Ok so aside from proving myself to be ancient with this Red Hot Chilli Peppers quote - the title of this note is about this blog ( http://www.40daygiveaway.com/) and what this cool guy from this band (http://www.point5covenant.com/)is doing for lent. Would you be strong enough?
By the way, how are the lenten promises coming?
hat tip to marcel for posting this coolness http://marysaggies.blogspot.com/
http://ragincajuncatholics.blogspot.com
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Can we give ourselves up for Lent?
As someone who works for the Church I gave an extra flinch as this blog post by the recently widowed Amy Wellborn kicked me in the gut this morning. Do you work for the Church? Are you exceptionally active in ministry? In the Student Center? Do you consider yourself a Churchy person? Do you feel entitled because you have recently experienced pain or grief, worked too much and gotten paid too little, been cut down or brought down by your community? This Lent has been especially painful for many in our community in many many ways. No doubt in this 3rd week of Lent we have all fallen with the weight of our cross on our backs. How do we proceed, picking up our cross once again and carrying it with courage and surrender to the hill of death? With humility. With prayer. With Christ.
Read the article and let me know what you think.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Jesus Week- What did you think? and Are Catholics Born Again?
Well 'Jesus Week', the time when we unite with our other Christian friends on campus to pray and praise our common Lord, is over. I'd like to know what you think.
All week we've heard Mr. Curt Harlow speak, answer questions and inspire us to ask the deeper questions in life and I found personally that I was pretty impressed with his speaking, his humor and his heart. I do hope with my whole heart that many who go about their daily lives avoiding the 'big questions' took a minute to stop and ask them this week.
Tonight we joined together in common at the Bayou Bijou to sing and listen to Curt one more time before we closed out the week. His stories were funny and his message was inspiring. At the end he spoke about the necessity of being 'born again' and then called all those who had never accepted Jesus into their hearts to do so if they felt compelled and to come up to the front and pray with their respective ministries.
I stood alone and was not surprised or upset because of that. I was pleasantly surprised that none of you came to pray with me for two reasons. First because I know all of you and I know you have as young adults all personally made that decision to follow Christ with your whole lives. I was also happy because it showed me that you are all well formed.
It may have been an awkward moment for you if you were were there and I am sorry if you felt out of place. Hopefully you were still able to appreciate the community with our brothers and sisters in Christ and get something positive from Curt's message.
That being said I feel like this is a good moment for some Catechesis and discussion about the subject. What do we believe about this Altar Call? Do Catholics believe we need to be 'born again?'
You may be surprised that the answer is yes, but not in the same way that our protestant friends believe. We believe that we are born again, of water and the spirit in the moment of our Baptism, whenever that may have taken place. Another aspect of this call to accept Jesus in this moment stems from a belief that once you are 'saved' you are always saved. If you were at Newman Night this week you know that we also believe that we need to be saved but considering all the ways that Jesus speaks of salvation in Scripture we can say with certainty that we 'have been saved', we are being saved, and we have great hope and even certainty that we will be saved.
(If you want to read the reasons in greater length this is a great source.)
Now, THAT being said, we certainly believe that accepting Christ into our lives is a great thing and a lifelong duty of the Christian. We believe that we have to confess our sins and we do in a powerful and sacramental way and we believe that praying with friends and our Priests and Campus Ministers (only the cool ones) is a wonderful thing.
What I'm saying is, the reason we don't do that is not because at face value we disagree with committing our lives to Jesus, or confessing our sins, or praying but that the practice, history and theology behind the act is one of the things that we don't see eye to eye on.
I noticed that Curt spoke alot about 'really' being fed, about the power of serving, about the power of a meal that really satisfies (in bread no less) and about really touching Jesus. I also noticed many of you smiling when he mentioned all of those things.
What a gift we have in the Eucharist! Thank Jesus tomorrow in Mass when you DO approach the altar and literally receive him into your life and body.
http://ragincajuncatholics.blogspot.org
All week we've heard Mr. Curt Harlow speak, answer questions and inspire us to ask the deeper questions in life and I found personally that I was pretty impressed with his speaking, his humor and his heart. I do hope with my whole heart that many who go about their daily lives avoiding the 'big questions' took a minute to stop and ask them this week.
Tonight we joined together in common at the Bayou Bijou to sing and listen to Curt one more time before we closed out the week. His stories were funny and his message was inspiring. At the end he spoke about the necessity of being 'born again' and then called all those who had never accepted Jesus into their hearts to do so if they felt compelled and to come up to the front and pray with their respective ministries.
I stood alone and was not surprised or upset because of that. I was pleasantly surprised that none of you came to pray with me for two reasons. First because I know all of you and I know you have as young adults all personally made that decision to follow Christ with your whole lives. I was also happy because it showed me that you are all well formed.
It may have been an awkward moment for you if you were were there and I am sorry if you felt out of place. Hopefully you were still able to appreciate the community with our brothers and sisters in Christ and get something positive from Curt's message.
That being said I feel like this is a good moment for some Catechesis and discussion about the subject. What do we believe about this Altar Call? Do Catholics believe we need to be 'born again?'
You may be surprised that the answer is yes, but not in the same way that our protestant friends believe. We believe that we are born again, of water and the spirit in the moment of our Baptism, whenever that may have taken place. Another aspect of this call to accept Jesus in this moment stems from a belief that once you are 'saved' you are always saved. If you were at Newman Night this week you know that we also believe that we need to be saved but considering all the ways that Jesus speaks of salvation in Scripture we can say with certainty that we 'have been saved', we are being saved, and we have great hope and even certainty that we will be saved.
(If you want to read the reasons in greater length this is a great source.)
Now, THAT being said, we certainly believe that accepting Christ into our lives is a great thing and a lifelong duty of the Christian. We believe that we have to confess our sins and we do in a powerful and sacramental way and we believe that praying with friends and our Priests and Campus Ministers (only the cool ones) is a wonderful thing.
What I'm saying is, the reason we don't do that is not because at face value we disagree with committing our lives to Jesus, or confessing our sins, or praying but that the practice, history and theology behind the act is one of the things that we don't see eye to eye on.
I noticed that Curt spoke alot about 'really' being fed, about the power of serving, about the power of a meal that really satisfies (in bread no less) and about really touching Jesus. I also noticed many of you smiling when he mentioned all of those things.
What a gift we have in the Eucharist! Thank Jesus tomorrow in Mass when you DO approach the altar and literally receive him into your life and body.
http://ragincajuncatholics.blogspot.org
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
A different approach to evangelization? Do we dare?
My thoughts on Saint Paul vs. Michael Venyah and the refreshing presence of Curt Harlow- speaker for Jesus Week have got me thinking of new ways for us to share the Catholic faith with our campus. Although we might have to put a slightly different spin on things perhaps we can take a cue from our new Aggie Catholic friends. What thinks ye?
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Hellfire Preacher on UL's Campus. What do you think?
This man was out on our campus 'preaching' this week and he definitely got some interesting responses. People came out in droves to protest and to listen to him. He made many students very upset and nearly got his face punched in more than once. His presence has definitely sparked alot of conversation and reflection on spreading the gospel to our fellow Ragin Cajuns.
1 Corinthians 6:9-10 says:
Do you not know that the unjust will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor prostitutes nor sodomites nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God.
So what is the difference between St. Paul and Michael Venyah?
I have some thoughts on the matter but I'm interested to know what the rest of you thought....please share.
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