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His mission intention is: “That the Church, aware of her own missionary identity, may strive to follow Christ faithfully and to proclaim His Gospel to all peoples”.

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1. Pope’s Prayer Intentions – December 2009
2. Pope’s Prayer Intentions – August 2009
3. Pope’s Prayer Intentions – September 2009

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But no friend or family has tugged at my heart as deeply as my boys themselves, as they've asked countless times for me to start teaching them to play the piano.

So I've started to work with them, and have started with some ideas from when Suzanne and I were young and learning to play the piano. First, I developed a page with cut-out squares with the basic note names. These squares can be cut out and taped onto the keys of the piano or keyboard. Then, I developed a simple score for what's likely the most popular nursery rhyme - Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. It's set up simply to let a child play the keys for the song on their own. Using this method, we're starting with tune. We'll move to rhythm after a few weeks on tune.

Feel free to follow along as I build this out and add to it in the coming weeks and months. Please share this with friends and invite others to explore and use this method too, if you'd like.

It'll all be here: Halbrook.net/KidsMusic. (Also available in the top navigation of the site.)

I tried this out on Thomas tonight, and he had a blast, is enjoying practicing, and is doing quite well. I have my work cut out for me staying on top of creating new pieces for him to learn and practice.

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Holy Family School will kick off the week with an Open House on Monday night from 7-8. I look forward to taking Thomas and letting him explore the "big school" and see friends from church there.

Here's a little bit of what's going on at some of the Catholic schools around our area, including Holy Family and St. Elizabeth in Granite City, St. Boniface in Edwardsville, St. John Neumann in Maryville, and St. Mary in Edwardsville.

Last year, I wrote a tribute/reflection on my time at Holy Family. As a result, I was surprised with an email from Sister Angelene, my grade school principal, who wrote, "Just read and enjoyed your grade school history. Hello and love to Suzanne and your boys, Mom and Dad, too." I share it again this year... and can't wait to see which one of my former teachers writes to me this year!...

Holy Family School, Granite City, IL

It'd be silly to let this year's Catholic Schools Week go by without some thoughts and reflections on my own time in the "little house" (as my teachers liked to refer to Holy Family School as we were preparing to graduate 8th grade and move on to the "big house.")

I started at St. Margaret Mary school in 1st grade. I had attended public school for Kindergarten, but that year our local school district teachers went on a prolonged strike at the start of the school year. Rather than wait it out and see what happened, my parents bit the bullet and made the decision to send me to our Catholic grade school instead. Perhaps they saw the strike as a sign, and it was Providence in action.

In 1st grade, Mrs. Wilkinson (God bless her) was a wonderful teacher. I got a detention for sharpening my crayon in the pencil sharpener, but I didn't know any better. We still used pencils. All of our books were really, really thin. Toward the end of the year, we got to try out ink pens in preparation to start to learn cursive the next year. I took my little old Casio PT-80 in for show and tell. On the way out of school, I dropped it in the snow. As a result, I got a newer, bigger keyboard.

Casio PT-80

In 2nd grade, I had Mrs. Provasnik (God bless her.) I learned to write in cursive. I tutored 1st graders in reading. I got to grade papers, and she gave me my very own EZ-Grader to grade them. The girl who sat behind me in our classroom threw up on my back. Luckily it was as we were waiting for dismissal, so I was able to promptly go home and clean up. Once, we had to draw a picture of something we thought made God happy. I drew a picture of a bank and lots of money. If I remember correctly, it was sent home to my parents with a note asking them to help explain to me what really made God happy.

In 3rd grade, Mrs. McKay (God bless her) was our teacher. For Catholic Schools Week, we had to lay on the floor so she could trace us on big paper. We then cut out the paper and drew what we wanted to be when we grew up. Of course I drew myself as a priest. But I was torn. I wrote an essay about becoming a movie or theatrical producer. God had entirely other ideas in store.

In 4th grade, we had Mrs. Kurant (God bless her). She lived up to her reputation of being one of the hardest teachers on earth, but we loved her. Once, I got caught sitting on my feet in my chair. In true Mrs. Kurant fashion, I was assigned the task of writing an essay about birds, why they perch on their feet, and why humans do not.

After 4th grade, St. Margaret Mary merged with Sacred Heart and St. Joseph. We became Holy Family. At the end of the 4th grade year, the students of Sacred Heart / St. Joseph were bussed to our school for the day (we were going to be using our school property the next year as the merged school) to meet us, play games, hang out, and make friends. It was great... I met the classmates who would be my friends for the second half of grade school and with whom I would be Confirmed and graduate into high school.

In 5th grade, we had Mrs. Pennell (God bless her), one of my favorite teachers of all my educational career. We were also part of an experiment called the "split class." Since there were too many kids for a 4th grade class but not enough for 2 classes... and there were too many kids for a 5th grade class but not enough for 2 classes, some of each class (4th & 5th grades) were split off into a combined class. Mrs. Pennell helped us learn a ton as we grew to study more "adult" subjects like social studies, history, and more advanced sciences. We also started some "departmental" experiences, like going to Sr. Mary Stanley for art, Mrs. Bucatch and the gym for PE, and Mr. Vizer for music.

6th grade brough Mrs. Pennell again - I was again in the older 1/2 of the split class. Notably, Mrs. Pennell is now the principal at Holy Family.

Mrs. Pennell was also our speech coach. And it's quite possible that at many points in my career I could point back and say that "all I ever really needed to know, I learned from Mrs. Pennell." The life skills and lessons from the 2 years in her classroom have carried me far. Including the life lesson when Matt Kelahan and John Haug and I were caught blowing spitwads onto the classroom ceiling. It was an experiment! And one for which we had to serve after-school time cleaning the Learning Center & Preschool.

In 7th grade, we had Mrs. Prazma (God bless her) and moved to a full departmental schedule, going to various teachers for various subjects. We dissected a worm and a frog. I won the contest for guessing when the first significant snowfall of the year would be.

In 8th grade, we had Mrs. Bucatch (God bless her.) She and our departmental teachers prepared us for life and for our future studies in high school. Mrs. Prazma let us dissect the pig that had been waiting in her science closet for years just for our class.

Through it all, there were others too... Mrs. Lueddeke with social studies... Mrs. Webb with English and a good dose of Catholic morality (that we could've probably used even more of)... Mrs. Friedel with algebra... and on... and on... (God bless all of them.)

Looking back, I wouldn't trade my experiences in Catholic school for the world. We were sheltered from a culture that was increasingly changing around us, infiltrated by the evil one and his work. We had a tremendous group of loving and active parents who pulled together to really enrich our academic experience with extracurriculars like a strong athletic program, a fantastic computer lab, and more. And we had a phenomenal parish and pastor who stood behind our school and worked hard to keep it strong.

Guiding it all with a very firm but loving hand was Sister Mary Angelene. As I've grown older, I've come to appreciate more and more the strong sheparding hand in which she held our school.

As I've grown older, I've also come to really grasp the sacrifice that Catholic school teachers make in many cases in order to teach in our Catholic schools. It truly is a ministry, and one of sacrifice at that. We owe them - and the religious who served our schools for so many years - a huge debt of gratitude.

I remember the night of our 8th grade graduation. The nervousness of moving on to the "big house". The sadness of our class of friends disbanding and going various ways for high school. The excitement of finally graduating from school and church (yeah, unfortunately, that's how we saw it.) But as I've grown, I've learned that the latter was never true, and never should've been. Sure, maybe we were burnt out on learning about our faith. But the journey that God wanted us to have with him was only continuing in new ways. It took a few years of walking a path away from Him for me to realize that.

So a salute to my Alma Mater - truly a "Nourishing Mother" - Holy Family School - and to all who stood by it, supported it, made it good and strong, and continue to do so today. You had a world of impact on my wife and on me... more than you'll ever really know, I'm sure... and we pray that our kids have the same opportunity through their whole education.
And to all Catholic schools. This week, as you celebrate your heritage and future, I thank you and pray for you.

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1. Uniforms in Granite City Schools
2. Happy National Vocation Awareness Week
3. Update on Granite City Schools’ Dress Code / Uniforms

I'm pretty stoked about the news today that the DOT has given Missouri and Illinois grants to help with construction of some of America's first high speed rail lines - from St. Louis to Chicago.

O'Hare International Airport is a pain. It takes more than one hand to count the number of times I was to be delayed through the night for a flight home and I instead rented a car and drove the 5 hours home. I avoid flying to and from Chicago at all costs. I'd prefer to drive.

High Speed Rail Network

Actually, I've had great success with the current Amtrak service to and from Chicago. Granted, it takes longer than flying or driving (flying takes about an hour, driving takes about four hours from my house.) It's always taken between 5 and 6 hours from my train to get from Chicago to Alton or St. Louis. But it's nice to not have to focus on driving, to be able to plug in your laptop, hook up the high-speed Internet wireless card, and get to work for the duration of the trip.

The high speed service from STL to Chicago will apparently take "less than 4 hours" at speeds from about 110 MPH to in excess of 200 MPH.

By my calculation, that'd put one in Chicago much faster than "less than 4 hours." I wonder how many stops the new service will make along the way.

Read the whole story at the St. Louis Beacon.

This is apparently part of the proposed "Chicago Rail Corridor", which could also get me up to clients in the Twin Cities and Kansas City, as it would connect Chicago, Milwaukee, the Twin Cities, St. Louis, Kansas City, Detroit, Toledo, Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Louisville.

Nice!

Want to try the railway from St. Louis - or Alton - to Chicago, and vice-versa? You don't have to wait for the high-speed version. Amtrak already runs decent service along the eventual route. See this PDF for details on a current promotion for 20% from Alton to Chicago through the spring... and kids get a flat $11 one-way fare from Alton to Chicago.

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In his homily during the celebration of Vespers at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside-the-Walls on Monday evening, Benedict XVI outlined the essential elements of convergence between all Christian faiths. He also called for a "new, intense evangelization" to respond to important issues in the world today.

"In a world marked by religious indifference, and even by a growing aversion towards the Christian faith, a new, intense evangelization is necessary, not only among people that have never known the Gospel, but also among those in which Christianity has been spread and is a part of their history," Pope Benedict said emphatically.

Referring to the history of Christianity and the issues affecting the unity of all its branches, Pope Benedict explained, "Unfortunately, there is no lack of questions that separate some from others and we hope that they can be overcome through prayer and dialogue."

But, he added, "there is a central content of Christ's message that we can announce together: the paternity of God, the victory of Christ over sin and his death with his cross and resurrection (and) a trust in the transformative action of the Spirit."

"While we are on the path towards full communion, we are called to offer a shared witness against the ever more complex challenges of our time, including secularization and indifference, relativism and hedonism, the delicate ethical themes regarding the beginning and end of life, the limits of science and technology, dialogue with other religious traditions," Benedict XVI urged.

The Holy Father expressed the necessity of a untied [I believe they meant "united"] effort amongst all Christians to extend unity into other areas and that "from now on, we must give a shared witness (to) the protection of Creation, the promotion of the common good and peace, defense of the centrality of the human person, commitment to defeating the misery of our time, including hunger, poverty, illiteracy, unequal distribution of goods."

Considering the energetic response that Pope John Paul's call to the "New Evangelization" brought about - and still brings about - in the Church, I'm excited by this renewed call to a "new, intense evangelization." I like the wording, the expression of the need for intensity. This isn't the first that he's spoken on this topic, though.

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In addition, as I note below, I note that there are real and valid reasons that some marriages come to an end - or may never have really begun in the first places. I'm not throwing stones at any that have... I'm merely writing to the ideal, knowing that every situation is unique, deeply personal, and the result of deep discernment and relationships between man, woman, and God alone.

Our wedding

While we were preparing for our marriage, one of the things that meant the most to me was a discussion Suzanne and I had about the good and bad times we had witnessed our parents go through, and how their example of love and commitment to marriage through the "thick and thin" was something that had impacted both of us. We were both approaching our marriage with the mindset that it would be forever, and that we had no inkling that ending our marriage would ever be an option.

I imagine that the vast majority of couples approach marriage with that mindset - even some who end up leaving their marriage later in life.

Acknowledging that there are very valid reasons that marriages end (more accurately, that they could be said to have never actually begun), we believe that our commitment is for life. The feeling in this regard is mutual, and our commitment to each other is the same today as it was then, and will God-willing be the same in 40 or 50 or 60 years.

That said, there has been a real and frightening trend away from both the permanence and the sacredness of marriage in our world.

To quote some statistics from a recent study published by the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia, highlighted in "The First Vocation Crisis", a special report in Catholic World Report:

The article also calls out the drastic declines in sacramental marriage in the U.S. in the same decades.

As an initial response to this phenomenon as observed in recent years, the U.S. Bishops have issued a fantastic pastoral statement, "Marriage: Love and Life in the Divine Plan" (PDF file). It should required reading for all couples preparing for the Sacrament of Marriage, in my humble opinion.

Which brings us to marriage preparation. While some might look at the statistics and suggest that the Church should make it easier to enter into a marriage in the Church, at least one diocese - the Diocese of Phoenix - is raising the bar.

Here's the bar as it's been raised in Phoenix:

• Nine months of pre-marriage preparation time instead of six. Several methods of preparation will remain available, including intensive weekend sessions or a series of weeknight meetings, but the time will be lengthened.
• A full course in Natural Family Planning, a type of family planning that does not use artificial forms of birth control. The church opposes use of contraceptives, from condoms to pills.
• More comprehensive courses on practical skills and the theology of marriage

Kudos to the Bishop Olmstead and the Diocese of Phoenix for providing the time for the couple to learn and to discern together before they walk down the aisle.

In an August interview, Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York discussed the four greatest challenges he believes the Church in the United States is facing today. First on his list was the state of marriage.

“That’s where we have the real vocation crisis,” he said. “We have a vocation crisis to lifelong, life-giving, loving, faithful marriage. If we take care of that one, we’ll have all the priests and nuns we need for the Church.”

Amen. Here's to that observation, Archbishop Dolan.

That's what we need to prepare our young couples for, and ensure that they're equipped to build - as well as we can help as a community of faith.

It was almost two years ago, in Peoria at a reception celebrating the ordination of my childhood friend, Father Robert Lampitt, to the priesthood, when his mother made quite an observation. She noted that out of the 100 or so people at the reception, 30 or so were kids, and of those, probably 25 were boys. And she hypothesized that God was going to provide the next generation of priests (what will all those boys do with so few girls?) in this little sample of active, "lifelong, life-giving, loving, faithful" domestic churches.

It has always frustrated me that so many Catholics consider praying the Prayer for Vocations as  their way to be "working for vocations." The prayer is good and important, but there's work to do too. And the work that needs to be done is in the nest where vocations are formed in young men and women from the youngest ages. By moms and dads who are faithful to their promise and to the vocation to which they were called.

Marriage preparation, of course, isn't the only answer. Strong marriage prep is just one part of what the identity of "church" really needs to be. A community of faith supports and strengthens its own as well... and should make every effort to strengthen and support husbands and wives through their lives, through highs and lows.

We're blessed that our parish offers that, through activities and through the friendships with have with fellow parishioners. In fact, it's a big part of why we are so active at Holy Family. Our parish really is a significant part of our "extended family," and living up to our marriage vows is even more important to us because of the examples of faithfulness that we see around us in the parish.

Prayer for one another, awareness, discernment, and preparation, and ongoing community and support. All ways that we can work together as Church to strengthen and support marriage.

As the late Pope John Paul II said, "The future of humanity passes by way of the family." Solve one vocation problem - the one in the domestic church - and the other vocation problem will solve itself.

DON'T FORGET!

Commenting here (on this post's comment area) or sharing it on a social network are two ways that you can earn entries into this month's $25 Borders Gift Card Giveaway. Please comment and share your thoughts. I'm eager to hear them.

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Trinity Koinonia 7. March 19-21

Registration form PDF.

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