Bomba All Grown up

G11 Bullet 1 – On and off beats; hand assignments.  The world might just judge you a serious percussionist after all!  

2. Only if you regularly train your less than dominant hand that is. Think about it. 

3. Who else would go about such an unnatural effort on a regular basis? 

4. There's a certain freedom in playing rhythm patterns with both hands so let's train your less than dominant hand to a higher level of proficiency. 

Ah man! Discipline first and then freedom.

5. Reviewing what we learned in Puerto Rican Bomba: When you see the term "on beat" in four, the numbered beats 1, 2, 3, and 4 are being referenced. When you see the term "off beat" in four, the AND's of each of the numbered beats (+) are being referenced. You'll see these numerals and symbols in the teaching boxes contained in the YOU practice sheets. 

6. If your dominant hand is the right one, by nature, you will start patterns with the right hand, striking the "even" numbered beats 1, 2, 3, and 4 with the right hand and leaving the left hand to play the "off" notes. 

7. Freely, by discipline (practice), we will strive to unmake ourselves, going against our natural inclination, our dominant hand, and expand our horizon by actively training our weaker hand. 

8. I call it "Opposite Hands" in the YouTube movies, giving each hand the opportunity to play both "on" and "off" beat hand assignments.

9. In the "Bomba All Grown Up" we have combined Part 1 and Part 2 of what we played separately in Puerto Rican Bomba adding touch strokes to fill it out and to help us hit the "off" beats more precisely, regardless the hand assigned to lead the pattern.

10. The dominant hand of pleasure seeking.

The following scenarios are illustrative:

I practice the congas every day. It gets to a point where it feels like I'm making absolutely no more progress anymore. I've reached my capacity. I've got a weak left hand. I have no more talent. I can't get any better. I can grow no more. This doesn't feel fun anymore. It's work. I'm so bored. The pleasure is gone. What's the point of this anyway? Compared to everyone else, I stink! I should just give it up. Better yet, I'll buy new congas, a new microphone, new training videos; yes, now I'm feeling better. -Or-

11. Why must I go to this church? It feels like everyone is looking at me. I've heard these same words so many times I don't even hear them anymore. His homily is so preachy!  Why are the women in that family over there wearing veils over their heads? Who do they think they are? The singing is bad. This isn't fun. Why is that guy bowing and kneeling that way - he thinks he's SO holy. I'm feeling bored. What's this basket for...oh you're kidding me; now they want my money too. I doubt anyone is going to stick with this for long. I'll find another church that's more entertaining with better music, a pastor who knows the times; one that's filled with successful people driving nice cars so no one will ask me for my money; yes, now I'm feeling better.

12. Expect moments of failure and doubt.

It's precisely at this point when everything seems to be tanking where belief can be finally defined. 

13. Belief is recognizing that "I am" the recipient of a unique gift from "I AM," a gift received without merit; one I didn't work for, one I didn't deserve but got anyway. 

14. Christ died for me because he loves me just as I am, faults and all. The Holy Spirit seeks me out - waiting for me to respond. 

15. This time I respond. 

16. You too can freely respond. 

17. The fact you're reading this very sentence, this far into a Christian blog like mine, no one's forcing you here, leads me to the prophetic conclusion that you too, my friend in Christ, have been called by our Lord for an awesome adventure. 

18. Rather than following others, this time, believe and follow the Spirit of God. The world might just judge you a serious saint after all!  

19. Only if you regularly train your less than dominant hand: belief in God. Think about it. Who else would go about such an 'unworldly' effort on a regular basis? 

20. Belief is beyond soft and fickle feelings, often themselves the cause of many rash and erroneous conclusions in one's life.  

21. Because we are constantly feeling the squeeze of the world, the flesh, and the devil we need an appropriate countermeasure. 

22. Belief is nourished and grown through prayer, practiced daily, with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, his Father, (Our Father), and the Holy Spirit.

Movers and shakers PRACTICE daily; men and women of faith included. 

23. By speaking the rhythm during practice we kick start the imagination that later drives our hand motions.

24. A vocal prayer is much like speaking the rhythm except it's conclusion is far more divine: reverent prayer directed to our Lord strives for "-being in silent inward communion with God" as it's end and is thus, far more pleasing. 

25. A vocal prayer (no, it doesn't need to spoken out loud) can be an "Our Father" prayed over and over until, with practice, one develops this inward communion with God and thus an "interior talk" with our Lord begins.  

26. No other creature in creation can do this. Only the creature with the "I am" made in the image of "I AM" can freely choose to have this "interior conversation."  

27. Freely, step by step, when we improve our prayer life we improve our faith, and our belief becomes more certain.

28. "It is not our faith but it's object, God, that justifies our certainty" writes Dr. Kreeft (Handbook of Christian Apologetics, page 38).

29. Again, the world tries to tell us otherwise - CONSTANTLY. 

30. Telling us, in 30 second sound bites, day and night, how to go about believing; the latest material idols in the world to set our sights on, a hyper-focus on the flesh, it's fitness and wellness, and the devil's urging to even greater heights of pride and selfish pursuits. 

31. The Christian response to such a non stop barrage and assault has been and always will be to pray constantly and not just in Church. 

32. How else are saints made?

By both belief and works.

33. A newly married couple gets a piece of "paper," a marriage certificate. An adult, having just completed an RCIA course is baptized and gets a piece of "paper," a baptismal certificate.  A student completing a four year college degree program in engineering gets a piece of "paper," a college diploma. A conga player and a trap drum set player get a piece of "paper," a contract to play a gig or two in a famous club on 6th Street in Austin, Texas. An artist gets a piece of "paper" commissioning a new work of art to be displayed in some park along the Colorado river. A priest gets a piece of "paper" from the Bishop, a formal letter directing him to study in Rome. 

34. Over two thousand years ago, a carpenter and his son in Nazareth, get their first order to fashion a beam that will be used to support a roof over someone's dwelling. 

35. In every case, whether a sacramental or secular act, either now in the present or then in the past, what must follow are deeds. 

36. Saints are made by repeated deeds and works done in love and sacrifice. 

37. The piece of paper "paper" itself is only a formality peculiar to space and time.  

38. The honest deed, the work done well can become the object of a prayer freely offered to God in praise and thanksgiving for being able to co-create through him, with him, and in him. 

39. Work itself becomes a prayer. 

40. Done often and in a spirit of sacrifice, work can be sanctified, sanctifying both the worker and those around him. 

41. How else does one go about believing in one's own state or occupation in life? 

42. Through works and deeds; active love.  

43. We offer our daily works and deeds, in love, as one continuous and lifelong prayer, paired of course with the daily prayers the Church gives us to recite.

44. "Our praying can and should arise above all from our hearts, from our needs, our hopes, our joys, our sufferings, from our shame over sin, and from our gratitude for the good. It can and should be a wholly personal prayer. But we also constantly need to make use of those prayers that express in words the encounter with God experienced both by the Church as a whole and by individual members of the Church. For without these aids to prayer, our own praying and our image of God become subjective and end up reflecting ourselves more than the living God." -Pope Benedict XVI, Handbook of Prayers, Rev. James Socias, Midwest Theological Forum

45. Even skeptics should pray.

Skeptical? 

Try this prayer I found in the Handbook of Christian Apologetics by Dr. Peter Kreeft  and Father Ronald K. Tacelli:

46. "God, I don't know whether you even exist. I'm a skeptic. I doubt. I think you may be only a myth. But I'm not certain (at least not when I am completely honest with myself). So if you do exist, and if you really did promise to reward all seekers, you must be hearing me now. So I hereby declare myself a seeker, a seeker of the truth, whatever it is in wherever it is. I want to know the truth and live the truth. If you are the truth, please help me. (The Skeptics Prayer, page 387)."

G11 Bullet 2 – 4, Learn the Rhythm. Bomba All Grown Up

SPEAK THE RHYTHM: Pat te re Du n Du Du te Pat te re Du Du Du Du te...


48. Work both hands:  Remember; when working on technique, whatever is true for the right hand is true for the left hand.  You will find that if you are right handed, the patterns  starting with the right hand will be easier to play than when starting the same pattern with the left hand (and vice versa).  Switch hands: If you are right handed, use your left hand now to start playing the pattern.  It helps me to go to the practice sheet (see YOU Practice below) and write out L,R,L,R,L,R,L,R below the R,L,R,L,R,L,R,L line so that I can clearly see the strokes my left hand is supposed to be playing at a particular moment (beat) in time.  Start slowly and work up your speed as your accuracy improves; this exercise develops dexterity.

G11 Bullet 5 – Topic A4, Tradition and Word. Man Responds to God: Believing.

1.) Just right after the consecration of the bread during Mass I can more fully believe the reality of what just happened by silently exclaiming to myself in prayer regarding Jesus Christ now before me. I like to think of a super famous person "X", let's just say for this example it's President Ronald Reagan, and then immediately acknowledge the unquestionable superiority of our Lord now before me: "One more famous than President Ronald Reagan is now before me." Or "The Creator of President Ronald Reagan now appears before me." Reading John 6:52 complete the following verse. "How can this man give us _______________ to eat."

2.) In John 3:16, believing and Jesus are linked together. Explain the link.

3.) How can what St. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:7 be used to bolster what I experience in prayer (see #1 above) right after the consecration of the bread during Mass?

4.) How is faith defined in Hebrews 11:1?

5.) YOUCAT #21 lists seven characteristics of faith. Select the one you find most reassuring. 

6.) Speaking of reassuring, summarize the "parachute" example given in the narrative portion of YOUCAT #21.

G11 Bullet 6 - YOU Practice Lesson G11.  If you want measurable results try to practice both your faith and drumming at least 30 minutes a day. 

a.) Playing simple rhythms on a daily basis can be similar in repetition to (but never used in place of) daily reading of something from our early Church Fathers regarding, for example, Scripture and Tradition.  The Apostle Paul required the aid of Church Tradition (see 2 Thess. 2:15). Both the Bible and tradition are necessary (Luke 10:16). 

b.) Learn how other Christians before our time practiced works and deeds (in a tradition of love for the Church) to experience, the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist or God's presence during prayers.  An excellent source for this is Facebook.com/saint sermons. 

c.) Practice perfects the one undergoing the repetitious movement; either naturally or supernaturally. Strive every day to pray always. Start today in offering your daily work to God, sanctifying your work, you and those around you in the process.  

d.) Answered prayers are reminders of God's supernatural order present in our very own lives. The Church teaches the fruitful value of a sound prayer life; my family and I can give personal testimony to the effectiveness of daily prayer. Practice makes perfect!

G11 Bullet 7 - Table Task: Believe. Freely practicing one's faith beyond Sunday Mass is the key to strong belief. 

a.) Look to join or participate in a lay devotional group that can assist you in your Catholic formation. I've had great personal success in my own spiritual formation by attending regular events hosted by Opus Dei. The daily "Plan of Life" suggested by Opus Dei is rigorous yet it's aim sincere: a rock solid belief in our Lord's saving action through his Church, his Mother, and the host of angels and saints in heaven. 

b.) Pray to the Holy Spirit for guidance in discerning which group would be best for you.  

c.) Continue your reading even during periods of dryness or lack of pleasurable consolations and feelings.  In my own personal experience, there's always two sides to such periods; the second - a return to inspirations, consolations, peace, and happiness in a renewed sense of God's presence. 

d.) Consider writing your own blog posts for your own children, nephew, or nieces to read. 

e.) When you are in Church, consider your posture, your dress, the acts of love you make before the altar and the tabernacle - all indications (not a show) of "how" you believe.  Don't worry about what others may or may not think. For God's glory, not our own or for those in the pews, do we make such acts of reverence; acts done out of love for He whom loved us first even when we were steeped within our own sins.

G11 Bullet 8 – Basic Notation (1) and (2) handouts: study them.

G11 Bullet 9 – Counting (1) handout: study it.

Gray Level Syllabus


"Time For The Table" The Way and Means"

Dominion: Royal Authority

How good it is that we too, mere creatures, can create; co-create! 

I've enjoyed backyard projects before - this one being my second. Here's a sneak peek of my first.  

Yeah, that's Round Rock, Texas.  Indeed showing them off is all part of the fun too!

I typically enjoy doing most all of the work all by myself; if I'm not careful - a pure,Type A, head-strong, selfish sense of dominion will follow.

Does it give me a sense of being in control or just satisfy some overriding, impatient urge driving one towards the timely completion of the project? Sounds like something to be worked out doesn't it.

Let the interior work begin, another daily struggle - life's full of them. 

In my latest project, my wife and stepson Sean have been a great help in collecting, transporting, and moving materials into place. Oh, and don't forget about their watering in the transplanted Saint Augustine grass that I have been trying my best to preserve.  

First, a plan, 

then the surveying; can you see the flags?

laying pathways comes next, 

then outlining the beds.

  

Lots of digging.

More digging.

Joints begin to hurt digging.

When will this digging end, digging.

And finally, after a full month's worth of digging and mulching the beds are complete!

If a soul filled with sins can't be perfect neither can a new garden bed be pretty with weeds. 

Until the trees and flowers can be planted we must keep the weeds out. I hope this too can become a family affair.

It IS possible that hardened hearts can soften! With royal authority we simply begin again over and over and over. 

Remember who it is that has been given dominion and Who has given it! Genesis 1:26-29

Calypso All Grown Up

G10 Bullet 1 – The fun of combining patterns.  If we allow it, God's grace perfects the unique nature we have each been given; my nature - your nature, your gifts - my gifts. "It is here that human effort comes in: not that our effort adds anything to God’s grace, but that it is precisely in our personal transformation, in our nature, that grace happens."  

2. And yes, tempered showmanship is a natural gift too - elevated by God's grace just look how well it worked for Pope St. John Paul II!  

3. Right or wrong, at the time, perhaps it was more of a "vain nature" that drove me to want to play on stage with my brother rather than any true technical talent and/or ability (I wouldn’t have lasted 5 minutes with the kind of music teacher appearing in the movie Whiplash); regardless, I fervently desired it in my heart.  

4. I would not do it as a guitarist, the instrumental role originally assigned to me by my brother Ken, but as a percussionist and many years later.

5. I could've practiced 24 hours a day and never realized this dream had someone not first given me an opportunity to play.  Who would've ever offered such a gift unless they had known me first to be someone looking for such a gift; not only looking, but capable of receiving such a gift?  

6. Let your intentions and aspirations be known to others - sharing what it is that motivates you with others and steering clear of those tyrannical personalities types; hitting them instead with your fervent and compassionate prayer requests for their interior conversion.

7. Finally, in the band Divas and Cavaliers, with rehearsal and practice, the confidence I had built over the years bore fruit and I began to creatively vary and combine percussion patterns during live performances. 

8. Here in Calypso All Grown Up we too will have fun combining patterns from The Big Calypso and Existence "Calypso Hi Drum part" and Middle Calypso and Middle Earth "Calypso Middle Drum part."

9. Accepting the invitation. Skilled or at minimum, proficient.  Don’t get me wrong, some minimum level of rhythm skills were absolutely necessary for gaining acceptance into the band Divas in Cavaliers as a percussionist. I needed not only knowledge of percussion instruments and patterns but the trust of my bandmates that I could perform with variety and temperance during a set of songs throughout the course of a night's performance.

10. For my brother Marc to take the risk and "confess" my conga playing talents to his bandmates, the Divas and Cavaliers, took "flesh and blood" reassurance; he had to have some small degree of confidence that I could hold my own end of the bargain – that I could actually contribute something musically to the overall effort known as the Divas and Cavaliers.  

11. Be prepared to "walk your talk." 

12. For what you might ask? 

The admiration, applause, and regular booking of the establishment and their adoring clientele?  

Yes. But not only this. 

13. Done well, ANY honest work done well, glorifies God, our Creator and Sustainer. Thus a musician's work can be sanctified and offered to our Father in heaven right along with a janitor’s, an engineer’s, a mother’s, or a student’s diligent and honest school work. 

14. Now before you start to fret over your own gifts and talents, or maybe you feel you don't have any, allow me to present a contrast to this idea of gifts.

15. When St. Peter "confessed" that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, Jesus declared to him that this revelation "of faith" did not come "from flesh and blood" but from "my father who is in heaven." (CCC 153, Mt. 16:17) It seems, at least from the start, Peter didn't even have to walk his talk. 

16. Through faith, an unmerited, sheer gift of God, a supernatural virtue was infused in him: belief. The gift was not dependent upon the qualifications or skills of Peter as a religious figure. A fisherman, not a religious authority, Peter just needed to be receptive to the gift of faith and God would provide all else…and the rest is history. 

17. I don’t know about you but for me, attaining eternal salvation, the glory of heaven - what no eye has seen and no ear heard, the loving and pure adoration of the communion of angels and saints, Mary, Jesus, God the Father and the Holy Spirit - sounds far better than the admiration, applause and regular booking of some 6th Street honky-tonk even with it’s adoring, almost always inebriated, clientele! 

18. Oh how many of us so blindly seek such shallow glory this day and age! What season is American Idol in now? How many musically talented spin-offs continue to pepper the air-waves these days? Wait…that’s right….no talent required anymore…just agree to have a film crew document your life, the more bazaar the better, and you’re on reality TV! 

19. Talent or no talent, the far better path leads to heaven. 

20. Like Peter, we need to be receptive to this supernatural gift - this gift called FAITH. 

21. How? Be receptive to our Father in heaven through your own prayers. 

22. ‘Form’ yourself to overcome the ways of the world; slowly but surely begin to replace that undisciplined part of your life driven by your feelings, with new habits of regular listening and reading of good spiritual topics concerning the ways to the Kingdom of God. 

23. Yes, there are both 'sound' and 'soft' spiritual topics that one needs to be able to discern - your local parish is an indispensable help here. 

24. Stick with the good. To truly recognize the good, one's will needs to be clear, free from the fog of sinful habits. 

25. A basic understanding (i.e. knowledge) of how things ought to work for the common good, God’s will, will develop over time but nothing happens until you first accept His invitation. 

26. Haven’t you waited long enough?

27. Are you ready to "accept the invitation" this divine invitation to faith? 

28. Marc was absolutely certain I was up for the ‘pro percussionist’ challenge. He knew I could contribute to the Divas and Cavaliers because we regularly practiced together. We had gotten good at laying down the grooves, we rehearsed, and we played to contemporary hits. Marc was aware of my personal ambition, investment in percussion education, and my active love and passion for the conga drums. Marc also knew how I had grown up to play live – our performances together with the bands Carrie Dell and the Time Machine, Stones Throw, and my familiarity with the requirements of being on the road (the Titans sound guy): setting up, making sound checks, performance time, breaking down and crowd control.  

29. This exchange and communication over the years was key to the invitation.

30. In Marc's eyes these factors virtually guaranteed that I could offer something positive to the band; they were "motives of credibility” leading to unshakeable faith. 

31. Faith in one another, faith in ourselves, faith in our new band, the Divas and Cavaliers resulted in the sort of effort that gave us great joy when it was happening. 

32. The same joy found in any honest undertaking done exceptionally well. 

33. What is true joy but a foretaste of the joy in heaven waiting for us?  

"When we contemplate the blessings of faith even now, as if gazing at the reflection in a mirror, it is as if we already possessed the wonderful things which our faith assures us we shall one day enjoy." CCC 163

34. Maybe that's good news for you Gary but what about me? 

Yes, it’s good news for you as well!

This bears repeating. 

35. Regardless your specific talent, you too have an audience right now, cheering you on, especially while doing honest work performed to your best ability. Tapping skins on a conga or changing diapers, your adoring audience is eternal: the myriad of heavenly angels and saints, our Lord and His Mother, our Father, and the Holy Spirit. 

36. Do they ever root for you!  

37. "It is then we must turn to the witnesses of faith: to Abraham, who "in hope… believed against hope", to the Virgin Mary, who in "her pilgrimage of faith," walked into the "night of faith" in sharing the darkness of her son's suffering and death; and to so many others: "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith." CCC 165

38. Whether you are at home studying for classes, working a part time job, mothering a child, or working your dream job or not-so-dream job; consecrate your work by making it the best you can offer. 

39. Think about this awesome audience and have fun "playing" to them as you co-create according to God's commandments and His covenants with you. 

40. Work this important is quite easily done in love. 

41. Work like this becomes a prayer - a continuous prayer offered to our Father in heaven.

42. "Faith is absolutely certain because Jesus guarantees it. Faith is incomplete unless it leads to active love. Faith grows when we listen more and more carefully to God's Word and enter a lively exchange with him in prayer." YOUCAT 21

G10 Bullet 2 - Visualize yourself playing the pattern correctly.  How do we use vision, you know, our imagination - to grow in virtue; to grow in skill? 

44. One way - a technique called visualization. 

Through visualization I first imagine myself playing the pattern correctly; I see myself making the proper hand motions - as I have demonstrated to you in the short movies. 

I can give you at least one more example. 

45. I'm a guy. I grew up in a culture and time that idolized young pretty women. I wanted to become a rockstar so that I could "play" with my share of pretty women. 

46. I had objectified, no, counterfeited the idea of true love with superficial lust, aimlessly driven by the kind of feelings raised in the cultural sexual revolution of the 1980s forward: serial polygamy, fornication, cohabitation, contraception, pornography, prostitution, abortion….

47. To correct years of untruths, I've had to re-learn to employ the power of visualization and imagination to retrain my brain so to speak. 

48. Now, armed with biblical scripture reading and the traditional teachings of the Church, I have my new instruction, my new marching orders. 

49. Through visualization, I am practicing seeing all people, no longer as objects for my pleasure, but as good, fellow human beings, full of dignity, worthy of my love, regardless their behavior, regardless of their beauty or lack of beauty, regardless their wealth or lack of wealth, and, most difficult of all for me, regardless of their sex. 

G10 Bullet 3 - 5, Learn the Rhythm. Calypso All Grown Up

SPEAK THE RHYTHM: Du te re Du Du re te re te Du te Du Du Du te re...

51. Work both hands:  Remember; when working on technique, whatever is true for the right hand is true for the left hand.  You will find that if you are right handed, the patterns  starting with the right hand will be easier to play than when starting the same pattern with the left hand (and vice versa).  Switch hands: If you are right handed, use your left hand now to start playing the pattern.  It helps me to go to the practice sheet (see YOU Practice below) and write out L,R,L,R,L,R,L,R below the R,L,R,L,R,L,R,L line so that I can clearly see the strokes my left hand is supposed to be playing at a particular moment (beat) in time.  Start slowly and work up your speed as your accuracy improves; this exercise develops dexterity.

G10 Bullet 6 - Topic A4, Chew On It. Man responds to God: Believing. Jesus Christ is a man and I am a man. 

53. How am I, a man free of same-sex attraction, supposed to love another man to the degree our Church asks us to love 'the Groom', Jesus Christ, as 'the bride' of Christ?  

"Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?" Matt. 9:15

54. Maybe like me you have often thought that it would be easier for a woman to love Jesus Christ in this way than it is for a straight, heterosexual man? Here's what other guys are saying. 

55. You and I, the Church, are 'the bride' of Christ.

56. I think my problem lies in the maturity of my thought processes regarding the goods of love. 

57. Through regular and ongoing visualization practice, I am learning to see our Lord, Jesus Christ as Another to love.  

58. Not just as a man - I admit here that I am trying to work out a problem, no doubt self-imposed, with loving another man to the same degree that I would love another woman. The solution I think lies in the capitalization: to love another or to love Another.

59. God in the Trinity, is the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, the creator of ALL things Whom took on the form of man through Jesus Christ. God most certainly created women and all the wonderful, good things I, a man, love about them. 

60. So I can use this visualization to rise above my childish, immature perception and come to perceive the source of this good, the "essence" of Jesus Christ. 

61. Using my reasoning and imaginative abilities, I see Jesus Christ as the SOURCE of all the good of creation, goods including both masculinity and femininity!  

62. Perhaps this is shallow, like I said I'm still working it out, but, at minimum, I can love 'the Bridegroom', Jesus Christ, as a member of 'the bride' of Christ (the Church), because He is the creator of women (women are made in His image), and therefore, the Originator of all those truly good and beautiful qualities of women that I love. 

63. "The most fundamental passion is love, aroused by the attraction of the good. Love causes a desire for the absent good and the hope of obtaining it; this movement finds completion in the pleasure and joy of the good possessed." CCC 1765

64. Let me say it again. For me, to blissfully love Christ in eros, I have to visualize the One whom created women and inherently already possesses all the good qualities that define femininity and female complementarity; the very substance that so deeply attracts me to women, in its purest form and nature: one whole heartedly loyal, pure, and free of sin.

65. Can you see how a correct belief in God might work to help someone with same-sex attraction? 

66. Does it really matter how young or advanced in age you are if you want to practice such visualization?

G10 Bullet 7 - YOU Practice Lesson G10.  If you want measurable results - try to practice both your faith and drumming at least 30 minutes a day. 

a.) Playing simple rhythms on a daily basis can be similar in repetition to (but never used in place of) dedicating a half hour or so of visualizing God's great love for you during prayer. 

b.) Visualize the degree and type of God's love for you during every prayer. 

c.) Visualize the degree of your love for the Trinity: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit during each prayer session. 

d.) Visualize and offer your daily, honest work as a much appreciated gift of prayer to God; see the hosts of heaven in a state of appreciation and adoration for your performance. 

e.) Join your gifts with Christ's gift of self to the Father during the next Mass you attend. 

f.) Practice perfects the one undergoing the repetitious movement; either naturally or supernaturally. 

g.) Answered prayers are reminders of God's supernatural order present in our very own lives. The Church teaches the fruitful value of a sound prayer life. My family and I can give personal testimony to the effectiveness of daily prayer. Practice makes perfect!

G10 Bullet 8 - Table Task: Learn. Read John, Chapter 17, verses 1-26. 

a.) What kind of love between Jesus and the Father is being described here? 

b.) How about between Jesus and the followers whom believe in him (present and FUTURE), “That they may all be one…that they also may be in us….”  (John 17: 21). 

c.) I’m well aware that words from the human language alone may not adequately describe the ‘pure bliss’ of such an unqualified love but try anyway: what kind of love (in the followers whom believe in him) is being described here? 

d.) Try to describe the exact form of love that you believe you should have for our Lord: as his brother or sister, as His 'bride.' 

e.) Which of the following types of love best describes what you feel? storge, philia, eros, or agape.  

f.) For the married: the love I have for my wife is the closest "feeling” I can use to visualize what Christ must feel for me, a member of his Church, his 'bride,' his Mystical Body. A good marriage involves a relationship of learning - ongoing and lifelong, a permanent relationship of giving to one another. 

g.) God’s love for me and you, suffice to say, can be defined as a love of the purest kind. Even if it's not reciprocated by me, still, God's love for me is so pure that no human creature could ever come close to providing it. Which explains why those many years of idolizing women as the supreme 'good' in my life were so unsatisfying and so full of heart-aches.

G10 Bullet 9 – Basic Notation (1) and (2) handouts: study them.

G10 Bullet 10 – Counting (1) handout: study it.

Gray Level Syllabus

"Time For The Table" The Way and Means"