Postscripts From The Catholic Spitfire Grill

Welcome to this week's Catholic Carnival! As the submissions rolled in this week to my email box, I noticed that prayer emerged as a definite overall theme. Making for an interesting mix, things political was a definite sub-theme as well as interesting mixes in general.

Starting out with prayer and things related....

Tom O'Toole from Fighting Irish Thomas submits an inspirational piece he published with the stories of several men and women who made time for prayer while running in Running the Rosary. (I need no convincing about the benefits of reciting the rosary. Running on the other hand....)

Art has often been used as an inspiration for prayer, Jim Knegt of Brilliant Corners Art Farm has shared one of his paintings of one my favorite subjects, The Holy Family.

Matthew from A Catholic Life uses the Catechism (and more) to highlight The Errors of Centering Prayer. In addition to the links in his post, he includes an excellent set of references at the end of this piece for additional reading.

I (RNW) would like you all stop by Postscripts from the Catholic Spitfire Grill to consider how the Protestant idea that Unity of the Body of Christ is a symbolic and invisible sort and not a literal and visible sort affects belief in prayer in my post What Does Not Believing in Visible Unity Mean to Doctrine? Hint: One of my conclusions has something to do with asking the saints in heaven to pray for us. 

HMS blog reflects on the readings from Sacred Scripture for the Fifth Sunday of Easter in Entering the Kingdom and notes "It is worth emphasizing again that our faith and love in this world of hardships do not bring us immediately into the fullness of the Kingdom."

"Who's in charge of your plans?" Denise at Catholic Matriarch in my Domestic Church meditates on this and the reading of May 2, 2007 from Acts 12:24-13:5a and applies it to her life past and present in What Next, God?...probably prayerfully.

In Jesus Christ, the Truth, is Not Opposed to: "The Spirit Blows Where the Spirit Wills (John 3:8)"  Tom Reagan has some fascinating ruminations about the Truth, the Holy Spirit and some suggestions about how we should respond when we find Truth in unexpected places.

Over at Rise and Pray, Mark gives his thought about the Supreme Prayer of the Catholic Faith offers his thoughts about Latin in both Novus Ordo and the Tridentine Masses and his thoughts about where the real dangers lie in Latin Mass. I believe this is Mark's first contribution to the Catholic Carnival. (If not, I apologize Mark.) He is discerning a vocation and has a lovely accent. (He lives in Scotland, they all have lovely accents.) Put him on your prayer list, go check out his blog, and drop him a note of encouragement as he makes his way through the discernment process. I'll be waiting here for you when you get back....

Jean at Catholic Fire offers an excerpt from The World's First Love titled Virginity and the Stages of Love: Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

As a way to move our prayer life to the more conrete actions of our lives, Melissa and Esther suggest a couple of projects for the month of May which is dedicated to Our Lady...

At a third way Melissa shares some of her experience in making and giving away rosaries in The Gift That Gives Back. This would make a terrific project to honor Mary for the month of May for everyone and especially those of us with children. (Doing this with your children is my suggestion, not hers. Blame me if you must.)

Mary's Garden is a gift from Esther from A Catholic Mom in Hawaii. What does this have to do with prayer you ask? Well if she is anything like me she gets in some excellent prayer and meditation time done in the garden. She isn't fooling me however, there's no way she's got either Lilies of the Valley OR Daffodils in her garden. It's a great idea for a project but many of the plants are for those in the lower USDA zones; although, rosemary is never in danger of frost at either of our homes.

Moving on to the topic of interesting mixes....

Elena from My Domestic Church also muses on gardening and the gifts she received from her grandfather in Lives of Loveliness, The Loveliness of the Garden. Grandpas and gardening is a mix, right?

K T Cat thinks out loud about Science and Theology Coexisting at The Scratching Post. Is it possible to resist a mixture of modern Cosmological Theory and Aquinas, Augustine, the authors of Genesis, et al? I think not. Jump in!

Dead computers and the admonition, "Don't panic!" don't belong in the same sentence unless there is an act enabled by the Grace of God. Steve of Book Reviews and More shares in Your Computer Just Died, Don't Panic! that an generous act can transform a difficult situation....after a short period of panic.

Christus Vincit mixes before and after in photos from Holy Ghost Church's Sanctuary Improvement.

Not a mix but Ian from Musings From A Catholic Bookstore submits his suggestion for the number one spot on the "You Know You're a Large Family When..." Top Ten List. Find out what it is in I Think We Are Officially a Large Family. (Note to Ian...no thinking necessary. You are richly blessed with an "Officially" large family!)

Politics is a strange mix all by itself....strange bedfellows and all...

SWP of CatholicLand! discusses some of the implications of Supreme Court decision to uphold the partial birth abortion ban in Curb Your Enthusiam? As always, a perusal of the reasoning of the decision makers is often more fascinating than the decision itself and leads SWP to an examination of the root causes of abortion itself.

La Nouvelle Théologie submits an excellent piece on Islam. One of my favorite questions to ask when examining the faith or philosophical construct and the behavior of its followers is "To what extent is this behavior an aberration or a natural extension of what is taught by this faith/philosophy?" This second part of a two-part post examines the behavior of some Muslims in our world today in the light of whether or not this behavior is to be expected given the fundamental beliefs of Islam. There is also an excellent list of resources at the end for additional reading.

The Conservative Ophthalmologist at EyeHackerBlog writes about the the commonly told myth about Catholic cooperation with the Nazi Germany in the Denigration of Pope Pius XII Continues with plenty of suggested resources for further reading. 

In our final interesting mix of the nonpolitical variety, we have the extreme interior drama of a "household Madonna" trapped inside the body of Sarah and struggling to emerge at just another day of Catholic pondering who tells us about her conversion to aprons in Aprons, Barn Boots, and Cowpatties  In the interest of full disclosure she's only committed to trying one out on National Wear an Apron Day....who knew there was one of those? And I wear aprons!

We end by looking ahead to this coming Sunday and Mother's Day, Jenny from Heart of a Mother  remembers her grandmother in this touching tribute: In Loving Memory of Anna Mae (Clark) Zucchero, 1913-2007

Thanks for stopping by the Catholic Carnival this week and I hope you enjoy these posts as much as I have. If I have messed up a link somewhere, please don't hesitate to contact me and insist on having it fixed. And if I have offended anyone (cough...Sarah), I can be bribed to rework my editorial commentary with moderate quantities of airfreighted new crop Darjeeling from TeaGschwender. (Oh all right, it won't cost you anything and I promise to be very sorry that I have offended.) If you would like to participate in a future Catholic Carnival you can find details here. And if you'd like to host the Catholic Carnival on your blog, I'm sure Jay would love to hear from you!