Fulfilling Your Sunday Obligation

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On Friday, October 21 and Saturday, October 22, 2005, a Total Catholic Education Conference, will be held at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, in downtown Pittsburgh. The conference is directed at at those who share in the teaching mission of the Church, including CCD catechists, campus ministers, priests, religious and other Catholic laity. The registration guidebook is impressive in terms of both content and packaging, and sessions feature heavy hitters like Bishop Bradley, Michael Aquilina, and Kimberly and Scott Hahn.

However, the full-page announcement for Eucharistic Liturgy on Saturday at 3.30 pm, features the legend, "This Mass fulfills your Sunday obligation" and that little line was more informative to me, than all the rest of the impressive text. The late Fr. John Baptist "JB" Fernandes, S.J., impressed upon me that ‘fulfilling an obligation’ is one of the least appropriate of reasons to go to Sunday Mass. The Lord wants us to attend Mass because He loves us, and we ought to be going, because we love Him. Surely the participating Catholic educators should understand this perspective. I dearly hope so, because it would be a shame if those in their charge, were only taught the ‘obligatory’ perspective.

Would it kill the participants to attend Mass on Sunday as well? Some, if not many, may actually do so, for reasons just highlighted. That begs the question, what is the understanding of the people organizing this conference, as regards Sunday Mass? Do they think of it primarily as an obligation? Further, do they believe, that the question of ‘whether or not the obligation is fulfilled’ would be uppermost in most participants’ minds? With the surfeit of contact information available in the guidebook, whoever (and I sincerely hope that would be, if not zero, a really small number) was concerned about that, could have find out that information for themselves. Maybe the organizers were anticipating a flood of emails/phonecalls and therefore decided to be proactive – pragmatism trumped spirituality.

2005 Chamber Classic 5K

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I ran the Chamber Classic 5K in North Park this morning. All in all, I’m pretty unimpressed. First of all, I’m unimpressed with my time, 29:42, which works out to a 9:35 mile pace. Ugh. I really should be doing 9 minutes or better for a 5K race. Perhaps I haven’t been training enough lately. Then again, perhaps my sweatshirt and sweatpants impeded my performance. I definitely don’t feel like I run as well when I have to keep warm with sweats.

That’s my personal stopwatch time, by the way. I don’t have my ChampionChip time yet, and I don’t know if I’ll trust it when I do. You see, the entrance to the registration and refreshments tent was right next to the 5K finish line and the 1/2 marathon lap checkpoint. When I finished, there was no "rancher" herding me to the guy with the clippers to remove my chip. Consequently, when I went into the tent to get goodies and ask about getting my chip removed, I set off the 1/2 marathon sensor. I’m very much not alone in that, either. I saw lots of folks do the same.

The refreshments, by the way, were just about the only really worthwhile thing about this race. The spread was ample and diverse with apples, oranges, bananas, cookies, bagels, and lots of beverages.

The race was really disorganized. Nobody really knew where the starting line was because there were no signs, banners, or arches. In fact, I didn’t even see chip sensor stuff, I’m sure my chip time will be artifactually longer because there was no differentiation between when someone said "go" and when I actually crossed the starting line, not there was really any to be seen. When we actually did start, it was at least 5 minutes late. Grr.

The organizers describe the course as mostly flat with a steep incline at the beginning. Well, the steep hill part is right. The rest is flat like Dolly Parton. It’s a series of rolling hills. None are as steep as the first, but the constant up and down screws with my stride. Also, the run was through a park, but we ran on park roads, not paths. For me, that kind of defeats the prupose of running in a park. Might any of my readers know of any good 5K or 10K races that use park trails? I love running on trails. I really think Schenley Park, where I do some of my training, would be an ideal location, but I’ve never heard of any races using it.

I’ve already mentioned some of the post-race annoyances. One that affected the 1/2 marathoners more than it affected me was, again, the location of the lap checkpoint. When the 5K racers finished, they naturally milled about, caught there breath, and sought refreshments. Meanwhile, the 1/2 marathoners are trying to continue their race. It was kind of chaotic. Not only that, but the route past the 5K finish line was poorly marked and I saw more than few 1/2 marathon racers accidentally cut a large corner as they existed the parking lot we were in.

Poorly planned, poorly organized, poorly executed. It was no thrill to run this race. I doubt I’ll be doing it next year. nor will I be running the Jingle Bell Run held in North Park.

Porn Sucks

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rape-patch.jpg If anyone can articulately explain why pornography is bad, please tell my friend Robyn. Since MySpace is a crappy blogging service and you might have to be on her friends list to view the post, I'll reproduce it here.

"Has anyone else heard about this attempt by a religious faction to heal those who have been 'overcome' by porn? Of all the things in this world to focus your energies on, I have to just shake my head. Granted, extreme porn (such as that involving 'snuff films,' people under the age of 18, etc) makes me less than comfortable, I fail to see this as an epidemic of sorts."

"Sex, in its consentual form, is a perfectly natural, pleasurable thing. People have varying predilections that not everyone will understand. But, that's just the thing. You don't have to understand it. Some prefer a traditional approach with no real experimentation, and that's all fine and good. As long as no one's getting hurt (who doesn't want to be), everyone should be entitled to express their sexuality on their own terms. If that involves putting your sex life on video or in photographs, so be it."

"I just don't see porn as a real problem in society. I think one of society's problems is that society is a little too uptight. We're all naked underneath our clothes, and I'm sure we all have sexual cravings. To say that someone is wrong, or is going to Hell because of something so non threatening as viewing or creating porn, is just asinine to me. That may be your take on the subject, and sure, you're welcome to your opinion. Just don't try to force your ideology on me."

"I have a rather small collection of these aforementioned videos, I'm interested in trying different things sexually, and to be perfectly honest, I probably desire sex 90% my day. At the same time, I've had less than a handful of lovers because I'm what you'd refer to as a 'relationship girl.' Though I have no problem with others partaking in casual sex, it's just not for me. What's my point? Being sexual does not make you a bad person. It makes you human."

"That being said, I believe that in honor of this Porn Sunday, the other Adam and I need to be taking a trip to a little place on McKnight Road ;)"

"*I ask that in reading this you keep in mind that I'm referring to sex in the strictest of consentual terms*"

I'd respond at length myself, but I'm too hurt by her insensitivity. Porn has really screwed me up and I'm too emotionally raw to explain why it's such an evil thing, so I'm relying on my loyal readers. Please lend me your brains and your keyboards.

Addendum: Here are some previous posts about porn and its effects.

Not Just For Jews
Disordered Apetites
Monkey See, Monkey Do
Virtual Red Light District

Addendum #2: Here are some news stories about the "religious faction" Robyn refers to.

National Porn Sunday October 9
Mesa man hopes his story will warn of cost of porn addiction

We Are ChurchHeresy

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"Oct. 04 (CWNews.com) – The international dissident movement ‘We Are Church‘ is issuing an appeal to the Catholic bishops, gathered in Rome for the Synod, to confront the ‘real’ problems relating to the Eucharist. At an October 4 press conference in Rome, the dissident group called for reconsideration of the key Catholic doctrine on the transubstantiation, an end to the ‘hierarchical monopoly’ on the sacraments, and approval of shared communion with other Christian denominations."

….

"Specifically, the dissident group called for abandoning the notion that the Eucharist is a sacrifice, and instead saying that the mass is ‘in memory of the entire life of Jesus.’ The group called for ‘full freedom of philosophical and theological interpretation of that mystery.’ We Are Church argued that the dogma of the transubstantiation– the teaching that the bread and wine at Mass are transformed into the Body and Blood of Christ– is unacceptable to Protestants, and thus impedes ecumenical unity. The group decried traditional forms of Catholic piety, such as Eucharistic adoration and processions, as tending to make an ‘idol’ of the Blessed Sacrament."

*rolls eyes* This is infuriating and comical at the same time. To paraphrase the Big Lebowski:

"Your revolution is over, Ms. Heizer et. al. Condolences. The heretics lost. My advice is to do what your intellectual forebears did; become Protestants, folks. The heretics will always lose."

Flu-Induced Martial Law?

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Anybody else think this
is a little creepy? (Fedora Tip: Tischcreden)

Bush Considers Military Role in Flu Fight

President Bush, increasingly concerned about a possible avian flu pandemic, revealed Tuesday that any part of the country where the virus breaks out could likely be quarantined and that he is considering using the military to enforce it.