"She was going to give this baby every chance she could . . . "

Speaking of sacrifice and love, this is a beautiful story that just came out of a young woman with cancer who chose to sacrifice her own life in the hope that her unborn baby would be given a chance to live. Her baby "baby Jessi" was delivered by C-section at 23 1/2 weeks, weighing in at 1 lb 3 oz. Doctors say that she is doing well.

I was really struck by her husband's perspective - what a great amount of love and sacrifice it must have taken on his part, as well.

He recently blogged "A Note about Questioning God" and ends it with:

"Those who are hurting, be comforted. God knows that we are dust. God gave us emotions, and He knows that life is full of pain. He hears our questions; He collects our tears; He felt our pain as He became sin for us on the cross. He does not turn up his nose to our questions. True, He may not answer our questions directly, but He does not despise us for them. In the end, my Friends, all we can do is put our hands over our mouths and worship and trust Him with our lives. God is good all the time."

Suffering and Love

It's Holy Week! Hands down one of the most amazing weeks of the year. This year I'm staying "home" here in Cincinnati and am getting pretty excited to experience Holy Week at my parish, and all of the Cincinnati traditions that come along with Holy Week and Easter.

So, it's been a little while since I've blogged. But I knew right away what I wanted to talk about: suffering and love.

I think a lot of the time we have a somewhat skewed vision of what love honestly is. When I ask someone in "In Control" what love is about nineteen times out of twenty someone will respond "it's a really strong feeling when you really care about someone." That's not bad, but we're missing something important: love isn't just about feelings. Love is a choice, a decision to put someone else above yourself. Or, in other words, it's about sacrifice.

I was reading an amazing book this week called I Believe in Love, and in this book there is an awesome thought: "What is a love that does not prove itself? I told you that love is a choice. What merit is there in choosing Jesus if we only have to follow Him on a path of roses? How would we know if it was He or the roses on the pathway which we were following?" Love proves itself in suffering. I think Holy Week is a great time to reflect on this. What is my attitude towards the Cross? What is authentic love? It is not simply the roses, but the suffering, too.

"See, I will not forget you. I have carved you in the palm of my hand." ~ Isaiah 49:15.

Goodness Reigns ~ Beauty

Check it out! This video clip comes from Goodness Reigns, a short film contest for teens/young adults on the Catholic faith and what makes it so awesome. The contest runs from April 1 - May 1, 2011 and the winner will receive $1,000 in cash. There are tons of topics in these videos (confession, the sacraments etc.) but here's one that focuses on authentic beauty from the inside out. "Remember, take care of your body and your soul because I am in your heart."

The short biography of Ke$ha

Kesha Rose Sebert was Born in 1987 and is currently a pop singer and pop icon recognized as Ke$ha. She was not always the seductive, foul lyriced girl she is today, here is a short biography.


Kesha lived with her older brother and mother in Los Angeles, CA and her mom was a struggling songwriter that was rather unsuccessful. The family lived off welfare and food stamps, on her website she says "One of my first memories is my mom telling me, 'If you want something, just take it.'" When Kesha was 4, she moved to Nashville with her family, where her mother landed a songwriting contract.

Kesha went to music school and spent a lot of time with her mother in recording studios singing and making demos being very inspired by country music (wouldn't of guessed that one, huh!?) Kesha dropped out of high school at 17 to pursue her music career and moved back to Los Angeles and changed her name to "Ke$ha". She started out by being back up vocalist for Brittney Spears and Paris Hilton (both wonderful influences for a 17 yr old drop out... NOT!)

How did she make it BIG, then? She dropped an unpaid cameo in Flo Rida's hit song "Right Round" (Possibly the gnarliest and dirtiest song of that year) She then got a record contract with RCA and began pumping out her first album "Animal".












Ke$ha's lyrics are very dirty and trashy and there is nothing more sad than walking into a 6th grade class and asking the kids who they listen to and all of the girls yell out "Ke$ha!" Biography.com has a documented conversation about her fans and her suggested lyrics. "I'm not a babysitter," the singer says. "It's their parents' responsibility to take care of them." For Ke$ha, her life provides much of the inspiration for her songs. "I'll go out with my friends and get rowdy . . . I'm not sorry, and I will write about it."
The album, "Animal" reached the top of the billboard charts after its release in 2010. In addition to "Tik Tok," Ke$ha has even more big hit singles "Blah Blah Blah" and "Your Love Is My Drug."

Rocky, why are you writing about Ke$ha? Look, the reason i am putting putting out biographies on pop icons is because we all need to realize that first off, these people are normal human beings, they get sad, money does not make them happy, they are not God, they should not be your idol and they all are fake for the cameras and to be "famous/infamous".

When you live on welfare and move around with your mom growing up in recording studios, it is hard to not want to be a famous singer to make your parent proud. As a high school drop out looking for a way to survive, when you come along and start hanging with super rich Britney and Paris, you are going to be influenced. Have we not had most of our bad influences come from older "friends"?! You want to fit in, be cool, be like them. Way to go Ke$ha, you are just like them and now thousands of middle school girls want to be just like you, seductive, trashy, drunk and no respect for your sexuality or your beautiful soul.


Info found at:
http://www.biography.com/articles/Kesha-562676

The Latest Stats Say. . .

. . . That most teens are abstinent. The CDC released a study recently that confirms that the majority of teens are not having sex.

The stats:

• 68% of boys and 67% of girls between the ages of 15 and 17 have never had sexual intercourse

These numbers are up from 2002, which said that 46% of boys and 49% of girls had never engaged in sexual activity.

You can read the full report here.

"Women We Love" Bares Lingerie, Not Souls

"It distracts us from the truth and scatters our power. It's one big acid trip fantasy with no connection to improving our lives, being good fathers and husbands and advancing our careers." Tom Matlock at the Huffington Post posted an interesting article recently that caught my eye. . . "Esquire's Women Bare Lingerie, Not Souls." His response to Esquire's popular "The Women We Love" feature challenges men to consider the dangers of lust, masturbation, and porn and to ask, "What is it that we love about these women? Their twirling-banana-swing fantasies? Their factory-fresh "breasts"? Their naughty smiles? Are those things truly what men at their best love about women?"

Dove Campaign for Real Beauty