Oh Come Let Us Adore Him

Last week I came across this darling blog, and I've been thinking about the discussion about taking kids to Eucharistic Adoration ever since. My experience with Adoration is mostly recent--five years ago, I'd never been, and I would have been too nervous to try it, figuring that I'd mess up some aspect of mysterious Catholic protocol, or otherwise embarrass myself.

Then my dear friend Fr. Bobby got ordained, and in the festivities surrounding his ordination, I learned something about Adoration: It's being in the presence of God. (I'm a genius at "learning" those really obvious things.) As in, He's really there.

Now, I can't get enough of Adoration. It is so beautiful, peaceful, powerful, real. And I do take my kids--for quick visits, even quicker if many others are there. The older ones go alone sometimes. But God said "Let the little children come to me," and I'm taking Him at His word! Sure, JPD is full of energy, and I'm sure some of those other Eucharistic Adorers don't think he's as cute as I think he is. (!) But we're quick, and we do our very best, and I really do think Our Lord is glad to see the kids. I know they need Him.

I want them to be comfortable going to Adoration; I want to show them all the "mysterious Catholic protocol" (turns out it's not so mysterious after all); I want them to see how much I love to go. We try to stop by the chapel often, just to say a quick prayer at the Tabernacle, so they get used to doing that and can see how Adoration is a bit bigger deal and requires a bit more reverence. Whatever--I don't think about it too much or try to over-orchestrate it (which would no doubt end in me feeling frustrated and very un-blessed by the whole experience!); I say just get the kids in front of Our Lord and let Him do the rest!

Last week after Mass, the boys and I paused by the St. Joseph statue (we have a special intention for St. Joseph right now--now THERE's a blog post topic coming soon) and JPD ran up onto the altar. (Thankfully, almost everyone was gone from Mass!) Before I could catch him or call out, he knelt down, looked up at the Crucifix, and started to say his "Our Father" prayer. It was certainly a sight to melt his mom's heart, I tell you! :)

Baby Steps for You, O Lord!

Every year I look forward to Lent. More than any other time of year, this is the season to yearn and strive and crave to be near to our Lord.

But Lent also usually makes me nervous. What should I give up? How can I make Lent really meaningful, and not just a sort of diet? What if I can't stay the course with my sacrifices? And what about these sacrifices, anyway...when I was Protestant, I didn't really give up anything, and it's still hard for me to get my head around what it's all about.

But this year, I'm feeling ready. Lent is a time to separate ourselves from the world, and sacrificing some of our worldly attachments helps us to realize that we are not, as the saying goes, human beings having a spiritual experience, but spiritual beings having a human experience. It is a time when we embrace sacrifice in solidarity with our fellow men who suffer from human needs greater than ours--indeed, greater than we can even imagine. And our puny little sacrifices are even, in a holy and mystical way, united with the eternal sacrifice of our Lord.

And the Lord, in His most amazingly infinite goodness, uses our sacrifices and self-denials to bestow us with blessings. Really, truly--blessings we can only imagine. Actually, the Holy Father fully explains it here much better than I can, of course. Here's an excerpt:

The faithful practice of fasting contributes, moreover, to conferring unity to the whole person, body and soul, helping to avoid sin and grow in intimacy with the Lord. ... Denying material food, which nourishes our body, nurtures an interior disposition to listen to Christ and be fed by His saving word. Through fasting and praying, we allow Him to come and satisfy the deepest hunger that we experience in the depths of our being: the hunger and thirst for God.

So this year, without hesitation, I'm giving up the hardest physical thing for me: Diet Coke. Don't laugh--I'm serious! I even told the kids, so I really can't cheat. Looks like we're also going vegetarian as a family for Lent, too, since Bill's giving up meat. That should be pretty good.

I am also giving up candy, chocolate, and...here's the kicker... "recreational computer use." That's right, friends: I'm giving up blogging. It's nothin' but minimal email for me, until Easter. My new laptop has definitely been MUCH too much of a connection with The World, and one from which I really must separate myself for a while! So it's off to the desert for me...I'll keep up with putting up homeschool posts--and OF COURSE MPD's first birthday which is fast approaching now--but I'm thinking to actually publish the posts after Easter.

In addition to sacrificing these worldly attachments, I've been saving some special books for me and for the kids for Lent--I'll put them on our bookshelf over on the sidebar if you want to take a look. Also, for pragmatic as well as very spiritual reasons, I'm planning a home organization-fest and spring cleaning for Lent..."getting the house ready for Easter," as I told the kids. I'm also planning to make weekly Confessions during Lent (usually I go about once a month), just because I (greedily) want the blessings that I know will ensue!

See you at Easter, and may you have a very blessed Lenten season!

From Mother Teresa

I am nothing. He is all.
I do nothing of my own. He does it.
I am God's pencil.
A tiny bit of pencil with which He writes what He likes.
God writes through us,
and however imperfect instruments we may be,
He writes beautifully.

Celebrating St. Valentinus!

Valentine was a physician in 3rd century Rome. He was also a Christian priest, administering the sacraments in secret during the times of Christian persecution under Emperor Claudius II Gothicus.

One day a jailer from the emperor's prison appeared at Valentine's door with his small child, a girl who was blind. Knowing the difficulty of curing blindness, Valentine vowed to do his best, and over the weeks of treatment and prayer the three became fast friends. But even his friendship with the jailer could not save Valentine when the Roman soldiers came to imprison him.

Valentine was martyred on February 14, 270, and in 496, Pope Gelasius I named February 14 as the feast day of St. Valentine. On the day of Valentine's martyrdom, the jailer's little girl was able to see for the first time--and her first sight was of a crocus, which is the traditional flower of St. Valentine.

Feast of the Immaculate Conception

Marian theology is one of my favorite things that I've discovered since becoming Catholic; it is so beautiful, and it makes perfect sense. The Immaculate Conception refers to the fact that Mary herself was born without the stain of Adam and Eve's original sin. God the Father set this up so that Mary would be a perfect human vessel to bring God the Son into the world. Mary is, of course, the only human ever to be perfect in this way, and Jesus, who was both fully human and fully God, inherited her perfect humanity. What a nice feast day for the Advent season, don't you think?

Eternal Love, Spirit of Light and Truth, make a way into my poor mind and allow me to penetrate, as far as it is possible to a wretched creature like myself, into that abyss of grace, of purity, and of holiness, that I may acquire a love of God that is continually renewed, a love of God who, from all eternity planned the greatest of all the masterpieces created by his hands: the Immaculate Virgin Mary.
From all eternity Almightly God took delight in what was to be the most perfect work of His hands, and anticipated this wonderful plan with an outpouring of His grace.
Man, created innocent, fell by disobeying him; the mark of original sin remained engraved on his forehead and that of his progeny who will bear its consequences until the end of time.
A woman brought ruin, and a woman was to bring salvation. The one, being tempted by a serpent, stamped the mark of sin on the human race; the other was to rise through grace, pure and immaculate. She would crush the head of the serpent who was helpless before her and who struggled in vain under her heel; for she was conceived without sin, and through her came grace to mankind.
Protected with grace by him who was to be the Savior of mankind that had fallen into sin, she escaped all shadow of evil. She sprang from the mind of God as a pure ray of light, and will shine like a morning star over the human race that turns to her. She will be the sure guide who will direct our steps toward the Divine Sun which is Jesus Christ. He makes her radiant with divine splendor and points to her as our model of purity and sanctity. No creature surpasses her, but all creation defers to her through the grace of him who made her immaculate. He whom she was to carry in her womb was the Son of God participating with the Father and the Holy Spirit in the glory of her conception.
The Immaculate Conception is the first step in our salvation. Through this singular and unique gift Mary received a profusion of Divine Grace, and through her more.
~ Saint Pio of Pietrelcina

I Noticed

...this Thursday morning when I snuck quickly to Mass after dropping JPD off at preschool, that a good 90% of the weekday Mass-goers have white hair. And that percentage would be even higher if I counted those with naturally white hair. So what's with the senior citizens at Church?

You know, I always assumed that this phenomenon had mostly to do with two factors:
1) These guys are all pre-Vatican II guys, who like their Catholicism strong and traditional, and
2) Retired people just have more time on their hands, ya know?

But we all have the same 24 hours in a day. Stay-at-home Moms, while a busy group, sure could swing by a 25-minute Mass after the little darlings get on the school bus. (Did I do this when my kids were in school? Uh, not much.) Even as homeschoolers, we don't make weekday Mass as much as I'd like.

I digress. About the senior citizens. For the first time, Thursday morning, it occurred to me that maybe they aren't just looking for a way to fill half an hour, or going to Mass because they were well programmed by the nuns of their Catholic school days, or even that as the years go by, it occurs to all of us that our lives on earth might not actually last forever.

Maybe the white-haired weekday Mass-goers know something we don't. Maybe they're actually experienced enough, seasoned enough, wise enough, well-organized enough, to have figured out their priorities. Those of us who aren't there yet are still running around like chickens with our heads cut off, trying to solve all our problems ourselves, whereas the weekday Mass-goers know that checking in with our Creator (that is, the Blessed Sacrament) is the answer to...well, just about everything.

"And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst."
~ John 6:35

Let's Re-Defeat the Infidels!

Anyone out there STILL voting for Obama?

A Call for a Rosary Novena
By Fr. John Corapi
www.fathercorapi.com

Among the most important titles we have in the Catholic Church for the Blessed Virgin Mary are Our Lady of Victory and Our Lady of the Rosary. These titles can be traced back to one of the most decisive times in the history of the world and Christendom. The Battle of Lepanto took place on October 7 (date of feast of Our Lady of Rosary), 1571. This proved to be the most crucial battle for the Christian forces against the radical Muslim navy of Turkey. Pope Pius V led a procession around St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City praying the Rosary. He showed true pastoral leadership in recognizing the danger posed to Christendom by the radical Muslim forces, and in using the means necessary to defeat it. Spiritual battles require spiritual weapons, and this more than anything was a battle that had its origins in the spiritual order—a true battle between good and evil.

Today we have a similar spiritual battle in progress—a battle between the forces of good and evil, light and darkness, truth and lies, life and death. If we do not soon stop the genocide of abortion in the United States, we shall run the course of all those that prove by their actions that they are enemies of God—total collapse, economic, social, and national. The moral demise of a nation results in the ultimate demise of a nation. God is not a disinterested spectator to the affairs of man.

Life begins at conception. This is an unalterable formal teaching of the Catholic Church. If you do not accept this you are a heretic in plain English. A single abortion is homicide. The more than 48,000,000 abortions since Roe v. Wade in the United States constitute genocide by definition. The group singled out for death—unwanted, unborn children.

No other issue, not all other issues taken together, can constitute a proportionate reason for voting for candidates that intend to preserve and defend this holocaust of innocent human life that is abortion.

I strongly urge every one of you to make a Novena and pray the Rosary to Our Lady of Victory between October 27th and Election Day, November 4th. Pray that God’s will be done and the most innocent and utterly vulnerable of our brothers and sisters will be protected from this barbaric and grossly sinful blight on society that is abortion. No woman, and no man, has the right to choose to murder an innocent human being.

May God grant us the wisdom, knowledge, understanding, and counsel to form our conscience in accordance with authentic Catholic teaching, and then vote that well‐formed Catholic conscience.

Please copy, email, link and distribute this article freely.
God Bless You
Fr. John Corapi
www.fathercorapi.com

This is my favorite article on this critical subject. If you haven't already seen it, please read it prayerfully and pass it on!

Not sure just HOW pro-abortion Mr. Obama is? Check this out.

Happy Feast Day, St. Therese!

Yesterday (10/1-the day I started this post!) was St. Therese's feast day. Saint Therese of Lisieux, who lived January 2, 1873 - September 30, 1897, is one of the most famous, popular and beloved saints in all of Catholic history. Although she did not live a long life, her insight into how to make meaning from her life has been so influential that she has been proclaimed a Doctor of the Church. She is one of a handful of women to be given that distinction. Tradition has it that St. Therese promised a shower of roses after her death and that roses did indeed appear to the sisters in her community.  She is revered as one of the most powerful saints in the Catholic hierarchy.

A Letter Sister Therese carried on her heart on the day of her Carmelite profession:

O Jesus, My Divine Spouse!  May I never lose the second robe of my baptism!  Take me before I can commit the slightest voluntary fault.  May I never seek nor find anything but Yourself alone.  May creatures be nothing for me and may I be nothing for them, but may You, Jesus, be everything!  May the things of earth never be able to trouble my soul, any may nothing disturb my peace.  Jesus, I ask for You nothing but peace, and also love, infinite love without any limits other than Yourself; love which is no longer I but You, my Jesus.  Jesus, may I die a martyr for You.  Give me martyrdom of heart or of body, or rather give me both.  Give me the grace to fulfill my Vows in all their perfection, and make me understand what a real spouse of Yours should be.  Never let me be a burden to the community, let nobody be occupied with me, let me be looked upon as one to be trampled underfoot, forgotten like Your little grain of sand, Jesus.  May Your will be done in me perfectly, and may I arrive at the place You have prepared for me.

Jesus, allow me to save very many souls; let no soul be lost today; let all the souls in purgatory be saved.  Jesus, pardon me if I say anything I should not say.  I want only to give You joy and to console You.

Dear St. Therese, we joyfully claim your promise of roses from Heaven!  You are such an inspiration to us!

Now I Get It

As I've said before, my understanding of Catholic doctrine is always evolving. Probably the hottest topic of all--birth control--has taken me a long time to get. Even after "getting it," sometimes I forget. Not as in, I forget to obey it (!) but as in, I forget how to explain it.

Today at our Bishop's annual picnic, our wonderful Bishop gave a great talk about this very subject (among other things). Although I doubt I can even do it justice, I wanted to try to share some of his explanation of Church teaching on this hot (steamy!) topic.

(A quick disclaimer for those of you who were actually at the picnic with me: Please don't laugh!) :)

I think most readers of this blog would generally agree that God created the world (in six days, or otherwise). And that He's the mastermind behind humanity, too, having also created Adam and Eve. (Are you with me so far?) And in His plan for Adam and Eve and humanity, He conceived (so to speak!) of the whole process by which the human race would, well, go forth and multiply. In other words, God, being the author of life, planned that His people would be not only His created beings, but actually become co-creators along with Him. And of course, the way that we would do this is by the, uh, marital embrace.

When we participate in the marital embrace, then, we have the amazing, incredible privilege of sharing with God in His eternal creation. We are even--if you think about two people becoming one and then (nine months later) becoming three--imaging the Holy Trinity. Sex is, then, a truly sacred, holy, awesome gift from God. (Kind of puts "hooking up" into a whole new perspective, no?)

So God has given us the privilege of participating in His creation. But He's still the one doing the creating. Without Him, the miracle of igniting a human soul can't happen. But by using artificial birth control, we are taking matters into our own hands. We're excluding Him from the very thing that He created. And that's why contraception is considered sin. Sex that is not open to the possibility of new life isn't really sex as God intended it. It is, I suppose, a perversion of His plan. And as the Bishop pointed out, it's no use waiting for the next Pope, or the next--this matter is not subject to the Church's authority. Only God's, and He's not likely to change His mind about something as important as how people are made!

The Church never claims that this teaching is easy. As the Bishop reminded us, that's why She offers us the Sacrament of Reconciliation and the opportunity for prayer and Eucharistic Adoration. So we can have the wisdom to discern God's will for our family, and the self-control (one of the fruits of the Spirit, right?) to follow His will.

And all that time I just thought the Catholic Church was just trying to make us have more Catholics!

In Honor of the Holy Assumption Day

...I wanted to share this picture of Mary and Our Lord. I love how it really shows her as a real Mom, with a real toddler!

The Communion of Saints

As I mentioned, I have only gradually been learning the subtleties of how different the Catholic faith is from my former Protestantism.

Here's an example. I recently got "Woman After God's Own Heart" by Elizabeth George from the library. I read about it somewhere (probably on someone's blog), and it sounded good. It is, but--my goodness, how different from all the Catholic-mom reading I've been doing of late! One of the great points that Mrs. George strongly makes is about the importance and efficacy of prayer, including lots of amazing examples in which prayers have dramatically influenced people's lives. Here's one:

"The daughter of Bob Pierce, founder of World Vision, said of her grandparents: 'Within two years of Grammy's homegoing, God took both Papa and Grandma Pierce to be with Him also. All three had been powerful prayer warriors on my parents' behalf--praying through the various crises, supporting the ministry, and generally providing a consistent covering of prayer. It's significant to note that once those prayers were silenced all hell broke loose."

I found this idea--that someone's prayers were "silenced" after their death--quite startling, because I don't believe that anymore. I like the Catholic idea of "Communion of Saints"--they're still there, after death, still watching and loving us from Heaven, and their prayers are even more powerful, once they're on the inside! The book that first introduced me to this idea was the fabulous "The Story of a Family: The Home of St. Therese of Lisieux" by Stephane-Joseph Piat. My father-in-law gave the this book shortly after I became a mother (no pressure, right??? ha ha!).

It turns out that Bill Sr. has had a lot to teach me about the doctrine of the Communion of Saints. No kidding--since his death the summer of 2003, our family has been absolutely showered with blessings. And I don't just mean blessings that feel good or result in new cars and healthy babies. Blessings, after all, don't always feel good to us when we're getting them. "God never takes away anything that is good for us," I read recently (can't remember where--Scott Hahn, I think). That has been SO true for my family, but that's a story for another post.

But speaking of blessings that don't feel so good when we're getting them, my three babies who are already in heaven (lost to miscarriage in 1997, 2001, and 2007) have also proven to be incredible, powerful forces in heaven for my family still here on earth. I know this to be true; it really is. When we lost my precious Margaret (2007), who I actually got to hold, the immediate and amazing shower of grace and peace and blessings we received upon her arrival was truly awesome. No kidding--we're still truly feeling the power of her being up there in Heaven. I imagine her smiling down on us with love--along with her siblings and her grandpas and all the rest--and the grace we receive from her is much more than just some kind of warm feeling because of this wonderful mental picture I have of them all together. Saints really can intercede on our behalf, I just know it. This includes "saints" who we assume to be in heaven, as well as real, canonized-by-the-Church "Saints," who are officially decreed to for-sure-with-actual-proof be in Heaven.

It helped me to understand, by the way, that nobody is praying to any of these saints. It's more like just asking them to pray for us, just like we would do with a friend on earth. Their prayers are believed to be extra powerful, even more than our own from here on earth, because they're actually closer to God. (To me, this makes sense, given that I do actually believe that Heaven is real.) And that kinda broadly sums up my understanding of this notion of the "Communion of Saints," something which, though I professed to believe whenever I said the Nicene Creed in church as a Protestant, I never really thought about.

Book Report!

Okay, so I think I've found a new C.S. Lewis: Peter Kreeft. Before those of you who know much more than I do about either C.S. Lewis or Peter Kreeft think I'm a total nut, let me explain.

When I was a young adult (yikes--that sounds pretty much like I'm admitting that the words 'young adult' no longer describe me!), I was pretty much a C.S. Lewis fanatic. I read all his works that I could get my hands on. To me, and of course to many others, he can describe theological ideas in ways that are just, well, perfect. He's a genius. I haven't read through one of his books in ages, but I still think about the ideas in them all the time.

I've just discovered Peter Kreeft, and now that I've finished his Philosophy of Jesus, I can't wait to start working my way through his other works. This book is profound, witty, current, rich with many-layered ideas--just amazing.

Here are a few of my favorite excerpts.
Regarding John 1:38:

"...the very first words John records as coming from Jesus' lips: 'What do you seek?' The question may seem casual and common, but it is profound.
It is profound because it is a probe that goes into the depths of our hearts. It means, 'What do you love the most?' And this means, 'Who are you?' For we are what we love...Jesus says the same thing: 'Ask, and it shall be given to you. Seek, and you shall find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you. For all who ask, will receive, all who seek, will find, all who knock, will have the door opened.' (Matthew 7:7) In other words, what you love, you will get. So be careful what you love.
So this is a very dangerous thing, this loving-thing. It changes you. It changes your life. It's as objectively real as a large, hot rock thrown in your face. It's not just a thought or a feeling inside you; it really happens. We unite with what we love. We become what we love. The more you love chocolate, the more chocolate you become. The more you love cannibalism, the more cannibalistic you become. The more you love Christ, the more Christlike you become. Nothing is more scary than that. Look how scared the world was of Christ: they had to crucify Him."

On finding the truth:

"For God does not discover truth, as we do. He decrees it. He creates it. We do this too, partially, in the creative arts. There, we make truth: elsewhere, we discover it. It is true that elves are small and impish in the world of A Midsummer Night's Dream because Shakespeare made them that way, and it is true that elves are tall and awesome in The Lord of the Rings because Tolkien made them that way. The creation (the universe) is God's art and man's science. What is objective to us (e.g. tigers) is subjective to God. First He invents tigers, then we discover them, as first Tolkien invents hobbits, then we discover them. When we discover truth about the creation, we are reading the thoughts of the Creator."

So for man to deny the existence of God is as absurd as Bilbo Baggins the Hobbit denying the existence of Tolkien!

On man being "normal":

"Without knowing Christ, and thus knowing our 'abnormalism,' we must fall into the fundamental error of 'normalism.' All secular psychology, sociology, and anthropology is fundamentally askew at its very foundation because it assumes, wrongly, that its object, man, is in his natural state. All its data are its observations of 'normal' human behavior, just as in physics or astronomy all the data come from observations of how matter naturally behaves. Just imagine how radically physics would change if physicists came to believe that gravity was not inherent to matter at all but that matter had 'fallen' into this abnormal state at some time in the past. Imagine the radical shock astronomy would experience if astronomers came to believe that stars only started to shine at some point in past time called the 'fall.' Christianity reveals a shock as great as that in anthropology in its doctrine of the Fall, in its most basic interpretation of human history, in which the three great defining events are Creation, Fall, and Redemption."

On Jesus and politics:

"All political issues today are seen through the prism of Right vs. Left, the political 'us vs. them.'...The polarization is also harmful to society because it lets us be selectively moral, selectively idealistic--which means selectively immoral and pragmatic. If we take the high road on abortion, euthanasia, and sexuality, we can take the low road on war, poverty, and pollution; or vice versa. Even when we focus on a specific question like whether all human lives are intrinsically valuable, these categories allow us the moral schizophrenia to say yes when we address abortion and no to that same question when we address war and capital punishment--or vice versa. It's not just that we give wrong answers, it's that we have self-contradictory principles.
Only from the viewpoint of the straight can we judge the skewered. Christ is the straight, the plumb line--both when He is explicitly known, by divine revelation, and when He is implicitly known, by conscience and the natural law."

And finally, a quick one:

"The Church has only begun to unpack her holy luggage, her 'deposit of faith.' From the perspective of the year A.D. 5000, we will be 'the primitive Christians.'"

So is this guy great or what?

Hail Holy Queen

Some of you may have noticed that in recent years, life at our house has been getting "all Catholicked-out."
"What's with that?" you ask--or are perhaps a bit hesitant to actually ask.
Here's the thing. (By the way, as in all things, this blog only represents my own opinion. For my husband's version of the story, you have to ask him.) Anyway--I must admit that when I converted to Catholicism in 1996, I found the similarities between Catholicism and Protestantism much more noticeable than the differences. "Same God," I even said at the time. "Same Jesus."
Well, true. And for a good layman's summary of the theological differences, I recommend this book.
But in some ways--the main way, really--it took about a decade for the source and summit of the Catholic faith to really sink in, for me (I'm a slow learner.). It's all about the Real Presence. He's really there. He really is. And once I got that, it really just changed everything. It's the Creator of the Universe, every Sunday, every Mass, every day. Alleluia!

Quote of the Day

Lord, grant me the grace to give up everything that has to do with myself. I should have no other concern than your glory; in other words, your love. Everything for love!

St. Josemaría Escrivá