The Irishman Speaks and All Shall Listen

I should posts words...

Wow, its been way longer than I thought since I lasted posted

I guess I've been busy and stuff. Really nothing too new and exciting has happened that I can think of. I guess to start off I have a laptop on the way which is cool. Finally I can kiss this piece of Dell crap goodbye and welcome the goodness that is Apple. All is well in the world.

Arcade Fire

I have 2 tickets available I think. This could actually be none if Jon and Tay want the first two, I just can't remember if you did or not. They're reserved. My bro didn't need half his tickets, family reunion for couple of his friends or something. Sorry for changing the story, but everyone's schedule's seem to be changing. Let me know guys if you want it, I got a few people lined up if you don't want em including I think adam wanted another one if possible. Or I'll sell em off and make my money back. The tickets were 22 bucks or something. This is who I got going right now:

Colm, Jessica, Kenny, Ceci, Ryan, Adam, Adam's Friend, Eamonn, Mike, Mitch, Jon?, Tay?

Anywho, the concert is gonna rock... should be good times...

What else is new?

The job is going good I guess. I've kinda hit the rut of getting into the job and the daily life and trying to figure out if I like it or not. So far so good I guess. Right now I'm trying to develop a plan to redo the youth room if FB allows me to paint it and get some new furniture. I'm also trying to make a website for our group and the church with the help of some computer savy kids. That'll be cool because we will be able to have calendars and photos and save me a lot of heartache in the coming months keeping people up to date with what YM is doing.

The biggest problem I think I have right now is settling into a groove. Seeing things going ok and being accepting of it. After talking to other ministers in smaller, less well off parishes and seeing the great stuff they got going its inspiring to keep you going and thinking fresh. As much as getting the old up and running all well and good, you need to keep reinventing the wheel in this business I think. Chief among my pursuits to create a community prayer life between adults and youth in a family setting. Hopefully we're trying to accomplish this through a night of family prayer around adoration and some taize. All I need is approval and I'm pretty sure I got Fr. Julian's backing on it as well. For you that don't know or ever experienced adoration, its the best thing ever. Spending time in reflection and prayer in front of the Eucharist is powerful and energizing. The best experience was adoration in Mejugore. So powerful and the music was AWEsome. Some of you might think whatever, but all I can say is give it a chance. You'll see the fruits of it very quickly.

Rant On

I guess sometimes I get frustrated at people giving the "smile and nod" routine. I try not to be pushy and over the top about my faith, but I hate feeling belittled about my faith and experiences. I understand people won't see things the same way, or have the same experience of God or of a "higher power". But even if it angers people, I can't NOT talk about it. So if I did that whole double negative right, I'm saying I HAVE TO. I'm not going to hound people door to door wearing a suit and a name tag and asking you, "have you found JESUS?". But I may tell you I have, and that I wish you did too.

See, as far as I know in my humble understanding of my faith, I witnessed miracles. One is incredible, more than many may see in their life. A couple of us saw 6 I think. I'm not sure what this means, but I can't act like it doesn't mean something. They say you receive great graces from experiencing miracles. I think the biggest thing is that we must accept them. Just like any truth, it has no practical value beyond its acceptance to the individual. If we hear or see truths and discard them, what value came from it? I don't know what I'm proposing I need or anyone needs to do who recieves and experiences "truths" of life as I call them. But we should try to figure out what we need to do. I think that is what angers me the most about myself and anyone in life. When we stand around and don't really try to make anything of ourselves, or try to figure out what we're suppose to do. That whole settling factor. "I'm a bartender, that's like cool" Sure... bartending is fine... but was I called/meant to be a bartender? You don't have to be religious to answer that question... or I hope not. That's why you see such a lack of morals in today's society. Short term thinking and not thinking about what really matters in life. I'm happy I got a new laptop... is it the number one priority of my life right now, no. Sadly, for some it is. To me its a means... to stay in touch with people, provide resources to aid me in my ministry. Often people see the end in things. We work for money to pay rent. Is that all we want life to entail? Isn't there something more fulfilling than that? I work for money to have vacations to see the world and have time to share experiences. As much as I enjoy my work, my greatest experiences in life were on pilgrimidges, or simple camping trips with friends and family. People are searching, but we're searching in the wrong places. I still do once in awhile and its annoying because eventually you see how fruitless it is. Sex, drugs, alcohol, addictions of any sort we all look to for some kind of connection or "intimacy" with life. None of that lasts. I mean really, when you're 50/60 are you gonna be satisified with a ruined liver and lonely life because you have no lasting bonds from a promiscuous lifestyle? I'm not saying we're all that bad... most aren't even close to be fair... but we're not that awesome and superb either. Its sad that you can go to a poor little village in a country that has been war torn for years and see happier faces then those living the best of lives as we define it in canada or the states. How do we keep buying this materialist lifestyle as satisfying enough? We all know to some extent that it never is enough. At some point the other boot falls. I guess I don't want to be the one to experience that harsh reality, and I don't wish it upon anyone I know. I guess I'm a little jaded at seeing how nothing really wakes people up. We said JFK assasination got people's attention to look at life differently, then the cold war, vietnam, 911, the iraqi war. the tsunami, new orelans... what is it going to take? I personally think we're getting signs and many of us are ignoring them. One can debate that point, I have no problem with that. But one cannot debate the shitty way our world is going in many ways. Sure alot of stuff is fine, many of us in our lifetime probably won't experience any real harsh or horrific life experience, but that doesn't mean we should settle. There are tons of people that aren't so lucky. So even if we can't make a difference in their lives (which I'd argue isn't true and is a whole different rant), we should at the least make a difference in our lives and get as much out of it as possible.

Rant Off

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And Now on to Hockey!

Now for a quick about face... I'm so stoked for hockey it is unreal. Go Flames. I just realized the Arcade Fire concert is opening night. I guess I'll be watching taped hockey all night afterwards. Whatever... that's cool with me. I'm hungry and this took way longer than it was suppose to... I wonder why...

-CIG

posted by The Irishman @ 1:10 p.m.