"The Mode" at Lake Powell by Leah

Lake Powell is a lake inside of Glen Canyon located in Utah. It was decided that they were going to make a dam which would cause the Colorado river to flood into the canyon. As a result, three million people visit Lake Powell a year. We now have a beautiful lake for an amazing vacation and I know because I have been there. It was the place I first learned about "the mode."

My great aunt and uncle invited my family to come with them on a houseboat for about a week. Another of my aunts was going to be there too. When we got there, we loaded our things onto the speedboat which my aunt and uncle own. We rode the speedboat inside the slip where the houseboats stay when they are not being used. That evening we were told by our Aunt Polly how we will work together on this trip, meaning we were told what jobs we had, such as who cooks and who cleans.

Afterward my aunt took us to the marina where they had rest rooms a gift shop and food/ice cream. 

After supper we set up the beds. The beds stay piled up during the day, and we spread them out at night so we can sleep up on the top deck. The stars were beautiful but I couldn't see all of them because we were half covered by the roof of the slip, which just made me more excited for the next day when I would see all of the stars, out on the lake by ourselves.

The next morning after the beds were put away and my dad and Aunt Polly and Uncle Tom had scouted for a spot for our house boat, our captain (my uncle Tom) decided that it was time to cast off. While the adults untied the boat we slowly started to float away from the dock. Soon we riding along faster to the spot where we were going to stay. 

When we arrived at our spot, the adults went to shore while us kids stayed on top and watched. They took 4 ropes attached to the boat and tied them around large heavy rocks to keep our boat from floating away. These were our anchors.

When they were done we got out to explore and swim in our surroundings. We made use of the water slide and played on paddle boards until suppertime.

After supper, we setup the beds and stared in awe at the sky I have never seen as many stars as I did there. I went to sleep knowing that tomorrow would be a whole entire day of swimming and other water sports.

The next morning was amazing starting with the view I saw the moment I opened my eyes: the sun shining on the walls and the reflection of it on the water. We put away our beds and those of us who needed to started on breakfast. 

This was the day that we all would get into what my aunt Polly called "the mode" which basically meant the routine of how the days would go.

We would eat our breakfast served by two different people every morning. Then it was time to jump in the water playing games and water sports such as water slide contests paddle boards and snorkeling. Then while the water was still smooth my uncle tom and my dad would take out the speedboat and hook up a long rope with a handle on its end and the people who wanted to water-ski that day would get into the speedboat except for the person who was going first. That person would get in the water and put on two long skis as tight as she can. Once that is done she would grab the end while the driver would drag them along faster until the skier was standing up. Everyone else waited until his or her turn to jump off the side and put the skis on.

Soon it would be time for lunch and clean up, which was always followed by quiet time. This was an hour long. my aunt Polly, uncle Tom, my sister Lucy and my brother David settled in bed and read books, others slept, while sometimes some of us were allowed to use the paddle boards and the kayak. My great aunt Sue and I only flunked quiet time once. :)

In the afternoon sometimes we made crafts, or we played in the water some more and added tubing in as well, which was a great opportunity to look around the lake. There are a lot of side canyons which you could easily get lost in. 

Once everyone had a turn to go tubing we headed back to the houseboat trying to get there in time for happy hour, as sometimes one of the tubers was in charge of happy hour and we had to go back early for them to setup. Once we finished our snacks we hurried to jump back in the water and put shampoo and conditioner in our hair while the people on setup for supper would work in the kitchen. Each night we would put our nice dresses and necklaces (party beads) on and helped carry the food to the top deck. We always ate there. By this time the water was usually still like glass because the speedboats stopped coming by so it was quiet and peaceful.

Supper always ended with a desert of cookies and then the dishes were taken downstairs and washed and put away. We got ready for bed and aunt Polly always joined us to listen to my dad who read a few chapters of our favorite book, At the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness, and usually by the time he was finished most of us were already asleep. One night we got out our telescope and saw Saturn's rings!

The next few days all had the same schedule until the last night out on the lake when they said that the next day we would go back to the slip, stay the night and leave the next morning after cleaning up. On the last night in the slip, we had what Aunt Polly called a "award ceremony", which was when she gave each of us little gifts from the trip some of which just made us laugh. We went to bed happy. And as for "the mode"? I'll never forget it.

Worth the Wait by Madeleine

This year my family and I were invited to go to Lake Powell with my great aunts and uncle for a week. Lake Powell, which is a huge, man-made lake located in the middle of the desert in Utah, is barren, beautiful, and breathtaking. 3,000,000 people visit Lake Powell every year, but unfortunately, other tiny, unwelcome visitors have taken up residence there. We (and my great aunts and uncle) started planning many months ahead of time for this trip. In September of this year we found out that it was worth waiting for!

Lake Powell was created by building a dam that took 10 years to construct on the Colorado River in the Glen canyon, causing the canyon to fill up. The Glen Canyon dam was finished in 1963, and in 1980 Lake Powell filled up to be 560 feet deep! Named for John Wesley Powell, a veteran from the Civil War,  Lake Powell is the second biggest man-made lake in America.  This gigantic lake is 186 miles long and has 2000 miles of shore line. 

In addition to the 3,000,000 human visitors each year, Lake Powell has recently started facing a problem with quagga mussels. When Lake Powell started out it had no mussels, but in 2012 after routine water monitoring test, mussel DNA was in the water samples taken from the lake. In March of 2013, four adult mussels were discovered. More adult mussels were continuing to be found on boats and marina structures. Some mussels were found submerged on the walls of the canyon. By the time we visited in September 2018, mussels lined the walls everywhere. This can cause big problems and frustration when mussels attach themselves to the motors of boats in the lake.

Mussel problems aside, we had an amazing time. When we arrived at the lake, we grabbed all our belongings, packed them on the speed boat and sped off to the marina where our houseboat was. The first night we stayed in the boat that was parked in the slip, then left the next morning to go to the spot where we anchored (not a chain anchor, but tied in several places to rocks on the shore!) and stayed the entire week. Everyone was in the water at least once a day. We could water-ski, kayak, S.U.P(stand-up-paddle-board, swim, or go tubing. It was like having a humongous swimming pool that was 90 feet deep in our backyard for a week. I collected many rocks while we hiked around the canyon, too!

This year my family and I swam, slept, and ate an Lake Powell with my great aunts and uncle for a week. This beautiful lake, man-made though it is, is a gift from God. It may have taken many years to fill up this huge lake, but it was, in my opinion, worth the wait.

https://www.arizona-leisure.com/lake-powell-facts.html
http://lakepowellrealty.net/11-cool-lake-powell-facts/
https://www.lakepowell.com/discover/park-history/
https://www.nps.gov/glca/learn/nature/mussel-update.htm

When I Grow Big

So my little David will be 3 next week and he's been incredibly adorable lately. He spends most of his days shooting webs at people (because he IS Spiderman), playing in the sand/water, as well as making lego creations (in my hair mostly). 

A few weeks ago, at the behest of little Miss Lucy, we held "Church Camp" at our house. On the second day, due to an illness, fewer children came, so David got to join in. He LOVED it. Part of the day was "playing Mass" and he insisted that he concelebrate. 😀 Later that night, he was sitting on my lap during supper when he announced to the family his future vocation. I was trying to get him to make his way to his own chair, when he picked up his fork with a piece of broccoli on it. He said: "I'm gonna eat this, then I'm gonna grow big, then I'm gonna go to church and be the Father!" When I told my mom the story on the phone the next day, he heard me and started running around the circle in our house yelling, "I'm gonna be a priest!" He's stuck with his decision (so far), and when I asked last week if he wanted to come to daily Mass with me, he responded, "Yes, and I will ask Father Adam if I can be the Father with him, and he will say, 'SURE!'" 

"I Don't Want YOU!"

I've been out of the swing of blogging for a little while. It used to be weekly, and then I sort of fell out of it. I knew I'd probably start up again eventually, but recently I experienced an insight that gave me goosebumps on my goosebumps and I thought: It's Time. So while you may not see me posting every week on Family Fiat (my old, OLD blog), I will do my best to give voice to some of the insights that amaze me in my life, in hopes that they give you some joy, and maybe even goosebumps, too.

So here goes.

Last weekend, I attended one of my monthly sessions for my Masters in Theology at St. Meinrad in Indiana. Flat tire notwithstanding, the weekend was good for my soul. In my "Creed in History and Theology" course, we happened to be talking about Tradition. Tradition comes from the Latin word tradere which means to hand over, or to trade. It isn't so much a noun as it is a verb, an action.

My mind flashed to Luke 15 and my hand shot up.

"What is the Greek word for inheritance?" I wondered to my professor. "Like in the story of the Forgiving Father/Prodigal Son. When he asks for his inheritance, what is that word?"

"That's interesting," he replied. "It's ousia, and it is the only place that that word is in the Bible. It's interesting because it translates funny. It translates substance in Latin. Like he's asking his father for a share of his substance."

After I got over the amazing fact that my prof immediately knew that answer without even blinking once, I was dumbfounded. "Ousia? Really?"

My professor didn't seem to catch my amazement and continued with his lecture. As quickly and clandestinely as I could, I looked online to see what I could find out about this word and to see if my hunch meant anything.

It turns out ousia does mean substance, it's true. It also means being and essence. I couldn't help myself, and googled the only other word I knew that had the root "ousia" in it.

Parousia.

In Catechesis of the Good Shepherd we live into the History of the Kingdom of God as fully as possible, and so our study of Salvation history introduces this Greek word (and one or two important others) to the children while they are very young. At six years old the child discovers that the Parousia is the time in which "God will be All in All..." (1 Cor 15:28). If you ask a Good Shepherd child, he or she will tell you that Parousia is the time when the lame will leap, the dumb will speak, and there will be no more tears or mourning. One 11 year old child told her catechist she was not afraid of death, and the catechist asked her why. "The Parousia!" she proclaimed. Children make up songs about it, and they draw pictures with the huge golden cross covering the whole world on the covers of their folders. It's a big deal, and we all share a sense of expectant wonder for the word and the reality it stands for.

https://www.cgsusa.org/products/the-history-of-the-kingdom-of-god-part-1-from-creation-to-parousia/

It turns out that the word Parousia has an interesting etymology. Where ousia means essence, parousia means "presence" or "being present." Presence? We know that Jesus uses this parable, which is also very familiar to a CGS catechist, to teach us about His Father's forgiveness. But what exactly is being wasted by this prodigal son? I quickly grabbed my bible out of my bag and read the story of that prodigal again with a new lens. It turns out what the son is really saying is:

"I want your essence, Father, your ousia, but I don't want your presence. I. Don't. Want. YOU."

Immediately my mind recalled another familiar story. Who was the first to act in this manner toward our loving God? Who were the first to grasp at being "like gods", seeking to steal the essence of God, at the expense of His presence?

In the garden after the Fall, God says, "Where are you?" Their union with Him is broken. They are separate by their own choosing.

My mind was racing. I wondered: then what about the older brother?

He became angry, and when he refused to enter the house, his father came out and pleaded with him. 
He said to his father in reply, ‘Look, all these years I served you and not once did I disobey your orders; yet you never gave me even a young goat to feast on with my friends. But when your son returns who swallowed up your property with prostitutes, for him you slaughter the fattened calf.’ (Luke 15:29-30 NABRE).

Is it possible that the prodigal could refer to Adam and Eve? Who then is this older one who complains about the younger son's reconciliation? All in a moment I wondered: is this familiar parable the whole of Salvation History in just a single chapter of St. Luke's Gospel? Who was there first, before Adam, if not the angels? The father says to the older son:

'My son, you are here with me always; everything I have is yours.  But now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found’ (Luke 15:29-32).

In other words: You have parousia! I can only imagine the pain with which Jesus tells this parable of the Father's presence being rejected, by the younger son, then the older. I always wondered why we don't hear what decision the older son made. Perhaps his decision to "stay outside" was already made.

I am sure there is much more to unpack, and I will leave you to your own discovery. (Perhaps you can share your thoughts in the comments?!) It will be another couple of weeks before I head back to Indiana for another weekend, but I am really looking forward to it. I never know what new insights and ideas this kind of study will springboard me off to (further study of the Greek language, perhaps?), but I am happy to share my inheritance with you! God Bless!

Secret Room

We took our whole family to the Christ Our Life conference last weekend.  I think the kids got a lot out of it, and I think my husband and I probably got a little time shaved off of purgatory for bringing them all home alive. Win-win.

It was really something to celebrate Mass with over 7000 people, and to listen to the phenomenal speakers. But the highlight for my girls were all the nuns!  They were everywhere! There were sisters dressed in blue, white, black, and our favorite that we met was a beautiful sister named Sister Joachima from Poland!  Leah, our 7 year old, was smitten immediately and begged to be allowed to enter her Dominican order (which is in Justice, Illinois).

Sister Jo did say she wanted to scoop her up and take her back with her, but instead she gave Leah work to do: "Pray for your vocation," she said. "Pray everyday and God will reveal it to you."  Our impetuous redhead was not all that keen on waiting 11 years, but she promised to pray.

The next morning, she was frustrated. "Mom! I want to pray, but I can't!"  She was so earnest, but it also made me laugh a bit.  I invited her to my lap to come and tell me about her troubles.

"I want to pray, but Jesus said you have to go to your secret room. Mom! My sisters are always in my room!  How can I close the door and pray in secret if they're always with me?!"

I could understand her exasperation, but I tried to help her see a little deeper. "Leah, do you think that maybe Jesus means a different kind of secret room?  Maybe not the same thing as the bedroom?"

"Oh," she said knowingly. "You mean, like the bathroom?"

We spent a few minutes looking up pictures of Saint John Paul II praying, silently, leaning on his crozier or on a prie dieu (kneeler) in his chapel.

"He was always surrounded by people, but somehow he found his secret room and was able to gain the strength he needed from his prayer. I wouldn't put it past him that he would have prayed in the bathroom. But I think his "secret room" was with him wherever he went.  What do you think?"

She smiled, "I think it was in his heart."

"Ah.  And do you have a secret room like that?"

She smiled and jumped off my lap. I didn't see where she went in the house, but I'm pretty sure she found the room she was looking for.

The Growing Time

Like a blooming plant that lives all year-
We won't always have beautiful red flowers.

Sometimes we will just be green.
Drinking in dew- soaking up sunshine in preparation

For another time of magnificent bloom.

Murphy Awesome Points

Several months ago, our eldest was bemoaning the fact that she is no longer "cute." An astute observation for a seven year old, she realized that she was growing up and out of the adorable stage. With her little sisters almost all solidly cute, she wasn't sure how life was going to work out without cuteness on her side. With a little prayer, I related to her about my cousin, Murphy. Now, she's not really "cute" per se (though she sure was!)--now she has grown past that. Now she is AWESOME. She is constantly looking for how to make other people more comfortable, how to make sure everybody (including each little kiddo) is having a good time, and she'll sacrifice super-fun grown-up hang out time to take kids to the park. She is awesome...

Well, my dear husband came recently came up with a system to monetize this special quality. Murphy Awesome Points. The MAP system. When our children do something particularly helpful or sweet or awesome, they are awarded "Murphy Awesome Points." The girls will be happy to get us all napkins, or take the laundry out of the dryer, or help a little sister get her carseat buckled--grinning from ear to ear when we say: "20 Murphy Awesome Points for you!"

Well, I knew I had to write about it this morning, because my 3 year old, Leah, was asking me to put her new lip gloss back in her bucket (which was out of her reach). I said, "Sure!" and went and put it away. "20 Murphy Awesome Points, Mommy!" I have to admit, it made me smile, too.

Two Meditations on Matthew 18:23-35

The Debtors

Before me is a bigger debt than I could ever pay-
Everything I owe my Lord from birth until today.
All I've done against Him, all the good I've failed to do.
The hidden, darkest secrets I'm ashamed to say I knew.
I wanted to keep working, to pay the mountain down,
But even as I'm trying, more debt is coming round.
Then I hear his verdict--"You will not be sold.
For I am having mercy. I erase the debt you owe."

But as I leave his courts relieved of debt that he forgave
I pass his courtiers and see a certain fellow slave.
Justice burns within me as I consider all he's done.
I've never been so hurt by anybody like this one.
I fight the urge to grab his throat, demanding he repay.
I even watch him sneer at me before he walks away.
Other souls are watching me to see what I will do-
demand he pay in Justice, or have mercy on him, too?
But how can I cry "Justice!" when in justice I would be
locked away forever paying debt eternally?
With a prayer, I turn to go. I will not make him pay.
For having been forgiven much, I must forgive in the same way.

Mercy's Source

I have been forgiven much
yet the pain of Justice burns.
Unsatisfied, she cries for pay.
For Justice my heart yearns.

But God, my God, your Mercy came
and sated her demands.
You came and paid my debt for me,
released my shackled hands.

Might your sacrifice extend
to debt which still exists?
And satisfy the Justice cry
that lingers on my lips?

"Your debt is satisfied
because my blood has covered you.
My grace, it is sufficient
for all you now must choose to do.

The measure which you measure out
will be how you're measured, too.
Will you measure out with Justice,
or with the Mercy shown to you?"

But where does Mercy come from?
There must be some supply.
For you are Just and somehow
Justice must be satisfied.

"I did not wish for you to die,
though such great debt you owed.
And so I chose to pay the price,
and the Fount of Mercy flowed."

Can this Fount extend to pay
when debts are owed to me?
Can I pass your Mercy out
when others cause me grief?

"My Mercy is inside of you,
like blood within your veins-
But will you choose to let it flow?
This question still remains.

Will you guard your life or lay it down
when Justice cries for blood?
My Mercy is inside of you,
your veins hold back the flood.

You see, I gave my life for you.
In Mercy, you are free.
But to satisfy all Justice, child,
you now must follow me.

If you wish to keep the Mercy
I have shown you for my part,
You must forgive your brother and your sister
from your heart."

Come Hungry!

Matt and I took the girls out to a Mexican restaurant last week, which is always an adventure with 4 kids. We really like to eat Mexican because they always bring out the chips and salsa beforehand, so the girls have something to munch on while we wait. The only problem is that by the time our meal comes, they are so full of chips and salsa that they don't eat the meal! I suppose if I am to be totally truthful, it happens to me a lot of times, too!

When it comes to appetites, our own or our children's, it can be difficult to discipline ourselves and stay hungry for the good stuff. Who among us wouldn't be disappointed to go to an amazing party with delectable food and drink if he had just wolfed down a whole bag of cheese puffs and a 2-liter of pop!

But it's not only our food appetities that we need to discipline. There are many appetites in our lives that we "feed" with "junk" rather than the good stuff. We've all told our children, "Don't eat that, it'll spoil your dinner!" But maybe you've heard a mother say, "Don't watch that! How will you ever appreciate good movies or theater if you are full of that stuff on TV?" Or even, "Don't look at that stuff! How will you be hungry for true art if you fill your eyes full of trash?" Or how about, "Don't text all the time! How will you truly feed your need for intimacy and relationships if you are full of junk communication?" Maybe some of our difficulty in passing on the faith and culture to the next generation has less to do with our presentation of it, and more to do with their appetites being filled with everything but those things that will truly feed them!

We all know what Mom meant when she said, "Don't spoil your dinner!" She meant: "Come hungry!" Sometimes in our "feed it now" culture, we are less than disciminating when it comes to when and how we feed ourselves. Even though we spend much of our time full, we are still malnourished. Just like my girls with the chips and that yummy Mexican meal, sometimes some guidance from Mom and Dad can help children learn that it really is better to hold on to the hunger for a while so that in the end we can be truly satisfied.

"Blessed are you who are now hungry, for you shall be satisfied... Woe to you who are filled now, for you will be hungry." Luke 6:21a, 25a.

God Bless!

First Holy Communion

Well, things have been busy around here, and today I am actually almost caught up on laundry and even have some granola cooking. I thought I would post some pictures that I have of Bethany's BIG weekend last weekend. :)

This one is after her First Reconciliation. She is wearing a white pinafore that SHE designed and helped make with the Sacred Heart of Jesus on it. (He loves us so much, His heart burns for us!) She received the garment and the candle to signify the "cleansing" of the white garment she received at baptism. When we enter into Christ, it's darn near impossible to keep from getting in the muck! But we know that at the wedding feast of the Lamb, our garments will be white. Reconciliation is when we wash them clean in the blood of the lamb.

This is the cake we got from our new favorite grocery store: Fareway! Bethany was so excited to see the grapes and the vine, because one of the Bible studies she did in preparation for this day was John 15:1-11: the True Vine!

This is a cropped pic that was a large group. I didn't think I should publish a pic of all 22 children!

This last picture is on the way home.. She wouldn't take off the veil (from my wedding dress) all day, but it looks like she has the crown off by this point. It was one happy day for her. We had Grams and Papa D. over for a little while--Papa slept (so did I), but Grams had fun playing with her grandchildren, I think! Bethany requested Chinese Food for supper, so we ran out and got take out from a local joint.

She's pretty grown up, and has now received her 4th communion--2 yesterday! She told me last Friday, "You know, Mom, I've been thinking about my First Communion all week!"

We have more pictures from the photographer, but these are the ones we have so far. Bethany wore the same dress that I wore at my first Communion, and the same one that my (girl) cousins on my mom's side and all of my aunts (on mom's side) wore, too! The dress is 56 years old!

Come Holy Spirit!

Hey all my good friends and neighbors! Just a reminder that the Pentecost novena begins TOMORROW (Friday the 14th). These 9 days between the Ascension and the Pentecost have historically been rough ones for Christians and the first Christians were no exception. Our Lord promised to send us His Spirit, and told his apostles to go and wait. Let us also wait upon the Lord and ask Him to send His Spirit mightily upon us in His sevenfold gifts! I am very excited for Pentecost this year as I have seen the Lord move mightily, and I think He's only just begun.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. AMEN!

http://www.ewtn.com/devotionals/pentecost/seven.htm

Crazy Kids

OK, the hardest part about being a mom is how you can't remember anything! I have been planning to write a blog about the hilarious things that the kids have said in just the past week, but this is the only one I can remember:

"Hey kids, we should pray for Aunt Sarah because she has her last show tonight (she was performing at the Lyric in Kansas City!!!)"

Emma: "You mean, we need to pray that her baby doesn't come out in the show?"

{:O

Leah does a great knock, knock joke:

"Knock, Knock."
"Who's there?"
"Dead guy."
"Dead guy, who?"
(Turns head to side, sticks out tongue). "Ack!"

She's actually not so good with the jokes, as she mixes them up.. or has really bad timing:

"Knock, Knock."
"Who's there?"
"Interrupting Cow."
"Innnteerrrrupptinnnnggg Cooooooowwwwww, whoooooooooo?"
(Long Pause)
"Moo."

Or this one:

Why did the skeleton cross the road?
To go to the store and get some guts. (This one assumes you know that the skeleton was afraid to cross the road because he didn't have any guts).

Leah is also absolutely NOT afraid of water. She will walk right to her drowning death in a zero entry pool and have no remorse about it afterward. It was actually quite frightening to see. This last weekend, I had her on my belly as we were floating in the pool at The View in Grandview, MO and she squirrelled around and kind of fell off of me and got her head under the water. To this she reprimanded me: "MOM! How many times do I have to tell you???"

Really?!?

Emma also had a very dramatic time with her Aunt Genny. She was constantly frustrated last Sunday in her pursuit of art supplies and was limited to the likes of construction paper and crayons. After we had left, her aunt Genny did find what Emma had made in lieu of her more creative dreams and plans: A Wishing Book.

Cover: My wishing book
Page One: "Wishing I had never been born."
Page Two: "Wishing for scissors."

Seriously?!?!?

Madeleine digs school and is pretty much taking care of Teach your child to read in 100 Easy Lessons all by herself. She is pretty much a scaredy cat, though, and does not like to have the door closed when she goes to the potty, which can be awkward when guests come over, and she will only let me close the door in her room IF she is on her bunk bed. She also makes "hammocks" for herself out of her blanket and the loft bed. I am not sure how she does it, but she does it all the time!

Beps: Besides wanting to move to West Bend, the biggest part of her life right now is preparation for her First Holy Communion. She has just 1 Sunday left that she will have to get a blessing. She has memorized her Act of Contrition (it took her about a week to do it confidently without the paper) and she is pretty excited for May 16th! She's growing up in so many ways. She is now my official Jell-O maker, and she is also Felicity's favorite baby-sitter (so Bethany says).

The Grotto

Oh wow. We went on an amazing trip to the Grotto last weekend as we are getting ready for Beps' first communion.. Seriously, it was breathtaking. If it were in a little town in Spain or Italy, I'd fly there just to go. Beps wants to live there. Check out some pictures of our trip on my "professional" blog. http://allsaintscgs.blogspot.com/.

Since there are other kids in all of the pictures with Beps, I'd better not publish them.. So here is what Madden looked like when we got home!



And, just because Ann asked so nicely, here are some other ones...

I'm pretty sure Matt cried "uncle" during this one. I was very disappointed as I am pretty sure dad could whip all 5 of us when we were in high school.


I can't even remember what they were doing here, but Leah cracked me up in the corner, reading a book.

In this one, Leah is on his lap while he is trying to work.. It's a little old as Matt has axed the beard, but they look so alike with the matching reds.. :)

God Bless! ~M

Year FOR Priests

Another post that I wrote for the bulletin... I DO write every week, just not always HERE. I promise to do better! Love, M

I had an eye opening conversation with a very holy priest friend last week. We were discussing the Year for Priests as a key component to a rebirth in the Church: Without holy priests, the Church cannot flourish. My friend especially pointed out that Pope Benedict XVI, a champion for the holy priesthood as intended by Jesus Christ, is a force to be reckoned with when it comes to spiritual battles that must be fought in our age. It isn't surprising then that he is coming under such scrutiny and attack in order to distract from his message. This man by all honest accounts has been the champion of the defenseless and abused ever since the gravity of the scandals has come to light. He has called for this Year for Priests to awaken the faithful to the need for support and prayer for our current priests and for those who have not yet discerned their vocation.

The Devil is no fool, and if you wish to find out what is most holy and most beautiful, look no further than that which has been most desecrated--look at sexuality, look at marriage, look at pregnancy, and look at the priesthood. The Devil focuses his effort wherever he can get the most "bang for his buck." The potential height of glory that is never attained coupled with the fall into the throes of evil make the vocation front a seductive target for those who seek the ruin of souls.

When it comes to the young, this hidden battle is even more dangerous. The Devil, recognizing a vocation long before a young man or others might notice, wages battle after battle against that young man from early in his life, trying by whatever means possible to distract and destroy this potential alter Christus from God's plan for him. But my priest friend shared his experience and many of those whom he met in seminary: "Due to this impossible struggle, God increases his grace all the more, and it is not uncommon to see God work in amazing and truly supernatural ways on the souls of his chosen ones." I would not be surprised to learn that God's action in these cases is a concrete response to the faithful prayers of those who have a heart for vocations.

In this Year for Priests, we must BE THE FAITHFUL of the Church. We must faithfully support and uphold the dignity of the priesthood, supporting and praying for our priests as they wage the battle for souls. We must be faithful to prayer each day for those young men (perhaps yet unborn) who are to be our future priests, and for a mantle of grace and mercy to surround them as they discern God's call. And especially let us be faithful to prayer for Pope Benedict XVI as we celebrate his birthday (last Friday) and approach the anniversary of his election this week. May God grant him special grace and protection, and may he lead us through this difficult winter to the New Springtime of the Church.

Everything

Catholics and Grace and Balloons

So this morning I was praying to have a way to talk to my girls about the importance of virtue and their role in acquiring it. I then thought of this metaphor/allegory for the soul, and gave this presentation to my girls this morning. It is kind of like a CGS presentation. I can give you the doctrinal content and direct and indirect aims if you are interested! Ha! Here it is, I hope it helps somebody else, too. My girls seemed to really get it! I'm pretty sure it characterizes the Catholic view of grace, salvation, and sin decently well, but of course all analogies break down at some point. I'm definitely open to feedback!

Begin with one yellow balloon (any color is fine just make sure all are the same color) that is not blown up.
"This balloon represents the soul. It is a pretty color, isn't it!"
Blow a bit of air into the balloon and then hold it shut with fingers.
"Do you see how this air enters the balloon, this is like how grace enters the soul! Who do you think gives the soul grace?"
[God!]
"Did the balloon make the air come into it?"
[No.]
"Right, but I had to open my fingers to let the air come in. This is a lot like grace: we don't do anything to make it come into our souls. God gives it as a gift. And we can grow, just like this balloon, in virtue and grace, if we open ourselves to God's gift."
Now I blow it up more (to "oohs" and "ahhs"). Quiet for a moment.

Moment #2 (same day or another)
Start with above, then begin to let out some of the air (to troubled faces).
"What happened to the air in the balloon?"
[It went out!]
"Why?"
[You opened your fingers a little.]
"Right, and our souls are kind of like that, too. God is giving us grace all of the time, and we can open ourselves to that grace, but we can also let it out. What do you think we could do that would make that happen?"
[Choose to be mean. Hit. Yell. Give angry looks. Disobey.]
"Now look at the balloon now that it is shrinking. Does it look as beautiful?"
[No.]
"It is sad to see a balloon shrink, isn't it? It is even more sad to see a soul lose grace because it doesn't make the effort to hold in the grace! This is why it is so important to try hard not to waste the gifts that God has given us through sin. These are precious gifts that make us more and more beautiful all the time, we just have to open ourselves to God's grace, and close ourselves to sin."
Now I get out a little cup.
"There are other things that we can do to make sure our soul can grow as much as God wants!"
I put the balloon in the cup and try to blow it up (it would be better if it had a lid with a straw hole through which you pull the balloon "mouth", so it wouldn't blow up at all).
"Can the balloon grow very big?"
[No, the cup is stopping it.]
"Right! Sometimes this same thing happens to us if we don't put ourselves in a place where we can grow! It can be putting ourselves in a situation where we know that we are tempted to sin, or where we don't have good examples around us."
I pull the balloon out and begin to blow it up again.
"But when we choose to put ourselves in a place where we are free to grow, and we open ourselves as much as we can, we can GROW!"
Blow it up decently big, don't tie it off.
"But, there are some things we can do that may seem to us to be small, but they are very dangerous. That is why it is so important to guard your heart and soul and keep away from things that are a danger to it."
Get a very small pin and pop the balloon.
[Gasps!]
"Do you see this pin? It seems like it isn't dangerous to the balloon because the balloon was so big and beautiful. But there are some kinds of sin that are so dangerous that they can take all of the grace out of a soul."
Hold up the mouth of the balloon, and gather the broken pieces. Try to blow it up.
"Can this balloon hold air anymore?"
[No.]
"This is what happens to a soul that destroys itself by sin. It no longer contains grace inside. This kind of sin is called "mortal sin" and there are three things that have to happen in order for the sin to be "mortal." 1: the sin has to be a grave matter--a big thing. 2: you know it is wrong and you do it anyway. 3: you freely and completely choose to do the wrong thing (no one made you do it!)"
Try to blow into the balloon again.
"Now for this poor soul, God is still there, and grace is still there. The soul can feel God's breath, and it wants to be whole again, so it begs God for forgiveness, and God can work a great miracle..."
Hide the old balloon, and bring out a new yellow balloon.
[Gasps!]
"God can make the soul whole again...."

Moment #3
Hold all three balloons, one broken, one sort of filled up but not tied off, and one tied off that is well-blown. Hold up the one that is about 1/3 full.
"Now what do I need to do to make sure that it can grow and the air stays safely inside this balloon?"
[Don't let go of the mouth and let air out. Make sure it is in a place it can grow. Keep away from dangerous things.]
"What do we need to do to make sure that our souls can grow in virtue and that we don't lose the grace we have been gifted with?"
[Don't make bad choices. Open up our hearts when God leads us to make good choices so we can grow. Don't open up to bad choices. Keep away from situations where it is harder to be good. Keep away from people when we have a hard time being good with them. Never do something we know is wrong.]
"Awesome. Now, a soul with no capacity for grace cannot enter the wedding feast in heaven, just like a balloon like this one (show the broken and yucky one) wouldn't be part of a birthday party, it would just be thrown away."
Blow up the balloon just a tiny bit and tie it off, then pull out a fully-blown & tied off balloon.
"Even the tiniest bit of air will get this balloon into the birthday party. Is it as beautiful as this one that is so full of air?"
[No.]
"This is a lot like us. We know that just a tiny bit of grace transforms us and makes us ready for heaven. When we die, we don't have to work anymore to hold on to the graces we have. Now there will only be a wonderful party--no more dangers, no more sins, but also no more opportunity to grow in virtue and grace. Just like this small balloon, not every soul cooperates with God as much as it could. Do you want to be a soul like this small, not very full balloon in heaven, or do you want to be more like this other balloon that is FULL of grace from a lifetime of working with God's grace and avoiding sin?
[THE BIG ONE!]
"Which balloon do you think will have more fun at the birthday party?"
[The Big One!]
"I think that both kinds of souls will be very happy that they are in heaven with God, but I wonder if the one that responded to the gifts that God gave to it and made choices to be holy instead of selfish, and to make hard good choices instead of easy bad ones is glad that it did.
Right now, we have the chance to grow in virtue by cooperating with God's grace and making hard decisions to hold on to those gifts, or to be lazy and let our fingers rest as the air slowly goes out of us. What do you want to do?"
[GROW!]

Updates

Beps: is on her 4th guitar lesson this week. She can play twinkle twinkle.. Since her mom couldn't figure out how to re-string her guitar, it is with her teacher until her lesson on Tuesday. No worries, though. Turns out the eukelale that we got from Aunt Sue and Uncle Mark actually works. So we get to hear Twinkle Twinkle 4 or 5 times a day, anyway.

Emma: Has been counting down until her birthday for WEEKS. It is a good exercise in subtraction. She got me though, because she does not feel that it is right to count her birthday as a "day" when we think of how many days until her birthday, since it would actually BE her birthday then. So, we are counting how many more days are not her birthday. Luckily the countdown will be over this week.

Madeleine: Is not going to have any babies. She is going to be a nurse and sell cars.

Leah: Wants a kitten for her birthday. Oh, and it needs to be pink.

She's so helpful that way

My sweet Madeleine has been so helpful lately. She has especially taken to helping her little 2yo sister, Leah. The other day I overheard her talking in her high-pitched "I'm talking to a little kid" voice and say:

"Leah, I'm going to help you potty train. When you need to go potty, you say: 'I need to go potty!' and I'll say, 'Run! Run!'"

Talking Horse

A few years ago, while attending a homeschooling conference, my husband and I met a man named Andrew Paduwa. He was an incredible speaker and very fun to listen to. He had much to say about the world in which we are living and how important it is for parents to take seriously their duty to bring up their children with strong virtues, strong character, and strong faith. One of his best suggestions for how to do this was deceivingly simple: read good books to your children.

It sounded so simple that at first we didn't think it would do very much--and we soon found that simple and easy are not synonyms!! After several starts and stops we have finally instituted an earlier bedtime and 30-45 minutes of reading time each night. Supposedly, one of us can read to the children while the other does something "productive," but the books that we have chosen, The Chronicles of Narnia, are so engaging that both parents are usually on the floor while the kids are leaning over their beds to listen.

As much as this is sweet family time (hard won, let me say!), it is also a very important time for developing and nurturing the correct understanding of virtue, goodness, character, and the danger of sin. We are just finishing The Horse and His Boy, and I have been struck countless times by the depth of insight that Mr. Lewis had into the human spirit, and into the dangerous and tricky vice of pride.

When the Talking Horse, Bree, realizes that he is not the Great Horse he had always fancied himself to be and begins to be dejected, we are taught a very important lesson about comparing our virtue with those around us, for good or ill. A wise old hermit reminds him, "My good Horse, you've lost nothing but your self-conceit...If you really are so humbled as you sounded a minute ago, you must learn to listen to sense. You're not quite the great horse you had come to think, from living among poor dumb horses. Of course you were braver and cleverer than them. You could hardly help being that. It doesn't follow that you'll be anyone special in Narnia. But as long as you know you're nobody special, you'll be a very decent sort of Horse, on the whole."

Who knows what series we will find after we finish Narnia, perhaps The Lord of the Rings or The Little House books. As parents, there are so many different ways you can go about passing on the truth of your faith and values to your children: sometimes you talk about faith, sometimes you talk about values, and sometimes you can even talk about a Talking Horse.

(Bogarted from my weekly "column" in our parish bulletin! I figured that you, my 2 faithful blog readers, wouldn't mind! God Bless!)

Prayer after the Earthquake in Haiti

A Prayer After the Earthquake in Haiti

Lord, at times such as this,
when we realize that the ground beneath our feet
is not as solid as we had imagined,
we plead for your mercy.

As the things we have built crumble about us,
we know too well how small we truly are
on this ever-changing, ever-moving,
fragile planet we call home.
Yet you have promised never to forget us.

Do not forget us now.

Today, so many people are afraid.
They wait in fear of the next tremor.
They hear the cries of the injured amid the rubble.
They roam the streets in shock at what they see.
And they fill the dusty air with wails of grief
and the names of missing dead.

Comfort them, Lord, in this disaster.
Be their rock when the earth refuses to stand still,
and shelter them under your wings when homes no longer exist.

Embrace in your arms those who died so suddenly this day.
Console the hearts of those who mourn,
and ease the pain of bodies on the brink of death.

Pierce, too, our hearts with compassion,
we who watch from afar,
as the poorest on this side of the earth
find only misery upon misery.
Move us to act swiftly this day,
to give generously every day,
to work for justice always,
and to pray unceasingly for those without hope.

And once the shaking has ceased,
the images of destruction have stopped filling the news,
and our thoughts return to life’s daily rumblings,
let us not forget that we are all your children
and they, our brothers and sisters.
We are all the work of your hands.

For though the mountains leave their place
and the hills be tossed to the ground,
your love shall never leave us,
and your promise of peace will never be shaken.

Our help is in the name of the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.
Blessed be the name of the Lord,
now and forever. Amen.

Copyright © 2010, Diana Macalintal. Permission is given to reprint for non-commercial use.