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Today was just what the doctor ordered! For the first time in literally a month, I have an entire day to catch up on stuff. So far today I've:
I even got to have coffee today, for the first time since October 11-- that tasted good. For lunch, my wife Ellyn picked up a couple of stuffed crust pizzas from Papa Murphy's. Then at 15:00, Minnesota United play in what should be a thriller-- a "win or go home" playoff decider against Seattle.
Also on my list are to resume reading Paul's letters in scripture, plus read a book the IT director at my new company loaned me. I'd also like to play more of the "Gex Trilogy" on Switch 2, plus "EA Sports FC 26" on PlayStation 5.
The good news is that it won't just be today where I have time: I do train in a few new Sacristans tomorrow at church, and I am serving at the altar with Duncan-- but after Mass, I have the afternoon to continue catching up on all of the things I've been neglecting. Plus, Lazio play Inter at 13:45, which should be fun.
Next week, my evenings are looking super open as well, which is a relief after how insanely busy I've been.
Work
My new job has been a real mixed bag so far. I know the Lord wants me there, at least for now, because He opened like ten doors simultaneously to set me and Ellyn up with the situation we're currently in. As I wrote in a previous post, life overall has been very satisfying, if not a little too busy due to a lack of respite.
The good parts of the job:
The not-so-good parts of the job:
I keep telling myself that no job has to be forever-- if things don't work out after a year or two I'm free to find another IT job. Just to reiterate, I know God wants me in this job right now because of the bonkers crazy "coincidences" he lined up to make things converge-- so I'm working hard to just put my trust in Him. When He wants me to move on, he'll let me know.
Entertainment
I really enjoyed this video, showing super concrete examples of how the technical level of the video game industry has plummeted just over the past ten or fifteen years. It's pretty shocking.
A few days ago my friend at work sent me this. I immediately fell absolutely in love with it, to the point where I started my first-ever play of their initial album from 2014. In that album I've heard: reggae, lofi, traditional Japanese, dubstep, hip-hop, and "Ape Escape"-reminiscent drum n bass themes-- so there is a ton of creativity and variety going on. Plus the chunky guitar riffs mixed with their playful voices creates one of those "chocolate and peanut butter"-style lessons in contrast. It's wonderful.
Here is another example of them performing live. It's positively surreal to watch. It reminds me of the visual kei bands my sister-in-law used to listen to, where the presentation itself is a huge part of the experience. Here is another one-- amazing stuff. I asked my daughter if she has ever heard of them, and here they've been in her rotation for years! Pretty cool.
The Catholic Church
I'd like to end this post with why I'm a part of the Catholic Church. As a nominally Catholic blog, it's incredible to me that I haven't explained this before! Before I continue, let me say that some of my greatest spiritual mentors are Protestant, and I love you all. We are brothers and sisters in Christ! I absolutely believe that all of you can achieve salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.
But why be Catholic specifically? Let me explain!
My view-- and I wouldn't have returned to the Catholic Church if I hadn't come to these conclusions, incidentally-- is that the Catholic Church is the church. It's not a "denomination"-- it's the real deal. It's the same church as one reads about in "Acts". It's the one and same church which Jesus created, and then handed over to Peter.
Someone once said to me, "God wouldn't have given us all of these churches if they weren't all viable paths." I personally disagree with that; in my view, non-Catholic churches, depending on the teachings, are committing varying degrees of apostasy. That might sound harsh at first blush-- but if one has concluded as I have that the Catholic Church pronounces the correct teachings, teachings which deviate from that by definition are apostasy. It's not so much a judgement as a simple definition of terms-- it's basic logic.
We can certainly agree to disagree-- but that is my personal view.
More on that: authority doesn't come out of thin air-- it arises naturally. Further, you can only delegate authority you have. These are elementary principles of natural law, which nominally govern our nation state, our legal system, property plus contract rights, and just about everything else.
So too natural law governs the Church. As God, Jesus delegated aspects of His divine authority to Peter, as we read in Sacred Scripture. Peter was the first Pope. When the tongues of fire came down on the Apostles at Pentecost, the Apostles then passed on the Holy Spirit to others, who then spread the church-- the Catholic Church-- all around. This is put into text in great detail in "Acts", as I mentioned before.
I've talked to many Protestants who say that believing in Jesus is literally all we need to do. That doesn't stand up for me: Satan believed in God. Ergo, belief is not enough by itself. I also have to ask, believe what about Jesus specifically? I've talked to Protestants who don't believe in baptism. I've talked to other Protestants who think baptism is literally the only path to salvation. I could name a whole bunch of concepts where Protestants are literally diametrically opposed.
Which views are correct? How do we achieve salvation if we're getting ten totally contradictory views told to us at once, all depending on which church we happen to walk into on a given weekend?
Tomorrow, I could sit down in my kitchen on my laptop and form the "Church of Mike", and declare that Jesus does not want us to believe in God-- or any other teaching I so desire. Simultaneously, I could merely turn around, and with the whoosh of my hands declare that people are married, or that sins are forgiven, or any manner of other things.
But by what authority could I make those claims? It doesn't arise naturally in me, and it wasn't delegated to me either. I'm just a dude in my kitchen. With all due respect, so was Martin Luther: he was just a dude in a kitchen. He didn't have any more authority than I have. And I mean that with all due respect: Martin Luther was a very devout Catholic, with a tremendous devotion to the Virgin Mary-- and the Church was abusing its natural authority in various ways.
But my point remains.
Every time a disagreement arises we can't just go out and create a new "Church of Mike", teaching oftentimes radically different views. That's not the solution.
Thankfully as Catholics, we don't have this problem: Christ's and the Apostles' direct successors-- those directly delegated the authority of Christ Himself-- have created two thousand years of painstaking analysis of Sacred Scripture, combined with Sacred Tradition. We Catholics call this the Deposit of Faith. It is through this Deposit that the Magesterium guides us in our understanding of Sacred Scripture, and in this way the sensus fidei-- the consensus-- is formed among the faithful.
That's not to say the Church has never erred: Priests, Bishops, Cardinals, and Popes alike are all human and thus fallible. Even the original Apostles sinned. But taken over centuries, this notion of sensus fidei and a slow-but-steady analysis, deep prayer, Tradition (Papal encylicals, revelations made directly to Saints, and so on), and consensus gives us One Source of the Truth, which is laid out in tremendous detail in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which anyone can read online here.
Once one opens the door to this view of Faith, suddenly all of the Catholic Traditions-- saying Grace before meals, praying the Rosary, the structure of the Mass, and all of the other things Protestants sometimes roll their eyes at or find totally irrelevant, take on a whole new light accompanied by a rich world and life of spiritual orientation, reverence, and prayer becoming open for exploration and participation.
In any event and with all due respect, as I know many very holy Orthodox and Protestants, who have helped me out immensely over the years-- this is my personal perspective. And as I said earlier I axiomatically wouldn't be a Catholic if I hadn't come to these conclusions. This is my two cents!
God bless and may the peace of Christ be with you all!
- Cleaned the bathroom.
- Emptied out the vacuum cleaner.
- Vacuumed the entire basement.
- Updated my MacBook, iPhone, and Apple Watch.
- Got in my thirty minutes of cardio.
- Clipped my finger nails, shaved for the week, showered.
- Got all caught up with Pastoral Council duties.
- Got all caught up with Liturgy Committee duties.
I even got to have coffee today, for the first time since October 11-- that tasted good. For lunch, my wife Ellyn picked up a couple of stuffed crust pizzas from Papa Murphy's. Then at 15:00, Minnesota United play in what should be a thriller-- a "win or go home" playoff decider against Seattle.
Also on my list are to resume reading Paul's letters in scripture, plus read a book the IT director at my new company loaned me. I'd also like to play more of the "Gex Trilogy" on Switch 2, plus "EA Sports FC 26" on PlayStation 5.
The good news is that it won't just be today where I have time: I do train in a few new Sacristans tomorrow at church, and I am serving at the altar with Duncan-- but after Mass, I have the afternoon to continue catching up on all of the things I've been neglecting. Plus, Lazio play Inter at 13:45, which should be fun.
Next week, my evenings are looking super open as well, which is a relief after how insanely busy I've been.
Work
My new job has been a real mixed bag so far. I know the Lord wants me there, at least for now, because He opened like ten doors simultaneously to set me and Ellyn up with the situation we're currently in. As I wrote in a previous post, life overall has been very satisfying, if not a little too busy due to a lack of respite.
The good parts of the job:
- The company is super Christian. People openly talk about Scripture right in our IT cube area, and everyone is pretty much just as involved with their churches as I am with mine. The people are A+ individuals, person-by-person.
- The "floor" where they assemble these huge packaging machines is right outside of our IT door. On several days I've gotten to work large parts of the day out there, deploying and testing code right on the "HMI" devices built right into the machines. Those have been the funnest days.
- It's really nice being in an office, and building personal connections with people. I've already made at least one actual friend so far, to the point where I'm going to invite him over to play video games one of these upcoming weekends. Some days he and I go outside to puncture holes in old batteries and set them on fire, so they can be recycled-- moments like that are real highlights.
The not-so-good parts of the job:
- The commute kind of sucks. I spend about an hour driving each day. I haven't had that kind of commute to a job since 2001. So when you factor in eight-and-a-half hours of being clocked in to an hour of driving, plus chiropractor or whatever-might-be afterwards, I'm out of the house for at least ten hours a day. Then by the time I get home, get my stuff put away, and exercise, it's just about time for bed again. I'm already getting a little burned out, just one month in. Just not enough "engage in special interests" time.
- My boss is the greatest guy ever-- A+ human being, could literally not be a nicer person. But he's built a lot like me: likes to put the headphones on and crank away on fun technical problems by himself. So one month in, I'm struggling to find my niche or groove at work since he doesn't really like to delegate, and God bless him, he takes on and solves a lot of the problems himself autonomously. This sort of leaves me to find my own path, like writing documentation and things of that nature-- I don't necessarily feel like I'm adding a lot of value.
- I took a forty thousand dollar paycut to work there, with the promise I'd get to travel quite a bit to make up for that huge pay differential-- they pay double time during travel. But in fishing details out of people in my month there, it doesn't sound like travel actually happens very often. Just to make our budget balance, Ellyn and I are having to scrimp literal dollars out of our grocery budget. I haven't had to count pennies like this since I was in my twenties-- I'm forty-four now!-- and it sucks. I feel like I'm a junior IT person again in terms of income, and beyond practical concerns some pride issues are coloring my attitude as a result.
I keep telling myself that no job has to be forever-- if things don't work out after a year or two I'm free to find another IT job. Just to reiterate, I know God wants me in this job right now because of the bonkers crazy "coincidences" he lined up to make things converge-- so I'm working hard to just put my trust in Him. When He wants me to move on, he'll let me know.
Entertainment
I really enjoyed this video, showing super concrete examples of how the technical level of the video game industry has plummeted just over the past ten or fifteen years. It's pretty shocking.
A few days ago my friend at work sent me this. I immediately fell absolutely in love with it, to the point where I started my first-ever play of their initial album from 2014. In that album I've heard: reggae, lofi, traditional Japanese, dubstep, hip-hop, and "Ape Escape"-reminiscent drum n bass themes-- so there is a ton of creativity and variety going on. Plus the chunky guitar riffs mixed with their playful voices creates one of those "chocolate and peanut butter"-style lessons in contrast. It's wonderful.
Here is another example of them performing live. It's positively surreal to watch. It reminds me of the visual kei bands my sister-in-law used to listen to, where the presentation itself is a huge part of the experience. Here is another one-- amazing stuff. I asked my daughter if she has ever heard of them, and here they've been in her rotation for years! Pretty cool.
The Catholic Church
I'd like to end this post with why I'm a part of the Catholic Church. As a nominally Catholic blog, it's incredible to me that I haven't explained this before! Before I continue, let me say that some of my greatest spiritual mentors are Protestant, and I love you all. We are brothers and sisters in Christ! I absolutely believe that all of you can achieve salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.
But why be Catholic specifically? Let me explain!
My view-- and I wouldn't have returned to the Catholic Church if I hadn't come to these conclusions, incidentally-- is that the Catholic Church is the church. It's not a "denomination"-- it's the real deal. It's the same church as one reads about in "Acts". It's the one and same church which Jesus created, and then handed over to Peter.
Someone once said to me, "God wouldn't have given us all of these churches if they weren't all viable paths." I personally disagree with that; in my view, non-Catholic churches, depending on the teachings, are committing varying degrees of apostasy. That might sound harsh at first blush-- but if one has concluded as I have that the Catholic Church pronounces the correct teachings, teachings which deviate from that by definition are apostasy. It's not so much a judgement as a simple definition of terms-- it's basic logic.
We can certainly agree to disagree-- but that is my personal view.
More on that: authority doesn't come out of thin air-- it arises naturally. Further, you can only delegate authority you have. These are elementary principles of natural law, which nominally govern our nation state, our legal system, property plus contract rights, and just about everything else.
So too natural law governs the Church. As God, Jesus delegated aspects of His divine authority to Peter, as we read in Sacred Scripture. Peter was the first Pope. When the tongues of fire came down on the Apostles at Pentecost, the Apostles then passed on the Holy Spirit to others, who then spread the church-- the Catholic Church-- all around. This is put into text in great detail in "Acts", as I mentioned before.
I've talked to many Protestants who say that believing in Jesus is literally all we need to do. That doesn't stand up for me: Satan believed in God. Ergo, belief is not enough by itself. I also have to ask, believe what about Jesus specifically? I've talked to Protestants who don't believe in baptism. I've talked to other Protestants who think baptism is literally the only path to salvation. I could name a whole bunch of concepts where Protestants are literally diametrically opposed.
Which views are correct? How do we achieve salvation if we're getting ten totally contradictory views told to us at once, all depending on which church we happen to walk into on a given weekend?
Tomorrow, I could sit down in my kitchen on my laptop and form the "Church of Mike", and declare that Jesus does not want us to believe in God-- or any other teaching I so desire. Simultaneously, I could merely turn around, and with the whoosh of my hands declare that people are married, or that sins are forgiven, or any manner of other things.
But by what authority could I make those claims? It doesn't arise naturally in me, and it wasn't delegated to me either. I'm just a dude in my kitchen. With all due respect, so was Martin Luther: he was just a dude in a kitchen. He didn't have any more authority than I have. And I mean that with all due respect: Martin Luther was a very devout Catholic, with a tremendous devotion to the Virgin Mary-- and the Church was abusing its natural authority in various ways.
But my point remains.
Every time a disagreement arises we can't just go out and create a new "Church of Mike", teaching oftentimes radically different views. That's not the solution.
Thankfully as Catholics, we don't have this problem: Christ's and the Apostles' direct successors-- those directly delegated the authority of Christ Himself-- have created two thousand years of painstaking analysis of Sacred Scripture, combined with Sacred Tradition. We Catholics call this the Deposit of Faith. It is through this Deposit that the Magesterium guides us in our understanding of Sacred Scripture, and in this way the sensus fidei-- the consensus-- is formed among the faithful.
That's not to say the Church has never erred: Priests, Bishops, Cardinals, and Popes alike are all human and thus fallible. Even the original Apostles sinned. But taken over centuries, this notion of sensus fidei and a slow-but-steady analysis, deep prayer, Tradition (Papal encylicals, revelations made directly to Saints, and so on), and consensus gives us One Source of the Truth, which is laid out in tremendous detail in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which anyone can read online here.
Once one opens the door to this view of Faith, suddenly all of the Catholic Traditions-- saying Grace before meals, praying the Rosary, the structure of the Mass, and all of the other things Protestants sometimes roll their eyes at or find totally irrelevant, take on a whole new light accompanied by a rich world and life of spiritual orientation, reverence, and prayer becoming open for exploration and participation.
In any event and with all due respect, as I know many very holy Orthodox and Protestants, who have helped me out immensely over the years-- this is my personal perspective. And as I said earlier I axiomatically wouldn't be a Catholic if I hadn't come to these conclusions. This is my two cents!
God bless and may the peace of Christ be with you all!