It's The Greenest

I guess with all the immense talk going on about the health care mandate, it may seem like a dead horse is being beaten. Even though I can do a whole other blog about the injustice it is, I'd rather segway into something a little more happy. Enter St. Patrick's Day. I'm so happy about this day for more reasons than just being from a place where the Patron Saint of the Diocese is green Saint. It makes me think about the Boston story. Our history. I know I'm not a townie. But as a practicing Catholic and an Immigrants descendant, there is plenty to say about his town and the people in it.

I'm glad it's this time of the month(hmm... might want to change that for the ladies), I'm actually going to post a link about Saint Patrick. This isn't a wikipedia article I was pondering it but nah!

You know it really makes me proud to be hear. The Arch Diocese is the 4Th largest in the U.S. Imagine that from such a small state like this. Out of all the places that can be to it's us. I get a lot of hope from that. No matter how bad things are when I look and what is going on in our community. When I see all that people are dong for those less fortunate, those that really need our help, especially the youth that is stepping up to the plate. It's really a light on a dark street. We as a state didn't even start out Catholic.

We all know the stories. The pilgrims, the settlers. Nothing in our early history hinted we would be a state, or a city with one of the biggest patches of Ireland this side of the Atlantic. Irish really didn't start coming here until the 1800's. Holy Cross Cathedral kind of stands out huh? Among all the town hall churches, comes a true to heart style Catholic Church, maybe taking a page or two from St. Francis' Abbey in Kilkenny. You would assume New York, and the Bowery, but time changes things. Even before the Kennedy's Boston was an Irish town. Remember the know nothing party. Well more over when you come down to it. It was more than just bias against Catholics it was bias against immigrants our of fear that they would loose the offices, the stations of politics. Well, here, that kind of happen. But the Church took well too it. Look at our priest's and clergy. See a trend?

Even with not being Irish, it's something you just grow up in. Even though we celebrate our own customs, it seems that St.Patrick's day is a Boston holiday. The day where every body's Irish. It's in our DNA, it's who were are from where we live. For Catholics it's like a double holiday. So cheers, and salute on the greenest of day's

Happening Things

I wish I had the oratory skills that Abraham Lincoln had. I wish I could speak on a pod-cast like the now Cardinal Timothy Dolan, and be able to stir hearts with what I write. But I am neither one of the best Presidents we ever had, nor am I the Cardinal of one the of the biggest cities in the world. I'm just a kid from the Merrimack Valley, trying to not get lost in the sea of relativism and the status-quo.

What I write about today is something that has been a big talking piece by every one out there. Even though I am a little late to the party what I have to say is basic, not going into a lot of detail, but with the hopes that I can give those who lend eyes a morale boost.

We all have heard about the HHS mandate, the "Accommodation" by the POTUS, and the uniting of Bishops. Which by the way is an unprecedented show of unity. Now more so than ever we can do things on our side of the fence to help revoke this attack on religious liberty. This isn't about health, this is about being able to stand up for what you believe in and not getting thrown in jail for it.

We have these things called inalienable rights. One of those fundamental of rights is our right to practice our Faith openly and freely. I ask you to look back at the influx of Irish immigrants in the late 1800's. When the Church of England became well the government and the church, persecution began. Irish were run out to the fields and executed. look it up if you don't believe me. Even more so than the famine, people have always been drawn to America because here your religion will not be struck down on sight.

I feel as if today you have to hide being Christian, any type that is. Even if your a Lutheran, when someone asks you you tend to just say Christian. This upsets me not because of the fact about political correctness being thrown in there but the fact that it's now almost as if a black cloud is being hung over your head. The worst part is is when tenents of your chosen faith are mixed in with other ones. We're put into to one cloud, and then proceeded to be mocked.

What I ask is that you pray. No matter what I do or what we can do to tell people about the intricacies of our Faith, we can't put a conversion drop in their soups. Most of the time to our anger takes over us, and we tend to be hostile towards others. The greatest thing we can do is to walk the walk and talk the talk as Christians. But we must also be able to stand up for the love that we have for others.That's why we stand up to stop HHS, it's why we march on Washington during the march for life. We are in it to save lives because life is a precious thing. We are not being mean or repressive, when we want people to be responsible, nor are we oppressive to women when we say we want better things for them. What women can do naturally is not a disease and it shouldn't be treated as one. We as Catholics don't want women to be objectified. They have their own built in forms of birth control. You take medicine when your sick, but being pregnant isn't a sickness.

I am sure people who decide to use the pill for the most part can find a good intention in it. I do not want people on our fence to say that they are monsters for using it. We can't look down on them but have to hug them , and just try to let them know that the lie they have been fed is only hurting society, moreover themselves. When there is NFP there is choice. Couples choose when they are taking a chance and not Pfizer. For us in college, don't you think you do enough damage to your liver then.

As an aside, I would like to point in a few directions so you can decide for your self. One is a website called GetReligion. Which covers the Religion side of news. The other is a site about a study on NFP, which even though was done in 2007 there are sure to be recent ones. Science Daily. After that I'm sure a web search for resources about NFP, will come up with good results. In the end our greatest weapon is the hope that is in us. We do this not for ourselves but for others.