Here is something I came up with while on the way home from work tonight while contemplating (that is what I do, I am a Philosophy nut) a homily given about a month and a half ago at St. Anne in Bartlet. The priest, I can't remember his name, talked about a prayer that he heard said by a kindergartener, it was simply "Thank you God for being God" and I wrote this short poem based on that profound prayer, I hope you enjoy.


"Thank you God for being God"a Matt Hudson original
Thank you God for being God
For everything and everywhere
You made it all, my God
The tallest mountain and the smallest hair

Never outside nor far
But always near.
Never yesterday nor tomorrow,
But always here.

Always everywhere,
In the deepest part of man.
The Great, The Powerful, The Wonderful,
The simply, "I am".

You sanctified the waters,
That we may be made a new.
You gave us Yourself to eat,
That we may abide in You.

Thank you God for being God,
For only You know how.
And that is why I love you God,
Always, forever, but most especially, right now.

Thank you good night and God bless.

This is yet another return effort, I will begin my return effort with what I have come to think of as my Biblical motto:

"A word is the source of every deed; a thought, of every act
The root of all the conduct is the mind; four brances it shoots forth:
Good and evil, death and life, their absolute mistress is the tongue.
A man may be wise and benefit many, yet be of no use to himself.
Though a man may be wise, if his words are rejected
he will be deprived of all enjoyment.
When a man is wise to his own advantage,
the fruits of his knowledge are seen in his own person;
When a man is wise to his people's advantage,
the fruits of his knowldege are enduring:
Limited are the days of one man's life,
but the life Israel is days without number.
One wise for himself has full enjoyment,
and all who see his people wins a heritage of glory,
and his name endures forever."
-- The Wisdom of Sirach 37:16-25

God bless you and love you. Amen.

I was watching EWTN's 25th year celebration in Denver today and while I was watching it my roommate, Kim who is from South Korea, came in and began watching it as well. We watched Raymond Arroyo talk about Mother Angellica and his biography of her. He discussed several things that Mother Angellica had to go through in her life and how she always just followed Christ and believed in the Divine providence in her life. It was a very powerful presentation.

After he was finished with his speach I went to go get my laundry, and as I was getting my basket Kim, who is here in Memphis studying English, came up to me and said "It is easy to understand this religious channel because the message is made very clear by the person's passion for what he is saying." As I went to get my laundry I thought about what he had just said and it hit me that this is a practical case of the Holy Spirit speaking through someone and making clear His message.

Lord, I pray that Your message always be present through my words, my actions, and my thoughts, that others may come to You not by my doing but by my submission to You. God Love You. Amen.

Two weeks is too much

I apologize for not posting these last couple of weeks, but my computer was disabled by the Universtiy, they took my desk away and then it took them forever to get a new one for me. Between that, school, and work I just haven't been able to post as often as I would like.

Thanks for keeping up with me and I hope you like the post for today.

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

--Marianne Williamson

I've read some blogs commenting about this poem, but I post this poem, this declaration, as a thinking tool, and ask that you just read it carefully and think about how true this is in your life. Furthermore, I challenge you to be everything that God has made you to be and in the words of Pope John Paul II (aka John Paul the Great) "Do not be afraid!" Lord, help me to not be afraid. Amen, and God love you.

"The good news isn't something, it is somebody"
-- Fr. John Corapi

For those who don't know me, I love Fr. Corapi, he is the man who spits that hot fire of truth. I must have heard him say this phrase 100 times but each time it is like the first because it is just clean cut truth. Yet I know I never thought of it before I heard Fr. Corapi say it and then it was like a great eye opener.

I have been struggling with someone I love in discussing the Bible. This person argues with me all the time by saying that the Bible is not the word of God because there are so many translations. And I used to just listen to what was said and sit back and let it go on, but recently, especially after seeing Fr. Corapi live and growing in my faith as I have lately, I couldn't let this person go untested. My argument was the same argument that Fr. Corapi gives in several of his talks that I have heard. The argument is that the Bible is God's word and that word is Jesus. From start to finish, Genesis to Revelation, everything is about Jesus Christ.

And in regards to the many translations it is actually quite simple to understand. In respects to the multiple interpretations, it can be broken up between Protestants and Catholics. Protestants do not have the Magesterial Teaching or the Sacred Tradition that Church has so they are themselves thier own magesterium and they can interpret the Bible into whatever they like because there is no Authority, they are their own authority.

Thus, the reason for so many translations is not that the Word has changed but that the people are misinterpreting the Word. For instance, if I said "I love all the hundreds of my brothers and sisters that read this post" (Wishful thinking I know, but bare with me) and somehow, someone 1000 years from now finds a copy of the post, and reads it. Without the proper understanding of the language or how to interpret the post one might interpret the sentence quite literally and think "Wow!! His parents were really busy!" and that would not be what was meant by it.

Pray for our seperated brothers and sisters in Christ, and pray that we may all be brought together in love of Christ. Pray for our priests and all the religious. And please pray for me and all of my loved ones [that could even be you ;) ]

Thank you, God bless

"Who-wa, Two-Times-Tuesdays!!!"
-- Dominos Commercial

Not only do I deliver pizzas for Dominos, but since I didn't write anything yesterday I'll give those lucky few who read this blog a speacial treat, a joke that my dad sent to me, enjoy:

MY DAD IS A FATHER

A little boy got on the bus, sat next to a man reading a book, and noticed he had his collar on backwards.The little boy asked why he wore his collar that way. The man, who was a priest, said, " I am a Father." The little boy replied, "My Dad is a father and he doesn't wear his collar like that." The priest looked up from his book and answered "I am the Father of many."The boy said, "My Dad has 4 boys, 4 girls and two grandchildren and he doesn't wear his collar that way." The priest, getting impatient, said, "I am the Father of hundreds" and went back to reading his book. The little boy sat quietly thinking for a while, then leaned over and said, "Maybe you should wear your pants backwards instead of your collar."

I heard this story on TV one Sunday morning and I have had it stuck in my head ever since so I figured I'd share it with you, lucky you.

This is my rendition of the anecdote:

A boy was pulling his wagon up a hill and was coming to the top of the hill when one of the rear wheels fell off and went rolling down the hill. The boy, looking frustrated, said “I’ll be damned!!” but what the boy didn’t realize was that he was in front of the rectory and a priest was out on the front porch and watched the entire incident. The priest called to the boy and said “My son, you shouldn’t curse.” The boy replied, “I know Father, I’m just mad at the wheel and it just slipped out.” The priest, understanding the world we live in, accepted this explanation and said “Be more careful and be sure to think before you speak, okay?” and the boy replied “Yes, Father”, and the priest watched as the boy fetched the wheel, fixed his wagon, and went on his way.

The next day the same boy with the same wagon went up the same hill and the same thing happened. Frustrated the boy said again “I’ll be damned!!” and again the same priest was out side observing, and again he called to the boy and said “My son!” and immediately the boy knew what he had done, and apologized again for the out burst. The priest thought “Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me” and then said to the boy “My son, the next time you’re frustrated instead of cursing say ‘Thanks be to God’.” The boy said “Yes, Father, I’ll try.” And he went down the hill, fetched the wheel, fixed the wagon, and went on his way.

The very next day the very same boy with the very same wagon went up the very same hill and the very same thing happened. Frustrated the boy said “I’ll be…” stopped himself, looked over at the rectory, noticed the same priest on the porch, took a breath, and said “Thanks be to God.” All of the sudden the wheel stopped and rolled back up the hill and jumped back into its proper place and the smiling boy went on his way. Seeing what had just transpired the priest exclaimed “Well, I’ll be damned!!!”

This is a reminder to us that even though we may have good advice to give, we sometimes don’t take our own advice. We must practice what we preach. It is also a reminder that even people in respectable positions are still human and must follow the same guidelines as each of us.

"Billions upon billions of years are just a blink,
a snap of the finger, in the context of eternity"
-- Fr. Larry Richards

This quote above is from a story that Fr. Larry Richards told this past weekend at the Steubenville Mid-America Youth Conference at Springfield, MO. The story that he told was of a giant where each movement of his took 10,000 years and this giant takes one grain of sand and walks to the top of Mt. Everest and places it there and he continues to do this until all the sand from all around the Earth are on the mountain. Each step was 10,000 years, each time he bent over pick up a grain of sand was 10,000 years and so on. And Fr. Larry ended by saying that it would take billions upon billions of years for this to happen and then that all that time is but a blink compared to eternity.

The reason I'm telling this story is tell another one. One of the several things that I took away from this Conference was that Jesus gave his life to us, and all he asks in return is our life. What do these two things have in common? Jesus is God, the second person of the Holy Trinity, he is eternal. We are mere creations, mortal, we consider a long life 70 years or longer, and if the billions upon billions of years that the giant took placing the sand at the top of the mountain is but a blink in eternity what does that make our time? The point is that Jesus gave us His life (eternity) in exchange for our life (finite, mortal). Talk about a great exchange rate.

If we put these terms into finite measurements and liken eternity to $100 billion (I know there is no comparison between anything finite and infinite, just bare with me) and our life to a penny. Jesus is telling you he will give you $100 billion and all he asks for in return is your $0.01.

The catch is we must give our life to Him just as He gave His life to us, because He will not take what is not offered, one of my friends says it best "God is a lover not a rapist" he offers everything He is to us but will only take what is given; He will never steal anything from us.

Lord, I know I'm not worthy of Your life, help me to give my life and all that I am to You, not because it is my will but beacause it is what You ask of me.
Lord, I believe in You, help my disbeleif.
Lord, I trust in You, help my mistrust.

"No Pain, No Gain.

No Cross, No Crown.

No Gall, No Glory."

-- William Penn

In my time away, I've been a bit busy, between moving and trips it's been somewhat eventful. One of the first things that happened was I went to visit my family in West Chester, OH and while I was there my mother and I when to see Fr. John Corapi speak. And if you haven't heard of Fr. Corapi or even heard him speak on TV or Radio or even live I would recommend that you get wit the program. His ministry is very powerful and his personality is very in your face, he is one of the most hardcore preachers I have ever listened to, and his weapon of choice, The TRUTH.

He spoke about Spirtiual warfare, for those of you who have heard Fr. Corapi speak you know it is one of his favorite subjects. He encouraged, nay, commanded us to learn our faith. He discussed our role in the on going battle between good and evil in the battle for souls. He spoke on the importance of being in a state of grace, to be fit for battle and if one is not in a state of grace that person is either on the sidelines or on the wrong side.

Fr. Corapi spoke about the importance of knowing our weapons and the weapons of the enemy. Our greatest weapon is prayer and there is no better prayer than that of the Rosary. Again, he commanded (not encouraged) us to pray the Rosary everyday and when we think that we are too busy, he asks the question "Are you busier than the Pope?" he says his Rosary everyday, all 20 mysteries. He described the Rosary as the prayer of the Gospel (Gospel = Good News = Jesus Christ).

There was sooooooo much Truth packed into one day, it was like watching 4 weeks of EWTN in one day, and it was soooooooooooooooooooo worth it.

Again I ask for your prayers, and I ask that you pray for our preists, and pray for our preists, and one more thing pray for our preists (it's kinda important). Thank you and God bless.

PS. If there is any one who is reading this stuff, I would greatly appreciate it if you would give me a comment or two so that I know that i'm not just talking into space, thanks again.

J esus
O thers
Y ourself

I am third
-- Fr. Larry Richards

Wow, it has been quite a long time since I have done anything with this blog, I'm quite sure that I have lost any one who had been checking up with me and my blog. So I guess I'm just writing this stuff for my own benefit, oh well, I could be doing a lot worse things with my time (trust me I know).

I was looking at my last post and I saw that I was just talking about my last final being finished, well I'm starting this one off the same way, my Chemestry final was this past Friday and I hope that I did well. And tomorrow I will be starting my second session of the Summer semester at U of Memphis, so please pray for me and my classes.

This past weekend I went with the youth group to a Steubenville Conference and had a blast, it is one of the reasons why I'm typing this, because I feel that I must share what I got from the conference with as many people as I can and it has also provided me with plenty of ammunition to continue this blog. So this is just a preview of coming attractions and a blog of confidence. I pray that any one who does read this blog will pray for me and my blog, that I may keep it up and share all that I have in store to share with whomever wishes to read my thoughts here.

Until tomorrow, in Christ, always,

Me (Matt Hudson)

Finally done with finals!!!

Only 2 more semesters to go, Summer and Fall, and I be gone, just to go right back. I like to call it the circle of school. I mean, what good is a philosophy degree with out a masters? We shall see.

Oh, well, I know that I had promised to post more often, but, well, I didn't. And for that I apologize.

Any who, back to Holy Week, and more specifically the Easter Vigil. Twas great, a thing of beauty. Incarnation was packed from wall to wall and it truely showed the need for the new sanctuary that is being built, and will be completed this summer, Thank God.

On to summer with me, I'm not sure when the next time I will be able to post will be, but I will do my best to keep up with everything.

Later Days

Just further proof that there is, in fact, a God!!!

Yes, brothers and sisters, He is back. And like Jesus before him he will rise from the dead and make beleivers out of nations. We are all graced for being able to see Him play and if all things go well on draft day, we will all be able to see Him hand off to DeAngello Williams, oh, what a world it would be.

Where to begin, well, why not Holy week?

Ok, Holy Week was busy, awesome, and the work was completely worth it. It all started at the Chrism Mass. This was the first Chrism Mass that I have been to and if there is one thing that I will never forget it is the freakin' ridiculously large amount of priests there. Of course this is the mass where the priests of the diocese give their obedience to the bishop, but it was still cool to see all those priests under the same roof. I was not only amazed at the number of priests that were there but the number of priests that I new that were there, I didn't realize that I got around Memphis as well as I did. The priest that stuck out the most was Fr. Robert Marshall. Fr. Marshall used to be the Associate Pastor at my Parish and I hadn't seen him since my senior year in high school and the last time we spoke he was under the impression that I was leaving Memphis for Cincinnati, and that was 4 years ago. Wow.

Another thing that stuck out in the mass was my friend Robbie, who is a seminarian, was the person in charge of carrying the HUGE OIL VAT off the alter. I couldn't help but pray to myself that he would not drop the vat, and alass he carried them successfully. Whew.

The next few posts will be catch up posts, because I'm soooo behind.

Thanks for reading, I'll try to keep you posted, Later days,

Matt

Yes, I have been quite lazy these past couple of weeks, I wish I could defend myself and say that I have been busy but that would not be the whole truth so I will say that I have been quite lazy in not posting.

Any who, please read on below and see what I have been doing when I was not being lazy these last few weeks.

Thank you much, please keep reading, and I promise I'll keep posting,

Matt Hudson

"We can't let our future become our past,
If we are to change the world,
Won't you tell me, tell me please,
How many miles must we march"
-- Ben Harper, "How Many Miles Must We March"

Another awesome day at the GAP presentation. Today, instead of trying to talk between the pro-abortionists and the GAP reps, I spent my time near the GAP presentation talking with those who came up to the barriers. I had several conversations with pro-lifers that liked the project and other pro-lifers that thought that the pictures were brutal. I tried to spend most of my time talking with those people that were either indifferent to the topic or those pro-abortionists that came over to either criticize the project or argue their point-of-view.

All in all I think that the project was successful because of the people that we spoke to either had a change of heart or they were left defending a broken position, only held up by their stubbornness. The only difficulty that I had was dealing with the statement "we'll have to agree to disagree." I don't particularity enjoy arguing with people but today it was different because I spoke my peace and they countered with their point-of-view and, in most cases, I showed the flaw in the their thought, and say that blasted phrase.

I could tell they knew what I was saying was right by their body language, whether it be a calming face or a once intuitive stare fall into a blank look of realization, but what they said totally went against what they were feeling, they either ended the conversation and walked away or said the phrase above, "we'll just have to agree to disagree."

This experience was great and if anybody gets a chance to go to one I strongly recommend it. Again, for more info go to http://www.abortionno.org, they also have pictures and movies about what they do.

Later days, all

"You must do the heaviest,

So many shall do none,
You have got to stand firm,

So many shall run"
-- Ben Harper, "Jah Work"

Wow, today was great. At the University of Memphis we had a Group visit the campus called GAP (Genocide Awareness Project). They setup pictures of aborted fetuses and compared abortion to the holocaust, American lynchings, Cambodian killing fields, 9/11 attacks, etc. The idea is to inspire dialog with students on both sides and to help show the atrocity that abortion really is. (For more info on the GAP go to http://www.abortionno.org)

I was there participating with the group and noticed that there were pro-abortion (not pro-choice) protesters and I was asked to go over there and invite them to speak with the GAP representatives, so being the guy that I am I did just that. When I got over there I spoke with a few of my Feminist Theory classmates and the leader of the group to talk with the GAP reps and they said that they could not go past the Blue Line. When I asked about the Blue Line they said it was the cops that were keeping the place safe.

So I went to the police and asked if they could allow the pro-abortionists to go over and speak with the GAP reps and they told me to speak to the Director of Communications Services Curt Guenther in the Admin Building, so I did. Mr. Guenther was cool and understood my feelings about the communication lines, but he was worried about the possibility of a violent outbreak, and he said that he gave both organizations a public forum to say what they wanted to say. He also said that he was not interested in getting the groups to communicate with one another, but to allow them each to present their side in public. It was here that I had an idea, I asked him what it would take to set up a debate where both sides would be represented and he gave me instructions to do so and I promptly got to work.

I went to both sides and asked if they would be interested in such a debate and they both obliged me. So I have some work to do to get this going. I ask that you pray for the organization of this debate and for the campus pro-life group I plan to start.

One final thing, my good buddy, who will remain nameless, forwarded me a newsletter via e-mail that was from the WAC (Women Action Coalition). It said that they plan to throw rotten tomatoes at the GAP reps and on top of that, my Feminist Theory teacher passed around the same newsletter and had a call to arms in the class saying that we should go over to the violent display and yell at them and throw rotten fruit at them to get our point across. And of course there was one SMART lady, dressed in jackboots, threw a tomato and was promptly grabbed by the police that were there, it was hysterical because she threw like a girl.

Any who, that is my info for today, tomorrow is the last day for the GAP presentation and I plan to be much more involved than I was today. If you are in the Memphis area and are interested in seeing the project in action the display will be there from 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. hope you enjoyed reading this and I will have much more tomorrow, later days.

"F-A-M-I-L-Y
Forget About Me I Love You"
-- Fr. Stan Fortuna

I never realized how good I had it. My family life has always been one of love and caring, my father was always there to be a father and my mother always there to be a mother. I may have lost both my grandfathers but I still have two amazing grandmothers to be there for me and my siblings.

I simply cannot immagine not having this structure built on love to make me the person that I am today, but don't be mistaken, I still have a lot to do to become what God made me to be.

I was teaching my Kindergarten P.R.E. class this sunday about how "Butterflies Are Good", and I turned the lesson into a teaching about baptism by comparing people who aren't baptized with the caterpillar and the people who are baptized with the butterfly. It worked quite masterfully if I may say so myself. I then went on to explain how we, those who are baptized, are adopted children of God and how we are in a spirtual family with all who are baptized and all the saints in heaven.

So, on that, I leave you with a kind farewell,

Forget About Me I Love You.

Your spirtual brother in Christ,

Matt Hudson

"What a Gulli-bull"
-- Bugs Bunny

I am giving my blog it's first retraction. I would first like to say that I am quite gullible, I still haven't seen it on written on the ceiling, but everyone tells me it's there. The information below about the pie-in-the-face, more importantly the pie in my face, was just a sarcastic mention that Derek made and kept it up for a the remainder of the night. Needless to say he convinced me, thus I made the post. I apologize to the person who reads this post. By the way thanks for reading, you are the man, or woman, whatever.

"God sets obvious limitations on our intelligence, but none what-so-ever on our stupidity"
-- Fr. John Corapi

Tonight, I found out that I was going to be the Youth Group representative for the pie throwing fundraiser we are having in my Parish.
Yes, me a lowly volunteer Adult Youth Minister, is going to have pies thrown at me for a nominal fee, it just makes you feel loved. Of course when they told me of the idea they didn't mention that I would be one of the targets. I backed the idea when the Youth Director, Derek (from Musings from Memphis fame), told me about it, he said that he would be the target representing the Youth Group, but as things turn out it will be me. Oh cursed day.

Tell you the truth I could care less, matter of fact I think it will be pretty fun to take pies for the team. And besides it goes towards the Youth Group going to Sydney, Australia in 2008 to see the Pope at World Youth Day. I've gone to two WYDs and loved every moment of each trip and can't wait to go to Sydney.

I don't know what this has to do with being Catholic besides being Catholic Rocks and Ben Harper ROCKS!!!
Today is awesome, I found out yesterday that my favorite singer was coming out with a new album today and after class I went and I bought it. It Freakin' Rocks.

Ben Harper put together an album similar to the Foo Fighters "In Your Honor" where the first disc is angry and yelling and ROCKING, where the second album is more mello and from the heart.

He has the most sweet lyrics and is quite possibly the most funkified person I have ever heard of.

Just like to send one more shout out to Ben Harper for being the GOAT (Greatest Of All Time)

Say, Say. How is everybody doing? This is my official first post, been working on my idea for quite some time and I finally got down, made this graphic, and here I am writing stuff.

I figured to give some Cradle Catholics a shout out. I've noticed most blogs that I have looked at, such as Musings from Memphis (http://musingsfrommemphis.blogspot.com/) and Musings of a Catholic Convert (http://http://shinwa4u.blogspot.com/), are made by Converts to Catholicism. Not to hate on any converts, you all are certainly Feakin' Sweet, but I would just like to give us Cradles a piece of the pie.

That's my M/O, hope you all (assuming that I won't be the only person looking at my blog) will enjoy my thoughts.

Thanks for coming out.