Katheryn Hudson a.k.a Katy Perry

I love seeing where people came from, why people do what they do and act like they do. Everyone loves a good story right? Well here is a quick Bio about a girl named Katheryn and how she came to be known as the (in)famous Katy Perry.... buckle your seat belts cause its quite the tale.


Katheryn Hudson, originally from Santa Barbara moved to Nashville with her parents when they got a recording contract to put out a GOSPEL ALBUM! Katy Hudson put out her first album at 16 in 2001... it was a Christian Pop Album! It didn't go too well and in 2008 she ditched her Christian fan base and moved onto Capital Records changed her name to Katy Perry (she didn't want to be confused with the actress) put up a bunch of pin up photos and her big debut song "I kissed a girl"... she continues her fame and later puts out a new album with "California Gurls" and "Teenage Dream" etc...

Blah Blah Blah... My point is this, Fame and Spotlight can destroy a person. It can make them loose their morals and can turn you against yourself for the sake of vanity. Brothers and sisters, I fear too many of our neighbors are dying to be recognized, long to be on the spotlight... and they are willing to drop all morals and respect to do so (see image below, haha, partial joke, but not really).














This biography is just a friendly reminder, you can grow up Christian, you can even put out a Christian Album, but Satan will offer you anything you want if you are willing to submit to the world.I am in no way judging her, just using her as an example of how the Devil can use those on the right path and flip around their desires. Whether or not she goes to Church every Sunday or whatever, her music and appearance speaks for itself.

Information taken from:

http://www.people.com/people/katy_perry/biography

"Where Have all the Good (Wo)Men Gone?"

Jennifer Fulwiler answers .....

Twitter, Facebook, iPhones, and Life

I picked up the latest TIME magazine in the teacher's lounge today at school and sat down to stare at the incredibly unattractive cover which sported a schnazzy title: "2045: The Year Man Becomes Immortal." Yikes. I wenton to read the entire article, which focused on the "Singularity movement" or how eventually computers and humans would "become one." Sing - gu-lar-i-ty: n: The moment when technological change becomes so rapid and profound, it represents a rupture in the fabric of human history.

Hmmm.

I flipped a few more pages and turned to the "Life" section of TIME, which included an article titled "Wired for Distraction? Like it or not, social media are reprogramming our children's brains. . ."

And then, in "Money" there was one that introduced Starbucks' plan to allow customers to use a bar-code app on their phones to buy coffee in 6,800 of its stores.

Now, you might be asking what all of these articles have to do with each other, and you're probably scratching your head wondering even more so what this has to do with chastity for gosh sakes, but hang tight here.

Slowly, over the past year or so, I've been becoming more and more aware of the way that technology seems to be affecting my life, the lives of the people I hang out with, my relationships, my students, my job, and my life in general. And it's caused me to stop and wonder if the change has been a completely positive one.

Pope Benedict recently came out with a message regarding the use of social media, saying that the time had come to "urgently demand a serious examination of the significance of communication in the digital age." What was widely noted was the fact that the Pope encouraged the use of social media as an evangelization tool. On the flip side, however, I've found myself reflecting on the world of craziness that is twitter, facebook, Androids and iphones, and wondering to what extent these modes of communication have done good, and to what extent they've done some harm.

The "Wired for Distraction?" article that I mentioned earlier pointed out that researchers have found that on average a child spends 7 hours and 38 min. a day using entertainment media, and - if you add in texting - they are logging almost 11 total of hours of media usage a day. That's a lot - a lot - of media.

The author, Dalton Conley, says that children today spend so much time with the media that "The result could be that we pay more attention to environmental stimuli - Hey, another text! - at the expense of focus." He goes to say that he, for one, is concerned with the effect that "24/7 connectivity" has on his 11 year-old son. "School-lunchroom behavior - gossipy whispers, competition for attention, etc. - now goes on around the clock. There's no downtime, no alone for him to develop his sense of self." The article ends with "Hence my 9:30 rule, which falls into that age-old parenting category: Do as I say, not as I do."

The "24/7 connectivity" doesn't just stop with children or teenagers, as Conley admits at the close of his article. If I were to take a look at my life, I think I would probably find myself in the "24/7" media world. But do I want it to be that way? I don't.

We live in a blackberry-driven, iphone-loving, and texting-obsessed era. And while these modes of communication certainly aren't bad, and in fact do much good (as the Pope pointed out), they can also begin to change our daily interactions and affect our relationships. This past weekend my roommate and I spent ten hours in the car driving to and from a conference together, and it was then I realized that it had been a really long time since I had had a long, uninterrupted conversation with a person without having to compete with that person's cell phone. At times it can seem that facebook, twitter, texting etc. create a "parallel world" that can overshadow the things, opportunities, and most importantly the people that have been placed into our lives at that moment. John Paul II points out, "The human being is single, unique, and unrepeatable, someone thought of and chosen from eternity, someone called and identified by name" and a gift that has been given to us as a "task" and a "responsibility." Simply put, each person deserves our respect and attention before the text that we've just received, the email that's just come in, or the latest post on facebook. A culture of life is one that truly places the human person and his value first in our lives, and our personal witness to this is vital in creating and nurturing authentic relationships in our day-to-day lives. Obviously I'm not advocating that we throw out our cell phones or cancel our texting plans, but just to challenge ourselves to perhaps take a closer look at the way that we use modern technology in the details of our everyday lives and to use them well for the service of others.

New Website for JP2's Beatification!

There is now an official website for JP2's beatification....check it out: www.karol-wojtyla.org.

"Chastity is a difficult, long term matter; one must wait patiently for it to bear fruit, for the happiness of loving kindness which it must bring. But at the same time, chastity is the sure way to happiness."

- Pope John Paul II

"Deep within yourself, listen to your conscience which calls you to be pure . . . a home is not warmed by the fire of pleasure which burns quickly like a pile of withered grass. Passing encounters are only a caricature of love; they injure hearts and mock God's plan."

- Pope John Paul II

"[God] has assigned as a duty to every man the dignity of every woman."

- Pope John Paul II

"No Strings Attached" vs. Love and Responsibility

This week I watched the trailer for "No Strings Attached," which hits theaters on January 21st. The tag line pretty much describes the whole movie: "Can best friends be sex friends?" From what I could see from the trailer, it seems to be a perfect example of the "casual sex" and "friends with benefits" attitude that is so prevalent in our culture right now.

"Do you want to use each other at all hours of the day and night?"

"I'm okay with that."

"Good."

How did sex divorce itself from love and become nothing more than just an "activity" that you do, and how has friendship become nothing more than two separate individuals in it simply for what they can get out of it?

A few years back, my senior year in college, I signed up for a one-credit, weekend-long class over Valentine's Day. The topic was "Love and Responsibility," a book by Karol Wojtyla, the future John Paul II. Since then, I don't think that anything else has impacted my life as much as the ideas that are contained in this book, nor I have I found a better way to fight back against the culture of "meaningless sex."

First is an understanding of friendship. A "friends with benefits" culture holds that friendship is nothing more than getting enjoyment for yourself from someone, whether that be sex, money, a date to hang out with on a Friday night, or just the feeling of knowing someone is there for you. The focus is on yourself. John Paul II, on the other hand, says that friendship occurs when two people "recognize a good and adopt it...when this happens, a special bond is established between me and this other person: the bond of a common good and a common aim," and from this "We begin to discern love, to catch a preliminary glimpse of it....love is unthinkable between two people without some common good to bind them together." (LR p. 28) Friendship is the beginning of love, a love that does not seek to use each other for enjoyment, but a love that looks outward to something that is true, good, and beautiful to discover together.

The second is the idea of what authentic love really is. And although I doubt I have even begun to honestly understand John Paul II's thoughts on this subject, the little that I do amazes me. The first thing that strikes me is that love, while it involves feelings or emotions, is primarily in the will. Love is a decision, a commitment, and a choice - a choice to love someone because of who they are and the value that they have as a human person. Sex is an expression and outflow of that commitment and decision. Ultimately, love results in a giving of oneself, a receiving of the other, and finding one's existence in another person. And because love is a decision and a choice,

"Love in human relationships is not something ready-made" (LR. p. 29) or, as Alice von Hildebrand also writes, "Although love is a gift, it must also be learned."

Ultimately, "friends with benefits" or "casual sex" bring no satisfaction. We were made from Love for real love and won't be fulfilled until we live it:

"Man cannot live without love. He remains a being that incomprehensible for himself, his life is senseless, if love is not revealed to him, if he does not experience it and make it his own, if he does not participate intimately in it. " - Redemptor Hominis

"Gestational Carriers"?

This week Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban announced the December 28th birth of Faith Margaret, born by a paid surrogate mother - the "gestational carrier." This is becoming a fairly popular option, particiarly for those who either can't have children, or perhaps simply don't want to go through a pregnancy themselves. This area can often be difficult to understand, so check out a few quick Catechism references to see the problem with "gestational carriers":

"Techniques that entail the dissociation of husband and wife, by the intrusion of a person other than the couple (donation of sperm or ovum, surrogate uterus), are gravely immoral. These techniques (heterologous artificial insemination and fertilization) infringe the child's right to be born of a father and mother known to him and bound to each other by marriage. They betray the spouses' "right to become a father and a mother only through each other." (CCC 2376)

"They dissociate the sexual act from the procreative act. The act which brings the child into existence is no longer an act by which two persons give themselves to one another, but one that "entrusts the life and identity of the embryo into the power of doctors and biologists and establishes the domination of technology over the origin and destiny of the human person. Such a relationship of domination is in itself contrary to the dignity and equality that must be common to parents and children." (CCC 2377)

"A child is not something owed to one, but is a gift. The "supreme gift of marriage" is a human person. A child may not be considered a piece of property, an idea to which an alleged "right to a child" would lead." (CCC 2378)

Physical Urges

As humans, we have a lot of "urges", especially physically. We deny physical urges all the time, when we see that "Big Mac" poster and say "no!" or the skyline 3-way stacked with cheese so high and say "not today!", when you are taking a test and know the smart kid next to you has the answer and as much as you want to peek over, you don't. These little things you do every day are actually practicing the awesome virtue of SELF MASTERY! When someone says something to you or does something to you that makes you want to rip their head off, but you just smile and walk away... self mastery... when your parent asks you to set the dinner table when you are on an important phone call or about to beat "black-ops" and instead of yelling at your parent, you say "yes mom"... self mastery...

Self mastery is amazing, it not only makes you feel very proud of yourself afterwords, but it almost seems to defy physical nature itself. Let me explain, in the animal kingdom there is a chain of animals, and if a wolf walks in to a lion den, the wolf won't come out, or if a tuna swims through shark territory, it will become a sandwich (sorry to be so graphic!)












My point is that when we practice the virtue of self mastery we are amazed at ourselves because we are doing something that no other creature in the world can do, we are pushing aside our personal urges, our physical urges, for the greater glory of GOD! Brothers and sisters, we are using our God given ability to REASON! using our reason to better our friends, family and our self is part of the whole point of why God gave this gift to us!

So why am i bringing this up on a chastity blog instead of some philosophical "Socrates anonymous" site? because our body has physical and sexual desires and very often we argue in our brains that "i just cant control my urges", "well, if my body wants to do it, it can't be wrong" "It just seems like the right thing to do"... You know what, honking at the slow poke in front of me while i drive seems like the right thing to do (but practicing patience and self control is better)... Telling my baby to change her own diaper sounds good (but it teaches me to be loving, self sacrificing and to be a loving father)... When I am taking a math test and my brain feels like its turning to mush and i want to go take a jog around the classroom to refresh my mind, I don't do it! (...mostly cause i don't want to be made fun of and get sent to the principals office for... whatever it is!) <--- Joke, haha, laugh!
The point i want to make is simply this, that even though our body has urges that sometimes we question if we can even control, I want you to remember that God has given us the amazing ability to reason and practice self mastery and in practicing these great virtues daily and recognizing that you are doing it, will make you a stronger man/woman of God and be able to say "no" to the bigger urges, the anger explosions and more relevantly in the sexual situations.

God Bless you all and stay strong and remember that the difference between a Saint and a sinner is that the Saint got up one more time!