Should you say "Individual" or "Person"?

I would like to call to your attention a recent post by Taylor Marshall and begin with my own comments.

I think the below post by Taylor Marshall hit the nail on the head. When you look at the condition of our society – it explains a lot. We are focused on ourselves instead of seeing ourselves as part of a whole, whatever the whole may be: family, faith community, neighborhood, citizen, etc. An infant is by nature focused on her/himself and rightly so. Am I being fed, am I warm,  am I clean, am I being loved? As they grow older they learn about relationships, sharing, not hurting others physically or emotionally. Then in the teens another turn to the “me”, away from family and toward peers. Dating and love brings the focus back to others – at least one other. Than children are the focus. For the large part, I think this lasts until the 50s. We then turn our attention to others and try to be of some service.

Society has relapsed to an infant’s focus. No longer do we ask what is good for all of us, but what is good for me. This is seen in so many ways. To answer Taylor’s question I am a person.

Here is the beginning of Taylor's post:

Should you say "Individual" or "Person"?

By Dr. Taylor Marshall

Has anyone ever called you a "bright individual" or a "gifted individual"? What does that word "individual" mean? It means "undivided one." Stop for a moment and consider this, you "undivided one." Isn't "undivided one" a strange way to refer to people?

Referring to people as "individuals" became common in European languages after 1600, especially in English. It's a feature of the so-called Enlightenment.

Recall that the Enlightenment was that so-called Era of Light after the so-called Dark Ages of Christendom. For historical reference, the Enlightenment after the state establishment of the Protestant Reformation and ended with the bloody guillotines of the French Revolution...

The Enlightenment posited that the nation is divisible. The Church is divisible. The city is divisible. The town is divisible. The family unit is divisible. Even marriages were divisible. However, the person is not. He or she is triumphantly individual.

The problem, you see, is that viewpoint becomes a very individualistic way of looking at reality. Now all major intellectual shifts succeed after linguistic shifts have become previously established. The debate over the definition of "marriage" is a contemporary example. The move away from person to individual signified the enshrinement and idolization of the human individual. Man truly became the measure of all things.

You can see how the Reformation paved the way for this kind of language. To be an Enlightenment Christian all you need is yourself and the Bible. That's it.

We traded in the old communion of the saints and the universal fellowship of Christendom of previous centuries for that new shiny title of individual. Denominations will divide, but the believer never will. And so the individual believer trumped everything.

Read the rest of the post here.

Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day everyone. Please remember the reason we celebrate this day. Let's say a prayer for our fallen and injured brothers and sisters.

Unlike Michelle Obama, I am proud to be a U.S. citizen.

The New "Immigration"

I received this in an email. While I am all for legal immegration, I cannot approve of illegal immegration. I understand everyone wants to provide for their families, and I am fully aware of the Bible's direction in welcoming aliens, but uncontrolled immegration is not good for anyone. I thought this a good article and unlike the media, I will not censor it.

This has become a pure political issue. Efforts are not to help the immegrants, but to gain votes. Sometimes choices are difficult. Look at our economy, look at the national debt. If your livesaving boat is in danger of being swamped, do you let another in at the peril of all the others?



ORANGE COUNTY ( CALIFORNIA ) NEWSPAPER-
New Immigrants

This is a very good letter to the editor. This woman made some good points..
For some reason, people have difficulty structuring their arguments when arguing against supporting the currently proposed immigration revisions. This lady made the argument pretty simple. NOT printed in the Orange County Paper...................


Newspapers simply won't publish letters to the editor which they either deem politically incorrect (read below) or which does not agree with the philosophy they're pushing on the public. This woman wrote a great letter to the editor that should have been published; but, with your help it will get published via cyberspace!




From:
"David LaBonte"
My wife, Rosemary, wrote a wonderful letter to the editor of the OC Register which, of course, was not printed. So, I decided to "print" it myself by sending it out on the Internet. Pass it along if you feel so inclined. Written in response to a series of letters to the editor in the Orange County Register:



Dear Editor:
So many letter writers have based their arguments on how this land is made up of immigrants. Ernie Lujan for one, suggests we should tear down the Statue of Liberty because the people now in question aren't being treated the same as those who passed through Ellis Island and other ports of entry.


Maybe we should turn to our history books and point out to people like Mr. Lujan why today's American is not willing to accept this new kind of immigrant any longer. Back in 1900 when there was a rush from all areas of Europe to come to the United States, people had to get off a ship and stand in a long line in New York and be documented. Some would even get down on their hands and knees and kiss the ground. They made a pledge to uphold the laws and support their new country in good and bad times. They made learning English a primary rule in their new American households and some even changed their names to blend in with their new home.



They had waved good bye to their birth place to give their children a new life and did everything in their power to help their children assimilate into one culture. Nothing was handed to them. No free lunches, no welfare, no labor laws
to protect them. All they had were the skills and craftsmanship they had brought with them to trade for a future of prosperity.


Most of their children came of age when World War II broke out. My father fought alongside men whose parents had come straight over from Germany , Italy , France and Japan . None of these 1st generation Americans ever gave any thought about what country their parents had come from. They were Americans fighting Hitler, Mussolini and the Emperor of Japan . They were defending the United States of America as one people.


When we liberated France , no one in those villages were looking for the French-American or the German American or the Irish American. The people of France saw only Americans. And we carried one flag that represented one country. Not one of those immigrant sons would have thought about picking up another country's flag and waving it to represent who they
were. It would have been a disgrace to their parents who had sacrificed so much to be here. These immigrants truly knew what it meant to be an American. They stirred the melting pot into one red, white and blue bowl.



And here we are with a new kind of immigrant who wants the same rights and privileges. Only they want to achieve it by playing with a different set of rules, one that includes the entitlement card and a guarantee of being faithful to their mother country. I'm sorry, that's not what being an American is all about. I believe that the immigrants who landed on Ellis Island in the early 1900's deserve better than that for all the toil, hard work and sacrifice in raising future generations to create a land that has become a beacon for those legally searching for a better life. I think they would be appalled that they are being used as an example by those waving foreign country flags.


And for that suggestion about taking down the Statue of Liberty , it happens to mean a lot to the citizens who are voting on the immigration bill. I wouldn't start talking about dismantling the United States just yet.


(signed)
Rosemary LaBonte

Tea Party and the IRS

Quote - Daniel Webster - Taxes

"The power to tax is the power to destroy."

--Daniel Webster (1782–1852)

And I must say dear legislators, I am taxed to the hilt, I have no more else to give. I have no discretionary spending. Yeah, I'm pretty much destroyed. Thank you so very much. You now have more people in the cart than are pulling the cart. I am done pulling. Who is John Galt?

Jeremiah

I started work early so I could leave early. Rush hour traffic of a Friday was not fun. But I knew it would be worthwhile. It is one of those things where you have never met the person, but felt a special affinity for that person. I was not able to make his funeral because of work commitments, but I decided to pay my respects after work today.

I am speaking of Jeremiah, the infant that was found in a cooler in a recycling center in Chicago Ridge. Although he was with us for a very short time, he was/is very much loved. The Chicago Ridge Police and Fire and many others were at his funeral Mass and burial.

Jeremiah has been on my mind a lot, as it is beyond my comprehension how anyone, anyone could do such a thing, especially all that was needed to be done was drop him off at a fire station or hospital – no questions asked. I dread to think what he experienced in the cooler; asphyxiation? Starvation? No one but God heard his cries. Jeremiah was just a little older than most of his brother and sisters who have been killed by choice. But Jeremiah and the others didn’t have a choice, did they?

It has been hard to digest the news of Jeremiah and the Gosnell trial. Yet I am aware of the numbers, 3,800 a day nationwide, 57,000 a year in just Illinois. I is so frequent we almost become acclimated to it – well no we don’t. If there is a benefit to Jeremiah’s death and the infants under Gosnell’s knife or rather scissors, it is that the media was forced to write about it.

As I approached the children’s section of Holy Sepulchre it was disheartening to see only one date on some of the head stones; birth and death on the same day. Others only a few days, months, or a year.

I spent some quiet time with Jeremiah, there were still flowers and a ribbon with his name.

I noticed many of the markers said little angle or something like that. How true. For with God’s love and Jeremiah’s total innocence, how can he be anything but an angel.

Jeremiah is one reason why I do what I can for pro-life.

Below are some links about Jeremiah’s funeral and an editorial from the Tribune:

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2013/05/01/dead-newborn-found-inside-cooler-at-recycling-plant/

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-edit-safehaven-20130517,0,2936617.story

http://evergreenpark.patch.com/articles/abandoned-dead-baby-in-chicago-ridge-to-be-laid-to-rest

And here are some pictures from the children’s section:

Mom's Old Clothesline

Something different for a change.

Nostalgia: I remember this well, in fact I have a neighbor who always hangs her clothes out – there is nothing like outside-dried clothes.

Mom's Old Clothesline

 I remember our clothesline and remember running the line through a rag to clean the line.  I also remember bringing in flannel sheets in the winter that were stiff as a board. We used to hang them over the heat registers
 This reminds us of how much fresh air and sunshine we modern gals miss out on
it's the poem at the end that's the best!!!

Remembering Mom's Clothesline

There is one thing that's left out. We had a long wooden pole (clothes pole) that was used to push
The clotheslines up so that longer items (sheets/pants/etc.) didn't brush the ground and get dirty.
I can hear my mother now.....

THE BASIC RULES FOR CLOTHESLINES:
(If you don't even know what clotheslines are, better skip this.)
1. You had to hang the socks by the toes... NOT the top.
2. You hung pants by the BOTTOM/cuffs... NOT the waistbands.
3. You had to WASH the clothesline(s) before hanging any clothes - walk the entire length of each

     line with a damp cloth around the lines.
4. You had to hang the clothes in a certain order, and always hang "whites" with "whites," and hang them first.
5. You NEVER hung a shirt by the shoulders - always by the tail! What would the neighbors think?
6. Wash day on a Monday! NEVER hang clothes on the weekend, or on Sunday, for Heaven's sake!
7. Hang the sheets and towels on the OUTSIDE lines so you could hide your "unmentionables" in

    the middle (perverts & busybodies, y'know!)
8. It didn't matter if it was sub-zero weather... Clothes would "freeze-dry."
9. ALWAYS gather the clothes pins when taking down dry clothes! Pins left on the lines were "tacky"!
10. If you were efficient, you would line the clothes up so that each item did not need two

      clothes pins, but shared one of the clothes pins with the next washed item.
11. Clothes off the line before dinner time, neatly folded in the clothes basket, and ready to be ironed.
12. IRONED???!! Well, that's a whole OTHER subject!

And now a POEM .

A clothesline was a news forecast, To neighbors passing by,
There were no secrets you could keep, When clothes were hung to dry.
It also was a friendly link, For neighbors always knew
If company had stopped on by, To spend a night or two.
For then you'd see the "fancy sheets", And towels upon the line;
You'd see the "company table cloths", With intricate designs.
The line announced a baby's birth, From folks who lived inside,
As brand new infant clothes were hung, So carefully with pride!
The ages of the children could, So readily be known
By watching how the sizes changed, You'd know how much they'd grown!
It also told when illness struck, As extra sheets were hung;
Then nightclothes, and a bathrobe too, Haphazardly were strung.
It also said, "On vacation now", When lines hung limp and bare.
It told, "We're back!" when full lines sagged, With not an inch to spare!
New folks in town were scorned upon, If wash was dingy and gray,
As neighbors carefully raised their brows, And looked the other way.
But clotheslines now are of the past, For dryers make work much less.
Now what goes on inside a home, Is anybody's guess!
I really miss that way of life, It was a friendly sign
When neighbors knew each other best... By what hung out on that line. 

Reflection - Evangelization

I may have spoken on this topic before but I have some new thoughts that I would like to express. We may never travel to a distant country where evangelization is most needed, we are not “professionals,” we have not studied for a couple of years on the topic, and we have not spent time delving into a particular culture, but nevertheless we are called by our Franciscan identity, our being Catholic, to evangelize. But, if you look around you, you will see a great need to evangelize - just where we are. There are so many broken people, so many lacking faith, so many un-churched. We have a lot of work before us.

In fact, in many ways, we can do a better job than our religions brothers and sisters, because of our secular life. We are more close to them, we are more visible. But we ourselves may be broken, lacking faith, sinners. To evangelize, we first must evangelize ourselves. That is why was are called to the Gospel constantly.

I’ve been reading articles in Salt and Life: A Journal of Contemporary Franciscanism, the Mission in the Franciscan Tradition volume.  One article is by Hilaire Valiquette, OFM, entitled Reflections on the Franciscan Missionary Charism. I would like to quote one paragraph that I found meaningful:

“At times, there has been a false dichotomy between ministry and fraternity, as if we had to choose between one or the other. Francis saw them as two sides of the same reality; without the work of evangelizing, fraternity becomes a self-serving elite; without fraternity (even full of conflict and contradiction), evangelization is the activity of self-righteous individuals. The danger (especially, it seems, in crossed cultural mission work) of the "lone wolf" mentality, with its self- righteousness, bitterness, and lack of accountability, is always present. We have a corporate responsibility to constantly call one another to conversion, to understanding and living the gospel we promised, and to bring forgiveness and healing to one another. We are accountable to one another and to the local church.…”

Although this is written with the first order in mind, I believe it applies to us as well. To be in fraternity as Franciscans and not be involved in evangelization is not who we should be. To evangelize without our brothers and sisters – the “lone wolf” mentality, is also wrong, for we are fed, formed and encouraged by them.

St. Francis, in his first Rule, taught us how to do it - his two ways. First, to simply be with the people we need to evangelize – get to know them and they us.  Living our Franciscanism and our faith is enough. He also advised to take nothing with us – we don’t need a lot of resources, we only need to be ourselves; he advised to be subject to everyone, that is, not to put on an air of superiority because we are people of faith – we can express our faith without being overly pious, which may turn others off. Once we have done this, at our best discretion, we can go to the second way – to proselytize our faith, to get the Bible out, to invite them to Mass. Will we be successful? Only God knows. But imagine if we brought just one person to faith, to believe, to think of their relationship with God.

Jesus often hung around with sinners – we need to go to them as well. He came for the poor, disenfranchised, not the  ”in” people. He came for the sick (in all its manifestations), the geeks, the unloved, the overweight, those lacking aesthetic appeal. He came for others like us.

Fortnight for Freedom

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is planning the second annual Fortnight for Freedom from June 21 to July 4. For more information go here.

When injustice becomes LAW, resistance becomes DUTY

In God's Image

“As our culture drifts even further from the truth that each person is created in God’s image … life will continue to be viewed as a cheap commodity.”

— Jim Daly, Focus on the Family president, on recent national tragedies in Boston and Texas.