In the United States, our president, Mr. Barack Obama is trying to pass a law to mandate Catholic and Christian businesses, (including Churches and hospitals) to provide health care coverage for contraception and abortion to all women employees. This includes the “morning after” pill. He is violating our First Ammendment rights in our constitution that allows us religious freedom. Catholic bishops and clergy are all vehemently opposed to this bill. Lawsuits against our government are forthcoming….the Eternal World Television Network (EWTN) is among those suing. The Catholic church has been, and always will be, against abortion and contraception from the earliest times. There is evidence written in the Didache, around the first century, that this was in place back then.

I am therefore calling on ALL Catholics and Christians everywhere to educate yourselves in the matters of faith of our Catholic Church. Understand that contraception is NOT what God wants from us! Understand that abortion is murder!  Realize how ridiculous Mr. Obama is in pursuing this mandate! He is caving in to “culture of death” and the secular world and has created a very big chasm between himself and the Christian world. I URGE EVERY CATHOLIC AND CHRISTIAN OUT THERE WHO IS ABLE TO READ MY BLOG TO SUPPORT THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN THIS MATTER AS WE TAKE ON OUR OWN AMERICAN GOVERNMENT IN AN IMPORTANT FIGHT. STAND TOGETHER! DO NOT LET MR. OBAMA AND HIS FEMINIST CRONIES GAIN ANY GROUND IN THIS FIGHT!    DO NOT ALLOW OUR FREEDOM OF RELIGION TO BE VIOLATED! VOTE AGAINST THIS BILL! VOTE AGAINST MR.OBAMA!

There will be an election for President of the United States of America in November 2012. I pray to God in heaven that Barack Obama will not be re-elected. Please pray with me.

“Our Father, in heaven. We come to you humbly and ask that You continue to reign over us and be with us. We ask for Your divine intervention to prevent Mr. Obamas’ plan from materializing. We need You. We need Your Son, Jesus Christ. We need Your Holy Spirit. We are “One Nation Under God”. Give us the strength to uphold the faith and teachings of Your church. Protect us from the evil on the horizon. Amen.”

Dear Sue and Jim, ( an imaginary couple)

I’m writing to you today because I believe there is much confusion in our world…with many questions….. and everyone thinks they have the right answer. Lets cut to the chase. It’s about sex. It’s about how every one in our society thinks that having sex is simply an exciting, passionate activity to do between two people who “love” each other. It’s all good. Both parties enjoy it. No one gets hurt…in fact, one person gives a special joy to the other person, and vice versa. It’s the natural thing to do. When the relationship progresses to more intense feelings, hey, why not have sex? Right? Well, lets slow it down a little bit and think about the sixth commandment. You shall not commit adultery. You are not married…if you are having sex…it IS adultery. Sorry but its true. And Jim, if you just think about Sue in a sexual-sort of way, that is also adultery. Jesus said that Himself.  The passions that are stirred that lead to sexual arousal and intercourse are reserved specifically for married couples. Now I know what you’re thinking….”That is so old fashioned…this is 2012! We can do it when we want to!”  Not really. Oh, you can do it…physically…but morally, it is a sin and should be avoided at all costs. Also, there seems to be some disconnect about conception and having babies. If you have sexual relations, you and your partner may concieve a baby. If you and your partner abstain from these relations, there is a 100% chance that you won’t concieve a baby. Using a condom or taking birth control pills is not an option. Abstaining from sex is THE option. So unwanted pregnancy will not be a possibility for you. And because there will be no unwanted pregnancy, abortion will never be considered. Abortion is NOT a form of birth control. Although many woman today use it as such. “Woops! I got pregnant….better get an abortion!” Abortion is the murder of an unborn child. Did you hear me? Murder! And that’s breaking the fifth commandment.  Oh sure, there are many doctors and agencies out there who are very willing to take your money and kill your baby. Heck, in the United States, our president Barack Obama wants to force all businesses including Catholic churches to offer some kind of reimbursement coverage for abortions and contraception. And there are those who agree with him. Well, I don’t and I’m sure God is not thrilled about it either. So many unmarried couples procede to make their own rules and move into a “sexual” relationship, not realizing the consequences. Contraception is not allowed. It is a sin. Abortion is not allowed. It is murder and it is a sin.

Let go of earthly, human desires…latch on to heavenly desires. I know it’s difficult. But He wants us to be perfect as He is perfect. Do not allow the passions of pre-marital sex overtake you and put your eternity is jeopardy. And to those of you who think that “we’ll just get married so we can have sex, and then get divorced when we get tired of each other”. It doesn’t work that way. You get married for life. There is no other option.

I know we are human. We all are “with sin”….If you have committed these sins….and I’m not innocent either……let’s get ourselves to confession and really REPENT! Really turn away from our sins and turn back to God. He’s waiting for us.

Hey, as I always say….I didn’t make the rules………

Sincerely, in Christ.   Ron

Recently, I found out that David Miscavige, the international head of the church of scientology, the pseudo-religion founded by L. Ron Hubbard, grew up in my hometown, Willingboro, NJ.   A friend of mine on Facebook, sent me a link that discussed his ‘rise to the top’. Oh sure he and his family moved around a bit but he spent about 10 or 12 years in the old ‘Boro. He was the best man at Tom Cruise’s third marriage to Katie Holmes. And speaking of movie stars, John Travolta, is also a scientologist. Both of these guys have reached the pinnacle of status in this (so called) church and are “cleared”….meaning they are at the highest level. I think both of these men are terrific actors and it would probably be a very cool thing to have a beer with them.  But I think they are sadly on their way to fire and brimstone. Oh I’m sure scientologists would disagree. I’m sure they are some very nice people with high moral standards, but having good morals means nothing if God/Jesus is not a part of your life. Remember, who is the truth and who is the way? It is certainly not Mr. Hubbard, Mr. Miscavige, Mr. Cruise or Mr. Travolta

The church of Scientology is a cult, not a religion. It costs members a ton of money to advance in this cult as Mr. Cruise and Mr. Travolta have done. Of course, money is no object to them and there they sit on the top rung of the so-called hierarchy of scientology. There is so much mystery surrounding this sect, it is almost to the extent of the freemasons.  David Miscavige will never do a TV interview because there is simply too much to hide. The church, however,  is international and has groups on almost every continent… but luckily, I read that its growth has slowed in recent years. Although I have just looked into this and don’t know ‘everything’ about scientology, the fact is that it is a sham based on aliens coming to this world. There is absolutely no room in their teaching for God. Every member is his or her own god. The true God of the universe does not exist for them. If I may borrow a fact from Fr. Larry Richards, Tom Cruise was actually a seminarian in the Catholic Church before he became an actor. When asked why he switched to scientology, he replied…’within the Catholic Church, there are so many restrictive rules to follow: within scientology, we make our own rules.’  The ultimate sin of pride, replacing God with yourself….putting yourself higher than God. Isn’t that what got Adam and Eve in trouble?

Again, this leads me back to the title of this blog….God makes the rules, Not us. We as Catholics have a gold mine within our grasp. It is the promise of heaven with Jesus showing us the way. It is an undisputed fact that Jesus founded the Catholic church. Some may call it man-made. I call it “GodMan-made” because Jesus was/is the GodMan. We may not be able to convince Tom or John to reconsider and convert back to Catholicism, but we can pray for their conversion and the conversion of all other non-Catholics. With our prayers, the Holy Spirit, in his time, will unite us all.

In the United States, we have many multimillionaires even some billionaires living here in this great country. Conversely, we have an unfortunately large amount of people living at or below the poverty line. I’m sure the statistics are about the same in all non-third world countries.

And here we are…just celebrated Thanksgiving 2011. As I was eating my plate of turkey that was perfectly cooked, with gravy, stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes, I was wondering what those folks who are less fortunate were eating on this Thanksgiving for their dinner… or IF they were eating a dinner at all.

I am, by no means, “rich”, but we do all right…. smack-dab in the middle of the upper-middle class. I make a good living. I can provide for my wonderful family. We have two cars, (although my wife drives a company car).  And we have a nice house in a nice neighborhood. So taking all that into consideration, and how lucky and thankful I am, I was just wondering how a man or woman who does not have a job, or a nice house or a  car….who can barely scrounge up enough money to buy a loaf of bread and some peanut butter….can be thankful for what they have. I wonder if they get mad because of all they DON’T have. How can a very poor, poverty-stricken, jobless man be thankful?

Something to thing about, right?

Well, I don’t have an answer to this question. I can only hope that God holds them close to Him. Jesus did not tend to the rich, He reached out to the poor…and He also said “….the last shall be first.” I think He holds the poor folks in the palms of His hands, although its hard to imagine that with all the struggles they go through. I wonder if they feel blessed….but I think they are.

So I prayed my own little prayer at bedtime onThanksgiving night. It went sort of like this…

Dear God, I have so many things to be thankful for. You have blessed me with so many good things in life. And everything I have, everything I own, comes from You. Without You, there is no house, no car, no job. WIthout You, I have no intelligence for You have given me a good brain to use. Without You, I am nothing so I am very thankful for everything. I am so thankful because Jesus died for me and opened the gates to heaven. But also Lord, just as I am thankful for all the GOOD things You have given me, I am also thankful for all the not-so-good things you have sent my way. Yes, I thank You for those moments most of all because they bring me closer to you. You’ve provided me with a cross to bear on many occasions and I thank you because Jesus told us that to follow HIm, we must bear our cross daily. I thank You for the hardships and the struggles you have put in front of me. Although I did not know it at the time, and I may have hated You for what was happening to me. But You sent me opportunities to grow closer to You. And during those times, I probably cursed You and used Your Holy name in vain, I am sorry and I’ll try not to do that anymore. Please Lord, forgive me for my sins. Bring us all into Your Light and help all people, rich and poor, find their way to you and your Son, Our Lord, Jesus Christ.  Thank You. Amen. Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.

It is probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I prayed for someone who I dislike very much. He has used his position to be verbally abusive to me and my coworkers. He is in a position of power (I am not). Many people complain about his antics. He has a long list of reports against him.  I can’t go into detail here, but suffice it to say that he has pushed me to my proverbial limits…and then some. I know it’s difficult to understand this without all the details, but I do not like this man. I do not want to be near him. I do not want to talk to him.

I am not proud of my anger for this man. I hope it will go away. But it is a real situation that I need to deal with now. I know that I must part with this anger and I pray that God will take it from me and that I will be able to deal with this hardship in the workplace and transcend the nonsense of it all.

A little background…..I played football as a kid in grade school up through college. There were always situations in which competition would lead to altercations and soon punches would be thrown and a fight would start. That’s how I remember dealing with adversity…to fight for your honor. Football is a tough sport and you need to show how tough you are sometimes by fighting for yourself. Well, in the corporate world, you just can’t do that because you’d be out the door in a flash, fired….and there goes your paycheck and your pension. Too much to lose, too little to gain by using fisticuffs. (I know that is being weak…even mentioning fighting but, I am human, and the thought crossed my mind…happy to say it is only a thought.) But that’s what I was used to. That’s how I was brought up….to be a tough kid, to be aggressive. You had to be aggressive to play football! Now, I have to be politically correct and be professional and be Christ-like. Let me tell you, it’s not easy in the heat of the moment to turn the other cheek! It kind of makes you wonder how difficult it must have been  for Jesus to say, “Forgive them, they know not what they do.” I mean, He could have had all the centurions destroyed with a blink of his eye. But He obviously had a greater goal in mind, we all know.

If you are  like me, you are struggling to lead a good life, knowing that you are a sinner, faltering at times, but always coming back to God for His mercy and love. This is my life, in a nut-shell. But I have to remember that in this life, I must do what God wants, NOT what I want. God makes the rules, right!

I struggle to be Christ-like every day and I don’t do a very good job of it.

Here is Matthew 5:43 and following…..”You have heard it was said, ‘Love you friends, hate your enemies’. But I tell you now, love your enemies and pray for those that persecute you so that you may become the sons of your Father in heaven. For He makes his sun to shine on bad and good people alike, and who gives rain to those who do good and to those who do evil. Why should God reward you if you love only the people who love you? Even the tax collectors do that! And if you speak only to your friends, have you done anything out of the ordinary? Even pagans do that! You must be perfect – just as your Father in heaven is perfect.”

Talk about “hard teaching” (reference to John 6:53).  This might be one of the hardest teachings in the bible…especially if you are”living it” like I am doing as I write this. I am sure many of you have also encountered or are encountering  difficult people at work or in other aspects of your lives who have angered you….who really push your buttons and try your patience. Do you pray for them? If not, start today!  It’s not easy to be perfect….but don’t ever stop trying! Love your enemies by praying for them. As Nike says, “Just do it”.

So there I was, in a friendly but heated discussion of “The Truth” with a non-denominational fundamentalist, who I’ll call Bill (not his real name). We had talked on the phone before and it always seemed to end because it got too late and we both had to work in the morning.

The topic was on the Catholic’s belief in the Real Presence. I encouraged him to look closer at John 6 and how Jesus explained that He is the life-giving bread. We, as Catholics, do believe that we receive Him into our bodies when we take the bread and the wine into our mouths. It’s the source and summit of our faith…that we “eat His flesh and drink His blood”. My fundamentalist friend argued that Jesus was only referring to the bread as a symbol of His body and the wine as a symbol of His blood….not the actual thing. He did not believe in the real presence. As much as I could without getting angry, I restated that Jesus’ own disciples left Him because this teaching was too hard to take. “They took Him literally 2000 years ago, why don’t you take Him literally today?” I asked. Realizing that this was too direct and not willing to go in for a kill shot, I interjected an anecdote by saying to Bill that he probably would have been one of the ones to leave Jesus because of the difficult teaching. His response was a definite “maybe, maybe not.”  I laughed to ease his discomfort with my comment.

The conversation then turned to salvation and whether faith is all that is needed or if works played any role in us getting to heaven.  Of course, I claimed that faith without works is dead and that faith is our starting point. I also admitted that in no way can we work our way into heaven….it has to be “Both/And” not “Either/Or”. He argued that God so loved the world that sent His only Son and whosoever believes in Him will never die. So, he claimed, ALL we need to have is faith and believe that Jesus was the savior and we will be in heaven when we die, guaranteed. Then he asked me a very good question…”Why did Jesus tell the good thief on the cross next to Him that he would be with Him in paradise?” The thief was a sinner his whole life….how come he gets to go to heaven after a life of sin?  Bill answered his own question with, “Because he simply believed that Jesus was the savior.” I said, “Amen! His life began at his physical death, because he was baptized by intention and the thief repented right there on his cross. What a merciful God we have!”

I countered with another question, “Why do you choose to believe in Jesus when He said to the thief that he would be with Him in Heaven but you choose not to believe in Jesus when said He is the Bread of life and whoever eats My flesh shall have everlasting life?” I mean, seriously…. I find this to be quite ironic and quite frustrating. The fundamentalists claim that the bible is all they need to believe in when it comes to matter of faith and morals (Sola Scriptura), but yet they pick and choose what they wish to believe.

He didn’t answer my question. It got too late. We’ll talk again, hopefully.

P.S.  Just remember….We are not Catholic to FEEL good…we are Catholic to BE good. Too many false religions and sects out there have manipulated people to believe that they need to have a good time and wear Hawiian shirts at their service.  Being Catholic is not easy. But we already know that. We know that we will have to enter through the narrow gate for wide is the path and easy is the way that leads to destruction. Please stay Catholic and please pray your Rosary. God Bless You.

He said it…so it must be true. God said, “Be fruitful and multiply.” God said to all of us, “use the powers of creation that I have given you and have children.” The interpretation is just as it says, procreate, have babies. And we all know how that is done. Don’t be ashamed…God told us it was okay to do that. However, it needs to be interpreted  in the right context. God meant for us to be married and consummate our marriages with the process of having children. Now I know there are those who choose not to have children…I don’t think God meant that everyone MUST have children. But if children are brought into this world, God said that there must be some organization about it. Some way to keep track of the little ones and not just populate the world haphazardly. He wants parents to be married. He created the sacrament of marriage. He did not say to everyone, “just have casual sexual encounters with whoever you like and make babies because I have shared the creation power with you.”  No, He did not say that.

If you, by chance, have brought a child into this world without being married, you have missed the mark (sin). If a man forces himself upon a woman (rape)and a child results, that man is definitely has missed the mark. If you had become pregnant and were unmarried and aborted that baby, you have most definitely missed the mark. These ways of procreation are OUTSIDE the ways of the Catholic Church. Hey, there are rules to follow,  even in dodge ball.

God has provided us with guidelines and He wants us to follow them. God has most definitely made the rules. I use this above analogy to introduce my main idea and it is a difficult one. This main idea is the fact there are millions of Christians all over the world who devoutly worship God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit, The Blessed Trinity. I’ve often wondered how does one Christian tell another Christian they are  “missing the mark”? They do worship Jesus…But they do it OUTSIDE of the Catholic Church. They are our brothers in Christ, but they are missing the mark.

God has already given us everything we need. Jesus came to earth and died for us. He created a church by appointing teachers to carry on this church in His absence. He created a hierarchy of church leaders beginning with Peter and the popes to follow. He assumed His Blessed Mother into Heaven to be with Him and to intercede on our behalf. He does not need our input. He does not need us to change anything. He does not need us to agree with Him. He does not ask our advice. Beginning in the 16 century, 1500 years after Christ’s crucifixion….Luther began to tell God He was wrong. He began to give God the new rules. He left the Catholic Church and created the Lutheran Church and started the Protestant Reformation. Today, there are millions of people who reject the church that Jesus created. And why? Because they want to give God their input and their ideas and tell God, “Hey You are wrong”. They want to change things. They disagree with church teachings. They don’t believe in the Catholic Church.

God instituted the sacrament of marriage to define how we should “be fruitful and multiply”. Likewise, He designed the Catholic Church to define how we should worship Him.

He doesn’t want it any other way…He did it right the first time and does not need any human being to decide what is right or wrong. He makes the rules.

A recent survey from Sept 2010 revealed that most Catholics don’t know much about their faith. It was also not so favorable for protestants with Jews, Mormons and atheist/agnostics outperforming us.

So here are a few questions to ponder and if the spirit moves you, I’d like to hear you answers.

1. Do you think that  blessed Mother Mary had other children besides Jesus?

2. Do you think Peter was the first pope?

3. Do you think missing church on Sunday is a sin?

4. Do you think abortion should be legal?

5. Do you think confessing your sins to a priest in the sacrament of reconciliation is necessary to get us to heaven?

6. Do you believe that the wafer of bread we receive at mass really is the Body of Christ?

7. Do you believe the wafer of bread we receive at mass is a not really the body of Christ, but a symbol of Christ?

8. Do you believe the Pope Benedict XVI is the present successor to Peter and is the leader of the Catholic Church?

9. Do you believe it is okay that we pray to Mary and the Saints for intercession as well as pray directly to Jesus (God)?

10. Do you believe that Mary was the Mother of God?

Some of you may find these questions very easy if you know the teachings of the church. But some may not know the church’s teachings and are not sure of the answers to my questions. This concerns me because there are millions of Catholics out there who don’t care to know the teachings of Our Church, as that survey pointed out. I think many “unknowing” Catholics can be duped into leaving the church by other denominations because they may find the “Church of the Hawaiian shirts” is a lot much more casual to attend. Or that the “Assembly of Rock Music Church” is much more fun than the Catholic mass.

Believe me, there are folks out there looking for easy targets…those who don’t know much about Our Faith…they approach you, ask you a few questions, and basically corner you into seeing things their way. If you are not a strong believer, you are at risk to be a “fallen-away-Catholic”.

There is a documentary film out called “Catholicism: Crisis of Faith“. It’s almost an hour long and its done by a fellow named James McCarthy. Through deceptive editing and misrepresentation, he successfully has managed to create a film that, if taken seriously, could lead a lot of unknowing Catholics away from the church. He really paints a negative picture of the Catholic church.  In one segment, he interviews Catholics in New York, outside of St. Patricks Cathedral. He asks them how they think they can get to heaven. The answers are surprising and really make the Catholic church look silly.  I encourage all Catholics to learn about what it means to be a Catholic. I don’t think anyone should see this film unless you are strongly grounded in your faith…it’s very deceiving.

Mr. McCarthy also wrote a book called “The Gospel According to Rome“. Again, this book is full of misrepresented and basically, false information in attempt to lead Catholics away fro the church. I should add that Mr. McCarthy was once Catholic but has since, fallen away himself. So why am I mentioning a very anti-Catholic book and film? I don’t want to promote an “Us against Them” fight here. But I do know that there are people out there who are not only “non-Catholic” but very “anti-Catholic”…as is Mr. McCarthy. And they are willing and very able to make the Catholic Church seem like it’s the church of the devil. I am serious….they believe we are all going to hell and will try to convince you that by joining their church, they can save you. It’s up to us to to empower ourselves with the knowledge and the history and the beauty that the Catholic Church has for us and not fall prey to the nonsense. What other church can say that Jesus, Himself, created it?  And it was started in the year 33! It’s true that there was a schism of the Eastern Orthodox church in 1054, but it wasn’t until Martin Luther began his reformation in 1517 that “another” church appeared. So for about 1500 years after the death of Christ, all Christians were Catholics or Orthodox.That says something about our faith…we have a great history behind us. We simply need to care enough to learn how right we are to be Catholic.

“On this Rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it”

By the way, my answers are: 1.no…..2.yes…..3.yes….4.no way!….5.yes….6.yes…..7.no     8.yes…..9.yes…….10.yes.

I haven’t seen him recently, but I remember there was always a guy in the stands of a televised football game or a baseball game who wore a rainbow afro wig and would hold up a sign the read “John3:16″. Guaranteed, he’d be at every televised sporting event, in a place in the stands where you could easily see him. I think I last saw him in the endzone seats of a football game in the stands directly between the goal posts, so for every field goal or extra point, you’d get a dose of “John 3:16″. He was sort of an icon, not famous, but identifiable. I wonder if it was always the same guy…it could’ve been more than one dude, but I don’t know.

Well, what was this guy trying say, holding this John 3:16 sign? What does John 3:16 say?

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that all who believe in Him may not die but have eternal life. ”

As a good Catholic, I say Amen!

But Is that ALL I need to do? Believe in Jesus, and I will have eternal life? My honest answer is,

“BOY, I HOPE SO!” Because I do believe in Jesus…and I’m headed to the promised land, no doubt about it!  This rainbow-wigged dude in the stands has been telling us all for years to simply believe in Jesus and we will get to heaven….right there in the stands at the football game.

I have to admit something…. when I actually did see him holding up his sign on TV,  I referred to him as that “Jesus freak in the stands with the rainbow afro”.I have now come to appreciate his simple gesture and I now understand what he was doing. I don’t use the term “Jesus freak” anymore.

“Sola Fide” is a doctrine that refers to obtaining salvation by “Faith alone”. Many non-Catholic christians subscribe to this doctrine. John 3:16 epitomizes and basically defines the doctrine. So by having faith in Jesus and believing in Jesus, these christians believe they are saved and are going to heaven, they are guaranteed salvation. Now I’m not writing this to say they are wrong…(I’ve already said I hope they are right, because then, getting to heaven would be so easy!)…but I am writing this to say that they are only partially right, according to the teaching of the Catholic church.  It’s very simple for me to see that this doctrine leaves out alot of things, like umm, God’s judgement for one….and, umm, lack of sanctifying grace, for another.

And my goodness, just read a little further into John 3 to verse 20-21….”Anyone who does evil things hates the light (Jesus), because he does not want his evil deeds to be shown up. But whoever does what is true comes to the light (Jesus) in order that the light may show that what he did was in obedience to God.” It says right here, that what we DO, (not only what we believe),has some bearing on whether we get to “the Light”.

Belief in Jesus is required for salvation, no doubt. But that is just the beginning. We need to do something with the free gift that God gave us, His son dying on the cross to absorb all our sins for all eternity. I thank Jesus everyday for what He did for me.

No, we cannot earn our way to heaven. No, we cannot buy a “stairway to heaven”. Nothing we do here on earth can get us to heaven. But it certainly can prevent us from getting there. Jesus opened the gates for us by dying for us. We are invited in to heaven, God wants us in heaven…but nothing unclean can enter heaven. For this, we have confession…but that’s another blog. We are so loved by God that He sacrificed His son, His being, for the sake of our salvation. But our life on earth is a test to see how we respond to this free gift…what will we do with it?

Here’s an analogy:  It’s as if you had a very rich uncle who died and left you $10 million dollars. He deposited it in a very exclusive bank. It’s your money. The account has your name on it. But the executors of the will did not tell you the name of the bank, or where it is. It could be in any city, in any state/territory, or in any country. Now you’ve got to do some leg work, some research, and traveling (works) to obtain this free gift. Yeah, I know it’s pretty weak, but you get the idea.

Likewise, God has given us a free gift, but we are called DO some things…to obey the commandments, to get baptised, to forgive, to bear good fruit(good works), to not judge others, to love your neighbor, to eat His body and drink His blood,  and to have faith. Believe it or not, Having faith in Christ IS DOING SOMETHING! Its a good work! But, as the bible says, faith without works, is dead.

So, as I scan the stands of each football game I watch on TV, I still always look for rainbow afro guy with his “John 3:16″ sign. I miss him. I haven’t seen him in years….but I still look for him. Maybe he converted to Catholism.

Hey, it could happen.

True story, (a little slice of my life): In 1990, I was working as a bouncer in New York City. Okay, I admit it, I was an out of work actor, chasing the “dream”. I was young and invincible…nothing could touch me. Or so I thought.

Rent money was hard to come by when you’re trying to make it in acting and your only only income was the cash you could make bouncing at a nightclub a few days a week. One night, while working at the Club, there was a fight. Things didn’t get get too out of hand but there was glass broken, yelling, screaming, and punches were thrown…I was nailed in the jaw with a quick jab. After the initial shock and mild pain and being the tough guy-bouncer that I was, I retaliated with a round house right straight to his mouth. He went down, dazed, and didn’t get up for a while. Feeling like I “took care of that problem”, I went back to see if any of my partners needed help or if anyone else was causing trouble. The coat-check girl asked if I was alright because she noticed that my hand was bleeding. I looked down and saw that I had cut my right index finger wide open on his tooth when I punched my foe. To make matters worse, there looked to be a severed tendon sticking out of the wound. It was gross!  Funny how it didn’t hurt at all…maybe because all of  the adrenaline. Well, when things cooled down, I got myself to the nearest hospital, which happened to Cabrini Medical Center. (Cool, a Catholic Hospital!) I was treated in the ER. Given antibiotics, but to my surprise, no stitches. I learned from the doctor that bite wounds get infected and closing them with stitches would only lock in the infection. Well, the wound DID get infected. Two days after the incident, I noticed red streaks up my hand and arm, and my hand was warm. I spent a week in that same hospital getting IV antibiotics. While I was there, the surgical staff did rounds every day to check on my progress. I learned that there was a Doctor conducting the rounds, and there were these other young folks who were not doctors. They were PA’s…Physician Assistants. I had never heard of that. What IS a Pysician Assistant? I asked about it…and I learned that PA’s are not doctors, but function under the supervision of doctors and provide excellent care to patients as an extension of the doctor. PA’s write prescriptions, see patients in the office, and can repair lacerations or assist in surgery. I obtained some information about how I could apply to the PA school.

Fast forward…..

Graduating from PA school took two grueling years. I was so happy when it was over and so happy that I had become a PA. There was no shortage of jobs in New York. I began working right away and I must say, at a very nice salary to start. A far cry from the struggles of an out-of-work-actor bouncer.

The H.O.G touched me…in fact, it punched me. God, in His way, (because it’s ALL His way), was telling me what to do with my life…”become a Physician Assistant!” I heard Him loud and clear.

Like I said, this incident occurred over twenty years ago (at the time of this writing). But  for 16 or 17 of those years, I did not acknowledge that it was the H.O.G.   I couldn’t.   I wasn’t there yet. I had not yet committed my life to Jesus. But I am there now. And I feel SO blessed.

Today, I work as a PA in Cardiac Surgery. I love my job. I love the excitement of heart surgery, although it can be very difficult at times.  I don’t work in a Catholic hospital but  the Bishop of the diocese has commisioned a priest to our hospital to say mass everyday, usually at 11:30am in our chapel. How wonderful it is to be able to attend mass everyday at work, (if I’m not so busy, that is)!

I hope the Hand Of God touches you in a beautiful way…it may not be so beautiful in the beginning but it turns out to be awesome in the end.

PS. A little credit goes to Dr. Robo for the term “H.O.G.”