What Are You Washing That Car For?

I can't mention it enough, I love being a father. I believe that I have learned more in the few years being a father than I have in my entire life up to becoming a father. I have learned so much about love, compassion and mercy. For my family summer break is in full swing. My children are all home and this year my wife and I decided to challenge our children. We realize that summer break is a wonderful time to have experiences and to relax, but we also want them to realize the importance of hard work. We want to make sure that our children are prepared so that when they leave our home they will be successful in their adult lives. The last thing that we want is for them to get out on their own and be shell shocked by the concept of having to work and follow directions to make a living and sustain themselves, so my wife and I have come up with a variety of small tasks that they can handle that will teach them not only how to work but to work hard so they can develop as young people into wonderful adults. 

My seven-year-old has taken to this idea rather quickly. Rather than paying them money for everything that they do I want them to realize that sometimes you should do things for no benefit of yourself. However my seven-year-old has learned that the more work he does the more video game time he receives. It is almost as if I can't see inside his mind where he is calculating how much video game time he is expecting to receive for each task he completes. Yes, I do want him to work hard and I want him to realize the value of hard work, but I also want him to learn the virtue in doing things for others out of love because he loves them instead of doing it for personal gain. Realizing this behavior it makes me question myself. Why do I do the things that I do? What are my motivations? Yes it is true that we do things in this world for personal gain. I go to work not because I like it there, but because I make a good living and have a variety of benefits that allow me to provide for my family. 

One question though that pops up in my head is, "Why do I go to church?"

Some may answer this question by saying, "I do not want to go to hell." Others may reply stating, "That it's just what they're supposed to do." I know that some people go to church because it's a great place to hang out and they know people there and it's a place where they feel like they belong. Few people are devious. They will attend to merely look good, so that they can have some sort of stature in their local community. Know this, God loves you and yes he does want you to come to his Church, but God wants you to want to be there. 

As a father I love my children I also hope that they love me, just as such, God is your heavenly father, he loves you and he hopes that you will love him. God will not force you to love him. He has given you free will he will let you choose. God wants you to come to his Church because he is hoping that you will come to build a stronger relationship with him. Simply God loves you and he wants to spend time with you. God wants you to acknowledge how wonderful he is and all that he has a lovingly done for you. You could come to mass every Sunday, you could tithe 10% of your weekly gross earnings, you could donate time at the local food pantry, you could do a wide variety of things because "that's what Christians are supposed to do" but if you are not doing them out of love and because you love God then they empty gestures to God. 

As I stated before God wants you to come to church because he wants you to spend time with him. God wants you to learn. He wants you to become a better person, in fact he wants you to become the best you possibly can be because he knows what your true potential is. God has made you all that you are all of your talents and abilities. God has given you the beating heart in your chest, the air in your lungs, the world in which you live, everything that you see, smell, touch and hear is a gift from God. In response God wishes that you would give 10% (at least) of your earnings back to him. Why, because God wants to take that 10% so that he can help others in need. God wants you to donate so that you can help your brothers and sisters in humanity in their time of need, so that there is a church to attend; so that there is someone in that church to teach; so that there is money collected for disasters that may arise. Just as I ask my two oldest to help around the house so that their siblings have a nice home to live in that is clean and orderly, God wants us to help our brothers and sisters in humanity by giving back and making this world the best we possibly can out of love. It is for the same reason that God wants you to give to the poor, aid the sick, care for the dead and to help those in utter poverty, but he wants us to do this all out of love not just because we are looking for a "Get Out of Hell" card, so why do you do the things you do?

If you're not busy my car needs washed...  just saying. 

MT 7:21-29

Jesus said to his disciples:
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’
will enter the Kingdom of heaven,
but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.
Many will say to me on that day,
‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name?
Did we not drive out demons in your name?
Did we not do mighty deeds in your name?’
Then I will declare to them solemnly,
‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers.’

“Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them
will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.
The rain fell, the floods came,
and the winds blew and buffeted the house.
But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock.
And everyone who listens to these words of mine
but does not act on them
will be like a fool who built his house on sand.
The rain fell, the floods came,
and the winds blew and buffeted the house.
And it collapsed and was completely ruined.”

When Jesus finished these words,
the crowds were astonished at his teaching,
for he taught them as one having authority,
and not as their scribes.

Orlando Tragedy: How Will You Use Your Free Will?

To watch this video click: HERE

I would like to thank CNN for this report. 

After the shooting I have gotten online and I've seen a lot of anger and frustration going back-and-forth. It all seems to deal with whether or not we should ban guns, impose new gun control, how we should treat the LGTB community, how we should treat Muslims and how we should react to radical Muslim terrorists. It seems as though in someway the victims of this attack have been overlooked.

I would highly recommend watching this video. It's easy to press play and then immediately want to turn away and shuffle papers or whatever, but I would recommend pressing play and watching the screen and listening to each word.

I don't care if you don't agree with the lifestyles of these victims. These were real people with hearts and souls and dreams. These individuals struck down far too early in life are children of God. I have prayed and will continue to pray for their souls & for their families, friends and love ones. I know that there are many who are thinking how God could let such horrible things happen in this world. Fact is God gives us free will. One troubled young soul chose to use that free will to kill and hurt others. 

And so now we get to exercise our free will. How we each react is up to each of us. Will we react & choose to try and put love into this world or will we just merely argue? 

I know we all have deep passionate feelings on a variety of issues. But I stress that we all come together and discuss things and compassion. Anger will not prevent this from happening again. Love, compassion, mercy & understanding prevent this from happening again. I've never seen hate and rage solve a problem. 

I know this seems like a hippie pie-in-the-sky kind of response, but you can talk about gun control in a compassionate way. You can talk about terrorism prevention in a compassionate way. You can talk about immigration in a compassionate way. It is possible to disagree and have a conversation in a compassionate way. 

So let's not spend anymore time on this disturbed soul who chose to kill others. Let us honor beautiful lives that were taken down prematurely. This video highlights those people and I would highly recommend watching and praying for them. 

Let us come together as a country. Let us unify and realize that each one of us is a beautiful human being that deserves to be respected and protected. Let us come together in a compassionate way and work together to try and prevent a horrible event like this from ever happening again. 

Have a blessed day, an awesome week and a God filled life.

Playing the "Being Board" Game

Summertime is always a fun time in my house. It can prove to be a true challenge. Being in the 21st-century it's a bit fun to watch my children have first world problems. Like any other youngster from a lower middle-class family my children love video games. Myself I never had video games. I know I'm dating myself here, but I believe the closest thing I had to a video game was when my parents bought a Commodore 64, and I got to play "Where in the World is Carmen Sanediego." Don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't want my kids to have fun, however I find it important to balance their screen time versus non-screen time in a ratio of 1 to 10. Every summer there is always that moment where I tell them that, "Hey it's time to shut the screens off now." Inevitably one of my children will flop down on the couch with a disgusted look on their face, their arms crossed and staring as if they have no idea what dimension they are in. 

Of course I will ask them, "What's wrong?"
"I'm bored", they will reply.
"Really?" I reply, "That's great! I have plenty of chores that need done around the house if you're bored. You can help me."
"No!",  They will reply with such fervor I swear I can feel the walls in the house shaking.

I will sit down with them and then explain that they have a multitude of things to break their boredom that day. After rattling off a long list of things that they can do and reminding them that they have multiple brothers, a sister and friends that they can play with they usually come around and run off and have lots of fun. So often my children see what's right in front of their face, and they do not realize the beautiful world that surrounds them. Funny thing is I see many adults who have the same perception of life. As human beings we want to belong. We find a group of friends or coworkers and we stay in that tight knit group. Venturing out and meeting new people is not a common practice I see in this day and age. Belonging to a group is great. It gives you a sense of belonging and a home away from home. All too often though we become satisfied and our close knit network becomes a closed network. 

Recently here in America we have experienced a horrible tragedy. In Orlando Florida 50 people were killed and nearly 50 more were injured in a terrorist attack. Social media is fired up right now over arguments of gun control, terrorists, LGTB and other such issues. When such horrible, drastic things happen deep rooted beliefs rise, and instead of unifying in supporting each other we seem to tear ourselves apart. One could easily sit and examine the tragedy and come to a variety of conclusions why it occurred. For me I see a situation that displays a lack of love and misunderstanding. I know many will read my words and scoff. I will be called a hippie, pie in the sky idiot or worse. 

It's quite all right I'm used to it.

Fact is, I'm a Christian, and to me the situation seems simple. Jesus teaches me to love. Jesus teaches that I should love everyone that I meet. I am Catholic, and we get a lot of flack, but my Catholicism teaches me that I should also love everyone I meet and discriminate against no one. Jesus preaches something that is rather countercultural, especially in this day and age. Jesus teaches me that I should love my enemy and pray for them. The world today says that I should get even. The world today says that everything should be fair. The world today seems like it's very much in line with the Old Testament teaching, "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." Problem is, that teaching is a bit misunderstood.

God told us, "an eye for an eye tooth for a tooth", so that we would know the maximum to which we could punish, not the minimum. God wants us to love. That's why he sent his son Jesus down to earth, to teach us to love. I am sure that someone out there at this point would remark that I am trying to tell you that no one should ever defend themselves.

That is not what I'm saying, and that is not what God teaches.

God wants us to defend ourselves against evil. God wants us to protect those that we love. Know this though, Jesus came to teach us to love our enemies. Some might be wondering how that's supposed to work in the world today. It starts by saying hello to strangers on the street, locking eyes with them smiling and saying hello. It starts with small gestures like helping  elderly women in the grocery store parking lot and helping her put her bags in her car. It involves helping those who are in need, whether that means giving money to the homeless man on the corner, donating time at the soup kitchen or helping people at the local food pantry. It means reaching out to that person whom you know very well or maybe very little who is gone through a major loss in their life. It means "pressing the pause button" when you hear someone say something you vehemently disagree with. It means holding your thoughts, listening to what the other has to say and then replying with compassion. I love America because we open the door to everyone. Even though some are scared and believe that we should alter our immigration policy right now we still allow immigrants from all over the world. That is a form of compassion. Do we need to be careful and make sure that we protect all who are here now? 

Yes, but I do not believe that that means we should just blindly close our borders to those in need with no regard for pain and suffering in the world. 

If we can put a man on the moon, create the Internet and solve worldwide medical problems, we can surely develop a system that will prevent evil from entering our country. 

Jesus asked us to love our neighbor. Why, because when you love someone it's harder for them to want to put a bullet in your head. You are no longer a faceless soulless creature which matters not if you are destroyed. If you love your neighbor and build relationships, you become a human being to your neighbor. You turn into a person that has a face, a soul, you become someone that matters. Does that mean that if you love everyone you meet and you pray for everyone you meet, that you will extinguish all evil in the world?

No it does not, but I think you will be surprised by how much evil would recede in the world. 

Think about someone you love very much. Picture them in your mind. Think about some of the beautiful times you've had with that person. Now, how would you react if you had a strong disagreement with them?

Would you treat them with utter disrespect?

Would you spit in their face?

Would you physically beat them?
Would you put a gun to their head and pull the trigger?
Would you chop off their head while they're still alive?

I believe the reason that Jesus wants us to love all and pray for all, especially our enemies, is that if we can learn to have a connection with our enemies, we can overcome our differences and if we can't we can at least disagree in a manner which is with compassion. There is so much you can do to a person if you have no compassion for them. 

If you do not have compassion for someone, they are no longer a human being to you, they are just another creature like a bug. How many times have you paused and thought twice about squishing a bug that was bothering you?

We have enough hate and contempt in this world. Really, how has anyone ever benefited from hate and contempt? How has anyone come to benefit from completely detaching themselves from society in general? Jesus wants us to breed love and compassion. He wants each of us to take the time to find value in every person we meet. Jesus wants us all to be interconnected. Why? Tell me the last time you felt unhappy when you were in a compassionate relationship with someone that was working well. At the end of the day God wants us to be happy. God knows that will be happy when we have loving compassionate relationships with everyone we meet. Loving someone is not hard. Loving someone you don't know isn't really that hard. What makes it hard is our ego. We want our way our idea to be right. We want to chuck the idea of pluralism aside and for everyone to believe and feel just like we do. 

The ideal that Jesus wanted us to achieve is not easy. We definitely have a lot of work to do. But God is not just hanging us out to dry, letting us figure it out for ourselves. Every day the Holy Spirit is waiting to enter your life. The Holy Spirit has gifts to share that can help you overcome anyone and anything. But like most things in life, you will never receive unless you ask. God doesn't hold anything back from you unless it is not good for you. 

I am sure that there are some at this point wondering why God would let horrible things happen. The answer is free will. God doesn't force us to do anything. God let's us choose. Just as a misguided young man chose to enter nightclub and kill at free will, God allows us to choose how we will react to it. Will we pause and decide to react with compassion, or will we let our hatred boil and respond in rage? Will we seek those who committed crimes and find justice, or will we carpet bomb cities looking for retribution?


When my children are "bored" because I won't let them play video games they have two choices, they can sit by themselves and stew and try and figure out how they will get even with me, or they can walk through the house, find one of their siblings, have fun and love. Ironically I never see them having any fun when they sit and stew, yet it only takes mere moments before giggles and laughing flow through the house when they decide to spend time with those they choose to love. 

Love is a choice not a feeling.
What will we choose?
Anyone can stick with what they know.
A brave person reaches out. 
Courageous are those who breakthrough barriers and spread love on this beautiful earth.

MT 5:43-48

Jesus said to his disciples:
“You have heard that it was said,
You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.
But I say to you, love your enemies
and pray for those who persecute you,
that you may be children of your heavenly Father,
for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good,
and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.
For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have?
Do not the tax collectors do the same?
And if you greet your brothers only,
what is unusual about that?
Do not the pagans do the same?
So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”