Tag Archives: steubenville

The Great Silence

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by Catholic • Tags: , , ,

christ-helping-adam-and-eve-from-their-tomb-flanked-by-saint-john-the-baptist-and-abelThis ancient and anonymous Holy Saturday homily is a part of today’s Office of Readings. So many times, Holy Saturday seems as the “in between” day between Good Friday and the Easter vigil. But we as a Church celebrate something special today. Read on and be inspired:

Something strange is happening—there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. God has died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear.

He has gone to search for our first parent, as for a lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, he has gone to free from sorrow the captives Adam and Eve, he who is both God and the son of Eve. The Lord approached them bearing the cross, the weapon that had won him the victory. At the sight of him Adam, the first man he had created, struck his breast in terror and cried out to everyone: “My Lord be with you all.” Christ answered him: “And with your spirit.” He took him by the hand and raised him up, saying: “Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.”

I am your God, who for your sake have become your son. Out of love for you and for your descendants I now by my own authority command all who are held in bondage to come forth, all who are in darkness to be enlightened, all who are sleeping to arise. I order you, O sleeper, to awake. I did not create you to be held a prisoner in hell. Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead. Rise up, work of my hands, you who were created in my image. Rise, let us leave this place, for you are in me and I am in you; together we form only one person and we cannot be separated.

For your sake I, your God, became your son; I, the Lord, took the form of a slave; I, whose home is above the heavens, descended to the earth and beneath the earth. For your sake, for the sake of man, I became like a man without help, free among the dead. For the sake of you, who left a garden, I was betrayed to the Jews in a garden, and I was crucified in a garden.

See on my face the spittle I received in order to restore to you the life I once breathed into you. See there the marks of the blows I received in order to refashion your warped nature in my image. On my back see the marks of the scourging I endured to remove the burden of sin that weighs upon your back. See my hands, nailed firmly to a tree, for you who once wickedly stretched out your hand to a tree.

I slept on the cross and a sword pierced my side for you who slept in paradise and brought forth Eve from your side. My side has healed the pain in yours. My sleep will rouse you from your sleep in hell. The sword that pierced me has sheathed the sword that was turned against you.

Rise, let us leave this place. The enemy led you out of the earthly paradise. I will not restore you to that paradise, but I will enthrone you in heaven. I forbade you the tree that was only a symbol of life, but see, I who am life itself am now one with you. I appointed cherubim to guard you as slaves are guarded, but now I make them worship you as God. The throne formed by cherubim awaits you, its bearers swift and eager. The bridal chamber is adorned, the banquet is ready, the eternal dwelling places are prepared, the treasure houses of all good things lie open. The kingdom of heaven has been prepared for you from all eternity.

Marching for Life in the UK

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by Catholic, Pro-Life • Tags: , , , , , , ,

IMG_1948Why are Pro-Life marches always done in the freezing cold?

While studying here in Birmingham (England, not Alabama) I got news of a March for Life occurring on Sunday. My fellow students are I were pretty excited about it, and Maryvale Institute rearranged our sessions so we could all be there. Apparently, it was only the second March for Life in the UK, and the one in Birmingham was for the whole country.

It was a different kind of excitement to march in Birmingham as opposed to Washington, DC. In DC, it was amazing to be a part of such a huge event—over half a million people. But in the UK, I was one of hundreds, not hundreds of thousands. I’m poor with numbers, but I’d say there were seven to eight hundred people there (if you were there, correct me in the comments.)

It also gave me the opportunity to learn more about abortion in the UK. Abortion has been legal in England since 1967. They now have about 200,000 abortions each year, and the amount of abortions since it was legalized is estimated between 7 and 8 million.

Though they have had legalized abortion longer than we have, they haven’t had as many organized pro-life events. 40 Days for Life began in the UK just recently, and the speakers at the March noted how young the Pro-Life movement was, both in age and in participation: like DC, many of the participants were young adults.

We turned many heads as we walked through the busy shopping district of Birmingham. We all held yellow balloons that said LIFE. Though ecumenical, it was clearly driven by the Catholic Church—there were many priests, religious, and seminarians, all praying the rosary and singing songs to our Lady as we walked through the streets. The organizers warned us that their might be some hostility, but the attitude of most of the onlookers was more of curiosity than condemnation. I don’t think they’ve ever seen something like that before.

Being so small, they didn’t shut down roads for us. There were some folks to help us cross streets, but at times the front half had to wait for the second half to get through the crosswalks. That’s actually one of the things I thought was so cool about the event. In DC, you’re surrounded by other Pro-Lifers. Here, you were surrounded by the everyday culture.

And it was cold. SO cold. I’m not sure if it was colder than DC or just felt that way because I wasn’t prepared for it. By the end I was limping because my feet were numb. But I was only wearing flimsy PF Flyers and it was snowing outside. Next year, I’ll bring boots.

For those I got to meet at the march, it was a blessing! Let us all continue to pray for an end to abortion in the US, the UK, and the entire world.

Videos! And an update on Bobby (and me.)

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by Catechesis, Catholic, Family, Movies, Personal, Youth Ministry • Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Ouch.

If you’re not into reading X-rays, let me explain it to you: see that big crack in the femur? Yeah, that shouldn’t be there.

Two weeks ago my son Bobby (10 years old) was playing basketball. He fell backwards and everyone heard a loud CRACK! If you think that’s an unusual way to break a femur, it is. The doctors have diagnosed him with “fibrus dysplasia,” a weakening of the bone. That makes his already difficult recovery longer, and perhaps means he will need future surgeries to “augment” the bone.

Needless to say, it’s been a crazy few weeks. I was at the airport about to get on a plane to Michigan when I got the call. I had to cancel the event, but of course I knew the Holy Spirit would take care of it (He did.) To all in Wixon, sorry I missed out and hope to see you next year!

After spending five days at a hospital and two days in my living room (Bobby can’t yet climb stairs) I drove to Syracuse for the “Race to the Cross Rally” and then down to Philadelphia for the “Generation Phaith” conference. I brought my band with me and we had a great time, though my heart was a bit heavy with things going on at home.

And then on Monday, I flew off to England, which is where I’m writing from now.

How could I leave my family in such a state of crisis? I’ve been asking myself that, too :) As we all know, sometimes things just need to get done. A residency requirement is part of keeping me in my doctoral program, but the good folks have shortened my time here so I’m coming home next week (instead of the following.) And thankfully my mom flew in to help around the house while I’m gone.

I’m grateful for all who have been praying for us during this time. Your love and support mean a lot.

And now for something completely different…

Videos! A number of my scripts have come to life over the past few months, and I’ve been delinquent in posting them. So here they are. Hope you are blessed by them and can use them in your ministry.

Just in Time for Lent

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by Books, Catholic • Tags: , , , , , , ,
The 40-Day Spiritual Workout! (Wampa not included.)

The 40-Day Spiritual Workout! (Wampa not included.)

Look what arrived in the mail last week! It’s the brand-new, fancy-looking “40-Day Spiritual Workout.” Now on paper!

I’ve got a tell you, I am really impressed with the way Servant Publications put this thing together. The cover looks cool, the layout inside is sharp, and the whole book is square! Not “square” as in “un-cool,” but square from a geometric perspective.

And in this case, it is hip to be square.

You might wonder why you would spend nine dollars to buy a book that you can get in a free iPhone app, or a free daily email through Steubenville.org. That’s what I wondered about when Servant Publications approached me to do this book. I told them a free iPhone app and email was in the works, and I was even working on a podcast. But they still thought there was a market for it.

Now that I am holding the book in my hands, I understand what they’re talking about. There’s a lot of really cool things I like about the book even better than the iPhone app.

The thing I like most about the book is there is more Scripture in it. Due to copyright restrictions, I was limited as to how much Scripture I could put in the iPhone. But in the book it’s all there – everything I intended it to have in the first place.

By “all there” I mean the chapter and verses, but not the text itself. And that’s another thing I really like about this book. It makes you open your Bible and read the text directly instead of reading a snippet of it. That way, if you want, you can read what came before or came after the text. I think it is so important that people get comfortable flipping the pages of their own Bible.

I included the Scriptural text in the iPhone app (as well as the daily emails) because those are designed for people on the go. But someone reading a book is more likely to be sitting down and taking time to read — which is also more conducive to a deeper prayer experience.

Finally, and this point probably only pertains to me and the English nerds out there, I like the book because it is written better. Servant Publications had a great copy editor who went over everything I wrote and helped fix all the grammatical mistakes.

I’m so excited that the 40-Day Spiritual Workout is now available as a book, an iPhone app, and a daily email devotional. Hopefully by this summer I’ll have an audio version of it as well. The app has had over 2500 downloads, and about 1000 other people have signed up for email blasts. People frequently share with me how blessed they were by doing that devotional, and I can’t tell you how happy I am to have helped so many people have a deeper prayer life.

If you haven’t done it yet, give it a try! Just in time for Lent.

To buy the book, go here.

Download the free iPhone app, go here

To sign up for daily emails, go here.

PS. The name of the book is “40-Day Spiritual Workout for Catholics.” The name of the iPhone app is “40 Day Spiritual Workout for Catholic Teens.” But the content is the same—the app isn’t a “teen” version of the book.  The iPhone developers created it as a follow-up resource for teenagers at the Steubenville Summer Youth Conference; the book publisher wanted to brand it for a wider audience. And I guess “40-Day” is more grammatically correct than “40 Day.” Oops.

Now I’m an “Award Winning” Script Writer!

by Evangelization, Movies • Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Or at least I can say I’m a script writer of award winning films :)

Last week the John Paul II Film Festival in Miami, FL awarded the video, “Zombies Vs. Jesus” an award for the best short film. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I was the main script writer for the video, even though it turned out to be different (and better!) than I had imagined it.

This is the second time a short film I was a part of has won an award! Last year, the short film Palm Sunday won a Telly Award for best religious short film.

Two things in common with both films: Eric Groth of Outside Da Box produced it, and Rob Kaczmark of Spirit Juice Studios directed them. As a script writer, it’s exciting to work with people who have a great combination of faith and creativity to pull of the hard work of bringing stories to the screen.

But the best thing about winning awards is it gives people (like me) an excuse to promote the films again. In case you haven’t seen them, take a look!

How the Catechism Made Me Catholic

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by Catechesis, Catholic, Personal • Tags: , , , ,

I remember looking down and seeing blood on my hands. My head was still spinning from the line of cocaine that I snorted in the bathroom. The prostitute I just had sex with was face down on the bed, murdered. Did I do it? I couldn’t remember. I heard sirens outside and footsteps running up the stairs to my apartment. That was the moment that I realized I needed a Savior. I needed Jesus.

Okay, none of that is true.

Truth be told, I have a very boring conversion story: I always loved Jesus. And then I loved Him more.

I was the good kid. Never drank. Never did drugs. Knew to save sex for marriage. In fact, I lived in fear of letting others down: my parents, my teachers, or even God. I was a straight A student and prayed every night.

So it might not be a surprise when I tell you that one of the most exciting moments in my conversion is when I did something that many consider boring:

I read the Catechism.

Today marks the 20th anniversary of the release of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, but the English translation was released in the spring of 1994. I was living in Orlando, Florida bouncing between two jobs. Some evenings I would play in bars with my band, “The Crowd.” Other evenings I worked at an improvisational comedy club. No matter what I did I was usually out until one or two in the morning, followed by a late night/early morning snack at the only restaurant in the area opened 24 hours—IHOP (which is where I often encountered a young Shaq and his entourage, but that’s another story.)

Getting home at 3 AM I’d turn on the TV and watch CNN, the only thing that was on. And one evening/morning they reported that the Catechism of the Catholic Church was coming out on Tuesday, the first time the Catholic Church had a universal catechism in 500 years. I didn’t know what a “catechism” was, but apparently it contained all the official teachings of the Catholic Church. I knew I wanted it. No, I knew I needed it.

You see, though much of my family was Catholic and I attended Catholic schools, I never really felt like I knew for certain what Catholicism was all about. The only time I heard about the Eucharist was in a Humanities class when the teacher asked, “Do you realize that the Catholic Church teaches that the Eucharist is the actual body and blood of Christ, not just a symbol? How many of you believe that?” And none of us raised our hands because we had never heard that before.

I had been blessed to have many friends who were Protestant, all of whom professed at times to know what Catholics believed. “You Catholics worship Mary,” one would say. “You think you’re saved by what you do, not by God’s grace,” would say another. This didn’t sound right to me, but I didn’t know how to defend it.

So to finally get the low down on what the Church actually taught was really exciting. I made sure on Monday night to set my alarm to get up early and head to my local Christian bookstore to get the Catechism.

But here was the thing—my local Christian bookstore didn’t carry it. “You should try a Catholic bookstore,” the woman at the counter said.

There are Catholic bookstores? This shows you how out of the loop I was.

So I drove around in haste to find my local Catholic bookstore. I was worried, assuming that every Catholic in Florida watched CNN and would buy up all the Catechisms before I could get one.

I eventually found “The Abbey Catholic Bookstore” in a strip mall squeezed between a pharmacy and a party supply shop. It was so small it felt more like a closet than a store. I remember lots of dark wood, crammed shelves, and no windows. But there on the counter was a stack of the book I coveted… The Catechism of the Catholic Church. I was clearly the first person to get one that day.

Immediately I bought it and took it home. I couldn’t wait to read it. I sat on my couch and looked through the index. There were some immediate questions I wanted to know the answer to: Was the Eucharist really the body and blood of Christ? (Answer: yes!) Do we really worship Mary? (Answer: not in the same way we adore Christ.) And what does the Church actually teach about sex? (Answer: Uh… you should just read it yourself!)

The answers made a lot of sense to me. It was like this book could articulate the things I always believed but never could explain. But once I had my questions answered, it started asking me things: Why did the Word become flesh? What is the purpose of life? Why do our prayers go unanswered sometimes?

As I read the answers, I grew deeper in my faith and fell more in love with the Catholic Church. If you asked me what I believed before the Catechism came out, I would have said I was a Christian who happened to go to a Catholic parish. But after reading the Catechism, I was Catholic.

I’ll never forget going to a Holy Thursday Mass a few weeks after I began reading the Catechism. They processed the Eucharist around the Church and reposed it in the Eucharistic Chapel. I followed it, fell to my knees, and wept. All I could say was, “You are God, You are God, You are God…”

And it was all because of the Catechism.

I know some people only use the Catechism to get answers to things they’re confused about. That’s not a bad place to start. But don’t just use the Catechism to get your questions answered—let it teach you about the faith.

At the end of every section is a summary of what it just taught titled, “IN BRIEF.” Start there. Make it a habit of your daily prayer to read just one IN BRIEF, and watch how your understanding of the faith deepens.

Speaking of prayer, many people suggest that you should start reading the Catechism at the last part, the one titled, “Christian Prayer.” I used to just make up prayer as I went along. But the Catechism gave me the wisdom of two thousand years of saints on how to grow more intimate with God, and my life has never been the same since.

The whole purpose of the Catechism isn’t to fill your head with religious trivia about what Catholics believe. It’s to help you experience “the love that never ends.” (CCC 25) John Paul II said that the aim of catechesis is “to put people, not only in touch with, but in intimacy with Jesus Christ.” And Cardinal Schönborn, who was one of the primary editors of the Catechism, said that Catechism was “a blueprint for the heart of Christ.”

Thanks to some wonderful Protestants who reached out to me in High School, I already had a deep love of Scripture. But reading the Catechism side by side with the Bible (70% of the Catechism’s footnotes are Scripture) transformed me and has made me the man I am today.

I know that my life was never the same after reading the Catechism. And I’m confident, if you start to read it, your life will never be the same as well. It’s a great thing to do during this Year of Faith.

Evidence that Demands a Vertict

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by Catholic, Movies, Youth Ministry • Tags: , , , ,

Another script has come to life! Man, I love seeing what people do with the words I type.

When I wrote this back in January, I intended the idea of being put on trial for being Catholic as an obvious fantasy. But these days it seems closer to reality than before, doesn’t it?

Regardless, that’s not the point of the video. The question is: do we truly live what we say we believe? I remember when I was a teenager someone asked, “If being Christian was against the law, would there be enough evidence to convict you?” That question always resonated with me, especially with all the legal “loopholes” that are present in our society today. So I thought it would make a cool video and hope it allows the viewer to reflect on if they are truly living their faith in a public way.

What do you think about it?

Thanks to the amazing folks at Outside Da Box for doing such a great job with it.