Catholic Family Campaign

In  her “A View From the Youth” column at the Catholic News Agency, Michelle Bauman reminds us all of the danger of being too busy.    Her column titled “The Danger of Being Too Busy” includes some common sense lessons such as  “when people are too busy, they tend to be irritable and get stressed out easily”. 

The best advice that Michelle gives is to remind us that we “need to allow ourselves enough time to see the goodness of God in our lives.”

Be still and know that I am God

Ps. 46:11

Tags: General
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I ran across this article at Godspy.com that discusses corporal mortification. The author, Brian Pessaro, starts out the article by asking the question:

We consider it normal to punish ourselves to attain physical perfection.  So why is it considered odd to mortify our bodies for the sake of spiritual perfection?

How often do we observe ourselves and others struggle to achieve physical perfection? A lot! How often do we put the same effort into seeking spiritual perfection. If you are like me, not enough.

It doesn’t have to be just about physical perfection. What about those days we get up early to go play golf; or get to the office early so that we can get that next promotion? Now what happens on a rainy Saturday morning when you don’t have to get to the office and can’t go to the golf course. You stay in bed. How many of us keep that same discipline and make that same sacrifice to develop ourselves spiritually? Be honest!

The author uses the example of his daily cold shower as an observation to how he offers it up in penance for his sins. To many of us this probably sounds strange. I know that this is the area in my own life that I need to improve. Not neccessarily the cold shower, but having the same discipline to achieve spiritual perfection that I do in my work. I could definately use some work on the physical perfection also.

Let’s make a deal. I will pray for you as you make your journey to spiritual perfection and you can do the same for me.

God Bless!

Tags: General, Human Dignity
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Here a website for all you men out there seeking to live a spirituality of honor that combines elements from medieval chivalry and contemporary Christian personalism.

Men of the Beatitudes commit themselves to do three things:

1)entrust themselves completely (body, mind, and spirit) to the Holy Trinity as Merciful Love, abiding in the Heart of Jesus and following a five-part code of life;

(2) they assume responsibility for personal growth and formation; and

(3) they join with other men in the Living Rosary and other means of earthly communion.

More

Tags: Religious Freedoms
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The Mizzou website has this image with reasons to choose Mizzou.  I guess they need to add one more to the list.

#19  Free condoms in the bathroom.

The University of Missouri-Columbia will soon have the distinction of  being the first school in the Big 12 conference to distribute free condoms in residential hall bathrooms.   Apparently they need to eliminate as many barriers as possible so that students have access to condoms.  How did the rest of us get through school without them?

wait…  maybe this reason covers it.

#14 Hands-on learning that you can apply.

Tags: Family Values
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The Maneater from the University of Missouri featured a story about a guide published by the Advocate.  The publication evaluated college campus to see who had the highest “Gay Point Average”.   Mizzou did not make the cut but 4 Big 12 schools did:  the University of Colorado, the University of Kansas, the University of Texas and Iowa State University.

Read the story here is you want to see what makes up a high Gay Point Average.

Tags: Family Values
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More and more Christian funds are forcing companies to take notice.  In addition to shunning companies that fail to operate according to christian values, some funds are purposely buying into companies in order to have more leverage in influencing corporate behavior.  A couple of Catholic funds that I would like to highlight  are the Ave Maria Mutual Funds and Aquinas Funds.  Both of these funds operate according to Catholic principles but take different approaches to working with “offending” companies.

Ave Maria mutual funds takes the approach of staying away, or divesting from companies connected with abortion or pornography, or that offer their employees non-marital partner benefits.  This approach allows an investor “the opportunity to invest in accordance with the Church’s teachings.”  This fund is more appropriate for the investor who is looking for a financially sound investment that does violate the core teachings of the Catholic Church.

On the other hand, Aquinas Funds takes a more aggressive, or activist role.  Aquinas purposely uses it’s invest in companies to attempt to influence behavior.  I would describe this type of company as more of a tool for someone who is looking for a sound financial investment while also looking to use their invest to promote Catholic values.

Which one is more effective in influencing behavior?  It depends…on the company and on the individual investor.  If you are comfortable in the short-term with supporting a company that does not always exhibit Catholic values in order to achieve long-term behavior changes, go with a fund like Aquinas.  Or if you would like to entirely avoid supporting this type of organization, go with Ave Maria.  I do not currently have an investment in either of these funds so I really am in no position to rank one over the other.  But at this point in my life, I think that I would go for the long-term behavior change.  I am getting more and more uncomfortable sitting on the sidelines instead of trying to make a difference myself. 

What do you think??

Tags: Family Values
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I came across this story in a post at the Catholic Knight.  The Pregnant Women Support Act was proposed by Rep. Lincoln Davis during a Sept 20th press conference.  From what I can see, this sounds like a great piece of legislation that will directly have a positive impact by supporting women and children; both born and unborn. 

It is being supported by groups such as the U.S. Bishops and Democrats for Life.  There are 14 provisions of the legislation that provide for expanding coverage to pregnant women, adoption tax credits, increased funding for domestic violence programs and several other initiatives.  Check out the complete story here and then contact your representative to get on board.

Cynics may think that this is an election year ploy; not something that will actually get voted on and passed.  That may be true but I think it is a good sign that this bill has been proposed.  For those of us who are pro-life, this bill allows us to ‘walk the walk’.  It is one thing to tell young women to not have abortions; to keep the baby but what do we do for those whose do the right thing?  Are we there to support them in their decision?

We need to get past the rhetoric of “Don’t have a abortion?”, “Use birth control”, “Don’t use birth control.  It is wrong.”  or “Don’t have sex”.  I would be the first to say some of these things.  The bottom line is that people are going to make mistakes; things are going to happen and they find themselves in difficult situations.  What now??  What can we do to help?  Make sure that initatives like this are passed and implemented.

and by the way…this bill was proposed by a Democrat.

Tags: Human Dignity, Pro-Life
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For the men in this story, their faith is what is most important in their lives.  Their success on the football field is how the carry out their faith and glorify God with the gifts that they have.  Each talks about how their faith is important and how they have add it clarified for them by their individual experiences.  Great story that you must read.

Why is it a great story?  Because it shows how each of can make everything that we do, for God: to be men and women of faith who happen to be a doctor, factory worker or football player.  There is no difference between work and play.  How you conduct yourself is a reflection on our faith and has an impact on others.  We can chose to have a positive impact or a negative impact.  It could be as simple as make sure that you leave work on time to get home to dinner with your family or going to daily Mass over lunch.  On the other hand, it could be working until late in the night and arriving home until after the family is already in bed.

New York Giants kicker Jay Feely discusses the moment of clarity that solidified his Catholic faith when he discovered his true mission in life.  His University of Michigan team had just defeated Washington State in the Rose bowl in 1998.  He had an encounter with a 10 year old boy dying of cancer.  The boy’s mother had brought the boy to the hotel in meet Mr. Feely as after a speaking engagement at which she had heard him witness about his Catholic faith.  Feely and the boy had connected when he had told the boy that God had a purpose for him; that God has a plan for everyone.  He noticed a difference in the boys appearance and expression. 

For Jay Feely, that was the moment he understood “my life as a man, how I could use football to affect people’s lives in a positive way. God gives us different gifts.”

It is times like these that we have to asks ourselves serious questions.

Tags: Family Values, Hall of Fame
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The story from Catholic Exchange illustrates the importance of the abortion ban in South Dakota.   Planned Parenthood is spending an unprecedented amount of money to defeat the ban.  They know that this is the beginning of the end for their business.   When this ban succeeds in South Dakota, there are going to be many other states waiting to jump in with a similar ban in their state.

A South Dakota task force studied the effects of abortion over the last 33 years and came to a couple of overwhelming conclusions:

Abortion terminates the life of a separate, distinct, living human being which can now be proven scientifically with DNA evidence and research in the field of molecular biology.

Abortion hurts women, causing major physical, mental, emotional and spiritual consequences that can be devastating to their lives.

But South Dakotans need our help.  Now is the time for the rest of us to step in with support – prayers, volunteering and/or financial support.  Read more about the issue here and here.

Tags: Pro-Life
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Hollywood is set to smear Evangelicals , again.  Seems like Christians are the only group in which it is acceptable to ridicule. 

The directors of “Jesus Camp,” a buzz-generating
documentary about evangelical Christian children training to be
soldiers for God, proclaim no agenda other than to start a conversation
about belief, politics and the culture wars. 

The film portrays a girl’s awkward attempts to evangelize a
teenage girl at a bowling alley, boys telling ghost stories by
flashlight until an adult warns that it doesn’t glorify God, and
intense scenes of young children quaking on the floor with tears
rushing down their faces. 

The film attempts to distort the typical Christian camp experience and attempts to equate evangelical christianity with radical Muslimks are the same.

I do have to admit that I have seen the film.  But I have heard enough to do my homework before taking my family to see this movie.  You can read the story in the Denver Post.

Thanks to the Catholic Knight for posting the link on his site.

Tags: Human Dignity, Religious Freedoms
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After much reflection on what I wanted the blog to be about, I have decided to expand the topic somewhat.  I had originally envisioned a site that would highlight both good and bad examples of corporate behavior that exemplifies Catholic social teachings.  It has tended to be more bad examples than good.    Like when we were in school; you don’t hear about the kid that is good all day but you sure hear about the trouble maker.  I will still include these type of observations when they occur but I will also be highlighting things that I run across that we all as Catholics can benefit from.  For example, the previous post on “How to be a Better Catholic”.  I hope that this will make this site more useful to readers and help to promote a more positive view of our faith; what it can help us to accomplish rather than what it “forbids” us from doing.

God Bless… and happy reading!

Tags: General
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Here is a great post that I found over at the Evangelical Catholicism blog.  Katerina is discussing a section of her missel that you found interesting.  It was a section on “How to be a Better Catholic”.

Since I am one of those Catholics that can benefit from an article like this, I decided to read on.  On page that caught her attention was the “Spiritual Game Plan”.  What could be easier?  A step by step plan to being holy!

It all boils down to one thing Discipline!  What?  Doesn’t seem so easy now?

I found this post to be really interesting and really kind of ironic.  I have been doing a lot of thinking about my life lately and what I need to change.  And I agree it all does come down to discipline.  At work, at home, in realtionship and especially with your faith. 

Katerina’s post contains some good places to start putting a little discipline into your life.  I bet if you accomplish these with regards to your faith and relationship with God, it will spill over to other areas that may need a little tuning up.

p.s.  Speaking of the Evangelical Catholicism blog, I would suggest that you check this out on a daily basis.  I have jsut discovered in the last week or so and it is fast becoming on of my favorite sites.  I have found a ton of useful information and insightful commentary.  Katerina and Michael seem to have a great grasp of our faith and a passion to share it with others.  May God continue to bless them and may the fire of faith always burn bright in their soul.

Tags: Family Values, General
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In economic matters, respect for human dignity requires the practice of the virtue of temperance, so as to moderate attachment to this world’s goods; the practice of the virtue of justice, to preserve our neighbor’s rights and render him what is his due; and the practice of solidarity,
in accordance with the golden rule and in keeping with the generosity
of the Lord, who “though he was rich, yet for your sake . . . became
poor so that by his poverty, you might become rich.”

Tags: Economic Justice
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Target is one of the retailers marketing padded bras and lingerie sets to girls as young as six years old in Australia.  The are being marketed in many of the top children’s brands including Bratz, Saddle Club and Barbie. 

Target is standing by the products saying that it provides “fashionable items that give girls modesty and style as they go through development changes”.

Call me a prude but I don’t think that bras that make young girls breast appear bigger than they are falls into the category of “modest”.  We need to be encouraging these young girls to not rush growing up.  By trying to get them to purchase these products, we are telling the girls that they are going to be looked on as a sex object and that they need to do all they can to play the role. 

I did notice that the homepage of the Australia Target website says that it is kid’s week.  I guess that means it it time to get your little a padded bra and save money doing it.

Read more…

Tags: Family Values, General
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Pope Benedict XVI recently spoke out against Canada’s laws allowing  same sex marriage and abortion, placing part of the blame at the feet of Catholic politicians ignoring the values of their religion.

I couldn’t agree more!  Same sex marriages have been endorsed in the name of “tolerance” and  abortion for the sake of “choice”. 

In my home diocese, Archbishop Naumann has published an editorial in the weekly Leaven newspaper concerning the Catholic teachings on abortion.  Kansas has a Catholic Governor who has consistently voted on the side of abortion and abortionist at the expense of unborn children and their mothers.

Archbishop Naumann has done a great job of outlining Governor Sebelius’s record as it relates to abortion and clearly stating the Church’s teaching on abortion.   Please join me in granting the Archbishop’s request to “pray for Gov. Sebelius that she might reconsider her long held position supporting legalized abortion”.

Read or listen to the complete article at the Leaven website.

Tags: Pro-Life
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