Happenings

So what has been going on lately:

1. Matthew and I looked at wedding bands and have narrowed down to two choices for each of us. Mine is going to be simple (yay!) and his is more ornate. We are thinking of getting him a tungsten carbide band that has a Catholic cross design on it. I think it is exquisite!

2. We bought his suit for the wedding, it is very stylish!

3. Greg has a girlfriend.

4. School has been frustrating.

5. Church has had loads of activities going on.

6. We switched our Adoration day and time to Friday at 7pm. I was struggling so much with the Tuesday 11pm time. If anyone is interested... I'm sure that spot will be hard to fill. We gave it our best shot.

7. We've had some fiascos that we can only thank God for His humor.

8. I finished Life of Christ and now I am reading The World's First Love. I can't get enough of Bishop Sheen's writings!

9. The economy is in bad shape.

10. America is trying to institute health care reform. But the USCCB is not endorsing anything that would imply funding abortions.

11. The Church is opening Its doors to conservative Anglicans.

Texas Alliance for Life Benefit Dinner

Last Thursday, Sharon and Adam invited us to be their guests at the Texas Alliance for Life dinner (pictured below). I didn't know the executive director is a member of my parish! Pretty cool, it was wonderful to see so many people we knew there. The guest speaker was absolutely amazing. Gianna Jessen survived an abortion and lives to tell about it! She is an amazing orator and her talk was well honed. It was a wonderful benefit dinner and I hope that TAL receives the funds they are asking for.

Sharon and Adam also asked three Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist to attend the event and pictured below is one holding Cecilia (I think that is Sister Mary Jacinta).

I feel honored to have been asked to attend such an event and I hope that we will be able to be able to afford to donate more money as we advance in our careers to the charities that mean the most to us. TAL is certainly one of them. It was fascinating to hear of the progress and advancements they have made with shutting down illegal abortion clinics and helping pro-life advocates obtain election in certain offices. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside to know so many people who are full of love and speak openly about the right to life.

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O, my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of Hell, and lead all souls to Heaven, especially those in most need of Thy mercy. Amen.

God bless Sharon and Adam for their dedication and hard work for respecting life and teaching others to do the same.

Fright at the Museum

Yesterday, Matthew and I took Makayla to UT's Fright at the Museum! It certainly wasn't the normal Halloween experience I thought it would be. They had actual bugs baked into the cookies. Needless to say I was abstained from eating them. They had all kinds of creepy crawly bugs for kids to hold and pet. Makayla wasn't interested in that in the slightest. :) But she enjoyed story time and coloring her franken-saur. After the Halloween event we took her to my office and I showed her the lab. We froze pennies in liquid nitrogen and she smashed them with a hammer. It was fun!

Matthew and I with an old friend...

This tiger-woman has a tarantula crawling on her.

Apparently it is cool to paint a dead fish, slap it on a piece of paper, wipe the paint off and pass the fish to the next kid. It smelled. It looked gross. It is gross. Must be a Texas thing, I've never seen anything like it before.

Matthew really thought it was cute that the dinosaur bones had tombstones near them. They said, "RIP 65 MYA".

Makayla was playing the part of the Scooby Doo Sleuths and was investigating behind those graves.

Crispy Critter is right, eek! But nonetheless, a super sign!

Microscope labs, pretty cool!

Don't be fooled, these are real. They even had a bowl of live larva squirming around right next to the food.

Makayla was working on her Franken-Saur. Seemed much safer than most of the other activities.

We found a winged-lion and boy did he roar at Makayla!

This is my favorite picture by far.... She wanted to pose on this statue and she happens to be hugging the leg of a horse right under its rear end. Horses hinny poses with Makayla. Isn't she too cute not to post this picture?

To end the evening we took Makayla to her mom's and then headed over to Dick and Karol's, my future Mom and Dad, and they served the most amazing pot roast with potatoes, carrots, and onions! Heaven on Earth!

I still need to post the circus pictures, I'll get to is as soon as I can! She's always fun to be around. I think when we next can get her then we'll make pizza and play some games.

Too Far Behind

I am so far behind on posting and I have had so many things happen that I don't even know where to begin!

I am engaged! Hooray! I am determined that despite the best efforts of my mother that I am going to have a happy engagement and wedding. We are getting married at St. Mary's Cathedral in Covington, KY on August 7th, 2010. It isn't that far away! Father Ed Brodnick is going to marry us and I have known him since I was nine. I have always dreamed of him being the celebrant at my wedding. Most girls dream about what dress they will wear and who they will have as bridesmaids but me? I dream about who's going to be the priest! Hahaha.

I am really happy with the ring that Matthew gave to me. I have always wanted something different and a sapphire really does it for me. Even the cut is spectacular. A fun part has been in having the stones shipped from around the world for us to look at and decide which color blue we liked the best and which had the best brilliance. It is exciting to have it on my finger and probably and hour doesn't go by that I don't stop to look at it and smile.

Anyway, now that I have that posted I will get more on here ASAP with pictures and videos. We took Makayla to the circus and I have some great footage which I'd like to post.

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Thank you, Lord, for this day and for the blessings you have bestowed upon us. Please continue to help us get through each day with praise and honor to You. Please help us keep Your love in the center of our hearts when we are facing difficult interactions with our friends and family. In Your name we pray. Amen.

Birthday party

Allison hosted a birthday party for Greg and Brittany and we had great food, a wine tasting game and then everyone went downtown to the Elephant Room for some Jazz music. Matthew and I gave Brittany a gift certificate to B&N and some cool Moleskin books to write in. We had ordered Greg's gift but it hadn't come in yet and we gave it to him later. We decided to give him Life of Christ by Bishop Sheen because we both loved it so much we wanted to share it with him. Lots of people showed up as you can see.

Here we are waiting patiently between the different wines to try.

Allison made a pumpkin spice cake and we had tea candles for them to blow out. I'm not sure what Greg is doing in this picture, I believe I said to pretend to blow them out and he decided to bow to the cake!
Here they are opening gifts!

It was a wonderful evening with good friends. Matthew and I were too tired to go downtown and we were getting up early to go to Mass the next morning, so we said goodbye to everyone and headed over to my place to spend some quiet time together.

The Angelus

I know, I know. I am behind on posting and I have so much to post! I have so many pictures and videos that I want to put up. I will get to is as soon as I finish all those other tasks that always seem to be urgent and important.

But, I wanted to post about a prayer that I was just reading about and find glorious. I hope to add this to my day as much as I can.

The Angelus was originally prayed at night but over the years two other times were added. It is traditionally prayed at 6am, noon and 6pm. Maybe this will help me get up at 6am!

The Prayer:

The Angel of the Lord declared to Mary:

And she conceived of the Holy Spirit.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Behold the handmaid of the Lord: Be it done unto me according to Thy word.

Hail Mary...

And the Word was made Flesh: And dwelt among us.

Hail Mary...

Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God, that we may be made worth of the promises of Christ.

Let us Pray:

Pour forth, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy grace into our hearts; that we, to whom the incarnation of Christ, Thy Son, was made known by the message of an angel, may by His Passion and Cross be brought to glory of His Resurrection, through the same Christ Our Lord.

Amen.

May God bless those who are near and dear to you and to me. :)

Padre Pio, Pray for us!

Today is the feast day of Padre Pio

I love to read about Padre Pio since he is such an amazing modern day saint. I am very intrigued by the idea of stigmata and I love and admire those who have suffered as Christ has suffered with the same wounds. This is one of the rare forms of miracles that we visually see and he was living his miracle day after day! He truly loves God's people and new how to shepherd his flock.

I found the following written by Padre Pio in my Magnificat today:

Proclaiming the Kingdom

I beseech you, then, by the meekness of Jesus and by the bowels of mercy of the heavenly Father, never to slacken on the path of virtue. Keep on running and don't ever make up your mind to stop, for you know that to stand still on this path is equivalent to retracing one's steps. Don't ever disregard my suggestion and, for pity's sake, don't render fruitless and don't neglect the grace which was bestowed on you at baptism and has been increased in great measure by means of the other sacraments.

Be watchful, I tell you, and never place too much trust in yourself or count excessively on your own strength. Try to advance more and more on the way to perfection and practice charity more and more, for charity is the bond of Christian perfection. Throw yourself confidently into the arms of the heavenly Father with childlike trust and open wide your heart to the charism of the Holy Spirit who is only waiting for a sign from you in order to enrich you.

Yes, let us do good. Now is the time for sowing, and if we want to reap an abundant harvest it is not so necessary to sow a lot of seed as to scatter it in good ground. We have already sown a lot of seed, bit counts for very little if we want to be gladdened at harvest time. Let us sow now and continue to sow, my dear, and let nothing grieve us on this account. Let us make sure that this seed falls in good soil and when the heat arrives to burst it open and bring forth a plant, we must still be on the watch and take good care that the weeds do not smother the young plants.

Wow, to me this is a very powerful meditation. It makes me wonder if I am following the right path. I hope so because this path has brought me closer to the Truth and to better relationships with family. It has spawned fruitful and spiritually fulfilling relationships with new friends. The friendships I have made these past three years have shown me that there are more people out there who dedicate their lives to their faith and will pray for me unceasingly when I ask. These friends are very dear to my heart and in my prayers for them daily I realize that I never have prayed so fervently in my life before.

I also would never have found Matthew if I hadn't decided to uproot myself at Yale and move to Austin to pursue my degree in a different university. I came here for my faith and for my career. Now I realize more and more I came here for my faith. Which makes me scared about my career as it has lost some of its importance to me. I am going to continue sowing seeds and I pray that I am working towards God's will, not my own.

Many blessings to you all on this special day!

New Nicene Creed

I am very excited to hear that our English translation of the Liturgy is changing and St. Louis will welcome the change in Advent 2010. The following will be our new Nicene Creed:

I believe in on God,

the Father almighty,

maker of heaven and earth,

of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ,

the Only Begotten Son of God,

born of the Father before all ages.

God from God, Light from Light,

true God from true God,

begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father;

through him all things were made.

For us men and for our salvation,

he came down from heaven,

and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate

of the Virgin Mary,

and became man.

For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate,

he suffered death and was buried,

and rose again on the third day

in accordance with the Scriptures.

He ascended to heaven

and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

He will come again in glory,

to judge the living and the dead

and his kingdom will have no end.

And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, giver of life,

who proceeds from the Father and the Son,

who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified,

who has spoken through the prophets.

And one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.

I confess one baptism for the forgiveness of sins

and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead

and the life of the world to come. Amen.

You can find information on the new Roman Missal at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops website: http://www.usccb.org/romanmissal/

Prayer:

Lord, thank you for the many blessings you have given me. Help me to continue following you and to rejoice in the new translation with my brothers and sisters. Please may the transition go smoothly next year.

I got someone banned...

So, as usual I was reading all the posts on Father Z's blog and I was reading the comments on an article that I had read when I came across someone's posting of:

"Women and theology do not mix -- just like women and liturgy..."

Oh, I was shocked. Not furious. Not hurt. Just shocked. Really? I mean, really? Was that statement necessary? Just because a person wrote a terrible thing about the pope and her opinion means that the rest of women should be scorned? Didn't Mary by her Immaculate Conception, birth of Christ and Assumption redeem women from the fallen Eve?

So I posted my own comment about this statement and I said the following:

"Do we really need to say that with such derogatory implications? I don't see how I can read that and interpret it without thinking that some of these feminist women have a point. There are men out there who just don't have respect for women. If the author was a man, I think we should be just as upset and frustrated with the article. So the fact that a woman wrote it is moot.

Don't get me wrong, I don't want women to be priests or have the right to be ordained at all. I just think that women have a specific realm to be loved and appreciated and a statement like that takes away from a woman's right to her realm. It leaves her looking inferior and uneducated.

We love Mary the Mother of God, right? Is she not part of the liturgy? Is not the Bride of Christ the Church? From Bishop Sheen's Three to Get Married, "In the words of the papal encyclical on marriage: '...For if the man is the head, the woman is the heart, and as he occupies the chief place in ruling, so she may and ought to claim for herself the chief place in love."' We cannot have liturgy without love. So my point, women are part of the liturgy just not in the same way.

Can my boyfriend and I not read theology together and grow in strength of faith together by doing so? Or should he read it by himself and indulge me sometimes with how smart he is? How am I supposed to teach my children about the Faith if I don't spend the time to understand it myself?

I don't mean to jump off the deep end about this but there are many women who love this forum and don't deserve comments like that. If I interpreted that comment incorrectly, then please, by all means, let me know how I should have took it."

I wasn't sure if I should have posted such a comment but when I thought about it I believed that not saying anything was showing acceptance. Thus, I was compelled to write.

Anyway after my post, a few women said they agreed with me. That made me feel better about having wrote it. It certainly served a purpose.

Father Z was busy today with a conference but he stopped by his blog in the afternoon and made the following comment: "NOTA BENE: Since I am short on time I banned XXXXX. My advice is therefore DNFTT. Ignore that rabbit hole. It is faster for me to ban people than to clean up the messes they leave on the floor of my livingroom."

HAHAHAHAHAH!!! I was totally surprised that he would ban someone without a warning. I actually felt bad about what happened but then I realized that what I said was true and several people agreed with me so Father Z didn't want someone writing things like that on his blog. I actually was afraid of receiving a reprimand myself for my own comment since it wasn't relevant to his original post.

I suppose you can label me a troublemaker.

Mary and PJPII Encyclicals

I found another blog today that I can appreciate. I originally discovered it by reading a post at Father Z's site. The author has my name and linked to Lauren's name is her blog, Cnytr. I found this image as one of her posts with an extraordinary comment that I felt compelled to borrow and post for my own cataloging.

This image is from a 1957 breviary and the comment is: Mariology in a graphic form: Not shining in glory of her own, but reflecting that of Christ. I think the statement is beautiful and accurately depicts how I feel about our Holy Mother and how it should be easy to understand why we love her and give her so much reverence.

My father asked me to read Pope John Paul II's apostolic letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae to the bishops, clergy and faithful on the most holy rosary. I have read it and found richness to it. I am encouraging you to print it off and read it as well. My father has a special love of the rosary and everything Marian in nature. When I was young we visited the Holy Spirit Center in Norwood, Ohio (a suburb of Cincinnati) on August 31, 1999 to see the last appearance of Mary. There were hundreds of people there and it was very prayerful and exciting. At midnight a series of beautiful lights played over the grounds signifying that she was present. I'm sure that as a teenager I was skeptical and I didn't talk much about it to my father but looking back on it I am happy that he wanted to go and that he wanted me to go with him. I remember going inside the church and studying a statue of Mary. This statue was amazing! It looked like a real person was standing before me. I have never forgotten that moment. So was someone playing lights to make people believe? I don't know. Nor do I care. I'd rather believe it was truly Mary's presence. I am skeptical of people, not of God.

And, he recently sent me a link to John Paul the Great's encyclical letter on the Eucharist and its relationship to the Church. I haven't read it yet but I imagine it will be more than worthwhile.

Prayer:

Dear Lord, thank You for the many blessings in my life, Father Zuhlsdorf, the writings of Pope John Paul II, and my father's love of the Blessed Mother. I have several major role models and people of great influence in my life who I am blessed to know. Thank You for their presence, I don't know where I'd be without them. In Your name, I pray, Glory to the Father...