Feast of the Annunciation

Today is a wonderful day for us all! We celebrate today Mary’s “yes” to God – the day the Word became Flesh and dwelt among us!

Our salvation began on this day, the Annunciation (or Incarnation).

Side note: One of the very few days that Tolkien specifically names in The Lord of the Rings is this day, for it is this day that Frodo and Samwise were finally able to destroy the One Ring. Middle Earth’s salvation began on that day.

[image sources: Annunciation, Annunciation Icon, Ring]

Pride and Prejudice

Well, we just watched the movie (with Keira Knightly) and I think this is just great.

In fact, it’s Made of Awesome.

Pride and Prejudice as told with Yahoo! emoticons.

Sample?

…

The Dolorous Passion I

I’ve been reading The Dolorous Passion as my main Lenten reading. The beginning, as I mentioned, is not difficult to get through. It’s amazing how much detail there is in the book. No, it’s not Scripture or inspired. It’s merely a private revelation, which the Church always gives us the option of accepting or not. Catholic Answers gives us a bit of an explanation (full text is at the above link):

“Throughout the ages, there have been so-called ‘private’ revelations, some of which have been recognized by the authority of the Church. They do not belong, however, to the deposit of faith. It is not their role to improve or complete Christ’s definitive revelation, but to help live more fully by it in a certain period of history. Guided by the magisterium of the Church, the sensus fidelium [collective sense of the faithful] knows how to discern and welcome in these revelations whatever constitutes an authentic call of Christ or his saints to the Church. Christian faith cannot accept ‘revelations’ that claim to surpass or correct the revelation of which Christ is the fulfillment, as is the case in certain non-Christian religions and also in certain recent sects which base themselves on such ‘revelations’” (Catechism of the Catholic Church 67).

These visions, then, are left up to us as to whether or not we wish to accept them. Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich, however, was bound by them, since she was given them. (This site provides much more detail, and New Advent has information on the topic, as well, though their depth often proves a bit much for me. EWTN also has some information on private revelations here.)

Since we’ve declared Sundays in Lent to be (nearly) electronic-free – no computer, no Wii, no TV – I haven’t posted yet on what I’ve read. I read through the first part of the book, which contains descriptions of the preparation for and the celebration of the Pasch. It ends with Jesus and the eleven (Judas had gone on to finish his betrayal of Our Lord) leaving the Upper Room and going to the Garden.

I mentioned it before: this part is the easiest to read. You are drawn into the story and drawn into the celebration. How could the Apostles have really known, even if Jesus Himself was trying to tell them, that so much could go so “wrong” in such a short time? No wonder they couldn’t believe Him!

Some of the details were interesting, such as there being a portion of the Blessed Sacrament left and that it was stored – with a lamp lit nearby – in a space within the Upper Room. This setup gives the impression that perhaps that was the first church and that there was a Tabernacle there. I found this idea intriguing. It also reminded me of our own Holy Thursday Mass, when the priest consecrates enough hosts to remain for Good Friday services. (Good Friday and Holy Saturday are the only two days of the year that there are no Masses celebrated in any Catholic churches in the world. The Easter Vigil, because it begins well after sundown, is considered to be an Easter Mass.)

One thing that is standing out for me during this reading of the book is that Judas is presented as one who has been more and more dissatisfied with Jesus’ non-action. To our human eyes, it doesn’t seem that He is establishing His Kingdom: the House of David that will never fall, the Kingship that will never end. And Judas’ impatience has driven a wedge between him and God.

How often are we this way? I know that there are times when I am impatient with God, when I want Him to just HURRY UP and do something. When I pray for something – something good and wonderful and right – only to be told, “Wait.”

I don’t want to wait. I’m like a small child in Toys R Us, pitching a fit and kicking on the floor, screaming, “I WANT IT NOW!!!”

But God’s time is not ours, and we must all remember that. We can’t be like that child. We can’t be like Judas, trying to force our timing on God. Patience.

I’ve begun the next part of the book, as well, which begins with Jesus and his Apostles arriving at Mount Olivet, where Jesus begins to pray in the Garden of Gethsemane. This is where it becomes difficult and emotionally exhausting to read.

First, let me explain a little about that.

When you watch the movie The Passion of the Christ, there are visual elements you might miss. You can’t see everything at once, or you might close your eyes at a painfully difficult part of the movie. But when you read about the Passion, you can’t avoid it. It’s all there, and it’s all laid out in front of you.

When you’re confronted with Jesus in the Garden, His soul nearly crushed with sorrow over our sins, it’s painful to see. He suffers in Gethsemane because He sees the sins of humanity: from the fall of Adam to the end of the world. And when Sister Emmerich says that she sees her own sins among them, you realize that your own sins are there, too.

For me, I realize that my sins are there, and it hurts me to know that I’ve caused Our Lord this suffering. When Sister Emmerich speaks of those who reject the Faith or the Church, of those who blaspheme, of those who remain in the Church and yet wound her from within, I realize that I’m there. She sees my sins, too. Surely she did not see them as clearly as her own, but there they are.

And the thought that I would see my sins, laid out before me, knowing that they were a cause for the lashes on the back of my Savior, the nails in His hands and feet … that is nearly unbearable.

When Jesus goes to his Apostles – Peter, James, and John – and finds them exhausted from fear and sleeping, I know this is how He finds me most of the time. Sleeping.

He is anxious, but still, He is their Shepherd. And He is gentle when waking them. “Could you not stay with me but an hour?”

Am I so gentle when I find my own children doing something aside from what I left them to do? This comes up and practically slaps me in the face. Even these great saints, these Fathers of the Church, were not perfect. Why do I expect more from others? Why do I expect so much less from myself?

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

I’m still in the garden, as far as my reading goes, and it is rather difficult from here on out. I’ll update again when I can. I need to take breaks from this book at times, and that’s when I’ll update from the other books I’m reading this Lent.

Have a blessed and fruitful Lent!

[image sources: The Dolorous Passion, Gethsemane]

What’s Wrong with the World I

Not very far into this book just yet, but I definitely like Chesterton’s beginning. I’ve read other books on fixing society – I do have a degree in education, you know, and education degrees contain nearly as much information on how to fix our students as how to teach them (or even content) – and Chesterton’s observation that they start with all the problems and then lead up to the Grand Solution to Fix It All is dead-on.

However, he proposes that this is an incorrect way to go about fixing society. First, he says, we must know where we’re going with society. What does a healthy society look like? If left to mere humans, we get about 4 billion different ideas. There must be a standard. After all, medicine has that standard of what a healthy body looks like, so doctors all have the same goal: get the body as close to that as possible.

I’ve yet to get into the second chapter here. I’m taking a little break this morning to work further into The Dolorous Passion. I’m still reading about the preparations for the Passover, so it’s easier reading now. (Funny how we’re gently brought into the story, and then it seems to go horribly wrong. That must be how the Apostles felt. Here we are, celebrating Passover. Jesus has really been talking about His death a lot lately, but this isn’t a night for sadness! And then the Seder is different suddenly and Judas is leaving and John is more upset than anyone else and Jesus leaves before the fourth cup and we’re going to the garden to pray. And the garden is quiet, but Jesus … oh! Jesus what’s happening to You? Why is Judas back…? And so reading this book is a lot like being present – a fly on the wall, if you will – at the Passion and Crucifixioin of our dear Lord. I’ll write about it in its own post, as it deserves that.)

The weather is warming up here, and so I’m going to send the girls out to play before lunch – while the snow is still here – and take that opportunity to really start reading. A little music in the background, a cup of coffee by my side, and a book in hand.

Sounds about right to me.

Lenten Reading

I’m giving up certain parts of my online activities for Lent, and instead I’ll be doing some spiritual reading.

First on my list is a book I’ve read before, but is very difficult for me to read (emotionally). It’s The Dolorous Passion, which was the book that Mel Gibson read and used to “fill in” details between Gospel accounts when he made The Passion of the Christ (which we watch every Good Friday). Sister Emmerich was a mystic who had visions of Our Lord’s Passion and Death and was asked to have them committed to paper before she died.

It is a very. tough. read.

So in between reading that, I’ll be working on reading Mother Angelica’s Private and Pithy Lessons from the Scriptures and What’s Wrong with the World (Chesterton). This will be my first Chesterton book! (I’m a bit excited, especially after reading Dale Alquist’s introductory book on Chesterton.)

Not that I think I’ll finish all of those, but I do have a couple of other books on my list of things to read. First, there’s The Imitation of Mary. It’s another difficult read, if only that it forces me to face how far I have to go in order to be the kind of Christian I ought to be. Then I’ve also remembered that I’ve got another book that I started and sort of put aside: Introduction to Christianity, by then-Cardinal Ratzinger.

I’ll try to post here about what I’m learning (and how I’m doing). I am really trying not to give myself too much to accomplish during Lent; as I learned a few years ago when I tried to do too much, that is just setting me up for failure. However, I am a voracious reader when I’m not occupying myself with time wasters online, so I do anticipate having enough time to get through at least the first three books, if not more. The biggie will be The Dolorous Passion. Like I said, it’s a difficult read for me. It’s emotionally exhausting. And it is an in-your-face reminder of why Jesus died and what He went through for me.

There are things I’m planning on doing aside from reading more. One that I’ve already made public is my commitment to participating more in 40 Days for Life. I plan on going (with the girls) to pray outside Planned Parenthood more often – hopefully once a week at a minimum – during this campaign. You, too, can participate in the 40 Days event, even if you aren’t able to be there physically. We need prayers – lots of them – and those prayers can be quite powerful. If you can, pray and fast for us and for the 40 Days campaign. Really, you’re praying and fasting for those mothers who are contemplating abortion, their children, and those people who work in the abortion clinics across the country.

[image sources: books, 40 Days for Life]

Fascinating Book

I’m reading a book called Shattered Dreams, an autobiography of a woman who grew up as a Fundamentalist Mormon and was the second of ten wives to her Fundamentalist husband.

I have to say that the whole Mormon/LDS doctrine is just very strange. And I feel horrible for this poor woman – she was just so brainwashed about “The Principal” that she just succumbed to it – even against her better judgement. (A brief history of Mormonism can also be read here.)

It’s the kind of book that just sucks you in when you start it. Engrossing!

Book Worm Meme

Jean tagged me for this.  I can play, but I’ll leave a somewhat open tag at the end because I am swamped.  

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The Rules:
Pass this on to 5 blogging friends. Open the closest book to you, not your favorite or most intellectual book, but the book closest to you at the moment, to page 56. Write the 5th sentence, as well as two to five sentences following that.

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Okay.  Here goes with the quote.  It’s from my Bible, which happens to be the closest book that isn’t a product guide for software.  (Those aren’t really books.)  If I would have had to turn around, I think I might have come up with schoolbooks, as there is a shelf full of them behind me.  LOL!  New American Bible, Saint Joseph Edition:

“Bring them to me,” said his father, “that I may bless them.”  (Now Israel’s eyes were dimmed from age and he could not see well.)  When Joseph brought his sons to him, he kissed and embraced them.  Then Israel said to Joseph, “I never expected to see your face again, and now God has allowed me to see your descendants as well!”

Joseph removed them from his father’s knees and bowed down before him with his face to the ground.  Then Joseph took the two, Ephraim with his right hand, to Israel’s left, and Manasseh with his left hand to Israel’s right, and led them to him.

(Genesis 48: 9b-13 – link is Douay-Rheims)

Now for that semi-open tag.  I tag anyone who is going to be participating in the National Night of Prayer for Life on the night of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.  Remember to leave a link to your post (not just the main blog link) in the com boxes below.

A New Place to Play!

(As if I actually need that!)

Found via Maureen Wittmann:

Book Quotes!

Some gems:

• Wear the old coat and buy the new book.
  Austin Phelps
• Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counsellors, and the most patient of teachers.
  Charles W. Eliot (1834 – 1926), The Happy Life, 1896 [That one reminds me of the Holy Father. When his papal apartment was refurbished and his books - all 20,000 of them - were brought to him, he said that he was so happy that his friends were with him again. He sounds like my kind of man.]
• A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.
  G. K. Chesterton (1874 – 1936)
• Do give books – religious or otherwise – for Christmas. They’re never fattening, seldom sinful, and permanently personal.
  Lenore Hershey

What fun!

And I do wish more people would give the girls books for Christmas and birthdays. They have too many toys as it is, but there are never too many books – just too few bookshelves.

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Fake "Family-Friendly"

I’ve been reading children’s books lately in an effort to screen things for Big Girl. Well, probably for Little Girl, too, but she’s not finished with nearly every book in the house, as Big Girl is.

Some books are famous – they’ve been made into movies – and these are among the ones Big Girl would like to read. Though she hasn’t seen either one, she wants to read (and see) both Harriet the Spy and Bridge to Terebithia. I insisted on reading both before letting her loose on either for a good reason: Shilo. Yes, the book about the boy and a dog.

I did not screen Shilo and regret it now. The boy in the book thinks a man is mistreating his dogs, and he becomes attached to one of the new dogs who keeps running away. The boy decides he’s going to somehow get the dog away from his master and keep him. He wants to buy him (man paid $40 for the dog), but what happens is that the boy hides the dog after he finds him out again. Then he proceeds to cover up that he’s got the dog. Let’s count the problems here:

• covetting
• lying
• stealing
• more lying
• disobeying parents

And in the end, he gets to keep the dog, in spite of the fact that because of him, the dog was attacked. It’s a wreck, and my explanations to Big Girl about why I didn’t like the book (which I read when we watched the movie) only brought her to tears. She can’t understand why it’s so bad. “It’s FICTION!” she continues to cry to me. Yes, but when I realized that the movie and the book were so similar, I was sorry I let her read it. The role model in the book breaks several big Commandments, and is rewarded in the end!

And so I was trepidatious about Harriet and Terebithia, despite both being considered great children’s literature.

I have now nixed Harriet the Spy. Harriet spies on her friends and various people in town – sneaking all over, hiding in bushes – and then writes about them in her notebooks. The girl is absolutely fanatical about routine and about the notebooks. She is, quite simply, addicted to the notebooks. Her obsession is revealed after the contents of her writing is discovered by her friends, who discover that she’s been writing mean-spirited things about them all. They keep her notebook, and the next morning, she leaves early for school so she can buy a new one and continue writing. She cannot function without the notebooks. (It’s actually very sad.) She is sorry, but not for hurting anyone, and not for spying on people, and certainly not for writing such nasty things. She is only sorry that people looked insider her notebook when it said “PRIVATE” on the front cover. She is actually angry and feels that it’s not her fault that everyone is hurt by her actions and words. In the first section of the book, she has a nursemaid who winds up leaving to get married. She is heartbroken, as the nurse (Ole Golly) was like a mother to her. When Harriet’s world is crashing down around her, her parents try contacting Golly to get her to talk to Harriet about what has happened. Golly tells her that she must always be true to herself. Sometimes, she tells her, people will get hurt by the truth, so she has to decide if she wants to apologize or just tell a lie. Small lies are good if they spare people’s feelings. (I kid you not, it says this.) Now, Golly tells Harriet, use your spying to write stories because you wanted to be a writer.

Harriet winds up being rewarded in the end for her dispicable actions. (What is to be expected in a book where God is not mentioned even once? What is there to regret if you only tell the truth? Who cares if it’s only opinions and not necessarily the truth?) Harriet winds up being the editor of her grade’s page of the school newspaper. She starts using her spying to tell stories (still mean-spirited) about people in town that she has been sneaking around on. Everyone loves her stories for the paper, her friends accept her back without question (or apologies or even Golly’s other suggestion: lies), and all is well.

Harriet is a spoiled brat who is mean and nasty. Harriet does not change her ways. Harriet is rewarded for being a spoiled brat who is mean and nasty.

Great message.

Then Terebithia, which I really wanted to read a LOT. First of all, the story is beautiful. Really, really lovely. I actually cried – make that sobbed – at the end of the book. But the reason I’m now trepidatious about this book is the language. There were multiple uses of “hell”, “damn”, and the Lord’s name in vain (which is actually a bit mild, as in “Lord!”, but I know will bother Big Girl a bit). And let’s not forget the use of the term “bitchin’”, as in “they start bitchin’ at you for breaking crayons.” These are completely unnecessary, and it is a real shame for them to be in there. That said, the book is definitely for a more mature child – probably upper elementary at the earliest, if you can stand the language – because of the death of a character in the book. (Which explains my sobbing last night.) I want to watch the movie before I decide about the book. I might – maybe – read it to the girls in preparation for watching the movie, as long as the language is a bit more tame in the film. I know Walden Media will have stuck to the book closely, in spite of the girl looking wrong, because that is just what they do. But, again, I was caught off-guard by the language, and I’m glad that I decided to preview the book first.

One more thing. Our family movie this weekend (did you think I’d forgotten?) was The Rookie with Dennis Quaid. What a really wonderful film! The story (a true one) was really inspirational, and everyone loved it.

I have two problems with it, though. (Gosh, I look like a real complainer here, eh?) The Rookie is rated G. Yet in one of the early scenes, we are treated to an ass-grab – CLOSE UP! Holy cow, I don’t do that to my husband near the kids, why on earth do I need them to see that filling the entire TV screen???!!!??? And there were a few “damns” and “hells” in there, too. People, this movie is rated G, and I felt like I should have screened it first. It’s completely unfair that such material is in a G-rated film. Can’t I watch anything with my children without being assaulted by inappropriate material any more?? Why should I have to screen a movie that is for “General Audiences” to be sure I don’t get a full-screen shot of someone’s butt being grabbed (right at the crotch, mind you!)???? I dang-near fell off the couch, I was so shocked!

From now on, I think I’m going to have to stick to movies made before 1960 for family movie night. At least Pollyanna and Mary Poppins didn’t have innuendos and ass-grabbing. Neither did Briggadoon. Yes, we’ll be looking for old musicals for next week. Or maybe Charlie Chaplin. It’s getting harder and harder for me to trust that a family film is really that.

And, as far as books go, I’ll be looking into getting For the Love of Literature by Maureen Wittmann as soon as possible. I need some help in getting decent books that protect my girls’ innocence and still challenge them.

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Library Book Sales

While leaving the library last night, I noticed a C.S. Lewis book on the table (ten cents), so I went back to get it. (It’s The Weight of Glory.) Then I noticed this other book on the table right under it.

I bought it so I could have the pleasure of destroying it, thereby protecting people from the lies of Jack Chick.

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