How many Catholic Supreme Court Justices are there?

Where did the prayer to St. Michael originate?

Which important Catholic events happened on October 13th?

What is the meaning of the  statement “Eli, Eli, lama sabacchthani?”

What was the name of the good thief?

Who was Longinus?

How many states allow assisted suicide?

What is Bohemian Grove?

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Greetings Ignitum readers! My apologies for missing my last posting here a few weeks back. I’m sure you were all wondering where I was (uhh hum) and/or waiting with bated breath for the announcement of my baby’s birth (you didn’t know I was even expecting?!). Well I am slowly coming out of the postpartum fog that has surrounded me since the birth of my fifth child, Levi Joseph three weeks ago today.  Late nights, lots of diaper changes, soreness from labor, delivery, and breastfeeding, trying to get life back to a new normal with five children…. It is all honestly exhausting and sometimes during the middle of the night feedings I pause and wonder, “Why in the world do we do this?!?”

Then I look down at this tiny bundle nestled here in my arms and smell the faint trace of Chrism oil still present from his recent baptism in his baby soft hair, and I reminded that this work is not of this world. I am overcome with emotions of intense gratitude and humility when I recognize that I have been asked to raise an eternal soul created by God in His own image and likeness.  I will have the honor of being called Mom by this beautiful child and his accomplishments and character will reflect the love I have invested in him. This is truly a gift that I cannot comprehend.  This gift of Motherhood. This amazing gift that I never even knew I wanted until I was one.  The role of a lifetime that I was called to from the moment of my creation by a God that knows my purpose better than I do. Motherhood.

Me with my two favorite men, my husband Josh and JP2 in 2004. I was asking Papa to bless my newly conceived child in this picture. I am fairly certain he prayed I would understand, accept, and share the beauty of the gift I was about to receive; motherhood.

Motherhood has been something I have been pondering a lot lately. You see I am passionate about something called New Feminism and have written a bit about it over The Guiding Star Project website and  here at IT too. The idea and call for the New Feminist movement came from one of my favorite men, John Paul 2 in 1995 when he asked the women of the Church to establish an authentic form of feminine expression; one that works to turn back the destructive forces of the earlier feminists who promoted the idea of women independent and separated from men and children.  I believe what JP2 was really asking the faithful women was for us to embrace and elevate the status and vocation of motherhood in our culture to once again remind humanity what it means to be valued and cherished by a mother.

Embracing motherhood does not necessarily mean that a woman must conceive and give birth physically to children in order for her to “mother”. In fact there are many women who have borne children who have never really mothered. And on the flip side, there are many beautiful mothers whose wombs will never carry a child.  Motherhood is the expression of the feminine traits that are intrinsically built into us when we were created women. The unique talents and gifts of females are perfectly suited to the mothering of humanity. Our intuitions, communication skills, empathy, personalization of others, and emotional capacities are exactly what our world needs to see expressed to turn towards an attitude of appreciation and acceptance of life.  The feminine virtues expressed through the selfless sharing of our lives and acceptance of others is what JP2 was asking of today’s women when he called us to become New Feminists. He was asking us to exude the qualities of motherhood to a world very much in need of a mother’s love.  The people of our world need desperately to be reminded of and experience the unconditional, unending love of a mother.  Either by mothering her own children physically with great love and intention, or spiritually mothering those in her life with kindness and prayer, this selfless love is how women best show others the face of God.

Me and my fourth child, Ezra. As I’ve learned to accept and embrace motherhood, I’ve found purpose and passion for life.

I alluded briefly above that I never really necessarily wanted to be a mother.  I grew up a fairly competitive and driven young woman who perhaps felt a need to prove something to someone. Who I was trying to impress I’m not really sure (perhaps the women of the previous feminist movement?), but I felt like I’d be letting someone down if I didn’t add a few credentials to my title. And these credentials had to be in the forms of degrees, diplomas, and career advancements; not a spouse, children, or personal fulfillment. The pressure to fill these requirements of success led me to spend more time preparing mentally for the working world and not seriously considering motherhood as a call upon my womanhood. In fact, if someone had said that I was called by the mere coincidence of being a female to emanate some sort of “motherhood vibe” to those around me, I would have likely found that very insulting of my intelligence and degrading of my accomplishments. I did not understand that I was being raised in a world where motherhood was all but lost outside our own little family units, and that this attack was leading to a massive cultural loss of respect for other human beings.

I can see these things now because, by God’s grace, I ended up falling in love, married, and became a mother before I was able to fall too deeply for the pride and lies of my old understanding of success.  I became a mother physically and very slowly began to understand that just as I need to teach my children to love their siblings and playmates and treat them kindly, someone too needs to teach this to all the motherless children and adults of our world who were simply not taught that everyone is created in God’s image and likeness and therefore deserves love and respect.  We have entire generations of people who were born into scenarios where they have been treated like burdens, or have been ignored for other pursuits, or have just not had the good fortune of a good mother figure in their lives to teach them their own and other’s worth. However, I firmly believe that no one is ever too old or too hardened to be reached by the kind of love that comes from a true mother. So there is hope.

If the women of today can recognize and embrace their uniquely feminine gifts and talents and express them to our world in the form of a mothering type of love, we can change the course of our nation.  If we can love our coworkers, and listen better to our in-laws, and provide non-judgmental support for the needy in our lives, then God can use those efforts to remind those most in need of their worth and value.  Just as the Father sent the Son to show humanity the way to live, He now sends the mothers to remind us just how special we all are and to bring the entire family home to heaven.

Lord Jesus Christ, just as You have entrusted me as a new mother with the eternal soul of my child, please bless all women with the grace to accept Your call to embrace our femininity and mother humanity home to You in heaven.

Leah Jacobson is passionate about John Paul II’s “New Feminism” and teaching women about the amazing dignity and worth of their bodies. She founded the Guiding Star Women’s Center in 2009, a non-profit focused on uniting the pro-life movement in Duluth, MN, and coordinates a national effort called The Guiding Star Project whose vision is to create a Culture of Life by creating greater unity and collaboration of pro-life groups. As a homeschooling mother of five young children, and a lactation consulting graduate student, she feels she understands better than most the pressures and stresses facing women and families in our current culture.

Back in the heyday of NFP, the year 2000-1 when my wife and I began charting during our engagement as prep for marriage, we were introduced to so much about women.  Mucus this, shiny that, temperature this, green day, “Do you have the time, to listen to me whine…”, dang it sorry that was Green Day, baby sticker here, where did I put the chart there, mom finds our chart here, newly married couple embarrassed when asked “What does all those “I’s” mean?” there.  No really, the last one happened.  Really.  But not to me.  A good friend told me about it one day and I almost choked on my beer just thinking about it.  That experience is worthy of a catholicized Seinfeld episode.

But really, why can’t they make stickers that don’t smudge all over the place?  Anyways, back on topic.

So NFP and men was seldom discussed.  Men are basically given the sidekick role right?  Sure I was told to be a good charter (which I failed to do miserably), be affectionate in infertile times, and spark the romance by holding hands.  I am sure all those are wonderful things, but really, all those things should be happening throughout marriage right?  I guess the only masculine thing I remember is that men are always fertile. 

Considering NFP affects both sides of the marriage bed, I figured why not try to figure out more manly things about this lifestyle.  So here it goes.

I figure most men kind of understand what goes on in those green days, so I am going to focus on the days that require control.  Gaining control, via reason and will, of our innate drives and emotions is actually the meaning of responsible parenthood according to HV.  (See para. 10).  Gaining control, self-mastery, self- discipline, are all pretty much the same as growing in virtue.  Later on in Humanae Vitae, Pope Paul VI goes into further detail:

“For if with the aid of reason and of free will they are to control their natural drives, there can be no doubt at all of the need for self-denial. Only then will the expression of love, essential to married life, conform to right order. This is especially clear in the practice of periodic continence. Self-discipline of this kind is a shining witness to the chastity of husband and wife and, far from being a hindrance to their love of one another, transforms it by giving it a more truly human character. And if this self-discipline does demand that they persevere in their purpose and efforts, it has at the same time the salutary effect of enabling husband and wife to develop to their personalities and to be enriched with spiritual blessings. For it brings to family life abundant fruits of tranquility and peace. It helps in solving difficulties of other kinds. It fosters in husband and wife thoughtfulness and loving consideration for one another. It helps them to repel inordinate self-love, which is the opposite of charity.”  (21)

Those periods of time in marriage that require husband and wife to practice continence is a time for a determined and focused pursuit of virtue.  There are a lot of chats about a women’s cycle in NFP training, but little about a man’s cycle.  Men have cycles?  Of course.  Our cycles are a little bit different.  Our desire for marital intimacy is more physical.  I am not saying women don’t have physical needs by any means.

Sure, men have emotional needs, intellectual needs, and spiritual needs as women to do.  Without getting too raunchy and for lack of a better word, I am left with what this secular world calls “horny.”  I wish there were a better word for it.  Perhaps I should make something up because even this word’s strict definition is along the lines of “lustful.”  I think the meaning of this term gets a bad rap though.  As a man, it is sometimes easy to feel unmanly, cowardly, shameful, because our body is wanting a physical release of sexual energy.  However, there is nothing wrong with this bodily desire, rather “The Creator himself . . . established that in the [generative] function, spouses should experience pleasure and enjoyment of body and spirit. Therefore, the spouses do nothing evil in seeking this pleasure and enjoyment.”  So there must be a difference between a physical desire “in seeking this pleasure” and lustfulness.  To have the desire or horniness (Gosh, people, can’t someone come up with a better word) is acknowledging that a male person recognizes a God given pleasure.  The shame and guilt is appropriate for the free but wrong decision to lust after someone.   

In this day and age, we don’t train young men how to control their passions and point or funnel them to higher goals.  Chastity is a positive virtue which allows a person to give of himself more fully and in marriage those periods of continence are wonderful times for chastity boot camp. 

So what are some manly ways to help control our passions with our reason and free will?

1. Prayer.  Offer up the struggle. 
2. Knowing is half the battle.  In my early military days of playing guns in the backyard, GI Joe’s slogan was “Knowing is half the battle.”  The first step is having a plan.  Men’s sexual appetite does not come and go, it comes and stays until something is done about it.  Having a strategy is important.  In business, I would perform a SWOT analysis to help determine strategy.  A man must know his strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. 
3. Training.  I have found that I can control my sexual passions much easier when I am training.  Physical exercise, especially running, uses up energy but also requires mind over matter.  I think running is good because it is cheap, easily accessible, competitive, and requires mental strength to push your physical body.  Your body is saying stop, hit the recliner, snooze while you mind says, “One more mile and after that another mile.” 
4. Custody of the eyes.  Of course this is a given for any person seeking purity, but being more conscientious of the struggle during these times is important.
5. Cold showers.  Sounds easy.  But it ain’t. 
6. Proper sleep.  To struggle with anything in life, sleep is important.
7. Nutrition.  The body needs proper feeding if you expect it to work properly.  On the flip side, denying yourself certain foods also leads to greater strength in the other temptations within the battle of temperance.

Time for you to speak up.  What has helped you gain more control over your passions in the times that require continence?  And heck, I am going to throw it in for discussion too.  What is another name for “horny” that has a positive recognition for sexual desire but not affiliated with lustfulness or libidinous?

Jared Tomanek lives in the country of Texas with his wife Denise, a Southern Belle from Trinidad and Tobago, and his three children. He holds two graduate degrees from Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, an MBA and Master of Science in Organizational Leadership, and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Franciscan University of Steubenville. Having taught for five years in Catholic education, he now works in the construction industry in Victoria, TX. He is a parishioner of Holy Family of Joseph, Mary, and Jesus Parish in the Diocese of Victoria. He also blogs at his local paper on just about everything cool.

This video was produced using pictures taken between 2009 and 2012 while I was a student at Ave Maria School of Law.  Pictures include various events associated with Ave Maria School of Law and the Naples pro-life community.    Events include: Vitae Fest, AMSL Mass, Law of Life Summit, 40 Days for Life prayer vigils, March for Life and more.

The song featured in the video is “You’ve got me & I’ve got you” from the album Faith, Hope, Love.

Hope you enjoy! (be sure to turn up your volume)

Click here to view the embedded video.

By Royce Hood / MariaNews.com

In this culture that promotes the party lifestyle and throws morals out the window, responsibility is a word many people have forgotten.  Parents have forgotten to teach it to their children, preferring to fix all of their mistakes for them; the government has decided to forgo teaching it to its citizens, instead offering anyone a share of the money the hard-working Americans sweat and bleed over every day; and Planned Parenthood has decided to hide it from their customers, teaching pre-teens, teenagers, and young adults to embrace their sexuality and then come to them when their defective “protection” leads to the beginning of a new life.

This “disposing of the problem” has led to many harmful definitions of both life and mercy in society today.  Life, a beautiful new being growing within a woman’s womb, is now considered an “unplanned problem” or an “inconvenience”, and mercy, “compassionate or kindly forbearance shown toward an offender, an enemy, or other person in one’s power; compassion, pity, or benevolence” according to dictionary.com, is now two things: it’s freeing a person from the consequences of her actions by “kindly” lying to her about what is really growing within her, and then proceeding to hide the dangerous side-effects of a painful and invasive procedure from a woman who is afraid, alone, and often doing what her boyfriend, father, or friend told her was right- against her better judgment.  Does this sound like mercy: lying, inflicting physical and emotional pain, and teaching someone he should not be responsible for his actions?

Even the President of the United States (I use the word “even” because, despite his unspeakable corruption, his office is still known to be an honorable and admirable one) has said that if his daughters became pregnant as a result of their poor choices, he would not force them to suffer the consequence of bearing children: “I am going to teach them [his daughters, 9 and 6 at the time] first of all about values and morals. But if they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby,” (the rest of the quote can be found here).  I have a question: since when did this spoiled, selfish mindset that says: “I can do anything, hurt anyone, and I will never be held accountable for it!” become something to be promoted?

Now, pro-abortion people will call the pro-lifers heartless because we encourage women to have their children, not kill them.  The pro-abortion people say this is merciless because we’re asking this poor woman who has a career she needs to pursue and a life she needs to live to face the fact that the consequence of her actions has led to a new, innocent life that deserves to be protected and loved.  But let me point something out: mercy is merciful- meaning it is doing what is best for a person out of love for them, even when he has not acted in a way that merits compassion or kindness.  Sometimes, what is merciful, what is best for someone, is not what is easiest.  But, it is what will help them in the long run to become a better, stronger, person. Has this country forgotten that people are not perfect, and that we do indeed make mistakes that need to be corrected?  Is teaching someone that he is not accountable for his decisions honest, is it going to help him in the “real world”?  Is freeing someone from the responsibility for his actions helpful, is he going to get away with every wrong thing he does without repercussions?  And finally, is inflicting pain and humilitation upon a woman who is pregnant, afraid, and needs love more than anything else merciful?

What this country needs is mercy with a side of responsibility.  A huge, heaping side of it.  Responsibility teaches the important virtues of prudence, temperance, and self-control.  Resposibility raises children who think before they act, care about people outside of themselves, and try to behave in a way that benefits others instead of regarding everyone as objects to be used.  And, most importantly, responsibility- when paired with mercy- brings about a compassionate people who seek to love the broken, help the fallen, and make the suffering strong through their trials.  Every “consequence” is a learning experience, helping one’s heart and soul to grow and learn, and in the end to emerge wiser and stronger than he was when he aquired the challenge.  Killing an innocent life in the womb, robbing a woman of the great, selfless lessons that come with motherhood (even if she puts her child up for adoption afterwards), and bringing even more suffering into her life is not mercy, it’s injustice.  And it is time to turn society’s glasses around so that it can start regarding life, mercy, and responsibility in the correct way.

I found this line in Pope John Paul II’s Evangelium Vitae: “Each individual in fact has moral responsibility for the acts which he personally performs; no one can be exempted from this responsibility, and on the basis of it everyone will be judged by God himself (cf. Rom 2:6; 14:12).”

Dear Blessed John Paul II, pray for our broken society.

Like a bird flying toward a window I approach my deadline.  So here goes.  My apologies to anyone who sustains injury after reading this post.

One of my initial draws to the magical realm of software engineering was the notion that I would not have to talk to anyone to get my job done.  I could simply receive my introductions, write up a program that did what was intended, and collect my paycheck.  Simple, right?

This happy illusion was shattered in the first few minutes of my first job at a software company.  Suddenly there were “meetings,” strange creatures called “customers” who were our overlords, and this mysterious cabal called “management.”  Conspiring to thwart every effort at productivity, my position with the company was more than an adventure, it was a job.

One of the greatest chores was talking to this evil organization with many faces.  I found that while this cohort was able to thwart my efforts at every turn, they seemed to me…well…stupid.  They didn’t seem to grasp the obvious nature of such things as “two factor authentication is more secure than just a password,”  ”a web server and a database server are not the same thing” and “why a demo is not a real product.”

I’m not sure when it began to dawn on me, but I began to suspect that my perception that I was dwelling in the land of idiots wasn’t all that accurate.  It might have been the four-hour argument with a coworker which concluded with the realization that we were thinking the same thing but in different terms.  Or the all day meeting with the consultant that resulted in both of our ideas being modified.  In any event I began to suspect that maybe that the intelligence of others was in dispute, but both myself and the other’s inability to communicate effectively.

I am not sure if it was always the case, but our modern culture sucks at communication.  In a true sense of cosmic irony, we as a society have the greatest tools known to man to communicate ideas yet lack the skill set to communicate effectively.

Take any political publication today.  The assumed knowledge and implied premises are rampant.  No real attempt is made to lay out the foundations of a political ideology.  Most mainstream publications are designed to point us to who the “good guys” are and inform us that “the other side is wrong AND stupid.” No real attempt is made to argue one’s point, OR intellectually engage the other side.

But this isn’t limited to politics.  Education has become so specialized that one PhD cannot talk to another, sometimes even in the same field.  In the past, a History PhD could have an intelligent conversation  with one another about respective fields.  Nowadays I wish you luck getting them in the same room.

A had a pleasant exchange with who I presume was an atheist on the Catholicism subreddit.  One of the more striking things was that as the conversation went on was how we had to define basic words such as “good” “suffering” and “God.”  This was an enlightening exchange that shows that when worldviews are worlds apart, nothing can be taken as a given.

But it was also work.

The reason why communication is lost is because real communication takes work.  Something which our modern world seems allergic to.  Communication takes discipline to coherently explain in enough detail the ideas one is trying to communicate.  Energy is used, and care must be taken.

I will return to this topic in the future.  But I would like to open the floor to discussion about communication in general.  Do you find communication difficult?  What are some things we can do at a fundamental level to improve communication?

I wish this was my door

DING DONG

I have never liked door-to-door salesmen, evangelists, or folks pandering for donations. It’s not that I don’t want the product, the religion (but really, you can keep it. I have the Church, thanks), or to help the cause. I’m more frustrated that my hyper-sensitive, people-pleasing, over-active empathizing gland will force me to do whatever it is they need me to buy, convert, or donate.

Today, I finally got something back after years of anxiety. One of these brave few taught me a lesson.

A nice guy came by my apartment on his way through my neighborhood, saying he worked to help inner-city, in-trouble kids train for and find jobs. The gentleman was well-dressed and amiable and my roommate and I enjoyed chatting with him, as we all found something in common (ah, gotta love the human condition!).

He threw me off when, after a few fun jovial exchanges between me and my roommate, he pointed down at my leg and said, “Is that real?!”

…That was my reaction, too. Do people have fake leg muscles they glue to their quad bone like the chicken cutlets some women put in their bras? Not that I know of.

Is that real? Yes, of course it’s real!

“I run a lot,” I laughed. He spent another minute or two talking about how I could probably kick his butt, how I should go to the Olympics, how I probably make boys cry, etc.

Strong woman... oh, never mind

Throughout the rest of the chat, he kept referencing my legs and let me tell you, I was regretting answering the door in my running shorts. They are about an inch above my fingertip length and they show my growing runner legs.

I look like a strong woman in my new runner legs and it reminds me of when I was in competition shape. I love how that feels.

Until some guy I don’t know points them out, continues to look at them, and talks about how I could crush inanimate objects between them.

While I can’t control his thoughts and it’s not my responsibility to control them, it brought my attention back to the Great Bikini Debate of 2012. Most people don’t voice thoughts like his out loud, in fact it was quite uncomfortable when I realized a self-identified 45-year-old man was studying my legs.

I think he had innocent intentions. The man wanted us to donate to his cause, so he needed something about which he could laugh with us. However, he made an awkward decision when he decided to talk about my legs.

We can presume (not EVERY man thinks this way, but there is evidence that most do — Jason Evert video and Young and Catholic’s anecdotal evidence) that men have thoughts about what is under the clothing we wear. Yes, it’s their responsibility to stop those thoughts from progressing.

This is a popular topic these days

However, had I chosen a pair of jeans, or even a pair of yoga pants (to address the tankini-covered belly vs. skin-covered belly issue), he would not have seen the distinction in my leg muscle. He would have seen that I was a strong, probable athlete, but not in such obvious detail.

Yoga pants-covered legs wouldn’t have been as “in his face” as my bare legs. I doubt it would have occurred to him to mention them as a topic of awkward conversation with the young lady who answered the door on his door-to-door day.

I’d post pictures of my legs in shorts vs. yoga pants, but that would explicitly ignore my point (while potentially proving it).

In conclusion, yes, wear whatever you want to wear. But maybe we could consider what we’d hear if men spoke their thoughts instead of keeping them private. Perhaps we’d sooner want to wear more fabric.

Elizabeth Hillgrove is a young cradle Catholic who grew up in a tight-knit, if not absurdly close family in the tiny Catholic world of Virginia. After a few divots and detours into apathy, embarrassment, and a vested political interest, Jesus Christ jump-started her faith life. Elizabeth has researched her way into a passion for bringing the simple, fulfilling Truth to youth and young adults, especially females. A recovering tomboy, Elizabeth will challenge you on the field, in the pool, on a trek up a mountain, or in the art studio. Game on. She is one of the three Bright Maidens and her website is Startling the Day.

Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect. – Matthew 5:48

Perfection. We are constantly pressured to be more and more perfect. By the world’s standards, of course. Better grades, better jobs, better houses. As our peers continue to push the boundaries of how much they can accomplish, we can be whisked away with everyone else.

This unattainable goal comes with a price. Constant comparison, constant evaluation, constant criticism. What reprieve is there from being human, for having flaws and misjudgments?

When we fall into this mindset, it becomes a slippery slope. We lose ourselves in the goals of the whole. Our unique traits and interests are sacrificed for the sake of perfection. We are constantly reminded of our inability to succeed.

Where does it end? Low self-esteem, depression, and perhaps–God forbid–even suicide. We are helpless in the face of our own frailty.

And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. – 2 Corinthian 12:9

Thankfully, God demands a different perfection from us: perfection in following Him. He provides us His grace, which is sufficient for all things. We are not asked to be perfect at all we accomplish in this life. Rather, we are asked to be humble and follow Him. When we stumble, His grace is there to help us get up.

But what about those people who are not aware of God’s grace? What right does the Church have to ask someone to continue immense suffering when they lack hope?

Voluntary co-operation in suicide is contrary to the moral law. – Catechism of the Catholic Church

Suicide in and of itself is not a religious principle. Rather, the Church views it as a part of the natural law; that is, the law inscribed on the hearts of every person. Indeed, in order to commit suicide, one has likely rejected every possible value that their life holds. This is by no means an easy feat, but an essential one to overcome. The Church is simply revealing a truth by stating her opposition.

Even still, life is messy. It can be difficult for loved ones of those plagued by thoughts of suicide to recognize the symptoms.  There may not be enough time to get help. Or help may not be readily accepted.

We should not despair of the eternal salvation of persons who have taken their own lives. By ways known to him alone, God can provide the opportunity for salutary repentance. The Church prays for persons who have taken their own lives. – Catechism of the Catholic Church

The Church teaches that while suicide is morally contrary to the natural law, culpability may be diminished by the circumstances surrounding the suicide. It may be difficult for those affected to take the necessary steps to get help. God’s grace–while immense–requires cooperation. When someone’s life is already warped by feelings of inadequacy, it can seem like an impossible step. But with prayer, all things are possible. Let us remember to pray for those who have diminished feelings of worth, that God may open their hearts to their own beauty and immeasurable value in the arms of Christ.

Allie Terrell is a 2010 convert to Catholicism after dabbling in a few different trains of religious thought. She graduated from Rose-Hulman in 2009 with a degree in computer science, and is now pursuing her doctorate in the hopes of teaching some day. When she can spare a few hours, Allie likes to visit religious sites and work on her photography. She blogs about her journeys at Here Is The Church.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. The modern world has successfully graduated from high school and is now ready to attend University where its ideals will be challenged and its preconceptions destroyed. The Church has always been charged with the task of taking what is True, Good, and Beautiful in any culture and time and lifting it up to God. It is of course only through this offering that the modern world will be able to retain its sanity through its college years.

In order to make this offering, the Church of course must understand the culture and embrace that which can and should be offered. One can look at our modern culture, see so much that is harmful and desire to run away. In fact, this even happens to me. Almost daily. However, it is not this running away that converts the world. Instead, we can only convert that which is harmful in the culture by showing where that which is good fits into the Truth revealed to us.

Christianity took what was desirable (read: True) in Greek philosophy, Roman law, and Hebrew ritual and successfully turned Man’s eyes to God. Since that time, it’s been doing the same thing with every other culture it  encounters. In this way, it adapted a Roman building type to northern building methods and mystical theology and came up with the Gothic. In this way, it revolutionized feudal Europe and developed chivalry. In this way, it revived Classical art combining it with Enlightenment thought and came up with the Renaissance. These were of course major cultural phenomena that needed the attention of Christians, but between these there were also smaller cultural adaptations and sanctifications that occurred through the work of missionaries especially.

It seems to me that we are once again at a point where a broad cultural reality needs adaptation and sanctification, and I’m not talking about the internet (I will leave that to people whose passion actually is in the tech fields.) Yes, there are still opportunities for missionary work and the sanctification of specific cultures, philosophies, and world views, but I am talking about something in our own culture: Contemporary Architecture.

You can leave now if you’re not interested in reading about architecture (I can’t imagine most people would), but you’d miss some pretty sweet pictures of some pretty sweet churches.

Like this one.

Also, before I go on, I have to make this disclaimer: I consider myself very much a modern architect with an eye on the lessons history teaches us and a particular fondness for Gothic architecture.

Here's one "church that pretty much is."

Within the last 10 years, there seems to have been a concerted effort on the part of certain parties to make traditional church architecture more desirable to the modern Faith Community. The fact that it has coincided with the efforts of the New Translation has not escaped me. This movement of both the community itself and some specific architects has resulted in a few very good churches that hearken back to traditional forms and materials. It has also spawned quite a few “churches that might have been”, churches that try to express something of traditional church design but fail in a few important and many less important ways.

Here is one example of the First Category. It is beautiful, is it not?

Now in looking at examples of these churches, we can see that there is a bit of a dichotomy. The best of the former category, the truly traditional churches, try to emulate certain styles to one extent or another, mostly ones that are quite old, well-used, and trustworthy. The churches in the latter category occasionally use hints of stone and brick, but in essence they are churches that use primarily new building technologies and methods. I have absolutely no complaints about communities that choose to build churches using stone and brick in traditional ways to create churches that recall the majesty of the great churches in history, but that is not the whole story. The problem as I see it (we must always find a problem, must we not?) is that in building such great churches in traditional styles, we overlook the potential in our own contemporary architectural trends.

There's potential here, I promise.

If it was good enough for Palladio...

Some may say “If something’s worked for so long, why reject it?” and I say “Good question.” However, I’m not saying reject the older ways of designing and building churches (in fact, I love them) but if we are to touch the hearts of contemporary man, we must adapt and sanctify his projects as well as the projects of  his fathers. The conversion of the culture can only happen if we wring it of its Truth Beauty and Goodness.

It seems, if we look at my second category of churches above, that some have tried to accomplish this and for that I commend them. But I would say they have tried and failed most likely through ignorance of either architecture, theology, liturgy or all of the above. The incongruity of trying to mesh traditional elements with modern elements is not the delightful incongruity of hipster fashion, it is the incongruity of reaching into the wrong drawer when trying to find socks and putting a shirt on your feet instead.

Professor Stroik, I admire what you are doing. Can we do a little more experimentation?

So, I guess what I be saying is this: If we want a return to a God-centered liturgy and church design, it’s not enough to use so called “traditional” church design, in the strict sense. We must align our current design capabilities with that tradition and thus move modern man with his own inventions and abilities toward heaven and his creator.

This is a poem I felt compelled to write when I was thinking of one of my mom’s uncles, her godfather at baptism. I don’t know why I was thinking about him. We only ever had one conversation, back when he was sick, a few months before he died. He had so many books that the reader in me was going crazy. I asked him about those books, and he told me the topics were about history and religion. Those are the only words we ever exchanged, but this particular April night my heart felt like he was here.

It’s actually a song. I played with the piano app on my mom’s iPad and worked out the notes. It can be read as a poem, too. I think this is something a lot of people need to hear from their loved ones who have gone to Heaven, and I’m excited to share them with you. God Bless!

Farewell, my dear.
So long! Don’t fear,
Your God is here
tonight.

His love is grand
So He’ll take your hand
and with Him you’ll be
all right.

He sings like the ocean kisses the sand
He counts every step you take.
His eyes always on you! He is the King
Whose promises He never breaks.

So be strong, my love–
I’m always near,
with Jesus in your heart.

Wait in hope
for that glorious day
we’ll no longer be apart.

Farewell, my dear.
So long! Don’t fear,
Your God is here
tonight.

His love is grand
So He’ll take your hand
and with Him you’ll be
all right.