Kissing the Leper

Easy like Sunday morning

2012-02-26T08:14:00.000-05:00

The lyrics to the Commodores song - with the exception of the title - have nothing at all to do with how I feel about Sundays. I love the laziness of Sunday mornings - nothing to accomplish except to get to Mass, no chores waiting, no rushing to get out the door for school or work. I get up when I want, play on the computer, cuddle with the cat and make a pot of tea. Oh, the tea! Not a hurried, dump some hot water in a commuter mug tea, but an honest-to-goodness pot of tea to relax with and enjoy.

I can take a long shower. Watch CBS' Sunday Morning. Catch up on some email. Check to see if spring is here yet (it's not).

Ooh that's why I'm easy
I'm easy like Sunday morning
That's why I'm easy
I'm easy like Sunday morning!

During Lent, Sundays are a little reprieve from our Lenten fast. Since Sundays are always days of celebration (like a mini-Easter every week) and never a day of penance, we can choose to forego our Lenten fast. It's a little reminder of the joy of the Resurrection.

Ooh that's why I'm easy
I'm easy like Sunday morning
That's why I'm easy
I'm easy like Sunday morning!

For a lot of us, Sundays mean a family dinner, a lazy day on the couch to watch sports, or a family outing. It's a day of rest - ordained by God. Enjoy!

40 Days of Gratitude: Day Four

2012-02-25T11:51:00.001-05:00

Okay, maybe this is a bit shallow, but my iPhone makes both my work and home life much easier, and more organized. Plus, who doesn't like to carry a bit of fun around with them everywhere they go?

40 Days of Gratitude: Day Three

2012-02-24T07:10:00.001-05:00

Today I am grateful for an order of Franciscan Sisters who are very dear to me and my family. Their faith, holiness, love, humor and counsel have sustained us in so many ways. Our children have grown up with this example of selfless love and joy, working alongside the Sisters on their farm, baking bread in their kitchen and playing games with them in their fields.

A genuine blessing in my family's lives, and I am grateful.

"Hold still, you've got something on your forehead"

2012-02-23T10:15:00.002-05:00

Loved this from NPR: "Excuse me, you have something on your forehead" - a photo essay on Ash Wednesday.

3 Good Things Thursday

2012-02-23T08:55:00.000-05:00

1. Thought-provoking Lenten questions from And Sometimes Tea: what's keeping you from making spiritual progress? More importantly, what can you do about it this Lent?

2. Do we Catholics owe Mr. Obama a big "thank you"? Dr. Janet Smith says we do!

3. I know we're only one day into Lent, but I'm betting some of you are already struggling with your chosen Lenten penance. Well, read this: a day in the life of Pope Benedict. Given the fact that he's 84 years old, and his typical day begins at 5 a.m. and never ends before 11 p.m., your sacrifice will seem like a cakewalk!

40 Days of Gratitude: Day Two

2012-02-23T00:30:00.000-05:00

This is my desk at work. I am extremely grateful for my job. I get to work with amazing people: smart, funny, faithful people, and delve into topics that fascinate and enthrall me,and hopefully enrich the lives of others. My job is meaningful and fun. I am truly blessed.

Hard Spiritual Lessons

2012-02-22T18:59:00.000-05:00

My evening prayers included this:

God, our loving Father, you forgive our every ill.
You forgive our guilt; lead us to mend our ways.
You fill our life with good things; fill us with love and mercy toward one another.
You remember we are dust; raise us with all our beloved dead to life in Christ.

All good - all hard. We are guilty of sin against God and others, and we need forgiveness. We need to be merciful to others - even when we don't want to. We have to face our mortality, and the mortality of those we love.

Sometimes, it seems that ALL our spiritual lessons are hard ones. At least that's the way I've been feeling lately. Life itself is burdensome, and God seems far away. Faith is a quickly unraveling string, and my hold is tenuous.

What to do? I don't know what others do when they are close to despair, but I go through the motions. I pray when I don't feel like praying. I sing when my throat is parched. I praise when my heart is heavy. I call upon the Lord, even when I am sure He is so far away He couldn't possibly hear me.

I don't do it for God's sake. He doesn't need a thing from me. I do it for my sake, to remind my head what my heart knows: that my God is not only near, He is united with me in my suffering, as I try to unite myself to His. I stand at the foot of His cross, and He stands at the foot of mine. Even when I cannot go another step in faith, He bears me up.

Hard spiritual lessons. I beg for mercy in the smallness of my faith. I hold tight to that unraveling thread of faith, knowing that He holds the other end, and will not let me go.

Hard spiritual lessons.

40 Days of Gratitude: Day One

2012-02-22T08:53:00.000-05:00

I am starting this Lent with a very heavy heart. Dark-haired daughter is not doing well; we can't seem to get her stabilized mentally. It's very stressful and very discouraging. Even worse, it seems to color everything - my whole existence. Nothing in my life seems good or right, and of course, that's very wrong.

In light of this, I am taking up my own 40 Days of Gratitude. I'm going to post every day of Lent something specific in my life that I am grateful for.

Today: my children. They are each a special gift in their own way. They've also each been challenging in their own way. We have, as a family, been through a lot, and it isn't always good. It's tough living in a house with five special needs kids - some more 'special' than others. But they are good people, and compassionate.

I will just share one proud mommy moment. A few years ago, Youngest Son (who was in middle school at the time) came to me after school and said, "Mom, I have to go to the funeral home tonight. 'Bobby's' mom died." I knew his classmate's mother had been struggling with cancer, and now, she had passed away. But we didn't know these folks, so I was a little hesitant to go to the funeral home. Youngest Son INSISTED: "Mom, I need to be there for 'Bobby'." So off we went.

When Youngest Son and I got to the funeral home, we were greeted by his classmate. Youngest Son said, "I'm really sorry about your mom. Are you okay?" and 'Bobby' said he was. Then Youngest Son said, "I'll go look at your mom with you, up at the casket" and the two went up to see the classmate's mother. After a few moments, 'Bobby' invited Youngest Son into a back room that had been set up for the family with snacks and drinks. The two of them played for awhile, crawling under tables and doing what boys do.

I was rather in awe of my son. It was a hugely compassionate thing to do, a hard thing for anyone, but for a child, it was enormous.

My children, despite their flaws, weaknesses and challenges, are compassionate people. And I am grateful for that.

Weird Lenten Ideas?

2012-02-21T03:00:00.000-05:00

I thought some of the suggestions from Lifeteen were a little odd, frankly, but some of them have merit (given that your intention is to focus on God and not just trying to out-do the next guy in some sort of Lenten show-down).

So, weird Lenten ideas:

Put a popcorn kernel in your shoe every day

Don’t use your apps

Give up texting and call whoever you need to talk to

Wear the same 4 outfits for all of lent (Uh, really?? I don't think I could do that, sorry to say...)

Everyday do 20 (or 100) pushups and offer it up for someone who’s sick

Leave a post-it with a positive message on it wherever you go

Every day take a picture of something or someone you’re grateful for and hang the pictures in your room (my favorite)

Joyeux Mardi Gras!

2012-02-21T01:30:00.000-05:00

Illustration from Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, 22 March 1873, depicting a Mardi Gras ball in Louisville, KY

Total Rip-off Tuesday

2012-02-21T00:30:00.000-05:00

Where-in I "rip-off" another writer on the web, giving due credit, of course. Today's choice: Russell Shaw and why people don't like the Catholic Church:

The Catholic Church adheres to an ethic of substantive human purposes — things like life, truth, and justice — that establish the parameters of ethically acceptable choices and behavior. To do the right thing is to act within these boundaries; to do what is wrong is to act outside them.

The secularist mindset, by contrast, favors a libertarian ethic of process and procedure — values like democracy, equal opportunity, and that epitome of the process ethic: the “right to choose.” To be sure, most people rightly live by a mix of values of both kinds — partly substantive, partly procedural — but the differences in emphasis are real and often extremely important.

According to the process ethic, there is in principle no such thing as absolute right and wrong — no substantive good that can’t be violated in a pinch if violating it furthers the exercise of choice by a sufficient number of persons.

Pardon me...

2012-02-20T08:41:00.001-05:00

There were a couple of comments made in the past 12 hours or so that I accidently deleted. Mea culpa.

Lent: it's coming!

2012-02-20T00:30:00.000-05:00

And I bet you still haven't thought about what you're going to do, right? Or maybe you figure you'll give up chocolate like you do every year. Or, maybe you have thought about it, and just haven't figured out what Lent will look like for you this year.

Here are 40 ideas that will definitely help!

Mary Cassatt Monday

2012-02-20T00:00:00.000-05:00

Portrait of Charles Dikran Kelekian at age 12

Mardi Gras 1956

2012-02-19T17:53:00.002-05:00

Found this charming photo of children in a 1956 Mardi Gras parade at Galleria Mar Dore'; photo by John W. Mizenko.

To ponder before Lent begins

2012-02-18T08:23:00.001-05:00

photo by Doron Nissim

The darkness asks us questions.
You are out there and we do not see.
You invite us into the night,
the stillness, the loneliness, the desert place.

We cannot see our shadow;
the cold damp of unknowing rises up from beneath
our feet.
We tread cautiously, tentatively.

We are afraid,
afraid of ghosts
haunting us with spectres of guilt
and shame.

We would like to run back,
reach the river bank,
swim the Jordan,
sit in the sun by the sea,mending our nets.
But you have brought us here
- with no bread.

When we look we can see only ourselves,
our darkness.
When we read,
it is invisible words which cannot be grasped,
thoughts we cannot clutch,
hope we cannot capture.

Yet the wild honey remains a taste in our mouth,
a memory for a new day.

Why have you brought us here?
What miracle will you perform for us?

The darkness sighs around us,
dense with your unseen presence,
close to our breathing,
close to our breathing.

O darkness, enlighten us,
embrace us with your invisible love.
Let us see your glory in the ashes.
Take us by the hand that we may trust the darkness.
Minister to us by your Spirit that we may not be afraid.
Jesus, keep the beasts away.

- William Loader

Where does your right stop and mine begin?

2012-02-18T08:07:00.001-05:00

If one person’s freedom depends on the infringement of someone else’s freedom, the first claim is illegitimate. To hold otherwise is to reject the principle of equality.
Women have the right to contraception (and any other product) in the sense that they have a right to spend their money on it or to try to persuade someone else to do so. There can be no right to force (or have the government force) others to pay.

Read the entire article at Reason.com.

What Lent is NOT

2012-02-17T08:13:00.001-05:00

picture courtesy of Lifeteen

1. Lent is NOT a weight-loss program. If you are planning on giving up a certain food, drink, or eating habit, focus on it for the right reasons. While weight-loss may be a pleasant by-product, our focus in Lent should be to get rid of those attachments which have us enslaved in a sinful way, distracting us from God and other critical parts of our life, such as prayer and family.

2. Lent is NOT a competition. We shouldn't be comparing our sacrifices to others', noting how much better OUR Lenten practice is than theirs, or worrying that we're not quite measuring up to someone else. In fact, we shouldn't be thinking about others' practices at all: ...take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them; otherwise, you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father. When you give alms, do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets to win the praise of others. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward.But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right is doing...Mt. 6:1-3

3. Lent is NOT about doing many things poorly, but doing one thing well. Often times, we will start Lent with a list of good intentions: "Okay, no beer, and I'm going to read Scripture every morning. I'm not going to eat any sweets, and I'm also going to get to Adoration every week. I'm gonna save all my pocket change for the poor, and..." Typically, we end up looking at our efforts about 2 weeks in, get disgusted with ourselves, and throw in the towel. Choosing one thing and doing it well, with prayerful intent, is much better than trying to do fourteen things, and not completing any of them.

4. Lent is NOT about showing off to God. This ties in with #3. He wants our love, our devotion, our effort, not a Herculean showing of sacrificial showcasing. What is it that God is calling you to? Is He calling you to prayer? To Scripture? Is He calling you to more family-time? Pray about it. Listen in the stillness of your heart to God's voice. He will let you know what He wants for you this Lent.

Lent is not about making ourselves miserable, proving to God how much we love him, or walking around in sackcloth and ashes. It's about re-orienting our lives towards the most important goal: Heaven.

Carnival!

2012-02-17T07:48:00.001-05:00

photo by Andy E. Williams
Antigue Carnival Children's Parade

Emilio Estevez Interview

2012-02-16T15:36:00.002-05:00

I loved "The Way" (here is my review), and am happy to see this interview with Estevez, who seems to be maturing nicely!

By the way, if you didn't catch it in theaters, it's now out on DVD.

3 Good Things Thursday - Mardi Gras Edition

2012-02-16T00:00:00.000-05:00

1. King Cake! The King Cake is typically a sweet, bread-like cake, decorated with the traditional Mardi Gras colors of green, gold and purple. As a surprise, a coin, a tiny crown or a small toy baby doll is tucked inside. The one who finds it is crowned King! Check out this recipe.

2. "Mardi Gras" literally means "Fat Tuesday". It's the day when the fats (butter, oil, etc.) would be used up, so that the house would be free of these goodies during the Lenten season. For a nice explanation, check out American Catholic.

3. "Carnival"! Although now associated with parades and floats, this too is a Catholic tradition: the last enjoyment of rich foods before the Lenten fast. Some believe it derives from the medieval Latin carnem levare or carnelevarium, which means to take away or remove meat.

Why I should be able to order red wine in a Muslim-owned restaurant

2012-02-15T09:37:00.000-05:00

Let's say Dear Husband and I head out for a fine dinner on the town. We've heard of a new place with great food, and are eager to try it out.

When we arrive, are seated and handed the menu, we see that there is no alcohol listed. None. Not a drop. We ask our server about this, and he replies, "The owners are Muslims. It is against their religious beliefs to have alcohol on the premises or to serve it."

Aghast, we are! Red wine is healthy! No less an authority than the Mayo Clinic says so! It is part of Dear Husband's and my health regimen to imbibe one glass of red wine with our evening meal. Not having it available is - well, threatening to our health! We demand red wine now!

The owner comes out. He explains that drinking or serving alcohol is a violation of his religious beliefs, but promises us a delightful meal, sans alcohol. "NO! Not good enough. You are forcing your religious beliefs on us - how dare you!"

Perhaps, the owner suggests, this is not the restaurant for us. There are several in the area he can recommend, all serving alcohol.

But, we reply, we want alcohol HERE and NOW! It is our right. This isn't Prohibition, buddy. This is our health we're talking about. By golly, even if the owner has to go out and buy a damn bottle of wine, we're getting our wine, NOW!

We point out that many Muslims drink alcohol. Why doesn't he?? The owner states it is his understanding of the Qu'ran and how it is to be lived that alcohol is prohibited. He can't speak for other Muslims - only himself. It would go against his conscience to serve alcohol.

At this point, Dear Husband and I know we have only one recourse: the Federal Government MUST step in and force this man to serve us alcohol. It is our right, it is for our health, and we don't give a damn about his religious beliefs.

And the groundwork for this has cleverly been laid by Mr. Obama, so we should get results quickly. After all, what we want trumps any one's religious beliefs in this country, right?

Mardi Gras!

2012-02-15T07:03:00.001-05:00

I admit: I love Mardi Gras! Oh, not that bourbon-soaked, hedonistic Spring Break thing, but the actual Catholic celebration of Mardi Gras.

Just for fun, I thought I'd post a few things over the next week regarding Mardi Gras and its celebration.

Today, from The History Channel:

According to historians, Mardi Gras dates back thousands of years to pagan celebrations of spring and fertility, including the raucous Roman festivals of Saturnalia and Lupercalia. When Christianity arrived in Rome, religious leaders decided to incorporate these popular local traditions into the new faith, an easier task than abolishing them altogether. As a result, the excess and debauchery of the Mardi Gras season became a prelude to Lent, the 40 days of penance between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday. Along with Christianity, Mardi Gras spread from Rome to other European countries, including France, Germany, Spain and England.
Traditionally, in the days leading up to Lent, merrymakers would binge on all the meat, eggs, milk and cheese that remained in their homes, preparing for several weeks of eating only fish and fasting. In France, the day before Ash Wednesday came to be known as Mardi Gras, or "Fat Tuesday." The word "carnival," another common name for the pre-Lenten festivities, may also derive from this vegetarian-unfriendly custom: in Medieval Latin, carnelevarium means to take away or remove meat.

Mardi Gras in the United States

Many historians believe that the first American Mardi Gras took place on March 3, 1699, when the French explorers Iberville and Bienville landed in what is now Louisiana, just south of the holiday's future epicenter: New Orleans. They held a small celebration and dubbed the spot Point du Mardi Gras. In the decades that followed, New Orleans and other French settlements began marking the holiday with street parties, masked balls and lavish dinners. When the Spanish took control of New Orleans, however, they abolished these rowdy rituals, and the bans remained in force until Louisiana became a U.S. state in 1812.
On Mardi Gras in 1827, a group of students donned colorful costumes and danced through the streets of New Orleans, emulating the revelry they'd observed while visiting Paris. Ten years later, the first recorded New Orleans Mardi Gras parade took place, a tradition that continues to this day. In 1857, a secret society of New Orleans businessmen called the Mistick Krewe of Comus organized a torch-lit Mardi Gras procession with marching bands and rolling floats, setting the tone for future public celebrations in the city. Since then, krewes have remained a fixture of the Carnival scene throughout Louisiana. Other lasting customs include throwing beads and other trinkets, wearing masks, decorating floats and eating King Cake.
Louisiana is the only state in which Mardi Gras is a legal holiday. However, elaborate carnival festivities draw crowds in other parts of the United States during the Mardi Gras season as well, including Alabama and Mississippi. Each region has its own events and traditions.

Total Rip-off Tuesday, Redux

2012-02-14T11:26:00.000-05:00

This was just too good for me to pass up:

I ask you today once again to respect life, for there is no greater gift. Respect life, yours and the lives around you. For when we lose respect for life, we lose respect for humanity, and when we lose respect for humanity, we lose respect for God’s creation, and when we lose that, we have lost everything.

From "A Muslim View on Respecting Life", by Suzy Ismail.

For the feast of St. Valentine

2012-02-14T08:48:00.000-05:00

"We can cure physical diseases with medicine but the only cure for loneliness, despair, and hopelessness is love. There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread but there are many more who are dying for a little love. Let us not be satisfied with just giving money. Money is not enough, money can be got, but they need your hearts to love them. So spread love everywhere you go."

~ Blessed Teresa of Calcutta