After attending a sparsely populate Mass yesterday I came to the realization that if all the non-practicing Catholics out there starting coming to Mass on Sunday, it would be amazing. Mass would be going on non-stop all day, all around the world on any given Sunday. The churches would no longer have to beg for money during "pledge drives" and the various community and outreach ministries would not have to have fund raisers. The surge would be so overwhelming that you might actually see a decline in sin worldwide. Who knows? But, it is that type of big thinking that kept me working as a youth minister. All that pensiveness got me focused on the importance of the Mass as a Catholic tradition and so I decided I would write about it today. There are so many facets to the Mass that it would be hard to write about all of it in one setting, so I will cover the importance of prayer in Mass today. Next week, I may follow up with scripture in the Mass and the week after that I would like to write about Communion and the Eucharist as the focal point of the Mass. But, I'm getting ahead of myself here.
First, let us review what the Mass is briefly. Mass is the term used to describe celebration of the Eucharist in the Western liturgical rites of the Roman Catholic Church, Old Catholic Churches, in the Anglo-Catholic tradition of Anglicanism, and in some largely High Church Lutheran regions: in Scandinavian and Baltic countries the Lutheran Eucharistic service is also known as "the Mass". The term is derived from the late-Latin word missa (dismissal), a word used in the concluding formula of Mass in Latin: "Ite, missa est" ("Go, the dismissal is made"). The Council of Trent reaffirmed traditional Christian teaching that the Mass is the same Sacrifice of Calvary offered in an unbloody manner: "The victim is one and the same: the same now offers through the ministry of priests, who then offered himself on the cross; only the manner of offering is different. And since in this divine sacrifice which is celebrated in the Mass, the same Christ who offered himself once in a bloody manner on the altar of the cross is contained and offered in an unbloody manner... this sacrifice is truly propitiatory" (Doctrina de ss. Missae sacrificio, c. 2). The Council declared that Jesus instituted the Mass at his Last Supper: "He offered up to God the Father His own body and blood under the species of bread and wine; and, under the symbols of those same things, He delivered (His own body and blood) to be received by His apostles, whom He then constituted priests of the New Testament; and by those words, Do this in commemoration of me, He commanded them and their successors in the priesthood, to offer (them); even as the Catholic Church has always understood and taught." The Roman Catholic Church sees the Mass as the most perfect way it has to offer latria (adoration) to God. It is also Catholic belief that in objective reality, not merely symbolically, the wheaten bread and grape wine are converted into Christ's body and blood, a conversion referred to as transubstantiation, so that the whole Christ, body and blood, soul and divinity, is truly, really, and substantially contained in the sacrament of the Eucharist (a.k.a. The Real Presence, which will be discussed at a later date). There are 5 parts of the Mass: Introductory Rites, The Liturgy of the Word, The Liturgy of the Eucharist, The Communion Rite, and Concluding Rite (some of which we will elaborate on in later weeks). Before the liturgical reforms of Pope Pius XII from 1951 to 1955, it was forbidden, except for Midnight Mass on Christmas night, to begin Mass more than one hour before dawn or more than one hour after midday. In the Apostolic Constitution Christus Dominus (1953) and the Motu Propio Sacram Communionem (1957) Pius XII permitted the celebration of Mass at other times. There are no longer any time limits. Furthermore, since the Second Vatican Council, the time for fulfilling the obligation to attend Mass on Sunday or a Holy Day of Obligation now begins on the evening of the day before (in theory, after First Vespers), and most parish churches do celebrate the Sunday Mass also on Saturday evening. By long tradition and liturgical law, Mass is not celebrated at any time on Good Friday (but Holy Communion is, since the reform of Pope Pius XII, distributed to those participating in the Celebration of the Passion of the Lord with hosts consecrated at the evening Mass of the Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday) or on Holy Saturday before the beginning of the Easter Vigil. Okay, I will stop with the background on the Mass, but I hope this explains some things to you about the intricacy of it.
On to the topic at hand, prayer as the basis for the Mass. Some people ask, "Are Catholics a people of prayer? Don't the ritual and ceremony and liturgy of Mass get in the way of real prayer?" Some of the most important figures in the Catholic church led lives of reach prayer devotion outside of Mass, but I have no doubt that there moments of most intense prayer were during liturgy, at Mass, as they took Holy Communion. After all, the Catechism of the Catholic Church states, "In the liturgy, all Christian prayer finds its source and goal." How can that be? Well, why don't we think a minute how we react to the liturgy? Do we turn towards heaven as we listen to the proclamation of the Gospel? Are we going forward in love to receive the Eucharist? Are we full of joy as we sing the Great Amen? Unfortunately, it is easy to forget that the liturgy, the sacraments, and especially the Eucharist are all prayers to God - moments of intimate communion and communication with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In fact, the liturgical and ritual life of the Catholic Church is filled with prayers and is a prayer to God.
Entering the Presence of God
Perhaps the most natural, even unconscious, act of prayer for Catholics is the Sign of the Cross. Making the Sign of the Cross as we enter the church for Mass orients us. It reminds us to who we are - baptized Christians and children of God - and focuses us on what we are doing - approaching God our Father through the redemptive work of Jesus Christ on the Cross. As Christians, we have been "conformed to Christ's death" (Philippians 3:10) in baptism and we desire to be transformed into his image (2 Corinthians 3:18). Praying to Christ is a recognition of the relationship we have with him and a commitment to grow ever deeper in that life-giving union. Therefore we spend the time immediately prior to Mass in quiet contemplation, stilling our souls, and removing distractions from our hearts and minds.
Praying for Forgiveness
At Mass, after the opening procession, the priest blesses the people: "In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." United in faith, we acknowledge our sins and failings. The Penitential Rite is a prayer of confession: "I confess to almighty God…" But we don't just admit our sins, we confess who God is - almighty, just, and holy - and who we are - sinful creatures loved by God and in need of his grace. This requires humility, which is always necessary for prayer. If we do not appreciate who God is and how reliant we are upon Him, we will not pray properly. Prayer is relationship and good relationships must be based in honesty and gratitude. Without our acknowledgement of the holiness and power of God, we cannot share in the love and mercy of God.
The Prayer of Praise
Once we acknowledge our sin and frailty, we rejoice in prayer, praising God for who He is: "Glory to God in the highest! Peace to his people on earth. Lord God, heavenly King, almighty God and Father, we worship you, we give you thanks, we praise you for your glory…" The God who is just is also merciful; He makes us a "holy and beloved" people (Colossians 3:12). The Gloria continues, of course, with praise for the Son and the Holy Spirit. All Christian prayer is Trinitarian, for each of the three Persons aid us in the life of prayer and our prayers are always oriented towards the Triune God. Notice that we ask of Christ: "Receive our prayer." As High Priest, Jesus intercedes before the Father in heaven on our behalf. Our prayer in the Mass is always joined to the prayer - the self-giving - of the Son to the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Hearing with Prayerful Ears
We don't usually think of prayer in the context of the Scripture reading, but we should. Hearing Scripture and praying are inseparable, especially within the Mass. Prayer requires openness to God's word and will; Scripture is God's Word and reveals His will for us, His children. The readings from the Old Testament, the Psalms, the Epistles, and the Gospels ask for a response. In Scripture, as well as in the sacraments, it is God who initiates contact with us. "God thirsts that we may thirst for him." He desires to love us fully and to give Himself to us completely. Prayer is our "Yes" to the Triune God who is Love. St. Paul writes, "God our Savior…desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Timothy 2:3-4). God's thirst for us provides us the opportunity to know God and to experience His endless love. Our "Yes" to God opens the doors to prayer; it is prayer! Whether it is a cry of joy, exhaustion, or pain, prayer comes from the heart, so it doesn't need to be articulate or poetic - just honest and humble.
Faithful Prayer, Prayer of the Faithful
Is the Creed prayer? Certainly, for reciting it and contemplating it further establishes and deepens our relationship with God. Not simply a laundry list of beliefs, the Creed is a map of reality that tells us who God is and what the Catholic Faith is all about. In reciting the Creed we say to God, "We are yours - I believe these truths," and He responds by saying, "I am yours" in the Eucharist. The Creed is a prayer of faith, hope, and love: by faith we address God, in hope we look forward to our full communion with Him, and in love we live for His glory. The Creed articulates what we believe while shaping our minds and hearts. In the Prayer of the Faithful, we join together to pray for our world, our nation, our leaders, and for the Church. These are concrete expressions of our faith in God's work in the world. In humility we entreat, "Lord, hear our prayer," knowing that He faithfully answers those who call on His name.
Eucharistic Prayer
The Eucharist, the Catechism explains, "contains and expresses all forms of prayer: it is 'the pure offering' of the whole Body of Christ to the glory of God's name and…it is the 'sacrifice of praise.'" The Liturgy of the Eucharist, the second half of the Mass, is a series of beautiful prayers full of praise, adoration, and joy. First, the priest prays over the bread and wine, acknowledging that these gifts will become for us "the bread of life" and "our spiritual drink." Then we join with the priest in asking God to accept "our sacrifice." What is that sacrifice? We joined to Christ and His perfect sacrifice! We are, St. Paul explains, "to present (our) bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is [our] spiritual service of worship" (Romans 12:1).
The Eucharistic prayers are also full of praise. In them we thank God for his acts of salvation, especially the gift of "the Savior you sent to redeem us." These marvelous prayers contain the words of consecration and mark that moment when the Holy Spirit transforms the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. No wonder the Eucharistic prayer ends with the Great Amen, our repeated expression of thanks and joy. Then, standing before our Lord, we pray as he taught us: "Our Father…" This is, St. Thomas Aquinas said, "the most perfect of prayers," for it summarizes the entire Gospel. It is also a prayer of unity, prayed together as the family of God, with the common hope of the coming Kingdom. The prayer of unity is then followed by the Sacrament of unity, the Eucharist. Our journey of prayer leads us home to the kingdom, to the intimate marriage supper of the Lamb, Jesus Christ.
The Catholic Life is Prayer to God
To be Catholic is to pray. We pray at home, in our cars, at work, in silence, and out loud. But in the liturgy, at Mass, in hearing Scripture and partaking in the sacraments, our prayer life reaches its highest and most sublime point. There, kneeling before the altar, with a "cry of recognition and of love," we offer ourselves in prayer: "Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and I shall be healed." Amen.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Friday, April 23, 2010
Many, many awesome things
On that most exciting day when football, baseball, basketball, and hockey all collided, life was truly good. I’m talking about yesterday where the NFL Draft, postseason hockey, postseason basketball, and regular season baseball all happened to fall on the same glorious block of time between 6pm and 2am CST (thanks to the NFL moving the first round of the draft to prime time). And if only I really cared about the MLS, then it would have truly been a perfect storm, but alas professional soccer in the US is only a pale shadow of European soccer and who really care about that? Regardless, I had to literally juggle draft coverage, the Rangers game, and keeping up with the NHL and NBA postseason while still paying attention to my regular Thursday night TV selections. Not only this greatness…but the fact that the Rangers got off the schneid, brilliant! C.J. Wilson allowed just four hits over 6 2/3 scoreless frames, and the Rangers' offense, after being stymied for six innings by Clay Buchholz, broke through with three runs in the seventh to end Texas' losing streak. What the hell more could you want? A house, a dog, a career, and spending money would be nice, but enough about my problems. I was truly concerned that we would continue sliding down into the basement, but breaking out of the slump is a good thing as we head back home for a stretch. This was by far the most grueling road trip that we will have to face this season and the longest. I said we would have to come out of Boston with at least two to make up for the terrible showing in New York, but at this point, one will do. I am now looking forward to going to the game on Saturday with the free pregame concert and the Elvis Andrus bobble head. Nice.
Can’t remember when it was, that’s how bad my memory is, but I wrote recently about my love and admiration for PostSecret. Well, today I checked PostSecret and was directed to another random blog site full of useless information that somehow brightened my day (what I imagine my blog is like for ya’ll). 1000 Awesome Things (http://1000awesomethings.com/) is just a time-ticking countdown of 1000 awesome things. Launched June, 2008 and updated every weekday. And it came out as 400-page hardcover The Book of Awesome this month. Consumer angst has turned western civilization into a morass of grumpy old men moaning about shoddy battery life of iPhones or the annoying omnipresence of accident claims adverts when you just want to watch a daytime quiz show. So sometimes, it’s nice to remind yourself of life’s sweeter side and the pleasures to be had from the small things…like peeling the thin plastic film off new electronic gadgets or sneaking your own cheap snacks into the cinemas. Not as deep and insightful as the soul searching that PostSecret brings, but perhaps a good way to go nonetheless. In fact Frank Warren, creator of PostSecret is quoted on the site as saying, “1000 Awesome Things is the #1 awesome website.” An endorsement like that is hard to ignore, and so are the topics of the 1000 awesome things.
Given the hectic nature of our lives, it’s easy to overlook the little things that make it all worthwhile. Thank goodness we’ve got this site to remind us of life’s small pleasures. I came upon today’s #521, but I’ve already identified a few favorites including that pile of assorted beers left in your fridge after a party, locking people out of the car and pretending to drive away, and finding money you didn’t even know you lost. Sleeping in your own bed after a long trip, being able to carry all the groceries from the car in one swoop, that miracle of science when the amount of toilet paper left on the toll is the exact amount you need…these are just some of the quietly awesome things in life. From the surprising (Thinking it’s Thursday when it’s really Friday) to the simply satisfying (Letting go of the gas pump at just the right moment), the pain-relieving (Getting the eyelash out of your eye) to small victories (Getting the armrest at the movies), the site features new awesomeness every day. It reminds you that not everything is ridiculous and hard to deal with. Sometimes it’s just awesome. That’s when you smile to yourself and think, “Hell yeah, I can get through this.”
Today’s (#521) was…Calling a mulligan on the day. So, I’m going to do that and head back to bed.
Mulligan!
AWESOME.
And I just found you can sign up to have them just come to your email inbox. So easy.
AWESOME.
Can’t remember when it was, that’s how bad my memory is, but I wrote recently about my love and admiration for PostSecret. Well, today I checked PostSecret and was directed to another random blog site full of useless information that somehow brightened my day (what I imagine my blog is like for ya’ll). 1000 Awesome Things (http://1000awesomethings.com/) is just a time-ticking countdown of 1000 awesome things. Launched June, 2008 and updated every weekday. And it came out as 400-page hardcover The Book of Awesome this month. Consumer angst has turned western civilization into a morass of grumpy old men moaning about shoddy battery life of iPhones or the annoying omnipresence of accident claims adverts when you just want to watch a daytime quiz show. So sometimes, it’s nice to remind yourself of life’s sweeter side and the pleasures to be had from the small things…like peeling the thin plastic film off new electronic gadgets or sneaking your own cheap snacks into the cinemas. Not as deep and insightful as the soul searching that PostSecret brings, but perhaps a good way to go nonetheless. In fact Frank Warren, creator of PostSecret is quoted on the site as saying, “1000 Awesome Things is the #1 awesome website.” An endorsement like that is hard to ignore, and so are the topics of the 1000 awesome things.
Given the hectic nature of our lives, it’s easy to overlook the little things that make it all worthwhile. Thank goodness we’ve got this site to remind us of life’s small pleasures. I came upon today’s #521, but I’ve already identified a few favorites including that pile of assorted beers left in your fridge after a party, locking people out of the car and pretending to drive away, and finding money you didn’t even know you lost. Sleeping in your own bed after a long trip, being able to carry all the groceries from the car in one swoop, that miracle of science when the amount of toilet paper left on the toll is the exact amount you need…these are just some of the quietly awesome things in life. From the surprising (Thinking it’s Thursday when it’s really Friday) to the simply satisfying (Letting go of the gas pump at just the right moment), the pain-relieving (Getting the eyelash out of your eye) to small victories (Getting the armrest at the movies), the site features new awesomeness every day. It reminds you that not everything is ridiculous and hard to deal with. Sometimes it’s just awesome. That’s when you smile to yourself and think, “Hell yeah, I can get through this.”
Today’s (#521) was…Calling a mulligan on the day. So, I’m going to do that and head back to bed.
Mulligan!
AWESOME.
And I just found you can sign up to have them just come to your email inbox. So easy.
AWESOME.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Just more reasons why Texas is great
Argh! I am so frustrated with my Texas Rangers that I can hardly stand it. Seriously, how many leads do you have to blow before you realize you need to start working on your defense? I can’t get too upset since it is so early in the season, but really…these are the basics. I will reserve the bulk of my angry Rangers rant for later in the season when the defense gets better and our offense starts falling off (it is inevitable, because we can’t have all parts of our game working properly). But there is something going right in Texas pretty much all the time…being great. Yes, the former independent nation now great state of Texas has been superior in many ways over the years. From our simply better than everyone else’s micro-brewed beers to our extremely more attractive than everyone else’s women, we are the last bastion of the American dream. Here we are, seemingly skirting the economic downturn while the rest of the country wallows in their own stupidity (and the result of it). Now now…I am not saying we are smarter or better than the rest of the country. I am just saying that we’re smarter and better than every other state.
Once a separate nation, Texas has recently been behaving more like an independent economic republic than a regular state. While it hasn't been immune to the problems plaguing the nation, the Texas housing market, employment rate, and overall economic growth are relatively strong. This can be attributed to our excellent geology and stunning geography. But Texan prosperity also reflects the conscious efforts of a once-parochial place to embrace globalization. If you took a business class in the last twenty years then you have heard this buzz word of economic growth. Globalization describes a process by which regional economies, societies, and cultures have become integrated through a globe-spanning network of communication and trade. And if you paid any attention in those business classes you know that countries that have embraced globalization have grown by leaps and bounds compared to countries with relatively closed economic/social policies. This is true of Texas and is indicated by several measures of economic stress. The state unemployment rate is 8.2 percent…high, but still one many states would envy (California's is 12.5 percent; Michigan's is 14.1 percent). It entered recession later than the rest of the country (Texas was adding jobs through August 2008) and started slowly adding jobs again last fall, thanks mostly to its great position in the largely recession-proof energy industry.
Are there any distressed homeowners in my readership? By far the housing slump and mortgage crisis hit many Americans pretty hard. My theory about all that is…if you couldn’t afford it, then why the hell did you buy it. Take a second to think about this. Did you read your mortgage agreement? Did you seriously think that magically, all of the sudden; you could afford a home when you hadn’t been able to up until that point? Come on, quit begging the government to bail you out and think for a minute who really put you in the place that you’re in. Then, wish and hope and pray that you had only lived in Texas when this all happened. The Texas housing market has fared better than many. The mortgage delinquency rate (the portion of borrowers three months behind on payments) is 5.78 percent, compared with 8.78 nationwide, according to First American CoreLogic. That's partly because relaxed zoning codes and abundant land kept both price appreciation and speculation down. "House prices didn't experience a bubble in the same way as the rest of the nation," said Anil Kumar, senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas (who I met while pursuing my Economics degree at SMU). But it's also because of two attributes not commonly associated with the Longhorn State: financial restraint and comparatively strong regulation. Unlike many of its neighbors, Texas has state laws that prohibited consumers from using home-equity lines of credit to increase borrowing to more than 80 percent of the value of their homes. The upshot: Dallas housing prices have fallen only 7 percent from their 2007 peak, according to the Case-Shiller index.
As it has for decades, energy is driving Texas' economy. But it's not because the state's wells are gushing crude. Though it doesn’t seem right that the state that gained its fame through a television show about a modern oil dynasty (Dallas), Texas is leading the way in alternative energy sources. Sure, we’re still pumping the black gold out of the fields of West Texas. In November 2009, Texas wells produced 1.08 million barrels per day, about half as much as they did in the late 1980s. In recent years, natural gas has been undergoing a renaissance. That renaissance happened right in my backyard…or I guess you would say it’s my neighbor’s backyard. The Barnett Shale is a geological formation underlies the city of Fort Worth and underlies 5,000 square miles and at least 17 counties. Some experts have suggested the Barnett Shale may have the largest producible reserves of any onshore natural gas field in the United States. The state's production rose about 35 percent between 2004 and 2008, partly due to this find and the resulting wells that sprang up from it. While traveling out to the ballpark last year to see the Rangers play you could make out the crowns of the wells behind sound-dampening walls along the highway. And Texas has received a big boost from a different, renewable source of energy: wind.
Wind power in Texas consists of many wind farms with a total installed nameplate capacity of 9,410 MW from over 40 different projects. Texas produces the most wind power of any U.S. state, followed by Iowa with 3,670 MW. Several forces are working to the advantage of wind power in Texas: the wind resource in many areas of the state is very large, large projects are relatively easy to site and the market price for electricity is relatively high because it is set by natural gas prices. In this area, Texas' size and history of independence has enabled it to jump-start a new industry. The state has its own electricity grid, which is not connected to neighboring states. That has allowed it to move swiftly and decisively in deregulating power markets, building new transmission lines, and pursuing alternative sources. "We can build transmission lines without federal jurisdiction and without consulting other states," said Paul Sadler, executive director of the Austin-based Wind Coalition. Ramping up wind power nationally would require connecting energy fields—the windswept, sparsely populated plains—to population centers on the coasts and in the Midwest. Texas' grid already connects the plains of West Texas with consumers in Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, and Houston. Texas recently surpassed 10,000 megawatts of capacity, the most by far of any state and enough to power 3 million homes, Sadler says. Wind energy is also powering employment—creating more than 10,000 jobs so far. And it and has attracted foreign companies, including Danish turbine maker Vestas, Spanish renewable-energy giant Iberdrola, and Shell.
Texas today is more suburban engineer than urban cowboy, more Michael Dell than J.R. Ewing. Austin, home to the University of Texas, the state government, and Dell Computer, has a 7 percent unemployment rate. Yes, ExxonMobil is based in Irving. But the state's energy complex is increasingly focused more on services and technology than on intuition and wildcatting. And it is selling those services into the global oil patch. Russian, Persian Gulf, and African oil developers now come to Houston for equipment, engineering, and software. Ever since the discovery of oil at Spindletop, energy has been a dominant force politically and economically within the state. According to the Energy Information Administration, Texans consume the most energy in the nation per capita and as a whole. Unlike the rest of the nation, most of Texas is on its own alternating current power grid, the Texas Interconnection. Despite the California electricity crisis, Texas still has a deregulated electric service. Along with rich petroleum and natural gas reserves the Energy Information Administration states that the Texas' large agriculture and forestry industries could give Texas an enormous amount biomass for use in biofuels. The state also has the highest solar power potential for development in the nation. The oilman and the alternative fuel hippie can sit down for a frank discussion about the future of energy in Houston while the rest of the United States squabbles over heating oil.
While its political leaders may occasionally flirt with secession, Texas thrives on connection. It surpassed California several years ago as the nation's largest exporting state. Manufactured goods like electronics, chemicals, and machinery account for a bigger chunk of Texas' exports than petroleum does. In the first two months of 2010, exports of stuff made in Texas rose 24.3 percent, to $29 billion, from 2009. That's about 10 percent of the nation's total exports. There are more than 700,000 Texan jobs geared to manufacturing goods for export, according to Patrick Jankowski, vice president of research at the Greater Houston Partnership. "A lot of it is capital goods that the Asian, Latin American, and African [countries] are using to build their economies." As of 2008, Texas had a gross state product (GSP) of $1.224 trillion, the second highest in the U.S. Its GSP is comparable to the GDP of India or Canada which are ranked 12th and 11th worldwide. Texas's economy is the third largest in the world of country subdivisions. Texas's large population, abundance of natural resources, and diverse population and geography have led to a large and diverse economy. According to the Tax Foundation, Texans' state and local tax burdens rank among the lowest in the nation, 7th lowest nationally; state and local taxes cost $3,580 per capita, or 8.7% of resident incomes. Texas is one of six states that lack a state income tax. Texas has the most farms and the highest acreage in the United States. Texas leads the nation livestock production. Cattle is the state's most valuable agricultural product, and the state leads nationally in production of sheep and goat products. Texas leads the nation in production of cotton. The state grows significant amounts of cereal crops and produce. Texas has a large commercial fishing industry. With large universities systems coupled with initiatives like the Texas Enterprise Fund and the Texas Emerging Technology Fund, a wide array of different high tech industries have developed in Texas. The Austin area is nicknamed the "Silicon Hills" and the north Dallas area the "Silicon Prairie".
Thanks to that embrace of globalization, the Texas turnaround may help lead the nation in its economic turnaround. Texans have always had the ability to think big. Now that their state has become a player in the global economy, we can expect a new kind of swagger.
Once a separate nation, Texas has recently been behaving more like an independent economic republic than a regular state. While it hasn't been immune to the problems plaguing the nation, the Texas housing market, employment rate, and overall economic growth are relatively strong. This can be attributed to our excellent geology and stunning geography. But Texan prosperity also reflects the conscious efforts of a once-parochial place to embrace globalization. If you took a business class in the last twenty years then you have heard this buzz word of economic growth. Globalization describes a process by which regional economies, societies, and cultures have become integrated through a globe-spanning network of communication and trade. And if you paid any attention in those business classes you know that countries that have embraced globalization have grown by leaps and bounds compared to countries with relatively closed economic/social policies. This is true of Texas and is indicated by several measures of economic stress. The state unemployment rate is 8.2 percent…high, but still one many states would envy (California's is 12.5 percent; Michigan's is 14.1 percent). It entered recession later than the rest of the country (Texas was adding jobs through August 2008) and started slowly adding jobs again last fall, thanks mostly to its great position in the largely recession-proof energy industry.
Are there any distressed homeowners in my readership? By far the housing slump and mortgage crisis hit many Americans pretty hard. My theory about all that is…if you couldn’t afford it, then why the hell did you buy it. Take a second to think about this. Did you read your mortgage agreement? Did you seriously think that magically, all of the sudden; you could afford a home when you hadn’t been able to up until that point? Come on, quit begging the government to bail you out and think for a minute who really put you in the place that you’re in. Then, wish and hope and pray that you had only lived in Texas when this all happened. The Texas housing market has fared better than many. The mortgage delinquency rate (the portion of borrowers three months behind on payments) is 5.78 percent, compared with 8.78 nationwide, according to First American CoreLogic. That's partly because relaxed zoning codes and abundant land kept both price appreciation and speculation down. "House prices didn't experience a bubble in the same way as the rest of the nation," said Anil Kumar, senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas (who I met while pursuing my Economics degree at SMU). But it's also because of two attributes not commonly associated with the Longhorn State: financial restraint and comparatively strong regulation. Unlike many of its neighbors, Texas has state laws that prohibited consumers from using home-equity lines of credit to increase borrowing to more than 80 percent of the value of their homes. The upshot: Dallas housing prices have fallen only 7 percent from their 2007 peak, according to the Case-Shiller index.
As it has for decades, energy is driving Texas' economy. But it's not because the state's wells are gushing crude. Though it doesn’t seem right that the state that gained its fame through a television show about a modern oil dynasty (Dallas), Texas is leading the way in alternative energy sources. Sure, we’re still pumping the black gold out of the fields of West Texas. In November 2009, Texas wells produced 1.08 million barrels per day, about half as much as they did in the late 1980s. In recent years, natural gas has been undergoing a renaissance. That renaissance happened right in my backyard…or I guess you would say it’s my neighbor’s backyard. The Barnett Shale is a geological formation underlies the city of Fort Worth and underlies 5,000 square miles and at least 17 counties. Some experts have suggested the Barnett Shale may have the largest producible reserves of any onshore natural gas field in the United States. The state's production rose about 35 percent between 2004 and 2008, partly due to this find and the resulting wells that sprang up from it. While traveling out to the ballpark last year to see the Rangers play you could make out the crowns of the wells behind sound-dampening walls along the highway. And Texas has received a big boost from a different, renewable source of energy: wind.
Wind power in Texas consists of many wind farms with a total installed nameplate capacity of 9,410 MW from over 40 different projects. Texas produces the most wind power of any U.S. state, followed by Iowa with 3,670 MW. Several forces are working to the advantage of wind power in Texas: the wind resource in many areas of the state is very large, large projects are relatively easy to site and the market price for electricity is relatively high because it is set by natural gas prices. In this area, Texas' size and history of independence has enabled it to jump-start a new industry. The state has its own electricity grid, which is not connected to neighboring states. That has allowed it to move swiftly and decisively in deregulating power markets, building new transmission lines, and pursuing alternative sources. "We can build transmission lines without federal jurisdiction and without consulting other states," said Paul Sadler, executive director of the Austin-based Wind Coalition. Ramping up wind power nationally would require connecting energy fields—the windswept, sparsely populated plains—to population centers on the coasts and in the Midwest. Texas' grid already connects the plains of West Texas with consumers in Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, and Houston. Texas recently surpassed 10,000 megawatts of capacity, the most by far of any state and enough to power 3 million homes, Sadler says. Wind energy is also powering employment—creating more than 10,000 jobs so far. And it and has attracted foreign companies, including Danish turbine maker Vestas, Spanish renewable-energy giant Iberdrola, and Shell.
Texas today is more suburban engineer than urban cowboy, more Michael Dell than J.R. Ewing. Austin, home to the University of Texas, the state government, and Dell Computer, has a 7 percent unemployment rate. Yes, ExxonMobil is based in Irving. But the state's energy complex is increasingly focused more on services and technology than on intuition and wildcatting. And it is selling those services into the global oil patch. Russian, Persian Gulf, and African oil developers now come to Houston for equipment, engineering, and software. Ever since the discovery of oil at Spindletop, energy has been a dominant force politically and economically within the state. According to the Energy Information Administration, Texans consume the most energy in the nation per capita and as a whole. Unlike the rest of the nation, most of Texas is on its own alternating current power grid, the Texas Interconnection. Despite the California electricity crisis, Texas still has a deregulated electric service. Along with rich petroleum and natural gas reserves the Energy Information Administration states that the Texas' large agriculture and forestry industries could give Texas an enormous amount biomass for use in biofuels. The state also has the highest solar power potential for development in the nation. The oilman and the alternative fuel hippie can sit down for a frank discussion about the future of energy in Houston while the rest of the United States squabbles over heating oil.
While its political leaders may occasionally flirt with secession, Texas thrives on connection. It surpassed California several years ago as the nation's largest exporting state. Manufactured goods like electronics, chemicals, and machinery account for a bigger chunk of Texas' exports than petroleum does. In the first two months of 2010, exports of stuff made in Texas rose 24.3 percent, to $29 billion, from 2009. That's about 10 percent of the nation's total exports. There are more than 700,000 Texan jobs geared to manufacturing goods for export, according to Patrick Jankowski, vice president of research at the Greater Houston Partnership. "A lot of it is capital goods that the Asian, Latin American, and African [countries] are using to build their economies." As of 2008, Texas had a gross state product (GSP) of $1.224 trillion, the second highest in the U.S. Its GSP is comparable to the GDP of India or Canada which are ranked 12th and 11th worldwide. Texas's economy is the third largest in the world of country subdivisions. Texas's large population, abundance of natural resources, and diverse population and geography have led to a large and diverse economy. According to the Tax Foundation, Texans' state and local tax burdens rank among the lowest in the nation, 7th lowest nationally; state and local taxes cost $3,580 per capita, or 8.7% of resident incomes. Texas is one of six states that lack a state income tax. Texas has the most farms and the highest acreage in the United States. Texas leads the nation livestock production. Cattle is the state's most valuable agricultural product, and the state leads nationally in production of sheep and goat products. Texas leads the nation in production of cotton. The state grows significant amounts of cereal crops and produce. Texas has a large commercial fishing industry. With large universities systems coupled with initiatives like the Texas Enterprise Fund and the Texas Emerging Technology Fund, a wide array of different high tech industries have developed in Texas. The Austin area is nicknamed the "Silicon Hills" and the north Dallas area the "Silicon Prairie".
Thanks to that embrace of globalization, the Texas turnaround may help lead the nation in its economic turnaround. Texans have always had the ability to think big. Now that their state has become a player in the global economy, we can expect a new kind of swagger.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Bringing back old traditions
When I was blogging full time all those years ago I had a regular weekly entry I called the “Catholic Answer Series”. It started from being questioned time and time again about what we do as Catholics. Well, I enjoyed doing that because it pushed me to look for the answers to those questions myself and to broaden my understanding. I’ve never been outside myself when it came to things concerning Catholicism, but researching and answering everyone’s Catholic questions made me more resolute in my knowledge. So, without so many more words, I have decided to bring this back without so much formality. Every Monday, well maybe not every Monday, I’ll be trying to address specific actions, traditions, and rituals that are a part of the Catholic faith. Today we’ll be looking into the topic of the Saints.
Praying to the Saints
One of the main practices which are often greatly misunderstood is the custom of praying to the saints and angels for intercession. We believe that the angels and saints in Heaven not only pray with us, but also for us. The saints in Heaven have the ability to offer up to God the prayers of the faithful on earth. People who have a problem with Catholics giving honor to and praying for intercession from the angels and saints usually mention one passage to support their position: 1 Timothy 2:5 in which Jesus is mentioned as the only Mediator between man and God. This verse is very true, Jesus is the sole Mediator, but this does not mean that we are restricted from asking our fellow Christians to pray both for us and with us. This would include our fellow Christians in heaven and in Purgatory, who are all a part of the body of Christ: the Church. Let us think about it this way: If your mother was very ill, would you come to me and ask me to join you in prayer for her? If you would come to me, a mere person, a sinning human being, and ask me to intercede in prayer for your intention, why not ask of a saint in heaven who is already purified and perfected and sees the face of God? Our brothers and sisters in Heaven have already been sanctified, so why not ask for them to pray for our specific intentions?
I have heard this argument too many times, too. The "I don't pray to dead people" argument, as I like to refer to it. The Church doesn't think heaven is a "dead" place. Catholics believe people in heaven are alive. The Church thinks heaven is a lively place with lots of singing and stuff. Requests for intercession of saints are as old as Christianity itself. It is not a construct of the middle ages. My parents recently visited the Catacombs, just outside of Rome. The told me all about it. It was an amazing experience. They felt a strong connection with the early Christians who left a written record on the walls of the Catacombs as a testimony of their beliefs. Mom took a picture of a wall of hundreds of inscriptions asking the martyred Peter and Paul to pray for them. My father told me that he was much moved. The Catholic teaching is that there is a communion of saints who are praying for us and we can join them in prayer the same way as we would join in prayer with our friends at a prayer meeting. Scripture says we were "all baptized into one body" (1 Corinthians 12:13). Christians are one body which is not divided by death or anything else (Rom 8:38-39). Christians in heaven are still members of that body of Christ.
The Church believes in giving honor to the communion of saints, in heaven. One way, aside from directly praying to them is by wearing medals with their images and displaying statues and pictures of them in our homes. Again, we do these things as visual reminders of these wonderful saints who are just waiting for us to call upon them and their powerful intercession. Any types of pictures or images of the saints, angels, Blessed Mother or Christ serve as ways to bring our hearts, minds and thoughts to God and godly things. There are so many distractions in our world today; we all need something visual during the course of our day to bring us back to God now and again. That is the purpose of having images and statues of the angels and saints. There are people who may use the argument that having such images constitutes 'worshipping false idols,' but once again, this is a great misunderstanding. We do not worship the actual stone from which the statue is made from, not the actual paper and frame from which a picture is made. Just as most of us have pictures of family members and loved ones around our homes, we have them as visual reminders of those we love. We do not actually worship the picture itself, but love and honor the friend or relative which the picture represents.
The Bible directs us to invoke those in heaven and ask them to pray with us. Thus in Psalms 103, we pray, "Bless the Lord, O you his angels, you mighty ones who do his word, hearkening to the voice of his word! Bless the Lord, all his hosts, his ministers that do his will!" (Ps. 103:20-21). Not only do those in heaven pray with us, they also pray for us. And those in heaven who offer to God our prayers aren't just angels, but humans as well. The saints in heaven offer to God the prayers of the saints on earth.
Aren't All Christians Saints
When Catholics say the word “saint”, they are usually talking about a specific kind of saint, a canonized saint. Catholics should probably be more explicit so as not to cause confusion. The Church recognizes some Christians (saints) that have endured, entered Heaven and won the crown, and have proved to be serious prayer warriors for us on earth. The Church must be convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that the saint is in heaven. This is why they go through so much scrutiny over each and every saint. When they canonize someone they are really saying: "Hey, this person had a very cool relationship to the Lord while on earth and now they are in heaven and are really praying hard for us." I think anyone could look at people who have been canonized by the Catholic Church and say, "yeah, that person is in heaven." I encourage everyone, Catholic or not, to pick up a book about the lives of the saints or look up a saint that you know of and read about them. You will find that the saints were people who did all they could to live their lives as Jesus did. Take up the challenge and let me know what you think.
Let's try the university analogy for the saints. Try to compare this saint thing to a university. Saints are sort of like graduates. I recently graduated from the Southern Methodist University (well, not recently). Now that I've graduated, I am an Alumnus. That means I'm still active with the university but in a different capacity. I am there to support the university now. I could sit on councils and contribute in many ways. There is an obligation to help in some way. I'm not a director. I don't make decisions. I'm not the Dean. I'm just a graduate - an Alumnus. Now think about Christians in heaven as alumni to the Church. They pray for it. They help out. They help where they can. They don't make decisions for God. They are not the "Dean" of heaven. They are just servants who've successfully graduated this school of life. They successfully abandoned themselves to Jesus and helped many others do that too. And now they can help us graduate through their prayer and their example.
Isn't Jesus Powerful Enough to give us Salvation without Saints
I have heard this offered as an argument before when talking to a non-Catholic friend about the saints. If there was ever a more insulting thing to say to a Christian, than I don't know what it is. Questioning my belief in the power of Jesus is like questioning my belief in the power of God…that is ridiculous. How can someone think that the Catholic Church is saying that Jesus needs saints to do His work for Him? They actually accuse us of saying that Jesus is inadequate to do the job Himself. I believe, as every Christian should/does, that God is complete. It is not out of Jesus' incompleteness that he has called angels and saints to join him in ministry. It is not because he is not strong enough and needs help. He could easily snap his fingers and the entire population of the world would suddenly see God and know He exists. He does not need Mary, angels, or saints. Nor does he need you or me. It is not out of his incompleteness that he has invited Mary, the angels, the saints and you and me to join in his ministry. It is out of his overabundance of graces and love. Catholics think it is because of his generosity, his desire to share his graces, his overflowing goodness, and his great love for us that he asks people to help him. He is overflowing with graces that he shares with his angels and all his children. If he loves you and me so much as to invite us to join in his ministry, I don't think it is hard to imagine that he would invite his disciples who are in heaven to join in his ministry. I think the fact that all Christians agree that angels are helping us shows that we understand that Jesus invites helpers in heaven to join Him; Catholics believe those helpers include faithful Christians who are in heaven.
Christ is the Center
The Catholic Church is clear about the centrality of Jesus. There is no other way of Christian prayer than Christ. Whether our prayer is communal or personal, vocal or interior, it has access to the Father only if we pray "in the name" of Jesus... to invoke him (Catechism of the Catholic Church 2665-2666). The Saints are simply "alumni" who are there to help Jesus in the same way the angels help. Pope John Paul II wrote in his Message to World Youth Day 2000 the following: "The Cross, which seems to rise up from the earth, in actual fact reaches down from heaven, enfolding the universe in a divine embrace. The Cross reveals itself to be the center, meaning and goal of all history and every human life."
Praying to the Saints
One of the main practices which are often greatly misunderstood is the custom of praying to the saints and angels for intercession. We believe that the angels and saints in Heaven not only pray with us, but also for us. The saints in Heaven have the ability to offer up to God the prayers of the faithful on earth. People who have a problem with Catholics giving honor to and praying for intercession from the angels and saints usually mention one passage to support their position: 1 Timothy 2:5 in which Jesus is mentioned as the only Mediator between man and God. This verse is very true, Jesus is the sole Mediator, but this does not mean that we are restricted from asking our fellow Christians to pray both for us and with us. This would include our fellow Christians in heaven and in Purgatory, who are all a part of the body of Christ: the Church. Let us think about it this way: If your mother was very ill, would you come to me and ask me to join you in prayer for her? If you would come to me, a mere person, a sinning human being, and ask me to intercede in prayer for your intention, why not ask of a saint in heaven who is already purified and perfected and sees the face of God? Our brothers and sisters in Heaven have already been sanctified, so why not ask for them to pray for our specific intentions?
I have heard this argument too many times, too. The "I don't pray to dead people" argument, as I like to refer to it. The Church doesn't think heaven is a "dead" place. Catholics believe people in heaven are alive. The Church thinks heaven is a lively place with lots of singing and stuff. Requests for intercession of saints are as old as Christianity itself. It is not a construct of the middle ages. My parents recently visited the Catacombs, just outside of Rome. The told me all about it. It was an amazing experience. They felt a strong connection with the early Christians who left a written record on the walls of the Catacombs as a testimony of their beliefs. Mom took a picture of a wall of hundreds of inscriptions asking the martyred Peter and Paul to pray for them. My father told me that he was much moved. The Catholic teaching is that there is a communion of saints who are praying for us and we can join them in prayer the same way as we would join in prayer with our friends at a prayer meeting. Scripture says we were "all baptized into one body" (1 Corinthians 12:13). Christians are one body which is not divided by death or anything else (Rom 8:38-39). Christians in heaven are still members of that body of Christ.
The Church believes in giving honor to the communion of saints, in heaven. One way, aside from directly praying to them is by wearing medals with their images and displaying statues and pictures of them in our homes. Again, we do these things as visual reminders of these wonderful saints who are just waiting for us to call upon them and their powerful intercession. Any types of pictures or images of the saints, angels, Blessed Mother or Christ serve as ways to bring our hearts, minds and thoughts to God and godly things. There are so many distractions in our world today; we all need something visual during the course of our day to bring us back to God now and again. That is the purpose of having images and statues of the angels and saints. There are people who may use the argument that having such images constitutes 'worshipping false idols,' but once again, this is a great misunderstanding. We do not worship the actual stone from which the statue is made from, not the actual paper and frame from which a picture is made. Just as most of us have pictures of family members and loved ones around our homes, we have them as visual reminders of those we love. We do not actually worship the picture itself, but love and honor the friend or relative which the picture represents.
The Bible directs us to invoke those in heaven and ask them to pray with us. Thus in Psalms 103, we pray, "Bless the Lord, O you his angels, you mighty ones who do his word, hearkening to the voice of his word! Bless the Lord, all his hosts, his ministers that do his will!" (Ps. 103:20-21). Not only do those in heaven pray with us, they also pray for us. And those in heaven who offer to God our prayers aren't just angels, but humans as well. The saints in heaven offer to God the prayers of the saints on earth.
Aren't All Christians Saints
When Catholics say the word “saint”, they are usually talking about a specific kind of saint, a canonized saint. Catholics should probably be more explicit so as not to cause confusion. The Church recognizes some Christians (saints) that have endured, entered Heaven and won the crown, and have proved to be serious prayer warriors for us on earth. The Church must be convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that the saint is in heaven. This is why they go through so much scrutiny over each and every saint. When they canonize someone they are really saying: "Hey, this person had a very cool relationship to the Lord while on earth and now they are in heaven and are really praying hard for us." I think anyone could look at people who have been canonized by the Catholic Church and say, "yeah, that person is in heaven." I encourage everyone, Catholic or not, to pick up a book about the lives of the saints or look up a saint that you know of and read about them. You will find that the saints were people who did all they could to live their lives as Jesus did. Take up the challenge and let me know what you think.
Let's try the university analogy for the saints. Try to compare this saint thing to a university. Saints are sort of like graduates. I recently graduated from the Southern Methodist University (well, not recently). Now that I've graduated, I am an Alumnus. That means I'm still active with the university but in a different capacity. I am there to support the university now. I could sit on councils and contribute in many ways. There is an obligation to help in some way. I'm not a director. I don't make decisions. I'm not the Dean. I'm just a graduate - an Alumnus. Now think about Christians in heaven as alumni to the Church. They pray for it. They help out. They help where they can. They don't make decisions for God. They are not the "Dean" of heaven. They are just servants who've successfully graduated this school of life. They successfully abandoned themselves to Jesus and helped many others do that too. And now they can help us graduate through their prayer and their example.
Isn't Jesus Powerful Enough to give us Salvation without Saints
I have heard this offered as an argument before when talking to a non-Catholic friend about the saints. If there was ever a more insulting thing to say to a Christian, than I don't know what it is. Questioning my belief in the power of Jesus is like questioning my belief in the power of God…that is ridiculous. How can someone think that the Catholic Church is saying that Jesus needs saints to do His work for Him? They actually accuse us of saying that Jesus is inadequate to do the job Himself. I believe, as every Christian should/does, that God is complete. It is not out of Jesus' incompleteness that he has called angels and saints to join him in ministry. It is not because he is not strong enough and needs help. He could easily snap his fingers and the entire population of the world would suddenly see God and know He exists. He does not need Mary, angels, or saints. Nor does he need you or me. It is not out of his incompleteness that he has invited Mary, the angels, the saints and you and me to join in his ministry. It is out of his overabundance of graces and love. Catholics think it is because of his generosity, his desire to share his graces, his overflowing goodness, and his great love for us that he asks people to help him. He is overflowing with graces that he shares with his angels and all his children. If he loves you and me so much as to invite us to join in his ministry, I don't think it is hard to imagine that he would invite his disciples who are in heaven to join in his ministry. I think the fact that all Christians agree that angels are helping us shows that we understand that Jesus invites helpers in heaven to join Him; Catholics believe those helpers include faithful Christians who are in heaven.
Christ is the Center
The Catholic Church is clear about the centrality of Jesus. There is no other way of Christian prayer than Christ. Whether our prayer is communal or personal, vocal or interior, it has access to the Father only if we pray "in the name" of Jesus... to invoke him (Catechism of the Catholic Church 2665-2666). The Saints are simply "alumni" who are there to help Jesus in the same way the angels help. Pope John Paul II wrote in his Message to World Youth Day 2000 the following: "The Cross, which seems to rise up from the earth, in actual fact reaches down from heaven, enfolding the universe in a divine embrace. The Cross reveals itself to be the center, meaning and goal of all history and every human life."
Friday, April 16, 2010
Paddling ain't just for rivers
Finally, the world has set itself right in a strange way. In an era when students talk back to teachers, skip class and wear ever-more-risque clothing to school, one central Texas city has hit upon a deceptively simple solution: Bring back the paddle. I admit, having grown up during the anti-corporal punishment age was rather nice, but I didn’t have any instance where the threat or such adjustment exercises would apply. I did however know several people whose lives may have been improved by a few quick smacks on the ass with a paddle. I mean, seriously, my parents used corporal punishment and the threat of such action to keep me and my brother in check a number of times. I feel like we grew up better because of it. Those of you out there with hippie parents who coddled you through your youth will not know what I mean, but if you had parents who believed in spanking then you may understand. Something about facing an actual, physical reprimand seems to work more often than not in preventing ridiculous behavior. But, as a more litigious society came about due to the go-go eighties and high-life nineties, corporal punishment, especially in public schools, was pushed aside.
Most school districts across the country banned paddling of students long ago. Texas sat that trend out. Nearly a quarter of the estimated 225,000 students who received corporal punishment nationwide in 2006, the latest figures available, were from the Lone Star State. But even by Texas standards, Temple is unusual. If you’ve ever made the long drive up or down Interstate 35 to get to the places you would actually want to be, Dallas or Austin, you’ve passed Temple. Most notable from the highway is the football stadium which stands prominently above the other modest buildings in town. The city, a compact railroad hub of 60,000 people, banned the practice and then revived it at the demand of parents who longed for the orderly schools of yesteryear. Without paddling, "there were no consequences for kids," said Steve Wright, who runs a construction business and is Temple's school board president. Consequences for your actions, what a novel idea!? Who would have thought?
Since paddling was brought back to the city's 14 schools by a unanimous board vote in May, behavior at Temple's single high school has changed dramatically, Wright said, even though only one student in the school system has been paddled. "The discipline problem is much better than it's been in years," Wright said, something he attributed to the new punishment and to other discipline programs schools are trying. Residents of the city's comfortable homes, most of which sport neighborly, worn chairs out front, praise the change. "There are times when maybe a good crack might not be a bad idea," said Robert Pippin, a custom home builder who sports a goatee and cowboy boots. I don’t want to be cliché, but only in Texas would you find a seemingly professional man with a goatee and boots suggesting we give the kids a “crack” to keep them in check. That’s why I live here.
Corporal punishment remains legal in 20 states, mostly in the South, but its use is diminishing. Ohio ended it last year, and a movement for a federal ban is afoot. A House subcommittee held a hearing on the practice Thursday, and its chairman, Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.), is gearing up for a push to end the practice once and for all. She plans to introduce legislation within weeks. "When you look that the federal government has outlawed physical punishment in prisons, I think the time has come that we should do it in schools," she said. Only a Democrat from the North would use such logic. Honestly, since I don’t see myself ending up in prison any time soon, we should probably bring corporal punishment back there as well, not take it out of the schools. Backward thinking liberal. And I don’t think that the decision to use or not use physical punishment in schools should be up to the United States government to decide. It should be a local matter handled by local school boards and local legislation. This goes back to the State’s Rights argument that I have had with Democrats for several years. Some things just shouldn’t be a federal government matter (like health care). Rules about paddling vary from district to district, but typically only administrators, not teachers, can mete out the punishment, which is done in private. Usually, a long, flat wooden paddle is used to give as many as three blows across the student's clothed rear end, although it was found that some students had been hit many more times. Boys are overwhelmingly the target, which makes sense because we are usually overwhelmingly worse in our behavior.
Having studied psychology I do understand that corporal punishment is not the best answer all the time. A joint American Civil Liberties Union-Human Rights Watch report last year found that students with disabilities were disproportionately subjected to corporal punishment, sometimes in direct response to behavioral problems that were a result of their disabilities. Many educators and psychologists say that positive tools, such as giving praise for good behavior and withholding it for bad, are far more effective for discouraging misbehavior. Those techniques "encourage them to behave well in the future," said report author Alice Farmer. But, honestly, the findings can be turned either way depending on the side you want to stand on. Sure, positive reinforcement does work for some, but not for all. And with particularly ill behaved students wouldn’t you want good behavior now through physical punishment, rather than “in the future” with positive reinforcement.
But in Temple, a city just outside Fort Hood that shakes with the air horns of the trains that pass through its rail yards, many residents say they hope that the old-fashioned solution can address what they see as rising disrespect among youth. They say their discipline problems aren't different from those in any other school system in the country: students showing up late for class, or violating the dress code, or talking during lessons. Those habits were unheard of in the days when schoolteachers routinely swung a paddle, they say. "Back then, you wouldn't throw spitballs, because you were afraid of the consequences," said Darr Kuykendall, a worker for a plumbing supply company. "A lot of kids have tempers," said Abby Jones, a junior at Temple High School. "Those kids that would be paddled would think of it as a threat . . . and maybe would be better."
Parents also pushed for the change because many paddle their children at home and wanted consistent discipline in the classroom, said John Hancock, assistant superintendent of administration for the Temple schools, who has been an educator for more than 40 years. "We're rural central Texas. We're very well educated, but still there are those core values. Churches are full on Sundays," Hancock said. "This is a tool we'd like in the toolbox for responding to discipline issues." Hancock, an urbane, sturdily built Colorado native who wears horn-rimmed glasses, said the school system had banned corporal punishment about six years ago because a state law change made what was permissible uncertain. Follow-up made clear that schools could paddle, he said. Since the policy was changed in May, the school system has paddled only one student, and that was at the request of his parent, Hancock said.
Many districts, including Temple, which is nearly evenly divided among white, black and Hispanic students, require parental consent before the punishment is given. Temple also requires the student's consent, Hancock said, and the punishment is considered equivalent to an out-of-school suspension. Residents said restoring paddling is less about the punishment and more about the threat. "It's like speeding," said Bill Woodward, a graphic designer. "Are they going to give you a speeding ticket, or . . . a warning? I'd speed all day if I knew it was going to be a warning." I have to agree.
Most school districts across the country banned paddling of students long ago. Texas sat that trend out. Nearly a quarter of the estimated 225,000 students who received corporal punishment nationwide in 2006, the latest figures available, were from the Lone Star State. But even by Texas standards, Temple is unusual. If you’ve ever made the long drive up or down Interstate 35 to get to the places you would actually want to be, Dallas or Austin, you’ve passed Temple. Most notable from the highway is the football stadium which stands prominently above the other modest buildings in town. The city, a compact railroad hub of 60,000 people, banned the practice and then revived it at the demand of parents who longed for the orderly schools of yesteryear. Without paddling, "there were no consequences for kids," said Steve Wright, who runs a construction business and is Temple's school board president. Consequences for your actions, what a novel idea!? Who would have thought?
Since paddling was brought back to the city's 14 schools by a unanimous board vote in May, behavior at Temple's single high school has changed dramatically, Wright said, even though only one student in the school system has been paddled. "The discipline problem is much better than it's been in years," Wright said, something he attributed to the new punishment and to other discipline programs schools are trying. Residents of the city's comfortable homes, most of which sport neighborly, worn chairs out front, praise the change. "There are times when maybe a good crack might not be a bad idea," said Robert Pippin, a custom home builder who sports a goatee and cowboy boots. I don’t want to be cliché, but only in Texas would you find a seemingly professional man with a goatee and boots suggesting we give the kids a “crack” to keep them in check. That’s why I live here.
Corporal punishment remains legal in 20 states, mostly in the South, but its use is diminishing. Ohio ended it last year, and a movement for a federal ban is afoot. A House subcommittee held a hearing on the practice Thursday, and its chairman, Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.), is gearing up for a push to end the practice once and for all. She plans to introduce legislation within weeks. "When you look that the federal government has outlawed physical punishment in prisons, I think the time has come that we should do it in schools," she said. Only a Democrat from the North would use such logic. Honestly, since I don’t see myself ending up in prison any time soon, we should probably bring corporal punishment back there as well, not take it out of the schools. Backward thinking liberal. And I don’t think that the decision to use or not use physical punishment in schools should be up to the United States government to decide. It should be a local matter handled by local school boards and local legislation. This goes back to the State’s Rights argument that I have had with Democrats for several years. Some things just shouldn’t be a federal government matter (like health care). Rules about paddling vary from district to district, but typically only administrators, not teachers, can mete out the punishment, which is done in private. Usually, a long, flat wooden paddle is used to give as many as three blows across the student's clothed rear end, although it was found that some students had been hit many more times. Boys are overwhelmingly the target, which makes sense because we are usually overwhelmingly worse in our behavior.
Having studied psychology I do understand that corporal punishment is not the best answer all the time. A joint American Civil Liberties Union-Human Rights Watch report last year found that students with disabilities were disproportionately subjected to corporal punishment, sometimes in direct response to behavioral problems that were a result of their disabilities. Many educators and psychologists say that positive tools, such as giving praise for good behavior and withholding it for bad, are far more effective for discouraging misbehavior. Those techniques "encourage them to behave well in the future," said report author Alice Farmer. But, honestly, the findings can be turned either way depending on the side you want to stand on. Sure, positive reinforcement does work for some, but not for all. And with particularly ill behaved students wouldn’t you want good behavior now through physical punishment, rather than “in the future” with positive reinforcement.
But in Temple, a city just outside Fort Hood that shakes with the air horns of the trains that pass through its rail yards, many residents say they hope that the old-fashioned solution can address what they see as rising disrespect among youth. They say their discipline problems aren't different from those in any other school system in the country: students showing up late for class, or violating the dress code, or talking during lessons. Those habits were unheard of in the days when schoolteachers routinely swung a paddle, they say. "Back then, you wouldn't throw spitballs, because you were afraid of the consequences," said Darr Kuykendall, a worker for a plumbing supply company. "A lot of kids have tempers," said Abby Jones, a junior at Temple High School. "Those kids that would be paddled would think of it as a threat . . . and maybe would be better."
Parents also pushed for the change because many paddle their children at home and wanted consistent discipline in the classroom, said John Hancock, assistant superintendent of administration for the Temple schools, who has been an educator for more than 40 years. "We're rural central Texas. We're very well educated, but still there are those core values. Churches are full on Sundays," Hancock said. "This is a tool we'd like in the toolbox for responding to discipline issues." Hancock, an urbane, sturdily built Colorado native who wears horn-rimmed glasses, said the school system had banned corporal punishment about six years ago because a state law change made what was permissible uncertain. Follow-up made clear that schools could paddle, he said. Since the policy was changed in May, the school system has paddled only one student, and that was at the request of his parent, Hancock said.
Many districts, including Temple, which is nearly evenly divided among white, black and Hispanic students, require parental consent before the punishment is given. Temple also requires the student's consent, Hancock said, and the punishment is considered equivalent to an out-of-school suspension. Residents said restoring paddling is less about the punishment and more about the threat. "It's like speeding," said Bill Woodward, a graphic designer. "Are they going to give you a speeding ticket, or . . . a warning? I'd speed all day if I knew it was going to be a warning." I have to agree.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Finding your own trail isn't a metaphor
While reading the new last night after class I came across an article that listed the nine U.S. hikes with gorgeous finales. I mentioned in a previous blog about my dream to hike the most important trail in the Incan world, the Machu Picchu trail in Peru. This isn’t the only hike I’d like to undertake in my life. The plan would be, once my life begins, for me to take my holidays in exotic places hiking trails and recreationally photographing things. Not a bold endeavor, mind you, but one that I want to accomplish in my life. My father wanted to learn how to fly, but never did, due to letting life, work, and family consuming his time. Since I am nowhere near the family tip, then it may be possible for me to do this. I just need to make sure that when I settle down with someone, that she would enjoy doing this too. That way I am not hiking alone every time.
Why hiking? Why not? It’s outdoors, in nature, where we as humans belong. Not just nature either, hiking usually involves some of the best that nature has to offer. Tremendous views, communing with wildlife, and absorbing the environment are all the positives that hiking has to offer. It is such a popular activity that there are numerous hiking organizations worldwide. The health benefits of different types of hiking have been confirmed in studies. Hiking is one of the fundamental outdoor activities on which many others are based. Many beautiful places can only be reached overland by hiking. Hiking is better than a tour in a vehicle of any kind because your senses are not intruded upon by distractions such as windows, engine noise, airborne dust and fellow passengers. Hiking over long distances or over difficult terrain requires both the physical ability to do the hike and the knowledge of the route and its pitfalls. So you see, hiking provides you with the best perspective on things. It requires you to use both mental and physical faculties, to the extreme in some cases. It takes preparation, discipline, and fortitude, which are important in all aspects of life.
So where do I go, besides to Peru? Well, reading this article gave me some pretty sound ideas. Considering hiking is not always the be-all-end-all in and of itself, it can be tricky to find the right place to go. Though some say the journey is its own reward…that is not always true when it comes to hiking. If you’ve ever been on any particular hike with the most scenic views and hit a more treacherous patch, then you know the journey can be more of a burden than a blessing. The endpoint of a truly great hike, be it a breathtaking view or the most soothing waters, can throw all doubt and regret out the window. In these cases, the destination is the biggest reward of all.
Let me highlight some of the trails in this article that sparked my interest. Let’s started with Conundrum Creek Trail just outside of Aspen, Colorado, which was called one of fifty authentic American experiences by Time Magazine. After a grueling 8.5-mile trek through the Maroon Bell–Snowmass Wilderness, few things feel better than soaking in one-hundred-degree waters with gorgeous mountains as the backdrop. Having experienced hot springs before, I can only imagine how get they would be after hiking your ass off. Apparently clothing is optional at these hot springs, so I wouldn’t be surprised if I got even more of a view than I expected. This can be good or bad depending on who else is on the trail with you. I’ve always wanted to go to the Grand Canyon, but never thought of hiking it until I saw this article, which suggests taking a different trail than the South Kaibab. As opposed to the other main trail, the Bright Angel Trail offers more shade and places to get water. It starts at the south rim of the canyon and goes down 4,380 feet and about eight miles to the beautiful Colorado River. According to the National Park Service, you shouldn’t try to go to the river and back in a day, especially on really hot days; an average of 230 people have to be rescued in the Grand Canyon every year, many of them on the Bright Angel Trail. It is considered one of the ten most dangerous hikes in the United States, but I won’t let that stop me from experiencing the spectacular Grand Canyon scenery…I’ll just have to be prepared with camping gear.
I have to admit I will be tired of all the dry, rocky trail hiking at some point, which is good because then I can head out east to the Mount Riga State Park Trail in Connecticut. At the end of this trail lies Bear Mountain, the highest point in Connecticut and the place to see views of three states…New York, Massachusetts, and Connecticut…at once. The twelve-mile hike is part of the famous Appalachian Trail and goes through gorgeously green forests with wildflowers and wildlife. It is listed as one of the best trails for seeing ancient forest growth and also includes lakes and sweeping valleys before reaching the top. Or, if I don’t feel like dealing with New Englanders, I could head to Virginia for the Old Rag Mountain Hike. There are a few ways to reach the top of Old Rag Mountain, located in Shenandoah National Park, but ascending via Ridge Trail and coming back on the Saddle Trail is suggested. At the top, I’ll find panoramic views of the Virginia landscape and lush, colorful plant life. The hike is seven miles round-trip, which doesn’t seem that long, but it does involve scrambling up boulders for a short duration. I hear that due to the popularity of the view at the, this climb’s almost always crowded, but I could avoid that by going during the winter.
Of the nine places in the article, where’s the first place I could likely start my campaign? How about the Raven Cliff Falls Trail in Georgia? Having a friend living in Georgia would make this the most likely place for me to start my life of hiking. Being able to stay at his place and then travel out to my destination in the Raven Cliff Wilderness area would be ideal. Plus, I would have an emergency contact nearby, if needed. This 2.5-mile path goes along Dodd Creek, big trees, and even some waterfalls in the Chattahoochee National Forest, but nothing compares to the awe-inspiring Raven Cliff Falls at the end. The walk there is fairly easy, but I’m sure I’ll need to climb up a steep path to get to the top of the cliff. But it’s short and not that strenuous, making this hike suitable for the first in a long line of hikes to come (hopefully). So that is the plan, after finishing school and getting a job that might allow vacation time for ridiculous excursions.
Why hiking? Why not? It’s outdoors, in nature, where we as humans belong. Not just nature either, hiking usually involves some of the best that nature has to offer. Tremendous views, communing with wildlife, and absorbing the environment are all the positives that hiking has to offer. It is such a popular activity that there are numerous hiking organizations worldwide. The health benefits of different types of hiking have been confirmed in studies. Hiking is one of the fundamental outdoor activities on which many others are based. Many beautiful places can only be reached overland by hiking. Hiking is better than a tour in a vehicle of any kind because your senses are not intruded upon by distractions such as windows, engine noise, airborne dust and fellow passengers. Hiking over long distances or over difficult terrain requires both the physical ability to do the hike and the knowledge of the route and its pitfalls. So you see, hiking provides you with the best perspective on things. It requires you to use both mental and physical faculties, to the extreme in some cases. It takes preparation, discipline, and fortitude, which are important in all aspects of life.
So where do I go, besides to Peru? Well, reading this article gave me some pretty sound ideas. Considering hiking is not always the be-all-end-all in and of itself, it can be tricky to find the right place to go. Though some say the journey is its own reward…that is not always true when it comes to hiking. If you’ve ever been on any particular hike with the most scenic views and hit a more treacherous patch, then you know the journey can be more of a burden than a blessing. The endpoint of a truly great hike, be it a breathtaking view or the most soothing waters, can throw all doubt and regret out the window. In these cases, the destination is the biggest reward of all.
Let me highlight some of the trails in this article that sparked my interest. Let’s started with Conundrum Creek Trail just outside of Aspen, Colorado, which was called one of fifty authentic American experiences by Time Magazine. After a grueling 8.5-mile trek through the Maroon Bell–Snowmass Wilderness, few things feel better than soaking in one-hundred-degree waters with gorgeous mountains as the backdrop. Having experienced hot springs before, I can only imagine how get they would be after hiking your ass off. Apparently clothing is optional at these hot springs, so I wouldn’t be surprised if I got even more of a view than I expected. This can be good or bad depending on who else is on the trail with you. I’ve always wanted to go to the Grand Canyon, but never thought of hiking it until I saw this article, which suggests taking a different trail than the South Kaibab. As opposed to the other main trail, the Bright Angel Trail offers more shade and places to get water. It starts at the south rim of the canyon and goes down 4,380 feet and about eight miles to the beautiful Colorado River. According to the National Park Service, you shouldn’t try to go to the river and back in a day, especially on really hot days; an average of 230 people have to be rescued in the Grand Canyon every year, many of them on the Bright Angel Trail. It is considered one of the ten most dangerous hikes in the United States, but I won’t let that stop me from experiencing the spectacular Grand Canyon scenery…I’ll just have to be prepared with camping gear.
I have to admit I will be tired of all the dry, rocky trail hiking at some point, which is good because then I can head out east to the Mount Riga State Park Trail in Connecticut. At the end of this trail lies Bear Mountain, the highest point in Connecticut and the place to see views of three states…New York, Massachusetts, and Connecticut…at once. The twelve-mile hike is part of the famous Appalachian Trail and goes through gorgeously green forests with wildflowers and wildlife. It is listed as one of the best trails for seeing ancient forest growth and also includes lakes and sweeping valleys before reaching the top. Or, if I don’t feel like dealing with New Englanders, I could head to Virginia for the Old Rag Mountain Hike. There are a few ways to reach the top of Old Rag Mountain, located in Shenandoah National Park, but ascending via Ridge Trail and coming back on the Saddle Trail is suggested. At the top, I’ll find panoramic views of the Virginia landscape and lush, colorful plant life. The hike is seven miles round-trip, which doesn’t seem that long, but it does involve scrambling up boulders for a short duration. I hear that due to the popularity of the view at the, this climb’s almost always crowded, but I could avoid that by going during the winter.
Of the nine places in the article, where’s the first place I could likely start my campaign? How about the Raven Cliff Falls Trail in Georgia? Having a friend living in Georgia would make this the most likely place for me to start my life of hiking. Being able to stay at his place and then travel out to my destination in the Raven Cliff Wilderness area would be ideal. Plus, I would have an emergency contact nearby, if needed. This 2.5-mile path goes along Dodd Creek, big trees, and even some waterfalls in the Chattahoochee National Forest, but nothing compares to the awe-inspiring Raven Cliff Falls at the end. The walk there is fairly easy, but I’m sure I’ll need to climb up a steep path to get to the top of the cliff. But it’s short and not that strenuous, making this hike suitable for the first in a long line of hikes to come (hopefully). So that is the plan, after finishing school and getting a job that might allow vacation time for ridiculous excursions.
Monday, April 12, 2010
M-W-F Revolution and Rosary
Some of you may have noticed that I didn’t post any blogs over the weekend. Truthfully, I noticed I didn’t post any blogs over the weekend. But, there is a pretty good excuse why not. If you follow my blogs or if you have at least noticed the past few, then you are well aware that I haven’t been writing about anything in particular. I have mostly just written stuff that makes sense to me or my friends, which is fun, but short changes the rest of you out there. I find trying to come up with something new every day is difficult without becoming somewhat self-absorbed. Considering the fact that I don’t want to come across as too narcissistic, I have come to the conclusion that I have to cut back. So, beginning today, I will only be posting blogs on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I shouldn’t say only, because there will be times where I will through a special entry in over a weekend or whatever, but primarily it will be M-W-F. Like a college course, except you don’t get create for reading my blog (too bad, that would be nice wouldn’t it). With the end of the semester coming up, I will have several papers and projects and exams that will need more of my attention. Thus, the blog will have to take a second seat where my time expenditure is concerned.
That all being said, I haven’t really planned anything else for the blog today. I guess I could fall back on an old standby…religion. I missed church today because I overslept and then had family plans. I have something similar to insomnia, but not quite that bad. It’s more or less a difficulty falling asleep when I should. So I didn’t fall asleep till almost 5 in the morning and woke up abruptly at 1 in the afternoon, missing an important meeting and on the verge of being late to get over to my parents house. Knowing I wouldn’t be able to make it to church I said a rosary and took some time out for reflection and prayer. There is a lot of misconception about the rosary, as with a lot of things in the Catholic Church, due to what I can only describe as misinformation perpetuated throughout the ages. So let us try to clear some of that up and learn something at the same time. Some of you are probably asking yourselves if I am so vain in my faith that I think everyone wants to learn about it. Well, you are mostly wrong. Though I am vain in my faith, which can be good or bad, I do not suppose that everyone wants to be Catholic or should be Catholic. There are many pathways to God, so I have said before. I actually got started writing about my faith because I have had several people who are very important to me, and not Catholic, ask me about things pertaining to Catholicism. Like, for instance, the importance of the rosary.
The word rosary refers to two things: the actual beads and the prayer itself. We'll talk about the beads first. A traditional rosary as it was when the practice first began contains fifteen decades (groups of ten) of, with an additional large bead before each decade, and a stem that has three beads proceeded and followed by one large bead and a crucifix (cross with the corpus of Christ) on the bottom. Today, however, most rosaries only have five decades because the practice of saying the rosary has been altered slightly. The beads can be made from a wide variety of materials, including wood, bone, glass, crushed flowers, semi-precious stones such as agate, jet, amber, or jasper, or precious materials including coral, rock crystal, gilded silver and gold. In the 19th and early 20th century they were sometimes made from the seeds of the "rosary pea" or "bead tree". Modern beads are most often glass, resin (plastic) or wood. Early rosaries were strung on strong thread, often silk, but modern ones are more often made as a series of chain-linked beads. A set of blessed Rosary Beads is a sacramental, which means it is something set apart or blessed by the Catholic Church to manifest the respect due to the Sacraments.
The Rosary as a prayer combines vocal prayer and meditation centered around sequences of reciting the Lord's Prayer followed by ten recitations of the Hail Mary prayer; and one recitation of Glory Be to the Father; one such sequence is known as a decade. A complete Rosary involves the completion of fifteen or twenty decades, as well as other prefatory and final prayers. Traditionally the Rosary was prayed in its entirety in one sitting; hence traditional rosaries have all fifteen decades. Today, the Rosary is usually prayed in three or four parts, one part each day, with the "Mysteries" (which are meditated or contemplated on during the prayers) being rotated daily. What distinguishes the Rosary from other forms of repetitive prayer is that, along with the vocal prayers, it includes a series of meditations. Each decade of the Rosary is said while meditating on one of the "Mysteries" of redemption. The recitation of the Rosary is traditionally dedicated to one of three sets of "Mysteries" to be said in sequence, one per night: the Joyful (sometimes Joyous) Mysteries; the Sorrowful Mysteries; and the Glorious Mysteries. Each of these three sets of Mysteries has within it five different themes to be meditated on, one for each decade. Pope John Paul II recommended an additional set called the Luminous Mysteries (or the "Mysteries of Light"). However, it should be noted that the Luminous Mysteries, like all the mysteries, are optional. Catholic faithful who prefer the original fifteen mysteries point to the belief that the Rosary is Mary's Psalter, containing 150 Hail Marys in its body for the 150 Psalms. In addition to meditating upon the events of the mysteries, many people associate certain virtues, or fruits, with each mystery. (The following list of mysteries and the fruits associated with them corresponds to moments in the life, passion, and death of Jesus and Mary's participation in them chronologically.) The parts of the mysteries are as follows:
Joyful Mysteries
1. The Annunciation. Fruit of the Mystery: Humility
2. The Visitation. Fruit of the Mystery: Love of Neighbor
3. The Nativity. Fruit of the Mystery: Poverty
4. The Presentation of Jesus at the Temple. Fruit of the Mystery: Obedience
5. The Finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple. Fruit of the Mystery: Joy in Finding Jesus
Luminous Mysteries
1. The Baptism of Jesus. Fruit of the Mystery: Openness to the Holy Spirit
2. The Wedding at Cana. Fruit of the Mystery: To Jesus through Mary
3. Jesus' Proclamation of the Kingdom of God. Fruit of the Mystery: Repentance and Trust in God
4. The Transfiguration. Fruit of the Mystery: Desire for Holiness
5. The Institution of the Eucharist. Fruit of the Mystery: Adoration
Sorrowful Mysteries
1. The Agony in the Garden. Fruit of the Mystery: Sorrow for Sin
2. The Scourging at the Pillar. Fruit of the Mystery: Purity
3. The Crowning with Thorns. Fruit of the Mystery: Courage
4. The Carrying of the Cross. Fruit of the Mystery: Patience
5. The Crucifixion. Fruit of the Mystery: Perseverance
The Glorious Mysteries
1. The Resurrection. Fruit of the Mystery: Faith
2. The Ascension. Fruit of the Mystery: Hope
3. The Descent of the Holy Spirit. Fruit of the Mystery: Love of God
4. The Assumption of Mary. Fruit of the Mystery: Grace of a Happy Death
5. The Coronation of Blessed Virgin Mary. Fruit of the Mystery: Trust in Mary's Intercession
* The days of recitation when including the Luminous Mysteries: The Joyful Mysteries are recited on Mondays and Saturdays; The Luminous are recited on Thursdays; The Sorrowful Mysteries, on Tuesdays and Fridays; The Glorious Mysteries, on Wednesdays and Sundays. The days of recitation without the Luminous Mysteries: The Joyful Mysteries, on Mondays and Thursdays, and Sundays from Advent to Lent; The Sorrowful Mysteries, on Tuesdays and Fridays, and Sundays in Lent until Palm Sunday; The Glorious, on Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays from Easter to Advent. For those who use the traditional Catholic calendar, the Sorrowful Mysteries are also said on the three pre-Lenten Sundays.
I am not going to get into the history of the rosary with this blog because it is long and tedious, like most traditions in the Catholic Church. I am also not going to get into the other forms of the rosary (chaplets, single decades, rings) because I don't know many who use them as much as they use the Rosary itself. I will say that the rosary is not used for worship of Mary or prayer to Mary, but rather pleading for the intercession of Mary on our behalf or the behalf of others. We never pray directly to Mary as we would to Jesus or God, but we ask that she pray for use. If you actually listen to the words of the Hail Mary you will hear it plainly…we praise her greatness and ask her to pray for us. I pray the Rosary for special occasions (my brother's wedding, when I got my job) and for sad occasions (funerals, illness). Every time I pray the rosary I pray for you. I pray for those whose lives I have touched and whose lives have touched mine.
That all being said, I haven’t really planned anything else for the blog today. I guess I could fall back on an old standby…religion. I missed church today because I overslept and then had family plans. I have something similar to insomnia, but not quite that bad. It’s more or less a difficulty falling asleep when I should. So I didn’t fall asleep till almost 5 in the morning and woke up abruptly at 1 in the afternoon, missing an important meeting and on the verge of being late to get over to my parents house. Knowing I wouldn’t be able to make it to church I said a rosary and took some time out for reflection and prayer. There is a lot of misconception about the rosary, as with a lot of things in the Catholic Church, due to what I can only describe as misinformation perpetuated throughout the ages. So let us try to clear some of that up and learn something at the same time. Some of you are probably asking yourselves if I am so vain in my faith that I think everyone wants to learn about it. Well, you are mostly wrong. Though I am vain in my faith, which can be good or bad, I do not suppose that everyone wants to be Catholic or should be Catholic. There are many pathways to God, so I have said before. I actually got started writing about my faith because I have had several people who are very important to me, and not Catholic, ask me about things pertaining to Catholicism. Like, for instance, the importance of the rosary.
The word rosary refers to two things: the actual beads and the prayer itself. We'll talk about the beads first. A traditional rosary as it was when the practice first began contains fifteen decades (groups of ten) of, with an additional large bead before each decade, and a stem that has three beads proceeded and followed by one large bead and a crucifix (cross with the corpus of Christ) on the bottom. Today, however, most rosaries only have five decades because the practice of saying the rosary has been altered slightly. The beads can be made from a wide variety of materials, including wood, bone, glass, crushed flowers, semi-precious stones such as agate, jet, amber, or jasper, or precious materials including coral, rock crystal, gilded silver and gold. In the 19th and early 20th century they were sometimes made from the seeds of the "rosary pea" or "bead tree". Modern beads are most often glass, resin (plastic) or wood. Early rosaries were strung on strong thread, often silk, but modern ones are more often made as a series of chain-linked beads. A set of blessed Rosary Beads is a sacramental, which means it is something set apart or blessed by the Catholic Church to manifest the respect due to the Sacraments.
The Rosary as a prayer combines vocal prayer and meditation centered around sequences of reciting the Lord's Prayer followed by ten recitations of the Hail Mary prayer; and one recitation of Glory Be to the Father; one such sequence is known as a decade. A complete Rosary involves the completion of fifteen or twenty decades, as well as other prefatory and final prayers. Traditionally the Rosary was prayed in its entirety in one sitting; hence traditional rosaries have all fifteen decades. Today, the Rosary is usually prayed in three or four parts, one part each day, with the "Mysteries" (which are meditated or contemplated on during the prayers) being rotated daily. What distinguishes the Rosary from other forms of repetitive prayer is that, along with the vocal prayers, it includes a series of meditations. Each decade of the Rosary is said while meditating on one of the "Mysteries" of redemption. The recitation of the Rosary is traditionally dedicated to one of three sets of "Mysteries" to be said in sequence, one per night: the Joyful (sometimes Joyous) Mysteries; the Sorrowful Mysteries; and the Glorious Mysteries. Each of these three sets of Mysteries has within it five different themes to be meditated on, one for each decade. Pope John Paul II recommended an additional set called the Luminous Mysteries (or the "Mysteries of Light"). However, it should be noted that the Luminous Mysteries, like all the mysteries, are optional. Catholic faithful who prefer the original fifteen mysteries point to the belief that the Rosary is Mary's Psalter, containing 150 Hail Marys in its body for the 150 Psalms. In addition to meditating upon the events of the mysteries, many people associate certain virtues, or fruits, with each mystery. (The following list of mysteries and the fruits associated with them corresponds to moments in the life, passion, and death of Jesus and Mary's participation in them chronologically.) The parts of the mysteries are as follows:
Joyful Mysteries
1. The Annunciation. Fruit of the Mystery: Humility
2. The Visitation. Fruit of the Mystery: Love of Neighbor
3. The Nativity. Fruit of the Mystery: Poverty
4. The Presentation of Jesus at the Temple. Fruit of the Mystery: Obedience
5. The Finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple. Fruit of the Mystery: Joy in Finding Jesus
Luminous Mysteries
1. The Baptism of Jesus. Fruit of the Mystery: Openness to the Holy Spirit
2. The Wedding at Cana. Fruit of the Mystery: To Jesus through Mary
3. Jesus' Proclamation of the Kingdom of God. Fruit of the Mystery: Repentance and Trust in God
4. The Transfiguration. Fruit of the Mystery: Desire for Holiness
5. The Institution of the Eucharist. Fruit of the Mystery: Adoration
Sorrowful Mysteries
1. The Agony in the Garden. Fruit of the Mystery: Sorrow for Sin
2. The Scourging at the Pillar. Fruit of the Mystery: Purity
3. The Crowning with Thorns. Fruit of the Mystery: Courage
4. The Carrying of the Cross. Fruit of the Mystery: Patience
5. The Crucifixion. Fruit of the Mystery: Perseverance
The Glorious Mysteries
1. The Resurrection. Fruit of the Mystery: Faith
2. The Ascension. Fruit of the Mystery: Hope
3. The Descent of the Holy Spirit. Fruit of the Mystery: Love of God
4. The Assumption of Mary. Fruit of the Mystery: Grace of a Happy Death
5. The Coronation of Blessed Virgin Mary. Fruit of the Mystery: Trust in Mary's Intercession
* The days of recitation when including the Luminous Mysteries: The Joyful Mysteries are recited on Mondays and Saturdays; The Luminous are recited on Thursdays; The Sorrowful Mysteries, on Tuesdays and Fridays; The Glorious Mysteries, on Wednesdays and Sundays. The days of recitation without the Luminous Mysteries: The Joyful Mysteries, on Mondays and Thursdays, and Sundays from Advent to Lent; The Sorrowful Mysteries, on Tuesdays and Fridays, and Sundays in Lent until Palm Sunday; The Glorious, on Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays from Easter to Advent. For those who use the traditional Catholic calendar, the Sorrowful Mysteries are also said on the three pre-Lenten Sundays.
I am not going to get into the history of the rosary with this blog because it is long and tedious, like most traditions in the Catholic Church. I am also not going to get into the other forms of the rosary (chaplets, single decades, rings) because I don't know many who use them as much as they use the Rosary itself. I will say that the rosary is not used for worship of Mary or prayer to Mary, but rather pleading for the intercession of Mary on our behalf or the behalf of others. We never pray directly to Mary as we would to Jesus or God, but we ask that she pray for use. If you actually listen to the words of the Hail Mary you will hear it plainly…we praise her greatness and ask her to pray for us. I pray the Rosary for special occasions (my brother's wedding, when I got my job) and for sad occasions (funerals, illness). Every time I pray the rosary I pray for you. I pray for those whose lives I have touched and whose lives have touched mine.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
