Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Quickpost: SUPPORT TARA BRINSTION NOT KANDACE HAGEN!!!!!

Hello Everyone.

I need anyone who reads this blog and who's on my friend list to please act now.

1) Please read this article from Lifesite News as to the situation: http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/young-woman-poised-to-win-leadership-award-with-pledge-to-bring-abortion-to

2) I would like you all to pay attnention to the Tara Brinton Page. I, YCRCM, wrote the following about 1005pm Feb 28, 2012, even though their data clock is 7 hours ahead:
"
1032
Young Canadian RC Male says: Your pledge is awaiting moderation.

I pledge to support those who are pro-life and anti-euthanasia, such as Tara Brinston, and to be against those who seek to bring the cutlture of Death to further fruition (e.g. abortion, euthanasia, contraception).

I have a feeling, with a great possibility, that they will find this comment offensive and remove it from her pledge list: one for the anonymity, and two the nature of the comment as I am Anti-abortion and Anti Kandace Hagen and what she is trying to do. I encourage everyone to support Tara and her cause and to devote your own pledge to her. She is currently #2 and deserves that $1000 grant.

ACT NOW!!!! YCRCM.

Update as of 658pm Feb 29, 2012:

My comment is still awaiting moderation under Tara. It has now been given pledge number 1043. Kandace sill leads with 1499 pledges in first place. Tara is Still 2nd place with 1047 pledges (1046 if mine is deleted). Please place your pledge where it counts. YCRCM.

Update as of 339 pm March 1, 2012:

The pledge drive is over. As of 1159 Pm Feb 29th (yesterday), they stopped collecting pledges. Regardless of wherever I click, I cannot find my pledge, nor others are being displayed publically anymore. However, we might have scored a pro-life victory folks. Every vote counted and currently on the ambassador page, Tara at 1615 pledges has a 3 vote lead over Kandace at 1612 pledges. The official results will be tomorrow. Lets hope they don't disqualify my pledge and hope they don't botch the voting. Stay Tuned ...

Update as of 1:34 March 3, 2012

Hey I've just checked my blogger status and this is getting the most hits on my stats counter! Wow. Guess what? Seems the ACIC-CACI organizers have to really look at the pledges for the votes because it's too close to call. This is what's listed at their site:
http://www.2012.active8campaign.com/2012/03/result-announcement-postponed/

"Result announcement postponed!
We know – How exciting! Due to the high number of pledges received in the last week of the campaign, it’s taking longer than we expected to finalize our moderation.
We will announce the final result on Monday, March 5th, but in the meantime want to extend our thanks to everyone involved.
It’s been an honour to work with all eight of this year’s global youth leaders, and awesome to see the number and content of the commitments they’ve inspired.
Our intention was to show that small changes by individual people can inspire others and that we can all make the world a better place. We hope you’ll continue to carry out your commitments and thank you for walking with us towards a world with social justice, human dignity, and participation for all.
From the entire team at ACIC."


BTW, the numbers still stand at Tara: 1615 pledges to Kandace's 1612. My pledge will probably get deleted. I found out after I made my pledge on Lifesite News` site that it has to fit with the plan listed beside the leaders` specific pledge pages or in line with their general mission. I`ll probably get my pledge deleted and not counted so truly consider Tara having a 2 pledge lead.

You think they just want their pro-abort hero may win and are delaying to try and have this happen? Or is it just due measure in a too close to call election like in politics? Opinions or further information on the competition can be commented below.

FINAL Update Mar 3, 2012 2:17 pm EST

Well, they finally have tallied the results:
http://www.2012.active8campaign.com/2012/03/final-results-are-in-and/

Guess what, it was too close to call so they gave BOTH Kandace and Tara a $1000 grant. While I will say I'm glad Tara won a grant, THE BLOODY FACT THEY GAVE KANDACE ONE ALSO IS A TRAVESTY AND AN MORAL OFFENCE AGAINST GOD! Kandace will now be able to carry out her dream or bringing death to more babies in PEI. How disgusting. Everyone, we have to pray and offer reparation against this outrage (e.g. more Masses, fasting, prayers, First Fridays and Saturdays), and furthermore pray to God for justice, and to the Lord Christ that he may be able to reach the hardened mind and heart of Kandace. Too bad I couldn't have done more. If only a major player like Mark Shea or Fr. Z or someone else picked up on this there would have been a clear winner and this would have been a clear win for Tara. I hate being so insignificant at times.

Post-Final update March 6, 2012

http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/leadership-contest-announces-results-pro-abort-candidate-behind-by-a-hair-b

I knew this was rigged from the start and they took out my pledge. See LifesiteNews' post competition take on it. And the commentators have the gall to blame the pro-life organizer saying she "poisoned" the competition? What a bunch of hypocrites and sore losers. They know we won and they deleted the pro-life pledges. Tara is the true winner and GOD KNOWS IT!

That's it, this event is in the history books and I'm done here. On to better things.

One final note, I posted in the Lifesite News article and if anyone comes here commenting against me cause I'm pro life, AUTOMATIC RED FLAG, DELETION, BLOCKING, ETC!!!! Read my forum rules from August 2011.

YCRCM.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Quickpost: Wow Cardinal Collins Quotes Humanae Vitae in Interview with Vatican Radio Just after being Red Hatted

Score one for Canada!!!! Anyone think maybe, just maybe, Cardinal Collins will be the next Pope of the Church?

Here's the post by an Ontario group of Catholic bloggers: http://torontocatholicwitness.blogspot.com/2012/02/cardinal-collins-on-humanae-vitae.html

Here's the interview from Vatican Radio: http://www.news.va/en/news/cardinal-collins-families-need-to-be-strong

Don't forget to read the important (but sadly controversial and now well-ignored) Encyclical Humanae Vitae here: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/paul_vi/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-vi_enc_25071968_humanae-vitae_en.html

BTW, I went to a Solemn Latin Mass at a parish in my city for Ash Wednesday case you were wondering. (Only 1 meal, no meat). YCRCM.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Quickpost: Ash Wednesday2012 Latin Masses in Canada And more Catechesis (YEA!!!)

Hello Everyone

Hope all is well. Just a quickpost as to the Latin Masses available in Canada for Ash Wednesday that I can access from a home computer:

Una Voce Calgary: Masses are at St. Anthony's parish, 5340 - 4th Street SW, Calgary, Alberta
T2V CZ5 , Tel: (403) 252-1137. Bad news: the website is either down or they forgot to pay the web domain. Good News: After checking out the parish website here, I found out they are having an 1135 am Latin Mass (Lecta, Cantata or Solemnis status unknown, though it'd likely be a low mass since it's during a normal working weekday and would be sparsely attended.)
Una Voce Ottawa: There is no Website currently upon searching, they are listed as a chapter. It'd be better to point you to a TLM ONLY parish with adjoining Catholic school spearheaded by the Fraternal Society of St. Peter., named St. Clement. http://www.st-clementottawa.ca/main.php. They are having a 7am Low Mass and a 730pm High Mass.


Una Voce Saskatoon: "The Latin Mass is located at Our Lady of Czestochowa Church, 301 Avenue Y South, Saskatoon, SK". 5:15pm TLM's are held on feast days (with a few noted exceptions). Best to call the parish or fire off an e-mail to UVS for more info.

 Una Voce Sudbury: It is best to contact either the church they hold the Masses at, or to e-mail the society. All contained in the link.

Una Voce Toronto: Una Voce Toronto IS NOT organizing a mass for this feast day. However there are options available for Toronto according to the following from their Facebook Page:
1) Scarborough, Toronto: 11am, St Lawrence the Martyr Parish. http://www.stlawrencemartyr.org/ Is TTC accesible via Kennedy Station and a bus from the station. See site for transportation.
2) GTA (Parkdale) 1130am normal weekday low mass (M-F) Holy Family Parish, http://www.oratory-toronto.org/spn_holy_family_church.html. If you cannot make the mid-day TLM, there is a Latin Sung Novus Ordo (NOT EF/TLM) at 8pm. Confessions are normally held about or > 15 min before this mass.
3) GTA (LAKESHORE, CENTRAL TORONTO NEAR ST. JOSEPH's HOSPITAL) 8pm Solemn Latin Mass/Missa Solemnis http://www.oratory-toronto.org/spn_st__vincent_de_paul_church.html. There will be confessions about or > 15 min before this Mass.
FAIRLY NEW!!! Una Voce Hamilton:  This is an official chapter of Una Voce. While they do not have a website, there is a blog devoted to the TLM/EF in their area (Kitchener-Waterloo). This also might include the smaller townships in the area and larger cities such as Fergus, Guelph, Hamilton, Kitchener, and Waterloo. The blog website is this: http://kwtraditionalcatholic.blogspot.com/2011/05/statement-on-ue-by-una-voce.html. Una Voce Hamilton does have a facebook page for those interested: https://www.facebook.com/#!/unavocehamilton. Surely the parishes listed under those links would have a Latin Mass on Ash Wed.

NEW AS OF 2012!!! Una Voce London (ON, CAN): UVL is the newest chapter to Una Voce International from Canada. better yet it has been started by two of the key contributors to the TLM friendly site New Litrugical Movement and they are on the executive. There's even talk of getting the EF associated youth movement, Juventutem started in London area. Anyways, they also have a facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/#!/UnaVoceLondon . Fergus, Guelph, Hamilton, Kitchener might also be closer or under this Una Voce.  Please check the parishes listed under the links for available Mass times.

Other Chapters with no Website but Exist according to Una Voce International Canada (Not to mention the diocese event pages yielded nothing):
- Vancouver
- Creston
- Edmonton
- St. Johns, Newfoundland
- Victoria, B.C.

If anyone can give me links for the other chapter, or anything else for Canada Ash Wed Latin mass links, let me know.

Here's more goodies for you boys and girls: Catechesis on Ash Wednesday!!!

Ash Wednesday

When? Depends on the Church calendar year but anywhere from mid February to Early March in both forms of the Latin Rite.

What? – “Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Today the Church celebrates Ash Wednesday, the beginning of her Lenten journey towards Easter. The Christian life is itself a constant journey of conversion and renewal in the company of the Lord, as we follow him along the path that leads through the Cross to the joy of the Resurrection. The primary way by which we follow Christ is by the liturgy, in which his person and his saving power become present and effective in our lives. In the Lenten liturgy, as we accompany the catechumens preparing for Baptism, we open our hearts anew to the grace of our rebirth in Christ. This spiritual journey is traditionally marked by the practice of fasting, almsgiving and prayer. The Fathers of the Church teach that these three pious exercises are closely related: indeed, Saint Augustine calls fasting and almsgiving the “wings of prayer”, since they prepare our hearts to take flight and seek the things of heaven, where Christ has prepared a place for us. As this Lent begins, let us accept Christ’s invitation to follow him more closely, renew our commitment to conversion and prayer, and look forward to celebrating the Resurrection in joy and newness of life.”
-          Ratzinger, Joseph (a.k.a. Pope Benedict XVI). General Audience Paul VI Audience Hall Wednesday, 9 March, 2011. Online. Available: [http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2011/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20110309_en.html]. 10 Mar 2011.

 And now, what is said about Ash Wed from the Extraordinary Form? Here’s the entry from the 1962 Baronius Press Hand Missal:

Ash Wedensday is from a liturgical point of view one of the most important days of the year. In the first place this day opens the liturgical season of Lent, which formerly began with the First Sunday and compromised only 36 days. The addition of Wednesday and the three following days brought the number to forty, which is that of our Lord’s fast in the desert.

In the Old Law ashes were generally a symbolic expression of grief, morning, or repentance. In the Early church the use of ashes had a like signification and with sackcloth formed part of the public penances. The blessing of the ashes is one of the great liturgical rites of the year. It was originally instituted for public penitents, but is now intended for all Christians, as Lent should be a time of penance for all. The ashes used this day are obtained by burning palms of the previous year. Traditionally they are blessed by four ancient prayers, sprinkled with holy water and incensed, and then place in the form of a cross on the foreheads of each of the faithful with the words: “Remember, man, that thou art dust, and unto dust thou shalt return.” The ancient prayers of the blessing suggest suitable thought for the opening Lent. They are summarized here: “Almighty and everlasting God, spare the penitent … bless these ashes, that they may be a remedy to all who invoke Thy Name … O God, who desirest not the death but the conversion of sinners, look in kindness upon our human frailty … and bless those ashes, so that we, who know ourselves to be but ashes … and that we must return to dust, may deserve to obtain pardon and the rewards offered to the penitent.

 Ash Wednesday. The Daily Missal and Liturgical Missal with Vespers For Sundays and Feasts From the Editio Typica of the Roman Missal and Breviary, 1962 With Supplements Containing The Additional Masses for Englang and Wales, Scotland, United States and Australasia. Summorum Pontificum Edition. Baronius Press: London. 2009. p. 292.

 Notes:
1. As prescribed under Canon Law for ALL CATHOLICS:
Canon Law

Can.  1249 The divine law binds all the Christian faithful to do penance each in his or her own way. In order for all to be united among themselves by some common observance of penance, however, penitential days are prescribed on which the Christian faithful devote themselves in a special way to prayer, perform works of piety and charity, and deny themselves by fulfilling their own obligations more faithfully and especially by observing fast and abstinence, according to the norm of the following canons.
Can.  1250 The penitential days and times in the universal Church are every Friday of the whole year and the season of Lent.
Can.  1251 Abstinence from meat, or from some other food as determined by the Episcopal Conference, is to be observed on all Fridays, unless a solemnity should fall on a Friday. Abstinence and fasting are to be observed on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.
Can.  1252 The law of abstinence binds those who have completed their fourteenth year. The law of fasting binds those who have attained their majority, until the beginning of their sixtieth year. Pastors of souls and parents are to ensure that even those who by reason of their age are not bound by the law of fasting and abstinence, are taught the true meaning of penance.
Can.  1253 The conference of bishops can determine more precisely the observance of fast and abstinence as well as substitute other forms of penance, especially works of charity and exercises of piety, in whole or in part, for abstinence and fast.
-          But what, say, is Fasting and Abstinence in today’s Church Laws? From the bulletin of a local parish of mine:  9th Sunday Ordinary Time from XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX: “ … Abstinence refrains from consumption of meat. This law pertains to everyone over fourteen years of age. Fasting prescribes that only one meal be taking in a day, but it does not forbid taking more nourishment in the morning and in the evening, according to the needs of each individual …”
                     à So on Ash Wed, you don’t eat meat and you ideally have only one major meal in the 
                     day. However, if you absolutely need a small morsel, fine. Just not a full meal or anything
                     sweet and fatty.

-       Another minor tradition on Ash Wed (but more Good Fri), is that people have fish and chips as their meal on Friday as you can eat fish. Cafeterias today still have the trend of fish and chips on Fridays oddly enough even though many Catholics are unaware that Canon Law says you are to abstain all Fridays of the year. 

 2. Ash Wednesday is NOT a holy day of obligation. Nevertheless many Catholics, even if they do not attend normal Sunday Mass, do go to this Mass and Catholic schools traditionally have a school mass on this day.

3. The ashes that are distributed are traditionally made from the palm branches of the previous year’s Palm Sunday.

4. Many people traditionally “give up” something for Lent, common examples being sweet foods or drinks. However the most powerful forms of penance are fasting, almsgiving, and prayer during lent, above all others (says the Compendium of the Catechism).

Sources:
SCRIPTURE READINGS
EF
Joel 2:12-19 and Matthew 6:16-21

Novus Ordo (ALL CYCLES/YEARS)
Joel 2:12-18, 2 Corinthians 5:20 – 6:2, Matthew 6: 1-6, 16-18

-          Ratzinger, Joseph (a.k.a. Pope Benedict XVI). Message of His Holiness, Benedict XVI for Lent 2011. Online. Available: [http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/lent/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20101104_lent-2011_en.html]. 10 Mar 2011.

 -          Ratzinger, Joseph (a.k.a. Pope Benedict XVI). Holy Mass, Blessing, and Imposition of the Ashes. Homily of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI Basilica of St. Sabina Ash Wednesday, March 9 2011. Online. Available: [http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/homilies/2011/documents/hf_ben-xvi_hom_20110309_ceneri_en.html] 19 Mar 2011.

Happy Fasting, YCRCM.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Happy New Year! What`s up and Special Assignment for Seraphic: Online Dating Experience

Hello Everyone! Happy New Year and Pax tibi Christi.

I hope that everyone's start to the new year has been somewhat better than last year's events, though it doesn't always happen.

I'll admit I've been very lax on my blog lately and I haven't done much work with the catechesis assignment. I just seem to be bowing down to procrastination lately and as well my worklife is a vampire sucking both my physical and mental energies, even though its 8-hr rotating shiftwork. Worse my rents are always on my back to accept extra shifts and usually I do, to the point where I think that I think people call or text directly knowing I`ll switch or take their shifts.

However, I have been commenting on other blogs around here on occasion (Fr. Z, Vox Nova, Seraphic Singles ...) and I've delved into a couple of books lately on Church history:

1) The Story of the Church by Johnson, Hannan and Dominica. This book is an excellent Conservative Catholic history book sold on homeschooling sites (or used copies on Amazon/E-bay) that covers up to the 1940's with some focus on America, and also has questions and activities in the book. I will also add that for what I`ve read, this book is much heavier on the contributions that the Saints have had throughout the Church`s history and the authors do not touch things lightly. They'll tell you exactly how the saints died in detail. While this book doesn`t touch the 20th Century enough, it`s still a good book to have in your Catholic library.

2) The Catholic Church: Journey Wisdom and Misson, printed by St. Mary`s Press, by Carl Koch. This was my high school textbook for my Gr. 10 Church History course at my private Catholic all-boys school. Believe it or not, they still use this book (in its 94`edition) as the main textbook. In my opinion they should look at the Didache series and do an upgrade, but if this is what they are using still, it must be a decent book. It`s a ``neutral`` Catholic Church history book covering in decent detail history up to the opening of Vatican II, and has brief snipits of the Church post Vatican II up to the early 90`s. Considering most Church history books are biased against the Church, this is an alright `just the basics` text to have or keep from high school, if your curriculum isn`t busy teaching that social justice garbage.

Personally, I like both my books. However my one caveat is that I want a book that touches on the reign of JPII and now Pope Benedict XVI. Both had and are continuing to make (posthumously or currently) significant contributions to the Church (e.g. JPII --> Catechism and Theology of the Body; B16 --> sex scandal clampdown, ecumenical work with the Anglicans and Society of St. Pius X, Summorum Pontificum and Ecclesiae Unitatem). If anyone can recommend a good CONSERVATIVE Catholic History textbook from any publishing company that covers these two popes' reigns, please let me know.

While I've been around the blogosphere, one of the blogs that I frequent are the two of Dorothy Cummings McClean (a.k.a. Seraphic, Auntie Seraphic), a weekly columnist for the Catholic Register. She used to live in Toronto and had done post-secondary academic studies in theology. Currently, she lives in Edinburgh, Scotland with her husband and the both of them are Tridentine Latin Mass/Extraordinary form goers. Her two blogs on the internet are Seraphic Goes to Scotland and Seraphic Singles, of which the second blog's title is also the same as that of a book she wrote for single Catholic women here or here for you Canadians on Novalis. It's also titled "The Closet's all mine" in the USA. So I wander over to her blog today and find a cool posting on Valentine's Day. For those in love, it's a nice way to do something and rekindle that burning love or maintain a marriage. However, there's a lot of consumerism involved and between that and being not in love on that weekend/day, it's quite a burden on the minds and hearts of the singles, widows, etc. out there. To counter both the un-Christian parts of that celebration and to bring some cheer to those singles, Seraphic has proposed Operation Valentinus 2012. See it there and make someone else happy. Now I chose to comment on it and I told her what my plans were for countering the single blues this coming weekend, consisting of a Catholic speed-date event set up jointly by my local university Catholic Chaplaincy and another Catholic young adult ministry. At that revelation, Seraphic asked kindly if I could do an account of that event for her and to have it posted on her blog! Wow I feel honourned. I figured why not. This isn't normal speed dating supposedly (it has a Christian/Catholic perspective) so I figure why not report on it. Here's my account of the event post-edit by Seraphic:

"Upon seeing Seraphic's post on Operation Valentinus 2012 and commenting on my Valentine's Day plans within the post, the lovely Auntie Seraphic asked me if I could write an account of the event and she'd post it on her blog. Wow, me, a little blip on the Catholic blogosphere map? Doing a post for a pretty big Catholic media darling? [Very kind but sadly an exaggeration.--Ed.] How could I say no to sweet Auntie Seraphic?

I'm a Catholic male in his late 20s who recently came back to his faith. I'm working towards getting back into a career in health care. I didn't have much luck in the dating department over my school years and, though I did a little bit of dating for a month and a half through a Catholic dating site last year, [that didn't work out]. However, I wasn't employed at that time and I really should haven't gone in full barrel. And that hasn't quelled my honest and heartfelt desire to fall in love, have a long-term relationship and start a family.

So here I am, in the middle age group of 25-32 yr olds, partly employed, and trying to establish myself personally, faith-wise and career-wise. This Catholic speed-dating event was random, mysterious, and I did not know what the outcome would be, nor was there any ``rulebook`` or smart advice that I could take with me. Furthermore, one on the organizers told me about the Catholic frame of mind of this event:

'We are going to encourage a Catholic model which is based first and foremost in human dignity. Each of us has dignity and is worthy of being treated with dignity because we are created in the loving image of God. Also, friendship is an important part of this model ....'
'.... People will be given a little valentine’s greeting card after each speed date meeting. You are going to be asked to write down one thing you enjoyed learning about the person / you admire about the person. And if you want you can enclose your contact info in that note. (The notes will not be handed to participants right away. They will be handed out at the end of the speed dating portion of the evening). It will then be up to recipient to decide if he or she wants to use any contact info provided to get in touch after the event.'
So this seemed like a departure from normal speed dating. Worse, it wasn't definite if people wanted to contact each other, so I felt like I was stepping into the Casino, where the house has the advantage. Randomness abounded, and I didn`t know what would happen. This made me nervous because I am more of an organizer who likes things planned out. I don't mind some randomness but not when it encompasses a task or event.

Furthermore, would the ladies be paying attention to my clothes? Would I seem interesting enough to them? Would they be revolted if I let it slip that I love the Latin Mass, or that I am that deep into my Catholic Faith, or if I said I'm looking long term relationship/for a family? What if I said something wrong and that one thing cost me a further event or friendship/relationship with that woman? What if they asked me if I own a car? What if God's Will is against me and will make the event flop because He's signed my vocation with his Divine pen on my life contract my as single or "GASP" (to me because I do not want to go to) the priesthood????? I really hoped not because God is supposed to respect a person's free will and I already have my faith and relationship struggles and I don't need more.

So the week came and went. I managed to scrounge an outfit that wasn't too business/dressy and yet work acceptable, and went to the event. Beforehand, I prayed to Jesus that I didn't know what would happen, whether I'd burn out big-time or maybe be fortunate, but if something good should happen, let it happen.

Once I arrived there, with my usual initial nervousness when it comes to women, I tried to see who looked around my age, who caught my eye, or if I knew anyone. You had to sign in, and provided you paid prior to the event, you were granted one free beverage.

While there I met another young guy who was part of another local Catholic student association. Still I was relatively alone and nervous. All my worries were running in my mind until the facilitators arrived and started to speak. They said to congregate to various areas depending on our age group and status. They also read out the portion about the frame of mind for Catholic speed dating (above).

When I did what they said, I had my first surprise of the night: My age group was so large (more than 10 people of both sexes) that we had two groups, while the others had only one group each.

Each date included 3 minutes of conversation, followed by 2 minutes writing on a little Valentine's day card, where you would give one considerate detail or comment to the other person, and if you chose, contact information.

And so it began. Each date varied in the level of connection/conversation but was interesting in its own right. With some of the women, we ended up asking the usual questions--about work, education, and the like, while others tended to be a bit more open and got into some elements of their Catholic faith such as how we both got involved in (the Catholic student association), and even some parts of our faith life, like our ministries, our home parish, and some things we've done.

Some women even revealed how they've done work abroad with children, either through teaching or missionary work. One woman revealed an interesting connection to St. Michael the Archangel as one of her patron saints (after daring to open the ``random question`` envelope and asking me about my patron saint, of which one is St. Michael).

Of the more interesting insights/surprises of the night here's what I found:

- I was able to have speed dates with a number of women, all of various figures, cultures, looks, and experiences. It tied quite in nicely to the whole central idea of us all being made in the image of God.

- One of my dates had found that a different form of liturgical music (praise and worship) contributes to her faith, and this has made her consider thinking of joining that choir. I know the kind of music they use, and while I`m more a traditionalist with my Catholic Church music, I was perceptive to see that perhaps in certain cases, it`s the strong faith of the members and people who perform this music that can aid in giving its strength to the liturgy.

- I tended to give my contacts out more, while I didn't get any reciprocated.

- While I didn't receive a contact, nonetheless I was quite pleased that the dread I had experienced going in was gone by the evening, and the event was much better than it could have been. This relief was shared by my fellow daters ! Perhaps this Catholic concept of speed-dating really made it worthwhile.

- Also, I did find that by the end of the night, there were one or two dates I knew that I was able to easily open up to; that I was capable of letting down my guard and anxiety, and feeling confident in their presence. And their looks didn`t prevent me [from speaking easily] or make me guarded. I just eased up and enjoyed their company.

That to me personally is encouraging and makes me somewhat happy inside, that perhaps for me there is the possibility that we can love as Christ did, without reservations, be it a heterosexual loving relationship (Eros), or in other forms of love (e.g. filias - friendship love, Caritas - highest form of love that Chirst expressed).

- Of all the valentines that I received, the one that really caught my attention was that it said the person would pray for me and hope to meet again in future. Often with my personal struggles, I tend to lose hope quickly when the going gets tough. The fact that someone else is praying for me to the Lord really gives me hope and told me someone else cares, even if contact info wasn't there. I now am not praying alone anymore to the Lord.

So this is my account of my speed date from a Catholic man`s perspective. I would do it again if I had the opportunity! I say, perhaps if we all, both men and women, took the principles of the event, and applied them to our dating, maybe just for the initial steps of this whole rondo, or even more when it comes to relationships, maybe things would be a lot easier between the sexes, and both men and women would be more succesful with each other. More importantly, maybe we would all love like Christ just a bit more in this world."

YCRCM.