My e-Bay Store

My darling husband of almost 25 years is a band instrument repair technician - he fixes band instruments, and he's good at it too! We also set up an e-Bay store to sell some used instruments and other stuff he and his partner come up with. This week we're selling a Selmer Oboe, so if your in the market for a student line oboe, check us out!

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Lindsey O'Conner

Amy Welborn has a wonderful link to Christianity Today on her blog regarding the story of Lindsey O'Conner. Mrs. O'Conner was comatose for 2 months after the birth of her baby and her husband faced many end-of-life issues before she recovered. Here is Ms. O'Conner's web site She has several very interesting books for sale on her site dealing with work and motherhood that I'll have to check out later. What an inspiring story especially in light of what Terri Schiavo and her family have gone through.

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The Rule of Terri's Case

This sure is how it seems to me!
The Rule of Terri's Case Strikes Again
Terri's parents are held to the letter of the law; the man who is trying to kill her is given heaping amounts of "judicial discretion."
by Wesley J. Smith
01/30/2004 12:20:00 PM
THE "RULE OF TERRI'S CASE" has struck again. The term was coined by Pat Anderson, attorney for Terri Schiavo's parents Bob and Mary Schindler, who complained: "If following a legal procedure will likely result in Terri dying, it will be adhered to. But if a procedure could make that outcome more difficult to attain, it will not be followed."

Anderson's complaint has ample evidentiary support. For example, under Florida law, Terri should have a court-appointed guardian ad litem to exclusively represent her interests. But, Judge George Greer, of the Sixth Judicial Circuit, refused to allow one for Terri in the guardianship case ever since her first ad litem was dismissed after recommending that she not be dehydrated to death.

Similarly, "Terri's Law," the new statute that permits Florida's governor to suspend the planned removal of a feeding tube in certain cases, also requires the appointment of a guardian ad litem. This was done. But after the ad litem Jay Wolfson urged that she be allowed a swallow test, David A. Demers, chief judge of the Sixth Judicial Circuit, refused to renew his authority. This, despite Governor Jeb Bush specifically informing Demers that he needed further information from Wolfson to properly carry out the governor's responsibilities under Terri's Law. So, once again, Terri is without the protection of a guardian ad litem.

And now Judge Greer has repeatedly allowed Michael Schiavo to skirt his statutory duty to file mandatory annual guardianship plans to establish a ward's approved plan of care for the
coming year. This appears to be a direct violation of the applicable Florida Statutes, which read in part:


Each guardian of the person mustfile with the court an annual guardianship plan which updates information about the condition of the ward. The annual plan must specify the current needs of the ward and how those needs are proposed to be met in the coming year. (Section 744.3675; emphasis added)

Most important for the Schiavo case, the plan must describe the "plan for provision of medical, mental health, and rehabilitative services in the coming year." If a guardian fails in this duty:


The court shall order the guardian to file the report within 15 days after the service of the order upon her or him or show cause why she or he should not be compelled to do so. (Section 744.3685)

Moreover:


The court must review the initial and annual guardianship report to determine that the report: (a) meets the needs of the ward . . . (Section 744.369 (4); emphasis added)

And:


The approved report constitutes authority for the guardian to act in the forthcoming year. The powers of the guardian are limited by the terms of the report. (Section 744.368 (8); emphasis added)

In other words, the guardianship plan is supposed to be reviewed by the court prospectively, not retrospectively, which makes sense since its purpose is to ensure that the plan is appropriate to the ward's future needs. (This is not the same thing at all as reviewing an accounting of past expenditures.) Moreover, the approved guardianship plan constitutes the guardian's authority to act, and the guardian's actions are limited by the contents of the plan in the coming year. Thus, it would appear that a Florida guardian of the person has no legal authority in the absence of an approved plan.

Click on link above to read the rest.






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The pope speaks on annullments

Failure of a Marriage Doesn't Prove Its Nullity, Says Pope
Warns of Bureaucratic Approach to Premarital Investigations

VATICAN CITY, JAN. 29, 2004 (Zenit.org).- John Paul II warned against the idea that the failure of conjugal life means that a marriage is invalid.

"Unfortunately, the force of this erroneous approach is at times so great as to become a generalized prejudice," the Pope said when he received in audience today the judges, officials and lawyers of the Roman Rota, the Church's central appellate court.

Such a mistaken approach might even "forget that, given human experience marked by sin, a valid marriage can fail because of the erroneous use of the freedom of the spouses themselves," the Holy Father warned in his address. The audience was held at the start of the judicial year.

"Proof of real nullities," he insisted, "should lead rather to verifying with greater seriousness, at the moment of marriage, the necessary requirements to get married, especially those concerning consent and the real dispositions of those entering into marriage."

This task rests with "parish priests and those who collaborate with them in this context," who "have the grave duty not to yield to a merely bureaucratic view of premarital investigations," the Pope said.

"Their pastoral intervention must be guided by the awareness that persons can, precisely in that moment, discover the natural and supernatural good of marriage, and commit themselves in consequence to pursue it," he said.
ZE04012907

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How the Democratic candidates come down on the abortion issue

National Right to Life surveys them here.No huge surprises. Thanks Jay at Deo Omnis Gloria for the link.


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Pharmacist persecuted

The Weight of Glory has the story of a pharmacist who is facing legal problems for not filling a contraception prescription. This gentleman is a friend of Clayton, who runs the blog, and they are asking for extra prayers for this situation.

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Tying it all together

The Disputationsblog ties in the two big themes of today... Catholics for Dean and the Feast of Thomas Aquinas - and does it beautifully!!

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The Summa mamas have a new quiz!

How intriguing. You are Ken & Barbie as 007 and the
*Bond Girl* Tres chic!


Which Ken & Barbie Couple Do You Belong To?
brought to you by Quizilla

Hmm... wonder how this ties in with my Abe Lincoln and Pius X results?



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The best response to Catholics For Dean yet

Thanks Average Catholic Guy for the outstanding response.

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Young Fogeys

This article by Andrew Greeley has been on several Catholic blogs already but I finally got a chance to read it in its entirety.

Some forty years ago, as the dramatic events of the Second Vatican Council unfolded, a spotlight was trained on the Catholic Church. It was, commentators said, a revolutionary time.

From what I understand reading about the council, it wasn't supposed to be revolutionary but pastoral. The implementation and interpretation of the council was abused and THAT was what was revolutionary. Personally, I don't think we will ever see anything like it again because the many in the laity and priests and religious on the lower levels are much more informed and in touch, thanks in large part to the internet, good Catholic publishers, and EWTN.

For more than three decades now, as a sociologist and a priest, I have been tracking the evolution of the beliefs and practices of the Catholic clergy and laity in the United States. My most recent analysis, based on survey data that I and others have gathered periodically since Vatican II, reveals a striking trend: a generation of conservative young priests is on the rise in the U.S. Church. These are newly ordained men who seem in many ways intent on restoring the pre-Vatican II Church, and who, reversing the classic generational roles, define themselves in direct opposition to the liberal priests who came of age in the 1960s and 1970s.

I don't think it is so much that they want to reverse the council as it is implementing the council correctly. I feel that much was lost with the bad implementation of the council. Popular devotions and Catholic culture in general took heavy casualties as the implementation in this country really made Catholic life more secular and in some ways much more Protestant. It certainly made us dumber. The crap that passed for religious education while I was growing up certainly didn't pass on the fullness of the Catholic Faith to my generation.

The divisions created by Vatican II are not new, of course. Caught up in the reform euphoria that followed the council, the lower clergy and the laity almost immediately developed a new ideology based on respect for women and for the freedom (including the sexual freedom) of the laity. On these matters, quietly or loudly, the laity and the lower clergy did resist the teachings of the Church.

The correct word is dissent. I would also say "Some" in the laity and "Some lower clergy" dissented from the teachings of the Church. Not everyone felt Humanae Vitae for example, was wrong.

The backlash was swift.

It was? Well I suppose in church terms it was, but it's taken most of my life to see any attempt to put the reigns on this nonsense.

Newly appointed bishops would restore the rules; theologians who disagreed would be silenced; and, as much as possible, the old order would be re-established.

Thus proving my point... none of that happened immediately after the council. It has happened during JPII's reign and it has been a long time in coming.

Even some of the progressives of the council, frightened by the laity's exuberant interest in change and by the declining influence of the Church in the United States, lost their nerve and joined in the call for a Restoration. Today's young conservative priests are rallying to this call.

I think Father Greeley fails to give credit where credit is due!! Catholics like myself, embarrassed by our lack of catechesis, tired of being challenged by our Protestant brethren with "Are you saved?" and hungry for the devotions and practices of our early childhood have studied, prayed and worked voraciously to restore this part of our Catholic lifestyle and Culture that was taken from us. That in turn has been passed on to our children who are now coming of age and into the priesthood and convents.

But only about 40 percent of the younger generation believe that birth control is always wrong;a revealing failure of the Restoration efforts of the past thirty years, which have been fundamentally opposed to birth control.

Since when was birth control ever accepted by the church teaching and then had to be restored? This is liberal gobbledy gook for dissent, or as they use to say before Vatican II, heresy.

Priests as a group are simply not in touch with the laity. In the 2002 Los Angeles Times study only thirty-six of 1,854 priests identified clericalism as one of the major problems facing the Church's laity. Astonishingly, only forty-seven priests thought the sex-abuse scandals worth mentioning. For some reason, priests of all generations are unable or unwilling to see the clergy as responsible for the departure of disaffected laypersons;a problem that today plagues the U.S. Church.

To explain the laity's dissatisfaction with the Church, priests from all generations tend to trot out the usual litany: individualism, materialism, secularism, lack of faith, lack of prayer, lack of commitment, media bias, hedonism, sexual freedom, feminism, family breakdown, lack of education, and apathy. The advantage of such explanations is that they free priests from any personal responsibility and put the blame on factors over which the clergy cannot be expected to exercise much control. The rectory thus becomes an isolated citadel battered by cultural forces, which encourages precisely the sort of closed, band-of-brothers mentality that the Vatican II reforms were designed to break down.

Well there's someone out of touch here Father Greeley and it's you!! The band-of-brother mentaly by clergy who dissented from Catholic Moral teaching is what caused the sex scandal and sickened the laity. The "young Fogey's" weren't part of that problem, they're the new solution - orthodoxy, orthodoxy, orthodoxy!!

Interestingly the liberal group at the Birth Control and Catholic Church site never got this either, but the liberal, dissenting group from the 60s and 70s are aging, graying and dying and because they "protected" themselves from offspring, they will now suffer the natural consequence - extinction.


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Birth Control and the Catholic Church Post redux

This is from the boardIlovetocommenton - a pro contraception dissident Catholic discussion board. I originally posted this on January 21. These then are my responses.


One key point we keep making on the discussions is about how and why the sex act is actually used by married couples, and in this sense, there is absolutely no difference between NFP and ABC in the acts couples make use of (assuming they're using NFP to avoid conception).

I would disagree in that there is a key element in the practicing Catholic couple's use of NFP in the act, and that would be a respectful understanding and acceptance of the teaching of the Catholic Church and their submission to that as obedience to Christ's teaching in their act that is missing from an act with contraception.



And so the issue is not whether abstinence is a legitimate means of contraception while other methods are not,

Correct. I think the key issue is does the Catholic Church have the authority to declare and defend what is licit or illicit or not. That's what it has always been about - is the Catholic Church authoritative or not?


but that non-procreative sex is non-procreative sex is non-procreative sex.


That's ridiculous. The church condemns other forms of nonprocreative sex such as homosexual acts and masturbation. However it does not condemn acts between couples who are past the age of childbearing, or infertile couples because it also confirms that the act in marriage is for the good of the couple.

The Holy Father knew this, and tried to condone rhythm anyway, because it makes use of a natural method and places no obstacle to fertility.


Uh.. he DID condone periodic abstinence anyway. So did Paul VI, and John Paul II.


But one could easily counter that making use of the act only during the infertile time of the month is placing a kind of obstacle to fertility--namely, the absence of an ovum!!!

An absurd argument since there is nothing the couple did or didn't do to erase the ovum. It is simply part of the natural course of the fertility cycle.


"Nature" does this, I know, and that is a difference,

Well thanks for the concession and it is a HUGE difference.

only the plain fact is that NFP couples learn about the monthly cycle and make use of what nature provides to insure that their sex acts will be infertile. So the act is used precisely *because* it is infertile, and this further blurs the line between NFP and ABC,

If it were so blurry I suspect more cafeteria Catholics wouldn't have such a problem with NFP. I believe the self-mastery, self-denial, cooperation, and obedience aspects of NFP make it distinct.

leaving only the objective structure of the act per se as the telling factor. All in all, that seems a pretty trivial criterion to use for evaluating the morality of a sex act, the bottom line being whether a penis is ejaculating semen into a vagina with no barrier or hormonal obstructions to conception.

It is only trivial if one looks at it with a contraceptive mindset that is blinded to the awesome power of procreation that a Catholic Couple has in truly imaging the Trinity in the marital act. What a shame that it has been reduced to merely animalistic copulation.

That's pretty much it, I'm afraid. If you do this, the act is not intrinsically evil; if you don't, it is. Heaven and hell hang in the balance. Makes no sense to me!

Perhaps a refresher on Matthew 7 will help.
19 "(16) Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
20 "So then, you will know them (17) by their fruits.
21 "(18) Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.
22 "(19) Many will say to Me on (20) that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?'
23 "And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; (21) DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.'



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More Dean

This may be moot cosidering yesterday's Primary however, here is another reason practicing Catholics, with well formed consciences could not possibly vote for Mr. Dean.

Dean Signed Into Law Measure Providing Guarantying Insurance Coverage for Certain Forms of Contraceptives. In 1999, Howard Dean signed into law a measure requiring insurance companies who cover prescription drugs to cover FDA-approved forms of contraceptives. [Contemporary Women's Issues, 9/99]

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Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas

Click on Catholic Culture for more information about good St. Thomas. Here are St. Thomas' words on the Goodness of God.
It is written (Lam. 3:25): "The Lord is good to them that hope in Him, to the soul that seeketh Him."

I answer that, To be good belongs pre-eminently to God. For a thing is good according to its desirableness. Now everything seeks after its own perfection; and the perfection and form of an effect consist in a certain likeness to the agent, since every agent makes its like; and hence the agent itself is desirable and has the nature of good. For the very thing which is desirable in it is the participation of its likeness. Therefore, since God is the first effective cause of all things, it is manifest that the aspect of good and of desirableness belong to Him; and hence Dionysius (Div. Nom. iv) attributes good to God as to the first efficient cause, saying that, God is called good "as by Whom all things subsist."


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LOL! Who'd of thought... I've got what Amy Welborn wants!!

which is Tim Huegerich (catholicsfordean) mad at me!!


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Pro-life and Taliban?

Howard Dean:

"And the implication that the government has the right to tell a woman when she can and cannot bear a child is different, but has the same philosophical root as the implications of the Taliban telling women how they're to behave and how they're to act."

Thanks to Catholic Light for the quote.
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For all pro-life Catholics - particularly the bloggers persecuted on the Catholics for Dean Blog

Matthew 5
1 And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him:
2 And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying,
3 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
10 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.


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Declaring war on the Catholics for Dean Site?

Tim post this on his blog today.

Dear all Catholic Dean sympathizers,

You are under attack by fellow Catholics who do not even recognize our right to support Dean as Catholics. I will post links to blogs and other active debates about the very legitimacy of this site here and update it frequently. Please visit and post links to relevant parts of this site and offer your own arguments and knowledge of Catholic teaching. Fellow Catholics have declared war on us--let's respond to them with love, reaching out to them with understanding as well as careful argumentation.

sigh... Where to start.

1. As an American Citizen I certainly support the right of any American to exercise their freedom of speech. I also exercise my right as an American citizen to vigorously disagree.

2. As a Catholic, you better have your theological arguments well thought out and supported by the catechism, which is the "sure norm" for Catholics, or you can most certainly be expected to be challenged.

3. Hey, any free links I'm all for. My hubby tells me that when the blog hits 5000 views he'll take me out for a steak dinner!

4. I'm not declaring war on any one. However, I reserve the right to criticize anti-Catholic views on my blog... It's one of the primary reasons I started MY BLOG.

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More changes

are coming to the mass. The one that most concerns me as a musician are the additional words to the Gloria.

Are there are a lot of composers out there right now coming up with additional Gloria music? Or is this how chant is going to come back into common use?

Thanks to Catholic Sensibility for the link.

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Abortion- what Mary Oberst and Ursula K. Le Guin are not saying.

Over on the Open Book Blog, this is article is causing quite a stir.

What I found particularly interesting however, is what these ladies are not saying Here's an excerpt

They don't know "the fear, the danger, the loss of control over the most private decisions," said Oberst, an attorney who works for the Oregon State Bar. "We don't ever want to go back to those days."

Loss of control? But she's not really speaking of rape or incest, nor is she speaking of medical conditions beyond the control of a woman.

Both Oberst and Le Guin told stories about how abortion laws affected their lives, either directly or indirectly. Both said legalized abortions allow women the freedom to dream and determine their own destinies.

Well, you determine your own destiny when you wait to have sexual intercourse in marriage. But note that this isn't about physical health or mental health, now it's OK to acknowledge that we are killing our offspring because of our "dreams."

"That brief carwash experience made me more grateful than ever that I was headed for college," she said. "More importantly, it made me more aware than ever that in a country without choice, a young woman's dreams can die very quickly."

O.K., but other dreams are born, and as was mentioned on Ms. Welborn's blog, it's just 9 months. You postpone your plans but they don't necessarily have to die.

Le Guin, best-selling author of "The Left Hand of Darkness" and many other novels, said she had an abortion as a young woman, and has been a strong supporter of abortion rights ever since.

Like Oberst, she said it's difficult to convey the deep changes that occurred for women over the three decades since Roe v. Wade, the federal case that legalized abortion. She compared being pregnant and 20 years old in the 1950s to living under fundamentalist Islamic law.

Uh, well I think she would have been stoned or something if that was true. The 1960s was the dawn of the sexual revolution anyway so I have no idea what she's talking about.

If she hadn't disobeyed the law and had the abortion, Le Guin said, she never would have went to college or met her husband as the two were sailing on a ship for England as Fulbright scholars.

Well why? Why would having a baby stop her from doing that.

It's a disturbing trend that the pro-abortion folks aren't even trying to pretend any more that it's about women, and women's health. At least it's more honest I guess. We always knew it wasn't about that really.

"We have a real struggle ahead of us," Oberst said.

Very true and I think most of us planning to make it a tough one.


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Howard Dean

Howard Dean supported Michael Schiavo


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Taking the gloves off.

In case you haven't been following the comments to my blog about the Catholics for Dean web site

Tim: You are also welcome to explain what is so "bunk" about it on my website, where I openly allow opposition.

Ell: Thank you. I mainly posted it as a "heads up" here so my readers could access your web site. As an American Citizen, I'm allowed to express my opinion about your site in any free forum.

Your rationalization that a good Catholic can still vote for Dean because the president has little to do with the abortion issue is flawed. For example, everyone knows that the president has the power to sign or veto legislation concerning abortion. Mr. Bush signed the recent ban on the horrendous partial birth procedure.

Mr. Dean said "It is a dark day for American women, who are seeing their reproductive freedoms restricted by a President acting in concert with a right wing congress.


A Catholic with a well-formed conscience could not possibly vote for such an evil man... sorry.


Then Tim's latest comments I have broken up for bite sized replies.

Tim:This is why we need an amendment, and the President is powerless until we have one (see below). Let's start building support through rational dialogue rather than demonizing, which merely reaffirms what people on both sides already believe. >>

Ell: Well frankly I don't see a pro-life amendment to the constitution coming with Howard Dean in the White House. Sorry he just won't support it.


Tim: The difference between pro-life and pro-choice folks is whether they understand the fetus to be a person with equal rights and status as the mother. We need to make our case that it is unreasonable to suppose that the unborn child magically becomes a person when it passes out of the mother.


Ell: Then what in the world are you doing supporting a guy like Dean? Heck, why are you even a Democrat?

Tim: Your hateful and discussion-stopping rhetoric only gets in the way.

Ell: Excuse me fella but it's my blog and you came here, and came back...again.


Tim: "Federal judges in New York and California blocked the [partial birth abortion] law Thursday, a day after it was signed by President Bush. The rulings likely prevent enforcement of the ban nationwide until a challenge to its constitutionality can be heard."



Ell: Oh goody, now let's talk about the Democratic filibuster in appointing pro-life judge appointees.

Tim: Look, if you want to talk about evil men, I'm afraid I can make a much stronger case for Mr. Bush and his cabinet, based on much more than a single issue...

Ell: Don't under estimate me Tim. That really would be a mistake


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Father Lovasik

A few years ago, I discovered the writings of Father Lawrence G. Lovasik S.V.D. and realized that I had really known h im most of my life! He wrote many of the little Catholic children's books that are so popular. I'll bet if you look at the little books laying around your house for kids, a few of them were written by Father Lovasik.

I have developed a real devotion to the late Father's writings, particularly his prayers, and I have decided to use my tag board below to post them from time to time.

Father Lovasik also wrote many adult books, one of my favorites being Praying the Gospels. That was actually a purchase I made on eBay and when it arrived I noted that Father Lovasik had actually signed it! I called my children around me and said, "Hey you guys, look! A saint has signed my book."

Gabe, my 8-year-old came over to the book and touched the signature with his sweet little hand... and then smelled his fingers!!

: ) Never thought myself to check out what a saint might smell like... good thinking Gabe!





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Feast of Timothy and Titus

Read more about these saints by clicking on the Catholic Culture banner above. Great ideas below for getting into the spirit of the feast day!!

No one understood the heart of St. Paul better than St. Timothy. His finest legacy is the two epistles he wrote to Timothy. Today would be an opportune occasion to study these epistles and to apply personally the high ideals proposed.


Look up the descriptions St. Paul gives of his traveling companion, Tim: 1, Cor. 4:17, Phil. 2:19-20, Rom. 16:21, and 2 Tim. 1:4-5.


St. Paul left a worthy monument to Titus, his faithful disciple, in his letter. Read this letter.

There is a particular instruction to the older women in Titus 2. I am entering my Titus 2 phase of life I think with this pre-cana talk!

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Who knew...

that being confirmed could make you a babe magnet!!

This sweet young lady, a year younger than my newly-confirmed son, sat right next to him in church today and made sure to get him alone after mass. (Kind of sweet actually. He looks so flattered and embarrassed at the same time if you can imagine.) Anyway, she asked him to be HER confirmation sponsor next year.

Smart girl! Sponsors and candidates spend LOTS of time together.

But as a former 7th grade girl myself, I'm hip to her plan and told Calvin he'll need to decline. She needs to find someone a bit older and more mature. Someone who will encourage her to concentrate on sacramental preparation instead of ... other stuff!!



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Pre-Cana Talk.

I don't think I've blogged about this yet...

My husband and I are on the Pre-Cana team at church. This is our 4th year. In previous years we have helped wherever we could, mainly with what they call the "trust walk." That's where the couples take turns blindfolding each other and walk through a pre-planned obstacle course. We were mainly there to give instructions and make sure no one got injured.

This year we have been asked to give one of the talks. Originally we were going to give the "Me and We" talk, about what it's like going from a single person to a married couple. Frankly, we have been married so long, and started out so young, that there was no way we could give that talk. I simply don't remember what it was like to be single, especially since I basically left my grandfather's home to my married home!!

So as it turns out, we are giving the Marriage as a Sacrament talk. Paul Rexhas been VERY helpful with information and ideas since he has given this type of a talk many times before. Thanks Paul!

So tonight we are going to pitch our talk for the first time to the Pre-Cana team. It's not a fluff piece. We are giving the truth about Catholic Sacramental Marriage - the good, the bad, and the ugly... ha ha... but also the joy and the blessing of being in such a union. My parish isn't use to hearing this type of presentation and although we are sprinkling it with humor and I think some interesting anecdotes, there are some parts that are hard - hard to say and hard to listen too.

So dear blog readers, if you could pray for us... that we speak the truth with love, and are guided by the Holy Spirit, and that hearts and heads are open to our message, that would be great. If it doesn't fly tonight, I guess they'll have to pick another couple to give the talk to the Pre-Cana couples. (This is sort of our audition.)

I'll blog some more about what we're including and how it went later.




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Bethany Hamilton hits the ski slopes

Remember that 13-year-old surfer who lost her arm in the shark attack? She is on a ski vacation. I admire her spunk!

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I've been added to Blogs 4 God

pretty cool! There's My Domestic Church!!



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Woo Hoo!

Some time this morning, my blog hit 1000 views. My husband was stunned as he is amazed that people would voluntarily read my random thoughts and musings... frankly so am I.

Thank you.

I know it's a very small milestone but it makes me smile nonetheless... thanks to my sister who undoubtedly spent hours and hours clicking to my page to help me rack up the numbers!!! ... "500, 501, 502, 503" tee hee... love ya sis! : )


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What peeves me about Pilla

Just a little vent before I go to bed... and yea, I'm probably PMSing here but anyway.

How do we count the problems in the diocese... Let me count the ways!!

1. We find out that the number of victims of the ephebophilic priest sex scandal in this diocese is going to be "shocking."

2.We have a financial director that has been caught with his hand in the cookie jar and

3. Sharing the wealth with the cemetery director while goose poop and disrepair are the norm at least in my local cemetery.

AND
4. We have the Pot Growing Priest now facing felony charges.


Yet my bishop finds it necessary to add this ad hominem in his E-news letter directly at people who don't necessarily find being herded up to communion and forced to stand for the whole rigmarole necessarily a spiritually uplifting experience.

"For those who see "communion" as something only between God and the individual, I don't see much chance of a deepening appreciation of the Mass."

Um... well excuse me but it is Jesus going into my mouth and into my body. That has to be a deeply personal experience. There's just no other way around it.

"But for those who love God AND their neighbor as the Lord commands, and for those who recognize and reverence the Body of Christ on the altar and standing "around" the altar "

and standing and standing, and standing. Do I love my neighbor more if my feet hurt?

as the Church has always taught, I have no doubt that the new gestures we are invited to use will make perfect and holy sense to them.

Translation being that if we don't see the "directives" that way we must be as dumb as stones!!

No doubt it will take some time getting used to, but I think we can handle that.

yea... and then it will change... muttering off to bed



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Preparing for the passion movie

Need to brush up on your scripture before the movie comes out? Here's a great guide!! Thanks to The Fifth Column for the link.


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Dean's new career as a musician

The link above or c&p below. Thanks to Paul Rex for the link.

http://www.kvr-vst.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=34346&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=


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This is too funny!!

From Jeff Miller's blog.

WARNING: Do not have anything in your mouth, have the Windex by your screen, and go to the bathroom before you watch this... it's that funny!

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">My Kind of Bishop!

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A Belgian cardinal has said only five to 10 percent of lesbians and gays are actually gay and the rest are "sexual perverts".

"I am willing to write in my own blood that of all those who call themselves lesbian or gay, a maximum of five to 10 percent are effectively lesbian or gay," Cardinal Gustaaf Joos, 80, told the Belgian weekly P-Magazine in an interview published on Wednesday.

"All the rest are just sexual perverts," said Joos, who is also a parish priest in the small Belgian town of Landskouter.

"I demand you write that down," said Joos, who was made a cardinal by Pope John Paul late last year. "I don't care if they all come protesting at my door. I won't open the door."

The Belgian Catholic church reacted to the interview by saying Joos was speaking in a private capacity.

A bishop who speaks with conviction!! I love it!

Thanks to A Conservative Blog for Peace for the link.


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chuckle... my husband, children, sister and the Rev. Chamis will get a hoot out of this one!

You are Pope St. Pius X. You'd rather be right than
newfangled.


Which Twentieth Century Pope Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla


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My little protest against Roe vs. Wade

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SAMMY!!!

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How would you respond to this?

I debated on the Birth Control and Catholic Church Board until it supposedly closed before Christmas. (Although the editor apparently sees fit to post e-mails that fit her agenda, all others need not apply.)

I'd like to see how you folks would respond to this type of reasoning?

One key point we keep making on the discussions is about how and why the sex act is actually used by married couples, and in this sense, there is absolutely no difference between NFP and ABC in the acts couples make use of (assuming they're using NFP to avoid conception). And so the issue is not whether abstinence is a legitimate means of contraception while other methods are not, but that non-procreative sex is non-procreative sex is non-procreative sex. The Holy Father knew this, and tried to condone rhythm anyway, because it makes use of a natural method and places no obstacle to fertility. But one could easily counter that making use of the act only during the infertile time of the month is placing a kind of obstacle to fertility--namely, the absence of an ovum!!! "Nature" does this, I know, and that is a difference, only the plain fact is that NFP couples learn about the monthly cycle and make use of what nature provides to insure that their sex acts will be infertile. So the act is used precisely *because* it is infertile, and this further blurs the line between NFP and ABC, leaving only the objective structure of the act per se as the telling factor. All in all, that seems a pretty trivial criterion to use for evaluating the morality of a sex act, the bottom line being whether a penis is ejaculating semen into a vagina with no barrier or hormonal obstructions to conception. That's pretty much it, I'm afraid. If you do this, the act is not intrinsically evil; if you don't, it is. Heaven and hell hang in the balance. Makes no sense to me!

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This is bunk

Catholics for Dean

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This is why I love George W. Bush

What Kind Of Man Would Do Such A Thing? At Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, DC recently the Sergeant Major of the Army (SMA), Jack Tilley, was with a group of people visiting the wounded soldiers. He saw a Special Forces soldier who had lost his right hand and suffered severe wounds of his face and side of his body. The SMA wanted to honor him and show him respect without offending, but what can you say or do in such a situation that will encourage and uplift? How do you shake the right hand of a soldier who has none? He decided to act as though the hand was not missing and gripped the soldiers wrist while speaking words of comfort and encouragement to him. But there was another man in that group of visitors who had even brought his wife with him to visit the wounded who knew exactly what to do. This man reverently took the soldiers stump of a hand in both of his hands, bowed at the bedside and prayed for him. When he finished the prayer he stood up, bent over the soldier and kissed him on the head and told him that he loved him. What a powerful _expression of love for one of our wounded heroes! And what a beautiful Christlike example! What kind of a man would do such a thing? It was the wounded man's Commander-in-Chief, George W. Bush; President of the United States. This story was told by the SMA at a Soldiers Breakfast held at Red Arsenal, AL, and recorded by Chaplain James Henderson, stationed there.

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The wall of abortion absolution

From the Open Book Blog


A quote from a post-abortion mom to her baby:
"I didn't let your dad know about you, simply because I'm ashamed. In my heart I will miss you but physically I don't have the means to take care of you and your older sister. I will never label you a mistake, because God obviously thought you should have been here, even though I beg to differ."

Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom ...


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In case you missed it- highlights of the State of the Union

"We have not come all this way -- through tragedy, and trial, and war -- only to falter and leave our work unfinished. Americans are rising to the tasks of history, and they expect the same of us. In their efforts, their enterprise, and their character, the American people are showing that the state of our Union is confident and strong."
-President George W. Bush, 1/20/04




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Pregnancy loss poems

Richard Olsen from the Missing Angles Sent these out in his E-mail message and I thought I'd share them here.

Inspirational Poetry from a Member

The following two are found among about 20 song lyrics and poems that appear on a website created by Victoria Dixon of the UK for her son Tommy. For those who would like to visit the site the address is http://www.northstar-newmedia.co.uk/thomas/. We send them along because the especially touched our soul.

A Father's Grief

It must be very difficult
To be a man in grief,
Since "men don't cry"
and "men are strong"
No tears can bring relief.

It must be very difficult
To stand up to the test,
And field the calls and visitors
So she can get some rest.

They always ask if she's all right
And what she's going through.
But seldom do they take his hand,
"My friend, but how are you?"

He hears her crying in the night
And thinks his heart will break.
He dries her tears and comforts her,
But "stays strong" for her sake.

It must be very difficult
To start each day anew.
And try to be so very brave-
He lost his baby too.

- Author Unknown -



I Am A Mother

I've loved my child right from the start,
A feeling that's filled my entire heart.
I went through the labor and suffered the pain,
For many long hours with nothing to gain.

I've spent sleepless nights being awake,
Though it's been a while my arms they still ache.
I've sat and I've wondered of how he would grow,
The love of my family that he'd come to know.

The sound of his voice as he learns to talk,
Watching his steps as he tries to walk.
I have a child that I really love so,
I am his mother yet nobody knows.

I've spent all these months feeling him grow,
I've lived through it all and have nothing to show.
I don't get invited to chat with young mothers,
Because I don't have a baby like all of the others.

I've got some stretch marks that I'd like to hide,
but I don't have a pram with a baby inside.
The people I've known for so many years,
Avoid me now, which adds to my tears.

I don't know how long I'll be feeling like this,
But one thing I know, my baby I miss.
When Mother's day comes it will be very hard,
I won't have any flowers, not even a card.

And just because he's not here with me,
I still have a son I wish I could see.
But one thing I know and this is for sure,
I'll be his mother forevermore!

- Author Unknown -

Also from that site

I KNOW YOU LOVED ME

I heard each prayer you said for me,
I heard each word you spoke in love.
I heard all the hopes and dreams you had for me,
I felt each loving touch of your hand,
Each kiss, each cry.
I felt all the tears you shed for me,
I know you loved me, and still do!
Although you can not hold my body,
See my face, My tiny hands and feet,
As long as you remember...
My spirit is never gone!
Even though God chose to take me home,
God doesn't make mistakes!
I wasn't an accident,
I was conceived out of love.
God chose your love to come together
And create, give life, make love.
I'm always there.
Although I never breathed your air, or cried out loud
That doesn't mean I never was,
An angel never dies!
I watch over you, and see all the love you have.
I promise another child you'll bear!
Don't be sad for me,
For I am in Jesus' lap.
As long as you remember me...
I'll always be there!


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The Cleveland Diocese - again

sigh... this is my neck of the woods... again...


Extent of abuse cases staggering, official says

01/20/04Joel Rutchick and James F. McCarty
Plain Dealer Reporters

The top financial officer of the Cleveland Catholic Diocese has warned church leaders to expect "shocking" numbers when local figures are released as part of a nationwide report on the extent and cost of child sexual abuse.

The findings from the past 52 years are contained in a survey of the 190 U.S. dioceses conducted by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. The results of the survey, commissioned by the nation's bishops, are scheduled to be announced Feb. 27.

Many bishops around the country already have publicly disclosed the findings for their dioceses, and Bishop Anthony Pilla is expected to provide an advanced look at the Cleveland diocese's numbers in the next several weeks.

Thanks to Mark Shea for the link.



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Petition to revoke the Winnipeg Statement

From the Rosarium Link to sign the petition is on their web site.

If you are unfamiliar with the Winnipeg Statement, you can read it here.

You can read a rebuttal here.

The Rosarium
A Petition to the Canadian Bishops
"Contraception is to be judged objectively so profoundly unlawful, as never to be, for any reason, justified. To think or to say the contrary is equal to maintaining that in human life, situations may arise in which it is lawful not to recognize God as God."


(Pope John Paul II, quoted in L’Osservatore Romano, Oct.10, 1983 )
Your Eminences, Your Graces, and Your Excellencies,

As you know, the contraceptive mentality pervades the Catholic Church in Canada. Most Catholic couples of child-bearing age are preventing children through sterilization or contraception. The birthrate is suicidal. The death of the Church is certain where contraception prevails. It has been truly said that “Our greatest moral responsibility is to convert the contraceptive mentality”.

Contraception is the root of which many spiritual evils are the fruit: abortion, infidelity, divorce, pre-marital sex, acceptance of homosexual activity, the clamor for same-sex “marriage” and the corruption of politics and the media. These inevitably follow when, on a large scale, sexual activity is deliberately diverted from its life-giving purpose to sterile lustful indulgence.

Because moral and social disaster does not occur in a vacuum without the Church's involvement, it must be acknowledged that, in Canada, the contraceptive mentality was fostered by the Winnipeg Statement of the Canadian bishops published on September 27, 1968. In that Statement, Catholics were told that in some circumstances spouses “may be safely assured that, whoever chooses that course [i.e. contraception] which seems right to him does so in good conscience” (26). This teaching is against charity, justice and the truth. It is in contradiction to the constant teaching of the Church that contraception is an intrinsic evil permitting of no exceptions (Humanae Vitae, 14). Countless Catholics have referred to the Winnipeg Statement in justification of their contraceptive practice.

To restore in Canada the truth about life and love we ask that the Winnipeg Statement be revoked by you, our spiritual shepherds. We ask that all marriage preparation courses, all catechetical texts and teaching, preaching, and confessional advice be in accordance with Humanae Vitae, given to us with the authority of Christ (HV,6).

Such action on the part of a national hierarchy would not be unprecedented. In 1990, the bishops of the Philippines issued a pastoral letter in which they apologized for their failure to promote the Church’s teaching on contraception. They said: “We abandoned you to your confused and lonely consciences with a lame excuse: 'follow what your conscience tells you'. How little did we realize that it was our consciences that needed to be formed first.”

In the United States, the U.S. Conference of Bishops, in their November 2003 meeting, voted in favor of issuing a strong document explaining why contraception is wrong. It will be widely distributed in parish pamphlet racks and taught in high schools and colleges. Bishop Gregory, President of the American Bishops’ Conference said: “In many respects we haven’t spoken clearly enough, effectively enough, frequently enough. If anything, the actions we are taking today are very much needed and, many would say, even late.”

While the undersigned earnestly petition for the withdrawal of the Winnipeg Statement, we assure you, our bishops, of our constant prayers. Although our obedience and fidelity are assured, our pleas for retraction will continue year after year, if necessary, until the Bishops of Canada retract this Statement. And our movement, because it is founded on the divine law of love and faith, will only increase in strength. One day the Winnipeg Statement will fall. Although its end is inevitable, we pray that its retraction comes sooner rather than later.

May God bless you, the Holy Spirit guide you and Mary intercede for you in your apostolic mission.

I found this information on the CERC blog, but I totally disagree with their conclusion!

1.This isn't about "disinterring dead heretics." It's about having the bishops speaking with one voice with the rest of the Magesterium, in union with the pope and our Tradition, in a clear, unified manner. It's time for the Canadian bishops to do so.

2. There are lots of Catholics who aren't aware that this is even an issue still in the church, believe it or not. If it gets a little publicity... GREAT.

3. "We become defined by our prohibitions. And as long as we allow that to happen, our faith will continue to be unattractive to many people outside the Church." Interestingly, it was the Birth Control issue brings people into the church. The Scott and Kimberly Hahn story being a perfect example. It was the study of that teaching that brought me back with fire for my Catholic Faith.

I signed the petition... gladly!




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Mr Luse of Apologia

will be on the radio program Issues Etc 1/22/04 at 4:30. (I think that's Eastern). You can also hear it archived at the same link. Looking forward to it!

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Check out my Catholic News Ticker

Two women died after taking the morning after pill.

O.K. so tell me how that is safe for even teenage girls to get over the counter, but Ephedra isn't?

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I don't know when I became a Republican!!

My folks were Democrats. My grandfather was a proud union member. I remember crying for JFK (mainly because everyone else was crying - I was only 4). I remember debating a classmate on the bus that Humphrey would make a better president than Nixon! I was happy when Jimmy Carter won although disappointed that I was too young to vote for him. I remember being disappointed when Ronald Regan won, although I kinda liked Regan's sense of humor and he really won me over with the touching speech he made after the Challenger Accident.

But sometime between then and now the party changed, or maybe I did. I absolutely cannot vote for a candidate who is pro abortion. It is my absolute litmus test. I don't care if I agree with 99.9% of everything else that candidate says, if they concur with killing new life in the womb, I can't vote for them. (That's one reason I only put the Bush Cheney "Days to the Election" botton on the blog instead of the news ticker - too much stuff about Arnold S in California, and I just can't abide that!)

Then I listened to the Democrats after Iowa yesterday,and I just can't believe it's the same party my Grandpa belonged too! The party of Roosevelt, Truman and even JFK! If you didn't hear them, you can catch it on Sean Hannity's archived show.

I like George W. I like his confidence, I like his courage, I like his leadership.


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Simplicissimus

Simplicissimus
An entirely new approach
to learning
the Latin of the Traditional Roman Missal


This like a good way to introduce Latin to my kids. Thanks to Summa Minutiae for the link.

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What would you like your epitaph to be?

Interesting question from the Friday Five

Actually I've thought about that a lot since I have had a baby to visit in the cemetery. From time to time I've walked through the rest of the cemetery looking at the older gravestones. I always wonder when I see these stones, who were these people? What were they like? What did they do? How did they die? Does anyone still remember them?

There's a stone for a 5 year old boy with a space for his mother who is still living. I wonder about his dad. I wonder if his mom has moved on with her life and if she's happy. There is another long ledger stone for a granddaughter, grandfather and grandmother, and only the granddaughter is deceased. I have lots of questions about that one!

Over in the older part of the cemetery there are two graves, one of a 10-year old boy with a rather pretty stone in the shape of a cross. Next to him is a serviceman stone with the same last name and the same date of death. The graves are about 40 years old. I tried to research them on line but the newspaper archives on line don't go back that far.

Some of the artwork on some of the graves is just exquisitely beautiful. Raphael's stone is not very beautiful at all, but it was what we could get. I'd love to get an engraving of a hand, the hand of God, holding him in his little sleeping position. I'll probably be in my 80s before I can afford something like that. But what he has now is nice. It gives him a name and it marks his humanity - something that many many babies and children in the cemetery don't have because their parents couldn't get them a grave marker, or it was too painful for them to pursue it.

Although he has a discount stone, we did get him a very nice vase from this company and I was very pleased with it. So pleased in fact I recommended it to the lady next to us and she ordered one and had it installed too in the color black. The grave site looks very nice when both vases are up and filled with flowers in the summertime.

The older babyland graves have stone angels and as you drive by you see a little sea of these angels standing there in rows. I just love that. But the cemetery doesn't take care of them and some of them are chipped, or missing a wing or a head!! I really wish we could have angels on our graves like that. I bought a nice plastic one for Raphael last spring, but someone took it,so I probably won't be leaving anything expensive out there again.

The graves I really like are the ones with pictures like this or like this. My husband, ever the sci fi guy, thinks by the time we pass, we'll be able to have holograms on our stone. I'd have to see one first I guess. I'd sure like to get something like the porcelain pictures for my grandparent's grave. I think about that from time to time.

SO for my epitaph, I think I'd like to have my wedding photo with my husband, between our names, maybe a picture of Mary holding baby Jesus on my side, because I think my motherhood has really defined my life. I don't know what Peter would like, but I think St. Joseph working would suit him very well.

If the kids and Pete could put "Beloved Wife, Mother, Sister, and Friend" and really mean it... that would be neat too!


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Prayer request

Could you kind folks keep my cousin Janet in your prayers? She lost her mom a year ago and she just found out that one of her carotid arteries is blocked and she needs an emergency procedure to save her health and life. She is flying to the Mayo clinic. I just saw Janet at my uncle's funeral. She played the piano beautifully for that. She is a very special lady and your prayers would be appreciated.


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Drudge reports Kerry in lead

AP: Late-Deciding Voters Favor Kerry, Edwards...
645 of 1,993 precincts reporting - 32 percent
Wesley Clark, 3 - 0 percent
Howard Dean, 531 - 18 percent
John Edwards, 990 - 33 percent
Richard Gephardt, 324 - 11 percent
John Kerry, 1,113 - 37 percent
Dennis Kucinich, 24 - 1 percent

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A failed pregnancy

From Catholic Exchange.

As the father of 5 children, I have great hopes for each of my kids: that they will be successful in their careers, marriages, and as parents themselves. My ultimate goal however is for each of them to reach heaven and for our family to spend eternity with God. This is the end for which all of us were made.

Since I consider successful parenting to mean getting my children to their eternal home in heaven with Christ, I cannot see those who have experienced miscarriage as having failed. They have already been successful at getting least one home to the Lord.

So when you mourn, do not mourn without hope as the pagans do. And though you suffer now, consider the joy your reunion will bring. You have treasure in Heaven — and where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

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The teaching of Humanae Vitae

This beautiful piece on Mr. Luse's Apologia BlogRead the article and Mr. Luse's comments there. Short excerpt below

Sunday Thought - more Muggeridge on Humanae Vitae
Humanae Vitae recognized this and asked of Catholics what many of them were unable to accord, that they should not fall into this error, that they should eschew this dangerous procedure which was now being made available in terms at once infinitely simple, but also infinitely more dangerous. Namely, the birth pill...What I want to say tonight, as a non-Catholic, as an aspiring Christian, as someone who, as an old journalist, has watched this process of deterioration in our whole way of life - what I want to say is that in that encyclical the finger is pointed on the point that really matters. Namely, that through human procreation the great creativity of men and women comes into play, and that to interfere with this creativity, to seek to relate it merely to pleasure, is to go back into pre-Christian times and ultimately to destroy the civilization that Christianity has brought about.


...There is no beauty, there is no joy, there is no compensation that anything could offer in the way of leisure, of so-called freedom from domestic duties, which could possibly compensate for one-thousandth part of the joy that an old man feels when he sees this beautiful thing: life beginning again as his ends, in those children that have come into the world through his love and through a marriage which has lasted through 50 and more years. I assure you that what I say to you is true, and when you are that age there is nothing that this world can offer in the way of success, in the way of adventure, in the way of honors, in the way of variety, in the way of so-called freedom, which could come within a hundredth part of measuring up to that wonderful sense of having been used as an instrument, not in the achievement of some stupid kind of personal erotic excitement, but in the realization of this wonderful thing - human procreation.

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Bible Study

Tom at the Good Form Blog is keeping us updated on the Beginner's Bible study.

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Paul Harvey and David Limbaugh on "The Passion"

Find the article in its entirety here.

Paul Harvey:

At the end of the film, after we had all had a chance to recover, a question and answer period ensued. The unanimous praise for the film from a rather diverse crowd, was as astounding as the compliments were effusive. The questions included the one question that seems to follow this film, even though it has not yet even been released. "Why is this film considered by some to be "anti-Semitic?" Frankly, having now experienced (you do not "view" this film) "The Passion" it is a question that is impossible to answer.

A law professor whom I admire sat in front of me. He raised his hand and responded "After watching this film, I do not understand how anyone can insinuate that it even remotely presents that the Jews killed Jesus. It doesn't." He continued "It made me realized that my sins killed Jesus." I agree. There is not a scintilla of anti-Semitism to be found anywhere in this powerful film. If there were, I would be among the first to decry it. It faithfully tells the Gospel story in a dramatically beautiful, sensitive profoundly engaging way.

Those who are alleging otherwise have either not seen the film or have another agenda behind their protestations. This is not a "Christian" film, in the sense that it will appeal only to those who identify themselves as followers of Jesus Christ. It is a deeply human, beautiful story that will deeply touch all men and women. it is a profound work of art. Yes, its producer is a Catholic Christian and thankfully has remained faithful to the Gospel text; if that is no longer acceptable behavior then we are all in trouble. History demands that we remain faithful to the story and Christians have a right to tell it. After all, we believe that it is the greatest story ever told and that its message is for all men and women The greatest right is the right to hear the truth.

David Limbaugh:

How ironic that when a movie producer takes artistic license with historical events, he is lionized as artistic, creative and brilliant, but when another takes special care to be true to the real-life story, he is vilified. Actor-producer Mel Gibson is discovering these truths the hard way as he is having difficulty finding a United States studio or distributor for his upcoming film, "The passion," which depicts the last 12 hours of the life of Jesus Christ.

Mel Gibson co-wrote the script and financed, directed and produced the movie. For the script, he and his co-author relied on the New Testament Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, as well as the diaries of St. Anne Catherine Emmerich (1774-1824) and Mary of Agreda's "The City of God."

Gibson doesn't want this to be like other sterilized religious epics. "I'm trying to access the story on a very personal level and trying to be very real about it." So committed to realistically portraying what many would consider the most important half-day in the history of the universe, Gibson even shot the film in the Aramaic language of the period. In response to objections that viewers will not be able to understand that language, Gibson said, "Hopefully, I'll be able to transcend the language barriers with my visual storytelling; if I fail, I fail, but at least it'll be a monumental failure."

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The Beatitudes and Father Groeschel

Today my second grade PSR kids and I took a look at Jesus on the Mount and the Beatitudes. In my class preparation, I ran across this gem from Father Groeschel and I thought it would be very appropriate to post that now in honor of Father, as he continues to recover.

The Beatitudes are paradoxes in other ways as well. Wherever we find ourselves in this spiritual journey, we cannot help but notice the apparent contradictions bound up in Our Lord's puzzling promises: the poor are rich; those who mourn are blessed; the meek will be powerful; the hungry shall be filled; the persecuted are blessed.

How contrary this is to the messages of the world in which live. They urge you to pretend to be rich or powerful. They want you to play along when they assure you that you're loved without limit or qualifications when you really are not. For example, the bank offers constant reassurance that you have a friend there, someone who will personally cater to your every need. But try testing how far that relationship will actually go without sufficient collateral to back it up! Multiple roadblocks quickly rise up to hinder your quest for financial help.

The smiling faces on TV seem sincerely solicitous as to whether or not you're able to clean the greasy pots, or polish your kitchen floor to a brilliant shine, or banish all the germs from your bathroom. Don't be fooled. Remember that advertising agencies hire actors and actresses to sell that particular pot scrubber or floor wax or antibacterial cleanser. Oblivious to your personal needs, these players regard you as merely a pawn in the world of marketing, a faceless consumer who holds the money.

Your "friendly neighborhood insurance agents assure you they have your best interests at heart. Their proffered love and care look so sincere--until you submit a claim and find out what the fine print excludes. You discover that the bottom line may override the best intentions of an insurance agent if the company is to remain in business.

The messages of the Beatitudes are just the opposite of all this make-believe happiness. They are not pretense or empty promises. These few words powerfully open up to us what it really means to live as a Christian, just as the dawning sun pours into an unobstructed window facing east.

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Confirmation

Calvin with his parents and sponsor


photo on file

The little brother who served!

photo on file

Confirmation

My little boy (affectionately known as slaveboy to some of my AOL friends) is making his confirmation this evening. For the record this child is now 14, weighs about 185, 5'8, and definitely needs to shave a few times a week! At Christmas he wore a shirt, tie, coat and dress slacks... and looked dashingly handsome if I do say so myself!!

On the inside though, he's still a kid. He teases his sister, torments his brother, bedevils his grandma and is giving me a streak of gray hair that will rival that of Lilly Munster. There have been times I wanted to just cancel his confirmation because I didn't think he was ready. I know, that's silly. I myself was confirmed when I was baptized as an infant and looking back, maybe I have needed that extra grace all long.

Beneath the "I'm a teenager, deal with it" facade, I think there is a nice person. One that cries at sad movies (although he's pretty good at hiding the teary eyes and choked up voice,) one that gives his little brother a ride on his back, or shovels the walk without asking. I know he, ready or not, he is going to need this extra help from the Holy Spirit as he enters high school and beyond. Our family needs him to have this grace too.

It was Calvin's idea to have Damien as a patron saint for confirmation. I think he found his heroism extraordinary and yet simple and I think in some ways maybe that influence is guiding his life in a way I haven't even dreamed up yet.

I think I'll probaby cry a bit tonight. That's OK, I'm supposed to. Crying from pride for the man he is becoming, crying at the loss of the little boy he was, and crying with gratitude to God for giving me the opportunity to be the mom for this one, and all that goes with it!

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You can take the girl out off of the message boards but...

well you get the idea. I really am a chatty Kathy at heart I guess and I love getting comments and responding to signatures in my message book (which I am going to do this weekend!) But I thought, what if someone wanted to say something, not related to a posting, and more than a message book greeting then? What then?

So I'm adding a tag board to the site as well. It's sort of like a mini instant message screen to chat about stuff on the blog or anything else.

OK so it also gives me a chance to play with some more HTML code... what can I say!

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This is from Domenico Bettinelli's Blog

Keeping in mind that I think they are trying to place the responsibility for fixing this mess on the backs of the laity, I have highlighted the part that had me jumping up and down screaming "Yes, yes, yes!!!"

This is another inspiring story that I’ve read of late and good for these parents who finally have the guts to speak out. It’s not just us news hounds who have gotten the message. Bishops and chancery offices HAVE PROVEN REPEATEDLY THAT THEY ARE NOT TO BE TRUSTED and the laity has caught on.


Dear Spokesperson for the Arlington Diocese:

You said:

They [Catholic parents paying for a Catholic education] don't need to have their children do it, but they should not impose those beliefs on others, she said.

Well, my dear, isn’t imposing ones beliefs on others exactly what you and your archdiocese is attempting to do? What have you and the American Catholic Church done to earn the trust of Catholic parents? I could mention more than a few things that bishops have NOT done to earn the trust of parents and thousands of young children (not to mention 1 billion + in money damages).

I think some parents want to be the moral authority for everyone.

I think hundreds of bishops and dioceses throughout the country, who have lost all moral authority after the sexual abuse scandal cover ups, now come along and want the laity to believe that they have a shinny new imprimatured plan that’s going to fix everything. We are not as stupid or gullible as you think. Nor wil we ever be as silent as we've been in the past.

We have good people who are extremely well-trained who can teach this program.

Sure you do. Just like you had “good” priests who were also “extremely well trained” who proceeded to molest young boys and who were then transferred to other parishes to do it all over again by their bishop. Sorry, your sales pitch is not credible.

Here’s an idea for you, Missy.

Why don’t you have a program for bishops and priests?

Teach them in detail about the horrible crime of sexual abuse and you might want to include a few bible passages in the course. Tell them that they are obligated to report any instance of sexual abuse to the proper civil authorities immediately. Tell them that if they know of a bishop or priest who even MAY be involved in sexual abuse of a child, that this is also to be reported to the proper civil authorities.

If the love of the Church is not convincing for these priests and bishops, tell them that they will be faced with serious jail time if convicted of even one offense and that the Church (read: Parishioners) are not going to foot the bill for their defense.

Very truly yours,
Sock

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AOL Folks!

1998 was a big year for me. I had just had my 4th child AND got hooked up to the internet. I remember one day I was washing dishes while the baby was sleeping, and my sister called me to say she had been investigating AOL message boards and how interesting they were. She said that she had linked me to one message that she thought I would be particularly interested in. It turned out to be a post from the Religious Experiences message board about Purgatory from a lady called Chrissymom. The rest, as they say, was history. I spent the next three years debating things like purgatory, birth control, abortion, married priests, the bible, the Vatican library (egads I debated that one up until I went into labor with my 5th child!) with folks from many denominations, other faiths and even outside of Christianity into different flavors of Paganism. It wasn't always pretty, it was often fun, challenging, and always educational. Anyway I put out an invite to some of my old friends and friendly foes there via one of my favorite adversaries, Rev. Karen Chamis. Soooo if any of you guys are happening by, don't be a stranger- drop a comment and sign the guestbook and THANKS for a great ride : )

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You're missing the fun!

Lots of fireworks over on Ms. Welborn's blog regarding Bishop Bruskewitz and his refusal to participate in the audit.

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Prayer Request

Please keep my son, Calvin, in your prayers this week as he prepares for his confirmation on Friday. He has chosen the confirmation name of Damien, after Father Damien, the Leper Priest of Molokai.

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A good analogy for NFP

I found this wonderful analogy on the new Catholic-Page Blog

UPDATE: Check the comment section. This great analogy came from Mr.Paul Rex on the NFP Forum at EWTN. Many thanks Mr. Rex. The best analogy I have heard on this topic.



An anonymous commenter at Amy Welborn's blog has offered this brilliant analogy showing the moral difference between contraception and NFP.

"Imagine a local symphony that is funded solely by its patrons, and each patron therefore has an obligation to support the symphony, at least insofar as he is able. The symphony performs some concerts that are free and open to the public; it performs other concerts that are by paid admission only.

"If one patron (let's call him "Nat") goes only to the free concerts and has a good reason for doing so (e.g., he can't afford to pay), no one would claim he was doing anything wrong. He would be complying with his duty to support the symphony insofar as he is able, while at the same time taking advantage of the symphony's benefits on the terms they were offered to him. If, however, another patron (let's call him "Art") goes to one of the paid-admission concerts but avoids paying by sneaking in, he does do something morally wrong, even if he does it for the same reason that Nat attends only the free concerts (i.e., he can't afford to pay). Putting aside the consequentialist arguments that differentiate Art from Nat (e.g., if a lot of people sneaked in, the symphony might go out of business), Art's actions are distinguishable because, by their very nature, they are a rejection of the symphony's stated policies and represent a statement by Art that he will dictate the terms on which he will enjoy the symphony. Art, in short, refuses to listen to the symphony's imperatives and listens instead to a law only unto himself.

"The Church's distinction between contraception and periodic abstinence is, I think, analogous. God offers us the gift of sexuality on certain terms: sex results in pregnancy on some days during a woman's reproductive cycle; on other days it does not. If we have a just reason to avoid pregnancy and choose to have sex only on the infertile days, we comply with those terms in a way that we do not when we use contraception, which overrides God's basic terms of sexuality and assumes for ourselves the right to have sex whenever we want with only the consequences we desire."




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Updates on Terri Schiavo's case

Father Johansen updates us on his blog, Thrown Back.


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A site for updates on Father Groeschel

You can check for updates on Father Groeschel's condition here.

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Living with Miscarriage and Stillbirth

I've actually been feeling pretty good about Raphael since the New Year started. I noticed that last week I didn't wake up with that dull indescribable ache that you get when you wake up and remember that it wasn't a bad dream - it's real. I didn't have that heavy feeling of having irretrievably lost or misplaced something. I didn't cry every day for the first time since it happened and I thought "ah ha!! I'm getting over it... I'm better!"

And yet, some odd things happened to bring it to the front of my mind again. I did make it to Jazzercise twice last week. (No, I didn't lose those 10 pounds in December, but I didn't gain any weight either. I'm told that to maintain during the holidays is an accomplishment in and of itself and I agree!) I was doing pretty good too as I hadn't stopped exercising altogether in December, I just couldn't get in as many classes as I usually do. As I was feeling pretty proud of myself after finishing a particularly challenging class, an Jazzercise acquaintance of mine came up and said, "Hey, are you expecting again?" That's the second time in one month. I don't think I look pregnant. In fact I was just beginning to see some muscle definition return to that area. Still if I wear certain clothes (an oversized T in this case) I guess it could make someone wonder. I explained that no, I wasn't expecting and then I joked that the following week I was going to do extra ab work and we both laughed.

The next class there was an infant crying in the playroom. I did have my youngest in there, but she is 4 and she doesn't cry like an infant any more. She has a distinctive whine though, so I knew it wasn't her. Our instructor asked another mom if that baby crying was hers and she said she thought so, and then she looked right at me and said, "unless that's your baby." I was sort of stunned. I've had a baby in there off and on over the past 14 years, but I haven't had an infant for four years. I think she just assumed I did.

These were unsettling in a way. I thought perhaps it was a sign that I wasn't supposed to push this too far into my past yet.

Then on Friday, the kids and I decided to go to the library to get some books and movies and return old books to keep my library fees to a minimum. In the children's section I saw a very nice acquaintance from church. I hadn't seen her in a while but when she had her first child we chatted a bit about childbirth, babies, etc. At that time since I had just had my fifth so I felt somewhat like a big sister or mentor to her. I even took a meal over to her when she had her first born - a spirited little boy who was now playing very nicely with his learning software on the library computer.

We chatted, got caught up-to-date on what was going on in our lives, how were the kids, how are the husbands etc. etc. Several times she said something about having more children and I got the impression that she was either pregnant or trying, so I asked if she thought she was expecting. She told me then that she had just lost a baby before Christmas, and how difficult and sad it was for her understandably. I shared my story with Raphael and we ended up crying in front of each other, in the children's section of the public library. (Now that I think about it none of our children thought a thing about it... hmm?)

After my stillbirth I found a number of sites that were helpful to me and I wanted to share them with her so I sent her an e-mail with the links. It's hard to explain, but somehow putting this into words for her, was very healing to me. The words and feelings just poured out and I realized that what I was typing to comfort her, I truly and fully believed myself.

Maybe I'm not supposed to put this on the back burner of my mind and life just yet.

Anyway, here's my note.

Dear D,

I am so sorry about your loss. As Catholics we believe that from the moment we conceived those tiny babies, we became their mothers and they will always be our children. It is still very hard to lose them though, and I'm sure our Blessed Mother understands our pain.

I also think that in this culture we don't allow time for grief and grieving and especially for miscarried and stillborn babies, we're sort of expected to "get over it." But the truth is you don't really ever get over it, and I don't think we're supposed to. I think they're always supposed to be written on our Mother's hearts - they pierce our hearts with love just as Mary's heart was pierced, and I think that's a cross that we really have a special privilege to bear. If the goal is to get our children to heaven, then we really have succeeded with these babies, they are very special and are praying for us.

Yet it's a pain we have to live with and I found these sites, especially the Church of the Holy Innocents, to be very helpful. We still talk about our baby Raphael almost everyday, we ask him to pray for us, he has an ornament that I put on the Christmas tree, but also I keep it out the rest of the year... just finding special ways to remember makes him more real for us and his brother and sister. I'm sure as time goes on you'll find special ways of doing that as well. We even had a cake on Raphael's birthday - a life to celebrate! and we did


Anyway I hope you find these helpful. God Bless all of you! Elena



Anyway it was good to share with someone who has been there.

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The church's sex scandal wasn't homosexual? huh?

You'll find this discussion over on the Catholic Sensibility Blog. The blogger's name is Todd.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Todd:

Getting into a lengthy discussion about the various merits of scapegoating homosexuals in general or sex addict priests in particular on Mark Shea's contentious blog and wishing to state for any transfers (or other observers) the following suggestions:
- Clergy sexual abuse is not solely a gay issue; it is about people who use their position of power to dominate, coerce, and destroy young lives.
- Having same-sex abusive contact with a child does not necessarily constitute homosexuality.
- Bishops who have knowingly sheltered predators are the biggest criminals.

To which I replied
1. The sex scandal in the church was indeed primarily a gay issue. The majority of victims were young men. All of the priests were men. By definition these were homosexual sex acts.

2. Same sex sexual contact with a child may or not constitute homosexuality - however most of these victims were not children but adolescents. Either way it was a perversion.

3.Bishops who sheltered were certainly a big part of the problem. So were seminary directors and teachers who strayed from authentic Catholic teaching.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Todd:

Peace, Ell.

"By definition these were homosexual sex acts."

By the same definition, all masturbation is homosexual activity. By the same definition, every victim is also homosexual.

Seriously though, a person can be coerced into same-sex activity. Such coercion can be external: the violence of a prison, or being overpowered by an adult. And a perpetrator might also carry the burden of prior abuse, acting out with same-sex minors, but without the root orientation presumed. Ell, I think your argument is specious.

My reply:

I don't. I think it is pointing to the obvious. There's a cancer here and no one wants to address it. So we treat the symptoms and walk around politely talking about "saving children" and putting policies and procedures into place to spot "pedophilia." We fingerprint all the lunch room ladies in our Catholic school for cryin out loud and run background checks on the lay man who has been teaching 6th grade PSR and coaching DD soccer for years.

But the truth is this isn't about lunch room ladies groping kids who reach for seconds on mashed potatoes, or lay people who volunteered to help with PSR or sports. It's undeniably about priests who had sex with adolescent males. PREDOMINANTLY YOUNG MEN. Finesse it all you want to but that's what the scandal was about and to deny its homosexual nature is just denial.

Todd ignores this. However another gentleman posts.

Todd,

Are you saying that there is some kind of condition other than homosexuality that induces large numbers of men to attempt sexual activity with physically mature adolescent males.

Are you saying that this condition is prevalent in the Catholic priesthood to a much higher degree than in the general population?

Are you saying that interest in adolescent boys is not a common feature of gay eroticism?

Ah, but not to be pinned down Todd replies...

Peace, Charles.

Welcome to the site. Answering your questions: yes, no, and it depends. Traditionally, there is amongst some groups, a proclivity to seduce or coerce young men. It happens in "traditional" heterosexual culture as well and was once celebrated as boys or young men gaining sexual experience from an older woman. This was very much a part of the experience of my father's generation.

I'm not sure I would peg interest in young boys as necessarily a gay eroticism. What I'm saying is that it is most likely a psychological development in which the perp cannot choose relationships with equals. I would say this of any person drawn exclusively to pairing with younger, more inexperienced, more innocent, etc.. Very safe for the perp to avoid confrontation.

What Todd ignores in my opinion, is that these weren't little boys. Most of the victims had secondary sex characteristics because they were in or through puberty. An attraction to adolescent boys is a homosexual attraction. There is no other way of describing it. His argument about older women introducing young men to sex is a straw man.

Now there may be, and probably is, some psychological component to not choosing to pursue sex with an equa and instead coercing a subordinate minor... but why predominantly male? Young women are altar servers, they attend Catholic schools, they go to confession, they present just as many opportunities for seduction as young men do. So, for that matter, do needy women who are abused, or single and come to the church for assistance. How one can overlook the fact that despite the availability of females most of the victims were male is beyond me.

I also don't understand how folks like Todd fail to see that there is a problem with homosexuality in the church. You take the nature of the sex scandal and then add the Kansas City Star investigation of a few years back regarding the high rate of AIDS in Catholic priests and that fact is just undeniable.



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Father Benedict Groeschel

This is all over St. Blog's, but I also received the notice from Deal Hudson's e-Letter. I'm sure Father Groeschel is now covered in prayer.

CRISIS Magazine - e-Letter

January 12, 2004

**********************************************

Dear Friend,

I'm afraid I have some very bad news. As you may have already heard,
Fr. Benedict Groeschel, founder of the Franciscan Friars of the
Renewal in New York City and long-time friend of CRISIS, was struck
by a car last night and is now in the hospital in critical
condition.

Details are still sketchy, but sources say that Fr. Groeschel was
walking to a restaurant in Orlando when he was hit by a car near the
Orlando International Airport. He's now in intensive care at the
Orlando Regional Medical Center in critical but stable condition.

We spoke with Fr. Groeschel's assistant this morning who confirmed
the news, saying that the situation didn't look good. "We need
nothing short of a miracle," she said.

At this point, the most important thing we can do is pray. The
Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) is broadcasting a Holy Hour
for him this morning, and Fr. Groeschel's assistant requested that we
ask for prayers from St. Francis, the founder of the order, and St.
Augustine, who has been Fr. Groeschel's favorite all his life.

Father Groeschel is one of the most powerful voices for the Church
in this country and around the world. Not only that, but he's been
absolutely selfless in his generosity to numerous Catholic
apostolates, including this one. I know you don't need any
encouragement from me to pray for this truly holy man.

I'm very sorry for the bad news, but I knew you'd want to be kept
informed. I'll let you know as soon as we learn anything new.

Best,

Deal



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A Catholic Bible Study

Tom from the Good Form Blog

Is starting the bible study at St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology. I'll be joining him and I'm sure any one else that is interested would be more than welcome. We are doing the beginner's study (which is an in depth bible survey - no Mickey Mouse stuff here!!) Did I mention this is Scott Hahn's Site? It's also FREE!!

Also I haved added Tom's Good Form Blog to my list. He has good things to offer there so drop by and give it a read.

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Diocesan cemeteries

From the Plain Dealer article today on the money laundering scandal. More on this below.

Details unfold in diocesan cash probe

Zgoznik, 36, had worked under Smith in the diocesan finance office until 1999. The friends each owned vacation condominiums in Zephyrhills, Fla., and continued to share the wealth of their businesses after Zgoznik left diocesan employ in 1999. But Zgoznik continued to handle diocesan accounting work as a consultant, teaming up with Zrino Jukic, president of ZJ & Associates Inc. of Mentor.

Records show the diocese was by far its biggest customer.

In 2000, for instance, ZJ received more than $1.2 million - almost all of it from the diocese, related departments and parishes, according to monthly bank-deposit statements.

The same year, Zgoznik and Jukic wrote more than $193,000 in checks to Smith's companies.

ZJ also wrote nearly $85,000 in checks that year to Thomas J. Kelley, then chief operating officer of the diocesan-affiliated Catholic Cemeteries Association, for unspecified services. In the past six years, records show, ZJ and a successor firm paid Kelley and his management company more than $331,000. In 2000 alone, the association paid ZJ $135,000 for accounting services.

Kelley, who has retired, could not be reached for comment.

This is REALLY going to get these guys in a lot of hot water with the folks at Holy Cross Cemetery. Our cemetery is definitely a "no frills" kind of cemetery. Like many places they have gone to the makers that are flush with the round, no more upright markers. The grass is mowed and trash is kept to a minimum. They're a little nutty about the kinds and amount of decorations you can have on a grave site, types of stones (granite no bronze) etc. but as someone who has a baby buried there, I could see that the workers were working hard and so I wasn't going to quibble.

That said, I did have some concerns. Some of the older stones are NOT being maintained. If an angel has a chip on the wing, nothing gets fixed on it. Old stones topple over and I don't see that they are really corrected. I heard a while ago that a family finally got enough money together to buy a monument for a child that had been buried there some 50 years or so ago, and the office couldn't tell them for sure where she was!! There's also a mausoleum that gives off a rather nauseating odor. My husband says it seems like it isn't being vented properly.

Last year the cemetery gave out free calendars but not this year. I figured they just couldn't afford it.

But my biggest gripe was the condition of some of the older graves in baby land, those closest to the road from the 1970s and 80s. When it snows, they are covered by the snow plow, when it rains the stones are under at least 3-4 inches of rain water. And then of course there are the lovely droppings by the geese that perpetually roam around the place reminding me of the manure yard we had behind our barn when I grew up on a dairy farm. These stones are a substantial investment. The simplest ones start around $300 to $400. Many of the graves there aren't even marked (it's hard for a young family to come up with that kind of money when a tragedly like that happens, especially with medical bills and other expenses on top of it.) Yet last year, I noted two new stones that went in over at that section. One seemed quite expensive with a Precious Moments Angel carved in and what looked like gold lettering inside the carved name, date and inscription. How pleased that family will feel to see the stone they waited some 30 years to buy and put into place covered over by 3 inches of water and floating goose piles!! This isn't the type of "perpetual maintenance" most folks have in mind I'm sure. I wonder how much of that could be corrected with that $85,000? It will be very interesting to see how this plays out.

Uh Oh...

I wonder with this financial scandal if the diocese will make the diocesan volunteers take accounting courses too?...

James F. McCarty and Joel Rutchick
Plain Dealer Reporters

Private companies controlled by the chief financial officer of the Cleveland Catholic Diocese received more than $750,000 from an accounting firm the CFO had hired to work for the diocese.

The checks were written over the past six years to companies of Joseph H. Smith, the diocese's highest-rank ing lay employee. The transactions are under investigation by the diocese, which suspended Smith this week, and the matter has been referred to law-enforcement authorities.

The investigation was launched this week after Rocky River lawyer Jay Milano received an anonymous letter and documents detailing the flow of money from a business operated by Anton Zgoznik to companies affiliated with his friend, Smith.

Ell vs the Birth Control and Catholic Church Board

The "BoardIlovetocommenton" i.e. The Birth Control and Catholic Church Message Board is closing down. Here's the notice.

I have decided to close this discussion board for awhile for two reasons. The first is just a lack of time to keep up with it, and even though I've had great help from Lily and Mod, I still feel an obligation to be informed and involved with what happens here.

I feel like I just played David to that board's Goliath with the same result! The truth is, I went on that message board in April, really the sole defender of Humanae Vitae and John Paul II's reiteration, with little going for me besides an understanding of the teaching and a passion for the topic. When I didn't know something, I looked it up, if I didn't understand something, I asked for help. I never wavered in my belief that the church was right on this moral teaching and that the opposition on this board, regardless of their sophistication, education, and rationalization was in error.

Last summer, after I had been banned, the "anonymous theologian" came up with a list of "fallacies" used by the pro-church debate. I took that time off and learned as much as I could about logical fallacies and then I took each one of the alleged fallacies and tried to debate them within the criteria of whether or not it was a logical argument. I took time in the evenings and weekends. I discussed it with my husband and my mother, and any friends that were interested enough to listen and I got their feedback. When the board opened again this fall, I was ready and alone.

My first prayer intention was that I could make my arguments persuasive and wise. In time it became clear that Solomon himself could have been debating there and it would make little difference, because it really isn't about the truth of the teaching and it never was. But if I couldn't change hearts and minds or even persuade them that the church's position has merit, then it is certainly the next best thing to have the forum close and I'm really glad to see it. If one person, with the strength of their conviction, stands up for authentic Catholic teaching, they really can make a difference.

Which leader are you?

My sister will chuckle at this one.

What Famous Leader Are You?

C minor -

Interestingly, my hubbie was C-major!!

Kid's say the darndest...

My best friend sent these...
1. A little girl was talking to her teacher about whales. The teacher
said it was physically impossible for a whale to swallow a human because
even though it was a very large mammal its throat was very small. The
little girl stated that Jonah was swallowed by a whale. Irritated, the
teacher reiterated that a whale could not swallow a human; it was
physically impossible. The little girl said, "When I get to heaven I will
ask Jonah". The teacher asked, " What if Jonah went to hell?" The little
girl replied, "Then you ask him".

2. A Kindergarten teacher was observing her classroom of children while
they were drawing. She would occasionally walk around to see each child's
work. As she got to one little girl who was working diligently, she asked
what the drawing was. The girl replied, "I'm drawing God."
The teacher paused and said, "But no one knows what God looks like."
Without missing a beat, or looking up from her drawing, the girl replied,
"They will in a minute."

3. A Sunday school teacher was discussing the Ten Commandments with her
five and six year olds. After explaining the commandment to "honor" thy
Father and thy Mother, she asked, "Is there a commandment that teaches us
how to treat our brothers and sisters?" Without missing a beat one little
boy (the oldest of a family) answered, "Thou shall not kill."

4. One day a little girl was sitting and watching her mother do the
dishes at the kitchen sink. She suddenly noticed that her mother had
several strands of white hair sticking out in contrast on her brunette
head. She looked at her mother and inquisitively asked, "Why are some of
your hairs white, Mom?" Her mother replied, "Well, every time that you do
something wrong and make me cry or unhappy, one of my hairs turns white."
The little girl thought about this revelation for a while and then said,
"Momma, how come ALL of grandma's hairs are white?"

5. The children had all been photographed, and the teacher was trying to
persuade them each to buy a copy of the group picture. "Just think how nice
it will be to look at it when you are all grown up and say, 'There's
Jennifer, she's a lawyer,' or 'That's Michael, He's a doctor.' A small
voice at the back of the room rang out, "And there's the teacher, She's
dead."

6. A teacher was giving a lesson on the circulation of the blood. Trying
to make the matter clearer, she said, "Now, class, if I stood on my head,
the blood, as you know, would run into it, and I would turn red in the
face.." "Yes," the class said. "Then why is it that while I am standing
upright in the ordinary position the blood doesn't run into my feet?" A
little fellow shouted, "Cause your feet ain't empty."

7. The children were lined up in the cafeteria of a Catholic elementary
school for lunch. At the head of the table was a large pile of apples. The
nun made a note, and posted on the apple tray: "Take only ONE. God is
watching." Moving further along the lunch line, at the other end of the
table was a large pile of chocolate chip cookies. A child had written a
note, "Take all you want. God is watching the apples."

It doesn't matter how many people you send this to, just remember if it
made you laugh,
your friends will laugh too!

Touching Tribute to a fallen soldier

This is a tribute to a fallen soldier in Texas who died the night Jessica Lynch was taken hostage. His friends dug him out of his shallow Iraqi grave and he was brought home to the states and is buried in his hometown. The tribute from his aunt is touching, but the pictures... oh the pictures are inspiring. Please visit.

My oldest and I had fun with this analogy... over breakfast. (This kind of talk during a meal doesn't have any adverse effect on us apparently!) Anyway, I thought it was pretty good so here goes.

The abuse scandal in the Catholic Church is like a real nasty toenail fungus. It's been discovered and can't be covered by polish, or covered with shoes. It's out.

The church in America feels responsibility for this fungus. They are applying massive amounts of creams and ointments. They are insisting that their employees and volunteers learn how to avoid the fungus, detect the fungus, even keep the nails trimmed and this is all well and good in keeping the fungus isolated and unable to spread further or get worse.

HOWEVER, unless the fungus is treated systemically it will always be there, hidden under the nail, ready to come back another day.

And so it is with the scandal. The reaction, which is a noble and repentant one to be sure, of the church in American has been to treat the scandal, soothe the victims, and apply generous amounts of plans and procedures in the laity so that the infection doesn't come back again. But the fungus is still there and has been rooted in place for over 30 years. I call the fungus dissent, and it will die if exposed to the light of Catholic truth in moral teaching. But if that never happens, if Catholics from the cradle onward are deprived of authentic Catholic teaching, and if that teaching is kept out of seminaries and Catholic Colleges in the name of "academic freedom," it's not going away. It may pop out in other forms, but it's not going away.

The scandal, the audit, the parish and me.

Deal Hudson sent out his newsletter today on the recent audit results of 191 (out of 195) dioceses in the country. You can read the actual sites from the bioshops' web site here. From Deal's letter:

Gavin explained how the audit worked. He noted that it was conducted
for 191 of the 195 dioceses in America (four weren't audited at the
time due to scheduling problems). Two to six auditors, mostly former
FBI agents, visited each diocese in the months immediately following
the release of the Dallas charter to measure that diocese's progress
in implementing the charter's various standards. The auditors would
then give each diocese "commendations" for things done exceptionally
well, "instructions" where a particular part of the charter had not
yet been implemented, and "recommendations" for areas that could be
improved.

68% of the dioceses received anywhere from one to six commendations.
(It's interesting to note that Bishop Murphy's diocese in Rockville
Centre received two commendations, despite Voice of the Faithful's
tired insistence that Murphy has done nothing to address the abuse
problem... I wonder if they're just mad because he won't let them
meet on Church property...) 30% received further instructions, 62% of
which were dealt with by the end of the audit. 65% received
recommendations for improvement, and 87% of those were addressed by
the end of the audit as well.

Well so far so good. The letter goes on to say that they recommend a yearly audit and to audit individual parishes to see how this is all being implemented on the local level. Deal also talks about having "safe environment programs" for kids so that no kid is abused again. I'm not really clear about what that means precisely. I think that is what my diocese is trying to do with its VIRTUS program.

Gee, I still feel like VOLUNTEERS i.e. parents who are just trying to help out the parish by coaching, teaching, etc. should get some kind of compensation for this extensive training even if it's CEUs or college credit, chicken dinner at the end of the year, gas money home... I dunno but it's just above and beyond what I feel my role is, but if I am expected to take on this role, should it be expected mandatory voluntarism?

I also share these concerns with Mr. Hudson:


Still, despite these hopeful signs, I do have some reservations. My
biggest concern is over the implementation of "safe environment
programs." This is a tricky subject -- children need to be protected,
but dioceses must be careful not to turn to intrusive sex education
programs in doing so. If dioceses end up with some program like
Talking About Touching -- the awful sex ed program in place in the
Boston Archdiocese -- we might be solving one problem by creating
another.

I agree. I also don't want to see PSR time taken for it either.

I'm also concerned that a big part of the sex abuse problem has been
ignored -- homosexuality in the priesthood. In fact, this reality is
covered up with language about "protecting children and young
people." Fine, but what are we protecting them from? And also, what
percentage of the victims are neither "children" nor "young people,"
but are teenaged boys? Let's hope the February 27th report discusses
this issue. Unless we face the problem of practicing gay priests,
we're never going to end this crisis.

Well exactly!!! The problem seems to me was primarily with homosexual ephebophiliacs were getting very very liberal dissident training in the seminaries. Exactly what's been done about that and will it get as much hype as the rest of it?

Uh... I noticed...

that the dissident Birth Control and Catholic Church message board is not back up yet. Well really, if you ban all your opposing views what's the point?

Here's a nice site on Catholic Parenting I'm all for reclaiming our Catholic Culture and this site seems like it will be very helpful in that regard. It's going on my resource list.

Shock to my system!

I feel like I needed another week, one with no major holidays in it, just to recover from the Christmas and New Years break! Not that I just hung around and did nothing. Actually I worked my little fingers to the bone catching up on my transcription while my doctors were on vacation. Then of course my swimmers had swimming every day which required a ride to and from the pool. The only thing I DIDN'T Do over the break was our homeschooling and I guess that is what has overwhelmed me second day back!!

The kids are doing pretty good and I am very fortunate to have my mom come over twice a week to teach my 5th grader. It's just being back in the routine I guess.

I'm doing pretty good on my resolutions so far and it's the 6th!!! Ha ha ha.

Our Epiphany

I also teach 2nd grade PSR... sigh...
anyway, I was getting my class ready for yesterday's scheduled PSR time of 9:00 - knowing full well that only a fraction of my 10 students were going to show. The fun for me is to figure out how many. Considering that I was surprised that we were having PSR the first Sunday after New Years, I imagined a few other people would be too... so I guessed somewhere between 4 and 6. We had 4 and one of those was my kid.

What to do, what to do. I really wasn't in the mood to prepare a class anyway, and I certainly didn't think pushing through their text and then reviewing the next week was the way to go. So I took advantage of the feast of the day and taught about the Epiphany and the wise men.

I learned a little bit while preparing myself. I never realized that the Frankincense tree had to be cut and the sap ooze out before it could be collected - or that the myrrh tastes bitter yet the aroma is sweet! I tried to tie that together with Christ's passion and death for my 2nd graders - I saw a few glimmers so who knows, they might get the connection.

A couple of years ago, when my husband and I were enthusiastically trying to reclaim our Catholic heritage, we stumbled upon the house blessing... you know 20+C+M+B+04 on the doorpost. We encouraged our pastor to bless chalk and distribute it at all of the Epiphany masses. They even print a blessing and instructions in the bulletin now so it's been a big success. My husband and I buy the chalk and break it into smaller sticks and then we man the three entrances to the church passing out the chalk.

My little daughter loved doing this... loved it!! People would pat her head and smile at her and she happily gave up her chalk. Interestingly it was the elderly women who had no interest in taking any of the chalk and couldn't be encouraged or cajoled into it by a little girl's smile either. Maybe they don't want chalk in their doorway, or maybe they aren't sure what it's really for or they don't see the point. It was interesting and all of us noticed it. Just something to wonder about.

Overall though it was another good experience for my kids and I think they see how one family's initiative really can make a difference!

What do you think?

They announced at all the masses this weekend that ALL volunteers who have any contact with children whatsoever have to sit through this 3 hour program on Wednesday night, although they clarified at the last mass that more programs would be available this spring.

I dunno. I talked to the DRE about it. The purpose really is to each us how to SPOT sexual abuse so that kids will be safe, but in reality, I'm with the kids for less than one hour a week. I'm pushing to get the entire lesson taught and the kids organized in that amount of time. Really, unless the kid came in with obvious fractures, bruises and a bloody nose, I don't think I'd have the time to figure out that something more subtle was going on. I just think they're asking a lot of volunteers with no compensation. Am I wrong?

Happy New Year

Happy 2004!

My New Year has started off rather well. Last week my 10-year-old was assigned to serve all of the morning masses. He volunteered for the morning masses because he didn’t want to miss any of his swim practices – conscientious kid. Anyway, my husband and I went to mass with him every morning to watch him serve and I think just being there together was good for us in every way.

On New Year’s Eve we stayed for a holy hour. That’s a neat trick with 5 kids ages 14 to 4. My 10-year-old was happy to go off and say the rosary by himself and I gave the 14-year-old one of Father Larry Lovasick’s books to read and contemplate.

My husband read the Christmas story to the younger three which just isn’t easy. They insist on voices, sound effects – the whole package. I don’t think anyone else minded. I did the rosary with Amy Welborn’s rosary meditation and I found it very helpful. I’m anxious to try it in solitude however.

New Year’s day my mom graciously watched my 4 and 5 year old so that the rest of us could see Return of the King. Uh… that’s one LONG movie, but you don’t really notice that you’ve lost all feeling in your legs and buttocks until near the end. I’ve got some thoughts on that later.

I did get all of my transcription caught up over the holidays which makes me feel pretty good. When I went to bed last night there wasn’t a single word recorded by either of my clients that I hadn’t transcribed and printed starting the New Year out fresh! My dear husband cleaned out the room my 3 youngest ones share… what a mess!! I know why they don’t have any clean socks – all the dirty ones were under the bed. Three garbage bags and 4 laundry baskets later it looks like a new room and we both vowed to never let it get that bad again. I suggested that if we took the door off the hinge it might give us inspiration!!

So today it was back to the daily grind. I put most of my “plans” into place and so far so good. I’m still trying to get all my ribbons in the right place for the Liturgy of the Hours. They should write a “Liturgy of the Hours for Dummies” book. I’d buy it! I don’t think my children were as enthusiastic to start homeschool again, but I started them out slowly – we didn’t hit every subject today but enough to get their head back to business, and mine too!

Here’s to a productive 2004!

Blog Rolling

I'm still new to all the blog "gadget" things. I am trying to understand how to use blogrolling. I want to add blog sites automatically to this site. Haven't figured it out yet. Any help would certainly be appreciated! : )