Comments anyone?

Not sure if it's working...

two posts in one day...

I'm feeling daring so I'm going to open up comments and see what happens. If I end up with any religious debate, I'll know that I have 2000 years of church history behind me (and maybe 3 or 4 friends too!)!

Not blogging here...

I don't know what my problem is, but I'm not keeping up on here nearly like I'd hoped. The first six week session of our Why Catholic small group is ending this week. Each week we have options of how to "live the good news" and almost every week one of the options is to start a prayer journal. I sort of thought this blog might be a kind of prayer journal when I first started and yet I've not blogged here, nor started an actual prayer journal. Ugh! Maybe someday!

In the meantime, one thing that I am doing much better is actually praying for people as soon as someone mentions they or someone they know needs prayer. This happens a lot on facebook. In the past I'd often say you're in my thoughts and prayers and kind of think that counted as a prayer (sort of like God hears me, he's got it covered). I am now in the habit of immediately saying a Hail Mary for that person. Sort of like passing it on to Mary to intercede on their behalf. Since so much of the time the person in need of prayers is not Catholic, I kind of chuckle to myself that it is sort of my Catholic Evangelization tool so to speak. Kind of like, I'll pray for you, not only that, but I'll get Mary (and maybe a bunch of saints) to pray for you too how do you like that?!

I am still loving teaching 5th grade CCD. Today we had a great class, the two biggest challenges weren't there. Even the challenging kids I really like though. One is a boy who is very class clown-ish, but totally endearing. The other is a girl who just has that "I want to get out of all work" kind of mindset that I think mostly comes from school. (My own kids certainly want to get out of work-- like manual labor work-- but I think for the most part they enjoy learning especially when it involves the sparkling, enlightening conversations that I present both to my own kids and my CCD ones.) Anyway, in class today we talked about the Liturgical Year, which to me is just one more genius of the Catholic Church. I was pointing out to the kids how we prepare for big events like weddings and having babies and moves and birthdays, and how in the Church it is the same thing, we get ready for the big events like Easter and Christmas in the preparation seasons of Lent and Advent. I tell these 10 and 11 year olds that they are way ahead of me to be learning some of the stuff that I've only learned in the last few years (and I've been going through the motions all my life). It was especially neat when I explained that ordinary time didn't mean ordinary like regular or not special, but meant time "in order". I actually had one little girl do one of those "light bulb moment" kind of a-ha's...soo cool!!

rant continued

Nice title for a Faith blog huh? Sadly, I feel like I'm fighting an uphill battle. The latest drama is that a major heresy was taught in Madi's Religious Ed class last night. This one event is sparking a whole host (pun intended) of other issues, both in my own mind and in reality. It only happened a little over 12 hours ago! So to continue on the last topic. There are people willing to teach our kids, who clearly don't have the knowledge of the faith to do it properly, and there are people with love, knowledge, and passion for the Church who seem to have no interest or no time to share it with others and never the two shall meet. I'm not sure how it is happening that I seem to be in the middle of this, but apparrently I am taking this on as my current mission. There are so many levels of frustration with this. Not the least of which is it leads to gossip, which I am trying to avoid like the plague, but it keeps finding me. When I hear, from my own daughter, that something so wrong is being taught, I must in good conscience share it with others who are/will be affected by it. Plus, obviously, the 'higher ups' need to know as well.

I have this deep feeling that we are on the cusp of a huge "Catholic revival". In so many ways I feel like our parish is playing a great role in this. There are, however, some serious issues that need to be worked out first. In addition to this rather large issue at hand, I just got information that the church is no longer taking registrations for Religious Ed this year. Seriously? What is this saying to people?! Aren't we supposed to be trying to bring more people in?! I guess maybe they are all part of the same issue. If we had more teachers (and let me add, more people who know what they are talking about) then we could accomodate more students. In the meantime, even though my 5th grade class doubled in size between week one and week two, I will make it clear to the 'higher ups' that I am most definitely accepting new students.

Now that I got that out (at least a little), I need to pray about all of this, and would greatly appreciate your prayers as well.

A Rant

Well, I'm not really keeping up with this am I? This fall we've really tried to cut out some extra activities and still we seem to be busier than ever. I'm going to take this five minutes I have to update my faith filled, holy blog with a total rant! I am going to be teaching 5th grade CCD at our church (this isn't the rant this is just setting the stage). For years I avoided teaching CCD because I was teaching my kids all week long and this was the one hour a week I had for just me and Mike. Now the kids are older and we have more me and Mike time, so now I'm a CCD teacher. Last year I taught Madi's class. This year I told Sister Judy that I'd teach whatever she needed as long as it was on Sunday mornings the same time as Jake's class. So 5th grade it is. I'm hoping they are a little more eager to learn about their faith than last year's 6th graders, but I'll try to do my part. In the car the other day Jonathan and Madi and I were discussing CCD. Here's where my rant comes in... I get frustrated when people don't put their kids in CCD! (I'm not trying to point fingers here, I'm merely working through my faith and my thoughts.) Here's the thing, first there are the Easter/Christmas Catholics that can't make time for church on Sundays. This is a group I am fairly familiar with. I'm not sure what can be done to help this group to see the richness of their faith. One possible way might be for the people who truly are living their faith to be examples for these laisse faire types. This is the thing that frustrates me, when people who are truly in love with the Church don't get involved in the faith formation of their own Parish. There seems to be a growing contingency of people who keep their kids out of CCD. The reasons being their teacher might teach them the wrong thing or the other kids might "bring their kids down" in some way. I have a problem with this. This to me is not at all the same argument that public school advocates use against homeschoolers (keeping the light of the world out of the world). We aren't talking about the public here, we are talking about your own Church! I know many kids learn far more about their faith at home than they ever can in 1 hour of CCD (I would hope that everyone does!). This to me doesn't seem like a good reason to keep them out. As a parent (often a homeschooling one) you have far more influence on your kids than some volunteer teacher and a few other kids have 1 hour a week. You have plenty of time to discuss what was taught in class and to correct any misconceptions. Maybe not only with your own children, but how about with the mistaken teacher and the rest of the kids too?! How are we going to perpetuate the faith if we aren't involved with other faithful (or not so faithful) people?! I am thrilled beyond belief that our parish is starting some new programs to continue to get more and more people involved and excited about their church!! Mike and I are going to be facilitators for a small group/ couples study that is going to be starting in our home. I can't wait! It is our job to help one another get to heaven. How can we do that if we aren't involved with one another? How can we expect future generations to see the beauty of the Church if we don't let our kids get involved in the Church?! Remember, I taught a whole year of 6th grade CCD. I saw what my daughter was up against, kids talking about some less than appropriate things that go on at their schools and about their phones and their eagerness for the hour to be over. But you know what, these kids also spent an hour with my daughter. They saw her eagerness to learn about the faith even when it was her mom teaching the class. I'd like to think we planted some seeds with those kids. Certainly more seeds than would've been planted if no one volunteered to teach the class or if no eager kids were there. Believe me, I'm not talking about throwing your kids to the wolves here. I'm talking about spending some time with some kids who are trying to learn about their faith, but don't yet understand the depth of it. So tomorrow morning, I'll think about this when the first 5th graders walk into my class. Some of them, whose families are merely fulfilling their "obligation" to go to Mass and others who may only be dropping off their kids for CCD without even attending (maybe so they can have an hour of cheap babysitting), but I'd like to think I'll have a few kids whose parents have attempted to teach them some of what this is all about. They can help me to bring the love of Jesus to the kids who need it most.

Another month gone

Well, it's been a month since I've posted here. Maybe if I'd been able to get to daily Mass more this summer I'd have been better about this as well. I had grand plans for daily Mass this summer. If you read my other blog you'll know "grand plans" are a real problem for me these days! The kids are finishing up three weeks of Theatre camp tomorrow. Theatre camp is right around the corner and starts at the same time as Mass which is about 10 minutes away. I thought that I could drop the kids off early and get to Mass, maybe even everyday. I probably could have a lot of the time. The problem has been with the planning I guess. We usually carpool with another family (read: most days I drive two more kids to Theatre) and having everyone ready on time and me showered and ready for church, well, it just didn't happen much. Last week I was really good about at least listening to my audio morning prayers on my ipod (still love that thing) and audio rosary. This week I haven't even done much of that:(. One step forward two steps back. Here's the thing with daily Mass, I love going. Here's the problem, sometimes when I haven't decided beforehand if I'm going to try to get there, I get myself in this whole stress/guilt cycle. "I thought of going and now I'm not there, so I must be a bad person". No not really that bad, but I have the internal conversation with myself that is similar and sometimes ends up with the thought that if I plan on not going I'm better off.

I ordered this for Jonathan for Religion for this year. I can't wait to get it in the mail!

Jake is doing a lot of Catholic Heritage Curriculum for 2nd grade. It includes a unit on First Commuion preparation. I need a lot of help and prayers to prepare him to recieve the Eucharist. I'm not sure he's made it through a whole Mass without laying down yet! He does keep mentioning that he'd like to be an altar server and knows he must receive his First Holy Communion first, so he has a little motivation anyway.

Speaking of altar servers here's another issue that has been plaguing me. Madi is an altar server. She enjoys it, she decided this would be a good way for her to serve in the church. (she's also in the children's choir, but they don't meet much of the year and aren't terribly active) Since she's started doing this, I've come across a contingent of people who strongly believe this is only a ministry for boys. Mostly it was just stuff I read on the computer, but I'm pretty sure I know people in real life who feel this way. I understand that ideally it is for boys who may be considering the priesthood. In our church, at least half the servers are girls, as well as the director of Religious Education and the Youth Minister. Can't Madi be contemplating these vocations serving in a place that is needed? Yes, I think so. Unfortunately, I'm also intimidated by my thoughts that people are thinking she is doing something wrong by serving. Well I was praying about this while she was serving on Sunday and it came to me. Right up on the screen...

If you judge people, you have no time to love them.
Mother Teresa

I was judging too, by assuming people were judging us. I can't do anything about it if people are judging me, but I can try my hardest and ask God to help me not judge others by assuming that they are judgemental.

Intimidated

This new blog is a little intimidating to me. As it is I haven't been posting as much as usual on my regular blog, since life just seems to get busier and busier. Making time for another blog, especially one with such an important theme, seems a little overwhelming. On the other hand, I'm glad I've started this. So far, I know of no one who has actually looked at this, so it is kind of like a fun little secret.

I am really hooked on Catholic aps for my ipod. I have a full "page" of them, including a visual rosary, an audio rosary, many with prayers, and some with Catholic questions and answers. I got 100% on a Catholic ipod quiz the other day. If I know so much, why can I not produce a reasonable, well thoughout response when questioned about my faith? Ugh!!

I am also hooked on Catholic podcasts. Especially http://new.catholicmom.com/catholic-moments-podcast/ and http://itunes.apple.com/podcast/faith-family-live-podcast/id309801957.

After 40 years, I am only now beginning to scratch the surface of what it means to be Catholic. Here are the words to my favorite prayer. Something I've heard priests say all my life and only recently began to appreciate...

Deliver us, Lord, from every evil, and grant us peace in our day. In your mercy keep us free from sin and protect us from all anxiety as we wait in joyful hope for the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Starting

I've been thinking about his blog for a long time, and I'm finally taking the plunge. Just like when I started my original blog, I have no idea where this will lead. I don't yet know what it will look like. All I know is the more I learn about my faith, the more I want to learn, and the more it becomes MY faith. It is no longer just the faith I was born into. In our society there seems to be a fine line between living and sharing your faith and annoying people. So here in my private space I can begin to work those things out. I know it isn't truly private and someone may indeed be reading this...maybe you're even reading this for a reason, who knows. For now this is a place where I can begin to sort out my thoughts on my road to holiness.

I went to a funeral today. I didn't plan on going to a funeral today. I didn't even know the person who passed away. My dermatology appointment ended in enough time to make it to daily Mass, and it ended up being a funeral Mass. I almost didn't go in, but I've already pulled out of the parking lot a few times when I realized there was going to be a funeral, and there was no good reason for me to leave today, so I stepped out of my comfort zone and went in. Fr Robert talked about how with eternal life, death only transforms our relationships with loved ones, it doesn't end it. This is something I've always believed long before I knew the Catholic doctrine on this subject. Just as I don't know how people without any faith, can handle death, I also wonder how people who don't believe that they can still "talk" to their loved ones, can handle it. The Communion of Saints is on our side. They are there for us, our own loved ones, as well as the connonized saints. They can intereced for us, how blessed we are to have them in our corner. Interestingly enough I just looking up intercede in the dictionary (because even though these are my private thoughts I hate spelling errors!).

intercede: to act between parties with a view to reconciling differences

Life is hard enough, it is so nice to know I have a team of people on earth and in heaven helping me on my road to holiness.

I'm going to go 'no comments' on this blog, but if you've stopped by, feel free to let me know.