14 Tips for Going Away to College

Well, it's that time of year again. Those “kids” are all grown up and taking that next big step out into the world – college. And many of them will be leaving home for the first time to go away to school and take on the challenge all by themselves. Here are some tips to help them adjust:

1. Decide the kind of person you want to be before you go, and stick to it. You have to stand for something or you’ll fall for anything. Of course you need to go with an open mind and be willing to learn and try new things, but do it without compromising your ethics, morals, or your dignity. Remember, if you aren't shaping the world, it’s shaping you.


2. Make friends that have the same values as you do, even if that means not settling for the first group of friends you meet. In new situations, we often cling to the first group of people that notice us - don't. Get to know people that are different than you, but make sure the people you build friendships with are people who share your values and will make you a better person.


3. Schedule your classes early. Or at least have something in the morning that you need to be awake for most days of the week. Otherwise, it is likely that you will be up late every night wasting time - or finding trouble. Don't spend these valuable years of your life sleeping in. There's nothing wrong with staying up late every once in awhile and hanging out with friends, but have a routine that gets you up in the morning.


4. Get regularly involved with at least one, good Catholic organization. It is very beneficial to have an activity during the week - besides mass on Sundays - where we interact with other Catholics. It keeps us grounded in our faith, gives us an automatic support group of people with the same values, and motivates us to learn or think about our faith in a new way during the week.


5. Don’t believe that everyone has pre-marital sex and that it’s no big deal as long as you’re a “good” person. It still is a big deal, contrary to popular opinion. There has been no repeal on this commandment from God – it is a very serious sin. What has happened is that we are a weak culture who has enabled each other to believe that it is “OK.” That's not an excuse. Trust God. And if you are struggling with this, learn more about your faith, and check out John Paul II's “Theology of the Body.” It will really open your eyes and give you a better understanding and strength to persevere.


6. Get involved. Join a club and run for an office. If there isn’t a club you are interested in, start one of your own! This is a very unique time in your life to take on new challenges, meet new people, and better yourself. Once you graduate, opportunities like that get more difficult because our focus becomes our work, family and children (depending on your vocation of course). Take advantage of this time. It also helps build character and other skills useful for after you graduate.


7. Call your parents and your best friend at least once a week - if not more. It’s easy for the whole “out of sight, out of mind” thing to kick in when you get busy and caught up in your new life in college. Don’t forget about your family - they are an important foundation in every stage of life. Keep them updated with all of the things you are involved with and include them as much as possible – even if you don’t feel like it sometimes.


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Writing on Helium

Hello all, I just wanted to let you know about a pretty neat website called http://www.helium.com/. I just found it this last week and found it to be, at the very least, entertaining and interesting. So I signed up.

Basically, you can write articles on a huge variety of topics and submit them into their rating system on the website. Once on the website, your article "competes" with other articles written under the same heading by the votes of readers. So naturally the better articles on the topic rise to the top. Now of course the Truth doesn't always rise to the top, but such is democracy.

Anyway, it's a great way to practice writing (my main purpose for doing it) and then to see what kind of approval you get from readers and peers on the topic by the way your article gets ranked.

Helium also shares some of its profits with you in that a portion of the money that they earn from advertisements on pages with your articles on them gets paid back to you. So it's a way to perhaps earn some extra money. Although, I wouldn't be quittin' your day job yet. It's a small amount of money (and of course depends on the number of articles you have on there), but still fun none-the-less.

Here is my page so far with a few artciles I've submitted on there for fun. http://www.helium.com/user/show/283906

Check it out if you get the chance! And if you're interested in joining Helium to write for fun, let me know and I will formally invite you and we can link up on there.

But the Greatest of These is...

So often non-Catholics get caught up on the Catholic Church’s doctrine of salvation by faith and works. Most protestant denominations believe in salvation Sola Fide, or by faith alone. However, not only is this principle of salvation by faith alone not found in scripture anywhere, it is actually contradictory to scripture. Further, it would seem to me to also be very contradictory to reason as well.This has been debated on a scripture verse-by-verse basis plenty of times in the past. I don’t want to recount that entire argument here, but, instead, hopefully get the reader to look at the issue from a little different perspective. It’s easy to take a scripture passage out of context and make it seem to say something that it really doesn’t say. Scripture always and everywhere must be taken in its entire context – not just the context of the paragraph, or the chapter, or the book, or even the entirety of scripture – but in it’s place in salvation history as the Word of God, the entire deposit of Faith, and natural law. In other words, how does it fit into all that is Truth, whether divinely or naturally revealed?However, even just looking at scripture by itself as a whole, the written Word of God, the overwhelming message from God is very clear: Jesus redeemed every one of our sins, at no cost to us. There is nothing we can do to earn it. However, God doesn’t force it on us, but always respects our free will. We must accept this gift of salvation. In other words, it requires a response on our part. And what response does it ask of us? Catholics would say that this response is to be one of faith and works. Protestants would say that it requires a response of faith alone. What does scripture say? .......

Read the full article at Catholic Outpost. Click here: http://catholicoutpost.com/site.php?view=column_archive.php&writer_id=1&column_id=5

Great Online Bible Resource

Just wanted to share one of my favorite online websites. It is one of my favorites simply because it is the full bible put online and is well organized with a search feature too. It has good comments when appropriate as well.

The link is http://www.drbo.org/ . It is the Douay-Rheims translation of the bible which is basically the Latin Vulgate put into english. That makes the language in it just about as accurate as you can get in english.

Also, this version of the bible includes the entire bible and is not missing books from it like most non-catholic bibles are. There are a lot of great protestant bible websites and online resources out there, but unfortunately they are missing the deutero-canonical books and parts of Esther and Daniel (books that have been included in bibles and regarded by the Christian Church as inspired scripture since Jesus' time. They were only actually totally removed from any bible in the past couple hundred years. This is why many non-catholics are either un-aware that their version of the bible is actually missing original, inspired books or misinformed as to why it is that way.)

Another good bible link is here: http://www.nccbuscc.org/nab/bible/. It is the New American Bible which is also a good translation but does not have a scripture search feature, which is often handy. Have a great day!