Monthly Archives: October 2011

Worse Than the Hippo…

Holidays, Humor of the Day, Tales of My Amazing Priests, , , ,

Okay, sometimes I stumble across things which are just not right, but which are exceedingly funny. In the spirit of the Halloween holiday, I will share:

A while back, one of my priests asked me to pray for a shepherd’s heart for him, because he said that he sometimes felt like the wolf wanting to devour the flock.

Later, we edited this to a hippo because I have a fear of dogs. (Even though hippos are like *the* most vicious mammal ever…)

Well, someone, inspired by Jurassic Park no doubt, came up with one even worse.

The Velocipastor!

Happy Halloween!

Because Prayer is Important

Prayer/Prayer Requests, ,
praying man

Since I have a long commute, I have a long time to think about things in the morning. This morning, intercessory prayer was on my mind. Specifically, I had asked a friend of mine to pray for a different friend of mine and was thinking about this.

See, I ask this particular friend of mine to pray for others on a fairly regular basis. And, when I have a intention that really needs prayer, I always ask this particular friend.

He happens to be a priest, but this is not why I ask him to pray for others.

I’m sure he gets many prayer requests due to his line of work, but I go to him for who he is. Of course, this gets a bit complicated because ordination changes you, and you are ontologically conformed to Christ, so being a priest *is* a part of what it means to be him in a way that my job is not and will never be a part of who I am.

What I mean, then, is that I go to him because I recognize him to be a man of integrity. And I don’t just mean that he does what he says he will do (although this is part of it), but an all-encompassing integrity that colors everything.

So, when I ask him to pray and he says he will, I know that he isn’t praying in an empty fashion, but is putting something of himself into the effort. Which is how we are all supposed to pray, right?

Prayer is an encounter with God. So it really shouldn’t be undertaken lightly. Happily, joyfully, frequently — of course! But with gravity, reverence and sincerity, also. In a way, prayer is an offering of myself to God. Hopefully, I would do this to benefit others much more than I do so to benefit myself.

And because prayer is an encounter with our Lord, the God who made us, and because it necessarily involves all of me (and not some sort of superficiality), prayer is at once incredibly important and the best gift you could possibly give another person.

So, I do not take this lightly. If you ask me to pray for you, I will do so with as much integrity as I can. And if I ask you to pray for something or someone for me, it is because I trust you and believe you to be a person of integrity.

And I don’t ask lightly, because I know of what I am asking of you.

With all my heart, Thank You and God Bless!

Some Things Shouldn’t Be Sung About in a Trivial Manner

Pop Culture

I admit it, my stereocilia dance to pagan music. If purgatory is the place where God pries our fingers from the sin we are still clinging to at the time of our death, then my iPod is surely to be found in the palm of my hand.

That being the case, I quite often run into morally objectionable material. I shouldn’t be surprised by anything anymore at this point. However, one song is making me wonder, “What were they thinking?!”

It’s called “Pumped Up Kicks” and is an infectious bit of bubble gum pop. The lyrics are simple and easy to remember and sing, the beat is catchy and makes you want to dance (or at least tap your feet, if you aren’t the dancing type)…

But the content of the lyrics is shocking.

Not that they are talking about sex, drugs or any of the other stuff that we are used to being assaulted by in secular media.

No, that would be too … common.

This song seems to be at least trivializing and at worst glorifying … events such as Columbine or Virginia Tech! What?! No way! You’d better believe it. I’m not going to repeat the lyrics here, but you can look them up on your own and check it out. It’s pretty obvious.

And this song is mainstream. They even played it between bands at the Enrique Iglesias/Pitbull concert.

Free speech is one thing, but shouldn’t we be responsible for what it is that we are saying publicly?