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My favorite scripture of all time is: Matthew 9:11-13. In this scripture Jesus has critics who ask, “why does your master spend so much time with tax collectors…?” Back then the tax collector was the hated man and was a man associated with being evil and a sinner. Jesus responded, “’It is not the healthy who need the doctor, but the sick … I did not come to call the virtuous but sinners’ “(cf. Mt 9:11-13). Jesus’s statement rings home to me because how often in our lives do we sit and say, “look what so and so is doing, how can they still go to church and do such things!” In other words we often spend a lot of time watching TMZ and commenting on other people then focusing on our own lives and on Jesus.

In this passage Jesus addresses me personally. I know I am not perfect and that I need to heal. He gives people like me hope that someday we will be in heaven next to our Lord no matter what are faults are. There are some who are always so quick to judge others. I am guilty of that too. This Michael Jackson deal is one of those times. Why are we always so quick to believe that someone is evil? Why not just celebrate a man who has died for the good that he brought on Earth. Michael Jackson was one of those figures who was surrounded by controversy but did a lot of good too. That is my Michael tribute.

Moving on, Fr. Father Thomas Rosica, CSB writes:

“It was those who were willing to rebuild their lives who were most ready to listen to Jesus and become his disciples. You can follow in their footsteps, you too can grow particularly close to Jesus because you have chosen to turn back towards him.”

We often as humans do not see a person improving with his relation with Jesus because it is a personal journey. We only see what is outside and not what is inside. People grow at different rates. Jesus affects us all in different ways. I guess that is why I started Catholic America Today so that people could talk about how Jesus affects them. I having so much suffered from temptation and sin have often cried for Jesus to bring me home because life was so hard. Jesus has kept me going. Some days I have no idea how I am going to pay the rent or get enough money to eat and he answers me. It is never a grandiose thing with Jesus. He just does things in his own way and often quiet. So quiet you may not notice he is there. You need to be silent or you might miss him. He helps those that need the most help. He helps the sinners get through life, so if you know someone that is down and out and having a hard time coping with life due to drugs, sex addiction or just plain sin and pain, chances are you will find Jesus there too. Like the above scriptures states, he is there to help the sinners for they are the sick ones. I know, I have been sick and I needed healing and he came.

Jesus helped me return to a loving relationship, one that respects family and family members. Jesus helped me to realize that material things and pleasure are not what is important in life. I was so far away from Jesus I did not worship him. I worshiped the pleasure that came with money and sex and lost sight of Jesus. I hope all of you do not have to suffer as I did. Sex addiction and addiction to money and all its nuances can bring down many. I am just glad Jesus did not abandon me. This is his message, no matter how low you go, he will always be there for you. When you are in total darkness he is the light at the end. He brings light to all darkness. In Matthew 9:11-13 I see my hope. In this scripture I see Jesus as my Doctor and salvation I hope you all do too.  Vernpaul catholicamericatoday.net

[size=”4”]Some people might say that I am kind of withdrawn when they meet me in person.  Ok, I will give you that.  I am kind of like that.  But then again that is not really true.  I think you can read me like a book.  I express my self to God everyday when I write. Writing keeps me close to God.  If you want to know me all you have to do is read.  I write in Catholic America Today to express myself.  Sometimes I write so much during the day that if you know me in person I have nothing more to say.  That can be a bummer.  At those times you will see me just quiet and thinking. That is right, I said it.  Believe it or not that is my favorite past time and I do think, contrary to the beliefs of my family and friends. What am I thinking about?  I think about the world and God and how we all relate.  I think of the many animals I encounter and what they are doing.  I love to watch nature shows.  One of my favorites is Whale Wars, although many people peg me to the right of Attila the Hun, when it comes to Whales I am left of Karl Marx.  I do not understand how anyone could kill such a majestic animal.  I would give my life to be with the Whale Warriors at sea fighting the Japanese.  The people have good heart.  They are terrible sailors but they have heart.  Being an ex Navy man I would fit in on the Sea Shepherd.  Telling sea stories all day and night for entertainment would be the way of life.  Anyways, this writing is nothing special.  I am just venting my head.  No thoughts in particular.  Oh, wait there is one, writing has brought me closer to God.[br][br]

By writing in Catholic America Today it makes me think of God on a daily basis.  I urge all of you to come join us and think in those terms.  I am not perfect.  I write it as I see it.  This is where I like to vent and tackle the questions that men and women struggle with.  Come join me.  I accept all.  Writing is a therapeutic way of just saying, “Here I am Lord,  Now come and read me like a book.”

God Bless you all.

Vern Paul Hee

Catholicamericatoday.net

A free Catholic Evangelical site dedicated to spreading the word and linking Catholics to other Catholics.

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Dear Friends in Christ,

I am writing this letter to you all becasue so many of you have teen ager in your life and I would like your thoughts on this.  Mind you I will print any of your responses and quote you unless you say not to or just give me permission to print your comment without your name.  I am placing my thoughts on teen sexuality into Catholic America Today and want to know and have some responses to it to add to my thoughts.  I have an idea in my head how I want to address sexuality among teens and just want to knock around some ideas with you all.  I have chosen you becasue you either have teens or have recently been one.  Our society has become faster and highly mobile one.  Do our teens have time to smell the roses?  The recent death of the one teen who texted her nude pic to her bf has made me think long and hard about teens and our family structure and more importantly how Jesus can help.  Teens need to be involved in Jesus.  This is my conclusion.  The next question is where is Jesus in the High School I speak about it and how do we get him there. Here are my thoughts:

I have been spending some time with some teens lately through a mutual friend.  What I learned from my interaction was very disturbing. Through conversations with these teens I became aware of the need for the love of Jesus.  Many of our teens lack this and by the time you read this you will know why I feel this way.  The mother I talked to extensively is named Jen.  Jen has two teen daughters.  I have been very alarmed to hear what they have to say.   They are very sweet girls but on a daily basis they put up with a lot of adult topics.  I am so overwhelmed that I do not know where to begin so I am just going to start from the beginning.  I have changed the names so as not to embarrass anyone.  We will call the daughters Jane and Lisa.  Lisa being the older one of 17 and Jane just turned 16.  They attend a high school in
North Las Vegas.  We will call this North High.  The name really does not matter.  With all the sexting messaging and internet porn around I knew that teen knowledge of sex would be high.  How did I come upon this information which I am about to reveal to you?  I did something that most adults would find hard to do.  I just listened to the kids.  This is the product of about one to two months of just listening to the kids talk.

Here is little back ground on the family:  Jane and Lisa are the product of a divorce. They live in house of all females.  The mother works for

Clark
County and is a school teacher.  There is no male role model currently in the home. There mother Jen has been married seven times and currently there is no faith at home although Jen is seeking information on being Catholic.  She has been married so many times that it will cost her over 1000 dollars to annul all the marriages.  The teens go to school and come home after 1:30.  From 1:30 till about fiveish they are at the library.  The library is kind of a local hang out.  That is either here or there for at least she is trying.  On a daily basis her kids interact with similar families at school.  Jen’s situation is not out of the norm.

Jane and Lisa have a variety of friends my favorite of theirs is Jake.  Jake is a tall skinny teen kind of a cross between the actors Ben stiller as a teen and Ashton Kutcher. He is on the feminine side and he relates well too girls because he likes to gossip and shop.  He has the goofiness of Stiller and the long haired look of Kutcher in the That Seventies show.  Jake has an interesting life.  Both his parents are porn stars and he is gay.  By far he is the most interesting of the friends but there are more.  Bonnie reminds me of Thelma from the Movie Scooby due.  She is a very sweet seventeen year old and is sexually active but she is gay too. She is slightly over weight and has short hair.  She related to me while we worked together on a project that her mother and father have given her permission to have sex with other teens. One of her typical comments is how much she enjoys oral sex, which she will happily relate to you in a normal everyday conversation.  Lisa and Jane engage in sexually related conversations on a daily basis, mostly about there far from innocent relationships. 

On a daily basis they interact with very troubled teens.  Jane related to me that many of the girls will become bisexual because the boys are so sexually aggressive at the school.  The boys become bi because the girls are not giving them sex so they need a sexual out let.  Again this was all news to me.  Students at this age should not have to deal with this type of behavior nor could this be healthy.  What I plan to do is forward this info to Eddie Olivas who is a counselor for Catholic Charities.  I would love to hear his take on this to see if he is dealing with this too.  I would love to hear his professional opinion on what I have been hearing.  I will also forward this to a priest and see what he thinks.

Jane is currently best friends with Jake.  They have not had sex yet to my knowledge but they still make out with each other which is a tell tale sign to me that perhaps Jake is a bit confused.  I would bet that the two have had sex.   Jane tells me she is not sure of Jake’s gayness for he says oral sex with a man does sicken him.  The bottom line is Jane and Jake are in separable and enjoy each others company.  They regularly tell each other everything that goes on.  Jake tells Jane about his troubled home life.  His mom often comes home drunk and has wild parties.  The latest thing is Jake’s parents have been doing reality tv shows t make extra cash.  Jake is a drama queen.  So film crews invade his peace on a regular basis.  This constant sharing and meeting of the minds is what teens are looking for.  In my opinion they are seeking the friendship and the love of someone who just will listen to them.  In all the conversations that I heard at no time did they ever put down a person because that person was gay or bi.  This reaffirms my statement that they see only human beings and not sexual preference.

On one conversation I had with Jane she asked me out right what I thought about abortion.  I told her as a Catholic that I was against it.  She told me that she would have one in a heart beat because right now she is not ready to have a child.  I told her that abortion is killing and that is wrong.  She told me she never thought about it as a human being.  She said, “wow,  I really never thought of it as killing a human being.  I was so into how inconvenient to me it would be to have a baby at a young age.   I talk to my friends all the time and they all tell me they would have an abortion in a heart beat.”  This definitely was an eye opener to me.  Teens at this age are so “me”oriented.  She was starving for information.  I could tell.  I was so shocked though that I could not recover enough to have a stimulating conversation and she quickly turned the subject to her new boy friend.  Her new boyfriend Harold, who I learned was a bad kisser because his breath stunk and he always kisser her with food in his mouth.  She told me she met him that day and kissed him too, probably too much information.  I learned the majority of my information by listening to the two teens talk at dinner.  How often do the teens eat at a table with an adult?  Hardly ever, most conversations they have with an adult are in a car on there way to school or at school with a teacher.

The youth I talked to were starving to know about Jesus.  They wanted to know about the churches position on sex and abortion.  Jen is worried about her sixteen year old.  She just caught her with her boy friend in a compromising position. After a stern conversation with the boy, the boy promised not to have sex with her daughter.  She trusts them but would you trust the hormones of a seventeen year old?  She is truly worried and is seeking answers. 

Catholic America Today is currently seeking prayers to reach people who have been affected by pornography.  I think the situation at this high school is interrelated.  As Catholics we need to be aware that over 70% of the male teens have viewed pornography.  These are startling numbers.  As a person who was addicted to sex, I can say teens need to be reached at a younger age.  They are starving for attention at this age and looking for answers.  I believe a Catholic presence should be felt in this area.  A mentor of mine, Fr. Stan Bosch, who works diligently in Los Angeles with the gangs, has lead me to believe that anything can happen if you just listen to people and let you tell them their concerns. I believe this is the case here.  We have a population of teens starving for Jesus and they want to be listened too.  Please let me know what you think.

–
Vern Paul Hee
catholicamericatoday.net
Catholics Against Pornography
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Enhanced Media Concepts

I once knew a man that was very strong, but not strong in the usual ways as we think of the word. He was strong in the ways of Jesus. He took his knowledge and made peace where there was war. He was so strong that he could go into a neighborhood where the body count was high such as Compton or East Los Angeles and he could make peace. Fr. Stan Bosch is his name. He has been the bringer of peace in the war torn streets of Los Angeles for over two decades now. I had the privilege of working with the Fr. Stan in the streets of Santa Ana. I remember the day I met him. I was joining his ministry for the first time. He was working an neighborhood in the middle of Santa Ana which at the time was well known for its murderous death toll. I went up to shake his hand and he was surrounded by a group of kids of all sizes and ages, all Latino. They were listening to him intently as he spoke in Spanish. He looked quite perturbed and so I asked what he had just said because at the time my Spanish was not so good. A girl named Veronica told me that a one year old was just killed by gun fire by the rival gang so he was telling the Lopers (the neighborhood gang) that killing wsa not the way and a peaceful solution had to be found. All the youth present were all in the gang and they were all fixated and spell bound by the padre as he spoke. Love and peace flowed out of his body as he spoke. The gang members knew that he was speaking from the heart. As I stood there, even though I was surrounded by lions, I was at peace too. There was no fear. I was totally put at ease by this very loving and giving man.

His chastity is an example of the Love of Jesus.
Living a life of celibacy whether it is before marriage or because you are priest is a sacrifice. It is a statement of your love. As men and women we so often make our relationships about “sex” and that is not what a relationship is all about. Sex is just a part of a relationship. When you celebrate chastity like Fr. Stan stated, then your Chastity becomes so much more. It becomes a gift to other humans. You are giving more of yourself in your relations with other humans.  Vern writes for catholicamericatoday.net, join now.

I so longed to receive the Eucharist one Sunday that it hurt. But I had sinned and I had not gone to confession. I thought I could go and no one would know, but I would know and more importantly God would know. I began to entertain weird thoughts. If I don’t go what would people think of me?  They are all watching me, I have to go.  I then thought of Jesus looking down upon me.  I felt his presence during the mass.  Then the urge passed and all was good.  He told me to wait.

We are drawn to the Eucharist even when we sin.  It is the focus of our Church.  As well as it should be.  Many people have the above discourse with themselves while at mass.  While casually reading a book called Father Joe by Tony Hendra I found a passage that struck home, Tony finds God for the first time while visiting a priest in a monastery:

“The  “he” of his God was gentle, generous, endlessly creative, musical, artistic, and engineer and  architect of genius, a “he” who felt his joy and your joy deeply, who could be hurt just as deeply but would never give up on you , who showered you with gifts and opportunities whether you acknowledged them or not, who set you tasks but didn’t abandon you  if you failed them…Father Joe spoke of this person fondly and gratefully , with respect but more than a hint of intimacy.  Familiarity for him had bred no contempt.  Fear wasn’t even on the board.  His God might have untold trillions of other concern, but definitely had time to be Father Joe’s best friend.  ( if you like what you have read, find the book  Father Joe, the man who saved my soul, by Tony Hendra)

Unfortunately  we do not see God like this.  We approach him with fear and never completely understand his power to forgive.  Often times we sin so much that it is we who give up on God by not going to confession thinking that it is pointless.  I was very blessed today when I got an email from Jessica with the following:

YOU SAY   GOD SAYS   BIBLE VERSES
You say:  ‘It’s impossible’   God says:   All things are possible   (Luke 18:27)
You say:  ‘I’m too tired’   God says:  I will give you rest   (Matthew 11:28-30)
You say:  ‘Nobody really loves me’   God says:  I love you   (John 3:1   6 & John 3:34 )
You say:  ‘I can’t go on’   God says:  My grace is sufficient (II Corinthians 12:9 & Psalm 91:15)
You say:  ‘I can’t figure things out’   God says:  I will direct your steps   (Proverbs 3:5-   6)
You say:  ‘I can’t do it’   God says:  You can do all things   ( Phil ippians 4:13)
You say:  ‘I’m not able’   God says:  I am able   (II Corinthians 9:8)
You say: ‘It’s not worth it’ God says:  It will be worth it   (Roman 8:28 )
You say:  ‘I can’t forgive my self’   God says:  I Forgive you   (I John 1:9 & Romans 8:1)
You say:  ‘I can’t manage’   God says:  I will supply all your needs   ( Phil ippians 4:19)
You say:  ‘I’m afraid’   God says:  I have not given you a spirit of fear   (II Timothy 1:7)
You say:  ‘I’m always worried and frustrated’   God says:  Cast all your cares on ME   (I Peter 5:7)
You say:  ‘I’m not smart enough’   God says:  I give you wisdom   (I Corinthians 1:30)
You say:  ‘I feel all alone’   God says:  I will never leave you or forsake you   (Hebrews 13:5

I am not sure of the author but again it emphasizes the love that God has for us.  How can we return the love God has for us?  For starters we can pray to him and talk to him.  Then we can follow his commandments especially about loving thy neighbor and finally we can go to church and adore him by partaking in the Eucharist and seeing it for what it really is, the real presence of Jesus Christ, Jesus in our midst.  This alone should have us flocking to church.

I have a close friend who is very excited about becoming a Catholic next year.  She is so excited because she will then be able to partake in the Eucharist for the first time.  As Catholics sometimes we do not get excited like that.  She has a friend that has been Catholic but does not go to church.  The excitement has left her life.  She is locked in a cycle of sin that has her forsaking the love for her husband and God.  To unlock this cycle may require the love of a friend to help her break this cycle.  Perhaps you know someone in your life that is like this.  All it takes is a little caring and some time to talk and to listen to a person that you already care about.  How can I speak about this love and friendship and how do I know about this cycle?  I myself have gone through this in my life.  I know it just takes one conversation to bring you back into God’s Grace.  God only wants to see that you are trying and that you are making the effort. Everyone probably has gone through this.  Maybe it is your turn to reach out to someone you care about.  Each day you go to church and receive the Eucharist, you receive the Holy Spirit just like the original followers of Jesus did after they lost Jesus.  The Holy Spirit brings courage and wisdom among other graces.  Use the gifts wisely.  Help someone regain the grace of God.

This Easter was an eye opener for me.  A person took the time to help me with my life.  Actually several people did.  My family must be thanked.  These people made me open my eyes a bit more to God and all the possibilities.  They gave me hope by just taking the time to say that they cared.  Sometimes that is all people need, just a tiny word of encouragement to keep them going.  In such hard times that we face many of us need to know that our friends and family support us along with God.

Catholic America Today

Catholicamericatoday.net

Vern Hee

by Lisa and Vern Paul
Vern and I have gotten together on this one to add our two cents on this very sensitive issue on conversion of Christians to Catholics. Many Christians consider Catholics as being some sort of bad uncle that needs to be hidden away. Many Catholics are told by Christians that we are not Christian but some sort of weird sect to be hidden in the basement like the famed Cinderella. Our Church never trains us for the overwhelming amounts of missionaries out there so eager to convert the Catholics that are surely going to hell because they do not know scripture and they pray to Mary and not Jesus. Our Catholic Universe is slowly giving into change. Ever so slowly Catholics world wide realize the great things that we have going for our religion. No longer are we just content on idly sitting while the world passes us by. There is a quiet movement among Catholics slowly creeping into the mainstream Catholicism that wants to be heard. The quiet Catholic that so meekly sat by as some Evangelical Christian spewed out the evils of Catholicism is slowly disappearing. The “meek and quiet Catholic” is getting educated on his or her religion. Such trends are well documented on websites such as Catholic Answers where over a million Catholics flock there for more information about our faith.

As Vern stated in a recent article Easter is a time for renewal and for Catholics it is a time for us to get our house in order and re examine our faith. My suggestion is while you are at it take a look at your friends and see who could benefit from being a Catholic. Do you have friends that are lonely and are always going through men or women like there is no tomorrow? Or do you have friends that are constantly looking for a new church because they have no faith in God and are constantly bored with all the new age goop that does not fulfill them? Your friends that are very tradition oriented and celebrate Christmas to the hilt but just can not find a religion are ideal potential Catholics. Catholicism is full of tradition and history. Christians may not know this but Catholics love scripture and the Bible. We have the Real Presence of Jesus in every mass that we celebrate. The sacrament of reconciliation keeps us from sin. Explain this to them in a non threatening way. Your friends, the people you care for are the ones you should share your faith with. After all they are your friends. Do this in a way you do not threaten them. Kindness is the way you do this.

We have so much to offer and yet we need more people to offer our faith to others. We offer our faith to others by leading by example. We need to feel less self conscience about talking about our religion. We should fill ourselves with the Holy spirit and go forth into the world and convert people to our faith.

Vern was telling me about a friend he has. He began the conversion process through casual conversation and email. It was just sharing. It was nothing to overt but from the heart. It was more like someone came up to him and started asking questions about our faith and he started answering them. This is how many conversions start you just have to be willing to answer them. Ask yourself if you are ready to answer?Questions about our faith became a daily thing for him to answer and when he felt he could not adequately answer the question he sent the person to the appropriate website for the appropriate answer. He did this by example and caring. It was hard for him at first and then it just came out. How did he navigate through the pitfalls and the awkwardness, he talked to his friends on line. His friends on CAT got him through this.

Vern Paul:

Conversion is something you do not something you think about it. In other words as I talked to Lisa, we talked about how we both love to share our faith with our friends not because we want to convert them because it is so natural to talk about it. On our site Catholic America Today we share our faith with all of you. Well we like to do this in our everyday life with friends and family. My mother thought it strange at first. She even told me to stop talking about Jesus saying I should not do it. For some it is not natural and if someone asks you to stop then you should. More often then not people will not ask you to stop. Most of the time people do not realize that they have the same love for Jesus too and can be just as excited as you are but were afraid to express it. They are relieved when you do bring it up.

I have this web ring link on CAT and I went exploring on it the other day and I found a cute self rosary prayer. In other words it is an aid to say the rosary with pictures of the mysteries and everything. I was excited for finding that so I sent it to my friends. Things of this nature can lead to a conversion. When people see you so full of the love of the Lord, they want to know why and where they can get that feeling. It is like being the new kid on the block with the newest toy or the man on the street with the new car. People are not use to seeing “excitement about the Lord” in people. Also just because the person is Catholic does not mean you stop sharing this stuff. Sharing with other Catholics is good practice. I have a friend in Oklahoma and if she stopped sharing with me I would be mad. She comes up with the greatest stuff. People are at different levels and to share with in your faith is a great place to learn to share to others that are not in the faith.

Lisa said to me the other day, “Paul did you ever have a day when you talked to the Lord and he answered by referring you to a friend” and I answered that happens everyday. In all truthfulness the Lord has given me a friend to talk to whenever I am in trouble. To turn that friend away would be like turning the Lord away. I had a recent crisis and a friend showed up. The Lord answered my prayers.

As you know you can share by writing. This happens to me a lot. I was trying to make it to lent and trying to make myself the holiest I have ever been. Then I made a mistake and when I did I was for a brief moment very disappointed in myself. I did not want to share with anyone my faith and then I realized I needed to share. The reason being is Jesus loves us and the fact that we tried to be like him and the effort we put into Holy week is what counts. Jesus loves us no matter if we fail or succeed. I failed and I felt really bad but then I prayed for the rest of the week and began sharing my faith again and Jesus filled my heart with Joy again. So even if you are not perfect all of the time you can still share your faith. I realize that now. We all have times that we fall and can not be like God. God is always there for us and he loves us no matter what.

Share your faith with a friend, regardless of what faith that person is. Sharing your faith could be just to sit in pray. Sharing your faith could be just being kind to that person and offering food or your friendship to that person. Kindness of the heart is the mark of a Christian and of Christ. Being a good Samaritan comes from your heart. Remember the words from the song, “and they will know we are Christians by our Love…” Being in love with Christ tends to consume your life. Frankly you do not need me to remind me about what to do. The Lord will tell you and I am sure you will be listening. Are you listening to God? Are you ready to Answer?

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The Power of Christ

Embrace Christ for Easter and I will see you in church.

The News Media Is Twisting The Words Of The Holy Father

Vern Paul catholicamericatoday.net

I was told recently that 83% of teens between the ages of 12-17 have viewed pornography. Hearing this sickens me to the stomach. A good friend of mine just had a conversation with her daughter and her best friend who is a male. The young male told my friend that he had been addicted to porn since he was 12 years old. When are we going to wake up as a nation and say enough is enough? Our Holy Father came to America and that was on the top of his list and yet America acts as if nothing is wrong. We continue to let other issues top our priorities instead of our youth. Then we wonder why headlines like the following happen: http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090314/D96TME501.html . I have taken action. I have formed a group called Catholics Against Pornography. This is a non profit which will help educate our youth. We need to help them. Porn was not as readily available to us as it is to them. I will soon have a web site up for this right now info is on my other site…catholicamericatoda

y.net. Please help us and if you can not then pray for our success. Porn can not be eliminated but we can slow it down. Pray…we will be having a rosary walk to pray in October in Las Vegas.

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How Can Denial of Pleasure Help Us In Today’s World

It is Lent a time for giving and searching your heart for God.  Why do we give up things for Lent, how does that help us to be better Christians?  I firmly believe that denial of pleasures of any sort helps one to be a better Christian and perhaps a better American.  I look back on my life and honestly believe that if I had denied myself certain things I would have been better off today as a person.

So often we look for many solutions to our problems in magazines and on TV.  We look for the quick fix to our weight problems and lack of exercise, or hair or what ever our fault may be.  If the body part does not fit or is too small or ugly we look for the quick solution.  An operation or a dooma flicky.  Think of all the money we could save and put back into that 401 K if we could just go to our medicine cabinet or gadget closet and get cash for all those quick fix solutions we paid for.  We would be rich!  We would not be thinking of getting that second job and we would be on a beach in the South Pacific rather then sitting some where in Bloomington, Illinois in 12 degree weather.  Let us face it as American Catholics we are the consumers of the quick fix.

Where does denial come in?  Where does denial of my pleasure come in? Well think about it.  If we could deny our selves from reaching for the convenient cell phone to text my bff to let him know I just clipped my toenails, if I just denied myself the pleasure of letting him know that, I would have saved the .20 cents.  That money adds up, so much so employers around the country are denying text messaging to their employees.  On the more serious side, think of the things we give ourselves on a daily basis.  Eating out for lunch, that extra cup at Starbucks, or the movie you saw with the kids.  Now if you learn to deny yourself these pleasures, it will teach you that you can do with out them!  It is all about self discipline, a concept that our society did not learn before this economic crisis. 

Perhaps we would not be in this crisis today if we only learned about denial during Lent.  Denial of the pleasures can be applied to our spiritual lives.  It teaches about the sacrifices that Jesus went through.  Through denial you can put yourself in our Saviors shoes.  You can relive the Stations of the Cross with our savior and learn what suffering he had to go through.  Denial strengthens our faith and allows us to make sacrifices and be grateful for what we have.

Through my personal experiences with denial I have learned a great deal about my failures in my life and have come to the conclusion that my recent failures are actually aiding me in my present day successes.  In other words I had to fail to succeed.  I have changed my out look on life.  I no longer look at denying myself that color plasma TV as a failure, rather I look at that as character building, a lesson that many of our kids still need to learn. In  an era where you can talk to people by just whipping out a cell phone and email someone at a push of a button, our kids have no concept of how to be disciplined, they lack patience, a virtue in itself.  They look at denial of pleasure as road block not as virtue.  As adults we need to concentrate on this and slow the world down for our kids.  We need to teach them that they need to wait for the good things in life.

How do you conquer your desires?  Simply say a prayer to help you.  Pray to our Lord everyday. Many Priests’ would recommend you take up the rosary.  Expressing your self in this manner would ease your desires and help you overcome anything in your way from becoming more spiritual. Do not have the time to say a whole rosary? Say ten hail Mary’s and an Our Father.  Do this religiously and you will be able to overcome anything. For example if you are having a problem with over eating.  Have that pie and then pray.  Say the rosary after you have that pie.  The Lord will listen to your pleas for help and soon you will learn to deny yourself that extra pie.

Think of this America; if we had this patience, if we had the ability to deny ourselves pleasure, would we be suffering now?  We do not even possess the patience to wait for the economy to get better.

God Bless

Vern Paul Hee

Catholicamericatoday.net