Cardinal Dolan on Pope's gay remark

Oh what a beautiful thing to wake up to this statement by Timothy Cardinal Dolan reaffirming what the Pope said about the church's teaching on sexual love:

“The church’s teaching, which is based on the Bible and God’s revelation, is that sexual love is reserved only between a man and woman in the life-long, life-giving relationship of marriage and any relations outside of that, hetero or homo, would be less than God’s intention," he said. "That hasn’t changed."

The full story is here but if you want more on the church's teaching and something that will really make you blush pick up "Theology of the Body".

Our Lady of Mount Carmel

I was pondering intimacy and how one acquires intimacy in prayer. How do I go from the intimate union of Jesus in the Eucharist to deeply living out an intimate relationship?
Put another way, how do we Catholics go from our rote prayers for example to intimacy, to a passionate love of God?

It seems to me there is a difference between Catholics who show up for mass and Catholics who live their faith. I'm not talking about evangelical Catholics, Charismatic Catholics or those who are more Catholic than the pope but the ones who accept others for who they are (sin and all - mind you that accepting someone for being a child of God deserving of love is completely different than approving of someone's sin. We can accept the person but disapprove of the sin.), who live a life imbued with joy, peace and tranquility. It seems to me these people have a strong interior life. This interior life flows into their very being and the fruit of this interior life is seen in the fruits of grace: joy, peace, tranquility, love. Some of these Catholics might very well be charismatic, evangelical or whatever label you want to give them but the hallmark of a strong interior life will be manifest in the fruits of grace.

So I don't have to beat someone over the head with my rosary beads. My devotion to the rosary is meant to foster a deeper union to Christ through she who held God inside her very self, who nurtured him, who taught him and who waits upon us to draw nearer to her so she can bring us closer to Him. Mary's greatest desire is that we enter fully into the mystery of God. So perhaps on this feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, you too might consider renewing your commitment to a deeper devotion to the Blessed Mother.

Things you'll never or should never hear at mass

• "Lettuce. Pray!"
• "Give us this day our daily spread and lead us not into temptation. Amen"

I heard this one at mass and it makes me want to puke.

• "Sweetheart, The body of Christ"

Come on guys. It's straightforward and simple don't add on "Honeybun", "Sweet stuff", "Hot Lips" or anything else. It's just "The body of Christ" or "The blood of Christ". Simple.

Instead of getting an Amen from Husband during mass you hear

• "ZZZZZZ!"

• "For our good and the good of all Her holy church"

Oh, you looney nuns on a bus. Yes God is beyond gender but we are limited. The church has prescribed the response to be "for the good of all His holy church" so just lump it. Be obedient and pray it so we can pray in unison and in community. Good grief! If everyone interjected their own philosophy on the mass it would be pandemonium. For the good of all things holy let's just please pray in communion.

For those times when mass runs especially late because not only did the homilist preach on today's scripture but also on a few others. Here is something you'll never hear at the end of mass:

• "We especially want to thank 'insert visiting priest's name here' for visiting and for those 3 homiles today.