Drowning in Devotions

One of the great things about being Catholic is all the devotions that we have. We have the rosary, chaplet of Divine Mercy, devotion to saints, novenas, devotion to the Blessed Mother, etc. etc. etc. We have so many prayers and opportunities, not to mention daily mass, holy days of obligation, confession, penance services, Bible studies, faith formation classes, hundreds of thousands of books by Catholic authors, etc. etc. etc.

Thinking about this, I think I sometimes overwhelm myself. There have been very spiritually high times in my life where I have been able to do the Liturgy of the Hours, the Rosary, and the Chaplet of Divine Mercy each and every day. Unfortunately, many times when I forget to do one, I wouldn't do any of them for a certain day, or when you start to let things go like that you can even get off schedule and fall into spiritual lethargy.

During this lent (By the way, how are your Lenten resolutions going?), I have made it a point to say the Morning and Evening prayers (and many times Night prayer) from the Liturgy of the Hours/Divine Office/Breviary. It's been wonderful. I've decided that instead of trying to tackle too much or get myself quickly into a commitment I can't keep, that I am going to commit myself even after Lent to continue praying these main offices DAILY. That will be my devotion - devotion to the prayer of the Church Universal and praying the Psalms daily. That isn't to say that I am never going to pray the rosary (we actually do that every day after daily mass when I am able to attend) or the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, or prayers to my patron saints, or novenas, or anything else. Just that I am going to focus and work hard on this devotion, and maybe add more after I have mastered the ability to pray all 7 offices each day.

As I am discerning a possible future calling to the Diaconate, I really need to get used to the potential future obligation to pray them anyway.

Hope your lent is going well. My wife and I are headed to Hawaii for a work trip for me and a vacation for her soon. Maybe I'll have some time to blog there.

Divorce Rates

Thought I would share this interesting post about divorce rates among religious groups. Note that practicing Catholics are all the way on the bottom. I'm proud of us! Thanks to Marcus for passing it on.

Brief Thoughts on Confession

I went to confession again today (I try to go as regularly as possible, and as the Church suggests, we should at least try to go once a month even if we are confessing venial sins.) It amazes me that no matter how many times you go and no matter how many times you confess things (even the same things!) and even if the priest knows who you are, you always hear the words "I absolve you from your sins". How beautiful those words are, to hear them spoken - to actually hear Christ speaking to you through the priest and forgiving you of your wrongdoing. Each and every time.

I think I should end with the quote from John's letter "If we say we have no sin we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us". Go to confession if you haven't in a while!

Redefining

Sometimes people ask about the Church's rather strong view on the protection of life including people who are in a so-called "vegetative" state. It is interesting that, at least in this one case, scientists have found that a person thought to be in this state can listen and communicate even though they are not functioning. Hopefully this will lead others to start thinking about the sanctity of all life.

"Safe Sex"

Recently I have found a lot of news articles "beating a dead horse." For a simple example, let's take the Stimulus program our government has implemented several times in the last few years under both Presidents Bush and Obama. We poured money into our banking system and to pave roads, and guess what, the economy still stinks. So, the news and the government has decided, we "might need another stimulus package". Sounds like insanity (doing the same thing over and over again with the same results).

Likewise, I read a recent article about an increase in teenage pregnancies. Of course, we in the United States have been increasing "Sex education" and birth control (handing out condoms or making "the pill" more accessible to teenage girls), not to mention abortion. The solution? Hand out more birth control and teach more "sex education", even to younger ages.

I've also had conversations with Catholics and Orthodox recently about their problems in marriage, how immoral tactics such as these (and others) are the correct way to proceed in their marriage to keep it from failing.

Then, I stumbled upon an article on Catholic Online that sums up a lot of my opinion. Come on people, let's move towards more modesty and purity, less immorality to solve our problems in society. It's a function of our society moving more and more towards self-indulgence and satisfaction and another time where people are failing to remember the ideas of self-sacrifice and the value of suffering.