Unearned Luck

  Lately, I've been reflecting on what G. K. Chesterton said about how the Church is like a fence along the edge of a deep precipice that allows the children within to play as freely as they like comfortable in the knowledge that they are safe as long as they stay within the limits of the fence. He's absolutely right. I've been spending my time focusing on the fence instead of how much freedom I do have and how much fun I can have inside the fence. Perspective is a nutty thing.

Art Rachen on Unsplash Words have meanings. Words are placed together to make sentences that convey a message. The words used in that sentence are chosen to convey a particular meaning. To choose particular words and to place those particular words in a very specific order is an definite act of the will. For one, then, to state that a sentence one has carefully crafted has a meaning that is completely different from the meaning conveyed by the words one has chosen is disingenuous and ridiculous. Or for one to use certain words indiscriminately is foolish and causes trouble. Don't use "love", "best friend", "forever", "always", and the like if one does not mean them. As Proverbs 25:27 teaches, "It is not good to eat much honey, so be sparing of complimentary words."

"And a great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; she was with child and she cried out in her pangs of birth, in anguish for delivery. And another portent appeared in heaven; behold a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems upon his heads. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven, and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child, that he might devour her child when she brought it forth; she brought forth a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne, and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which to be nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days." -Revelation 12: 1-6 In the 169 words of this RSV-CE translation of the vision St. John received from Christ, the Evangelist p...

After being assigned to the water rescue tactical house, the department required us new guys to attend a week-long water rescue course in Golden, CO. It was a lot of fun and the experience bonded us even more. One morning during that training we had to float downstream on our backs as part of learning how to navigate the river. We were taught to lie on our backs, feet first, and relax. At no time, were we to attempt standing up, as a foot could get trapped under a rock causing us to be pushed forward by the strong current and drowned. At one point in my cruise down the river, the current pushed me under water, which had happened frequently down that short course. This time, however, the current didn't allow me to surface. As the seconds ticked off an hour at a time, I mastered my fear and panic and just waited to feel the air on my face. The seconds ticked on and I was still under water. Nothing was happening, except I was drowning. Despite what the instructors had said, I started ...

Trusting another person is most difficult for me. When others have suggested trusting God or leaving it in God's hands, I have come away from such advice feeling confused and frustrated. I have never known how to trust God. The other day, though, I was in a tight situation, though not one that was harmful. It was a good opportunity for a lesson. All of my concentration was focused on the bad things that were about to happen at the moment and the mountain of bad things that would result. My stomach was churning. My palms were sweating. My eyes kept moving from one indicator of impending doom to another. My mind was racing through how to get out of the situation once it had turned bad. In the midst of the turmoil, stress, and panic, the image of St. Peter walking on the water took the place of all of the gloom that was filling my mind. The face of St. Peter keeping his gaze on Christ instead of on the storm and the waves became the answer to the bad things that were about to happe...

communications@bishopchatard.org Last night my oldest son, Alexander, played in his first football game in high school as a member of the freshman football team of the Bishop Chatard High School Trojans. I was excited to see how he would do against the freshman football team of the Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School Braves. Alexander's head coach reported to the team during the week of practice leading up to the game that Brebeuf's coaches were claiming that their freshman football team had so few players, it was necessary to bring five members of Brebeuf's JV team to fill out the ranks. This information only inspired Alexander more as he was eager to test himself against some older and more experienced players. Sitting down in the Chatard bleachers, it was as apparent as a dog on the dinner table that Brebeuf's freshman football team had many more players than advertised. Listening to the talk of some of the parents around me who had programs, there seemed to be a who...

In political terms: we became bourgeois and ended the revolution. In cultural terms: we embraced the culture and turned our backs on the counter-cultural. In literary terms: we surrendered our intellects and became Romantics. In philosophical terms: we blew out the flame of Thomism and put on the blindfold of the Enlightenment. In musical terms: we replaced the classical with the contemporary. And we did it all simply for the sake of change and for the new.