What a busy week and a half!

Yes, my life has been busier than normal, but not because of work! My schedule has changed, and I now have an actual life! I now work Sunday through Thursday from 8:30pm to 5am, except for Monday. Monday's schedule is 10pm to 6:30am. "The midnight shift. Sounds horrible!" you might say, dear reader, but you would be wrong! I am enjoying this shift. It allows me to go to Mass every day! And when the fall semester starts, I can take morning classes at a local community college and still be able to go to Mass every day!

Now that I have a life, I actually have less time to blog and keep up with e-mail :-(

But I'll do my best to keep new things here, at least once a week.

Upcoming topics:

God's Team (a group of Evangelicals in the Detroit metro area from many different churches and para-church organizations who reac out to the Muslim population here).

The Arab-American festival held this past weekend (6/20-6/22).

My parents attending my COURAGE group with me.

A men's group I've joined at a local Evangelical church called Sexual Integrity.

My Muslim friend "Ali" (not his real name).

Another new blog...

Today, I'm adding another new blog to the blogroll. Adoro te Devote. I meant to do this months ago! It's a good blog, and most of you probably already visit it.

I've been featured!

A Catholic Mom in Hawaii has featured my second-to-last post on her blog (scroll down to #10)! Wow! I was just writing from my heart, and really thought that post was kind of cheesey. Well, I guess if God can speak through Balaam's ass... (for the full story of Balaam, read Numbers chapters 22, 23, and 24).

I don't know how many hits Catholic Mom gets, but I hope some of her readers start giving money to, spending time in prayer about, and maybe even going into missions! Imagine! If someone becomes involved in missions because of her encouragement, she will share the reward in heaven! (By the way, check out story # 7, too, about Father Damien.)

Many thanks to Catholic Mom for her interest in my blog and for helping to spread the word about the needs of the missions today.

I need your help/advice!

I'm interested in making my very own King James Bible, Catholic Edition (the King James text is in the public domain). Does anyone know of a good software program that will allow me to arrange the text in double columns with a center column cross-reference?

I'd like to "Justify" the text so the columns will look like they do in a regular double-column, center column cross-reference Bible. Inserting table into Microsoft Word allows me to do this, except for the last line I'm able to type into the row.

Anyone have any ideas?

On the USCCB website...

...I found a great document: To the Ends of the Earth. I love the opening sentence: "Jesus was a missionary." It reminds me of a quote from David Livingstone which I've always enjoyed: "God had an only Son, and He was a missionary..."

God is all about bringing the nations back into a relationship with Him.

Evangelicals are big on missions. What about you, dear Catholic reader?

There are one and a half billion Muslims in the world. Many have heard that Jesus was a prophet, but very few have ever heard that He is the Risen Savior. Will you go tell them?

What about the world's five hundred million Hindus believing in three hundred thirty million gods and goddesses? Who will tell them about the One God who is Jealous for their love? He wants them for Himself. Will you go tell them?

Catholic parents, will you teach your children about the 10/40 Window and how very few missionary efforts there are in that area of the world? Will you ask God to send your children as His ambassadors to the unreached peoples of the world? Will you consider whether or not God may be calling your entire family - you, your spouse, your infants, your teenagers - to live among a group of people who have never heard the Gospel? Will your family make this a matter of prayer?

Catholic singles, have you considered how your career might gain you access to countries which don't allow missionaries? Your life of character and integrity can be a powerful witness to your non-Christian co-workers.

The Gospel is free, but it takes money to send people to preach the Gospel. Please consider giving to Catholic missionary orders. Here are a few that are worthy:

Mariannehill Missionaries

PIME Missionaries

Franciscan Friars of the Renewal

LAMP Ministries

Miles Christi

Renewal Ministries

Contact some of these organizations. See if you can "adopt" a missionary. Write letters to him or her. Encourage your missionary. Pray for your missionary. Offer up your sufferings for your missionary. They need us.

O people, I plead with you, join in the Great Commission! Spread the Gospel by living a life of fathfulness and fidelity to Christ and His Church. Let your life witness to your family, friends, co-workers, and neighbors. But remember: your actions only convey so much. Speak to people about Christ, or they will think you're the great one, not He. Support missionaries by your giving. Support missionaries with your prayers. Give them words of encouragement. Let them know they're not forgotten. Let them know they have support in this battle. Have masses said for them. Pray for those among whom they work. Pray for darkened minds to be illumined. Pray for our priests, deacons, bishops, fellow parishioners, neighbors, co-workers, friends, families, strangers, acquaintances, and everyone, always, until "the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea."

And finally, to end, the Evangelical missionary organization Youth With A Mission (YWAM) has an excellent motto. Let us all make it our own:

"To know God and make Him known!"

The last few weeks...

...have been extremely difficult for me. I'm tired of my job; that is, I'm tired of all the overtime and the on-call status. A change in the situation may be on the way, however. My boss asked me if I'd be willing to work from 8pm to 4:30am Sunday through Thursday. If so, I'd never be on call, and I'd have Fridays and Saturdays off! Do you know what this means? Daily Mass! I think I'm going to agree to it. It'll give me the vestiges of a life again!

The Urinal Test

A few years ago, I found a basic HTML version of this test online. Now it comes complete with graphics (nothing inappropriate)! Women, it's a guy thing.

The Urinal Test link here.

Portable Professor

Update: For anyone interested in the discontinued Portable Professor series, they are all available under new titles at The Modern Scholar.

I think I may have mentioned previously on this blog a series Barnes & Noble has called the Portable Professor. From the Barnes & Noble web site:

PORTABLE PROFESSOR™ is a series of exciting and informative lectures recorded by some of today's most renowned university and college professors. Each course introduces listeners to fascinating, and sometimes startling, insights into the intellectual forces that shape our understanding of the world. Each package includes 14 riveting lectures presented by notable professors as well as a book-length course guide.

I have four of them. So far I've listened to What Would Socrates Do? The History of Moral Thought and Ethics by Doctor Peter Kreeft, and I'm in the middle of Masterpieces of Western Music: Classics from the Baroque to the Modern by Doctor Jeffrey D. Lependorf. I can't tell you how much I'm enjoying this series. Ever since high school, philosophy has interested me, but I never really tried to learn it. What Would Socrates Do? has inspired me to finally begin. Not only do I want to learn who taught what and when such-and-such an idea was dreamed up, but I'm interested in the great themes of philosophy. My last post mentioned on in an off-hand way: how is chastity positive, and how is it positively lived out in one's life?

After I finished the lecture, I picked up Philosophy 101 and a copy of Plato's Apology of Socrates. Both Doctor Kreeft's book and Plato's Apology are designed to help one begin being a philosopher. The things I'm learning! Not just about philosphy, but also about Socrates. I hope that when Christ descended to the dead and declared Himself the hope that the righteous dead had been looking for, that Socrates was among those who went to heaven with Him. It seems Socrates really wanted to know the truth. If so, how could he not have followed Truth to heaven? We don;t know for sure, of course, but we can hope.

Doctor Lependorf's Masterpieces of Western Music is very interesting, as well. I've always enjoyed Vivaldi's "Spring" from the Four Seasons, but now that I know a little more about it, it's better! This series is making the music more enjoyable and also teaching me how to pronounce the names of certain works (e.g. Eine Kleine Nachtmusik). Tonight I begin Lecture Seven: How to Make a Piano Sing--Chopin's Nocturne in D-flat. (Yes, it's Saturday and I won't be hanging out with friends. I work from 7pm to 7am [insert sad face here] and so will listen to the lectures.)

After this lecture series, I learn about economics because I have no idea how an economy works. C.S. Lewis apparently didn't either, so I don't feel too bad about that.

New Insights

On Wednesday evening, Father John Riccardo was on the radio. I was making deliveries at the time, so didn't get to hear the entire program. But I did hear something that really got me thinking. Father John related how, on a regular basis, he meets with a group of young adults (how I envy them!). The last time they met, he asked them if they view Christianity primarily as a list of do's and don'ts or as a positive option for their lives. I've been a Christian my whole life. I know the answer I'm supposed to give: positive option, of course. I'm not sure how I apply it to every area of my life, but as regards to my sexuality, I view my faith primarily as restrictive! I was shocked to realize this, but it's true.

The view I have of my faith in Christ as applied to my sexuality is entirely negative. That is, my faith in Christ means I cannot have a boyfriend. I cannot have sex. I cannot look at pornography. I cannot masturbate. Why do I not see chastity as a positive? I need a whole new perspective on this issue, as well as to see people positively applying it in their lives. It doesn't help that our entire culture throws sex at us all the time. We never see in the media people who live chastely. Indeed, we're told that to do so is abnormal. Lack of example does not provide us with an excuse for bad behavior, but it does make it more difficult to know how to live. Anyone else have any thoughts?

The annual COURAGE conference.

It's about two months away. I'll be driving there, even with the high gas prices. I'll be heading over to Lansing, MI to pick up a friend and then proceeding to Medway. If anyone else needs a ride, I'm willing to pick you up. I can take either a route through Canada, or travel through Ohio, etc., and am willing to travel a few hours out of my way. You can contact me via the e-mail in my profile.