Yet Another 'Nerd' Posting...

Recent news developments have seen what even the mainstream media is calling an unusual conversion.  An atheist blogger, a well known one at that, has converted to Catholicism.  That's right, Leah Libresco, known widely for her writings in Atheist circles has converted and embraced Jesus in His One True Faith.  (See here) .  For the mass media and secular society, the so-called progressives(Bill Maher,), this is seen as an assault upon the intellect.  For us, though as Catholics, this is nothing new. 

Now I'm not about to go off on a typical 'Optimusmastro' rant with regards to this subject, but I will call upon the need to truly investigate the claims of the Catholic Church.  I've been called too philosophical by some protestants, yet I firmly hold to the notion that Faith and Reason are two sides of the same coin.  My own conversion was not the 'Paul falling off the horse event,' instead it was a long drawn out process(St Augustine) which is still ongoing.  I thought I knew philosophy back in university, especially coming from the political science backround.  Rene DesCartes, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Adam Smith, Heigel, Marx, etc, etc...Then from the religious side, there was Kung, and Richard McBrien representing this 'evolving' catholicism... My meeting with this dude right here Bishop Dowd sent me away humble, but very curious.  Intellectually starved, and knocked silly by an all out nuclear assault on my intelligence by this bearded little priest, I was introduced to Plato, Aristotle and finally Aquinas!  (I've often found it funny, that they both have the same first name...).  From there, I dove back into the Bible, started praying and went back to reading GK Chesterton, Jacques Maritain, and anything authored by Peter Kreeft. From there discovery after discovery,..

The Catholic Church developed the scientific method.
The Catholic Church put forth the theory of the 'Big Bang.'
The Catholic Church invented hospitals
The Catholic Church invented University,..

You could go on and on,...

Truth is one, it just IS.  Whether you ascend to it by way of intellectual discovery or by Faith, it is from the same Divine wellspring.  The key is to integrate the Truth of the Faith so that it penetrates the heart.  The 'atheist logic' of 'nothing' magically exploding one day producing 'something' is just plain absurd.  Why Christianity gets a bad rep intellectually you ask?  Simply put because of protestantism, specifically fideism...scholars and 'PHds' such as Jack Van Impe, Benny Hinn, Hal Lindsey,..God bless them all, I do not doubt the sincerity of their heart, but you can't be afraid of knowledge.  What God uncovers, man discovers!   Sorry for being blunt, but the truth must be said.  You can't proove the Bible by the Bible,.. Like the atheist logic, it just doesn't work.  My protestant friends, you lose nothing by becoming Catholic, but you will gain The Most Holy Eucharist, the Blessed Mother, and an intellectual tradition so rich and so steeped, you could spend a lifetime learning it all...(and then some!..)

St Thomas Aquinas,..................ora pro nobis.

Compromise or Balls?

I think I'll choose balls.  The reason is because I have a set.  Sifting through some email recently, an alarming trend started to surface, apparently I'm 'pro' reconciliation with the SSPX and that frightens some aging hippie 'catholics..'  Well, once again, although I've answered you all personally and you know who you are,..what is really cute is that your all 'pro' ecumenism,.or should I say 'ecu-mentalism' (except for the Catholics in schism)  FEEL that we might alienate the Buddhists or Zoroastrists should we welcome our brethren in schism back home.  You see, this is the fruit of their infallible 'pope' Hans the 1st, and his proclamation from a few weeks back,.. (see here) .  For the record, I am a loyal son of the Church, in all Her teachings... Like any sinner, I have difficulty following some, but Trust in Jesus to lift me back up again when I fall.  I desire reconciliation with all Christian groups,..not just the 'politically correct' ones.

That being said, the next issues were concerning my approach.  I'm considered dangerous and a loose canon,..well, a few years back, I would tend to agree!  I was angry, (could make Mike Voris look like a teletubbie..) rigid and unbending...Then something happened,..I actually read the Gospel!  What does this mean?  Well,.for one, Our Lord at times gets angry especially with those He loves,. ('Get behind me satan!' was directed at Peter), He also cleared out the Temple,.so hypocrisy caused Jesus to get just a little nervous... However, throughout His ministry on Earth, Our Lord was incredibly merciful and hung out with all the 'riff-raff' of His day!  Mary Magdalen? Check!  Zaccheus up in the Tree?  Check!  He meets them where they are, then leaves off with a 'Go and sin no more' challenge.  Yes, God is Love, and yes we need to find pastoral ways of reaching people, but 'pastoral' does not mean hiding the truth from them, even if the truth hurts.

Working in the fitness industry saw me deal with a wide range of people.  From obese to skinny, from athletes to the elderly.  If I gave them a 'cookie cutter' template program and sent them on their way, I would make money, but I wouldn't be doing my job.  People with diabetes need to be told that there blood sugar levels are out of balance, that they shouldn't eat the banana split that they are craving.  Overweight people need to burn more calories than they intake in order to drop weight.  If I withhold this kind of information while making money, I am a fraud and contribute to their decline in health.  People come to see me for a reason, because I will tell them what's what.  The same is true for the Church, especially concerning the souls.  As Catholics we need our priests to speak about abortion, or the gay agenda, if not, how will people know?  The media does an incredible hack job in articulating what the Church teaches, and sometimes the priests can deliver a homily which is nothing more than an exercise in ear tickling.  I know women who've had abortions, I have witnessed their pain,..I've even heard them say, they didn't realize it was going to be so traumatizing.  We need to cry with them, but we need to speak the truth so that it doesn't happen again.  The same holds true for people with same sex attraction.  The Church recognizes their pain, but their act is incredibly dangerous and a health hazzard.  Again, I know people who suffer, and alone they will tell you, they wish they didn't have this cross.   Again, to my detractors, I will gladly introduce you to any of these people,..people that wish they would have been told otherwise..

I use the examples above simply to illustrate a point.  If it is God's will that I, one day become a priest, I will preach on these issues.  Will I judge their souls?  No!!!  Only God can do that, and besides, me pointing a finger, always reveals three fingers pointing back at me.  People deserve to know the Truth, their salvation (and ours) depends on it.  I would hate to meet Jesus on Judgement Day, knowing that I witheld information for the sake of 'being nice.'  As I prepare for Southdown, I encourage everyone to keep me in their prayers.  I will not play a game, I've lived too much, and know how deadly the world can be...Hey, my Dad told me to eat my vegetables when I was a kid,..didn't like them, but now I thank God he told me what's what!

Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati,............ora pro nobis!

The Fruits of Selfishness

I, Marco/Optimusmastro the Cybertronian for years used condoms.  I was a product of the contraceptive mentality instilled by even my 'catholic' elementary school.  Oh sure, we were told that the ideal was chastity, (wink, wink,..) but as a precaution in came Sr Tai Chi McRaindance from the congregation for Ecological Native Spirituality to teach us sex education.  We've all been there, the banana, the lesbian nun with the brushcut and pantsuit that looks like it came right from the set of 'Goodfellas'...You know the scene where the wives are gossiping.  Thank God for my conversion, thank God for Grace, thank God for Theology of the Body, thank God for my mother,(a true St Monica..)...

Why the harsh attitude you ask?  Well, the stage has finally been set, we, the 'West' have finally driven the bus right off the highway and now all we can do is lessen the impact of our crash landing.  The US is supposed to lead us, the free world, and what we are witnessing now is the final decline of the Empire, and with them follows us, Canada, the great future muslim North....  It has happened before all throughout history, a breakdown of the family and traditional values sets up the stage for an economic collapse.  You think I'm sounding 'theological' or 'fanatically religious?' Fine, then let's go the secular root shall we?  The contraceptive mentality, you know sex without consequences, kinda like chewing but not swallowing, (makes perfect sense..) turns out has consequences after all!!!  Well whaddaya know!  The west, depending upon what stats are coming out is not producing children.  If we don't produce children, then there are no future tax payers subsidizing social insurance or social security as our neighbours to the South call it.  Therefore pensions will cease to exist, because there are no people to pay into them.  You figure the average family needs to produce 2.1 children JUST to stabilize.  One child to replace the mother, one to replace the father, and the '.1' is in the case of an accidental or unforseen handicap, death or sickness.  Well we haven't been doing that...sigh...In some cases, the birthrate for western children has been 1.3!!!!!!!!!  But don't worry, because the muslim family down the street, you know the one with 4-5 children, they will replace you!!!!!  (Hey they may even replace our laws with Sharia!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaayyyyy!)  Isn't that multicultural?  Look how tolerant the Middle East is,..Sudan, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia,  true tourist destinations!....You get my point.

So Mr President, sadly I can't vote you out, but you have to be the most dangerous man is the world.  Your population control nonsense, H1N1 (Yup I went there...) tax payer Obamacare funding abortions,...Can the American people please stop drinking the cool aid?  If I get called 'rascist' Canadian one more time in an email,..I'm gonna scream! (along with personally fly down to either give you an education or if need be a serious lobotomy!!!!!!  If you seriously think a family, a normal family can be defined as two men in so-called marriage and a dog..then we need our heads examined.  Abortion is the norm?  So now the new thing is sex orgies, professional people engaging in them, a truly selfish society turning itself inward where the ultimate goal is to please the 'me' the 'I' and forget everything else.  As a history buff, I can't help but draw comparisons to the Roman Empire....sad really... Freedom begets choice and choice has consequences!  God has used other people to chastise His own,...Allahu Akbar,..it is coming,  wake the f@#$ up! 

Our Lady of Akita,.......................ora pro nobis!

The Tomato Shirk,..

Another homerun for the 'religion of peace' making headlines recently is the fact that tomatoes are Christian fruits which worship the Trinity and not Allah!!!!!!!!  Yesssssss!  How awesome is that article?  I can only imagine the leaps and bounds as well as selective censorship and editing by left leaning 'news' outlets to not cover this embarassing story.  Well in a truly sad state of affairs this story finds its origin in a muslim group from Egypt.  Seriously you have to read this for yourself,.. See Here. 

Now to be fair,..once this story broke, receiving no news from the secular press,..(Amazing that the Pope can't tie his shoes without something negative being said,.but with Islam?  Noooo,..) going viral through social media sites such as Facebook, and Twitter, the group clarified its remarks,..'saying its okay to eat tomatoes, just don't cut them in such a way that it reveals the Cross....In the article, you can see the picture of the Cross inside the tomato, so by deduction that means that tomatoes are Christian and thus forbidden,.. (God bless this system of education, as it probably would cause Aristotle to develop a cocaine habit after hearing this, or at worse slit his own wrists..)  Now,.that this story is going viral expect an 'answer' from a whack a doodle fundamentalist 'Christian' group (who don't believe dinosaurs existed...) by the 'Minister' with his imaginery non accredited PHDs..  Finally 'atheist' mouthpiece Bill Maher will inevitably blame the Vatican,.because well, its the last acceptible prejudice.

My friends, I have said this before, that Faith without Reason becomes supersition.  Our Lord does not deny us education and as Christians we are not to live inside a fideistic bubble.  Theology is crucial, but must begin with a solid philosophical grounding,..if not?  Then how do we arrive at Truth?  Faith alone? (Westboro Baptist, Mormons,..etc..) Issues like this solidify my Faith, and can bring me to my knees thanking God for the Grace of being Catholic...So that being said,..Whether its Mohammed being grabbed by the throat by the 'angel Gabriel,' (Peaceful,. that should have been Mohammed's red flag right there..), Joseph Smith walking into the woods one day seeing the Father and the Son, or any of the Heinz 57 varieties of protestantism,..only one Faith is logical, only one still adheres to natural law,..that Faith is the one started by Jesus upon the 'rock' of Peter!

St Peter and St Paul,....................ora pro nobis!

Seminarian from Cybertron, fights Both Heretics and Decepticons!

With all the goings on happening inside the Universal Church, negotiations with the SSPX, discliplining of the Feminazi nuns and so forth, I figured that now is as good a time as any to give a little update regarding my situation, (as if I really matter...lol).  I have submitted my request to become a candidate to officially discern priesthood for the diocese of Montreal.  Last week, saw me meet with the admission committee of the Grand Seminary of Montreal, and from what I've been told, the meeting went extremely well.   The next step will see me going to Southdown in Ontario for a full psychological assessment, this is standard practise, as they want to make sure I'm sane.. Through various emails, I have been asked lots of questions, so I will do my best to answer them.  Once again I will pick a few and answer them online though 'Confessions' especially when some of them are kind of the same question just asked by different people.  Here goes!

Optimusmailbag Time!

1.  You seem to actively promote the Extraordinary Form of Mass over the Ordinary Form!  Why do you want to undo VII??  (This question was submitted to me by a parishioner at my home parish, who was made aware that I would be answering him through the blog.)

Ans:  I have answered this question before, but will do so again.  Your question is in fact two questions, not one.  First off, I grew up in the Ordinary Form and until a few years back had never been to an Extraordinary Form of Mass.  I don't promote one over the other, but what I do promote is orthodoxy and respect for Jesus truly present in the most Blessed Sacrament.  The Eucharist celebrated in the Ordinary Form never called for the priest to face the congregation.  For Christ to appear, the priest in a sense must disappear.  He is dead to himself, and acting as 'alter Christus' leads the people in worship with everybody facing east,..not the modernist feminazi drivel of 'he has his back to us..blah blah blah..)  The problem with most (not all) ordinary form Masses is sometimes the focus is people centered and not God centred.  The theology behind the new Mass, can murky the waters a little bit, emphasizing a more protestant understanding the Eucharist as meal, which while true, is the secondary aspect.  The Eucharist is first and formost a Sacrifice.  The priest acts as both 'priest' and 'victim.'  The silly sixties crowd hijacking the Council fear the Extraordinary Form because it is a much more disciplined form of worship which is totally God centered. 

The second part of the question is why I want to go backwards.  First off, VII is a pastoral council.  It defined no dogmas, but instead reaffirmed everything the Church has consistantly taught.  Saying that the true Church subsists in the Catholic Church is a more technical way of saying that the Church is the One True Faith.  Assigning degrees or potentials to other denominations or religions was the same way Aquinas looked at other Faiths,..(Summa Contra Gentiles).  An example of this is there is a significant degree of difference between Eastern Orthodoxy as opposed to Islam.  So in trying to figure out where they are, one has to see how much Truth (which is first and foremost Catholic) they possess.  While I do admit, some of the language can be interpreted as 'ambiguous' at best, and confusing at worst, the Church has reaffirmed Her position, that VII must be read it light of Tradition, not opposed to it.  Sorry to all the funky potheads from Woodstock, but your social justice marxism train fell off the tracks a long time ago.

2.  How do you deal with celibacy?

Ans:  From the standpoint of my conversion experience, and if you read my history..celibacy was not the problem, chastity was and is.  I led an active pagan lifestyle,..So it wasn't an overnight thing (Augustine's Confessions) and thus prayer, daily exercise, amending my diet, Sacrament of Reconciliation, Spiritual Direction, Eucharist, the Blessed Mother and simply put, trying to avoid occasions of sin.  If I fall,.then I get back up, basically Jesus slapping me saying I don't save myself, Christ does and this is God's reminder.  This issue will be with me forever.  I'm a man.  God did not take away my manhood.  If I see a hot girl, the first look is beauty, the second is lust.  As men we are wired that way.  Some dude tells you otherwise, don't tell him to see a priest, tell him to see a doctor! 

3.  Why the aggressive attitude?

Ans:  The priest is first and foremost a MAN!  So act like an f'n man!  Reading through the Gospels, I remember Jesus cleaning house when He needed to, (The Temple) St Peter cut a dude's ear off, and St Paul was well just a little different,..just a little..(kinda like 'Hawk' from the Legendary Road Warriors tag team).  The point is to intergrate all of our humanity and put it at the service of the Church.  Our Lord is pastoral, yet affirms Truth.  He meets people where they are, and then says to them 'Go and sin no more.'  Too often our male catholic experience of Fr Fruitcake colouring his little felt banners and adorning his sanctuary with butterflies and crap like that is an affrontery to his very office.  Why is the Extraordinnary Form attracting men?  The same reason the Martial Arts and the Army do,..  If you can't figure that one out,..then you need a lobotomy...

4.  If you become a priest, will Optimusmastro die?

Ans;  No, but he might become Rodimusmastro instead.  Optimus was always cool under pressure, the ideal leader.  Myself, though I'm a huge Optimus Prime 'mark' I have too many weaknesses,..tempermental, emotional, insecure..basically a Catholic hot head!,...  Maybe I'll be assigned a parish with a priest who will have the qualities of Ultra Magnus to guide me? ;) 

Off to book Southdown!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

St Augustine of Hippo,.........................ora pro nobis!

The Social Media Divide

This past Saturday afternoon I was priviledged to be among 50 invited guests from the archdiocese of Montreal to speak on the future of Catholic Social media.  In reality, how can we, the english Catholic community continue to tell our story, which is at once relevant but also takes into consideration the past history in print, The Catholic Times Newspaper which by the way is independant.  What flowed from the conversion was, in my opinion a much larger issue, and that is exactly who is this community?  We can no longer call ourselves 'Irish' now can we?  Ironically my former pastor brought up that point, and though he and I disagree on nearly every theological point, his assessment of this new reality was right on the mark.

Where do we begin?  Well, for one thing, the internet must be the medium used to advance the New Evangelization.  Print, (if it is kept..) can only be an extention of a greater online reality.  News travels fast, and though one can make a argument that Facebook and Twitter are passing fads, one cannot deny the reality of the Social media.  Any company that is relevant, has an entire staff dedicated to online search engine optimization, key words and social media delivery.  To 'ping' an article or a bit of news as soon as it is delivered.  The debate seems fairly simple, remake the Catholic Times by streamilining it online, so that news is instant, not a month old.  There is a financial question, The Times simply cannot continue to print, and while there would be an initial start up cost to a website, we can still exhaust many different free avenues to start up while at the same time moneytizing the site.  Case in point,..the blog you are reading.  The obstacles however,..old people!  God bless them, but sadly even old Yeller had to be put down.  Its not that elderly people can't learn, it is just that they choose not to.  (Unless of course its a new scratch lottery ticket machine!).   To be fair, that generation deserves print, perhaps a collection of the best articles in a digest type of magazine that comes out seasonally, but to invest in a monthly newspaper is no longer feasible.  While I understand that some older people generally wait for their print newspaper to come out, they need to know, that these are not decisions done in malice, that sometimes very hard business decisions need to be made, not against certain people, but so the avenue of Catholic media can continue and grow.  We moved beyond VCR's to Tevo, beyond analog to digital, ...Its just the next logical step...

From a personal standpoint, it was throught the online community that most of my generation who practice their Faith were introduced to actually learning it.  At times, the diocesan newspaper was nothing more than a mouthpiece for the 'spirit of VII' poltergeist promoting syrupy stories, a leftist agenda and absolutely no call to action.  As that little old lady from the commercials in the 80s used to say,..'Where's the beef?!?'  Sooo, the JPII generation when we wanted to be fed, by passed the out of date models and headed straight for the Vatican website, straight for Catholic Answers, EWTN, and recently Real Catholic TV...The internet and social media is now producing a generation of fervent believers, ready to defend the Church and ALL Her teachings!  Our Lord has a sense of humour, because, while some of the older folks, the social justice kind, want to keep their independant diocesan newspaper, you can look them in the eyes, and plead your case on their level,..'But trees will die?  I thought you were so pro-environment Sister McRainforest?'  Muahahahahaha....God is good!

St Isidore of Seville,..................ora pro nobis! 

The Shakeweight,..Ultimate Symbol of a Sick Culture

I struggled whether or not to write this post, because something happened this morning as I was heading back from training.  I stopped at Walmart to take a look at the prices of kettlebells for a priest friend of mine, and lo and behold I got hit with a major dosage of reality.  I used to laugh at the shakeweight, its on the shelf in the fitness section, but this time there was a young mother and a child...(Not to mention one 'shakeweight' out of its packaging on display...

So here I am,.just finished getting strangled at the Gracie Barra Academy, when I decide to stop at Walmart, they opened, eight-thirty in the morning (ish)...  I didn't really notice, but the little girl picked up the 'shakeweight' and made the 'exercise' motion with it!  (I won't go into detail,. we've all seen the commercial)  The thing is, she started giggling!  She couldn't have been more than 8years old and she knew!!  Her mom was laughing and I was getting scared she was probably the one who taught her!  I couldn't take it so I created an excuse to speak with her (mom) and said I was a trainer and that she's be better off with a kettle bell...She didn't buy any of them, but I left with this issue on my mind...

Yesterday, when I was asked by the admissions committee at the Grand Seminary if I realized what kind of world and culture I would be ministering in, I answered matter of factly,..this morning, I lived it!  Sex is a natural impulse, but ultimately a disordered one.  Think of always wanting to 'chew' without swallowing.  The same is true for sex.  Divorcing the act from its source Love, it gets turned inward, reducing it to a purely pleasurable physical activity.  I know.  Been there done that.  I prayed for that little girl and her mom, that Jesus may lift the veil from their eyes and their hearts be open to true love.  Then I begged God for mercy, because people like me used women as playthings and I saw the fruits of my lifestyle.

St Maria Goretti,...............ora pro nobis!

Green 'Pink' Lantern

Well as of last week, DC Comics announced that Green Latern is gay.  (See here)  Yup! How else can I begin this post, but by just cutting to the very marrow of last week's 'breaking' news about a DC icon.  My position on this as a Catholic is obvious, yet from the so-called secular lenses, (as with the Starbucks post here) it begs the question as to why DC or Marvel or any publishing house would want to weigh in on such a political hot potatoe and risk alienating fifty percent of their readership?  It just doesn't compute...

Superheroes have always fascinated me, as a child, an adult, even as a discerning potential seminarian.  They are imperfect beings trying to strive for virtue and always willing to lay down their lives for a cause.  Kinda the way we are called to live our lives as Catholics.  Optimus Prime, gave his life for the autobots and always took blame for questionable decisions.  Wolverine always tried his best to control his temper and not decapitate someone.  Hulk's problem was that when enraged, the little bit of Banner's personality restraining him would get cloudy and he could easily level a town.  The list goes on.  Green Lantern, was part of the Green Lantern Corp, a collection of people chosen by the Green Lantern ring to act as guardians of the universe.  Earth's version, has also been associated by membership with the Justice League.

So the debate is on, and (surprise!) because I'm a huge comic book buff, I was asked to comment, what are my thoughts on Green Lantern's 'outing?'  Silly media,..think u can outsmart me?  My answer, is that we'll have to wait and see.  First off, I take the position of the Church, that there is no such thing as a 'gay.'  There are only people, and some of these people have a cross that is same sex attraction.  They are to be treated with respect and dignity, they are to be offered God's mercy and love, knowing that even if they fall, like any great saint before them, they have the sacrament of Reconciliation readily available.  They are called to chastity as their act is intrinsically disordered, meaning that God cannot draw a greater 'good' out of it.  A straight couple, even using a condom, can still be open to new life...(condoms break..).  Homosexual acts are dangerous period.  This link has statistics, don't believe me? (here)  Then look it up.  Just because something is 'politically correct' doesn't make it right. 

So maybe Green Lantern, like Wolverine or Hulk will see his affliction as a cross to bear.  He will strive for virtue, by living a chaste lifestyle, trying to guard the universe!  Okay, let's be honest, this is about as likely as Leadership Conference of Women Religious submitting to humility!  DC, sadly, will probably look toward the issue in the future, whereby Green Lantern will marry his lover, and thus a whole new generation of kids will become desensitized to a very problematic moral issue.  Freedom?  Ha!  Funny thing is,..Aquaman or Robin would have fit the gay agenda a little better,..

Sacred Heart of Jesus,.....................Have mercy on us!