For some children Christmas is a long day.

Mummy and daddy not living together, they must present themselves to mummy plus a “partner” whom they are expected to be nice to.

Then to daddy plus another “partner” . . . .

Then to multiple grandparents, not necessarily very keen on each other.

How can children know whom they belong to and whom they can trust?

In our culture it is common to select a partner on the basis of taking a fancy to each other while inebriated at the nightclub . . . .

Then impregnating each other after the nightclub closes . . . .

Then discovering they must work together raising a child, when they hardly know each other.

How to do better?

Phase out nightclubs, enforce under-age drinking laws, curfews . . . ?

Whatever it takes.

No need to ask young people if they like the idea.

Being young, their opinion is not worth much.

I have pinched most of the following.

Hope it is some help to somebody out there:

I asked God to spare me pain. God said, “No. Hardship is your chance to detach yourself from worldly things and draw closer to me.”

I asked God to give me patience. God said, “No. Patience is a by-product of suffering. It isn’t something given. It is something to be learned.”        

I asked God to take away my bad habits. God said, “No. It is not for me to take them away, but for you to give them up.”

I asked God to give me happiness. God said, “No. I give you what is my will for you. You must decide to be happy about it.”

* * *

Catholics who pray the Divine Office prayers daily, begin every morning with this act of self-giving to our Creator:

Lord God, all-powerful, you have brought us to the beginning of this day.

By your power, keep us on the road to salvation.

Do not let us fall into any sin today . . . .

But grant that all our words, all our thoughts and actions may tend toward the fulfilment of your law of holiness.

Amen

A friend of a friend of mine recently bought a motor vehicle.

On the back it says “Suzuki”, “Trekker”, “V6”, “Grand”, “Vitara” and “Prestige”.

All those words!

Translated into normal English, do they not mean “Status Symbol”, “Status Symbol”, “V6”, “Status Symbol”, “Status Symbol”, “Status Symbol”? 

* * *

There’s a saying, “Live simply so that others may simply live”.

Many kind-hearted people sponsor poor children in overseas countries.

Excellent. We should probably do more of it.

We should want to give until it starts affecting our lifestyle — even our car-style.

* * *

This is a basic of the Christian faith.

Jesus said to one enquirer who claimed to have kept all of God’s commandments: “If you wish to be perfect, go and sell what you possess, and give to the poor. Then you will have treasure in heaven. Then come and follow me . . . .”

The gospel records that “when the young man heard those words, he went away sad, for he had great possessions . . . .”

Sounds as though the possessions had him . . . .

Another time, Jesus said: “When you help a needy person, do it in such a way that even your closest friend will not know about it (your left hand must not know what your right hand is doing). Then it will be a private matter: and your Father in heaven, who sees what you do in private, will reward you.”

Inspiring words.

Pray to God to show you how he wishes you to apply them in your life.

Woolworths are at it again.

Not only are they Australia’s leading provider of gambling-addictive poker machines.

Not only must they flog cigarettes at the very front of every store.

Now on a day that could be a time of family enjoyment, they must use it to exploit another form of addiction.

Yes, for Father’s Day, their slogan is, “Give Dad what he really wants this Father’s Day”

Their “Dan Murphy” ads feature alcoholic bargains as though, without alcohol, no Australian dad is capable of enjoying himself.

* * *

Tragically there are families which have had to live without a functional Dad because of what alcohol has done to the father.

But it just isn’t true that what most Dads want most is alcohol.

Most would just like their children to remember them on this special day and spend some time with them.

It is disgraceful to misrepresent fathers as a group as being, first and foremost, boozers.

* * *

The community needs to take on the alcohol-sellers and give them a hard time.

* ban all alcohol advertising on billboards, television and at sporting events

* raise legal drinking age to at least 21

* drop legal driver blood alcohol to 0.02 percent

* further increase taxes on alcoholic beverages and set minimum prices for alcoholic drinks.

Why not?                                                                                                        

The 2011 World Youth Day has come and gone.

Two million young Catholics found their way to Madrid to hear Pope Benedict XVI.

Hundreds of thousands greeted his arrival with deafening sounds.

Yet at the appropriate moments – during Mass, during the pauses on the Way of the Cross – the silence was absolute.

It tempts one to hope that the lives of many attending were being changed . . . .

And that on going home their pride in being Catholic – and their humility in being sinners redeemed by the Passion of Christ – will not be lost.

* * *

That was the Pope’s take-home message:

* that they must “make Christ, the Son of God, the centre of (their) life.”

* that they must spread that message to a world “filled with young people who are looking for something greater. . . .”

 * and to help others to resist being “seduced by the empty promises of a lifestyle which has no room for God.”

* * *

Certainly the youth of many nations are today looking for something – risking their lives, trying to topple dictators and crying out “freedom!” and “democracy!”.

Oh dear. Are not freedom and democracy rather watery rations on which to confront the forces of evil?

He who dies for democracy, dies for the triumph of mediocrity and compromise.

Freedom? A myth. We all slaves to sin. Toppling Mr Gaddafi won’t help in that direction.

* * *

Will the WYD returnees find their home churches filled with a great thirst for the Sacraments and a great zeal for the spread of God’s Kingdom in the world?

The Church has made terrible mistakes, but it is God’s Church.

As the Pope says, you cannot be a Christian on your own.

The Church is a must.

If the Church is imperfect, then let us work to make it better — not abandon it.

Pope Benedict XVI spent last weekend in Croatia.

He made it clear that he favours Croatia entering the European Union.

The Pope sees it as an opportunity for Catholic Croatia to help reverse the drift of Europe towards becoming a dreary flatland of secularism, materialism, relativism and atheism.

And he insists that there can be no absolute separation of religion and political affairs.

* * *

At a prayer vigil attended by 25,000 young people he laboured that very point.

“Young friends,” he said, “Do not let yourselves be led astray by enticing promises of easy success . . . putting all your trust in possessions, in material things, while abandoning the search for the Truth that is always greater.”

He reminded those young friends of the words of Saint Paul who wrote to his friends, “Rejoice in the Lord always . . . .”

Reminding them also that Saint Paul wrote those words while in prison – in chains — the Pope proclaimed to those young Croatians that “the Gospel cannot be chained”.

* * *

He kept returning also to the importance of Catholics venerating the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Jesus, rightly called “Mother  of God”.

His closing words to the young people were, “I wish to entrust each of you to her, asking her to accompany and protect you and, above all, to help you to encounter the Lord, and in him discover the meaning of life.

“I leave you my blessing, ‘Rejoice in the Lord always!’

“May this joy, the joy of true love, be your strength.

“Amen. Praised be Jesus and Mary!’”