Hey everyone, just a quick late night post to share my latest video and prove I'm alive !
I look forward to seeking, knowing and loving God with all of you!
~OneCatholicGuy
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Read the Bible and Catechism in a Year! AND A Short Video to show I'm Alive
JMJ
Hey everyone, just a quick late night post to share my latest video and prove I'm alive !
And here is a link to the catechism and Bible schedule i was referring to, check it out: http://www.chnetwork.org/readguide04.pdf
I look forward to seeking, knowing and loving God with all of you!
~OneCatholicGuy
Hey everyone, just a quick late night post to share my latest video and prove I'm alive !
I look forward to seeking, knowing and loving God with all of you!
~OneCatholicGuy
Friday, October 19, 2012
And became man...Jesus in Mark's Gospel
~JMJ~
This has been a tough week for this guy spiritually. I felt a little dry, a lot tempted, and almost gave up the mission I maybe too ambitiously laid out for myself to do a blog and a video post every week. But then earlier today I saw this quote from a saint we honor today, one of the first martyrs in North America, St. Issac Jourges:
It could be said that St. Issac Jourges was kind of the saintly Jerry Garcia of his day, at least in that both continued going with hand-some hardships and it will make a good transition point for the blog. Though it is tough to do this OneCatholicGuy blog/videos/twitter knowing that I am not necessarily good at any of these social mediums, I know that I will get by.
SO that brings us to today's topic: Jesus as a man in the Gospel of Mark.
Mark has always been an interesting gospel to me. These past few days I've been listening to a dramatized version on an app called Truth&Life, a free bible reading by celebrities bringing the Bible to life.
As I've listened some old recollections of Mark's gospel came to mind. Two moment always stand out to me from this Gospel and both have to do with Jesus on the sea.
Fist is the instance in Mark 4:37-41 where Jesus is asleep on the ship and the apostles freak out because a storm threatens them. Here's the scene:
The other cool thing with this scene is Jesus' wondering why they are afraid. It's almost as if He is asking, "How can you be afraid? Don't you understand? Don't you know who I am? " This question too will be asked later in the Gospel and tells us something of the man Christ is and His dual nature being both fully God and Man.
The second sea scene is Jesus walking on the water.
Now I don't quite understand this scene and never have but I know in my heart it is very telling of our Lord's nature. The quote about the walking is as follows: And seeing them labouring in rowing, (for the wind was against them), and about the fourth watch of the night, he comes to them walking upon the sea, and he would have passed by them. (Mark 6:48- my emphasis). The Lord approaches them seeing them struggle but it says He would have passed them by. Is this perhaps because His presence on the sea would have calmed it, as he commanded the wind before? I cannot understand the Lord's mind but here, He intended to pass by and then had to reassure the apostles that it was Him walking and they had no reason to fear.
For me, these passages both raise the question: How does Jesus think similarly or dissimilarly to men? We have to remember that Mark has no genealogy of Christ or nativity story. When we first see the Lord, He is a grown man being baptized by John. It is soon after this that He is led away by the Spirit to the dessert to be tempted for 40 days. His baptized humanity begins immediately with temptation. And why must Jesus be tempted? Because He is a man, because that is truth of humanity, that we are all tempted. No one can look at Jesus and say, "You don't know what it's like" because He has been through all the results of humanity's fall: temptation, suffering, even death. But He is God, Jesus never sinned so why does He have to be baptized even?
He is baptized, interestingly enough, to take on our sins. Pope Benedict says this quite elegantly in his book, Jesus of Nazareth where he describes Jesus submersion into the water as a moment where the Lord actually is taking our sins onto himself. After that, he is reaffirmed as God's Son, I'd like to think to give Jesus strength through the temptations He is about to face in the desert,
And I want to wrap up because a storm looms and threatens another loss of electricity. There is a phrase repeated throughout the gospel, "Anyone with ears, let him hear" that never really made sense to me. But one instance in particular helped me to understand today. It is in Mark when the Apostles start to freak out on the boat when they realized they only brought ONE loaf of bread with them for the whole journey.
Paraphrasing here but basically Jesus was like,
"Haven't you heard what I've told you? Don't you see? Didn't you taste the bread I gave you? Do you not know that is only the beginning? That I will lay myself down and give myself wholly for you, my beloved apostles? "
Jesus is upset that they cannot understand in His humanity but knows they cannot yet in His Divine mind. He speaks as a father tortured that His children cannot understand the depths of His love for them. In time they will know but cannot yet. Jesus became a man precisely to show them this love, to give Himself, the Father's only begotten Son, to do His Father's Will and save mankind. He has come into their physical world as any other man would: He was born of a mother, cared for by an earthly father, mocked by His townsfolk for being a man, a carpenter and a carpenter's son and nothing more (Mark 6:3), He hears and sees and loves and is tempted as all men are.
But, at the same time, He is the Son of God. The wind listens to His commands, He can forgive sins and drive out demons. He can give life-giving bread in impossible circumstances. He knows they cannot yet understand but is eager to tell them, as any man is to tell His friends good news. But Jesus is patient, meek and humble of heart. Completely void of the sins within that can allow the apostles to doubt (Mark 7:14 ff).
~OneCatholicGuy
Jesus, I pray that we may all see Your goodness, know Thy peace, and seek to understand as those first apostles did, to take courage in You despite our struggles and disability in belief. Heal us Lord and help us to follow and love You always. Amen
This has been a tough week for this guy spiritually. I felt a little dry, a lot tempted, and almost gave up the mission I maybe too ambitiously laid out for myself to do a blog and a video post every week. But then earlier today I saw this quote from a saint we honor today, one of the first martyrs in North America, St. Issac Jourges:
My confidence is placed in God who does not need our help for accomplishing his designs. Our single endeavor should be to give ourselves to the work and to be faithful to him, and not to spoil his work by our shortcomings" (from a letter of Isaac Jogues to a Jesuit friend in France, September 12, 1646, a month before he died)...now this dude was tortured and had some of his fingers chewed off and still had the bravery to not let his spiritual, or physical, dis-ability (his "shortcomings" in doing God's will) stop him from living out what God wanted for him. He got a special dispensation from the Pope to celebrate mass with his missing fingers then RETURNED to the Americas where he was martyred preaching the gospel and baptizing Native Americans.
It could be said that St. Issac Jourges was kind of the saintly Jerry Garcia of his day, at least in that both continued going with hand-some hardships and it will make a good transition point for the blog. Though it is tough to do this OneCatholicGuy blog/videos/twitter knowing that I am not necessarily good at any of these social mediums, I know that I will get by.
SO that brings us to today's topic: Jesus as a man in the Gospel of Mark.
Mark has always been an interesting gospel to me. These past few days I've been listening to a dramatized version on an app called Truth&Life, a free bible reading by celebrities bringing the Bible to life.
As I've listened some old recollections of Mark's gospel came to mind. Two moment always stand out to me from this Gospel and both have to do with Jesus on the sea.
Fist is the instance in Mark 4:37-41 where Jesus is asleep on the ship and the apostles freak out because a storm threatens them. Here's the scene:
37 And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that the ship was filled. 38 And he was in the hinder part of the ship, sleeping upon a pillow; and they awake him, and say to him: Master, does it not concern you that we perish? 39 And rising up, he rebuked the wind, and said to the sea: Peace, be still. And the wind ceased: and there was made a great calm. 40 And he said to them: Why are you fearful? Have you not faith yet? 41 And they feared exceedingly: and they said one to another: Who is this (do you think) that both wind and sea obey him?One thing that is immediately striking is Jesus' command to the wind: "Peace, be still"! The fact that He commands nature is one thing, a question the apostles themselves ask later on. But, the fact that He urges peace to the appease the wind is also pretty cool. Jesus is the Prince of Peace and the world recognizes this authority even down to the winds. This peace is the same as Jesus says in John 14:27 "Peace I leave with you: my peace I give unto you: not as the world gives, do I give unto you. " This is a topic to be fully explored later I think.
The other cool thing with this scene is Jesus' wondering why they are afraid. It's almost as if He is asking, "How can you be afraid? Don't you understand? Don't you know who I am? " This question too will be asked later in the Gospel and tells us something of the man Christ is and His dual nature being both fully God and Man.
The second sea scene is Jesus walking on the water.
Now I don't quite understand this scene and never have but I know in my heart it is very telling of our Lord's nature. The quote about the walking is as follows: And seeing them labouring in rowing, (for the wind was against them), and about the fourth watch of the night, he comes to them walking upon the sea, and he would have passed by them. (Mark 6:48- my emphasis). The Lord approaches them seeing them struggle but it says He would have passed them by. Is this perhaps because His presence on the sea would have calmed it, as he commanded the wind before? I cannot understand the Lord's mind but here, He intended to pass by and then had to reassure the apostles that it was Him walking and they had no reason to fear.
For me, these passages both raise the question: How does Jesus think similarly or dissimilarly to men? We have to remember that Mark has no genealogy of Christ or nativity story. When we first see the Lord, He is a grown man being baptized by John. It is soon after this that He is led away by the Spirit to the dessert to be tempted for 40 days. His baptized humanity begins immediately with temptation. And why must Jesus be tempted? Because He is a man, because that is truth of humanity, that we are all tempted. No one can look at Jesus and say, "You don't know what it's like" because He has been through all the results of humanity's fall: temptation, suffering, even death. But He is God, Jesus never sinned so why does He have to be baptized even?
He is baptized, interestingly enough, to take on our sins. Pope Benedict says this quite elegantly in his book, Jesus of Nazareth where he describes Jesus submersion into the water as a moment where the Lord actually is taking our sins onto himself. After that, he is reaffirmed as God's Son, I'd like to think to give Jesus strength through the temptations He is about to face in the desert,
" And there came a voice from heaven: You are my beloved Son; in you I am well pleased." Mark 1:11We all need to have this encouragement to have the temptations of sin. Jesus perhaps knew this and that is one distinguishing mark in Mark of how He thinks. He has the same human experience but cannot understand our struggles to believe or hear God's word. This is a theme prevalent in Mark's gospel in several spots:
- The people in the synagogue not understanding "this new doctrine" of Jesus having authority to cast out demons despite the demons understanding his power (Mark 1:23-28)
- Jesus having compassion and healing the leper (Mark 1:41)
- Jesus healing the paraplegic after seeing his friends faith in cutting open the roof. The Scribes questioned him and couldn't understand the truth of what had happened spiritually so Jesus had to give them a physical sign, the man walking.
And I want to wrap up because a storm looms and threatens another loss of electricity. There is a phrase repeated throughout the gospel, "Anyone with ears, let him hear" that never really made sense to me. But one instance in particular helped me to understand today. It is in Mark when the Apostles start to freak out on the boat when they realized they only brought ONE loaf of bread with them for the whole journey.
Paraphrasing here but basically Jesus was like,
"yo, remember those 5000 folk I fed like 20 minutes ago? Come on guys!"
But the point is the apostles despite having seen Jesus perform this miracle twice already! still doubted and worried. And Jesus' reaction shows us His humanity as well as His Divinity:
16 And they reasoned among themselves, saying: Because we have no bread. 17 Which Jesus knowing, says to them: Why do you reason, because you have no bread? Do you not yet know nor understand? Have you still your heart blinded? 18 Having eyes, see you not? And having ears, hear you not? Neither do you remember?...21 And he said to them: How do you not yet understand? (Mark 8:16-18; 21)Jesus know the apostles and their concerns, He understands their hunger and has felt it Himself greatly for over forty days at a time. The fact that this is about bread shows a deeper meaning in Jesus' mind: He already knows He will institute the Eucharist out of love. He has prefigured it twice in this Gospel by feeding the 5000 and another 4000. He is the Bread of Life and they, His closest disciples, His chosen 12 who will become the foundation of His Church on Earth, cannot but fret over their starvation.
"Haven't you heard what I've told you? Don't you see? Didn't you taste the bread I gave you? Do you not know that is only the beginning? That I will lay myself down and give myself wholly for you, my beloved apostles? "
Jesus is upset that they cannot understand in His humanity but knows they cannot yet in His Divine mind. He speaks as a father tortured that His children cannot understand the depths of His love for them. In time they will know but cannot yet. Jesus became a man precisely to show them this love, to give Himself, the Father's only begotten Son, to do His Father's Will and save mankind. He has come into their physical world as any other man would: He was born of a mother, cared for by an earthly father, mocked by His townsfolk for being a man, a carpenter and a carpenter's son and nothing more (Mark 6:3), He hears and sees and loves and is tempted as all men are.
But, at the same time, He is the Son of God. The wind listens to His commands, He can forgive sins and drive out demons. He can give life-giving bread in impossible circumstances. He knows they cannot yet understand but is eager to tell them, as any man is to tell His friends good news. But Jesus is patient, meek and humble of heart. Completely void of the sins within that can allow the apostles to doubt (Mark 7:14 ff).
~OneCatholicGuy
Jesus, I pray that we may all see Your goodness, know Thy peace, and seek to understand as those first apostles did, to take courage in You despite our struggles and disability in belief. Heal us Lord and help us to follow and love You always. Amen
Friday, October 12, 2012
Counting Sheep....98, 99...wait, where's Tim?
So last night I had a weird dream that I can't recall all of but a major part involved me and some friends rescuing a hijacked sheep that was hiding under my car.
Now I've never really been one who cares or particularly likes sheep. I can't really look at them without thinking of this
But this sheep was not as animotronic or accented. It didn't speak at all actually. It was just helpless, trapped under the car, dirt covering its wool, turning the sheep a dusty brown color. It didn't baa even, just looked up helplessly. As I looked up from the sheep's eyes, I saw a pack of wolves surrounding the car, hungry for lunch. They were menacing but almost looked playful, like a dog on its back.
What stands out to me is that Jesus teaches this to the Pharisees and scribes in the form of a question. "What man among you wouldn't search for this one sheep?" These are the leaders of Israel he is speaking to, in the Lord's mind there is no reason they should not already be trying to help the lost sheep find its way back to the flock! But, as it says in other parts of the bible, He knows their hearts. They question His dining with sinners and feel it disgusting that this holy man, Jesus the rabbi, is seated with the filthy "unholy" crooks, prostitutes, and bad men. These Pharisees don't understand because they're hearts are hardened and not open to receiving God's word.
Jesus tells them the great joy that is to be had by one sinner converting. All sheep are supposed to be in the flock for their own good and care. Alone they are helpless, can easily be injured or trapped by wolves....I don't imagine Jesus necessarily meant under a car as in my dream but I'm sure He thought of it sometime throughout all eternity, otherwise I wouldn't have dreamed of it.
Now why did I have to rescue this sheep in the dream? I think that is the point of Jesus' question: we all are called to help each other. We are all sheep following the Lord, our Shepherd. But Jesus sets the model for us by becoming a human, by becoming the Lamb of God who comes as a sacrifice for all of us for all time. Though He is a sheep, He is also the Shepherd. Just as we are all sheep, we are all called to share in Jesus' shepherdhood and to protect those in our flock who need it. "What man among you wouldn't search for this one sheep?" We all are tasked with protecting our brothers and sisters from the wolves of the world; we all are called to help the poor, defamed, and defenseless. We are all called to sacrifice ourselves for our fellow sheep as Jesus does for each of us in taking on our sins.
Now Jesus' sheephood is much more sacrificial than we can imagine. It is the greatest act of love to lay His life down for the us (John 15:13) and that the Father sends Him to do so (John 3:16). But this does not mean we should not help our sheep brothers and sisters. The Lord insists upon it and implores us to. Our sacrifices may mean small and like nothing compared to Jesus' but we are to do whatever small part we can to help bring back the sheep who are lost.
I invite you to say a little prayer with me now: God, we love you very much and rejoice in You as our Shepherd. Help us to act as Jesus taught us and to guide His flock back towards You Father, in any way we can. We look forward to the unfathomable joy of their coming home party in Heaven! Amen.
BTW: I want to make a note here to come back to this passage (Luke 15) later because there is a second hypothesis laid on us by the Lord about a lady searching for one goat missing out of ten that might be cool to examine for gender differences in spirituality.
Peace and Love in Christ,
Just a sheep, OneCatholicGuy
Now I've never really been one who cares or particularly likes sheep. I can't really look at them without thinking of this
But this sheep was not as animotronic or accented. It didn't speak at all actually. It was just helpless, trapped under the car, dirt covering its wool, turning the sheep a dusty brown color. It didn't baa even, just looked up helplessly. As I looked up from the sheep's eyes, I saw a pack of wolves surrounding the car, hungry for lunch. They were menacing but almost looked playful, like a dog on its back.
Imagine 12 Wolves like this...minus the chew toy
I pulled the lamb in the backseat and shut the door. Eventually that part of the dream drifted into another but the symbolism was clearly there. My mind had something about sheep in it, even if its just a reminder I need to unpack sweaters for winter.
So for this blog post I wanted to refer to a Gospel parable Jesus tells us about sheep. It is one we've all heard before, coming from Luke 15:
And he spoke to them this parable, saying: 4 What man of you that has an hundred sheep, and if he shall lose one of them, does he not leave the ninety-nine in the desert and go after that which was lost, until he find it? 5 And when he has found it, lay it upon his shoulders, rejoicing? 6 And coming home, call together his friends and neighbours, saying to them: Rejoice with me, because I have found my sheep that was lost? 7 I say to you that even so there shall be joy in heaven upon one sinner that does penance, more than upon ninety-nine just who need not penance.Jesus is our good shepherd who gathers the lambs in his wake (so as the songs go). This is not new to us. But it might be worth unpacking this quote, much as those sweaters of mine must be. So here it goes.
What stands out to me is that Jesus teaches this to the Pharisees and scribes in the form of a question. "What man among you wouldn't search for this one sheep?" These are the leaders of Israel he is speaking to, in the Lord's mind there is no reason they should not already be trying to help the lost sheep find its way back to the flock! But, as it says in other parts of the bible, He knows their hearts. They question His dining with sinners and feel it disgusting that this holy man, Jesus the rabbi, is seated with the filthy "unholy" crooks, prostitutes, and bad men. These Pharisees don't understand because they're hearts are hardened and not open to receiving God's word.
Jesus tells them the great joy that is to be had by one sinner converting. All sheep are supposed to be in the flock for their own good and care. Alone they are helpless, can easily be injured or trapped by wolves....I don't imagine Jesus necessarily meant under a car as in my dream but I'm sure He thought of it sometime throughout all eternity, otherwise I wouldn't have dreamed of it.
Now why did I have to rescue this sheep in the dream? I think that is the point of Jesus' question: we all are called to help each other. We are all sheep following the Lord, our Shepherd. But Jesus sets the model for us by becoming a human, by becoming the Lamb of God who comes as a sacrifice for all of us for all time. Though He is a sheep, He is also the Shepherd. Just as we are all sheep, we are all called to share in Jesus' shepherdhood and to protect those in our flock who need it. "What man among you wouldn't search for this one sheep?" We all are tasked with protecting our brothers and sisters from the wolves of the world; we all are called to help the poor, defamed, and defenseless. We are all called to sacrifice ourselves for our fellow sheep as Jesus does for each of us in taking on our sins.
Now Jesus' sheephood is much more sacrificial than we can imagine. It is the greatest act of love to lay His life down for the us (John 15:13) and that the Father sends Him to do so (John 3:16). But this does not mean we should not help our sheep brothers and sisters. The Lord insists upon it and implores us to. Our sacrifices may mean small and like nothing compared to Jesus' but we are to do whatever small part we can to help bring back the sheep who are lost.
I invite you to say a little prayer with me now: God, we love you very much and rejoice in You as our Shepherd. Help us to act as Jesus taught us and to guide His flock back towards You Father, in any way we can. We look forward to the unfathomable joy of their coming home party in Heaven! Amen.
BTW: I want to make a note here to come back to this passage (Luke 15) later because there is a second hypothesis laid on us by the Lord about a lady searching for one goat missing out of ten that might be cool to examine for gender differences in spirituality.
Peace and Love in Christ,
Just a sheep, OneCatholicGuy
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Get pumped for the Year of Faith!
JMJ
Hi Everyone!
I'm One Catholic Guy and the name kind of says it all. I'm not a priest or a religious brother. I'm not a husband yet either. For now, I'm just a young Catholic guy trying to learn a little more about the Church, the Bible, and our Lord.
Now I am by no means a blogger, videographer, social media expert or anything like that. I decided to create this blog and this youtube page as a way of exploring the Catholic faith with sharing some ideas with fellow Christians online.
I have had the idea to do a religious blog and some corresponding videos for a little while but I kept pushing it off. There's always a reason to say no when we feel any inclination towards soemthing that might be prayerful or bring us closer to God: "I'm too busy", "I don't have the write words", "Who would want to listen?". And while those second too most definitely may be true, I trusted God put this in my mind for some reason. And then I saw this: http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/how-we-teach/new-evangelization/year-of-faith/
The Year of Faith is an exciting new mission of New Evangelization called by the Pope from tomorrow (10/11/2012) through November of 2013. It is started on the 50th anniversary of Vatican II and the 20th anniversary of the Catechism and is an opportunity for all of us to walk through the "door of faith" (Acts 14:27) and to help our brothers and sisters in Christ do the same.
I am hoping to do one or two blog posts and videos a week. There will be a range of topics: Prayer, the Bible, Saints and a special focus will be on the Catechsim and the Vatican II documents. I am relying a lot on the Holy Spirit to guide me with this stuff because I'm not entirely sure how to go about this. But here goes nothing.
I hope that you'll join me in this year of faith! I will be praying for y'all. Follow me on Twitter for the latest info on new posts and videos @OneCatholicGuy
Peace and Love,
One Catholic Guy
Hi Everyone!
I'm One Catholic Guy and the name kind of says it all. I'm not a priest or a religious brother. I'm not a husband yet either. For now, I'm just a young Catholic guy trying to learn a little more about the Church, the Bible, and our Lord.
Now I am by no means a blogger, videographer, social media expert or anything like that. I decided to create this blog and this youtube page as a way of exploring the Catholic faith with sharing some ideas with fellow Christians online.
I have had the idea to do a religious blog and some corresponding videos for a little while but I kept pushing it off. There's always a reason to say no when we feel any inclination towards soemthing that might be prayerful or bring us closer to God: "I'm too busy", "I don't have the write words", "Who would want to listen?". And while those second too most definitely may be true, I trusted God put this in my mind for some reason. And then I saw this: http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/how-we-teach/new-evangelization/year-of-faith/
The Year of Faith is an exciting new mission of New Evangelization called by the Pope from tomorrow (10/11/2012) through November of 2013. It is started on the 50th anniversary of Vatican II and the 20th anniversary of the Catechism and is an opportunity for all of us to walk through the "door of faith" (Acts 14:27) and to help our brothers and sisters in Christ do the same.
I am hoping to do one or two blog posts and videos a week. There will be a range of topics: Prayer, the Bible, Saints and a special focus will be on the Catechsim and the Vatican II documents. I am relying a lot on the Holy Spirit to guide me with this stuff because I'm not entirely sure how to go about this. But here goes nothing.
I hope that you'll join me in this year of faith! I will be praying for y'all. Follow me on Twitter for the latest info on new posts and videos @OneCatholicGuy
Peace and Love,
One Catholic Guy
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