If you want me to

My Only Love - Matt Maher

HT @RCYouthWorker

Beautiful Things

How I got my kids to not complain about my loud music...

Told them that my good friend, our neighbor, and one of my son's dearest friend's mom is the DJ! 

She DJs here at our local University radio station from 9 - 11am every Wednesday.  And she likes similar music as me, plus expands my horizons too!  Pray for her, she is a great gal.  Her name is Jen.

So Wednesdays are my favorite.  We take a little break from school and go to Adoration, then for coffee and donuts and now loud cool music, with no complaining!

Smiles all around here!

Thank You Jesus!

Amusing Ourselves to Death

Not sure this post is going to gain me any readers, but that's not what this blog is about anyway.  And if you make it to the end of this post, I will be thoroughly impressed. 

I am reading a great book by Michael O'Brien, Harry Potter and the Paganization of Culture.  This is my first Michael O'Brien book, and I must admit, I love his writing style and am looking forward to reading more, including his fiction. 

In all honesty, it has been over ten years since I have read J.K. Rowling's series, and even then I only read the first three books.  At the time, I found them mildly entertaining, but nothing that really stimulated me intellectually, so I never was too interested in reading more.  As an avid reader and lover of adventure, I looked forward to the series when it was first released, but never really fell in love with the series like so many people did.  And though I was not formed in my faith at all during that time, I was a bit unsettled when I read them, but I did not understand why. 

No matter what side you are on in the debate over the Harry Potter books, O'Brien's take will open your eyes to so much more than what is superficially visible in reading J.K. Rowlings popular series.  O'Brien presents his thoughts in a rational, thought provoking manner that touches on what is happening in our culture at large.  In one section entitled "The pacification of the mind", he writes:

In his book, Amusing Ourselves to Death, media theorist and New York University professor Neil Postman describes how television has reshaped our society.  In the past, when Western man moved from an oral culture to the print-dominated or "typographic" culture, significant changes resulted in our capacity to absorb experience and abstractions.  The volume of information fed to the mind increased while the mind's ability to sort and evaluate the influx of data did not always keep pace.  With the advent of television another quantum leap occurred.  Flooded with powerful stimuli that bypassed the mind's normal faculties for filtering and interpretation, both the rational and the imaginative aspects of our minds became increasingly passive.  As a result, Postman warns, our ways of perceiving reality itself are becoming fundamentally distorted.  We now imbibe a massive amount of impressions in small bites that demand of us neither sustained attention nor truly critical thinking, thus rendering us vulnerable to manipulation.  We are dangerously close, he says, to that condition described by Aldous Huxley in Brave New World.  No longer conscious of our bondage we are soothed by endless entertainments.

Ouch.  That really hit home for me, being practically raised by the television (well, not really, but I did watch T.V. a lot growing up and it has somewhat formed me, for good and for bad).  The good news is that I hardly watch television anymore.  Every once in awhile I like to watch Journey Home on EWTN, but that is about it for me, except when coerced with popcorn by my dear hubby :).  Unfortunately, about 90 percent of the conversations happening outside of my normal circle of friends revolve around television programming of which I have no input.  The bad news is that I must admit to an internet addiction, so I can very much relate to what O'Brien says, "We now imbibe a massive amount of impressions in small bites that demand of us neither sustained attention nor truly critical thinking, thus rendering us vulnerable to manipulation."  There is good and bad on the internet, and as a person who is in love with her faith and a very healthy appetite for learning more (virtue studiositas), I am quite often susceptible to crossing over into the vice of curiositas.

And there is music too.  Sigh.  I love music.  Music is another form of entertainment that can evoke powerful memories and emotions.  But with God's grace, He is helping me to seek the good, the true, and the beautiful of His creation.  So much of my life has been formed by entertainment, but I am thankful for the grace of God's protection and bringing my heart to His, despite some of the bad influences I have had over the years.  And I'm thankful for the gift of imagination and memory, now in light of a conscience being properly formed (it's still a work in progress).  So why do I bring up music?  Well, because I found this for your entertainment (!!!) by Roger Waters (I am a Pink Floyd fan), Amused to Death:

Sacred Sounds

AWESOME new blog, Sacred Sounds. Here's a little of what Daniel Beiter had to say in their first artist spotlight, on Mumford and Sons:

If they show one thing, it is that honest, inspired, and passionately played, beautiful music will always draw people in. These four men have arenas packed with humanists and Christians alike, singing together: "Awake, my soul. You were made to meet your maker."

It is music that sings of our need for grace and of the pain that comes in life. These are songs of the desire to break out of our little selves, out of our fear of death, out of our broken love, and they are sung as such. They are songs sung which profess our need for heaven. They are songs sung in the poetry of the grand English tradition of Shakespeare.

Wow. I am really looking forward to reading and listening to more at this blog. I love music. Can't think of a better way to say it. I just love music. Period. Go check out Sacred Sounds.

HT Marc Barnes at Virtuospla.net via Fr. Erik Richtsteig at Orthometer

Nickel Creek - This Side

Love this music!



Thank you Kim!

And it won't break my heart to say goodbye...

For the lonely, the sad, and the forgotten on this day of September 11, 2011:

Love is Here

Tenth Avenue North:



And they're good in concert too!

Give Me Jesus

While reading A Minute Captured by Jenny, I was so blessed to hear such beautiful and peaceful music. So glad to have found her blog, go check it out! Here is one of the songs I heard while there (not the same version though, but I like this one too). Have a blessed Sunday.

Thank You God for giving us Jesus at every Mass. Thank You Jesus for dwelling within us. Make our hearts like to Thine. In Your Holy Name, Amen.

Matt Maher with Scott Hahn

LOVE it!!! Matt Maher with Scott Hahn :)



HT Eric Sammons at Divine Life

May God's Love Be With You

Love this song covered by Michael Stipe and Coldplay (original is Joseph Arthur). Wanted to share the song with you. The video is a French film I have never seen (Les Quatre Cents Coups), but was widely acclaimed in 1959. I don't know if I would like the movie or not (maybe I'll try to watch it some time), but I love the song!!

Blues Traveler

Well, sometimes all I can do is post music. Here's Hook by Blues Traveler. I don't even know what the lyrics mean, I just have always liked this song:



Have a very Blessed Thanksgiving!

Into the Mystic - Van Morrison

Just because I love Van Morrison and am having writer's overload that translates into a block :) Have a great day!!!

Hail Holy Queen

How He Loves Us

Note: Original Post changed.

Oh my, so powerful:



Could listen to this over and over. Thank you God for good friends who pass this love along to us. In Your Name, Amen.

Thank you Adoring Angel!

This song reminds me of the powerful encounter we as Catholics have with Jesus at every Holy Mass, during Adoration of Him in the Blessed Sacrament, when we follow Him in Eucharistic Procession. He is with us always, but in these moments He is with us as Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity.

God's Love is so wondrous and amazing that He humbles Himself to come to us in a tangible, incarnate embrace every time we receive Him in Holy Communion. This music is beautiful and the Holy Spirit is obviously present in this place where she is singing, but wow, I am amazed at How He Loves Us in the Holy Eucharist and how Heaven's gates are opened for us at every Holy Mass.

P.S. - Just ignore the yelling at the end of the video ;)

Two Hearts Beat As One

Guess I'm in a U2 mood this week! Enjoy.

I Will Follow

Just because I really really like this song:



Gosh, can't believe how young they all look!

Give a Little Bit

Heard this song this evening driving around. Haven't heard it in SO LONG. I love this song!