Consider the Fence

     Clint Eastwood wanted us to consider an empty chair as he spoke at the Republican party convention this past August.  The empty chair has become symbolic in this political fight.  The president's chair is not an easy chair to fill under any circumstances.  The chair of the United States of America presidency is considered the place where the leader of the free world sits.  So, consider who you really want to fill that chair.  Will it become someone who treasures freedom from its very conception?  Or will it be someone who would deny freedom at conception?  Will it be someone who denies inalienable rights or someone who has already denied them?  Will it be someone who will protect those rights?  (added for clarity- parables are sometimes confusing).
     Many people will not consider the chair this election, instead they will consider a fence.

Choice is a Gift from God

originally published in The Current May 19, 2007- re-edited October 20, 2012
"As they traveled from city to city, they handed on to the people for observances the decisions reached by the apostles and presbyters in Jerusalem.  Day after day the churches grew stronger in faith and increased in number"  Acts of the Apostles 16:4-5

     As a lay person in the Catholic Church, I have learned that I need to look to the teachings of the Church for guidance, support, discernment, and decision making.  Although there are many sources of Catholic doctrine, especially the easy to read Catechism of the Catholic Church. it is through the daily and weekly homilies at Mass that much information is translated to the faithful.
     Today's clergy are commissioned and obligated, as were the early disciples, to teach the truth about our faith in God and how we practice that faith in our personal and public lives.  We as  lay people are commissioned with the same gifts and responsibilities in our ministries.
     Our private beliefs and actions have a direct effect on our public beliefs and actions whether we admit it or not.  When we reach intersections where public and private come together, it usually means we have to decide on a choice between right and wrong.
     It can be a time in which we are tested in the crucible of fire.  Several Catholic politicians are feeling the heat now because of their statements regarding abortion and their willingness to intrude into the religious practices of faith organizations that support life at every stage.  The U.S. system of government did not come up with the idea of rights and freedom of choice.  Choice is guaranteed, not because it is written in a Constitution, but because it is a gift from God.

Stand Up for Religious Freedom- scheduled address by Marian R. Carlino

For October 20, 2012
Reading  from September 9, 2012
Isaiah 12:1  The oracle concerning Babylon which Isaiah the son of Amos saw:
13:7- 8  Therefore, all hands will be feeble and every man’s heart will melt, and they will be dismayed.
13: 15-18 Whoever is found will be thrust through and whoever is caught fall by the sword.  Their infants will be dashed in pieces before their eyes, their houses will be plundered and their wives ravished.  Behold, I am stirring up the Medes against them, who have no regards for silver and do not delight in gold.  Their bows will slaughter the young men.  They will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb and their eyes will not pity children.

Child Assault Prevention

   The  news feeds pick up some stories that become national news.  I don't know why one story is of greater interest than others but I do know we are to learn from those stories.  I learned from the stories of the school shootings during the 1997-98 school year.  From February 1996 through March 24, 1998, there were eight major news stories related to school shootings and massacres.  From April  24, 1998 to June 15, 1998 there were four major events that made national and international news and several individual events that are not on the list to which I am referencing.  I had had enough of the news, and saw the clear warning signs in my own class in March 1998.  Too many incidents had happened in my class (and in previous years) to make me stick my head in the sand and think that a shooting incident could not happen in my class.  I was thinking in terms of child assault prevention but did not know it at the time.  Even the term copycat was not in  my vocabulary.