the circumstances are at the present, I will always make my way back up. Even when I have nothing, I am rich because I have a real world education, and the strength of will and confidence to make my own way. Those who are truly poor are those who have never been taught how to succeed, have no confidence in their own abilities, and have never had the opportunity to learn a valuable skill or craft. They look at the world, not knowing how those who are well-off got where they are, and feel helpless.

To often in the middle and upper class, we judge the poor from our own standards. We see someone’s behavior and say, “how horrible, I would never do that”. We don’t realize they don’t know what we know, or have experienced what we have, so of course we wouldn’t act like that… they wouldn’t either. We take our understanding for granted, not realizing the world looks so small and so harsh to so many people. No, there is no one out there to blame with “keeping people down”, but we aren’t taking the time to lift them up either.

Helping the Poor

Those who are poor do need help, and we have many poor communities in America that need real charity to heal. People who say, “they just need to get a job”, are blinding themselves to the real need, but those who say, “let’s just give”, are naive to the real problem. What we have in not a poverty of money, but a poverty of love. People aren’t suffering because they lack money, but because they lack development, the kind of development the rest of us get from our families.

When someone grows up in the world without love, they never really grow up. They are children, lost and confused, and looking for answers. In order to heal the hole left in an orphaned heart requires real human charity in the form of time and attention. Yes, the poor need food and shelter, but then they need brothers, sisters, and mentors. Organizations that are most effective in combating poverty in our world are organizations that help people using near one-to-one ratios. In other words, one person can really only help one other person at a time.

One kind of organization I love is the Prison Entrepreneurship Program (http://www.prisonentrepreneurship.org/). This group, along with others like it, equips inmates nearing probation with the tools and knowledge for surviving and thriving in the world of business. They have a recidivism of 10%, which is almost inverse of the average convict’s chances (usually 80%-90% of convicts usually end up back in jail). This proves to me that most of our “criminals” exist because they are put in a place in life where they don’t know how the world works, so they feel helpless and desperate.

Those working at Crisis Pregnancy Centers, another organization I have a lot of respect for, is always happy to receive donations, but can also tell you that what scared pregnant young women most often really need is love and guidance from another dedicated and patient human being. Volunteers are often a more scarce resource than money. Of course, those who have the courage to adopt are probably the best of all of us, and truly covering the darkness of the world with their own love and sacrifice.

People want to feel good by donating money, expecting others to actually handle the problem, but what the whole world really needs is more of us getting our hands dirty. We need to step across the cafeteria line when serving food and actually eat with those on the other side. We need to stop telling people to get jobs, and offer our time to raise up those who lack the skills and understanding to get a job. Society isn’t “keeping people down”, we just aren’t taking the time in our lives to lift up the weak. Poverty, in any given society, is nothing less than the mirror reflection of that society’s own selfishness and hardened hearts.

The test of the morality of a society is what it does for its children.
~Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Technorati Tags: Charity, poor, poverty

Man wants to be free, but always looks for a king to rule him. A strange contraction in human nature. The truth is, when things are great and seem to be under our control, we just want to be left alone. We don’t want anyone to tell us what to do when we have what we want, and we gladly take credit for our own fortune. However, when things get bad, we cry for a savior and blame anyone but ourselves for the troubles we find ourselves in. (Hmm… I think I just defined both political ideologies) Everyone has varying degrees of each in their lives, but this article is about the latter: Our search for a messiah to save us from our troubles. The sad truth is, we had one, but we didn’t like what he had to offer.

There is another prevalent contradiction of human nature. We so readily look to the mystical, the divine, and the spiritual to solve our material, carnal, and temporal desires. God gave us freewill, and yet we take every opportunity to convince ourselves and others that we are helpless victims and without the power of choice. We blame society, circumstances, and other people for our lives and then look to someone or something to swoop in and save us from our persecution.

Jesus encountered these paradoxes frequently during His time in our reality. As people confessed Him to be the Messiah, they then turned to Him to solve the troubles and conflicts of their own world. While Jesus did many miracles of physical healing and material provision during his ministry, He stopped short of what people really wanted from Him… political and social conquest.

The Crucifixion was a bewilderment to the disciples. When Jesus tried to tell His disciples of His rapidly encroaching tribulation, Peter responded saying, “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you.” As what was surely a shock to such a passionate expression of concern, Jesus responded, “Get behind me, Satan! you are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”

Why did Jesus react this way? It was because Peter, like many of his time, were looking at Jesus as a “material messiah”. Peter was looking for Jesus to free the Jews from Rome and establish a great earthly nation of which Jesus would reign over. Of course, this did not happen, nor was it supposed to. Instead, Jesus gave us something else… individual redemption and spiritual freedom.

It is not hard today to see that we are born as slaves to sin. Any Alcoholics Anonymous councilor, or rehab specialist, can tell you that man is often lacking “something” needed to take control of his own life. Jesus knew this, and offered man redemption through repentance. Through Jesus Christ’s sacrifice and then later gift of the Holy Spirit, God gave us the chance and the power to became the individuals He created us to be in the first place.

Jesus came, and then left, and He left us with nothing more or less than what we needed to truly live. And truth be told, most of us hate HIm for it. We didn’t want “spiritual” redemption, we wanted physical redemption. We wanted someone to give us a steady income, a worry-free life, a safe home, and good health.  We didn’t want to have a path open to begin a relationship with God, we wanted path open to a new car (Ok, nerds… would ” new chariot” be more historically accurate for you?). Jesus and the disciples tell us to look at life’s sufferings as a challenge and gift unique to this life… but we would have preferred Jesus left the receipt so we could have exchanged it for a new expresso machine.

Now today, we still have our many problems and troubles, all of which we brought on ourselves with our own greed and selfishness. Instead of looking at our own failures, we look once again for a leader, a savior, a messiah to fix it all for us and make our lives better. Little do we realize the only way that will ever happen is if we do it ourselves. We must repent, face our sins, and seek forgiveness. Only then will we see clearly enough to fix our own mess.

Technorati Tags: Christian Mysticism, fake messiahs, Jesus Christ, material messiahs, political saviors

Veteran readers of my blog know how much I respect and appreciate the efforts of Rev. Billy Talen and the Church of Stop Shopping.  After all, I believe that our currently culture of consumerism is probably on of our biggest hindrances to connecting with God.  Well, recently I posted a contribution to their newly budding forum that I was personally very happy with (*Shameless self-promotion alert!*) and got a lot of good feedback on.  Please take a trip over to the Church of Stop Shopping forum and check out my article on where consumerism came from, and how we get out.  Here is a sample:

I like, like many, who wake up to the disasters of consumerism at some point wonder, “How did we get here?”. I don’t think any would believe our ancestors fought to have us pack ourselves into Wal-Marts for the latest deals on DVD players and generic potato chips.  I don’t believe our forefathers envisioned the American Dream of prosperity as a life of extreme debt, constant stress, and abundant discontent.  I realize however, the problem is that no one envisioned this at all. The sad truth is… we got here on accident….

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF MY RANT ON CONSUMERISM ->

Technorati Tags: consumerism, Life Application, practical

In light of the upcoming holidays, (Halloween, All Saints Day, and All Souls Day), I thought it would be appropriate to talk about the nature of death and how it applies to Christian mysticism.  The dead and departed has been one of the areas in my thinking which has undergone the most change since entering the Catholic Church.   It has not changed much from a doctrinal or theological perspective, but rather from the perspective of awareness.  Where I once divided my world view into the world of the living and the afterlife, I now realize the present life and the afterlife are intertwined within the Body of Christ.

The Communion of Saints

One of my favorite teachings in the Catholic Church is that we have spiritual solidarity, not only with other believers, but with the souls of our brothers and sisters who have passed on.*  The Body of Christ is not simply the community of those presently with us, but a community of all those who have come before us as well.

This is practiced not only in thought, but in praying the to Saints for intercession.  Just as we ask our brothers and sisters to pray for us, we also ask those who have finished the race to pray for us as well.  While many may feel the practice of praying to Saints is silly or even heretical, I find this practice creates a great feeling of strength and encouragement.  It is so empowering to know and experience the cheering-on and lifting-up from those who have already lived and died for Christ and know what we are going through.

Our Extended Family

As many families have experienced, my wife and I went through a miscarriage.  My perspective at the time was still very much on what was living and physical, so while disappointing, I didn’t really know how to digest the early loss of our child.  My wife, of course, felt the loss much more than I, but I was unable to relate.

My time and reading in the Catholic Church eventually allowed me to realize that our child was a member of the family from the moment of conception, and still is.  While not able to get to know her (our child) in this world, she is a new life and a new soul that is now a permanent part of the Body of Christ.  I was finally able to have an emotional connection to a soul I was previously unaware of.

Honoring the Dead

While many Christians see Halloween as a pagan holiday, All Hallow’s Eve, All Saints Day, and All Souls Day are embraced by the Catholic Church as a time for acknowledging, honoring, and connecting to our brothers, sisters, and family across the veil.  We take time to reflect on the absence left in our lives by those we have lost.  We meditate on their very real presence in the Body of Christ.  And we remind ourselves of our true hope in the inevitable return of Jesus Christ, the resurrection of the dead, the the new earth.

“Death is swallowed up in victory.
Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?”
- 1 Cor. 15:55

Death is an event to be embraced by those who put their faith in Jesus Christ.  It is our victory, and it just makes sense to take time out during the year to celebrate it, remind ourselves of it, and even to reflect and make sure we are prepared for it.

If you have never taken this holiday seriously, or have been on of those families who turn the lights off and take cover from the “scary devil children” asking for candy and treats waiting for it all to pass over, I suggest a different idea.  Take this time of year to celebrate it’s original intent: to connect with the whole Body of Christ.

Reference:

* http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/p123a9p5.htm#958

Technorati Tags: All Hallow's Eve, All Saints Day, All Souls Day, Catholic Mysticism, Christian Mysticism, communion of saints, Halloween

“The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one.” – Wilhelm Stekel

Social change almost always comes from the young.  Born into a world not of their own making, it is natural and healthy for the young generation to question the traditions and ways of the older generation.  This tendency of the young to question the world is a built-in method of protection and renewal in society.  If not for this mechanism, society would deteriorate like an unattended garden.  However, this mechanism is also to blame for many of the wars and social schisms throughout history.  I write this article to the young, and young at heart, who wish to see change in the world around them.  Reform may take years to grow, but revolution can draw blood in a day.

So You Say You Want A Revolution?

Revolutions throughout history have had a range of consequences, from the American Revolution being looked upon as good, to Hitler’s Nazi revolution being looked upon as horrible, to the French Revolution which is still debated as to it’s virtue.  One thing which is the same is blood, death, and war.  It comes down to a basic mindset among revolutionaries of “us vs. them”.  Revolutionary thinking forms a basic disconnect between those wanting change, and those in charge of the status quo.  We are all human, and what revolutionists often fail to see is they would probably be just like those they are revolting against if tables were turned.

Man-made systems are, to be obvious, made of men.  Though some may feel the injustices imposed on them are from man-made systems, but when they go to war against the system, they are going to war with men.  The point of all this is to say the worst of revolutions are those which fail to see the faults in the systems are the faults inside ourselves.  It doesn’t matter how perfect a system is, the faults of man will eventually corrupt it.  We cannot change our world by the tearing down and building up of systems.  All that does it restart a cycle, which while it have difference faces, has the same problems.

Viva La Reform!

The other problem with revolution is, once a new system is in place, the idealism behind it quickly disappears.  After all, once the new system is in place, all the problems fought against are now starting to sprout up again.  Revolution fails to see the true requirements behind a just society.  It is not “change” we need, it is virtue.  Only by disciplining ourselves, by looking at our own character, can society improve.

“..how can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me remove the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the plank that is in your own eye?  Hypocrite!  First remove the plank from your own eye, and the you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” – Luke 6:42

Reform is, in essence, taking the attitude of “I will be the change I want to see in the world.”  Instead of setting our sights on the highest offices and most powerful people, we look at ourselves, our neighborhood, and our own community.  It is sad that just about everyone knows all the twists and turns of the presidential election, but most people don’t know who their own mayor is.  This is a pity, because the most of the high-and-mighty come form the once lowly communities.  If we focused on the people we can see, the neighbors we can know, the town meetings we can actually attend, then we would grow better elected officials from the ground up.

Reform is a rare thing, and there are few true examples in history of it.  One obvious example I can think of is the Black Panthers were revolutionist, but Martin Luther King Jr. was a reformer.  Revolutions overthrow governments, but reformers heal their communities.  What right do I have to criticize an elected official for ignoring the “common man” when I, the common man, won’t attend a local town meeting to keep another Wal-Mart from being built?  The truth is the real heroes in this world are those you may, at best, only hear about on a local news “feel good” spot.  The people keep this world held together are those who can run a business, organize a charity, inspire community efforts all regardless of what government they have.

Beyond government, the “revolution” mindset ruins our churches, schools, and even our volunteer organizations.  We don’t as many churches as Starbucks because we are spiritual, but because we can’t get along with each other.  Whenever we can’t make people around us do what we want, we revolt.  We need the patience and discipline to make a stand which, by the way, means NOT MOVING.  Making a stand means you live and act in the way you wish others to act, and then remain present and visible in the community.  Over time, the immovable presence of a true reformer inspires others to reform and becomes a movement.

Part of the resistance Jesus encountered from the Jews of the time was that they wanted a revolutionary messiah.  Even Jesus’s disciples were, at first, waiting for Him to lead a revolt against the Roman Empire.  When Jesus made it clear that He had no interest in revolution, many people left Him.  Jesus instead started a reform of religion, one that took many generations to grow.

The rarity of reform is because it is very hard to accomplish and tests the virtue of those seeking it.  Those wanting reform not only have to have the humility to examine their own character, but the fortitude to endure persecution without running away.  Reformers often never live to see the fruit of their labors, either because of assignation or just old age.  In fact, true reform takes generation to ingrain itself into a society.  However, reform is always worth the struggle because it changes people’s hearts, not just the system.

Technorati Tags: reform, revolution, social change

“Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In all circumstances give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.” – 1 Thes. 5:16-18

When Paul wrote the words “Pray without ceasing”, he opened up a Pandora’s box of misunderstanding for the overzealous and obsessive-compulsive types that endures to this very day. Indeed this passage seems to fall into two opposite pendulum swings of interpretation. On the one-hand, there are a few who actually attempt some sort of incessant repetition throughout their day, and then the greater majority who just chalk it up to hyperbole and just give up all together. The truth is that prayer without cessation is truly blessed discipline that enriches our lives, and is surprisingly not so difficult to carry out.

Christian mysticism has long revolved around the concept of “contemplative prayer”. Contemplative prayer, though it has a wide range of methods and definitions, I would personally define it as the act of listening to God. In memorized prayer, liturgical prayer, and most other forms of prayer, we are often speaking to God (or worse, AT God). Contemplative prayer is intentionally making an effort to prepare and calm one’s self to listen and receive. I also like to think of contemplative prayer as our way of fulfilling the oft-forgot command to “Be still, and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10/11)

Along with contemplative prayer is yet another concept of prayer, to “walk with God”. This concept was introduced with the person of Enoch (Gen. 5:21-24) who was so close to God he was simply taken up to be with God. The idea of walking with God has fascinated me ever since my youth as such a powerful picture of how far our relationship with God can go. When Paul said to “Pray without ceasing” I believe that this is closer to what he had in mind.

To walk with God, at it’s most basic, is turning prayer, both the traditional and contemplative forms, into an unending awareness of God’s presence and continuing conversation with Him. If we truly master unceasing prayer, we live with a constant assurance of God’s presence in our daily lives. Our connection with God becomes like a friend, or more accurately a father, who is always present and available… as if we were walking with God through life’s journey.

The methods of practicing this unceasing prayer are nothing beyond the most basic advise already given in Scripture. We should do our daily work as if for God, and pay attention to what our work shows us about our own character and maturity. We should view our interactions with others as opportunities to grow our love and humility.  We should see every moment of our lives as a constant relationship with the Creator who formed the world around us.

So how is praying unceasingly different from just living as Christians? No more different than fuel is different from a car. By living with an intentional effort to be aware of God’s constant presence in our lives, and taking frequent opportunities during the day to listen to what God is trying to teach us, we turn the secular to sacred and bring wonder to the mundane. This is not meant as a replacement to traditional, liturgical, or contemplative prayer, but simply as a complement.  To live a life where we are always in a state of prayer of some kind it to walk with God.  I would consider this the essence of practical mysticism.

Technorati Tags: Christian Mysticism, contemplative prayer, pray without ceasing, prayer without ceasing, walk with God

As a mystic, I try to practice caution around areas of private revelation. I usually avoid talking about things I learn solely through personal experience. However, I have been so blessed by my more recent discoveries concerning Grace, that I felt compelled to write about it. My Dad says, “For those who truly believe in God, the evidence of His presence is everywhere. For those who don’t believe, they live in a world with no God.” The subtlety of God’s providence is such that we can easily turn a blind eye. To those to take the time to pay (pray) attention, God’s Grace is so abundant in our everyday lives it is humiliating to think what we would do without Him.

Work has been going well for me, very well. Recently I had teamed up with a friend of mine to start a new business. It was a great chance for me to try out my various “mystic” philosophies in business without restraint. Things have been going so well, that I felt my ego begin to inflate. (I have a pretty big head to begin with, if I don’t keep an eye on it, I won’t be able to wear any of my hats) Anywho… told God that somewhere in the back of my [enormous] head I know He is making this possible, but I wanted Him to help me become aware of where my efforts end, and His Grace begins.

What I learned was amazing, humbling, and encouraging.  I discovered that while I was busy trying to manage my life the best I can, God was managing me.  It was a spectacular feeling of the “Father” in God the Father.  I saw, and continue to see, so many instances where I let something important fall through the cracks, and then God picked it up for me.

Sometimes God’s involvement in our lives can be very obvious.  Most of us can think of a time we were paying less-than-perfect attention while driving, just to have something happen to narrowly save us from a horrible accident.  What really surprised me was how constantly present and frequently providential God’s Grace is.  In many ways, it has changed my thinking.

I used to believe in a more “hands-off” God.  Not from any kind of cynicism, it just seemed to me Creation was so well made, and the systems so perfectly in place, God didn’t really need to do much interfering.  While that remains true, what I learned instead is God chooses to be “hands on” in our lives, not as a necessity, but as a matter of mercy. Without the continued Grace of God, our lives would be very different (and probably much shorter).

I have heard several eschatologists (people who study prophecy in Scripture) talk about how one of the disasters to befall man at the end of time will be that God simply removes His Spirit from the world for a period of time.  I think that will be the worst disaster of all.  The morbid part of my sense of humor gets a chuckle picturing all cars throughout the world crashing at once.

What really surprised me was I learned this same Grace God provides me in day to day life is something He gives to everyone.  You may be thinking, “How arrogant of you to assume otherwise,” but I have to admit it is a surprise to see how much God offers this Grace to even those who are still rejecting Him entirely.   I didn’t think I was the only one, but I also didn’t expect that.

What really hit me through all this was the question, “God, if you are giving me this much Grace now, why didn’t you give this Grace to me back when life was so hard?” and the answer was simple.  God WAS giving me this Grace all the time, I was just REALLY screwing up.  There is so much I have learned about myself, and so much God has changed in me.  I realize all the pain I have experienced has not only been necessary to keep me growing, but was only a fraction of what it could have been. God’s Grace made sure I only experienced the pain I needed to keep moving forward.

All God was needing from me was the faith to step out and live my life.  I have made many mistakes, and while I know God wants me to learn from them, He also protects me from the full brunt of my shortcomings.  God truly is the FATHER, pushing us to grow, letting us step out on our own, but always ready to catch us and get us back up.  It is such a euphoric spiritual romance.

After this, I was really hit hard by what this means about the human condition.  I know a lot of people who live what they would call “miserable” lives.  To see God’s Grace acting in their lives made me realize that just about all our misery is self-inflicted.  With all God’s Grace, we actually have to try to make life suck, and yet, we still do.  I wrote an article a while back about how we create our own personal hells, but now with the context of the Common Grace God provides to all mankind, I am more convinced than ever about our responsibility for our own spiritual condition.

Repentance isn’t a negative or judgmental concept, it is a beautiful miracle where man can leave his squaller behind and run back to a loving FATHER.  When Christ came to save us, it wasn’t about Heaven and Hell, it was about saving us from our own misery. And that is probably the best definition of sin I can think of, to cling to misery when we could embrace God’s Grace.

Technorati Tags: Christian Mysticism, common grace, God's Grace, grace

The Catholic Church has become the center of attention aggression in the global discussion of, not just abortion, but birth control.  To stand against birth control isn’t just unpopular in the secular world but also amongst modern day Christians and even many Catholics themselves. Considering the arguably more urgent concerns such as abortion, genetic engineering, and embryonic stem cells, birth control seems trivial by comparison.  The stance against birth control seems futile, not because it is a petty concern, but because we have already lost so much.  As the other boundaries of the sacred womb fall, what we are really loosing is our own humanity.

Our unchecked consumerism has led mankind to a place where we have to choose between our standard of living, and our families.  In America, it is almost impossible for new families to live on one person’s income alone.  The now old-fashioned idea of the stay-at-home mom is becoming nothing more than a fantasy or relic.  We don’t raise our children ourselves anymore, the government does. Even in independent organizations like day-care, strict government regulation determines what we can or cannot teach children.

I think our point-of-no-return as a society was when children changed from being blessings, the center of joy in the family, to burdens and inconveniences. If you are well-off or middle class, children simply interrupt our careers and materialistic lifestyles.  If you are poor, children are a source of desperation and panic (part of why most abortions are amongst the poor).  We send our kids to day-care, school, sports, camp, and maybe, if we are lucky, see them a couple hours a day.

The most popular argument people have against the Catholic Church’s teaching on birth control is that it is “unrealistic”.  And you know what.. they are right.  Not using birth control in today’s world is unrealistic,  but the not because it is naturally so, it is because we have made it so. Large families are a burden to our modern society.  A woman can’t pursue a career if she is constantly pregnant or nursing.  Plus, the financial strain of the medical industry’s cost of giving birth is nearly impossible for anyone without great insurance coverage to afford.

We have traded the natural blessings given to us by God for artificial ones.  The joy of the family has been replaced by the stress of the commercialism. Birth control is our way of forcing our way of life to change in the way we think is best.  We have told God that we prefer money and luxury to family.  The problem is that it doesn’t stop there.  We are now fighting against abortion, genetic engineering, and the harvesting of the unborn for stems cells.

Children are humanity’s constant chance for renewal.  It has always been the role of the younger generation to take the reigns, and try in improve upon the generation before.  However, instead of seeing our responsibility to the younger generation, the world is promoting a new mindset where the younger generation exclusively serves the older generation.

Right now, in our culture, this generational selfishness has already manifested itself in drastic ways.  When a child comes along who interrupts a would-be parent’s plans for life, we kill it.  When a child doesn’t learn the way we think they should, we medicate them. Now certain organizations are trying to make it legal to grow fetuses like crops to harvest for stems cells for our own use.  This is only what is going on now too, I haven’t even gone into what some foresee in the future.

I say all this because birth control, not just contraception but all attempts to dominate the womb, is not an issue of theology, or even just morality, we are talking about losing our own dignity and freedom.  To assume control over the womb is to assume control over, and potentially wipe-out, all God-given chances for renewal. Our children are here to fix our mistakes, improve on our successes, and challenge our ways.  When the next generation has lost all power to change us, when we enslave our own children from birth for our own selfish wants, what hope is left for humanity.

This article has a much darker tone than I usually post, but I can’t think of anything funny about this.  What I can say to end this on a lighter note, is that there are still many who have the faith to follow God at His word.  I am proud of every family I meet that has chosen to live as God commanded. I experience great joy when I meet a family who still feels that every child is a blessing.  Not only that, but the blessing of God are made obvious through their families.  In today’s world, I believe those who leave the womb in God’s control are living saints.

Technorati Tags: abortion, against birth control, birth control, Catholic Church, contraception

The most common abuse of religion is the lost mysticism of the weekday. Until we reach spiritual awakening, and learn to walk with God, we tend to confine all our spiritual life to just one day a week. I know what your thinking, “yeah yeah, I know I need to learn to live a good life the whole week”, but I want to speak of something more. The truth is that the average weekday can become a continual religious experience for those who open their eyes.

I often begrudge those who can live a monastic or religiously devoted life. However, the truth is God has taught me to see, for those of us in the secular world, there is a unique mystic path to be walked as well. Ours is the spirituality of toil. The challenge of providing for a family, fighting against the cruel realities of the world, learning to overcome the temptations and obstacles common to all humanity.

St. Paul spoke often of the virtue of hard work. Hard work is the means through which man can, with his own hands, shape and mold his character. Toil is also the means through with man learns of the true nature of God, the Creator. At first, the world just seems cold and void to those who seek to make their way in it, but for those who learn to preserver and overcome, they experience the powerful and benevolent nature of a God who wishes to see us grow and mature.

This may seem like a strange idea, to experience God in our lives at work, but it is only strange because so many fail to pursue it. Those who give up, settle for what they can get, become cynical or jaded, the weekday has nothing to offer. To those who refuse to sit still and are willing to take responsibility for themselves, the world turns into a playground for God’s children.

So many people relate to the things like the movie “Office Space” or the comic “Dilbert” because there is so much absurdity in the cubical life. People who find themselves bored and miserable in their jobs most likely have never experienced the God of the Workday. Your life is your responsibility to change and there is a God who waits to support you in the struggle to improve yourself.

“The best athlete
wants his opponent at his best.
The best general
enters the mind of his enemy.
The best businessman
serves the communal good.
The best leader
follows the will of the people.

All of the embody
the virtue of non-competition.
Not that they don’t love to compete,
but they do it in the spirit of play.
In this they are like children
and in harmony with the Tao.”
- Tao Te Ching

Technorati Tags: Christian Mysticism, God of the Workday, weekday spirituality

Angels and demons pop-up every now and then in modern culture. People always have a fascination with what lies “across the veil” of our current reality. It’s hard because we know enough to know there is something there… but we don’t much more than that. Cult groups, pop-fiction novels, and celebrity psychics (psychos?) come around now and again to provide us tid-bits of lore and pique our interests. The real reality is that things are “across the veil” for a reason, and while it is tempting to try, they are best left there. I call this “mystic humility”, and it can save your sanity.

This topic has come up in several of my conversations as of late, and so I felt compelled to write this. It is always fun to talk and explore the possibilities, and even try to deduce a few things, but it is easy to get carried away. The bottom-line is that we just don’t know the true nature of reality beyond our senses. It is arrogant for us to try to tear down the veil ourselves.

A movie came out several years ago called The Mothman Prophecies, which is centered around a reporter trying to uncover and understand a series of supernatural events in a small town. The movie is based on true events and is, unintentionally, the best movie I have ever seen on demonology. It is the best, not because it gives answers, but because the conclusion of the movie is “you just can’t know”, or better “you aren’t allowed to know”.

The biggest step we have to take is to realize that God put us in our present reality for a reason. It is human nature to want to understand everything, but we just can’t. When we do attempt to understand everything, we get ourselves into trouble.

Those spirits which are for our good, such as angels, play by the rules. They stay hidden unless appearing for specific reasons. Malevolent spirits, such as demons, may be more inclined to “come out and play”, but when they do it is by their own rules. Spirit mediums, psychics, channelers, etc. are usually phonies, which is bad enough, but even worse when they are genuine.

The main character in The Mothman Prohecies, John Klein, is played with the entire movie and lead along with ambiguous clues by a “mothman” until he realizes he is way out of his league and walks away. The movie doesn’t make the connection between the “mothmen” and demons, I am doing that based from experience. Whenever people seek out “spirit guides”, channel the dead, or whatever, they put themselves at the mercy of beings who may or may not have their best interests in mind (usually not).

It is fun to think about Angels, spirits, ghosts, and the world behind the veil, but stay humble. Realizing our own limitations can make the difference between some small and beneficial knowledge of the world beyond, and having your life controlled by someone or something else.

Technorati Tags: angels, angels and demons, behind the veil, demons, mothman prophecies