Author: The Secular Catholic (Page 1 of 9)

Do you want to learn about the Secular Franciscan Order

November 8, 2023 / / 0 Comments
St. Francis of Assisi with birds – watercolor painting by Gabi Kiss

What secular Franciscans do is bring life to the gospel and bring the gospel to life. It is different for every secular Franciscan.
A section of the National website says embrace the Gospel in the ordinary circumstances of their lives. And as I say it’s different for everyone with different skills, strengths and weaknesses. I am a real introvert so I am not the one to go out and speak to crowds. I am the quiet guy in the back helping where I can. But I can say that I have come out of my shell since becoming a Franciscan and a minister or president and especially since I have become a spiritual assistant.
I go to Franciscan gatherings and large meetings and I have known so many of the people there for almost a decade or even more it is where I go to talk to my friends.

I am a graphic designer so I help with our newsletter and also work to make another fraternity really come closer to to God. But if you are an extrovert you could get in groups to really talk about main messages of the order or even lead it. It is the Franciscans job to go out into the margins and help where others might not want to. Like me I don’t do it enough but I used to volunteer at a retirement home and I loved it and I live by example and not speech.

The secular Franciscan order does live by a rule and we don’t take vows we have a profession. The seculars are the people everywhere . We are your people at work that always seem happy or helpful. We are a people that believe Gods love is for everyone. And it’s our job to let everyone know that.

So what does it take to be a secular Franciscan? Formation and lot’s of it.
Almost three years of it. You will learn a lot about your faith and Saint Francis of Assisi’s faith and also you will learn about yourself and what you want and how you want to live you secular Franciscan life. Every secular Franciscan is different. And I believe that what makes the secular Franciscan order great.

Are you worthy of Gods love and mercy?

November 6, 2023 / / 0 Comments
bible that says you are loved

Yes, no, maybe? There are a lot of people that are running around worrying they are not worthy of Gods love and mercy. As a Secular Franciscan I know I don’t need to be worthy. Jesus makes me worthy. A very smart woman once told the world on national TV that Gods mercy is like an ocean and all your sins are just a drop in it. If you go to confession you will be forgiven. You are also don’t need to be worthy of Gods love. To me Gods love is like the sun. Sometimes it’s like a warm summer day with the sun out and I am just walking around singing walking on sunshine by Katrina and the waves. Sorry I know you hear it in your head now but that to me is when you really feel like God loves you. It’s tangible in multiple ways and sometimes I don’t feel Gods love and it’s like a cold winter night where I don’t see the sun or feel it’s warmth in me. I am in a cold and desolate area that I stay when I don’t feel the love. Sometimes it’s in between. But Gods love is there you just may not feel it or deem yourself worthy of it. The other way I think of Gods mercy is a waterfall with a damn on it. When it’s open you feel the love just flowing over you like your in the waterfall and others it’s like when the damn is closed and your lucky to get a trickle out.

Just know even when you don’t feel it, its’ there. It’s you that don’t think your worthy of it. But you don’t need to be Jesus made us worthy on the cross. Gods love and mercy is for all. No need to ask it’s just there.
So when your down just think I am loved more than I can ever think. God knows every hair on our head. He is always waiting for you . Knock and the door shall be opened. I think it’s time we all knocked on Gods door. Knock knock …

Changing the focus of the blog

October 23, 2023 / / 0 Comments
Tau Cross

This blog has been running since 2019 and It has been about being a Catholic, Franciscan about gaming , movies and TV.
It is now changing to be more about my Catholic and Franciscan journey.
I now am starting another blog with my friend about movies, tv, gaming and streaming. I am hoping to get a better schedule for this and my other blog. This has to be the priority thought. I want to write at least once a week if not twice and the same at my other blog. I can do it if I make it a priority over things that don’t matter as much. I might be doing some Catholic / Franciscan book reviews and such. See you soon and hopefully twice a week.

Disney Speedstorm

April 21, 2023 / / 0 Comments

There is a new game out now if you buy a founders edition. It will be out later in the year or early next year free to play. But the game is Disney Speedstorm and it is a interesting game. As soon as I downloaded and looked around I thought oh no it’s a typical free to play. Where they bleed you for money constantly. If you want to be good you need to pay for it and you do but you can earn it playing the game. There is also the typical season pass like any free to play game or now even some paid games. Then I started playing and it plays very well and smooth. I started out in the starters races and it guides you to different tracks and level ups and more. After every race or so you get a free loot box and if that is how it stay’s I will be fine. When I bought it there are three founders packs.

Me I went on the cheap and bought the standard edition for $30.00 dollars. Which gets me early access two golden pass credits, one players choice character unlock which I unlocked Baloo since I wanted to live out my rescue rangers and tail spin dream. I also received 4,000 tokens for what I think is for upgrades or new characters or something. After I started playing I really liked the game. It felt and played good.
After the first Mickey Mouse group of races Donald Duck unlocked and then I got him. It seemed like every race or two I got something in a loot box. Here is the thing if you want to play ranked multiplayer and want to have a chance at winning you need to pay for upgrades to you character and car and even the crew member you get. But if you want to just have fun and race you can play unranked multiplayer and everyone will be about the same level and such and you can just race and have fun. Or you can play with others on a track without many other people. Me I will stick to unranked and have fun unlocking things while playing. The game is so much fun to play. The way you drift is cool you get to a point your jet engine in the back gets full blue and you can get a bit of a speed boost, And like many other cart racers there are weapons and defensive things to pick up on the track and characters have specific things they can do. You can jump, boost and ride the rail when you see it. Fun game, easy to play and hard to put down but the shining stars of the game are it’s characters and tracks. The characters are from everywhere and time in Disney. From Mickey to Baloo and Mulan, Monsters Inc and Pirates of the Caribbean. The tracks are the same we have a Pirate track that is great and a track that in parts is black an white. Like I say fun to play. I have no wants to play ranked because I just like playing the game in single player and unranked.
I won’t make a full review till it comes out but maybe every season I will write a bit about it. Disney has made a real resurgence in gaming with Dream light Valley and Speedstorm. Here’s hoping the fun continues. And just for the two or three people that don’t know I am a huge fan of old Disney movies and shows. Some of the new stuff isn’t my jam but some is ok. Here’s to more fun gaming.

I have been a spiritual assistant for almost two years.

March 23, 2023 / / 0 Comments
Tau, wooden cross in shape of the letter t (religious symbol of St. Francis of Assisi) with rosary bead on an old Holy Bible

I graduated the spiritual assistant class on June 4th 2021. And am about to have my second anniversary in a few months at the event I was made a spiritual assistant. It has gone astonishingly quick. It just seems like a few months ago I graduated. I have been with the fraternity since that time and it has gone well and I really like the people but I feel I have not done enough or really anything.
I am working on a formation topic of our rule. I am planning to put together many things others have already done and making one hand out so we can go through the first rule or so. I need to make a plan and it’s coming soon. I have great people in the fraternity. We always have a big region wide retreat on the first week of June. We learn a lot and are given great formation and get togethers that weekend. I am a introvert and am not great with a big crowd of people but for some reason this is different. I really like getting together with this bunch of people. At the end I learned something and am refreshed and ready to take on the rest of the year. I tend to see the same people but the last couple years when we have a meal I go to a different table every time so I meet more people.

When I graduated I thought I would do some big things and make a difference. Now I am part of the group they say I have done a good job but I feel I have not earned my pay. I don’t know if that is just me or if it’s really true. But there are things I want to do. I just need to take time and put them to paper. But with work and my fifty mile one way commute and family it’s tough. I am single but my parents are not getting any younger and I try to spend time with them.
After my grandmother on my dads side died I really just felt bad for not spending more time with her. I went over there what I thought was a lot because I didn’t want to be a bother. Now I wish I was and just asked her a ton of questions about her life. I am trying to do that with my parents. Time is the one thing I had more of it but it seems like I waste so much of it. So now I have to get some time and just run trough the things I want to do. Here’s hoping it goes well and I get a lot done.

Disney Dreamlight Valley

September 13, 2022 / / 0 Comments

Hello All.
I have been playing Disney’s Dreamlight Valley this week and I am getting addicted to it.

I am a fan of the Animal Crossing games and this is a spin off of that, but with Disney characters. It’s on Xbox game pass now and so I downloaded it and really got into right away. The quests are fun and all the stuff to do is fun.
Right away in the valley you see a few characters or at least something about them. Merlin is the early character that gets you started and then Mickey, Scrooge Mc Duck and Goofy come in. Once you open the castle gates there are tons of doors. The first bunch are Moana, Ratatouille and Wal-E.
I picked Moana since they talked about Water and Gods. I thought it might be Little Mermaid since I am old school Disney fan I went with that. Moana is fun and I think Ursula may make an appearance.

You get a house right away and it’s small and you need to fix it up. But it can become great. You can gather, plant crops, fish, cooking and mining. You make money if you sell them. The more money you get you can unlock places in your valley, doors in the castle and buy things for you house and wardrobe.

This is a great casual game because I can play it for three hours or 5-10 minutes.
I had 10 minutes to spare this morning and I logged in and cleaned the valley up a bit and harvested crops. Tonight I plan on doing a little fishing and maybe going to the Moana world and quest the night away.

If you like Disney or like Animal Crossing type games this is the game for you and it’s in early preview now. It’s not finished and I don’t know when it will be.
There are some bugs and they are on the list to be fixed. But I’m having fun and that’s what gaming is all about.

New Rainbow Six Siege Season.

March 24, 2022 / / 0 Comments

The new season in Rainbow Six Siege has started. The new operator is fun. Azami is a two health two speed operator that has a cool area denial ability.
She throws what looks like a kunai and it makes like a big cement shield called the Kiba barrier. It’s bulletproof, but can be destroyed by hitting or blowing it up. She’s a great defensive operator and will prove to be fun. Let’s see how they nerf her.

It is so hard to believe that Siege has been around for seven years. And I just checked my Xbox achievement’s and I have played Siege for over 23 days of my life. Wow I was really addicted to this game when it came out and for about 4 years then after that I moved to other games but kept playing siege every once in awhile. I am back in the game and having a great time. I am old and my reflexes are shot so I am terrible at it but I still have so much fun. Once I play a bit more I will say more. Go and have fun and maybe I will see you out there.

My addiction.

February 8, 2022 / / 0 Comments
a quick view of one of the sections of my Minecraft realm.

Hello Everyone I am a Minecraft addict. Your probably thinking how do you become a addict to a building game. Well it’s easy, I have been playing Minecraft for almost a decade. And I love it, I played the PC Java version and ran my own server for me and my nephew and his friends. I also was a part of other servers like the one from the podcast Minecraft Me. Man I remember those days just building and looking at everyone else’s cool stuff they built. But I went into over drive when Covid started. From the very beginning of the pandemic and even a bit earlier I played on my Xbox one and had a good time. Now I play creative mode just to let out my creative side go. At my job I am a graphic designer but I work at a small mom and pop business. Like less than twenty people and everyone pitch’s in on fulfilling orders and when Covid started people started ordering like mad because they were stuck at home and wanted to build stuff.
It was so busy I would get very tired picking orders. I would get home around six pm because I had a fifty mile commute to work one way. And after I would eat I would be so tired I would just crash and watch TV or play videogames.
My favorite during the pandemic was Minecraft. it was low key and I got to build everything I always dreamed of. But this new map was to be different. I wanted to build a story into the map. So everything I built would have a reason and a story to it. I started on a medium sized island and after filling that I went to a small island or two and after that the main land. And the real work started.

After a few months it was so big I was worried about losing it, and my nephew and his friend wanted to start working on it So I created a realm and never looked back. The first island had a dock and a couple ships. After Ii filled the Islands and got to the main land I really cranked up the building.
Everyday after work and weekends were all about making things on my realm. And I backed it up once in awhile.
If you look at the first picture below the title it has a red brick building. It is my hotel. It’s three levels. It has a very long dock and a rail way to the hotel.
Level one has the bar, restaurant, offices, business center and so much more.
Second level are all rooms, the inside rooms are small and don’t have windows but the outer rooms are spacious and luxurious. The third and final floor are two penthouse multi room condo unites with their own staff. To the right of it is an airship and a hunting shack. To the right of that is a multi level home.

I am hoping to show you more and I am still building. The story of the map is half the fun. I will keep building and writing the story of the map. More updates and pictures to come.

Peacemaker

January 28, 2022 / / 0 Comments

Peacemaker tv show on HBO is a new DC superhero series.
After watching the new Suicide Squad on HBO I was hooked on this character.
This show is a combination of the Boys, Justice league and Guardian of the Galaxy. It is funny, violent and very comic book like. There are a lot of deep cuts from DC Comics on this show. Peacemaker himself is a bit of a deep cut. Like many of James Gunn’s movies the music is on point.

The Characters are great as are the actors that play them.

John Cena is really great in this show. Freddy Stroma is a great vigilante. When I heard the vigilante was on this show I thought it was the old west version.
Nope it’s the new version but a bit different than the comics.
They are the dynamic duo of this show and a hoot.
If I was in charge of DC I would give James Gunn a large dump truck of cash to keep making great series and movies for them.

The way he can take a comic book character who nobody knows anything about and make it a hit is amazing.
The rest of the cast is amazing. I figured that they wouldn’t be in it much but they are the team and they are great.
Danielle Brooks as Leota is good at being tough but also conflicted and not wanting to get to deep. Jennifer Holland as Harcourt is tough as they come and a great fighter. She takes Leota under her wing.
Chukwudi plays a great leader and I won’t ruin anything and spoil it.
Steve Agee might be the diamond in the rough I figured he would just be the computer geek of the group, but he is more. Annie Chang and Lochlyn Munro play a great buddy cop team. Nhut Le as Judomaster doesn’t have enough screen time but he’s fun to watch. But it is Robert Patrick who will make you hate him but also sometimes laugh at. When you watch please do me a favor and watch the song and dance intro in the beginning. Oh and Eagly for the win!
I will have a review of the show with spoilers after the last episode.

Xbox Series S

January 28, 2022 / / 0 Comments
Photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash

Two weeks before Christmas I went to update my Xbox one and it wouldn’t update. So I rebooted and after that it just turned itself off. I tried turning it on and nothing happened. Oh it might be the power brick. I had one die before and just went to Gamestop to buy a used one. that worked for a long time. So I went to Gamestop and bought another one. Got home plugged it in and still nothing.
So then I looked on line and it seemed like it might be a logic board or something.

So after Christmas I saved some money and after I came up with three hundred I looked for a new xbox series S. Well I quickly learned that it’s not a good time to buy a console right after Christmas. About mid January I noticed that Target had them right by my house. I zoomed right over and was told they are our but the Target five miles away has them. I never drove so fast and ran into the electronics department and asked if they had them. Yep there are three left.
Oh joy I almost danced right there. I bought it using my Target card and saved twenty dollars. Got home lickety split and plugged it in. Saw the wonderful Xbox logo and the message to go to the phone app to get it set up. There was even a handy dandy QR code to download it. I signed into the app and finished the setup. Took my five to ten minutes and I was ready to go. I already had a two terabyte hard drive with games on it from my old XBOX one.

Since I only had three hundred gigs of space on my internal ssd hard drive I download just a few of my favorites, and started downloading ones that were not on the drive. Thats when I learned even thought I bought the Xbox one version of a game It will update it to Xbox series S. So I downloaded Minecraft which was less than a gig of space and took just a few minutes to download.
and I was playing my realm while everything else downloaded or transferred to my internal drive. I learned fast that I have to be very careful on what games I put on the internal drive because I don’t have much space. I am having a ton of fun with my new Xbox and love how much faster the SSD is and the overall speed of the system. This isn’t a review, because that will be next but I am having so much fun. My next purchase will be the one gig Xbox drive but it isn’t cheap at $220.00. It will happen and after that I will get a external SSD drive.
If your own the edge of getting one or not. Get it and also get game pass ultimate and then you have a bunch of games to play when you want them.
I’ll keep having fun gaming and hopefully I will get the new internal drive soon.
More games more fun.

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