New eBook: "Gift Oddly Wrapped"

Purchase or preview it here!

New Year's Resolution: Lexio Divina

Yup. It's that time. Obligatory promises to self. The secular version of Lent. My challenge to myself each Lent, and thus round New Years as well, is to find a new way to Run Toward Christ.

I've made the commitment to create Lexio Divina video's in preparation for each Sunday's Mass. It's one way I try to run toward Christ. Whether you join me via video or do Lexio Divina with others or on your own -- it's a powerful way to Run Toward Christ!

My Lexio Divinas are posted here each week (feel free to follow the RSS).

Science Fiction and Salvation

Science Fiction is a powerful tool for exploring and understanding how we human collectively see ourselves.

"No," some might argue, "it's simply the result of a few minds and how they see the world."

Indeed. That's true of any given work. But, those that make it to the masses and become popular, have somehow spoken to people "en mass" and it has a lot to say about how we collectively see ourselves.

Jules Vern, Doyle, Asimov, Roddenberry, Lucas. These are among the minds that have asked us, collectively, to ponder our human potential and how we recognize and choose good and evil, God or Satan.

Of modern note are creations that in recent decades have become popular TV series. Star Trek, Babylon 5, Star Gate series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Battlestar Galactica, Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles, Heros, Sanctuary.

There is a tendency among the modern sci-fi creations to be highly cynical. There is a distinct lack of hope. There is the premise that evil has won and survival equals victory. There is an underlying belief that humanity is doomed, and that being human means being irreprably connected with evil. This is an accurate and scary reality of the world without Jesus our Christ.

Mutations that are advancing humanity to our fuller potential and to greater potential for destruction abound. There is an awareness that humanity is called to more than we realize, but they very rarely point to God as the avenue for our salvation. 

Watching them, it can be easy to forget the through Jesus our Christ, we can rise up to fulfill a destiny far greater than we imagine -- the one God created us to be. It can be easy to forget we are each made in God's image, and if we can say "Yes!" to Christ being born within us, just as Mary did 2000 years ago, that God's grace gives up hope of living up to being fully human.

Hot, Steamy, Monogamous Marriage!

You read that right. Hot. Steamy. Monogamous. Marriage. Life-long. Between a man and a woman.

It's the richest, deepest, most increasingly pleasurable and rewarding way to be sexually active. It's also the only way that is part of God's gift and that help us become who God created us to be, rather than degrading us to being less than human.

We under-sell sacramental marriage. I suspect in part this is because priests, bishops, cardinals, and our pope are celibate. They may intellectually know how rich it can be. But that's like reading a how to book about making love. Cardboard caviar.

That means it's our job to sell God's plan for an active sex life.

Making love serves two equal and inseparable purposes:
Life and Love. Both are co-creative and both are redemptive. Outside of marriage between a man and a woman it is impossible to have both. Anything less falls short of God's plan for anyone sexually active. I'll explore these more in a future post.

Let's begin to celebrate and spread a counter-cultural message (marketing for Jesus):

• Making love exclusively with the same woman for a life time makes the Kama Sutra seem like sex 101. The depth and pleasure and excitement are mind and body blowing.
• Making love in any lesser relationship diminishes our capacity to eventually enter into a rich and rewarding sacramental marriage.
• Making love with abandon (or NFP) vs. making love with birth control is like:

1. BBQ w/ jalipineos vs. generic ketchup
   
2. the big game on b/w 12" TV vs. plasma widescreen w/ surround sound
   
3. DOS vs. Mac OS X
   
4. 1971 Chicken-fat yellow Volvo wagon vs. (insert your crazy dream car here).
   

• Marriage fulfills life in ways we begin to realize before entering into it. To avoid marriage so you can live life is idiot living.

Blessings,

Patrick