Author: Fr. John Chagnon

This I Need to Relearn…

~ Fr. John Chagnon ~ Leave a comment
…God comes into our lives when we invite Him with all our being, opening the gates of our heart from the inside. 
He will not come uninvited… The moment you are willing to give over your whole self to God- surrendering your 
life, your loved ones, your health, your victories and defeats- He will come to you and help you in ways you never dreamed possible.

Fr. Vojislav Dosenovich

The Question is…

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whether the well planned protests and violence against our embassies in the Middle East will cause us to defend or back off from our value of free speech. If we back off then the thugs have won and it will be a tragedy perhaps even greater, in its own way, than the first 9/11.

Let me explain. I don’t like it when people portray Jesus in horrible ways, which, in this culture they often do because they know Christians are not going to blow up buildings and kill people. I’m offended by such things, often deeply, but I understand that the value of free speech is such that I will have to put up with offense at times and quite frankly I would rather do that than have a series of government or social editors screening what I should and shouldn’t see, hear, read, watch, you know the drill.

As I’ve been surveying the www it has come to my attention that a General in the US Military called the pastor who apparently is making a film in which Mohammed is a character and asked him to back away from the project. He has done this in his official capacity as a military officer. This has also happened, in my research, at least one time before in different circumstances and with a different general.

We can’t have that. I don’t know if this soon to be revealed film is offensive to Muslims, or at least the ones who like to burn things and kill people. Quite frankly I don’t care. Free speech means that people have a right to say offensive things, stupid things, heretical things, things I don’t like. It also means that I have the right to speak my mind and somebody may not like that but that’s just the way it goes. The freedom is essential to faith, to science, to everything that makes life in a civilized world possible and once we have people in official government capacities asking us to “tone it down” we’ve already slipped into slavery to fanatics and become less of who we are supposed to be.

As for the screaming crazies who like to burn and kill in the name of their “prophet” I only have this to say. If your “prophet” is so weak and sensitive that he can’t take even a little criticism without inciting mayhem why do you believe in his revelation?

Where Politicians Fail…

~ Fr. John Chagnon ~ 1 Comment

is in their understanding that changing the rules, the structures, the environment surrounding a person will change the world to produce the desired outcome. Only transformed hearts, not laws, will change the world.

No…

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we don’t belong to the government, the government belongs to the people. This is a video from the Democratic National Convention but regardless of party it is a false sentiment and deeply outside the spirit of America.

People Forget…

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that professional sports teams are, well, in the entertainment business, nothing more and nothing less and the result is a misplaced sense of loyalty that only goes one way, to the team.

Teams would like to have us believe, of course, that they are regional assets, that having one makes a city special and that the people in any given place owe the team a kind of allegiance because its there, and its “their” team. Yet nothing could be further from the truth, and the truth can set you free.

A professional sports team, perhaps outside of the Green Bay Packers, never belongs to a community. It’s always been and will continue to be the property of the people who own it, their business, their assets, and their profit. The team produces a product, the entertainment provided by watching people who claim to excel at a particular game, and people pay money to watch these events and buy various items related to the team. It’s a show and you pay for it just like you’d go to a concert or a rodeo or a restaurant.

Now they’ve done a very good job of wrapping it up in some kind of greater loyalty, but there’s nothing per se that’s in it for you. You are loyal to though team but the team is loyal to its owners and if the owners feel that you’re not loyal enough, that is attending games and buying things, they will simply move on and demand that kind of loyalty from another town. That’s why the Colts moved from Dallas to Baltimore to Indianapolis and why the Cardinals are in Arizona after being in Chicago and St. Louis and the Rams are in St. Louis after being in Los Angeles.

The truth is that you owe them nothing. They are a product like anything else. You don’t, for example, have to keep going to a restaurant when you dislike the food and so, in the same way, you don’t have to be loyal to a team that continually puts out a bad product. The “loyalty” professional sports teams demand is a very successful advertising gimmick designed to get you to feel an obligation to financially support their business because somehow its “belongs” to the community. Hogwash.

If a car repair place underperformed on their obligations you’d never go there again so why do you have to show up to watch an entertainment product that continues to disappoint? The answer is that you don’t.  The truth is that the team needs to be loyal to you, to give you something worth watching and your loyalty to them is only to the extent that they produce an entertainment product you enjoy. If they don’t you can move on any time you like to something better and let the empty seats tell the team that you’re not interested.

That’s the truth which sets you free. You’re under no obligation to support any professional sports team that fails to live up to your expectations. You’re the consumer. You’re the boss. The teams exist to entertain you with a product you enjoy. You are not obligated in any way to the team unless you choose to be. Good teams will get support. Bad teams will flounder because they should. the power is in your hands.

No more guilt because you think you have the support the local team. You don’t. No more frustration because you’ve invested your heart and soul into an entertainment business (team) that fails to meet your expectations. Switch the channel. Go online. There’s a hundred different things to do and a lot of worthy forms of entertainment  available even on Sunday afternoons.

What the heck, you might even relax enough in the morning to enjoy Church!

 

I Try Not…

~ Fr. John Chagnon ~ 2 Comments

to do too much asking for myself in my prayers any more. I ask for others a lot but for me it seems best to just ask to know where God wants me to be. It actually simplifies prayer. All I have to do is remember two, the Jesus Prayer and the Lord’s Prayer, and that seems to cover all the bases. Pray those sincerely and then rest in God.

Now it doesn’t mean that I don’t get into a flurry of asking for myself at times. I do. I want things to go my way and surely would like to have God agreeing with me. Yet after the tempests of my demands winds down the still small voice reminds me “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner…” and I start making my way back home.

On the Death of Rev. Moon…

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Having largely disappeared into obscurity as a religious leader the teachings of Rev. Moon have also basically faded from view. Does anyone know a person who is actually a member of the Unification Church? Yet in his time his claims were grand and he was, perhaps, one of the most prominent of the “cult” leaders of his era.

As a side note during my seminary years I did some work as an intern at Montrose Baptist Church in Chicago where the Rev. Jim Jones (no relation) was Pastor. To help pay the bills a second church used the building, a Korean Baptist Church pastored by a Rev. Moon (Moon is a fairly common Korean name).

Prayers by the Lake…

~ Fr. John Chagnon ~ 1 Comment

You pour Your holy oil into the stars, O Holy Spirit, and out of senseless conflagrations You make vigil lamps before the Glory of Heaven. Pour Yourself into my soul also, and out of a passionate conflagration make a vigil lamp before the heavens.

You stroll through fields of flowers without being heard, and You sprinkle the flowers with Your grace, so that the blood of the earth may not look through, but the beauty of God. Sprinkle the field of my soul with Your grace also, so that it may not be said that the field of my soul sprouted from the blood of the earth, but that it is adorned with the beauty of God.

You mingle with every heap of ashes and pour in life. Pour life into the ashes of my body also, so that I may live and glorify Your works.

You tame the fire and wind, and out of demons of fury You make servants of the Most High. Tame my pride and make me a servant of the Most High.
You are kind to the animals in the woods. Show kindness to me also, who am animalized by ignorance.

You fertilize every seed of life. You hover in every womb. You sit in the egg of a bird’s nest and masterfully form a new miracle of life. Fertilize, I beseech You, the invisible seed of goodness within me also, and keep watch over it until it reaches maturity.

O Awesome and Almighty Spirit, by Your presence You turn a den of thieves into a haven of Heaven, and a terrifying universe into a temple of God. Descend into me also, I beseech You, and turn a handful of ashes into what You know how to do and can.