THEY ACTUALLY USED THE "A" WORD!

Yesterday there was a story about abortion on NPR and it is quite newsworthy alone to note that they actually used the “A” word.  The piece covered whether a new law in Texas was too burdensome on women seeking an abortion.  The new law would close a number of abortion centers because they did not meet the standard of an entity that medically treats people.  The burdensome aspects that were pointed out in the segment were three:

 

ü  Some women would have to drive further within the state.

ü  Those women would have to take more time off from work.

ü  They would also have to find childcare for the children they decided to keep.

 

The legal question asks is this law such a heavy burden that this new law must be thrown out.

 

Conversely, in today’s readings we are told that if we love God we will follow His commandments and His commandments are not burdensome.  They certainly seem so, however, given the poor way we have taught them.  They are presented largely as a set of “Don’t”s.  1) Don’t have sex outside of marriage.  2) Don’t use contraception.  3) Don’t support same sex marriage.  Etc. etc. etc.

 

So why does societies laws seem so pastoral and Christ’s seem so burdensome?  Because Christ is concerned about tomorrow and society is worried about today.  Society wants to solve your problem or need right now.  Christ wants you to experience freedom and joy in the long run.

 

Here is a silly yet pertinent example:  The last piece of pizza!

 

After having their fill of pizza, your friends say for you to have the very last piece.  They couldn’t possibly eat another bite.  You are full also but there it is: warm, salty, melted cheesy goodness.  Your mouth waters.  Your brain screams, “Take it!  Take it!”  The scent fills your nose with the promise of greasy delights.

 

Now, you certainly have the right and license to take that last piece.  You have the desire.  You have the support of the gathering.  So you go ahead and eat it and it is every bit as wonderful as you hoped.  But within minutes you ask yourself, “Why didn’t I stop?  Now I am stuffed to the gills.  I feel terrible.”  You go to bed on an overly full stomach and the next morning it is still sitting there and the thought pops into your head, “I’m going to have to work that off today.”

 

OR

 

Let’s say you take your faith seriously which means watching out for yourself mentally, spiritually, and physically.  You exercise your freedom from having to eat that last piece and put it in the refrigerator.  In an hour you will not be thinking, “Darn!  I wish I had eaten that last slice of pizza.”  In fact, you feel comfortably full.  You wake up the next morning appropriately hungry for breakfast AND there is a slice of pizza in the refrigerator for lunch.

 

That is the freedom and joy God wants for you.  That is why His ways are not burdensome even when they seem that they are.

NEW AND IMPROVED FREEDOM

In the “revolution” for sexual freedom, Chesterton suggests we ask the question, from what we are seeking freedom.  To that we might add, “And is what we are doing actually bringing us into greater freedom?”

 

A sure sign that a community is breaking down is that it relies more heavily on its officials to keep the peace rather than the community making sure that nothing nefarious is going on.  I could not get in trouble as a kid much as I may have wanted to.  Our neighborhood was so tightly knit that if I dropped a penny on the way home my parents would have received three phone calls that “little Johnny was throwing money all over town.”  This is one of the reasons I became a priest.  Why bother being bad?  I couldn’t get away with it anyway.

 

That neighborhood has changed dramatically.  Today if you would call many of the parents on the street and tell them that their kid was spray painting graffiti on someone’s house you would first be met with refusal (not my kid) and then anger, “How dare you!  What did you do to cause my child to have to spray paint Mrs. McDonald’s house?”  A that point the police move in, not because the community is stronger and so can bring them in, but because it is beginning to fail; it must bring them in.  It is weak.

 

In our new sexual freedom, we have seen, from professional sports, to college campuses, high schools, celebrities, politicians, and now even Joe and Mary down the street, not the community holding up standards and keeping individuals responsible, but more and more bringing in the state to make people responsible for their actions.  This is not a sign that we have more freedom, more respect for each other, or that we are more empowered, or that women are better respected, or that we have less to hide, or even that we are, as a whole, happier, but that we are less empowered and so must rely on the big stick.

 

Granted, there have always been persons who were not able to be kept in check by the community.  That is why there are police forces and soldiers.  When society is healthy, these services are there to protect our freedoms, not enforce them. 

I HAVE SOMETHING I NEED TO CONFESS TO YOU

“Yes, I saved America from complete annihilation.  But you have to understand, I was having a good day, my spouse was being extra kind, I was caught up at work and just received a raise, my son had just told me that he loved me and all that combined with a little bit of grace and luck made it all possible.  But yes, I did it.”

 

Okay, once in a blue moon you might hear someone speak thusly, but most of the time it’s, “Yah, I did that.  It was difficult, but I pulled it off in the end.  Thanks to everyone who helped me achieve such a great thing.”

 

The opposite seems to happen when we have sinned.  In a way, I think this is good.  We strongly desire to be aligned with the good and so want to identify the good more closely with ourselves.  And realizing that evil is ugly, disordered, destructive, and disdainful, often a person will, perhaps even unwittingly, try to distance himself from the action.

 

“Yes, I tried to annihilate America.  But you have to understand, I was having a very bad day, my spouse was nagging me, I was swamped at work and my boss was breathing down my neck, my kids were rebelling, and all that combined with a little drink and some sleepless nights led me to do it.  But, yes, I tried to do it.”

As a confessor, though in this latter scenario I can see true symptoms of goodness, (they are confessing after all!  Fantastic!  And they are trying to distance themselves from evil.  Good.) it seems to me they are just one final step away from greatness.  Responsibility and freedom.

 

Let me preface this by saying that confessions is not supposed to be a counseling session as an emergency room is not a place to have physical therapy.  Different arrangements are made for each of these.  The confessional is an emergency room for the soul.

 

So when someone comes in who is serious about finding healing for their wounds, it can be pretty impressive, but not as much so when followed by, “But . . .”  The “but” might be completely legitimate, but in this moment, is the penitent taking ownership of their actions, or are they saying that in some great extent, it really wasn’t their fault?  If it really wasn’t the penitent’s fault, that he was coerced, or forced, or deranged, then it really wasn’t completely in their free will that the person acted and then, perhaps, if completely coerced, not really a sin at all.  Put away the tickertape and the streamers, this heroic confession just turned ordinary.

 

In truth, I don’t think that the penitent really wants to deny that a particular action was really a sin (he or she is confessing it after all) and perhaps he is just trying to understand how he could have done such a thing.  So it isn’t really something on which to dwell in the confessional.  But here is a secret – according to the laws of the universe in relation to Free Will, we can only love to the extent that we can hate.  Not that we have to actually hate (or love) but we must be capable of it.  If we can not but love, then we have no Free Will – we are puppets on a string and we do not need a Savior.  But as it is, we are capable of hate (Sept. 11^th) and therefore capable of astronomical acts of love (World Youth Day).

 

In 1521 Martin Luther said, “If you sin, sin boldly!”  I do not hold to his advice but rather, “If you have sinned, confess boldly!”  In this way we take full ownership not only of our good works but of our sinful ones.  Presenting ourselves naked as it were before God, we can trust more boldly in his mercy, be that much more open to His grace, that much more unburdened, have that much more joy, be much more healed, experience that much more freedom, and be reminded also how great a capacity we have for love.

GIVING THE DEVIL THE BENIFIT OF THE LAW

First, I come before you with biretta in hand, to give praise where praise is due.  I do not think that a newspaper (or any news outlet) is good only if it agrees with me, but is good if it informs fairly on all sides.  (A tricky thing to do when you have your own personal beliefs as an editor and you have to make advertisers happy I realize.)  So after yesterday’s rant, I must offer praise to the Akron Beacon Journal for printing another Letter to the Editor in today’s edition written by the Rev. David Durkee, our fair neighbor to the south, that gave a more thorough view of what took place in Washington D.C. this past week and the titled it, “A Message of Life.”  Kudos to you.  Both.

 

IN OTHER NEWS:

 

A while back another article appeared in the paper in which the author, in a passing way, made reference to Scientology (of Tom Cruise fame) and said that it was a fraud and an abuse of the laws of this country that protect religion.  That may or may not be the case (I have no real idea only having a shmattering of an insight about Scientology.)  But we must be careful about deciding who should be afforded benefit of the law.  If they have not broken the law, even if we very much disagree with them, it is dangerous for us to say, “But they are undeserving of this law.”  That may be true.  But what recourse will we have then when a large group of people (we see this happening already) decides that we are unreasonable and that the law written to protect us should not apply to us?

 

Said much better, here is some dialogue from “A Man for All Seasons” in which St. Thomas More is engaged in a conversation with idealistic young man named Roper who would have another man arrested who has not yet broken the law.  (Wife and Daughter are More’s)

 

Speaker	Dialog
Wife	Arrest him!
More	For what?
Wife	He's dangerous!
Roper	For all we know he's a spy!
Daughter	Father, that man's bad!
More	There's no law against that!
Roper	There is, God's law!
More	Then let God arrest him!
Wife	While you talk he's gone!
More	And go he should, if he were the Devil himself, until he broke the law!
Roper	So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law!
More	Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?
Roper	Yes, I'd cut down every law in England to do that!
More	Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's! And if you cut them down (and you're just the man to do it!), do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!

Quote taken from this site.

A FRESH VOICE - GUEST BLOGGER PART II

This is Part II of a 2 part series by seminarian Patrick Schultz

In the anthropocentric worldview, to be free is to wield the hammer of creativity and by sheer exercise of the will, sculpt oneself and one’s world as he or she sees fit. There is no notion that our choices should conform to our nature and promote our end, simply because modernity denies that we have a nature to conform to or an end to actualize. Herein lies the difference: to consider all of reality as devoid of intrinsic natures and indwelling ends is to see all being as malleable and moldable according to our whims, including the human person. If man is not endowed with a nature and an end, then all is permissible, and more importantly, everything is right. In a “Hakuna-matata”—no worries—fashion, whatever a person chooses, he is right; no one can object. You cannot go wrong within this framework. Why? Because if the supra-material causality of spirit is illusory, then there are no intrinsic natures in nature; likewise, if there is no transcendent spiritual dimension, then there is no God. If there is no God, then there is no grounding for morality, for good, for evil, for right, for wrong, for anything. If, as Nietzsche contends, “God is dead,” then all concepts of anything absolute dissipate. Without a lawgiver, law is a farce. The voice that speaks categorically in our heads, the voice of conscience that whispers those “ought’s,” is an illusion that can and should be ignored. The anthropocentric worldview is a slow asphyxiation. As Flannery O’Connor once remarked, it is a noxious gas that is breeding the moral sense out of certain segments of humanity, much like the wings have been bred off certain types of chickens. Our culture is being bred to believe in nothing, or better yet, that everything is permissible.

Although I doubt the woman on the plane was aware of what she was implying, her question was brimming over with this destructive worldview. I am here to affirm the opposite, and I will spend the rest of my life spreading the gospel of the theocentric worldview. Seminarians, postulants, novices, and all those earnestly seeking God, are looked on by the culture as misguided idealists who are throwing their lives away. And that is the crux of it. We are throwing our lives away. There is a theo-logic inaccessible to human reason that confounds modern sensibilities: for each one of us, we find ourselves by losing ourselves; we gain everything by losing everything; we become fully alive when we die to self. The Church declares that man, made in the image and likeness of God, “is the only creature on earth which God willed for itself, cannot fully find himself except through a sincere gift of himself” (Gaudium et Spes 24). To actualize our freedom for excellence is to recognize this sublime truth: it is by giving that we receive. It is through a willed dispossession of self that one fully comes to life.

So, what on earth would make me want to be a priest, especially in this day and age? The answer is simple: I want to respond to Him who loved me first. Just as He gave himself completely to me out of love, so too I wish to give myself completely to him. The only appropriate response to love is love itself. Out of love I was formed, and out of that same love and creativity, I am held in existence from moment to moment. At each and every second of my existence, I stand over the precipice of non-being, and yet God continues to choose me, and wills me to be. In light of such an unfathomable, magnanimous gift, how could I not respond by laying my life down, and giving my all? I do not desire to be used as a means to further God’s ends, as many moderns would interpret; I desire to cooperate willfully in the theo-drama that we are all a part of. I want to be, like all the great saints, one who enrolls in the school of silence, and says everyday: “Here I am, Lord. I long to do your will.”

A FRESH VOICE - GUEST BLOGGER

Here's a treat for you! As you know it is the habit at Adam's Ale that when we approach our busy holy days I have come to rely on Guest Bloggers to fill the gaps when otherwise this space would have to go blank out of necessity. As we enter into this Holy Week it is my pleasure to hand the Adam's Ale reigns over to Mr. Patrick Schultz. He is a junior philosophy major at Borremeo Seminary here in the Diocese of Cleveland. He hails from Saint Mary Parish in Hudson, a hop, skip, and a twenty minute drive from Saint Sebastian. His philosophy teacher, Fr. F. who contributes to Quote Tuesday quite often suggested (with the permission of the seminary) that he submit a paper that he wrote to Adam's Ale. After reading it I was most excited that this space be venue for his first publishing.

I was able to meet Patrick at the Aquinas lecture this past week. It is also a pleasure to report that he is also quite a personable gentleman. So with no further ado, here is Part I of a two Part series.

Answering the “Hakuna-Matata” Culture of 21st Century America
By: Patrick R. Schultz

I was sitting next to a woman on a flight recently. We were sharing a pleasant conversation; she was telling me about her children and grandchildren, and I was sharing stories about me and my younger brother. The topic, however, turned, and she asked me where I go to school and what I study. Instead of avoiding the question, I dropped the bomb: “I am actually a seminarian studying for the Catholic priesthood.” She became quiet, and a puzzled look filled her lined face. She quipped, “Oh, that’s interesting,” at which point I thought the conversation was over. But then, she turned back and looked at me, and as if she were figuring out how to best word her question, she asked, “What on earth would make you want to do that, especially in this day and age?” Indeed, what on earth would compel anybody to walk such a path?

The modern world is ripe with possibilities and new frontiers for young people to explore and take part in. We can do things, go places, learn concepts, communicate, and live lifestyles, etc., that our forbearers could never have dreamed. American culture marches forward to a steady beat that rings out loudly: change, development, innovation, and progress. We live and move and have our being in a consumerist culture where the externals (money, career, popularity, image, power, etc.) are exalted on high. When our heroes are Hollywood celebrities and professional athletes, and our role models are The Housewives of Orange County and the cast members of MTV’s The Real World, it is logical that, given this cultural heartbeat and social framework, the priesthood could only appear as an arcane, outmoded “career.” The Catholic Church is consequently perceived as an antiquated institution, which drives people back into the dark-ages of superstition, sexual repression, and corruption. The priesthood, let alone the pursuit of holiness, is utterly counter-intuitive, and counter-cultural. In a word, the priesthood appears diametrically opposed to plain common sense. The modern world simply cannot see the value in it, or the logic behind it.

And this is the key: the occluding worldview of modernity, which has devalued the spiritual and the absolute, makes it not simply difficult to see, but downright impossible to see. The woman’s incredulous response to my answer points to this very blindness. Our ideas matter; our underlying presumptions about the world, the universe, about reality, all matter. They are the lenses through which we process reality. Therefore, since modernity has acquiesced to Nietzsche’s bold proclamation, “God is dead,” contemporary culture is anthropocentric, that is, we possess a temporal or human-centered worldview. This worldview does not liberate humanity but rather slowly poisons it. What is needed is a theocentric worldview, that is, a Godly worldview, which considers man as a composite being of spirit and matter, endowed with reason, and oriented towards a transcendent destiny.

Implicit in the woman’s question is this anthropocentric worldview, and its consequent redefinition of freedom. The concept of freedom, especially here in America, is the value par excellence. We cherish, honor, celebrate, and defend our freedom more so than anything else. We talk about personal freedom, freedom of speech, and freedom of religion (or lack thereof). We talk about one’s freedom to choose, freedom to determine one’s future, and freedom to define happiness and the meaning of life. Fundamentally, we exalt the freedom of the individual to act however, and choose whatever, insofar as one’s actions and choices do not infringe upon another’s autonomy. Like many concepts today, we causally use this word freedom, putting it front and center and often hiding behind it, without knowing what it really means. In the history of ideas, freedom has undergone a dramatic redefinition, which coincides with the devaluation of the spiritual and the absolute. Where freedom once was seen as freedom for excellence, or virtue, it now implies a freedom of indifference. Before, the person who best actualized his inborn potential for excellence was most free. Now, he who can simply choose between a plurality of options is free.

THE SIXTY SECOND TEST OF HAPPINESS

Please keep this between you and me. I know I’ve railed against Law and Order SVU, but I was so tired last night I couldn’t think and veged in front of the television and watched an episode. In it there was a lady who lied to the police. They looked at each other and pondered how on earth a sweet old lady such as her could lie to the police. They then realized that she was dying and could care less about the consequences. This world and everything in was passing away. Her loyalty was no longer to anyone or anything in this world. She had the freedom to act as she pleased.

Of course another name for this is anarchy. But what if one were to have that freedom focused in a positive direction; to have the freedom live fully in love with Christ without wanting or needed to worry what others think or expect?

I had a spiritual director once who called this, “Being wild.” He showed us a rock and said, “See the rock? The rock is wild. It won’t do anything except be a rock no matter what you think of it or expect it to be.” Well, Okay, maybe that was a bit “Kung Fu”, but it helps get the picture across.

“The Bucket List” is a movie out right now that follows a couple of guys around trying to get in everything they want to experience before the “kick the bucket.” (My Dad was a whole lot like this.) Mimicking this the Plain Dealer today asked some local celebrities what they would put on their bucket list. That tells you a lot about a person. Some mentioned sexual conquests or drinking beer at an Oktoberfest in Munich while others mentioned working with Doctors Without Borders or ridding Cambodia and the world of a few more land mines. Wow.

But an idea more important than "what do you want to get in" comes from this quote I’ve been contemplating found in The Sun magazine. It is the question of how would you feel if there was no more time to get anything in. It is along the lines of, “Be still and know that I am God.”

“Stop reading for a moment,” well, after you are done reading this, “and imagine that you are going to die in one minute. The last thing you are going to experience are reading these pages, sitting in this room, thinking and feeling what you are think and feeling right now. This is the end of your life . . .You have no time to write a note or make a phone call. All you can do is experience what is, right now. This is a very simple exercise, but it is quite profound. It brings you into presence very quickly. You stop fighting, you stop needing, you stop being concerned with physical comfort, you stop wanting, you stop achieving, and you stop maintaining. Enlightenment, attainment, realization all become meaningless. You are just present.” Ken McLeod

Well, that wasn’t exactly true for me because I was reading this in the little monsignor’s room and so would have taken care of a couple things before dropping over on the tile floor. But just the same it made me think, “If this is it right now am I Okay with that? Would I be ashamed of my life right now or basically Okay with what I am leaving behind?”

As a priest I see people at the end of the line from time to time who regret their lives terribly and in trembling wish to start doing something about it now, but that is only because the taste of death is already in their mouths and now have the opportunity to stop and realize how self-centered their lives were. “If God would give me one more chance I would . . .” Unfortunately it is often the case that there is not going to be more time and so I advise that they pray for and about that which is important to them, at least offering that up. Sometimes that helps, sometimes it doesn’t. But boy does it teach the lesson that a little bit of sacrifice in life sure makes up for feeling unprepared to face death.

As much as I would have hated for it to be in the bathroom, I think I would have been at peace when I read that quote. One thing I did wish was that I’d not left such a mess behind so plan on cleaning my office today. I wrote a couple of notes to people telling them I was thinking of them and thought to write you this. That’s about as far as I got in 60 seconds.

MY ECHO, MY SHADOW, AND ME

This is what happens when you no longer have strong communities where people know each other and look out after one another. In the wake of the shooting in a Cleveland high school, the city, already strapped and barely making it along, will spend over three million dollars to install metal detectors in all of its schools (not to mention the cost of having people to man them etc.)

Is this not disturbing? It is not the cost, but the fact that we feel it necessary to have metal detectors in schools. And further, it is not that there might be another kid out there who might be on the path to becoming the type of person who would do the same thing, but that our communities have so fallen apart that there was not one person who was there to help this boy in his formative years or was aware of his violent tendencies and as community try to bring some help to the kid.

The sad part here is that as we move further and further from community and freedom being the basis of civilization to autonomy and license, the more we have to rely on things and laws and enforcement to enable us to survive side by side.

Major medical decisions are now relegated to a piece of paper when you were in a state that may not equal your current mindset, yet a piece of paper is held as binding instead of a flesh and blood person who you know and trust, who takes council with the doctors, possibly family and hopefully your faith tradition to plot a course for the future when you are unable.

Adriana Trigiani in “Rococo” writing about people who come to rely too heavily on money puts forth that, “Rich people develop a feeling of invincibility, but none of us are exempt from the pain and suffering of life. A wealthy person thinks, 'If I need a kidney, I’ll buy one; If I lose my career I’ll coast;' or when 'I’m old, I won’t need to rely on the kindness of others, I can pay someone to take care of me.' Instead of building up relationships that matter, the rich man nurtures his relationship with his accountant.”

Apparently there were many signs that this kid was headed for trouble (as it seems there almost always is.) True freedom would still exist for that boy and the people he shot had community been more cohesive and concerned about the young man than being afraid of trespassing on someone’s business. That is the basis of the community of Church. It is the basis of true freedom. It is us and God, not me and God.

“When you go at it alone, the worst in you will come out.” - Fr. Canice

JUST ME AND MY SHADOW

N.B. – The following post mentions topics that sensitive readers might find objectionable.

Ask any golfer (or at least golfers as poor at the sport as I am) what will happen if, when they are getting ready to swing at the ball, they think to themselves, “Don’t hit that tree. Don’t hit that tree.” Unable to hit the tree intentionally on their next twenty swings, that one time they will hit it square in the center.

A spiritual director of mine once said this is due to the body’s inability to hear the word, “Don’t”. In effect, what was being said to the body was, “Hit that tree. Hit that tree.”

Many people try to overcome masturbation in much the same way. Christopher West calls it, “White Knuckling It”. We, especially men, grit out teeth, tense out muscles, and say, “I’m not going to do it. I’m not going to do it.” Anybody who works my side of the confessional screen will tell you that this method does not seem to work well. First of all, the mere fact that you are repeating this line keeps the thought alive, and secondly the body is only perceiving the positive, “I’m * going to do it. I’m * going to do it.”

So let’s say that you visit this sin often and want to stop. The first step is to stop punishing yourself too harshly about it. Be clear, I am not saying that it is not sinful, ripe for regular confession or that we shouldn’t strive to stop it, but that overly punishing yourself will only dig you deeper into it. Because why do people masturbate in the first place? Usually to feel better, to escape, or to relieve tension. What happens when you punish yourself too severely? You feel guilty, shameful, and full of tension. Well, what can you do to relieve these feelings? Ah! The horrible cycle builds on itself. So, take it to confession, keep working to eradicate this cycle from your life, but don’t over react to it – don’t give it too much power over you.

Next, don’t try to quit under your own power. Start trusting God to help you. Give the problem over to Him. Be humble. Ask for His saving help. Admit your weakness and need for assistance. Learn to rely on Him.

A priest once told us boys when we were growing up to run laps or do push ups to help overcome the urge. Well, that works as far as the adage “Idle hands are the Devil’s workshop,” but every little bit helps. And it helps to avoid being hungry, angry, lonely, or tired. But sometimes all these are out of our control.

It helps to treat your body like a temple of the Holy Spirit, treating yourself with respect and adorning your body with modesty. It helps to train yourself to start looking at others as human beings worthy of respect rather than sex objects (including those found in advertisements, television, and movies). That also means being careful what you watch and read also. Don’t place yourself in a near occasion of sin. If you know your weaknesses, avoid putting yourself in a situation that will exploit them as far as possible.

Other acts of self-denial help us learn the discipline needed to be chaste. It also helps to have a regular confessor, spiritual director, as well as a trusted friend so that the two (or more) of you can keep each other challenged and accountable to chastity. Deep prayer, perhaps holy hours, and use of the Sacraments are of course essential.

Saint Augustine once said, “The worse thing about sin is that the body remembers.” Some people have indulged in this sin for many years and the solution to getting out of it does not most usually happen overnight. One has to change his perception of humanity and sexuality. New thinking patterns during idle times or times of stress need to develop. And the start of the process can be painful. It takes time for the wound to heal and to gain your strength.

Why does the Church care about this topic anyway? Because it wants you to enjoy your God given freedom. If you know someone struggling with this issue you know that it is a destroyer of freedom. Like many vices, it is not something that a person chooses freely to do or not to do but feels a compulsion. That is not freedom. And when one is not completely free, that person cannot give him or herself completely to another. Nor can they find complete happiness because as with many such vices, it ultimately fails to satisfy. Our faith wishes to restore us to true freedom, joy, and honest fulfillment. It may be a hard battle to win, but the fight is well worth the effort!

IN OTHER NEWS:

I almost did not post yesterday’s quiz but I am sure glad I did. You guys had me laughing all day! C.O. I think had the best answers but Bob got it right. (I really thought it would be easy!)

The answers to yesterday’s picture quiz: These are different kinds of tans that are traditionally named after various jobs.

Upper left: Priest tan.
Upper right: Trucker tan.
Middle: Farmer’s tan.
Lower left: Man pretending to a nun in full habit.
Lower right: Lifeguard

Thanks for the laughs one and all.