Because the “Little Flower” Enchanted the Chinese “Legal Eagle”

April 24, 2014 By Frank Weathers

I introduced readers to my Catholic friend, John C.H. Wu, a long time ago. What prompted John, a distinguished jurist, and drafter of the democratic constitution of the Republic of China (back when it was mainland China), to swim the Tiber? Truthfully, I should have said “who” prompted him, not “what.” Blame it all on Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, “the Little Flower.” It is all her fault that my new friend John became a Catholic.

Around the year 1917, when he was 18 years old, John had made the first leap towards Rome when he became a Methodist, in Shanghai mind you. (more…)

During the Papal Interregnum, It’s Time To Embrace the Reality of Mystery

March 1, 2013 By Frank Weathers

A very long time ago (or so it seems from my end), every title of the posts in this space were ledes to an exposition upon the statement “Why I Am Catholic.” The titles themselves were basically one line answers to the statement all in themselves. I can’t promise that they will always be like that from now on. But nowadays I do find I yearn to return to this practice. It is something that I believe I am called to do. (more…)

Because of Thomas Merton, OCSO (January 31, 1915 – December 10, 1968)

December 10, 2012 By Frank Weathers

This is part VII of my conversion story, tagged as 2BFrank in the Tag Cloud. I run it every year on this day to commemorate the death of Thomas Merton, who was also known as Father Louis.

Yes, I am well aware that he is not a canonized saint, but the salient point about Fr. Louis’ life is not whether he was a good Catholic, or a bad Catholic. The main thing isn’t even that his writings helped bring me into the Church. (more…)

Conversion Story

August 28, 2012 By Frank Weathers

Rembrandts-The-Return-of-the-Prodigal-Son1 — Rembrandt’s *The Return of the Prodigal Son*

How did I become a Catholic? Long story…

To Be Frank, Part 1, From the US Marines to the Harvard Classics

To Be Frank, Part 2, A Change of Course Thanks to Blaise Pascal

To Be Frank, Part 3, “What the Blazes, Blaise?!”

To Be Frank, Part 4, From Pascal to the Mother of All Projects

To Be Frank, Part 5, “The Imitation of Christ”

To Be Frank, Part 6, “The Imitation of Christ” II

To Be Frank, Part 7, Because of Thomas Merton, OCSO

And the on-going story of my conversion continues in the Conversion Story file. There’s also the 2BFrank tag, and the rest of the blog.

Blog Roll, Links, and Cool Stuff

August 28, 2012 By Frank Weathers

Patheos Catholic Channel Bloggers

Barbara Nicolosi

Blog Roll

Cool Links

Search the Bible: Resources

There are several good on-line resources for this. I have found these resources to be helpful.

Douay-Rheims Catholic Bible

Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition

USSCB Revised New American Bible

For help finding a particular verse: Biblos and Bible Gateway

Subject Tags

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How to Approach Christ in the Eucharist (A Few Words for Wednesday)

March 28, 2012 By Frank Weathers

The Eucharist has been on my mind lately. This evening at our parish, my wife and I finished a six week long reading and discussion of Brant Pitre’s, Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist. What a delight and a treasure trove of knowledge that book is. I’ll share more on what I learned soon, as the thoughts that Dr. Pitre shared from the history of the Exodus to the Last Supper needs to be known by all Christians.

But it’s Wednesday, and late, and I’ve been too busy to post lately. As such, I’ll share a quick post on how to approach Christ in the Eucharist, courtesy of my friend Thomas à Kempis. He’s one of the fellows that helped bring me into the Church. Prior to my call to conversion, I had never even heard of the word until I met my wife. When I learned of its meaning, and who it is (or who Catholics thought it was) I was incredulous. Eighteen years later I woke up, thanks to Blaise Pascal and à Kempis. (more…)

A Few Thoughts on the Political Dimension And Some Homework

December 15, 2011 By Frank Weathers

The gospel precept of charity enlightens Christians as to the deepest meaning of political life.

Lately, I’ve been “working out my salvation with fear and trembling.” I’ve also been exploring the task of a Catholic layman in the political order. As I said in a previous post, politics generally isn’t my bag. It takes a lot of time, and basically leaves me unfulfilled. Surely I’m not alone in this regard. (more…)

Because of the Protestant Reformers Beliefs On Mary

August 5, 2011 By Frank Weathers

Another Marian post as we are ten days from the Feast of the Assumption. This one was first published back in December of last year.

Back when I first joined YIMCatholic, I was going to write posts about my conversion. I hammered out seven posts in pretty rapid succession and then, I stopped writing them until recently.

Many of my posts now are simply my observations of the world which are colored through the lens of a convert to Catholicism. It would be difficult for them not to be. Other posts I’ve written are of the “look what I just found!” variety, and the “I want to share this with you” type. Call them the discovery posts if you will. (more…)

Because Martin Luther Threw This Out of the Bible?!

April 8, 2011 By Frank Weathers

I’ve written a little bit in the past about how it was that I came to be a Catholic. Everyone knows Catholics are born and not made, right? That’s what I used to think too.

But when I started looking into the matter, I skipped the opinions of the literati and of “those who know best” and just started reading the books of the Bible that had been removed by Martin Luther and his brethren during the Protestant Reformation.

Amazingly prophetic stuff like this for instance,

Wisdom 2: 1a, 12-22

The wicked said among themselves,
thinking not aright:
“Let us beset the just one, because he is obnoxious to us;
he sets himself against our doings,
Reproaches us for transgressions of the law
and charges us with violations of our training.
He professes to have knowledge of God
and styles himself a child of the LORD.
To us he is the censure of our thoughts;
merely to see him is a hardship for us,
Because his life is not like that of others,
and different are his ways.
He judges us debased;
he holds aloof from our paths as from things impure.
He calls blest the destiny of the just
and boasts that God is his Father.
Let us see whether his words be true;
let us find out what will happen to him.
For if the just one be the son of God, he will defend him
and deliver him from the hand of his foes.
With revilement and torture let us put him to the test
that we may have proof of his gentleness
and try his patience.
Let us condemn him to a shameful death;
for according to his own words, God will take care of him.”
These were their thoughts, but they erred;
for their wickedness blinded them,
and they knew not the hidden counsels of God;
neither did they count on a recompense of holiness
nor discern the innocent souls’ reward.

****

Why was this removed from my Bible? Search me. Because that prophecy has been fulfilled. As someone who is much smarter than me said recently, “the Bible is not a book, it’s a Library. And this is key to interpreting Scripture.”

And as I’ve said before, unless you have the complete, unabridged copy of the Bible, your engine is missing a few parts. And I don’t care how smart one guy thinks he is, you don’t mess with the Word!

Because of Francisco De Osuna and a Minor Miracle

December 12, 2010 By Frank Weathers

Third Sunday of Advent,

Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

During the Summer of 2007 I read an awful lot of books that led me to join my parish RCIA program in the Fall of that same year. I’ve written about most of my reading program in earlier posts in this series, and I continued reading great Catholic books once my RCIA class started too.

For example, I read Mirabai Starrs’ translation of The Book of My Life by St. Teresa of Avila. It is a fascinating book about prayer by a fascinating woman. By reading Big Terry’s book, I discovered the work of another obscure author I had never heard of who had a big impact on this Doctor of the Church and on me. Here is what St. Teresa says on page 20 of her book that peaked my interest,

On the way to my sister’s village, we stopped in to see my Uncle Pedro. He gave me a copy of The Third Spiritual Alphabet by Francisco de Osuna. This is a book all about the Prayer of Recollection. In the past year, I had realized what harm my appetite for romance novels had done to my soul, and I had begun to develop a tremendous appreciation for spiritual books. Since I did not know a thing about the practice of contemplative prayer, or how to go about recollecting my senses and my thoughts, I was thrilled to find a book that told me exactly what to do.

I remember thinking to myself, I don’t know what St. Teresa is talking about (contemplative prayer? What’s that?), but if she liked de Osuna’s book enough to give it such a ringing endorsement, then I need to get a copy of it too, post haste! (more…)