Pockets and Frogs
If you don’t watch this video, you will regret it for the rest of your life. If you are a parent, it may scar you for life but I think you still find the video instructional. Thank you kindly, Creative Minority Report.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
University Life Has Gotten So Much Better
Yes. I admit it. Vanity is something I struggle with. I have been resisting taking my laptop with me to class to take notes because of the Total Geek factor. In my mind, somehow, someone at my age should not succumb to the need for laptop notetaking when doing it the old fashioned way has worked for me for so many years. I like computers and technology but I try to maintain a veneer of coolness with respect to the latest and greatest technology. It’s a thin veneer. When my husband reads this he will no doubt remind me of the times when I have been caught standing in front of a particularly cool piece of computing technology and drooling whilst saying “This is so TOTALLY cool!” I will also confess to more than a momentary twinge of envy when Curt Jester twittered that he had installed a terabyte-sized hard drive. Sigh. Terabytes. Yeah, it’s a pretty thin veneer. So last night, since I type so much faster than I can write, I bit the vanity bullet and took my laptop to class for the first time.
Oh my merciful heaven!! I turned on my computer and it instantly started talking to the wireless network that I should have guessed was there but was actually clueless to its existence. I sort of figured that there was a wireless network around but that you needed to have some kind of access code or something to access it. Nope. Or if you do need some sort of code, my computer was just so hungry for internet access that it ate through the security system by sheer force of will.
Did you know you can buy books while IN class with these sorts of tools? If your professor mentions a certain out-of-print book that she would have preferred to use for the main text, you can just pop open a window, surf on over to Abebooks.com and voila! that book is on its way to your house.
I’ve got Themes of the Old Testament and Church History this semester in addition to pastoral and spiritual formation courses. I’m not sure how that will influence my blog content or if I will just keep telling you about how university life has changed since last I was there.
Buying books while IN class….can it get any better than that?
Catholic Carnival 207: Carpe Deum
Mea culpa. I have been seriously remiss in both contributing to and posting the Catholic Carnival. Go read what Catholic bloggers have to say at Homeschool Goodies.
It’s almost Lent again (where does time fly) and Evann has put together a truly creative Mardi Gras themed carnival. Go read and comment and make a bloggers day.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
The Fruit of Confession
When I first converted to the Catholic faith, I didn’t understand the need for sacramental confession. I didn’t like it and was certainly not as obedient as I should have been with respect to seeking sacramental confession. (Ever notice how the phrase “not as obedient as I should have been” really translates to “not very obedient at all”?) However, as the Lord has worked in my life and I have decided to become obedient whether I saw the need to or not, I have become exceedingly grateful for the great gift of sacramental confession. Oh sure the grace of the sacrament is significant. As Jesus promised in John 20:19-23 the peace of the sacrament is very real, regardless of how we feel. And if there were no other benefits to it all, I should be very grateful and content. But today, I found myself meditating on the very temporal benefits of an obedient, disciplined, and frequent reception of the Sacrament of Confession.
Let’s be frank. I don’t find the process of confession to be pleasant at all. To make a good confession you must spend time in prayer asking God to illuminate your conscience and time examining your conscience in a systematic way. In this respect an examination of conscience is very much like cleaning house. Going and looking for dirt in the corners is always more likely turn up something gross than simply taking a quick swipe at the kitchen counter and calling it done. (
How to make a good confession.) Then as if that wasn’t painful enough, you’ve got to go in front of another person and speak these things out loud. It can be intensely painful and I don’t remember the last time I left the confessional with dry eyes. It is also something that gets easier with practice and something that carries over into my relationships in real life.Yesterday, I had it pointed out to me that I had been doing something that was potentially hurtful to my children. And so today after some meditation and prayer, I called the children to me and confessed to them and asked their forgiveness. Now as it turned out, my children argued with me and told me very specifically that not only were they not hurt by this but also that it was something that they liked and that they would not like me to stop. Go figure. Nevertheless, it was a good conversation and it started some good….although very silly…back and forth between us. And although it was not particularly pleasant to sit down in front of them and say, “It has been brought to my attention that I’ve screwed up and I’m sorry.” It was the right thing to do to go to them and ask them for forgiveness….and I don’t think I could have done it without the grace of confession.
So if you are a Catholic and you’ve been away from the confessional for a while. Bite the bullet. The discipline of regular confession will probably make you more intimately aware of Christ’s sacrifice for us, of His great love and the ocean of His mercy but it may be one of the best things you can do to improve the relationship you have with your spouse and children…or the other loved ones in your life.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Resolutions Never Last Long At My House
I didn’t actually make a resolution to be nicer but I probably should have. It’s a good thing I didn’t resolve to be nicer because this quote had me busting a gut this morning. I hope it makes you laugh too. You can be nice later.
There is only one war, and it’s not the rich against the poor, the
blacks against the whites, the Federation against the Borg, or the
Democrats versus the Republicans. It’s those of us who aren’t
complete idiots against those of us who are.
Thank You!! You’ve Funded a Kiva Loan
I while back I told you all about a book to help with teaching your children about the week’s Gospel readings. (If you missed that post, you can read it here.) In my post I mentioned that I would receive a small amount of any sales generated through my blog and I also mentioned that I planned to give that money to Kiva. Well, I didn’t really expect to have to follow through but apparently some of you actually ordered (Thank you.) and I have received enough money (plus a little extra) to fund a loan. Meet the Nelva Mery Nipa Pelaez Group I will use the extra as a donation to Kiva.
Which leads me to an update to my review. Those of you who have purchased Hear My Voice will want to know that their website now has a link where you can download coloring pages for the current week’s Gospel readings!! So click your heels together and say “I want to use printer ink like water. I want to use printer ink like water” and click below.
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Converts Who Leave….
We’ve been having a discussion on the Catholic Spitfire Grill that’s had me deep in thought for a while now. ”They” say….and I have no official source for this number whatsoever….that 40% of those who are received into the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil Mass aren’t attending by the following Vigil Mass. I have no idea if this is actually true, but I do know several people in both my real life and in internet life who have struggled with staying in the Church and so this number bothers me deeply.
Even one leaving is a tragedy that should touch us all deeply. Do we as Catholics bear some sense of corporate responsibility for every single one who leaves? I don’t think so. Even Jesus had one of his Apostles choose to walk away. But I can’t help but think that a little more nurturing might not prevent some from leaving so soon. What do we do? What do I do?
We had a discussion both for and against the whole handshaking team at the doors. Some of us (and I am very much in that group) prefer to slip in and out of church quietly, but there were also those who related that a simple handshake might have kept them in the church at a time when they were inclined to leave. Then of course there is the “Sign of Peace” which is not without it’s own controversies…..and could there be a better time to link to Conversion Diary’s brilliant post on the Sign of Peace for the Socially Awkward? Another member told us how her church used the bulletin at Easter and Christmas to promote parish life and provide plenty of information for those who might want to be involved.
I wonder if perhaps we might not have our RCIA teams follow up on those who join the church or have some catechesis for sponsors? I know that **I** need to sit down with our church irectory and memorize faces and names because that’s my weakness. I am not outgoing because I have difficulty with names. And of course, as with all things, prayer.
So what are your ideas? What does your parish do? Your RCIA teams? How do we keep those who have made the swim across the Tiber from feeling unwelcome? Unfed? Unwatered? Unpruned?
January 2009: Holy Father’s Prayer Intentions
General: That the family may become more and more a place of training in charity, personal growth and transmission of the faith.
Mission: That the different Christian confessions, aware of the need for a new evangelisation in this period of profound transformations, may be committed to announcing the Good News and moving towards the full unity of all Christians in order to offer a more credible testimony of the Gospel.
Out With A Whimper and Some Questions
I think I’d like to demand another couple of weeks in 2008. Quiet weeks with absolutely nothing scheduled so that I could do nothing but finish everything I had planned to do in 2008. What do you think the odds are? (Shhhh don’t answer that.)
Between school, vacation (drove a couple thousand miles), and a bout with flat on my back illness, I am ready to petition for some real vacation. The kind where you sleep as long as you need to and still manage to carve out huge portions of the to-do list. And with the New Year just around the corner, I feel like I should have some great ideas of resolutions for the coming year. Mostly, I have just had more questions than thoughts about things like resolutions. Like what the heck to do with this blog!? Going back to school has caused a cataclysmic shift in focus. Somewhere in the back on my pin-headed mind, I had this picture of just taking a few classes without it really changing anything. HA! Education always changes things if only just the things you need to rearrange to make room for it. The time I used to spend in those apologetic conversations that leaked over into this blog is gone and instead I am reading textbooks and writing papers. Trust me. It’s really not blog content. Somewhere in all of this I can’t believe that there isn’t a different sort of blog content to come out of these life changes. I’m not sure what it is yet. I can’t believe that I’ll completely stop writing about apologetics. All it will take is some stranger on the street telling me how I worship the Pope and I’ll be off to the races, but I am having those sorts of encounters infrequently these days.
So I find myself at the end of the year, whimpering a little from a schedule that I haven’t yet quite gotten a handle on and struggling to find my bearings with what comes next. There seems to be more real life interaction and less room for the internet and that shift seems to be provoking a shift in mindset from “What do I think about that?” to “Well now what am I going to DO about it?” And wouldn’t you know it, the real life problems are always messier than those hypothetical doctrinal questions that are so fun to play with.
It’s feels a little weird to be doing this thinking “out loud” but I just didn’t want anyone who’s still hanging around that I’ve abandoned this whole project.
BTW….I do have a “vintage” Sister Spitfire apologetics post on the back burner. I hope to have it up soon.
Happy New Year to you all!! And tomorrow, I’ll have a question that’s been bugging me that hopefully, you all will have some thoughts on.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
How On Earth Did I Miss This?
I saw a list of the Best of the Web in 2008 kind of awards and this YouTube video was one of the winners. I can’t believe I haven’t seen it before this. If you haven’t see the video of Christian the Lion, you really must (unless you are a cold-hearted animal hater). It will bring a tear to your eye and a smile to your face. Guaranteed.
Oh and I’m not quite dead. Just up to my eyeballs in life. I anticipate actual blog content soon.
