Anytime people start talking about Eucharistic Adoration, one question always seems to come up: “A whole hour? What’ll I do for a whole hour?”

Thus begins Vinny Flynn’s new book, 21 Ways to Worship: A Guide to Eucharistic Adoration. I’ll admit, I only read it because my arm was twisted. I thought I knew the tone it would have and the attitude of eye-rolling it would inspire in me. I was, in fact, convinced I would have to work to write a favorable review.

Being wrong has rarely felt so great.

I’ve been a regular at our parish’s Eucharistic Adoration program for over ten years, and I remember the days of dragging in a couple of books, a notebook, a rosary, and two or three prayer books. I’d kneel, say hi, and get to work.

And there’s nothing wrong with that approach, though I have modified it over the years. My current approach involves a bag of tractors and two sidekicks, ages five and two. My mother-in-law kindly invited us to join her for her hour when it became obvious this was the only way I was going to get my much-needed breathing time in.

It took Vinny Flynn less than 200 pages to convince me of a few things:

1. I am his newest fangirl.
2. He “gets” this whole Adoration thing in a way I need to take notes from.
3. The man is probably hilarious in real life.

Each of the 21 chapters—which are short and easy-to-read—has a snappy title and usually about two or three pages of down-to-earth content. This is a man writing to ME: to the me who is sooooo busy I have an excuse for everything, to the me who wonders if anyone’s listening, to the me who takes small LOUD people with me to Adoration.

In fact, I’ve gained more from this book than just suggestions for ways to pray in Adoration. I’m now looking at the pictures on my fridge as an opportunity to offer a prayer for loved ones. I’m thinking of the Psalms as letters TO ME now, instead of as 3000-year-old poems. I’m using the opportunity to pray as I breathe, an idea that was planted in me during a recent 8-week retreat with Father Gaitley’s Consoling the Heart of Jesus.

One of the biggest mistakes, I think, that many of us make as Christians, as Catholics, is that we get used to being very formal. We have some wonderful, ritual prayers that are beautiful and can be very meaningful, but this can cause us to get used to a certain formality that can carry over into our adoration time and make it hard for us to develop a deep, personal relationship with God.

[A]s Pope Benedict says, the Eucharist “is not a piece of a body, not a thing.” It’s a person—a person who loves us more than we can imagine.

…

We don’t need to be formal with God here. He doesn’t want us to be. We need to be real with Him!

In whatever you say, do, look at, or read during adoration, keep it personal, realizing that this is between you and God—and God is three persons, each of whom want a personal relationship with you.

How do you get closer to your spouse, to your children, to your friends? You have to spend time with them; you have to get to know them. A relationship takes time, and it takes personal involvement, personal commitment.

That’s what Eucharistic Adoration is all about. You’re there to keep Christ company, to console Him, to get to know Him, to get to know the Father, to get to know the Holy Spirit, to build a relationship, person-to-person, you and God alone.

You are getting to know this God, to know who He is, and then you start to realize who you are and who you are called to be. This is the God who didn’t just create you. He fathered you into existence, chose you from all the millions of persons who could have come from the union of your father and mother.

In this book, Flynn brilliantly and concisely makes a case, not just for Adoration, not just for a deeper prayer life, not just for a gimmick-style Christian life, but for an approach to really living and transforming your life through small actions. Call it prayer, call it worship, call it Adoration: it is, at the root of it, encouragement for those of us who struggle, for those of us who juggle unsuccessfully, for those of us who wonder if what we’re doing is ever enough.

There’s no “Catholic lite” in this book, just a toolbox packed with approaches, ideas, and sincere devotion. You won’t be able to help changing your life as you read this book. Mine’s already better. I can’t wait to read it again.

This post 21 Ways to Worship (and then some) appeared first on SnoringScholar.com.

No shocker there.

I’ll be cheering for them on Thursday (note to husband: don’t let me forget!!!). Will you?

{Embedded video link}

Here’s the scoopola from the press release:

Please be sure to watch the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist compete for the $100,000 grand prize in The Game Show Network’s “The American Bible Challenge” finale at 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. CT Thursday, May 23.

The winner of The American Bible Challenge Fan Favorite contest will be announced during the show, as well, and will receive $10,000 for their team’s charity.

Should they win, the Dominican Sisters will use their winnings from the show to provide for the treatment and care of the aging Sisters in the Order, and to ensure that they are provided for as they advance into retirement.

This post Cheer for the Sisters of Mary appeared first on SnoringScholar.com.

Update: NFP stands for Natural Family Planning. Learn more from the USCCB and the Couple to Couple League.

By Jennifer Fitz

When we were younger, NFP was more difficult.  It was harder to abstain.  When young couples hear from a nice 50-something-year-old mother of 27 children than NFP is this lovely thing, they are right to be skeptical.
(Practical tip: Any number greater than 2 is considered “an enormously huge, overwhelming number of children” to a nervous engaged couple with school loans, budding careers, and a religious education received primarily from the New York Times.)

But having lived through the hard-to-abstain years, and still living through the pretty-hard-to-abstain years, my experience is this: NFP is a self-correcting mechanism.  It’s like following a diet that causes you to eat only the amount of food you need.

Okay, I know that’s not always true, but let’s get back to that in a second.  First let me make my case:

People who worry that NFP is too easy:

You’re doing it wrong.  For those who haven’t heard, there’s a sub-culture among practicing Catholics that worries that someone, somewhere, is abstaining-and-enjoying-it.  They should be procreating.  Instead they’re devoting themselves to prayer-and-fasting watching cable TV certain days weeks of the month.  Because it’s just so easy to share a home with the love of your life, snuggle into bed every evening, and ignore the army of hormones and pheromones and physical urges all working together to keep the species alive.

Here’s what I say to that: Anyone who’s abstaining just for fun?  Let ‘em.  Sheesh.  They’ve got a big enough cross as it is.

People who find that NFP is hard:

That’s the point.  You’re married.  Raising a family is your ‘default mode’.  If you’re sitting around every evening wondering what to do with all your extra money and empty bedrooms and overflowing energy . . . how ’bout a nice baby to fill those voids?

For most of us, when we’ve got a problem serious enough to warrant avoiding pregnancy, we’ve got a problem that needs to be solved.  A problem that we could be addressing by using the time and energy we would otherwise spend monkeying around in the bedroom a couple hours a night.

I know there are exceptions.  You might have a weird health condition that leaves you feeling great most of the time, but could cause you to drop dead during pregnancy.  Or there are extra crosses thrown in the road — the wife only interested during the fertile time, repulsed by sex otherwise; the husband who’d rather risk his wife’s life or health than wait until the end of the cycle.  It’s a fallen world.  Rain falls on the exhausted and the amorous alike.

But in all, NFP is a balancing system. 

It’s a motivator for us to devote time and energy to removing the obstacles that keep us from being able to freely welcome more children into the home.  It’s an urgent reminder that when all is calm and bright, how about growing the family a little more — or at least have fun trying?

Is NFP good?  Yes.  The way a healthy diet, or regular exercise, or getting enough sleep at night is good, having the amount of sex that matches our state in life is good.  Not always easy.  But good.
–

Jennifer Fitz is the author of the soon-to-be-released Classroom Management for Catechists (Liguori Publications). She blogs at Riparians at the Gate, homeschools her four kids, runs the Catholic Writers Guild blog, and does about ten other things I can’t list here, including writing for Amazing Catechists and CatholicMom.com.

This post Should NFP Be Easy? {Mom to Mom} appeared first on SnoringScholar.com.

Today as part of the Greater Treasures blog tour, I’m honored to host Vern, whose the first non-human AND the first dragon to guest post here.

By Vern

Vern:  Hi.  I’m Vern, a dragon from Faerie.  Sarah has asked me to talk to you a little about how dragons view motherhood.  The first thing I should point out is that dragons are androgynous; that is, we don’t reproduce at all.  God created us fully formed from the greatness of His imagination and gave us eternal life, so we are undying and limited in number.  Of course, that means I’ve seen human (and dwarf, elf, etc.) motherhood evolve over millennia, so I do know a thing or two on the topic.

No matter what the humanoid species, mothers have certain qualities—

(Door bangs open)  Voice:  Hi!  Missed me?

Vern:  Coyote!  What are you doing here? Are you in trouble again?

Coyote the Trickster:  Me?  I’m hurt!  I came to see my good friends and…oh!  You’re writing about motherhood?  What a great topic for you.  You make such a good mom.

Vern:  I’m not a mother.

Coyote:  Yes, you are!  Don’t you remember our phoenix baby?  She was so cute when she was born, all snuggly against Momma Vern…  (Makes coochie noises and baby talk.)

Vern:  That was not my child.

Coyote:  You hatched the egg, Momma.  And I brought you the egg, so that makes me the daddy.

Vern:  I didn’t lay it.  And I wouldn’t have had to hatch it if you hadn’t stolen it.  That makes you a thief.

Coyote:  That was never proven.  Innocent until proven guilty.  I love America.  Anyone can be anything here.  Dragons can even be mothers.

Vern:  I was not its mother.  I was more like a midwife, and I took her straight to the hatching grounds to find her kin right after.  Is there a reason you’re here, Coyote?

Coyote:  Is Grace around?  No?  I’ll wait.  Keep writing.  I want to see what you say.

Vern (half sighing/half growling):  I know the thinking in America is that mothers and fathers aren’t so different, but trust one who’s seen thousands of generations of families.  Mothers are different.  They are more nurturing and value physical as well as emotional closeness with their offspring.  Even when they are protecting their family, they prefer to keep them close—

Coyote:  But see!  That’s just like you, Vern.

Vern:  What?

Coyote:  Remember when Grace was poisoned by that dart while on a case?  You protected her; you nurtured her; you stayed by her.

Vern:  First off, she’s my friend, not my child. Second, I stayed at her bedside long enough to pray, then I left and went after the sons of humans who put her there—

Coyote:  You held her!

Vern:  I held her down.  She was convulsing.  It wasn’t like I was comforting her or singing her a lullaby.

Coyote:  You sang a lullaby to our phoenix baby.  Purred, anyway.

Vern (heaves a sigh, pushes away the keyboard, and faces Coyote fully.):  I’ll finish this article later.  What do you want, Coyote?

Coyote:  You did purr.

Vern:  Yes.  What do you want?

Coyote:  You’re protective and nurturing, aren’t you?

Vern:  Grace is more nurturing than I am, by far.  What. Do. You. Want?

Coyote (pauses, looks sheepish):  Would you…adopt me?

Vern:  Coyote!  What did you do this time?

Vern’s and Coyote’s phoenix baby was hatched in “Coyote Fires,” a serial story fundraiser I’ll be publishing in e-book next year.  Grace’s poisoning happened in the case called Greater Treasures, now available on Amazon.  

Vern and Sister Grace (and Coyote, too) would like to wish all mothers reading this a Happy Belated Mothers’ Day.

–

A chance to win!

I’ve been off-the-blog this week, but it turns out that Vern has inspired a giveaway. I’ll toss in a book along with whatever he picks outta his closet. So some lucky winner will get TWO prizes: one from Vern and one from me.

Leave a comment by Tuesday, May 21, and we’ll draw a winner randomly next Wednesday.

This post A Dragon Talks About Motherhood (or Tries to) appeared first on SnoringScholar.com.

So we’ll keep it simple.

To enter to win a copy of The American Bible Challenge: A Daily Reader, leave a comment here by Sunday, May 19.

And don’t forget to vote for the Dominican sisters. Daily.

This post Support the Sisters appeared first on SnoringScholar.com.

I opened my apartment door to a wall of smoke.

What happened next is a blur in my memory, but it seemed to happen in slow motion, even as my non-athletic self set some serious records for speed.

I called 9-1-1. And then I went to my bedroom, grabbed my bookbag with my new text books, honors project paperwork, and wallet, put on my shoes, and walked to the window. Nope. Second story and no way I was breaking a limb. No one else was awake in our neighborhood (and I wouldn’t have been either, had it not been for that dratted honors project).

I took a deep breath, said goodbye to all of my belongings (and those of my roommates’), and left, not knowing what was coming next.

It turns out one of my sorority sisters was home and I ended up bunking with her for almost a week. We got off easy: only smoke damage, and I still have a few books that bear the marks of that apartment building fire.

I threw away a LOT of stuff after that adventure. And I learned a lesson I’ve never forgotten: it’s just STUFF.

When my roommates came back, there were tears and discussions of how much it HURT to lose stuff. Me, I was grateful to be alive at a time in my life when I didn’t really believe in anything except my own intellect and the superiority of science. I knew that the stuff didn’t matter. I was alive. (And it hurt, when I look back, that my one roommate in particular could not seem to see that I was alive and her stuff was just stuff.)

Not so long ago (in the last five years), I was inspired by a few wise women’s blogging efforts (Elizabeth Foss among them). They were talking about simplifying and de-cluttering. They were talking about how much your stuff can weigh you down. They were sharing ideas for how much is enough and ways to make do with less and less and less.

I have a lot of stuff, despite my efforts not to. And I let myself off the hook, because I know my kids don’t have as many toys as the Joneses and our house isn’t anything fancy next to the Watkinses and we don’t spend money like the Finches. Even so, the idea of not having more than you need has been something I’ve been trying to live for quite some time.

So the idea behind More or Less: Choosing a Life of Excessive Generosity, by Jeff Shinabarger, appealed to me.

That is, until I started reading it.

Last week, in my weekly reading update, I wrote, “This book is another life-changer and game-changer for me. (I’m not exactly thrilled about that, because I wasn’t necessarily LOOKING to have things go all changey-changey on me!)”

Yeah. That times ten.

I was struck, first, by the challenge that we have enough food. I think I’ll be attacking my cupboards soon. And my freezer. But meal-planning did cure me of a lot of that, to be honest.

And the clothes thing is something that I’ve been on top of. I need to do some more weeding through, true enough, but not something that made me do more than think more deeply about my other excess.

And then, then, there was the chapter on time.

There was a time, not so long ago, when the polite answer to the question “How are you?” was, “Fine.” It seems that busy is the new fine. We look at one another with that shake of the head, sideways smirk, and glossy eyes, proclaiming our busyness. This shared response succinctly identifies a recent cultural shift: we now determine the significance of a person by how busy they are. Somehow, busy has become better than fine. It seems especially highlighted since the economic downturn. Busy shows that we still have a job and things to do, which is a positive answer amidst the endlessly looping, negative news cycle.

The problem is this: busy is not better than fine. Just because I’m busy does not mean I’m fine. And when it comes right down to it, often busy means that I’m not fine at all. What we’re really saying with one simple word is, “I can’t keep up with everything in my life. I actually can’t keep up with any of the things in my life. But that makes me important, doesn’t it?”

Oh. Wow. But there’s more…

Often the first ball we drop is our relationships. Being “busy” quickly becomes a barrier or excuse in the way of true community. I am busy, and many of my friends know that I am busy. When the only answer I ever give them in response to the question “How are you?” is, “Busy,” this communicates that I don’t have time for them. When I constantly say, “I’m busy,” I communicate to others that “I don’t need you right now.” Most of our friends pick up this subtle message and stay away.

What we often realize too late is that our “busy” answer is actually a choice not to engage in our community. We choose to do other stuff over hanging out with our friends. If I continue to tell myself the lie that busy is good, I slowly enter into more of an isolated and a self-centered existence.

And here’s the kicker:

…if we are too busy to engage in relationships, we face a larger problem. When I respond and tell you I am too busy, too often I actually need your help. Often in those times when we most need a deep relationship, instead of pursuing that relationship, we embrace our task list and avoid the comfort and support that true friendship can offer. And the result of being extra busy, ironically, is loneliness and depression.

Time is worth more than money to so many people I know, and yes, even to me. I’ve been working hard over the last five years especially to hone in my “here’s what can be done” approach to my life. And yet…and yet I feel like I fail.

Why does there have to be so much to do?

Part of it’s having kids, part of it’s having a lot of small project work, part of it’s that I have to be at a certain level of busy to function well.

But what Shinabarger is outlining in this chapter so well is a different approach to time, one that I’ve been flirting with and haven’t yet been able to articulate. In fact, just a few paragraphs later, he talks about something that has been on my heart since the smartphone explosion all around me (nope, I’m NOT getting one) and since my kids have gotten older: presence.

Presence is not fast, big, or cheap. You cannot replace presence with someone or something else. Presence is an essential element that we all need and desire in our deepest relationships. It’s unspoken. It’s true. It’s the greatest encouragement anyone can ever receive or give. Presence is a physical expression of love in the midst of a culture that never stops—it is to stop and be with someone that matters.

He goes on to define and outline some time indicators and that may help you, as they helped me, to further consider how my time spent reflects on what my priorities truly are.

There are 14 chapters in More or Less, covering virtually everything in your life, from your kitchen pantry to your closet to your time, from your transportation to your presents to your access. I didn’t find it a fast read, though it’s a VERY good read. I found I could only manage so much before my brain sort of stopped. I needed to noodle a bit before I could read more.

It’s practical and applicable and it doesn’t just leave you with a good idea. Shinaberger outlines a general plan of action after he shares how he or others approached what he calls Enough Experiments. In fact, he went so far as to build a pretty rockin website that has links to the videos mentioned in the book, a discussion guide, and a worksheet to help you with your closet.

What makes this an incredible book isn’t just that it’s tightly written, that it has a thread of story running through the whole thing, that Jeff sounds like the kind of guy you would probably like. What makes this a remarkable read is the challenge it leaves in your heart, the way it forces you to acknowledge your role in the world at large, whether you choose to engage or not. It reminds me, in fact, of how I felt and continue to feel after reading Refuse to Do Nothing.

Read this book. And then share it with someone close to you.

~ ~ ~

I read this book as part of the Patheos Book Club blogger roundtable. And it got me to thinking, on a bit of a different topic, about one of the things I really appreciate about the Patheos Book Club. It’s forcing me to read things I might skip out on, because of the high comfort level I have with the echo chamber known as the books I tend to like and have on my review shelf. It’s making my brain stretch, even when I don’t feel like I can commit to a class or higher ed of other kinds due to the season of life I’m in.

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I’m over at Catholic Exchange:

This is one of those years where it’s striking me particularly hard that May is Mary’s month.

As busy, as crazy, as chaotic as it is, it’s Mary’s month.

As hare-brained as I am, as filled to the max with unfinished tasks, as sneezy and snoozled and snarky, it’s Mary’s month.

Read the rest →

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— In bloom —

The apple trees:

The redbud:

The lilac in the farrrrr corner:

— Bouquets —

— For the love of horses —

— Mancub cuteness —

— Look where (& how) I found him —

— The real reason to plant tulips —

— Coming soon —

Visit Conversion Diary for more Quick Takes, many with ACTUAL WORDS.

This post 7 in Pictures appeared first on SnoringScholar.com.

You might think that makes me a biased reader, and you’re right. I’m biased in a different way than I was at age 14, when I read everything Stephen King wrote in the course of about an 18-month period. This time, I actually do sort of know the author. In this instance, I can marvel at the humanity behind the story, as opposed to restricting myself to the

So, today, I introduce you to the latest in one of my favorite series: Greater Treasures, a novella in Karina Fabian’s DraonEye, PI, storyline.

In the past, Vern, who’s serving his time by doing good as a private investigator to get his dragon powers back, has always been sort of a comical character. His sidekick is Sister Grace, who’s badass as she is devout and complements Vern’s quirks and personality in a way that I delight in more with every tale I read.

Fabian’s DragonEye books have never failed to make me reread passages and guffaw (invariably leading my kids to ask me to read it aloud). Vern’s tended to slapstick and puns in the past, but in this novella, we see another side of Vern. Sister Grace isn’t as active a part of this storyline—she’s critical to it, don’t get me wrong—and that definitely impacts how Vern reacts.

It’s a side that we had a glimpse of in Live and Let Fly (which I read last year), and I can’t help but wonder if Fabian has more of this style of writing up her sleeve. (She probably doesn’t even know, now that I think about it.) It’s deeper and touching, and it still makes you smile.

Says Fabian:

Most people associate the DragonEye stories with high humor ranging from puns to slapstick, and in fact, the first stories and the novels have certainly been crazy fun.  But the life of a cynical dragon PI isn’t all laughs, and Vern has had a few chilling stories to tell me.  Some of these, I’ve sold to anthologies, but some are too long for that.  Thus, I’ve decided to start publishing them on my own.

One thing I like to do for DragonEye stories is watch old noir films.  Greater Treasures came to me while watching the Maltese Falcon.  If you’ve never seen it, I recommend it.  (Then, reread the story to see if you catch the in jokes.)  I needed something with more “oomph” than a bird statue, and since Vern has some history with the Lance of Longinus, it made a good fit.  I enjoyed looking up all the conspiracy theories about the use of the Lance by Hitler, which is where the neo-Nazi angle came in.  To say more would be spoilers, so please, enjoy the story.

Overall, I enjoyed Greater Treasures. It’s a quick read and entertaining. Even so, it’s not shallow and there’s just enough other stuff there to make me wonder what other stories are going to come out of it…

Of course, like any demanding fiction addict, I want morrrrrre.

Here’s your chance to win a free electronic copy of Greater Treasures.

Leave a comment or question for Karina, Vern, or Sister Grace by May 31.

Want more? Here’s an excerpt.

{Watch the embedded video here.}

This post Greater Treasures: A DragonEye Novella appeared first on SnoringScholar.com.

This week’s giveaway:

Pray for Me: The Life and Spiritual Vision of Pope Francis, First Pope from the Americas

By Robert Moynihan (Image Books, 2013)

About the book:

From the founder and editor of Inside the Vatican magazine, the world’s most well-informed, comprehensive monthly on the Roman Catholic Church, comes this enlightening introduction to the life and spiritual teachings of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, now Pope Francis, the first Pope of the Americas.

On March, 13, 2013, 115 Cardinals elected for the first time a Pope from outside of Europe. Pope Francis, a native of Argentina, is not just the first Pope from the Southern Hemisphere, he is also the first Jesuit to ever hold the Chair of Peter. This means a bridging of the Northern and Southern hemispheres and religious traditions in a way we’ve never seen before, signifying a new global vision for the 1.2 billion people who call themselves Catholic.

Now a leading expert on the papacy provides the ultimate introduction to this new Pope, including biographical information and an absorbing collection of Jorge Mario Bergoglio most persuasive words.

Accepting entries until 7 AM Eastern one week from today.

The fine print: One entry per person, please. You must have a valid email address (filled in on the comment form below), which I promise not to use for anything other than this giveaway (it’s not public after you type it in). You enter the email as part of the comment form–you do not have to include it in the body of your comment. Good luck!

This post Weekly Giveaway: Pray for Me appeared first on SnoringScholar.com.