The BROKEN Compass

Fellas, this comes from our fellow MMJer, Kris. He is bringing our attention to an upcoming movie called The Golden Compass.

Much as how the Catholic Church was attacked in the movie, The DaVinci Code, this movie introduces a new target to attack -- our children. As you'll read in the excerpt below and in the full document here, this movie aims to water down the true purpose of the book it's based on to entice children to read the other books in the series.

============= KRIS' COMMENTS FOLLOW ================
I thought you guys would find the material below interesting.

This movie is nothing new to the Greatness of the Kingdom of God. How many years has the Church stood in the face of heretical statements or issues?

Mathew 16:17-18. Jesus said to him in reply, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.

I sincerely pray for those whom do not know the Truth and are fulfilled only by this movie. There are a lot of people who only find happiness and truth through the characterizations in TV, movies, or books. I think that this is a blessing in disguise – what an awesome opportunity to witness to the Truth. An opportunity that otherwise our culture tends to shy away from or avoid.

1 Peter 3:13-17. Now who is going to harm you if you are enthusiastic for what is good? But even if you should suffer because of righteousness, blessed are you. Do not be afraid or terrified with fear of them, but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts. Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope, but do it with gentleness and reverence, keeping your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who defame your good conduct in Christ may themselves be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that be the will of God, than for doing evil.

God will use this as He does all things to bring greater glory to His Kingdom.

Faithful in Prayer - Praise God!

====== EXCERPT FROM ATTACHED DOCUMENT ========

This is a web site for the movie “The Golden Compass" film to be release 12/2007. Also this is an FYI that this is a terrible, anti-Catholic movie. It is aimed at children and labeled as a family movie. This movie is based on a series of books by an atheist British author (Phillip Pullman) whose goal in writing the books is to be the "Anti-Narnia" series and to lead children into atheism. The main villains in the series of books are the Magisterium, Cardinals, and the Pope. It includes a heroine that is a young girl who sets out to kill God. The truly sick thing about the movie is that they have made it APPEAR as if it is an innocent film, with exciting effects and a fairytale story. They have removed from the movie the appalling anti-Catholic/Christian themes from the book. The goal of the movie is to hook unsuspecting families into viewing the film so that children will then want to read the books (and probably buy merchandise). Nicole Kidman stars in it, and Scholastic Books is behind it. I heard about this from Bill Donahue of the Catholic League who was on "The World Over" on EWTN. The goal is to let as many people as possible know about this horrible film and to have it bomb at the box office. The makers of the movie are hoping it will be as big as Harry Potter or the DaVinci Code. Let's pray that it won't! Please tell as many people as possible to avoid this terrible film.

[Phillip Pullman]However, my most well-known work is the trilogy His Dark Materials, beginning with Northern Lights (The Golden Compass in the USA) in 1995, continuing with The Subtle Knife in 1997, and concluding with The Amber Spyglass in 2000. These books have been honoured by several prizes, including the Carnegie Medal, the Guardian Children's Book Award, and (for The Amber Spyglass) the Whitbread Book of the Year Award - the first time in the history of that prize that it was given to a children's book.

======================================================
Download the entire text here.

Weekly Mass Readings - November 4, 2007

"...the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost."
Lk 19:10

Wis 11:22-12:2
2 Thes 1:11-2:2
Lk 19:1-10

PRE-PRAYERING

The Eucharist is a “Thanksgiving Sacrifice” in which we join the thanksgiving death of Jesus and in which we ask to be made an “ever-lasting gift” to God. In our celebration of the Eucharistic Liturgy, we enter into a “holy exchange” in which we are both the receivers and made the gifts at the same time.

As we live out both realities these days of faith, we might pray with our experiences of receiving gifts of all kinds, verbal, emotional, material, and even mysterious ones. We can pray as well with the opportunities we have to be gifts, sent by the Eucharist, to the lives around us. Our giving ourselves as gifts is definitely a strong prayer of thanksgiving as it was in the total life of Jesus, including His death.

REFLECTION

Our First Reading for this liturgy is a psalm or poetic hymn in praise of the all-powerful, yet merciful God. The Book of Wisdom has many of these reflections upon the goodness of God. Here God is presented as the Creator of every particular thing which in themselves are very small.

God is seen as the lover of all things and could never “hate” anything because God created everything out of love. The hymn concludes with a reflection that God’s love extends also to reminding sinners of their ways that they might become more aware of how God does not abandon them, but regards them as a creation of loves.

The whole psalm sings of creation, and especially the human creation, is an extension of God’s revelation and “mercy is above all of God’s works.” Mercy itself is then a continuation of the creational relationship God continues to initiate.

In today’s Gospel we meet one of the singular characters in Scripture. Once again we have a reversal characteristic in Luke’s Gospel. Zacchaeus has some social problems. He is small. He is a tax collector for the dominating Roman Empire which is taking money from the Jewish people, his kinfolk. He is also rich himself, which puts him above his neighbors. In a strange way, he, by being small, is below others, but by his occupation, he has made himself above others. He climbs a tree to just catch a glimpse of Jesus Who was to pass that way. Zacchaeus literally puts himself above his neighbors, but at a safe distance from Jesus, not wanting to be seen or encountered. The text says that Zacchaeus put himself in a position to see, but Jesus is the One who sees him first.

In the previous chapter, (Luke 18, 26) there is a big question about who can be saved. It follows the story of Jesus’ calling a rich man to leave everything to follow Him and the man could not do it, because of his riches. Our Gospel answers the question with Jesus’ saying that He must stay at the house of Zacchaeus. Tax collectors and all kinds of other sinners can be saved if they allow themselves to be seen by Jesus and so too, by themselves.

Jesus does not say anything about conversion, or giving up his day-job, or his fortune. Jesus says only that He desires to stay with this socially inert fellow. Zacchaeus is reduced, or re-sized to his dignity. He slides down the tree and welcomes Jesus joyfully. He also welcomes himself by reducing the size of his possessions. He fulfills the Jewish law of repayment and Luke has Zacchaeus do what the Rich Man in the previous chapter could not do, he gave half his riches to the “poor”. Conversion follows encounter; Jesus meets us and the relationship makes the difference in our actions.

The Gospel continues with the grumbling bystanders making a prophetic announcement, “He has gone to stay at the house of a sinner.” The story ends with Jesus restating His mission of seeking and saving the “lost”. This too is central to Luke’s presentation of Jesus. He is the One who came to see and find Zacchaeus, who like the Prodigal Son, was lost and now found. He has come to take up a residence with us.

I wonder often about how these people whom Jesus forgave lived in the presence considering each had a personal history with which they had to live. Various people such as Zacchaeus had to live with their pasts. He lived among his Jewish townsfolk from whom he had collected unjust taxes and they knew him as more wealthy than he should have been living. Zacchaeus himself had to live with himself as well. This is not easy for any of us to do either.

There is a double message for us here then. God’s forgiveness of us is not a legal arrangement, but more personal and relational. God desires that we live free from and free for the future. The forgiving touch of Jesus is also to be extended through us to others. We are invited by grace to live forgivingly with those who seek God’s touch, even though we know their sinful histories ourselves. The Apostle Paul had his past; Augustine, Ignatius and many others had to live beyond their personal imprisonments. We climb down from our trees of inferiority and allow Jesus to meet us there and send us to de-tree others and free them, as we can, to live beyond their self-confining judgments.

Taken from Creighton University - Deglman Center for Ignatian Spirituality

Reminder: November Silent Retreat

Just spreading the word that the next silent retreat is Nov 30 – Dec 2nd. As usual MMJ will be sponsoring at least two spots (for those that have never been or been at least 2 years) so let me know if you are interested in going.
If you have never been or it’s been awhile I highly recommend that you go! It will make a huge difference in your life. Spread the word.

• Download the form here.

Next MMJ - "Albino Monks?" - November 2nd

Ever seen the movie or read the book “DaVinci Code”? In the story there is an albino monk who belongs to the Opus Dei “Movement”. The character is made up for entertainment purposes and the only truth in the story is that there is a movement in the church called Opus Dei which means “Work of God”. If your only exposure to Church Movements comes from the “DaVinci Code” you could certainly be confused when it comes to how Movements in the Church work. The are real, plentiful, and blessed by the Pope.
So if you want to discriminate fact from fiction regarding Church Movements, come listen to Rob Stevens give his first teaching Friday, Nov 2nd at my house from 7-9PM. Free pizza at 6:30 and poker afterwards for those wanting to stay.

Fatherhood - Half Day Retreat

Gents – it is with much excitement that I tell you that Fr. Todd Belardi has agreed to lead a half day retreat at my house on Saturday Dec 15th from 2-6PM. This will be MMJ’s third half day retreat and I am most excited about the topic – FATHERHOOD.

So if you are a father, soon to be a father, or hope to be one day this is the retreat for you. I can tell you the message Fr. Todd has to give will be dynamic and life changing. Mark your calendars for Dec 15th and ask your wives or significant others for a “kitchen pass” so you can become an even better dad (and husband).

Chili and poker will be served after the retreat for those that want to stay. Be on the lookout for more details and let me know if you plan on coming!

Halloween and All Saints Day – October 28, 2005

The Celtic Connection

Our modern celebration of Halloween is a VERY distant descendant of the ancient Celtic fire festival called Samhain. (The word is pronounced "sow-en" rhyming with cow, because "mh" in the middle of an Irish word has a "w" sound.) It was the biggest and most significant holiday of the Celtic year. The Celts (pronounced 'Kelts") lived more than 2,000 years ago in what is now Great Britain, Ireland, and France. Their new year began on November 1.

In the Celtic belief system, turning points, such as the time between one day and the next, the meeting of sea and shore, or the turning of one year into the next were seen as magical times. The turning of the year was the most potent of these times. This was the time when the "veil between the worlds" was at its thinnest, and the dead could communicate with the living.

The feast of Samhain is described by MacCane as order suspended. "During this interval the normal order of the universe is suspended, the barriers between the natural and the supernatural are temporarily removed, the sidh lies open and all divine beings and the spirits of the dead move freely among men and interfere sometimes violently, in their affairs" (Celtic Mythology, p. 127).

Download the teaching below:

Embryonic Stem-cell Research

Thank you to everyone that participated in our recent survey about embryonic stem-cell research.

Of all the respondents, 22% believe that this research is vital to solving life threatening diseases and ailments. In addition, 66% of you believe that it is a dangerous attack on innocent life and is related to abortion. Finally, 11% believe it is an important scientific tool for understanding human cell development.

Chris Dehner gave a great talk last Friday on this topic. Look for Chris' notes soon as there were some very interesting findings and, of course, information on the Church's stance with regard to this type of research.

Thanks again for attending last Friday night and for responding to the survey.

Look for another survey later this week.

The Great Schism – September 2, 2005

The East-West Schism, known also as the Great Schism was the event that divided Christianity into Western Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy.

Though normally dated to 1054, when Pope Leo IX and Patriarch Michael I excommunicated each other, the East-West Schism was actually the result of an extended period of estrangement between the two Churches.

The primary causes of the Schism were disputes over papal authority and over the insertion of the filioque clause into the Nicene Creed. There were other, less significant catalysts for the Schism, including variance over liturgical practices, conflicting claims of jurisdiction and language differences.

Since its earliest days, the Church recognized the special positions of three bishops, who were known as patriarchs: the Bishop of Rome, the Bishop of Alexandria, and the Bishop of Antioch. They were joined by the Bishop of Constantinople and by the Bishop of Jerusalem, both confirmed as patriarchates by the Council of Chalcedon in 451.

Download the teaching below:

Weekly Mass Readings – October 28, 2007

Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Sir 35:12-14, 16-18
Ps 34:2-3, 17-18, 19, 23
2 Tm 4:6-8, 16-18
Lk 18:9-14

Reflection:

In this Sunday's Gospel reading, we see what happens when our primary motivation in everything we do is not love but self-centeredness. "Whoever exalts himself will be humbled." Sooner or later, self-exalting people get humbled, whether they realize it or not. People who encounter them in daily life do not think very highly of them. And certainly, God doesn't either.

The alternative is to let our love for others be what humbles us.

Without love as our motivation, we believe in our own so-called "righteousness" in order to which we think we're okay when we're not, and we desire, like Satan, to be our own god instead of being like God. But when we do good deeds for others because we genuinely care about them, the pride of our self-righteousness is replaced by holy humility.

We are made righteous by our love for others. Self-righteousness motivates us to do good for others, but only for the selfish purpose of looking admirable, winning God's approval, or gaining some other personal benefit. If there's anyone whom we despise, anyone whom we believe is inferior to us and not worthy of our time and caring, we are like the Pharisee in Jesus' parable.

The cure for this is to get in touch with God's concern for the people we find difficult to love. Once we unite our hearts to God's love for them, we begin to care about them, too. And the most powerful and successful way to accomplish this is in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, which not only absolves us of self-righteousness, it also gives us a special grace from God that empowers us with a supernatural love for others.

Questions for Personal Reflection:
Think of those who are less spiritually advanced than you, e.g., family, friends, co-workers, and parishioners who cause you to think: "Thank God I am not like them!" Do you grieve for them because of their sins and blindness? Do you do anything to help them grow closer to Christ? Do they experience Jesus every time they encounter you?

Questions for Family & Community Faith Sharing:
What are some ways that you show love to those who are not as holy as you, or not as emotionally healthy as you, or not as intelligent as you? Describe a time when you were more self-righteous than righteous. How did you (or how will you) let Jesus turn your pride into humility?

From Good News Ministries

Creating Your Legacy as a Dad

This Tuesday is the final gathering for the current Father's Forum series at Harp's Pub. Fr. Todd Belardi will be presenting "Creating Your Legacy as a Dad", and this is a great opportunity to get together with all the other dads, in a laid back setting, and hear some good content.

Tuesday evening, October 23
8.00 – 9.30pm
Harp's Pub off highway 141 [map]
1425 Market Blvd
Roswell, GA 30076

There are two more gatherings for the morning ("Fresh Brew") edition. This coming Monday at 6:30 AM will be a talk on "Fathering Sons and Fathering Daughters" by Mark Doxtader and Tim Palmer. And Monday, November 5th will be the concluding talk for this session by Father Todd titled, "Rising to the Challenge".

Pinecrest Academy [map]
Monday Morning
6:30 – 8:00 AM
Upper School Media Center (behind the Boys School)
955 Peachtree Parkway
Cumming, GA 30041

You need not have attended any of the other sessions – AND YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE A PINECREST DAD – so I encourage you to come to one of these to hear proven methods, ideas, and best practices in parenting, and get to know other fathers similarly striving and struggling to be the best dad they can be!

Break the Silence

Where's that rumble coming from? What's that noise?

The world wants to quiet a certain noise, a quiet rumble so it can go back to it's silent but deadly (spiritually lethal) ways of destroying spirits and families one at a time.

Coming next year MMJ will present a night on addiction to pornography, The Silent Drug - Overcoming Pornography Addiction. Unity Restored is a new link in our link list. This is a Catholic site dedicated to helping men with porn problems/addictions. Our MMJ night will wage a war against this "silent" problem that is at epidemic levels.

A battle is raging...
In THESE days, PORNOGRAPHY came and waged war against THE CHRISTIANS...

Can you hear the noise?
And THE CHRISTIANS mowed down PORNOGRAPHY and his SELFISHNESS with the edge of the sword...

Adapted from Ex 17:8-13

Will you join the fight?

Marriage Retreat - November 2007

To all the married gents – there is a marriage renewal evening at Holy Spirit Saturday Nov 10th 6-10PM. Dinner and drinks included. There will be some great talks and a great way to refocus on your most important relationship. I highly encourage you to attend.

Download the PDF flyer.

"How to Disagree Without Being Disagreeable"

Learn how to:

• Communicate effectively


• Make sacrifices to benefit your marriage


• To love more and fight less
  
  Contact me with questions or post back here.

2007/2008 Silent Retreats

Men's Retreats	Women's Retreats
November 30 - December 2, 2007	January 4 - 6, 2008
February 1 - 3, 2008	May 16 - 18, 2008
May 2 - 4, 2008

2007 October/November/December Calendar

Date	Topic	Presenter
October 19th	Embryonic Stem Cell Research – Why All The Fuss?	Chris Dehner
November 2nd	"Albino Monks?" - Opus Dei and Other Church Movements	Rob Stephens
November 16th	Argggg!!! ... a Christian Approach to Recognizing and Handling Anger	Mike Klodnicki
December 7th	"Who Me?" – Understanding Your Temperament	Tony Frese
December 15th	Half Day Retreat - "Dare to be Great!"	Fr. Todd

2008 January/February Calendar

Date	Topic	Presenter
January 4th	Blindspots - "Objects Are Closer Than They Appear"	TBD
January 18th	The Silent Drug - Overcoming Pornography Addiction	TBD
February 1st	Faith, Hope, Love. Building Theological Virtue	TBD
February 15th	Homosexuality - A Cause for Christian Confusion	TBD

Weekly Mass Readings – October 21, 2007

Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time

"...when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"

Ex 17:8-13

2 Tm 3:14-4:2

Lk 18:1-8

Reflection:

We use the expression, "in God's time." When we say this, we mean "later," usually "much later." We give the impression we're ready to go but God's dragging His feet. Thus God appears slow or unwilling to respond. In fact, just the opposite is true. The Lord does not "delay long" over us but gives us "swift justice" (Lk 18:7-8). If He has His way, Satan will be quickly crushed under our feet (Rm 16:20).

It is our lack of faith which delays God's work (Lk 18:8). The fastest way to accomplish anything pleasing to God is by faith. Faith is expressed in many ways, especially through prayer. When we don't pray always but rather lose heart, we slow God down (Lk 18:1). It took longer for Joshua to win in the valley because Moses grew tired of praying on the mountain (Ex 17:12).

Because of our lack of faith and prayer, conversions of people and nations are being delayed. The ends to abortion, violence, starvation, and racism are delayed indefinitely. Even Jesus' second coming is put off because of a lack of faith and prayer on the part of God's people (cf 2 Pt 3:12). Most things happen in our time. When they're done in God's time, they'll be done immediately.

PRAYER: Father, I'm sorry for dragging my feet and delaying You. Increase my faith (Lk 17:5) Use me now.
PROMISE: "I charge you to preach the word, to stay with this task whether convenient or inconvenient." –2 Tm 4:2
PRAISE: Praise the risen Jesus, Whose prompt obedience to the Father led to our salvation. Alleluia!

Taken from MyCatholic.com.

This Week at MMJ - October 19, 2007

Chris Dehner will be leading the teaching titled "Embryonic Stem Cell Research – Why All The Fuss?". This is Chris's first teaching some come out and show your support. We had a record crowd of 17 at the last MMJ and I hope the trend continues.

MMJ is 7-9PM with free pizza and drinks starting at 6:30PM. If you haven't already, please let me know if you plan to join us. Thanks!

Weekly Mass Readings - October 14, 2007

Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Gratitude Among the Rarest of Virtues

2 Kgs 5:14-17
Ps 98:1, 2-3, 3-4
2 Tm 2:8-13
Lk 17:11-19

Reflection:

Luke 17: 11-19
As Jesus continued his journey to Jerusalem, he traveled through Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten lepers met him. They stood at a distance from him and raised their voices, saying, "Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!" And when he saw them, he said, "Go show yourselves to the priests" As they were going they were cleansed. And one of them, realizing he had been healed, returned, glorifying God in a loud voice; and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him. He was a Samaritan. Jesus said in reply, "Ten were cleansed, were they not? Where are the other nine? Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?" Then he said to him, "Stand up and go; your faith has saved you."

Introductory Prayer: Lord, I believe in you; help me to believe more firmly and truly. Lord, I hope in you; may my trust in your mercy and provident hand in my life both grow. Lord, I love you; may I find new ways to love you above all else and my neighbor as myself. Lord, I also thank you for all your graces and benefits thus far in my life. Help me, a poor and weak sinner, to live my dignity as a child of God in the manner and depth you desire. Your will be done, nothing more, nothing less, and nothing else.

Petition: Lord, may I know what gratitude really is and live up to this call.

1. Jesus Shows Pity. It is easy to forget at times what it meant to be a leper in Jesus' time. Such a person had to separate himself from the community, live outside the town, and declare himself "unclean" when anyone approached him. According to the Jewish mentality of the time, illness was a punishment for sin. If you had leprosy, you were considered a terrible sinner. So, as miserable a state as leprosy was, worse still was the shame of it all. From here we understand better the sense of desperation and urgency in the lepers' Petition: "Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!" There is such thing as spiritual leprosy too, but Jesus can heal the sickness in our soul through the sacrament of confession. As Christians, we should look for this spiritual healing as ardently as the ten lepers looked to be healed of their bodily leprosy.

2. The Lepers Were Cleansed. Jesus felt obliged to perform the miracle of curing these ten lepers; they really believed he could do it. That is why Jesus so hastily tells them to go to the priest, as prescribed by the law, and have their return to health officially recognized. Thus their banishment and disgrace would end. However, in their burst of joy, nine of the cured ten forget to say, "Thank you." At first, it seems strange to us that they would omit this, after being transformed in one moment from utter misery to a clean bill of health. However, we often do the same; we forget to give thanks in the joy of a moment when someone has really helped us or resolved a major problem for us.

3. "Stand up and Go." It does occur to one leper, a foreigner, to return to thank Jesus; he is a Samaritan. Jews and Samaritans normally despised each other in Jesus' time, which probably makes his words of thanks to Jesus all the more remarkable. However, what really catches Jesus' attention is the fact that only one person comes back to express his words of gratitude. Doesn't this passage remind us of how rare the virtue of gratitude is in the human heart? The cured Samaritan's faith has saved him, and it wouldn't be rash of us to think that he used especially well the new gift of health the Lord had given him. Those who are really grateful for what they receive from God use more zealously and profitably the gifts they are given.

Dialogue with Christ: Lord Jesus, I realize now how many things I might take for granted in life. May this meditation really be a renewal in looking for spiritual healing in you and in using well all the talents and gifts you have given me.

Resolution: I will make a special effort to thank anyone who has assisted or served me in any way today or just recently.

Taken from Regnum Christi.org

Useful Links and Resources

• Catholic Bible Resources
  
  • United States Council of Catholic Bishops – www.usccb.org
    
    • Daily readings
      
    • Online Bible – NAB
      
    • Online Catechism
      
    • Current News and Events
      
  • Catholic Resources – Bible, Liturgy, and More – http://catholic-resources.org/
    
• Catholic Information
  
  • Catholic Answers – great resource for Catholic Apologetics and, of course, Answers
    
  • American Catholic
    
• Daily Reflection
  
  • Creighton University
    
  • MyCatholic.com
    
  • Good News Ministries