Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Life in America

After I departed college, I thought I was set. I was making a good deal of money, and had a steady job and benefits. But now, thanks to an unfortunate series of events, I'm back at square one. I hated my career in software, and am now in the midst of changing careers. So, once again I find myself to be poor. Not only am I poor, but I'm surrounded by people who are struggling to make it financially. Life in America is not all that it's cracked up to be.

This is especially true when it comes to the issue of health. The New York Times, this weekend, had a revealing editorial on our national health care system. To quote the punchline

With health care emerging as a major issue in the presidential

campaign and in Congress, it will be important to get beyond

empty boasts that this country has “the best health care

system in the world” and turn instead to fixing its very real

defects. The main goal should be to reduce the huge number

of uninsured, who are a major reason for our poor standing

globally. But there is also plenty of room to improve our

coordination of care, our use of computerized records,

communications between doctors and patients, and dozens

of other factors that impair the quality of care. The world’s

most powerful economy should be able to provide a health

care system that really is the best.


While I agree with Michael Joseph in having some reservations about socialized health care because of culture of life issues, I believe that we must do something about the 45 million uninsured Americans, and we must do it quickly. As Yahoo News reported this past weekend, we have a lower lifespan than many other industrialized countries. It's bad to be more scared of financial ruin than you are of getting terribly sick, but I realized that that is the position that I'm in right now. One wrong turn, and a lifetime of good financial planning can go down the drain, all thanks to our unjust American health care system.

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Top Songs and Artists of 2006

It's the end of the year, and everyone will be talking about what were the top songs and artists of 2006. I too have thought this through, and I have decided to put together some of my thoughts as to who and what were my favorite artists and songs of 2006. And what better way to do this than to start with my list of most played songs in iTunes from Christmas 2005 to Christmas 2006. Of course, this means that this is not limited to what was released in 2006, but to what I played between 12/25/2005 and 12/25/2006. Here goes...

SongArtistAlbumPlay Count
Haec diesChoir Of Westminster Abbey & Simon PrestonPalestrina: Missa Papae Marcelli & Allegri: Miserere103
Friday I'm in LoveThe CureWish93
Show You LoveJars Of ClayWho We Are Instead88
Write This DownGeorge StraitAlways Never the Same86
IrreplaceableBeyoncéB'Day85
Give a Little BitGoo Goo DollsGive a Little Bit - Single78
DisappearJars of ClayThe Eleventh Hour73
O magnum mysteriumCambridge Singers & John RutterThe Cambridge Singers Christmas Album72
Breathe (2AM)Anna NalickBreathe (2AM) - Single70
Honestly (Single Version)CartelHonestly - Single68
Lost CauseBeckSea Change64
EverythingDelirious?Glo63
Victime Paschali LaudesHortus MusicusGregorian Chant62
PhotographNickelbackAll the Right Reasons60
Nothin'Chris RiceExodus59
Already DeadBeckSea Change57
Forever And For AlwaysShania TwainUp! (Green Album)57
Lamentations of Jeremiah IPeter Phillips & The Tallis ScholarsThe Tallis Scholars sing Thomas Tallis54
Five Candles (You Were There)Jars Of ClayMuch Afraid53
AtlanticKeaneUnder the Iron Sea50
Missa Papae Marcelli: GloriaChoir Of Westminster Abbey & Simon PrestonPalestrina: Missa Papae Marcelli & Allegri: Miserere49
MiserereChoir Of Westminster Abbey & Simon PrestonPalestrina: Missa Papae Marcelli & Allegri: Miserere49
SympathyGoo Goo DollsMatt's Car Mix49
Same In Any LanguageI-NineElizabethtown49
LingerThe Cranberries20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best of the Cranberries46


Favorite Artist/Composer of 2006

Thomas Tallis - This man has clearly captured my attention. According to many historians, he remained Catholic in England during the so-called English Reformation, and yet still remained high in the service and opinions of the kings and queens of that time. He wrote music for the Chapel Royale, and composed many musical settings for both Catholic and Anglican liturgies. His music is haunting, moody, somber, and reflective. This is best seen in his masterful Lamentations of Jeremiah, which made my top 25 list. But even his more joyful settings, for example the Easter motet Dum Transisset Sabbatum, still preserve this somber and reflective quality. And of course, he can be a master at the technical aspects of music (as evidenced by his astonishing Spem in Alium). According to the thesis that Tallis was a Catholic, many of his musical settings also had political implications, being hidden calls for a return to the Old Religion. If you would like to check out his music, I especially recommend the album Tallis: Spem in Alium; Lamentations of Jeremiah; Church Music by the Kings College Choir and St. Johns College Choir for its uncanny ability to bring out this somber quality in Tallis's music.

Song Most Likely to Make the List Again in 2007

Show You Love by Jars of Clay - I have been known to play this song 15 times in a row while riding in my car. Even though it's not my favorite Jars song (that would go to Five Candles), it still is up there, particularly because I listened to it extensively during the time of my conversion to Catholicism.

Song Least Likely to Make the List Again in 2007

Irreplacable by Beyoncé - I think the reason why this made the list is that the day I downloaded it, I listened to it about 50 times. It's short, and it's catchy, and Beyoncé has a great voice (even if her message and her way of getting it across often leave something to be desired), but I just don't listen to her that much.

Trend of the Year

Classical Sacred Music - Of course, I've always listed to Christian music. As a child, CCM was my favorite musical genre. But, let's face it, most CCM leaves something to be desired (my apologies to Jars of Clay, DC Talk, and Delirious). Not to mention that most CCM is decidedly Protestant in emphasis. Often, this doesn't really bring up problems, especially because much of CCM is devotional in nature and Catholics and Protestants share much in common in the area of devotional life (in that we both worship Jesus Christ and the entirety of the Blessed Trinity, we both believe in and have a devotion to the Holy Gospels, etc.). However, occasionally there are problems in the theology of the music, and unfortunately I find listening to songs with aberrant theology to be more annoying than listening to songs with no explicit theology at all.

However, this year I have really taken a liking to classical sacred music: Tallis, Palestrina, different settings of Gregorian chant. Even the music composed for Protestant liturgies, such as some of Tallis' settings, doesn't often contain theological problems, as the songs come straight from the Bible or from ancient Catholic liturgical rites (i.e. the Sarum rite). My fascination with this style of music actually started in 2005. I was at a friend's father's concerts, and they played a setting of O Magnum Mysterium. I don't even know if this was the setting by Tomás Luis de Victoria, to which I have taken a liking. Nonetheless, I downloaded the song later in 2005, and was enraptured by its beauty. The trend was really cemented one day in 2006, when I was working from home. I needed something to calm me down, as I was upset for some reason, so I downloaded an album of chant by Hortus Musicus, and the deal was done. I was hooked to the beauty of classical sacred music, and have been ever since.

Most Surprising Feature of the List

The most surprising feature of this list is the conspicuous absence of all three of my favorite pop bands: U2, Radiohead, and Coldplay. None of the three came out with a new album in 2006 or the last half of 2005 (Coldplay's latest came out in June 2005). So, by this time I had moved on to other bands and musical styles. A quick check of Wikipedia reveals that there are rumors of a 2007 release for Coldplay and Radiohead, but I don't know whether these rumors have any substance or not. And U2 seems to be taking their time in making a new album, too. So, it's possible that this surprising trend might be reversed in 2007, but we'll see.

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

St. Joseph: A Character Sketch

Among all men who have ever lived, who has surpassed St. Joseph, save only our Lord himself? And yet I propose to, in a few minutes time, give you a sketch of his character. I am afraid that I am insufficient to this purpose, but fortunately there are others who are more sufficient for it, especially St. Matthew, St. Luke, St. John Chrysostom, and our beloved late Holy Father, Pope John Paul II. For, as the Golden-Tongued Chrysostom tells us, St. Joseph was “a soul truly wakened, and in all things incorruptible.” (St. Chrysostom, Hom 5 on Matthew).

When we see Joseph’s reactions to the promptings of Divine Providence, we are amazed at his receptiveness to the Angel’s words. Above all, St. Joseph is noted for obedience to the divine commands. His obedience was not without difficulty. In the first place, he was faced with the pregnancy of Mary. Now this in itself seemed an impossibility to him, for although he could not imagine that his Spouse was unchaste, yet he was presented with seemingly incontrovertible evidence to the contrary. In fact, in this situation most husbands would overflow with jealousy, but not so with Joseph, “a man under self-restraint, and freed from the most tyrannical of passions.” (St. Chrysostom, Hom 4 on Matthew). So, in his extreme delicacy, not only did he not try to have Mary put to death, but he did not even wish to have her put to shame. What an example of forgiveness is St. Joseph! Yet, he also is so desirous of keeping God’s laws that he will not keep a wife in his house who he thinks to be an adulteress. St. Chrysostom tells us that the justice of St. Joseph is itself a sign of the coming of Jesus Christ, the Sun of Justice. St. Joseph "conducts himself now by a higher rule than the law. For grace being come, there must needs henceforth be many tokens of that exalted citizenship. For as the sun, though as yet he show not his beams, doth from afar by his light illumine more than half the world; so likewise Christ, when about to rise from that womb, even before He came forth, shone over all the world.” (ibid.)

Now, when the Angel has informed Joseph that Mary is indeed a virgin, and that the babe within her womb has been conceived of the Holy Spirit, Joseph does not doubt, but believes. He believes and obeys. In this, he shows that his decision to put Mary away quietly was not done from egotism, but rather out of a sincere love for God. For, if he had merely been obeying God out of egotism and pride, he might well have hardened his heart and not believed the message of the Angel. But, since he was concerned with doing the will of God, he was quick to take Mary into his house.

But what about sex? How can we say that Mary and Joseph were married if they did not have sexual relations, as did every other married couple on earth? Here, too, we gain an insight into the singular greatness of St. Joseph. As John Paul II explains,

Through his complete self-sacrifice, Joseph expressed his generous love for the Mother of God, and gave her a husband's "gift of self." Even though he decided to draw back so as not to interfere in the plan of God which was coming to pass in Mary, Joseph obeyed the explicit command of the angel and look Mary into his home, while respecting the fact that she belonged exclusively to God. (Redemptoris Custos, 20)

The total sacrifice, whereby Joseph surrendered his whole existence to the demands of the Messiah's coming into his home, becomes understandable only in the light of his profound interior life. It was from this interior life that "very singular commands and consolations came, bringing him also the logic and strength that belong to simple and clear souls, and giving him the power of making great decisions-such as the decision to put his liberty immediately at the disposition of the divine designs, to make over to them also his legitimate human calling, his conjugal happiness, to accept the conditions, the responsibility and the burden of a family, but, through an incomparable virginal love, to renounce that natural conjugal love that is the foundation and nourishment of the family. This submission to God, this readiness of will to dedicate oneself to all that serves him, is really nothing less than that exercise of devotion which constitutes one expression of the virtue of religion.
(Redemptoris Custos, 26)
And, quoting St. Augustine, John Paul writes

“By reason of their faithful marriage both of them deserve to be called Christ's parents, not only his mother, but also his father, who was a parent in the same way that he was the mother's spouse: in mind, not in the flesh." In this marriage none of the requisites of marriage were lacking: "In Christ's parents all the goods of marriage were realized-offspring, fidelity, the sacrament: the offspring being the Lord Jesus himself; fidelity, since there was no adultery: the sacrament, since there was no divorce." (Redemptoris Custos, 7)

See how Mary and Joseph give hope to all married couples, even those who are unable to bear children! For all married couples, no matter their age or situation, can and should participate in the fullness of the sacrament of marriage. And, at the same time, that Holy Couple gives to all married couples an example of how to life together in mutual love and self-giving.

So, we have seen that St. Joseph was obedient, that he was chaste, that he was full of faith, and that he was a true father. From where does his great faith and virtue come? For, St. Chrysostom says “By ‘a just man’ in this place he means him that is virtuous in all things.” Here, too, we turn to the reflections of Pope John Paul II. He notes that the gospels record not one word of St. Joseph. Yet, he continues, this very silence allows us to discover in St. Joseph a deep interior life. For St. Joseph “was in daily contact with the mystery ‘hidden from ages past,’ and which ‘dwelt’ under his roof.” He had a close and abiding relationship with his foster-son, who he raised as a father and trained in the ways of his trade. Every day, Jesus and Joseph were together in the carpenter’s shop, as is indicated when St. Matthew tells us that Jesus went up and was obedient to his parents. Jesus, indeed, learned from St. Joseph, but more than that, St. Joseph learned from Jesus. In fact, it is only just and right that the man who took care of Jesus as an infant should be one of the first and greatest recipients of his heavenly grace. Yet, he certainly would not have been ready for this deep and intimate contact with the Word made flesh, unless he had already prepared himself in prayer, a prayer life which is evident by his holy actions in the stories of tonight’s texts. Thus, we learn the importance of preparing ourselves for grace. St. Joseph was obvisouly a man of prayer, who centered his life on doing God's will, long before the birth of Christ. And, after Christ was born, he was given a gift of intimacy with Christ which has been unsurpassed by any except for the very Mother of God. But, here is a mystery, how can we prepare ourselves for grace? St. Augustine gives us the key,

Indeed we also work, but we are only collaborating with God who works, for his mercy has gone before us. It has gone before us so that we may be healed, and follows us so that once healed, we may be given life; it goes before us so that we may be called, and follows us so that we may be glorified; it goes before us so that we may live devoutly, and follows us so that we may always live with God: for without him we can do nothing. (St. Augustine, De natura et gratia, 31:PL 44,264., cited in CCC 2001).
In other words, God gives us grace, we freely respond to his grace by obiedience, and as a reward for this he pours out yet more grace. This pattern was the very heart of St. Joseph's spiritual life.

And so, let us always imitage that holy and exalted man, "a soul truly wakened, and in all things incorruptible," St. Joseph.

St. Joseph, Patron of the Universal Church, Pray for Us!

The Miracle of the Advent in Salvation History

When first arriving in some new place, it is only logical to look around and get the lay of the land. Until you know that, you cannot talk sensibly about anything else in the place. For example, suppose you arrive in a new house. You can't possibly begin to plan decorations, furnishings, or room assignments until I know what the house looks like or how many rooms it has. Similarly, if we are to talk of Christ's coming among us, we must know something about why he came, who he is, who people thought he was, and the culture and tradition that he was born into. For example, what exactly is a Christ? What does a Christ do? Why is there a Christ at all? How, when, and where should this Christ be born? We will speak study all these things in detail in the next four weeks. But in order for us to have any ability to study these and other such questions about the coming of our Savior, we must first know a bit about salvation history.

What is salvation history? "Salvation history is the story of God's marvelous work, since the creation of the world, to make all men and women His children, to form from the family of mankind a family of God." (Dr. Scott Hahn, Genesis to Jesus). We find an excellent summary of salvation history within the mass itself, in the forth Eucharistic prayer. It reads,


Father, we acknowledge your greatness: all your actions show your wisdom and love. You formed man in your own likeness and set him over the whole world to serve you, his creator, and to rule over all creatures. Even when he disobeyed you and lost your friendship you did not abandon him to the power of death, but helped all men to seek and find you. Again and again you offered a covenant to man, and through the prophets taught him to hope for salvation. Father, you so loved the world that in the fullness of time you sent your only Son to be our Savior.

Please forgive me if I repeat what you already know. However, repetition is sometimes the best way to learn something, especially when that something is as deep as God's action in the world.

The first sentence of the Eucharistic prayer will form the background for our entire study of Christ's coming among us. In it, we recall that God is infinitely great, transcendent, and wise, and yet he also is a God of love. God is love, not merely in an external sense, but in himself. That is to say, God is love not merely because he happens to have made and loved creatures, but because he is love in his very being. In fact, the One God eternally exists as three persons in an unending and perfect communion of love. God, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us, is "infinitely perfect and blessed in himself." (CCC 1) He was not lonely; he was not weak; he was not bored. He did not need to create anything. Nonetheless, God did choose to create something. "In a plan of sheer goodness," (CCC 1) he created a universe, and put man in that universe.

God made man, and made man in his image. Man is not only an animal, but also a spirit. Like God, man can reason, know, will, and love. And man has been created with a supernatural destiny, which is just a fancy way to say that God made man "to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him forever in the next" (Baltimore Catechism No. 3, Q. 150). And originally, this came very easily for man. According to the Council of Trent, man was created in a state of "holiness and justice" (Council of Trent, Session V, Decree Concerning Original Sin, 1). St. Augustine tells us that mankind was free from any fear, that they loved God and each other freely and naturally, and that they avoided sin with ease. Paradise was a state of spiritual and physical bliss for humanity. (De Civ Dei, XIV, 10-11)

Nonetheless, as Eucharistic Prayer IV points out, man did disobey God (Gen 3 1-7). And there were consequences, serious consequences, to this (Gen 3:7-24). The bliss of Paradise was broken by the darkness of sin. The Council of Trent tells us that mankind "was changed in body and soul for the worse" (Council of Trent, Session V, Decree Concerning Original Sin, 1). Sin separated men from God and from each other. Lust, greed, envy, pride, violence, and all other kinds of sin were introduced into the world. Death was introduced into the world. And not only the death of the body, but also the death of the soul. The supernatural destiny that we spoke of earlier was turned on its head, and man was now destined for hell.

It is exactly here, at the low point of the history of the human race, that God began to bring into being his plan of salvation. The Eucharistic prayer tells us, "Even when he disobeyed you and lost your friendship you did not abandon him to the power of death, but helped all men to seek and find you." The scriptures tell us that even as he was punishing man for the fall, God already promised a Savior.


I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. (Gen 3:15)

God is speaking here to the serpent, who had successfully tempted Adam and Eve to sin. He already declares that he will have victory over the serpent, who the New Testament tells us was actually Satan (Rev. 12:9), through a descendant of the woman.

Man, as the Eucharistic prayer points out, was trying to seek and find God. Through his own efforts, he was not terribly successful. St. Paul tells us that all men can know God through the use of reason (Rom 1:18-23, Compendium of the CCC, Q. 3). Nonetheless, man cannot know God fully or adequately by reason alone (Compendium of the CCC, Q. 4). The history of the human race has been filled with misguided attempts at religion: idolatry, polytheism, human sacrifice, ritual prostitution, and many other horrible perversions of truth and justice. And, if this were not enough, men made up all kinds of terrible and ungodly philosophies and deceptions: atheism, communism, and relativism just toname a few. Yet, even these attempts showed that man was searching for something that he was missing. The Eucharistic prayer tells us that God "helped all men to seek and find" him. He did this by offering mankind a series of covenants. A covenant is not simply a contract. A contract involves the making of promises and the giving of properties. In a covenant, you give your very self to the other by a solemn oath (Dr. Scott Hahn, Covenant: The Master Key that Unlocks the Bible). A covenant has conditions which both parties must abide by. If they are abided by, there will be blessings, but if they are broken the guilty party comes under a curse.

First God offered a covenant to Noah. After the flood, God promised that he would never again destroy the earth by water. In response, Noah and his descendants were to respect life (Gen 8:1-9:17). Then, God made a covenant with Abraham. He promised Abraham innumerably many descendants. Furthermore, he promised Abraham that "by your descendants shall all the nations of the earth bless themselves." (Gen 22:18).

A new stage in God's plan came with the covenant he offered to Moses and the Israelites. It was to Israel that God said, "I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you shall be my people." (Lev 26:12). The Israelites, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, were in slavery in Egypt (Ex 1). God took pity on them and sent Moses to lead them (Ex 2-4). By many miracles, and especially the miracle of Passover and the crossing of the Red Sea, he rescued the Israelites from their slavery (Ex 5-12, 14). Then, having saved Israel from Egypt, he made a covenant with them (Ex 19:1-8, Ex 24:1-8). He adopted them as his own people, and they adopted him as their God (Ex 19:5). And he promised to lead them into a land of their own, the land of Canaan (in modern day Israel) (Deut 6:3). As a condition of this covenant, the Israelites had to obey the law that he gave them through Moses. As was the case with all covenants in the ancient Near East, there were blessings if the Israelites kept the covenant, and curses if they did not keep it (Deut 28).

God did in fact bring his people into the land he promised them (Josh 3-4). And, eventually he gave them a king, Saul (1 Sam 9-10). Saul, the first King of Israel, was disobedient to God, and so God took away his throne and gave it to David, "a man after his own heart." (1 Sam 13:1-15, 2 Sam 2:4, 2 Sam 5:1-5). David, though he was hardly perfect (2 Sam 11, 1 Chr 21), was dear to God and loved God. David had a plan to build God a temple (1 Chr 17:1-2). God did not permit this, but he made a covenant with David that he would give David's offspring an eternal throne, and that David's offspring would build for God a temple (1 Chr 17:3-27).

In each of these covenants God drew men successively closer to him, and revealed more and more of himself. Nonetheless, throughout all of these covenants, men continually failed to be faithful and sinned. The Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are some of the most complex characters in the Bible, and had many foibles. The Israelites, throughout their history, both while they were in the desert and while they were in the Promised Land, went though cycles of being faithful and unfaithful. David, "man after God's own heart" though he was, committed adultery and murder. It was into this situation that God brought the prophets. As our Eucharistic prayer tells us, "through the prophets" God "taught [man] to hope for salvation." The prophets accused Israel of infidelity to God. They urged the Israelites to repent of their sins, lest the curses of the covenant come upon them. They also predicted that God would forgive Israel of her infidelities and save her from her sins. God would punish his people, but he would not remain angry with them forever. The people, if the did not repent, would go into exile, but God would bring them back to the Promised Land. Israel, which had all this time been unable to keep the Law, would be renewed. For God would establish a new covenant with his people. As the prophet Jeremiah said


Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, though I was their husband, says the LORD. But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each man teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, `Know the LORD,' for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. (Jer 31:31-34)
Now we come to the apex of salvation history, The scriptures tell us


In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets; but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. (Heb 1:1-2) But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. (Gal 4:4-5) In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins. (1 Jn 4:10) For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. (Jn 3:16-17)

Christ fulfills all the former covenants. In Christ's death, God uses man's disrespect for life to save man from himself. In Christ, all the nations of the earth are blessed. By the grace of Christ, which he gives us through his Passion, Death, and Resurrection, men are able to keep the law, which before they were not able to keep. It is Christ, the descendant of David, who will build the temple of God and reign on the throne of David forever. Christ establishes the new covenant, and writes the laws upon the hearts of God's people. Christ undoes the damage done by sinful Adam (Rom 5:12-21, 1 Cor 15, 21-22), and definitively defeats both death and hell (Rev 20:14), restoring man to his supernatural destiny.

May the Eternal Father, who loves us so, bless us as we continue to study his Word. Amen!

Bible Study Posts

At my church, the Church of the Sacred Heart in Oxford, PA, we are having an Advent Bible Study which Pat Carnivale and I are helping to facilitate. Tonight, I was asked to send out the "wrap-up" lectures that we have been having, and so I am glad to oblige. I'll post those lectures on my blog, so that they will be easy to access. Good night, and God bless.

Saturday, June 11, 2005

Men With Chests

"'Great art thou, O Lord, and greatly to be praised; great is thy power, and infinite is thy wisdom.' And man desires to praise thee, for he is a part of thy creation; he bears his mortality about with him and carries the evidence of his sin and the proof that thou dost resist the proud. Still he desires to praise thee, this man who is only a small part of thy creation. Thou hast prompted him, that he should delight to praise thee, for thou hast made us for thyself and restless is our heart until it comes to rest in thee."

-St. Augustine, Confessions

Welcome to Men with Chests. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Matthew Kennel. I graduated this past May 22, in the Year of Our Lord 2005, from VIllnaova University in Villanova, PA with a BS in Computer Engineering and minor in Theology and Religious Studies. I am a software engineer in Ardmore, PA, but my real passion is theology. I was raised as a Mennonite, but last year I converted to the Holy Catholic Church.

Although my twenty-two years have been all too short, I have had many challenging and heart changing experiences. I had a generally happy childhood. I was blessed with a beautiful mother, Joanne, a strong, wise father, Harold, and two amazing sisters, Sara, whose wisdom and beauty are immense, and Rebecca, whose sincere heart, strength of spirit, and love for God amaze me. However, my happy childhood came to a sudden end on September 18, 1999. I awoke to the shrill ringing of my room phone. The voice on the other end told me that my father and Sara had been in a terrible accident. Sara was ok, but my dear father, my best friend, was crushed and almost killed. But worse yet, even though he survived he suffered a terrible brain injury. (My eyes well up with tears as I write this, console me O Holy Mother of God!) So now, he gets neither the peace of Heaven nor the peace of family life, but instead the purgatory of the life of an invalid, but an invalid who can neither comprehend nor respond to his disability.

Tough as it has been, our family has somehow coped and come together more strongly than ever. My mother, may the dear Lord bless and console her, has been, even in the midst of her suffering, a tower of strength and faithfulness, both toward us and my father. My sisters have tried their best to have a normal childhood without dad. As for me, how many times have I coveted his advice, his love, his hugs, his sweet and strong voice! Oh dad, how we are all lost without you!

"But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumph, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ." (2 Cor 2:14-15). I for my part, have not given up hope in life or in God. That is why I hope for my whole life to be an offering to God, who in spite of my suffering is given me so much. To that end, I propose this blog! I have long wanted a place to post my thoughts and musings, to share with the rest of the world the bizarre and interesting things that go through my head. The title of this blog is "Men With Chests." This comes from C.S. Lewis' book, The Abolition of Man, in which he critiques the tendancy of modern "Intellectuals" to attempt to destory morals, natural law, and objective truth in man. Criticizing a book he calls The Green Book, he says

"The operation of The Green Book and its kind is to produce what may be called Men without Chests. It is an outrage that they should be commonly spoken of as Intellectuals. This gives them the chance to say that he who attacks them attacks Intelligence. It is not so. They are not distinguished from other men by any unusual skill in finding truth nor any virginal ardour to pursue her. Indeed it would be strange if they were: a persevering devotion to truth, a nice sense of intellectual honour, cannot be long maintained without the aid of a sentiment which [the authors of The Green Book] could debunk as easily as any other. It is not excess of thought but defect of fertile and generous emotion that marks them out. Their heads are no bigger than the ordinary: it is the atrophy of the chest beneath that makes them seem so.

"And all the time—such is the tragi-comedy of our situation—we continue to clamour for those very qualities we are rendering impossible. You can hardly open a periodical without coming across the statement that what our civilization needs is more 'drive', or dynamism, or self-sacrifice, or 'creativity'. In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful. "
-C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man, Chapter 1

Lewis points out that these "Intellectuals" are robbing men of their heart and soul. This disturbing trend, in my view, continues today with increased vigor and effectiveness. It is the great fall of Christendom that she has cut out her heart of flesh and replaced it with a heart of metal and silicon. Only by a sort of heart transplant can she satisfy her intense longing for freedom, peace, and rest. Only by regaining the Christ whom she has lost, will Christendom become alive again. O Christ, replace our heart of metal and silicon with thine own Sacred Heart, that we may become one in heart and mind with thee. Truly, "restless is our heart until it comes to rest in thee." Set us free, that we may be free indeed (c.f. John 8:36). We are dead in tresspasses and sins, make us alive (cf. Ephesians 2), for "the glory of God is man fully alive, and the life of man is the vision of God. If the revelation of God through creation already brings life to all living beings on the earth, how much more will the manifestation of the Father by the Word bring life to those who see God." (St. Irenaeus of Lyon, Against Heresies IV, 20, 7). Amen.