Catholic growth in US Bible Belt states

according to this NCRegister article. This remarkable observation from someone in the area struck me: 'it is easier for Northern Catholics to take their faith for granted because most of their friends belong to the Church. “It doesn’t really challenge the Catholics there to know their faith as well or be able to explain it clearly..'

Challenges can be very good for the faith, no?

Coptic Pope stresses urgency of Christian unity at Vatican :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)

"The Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt met with Pope Francis at the Vatican and spoke about the urgent need for unity among Christians in the Middle East. “We must prepare our people for this very real and needed unity that we know and live, we must work quickly and seriously,” said Pope Tawadros II in May 10 remarks provided to CNA by his office." More from the Catholic News Agency (CNA)

When I read stories like these, I often wonder how the world would have fared if we were able to live the unity of one Church on earth that Jesus prayed so fervently for (Jn 17):

.. Holy Father, keep them in thy name, which thou hast given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. .. "I do not pray for these only, but also for those who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be (one) in us, so that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. The glory which thou hast given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one. I in them and thou in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them even as thou hast loved me.

Christian Hip-Hop?

The cover story at Christianity Today asks if Christian Hip-Hop can call American church back to the gospel -- not referring to Catholics, of course. My first thought was that this cannot posibly fit into liturgy, but, to be fair, Evangelicals do not share the original meaning of the word "liturgy" anyway. I suppose that any form of art, if truly uplifting and inspirational, can be used to glorify God. Setting word to rhyme can be good for many, but never in the Eucharistic celebrations of the Mass, of course. I've often thought that a Catholic parish that is Christ-centered in the Eucharist primarily, and the other sacraments, can bear much fruit with other communal celebrations, including prayerful song -- maybe even Christian hip-hop, -- outside of the Mass. Thoughts, anyone?

How the West Really Lost God -- Dr. Mary Eberstadt

How the West Really Lost God | Crisis Magazine -- Austin Ruse summarizes a remarkable thesis, perhaps unheard of, that the West lost its faith beginning with the weakening of the family as an institution. It is worth considering that a moment (and even more so, reading Dr. Eberstadt's book. Raising a family is indeed challenging to one's faith, and the size of that family is proportional to the challenge, but does faith not grow stronger, by God's grace, the more it is challenged? Indeed it does, as anyone who has allowed oneself to be challenged would know. No pain, no gain, right? We mature with every challenge that we meet (and perhaps fail to mature with every one we run away from -- assuming there was a choice). My children being young, I know there is so much more awaiting us than my wife and I have already encountered. But these, so far, with deep gratitude for the assistance of God and the loving friends and family he has surrounded us with, have both challenged and enriched us. How we get by is no small miracle.

And such contempt for big families, by the way, is no longer unexpected even here in Melbourne. The mindset of two-children families appears to be typical fare. We get stared at openly when we have all four children with us out and about. It no longer bothers me. My wife has been told more than once that we have too many -- four kids!

Learning to love Heaven

It’s not as automatic as you think , according to Msgr. Charles Pope. Indeed, if Heaven is a place of complete happiness, then everything Jesus said about that in the Beatitudes must be front and center. As I have much to learn about being meek and poor in spirit, having hunger and thirst for righteousness, loving peace, purity of heart, entrusting my heartaches and grief to God and perseverance in persecution, then I have a lot of work and learning to do, and who knows how much time I have left?

Reflections on the Crucifixion: the Other thief

We often cite the good thief on the cross next to Jesus as a good example of repentance and of Christ's mercy, but something about the other thief struck me today as I meditated on the fifth sorrowful mystery of the holy Rosary. The taunts and desperate pleas of the unrepentant thief seemed to me akin to the temptations we face, sometimes daily, to walk away from our commitments to our spouse, our family, to love them regardless of the circumstances we find ourselves in. I know these temptations well, and it doesn't have to be about walking away completely. Even walking away from today's commitment to be supportive, to be patient, that already falls into this mindset of 'me' rather than 'them' who depend on us. Yes, we may be in great pain, and what would it cost to give ourselves a little comfort, a break from our commitment, even for just a day? Nothing wrong unless it costs our family something that they truly need. What that might be would vary, but I am keenly aware that the small breaks I give myself, by shutting out my family just a bit can, little by little, accumulate towards aloofness, alienation, indifference. If I could find a way to give myself a break while maintaining good relations with them, such as in playing a game with my children that I enjoy as much as they do, I should. But to shut myself away at a moment when they need me -- that may well be the beginning of walking away. Christ on the cross would have been tempted to at least ease his pain a little -- he did not deserve any of it, after all. Why didn't he? Here was a man truly committed to his Bride, his Church; to the family he gathered to himself. He didn't deserve any of the pain he endured at the hands of our sins, but he took it upon himself to defeat it by embracing it to the very end, every lash and cut and bruise, every spit and insult -- and every temptation to walk away, and he stayed the course. Why? So that sin would be crushed completely, absolutely, even to the last loose end. In other words, to make for total victory. I believe that we who are united with him in his body and Holy Spirit are called likewise to such a battle and absolute triumph. When we hear the taunts, or even the reasonable suggestion to give ourselves a break, we should consider what it costs the ones who depend on us and whom we are called to love. Perhaps with a little creativity, with due consideration for our need for a break and their need for our love, we can find a middle ground, one that does not sacrifice their needs and our commitment for the sake of wanton selfishness. Not that it would be easy, but we are not called to go easy. We are called to be faithful, loving and confident in hope.

The Justice of God: a glmpse

The twenty-four elders.. touched the ground with their foreheads worshipping God with these words, ‘We give thanks to you, Almighty Lord God... The nations were seething with rage and now the time has come for your own anger, and for the dead to be judged, and for your servants .. all who worship you, small or great, to be rewarded. There is no peace without justice, but what happens to us if God's justice were given immediately after we sin? Rather than immediacy, God exercises patience, giving time for mercy, because (1) He is love, and (2) we are beings of time. On the latter, God designed us gto be dynamic beings whose fathom can only be appreciated over time. To God, who sees all time as an instant, our sin at one moment is not the end of the story therefore. Many find the existence of evil in the world to be in contradiction to the existence of a God who is love. But seen in the light of finiteness and time, it isn't a contradiction at all. God bides his time because the ultimate salvation of man comes from mercy, and mercy plays out for the sinful by repentance and conversion, both being acts done in time.

Reflections on the First Three Luminous Mysteries of the Holy Rosary

The Baptism of the Lord in the Jordan -- the beginning. He does not need the regenerative washing, but we need him to institute this sacrament of initiation. The Spirit samctifies the water for Baptism, the Father's blessing with words of election: This is my Son, Beloved, in whom I am well pleased. The Son of Man, the Son of God, stands in our place as the Truly Worthy, making us worthy to be so called into the family of God. Then the Wedding Feast at Cana: our Blessed Mother notes the lack of wine, asking her son implicitly to intervene as only the true Bridegroom could. Do not belittle the need for this sign! The last two generations have done much to ridicule the dignity marriage -- and look at how the children have had to pay for it in tears and broken spirits! In the Lord's place, I too should like to be warned when the wine of light-heartedness should run low. Being a husband, I should then do something about it when it happens: Do whatever he tells you. The Bridegroom should know more than anyone what is best to do then. I must care for my marriage first of all. It must be a constant celebration of love: God's love, the source and template for all human love. Then the Proclamation of the Gospel. Anointed at Baptism, grounded firmly on love in my marriage, I should then proceed boldly to mission: proclaim, set free, to heal and bind up -- by God, I am equipped for every good work. Forth! Faith! Love!

Without grace we can do nothing!

Translation of Pope Benedict's address on Monday of Easter:

"Indeed, the Baptism that makes us children of God, and the Eucharist that unites us to Christ, must become life. That is to say: they must be reflected in attitudes, behaviors, actions and choices. The grace contained in the Sacraments of Easter is an enormous source of strength for renewal in personal and family life, as well as for social relations. Nevertheless, everything passes through the human heart: if I allow myself to be reached by the grace of the risen Christ, if I let that grace change for the better whatever is not good in me, [to change whatever] might do harm to me and to others, then I allow the victory of Christ to affirm itself in in my life, to broaden its beneficial action. This is the power of grace! Without grace we can do nothing – without grace we can do nothing! And with the grace of Baptism and Holy Communion can become an instrument of God’s mercy – that beautiful mercy of God."