http://www.safeminds.org/news/2008/05-2008-1.html
-Jen
Thursday, April 25, 2013
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Next academic year
History/geography:
https://www.chcweb.com/catalog/HistoryAndGeography/TextsAndPrograms/OurUnitedStatesofAmericaCatholicSocialStudies/product_info.html
http://www.memoriapress.com/curriculum/american-modern/states-and-capitals
Poetry:
https://www.chcweb.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=8_234&products_id=3509
-Jen
https://www.chcweb.com/catalog/HistoryAndGeography/TextsAndPrograms/OurUnitedStatesofAmericaCatholicSocialStudies/product_info.html
http://www.memoriapress.com/curriculum/american-modern/states-and-capitals
Poetry:
https://www.chcweb.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=8_234&products_id=3509
-Jen
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
To seek holiness...
Mother Teresa gave these rules to her Sisters to help them develop the virtue of humility:
1. Speak as little as possible about yourself.
2. Keep busy with your own affairs and not those of others.
3. Avoid curiosity.
4. Do not interfere in the affairs of others.
5. Accept small irritations with good humor.
6. Do not dwell on the faults of others.
7. Accept censures even if unmerited.
8. Give in to the will of others.
9. Accept insults and injuries.
10. Accept contempt, being forgotten and disregarded.
11. Accept injuries and insults.
12. Be courteous and delicate even when provoked by someone.
13. Do not seek to be admired and loved.
14. Do not protect yourself behind your own dignity.
15. Give in, in discussions, even when you are right.
16. Always choose the more difficult task.
-Jen
1. Speak as little as possible about yourself.
2. Keep busy with your own affairs and not those of others.
3. Avoid curiosity.
4. Do not interfere in the affairs of others.
5. Accept small irritations with good humor.
6. Do not dwell on the faults of others.
7. Accept censures even if unmerited.
8. Give in to the will of others.
9. Accept insults and injuries.
10. Accept contempt, being forgotten and disregarded.
11. Accept injuries and insults.
12. Be courteous and delicate even when provoked by someone.
13. Do not seek to be admired and loved.
14. Do not protect yourself behind your own dignity.
15. Give in, in discussions, even when you are right.
16. Always choose the more difficult task.
-Jen
Thursday, February 14, 2013
How to pick a restaurant in Rome!
I'm getting behind on my journaling! Maybe I should be going to bed earlier so the I can wake up in the middle of the night again to write!
9/27-
Monday I chose to take it easy. Although I woke up at a decent time, I did not fuel myself well at breakfast & not long after, I started to feel punky. It was only two hours after I woke, but I was already ready for a nap. Thankfully, as soon as my blood sugar stabilized, I felt fine. We decided to stay "close to home.". We would walk through Villa Borghese to Piazza De Popola for lunch & ride the bus back. We only planned on being gone a short while but I realized later that we were away five hours!
My BIL directed us through the park, zigzagging from fountain to circle to fountain along the paths of the park. When we were about a third of the way through the park we stopped to snap some pictures of the kids. Another young woman and a couple of children were nearby and when she heard my American accent, she started chatting with us. We ended up visiting at a little playground so the kids could play while the adults visited.
After we had visited for a while, we continued on our walk. It was very pleasant among the trees, walking at a leisurely pace down the hill to the piazza. We exited the park at Piazzle Flaminio. For a minute I thought I had overshot the Piazza, but I found I was just on the other side of the gate from Piazza De Popolo. Entering the Piazza, I was blown away. It was breathtaking! In the center of a large traffic circle, there was a tall obelisk. On the other side of the piazza, visually flanking the obelisk, were two huge buildings with domes. The size of the circle, the obelisk, the two huge domes; it all effected an amazing visual impact. I don't know if I have yet seen anything that compares.
Unfortunately, few travel books have addressed this piazza, so I know very little about it. As we approached, it appears that the two domed buildings, which I assumed to be churches, were abandoned. I'm dying to know more about them, their history, if they are Churches, if they are in use, etc.
On the left, down the center, and on the right of the domed buildings were narrow streets lined with shops. Again, these streets had an iconically Italian look. I wish I could have translated what I saw onto film, but somehow what I see in my eye I never seem to translate. I didn't have much time to take it all in; we were on a mission to find pizza, per ML's request, and we were looking at a very late lunch due to our playdate in the park.
I have learned a few tricks of Rome from my BIL: stay away from the obvious trattorias, look for the little restaurants down the side streets, the food is much better. So after walking a ways, I saw a promising restaurant down a little alley. Ah, it looked good! I'll bet the food was great, but alas, no pizza on the menu. So we wandered on. Next side alley... no, that place had no place to sit. I wasn't looking for another place to grab a bite & go, I wanted to sit down this time and it was getting late. Finally, in desperation, I found a place on one of the main streets. This place, although it met my needs for a sit-down bite, was a major let down... Well, all except the Fanta for the kids & my...ah, yes...first cappuccino on the trip. That was, in fact, a little cup of heaven. However, the place ended up being grungy, the TV had inappropriate music videos blaring, and the food was...just OK. I'm not saying we didn't enjoy ourselves; this was all part of our adventure and it was a gorgeous day, we were in Rome eating pasta, and we'd just worked up an appetite walking through the park! However, this restaurant confirmed my BIL's advice. This was a tourist trap if there ever was one!
After lunch, since although I had promised the kids daily gelatos, we'd only had it once, I made a bee-line for the first gelatoria I saw. Everyone was very pleased with their selections and we walked down to the piazza to sit on the steps of one of the domed buildings to enjoy our treat. I broke down and ordered a hazelnut. It ALMOST taste coffee-ish. ML asked for a taste of mine while we were sitting on the steps & surprisingly said that he not only liked it, but might order it next time.
After this we walked to the bus stop & rode home. The younger cousin had an afterschool activity but the older cousin went out scootering with my kids for a bit. For dinner this night my BIL made sausage and roasted cauliflower. I'm embarrassed that most of my journal is food focused, but we've had some amazing meals so far! My BIL, although he says he "can't cook," is a bit like the woman who doth protest too much....he's a great cook! And eating out in Rome, well, that's almost as important as sightseeing for getting the full experience of the city.
I think the kids finished the evening watching a movie while the older cousin did her schooling. Somewhere in there I gave the kids baths in the deep, long tub. It was almost like swimming and MAF was in heaven playing with the cousin's great tub toys.
-Jen
9/27-
Monday I chose to take it easy. Although I woke up at a decent time, I did not fuel myself well at breakfast & not long after, I started to feel punky. It was only two hours after I woke, but I was already ready for a nap. Thankfully, as soon as my blood sugar stabilized, I felt fine. We decided to stay "close to home.". We would walk through Villa Borghese to Piazza De Popola for lunch & ride the bus back. We only planned on being gone a short while but I realized later that we were away five hours!
My BIL directed us through the park, zigzagging from fountain to circle to fountain along the paths of the park. When we were about a third of the way through the park we stopped to snap some pictures of the kids. Another young woman and a couple of children were nearby and when she heard my American accent, she started chatting with us. We ended up visiting at a little playground so the kids could play while the adults visited.
After we had visited for a while, we continued on our walk. It was very pleasant among the trees, walking at a leisurely pace down the hill to the piazza. We exited the park at Piazzle Flaminio. For a minute I thought I had overshot the Piazza, but I found I was just on the other side of the gate from Piazza De Popolo. Entering the Piazza, I was blown away. It was breathtaking! In the center of a large traffic circle, there was a tall obelisk. On the other side of the piazza, visually flanking the obelisk, were two huge buildings with domes. The size of the circle, the obelisk, the two huge domes; it all effected an amazing visual impact. I don't know if I have yet seen anything that compares.
Unfortunately, few travel books have addressed this piazza, so I know very little about it. As we approached, it appears that the two domed buildings, which I assumed to be churches, were abandoned. I'm dying to know more about them, their history, if they are Churches, if they are in use, etc.
On the left, down the center, and on the right of the domed buildings were narrow streets lined with shops. Again, these streets had an iconically Italian look. I wish I could have translated what I saw onto film, but somehow what I see in my eye I never seem to translate. I didn't have much time to take it all in; we were on a mission to find pizza, per ML's request, and we were looking at a very late lunch due to our playdate in the park.
I have learned a few tricks of Rome from my BIL: stay away from the obvious trattorias, look for the little restaurants down the side streets, the food is much better. So after walking a ways, I saw a promising restaurant down a little alley. Ah, it looked good! I'll bet the food was great, but alas, no pizza on the menu. So we wandered on. Next side alley... no, that place had no place to sit. I wasn't looking for another place to grab a bite & go, I wanted to sit down this time and it was getting late. Finally, in desperation, I found a place on one of the main streets. This place, although it met my needs for a sit-down bite, was a major let down... Well, all except the Fanta for the kids & my...ah, yes...first cappuccino on the trip. That was, in fact, a little cup of heaven. However, the place ended up being grungy, the TV had inappropriate music videos blaring, and the food was...just OK. I'm not saying we didn't enjoy ourselves; this was all part of our adventure and it was a gorgeous day, we were in Rome eating pasta, and we'd just worked up an appetite walking through the park! However, this restaurant confirmed my BIL's advice. This was a tourist trap if there ever was one!
After lunch, since although I had promised the kids daily gelatos, we'd only had it once, I made a bee-line for the first gelatoria I saw. Everyone was very pleased with their selections and we walked down to the piazza to sit on the steps of one of the domed buildings to enjoy our treat. I broke down and ordered a hazelnut. It ALMOST taste coffee-ish. ML asked for a taste of mine while we were sitting on the steps & surprisingly said that he not only liked it, but might order it next time.
After this we walked to the bus stop & rode home. The younger cousin had an afterschool activity but the older cousin went out scootering with my kids for a bit. For dinner this night my BIL made sausage and roasted cauliflower. I'm embarrassed that most of my journal is food focused, but we've had some amazing meals so far! My BIL, although he says he "can't cook," is a bit like the woman who doth protest too much....he's a great cook! And eating out in Rome, well, that's almost as important as sightseeing for getting the full experience of the city.
I think the kids finished the evening watching a movie while the older cousin did her schooling. Somewhere in there I gave the kids baths in the deep, long tub. It was almost like swimming and MAF was in heaven playing with the cousin's great tub toys.
-Jen
Friday, February 8, 2013
Rome, our first "solo" adventure!
Day three: 9/26
Our first "solo" adventure!
Sunday, we did not get the early start that we should have and missed Mass at the Pantheon. After a breakfast of leftover panini for me & French toast (ala my BIL) for the kids, we "raced" (that's a relative term) out the door to try to make the noon Mass at the Basilica of St Mary Major.
Although we just missed the first bus & got turned around a bit at Termini station, we made it to Mass with five minutes to spare. The Basilica was HUGE and very ornate, but compared to the Basilica in DC, very dirty. I think that is a reflection of it's age more than it's upkeep. The Mass was beautiful, but entirely in Italian, so I have NO idea what was being said. MK & I used the universalis app on my iPhone to follow along with the readings, and we could make a few responses, but that's about it. I'm sure the homily was good as it was very long, but I had to get my homily from the many frescos and paintings. I wish I could say I had some spiritual experience but I was feeling so nauseas I could barely stand (my blood sugar dropped, once it recovered, I was fine).
The very disconcerting thing, the thing that I fear will ultimately bother me more than anything else, is the complete lack of respect for the sacredness of these sites. There were tourists IN Mass, completely oblivious to the miracle going on at the altar. They were whispering, taking pictures, getting up and walking around, etc. We were the only people veiling and in fact, later as we were walking around, an Italian woman even came up and asked me where we were from and why I veiled. She smiled her approval, but seemed to also view me as a bit of a throw-back. Also after Mass, when we went below the altar there were people posing with the statue of the baby Jesus, jostling the few people there praying, talking, etc. People were also posing with the statue of Pope Pius X, I don't know how to describe it, but it would be like me posing next to one of those Roman centurians at the Pantheon, joking & laughing.
When Mass was over, the kids and I took a leisurely stroll around the church. We admired some of the side chapels and the statues that lined the walls. We filled out requests for Masses to be said for a couple of priests and ML requested that he be given a few quiet minutes to pray. The others moved to the giftshop while ML and I prayed, then we followed. We bought a few postcards, one especially of the statue of Mary and the Child Jesus that MK liked, and a statue of the Pieta that ML picked out and then we headed back to Termini to catch a bus back to our (two day favorite) panini & fanta shop in Piazza Farnese (mainly because it was so seedy & grungy around Termini and the Basilica).
Of course, since this was our first unguided trip, I got off the bus too soon and we had a long way to walk. On top of that, we got a bit turned around. Finally I saw the bakery where I'd purchased the amaretti cookies the day before so I knew we were on the right street. We got our paninis (this time I tried it with the Proscuitto crude, not nearly as good as the motz & cheese) and walked toward the Piazza Campo de Fiore. The market was empty & we perched precariously on the edge of a high fountain & ate our paninis & drank our fanta.
Unfortunately, I was already at my limit when the two year old started to act up. Without knowing where we were going, we tried to find a bus to take us to either transfer location we knew, Termini or San Sylvestro, or better yet, back to our villa. You'd think all the streets we wandered down that we could find ONE bus going to at least one of those locations but no. And of course, because we were looking for buses and not known landmarks, we got completely lost.
I'm thankful that Rome is not rife with crime like my BIL says it used to be in the 80's, because we walked down some out-of-the way back alleys. Interestingly, it was the main thoroughfares that seemed the dirtiest & least safe. It was down these lonely alleys that we saw some of the nicest trattorias. Also humourously, although these little lanes were barely wide enough for my little (big) family to walk down arm & arm, we kept having to get out of the way of not only scooters & motorcycles but cars! Sadly, my map was useless. We were on some of those narrow lanes that don't merit a mention in the travel books.
Finally, we stumbled upon an art square that I recognized having entered from the opposite side previously. Making a mental note on how to get back to those interesting looking eateries, we guided ourselves back to our bus terminal, arriving in time to catch a direct hop home.
Lesson learned? Always map your bus route home before venturing out!
The rest of the day was spent recovering & relaxing. I took a brief nap on the couch, my BIL cooked polenta and ribs, and the kids played with cousins & watched a movie. I also figured outhow to head off insomnia: consume some afternoon caffiene and stay up until midnight!
-Jen
Our first "solo" adventure!
Sunday, we did not get the early start that we should have and missed Mass at the Pantheon. After a breakfast of leftover panini for me & French toast (ala my BIL) for the kids, we "raced" (that's a relative term) out the door to try to make the noon Mass at the Basilica of St Mary Major.
Although we just missed the first bus & got turned around a bit at Termini station, we made it to Mass with five minutes to spare. The Basilica was HUGE and very ornate, but compared to the Basilica in DC, very dirty. I think that is a reflection of it's age more than it's upkeep. The Mass was beautiful, but entirely in Italian, so I have NO idea what was being said. MK & I used the universalis app on my iPhone to follow along with the readings, and we could make a few responses, but that's about it. I'm sure the homily was good as it was very long, but I had to get my homily from the many frescos and paintings. I wish I could say I had some spiritual experience but I was feeling so nauseas I could barely stand (my blood sugar dropped, once it recovered, I was fine).
The very disconcerting thing, the thing that I fear will ultimately bother me more than anything else, is the complete lack of respect for the sacredness of these sites. There were tourists IN Mass, completely oblivious to the miracle going on at the altar. They were whispering, taking pictures, getting up and walking around, etc. We were the only people veiling and in fact, later as we were walking around, an Italian woman even came up and asked me where we were from and why I veiled. She smiled her approval, but seemed to also view me as a bit of a throw-back. Also after Mass, when we went below the altar there were people posing with the statue of the baby Jesus, jostling the few people there praying, talking, etc. People were also posing with the statue of Pope Pius X, I don't know how to describe it, but it would be like me posing next to one of those Roman centurians at the Pantheon, joking & laughing.
When Mass was over, the kids and I took a leisurely stroll around the church. We admired some of the side chapels and the statues that lined the walls. We filled out requests for Masses to be said for a couple of priests and ML requested that he be given a few quiet minutes to pray. The others moved to the giftshop while ML and I prayed, then we followed. We bought a few postcards, one especially of the statue of Mary and the Child Jesus that MK liked, and a statue of the Pieta that ML picked out and then we headed back to Termini to catch a bus back to our (two day favorite) panini & fanta shop in Piazza Farnese (mainly because it was so seedy & grungy around Termini and the Basilica).
Of course, since this was our first unguided trip, I got off the bus too soon and we had a long way to walk. On top of that, we got a bit turned around. Finally I saw the bakery where I'd purchased the amaretti cookies the day before so I knew we were on the right street. We got our paninis (this time I tried it with the Proscuitto crude, not nearly as good as the motz & cheese) and walked toward the Piazza Campo de Fiore. The market was empty & we perched precariously on the edge of a high fountain & ate our paninis & drank our fanta.
Unfortunately, I was already at my limit when the two year old started to act up. Without knowing where we were going, we tried to find a bus to take us to either transfer location we knew, Termini or San Sylvestro, or better yet, back to our villa. You'd think all the streets we wandered down that we could find ONE bus going to at least one of those locations but no. And of course, because we were looking for buses and not known landmarks, we got completely lost.
I'm thankful that Rome is not rife with crime like my BIL says it used to be in the 80's, because we walked down some out-of-the way back alleys. Interestingly, it was the main thoroughfares that seemed the dirtiest & least safe. It was down these lonely alleys that we saw some of the nicest trattorias. Also humourously, although these little lanes were barely wide enough for my little (big) family to walk down arm & arm, we kept having to get out of the way of not only scooters & motorcycles but cars! Sadly, my map was useless. We were on some of those narrow lanes that don't merit a mention in the travel books.
Finally, we stumbled upon an art square that I recognized having entered from the opposite side previously. Making a mental note on how to get back to those interesting looking eateries, we guided ourselves back to our bus terminal, arriving in time to catch a direct hop home.
Lesson learned? Always map your bus route home before venturing out!
The rest of the day was spent recovering & relaxing. I took a brief nap on the couch, my BIL cooked polenta and ribs, and the kids played with cousins & watched a movie. I also figured outhow to head off insomnia: consume some afternoon caffiene and stay up until midnight!
-Jen
Thursday, February 7, 2013
Touch-down in Rome
I'm posting my travelogue for a friend who is traveling to Rome pregnant!
Touch-down in Rome:
Jen (seven months pregnant) and the five kids visit family in Rome.
September 25, 2010
I wouldn't recommend the flight to anyone with kids: incredibly long & TONS of turbulence. Poor Kitty lost her dinner! The kids were GREAT, though, real troopers! Now that we are here, I'm starting to relax. Since I'm staying with family, I think I'll get to experience a bit of what it's like to live here in addition the tourist side. My BIL is a bit jaded by the corruption, but I can see Rome with fresh eyes, I don't have to live with it.
We had a great drive through town to my in-laws flat. The driver was very knowledgeable & gave us a good narrated tour. I've already seen the collusium, the Basilica of St John Latern, the Basilica of St Paul (or is it Peter & Paul?), Bernini square, etc, albiet all from the exterior. Can't wait to start exploring!
The Villa we are staying in is probably 12,000 sq ft, broken into three? four? flats. I love architecture (especially residential buildings like this) so I'm in heaven! Earlier I was lying in bed with windows open & the inner shutters closed, listening to the street noise, the light from the garden below coming through the slats. The ceilings 14 feet high, the walls are over a foot thick, the doors & windows 10 feet high, the floor marble, parquet, inlaid tile, etc.
Last night we went out to dinner at a little cafe walking distance from their house (wished I'd left the the 2YO at home, he was a PILL, but we survived), delicious food. Afterward, we went to a park called Villa Borgeshe. Gorgeous. I think we'll go strolling over there daily. We are just outside the city walls, on the "old" side of town (100 BC). The Vatican is in the "new part of town" (200 AD, you can turn your nose up now, and sniff distainfully...lol).
Tomorrow my BIL is going to help me get oriented & buy some bus tickets, take us out for gelato, etc! Hopefully, the swelling in my feet will go down with some walking. I think it's from sitting on a plane too long. This is a lot for a chunky, middle aged woman who is seven months pregnant!
I can't wait for my first Roman Mass.
Well, it's 3:25 am... yes, insomnia, even in Rome!
9/26
After my bout with insomnia, although we wanted to get an early start, we slept in until 10:30 am. However, after a good breakfast (for the kids that meant pancakes, for me that meant aged parma & a delicious hard salami), we got on the road. Our goal today was simply to orient me to the city and to teach me how to navigate around.
First we caught the bus "Via Archemede" to Piazza Sylvestri and then walked to the Pantheon. Via Archimedes is special to our clan as we have studied him in our schooling. The Pantheon was an amazing piece of Roman architecture, but is now a church. I took a few pictures, but felt uncomfortable because I couldn't find the tabernacle. We are going to try to go back Sunday for Mass. They only have Mass for the Saturday vigil & one for Sunday morning each week, so I hope it's not too crowded.
After the Pantheon, we visited the "French Church". Sitting on the steps were the first "Roma" (beggars) we saw. Inside, we also saw our first Carravaggio. Quite a contrast, huh? The French church is beautiful & we will go there for Mass if the Pantheon is too crowded, but otherwise since they have daily Mass, I plan to hit it during the week.
Although I did find the tabernacle in this church (it was much more tradtional in design), I was disappointed that we were the only ones to genuflect before the tabernacle. Another consideration I'm going to have to ponder is veiling. If we veil at HOME whenever we enter a church, I suppose I should do it here? I brought my veils for Mass but did not bring them for our daily adventure.
We covered a lot of ground Saturday, all of which I plan on retracing at a much slower pace, but my goal was more to get my "city legs" (or my internal compass set). After we visited the French church, we walked to Piazza Navona. At that point, I needed to sit down. We sat in front of the world famous fountain, but I was busier rehydrating than sightseeing at that moment.
After catching my breath, we walked toward Piazza Campo D. Fiori, an open air market. Before we got there, we bought our first panini (salami, proscuitto, ham, turkey, or just tomato & motz). The salami was delicious (Jonny), but I think I probably made the best choice with a simple tomato & fresh motz. I also had my first Fanta (orange soda). It was nothing like a 'food dye & syrup' orange soda from the US but rather more like our Orangina, which my BIL tells me is even BETTER in Italy.
We walked past the market, but as we were too late for the fruit & veggies and I wasn't interested in tee shirts, knock-off bags, or mismatched dishes, we continued on to Piazza Farnese to sit on benches in front of the French embassy to eat our panini. We must not have been the only ones to make that choice in recent history as the pigeons found us immediately. I love birds, from a distance, love to listen to their cooing and calls, but ... not up close ... and not that many. Interesting side note on all these beautiful old buildings, my BIL informed me that upkeep on the French embassy alone is OVER 16 million Euros a YEAR ($20 million US).
After lunch we decided to head back. On the way back I saw store that sold all sorts of delectibles, from the largest Mortadella sausage I ever saw (a good four feet long & 18 inches around) to meringue and everything in between. I bought a few martzipan, some meringue (a huge cloud 6 inches long, four wide, & three high), and the best amaretti cookies I ever had. This was an interesting purchase because everything was metric & by weight. So, for example, the amaretti cookies were 35 Euro per Kilo (?). I wanted maybe four? The clerk was very kind & speaking better English than I spoke Italian (well, that's easy as I speak NO Italian), he helped me figure out that one amaretti cookie was about 1.15 Euros, etc. After I picked out my purchases, I had to pay at a different location while he wrapped everything up in paper & ribbon. Then I brought my receipt to him & picked up my items. My BIL says that in some shops you pay FIRST then get your items (not pointing & picking as I did today), and then you really have to break out the Italian. Hmmm, good thing I don't plan on shopping a lot!
We hoped to hit Piazza Minerva and the church of Mary & the Martyrs (?), but it was closed. I'm going to make my way back that way when it's open, plus, around the corner there is a vestments store (a store that sells liturgical clothes for priests) that my BIL says is worth just looking in the windows. I might stop in to see if I can pick something up for a few priest friends, but as the suitcoats in the windows of the regular men's clothing stores ran 3000-8000 Euros ($4500-12000 US), I doubt I'll be able to afford anything nicer than a cinture.
We walked back to Piazza Sylvestri & caught "Via Archimede" back to the flat. I took a much needed break before taking all the kids (solo) up the street for our first gelato. It was... ok. Of course, it was probably the DQ grade of gelato. I don't mind marching the troops up there daily, but I'll wait to partake of some of the better gelatorias. After that we hit the park across the street again to burn off the sugar before dinner.
Just before dinner, we skyped with my hubby. Humously, the boys were more interested in showing Daddy the Legos that I bought them for the trip than mentioning the highlights of the day, but I know they will remember this trip for a long time, even if they don't recognize the importance now.
My BIL roasted delicious chickens & zuccini which he served with rice, a tomato & motz salad, & Greek yogurt. It was delicious. After dinner, I broke out the treats. The martzipan was disappointing, but the kids loved the meringue and I, the amaretti cookies. Then my BIL took the kids back to the park & I bathed Mikey & put him to bed. Then my other rug-rats bathed while the cousins talked to their mother. Soon after, I had to send the kids to bed because I was starting to fall asleep sitting up.
However, while MK was in the shower, my BIL & I chatted and I got a (very temporary) second wind. I knew it was technically too early to go to bed as I'd wake up in the middle of the night, but as I was too tired to write this then, I figured I would take this time to get this down, with the added advantage that the house would be quiet, and I was right. So, insomnia put to good use.
Good night until tomorrow! I have the alarm set for 7:30 am so that we can hit Mass somewhere (for most places, it's only one Mass on Sunday, 10:30am). My BIL is going to make the kids French toast & I'm hoping to sneak some more Parma & salami!
-Jen
Touch-down in Rome:
Jen (seven months pregnant) and the five kids visit family in Rome.
September 25, 2010
I wouldn't recommend the flight to anyone with kids: incredibly long & TONS of turbulence. Poor Kitty lost her dinner! The kids were GREAT, though, real troopers! Now that we are here, I'm starting to relax. Since I'm staying with family, I think I'll get to experience a bit of what it's like to live here in addition the tourist side. My BIL is a bit jaded by the corruption, but I can see Rome with fresh eyes, I don't have to live with it.
We had a great drive through town to my in-laws flat. The driver was very knowledgeable & gave us a good narrated tour. I've already seen the collusium, the Basilica of St John Latern, the Basilica of St Paul (or is it Peter & Paul?), Bernini square, etc, albiet all from the exterior. Can't wait to start exploring!
The Villa we are staying in is probably 12,000 sq ft, broken into three? four? flats. I love architecture (especially residential buildings like this) so I'm in heaven! Earlier I was lying in bed with windows open & the inner shutters closed, listening to the street noise, the light from the garden below coming through the slats. The ceilings 14 feet high, the walls are over a foot thick, the doors & windows 10 feet high, the floor marble, parquet, inlaid tile, etc.
Last night we went out to dinner at a little cafe walking distance from their house (wished I'd left the the 2YO at home, he was a PILL, but we survived), delicious food. Afterward, we went to a park called Villa Borgeshe. Gorgeous. I think we'll go strolling over there daily. We are just outside the city walls, on the "old" side of town (100 BC). The Vatican is in the "new part of town" (200 AD, you can turn your nose up now, and sniff distainfully...lol).
Tomorrow my BIL is going to help me get oriented & buy some bus tickets, take us out for gelato, etc! Hopefully, the swelling in my feet will go down with some walking. I think it's from sitting on a plane too long. This is a lot for a chunky, middle aged woman who is seven months pregnant!
I can't wait for my first Roman Mass.
Well, it's 3:25 am... yes, insomnia, even in Rome!
9/26
After my bout with insomnia, although we wanted to get an early start, we slept in until 10:30 am. However, after a good breakfast (for the kids that meant pancakes, for me that meant aged parma & a delicious hard salami), we got on the road. Our goal today was simply to orient me to the city and to teach me how to navigate around.
First we caught the bus "Via Archemede" to Piazza Sylvestri and then walked to the Pantheon. Via Archimedes is special to our clan as we have studied him in our schooling. The Pantheon was an amazing piece of Roman architecture, but is now a church. I took a few pictures, but felt uncomfortable because I couldn't find the tabernacle. We are going to try to go back Sunday for Mass. They only have Mass for the Saturday vigil & one for Sunday morning each week, so I hope it's not too crowded.
After the Pantheon, we visited the "French Church". Sitting on the steps were the first "Roma" (beggars) we saw. Inside, we also saw our first Carravaggio. Quite a contrast, huh? The French church is beautiful & we will go there for Mass if the Pantheon is too crowded, but otherwise since they have daily Mass, I plan to hit it during the week.
Although I did find the tabernacle in this church (it was much more tradtional in design), I was disappointed that we were the only ones to genuflect before the tabernacle. Another consideration I'm going to have to ponder is veiling. If we veil at HOME whenever we enter a church, I suppose I should do it here? I brought my veils for Mass but did not bring them for our daily adventure.
We covered a lot of ground Saturday, all of which I plan on retracing at a much slower pace, but my goal was more to get my "city legs" (or my internal compass set). After we visited the French church, we walked to Piazza Navona. At that point, I needed to sit down. We sat in front of the world famous fountain, but I was busier rehydrating than sightseeing at that moment.
After catching my breath, we walked toward Piazza Campo D. Fiori, an open air market. Before we got there, we bought our first panini (salami, proscuitto, ham, turkey, or just tomato & motz). The salami was delicious (Jonny), but I think I probably made the best choice with a simple tomato & fresh motz. I also had my first Fanta (orange soda). It was nothing like a 'food dye & syrup' orange soda from the US but rather more like our Orangina, which my BIL tells me is even BETTER in Italy.
We walked past the market, but as we were too late for the fruit & veggies and I wasn't interested in tee shirts, knock-off bags, or mismatched dishes, we continued on to Piazza Farnese to sit on benches in front of the French embassy to eat our panini. We must not have been the only ones to make that choice in recent history as the pigeons found us immediately. I love birds, from a distance, love to listen to their cooing and calls, but ... not up close ... and not that many. Interesting side note on all these beautiful old buildings, my BIL informed me that upkeep on the French embassy alone is OVER 16 million Euros a YEAR ($20 million US).
After lunch we decided to head back. On the way back I saw store that sold all sorts of delectibles, from the largest Mortadella sausage I ever saw (a good four feet long & 18 inches around) to meringue and everything in between. I bought a few martzipan, some meringue (a huge cloud 6 inches long, four wide, & three high), and the best amaretti cookies I ever had. This was an interesting purchase because everything was metric & by weight. So, for example, the amaretti cookies were 35 Euro per Kilo (?). I wanted maybe four? The clerk was very kind & speaking better English than I spoke Italian (well, that's easy as I speak NO Italian), he helped me figure out that one amaretti cookie was about 1.15 Euros, etc. After I picked out my purchases, I had to pay at a different location while he wrapped everything up in paper & ribbon. Then I brought my receipt to him & picked up my items. My BIL says that in some shops you pay FIRST then get your items (not pointing & picking as I did today), and then you really have to break out the Italian. Hmmm, good thing I don't plan on shopping a lot!
We hoped to hit Piazza Minerva and the church of Mary & the Martyrs (?), but it was closed. I'm going to make my way back that way when it's open, plus, around the corner there is a vestments store (a store that sells liturgical clothes for priests) that my BIL says is worth just looking in the windows. I might stop in to see if I can pick something up for a few priest friends, but as the suitcoats in the windows of the regular men's clothing stores ran 3000-8000 Euros ($4500-12000 US), I doubt I'll be able to afford anything nicer than a cinture.
We walked back to Piazza Sylvestri & caught "Via Archimede" back to the flat. I took a much needed break before taking all the kids (solo) up the street for our first gelato. It was... ok. Of course, it was probably the DQ grade of gelato. I don't mind marching the troops up there daily, but I'll wait to partake of some of the better gelatorias. After that we hit the park across the street again to burn off the sugar before dinner.
Just before dinner, we skyped with my hubby. Humously, the boys were more interested in showing Daddy the Legos that I bought them for the trip than mentioning the highlights of the day, but I know they will remember this trip for a long time, even if they don't recognize the importance now.
My BIL roasted delicious chickens & zuccini which he served with rice, a tomato & motz salad, & Greek yogurt. It was delicious. After dinner, I broke out the treats. The martzipan was disappointing, but the kids loved the meringue and I, the amaretti cookies. Then my BIL took the kids back to the park & I bathed Mikey & put him to bed. Then my other rug-rats bathed while the cousins talked to their mother. Soon after, I had to send the kids to bed because I was starting to fall asleep sitting up.
However, while MK was in the shower, my BIL & I chatted and I got a (very temporary) second wind. I knew it was technically too early to go to bed as I'd wake up in the middle of the night, but as I was too tired to write this then, I figured I would take this time to get this down, with the added advantage that the house would be quiet, and I was right. So, insomnia put to good use.
Good night until tomorrow! I have the alarm set for 7:30 am so that we can hit Mass somewhere (for most places, it's only one Mass on Sunday, 10:30am). My BIL is going to make the kids French toast & I'm hoping to sneak some more Parma & salami!
-Jen
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Reading Shakespeare
The "bigs" are reading Shakespeare this year.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/9797617/Shakespeare-and-Wordsworth-boost-the-brain-new-research-reveals.html
-Jen
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/9797617/Shakespeare-and-Wordsworth-boost-the-brain-new-research-reveals.html
-Jen
Saturday, January 26, 2013
Prolife article for my filing cabinet
http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2013/01/7679/
The Real Reason to Criticize Roe
by Daniel K. Williams
January 24th, 2013
Pro-lifers need to better understand the history of the pro-life movement and what Roe did to it.
On the fortieth anniversary of Roe v. Wade, it has suddenly become fashionable in certain circles to suggest that the controversial Supreme Court decision was actually a blessing in disguise for pro-lifers, because it breathed new life into a fledgling right-to-life movement and put the abortion rights movement permanently on the defensive. Pro-choice activists have been “losing ever since” Roe, a Time magazine cover story proclaimed this month. Jon Shields pushed this argument even further in the January issue of First Things, declaring that Roe “crippled the pro-choice and energized the pro-life movement, creating one of the largest campaigns of moral suasion in American history.”
Unfortunately, most pro-lifers are unprepared to respond to claims like these, because for years pro-lifers have not really understood what Roe did. They have too often accepted the myth that neither legal abortion nor an organized pro-life movement existed prior to Roe. Although they have denounced Roe vociferously, they have justified doing so with the erroneous argument that Roe was the primary cause of the nation’s high rate of legal abortion, as though legal abortion did not exist in the United States before 1973.
Actually, Roe did not introduce legal abortion to the United States; it did something even worse. Prior to Roe, legal abortion existed, but so did a large, vigorous pro-life movement, and that movement was beginning to win the public debate on abortion. Roe deprived the pro-life movement of its legal victories and allowed abortion to become more available to poor and minority women. It subverted the democratic process and led to a partisan polarization that only grew worse with time. Perhaps worst of all, it nullified the pro-life movement’s constitutional arguments and enshrined in case law a constitutional interpretation that deprived the unborn of any constitutional rights.
Contrary to popular belief, legal abortion was widely available in the United States prior to Roe. Legal abortion for limited reasons had been introduced in Colorado and California in 1967. Abortion on demand (that is, legal abortion for any reason) was introduced to the United States in 1970, three years before Roe, when New York and three other states began permitting unrestricted abortions up to the twentieth or twenty-fourth week of pregnancy. Because New York and California’s abortion laws lacked a residency requirement, some abortion providers began offering travel packages for women to fly to New York or Los Angeles to terminate their pregnancies. Hundreds of thousands of American women did so; in 1972, the year before Roe v. Wade, there were 586,760 legal abortions performed in the United States.
But prior to Roe, there was also a large, well-organized pro-life movement that was beginning to turn back the tide against abortion legalization. After losing numerous state legislative debates over abortion policy between 1967 and 1970, pro-lifers reorganized, and beginning in 1971, they experienced a string of uninterrupted legislative victories. By using fetal photographs to convince the public of the evils of abortion, and by making Protestants, Jews, and women the spokespersons for their movement in order to avoid charges of sectarianism or chauvinism, pro-lifers gained a hearing for their cause.
In the spring of 1971, pro-lifers defeated abortion legalization bills in all twenty-five of the state legislatures that considered them. The next year, their record was almost as successful: Only one state liberalized its abortion law, and it did so only under court order. Pro-lifers were equally successful at the ballot box. When Michigan and North Dakota introduced voter initiatives to legalize abortion in 1972, pro-lifers defeated both measures by wide margins. By the end of 1972, pro-lifers thought that they were probably within only one year of repealing New York’s permissive abortion law, and the director of Planned Parenthood’s Western Region division worried that pro-lifers would soon make abortion illegal in California too. “In the West we view ’73 as a difficult year for abortion,” he confided to a colleague in the summer of 1972.
Roe stopped a victorious pro-life movement in its tracks and deprived it of its gains through the democratic process. It forced dozens of states to legalize the procedure against the will of their citizens. When Roe was issued, only nineteen states had adopted liberalized abortion laws, and only four of those states had laws on the books that allowed abortion on demand. Roe required every state to allow abortion on demand.
In 1973, the first year after the Roe decision was issued, there were approximately 750,000 legal abortions performed in the United States—a 28-percent increase over the previous year. By 1980, after abortion clinics had been built across the nation, the annual abortion rate had doubled to 1.5 million.
Roe also made abortion more available to poor women, as the number of clinics quickly expanded after the decision. State and federal governments also funded abortions for poor women through Medicaid, prior to the Hyde Amendment. This availability led to higher abortion rates among poor and minority women. By 2008, 55 percent of the country’s legal abortions were performed on black or Hispanic women, while only 36 percent were performed on non-Hispanic whites. Forty-two percent of women who obtained abortions in 2008 were living below the poverty line. In 1973, by contrast, 75 percent of the women who obtained legal abortions were white. Many pro-lifers view this shift of abortion services to the poor and minorities as a sign that society has refused to offer substantive solutions to the problems that impoverished women face, and has instead simply encouraged them to terminate their pregnancies.
But what really made Roe an egregious decision, in the view of pro-lifers, was that it deprived a class of people of their constitutional rights by declaring them non-persons, something they thought the Supreme Court had not done since Dred Scott v. Sandford in 1857. Prior to Roe, pro-life lawyers had found a receptive audience in some state and federal courts for their argument that the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments’ due process clauses protected fetal life, and that the legalization of abortion on demand was therefore unconstitutional. As the Fifth Amendment states, under the Constitution no person can “be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.” If fetuses were human persons, then their lives were constitutionally protected.
Pro-life lawyers believed that case law supported their argument that fetuses were indeed human persons, and that they therefore enjoyed the constitutionally protected right to life. Already, they pointed out, several courts had recognized fetal personhood in prenatal damage cases. In Smith v. Brennan (1960), for instance, the New Jersey state supreme court declared that because “medical authority recognizes that an unborn child is a distinct biological entity from the time of conception,” parents of an unborn child whose life was terminated in an accident had the right to sue for compensation for the loss of their child’s life. Similarly, in O’Neill v. Morse (1971), the Michigan state supreme court declared that the fetus was a “person” with an existence separate from the mother, and that “the phenomenon of birth is not the beginning of life; it is merely a change in the form of life.”
If fetuses were declared to be persons for the sake of prenatal damage claims, then the law could not deprive them of personhood in abortion cases, pro-life lawyers argued. Some courts accepted this argument. In 1967, for instance, the New Jersey state supreme court ruled in Gleitman v. Cosgrove that fetal birth defects caused by rubella did not constitute grounds for an abortion, because “the right to life is inalienable in our society.”
But the legal tide began turning against the pro-life movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s because of courts’ increasingly broad interpretations of the “right to privacy.” In 1965 the Supreme Court declared in Griswold v. Connecticut that the right to privacy gave married couples the right to use birth control without state interference. Citing that ruling, the California state supreme court declared in People v. Belous (1969) that “the fundamental right of the woman to choose whether to bear children” made restrictive abortion laws unconstitutional. Other state supreme courts adopted Belous’s reasoning. In 1972, courts in Florida, New Jersey, and other states struck down restrictive abortion laws.
Roe codified this new interpretation of the right to privacy in constitutional case law and prevented pro-life lawyers from ever again gaining a legal hearing for their argument that the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments protect fetal life. By a vote of seven members, the Court deprived the unborn of the most basic rights of personhood and made it legal to terminate their existence. “The horrible truth is, the Court’s decision put our nation officially in favor of killing by law,” pro-life activist J. P. McFadden declared in National Review.
When the Supreme Court rejected their constitutional argument, pro-lifers dedicated their efforts to passing a Human Life Amendment (HLA) that would enshrine the protection of the fetus’s right to life in the Constitution. When the HLA failed to pass in Congress, after more than a decade of repeated attempts to bring it to a floor vote, pro-lifers began a campaign to reverse Roe by changing the composition of the Supreme Court. That campaign polarized the nation’s political parties, making each judicial nomination a battleground over abortion. After working for thirty years to change the composition of the Supreme Court, pro-lifers have not yet been able to find the five judicial votes needed to reverse Roe.
If Roe is overturned someday, its reversal will not end legal abortion in the United States, nor will it likely have an immediate impact on the abortion rate, because the states that are the largest providers of abortion have already signaled that they will continue to permit unrestricted abortion in the event that Roe is overturned. Nor would Roe’s reversal end the nation’s debate over abortion; in fact, Jon Shields is probably right to argue that the reversal would result in a pro-choice backlash.
Yet if Roe is reversed, no state legislature or lower court will ever again have to accept abortion as a sacrosanct constitutional right, and pro-lifers will once again have the freedom to argue, without fear of contempt or ridicule, that the Constitution protects the right to life of the unborn child. Roe cut off public discussion of these questions; the reversal of Roe would open it up again.
Surely all pro-lifers can agree that Roe is a travesty of justice against the unborn child's right to life. Still, they need to make the right criticism of Roe.The decision neither started legal abortion nor hurt pro-choice momentum, but instead set back a trajectory of pro-life progress that is still reviving after forty years.
The Real Reason to Criticize Roe
by Daniel K. Williams
January 24th, 2013
Pro-lifers need to better understand the history of the pro-life movement and what Roe did to it.
On the fortieth anniversary of Roe v. Wade, it has suddenly become fashionable in certain circles to suggest that the controversial Supreme Court decision was actually a blessing in disguise for pro-lifers, because it breathed new life into a fledgling right-to-life movement and put the abortion rights movement permanently on the defensive. Pro-choice activists have been “losing ever since” Roe, a Time magazine cover story proclaimed this month. Jon Shields pushed this argument even further in the January issue of First Things, declaring that Roe “crippled the pro-choice and energized the pro-life movement, creating one of the largest campaigns of moral suasion in American history.”
Unfortunately, most pro-lifers are unprepared to respond to claims like these, because for years pro-lifers have not really understood what Roe did. They have too often accepted the myth that neither legal abortion nor an organized pro-life movement existed prior to Roe. Although they have denounced Roe vociferously, they have justified doing so with the erroneous argument that Roe was the primary cause of the nation’s high rate of legal abortion, as though legal abortion did not exist in the United States before 1973.
Actually, Roe did not introduce legal abortion to the United States; it did something even worse. Prior to Roe, legal abortion existed, but so did a large, vigorous pro-life movement, and that movement was beginning to win the public debate on abortion. Roe deprived the pro-life movement of its legal victories and allowed abortion to become more available to poor and minority women. It subverted the democratic process and led to a partisan polarization that only grew worse with time. Perhaps worst of all, it nullified the pro-life movement’s constitutional arguments and enshrined in case law a constitutional interpretation that deprived the unborn of any constitutional rights.
Contrary to popular belief, legal abortion was widely available in the United States prior to Roe. Legal abortion for limited reasons had been introduced in Colorado and California in 1967. Abortion on demand (that is, legal abortion for any reason) was introduced to the United States in 1970, three years before Roe, when New York and three other states began permitting unrestricted abortions up to the twentieth or twenty-fourth week of pregnancy. Because New York and California’s abortion laws lacked a residency requirement, some abortion providers began offering travel packages for women to fly to New York or Los Angeles to terminate their pregnancies. Hundreds of thousands of American women did so; in 1972, the year before Roe v. Wade, there were 586,760 legal abortions performed in the United States.
But prior to Roe, there was also a large, well-organized pro-life movement that was beginning to turn back the tide against abortion legalization. After losing numerous state legislative debates over abortion policy between 1967 and 1970, pro-lifers reorganized, and beginning in 1971, they experienced a string of uninterrupted legislative victories. By using fetal photographs to convince the public of the evils of abortion, and by making Protestants, Jews, and women the spokespersons for their movement in order to avoid charges of sectarianism or chauvinism, pro-lifers gained a hearing for their cause.
In the spring of 1971, pro-lifers defeated abortion legalization bills in all twenty-five of the state legislatures that considered them. The next year, their record was almost as successful: Only one state liberalized its abortion law, and it did so only under court order. Pro-lifers were equally successful at the ballot box. When Michigan and North Dakota introduced voter initiatives to legalize abortion in 1972, pro-lifers defeated both measures by wide margins. By the end of 1972, pro-lifers thought that they were probably within only one year of repealing New York’s permissive abortion law, and the director of Planned Parenthood’s Western Region division worried that pro-lifers would soon make abortion illegal in California too. “In the West we view ’73 as a difficult year for abortion,” he confided to a colleague in the summer of 1972.
Roe stopped a victorious pro-life movement in its tracks and deprived it of its gains through the democratic process. It forced dozens of states to legalize the procedure against the will of their citizens. When Roe was issued, only nineteen states had adopted liberalized abortion laws, and only four of those states had laws on the books that allowed abortion on demand. Roe required every state to allow abortion on demand.
In 1973, the first year after the Roe decision was issued, there were approximately 750,000 legal abortions performed in the United States—a 28-percent increase over the previous year. By 1980, after abortion clinics had been built across the nation, the annual abortion rate had doubled to 1.5 million.
Roe also made abortion more available to poor women, as the number of clinics quickly expanded after the decision. State and federal governments also funded abortions for poor women through Medicaid, prior to the Hyde Amendment. This availability led to higher abortion rates among poor and minority women. By 2008, 55 percent of the country’s legal abortions were performed on black or Hispanic women, while only 36 percent were performed on non-Hispanic whites. Forty-two percent of women who obtained abortions in 2008 were living below the poverty line. In 1973, by contrast, 75 percent of the women who obtained legal abortions were white. Many pro-lifers view this shift of abortion services to the poor and minorities as a sign that society has refused to offer substantive solutions to the problems that impoverished women face, and has instead simply encouraged them to terminate their pregnancies.
But what really made Roe an egregious decision, in the view of pro-lifers, was that it deprived a class of people of their constitutional rights by declaring them non-persons, something they thought the Supreme Court had not done since Dred Scott v. Sandford in 1857. Prior to Roe, pro-life lawyers had found a receptive audience in some state and federal courts for their argument that the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments’ due process clauses protected fetal life, and that the legalization of abortion on demand was therefore unconstitutional. As the Fifth Amendment states, under the Constitution no person can “be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.” If fetuses were human persons, then their lives were constitutionally protected.
Pro-life lawyers believed that case law supported their argument that fetuses were indeed human persons, and that they therefore enjoyed the constitutionally protected right to life. Already, they pointed out, several courts had recognized fetal personhood in prenatal damage cases. In Smith v. Brennan (1960), for instance, the New Jersey state supreme court declared that because “medical authority recognizes that an unborn child is a distinct biological entity from the time of conception,” parents of an unborn child whose life was terminated in an accident had the right to sue for compensation for the loss of their child’s life. Similarly, in O’Neill v. Morse (1971), the Michigan state supreme court declared that the fetus was a “person” with an existence separate from the mother, and that “the phenomenon of birth is not the beginning of life; it is merely a change in the form of life.”
If fetuses were declared to be persons for the sake of prenatal damage claims, then the law could not deprive them of personhood in abortion cases, pro-life lawyers argued. Some courts accepted this argument. In 1967, for instance, the New Jersey state supreme court ruled in Gleitman v. Cosgrove that fetal birth defects caused by rubella did not constitute grounds for an abortion, because “the right to life is inalienable in our society.”
But the legal tide began turning against the pro-life movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s because of courts’ increasingly broad interpretations of the “right to privacy.” In 1965 the Supreme Court declared in Griswold v. Connecticut that the right to privacy gave married couples the right to use birth control without state interference. Citing that ruling, the California state supreme court declared in People v. Belous (1969) that “the fundamental right of the woman to choose whether to bear children” made restrictive abortion laws unconstitutional. Other state supreme courts adopted Belous’s reasoning. In 1972, courts in Florida, New Jersey, and other states struck down restrictive abortion laws.
Roe codified this new interpretation of the right to privacy in constitutional case law and prevented pro-life lawyers from ever again gaining a legal hearing for their argument that the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments protect fetal life. By a vote of seven members, the Court deprived the unborn of the most basic rights of personhood and made it legal to terminate their existence. “The horrible truth is, the Court’s decision put our nation officially in favor of killing by law,” pro-life activist J. P. McFadden declared in National Review.
When the Supreme Court rejected their constitutional argument, pro-lifers dedicated their efforts to passing a Human Life Amendment (HLA) that would enshrine the protection of the fetus’s right to life in the Constitution. When the HLA failed to pass in Congress, after more than a decade of repeated attempts to bring it to a floor vote, pro-lifers began a campaign to reverse Roe by changing the composition of the Supreme Court. That campaign polarized the nation’s political parties, making each judicial nomination a battleground over abortion. After working for thirty years to change the composition of the Supreme Court, pro-lifers have not yet been able to find the five judicial votes needed to reverse Roe.
If Roe is overturned someday, its reversal will not end legal abortion in the United States, nor will it likely have an immediate impact on the abortion rate, because the states that are the largest providers of abortion have already signaled that they will continue to permit unrestricted abortion in the event that Roe is overturned. Nor would Roe’s reversal end the nation’s debate over abortion; in fact, Jon Shields is probably right to argue that the reversal would result in a pro-choice backlash.
Yet if Roe is reversed, no state legislature or lower court will ever again have to accept abortion as a sacrosanct constitutional right, and pro-lifers will once again have the freedom to argue, without fear of contempt or ridicule, that the Constitution protects the right to life of the unborn child. Roe cut off public discussion of these questions; the reversal of Roe would open it up again.
Surely all pro-lifers can agree that Roe is a travesty of justice against the unborn child's right to life. Still, they need to make the right criticism of Roe.The decision neither started legal abortion nor hurt pro-choice momentum, but instead set back a trajectory of pro-life progress that is still reviving after forty years.
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Balance
When I read something like this:
http://higherupandfurtherin.blogspot.com/2013/01/group-studies-being-educated-on-things.html?m=1
I am so thankful that I homeschool. We can get so focused on pragmatics that we lose sight that we are moulding souls. People are not just producers; they are thinking, feeling, creating beings.
Take time for all extra-curricular. I don't mean playing video games & watching movies, though those can have a small place in your life. I mean the things which add depth & texture to life; music, art, literature, handicrafts (knitting, woodworking), exercise, nature & animals. And remember, you are raising children, not producers.
-Jen
http://higherupandfurtherin.blogspot.com/2013/01/group-studies-being-educated-on-things.html?m=1
I am so thankful that I homeschool. We can get so focused on pragmatics that we lose sight that we are moulding souls. People are not just producers; they are thinking, feeling, creating beings.
Take time for all extra-curricular. I don't mean playing video games & watching movies, though those can have a small place in your life. I mean the things which add depth & texture to life; music, art, literature, handicrafts (knitting, woodworking), exercise, nature & animals. And remember, you are raising children, not producers.
-Jen
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Name change for my blog
A few weeks ago, as I was leaving a local grocery store with my kids, a woman started yelling at me. As she got more and more worked up, she started throwing out labels like "religious" & "crazy." I did not know where this attack came from, until she pointed at my van, which happens to sport it's fair share of pro-life bumper stickers. Ahhh....
Insert a conversation a few days later on a social media site where I told someone I couldn't adopt their cat, as I have three already, or I'd become "that crazy cat lady"... as I thought about it, the two thoughts started to merge.
I suppose I am a bit "different." I have six kids whom I school at home. I am pro-life and "religious." I have a lot of animals (two dogs, three cats, two guppies, and a flock of chickens). Maybe I really was "that crazy religious lady." Anyway, for now, I'm embracing my individuality.
Maybe I will change the name again as I change the way I feel about things.
Insert a conversation a few days later on a social media site where I told someone I couldn't adopt their cat, as I have three already, or I'd become "that crazy cat lady"... as I thought about it, the two thoughts started to merge.
I suppose I am a bit "different." I have six kids whom I school at home. I am pro-life and "religious." I have a lot of animals (two dogs, three cats, two guppies, and a flock of chickens). Maybe I really was "that crazy religious lady." Anyway, for now, I'm embracing my individuality.
Maybe I will change the name again as I change the way I feel about things.
On reading good books
These two articles were something of interest to me:
http://www.higherupandfurtherin.blogspot.com/2012/10/what-about-hard-books-and-uninterested.html
http://www.higherupandfurtherin.blogspot.com/2012/11/tips-on-getting-children-interested-in.html
http://www.higherupandfurtherin.blogspot.com/2012/10/what-about-hard-books-and-uninterested.html
http://www.higherupandfurtherin.blogspot.com/2012/11/tips-on-getting-children-interested-in.html
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Meditations on the Art of Waiting
We've been reading this book during Advent.
http://www.ignatius.com/Products/CLJ-P/come-lord-jesus.aspx
It is wonderful. Every reading speaks to me! I cannot recommend it enough.
http://www.ignatius.com/Products/CLJ-P/come-lord-jesus.aspx
It is wonderful. Every reading speaks to me! I cannot recommend it enough.
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
A Vocation to Holiness through Motherhood
My friend Caroline, over at Catholic Sunshine http://caroline-catholicsunshine.blogspot.com/ had this to say today:
This perfectly sums up my view of my vocation as a mother.
"Earlier today I changed my 10 month old's diaper, dressed him in some clean clothes and nursed him. What a beautiful thing it is to have a baby for whom to care. I was thinking of Mother Teresa and her serving Christ in those to whom she ministered. "What so ever you do for these, the least of my children, that you do unto Me." Mother Teresa would repeat these words to herself as she cared for the poorest of the poor. In simply caring for my little baby, I have accomplished a lot on this day, and in so doing, I have cared for Jesus Himself! May Mother Teresa pray for my vocation of Motherhood, and for all Mothers, that we may be holy, gentle, and loving women to our husbands, children, and neighbors. God Bless and Take Care."
This perfectly sums up my view of my vocation as a mother.
God's Word
As every Sunday Mass at my home parish is a three-ring-circus of performances and calling attention to the laity (today was no exception), I was dreading going. I considered going to another parish to which our former Parochial Vicar had invited me, but I wasn't looking forward to three hours in the van. I have had a very productive week and was torn as to as to what was going to best refuel me for another busy week. What I really wanted was a quiet, God-focused Mass, but perhaps not at the expense of a day in the van. Finally, I chose to just stick it out at our home parish. As such, I knew that I would really need to recollect myself and put all I could into Mass. Sometimes you can come and just receive and sometimes you have to seek God. As Mass began, I prayed to God that the Holy Spirit would be with me and guide me as I needed. I always find that He comes to me when I ask, but that it is a bit like falling asleep, He comes so peacefully, you don't know it until you know it, just as you may not know you were falling asleep until something jerks you awake.
Today in Mass, I was offering up a past wound, a betrayal of sorts. Just as I started to do so the thought came to my head:
Alleluia, of Aggeus and Zacharias.
Praise the Lord, O my soul, in my life I will praise the Lord:
I will sing to my God as long as I shall be.
Put not your trust in princes:
in the children of men, in whom there is no salvation.
His spirit shall go forth, and he shall return into his earth: in that day all their thoughts shall perish.
Blessed is he who hath the God of Jacob for his helper, whose hope is in the Lord his God:
who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all things that are in them.
Who keepeth truth for ever: who executeth judgment for them that suffer wrong: who giveth food to the hungry. The Lord looseth them that are fettered:
the Lord enlighteneth the blind. The Lord lifteth up them that are cast down: the Lord loveth the just.
The Lord keepeth the strangers, he will support the fatherless and the widow: and the ways of sinners he will destroy.
The Lord shall reign for ever: thy God, O Sion, unto generation and generation.
And then a few minutes later, I tuned in to hear this:
I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God,
Today in Mass, I was offering up a past wound, a betrayal of sorts. Just as I started to do so the thought came to my head:
Alleluia, of Aggeus and Zacharias.
Praise the Lord, O my soul, in my life I will praise the Lord:
I will sing to my God as long as I shall be.
Put not your trust in princes:
in the children of men, in whom there is no salvation.
His spirit shall go forth, and he shall return into his earth: in that day all their thoughts shall perish.
Blessed is he who hath the God of Jacob for his helper, whose hope is in the Lord his God:
who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all things that are in them.
Who keepeth truth for ever: who executeth judgment for them that suffer wrong: who giveth food to the hungry. The Lord looseth them that are fettered:
the Lord enlighteneth the blind. The Lord lifteth up them that are cast down: the Lord loveth the just.
The Lord keepeth the strangers, he will support the fatherless and the widow: and the ways of sinners he will destroy.
The Lord shall reign for ever: thy God, O Sion, unto generation and generation.
Psalm 146
And then a few minutes later, I tuned in to hear this:
I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God,
to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice,
holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship.
Do not conform yourselves to this age
but be transformed by the renewal of your mind,
that you may discern what is the will of God,
what is good and pleasing and perfect.
Romans 12:1-2
And then...
Jesus began to show his disciples
that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly
from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,
and be killed and on the third day be raised.
Then Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him,
"God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you."
He turned and said to Peter,
"Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me.
You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do."
Then Jesus said to his disciples
that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly
from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,
and be killed and on the third day be raised.
Then Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him,
"God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you."
He turned and said to Peter,
"Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me.
You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do."
Then Jesus said to his disciples
"Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself,
take up his cross, and follow me.
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world
and forfeit his life"
Or what can one give in exchange for his life?
For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father's glory,
and then he will repay all according to his conduct."
take up his cross, and follow me.
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world
and forfeit his life"
Or what can one give in exchange for his life?
For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father's glory,
and then he will repay all according to his conduct."
Matthew 16:21-27
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Parenting basics
Lately, I have received requests for parenting advice from homeschooling moms of big (and not so big) families. I am not a perfect mom and I'm well aware of my failings (number one among many, I lose my patience), but I suppose the compliment comes because the adults and their children enjoy my children's company. I have to admit that I enjoy my children's company, too! But often, I think they are so very enjoyable IN SPITE of me (read kind, helpful, playful, considerate, respectful of young & old).
That said, I'm going to step out on a limb & share some advice. Behavior is THE most important thing you can work on. Period. If the kids aren't behaving, you can be using the best curriculum in the world and you will be accomplishing nothing.
Specifically, work on the behavior of your eldest child first. Then work your way down the children. You may have darling toddlers, but if you have mouthy pre-teens, guess what? You'll soon have mouthy preschoolers. And more importantly, the elder of your children back you up & reinforce your lessons. This does not mean that you leave parenting to your eldest children, that's just a variation of "The Lord of the Flies," but it does mean that they are role models for your youngers.
And my last piece of advice is to be consistent and follow through. There is nothing more important than your children's behavior (FB, TV, dates with your hubby OR girlfriends). Don't despair when they give you a run for your money, kids WILL test every limit. But if you set clear limits & expectations and follow through with enforcing, punishing, or rewarding consistently, your children will slowly (yes, maybe years) come around.
And THAT is where the real fun begins! That is when the academics soar, the ability to trust your child with responsibilities begins, and your kids are simply a joy to be around. Once they learn self control, you can focus on all the wonderful things that life holds in store for them.
Enjoy your children every minute of everyday, but never lose sight of who you want them to be and consistently guide them to that goal.
That said, I'm going to step out on a limb & share some advice. Behavior is THE most important thing you can work on. Period. If the kids aren't behaving, you can be using the best curriculum in the world and you will be accomplishing nothing.
Specifically, work on the behavior of your eldest child first. Then work your way down the children. You may have darling toddlers, but if you have mouthy pre-teens, guess what? You'll soon have mouthy preschoolers. And more importantly, the elder of your children back you up & reinforce your lessons. This does not mean that you leave parenting to your eldest children, that's just a variation of "The Lord of the Flies," but it does mean that they are role models for your youngers.
And my last piece of advice is to be consistent and follow through. There is nothing more important than your children's behavior (FB, TV, dates with your hubby OR girlfriends). Don't despair when they give you a run for your money, kids WILL test every limit. But if you set clear limits & expectations and follow through with enforcing, punishing, or rewarding consistently, your children will slowly (yes, maybe years) come around.
And THAT is where the real fun begins! That is when the academics soar, the ability to trust your child with responsibilities begins, and your kids are simply a joy to be around. Once they learn self control, you can focus on all the wonderful things that life holds in store for them.
Enjoy your children every minute of everyday, but never lose sight of who you want them to be and consistently guide them to that goal.
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Contentment
I tried to say something to this effect on a home schooling forum to which I was adde; it fell on deaf ears. Chesterton is much more eloquent than I. Perhaps he would have broken through the log-jam.
"True contentment is a thing as active as agriculture. It is the power of getting out of any situation all that there is in it. It is arduous and it is rare. The absence of this digestive talent is what makes so cold and incredible the tales of so many people who say they have been "through" things; when it is evident that they have come out on the other side quite unchanged. A man might have gone "through" a plum pudding as a bullet might go through a plum pudding; it depends on the size of the pudding—and the man. But the awful and sacred question is "Has the pudding been through him?" Has he tasted, appreciated, and absorbed the solid pudding, with its three dimensions and its three thousand tastes and smells? Can he offer himself to the eyes of men as one who has cubically conquered and contained a pudding?
In the same way we may ask of those who profess to have passed through trivial or tragic experiences whether they have absorbed the content of them; whether they licked up such living water as there was. It is a pertinent question in connection with many modern problems."
From The Contented Man
"True contentment is a thing as active as agriculture. It is the power of getting out of any situation all that there is in it. It is arduous and it is rare. The absence of this digestive talent is what makes so cold and incredible the tales of so many people who say they have been "through" things; when it is evident that they have come out on the other side quite unchanged. A man might have gone "through" a plum pudding as a bullet might go through a plum pudding; it depends on the size of the pudding—and the man. But the awful and sacred question is "Has the pudding been through him?" Has he tasted, appreciated, and absorbed the solid pudding, with its three dimensions and its three thousand tastes and smells? Can he offer himself to the eyes of men as one who has cubically conquered and contained a pudding?
In the same way we may ask of those who profess to have passed through trivial or tragic experiences whether they have absorbed the content of them; whether they licked up such living water as there was. It is a pertinent question in connection with many modern problems."
From The Contented Man
Sunday, May 13, 2012
Fulfilling our desires
Thinking more of cultivating a spirit of gratefulness: we must seek what we really desire.
A happy marriage? Look for the good in your spouse. Enjoy your time together, seek to make your differences areas where you grow.
Good kids? Lead them by your honest, hardworking example. Correct them gently but don't indulge them.
So often, what we really desire is SELF, so when our spouse doesn't cater to our whims, they are a jerk and we really just want our kids to let us do our thing, so we bribe & indulge them so they'll leave us alone.
Look at your actions. What do they say about what you REALLY desire?
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
A happy marriage? Look for the good in your spouse. Enjoy your time together, seek to make your differences areas where you grow.
Good kids? Lead them by your honest, hardworking example. Correct them gently but don't indulge them.
So often, what we really desire is SELF, so when our spouse doesn't cater to our whims, they are a jerk and we really just want our kids to let us do our thing, so we bribe & indulge them so they'll leave us alone.
Look at your actions. What do they say about what you REALLY desire?
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Thankfulness
I was out running errands today, grumbling about how I hate to shop. Then it struck me how easy it is to slip into a habit of complaining. And then, because God never passes up a teaching moment, I realized, "I have never once thanked God for being able to pay my grocery bill."
What ungratefulness.
A rather humbling realization.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
What ungratefulness.
A rather humbling realization.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
God's gift of Faith
Are you in the midst of a conversion? Re-version? Is everything so exciting? But perhaps also a little frustrating because you want more, now? Slow down. Relax. Understand, this change inside of you is ALL God's doing. You aren't doing this, nor can you. Savor it all. Enjoy right here. God is slowly drawing you in, pulling you close. He will unfold it all to you, in His time. Rest in the Lord and thank Him for the gift He is bestowing on you.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Monday, April 9, 2012
A slowly blooming flower...
God has been unfolding this lesson to me for the last five years, like a flower blossoming. Sometimes it was painful, but now it brings me joy.
"Our present life is given only to gain the eternal one and if we don't think about it, we build our affections on what belongs to this world, where our life is transitory. When we have to leave it we are afraid and become agitated. Believe me, to live happily in this pilgrimage, we have to aim at the hope of arriving at our Homeland, where we will stay eternally. Meanwhile we have to believe firmly that God calls us to Himself and follows us along the path towards Him. He will never permit anything to happen to us that is not for our greater good. He knows who we are and He will hold out His paternal hand to us during difficulties, so that nothing prevents us from running to Him swiftly. But to enjoy this grace we must have complete trust in Him." St. Padre Pio
"Our present life is given only to gain the eternal one and if we don't think about it, we build our affections on what belongs to this world, where our life is transitory. When we have to leave it we are afraid and become agitated. Believe me, to live happily in this pilgrimage, we have to aim at the hope of arriving at our Homeland, where we will stay eternally. Meanwhile we have to believe firmly that God calls us to Himself and follows us along the path towards Him. He will never permit anything to happen to us that is not for our greater good. He knows who we are and He will hold out His paternal hand to us during difficulties, so that nothing prevents us from running to Him swiftly. But to enjoy this grace we must have complete trust in Him." St. Padre Pio
Friday, March 23, 2012
Teenagers, an excellent article
"What Plato thought no parents would ever do, turn over their own children to others to be reeducated, the parents of America did after World War II. Before then there were no TVs, a few disk jockeys, and some movie stars, but they were seldom allowed in the home, and certainly not allowed to educate the children. Suddenly after the War, into the American home came hordes of them. Few parents would have invited these persons in as guests and yet they turned over the souls of their own children to them to be educated."
http://www.home-school.com/Articles/myth-of-the-teenager.html
http://www.home-school.com/Articles/myth-of-the-teenager.html
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
The Parton saint of Teachers!
"'Your total ignorance of that which you profess to teach merits the death penalty. I doubt whether you would know that St. Cassian of Imola was stabbed to death by his students with their styli. His death, a martyr's honorable one, made him a patron saint of teachers.'" -- Ignatius Reilly, in John Kennedy Toole, A Confederacy of Dunces [1]
As the second semester begins, 'tis well to think of the lot of the teacher. I had not known that there was a "patron saint" of teachers. And if there was one, I presumed, at least for the college and graduate crowd, that it was Thomas Aquinas. But Aquinas, even though he spent a good deal of time dealing with beginners, is usually considered the patron of the more heady philosophical types. We know that Aquinas was not a martyr, even though he died rather young at 49, leaving several unfinished works, including the famous Summa Theologiae.
So when I returned to Washington after Christmas from California, I wanted a book to read on the Alaska Airline Flight #6 from LAX to Reagan National. I was staying with my niece, who lives some twenty minutes from LAX. Among the books on her shelves, I spotted John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces, a title from Swift. I began to read this novel last summer but only covered a few pages. My good niece let me have it to read on the five-hour flight to D.C. Since the Introduction was by Walker Percy, I figured it would be a pretty good read.
Somewhere over the eastern United States, I came to the passage that I cited above, about St. Cassian of Imola, the patron of teachers. Needless to say, I had not heard of St. Cassian before, at least not this one. As I recall, another Cassian, a medieval abbot, wrote something called The Spiritual Meadow. So I looked up Cassian of Imola (a town near Ravenna) on Google. I found a reference to his Feast Day, August 13, from Butler's Lives of the Saints.
Cassian comes from the time of Julian the Apostate, in the fourth century or so. It seems that the Emperor had ordered all teachers to take an oath to the local gods, which Cassian, good Christian that he was, refused to do. (Our modern teachers have to take an oath that they will not refer to any gods, pagan or Christian, something known as "cultural evolution".) Roman soldiers who were Christian had the same problem. It was a local form of swearing loyalty to the state which was identified with the gods. It seemed like state-supported blasphemy, which it was.
Cassian was evidently a pious professor and refused to make such an oath. Whereupon, the local magistrate promptly decided to make an example of him. Cunning man that he was, the official involved the man's own students in his punishment. The students, not having finished the course, evidently had no problem with this strange form of justice. Cassian was stripped and tied to a post. From whence, his students, mindful of the man's punishments for their own scholarly laxities, drew their iron styli—pens used to mark on wax tablets—and stabbed the man to death.
So, here we have it. A Christian teacher was stabbed to death, under orders, by his own students with their own writing instruments in the name of the state for refusing to offer sacrifices to pagan gods. Today we have a more cruel punishment. We do not grant tenure to such stubborn types! But what could be a more graphic example for the scholarly vocation? One shudders to think of the lessons that students may draw from this account of how to deal with teachers!
In recording this remarkable history, the famous Butler laconically remarks, "There is no record of his (St. Cassian's) becoming a patron of teachers in spite of his pre-eminent qualifications for the role." Well, from now on, St. Cassian is my man. Recently, I decided to forbid computers from being used in my classes. But, so far, I have seen no indication of my good students rising to bludgeon Schall to death with their laptops because he would not let them type e-mails to their friends during class. Ever since Ignatius Reilly referred to him, I have had a special devotion to St. Cassian of Imola, patron of teachers. It is probably worth noting that the "dunces" to whom Jonathan Swift referred were no doubt all of high academic standing.
http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/features2008/print2008/schall_patronsaint_jan08.html
As the second semester begins, 'tis well to think of the lot of the teacher. I had not known that there was a "patron saint" of teachers. And if there was one, I presumed, at least for the college and graduate crowd, that it was Thomas Aquinas. But Aquinas, even though he spent a good deal of time dealing with beginners, is usually considered the patron of the more heady philosophical types. We know that Aquinas was not a martyr, even though he died rather young at 49, leaving several unfinished works, including the famous Summa Theologiae.
So when I returned to Washington after Christmas from California, I wanted a book to read on the Alaska Airline Flight #6 from LAX to Reagan National. I was staying with my niece, who lives some twenty minutes from LAX. Among the books on her shelves, I spotted John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces, a title from Swift. I began to read this novel last summer but only covered a few pages. My good niece let me have it to read on the five-hour flight to D.C. Since the Introduction was by Walker Percy, I figured it would be a pretty good read.
Somewhere over the eastern United States, I came to the passage that I cited above, about St. Cassian of Imola, the patron of teachers. Needless to say, I had not heard of St. Cassian before, at least not this one. As I recall, another Cassian, a medieval abbot, wrote something called The Spiritual Meadow. So I looked up Cassian of Imola (a town near Ravenna) on Google. I found a reference to his Feast Day, August 13, from Butler's Lives of the Saints.
Cassian comes from the time of Julian the Apostate, in the fourth century or so. It seems that the Emperor had ordered all teachers to take an oath to the local gods, which Cassian, good Christian that he was, refused to do. (Our modern teachers have to take an oath that they will not refer to any gods, pagan or Christian, something known as "cultural evolution".) Roman soldiers who were Christian had the same problem. It was a local form of swearing loyalty to the state which was identified with the gods. It seemed like state-supported blasphemy, which it was.
Cassian was evidently a pious professor and refused to make such an oath. Whereupon, the local magistrate promptly decided to make an example of him. Cunning man that he was, the official involved the man's own students in his punishment. The students, not having finished the course, evidently had no problem with this strange form of justice. Cassian was stripped and tied to a post. From whence, his students, mindful of the man's punishments for their own scholarly laxities, drew their iron styli—pens used to mark on wax tablets—and stabbed the man to death.
So, here we have it. A Christian teacher was stabbed to death, under orders, by his own students with their own writing instruments in the name of the state for refusing to offer sacrifices to pagan gods. Today we have a more cruel punishment. We do not grant tenure to such stubborn types! But what could be a more graphic example for the scholarly vocation? One shudders to think of the lessons that students may draw from this account of how to deal with teachers!
In recording this remarkable history, the famous Butler laconically remarks, "There is no record of his (St. Cassian's) becoming a patron of teachers in spite of his pre-eminent qualifications for the role." Well, from now on, St. Cassian is my man. Recently, I decided to forbid computers from being used in my classes. But, so far, I have seen no indication of my good students rising to bludgeon Schall to death with their laptops because he would not let them type e-mails to their friends during class. Ever since Ignatius Reilly referred to him, I have had a special devotion to St. Cassian of Imola, patron of teachers. It is probably worth noting that the "dunces" to whom Jonathan Swift referred were no doubt all of high academic standing.
http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/features2008/print2008/schall_patronsaint_jan08.html
20 books to read by the time you are 80...
Just today, I received an e-mail from a student who had been in my class a couple of years ago. He confessed to me that he had not read carefully all the books that I had assigned in class, but now with a little experience—he tells me he is a stand-up comedian in New York!—he realizes that he missed things that would be useful and important him now after a little experience. This is just what Plato said to young men in book seven of the Republic. He wanted to know if I had any books I might suggest to him! Well, I did. I told him to look up the lists in Another Sort of Learning but in particular to read James Thurber's My Life and Hard Times and Chesterton's Orthodoxy.
An interview with Father James V Shall, SJ
http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/features2008/print2008/schall_orderthings2_jan08.html
An interview with Father James V Shall, SJ
http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/features2008/print2008/schall_orderthings2_jan08.html
Saturday, March 10, 2012
The Divine office of a Wife and Mother
Your Divine Office
Your duty now, and the expression of your love for God, is to be fully present to your family. Your "Divine Office" is to cook, and clean, and change dirty diapers, and run errands, and keep the littlest ones amused, and find time to listen to the older children, and to bandage cuts, and look after bruises, and welcome guests -- and every now and then -- to steal a moment or two alone with your husband. Is this incompatible with your desire as an Oblate of our monastery to offer yourself to Our Lord in adoration, in reparation, and in supplication for the holiness of priests?
http://vultus.stblogs.org/2012/01/letter-to-a-novice-oblate-ii.html
Your duty now, and the expression of your love for God, is to be fully present to your family. Your "Divine Office" is to cook, and clean, and change dirty diapers, and run errands, and keep the littlest ones amused, and find time to listen to the older children, and to bandage cuts, and look after bruises, and welcome guests -- and every now and then -- to steal a moment or two alone with your husband. Is this incompatible with your desire as an Oblate of our monastery to offer yourself to Our Lord in adoration, in reparation, and in supplication for the holiness of priests?
http://vultus.stblogs.org/2012/01/letter-to-a-novice-oblate-ii.html
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Children at Mass
"We need to celebrate the noise of children. What a beautiful noise to hear at Mass. It’s the sound of a living, breathing, growing Church."
http://www.ncregister.com/blog/what-you-should-be-thinking-when-you-hear-noisy-kids-at-mass
The Woman's Masterpiece
The woman's masterpiece is the child.
Fr Stephane-Joseph Piat, OFM
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
The ideal conduct of Christian Mothers
"Above all, during the months immediately preceding the birth of her child, the mother should keep close to God, of whom the infant she bears within her is the image, the handiwork, the gift and the child. She should be for her offspring, as it were, a temple, a sanctuary, an altar, a tabernacle. In short, her life should be, so to speak, the life of a living sacrament, a sacrament in act, burying herself in the bosom of that God who has so truly instituted it and hallowed it, so that there she may draw that energy, that enlightening, that natural and supernatural beauty which He wills, and wills precisely by her means, to impart to the child she bears, and to be born of her."
Monsignor Gay
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Real life benefits of home schooling!
There are many excellent reasons to home school. This article outlines a lot of the real life benefits. But my favorite reason is one discovered by accident:
Homeschooling Builds Family Bonds.
Homeschooling brings families closer together. Kids thrive under parental attention, and parents get to really know their kids. Homeschooled siblings tend to be more kind and helpful to each other, also.
See many more excellent reasons below!
http://www.home-school.com/Articles/getting-started-in-homeschooling-the-first-ten-steps.html
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Catechism of the Catholic Church
Evangelicals or confessional Protestants who pick up the Catechism will find themselves in for a treat. Sentences, paragraphs, whole pages sound as if they could come from evangelical pulpits, including passages on topics such as the nature of Scripture or the meaning of grace and faith. These readers will also notice the depth of scholarship, worn quite lightly, with hundreds of references to Scripture but also citations from early theologians…. Readers familiar with standard statements of faith from the Reformation era… will quickly notice a different tone in this Catholic writing. While covering much of the same territory…, the Catholic Catechism is much more comprehensive. Moreover, it looks beyond the statement of doctrine to the care of souls. The Catholic Catechism is strikingly pastoral in tone. It is in part a book of worship—focusing again and again on the majesty of God, inviting readers to reflect on God’s character, to respond to his love, to live as he commands, and to devote themselves to his service. …Readers… may come to the Catechism looking for information. Finding information, they may also find themselves (as we did) stopping to pray. (page 116)
http://chnetwork.org/2012/02/how-not-to-become-a-catholic-part-1-conversion-story-of-james-tonkowich/
Fasting
Hunger is that state in which we realize our dependence on something else—when we face the ultimate question: "on what does my life depend?" Satan tempted both Adam and Christ, saying: Eat, for your hunger is proof that you depend entirely on food, that your life is in food. Adam believed and ate. Christ said, "Man does NOT live by bread alone." (Mt. 4:4; Lk. 4:4) This liberates us from total dependence on food, on matter, on the world. Thus, for the Christian, fasting is the only means by which man recovers his true spiritual nature.In order for fasting to be effective, then, the spirit must be a part of it. Christian fasting is not concerned with losing weight. It is a matter of prayer and the spirit. And because of that, because it is truly a place of the Spirit, true fasting may well lead to temptation, and weakness and doubt and irritation.In other words, it will be a real fight between good and evil, and very likely we shall fail many times in these battles. But the very discovery of the Christian life as "fight" and "effort" is an essential aspect of fasting.
http://usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/liturgical-resources/lent/catholic-reflection-on-lenten-fasting-father-daniel-merz.cfm
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Saint Joseph
O great S. Joseph! Most beloved spouse of the well-beloved Mother, ah! how often hast thou borne in thy arms the love of heaven and earth, while, inflamed with the sweet embraces and kisses of this Divine child, thy soul melted away with joy while he tenderly whispered in thy ears (O God what sweetness!) that thou wast his great friend and his well-beloved father.
-St Frances de Sales
-St Frances de Sales
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Veiling...
“A woman does not acquire a man’s dignity by having her head uncovered but rather loses her own. Her shame and reproach thus derive from her desire to be like a man as well as from her actions.” -Chrysostom
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
I hate gossip!
Whenever people start to gossip to me or around me, I'm like a deer in the headlights with my mind racing: "oh, dear, how can I make it stop?"
I've tried it all, defending the person, redirecting the conversation, sitting silently, openly saying I don't want to gossip. None of them are fool-proof. My final solution is to avoid said gossipers, because they are often serial gossipers.
One of the worst, the easiest to get sucked into & the hardest to recognize, is the "concerned friend." I've been sucked into conversations like that before, but what I've come to find is the even if the facts are right, the spin is typically wrong. And unfortunately, once someone has been damaged, that IS how people see them, even if proven false.
I've recently been in close association with a couple of serial gossipers; nice, funny, interesting people. But after spending a few hours (or a day) with them, deflecting, redirecting, biting my tongue, picking my words SO carefully, I come away exhausted. And with my brain full of negative thoughts about many in our mutual acquaintance.
I've tried it all, defending the person, redirecting the conversation, sitting silently, openly saying I don't want to gossip. None of them are fool-proof. My final solution is to avoid said gossipers, because they are often serial gossipers.
One of the worst, the easiest to get sucked into & the hardest to recognize, is the "concerned friend." I've been sucked into conversations like that before, but what I've come to find is the even if the facts are right, the spin is typically wrong. And unfortunately, once someone has been damaged, that IS how people see them, even if proven false.
I've recently been in close association with a couple of serial gossipers; nice, funny, interesting people. But after spending a few hours (or a day) with them, deflecting, redirecting, biting my tongue, picking my words SO carefully, I come away exhausted. And with my brain full of negative thoughts about many in our mutual acquaintance.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Tertullian, on Marriage
"In the time of the early Church, Tertullian, believing his death to be approaching, wrote two books entitled Ad Uxorem, To My Wife. In the last chapter of the second book he gives an unforgettable picture of marriage. One cannot meditate on it too often.
He extols the happiness of marriage 'which the Church approves, the Holy Sacrifice confirms, the Blessing seals, the Angels witness, and God ratifies. What an alliance is that of two faithful souls united in a single hope, under a single discipline, under a similar dependence. Both are servants of the same Master. There is not distinction of mind or of body. Both are in truth one flesh. Where there is but one body, there is but one mind. They kneel in prayer together, they teach each other, support each other. They are together in church, together at the Banquet of God, together in trials, in joy. They are incapable of hiding from each other, of deserting each other, of annoying each other. In complete liberty, they visit the sick and help the poor . Without anxiety about each other they give alms freely, assist at Holy Mass and without any embarrassment manifest their fervor daily. They do not know what it means to make a furtive sign of the cross, to mumble trembling greetings, to invoke silent blessings. They sing hymns and psalms vying with each other to give God the most praise. Christ rejoices to see and hear them and gives them His peace. Wherever they are, Christ is with them.'
He extols the happiness of marriage 'which the Church approves, the Holy Sacrifice confirms, the Blessing seals, the Angels witness, and God ratifies. What an alliance is that of two faithful souls united in a single hope, under a single discipline, under a similar dependence. Both are servants of the same Master. There is not distinction of mind or of body. Both are in truth one flesh. Where there is but one body, there is but one mind. They kneel in prayer together, they teach each other, support each other. They are together in church, together at the Banquet of God, together in trials, in joy. They are incapable of hiding from each other, of deserting each other, of annoying each other. In complete liberty, they visit the sick and help the poor . Without anxiety about each other they give alms freely, assist at Holy Mass and without any embarrassment manifest their fervor daily. They do not know what it means to make a furtive sign of the cross, to mumble trembling greetings, to invoke silent blessings. They sing hymns and psalms vying with each other to give God the most praise. Christ rejoices to see and hear them and gives them His peace. Wherever they are, Christ is with them.'
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Daily Mass
I used to go to Mass daily, solo. It was a wonderful time of spiritual growth. Then I discerned that my kids needed to go. Another time of growth, but different. Now I see that I must leave God at the altar to find Him in my duties, as St Frances of Rome says. I think my time at Daily Mass was so beautiful, but now I offer my aching and longing as a gift. As a friend reminded me recently: 1 Samuel
15:22 "And Samuel said: Doth the Lord desire holocausts and victims, and not rather that the voice of the Lord should be obeyed? For obedience is better than sacrifices: and to hearken rather than to offer the fat or rams."
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
15:22 "And Samuel said: Doth the Lord desire holocausts and victims, and not rather that the voice of the Lord should be obeyed? For obedience is better than sacrifices: and to hearken rather than to offer the fat or rams."
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
A moving civil war love letter
July 14, 1861
Camp Clark, Washington
My very dear Sarah:
The indications are very strong that we shall move in a few days—perhaps tomorrow. Lest I should not be able to write again, I feel impelled to write a few lines that may fall under your eye when I shall be no more . . .
I have no misgivings about, or lack of confidence in the cause in which I am engaged, and my courage does not halt or falter. I know how strongly American Civilization now leans on the triumph of the Government and how great a debt we owe to those who went before us through the blood and sufferings of the Revolution. And I am willing—perfectly willing—to lay down all my joys in this life, to help maintain this Government, and to pay that debt . . .
Sarah my love for you is deathless, it seems to bind me with mighty cables that nothing but Omnipotence could break; and yet my love of Country comes over me like a strong wind and bears me unresistibly on with all these chains to the battle field.
The memories of the blissful moments I have spent with you come creeping over me, and I feel most gratified to God and to you that I have enjoyed them for so long. And hard it is for me to give them up and burn to ashes the hopes of future years, when, God willing, we might still have lived and loved together, and seen our sons grown up to honorable manhood, around us. I have, I know, but few and small claims upon Divine Providence, but something whispers to me—perhaps it is the wafted prayer of my little Edgar, that I shall return to my loved ones unharmed. If I do not my dear Sarah, never forget how much I love you, and when my last breath escapes me on the battle field, it will whisper your name. Forgive my many faults and the many pains I have caused you. How thoughtless and foolish I have often times been! How gladly would I wash out with my tears every little spot upon your happiness . . .
But, O Sarah! If the dead can come back to this earth and flit unseen around those they loved, I shall always be near you; in the gladdest days and in the darkest nights . . . always, always, and if there be a soft breeze upon your cheek, it shall be my breath, as the cool air fans your throbbing temple, it shall be my spirit passing by. Sarah do not mourn me dead; think I am gone and wait for thee, for we shall meet again . . .
Sullivan Ballou was killed a week later at the first Battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861.
http://www.pbs.org/civilwar/war/ballou_letter.html
Camp Clark, Washington
My very dear Sarah:
The indications are very strong that we shall move in a few days—perhaps tomorrow. Lest I should not be able to write again, I feel impelled to write a few lines that may fall under your eye when I shall be no more . . .
I have no misgivings about, or lack of confidence in the cause in which I am engaged, and my courage does not halt or falter. I know how strongly American Civilization now leans on the triumph of the Government and how great a debt we owe to those who went before us through the blood and sufferings of the Revolution. And I am willing—perfectly willing—to lay down all my joys in this life, to help maintain this Government, and to pay that debt . . .
Sarah my love for you is deathless, it seems to bind me with mighty cables that nothing but Omnipotence could break; and yet my love of Country comes over me like a strong wind and bears me unresistibly on with all these chains to the battle field.
The memories of the blissful moments I have spent with you come creeping over me, and I feel most gratified to God and to you that I have enjoyed them for so long. And hard it is for me to give them up and burn to ashes the hopes of future years, when, God willing, we might still have lived and loved together, and seen our sons grown up to honorable manhood, around us. I have, I know, but few and small claims upon Divine Providence, but something whispers to me—perhaps it is the wafted prayer of my little Edgar, that I shall return to my loved ones unharmed. If I do not my dear Sarah, never forget how much I love you, and when my last breath escapes me on the battle field, it will whisper your name. Forgive my many faults and the many pains I have caused you. How thoughtless and foolish I have often times been! How gladly would I wash out with my tears every little spot upon your happiness . . .
But, O Sarah! If the dead can come back to this earth and flit unseen around those they loved, I shall always be near you; in the gladdest days and in the darkest nights . . . always, always, and if there be a soft breeze upon your cheek, it shall be my breath, as the cool air fans your throbbing temple, it shall be my spirit passing by. Sarah do not mourn me dead; think I am gone and wait for thee, for we shall meet again . . .
Sullivan Ballou was killed a week later at the first Battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861.
http://www.pbs.org/civilwar/war/ballou_letter.html
On the balancing the right to educate our children with the responsiblities
We often hear in the home schooling community about the parent's right to home school...or "unschool." Here is a quote from Pope Pius XI in the Encyclical On Christian Education that should guide our decision to school and in what manner we should school (emphasis added).
59. "Folly is bound up in the heart of a child and the rod of correction shall drive it away."[40] Disorderly inclinations then must be corrected, good tendencies encouraged and regulated from tender childhood, and above all the mind must be enlightened and the will strengthened by supernatural truth and by the means of grace, without which it is impossible to control evil impulses, impossible to attain to the full and complete perfection of education intended by the Church, which Christ has endowed so richly with divine doctrine and with the Sacraments, the efficacious means of grace.
60. Hence every form of pedagogic naturalism which in any way excludes or weakens supernatural Christian formation in the teaching of youth, is false. Every method of education founded, wholly or in part, on the denial or forgetfulness of original sin and of grace, and relying on the sole powers of human nature, is unsound. Such, generally speaking, are those modern systems bearing various names which appeal to a pretended self-government and unrestrained freedom on the part of the child, and which diminish or even suppress the teacher's authority and action, attributing to the child an exclusive primacy of initiative, and an activity independent of any higher law, natural or divine, in the work of his education.
And here is an article that will make you re-read the above quotes with greater interest:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/the-hot-button/is-home-schooling-a-better-option-than-public-school/article2160188/
And an article that will make you re-read the above article with greater interest:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/chi-caterpillar-ceo-says-company-cant-find-enough-skilled-workers-20110912,0,7463843.story
59. "Folly is bound up in the heart of a child and the rod of correction shall drive it away."[40] Disorderly inclinations then must be corrected, good tendencies encouraged and regulated from tender childhood, and above all the mind must be enlightened and the will strengthened by supernatural truth and by the means of grace, without which it is impossible to control evil impulses, impossible to attain to the full and complete perfection of education intended by the Church, which Christ has endowed so richly with divine doctrine and with the Sacraments, the efficacious means of grace.
60. Hence every form of pedagogic naturalism which in any way excludes or weakens supernatural Christian formation in the teaching of youth, is false. Every method of education founded, wholly or in part, on the denial or forgetfulness of original sin and of grace, and relying on the sole powers of human nature, is unsound. Such, generally speaking, are those modern systems bearing various names which appeal to a pretended self-government and unrestrained freedom on the part of the child, and which diminish or even suppress the teacher's authority and action, attributing to the child an exclusive primacy of initiative, and an activity independent of any higher law, natural or divine, in the work of his education.
And here is an article that will make you re-read the above quotes with greater interest:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/the-hot-button/is-home-schooling-a-better-option-than-public-school/article2160188/
And an article that will make you re-read the above article with greater interest:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/chi-caterpillar-ceo-says-company-cant-find-enough-skilled-workers-20110912,0,7463843.story
Saturday, September 10, 2011
On religious laxity
St. John of the Cross: "If at any time someone, whether superior or anyone else, should try to persuade you of a lax teaching, even though it be confirmed by miracles, do not believe or embrace it; rather, greater penance and greater detachment from all things. And do not seek Christ without the cross."
Friday, September 9, 2011
For the reluctant learner...
St. Joseph was born at Cupertino, in the diocese of Nardo in the Kingdom of Naples, in 1603. After spending his childhood and adolescence in simplicity and innocence, he finally joined the Franciscan Friars Minor Conventual. After his ordination to the holy priesthood, he gave himself up entirely to a life of humiliation, mortification, and obedience. He was most devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary and promoted devotion to her among all classes of people.
His mother considered him a nuisance and treated him harshly. Joseph soon became very slow and absent-minded. He would wander around, going nowhere, his mouth gaping open. But he had a bad temper, too, and so, he was not at all popular. He tried to learn the trade of shoemaking, but failed. He asked to become a Franciscan, but they would not accept him. Next, he joined the Capuchins, but eight months later, they sent him away because he could not seem to do anything right. He dropped piles of dishes and kept forgetting to do what he was told. His mother was not at all pleased to have the eighteen-year-old Joseph back home again, so she finally got him accepted as a servant at the Franciscan monastery. He was given the monks habit and put to hard work taking care of the horses. About this time, Joseph began to change. He grew more humble and gentle, more careful and successful at his work. He also began to do more penance. Now, it was decided that he could become a real member of the Order and start studying for the priesthood. Although he was very good, he still had a hard time with studies. The examiner happened to ask him to explain the only thing he knew well, and so he was made a deacon, and later a priest. After this, God began to work many amazing miracles through St. Joseph. Over seventy times, people saw him rise from the ground while saying mass or praying. Often he went into ecstasy and would be completely rapt up in talking with God. He became so holy that everything he saw made him think of God, and he said that all the troubles of this world were nothing but the "play" battles children have with popguns. St. Joseph became so famous for the miracles that he was kept hidden, but he was happy for the chance to be alone with his beloved Lord. On His part, Jesus never left him alone and one day came to bring him to Heaven. Pope Clement XIII canonized him in 1767. He is the patron saint of air travelers and pilots.
http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=72
Feastday: September 18th
Patron of Aviators, Flying & Studying
b: 1603 d: 1663
His mother considered him a nuisance and treated him harshly. Joseph soon became very slow and absent-minded. He would wander around, going nowhere, his mouth gaping open. But he had a bad temper, too, and so, he was not at all popular. He tried to learn the trade of shoemaking, but failed. He asked to become a Franciscan, but they would not accept him. Next, he joined the Capuchins, but eight months later, they sent him away because he could not seem to do anything right. He dropped piles of dishes and kept forgetting to do what he was told. His mother was not at all pleased to have the eighteen-year-old Joseph back home again, so she finally got him accepted as a servant at the Franciscan monastery. He was given the monks habit and put to hard work taking care of the horses. About this time, Joseph began to change. He grew more humble and gentle, more careful and successful at his work. He also began to do more penance. Now, it was decided that he could become a real member of the Order and start studying for the priesthood. Although he was very good, he still had a hard time with studies. The examiner happened to ask him to explain the only thing he knew well, and so he was made a deacon, and later a priest. After this, God began to work many amazing miracles through St. Joseph. Over seventy times, people saw him rise from the ground while saying mass or praying. Often he went into ecstasy and would be completely rapt up in talking with God. He became so holy that everything he saw made him think of God, and he said that all the troubles of this world were nothing but the "play" battles children have with popguns. St. Joseph became so famous for the miracles that he was kept hidden, but he was happy for the chance to be alone with his beloved Lord. On His part, Jesus never left him alone and one day came to bring him to Heaven. Pope Clement XIII canonized him in 1767. He is the patron saint of air travelers and pilots.
http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=72
Feastday: September 18th
Patron of Aviators, Flying & Studying
b: 1603 d: 1663
Dorothy Day
In 2000, the late John Cardinal O’Connor, bishop of New York, compared Dorothy Day's conversion to Catholicism to Saint Augustine’s. In announcing the opening of her cause for sainthood, he wrote of Day:
“To be sure, her life is a model for all in the third millenium, but especially for women who have had or are considering abortions. It is a well-known fact that Dorothy Day procured an abortion before her conversion to the Faith. She regretted it every day of her life. After her conversion from a life akin to that of the pre-converted Augustine of Hippo, she proved a stout defender of human life. The conversion of mind and heart that she exemplified speaks volumes to all women today on two fronts. First, it demonstrates the mercy of God, mercy in that a woman who sinned so gravely could find such unity with God upon conversion. Second, it demonstrates that one may turn from the ultimate act of violence against innocent life in the womb to a position of total holiness and pacifism. In short, I contend that her abortion should not preclude her cause, but intensifies it.”
“To be sure, her life is a model for all in the third millenium, but especially for women who have had or are considering abortions. It is a well-known fact that Dorothy Day procured an abortion before her conversion to the Faith. She regretted it every day of her life. After her conversion from a life akin to that of the pre-converted Augustine of Hippo, she proved a stout defender of human life. The conversion of mind and heart that she exemplified speaks volumes to all women today on two fronts. First, it demonstrates the mercy of God, mercy in that a woman who sinned so gravely could find such unity with God upon conversion. Second, it demonstrates that one may turn from the ultimate act of violence against innocent life in the womb to a position of total holiness and pacifism. In short, I contend that her abortion should not preclude her cause, but intensifies it.”
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Augustine on Scripture and Meditation
"I listened with delight to Ambrose, in his sermons to the people as he drew aside the mystic veil and opened to view the spiritual meaning...For, as to those passages in the Scripture which had heretofore appeared incongruous and offensive to me, now that I had heard several of them expounded reasonably, I could see that they were to be resolved by the mysteries of spiritual interpretation. The authority of Scripture seemed to me all the more revered and worthy of devout belief because, although it was visible for all to read, it reserved the full majesty of its secret wisdom within its spiritual profundity. While it stooped to all in the great plainness of its language and simplicity of style, it yet required the closest attention of the most serious- minded." -Confessions, Book VI
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Archbishop Fulton Sheen on Purity
"Purity is not something negative; it is not just an unopened bud; it is not something cold; it is not ignorance of life. Is justice merely the absence of dishonesty? Is mercy merely the absence of cruelty? Is faith merely the absence of doubt? Purity is not merely the absence of sensuality; it is selflessness born of love and the highest love of all." Archbishop Fulton Sheen
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Excellent quote on Athetism...
"Would there ever be prohibition unless there was something to prohibit? Would there ever be anti-cigarette laws unless there were cigarettes? How could there be atheists unless there was something to atheate? Atheism is not a doctrine; it is a cry of wrath. By night an atheist half-believes there is a God. Archbishop Fulton Sheen
St. Ambrose on Speaking. Or not.
Manifold dangers are incurred by speaking; the remedy for which Scripture shows to consist in silence.
Now what ought we to learn before everything else, but to be silent, that we may be able to speak? Lest my voice should condemn me, before that of another acquit me; for it is written:
Therefore the saints of the Lord loved to keep silence, because they knew that a man's voice is often the utterance of sin, and a man's speech is the beginning of human error. Lastly, the Saint of the Lord said:
Let us hearken, then, to the master of precaution:
http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/34011.htm
Now what ought we to learn before everything else, but to be silent, that we may be able to speak? Lest my voice should condemn me, before that of another acquit me; for it is written:
By your words you shall be condemned.Matthew 12:37 What need is there, then, that you should hasten to undergo the danger of condemnation by speaking, when you can be more safe by keeping silent? How many have I seen to fall into sin by speaking, but scarcely one by keeping silent; and so it is more difficult to know how to keep silent than how to speak. I know that most persons speak because they do not know how to keep silent. It is seldom that any one is silent even when speaking profits him nothing. He is wise, then, who knows how to keep silent. Lastly, the Wisdom of God said:
The Lord has given to me the tongue of learning, that I should know when it is good to speak.Justly, then, is he wise who has received of the Lord to know when he ought to speak. Wherefore the Scripture says well:
A wise man will keep silence until there is opportunity.Sirach 20:7
Therefore the saints of the Lord loved to keep silence, because they knew that a man's voice is often the utterance of sin, and a man's speech is the beginning of human error. Lastly, the Saint of the Lord said:
I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I offend not in my tongue.For he knew and had read that it was a mark of the divine protection for a man to be hid from the scourge of his own tongue, Job 5:21 and the witness of his own conscience. We are chastised by the silent reproaches of our thoughts, and by the judgment of conscience. We are chastised also by the lash of our own voice, when we say things whereby our soul is mortally injured, and our mind is sorely wounded. But who is there that has his heart clean from the impurities of sin, and does not offend in his tongue? And so, as he saw there was no one who could keep his mouth free from evil speaking, he laid upon himself the law of innocency by a rule of silence, with a view to avoiding by silence that fault which he could with difficulty escape in speaking.
Let us hearken, then, to the master of precaution:
I said, I will take heed to my ways;that is,
I said to myself: in the silent biddings of my thoughts, I have enjoined upon myself, that I should take heed to my ways.Some ways there are which we ought to follow; others as to which we ought to take heed. We must follow the ways of the Lord, and take heed to our own ways, lest they lead us into sin. One can take heed if one is not hasty in speaking. The law says:
Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God.Deuteronomy 6:4 It said not:
Speak,but
Hear.Eve fell because she said to the man what she had not heard from the Lord her God. The first word from God says to you: Hear! If you hear, take heed to your ways; and if you have fallen, quickly amend your way. For:
Wherein does a young man amend his way; except in taking heed to the word of the Lord?Be silent therefore first of all, and hearken, that you fail not in your tongue.
http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/34011.htm
Friday, September 2, 2011
Extraordinary families of God
Servant of God Fr John Hardon, wrote, "Ordinary Catholic families cannot survive. They must be extraordinary families. They must be, what I do not hesitate to call, heroic Catholic families. Ordinary Catholic families are no match for the devil as he uses the media of communication to secularize and de-sacralize modern society. No less than ordinary individual Catholics can survive, so ordinary Catholic families cannot survive. They have no choice. They must either be holy—which means sanctified—or they will disappear. The only Catholic families that will remain alive and thriving in the 21st century are the families of martyrs. Father, mother and children must be willing to die for their God-given convictions."
Thursday, September 1, 2011
A woman's burden...
One of the most edifying and challenging thing I have heard or read on being a woman; wife and mother. I'm reposting this for all of you as I sit here crying.
Women stand in a very weird place spiritually that is very hard for them to embrace. There is very little worldly reward for a woman's religion as opposed to a man's. Women require a greater degree of humility than men do because God has subjected women in more things than men. That's why in Genesis, God said,
"To the woman also he said: I will multiply thy sorrows, and thy conceptions: in sorrow shalt thou bring forth children, and thou shalt be under thy husband's power, and he shall have dominion over thee." (Genesis 3:16)
Have you ladies ever really sat and meditated on that passage? That explains EVERYTHING. It really does. Women have a hard penance to bear for Eve's sin and what we see in all of the modern mess is an attempt to (wrongly) get out from under it. Eve's original sin was worse than Adam's (St. Paul said so) and I would grant the fact that women have a heavier spiritual burden to bear.
--William Michael, director, CLAA
I do not expect that I will be a saint someday, but God willing, I will raise saints!
Women stand in a very weird place spiritually that is very hard for them to embrace. There is very little worldly reward for a woman's religion as opposed to a man's. Women require a greater degree of humility than men do because God has subjected women in more things than men. That's why in Genesis, God said,
"To the woman also he said: I will multiply thy sorrows, and thy conceptions: in sorrow shalt thou bring forth children, and thou shalt be under thy husband's power, and he shall have dominion over thee." (Genesis 3:16)
Have you ladies ever really sat and meditated on that passage? That explains EVERYTHING. It really does. Women have a hard penance to bear for Eve's sin and what we see in all of the modern mess is an attempt to (wrongly) get out from under it. Eve's original sin was worse than Adam's (St. Paul said so) and I would grant the fact that women have a heavier spiritual burden to bear.
--William Michael, director, CLAA
I do not expect that I will be a saint someday, but God willing, I will raise saints!
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Parenting 101.
"For whom the Lord loveth, he chastiseth; and he scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. Persevere under discipline. God dealeth with you as with his sons; for what son is there, whom the father doth not correct? But if you be without chastisement, whereof all are made partakers, then are you bastards, and not sons. Moreover we have had fathers of our flesh, for instructors, and we reverenced them: shall we not much more obey the Father of spirits, and live? And they indeed for a few days, according to their own pleasure, instructed us: but he, for our profit, that we might receive his sanctification. Now all chastisement for the present indeed seemeth not to bring with it joy, but sorrow: but afterwards it will yield, to them that are exercised by it, the most peaceable fruit of justice. Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, And make straight steps with your feet: that no one, halting, may go out of the way; but rather be healed." -- Hebrews 12
Lord knows it would be so much EASIER to just give them their way. Thank God I love them enough to discipline them and myself.
Lord knows it would be so much EASIER to just give them their way. Thank God I love them enough to discipline them and myself.
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Going to Confession!
When we are about to go to confession the first thing we should do is to PRAY TO THE HOLY SPIRIT to give us light to know and remember all our sins; to fully understand how displeasing they are to God, and to have a great sorrow for them, which includes the resolution of never committing them again. The next thing we should do is:
(1) "EXAMINATION OF CONSCIENCE"; and first of all we find out how long a time it is since our last confession, and whether we made a good confession then and received Holy Communion and performed our penance. The best method of examining is to take the Commandments and go over each one in our mind, seeing if we have broken it, and in what way; for example: First. "I am the Lord thy God; thou shalt not have strange gods before Me." Have I honored God? Have I said my prayers morning and night; have I said them with attention and devotion? Have I thanked God for all His blessings? Have I been more anxious to please others than to please God, or offended Him for the sake of others? Second "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain." Have I cursed? Have I taken God's name in vain or spoken without reverence of holy things? Third. "Remember thou keep holy the Sabbath day." Have I neglected to hear Mass through my own fault on Sundays and holy days of obligation? Have I kept others from Mass? Have I been late, and at what part of the Mass did I come in? Have I been willfully distracted at Mass or have I distracted others? Have I done servile work without necessity? Fourth. "Honor thy father and thy mother." Have I been disobedient to parents or others who have authority over me—to spiritual or temporal superiors, teachers, etc.? Have I slighted or been ashamed of parents because they were poor or uneducated? Have I neglected to give them what help I could when they were in need of it? Have I spoken of them with disrespect or called them names that were not proper? Fifth. "Thou shalt not kill." Have I done anything that might lead to killing? Have I been angry or have I tried to take revenge? Have I borne hatred or tried to injure others? Have I given scandal? Sixth. "Thou shalt not commit adultery." Have I indulged in any bad thoughts, looked at any bad pictures or objects, listened to any bad conversation, told or listened to bad or immodest jokes or stories, or, in general, spoken of bad things? Have I done any bad actions or desired to do any while alone or with others? Seventh. "Thou shalt not steal." Have I stolen anything myself or helped or advised others to steal? Have I received anything or part of anything that I knew to be stolen? Do I owe money and not pay it when I can? Have I bought anything with the intention of never paying for it or at least knowing I never could pay for it? Have I made restitution when told to do so by my confessor; or have I put it off from time to time? Have I failed to give back what belonged to another? Have I found anything and not tried to discover its owner, or have I kept it in my possession after I knew to whom it belonged? Have I cheated in business or at games? Eighth. "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor." Have I told lies or injured anyone by my talk? Have I told the faults of others without any necessity? It is not allowed to tell the faults of others—even when you tell the truth about them—unless some good comes of the telling. Ninth. "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife." This can come into our examination on the Sixth Commandment. Tenth. "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's goods." This can come into our examination on the Seventh Commandment.
After examining yourself on the Commandments of God, examine yourself on the Commandments of the Church.
First. "To hear Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation." This has been considered in the examination on the Third Commandment. Second "To fast and abstain on the days appointed." Have I knowingly eaten meat on Ash Wednesday or the Fridays of Lent, or not done some chosen penance on the other Fridays of the year, or not fasted on Ash Wednesday or Good Friday, unless I had good reason not to do so on account of poor health or other reason? Third. "To confess at least once a year." Is it over a year, and how much over it, since I have been to confession? Fourth. "To receive Holy Eucharist during the Easter time." Did I go to Holy Communion between the first Sunday of Lent and Trinity Sunday? If not, I have committed a mortal sin. Fifth. "To contribute to the support of our pastors." Have I helped the church and reasonably paid my share of its expenses—given to charity and the like, or have I made others pay for the light, heat, and other things that cost money in the church, and shared in their benefits without giving according to my means? Have I kept what was given me for the church or other charity, or stolen from the church and not stated that circumstance when I confessed that I stole? Sixth. "Not to marry persons who are not Catholics, or who are related to us within the third degree of kindred, or privately without witnesses, nor to solemnize marriage at forbidden times." Have I anything to tell on this Commandment?
After examining yourself on the Commandments of God and of His Church, examine yourself on the capital sins, especially on "Pride." Have I been impudent and stubborn, vain about my dress, and the like? Have I despised others simply on account of poverty or something they could not help? "Gluttony." Have I ever taken intoxicating drink to excess or broken a promise not to take it? Have I knowingly caused others to be intoxicated? "Sloth." Have I wasted my time willfully and neglected to do my duty at school or elsewhere? After examining yourself on the Commandments and capital sins, examine yourself on the duties of your state of life. If you are at school, how have you studied? You should study not alone to please your parents or teachers, but for the sake of learning. If you are at work, have you been faithful to your employer, and done your work well and honestly?
The above method is generally recommended as the best in the examination of conscience. But you need not follow these exact questions; you can ask yourself any questions you please: the above questions are given only as examples of what you might ask, and to show you how to question yourself. It is useless to take any list of sins in a prayerbook and examine yourself by it, confessing the sins just as they are given. If you do take such a list and find in it some questions or sins that you do not understand, do not trouble yourself about them. In asking yourself the questions, if you find you have sinned against a Commandment, stop and consider how many times. There are few persons who sin against all the Commandments. Some sin against one and some against another. Find out the worst sin you have and the one you have most frequently committed, and be sure of telling it.
(2) "HAVE SORROW FOR YOUR SINS." After examining your conscience and finding out the sins you have committed, the next thing is to be sorry for them. The sorrow is the most essential part in the whole Sacrament of Penance. In this Sacrament there are, as you know, three parts: contrition, confession, and satisfaction—and contrition is the most important part. When, therefore, we are preparing for confession, we should spend just as much time, and even more, in exciting ourselves to sorrow for our sins as in the examination of our conscience. Some persons forget this and spend all their time examining their conscience. We should pray for sorrow if we think we have none. Remember the act of contrition made at confession is not the sorrow, but only an outward sign by which we make known to the priest that we have the sorrow in our hearts, and therefore we must have the sorrow before making the confession—or at least, before receiving the absolution. Now what kind of sorrow must we have? Someone might say, I am not truly sorry because I cannot cry. If some of my friends died, I would be more sorry for that than for my sins. Do not make any such mistakes. The true and necessary kind of sorrow for sin is to know that by sin you have offended God, and now feel that it was very wrong, and that you have from this moment the firm determination never to offend Him more. If God adds to this a feeling that brings tears to your eyes, it is good, but not necessary.
(3) RESOLVE TO SIN NO MORE: Remember real sorrow for sin supposes and contains "a firm resolution" never to sin again. How can you say to God, "O my God, I am heartily sorry," etc., if you are waiting only for the next opportunity to sin? How can we be sorry for the past if we are going to do the same in the future? Do you think the thief would be sorry for his past thefts if he had his mind made up to steal again as soon as he had the chance? Ah, but you will say, nearly all persons sin again after confession. I know that; but when they were making their confession they thought they never would, and really meant never to sin again; but when temptation came, they forgot the good resolution, did not use God's help, and fell into sin again. I mean, therefore, that at the time you make the act of contrition you must really mean what you say and promise never to sin, and take every means you can to keep that promise. If you do fall afterwards, renew your promise as quickly as possible and make a greater effort than before. Be on your guard against those things that make you break your promise, and then your act of contrition will be a good one. A person may be afraid that he will fall again, but being afraid does not make his contrition worthless as long as he wishes, hopes, and intends never to sin again. We should always be afraid of falling into sin, and we will fall into it if we depend upon ourselves alone, and not on the help which God gives us in His grace.
(4) "CONFESS YOUR SINS." Having made the necessary preparation, you will next go into the confessional; and while you are waiting for the priest to hear you, you should say the Confiteor. When the priest turns to you, bless yourself and say: "Bless me, father, for I have sinned. It is a month or a week (or whatever time it may be) since my last confession, and I have since committed these sins." Then tell your sins as you found them in examining yourself. In confession you must tell only such things as are sins. You must not tell all the details and a long story with every sin. For example, if a boy should confess that he went to see a friend, and after that met another friend, and when he came home he was asked what had kept him, and he told a lie. Now, the going to see the friend and the meeting of the other friend, and all the rest, was not a sin: the sin was telling the lie, and that was all that should have been confessed. Therefore, tell only the sins. Then tell only your own sins, and be very careful not to mention anyone's name—even your own—in confession. Be brief, and do not say, I broke the First Commandment or the Second by doing so and so; tell the sin simply as it is, and the priest himself will know what Commandment you violated. Again, when you have committed a sin several times a day do not multiply that by the number of days since your last confession and say to the priest, I have told lies, for example, four hundred and forty-two times. Such things only confuse you and make you forget your sins. Simply say, I am in the habit of telling lies, about so many, three or four—or whatever number it may be—times a day. Never say "sometimes" or "often" when you are telling the number of your sins. Sometimes might mean ten or it might mean twenty times. How then can the priest know the number by that expression? Give the number as nearly as you can, and if you do not know the whole number give the number of times a day, etc. Never say "maybe" I did so and so; because maybe you did not, and the priest cannot judge. Tell what you consider your worst sin first, then if there be any sin you are ashamed to tell or do not know how to tell, say to the priest: "Father, I have a sin I am ashamed to tell, or a sin I do not know how to tell"; and then the priest will ask you some questions and help you to tell it. But never think of going away from the confessional with some sin that you did not tell. The devil sometimes tempts people to do this, because he does not like to see them in a state of grace and friends of God. When you are committing the sin, he makes you believe it is not a great sin, and that you can tell it in confession; but after you have committed it he makes you believe that it is a most terrible sin, and that if you tell it, the priest will scold you severely. So it is concealed and the person leaves the confessional with a new sin upon his soul—that of sacrilege. When Judas was tempted to betray Our Lord, he thought thirty pieces of silver a great deal of money; and then, after he had committed the sin, he cared nothing for the money, but went and threw it away, and thought his sin so dreadful that he hanged himself, dying in despair.
It is not necessary to tell the priest the exact words you said in cursing or in bad conversation, unless he asks you; but simply say, Father, I cursed so many times. Do not speak too loud in the confessional, but loud enough for the priest to hear you. If you are deaf, do not go into the confessional while others are near, but wait till all have been heard and then go in last, or ask the priest to hear you someplace else.
(5) RECEIVE PENANCE: Listen attentively to hear what "penance" the priest gives you, and say the act of contrition while he pronounces the words of absolution; and above all, never leave the confessional till the priest closes the little door or tells you to go. If the priest does not say at what particular time you are to say your penance, say it as soon as you can.
When you have, told all your sins, you will say: "For these and all the sins of my whole life, especially any I have forgotten, I am heartily sorry, and ask pardon and penance." Listen to the priest's advice, and answer simply any question he may ask you. If you should forget a mortal sin in confession and remember it the same day or evening, or while you are still in the church, it will not be necessary to wait and go to confession again. It is forgiven already, because it was included in your forgotten sins; but you must tell it the next time you go to confession, saying before your regular confession: In my last confession I forgot this sin. Of course if you tried to forget your sins your confession would be invalid. It is only when you examine your conscience with all reasonable care, and then after all forget some sins, that such forgotten sins are forgiven.
Source: CLAA Catechism, Lesson 36 (Baltimore Catechism #4, Lesson 17)
(1) "EXAMINATION OF CONSCIENCE"; and first of all we find out how long a time it is since our last confession, and whether we made a good confession then and received Holy Communion and performed our penance. The best method of examining is to take the Commandments and go over each one in our mind, seeing if we have broken it, and in what way; for example: First. "I am the Lord thy God; thou shalt not have strange gods before Me." Have I honored God? Have I said my prayers morning and night; have I said them with attention and devotion? Have I thanked God for all His blessings? Have I been more anxious to please others than to please God, or offended Him for the sake of others? Second "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain." Have I cursed? Have I taken God's name in vain or spoken without reverence of holy things? Third. "Remember thou keep holy the Sabbath day." Have I neglected to hear Mass through my own fault on Sundays and holy days of obligation? Have I kept others from Mass? Have I been late, and at what part of the Mass did I come in? Have I been willfully distracted at Mass or have I distracted others? Have I done servile work without necessity? Fourth. "Honor thy father and thy mother." Have I been disobedient to parents or others who have authority over me—to spiritual or temporal superiors, teachers, etc.? Have I slighted or been ashamed of parents because they were poor or uneducated? Have I neglected to give them what help I could when they were in need of it? Have I spoken of them with disrespect or called them names that were not proper? Fifth. "Thou shalt not kill." Have I done anything that might lead to killing? Have I been angry or have I tried to take revenge? Have I borne hatred or tried to injure others? Have I given scandal? Sixth. "Thou shalt not commit adultery." Have I indulged in any bad thoughts, looked at any bad pictures or objects, listened to any bad conversation, told or listened to bad or immodest jokes or stories, or, in general, spoken of bad things? Have I done any bad actions or desired to do any while alone or with others? Seventh. "Thou shalt not steal." Have I stolen anything myself or helped or advised others to steal? Have I received anything or part of anything that I knew to be stolen? Do I owe money and not pay it when I can? Have I bought anything with the intention of never paying for it or at least knowing I never could pay for it? Have I made restitution when told to do so by my confessor; or have I put it off from time to time? Have I failed to give back what belonged to another? Have I found anything and not tried to discover its owner, or have I kept it in my possession after I knew to whom it belonged? Have I cheated in business or at games? Eighth. "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor." Have I told lies or injured anyone by my talk? Have I told the faults of others without any necessity? It is not allowed to tell the faults of others—even when you tell the truth about them—unless some good comes of the telling. Ninth. "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife." This can come into our examination on the Sixth Commandment. Tenth. "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's goods." This can come into our examination on the Seventh Commandment.
After examining yourself on the Commandments of God, examine yourself on the Commandments of the Church.
First. "To hear Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation." This has been considered in the examination on the Third Commandment. Second "To fast and abstain on the days appointed." Have I knowingly eaten meat on Ash Wednesday or the Fridays of Lent, or not done some chosen penance on the other Fridays of the year, or not fasted on Ash Wednesday or Good Friday, unless I had good reason not to do so on account of poor health or other reason? Third. "To confess at least once a year." Is it over a year, and how much over it, since I have been to confession? Fourth. "To receive Holy Eucharist during the Easter time." Did I go to Holy Communion between the first Sunday of Lent and Trinity Sunday? If not, I have committed a mortal sin. Fifth. "To contribute to the support of our pastors." Have I helped the church and reasonably paid my share of its expenses—given to charity and the like, or have I made others pay for the light, heat, and other things that cost money in the church, and shared in their benefits without giving according to my means? Have I kept what was given me for the church or other charity, or stolen from the church and not stated that circumstance when I confessed that I stole? Sixth. "Not to marry persons who are not Catholics, or who are related to us within the third degree of kindred, or privately without witnesses, nor to solemnize marriage at forbidden times." Have I anything to tell on this Commandment?
After examining yourself on the Commandments of God and of His Church, examine yourself on the capital sins, especially on "Pride." Have I been impudent and stubborn, vain about my dress, and the like? Have I despised others simply on account of poverty or something they could not help? "Gluttony." Have I ever taken intoxicating drink to excess or broken a promise not to take it? Have I knowingly caused others to be intoxicated? "Sloth." Have I wasted my time willfully and neglected to do my duty at school or elsewhere? After examining yourself on the Commandments and capital sins, examine yourself on the duties of your state of life. If you are at school, how have you studied? You should study not alone to please your parents or teachers, but for the sake of learning. If you are at work, have you been faithful to your employer, and done your work well and honestly?
The above method is generally recommended as the best in the examination of conscience. But you need not follow these exact questions; you can ask yourself any questions you please: the above questions are given only as examples of what you might ask, and to show you how to question yourself. It is useless to take any list of sins in a prayerbook and examine yourself by it, confessing the sins just as they are given. If you do take such a list and find in it some questions or sins that you do not understand, do not trouble yourself about them. In asking yourself the questions, if you find you have sinned against a Commandment, stop and consider how many times. There are few persons who sin against all the Commandments. Some sin against one and some against another. Find out the worst sin you have and the one you have most frequently committed, and be sure of telling it.
(2) "HAVE SORROW FOR YOUR SINS." After examining your conscience and finding out the sins you have committed, the next thing is to be sorry for them. The sorrow is the most essential part in the whole Sacrament of Penance. In this Sacrament there are, as you know, three parts: contrition, confession, and satisfaction—and contrition is the most important part. When, therefore, we are preparing for confession, we should spend just as much time, and even more, in exciting ourselves to sorrow for our sins as in the examination of our conscience. Some persons forget this and spend all their time examining their conscience. We should pray for sorrow if we think we have none. Remember the act of contrition made at confession is not the sorrow, but only an outward sign by which we make known to the priest that we have the sorrow in our hearts, and therefore we must have the sorrow before making the confession—or at least, before receiving the absolution. Now what kind of sorrow must we have? Someone might say, I am not truly sorry because I cannot cry. If some of my friends died, I would be more sorry for that than for my sins. Do not make any such mistakes. The true and necessary kind of sorrow for sin is to know that by sin you have offended God, and now feel that it was very wrong, and that you have from this moment the firm determination never to offend Him more. If God adds to this a feeling that brings tears to your eyes, it is good, but not necessary.
(3) RESOLVE TO SIN NO MORE: Remember real sorrow for sin supposes and contains "a firm resolution" never to sin again. How can you say to God, "O my God, I am heartily sorry," etc., if you are waiting only for the next opportunity to sin? How can we be sorry for the past if we are going to do the same in the future? Do you think the thief would be sorry for his past thefts if he had his mind made up to steal again as soon as he had the chance? Ah, but you will say, nearly all persons sin again after confession. I know that; but when they were making their confession they thought they never would, and really meant never to sin again; but when temptation came, they forgot the good resolution, did not use God's help, and fell into sin again. I mean, therefore, that at the time you make the act of contrition you must really mean what you say and promise never to sin, and take every means you can to keep that promise. If you do fall afterwards, renew your promise as quickly as possible and make a greater effort than before. Be on your guard against those things that make you break your promise, and then your act of contrition will be a good one. A person may be afraid that he will fall again, but being afraid does not make his contrition worthless as long as he wishes, hopes, and intends never to sin again. We should always be afraid of falling into sin, and we will fall into it if we depend upon ourselves alone, and not on the help which God gives us in His grace.
(4) "CONFESS YOUR SINS." Having made the necessary preparation, you will next go into the confessional; and while you are waiting for the priest to hear you, you should say the Confiteor. When the priest turns to you, bless yourself and say: "Bless me, father, for I have sinned. It is a month or a week (or whatever time it may be) since my last confession, and I have since committed these sins." Then tell your sins as you found them in examining yourself. In confession you must tell only such things as are sins. You must not tell all the details and a long story with every sin. For example, if a boy should confess that he went to see a friend, and after that met another friend, and when he came home he was asked what had kept him, and he told a lie. Now, the going to see the friend and the meeting of the other friend, and all the rest, was not a sin: the sin was telling the lie, and that was all that should have been confessed. Therefore, tell only the sins. Then tell only your own sins, and be very careful not to mention anyone's name—even your own—in confession. Be brief, and do not say, I broke the First Commandment or the Second by doing so and so; tell the sin simply as it is, and the priest himself will know what Commandment you violated. Again, when you have committed a sin several times a day do not multiply that by the number of days since your last confession and say to the priest, I have told lies, for example, four hundred and forty-two times. Such things only confuse you and make you forget your sins. Simply say, I am in the habit of telling lies, about so many, three or four—or whatever number it may be—times a day. Never say "sometimes" or "often" when you are telling the number of your sins. Sometimes might mean ten or it might mean twenty times. How then can the priest know the number by that expression? Give the number as nearly as you can, and if you do not know the whole number give the number of times a day, etc. Never say "maybe" I did so and so; because maybe you did not, and the priest cannot judge. Tell what you consider your worst sin first, then if there be any sin you are ashamed to tell or do not know how to tell, say to the priest: "Father, I have a sin I am ashamed to tell, or a sin I do not know how to tell"; and then the priest will ask you some questions and help you to tell it. But never think of going away from the confessional with some sin that you did not tell. The devil sometimes tempts people to do this, because he does not like to see them in a state of grace and friends of God. When you are committing the sin, he makes you believe it is not a great sin, and that you can tell it in confession; but after you have committed it he makes you believe that it is a most terrible sin, and that if you tell it, the priest will scold you severely. So it is concealed and the person leaves the confessional with a new sin upon his soul—that of sacrilege. When Judas was tempted to betray Our Lord, he thought thirty pieces of silver a great deal of money; and then, after he had committed the sin, he cared nothing for the money, but went and threw it away, and thought his sin so dreadful that he hanged himself, dying in despair.
It is not necessary to tell the priest the exact words you said in cursing or in bad conversation, unless he asks you; but simply say, Father, I cursed so many times. Do not speak too loud in the confessional, but loud enough for the priest to hear you. If you are deaf, do not go into the confessional while others are near, but wait till all have been heard and then go in last, or ask the priest to hear you someplace else.
(5) RECEIVE PENANCE: Listen attentively to hear what "penance" the priest gives you, and say the act of contrition while he pronounces the words of absolution; and above all, never leave the confessional till the priest closes the little door or tells you to go. If the priest does not say at what particular time you are to say your penance, say it as soon as you can.
When you have, told all your sins, you will say: "For these and all the sins of my whole life, especially any I have forgotten, I am heartily sorry, and ask pardon and penance." Listen to the priest's advice, and answer simply any question he may ask you. If you should forget a mortal sin in confession and remember it the same day or evening, or while you are still in the church, it will not be necessary to wait and go to confession again. It is forgiven already, because it was included in your forgotten sins; but you must tell it the next time you go to confession, saying before your regular confession: In my last confession I forgot this sin. Of course if you tried to forget your sins your confession would be invalid. It is only when you examine your conscience with all reasonable care, and then after all forget some sins, that such forgotten sins are forgiven.
Source: CLAA Catechism, Lesson 36 (Baltimore Catechism #4, Lesson 17)
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
For our sons and daughters
Clean Love in Courtship by Father Lovasik. Here is a great excerpt:
How to Choose a Marriage Partner
The following questions will not only help you to fit yourself for leading a worthy and holy married life, but also enable you to choose a partner in marriage intelligently. These qualifications apply to men and women alike.
1.Friendship
1. Is your friendship morally beneficial? Are you morally better or worse for having been with him, and what can you expect in the future? Would marriage with him help you to observe God’s commandments and practice your religious duties faithfully?
2. Imagine a crisis in your life (poverty, sickness) that might demand a high quality of virtue to remain faithful to God. Would he be a help to the practice of such virtue?
3. Does he drink too much? Gamble?
4. Does he want to indulge in petting, passionate kissing, even at the expense of chastity?
5. Does he control his temper? Has he a sense of humor? Can he keep a secret?
6. Does he practice his religion?
7. What are his views on divorce, on having children, on Catholic education, on frequenting the sacraments?
8. Can you actually point out any definite virtuous qualities, or are they put on for your benefit now?
2. Agreement
1.Is there at least a reasonable degree of similarity between you in regard to the recreations you like?
2.Could you both enjoy staying at home in the evening, especially when children come?
3. Are there any habits now that not only get on your nerves but which you find extraordinarily difficult to overlook?
4. Do you both fit into about the same kind of social life?
5. Does he get along with your family and you with his?
6.Have you both sufficient health for marriage?
7.What are his habits of life: cleanliness, orderliness, good manners, good grammar?
8.Are you able to harmonize judgments on things that pertain to family life: food, kind of house, furnishings, etc.?
9. Have you the same religion and the same standards concerning its practice?
10.Have you the same attitude towards children and their education?
11. Do you feel at ease together, regardless of what you talk about? If you do not meet for some time, are you able to take up where you left off, with something of the naturalness of a family reunion, or do you have to try to work up an acquaintance all over again?
12.Has he a nagging or reforming disposition?
13.Do you see his failings, and are you willing to tolerate them? Does he admit them and is he willing to get over them?
14.With children in mind, would you say that this person would be just the right other parent for them?
3.Self-Sacrifice
1.Is your prospective companion thoughtful of others and has he the power of self-discipline?
2.In his home does he show thoughtfulness of parents and brothers and sisters, and do you get the impression that this is his regular attitude?
3.What little kindnesses, not only to you but to others, have you noticed in him?
4.When he is wrong, does he admit it and try to make up for it?
5.Does he easily and graciously pass over others’ mistakes?
6.Does he look for sympathy too much?
7.Can he give sympathy willingly, or does some one else’s trouble always bring out a greater trouble of his?
8.Does he show that he knows his temper, and that jealousy and other unpleasant traits ought to be controlled?
If it is a Wife You Want:
1.Can she cook and make the house a home?
2.Has she that womanly quality that instinctively puts things in order?
3.Would this girl be a real mother?
4.Could she bear children and sacrifice for them?
5.Could she give the child that early introduction to God that he would never forget?
6.Is she convinced that motherhood is an all-day and an all-night job?
7.How does she speak of children? How does she treat them?
8.What do her younger brothers and sisters think of her?
If is a Husband You Want:
1.How does he like children?
2.Does he like to work? Can he hold a job?
3.Has he a sense of responsibility?
4.Is he “grown up,” or does he have to be pampered?
5.Is he unduly jealous? A braggart? An alibi artist? Is he courteous?
Such questions will bring ,you down to earth and keep you from estimating things merely on the score of fascination. Many of the points are not in themselves important; the general picture that is created by the various answers is very important. Many points cannot be tested out before marriage, but glaring risks can be easily recognized. Though these characteristics need not be present in a high degree at the time of marriage, the beginnings should be present, or at least a genuine willingness and effort to improve.
If there is question of reforming your friend, it should be done before, not after marriage. Do not put your faith in vague promises which seldom materialize. If you cannot get along agreeably before marriage, it is almost certain that you will not get along after marriage.
The rest of the book can be found online here.
https://sites.google.com/site/catholicmarriagefamily/clean-love-in-courtship
How to Choose a Marriage Partner
The following questions will not only help you to fit yourself for leading a worthy and holy married life, but also enable you to choose a partner in marriage intelligently. These qualifications apply to men and women alike.
1.Friendship
1. Is your friendship morally beneficial? Are you morally better or worse for having been with him, and what can you expect in the future? Would marriage with him help you to observe God’s commandments and practice your religious duties faithfully?
2. Imagine a crisis in your life (poverty, sickness) that might demand a high quality of virtue to remain faithful to God. Would he be a help to the practice of such virtue?
3. Does he drink too much? Gamble?
4. Does he want to indulge in petting, passionate kissing, even at the expense of chastity?
5. Does he control his temper? Has he a sense of humor? Can he keep a secret?
6. Does he practice his religion?
7. What are his views on divorce, on having children, on Catholic education, on frequenting the sacraments?
8. Can you actually point out any definite virtuous qualities, or are they put on for your benefit now?
2. Agreement
1.Is there at least a reasonable degree of similarity between you in regard to the recreations you like?
2.Could you both enjoy staying at home in the evening, especially when children come?
3. Are there any habits now that not only get on your nerves but which you find extraordinarily difficult to overlook?
4. Do you both fit into about the same kind of social life?
5. Does he get along with your family and you with his?
6.Have you both sufficient health for marriage?
7.What are his habits of life: cleanliness, orderliness, good manners, good grammar?
8.Are you able to harmonize judgments on things that pertain to family life: food, kind of house, furnishings, etc.?
9. Have you the same religion and the same standards concerning its practice?
10.Have you the same attitude towards children and their education?
11. Do you feel at ease together, regardless of what you talk about? If you do not meet for some time, are you able to take up where you left off, with something of the naturalness of a family reunion, or do you have to try to work up an acquaintance all over again?
12.Has he a nagging or reforming disposition?
13.Do you see his failings, and are you willing to tolerate them? Does he admit them and is he willing to get over them?
14.With children in mind, would you say that this person would be just the right other parent for them?
3.Self-Sacrifice
1.Is your prospective companion thoughtful of others and has he the power of self-discipline?
2.In his home does he show thoughtfulness of parents and brothers and sisters, and do you get the impression that this is his regular attitude?
3.What little kindnesses, not only to you but to others, have you noticed in him?
4.When he is wrong, does he admit it and try to make up for it?
5.Does he easily and graciously pass over others’ mistakes?
6.Does he look for sympathy too much?
7.Can he give sympathy willingly, or does some one else’s trouble always bring out a greater trouble of his?
8.Does he show that he knows his temper, and that jealousy and other unpleasant traits ought to be controlled?
If it is a Wife You Want:
1.Can she cook and make the house a home?
2.Has she that womanly quality that instinctively puts things in order?
3.Would this girl be a real mother?
4.Could she bear children and sacrifice for them?
5.Could she give the child that early introduction to God that he would never forget?
6.Is she convinced that motherhood is an all-day and an all-night job?
7.How does she speak of children? How does she treat them?
8.What do her younger brothers and sisters think of her?
If is a Husband You Want:
1.How does he like children?
2.Does he like to work? Can he hold a job?
3.Has he a sense of responsibility?
4.Is he “grown up,” or does he have to be pampered?
5.Is he unduly jealous? A braggart? An alibi artist? Is he courteous?
Such questions will bring ,you down to earth and keep you from estimating things merely on the score of fascination. Many of the points are not in themselves important; the general picture that is created by the various answers is very important. Many points cannot be tested out before marriage, but glaring risks can be easily recognized. Though these characteristics need not be present in a high degree at the time of marriage, the beginnings should be present, or at least a genuine willingness and effort to improve.
If there is question of reforming your friend, it should be done before, not after marriage. Do not put your faith in vague promises which seldom materialize. If you cannot get along agreeably before marriage, it is almost certain that you will not get along after marriage.
The rest of the book can be found online here.
https://sites.google.com/site/catholicmarriagefamily/clean-love-in-courtship
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