As mentioned earlier, I decided to drop GoDaddy as my domain registrar.  Little did I know they would spend three weeks throwing up every obstacle possible, re-locking my domain after I unlocked it for the transfer, and wasting as much time as possible effecting the change.  In the interim, they redirected my domain to a page covered with their ads.  I should have expected no better from such a filthy, worthless company.  To describe my feelings toward them with any more precision would run contrary to the spirit of this blog.

I went to a nearby parish for confession today.  In the windows of one hallway, posters were hanging on which First Communicants drew pictures and expressed why the reception of the Blessed Sacrament is important to them.  This one struck me particularly:

Day Four of the Tense FOCUS Waiting Period has come and gone without event.  I remain wary whenever my phone rings.

Anyway, I’m happy because I actually had a good idea for a Lenten practice.  Every day of Lent, I’m going to express a 10-second version of some element of the Gospel (whichever element the Spirit moves me to express) to a complete stranger.  It’s scary and novel to me, and therefore I like it and it’s not totally lame.  It’ll also give me some more to write about on the blog, so stay tuned.

The Veni Creator, as rendered in Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa’s Come, Creator Spirit (p. 5):

Come, Creator Spirit,
visit the minds of those who are yours;
fill with heavenly grace
the hearts that you have made.

You who are named the Paraclete,
gift of God most high,
living fountain, fire, love
and anointing for the soul.

You are sevenfold in your gifts,
you are finger of God’s right hand,
you, the Father’s solemn promise
putting words upon our lips.

Kindle a light in our senses,
pour love into our hearts,
infirmities of this body of ours
overcoming with strength secure.

The enemy drive from us away,
peace then give without delay;
with you as guide to lead the way
we avoid all cause of harm.

Grant we may know the Father through you,
and come to know the Son as well,
and may we always cling in faith
to you, the Spirit of them both.

Amen.

I blog live from Interview Weekend for the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS).

Let me explain.  FOCUS is an organization in which college graduates go on missions (two years minimum) to various universities and colleges around the country, and help college students transform their lives in Christ.  FOCUS has been at my college for three years, and I’ve been loosely involved in each one of them.  I’m about to graduate, so the local leader badgered me about applying to be a FOCUS missionary, just to go to their Interview Weekend and learn more.

So here’s the deal.  I love FOCUS.  I love their mission and everyone who’s involved with them.  They’re the best people in the world.  By all accounts so far, God has given me a lot of gifts that would make me a good missionary.  Interview Weekend has gone swimmingly for me.

The bothersome part is that I’ve never felt particularly called to FOCUS and I still don’t know if it’s God’s will for me.  I don’t know how I will know, either.

There are two scenarios here.  They will call me, and either they will offer me a job, or they will not.  If they don’t, well, good then.

If they do, then I have a really tough decision in front of me.  I don’t know how God will make His will known to me, but I do know I have to be sure in order to commit to it.  So if I do get an offer, I’ll need a lot of prayers.  Regardless, please pray for all the other applicants for guidance in their discernment.

“It is not true that everyone today — in general — is closed or indifferent to what our Christian faith teaches about man’s being and destiny.  It is not true that men in our time are turned only toward the things of this earth and have forgotten to look up to heaven.  There is no lack of narrow ideologies, it is true, or of persons who maintain them.  But in our time we find both great desires and base attitudes, heroism and cowardice, zeal and disenchantment — people who dream of a new world, more just and more human, and others who, discouraged perhaps by the failure of their youthful idealism, take refuge in the selfishness of seeking only their own security or remaining immersed in their errors.

“To all those men and women, wherever they may be, in their more exalted moments or in their crises and defeats, we have to bring the solemn and unequivocal message of St Peter in the days that followed Pentecost: Jesus is the cornerstone, the Redeemer, the hope of our lives.  ‘For there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved’ (Acts 4:12).”

– St. Josemaria Escriva, Christ Is Passing By, p. 132.  I read it in The Navarre Bible: Acts of the Apostles.

GoDaddy is a company that registers internet domain names.  I recall seeing their Super Bowl ad two years ago, in which a doddering old executive had a comical reaction to an attractive woman’s “wardrobe malfunction.”  I didn’t think much more of that ad; I remember it vaguely as crude but also humorous.  If GoDaddy ran ads in last year’s Super Bowl, I missed them because I was serving a homeless shelter with the high school youth group for which I volunteer.

This year, their ads jumped out to a much greater extent, as they made use of women in a much more blatant and offensive way.  GetReligion writes about it here, and if you really want to see the ads, I’m sure you can find them on YouTube.  There’s no excuse for these ads; they’re simply using sex to sell their product.

Well, at this point I’m embarrassed to say that this site’s domain is managed by GoDaddy, as is one other that I registered for another Catholic project.  A moment ago I called their customer support line to speak to sales.  I wanted to tell them that because of those ads, I will not renew my domains or in any other way do business with GoDaddy again.  The support rep sounded a bit startled.  She told me she’s sorry to hear how I felt, and added that she’s a woman and the company treats her just fine.  I explained that it’s a matter of what the company presents to the public - advertising that way is a choice they make, and unless they publicly apologize and never do it again, I’m going to take my business elsewhere.  She apologized again and offered to send me a customer survey, which I will fill out to the same effect.

The sad thing is, I doubt the issue of morality or even propriety ever came up in whatever meetings produced their ads.  I rather think they were excited to land an endorsement of sorts by Danica Patrick.  I don’t expect that their new sales nor current customers will significantly decline out of negative reaction to the ads.  But I hope that any other Christians with domains registered there will also cancel, tell GoDaddy why, and pray for mercy for our painfully lost culture.

Can I conscientiously object to paying federal taxes?  Or do I have to stop making money?

(Neither one seems particularly good, especially since I work for the federal government.)

While pondering an imminent mission God has given me.

Lord, take away my fear of the unknown, not by making it known, but by increasing my trust in you.

“If you knew yourself, Christian soul, how you would treasure and esteem yourself!  If you but knew yourself, O saintly soul, loved and dwelt in by God, honored and admired by the Angels!  Oh, if you but knew yourself, lovely paradise of your Creator, splendid tabernacle of the Holy Trinity, beautiful bridal chamber of the heavenly King!  If you but knew yourself, golden ark of the covenant, not of the Old, but of the New Covenant, altar of the Divine Majesty, treasury of the gifts of the Holy Ghost, temple of the living throne of the Divinity, broad Heaven in which glitter resplendently, not material stars but rather the Divine Persons!  If you knew yourself, daughter of the Father, sister of the Son, bride of the Holy Ghost, associate and companion of the whole Blessed Trinity! If you only knew yourself, how highly you would prize yourself, not because of what you are of yourself, but because of the dignity that grace brings to you!  How you would hold in honor yourself and grace, and guard against its loss!”

– Fr. Matthias J. Scheeben, The Glories of Divine Grace, pp. 81-82.

I can’t phrase it better.  I try to give this message (though usually more subtly) to everyone I possibly can.  I think part of the good news of redemption from sin is not only “Don’t sin, because God or others deserve better,” but also “Don’t sin, because you deserve better.”

Maybe it doesn’t connect with everyone, but whenever I have a moment in which I more fully realize the dignity I have because of God’s love for me, it sets my heart on fire.