Congas for Christ!

Day by day and for the first time in my life, I get a bit further in my personal reading of the Old Testament section of the Holy Bible (Catholic).   I'm in 1 Chronicles 25:1 right now.  It's elating for me to think that Mary, our great Jewish Mother and the Mother of Jesus Christ, was so dedicated in her own personal study and fidelity to God, to the teachings of Jewish Scriptures.

A musician most of my life, I am struck by how many times I see the word "cymbals" and other words referencing musical instruments, but especially "cymbals."  

This morning, wanting to see perhaps how many times the word "cymbals" is used in the Bible, I did a Google search and I came across the following blog post instead:  

God Loves to Reveal Himself Through Music  by Dave Cover 

It's worth the read, especially to anyone who sings or plays music or perhaps is thinking about playing music or singing in the future. 

I think this biblical/historical tie speaks volumes for the power of rhythm and music in persevering to unite people in love and celebration all over the world; activities that glorify God -  -music made in praise, worship, celebration, and best of all, LOVE!

Here's what my own church, the Catholic Church teaches about the subject of music in her Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC)- Part Two, The Celebration of the Christian Mystery,( …..anyone with a new YouCat? Please comment if music is referenced here.)

1. importance of songs and music (CCC 1158)

2. liturgical music as Church's treasure (CCC 1156)

3. Sign function in the liturgy (CCC 1157)

Sadly, like wealth, art, food, and fashion, rhythm and music can also be used for the profanation of man.  I've seen it used to incite rebellion and instigate overt sensuality and I have seen it performed preceding horrible acts of genocide and war. 

For my part, I would like to join the focus on using rhythm and music for the love of neighbor and community, celebration, increasing virtue while decreasing vice; i.e. playing rhythm and music to glorify God! 

So, from time to time, I will try to give you or point you to a few simple rhythms here; like the Tumbao.  These rhythms originate from all over the world.  Play them alone or in community with your family and friends.  Practice them throughout the day perhaps preceding meditation or prayer.  Whether you have an instrument or not, play these rhythms on a table top, in union with your own community or in union with the saints, the Old Covenant cymbal players, most of all, play these rhythms for the glory of God! 

Coming Home

Until recently, my own path home has varied:

1960's and 1970's - regularly, various Catholic Churchs

St. Felicitas Catholic Church, San Leandro, CA

Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Austin, TX

St Thomas More Catholic Church, Austin, TX

Late 1980's - sparingly, non-denominational Cornerstone Church, San Antonio, TX

Late 1980's - sparingly, Unity Church, San Antonio, TX

Mid to late 1990's - sparingly, Our Lady of Atonement -Roman Catholic/Anglican Use Parish

Mid to late 1990's - sparingly, Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church, Helotes, TX

Late 1990's to early 2000's - Agnostic but not quite Atheist

2005-2006 - attended a few services,  Mormon LDS, Round Rock, TX

Late 2000's - regularly, Unity Church of the Hills, Austin, TX

Late 2000's - regularly, non-denominational, Riverbend Church, Austin, TX

Late 2000's to Present - regularly, via Internet, Joel Osteen Ministries, Houston, TX

Mid through Late 2009 to Present - Complete Catholic reversion after my own, real world experience with the miraculous*

St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church, Austin, TX

St. Luke's Catholic Church, Temple, TX

St. Mary's Catholic Church, Temple, TX

Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church, Temple, TX

St. Williams Catholic Church, Round Rock, TX

...and wherever else our daily travels take us.

Religious freedom is pivotal to a free society; God is at work everywhere.

*"Imagine a dot in a circle. You are the dot. Inside the circle are all your knowledge and experience. Outside the circle is everything else. Surely, there is much more outside than inside.  So how could you 'know' there are no miracles or no God? If you have never been to Iceland, how do you know miracles don't happen in Iceland?"  Peter Kreeft & Ronald K. Tacelli, Handbook of Christian Apologetics

 

                                    

Greater Kindness

Between 2001 through 2007, during my own "calls to action"  if you had asked me about God, I would have told you that I considered myself agnostic  and that "mankind cannot know God."   None-the-less, I still tried to love everyone even if we didn't always see eye-to-eye regarding say religious matters.  

Despite my unbelief, the older I became the more I developed this desire to do the right thing and to protect the little guy.   Where was this coming from?

Peter Kreeft in The Pocket Guide to The Meaning of Life writes "How has God revealed Himself?" In at least seven ways, I'll quote three of them here:

1.)  In nature, His creation, as an artist revealed in his art.

2.) In human nature, especially in conscience, His inner prophet in your soul.

3.) In every truth we discover, every good we do, and every beauty we create.

I can't explain exactly how this happens except from what I know today:  In ways we don't understand God chooses to work through us.

"If an employee learns that her company is polluting the environment or engaging in criminal fraud, she should report the offense to the appropriate authorities.  Decent people understandably balk at causing someone pain, financial difficulty, embarrassment or worse, public disgrace and imprisonment.  Their first reaction is that doing so would be unkind. 

The problem with this thinking is that it is too narrowly focused.

To report a harasser, burglar, or child molester is, in a sense, unkind to him but wonderfully kind to all his victims.  Conversely, not reporting the victimizer would be kind to him but unkind to the others.  The choice in such cases is between two kindnesses, and the decision should be for the greater kindness. -It could, of course, be argued that reporting a wrongdoer represents a kindness even to him.  It halts the wrongdoing and helps him redirect his life."  

Excerpt from: The Practice of Loving Kindness: A Guide to Spiritual Fulfillment and Social Harmony by Vincent Ryan Ruggiero (page 60)

For the Greater Public Interest - 2001

It was early September 2001, just prior to 9/11, two armed security guards escorted me out of my work area the day after my submission of the following, word for word statement to my employer’s purported "unbiased" Public Interest Council.  The incarnation of my antipathy towards public and governmental corruption was born here.

Statement to the Office of Public Interest Council

RE: Public Meeting Notice for Lake Travis II Investments - Permit No. 14257-001, Canyon at Lake Travis Wastewater Treatment Facilities

The Texas Water Code prescribes the duties of the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission (commission) relating to the control of pollution including the review and approval of plans and specifications for sewage disposal systems. This authority is found in Texas Water Code, §§5.013, 12.081-12.083, 15.104, 15.114, 26.023, 26.034, 49.181-49.182, 54.024, and 51.333.

In the course of it's duties, the commission recently conducted full plan and specification review on aerobic treatment systems using recirculating media filters, dosing tanks, and subsurface drip irrigation with shallow installation of drip tubing. The facility reviewed, Permit No.14227-001 (WWPR 0701/055) is similar in design and location to the facility proposed for the Canyon at Lake Travis Wastewater Treatment Facilities, Permit No. 14257-001 and was designed by the same consulting firm, Loomis-Austin.

The commission finds:

1.) The likelihood for effluent surfacing from some emitters at "shallow installations of 6 inches" is high

2.) Effluent surfacing from the installed drip tubing does not receive the additional treatment from the soil as designed

3.) Soil moisture sensors may not be helpful in preventing surfacing because the entire soil does not need to be saturated for surfacing to occur

When public access is expected in areas where effluent exposure is high, the commission historically rules citing Texas Administrative Code §309.3(g)(4):

"Except as provided herein, disinfection of domestic wastewater which is discharged by means of land disposal or evaporation pond shall be reviewed on a case-by-case basis to determine the need for disinfection. All effluent discharge to land which the public has access must be disinfected and if the effluent is to be transferred to a holding pond or tank, the effluent shall be rechlorinated to a trace chlorine residual at the point of irrigation application." [Emphasis added]

We understand that the Office of Public Interest Counsel's participation ensures that all relevant evidence on environmental, public, or consumer-related issues is developed and made part of the record for the commission's consideration of permit issuance. As a result, the commission is able to make better-informed decisions and issue permits that are protective of human health and the environment and take into account the greater public interest, as well as the interests of affected parties.

For comments or questions, please contact Gary E. Geraci, E.I.T. at (512) 239-5703.

Sincerely,

Gary E. Geraci, E.I.T.

Wastewater Plan and Specification Review Team (MC 148)

Water Permits & Resource Management Division

First Grade

I think many of us get stuck in the first grade when it comes to religious understanding.   I've seen the word 'God' used in the same breath as 'Tooth Fairy,' 'Santa Claus,' 'Boogie Monster,' etc; certainly characters common to the first grade imagination.  I'll give you another example; in response to a choir of prayers over the recent Texas drought, I read an adult's comment that we should unclasp our hands, stop praying to the ceiling, and get out and use our hands for something more productive.  


When I became an adult, I left my faith understanding in the first grade.  Instead of "see Dick and Jane run," to "see Dick and Jane run using muscles, tendons, and bones,"  to "see Dick and Jane run assisted by gravity, good nutrition, high tech running shoes" my faith IQ got stuck in "see Dick and Jane run" or as my brother likes to say: an appreciation akin to a red crayon picture of a heart with the word 'God' written in the middle. 


As an adult around other adults, I wanted to talk about 'higher minded' subjects and so naturally I would become uncomfortable talking about such 'elementary topics' as God, Mother Mary, and Jesus Christ.  Talking about positive mental attitude, new age practices, the infinite, omniscient power surrounding us, peace and love, now this was intellectually stimulating talk; talking about Christianity, well that was just plain simplemindedness.  


In the blindness of my ignorance were the multitudes of prominent institutions, worldwide Christian churches, and colleges on every continent that to this day still teach about the historical Jesus Christ who was proclaimed over 2000 years ago.   Could this all really have come about and sustained itself for so long without God really becoming man, dying, and then rising from the dead?  I haven't found a historically feasible alternate explanation for why Christianity exists today.  There are modern experts called apologists that can explain God's existence and Christianity much better than me and I am also discovering that much of the best writings were written in medieval times. 


Jesus Christ came to this earth as an infant having first to learn the basics, attaining elementary knowledge from Mary and Joseph during his adolescent years, acquiring woodworking and trade skills in his father's workshop, becoming educated in Jewish synagogues, and only then did he begin his public ministry. 


I realized too that along with fellow Christians worldwide, I am called to follow his lead.


I finally chose to get out of this first grade mentality.  I read more, interact with other members of my faith community, receive the sacraments more often, and defend the faith.  I have become more confident in living and proclaiming the Christian faith that we are all called to receive by our Creator.  


Regarding that "praying to the ceiling" comment, from the teachings of St. Thomas Aquinas, I have learned that something much more profound and life changing occurs during prayer and that praying is indeed our connection to the supernatural.


Although I am making every effort to personally grow in faith, hope, and love through reading, studying, and action, I take comfort in identifying myself with the very poor of the world whom suffer a lack of education, often beyond their circumstances, yet still celebrate in profound joy when a communion host is placed on their tongue or in the palm of their hand during mass.


If all else fails, rejoice in the teachings of Jesus Christ and his Apostles regarding the sufficiency of a "child like" faith; in this respect, a first grade understanding of faith is enough.