A good friend and I often text each other about parish functions and she occasionally includes a colored heart emoji within her text. A couple months ago she responded to a text of mine and it included a blue heart emoji. I couldn’t remember ever getting any message with anything but a red heart emoji so I wondered, “why blue?” I did an internet search on what the different colored emojis mean and, whoa!, I wasn’t prepared for what I found.
The first site I went to indicated that a blue heart alluded to a desire for BDSM (bondage, discipline, sadism, masochism). I won’t even mention what the other colors signified. Then I realized I was looking at a site devoted strictly to sexual connotations. (Don’t get any ideas, we are both happily married to our own spouses!) Continuing on to two other sites, I read where blue indicates trust, confidence and loyalty. Phew, that sounded much better!
In perusing the various sites I found that each color has a general, but not universal, loosely accepted meaning. For example: Green might mean jealousy; Purple, sensitivity; Yellow, happiness; and, of course, Red universally means true love; but there are no consistently recognized conventions for each color.
Well if that’s the case, I thought, why can’t I devise an emoji color scheme for Catholics? It might catch on or at least keep my good friend out of trouble.
The heart symbol is synonymous with a feeling of love for something. In our faith, we know that love means more than just a feeling, and love takes a different form depending on the object of our love. To begin, we can fall back on the four types of love expressed by the Greeks: Eros, or Romantic love; Storge, or Familial love; Philia, or Friendship; and Agape, Unselfish love for mankind (enemies included) because they are simply children of God.
Let’s start with Eros, romantic, passionate love. No question about it, it has to be red.The love we have for our family ought to be green. It’s fresh and fun and is always growing.I like what others say about blue – a friend is loyal, someone in whom you have confidence, someone you can trust.Yellow should be for Agape love – warm and caring for our fellow humans, and a love that desires the other’s good.Orange makes me think of autumn leaves, pumpkins, and Thanksgiving. This heart should be used to express love and gratitude to someone for the gifts they bring, especially to show your gratitude for how God has worked in your life.Purple is the color of the priest’s vestments worn during reconciliation and so this heart has to be used to express forgiveness from one person to another.In Catholic tradition, the fourth Sunday of Lent is called Laetare Sunday, or Joyful Sunday, and rose colored vestments are worn. Thus, the pink, or rose, colored heart ought to be used to express joy.And to wrap things up, the black heart needs to be used to express sorrow for another’s loss.
What do you think? We need some morality and consistency among Christians when using emojis. We can’t just attach any color emoji to a text or social media post without making it mean something. And, when the uninformed (the rest of the world) questions why you used a color that they think means something different, you can correct them and even use it as an opportunity to evangelize!
Share this with everyone you know. Let’s get the word out and take back the internet! Can I get an “Amen”?
(Heart Emoji Colors for Catholics was first published on the blog Reflections of a Lay Catholic)
I’ve been settling into my new office in our parish center and trying to make it functional for my use. My computer and phone are conveniently located, files are arranged in the file cabinet, and books are in the bookcase. I have a crucifix and a cast figure of the Blessed Mother holding the child Jesus hanging on the walls, and I hope to get some pictures hung soon. Finally, I’ve adorned it with a couple house plants to make things look more inviting.
My wife has exclusive ownership of a ‘green thumb’ in our family and I had to ask her advice for how often to water the plants. She told me in a not so endearing tone of voice, “If the soil feels dry, water it!” From experience, I know that if you pour water on the soil from the top, it often comes out the hole in the bottom of the pot and makes a mess on whatever surface it’s sitting. So, my master gardener better-half gave me a shallow plastic tray in which to set the potted plants and then told me to fill the tray with water. She said the soil in the pot would soak up the water through the hole in the bottom of the pot.
The other morning, when I checked, the soil was somewhere between dry and parched. It needed a drink. I heeded her advice, filled the tray with water, and set the pot in it.
I then went about my business of sketching out a plan of how to create an evangelizing culture in our parish, to wit: how to develop a more welcoming and hospitable community where people will intentionally build relationships with each other; how to grow an attitude of charity towards “neighbors”; and how to encourage people to not be afraid to share their faith with others.
After an hour or so, I noticed that the half inch of water I’d poured into the tray had disappeared. Just as I was told, the soil had soaked it up. I envisioned the water molecules defying gravity as they flowed upwards, saturating the soil. I thought about how thirsty that plant must have been.
Then it struck me – plants aren’t the only thing that thirst for water, we humans do, too. Except, our thirst is for the Living Water (Jn 4:10). We may not understand it, but our souls yearn for it. Our deepest desire, and the only true way of living a spiritually healthy life, is to seek God, the one in Whom we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28). It is God Incarnate, Jesus, that sustains our life.
I had omitted from my notes the most crucial element about a culture of evangelization – a deep relationship with our Lord. Without it, evangelizing amounts to a worthless attempt. If the ultimate reason for evangelizing anyone is to bring them into a relationship with Christ, we are hypocrites if we try to evangelize without having our own personal relationship with Jesus. How can we lead someone to a place which we haven’t been ourselves?
What is a deep and loving relationship with Christ? Well, what makes up a deep and loving relationship with anyone? Basically, it’s friendship. The essence of friendship is spending time with each other, getting to know each other, having enlightening conversations, and loving and wanting the other’s good. Friendship with Jesus is really no different. We do that through prayer.
Us Catholics are good at Vocal prayer, that is, prayers of petition, thanksgiving, intercession and praise (CCC2700-04). And, we’re good at rote prayers that have been memorized and recited since childhood. But, there are two other expressions of prayer that are mostly overlooked – Meditation, or Mental prayer (CCC 2705-08), and Contemplation (CCC 2709-19). Vocal prayer is talking to God. Meditation, on the other hand, is using our God-given intellect and imagination in seeking to understand what God is asking of us. Meditation is often accomplished by reading Sacred Scripture, especially the Gospels, reading about the lives of the saints, and other spiritual writing.
Contemplation takes meditation one step further. St. Teresa of Avila said, “Contemplation is nothing else than a close sharing between friends; it means taking time frequently to be alone with Him Who we know loves us.” During this time of Contemplative prayer, we draw very close to Jesus; we tell Him what’s on our minds and we listen to Him telling us how we can grow closer to Him by becoming more virtuous disciples, spouses, parents, children, and friends.
If you are a married person, you know how important it is to listen to your spouse. A relationship in which one person does all the talking but never listens is doomed for failure. In Meditation and Contemplation, we quiet our minds and relish just being with Him, ready to respond to whatever He says.
Meditation and Contemplation is immersing ourselves into the font of Living Water. It is soaking up His Word and seeing how we can follow Him more nearly and love Him more dearly. It is this Living Water we desire to drink. But, have you ever tried talking and drinking at the same time? It doesn’t work very well.
The Woman at the Well – Carl Heinrich Bloch
St. Photina, the biblical woman at the well, listened to Jesus tell her about her life. She drank of the Living Water. Then she hurried back to her Samaritan village, spread the Good News, and evangelized the entire town.
Evangelization involves many things. True evangelization begins with having a deep friendship with Jesus and a desire to introduce others to Him, your closest friend.
Spend at least thirty minutes a day quietly immersed and soaking in the presence of our Lord. Tell Him what’s on your mind and then listen for a response. When you hear His inspiration, resolve to act on it that day. Then repeat. Unlike the plants in my office, we need watering every day.
“Loving Lord, help us to draw closer to You by spending time with You, the One we love. Send us Your Spirit to open our hearts and minds to Your Word, and inspire us to act with virtue in carrying out Your will. Help us remove the shades from our lamps, the hang-ups we have in spreading the Good News. Amen.”
(Prayer and Potted Plants was first published on the blog Reflections of a Lay Catholic)
Sunday night I posted Road Trip Reflections: Technology and Time Zones in which I mentioned I’d spent the weekend helping my daughter, Grace, relocate from Memphis to Nashville, Tennessee. It was a busy weekend with lots of strenuous physical activity, lifting furniture and heavy boxes. It was also tiring from the mental awareness required for driving almost 1,200 miles. By the time I got home I was exhausted.
As tiring as it was, I have to say it was one of the most pleasurable and fulfilling three days I’ve spent in a long time. It was an opportunity to spend valuable time with Grace. For the most part, it was just she and I working side by side, spending eight hours together in my truck, and sharing meals and life for a couple of days. We talked and I got a glimpse or two of what’s on her mind, what her concerns are, and what makes her happy. Even when we weren’t working or in conversation, it was nice just to be in her presence.
Grace is the youngest of our four daughters. The others are all married with children. None of them live close to us and consequently we seldom get to see them or our grandchildren. When we are able to get together, the days are centered around the grandkids, leaving little time to simply reconnect with my daughters. I love my grandchildren dearly, but I do miss quality time and good conversation with their parents.
There is a certain loneliness that goes along with being a parent once all the kids have flown from the nest and are living their own adult lives. While my head tells me it’s the way it should be, my heart still desires that closeness.
This morning, as I entered into my daily prayer and meditation, I invited the Holy Spirit to open my mind and heart to the Word of God, and I placed myself in His presence. As always, I could sense Him asking me to open up and share with Him what’s on my mind and heart. In that moment, I felt His extreme love for me, a beloved son. It was a love that I could relate to, much deeper, I’m sure, but akin to the love I feel for my own children and the desire to spend time with them. God wants to spend time with me. He wants to know what is on my mind, what are my struggles, what makes me happy (am I happy?), and how He can help me.
In light of my weekend with Grace, I thought how God must long for those similar experiences with us when we get to spend time together. And, I thought how sad and lonely it must be when we are too busy to spend time with Him in prayer.
God gave His only Beloved Son, Jesus, so that we would know His love for us and find unity with Him. Jesus reflected that love from the crucifix when He uttered, “I thirst”.
God thirsts for your love. Love Him by spending time with Him in prayer and daily meditation.
“Heavenly Father, I love You. And, as an adult father, I know Your love for me. I thank You for the grace to spend time with You each morning in prayer, for the conversations we have, for your gentle promptings when I need help. But, I know, too, that the world I live in gets in the way sometimes, keeping me away from You. I pray for Your understanding. Amen.”
(A Father’s Love was first published on the blog Reflections of a Lay Catholic)
A month ago I posted Jesus, The Spiritual Roadmap in which I accused younger folks of not knowing what a road atlas or accordion-fold highway road map looks like because they simply plug in an address on their cell phone GPS, hit start and go where the cute voice tells them to go. Well, today, the hand that had one finger pointing and poking fun at their dependence on technology had three fingers pointing back at me.
I spent Friday and Saturday helping my daughter relocate to Nashville, Tennessee, from Memphis, hauling her furniture and other belongings to her new residence. Then, this morning I left Nashville to drive home to Ohio.
Before leaving her house, I checked the app MassTimes.org to see if there was a church nearby where I could attend mass before getting on the road. Today is the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity and I didn’t want to miss mass. All of the nearby Catholic churches had mass times at 7:00, 8:30 and 11:00 a.m. It was currently 9:10 a.m., so I decided to not wait until an 11:00 a.m. mass, thinking I’d find a convenient one somewhere between there and home.
Around Bowling Green, Kentucky I checked the app again and found no convenient masses near there. I checked Elizabethtown, Kentucky and, Aha!, I found one just eight miles from Elizabethtown. St. John the Baptist Catholic Church advertised an 11:30 a.m. mass. The app lets you get directions to the churches so I tapped on that and discovered I could get there about ten minutes early. Perfect!
I took the exit off of I-65 just as the cute little voice told me to do. I made several turns and with each one I seemed to be getting further into rural Kentucky. Eventually, the GPS told me I had reached my destination. I stopped on the narrow country road and looked to the right where “she” told me the church was. Miraculously, St. John the Baptist Catholic Church had either disappeared or became transfigured into a nice pasture of healthy looking angus cattle.
I drove another mile down the road and turned around. Coming back, the voice told me my destination was on the left. Still nothing but cattle. I went on down the road a couple miles to a convenience store/gas station and pulled in. I put in the actual address of St. John the Baptist Church and, lo and behold, it was about four miles further down the road. I concluded that somehow someone loaded the wrong X:Y coordinates of the church in the mapping program.
I thought, if I hurried I might be able to make it before the Gospel reading. It was then that I noticed the time on my phone said 12:31 p.m. And that’s when it hit me: the time zone line between Eastern and Central time runs along the western and southern borders of Hardin County in which Elizabethtown sits. St. John the Baptist Catholic Church was just inside the eastern time zone line…and mass was just ending!
I couldn’t help but laugh at the situation. I’d added at least a half hour to the day’s drive time and now, once I got home, I’d have to drive another half hour each way to St. Mary’s for 6:00 p.m. mass. I thought, okay, if that’s what God wants me to do, then that’s what I’ll do.
Before putting my truck in drive I checked my fuel gauge and saw that I was nearing empty. That’s when I noticed the price of gas at the station where I was parked was $2.99 per gallon…40 to 50 cents per gallon cheaper than any prices I’d seen along the interstate. My truck has a 32 gallon tank. I chuckled when I thought how divine providence may have just rewarded my unsuccessful effort to attend mass by saving me $15.00 on a fill-up.
“Heavenly Father, once again my plan was not Your plan. You had a better one that resulted in me not only saving money at the gas pump, but by allowing me to attend a beautiful mass where I ran into a friend who needed to talk to me about some matters. You saved us a phone call. Thank you for Your providence! Amen.”
(Roadtrip Reflections: Technology and Time Zones was first published on the blog Reflections of a Lay Catholic)
Reflections of a Lay Catholic 