meditation of the day

It is not enough to say that Jesus Christ teaches us the Truth about human life. The Christian faith affirms much more. The Truth of life is the Mystery at the origin of all that exists. All religions seek to discover this Truth. Only the Christian, however, will affirm that the Truth became a human being in the womb of a Jewish woman; that he was born as a baby and grew up as a man; that he was followed by people who were struck by the way he lived his life; and that he was executed by some of his opponents but rose from the dead victorious over space and time and is thus still present in his humanity in our midst. Only a Christian would say this. Jesus is the name of a concrete individual man who is the human embodiment of the Truth that all religions seek. He is the Truth made man. This is what we believe. It is not enough to say that Jesus is the name we give to the Truth. Jesus is the man who is the incarnation of the Truth. For this reason, before identifying himself as the Truth, Jesus calls himself the Way. Jesus is the Way to the Truth. To be a Christian is to embrace the Way to the Truth that Jesus is ... we do not seek solutions to the problems of life derived from religious sentiments, spiritual approaches, or philosophical convictions. We do not have answers to questions. In each circumstance of life, whatever it is, we seek not an answer but a Presence, the human presence that is the way to the "Answer," to the Truth. We do not come together as Church to find intellectual answers to our questions about the meaning and purpose of life. This is to reduce to the Church to an ideology. We come together not to find answers but to learn how to recognize and affirm a Presence. The Church is not "our way" of finding answers to our religious quest for the Truth; it is the method through which the Truth becomes humanly present to us. As the prolongation of Christ's presence in the world, it is the method through which the Truth becomes incarnate for us ... We come together as the Church to learn how to recognize the fact of this Presence, and to witness to it in any circumstance of life, especially when there are no answers. Jesus Christ is the way to the Answer. In him, way and answer coincide. - Monsignor Lorenzo Albacete

watch this video

Cool art/homelessness project in Albuquerque ... for every unique view this video draws during the holiday season Mudhouse Advertising will donate $1 to Art Street and Albuquerque Healthcare for the Homeless.

Christmas music

official Christmas albums of my childhood: Harry Simeone Chorale, and the Beach Boys Christmas. I would play that first one over and over until my dad pleaded with me to stop. The second one included a priceless greeting from the Boys themselves:

"Hi, this is Denny, and speaking for the rest of the guys
I'd like to say that it has been a great pleasure
for all of us to bring you this Christmas album.
We hope you will treasure it the way we do.
And if you hap happen to be listening to this album right now,
Mike, Brian, Carl, Al and I would like to wish every one of you a very merry Christmas,
and we hope the new year brings you as much happiness as this year has brought us.
Thank you very much."

what I'm listening to this Christmas: MercyMe's The Christmas Sessions, also Christmas with the Rat Pack. MercyMe's version of "O Holy Night" is my favorite ever. Another favorite is Chris Rice's song "Welcome to Our World." I've been listening to Bebo Norman's Christmas album a lot and I love his version of "Go Tell It on the Mountain." I also love the album "The Court of a King" by the Crossing but the CD is funny and will only play in my car.

I change the radio station immediately when I hear: Relient K's "12 Days of Christmas" (not my style); anyone singing "The Christmas Shoes." (worst Christmas song ever. No, worst song ever.)

What about you? What did you listen to growing up? What are you listening to now?

king of glory

moo

I've been told that perhaps I don't post enough anymore, so I wanted to put something up today, but I don't really have anything to say, so I found a link for you all to enjoy instead ... my mom e-mailed me this years ago, in college ... how to tell if your cow has mad cow disease.

Have a great day!
Sheila:)

uncle scrooge and nephew fred

Just a quick post because I haven't blogged in a while ... this past weekend I saw A Christmas Carol twice: Thursday night in South Bend and Saturday night in Amana, Iowa where Dan is doing his acting internship. Who doesn't know this story? and I have to say that the line "God bless us every one" has never inspired me in the least. But I haven't actually seen the play in years and I was surprised by a few things ... first by how modern Scrooge sounded as he talked about the "surplus population." Second by how quickly he changed once he was shown a new perspective (by the way, it was the showing, not a lifetime of people telling it to him, that changed him). By the time Christmas Present comes around, Scrooge really wants to see and learn and change.

But the thing that moved me the most (much more than that trite little Tiny Tim) was the patient love that Scrooge's nephew Fred had for him. For Pete's sake, if your uncle was Ebenezer Scrooge and he was mean to everyone and rejected all your invitations and shut himself off from all the world, wouldn't it be easy to just leave him there and stop trying? I was kind of touched by the way that Fred came in with all his Christmas spirit, undoubtedly knowing he'd be rejected again, and even more by how he joyfully welcomed Scrooge into his home once Scrooge has had his change of heart. He doesn't berate Scrooge for taking so long to get the Christmas spirit, he doesn't even question what happened, he just welcomes him in. Kind of like the Father's love for us. My hope this Christmas is to be more like Fred, to leave behind cynicism and self-righteousness and just invite people wholeheartedly into joy and love.