Saints in Training

How do you do this???

2006-02-01T16:28:00.000-08:00

I am having a lot of fun doing the podcast BUT I am in desperate need of help from someone who actually understands how MP3's etc work. I don't even own an Ipod and yet here I am trying to enter my podcast into the Itunes database. I have no idea how to add an mp3 link of my podcast either. If anyone would like to have mercy on my tiny brain and help me figure this out I would be so grateful!

Catholic Homeschooling Podcast

2006-01-31T23:55:00.000-08:00

I have been having lots of fun figuring out how to make a podcast.

http://www.catholichomeschooling.blogspot.com/

Grace Lines

2006-01-29T06:17:00.001-08:00

"Sometimes when I find myself spiritually in dryness so great that I cannot produce a single good thought, I recite very slowly an Our Father or a Hail Mary. These prayers alone console me. They nourish my soul."
St. Therese of Lisieux

For Reflection:
St. Therese of Lisieux reveals to us that she returned to vocal prayer when dryness attacked her time of prayer. What attitudes of heart and pious practice can I employ to make my vocal prayer effective and fervent, a suitable means of conversing with God when dryness affects my prayer time?

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Let's face it--it's NOT easy to "feel" God's prescence but it's vitally important that we do. We will all get to the end of the path one day and we'll all be judged on how we lived our life. Telling him the reason we didn't live our lives for Him was because we just weren't "feeling it" won't fly. It's hard though. Like my 5 year old daughter says to me often "I don't see Him! Where is He?" She's funny because she says this a lot. She's always been the child that needs the visual. She often will just pop and say out of no where when we are talking about God "But I don't see Him! Come out God! Where are you? Peek a book!" It's funny but it's also the way we all feel. We CAN'T see Him. It does make it hard. So we need to hold on to what we've got. If we have memories of feeling close to Him we need to hold on to them. If we have heard of miracles or have had prayers answered we need to keep records of them and recall them when life gets rough. When nothing else works we need to speak his name out loud because we can hear it. It's out there. It's real.

Reading DEUS CARITAS EST (Part 3)

2006-01-29T05:04:00.000-08:00

One day I'll have finished reading through this encyclical and I'll be back to posting about our newest lego creation or some great deal I got at the grocery store. Then I'm afraid whoever reads this blog may think I suffer from multiple personalities. That's how I operate though. My interests are varied so you never really know what you'll hear about when you come here.

Real life tidbit: My husband had CQ last night which means he was on duty 24 hours. He'll be home in an hour so we can go to to church. Then he'll sleep since he was awake all night. The night before last I pulled an all nighter myself when CJ didn't seem to want to go to sleep. I got probably 2 hours of sleep and then the other half of the terrible twosome woke me up. I went in to make my coffee only to realize I had used my last filter already. Of all the days....

Back to the encyclical..

It’s funny because I thought I was all finished with 6 but when I went back it felt like I was seeing the last paragraph for the first time. I think that’s why you should probably only spend about 15 minutes when you’re trying to really absorb something like this. After that your brain just seems to time out anyway.

He now says that when love matures to the level of love that Jesus modeled for us then it becomes something that seeks out its own death in many ways. It is like the wheat that falls to the ground and “dies”. Only after it dies will it then bear much fruit. Another example he gives is of Jesus whose journey of love takes him to his death at the cross. Only then can He be raised from the dead. This is the kind of love we should be seeking.
I wonder if in our thoughts on finding love in this world any of us put that down as a quality. “Let me find love so that I can be broken down” Essentially though that is what he is saying. He says that the love we seek should free us from ourselves so that we can be giving to others. It sounds so different from the personals we read in the paper.

SWF seeking someone who will bring me flowers, cook me dinner, rub my feet and put me first in everything.

Perhaps it should say this instead

SWF seeking someone who I can bring flowers to, cook dinner for, rub their feet and put them first in everything.

A perfect love would be a constant flow of giving and receiving. It could be, though, that we go through times where we feel like we are the only one giving. How then do we meet that need we have inside of us? We can’t just give, give, give until we are depleted and empty inside. In order to keep giving of ourselves to others (like our husband, our kids, that neighbor...) we must drink from the waters that flow from Jesus’ love. We aren’t expected to just exhaust ourselves loving everyone else while never receiving love. Love does need to be a 2 way street. Sometimes though you just aren't "feeling the love" as they say. For example right now my husband is working a gazillion hours a week. He barely has time to breathe. As you can imagine I end up having to be both mom and dad much of the time. That can be exhausting. So what do I do? Should I say "All I do is give, give, give and I get nothing in return." That is certainly what I think on a lot of days. This encyclical tells us that we should turn to Jesus. His is a perfect love. That is where we will be replenished. We should never feel like all we do is give. Even if the humans in our lives aren't always able to give back to us what we need, Jesus is able to do it for them.

Daddy

2006-01-28T15:40:00.000-08:00

Geez Dad you've been gone so long I forgot what you looked like!

Women of Grace Conference--Feb 17-19

2006-01-28T15:22:00.000-08:00

I've been hearing about this and wondered if anyone is going. I live in Texas but wouldn't it be fun to take off a week and head to Florida for a week of spiritual renewal?

February 17-19, 2006
Our 6th Women of Grace conference is returning to the beautiful Caribe Royale All-Suites Resort and Convention Center in Orlando Florida.

Calling all Women

If you have not experienced a Women of Grace Conference yet, then you owe it to yourself to do so. Hear some of the most exciting Catholic women speakers in America discuss issues of importance for women today.

* Gather for awesome liturgy and prayer.

* Share in uplifting fellowship

* Meet with fellow Women of Grace members.

* Spend time rejuvenating your body and soul.

* Meet and Speak with Women of Grace speakers and so much more...

Special High School Age Youth Program

We will also be including a special high school age youth program for young women in addition to the main adult program. Bring your high school age daughters, nieces, granddaughters, and friends with you to share in this exciting Women of Grace experience.

Bring the Entire Family if you Wish

Want to bring the entire family? This location offers fabulous accommodations for the entire family as well. You can attend the conference while the rest of the family can experience the thrills of the 75-foot water slide or relax on the deck of the huge free-form heated pool. There's even an interactive discovery pool for the younger children.

Maybe your family would like to play tennis day or night, or take in a game of golf at one of several nearby courses. Two fully-equipped exercise rooms keep your health on track while the hotel's video arcade keeps younger ones entertained.

Not enough to do at the hotel? The Caribe Royal offers complimentary transportation to and from Disney World, Universal Studios, Sea World and the Orlando/Orange County Convention Center Complex.

Where else can you go on retreat and yet bring the entire family?

Make Your Hotel Reservations

To make hotel reservations, call 800-823-8300 or 407-238-8000 and mention you are with the Women of Grace Conference. Every room you book, helps us pay for the conference space. So plan on spending the entire weekend with us at The Caribe Royal.

Check out the links above for all your Women of Grace Conference Information.

8101 World Center Drive
Orlando, Florida 32821
800-823-8300
407-238-8000

Every room you book, helps us
pay for the conference space.

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Holy Smokes!

2006-01-28T08:21:00.000-08:00

I have to post a little tidbit that happened the other night while I was watching the Pope on EWTN at the Celebration for St. Paul's Conversion. They were swinging around a lot of incense and I asked my daughter if she knew what it was to which she replied "Of course, it's Holy Smokes!"

Don't you just love it??!!!

Reading DEUS CARITAS EST (Part 2)

2006-01-28T07:59:00.000-08:00

I'm back! It could take me years at this rate to read DEUS CARITAS EST but at least I'm plugging away. I have to admit it feels good to be working on something challenging. As a mom who spends the majority of her time building forts and reading children's books it's kind of nice to read something a little more academic. I can feel the neurons firing up right now. Sparks are flying! I have to just say that when you read something a bit challenging and especially something as important as the Pope's message to us, then it's a really good idea to break it into chunks. I read a lot of blogs written by people blessed with far more brains than myself and somehow they have managed to read the entire thing, internalize it, and pop out a review 24 hours ago. Sometimes in reading other blogger's reviews, I still have to keep the dictionary right next to me. Many of the Catholic blogs I read are challenging in and of themselves and I'll admit to feeling like a freshman who accidentally got placed into a graduate level class when I read them. If you ever start feeling like maybe God forgot a piece of the brain puzzle when he put you together then cry no more tears. You are not alone! I'm well convinced that if you were to swim around in the sea of theological terms that many of our fellow bloggers do daily you would probably also feel more at home with the wording of some of these encyclicals. However if you're like me your days consist of mudpies and magnets not philosohy and theology. It's ok if you feel out of your element. This is your faith. Fire up the neurons, grab your dictionary and don't get frustrated. Consider this to be that piece of pie you want to just savor one bite at a time.

I'm going to head back into the Encyclical (and I'm up to number 6. Don't you think they number it like that for people who have to take it in chunks? That's my guess! If you're reading this with me then go ahead and minimize dictionary.com. You know it's not going to be a few words in before we have to start using it!

6. In the last entry we discussed the fact that the kind of love modeled by Jesus will require us to purify ourselves aka get a serious scrubbing from the inside out! How can we experience the kind of love as defined by Jesus standards so that it takes us to that promise of eternal life? Well the Pope takes us over to Song of Songs well known as the Bible's own version of "erotica" if you will. He says this book is well known to the mystics. Now I've heard of the mystic tradition but I'm not sure I know what it is really. Mysticism defined means inspiring a sense of mystery and wonder. At this point you may want to open another window at www.newadvent.org because you will need it for pulling up Catholic terminology. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia at New Advent the mystic tradition is all about bringing us to a direct union of our soul with the Divinity. What is the Divinity? Well my understanding is that the Divinity is basically God. Mysticism would entail a study in and of itself to truly understand it but suffice it to say that the mystics seem to be trying to bring the soul and the Divine together through a method of contemplation (deep concentration) and prayer. Apparently the mystics of the Old Testament were really into Song of Songs.

Song of Songs is basically an Old Testament book (so it was all written pre-Jesus). It was meant as a love song for a Jewish wedding feast to glorify the idea of love in marriage. Now just so you know I've already looked up numerous words in the dictionary. Many of these words I already know the definition of but I looked them up anyway. For example I looked up "exalt", "conjugal", "divinity", and "ascent". So why would I look up words that I already know the meaning of? Well this is a trick of the trade and if you want to become the kind of reader who does more than just scratch the surface then you'll add this to your repertoire of reading skills. Words have lots of various meanings. Some of the differences are so subtle that you hardly wonder why they add another entry to the definition. Yet the one thing language is NOT is cut and dry. This is clear already from the Encyclical that Pope Benedict is writing to us right now. We have spent almost our entire time discussing the meaning of the word love AND we're about to do it some more! Words are more than their mere definitions. They are expressions of far greater thoughts and ideas. You could write an entire dissertation on the meaning of just one word. Why do you think communication can be so difficult even amongst people who speak the same language? If you want to grasp what you are reading then you need to taste the full flavor of a word's meaning. Read the definition and ponder it. You may find it gives your sentence more depth, even when you thought it was just a very simple word.

So here we go again....in the Song of Songs two different Hebrew words are used for love. Dodim which we are told refers to a love that is insecure or at least not fully formed. The second word used is ahaba. Ahaba is the Greek version of agape . If you remember agape means the kind of love modeled by Jesus. Let's just call that perfect love. Apparently in the Song of Songs text Ahaba replaces the word Dodim. Both mean love but as we have learned they mean very different levels of love.

The Pope writes ..." No longer is it self-seeking, a sinking in the intoxication of happiness; instead it seeks the good of the beloved: it becomes renunciation and it is ready, and even willing, for sacrifice."

Let's just go ahead and paraphrase that sentence to help us "get it". Here goes my elementary version of that sentence:

..."No longer is this love just about what that individual person wants. The selfish individual who wants that "happy feeling" the same way a drug addict craves another hit. This selfish person craves the feeling of happiness as a drug to feel on top of the world; Instead this higher kind of love forgets about their own selfish desires and instead actively looks for ways to help the person they dearly love: this love grows into a rejection of the person's previous selfish desires. This kind of love is ready and prepared for total surrender. "

This is just my own paraphrase. As you can see I took a sentence that was well written and concise and turned it into a long paragraph full of many words. My college English instructor would have called that being "verbose" or "wordy". Well what I did was turn a perfectly eloquent sentence into something very wordy. As someone who double majored in English as an undergrad I can tell you that this goes against all the good training you receive in writing. However, we are not talking about writing as a discipline right now. We are talking about reading for understanding.

When you write you do want to be descriptive and concise. The Pope's sentence was the perfect example of this. When you read however you may find that you need to dissect things in order to understand them. Paraphrasing is a method that is very useful for this. It is for your own personal benefit. Breaking it down into a possibly wordy, verbose paragraph is a good method for reading. It is certainly not the method you would use for writing.

Of course you may ask "But isn't this a blog---an act of writing in and of itself?" Well I will say this much. I have written countless essays and papers as a student. I have even tackled the Masters Thesis (though I have yet to take on a dissertation). That is an entirely different kind of writing. This blog, for me, is more of a series of thoughts set down in an almost conversational tone. If you were to sit down for coffee with me this is most likely exactly the way the conversation would go because this is how I think. Scary, I know (cringe)....Can you imagine being my husband who has to be subjected often enough to my ramblings!

At any rate, I hope that someone may stumble across the blog and realize that reading things like Encyclicals and other theological writings requires a lot of interaction. I focused my masters thesis on the use of metacognition as a means to reading for understanding. Research shows that reading is not a passive process, at least not if you want to understand what you're reading. As a convert who literally read herself OUT of the Baptist church and INTO the Catholic Church, I've discovered that a great many Catholics could benefit from a self education in the faith. The reason they shy away from it is because they don't want to feel stupid! They think to themselves "Yeah sure...I'm going to read some book written by a guy who has a PhD in Theology...that's just what I needed today---a swift reminder that he's smart and I'm not!"

I'm here to say that the majority of authors out there are not trying to make any of us feel stupid. However they do need us to actively participate in our reading endeavors. Authors need to take time in their writing to make it clear, interesting and informative. I am a firm believer in choosing the authors you read wisely. There are just too many good books out there these days to waste your time on a book that simply doesn't speak to you. However, you still have to interact with that book in your hands. You have to pick it apart like a fresh muffin chock full of blueberries. You have to pry it open like a little child looking for the sweetest part and then savoring it one chunk at a time.

Speaking of food....it's lunchtime and real life calls! I must put back on my apron and whip up something fabulous for the crew. Before I leave though I just want to reflect on what we read in the encyclical because that is after all the whole point to reading it in the first place!

We read today about people who want to feel that euphoric feeling of love. They seek happiness as if they are drug addicts who will go into withdrawal shakes without it. They aren't caring about what the person they are "in love" with needs or wants. They just need that "feeling". This we have learned poisons love and twists it. It is not at all the kind of perfect love that Jesus asks us to work towards.

I think this is the kind of thing we all need to just stop and reflect on ESPECIALLY if you're married. In fact I've got to tell you if I never read another word of this encyclical I have already learned something more valuable than gold. This applies to me right here, right now.

I'm an Army wife. For 10 years we've been shuffling all over the country every 2-3 years. Once we even moved after only being somewhere 18 months. Of course that place was Tampa. We lived minutes from Busch Gardens and close to the beach. We had it made in the shade. Naturally they yanked us from there almost as soon as we arrived yet we've been stationed in other places that were not our favorite destinations for 3 full years. Since we moved to our new location 5 months ago my husband's new job has become a total nightmare. He leaves the house at 4 am returning between 8 and 9 pm. Most weeks the kids don't see him at all because they're already asleep. Meanwhile I'm cooking,cleaning,homeschooling, diaper changing, bathing, reading bedtime stories, cleaning up bumps and bruises and wiping away the tears from children who want to know if Daddy will ever eat dinner with us again. I've got to tell you I've had a very bad attitude ever since we moved here. I can assure you that I'm just not "feeling the love" right now. There's nothing fuzzy going on around here. It's hard to feel euphoric about your beloved when he's never home or better yet when he does come home he's covered in camouflage paint from a field excercise, dumps all his field gear onto your newly mopped kitchen floor, heads for the bathroom with a sleepy grunt to the family then collapses on the couch into a coma. Repeat this every night after. When the weekend comes he is on staff duty. He works 24 hours, meets you at Church, and then goes back to the office. For the most part your conversations consist of "Hey I'm going to be late again" and "Have you washed any of my underwear?". My end of the conversation consists of "The baby had diarrhea" and "Yes I washed your underwear with the 3rd load of the day because two of the children have the flu, something is wrong with the water pipe, and we are out of milk again".. Oh can't you just feel the love?????

If you think for one second that either one of us (hubby or I) are feeling happiness in the form of an IV drip that takes us to pure Euphoria then let me set it straight. If I paid attention to what my feelings told me I"d have to say "Love has been cancelled this evening and been replaced by vomit,snot and a bad case of diarrhea"

The Pope is right. If you're addicted to the feeling of the love drug then you've got a bad case of "Dodim". If on the other hand through all of the vomit, diarrhea, runny noses and sleepless nights you can find your way to care more for the other person than you do for yourself then you may have the right to actually call your love Ahaba or Agape. I think Papa Benedict must have been talking directly to me. It's time I start thinking more about my husband and how tough it is on him to work all those hours than complaining to myself about how lonely this life can be. I'd rather love like Jesus than a druggie looking for her next hit.

Reading DEUS CARITAS EST (Part 1)

2006-01-27T21:04:00.000-08:00

What is an encyclical? Technically it means a "circular letter". As a convert eager to get my hands on anything and everything I could for reading material, I often would notice authors quoting encyclicals or referring to them. The whole thing sounded very complicated, scholarly and far above my mental capabilities. Then one day I decided to throw caution to the wind and read one myself. I have to say I discovered that they are very readable. I'll admit I'm a bookworm to begin with. I love to read and I'm not afraid of a challenge. I know where the dictionary is if I can't hang with the big boys. Looking up a few words and taking a little extra time to sift through something doesn't make me feel any less of a woman. I wish, however, that many more Catholics were willing to read things they feel are too "academic" for them. People don't believe me when I tell them the first Catholic book I ever read was the Catechism. Again--highly readable.

To me the idea of the Pope writing a circular letter is pretty cool. It reminds me of all those forwarded messages we get from friends and family only THIS one you don't want to delete as junk mail. Think of it as the Pope's first email or blog to his fold. A Dad sending out some encouragement to his kids.

While I don't claim to be a theological expert giving you his treatise on this encyclical, I do come to you as a mom who feels pretty well versed about the topic the Pope chose for his first "circular letter"--love. More importantly I want to encourage other moms in particular to begin reading things like encyclicals and other writings pertaining to our faith even if they feel too "hard" for someone without formal theological training.

Maybe it's because I'm a librarian's daughter, but somewhere along the way I developed an interest in taking on the reading of challenging material. My mom, the librarian, taught me to finetune my research skills. I quickly learned from her that if you have a dictionary and a pencil you can come to a pretty decent understanding of just about anything you read. Oh it may time some considerable time, especially if you have no background in the subject matter BUT if you're willing to take the time you will find that you can not only tackle the challenging material but you can also have fun with it. I guess that's another one of the reasons why I homeschool. I always felt that I learned more when I took an active role in my education. I certainly gained my highschool diploma, my bachelor's degree and my graduate degree the traditional way but I feel I've learned the most from the subjects I've taught myself. There are books written on every subject. As long as you've got the time and the drive you can build a pretty good foundation in just about any subject matter you're interested in. As Catholics, can there ever be a more worthwhile subject matter to tackle? If that's not enough to convince you then consider the fact that spiritual reading is a daily discipline in the life of the religious. Even the catechism mentions that in order to help ourselves perform the act of faith we need to build our faith and one means of doing that is reading about our faith. You shouldn't wait until you feel empty inside to start building your faith. Do it now so when the dark times come (and they will) you have plenty of fuel for the long winter.

Here's an example of how I attack an encyclical. Pull it up if you want and read along to see that, while it may take you awhile, even the smallest flower can take on the task.....

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20051225_deus-caritas-est_en.html....

So here we go....let's dive in to DEUS CARITAS EST

1. We've got an introduction with the Pope quoting scripture from what we often call the Love book or 1 John. We are told that the first part of this letter will be to just think about the idea of love and what it means followed by the second part which will speak more about the "ecclesial exercise" . Ecclesial means relating to the Church while "exercise" in this instance would mean the act of employing or putting into play. So what we have here apparently is a letter about the meaning of love and then how we, as the Church, are to put this into action.

I've got my dictionary.com minimized in another window, do you? Don't be afraid to use it. Make it your new best friend.

Part 1: The Unity of Love in Creation and in Salvation History

2. Right away we are told that in talking about love we must first define it and in order to do that we cannot "prescind" or withdraw one's attention from what society defines love as meaning. Prescinds--now that's a word I'd never heard before. I looked it up and now I know what it means. See? That's how it works....you don't know the meaning of something you just look it up. It takes longer to read that way but you gain meaning and that is ,after all, the goal. Who wants to take the time to read something and only half understand it? That's no different than going to a foreign country where you only know portions of the language. So we're talking now about the semantics (meaning) of the word love. You can love your child and you can love a milkshake. Do they really mean the same thing? Probably not. You'd give up your right arm for your child but would you give the same up for a milkshake? Ok well if you're a chocoholic maybe....the point is love can mean many different things and it can be on different levels. So the question we are asked is whether we are talking about one thing or many things when we talk about love.

Now here we are barely into the introduction and I've been reading already for 15 minutes. I read for awhile and I look up definitions--then I paraphrase what I just read into my own words to make sure I understand it.

3/4. What is the difference between Eros and Agape? We are told that Eros means the kind of love between a man and a woman. You may even be reminded of the word erotic which is a derivative of the word eros. On the other hand if you're a mom like me with 4 kids and diapers up to your eyeballs then you may have forgotten the word erotic is actually a part of the English language! At any rate we are told that the Greek Old Testament (heretofore referred as OT) contains the word eros only twice while the New Testament (NT) never uses it at all. Why are we told that? I don't know but there must be a reason!!! Is it a bit of interesting trivia or is he going someplace with it. Chances are it's more than trivia.

We are told that New Testament writers use the word agape for love instead of eros. If you look up the definition of agape it is defined as love as revealed in Jesus, seen as spiritual and selfless and a model for humanity. It also says that it is not sexual in nature. Of course if you looked up the word in dictionary.com the first definition was "mouth wide open". If you got that definition then remember to use your pronunciation key. You got aGAPE as in "my one year old baby just ate the dog food".

We are also told about the word philia (the love of friendship). If you look THAT word up you're not going to get the definition we are going for. You get things like hemophilia and other philia's....In this case you may have to google the word a few times before you can come up with something that will help you. At any rate the encyclical gives us the definition already so we're good!

Here we begin to get into a discussion about how very interesting it is that the New Testament writers utterly avoided using the term eros. They instead began to redefine the word love by using agape and philia instead for its meaning.

We are told that..." According to Friedrich Nietzsche, Christianity had poisoned eros, which for its part, while not completely succumbing, gradually degenerated into vice"...

Now what does that sentence mean. For the most part I get what he's saying but I'm not totally sure. Let me put it into my own words by substituting some of the big words for something that makes more sense to me. Here's my version of that sentence

.....According to Nietzsche, Christianity had killed sexual love. Sexual love did not die but it did go downhill becoming something considered to be totally immoral......

Ok I know that didn't sound as eloquent as the way Papa Benedict put it but I think I get what he meant a little better now.

So we are told that Nietzsche believed that the Church's rules and regs about love and sex turned something God created into something twisted. At the same time if you'll notice we are given the first footnote which looks like this [1] and refers us to Cf. Jenseits von Gut und BÃ¶se, IV, 168. Now I know this is a reference of some kind but just what it is referring to I have no idea. Let me google it and see what it's all about....(pause for a minute)

Ok I'm back! I can't find much in English but it looks like this is a reference to Nietzsche's writings. Maybe someone will come along and read this blog (is anyone out there?) and fill us in on what this means in English. I have to say I'm pretty proud that right now I'm actually talking about Nietzsche. I've written his name so many times in the last few minutes I'm almost doing it without have to backspace and correct the mistypes! Up until now I'd heard of him but never knew much about him. I figured that was for the philosophers of the world. Yet here I am discussing him with all of you. Not bad for a stay at home mom whose conversations tend to be with those right around the age of 2.

The next paragraph or so goes on to discuss how the term eros in the pre-Christian era had already been twisted by those who considered it a power unto itself. There were fertility cults for example and prostitution in temples. Christianity then "declared war" on this interpretation of it. Believing sexual love was as powerful as God himself was wrong and that is why the New Testament writers needed to be careful in the words they chose to define love.

5. We are told now there is a relationship between love and God because love promises us eternity. In order to get to eternity though we must not merely give in to some impulse. ..."Purification and growth in maturity are called for; and these also pass through the path of renunciation" In my words this means "We need to get clean and grow up! In order to do this we've got to give it all over to God. Renounce it, get rid of all the dirt and the junk. We've got to let Him clean us out and make us new." Those are my words though. They're not eloquent but they make sense to me!

Next we are told that eros is a challenge. It is a challenge we must take on body and soul. We can't let our flesh win out because that's how we get "Girls gone wild!" We can't totally reject the flesh because that does not acknowledge that God gave us our bodies and that indeed we are human beings with desires. The Pope writes ..."The epicure Gassendi used to offer Descartes the humorous greeting: ÂO Soul!Â And Descartes would reply: ÂO Flesh!Â.".....I have to admit I don't have the faintest clue what the word epicure means. Take a 5 minute break while I go back to the dictionary....

Well now isn't this fun!!! An epicure is someone with refined taste especially in food and wine. In that case perhaps I should give myself a new title. Holly Rose, Epicure Extoardinaire.... We've also got a new footnote sending us to track down the writing of Descartes. I know enough to recall that Descartes is a philosopher and I am assuming that Gassendi was someone who had really good taste in food and wine. I guess the two must have discussions about the spirit vs. the flesh. Although I'm sure I could follow the rabbit trail to learn more about these two I don't feel it's crucial to my understanding of the Pope's encyclical to do that so I"m going to be happy to leave it a mystery for now...

I'm also going to leave the rest of this Encyclical a mystery for the time being. I think I've done a great job dissecting it thus far. I've learned some new words and I've definitely got a good idea of what I'm reading about. I've even learned a lot about the word "Love" that I didn't know before.

While I probably bored the daylights out of whoever may have stumbled across this blog accidentally my intention was merely to show how even a mommy in PJ's whose reading normally consists of Dr. Seuss and Goodnight Moon can indeed take on an Encyclical and use it as a faith builder.

After all, he's our Papa!! If he's got something to say then I'm going to read it!

My Baby Boy!

2006-01-27T11:45:00.000-08:00

This is a picture of my baby boy, CJ, who turned one this October. This picture is of a family tradition where we let them dive into the cake totally unhibited. It makes a huge mess and leaves them with a serious sugar high but it sure is fun. All the kids ask if they can stuff their face in the cake too but alas that is a privilege awarded only to those celebrating their very first birthday. There is something special about being one and digging your face into a cake without getting in trouble. It just seems totally appropriate.

Seeing him dig into it with such fervor, getting messy but brimming from ear to ear with enthusiasm makes me remember what it's like to discover something new. Sometimes you just need to dig in and get your hands dirty. I'm one of those people that shys away from things that get you dirty. Probably because, as the mom, I'm going to have to clean it up. I've been guilty more times than I can count of telling my kids not to go outside because they might drag mud in on the carpet. When we go outside, I'm often telling them not to dig in the dirt or climb that tree because they might fall. I was never much into the outdoors growing up. I didn't lik to be hot or climb trees or do much that involved sweating. I was a bookworm and I still am BUT children, by nature, are discoverers. They want to dig in. It's the adults that don't let them because we have to clean up the mess.

I let CJ, my beloved baby boy, get messy because it was his birthday. His enthusiasm spilled over to the whole family. We were laughing and giggling right along with him. Isn't it funny that any other day of the year this might have been cause for anything BUT celebratory giggles. I would have just gotten frustrated and irritated knowing the enormous amount of cleaning ahead of me. Instead, I had already planned for it. I knew he was going to dive in so we dressed for the occasion. He was already down to the diaper and ready to go in the tubby when the fun was done! We all chipped in cleaning up his high chair and the table and the floor and the.....you get the picture.

So why can't we do this every day? No, I don't mean smashing our faces into surgar packed birthday cakes. I mean digging in and getting a little messy. Going outside and making mudpies or climbing trees (carefully because the bookworm in me still cringes at the possible fall that could come...) The point is that being prepared for it could make the difference. Some good playclothes that can handle the dirt, a place to knock the dirt off your shoes by the door or maybe even dedicated shoes for outside play that stay by the door (Wow that's a thought!) Maybe a little station set up with some cleaning wipes to get the major gunk off before heading for the tub. I suppose there all kinds of ways to prepare for a major outdoor adventure without making Mom have to hire Merry Maids to help her clean up the destruction that follows.

It is hard for someone like me who likes to clean as little as possible to let the kids go crazy. I like my house to be kept moderately neat. When I see a lego bomb go off I can feel a tightening in my chest. I often don't see the great creation they have made. I just see a mess I have to clean up. It is so easy for moms to lose that creative edge when we are the ones often left to clean it up. Of course, teaching our children to clean up after themselves goes a long way but at the end of the day we all know that if we want the house to be truly clean we'll have to put in some man hours on it by ourselves as well.

As a mom I have to remember that cleaning up some dirt is just part of my call to holiness. I forget that sometimes. I want less work, less mess. Yet I need to start looking at things through a different lens. Allowing our children to dig in and make discoveries outside should be part of the curriculum. I know this already. I have a Bachelors' degree in Psychology and a Masters degree in Elementary Education. I've had the full range of exposure to the theories of childhood development. However most homeschooling moms know this already. You don't need big named eduactional theorists to tell you---Children need to get diry. They need to dig and climb and swing. They need to make mudpies and jump in puddles.

So my New Years Resolution is NOT what most moms are probably making it to be. Instead of vowing to keep my house cleaner and more organized this year, I am aiming to allow it to be a little messier. I want to give my children the freedom to get dirty without watching that frown creep across my face. I'm going to plan for it though. I'm going to have playclothes and playshoes and babywipes ready to go, but if a little mud gets on the carpet I'm going to clean it up with a heart for Jesus. Like St. Therese, the Little Flower, I'm going to thank Jesus for every muddy footprint plastered across my brand new Berber carpet because I know that learning to deal with some mud and dirt, for the sake of my children, is a path to holiness.

Introducing the Rose Family

2006-01-26T07:51:00.000-08:00

Please welcome us to the blog world!! We are converts to the Roman Catholic Church. One day soon I will detail out the story of my conversion. It involved a LOT of books! Reading was the main avenue God used to pull me in! Here you will read all about the life of a Catholic mom to 4 little saints in training. I am of course the lead Saint-in-Training, but I am only the leader because I am the mom. I have discovered that my children are far closer to sainthood and holiness than I will ever be. Permit me to begin a new blog that details the life of a mom who desires to find peace with God amidst a life of sleeplessnes, craziness, loneliness, mounds of diapers, laughs and giggles, and general insanity!

Welcome to the roller coaster. Buckle up and enjoy the ride!