Now you See Me?

Why do we have so much abortion in this country? I’m convinced that a big part of it is that the young people who often end up having abortion for the first time are under a huge amount of pressure. They panic, they get pushed onto a roller coaster ride of ‘this must be dealt with now’ and less than two weeks after they find out they are pregnant, they have had the abortion.

Whilst, on the one hand the young people involved do have the option of not going through with it; it’s important to remember that they are for the most part the victims of a really powerful and compelling PR campaign by the abortion industry. Consider for a moment what every member of Joe public knows:

1. Anti-abortionists are women haters.
2. Abortionists are in it for the women.
3. Abortion is a right. Abortion is a woman’s choice. Abortion is the right choice for women.
4. The unborn don’t and shouldn’t have any rights because they aren’t yet human.
5. Exceptional cases are a good reason for abortion to be legal in all cases.
6. Abortion solves the problem.

This is a brief snapshot of what many honestly believe, that I have heard repeatedly in my twenty years as a pro-lifer. Every part of it gears them towards abortion and away from giving any air time to those people who might disagree. The counter arguments are simple and straightforward:

1. 99% of Pro-lifers do it for free – and the majority of them are women.
2. Abortionists get paid. Their livelihood depends on keeping their jobs and doing more abortions.
3. Abortion is a violation of the most basic right without which there are no rights – life!
4. Lots of people have been classed as ‘not real humans’ because it allows you to do what you want to them. Slave traders used similar arguments about their slaves that abortionists use about unborn babies.
5. 0.0001% of people are child abusing serial killers. Get a shotgun – shoot the guy next door. It’s okay, he’s a serial killer. You see? It doesn’t make sense.
6. Humans being inconveniently alive is not the problem. Humans not loving humans is the problem

Young women often don’t get the opportunity to hear these. When people are caught up in that whirlwind of pressure that talks of zygotes and foetuses but never babies, when the ultrasound that the woman isn’t allowed to see is done, when the heartbeat that the mother isn’t allowed to hear is checked; the people that are hiding the truth that abortion stops a beating heart are always portrayed as the good guys.

You can stop an abortion in a coffee shop; on a plane, in a train, at a bus stop – by showing people that they are loved by Christ. It is only when we recognise that we are loved, how we are loved and who we are loved by that life has meaning; and human life starts to mean more than the words it takes to say. If that sounds trite to you, good. It means that maybe you are called to do more. Take a leaf from Bishop Alan Hopes’ book and stand with these heroes and pray outside an abortion clinic. They have saved lives. Some of them were saved themselves.

Bad Attitudes

I wish to add the initial clarifying point that I do not hold any of these to be true. They are subtle misrepresentations of what we as Catholics believe; notwithstanding that these are views sometimes held by Catholics. Meditating on each of these points should lead you into an understanding of why each one of them is erroneous. If any of them cause confusion, scandal or upset – please let me know. J

By ‘Bad’ I mean maladjusted, wrong, inexact, misplaced, misdirected and generally counter – Catholic. they are most often found amongst Catholic ‘groupies’ – those who wouldn’t necessary consider themselves a follower of Jesus (what’s his twitter address again?), but they do ‘like’ his pages from time to time.

If Jesus could do it; we can do it!

Jesus raised people from the dead, so don’t ask questions like “Have we got enough resources? Of course we’ve got enough resources; go charge those guns.” If we haven’t got the food, we’ll multiply it – if we need to cross water, we won’t walk – we’ll run. We’ll do even greater things than Jesus did! He said so!

Say what you are thinking

Jesus said stuff he needed to say even if it drove people away! Say whatever you think God is telling you to say.  Throw all the gays, prostitutes and porn stars off a bridge! Its important that your thoughts are in line with your actions: The biggest problem in the world today is that people aren’t starting the fires they are talking about.

You can never spend enough time on your knees.

You can never pray enough! Get on your knees or spend eternity wishing you had. What is prayer? Don’t ask stupid questions, just do it? Don’t ask DO What? Just do it. Is God asking you to be face down in the chapel? Of course he is. Leave the baby to scream for her food. It is okay, you’re praying.

Do Bad people go to hell?

No. Maybe. Yes. I don’t know. Hell? okay. Heaven – sort of. What? You can’t say bad people go to hell. That’s a misunderstanding of the whole thing. Unless you’re not forgiving; or you talk about God too much. Then you definitely go to hell. I remember Jesus didn’t like Pharisees. But apart from them, it’s empty.

Stick a Jesus Plaster on it!

You have cancer? Accept Jesus, you’ll be happy. You’ve lost your faith? Accept Jesus, you’ll be happy. You find that difficult? Well then you aren’t accepting Jesus! Accept Jesus, and your life will be one long plastered on smile...

God loves me because I’m special

Does God love you too? I don’t know. He’s loves me, but I’m nice. You, I’m not so sure about. Are you nice? I think you’ll need to prove that you’re nice to God before he’ll love you. Like, really love you. I mean, he kind of loves you, because he made you. But really love you? No idea. I know he loves me though. I’m nice.

I’ve suddenly realised that I could probably go on for hours. Is it helpful? Let me know. If it is, I can blog about each of the attitudes, or simply do a whole bunch more, if it isn't - I'll stop...

Hero to Hero Ministry

Someone recently said that ‘peer to peer ministry is like the blind leading the blind’. Ouch. Well, it would fit on a placard; but it’s just plain wrong. I’ll put it on the shelf with ‘Christianity has nothing to offer’ … when I’ve finished with it.

But let’s focus for a moment on ‘the blind leading the blind’ as in – young people leading young people. It’s easy to see where this dude’s attitude comes from, because if you put young leaders in it over their heads – it won’t help them and it won’t help the other young people they are trying to minister to.

How do you stop young leaders going in over their heads?

1. A proper environment
2. A support network
3. Reasonable expectations

(1) By ‘A proper environment’ read – the set up of the interaction between the young people and their young ‘leader’ has to be managed in such a way that they aren’t presented as experts, nor do they pretend to be. They are leaders who help those other yp explore their faith through the tools that they have been taught to use. i.e. prayer, bible, catechism, attitude, the art of living.

There is a very real danger in youth ministry that we only ever associate ourselves with Jesus – and don’t take the slightly humbler step of imagining ourselves on the road to Emmaus; ourselves a disciple, walking with another disciple and listening to Jesus as he opens the scripture. We are all, to some extent blind. None of us are ‘fully formed’ – and it is the recognition that our entire job is to bring people to Jesus that allows us to stay on track.

(2) By the very nature of the relationship, the questions posed by the yp to their leader are going to be the sort of questions that are also close to the leader’s heart. It’s important that they aren’t left to carry that burden alone, but are surrounded by prayer, people who can answer their questions, and occasionally have a CRB –checked shoulder to cry on.

It’s okay that they are only one step ahead of the people they are ministering too – as they grow, so will the gap; and one day they will look around and realise they are training other young people to be leaders. Should they be silent because they haven’t read all of Sirach, or find bits of the catechism unintelligible? No! (1 Timothy 4:12) Seek to grow deeper in your knowledge, but recognise that today you work with what you have.

(3) Some things stress young people out. Some things stress anyone out; but different things stress different people out. Some will be au fait with standing up in front of a thousand people and giving a testimony – most won’t. Ask your young leaders what they are capable of, and keep asking whether or not they are comfortable / ok.

When the young people are gently and carefully led deeper into their faith, they will lead others deeper into theirs. And now I’ll tell you something mind blowingly important – The heroes that you meet are more important that the heroes you never meet.

When you meet someone who has something that you don’t, that you consider to be great – great kindness, outstanding generosity, endless patience, at that moment something that is written in our soul makes us point and say – that – that feels written in my bones. That’s important! Recognise those moments.

There is a moment in Wreck-it-Ralph (spoiler alert) right at the end where the hero realises that he cannot save himself. Describing it like that doesn’t really do it justice. He suddenly realises that he has a purpose, something deeper written in his heart which is telling him the right course of action, that despite the fact that he faces certain annihilation, it is still the right thing to do; giving his own life to save another.

…and our hearts respond. The story of salvation echoes in our hearts. We all want to be saved, and in some way we all want to be a saviour, too. We are made for Christ, and in His image we are made. We are called to save and be saved

We are called to be heroes. You don’t need to wait until you’ve read every page of the bible, every catechism quote, every encyclical and every Vatican II document before you start evangelising, because eternity starts today. So whether you are young or whether you are old – we’ve got the good news! Let’s tell people.

Sin, Salvation and Vegetarians

I met a man who claimed he went meatless

While holding some ham in his hand.

Confused I asked him to explain,

Because I simply didn't understand.

"It is such a small proportion of time

When considered in the backdrop of life

That I really don't regard it as important at all

If meat daily goes under my knife."

"I quickly repent - vegetarian again

I've spent most of my life that way.

Tell me you don't do that with sinning,

And I'll shut up and go away."

Needless to say we talked for hours

We never did quite agree

He may not be vegetarian

But I'm a much greater sinner than he.

I'll keep on trying whenever I fall

supported and held up by grace

It doesn't matter how far down the road you have come

But only the direction you face.

Tiramisiu

Chosing between the good and the best is never easy...

For instance, if you have a very large tub of tiramisiu, a very tired little boy, and a long way to go do you...

A) feed him all the tiramisiu at the start of the journey, and watch him accelerate down the road like a snowball down a mountain

B) walk a few feet ahead and offer a fingerfull of tiramisiu, and repeat until you get home, carefully rationing it so that it doesn't run out before you arrive.

C) carry him, and the tiramisiu in seperate arms, ignoring the whining. Then, when you get home, eat the tiramisiu in front of him.

D) Drive. Duh.

Well, since A doesn't guarantee he'll run in the right direction, C isn't possible for someone who doesn't weightlift and has a 15 kilo son, and D relies on having fixed the .bleep. .bleep. Car, B was pretty much the only workable solution. I wiped his mouth carefully before he got in the house. Let's just hope my wife never gets into the habit of reading my blog.

Love you honey!
I'm so dead.

We had an absolutely wonderful day yesterday celebrating Easter, from the traditional Polish barszcz in the morning, to the huge community meal that we had in the afternoon, it were fab. He is risen indeed! Allelulia...

Only 38 more days left of Easter :)

The real, real, real truth... No really...

What is it about our society that makes people believe that vampires can rise from the dead, but Jesus couldn't? What is it that makes people think that the Catholic church wants to take us back to the dark ages - when a brief look at history will show you that Europe was carried out of the dark Ages by the Church?

What makes people think that the Church, which brought schools and hospitals and the scientific principle to Europe; is somehow against progress?

And why, why, oh why... Does everyone seem to think that Nelson Mandella started his inauguration speech with "our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate, our greatest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure?" words he never spoke in public... Or that Obama wrote his famous speech entitled 'just words'

Where has the human tendency to look a little bit deeper gone? That desire to do a bit of research and really discover for ourselves what is true, really, really, really true... And not just a passing fad or urban legend - have young people stopped believing anything is true, or can they just not be bothered to find out?

By the way, please don't take my word on the speeches, check them out for yourself.

Car manuals and angels

I don't pretend to be an expert on angels, which is unusual for me, because I normally pretend to be an expert in everything. The car, for instance. Having ascertained that it is indeed the starter motor which is causing the problems; conveniently and utterly inaccessibly placed in the centre of the engine, one should call a mechanic. One should not think . . . I'll have a go taking that out myself, and I won't read the manual, because I can't be bothered. The car manual, btw, clearly mentions that you need to disconnect the battery first.

So when the electric shock hit I was underneath the car, and the resultant spasm made me bang my head against the underside. It also numbed my arm and half my tongue. Ouch. Or I should say owwth.

So where was I? Oh yes, angels. One of Augustine's commonly quoted maxims was "I didn't invent original sin" - but since the proclamation of original sin at the time was rather low key, it seems that that is what his correspondents had postulated. I rather suspect it will be the maxim of one of the saints of our day and age "I didn't invent guardian angels"

How many choirs of angels are there? Apparently nine, and if you believe the bishop that I've been reading, that hasn't been under question since 600 AD (or ABJ if you prefer after the birth of Jesus). The bishop is Martin Schmid, writing in 1963, in German.

Anyway the guardian angels don't have their own choir - every angel at some point serves as a guardian angel - but before you say that this introduces a disparity of power - 'hey i wanted that angel' it doesn't. God has ordained that each person should have a guardian angel that best suits them and therefore the choir that the angel is drawn from may differ - but all who serve as guardian angels assume the stature of an angel of the ninth choir. So the mode of the angel may change - but that is also in accordance with our own nature - but not the power.

So the top three choirs:
Seraphim, angels of love; cherubim, angels of power and wisdom of the Word; thrones, angels of life. Don't think renaissance and cute little babies with wings. That's not scriptural. Imagine fiery 20m tall figures blazing with light, and with very sharp swords, who say to the cowering shepherds "do not be afraid"

Four to six: dominations, powers and principalities

Seven to nine: (theological) Virtues, (i.e. Faith, hope and love)
The archangels
The angels (including guardian angels)

I would definitely like to see some more teaching on angels in parishes... But I guess car manuals don't read themsleves either. Oh, and thank you, guardian angel that I didn't fry myself today.