Life was easier when we didn't have new carpet...

A new family motto:

With eating popsicles comes great responsibility.

I am REALLY beginning to dislike popsicles, almost as much as I dislike playdough. Popsicles serve no purpose at all. At least with ice cream there is some sort of nutrition, you know, dairy. And ice cream fills you up. Popsicles do nothing but make messes and make everyones' tongues and faces and hands orange, purple, bright red, blue, or the best, green.


By the way, the start to homeschooling is going GREAT. Really! Really ;)

Actually it is (homeschooling going great), once we got over the whole beheading John the Baptist beginning and looked at the Joyful Mysteries and Luminous Mysteries and talked about how instrumental John the Baptist was in preparing the way for salvation, going before the Lord and all... I know, I'm weird, going from popsicles to the Canticle of Zachariah, it's the life of a homeschooling mom. Catholic homeschooling mom. Any family that may be reading this, you were right to be worried about homeschooling.

It was all fun and games until the popsicles started dripping everywhere......

Inspirational Video.... We Are Catholic

Joe from Defend us in Battle has made an awesome, inspirational video:




Thanks Joe!

Must Read - Monday Aug 29

We have started school today, so I do not have a lot to post except that I request your prayers please. DS2 started kindergarten in public school today and DS1 and DD1 start homeschool today. It's going pretty good, except well, you know it never goes quite the way you planned it. We are a work in progress :) Maybe we should have started on a different feast day than the Beheading of John the Baptist. Well, we'll have over a week in when it's time to celebrate the Nativity of Mary! Remember, I'm a glass full kind of gal!

Mary has a must read post at The Beautiful Gate about the Fr. Gordon MacRae case. Please go read it!

Have a wonderful and blessed week! Thanks for your prayers.

Keeping the Silence of My Heart with Greater Care

From Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta, No Greater Love:

We cannot find God in noise or agitation. Nature: trees, flowers, and grass grow in silence. The stars, moon, and the sun move in silence. What is essential is not what we say but what God tells us and what He tells others through us. In silence He listens to us; in silence He speaks to our souls. In silence we are granted the privilege of listening to His voice.

Silence of our eyes.
Silence of our ears.
Silence of our mouths.
...in the silence of the heart
God will speak.

Silence of the heart is necessary so you can hear God everywhere - in the closing of the door, in the person who needs you, in the birds that sing, in the flowers, in the animals.

If we are careful of silence it will be easy to pray. There is so much talk, so much repetition, so much carrying on of tales in words and in writing. Our prayer life suffers so much because our hearts are not silent.

I shall keep the silence of my heart with greater care, so that in the silence of my heart I hear His words of comfort and from the fullness of my heart I comfort Jesus in the distressing disguise of the poor.

cross-posted at Community of Catholic Bloggers

Architecture for Kids

After realizing how little I know about Church architecture earlier today while spending time on the internet avoiding doing dishes, I am thinking about doing a unit study on Church architecture for our homeschool. You know, we'll just fit it in between the other dozen or so things we're doing ;)

Doing something like this would be cool though, it would encompass math, science, engineering, history, art, music, literature, religion.... and we could tour our local Cathedral as a field trip! And other cool local Catholic Churches! Plus back in the olden days when I actually was an engineer, I helped out with a really good series called Building Big that was a special on PBS. Our state was chosen as one of the places that received a grant to teach this material to 4th and 5th graders, and I got to go tour WGBH in Boston too! It rained the whole time we were there, but it was still fun to tour the TV Station. So anyway, I have some extra teaching materials left over from that somewhere in a box, I hope, unless it got thrown out in the move.

Anyway, I don't know if we'll get to it this semester, or next, but here is a really cool website I found while researching this possibility. It is from love2learn:

Architecture for Kids

Is that cool or what?

HT Worm on the Notre Dame de Chartres image

Poll at Fr. Z's Blog

Fr. Z has several polls at his blog regarding our opinion on male and female altar servers. Please go vote at:

Should the Holy Father reverse the interpretation of the 1983 Code which allowed for female service at the altar?


Does an all-male sanctuary foster vocations to the priesthood?


Sanctuary encompasses the part of the church within the altar rail.

For what it's worth, my opinion is that there should not be female altar servers and that an all male sanctuary does foster vocations to the priesthood. Having said this, though, our daughters will NOT be altar servers even though it is allowed in our parish, but at this time we would permit them to be a lector.

Red Cardigan has a great post at And Sometimes Tea that makes some good points from a feminine perspective, although I am not in 100 percent agreement with her. I didn't read all the comments at her post but am pretty sure there are definitely some things said in the comments over there that I do not agree with.

So far I have pretty much avoided the negative comment atmosphere I've heard about in the Catholic blogosphere. I hope to remain blissfully naive about this, but if not, so be it.

UPDATE: At least that's the way I interpreted sanctuary, that it means the part of the church within the altar rail (or where the altar rail should be). Maybe I don't have that right but that is what I based my vote on.

Oh, That Teacher

So, this week we are trying to get ready for school to start next week. And DD1 says, "I can't wait to start school! I'm so excited!" [Good so far]

Then she says, "So, Mom, do you think that when we start you could be like a Catholic school teacher that doesn't know us very well?"


And I think to myself, Oh, you mean the one that is nice/isn't afraid of crafty activities/loves playdough/never yells/doesn't look at all your faults as a reflection of her/isn't an emotional basket case/never spends too much time on the computer/doesn't have a pessimistic bone in her body/makes wonderful snacks every day/never disengages/is cheerful/is more of a coach than a dictator/never burns grilled cheese sandwiches (yeah, that has happened more than I care to admit)/always knows exactly what the plan is for the day/never second guesses your math curriculum/and never EVER pulls your hair?"

~~~

No, I can't be THAT teacher, but I can be the one that loves you so much she will do everything she can to try to get you to heaven (of course it is God getting you to heaven, but you know what I mean)/look at all your good qualities as a reflection of God/feel a sense of gratitude every time a language art, history, or science lesson teaches you the beauty of your Catholic faith and God's creation/teach and learn with you about the ordinary and heroic lives of the Saints/obsessively review different math curriculums only to stay with the one we started with/pray with you and for you/cry with you/yell at you, but seek your forgiveness and God's/disengage at times to maintain my sanity/admit I am flawed/have tea with you/cook with you (even if it doesn't turn out exactly the way we planned it)/will point out when you are mean to others/will try to never, EVER pull your hair again/will expect more out of you than you think you can do/will challenge you to love and forgive even when you do not want to/will teach you as I learn myself how to listen to God/will teach you how to love God with all your heart, your soul, and your strength and how to love others the way He does and when we fail in this to seek His forgiveness/will teach you our Catholic faith by living it all day, every day.

That's the teacher I can be.

Novena for Fr. MacRae

Joining A Catholic Mom in Hawaii in a novena for the intentions of Father Gordon MacRae. The novena begins Monday, August 22nd. From A Catholic Mom in Hawaii:

The feast of the Queenship of Mary is next week. I think it would be very appropriate for us to pray the Memorare for Father's intentions for nine consecutive days, starting on Monday, August 22nd, the actual feast day and ending on August 30th, with confession, Mass and Holy Communion. If you can have Mass offered for Father Gordon, it would be greatly appreciated! After all, they are our blessed mother's priests.

I will be starting this week by joining in Spiritual Communion while Fr. MacRae offers Mass in his prison cell this evening at 11:20pm EST.

Thanks Mary for letting us know about this novena!

UPDATE: Karinann has a beautiful post over at Daughter of the King for this novena for Fr. MacRae. Please join us if you are able!

Fifty-two babies

Please pray for the situation in Alaska at Providence Hospital at Anchorage, Alaska. You can read more about the situation at Defend us in Battle.

Joe puts it in perspective for us. Fifty two babies have been killed there by abortion since July 11 of this year.

From Joe:

So, while we wait for facts to be found, meetings to be held, and nuances to be debated - babies die.

FIFTY TWO...

The Culture of death is claiming lives every day, I am doing what I can... are you?

God Bless the Last Ones

Because when they go looking for something beautiful, they go looking from the inside out. For my sister Laura:

It's Monday.....

A sample of our house today:

Me (yelling): "OKAY, EVERYONE SIT AT THE TABLE, AND NO SPITTING AT ANYONE OR ANYTHING, OR THERE WILL NEVER BE ANY POPSICLES AGAIN!!!!"

And I really mean it.

UPDATE: I'm starting a new blog post category: From the Sublime to the Ridiculous

Pilate's moral relativism

My husband is reading Life of Christ by Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen. The other night he read to me the following, His Excellency's reflections of Pilate's actions after asking Jesus "What is truth?" (John 18:38):

Then he turned his back on truth- better not on it, but on Him Who is Truth. It remained to be seen that tolerance of truth and error in a stroke of broadmindedness leads to intolerance and persecution; "What is truth?" when sneered, is followed up by the second sneer, "What is justice?" Broadmindedness, when it means indifference to right and wrong, eventually ends in a hatred of what is right. He who was so tolerant of error as to deny an Absolute Truth was the one who would crucify Truth. It was the religious judge who challenged Him, "I adjure thee"; but the secular judge asked, "What is truth?" He who was in the robe of the high priest called upon God to repudiate the things that are God's; he who was in the Roman toga just professed a skepticism and doubt.

and

Pilate was one of those who believed that truth was not objective but subjective, that each man determined for himself what was to be true. It is often the fault of practical men, such as Pilate, to regard the search for objective truth as useless theorizing. Skepticism is not an intellectual position; it is a moral position, in the sense that it is determined not so much by reason as by the way one acts and behaves. Pilate's desire to save Jesus was due to a kind of liberalism which combined disbelief in Absolute Truth with a half-benevolent unwillingness to disturb such dreamers and their superstitions. Pilate asked the question, "What is truth?" of the only Person in the world Who could answer it in all its fullness.

Studiositas versus Curiositas

I read an excellent post over at Catholic Spiritual Direction called "Is curiosity bad? I seem to have an appetite for information about all things...." Father Bartunek writes:

Learning involves all the good things that you describe above. We cannot love what we do not know. Studying God’s creation can help us know God better, just as studying the works of an artist can help know an artist better, and by knowing God better we can love him better – which is the purpose of our existence. Our intelligence is meant for this, in fact. That’s why the Christian spiritual tradition catalogues studiositas as a virtue – the virtue of study, of applying our minds to studying and learning, so that we can grow in knowledge and understanding of the world, ourselves, and God.

and

But like every power of the human soul, this capacity to learn can be de-formed. Instead of applying ourselves to develop the virtue of study, we can fall into the vice of curiositas, or curiosity. In the Christian spiritual tradition, this word, like studiositas, has a technical meaning. The vice of curiosity refers to the superficial gathering of information, the thirst to imbibe the latest headline or rumor just because it’s new. Curiosity stops where learning begins. It’s like the butterfly that flits from flower to flower without gathering any nectar, whereas the bee will settle into a flower and drink up, taking time to gather all that the flower has to offer.

Ever since jumping into the online world (back in 2006 when I was on bed rest with our 3rd), I have had to fight the battle of spending too much time online. Before that, I viewed the computer as a tool I used at work, but spending time at a computer screen was never something I wanted to do with my free time. I checked email periodically and that was about it.

Image Credit:

Association of Catholic Women Bloggers

It is interesting that right before this is when I really started to experience an exponential growth in my faith and formation in the Catholic Church. I began researching the teachings of the Church through reading books, attending prayer groups, Bible studies, anywhere I could go to learn more about Christ and His Church. It is a wonderful thing to be so in love with Christ and want to know more about Him! And I still have that desire and am so thankful that God has given it to me.

But like with all desires, our unchecked human appetites can become vices (I type this as I eat chocolate chips since we have no other chocolate in the house....hmmm). Another good point that Fr. Bartunek makes in his post is the following:

On the other hand, it [knowledge] also can keep us distracted. In this case, the thirst to have new experiences and develop new areas of expertise is inordinate, out of proportion to our mission in life. The enjoyment of acquiring new knowledge, which is legitimate in itself, becomes so all-consuming that the duties of one’s state in life are neglected.

This is exactly what my struggle is right now with intellectual curiosity, it too often becomes inordinate and then I neglect the duties of my state in life. What seems to be a good thing becomes a vice. I need God's grace to keep this desire within His will. Pray for me.

Interestingly enough, right now as I am typing this, my daughter brought the mail in, and in it is a book I just ordered, No Greater Love, by Mother Teresa. It isn't supposed to be a used book, but thumbing through it, I noticed several sentences were underlined. Here is a sentence that was underlined:

Words that do not give the light of Christ increase the darkness.

So not only do I need to watch the amount of time I spend online, but also discern what I am reading online. Thank you Mother Teresa!

I'm excited now to go start reading this book! After I get the laundry put away and dinner started, of course ;)

Pray for us, Blessed Mother Teresa!

Do go read all of Father Bartunek's post at Catholic Spiritual Direction. And go check out Association of Catholic Women Bloggers at:

Beauty Remains

Last night we watched Of Gods and Men. What a beautiful and profound movie. Steven Greydanus does an excellent job of reviewing this movie at Decent Films. The meaning of this movie will linger in my mind and heart for a long time. During one poignant scene, Christian says the following:

"Should it ever befall me, and it could happen today, to be a victim of the
terrorism swallowing up all foreigners here, I would like my community, my
church, my family, to remember that my life was given to God and to his
country. That the Unique Master of all life was no stranger to this brutal
departure. And that my death is the same as so many other violent ones,
consigned to the apathy of oblivion. I've lived enough to know, I am
complicit in the evil that, alas, prevails over the world and the evil that
will smite me blindly. I could never desire such a death. I could never feel
gladdened that these people I love be accused randomly of my murder."

There is so much violence, unrest, persecution, starvation and yes, apathy in the world. Yet Beauty remains, ever ancient ever new. May God give us courage and strength to remain in His Love amidst the deathly blows of the violence and indifference of the world and in our own hearts. Love calls us to respond to the needs of our fellow human beings crying out in anguish across the globe.

NOTE: After sleeping on it, I changed the title of this post from "Consigned to the Apathy of Oblivion" to Beauty Remains. Why? Because Beauty does remain. When we abide in His Love, we are not consigned to the apathy of oblivion, regardless of the suffering we may endure or observe. He is always with us. I'm a glass full kind of gal. Really.

He is always with us, we just need to believe it and trust Him.

What's for Dinner?

Deep Thoughts

S & P downgrades U.S. Credit rating! Dow plunges 635 points! President gives another non speech!

And DS2 asks me, "Mom, when are we ever going to see another escalator or moving door?"

I love that boy :)

He Knows What He is About

I have not posted on politics in awhile, mainly because I haven't been following it much, but I read something Ed Morissey said this morning that makes a lot of sense regarding the fiscal mess our country is in:

There is a lot of anger at the moment in the US over the embarrassment of the downgrade, as well as shock. I’m most amused by the shock, to tell the truth. S&P didn’t say anything yesterday that was not common knowledge and common sense. If you had to rate a potential investment that had an income of, say, $22,000 a year but had costs of $37,000 per year, a standing debt of $143,000, and contracted future debt that exceeded $1 million, would you give that investment a gold-plated AAA rating and buy their bonds at the lowest interest rate possible, or at all? Of course not, but that’s exactly the fiscal situation of the US, at a 100,000,000:1 scale.

The anger is mainly misdirected. The media wants to blame the Tea Party, but the Tea Party wants to solve the actual problem — overspending and overcommitment to entitlement programs. The Tea Party wants to blame the Obama administration, and it deserves some blame for refusing to address the real structural problems of the US fiscal condition. But that fiscal structure far predates Barack Obama, both as President and as human being, and Congresses and White Houses of both parties have done little to address the real problems in Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.

Why? Because as soon as people try to do so, demagogues accuse them of wanting to push Grandma over a cliff. Voters respond by punishing the reformers and rewarding the demagogues. If we collectively want to blame someone, we collectively should be looking in a mirror.

So where do we go from here? I do not know, I'm just a woman trying to be a loving wife, mother, and friend, knowing that I am a daughter of God. We try as a family to be responsible with our finances and to give our first fruits to God. While I do not know the solution (besides more responsibility in our own lives as well as that of our government), I do know that the only true answer is to trust God and follow His ways, He knows what He is about.

So excited about this series!

Catholicism, hosted by Fr. Robert Barron to be released this fall:

But the Believing Soul....

Such beautiful contemplation by St. Bernard of Clairvaux On Loving God, excerpt from Chapter 4- Of Those Who Find Comfort in the Recollection of God:

In that day those who set not their hearts aright will feel, too late, how easy is Christ’s yoke, to which they would not bend their necks and how light His burden, in comparison with the pains they must then endure. O wretched slaves of Mammon, you cannot glory in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ while you trust in treasures laid up on earth: you cannot taste and see how gracious the Lord is, while you are hungering for gold. If you have not rejoiced at the thought of His coming, that day will be indeed a day of wrath to you.

But the believing soul longs and faints for God; she rests sweetly in the contemplation of Him. She glories in the reproach of the Cross, until the glory of His face shall be revealed. Like the Bride, the dove of Christ, that is covered with silver wings (Psalm 68:13), white with innocence and purity, she reposes in the thought of Thine abundant kindness, Lord Jesus; and above all she longs for that day when in the joyful splendor of thy saints, gleaming with the radiance of the Beatific Vision, her feathers shall be like gold, resplendent with the joy of Thy countenance.

Rightly then may she exult, “His left hand is under my head and His right hand doth embrace me.” The left hand signifies the memory of that matchless love, which moved Him to lay down His life for His friends; and the right hand is the Beatific Vision which He hath promised to His own, and the delight they have in His presence. The Psalmist sings rapturously, “At Thy right hand there is pleasure for evermore” (Psalm 16:11): so we are warranted in explaining the right hand as that divine and deifying joy of His presence.

Rightly too is that wondrous and ever-memorable love symbolized as His left hand, upon which the Bride rests her head until iniquity be done away: for He sustains the purpose of her mind, lest it should be turned aside to earthly, carnal desires. For the flesh wars against the spirit: “The corruptible body presseth down the soul and the earthly tabernacle weighteth down the mind that museth upon many things” (Wisdom 9:15). What could result from the contemplation of compassion so marvelous and so undeserved, favor so free and so well attested, kindness so unexpected, clemency so unconquerable, grace so amazing except that the soul should withdraw from all sinful affections, reject all that is inconsistent with God’s love, and yield herself wholly to heavenly things? No wonder is it that the Bride, moved by the perfume of these unctions, runs swiftly, all on fire with love, yet reckons herself as loving all too little in return for the Bridegroom’s love.

And rightly, since it is not great matter that a little dust should be all consumed with love of that Majesty which loved her first and which revealed itself as wholly bent on saving her. For “God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

This sets forth the Father’s love. But “He hath poured out His soul unto death,” was written of the Son (Isaiah 53:12). And of the Holy Spirit it is said, “The Comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you” (John 14:26).

It is plain, therefore, that God loves us, and loves us with all His heart; for the Holy Trinity altogether loves us, if we may venture so to speak of the infinite and incomprehensible Godhead who is essentially one.

In Case You Missed It....

Archbishop Chaput: "Renewal begins not in vilifying others...."

H/T- or as she says, "veil tip" :) Diane at te Deum laudamus!

From Salt and Light TV, Archbishop's homily at the Knights of Columbus convention opening Mass in Denver, Colorado:

The dynamic in Family of Moses is not so different from the dynamic in the family of today’s Church. God has chosen to lead his people. Miriam and Aaron, the sister and brother of Moses, resent his taking a Cushite wife. But the disputed marriage is merely a pretext for the siblings. What they really resent is Moses’ elevation above themselves, his special relationship with God. Moses if very much a flawed human being. By this point in scripture he may be “meek,” but he is not without sin. Nonetheless he is chosen by God. Therefore, Miriam’s and Aaron’s criticism – which flows out of their own rebellious pride – is really a criticism of God himself. Miriam, as the instigator, is struck with leprosy, but at least there is a kind of negative dignity to her own willfulness. Aaron is almost worse: a portrait of male spinelessness. This is the man who went along with the Golden Calf. Now he goes along with Miriam, and when Miriam is punished, he becomes obsequious with Moses.

Something similar can be said about conflicts in the modern church. Bishops, priests, and deacons are too often weak and sinful. They need to be held to high standards. Some deserve to be chastised. The clergy’s leadership in the Church should always be marked by humility and service, and never by a sense of entitlement. But men and women didn’t found the Church, they don’t own her; and they have no license to reinvent her. The Church belongs to Jesus Christ, and the different roles with the Christian community – clergy, laity, and religious life – have equal dignity but different purposes. Sin and failure, including by the clergy, need to be named. But when people deride their bishops and priests out of pride and resentment or some perverse desire for they perceive as “power,” they undermine the Church herself, and they set themselves against the God whose vessel she is. And that, as Scripture suggests, leads in a painful direction.

All real reform in the Church requires two things. Today’s Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 51 – gives us the first thing. We find it in the lines “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow;” and “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.” Renewal begins not in vilifying others, but in examining ourselves honestly, repenting of our sins and changing ourselves. This applies to every baptized person, from the Pope to the average man or woman earning a wage. We are all sinners. We are all in need of repentance and God’s mercy. When we really understand that, we can speak to each other with both honesty and love, and restoring the mission of the Church can begin.

Today’s Gospel gives us the second thing needed for any lasting reform: faith. Not faith as theology, or faith as a collection of doctrines and practices; but faith as a single-minded confidence in God; faith as the humility – and in a sense, the imprudence, the passion, the recklessness – to give ourselves entirely to Jesus Christ. That kind of faith changes people. That kind of faith shifts the world on its axis, because nothing can stand against it. As long as Peter keeps his eyes and his heart fixed on Jesus Christ, he can do the impossible – he can walk on the water. The moment he gives in to doubt and fear, he begins to sink. So it is with our personal faith, and so it is with life and the health of the Church.

In light of our Gospel reading, it’s fitting that our Mass today commemorates the French priests and saint from the 19th century, Peter Eymand. Eymand was a friend of Sts. Peter Chanel and Jean-Mare Vianney, and the founder of the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament. He was an intriguing man. The great French sculptor, Auguste Rodin, once entered Eymand’s congregation as a lay brother, having given up art after the death of his sister. Eymand served as Rodin’s spiritual spiritual counsellor, and eventually sent him back to his work in the world as a sculptor, because he believed that Rodin glorified God more truly through the beauty of his art. The focus of Eymand’s life was an intense love of Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. He was tireless in preaching a deep devotion to the Eucharist as a key to re-igniting the vocation of Christians in the world. The Church honours him as “the Apostle of the Eucharist,” and his most famous line is worth remembering. When he decided to leave the diocesan clergy to become a religious priest, his sisters begged him to wait and reflect just a little longer before he acted – even just one more day. He answered, “God calls me now. Tomorrow will be too late.” God is calling each of us here today – clergy, lay, and religious – to love him with all our hearts and to renew the life of his Church. God is calling us now. Tomorrow will be too late. So let’s pray for each other, and support each other – and begin.

A Prayer for the Dying and a Special Soul

A PRAYER FOR THE DYING AND A SPECIAL SOUL

O MOST MERCIFUL JESUS, lover of souls,
I beseech Thee, by the agony of Thy most Sacred Heart,
and by the sorrows of Thine Immaculate Mother,
wash clean in the Thy Blood the sinners of the whole world
who are to die this day.

Remember most especially the soul I spiritually adopt
with the intention of entrusting him or her to Thy Shepherd's care:
I beseech Thee for the grace to move this sinner, who is in
danger of going to Hell, to repent. I ask this because of my
trust in Thy great mercy.

If it should please Thy Majesty to send me a suffering this day
in exchange for the grace I ask for this soul, then, it, too,
shall please me very much, and I thank Thee, Most Sweet Jesus,
Shepherd and Lover of Souls; I thank Thee for this
opportunity to give mercy in thanksgiving for all the mercies
Thou hast shown me. Amen.

Heart of Jesus, once in agony, have mercy on the dying.

Women of Mystery Women of Hope

Women of Mystery Women of Hope:



H/T Fr. Andrew