MOVED

I no longer have a blog spinned off my wife's account. I have created my own. Please visit http://mikewood1.blogspot.com/

RIP Common Sense

I knew common sense had died a long time ago when the state of New York did not allow Mother Teresa's order to build a shelter for the homeless that would provide meals and hot showers. The reason was that the shelter did not have an elevator. NY building code requires an elevator in all 2-story buildings.

I actually found the obituary of common sense. He it is verbatim.

Today, we mourn the passing of an old friend by the name of Common Sense.

Common Sense lived a long life, but died from heart failure at the brink of the Millennium. No one really knows how old he was since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape. He selflessly devoted his life to service in schools; hospitals, homes, factories and offices, helping folks get jobs done without fanfare and foolishness.

For decades, petty rules, silly laws and frivolous lawsuits held no power over Common Sense. He was credited with cultivating such valued lessons as to know when to come in from rain, the early bird gets the worm and life isn't always fair.

Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend more than you earn), reliable parenting strategies (the adults are in charge, not the kids), and it's okay to come in second.

A veteran of the Industrial Revolution, the Great Depression, and the Technological Revolution, Common Sense survived cultural and educational trends including feminism, body piercing, whole language and new math.

But his health declined when he became infected with the "if-it-only-helps-one-person-it's-worth-it" virus. In recent decades, his waning strength proved no match for the ravages of overbearing federal legislation.

He watched in pain as good people became ruled by self-seeking lawyers and enlightened auditors. His health rapidly deteriorated when schools endlessly implemented zero tolerance policies; when reports were heard of six year old boys charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; when a teen was suspended for taking a swig of mouthwash after lunch; when a teacher was fired for reprimanding an unruly student. It declined even further when schools had to get parental consent to administer aspirin to a student but couldn't inform the parent when a female student is pregnant or wants an abortion.

Finally, Common Sense lost his will to live as the Ten Commandments became contraband, churches became businesses, criminals received better treatment than victims, and federal judges stuck their noses in everything from Boy Scouts to professional sports.

As the end neared, Common Sense drifted in and out of logic but was kept informed of developments, regarding questionable regulations for asbestos, low-flow toilets, smart guns, the nurturing of Prohibition Laws and mandatory air bags.

Finally, when told that the homeowners association restricted exterior furniture only to that which enhanced property values, he breathed his last.

Common Sense was preceded in death by his parents Truth and Trust; his wife, Discretion; his daughter, Responsibility; and his son Reason. His three stepbrothers survive him: Rights, Tolerance and Whiner.

Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone.

Author Unknown

The Teaching Authority of the Church - Vatican II

Some in the Catholic Church love Vatican II because they think it finally brought the Catholic Church out of the dark ages. Some suspect the Second Vatican Council because they fear it sold out faithfulness to the truth in favor of current opinion.

This excerpt from Vatican II's Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, paragraph 25, explains the authority of the Magisterium or Apostolic teaching authority of the Church and the way in which Catholics are bound to submit to that authority.

25. Among the principal duties of bishops the preaching of the Gospel occupies an eminent place.(39*) For bishops are preachers of the faith, who lead new disciples to Christ, and they are authentic teachers, that is, teachers endowed with the authority of Christ, who preach to the people committed to them the faith they must believe and put into practice, and by the light of the Holy Spirit illustrate that faith. They bring forth from the treasury of Revelation new things and old,(164) making it bear fruit and vigilantly warding off any errors that threaten their flock.(165) Bishops, teaching in communion with the Roman Pontiff, are to be respected by all as witnesses to divine and Catholic truth. In matters of faith and morals, the bishops speak in the name of Christ and the faithful are to accept their teaching and adhere to it with a religious assent. This religious submission of mind and will must be shown in a special way to the authentic magisterium of the Roman Pontiff, even when he is not speaking ex cathedra; that is, it must be shown in such a way that his supreme magisterium is acknowledged with reverence, the judgments made by him are sincerely adhered to, according to his manifest mind and will. His mind and will in the matter may be known either from the character of the documents, from his frequent repetition of the same doctrine, or from his manner of speaking.

Although the individual bishops do not enjoy the prerogative of infallibility, they nevertheless proclaim Christ's doctrine infallibly whenever, even though dispersed through the world, but still maintaining the bond of communion among themselves and with the successor of Peter, and authentically teaching matters of faith and morals, they are in agreement on one position as definitively to be held.(40*) This is even more clearly verified when, gathered together in an ecumenical council, they are teachers and judges of faith and morals for the universal Church, whose definitions must be adhered to with the submission of faith.(41*)

And this infallibility, with which the Divine Redeemer willed His Church to be endowed in defining doctrine of faith and morals, extends as far as the deposit of Revelation extends, which must be religiously guarded and faithfully expounded. And this is the infallibility which the Roman Pontiff, the head of the college of bishops, enjoys in virtue of his office, when, as the supreme shepherd and teacher of all the faithful, who confirms his brethren in their faith,(166) by a definitive act he proclaims a doctrine of faith or morals.(42*) And therefore his definitions, of themselves, and not from the consent of the Church, are justly styled irreformable, since they are pronounced with the assistance of the Holy Spirit, promised to him in blessed Peter, and therefore they need no approval of others, nor do they allow an appeal to any other judgment. For then the Roman Pontiff is not pronouncing judgment as a private person, but as the supreme teacher of the universal Church, in whom the charism of infallibility of the Church itself is individually present, he is expounding or defending a doctrine of Catholic faith.(43*) The infallibility promised to the Church resides also in the body of Bishops, when that body exercises the supreme magisterium with the successor of Peter. To these definitions the assent of the Church can never be wanting, on account of the activity of that same Holy Spirit, by which the whole flock of Christ is preserved and progresses in unity of faith.(44*)

But when either the Roman Pontiff or the Body of Bishops together with him defines a judgment, they pronounce it in accordance with Revelation itself, which all are obliged to abide by and be in conformity with, that is, the Revelation which as written or orally handed down is transmitted in its entirety through the legitimate succession of bishops and especially in care of the Roman Pontiff himself, and which under the guiding light of the Spirit of truth is religiously preserved and faithfully expounded in the Church.(45*) The Roman Pontiff and the bishops, in view of their office and the importance of the matter, by fitting means diligently strive to inquire properly into that revelation and to give apt expression to its contents;(46*) but a new public revelation they do not accept as pertaining to the divine deposit of faith.(47*)

Homeschool

My wife and I are 99% sure we will homeschool our children. The two main reasons are 1) we want to fully provide our children their religious and moral instruction and 2) we don’t want our children immersed in the peer culture with its attitudes, language, conversation subject matter, view of sexuality; its overall cynical material worldliness.

When I mention that we plan to homeschool the number one response I get from people , by far, is how will your kids learn socialization…or something of that sort. I really think they mean socializing, not socialization. Look at the definition of socialization.

SOCIALIZATION - Merriam - Webster defines socialization as, "the process by which a human being acquires the habits, beliefs, and accumulated knowledge of society through education and training for adult status."

Socialization is a different creature all together. I am not talking about having time to hang out after class and talk about your latest crush or ball game. This is about training my children to function in a given way and instilling habits and beliefs. I can hear you saying, "You can't keep your children in a bubble! They should be able to hear differing views! They should be taught how to function as part of society!" I agree. I can not keep my children in a bubble and I don’t want to. I do, however, believe that it is my duty to be the primary educator for my children. They will experience things and have questions about those experiences. My wife and I will filter those experiences through our belief systems and values. We interpret the world based on our "filter". Our job as a father and mother and as teachers is to help them develop a healthy filter with a Catholic perspective. One that will rely on Catholic truth and honesty and integrity to make decisions and judgments. While I do not have any problems with them hearing views and beliefs that are different from mine, I do have a problem with them being told the views that our family holds (e.g. our beliefs about the Catholic Church, objective truth, a Creator, or sexuality) are not "politically correct”, especially by teachers.

Below is transcript of Dr. Ray Guarendi’s radio show called The Doctor is In. He typically begins his show with a monologue. This is a transcript of him giving details on a study on homeschooling with his usual comments.
I don’t know where this number comes from, it says “Homeschooling goes BOOM! In America 74% increase in families teaching their own children since…oh since 1999. “Homeschooling movement is sweeping the nation” this is from World Net Daily; “supposed estimate one and half million children learning at home”. That’s about if I am recalling correctly, – the children who are in school-school age kids is around fifty five sixty million; so one and a half million is what 2 to 3%. “Dept of Education has reported that homeschooling has risen by 36% in just the last five years. National centre for educational statistics statistician Gail Mulligan told USA Today ‘There is no reason to believe it would not keep going up”.

Now I am not so sure whether I agree with that, because it can only go as far as the ceiling of stay at home mums. I think the number of stay at home mums, out of mums in total is 20%, 25% somewhere near. “2007 survey asked parents why they chose to homeschool. Here’s the most popular reasons:

Concern about the school environment, including reasons such as safety, drugs, negative peer pressure 88%.”

I am sure that many of you would speculate well the number one reason would be for moral or religious. The way the questions are phrased, negative peer pressure might come underneath that moral or religious rubric.

“The second most common reason is a desire to provide religious or moral instruction. 83%.”

So there, that is for most folks right up there in their motives for homeschooling.
“A dissatisfaction with the academic instruction at other schools 73%” of the parents cited that as a reason.

“Non traditional approach to children’s education or unschoolers who consider typical curriculums and standardized testing as counterproductive to quality education 65%.

Other reasons; family time, finances, travel distance 32%.

Child has special needs 21%.

Physical or mental health problem 11%.

Parents who said that they homeschooled to provide religious or moral instruction increased from 2003 to 2007.”

What that basically means is that more people are homeschooling because they feel that they can provide the kind of moral religious education, not working so hard against the peer culture and the school culture. Used to be just the peer culture but unfortunately a lot of what is going on in the schools under the auspices of the schools is antithetical to the kind of moral world view that many parents want their children to have.

“Above all other responses, parents cited providing religious and moral instruction as the most important factor in the decision to teach their children at home 36% said that’s the most important factor. Second most important, concern about the school environment”.
I’ve got to believe there’s overlap there. If you’re concerned about the school environment, you’re not necessarily just concerned about drugs or violence. Much more commonly, is “Third reason dissatisfaction with academic instruction 17%.

Research has shown the positive affects of homeschooling through the years. Brain Ray president of the National Homeschool Research Institute reveals that homeschooled children fair as well or better than private and public school students in terms of social, emotional and psychological development” – that is true. The next time somebody says to you ‘What about their socialization?’ you can have twenty different answers to that. But if you want to make it quick you just look and say ‘Well, the research says they’re better socialized.’

‘WHAT?’

‘Argue with the research’. And that’s true, the research does say that; they say that homeschoolers are more active civically. They tend to have umm more involvement in their communities. They tend to obviously score better academically, but we’re not talking about that right now. They tend to have better self images; yeah that’s right even the homeschoolers have better self images. How could they do that without all those self image courses? You know they gotta have those self image courses. You homeschooling mums you better incorporate some self image courses in your curriculum. Homeschoolers earn higher marks than peers who attend public schools.

“The home educated in grades K to 12 have scored on average on the 65th to 80th percentile on standardized academic achievement tests in the US and Canada compared to the public school average of 50th percentile.”

How could that be? How could these untrained mothers; these non professional educators, actually teach their children, so that they outperform their peers. It’s not possible!

Apparently it is. There are three studies, which demonstrate that demographics, income and education level of homeschooling parents are generally irrelevant with regard to quality of education. On average, homeschoolers in low income families with less formal education STILL score higher than state school averages.

Yes there has been a wonderful study done where they compared mums who are certified teachers versus mums who are college graduates versus mums with some college verses mums high school graduates versus mums with not a high school graduate; Do you know what they found? NO DIFFERENCE in the kid’s achievement scores. The only place where there seemed to be a little bit of a blip was in mathematics taught by non high school graduate mums. But you could understand that. How could they keep up with that level of mathematics especially at the secondary level? But other than that the component seems to be not the mother’s academic level but the mother’s motives, the mother’s heart, the mother’s commitment, the mother’s sacrifice. Don’t dat just beat ALL?

Relationship –who’da thought it?.

"Catholic" Witness

Thank God for the outstanding and courageous leadership of Archbishop Chaput. As Catholics we all need to faithfully witness the truth of the Gospel and never be afraid to do so when challenged. Our world is certainlly in a secular/relativism chaos and the Church needs to stand tall as a pillar of truth, as well as Charity and Social Justice (in that order.) Let us all pray that God will abundantly bless those who fiercely fight for and to protect the great Gift of Life - from conception to natural death.

http://tinyurl.com/yj3hz7a
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Catholic Apologetics

Apologetics has really revitalized my Catholic faith and life in a big way. I got introduced to Catholic apologetics many years ago through the Beginning Apologetics workbook series by Jim Burnham and Frank Chacon, http://shop.catholic.com/product.php?productid=351. I was totally blown away of how what I believed on faith because I was taught growing up could be explained using logic and reason. Faith is reasonable. I’ve been confident and excited in living out my life as a Catholic in a way I would have never believed before being introduced to Catholic apologetics.

The word apologetics is derived from the ancient Greek word apologia. An apologia was the case a lawyer would build on behalf of his client. So apologetics is about building the case for our faith—learning how to explain and defend our faith.

I have created a set of links dedicated to Catholic apologetics. Please check them out. God bless!

Trinity

The eternal love of the Father for the Son and the eternal Love of the Son for the Father cannot be contained. From the exchange of eternal loves, springs forth the Holy Spirit.