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The Real Solution &#0151 How to Help Our Kids Succeed

Written by

Charles Colson

in

It's an argument that has gone on almost as long as we have had public schools: What makes children succeed in school — and what makes them fail?

In a recent New York Times column, David Brooks offers a big part of the answer: If kids have a chaotic home life, he writes, it is much harder for them to succeed in school.

Brooks mentions programs in which mature women visit mothers under stress to offer "the sort of cajoling and practical wisdom that in other times would have been delivered by grandmothers or elders." If we want better students, Brooks concludes, the government ought to fund more of these programs. The next president, he suggested, could win on such a platform.

I admire David Brooks, but he is dead wrong on this. He is addressing symptoms, not the sickness: The sickness is broken and unformed families.

Instead of relying on a government program to fix families after they break, wouldn't it be better to keep families from breaking in the first place? Wouldn't it be better to find ways to encourage parents to marry before having children, instead of telling them — as our cultural elites often do — that marriage does not matter?

Second, when it comes to families, government itself is often the problem, promoting policies destructive to families. For example, courts that force states to accept same-sex "marriage" are redefining true marriage out of existence. That's not good for kids.

And many studies have shown that kids do best in married, two-parent families. Yet some states now force adoption agencies to send kids into the homes of homosexual couples.

No-fault divorce laws allow one parent to abandon the family with impunity. Welfare programs provide support for moms so long as they do not get married to their child's father.

Even worse, our political leaders do not support programs that would mean the most to help kids — including kids from healthy families — who languish in bad public schools. If they really cared about kids, they would support school choice — allowing kids to move from failing public schools into private ones.

Sometimes we forget that, often, the best solutions do not involve the government at all.

A story in the Wall Street Journal this week revealed that one 16-year-old South Carolina boy is not waiting for "the government." Last summer, Rontrell Matthews walked into Capers Preparatory Christian Academy in a poor rural community with terrible public schools. Rontrell held out a check for $32.86 — his first paycheck from his after-school job. If they would let him in, Rontrell promised, he would give them every paycheck from then on.

Rontrell — who is willing to literally work his way out of a bad public school — is now excelling at Capers. God bless him and the school that was willing to take him in.

The story made me wonder: What if more kids were willing to do this — to simply abandon bad public schools and work their way into good ones?

So sure — let's helped stressed-out moms form healthier attachments to their kids, as David Brooks proposes. But better for politicians to work to prevent problems from forming in the first place.

And we should celebrate when kids like Rontrell Matthews find their own solutions — solutions that show that individual ingenuity always trumps the best government program.

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    Destroyed Marriages Lead to Murder

     

    By Donald F Hudzinski

     

     

     

    Here we are talking about school shootings, judges, street violence, and a general break down of culture. This all happens because Catholic do not understand the basics of their marriage. We have far to many fallen marriages and far to few restore ones.

     

    Two Types of Marriage

     

    Fallen marriages come from the fall of Adam and Eve. These marriages base their existence on Satan’s lie to Adam and Eve, that is that they can be like Gods, but more importantly Adam and Eve no longer trusted God. The results of this was a distrust of each other. But this was only the beginning for this lead to Cain killing Abel.

     

    Restored marriages began with the Incarnation which came to the marriage of Joseph and Mary, restoring marriage as to its beginning.

     

    What we have done to marriage is made a sport of it. We have place men on one team and women on the other. Then what do we do we select cheerleaders, that is socialist and psychiatrist, who write books and articles to cheer on their team. That is what Satan did with Adam and Eve. It is his game and he is the coach and manger of each team. The results of the contest is the bad and good fruit of Eve, Cain and Abel.

     

    God has a different plan for marriage. As a parents at birth, you bare a new creation in Christ. Parents who love Christ’s presence set an example for their children, who seeing the love their parents have for Christ become Christ like themselves. This cycle repeats itself when they become parents. We call this restored marriage, and it was first accomplished with the Incarnation.

     

    What a contrast to the fallen game of marriage played out in our culture. A culture who enjoys Satan’s game plan over God’s.

     

    The media promotes for their benefit Satan’s plan making their news, a sporting event. We are a culture who likes our sports.

     

    What do the people say that are tangled in this web, we can not help it, we are educated, we are elite. Satanic education as an excuse, just does make it in my eyes.

     

     

    What is contraception

     

    Chapter three of the book of Genesis is a story of guards. The first guard was Adam, who failed to protect the trees in the middle of the garden. The tree Adam failed to protect was Eve, who bore the fruit of Cain and Abel, the tree of good and evil.

    Now, it does appear that since the old guard, Adam failed, a new guard was assigned to guard the tree of everlasting life, that is Mary, whose fruit was Jesus.

    This position of guard became the position of high priest, an office first held by Adam, whose replacement was St Joseph, who was replaced by Jesus, who is high priest forever. In the book of Genesis, we see the assignment of the new High Priest, made by Jesus, the Real Presence in the garden.

    Now that we have setup the story, we can read John Paul the Greats exhortation "Guardian of the Redeemer".

    Why is this so important, because men's role in marriage is that of the guardian of the tree of life, a position they have failed at for some time. This is best said in the words of God, "And blessed is the fruit of the womb", but men of this day would rather curse this fruit.

    Contraception say unto men, "You need not be a guardian, you can be a thief in the night".

    Women say, "We have a chemical guardian now, so forget your role and become a thief". But does not this thievery lead to the pedophile? Does it not lead us to the homosexual? Does it not lead to violence? It most certainly does, read Genesis chapter four.

    Does not this lead us back to the fall. There is something better than you, it is I and it is I that will be in control. Now the question become which I, since it is no longer God. Is this why God's name is I am?

    It appears that it was not God who walked away, but Adam and Eve and each wanted control, that leads to chapter four of Genesis, and murder. Why murder, because marriage is better defined as it was in the beginning with God in control.

    The purpose of intimacy is to make a new creation in Christ. the Real Presence in the garden. That is why the love of the Real Presence is so important by both of the spouses, it points the way to this new creation in Christ and the beginning.

    What does Satan do? He destroys God's creation.

     

     

    Divorce, Oh, What have You Done

     

    Can any see how the sundering of Matrimony – the Sacrament, and of two-become-one united together in and by vows, and joined-together by God – in divorce per-staged all this before any could really see the horrors which have resulted? E.g., i.e., wasn’t depreciating and belittling the terrible results of divorce on children just a bit of ‘aborting’ the children, after all, by smothering their agonized cries and shocked voices?

    Think of it – the one, sole Sacrament behind love of two in this Sacrament of Matrimony ,
    love of family , love of baby and baby-making/raising , having elderly grandparents to lovingly care-take rather than shelve or 'put-to-sleep' – indeed, at the heart of civilization –
    is trivialized as regularly as rain, for centuries now in legalized (and most especially in 'no-fault', which would be better termed 'both-fault') divorce.

    Simply . . . if we can 'terminate' and 'abort' Mommums and Daddums at their life-giving Sacrament, why not Baby-ums at or before he breathes in life?
    If the Sacrament of Matrimony can be ended, why not contra-conceiving and/or aborting and/or infanticiding the fruits of what-would-be, in God-and-life-ordered morality, of the Sacrament of Matrimony?

     

     

    The Two Covenants

     

    There are only two sacraments which are considered covenants. They are Marriage and Eucharist. This is no mistake, it is because the two are one. This is why I proposed to my wife with the words, “Blessed are you amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, for it shall bear my children.”.

     

    Each and every Mass is an annunciation, a proposal brought forth by Jesus through the priest. The priest overshadows the gifts of bread and wine via the Holy Spirit just like the Angel Gabriel said unto Mary, “The Holy Spirit shall come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.”. This is why the bread and the wine become the Real Presence. We should be just like Mary and say “How can this be?”, and then say “Be it done unto me according to your word.”. Paul said that we become a New Creation in Christ, and so it is that we are born again at each and every Mass. You can see this when the priest places his hands over the gifts and says, “Come Holy Spirit over these gifts of bread and wine”.

     

    When we were Baptized, we were espoused to Christ, the Bridegroom and now He consummates our relationship at each and every Mass for we are the bride of Christ. The husband and wife also consummate there relationship and that act is explained to us at each and every Mass by the actions of the priest, the bridegroom, and his bride, the congregation. This is why marriage is Holy and why the two are one. The husband and wife are a walking, talking Eucharist because Christ and His Eucharist is our first marriage and the bridge we walk to enter into our domestic marriages. We will never understand marriage until we understand Christ and His Eucharist.

     

    After the consecration of the bread and wine, the priest will divide the large Host in two, displays it and saying “ This is the Lamb of God”. This division of the Body of Christ is the sign of the covenant. Therefore it is important to understand what a covenant is. A covenant is a ancient rite in which two tribe entered into a binding relationship. The sign of the covenant was the division of a two year old heifer into two halves. Now the tribes would separate into two bodies, one body to the left and one to the right watching as their leaders pass between the two halves, entering into covenant. The two leaders agreed that if any member of their tribe would disobey the terms of the covenant, that that leader would be divide just like the two year old heifer was divided. This is why covenants must be taken seriously. In covenant the two tribes became one tribe. Another term for this is family.

     

    Notice that in the marriage ceremony the tribes are divided into two, one to the left and the other body to the right. This establishes the covenantal relationship described above. Notice also that the married couple walk between the two tribes attending the ceremony to establish the covenant of marriage. Thus they say “Until death do us part”. This only reflect the seriousness of the covenant the couple just entered into.

     

    These two covenants should be taken seriously. The couples in marriage and the Eucharist are bound together by God. As the first Adam said “Bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh”. Just like the Eucharist though divided came from one Host, the couple though divided, husband and wife, are one family.

     

    This is why covenants are a firm sign of unity, and why the church is called the Body of Christ. A family can not survive without the truth, not our church family nor our domestic families. Speak it, look at it, live it, do not be afraid of the truth.

     

    Seeking A Joyful Marriage

     

    We do not recognize the significance of the marital bond, the one flesh union. This union was so one, that the guardianship of Adam and Eve was one, with the Real Presence in the garden. This is why we find Joseph and Mary seeking the Real Presence for three days in Jerusalem and finding Him in the temple. This is why Joseph is the new Adam because he did what the first Adam was suppose to do and that was guard the Real Presence. Joseph and Mary seek the Lord because they understood Him to be the Real Presence, the same Presence we find strolling in the garden in the evening with Adam and Eve.

     

    The Incarnation is the reestablishment of the original intent of marriage, that is “Thy will be done“, for Christ said, “I have come to do My Father will“. It shows marriage in its true purpose, guardianship of the Real Presence. This intent was destroyed when Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the tree of good and evil.

     

    We can see now that every man is to become a new Adam, and why Joseph sets the example of guardianship and passed that example on to his Son. This is the key to a successful marriages, a husband and wife seeking out the Real Presence. This is the source of a joyful marriage.

     

    This all comes forth from the words of God given to the first Adam, “ to guard and till the garden”. Adam was to guard the will of the Real Presence, who said “Do not eat of the tree in the middle of the garden”. Love is fostered by obedience.

     

    You can either follow the path of the first Adam and Eve, who showed disregard for the Real Presence or the path of Joseph and Mary and seek out the Real Presence in the garden. In the first case we have described a dysfunctional marriage and in the second a functional one. In the first they debate as to which one is the true God, Adam or Eve, and the second God is the Real Presence. Remember what Satan said “You will be like God”, so Adam and Eve attempt to be just that God, and so do we if we do not seek out the Real Presence. Another way of put this is that the love of a man for a woman is not enough to accomplish a marital bond, it requires the grace of God.

     

    Our culture would call this the battle of the sexes, but how does it come about by remove God from the marriage formula. The culture wants to remove God from everything. Science has said no mysteries, and no God for God is mystery, but so is man to the woman. The mystery of man to the woman drives science up a wall, because if this mystery exist then, just maybe so does the mystery of God. Disprove one mystery, and the other goes away.

     

    So the culture wars are nothing new but the oldest game in town, for it started with the very first temptation in the garden. Lust was born the day of the fall when Adam and Eve, said “My will be done”, instead of “Thy will be done”. Thus Satan fathered lust.

     

    The Real Presence is Jesus who is Creator and the Giver of life. The One who gives the gift of creation, that is why He is male, for the male is the giver of the gift of life, just like God who is the Creator and the giver of all life.

     

    Lust is to remove the Real Presence. My will be done finds its means in divorce, contraception, sterilization, abortion and homosexuality. These are lustful acts void of “Thy will be done”.

     

    One last point we are not guardians of the Real Presence because He needs our protection but because we need His. We guard Him because He is the Jewel of great price, something we do not want to loose, like Adam and Eve did in the garden, no, instead we want to be like Joseph and Mary and use all are means to seek Him out in the temple, this means that a husband and wife should be at church learning from Christ.

     

    May all our marriages be joyful.

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    God bless Rontrell and Capers. 

    It would be nice if all students who wanted could attend private school but that's not always possible.  Vouchers will not address the issue of available space for students nor criteria for acceptance.  Not all schools are as welcoming as Capers.  (We tried for years but for some reason, never elucidated, our children were not accepted to the local Catholic elementary school so they are in the public middle and high schools in our area.)  Instead of making vouchers the solution, perhaps it is time to make the public schools more demanding.  Instead of pandering to the lowest common denominator, encourage excellence in all students.  One local school removed the lowest achieving students from the classroom and put them in a specialized classroom.  The result was those who were at the low end of achievement achieved at grade level, the rest were above grade level and the top students were well above grade level.  Unfortunately, this is not politically correct.  Usually the top students are segregated and the rest are left to founder in mediocracy. 

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