However, I haven’t seen quite so much written that goes beyond that.  It seems that this fascinating creature who now lives in our house can give us a window as to how God sees us, loves us, and longs for us.  I’m not in a hurry for little Simon to grow up, but yet there are things that I long for him to be able to do.  God, who is beyond time, patiently waits for us, but yet he wants for us to be able to live the abundant life he wants to give us.

There are certain things that I long for Simon to be able to do.  I am looking forward to him crawling or walking to me as I come home from work.  I want him to be able to talk to me and tell me what is on his mind.  I am waiting for the day when he’ll give me a hug when he sees me.  I’m sure he’ll also want to climb all over me and wrestle, and yes, I am excited for that as well.  However, I’m perfectly willing to wait for it because seeing him grow little by little is far more fascinating that I could have imagined.  Besides, I also know that, as he gains more ability, there will also be the need for more discipline.  Let’s also not forget that I’ll have to be more and more careful of what I accidentally teach him.

Certainly, our Father in Heaven wants us to run to him all the time.  He longs for us to talk to him in prayer.  He wants us to walk with him in our daily lives as we perform the duties of our state of life.  He wants us to know and love him even more, much more really, than I am longing for my son to know and love me. He waits for us with that longing. He sees us grow little by little in that love.  Sometimes, he has to push us back on to the right path, and we may well “wrestle” with him.  Still, he waits patiently, but with a love for us that we can’t even imagine.  As I think of those things that I really long for my son to do, I just have to think that this must be how God is longing for us.

I’m sure by next year my first-generation iPad won’t run a lot of what I’d like it to run.  So, by then I may be in the market for the next iPad.  For now, the original iPad is still working great.

Contraception has very widespread acceptance in our society.  Now, we even have government leaders who are telling us that it is part of the basic healthcare needs of women.  Somehow, it’s just so vital that women have “access” to contraception that every employer needs to provide insurance that covers it with no cost.

Does that make it right?  There are plenty of people who will tell you that the Church should “get with the times.”  Well, who or what are “the times,” and why should we listen to them?  I don’t know about you, but I’d rather listen to God.  Some people will accuse Catholics like me of blindly following church authority.  In doing so, they are really insulting people like me who took the time to study and work hard for what I know.  These same people will blindly follow “the times” without really being able to define exactly what it is they are following.

Because people are willing to follow “the times,” it never occurs to them that there might really be something wrong with the use of contraception.  They just assume that we Catholics who believe the Church are hopelessly stuck in the past. Most such people have never bothered to read Humanae Vitae.  They may not even know it exists.  The Theology of the Body may also be unknown to them.

Not only is the Church’s teaching regarding contraception true, it is also a positive good.  There are plenty of people out there who have heard the message presented as the good that it is and wondered “Why haven’t I heard this before?”  Indeed, this time in which our government wants to trample on us and our religious freedom may well be something that God is using as our penance for our long time failure to spread the message.  That failure is a failure on the part of both our clergy and laity.

The new Obama Administration mandate that requires all employers to provide contraceptive coverage at no cost is a great evil.  This is true whether it’s the employer or the insurance company who has to provide.  After all, where is the insurance company getting its money?  The problem with the mandate goes beyond the Church and organizations run by the Church.  It means that a Catholic like me can’t start his own business without being told that I have to pay for birth control for everyone.  It also means that we will all pay higher premiums.

However, God permits evil to bring about a greater good.  During the past few weeks, I’ve seen bishops whom I’ve never known to be great defenders of the Faith come out of the woodwork to speak against this evil.  The issue is now getting more attention than I’ve ever seen it get.

Now is the perfect time to educate people, especially Catholics who for some reason don’t know or don’t accept the Church’s teaching.  Let’s get out our materials and brush up so we can explain it.  This would also be a great time for parishes who haven’t already done so to have a study session on Humanae Vitae, Theology of the Body, or some other resource.  The mandate must be fought and ultimately overturned, but please don’t stop there.  This is the perfect opportunity to tell the world about the true meaning of human sexuality.

Download it here.

Yana got me Adobe Audition for Mac for Christmas, so I’m putting it to good use.  The sound may be a bit different because I was doing completely new settings on my post-production plug-in.  I think my Ozone 3 is due for an upgrade, don’t you?

Anyway, in the span of about 18 minutes, I make a valiant attempt to shed some light on two common misunderstandings of our day.  This was prompted by the YouTube video that went viral entitled “Why I Hate Religion but Love Jesus.”  The first part is about the video and some things that are wrong with it.  I end it with what’s right from the video.

Then, I tackle the irresponsible statement often heard, in some form or another, that obeying the law doesn’t matter as long as we love.  This is one of those topics that inspired me to name the blog and podcast “It Really Does Matter.”  The reason is that, as you may have guessed, it really does matter.

Surely enough, we now have this statement from the Foundation. They decided to “amend their criteria” to support organizations under investigation if the investigation is “political” and is not “conclusive.” So, I guess PP’s willingness to violate mandatory reporting for statutory rape doesn’t constitute a criminal act under Komen’s criteria. It must be just politics driving those investigations.

Under this “revision,” Planned Parenthood keeps its existing grants and may apply for new ones. While writing about how they don’t want their mission “marred by politics,” it is hard for me to interpret their statement as anything but either 1) bowing to political pressure from pro-aborts OR 2) ultimately wanting to maintain their ties with Planned Parenthood. For those who might think Komen hasn’t really reversed their earlier decision, note that Planned Parenthood is declaring victory on their web site.

Perhaps some people reading this wonder why I would be concerned as long as the money granted is being used for mammograms or other screenings. The answer is that money given for breast screenings means that more money from their general fund can then be used for their immoral activities like abortion and contraception. No matter what other services they provide, the fact remains that they are a MAJOR provider of abortions in this country. While breast cancer does kill many women, abortion is a directly intended killing of millions of unborn children.

So, as much as I’d like to support breast cancer research, I cannot and will not do it by supporting an organization that is helping to fund an organization such as Planned Parenthood. The great evil of abortion far outweighs any good that PP could possibly be doing. I will not take any chance on donating money to them.

In short, this means that nearly all Catholic employers, whether they are agencies of the Church or businesses owned by devout Catholics, will be required to pay for people’s mortal sin.  At best, the Obama administration is attacking freedom or religion.  At worst, the administration wants to stop the Church from providing health care and other social services or even wants to destroy the Church.  We cannot stand by and let this happen.

This is not about “the Church getting into people’s bedrooms.”  If people employed by the Church choose to use contraception, we aren’t performing bed checks.  God himself will do that, and those people will have to answer for having abused the gift by which God gave us to help him in bringing new life into the world.  This is simply about not requiring the people of this world who are standing with Christ on this not to have to pay the bill for people to sin.

Naysayers may want to call the new translation “stilted” or some similar less-than-flattering word, but I am convinced that our former translation was just too casual.  We are doing the most important thing we will do all week when we worship God, and the one we are addressing in our worship is the one to whom we owe everything.  For more on the reason I’m convinced that a kind of elevated language is needed, go here.

In my parish, everything went very well.  I did have one occasion where I responded “And also . . . and with your Spirit” as my wife cracked a smile.  That one will be the hardest habit to break.  There was no detectable rebellion.  Our pastor made a great effort to prepare himself, and he did an excellent job.  I followed along using my Daily Roman Missal.  The translation does flow nicely for one who is prepared.  I only found one passage that seemed a bit awkward.

I am so grateful that we are now using the new Roman Missal.  I’m even more thankful that Simon will grow up with this being the way he will worship God.  I’m looking forward to using this text for years to come.

iBank isn’t perfect, but it does have some features that are a great help to me and my growing family. Although it needs some polish, the envelope budgeting feature is very helpful. If too much is spent in one category, we have to find the money somewhere. Oh, and it has an iPhone version that will sync with the Mac. It is great for keeping up with transactions on the go and then putting them into the computer when I get home.   I still have the ability to download transactions, and the import window is easier to use than Quicken’s.

I am hoping that they will add iCloud support, though.  I would love to be able to enter stuff on the iPhone and have it just show up on the computer.  I would also like to be able to see my budget on the iPhone app.  Currently, the app shows me what I’ve spent that month but not what’s left in the budget.

While some may prefer cloud solutions, I still like having the ability to keep my own record and check it against the bank statement. So, I will always want to have an app like iBank that can also be used on a mobile device. I am glad that iBank picks up what Intuit abandoned with Quicken.

I have so much to be thankful for now. God has given me what I have desired for a long time. He has made me the father of a family. I may have started at a later age than most, but I have a beautiful wife and son. It has been especially nice to see the little guy smile and hear him coo lately.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my readers!

It was very apparent in this article.  The author, one of the “young voices,” is “longing for a new, unbroken church.”  She describes the Eucharist as a time when they “listened to one another’s stories” and “shared our brokenness.”  The people in this church want to “be a part of a community that is relevant” and share with “those we break bread with” and “want our experience of others to be affirmed.”  In her church, she is “looking for meaning and authenticity from ourselves, our friends and family, and our institutions.”  I could go on as there’s a lot more of this in the article.

Indeed, it’s what is left out that is telling.  All of the phrases of what the author longs for are about the people with whom she is present.  She even says they went to “uncover the wholeness found in ‘we’.”  There is no mention of having an encounter with the living God.

After all, God will “meet us where we are,” but he loves us too much to leave us there.  Far more than “sharing our brokenness,” God wants to give us life to the full.  There, we can find healing for our “brokenness,” which ultimately has its root in sin.  The article seems to imply that the people at this church are content to remain in their “brokenness” and possibly also in their sin.  Naturally, they will keep longing for happiness because they will never find it that way.

The Mass gives us our greatest opportunity to encounter Christ and be transformed.  It gets better; he is wanting to give us eternal life with him in Heaven where there will be no more “brokenness.” We don’t need to make it “relevant” or “meaningful,” it must change us and make us “relevant” and “meaningful” to it.

We need not simply share our story.  We need to know Christ’s.  Let him transform our story into something beautiful and joyful for him.

It’s an interesting time for him to be seven weeks old.  There were seven weeks between my  first date and second date with my wife and another seven weeks after that before the third date.  Four years ago today, right after our first date, I had the accident on I-65 which could have killed me.  Someone crossed the median in front of me, and I couldn’t avoid him.  Then, a tractor trailer ran over my trunk with his back tires.  So, I needed recovery time and couldn’t easily travel for dates.  Things got much better (and dates more frequent) after that.

Maybe I’m biased because I’m his dad, but I was struck from the beginning at how beautiful of a baby he is.  Now, in the last week, he has become more interactive.  We can hear him coo.  We can shake a rattle in front of him and watch him follow it with his eyes.  He smiles.  I hear it won’t be too long before he can laugh.  My challenge will be to try to make him laugh when he can.

So, God spared my life four years ago, and now he has given me a family.  Yes, I have been blessed greatly.  I just need to remember this, especially when it is 3 AM.

Get the episode here.

I’ll post a blog for an update on him.

As much as I hear about no one going to Confession anymore, I don’t find it to be completely true.  I was actually surprised by what I saw at this particular parish, but then again, there are other signs that something isn’t quite right.  At my parish, there are often long lines for Confession.

Regular Confession is one of the greatest things we can do for our walk with God.  When we examine our conscience, we recognize how our lives are not in line with what God wants.  We have to admit that to the priest.  When we receive absolution, we not only receive forgiveness of our sins, but powerful grace to help us to avoid sin in the future.

It doesn’t end there, though. As we get closer to God, we learn more and more how we are falling short.  We bring those to the sacrament, and more grace is poured forth.  More and more of what is not of God is stripped away , or at least we get a second chance to work on what we weren’t able to accomplish since our last Confession.

It’s sad to see a large parish in which people are not taking advantage of this.  There is great grace available.  All one needs is a sorrow for sin and a resolve not to commit those same sins again. If we do fall in to the sin again, go back to Confession and try again.  God is ready to take us back and give us the grace.  Take advantage of it.

Your sorrow doesn’t have to be some totally altruistic motive either.  Even sorrow for sin because of fear of Hell is enough to receive the grace of the sacrament.  After all, Hell is separation from God, and if you don’t want to go there, you don’t want to be separated from God.  You will either go to Confession or Hell, so go to Confession.  Of course, you will want to get to where you have a pure love of God, but this is much more easily accomplished when God has forgiven your sins.  Then, there is not eternal punishment to fear.  So, let God give you the grace he so badly wants to give you.

Download it here.

I think my last blog post will tell you what took me so long.  In fact, I wonder how the sound will work for others because I migrated computers after recording but before finishing the post production.

This will almost certainly be the last episode before my son is born. Also, it’s my longest and probably my most technical episode.  These were both topics I felt I needed to talk about even though they are a strange combination.

The Cloud really can be a great thing for computing, but it has its drawbacks.  There are some definite advantages and disadvantages I wanted to cover.  The new Mass translation is something I first blogged about a few years ago.  This time I just weighed in with a concise explanation of why we need it.  Unlike others, I think we’ve been waiting too long for it.

About a month ago, Yana and I closed on a new house.  We’ve had a lot of work to do to get through closing in less than 30 days from when we got our contract.  This is the first house I’ve owned.  We have been steadily moving, and we are very thankful for a lot of people who have helped us.  Right now, the move is almost done.

As for the baby, well, we are expecting him any time.  He’s going to be a pretty big guy right off the bat.  Everything we have heard from the doctors has indicated that he is making great progress.

Oh, I did get my new iMac that I had been wanting.  It’s one fast computer with a gorgeous screen.  As soon as I got it, I installed Mac OS X Lion on it since it didn’t come preinstalled.  The installation went without a problem, and Lion is a lot of fun to use.  I think the gesture thing is a gimmick that won’t really be used for long, but there’s plenty more to the OS.  Unlike a lot of reviewers, I like LaunchPad.  If I can get around to it, I’ll write more on this later.

I’ll be sure to let everyone know when the little guy is born.  After that, we’ll see how often I make it to this blog.

Fast forward to 2010.  I bought a Motorola Droid (and reviewed it here and here).  As you can see from my reviews, I was quite impressed with it.  The iPhone wasn’t available for Verizon, and I still wasn’t that interested anyway.  As for Pocket Quicken, in what I would consider to be one of the worst software decisions ever, Intuit terminated Landware’s license for Pocket Quicken.  I have since switched to iBank on my Mac.  I was ready for a more modern smartphone.

So, why did I switch to the iPhone?  The first reason is that the performance of my Droid has deteriorated as I have updated it.  It has slowed to a crawl.   The sales rep at Verizon said that this was happening to a lot of Android phones that were sold in the last year.  Some features that I really liked have been taken away with updates to the operating system.  For example, I have a Vonage phone that e-mails me my voice mail.  I used to be able to open the voice mails within the e-mail program, but now I can’t.  On the iPhone, however, I can.  The e-mail program started giving me notifications of new e-mails when there were none.  That got old!

The iPhone just seems to work so much better.  It is fast and responsive, and even the touch screen responds better.  I’m much better with a touch screen than I used to be, so I don’t mind not having a physical keyboard.  The apps that I have tried in both flavors seem to be much better on iPhone.  Facebook allows me to see who “likes” a given status.  The barcode reader app seems to have less trouble reading the bar codes.  I’m having a lot of fun with this.

The more troubling part to me is that he isn’t the first on-fire, orthodox priest to do this.  Over the last few years I’ve seen a number of priests who appeared to be holy, orthodox, and happy priests leave their ministry.  Some just picked up and left; others were caught in scandal.  It has left me wondering what is going on.

I have to remind myself that there are a lot still standing, and they really need our prayers.  They have an indelible mark on their souls and a target on their backs, as Fr. Z explains very well. Perseverance to the end in service to Christ is difficult for any of us.  All of us who wish to attain eternal salvation much support each other and especially our priests.  There are just so many traps set by the enemy for all of us that I can’t name all of them in this post.  We can easily grow tired of fighting the good fight, especially in today’s world.  Our priests are often on the front end of this battle, and their perseverance is often what brings the salvation of many.

It’s one thing to be glad that they cannot do their evil deeds anymore.  However, to actually desire or rejoice their demise is quite another.  To desire their damnation is even worse.  There is a point at which we can desire the justice of God, but often the line between that and desiring their damnation is a very fine one that is difficult to walk.  It would be very dangerous for our souls to end up on the wrong side of that line.

Simply put, we know that God would much rather have had their repentance.  Can you imagine what a powerful witness either Kevorkian or Tiller would have been had they repented?  Let’s not forget that the rejoicing in Heaven would have been tremendous.

Even now, we can still hope and pray, as I always do men like these die, that they repented at the last minute.  You and I may never have done anything like what these men did, but we are sinners.  By hoping in the mercy of God for them, we realize that we, too, are in need of his mercy.  If they did repent because of our prayers, they could become a powerful intercessor for us. By being merciful, we have hope of receiving God’s mercy.

Several years ago, I can remember someone saying that the best defense against false teaching is to know the true Catholic faith.  Well, this has a lot of truth to it.  Still, I do believe that it sharpens ones knowledge of the faith to learn about ideas that are opposed to it and what is wrong with those ideas.  This is why books like this provide great resources that I wish I had just before I entered college.

You can download it here.

Since I haven’t covered anything fun for a little while, I thought I’d talk about . . . well . . . another sort of conversion I experienced in 2006.  Then, I get serious.  I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty tired of hearing about how “oppressive” or “heavy-handed” the Church is when someone who spreads false teaching is disciplined.  There are three recent well-known cases that I dive into and show how these adjectives are not warranted.  One of them is the removal of Bishop William Morris from his diocese in Australia.  His case had actually drawn on for year.

Read about it here.

The story includes a video of how people are “shocked” and “angered.”  Would that people be so “shocked” and “angered” because false teaching is being presented in the name of the Church!