So I commisioned this shirt...

I had the youth group vote on t-shirt designs several months ago, and this is the design they chose from about 20 designs (I drew it several years ago): (the runner up actually was used for a retreat shirt)



This design is called the Sacred Heart of the Trinity... 13 large rays for the Apostles and Mary (Mary is the largest flame, at the very peak of the circle, to her right is Bartholomew who went North West to Armenia, James the Less who was thrown from the Pinnacle of the Temple, pointing to the Right (east) is Thomas who went to India, then Jude who went to Persia, Simon who went to Arabia and Peter is at the bottom, reminding us of his Crucifixion upside down, and his humility to serve Christ as the Rock of the Church), Next is his brother Andrew who was crucified on his side, then Mathias and Matthew who went to Ethiopia to the south, the Left ray (pointing west) is James the Greater who went to Spain, then Phillip who went northwest to Phrygia(near turkey), and finally John the Beloved next to Mary, and who went north west to Ephesus (in modern Turkey) 33 small rays for the Doctors of the Church, creating a monstrance around the Eucharist (Jesus), that is centered upon the Heart of the Father (White for perfection, and the Center of all as a representation of Him being the origin of all), with three flames representing the Trinity (each flame has two flames inside it representing each of the others)

The left Flame is the Father(white) and represents the order of procession and revelation in History, with the son (gold) proceeding from Him, and the Holy Spirit (beige) proceeding from, and "after" both (technically there is no time difference between the existence of the three persons, as they always were, are and will be). The Right Flame is the Son and tells the story of the Holy Spirit's procession. The son and the father loved each other so much that between them, they created the Holy Spirit. (Order for the flame is Son, Holy Spirit, Father), the Central Flame is the Holy spirit and tells of His Being sent by the Father, who was asked to do so by the Son. (Holy spirit, Father, Son) So at the origin of His revelation to us in History is the Son, and the Spirit always reminds everyone that the Origin of His purpose in History is to center everyone on the pinnacle of Creation, History, and Love, Jesus Christ.

The Crown of Thorns is a living Green, representing the Body and Mystical Body of Christ, and a reminder of the Sacrifice he paid for our salvation. The Crown signifies the focus of all time, the Birth of God as man, and God inviting us into the very center of His life, by becoming members of His Body.

The Crown sits about the Cross, which is inside the Heart of the Father, as it was the Father's plan for salvation before all time... The cross is the constant reminder that God Himself paid for our sins, by His sheer Goodness and eternal love for us.

So… now look at how the t-shirt company interpreted the drawing… and tell me what is immediately evident about the substance of the new drawing versus the old…

needless to say I asked them to stick with my original...

WHOA!

So I open my email today and find 38 NEW Messages for me... I haven't had this amount of email since I was a Computer consultant...

Guess what the majority were? VOCATION information...

Yup... that's right... Hey come be a priest here, or a monk here... how about a friar ?

I think I'll look into them a bit more tomorrow or after Youth group tonight... I don't have the time to devote right now...

Speaking of Vocation, my teachers have acceded to me taking two days off to go to Gethsemani Abbey for a
week... YAY! that will be really nice...

Also in my psy class I had the highest grade... and I only missed one question more than the teacher did when he took the test, after he made it. But unfortunately in my Logic class, I think I mis-identified two questions as "consistent" when they were "contingent"... so my tiredness might have caught up with me on that test... I'll find out thursday.

Praise God.
Edward

Pain Pain Go away... TREE! ouch.

So I went off road biking today with dan.. and now I'm in a bit of pain... I tried using clipless pedals again... the last time, I got fustrated and hit so many things that I decided to switch back to normal pedals off road... and I used my clipless on my road bike... well the other night I successfully cliped out (as a reaction, as opposed to having to think about it) when I was about to fall over, when I was in 1 foot high water that I decided to try them off road... well the problem I had this time, was not the clipping out, but the clipping in... I used my half clipless/half platform pedals... and that was the dangerous part as I discovered off road... (it was sort of funny because I began to relate it to my faith walk).... because I didn't commit to full clipless pedals, the half platform pedals not only frustrated my efforts, but actually caused me various wounds and crashes... The problem was the platform side had teeth that got in the way of my shoes clipping in... causing me to have to focus on clipping in and causing me to take alot of time to clip in.... I guess its like Revelations when God says to be either hot or cold... the danger to me was not being attached to my bike, but not being able to be attached to my bike... and once I had one spill, and the frustration and stress form that, I hit several trees after that because I was second guessing myself, and I couldn't get up to speed because it took so much time to get clipped back in...
So next time I go out, I'm either going to use full clipless or full platform... nothing in the middle...

Anyhow... so aside from the gashes in my shin and a few cuts on the front and back of my ankle, I'm good... oh and I got rope burn from a weed that was litterally ten feet tall... it had fallen halfway over into the middle of the path and it's head got bent around my arm and caught between my arm and my body... causing it to give me a rope burn as It pulled back around... we also ran into some guys getting drunk on the trail... I could smell the alcohol as I rode up the hill by them... Praise God for frustration, reminding us that even our best efforts can be defeated by the simplest of things... and only with God can we do anything lasting, of worth, and perfect.

A Penitent Blogger: Archbishop v. Kennedy-Cuomo

A Penitent Blogger: Archbishop v. Kennedy-Cuomo

Archbishop Chaput is the BEST! He has an awesome seminary(I know, I've met most of the guys two years ago, and I stayed with them for a week and a half), and is a great leader of Denver and the Church.

Youth Group

Last night we did youth group... it turned out pretty well... though the game went long, the talk went long, and by the time I realised it, we ended up cutting 10 minutes out of adoration time...

The topic yesterday was the morality of actions but I told them the theme was "trustworthy" since it was easier to remember, and is a rough approximation of the topic.

I really focused on CCC 1759
"'An evil action cannot be justified by reference to a good intention' (cf. St. Thomas Aquinas, Dec. praec. 6). The end does not justify the means"

I tried to give them an understanding of Part 3 Section 1 Chapter 1 Article 4 of the Catechism (The morality of human acts)... I think I lost them briefly, so I tried to restate it in a simpler way, and the simplist I could get was "The end does not justify the means" and "good can not come from evil" without losing the basic understanding... even then it lost some of the meaning... but in common language and understanding, I think it was adequate. I also used "Be holy because I am holy" 1 pt 1:16 and "Be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect" Matt. 5:48 as quick verses.

Interesting though, was one of their questions (they tend to ask questions that are quite intelligent, and they don't realise how intelligent). The question was about obeying a "bad" law. I started by saying that even then you should obey it (I was going to refer to Thomas' arguments from De Regimine Principum about Tyrannts and how even if you could overthrow them, you would risk disunity, a greater tyrannt and other great concerns that could greatly out weigh the sins of the tyrannt., but I ended up referring to 1 peter 1-3, about slaves obeying even perverse masters. ) Another of the youth (I was not going to call on him, because we were running over time) added that sometimes laws are not valid laws. And then a mother mentioned briefly about abortion. Which brought me to talk about spheres of authority (another misunderstood concept by most people) and how the Government can't make valid laws that are not within its sphere of authority... Such as permitting abortion... since the only authority who has the right over life and death, is God.

I gave the example of how as a youth minister I can ask anyone in the youth group to obey me, (some one said "but you can't demand that they do it", which I said, I *could* command them, and if they didn't obey I could ask them to leave the youth group. And the mother said, that even she would be obliged by the 4th commandment to obey, if I asked her to do something.) Then I mentioned how if I went to another ministry and walked in and told people to do things, that I would not have the authority, because my sphere of authority is the youth group, and that's it. I get my authority from Fr. Pat, and I give authority to the adults and young adults. They get their authority from me directly, and indirectly from Father, though they could always appeal to a higher authority than me if they felt that I was not doing something right.

Anyhow... the night was good, and the mother really liked it (it was her first time to come, she sent her younger son to join us last week, and she was so amazed by how happy he was, and how joyful he was about what he told her. I had told them the quote "If you only knew how much Jesus loves you in the Eucharist, you would die of joy" from St. John vianney I think. The topic last week was the radical love of Christ, and I told them what the parable of the lost sheep meant to the people of the time... since today we arent shepards and we have heard it so many times that most of us have forgotten how radical what Jesus said in that parable really was.)

Then later a father of one of the youth (he was in a different meeting) came up and told me and Lee about how much youth group has changed his daughter... (and she's only in middle school).

So last night God was trying to uplift me, and humble me, which only he can do at the same time. I was very thankful for hearing the praise of both of those parents.

Thanks be to God, who chooses to send His light through a glass of dirty water like me! How amazing, merciful, and magnanimous is His love!!!
Abba Father, I adore thee.
Edward

Rain rain go away... well maybe not

so susan and I went biking today up I-10 from the 1604 interchange... we started around 645p and set an easy pace (averaging 13mph) ... the road was okay... not the best (bandera road's ample space is still the best for the major roads outside 1604)... for the first half it was nice, the sun was beginning to set and there was no rain... when we turned around, it got dark really fast and not expecting it to get dark so quickly, I left my head light at home (thankfully my tail light is bolted on my bike...) the way back was going much faster... when rain hit... the rain was small pellets that felt like needles on our faces... and I had to take my glasses off because I couldnt see. when we went through a lower area, a fine mist/fog was forming and it was really beautiful with the headlights of the cars piercing through it... when we got back to the interchange, the overpasses had these waterfalls coming off... and I was thinking that I wanted to go under one when susan said she wanted to... so when we got back into the parking lot, we rode below the waterfalls, it was quite fun!

I was so soaked (even before the waterfalls) that my shoes were buckets of water.

It was fun, but I learned two lessons.. 1. bring head light... 2. bring towel for post ride dry-off.

Praise God for fun!

tests

the thing I like least about college are the first exams in each class... you never know what really to expect, and yet it can still affect your grade greatly. Today I have astronomy... and I have no clue if I'm prepared... I think I might be... but then again, I could be wrong.

Financial Mgmt

So in theory I just helped my mom with a financial management take home test... the help is theoretical because I HAVE NEVER TAKEN A FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT CLASS... so I simply used the Skills I learned way back when on how to take open book tests on blind subjects, aka subjects you've never seen. This skill set is actually an amalgamation of two things I learned... how to take open book tests you never studied for and get a near perfect score(a very frequent occurence for me in High School), and how to take tests on subjects you've never seen nor heard of, and still get above a 70% (this was a sport of sorts we used to play in High School)... Ah... the AcaDec days... *misty eyed* how I miss them...

Anyhow... so assuming the information I gleamed from the book and the questions was all I needed to know and I didn't neglect something, I helped my mom out... but if I missed something, then I hurt her... but hey, its four a.m. and both our minds are about to shut down completely... so at least using me was better than guessing. (she was about to resort to that).

I think that Financial Managment is basically a course in equation learning... in which case, the class could be summed up by a page and a half long equation sheet with nice lettering, and bold fonts, yes BOLD fonts... not that italic stuff you Americans like... wait I'm American... if that's the case then what really is the point in taking a Financial Managment class?

But then again, I did learn in High School that all business classes were basically the same except accounting.. that class required drawing really straight lines... Ah, Accounting! The Art class for business students... no wonder why I decided to not subject myself to the mind numbing pain of business in college... Taking a whole semester to learn something that you could look up in a reference book in under five minutes...

So I like this guy's posts...

penitens.blogspot.com
I especially like this one:
Catholic Voting

Mass

Went to mass today... and told a few of my friends that I hope to be leaving in January... they understand, but they'll miss me... Susan says she sees something that I don't... and several others have said the same... I don't know... maybe its because of my past that God gave it to me... maybe... Susan says that when people have it, they seem to show up in a place for a short amount of time before being sent somewhere else where it's needed... its strange because everytime I move somewhere I always feel oppressed and attacked, and only at the end of my time do I feel the peace of God... maybe thats why He sends... maybe. I wish I knew the best way to serve Him... I wish I knew what to say to those who attack Him... I wish I knew... Susan impressed me greatly tonight, someone was attacking God, and I was wondering if I should say something, and if so, what, what would the person be willing to hear, and not turn away the person even more from God? Susan spoke up, and defended Him... and then I felt God telling me what to say...and I said it, the funny thing is, that the person should have heard what God wanted him to hear, but I don't think he wanted to hear it... he liked his own way too much, that he wasn't willing to see God's way, even though Jesus was speaking in this man's own language...

I guess I should be eternally grateful for what God has given me... for the gift of knowing Him... the gift of loving Him... I guess God was humbling me to prayer... to know that when it's God's perfect time, this person will experience Him, and then this person will decide... all I can do is pray, and listen to the Spirit... do what He says, and trust and know He will do the rest.

Yahweh... the eternal I am... the constant lover of the world, the constant lover of man. I am in awe of thy wonder. Even when you use me, you humble me ever more.

I love you,
Edward

Confession

So today I went to confession (had to bike 7 ish miles to get there...) I love how God respects Humans so much that He became a man... and I love how He continues to respect each and everyone of us, as both spiritual and physical beings, in the sacraments... especially reconcilliation, ain't nothing better than being cleansed body and soul by the person of Christ.

Anyhow, I went to St. Anthony Mary Claret, for confession, and I decided to stay and participate in Mass... I mean really... do you have to pull my arm to make me go to mass? What's better than participating in heaven? I really liked mass at St. Claret, because they respected the Eucharist so well! and I always love it when bells are rung at mass, reminding us that the angels and our brothers and sisters in heaven are at that very moment on bended knee in union with us, worshiping Jesus, and remembering his one sacrifice for all times.

The priest also gave a good homily.

I've been reading Fides Et Ratio (faith and reason) lately, and I'm so completely amazed how brilliant and reasonable Pope John Paul II is...

I was reading it thursday and I was struck by one particular passage that I've been sending to my good friends. The passage strikes me because of its amazing depth... it deals with the word of God, some philosophical abuses by some today, with what it is and then it shows us the incredible hope it offers.

"There are also signs of a resurgence of fideism, which fails to recognize the importance of rational knowledge and philosophical discourse for the understanding of faith, indeed for the very possibility of belief in God. One currently widespread symptom of this fideistic tendency is a “biblicism” which tends to make the reading and exegesis of Sacred Scripture the sole criterion of truth. In consequence, the word of God is identified with Sacred Scripture alone, thus eliminating the doctrine of the Church which the Second Vatican Council stressed quite specifically. Having recalled that the word of God is present in both Scripture and Tradition,(73) the Constitution Dei Verbum continues emphatically: “Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture comprise a single sacred deposit of the word of God entrusted to the Church. Embracing this deposit and united with their pastors, the People of God remain always faithful to the teaching of the Apostles”.(74) Scripture, therefore, is not the Church's sole point of reference. The “supreme rule of her faith” (75) derives from the unity which the Spirit has created between Sacred Tradition, Sacred Scripture and the Magisterium of the Church in a reciprocity which means that none of the three can survive without the others.(76)"

Fides Et Ratio, paragraph 55

The thing I found so amazing whas how it talked about the word of God being the unity of both Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition (I had never heard it so explicity stated) and then goes on to say that the unity of "Sacred Tradition, Sacred Scripture and the Magisterium of the Church" means that no one of them can live without the other and still be considered the living word of God. If you neglect the Scriptures, you neglect Christ, if you neglect the Traditions, you neglect Christ, and if you neglect the Magisterium, you neglect Christ, and if you neglect Christ in anyway, you only posess a semblance of the dead word of God, not the full living word. Ever since the Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles at Pentecost has Tradition and the Magisterium existed... they are older than the canon of Sacred Scripture itself! But so many today neglect the living action of the Holy Spirit granted to the Apostles, and handed down, to our very day in the Catholic Church. Through the same actions that Christ used to comission the Apostles... by his very breath.

John 20:22-23
"And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, 'Receive the holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.'"

<>A physical sign of a spiritual reality... the very first Sacrament, given by Christ after His death... I think it's interesting that when He gave the Apostles the Holy Spirit, He also gave them the Authority to forgive sins!

Anyhow... I think I'm on a tangent from my original point... in fact I don't think I can remember my orignal point... c'est la vie. Well... here is the quote that Fides Et Ratio is referring to from Vatican II's document Dei Verbum (the word of God):

10. Sacred tradition and Sacred Scripture form one sacred deposit of the word of God, committed to the Church. Holding fast to this deposit the entire holy people united with their shepherds remain always steadfast in the teaching of the Apostles, in the common life, in the breaking of the bread and in prayers (see Acts 2, 42, Greek text), so that holding to, practicing and professing the heritage of the faith, it becomes on the part of the bishops and faithful a single common effort. (7)

DEI VERBUM, paragraph 10

Why I re-joined the bloggers...

so the last time I had a "blog" there was no such thing as blogs... I had written a program on my unix computer at work to post my journal entries, poetry, art etc... it was actually quite nice and very effective... and customizable to the max... (considering that I wrote the program) I have an "online diary" which is practically the same thing as a blog... though not quite as cool to say... anyhow... and its no where near as easy to access... It's been a while since I updated it, though I just looked at it, and apparently my girlfriend updated it and changed my preferences... (you'll see what I mean) Open Diary Site
I don't know if I'll update this blog ever... I wish I had access to a unix machine.. because then I could revive my webpage... (it was schweet) and then I'd really start posting entries... I miss working on UNIX... :-(

God bless and keep you, (num 6:24-27)
Edward

p.s., yah so the answer to the subject of this post is... so I could write on a classmate's blog...