Truth is Sent

For those fortunate enough to get to daily Mass today – there is a wonderful gem waiting in the Liturgy of the Word.

In the First Reading, Paul tells the Colossians about “the word of truth, the Gospel, that has come to you.” (cf. Col 1:1-8)

In the Gospel, Jesus teaches us that, “To the other towns also I must proclaim the good news of the Kingdom of God, because for this purpose I have been sent.” (cf. Lk 4:38-44)

Truth is sent – not passively sought after.

Paul equates the word of truth to the Gospel, Jesus tells the crowds that He has been sent to all the towns of Judea, not just theirs. Jesus is the truth (cf. Jn 14:6), and He is sent to all the nations. Even after He ascended to the Father, the truth continued to be sent – by the apostles and disciples, as witnessed in Paul’s epistle to the Colossians.

And the truth is sent even today. Through the marvels of technology we are sent the truth over radio waves, television signals and print media.

Receive the truth that is sent to you, not the lies of so many purveyors of violence, hatred and filth. The Internet is a perfect example of this – blogs such as this speak about the truth, while thousands of other web sites peddle pornography, get-rich-quick schemes and the like. Like a lighthouse in the dark, be a beacon of truth to a world starving for it.

Jesus, Paul, & Timothy were sent to deliver the truth – and so you must also be an emissary of truth!

Monotreme Extraordinaire!

Monotremes are the most primitive mammals – or so scientists tell us.

The word monotreme means “one-holed,” which describes the cloaca that this odd group exhibits. That just means that they have a single hole that serves the urinary tract, anus and reproductive tract.

I say, yada, yada, yada . . . Who cares about all that business – I think monotremes are just plain cool.

And no monotreme is cooler than the Ornithorhynchus anatinus, better known as the Duck-Billed Platypus.

And today I salute these beautiful creatures that serve as a testament to the hand of God, and especially to his sense of humor.

These half-beaver, half-duck, half-bird, half-mammal critters are just incredibly fascinating. They remind me of a Mr. Potato Head – slap a beak on the front, beaver tail on the back, etc.

But in fact, they glorify Almighty God in the simplest and most profound way – just by being who they are!

Learn more about these fascinating animals here.

And thank God in your prayers today for such wonders.

Caged Grudge Match - Man vs. Cake

Yesterday I made a Waldorf-Astoria cake for dessert. According to the legend, this cake was served at the luxurious hotel years ago. You can see a lovely shot of this premier hotel here ------->

Sometimes people also refer to it as red cake because the cake itself was a sort of blood-red color. Usually four layers of cake filled and topped with a thickened butter-cream frosting.

In any regard, I have my Mom’s old recipe for this cake – and I wanted to make it just as she used to.


Waldorf-Astoria Battle Royale: Red Cake = 3; Rev. Mr. Chris = nada

Against the insightful comments of my wife, I refused to line the pans with parchment paper. I said to myself, “it said grease and flour, so that’s exactly what I’m going to do, nothing more and nothing less.”

• Red Cake goal numero uno – One layer stuck to the pan, and broke as I tried to extricate it

I made the frosting, but waited too long before incorporating the thickening paste (it said to let it cool, grrrr) to the butter base.

• Red Cake scores again – Frosting separated and would not bind properly

As I was preparing the thickening paste for frosting batch #2, I got distracted with something to do with the salad for dinner.

• Red Cake scores a third time – thickening paste has become solid glue

Finally, on batch 2 1/2, the frosting came out correctly. I slathered it between the layers and on the top and threw the dang thing in the fridge to set up.

This is not how I remember it working out for Mom

I ate a piece tonight rather triumphantly, but I wasn’t very pleased about it. The cake itself is a sort of pinkish red, not blood red (even with two full thingies of red food coloring that wasn’t enough).

I noticed that the Waldorf-Astoria (a Hilton property) no longer serves the blasted cake – I wonder why?

He came to testify to the light

There was a man named John who was sent from God. He came to testify to the light. He was not the light, but came to testify to the light (Jn 1:6-8).

Today’s feast day is the obligatory memorial of the beheading of the glorious forerunner and precursor, John the Baptizer.

As is my custom, I usually serve as deacon at the morning Mass on feast days and solemnities. On very rare occasions I do it for a memorial.

I did it today to testify to the one who testified to the light. John was not the light, Jesus was. Chris was not the Precursor, John was. But every deacon ought to model themselves after John – we must be a voice crying out in the wilderness, “prepare the way of the Lord.”

John the Baptist is very close to me. He is the saint that I chose some 21 years ago as my confirmation patron. I didn’t even know exactly why I chose John, but I’m glad I did.

Throughout my years, I’ve admired John so very much. For these reasons:

• Boldness – proclaiming the truth regardless of the consequences


• Purity – lived on a simple diet and refrained from alcohol


• Humility – “I am not worthy to untie his sandal straps. . . ”


• Bravery – glorified our Lord Jesus even in his martyrdom

As I proclaimed the Gospel reading this morning, I shuddered as I read the words of his beheading.

There is something incredibly sickening about cutting off a human being’s head. Maybe that’s why terrorists use such a horrible method to strike fear in the mid-East. In some ways the wickedness and evil in some people hasn’t changed much from Palestine 2,000 years ago. Pray for the conversion of such ones. And pray for peace.

Pray for us, holy and glorious Forerunner – help us grown in boldness, purity, humility, & bravery.

MasterCard Moments

While visiting with a gentleman a couple of weeks ago, he mentioned to me that he had a small pond on his acreage near the Elkhorn River. The previous day he had taught his granddaughter the art of angling, and consequently she caught her first fish. He described the feeling as a MasterCard Moment.

I knew immediately what he was referring to – those incredibly clever commercials MasterCard launched a couple of years ago. They follow a basic format something like this:

• Baseball glove - $40
• Two hours at the batting cages - $50
• His first set of cleats - $57
  
• Watching him hit a home run – priceless

I shared with him that, as a new deacon, I had just recently married a couple of my friends. Or to be more precise, witnessed their marriage. It was my first opportunity to witness a marriage. So here’s my own MasterCard Moment:

• James Arthur Vineyard trip - $59.12
  
• Gas to Ronald McDonald House - $2.67 (by today’s ludicrous prices, $4.27)
  
• Jiffy J-4000 to steam my alb with - $229
  
• Joining two friends together forever in the Sacrament of Matrimony – priceless

What kinds of MasterCard Moments have you had recently? Why not share one with us in the comment box?

Job Pray-er

I have four friends that have recently been searching for new employment. I like to help people in such circumstances, so I always offer to pray for them, review resumes, etc.

In one of my previous corporate America jobs I hired a number of people, so I've read a few resumes in my day.

I like praying for such a need - and I know that it helps, too. Just knowing that others are concerned for you is reassuring. Feeling like you're in it all alone is one of the things that makes looking for work stressful.

My friends are doing VERY well, here's the results thus far:

1. My first friend got the job she wanted, and it's a nice change for her from her previous work. A nice fit for a great person, congrats, Mary!
   
2. My second friend applied for and received a promotion at her current employer. She's very excited about it, and I know she'll do a wonderful job in her new position. You were made for this job, Erika - kudos to you!
   
3. I'm delighted to report that my third friend (who has been out of work for nearly a year) was offered a good job with a future that he is a great fit for. I'm very proud of him, way to go, Cal!
4. My fourth friend has been through two interviews for a position. He will need to interview with at least one more party to get the job. I'm very hopeful, as he's eminently qualified for the position. I'll continue praying for my friend, that he might have several positions to choose from. Why not pause a minute while reading this to pray for him too?
   

It can be very trying looking for a new job. If you know of anyone in such a situation, remind them that you are concerned about them, and offer to help in whatever way you can -- especially through prayer.

Gooooooooogle Talk

Google scores another home run today -- as they announce the beta version of "Google Talk," their Instant Messaging client.

IMing is the ability to chat (via your keyboard, typing back and forth) with another user over the Internet. Not terribly unlike using a TTY/TDD. Most IM clients also include a voice option, where you can actually speak to them through a headset connected to your PC (usually through voice-over-IP technology).

Yahoo is still smarting over the beating they have taken from advertisers, and face a number of legal battles ahead. Their suspension of user-created chat rooms has caused a massive exodus from the platform.


Both Yahoo & MSN are working on a pay service that would allow user-created rooms, but that's likely to go over as well as a lead balloon.

So Google strikes while the iron is hot, offering the beta program to their existing beta mail clients (Gmail). It's clever in two ways:

1. Gmail users tend to be early adopters of technology, and more skilled than the average computer user. Google gets a more tech-savvy control group to test various features with before rolling it out to the masses.
2. By offering the service free they are no doubt building in a differentiating feature that will be used to draw users from both MSN & Yahoo. I would nearly guarantee that before Google Talk is offered to the general public, there will be the ability to chat, and to create user rooms.

I like Google, it's my favorite search engine. I like Gmail, too, and I'll like it a lot more when there are distribution lists for emailing.

Chances are, I'm going to like Google Talk, too.

Dark meat, white meat?

I am roasting a turkey breast for dinner this evening, which got me thinking, "what is it that makes the dark meat dark?"

Or, for that matter, the white meat white?

Turns out that the more active muscles in a bird need more oxygen. The highly active muscles are filled with blood vessels that contain myoglobin (muscle hemoglobin). Consequently, the more myoglobin the muscle has, the darker it appears.

So, in a turkey, the legs and thighs (which are the most active) are dark. The wings (which aren't used for sustained flying) are less active, and thus have less myoglobin, and are lighter.

The taste difference is simply attributed to the type of muscle present.

Chickens are similar to turkeys, whereas ducks and pheasants (who do use their breast muscles for sustained flying) have all dark meat.

I've been trying to use turkey more often in cooking. It seems like every Thanksgiving I say to myself, "why don't we eat this more often during the year?"

Ben Franklin advocated making the turkey the national bird and symbol of our nation. While I do think turkeys are pretty cool, they are also too tasty to set aside.

Sorry, Ben, but if you would have gotten your way I'd have to order a pizza tonight!

Role models galore

More saints are packed into this rich week of not-so-Ordinary Time:

• Today is the feast of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary
• Tomorrow is the feast of St. Rose of Lima
• Wednesday is the feast of St. Bartholomew
• Thursday is the feast of St. Louis
• Saturday is the feast of St. Monica

Wow -- that's a whole lot of role models packed into a week's time. Maybe it would be fun to match a statement from below with the corresponding saint above? Give it a try:

• was a third-order Dominican
• martyrdom by flaying
• King of France
• a "woman clothed with the sun"
  
• a devoted [and patient] mother - prayed twenty years to convert her son

How blessed we are to have such a rich collection of friends to inspire us.

God-incidences

1. Today is the Twenty-First Sunday in "Ordinary Time."
2. The readings from Mass speak about the papacy (cf. Is 22:19-23 & Mt 16:13-20).
3. Today [would be] the feast day of St. Piux X, pope (Sundays take precedence over other feast days).
4. Today Pope Benedict XVI will preside over the closing liturgy in Koln at World Youth Day.

It might be coincidental that all these papal diddies are occurring at the same time, but not likely. My lovely bride calls it a "God-incidence" when something like that happens.

The philosopher in me rebels slightly:

• God doesn't make things happen that way
• That would violate free will,
  
• Etc., etc., ad nauseum

But the Christian inside me is slightly tickled. Maybe God allows things to play out in such a way, just to make life a bit more interesting. Or maybe to make philosophers think a little harder. Or perhaps to simply bring a smile to someone's face when they encounter such an event.

Our God is an awesome God.

Not so "Ordinary Time"

Although we are in the middle of Ordinary Time (liturgically speaking), there are a number of important feasts for the next week or so. I'll be saying a word or two about some of them:

• Today - Friday, August 19 - St. John Eudes - founded a "non-order" - a group of priests and postulants that specialize in mission work and running seminaries. John thought that bishops would better trust priests under their direct jurisdiction over ones that belonged to a religious order. So he created the Eudists, a non-order that seems like an order!

• Tomorrow, Saturday, August 20th - St. Bernard

No, not that St. Bernard

I mean St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090 - 1153) - Abbot & Doctor of the Church. Bernard was a Cistercian monk from France who was a brilliant theologian, a prolific writer and a gifted and skilled preacher.

St. Bernard was a monk for forty years and founded (himself) an incredible 163 monasteries throughout Europe!

He was the first Cistercian placed on the Roman Calendar, in 1174 by Pope Alexander III.

St. John Eudes & St. Bernard of Clairvaux, pray for us!

• PS: The breed is named for the mountain passage-way in Switzerland that connects Northern and Southern Europe. St. Bernard founded a monastery there, to minister to pilgrims. As such the pass itself was named after St. Bernard, as was the breed active in rescuing people. 163 monasteries and 1 dog breed, not a bad legacy!!!!
  

Why I won't make Principal anytime soon . . .

One of the main projects I've been working on at St. Gerald has been an expansion of our school to accommodate 7th & 8th grade students. Because of the construction occurring, we pushed back the beginning of school until after Labor Day.

The local public schools began classes this Monday, August 15th. As in the middle of the month of August!

As best as I can remember, when I was in school we went back around Labor Day and were finished in May. Yet today, it seems the kids go back earlier all the time, and some of them don't begin their summer vacation until June.

Something fishy is going on here, methinks.

Now I'm not advocating any sort of "kid-strike," but doesn't that seem incredibly early to be going back to school? It's craziness, in my view. Students need fully three months of vacation to enjoy the summer, go to various camps and activities, and hopefully, go on vacation with their families. Moreover, high school students need that summer time for work -- college isn't getting any more affordable as time goes by.

We drive students very hard these days, treating them like miniature adults with hectic schedules, numerous extra-curricular activities, and unnecessary stress in their young lives. Might be a good idea to re-think some of the wisdom behind all of that.

Let the kids be kids, I say -- and give them their FULL summer vacation to enjoy this wonderful time in their lives!

Capers - an overlooked tool

Today I prepared chicken piccata for lunch, a simple dish of thin chicken pieces dressed in a lemony sauce accented by capers.

• Incidentally, its much better to slice the chicken rather than pound it out with a mallet, as most recipes suggest. Pounding can be useful with veal (lots of connective tissue) but a bad idea for chicken, you'll just damage it.
  

Anyway, in an effort to assist those farmers who raise capers, and to those who have never heard of a caper, I'm dedicating today's entry to them.

Capers are tiny immature flower buds that are usually pickled and found in very small jars next to olives and pickles in your supermarket. Sometimes they are kept next to cocktail onions, watermelon pickles, artichoke hearts and the like.

Lots more info about capers is available here.

Why not try using them on a favorite dish of your own? Some recipes call for rinsing the capers before use (I usually do this myself), and others just toss them in.

They add a delightful piquant flavor to dishes, and also a bit of saltiness, so you might have to adjust your seasonings slightly.

It's an actual fact that the Scottish dish haggis has at least one song singing it's praises, but the poor caper is just constantly overlooked.

Here's to you, caperberry!

Bullying

A good number of those reading this post have at some time been the target of a bully. Many readers have likely bullied others themselves. And I would venture a guess, that everyone has been a bystander when someone near you has been bullied. It's a prevalent problem in our country, and has been for some time.

St. Gerald School wants to eliminate this problem, so today our school hosted a wonderful program on bullying. Dr. Barbara Coloroso traveled to Omaha to be with us.

She's an internationally known speaker, educational consultant and author. She has taught at secondary and college levels, and infuses her presentations with humor and practical advise.

In the morning, she met with over 300 teachers, principals and administrators from the Archdiocese of Omaha. She spent the afternoon with St. Gerald School's staff, and in the evening hosted another presentation for the general public, especially for parents.

More info on this delightful person and fabulous resource can be found here.

Thanks for your help, Barb! May God continuously bless your work.

Dormition of the Theotokos

Higher in honor than the cherubim, infinitely more glorious than the seraphim . . .


The Dormition of the Theotokos is the Eastern title of the great feast celebrated today - in the West it is referred to as the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The dormition (falling-asleep) of the Theotokos (God-Bearer) is the commemoration of our Lord taking Mary's body into heaven.

Falling asleep is a euphemism for death - it is widely held in the East that upon Mary's death she was taken bodily to heaven.

Incidentally in the West, there are competing scholarly opinions as to whether Mary actually died before being assumed into heaven.

It probably doesn't much matter whether she died or not. What does matter is that God deemed her body to be taken to heaven, which is an enormous privilege!

Can you guess who else might be bodily in heaven? Sacred Scripture suggests that both Elijah & Enoch are there as well. As such, we know that only four bodies are in heaven:

1. Our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ
2. Mary, the Mother of God
3. The glorious prophet Elijah, and
   
4. "the one who walked with God," Enoch

Peace to you on this great feast!

Go to Mass today, even if it's not obligatory ~~ it's just a good thing to do!

Weltjugendtad Koln 2005!

Today marks the beginning of World Youth Day in Cologne, Germany. Today pilgrims will begin to arrive for a week-long festival of activities.

If you sound out phonetically the German word Koln, you will notice that it sounds just like the English word "Cologne." My lovely wife (of German ancestry) pointed this out to me. Indeed it's true, sometimes I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer!

In any regard, there is TONS of great info about World Youth Day at Amy Welborn's site, give it a look here.

Expect a bonus entry later today regarding the other important event commemorated today.

What's in a name?

Rev. Mr. Chris

The title of this blog is a nod to two (or would it be three?) converging presences in my life:

1. My two older brothers, Rick & Larry gave me the nick-name "Mr. Chris" many years ago.
2. The honorific for a deacon is "Rev. Mr. ___________"

So, upon completing my diaconate formation and receiving the Sacrament of Holy Orders, my family and close friends simply extended the nick-name to "Rev. Mr. Chris."

Here's my favorite photo of the day I went from Mr. Chris to Rev. Mr. Chris:

What's in an address?

DIACONIA - as in the url address - http://diaconia.blogspot.com/

The web address of my blog reflects the fact that this particular blog is about my life viewed through the prism of being a deacon. A deacon is someone you are, not the functions that you do.

Diaconia - is a Greek word that means "servant." The diaconate is the first grade of Holy Orders in the Catholic Church. It describes the order of clergy that give themselves over to the service of word, sacrament, and charity.


These particular ministries are expressed in complementary ways:

1. Word - deacons proclaim the Gospel in the their everyday lives, as well as proclaim the Gospel during the liturgy, and sometimes give the homily.
   
2. Sacrament - deacons are the custodians of the tabernacle and distribute Holy Communion during the Eucharist, as well as taking Christ to the infirm and homebound. They may also baptize, witness marriages and preside at funerals and grave-side services.
   
3. Charity - deacons work to assist and care for the marginalized in our society, especially the poor and disadvantaged. This is evidenced in scripture by the earliest deacons (cf. Acts 6:1-6)
   

Incidentally, the sacrament of Holy Orders is one sacrament given in three grades to personify three expressions of our Lord Jesus Christ:

1. Servant - deacons are configured to the servant Christ who came not to be served, but to serve and offer his life as a ransom for many.
2. Sacrifice - priests (presbyters) offer sacrifice as Christ the High Priest in administering the sacraments of his Church.
3. Shepherd - bishops tend the flock by teaching and governing as the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep.
   

In the final analysis, diaconia is about loving others in humility.

All beginnings are difficult . . .

Today's title entry is from the Midrash - a collection of rabbinical teaching and commentary on a given book or topic of Scripture.

I've chosen that title because this is the inaugural post of my first blog.

I've decided to begin a blog for two reasons:

1. I enjoy reading blogs myself
2. It strikes me as an effective way to paint musings, reflections and questions on an electronic canvas for others to see as well.

I have interest in lots of things, which are likely to be revealed over time on these pages.

Welcome to all - and thanks for visiting!