A Guy’s Guide to the Good Life: Virtues for Men,

I am sorry to say that I had to force myself to finish this book. First, looking at the title, I thought it would be a book for…well guys. But after finishing the book I found myself wondering, “Which part was for guys?” Sure the book talked about beer, baseball, basketball, football, and eating, but that was about it.

Second, the book was basically all short stories. I don’t have a problem with this, I will shed a tear with the rest of them over Chicken Soup for the Catholic Nerd, or Surprised by Truth books. This book was different. I felt like I had asked the 80 year old neighbor to tell me about how he met his wife and then was barraged with 50 long, seemingly unrelated, stories. Some stories would branch off into other stories, then come back to the original story, but then leave me confused and wondering what it had to do with the topic at hand.

Here is one condensed example. Lockwood tells us that he listens to a folk station in his car, but only when his wife isn’t around. He explains that he is not a revolutionary or stuck in the 60′s. When he was a kid Burl Ives did a popular take on “The Big Rock Candy Mountain” and talked about a land full of candy for children. He tells us that the original song was much more dreary and was a land of cigarettes and alcohol. The story continues of a time when he was 6 years old at Trout Lake and he was coaxed into singing by his “old man”. What song did he sing? Nope, not “The Big Rock Candy Mountain”, he sang “Sixteen Tons”. He sang this sad song as a happy tune. He said he sang it because it was the only secular song he knew. He ends the story by saying that old folk music reaches out to us. What virtue was this for? Give up? Justice.

I don’t want to babble on, but I didn’t feel that the author relevant stories and he did not explain his stories well. But with Christ we can turn all things into something positive. The book does show what the 7 virtues are, and the reader will (at least to some degree) understand what they are.

Rating:  (out of 5)

This review was written as part of the Catholic book Reviewer program from The Catholic Company. Visit The Catholic Company to find more information, or to purchase A Guy’s Guide to the Good Life.

(well at least the best idea I have had today).

The cookies rock! (pun intended). And they are ultra easy to make, and my 5 year old daughter was hyped.

Ingredients: (makes about 5 dozen, enough for your family AND friends…come on, be a hero)

1 1/2 cups of butter, soft (I found out this is 3 sticks)
2 cups of white sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

Strife – In This Defiance CD. (You may substitute another HardCore band, but results will vary.)

Awesome cookie cutters

music is everything

RockStar

If you like punk music...the Germs

You could choose a sellout band to listen to (insert name here)

Heart + Cross = Sacred Heart of Jesus

Steps to rock:

1. Crank up Strife CD, start on track 2, track 3 if you are having your kids help.
2. Mixing spoons are great drumsticks. Start drumming, headbanging and the like.

3. Mix butter and sugar together. If you are like me, you don’t have time to waste thawing butter. So put butter and sugar in a bowl and throw it in the microwave for 30 seconds. Stir it up. Continue to headbang. *spoons are no longer drumsticks
4. Put in eggs and vanilla extract. If you are too lazy like me to find a teaspoon, just use the smaller of your two spoons in your drawer.
5. Mix in flour, baking powder, and salt.

6. Break spoon because you are rockin’ and stirring too hard.

breaking spoon is optional

8. Add food coloring, it just looks cool.oops, spilled some

oops, spilled some

Sacred Heart of Jesus

Perfection!

If you don’t know Christopher West, he is an awesome Catholic speaker and author who is best known for helping us to better understand the great and prolific work of Pope John Paul II, Theology of the Body. Check out this clip of one of his speeches where he helps us to understand the introduction of Playboy into our society and the beauty of our bodies.

If you want an excellent book that will totally change your view on sex and marriage (in a good way), check out Christopher West’s book Good News About Sex and Marriage

You are a Catholic Nerd when you get excited by things such as this…

This may be a time of recession, but if you are feeling generous or frivolous, I could use $150,000. Yes, this is the starting bid on eBay for this 18″x18″ tile that appears to depict Christ’s crucifixion. If you do actually visit the eBay page it says “The more you look at it, the more you see.” Is it my mind playing tricks on me, or is God showing me something?

Here is what I saw: (you can play along at home)

• Jesus looking down
• Holy Spirit (dove)
• Angel/ghost
• 2 more possible faces (on on Jesus’ chest and one to the right of him)

Ok, yes I am a nerd and I actually love this type of stuff. Yes, I loved Mary in the grill cheese too.

But seriously, what if this was real? What if this was purposely made by God? Who was it made for, and why? What would a miracle be worth?

Hoax or not, coincidence or not, if it brings us to think of Jesus and his suffering and sacrifice for us, isn’t it worth it?

This second video has a slow start, and a few strange translations, but please don’t let this discourage you. It is profound.

God gave us a perfect human example to help lead our life. She was not divine, but she helps to lead us to the Divine.

Mary had Seven Sorrows, seven incidents in her life with immense sadness. No sorrow that we could ever experience in our lives could compare to Mary’s sorrow. Here is a quick rundown of each of her sorrows:

1. The Prophecy of Simeon over the Infant Jesus. (Luke 2:34)
2. The Flight into Egypt of the Holy Family. (Matthew 2:13)
3. The Loss of the Child Jesus for Three Days. (Luke 2:43)
4. The Meeting of Jesus and Mary along the Way of the Cross. (Luke 23:26)
5. The Crucifixion where Mary stands at the foot of the cross. (John 19:25)
6. The Descent from the Cross where Mary receives the dead body of Jesus in her arms. (Matthew 27:57)
7. The Burial of Jesus. (John 19:40)

Here are some great devotions and prayers to Our Lady of Sorrows. Here are the 7 sorrows and their bible verses with pictures.

Mary kept her faith through all of her pain, she did not complain, she did not doubt God. God gave us the perfect example (person) to show us not only how to deal with our pain, but how to embrace it, how to help it bring us closer to Christ.

If we love, we will suffer for others willingly and gratefully. Where were all of Jesus’ thousands of disciples when he was on the cross, where were his 12 apostles as he lay dying? Did they run away, did they hide, did they deny Christ as Peter did, or did they just chose to save themselves some pain from watching their savior die? God’s mother was there, she wanted to be there, she wanted to participate in Christ’s suffering.

Our Lady of Sorrows, pray for us.

Ok, great, go to Seven Sorrows Catholic band.

 Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!

I post today not to be a killjoy, but to keep our eyes on Christ. I know that our American culture has taught us that today is a day to to get drunk…but why must we do so?

This is a day to remember a great saint. Saint Patrick grew up in 5th century Britain. At age 16 he was captured and made a slave in Ireland. Six years later he escaped and returned to Britain. He became a priest and later a bishop. He felt God was calling him to return to Ireland, so he did just that and was a missionary there for over 30 years, where he built churches, monestaries and helped to spread the faith to tens of thousands of people.

Living as a slave helped him to return to prayer. It had helped his faith to grow. It helped him to appreciate and love Christ even more. Let us take his example during lent to help us reflect on our own lives. Let us not hate the people who have wronged and offended us, but let us show them the love and forgiveness that Christ has shown us. Let us show them how to be the better person. Let us take a situation that seems bleak and show the world what can be done out of love.

Let us remember what the bible teaches us. The Letter to the Galatianstells us: “Now the works of the flesh are plain: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God.”

So today, as everyday, let us honor God and fulfill the plan he has made for us. Let this not be a day that we commit each of those sins in the name of a good time.

Saint Patrick…pray for us.

Quick Lesson: Protestant means protesting. Who are these Christians protesting? The Catholic Church. Martin Luther is one of the main reasons for the Protestant Reformation. He left the Catholic Church, the Lutheran religion was formed.

So if people are still protesting the Catholic Church, do they know what they are protesting? Martin Luther had his 95 theses. Take a minute to read through and see how you line up.

It seems to me that each year Christians are protesting more and more. It seems that protestants are even protesting protestants. Our society teaches us to reject things we don’t like and to find something we do like.

Is this what God wanted? Is this what Jesus planned when he chose his 12 apostles and started the first church? Jesus was a Jew, a perfect Jew. He did not rebel against his religion, he embraced it, he fulfilled it. When we are protesting…who are we really protesting?

Are people protesting people, religion, institutions, or are we merely justifying our disobidience against God?

I too am tired of all the talk, I am tired of flawed logic, and tired of 1/2 morality or double standard morality.

Here are a few things to think about while chewing on your pen…

+People are angry that Nadya had 8 children at once, not to mention the fact that she already had 6 children. They then go on to complain that she should not have been allowed to have that many children.

But it all boils down to this…in vitro fertilization is a sin, yes, it is wrong. I am not here to discuss why, another day, another post…but I will give you a twist on the story…

+People are actually mad that Nadya didn’t have selective reduction. If you do not understand, it means that people are angry that Nadya didn’t kill the “extra” babies inside after in vitro fertilization. In not so many words, people are saying they would have preferred Nadya to become a serial killer than to do what she did by bringing life into the world. I am not saying she is right…I am just saying.

+People are angry that Nadya implanted the already fertilized eggs into her body. They would rather have had those future babies floating frozen on a shelf.

When we no longer have a firm moral ground to stand on, we can’t get mad when the house shakes.

Again, all of my blog posts are meant to be short, so I’ll try to keep it that way.

It seems that in these hard times, more and more Christians are talking about the end times. There was even a 3 day huge conference that just took place in Southern California. This inevitably brings up the Rapture.

What most Christians don’t know is that the idea of Jesus taking away all the saved and leaving the sinners is not even 200 years old. (You could read more about John Nelson Darby (1800-1882). Moreover, most Christians had not even heard of the Rapture (much less believed it) until only about 30 years ago.

So why is it that today it is accepted by virtually all Protestant Christians? (somewhat rhetorical question)

Only 2 points I wish to make:

1) Read 1 Thessalonians 5:2-4“for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.” If Jesus comes down on clouds, trumpets blaring, and the devil wrecking things for 1000 years, I have the wrong idea of “thieves in the night.” A theif  sneak into a house unknown, cause the least amount of ruckus, without waking anyone. Plus, if all this was going down, wouldn’t all the non-believers immediately confess Jesus as their savior so they could go too?

2) Read Luke 17: 20-34, “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be in the days of the Son of Man”, then later “Similarly, as it was in the days of Lot”, yet again later the Bible states, “I tell you, on that night there will be two people in one bed; one will be taken, the other left.” When we think of Noah and the city of Sodom, who was left behind? Yes, it was the good/faithful people that were left behind.