Some Saint Stuff

First of all, let me give a big shout out to St. Paul the Hermit who careful readers may recall that I was petitioning on behalf of Hannah's missing uniform shirts. I am starting to think that unbeknownst to the Church, he also may be the patron of speedy deliveries because we had five packages delivered yesterday (FIVE!). Two of them were Hannah's shirts, one was Rose's chemistry textbook which wasn't due until later but was much needed last night, and two were birthday gifts which I was worried wouldn't show up until after Monday's deadline. Talk about going above and beyond the request at hand. Thank you, St. Paul the Hermit!

Secondly, Yurodivi brought to my attention The Fourteen Holy Helpers. I'd never heard of them before but this group of saints, who are also venerated separately, began being venerated collectively during the Black Plague. I especially like the litany to the Holy Fourteen which I am reproducing below. Be sure to go to the link to read about each of these saints.

The Litany of the Fourteen Holy Helpers

LORD, have mercy on us.
Christ, have mercy on us.
Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, hear us.
Christ, graciously hear us.
God the Father of Heaven,
Have mercy on us.
God the Son, Redeemer of the world,
Have mercy on us.
God the Holy Ghost,
Have mercy on us.
Holy Trinity, one God,
Have mercy on us.
Holy Mary, Queen of Martyrs,
pray for us.
Saint Joseph, helper in all needs, etc.
Fourteen Holy Helpers,
Saint George, valiant Martyr of Christ,
Saint Blase, zealous bishop and benefactor of the poor,
Saint Erasmus, mighty protector of the oppressed,
Saint Pantaleon, miraculous exemplar of charity,
Saint Vitus, special protector of chastity,
Saint Christophorus, mighty intercessor in dangers,
Saint Dionysius, shining mirror of faith and confidence,
Saint Cyriacus, terror of Hell,
Saint Achatius, helpful advocate in death,
Saint Eustachius, exemplar of patience in adversity,
Saint Giles, despiser of the world,
Saint Margaret, valiant champion of the Faith,
Saint Catherine, victorious defender of the Faith and of purity,
Saint Barbara, mighty patroness of the dying,

All ye Holy Helpers, etc.
All ye Saints of God,
In temptations against faith,
In adversity and trials,
In anxiety and want,
In every combat,
In every temptation,
In sickness,
In all needs,
In fear and terror,
In dangers of salvation,
In dangers of honor,
In dangers of reputation,
In dangers of property,
In dangers by fire and water,
Be merciful, spare us, O Lord!
Be merciful, graciously hear us, O Lord!

From all sin,
deliver us, O Lord.
From Thy wrath, etc.
From the scourge of earthquake,
From plague, famine, and war,
From lightning and storms,
From a sudden and unprovided death,
From eternal damnation,

Through the mystery of Thy holy incarnation, etc.
Through Thy birth and Thy life,
Through Thy Cross and Passion,
Through Thy death and burial,
Through the merits of Thy blessed Mother Mary,
Through the merits of the Fourteen Holy Helpers,
On the Day of Judgment, deliver us, O Lord!

We sinners, beseech Thee hear us.
That Thou spare us,
We beseech Thee, hear us.
That Thou pardon us, etc.
That Thou convert us to true penance,
That Thou give and preserve the fruits of the earth,
That Thou protect and propagate Thy holy Church,
That Thou preserve peace and concord among the nations,
That Thou give eternal rest to the souls of the departed,
That Thou come to our aid through the intercession of the Holy Helpers,
That through the intercession of Saint George Thou preserve us in the Faith,
That through the intercession of Saint Blase Thou confirm us in hope,
That through the intercession of Saint Erasmus Thou enkindle in us Thy holy love,
That through the intercession of Saint Pantaleon Thou give us charity for our neighbor,
That through the intercession of Saint Vitus Thou teach us the value of our soul,
That through the intercession of Saint Christophorus Thou preserve us from sin,
That through the intercession of Saint Dionysius Thou give us tranquillity of conscience,
That through the intercession of Saint Cyriacus Thou grant us resignation to Thy holy will,
That through the intercession of Saint Eustachius Thou give us patience in adversity,
That through the intercession of Saint Achatius Thou grant us a happy death,
That through the intercession of Saint Giles Thou grant us a merciful judgment,
That through the intercession of Saint Margaret Thou preserve us from Hell,
That through the intercession of Saint Catherine Thou shorten our Purgatory,
That through the intercession of Saint Barbara Thou receive us in Heaven,
That through the intercession of all the Holy Helpers Thou wilt grant our prayers,

Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world,
spare us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world,
graciously hear us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world,
have mercy on us, O Lord.

V. Pray for us, ye Fourteen Holy Helpers.
R. That we may be made worthy of the promise of Christ.

Let us Pray.

Almighty and eternal God, Who hast bestowed extraordinary graces and gifts on Thy saints George, Blase, Erasmus, Pantaleon, Vitus, Christophorus, Dionysius, Cyriacus, Eustachius, Achatius, Giles, Margaret, Catherine, and Barbara, and hast illustrated them by miracles; we beseech Thee to graciously hear the petitions of all who invoke their intercession. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

O God, who didst miraculously fortify the Fourteen Holy Helpers in the confession of the Faith; grant us, we beseech Thee, to imitate their fortitude in overcoming all temptations against it, and protect us through their irttercession in all dangers of soul and body, so that we may serve Thee in purity of heart and chastity of body. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Art as God's Gift to Man

... art is elemental. Reason alone as it's expressed in the sciences can't be man's complete answer to reality, and it can't express everything that man can, wants to, and has to express. I think God built this into man. Art along with science is the highest gift God has given him.

Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI)
in an interview with Pete Seewalt,
The Salt of the Earth

All the Customer Service of Being in France ... Without the Food

Bishop Lynch High School changed uniform providers for this year. I can only assume that the new provider offered them a bigger cut. I certainly hope they're getting plenty because I haven't experienced customer service this bad since ... well, for a long, long time.

My order made over the internet never came. My email receipt gave a handy-dandy customer service email address and phone number for questions. My emails are never answered. In fact, I just got my most recent back with the message that their server is full. Gee, there's a surprise.

The phone numbers (both toll-free and otherwise) feature either a busy signal or pre-recorded message that ends with the promise of response in 24-hours (ha!) and invites one to leave a message.

I am four days into this. Emailing the school with feedback brought the promise to take it into consideration for next year but, of course, they can do nothing actually.

Luckily, we are not actually without essential garments but as Hannah has only one blue shirt (seniors get to wear either yellow or blue instead of the standard white) we are washing it every night.

So, now, what to offer all this annoyance up for? Certainly, I must put this toward something more fruitful. (Lord have mercy on me and bless Campus Outfitters.) Hmmm ... and is there a saint for terrible customer service?

St. Paul the Hermit, patron of the clothing industry, we petition you to intercede that my child may not have to live for a year "wearing leaves or nothing" as you did. Amen.

Internal Division and Faith

Most people in our time cannot believe what they know and do not know what they should believe. Now you yourself combine a unity and integration of thought and faith that is no longer familiar to us skeptical and errant moderns. How does it feel to live like that?

I don't dare judge here whether all modern men in general really lack this inner unity, or whether they don't in fact find unity in many ways. Every man is inwardly pulled between many poles, and this is, of course, true for me and for any priest and bishop. For one's interests, talents and handicaps, knowledge and ignorance, the faith of the Church as a whole, do not coincide automatically. In this sense, there is in every man, including me, an inner tension. Believing with the Church and knowing that I may entrust myself to this knowledge and knowing that the other things I know receive light from it and, conversely, can deepen it -- that does hold me together. Above all, the foundational faith act of faith in Christ, and the attempt to bring one's life into unity in terms of that faith, unifies the tensions, so that they do not become a fissure, a fracture.

Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI)
in an interview with Pete Seewalt,
The Salt of the Earth

The Ways to God

How many ways are there to God?

As many ways as there are people. For even within the same faith each man's way is an entirely personal one. We have Christ's word: I am the way. In that respect, there is ultimately one way, and everyone who is on the way to God is therefore in some sense also on the way of Jesus Christ. But this does not mean that all ways are identical in terms of consciousness and will, but, on the contrary, the one way is so big that it becomes a personal way for each man.

Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI)
in an interview with Pete Seewalt,
The Salt of the Earth

The Best Jesus Movie Ever?

JESUS OF NAZARETH
I've heard for a long time that this miniseries by Franco Zeffirelli tops all others. I'm a sucker for anything that comes fairly close to conveying the feeling of the Gospels, as witness my fondness for Godspell (yes, you heard me right). So when a dear friend found out I had never seen Zeffirelli's classic she bought it for me (so thoughtful and sweet!).

It has taken me quite a while to get the time to begin working my way through it but we're probably about halfway through now. The thing that truly amazes me is that this probably is the best Jesus movie I've ever seen, however, so far, this is just about the worst portrayal of Jesus ever. He is like an otherworldly statue floating through the scenes. Only occasionally will he seem to have the humanity that must have been there. When Robert Powell really lets loose and gives an actual full smile (instead a twitch of one side of his mouth) or gets down telling a good parable then he is believable. In fact, the way he did the "Get thee behind me, Satan" scene was truly insightful in how Jesus might have been addressing Satan and his own temptations rather than poor Peter (once again, as our deacon likes to say, a "duh"sciple). The rest of the time, though, we wonder how anyone could relate to him.

The beauty of this movie comes from all the fabulous portrayals of everyone else, from Herod and his wife, Michael York's wild-eyed John the Baptist, Peter's depth of feelings, Mary Magdalene's deep and passionate sorrow for her sins, and more. Adding a bit of back story to most of these helps to understand their motivations and in several instances has given me a different view of the gospels that has helped clarify the human logic behind things. And the fact that everything else is so well done makes me able to take the less than glorious portray of Jesus in his humanity ... to the point where so far I am willing to agree this might be the best Jesus movie to date.

Now, if only we could have had a Jesus with Jim Caviezel's portray combined with this movie ... what an unbelievable masterpiece that would have been!

Catching Up

HARRY POTTER
(spoilers for the two people beside me who haven't read this book yet)
I finished it in two days but forgot to say anything other than to complain about the Hermione/Ron and Harry/Ginny romance dance. When you've seen it coming since book 2 (or so) it is not as if any of this was a surprise or especially cleverly written.

However, I loved the Fleur/Bill romance and the way every female bristled at Fleur's presence. As for Snape killing Dumbledore, I feel that he may have promised Dumbledore to do so. It was the only time that Dumbledore pled for anything and when Harry told Prof. M. later that his promises to Dumbledore carried on after death, I thought of Snape. So we shall see ... in several years, after I have no doubt forgotten all about the plot of this book.

CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY
Everyone else has covered this pretty well. My personal reaction is that I liked Johnny Depp's performance much better than I thought I would, especially the way he never knew the kids' names ("Oh, Little Girl...") and would snap at them ("MUMBLER! I can't understand a word you're saying, Little Boy.").

I didn't mind the back story especially as they carried it out much the way that I think Dahl would have. It was a great touch when Willie Wonka came back home and the house was literally ripped from the row of houses.

The musical numbers stink, stank, stunk. What were they thinking?

Overall, pretty good though I'd have liked to see more of Willie Wonka's factory than we did.

SPANGLISH
I rented this expecting a little, light comedy. It was good as well as amusing. However, it also was one of the most forceful statements I've seen from Hollywood about culture clash, maintaining fidelity to a marriage, and honorable behavior. Great performances from everyone, especially Tea Leoni as the unlikable wife who becomes entirely sympathetic only in a very few moments of the movie. I also didn't know what would happen and that kept me on the edge of my seat, wondering, "Surely they won't have an affair, will they? PLEASE don't ... though who could blame them?" I won't say what happens here ... rent it and find out for yourself.

WARNING: This movie is rated PG-13 but shows a sex scene complete with the wife having an orgasm. I suppose the fact that any private "bits" were covered was supposed to make it ok but we couldn't believe our eyes ... to say nothing of the fact that we were watching with Rose which was less than comfortable to say the least. I am positive they could have made the point about the wife being totally selfish and self-involved without this little scene. In fact, they had done it already. Whoever rates movies obviously has lost any perspective on what is normal for 13-year-olds to view.

Ok, I've got two words for that. In. Sane.
Tom Arnold in True Lies

Will the Real Mary Ann Collins Please Stand Up?

My latest article, critically examining the existance of ex-nun Mary Ann Collins, is up at Spero News. (Thanks to Bene Diction, Clint, and Robert for letting me work on something so far afield from my usual experience. It was really interesting and an unusual challenge.)

I fully realize the irony of an article examining a distributor of anti-Catholic materials being published on the celebration of the Assumption of Mary. Kinda fun, huh? Mary Ann Collins definitely would not like that.

On the other hand, this year our bishops declared that this day is not a holy day of obligation (aaaargh!). I believe that would make Mary Ann Collins happy. So I suppose you could say this is a win-win situation.

Be sure to hop over there and see what else is going on at Spero News. They have all kinds of fascinating news that covers angles you won't see anywhere else.

Lunch With Jordan

What a pleasure it was to meet Jordan from Contemplating the Laundry in actual real life! We just started in chatting a mile a minute as if we had known each other forever and just seen each other the previous day. She is beautiful for one thing (inside and out). She's also a great and interesting conversationalist (maybe that's because she's such a good listener. ha!). Of course, it helps that we both "live" in the same neighborhood. We have so many blogging friends in common that between talking about them (in a good way, y'all!) and sharing common experiences in blogging we just couldn't quit talking. We could hardly tear ourselves away long enough to get to our cars and leave.

Here's hoping that she visits her in-laws often! (just selfish, that's me!)

Pumping Gas and Seeing Stars

Little John's ongoing story of seeing celebrities while pumping gas in Malibu (circa 1984). Somehow this one doesn't surprise me a bit.

Late one rainy night a big, black BMW drives up and the passenger window lowers. It's Danny DiVito. He asks if I can replace the wiper blades. It's after 10:00 pm and after that hour the crew at the station would usually have an altered mental state. Plus putting in replacement blades can be a real hassle. So I said, "No I don't think we can help." Man, you would have thought they just cancelled "Taxi"! Mr. DiVito got super mad, insulted me and then announced that he would get his gas elsewhere. Man was I upset that he didn't buy 20 dollars of gas at the station where I made $3.50 per hour (or whatever the minimum wage was in 1983 or 84). He really knew how to hurt a guy!

This is the end of this series unless Little John drops any more stories my way.

Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due ... Bill Clinton Did This Right

Bill Clinton might have vetoed the GOP written welfare reform several times before finally, in an election year - signing the legislation. But he signed it. Amid all of the predictions of gloom and doom, the certainty of the left that the world would end should welfare-as-we-then-knew-it be updated and reformed, Clinton signed.

The world did not end. What ended was the seeming-entrenchment of a whole group of people, of all ethnic backgrounds, into a hopeless dependence upon the government which led nowhere, gave no promise, encouraged no future, thwarted dreams and individual potential, and perpetuated the whole idea of dependence, of inability, of needing a caretaker.

Read the whole thing at Stones Cry Out. I never would have thought of it that way so this was an eye opening article. And now I can give Bill Clinton a little bit of credit. Even though I detest him, I detest even more the idea of never giving him any credit for doing the right thing ... after all, he must have done something right! Right?

How Blogging Has Prepared Me for the Real World ...

... Or, How Not to Fight With Friends About Your Faith

I have watched so many "discussions" between traditional and progressive Catholics in the blogging world. In practically every case they have led to nothing except extended arguing and quite often bad feelings. As far as I can tell it is because each has their ideas already set and is trying to convince the other to change their mind. It rarely is simply setting out the reasons for one's beliefs so the other can understand where you are coming from. And, those arguments make me tired, so very tired.

So, last night, when a friend surprised me by suddenly declaring, "I'm a big time liberal Catholic" and wanting to "discuss" why there should be no altar rails in any Catholic churches, I was more than wary. I was determined not to get dragged into something that would ruin our friendship, to say nothing of making it difficult to work on a possible project that we might be doing together.

Actually, his reasons were very enlightening. I didn't mind hearing why he had those views although I wasn't getting the idea that my own were necessarily being heard ... and I didn't have the desire to even attempt swaying him to my POV (to say nothing of the fact that the venue wasn't appropriate for that particular discussion). So once both of us had gone over the same ground a couple of times, I refused to talk about it any more.

Cop out? Maybe. But why turn a friend into an adversary over an altar rail? That is just plain nuts. On the way home I told Tom, "Thank you for being a cradle Catholic who is still traditional." After a second, he said, "Well, thank you for being a traditional Catholic too." That made me realize, crazy convert that I am, what torture it would have been for both of us to be continually in disagreement over this or unable to discuss the Church at all. A new realization and a little something extra to be thankful for.

In what is necessary, unity;
in what is not necessary, liberty
and in all things charity.

St. Augustine

The discussion also made me go back and reread this post which quotes John Allen about why Vatican II divided the Church. It is one of the best reasons for the two varying attitudes I've ever come across and one that keeps me in charity with both sides.

Human Nature is the Basis for Morality

There are two very different ideas in the world today about the basis for morality. The typically modern idea is that moral laws are man-made rules like the rules of a game such as tennis, created by human will and therefore changeable by human will. The traditional idea, on the other hand, which is taught not only by the Catholic Church but by all the world's major religions and nearly all pre-modern philosophies, is that the laws of morality are not rules that we make but principles that we discover, like the laws of a science such as anatomy. They are based on human nature, and human nature is essentially unchanging; and therefore the laws of morality are also essentially unchanging, like the laws of anatomy... There are universal principles, based on human nature, for bodily health and for mental health -- and also for moral health.

Because our human nature is composed of body and soul, with powers of intellect, will, and feelings, and because it is our nature to love the good but also to be tempted by evil, it is necessary for us to cultivate such virtues as self-control, wisdom, courage, and honesty. Catholic morality follows the classic Greek philosophers Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle in deriving the essential principles of morality from unchanging human nature and its real, objective needs rather than from the changing subjective feelings and desires of individuals or societies. Thus its essential principles are universal (the same for everyone), objective (discovered, not invented), and unchangeable.

Catholic Christianity:A Complete Catechism of Catholic Beliefs based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church by Peter Kreeft

All the Ways God Gets Our Attention

As saintos at luminous miseries prepares to convert to Catholicism we are being shown the gamut of ways God calls us. When the family is being shown around the grand old Catholic church that will be their new "church home" we see God calling through the sheer beauty of the art.

For our eldest daughter it really have been straight up doctrine, I mean how much more core can one get than being convinced of the truth of the Eucharist, body, blood and divinity of our Lord Jesus in the bread and the wine? For our youngest it is the witness of the work God is doing in her sister and in me and a fascination with the rosary, no doubt. For Mrs. Saintos it is her thriving spirit, her will to see us do life as a family and her own commitment to me as the spiritual head of the family. I know this sounds frightfully old fashioned but it comes as it is her own will to live this way and not some onerous obligation on my part it seems to me the act of a very strong person who happens to be a woman. For our son God seems to be reaching out to him through the relational and esthetic. Our son was much moved by the artwork that was so visible in the church, cancels, beautiful not kitschy sculptures, the Blessed Mother and Child, Joseph the Worker, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Holy Mary and the like. I know a moment of impact for us all was in seeing the Tabernacle. Father explained it and then opened it to show us the blessed host. I am telling you, I cannot speak for the others but I felt the tinglies! A moment that impacted our son was when Father showed us the one item that survived the fire that brought the building to ash in the nineteen seventies, it was the original Chalice.

Think of how many modern Catholic churches that saintos' son could visit today and not receive the same message because there is no beauty there to call him. I remember visiting the Basilica of Notre Dame in Montreal and watching a young woman ask her husband what was wrong. The church was incredibly beautiful and he had been brought to tears just by being there. He told her he was "having a moment" and we knew what he meant ... he had been feeling God's glory communicated through the beauty created to honor Him. I get that feeling from nature but I think it is a special calling to get it from man's works made to honor God.

Romance 1001

Ham-scented notes aside, neither Tom or I are very creative about romance ... or romantic at all, truth be told. Neither of us are the most spontaneous in the world. Yet, it turns out we would both enjoy a little romance in our lives. (Hmmmm, wonder why that marriage retreat was such a good idea?)

Before we even left San Antonio on Sunday we hit a Borders and bought the only book we saw with a lot of ideas listed. 1001 Ways to Be Romantic by Gregory Godeck. We almost didn't pick it up when we saw it had been recommended by Oprah, but overcame our Oprah-phobia. I particularly liked the part I saw when flipping through it that was like a point-by-point checklist of how to come up with romantic ideas. Yes! Instructions! Corny? Maybe. But it is a place to begin.

Still thinking of this as primarily a book of lists to flip through, however, I was astonished to see Tom start at the beginning and reading it just like a regular book. Which is how we wound up having a long conversation about it this morning. (Talk about it? Analyze it? Oh yeah, now that's our style!)

Interestingly enough, amidst the lists is a primer on romance itself: how to think about romance, how not to become paralyzed by requiring the "perfect" idea, how to appreciate the romantic gesture that is made to you, etc. Ok, based on other conversations with couples (we are not alone), I begin to see why this book is so popular. We can get a lot of books of lists (based on interesting samples from the retreat), but a "how-to" book? That's right down our alley.

If You Can Start the Day

From my inbox. Thanks Marcia!

If you can start the day without caffeine,

If you can get going without pep pills,

If you can always be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains,

If you can resist complaining and boring people with your troubles,

If you can eat the same food every day and be grateful for it,

If you can understand when your loved ones are too busy to give you any time,

If you can take criticism and blame without resentment,

If you can ignore a friend's limited education and never correct him,

If you can resist treating a rich friend better than a poor friend,

If you can conquer tension without medical help,

If you can relax without liquor,

If you can sleep without the aid of drugs,



... Then you are probably the family dog!

Beyond Cana

Is there a more perfect name for a marriage retreat ... especially one that focuses on marriage enrichment? No. There isn't. It is pure genius.

However, that shouldn't surprise me, as I consider the man who came up with the original idea for this retreat to be a genius. In fact, on the way home (a 5-hour drive from San Antonio to Dallas), I said to Tom, "Ken is a genius, a GENIUS!" He said, "Yes, you've mentioned that before." Oooops.

It is a very interesting concept, first of all, that this is for enriching marriages. We didn't fully grasp that when we signed up but it was just what we were aiming for ... helping us celebrate what is already working and do the hard and necessary work of talking about what isn't working ... while getting both of us to listen to the other. Incorporated through this is the spiritual element that is so essential to any successful undertaking. There was an overarching theme of marriage as a sacrament and as a place where we reflect God's glory. Wow!

Giving the details would make no sense as anyone who has ever gone on a retreat knows full well. Part of the retreat process is progressing as things unfold around you rather than seeing the whole thing laid out ahead of time or divorced from the overall atmosphere.

I can say that the retreat gave us the tools we needed to communicate our love, our frustrations, our needs, our fears ... everything ... in a safe and undemanding environment. I am not saying it was easy. There were times when we were praying and very afraid to bring things up. But God was there with us (corny? yes. but it is true). Also we were committed to each other and to this process. In fact, the item that turned out to be the main issue between us is one that only God had in mind as we both had pushed it so far back, so long ago, that we couldn't even really define it at first.

Naturally, it didn't hurt that there were two mandatory "date" nights in the charming town of Boerne at the edge of Texas' hill country. It all combined so well to remind us of what made us fall in love in the first place and how deeply we have grown to love each other in the meantime.

Tom's reaction is stated a bit differently but the end result was the same for both of us:

This program is good for a couple like us because it is not at all a "crisis" oriented concept. In fact it is rooted in business situation assessment and planning wrapped in a "marriage as a sacrament" context. Better than just taking a weekend off together, it is really helps break down the little personal barriers people tend to develop over time. Then to plan on how to minimize the negative and emphasize the positive.

I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who said a little prayer for the retreat. We discovered that the retreat team had a monastery full of nuns praying for us. I know also that my CRHP team was praying for us. And, then there is anyone who dropped by here and saw that request. So it is no wonder that we had a fabulous experience.

The next challenge is really the big one. We must make changes to our routines on a day to day basis. I realized that routine sucks all those great new plans right out of your head when we got home and dropped right back into the regular needs of daily life with the girls. That is, until that wonderful moment, when my dear Tom (having realized the same thing I found out later), suddenly started implementing a little change that very evening. And the change was in the very area I had been most terrified about approaching him. How I love that man o' mine!

That was such a surprise and such a delight ... and such a warning about the need to be vigilant about putting our plans into effect. His motion touched me so that I was warming myself at the memory of it while making lunch the next morning. The perfect time to slip a note into his sandwich wrapper some might mention? Ah yes. And so it was done. He has the note in his shirt pocket as we speak ... now I just have to remember that a ham sandwich will give a note an unmistakable fragrance throughout the day ... and figure out a way around that!

And the very best part? If the routine overcomes us again, if we forget part of what we vowed to change, if new problems surface ... and we all know that this is reality speaking, not pessimism ... this retreat is designed so that we can pick our own weekend, retreat from the world, and do it ourselves annually or whenever we want. How cool is that? You know the answer already. Very cool.

Both Flattering and Mystifying

I am not sure what language this is, much less what the blogger's nationality is, but thank you for the link Martti Savijoki. Obviously, you are better educated than I am as you definitely are reading Happy Catholic in a second language.

I think I'm gonna add a foreign language section to the sidebar ...

The Personalism of Catholic Morality

What is the image of "Catholic morality" propogated by today's secular world, especially the media establishment, which forms modern minds through TV, movies, journalism, and public education? It is that of a joyless, repressive, dehumanizing, impersonal, and irrational system, something alien and inhuman and often simply stupid.

How totally different Catholic morality looks from the inside, from the viewpoint of those who live it, especially the saints! When the media meet a saint, like Mother Teresa, their stereotypes dissolve and die. Nothing looks more different from inside than from outside than Catholic morality -- except people in love. Nothing appears more foolish to non-lovers, or more wise and wonderful to lovers.

For Catholic morality is a love affair with Christ and his people, though not "romantic" love. It has its laws and rules, as a city has its streets. Streets are essential to a city, but they are not the very essence of a city... Streets are a means to the end of getting home. Home is where the real living takes place. Similarly, moral rules are the street map to the good life, but they are not the thing itself. The thing itself is a relationship of love, like a marriage. The marriage covenant has laws, like God's covenant with us. But husband and wife are faithful to each other first of all, not to the laws. The laws define and command their fidelity to each other. Principles are for persons, not persons for principles. Catholic morality is personalistic -- it is person-centric because it is Christocentric, and Christ is a person, not a principle.

Catholic Christianity:A Complete Catechism of Catholic Beliefs based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church by Peter Kreeft

Giving Thanks

Gratitude, someone once said, is the heart of prayer. And I think that person was right. Gratitude for a meal is really just an extension of the gratitude we're called to live in all day long.

There are times when my life is not what I want or think it should be. It might be a small aggravation or a huge worry, but the bottom line is, I don't like it and I'm not happy with it. A while back, I decided that anger, frustration, and wishful thinking got me nowhere. Forget where that could be, I decided, and concentrate on what is and where God is in all of it. Instead of thinking "I wish" or "If only" or something more profane, I started forcing myself to simply think (or pray), "Thank you."

You'd be amazed at what that does to change your perspective instantly.

The Words We Pray

Exactly right. The trick is remembering to be thankful always. Hard to believe how easily I can forget that ... St. Albert the Great, help my memory.