Looking in the wrong places to explain another mass murder | LifeSiteNews.com

I do think this article makes some very good points.  I also have a lot to say about this subject, as I'm passionate about families, stability, the sanctity of marriage, proper and virtue building education of children, and family life. (Don't get me started on the education part of this!)  I believe there is a lot going wrong with our education system and society, and they are a reflection of each other.  Sadly, this young man's story could have been very different.  I truly believe he was involved in a subculture of sex and obsession, and tremendous peer pressure to belong, and while he says he's a virgin at age 22, (personally, I admire and applaud him), instead of it being looked at as noble and respectful, he was bullied and ridiculed and made to feel he was less, because ..why? because he hadn't done what the immoral culture had done?  So wrong.  So foolish, and so evil on so many levels.  If this young man had a different dynamic of life, intact family, support and Christian value system, he would likely have had a decent girlfriend who admired and respected him.  Instead, you have a young man driven to fatal actions, like a drug addict with his overdose.   Heaven help us, truly.



Looking in the wrong places to explain another mass murder | LifeSiteNews.com

Sweet Memories - Memorial Day

I have been so completely busy, that I’ve neglected my blogging sorely!  But alas, I am enjoying a couple days of relaxation before heading into the home stretch for school and projects.

Although this Memorial Day is altogether too close to the date my father passed away, ten years ago (5/24), and would have turned 81 on 5/27 this year, I feel a peace and comfort through the joyful memories. My brother and I spent time reminiscing how we were blessed with such a great “Marine Corps” father. May all those that serve this country, men and women, be honored with the dignity and respect that is due them.

  May God bless you abundantly this Memorial Day Weekend.

Notice the Latin in the upper left hand corner!

E Pluribus Unum

One out of many…..

Actor Jim Caviezels Powerful Message on Abortion | CNS News

Actor Jim Caviezels Powerful Message on Abortion | CNS News

Describer of Planned “Black Mass”: Guess How He Died?

No matter what your opinion of Catholicism or the Catholic liturgical services (mass) are...it's very offensive indeed to have what you hold close and cherish spiritually to be mocked in an evil and audacious manner.

But in the end one thing stands true:  Jesus Saves     and that my friends is the bottom line.  How He can reach down and snatch up and transform the most despicable....He's done it before (Saul), and he will do it again and again and again.....

Describer of Planned “Black Mass”: Guess How He Died?

".... A year after publishing his Black Mass novel, Lá-bas, Huysmans returned to the Catholicism of his childhood. He died as a Benedictine oblate.

And so the truth remains, that even when the people or events seem completely bound up in evil and darkness and far away from God, the light of the Spirit can still break through and shine in the darkness." 

St. Mary MacKillop and Upside Down Under

I am in the planning stages of our parishes’ VBS and finally settled on this neat theme:  Upside Down Under VBS ….pretty certain I bought the last remaining one!  It was a past (2011) version but I was looking for this kind of theme.

It’s a wonderful Australian theme with bible stories of the New Testament (such as Peter walking on water, Jesus healing the crippled man – and how Jesus transforms your life, basically turns it upside down!)

I thought we would feature some of our holy men and women that served in the great land down under, like St. Mary MacKillop, now the first Australian saint.

I am looking forward to decorating too!

Valley school for kids with autism celebrates opening

Shepherds of Faith

Yesterday was a beautiful day to celebrate the 40th anniversary of our beloved pastor and shepherd.  Forty years, shepherding the people of God. Who gives forty years of their life to several flocks of people, moving around like St. Paul, dealing with sorrows, criticisms and woes…and doubts, but always finding joy,  looking to Him first for all things, and staying steadfast in trust and belief? 

The highlight of the day, in my opinion, were not only the 500 people that came to celebrate this tremendous mark of  a true man of God, but the other pastors from other denominations that came to say “well done good and faithful servant!” [Matt 25:21]  Because in the end, no matter how you dice it, criticize other faiths, or act superior about your own, the truth is, these men (and women) are all St Peters and St. Pauls, dedicating their lives to the cause of Christ after 2,000 years+.  They aren’t in it for the glory, the money, the fame…..they have answered a call to a vocation, that is so much more than a career.  Psychologists tell us today you will never be happy if you don’t answer the call of your true vocation.  Christians believe it is because HE will always pursue you, HE will always be there, never leaving you, urging you to say YES to it, and seeing you through it, remaining with you, always.

Today, as one of the flock, I am ever grateful for the man who answered his call and said “yes” to God’s will for him.  He has blessed and enriched our lives and God’s plan continues to unfold for all us, placed here in this special unique time, this particular chronological era of Christians.  Make no mistake, this place and time and people are ordained by God, and while we may not understand it’s purpose entirely, we will glory in how God’s almighty design for us is perfect.  [Romans 8:28]

Finally Growing Up

…..it may be safe to say that it takes some people an entire LIFETIME to finally, really grow up.  I can say this with all certainty now that I’ve read a great informative psych book – that is not your typical psychology book at all…….

I will say that this book really, really spoke to me: big time. 

I can’t tell you all the ways it reached me, it would take many blog-posts, but I will tell you some of the highlights thus far:

• Learning that everyone has a “history” they bring to the relationship, that dictates their motives, decisions and actions.  Whether it inhibits or propels them depends….i.e.:
• … my mother felt extremely insecure growing up, unsafe, put out there, and not protected whatsoever – she realized it more so when she was raising her own children and grew very bitter toward her mother’s parenting.  Although my mother  wasn’t overly protective of her own children, she was very limiting toward our growth;  her feelings of “everything out there isn’t safe”, poured over through her to our parenting and continues to stream through her to us her children, and thus grandchildren.
• So my goal was to identify this cycle, and work on stopping it – basically the old adage of not becoming one’s parent; the negative part of the parent of course. But my mother’s abandonment mentality (leave when the going gets tough with someone, just give them up basically), leaves me paralyzed thinking, if I don’t do what she wants, which in reality would limit my children’s opportunities, keep them under constant watch, lock and key because it’s a super cruel horrible world out there, then she’ll get angry with me and cut me out of her life. So I fear rejection.   She has done it to others – however, she has mellowed much in older age, and I have wised up much!  No, she’s not an ogre or dominant person at all, she is a very sweet lady really, but she does have power for sure because she brings a very emotional bitter history with her, to every conversation, toward every decision – the insecurity she endured that was never addressed causes a LOT of anxiety in our dynamic of raising children.  So much so, I believe now (through DNA) she and at least one of my sons (as I can pass it to my off spring) are hardwired with this anxiety overload. 

On parents:  "Parental complexes do not go away; they simply go underground and infiltrate other regions of the personality." (p 117)

• “Each parent in a family is someone’s child, and is a refugee from some other family, which in turn was governed by someone else’s child, someone who has long faded into inscrutable history. We ask too much of someone else’s child to be a perfect parent, and yet their psychological shortfall creates the burden of history for them and their children, which invisibly governs lives for decades to come.” (p 111)
• “..the most profound effect on the child is the life the parents (and the ancestors too, for we are all dealing with the age-old psychological phenomenon of original sin) have not lived.” (p 1112)
• Education:  the author highly endorses liberal arts.  I love him for this!  Quotes: "I strongly advocate the study of a liberal arts curriculum for all persons, because we can always learn the tools of a trade on the job, and in this era of constant change we may practice many trades before we're done." then, " Making a living is the easy part, but far more critical is what liberates us from the limits of our family and cultural history." "The liberal arts, however, contribute to the liberating art of a more considered, more thoughtful, more variegated sensibility, which in the end is necessary for more free choices." (p. 121, 122)

I would like to share more, but maybe another time.  I highly recommend this book – highly so.  For young adults and middle aged ones alike.