Daddy’s hands

Every year, Alesha and I try to do something other than Mardi Gras for the Mardi GRAS break. Before we had kids, we would do project around the house (ie. paint, hang crown molding, etc.). Now that we have kids, we doing projects is tuff for 2 reasons. 1- we have kids that need constant attention and 2- we have kids that need to eat (finances are tight). So last year, we took off to the camp for Mardi Gras. It was great.

We did the same thing this year. We woke up Sunday, packed up and went to the camp. We were the only people out there. It was relaxing. It was quiet – figuratively, did I mention we have two kids? Of course we had to build a fire, cause Jay said that’s what we do at the camp. So we had to find sticks and some lighter fluid (since we like 10″ of rain the day before).

We went ride the “fourla-wheeler.” We went looking for treasures Monday night after dark.And Tuesday morning, we had to go walking through the forest to find the raccoons. (The day before we saw raccoon tracks and Jay wanted to see the raccoons). So Jay, Cecilia and I went for walk in the “forest.” Jay, the boy he is, took off ahead of us. Cecilia, all girl, on the other hand, didn’t want to walk through the water and mud even though she had rubber boots on. This was probably a good thing, since she has the tendency to trip over her shadow.

As we walked through the “forest,” I held her hand tightly and any time she went to fall, I just put her right back on her feet.

Wednesday, we left the season of Ordinary Time and began the Holy season of Lent. It is during Lent that the church invites us out into the desert to face ourselves and to learn to depend on God for everything. If we can die to ourselves in our Lenten sacrifices, with the help of Jesus, then we can realize, that with His help, we can overcome sin. And in this realization, on Easter Sunday, we realize an empty tomb and then are compelled to tell the world (Lk. 24:5).

Yesterday, I had spiritual direction and I spent most of it sharing what I hoped to get out of Lent this year. My greatest hope is to be able to invite Jesus into those moments of temptation. When I hear the voices beckoning me to get off the cross, my hope is that I’m at least strong enough to invite our Lord into that so He can strengthen me to stay true to Him and the my Lenten sacrifice.

As I shared this, my Director asked me, “Where is Jesus in the temptation?” the first thing that entered my mind was the image of Cecilia, walking through the forest and the mud, clinging to my hand.

This Lent, as we walk through the “forest” of self-denial, and our enemy constantly tempts us to give in, I pray that we realize that God, our daddy, is holding our hand and walking with us. We will trip and fall into the mud face first if we let go of daddy’s hand. But if we cling to Him and we don’t let, we will realize His strength is all we need.

This Lent, I want to hold daddy’s hand. I don’t want to let it go. I pray that I can walk with Him confident that He alone will place me on my feet before I hit the mud face first.

HHS Mandate – A Call to Action

I graduated from a Public High School. But for a brief period in my life I went to a Parochial School. When I was a freshman in high school, attending Catholic School, we had our Senate installation for the student body. Student body politics is another thing I really never understood, since it was just basically a popularity contest. But I guess that’s what “real” politics are too.

Anyway, for the Senate installation, we had Sen. Mary Landrieu come to install our Senate. After the ceremony, she opened the floor to questions – probably an election year. One of my classmates asked her what her stance on the Abortion issue was. She said “I am Catholic and I personally would never have an abortion, but I believe in a woman’s right to make her own choice.” Later another classmate told her that she couldn’t be Catholic and pro-choice; that the two could never coexist.

That happened almost 20 years ago (wow, I’m getting old-er!). Today, we face a very dark day in our country’s history. Our religious freedom has fallen under attack. Catholic military chaplains have been silenced and have been forbidden to speak about the Health and Human Services Mandate. In case you’ve been under a shell and don’t know what this HHS Mandate is about, it will force our Church and others to provide Insurance that covers various Contraceptives, including sterilizations and Abortifacients. This goes against Core Moral Teaching of the Church.

A month ago, Congress was looking into legislation that “might” have censored the internet and social networking sites. 13 million people from around the world took a stance against this type of government reach. A couple of weeks later, 400,000 pro-lifers marched prayerfully in DC taking a stance for life. Currently there are only 27,000 signatures on a petition to resend this mandate.

Where are we Church? Why are we staying so quiet on this issue? Have so many people been blinded in the last 20 years that we think it is just fine to have counterfeit sex and that it’s acceptable to contracept? I know our moral decline has been great in the last 20 years, but I find it hard to believe that we think it acceptable for government to tell our Church what it has to do and how it has to believe.

Today as I prayed for a change of heart in our legislator’s and for us as the Church to stand up for what’s right and just, I kept thinking about the early martyr’s of our faith. Men and women who would not be silenced and in speaking out they lost their lives, only to inherit LIFE. What we they do if they were alive today? Would they stand by silent and watch? I would like to think they would once again stand up and speak out for truth.

We, who look to the Holy Saints as role models, MUST follow their lead in speaking for truth – no matter the cost. Now go sign the petition. Call your Congressman. Tell your friends. Stand up for what is right and what is Truth!

May the Holy Saints and all the Holy Martyr’s pray for us and our Country! God bless you and may God bless America.

Click here to sign petition.

That Faint Whistle

I can remember being a pretty adventurous kid growing up. And when I say adventurous, I mean I loved exploring in the woods at the end of our street, building forts, wadding waist deep through the gulley trying to catch crawfish and “hunting” little birds with my BB gun. My childhood was one “adventure” after another. I would wake early on Saturday mornings to go sit in a tree to “hunt.” In looking back, I’m not really sure what I was hunting for or why I sitting in a tree. At the time, age 6, it made perfect sense.

But living adventures and exploring through the woods, all came to a sudden halt when I would hear a whistle. You see, it didn’t matter how deep in the woods I was or if I was in the middle of a basketball game at a neighbor’s house. When I heard that whistle, I had better stop what I was doing and get home. You see, when dad needed me or when he wanted me to come home, he’d stand on our driveway and whistle. It was a very distinctive whistle. And it meant, stop what you’re doing and get home. I always had to bea ware of that whistle; be listening for it. Didn’t matter if I didn’t hear it; if he’d whistle and I didn’t come home, I was gonna be in trouble.

The other night, I put both of my kids on their knees for not listening when I told them to come home from the neighbor’s yard. Their response wasn’t immediate and I want them to learn that listening to dad is important.

God’s been “whistling” to me lately. And in seeking His voice and making sure it is Him talking, He brought me to the night that Jay and Cecilia got put on their knees for not responding to dad’s voice. And then He brought up my memories of my dad whistling.

When dad calls us, we must discern that call to make sure it is really Him calling. But discernment isn’t enough, once we recognize that it is His voice, we MUST respond. We have to move. This is why prayer is so important to our everyday lives. It is in prayer that we begin to know the voice of the Father. It’s amazing to me that in a crowded room, full of noisy kids, you’re children recognize your voice when you call. It’s because they know you, and they know your voice.

Our relationship with God must be the same. We must always be listening for His whistle.

Are you listening for His whistle?

Do you know His voice?

Do you hear the small “whistle” in your life?

Are you carving out time each day to listen?

When we do these things, it becomes easier to recognize God’s voice and it can speed up our discernment, since we already know Dad’s voice – it’s easier to recognize it.

Hear His voice, make sure it is Him and then respond.

Confident Child

Last weekend I had a great bonding experience with my boy. I took him on his first duck hunt. Now for all you avid duck hunters out there, let me explain what duck hunting looks like for me – a deer hunter. I have a lease, that we go deer hunting on, about an hour north of my house. On this lease, there is a swamp that is about a 20 minute 4-wheeler ride. We hunt wood ducks – the best eating ducks in my opinion. So we are not in a blind. We are sitting on the bank of a swamp and trying to camouflage ourselves the best we can.

Jay and I rode out to the swamp on Friday afternoon. They property is owned by a timber company and they started logging the area. So I wanted to make sure that we still could find our way to the swamp during the day; before making a 20 minute bike ride in the dark on Saturday morning. We found it and flagged it, so we could get back there.

Saturday morning we woke up early, got the kids ready (3- 4 year olds, a 5 year old and 7 year old) and headed to the swamp. Jay was tired and didn’t really seem too excited about a cold bike ride in the dark. He is at that point in his life where his imagination is racing. He is scared of the boogie man, “bad guys,” and monsters. But he made the bike ride.

When we got set up, on the bank of the swamp, we still had about 20 minutes before light out. And he was not all about sitting in the dark. “Daddy, there are tigers out here.” (We don’t have tigers on our hunting lease in South Louisiana). I looked him, in the midst of, “I’m ready to go home; I want my mommy,” and assured him that I was next to him, I had a gun and I wouldn’t let any “tigers” hurt him. It wasn’t easy keeping him there. Every acorn that dropped or wind noise that blew through the branches, he would “What was that!?”

At one point, I looked at him, pointed to the Eastern skyline, and asked him if he could see where it was getting brighter. I told him the sun was rising and wouldn’t be dark much longer. This settled him down long enough for it to get light.

The hunt wasn’t a huge success, but we did manage to get out of there with one. And he has told everybody that he went duck hunting with daddy.

As I reflected on the weekend and the experience that morning at the swamp, God has been speaking to my heart as Father. When we are scared, when it seems as if we’re in the “darkness” and alone, He (the Father) is next to us assuring us that we’re not alone and we are safe. He’s pointing to the “western skyline” and saying “you see that, the Son’s coming and everything is going to be ok. ‘

Reach for the Son; look for the Son and you won’t be alone in the dark. The Son, the promise of the Father, that all is ok and we are safe. Thank Father for the Son, the promise of Your love realized.

the little “S”

Last weekend we did our annual combined Fall Retreat. The theme was “Live Out Loud,” and it was all about answering Jesus’ invitation to “follow Him” (Matthew 4:19) into life. In preparing for the retreat, the Holy Spirit led us to focus on those people who’ve answered that “follow me” call –the Saints (and not the Football team; although they are awesome! Geaux New Orleans!)

One of the other Youth Ministers who was bringing teens to the retreat was giving a talk specifically highlighting some of the Saints. When we were talking it out, and praying about what it should look like, he said something to me that renewed my hope of getting to Heaven. “Heaven is full of Saints with a little ‘s’ – they don’t have a feast day and they are not the patron of anything, but they made it!”

Wow! What an awesome thought! We DO NOT have to do great things to get to Heaven (Mother Teresa). We DO NOT have to be some extraordinary, super holy, radical, when people look at me they know I’m a walking Saint kind of person to get to Heaven. What freedom! What permission. That quote hit me to the Core of everything that I’m afraid of when I think about being “Holy.”

As I continued to reflect on that thought, I began to realize that the Saints, with a Big “S,” (you know, the feast day ones) were just ordinary sinners like you and I, who struggled in prayer and struggled with answering that call “Follow Me.” They just picked themselves up and continued on when they fell on their face. They became a reflection in their world just by doing what they did – by doing ordinary things with love. In fact Mother Teresa said, “I don’t do great things, I do small things. They just seem great because there are so many of them.”

You and I most likely will never have a Feast day in the Liturgical Calendar of the Church. Thousands of years from now, people may not carry around our prayer card in their Bible. And we may never be declared a Patron of anything. But we have everything we need to get to Heaven. Every day, when we wake up, we can renew our answer to Jesus when He asks “come follow me.” And it is in our response to that question, everyday and in ordinary ways, that you and I can become Saints – with a little “S.”