Indeed, the Architect of Love has built the door into heaven so low that no one but a small child can pass through it, unless, to get down to a child's little height, he goes in on his knees.
- Caryll Houslander, The Reed of God
Saturday, February 25, 2012
One More Quote for Today...
The Church Carries Out Her Mission Through Our Ordinary Lives...
It is through our ordinary lives that the Church carries out her mission to proclaim and to manifest God's kingdom of grace, love, truth, justice and peace.
We are always on the witness stand. Our lives tell others about the life of Jesus. We live and talk in such a manner that the truth of what we proclaim inspires them to accept and follow the Lord. We tell the story of Jesus with such conviction and with such power that others want what we have. Faith begins with this witness. The kingdom of God comes to be as the Word is proclaimed, embraced, and lived.
- Seek First the Kingdom, Challenging the Culture by Living Our Faith by Cardinal Wuerl
Friday, February 24, 2012
God's Gracious Invitation to Conversion
Our struggle to renew the nation, our struggle to transform the culture, and our struggle to change the world, must begin with our own very personal response to God's gracious invitation to conversion.
When we face daily frustrations, we need to recall that we have the power to triumph over sin because we have Christ's grace within us. We have the capacity to be victorious, but we must renew the struggle very day with our Lord and Savior, the new Adam, Jesus Christ.
Seek First the Kingdom: Challenging the Culture by Living Our Faith by Cardinal Wuerl (OSV)
Monday, February 20, 2012
Engaging the Culture: A Catholic Homeschool Perspective
Note: These are my notes from the talk I gave at the Kolbe Academy Homeschool Conference in July 2011. I am giving a webinar on a related topic with Homeschool Connections on February 28, 2012 (Please note the date change. We postponed the webinar from tonight to next Tuesday as I am down with a bad cold.) It will have some material in common with the following notes, but contain a lot of new material as well as having a bit of a different emphasis. I'm really looking forward to it!
Engaging the Culture: A Catholic Homeschool Perspective
This talk is from my own perspective as a Catholic homeschooler - most applies to non-homeschoolers too.
Engaging the culture is a two-way street. We affect and are affected by the culture. We shouldn't just set up our own world and let the culture be what it is.
Example: The environment
To a large extent the environmental movement is flawed. Many people are concerned about the environment (which is good), but see people as a threat to the environment (which is problematic and even dangerous in numerous ways). Instead of rejecting the idea of concern for the environment because of these flaws, we really need people who recognize what is good there and are willing to bring our pro-people message to that movement.
I. INDIRECT FORMATION
(How You Think, What You Model)
How this affects our children
Live what you believe. Our faith should encompass our whole being, not just what we do in church. I find this example from The Winged Watchman by Hilda Van Stockum to be particularly powerful (the context is a family living in Holland during World War II - the neighbor's son is helping the Nazis):
Mother was shocked when Father told her that Leendert Schenderhans had become a landwatcher. "And the parents such Good Catholics!" she cried.
"Hmph!" grunted Father. "You women always judge people by what they do in church. I judge them by what they do outside. Farmer Schenderhans is getting rich in the black market."
(This is a GREAT book - make sure you read it!!!)
Special Topic: The Idea of Witness
Mary is the supreme example of living that yes to God because with her fiat, the Word became flesh.
Witnesses (the word martyr means witness) keep hope alive by testifying to the truth in love with their very lives.
Testifying can mean dying for the faith like St. Maximilian Kolbe or it can mean giving everything completely during your life, like Mother Teresa. Both ways are extremely powerful (but not easy)!
Witness vs. Example
Something I find helpful in better understanding the concept of witness is to contrast it with how we commonly think of it in contrast with the concept of being an example to others.
WITNESS:
directed to God (trusts in God) - reflected to others
"we allow ourselves to be a witness"
of the heart
works with our limitations
very powerful in a crisis
EXAMPLE:
relies on ourselves - directed to others
"we make ourselves an example"
external
often causes anxiety because it's easy to set unreasonable expectations of ourselves
often crumbles in tough times
Be true. No agendas.
We don't want to trick our way into doing good in the world. Find the good that others are ready for.
No façades!
If we're paving the way for others it would be very wrong to put them on the wrong track or give them an inflated concept of what we are doing (and thus an unreasonable sense of what they should expect of themselves).
A. LOVE COMES FIRST
The Greatest Commandment according to Jesus (love God, love your neighbor)
Church teaching confirms this in every age:
The whole concern of doctrine and its teaching must be directed to the love that never ends. Whether something is proposed for belief, for hope or for action, the love of our Lord must always be made accessible so that anyone can see that all the works of perfect Christian virtue spring from love and have no other objective than to arrive at love. (Catechism of the Catholic Church #25, quoting the Catechism of the Council of Trent).
Love comes first both because God is love and because everyone is ready to be treated with love, even if they're not ready for something deeper or more complex - like philosophical proofs for the existence of God.
We need to manifest God's love especially to our children. It is the simplest and most powerful way to help them choose to be Catholic even after they're off on their own.
Love authenticates our beliefs in the eyes of others - which makes it the most powerful weapon against relativism. Certainly more powerful than intellectual arguments. Just think of Mother Teresa!
The Gospel says: Hate the sin, love the sinner!
We are fallen and fight a common enemy (evil). Sympathy and love don't require agreement. Love is essential!
Remember that "Be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect" comes up in the Bible in the context of "Love your enemies!"
Here's a great illustration of manifesting God's love from the classic novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe:
B. BALANCE IS KEY
Don't live as a reaction to the culture, but as a reaction to Christ! Don't let evil define who you are! Reacing to the culture poses the grave danger to the very common problem of starting a pendulum problem in motion.
Two important concepts to keep in mind:
Virtue lies in the mean (e.g hope is in the balancing point between presumption and despair)
Beware of false dichotomies (like faith vs. science)
We need to recognize our own weaknesses and be open to learning and to correction.
Evil is tricky - it knows how to get at ME in particular.
What are our danger areas? Usually it's the opposite extreme of what bothers us the most.
The problem of clinging to one truth at the expense of others: This can lead to great distortions (including heresies). e.g. focusing on "God is just" and ignoring "God is love".
Do make distinctions, such as dealbreakers vs. less-than-ideals.
C. REJOICE IN THE GOOD!
Gratitude is a much neglected and much needed virtue in our world today.
1. All good things come from God. We owe it to God to recognize His gifts and be thankful.
2. His plan includes us all working together for the good. We're not all starting individually from square one but continue the good others have done. The good things we find (if we have eyes to see them) are the starting point for all kinds of other goods - like building bridges and relating to others.
3. Wee are happier and more content and more hopeful when we appreciate what is good. Gratitude leads to joy!
4. Don't just be a critic. Work on perspective (history, saint stories, prayer, sacraments)
This is a story from my own life that illustrated this concept well (albeit in the negative):
This was a great illustration to me of how we can be technically correct and "way off base" at the same time.
5. Don't assume the worst about people (I know faithful Catholics struggling with infertility who have been lectured by well-meaning fellow Catholics on the evils of birth control - what a massive breach of charity!!!).
D. HUMILITY AND TRUST
The true meaning of humility: We are the creature. God is the creator. We are not God!!!
This means two things especially:
1. It's not all up to us. Small things are not small. Do the good you are able to do. Expect to plant many small seeds and generally not to know how they turn out in the end.
It's a very dangerous thing to think it's all up to us. It leads to all kinds of problems and disconnects us from God.
2. The gifts we have are gifts from God. We can't take credit for them nor deny that we have them. We have a responsibility to develop and share them. Nothing wrong with confidence. Beware of arrogance!!!
3. We need each other and we need God. There's a huge spiritual component here. Prioritize yoru relationship with God. Try to find good spiritual direction! Don't be ashamed to need help. We're supposed to need help!!!
II. DIRECT FORMATION:
SOLID FOUNDATION, APPLICATION
We need and want to prepare our children for this:
A. FOUNDATION - GRACE, KNOWLEDGE, SUPPORT
1. Grace and the Sacraments - Including opportunities to choose good and experience that joy.
2. Learning - This is a big one! It doesn't need to be complicated. It's not all about formal book-learning. Keep challenging your kids and moving them forward. Particularly take advantage of questions they have - they learn most effectively when they study something they're already interested in. Find solid foundational materials that are free of sensationalism, condescension and bad thinking. Beautiful Catholic materials and classics (like fairy tales) are great here! Study church teaching (the Catechism of the Catholic Church is a great gift!).
3. Home and Family Environment - Cultivate a love of true, good and beautiful.
4. Support network - homeschool group, Catholic friends and family
Remember: Knowledge is not equal to virtue! Because of our fallen nature, knowing what the good is doesn't automatically mean that we will do it. This is important to education because it means that it won't be successful if it is just about knowing stuff. We need to cultivate a love of the good.
B. APPLICATION
1. Get to know interesting people and mentors. It's okay taht they're human. With homeschooling, everyone becomes a teacher: the pastor, the elderly neighbor, the museum volunteer, etc. Don't worry about perfection. Talking about these experiences are an important part of education. It's good for children to learn that they don't need rush to have an answer to everything. They can take an idea, play with it, explore its ramifications, etc. Studying history is great for this too because there are some contentious topics about which we may never have a complete and accurate understanding.
2. Make a distinction between what is offensive and what is dangerous.
3. Practice Cultural Discernment
Experience age-appropriate modern culture together.
Chat and make distinctions:
Note: You don't need to crush the joy of discovery by lecturing them.
A few examples: Percy Jackson (books, middle school), The Mission (movie, older teens)
SPECIAL TOPIC: IMAGINATION
Why is the Imagination Important:
Note: Don't let things be a substitute for affection and interaction with you. Materialism stifles growth and imagination.
Strive to keep a balance of freedom and limits in working with your children.
There are many ways to develop the imagination. We're focusing here on the role of stories (especially books and movies). These are important not just for role models or uplifting moral lessons, but also...
SPECIAL TOPIC: SERVICE
Pope Benedict had this to say about works of service:
Why is service important?
Homeschooling allows for a strong family influence and increased opportunities to see adults pray, work, study, solve, suffer challenges and setbacks, learn, apologize and forgive.
"Homeschooling magnifies the effect of the family on the children." (which can be both a benefit and a danger)
Homeschooling allows for a wide and diverse social network. Different circles of people, personalities, ages, etc. for homeschool group, sports, parish, neighborhood, etc.
Embrace challenges - Some protection is necessary, but so is learning from failures, challenges, competition and the experience of evil. We want our children to meet some of these challenges with our help.
What you should do:
Engaging the Culture: A Catholic Homeschool Perspective
This talk is from my own perspective as a Catholic homeschooler - most applies to non-homeschoolers too.
It is important for us to try to live Christianity and to think as Christians in such a way that it incorporates what is good and right about modernity - and at the same time separates and distinguishes itself from what is becoming a counter-religion. (Pope Benedict XVI, Light of the World)
Engaging the culture is a two-way street. We affect and are affected by the culture. We shouldn't just set up our own world and let the culture be what it is.
Example: The environment
To a large extent the environmental movement is flawed. Many people are concerned about the environment (which is good), but see people as a threat to the environment (which is problematic and even dangerous in numerous ways). Instead of rejecting the idea of concern for the environment because of these flaws, we really need people who recognize what is good there and are willing to bring our pro-people message to that movement.
Overview of Talk:
Special Topic: Witnessing
I. Indirect Formation of our children (what we model and pass along to them - examine our own attitudes)
A. Love Comes First
B. Balance is Key
C. Rejoice in the Good
D. Humility and Trust
II. Direct Formation (how we can deliberately prepare our children to encounter the world without losing their faith)
A. Foundation - Grace, Knowledge, Support
B. Application
Special Topics: Imagination, Service, Socialization
I. INDIRECT FORMATION
(How You Think, What You Model)
How this affects our children
Live what you believe. Our faith should encompass our whole being, not just what we do in church. I find this example from The Winged Watchman by Hilda Van Stockum to be particularly powerful (the context is a family living in Holland during World War II - the neighbor's son is helping the Nazis):
Mother was shocked when Father told her that Leendert Schenderhans had become a landwatcher. "And the parents such Good Catholics!" she cried.
"Hmph!" grunted Father. "You women always judge people by what they do in church. I judge them by what they do outside. Farmer Schenderhans is getting rich in the black market."
(This is a GREAT book - make sure you read it!!!)
Special Topic: The Idea of Witness
To have Christian hope means to know about evil and yet to go to meet the future with confidence. The core of faith rests upon accepting being loved by God, and therefore to believe is to say Yes, not only to him, but to creation, to creatures, above all, to men, to try to see the image of God in each person and thereby to become a lover. That's not easy, but the basic Yes, the conviction that God has created men, that he stands behind them, that they aren't simply negative, gives love a reference point that enables it to ground hope on the basis of faith. (Cardinal Ratzinger, Salt of the Earth)
Mary is the supreme example of living that yes to God because with her fiat, the Word became flesh.
Witnesses (the word martyr means witness) keep hope alive by testifying to the truth in love with their very lives.
Testifying can mean dying for the faith like St. Maximilian Kolbe or it can mean giving everything completely during your life, like Mother Teresa. Both ways are extremely powerful (but not easy)!
Witness vs. Example
Something I find helpful in better understanding the concept of witness is to contrast it with how we commonly think of it in contrast with the concept of being an example to others.
WITNESS:
directed to God (trusts in God) - reflected to others
"we allow ourselves to be a witness"
of the heart
works with our limitations
very powerful in a crisis
EXAMPLE:
relies on ourselves - directed to others
"we make ourselves an example"
external
often causes anxiety because it's easy to set unreasonable expectations of ourselves
often crumbles in tough times
Be true. No agendas.
We don't want to trick our way into doing good in the world. Find the good that others are ready for.
No façades!
If we're paving the way for others it would be very wrong to put them on the wrong track or give them an inflated concept of what we are doing (and thus an unreasonable sense of what they should expect of themselves).
A. LOVE COMES FIRST
The Greatest Commandment according to Jesus (love God, love your neighbor)
Church teaching confirms this in every age:
The whole concern of doctrine and its teaching must be directed to the love that never ends. Whether something is proposed for belief, for hope or for action, the love of our Lord must always be made accessible so that anyone can see that all the works of perfect Christian virtue spring from love and have no other objective than to arrive at love. (Catechism of the Catholic Church #25, quoting the Catechism of the Council of Trent).
Love comes first both because God is love and because everyone is ready to be treated with love, even if they're not ready for something deeper or more complex - like philosophical proofs for the existence of God.
We need to manifest God's love especially to our children. It is the simplest and most powerful way to help them choose to be Catholic even after they're off on their own.
Love authenticates our beliefs in the eyes of others - which makes it the most powerful weapon against relativism. Certainly more powerful than intellectual arguments. Just think of Mother Teresa!
The Gospel says: Hate the sin, love the sinner!
We are fallen and fight a common enemy (evil). Sympathy and love don't require agreement. Love is essential!
Remember that "Be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect" comes up in the Bible in the context of "Love your enemies!"
Here's a great illustration of manifesting God's love from the classic novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe:
It was the first time that ever George had sat down on equal terms at any white man's table; and he sat down, at first, with some constraint, and awkwardness; but they all exhaled and went off like fog, in the genial morning rays of this simple overflowing kindness.
This indeed, was a home, - home - a word that George had never yet known a meaning for; and a belief in God, and trust in His providence, began to encircle his heart, as, with a golden cloud of protection and confidence, dark, misanthropic, pining, atheistic doubts, and fierce despair, melted away before the light of a living Gospel, breathed in living faces, preached by a thousand unconscious acts of love and good-will, which, like the cup of cold water given in the name of a disciple, shall never lose their reward.
B. BALANCE IS KEY
Don't live as a reaction to the culture, but as a reaction to Christ! Don't let evil define who you are! Reacing to the culture poses the grave danger to the very common problem of starting a pendulum problem in motion.
For example: If you find a problem with parents in your neighborhood who are too lax in their discipline, it doesn't help to react by becoming an extreme disciplinarian. It is possible that you may reasonably be the most strict parent on the block, but you don't want to base your parenting methods on your frustrations with how other parents are acting.
Two important concepts to keep in mind:
Virtue lies in the mean (e.g hope is in the balancing point between presumption and despair)
Beware of false dichotomies (like faith vs. science)
We need to recognize our own weaknesses and be open to learning and to correction.
Evil is tricky - it knows how to get at ME in particular.
What are our danger areas? Usually it's the opposite extreme of what bothers us the most.
The problem of clinging to one truth at the expense of others: This can lead to great distortions (including heresies). e.g. focusing on "God is just" and ignoring "God is love".
Do make distinctions, such as dealbreakers vs. less-than-ideals.
C. REJOICE IN THE GOOD!
Gratitude is a much neglected and much needed virtue in our world today.
1. All good things come from God. We owe it to God to recognize His gifts and be thankful.
2. His plan includes us all working together for the good. We're not all starting individually from square one but continue the good others have done. The good things we find (if we have eyes to see them) are the starting point for all kinds of other goods - like building bridges and relating to others.
3. Wee are happier and more content and more hopeful when we appreciate what is good. Gratitude leads to joy!
4. Don't just be a critic. Work on perspective (history, saint stories, prayer, sacraments)
This is a story from my own life that illustrated this concept well (albeit in the negative):
Once, a number of years ago, a man from out of town asked for directions to our local church in order to make a visit. He came back later and noted that the church didn't look at all like a church and spent a few minutes complaining about what it looked like. What he said was quite true. It looked like a conference room. But, almost as an afterthought, he mentioned that they were having Eucharistic adoration when he was there.
This was a great illustration to me of how we can be technically correct and "way off base" at the same time.
5. Don't assume the worst about people (I know faithful Catholics struggling with infertility who have been lectured by well-meaning fellow Catholics on the evils of birth control - what a massive breach of charity!!!).
D. HUMILITY AND TRUST
The true meaning of humility: We are the creature. God is the creator. We are not God!!!
This means two things especially:
1. It's not all up to us. Small things are not small. Do the good you are able to do. Expect to plant many small seeds and generally not to know how they turn out in the end.
It's a very dangerous thing to think it's all up to us. It leads to all kinds of problems and disconnects us from God.
2. The gifts we have are gifts from God. We can't take credit for them nor deny that we have them. We have a responsibility to develop and share them. Nothing wrong with confidence. Beware of arrogance!!!
I distribute the virtues quite diversely; I do not give all of them to each person, but some to one, some to others... I shall give principally charity to one; justice to another; humility to this one, a living faith to that one... And so I have given many gifts and graces, both spiritual and temporal, with such diversity that I have not given everything to one single person, so that you may be constrained to practice charity towards one another... I have willed that one should need another and that all should be my ministers in distributing the graces and gifts they have received from me. (Catechism of the Catholic Church #1937, quoting the Dialogue of Jesus to St. Catherine of Siena)
3. We need each other and we need God. There's a huge spiritual component here. Prioritize yoru relationship with God. Try to find good spiritual direction! Don't be ashamed to need help. We're supposed to need help!!!
Openness to God makes us open towards our brothers and sisters and towards an understanding of life as a joyful task to be accomplished in a spirit of solidarity. (Pope Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate)
II. DIRECT FORMATION:
SOLID FOUNDATION, APPLICATION
We need and want to prepare our children for this:
To defend the truth, to articulate it with humility and conviction, and to bear witness to it in life are... exacting and indispensable forms of charity. Charity, in fact, "rejoices in the truth". (Pope Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate)
A. FOUNDATION - GRACE, KNOWLEDGE, SUPPORT
1. Grace and the Sacraments - Including opportunities to choose good and experience that joy.
2. Learning - This is a big one! It doesn't need to be complicated. It's not all about formal book-learning. Keep challenging your kids and moving them forward. Particularly take advantage of questions they have - they learn most effectively when they study something they're already interested in. Find solid foundational materials that are free of sensationalism, condescension and bad thinking. Beautiful Catholic materials and classics (like fairy tales) are great here! Study church teaching (the Catechism of the Catholic Church is a great gift!).
3. Home and Family Environment - Cultivate a love of true, good and beautiful.
4. Support network - homeschool group, Catholic friends and family
Remember: Knowledge is not equal to virtue! Because of our fallen nature, knowing what the good is doesn't automatically mean that we will do it. This is important to education because it means that it won't be successful if it is just about knowing stuff. We need to cultivate a love of the good.
B. APPLICATION
Test everything. Hold fast to what is good. - St. Paul
1. Get to know interesting people and mentors. It's okay taht they're human. With homeschooling, everyone becomes a teacher: the pastor, the elderly neighbor, the museum volunteer, etc. Don't worry about perfection. Talking about these experiences are an important part of education. It's good for children to learn that they don't need rush to have an answer to everything. They can take an idea, play with it, explore its ramifications, etc. Studying history is great for this too because there are some contentious topics about which we may never have a complete and accurate understanding.
It is the mark of an educated man to be able to entertain an idea without accepting it. - Aristotle
2. Make a distinction between what is offensive and what is dangerous.
3. Practice Cultural Discernment
Experience age-appropriate modern culture together.
Chat and make distinctions:
- TV commercial critique is a fun place to start with little ones (You can simply ask, "What are they trying to sell here?)
- Movies are an easy and interesting place to work with teens.
Note: You don't need to crush the joy of discovery by lecturing them.
A few examples: Percy Jackson (books, middle school), The Mission (movie, older teens)
SPECIAL TOPIC: IMAGINATION
Today much imagination is needed if we are to learn how to speak about the faith and about life's most important questions. It requires people who know how to love and how to think. (Pope John Paul II, Rise, Let Us Be On Our Way)
Why is the Imagination Important:
- Be able to picture something better
- Meet people where they are - try to look at them through God's eyes
- Imagine what we can do to help
- Witness and "translate" the truth for the modern age (both literally, through language, and through the way we live and love)
Note: Don't let things be a substitute for affection and interaction with you. Materialism stifles growth and imagination.
Strive to keep a balance of freedom and limits in working with your children.
There are many ways to develop the imagination. We're focusing here on the role of stories (especially books and movies). These are important not just for role models or uplifting moral lessons, but also...
- Getting inside someone else's head and understanding how they got where they did.
- The consequences of sin - surprisingly powerful when it shows up in a non-religious context.
- The consequences of grace - ditto
- Some truths become more clear to us when we see an example of the opposite (e.g my experience with the Jurassic Park books)
- Common experience with others - including cultural literacy and a place to connect and relate with others
- Learn to look at things from a variety of viewpoints (Reformation study example)
SPECIAL TOPIC: SERVICE
Pope Benedict had this to say about works of service:
I wish here to offer a special word of gratitude and appreciation to all those who take part in these activities... For young people, this widespread involvement constitutes a school of life which offers them a formation in solidarity and in readiness to offer others not simply material aid but their very selves. The anti-culture of deaht... is thus countered by unselfish love which shows itself to be a culture of life by the very willingness to "lose itself" for others. (Deus Caritas Est)
Why is service important?
- Great place for challenge and growth in kids - encounter some of the difficulties while being part of the solution.
- Kids need a chance to experience the fact that the world does not revolve around them.
- Can circle back to the humility and trust thing - learn to ask for help when they do need it (and we all do)
- Can be done as a family - good for challenge and witness!
Homeschooling allows for a strong family influence and increased opportunities to see adults pray, work, study, solve, suffer challenges and setbacks, learn, apologize and forgive.
"Homeschooling magnifies the effect of the family on the children." (which can be both a benefit and a danger)
Homeschooling allows for a wide and diverse social network. Different circles of people, personalities, ages, etc. for homeschool group, sports, parish, neighborhood, etc.
Embrace challenges - Some protection is necessary, but so is learning from failures, challenges, competition and the experience of evil. We want our children to meet some of these challenges with our help.
What you should do:
- help keep the doses reasonable
- model appropriate responses in your own life
- help them learn and grow from each situation
- discover antidotes together
The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides him is a St. George to kill the dragon. (G.K. Chesterton)
_____________________________________________
Note: There are two books I strongly recommend for those interested in this particular topic.
The first is The Reed of God by Caryll Houselander which is a beautiful and very accessible elucidation on becoming a Christ-Bearer and cooperating with God's will in our lives.
The second is a brand new book I discovered only last week (thanks to first issue of the newly re-launched Catholic Digest - three cheers for Danielle Bean!) and so I'm still in the process of reading it - but it is GOOD (and also very accessible)! It touches upon a lot of what I've been working on in the subject of culture. It is called: Seek First the Kingdom: Challenging the Culture by Living Our Faith by Cardinal Wuerl (Our Sunday Visitor).
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Monarch Butterflies Wintering in Santa Barbara
This video was made by a co-worker of a friend...
Winter Monarch Butterflies from JNB Photo on Vimeo.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Jumping Back In Again...
It's such a funny feeling jumping back into blogging after being gone for awhile. And yet here I am. :)
Here's a little overview of what we've been up to lately...
We enjoyed a very, very lovely Christmas season with Ria home from college for three weeks. Didn't manage to get Christmas cards out (again) this year. Ah well. Can't have it all!
I have a new great-nephew who was born on Christmas Day - five weeks early! Thankfully he is home at last.
I got a Kindle (Keyboard) for Christmas and am really enjoying it. Finally read Manalive. (GREAT BOOK!!!) Also making good use of the Universalis Liturgy of the Hours program for the Kindle as well as lots of free classics and, of course, a few games like Scrabble and Shuffled Row.
My husband and I have gotten involved in our parish's marriage preparation ministry. We use the Catholic edition of the FOCCUS program where we basically walk couples through discussions of material from the pre-marital inventory. We have found this to be a very rewarding and worthwhile project!
I'm sure there's a lot more too, but that's what I can think of for a start. Here is a very quick book overview from the past few months...
What I've been reading:
Finished -
The Hunger Games - Excellent! Kind of a mix of futuristic sci-fi, classical Greek and Roman mythology with a bit of a Flannery O'Connor twist. I understand a lot of middle schoolers are reading this, but my gut reaction was that it was more appropriate for older teens.
The Help - Quite a good read. I just loved the characters she created in this story. The whole concept of white children being raised by black servants is rooted in the author's family background. The movie pales in comparison.
The 39 Clues - I finally finished reading all of the books that are in print. We've been enjoying this series a lot. The first part of the series (11 books) is really terrific and delightfully surprising in many ways (though it doesn't really get going until the 3rd or 4th book). It's a little harder to tell so far about the second series (there are only 2 books available so far of this series).
The Anatomy of Peace - Definitely a worthwhile read about how our attitudes towards others affect them and us. Basic premise is that we can achieve peace (on a small or a large scale) by treating people as people rather than objects. I agree!
In Progress -
The Mysterious Benedict Society - We are reading this aloud (about 1/4 of the way through the first book) and are loving it so far!!!
Work Hard, Be Nice - Quite interesting so far! I always have a lot of Educational Theory books going, and the Kindle will be very handy for this, especially since usually no one else in the family reads them.
Cranford - Instantly engaging, but currently distracted by the Mysterious Benedict Society.
The Immigrant Advantage - A very intriguing book about customs that have been brought to America by different immigrant groups. I have to admit I got stuck on the education chapter and am planning on getting back to it soon.
Here's a little overview of what we've been up to lately...
We enjoyed a very, very lovely Christmas season with Ria home from college for three weeks. Didn't manage to get Christmas cards out (again) this year. Ah well. Can't have it all!
I have a new great-nephew who was born on Christmas Day - five weeks early! Thankfully he is home at last.
I got a Kindle (Keyboard) for Christmas and am really enjoying it. Finally read Manalive. (GREAT BOOK!!!) Also making good use of the Universalis Liturgy of the Hours program for the Kindle as well as lots of free classics and, of course, a few games like Scrabble and Shuffled Row.
My husband and I have gotten involved in our parish's marriage preparation ministry. We use the Catholic edition of the FOCCUS program where we basically walk couples through discussions of material from the pre-marital inventory. We have found this to be a very rewarding and worthwhile project!
I'm sure there's a lot more too, but that's what I can think of for a start. Here is a very quick book overview from the past few months...
What I've been reading:
Finished -
The Hunger Games - Excellent! Kind of a mix of futuristic sci-fi, classical Greek and Roman mythology with a bit of a Flannery O'Connor twist. I understand a lot of middle schoolers are reading this, but my gut reaction was that it was more appropriate for older teens.
The Help - Quite a good read. I just loved the characters she created in this story. The whole concept of white children being raised by black servants is rooted in the author's family background. The movie pales in comparison.
The 39 Clues - I finally finished reading all of the books that are in print. We've been enjoying this series a lot. The first part of the series (11 books) is really terrific and delightfully surprising in many ways (though it doesn't really get going until the 3rd or 4th book). It's a little harder to tell so far about the second series (there are only 2 books available so far of this series).
The Anatomy of Peace - Definitely a worthwhile read about how our attitudes towards others affect them and us. Basic premise is that we can achieve peace (on a small or a large scale) by treating people as people rather than objects. I agree!
In Progress -
The Mysterious Benedict Society - We are reading this aloud (about 1/4 of the way through the first book) and are loving it so far!!!
Work Hard, Be Nice - Quite interesting so far! I always have a lot of Educational Theory books going, and the Kindle will be very handy for this, especially since usually no one else in the family reads them.
Cranford - Instantly engaging, but currently distracted by the Mysterious Benedict Society.
The Immigrant Advantage - A very intriguing book about customs that have been brought to America by different immigrant groups. I have to admit I got stuck on the education chapter and am planning on getting back to it soon.
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Open to Correction in the Family or How to Take Ideas Lightly
I'm still stewing a lot on the ideas about docility and being open to correction that I wrote about in my last post. And while I'm at it, I'd like to thank my alma mater for the shout-out for that post on their Faith in Action Blog.
What I've been thinking about in particular is about how to apply these ideas to raising children in general and to homeschooling in particular. First perhaps, we could consider...
How to Be Sure Your Children Will Not Be Open to Correction
The wrong-headed way to go about it would be to fill your children's lives with as much critique and criticism as possible; to be nit picky about everything they do and say all day long. Nope. Not helpful. Inflicting constant criticism on your children will only make them defensive and insecure.
This is mistake might be an easy one to jump to because our society really has wrong-headed notion of criticism. Again, we tend to think of criticism as an attack on ourselves and an entirely negative thing. What I'm talking about here is a different notion of criticism we're open to learning and growing from each other and willing to bring up questions and concerns and corrections. Really, in a way, what I keep thinking of is a true, deep and open sort of friendship. The roots of this idea are most easily planted and nurtured within the family...
Playing with Ideas
One of the many great things about sharing a meal as a family is that it's the perfect playground for ideas and that's a big part of the point here. We need to be able to treat ideas with a certain amount of "lightness", to be able to detach them from our ourselves, bat them around the table, consider them from different angles and be willing to pull them apart and put them back together with others.
What About Things We Know to Be True?
It's tempting to shelter things we know to be true from such a "light" treatment. After all, even a doctrine of the faith that everyone present holds true is something that will be misunderstood or rejected by others that we encounter. Being able to "play" even with a doctrine can be quite helpful. We need to be willing to look at our beliefs from different angles and to take objections to them seriously (and charitably!) enough to imagine where a non-believer is coming from and help them understand what that belief means to us. It is the Catholic Church, after all, that came up with the concept of the "Devil's Advocate"!
Besides being more prepared to defend and promote our beliefs to others through this process, it is also a great way to move from acting in a certain way out of obedience (not to belittle obedience here!) to really WANTING to follow what the Church teaches.
We never need to fear opening Catholic ideas up for criticism. They really stand up well to reason!
Setting the Tone
Parents play an essential role in modeling all of this: playing with ideas, getting comfortable with having our ideas questioned, and of course learning how to answer questions and delve into the truth of the matter.
Our own tone in discussions, the parents' way of talking to each other and the love we use in how we speak to each other all play a substantial role. Here are some great phrases that we shouldn't be afraid of saying or hearing at our dinner tables:
"I don't know."
"I could be wrong."
"I wonder if...?"
"I don't understand why the Church says..."
"What do you think about..."
What I've been thinking about in particular is about how to apply these ideas to raising children in general and to homeschooling in particular. First perhaps, we could consider...
How to Be Sure Your Children Will Not Be Open to Correction
The wrong-headed way to go about it would be to fill your children's lives with as much critique and criticism as possible; to be nit picky about everything they do and say all day long. Nope. Not helpful. Inflicting constant criticism on your children will only make them defensive and insecure.
This is mistake might be an easy one to jump to because our society really has wrong-headed notion of criticism. Again, we tend to think of criticism as an attack on ourselves and an entirely negative thing. What I'm talking about here is a different notion of criticism we're open to learning and growing from each other and willing to bring up questions and concerns and corrections. Really, in a way, what I keep thinking of is a true, deep and open sort of friendship. The roots of this idea are most easily planted and nurtured within the family...
Playing with Ideas
One of the many great things about sharing a meal as a family is that it's the perfect playground for ideas and that's a big part of the point here. We need to be able to treat ideas with a certain amount of "lightness", to be able to detach them from our ourselves, bat them around the table, consider them from different angles and be willing to pull them apart and put them back together with others.
What About Things We Know to Be True?
It's tempting to shelter things we know to be true from such a "light" treatment. After all, even a doctrine of the faith that everyone present holds true is something that will be misunderstood or rejected by others that we encounter. Being able to "play" even with a doctrine can be quite helpful. We need to be willing to look at our beliefs from different angles and to take objections to them seriously (and charitably!) enough to imagine where a non-believer is coming from and help them understand what that belief means to us. It is the Catholic Church, after all, that came up with the concept of the "Devil's Advocate"!
Besides being more prepared to defend and promote our beliefs to others through this process, it is also a great way to move from acting in a certain way out of obedience (not to belittle obedience here!) to really WANTING to follow what the Church teaches.
We never need to fear opening Catholic ideas up for criticism. They really stand up well to reason!
Setting the Tone
Parents play an essential role in modeling all of this: playing with ideas, getting comfortable with having our ideas questioned, and of course learning how to answer questions and delve into the truth of the matter.
Our own tone in discussions, the parents' way of talking to each other and the love we use in how we speak to each other all play a substantial role. Here are some great phrases that we shouldn't be afraid of saying or hearing at our dinner tables:
"I don't know."
"I could be wrong."
"I wonder if...?"
"I don't understand why the Church says..."
"What do you think about..."
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Open to Correction Redux
I just had to share this amazing quote from my friend Robert Gotcher's blog, Classic Catholic:
It reminds me a bit of an old blog post I wrote back in 2008, "Open to Criticism", though that one was particularly focused on the subject of criticism from the angle of book reviews.
I strongly believe in the concept of changing the world by changing one's own self. Our culture today, and our human nature in general I suppose, tends to focus on what the other guy is doing wrong. Any critique of myself or my favorite politician (or whatever) is viewed as an attack. I believe that we will never get anywhere good in politics until we hold ourselves and "our side" (whichever side that may be) accountable for our faults and stop making excuses.
I think this is related to part of what makes traditional liberal arts education (such as what my husband and I encountered at Thomas Aquinas College) so valuable - especially in an age where education is so often considered to be equated with a list of information stored in one's head.
In our round-table, seminar-style classes, we learned to take some else's ideas, make sure we understood them, formulate our own opinions about the material, articulate those opinions to others and thus lay them open to challenge and critique. We had to sort out the criticism as objectively as possible in a context that helped us not just respond emotionally to the fact that someone disagreed with us, but work our way through the questions and problems in a reasonably logical manner. The whole program helped us to develop skills that I find myself using on a daily basis in the real world - to fully understand what others are saying and respond in an appropriate, not a reactionary manner.
Here are a few other quotes that seem relevant to this concept:
"Back in the 1940s and '50s and '60s, men believed that the best friends that you could have were the ones who would openly criticize your work and lay bare to you the mistakes and errors that you made, so that you might learn from them and correct them. In today's world, if someone criticizes your work openly, it has become fashionable to hate them for it. That is extremely foolish. You cannot learn from someone who always agrees with you; you can only learn in the fire of disputation and dialectic." --Douglas Gresham in an interview in Columbia Magazine.
It reminds me a bit of an old blog post I wrote back in 2008, "Open to Criticism", though that one was particularly focused on the subject of criticism from the angle of book reviews.
I strongly believe in the concept of changing the world by changing one's own self. Our culture today, and our human nature in general I suppose, tends to focus on what the other guy is doing wrong. Any critique of myself or my favorite politician (or whatever) is viewed as an attack. I believe that we will never get anywhere good in politics until we hold ourselves and "our side" (whichever side that may be) accountable for our faults and stop making excuses.
I think this is related to part of what makes traditional liberal arts education (such as what my husband and I encountered at Thomas Aquinas College) so valuable - especially in an age where education is so often considered to be equated with a list of information stored in one's head.
In our round-table, seminar-style classes, we learned to take some else's ideas, make sure we understood them, formulate our own opinions about the material, articulate those opinions to others and thus lay them open to challenge and critique. We had to sort out the criticism as objectively as possible in a context that helped us not just respond emotionally to the fact that someone disagreed with us, but work our way through the questions and problems in a reasonably logical manner. The whole program helped us to develop skills that I find myself using on a daily basis in the real world - to fully understand what others are saying and respond in an appropriate, not a reactionary manner.
Here are a few other quotes that seem relevant to this concept:
Most people tend to allow the truth they possess so to dominate their thinking that they see few other truths that place their one truth in perspective and balance it out. There is probably no heresy in the history of the Church that did not have its truth. The problem invariably is that the one truth so took over the heretic's mind that he was committed to cast out any number of other doctrines that clashed with his interpretation of it. (pg. 34, Authenticity by Fr. Thomas Dubay)
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it." Aristotle
This last one, again is from Dubay's Authenticity, in which he discusses the word "docility":
The word means, of course, a capacity to learn, to be taught by another. Yet in recent years the idea came upon hard days, for it spoke to many of a passivity, a weakness, a refusal to think for oneself. But then on the scene came a new label: openness, listening. Now openness and listening to others mean nothing if they do not mean exactly what docility means: willingness to be informed, instructed, changed by what another says.
A man in trouble laments that he did not listen to his teachers, and thus he finds himself in a sad state, utter ruin. A candid admission of a blunder is refreshing and not often heard in human affairs. It is the saint alone who is large-minded enough to think and speak in this way. This is part of his authenticity.
The person who is swift to hear and slow to respond is a stranger to an all-knowing illuminism. He believes that others, too, have some truth, and he is willing to be instructed by them. He is ready for the mind of God.
We are to welcome instruction, yes. But this is not enough. We are to welcome correction as well, being told that we are wrong. This is living the virtue of docility.I think the virtues of humility and gratitude are also closely related, which, of course reminds me of St. Francis:
As the word indicates, docility is the capacity to learn, a willingness to be taught. One is docile when he recognizes his own lack of information and expertise, on the one hand, and the superior knowledge and skills of his teacher, on the other. In this context a synonym more acceptable to modern ears is receptivity.
There are two types of receptivity: one toward the indwelling Spirit and the other toward human teachers. Like other moral virtues, docility lies in a mean between two extremes. One extreme is the more or less arrogant refusal to accept the thoughts of another. The other is an exaggerated credulity that has lost a sense of proper discrimination and healthy criticism.
...his first reaction was always gratitude. He accustomed himself, in everything that happened in his life, always first and foremost to praise and to give thanks, even before he knows what it is, in fact, that he has received, even before he accepts what he receives, looks at it, and gives it shape. (from Book of All Saints by Adrienne Von Speyr - chapter on St. Francis of Assisi)
Friday, November 11, 2011
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Deacon Carlos' Ordination
John and I and Terri attended the diaconate ordination of one our "adopted" seminarians on Saturday. It was beautiful! Please keep him and his ministry in your prayers!
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