Posts

Waiting in Line at Best Buy: Arrested by Beauty

On my way home from work this afternoon, I stopped by a Best Buy electronics store off the highway to pick up a VGA adapter for my MacBook. It was supposed to be a mindless errand - park the car, go in, find what I need, wait in line, buy it and leave. Nothing to it. But an encounter in the check-out line moved me to consider how much even the most ordinary moments can be filled with grace. Read more here...

Our Lady's words to Saint Bernadette fly in the face of all worldly ambition

"I cannot promise you happiness in this world, only in the next" Wow.

Praying to Mary - A Biblical Defense

Image

December 12 • Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe • Patroness of the Americas

Image
The shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, near Mexico City, is one of the most celebrated places of pilgrimage in North America. On 9 December 1531, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to an Indian convert, Juan Diego, at Tepeyac and left him with a picture of herself imprinted upon his cloak. Devotion to Mary under the title of “Our Lady of Guadalupe” has continually increased, and today she is the Patroness of Americas. Because of the close link between the Church in Mexico and the Church in the United States this feast was also added to the proper calendar for the dioceses of the United States. Story of Our Lady of Guadalupe At daybreak one Saturday morning in 1531, on the very first days of the month of December, an Indian named Juan Diego was going from the village where he lived to Tlatelolco in order to take part in divine worship and listen to God’s commandments. When he came near the hill called Tepeyac, dawn had already come, and Juan Diego heard someone calling him from the very

Advent

We are already half way through Advent, our time of preparation for Christmas. Feeling rather as though time were getting away from me, I have been taking stock and pondering the importance of Advent - not just at this time of year, but in my spiritual life at all times. Advent has been my favourite liturgical season since first becoming Catholic. It is well placed between autumn, naturally a time for assessment and preparation - and winter - the season of hibernation, resting, going inot the deep within. Advent has shades of both: it is a season of silence and growth. It is the time of Christ growing in us - as He did in Our Lady - in secret. Silence Nature has gone quiet, and we are inclined to do likewise, if we listen to the promptings of the Spirit. We enter into the stillness to hear the Voice of God, to be attentive to His Presence, to become aware that "Christ is being formed in our lives from what we are." (62) It can be very difficult to find that silence wh

View from the Domestic Church: My book trailer for "Embracing Motherhood" soon to be released!

View from the Domestic Church: My book trailer for "Embracing Motherhood" soon to be released!

The Marian Candle

Image
Inspired by the blogger at Feast of the Immaculate Conception : Family in Feast and Feria as well as this thread, my daughter Izzy and I made our own candle for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception back in 2009. Two years later, it's still holding up! I bought a simple white candle at Walmart. Izzy found a picture of Mary to color on line. Then we glued it to the candle and to set it- we melted wax and rolled our candle in the wax to give it a coating and protect it to the candle. I think it turned out pretty well for a first effort! We will light it tonight for dinner!

What's Wrong With A Little Threat Among Parents and Children..Everything

Maybe it's an American thing but when I saw this Tweet from @ChristyTV, Christy McDonald: "Ho ho ho parents... it's time to officially use the Santa threat. tinyurl.com/6nmu5wa #parenting #santa"  I just had to respond. On her blog  she defends her use of the threat; in part she writes ".....there’s nothing wrong with a little he’s-gonna-find-out-who’s-naughty-and-nice-so-you-better-not-hit-your-sister-again-or-Santa-won’t-bring-you-any-presents reminder."  Really Christy! Really!  I  think that the "Santa Threat" and all other threats don't teach our children what we really want them to know and have: Respect and self-discipline. All threats the Santa and my personal favourite: "If you don't eat all your dinner no desert!", are hollow.  Hollow because they backfire more often they "work."  Think about what the Santa threat says.  I have no authority, no standing with you, my child, so I have to go outside to

'A witness to speak for the light'. Sunday Reflections, 3rd Sunday of Advent Year B

Image
Preaching of St John the Baptist , Domenico Ghirlandaio, painted 1486-90 R eadings    (New American Bible: Philippines, USA) Gospel John 1:6-8, 19-28 (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa) A man came, sent by God. His name was John. He came as a witness, as a witness to speak for the light, so that everyone might believe through him. He was not the light, only a witness to speak for the light. This is how John appeared as a witness. When the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, 'Who are you?' he not only declared, but he declared quite openly, 'I am not the Christ'. 'Well then,' they asked 'are you Elijah?' 'I am not' he said. 'Are you the Prophet?' He answered, 'No'. So they said to him, 'Who are you? We must take back an answer to those who sent us. What have you to say about yourself?' So John said, '

View from the Domestic Church: You will love this!

View from the Domestic Church: You will love this!

Virgin of Advent, for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception

Image
The Virgin of Immaculate Conception  and St John , El Greco, painted c.1585 VIRGEN DEL ADVIENTO Virgen del Adviento, esperanza nuestra, de Jesús, la aurora, del Cielo, la puerta. Madre de los hombres, de la mar, estrella, llévanos a Cristo, danos sus promesas. Virgen del Adviento, esperanza nuestra, de Jesús, la aurora, del Cielo, la puerta. Eres Virgen Madre, la de gracia llena, del Señor, la esclava, del mundo, la Reina. Virgen del Adviento, esperanza nuestra, de Jesús, la aurora, del Cielo, la puerta. Alza nuestros ojos hacia tu belleza, guía nuestros pasos a la vida eterna. Virgen del Adviento, esperanza nuestra, de Jesús, la aurora, del Cielo, la puerta While researching for Sunday Reflections I came across this Advent hymn by Antonio Alcalde. I know nothing about him nor where this was recorded. I suspect it was in one of the Spanish-speaking Latin American country  rather than in Spain. The music is by Fr Jose Cristo Rey Garcia Paredes CMF . Here is my rough,

Redemption: The Thane of Cawdor, Ivan Ilyich and the Rest of Us

Image
This fall I've been teaching Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Macbeth to high school juniors. And this week I finished reading Tolstoy's novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich. In both stories, writers describe men at the end of their earthly lives, men guilty of serious sins and yet who find redemption at the very end of their days. The possibility of redemption: I can think of no more compelling message this Advent season, a season in which we Christians await the birth of our Redeemer. Read more »

Feast of St. Nicholas

Image
Last Sunday's  advent readings were about John the Baptist and today is the Feast of St. Nicholas! So with that in mind here is a picture from a few years ago - a good friend of ours portraying good St. Nick and Mr. Pete as the voice in the wilderness, John the Baptist! This is one of my favorite Advent feasts! Be sure to visit the St. Nicholas Center today. Also the Bounty of St. Nicholas Fair My links for St. Nicholas on Diigo and also my mega Advent links page! A few years ago we made a  St. Nicholas Spoon Saint! Our assorted St. Nicholas statues come out today.  Here is one that Rosie and I made yesterday. More Feast Day Fun with St. Nicholas here...

Our Cycling Son: On Being Struck Down But Not Destroyed

Image
I'm sitting in the family minivan, sipping coffee and trying to warm up. In my rear view mirror I see our son cycle past with some cyclocross friends. We're waiting for the start of the Men's 14-18 Horseshoe Scramble cyclocross race here at a former horse farm in Warren NJ, a lovely area of rolling hills. And I am contemplating the resilience of children and the Presence that carries us. Cyclocross, or CX,  is a kind of bike racing, a sport our son first discovered earlier this year and has embraced with great enthusiasm. Over the summer he worked two jobs, earning enough money to buy himself a cyclocross bike, at discount, for $800. He's spent the fall season racing.  On Friday, he was hit and knocked into the road by a red SUV while cycling home with a buddy from a McDonalds  in a neighboring town. He was in a crosswalk. He felt unnerved and angry the driver sped off. The trip to the emergency roon revealed he was badly bruised and nothing more. Tha
Image
I got an email from a friend of mine who was forwarding a link to a cute You Tube/Busted Halo video and I thought I would post it here.  Thanks Peter Frahm! A small warning, there is a bit of an advert for Busted Halo towards the end.

fireoftheirlove: Waiting........

Image
Yey!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ros is back!!!!!! fireoftheirlove: Waiting........ : image found online

Today's Saint • December 3 • Saint Francis Xavier

Image
Saint Francis Xavier is the patron saint of our parish in Mount Washington, Kentucky. Please celebrate with us. Deacon Gerry Saint Francis Xavier, pray for us! A painting of St Francis Xavier, held in the Kobe City Museum. Jesus asked, “What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?” (Matthew 16:26a). The words were repeated to a young teacher of philosophy who had a highly promising career in academics, with success and a life of prestige and honor before him. Francis Xavier, 24 at the time, and living and teaching in Paris, did not heed these words at once. They came from a good friend, Ignatius of Loyola, whose tireless persuasion finally won the young man to Christ. Francis then made the spiritual exercises under the direction of Ignatius, and in 1534 joined his little community (the infant Society of Jesus). Together at Montmartre they vowed poverty, chastity and apostolic service according to the directions of the pope. From Venice, wh

2011's Top Baby Names

Image
Time Chances are, this baby girl is named Sophia. BabyCenter , a popular parenting and pregnancy website, released its annual list of the 100 most popular baby names (not to be confused with the Social Security Administration’s annual report of the most-given names). Sophia and Aiden, last year’s respective leading girl and boy baby names, retained their status as the most popular baby names in 2011. (LIST: Top 10 Most Ridiculous Celebrity Name Changes) Other fashionable female names — namely, Ava, Abigail, and Isabella — kept their place in the top 10. Meanwhile, male names continued the trend of “n” endings; joining Aiden in the top 10 are Jackson, Mason, Jayden, Ethan and Logan. This year’s biggest newsmakers influenced naming trends, as usual. CNN’s resident silver fox Anderson Cooper’s moniker jumped up 101 spots, while royal (ish) names William, Kate/Catherine and Pippa gained momentum. The name Mason’s newly-minted status as the third-most popular is likely (though

World AIDS Day and Down syndrome; where is the cure?

Image
One of my pet peeves was brought to mind by World AIDS Day. Not that I oppose finding a cure for HIV.  I was a social worker when AIDS emerged in the eighties. I helped a young man with HIV who was kicked out of the loft in Greenwich Village which he had shared with his lover, and was now living miles from a payphone in the country where he slowly died of AIDS.No one was with him.  He covered his mouth in my office, and treated himself as a pariah, asking me to touch the doorknobs for him, since no one knew how AIDS was transmitted. My heart broke with compassion for him, abandoned to die alone. There was very little I could do besides make him comfortable and keep him company in 1985.  In a little over three decades, we discovered AIDS existed, raised money for research, and found treatments. Now its effectively cured, if only we would admit that it is spread by  immoral sexual activity , we could have it under control. I am happy for those who are benefiting. Too bad that young man

heart speaks unto heart: Who wears the trousers?

Image
heart speaks unto heart: Who wears the trousers? : Fr Tim Finigan has an excellent post here which mentions Cardinal Siri's notification Concerning Men's Dress Worn by Women here I a...

Home from the Hospital After a Hit and Run

Image
This is our firstborn son. Today about 3:30 he was hit by a red SUV. He was walking his bike across a crosswalk. A good friend of his had just crossed with his bike. The SUV driver didn't see him. The driver's van rammed into our son. The van's decorative grille hit him in the shoulder and knee. He slammed to the ground over his bike. He stood up almost immediately and walked to a parking lot.  Read more here...

'Prepare a way for the Lord'. Sunday Reflections, 2nd Sunday of Advent Year B

Image
The Preaching of St John the Baptist , Alessandro Allori, painted 1601-03 Readings   (New American Bible: Philippines, USA) Gospel Mark 1:1-8 (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa) The beginning of the Good News about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It is written in the book of the prophet Isaiah: Look, I am going to send my messenger before you; he will prepare your way. A voice cries in the wilderness: Prepare a way for the Lord, make his paths straight. And so it was that John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. All Judaea and all the people of Jerusalem made their way to him, and as they were baptised by him in the river Jordan they confessed their sins. John wore a garment of camel-skin, and he lived on locusts and wild honey. In the course of his preaching he said, 'Someone is following me, someone who is more powe

Saint of the Day: St. Edmund Campion, priest and martyr

Image
The saint of the day  is St. Edmund Campion, Jesuit martyr, one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales, also called "the Pope's Champion". Edmund Campion was born in London on 25 January 1540. He was raised a Catholic and had such a powerful intellect that at the age of only 17 he was made a junior fellow at Saint John’s College at Oxford University. On visiting the university, Queen Elizabeth I was so taken by Edmund’s brilliance, as were a few of her dignitaries, that she bid him to ask for anything he wished. The exaltation of so many fed his vanity and led him away from his Catholic faith. He took the Oath of Supremacy, thus acknowledging the Queen as head of the church, and became an Anglican deacon. However, his brilliant intellect and his conscience would not allow him to be reconciled to the idea of Anglicanism for too long, and after a stay in Dublin he turned back to his faith and returned to England. He was at this point suspected of being too Catholi

Can we learn something from the modern day hermits?

Image
Modern day hermits bringing back an ancient tradition The Archbishop of Louisville, Kentucky has agreed to receive the Life Vow to be a hermit from a Bardstown man next November. Our pastor being a canon lawyer was given the task of researching the Church's canons regarding accepting hermits in a diocese. When he related this story with me, it piqued my interest in this form of consecrated life outside of religious communties, and how it is lived in today's world. Definitely, a path less taken by men and women called to devote their lives to the praise of God and salvation of the world through a stricter separation from the world. The consecrated life of a hermit is also part of the Anglican Church tradition, and other Christian denominations. An article in the New York Times talks about a city dweller named Richard Withers who chooses the life of a religious hermit: The reverent Brother Withers bows to a joyful friend. NYT Richard Withers does not fit the popular ima

heart speaks unto heart: Feast of St Andrew

heart speaks unto heart: Feast of St Andrew : When I was 20 weeks pregnant with my 9th child I went for a scan on 30th November 1998 & saw I was expecting another boy. Needless to say...
Image
Tomorrow is the feast of St. Andrew, apostle, and martyr. St. Andrew was St. Peter's brother. St. Andrew actually heard of Jesus first and took his brother to meet him. What a wonderful example of the importance of Godly siblings in our lives and the positive influence they can have on us! After Jesus ascended into heaven, the apostles scattered all over the known world to spread the Gospel message. Andrew went to Greece where he was eventually martyred. Andrew felt that he was unworthy to be crucified in the same manner as our Lord, so his cross was set up diagonally like a big X. This type of cross is called "St. Andrew's Cross." (Andrew's brother Peter also felt unworthy to be baptized as Jesus was and was consequently crucified upside down.) St. Andrew is to the Scottish what St. Patrick is to the Irish, although as far as we know, the saint never set a foot on the isle! There are two legends explaining this. The first is that St. Regulus had a dream t

Farewell, Fertility

Image
Last night, I awakened at least four times due to tingling hands and feet and, frankly, stinky perspiration. As I live out my fiftieth year on the planet, I am experiencing that change of life that is the trade-off for the miraculous ability to nurture life inside me and give birth to children. As a culture, we rightly celebrate women's fertility. A woman of child-bearing age is considered the most beautiful of all. Think Jennifer Lopez.  I've never looked anything like her, but the thing is, she is beautiful in this picture largely because she looks so fertile. Read more here...

Inter Mirifica: Witnessing the Burial of the Old Sacramentaries, Via Facebook

Image
Our parish priests are taking Pope Benedict XVI up on his invitation: " I would like then to invite Christians, confidently and with an informed and responsible creativity, to join the network of relationships which the digital era has made possible. This is not simply to satisfy the desire to be present, but because this network is an integral part of human life. The web is contributing to the development of new and more complex intellectual and spiritual horizons, new forms of shared awareness." A case in point: This morning I didn't go to daily Mass; instead my family walked over to the high school and watched alumni men and women play their annual soccer games. It's a glorious day. When I returned home, these photos were posted on my parish's facebook page with this note: "Stay tuned for the Blessing of the New Roman Missals, at all Sunday Masses this weekend." Read more here...