Saturday, September 30, 2006

The Catechist as Mediator

from Gospel, Catechesis, Catechism:

The whole tradition of the catechumenate in the Church makes it clear that the Catechism, as a book, is only one element in a larger whole.

On the one hand, the Catechism appeals to the "interior teacher" (to speak with Augustine) present in every man. This interior master enables every person who encounters Jesus' message to realize, "yes, this is it, this is what I have been looking for all along." On the other hand, the Catechism needs the exterior teacher, the catechist, as well as the companionship of the communion of disciples. Without the living words of the catechist who, like Apollos, is himself "catechized according to the way of the Lord" (Acts 18:25), the book remains dumb.

Catechists, acting in inward harmony with the faith of the Church, with the message of Jesus Christ, must creatively mediate the Catechism to given situations and persons. Even now, the Catechism, when it is not intentionally thwarted, is bringing forth an abundance of initiatives in evangelization and proclamation. But at the origin of these initiatives there is always the person of the catechist. When the Church has ceased to be something external for him but has "awakened in his soul", he can, with his dynamic faith, retransform the letter into a living voice. He will face contradiction, bu above all he will evoke the joy that comes from meeting Jesus. (pgs. 59-60)


I think this passage speaks to parents as well - it's both challenging in a difficult way and freeing (especially with regards to some erroneous conventions in our society - the ones that see the teaching of the faith as something that consists simply in handing someone a book to read). I particularly like the word "mediate" in the third paragraph. That's a role of a teacher and homeschool parent that I hadn't considered "in so many words" before.

But I like this passage even more as a goal to prepare my children for - nothing would please me more than to have them go out into the world and become teachers, parents and catechists; people who love the Word and with all their hearts want to share it with others; people who believe in truth and will help others to see it. What a great blessing that would be! And this brings me back to one of my favorite quotes:

No amount of pious training or pious culture will protect the faithful, or preserve them from the contamination of the age, if they are left inferior to non-Catholics in secular learning and intellectual development. The faithful must be guarded and protected by being trained and disciplined to grapple with the false systems of the age…. They must be better armed than their opponents - surpass them in the strength and vigor of their minds, and in the extent and variety of their knowledge. They must, on all occasions and against all adversaries, be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in them. (Orestes Brownson)

Moving Jigsaw Puzzle

We really enjoyed this (a lot easier than it looks at first).

Hat-tip to Molly

Homeschoolers' Attitudes Towards Money

Spunky has a thoughtful post today on homeschool families' attiitudes towards money and supporting educational businesses. I think these are important points. Many homeschool suppliers are family businesses - meaning that whatever profit they are able to eke out of the sales of their books needs to support an entire family - and sometimes staff as well. It's a very difficult thing to support a family by selling books. I've seen this close-up in helping with my parents' book business (which has downsized considerably over the last year - they used to sell a large quantity of homeschool materials as well).

A lot of people think that the 40% markup retailers get is a lot. But there are a lot of things that bite into this. First of all, a number of books (including a lot of textbooks) have a considerably smaller markup. There are fees to belong to book distribution companies. You have to pay for shipping from the publisher or distributor to the site of your business. If you're selling books at a conference, you also have the expense of renting tables and shipping to that location (and the risk of having to ship some materials back afterwards).

There are homeschoolers out there willing to ignore the virtue of justice when it comes to copyright laws. Breaking these laws hurts the littlest companies (like small Catholic homeschool publishers) the most. At least one small Catholic company has had workbooks returned for reimbursement with photocopied pages accidentally left inside.

It might help to look at it this way. Though the price of books can be quite shocking, buying good books is not only good for your children, but it contributes to the larger cause of having good books available now and in the future. There's a lot of power in "pocketbook voting".

C.S. Lewis on Index Cards

I was so amused by this quote Karen E. found on another site. Here we have C.S. Lewis on the Index Card! :)

There was nothing which medieval people liked better, or did better, than sorting out and tidying up. Of all our modern inventions I suspect that they would most have admired the index card.

Friday, September 29, 2006

Teen Conversations

One of the great things about homeschooling for me is that it's allowed me to develop a strong relationship with my teenage daughters - and a number of her friends.

I had a great day today in co-op with these great kids. In Latin we had a few minutes left over after I had given them their next assignment and I asked if there were any questions. I had given the girls kind of an informal quiz on the Roman and Greek Gods at the beginning of class. So one of the girls (who felt like she had a long ways to go on this topic) asked how she could learn more about the gods. Gilbertgirl (our resident mythology expert - she seriously knows, or at least remembers, a great deal more than I do) and I threw her a couple of suggestions (including re-reading D'Aulaire's Greek Myths and this bargain from Blackstone Audiobooks). But then we ended up getting into this fascinating discussion about the Greeks and mythology and why we study them; about learning how to cut past emotionalism in a discussion with someone and find some common experience to build an "argument" on. We talked about the Pope's Regensberg speech and the importance of Greek thought. We talked about Chesterton's emphasis on the value of Roman culture and mythology (which we'll be reading some of in class later this year from The Everlasting Man). These teens have some amazing insights. Our class got out 15 minutes late, but no one seemed to mind.

This is great stuff!!!

And John is back home safe once again. Life is good.

BTW, I have so much more I've been meaning to blog on the last few days - a number of things I've been reading (I'm making a LOT more headway in the Everlasting Man - I'm on the chapter after "The God in the Cave" now, but several other interesting tidbits too), a little something about Math and some other stuff (maybe I'll get to them later this weekend).

I also meant to write up something earlier today about the great feast of the archangels, but you can read some wonderful posts here, here, here and here. It's my brother Tim's birthday and the feast day of my brother Mike and myself (my middle name is Michelle) - I won't even go into the nieces and nephews .

On a sadder note, please pray for little Naomi Rose who passed away today.

"The Books that Inspired me to Champion Literacy" by Laura Bush

Read her list here

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Wash for Life Results

This is impressive...

Youth Raise Over $75,500 for Pregnancy Care Centers

On September 16th, 2,598 youth participated in the first annual Wash for Life, washing a total of 5,335 cars and raising $75,549.57 for pregnancy care centers.

In the Wash for Life, groups of young people organized car washes in their own towns, donating the money they raised to their local pregnancy care center. Nearly 200 groups were involved, spread across 41 states.


hat-tip Touchstone Magazine - Mere Comments

British Catholic History Quiz

I thought this was a really interesting quiz on British Catholic History:

1.Where in Rome is a monument to the man comemorated in the "Skye Boat song"?
2.Which English king established Westminster Abbey?
3.Who was Bishop Richard Challoner?
4.Who is the hero of the London plague, whose body lies in Westminster Cathedral?
5. Who was Margaret Clitheroe and where is her home to be found?
6.What is the Royal Maundy?
7.Why is the Hilary law term so named?
8.Where is Tyburn? What now comemorates the Catholic martyrs who suffered there?
9. Name the village outside Oxford where John Henry Newman was recievd into the Catholic Church.
10. Who wrote the hymn "Faith of our Fathers"?
12.Where is Hilaire Belloc buried?
13.Who was Anne Line?
14.Who was Abbot Richard Whiting?
15. Give the rest of the line of this poem:
"Matthew, Mark, Luke and John
Bless....."
16.Who had a vision of Our Lady at Walsingham, causing a shrine to be erected there?
17.Who was St Thomas More's son in law, who wrote an acount of More's death?
18.Who was the first Archbishop of Westminster, following the restoration of the RC hierarchy in England and Wales in 1850?
19. Who was St George?
20. When did Pope John Paul 1 visit Britain?
21. Which famous London Catholic church comemorates a Saxon princess from Ely?

It comes from Aunt Joanie Writes. I hope she'll post the answers later, though I'm sure I could find most of them on the Internet (perhaps a good project to work on with Ria). Off the top of my head, I can only answer 5, 10 and 17.

Hat tip, Rich Leonardi

Wow!

Now G.K. Chesterton has answered the Map Guys' Geography Meme!!

Gus and Ria are keeping track of all the responses over on The Map Guys' blog. I do searches for them a couple of times a day (they're not allowed to use search engines yet). They're SO excited.

I think GKC would approve of our new family project. (I think we need a name for this one - The Great Word Project - or something else understood in the tone of "Bill Nye the Science Guy"). After the kids had been begging for some more fun words like "argillaceous" (still inspired by Akeelah and the Bee) to learn to spell, I had to get serious. We now have eight card boxes and hundreds of blank index cards and we're doing some serious searching for "fun" words and organizing them into categories. Terri wrote out eight or ten word cards from a Latin derivates list yesterday. Bernie copied some words out from Sound Beginnings so she could have some easier ones. We saw the Princess Bride and immediately had to write down "inconceivable" (we couldn't find the word "hippopotanic" in the dictionary - maybe I don't have the spelling right yet). Ria dutifully looked up about 25 words yesterday from the 80 words she had copied down from Akeelah and the Bee and recorded the language of origin and definition. Gus did a little of everything and took special care to organize the geography section properly. Ria got scolded for leaving indelible pens in the reach of Frank and we both went "Oooh! "indelible"!". You get the idea.

I found a few interesting sites which we've been using to unearth fun words:

Merriam-Webster Online (you can use the unabridged dictionary for free if you're willing to watch a commercial - just don't close that window down in between times, or you'll have to watch the commercial again).

Constellation List
Geology Words
Music Words
Technology Words

Some of our best learning comes from these "child-led" projects. I make a concerted effort to leave enough wiggle room in our studies to be able to put other things aside when a great moment like this comes up. I think this wiggle room has been really important for them in developing a love of learning as well. Not that there aren't any requirements in our home (there certainly are), but I'm battling against my own tendencies to latch onto even unnecessary conventions and keep my priorities on helping the kids really learn. This is hard sometimes!

I think one of the roles of a teacher is to cultivate - because learning isn't only about what the children know, but also about what they LOVE. So it's nice to see some of those efforts (like encouraging a love of language, but avoiding structured vocabulary programs) pay off once in awhile. :)

Monday, September 25, 2006

Worrying About Your Children...

I kind of liked this little take on the challenges of parenting. It's from the movie Spanglish. Not sure if it'll make much sense out of context. This is one of Adam Sandler's lines...
This is the job. These are the decisions. Worrying about your children is sanity. And being that sane, the way you are, can drive you nuts.

Carnival of Catholic Homeschooling

Deadline for submissions is today. Submit your post (or a favorite post from another blog) here. Look for the carnival at the Love2learn Blog on October 6th.

TAC Update

From the TAC Website: (Sunday night 9pm)

The Day Fire continues to burn north of the Thomas Aquinas College campus, but some progress was made today due to massive airdrops of fire retardant. As a consequence, the evacuation status for the College has been lowered from “recommended” to “precautionary.” The California Highway Patrol is, therefore, allowing students to return to campus tonight and tomorrow.

The campus is safe and residence halls are being reopened. Returning students should check in at the front gate with either Mark Kretschmer or a prefect.

No classes will be held on Monday, September 25, 2006. Classes will resume on Tuesday, September 26, 2006. Monday night seminars will be held on Tuesday evening; Tuesday evening seminars will be held on Wednesday evening; Thursday evening seminars will be held as scheduled.

Regular updates on the Day Fire can be found at www.inciweb.org/incident/475 and www.vcsd.org/day_fire.html.


Thanks for the prayers!

Sunday, September 24, 2006

More on Thomas Aquinas College - Keep Praying!

Article from AP News: Here

and some video coverage of the Day Fire


from the TAC website:


The Day Fire continues to burn just north of the Thomas Aquinas College campus. In accordance with the recommendation of Ventura County Sheriff’s Office personnel, Thomas Aquinas College has made the decision to evacuate the campus. There is no immediate danger to the students or the campus; this measure is precautionary.

The evacuation center for Thomas Aquinas College is Sacred Heart Church located at 10,800 Henderson Road in Ventura. The phone number is (805) 647-3235. From there, arrangements will be made to house students in the homes of faculty, staff, and alumni in the immediate area until the Sheriff’s Office recommends that it is prudent to return to campus, likely in the next day or two.

The evacuation has proceeded well, and students remain in good spirits. Regular updates on the Day Fire can be found at www.inciweb.org/incident/475.


Thomas Aquinas College is being Evacuated

According to the official website: here

Please pray for everyone's safety - especially the firefighters.

Saturday, September 23, 2006

The Princess Bride

I used to have a tradition to take the kids to see a movie in the theater whenever John was out of town (read: Taiwan). We've seen Narnia, Over the Hedge, and Herbie: Fully Loaded. (Maybe more, I can't remember.) That gets pretty pricey though - we easily hit 50 bucks when we go to the theater (and we always buy popcorn and soda). We still do it sometimes anyway, but I often revert to buying a new DVD and getting some candy and popcorn for a movie night (plus some Dr. Pepper and chips for me).

Anyway, tonight it was the Princess Bride (which was a big hit). My brothers and I saw this when it came to "Pay Per View" (just a little while after it was released in theaters) after it was recommended by our friends at Kolbe Academy. It was a huge hit in our house and I went off to TAC the following year where it (along with Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure) had fully integrated itself into the local culture. (Only the most serious and lofty things, of course.)

Ah what great lines...

I'm not a witch, I'm your wife!
Have fun storming the castle.
Have you ever heard of Plato, Aristotle, Socrates? ... Morons.

Inigo Montoya: You seem a decent fellow, I hate to kill you.
Westley: You seem a decent fellow. I hate to die.

and of course...
Inconceivable!
It was a lot of fun going back to this movie after so many years (and funny how much more I enjoyed it this time than last time I watched it, when all the kids were too young to really appreciate it). The DVD, naturally, has the added benefit of subtitles and documentaries (very funny too!).

I've also come to love the Internet Movie Database which helps us figure out just who it is that looks and sounds familiar. (Today we were amused to find that Miracle Max's wife was the nanny in Disney's the Pacifier. I also discovered that Donald O'Connor - an actor who we've always enjoyed in Singing in the Rain but I have a funny personal "connection" with - played in Beau Geste - along with Gary Cooper and Ray Milland - at age 12.)

Fire Still Raging Near TAC

The three week old "Day" fire is still a potential threat to Thomas Aquinas College. Apparently today the winds shifted for the worse. TAC borders a huge state forest in which (according to the last report I heard) the fire has approached within seven miles. Prayers appreciated.

It's been difficult keeping informed as this kind of news tends to travel rather confusedly. Hope to avoid adding to that confusion.

More here.

I noticed that TAC is now keeping info on the fire available on its website.

(I found this beautiful photo on flickr of a tree on the TAC campus - this photo is a few years old, but much more recent than our personal photos)

Magazines

John and I were browsing through the magazine section at Barnes and Noble yesterday. It's a neat place to get a look at some interesting magazines and sample a few of interest (and there are some that I enjoy reading once in awhile, but really wouldn't keep up on a subscription). We came home with four: First Things, Discover: Science, Technology and the Future, Night Sky: Astronomy for Everyone and Bon Appetit.

John already made off with First Things (to Taiwan, no less), but I've been happily thumbing through the others. I'm particularly impressed with Night Sky. It's content rich, but easy to understand; attractive and quite family-friendly. After our negative experience with Popular Science (good content, but I really don't appreciate the numerous male-enhancement and related ads when it's my 11 year old son who likes to read it, argh!) it was refreshing to see that all of the ads in this case actually related to the subject matter - telescopes, astronomy software, etc. Each issue covers two months and includes full sky charts for each month. I've had some success with online pages and with the H.A. Rey star books (which I love!), but having tailored charts that include the planets is really nice!

Other articles highlight specific constellations, night-sky photography, binocular and telescope tips, etc.

I haven't read through all the articles (by any means) and this is the only issue I've seen so far. Anyone else familiar with this magazine?

Thursday, September 21, 2006

Good News on Madonna/NBC Controversy

Read here

Contribute to the Catholic Homeschool Carnival

Love2learn is helping sponsor the first-ever Catholic Homeschool Carnival.

from Maureen Wittmann:

If you're a Catholic homeschooler and a blogger then don't miss this opportunity to take part in this historic event.

The Catholic Homeschool Carnival will take place once a month, on the first Friday. The deadline to get your favorite post(s) in is the 25th of each month.

Click here to submit your post. And make sure to tell all your friends!

It would be extra cool if some talented Catholic homeschooler out there came up with a nifty graphic or two to use in promoting the carnival.

Geography Meme

from The Map Guys - I got tagged by my son.

1. A Place You've Visited and Your Favorite Thing there
Caddie Woodlawn's House, her attic

2. A Country You'd Like to Visit and Why
Greece - history, architecture, culture, scenery, food, and lots more

3. A Place From History You'd Like to Visit and Why
This one is really hard. I can't seem to pick just one. Some of them I probably wouldn't want to stay in very long! I'd like to peek into the following places: a 13th century cathedral under construction, a peek inside the university at Alexandria in the 2nd century BC, Noah's Ark, Saint Thomas More's home and a stop along the Underground Railroad.

4. A Place You Know a Lot About (kind of)
Troy

5. A Place You'd Like to Learn More About
Central Asia

6. A Fictional Place You'd Like to Visit
Tatooine

I tag Molly, Nutmeg, Sharon, Ana and Cay, if they happen to notice.

Gospel, Catechesis, Catechism: More Highlights

Man can touch the eternal only in sensible realities, but the things of this world are also intrinsically designed to mediate contact with God. (pg. 18)
Do not presuppose the faith but propose it...Wide-ranging exploration of new fields was good and necessary, but only so long as it issued from, and was sustained by, the central light of faith. Faith is not maintained automatically. It is not "finished business" that we can simply take for granted. The life of faith has to be constantly renewed. And since faith is an act that comprehends all the dimensions of our existence, it also requires constantly renewed reflection and witness. (pgs. 23-24)
Faith is an orientation of our existence as a whole. It is a fundamental option that affects every domain of our existence. Nor can it be realized unless all the energies of our existence go into maintaining it. Faith is not a merely intellectual, or merely volitional, or merely emotional activity - it is all of these things together. It is an act of the whole self, of the whole person in concentrated unity. (pg. 25)
Education and knowledge can be a blessing only when that deeper simplicity of heart - that inward poverty (Mt. 5:3!) that can hear God's word and obey it in humble faith - remains in place. (pg. 45)
The gospel addresses itself to reason; it responds to man's longing to understand the world and himself and to discover the way to do justice to his essential being. In this sense, catechesis is instruction, and the early Christian teachers were really the founders of the state of catechists in the Church. But the actual living out of this doctrine is an essential component of it, and man's intellect sees properly only when the heart is integrated into the mind. (pgs. 56-57)

Unhurried Time

I think it's a very healthy and important thing for people (especially children, but adults too) to have some unhurried time to play, learn, explore, etc. I'm always reminded of this when I take the kids to Old World Wisconsin. We only go when we have a family pass which makes it comfortable (and pleasant!) to visit for just a short time and only see a few things.

I should probably preface this (lest you get the wrong idea) with the fact that it can be quite difficult to get out the door sometimes. Some of the kids will be cranky, shoes and warm clothes (the weather has turned rather suddenly) can be difficult to locate, someone doesn't want to help their little sister buckle in, etc. etc.

They're pretty good at entertaining themselves in the car by now, though, and the gorgeous ride through the countryside becomes part of the adventure. (The stop at Target for some gatorade certainly didn't hurt).

By the time we arrived at OWW yesterday, we only had an hour before closing. This was good though because I couldn't find my watch (and that darn car stereo/clock thing has been broken for awhile) and Gus had gymnastics an hour after it closed.

Okay. We know we'll make it home in time if we leave when things shut down. I run into the ticket booth to buy a new family pass (our previous one expired at the end of May, but they're good for a calendar year - and fall is a favorite time for these outings) while Ria helps Frank with his shoes and the others wait anxiously for my return.

I get back to the car and help kiddos with wrist bands and they burst forth from the car; when Terri suddenly realizes that the weather is cool and she DOES want that sweatshirt afterall. So I send Ria (it's so nice having a teenager in the family - and she loves not having to stay and wait for each little thing) and the others off to the bathrooms while Frank and I wait for Terri (who is taking her own sweet time). Everyone is shuffled in and out of the bathrooms and we finally enter one of our very favorite places in the world.

The older four are permitted to skip ahead to the game room and wait for me there while I follow more slowly with Frank and Kate. (We love coming on fall afternoons after the school kids have gone through - we usually have the place to ourselves, though it makes for a short visit.) Frank is very cautious though. He hears a tram behind us and wants to be sure it's not going anywhere before he's willing to walk. After a few moments of toddlerly consternation, he starts cruising and Kate flies off as soon as we're in sight of the game room.

The game room is an old community center from elsewhere in the state (the details elude me at the moment), where tables are set up with old-fashioned games for the children to play with. Sometimes they have wool carding and spinning demonstrations - with hands-on opportunities - too. We've been visiting OWW since Ria was 4 (when we moved back to Wisconsin from San Diego) and this has always been a favorite spot. Ria fell in love with cloth and the idea of making things here. My blind sister-in-law has helped spin wool here. The walls are decorated with annual photo contest winners. The wallpaper is authentic... interesting... kind of gaudy.

The other nice thing about this building is that it is fenced off and has some grassy areas on either side. One is set up with hoop-and-sticks for the kids to play with. The other has a few baby animals in little stalls (this time a beautiful white calf - that enjoys lots of TLC from the kids - and two merino lambs), some woodworking demonstrations and lots of pairs of wooden stilts. As long as the little ones are "covered", the kids can move between these areas freely and everyone finds something they love.

Frank remembers to check the little egg-hatchery - which he could gaze at for hours - but, alas, these stands empty until next spring. He made his way back into the game room and I sat watching him play with one toy in the game room - completely absorbed and engaged - for 20 or 30 minutes straight. Any mom of a toddler knows how amazingly long that is and I watched in awe. The look of concentration and delight on his face was priceless. The toy was an old-fashioned (I've seen these things on Antique Road Show) cast-iron painted bank with a clown (holding a hoop), a barrel and a little black dog. If you put a penny in the dog's mouth and pressed a lever, the dog popped up and dropped the penny in the barrel. You push him back down to start over.

About 10 minutes before closing, Frank was ready to move along. He walked out the door and started heading for the village with great determination. I called everyone to follow (though Bernie was in tears since she wanted to stay at the game room). We'd have just a few minutes at the village before closing. By the time we got there (a bit of walking is involved), Bernie decided she'd be happy if we could visit the Church. (This is a little Catholic Church - St. Peter's - that dates to the early 1800s - it was the oldest Catholic Church in Milwaukee before it was moved here in the 70s). The path through the village has lots of interesting distractions and several times Frank headed over towards the sheep, who were contentedly lounging in the lee of a wooden fence - all in a row. Toddlers are funny, you know. Each time, he would carefully walk down the slightly sloping grass, in a line completely perpendicular to the road. When he came back, he'd retrace the exact same steps rather than walk along the grass at an angle toward the rest of us.

We managed a quick hello at their second-favorite spot in the whole place - the blacksmith shop (though we knew he already had put his fire out) - and headed down the road to St. Peter's. I let the big ones run ahead again (we only had five minutes left by this time - according to the blacksmith - and they're quite well-behaved in these buildings - practice makes... well, pretty good).

The church is no longer consecrated as a Catholic Church, but is still adorned with some really beautiful artifacts (including the altar piece, a few statues, gorgeous stations of the cross and the original pews) and a funky wood-burning stove in the middle of the room with a pipe running through the air to vent out a side wall. The docent, dressed in her hoopskirts and bonnet, invited the kids to gather around the little old organ. She talked to them for a few minutes, asking questions about bellows (that run the organ) and their lungs and then played a verse of Amazing Grace. I asked if they could sing one too and she happily complied (I don't think they like to assume these things). Afterwards Ria was invited to ring the bell to signal that OWW was closing (a thick rope hung down behind the door) and we started heading home.

Terri had precisely 61 cents with her (never one to waste an opportunity for shopping) and wanted to buy candy in the gift shop. I agreed - as long as she bought three sticks so each of the kids had a half piece. She reluctantly agreed (if they would each pay her back 10 cents later) and I sent her and Ria ahead to make their purchases (more tears from Bernie who wanted to tag along... sigh). Frank was manfully running along the gravel path, very deliberately staying just in front of everyone else. When Kate started to run beside him, there was an incident of pushing and shoving, leaving the rest of the kids rather unsympathetic to his wishes. They all ran past him and he stopped in his tracks, bemoaning his awful fate. He wouldn't budge until I started slowly walking after the other kids and waving goodbye.

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Five Things Meme

Margaret tagged me and, no, I haven't done it yet. I'm afraid most of this is frightfully boring.

Five things in the freezer:
1. 1/2 a bucket of mint chocolate chip ice cream
2. 1 chicken and cheese chimichanga
3. lots of blue ice
4. some coffee
5. ravioli

Five things in my closet:
1. photos
2. slides (I inherited my family's slides - mostly 60s and 70s)
3. letters John and I sent to each other after he graduated and I had two years left at TAC (a LOT of letters - we wrote nearly every day and seldom talked on the phone)
4. my guitar and two violins that John inherited but we've never used
5. plenty of clothes including a full "line" of girls' dresses - esp. Christmas and Easter

Five things in my car:
1. a broken tape & CD player/stereo (boy do I miss it!)
2. A VCR unit a neighbor gave us that's a little on the fritz
3. a golf umbrella
4. my winter gloves (still - might as well keep them there now)
5. empty gatorade bottles

Five interesting things in my backpack:
I'm not currently using a backpack - I'll go with my purse
1. Gospel, Catechesis, Catechism by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger
2. The Mind and Heart of the Church Wethersfield Institute - I often get through little books faster because I can keep them handy in my purse when I'm out and about - it may be obvious to some by now that my copy of Everlasting Man - an older hardcover - doesn't fit very well into my purse - maybe next time I need to buy an TEM-sized purse
3. neat 3-part, but small notebook from the "Real Simple" line at Target - that I usually forget to use - but has been very handy in times of extra craziness and business
4. Old World Wisconsin membership booklet (we visited this afternoon and had to get a new family pass)
5. receipt from the dentist from the Map Guy's tooth extractions on Monday

I tag my sister-in-law

Two Helpful Commentaries/Analyses of the Regensburg Lecture

This is a really important lecture and really worth studying. The following articles will be helpful in further understanding and appreciating it. Nice to see some of this when so much in the media is focused on the controversy rather than the content.

"Pope Provocateur" from the Wall Street Journal
Analysis by Ryan Anderson of First Things

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

A Sign of Contradiction

I was working through (then) Cardinal Ratzinger's book Gospel, Catechesis, Catechism when the big controversy about his speech exploded. I already started out with sort of an interesting relationship to this book. I haven't really read the book before, but I actually did the key-in work on it when it was being typeset for Ignatius Press back in 1997. I remember loving what I did read (keying in also involves coding which makes for more difficult absorption of material), but also noting that I really should read the book someday. Well, it appears that some day is finally here.

I read the following passage last night and it really blew me away in light of what's going on with the Holy Father's talk at Regensberg. I don't think it's so much prophetic as surprisingly parallel and another indication, to me at least, that these important messages and teachings SHOULDN'T be thought of only in terms of those whose errors are obvious to us (such as the Nazis and Communists Ratzinger seems to be referring to in the following quote). They should be an occasion for genuine self-examination on our own parts.

Here's the passage. I think it is very complementary to Pope Benedict's talk:

It is no surprise that the Catechism proved to be a sign of contradiction from its very inception, even before anyone had read a single line of it. This only goes to show the timeliness of a work that is not merely a book but an event in the history of the Church. Anything that does not meet with opposition has obviously not dealt at all with the urgent needs of its time. The worst thing that Christianity has experienced in the twentieth century has not been open antagonism. The fact that powerful regimes persecute a powerless minority of believers with every means at their disposal is a sign of how much inner strength they attribute to the faith that animates this little flock. What is oppressive, however, is indifference toward Christianity which is apparently no longer worth a struggle but is regarded as an insignificant antique that we can safely let go to ruin, or even maintain as a museum piece. In contrast, the Catechism was and is an event that has reached far beyond intra-ecclesial debates to stir a secularized society. The Catechism was and is a breach in the soundproof walls of indifference. Faith is once more becoming salt that wounds and heals, a summons that challenges us to take a position.

And on a related note.... here are a few articles about the Pope's talk that I found interesting and/or helpful...

"Is Dialogue with Islam Possible?" by Fr. Joseph Fessio

"Enough Apologies" by Anne Applebaum (hat tip Best of the Web)
"Benedict the Brave" (WSJ - hat tip Ignatius Insight Blog)

Making Distinctions, Toddler Style

Frank (on the long side of 2 1/2 now) has two favorite distinctions with which he likes to identify... as much as possible.

distinction #1 - yummy or yucky

He is delighted with long word or picture card games in which he gets to identify things as yummy or yucky - even if they don't fall remotely into the category of food. In fact, I think the distinction is simply edible or non-edible in his head (not a real picky eater just yet).

distinction #2 - good guy or bad guy

Almost every time we watch a movie or he finds pictures in a book he enjoys labeling everybody as a good guy or a bad guy.

Yes, We Do Practice Censorship in Our Home...

Recently Ria was watching October Sky with four-year-old Kate and explained to her that there were some parts they'd have to fast-forward.

Kate replied very serenely, "I know, I'm not supposed to watch the parts with the Green Goblin."

Saturday, September 16, 2006

The Pope's Talk on Faith and Reason

I finally got a chance to read the Holy Father's "controversial" talk given this week in Germany. Though I found it challenging reading in places, I found it to be a reflective and thoughtful consideration of the importance of faith and reason working in unison.

I appreciated in a particular way the Pope's references to God as 'logos' - which means both 'reason' and 'word'. I've had a personal affection for St. John the Evangelist and the opening of his gospel since I was a child. I remember in particular taking "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was God" for my "confirmation quote" in eighth grade. I loved St. John for his faithfulness at the Passion and I found his words sensible and mysterious at the same time. The Pope offers them again as a reminder of the reasonableness of God and how this is essential to our Faith:

God does not become more divine when we push him away from us in a sheer, impenetrable voluntarism; rather, the truly divine God is the God who has revealed himself as “logos” and, as “logos,” has acted and continues to act lovingly on our behalf. Certainly, love "transcends" knowledge and is thereby capable of perceiving more than thought alone (cf. Eph 3:19); nonetheless it continues to be love of the God who is “logos.” Consequently, Christian worship is “spiritual” worship in harmony with the eternal Word and with our reason (cf. Rom 12:1).

This talk offers an important message to our times for many reasons. One that strikes me in particular is that many Christians, reacting against the evils of modern culture and not necessarily well-educated in their faith, can be tempted to think it more godly to ignore reason and the workings of the intellect when it comes to matters of the faith. This is really just an opposite extreme from what we recognize as a modern error. It presents a dichotomy in life in which truths from different subjects are compartmentalized and seem incompatible with each other. In the end, it severely limits the impact of Faith on our lives. Faith shouldn't be limited to things which are overtly religious; faith is supposed to illuminate our entire lives and our way of thinking. Faith doesn't suppress the intellect - it works with all of God's gifts to us and helps us to live our lives more fully and in union with God.

I'm not going to go into the political controversy this has caused. There's enough of that in the news and in the Catholic blogsophere already. To me it just provides further indication that people need to read this text for themselves, though commentary would certainly be helpful. Here are a few things that flesh out parts of the speech and might be helpful in better understanding it.

"The Pope's Speech: Lending Islam a Hand to Avoid a Downward Spiral" by Samir Khalil Samir, SJ

"Faith and Reason" at Clairity's Place Also see: a post on the Vatican's clarification

Also see: What DOES Benedict think of Islam?

What Major Should You Study?


You scored as English. You should be an English major! Your passion lies in writing and expressing yourself creatively, and you hate it when you are inhibited from doing so. Pursue that interest of yours!

English


100%

Mathematics


92%

Philosophy


92%

Engineering


92%

Journalism


92%

Psychology


92%

Dance


83%

Linguistics


83%

Anthropology


67%

Sociology


50%

Art


42%

Biology


33%

Theater


33%

Chemistry


25%

What is your Perfect Major?
created with QuizFarm.com


hat-tip Margaret

Thursday, September 14, 2006

Scrabble Mania

Watching Akeelah and the Bee has caused a surge of interest in playing Scrabble around here.

Works for me. :)

Thoughts from Chesterton on Today's Feast

The Triumph of the Holy Cross
Read here
Courtesy of Dr. Thursday

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

The New "Map Guys"

The new Map Guys blog is finally up and running here. "Ike" is a friend of Gus' who became interested in geography partly because of Gus' enthusiasm. His friend "GeoGuy" is the "heavyweight" in the field. He's won his local geography bee twice and both times qualified to participate in the South Dakota state bee. Go guys!

Incidentally, Ria and Gilbertgirl will be doing a lot of their religion studies online here. They'll be tackling the Catechism of the Catholic Church, much of the Bible and supplementary reading over the next four years. Blogs (with lots of adult supervision) can be a great way for young people to work on studies together. I think Gilbertgirl's Mom will be joining us there as well. She and I look forward to learning a lot in the process as well.

It's been a busy fall so far!

Arts Education improves Critical Thinking Skills?

Some interesting Chestertonian connections on this topic can be found here.

Whether we Live 70 Years or 70 Minutes...

we are equally important to God.

Click here to read more about this and a very special baby due to be born via c-section tomorrow.

Awakenings Revisited

Amy Welborn has an interesting post on a new drug that seems to be reawakening "hibernating"portions of the brain in patients in "Persistent Vegetative State".

Read here

A Happy Medium between Complacency and Scrupulosity

[NOTE: 1/3/07 I found this in my draft pile and thought I'd go ahead and publish it "as is". This is a topic I've been thinking about again recently, so added a few more items to the list at the end of this post.]

It's kind of funny. I've been getting asked for advice about homeschooling since I returned home after my first year of college. People wanted to know what I thought of homeschooling now that I had graduated and had a year of college under my belt. (I clearly remember that first question at a Catholic family campout we went to every summer) The first mom (and many more since) explained that she was worried whether she would be able to give her children a good education and prepare them for life. I said that I thought it was a healthy thing that she was worried - I'd be worried if she was over-confident and arrogant about it. This answer has always seemed to help. It let us laugh over things and remember that worrying is normal. Just don't get carried away!

Like many things in our lives there's a balance necessary to keep the right mindset about our own abilities and failings. As parents, educators, human beings, we need to be willing to regularly "examine" ourselves and consider what we ought to do, what areas we should work and how to go about it.

The problem is that we so easily fall into perfectionism and constantly examining and stressing (and comparing ourselves to others) over the little things to the point that this can negatively interfere with what we should be doing.

I don't think insecurities and feelings of guilt ever go away entirely for many moms. But if these can be channeled into a reasonable examination of our lives and our work we're doing okay.

There are two things you can DO to help keep this balance. This first is to ask God's help. God's grace is the answer. The other is to talk to other moms and not "put them on pedestals" or jump to conclusions about their circumstances or situation.

Here are some things I try to remember to keep a healthy balance that falls somewhere between complacency and scrupulosity...

Solid educational content is essential, but no one can learn all there is to learn in the world (particularly in 12 years!), so take the content at a pace that works well for each child (keeping in mind that you want them to learn what they study well and end up wanting to learn more).

In schools, entire textbooks are very seldom (if ever) completed in the course of a year.

Skills important for learning and life (like reading comprehension, fine motor skills, the ability to understand distinctions and basic writing skills) are more important than trudging through vast quantities of educational content.

Something that Pope John Paul II's mother taught him (at least according to the Pope John Paul II movie) - "The world is complicated, Lolek, but God is simple."

The quote from St. Francis of Assisi that I've taken on as my homeschool motto:

Start by doing what is necessary, then do what is possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible. St. Francis of Assisi

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

A Netflix Find

A Good Woman is an interesting movie based on the play Lady Windemere's Fan by Oscar Wilde. Although it is rated PG, it deals with mature themes (esp. marital infidelity) and would be appropriate for adults or possibly older teens. I don't want to spoil the plot, but it's the sort of movie that you shouldn't stop half-way through because you don't like where it seems to be going (and if you don't watch carefully, I think it could be rather easily misunderstood). I'll conclude by saying, simply, that it's a story about jumping to conclusions.

The Myth of the Picture-Perfect Homeschool Family

Honestly, I think this myth comes from our own insecurities. We hear a few positive things about what some other family is doing and we spin it into an image of:

A beautiful, meticulously-maintained home where the children cheerfully do what-they-ought 24/7 with never a whine or complaint (much less EVER hit or scream at the top-of-their-lungs). This family uses the perfect curriculum that is perfectly suited to all of their children and will ensure their children get accepted to the very best schools. Everyone always loves learning and feels like they get a lot accomplished each day and no one ever gets distracted from their lessons (or from over-seeing their children's lessons). Toddlers never bite their sisters while their mom is trying to read a story out loud. The kitchen is always clean and the table clear. As a matter of fact, clutter is completely non-existent. Bookshelves are perfectly organized and books are never left around for little ones or dogs to destroy. Books or car keys are never, ever misplaced, not even for a few moments, much less hours or days. Dinner is planned a week in advance and is always on the table when Daddy comes home and everyone is neat-as-a-pin for dinner. Dinner table conversation is always very lofty and is never interrupted by crying, whining, spilled milk or children falling out of their chairs. Crises or friends-in-need never jump in to take priority over planned lessons and a beautiful day never draws mom and children out-of-doors.

I've gone through my stages of insecurity and guilt (though I do certainly aim toward some of the above things). Now I'm quite comfortable saying: We are not that family and we don't want to be.

Monday, September 11, 2006

Footnote on Subsidiarity

I wanted to mention that my friend Dr. Thursday, who is working on a book on the Principle of Subsidiarity, has also helped me begin to see the importance and beauty of this Church teaching and how it might apply to family and education. I hope his book doesn't take too long, because I'm really looking forward to learning more about it.

Sterling North's House

We enjoyed a little visit to Edgerton, Wisconsin and the house of Sterling North (author of Rascal - Edgerton is called "Brailsford Junction" in the book) yesterday afternoon. I first took the kids there about four years ago while John was in Taiwan and we've been meaning to take Daddy there for awhile. Unfortunately my camera wasn't working, so we have no pictures to share.

It's a lovely old house with many original artifacts belonging to Sterling and his family - displayed with an emphasis on the year 1918 - when Rascal took place (Rascal was a pet raccoon he had when he was a boy of 12 - during World War I). At that time, his older siblings had all left home - including an older brother who was fighting in the war. The house is a charming late 1800s - though the restoration has left it in better shape than most others to be found in abundance in southeastern Wisconsin (we used to live in a similar, though much smaller house - the very definition of a "fixer-upper"!). Highlights of the tour (self-guided and no ropes or blocked doors!) included:

  • his old typewriter
  • his brother's World War I uniform
  • his childhood bedroom, including a number of interesting toys - like an early erector set!
  • products from Japan based on their Rascal animated TV show (these included, no kidding, soaps and shampoos, little desk items - inscribed with the phrase "Rascal is very happy with everything" and a package of toilet paper)
  • Sterling North's still-intact carving on the outside of the barn that reads "Damn Kaiser Bill"
The Methodist Church, in whose belfry Poe-the-Crow hid valuable items like Sterling's sister's engagement ring, is just around the corner from the house.

The house is only open on Sunday afternoons, but we happened to be there the day of the Sterling North Society Tour of Homes. This included a video presentation on Sterling North at the recently renovated 1906 library (though I spent most of my time in the children's section as only the oldest two kiddos were interested in the movie). It was probably the nicest children's library I've ever seen, even though some of the decor was a bit tacky. There was plenty of space, suitable and comfortable carpeting and furnishings, coloring things and toys for the little ones (though I think noisy electronic toys - there were just a few - are a really bad idea in a library) box-like racks for the picture books (so much easier for children to see the covers and push books back and forth) and - perhaps most appealing of all to our family - a lovely non-fiction children's section filled with interesting picture books - many displayed so you could see their covers. We cried the day they took the children's nonfiction from our local library and mixed them all into the adult non-fiction.

Though it was raining, so we couldn't play on the playground at Racetrack Park, we did manage to dip our toes in Lake Koshkonong.

I also discovered an interesting book for our Wisconsin history studies: On Location: Settings from Famous Children's Books #1 by Joanne Kelly. This covers Pepin Wisconsin (Little House in the Big Woods), a book from Illinois called On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer (I'm not familiar with this one), Dunnville, Wisconsin (Caddie Woodlawn), Edgerton, Wisconsin (of course) and Jasper County, Illinois (Across Five Aprils). The book has all kinds of maps, photos, related reading lists and interesting details about each book and its setting. Fun!

On a final note, I was interested to hear (in the small part of the movie on Sterling North I was able to see) that he was exceptionally good at memorizing poetry when he was a child and the narrator, at least, saw this as a great boon to his writing.

Congratulations to the Beans

on their latest model!

Sunday, September 10, 2006

"I Just Called to Say I Love You"

I discovered Peggy Noonan's column the week of 9/11. She's a New Yorker (and a Catholic) and brought to the world many beautiful, personal glimpses of the aftermath of the attacks on New York and Washington. This week, she looks back at what really mattered to those faced with death as they called their loved ones to say goodbye.

Read it here.

I was awed by this line: "Crisis is a great editor."

Friday, September 08, 2006

Akeelah and the Bee

We just borrowed Akeelah and the Bee (finally!) from Netflix and enjoyed it very much. It's a fictional story of an 11 year old girl from South Los Angeles who competes in the National Spelling Bee. Quite a good family film (except for a handful of words - it is rated PG - pretty understated for the difficult world Akeelah is growing up in).

I was interested in the quote hanging in Dr. Larabee's office and found it online:
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous,
talented and fabulous.
Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God.
Your playing small doesn't serve the world.
There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other
people won't feel insecure around you.

We were born to make manifest the glory of
God that is within us.
It's not just in some of us -- it's in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people
permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear,
our presence automatically liberates others

-Marianne Williamson
There's some real truth in there - especially in the context of Akeelah being ashamed of her gifts because she's teased at school for being a "brainiac" and she has a hard time "fitting in".

On a side note, I enjoyed the little plug in the movie for studying Latin to help you appreciate and understand words better. It really struck me that today, aside from homeschooling and a few charter schools, you pretty much have to be enrolled in a private academy to have the opportunity to study Latin in school. Our local public high school, which is about as good as public schools get, doesn't even offer Latin (you can take Spanish, German, French or Japenese). What a shame. Perhaps it is up to homeschoolers to grow up to be teachers and bring Latin back to the public schools.

Catechesis and the Principle of Subsidiarity

Don't stress on the vocabulary words. Even though Catechism has been a familiar term to me for a long time, I had to come across Catechesis (basically "the process of teaching the Catechism") quite a few times before it was a comfortable word for me to use (and this was after I was married and studying the Catechism of the Catholic Church with some other moms).

The Principle of Subsidiarity is one I've been vaguely familiar with for quite some time - I first heard the term from Kolbe Academy who model their homeschool program, in part, on this Catholic teaching. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church (#1883): "The teaching of the Church has elaborated the principle of subsidiarity, according to which 'a community of a higher order should not interfere in the internal life of a community of a lower order, depriving the latter of its functions, but rather should support it in case of need and help to co-ordinate its activity with the activities of the rest of society, always with a view to the common good.'"]

This has a lot of implications on education and there are two pieces I've just put together that are helping me see the bigger picture relating to Church teaching much more clearly - particularly with what I've been wanting to further understand about the role of method in education...

The first I've quoted several times before from Pius XI's encyclical On Christian Education regarding the teacher's ability to choose what is good from methods available...
There the Christian teacher will imitate the bee, which takes the choicest part of the flower and leaves the rest, as St. Basil teaches in his discourse to youths on the study of the classics.[51] Nor will this necessary caution, suggested also by the pagan Quintilian,[52] in any way hinder the Christian teacher from gathering and turning to profit, whatever there is of real worth in the systems and methods of our modern times, mindful of the Apostle's advice: "Prove all things: hold fast that which is good."[53] Hence in accepting the new, he will not hastily abandon the old, which the experience of centuries has found expedient and profitable.
The second is from Cardinal Ratzinger's papers at a conference on "Handing on the Faith in an Age of Disbelief" (which I quoted from yesterday) which makes it quite clear that many particulars should be left to individual teachers (who are living in communion with the Church), but without at all compromising the essential content of the catechism:
It may surprise today's reader to learn that the Roman Catechism in the sixteenth century was fully aware of the problem of catechetical methodology. It remarks that a lot depends on whether the instructor teaches something in one way or another. Therefore one must carefully study the age, intellectual ability, way of life, and social situation of the listeners, so as really to become all things to all men. The catechist must know who needs milk and who eats solid food, and he should adapt his teaching to the ability of the listeners to absorb it. The biggest surprise for us, however, may be the fact that this catechism allows the catechist much more freedom than contemporary catechetics, generally speaking, is inclined to do. Ineed, it leaves to the instructor to determine the sequence of topics in his catechesis, depending on the persons being instructed and time constraints - assuming, of course, that the catechist himself is personally dedicated and lives a life based on an ongoing meditation upon his material and that he keeps in view the four principal divisions of catechesis and coordinates his own plan with them. ...

In other words, this means that it makes available to the catechist the indispensable basic divisions of catechesis and their particular contents, but it does not relieve him of the responsibility to seek the appropiate way of communicating them in a given situation. No doubt the Roman Catechism presupposed a second level of literature to help the catechist in this endeavor, without itself trying to program in advance very particular situation.
It think this is a beautiful, sensible and well-balanced approach to Catechesis which would certainly apply to education in general.

There's a bit more to it, of course and Ratzinger's portion is a quick and very worthwhile read. This has recently been published by Ignatius Press under the title Handing on the Faith in an Age of Disbelief.

Thursday, September 07, 2006

Protect Us From All Anxiety

My sister has a great post on anxiety and the new school year. Certainly applies to homeschool moms as well...
Anxiety is a lie because it's based on an image of a world that we think we control...
[read the rest here]

Handing on the Faith in an Age of Disbelief

The title of this set of papers given by Cardinal Ratzinger and others in conferences in France in 1983 immediately intrigued me. It seems to me that this handing on of the Faith is the "problem" which Catholic homeschool parents are particularly interested in solving - both on individual and collective levels.

I'm only a few pages into this fairly short book (Ratzinger's papers come first), but it's already quite loaded with helpful truths and ideas. Here's a sample:

That catechesis is having a difficult time is a platitude that does not need to be demonstrated at great length. The reasons for the crisis and its consequences have been described often and extensively. In the technological world, which is a self-made world of man, one does not immediately encounter the Creator; rather, initially, it is only himself that man always encounters. The fundamental structure of this world is feasibility, and the manner of its certainty is the certainty of what can be calculated. Therefore even the question of salvation is not geared to God, who appears nowhere; rather, once again, it is geared to the ability of man, who wants to become the engineer of himself and of history. Accordingly, he no longer seeks his moral standards, either, in discourse about creation or the Creator, since such talk has become unfamiliar to him. For him, creation is silent with regard to morality; it speaks only the language of mathematics, of technological utility, or else it protests against its violation by man. But even then its moral exhortation remains indeterminate; ultimately, in one way or another, morality becomes identified with social acceptability, compatibility with man and his world. In this respect morality, too, has become a question of calculating the bset possible arrangement of the future. All of this had fundamentally changed society. To a great extent the family, the basic sustaining social form of Christian culture, is in the process of disintegrating. When metaphysical ties do not count, other sorts of commitment can scarcely shape it in the lnog run. This whole world view is mirrored, on the one hand, in the new media and, on the other hand, is nourished by them. To a great extent, the representation of the world and of events in the media today makes more of an impression on people's awareness than their own experience of reality. All of this affects catechesis, which finds that its traditional social supports - family and parish - are present only in broken form. Since it can no longer connect with the experience of faith lived out in the living Church, it seems to be condemned to remain mute in an age whose language and thought feed almost exclusively by now upon experiences of the self-made world of man.

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Gus teaches Frank some Geography

Gus (our map guy) got an inflatable beach-ball globe in the mail today as a promotion for National Geographic Magazine which we subscribed him to for his birthday (Warning: This magazine requires some parental supervision, and no, I'm not thinkng of natives in skimpy clothing). He immediately blew up the ball and started playing with Frank. Naturally he wanted to share a little of his geographical knowledge with Frank and proceeded to teach him the names of some of the continents.

Gus [pointing]: That's Europe. Euuurrrope.

Frank: My-Rup?

Gus: [exceedingly large quantities of laughter]

Frank: [sensing something amiss] Oh. Your-Up.

Monday, September 04, 2006

Prayer Request

I'm asking again for prayers for Katrina (my best friend from my homeschooled high school days). She's a young military mom with three children under the age of ten. Last year she was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease - a terrible degenerative disease with no cure that is 100% fatal. They since changed the diagnosis but haven't really figured out what's causing her muscle degeneration. The re-diagnosis indicated that she would end up with "only" lower-body paralysis and in a wheelchair, but without threat to her life. She's suffered through dozens and dozens of painful tests and medical treatments and still doesn't have clear answers. (The symptoms started when she was pregnant with her third and her husband was in Iraq for a year - she started losing certain movements in her feet and started falling a lot.)

She's asking for prayers to St. Clare, since the disease now seems to be affecting her upper body. Here is the message I got from her yesterday (she gave me permission to share it here):

Alicia, Not too proud to ask or beg if the case be.. haha.

Alicia, you had once asked me if I needed anything to ask and I am feeling weak of spirit and body at the moment and wanted to ask you to say a novena to St. Clare of Assisi for me, for strength in mind and body and healing. I am feeling weak in my upper body now and am worried the disease is coming to my upper body and am a little terrified that I may be paralyzed over my entire body so I am asking you for your gift of prayer.

Down the centuries, the gracious and gentle St. Clare has continued to ask the afflicted ones in the world: WHY DO YOU NOT COME TO ME TO BE CURED? No stranger to suffering,- she bore the cross of illness for more than twenty-eight years,- this first spiritual daughter of St. Francis still desires to help those who suffer to share as deeply and as fruitfully as she did in the mystery of redemptive love. A woman of unbounded faith and hope, she teaches the secret of finding peace amid suffering: union with Jesus Crucified. "If you suffer with Him," she wrote, "you will reign with Him."

Pope John Paul II once remarked that there was no concern, suffering, anguish or discouragement of others which did not find an echo in the hearts of St. Clare and her spiritual progeny.

I am inviting you to join me in enlisting St. Clare’s intercession. Please say this prayer once a day consecutive for 9 days and you may add any prayers you feel. Thank you for any prayers you can send me. Much Love, Katrina

St. Clare of Assisi
O God, You who filled
the heart of St. Clare with love
for the mysteries of the Cross and
caused her to rejoice to share
in the sufferings of Christ,
grant that through her example and prayers
all who suffer in mind, heart or body
may find serenity in suffering,
faith in time of trial,hope in Your healing mercy
and be given a share in the everlasting light and love
of Your heavenly kingdom.
We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Sunday, September 03, 2006

Gilbert Magazine and Maurice Baring

We finally got our Gilbert Magazine yesterday and have been enjoying many delightful tidbits from it (I believe Ria will be doing lots of posting on it this week).

I liked Dale Ahlquist's article "The Third Man: Maurice Baring" and wanted to share this delightful little quote from Baring:

People used to conceal their ignorance decently. No longer. This is due to the spread of what is called Education. More people are taught things, but they are taught less. In fact, they are taught hardly anything; in former times they were taught little, but that little they learnt.