THE HEART OF A SEMINARIAN

A Roman Catholic Seminarian opens up his Heart and shares the Faith he Loves.

KEVIN MUNIZ ON THE INTERNET

When I was younger, I thought it was great that I had a last name that was unique.  Well maybe in comparison to Smith or Jones.  But I really liked it that not many people had it.  Now as more people get to know me and search for my blog, I face the trouble the confusion on the internet with all the other guys named Kevin Muniz. So for clarification for those who wonder who this seminarian is; I will clarify some of the links that show up on the first page when you google the name Kevin Muniz. 

1. I am not the Kevin Muniz who wrote "Kevin M's  Pro-Human Cloning Essay" for an English writing lab.

2. I am not the 27 year old Kevin Muniz who was one of eight charged in auto insurance enterprise corruption indictment in New York last year.  By the way, I was 27 last year.

I found it funny that the other Kevin Muniz's on the internet happen to do things that are contrary to me. So in case there was somehow any confusion, I wanted to clear this up in case anyone was wondering

posted by: muniz at 11:15 | link | comments |
general

QUOTE OF THE DAY

There are only two teams.  You can play on God’s team, or you can play against Him. – Joe Gibbs, NFL Coach.

 

Even though I know all of us would say that we are on God’s team, but are we on His team all the time?  Is God on our mind throughout our day or just at certain points?  This is just a reflection on how close of a relationship that we have with God.  It is like a little child with their parent at the mall. If the child runs off, does not pay attention, or gets detracted from the parent, then the child becomes confused and scared in the mall when they are away from the parent.  If we constantly stay close to God by prayer, scripture, and examining our actions and thoughts, then God’s Will will be clear and our lives will not be filled with worries.  God takes all fears and confusions away.

posted by: muniz at 00:30 | link | comments (1) |
quote

A LITTLE HELP PLEASE…

As more people are visiting this blog, I want to ask everyone a favor.  Can you refer me to different religious women’s blogs or different websites?  This is in area that I would love to read more about.  Thank you.

posted by: muniz at 16:27 | link | comments (9) |

THE VOTES ARE IN FOR THE CATHOLIC BLOG AWARDS

I cannot thank every one enough for all their support.  A huge thank you goes out to all who have voted for me and worked so hard to promote this blog.  Your effort and support is the only reason that we came as close as we did.  This a great time and huge fun all around.  THANK YOU!!! 

Click http://www.catholicblogawards.com/  to see the final totals. This blog came in 2nd Place for BEST BLOG BY A SEMINARIAN.

Top 5 Reasons that the Strategies to Win the Catholic Blog Awards Failed

5 It turns out that there is no anti-doping policy in place for the Blog Awards.  Plan B is to write a book called “Juiced” which tells all about the steroid use in blogging.  Again, no one can blog that well naturally.

4 Well shoot!  It turns out that he does love Jesuits more.

3 It turns out that the competition had the same idea about attracting the multitudes by writing brilliant and inspiring posts. The difference was the fact that they can actually do it.

2 Obviously, I could not find a computer genius to hack into their system.  It turns out that people consider that morally wrong.  Why do people have to always get so religious on me about those things?

1 It turns out that none of the members of the Altar & Rosary Society owns a computer.  Oh but rest a sure that when the Catholic Blog Awards receive all their votes that they mailed in, the title will go to me.

 

Congratulations to “You Duped Me Lord” for your victory as the Greatest Catholic Blog in the World by a Seminarian.  I have linked him in my blogroll too.

Top 5 Strategies to Win the Catholic Blog Awards

5 Leak to the press that my competition has been blogging under the influence of performance enhancement drugs.  (No one can blog that well naturally without the use of some kind of steroid.)

4 Pray and give God an ultimatum (Who does God love more: Jesuits, Dominicans, or wonderful, loving, faithful Diocesan seminarians?)

3 Write brilliant and inspiring posts that will attract the multitude. (Hmmm, interesting concept, but that doesn’t help idiots like me.)

2 Get computer geniuses to hack into their system to give me hundreds of more votes. (Man! I guess I should not have made fun of them so much in high school.  This is a lesson for all of you kids out there: Don’t make fun of computer geniuses because you never know when you will need them to hack into a system in order to when a Catholic Blog Award.)

1 Ask the Altar & Rosary Society to vote for me.  (My family knows what they can do when they vote.)

posted by: muniz at 12:13 | link | comments (1) |

EVERYBODY ELSE KNOWS BEST

Catholic Times column “Seminarians ask for support, not second guessing.” (2/12/06) continued.  Click here to read this short column.

This post is a continuation of my column in the Catholic Times.  This is the opportunity to express my feelings on the subject, while allowing you to do the same for a fruitful discussion.  For those who are new to this site, you may leave anonymous or signed comments by clicking on the word “comments” below. 

In my column, I shared the reality of the offensiveness of the so-called support of people for seminarians.  Even though many people would consider themselves highly supportive of a seminarian’s future vocation, the comments made by people are often unknowingly hurtful.  Whether it is the constant reminding of the time a seminarian has to change his mind or the looks of idiocy that seminarians receive, this type of reaction is accepted to many now as the norm.  Unfortunately, there are other choices in life that people receive the same type of hurtful reactions such as the single life, large families, and also the enlisting into the Armed Forces.

In the world, there are some who choose to live their lives in the single state, but they receive much of the same reaction as those entering into religious life if not worse.  To many, this choice makes no sense.  First of all, within the views of society, why would anyone choose to be single and have no kids?  At least with religious life, they can see some sort of purpose, but the single life is viewed as a waste or a mistake.  Some just choose not to get married and others choose this in order to devote themselves more to the Church.  Either way, they do not deserve to be second guessed or insulted on their decision.

Also, you see this type of disrespect towards the parents of a large family.  How many times do they have to hear “Are they all yours?” or “I could never handle that many kids.”  Why is it that the world is so against bringing life into the world?  How can they be so blind of the great gift that a child can bring into the world?  Maybe, we should turn the tables on the parents of few kids.  “What? Are you to lazy and selfish to love another child?”  Bottom line, parents of large families do not deserve to be second guessed or insulted on their willingness and openness to life.

Lastly, now-a-days people find it appropriate to tell you how wrong it is to go into service.  Amazingly, there is a person willing to devote their life to a cause even to the point of risking their life and the only thing that they can get in return is looks of idiocy.  The world is selfish and they want all that they can get for themselves.  God forbid people devote their whole live to the service of people and to their country.  Those in the Armed Forces do not deserve to be second guessed or insulted for their bravery. 

Overall, we are all guilty of this sin in one form or the other, but we must work to become more aware of this weakness; the weakness of being self pleasing and not being self donating.

posted by: muniz at 01:46 | link | comments (3) |
catholic times

1B - ECUMENICAL DIALOGUE FOR UNITY

Question 1: What is your church’s view on dialogues with other churches or communities of different doctrinal beliefs?

To view previous questions and responses simply scroll down to archives and click on “ecumenical”.

A Baptist Minister writes:

The Baptist Faith in its very essence is a people of dialogue. It has not always been positive, open minded dialogue, but Baptists give Martin Luther’s “priesthood of all believers” new meaning. It stems from the Puritan movement in and continued here in .  Baptist roots are from those who wanted to “purify” the Church from dogmas that they felt didn’t allow the freedom of differing opinions from the people. While this has its pie in the sky appeal, the obvious fall back is the breakdown of community. Like the old story of the Baptist man stranded, alone on an island. When a ship rescued him the captain noticed 3 buildings on the shore. “The middle one is my house and the one on the left is my church.” When the captain asked the man about the building on the right the man replied, “Oh, well, that was my old church, but I didn’t agree with it so I built the other one instead.”

 

You can glean from this humorous illustration the cliché, no two Baptists are alike (we don’t even agree with ourselves). I would contend, however, that this is all the more reason why dialogue is our strongest attribute. While Believer Baptism (most generally by Immersion) is our “won’t budge” position of faith, most Baptists have a heritage of relatives and families from other denominations and religious backgrounds. While our comfort levels of conversation tend toward those who are “like us,” it is very common that decisions made in the Baptist church have Catholic roots, Presbyterian roots, Methodist roots, etc. We are in its best and worst form a people of dialogue. And, if you don’t believe me, we can always form a committee to discuss the matter further.

posted by: muniz at 08:19 | link | comments (1) |
ecumenical

NEWS AND NOTES

·        Blog Awards: The voting begins for the 2006 Catholic Blog Awards at NOON on Tuesday, February 07.  At that time, we will see if this blog was nominated for anything.  To vote, you simply need to click on http://www.catholicblogawards.com/ .

·        Older Ladies & Master P: Last Friday, I went to a KC’s Chicken Dinner with 2 ladies from my parish.  The most humorous moment of the night was listening to these women talk about the show “Dancing with the Stars”.  I just found it funny to hear 2 older women discuss and rant about the rapper Master P.  When you think about it, I can just see my generation sitting on the porch at 70 arguing about who was the best rapper in our time.

·        Lincoln Presidential Museum: I am not a museum kind of guy, but I decided to go to the Lincoln Museum in Springfield, Illinois to spend time with the kids on their field trip.  I must say that it was amazing and well worth going again.  And this is coming from a guy who doesn’t like going to museums.

·        President Lincoln: It amazes me that when someone is deemed a hero and a great man, then everything that they do is viewed as great.  In one of the exhibits, it showed Lincoln on the couch reading a paper while his kids were running around making a mess of the room that he was in.  The exhibit said that he was so deep in thought that he would not even notice things around him.  Huh, deep in thought?  So I guess, the modern parents who let their kids do whatever while they sit and watch TV is not a lazy parent but just great people who are deep in thought.

·        Happy Birthday to me: My Birthday was great.  I received lots of cards and a parishioner made me lunch, another made me a pie, another made me cookies, and 2 others made me cakes.  Yep, I am on the road to becoming very fat.

·        Cool Present: After basketball on Monday night at 10:30ish, the Baptist minister invited everyone over to his house because his wife made a cake.  So this other guy and I went over, ate cake, and talked.  We talked about a lot of things, but the coolest thing was sitting in his house until midnight talking about church stuff.  By end of the evening, he was asking questions about the Catholic faith.  I cannot tell you how much I love doing that.  I absolutely love talking about the faith.

·        Next Sunday’s scripture.  Just click it.

What else?  Any questions or comments?

posted by: muniz at 11:58 | link | comments (2) |
news and notes

1C - ECUMENICAL DIALOGUE FOR UNITY

Question 1: What is your church’s view on dialogues with other churches or communities of different doctrinal beliefs?

 

Catholic

In the Catholic Church, dialogues with others of different beliefs are highly encouraged for the faithful.  In the heart of the Catholic Church, there is a huge desire to strive for unity amongst all Christian believers just as Christ prayed for it at the hour of his Passion in Jn 17:21.  It is so much a desire of the Church that the Bishops wrote an entire document on the matter during the 2^nd Vatican Council (1964) entitled Unitatis Redintegratio (Decree on Ecumenism)[Side Note: there were only 16 documents in that council.]

By holding these dialogues, every church grows closer towards unity due to a fuller understanding of the beliefs of the others and the dispelling of common misunderstandings.  Not to mention, by doing so, we are fulfilling our calling as Christians to spread, defend, and promote the faith amongst all peoples.

In regards to Church teachings, the 821^st paragraph of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC 821) with references to the Vatican II document Unitatis Redintegratio ( UR ) states that certain things are required in order to respond adequately to this call towards unity such as:

-          a permanent renewal of the Church in greater fidelity to her vocation; such renewal is the driving-force of the movement toward unity (Cf. UR 6);

-          conversion of heart as the faithful "try to live holier lives according to the Gospel" ( UR 7 § 3); for it is the unfaithfulness of the members to Christ's gift which causes divisions;

-          prayer in common, because "change of heart and holiness of life, along with public and private prayer for the unity of Christians, should be regarded as the soul of the whole ecumenical movement, and merits the name 'spiritual ecumenism;"' ( UR 8 § 1)

-          fraternal knowledge of each other; (Cf. UR 9)

-          ecumenical formation of the faithful and especially of priests; (Cf. UR 10)

-          dialogue among theologians and meetings among Christians of the different churches and communities; (Cf. UR 4; 9; 11)

-          collaboration among Christians in various areas of service to mankind. (Cf. UR 12) "Human service" is the idiomatic phrase.

So if one continuously renews themselves to spread the faith, seek holiness, pray with other Christians, learn about each other and the facts, talk with others, and work with each other in service to mankind, then they can adequately promote unity in dialogue like the Church encourages.

John 17:21  ²¹ so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me.

posted by: muniz at 01:56 | link | comments (1) |
ecumenical

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