CatholicFatherOf2

It has been a long time.

posted by CatholicFatherOf2 @ 12:03 PM 0 comments

My Dear Young Friends

My son just made his Confirmation. About a month or so ago, my wife and I where trying to decide what to get him as a gift. We didn’t want to just give him something secular. We wanted to give him something meaningful to make this special sacrament something he would remember. My wife had heard about a book for young people that had something to do with Pope John Paul II. We did a little searching on the web and we found “My Dear Young Friends” edited by John Vitek. We ordered the book and luckily it arrived in advance of his Confirmation. It was late on the day of his Confirmation when we gave him his presents. Our son was about to go to bed when we gave him the book. He looked disappointed. All of his friends were getting “good” gifts like money and video games and all he got was a “lousy” book. We then gave him a video game and, as we expected, his face lit up. That night is when the magic happened. He is allowed to read in bed before he goes to sleep, so he decided to read a couple of pages of the book. Well, the quotes caught his attention and he ended up reading all 52 quotes before he finally fell asleep. The next day he told me that he liked the book and had put in bookmarks for all of his favorite quotes. He also told me that starting in January he is going to read a reflection a week and try to put the recommended actions into practice. Well, my son is 12 and come January we will see how much he actually follows through on his promise. I for one am going to keep my fingers crossed and say a few prayers. However, his comments certainly act as a pretty good recommendation for the book and so far it looks like getting him the book was one of my wife’s best ideas.

The book contains 52 weekly reflections for young people. Each reflection is broken down into 5 parts. They include a quote from Pope John Paul II, something to think about related to the quote, some recommended action to take, a short prayer and an interesting fact about Pope John Paul II. Here are a couple of my son’s favorite quotes.

• “What must I do? What must I do to inherit eternal life? What must I do so that my life may have full value and meaning? The youth of each one of you, dear friends, is a treasury that is manifested precisely in these questions.”
  
• “To be truly free does not at all mean doing everything that pleases me or doing what I want to do. . . . To be truly free means to use one’s own freedom for what is a true good.”
  
• “Little by little you recognize the ‘talent’ or ‘talents’ which each of you has, and you begin to use them in a creative way, you begin to increase them.”
  
• “Be in this world bearers of Christian faith and hope by living love every day. Be faithful witnesses of the Risen Christ, never turn back before the obstacles that present themselves on the paths of you lives. I am counting on you. On your youthful energy and your dedication to Christ.”

posted by CatholicFatherOf2 @ 2:01 PM 1 comments

Fortune Cookies

Our lives have been very busy lately and we seem to be eating a lot of take-out Chinese food. Along with the food we always get fortune cookies. I received 2 interesting fortunes. “The saints are the sinners who keep on trying” and “The best exercise for the heart is to reach down and help someone up”. Both of these messages sounded very familiar. So, I decided to Google them. Of course there were many hits for both quotes. The first one seemed to be mostly attributed to Robert Louis Stevenson. The second quote looked like a slight variation of a quote attributed to Jesse Jackson “Never look down on anybody unless you're helping him up.” I have no way of knowing if both gentlemen are the first to come up with the ideas in the quotes or if they read them in a fortune cookie. What I do know is that both messages should be very meaningful to all of us in our every day lives.

posted by CatholicFatherOf2 @ 10:13 PM 0 comments

Rome Sweet Home: Our Journey To Catholicism

I think I first heard "Rome Sweet Home: Our Journey To Catholicism" by Scott and Kimberly Hahn while listening to the Rosary Army Podcast. I wasn’t sure I would read it at first. I had just read a number of books that covered the topic of conversions and apologetics and I was thinking about reading more about the history of the early church. I just picked it up to give a quick once over when it arrived in the mail, but when I read the following quote “In truth, the journey began as a detective story, but soon it became more like a horror story, until it finally ended up as a great romance story…” on the first page of the introduction. I was so intrigued that I started reading the rest of the book.

The book is about 182 pages long and broken up into 9 chapters. The book covers the lives of Scott and Kimberly from before the time they meet each other until they meet Pope John Paul II. The format of the book is very interesting because each chapter covers the events of their lives first from his points of view and then from hers. I like the book because it doesn’t sugar coat any of their trials and tribulations. It deals with the issues about how their conversion almost destroyed their marriage and isolated them from their families, but in then end made their love even stronger. It is a great story and yet it teaches a lot about the Catholic faith. My favorite quote from the book paraphrased here is “Either the Catholic Church professes the Truth or it is insidious”. Needless to say they decide that it professes the truth.

I would recommend this book to anyone inside our outside of the Catholic church that wants to know more about the church and its teachings or anyone that might want to get inside the head of someone converting to Catholicism. However, the book does stand on its own as a wonderful story about love.

posted by CatholicFatherOf2 @ 8:35 PM 0 comments

Amazing Grace For Fathers

While, I haven’t posted in quite a while I have still been reading a lot. I finished “Amazing Grace For Fathers” by Jeff Cavins, Matthew Pinto, Mark and Patti Armstrong. It is another book in the Amazing Grace Series. I have read most of them but this one touched me directly. The book is around 290 pages and it is filled with 75 wonderful stories. The book is broken down into 7 chapters each covering different topics. The chapters include A Father’s Love, A Father’s Strength, A Father’s Faithfulness, A Father’s Humor, A Father’s Wisdom, A Father’s Character and A Father’s Hope.

One story is one gentleman’s reinterpretation of 1 Corinthians 13. I am sure most of you are familiar with this passage about Love/Charity. The book is worth reading for this one story alone. Here is a small taste of that story. “When I was a child, I thought like a child, cherishing each moment when I took my daddy’s hand. When I became a father, I recaptured that moment each time my little girl her daddy’s hand.”

There is another story written by Mark Armstrong himself. It is called “Cost Versus Value”. It talks about how much in dollars it costs to raise a child from birth to age 18. By the end of the story you will think it is worth any amount.

Here is another story by an anonymous contributor that is very short but very meaningful. “One night a father overheard his son pray, “Dear God, make me the kind of man my daddy is.” Later that night, the father prayed, “Dear God, make me the kind of man my son wants me to be.” The book even includes a short story about Team Hoyt, an amazing father and son team. I highly recommend this book for all fathers even though it will make them laugh and cry.

posted by CatholicFatherOf2 @ 7:44 PM 0 comments

101 Inspirational Stories of the Rosary

I purchased this book before I started making rosaries, but I never read it. I am not 100% sure, but I think I first heard about the Rosary Army and making rosaries when listening to an episode of the Catholic Insider. It is another SQPN podcast. Hearing about the Rosary Army is what convinced me to make Rosaries. Their motto of “Make them, pray them and give them away” just seemed natural. The funny thing is I am not even sure if I ever prayed a rosary before making one. I know I have had a rosary since I made my first communion as a child and I still have it thanks to my mother. I even have one in most of my cars, placed their by my father. I began to read this book a little while after I started going to the Rosary Army forums looking for advice about how to teach my CCD/PREP class how to make rosaries. I have yet to tackle this task, but after reading the forums I am a lot more confident that we will be successful. 101 Inspirational Stories of the Rosary was compiled and produced by Sister Patricia Proctor, OSC. The book is about 211 pages long. It is filled with wonder stories about how praying the rosary has affected the lives of people just like you and I. The stories are filled with many “small” miracles. The stories are truly inspirational. The book also contains many quotes from Saints and famous people about the rosary as well as many prayers to our Mother Mary. One of the best parts about the book is its appendices. They provide a lot of information about the Rosary including its history, mysteries, how to make one and how to pray one. If you have any doubts about the Rosary this is a great book to read.

"Love the Madonna and pray the rosary, for her rosary is the weapon against the evils of the world today."

– Saint Padre Pio

posted by CatholicFatherOf2 @ 3:03 PM 0 comments

Pope John Paul II: His Essential Wisdom

• “A mother’s presence in the family, so critical to the stability and growth of that basic unit of society, should instead be recognized, applauded and supported in every possible way. By the same token society needs to call husbands and fathers to their family responsibilities, and ought to strive for a situation in which they will not be forced by economic circumstances to move away from the home in search of work.” - Papal Message on Women’s Conference, 1995.
• “God calls every person, and his voice makes itself heard even in the hearts of children: he calls people to live in marriage or to be priests; he calls them to consecrated life or perhaps to work in the missions… Who can say? Pray, dear boys and girls, that you will find out what your calling is, and that you will follow it generously.” - Letter of the Pope to Children, 1994.
• “Death itself is anything but an event without hope. It is the door which opens wide on eternity and, for those who live in Christ, an experience of participation in the mystery of his Death and Resurrection.” - Evangelium Vitae, 1995.
• “What we talked about will have to remain a secret between him and me. I spoke to him as a brother whom I have pardoned and who has my complete trust.” - On visiting the imprisoned Mehmet Ali Agca, who wounded the Pope in a 1981 assassination attempt, as reported in Time, January, 1984.

posted by CatholicFatherOf2 @ 11:30 AM 1 comments

Mother Teresa: Her Essential Wisdom

I seem to browse the book in Barnes & Noble quite often and lucky for them I almost always seem to find a book or two that look good. Well, on one of those trips, I came across the book “Mother Teresa: Her Essential Wisdom” edited by Carol Kelly-Gangi. The book has nothing but quotes from Mother Teresa. The quotes are broken down into a couple of dozen categories including love, charity, family life, religion and many more. The words that came from her mouth are truly inspirational but quite often very difficult to live up to. I have listed a few here just to wet your appetite. The book is a small digest sized hard back and is about 134 pages of brilliance. Unfortunately, the book seems to be out of print. I did find some copies available at Amazon.com, but I don't know how long they will last. Just do a search on the web and I am sure you will find many books filled with her wisdom.

• “Bring love into your homes. If you truly love God, start loving your son or your daughter and your spouse. And the elderly, where are they? In nursing homes! Why are they not with you? And where is the retarded child? In an institution! Why is he not with you? That child, young mothers and fathers, is a gift from God.”
  
• “Often we Christians constitute the worst obstacle for those who try to become closer to Christ; we often preach a gospel we do not live. This is the principle reason why people of the world don’t believe.”
  
• “There is only one God and he is God to all; therefore it is important that everyone is seen as equal before God. I’ve always said we should help a Hindu become a better Hindu, a Muslim become a better Muslim, a Catholic become a better Catholic.”
  
• “Abortion destroys the image of God. It is the most terrible plague in our society, the greatest killer of love and peace. The little children still unborn have been created for bigger things: to love and be loved.”

posted by CatholicFatherOf2 @ 10:58 AM 0 comments

Podcast Reviews

Here is a nice list of the podcasts that I have reviewed in my blog. Some have been mentioned more than once, but here are the ones that offer the most information. Just click on the links to go to the post that discusses them. Of course, if you want to know more go right to their web sites. You should go there any way. You won’t be disappointed.

Catholic Family Podcast - WebSite

Catholic: Under The Hood - Website

The Daily Breakfast (Something extra to keep in touch.) - Website

The Daily Breakfast (Memo from God.) - Website

Sunday Sunday Sunday - Website

The Saint Cast - Website

Rosary Army - Website

For an extra special treat visit SQPN where you will find both Catholic and entertaining podcasts.

If you are looking for a podcast on a subject that interests you try search with Itunes or at Podcast Alley.

Please remember that you don't need an IPOD to listen to podcasts. You can use Itunes or many other software programs and listen right on you computer.

posted by CatholicFatherOf2 @ 9:56 PM 0 comments

Book Reviews

Some one asked me how to easily find out what books I have reviewed. Well, I couldn’t give them a good way. So, I decided to post just for that. I will make sure to link this post on the right hand side for future reference. I will also try to keep it updated as I do more reviews. To see one of my mini reviews, just click on any title that interests you.

The Catholic Verses

The Mass Of The Early Christians

What Catholic really Believe

The Fathers of the Church

Not Your Average Joe

Saintly Advice

Amazing Grace For Married Couples

By What Authority

Did Adam And Eve Have Belly Buttons?

Did Jesus Have A Last Name?

No Wonder They Call It The Real Presence

Catholicism For Dummies

The Da Vinci Hoax

Cracking The Da Vinci Code

Shower Of Heavenly Roses

St. Katherine Drexel

posted by CatholicFatherOf2 @ 9:31 PM 0 comments

The Catholic Verses

It took me a while, but I finally finished this reading “The Catholic Verses: 95 Bible Passages That Confound Protestants” by Dave Armstrong. The book is broken up into 16 chapters and is about 225 pages. The book is down in an interesting format. It presents a topic like The Church is the “Pillar of the Truth”. It then provides a bible passage or passages to support the statement. Then it provides what I would describe as a miniature debate on the validity of the assertion. It presents many opposing opinions and discusses the strengths and weaknesses of each opinion. It includes quotes from some very influential Christians including Martin Luther, John Calvin and many other Christian writers and apologists. The author is clearly very knowledgeable and a good debater. I learned a tremendous amount about Luther and Calvin. Much more than I have learned in similar books that I have read. The book covers a wide range of very controversial topics that divide Christianity. I am very glad I read this book. However, I have some reservations about this book. In my opinion, it often has an attitude that sounds like the author is gloating about the impenetrability of his defense of Catholicism and making fun of opposing views. I certainly would not recommend this book to my non Catholic Christian friends without first warning them about this attitude. However, his arguments are sound and easy to follow. I was just not thrilled with the presentation at times.

posted by CatholicFatherOf2 @ 7:59 PM 1 comments

Halloween Safety

• The American Red Cross
• The National Safety Council
• US Consumer Product Safety Commission

posted by CatholicFatherOf2 @ 8:32 PM 0 comments

Voting, Political Advertising and Elections

The elections are coming up next Tuesday and I am already sick of all the political ads. The sad part is that the ads don’t seem to help anyone. Most of the ads are full of “lies, damned lies and statistics” (Thank you Mark Twain). The truth is stretched so far and thin that the ads no longer have any value. If you want to check the veracity of an ad go to FactCheck.org. I am sure you will be happy with the site and thoroughly disgusted with the political advertising. However, don’t let this stop you from voting. The most important thing you do as a citizen is vote. If you would like to know the Catholic position on your civic responsibilities click here. If you don’t vote and you get stuck with lousy representation it is your own fault. Of course there is no guarantee that you will get great representation either, but it is the only chance you have. To use another quote, Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others that have been tried (Thank you Sir Winston Churchill). With all that said, how do you decide for whom to cast your vote? I can’t tell you who to vote for, but I can help you determine what issues should be important to a Catholic. You can easily do a web search and find out for yourself or you can start here or here. Whether you agree with the position in the referenced links or not get out there and vote like you life and freedom depends on it because someday it will and that someday is today.

posted by CatholicFatherOf2 @ 8:25 PM 1 comments

Embryonic Stem Cell Research

posted by CatholicFatherOf2 @ 11:04 AM 0 comments

How should we spend our money to get the best return on investment.

Basketball League: I used The Sports Authority for these prices.
Lifetime 1221 Pro Court 44 Inch Portable Basketball System $189
Wilson NCAA Junior Performance Rubber Basketball (27.0) $9.99
League fee for my son this year including shirt $65
I am not counting sneakers because he needs them for gym anyway.
Total cost = $263.99

Video Game Console: I used my personal experience with my son for this as well. Although I haven't actually spent any money on this yet.
Wii game console w/ free game $249
Extra controller including all options $69
Games $50 X 1 = $50
Total cost = $368

Not surprisingly they are all close in cost. I am sure it could be argued that my costs are not very realistic, but for my point it doesn’t really matter.

Now let’s look at the return on our investment. From basketball we get good exercise, lessons about team work and fair play, and for a few we get a chance at a college scholarship and even more remotely a career. From Music lessons we get music, lessons about team work and fair play, and for a few we get a chance at a college scholarship and even more remotely a career. From a game console, we get good hand to eye coordination and lessons about team work and fair play.

I am sure my assessment is not even close to anything scientific. However, I could find a tremendous amount of information about the benefits of sports and music for young people on the web. The overwhelming evidence points to them both being very good for children of all ages and adults. The outlook for video games is not so good. Most of the information, available on the web about video games, points to them having a negative impact on the health and well being of children. But don’t take my word for it, search the web and see for yourself.

I am not suggesting that we should not buy video games for our children. What I am saying is that if we have to make choices about where to spend our money, some investments are better than others.

posted by CatholicFatherOf2 @ 10:48 PM 0 comments

Movie Reviews and More!

There are many places to get movies reviews. You can find them in local papers and many web sites. They all seem to be from a secular point of view. I recently stumbled across another place, the Catholic News Service. They host movies reviews done by the U.S Conference of Catholic Bishops Office for Film and Broadcasting. Each movie review contains a brief summary and USCCB rating along with the MPAA rating. It may even have a comment about language or violence in the film. You can read more about the USCCB ratings here. I have even listed them below. While I find it helpful to go to sites like Rotten Tomatoes for quality ratings, I found the USCCB ratings to be more helpful than the MPAA ratings when trying to decide if I should allow my children to see the movie or not. The USCCB site has ratings on more than just movies. You may even want to check out the Catholic News Services or the USCCB sites if you have never seen them. I am sure some of the material will open your eyes.

USCCB classifications:

(United States Conference of Catholic Bishops)

* A-I — general patronage

* A-II — adults and adolescents

* A-III — adults

* A-IV — adults, with reservations (this indicates films that, while not morally offensive in themselves, are not for casual viewing because they require some analysis and explanation in order to avoid false impressions and interpretations)

* L — limited adult audiences, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling (replaced A-IV classification Nov. 1, 2003)

* O — morally offensive

posted by CatholicFatherOf2 @ 10:54 PM 0 comments

DSL vs. Dialup – How can DSL cost less?

I never thought it would happen, but it now seems that DSL is cheaper than dial up Internet access in a lot of markets. My frugal friend discovered this and finally decided to get DSL. He called the vendor and they sent him out a consumer install kit. He put the installation CD in his PC and it told him he needed a network interface card. He was surprised because the vendor never told him he needed a NIC. He called the vendor for help and they said they new what was wrong and they sent him a new installation CD. They also told him he could use one of his existing USB ports. When the new CD arrived, he put it in his machine and he got the same message. A bit discouraged he asked me if I could help. Having installed quite a few of these setups for other people I agreed to help him after my CDD class last Tuesday night. When I got to his house I put in the new CD. It came up with the same message for me. I then looked at the fine details of the message and it said that the NIC was required for Windows 98 and in a few other cases. My friend said no one at the vendor had asked him what operating system he was running or told him what hardware was required for Windows 98. This didn’t surprise me at all. Well, since I didn’t bring a NIC with me, I decided to just upgrade him to Windows 98 Second Edition and set up a time to install the NIC at a later date. When I finished the upgrade we did have a little trouble getting his modem to work again. Windows kept asking for the drivers for one modem but it really needed them for a different modem. Eventually everything was working and I went home.

We decided to complete the setup last night. I brought a few things with me from some of my old machines including the NIC and some memory. I installed the NIC and memory in no time, but when I put in the new install CD his machine locked up. I rebooted and tried again with the same results. I decided to try the old CD and it seemed to work. When we had almost completed the install we got an error message. I stopped the install and tried again receiving the same error. So, I decided to call the vendor’s support line. The support technician seemed to be a little confused when I gave her the error message. Eventually she told me it was a problem with the PC and I needed to contact my PC vendor for support. Well, what she said didn’t ring true to me. So, I put a DSL router in between the NIC and the vendors DSL modem. I was able to talk to the router from the PC so it wasn’t a hardware issue on the PC side. However, I was not able to get the router to connect through the modem. I told her what I discovered and again she seemed confused. I was beginning to think she didn’t have a clue as to what I was talking about. She then asked me to do a few things on the computer. However, she kept giving me commands that don’t work on Windows 98, but do work on newer versions of Windows. I explained to her about the commands and she really seemed flustered. I then asked to speak to a supervisor and that even upset her more. She finally told me she would transfer me to a supervisor. I was put on hold for more than 45 minutes. When I finally got to the supervisor, I explained what was going on and he seemed to understand. He asked me a few questions and then I heard a click. Yes, he hung up on us. I waited a few minutes. They are supposed to call you back if you get disconnected. At least that is why they claim they ask the number you are calling from and not just the number you are calling about. When I didn’t hear back in a few minutes I called them back. When I finally got through to a technician I explained to her what just happened. She apologized and got me to a new supervisor. He was very helpful and knowledgeable. It turns out that the new CD won’t work with Windows 98 and the old CD won’t work with the new DSL modem they supplied. With his help we got everything working without the router in a matter of a few minutes. We then changed the settings in the modem to work with the router and installed the router. We even tested his new email. We probably spent less than 15 minutes on the phone with the new supervisor. We had already spent more than 3 hours with the other technicians. He also explained to me that it was the first technicians first day on the job and apologized. I installed Firefox and Avast anti virus on my friend’s machine and called it night. Then it hit me. I finally figured out how they got DSL to be as cheap as dial up. It was because the used the money they saved on training their first level support people to lower the cost of the service.

In closing, I would like to offer some advice about internet connections. Windows 98 is no longer being supported. Use a firewall or newer a supported operating system or you could become the target of a hacker. It would be better to do both. Use antivirus software or you will get viruses or worse. There are many good free software packages available on the internet. Just use Google to search for them. Backup any important data you have on your machine on a regular basis. Your machine will not last forever. Sooner or later they almost all break and the backups will come in handy. Lastly, watch what your children do on the internet . Never let young children use the internet unsupervised. There are many software packages that can help, but nothing is better than direct supervision.

posted by CatholicFatherOf2 @ 8:34 PM 0 comments

Unpopular Decision – Good Choice

My son is involved in his school musical. A group of the students in the musical planned on going to the movies today. My son wanted to go. When we got all of the details about the movie we decided to no let him go. As you can imagine he was not thrilled. Most of the children going are a year or 2 older than my son. The movie they picked was Employee of The Month. I went to RottenTomatoes.com to check out the movie. Not only was it rated PG-13 (for crude and sexual humor, and language), but it only got a 21%. That came from 56 of the 71 reviews saying it was a bad movie. We did offer him an alternative. We asked him if the other kids wanted to go see Flicka instead. Of course they turned down his suggestion. So, we told him if he wanted we could all go see Flicka instead. It is rated PG (for some mild language). It also got a 55% rating meaning 31 of the 56 reviews said it was good. The movie is a contemporary movie adaptation of Mary O'Hara's beloved novel My Friend Flicka. Well, my son took me up on my offer. We even invited one of his friends. It turns out that the movie was pretty good as both of my children and my son's friend said the movie was good. I even enjoyed the movie. I wasn't happy about the $7 popcorn or the $4.50 small soda, but that is another story. It turns out that our unpopular decision was a good choice.

posted by CatholicFatherOf2 @ 8:38 PM 0 comments

The Mass of the Early Christians

I have read another book, The Fathers of the Church, by Mike Aquilina. It inspired me to learn more about the early fathers and how they impacted the Mass. I have just completed the book and I was not disappointed. The book is broken up into 3 parts: How the Mass Began, The Testimony of Witnesses and The Mass of the Early Christians. The book is about 217 pages and many biblical references and excerpted English translations of many ancient texts. The second part is a little difficult for me to follow, but it was made a little easier by my earlier reading of Aquilina’s other book about the Church Fathers.

The first part is about what the Mass was like in general and discusses is origin. The second part, which makes up the vast majority of the book, go into detail about all of the documents and testimony that give us incite into what the Mass was like. It talks about the New Testament, the Didache, and the writing of many Saints. It also uses many others sources including, oddly enough, heretical and legendary texts that actually give us insight into what the Mass was like and support the writings of other more “recognized” sources. It also talks about who was and who was not allowed to attend which parts of the Mass and why. The last part is what I found most intriguing. It gives a short second person account of what it must have been like to be a Christian and attend a Mass in the early years while persecutions still occurred on a regular basis. This account becomes more meaningful after reading the previous parts of the book that are used to make the details of this account accurate. This account gave me a tremendous new respect for the people that suffered to keep the faith alive and available to us today.

posted by CatholicFatherOf2 @ 11:43 AM 0 comments

Special Post for Fathers and Sons

As of 10/4 there have been more than 300 murders in Philadelphia. A baby was victim 300. A man from New York was 301. And a 17-year-old teenager was victim 302. On 10/17 a 25 year old was shot and on 10/18 a 21 year old was shot in the neighborhood where I grew up. There are so many it is hard to keep track of the number. Why am I bringing this up? I am bringing this up because I believe that if more fathers played a more active role in the lives of their children this atrocity would not happen.

I ran across a YouTube video today about Dick & Rick Hoyt. Who are they? Their story is inspirational and amazing. This is from their web site. “Dick and Rick Hoyt are a father-and-son team from Massachusetts who together compete just about continuously in marathon races. And if they’re not in a marathon they are in a triathlon — that daunting, almost superhuman, combination of 26.2 miles of running, 112 miles of bicycling, and 2.4 miles of swimming. Together they have climbed mountains, and once trekked 3,735 miles across America. It’s a remarkable record of exertion — all the more so when you consider that Rick can't walk or talk.” This is the story of a man who accepted his son as the gift he was. He didn't let his son's disability stand in their way. Here is the link to the video about them.

I think that if more fathers and sons put the kind of effort into their relationship that Dick and Rick have, the number of murders in Philadelphia would be closer to zero. What do you think? How much effort do you make? Do you go to their sporting events? Do you go to their school events including parent teacher events? Do you take them to Church or other religious services? Do you watch what they watch on TV? Do you give them limits? Do you listen to the music they listen to? Do your play their video games? Do you listen to them? Do you put in enough effort into your relationship with you children to make a difference? Do you set a good enough example for your son(s) that they will do the same? Are you being a real man?

posted by CatholicFatherOf2 @ 6:58 PM 0 comments

Choir Confirmation Practice

Our parish choir was rehearsing for Confirmation. Approximately 129 children from our parish, including my son, make it at the end of November. We are singing most of the same music as last year with a few changes. In case I haven’t mentioned it before, I sing tenor along with my friends Al and Nancy. Yes, Nancy is a woman. The sad part is that she is a better singer than both Al and I. I will be one of the cantors for the song that the children will sing. It is called “I Say Yes My Lord”. I am really looking forward to this. I will also be playing the drum set for some of the songs. It is one of the rare occasions that we use a drum set during a mass that is not just for teens. There will also be a couple of guitars, trumpets, flutes, piano/organ and maybe even a violin for the actual Confirmation service.

During the practice, I started my 10^th noted twine Rosary. I will probably finish it tonight or tomorrow. I gave one of my completed Rosaries to the Aunt of our choir Director. It was navy blue with a silver crucifix. I hope she likes it. I am getting better at making them. I was actually singing while making the one tonight. If you want to know more about making Rosaries go to the Rosary Army website. I can’t begin to tell you how rewarding it is.

posted by CatholicFatherOf2 @ 10:12 PM 2 comments

Catholic Family Podcast

posted by CatholicFatherOf2 @ 11:04 PM 0 comments

The Da Vinci Code

I am guessing this is old news to a lot of people. But I never really understood the big deal about the book The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. It was just a work of fiction, just like any other. Just out of curiosity I order the book The Da Vince Hoax: Exposing the Errors in the Da Vinci Code by Carl E. Olson and Sandra Miesel. The book came with a free booklet called Cracking The Da Vinci Code by Jimmy Akin. When I finished reading both I began to understand. Why would Catholics or Christians in general care that much about a work of fiction? A couple of reasons immediately come to mind. First, if the book is true, then all of Christianity is a farce. Secondly, during interviews and on websites the writer of the book seems to deliberately try and lead people to believe that this work of fiction is more fact than fiction. Lastly, the fictional events that take place only in the boo are being talked about and being treated as if they really occurred and it is giving people a false picture of Catholicism and all of Christianity.

The booklet Cracking The Da Vince Code is about 36 pages. It is broken up into three sections.

1. The Da Vinci Code: Fact or Fiction?

2. What the Da Vinci Code Claims.

3. Responding to Fans of The Da Vinci Code.

It gave me enough information to understand what all the fuss was about and to peak my curiosity. Was what the Jimmy Akin was saying really true? When I finished The Da Vinci Hoax I had my answer. The Da Vinci Hoax is over 300 pages of well referenced material. It goes into so much depth and covers so many issues with Dan Brown’s book. If you want to know all the details about all the issue then reading The Da Vinci Hoax is a good way to go. If you just have a casual interest, then try Cracking the Da Vinci Code.

There is another good way to find out more information about the book. You can listen to The Da Vinci Cast hosted by Hosted by Fr. Bill Holtzinger. It is another fine podcast that you can find at SQPN. It is broken down into 4 parts that are each about 30 minutes long.

posted by CatholicFatherOf2 @ 7:15 PM 0 comments

Chosen 300

I went to feed the homeless yesterday. It must be over 2 years already since I first started. I was looking for something to do, maybe a service project of some sort. Something to show my children that life wasn’t all about taking and that giving should be an important part of our life. I received a call from my friend Barry. He asked me if I wanted to go “feed the homeless” with him and our friend Terri. I thought this might be the answer. So, I agreed to go with him. We meet at his Church, the Upper Dublin Lutheran Church. We meet up with maybe 20 other people. We packed up his and a few other cars and we left. When we arrived at the mission at 11^th & Spring Garden Sts in Philadelphia, we set up the tables and food. Someone was playing a drum set along with some Christian music while the guests came in and where seated. We all sang a couple songs. There was a reading from the bible followed by a short homily. We then all gave thanks and then the feeding began. My job was to hand out sodas. It was actually a lot more work than I thought it would be. I ended up working up a pretty good sweat. However, I really enjoyed myself. The guests were not what I quite what I expected. I had gone to school in center city for 6 years and I live in Philadelphia for most of my life. So, seeing homeless people was not new to me. The guests were not what I expected them to be. I am not sure what I expected, but they were all kind and respectful. A lot seemed sad and bashful. I tried to speak to each and everyone as they came through the line. I did my best to make choosing a soda a pleasant experience. I don’t really know what they thought, but I did get some of them to smile and respond. I can’t really say if they got any benefit out of my 10 second conversation. What I can tell you is that it was one of the most memorable experiences of my life. I am sure that I got way more out of it than I ever expected.

Since then my friend Al, another Catholic like myself, has joined us. And our friend Tom, a Quaker, has joined us when needed. Barry’s church does it the second Saturday of every month. I am sort of a backup for when more hands are needed. I have not done it every month since then, but I have made most of them. My wife and children have all participated on occasion. The motto seems to be “If our efforts have helped the life of one person, it has all been worth the effort”. I am not sure I will ever know if we have been truly successful, but I can tell you that, I have received more from doing this than I could ever put in. If you have never helped out in a situation like this, go ahead and take a chance. Your life will never be the same.

You may wonder why I mention the different religions of the people involved. I think there is something special to be noted here. There are many different denominations of Churches in the, 29 I think, that make up the churches that support the Chosen 300 Ministries. In our little group alone there are at least 3 different religions involved, all working together to do something good. I think this is a good sign. What do you think?

posted by CatholicFatherOf2 @ 9:09 AM 1 comments

Shower of Heavenly Roses

On mother’s day of this year (2006), we took my son to Villanova University to receive an academic award. It was rather cold that day. We got lost on our way back to the car. Since school was already out for the summer there where very few people to be found. We eventually ran into a young man loading up his car. We asked him for directions. The directions he gave us seemed reasonable, but after a minute or two I thought we where on our way to another dead end. Just to be sure we kept on going. Eventually we got to a break in the building and we could turn towards the road. Just as we turned we ran into at least a half dozen large rose bushes. They where all covered with beautiful pink roses. It was kind of unusual to see roses in doing so well in such cold weather. I can only guess that they where doing okay because the spot got a lot of sun and all of the bushes where up against the large stone building of the campus. Oddly enough, the roses looked exactly like the ones pictured on the front of the book I had just finished reading a couple of days earlier.

The book is called Shower of Heavenly Roses – Stories of the intercession of St. Therese of Lisieux by Elizabeth Ficocelli. The book is about 200 pages of wonderful stories. There must be over 50 stories about how praying to St Therese of Lisieux, the Little Flower, had helped people. The stories are grouped into 6 chapters dealing with topics including healing, peace, love and more. I was very moved by many of the stories. The book will not help you gain much insight into how, at 9 years old, Therese knew she wanted to become a Carmelite nun, but you will be uplifted by the tremendous amount of love in the stories. If you will read the book you will understand why I mentioned the story about the flowers at Villanova in the beginning of this post.

posted by CatholicFatherOf2 @ 9:53 AM 0 comments

St. Katherine Drexel – Friend of the Oppressed

My Daughter chose Katherine as her confirmation name, so it made me a little curious about the life of this local U.S Saint. I found St. Katherine Drexel – Friend of the Oppressed by Ellen Tarry. Most of the books I have read about Saints spend more time on their words and deeds than on their lives. This is not that sort of book. It is completely about her life and family. It gave me wonderful look into how she lived before her missionary work. After reading the book I felt like I not only knew her, but I could understand how she became such a wonderful person. The book is about 155 or so pages. It talks a lot about how she found her vocation. The book left me in awe of how she could give up so much and then completely give herself away to others. I don’t want to give up too much about this book, because it is a wonderful story and worth taking the time to read.

My parents had taken my daughter to visit the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament in Bensalem. They were not really sure where to enter the facility and they actually went to the wrong entrance. The sister that answered the door was very helpful and compassionate to my daughter. They even gave her a tour of the private portion of their facilities. They were so kind to my daughter and gave her a small 2^nd class relic. They are certainly living up to the high standards of their founder.

posted by CatholicFatherOf2 @ 9:46 AM 0 comments

What Catholics Really Believe

posted by CatholicFatherOf2 @ 3:31 PM 0 comments

Catholic: Under the Hood

It is funny what motivates people to do things. About 18 months ago I read very little about my faith. Then I had agreed to assist someone else, with much more experience than I, teach 6^th grade CCD. All of a sudden I felt that I need to learn more about my faith to become a better teacher. I had gone to CCD as a child and I had attended RCIA classes along with my wife when she converted to Catholicism. I wasn't required to attend the classes, but I wanted to show my support for my wife's decision with more than just words. The rest of my Catholic education came from attending mass, some bible study in college and mostly from what my parents had instilled in all of their children as they raised us.

I have spent the last year and one half reading as much as I can about the faith. This has been helpful and rewarding, but kind of impersonal. I have done a few other things to get it to feel more personal. One has been to get more involved with the activities of my parish. The second has been to listen and subscribe to Catholic podcasts. I have many of them in the links section of my blog. There is one that stands out among the rest as far as explaining about the faith is concerned. It is called Catholic: Under the Hood. The podcast is by Seraphim Beshoner. He is a Third Order Franciscan of the Province of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. His podcast is very informative and sometimes it is even fun. He goes into a lot of detail on the topics he covers. He is very responsive to questions. I posted a question about blessings and he responded in episode #83. He even discusses current rumors about the Catholic Church and tries to give you the straight scoop. He isn't preachy or judgmental. Whether you are Catholic and trying to improve your knowledge of the faith or just someone interested in what Catholics believe, it is a good place to get answers and learn more.

posted by CatholicFatherOf2 @ 10:06 PM 0 comments

Can anyone make all seven sacraments?

posted by CatholicFatherOf2 @ 9:06 PM 0 comments

Not Your Average Joe

Not Your Average Joe: The Real St. Joseph and the Tools for Real Manhood in the Home, the Church and the World is written by Rick Sarkisian, PH.D. I can'’t remember exactly when I read this book, but it was sometime around last spring. I was talking to my wife about all the books I have read lately. She said that this book seems to have had more of an impact on me than most of the others. She described it as my becoming more patient, tolerant and understanding. To affect this kind of change it must be quite an amazing book. While I don'’t attribute that much to this one book, I do think it has had an impact on me.

In today'’s day and age a lot is expected of fathers. Many demands are placed on them and the pressure is great to provide more and more for their families. The problem I see is what constitutes "“the more"”. We don'’t need more things. Most of us don'’t really need the things that we already have. We often don'’t even appreciate them. Often times we are blind to the most precious things that we do have.

Sarkisian's book is about 85 pages. It is broken into 3 parts -– The Man, The Call and The Mission. Each section within the parts describes some attribute, action or mission of St. Joseph. He then shows us how we should use those examples to behave in our own lives. There are many examples from his life and the lives of others about behaving more like Joseph. He really holds up St. Joseph as an example of what real men should be and need to be to become better fathers, Christians and people. In his conclusion, he confesses that he wrote the book to remind, encourage and motivate him to be more like the man that God wants him to be.

There are a number of valuable references in the appendices including scriptural references, prayers and information about St. Joseph. The book is not written for an audience of scholars and theologians. It is written for men of every walk of life. My wife highly recommends the book for all fathers, husbands and those men who have or are about to become fathers or husbands.

posted by CatholicFatherOf2 @ 10:56 PM 2 comments

Saintly Advice

I was in Barnes & Noble just looking around one day and I spotted the book “Saintly Advice”, A Prayer for Every Problem by Staff of The Philip Lief Group, Inc. (Produced by), Judith Capodanno (Editor). It is a list of Patron Saints their prayers, Feast Days, a little story about each Saint and some of their prayers. It is by no means an exhaustive reference. Most of the Saints in the book have a picture of some kind along with them. After reading the book, I realized that a couple of Saints had caught my attention. The first was St. Dympna who is the Patron Saint of Family Happiness. Her Feast Day is May 15^th. There are many other Saints listed in the book. The table of contents lists the saint by the Patronages and the appendix lists them by their Feats Day’s. The book is about 191 pages. While the book is nice for reference, I would not recommend it for young children as it covers a lot of adult topics. The stories are direct and don’t pull any punches about the hardships the Saint endured either.

The reason that I am bringing this up today is because it is my Son’s birthday. We had invited a number of his friends over for a sleepover. We didn’t think much about inviting my son’s cousins because they live so far away. As luck would have it, my brother and his family were going to be in the area the day of the party. When I realized this, I asked him if his children could come. I thought it was a good idea because his son would have fun at the party and his daughter, my God Daughter, could have some fun playing with my daughter. As it turns out, inviting them was the best part of the party and weekend. We were able to have lunch together as a family on Saturday and Sunday. I think someone must have been praying to St. Dympna on our behalf to make this happen.

posted by CatholicFatherOf2 @ 6:57 PM 0 comments

Amazing Grace For Married Couples

Anyone reading this blog will discover that I have been reading a lot of books lately. I just finished another book, “Amazing Grace for Married Couples”, by Jeff Cavins, Matthew Pinto & Patti Armstrong. The book is about 12 chapters long. Each chapter is about a different couple whose marriage seems to start out wonderful. All of the couples run into trouble for one reason or another. In all of the marriages one or both of the partners struggle to keep the marriage together only to get to a point where they feel that they have failed. Some of the chapters are from the husband’s point of view and some are told from the wife’s point of view. At least one story is told once from each perspective. All of the couples eventually manage to pull themselves back together with an even stronger commitment then they had before their problems arose. In the end they all feel good about what has happened. A number of the couples end up helping other couples avoid the same issues. All of the stories are true and all of the marriages are ultimately saved, according to the couples, by getting God more involved in their marriage. I am sure that many couples will be able to identify with the problems the couples endured. Some of the stories will really tug on your heart string. I really like and agree with the books message. The book is a very quick read and I had a hard time putting it down once I started reading. The book is part of the “Amazing Grace Series” all published by Ascension Press. I have read a few of the other books in the series and I liked them all.

posted by CatholicFatherOf2 @ 9:00 PM 1 comments