Tech Tips for Catholics

I came across these great teachings about the Blessed Sacrament on GodTube.

The thing that strikes me most about Fra Joseph Mary is his great humility.  I could learn a lot from this Franciscan.

No Apologies - Eucharist John 6 (Part 1)

No Apologies - Eucharist John 6 (Part 2)

No Apologies - Eucharist John 6 (Part 3)

God Bless.

Every Friday I post the top 5 favorite blogposts that I’ve come across throughout the week.  You have all weekend now to check them out : )

1. Religion amid Greek life
2. Using Google Flu Trends as an Indicator of Flu Activity?
3. Japan to Celebrate Beatification of 188 Martyrs
4. Self-Esteem vs. Self-Improvement
5. A Theological Time Bomb

If you have a blogpost that you would like to share with me feel free to contact Catholic Tech Tips and I will get it.

Have a great weekend!

Joshua

I’m a bit confused, because many non-Denominational (denominational) churches market like Starbucks. In fact, some may even have a Starbucks. While in college, I attended one of these churches for about 4 years. I was very materialistic and the rock-praise, big screens, skits, and coffee and donuts were very appealing. But I quickly found the message to be watered down. And every time I would invite some friends, the sermon was about tithing or about pledging large amounts of money for the crazy mega-Church “building fund.” As my faith matured, so did my lack of desire for worldly things. The Lord led me to a deeper faith with Him.  Now it is not my intention to bash the non-Denominational churches, in fact, they do a lot of good things, and do a great job of bringing non-Christians to Christ. But, my observation is that these churches are passer-through churches.  People come for a while and then move onto or back to other more mainstream faith traditions.

John Paul II talked about a “New Evangelization.” This does not mean becoming like the world, but rather engaging the culture, using the tools of today to share Truth with others.

I think part of the biggest problem today, is that we have become so narcissistic (generally speaking). Church becomes, “What do I get out of it?” This is not what church should be about. We (again generally speaking) have lost the sense of “liturgy,” which is ultimately Christ-centered. In a world that worships the Oprahs and the Dr. Phils, the non-Denominational church I used to attend seemed more like a self-help seminar, only with a few praise & worship songs thrown into the mix. Again, I sincerely ask this rhetorical question, is this what church is about? God bless †

I was reading a blogpost by a Protestant, who humbly shares about her past addictions and short comings.  Christina brings up some interesting points that I think are very relevant to Catholic Christians.

She writes, “I’m learning that transparency is one of the keys to godly freedom. The world is known for keeping faults, sins and short comings to itself.”

I couldn’t agree more.  As Catholic Christians (which I am), we have the sacrament of Reconciliation (one of the things most parodied by non-Catholics).  But I think the reason people make fun of us, is because of the mentality of “It is just between me and God,” on the part of some Protestants and secular Christians.  I will be the first to tell you that Confession is not the most fun thing to do, and that I’d much rather keep my faults, short comings, and sinful ways to myself.  But, the graces and mercy that Christ offers in the sacrament are beyond words.  People often mock that which they do not understand.  And so I pray, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

“I knew that I wanted to live right but was I willing to give it up? I put all the [things that were tempting me] under my bed, you know out of sight out of mind thinking that I could keep them just in case. It took all of one day for my addiction to kick back in.”

I can relate to this!  Our Faith understands this, that the “near occasions of sin” leads to sin.  Sacred Scripture gives this analogy, “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away.  It is better for you to lose one of your members than to have your whole body thrown into Gehenna.  And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away.  It is better for you to lose one of your members than to have your whole body go into Gehenna.” (Matthew 5:29-30)

If we want to live Holy lives, or break addictive habits, we must separate ourselves from the things that cause us to sin.  And we don’t have to do it all on our own!  We can ask the Holy Spirit to help us overcome temptation in our lives and to strengthen our relationship with Him.  Our cooperation with the many graces Christ sheds on us, when we humbly come to Him in the Sacraments, is very powerful to overcome sin in our lives.  Christ is the way, the Truth, and the Life!

It is also written in Scripture that “Bad company corrupts good character.” (1 Corinthians 15:33)  I’m sure there are other verses, but these are the ones that come to mind.

“I talked to a few people about it, none of which were living godly lives, and they all rationalized it saying it was ‘cool because I wasn’t having sex with anyone else.’ However, the Lord kept convicting me that it was wrong and not in His plan. So I took the ‘product of sin’ this time and threw it in the trash.”

Awesome!

“Are you still pleasing yourself? Freedom is available…Get into the Word of God, prayer, fellowship and counseling. Let porn and masturbation have its last day in your life! Fight for FREEDOM! Christ has it waiting for you.”

Great advise to any and all Christians who struggle with addiction in one form or another.

I came across these great teachings about the Blessed Sacrament on GodTube.

The thing that strikes me most about Fra Joseph Mary is his great humility.  I could learn a lot from this Franciscan.

No Apologies - Eucharistic Series

No Apologies - OT Types of the Eucharist (Part 1)

No Apologies - OT Types of the Eucharist (Part 2)

God Bless.

Every Friday I post the top 5 favorite blogposts that I’ve come across throughout the week.  You have all weekend now to check them out : )

1. Praying the Hail Mary Like Never Before
2. Multicolr Search Lab (This is really cool)
3. Port Windows 7 Calculator to Windows Vista
4. Give Your Logo Power Beyond Words (Though I did not support Barack Obama in the election, nor am I happy that he was elected.  However, this article does give all logo designers something to think about)
5. Not a diamond tiara, but it will most certainly do

If you have a blogpost that you would like to share with me feel free to contact Catholic Tech Tips and I will get it.

Have a great weekend!

Joshua

Anyone who knows me, knows that I enjoy watching the Antiques Roadshow.  This week’s episode was really good!  A woman actually cussed after the appraiser unknowingly told her it would be okay.  I saw it coming, which made it all the more funny to me.  Plus, there was another woman who had one of Bishop Fulton J. Sheen’s zucchetti.  She had a cute story to go along with it, from when she was a child.  I thought this was pretty cool.

You never know what you’ll see on the Antiques Roadshow.  One of my favorite episodes was the one with a southern accented guy and his “two blue jars.”  He was so comical!  The story he told was hilarious.

Though, I could not find any footage from either of these two episodes, here is one for gamers and collectors alike : )

• View my tweets about watching Antiques Roadshow: 1|2|3
• View the tweets of others who watch Antiques Roadshow

While Googling “Catholic Tech Tips,” I came across a post on TipsFor.us that mentioned us in a sarcastic manor (at least that’s how I took it).  I found humor in it, so I’ve decided to share it with our readers:

Tech Tips for Catholic Teens — Ah, yes, FINALLY someone did what we’ve been meaning to do as a sub-domain for years! Why visit “catholic_teen.tipsfor.us” when you have “http://catholictechtips.stblogs.com/”? Other than the obviously strange preclusion about the target audience, the perfunctory cross fav.icon, and the notable omission about the hottest techie action for altar boys, the blog looks suspiciously similar to our own…

The ironic thing is, that we both found out about each other’s blog by doing an “obligatory Google search” for the name of our own blogs.  And just so the guys over at TipsFor.us know, the name change was not in response to their post (though I’m sure they’d like to take credit), but actually it was a co-worker of my brother who made the suggestion.

“Man’s pride causes his humiliation, but he who is humble of spirit obtains honor.” - Proverbs 29:23

“Lost, confused, and frightened about your faith? Don’t worry, the Stealth Apologist has the answers that you need. Ask him anything you’d like about any topic.  Ask a good question, and it will get answered on the site.  Ask a lame one and… well… it will get lost in the void.  Either way it’s worth a shot, and your time!”

I must warn you, that Agnus Daily is a Catholic, satirical, comedy blog.  It is the Catholic version of The Onion.  If you don’t get satire (which I admit, sometimes I do not) you could easily be offended or led to believe something that isn’t true.  But, according to their FAQ page, Agnus Daily is a Catholic blog and they “will never publish anything that is against Church teaching.”

I submitted a question to their Stealth Apologist and we’ll see if, and how he responds : )

I came across these great teachings about the Blessed Sacrament on GodTube.

The thing that strikes me most about Fra Joseph Mary is his great humility.  I could learn a lot from this Franciscan.

No Apologies - Objections to John 6 (Part 1)

No Apologies - Objections to John 6 (Part 2)

No Apologies - The Last Supper

God Bless.