Experience Mass in a Whole New Way

(cover © Patrick A. Jones, 2008)

Coming this Lent, 2009, an illustrated children's story missal that will help your kids enter Mass, and reveal it to you in a whole new way! One previewer (a children's catechist) said:

"I'll never experience Mass the same way again!"

Please contact Mother's House Publishing for further information.

Project Life!

I'm quite excited about this! Project Life is a growing expose of photos celebrating Life and Human Dignity.

Contribute your photos!

They will join the growing slide show, and help send a positive message of the importance of life and of human dignity. View and join the Flickr group here and upload your photos!

Or simply simply email them to our trusty intern.
(put "Project Life" in the subject to ensure the spam filter doesn't get it!) 

Share the Growing Slideshow on your Website!

Get the slideshow code here (in any size you want!). Then paste this html code and you'll automatically show an ongoing, evoloving, growing slide show celebrating life! (Yes, I moderate pictures to prevent inappropriate ones from being posted.) 

The full description:

A growing celebration of life slideshow revealing what it means to be human and uphold human dignity. We would love to have your photo (or a few!) showing life and human dignity! Join our group and add your voice -- 1000 words at a time!

What is human dignity?
The priceless gift given all people: that we are each made in God's image and we each have a unique aspect of God to reveal to the world. Because of this gift, we each have certain unalienable rights, among which are:

Life
which begins at conception and is never ours to take

Liberty
the freedom for every person to become the fulness of who God created them to be

Pursuit of Happiness
which can only be found through Jesus our Christ, our beloved creator.

weCatholic Partner Bazaar

We want to team up with other strongly Catholic creative folks to rejuvenate and revolutionize Catholic products. Jesus our Christ challenges us to "feed my sheep" and together we strive to respond to that call.

Just what is weCatholic Partner Bazaar? It is a pool of Catholic creatives who propose products that will bear the weCatholic name and who collaborate to create them and bring them to the world market, sharing ownership of the product and the profits it produces.

Here's how it works (click on picture for full size):  

Who can join? Anyone with a skill that can help create a product, from the idea through to marketing. This includes artists, writers, theologians, specialists in llayout, design, publishing, product creation, and more. Not sure? write us to see!

The beauty of this is there are thousands of faithful people with amazing skills who want to express their faith and help other's on our faith journey. Creating amazing Catholic products is a tremendous way to do exactly that while sharing in the joys, challenges, and profits of ownership.  

Interested? The application process is quite simple.

1. Read our Common Sense Legal Agreement. If you agree to it, then...
   
2. Email Deacon Patrick (lamontglen [a t} mac {d ot] com) with:

• your full name, address, cell, day and evening phone, and email
  
• a brief (1,000 words or less) response to this question: Describe your own journey on the road to Emmaus, including who you have and currently identify with and why
  
• state that you agree to our common sense legal agreement and that submitting your email is your assent to that agreement
  
• make the subject of your email "Partner Bazaar Application of (your name)." 
  
• include the name and recommendation from a current member who referred you to us, if you have that (not a requirement). 

I look forward to meeting you and working together to revolutionize Catholic products!

Common Sense Legal Agreement

By applying to join weCatholic Partner Bazaar you agree to the following, which is binding should you be accepted into weCatholic Partner Bazaar:

Common sense, plain language legal agreement:
From now (the date of my email application) forward I agree that should I be accepted into weCatholic's Partner Bazaar:

-- I understand that weCatholic will help shape and prepare any products for market, but that if I am the idea originator that I retain ownership of that idea. I understand that, among other things, weCatholic uses the theology found in "The Best Good Life" by Patrick A. Jones to evaluate potential product ideas.

-- I understand that weCatholic's ownership in any product to which it gives it's brand name is 10%-20% based on our negotiations, and that to bring an idea to a finalized, distributed product I will need to find creative partners to share in ownership and creation of that product.

-- I will not share information about products or ideas that we communicate by any means with anyone outside this group. Spouses are considered bound by this agreement and included in it, so we are each free to talk with our Beloved.

-- I agree that the seed idea and it's ownership belongs with the person who originally approaches me with it and that any contributions I make to their concept are given freely.

-- I agree to strive to uphold the human dignity of every person in this group in every interaction, placing theirs above my own should dispute occur.

-- By breaking this agreement there are legal ramifications, but also serious soul damaging consequences of having violated the trust other members of Christ's body have placed in me.

-- By sharing ownership with weCatholic and other partners of any particular product of which I am the idea originator, I do not give up or share the ownership of my idea, but rather ownership in the finished product.

-- In any and all disagreements, I will abide by Matthew 18:15-20 in any and all disagreements.

-- It is my and my partner's responsibility to create the legal partnership that defines the roles and responsibilities of our involvement and the percentage of our various ownership. weCatholic is working to create a general contract for this purpose.

Bumper Stickers to Stir up Faith

They are coming soon to a rubber or chrome bumper in your garage. Sure to be the latest rage in Catholic accoutrement, these pithy bumper stickers are a tremendous way to evangelize. Here's a preview... (And keep your eye peeled here -- or just follow us via RSS feed, as more are on the way, along with where you can order them and even some of the theology behind them).

Have a sticker you'd like to see in our lineup? Leave it in the comments section and we'll consider it!

Husband, Father, Deacon, Man: New Personal Blog

I've decided to launch a new blog -- a personal one where I can explore the various roles and responsibilities common to many people, and particularly to men. This blog/site will continue as the web presence of Faith Incarnate, which as yet is a glimmer in my eye but with numerous exciting things on the horizon.

Please see the new blog here (and don't forget to add it to your RSS if you'd like to follow it):

Husband, Father, Deacon, Man

Blessings,

Patrick

All is Gift

All is Gift
Things didn't go as I'd hoped. Turned out (as it so often does) there
is blessing in it not being my plan but God's - even if it takes gale
force winds and sand/dirt storms to get me to lift my stubborn head
and abandon what I thought I was supposed to be doing.
I triked half of the way to Chimayo. That's how life is with
disability. I am did-able to do certain things and it takes the love
and sacrifice of others, particularly my Beloved, to help me
accomplish what we agree to accomplish together.
We drove the last half together.
God is our wild, uncontrolable, unknowable, passionate creator who is
foolish enough to love his creation.. Thank God! Anything less
wouldn't be God.
Chimayo. Beautiful. Timeless. Tranquel. Rugged. Lush Eden in a jagged,
rocky, desert. Soul food. Pilgrimage's end. Journeys beginning. The
road along the way. Faith incarnate in mud, straw and ash. All is gift.

Blessings,
Patrick
It's all good, but is it the best good?
www.BrainInjuryChaplain.com

World Wide Conspiricy Continues

World Wide Conspiricy Continues
Warning: this post borders on griping, perhaps going well past the
border. I post it anyway in the hope it may help increase
understanding of the effects of brain injury.
Ever since my disability began at the end of 2002 I've suspected and
experienced a world-wide conspiricy against folks with brain injury. I
doubt it's intentional or coordinated, but it sure seems so at times.
Sardonic grin.
The culmination of day 5 and its subsequent night and ensuing next day
certainly have the effect of a well orchistrated conspiracy.
Day Five:
Afternoon: vagabond dog tangles with my service dog and our two other
dogs (all leashed). Barking and commotion behind me ends my day
(essentially short circuiting my brain).
High winds begin. This makes everything flicker and move and flap
(more stimulation for my already fuzzy brain to try and handle).
8:30pm: (my normal bed time is 7) The singing park ranger begins sound
check for his concert. The accoustics of the ampitheater are such that
the campground hears everything with impressive clarity. Concert and
commotion of returning campers creates havoc till 11pm.
Grumpy result: day 6 is a brain recovery day (presuming I can get away
from noise today).

Blessings,
Patrick
It's all good, but is it the best good?
www.BrainInjuryChaplain.com

Dignity at the Dunes

Dignity at the Dunes
Chimayo Pilgrimage Day 5
Sand Dunes National Park offers fantastic balloon tire wheel chairs
for folks with mobility issues on the dunes. Their only drawback is
they are cumbersome to push and it gave my wife quite a workout
pushing me across the creek. They make the dunes more accessable than
I would have thought and made for a grand morning at the Colorado
"beach." Thank you, friends of the dunes!
Tomorrow has predicted high winds. We may see how I do in 55mph head
winds. Sardonic grin.
Blessings,
Patrick
It's all good, but is it the best good?
www.BrainInjuryChaplain.com

Roadside Memorials Chimayo Pilgrimage

Roadside Memorials
Chimayo Pilgrimage
Day 4
Assending Poncha Pass there are several roadside memorials. Though I
often pay them little mind passing by car, figuring them to be
personal memorials, I found myself both praying for them and asking
for their intercessions on my journey.
There is a timeless bond between people who struggle in a specific
place. For some it was their final earthly burden, for me simply the
joyful struggle of climbing a mountain pass toward sunrise.
Np matter our capacity, life's challenges find our poverty and seek to
turn is away. Only by turning toward Kesis our Christ and following
St. Paul's bequest that Christ can make us strongest where we are
weakest have we hope to persivere.
Now at the Sand Dunes near Alamosa, CO for a planned 2 night stay.

Blessings,
Patrick
It's all good, but is it the best good?
www.BrainInjuryChaplain.com

Chimayo Pilgrimage

Chimayo Pilgrimage
Day 2 & 3
50 miles up Big Horn Cañon to half way up Poncha Pass.
Truely amazing how much cooler 8,500 ft. is vs. 6,000.
After today I take a day to rest (appropriate it's Sunday!). Brain
recovering nicely.

Blessings,
Patrick
It's all good, but is it the best good?
www.BrainInjuryChaplain.com

Prayer Breathing

Prayer Breathing
Chimayo Pilgrimage Pt. 2
Day 1: 70 miles; 4000ft. Climb, 5500ft. Decent.
Trikes through snow (June 6!) Not much, but fun. Grin.
Its comicaly interaguing how the physical journey intimately shapes
the spiritual. Up the many steep assents my breathing prayer/
meditation began as the Jesus Prayer: Jesus remember me when you come
into your kingdom. Of course the heavy breathing of steep climbing
quickly shortains it to it's core essence: Jesus!

Blessings,
Patrick
It's all good, but is it the best good?
www.BrainInjuryChaplain.com

What is a Pilgrimage? Chimayo Pilgrimage Pt 1

What is a Pilgrimage?
Chimayo Pilgrimage Pt 1
A pilgrimage is a journey of faith. While healing and hope of healing
may be a prayer intention for a pilgrimage, I personally believe the
goal of any pilgrimage should be to deepen our relationship with God.
I'll be triking (cycling) 350 miles to Chimato.
Why triking? Sacrifice is often an interional part of a pilgrimage.
Traveling by human power only seems appropriate.
Why Chimayo? For centuries Chimayo has been known as a healing place,
especially the dirt around a now dry spring. Jesus often tells those
he heals "Your faith has healed you." Far from being magic, or
formulaic, sucj a pilgrimage is about faith and relationship more than
about being healed.
Will I be healed? Absolutely. God will heal me in the fullness of
time. Will God heal me as a result of this pilgrimage? Perhaps. Time
will tell.
Questions to prayerfully consider befoer taking a pilgrimage (these
are things I asked myself before this trip):
Is doing so selfish, or an act of faith?
What sacrifice can I prayerfully offer? Money? Time? Physical effort/
endurance?
Why do I go?
What do I hope for from this journey?
Blessings in Jesus our Christ,
Patrick

Blessings,
Patrick
It's all good, but is it the best good?
www.BrainInjuryChaplain.com

Brain Crane

Hello!

If you know anyone who has a brain injury, please encourage them to make a brain crane and send it into the Brain Injury Association (BIA). Full instructions, video, and where to send it are here.

Blessings,
Patrick

Day of Repentance

A Catholic day of repentance to mark the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion on January 22, 1973. How are we blinded by the culture of death?