A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

I saw two videos today and both are worth passing on. The first is just adorable: 23rd Psalm

The second is a very moving video, a true story of someone who 'survived' an abortion. Nick Cannon's Can I Live

Mass without Coffee

Every year as Lent begins, our Pastor gives his talk on the required Catholic fasting, and the superiority of our Jewish Brethren when it comes to fasting and taking the High Holy Days seriously.

A Catholic's idea of fasting is one regular meal and two smaller meals (required only on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, days when we also abstain from non aquatic meat). That's pretty wussy.

The Pastor points out that our Jewish brothers and sisters go the WHOLE DAY without eating on the Day of Atonement. And we Catholics whine about not being able to shove a few snickers bars down the hatch two days a year (technically, you still COULD shove the snickers bars down the hatch if you made them one of your light meals- although that is sort of adhering to the letter of the law and not the spirit :)).

Yup, Catholics, unless they are those few admirable penitential saints who went 40 years without eating more than half a grape, are pretty wussy when it comes to overcoming the flesh through sacrifice.

And I'm definitely one of those wussy ones.

In the olden days (not quite as old as the half a grape days, but still before my time) one had to keep a Communion fast from Midnight until Communion at Mass. Nothing but water (the sick and those caring for them excepted) from the time you woke up until Mass. Now the fast is down to one hour before Communion. Which, at my parish, means you could be eating a Whopper halfway through the Homily and you'd still make the hour fast.

This fast is not a bad thing. Holy Communion is such an awesome event- we receive Christ Himself, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. Wow! And because this is available to us each week (each day if we go to Daily Mass) it's easy to lose sight of how incredible this is- each time. Fasting for an hour reminds us this is God Himself we receive, and we must prepare, cleansing our bodies to break our fast with God himself. Looking at it that way, it's easy to see why it used to be fasting all night until Morning Mass.

So what happened to me today?

Normally I wake up in time to have a cup of coffee at least before Mass. Usually coffee and a bagel. Today I got a late start, and had time to get washed, dressed, and out the door.

Mass without coffee... um... is not being able to focus a spiritual experience? Was my phasing out some sort of mystical event?

Probably not. I'm just wussy when it comes to fasting. Next time I'm getting up early enough to have coffee. Unless someone invents caffinated water.

Somewhere in my imagination lives Saint Mindi. She can live 40 years on a QUARTER grape, bear all sorts of pains, and is heroically martyred crying out "Viva Christo Rey!"

But the real Mindi needs coffee.

Not quite an empty nest

I recall reading a number of years ago, a column by a homeschooling mother whose children were growing up, leaving 'school' and leaving home. She said she had to learn to deal with the different 'seasons' in life, and it was difficult to move into this new 'season'.

I didn't understand. I had toddlers at home as well as homeschooled elementary children. I loved my life as mom, but also looked forward to the day my husband and I could retire and take an RV across the country. That 'season' sounded wonderful.

Now I have only one left in the elementary school level, and have two who have left the nest. Those two give me hope in homeschooling, as they are wonderful, moral, and intelligent adults.

Adults. Wow. They were just babies.

It is difficult to realize the leaves are changing and we are entering a new season. I look back on those days where I wanted the time alone with the husband and the vacations in the RV, and wish for those days again, of diapers and runny noses and children climbing all over me, demanding. It was precious, and flew by way too fast.

By the time one learns that, I suppose, it's gone.

Feast of Saint Bernard

Woof.

I'm sorry... it's terrible. But whenever I see this wonderful Saint's name... all I can think of is a big splotchy dog, bounding through the snow, to the rescue of the helpless and lost.

It's probably because I pronounce it ber-NARD, like the dog. Fortunately, at Mass today, the priest pronounced it BERN-rd. It was easier to hear what was being said about Saint BERN-rd because the image of the brandy bearing hound didn't come barreling into my mind.

Saint Bernard is an awesome saint (we have SO many of those! Ain't it cool?). He's a doctor of the Church, which means he left behind him much sound and illuminating writing about the Faith (I guess writing was a task he doggedly pursued. :))

He was a member of the Cistercian order (sort of Super-Benedictines). He founded the monastery at Clairvaux (which means place of Light - and it was).
He is credited with writing the Memorare, the beautiful prayer to the Blessed Mother (which I recommend saying at the end of your rosary). I take great comfort in that prayer (thanks BERNard!)

The first time I remember hearing that prayer was not in Church, nor from any cleric or nun (Cistercian or otherwise). It was on the TV Show "Emergency!" The paramedics were rescuing a group in an overturned school bus. Paramedic Roy DeSoto was helping the driver - a nun named Sister Barbara. Sister Barbara asked him to say the Memorare with her as she lay injured, pinned in the bus. He did.

Funny how God sometimes gets his info across! I never forgot that prayer afterwards, even though I was not practicing my faith when I saw it aired. It stuck with me.
(The show got two things right about the Catholic world: The Memorare, and the fact Nuns are notoriously bad drivers.)

Fun BERNard facts: He is the patron of beekeepers; bees; candlemakers; chandlers; wax-melters; wax refiners; Gibraltar; Queens College, Cambridge.
His symbols are the beehive; bees; three mitres on a book; white dog (woof!); inkhorn and pen; Passion implements; book.

Often portrayed with the Blessed Mother (seeing her in a vision).

He battled evils, befriended Popes, founded monasteries. He worked miracles in Christ's name, and fought sin and secularism among the clergy and nobles. EWTN's web site states: "While singing Mass he restored to Josbert de la Ferte, a relative of his who had been stricken dumb, the power of speech. The man was enabled to confess before he died, three days later, and to make retribution for many acts of injustice. There are also accounts of sick persons whom Bernard cured by making the sign of the cross over them, all attested to by truthful eyewitnesses.... The election of unworthy men to the episcopacy and to other Church offices troubled Bernard deeply, and he fought it with all his might. A monk, his enemies said, should stay in his cloister and not bother himself with such matters. A monk, he replied, was as much a soldier of Christ as other Christians were, and had a special duty to defend the He of God's sanctuary. Bernard's outspoken censures had their effect in changing the way of life of several high churchmen. Henry, archbishop of Sens, and Stephen, bishop of Paris, renounced their attendance at court and their secular style of living."

Bounding through the snow, to the rescue of the helpless and lost... I guess BerNARD isn't such a bad way of saying it after all.

Feast of Our Lady of the Assumption

The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven... one of my favorite Holydays.
Just the name says so much... Mary was Blessed by God in so many ways, and because of that, so were we.
It's a feast day of Hope, because Jesus' promise is confirmed in Mary. He rose and thus so will we.
She's us, you know. As we were made to be, reflections of Him (yet totally ourselves- the more we lose ourselves in Him, paradoxically the more unique and "us" we are).
So what to say about Mary?
God got to make His own mother. He does everything well.

I know so many Protestants (and some Catholics) have a "problem" with Mary. There was a time I didn't quite 'get' this Catholic Mary thing either.
But she said it herself: "My soul magnifies the Lord" - everything revealed by God about Mary, points to God. Everything. It's all about God.

Why is Mary conceived without sin? Because God the Son came to us through her. And HE is HOLY. See? The magnifying glass of Mary let's us see more of God.

Some say God used Mary to come to the world- she was "just" an instrument- nothing special.

But God does not use people. He makes (and repairs) relationships.

And He made His own mother.

It all points to Him, which of course, is just what makes Mother happy:)

Happy feast day, Mom.

The start...

I'm new to the world of blogging... seems this world contains many well read, well educated people. People, who unlike me, didn't attend public school in the 1970s. I'm in awe of some of the intelligent blogs on Catholicism, Homeschooling, literature, art, etc, that are out there.
I might put up some links to some of them, but I can't rival them.

I can only post some of my thoughts, joys, experiences, frustrations, typos and bad spelling, and maybe a few other average IQ-educated-in-the-70s-and-feel-inadequate folks will be able to relate.

Who am I? I'm Mindi, and I'm a Catholic mom. I believe in fidelity to Rome, and Orthodoxy without being anal. I respect and find beauty in tradition, but am not a traditionalist. My interests are art, poetry, literature, and seeing the One Real Story in these (which is why I admire certain blogs and websites from afar- the intellect is beyond my own, but I'm grateful for the topics discussed).

I'm not the sort to want to paint little diapers on the naked baby angels pee pees scandalizing the ceilings at the Vatican. I don't hate Harry Potter (I absolutely LOVE the much maligned books, which I consider strongly Christian in theme). I love Coleridge, am just discovering Chesterton (where has he BEEN all my life!), and have been a Tolkien fan for years. I enjoy the Beatles, remember Earth Day, am strongly pro-life, and think John Paul the Second was indeed John Paul the Great (love that pic of him in the shades, too). Think God made himself an AWESOME Mother, and am glad He shares her with us. (Mary is cool! And the Rosary is, outside the Mass, the most awesome prayer! :))

I have a whole BATCH of children who I am (or have) home schooled. Yup, I believe in accepting the children God sends, and have been quite blessed (though at times very aggravated) by the children he blessed me with. One thing about homeschooling... my children ended up far more intelligent and literate than Mom. Odd how that works.

See you around.