No more teacher, no more books :)

School is out for my family for the summer (wife and I both teach, son is still in middle school), and I am so looking forward to a summer break. :)

I plan on bringing my backyard back to life, throwing out 50 things, and exercising a little bit (but not too much). I also plan to wantonly waste time either alone or with my family (which would include more blogging and reading time).

See you online more often!

Blessings & Peace,
Hugo

Saturn

Our school shut down for a few days (Monday - Wednesday), so I thought I'd use some of that time to take our Saturn Vue in for some maintenance. Monday morning I left our home and headed out, secure in the knowledge that my vehicle would be repaired, washed and vacuumed by noon or so, and I could drive back home happy.

As I exited Expressway 83 and made my way to the Saturn dealership, I noticed that it looked surprisingly empty. There were still many new vehicles parked and ready for new owners, but the metal bars that block access to the grounds were closed. The lights were off in all of the buildings, and there were no people anywhere in view.

I thought, hoping against hope, that maybe in some weird cosmic confluence of events swine flu had hit Saturn and they were temporarily closed. So I called their number - no answer. I called my wife and had her check their website - no more website. I could feel my hope draining. I asked my wife to go to the main Saturn website and look for a contact number; she found a Customer Support number which I promptly called (gotta love cell phones). (Though I have to say, arguing with an automated voice system to try to get a live person on the phone ranks up there as one of the few things that really irritate me in this life!)

The polite gentleman on the other end of the line informed me that indeed my beloved Saturn dealership was closed; the closest one was in San Antonio and would I like their number? I laughed and informed him that I had no wish to drive for almost three hours to get my vehicle serviced (my wife, upon hearing of that particular part of the conversation: "Doesn't it take about 3 1/2 hours to get there?" and then remembering that I tend to view Speed Limits as guidelines instead of absolutes).

So I was put on hold while he searched for a local dealership that would be able to honor my still functioning warranty. A few minutes later (while I contemplated quarterly trips to San Antonio under the guise of "but honey, the car needs to get that oil change") the polite service representative came back and informed me that there was a local Chevrolet dealership that would be servicing all Saturn vehicles in the area. I took their number and called them.

I was taken aback as I had to make an appointment to take my car in. I was used to royal VIP treatment at Saturn where I could freely waltz in at any time that suited me to have my precious Vue mended. I also missed the open construction of the Saturn building - no walls, only lots of open space and even a vehicle or two to admire as I waited. Instead of very comfortable couches (if I wanted to watch TV or read) or small round tables (if I wanted to work) I had to be content with a small, cramped waiting area. Instead of a nice selection of donuts and pan dulce to satiate my appetite I had to make do with some water. And instead of the people I had come to know at Saturn I had to walk into a new place, talk to people I didn't know.

It hit me, as I was talking to my wife, that I was in mourning. Which was an interesting feeling for me. That particular Saturn dealership was a fixture in my life for about seven years. The man who sold us our first Saturn (Ben) passed away about 2 years ago, and it was a loss we felt (I still remember him telling us to go home and think about our first purchase for a few days - he was a gentle man who did not have a pushy bone in his body). A former students' dad was the general manager there for a while, prompting a passing, causal remark ("tell your did I want a new car!") to turn into "honey, so and so's dad talked to me this morning when I took the car in for service - you want to go pick out a new one?"

So I pray for the people that worked at the Saturn dealership, I pray for Saturn, and I pray for my attachment to that place that sold us our first new vehicle and that sold us three more after that.

Eternal rest grant unto them O Lord.

And let perpetual light shine upon them.

May their souls, and the souls of all the faithful departed,

through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

Amen.

RIP Saturn of McAllen - you will be missed.

Blessings & Peace,

Hugo

The Road to Heaven

Happy Feast of the Resurrection of the Body (Happy Easter) :)

This is a synopsis of a conversation I had a few years ago about the steps in salvation - I ordered it thus:

1. Redemption: because, well . . . none of this discussion would be happening (in a Christian context) if it wasn't for the redemptive work of Jesus
2. Conversion: because once we encounter the living God we are convicted of our sinfulness and moved to change our lives and hearts
3. Forgiveness: because once we experience the loving embrace of our Creator we are seduced into giving and receiving forgiveness
4. Salvation: once we give and accept forgiveness we start on the road to salvation
5. Perfection: once we live in the new heaven and new earth we will live in the paradise conceived in the mind of God before the creation of the world; we will live in a perfected place as perfected people (saints)

Blessings & Peace,
Hugo

Sanctuary

Please Note: I'm working on a paper at the moment, so my Wednesday blog will be brief and has nothing whatsoever to do with theology :)

My son and I have been playing World of Warcraft for almost two years now. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's a Massively-Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game, which means that when you log into the game (need to have an internet connection to play!) you're playing with hundreds of other people from all over the world. You can interact with them, chat with them, help them, or fight with them. There are over 11 million people playing, so it's a popular pastime :)

In the game you can group with different people to form a guild, a group of people who are pretty much available to you every time you log in. They can be helpful and provide a great way to learn the game and advance in the game (if it's a good guild), or they can take advantage of you and make your online time pretty miserable (if it's a not-so-good guild).

Our guild is named Sanctuary, and I think of it as a casual/social guild. We don't do hardcore end game raiding (playing the most difficult parts of the game over and over again for better equipment and bragging rights), we don't immerse ourselves into the story of the game by roleplaying (pretending you are your character and talking "in character" most of the time), and we don't focus on PvP (Player vs. Player combat - trying to defeat other players in different ways). We focus on helping new members learn the game, holding in-game events for our members (some just for fun, some to try the harder content without requiring attendance or a certain level of gear), and giving our members time to play as they'd like.

If any of you would like to try the game out, you can message me online (the toon I'm on the most is named Anarius) - and if you like it, you can join us on our adventures in Azeroth!

Blessings & Peace,

Hugo

Authority

Question: I would be interested to hear your convictions regarding what is to be the authority for the foundation of, and what or who has the final word in the matter of the practice of our faith.

I'm assuming (and forgive me if I'm wrong) that the reply you may be anticipating is that, for Catholics, the Pope has the final say in all matters regarding our religion. And you'd be sort of correct. But first, to the non-correct part. :-)

For Catholics, in all matters of faith and morals, the ultimate authority is each person's own conscience. Answers.com defines conscience thus:

1. The awareness of a moral or ethical aspect to one's conduct together with the urge to prefer right over wrong.
2. A source of moral or ethical judgment or pronouncement.
3. Conformity to one's own sense of right conduct.

Each person has the responsibility and the blessing to follow what they think is good, right, moral, ethical, etc. However, the Church doesn’t leave it there. It should be a properly informed conscience that directs each person's actions. "Properly informed" then becomes a catch-phrase that includes the following (not necessarily in order of importance): reading Scripture, listening to the teachings of the Magisterium of the Church (the Pope and/or a collective body of Bishops), praying for guidance from the Spirit on particular matters, listening to the stories told of our saints, discussing matters with trusted clergy/family/friends, and looking for guidance from secular authorities as needed (doctors, lawyers, psychologists, etc.).

Once all avenues have been exhausted in trying to come to a decision over a particular matter/issue/decision, a persons' conscience becomes the ultimate court for deciding a certain course of action. The Church affirmed, in one of the documents from the Second Vatican Council, that we would be judged according to our properly informed conscience.

This leads some to say that anything is OK as long as you think it's OK. And some would say the Church irresponsibly advocates this position by teaching about conscience. But I think that if people are looking for excuses to commit sin, well . . . they'll find the excuses anywhere. The Church stresses a properly informed conscience because, come on! - once we've gone through that list of Six Things To Do Before Making A Decision, chances are really, really good that you'll make a God-delighting decision. :-)

However, if you're asking about the teaching authority of the Church (as the Catholic church sees it), then this is where the Pope and bishops come in. It's Catholic teaching that the Pope, in conjunction with the worldwide body of bishops, has ultimate authority to proscribe and define the moral/ethical and faith-related doctrine that the Church stands for.

In other words, if the Pope definitively gives a moral/ethical stance, then it is the moral/ethical stance of the Church, and by definition requires every Catholic to seriously study the meaning and implications of that message. A "properly informed conscience" requires that we give serious thought and prayer to the moral imperative handed down by our church's temporal leader. In practice, the Pope and the bishops (collectively called the Magisterium) don't often hand out definitive statements on faith and morals. Similarly, our church doesn't have many Scripture passages that have been definitively interpreted in one way or another - as Catholics we do have latitude in our interpretation of Scripture (St. Jerome used to talk about the many hidden levels of meaning in each word of Scripture, let alone each passage / section!) and in our practice of our faith. But if there ever is a debate on something, and a definitive answer has to be given on an issue of faith or morals, as Catholics we would look to our Pope and the teaching authority of the Catholic Church (the Magisterium).

Blessings & Peace,

Hugo