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The Nature of Love: What Jesus Endured

2012-03-14T10:00:00.000-07:00

[Monsignor Biebel shared some of below at our Catholic Men's Gathering last night. If you are suffering in any way right now, consider yourself blessed - esteemed by God to share in a "way" He did not even spare His own Son! This is love deeper than death, a power to transform lives, marriages, families, civilization. This Lent make the journey. Know His love. Be transformed.]

At the age of 33, Jesus was condemned to the death.

At the time crucifixion was the worst death. Only the worst criminals were condemned to be crucified. Yet it was even more dreadful for Jesus. Unlike other criminals condemned to death by crucifixion, Jesus was to be nailed to the cross by His hands and feet.

Each nail was 6 to 8 inches long.

The nails were driven into His wrists - not into His palms as is commonly portrayed. There's a tendon in the wrist that extends to the shoulder. The Roman guards knew that when the nails were being hammered into the wrist that tendon would tear and break, forcing Jesus to use His back muscles to support himself so that He could breathe.

Both of His feet were nailed together. Thus, He was forced to support Himself on the single nail that impaled His feet to the cross. Jesus could not support himself with His legs because of the pain, so He was forced to alternate between arching His back then using his legs just to continue to breathe. Imagine the struggle, the pain, the suffering, the courage.

Jesus endured this for over 3 hours.

Before the nails and the spear Jesus was whipped and beaten. The whipping was so severe that it tore the flesh from His body. The beating so horrific that His face was torn and his beard ripped from His face. The crown of thorns cut deeply into His scalp. Most men would not have survived this torture.

All these without mentioning the humiliation He suffered after carrying His own cross for almost 2 kilometers, while the crowd spat in his face and threw stones (the cross was almost 30 kg of weight, only for its higher part, where His hands were nailed).

Jesus had to endure this experience, to open the Gates of Heaven.

And He would do it all over again if it were just for you.

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Isaiah 53

³ He was despised and rejected by mankind,

a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.

Like one from whom people hide their faces

he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

⁴ Surely he took up our pain
   and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
   stricken by him, and afflicted.
⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions,
   he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
   and by his wounds we are healed.
⁶ We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
   each of us has turned to our own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
   the iniquity of us all.

Under the Hood: Are You a Christian or a Deist? (Pope Benedict)

2012-02-26T11:08:00.001-08:00

Below is a must read for any Christian leader, particularly Catholics who have inherited a culture so oriented toward our fulfillment of mere moral precepts. Pope Benedict is exhorting us to reflect upon our core beliefs, our anchor, and to fully engage in the relationship that is at the very heart of ritual.
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"The temptation to turn Christianity into a kind of moralismand to concentrate everything on man's moral action has always been great. Forman sees himself above all. God remains invisible, untouchable and, therefore,man takes his support mainly from his own action. But if God does not act, ifGod is not a true agent in history who also enters into my personal life, thenwhat does redemption mean? Of what value is our relationship with Christ, andthus, with the Trinitarian God?

"I think the temptation to reduce Christianity to the level of a type ofmoralism is very great even in our own day. For we are all living in an atmosphere ofdeism. Our notion of natural laws does not facilitate us in believing in anyaction of God in our world. It seems that there is no room for God himself toact in human history and in my life. And so we have the idea of God who can nolonger enter into this cosmos, made and closed against him. What is left? Ouraction. And we are the ones who must transform the world. We are the ones whomust generate redemption. We are the ones who must create the better world, anew world. And if that is how one thinks, then Christianity is dead.

"We are lacking the force of eternal love to respond to thechallenges of our lives and of politics. Love has the capacity totransform the world. It spurs our love and, in this communion of twowills, one can go on. Christian holiness and rectitude do not consist inany superhuman greatness or in some superior talent. Christian faith isproperly the religion of ordinary people. It comes about in a state ofobedience that places us at God’s disposition wherever He calls. It isthe same obedience that does not trust to one’s own power or one’s owngreatness but is founded on the greatness of the God of Jesus Christ."

Pope Benedict XVI

30 Days in the Church and in the World. Year XVI, Number 10, 1998.

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We need to more deeply encounter Jesus Christ. Let's journey together. Made2Worship begins again in May.
"Christian faith is not only a matter of believing thatcertain things are true, but above all a personal relationship with JesusChrist. It is an encounter with the Son of God that gives new energy to thewhole of our existence." Pope Benedict XVI

Image Trinity is committed to inviting families to join in the great adventure of discovering our identity and mission: we Image the Trinity (Get IT?). We exist because of the Holy Spirit working through your prayers, involvement and financial support. Donations of any amount accepted (left column).

A Lenten Challenge: "Just Live It" (Fr. Larry Richards)

2012-02-22T06:45:00.000-08:00

With humor and conviction Fr. Larry Richards challenges us to take Lent seriously, to fix our eyes on becoming saints. LISTEN NOW!

Image Trinity is a movement of Catholic families inviting all to journey in the great adventure of our identity (Image Trinity) and mission: Live IT!

This audio is free. Please share. Donations are much appreciated (to the left - Thank you!).

This talk was sponsored by the Serra Club of Erie.

How Drane-ing! Drane, Erie Times News and Church Teaching

2012-02-19T13:18:00.000-08:00

Greetings in Christ All.

Reading Drane's article (and corresponding cartoon) today inErie's Times News ("Catholic Church should change its policies on birthcontrol") made us want to cancel the paper... again. Of course, it demandsa reply, but why bother? What good does it do? Where is the Church's officialreply?

But then I'm haunted by the awareness that if we don't say something, we'retacitly approving falsehood - and the destruction it causes. We allowpop-culture to assume Catholics are just blind, conflicted sheep. Oursimple reply signals to them that perhaps there are 10,000 others who agree. Steph saw that look in my eyes and humorously moved to block me from mylaptop - as it's Sunday.

It's unlikely they'll publish my below letter, and if they do-- likely it willbe misrepresented. Nonetheless, I encourage you if you are so moved to pleaseconsider sending your own letter / message to Times News expressing yourdisagreement with the article - that you do agree with Church teaching. Ifeveryone who received this simply sent that expression - it could have animpact. letters@timesnews.com

So Lent begins! :) Let's keep praying.
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The Times wouldn't ask a disgruntled, former employee to betheir spokesperson. One can only wonder why they continue to go to an ex-priestwho so evidently opposes the Church on mattersso definitively Catholic (Drane, "Catholic Church should changeits policies on birth control").

Let's situate this in a liberal framework. In Americano one is forced to believe anything. In search of integrity: if you don'tagree with the Catholic Church, haven't endeavored to discover the solid basisfor our beliefs, plain and simple, you're really not Catholic. No need to getgrumpy about it, there numerous, other options.

On Drane's premise, that the Church's teaching ought to be afunction of popularity, or ease, or convenience, or taste - one has the Crossto contend with. Fundamentally and essentially, faith is a matter of truth.

Drane wrongly presents the Church teaching as a matter ofhistorical happenstance. It could have gone this way, it could have gone thatway. Anyone who has taken the time to read and understand the Church'steachings would recognize otherwise. There is rock-solid biblical, historical,theological and logical basis for the Church as a "pillar andfoundation of truth" (1 Tim. 3:15), as a continuation of Christ's teaching(Matt. 16:18ff).

As Catholic parents of six beautiful children (plus one in heaven), we are notblind sheep. Our faith is not a matter of some culturally-construed, externalobligation that makes us feel good. We aren't devoted to it simply because weinherited it. Our Catholic faith is something we have studied extensively,that we have engaged, and have come to not only fully embrace, but proclaimjoyfully as Christ's revelation for the good of our lives - in this world andthe next.

Of course, all professed truth must stand in the light ofvalidation: I have yet to meet anyone who has ever broken a "law"that has not, in fact, broken them. With contraception one need look no furtherthan a commercial and the long list of warnings at the end. In thebiblical-moral sphere, before 1933 all Christian denominations opposedcontraception on biblical-theological grounds. So one must ask, did Godchange his mind? Note that contraception was propelled into acceptance byMargaret Sanger/ Planned Parenthood - whose principal, eugenic purpose waspronounced in their masthead: "More from the fit, less from theunfit."

Prior to 1933 Christians universally understood that sexualexpression was a sacred gift between husband and wife, the use of which shouldcorrespond to the intent of the Giver. We are moved by the great nobility andtruth of a Church that continues to hold up, against all detractors - the greatnobility of sexual expression as a call to participate in God Himself who isLove, a Communion of Persons. God is love and God is life; contraceptionliterally means "against life."

Contraception removes God from the equation, enabling a using of persons. Apartfrom the Giver everything withers. Decline of marriage, loss of respect forwomen, loss of respect for life in all stages... all predicted as a result of a"contraceptive mentality".

With due note for the great tragedy of scandal throughoutthe Church's history, which is incumbent upon any institution so entrusted toimperfect humanity, we thank God for His gift of the Church, and for all thosewho have faithfully proclaimed and lived the saving truths which, if notpopular or easy, are for our greatest good.

GO HERE for a great summary on the basis of the Church's teaching on contraception.

Greg and Stephanie Schlueter

Live IT Family Story #2: That You Might Have Warm Water

2012-02-09T06:01:00.001-08:00

By Greg Schlueter

As a family we're up every morning at 6am to work out at the YMCA. As there are eight of us, I've been hounding the kids to take shorter showers - as I'm last.

So, this morning I commented on how nice it was to have some warm water yesterday. The older two boys shared with me that our youngest, Dominic - age 6, without letting me know, took a cold shower so I could have some hot water. It's 25 degrees outside!

So often I'm so moved and inspired by the nature of God's self-giving love alive in my kids... most of the time anyways. This one goes a long way!
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PLEASE SHARE YOUR SHORT STORY that inspires with the sense of God alive in families. Go HERE to post. (We may contact you about featuring it.)

LIVE IT: THE MISSION is to invite families on the great adventure of discovering our identity / mission and Living IT. We Image the Trinity (Get IT?).

Get on board. More HERE.

Live IT Family Story #1: Everyone Needs a Little Gracie

2012-02-07T13:17:00.000-08:00

By Greg Schlueter

Gracie is our 8 year old firebrand. Every day she kicks out little creations that affirm her love for various family members. While I always appreciate these, I made the mistake a few days ago of suggesting that we would soon need to rent a storage facility.

The next day I awoke with a certain heaviness about some things. While getting ready for work, I was struck by at least three, beautiful "Gracie's creations" - a real "pick me up" that so clearly expressed God's loving heart, and the gift of His prolific love so alive in her.

So, of course, the first thing I did was found her and shared all this with her- encouraging her to keep that loving heart flowing. She jumped up and gave me a big hug and, flashing her big brown eyes, simply said unfazed, "Dad, you didn't think that would stop me, did you?"
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BIG PICTURE

2012-02-02T13:00:00.000-08:00

In Our Capacity to Love We Image the Trinity.

What IT's all about.

Friendship is the desire of every human heart- to be in meaningful communion with others, beyond obligation. The Holy Spirit abides in families drawn together in friendship. Such friendship is anchored in God who is Himself a Communion of Persons, the very definition of LOVE - as each Person constantly pours Himself out for the other. This is what IT’s all about: Image Trinity. In Him we discover who we are, what we are to do, and are flooded with supernatural grace to be IT.

What does IT looks like? An entire community being transformed in Love.

Dynamic retreats and events. Engaging television and radio programs showcasing families Living IT. Dynamic resources. Integration through web and social media. Dynamic integration and partnership with Eucharistic communities.

When families discover their identity, they get IT more and more, and become a vital basis for extending IT to other families in need. Imagine-- PreCana, Marriage Encounter and other programs not being an end, but an initiation into a vital community- one grounded in friendship, and fully integrated into local parishes, but accepting that vitality comes from the “living it out” beyond church walls... leaven in the world.

This vision is already happening. Here in Erie, Pennsylavania we are a growing network of families united in friendship and committed to a common vision and mission... a desire to be more deeply formed by our Image of the Trinity, and to live out the implications of that identity.

We are a light on a hill.

Under the patronage of Our Lady of Guadalupe and Blessed John Paul II, our dream to build a large family retreat on the water here in Erie, as a warm, welcoming, prayer-filled environment for vital family-transformation in our own area, and as a spring board to the rest of the country... including publications, radio, television, resources, programs and conferences. If you are called to help us make this vision a reality, please shoot us an email. Above all, please join us in prayer and work that we all might more fully Image the Trinity.

Become what you are, and the world will know God who IS Love!

Stay tuned. Sign-up now to the right!

Greg and Stephanie Schlueter:
Greg@ImageTrinity.com
(814) 864-5755

The BEATLES and FR. RICH: "Let IT Be!"

2011-12-16T08:58:00.000-08:00

THE STORY: So Fr. Rich Toohey, having this knack for WAY-in-advance preparation, texts me- an hour before the Presence for Christmas event: "Can you play 'Let it Be'?"

My immediate thoughts, in no particular order: (1) Our super-talented music leader, Daniel Cabanillas, was going to be absent; (2) There's a reason why I am hanging on to my day job; (3) I've never sung that song before in my life; (4) It's a worship event... the Beatles? (5) It has IT (=Image Trinity) in there... pretty cool!

So, my respectful reply, addressing all those questions: "Are you bringing the hashish?"

Our conversation continued over the phone. There was a sense of something bigger than both of us going on. I recall a good friend, Fr. Mike Najim, once stating, "YHWH means 'One who tears up our plans.'" Little did we know that RCIA candidates would be joining us that evening- many of whom were new to Catholic experience, and inquiring how this faith integrates with the real world. Little did we know that many were coming with heavy hearts and in need of hearing God say, "I've got this. I'm in control. Let it be."

It all came together in this powerful message by Fr. Rich, connecting Beatles' "Let it Be" to Mary's "Be it done unto me according to Thy Word." I gave Louis Nicolia, our violinist extraordinairre, a simple chord sheet just before we began. Along with Mary I was pressed to surrender my music-leading insecurity and say "yes" - make it a prayer from the heart (regardless of the effect on eardrums), with Mary's conviction that what God calls us to, He will provide for.

Let IT Be!

PLEASE PLAN TO JOIN US for the ENCORE- our final stop for what has been an amazing "four week journey into the heart of Christmas." Awesome music begins with Jared Cooney at 6:25 p.m. Faith story by Pastor Rick Crocker of the Erie City Mission. Daniel back in the saddle leading worship. Fr. Rich bringing it all home. NEXT WEDNESDAY, December 21, 6:30 p.m. St. George Catholic Church.

This year let's give PRESENCE for Christmas!

God bless.

Greg Schlueter
PresenceForChristmas.com

Presence for Christmas is an outreach of Image Trinity... a four-week journey into the heart of Christmas. Please join us on this great adventure of discovering and living out our identity and mission: in our capacity to love, we Image of the Trinity (Get IT?).

Image Trinity is a family-driven, nonprofit organization with a big vision and mission for our families, communities and the world. Please partner with us with by your prayers and (tax deductible/ board accountable) financial support.

Presence for Christmas 2011 BEGINS!

2011-12-04T08:17:00.000-08:00

The first video is an uplifting message by Fr. Rich Toohey. The second is a powerful, faith-story shared by Brenda Newport of The Women's Care Center. Presence for Christmas is a four week journey into the heart of Christmas - JOIN US!

PRESENCE 4 CHRISTMAS

2011-11-18T11:11:00.001-08:00

Please Help Spread the WORD!

Flyer: http://ImageTrinity.com/P4C/P4C2011-Web.pdf

Logo: http://ImageTrinity.com/P4C/P4C2011.jpg

Site: PresenceForChristmas.com

PRESS RELEASE

Presence for Christmas (P4C) is a "four week journey into the heart of Christmas." Ignited in 2010, P4C is Advent journey marked by weekly gatherings comprised of uplifting story, song and prayer. Each week individuals and families bring their "prayer candle" and placed it at the Burning Bush, which will collectively illuminate Jesus Christ in Exposition. Our Living IT Gathering Guide will help keep families talking and praying throughout the season of Advent.

Oh... the magic and wonder of Christmas! Remember looking through the Sears and JCPenny catalogues as kids? Wondering, hoping and praying for that special thing? Can you remember all the lights and colors, all the special decorations inside and out? The aromatic smells of something baking... most likely Bing Crosby or Nat King Cole singing in the background? How about Rudolph and Frosty on television, along with special gatherings and events....

Sure, for many of us there was the Advent Wreath, and Christmas Mass. But let's face it, for most of us these were momentary things to endure to get back to the main event.

Life experience is a great teacher. And it's worth asking: What is the meaning of Christmas? Is it all about the presents? If so, where are those presents today? What enduring, meaningful impact did they have on our lives? How are we different because of them?

Let's keep it real. Particularly for many of us Catholics, "faith" is often a tedious obligation, hoops you jump through-- that give us a sense of doing what we should. Is there more? Christmas has so much more to do with personal presence than with material presents. While presents are an important part of Christmas, at the heart of it all is the fact that we have been fashioned for God. We need God. We need so much more than cliche, or empty obligations... we need to know God. Christmas is a grace-filled season where God offers us His Presence. He is the Present. And He makes us Presents to each other!

Presence for Christmas is a journey into the Heart of Christmas... an invitation for you and your family to slow down, set aside the distractions and tune into God with expectant faith that He will be Present. God wants to be so much more than an obligation. He wants to do so much more than dwell among us. He wants to dwell within us.

Come join us for all four evenings. You'll be deeply touched by each of the stories. Come with your needs, concerns, hopes and prayers. Come join in a community seeking God together... enlivened by "something more." God bless!

Image Trinity is a movement of families. Our identity and mission is simply this: You Image the Trinity! (Get IT?) We invite you to partner with us. Read more about our mission. Help us make our "Living IT!" television program possible.

To advance this movement, we depend entirely upon your generosity of prayers, involvement, and financial support (to the left). Thank you.

If you are interested in an Image Trinity event in your parish or community, please contact us: Stephanie@ImageTrinity.com

Gerson Article: Obama's Anti-Catholic Bias. Call for Catholics to Step Up.

2011-11-16T07:48:00.000-08:00

By Greg Schlueter

Reprint from CatholicLane.com

A faith removed from lived experience is no faith at all (James 2:14ff). Our faith concerns the totality of the human person, the shape of culture, with a commitment to building a “civilization of love.” The political arena is a very specific place we are called to “go into the world” (Matt. 28:19).

So it was with great interest that I read Michael Gerson’s piece in theWashington Post “Obama turns his back on Catholics“ which substantiates strong anti-Catholic policy in the Obama administration. In it he quotes Archbishop Timothy Dolan, president of the USCCB, who calls the policies an “assault which now appears to grow at an ever-accelerating pace in ways that most of us could never have imagined.”

After posting Gerson’s link on my Facebook page, the comments began to roll in. In general, I think the critics were offering thoughtful representations of mainstream thinking, i.e., sensibilities we need to understand and contend with. In short order, in support of the President’s policies, they invoked a separation of church and state, suggesting the Catholic’s rejection of anti-life and anti-family provisions constitute a breach of contract warranting these policies, and further called Catholics to task for their myopia on abortion and homosexuality, and invoking the question of competency in leadership: “Would you have an incompetent pro-life leader over a competent pro-choice leader?”

Before sharing my response (a slightly edited version of which is) below, an equally important point is the absolute necessity for you and me, right now, to not shrink from controversial, difficult conversations, but to be informed and enter into the marketplace of ideas with respectful vigilance.

Here was my response to this question about “competence”:

“Competency” is not simply concerned with administrative ability, but prior to that, it is concerned with what one is committed to administering. As a reductio, I’m quite sure it would be morally incumbent for one to vote against a mostly competent Adolf Hitler in favor of a somewhat incompetent candidate against the Holocaust (let’s be honest, in the real world we’re not dealing with absolute competency or utter incompetency).

To sum up in the words of Jefferson – a good source I think for matters of law and policy: “The care of human life, and not it’s destruction, is the first and only legitimate object of good government.”

Put in a hierarchical-logical framework, an individual’s life rights supersede another individual’s “liberty and pursuit of happiness” rights… necessarily. All law holds this hierarchy in every other regard, e.g.: one is restrained a bit at a stopping light out of concern for another’s life (this example can be applied to virtually every law).

With regard to the subject of what we’re dealing with, it’s a matter of science, not elusive or sectarian “belief.” Even Faye Wattleton, pro-abortion Planned Parenthood’s former president, said “[W]omen are not stupid… they have always known there is a life there.” Disregard this hierarchy of rights and we are necessarily on the slippery slope. Certain distinguished professors such as Peter Singer have extended this to it’s logical conclusion, suggesting a parent’s right to eliminate his/her child beyond birth!

If we disregard the hierarchy as in the case of abortion, we really have nothing to say; logically, the principal provides a basis for someone with greater power to assert their lesser, liberty interests over our own right to live.

Bottom line, yes — separation of church and state, but as law is predicated of core values — suppositions of “belief” that are not strictly provable (i.e., “self-evident… endowed by Creator… inalienable rights”), we need to recognize the difference between Constitutionally-grounded, common-sense laws that are for the evident good of individual and society that a particular religion may happen to support, and laws anchored strictly in sectarian/ religious preference. With regard to abortion (and the variety of other policy subjects), we’re dealing with the former.

Finally, it’s a bit more than ironic that the massive organization and resources committed to “liberal” causes in our country (real human needs: homelessness, immigration, hunger, poverty ), proven demonstrably much more efficient and effective than any government program, is under some auspice of the Catholic Church. Add to this the bedrock-foundational imprint our Church has left on Western Civilization in law, science, education, medicine, etc., and we must recognize the critical role Catholicism has played and continues to play in the formation and advancement of a just, good, ordered society for the benefit of all.

All this said, I am certainly not a mindless cheerleader of all matters “institutional Catholic.” Clearly, there have been, are, and will continue to be abysmal failures of leadership so long as there are imperfect humans entrusted to officiate Catholicism (=until the end of time). These deserve to be challenged. With due acknowledgement of these (substantiation appreciated if you are going to accuse), please acknowledge the well-grounded, good points made in Gerson’s article that demonstrate the Obama administration’s own discrimination and intolerance.

Greg Schlueter is an award-winning Catholic film producer, writer, speaker and movement leader committed to building up Catholic family through their nonprofit, Image Trinity. Find out more at http://ImageTrinity.com. Greg lives with his wife and six children in Erie, Pennsylvania.

Stirring IT Up: Day-Care Chain-Gang and the Meaning of Motherhood

2011-10-25T10:10:00.000-07:00

Recently I saw a very young "day-care chain gang" and thought, with all due respect for those for whom child care is an absolute necessity- we can not simultaneously hold up the supremacy of motherly presence without seeing in her absence a supreme privation.

Often we've experienced that certain incredulity from others when they discover we are a single-income family, seeking to support a family of eight, on a ministry income (prior to eight years ago), when both of us have graduate degrees. As a father and provider, with many years of working with numerous children and families, and researching the modern family phenomenon extensively in graduate school, this little incident prompted me to share this relatively short reflection on the ideal of stay-at-home motherhood.

Once while navigating the grocery aisles with a few of her little helpers, my wife was offered these words of encouragement by another woman: "Better you than me." The woman's cynical, stressed, unhappy demeanor prompted my oldest daughter to reply under her breath, "You're not kidding."

This irony says a lot. It offers us a common premise: happiness. The ancient philosophers and Christianity affirm that the end of human existence is happiness. I submit here that, among other things, if people were tuned into the real nature of happiness there would be many more stay-at-home moms (and stay-at-home moms who are genuinely happy). I submit here that the DNA of human existence, the potentiality for genuine happiness, is revealed in Christ. Happiness is not a function of the "Almighty I," but of the "Sacrificial I for You."

In my experience, the "working mom question" is hardly ever about what's best for the children, much less a God-given identity and mission. On the contrary, it often revolves around the Almighty I: "I'd be bored," or "I went to school too long not to use it," or "I can provide a better living for the kids." Ironically, we'd hear from many teachers the problems they were having in classrooms which they attributed to the absence of a home-life, and yet many of these had younger children themselves in day-care enabling them to... take care of a multitude of other children?

For those who think their extra income is more valuable than their presence, consider this anecdote. Friends of ours who are graduates of Dartmouth shared a story of an article about their alma mater where students were asked what they might have done differently as parents. An overwhelming response can be summed up: they would have invested in personal presence.

No amount of "presents" can surpass the value of "presence."

Let's face it, there's no "perfect" situation- but there ought to be a prioritization of values. I'm stating above that the value of motherhood can not be both honored and disregarded at the same time. Either she is principally valued as the one primarily entrusted and gifted with forming her kids (as is sociologically validated, and anecdotally affirmed by anyone working closely with kids!), short of which "motherhood" is diminished as a mere "guardian" or "caretaker" anchored by biological connection.

Have we lost the vision of what it really means to form our children for this life and eternity? What that takes? What's at stake?

As politically charged as this may be, without it being stated we run the risk of a parent-less society-- which I'm of the opinion is the source of every social ailment: the God-designed ideal is for husband and wife in sacramental marriage (seeking to follow God's plan for mutual love), and mother "making home" for younger children (with a husband's full involvement). Everything short of this ideal is not lost- but is not easily replaced (certainly, we all ought to entrust our lives and work to God's grace, but recognize where that work is humanly realized through us).

It's revealing that if anyone on a job-interview were asked the question, "How well will you do at this job? What will you give for it?" the answer would be most emphatic: "I'd strive for the best! I'd sacrifice! I'd give my all!" And yet this is not the same response most parents give to the same question asked of how they will parent. The standard seems to be: "They'll be ok." The simple question- what is more valuable (again, life-sustenance aside), children, or work?

My brother-in-law and his wife make many sacrifices to make ends meet on their single income. Their motivation?: "We didn't have kids for others to raise them."

Now self-employed for eight years, homeschooling and contributing 40% of our time uncompensated to Image Trinity- we kid (pardon the pun) about how many weeks of income we have until we inhabit a park bench (Steph warmly smiles and tells me it will be a nicely-kept park bench!); we recognize the lack of any retirement savings (in our 401K plan, the "K" is for "Kids") or any education savings (we're investing in their full, personal success and praying to God they receive scholarships or the human-resources to make it).

Yes, there are sleepless nights when our faith is challenged (many where my prayer has a certain resemblance to begging), but all this is a gift of unsurpassed value to our children: Living evidence that what God calls us to, He will provide for.

God has been and will continue to be faithful. We would not trade a day of financial serenity for formational serenity. We can not put a value on the great joy we have in "being family" - endeavoring to create an environment (albeit imperfectly) where they are saturated in a full, human vision created in Jesus Christ... to strive for the very best God created them to be... for themselves, and for the world around them. [And as I'm saying this, noting that even if it were possible to "do" parenthood perfectly, children will choose. Particularly as they're getting older and venturing beyond the home, we give permission to all to please provide the extra-parental prayer, support, and yes, correction, where it may be needed!]

Recognizing the tremendous potentiality and mission here, fully intended to be realized and anchored in "home"- I really can't understand how anyone could say "what do you do all day?" Nothing is built without sacrifice... throw away everything else, every endeavor, work, ministry-- this magnificent "work of home" is our God-given, sacrificial, but joy-filled call to build a civilization of love.

A Pastor's Letter for Our Times (Msgr. William Biebel)

2011-10-16T19:36:00.000-07:00

[Msgr. William Biebel is the rector of St. Peter Cathedral in Erie, Pennsylvania. The below letter appeared in their parish bulletin today. We think it is a thoughtful, powerful challenge to all of us who profess to be Catholic, a real "letter for our times." Please take the time to prayerfully consider and share.]

October Musings from the Rector’s desk… October 16, 2011

Dear Brothers and Sisters of the Cathedral Family and friends,

The current issue of FAITH Life covered our Holy Father’s teaching during his visit to Germany. He was clearly concerned about the weakening of the Faith there and the fact that only 31% of his own country considered themselves Catholic. His words tell the reason why. “God is increasingly being driven out of our society…Are we to yield to the pressure of secularization, and become modern by watering down the faith?”

As a senior priest and pastor I share his concern that we are losing our sense of identity as Catholics. For many, being Catholic means “Catholic lite”, just another adjective we use about ourselves like our political party or nationality, that surfaces now and then when needed or convenient, but hardly the core of our daily life and personality.

Allow me to mention a few examples. Then let me offer some suggestions that both you and I can follow to light the fire anew if it is flickering.

Just recently we had our annual Eucharistic Sunday. Even though we had information in the bulletin, on our website, a school broadcast to the homes of all our students, a homily or two mentioning it, response was not significant: some loyal members of the Cathedral Women’s Council were here, a few school families with their children, in all, hardly more than ten or fifteen worshippers at any one of the five hours the Blessed Sacrament was honored.

In years past, we had three whole days of Adoration of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament! When I was young, FORTY HOURS was a highpoint in our year in the parish. Four altar servers were assigned to every half hour in church. Moms and Dads would send the children to church right after supper to save seats for them so they could attend the evening devotions. I can’t imagine that today. As a seminarian at Gannon, we often attended the novena devotions at St. Patrick’s that were so crowded, that services were repeated twice each Monday evening. That was then, but would Catholics attend in those numbers now? And at night??

There was a time when a Catholic person would never pass a church without going in to make a “visit”. Everyone had a medal or scapular on. Men always had a Rosary in their pocket, every Catholic woman had one in her purse. And they were used for prayer, not around our necks for good luck. Week nights we gathered around the radio to pray the Family Rosary broadcast from St. Mark’s Seminary. (Little did I realize that I would be staffing that same program as a seminarian there a few years later.) Meatless Fridays distinguished us from others.

After decades of religious bigotry, we lived our Catholic lives proudly and openly. People knew who the Catholics were. And WE knew who and what we were! Proudly, too.

Today, Sunday is fast becoming just another day. Family worship at Mass, the family Sunday dinner and all the special touches that made the Lord’s Day holy are almost foreign to us. We find Catholics slipping in to the shortest Saturday evening Mass, so they can have Sunday for themselves. Or even more frequently, families lose their parish identity by going anywhere Mass is convenient and over in the shortest time. Just to get it in!

Every Sunday, as I read the paper, I find it discouraging as a pastor to read the wedding page and see young men and women from traditional Catholic families being married at the beach, or at a hotel or resort, in non-Catholic church. I read obituaries of Catholics burying their departed without a prayer or without a Mass of Christian Burial. What is happening? Have we become THAT secularized that our most significant moments in life do not need the Lord?

Are we forfeiting our sense of being truly Catholic by shopping at the malls or stores on Sunday? Do sports dominate our weekends? Do we lose ourselves among the several million others, watching what was once a game for high school kids that has become desperately important, and those who play it skillfully get paid forty more times than the President of the United States? We protect ourselves with busy-ness, grooming and security- blanket electronics. The media have made the trivial important, and the important things of life, trivial. But, are we more at peace with ourselves, secure in our relationships, content with those we love, at home in the world? Are we numb from entertaining ourselves?

So what can we do? Well, think deeply and pray deeply to truly BE WHO WE ARE! Recently the bishops of England and Wales have reintroduced obligatory meatless Fridays. Do we need such external reminders to shape us up again? Perhaps. But, if we really trace our worldliness and restlessness, our fascination with things of sense, down to their roots, maybe we will rightly conclude that only GOD can satisfy us. The revisions in our worship at Mass can call us to think and pray more deeply in our worship. We could be on the edge of new discovery of our life with God IF we get beyond the words, to the MYSTERY OF FAITH.

God is calling us, now, and every day of our lives, to conclude that Jesus was right when he said: “Without me, you can do nothing.” Everything YOU and I can do to lead others to prayer and worship, whether toddlers or senior citizens, is strengthening us all as the Church. So, don’t be too busy to seek out the sacred, to talk about it and use the printed word, the Internet and all the means we have today to discover and share God’s life and love.

With Him, all things are possible. The truth of Christ is ours to embrace and live. We need to invite others to “Come Home” to the Church, but we have to know our way around our Home as well! We are Catholic: convicted, dedicated and alive with the Spirit. It is our LIFE! Let’s not give our life and treasure away to dedicate our energy and time to what is not eternal!

Peace to you, and blessings,

Msgr. William E. Biebel, Rector, St. Peter Cathedral, Erie
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Monsignor Biebel has been leading our Catholic Men's Gathering for three years and is a pastoral adviser to our Image Trinity. He will be leading our Made2Worship in November, with the story shared by Damon Finazzo, principal of Villa Maria Elementary. Please join us.

In SPORTS We Trust?

2011-09-18T08:18:00.000-07:00

This article is brought to you by another near parental misstep.

Having made the traveling soccer team, our older sons have officially navigated us past the "everybody wins" arena and into the "serious sports" arena (Though seriously, anyone who has spent any time at any game at any level knows that "everyone wins" is a Utopian fantasy. Everyone knows the score. Everyone knows that people have different gifts and propensities that factor into the outcome. Without this framework, not only is one deprived of a real context for improvement, but a context of purpose. I'll leave it to my readers to draw the political analogy- a conversation for another time!).

As one of seven children I grew up with a strong faith, and a super-competitive spirit. These were put on a collision course when I discovered that our sons' first practice coincided with our monthly Made2Worship event, which has become a very meaningful "flag in the sand" event for our family. And, I'm ashamed to admit that my immediate, unreflected inclination revealed me to be more decidedly dangling on the end of the "sports-above-all" marionette: "It's a big deal. Great, human drama. Deserves priority. All else shall bow!"

As a matter of perspective, while I certainly love sports drama, competition has always been about something bigger: competitors mutually becoming the best versions of themselves. I'd much rather play a superior opponent who demolishes me but makes me better in the process, than to demolish someone else and have gained nothing. I'm delighted that my sons have each other in this regard, to help each other become the best versions of themselves. Ultimately, sports are one vehicle among many to help one hone important life skills. This competitive instinct rightly conceived is the mechanism that forged and defines a great America. In short, sports is an important, formative opportunity for our children.

Back to the collision. Something didn't settle right. In the next instant I saw Made2Worship illuminated by the same criteria as the soccer practice: "Is M2W a big deal? Is it a great, human drama? Does it deserve priority?"

And I could palpably hear the voice or Howard Cosell:

"Good afternoon sports fans. We are gathered here today on this momentous occasion to witness the event of the century, two colossal superpowers in their final date with destiny. In the left corner we have our undefeated and indefatigable super-contender, buoyed by the affection of the masses: Sports Event. And in the other corner, we have our consummate underdog, whose inevitable defeat is a foregone conclusion: Faith Event. Who will win? Who will lose? Stay tuned."

Keeping it real, we tip-toe lightly through these subjects. As my story suggests, we're humbly working them out ourselves. Questioning the cultural comfort zone is not easy. Ironically, it takes qualities honed in sports: vision to see, and courage to do.

More than just another institution, sports has become a thing unto itself. No longer are kids just practicing a month before the season. As early as fifth and sixth grade, and often many months before the season if not year-round, there are expectations for kids to be in training. When you reach high school, missing in action from year-round training often has repercussions for play time.

Most revealing is the unwritten but unquestioned rule that if sports ever conflicts with any other commitment, sports must take priority. The other thing must bow. This prioritization has become culturally codified: When I was a kid Wednesdays were culturally respected as a day reserved for faith activity. No one would dare schedule an athletic or non-faith-oriented event. Not any more. In fact, now even Sunday has been assimilated - substantially claimed for both sports events and even training!

The time-benefit ratio reveals the culture to be way out of kilter. Only a fraction will ever become a professional athlete, yet the total commitment requires laying down other good and important things on the high altar of sports. In fact, it seems as a culture we've forgotten other edifying human activities. Simply being together as family. Good conversation. Hikes. Reading books. In this sense, for many, sports has become a religion, the center around which most everything else spins.

The tough questions are based upon this premise: How we spend our time, particularly what we schedule, reveals what's important to us. When it comes to a sports event, versus faith event, what typically wins? Which gets scheduled and commands our time and attention? Which gets set aside? Perhaps we're not even talking about a game, but "simply" a practice? What wins?

It's worth asking, amidst all the other activities we commit to, are faith events even on our radars beyond Sunday? Do they compel our prioritization and commitment? How about family prayer - beyond the 30 second, fly-swatting variant?

Ironically, you'd be hard pressed to find anyone in sports not shooting for the high-bar. Michael Jordan wasn't made famous for making uncontested layups. Hank Aaron wasn't made famous for smacking his grandma's pitches out of the park. The same analogies could be applied to work, or just about every other area of life. Given the respective end in mind (becoming our best selves "on earth as it is in heaven"), shouldn't we shoot for the faith high-bar?

Clearly, it's not enough to be merely physically present at a faith event; faith events invite us to be totally present to God: heart, mind, body and soul. So much more than mere obligation, when people are aware of their deepest needs, and come seeking God this way... they really encounter Him in an unsurpassing way. Nothing else could possibly take precedence.

Putting God first is practical, far more practical than any athletic event. We may have all the material blessing and abilities in the world, but if we're not putting God first, we're languishing. We may not understand it as such, but this languishing is often contained in wrappers that include phrases such as "my crazy schedule," or "all these activities," or "too busy," or "burnt out."

At the end of the day, our schedules proclaim values we've become beholden to. In a certain way they reveal our "god." And belief in any god always involves sacrifice, often of important things.

Let's be honest. If someone "can't make" a particular event because of something else, they're not saying it's not important, they're simply declaring something else more important. And if God is lower on that totem pole, as He is the Lord of Life, we're pushing real life out of the way. We're languishing.

The assumption here is that you need not unquestioningly "go with the flow." You are in the driver's seat. You're entrusted with the formation of your child's eternal soul. No, putting faith first won't be easy. Yes, you may have other parents who look at you funny when you prioritize a faith event over a sports event. Yes, you will have to sacrifice other good, important things. But YES!, all this is the heart of our human story, substantiated by thousands of years of human history: Putting God first, structuring our lives around Him by concrete commitments, often requiring sacrifice of other important things, will be a source of unparalleled blessing for us, our children and our communities in this world and the next.

In conclusion, when we discussed this with Joseph and John Paul, we were delighted that they "got it." As excited as they are about sports, they're equally enthused about our Made2Worship time. (We'll take equal interest any day!) We just pray this anchor serves us well as we endeavor to keep the foundational family anchor firm... as we foray into potentially higher echelons of "sports religion" that are, should we say, not as forgiving.
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Click here for more information about Image Trinity and our mission.

Preaching IT: "Would You Stand for Truth?" (Fr. Jonathan Schmolt)

2011-09-14T04:55:00.001-07:00

Homily on The Memorial of the Beheading of John the Baptist / Mark 6:17-29

When we remember today the Beheading of John the Baptist, we are challenged by a simple question, “Would we stand up for the truth if it meant our death?” John the Baptist challenged the man in leadership, Herod, because he was unlawfully married to his brother’s wife. The assumption here is Herod’s brother is still alive when this happened. John the Baptist was not afraid to point out this fact, knowing that challenging the governor could well mean his death.

Today, how many times are we willing to challenge others about the faith? If we feel the call of the Holy Spirit to speak the truth, would we respond? I know that I find myself hesitant to challenge others. I feel well trained by our society to keep the peace, don’t rock the boat, and keep my opinions to myself. However, if everyone simply keeps silent when sin occurs, then is it surprising that people take greater freedoms to not follow the teachings of God?

Any one of us can be called to speak the truth. Are we ready to respond? Would you or I be willing to be like John the Baptist and challenge the sinful actions of others? If God is calling you or me to respond, would we speak up? If you or I do not respond, who will?

Fr. Jonathan is parochial vicar at St. George Parish in Erie, Pennsylvania.

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We believe that God purposefully designed us for a life of fulfillment in Him. The Church has the mission of faithfully communicating the shape of this design. Our acceptance or rejection of these truths is the hinge of life, determining whether our lives are fulfilled, or fall apart. We applaud priests who faithfully proclaim these truths, particularly those that are most challenging. As each of us are incomplete, we invite you to join us in the adventure of seeking and responding to this life-giving truth from our loving God.

Our vision is to build out PreachingIT.com (coming soon) - which will showcase dynamic, faith-filled messages in multimedia and print. Your prayer, recommendations of great homilies, and financial partnership of this nonprofit endeavor are greatly appreciated. Thank you.

OTHER PreachingIT:

"You Have Heard It Said..." (Fr. Nick Rouch, S.T.D.)

Gotta Serve Somebody: Bob Dylan

2011-07-21T12:30:00.000-07:00

There's no such thing as being anti-religious. Some bedrooms have photos of the Blessed Mother, others, photos of the latest superstar. Where some seek to follow their God in Scripture, others take their cues from People Magazine. Some will worship from a pew, others from a bed, or couch, or in nature.

We will worship, the only questions are "Who or What?," and "What does your 'god' do for you?"

Pop "gods" hold up the standard to which many aspire. They "have it all" (or so we think). What need have they for anything else? And yet there are those who sincerely believe and follow Jesus Christ ("follow" is the key word here; even Satan believes in Jesus Christ). Their faith invites us to consider that the greatest "thing" worth pursuing in this world, the gift beyond measure, is a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Profile: Bob Dylan

"Towards the end of the show someone out in the crowd...knew I wasn't feeling too well," recalled Dylan in a 1979 interview. "I think they could see that. And they threw a silver cross on the stage. Now usually I don't pick things up in front of the stage. Once in a while I do. Sometimes I don't. But I looked down at that cross. I said, 'I gotta pick that up.' So I picked up the cross and I put it in my pocket...And I brought it backstage and I brought it with me to the next town, which was out in Arizona...I was feeling even worse than I'd felt when I was in San Diego. I said, 'Well, I need something tonight.' I didn't know what it was. I was used to all kinds of things. I said, 'I need something tonight that I didn't have before.' And I looked in my pocket and I had this cross."

Dylan believed he had experienced a vision of Christ in his Tucson hotel room. "Jesus did appear to me as King of Kings, and Lord of Lords," he'd later say. "There was a presence in the room that couldn't have been anybody but Jesus...Jesus put his hand on me. It was a physical thing. I felt it. I felt it all over me. I felt my whole body tremble. The glory of the Lord knocked me down and picked me up."

If you get the chance, listen to his "Gotta Serve Somebody." Says it all.

FULLER STORY
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Click here for more information about Image Trinity and our mission.

Living IT! TV

2011-07-11T19:15:00.000-07:00

Our world is tired of fake.
Don't need preachy.
Don't need pat answers to real-life questions.
Don't need self-righteous.
Don't need robots.
Want real.

Living IT! is the unplugged, unscripted, real-life series that seeks to showcase real individuals seeking to Live IT! For those who have real questions and are open to real answers, this is the easy-to-share "tool." The journey is not for the complete, but for those who seek.

You've possibly met the Osbournes. Now meet the Amburns. Bryan, Angie and family aren't perfect, nor do they profess to be, but they share with us their real, comical, moving adventure in asking the big questions in life, seeking happiness... and more fully finding it in their Catholic faith.

A CATHOLIC FAMILY DRIVEN PROGRAM: With your help, every month we hope to feature a new family. Each episode will be a moving, behind-the scenes, real-life portrait of a family that is seeking to live IT: God's beautiful design for family as an Image of the Trinity (Get IT?).

We hope to reach over 6 million through our cable and satellite network partners, compounded even more through various web partners and mobile technologies. Each 10 minute episode is budgeted at $7500, a fraction of what similar, HD productions cost. For companies, please consider sponsorship of an episode, which would include a wide range of promotion. We invite individual families and individuals to sponsor us. For a minimal $100 we will include the family name in our credits.

Image Trinity

5039 Roslindale Ave

Erie, Pa. 16509

For benefactor information, please EMAIL US or contact 814/864-5755.

COMPANY OVERVIEW: Imago Dei Video Productions has established an award-winning, national reputation for inspirational media, organizational development and fulfillment. They substantially contributed to the successes of Disney/Walden’s Narnia, Warner Brothers Superman Returns, A&E’s God or the Girl, Catholic Exchange's Champions of Faith, Fr. Larry Richard's The Reason for Our Hope Foundation; they produced numerous films, including "Extraordinary!" for Boy Scouts of America, which won a national marketing award and raised $14 million. Two years ago they created ErieAlityTV in an effort to broadly engage local culture with a Catholic vision of person and community (pre-evangelization); this resulted in ABC Extreme Makeover: Home Edition's selection of Clara Ward, and a special 2-hour episode. In 2010 they completed a film featured on CatholicTV and EWTN ("Heart Speaks to Heart from Heaven: The Newman Miracle Story").

PASTORAL ADVISORS: Our growing list of pastoral advisors includes Msgr. William Biebel, Fr. Larry Richards, Fr. Steve Schreiber, Sr. Kathleen Dietz, F.S.O., Sr. Josephine Vuodi, F.S.O., Fr. Roger Landry, Fr. Michael Najim, Paul Thigpen, Mike Aquilina and Eric Sammons.

Living IT: Our Invitation to You - Right Now: Living IT! is not just a program, it's an integral part of a mission to help engage culture with a Catholic vision for family, as an integral part of a Eucharistic community--- with a mission for the world. We are fully tax-deductible and board accountable. There's a big vision here. Join us.

Thank you,

Greg Schlueter,
President, Image Trinity
Greg@ImageTrinity.com
(814) 864-5755

Casey Anthony, God and Us. (Highlights from Made2Worship 7.6.2011)

2011-07-10T04:32:00.000-07:00

Below are highlights from the Made2Worship on 7.6.2011.

"Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."
(Phil. 4:6-7)

Most people will remember this week for the end to a very publicized trial involving a young mother who was acquitted of murdering her young child. Based upon the dominance of media coverage, this has been unquestionably the public event of the year to date. While at my parents' home just prior to a weekend of Fourth of July family festivity, I was given the skinny; my parents had been following the case every night.

What intrigued me more than Casey's demeanor and the sordid facts of the case was the sheer dominance of this event on all news and talk shows. This was the American "big event" phenomena. The media sets the stage of what's important. You're missing out if you're not on board.

When we're tuned in to any media we delegate command of our souls. How many of us stop to ask: Where is this taking me? Does it "fit"? Am I better off? Is it good?

Many of us remember life before cable (etc.) when you had to precisely adjust "bunny ears" or be left with static. Interesting enough, "static" literally means stationary, unchanging, un-moving. It's not so much what we see on the screen as what's taking place in the soul. Are the various channels and media moving us forward? Do they make us more tuned into what's really important? Are we better human beings?

Seems to me that the prevalence of static has not changed, it's only taken on a multiplicity of other eye-popping, scintillating, mind-numbing, passifying forms. It's no longer a question of what you're plugged into, but that you're plugged in. And now we can keep this (non) life support attached to us. A constant dose. Have to check my gadget and see who's contacted me. Have to check my information.

It's the sheer electricity of the thing. In fact, isn't it precisely the lack of peace that keeps us looking for the next fix, only to be left all the emptier and searching for the next? So long as we're plugged-in, wired, we're good. For the majority of us, seriously, what really do we have to lose by not being plugged in? More importantly is what we're losing by being plugged in: the undivided attention owed the people who most matter in our lives.

For many of us, this lack of peace (static) has become such a part of our inner furniture that we don't know anything different. And it all conspires to keep us from seeking something different. The proof? When we're faced with a moment of genuine peace, do we drink it in? Or do we dive into the next preoccupation, the next thing to be done?

The truth is, from the moment we awake to the moment we fall asleep, most of us are on a constant ride.

Peal back all the layers and we're all pretty much the same. We were fashioned incomplete so we would seek; we were fashioned to be tabernacles for the indwelling Spirit of the Living God (1 Cor. 6:19). And while there are numerous "apples" that appeal for our affections, with Augustine we need to discover that "our hearts are restless until they find rest in [God]."

I thank God for anxiety. It's a built-in indicator that things aren't right. Anxiety is a summons to prayer... God's invitation to resume His dominion in our souls. We're so blessed to have this connection to the God of the universe... which alerts us when He's missing, and points us toward the peace beyond all understanding when we allow Him to return.

I believe we're on the verge of a major revival. The sheer "God-presence" in the human soul is so enduring, so intact, so vital and beckoning that after trying every other channel and finding it wanting, sooner or later people look inside and recognize they were fashioned for more. They will take the chance to really believe again, beyond the hypocrisy and mediocrity that has so dotted "faith." They will consider that just maybe there is a relational God who loves us personally, who wants to make Himself known, who wants us to know the peace in Him that is beyond all understanding.

That's what Made2Worship is all about. A response to the heart of God calling us to know Him. We were made to worship. That's what's going on in the video above. Real people. Real lives. Real challenges. All of us on the great adventure of more fully discovering Jesus Christ in our lives. Come to the next one... tune in and and experience the difference.
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Pope Benedict is inviting us to be awakened from the slumber of "ceremonial" spirituality and culture. He is constantly reminding us that faith, our very lives, are about an intimate relationship with our Savior... to know Jesus Christ personally, truly, that He is alive and present. Pope Benedict knows that if we were to really encounter Jesus, we would live for Him completely, not on the order of obligation, but out of a genuine, relational love.

We invite all to continue journeying with us beyond the event. We schedule things that are important to us in life. Do this... and we promise it will positively change your life: download the fun and engaging LivingIT Family Gathering Guide. Take the 30/3 Family Challenge. Even if you can't schedule three times a week, commit to just once! We know after that one time you'll want to do it more!

Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus. Our next Made2Worship event is July 6. Sign-up now for special updates. Spread the word. Above all, let's keep one another in our prayers... open our hearts to God's amazing love.

Blessings and peace in Him,

The Made2Worship Team

Keeping IT Real: You!

2011-06-27T12:10:00.000-07:00

Help us share IT. Copy and post IT. Join us in the great adventure of discovering and living our identity: Image the Trinity. Get IT?

Help us reach thousands through dynamic programs, multimedia, web and resources. Your prayers and donations are much appreciated (left).

GO HERE FOR MORE.

Believe the Unbelievable. M2W 6.1.2011.

2011-06-26T18:08:00.000-07:00

Below are highlights from the powerful Made2Worship on 6.1.2011, followed by the full, amazing story shared by Terry Burbules. Mouse over to select.

"The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed."
Romans 13:11

You know that great feeling after spending a couple hours with dear friends you don't see often, sharing a bottle of wine, getting caught up? Where each moment is precious... worth "a thousand years"... you don't want it to end? That's a small taste of what I "feel" today after our M2W last evening. My senses and vision are alive, revived... and I'm reminded that as these Triune "Friends" are always with us, indeed, the font of my very nature and life, this is the way my soul should always be.

Pope Benedict is tuned into what's at stake if Catholics can't be awakened from the slumber of "ceremonial" spirituality and culture. He is constantly reminding us that faith, our very lives, are about an intimate relationship with our Savior... to know Jesus Christ personally, truly, that He is alive and present. Pope Benedict knows that if we were to really encounter Jesus, we would live for Him completely, not on the order of obligation, but out of a genuine, relational love.

We invite all to continue journeying with us beyond the event. We schedule things that are important to us in life. Do this... and we promise it will positively change your life: download the fun and engaging LivingIT Family Gathering Guide. Take the 30/3 Family Challenge. Even if you can't schedule three times a week, commit to just once! We know after that one time you'll want to do it more!

Blessings and peace in Him,

The Made2Worship Team

Portrait of Catholic Love: Dan and Bethany Story (3 Videos)

2011-06-24T12:58:00.001-07:00

Mouse over the video after playing to select: (1) Just before Marriage. (2) First Dance. (3) Prequel- "How We Met" Story.

For a world in search of real love and relationships, we want to showcase real stories of real couples... how they met and fell in love, how they interact, what's important to them, the real challenges that define the journey of growing deeper in love throughout life.

Many today are in search of the real meaning of love, marriage and family. Unfortunately, the popular vision that so many unquestioningly embrace often leads to divorce and brokenness. Equally unfortunate, a Christian vision is often seen as "canned," unrealistic, and too demanding. We acknowledge that it's true-- many relationships that begin on a solid, Christian ground succumb to less than Christian ideals. Clearly, by anyone's standard, love and marriage is under attack.

At Image Trinity we want to showcase authentic examples of love and marriage being lived. We believe that at the very heart of marriage is God Himself, who IS love. And so contrary to the popular plan for happiness, Christ reveals to us that love, and our capacity for real happiness, is in sacrificing self for the good of the other. God fashioned us for completion in Himself. God Himself is the model for marriage, a community of persons who pour themselves out for each other.

God created marriage between husband and wife as a sacred means to make Him, love, known. Marriage is a participation in Him who is love. No true, lasting happiness or joy can be obtained until individuals understand and embrace their identity as image of God, and in relationship, as Image of the Trinity.

Discover who you are. Know that God transforms us in His grace for the great adventure of imaging Him. Embrace IT!

Image Trinity is a nonprofit movement of families inviting individuals and families more fully discover and live the adventure of our identity and mission: Image Trinity. Find out more at http://ImageTrinity.com.

"My Ex-Gay Friend" (Reprint from NYT)

2011-06-21T07:19:00.000-07:00

Below is a fascinating reflection-story by a pro-gay author recently appearing in the New York Times. It gives us deep insight into the transforming nature of Christ's love and vision, and the human person fashioned in His Image. It is well worth the read.
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By BENOIT DENIZET-LEWIS
Published: June 16, 2011

One Saturday afternoon last winter, I drove north on Route 85 through the rolling rangeland of southeastern Wyoming. I was headed to a small town north of Cheyenne to see an old friend and colleague named Michael Glatze. We worked together 12 years ago at XY, a San Francisco-based national magazine for young gay men, back when we were young gay men ourselves.

Though only a year removed from Dartmouth when he arrived at XY, Michael had seemingly read every gay book ever written. While I was busy trying to secure a boyfriend, he was busy contemplating queer theory, marching in gay rights rallies and urging young people to celebrate (not just accept) their same-sex attractions. Michael was devoted to helping gay youth, and he was particularly affected by the letters the magazine received regularly from teenagers who were rejected by their religious families. “Christian fundamentalists should burn in hell!” he told me once, slamming his fist on his desk. I had never met anyone so sure of himself.

Many young gay men looked up to him. He and his boyfriend at the time, Ben, who also worked at the magazine, made a handsome pair — but their appeal went deeper. On weekends we would go to raves together, and I would watch as gay boys gravitated toward the couple. Michael and Ben seemed unburdened (by shame, by self-doubt) and unapologetically pursued what the writer Paul Monette called the uniquely gay experience of “flagrant joy.” But unlike some of our friends who rode the flagrant joy train all the way to rehab, Michael and Ben rarely seemed out of control. There was a balance — a wisdom — to their quest for intense, authentic experience. Together they seemed to have figured out how to be young, gay and happy.

I thought about those times as I pulled my rental car into the Wyoming town where Michael now lives. A lot had happened in the decade since we last saw each other: he and Ben started a new gay magazine (Young Gay America, or Y.G.A.); they traveled the country for a documentary about gay teenagers; and Michael was fast becoming the leading voice for gay youth until the day, in July 2007, when he announced that he was no longer gay.

“Homosexuality came easy to me, because I was already weak,” he wrote in the opening line of an article for the far-right Web site, WorldNetDaily.com. He went on to renounce his work at XY and Y.G.A. “Homosexuality, delivered to young minds, is by its very nature pornographic,” he claimed. In a second WorldNetDaily article a week later, he said that he was “repulsed to think about homosexuality” and that he was “going to do what I can to fight it.”

At our appointed meeting time in Wyoming, I parked my rental car in front of a red, saloon-style grocery store and cafe that sits across the street from the Bible school where Michael was in his first year. A minute later I spotted him in my rearview mirror. He was walking toward the cafe, holding something that I couldn’t make out. I stepped out of my car and waved to him. He looked the same as I remembered — tall, lean, blond, boyish and handsome in a Nordic ski instructor kind of way. I was nervous, but as he approached I decided to lean in for a hug. Michael, though, pre-emptively stuck out his right hand. “Hello, Benoit,” he said, standing stiff and upright, clutching what I could now see was a Bible.

Though Michael had agreed to let me visit and write about him, he was skeptical about my motivations. “Why are you here?” he asked minutes after we sat down in the cafe, which was decorated with Christmas lights and staffed by a young waiter attending the Bible school.

It was a good question. Had part of me come to “save” my old friend from the clutches of the Christian right? Though I don’t doubt that sexual attraction can evolve, I was skeptical of Michael’s claim of heterosexuality — and I rejected his argument that “homosexuality prevents us from finding our true self within.” Besides, I had a hard time believing that Michael’s “true self” was a fundamentalist Christian who writes derogatorily about being gay. But whatever aspirations I had about persuading Michael to join the ranks of ex-ex-gays, they were no match for his eagerness to save me.

“God loves you more than any dude will ever love you,” he told me at the cafe. “Don’t put your faith in some man, some flesh. That’s what we do when we’re stuck in the gay identity, when we’re stuck in that cave. We go from guy to guy, looking for someone to love us and make us feel O.K., but God is so much better than all the other masters out there.”

Michael, who is 36, now often refers to gay life as a kind of cave — or cage. In an open letter to Ricky Martin, published on WorldNetDaily after Martin came out, he wrote, “Homosexuality is a cage in which you are trapped in an endless cycle of constantly wanting more — sexually — that you can never actually receive, constantly full of emptiness, trying to justify your twisted actions by politics and ‘feel good’ language.”

Had Michael been secretly unhappy as a gay man, and was he now projecting that onto all gay-identified people? I broached the question later that night at his small off-campus apartment, where we sat in his barren kitchen eating Oreo cookies. “Well, you can’t see how dark it is in a cave when you’re in it,” he said. “But, no, at the time I didn’t consider myself unhappy.”

Michael didn’t begin to question his life path, he told me, until a health scare in 2004 that led to what he calls his “spiritual awakening.” That year, when Michael was 29, he experienced a series of heart palpitations and became convinced that he suffered from the same congenital heart defect that killed his father when Michael was 13. (Michael lost both his parents young; his mother died of breast cancer when he was 19.) After tests eventually ruled out his father’s illness, Michael felt that he had escaped death and found himself staring “into the face of God.” In a published interview with Joseph Nicolosi, a leader in the controversial field of reparative therapy, which seeks to help people overcome unwanted homosexual attractions, Michael said that he became “born again” in that moment and that “every concept that my mind had ever entertained — my whole existence — was completely re-evaluated.”

Michael was as surprised as anyone by his sudden faith. Though his mother was Christian, his parents rarely took him and his younger sister to church and didn’t try to suppress his skepticism of organized religion, which grew into outright disdain during his years at Dartmouth. But by the end of 2004, after his health scare, Michael was devouring books by openly gay theologians like Mel White and Peter Gomes and trying to integrate his sexuality and spirituality. He was initially drawn to a liberal interpretation of the Bible and argued against a fundamentalist approach to Christianity. “People have been raised incorrectly to believe that the prejudices they’ve been taught by their pastors are God’s word,” he wrote in a 2005 Y.G.A. issue devoted to spiritual questions. “The only Truth is Love.”

But even as he rejected anti-gay theology, Michael’s political views began shifting rightward: he spoke glowingly about Ann Coulter, and in a Time cover article in 2005 about gay teenagers he said: “I don’t think the gay movement understands the extent to which the next generation just wants to be normal kids. The people who are getting that are the Christian right.”

Michael’s friends and co-workers didn’t know what to make of his religious fervor or his shifting politics. Neither did his boyfriend, Ben, but Ben was more concerned with saving their floundering relationship. They had been together nearly a decade, though for the last few years the relationship had a third member — a young man they met in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where they moved in 2001 after leaving XY. (Ben had family there.) The three lived together, and Michael had at first so loved the arrangement that he started to write a book about it.

But by the end of 2005, Michael told me, everything about his life was starting to feel wrong — his unconventional relationship, his gay friendships, even his magazine devoted to lifting up gay youth. “For a year I struggled to think of every other reason except for the obvious one,” he said. “Then it just came up, clear as day. The problem was my sexual identity. But that was really scary. I thought to myself, Seriously? That’s ridiculous. I’m a homosexual. I struggled trying to understand what was happening to me. I’d always been told that if you had doubts about the rightness of your homosexuality, which I had been having for a while but was trying to silence, that it was because you just hadn’t worked through all your internalized homophobia. But that didn’t feel true now.”

Sitting in his Y.G.A. office toward the end of that year, Michael wrote three words on his computer screen: I am straight. They felt true, so he typed a few more: Homosexuality = Death. I choose Life.

Then he stood up and left the building.

Michael soon moved out of the Halifax house he shared with his boyfriends and sequestered himself in an apartment across town. He said he then briefly joined the Mormon Church, heartened by promises from several Mormon men he befriended that they would help him “find a wife.” (Michael left the church a short time later after deciding that Mormons “didn’t agree with the Bible.”)

Alone and needing a job, Michael made a counterintuitive choice for a newly minted ex-gay: He took an editing job in San Francisco. His sister lived there, and he hoped to find and immerse himself in a Christian church community. But soon after arriving, Michael decided to visit the Castro — San Francisco’s gay neighborhood, where XY had been headquartered — to see “what I would feel.” Would he experience desire? Revulsion? Anger? “I ended up not feeling any of those things,” Michael told me, “but I did feel the humanity of the people in the Castro. I started to doubt what I’d written in those articles. I thought, Well, maybe none of this is true. Maybe I’m wrong.”

Unsure of what to do, a tearful Michael called Ben. “He said that he was sorry, and that he wanted to take it all back,” Ben recalls. “I said, ‘O.K., I’ll help you draft a statement.’ He said he would call me back the next day, but I never heard from him.”

Michael chalked up that call to a moment of weakness. “I wasn’t reading my Bible, and I was in a very lonely place, but it’s not like my same-sex attractions had returned,” he explained on the morning of my second day in Wyoming, as we sat in a padded wooden pew in a small church near the Bible School. There were about two dozen of his fellow Bible-school students in attendance, and before and after the service I watched Michael’s friendly, easygoing rapport with them.

As we drove back to his apartment, Michael told me that his desire for men had lessened in frequency and intensity almost immediately after writing the words “I Am Straight” on his computer screen at Y.G.A. When he did feel an erotic pull toward another man, he said he tried to “sit with it and unpack it,” a technique he learned during a stint at a Buddhist retreat, where he went after leaving San Francisco. (Michael, who meditated regularly for a couple of years, said he was asked to leave the community for “talking too much about the Bible.”) “I observed it instead of just acting on it, and I began to see it as an aspect of my own brokenness, not as my identity,” he said. “The more I did that, the less I felt the desire,” he went on, adding that he has never undergone reparative therapy or attended an ex-gay ministry.

In a WorldNetDaily article, Michael wrote about why he believes he mistakenly took on a gay identity: “When I was about 13 I decided I must be gay because I was unable to handle my own masculinity.” He went on to blame his father for that, which is consistent with the ex-gay narrative that same-sex attraction among boys is often a result of a deficit of masculinity, usually caused by a fissure in the father-son bond.

Michael told me that he has no same-sex sexual desires today, a claim that I found hard to believe. Many ex-gays admit to struggling with same-sex attraction years after they’ve rejected a gay identity, and a handful of high-profile leaders in the movement have been humbled by public slips or “relapses,” a word borrowed from the language of addiction recovery. (Many ex-gays see same-sex attractions as a kind of addiction, one with no “cure” but with the possibility of freedom with God’s help.) In our XY days, Michael told me that he had no sexual attraction to women. Had he learned heterosexuality?

Yes, he insisted, adding that he has dated two women since coming out as ex-gay (both before enrolling in Bible school). Michael didn’t want to divulge much about the sexual nature of those relationships, saying only that neither had been “particularly godly.” “There was a part of me that was like an excited teenager,” he told me. “Whatever God has in store for me next will hopefully involve courtship and getting married.”

I asked Michael if he’d heard the news that Ben had recently married in Canada. He blinked twice, and his body tensed slightly. “No, I didn’t,” he said. “To a man, or to a woman?”

“To a man. Were you holding out hope that he would marry a woman?”

“You have to understand something,” he said, leaning forward in his chair. “I don’t see people as gay anymore. I don’t see you as gay. I don’t see him as gay. God creates us heterosexual. We may get other ideas in our head about what we are, and I certainly did, but that doesn’t mean they’re the truth.”

A week before my trip to Wyoming, I traveled to Halifax to spend a weekend with Ben. I was hoping he could help me fill in the puzzle of Michael Glatze.

“You have to see his poetry,” Ben told me, searching through a bookshelf in his home office. He eventually found what he was looking for — a small bound yellow portfolio titled “Shelves,” which contained the poems for Michael’s senior thesis at Dartmouth. Sitting cross-legged on the hardwood floor, with old issues of XY and Y.G.A. strewn around us, Ben read aloud from several of Michael’s poems exploring sexual identity. In one Michael wrote of “people scrambling for a home amidst the labels,” and in another he hoped for the day when “men who love women wave flags for identification.”

It all sounded very much like the Michael I knew at XY, a young man who was fascinated by queer theory — namely, the idea that sexual and gender identities are culturally constructed rather than biologically fixed — and who dreamed of a world without labels like “straight” and “gay,” which he deemed restrictive and designed to “segment and persecute,” as he argued in a 1998 issue of XY. Though he conceded back then that it was important “to stay unified under a ‘Gay’ political umbrella” until equality for gays and lesbians had been achieved, Michael preferred to label himself queer.

As Ben and I reminisced, I couldn’t help wondering if Michael’s new philosophy might, in a strange way, be a logical extension of what he believed back then — that “gay” is a limiting category and that sexual identities can change. Ben nodded. “A radical queer activist and a fundamentalist Christian aren’t always as different as they might seem,” he said, adding that they’re ideologues who can railroad over nuance and claim a monopoly on the truth.

Ben went on. “To me, Michael is a victim of this insane society we live in, where we grow up with all these conflicting messages and pressures around sexuality and religion, and where we divide into these camps where we’re always right and the other side is always wrong. Some people are susceptible to buying into that, and I think Michael is one of them.”

Though Ben acknowledged that Michael’s anti-gay writing is a slap in the face to all the gay teenagers who looked up to him, he preferred to remember the 21-year-old version of Michael he met in a San Francisco coffee shop. “He devoted a decade of his life to helping gay youth, and the work he did saved lives,” he told me. “What he claims to believe now doesn’t take that away.” Like most of Michael’s former gay friends, Ben insists he isn’t angry with him. “I’m worried about him,” he said.

Before I left Halifax, Ben showed me one last poem, titled “The Boy Scout Pledge.” “The Michael who wrote this is the Michael I fell in love with,” he said.

I Solemnly Swear,/Never to tell the Scoutmaster./Never to tell the others. Never to let such/Knowledge leave this tent, Never to acknowledge you/Again, Never to tighten your handkerchief again, Never to/Look in your eyes again, Never to race soapbox derby in/The sand with you again, Never to read Whitman as you/Cuddle till you sleep, Never to creep, carefully to the lake/With you again, Never to take wildflowers/To your tent again, Never to cry for you again, Never to tie/Knots in each other’s hair,/Never to breathe your air,/Never to touch your inner thigh,/Never to catch your stare./Never to be two boys together, clinging./Never to dare.

At the end of my Wyoming visit, I drove Michael from his apartment to the Bible school. He had finals the next day and was running late to a study group. At an intersection I asked him if I should turn left or go straight. “Straight,” he said, pointing the way.

“It’s funny to hear you say that, because in our XY days you used to always insist that I say ‘forward’ when we drove,” I reminded him. “You corrected any gay person who said ‘straight’ in a car.”

“I said a lot of silly things back then,” Michael said with chuckle.

“Do you regret that time?” I asked him.

“I think God had to take me to a lot of different places, and let me study many different perspectives and religions, for me to finally know the truth,” he said. “XY was just a part of that journey.”

I told Michael about a recent conversation I had with our former boss at XY, Peter Ian Cummings, who surprised me by wondering aloud if Michael was ever truly gay. “In retrospect, more than you or me or anyone else who worked at the magazine, his sexuality almost felt more theoretical than real to me,” Peter told me. “At a very young age, he had all these very well thought out theories about identity and sexuality. Maybe this gay or queer identity that fascinated him, and that he had taken on, wasn’t really true for him. It doesn’t explain why he says such ridiculous things about gay people now, but maybe, just maybe, he’s not in denial about his own sexuality.”

Michael looked at me. “Do you think I’m in denial?”

“I don’t know for sure what you are,” I said. “I just wish you wouldn’t write such inaccurate things about gay people.”

“They aren’t inaccurate,” he said, sounding annoyed.

As we approached the school, I asked him what he thought about last year’s highly publicized gay teenage suicides and the ensuing It Gets Better campaign, in which gay people from across the country — and high-profile political leaders, including President Obama — recorded encouraging video messages aimed at gay youth. He didn’t hesitate. “I think it’s stupid,” Michael said. “It doesn’t get better if you’re gay.”

It doesn’t get better if you’re gay? Michael would have punched me in the mouth if I said that back when we worked together. I never would have, of course, because it’s a lie. But also dishonest, in retrospect, was our claim in a 1999 issue of XY that “everyone is happier” after coming out. Michael insisted that we include that line, but it was wishful thinking, and ex-gays are living proof of it.

As I drove back to my hotel that night, I wondered if I would ever hear from Michael again. Might he call me someday to say that he was gay after all, and that his years as an ex-gay were just another pit stop in his lifelong pursuit of truth? It’s possible, but I doubt it will happen anytime soon. For an ex-gay intent on staying that way, there are few safer places in the world than a Bible school in Wyoming. The country’s least-populous state — where Matthew Shepard was murdered and left to die on a rural fence post, and where two fictional cowboys fell in love on Brokeback Mountain but never allowed themselves a life together — is also a state without a gay bar. My old friend, it seems, has picked the perfect place to go straight.

Mary, Medjugorje and Made2Worship. Grace Pouring Out...

2011-06-17T09:26:00.000-07:00

God is With Us. Setting the Stage for Made2Worship.

This week has historically been a big week of grace in my life. June 21 marks Summer Solstice, the day of great light, the longest day of the year. It was on that day my wife and I began dating in 1996, and on that same day we were married a year later. On June 24 we celebrate the Feast of my confirmation namesake, St. John the Baptist. As the sunlight begins to decrease, so John asks us to decrease that God might increase in us. And on this date of June 24, 1991, I found myself in a little village behind the then Iron Curtain where, ten years earlier to the day, Mary purportedly began appearing to six village children.* Over those ten years numerous books and television programs showcased the miraculous things that were happening in Medjugorje.

My personal circumstances of going to Medjugorje coincided with a good amount of trouble, heart breaking things going on with siblings and friends, exacerbated by my front-row view of a spiritually searching world as communications director of an international organization.

All I had head-learned in my Catholic faith was becoming real, particularly that "our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." (Eph. 6:12). Yet, in the midst of this bleakness my soul was becoming attuned to an inexplicable, deepening love for Mary, perhaps even more, her love for me. She was simply there. And I was blessed by a number of spiritually astute friends who were opening my eyes to understand her God-given role to combat the devil (Gen. 3:15), particularly in these days, particularly through encounter with Her Son.

The story of how Medjugorje "happened" for me was miraculous enough, but for another time. While there, I was joined by a multitude from every nation, each drawn for their own reasons, but all united beyond words like a close-knit family. That alone was miraculous. I met with the visionaries- those whom Mary communicated with every day. I witnessed numerous instances of miraculous, physical healing, including a little child who came blind but, after prayer, could see. Many, perhaps everyone, shared a sense of spiritual healing.

Looking up one evening at Mont Krizevac, or "Cross Mountain," I observed with all present the mysterious, bright light that consumed the cross. I observed and gazed upon the "dancing sun," that should have left me blind. The burdens that seemed so heavy only days earlier all seemed to dissipate. One evening, gazing out from the top of that mountain, I was acutely aware of an all-consuming peace that blanketed the place. I couldn't help but think: "The Mother of God is appearing here, inviting us to pray from the heart, to know her Son... and I'm worried about what?"

Whether one believes Mary is appearing there or not is of little interest to me. There's nothing she's saying that has not already been emphasized by our Church. She's calling us to pray from the heart, to believe and know God is with us, to turn from our sins and prepare our hearts for Him.

There's so much more to share, but nothing that wouldn't require a lot more ink. The bottom line is that we are living in spiritually perilous times. Satan is competing for our souls, causing us to be distracted, if not lost, by so many lesser things. But more importantly, the gates of heaven are open and God's grace is being poured out. God is calling us to Himself. He wants so much more than our empty actions. He wants our hearts. He wants to awaken us to His indwelling Spirit. And He gives us His Mother to help lead us there.

The great thing in all this, my purpose in writing, is to tell you that you don't have to go overseas to experience all this. His full, real power and presence is awaiting us... likely within miles of where you're reading this. In particular I want to invite you for one evening, for one powerful moment, to bring all you have, all you are-- to come experience Him at Made2Worship (the first Wednesday of every month). Come experience the storehouse of grace flowing from heaven. So much more than empty words and professions, He is really here, and He's waiting for you.
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*On the Church and Medjugorje: Many books and programs have showcased the miracles taking place at Medjugorje. Scholar Dr. Mark Miravalle's well articulated summary concludes: "Is Medjugorje real? According to the Church's own criteria, the spiritual fruits superabundant throughout the world, and the saintly witnesses and discernments of Pope John Paul II and Bl. Teresa of Calcutta, I believe the only proper theological response is 'yes.'"

30/3 Family Challenge

2011-05-31T08:31:00.000-07:00

30/3 Family Challenge

Our schedules reveal what's important to us. What does your schedule say about what's important to you? All of us fall short. Our schedules often reveal us to place sports and other obligations far above meaningful family conversation and prayer. Many of our homes are planets spinning out of orbit because they've lost their center of gravity. They are without the Son.

We can point fingers at the many challenges in this culture, but real renewal has to begin with us. We desire to "become what we are," to more fully discover and radiate the love of Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ renewing our families is the heart of the 30/3 Family Challenge. We invite you to "simply" schedule three times a week, for 30 days, a time to talk and pray (based upon subsequent Sunday's readings). We believe this gathered family time will be richly graced. It will ignite the God-alive-in-family "spark" that will make you want to make this your family's scheduled foundation.

As many of us are embracing this adventure and reporting great blessing, we need you to be an encouragement. We need your witness. Swords sharpen swords. We encourage you to give it a chance. Lead your family keeping "first things first." Reclaim your family foundation. It will have more deep and lasting returns than anything else you will ever schedule. You don't need to follow it exactly. Make it your own. And know what great grace flows when we're united this way in prayer and mission.

Heaven begins here. May God abundantly bless you and your family on this day.
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Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus. Check out Made2Worship.org. Sign-up now for special updates. Spread the word. Above all, let's keep one another in our prayers... open our hearts to God's amazing love.

THE FIRE IS LIT. MADE2WORSHIP BEGINS.

2011-05-06T08:15:00.003-07:00

Mouse over the video player for Greg and Stephanie's introduction, Aaron Pfoutz's story or Fr. Steve's Schreiber's preaching on the Emmaus story.

"Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light." Ephesians 5:14

Last night nearly 400 people came from all over the region... united by one desire: to know Jesus Christ more deeply. Many were deeply moved. Through it all the Holy Spirit was powerfully present through Aaron Pfoutz's powerful story, Fr. Steve Schreiber's great call to recognize Jesus... and mostly, people bringing their candles and adoring Jesus Christ in worship (video clips to come).

The stories of M2W continue to pour in. A woman shared that for the first time in 20 years of marriage she prayed with her husband. Many young people spoke of their enthusiasm in bringing their friends next time. A faith-filled elderly person said this was the most powerful prayer event of his life. Many described it as a banquet of God's grace.

It's not enough to know about God. He is real. He wants our hearts. He wants to reveal Himself to us. The quote to the left by Pope Benedict says it all. When we encounter Jesus Christ, our lives are forever changed.

We invite all to continue journeying with us beyond the event. We schedule things that are important to us in life. Do this... and we promise it will positively change your life: download the fun and engaging LivingIT Family Gathering Guide. Take the 30/3 Family Challenge. Even if you can't schedule three times a week, commit to just once! We know after that one time you'll want to do it more!

Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus. Our next Made2Worship event is June 1. Sign-up now for special updates. Spread the word. Above all, let's keep one another in our prayers... open our hearts to God's amazing love.

Blessings and peace in Him,

The Made2Worship Team

Life After Death: Amazing Story

2011-04-19T10:09:00.000-07:00

Our relationships are increasingly becoming gadgetized. Controlling. Immediate. Demanding. Self-serving. Empty.

At the heart we're yearning for more. We intuit there has to be more than what we can perceive with our five senses. In short, we are a generation in search of God.

In 2008 we posted a true "life after death" story on YouTube. If you Google "Life After Death" you'll get nearly 3.5 million returns, and at the top of that list you'll find this video.

Over the years the particular video page has become a platform of great conversation, participated by just about every conceivable point of view. As of this writing we're coming up on nearly 150,000 unique viewers.

The short doesn't begin to capture the full power of this amazing, true story of a woman who died and lived to tell about it. Now, three years later, we're posting the full, 20 minute version... beautifully scored by our partners, The O'Neill Brothers (music on NBC, CBS, ABC, HBO, PBS, etc.).

Much like the Gospel, we're presented with a truth that defies scientific demonstrability. Cameras and photographs can not capture the other side. But let's not forget, it's negation is equally beyond the realm of science. Tami's testimony-- corroborated by hundreds more like it -- impels us to open a door of faith, to consider that we are not just flesh and blood, but uniquely spiritual. We are invited to see beyond the range of human vision.

A final note. Toward the end of the film Tami suggests that we need not worry about things down here on earth, because she "knows where we're all going." For those concerned with Gospel minimalization, please note that in context she is speaking with expectant faith (Hebrews 11) of those who embrace Jesus Christ, who recognize that as He is "the way, the truth and the life" (Jn. 14:6), that our eternal salvation with Him is only found in giving our lives to Him.

Please consider supporting our faith and family endeavors here at ImageTrinity.com with your prayers and financial support. Thank you.
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"Awake O sleeper, rise up from the dead, and Christ will give you light" (Ephesians 5:14)

We are a generation seeking God for real. Join us for M2W. It's not for those who have it, but for those who recognize they don't. God is here. Come expecting great things.

Is God Culturally Relevant? (The Gospel According to Mick Jagger)

2011-04-14T07:32:00.001-07:00

It's a question worth asking. Most people aren't unwilling to believe, they simply have a measuring stick. They rightly ask: If faith has nothing to do with real, lived, human fulfillment, why bother? And quite often the answers we offer them amount to, "It just is."

Perhaps many of us even struggle with this question.

So let's ask: Did Jesus not become flesh and blood? Does this not have real implications in the real world?

Perhaps many of us really lack the faith to expect that God engages us in this world. If so, it would seem faith really is an "opium of the people" (Marx), "excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet" (Napoleon), "founded upon fables and mythologies" (Jefferson).

Most intuitively know there's got to be more to God than external observance. There's got to be more than fleeting emotions. The truth of Jesus Christ has to find validation in lived, human experience.

A wake-up call to those who rely on the sufficiency of religious knowledge, tradition and practice: Jesus found more faith among the "pagans" ... surpassing that of the religious classes. He wasn't interested in cruise-control believers whose sufficiency was fortified by their high opinions of themselves ("The Pharisee stood and prayed to himself, 'O God! I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity...'" Luke 18:11). This was self-deception.

Jesus held up the children. He wants us to be fully alive in the simple acceptance of His real, saving presence and love. The seeds of real faith live in the hearts of those who believe enough not to settle, for those who hold high the standard of a relevant faith, a faith validated in lived, human experience.

For those with eyes to see and ears to hear, ask this question: Which commandment, which truth, which "law" has Christ revealed, the breaking of which has not left the breaker more broken? Think of decisions regarding sex, drugs and alcohol, greed, violence....

To those of you who aspire to this high standard, who will not settle for less than a relevant God who became one of us, I invite you to recognize the truth proclaimed not by evangelists, but within our popular culture and experience. As merely one representative example, consider the Gospel According to Mick Jagger (Rolling Stones):

Shattered, shattered
Love and hope and sex and dreams
Are still surviving on the street
Look at me, I'm in tatters!
I'm a shattered
Shattered

Laughter, joy, and loneliness and sex and sex and sex and sex
Look at me, I'm in tatters
I'm a shattered
Shattered

Work and work for love and sex
Ain't you hungry for success, success, success, success
Does it matter? (Shattered) Does it matter?
I'm shattered.
Shattered

Pride and joy and greed and sex
That's what makes our town the best
Pride and joy and dirty dreams and still surviving on the street
And look at me, I'm in tatters, yeah
I've been battered, what does it matter
Does it matter, uh-huh
Does it matter, uh-huh, I'm a shattered

Don't you know the crime rate is going up, up, up, up, up
To live in this town you must be tough, tough, tough, tough, tough!
You got rats on the west side
Bed bugs uptown
What a mess this town's in tatters I've been shattered
My brain's been battered, splattered all over Manhattan

Shattered/ Rolling Stones
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Two things should be instructive here. First, it's abundantly clear that shattered is not a good thing. Who wants to be shattered? Illicit sex, greed, pride... these cultural icons are giving bold testimony that certain decisions and values lead to being shattered: "I'm in tatters." Isn't it a bit more than interesting that this scheme of things exactly corresponds to revelation in Christ? Hardly some external law with no implications for lived existence, but a testimony that what Christ revealed corresponds to our very design. Again, we can't really break the "law," only ourselves against the "law."

Secondly, assuming one doesn't want to be shattered, we are instructed to pursue the opposite of shattered. The opposite of shattered is "whole"- the root word "holy."

In short order, there we have it - the relevance of Christian faith powerfully proclaimed from the very epicenter of secular culture. For those with eyes to see, recognize here the truth revealed by Jesus Christ corresponds to the design of our nature, and offers the prospect for a full, human fulfillment. "See, I set before you life and prosperity, death and destruction..." (Dt. 30:15).

"Awake O sleeper, rise up from the dead, and Christ will give you light" (Ephesians 5:14)

We are a generation seeking God for real. Join us for M2W. It's not for those who have it, but for those who recognize they don't. God is here. Come expecting great things.

CALLING ALL FAMILIES!

2011-04-04T16:37:00.000-07:00

Your prayers and financial support will enable us to fulfill our big mission of helping families discover and live their identity: Image Trinity. If WE become IT (Image Trinity) they will come!

THE BIG PICTURE: In our capacity to love we Image the Trinity. Families are uniquely called to reveal God who is Love to the world. What's IT all about? Image Trinity.
IT is our identity. IT is our calling. IT is our mission.

Read this article/interview featured by ZENIT.

IN BRIEF: Image Trinity is a growing movement of families who seek to more fully discover and live this adventure (in partnership with parish and church communities). At the heart we invite you to recommit your family to prayer. Please also consider partnering with us financially- in whatever amount you are able.

EVENTS: We hope to conduct many events that give individuals and families a dynamic, real, living encounter with Jesus Christ. Our monthly, epicenter event is Made2Worship (M2W). Please go here to read and have a small experience of M2W. This will lead into Presence for Christmas (P4C), a four-week journey into the heart of Christmas. These will awaken us all to the realization that Jesus Christ is the ultimate present. Each evening consists of inspiring song, story and prayer - culminating in Adoration at the "Burning Bush" - Jesus Christ illuminated by our candles. These events are integrated with downloadable family prayer guides; we encourage families to pray every night with their candle lit, even if only for five minutes. With your support, in November our partnerships with CatholicTV, CatholicExchange.com and CatholicLane.com will extend this throughout diocese, nation and the planet. Your gift of any amount will help us unite families in this powerful way.

MULTIMEDIA: Living IT! is an inspiring television series to air nationally that will uniquely showcase faith-filled families "living IT" (Image Trinity). Please go here to read more about this exciting endeavor and about the Michael Hennessey Family/ Ironman for Kids, slated to be our pilot program. We need 30 "Executive Producer Families" who can each contribute $1000 to enable us to produce the pilot.

RESOURCES: Integrated with our multimedia programming and events, we want to provide a number of resources to promote, encourage and support individuals and families in our common identity and mission. As an example, see this article recently featured on Catholic Exchange: "Chernobyl Diaper and Parental Joy." Your gift of any amount will help us more fully discover and live their identity and mission.

WEB: This current web is quite provisional. We're in need of a robust web that enables us to more dynamically evangelize and connect families to the movement. Your gift of any amount will help us build this platform.

IMAGE TRINITY RETREAT CENTER: Our ultimate vision includes building "Trinity Family Retreat Centers"- locations of prayer and renewal for families, and a center of operation so to speak. Your gift of any amount will help us build it (If we become IT, they will come).

ROCK YOUR MISSION! (RYM!) Is an expansive, dynamic cultural outreach committed to uniting parents, students, teachers and community in the proposition: "Your life has a purpose. You have a mission. Live it out loud." This will be accomplished through "high-octane" events, multi-media, web and resources integrated in an overall program.

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For more information, please contact us: Greg@ImageTrinity.com or 814/ 864-5755.

The Good News of Sin (Properly Understood)

2011-03-27T11:56:00.000-07:00

Today two ideas collided. It didn't hurt so much, but it did shake things up. Shaking up can be a very good thing. I remember a quote on our fridge from youth: "Sometimes God knocks us off balance so we'll take a step forward." So true. Socrates, Copernicus, St. Francis, Einstein, John Paul II... all examples of good shaking up leading to a step forward.

Let me set the stage for my latest round. After 21 years of "God-study" (theology), I've been moved to join St. Francis and stand on my head, so to speak, and see God not just from a different angle, but wanting to see Him truly, for who He really is (as much as we are able). There's an analogy here from childhood. Remember your first crush as a kid? Invariably it was someone you knew very little about, but your imagination filled in all the missing pieces. Eventually, as you got to really know them, this portrait was corrected, making it possible to have a relationship not simply with your idea, but with the real person.

Similarly, I think the portrait many of us have of Jesus is derived more from our desires and (mis)conceptions than from who He revealed Himself to be. The fact that Jesus is a real, particular person who can be known as such may even be a shocker to some believers. Our post-modern culture puts such a high premium on personal feelings and experience (at the expense of objective truth) that we run the great risk of being in a relationship with our emotions in the name of God.

Beyond imagination, beyond emotions, beyond agenda... who is Jesus Christ?

This is quite important if we believe that Jesus Christ is God's revelation of man to Himself (Fides et ratio, n. 13), the one in and through whom we have hope of salvation (1 Tim. 2:3ff; 1 Thes. 5:8; Rom. 8:24). If we don't know who Jesus really is, to that extent our relationship with Him is deficient, as is our hope for salvation. I've been deeply moved to more fully understand Jesus Christ, not just my idea of Him, but Him. "Lord, show me the way...." So I needed a good tour guide and ordered Pope Benedict XVI's "Jesus of Nazareth." In this tour Pope Benedict is so much more than the erudite and untouchable "supreme pontiff," but a prayerful, humble, scholarly man who really knows and loves Jesus Christ. He invites us to look past the many fashions modern man has placed upon Jesus Christ ("[these scriptural portraits] are much more like photographs of their authors and the ideals they hold", xii). He invites us to see Jesus as He really is in Holy Scripture.

So the two ideas. The first came a few weeks ago. Intentional-Christian parent-friends were sharing their frustration with the prodigality of their children. The second came while leading worship for a number of younger kids before school. These collided and presented the consideration: How can this vibrant faith in younger years become all the more so in older years? I'll take you to the destination so emphasized by Pope Benedict, and reserve the majority of this article for how I got there: the heart of our faith is a living, personal relationship with Jesus Christ. The hard question: Are we living and leading our children in the real-deal faith, or merely some fashion?

Back to the prodigality. What can we say. Let's admit that as parents we could do everything right and still have wayward children. Let's put it in perspective: our perfect God was the father of Adam and Eve! Prodigality is the reality of original sin, our capacity to choose, and living in an orchard of way too many (bad) "apple" trees that are way too attractive. Let's keep it real. The bad fruit looks good. And what's more, God designed us to be attracted to it, and He gave us appetites at least for what they represent. Looking at this situation, one has to wonder if God didn't set it all up for us to fall!

If we want Truth, we need to honestly ask the questions. If God could have created a world without the bad fruit, why didn't He? Why did He make it so appetizing? If He could have created every human being perfectly disposed to Him (Blessed Mother Mary, "full of grace", Luke 1:28), why didn't He?

Let's take it further. Which of us with the power to easily deliver someone from suffering and hunger would deny it? Yet history and experience reveal a different modus operandi for God. On one hand He delivered the Jews from captivity in Egypt; on the other He allowed millions to perish at the hands of the Nazis. On one hand we are promised prosperity for those who trust in God (Psalms); on the other there are people far more faithful than I who have suffered far greater than I could imagine. What does this say? Is there a greater good, beyond our human standards? Beyond our apprehension?

Somewhere in this inquiry we can either be arrogant, and presume the correctness of our human analysis, or we can presume the correctness of God's analysis... who has our greatest, ultimate good in mind. At the heart we are pressed to either have "faith seeking understanding" (St. Anselm), or we can cling to the modern antithesis of "understanding seeking faith." Clearly, God (and an ultimate, eternal good He is) is much bigger than our limited, human conceptions.

One would be wrong to read in this any leniency in our biblical mandate to labor for good, with all we have, any way we can, without ceasing. Rather, it's an invitation to more deeply understand that God's plan for us is not (the human conception of) "the good life," but rather, the "God" life. This consideration should shake us.

Consider what is meant when a friend or family member says, "We've been blessed!" What does it mean to be truly blessed? Is it having health, wealth and opportunity? Without diminishing these evident gifts from God, we need to consider the "suffering Servant" (Is. 53), who said that all who follow Him must take up their cross, indeed, lose their lives for Him (Luke 16:24-25). It's even more instructive that this followed Jesus' harsh rebuke of Peter, even calling him satan, for suggesting a way without the cross. We should be instructed by the Beatitudes, which pronounce an entirely different vision of "blessedness": those who suffer, are poor, persecuted, hated, reviled (Matt. 5).

Human history and experience pronounce that often it's only in the privation of good things that we really encounter God. Clearly, suffering paves the way for our deeper intimacy with God and His people. St. Rose of Lima's vision spoke to this point eloquently:

"Our Lord and Savior lifted up his voice and said with incomparable majesty: 'Let all men know that grace comes after tribulation. Let them know that without the burden of afflictions it is impossible to reach the height of grace. Let them know that the gifts of grace increase as the struggles increase. Let men take care not to stray and be deceived. This is the only true stairway to paradise, and without the cross they can find no road to climb to heaven.' "

All of this should compel us to consider if our relationship with God isn't based more upon our own, socio-political values, our false idea of Him, versus Him. Let's have the humility to be shaken. Let's pray for the grace to see as God sees. For some insight, let's consider the "happy fault of Adam" we profess at the Easter Vigil. Let's look at the good news of sin, properly understood, as a way of more fully understanding the intimate link between ourselves, our children, and our role as parents.

For starters, here is a note from personal experience. After "losing it" on one of my kids, my wife reminded me that I was much more gentle, compassionate, and merciful following an episode of sin in my own life. Why? Sin has the power to break us. Sin can awaken us to the haughty prison of self. Sin can avail us to something beyond ourselves. Sin can remind us that we are in radical need of a Savior. Sin is the essential condition we share with every person on the planet.

Paul gives us insight into this good news of sin. He complained of the "thorn," the angel of satan sent to beat him, that he might not get conceited (2 Cor. 4:7). Pride (conceit) is the Grand Daddy of all sins. Many of us "believers" run the huge risk of being proud of being good. We forget that we are sinners, that even our "smallest" sin, or "separation," puts us at an eternal distance from the perfect and almighty God.

There's no biblical support for the notion that Christ merely "covers" our sin. Clearly, Christ came for us to be transformed (Rom. 12:1-2). Also, understanding Scripture as a whole, there's no support for thinking that one's decision in one moment can commandeer relationship with God in every subsequent moment. So long as we can choose, we can choose against God. If this were not the case, Peter would not have exhorted the faithful to be vigilant against Satan, the roaring lion, looking for souls to devour (1 Pet. 5:8). Satan is deceiving many of us believers into thinking of ourselves as having securely arrived. As such, our reliance upon Jesus Christ in each new moment is substantially diminished. We become puffed up. We think we're pretty good, not so much because we are, but often relative to those we judge not to be so.

For these reasons, God chastises those whom He loves (Hebrews 12:6). Paul begged God to rid him of his thorn, only to hear Him say, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Paul goes on to say, "Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me."

It's quite evident that Jesus Christ absolutely loved the "anawim," the "poor in spirit"-- those who knew they were sinners and came to Him. In fact, it should be very instructive that Christ spoke with greater affection, greater pronouncement of beatitude, for the repentant, pagan sinners than He did with any of the religious class! Even more instructively, he detested those who arrogated to themselves the Godlike standard, but whose hearts were far from God!

Pope Benedict points out this salvation-hungry disposition of heart revealed in the Psalms: "[I]n their deep devotion to God's goodness, in the human goodness and humility that grew from it as men waited vigilantly for God's saving love- here developed that generosity of heart that was to open the door for Christ."

One can't help but think in particular of Psalm 51. Many scholars believe Psalm 51 was King David's broken, humble cry for God's mercy, forgiveness and strength after committing adultery with Bathsheba and sending her husband to his death. I'll remember Psalm 51 forever. We prayed it often as seminarians at Mount St. Mary's Seminary (Emmitsburg, MD), but even more, there was one particular room there where a seminarian had written it in big words that covered the entire ceiling and wall. One wonders if David would have been so greatly favored if he had not so greatly fallen, the basis by which he came to rest in the infinite mercy of God. David's sin bound him intimately to God, not as a slave, but as one who was saved.

A Godly-ordered perspective is not one that sees the world comprised of sinners and non-sinners, but comprised of sinners who are aware they are sinners, and sinners who are not. In this regard, awareness of our sin is the engine driving our human drama. Without awareness of our sin (and our tendency toward sin), we have no need of a Savior. Many saints throughout the ages have commented that holiness makes us more aware of our sin. Holiness awakens us to the various degrees and ways of our separation, and engenders a deep desire for greater intimacy and communion. Contrasted by many who haven't been to confession in a long time because they "don't know what to confess," John Paul II went to confession weekly.

Back to the prodigals. I can remember a "conversation" on Facebook with a friend whom I have not connected with since high school. In high school she was admittedly a prodigal overachiever. Her life in the years that followed entailed divorce, alcohol abuse, and a good measure of brokenness. In the "conversation" she stated that she "went to a Catholic school, broke all the rules" and essentially "won't be held by those rules." I simply inquired: "Which of those rules have you broken that, in fact, have not broken you? What of that would you desire for your daughter right now?"

Teenagers need permission to pilot their own craft, to take off, to own things for themselves. Too often we're crowding that space, and they can't see faith beyond their dad's and mom's "thing." At that age they're very tuned into integrity issues. Their equation for life is often simple: only profess what you're able to live. And with that, we often go in the wrong direction- trying to uphold a portrait of our rightness. That will fail. Our kids intuitively know we're weak. They know we're sinners. They intuitively know this faith thing has to be more than a rule, but a relationship.

Here's the great twist. They'll be more inclined to be open to faith in Jesus Christ if we pronounce our wrongness. That's a common platform. That's something they can connect with. That puts us on the same team. This is all the more compelling if they come to understand that faith in Jesus Christ has to do with our design, becoming the best versions of ourselves. What good is a sophisticated gadget if it's just being used as a paper weight? There is a designer and manual that specifies the gadget's identity and function. Similarly, we were purposefully designed, and given a manual to fulfill our purpose. As suggested above, we really can't break the law of our design, we can only break ourselves against it. In a world that offers us a multiplicity of false manuals, the following of which leads to a broken humanity, we need to recognize Jesus Christ is God's revelation of man to himself. He reveals who we are. We need to turn to Him if we are to fully understand who we are, from which flows what we are to do.

As Christians, our standard and aspiration is the perfect, holy love of God. Who isn’t a hypocrite? Let's hold up high that this faith has more to do with what we desire, than it does in what we have acquired. Any good within us points to Jesus Christ. Good formation of our children compels us to be a John the Baptist. It's not about us. We need to get out of the way to allow sufficient air for them to personally encounter the Truth. We need to say, "I am not the one" and point them toward Jesus Christ. We need to convey that it's not about rules, but relationship (worth repeating again and again). It's about the landscape of life... and a desire for their happiness.

We have our six children for such a short period of time, but these years will set the course for the rest of their lives. With Paul let me boast in my weakness. Let me confess this boldly: I am imperfect. I fail, and I have failed. May they see in this my need for Jesus Christ, in every moment. May my sin proclaim Jesus Christ! In the paradoxical way of ultimate, spiritual truth - where death is life, poverty is wealth, the least are the greatest... my failure has been an occasion for success. In short, in the paradoxical, shaken up shape of things, the best ways to help your children come to know and love Jesus Christ, to live for Him with their lives, to stop sinning, is for us be "good sinners." Be genuinely humble, sincere and immediate in acknowledging your faults and failures. Invite them to pray for you. Invite them to join you on the journey.

In our human condition we need a hero. Not just in a moment, but every moment. We can't do it ourselves. Sin makes possible an even more radical bond with our Savior. God wants us to love Him like any other hero who might have given his life for our own. Again, and again, and again. He wants us parents to enter into this relationship for ourselves, because it's for our good, because it's God's desire for us... which will do far more in forming our children than will any amount of words and expectations that otherwise amount to fashion. God wants us to be aware of what He has done for us, and what He will do for us. He wants us to know that this is love. He is love. Let us continue to journey together in the great adventure of discovering and living in His love.
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We're a movement of families on the adventure of more fully discovering our identity and living it out. Sign-up for our regular updates. If this connected with you, please share it. Join us for our 8 week journey through Lent leading up to the beatification of John Paul II. Go to JP2Journey.com. Then on 5.4.2011 we begin Made2Worship. Check it out and sign-up at Made2Worship.org.

Story Behind JP2Journey.com (Join us!)

2011-03-08T20:36:00.000-08:00

Go to JP2Journey.com and join our 8 week journey through Lent leading up to the beatification of John Paul II - featuring a new video and reflection every week!

Greetings Fellow Sojourners in Christ!

The year was 2001. My wife and I had only three of our current seven beautiful children (one in heaven). I was serving as director of the Diocesan Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministry for the Catholic Diocese of Erie.

Following the 9/11 tragedy (2001), many said we'd be foolish to try and organize a faith event that would take young people out of the country. What's more, it would cost a lot of money, be quite uncomfortable and challenging, and "it's summertime... kids just aren't interested in faith." So they said. But JP II asked us to step out in faith, to join him and thousands of youth around the world in Toronto for World Youth Day in July, 2002. In the midst of a culture that distorts and diminishes our God-like identity, he invited us to boldly proclaim Jesus Christ "from the rooftops."

We had a great, faith-filled team, and threw the net out. Within months over 500 jumped on board. We were one of the largest groups in the United States. It would be an eight-day pilgrimage full of Spirit-filled prayer, music, catechesis, culture, conversation, adventure.

For me this was quite personal. John Paul II had been monumental in my faith formation. He helped me more fully understand the great dignity of the human person as imago dei (image of God). He helped me navigate my vocation through seminary into discovery of my uniquely "priestly" identity and calling as a husband and father. Complementary to this he helped me understand sacramental priesthood and consecrated life as revelations of our eternal destiny; we were fashioned to give ourselves completely to God. Family is not only called to image the Trinity, but the mutual, self-giving love is a participation in the very life of the Trinity! Family makes God known to the world! Family living its identity and mission is thus the cornerstone of civilization. This awakening informed our calling, our founding ImageTrinity.com.

Back to pilgrimage planning, there was one, huge but beautiful "bump" in the road. You would think that with all the logistics associated with this pilgrimage, with all our hopes and expectations, that two, graduate school-educated adults open to God's greatest gift of life could do some basic math! A couple months into our pregnancy we discovered that our fourth child would be due the same week as the pilgrimage! I would not be able to experience the grand finale of our year of preparation, to meet my hero. Needless to say, we recognized in this a paradox so common to faith: our "decrease" would precisely correspond to an "increase" - an opportunity to more intimately share in the work of John Paul II. On July 31 we gave this faith a name: Catherine.

Moving with that theme, many of the other parishes came with flags representing their countries or parishes. Our flag was quite idiosyncratic: a pair of blue footprints, one foot in front of the other, on bright yellow. These flags were seen many times that week through various news venues throughout the world. Many asked us if we were from "Footopia."

The symbol signified two things: (1) Along with Our Lady (blue), our desire to constantly be moving forward in Christ, to trust in Him for everything, and; (2) Our commitment to the protection of unborn children. After all, the vast majority of these pilgrims were survivors of the infamous Roe v. Wade decision (1973) that took away protection of the unborn through all nine months of pregnancy.

We gave Max a camera and told him to capture everything. He overnighted the tapes. I kept producing back at home. By today's standards, the visual quality is wanting, but it's "Bethlehem stable" perfect... capturing the humble reality of so many hearts deeply discovering God's love, purpose and presence in their lives.

It's amazing to see what God has done with these participants since then. A good number who were seminarians (or even just in a high school youth group) are now priests. At least four have made professions to religious life. Many now are in beautiful, Catholic marriages with families of their own... all joyfully embracing their role to build a civilization of love.

As our pilgrimage was eight days, we will release one video corresponding to each day of that pilgrimage, a new one every week (beginning with Day 1, the following week, Day 2, and so forth), leading up to the Beatification of John Paul II (May 1, 2011). We do this with great gratitude, and continued prayer for God's will to be done "on earth as it is in heaven." We invite you to join us in praying every day the Abandonment Prayer we had been praying throughout the pilgrimage. Blessed John Paul - pray for us!
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Made2Worship.org (Heaven begins here) is an outreach of ImageTrinity.com (a nonprofit organization). Our mission with M2W is to invite all, particularly those who profess to be Catholics, to more fully, deeply discover the love of God that impels us to a life of worship! Stay tuned!

Preaching IT: "You Have Heard It Said..." (Fr. Nick Rouch)

2011-02-20T12:08:00.000-08:00

PREFACE FROM US: We believe that God purposefully designed us for a life of fulfillment in Him. The Church has the mission of faithfully communicating the shape of this design. Our acceptance or rejection of these truths is the hinge of life, determining whether our lives are fulfilled, or fall apart. We applaud priests who faithfully proclaim these truths, particularly those that are most challenging. As each of us are incomplete, we invite you to join us in the adventure of seeking and responding to this life-giving truth from our loving God.

Our vision is to build out PreachingIT.com (coming soon) - which will showcase dynamic, faith-filled messages in multimedia and print. Your prayer, recommendations of great homilies, and financial partnership of this nonprofit endeavor are greatly appreciated. Thank you.
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"You have heard it said... but I say to you…"
Fr. Nick Rouch, S.T.D.
(Homily for February 13, 2011 - Corresponding to Matthew 5)

In today’s gospel (Matthew 5), Jesus said three times, “You have heard it said… but I say to you…” Each time he was acknowledging a moral standard that was widely accepted in the culture, but stretching it further and calling the people to a higher standard. The people of his day had minimized the demands of faith and he wanted to restore them to fullness. Certainly, some who heard him thought, “This will be exhausting! Isn’t he asking too much of us?”

In our own day, we have heard many things said in our secular culture, that culture that St. Paul describes in the second reading as the “wisdom of this age.” Our secular culture, which has become indifferent to religion, even hostile to it, has some moral standards which may sound reasonable at first, but Christ is calling us to a different standard. It is as if he is saying to us, “Yes, you’ve heard many things said in the secular culture about right and wrong, but I say to you, I have a higher standard I want you to live by.”

Just as Jesus addressed human life and human sexuality in the gospel, so he addresses them today.
With regard to human life, we have heard it said that:
• Abortion belongs to personal choice and privacy;
• Harvesting of stem cells from a human embryo is scientific progress;
• Prompting death for someone in pain is an act of mercy…

But Jesus says that every human life is sacred, from the moment of conception until natural death, and we need to do all we can to protect, nurture and love each person.

With regard to human sexuality, we have heard it said that:
• Sexual activity that is consensual is morally acceptable;
• To extract sexuality from marriage, procreation and love is its proper liberation from medieval notions;
• That artificial contraception, premarital sexual activity, homosexual activity and pornography are simply unavoidable and part of modern life…

But Jesus says that human sexuality is a gift from God, part of our dignity, and needs to be protected within the holy bonds of marriage, so that it can express love and be open to life.

We need to live by the standard Christ sets, not a secular culture. Certainly, we will experience a tension between these two standards. What we hear from the pulpit, from the Church, and in our conscience, will not match what we hear from the secular media. Yes, there will be a tension. It will not fit together.

And so we have a choice, as Sirach emphasized in the first reading. We have a choice between the standard of Christ or the standard of the world. Why should we chose Christ?
• Because we know that the world is fallen and that the deception of sin has infected the world’s thinking;
• Because we know Christ to be the way, the truth and the life.
• Because we know that long before we decide to follow Christ, he has chosen us, he has loved us.

Ultimately, we say Yes to Christ and to his standard because he loved us so much that he died for us, to set us free and lead us back to the Father. We say yes, because we believe what St. Paul wrote:

“We speak a wisdom to those who are mature, not a wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age who are passing away. Rather, we speak God’s wisdom, mysterious, hidden, which God predetermined before the ages for our glory… Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, nor has it dawned in our minds, what God has prepared for those who love him.”

Fr. Nicholas Rouch, S.T.D., is the Vicar for Education for the Catholic Diocese of Erie and contributes extensively to numerous faith endeavors. In particular, he is the spiritual director for our Catholic Women's Gathering.

Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition: Shows Too Little!

2011-02-16T07:53:00.000-08:00

Ok, so today I posted on my Facebook page: "SI Swimsuit Edition. Lust is the sport. Women are made objects. Men are made predators. Everyone loses. Literally and figuratively- don't buy it."

Amidst likes and positive comments, I was appreciative to have the dominant, cultural view represented in Mike's reply (not interested in speaking to the choir):

"Gotta disagree. The women are beautiful. Didn't God create beauty to be appreciated? These women are objectified the same way pro football players are. But we can appreciate the ferocity of football without it turning into something ugly."

My reply below. Join the conversation on my Facebook page.
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Mike, if we're going to have this conversation, we have to be reasonable about what's going on, and what those managing this industry clearly understand about what is happening.

(1) No one would or should doubt the beauty of the human body. But at the outset, let's keep this in mind: we're not talking about appreciating the human person in one's totality, which would entail more than a photo. As such, this "appreciation of the body" apart from the full, human person is, by definition, limiting. As John Paul II put it, the problem with pornography isn't that it shows too much, but that it shows too little.

(2) And what exactly are we appreciating of "the body"? If you're being true to that claim, are we being presented with God's designed beauty in all bodies, involving a wide range in body ages, types, sizes and poses? Hardly. We're talking about a particular, culturally-construed stereotype of body, in mostly-naked, seductive poses that essentially say "take me." More than just evoking beauty, they're meant to arouse. These portraits are not appealing to men/women of any great ascetic or spiritual appreciation (though this could be the case, but let's be real...), but to that which is most primitive.

(3) If you knew behind the scene, the commercially-driven insecurities associated with this world, particularly for the women involved but extended to all women-- and how it carves out a false masculinity... you'd see it makes dupes of us all (see my article on this, with a great, corresponding documentary film clip).

(4) I'm not declaring any particular person lustful, nor suggesting to what degree they may be lustful, but if the driving force is that "sensual" thing in someone, meant between a husband and wife, of an intimate nature-- it is, as Jesus Christ said, adultery: "I tell you this, if you look lustfully upon someone you have committed adultery." (Matt. 5:28) Let's be honest. These portraits derive their power (SI's largest distribution and money-making edition) precisely in their capacity to incite men into a sexual relationship, albeit in the realm of imagination/ internal. I don't know of a single wife who would be "ok" with her husband being sexually engaged with another woman at any level. There's nothing private about a man giving part of himself to another woman. It is patently and relationally destructive.

(5) The test. Would you mind your wife, daughter, mom on the front cover?

Not my rules. Not my design. But you know what, I know it to be true. We live in a veritable sea of real destruction in individual lives, marriages, and an entire culture... all because people have come to accept this objectification as benign. Heart, body and soul - I have vowed, and my wife deserves, my total, complete self-gift (as much as I am able with God's grace). Our love says "all of me." This total gift is God's design for our transcendence, our means of literally imaging and participating in the Trinity. The apple is shiny, and seemingly benign, but it is poisonous. Don't buy it. God desires for us great things, not evil, but leaves the choice to us.

The Lion ISN'T Sleeping (Tonight)

2011-02-05T04:30:00.000-08:00

"Your opponent the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour." (1 Peter 5:8) Peter was speaking to Christians. You can lose what you had. What was saved can be lost. Vigilance is good... even better, radical dependency on God... we need Him every moment.

This exhortation is not a warm, fuzzy, happy thought... but anyone who fails to recognize (this) truth lives in ignorance, and remains even more vulnerable. One can pretend the lump near their lymph gland will go away, but guess what... beyond the feeling may be a truth. You need to go to the Doctor.

On the moral landscape (equally applicable as the medical example!), my wife and I have been leading Pre-Cana (marriage prep) retreats for years... literally hundreds of couples, not one would say they expect to get divorced, yet statistics reveal 50% will. There are common characteristics of those who do. Many want it "their" way-- with a Christian appearance... for a day.

Experience proves time and again-- beyond our subjective ideas and opinions.... there is a "law", a contour of how God designed us (like the lump on the lymph gland): You can't really break the "law," only ourselves against the "law." It begins in small, "benign" ways... admission of ideas that are contrary to God's plan....

The greatest tragedy is that this truth has been reduced to cliche, cold dogma, empty rules... versus a living, joy-filled, relationship that is authentic... in which we are all working it out... often amidst the mess of others and ourselves.

Don't turn away from Him because of your/others' mess... He made us weak so that we'll seek. Without our radical need there would be no basis to call Him "Lord." If we weren't in trouble, there would be no need to call upon Him as "Savior."

He fashioned us for Himself... He loves you. Call upon Him.

The Blue Nail Polish, Saint-Making and Stepping Out

2011-02-01T10:10:00.000-08:00

Amidst their other literary interests, our children invariably return to their various saint books and Glory Stories CD's (etc.). Of course, we're delighted. More and more often I see in them glimmers of virtue that put me to shame. Sports' metaphors work in our home: while they all get that our playing field is about sainthood, our 7 year old Grace of late has her eyes fixed on the Finish (yes, this is the same "Amazing Grace" who framed her Dad for his bad words in the Chernobyl Diaper story in Catholic Exchange).

While my wife is making supper, Gracie pulls up. Steph inquires, "So Grace, how's the saint-thing going?" In her dramatic, exasperated tone, Grace's eyes twinkle: "[Exhale] I discovered ONE thing. To become a Saint... it's way, way, WAY more than just being very, very, VERY good. You have to do things that you REALLY DON'T want to do!"

With images of things like simply keeping her room clean, Steph inquires, "Like what?"
Grace: "One example is, Catherine wanted to borrow my VERY SPECIAL, blue nail polish, and NOTHING in me... AT ALL... wanted to let her! But I stopped... and smiled... and said, 'Sure'. THAT was hard!"

Oh, if only I could have the same wiring with regard to the "blue nail polishes" of my life! To take seriously this saint-making "game" that so defines our mission and purpose on this planet! Let it be!

And suddenly I was struck by awareness of my ordinary circumstances... situated in a MASSIVE arena, surrounded by a multitude of angels and saints, beyond what the eye can see, but all looking down at me... at us, and cheering us on! Hear the announcer (I hear Howard Cosell), "And there he is taking the field. Oh, oh... he's facing pride again. Can... he... do... it?" Somewhere the crowd are watching instant replays of past successes and failures, setting the stage for the next play. And I become aware of the simple fact that it's not so much that we choose God, but that He has chosen us. Simple awareness of Him, who is Love, the very fabric of our being, impels the totality of our lives. We can do it.

Perhaps it's not that He has stopped speaking, but that we've stopped listening. We've stopped looking at our seemingly "ordinary" lives through eyes of faith. Through eyes of faith we would see that our events and circumstances are not by chance, but are part of a custom-designed playing field intentionally designed by God Himself, for intimacy and fulfillment in Himself. This is the ultimate truth! Believe it!

So through that lens, I can see that launch of our Image Trinity (Catholic family movement), our desire to devote our lives entirely to that mission, almost entirely ignited by God through events that took place a few months ago. The thesis of this might well be an elaboration of God choosing us in the how. He does so through His Heavenly Community. In short, we don't pick saints, they are picked for us. Here is testimony to that.

Just six months ago, in August of last year, Stephanie and I were blessed to be present at the national John Henry Newman conference in Pittsburgh, which had the gathering of many of the individuals associated with Cardinal Newman being named a blessed on September 19, 2010. We were engaged by the National Institute for Newman Studies to produce a 30 minute video. More on that in a moment.

Cardinal Newman (1801 - 1890) was a theological "rock star" for the Church of England, until his spiritual/intellectual journey led him to Catholicism (1845). He is an amazing example of an integrated heart/mind holiness. Particularly for our culture today, Newman's writing and life demonstrated the relational heart of faith, a faith that compels us beyond emotionalism, and the "jump-through-the-hoops", "pick-and-choose," or "whatever-I-want-it-to-be" varieties - but has the right design of the human person (in relationship to God) at the very heart.

The participants of this conference were aware of sharing a very special moment, illumined in a heavenly light that revealed Newman not simply as one who expounded eloquently on the truths of the Christian faith... but was now a powerful intercessor from heaven, one of the blessed. Renown Newman scholar, Fr. Ian Kerr, intimated that Newman's beatification may be quickly followed by his canonization, and being regarded as one of the very few "Doctors" of the Church.

The final production showcases Newman's God-given spiritual, intellectual, and intercessory power at the throne of heaven. The centerpiece is Deacon Jack Sullivan sharing the miracle story that occurred to him, that was admitted as basis for naming Newman as one of the blessed in heaven. The final program, "Heart Speaks to Heart from Heaven: The Newman Miracle Story" (extending his Cardinal motto, "Cor Ad Cor Loquitur" - "Heart Speaks to Heart"), was featured by both CatholicTV and EWTN..

Producing the program was more than a prayer for us, but a life-changing call. We invoked the intercession of Blessed Newman. And through the process became aware that we were called to step out in faith, to devote the entirety of our gifts to a dynamic movement promoting Catholic family life, as an Image of the Trinity.

Thus, our nonprofit Image Trinity, which had been in the prayer-planning stages for many years, was born. We seek to help families fully discover and live out their identity in the context of Eucharistic communities. We seek to do this specifically through dynamic events, resources, retreat centers and multi-media that will reach millions through our partnerships with various Catholic channels. In particular, we're wanting to produce a television series called, "Living IT!" that will showcase families living Image Trinity (get IT?). And we hope to expand our Presence for Christmas in 2011 that will unite people in a world-wide retreat during Advent.

We didn't, and don't know where our sustenance will come from, but trust that others will be moved by the vision and help us.

So, in answer to the question, "How's the saint-thing going?" I guess this would be our purple nail polish. It represents our desire to devote our all, in response to God's call, through the intercession of Blessed John Henry Newman (and Our Lady of Guadalupe). There is a big vision here, with tremendous, real opportunity. We need your prayers and support... to join us in this playing field as teammates, with great hopes that we may join the great "cloud of witnesses" proclaiming the endless praise of God!

A Legacy of Faith - Jim and Eileen Cullen

2011-01-20T16:26:00.000-08:00

Let me set the stage for a "must see" very moving video (below).

Eight years ago we were wrapping up a three day, Catholic youth event called Journey to Emmaus. Dan Meola, one of our "star" youth leaders, approached me and said how much he would like me to produce a video that captured his grandparents' amazing life.

Their fascinating history, set back in Michigan, painted a picture of what life was like, an encounter with Henry Ford, an amazing tour of duty in World War II, engagement, marriage, and ultimately, a tremendous adventure of faith involving eleven children and many more grandchildren. The gleam in Dan's eyes pronounced that his grandparents were his heroes, his pillars of faith.

So over a number of weekends we captured their story - often challenging, sometimes tragic, sometimes triumphant, but always illuminated with faith. At the end, I was personally overwhelmed by the grace of God pronounced through so many years of faith.

With all the history captured, I wanted them to speak directly to their children-- to share the most important message they would like to leave behind. In that last segment, which is posted below, you will see Dan and his Mom moved to tears. The feeling was that we had captured a tremendous gift that would endure. We could almost hear God say, "You have lived a magnificent, faith-filled life. Well done, my good and faithful servants."

It was powerful for sure. In fact, powerful enough to impact the hearts of hundreds of engaged couples over the many years my wife and I have served as Pre-Cana directors. The video clip is the grand-finale of the day with hardly a dry eye in the room. More than words, Jim and Eileen's living witness proclaims that God is truly with us, makes His Image known through family and marriage rightly lived.

Today, after a long bout with cancer, Jim was called home. As a result of his grandparent's faith and witness, Dan has committed his life to promoting the Church's beautiful vision of marriage and family life. He is a doctoral candidate at the John Paul II Institute in Washington, D.C., and in a few more months, we will be blessed to capture the beginning of his own journey in marriage.

As for me, this was the first of what became "DVD Legacy Productions" - an award-winning, A&E Biography-type production offered to families-- to help them beautifully capture and pass along the important stories and legacy that define them. Go here to read more in a feature story about DVD Legacy by Catholic Exchange: http://catholicexchange.com/2007/09/15/81161/

Thank you Jim and Eileen. We love you, and are blessed by the great Love through you. Your legacy continues.

Eternal rest grant unto him O Lord, and let your perpetual light shine upon him. May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

Immanuel, God with us.

2010-12-14T08:34:00.000-08:00

By Fr. Steve Schreiber

My sister was in the midst of a life mini-crisis over the past couple of weeks. With the situation coming to a head last Thursday, my mom and brother and I were in full prayer mode. Of course, as a priest, I get paid the big bucks to be a man of prayer. But admittedly, prayer intentions such as world peace and an end to global hunger got short shrift last week as I focused on a happy outcome for my sister’s crisis. And praise God, that is exactly what she got. Her situation was resolved in a positive manner and the family rejoiced. No doubt, we all believe, God was with her. He really came through in the crunch.

But what if her crisis had not been resolved in a positive way, would we have claimed that God was not with her? It is an interesting question. Most of us tend to be very good about thanking and praising God when prayers are answered in the way we wish them to be. Things turn out all butterflies and strawberries and we are whooping it up for the Big Guy. But when, despite our most fervent prayers, things turn out all stale and broken, then we are pretty reticent in thanking and praising. It begs the question, is God only with us when what we hope for happens?

This season of Advent points us toward an answer. “The Lord himself will give you this sign:” says the prophet, “the virgin shall be with child, and bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel (Is 7:14).” The virgin is Mary, the son is Jesus, and Immanuel means that God is with us. That’s right, God is with us. He is with us when things go well, he is with us when things are a disaster. God is there when we achieve success, he is there in the midst of our failures. But God is always there.

As we move quickly toward Christmas day, let us remember how Christ entered this world. Our Lord came not in glory and power, with riches and splendor, but he came poor and forsaken, hidden beneath the hay of an animal’s manger. The world barely took notice. When it comes to me or you, might he not enter our lives in a similar fashion? We want God to be with us, but translated, that desire usually means that we wish him to come in visible power and glory. Solve my problems, Lord! Heal my weakness, Lord! Save me now and in a way I understand, Lord!

But what if he comes to my soul and yours, into my life and yours, exactly as he came to the shepherds of Israel: humbly, quietly, with no visible show of power? What if he is working miracles – now – and we don’t even realize it? What if we are so busy demanding that Christ solve our issues in the manner we deem appropriate that we miss his hidden work well advanced in the silence of our hearts?

Advent – with its scriptures, symbols and songs – reminds us again and again: God is with us. But let us look for him not in the orchard but in the desert, not on the mountaintop but in the valley, not where the powerful gather but where the poor can be found. Come, Lord Jesus, come . . . not on our terms . . . but on yours.

Be assured of my prayers,

Fr. Steve Schreiber
Director of Youth Ministry and Vocations
Catholic Diocese of Erie
Reprinted with permission from www.erieRCD.org/vine.asp, courtesy of the Diocese of Erie.

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Please join us for Presence for Christmas - a four week journey into the heart of Christmas!

Most Memorable Christmas - Fr. Bill Lynn

2010-12-13T12:33:00.000-08:00

Preface: For many years Fr. Bill Lynn, S.J., was a professor at the Pontifical College Josephinum (Columbus, Ohio). More importantly, as my Mom's spiritual director, he's kept her generally sane (:) with all the drama associated with 7 children and 37 grandchildren. Tim O'Neill (The O'Neill Brothers- music on NBC, CBS, HBO, PBS, ESPN, A&E...) and I began Keys2Heaven.com to invite people to share their inspiring stories of faith. Once a month we selected a story and Tim composed a beautiful, instrumental "soundtrack" inspired by the respective story. The resulting project is "Songs of Faith: 12 Songs Inspired by You." Fr. Lynn just happened to have the most moving story for Christmas. After reading it you'll see why.
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Most Memorable Christmas

by Fr. Bill Lynn, S.J.

May I tell you of the happiest and most memorable Christmas I have ever had? It was in 1932 when I celebrated my tenth birthday (I was born on Dec. 25, 1922). My Dad, Eddie, my older brother, and I were living in the basement of a boarding house at 127 C Street S.E., just two blocks from the Capitol in Washington D.C.

Dad had set up and decorated the tree after I had gone to bed. When I woke up that Christmas morning I rushed to the Christmas tree to see what presents I might have received. But as I looked and searched I was puzzled and did not know what to think. All I saw beneath the tree was a tiny brown paper bag, in which I found five tiny pieces of penny candy.

I began slowly to eat the candy, while I waited, thinking that Dad, who was in the kitchen, would now bring in the big present I dreamed of. I waited, and then looked toward the kitchen where I could see Dad seated at the kitchen table, his head buried in his hands. I did not understand what the depression meant or what it meant that Dad was out of work. I could see he was very sad, and I knew it was because he could not afford to give me anything else.

So I got up off the floor, went into the kitchen and sat on Dad’s lap, put my arms around his neck and, holding back my tears of disappointment, said as convincingly as I could, “Dad, this is the best Christmas I have ever had.” He hugged me tight and said, “Thank you, son.” To my own surprise, those words did make it the best and happiest and most memorable Christmas I have ever had.
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Tim tells me that of the nearly 30 CD's they've recorded, this is his favorite. It really is beautiful. Please consider going HERE to preview the music and corresponding stories. For a short time you can purchase 10 CD's for only $67.00 (that's under $7/each!)- beautifully packaged with the corresponding booklet of stories! Proceeds are directed toward this family movement. Thank you, and God bless!

Join us for Presence for Christmas - a four week journey into the heart of Christmas!
Calling All Families! Please partner with us in this mission.

More than Apparent: You're the Parent!

2010-12-09T09:14:00.000-08:00

CLICK HERE FOR RADIO (AUDIO/MP3) VERSION

A couple days ago I had great consternation over my kids' less than virtuous attitudes, tones and dispositions, wondering where it was coming from. Once again I turned inward toward my soul and inquired: "Mirror, mirror, on the wall, help me understand from whence it comes, before I drop-kick them all!" And the "mirror" spoke back to me: "Aaammmm... you're looking at it!" Ouch.

It's true. Who we are as people is invariably proclaimed loudest through our children. I add the modifier "invariably" because, clearly, our children have been given command of their own souls. Yet for a parent who truly understands and embraces what it means to be a parent, we've got to look in the mirror. I've been around many teachers in my life, and one common, little known truth held among them is an ability to predict much about the parents based upon their children.

So if you're like me, and you desire to more fully embrace your critical role as parent, I invite you to let down your guard and join me in a gut-honest, little tour into parental conscience and inquire of the "mirror."

At the start, let's recognize that we are substantially influenced by our culture. For most parents, this culture is the norm (or the non-norm, as we will discover). Unless we want to trip, let's not set the bar there. We see what mainstream culture yields: kids without real identity, mission, moral bearing and purpose, discipline.... Let's recognize that we live in an absentee and surrogate parent culture. As such, our faults are not so much in what we do, but in what we fail to do. Let's consider who or what we allow to usurp our roles as parents. In my observation there are generally two different groups here.

First are the minimalists, otherwise known as the baton passers. For these, kids are a nice accessory. A good child is one who requires absolutely minimal effort. Their kids are everyone else's responsibility. As such, they do what is minimally expected, but are all too delighted to pass along the baton to teachers, coaches, day care. Note that it's not what they do, but their reasons for doing it: preserving their own lives with minimal intrusion from other obligations. In short, children are not really an integral "part" of their lives, just part of their obligations. There's a big difference.

These make themselves known after their little batons are passed off on the first day of school, or day care. Sighs of relief and so many words essentially pronounce: "I did my job. They're yours now." Invariably even their own lap substantially involves cyber surrogates: cell phones, video games, televisions, computers, etc. Of course, such "parents" are no replacement, and their kids show it. Invariably, they're disconnected, distracted, undisciplined, short-tempered, selfish, rude, unfocused. In short, they reveal who their parents are.

I know. How judgmental. It's not fair. It's insensitive. People don't have the full story. This is the way it is. Fine. But at the end of the day, what's the truth?

We've been given our children. They are the occasion for our becoming our best selves. They deliver us from a prison of self. They are our capacity for love. Flowing from this God-given design, beyond obligation, we're responsible. And our choices reveal our acceptance of this design. They reveal our values. They reveal us to be imprisoned or free. And I'll say it again: some people sacrifice things for their kids, others sacrifice their kids for things. And the degree to which we don't "get" self-sacrifice is the degree to which we'll never find real self-fulfillment. Consumer culture is all too happy to keep us spinning like tops.

The second group are quite the opposite. They are the martyrs or, as often seen by everyone else around them, the door mats. Their love for their children is pronounced in the degree of their sacrifice, in fact, a willingness to sacrifice everything... including the vision, structure, expectation, accountability, order, discipline (etc.) that are proper to love (ironically). Like the baton-passers, while their kids may be under the regime of all the same surrogate cyber parents (and reveal all the same shortcomings), these parents are beleaguered, grieved, at what this cultural scheme is doing to their children. They're tuned in, or desperately want to be. Many are holding up a flag, looking for support and encouragement, real answers.

The rest of this article is for you.

Human development and psychology, biblical principals, success literature, biographies, and just plain experience pronounce quite emphatically that parenting involves a real terrain, a real map, real tools, and a real plan. Healthy formation of kids doesn't "just happen." Down to the nitty-gritty. In my experience there are too many moms who are needlessly overwhelmed with their children's behavior. For you, here's an idea promising a dramatic, upward change in your life: You're the parent. God gave you this commission. You're the captain. You pave the road. Not them. Don't let them. Sound easy enough? It is. At least, easier than the long-and-wrong-suffering alternative.

As an example, when our six kids are too loud, we tell them to quiet down. Of course we all recognize that we have good reason to ask and expect this. The real revelation of parents though is in what follows if and when they don't listen. In our home, if they disregard our request, they'll hear one of us say once, "You're on probation." It's an odd enough phrase, but it means they've lost the right to speak until further notice. We get immediate silence. Sound unrealistic? It isn't. In fact, we've even had a few dinner times when no one was permitted to speak. Some have wondered what kind of great magic this is, and where they can get it. The answer, of course, is that you have it. You're the parent. BE the parent. You've been given a vision and responsibility of forming your children.

If kids are not cleaning up their rooms (for instance), a novel idea: expect them. Make them. Every time. Because it's reasonable. Because they can. Because you love them, and desire what's best for them. Because it forms them to be their best selves. Because it's the real world: life will expect them to fulfill similar responsibilities.

Don't be a counting parent unless "10" means serious business. Follow through with a consequence, right away. Every time. Without exception. Why? Because that's the real world, and you want to form them. See what happens one day when they disregard the expectation of a coach, boss, teacher, director. These will privately say, "I bet his parents could count to ten." Why should parenthood be any different? It's not.

In the practical example of the messy room, after giving them a warning and an appropriate amount of time, consider packing up everything not cleaned in a box (or room, or rented storage facility... :). Sure, they may go without sheets on their bed for a night, or favorite shoes, clothes or toys, but privation of these things is far less grave than them going without a bearing in the real world, a sense of responsibility. That's your job.

Some of you right now may be thinking that things have gone too far. You can't reclaim what's been lost. Your kids are different. Don't hide there. Question the cultural vision that may have some of you squirming right now at the thought of, well, embracing your parenthood. From one parent to another, with the greatest respect and encouragement, I'm saying: RECOVER YOUR PARENTAL BACKBONE! You're the parent. You've been called and gifted for this task. And here's the often overlooked thing: deep down inside your kids are really wanting, hoping you will step up. Study after study demonstrates that they need appropriate boundaries, expectations, and follow through. Certainly, the "passive parent" culture (an oxymoron to be sure) may label you as domineering, but do note that the very same are constantly complaining about the domination of their own children. Take your pick. Who's the parent? Who's called, entrusted and equipped to pave the road?

Be anchored in truth. When you had children you became the parent. You received a call, an accountability before God. If you love, which means you desire the best for your child, you must discipline. That literally means "to make a disciple." If you recognize parenthood is essentially the business of making disciples, you need to discipline. Certainly with love. Certainly with humility, and a solicitude for their understanding of the importance of becoming a disciple. In our home we're constantly conveying the implications. It's not about rules for the sake of rules. It's about our call to help our children fully realize who they were created to be, to become their best selves. We truly are, and need to be, their greatest gift: God's presence to them on earth, forming them, leading them back to Him.

In the case of our "probation," we've explained that they've been given the gift of speech. As they've misused that gift, they need to rediscover the value of the gift, so they don't squander it. They need to discover the implications of their actions in the environment around them (the essence of communion, and communication, which literally mean, "with union"). They need to discover the self-control that is so essential to cultivating real value. Anyone can be a grain of sand. Our children deserve the directed pressure that will make them pearls.

Make sure your children clearly understand your role as parents. Explain it constantly. Strive to live it. It's not about us. In our home, if you ask any of our kids, "What's Dad and Mom's job as parents?" Any of them will respond immediately, "To get us to heaven." And when we ask who goes to heaven, they'll reply, "Disciples." And when we inquire what that takes, they'll say, "Discipline." With that they have an understanding that ennobles our parenting responsibility in our home.

A final but emphatic note to MIAD's (Missing In Action Dads). I'm going to be harshest on you, with four fingers always pointing back at myself. You know who you are, or you should. You're a man, so I'll lay it out straight. In general, if over the past week your wife has dominated the behavioral and formative conversations with your children, and/or if you've substantially chosen to do 'your thing' versus spending interactive time with your family (discretionary time), you're a MIAD. If your wife has been conditioned to make excuses for your non-involvement, because she's accepted your absence, you're a MIAD. I get it. You work hard all day. You have pressure. You need a break. Check, check, and check for your wife. Do you really love your wife? Beyond words? Love is sacrificing self for the good of the other. That sink full of dirty dishes and the kid in need of a diaper change are there for you to demonstrate that "love" isn't just a word.

If your job was on the line and your boss brought you in and asked: "What are you willing to do for this job? Are you willing to sacrifice? How much do you value this?" it's quite unlikely you'd say, "Oh, whatever I need to do to get by." Well, when God gave you children, with every little challenge, He's asking you the same question. He's inviting you to be a husband and father. He's inviting you to love. What's more important?

Of late there have been too many tragic deaths of husbands and fathers my age (30-50's). They left behind their wives and children. In the interest of a guiding truth, put yourself in this situation. You just discovered you have a life-threatening illness. Seriously, what would be most important? How would you think differently about your wife and children? What would change? Finally, why should it take that to live it out now?

Here's my challenge. Believe me, I'm looking in the mirror on this one every day. Think of this as the bottom of the ninth inning in the biggest game of your life. You're down by three with two outs. You're up to bat with two strikes, and runners on all bases. Those runners are your kids. "Home" is healthy adulthood. It's their hope and destination for heaven. Step up to the plate. No one else can do it but you. If you've been living in a cloud of selfishness, now is your time to be a hero, to get in the game. Recognize it's as much for your own transformation, joy, fulfillment, salvation as it is for your children.

You can change. You can do it. The same stuff that was in 9-11 firefighters is in us. We were created for self-sacrificing love. Heroism is in our DNA. Our wives and our children are our Twin Towers. We're mission-minded, and equipped. Our families are our missions. Then we die. Then we're judged. We're responsible for far more than physical providing. From a biblical perspective we are singularly called, blessed and responsible for our family's spiritual provision. Read Gary Smalley and John Trent's "The Blessing." After extensive research, Josh McDowell proclaimed emphatically: "If my back were pressed against the wall to identify the singular cause of a child's behavior, I'd attribute it to their relationship with their father." Dr. Meg Meeker suggests as much in her book, "Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters."

Here's a practical "portrait" from our life. Once a year Stephanie (my wife) travels four hours to spend a dedicated weekend with my Mom, sister and four sisters-in-law. That's opportunity for me. It's dedicated "Dad" time with our six children. I love it. I plan and set everything else aside. Our lives open up to each other in beautiful ways. It is extraordinarily special. I bend the bedtime rules for the older ones. We stay up later and play games, read books, and watch a movie. Through the day we do many special things. I make special breakfasts and lunches. This year I took them swimming at the YMCA. We went for a hike. We went out for pizza. It's one of their favorite weekends of the year and, believe me, we're looking for ways to do it more often (I've even suggested my wife do this once a month!).

I delight in my wife having a weekly opportunity to get out every Saturday morning for coffee with a friend or two, to participate in any number of spiritual or relational events throughout a month, to regularly go shopping (or etc.) without any of the children. This "family presence" is a vision, a lifestyle.

Men- many of your wives would never even think to ask if they could have "special" time. They are sacrificial, loving, and perceive it as a burden to us. They've been conditioned. If that's the case, it's a tragedy. Hopefully you see the shame in it-- that your wife doesn't think your love, your heroism, to be sufficiently developed. Look inside. Find it within you. Recognize the gift in your self-gift to her, and your children. Step up to the plate. Don't wait. Your days are numbered. Seize the day.

Yes, it's difficult. But isn't that what makes a great game? This is our great adventure. This is the contour of the road God has called us to, and precisely the potentiality for our self-transcendence, our fulfillment. And if the lives of the faithful throughout the centuries have demonstrated anything, it's this: What God calls us to, He will provide for.
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We all fall short. That's where we need a Savior... where He enters. Let's be in prayerful communion with one another in striving for it.

Click here to partner in this movement: Calling All Families!
Please join us for our next Catholic Men's and Women's Gathering.

God bless you and your family this day.

Greg Schlueter

Anxiety is a Summons to Prayer

2010-11-23T12:14:00.000-08:00

Breaking through the electricity of so many swirling demands, thoughts and expectations, in the depths of my soul I "heard" clearly: "Anxiety is a summons to prayer, an invitation for God to resume His dominion in our souls."

Let's make the time.

Keeping Facebook In It's Place

2010-11-21T08:28:00.000-08:00

Like most things, there are both dangers and opportunities with this newer, "social media" technology. On the positive side, how else can you keep a community of hundreds tuned into and praying for a child's cancer (my niece, Clare)? On the other hand, how many of us have been sucked into this world, only to glance up at the clock and be bewildered that we've been in captivity for an hour or more? What has been neglected in that time? How else might that time have been spent?

Clearly, a human soul rightly working steps back and recognizes the "yuck" space is an alert. We need to develop good norms, and corresponding discipline, in the interests of remaining the master of this world, lest we become mastered by it. With Rock Your Mission!, the cultural outreach component of Image Trinity, we want people to discover that each of us have a purpose and mission in life, wherein: "Time is the currency of mission-fulfillment. How are you spending it?" The cyber world is a poor imitation of real, human contact, and can diminish, if not threaten, the meaningful contacts we're meant to have with our spouses, children and community (for more on this, check out Cyber Insanity Syndrome).
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We all fall short. That's where we need a Savior... where He enters. Let's be in prayerful communion with one another in striving for it.

Please join us for our next Catholic Men's and Women's Gathering.

God bless you and your family this day.

Greg Schlueter

Chernobyl Diaper and Parental Joy

2010-11-16T12:19:00.000-08:00

As a two-year old, our Grace had a certain "gift." We were eager to get her potty trained, as were the garbage men (whom we're sure drew straws every week, or received hazardous duty pay).

Steph called from the other room: "Greg, do you want to change Grace's diaper, or run to get some milk?" Seriously, is that really an option?

Upon return, I was met with that "busted" look, or smirk... the kind that has you wondering what she knows, and which kid told her. I searched my memory. The look intensified. I searched harder. It could have been a scene from "Everybody Loves Raymond."

So the story. Apparently while I was gone Steph was treated to a diaper of cataclysmic proportion... a DEFCON 1, Chernobyl Diaper. Though she was no stranger to diapers, she exclaimed: "Grace, this is disgusting! You're old enough to use the toilet! You need to tell us when you have to go to the bathroom...".

With her characteristically impish smile, our little, amazing Grace replied: "Holy Sh@$% Mom!" If that wasn't enough, she added, "I smell like BLOODY HELL! Go ahead! You can say it! DADDY DOES!"

I'm sure it was one of those moments as a parent when the right response was nearly impossible, because you're overtaken with hilarity.

Ok, so I may have uttered those words once or twice.

What's my point? Our children follow us. We are forming them by who we are. We are paving their future. Their success as students, spouses, parents is being shaped in the present. The critical point is that no longer are we simply responsible for ourselves, we are paving their earthly and eternal destiny. Feel the pressure? Good. We should.

There's a famous study of two men and their known progeny. Researchers were interested in understanding the impact one's life has on future generations. One of these men, Jonathan Edwards, was a man well known for his outstanding Christian character and conviction. The other, Max Jukes, was an irreverent drunkard.

Edwards set the course for a U.S. Vice-President, 3 U.S. Senators, 3 governors, 3 mayors, 13 college presidents, 30 judges, 65 professors, 80 public office holders, 100 lawyers and 100 missionaries.

On the other hand, Juke's set the course for 310 paupers, who, combined spent 2,300 years in poorhouses, 50 women of debauchery, 400 physically wrecked by indulgent living, 7 murderers, 60 thieves, and 130 other convicts. The “Jukes” descendants cost the state more than $1,250,000.

The two big points here are (1) the practical relevance of faith in our success here on earth (it's so much more than external obligation divorced from real life!), and (2) the tremendous, enduring impact our lives have on our children, our children's children... civilization.

As parents we're either going to be a thermostat or a thermometer. A thermostat sets the moral climate. A thermometer simply reflects the moral climate of the culture around us. So some hard questions: Who's determining the moral climate of your home? What you and your children watch, listen to, how you spend your time? Through these we are being offered food, and we are what we eat. It's also true that for many there really is no norm, except what everyone else is doing. And yet so many parents are surprised that their children are inconsiderate, undisciplined, rude, given to self-indulgence....

People often tell us we have great children. My thoughts are three-fold: (1) They didn't arrive that way (takes a lot of work); (2) If we let up for even a day, you would think differently, and; (3) I'm glad you didn't see them 30 minutes ago. I'm constantly aware of how fragile their moral formation is-- prone to this direction or that. So much more than learning a list of obligations, it's the bigger question of imparting genuine character-- that they deeply understand, own, become.

With children we are custodians of a future civilization. As such, parenting can not be partial, or part time. In the most essential aspects, it can not be delegated. By God's design, parenting flows from our very identity. It is designed to break us from our selfish lives, to make us all better.

Quite often when people discover we have six children, they'll comment (to the effect): "How do you do that?! I have trouble with two!" The truth of it is, when we got married we accepted the simple truth that our lives are not our own. That means our money, sleep, energy, gifts, material possessions... not our own! Each child simply puts an exclamation point on the end of that sentence.

Herein is the great mystery of joy in life: we discover ourselves only by giving ourselves away (Matt. 16:24). The most joy-filled people I know are those who live in this vision of self-gift. Family is thus the context of great joy. Self-giving love is the very purpose of family. Our very identity, definition and purpose is to pour ourselves out for the good of others. In this we become who we are... we image the Trinity! God is made known to the world!

On a practical level, realization of this joy takes more than an ethereal assent that it is right. It takes the vision and hard discipline, to structure our homes, our parenting, in light of God's design.

Recently we were in a gathering of a number of families, and the conversation came up about what our kids do. They were all absolutely shocked that we don't have video games, regularly watch television, give our kids cell phones (etc.) And yet they were shocked that our kids were polite, considerate and conversational with adults, attentive during presentations and at the dinner table... that they enjoyed spending time reading "big" books, having good conversation, engaged in creative play....

The truth is while I am a proud parent, I'm not so in any way that is not accessible to any other parent. Our simple norm has been this: Expect them to do what they’re able to do. Every time. Without exceptions. Without excuses. If we don’t, our negligence will become their life-long liability.

Let's get specific. Expect them to make their beds well and keep their rooms clean. Expect them to be polite and respectful. Expect them to be intuitive of the needs of others, and to act on it. Expect them to practice their pianos, to read good books, to have good, thoughtful conversations. Expect them to have the capacity to find joy in life, to build meaningful, lasting relationships, beyond the cyber world. Expect them to regularly tune out the world for some moments and be captured by God's real presence in prayer, and to connect God's presence to their daily lives.

I don't know how any parent, who really understands the great nobility of parenting, could look at a stay-at-home Mom (or Dad) and ask, "What do you do all day?" As if parenting is merely a bunch of minimalistic survival logistics! With all due respect for those among us who genuinely, really need the assistance of someone watching their kids all day, I have to echo the words of my brother-in-law: "We didn't have children for other people to raise them." Particularly in this culture, we need to think long and hard about whether we're really sacrificing things for our kids, or sacrificing our kids for things.

So God gives us a great design. The bar is set much higher than culture. It is the path to genuine joy. But seriously, how do we get there?

When my wife's mother died at the young age of 39 (sleeping with her head on her husband's shoulder on the way to the pro-life March in D.C., carrying baby number 13), she left her husband to raise twelve children under the age of 18. He didn't make a dime over $25,000. Many relatives encouraged him to break up the family. He refused. While things were hardly perfect, many around him were stunned how he was able to provide for them, even to put every child through Catholic schools. When he died he certainly left us with no worldly treasures to speak of, but what he did leave us was of unsurpassing value-- a legacy of faith-- a living example that what God calls us to, He will provide for.
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We all fall short. That's where we need a Savior... where He enters. Let's be in prayerful communion with one another in striving for it.

Please join us for our next Catholic Men's and Women's Gathering.

God bless you and your family this day.

Greg Schlueter

Hereafter - Are We All Going There?

2010-10-26T09:59:00.000-07:00

Halloween is upon us. You'll be hard pressed to find the proper meaning of this word, but it literally means "Holy Eve."

Even in pagan origin there was a respectful, "pre-Christian" understanding of human nature and relationship with supernatural reality. Yet, for most of the popular culture, this is the season of ghouls, witches, vampires, warlocks... and popular musician/Hollywood personalities.

While I have not yet seen the newly-released, blockbuster film starring Matt Damon (Hereafter - congratulations Matt on baby number four yesterday!), it's sure to provoke conversation, and controversy. Is there an afterlife? If so, what is it like? Is there criteria? Says who?

Curious about what the new movie may have drudged up on the subject, I Googled "life after death." The search returned "about 234,000,000 results." And to my surprise, if not shock, standing on top of that massive mountain, was a short, little video-story I produced two years ago (No. 2 on Google, No. 1 on YouTube).

First, some background before the main message.

Two years ago Tim O'Neill (The O'Neill Brothers - sold millions of CDs, Billboard charting music appearing on HBO, ABC, CBS, etc.) and I began a company called Keys2Heaven. The basic vision was to gather people's inspiring stories of faith and produce beautiful, instrumental music based upon the respective story. The first, 12-track CD, called "Songs of Faith: 12 Songs Inspired by You," was released, and includes some of the most beautiful music you'll ever hear (Go here for a preview). The below video, "Life After Death - AMAZING STORY!", was the first Keys2Heaven story, told by Tami and her surgeon. The longer, 20 minute version is even more amazing-- accessible at Keys2Heaven.com.

At least one, good critique of this video was allowing Tami's words to stand unqualified: "I know where we're all going... you don't need to worry about that." In fairness, Tami is challenging our anxieties over daily concerns. Having experienced "the other side," she's inviting us to put our trust in God, to have confidence in a bigger purpose: "Don't live like you're dying, live like you're living."

Beyond Hollywood, the conversation is important. Is "Hereafter" a guarantee?

If you've been to a funeral lately you get the sense that everyone goes to heaven, that the only criteria is "being good." It's roughly equivalent to little-league sports where rules and penalties are optional, scores are not kept, and everybody wins. That may feel good, but does it resonate with our experience in every other area of life? Work? Home? World? Clearly, there are defining boundaries and rules, the violation of which has implications. People get fired. Couples get divorced. Teams lose. People get unhappy. You get the idea.

Similarly, with regard to the hereafter, is there not reasonable basis to consider that there are defining "rules" of the moral life... a "field of play" so to speak, which shape the potentiality of our present and eternal lives?

Even William Nicholson, screenwriter for Gladiator (starring Russell Crowe, directed by Ridley Scott), had Maximus exhort his troops before battle: "What we do in life echoes in eternity." This "pagan" sentiment resonates with the dominant Roman and Greek thought: There is an eternal realm. We are fashioned with a particular design and purpose. We are given free will to determine either for, or against, that design and purpose.

On this landscape, this playing field, we discover the meaning of heaven and hell. Choosing to live for our design/purpose, which results in harmony, intimacy, union - is heaven. Choosing to live against our design/purpose, which results in discord, exclusion, alienation - is hell.

Here's the meaning for us today. God doesn't "condemn" anyone to hell. (Nor do any of us know the state of any other person!) God reveals and lets us decide: "Today I present to you life and death, blessing and a curse, therefore choose life that you might live" (Dt. 30:19). We choose heaven, or we choose hell! What we do today not only shapes our eternity, it is lived/experienced in the present. The truth is that many are choosing to live in the shadow of hell right now- not just on the level of some juridical state, but in their experience.

Contrary to popular opinion, God is the opposite of a dictator. He gives us what we love. And what we choose is what we'll live in, forever and ever.

Today one thinks "open minded" is being open to everything. In truth, it practically means being open only to self. In short, it means being closed... to any information, guidance (etc.) beyond one's immediate predilections. In short, as popularly used, "open minded" is a religion of self. One is worshiping the god they fashion in their own image. Of course, the supreme contradiction here confronts one willing to look honestly at human experience in every other way. Think all you want about that lump not being cancer, but beyond what you think, there is the truth of the matter. Self does not determine reality.

Let's be practical-- move from the proposition that there must be a shape to eternity, to something about the specific nature of that shape. In this regard, Christ proclaims, and human nature validates, that fornication, theft, homosexuality, contraception, divorce, abortion, lying, etc., are not simply some kind of "heaven litmus test list" given by a tyrannical God. These have to do with a choice against our nature/purpose... not as we would have it, but as we are. They result in discord, exclusion, alienation. Invariably, beyond religion and faith, they reveal that we really can't break "the law," we can only break ourselves against the law.

And here's a truth that needs to be shouted: One's desire is not the norm for who they are, or what they are created to do. There's not a human being on this planet who doesn't recognize the need to curb an innate desire or appetite, to conform to a greater good. Does that make us slaves? No! That makes us free-- in the fullest, richest, truest sense. Morality has to do with our happiness and fulfillment. Moral freedom is not defined as what one is able to do, it is defined as what one should do... in accord with their nature. Such freedom entails "ennobling limitation" - the very kind that shapes (defines) a song, art, words, values; freedom is not about being open to everything, it's about devoting ourselves to the tremendously valuable something.

While many fashion themselves as "individuals," isn't it uncanny that so many such "individuals" look, dress, speak, act (etc.) the same? In the end, we're all taking cues about who we are from something beyond us. We're all looking for guides. Billions are spent by the advertising industry on this conviction.

Ask yourself the questions- what guide are you following? Who's written it? Where is it leading? For many, the answer can be traced to Hollywood. So looking at the lives of the Hollywood pipers for direction, ask yourself, is that the life you want? Is that where you want to go? They statistically rank among the most depressed, addicted, abusing, divorced, suicidal, broken. And we want to follow that script?

At the end of the day, we're all broken. We're all far from the mark. We've all eaten of the shiny Apple, and forgotten who we are, and how we work. Just as one might look to a manual to discover what a particular device is, how it works, so we need to turn to the Manual, to the Designer of who we are. We need to look beyond ourselves. We need to question our wiring.

Our Designer is Love. We are the fabric of His Love. God-who-is-Love is our nature, and Love is what we are suppose to do. In our amnesia, He gave us His Son, to reveal who we are. And in Him we discover a life not open to everything, but a magnificent discovery of a defined something-- for us to either accept or reject.

And here we find that the heart of ritual is relationship; the heart of ethics is intimacy. God fashioned us for Himself. And yes, He revealed the contours of that relationship (as any song, or piece of art, etc.). We will not be truly happy, on earth or in heaven, if we do not turn to Him... seek Him, not simply in matters-religious, but in the relationship. In Him, in His Spirit, we discover our incompleteness completed. Guided by His hand we can have a tangible, living, breathing confidence of a continued intimacy "on earth as it is in heaven."

Today let's make the decision. Let's humble ourselves and look to Him. Let's go there together.

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We all fall short. That's where we need a Savior... where He enters. Let's be in prayerful communion with one another in striving for it.

Please join us for our next Catholic Men's and Women's Gathering.

God bless you and your family this day.

Greg Schlueter

My Simple Birthday Request...

2010-10-07T08:10:00.000-07:00

The Short: We want to pray for your intentions - every night as a family. Please post them at Facebook Prayer Place (Sponsored by ImageTrinity.com).

The Longer: Really-- don't we share the same doubts? Our world offers us so much control, but what real control do we have? We believe in God, but don't we often question whether He's really listening? Perhaps we don't even try to pray anymore. Been there, done that... no effect... why bother? So we go back to practical non-belief, or deism (God is up there... wound up the clock... lets it do its own thing... doesn't much care for us down here).

In my heart of hearts, I believe God WANTS to make His presence known, but we're just too impatient, preoccupied, "in control" to want to give Him the opportunity. I'm speaking of myself here.

Ok... so... with all that in mind, on Monday of this week (October 4, 2010), in my personal FB post I asked friends to post their prayer intentions-- said as a family we were going to offer them up every night through my birthday (yesterday, October 6). We did. Little kid prayers are powerful. Only last night I didn't want to turn the computer back on for recall. Wouldn't you know, my kids remembered EVERY intention over the few days? "Hey Dad... the Mom whose son is struggling with drugs?" "And little Henry... remember... the antibiotics aren't working?"

It was the best birthday present I could ask for. It both inspired creation of the "Facebook Prayer Place," and our family's commitment to (trying to) do this every night... it's been a blessing to our family... WE'RE being impacted... beyond words I can express here. As parents we're giving them the gift of faith-- to see beyond the controlling world. We're connecting to that Someone beyond our control, who fashioned us, loves us, desires more than simply communicating WITH us, but desires to commune IN us.

Beyond the benefit of God's presence to OTHERS, consider what praying as a family will do for YOU. I'm inviting you to take the small step... carve out a "sacred space" (and time) beyond the fast-paced, controlling world.... Beyond memorized prayer, keep it real: "Hey kids... there are people with real needs... God wants us to ask Him for things... will you join me in asking Him?" Sure, they may think you're a freak... but keep it real... that sincerity will open doors to places you want them to go as a parent, in this world and the next.

Bottom line, we just want to pray for your intentions. Please take one moment and post "that need" for yourself or others on this "Facebook Prayer Place" page... I want to invite you to open the door again. God is listening. We just have to keep praying with expectant faith. And when there are any updates, please post those also....

Post. Believe. Trust.

May God... who is very real... bless you this day.

Greg and Stephanie Schlueter
http://ImageTrinity.com

Families Living IT!

2010-10-05T12:47:00.000-07:00

We want to showcase your family!
FIRST, a commercial. For $5 you could buy a Starbucks, or join us in proclaiming the real presence and image of God in family. What do you say? (Pssst! Donate button's to the left! Thanks!)

NOW THEN. You'll find this both fun and enlightening. Use the questions below as a way to share how your family is seeking to live IT (Image Trinity). Try to keep them short and sweet. You don't need to answer them all. You can add your own questions. Please EMAIL your answers along with a family photo (URL or attachment). Please note: by submitting this you're authorizing Image Trinity to publish it (web, print, or multimedia).

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Background:
Family Name (i.e., The Greg and Stephanie Schlueter Family)
City, State.
Date married.
Children names and ages.

School(s).

Church.

Portrait Questions:

When did you meet your spouse?
What's your relational story (brief).

Your work.

Anything particularly unique about your family/children.

Family Christmas traditions.
Regular family vacations.
Funny family story.
Regular, fun family activities.
Favorite couple date night or activity (how do you keep it kindled).
Favorite kid comment(s).

Favorite kid or family "moment."

A "most inspiring" moment as parents.

Biggest challenge as parents.

What's regularly on your family's prayer list?
Favorite family food.

How do you keep faith alive, relevant and real for your kids?

Your mission as a family.

Most important words or passages you live by.

If you had $5 million as a family, what would you do with it (discuss it)?

Favorite family media (music, movies, etc.).

How does your family pray (devotions, style, etc.).

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Calling All Families! With your prayers and financial support- beginning in 2011, we are going to produce an engaging, monthly, 30 minute series on a major cable network (to be announced soon). READ MORE.

We also want to invite your family to be a Family Missionary-- from your own home! Basically, go to the We Pray page and commit to praying for some of the intentions regularly as a family. If you're willing, we would like to list you as a family that is so committed (i.e., "The Paul and Gretchen Lorei Family"). Please EMAIL us.

God bless you!

Greg and Stephanie Schlueter

Greg@ImageTrinity.com

The "Cover Girl Culture" Controversy

2010-10-01T08:52:00.000-07:00

Ok, so my Facebook posts tend to range from fun family stories, to something provocative, meant to tap a nerve, shake things up. My latest post derives from the fact that my 43rd birthday is next week. The grays are coming in. I'm not as able to leap a capital T with a single bound. A few weeks ago my back went into apoplexy just by trying to serve a tennis ball (never mind the fact that my competitor, my 70 year old Dad, consistently beats me). Anyway, given the ingrained, cultural fear, if not indignation of "matters-aging," I can be playfully instigating about it all. So my recent post was simply:

"Steph and I were talking today... sharing our admiration for women in particular who let their hair go natural. It's one of those ways one declares to the world whom their (hair) Designer is. No judgement here for those who modify, but just admiration for those who don't (literally) buy it..."

Within a few, short hours... a good number of comments and "likes," all from women, affirmed this culturally unorthodox view. They shared concern with the pressures felt in this culture. One, however, did take offense, essentially challenging the point that what one does with one's hair does not make them any less of a Catholic/Christian. Point well taken.

My follow up:

"Clearly, everyone here recognizes the 'courage' it takes to go au-naturale. Bottom line-- agree or disagree, it's worth raising the question - the degree to which one should allow a multi-billion dollar industry to 'fashion' (pun intended!) one's image/look... that goes for all of us... clothes, hair, styles.... For my part, I'm affirming the God-created beauty of women... against the predominant 'Cover Girl' pressures of this culture...."

Another of the women then commented:

"Greg, I totally understand the 'unconditional' love between mates. We love the aging process as it appears. But, ask Steph how she feels when she gets a new haircut or a 'Mary Kay' under eye concealer or a little blush, or a cute new dress to wear to church, etc. It's not vanity at all. It's just a woman thing... it gives us self-confidence and 'that' enhances the beauty within for our Lord. I hope you compute what I'm trying to say!... "ME" thinks 20 years from now you'll have a different opinion! luvnprayers..."

Before sharing my reply, for those who perhaps can't read between the lines up to this point-- let me note, emphatically, that I am not trying to advance some kind of controlling, fundamentalist, "cosmetic litmus test" for Christianity. That would be grossly presumptuous. Rather, I am wanting to raise a point that often evades our consideration, but has important implications. It matters not so much what one does cosmetically (etc.), so much as that they have both (1) a firm grasp of their truly beautiful, unsurpassable value/image in God, AND (2) that we are mindful of the real "image pressures" imposed upon us by culture, and the potential effects on the soul.

So my comment:

"You must know, sometimes I just like to shake things up and make people think. There are important implications here for one's self-image/worth. There's a call for balance in all this of course, yet I'm suggesting the cosmotized image is in no need of advocacy... it's assumed, lived, breathed, unquestioned; the corrective does.

"As a marketing professional, who also happens to be tuned into culture from a faith-perspective-- I'm struck by the fact that there is an understanding among industry professionals, particularly where it concerns women, that if they can associate an image with their products... engender insecurity - they create 'product need,' they'll be able to make millions... the cost to women's REAL self-worth and value where it really matters (their core/ spiritual identity) is, in my opinion, catastrophic.

"On a personal level-- along with the other boys/men of my generation, I inherited a pronounced 'Cover Girl' vision/image of what type of women are attractive. There's a book in the making here. From high school through college I dated perhaps 30 plus women who more-or-less fit this physical profile. While all of them had a faith dimension, my point is that (my) vision/image was crippled by being overly influenced by 'Cover Girl' professionals, and I note almost all of those women suffered from the pressures associated with that image... put them at a real distance from themselves, and others... constantly struggling for a self-purpose/realization they could not find in any amount of cosmetics, or clothes.

"Seriously, think of the cultural/industry-appointed 'beautiful women.' Out of the spotlight (where it really matters), do these ladies ever really 'arrive' at the point of peace about their beauty? When? For how long? And what is it dependent upon? We all know the answer. And yet we're 'made' to chase that standard, to allow it to order our inner lives... why?

"Look around. Magazines. Television. The lived-culture of younger girls and women. Ask psychologists. Tell me we don't see an entire culture under the spell of big-industry. They've set the stage, and many are buying the script... to the detriment of their own, inner sense of (true) beauty and value. If we're honest, we're all fighting the battle in varying degrees. The search for real value, real beauty, has to be anchored in truth... in God's design. We're all getting older. Is that standard really worth chasing? How much is lost in the chase? Doesn't all this real experience punctuate that enduring self-value (and real worth!) is more than skin-deep... and shine a bright spotlight on the (false) inadequacy many women (and men) are made to feel?

"So, I knew something was out of kilter, but didn't quite know what. Through a season of intent prayer, reflection, growth, while discerning priesthood in seminary, I experienced transformation... stripped of false conceptions so to speak, which was precisely the basis that I found, and fell in love with, my wife... in whom I discovered (and am continuing to discover) the real meaning of 'In His Image'... a priceless gift from God... way off the pages of Cover Girl society... with a beauty I think is truly physical, but transcending... connected at such a deeper level. (By the way, for me as a man this has involved coming to embrace, celebrate in fact, God's less than 'buff' design of me!).

"Keeping it all simple- as a father of daughters, I need them to know the culture inundates them with a very false sense of their value and purpose... engenders insecurity... spins many women around their finger, none of whom are any more fulfilled, any more peaceful about who they are as a result of embracing their manufactured image; their REAL image - in God - can not be surpassed or improved upon!

"I have to believe if most women (and men) were honest, they would acknowledge, and resent this pressure. It's incumbent upon Christians to see it for what it is... and take it head on... seek transformation of vision: 'Open the eyes of my heart Lord....'"

[After writing this, I discovered an award-winning documentary on the subject that dramatically showcases the reality of many of these points. It's called "Cover Girl Culture" (http://www.covergirlculture.com/). Below is a trailer. Please note-- no nudity, but there are provocative images that make the point].
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We all fall short. That's where we need a Savior... where He enters. Let's be in prayerful communion with one another in striving for it.

Please join us for our next Catholic Men's and Women's Gathering.

God bless you and your family this day.

Greg Schlueter

Are you UP with Love?

2010-09-27T07:52:00.000-07:00

REFLECTION - Are You UP with Love?: By Greg Schlueter

Why does this clip touch so many hearts, across denominational, ethnic, gender (etc.) lines? Perhaps it demonstrates something deeply embedded in human nature, something we all share. We share a belief in self-giving, committed love... something that can not be seen, or empirically reduced, but we know is real. We know it's the deepest desire of the human heart.

We experience it not so much as something we create, or invent, as something, or Someone, we participate in. It's personal. It's intimate. It's all-consuming. In (God who is) Love we find our incompleteness completed. In Love we find a great, big horizon beyond what the eye can see. In Love we discover and embrace possibilities that, to a scientific world, simply do not make sense... and more often than not, do not make cents.

And here, in less than five minutes, the journey, our journey... those whom we love, flashes before our eyes. It should make us step back and ask, what's really important? What are we living for? In the end, what will we celebrate, or regret? How important will the things be that are so troubling us today? I don't think it will be the promotion we did not get, or the thing we did not buy. I think it will be the love we did not give, or receive. And the best part of this story is this: the portrait at the end... you are painting it right now.

There are no presents that can surpass the gift of your presence. Give abundantly today.
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We all fall short. That's where we need a Savior... where He enters. Let's be in prayerful communion with one another in striving for it.

Please join us for our next Catholic Men's and Women's Gathering.

God bless you this day.

Greg Schlueter

Ritual Not Enough

2010-09-25T13:28:00.000-07:00

REFLECTION - Ritual Not Enough: By Greg Schlueter

"Free at last!" the college freshman exclaimed, as her parents drove away after helping her get settled into her college dorm. Thus Sara's first breath of adulthood was marked, a birth into a complete ownership of self before God, the world and herself.

After years of being under the proverbial "parents roof," this is the breath we all must breath, the step we all must take, and perhaps the biggest step we'll ever take. And while it's true that parents could do everything "right" and still face the tragedy of a morally and spiritually prodigal child, it's also true that this first moment of "adult freedom" often reveals the measure of a child's parenting. Up to that point they can fairly well "go through the motions", so to speak, play the game. It's in this new sky that it's often determined: Were they given a moral and spiritual compass? Was it integral, personal and relevant?

As a diocesan director of youth and young adult ministry I was immersed in the lives of numerous families over many years. There I observed examples of parenting styles, and the results as the kids left their homes. Perhaps the most striking irony was among the very intentionally religious homes... those whose walls and shelves showcased saints, where Sunday, if not daily Mass, was observed, catechisms were memorized, rosaries were prayed. In short, truth be told, a house like our own... except with some notable exceptions I'll explain here.

While these kids were raised with a distinct sense of "holy other," for many this formation lacked that "incarnate" sense of integration in the world. The lines of the holy and profane, of goodness and evil, were sharply drawn to separate the secular/cultural and specifically religious. One cultivated a fear-dominated conscience that resulted in external behavior compliance. Clearly, the antithesis was something to be feared-- a culture which promotes an unbridled openness to "anything goes." Yet faith has rarely been about a reaction to something, so much as it has been embracing a positive good revealed by Christ. And here it is important to add, a good entirely resonating with the human nature God fashioned.

God is in the very fabric of human existence. Indeed, much of our Catholic faith is a baptism of the pagan... not simply feast days, but defining philosophy. In short, by virtue of the fact that God is Creator of all, all bears a mark of His Image. There is good in the material world. This belief is central to our sacramental faith.

What I most mean to suggest here is that while formation must involve availing ourselves to revealed truths and patterns we may or may not understand, if one is ever to breathe the breath of adult Christian life, they must recognize the Person at the heart of the Pattern, the Relationship at the heart of the Ritual. The norm is quite simple: Jesus Christ. Beyond cliche, beyond external patterns, rituals and forms... do your children, do you.... know Jesus Christ?

This is a challenge to us Catholics in particular, as we've been raised with such a reinforced association that observance of ritual, our external behavior compliance, equals relationship. But seriously. Do we know Him? (I'm always asking myself!) What's worse, I think many of us have been formed with an unspoken suspicion of relational expression of Christ. We're concerned that the associated feelings or emotions associated with a relationship just might be its definition. We recognize that as a fleeting anchor. As a result though, are we automatons? Has religion become a mere component of our existence? Is that what Christ intended? Are we throwing the baby out with the bath water?

I need transformation. We need transformation. We need the Holy Spirit, the vital Love of the Father and the Son, to enter our lives and transform us... the way we see the world, the way we see God, ourselves and others. We need to discover the kind of personal dynamism with God the same way one might discover it in their beloved spouse, in their child, or in a beloved friend. God is present to us. He is real. He does speak to us, interact with us. And here another word for the devil, "Beelzebub," is instructive. It means "Lord of the flies." Satan has no power, but which of us in intimate conversation have not been distracted, annoyed, at a pesky fly buzzing about. Pesky flies have the power to break communion. There you have a metaphor of our modern world. God is present and desires real intimacy with us, yet Beelzebub is buzzing about... through our cell phones, computers, televisions.

Silence. Surrender. Turn off the electronic stuff so we can tune into God. In silence become aware of the primal beat of heaven that holds all creation in existence, the very heart beat of our Savior. He knows us personally. He desires so much more than to communicate with us, He desires to commune in us. This requires surrender of our five senses so we can cultivate the inner, spiritual sense... of His indwelling Spirit, the Holy Fire within.

When we come to know and love Jesus Christ, we will see all else is vanity. We won't be able to help but structure our homes to be places where He is known, encountered, experienced, loved, worshiped. We will not look upon the world with such sharp lines so much as see the world, as Frank Sheed suggested, as "God bathed." Every human person was fashioned for His indwelling Spirit. Every encounter is an occasion of making Him known. And we know the secret: knowing God, not just knowledge of God, is the deepest desire of the human soul.

I"m confident if we really humble ourselves, open ourselves to the Holy Spirit, allow Him to flood our lives beyond ritual, our homes will become places where our children are literally saturated with the presence of God. We will speak of Him. We'll speak to Him. We'll see His Presence alive in our world. More than simply knowing moral and ethical norms, we and our children will literally become the very Love that is God.

We all fall short. That's where we need a Savior... where He enters. Let's be in prayerful communion with one another in striving for it.

Please join us for our next Catholic Men's and Women's Gathering.

God bless you this day.

Greg Schlueter

Reflection: Why Holiness?

2010-09-20T09:50:00.000-07:00

CORE READING: Holiness Necessary for Future Blessedness (Blessed John Henry Newman)

REFLECTION - KEEPING IT REAL: By Greg Schlueter

For many of us, "holiness" is a dusty relic sitting on the shelf. It's a series of actions or obligations that are removed from our lived-experience. It's for the "them" of the world... for those who can get run off the road and reply with a smile, perhaps even a ready "Well, God bless you!" If the thought of being one of "them" is entertained even for a brief moment... it typically vanishes within the first 30 minutes of coming home after a long day of work... encountering a very different variation of "them."

I can remember getting a sophisticated, hand-held gadget a number of years ago. (A needed, business expense, of course!) While I'm technologically intuitive, to figure out how it worked required more than simply "playing at it." And in the absence of my understanding, while it could probably be used as an expensive paper weight, clearly, it was intended for far greater things.

There's an analogy here. In many ways each of us run our lives like the gadget. We don't quite understand who we are, our identity, our full purpose and potential, and have become content with simply "playing at it." Yet, like the gadget, if we really want to know who we are, how we're suppose to work, we need more than intuition. We need more than any of the various "manuals" offered us by popular media and culture. We need to turn to the Manual, given to us by the Designer-- to inform us of who we are, what we are capable of doing.

God says we ARE holy. We were fashioned for His indwelling Spirit. Holy is the fabric of who we are-- as God has designed us. Like the gadget, either we're tuned into this identity, and it's full scope, or we are not. The extent to which we are is the extent to which we will discover the depths of fulfillment God intended; the extent to which we do not is the extent to which we will remain empty.

Pursuit of holiness requires some simple admissions. We are incomplete. The world does not have the manual. And all this is part of His plan. God created us incomplete so we could find our completion in Him. It's about intimacy! The world conspires to content us in our incompleteness. So many of us go at it alone. Why are we so content with our incompleteness, our brokenness, with simply being a "paper weight"? Seen in this light, Christians are not distinguished so much by what we have acquired, as what we have desired.

Seek Him today. Find Him as much in your incompleteness as you may in fulfillment. Your incompleteness is your beckoning to Him. This is our blessed journey together while we are on this planet. We were created and destined for far more than simply being a "paper weight." Embrace the great call to holiness-- and realize the full depths of the joy and peace that comes from living in who we are.

And above all, let's remain in prayer for one another- for our marriages, our children, our community!

Please join us for our next Catholic Men's and Women's Gathering.

God bless you this day.

Greg Schlueter

Newman Film

2010-08-15T08:23:00.000-07:00

Here's our full story behind this film. We need your help. Please help us showcase God's Image in family with an inspiring, humorous, challenging, real (all that it means to be family) TV program called "Living IT!" Click HERE to read more.
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Of course, this "faith meets culture" work is really the heart of our purpose and calling. Please join us - many other families in mission-- which involves praying for intentions, regular events, and a monthly series that will touch over 6 million people ("Living IT!"). Please help us make this possible... with your prayers and donation (tax-deductible/ board accountable). No amount is too great or too small. Thank you!

Please forward and post this -- for others to also seek Blessed Newman's intercession. It is a powerful opportunity given us a a great gift from heaven that should not be missed.

God bless,

Greg and Stephanie Schlueter
Greg@ImageTrinity.com
Image Trinity

*For non-Catholic Christians, I understand this issue of intercession may be vexing. Here is a simplification of Catholic understanding: (1) God is the source of all grace, but chooses human and material instrumentality to accomplish His plan for Salvation (indeed, even the manner of God the Son taking on flesh vs., say, just snapping his fingers; or scripture itself, a configuration of ink a certain way on a page vs., say, just speaking to us "directly"); (2) We are exhorted throughout Scripture to pray for one another, and we often ask others to pray for us. Why bother if we can just go directly to God? The beautiful heart is that God wants to incorporate us into His plan of salvation, and finally, (3) Jesus died that we might live. The saints continue to intercede for us at the throne of heaven. God delights in engaging us in His plan, and it has this great implication: Everyone we come into contact with today, what we do or fail to do today, will either advance or hinder salvation.