Hae-factor

Nov
10th

Thu

How many true friends do I really have?

How many friends would lay down their lives for me?
That number is almost always inflated until something really happens and then you realize, “I don’t think so.” “I guess not.” “All these men who I thought would come to my aid … where are they?”

How many people are there to whom I can open up my heart and soul with total trust?
This is hardly a plea to be able to do this with a lot. If you [have] two guys you can do this with, that’s an incredible gift. One’s a great gift. I don’t want countless people I can bear my soul to, but I better have somebody or I’m alone …

If I were to die today, how many people would really care for more than a few days? How many would come to my funeral?

How many lives were changed in a positive way by my friendship?

How many persons were reconciled, converted, or grew in the life of the Church as a result of my friendship? How many people came to know the Lord through me?

How many will I bring with me? I’m not supposed to come alone.

Are my friendships a fundamental part of my prayer life?

Do I really pray for my brothers?

Do I really talk to the Lord about my friends? Do I plead on their behalf with him?

Do we pray for our friends? Are they an essential part every day? Do we care about their needs?

How many would I lay down my life for?

— Father John Riccardo

Nov
5th

Sat

Our jobs as Christians is to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable.

… Want to shake people out of their complacency. … Want to [get them to] examine their lives and say, “Am I living God’s will, or am I living my will?”

— Father Larry Richards

Aug
31st

Wed

God took the initiative and made peace with His enemies. Think about this:
The one most offended by our sin is the one taking the initiative. Those He could not even look at He gathers to Himself.

So now the next obvious question to ask is “how?” How can a holy God who cannot even look on wickedness bring sinners to Himself? And here’s the sad fact about human nature:
We get overly familiar with things so that we get used to them.

-
God sends His only Son into the world as a man so that He could die in order to pay the penalty for our sins.
-

Familiar, right?

That’s the Gospel. I believe God intends for that to fall fresh on us today.

— NGEN Radio

Jun
20th

Mon

Women are so smart. The following quote is from a seventeen-year-old girl that called in to the show “The Doctor Is In” on Ave Maria Radio. May God bless her richly with more of Him for wanting Him most above all else.

“The thing is that I want God to be number one in our relationship because I believe that … two people together is not a relationship unless God’s in it and He’s number one.”

Jun
19th

Sun

A Prayer for Fathers

God our Father, we give you thanks and praise for fathers young and old.

We pray for young fathers, newly embracing their vocation; May they find the courage and perseverance to balance work, family, and faith in joy and sacrifice.

We pray for our own fathers who have supported and challenged us; May they continue to lead in strong and gentle ways.

We remember fathers around the world whose children are lost or suffering; May they know that the God of compassion walks with them in their sorrow.

We pray for men who are not fathers but still mentor and guide us with fatherly love and advice.

We remember fathers, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers who are no longer with us but who live forever in our memory and nourish us with their love.

Amen.

Mar
22nd

Tue

Coworker: You look like an Easter bunny.
Me: *Walks away*

Mar
18th

Fri

Me: ... See? If you had just a bit more patience, we would've been able to do this without you yelling at me even once.
Coworker: But I like yelling at you - it's so fun!

Feb
27th

Sun

You see, the Cross unites not only the friends of our Lord, the Cross unites enemies. As we will begin to see as the world goes on a new kind of bigotry. We will be opposed not because we believe, for example, in the supremacy of the Holy Father, but because we’re standing in the way of the demoralization of the world: we stand for life against death, we stand for the family against divorce, we stand for purity against fornication, we stand for goodness instead of vice with a great obstacle to the world. And the new bigotry will see that Cross and will hate us, so we have to be prepared for it, and we have to take our stand underneath it.

— Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

Feb
17th

Thu

Don't use "reckon" in a sentence or you may lose cool points as I did.

[11: 11]
Me: Happy Friday Eve!
[11: 12]
Fellow small group member: happy friday man!
[11: 12]
Fellow small group member: eve*
[11: 13]
Me: Thanks, dude. How was small group?
[11: 13]
Fellow small group member: good man, sorry you couldnt be there
[11: 13]
Me: No need to be sorry, man.
[11: 15]
Me: I'm booked most Wednesdays throughout the year, but I'll definitely come by when the plan falls through.
Any neato conversations take place that I missed out on?
[11: 16]
Fellow small group member: we did chapter 5, talked about prayer and stuff
[11: 16]
Me: I love how "and stuff" captures the gist of most of almost everything in conversations.
[11: 17]
Fellow small group member: ha ha, of course
[11: 17]
Me: "So what'd y'all do?"
"Stuff."
[11: 19]
Fellow small group member: we talked about repeticious prayer and how its pointelss
[11: 19]
Fellow small group member: we were on that tangent for a while
[11: 19]
Me: Yeah ... repeating something for the sake of repeating has less than no value.
[11: 20]
Fellow small group member: but like praying for every meal, if you say the same thing you might as well not pray
[11: 21]
Me: Hm. I'm not sure if that's entirely true. I met someone that said they don't always say grace before meals because they don't want it to become a habitual thing.
What if the underlining question of repeating something is whether one's heart is in it or not?
[11: 22]
Me: Are we really grateful for the blessings God give us? Do we really want the food that we're about to eat to nourish our bodies and minds to do more for His glory and kingdom? Or is it just mindless babble to get to the first bite.
[11: 23]
Fellow small group member: but i think if your heart it truly in it youll say something new every time
[11: 23]
Fellow small group member: no matter how much your heart is in it, repetition looses feeling
[11: 24]
Me: Really? -_-
I've lost count (never had it in the first place, actually) of the number of times I've prayed the Our Father / Lord's Prayer, but the more I pray it nowadays, the deeper I get into the depths of how Jesus wanted us to approach it.
[11: 25]
Fellow small group member: im just saying i think there is a fine line
[11: 25]
Me: Yeah. Repeating for the sake of babbling really is pointless. But then again, wouldn't you say it's pointless to come up with something new for the sake of not wanting to be repetitive?
[11: 27]
Fellow small group member: its possible
[11: 31]
Me: I reckon it's much like expressing "I love you" or "Thank you." There's superlatives and synonyms to try to switch things a bit, but the majority of the time, it's the simplicity of the words uttered so often that tend to mean much more when you can hear the person's heart in their voice or words.
[11: 31]
Me: I totally ought to give myself cool points for using "reckon" in a sentence. ^_^
[11: 32]
Fellow small group member: i say negative points for using reckon
[11: 32]
Me: How darest thou!
[11: 32]
Fellow small group member: well hate to cut this short but i got a dentist appt
Me: Have fun!!!
[11: 35]
Meebo Message: Small group member is offline

Feb
10th

Thu

A Question That Made My Brain Hurt.

16: 48 PM
Coworker: will BB ?' s bring you by?
16: 48 PM
Me: Rephrase?
I read that as "Will BlackBerry questions bring you by?" but that doesn't sound right.
16: 53 PM
Me: OhHhHhHh.
"Will a question about the BlackBerry be a reason enough for me to come by your cube?"
16: 53 PM
Coworker: :)
16: 53 PM
Me: Dang it, [coworker's name]. You made my brain hurt.