The Garter Alternative

There is one wedding “tradition” which I had never come across prior to coming to the United States. It’s the “tossing of the garter” where, in front of all guests, the groom takes off his bride’s garter (sometimes using only with his teeth) and then tosses it to all the single guys, much in the same way as a bride throws a bouquet:

garter

Now, maybe I’m overly sensitive or maybe it’s just because I’m English, but I think this is a custom which is both extremely tacky and undignified:

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Pithy Christian One-Liners

1. It is easier to preach ten sermons than it is to live one.

2. People are funny; they want the front of the bus, the middle of the road, and the back of the church.

3. Some people are kind, polite, and sweet-spirited until you try to sit in their pews.

4. Many folks want to serve God, but only as advisers.

5. The good Lord didn’t create anything without a purpose, but mosquitoes come close.

6. Opportunity may knock once, but temptation bangs on your front door forever.

7. Quit griping about your church; if it was perfect, you couldn’t belong.

8. If your church wants a better Minister, it only needs to pray for the one it has.

9. God Himself does not propose to judge a man until he is dead. So why should you? We were called to be witnesses, not lawyers or judges

10. Some minds are like concrete: thoroughly mixed up and permanently set.

11. Coincidence is when God chooses to remain anonymous.

12. Forbidden fruits create many jams.

13. God doesn’t call the qualified, He qualifies the called.

14. God grades on the cross, not the curve.

15. God promises a safe landing, not a calm passage.

16. The task ahead of us is never as great as the Power behind us.

Wise Words On Wednesday: Intended for Great Ends

Who doesn’t love Cardinal Newman?! If you would like to purchase the newly-published book “The Quotable Newman“, then please click on the link below:

Therefore, it seems only appropriate that today’s “Wise Words On Wednesday” come from the famous Anglican convert himself:

newman

“If we are intended for great ends, we are called to great hazards”  
– Blessed John Henry Newman

In addition, the author, Dave Armstrong is also offering free e-books if you publicize his book on your Facebook page or blog!

The Catholic News You Never Hear

I’ve started reading “Rediscovering Catholicism” by Matthew Kelly and I wanted to share a one quotations from the opening pages:

“Every single day the Catholic Church feeds, houses, and clothes more people, takes care of more sick people, visits more prisoners, and educates more people than any other institution on the face of the earth could ever hope to…

The Catholic education system alone saves American taxpayers eighteen billion dollars a year

This year, catholic charities will provide 2.2 million free meals to the hungry and the needy of Chicago. We don’t ask them if they are Catholic – we just ask them if they are hungry”
– Matthew Kelly, Rediscovering Catholicism

When there is a scandal in the Catholic Church it is blasted from every media outlet so that the whole world gets to hear about it. Yet how is it that the continued good works of the Church so often go unreported?

Catholic Charities

Aside from the fact that it’s not as sensational, it’s not news! This is the same service which the Church has offered the world every day for two thousand years. It ceased being news a long time ago…

That would be an ecumenical matter

This weekend I finished recording another document of the Church onto MP3. It is the decree on ecumenism from the Second Vatican Council, Unitatis Redintegratio.


Unitatis Redintegratio.mp3

In that vein, I’d also invite you to read the article Because our love has grown cold, written by my friend Nelson. I think his blog post points to the key thing which is needed in order for there to any meaningful ecumenical dialogue between Catholics and non-Catholics.

“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one — I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me” – John 17:20-23

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