I am recovering from my little surgery yesterday. I was so nervous before it but the actual surgery was so easy, it amazed me. However, recovery is a bit harder. For one thing I can't put on a bra! This is really dampening my style now as I really don't want to go out. Wonder if Jane Fonda is still into that burning bra thing now that she's older. I'll bet not! A bra is a woman's best friend and God bless the person who invented them!!! Also, since I have these stitches in my back I am having trouble bending and stooping and such. Don't want to rip them, you know!
Anyway, my good news today is that my resourceful daughter came up with a meal plan. She got the younger kids together and came up with 24 dinner meals that they all said they'd eat. She printed these out in a very neat looking chart and this is the plan we are going with for the next 24 days. My job will be to make sure we've got all the ingredients and to come up with really healthy versions of recipes. I am going to compile all this and put it into my household binder on my desk. Mind you, I have tried to do variations on this for years and years now but I simply never followed through. With Hannah on the job, things get done. I tell you, I feel sorry for people who don't have a daughter like this!!!
The other good news is that Jennifer Fulwiler of Conversion Diary has a great post on organizing one's house. It is perfect advice for those of us who are truly ADD and CAN'T, no matter how hard we try, organize the way most people seem to. If you have this problem check it out.
That's all I got for now. I plan to stay away from the computer most of the day and try to shuffle around directing the kids to get household stuff done. Also, I have not been reading as I should so I plan to make a big part of this day about catching up on that.
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Monday, July 29, 2013
Weekly Plans - 7/29/13
The weekend was crazy. I was a crew leader of 7 middle schoolers for our Jr. High Workcamp, which involved kids from 4 different parishes. For 3.5 days we did service work at a homeless shelter, collected canned food for a community pantry, swam, played games, went to Mass, confession, sang worship songs, prayed, etc, etc. I had Becky and Sean with me. It was exhausting, especially when I came down with some kind of infection. The camp was over Saturday after vigil mass and a potluck. I came home and went to bed woke up at 11:00 pm with a 101 fever. Spent the night drinking water. The fever went away, but I am still dealing with the aftermath. Yesterday (Sunday) I also woke up with a migraine which didn't go away until about 4 or so in the afternoon. I feel wrung out!!!! I am so, so glad I did not go on the camping trip with AHG!!! Oh my goodness that would have been dreadful!
Rick has been in California since last Sunday. I miss him. I am used to him traveling but it has been years since he hasn't been home over the weekend. He comes home Tuesday evening.
Hannah left last Thursday to attend a wedding in Minnesota. She says they had a wonderful time. She and Peter are coming back this evening.
Will went to visit his friend Nick in Nashville. Yesterday they did a pilgrimage to the Abbey of our Lady of Gethsemani where Thomas Merton was. I wish I was feeling better and traveling to some place beautiful!
Plans for this week:
Becky - still need to finish up testing. Oh my goodness has this been awful this summer! Need to order uniform for her.
Sean - needs to finish reading Left to Tell and start reading To Kill a Mockingbird. Also we are going to tour O'Connell on Thursday a.m. We might try to get his uniform. And I am not sure about how or when to get textbooks.
Josh - I am doing a 7 day college prep bootcamp with him again. He'll be finishing up the American Identity lectures, reading The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and writing a 5 paragraph essay, along with other things. Gotta keep on top of that. He's also got to fill out his roommate compatibility form and get a check up and start shopping for the clothes he'll need.
Me - I have to drink lots of water because the old kidney stone pain has come back. I also have to go to an Aquinas Learning meeting today at noon. I want to clean up the house some today (actually every day that I can this week). I need to find a pet/house sitter.
Tuesday - I get my cyst removed. I am taking it easy that day. Rick comes home at night. Hooray!
Wednesday - House, errands, etc.
Thursday - O'Connell tour, house, errands, etc
Friday - vision field test, house, errands, etc.
I am getting stressed just thinking about everything!!!! Time to drink some more water and get started!
Rick has been in California since last Sunday. I miss him. I am used to him traveling but it has been years since he hasn't been home over the weekend. He comes home Tuesday evening.
Hannah left last Thursday to attend a wedding in Minnesota. She says they had a wonderful time. She and Peter are coming back this evening.
Will went to visit his friend Nick in Nashville. Yesterday they did a pilgrimage to the Abbey of our Lady of Gethsemani where Thomas Merton was. I wish I was feeling better and traveling to some place beautiful!
Plans for this week:
Becky - still need to finish up testing. Oh my goodness has this been awful this summer! Need to order uniform for her.
Sean - needs to finish reading Left to Tell and start reading To Kill a Mockingbird. Also we are going to tour O'Connell on Thursday a.m. We might try to get his uniform. And I am not sure about how or when to get textbooks.
Josh - I am doing a 7 day college prep bootcamp with him again. He'll be finishing up the American Identity lectures, reading The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and writing a 5 paragraph essay, along with other things. Gotta keep on top of that. He's also got to fill out his roommate compatibility form and get a check up and start shopping for the clothes he'll need.
Me - I have to drink lots of water because the old kidney stone pain has come back. I also have to go to an Aquinas Learning meeting today at noon. I want to clean up the house some today (actually every day that I can this week). I need to find a pet/house sitter.
Tuesday - I get my cyst removed. I am taking it easy that day. Rick comes home at night. Hooray!
Wednesday - House, errands, etc.
Thursday - O'Connell tour, house, errands, etc
Friday - vision field test, house, errands, etc.
I am getting stressed just thinking about everything!!!! Time to drink some more water and get started!
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
Good News - 7/23/13
This is really an update to last week's Good News post. It seems U.S. News and World Report wrote about a study done by the Family Research Council that says Devout Catholics have the best s@x. Mark Shea talks about it here.
Now I don't think the Family Research Council is exactly unbiased about this and I do take this sort of thing with a grain of salt. But I agree with Shea's thinking on it. If we aren't having the 'best' s@x we are still having better s@x for all the common sense reasons Shea mentions.
I read this report a few days ago and then turned to my husband and said: Honey, you gotta convert!
The other thing I like to do in bed is read!
Here are a couple of interesting (well, to me with my particular interests) book lists that I found on line.
Barbara Nicolosi's Becoming Catholic reading list.
National Review's Summer Reading list.
Now I don't think the Family Research Council is exactly unbiased about this and I do take this sort of thing with a grain of salt. But I agree with Shea's thinking on it. If we aren't having the 'best' s@x we are still having better s@x for all the common sense reasons Shea mentions.
I read this report a few days ago and then turned to my husband and said: Honey, you gotta convert!
The other thing I like to do in bed is read!
Here are a couple of interesting (well, to me with my particular interests) book lists that I found on line.
Barbara Nicolosi's Becoming Catholic reading list.
National Review's Summer Reading list.
Monday, July 22, 2013
Weekly Plans - 7/22/13
Well, Saturday I spent recovering from the Circe Conference and also from the fact that an hour after I got home the personal trainer came and worked me out. I was so tired that evening I felt like I was coming down with something but no, I was just pooped! Sean and Josh went on their Busch Gardens/Virginia Beach trip and didn't get home until after 1:00 a.m. Sunday morning. Will picked them up. Rick has a bad cold too. So because of all this we just didn't get up early enough in the a.m. to get to Mass. Poor Rick had to pack and go to California. His plane was delayed 4 hours. I do hope gets some sleep, poor guy. He might be gone for as long as 10 days depending on the negotiations. We are about to go to the 7 p.m. Mass. We leave in about 10 minutes. I'll see how much I can get down here! (Update: Rick made it safe and sound. Got into SF around 3:00 a.m. East Coast time).
Tomorrow starts what I am calling a 3 day College Prep Boot Camp for Josh, where I, his mama, make him get up at a decent time, shave his neck beard, exercise, do intellectual things and socialize with the rest of his family. He is so far into a slump, it ain't funny. Gotta jump start these teens sometimes!
Sean will be reading Left to Tell and listening to To Kill a Mockingbird, but other than that he can veg. He'll have the personal trainer on Tuesday along with me.
Becky needs to read a book! And she also needs to finish up her CAT which WE HAVE NEVER FINISHED. Oh my goodness, I have never been this bad before!!!!!
Becky is having trouble at gymnastics. I feel so dashed about it but it isn't a good situation so it looks like she might drop the team and maybe move to another gymnastics place and start over again. Sigh. Not a pleasant situation.
Will is just hanging around, being useful and pleasant and writing music for when he goes to visit his friend in Nashville.
Hannah's going to geography class each Tuesday. This Monday she has to take some kind of test for grad school Some standardized thing with lots of initials that I've never heard before but apparently people who want to be teachers have to take. She's pretty much dreading it. Hannah and Peter have been great about cooking dinner a lot. They really like to cook together. Cute couple, there. Peter's finally started working at Starbucks. He's training for the next two weeks I think. The Starbucks turned out to be the same one Hannah worked at in high school! Hannah and Peter are also off to Minnesota to a friend's wedding this Thursday. They are going really cheap so they are flying into Omaha, picking up various friend's along the way as they wend themselves to a small farming town on the border of Minnesota and North Dakota. They'll be seeing a part of the country they've never been to before (me neither!). Hope they have a good time!
The big thing for me, Becky and Sean is that we are doing Jr. High Work Camp starting Wednesday evening and then going 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Thursday and Friday and 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Saturday. I am a crew leader which means I have to stay the whole time leading a crew of teens. I've never done this before even though all the older kids have gone through this work camp. So things will be very busy at the end of the week and I'll probably be exhausted by next Sunday. Probably very little blogging after Wednesday. Oh Wednesday morning I am signed up to give blood. Can't forget that.
So another busy week ahead of us. My reading goal is to finish the biography of Noah Webster I started a couple weeks ago but keep getting distracted from.
Tomorrow starts what I am calling a 3 day College Prep Boot Camp for Josh, where I, his mama, make him get up at a decent time, shave his neck beard, exercise, do intellectual things and socialize with the rest of his family. He is so far into a slump, it ain't funny. Gotta jump start these teens sometimes!
Sean will be reading Left to Tell and listening to To Kill a Mockingbird, but other than that he can veg. He'll have the personal trainer on Tuesday along with me.
Becky needs to read a book! And she also needs to finish up her CAT which WE HAVE NEVER FINISHED. Oh my goodness, I have never been this bad before!!!!!
Becky is having trouble at gymnastics. I feel so dashed about it but it isn't a good situation so it looks like she might drop the team and maybe move to another gymnastics place and start over again. Sigh. Not a pleasant situation.
Will is just hanging around, being useful and pleasant and writing music for when he goes to visit his friend in Nashville.
Hannah's going to geography class each Tuesday. This Monday she has to take some kind of test for grad school Some standardized thing with lots of initials that I've never heard before but apparently people who want to be teachers have to take. She's pretty much dreading it. Hannah and Peter have been great about cooking dinner a lot. They really like to cook together. Cute couple, there. Peter's finally started working at Starbucks. He's training for the next two weeks I think. The Starbucks turned out to be the same one Hannah worked at in high school! Hannah and Peter are also off to Minnesota to a friend's wedding this Thursday. They are going really cheap so they are flying into Omaha, picking up various friend's along the way as they wend themselves to a small farming town on the border of Minnesota and North Dakota. They'll be seeing a part of the country they've never been to before (me neither!). Hope they have a good time!
The big thing for me, Becky and Sean is that we are doing Jr. High Work Camp starting Wednesday evening and then going 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Thursday and Friday and 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Saturday. I am a crew leader which means I have to stay the whole time leading a crew of teens. I've never done this before even though all the older kids have gone through this work camp. So things will be very busy at the end of the week and I'll probably be exhausted by next Sunday. Probably very little blogging after Wednesday. Oh Wednesday morning I am signed up to give blood. Can't forget that.
So another busy week ahead of us. My reading goal is to finish the biography of Noah Webster I started a couple weeks ago but keep getting distracted from.
Sunday, July 21, 2013
Beauty in the Word - Book 35
Beauty in the Word; Rethinking the Foundations of Education by Stratford Caldecott, published by Angelico Press is an amazing book. It is Caldecott's meditation on education and everything it means to the human soul. He goes back to the ancient ideas of classical education and examines the philosophical underpinnings but translates those terms into definitions we as moderns can really grasp in an immediate way. This book was a slow read for me because, though it is slender, there is so much careful thought to take in and so much that was thought-provoking. Caldecott brilliantly synthesizes so many strands of philosophies of education into one holistic vision.
Aquinas Learning's director Rosario Reilly, has made this book required reading for those who are going to mentor in any Aquinas Learning Center. This book is actually her vision of education too; something she's been trying to work towards. Caldecott has put it all together so beautifully. She is trying to figure out the practical application in the homeschooling scenario.
I don't feel I can do justice to this book so I will link to other more articulate reviews at the end of this little review.
Caldecott begins by asking what education is and what its purpose is. Education is a purely human endeavor, something that helps us to in fact be more fully human. Education functions out of the truth that we are made in God's image. Education gives us freedom and raises us up from the lower orders of living. Or that's what it should do. Caldecott examines all this in light of his own Catholicism. He rethinks the three traditional living arts: grammar, logic and rhetoric into remembering, thinking and speaking. Grammar is the naming of things, as Adam does in the Bible story. We name things so we can know them and remember them. Caldecott gets into epistemology here. Thinking is taking what we remember and relating it to ourselves so that we can act upon it. Speaking is the ability to express what we have found to be true to others.
All this recasting of the trivium is bound up in our place as children of God. We travel these three roads of learning in order to know and serve Him who created us. Caldecott's delves into philosophy, theology and linguistics to explore all this.
Sigh. I am not really scratching the surface of this book because there is so much wisdom and insight so delicately and elegantly stated. I really feel inadequate to the task!
Some of the many little fascinating bits that I really enjoyed: I found Caldecott's discussion of Owen Barfield's educational theories really fascinating. This is basically what Waldorf education springs from. I also was tickled by the fact that Caldecott's cites from the book edited by Suzie Andres, A Little Way of Homeschooling (I book I was privileged to be part of). Go Cindy! (She gets quoted!). I really loved his comparison of unschooling to NFP. I thought that was just brilliant. I also thrilled to his analysis of how thought relates to thankfulness and how the highest form of thankfulness is the Eucharist, which indeed, means thanksgiving. Wow. That blew me away.
Between reading this book and attending the Circe conference, I am in midst of taking all this heady thought in, and so I can't quite articulate it yet. It needs to swirl around a bit more, percolate and settle before I will really be able to speak of it. I think truly I am still in the remembering stage and need to work through the thinking before I can get to the speaking of it all.
So I will cop out and send you to other well done reviews of this tremendous book:
Here's a review.
Here's another.
Go to Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks to read book reviews (not of Beauty in the Word, unless there is some very great coincidence!) for those participating in this challenge.
Aquinas Learning's director Rosario Reilly, has made this book required reading for those who are going to mentor in any Aquinas Learning Center. This book is actually her vision of education too; something she's been trying to work towards. Caldecott has put it all together so beautifully. She is trying to figure out the practical application in the homeschooling scenario.
I don't feel I can do justice to this book so I will link to other more articulate reviews at the end of this little review.
Caldecott begins by asking what education is and what its purpose is. Education is a purely human endeavor, something that helps us to in fact be more fully human. Education functions out of the truth that we are made in God's image. Education gives us freedom and raises us up from the lower orders of living. Or that's what it should do. Caldecott examines all this in light of his own Catholicism. He rethinks the three traditional living arts: grammar, logic and rhetoric into remembering, thinking and speaking. Grammar is the naming of things, as Adam does in the Bible story. We name things so we can know them and remember them. Caldecott gets into epistemology here. Thinking is taking what we remember and relating it to ourselves so that we can act upon it. Speaking is the ability to express what we have found to be true to others.
All this recasting of the trivium is bound up in our place as children of God. We travel these three roads of learning in order to know and serve Him who created us. Caldecott's delves into philosophy, theology and linguistics to explore all this.
Sigh. I am not really scratching the surface of this book because there is so much wisdom and insight so delicately and elegantly stated. I really feel inadequate to the task!
Some of the many little fascinating bits that I really enjoyed: I found Caldecott's discussion of Owen Barfield's educational theories really fascinating. This is basically what Waldorf education springs from. I also was tickled by the fact that Caldecott's cites from the book edited by Suzie Andres, A Little Way of Homeschooling (I book I was privileged to be part of). Go Cindy! (She gets quoted!). I really loved his comparison of unschooling to NFP. I thought that was just brilliant. I also thrilled to his analysis of how thought relates to thankfulness and how the highest form of thankfulness is the Eucharist, which indeed, means thanksgiving. Wow. That blew me away.
Between reading this book and attending the Circe conference, I am in midst of taking all this heady thought in, and so I can't quite articulate it yet. It needs to swirl around a bit more, percolate and settle before I will really be able to speak of it. I think truly I am still in the remembering stage and need to work through the thinking before I can get to the speaking of it all.
So I will cop out and send you to other well done reviews of this tremendous book:
Here's a review.
Here's another.
Go to Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks to read book reviews (not of Beauty in the Word, unless there is some very great coincidence!) for those participating in this challenge.
Saturday, July 20, 2013
Processing the Circe Conference
This past Wednesday through Friday I spent in Baltimore at the Circe Institute's Conference. They have been holding this conference for 12 years and I am finally attending. So late to the party! If only I had started 12 years ago! Oh well. No time for regrets. It was a wonderful, wonderful experience; very heady and intellectual, joyful and spiritual. The Circe Institute is a consultant group for private Christian classical schools and homeschoolers. It has a different vision of classical education than say Susan Wise Bauer's. Its vision is based much more on the actual ancient pedagogy of education rather than the neo-classical understanding that rather permeates what we consider classical education today. This neo-classical view is largely spawned from Dorothy L. Sayer's essay Lost Tools of Learning and subsequently on Douglas Wilson's further development of those ideas. Circe is really more aligned with Charlotte Mason and Mortimer Adler's take on education. It is a nice ecumenical atmosphere where all stripes of Christians feel welcome, that is those Christian who love classical education and these tend to be the more orthodox and traditionally oriented Christian. As Circe's motto states, education is really about 'cultivating wisdom and virtue.' So it isn't necessarily about getting good grades in Algebra or getting into an Ivy League school and that sort of thing, rather it is about meeting the student where they are, always remembering they are made in God's image, and realizing that the teacher's place is to educate that child so that they may be more fully human and glorify God by their lives.
This understanding of classical education actually jives very well with many principles of unschooling, especially Christian Unschooling. Of course it is not to be confused with unschooling, but it does have a very joyful and relaxed feel to it, that always respects the child and always trusts that children were created to learn because they have souls that crave God. Everyone is born with a desire for the Good, the True and the Beautiful. Education is cultivating that desire and feeding it with the great classical works of literature and philosophy.
Wednesday morning, my friend Joanna picked me about a little after 7:30 a.m. We then embarked on the great adventure of getting to Baltimore through rush hour traffic. We only managed to get really lost once! We got to the conference a little before 10:00 a.m. so we missed Andrew Kern's opening talk. The theme of this year's conference was A Contemplation of Judgment. Every year the conference is a contemplation of something.
I think right now I'll just list all the talks I attended and then have separate posts based on my notes, impressions and reactions to each session.
The next plenary talk (meaning it was given to all attendees at one lecture) was John Hodges whose talk was entitled: Aesthetic Judgment: Where Do We Draw the Line? John Mason Hodges is a joyful, exuberant, lovely man!
Next were the breakout sessions where you had to choose from among several interesting topics and speakers. I chose Christopher Perrin's What I Learned at St. John's College. Loved it!
Next another break out session; this time I went to a talk by Paula Flint about classical and special education entitled Who's in the Lifeboat? Judging Kids Who Aren't Advanced. This session was completely what I needed to hear.
That first day ended with a panel discussion featuring John Hodges, Carol Reynolds and Ken Myers entitled A Fair Hearing; Evaluating Musical Meaning. Wonderful lecture on music history.
Thursday:
Began with a plenary session talk by an University of Virginia professor, Vigan Guroian entitled The Beauty of the Nightengale's Song: A Reading of Hans Christian Anderson's Nightengale. Joanna next to me cried the whole time through this incredible analysis of this fairy tale. It was so poignant and beautiful speaking to very deep truths.
Next up was Ken Myers on The New, the Cool, and the Sensational: Judgment in the face of popular culture's pseudo-transcendentals. Ken Myers is a great speaker!
The first breakout session of this day that I attended was Carol Reynolds, Why We are Judged by Our Melodies. Wonderfully quirky and in love with her subject matter. This was basically about music history as well.
Next I went to Martin Cothran's Les Miserables vs. Schreck: The Difference between Heroic and Ironic Literature and the Difference it Makes. I didn't know what to expect and was both impressed and entertained by what he had to say.
Lastly, I attended Leah Lutz's seminar on Writing Standards; Tools of Assessment. Wise and practical how tos on the very difficult art of assessing student writing.
I did not attend the evening banquet on Thursday. This is where the Circe Institute gives their Paideia Prize to an educator they believe encompasses the idea of cultivating wisdom and virtue. This year's winner was Peter Kreeft. I love Dr. Kreeft and have listened to various lectures and classes by him as well as read several of his books. But I gave him up for my husband who came over to Baltimore so we could have a fun date. And we did have a very nice date. We ate out at La Tasca, a Spanish tapas place with great food and a view of the harbor. Unfortunately it was incredibly hot and muggy. Afterwards, we got some ice cream at Marble Slab Creamery and then walked around the harbor just long enough to eat it. While we were walking and right by the U.S.S. Constellation they shot off a cannon! It was quite startling and loud!
Friday morning, after having breakfast with Rick (where we had an interesting conversation with two Latin American Episcopalian missionaries (!!) who had trained at Seattle University (a Jesuit school!), I returned to the conference and finally got to listen to Dr. Kreeft give us a philosophy lecture on the 19 types of judgment. I took copious notes! I was thrilled to get to introduce myself to him afterwards and have a brief conversation with him. This might have been the highlight of the whole conference for me.
Next there was a panel discussion on the topic: How Now Should we Grade? A Panel on Assessment. The panel consisted of John Hodges, Cindy Rollins (a longtime homeschooling mom of many), Laura Berquist (of Mother of Divine Grace), Christopher Perrin and Debbie Harris. All these educators had so much wisdom to share. I was especially blown away by Christopher Perrin and Debbie Harris. More on them later.
The closing plenary session was by Andrew Kern, who started this whole thing many years ago and opens and closes the conference. Truly it was like listening to a homily. This man is so profoundly steeped in living out his Christianity. It was titled: A Contemplation of Judgment: Putting Away Childish Things. Very profound reflections.
The thing I didn't expect from the conference was the humor and warmth. We spent of lot of time laughing and clapping! It really was a retreat-like experience where we prayed together and were constantly exhorting each other to grow in our relationship with Christ. A beautiful, life changing experience.
Thank you, Jesus (via the Circe Institute)!
This understanding of classical education actually jives very well with many principles of unschooling, especially Christian Unschooling. Of course it is not to be confused with unschooling, but it does have a very joyful and relaxed feel to it, that always respects the child and always trusts that children were created to learn because they have souls that crave God. Everyone is born with a desire for the Good, the True and the Beautiful. Education is cultivating that desire and feeding it with the great classical works of literature and philosophy.
Wednesday morning, my friend Joanna picked me about a little after 7:30 a.m. We then embarked on the great adventure of getting to Baltimore through rush hour traffic. We only managed to get really lost once! We got to the conference a little before 10:00 a.m. so we missed Andrew Kern's opening talk. The theme of this year's conference was A Contemplation of Judgment. Every year the conference is a contemplation of something.
I think right now I'll just list all the talks I attended and then have separate posts based on my notes, impressions and reactions to each session.
The next plenary talk (meaning it was given to all attendees at one lecture) was John Hodges whose talk was entitled: Aesthetic Judgment: Where Do We Draw the Line? John Mason Hodges is a joyful, exuberant, lovely man!
Next were the breakout sessions where you had to choose from among several interesting topics and speakers. I chose Christopher Perrin's What I Learned at St. John's College. Loved it!
Next another break out session; this time I went to a talk by Paula Flint about classical and special education entitled Who's in the Lifeboat? Judging Kids Who Aren't Advanced. This session was completely what I needed to hear.
That first day ended with a panel discussion featuring John Hodges, Carol Reynolds and Ken Myers entitled A Fair Hearing; Evaluating Musical Meaning. Wonderful lecture on music history.
Thursday:
Began with a plenary session talk by an University of Virginia professor, Vigan Guroian entitled The Beauty of the Nightengale's Song: A Reading of Hans Christian Anderson's Nightengale. Joanna next to me cried the whole time through this incredible analysis of this fairy tale. It was so poignant and beautiful speaking to very deep truths.
Next up was Ken Myers on The New, the Cool, and the Sensational: Judgment in the face of popular culture's pseudo-transcendentals. Ken Myers is a great speaker!
The first breakout session of this day that I attended was Carol Reynolds, Why We are Judged by Our Melodies. Wonderfully quirky and in love with her subject matter. This was basically about music history as well.
Next I went to Martin Cothran's Les Miserables vs. Schreck: The Difference between Heroic and Ironic Literature and the Difference it Makes. I didn't know what to expect and was both impressed and entertained by what he had to say.
Lastly, I attended Leah Lutz's seminar on Writing Standards; Tools of Assessment. Wise and practical how tos on the very difficult art of assessing student writing.
I did not attend the evening banquet on Thursday. This is where the Circe Institute gives their Paideia Prize to an educator they believe encompasses the idea of cultivating wisdom and virtue. This year's winner was Peter Kreeft. I love Dr. Kreeft and have listened to various lectures and classes by him as well as read several of his books. But I gave him up for my husband who came over to Baltimore so we could have a fun date. And we did have a very nice date. We ate out at La Tasca, a Spanish tapas place with great food and a view of the harbor. Unfortunately it was incredibly hot and muggy. Afterwards, we got some ice cream at Marble Slab Creamery and then walked around the harbor just long enough to eat it. While we were walking and right by the U.S.S. Constellation they shot off a cannon! It was quite startling and loud!
Friday morning, after having breakfast with Rick (where we had an interesting conversation with two Latin American Episcopalian missionaries (!!) who had trained at Seattle University (a Jesuit school!), I returned to the conference and finally got to listen to Dr. Kreeft give us a philosophy lecture on the 19 types of judgment. I took copious notes! I was thrilled to get to introduce myself to him afterwards and have a brief conversation with him. This might have been the highlight of the whole conference for me.
Next there was a panel discussion on the topic: How Now Should we Grade? A Panel on Assessment. The panel consisted of John Hodges, Cindy Rollins (a longtime homeschooling mom of many), Laura Berquist (of Mother of Divine Grace), Christopher Perrin and Debbie Harris. All these educators had so much wisdom to share. I was especially blown away by Christopher Perrin and Debbie Harris. More on them later.
The closing plenary session was by Andrew Kern, who started this whole thing many years ago and opens and closes the conference. Truly it was like listening to a homily. This man is so profoundly steeped in living out his Christianity. It was titled: A Contemplation of Judgment: Putting Away Childish Things. Very profound reflections.
The thing I didn't expect from the conference was the humor and warmth. We spent of lot of time laughing and clapping! It really was a retreat-like experience where we prayed together and were constantly exhorting each other to grow in our relationship with Christ. A beautiful, life changing experience.
Thank you, Jesus (via the Circe Institute)!
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
Forming Intentional Disciples - Session 8
(I changed the template on this blog. The pinkish red of the old template, while it felt very fresh and springlike to me at first, started to grate on my nerves. So for now I like this one better!)
Anyway, This is Session 8 of The Lawn Chair Catechism's discussion of the book Forming Intentional Disciples by Sherry Weddell, hosted by Catholicmom.com This session focuses on Chapter 7 of the book which examines the third threshold of conversion: Openness.
The chapter begins by relating the story of a guy who worked for 30 years with a long time militant atheist. This atheist was often hostile to his co-worker's Catholic beliefs, but after the atheist's wife dies, he very slowly and crankily, with lots of anger and tantrums, starts to come around to belief in God and Christianity. The former atheist moved into belief kicking and screaming and is still kicking and screaming about it all, but his co-worker has learned to be very patient and pray a lot for him, that the poor guy can finally make his way into the Catholic Church.
Weddell characterizes openness as a willingness to take what one finds out via curiosity, test if it is true, and if it is, be willing to change one's life because of it. So openness is openness to change. Weddell says this is a very hard threshold to cross and can take a very long time. People can kind of stall out here.
The study questions are:
In your own faith:
To believe in a personal God is to believe that God truly will meet us in prayer. It can be difficult to evangelize when we ourselves are going through a 'dry spell', or struggling with some spiritual question. Do you have difficulty trusting that God will show himself to those who do not yet possess the faith?
When I was in high school I took an art class taught by an IHM sister. I wish I could remember her name! I call her Sister Mary Art Nun when I relate stories about her to my kids. She was pretty wonderful and a very good artist. I remember when we were doing a unit on oil painting and we had to paint a still life. She taught us how to look at things and really see their colors. For instance, to the uninitiated an apple will look red. However, if you just paint it with red paint, it will look cartoony and not at all realistic. Sister taught us to see all the colors of the apple, how the apple was purple and blue and green and black and yellow as well as red. I remember it took me a while to get it, but then one day I suddenly could see those colors in the apple. It was like my eyes moved into a different focus and I could see with clarity what she was talking about. I think the eyes of faith are like this. For people without faith, the apple is just red and people who say it is other colors are kind of nutty! But for those who learn how to see more deeply, to be more penetrating, more discerning, for those with faith, what was hidden before becomes obvious. They see with the eyes of faith. Somehow, to evangelize well, I have to be Sister Mary Art Nun and teach others to see with those eyes of faith. I don't know how to do this, so I have to rely on God to help me be his mouthpiece. The truth is God is always showing himself to us but we don't see him because our eyes don't know how to pick up his colors in the fabric of our lives. How to reveal this to my 7th grade RE girls? That's the question. Prayer and study and trusting in God are the answers, but often very hard for me to put into practice!
In your parish:
Over the next six months what changes can you personally make, to help your parish disciple those who are at the threshold of openness? If you are currently at this point yourself, to whom can you go for spiritual mentoring?
Well, hopefully the answer to the first question is that I can try to be a good catechist to my students. I think for the next six months that is about all I can do. I think there is always an element of openness even if one feels fully converted, at least to me, because conversion itself is a lifelong process. I am always going through dry spells and then experiencing something that reconverts me. The dry spell is really just a dormant kind of phase that wakes up in response to something, like something I've read, a good homily, an especially good confession, a surprisingly good prayer time which I didn't expect, something someone remarks, etc. I would though really like a spiritual director. I am pretty A.D.D. I need external things to keep me focused and anchored. I think a spiritual director could be wonderful but I am afraid that I'll clash somehow with them. It's that hubris again! Always thinking I know more than the other guy! If I was talking to someone and they needed spiritual direction I would not hesitate to send him to our pastor. He is a gentle confessor who is very kind and honest. I think he's too busy to be a spiritual director himself, but he could listen closely, reassure them and then direct them to someone else.
And just because I liked the advice Weddell gives in this chapter I am going to rewrite it here for my own satisfaction! Her advice for fostering openness is:
1. Practice nonjudgmental truthfulness - talk about your own faith journey
2. Ask thought provoking questions - like Jesus did!
3. Help them connect the dots - using their own words show how God has already acted in their lives
4. Encourage them to ask God for a sign - you can't see the colors unless you know how to look!
5. Ask if you can pray for them to be open to God - I tell my girls I pray for them every night!
6. Ask them if they would be willing to pray themselves and acknowledge their openness to God - big step!
Anyway, This is Session 8 of The Lawn Chair Catechism's discussion of the book Forming Intentional Disciples by Sherry Weddell, hosted by Catholicmom.com This session focuses on Chapter 7 of the book which examines the third threshold of conversion: Openness.
The chapter begins by relating the story of a guy who worked for 30 years with a long time militant atheist. This atheist was often hostile to his co-worker's Catholic beliefs, but after the atheist's wife dies, he very slowly and crankily, with lots of anger and tantrums, starts to come around to belief in God and Christianity. The former atheist moved into belief kicking and screaming and is still kicking and screaming about it all, but his co-worker has learned to be very patient and pray a lot for him, that the poor guy can finally make his way into the Catholic Church.
Weddell characterizes openness as a willingness to take what one finds out via curiosity, test if it is true, and if it is, be willing to change one's life because of it. So openness is openness to change. Weddell says this is a very hard threshold to cross and can take a very long time. People can kind of stall out here.
The study questions are:
In your own faith:
To believe in a personal God is to believe that God truly will meet us in prayer. It can be difficult to evangelize when we ourselves are going through a 'dry spell', or struggling with some spiritual question. Do you have difficulty trusting that God will show himself to those who do not yet possess the faith?
When I was in high school I took an art class taught by an IHM sister. I wish I could remember her name! I call her Sister Mary Art Nun when I relate stories about her to my kids. She was pretty wonderful and a very good artist. I remember when we were doing a unit on oil painting and we had to paint a still life. She taught us how to look at things and really see their colors. For instance, to the uninitiated an apple will look red. However, if you just paint it with red paint, it will look cartoony and not at all realistic. Sister taught us to see all the colors of the apple, how the apple was purple and blue and green and black and yellow as well as red. I remember it took me a while to get it, but then one day I suddenly could see those colors in the apple. It was like my eyes moved into a different focus and I could see with clarity what she was talking about. I think the eyes of faith are like this. For people without faith, the apple is just red and people who say it is other colors are kind of nutty! But for those who learn how to see more deeply, to be more penetrating, more discerning, for those with faith, what was hidden before becomes obvious. They see with the eyes of faith. Somehow, to evangelize well, I have to be Sister Mary Art Nun and teach others to see with those eyes of faith. I don't know how to do this, so I have to rely on God to help me be his mouthpiece. The truth is God is always showing himself to us but we don't see him because our eyes don't know how to pick up his colors in the fabric of our lives. How to reveal this to my 7th grade RE girls? That's the question. Prayer and study and trusting in God are the answers, but often very hard for me to put into practice!
In your parish:
Over the next six months what changes can you personally make, to help your parish disciple those who are at the threshold of openness? If you are currently at this point yourself, to whom can you go for spiritual mentoring?
Well, hopefully the answer to the first question is that I can try to be a good catechist to my students. I think for the next six months that is about all I can do. I think there is always an element of openness even if one feels fully converted, at least to me, because conversion itself is a lifelong process. I am always going through dry spells and then experiencing something that reconverts me. The dry spell is really just a dormant kind of phase that wakes up in response to something, like something I've read, a good homily, an especially good confession, a surprisingly good prayer time which I didn't expect, something someone remarks, etc. I would though really like a spiritual director. I am pretty A.D.D. I need external things to keep me focused and anchored. I think a spiritual director could be wonderful but I am afraid that I'll clash somehow with them. It's that hubris again! Always thinking I know more than the other guy! If I was talking to someone and they needed spiritual direction I would not hesitate to send him to our pastor. He is a gentle confessor who is very kind and honest. I think he's too busy to be a spiritual director himself, but he could listen closely, reassure them and then direct them to someone else.
And just because I liked the advice Weddell gives in this chapter I am going to rewrite it here for my own satisfaction! Her advice for fostering openness is:
1. Practice nonjudgmental truthfulness - talk about your own faith journey
2. Ask thought provoking questions - like Jesus did!
3. Help them connect the dots - using their own words show how God has already acted in their lives
4. Encourage them to ask God for a sign - you can't see the colors unless you know how to look!
5. Ask if you can pray for them to be open to God - I tell my girls I pray for them every night!
6. Ask them if they would be willing to pray themselves and acknowledge their openness to God - big step!
Monday, July 15, 2013
Good News (but very frank news about s@x) 7/15/13
Note: I am sticking that @ symbol in certain words in a naive attempt to keep p@rn spammers from showing up at my blog. I've already been hit by some. They seem to come from Russia as far as I can tell. Forgive me, I, too, think it is incredibly annoying seeing all those @@@@.
Also, both the links below are terribly disturbing but I consider them good news because they herald some real counterculture thinking about the devastating problems with the fallout from the sexual revolution.
This guy would get his point across better if he wasn't so brutally crude. I sense he is very angry, but another problem with our hypersexualized culture is that people speak p@rnographically all the time now. It's cool! But it also means people are incapable of being nuanced, tender or discreet about s@x. Still, I completely agree with his assessment.
Atheist discovers what the Church taught all along about m@sturbation. And he put it out there on reddit, a vastly more popular site for guys than girls. He started a movement to free habitual p@rn/m@asturbators from their chains. Turns out that scientifically speaking, p@rn and m@sturbating are terrible for your relationship skills when it comes to falling in love and having a healthy, fulfilling sex life. Who would have guessed??? Oh maybe, um, the Catholic Church!!! Guess how many people responded to his suggestion that they form a group to support each other while they try to kick this destructive habit? More than 65,000 people have joined! Read that again: more than sixty five thousand people (mostly guys) have joined this because they know their habits are ruining their chances for happiness. So much for pop psychology and that Kinsey pervert who pushed this sort of thing on us. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. The children growing up in this putrid cesspool need to rise up and reclaim their dignity. I am glad they are starting to do so. I weep for all that was stolen from them.
When I was looking at pictures of those crazies protesting in Texas this week against the late term abortion ban bill, I had this crazy thought. I thought they look like they've never had good s@x in their lives! I mean I don't really know, how could I? But it just seems to me people that desperate to have the absolute freedom to have s@x in whatever capacity they want; unconditional freedom to copulate and then going to extreme lengths to avoid the consequences, are people who are chasing something that is just constantly beyond their reach. I thought this the couple of times I subjected myself to Amanda Marcotte's blog tirades on her s@xual 'rights.' I thought who the heck wants to have s@x with someone that nazi-like about it in the first place? No one of quality, that's for sure. Because anybody that militant about their autonomy in terms of s@x, which is relational and intimate by its very nature, can't do relational and intimate things. So all these s@xually free people are having lousy s@x. Because if you approach s@x as something other than part of a complex bonding experience (marriage!) you either: 1) are terribly lonely and dissatisfied because you never get the emotional/spiritual experience you need to make it fulfilling or 2) you become more and more selfish about it because it is essentially just using other people for your own s@xual pleasure. Neither way leads to happiness, goodness or dignity.
This makes me think about a book I read earlier this year, Sexual Authenticity (which I highly recommend). One of the things that was really revelatory to me when the author talked about the quality of the s@x that homosexual/lesbians have. Apparently, it isn't that good! The author says that one reason why so many gay men don't put a lot of stock in monogamy is because they need variety to keep s@x spicy for them. Think about the stereotypical idea of a hetero male, who has to fight temptations to stay faithful to his wife. Now think about two guys together who both operate the same way in that sense. No wonder monogamy isn't valued. They are just being guys and there is no one to ask them to move to a nobler plane. Think about the stereotypical understanding of women, prone to saying 'not tonight, dear.' Or reading a lot of romance fiction as her 'p@rn.' In the book Selmys says that lesbians tend to need elaborate fantasy lives in order to fan the flames of desire or they experience 'bed death' where they just become platonic instead of physical lovers. Now think of the stereotypical problems in a marriage between a man and woman. These problems happen there too. In fact they are cliches! But, again, the Catholic Church hits it right on the nose, when it talks about the complementarity of the sexes. God meant man and woman to be one flesh. Not only does it create new souls for Him to love, and ensure the next generation can be brought up in the most stable and psychologically healthy atmosphere we can muster in this fallen world, it can bring out the best of the couple in terms of commitment. Man has to control his urge to roam and woman has to get out of her head and respond to her husband's desires. Both need to give up something of themselves to each other. Having s@x with each other makes them better people! And in Catholic-speak leads them closer to salvation.
Anyway, when we've reached rock bottom in terms of our understanding of s@x, maybe the only direction we can go is up! Though, unfortunately, we might not have quite reached rock bottom (seems like depravity is a bottomless pit) and it takes a long, long time for a culture to turn itself around. Lots and lots of casualties in the mean time.
Also, both the links below are terribly disturbing but I consider them good news because they herald some real counterculture thinking about the devastating problems with the fallout from the sexual revolution.
This guy would get his point across better if he wasn't so brutally crude. I sense he is very angry, but another problem with our hypersexualized culture is that people speak p@rnographically all the time now. It's cool! But it also means people are incapable of being nuanced, tender or discreet about s@x. Still, I completely agree with his assessment.
Atheist discovers what the Church taught all along about m@sturbation. And he put it out there on reddit, a vastly more popular site for guys than girls. He started a movement to free habitual p@rn/m@asturbators from their chains. Turns out that scientifically speaking, p@rn and m@sturbating are terrible for your relationship skills when it comes to falling in love and having a healthy, fulfilling sex life. Who would have guessed??? Oh maybe, um, the Catholic Church!!! Guess how many people responded to his suggestion that they form a group to support each other while they try to kick this destructive habit? More than 65,000 people have joined! Read that again: more than sixty five thousand people (mostly guys) have joined this because they know their habits are ruining their chances for happiness. So much for pop psychology and that Kinsey pervert who pushed this sort of thing on us. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. The children growing up in this putrid cesspool need to rise up and reclaim their dignity. I am glad they are starting to do so. I weep for all that was stolen from them.
When I was looking at pictures of those crazies protesting in Texas this week against the late term abortion ban bill, I had this crazy thought. I thought they look like they've never had good s@x in their lives! I mean I don't really know, how could I? But it just seems to me people that desperate to have the absolute freedom to have s@x in whatever capacity they want; unconditional freedom to copulate and then going to extreme lengths to avoid the consequences, are people who are chasing something that is just constantly beyond their reach. I thought this the couple of times I subjected myself to Amanda Marcotte's blog tirades on her s@xual 'rights.' I thought who the heck wants to have s@x with someone that nazi-like about it in the first place? No one of quality, that's for sure. Because anybody that militant about their autonomy in terms of s@x, which is relational and intimate by its very nature, can't do relational and intimate things. So all these s@xually free people are having lousy s@x. Because if you approach s@x as something other than part of a complex bonding experience (marriage!) you either: 1) are terribly lonely and dissatisfied because you never get the emotional/spiritual experience you need to make it fulfilling or 2) you become more and more selfish about it because it is essentially just using other people for your own s@xual pleasure. Neither way leads to happiness, goodness or dignity.
This makes me think about a book I read earlier this year, Sexual Authenticity (which I highly recommend). One of the things that was really revelatory to me when the author talked about the quality of the s@x that homosexual/lesbians have. Apparently, it isn't that good! The author says that one reason why so many gay men don't put a lot of stock in monogamy is because they need variety to keep s@x spicy for them. Think about the stereotypical idea of a hetero male, who has to fight temptations to stay faithful to his wife. Now think about two guys together who both operate the same way in that sense. No wonder monogamy isn't valued. They are just being guys and there is no one to ask them to move to a nobler plane. Think about the stereotypical understanding of women, prone to saying 'not tonight, dear.' Or reading a lot of romance fiction as her 'p@rn.' In the book Selmys says that lesbians tend to need elaborate fantasy lives in order to fan the flames of desire or they experience 'bed death' where they just become platonic instead of physical lovers. Now think of the stereotypical problems in a marriage between a man and woman. These problems happen there too. In fact they are cliches! But, again, the Catholic Church hits it right on the nose, when it talks about the complementarity of the sexes. God meant man and woman to be one flesh. Not only does it create new souls for Him to love, and ensure the next generation can be brought up in the most stable and psychologically healthy atmosphere we can muster in this fallen world, it can bring out the best of the couple in terms of commitment. Man has to control his urge to roam and woman has to get out of her head and respond to her husband's desires. Both need to give up something of themselves to each other. Having s@x with each other makes them better people! And in Catholic-speak leads them closer to salvation.
Anyway, when we've reached rock bottom in terms of our understanding of s@x, maybe the only direction we can go is up! Though, unfortunately, we might not have quite reached rock bottom (seems like depravity is a bottomless pit) and it takes a long, long time for a culture to turn itself around. Lots and lots of casualties in the mean time.
Sunday, July 14, 2013
Weekly Plans - 7/14/13
The summer I was 18, I spent the 14th of July or Bastille Day in Angers, France. People were drunk by late morning and there were a lot of firecrackers going off. I was a little frightened, but the best thing was watching the fireworks over the Loire river by the chateau with lots of other people. Earlier in the day there had been rowing races. The sun doesn't set until almost ten in the summer there, so it was late. A long, long day of partying. Anyway the fireworks were beautiful and I loved being there. I remember we were standing near a group of Japanese tourists and whenever a beautiful firework would explode the Japanese group would send up an exclamatory "oooh!" in perfect unison. Everyone of us around them were cracking up at it. I still remember the feel of the evening, being in such a historic place, relishing the adventure of traveling. Ah, memories.
Anyway plans for this week:
Today, Sunday, we've decided to go to the Traditional Latin Mass at another parish. Looking forward to that! I have to go visit my sister Eileen today as well as grocery shop at some point for the week.
I also plan to sprint read the rest of the very interesting book I am reading on Noah Webster.
Hannah and Peter are traveling up to Philadelphia today to visit a friend. They are making it a one day trip.
Poor Joshua is at an all day driver improvement clinic because he got a speeding ticket.
Monday:
In the a.m. trip to ophthalmologist to check out my eyes which are growing worse. Hopefully, my eyes will be able to work well enough to finish reading about Webster so I can post on my Read 52 Books challenge this week.
Joshua got accepted to Christendom (hooray!), so I need to mail in the form and enrollment fee, etc.
Tuesday:
9:00 a.m. appt to get new glasses then 10:30 personal trainer time. Then I need to post for the Forming Intentional Disciples book discussion.
Wednesday: I am off to the Circe Institute's Conference in Baltimore. I am looking forward to it! But I am not bringing my laptop, so I can have a little break from the internet. Wednesday night - dinner with Aquinas Learning directors, etc.
Thursday: More conference. Rick is coming over in the evening and we are going to to dinner hopefully at the same restaurant where we had our first date!
Friday: conference ends and I am somehow getting back home again, hopefully before the personal trainer arrives at 5:00.
I am lucky my adult children will be here to run the ship while I am away. This is the first time ever I have left by myself to go to something overnight (other than childbirth!). I have gone on a couple of over night trips with Rick since kids but only one night. So this is a big thing for me!
Sean and Josh are going to Busch Gardens Thursday through Saturday with their CLC group. And unfortunately, Josh has his CLC graduation Mass this Wednesday and I will be missing it, but everybody else is going to try to go.
Becky resumes her three times a week gymnastics practice.
All right! That's all I can think of at the moment! I had better go get ready for Mass!
Anyway plans for this week:
Today, Sunday, we've decided to go to the Traditional Latin Mass at another parish. Looking forward to that! I have to go visit my sister Eileen today as well as grocery shop at some point for the week.
I also plan to sprint read the rest of the very interesting book I am reading on Noah Webster.
Hannah and Peter are traveling up to Philadelphia today to visit a friend. They are making it a one day trip.
Poor Joshua is at an all day driver improvement clinic because he got a speeding ticket.
Monday:
In the a.m. trip to ophthalmologist to check out my eyes which are growing worse. Hopefully, my eyes will be able to work well enough to finish reading about Webster so I can post on my Read 52 Books challenge this week.
Joshua got accepted to Christendom (hooray!), so I need to mail in the form and enrollment fee, etc.
Tuesday:
9:00 a.m. appt to get new glasses then 10:30 personal trainer time. Then I need to post for the Forming Intentional Disciples book discussion.
Wednesday: I am off to the Circe Institute's Conference in Baltimore. I am looking forward to it! But I am not bringing my laptop, so I can have a little break from the internet. Wednesday night - dinner with Aquinas Learning directors, etc.
Thursday: More conference. Rick is coming over in the evening and we are going to to dinner hopefully at the same restaurant where we had our first date!
Friday: conference ends and I am somehow getting back home again, hopefully before the personal trainer arrives at 5:00.
I am lucky my adult children will be here to run the ship while I am away. This is the first time ever I have left by myself to go to something overnight (other than childbirth!). I have gone on a couple of over night trips with Rick since kids but only one night. So this is a big thing for me!
Sean and Josh are going to Busch Gardens Thursday through Saturday with their CLC group. And unfortunately, Josh has his CLC graduation Mass this Wednesday and I will be missing it, but everybody else is going to try to go.
Becky resumes her three times a week gymnastics practice.
All right! That's all I can think of at the moment! I had better go get ready for Mass!
Friday, July 12, 2013
Forming Intentional Disciples - Session 7
This is a continuing, weekly blog post on the book Forming Intentional Disciples by Sherry Weddell. The book discussion is hosted by Lawn Chair Catechism at CatholicMom.com. This week's post is on Chapter 6 entitled The Second Threshold: Curiosity.
I just seem to be running behind on everything this week! These posts are supposed to go up on Wednesdays but I am pokey and haven't been getting them up until Thursdays. This week I wasn't feeling well, so I am even later than usual!
I remember when I first read this chapter, I just loved Weddell's remark about how Jesus often answered questions with more questions using natural curiosity to draw people to Him. How brilliant and gentle! Here are the questions for discussion:
In your own faith:
Can you remember when you became curious about the faith - whether as a convert, revert or cradle Catholic just waking up to mature discipleship? How would you explain the difference between an active and passive faith?
Since I am a revert, I grew up knowing about Jesus. I knew all my Bible stories. In our house we had lots of religious picture books and my father often read the Bible out loud to us during Lent or Advent. We went to Mass every Sunday and Holy Day, plus I went to Catholic schools so we often went to Mass at some point during the week, for instance I am sure in grade school we always went to Mass as a school on First Fridays. So through all this I gained a pretty sound understanding of Jesus. What's amazing is these stories never get old because you can always read them in a new light, or a phrase jumps out at you that you hadn't noticed before, or because of some other encounter you bring something new to a story that gives fresh insight. So I don't remember being curious about Jesus so that I could get to know him. I felt like I already did.
My big problem was to actually believe that he was God and before that, that there was in fact a God. I was agnostic, sometimes atheistic for many years, but the funny thing is faith would break through at odd moments. Then I'd put it out of my head, thinking, "Oh that's just wishful thinking. That's not real." I have actually talked to other agnostics and atheists about this and this is a common phenomenon. I am sure not everyone experiences this, but doubt as to not believing in a God, creeps into their lives just as doubt might creep into a believer's life. Doubt works both ways! So for me, I think I began by examining the believers around me and being very judgmental about them. I would think in considering some believer I knew, that's a silly way to believe. Then I'd say to myself: "If I believed, it would be for such and such reason." Even though I didn't believe, or at least didn't know if I believed, I still had certain standards for how people ought to believe. I was very dismissive of those who didn't meet my standards.
Somehow, through all this criticism, I slowly got into the habit of imagining myself as a believer and at some imperceptible moment, I shifted into belief. It began to dawn on me that I actually believed more than I didn't believe. This was eye-opening and strangely frightening. It took me a while to get comfortable with it. It was like there was a spectrum of disbelief/belief that ranged from 1 to 100 with one being total disbelief and 100 being full belief. Initially, when I lost my faith, I was much closer to one, but I think all my little thought experiments about how believers ought to believe slowly moved me up the scale. At some point I slipped from 49% to 51% without any conscious decision on my part. Another part of this movement was studying the Existentialists so much in college. That really damaged me! I began my study with a lot of enthusiasm because they were dark and edgy to me and in my callowness, that attracted me, but after a few years of them, I realized I just didn't agree with them. Their take on reality struck me as contrived and hollow. I was thoroughly sick of them and their depressing way of thinking. I didn't want to be like them.
So after realizing I wasn't really a non-believer anymore, I became curious about what exactly to believe. I studied various faiths, but after an initial infatuation with them would find them wanting and slowly through fits and starts I found myself back at my childhood faith. It was the one that made the most sense.
I then became curious about the Church. I was strangely ignorant of the catechism. I didn't even really understand how the Church's hierarchy worked, for example. Really, it amazes me how ignorant I was of the Church's teachings after having gone through so many years of Catholic schooling. I think the schools did a terrible job but also I was just blind and deaf to what they were saying anyway. The seed was not falling on good soil. But once I decided to join the Scripture Study I spoke about in my last post in this series, I began to read about the Church. I had in my prior years of study read some Merton, some Metropolitan Anthony Bloom (I had an Anglican acquaintance who loved him. She wound up marrying a Greek Orthodox and converting!)and others. I read a lot of critical stuff too, Leonardo Boff, stories about the El Salvadoran martyrs and things like that. Once I returned to Catholicism, I started reading people like Matthew Fox of Original Blessing and Joan Chittister. I subscribed to the National Catholic Reporter. These people are/were very unhappy and critical of the Church. All these sources were very biased, but somehow they made me more and more curious about finding out exactly what the Church teaches and why. Eventually, I became disenchanted with viewing the Church through their eyes. For some reason, for example, I could not work myself up over no women priests. I thought it was silly. I thought they were taking Gloria Steinem's view of the sexes and trying to apply it to the Church. And I had read Gloria Steinem and soundly rejected her materialism and her very worldly and warped view of the relationship between the sexes. Plus, I always, always, always had trouble with abortion. I have never not believed it wasn't the killing of a human being. I don't know why I always had that understanding but the other side just didn't make sense to me. Of course it's a baby, what else could it be??? So there was a real disconnect there, because a lot of dissenters in the Church do believe in a 'woman's right to choose' even if they don't come out and say it. If they do come out and say it, they say something like "well, I personally don't believe in abortion, but I can't impose that on someone else." This did not ring true to me. There was something wrong with that line of thinking that I couldn't quite put my finger on. Of course that statement reveals a relativistic view of morality which undermines the whole idea of God. But most people can't follow the logic. Their politics or emotions get in the way; two things that are also very subjective.
So eventually I moved away from liberal Catholicism. Mother Teresa was a big inspiration. I loved her. I wanted to be a Mother Teresa Catholic. How come everybody loved her even if she spoke out against abortion? I loved Dorothy Day too. She seemed so radical, yet when I read about her faith, it seemed very orthodox.
Anyway, to make a long story short after mixing with Catholic homeschoolers I started hearing of different authors to read, the most important being Scott Hahn. I bought some tapes (yes, I'm dating myself by saying tapes instead of CDs!) of his and would drive around listening to them completely and totally entranced. This stuff was answering questions! Finally, all the puzzlement and searching seemed to be answered. It became my habit to try to do a certain amount of religious reading every year, to keep educating myself in the beautiful faith of the Church. This is something that I rejoice in as a believer. One can spend one's lifetime trying to plumb the depths of theology and never stop learning more and more. It is good to be curious and Catholic!
In your parish:
If a newcomer walked into your parish today, curious about the Catholic faith, would someone actively welcome him? Introduce him to others? Who would help him answer his questions?
I do think my parish does RCIA pretty well. There are some groovy, liberal elements there, but there are also some deep, orthodox elements as well. There are many active parishioners. I don't really know their faith life, but they impress me as being pretty faithful. Our pastor is pretty approachable. When my husband and I were going to have marriage validated in the Church, we really enjoyed meeting with him. My husband is still Jewish, but he really is very supportive and knowledgeable about Catholicism. He just doesn't seem to be able to really believe Jesus is God, but there are many, many things he does appreciate about the Church and he is a very good father to our children in that way. I think he might be a better 'Catholic' father than many fathers who are cradle Catholics. But back to the question, I do think a newcomer would get a pretty warm welcome from our parish. I am not saying it is flawless, but I think it is worthwhile.
I just seem to be running behind on everything this week! These posts are supposed to go up on Wednesdays but I am pokey and haven't been getting them up until Thursdays. This week I wasn't feeling well, so I am even later than usual!
I remember when I first read this chapter, I just loved Weddell's remark about how Jesus often answered questions with more questions using natural curiosity to draw people to Him. How brilliant and gentle! Here are the questions for discussion:
In your own faith:
Can you remember when you became curious about the faith - whether as a convert, revert or cradle Catholic just waking up to mature discipleship? How would you explain the difference between an active and passive faith?
Since I am a revert, I grew up knowing about Jesus. I knew all my Bible stories. In our house we had lots of religious picture books and my father often read the Bible out loud to us during Lent or Advent. We went to Mass every Sunday and Holy Day, plus I went to Catholic schools so we often went to Mass at some point during the week, for instance I am sure in grade school we always went to Mass as a school on First Fridays. So through all this I gained a pretty sound understanding of Jesus. What's amazing is these stories never get old because you can always read them in a new light, or a phrase jumps out at you that you hadn't noticed before, or because of some other encounter you bring something new to a story that gives fresh insight. So I don't remember being curious about Jesus so that I could get to know him. I felt like I already did.
My big problem was to actually believe that he was God and before that, that there was in fact a God. I was agnostic, sometimes atheistic for many years, but the funny thing is faith would break through at odd moments. Then I'd put it out of my head, thinking, "Oh that's just wishful thinking. That's not real." I have actually talked to other agnostics and atheists about this and this is a common phenomenon. I am sure not everyone experiences this, but doubt as to not believing in a God, creeps into their lives just as doubt might creep into a believer's life. Doubt works both ways! So for me, I think I began by examining the believers around me and being very judgmental about them. I would think in considering some believer I knew, that's a silly way to believe. Then I'd say to myself: "If I believed, it would be for such and such reason." Even though I didn't believe, or at least didn't know if I believed, I still had certain standards for how people ought to believe. I was very dismissive of those who didn't meet my standards.
Somehow, through all this criticism, I slowly got into the habit of imagining myself as a believer and at some imperceptible moment, I shifted into belief. It began to dawn on me that I actually believed more than I didn't believe. This was eye-opening and strangely frightening. It took me a while to get comfortable with it. It was like there was a spectrum of disbelief/belief that ranged from 1 to 100 with one being total disbelief and 100 being full belief. Initially, when I lost my faith, I was much closer to one, but I think all my little thought experiments about how believers ought to believe slowly moved me up the scale. At some point I slipped from 49% to 51% without any conscious decision on my part. Another part of this movement was studying the Existentialists so much in college. That really damaged me! I began my study with a lot of enthusiasm because they were dark and edgy to me and in my callowness, that attracted me, but after a few years of them, I realized I just didn't agree with them. Their take on reality struck me as contrived and hollow. I was thoroughly sick of them and their depressing way of thinking. I didn't want to be like them.
So after realizing I wasn't really a non-believer anymore, I became curious about what exactly to believe. I studied various faiths, but after an initial infatuation with them would find them wanting and slowly through fits and starts I found myself back at my childhood faith. It was the one that made the most sense.
I then became curious about the Church. I was strangely ignorant of the catechism. I didn't even really understand how the Church's hierarchy worked, for example. Really, it amazes me how ignorant I was of the Church's teachings after having gone through so many years of Catholic schooling. I think the schools did a terrible job but also I was just blind and deaf to what they were saying anyway. The seed was not falling on good soil. But once I decided to join the Scripture Study I spoke about in my last post in this series, I began to read about the Church. I had in my prior years of study read some Merton, some Metropolitan Anthony Bloom (I had an Anglican acquaintance who loved him. She wound up marrying a Greek Orthodox and converting!)and others. I read a lot of critical stuff too, Leonardo Boff, stories about the El Salvadoran martyrs and things like that. Once I returned to Catholicism, I started reading people like Matthew Fox of Original Blessing and Joan Chittister. I subscribed to the National Catholic Reporter. These people are/were very unhappy and critical of the Church. All these sources were very biased, but somehow they made me more and more curious about finding out exactly what the Church teaches and why. Eventually, I became disenchanted with viewing the Church through their eyes. For some reason, for example, I could not work myself up over no women priests. I thought it was silly. I thought they were taking Gloria Steinem's view of the sexes and trying to apply it to the Church. And I had read Gloria Steinem and soundly rejected her materialism and her very worldly and warped view of the relationship between the sexes. Plus, I always, always, always had trouble with abortion. I have never not believed it wasn't the killing of a human being. I don't know why I always had that understanding but the other side just didn't make sense to me. Of course it's a baby, what else could it be??? So there was a real disconnect there, because a lot of dissenters in the Church do believe in a 'woman's right to choose' even if they don't come out and say it. If they do come out and say it, they say something like "well, I personally don't believe in abortion, but I can't impose that on someone else." This did not ring true to me. There was something wrong with that line of thinking that I couldn't quite put my finger on. Of course that statement reveals a relativistic view of morality which undermines the whole idea of God. But most people can't follow the logic. Their politics or emotions get in the way; two things that are also very subjective.
So eventually I moved away from liberal Catholicism. Mother Teresa was a big inspiration. I loved her. I wanted to be a Mother Teresa Catholic. How come everybody loved her even if she spoke out against abortion? I loved Dorothy Day too. She seemed so radical, yet when I read about her faith, it seemed very orthodox.
Anyway, to make a long story short after mixing with Catholic homeschoolers I started hearing of different authors to read, the most important being Scott Hahn. I bought some tapes (yes, I'm dating myself by saying tapes instead of CDs!) of his and would drive around listening to them completely and totally entranced. This stuff was answering questions! Finally, all the puzzlement and searching seemed to be answered. It became my habit to try to do a certain amount of religious reading every year, to keep educating myself in the beautiful faith of the Church. This is something that I rejoice in as a believer. One can spend one's lifetime trying to plumb the depths of theology and never stop learning more and more. It is good to be curious and Catholic!
In your parish:
If a newcomer walked into your parish today, curious about the Catholic faith, would someone actively welcome him? Introduce him to others? Who would help him answer his questions?
I do think my parish does RCIA pretty well. There are some groovy, liberal elements there, but there are also some deep, orthodox elements as well. There are many active parishioners. I don't really know their faith life, but they impress me as being pretty faithful. Our pastor is pretty approachable. When my husband and I were going to have marriage validated in the Church, we really enjoyed meeting with him. My husband is still Jewish, but he really is very supportive and knowledgeable about Catholicism. He just doesn't seem to be able to really believe Jesus is God, but there are many, many things he does appreciate about the Church and he is a very good father to our children in that way. I think he might be a better 'Catholic' father than many fathers who are cradle Catholics. But back to the question, I do think a newcomer would get a pretty warm welcome from our parish. I am not saying it is flawless, but I think it is worthwhile.
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
The Confidential Agent - Book 34
I listened to this book on audio which I got from library. It is from Recorded Books and was read by Patrick Tull who did a fantastic job. I found this story by Graham Greene to be quite absorbing and beautifully written. Greene does the psychology of the main character so well. His prose is so vivid, true and intelligent. I liked the story because the main character, known only as D., is so realistic. He isn't a super spy with amazing physical powers or awe-inspiring technological devices to get him out of his predicaments. Instead he is a shell-shocked, heart-weary man who has only his wits and his tenacious sense of what is honorable. It is a terrible world that D operates in. His country is at civil war, his wife was shot and he was imprisoned, threatened with execution, and then after release somehow managed to live buried under rumble after his house was bombed. All this has taken a terrible toll on him but he won't give up, in spite of himself. He is the confidential agent for the government, trying desperately to get a coal deal with a big British coal company before the rebels in his country do. But everywhere he turns he meets with both good and bad luck.
I found the story really riveting and Tull's reading adds to it. What a consumate actor! However, I do think the story weakens at the very end. I just didn't quite buy the character of Rose and the ending seemed rather improbable to me.
Still, I would recommend this heartily. I definitely plan to read more by Graham Greene.
For more book reviews go to Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks.
I found the story really riveting and Tull's reading adds to it. What a consumate actor! However, I do think the story weakens at the very end. I just didn't quite buy the character of Rose and the ending seemed rather improbable to me.
Still, I would recommend this heartily. I definitely plan to read more by Graham Greene.
For more book reviews go to Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks.
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
Good News - 7/9/13 -UPDATED!
Gee, I skipped a couple of my usual postings. I didn't finish a book this week so I didn't post for my Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks challenge. And then I made a long list of to do things this week but didn't bother to post any weekly plans.
Oh well. I won't forget to post some Good News.
Remember the young Christian girl with Down Syndrome in Pakistan who had been jailed for supposedly desecrating the Koran? Well, she's free! They smuggled her out and she's now in Canada. Here's an article about it. Hooray! Thank you, Jesus!
Speaking of children with Down's, there was a frantic email going around the yahoo groups I'm in. Apparently a woman pregnant with a Down's child was going to abort unless she found parents wanting to adopt her child. The minute I read this, guilt seized me. Shouldn't we want to do this, to save a life? My youngest sister has Down's. What if my mother had decided to abort her??? I have dreamed of adopting for a long time, but it doesn't look like it is something that is ever going to happen. It made me feel like I wanted to live my life over again, only this time I'd dedicate myself to serving others, like a Missionary of Charity sister for instance, instead of indulging in my own whims and fancies all the time until my heart is so shrunken, I can not put myself to any inconvenience whatsoever without feeling resentful and overwhelmed by it. Such a good girl, I am. But later an email came through saying that there was a yahoolist someone knew of, just for people who feel called to adopt endangered children in just this sort of situation. So, God willing, that baby will not die at the hands of his own mother. It is heartening to know that there are courageous people out there who rise to the challenge of being Christian in this day and age (unlike selfish cowards, like me!). I found an organization's website that is just about adopting Down's kids. I have no idea if they are affiliated with the yahoo group though. It is good to know there are selfless people in the world. Dismaying to realize I am not one of them.
Okay, that was kind of sobering, so to lighten things up, go to the link below. I just can't stop laughing about this. Too, too funny!
GIANT COLIN FIRTH TERRORIZES LONDON!
WONDERFUL UPDATE! There were so many people who responded to the plea to adopt a Down's baby that it got into the newspapers! Check this out! I love pro-lifers!
Oh well. I won't forget to post some Good News.
Remember the young Christian girl with Down Syndrome in Pakistan who had been jailed for supposedly desecrating the Koran? Well, she's free! They smuggled her out and she's now in Canada. Here's an article about it. Hooray! Thank you, Jesus!
Speaking of children with Down's, there was a frantic email going around the yahoo groups I'm in. Apparently a woman pregnant with a Down's child was going to abort unless she found parents wanting to adopt her child. The minute I read this, guilt seized me. Shouldn't we want to do this, to save a life? My youngest sister has Down's. What if my mother had decided to abort her??? I have dreamed of adopting for a long time, but it doesn't look like it is something that is ever going to happen. It made me feel like I wanted to live my life over again, only this time I'd dedicate myself to serving others, like a Missionary of Charity sister for instance, instead of indulging in my own whims and fancies all the time until my heart is so shrunken, I can not put myself to any inconvenience whatsoever without feeling resentful and overwhelmed by it. Such a good girl, I am. But later an email came through saying that there was a yahoolist someone knew of, just for people who feel called to adopt endangered children in just this sort of situation. So, God willing, that baby will not die at the hands of his own mother. It is heartening to know that there are courageous people out there who rise to the challenge of being Christian in this day and age (unlike selfish cowards, like me!). I found an organization's website that is just about adopting Down's kids. I have no idea if they are affiliated with the yahoo group though. It is good to know there are selfless people in the world. Dismaying to realize I am not one of them.
Okay, that was kind of sobering, so to lighten things up, go to the link below. I just can't stop laughing about this. Too, too funny!
GIANT COLIN FIRTH TERRORIZES LONDON!
WONDERFUL UPDATE! There were so many people who responded to the plea to adopt a Down's baby that it got into the newspapers! Check this out! I love pro-lifers!
Saturday, July 6, 2013
Organizing the Hopelessly Disorganized (that would be me!)
I did something so humiliatingly stupid, something I just discovered yesterday, and which my dearly beloved husband stepped in for and covered my sorry you know what, that after I got over being totally abashed at how utterly stupid I had been, I decided I really need to focus on being more organized so I do not do stupid, stupid, stupid things like that again. Especially because next academic year will probably be a very busy and complicated one. Here are the various things that will be going on, in all probability:
1. Mentoring at Aquinas Learning. I still don't know quite what I'll be teaching. I know I'll be teaching the Lost Tools of Writing. I've been trying to watch the TM videos for the program but I really need to have dedicated time each day to watch them so I'll really get familiar with the program. I may be teaching Latin I as well. Also, I might try to coordinate some field trips. This will involve having to upload assignments on the website, correcting papers/tests, planning class, reading ahead, etc.
2. Teaching RE on Monday evenings - lots of planning and praying for this one.
3. Co-leading Becky's Pioneers in her AHG troop. I'll have two other co-leaders though. I am also responsible for the Religious award (whatever the official name of that is).
4. Keeping on top of Sean's school requirements/calendar.
5. Managing Becky's outside activities - mainly All Stars gymnastics team, art lessons, music/voice lessons, math tutor, plus the regular old homeschooling stuff.
6. Personal trainer/exercise for Sean and me.
7. Cooking real food as much as possible
8. Housekeeping - keeping house reasonably clean.
So I think I need to organize my desk. I am going to claim part of the kitchen counter (from bread machine to my desk) as my own. I think I need a tickler file system. But not only that, I think I need for most of the things listed above. I think the cooking/housekeeping/exercise could be in my household control binder.
Organizational components:
1. Calendar on wall for general appointments. Small notebook calendar for my purse.
2. Call electrician to fix outlets so printer will work.
3. Get new bookends for books/binder on desk. The current bookend just broke!
4. Put tickler system in desk drawer (must clean out drawer first!)
5. Files on counter with be for: Aquinas Learning (general, LTOW, Latin), AHG (general, religious, pioneers), St Mark RE (ideas, materials), Sean's school info.
6. I have a household binder I made years ago that is only semi-used. I think though if I clear other junk off my desk, it will be more prominent and get more use.
We've been sort of doing well with the mail: each person has a slot on the marble top dresser in the front hall. Rick's mail gets put in the ceramic 'envelope' his grandmother made for him.
My desk should ideally only have:
my laptop
the phone
my household binder, Teacher manuals and overflow cookbooks and a cup of working pens and pencils. If I clean it off I could move the pencil sharpener to it.
On the counter next to the desk would be only the printer, printing paper, AL, AHG, RE, Sean's school files. In the desk drawer would be rulers, markers, sticky notepads, timer, tape, scissors, notecards, phone book, box with business cards, etc. In the big drawer would be the 43 files (31 for each day of month + 12 for each month.)
For all the older kids, I think I'll keep anything dealing with them in their slots in the front hall if they are actions items or if they need to be filed then into their permanent files.
1. Mentoring at Aquinas Learning. I still don't know quite what I'll be teaching. I know I'll be teaching the Lost Tools of Writing. I've been trying to watch the TM videos for the program but I really need to have dedicated time each day to watch them so I'll really get familiar with the program. I may be teaching Latin I as well. Also, I might try to coordinate some field trips. This will involve having to upload assignments on the website, correcting papers/tests, planning class, reading ahead, etc.
2. Teaching RE on Monday evenings - lots of planning and praying for this one.
3. Co-leading Becky's Pioneers in her AHG troop. I'll have two other co-leaders though. I am also responsible for the Religious award (whatever the official name of that is).
4. Keeping on top of Sean's school requirements/calendar.
5. Managing Becky's outside activities - mainly All Stars gymnastics team, art lessons, music/voice lessons, math tutor, plus the regular old homeschooling stuff.
6. Personal trainer/exercise for Sean and me.
7. Cooking real food as much as possible
8. Housekeeping - keeping house reasonably clean.
So I think I need to organize my desk. I am going to claim part of the kitchen counter (from bread machine to my desk) as my own. I think I need a tickler file system. But not only that, I think I need for most of the things listed above. I think the cooking/housekeeping/exercise could be in my household control binder.
Organizational components:
1. Calendar on wall for general appointments. Small notebook calendar for my purse.
2. Call electrician to fix outlets so printer will work.
3. Get new bookends for books/binder on desk. The current bookend just broke!
4. Put tickler system in desk drawer (must clean out drawer first!)
5. Files on counter with be for: Aquinas Learning (general, LTOW, Latin), AHG (general, religious, pioneers), St Mark RE (ideas, materials), Sean's school info.
6. I have a household binder I made years ago that is only semi-used. I think though if I clear other junk off my desk, it will be more prominent and get more use.
We've been sort of doing well with the mail: each person has a slot on the marble top dresser in the front hall. Rick's mail gets put in the ceramic 'envelope' his grandmother made for him.
My desk should ideally only have:
my laptop
the phone
my household binder, Teacher manuals and overflow cookbooks and a cup of working pens and pencils. If I clean it off I could move the pencil sharpener to it.
On the counter next to the desk would be only the printer, printing paper, AL, AHG, RE, Sean's school files. In the desk drawer would be rulers, markers, sticky notepads, timer, tape, scissors, notecards, phone book, box with business cards, etc. In the big drawer would be the 43 files (31 for each day of month + 12 for each month.)
For all the older kids, I think I'll keep anything dealing with them in their slots in the front hall if they are actions items or if they need to be filed then into their permanent files.
Thursday, July 4, 2013
Happy 4th?
I woke up this morning not feeling very patriotic. Well, that's not true. I love my country, but I am worried about the direction it is heading. So instead of feeling celebratory I feel disappointment and concern. I worry about my children's future. I don't usually go to church on Independence Day. Usually it is off to see a parade, then grilling outside, then fireworks. But today I am going into Washington D.C. for the closing Mass of the USCCB's Fortnight for Freedom. I love the National Basilica (except for the Aryan Jesus - I find him disturbing! But I love everything else!) so I like a good excuse to there. I look forward to the Mass. I will pray for Obama and all our leaders. I'll pray our country and its future. I'll pray for all those who are in our military, their lives in danger for what we hope are noble causes, worth being willing to die for. I'll pray for those who have been maimed in recent wars that are questionable in their justice. I'll pray for my nephew, Anthony, who turns 18 today and is already in the Army. He'll be shipping off to boot camp in a few weeks.
This post by Monsignor Charles Pope (also of Washington, D.C.) explains my fears very well.
There's a holy hour tonight at my parish as well which I hope to make. Frankly, I'd rather do that than go to fireworks.
The best thing to do is to become closer to Christ. He's the only one you can always trust! I have a pretty poor prayer life, so maybe all this is a refining fire that will help me be a better Christian.
And now, I will go put out our flag!
This post by Monsignor Charles Pope (also of Washington, D.C.) explains my fears very well.
There's a holy hour tonight at my parish as well which I hope to make. Frankly, I'd rather do that than go to fireworks.
The best thing to do is to become closer to Christ. He's the only one you can always trust! I have a pretty poor prayer life, so maybe all this is a refining fire that will help me be a better Christian.
And now, I will go put out our flag!
Wednesday, July 3, 2013
Forming Intentional Disciples - Session 6
This is part of an ongoing discussion of the book Forming Intentional Disciples by Sherry Weddell, hosted by CatholicMom.com in that website's Lawn Chair Catechism section.
Chapter 5 identifies the 5 thresholds of Conversion. We often want to start with the catechism but that is premature, people have to go through these thresholds before they are truly open to delving into the nuts and bolts of Catholic belief.
The five thresholds are:
1. Initial Trust
2. Spiritual Curiosity
3. Spiritual Openness
4. Spiritual Seeking
5. Intentional Discipleship
Chapter 5 focuses on the first threshold - initial trust.
Questions for Discussion:
In your own faith:
How was the bridge of trust built for you? Who are the people who helped you to come as far as you have in your personal journey? Have you ever been that link of trust for another person?
I think for people who are reverts like myself, misunderstandings of some of the same things that built the bridge of trust later, were part of the reason the trust broke down in the first place. For me, my rejection of Catholicism came because in my immature mind I could not find a reasonable explanation for why God would let bad things happen. That was the deeper reason, but the more pervasive reason that kept hacking away at what little faith I had was that the people who professed the Catholic faith were, it seemed, old fashioned fuddy duddies who had no idea what 'real life' was like. Like I said, I was an immature child of the 1970s. My religion was rock n roll and being cool. I never was cool in the slightest but that was my ambition in life. I wanted to be bohemian and wear long muslin skirts and protest at anti-nuke rallies. And even though my reversion took a very long time and was very complicated, doing that 'ping-pong' thing that Weddell refers to, I do think my parents, especially my mother was a bridge of trust for me. Other bridges of trust - authors - Thomas Merton was a Catholic presence in m life when I was agnostic. I also read some other authors, who I can't quite recall right now. The final bridge builder might have been Father Tuck Grinnell.
My husband and I got married in the Unitarian Universalist Church. We tried to go to services there but we soon discovered we really didn't fit. My husband grew up in a non-practicing Jewish home. His parents were pretty atheistic, especially his mom. However, for tradition's sake he was bar mitzvahed. The least expensive Hebrew school was orthodox so that's the one he went to. It wasn't much of a Hebrew school, but it imparted just enough that he was dissatisfied with the UU. I remember he said coming out of the service one day, "I keep expecting someone to say "May the force be with you!" I mean it felt that hokey to him. There was no real sense of transcendence or any actual relationship with a personal God. It was all abstract and culturally bound to the modern mindset. It just didn't ring true to us at all. So we went back to not doing anything on Sunday mornings. He was fine with this but I always found Sunday mornings depressing. There was a real hole in the week, if I wasn't doing something that dealt with the bigger, deeper issues in life. So one morning I left him in bed with his newspaper and orange juice and I walked several blocks to the closest Catholic Church. I went in and sat in the back and there I heard Father Tuck give a homily. Father Tuck is an excellent homilist. I remember he was talking about the Small Communities of Faith that the parish was trying to get started. He was encouraging everyone to join one if they could. The thing he said that really struck home with me was that everyone who walked into a church should feel loved. Loved! He said it was hard to create an atmosphere of love in an urban setting where there were so many people. Small Communities of Faith, where people gather in small groups to study scripture together, was his answer to that. That way you'd begin to know people in the parish, while at the same time getting to know the faith better. So! I joined a group, even though I wasn't sure of what I actually believed, it was a first step back into the Church. It was through this parish that I got involved in Pax Christi. This parish is known for being liberal. It was just what I needed at the time. I don't think I would have come home to the Church otherwise. But as I grew in the faith, I came to understand orthodoxy much better and left (some of) that liberal label behind.
Other people who have really been links for me have been the Catholic homeschooling community in my area. I started to homeschool for other than religious reasons (my kids had learning disabilities and I had a profound distrust of any school system's ability to deal with this.) but I stumbled into the Catholic homeschooling folks; a neighbor up the street was about to embark on homeschooling her oldest son and she knew of a group that was meeting the next week. I was a fledging revert at the time, but I thought, well, I'm Catholic and I'm homeschooling, I think I'll go to this meeting. These folks turned out to be my community, one which I still belong to. While hanging out with Catholic homeschoolers has not made me join the Republican party, I do think under their influence, I became much more impassioned about issues like being pro-life.
The only link of trust to the faith I have been is for my children.
In your parish:
What are actions you can take at your parish to make your congregation a place of trust? Are there barriers in the public imagination - such as a concern about scandals or financial misdeed-that require increased transparency ot foster genuine trust?
Gee, this questions that are directed to our parish life really make me feel so inadequate! I am just not that involved in my parish to be able to answer them. However, there is no history of abuse in my parish. We've only had about 4 pastors since its inception and they have all been wonderful, holy men. And the parish has always made a big deal about being completely transparent money wise. So there is no distrust there at the local level. However, I think the sex abuse scandal has cast a pall over the Church which it is never going to live down. It'll be like the Crusades or the Inquisition. It will always be used as a weapon against the Church. So I do think people can be distrusting just on that account alone and it is enough of a problem to warrant mistrust.
The thing I focus on is my 7th grade RE girls. How can I foster trust in them? I do want to be that kind of link but I will never know if I am actually. I just have to pray hard, trust in God and do my very best to teach them of God's love, how to think for themselves and then hope they freely choose a life with Christ.
Chapter 5 identifies the 5 thresholds of Conversion. We often want to start with the catechism but that is premature, people have to go through these thresholds before they are truly open to delving into the nuts and bolts of Catholic belief.
The five thresholds are:
1. Initial Trust
2. Spiritual Curiosity
3. Spiritual Openness
4. Spiritual Seeking
5. Intentional Discipleship
Chapter 5 focuses on the first threshold - initial trust.
Questions for Discussion:
In your own faith:
How was the bridge of trust built for you? Who are the people who helped you to come as far as you have in your personal journey? Have you ever been that link of trust for another person?
I think for people who are reverts like myself, misunderstandings of some of the same things that built the bridge of trust later, were part of the reason the trust broke down in the first place. For me, my rejection of Catholicism came because in my immature mind I could not find a reasonable explanation for why God would let bad things happen. That was the deeper reason, but the more pervasive reason that kept hacking away at what little faith I had was that the people who professed the Catholic faith were, it seemed, old fashioned fuddy duddies who had no idea what 'real life' was like. Like I said, I was an immature child of the 1970s. My religion was rock n roll and being cool. I never was cool in the slightest but that was my ambition in life. I wanted to be bohemian and wear long muslin skirts and protest at anti-nuke rallies. And even though my reversion took a very long time and was very complicated, doing that 'ping-pong' thing that Weddell refers to, I do think my parents, especially my mother was a bridge of trust for me. Other bridges of trust - authors - Thomas Merton was a Catholic presence in m life when I was agnostic. I also read some other authors, who I can't quite recall right now. The final bridge builder might have been Father Tuck Grinnell.
My husband and I got married in the Unitarian Universalist Church. We tried to go to services there but we soon discovered we really didn't fit. My husband grew up in a non-practicing Jewish home. His parents were pretty atheistic, especially his mom. However, for tradition's sake he was bar mitzvahed. The least expensive Hebrew school was orthodox so that's the one he went to. It wasn't much of a Hebrew school, but it imparted just enough that he was dissatisfied with the UU. I remember he said coming out of the service one day, "I keep expecting someone to say "May the force be with you!" I mean it felt that hokey to him. There was no real sense of transcendence or any actual relationship with a personal God. It was all abstract and culturally bound to the modern mindset. It just didn't ring true to us at all. So we went back to not doing anything on Sunday mornings. He was fine with this but I always found Sunday mornings depressing. There was a real hole in the week, if I wasn't doing something that dealt with the bigger, deeper issues in life. So one morning I left him in bed with his newspaper and orange juice and I walked several blocks to the closest Catholic Church. I went in and sat in the back and there I heard Father Tuck give a homily. Father Tuck is an excellent homilist. I remember he was talking about the Small Communities of Faith that the parish was trying to get started. He was encouraging everyone to join one if they could. The thing he said that really struck home with me was that everyone who walked into a church should feel loved. Loved! He said it was hard to create an atmosphere of love in an urban setting where there were so many people. Small Communities of Faith, where people gather in small groups to study scripture together, was his answer to that. That way you'd begin to know people in the parish, while at the same time getting to know the faith better. So! I joined a group, even though I wasn't sure of what I actually believed, it was a first step back into the Church. It was through this parish that I got involved in Pax Christi. This parish is known for being liberal. It was just what I needed at the time. I don't think I would have come home to the Church otherwise. But as I grew in the faith, I came to understand orthodoxy much better and left (some of) that liberal label behind.
Other people who have really been links for me have been the Catholic homeschooling community in my area. I started to homeschool for other than religious reasons (my kids had learning disabilities and I had a profound distrust of any school system's ability to deal with this.) but I stumbled into the Catholic homeschooling folks; a neighbor up the street was about to embark on homeschooling her oldest son and she knew of a group that was meeting the next week. I was a fledging revert at the time, but I thought, well, I'm Catholic and I'm homeschooling, I think I'll go to this meeting. These folks turned out to be my community, one which I still belong to. While hanging out with Catholic homeschoolers has not made me join the Republican party, I do think under their influence, I became much more impassioned about issues like being pro-life.
The only link of trust to the faith I have been is for my children.
In your parish:
What are actions you can take at your parish to make your congregation a place of trust? Are there barriers in the public imagination - such as a concern about scandals or financial misdeed-that require increased transparency ot foster genuine trust?
Gee, this questions that are directed to our parish life really make me feel so inadequate! I am just not that involved in my parish to be able to answer them. However, there is no history of abuse in my parish. We've only had about 4 pastors since its inception and they have all been wonderful, holy men. And the parish has always made a big deal about being completely transparent money wise. So there is no distrust there at the local level. However, I think the sex abuse scandal has cast a pall over the Church which it is never going to live down. It'll be like the Crusades or the Inquisition. It will always be used as a weapon against the Church. So I do think people can be distrusting just on that account alone and it is enough of a problem to warrant mistrust.
The thing I focus on is my 7th grade RE girls. How can I foster trust in them? I do want to be that kind of link but I will never know if I am actually. I just have to pray hard, trust in God and do my very best to teach them of God's love, how to think for themselves and then hope they freely choose a life with Christ.
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
Good News - 7/2/13
I think I've talked about this before, but I can't find where, so I think it bears repeating! I just finished listening to a wonderful audio lecture series, taught by Professor Thomas Madden of St. Louis University. I got it out of my local library. I can't believe the library still contains such treasures! It was entitled From Jesus to Christianity; the History of the Early Church. It was excellent. Earlier this year I had treated myself to a couple of courses from the Teaching Company for Christmas and much of this lecture overlapped with another lecture series I listened to about the Early Middle Ages. That one was taught by a professor from William and Mary College. The great thing is that both professors talked about the same things. While Madden I think is slightly more friendly to the Church than Daileader, the professor for the Teaching Co. course, both talked about the same things in much the same way. I was pleasantly surprised at how much of their presentation coincided. This made me think that though Madden is teaching at a Catholic University and Daileader at a secular one, both men do strive to be as objective and professional as they can. That was a heartening realization, because there truly is so much anti-Catholicism out there anymore, often in very subtle ways that you can't spot unless you are a history buff yourself.
Anyway, the source for many good, solid, well presented lectures is The Modern Scholar. Modern Scholar is really a subpart of Recorded Books which has been around for ages and pre-dates The Teaching Company, I believe. Modern Scholar is only on audio. They are perfect for when you have to drive on a long trip or spend many hours a week driving around in traffic. I am planning to return this lecture series and get the next one by Madden, which I noticed the library also had, one about the Middle Ages. Since that is the time period Becky and I will be studying, I am looking forward to it!
I've listened to another lecture by Madden, God Wills It! That one was about the crusades. Unfortunately the last disc was damaged and I never did learn about how everything turned out (tongue in cheek there!). Other courses that I've listened to and enjoyed immensely as both a seeker of knowledge and a Catholic: Michael C. Drout's courses on Tolkien and the history of the English Language, Timothy Schutt's courses on Ancient history and Peter Kreeft's survey course on ethics.
Like I said, I am very blessed to have many Modern Scholar cd series in my local library. If you do not have that luxury you can buy them from Recorded Books. However, they are frightfully expensive and they don't seem to go on sale all the time like Teaching Company courses. However, Learn Out Loud has them as downloaded files for much less (though still about $35). However, I think Modern Scholar is definitely a company, I want to keep in business, so I think it is money worth spending.
I keep bumping into these professors on the internet or noticing they are going to be speaking nearby. Professor Madden is coming to Christendom College for a one day history seminar on July 13th! I'd like to go see him, but it is the day after Becky's birthday and since she'll be in camp all day on 7/12, I'm thinking we'll do something for her birthday on the 13th. Professor Drout, who is so wonderful (I dearly would love to go on a tour with him of England), is speaking at Benedictine College. I'm not planning to go there or anything, but I do know people who go there. And lastly, I am going to hear Peter Kreeft speak at the Circe Conference in a couple weeks.
Anyway, the source for many good, solid, well presented lectures is The Modern Scholar. Modern Scholar is really a subpart of Recorded Books which has been around for ages and pre-dates The Teaching Company, I believe. Modern Scholar is only on audio. They are perfect for when you have to drive on a long trip or spend many hours a week driving around in traffic. I am planning to return this lecture series and get the next one by Madden, which I noticed the library also had, one about the Middle Ages. Since that is the time period Becky and I will be studying, I am looking forward to it!
I've listened to another lecture by Madden, God Wills It! That one was about the crusades. Unfortunately the last disc was damaged and I never did learn about how everything turned out (tongue in cheek there!). Other courses that I've listened to and enjoyed immensely as both a seeker of knowledge and a Catholic: Michael C. Drout's courses on Tolkien and the history of the English Language, Timothy Schutt's courses on Ancient history and Peter Kreeft's survey course on ethics.
Like I said, I am very blessed to have many Modern Scholar cd series in my local library. If you do not have that luxury you can buy them from Recorded Books. However, they are frightfully expensive and they don't seem to go on sale all the time like Teaching Company courses. However, Learn Out Loud has them as downloaded files for much less (though still about $35). However, I think Modern Scholar is definitely a company, I want to keep in business, so I think it is money worth spending.
I keep bumping into these professors on the internet or noticing they are going to be speaking nearby. Professor Madden is coming to Christendom College for a one day history seminar on July 13th! I'd like to go see him, but it is the day after Becky's birthday and since she'll be in camp all day on 7/12, I'm thinking we'll do something for her birthday on the 13th. Professor Drout, who is so wonderful (I dearly would love to go on a tour with him of England), is speaking at Benedictine College. I'm not planning to go there or anything, but I do know people who go there. And lastly, I am going to hear Peter Kreeft speak at the Circe Conference in a couple weeks.
Monday, July 1, 2013
Weekly Plans - 7/1/13
Had a good weekend. Will turned 21 on Saturday. Right now his girlfriend from Mexico is supposed to be staying here for a visit but he broke up with her last week. It was all quite traumatic, but after he got over the whole "I feel terrible I did this and I feel like a bastard" he soon moved into a "I am utterly relieved" state. So that's good. I was really worried about her coming to stay anyway. It just seemed like it would be so very awkward. I do feel badly for her though. Poor thing. Anyway on Will's birthday, they went to Foxes Music and Rick bought Will a beautiful, handmade by some well known Spanish luthier, classical guitar. Even to my untrained ear, it sounds fantastic. So Will is over the moon about that. We went out to the Korean BBQ place for dinner which was fun. Later Hannah, Peter, Will, Josh and an old friend of Hannah's went out to an Irish Pub. Josh being only 18 was the designated driver. I think he found it amusing to be the babysitter for all the older kids. Will says he had one whiskey, one bourbon and one beer (George Thoroughgood anyone?). Then he had another bourbon. Apparently the band playing at the Irish Brogue was pretty good and everyone had a good time. Then they bought more beer on the way home, plus a pizza and stayed up until 4:00 a.m. playing some of Peter's board games.
Needless to say, we did not make it to Mass in the a.m. I was supposed to go to a tea in the afternoon for mentors for Aquinas Learning but this got cancelled at the last minute. I also was supposed to take Becky to the Minute Clinic to get a 'campers' physical. However, Becky has gotten herself so worked up over having to get two shots that we postponed it. She promises she will be brave and strong on Tuesday after camp. This is a terrible fail on my part. I apparently have neglected to keep up with Becky's physicals. Instead of doing all that, Sean, Hannah and I made homemade pretzels which were excellent!
All the other kids wound up going to the 7:00 p.m. Mass at St. James but Rick and I went to the 5:00 at Our Lady of Hope which is Anglican Use. Maybe because it is different and the language is so old fashioned but I find that Mass beautiful. The priest, Father Sly, is the same one who celebrated Josh's graduation Mass. He's a wonderful homilist.
After Mass, Rick and I had a very nice date and ate burgers at Red Robin's.
Anyway, what's up for this week:
Becky has music camp from 9:30 to 3:30 every day and then gymnastics practice from 4:30 to 7:30 M, W, F. Tuesday she gets a physical.
Sean really has nothing, except he's got to see Dr. B so I better make an appt this week. Also he's got two appts with the personal trainer (me too, Tues and Fri). Next week he volunteers for Vacation Bible School, so I am thinking at some point he probably will need to meet with folks about that. And he's got CLC Wednesday evening. Hopefully, we'll find out this week whether he made it into the Catholic high school. He's been reading the book Left to Tell, which is one the books the rising freshmen have to read.
Josh meets with Math tutor this a.m. and then Wed and Thurs a.m. He's got CLC too. I don't think there's a chance of hearing from his school since the College Board is not very fast at sending scores, even when you expedite them. Grrr. Don't like the College Board at all. They are a racket and represent everything that is wrong with college admissions to me!
Will plays at Potbelly's Tuesday and Thursday. He's also got to find housing at Berklee since he obviously is not going to Mexico next semester. He is very excited because next month, he is going to Nashville with a friend to record some music at a real live recording studio!
Hannah starts her summer class on Global Geography this Tuesday. I think she and all the over 21 crowd are going to Theology on Tap this evening.
Peter, Hannah's boyfriend who is staying here until he gets on his feet, apparently has been hired by Starbucks and is waiting for his background check to be completed. Since he's never done anything criminal this should be easy but apparently it takes a bit for the bureaucracy to move on this kind of thing. And it looks like he's connected with 3 others guys looking for a house to rent together starting in August, I think.
I have been making a mental (and now not mental!) list of what furniture he could borrow/have. He can borrow the extra bed he is now currently sleeping in. He can keep the love seat (that I have never really liked anyway). He can borrow the card table and four folding chairs. There is an extra computer desk that he can also have. For years it sat in a box. I don't even know how we acquired it. Hannah found it in storage and put it together, but it would be great for Peter. He has nothing pretty much except his clothes, his board game collection and a beautiful new computer his parents gave him for graduation. I think they are planning to help with initial rent and the purchase of a used car for him. And they are coming to visit July 6th!
Plans for the 4th. Don't really have any! I want to go to Mass at the National Basilica at noon on 7/4 to end the Fortnight for Freedom. Also there is holy hour at my church from 7:00 to 8:00 I believe. The older kids might be planning to go into town but are they having the 4th on the Mall this year? I thought due to the sequester maybe they weren't??? Was that just a rumor? Anyway, we'll probably go to the fireworks in our little town and then come home and set off some more in our driveway. Rick will probably grill for dinner prior to fireworks. He's hoping he can take Friday off too and get a 4 day weekend.
Needless to say, we did not make it to Mass in the a.m. I was supposed to go to a tea in the afternoon for mentors for Aquinas Learning but this got cancelled at the last minute. I also was supposed to take Becky to the Minute Clinic to get a 'campers' physical. However, Becky has gotten herself so worked up over having to get two shots that we postponed it. She promises she will be brave and strong on Tuesday after camp. This is a terrible fail on my part. I apparently have neglected to keep up with Becky's physicals. Instead of doing all that, Sean, Hannah and I made homemade pretzels which were excellent!
All the other kids wound up going to the 7:00 p.m. Mass at St. James but Rick and I went to the 5:00 at Our Lady of Hope which is Anglican Use. Maybe because it is different and the language is so old fashioned but I find that Mass beautiful. The priest, Father Sly, is the same one who celebrated Josh's graduation Mass. He's a wonderful homilist.
After Mass, Rick and I had a very nice date and ate burgers at Red Robin's.
Anyway, what's up for this week:
Becky has music camp from 9:30 to 3:30 every day and then gymnastics practice from 4:30 to 7:30 M, W, F. Tuesday she gets a physical.
Sean really has nothing, except he's got to see Dr. B so I better make an appt this week. Also he's got two appts with the personal trainer (me too, Tues and Fri). Next week he volunteers for Vacation Bible School, so I am thinking at some point he probably will need to meet with folks about that. And he's got CLC Wednesday evening. Hopefully, we'll find out this week whether he made it into the Catholic high school. He's been reading the book Left to Tell, which is one the books the rising freshmen have to read.
Josh meets with Math tutor this a.m. and then Wed and Thurs a.m. He's got CLC too. I don't think there's a chance of hearing from his school since the College Board is not very fast at sending scores, even when you expedite them. Grrr. Don't like the College Board at all. They are a racket and represent everything that is wrong with college admissions to me!
Will plays at Potbelly's Tuesday and Thursday. He's also got to find housing at Berklee since he obviously is not going to Mexico next semester. He is very excited because next month, he is going to Nashville with a friend to record some music at a real live recording studio!
Hannah starts her summer class on Global Geography this Tuesday. I think she and all the over 21 crowd are going to Theology on Tap this evening.
Peter, Hannah's boyfriend who is staying here until he gets on his feet, apparently has been hired by Starbucks and is waiting for his background check to be completed. Since he's never done anything criminal this should be easy but apparently it takes a bit for the bureaucracy to move on this kind of thing. And it looks like he's connected with 3 others guys looking for a house to rent together starting in August, I think.
I have been making a mental (and now not mental!) list of what furniture he could borrow/have. He can borrow the extra bed he is now currently sleeping in. He can keep the love seat (that I have never really liked anyway). He can borrow the card table and four folding chairs. There is an extra computer desk that he can also have. For years it sat in a box. I don't even know how we acquired it. Hannah found it in storage and put it together, but it would be great for Peter. He has nothing pretty much except his clothes, his board game collection and a beautiful new computer his parents gave him for graduation. I think they are planning to help with initial rent and the purchase of a used car for him. And they are coming to visit July 6th!
Plans for the 4th. Don't really have any! I want to go to Mass at the National Basilica at noon on 7/4 to end the Fortnight for Freedom. Also there is holy hour at my church from 7:00 to 8:00 I believe. The older kids might be planning to go into town but are they having the 4th on the Mall this year? I thought due to the sequester maybe they weren't??? Was that just a rumor? Anyway, we'll probably go to the fireworks in our little town and then come home and set off some more in our driveway. Rick will probably grill for dinner prior to fireworks. He's hoping he can take Friday off too and get a 4 day weekend.
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