Studying for my second weekend in Tulsa

In this first year as a Deacon Aspirant, my studies mostly will consist of reading. did I mention that in my first year of Deacon Aspirancy my homework will be mostly READING? YES! Now some would say...OMG...how horrible! "I hate to read!" But this guy in no way HATES to read. I love to read! I told a friend recently via text that "Don't you sometimes so crave to read you can almost smell the pages of a book?"

Some people just don't understand this sort of fetish, but to those of us who partake daily of literatures sexy allure (ok...some literature isn't very sexy, but I'm trying to sound cool here ok?) we can't but help ourselves so we give in! We give in to the temptations of holding that soft cover, or hard cover book in our hands...gently caressing it's front with our right hand as we cradle her in our left. Okay...this may sound a little weird but it's how I feel right now and this is my blog, not yours! :)

So...in my next weekend in Tulsa we will be discussing in Gaudium et Spes, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World-this is one of the 16 documents that were produced as a result of Vatican II. What most Catholic-Christians don't realize is that these 16 documents in the words of Edward P. Hahnenberg, author of A Concise Guide to the Documents of Vatican II, "are the most important texts produced by the Catholic Church in the past 400 years. They shape virtually every aspect of church life today. But hardly anyone ever reads them." Now why is this the case? Why do so many Catholic-Christians avoid, ignore, or remain unaware of the importance of these documents given to the Church? I hear some people say, "Oh...well that's just boring stuff. I'm not going to bother with all of that Cardinal so and so blah blah blah." Other's say, "I'm not smart enough to read those documents, but they fail to understand that these documents were re-written over and over again until they purposely didn't sound like they were written only for academia.

I think the bottom line is that we are just lazy. We'd rather read a simple novel, or watch a rerun of yesterdays Cobert Report. Which by the way was freakin hilarious last night! Wow...that Stephen is so funny! I digress. We're lazy. We want someone to explain everything to us in "laymen" terms. And by the way...I'm beginning to think that the guy who made that up..."laymen terms", was a fat lazy guy sitting in front of the TV drinking his beer in his lazy boy recliner...fully inclined...using that belly to hold his bowl of chips and salsa! I believe that none of us have the right to say that we are not smart enough to read certain subjects. Yes...some subjects may be above our current reading level but it should not stop us from taking the time to educate ourselves by picking up a dictionary and learning a new word here and there. AND...who said there was a time limit on how long it takes for you to get through a book? No one!

So...in my next post...I'll talk a little about Gaudium et Spes (GOW-dee-oom et spez) and maybe we all will learn a little something about our faith.

Until then...