Blessed Sacrifice

A shining quality of manhood is sacrifice.
It is not about you being served. It is about you being a servant of God.
You priests pour yourselves out for those entrusted to your care.
You husbands, if you are worthy of such a title, are living out a life of
sacrifice for your wife and children.

You teens take note - I do not know what example you've been given,
but either way you can learn. If your biological father does not know how to BE a father, you can still learn what not to do.

I think of my own dad holding down two jobs while taking evening college courses.
Oh, and did I mention that at the same time, this father of 12 children was virtually rebuilding our
house from the inside - electric, plumbing, drywall... AND still he had time to lull us to sleep playing piano
as we drifted off to dreamland? Good job Dad.

And I whine at times because our little family seems to be on a merry-go-round as we travel
the country to wake sleepy catholics.

I'm thankful for the example and am sorry for those of you who did not have a father to learn this from.
Sacrifice is part of authentic manhood. Get used to it. Be open to it. Don't shy away from hardship.

At the same time watch out that you don't become a work-a-holic as it tends to make you unapproachable - and your so called 'work' may be an excuse to get out of fathering.

Mentoring, listening, praying, encouraging, challenging, guiding, teaching, correcting... a man is called to be many things, do many things, and endure many things for the sake of his children.

NFL AD committee Super WHIMPS

Yes, I posted a picture of one of the deadly sins: Sloth. Laziness. Apathy. I know why God says in the scriptures: "How I wish you were hot or cold, but because you are lukewarm, I want to spit you out of my mouth." (Paraphrased)

Today is the Superbowl. SUPER? Their ad committee people are nothing but Super WHIMPS.
Here is part of an email I got this week from CatholicVote.org:

NBC has slammed the door on running our ad during the Super Bowl!

Watch the ad by clicking here

After several days of negotiations, a representative in Chicago told us that NBC and the NFL are not interested in advertisements involving ‘political candidates or issues.’

...But NBC’s rejection is calling even more attention to the ad. We have been appearing on radio programs across the country for the past two days, and NBC’s New York affiliate (imagine the irony), is covering the controversy. Bill O’Reilly of the FOX News Channel featured the ad on his program Wednesday night calling it “brilliant” and “genius.” His show alone reached nearly 4 million people.

All of this is driving more traffic to the commercial online. We reached almost 1 million online views in less than two weeks!

So why did NBC reject the ad? The network claims that they do not allow political or issue advocacy advertisements during the Super Bowl, but that’s simply not true.

The network was willing to air an ad by PETA, which is definitely an advocacy group, if PETA would tone down their ad’s sexual suggestiveness. Also, the first ad scheduled to run during the Super Bowl is a creative spot about Pedigree’s pet adoption drive. The ad ends with the line: “Help us help dogs.”

In recent years, some Super Bowl advertisements have caused controversy. But there’s nothing objectionable about our positive, life-affirming advertisement. We show a beautiful ultrasound, something NBC’s parent company GE has done for years. We don’t attack Barack Obama, but focus on him becoming the first African-American President. We simply ask people to imagine the potential of each human life.

What now?

We’re not intimidated by NBC. We plan on getting this ad out so that many millions of Americans can imagine the potential of each human life. Here are some things you can do:

We are preparing a virtual protest of NBC’s decision. We want other networks to know that hundreds of thousands of people want to see this ad aired, and we will not give up easily. Stay tuned for our plan on this in the next few days.
The Catholic television station EWTN will be airing the commercial before, during and after the Super Bowl. Feel free to turn your channel to EWTN during halftime and watch our ad there.
You can still share the commercial with friends and family. Tell them to go to CatholicVote.org and watch the ad NBC doesn’t want them to see! Heck, show it at your Super Bowl party!
We’ve been humbled by the donations we’ve received to help get this ad out. We are especially grateful to the group of very generous benefactors that agreed to help if we got air time for the Super Bowl.

We aren’t certain they will still help, but we will use any funds we receive from you and others to air the ad in the most prominent and cost-effective venues available.

Perhaps the ad should run during the Academy Awards or maybe American Idol, which is popular with the youth. Maybe we should run it following President Obama’s first State of the Union address?

If you have ideas, tell us what you think.


Brian Burch
CatholicVote.org


I hope those planning to watch the Superbowl today are disturbed by the absence of this simple, beautiful, powerful ad that might have inspired a whole bunch of folks to think about their unborn children as worthy of protection. I hope a number of you men DO SOMETHING to draw attention to this absurdity.

You can speak up, write a letter, call, complain, create an uproar of some kind... OR you can shrug, drink a beer, and try to feel noble about how the NFL is helping a group help dogs instead of unborn children. Pass the chips, please....