You’ve heard of the ACLU, whom I call the Anti-Christian Lawyer’s Union.
 
Well, we Christians have a few lawyers, too, and ours fight for the Truth, who is Jesus Christ. One of these good groups is the Alliance Defense Fund. They defend religious liberty against groups like the ACLU and against the secular fundamentalists who are currently seeking to abolish Christianity in any public form.
 
They work for free, so the only way they can do their good work is by donations.
They defend faithful Christians who are being persecuted and attacked for standing up for their faith.
 
One of their clients is an Illinois pharmacist who was fired for refusing to fill a prescription for the morning after abortion pill. Please consider giving a portion of your tithe to this worthy group.
 
Humble and loving hat tip to long-time Vanguard reader, the Mometer, who sent this in to me.

 
“Those days, of God’s grace, coming rushing back to me…”
 
God is just really good.
He’s made us all, very good. All in His image, all for love, and His main interest is our salvation.
 
The past few days have been tremendously graced. He is so good to me always, so far beyond what I deserve, that it just takes my breath away. 
 
He has answered my prayers and answered others’ prayers for me for specific intentions. I have no complaints, nor anything that I could ask for, for everything is under His control, and what He has given me at this time is exactly what I need.

 
I forgot my Magnificat in the pew at church one Sunday early this month, and so I have been without it for the past few weeks.
 
So I started taking in the blue Pieta prayer book to Mass and figured I’d learn one of those “old school” prayers that are so neat. I had heard the “Anima Christi” prayer before in different contexts, but I had never learned it myself.
 
I have been praying it after receiving Jesus in Communion, and it is a very moving prayer. Here it is from memory (so I may make a mistake):
 
Soul of Christ, sanctify me.
Body of Christ, save me.
Blood of Christ, inebriate me.
Water from the side of Christ, wash me.
Passion of Christ, strengthen me.
Oh good Jesus, hear me!
Within thy wounds, hide me.
Suffer me not to be separated from thee.
From the malignant enemy, defend me.
At the hour of my death, call me,
And bid me come to thee,
That with thy saints I may praise thee,
Forever and ever,
Amen.

 
Many of you are familiar with the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, a very simple and beautiful prayer that mirrors the Rosary in some ways.
 
It is good to pray in a group and only takes about 10 minutes. Another great way to pray the chaplet is to sing it with the EWTN CD. The music and singing are reverent and harmonious and really help you focus on the prayers.
 
“Eternal Father, I offer You, the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of your dearly beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, in atonement for ours sins, and those of the whole world. For the sake of His sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.”

 
A few days ago, I had my mother and approximately 10 other people ranging in age from 9 to 70 tell me I needed to be more patient. (I found out that it’s really hard to argue rationally with 10 people at once, which is why at one point in the discussion, I began incoherently babbling trying to justify myself).
 
As much as I would like to think they are wrong and I am right, humility tells me to listen to them. I vividly remember going to the mall with my family when I was 6 years old, buying a Galaxian cartridge for my new Atari, and promptly throwing a temper tantrum when my parents told me we couldn’t go home yet because they hadn’t finished shopping.
 
I am older now, and I know how to hide my impatience and seflishness better I am a more mature person, but this impatience rears its head in other ways.
 
Fortunately, at every turn, our good Lord puts me in situations where the right thing to do, and sometimes the only thing to do, is be patient. As a result, I am learning to fight against this fault of mine everyday. I won’t claim I am winning the victory over it, but God is chipping away at it.
 
Along the way He has been teaching me that some things in this blessed life are worth waiting for…

 
Last night for Thanksgiving I went over to the Kress’ home and spent time with their extended family and friends. Talk turned to a part of town that two of our friends lived in that was going downhill with increased crime and evil things.
 
I was familiar with the area from the years I volunteered with our parish’s St. Vincent de Paul society, as most of the people we helped lived in this area. I commented that most of the people we helped in SVdP were single mothers and asked, “What can we do as Catholics to help them?”, since earlier we had talked about the problems in giving hand-outs to beggars.
 
It was a good discussion, and I could see the problem from the different perspectives that people gave. It is not a black and white question, for Jesus wants us to help people, but giving them hand-outs forever without any improvement to their systematic problems does not really help them in the long-run.
 
I went home later that evening, and sitting on my counter was a pledge I had made to the Annuniciation Maternity Home in Georgetown, just north of Austin. I grew up in that town, and so when they recently opened up this home for mothers in crisis pregnancies, I was especially hopeful and thankful.
 
more…

 
Three years ago, God inspired some holy people at St. Louis parish to expand adoration from one day per month to 5 days per week. They kindly invited me to be on the adoration team with them, and so I have helped with the adoration scheduling ever since!
 
Thanks be to God, I also signed up for two hours each week, and I know that Jesus has poured out “grace upon grace” into my soul (cf. John 1)..
 
A few days ago I was kneeling before Him in adoration, and I thought, “We’re all worshipping what looks like a piece of bread. What utter foolishness if it is not You, Lord! But it is You, and so worshipping you is the only thing for us to do!”.
 
“Lord, thank you for humbling yourself in transforming bread into your Body, suffering our hands to carry you into your golden prison, and patiently waiting there for us to come and visit you. Please forgive me for the poor job I have done in helping with adoration, and especially for those times when you have been left alone because of it. Help me do better, Lord, so that more of your children will come and discover your loving, quiet Presence at adoration. Jesus, I adore you.”

 
David Ward over at Duc in Altum has kindly tagged me with a meme on the Greatest Influences in My Life (excluding God and family members).
 
I’m going to narrow down this meme a little and give the three teachers that influenced me the most:
 
1. Mrs. Avery Goodgame: My third grade teacher who invested much time and love in encouraging me and guiding me to fulfill the potential that she saw in me. By the grace of God, I reconnected with her a few years back, and we had lunch together a few times. It turns out that her mother has been a member for decades of the parish I go to! She told me I was a gifted student, and I believed her and strove to be the best student I could be all the way through college.
 
2. Mr. Robert (Bob) Catlin: My sixth grade math teacher who introduced me to number sense and challenged me with very difficult math concepts and problems. He also referereed soccer games I played in! I used to try my hardest to win 1st place in the number sense competitions we had to earn one of the candy bars that awaited the victor!
 
3. Mr. David Hailey: I never had him for a class, but he was a great influence on me nonetheless. We actually met by playing Magic: the Gathering card game! He is a math and computer science teacher, and since those topics were such deep interests of mine, we had much to talk about. We continued corresponding through college, and then he even interned for a few months at the same company I work at! We have since lost touch, but I hope to see him again one day…
 
Teachers have a hard job. They get paid relatively little; they work a ton; I don’t envy them nor feel gifted to do what they do for a career, but I am very thankful for all my teachers, especially those who took extra time for me.
 
For a Thanksgiving idea, say a prayer for all the good people who were your teachers growing up!

 
No, not me. God has graced me with family and many friends, and I have received multiple invitations to come over for Thanksgiving. Not me–God must know I am too weak to bear such heavy crosses and has blessed me beyond what I deserve with loved ones.
 
But today on my way to the Kress’ house after work, I pulled into a gas station and started filling my tank when the man getting gas next to me said hi. I greeted him and asked him if he had any Thanksgiving plans.
 
He said he imagined he would go fishing at one of the local lakes.
I asked if he was going to fish with his friends or family.
He said no, he had no family around here, and that he was going to be alone.
 
I told him I was sorry for that, and he said he was used to it, having been on his own for a long time. He was dressed in painter’s garb, and when I asked him if he was a painter, he said yes. Part of me wanted to invite him over for Thanksgiving, but I myself am going to be a guest at others’ houses, and I didn’t feel it was right to invite someone else over and presume on their generosity.
 
I heard him mention something about God when he talked–nothing direct but something that was a reference like, “the Lord willing”, so when I said goodbye to him I said, “God bless you”, and he replied, “God bless you, too”.
  
I asked St. Joseph to pray for him, but it saddened me to think that here was a lonely man with no friends or family to speak of planning on spending Thanksgiving by himself on a boat fishing.
 
“Lord, I pray you will join him and spend all day with him tomorrow and give him faith that you are there.”

 
Who can guess what this (poorly taken) picture is of?

 
Believe it or not, this is an alcoholic beverage with Tequila and Triple Sec in it, given to me by a dear old man at Mass this morning!
 
Most of the people who go to daily Mass each morning are regulars, and we see each other everyday, even if we don’t know each other’s names. Well, this old man named Bill is known for giving out prayer cards and other items to people, and today I was blessed to receive one of his more special gifts.
 
Big Jeff says he thinks Bill was in the Navy, and I can believe it. The guy looks tough even though he is elderly, and his hair is so white! I love to see him after Communion pull out his prayer books, which it appears he binds together with a rubber band, and pray.
 
Yesterday he was going out of adoration as I was going in, and I said hi to him and that it was good to see him. He smiled and greeted me, and then went on his way. I never would have guessed that he would have then brought me such a neat gift!
 
Welcome to the Catholic Church. It’s a good place to be.