The "Heroic Minute"

Many good Christians develop the habit of giving their first though of the day to God. The "heroic minute" follows: it facilitates the Morning Offering and getting the day off to a good start. The heroic minute. It is the time fixed for getting up. Without hesitation: a supernatural reflection and ... up. The heroic minute: here you have a mortification that strengthens your will and does no harm to your body. If, with God's help, you conquer yourself, you will be well ahead for the rest of the day.

It's so discouraging to find oneself beaten at the first skirmish. (Josemaria Escriva, The Way)

Although we don't have to follow any particular formula when saying the Morning Offering, it's good to opt for some habitual way of living this practice of piety. Some people like to recite some simple prayer they learned as children or as adults...

Apart from the Morning Offering, it's up to each of us to decide what other prayers we'd like to say when we get up: perhaps some other prayer to our Lady and a prayer to St. Joseph and to our Guardian Angel. It's also a good moment to call to mind the resolutions we made at the examination of conscience the previous night, asking God for the grace to put them into effect that day.

Almighty Lord and God, protect us by your power throughout the course of this day, even as you have enabled us to begin it: do not let us turn aside to any sin, but let our every thought, word and deed aim at doing what is pleasing in your sight. (Divine office, Morning prayer, Monday, Week 2)

In Conversation With God Vol 2: Lent and Eastertide

Why is it that getting up on time should be so very difficult? It truly is a heroic thing for me. The times that I really concentrate on this, I usually have to ask my Guardian Angel to help me remember to get up. It works every time ... but of course you have to keep wanting to get up in the morning!

It's a Girl!

Congratulations to Dom and Melanie!

And Now For Something Completely Different

This actually is for Rose who has been known to reverently utter, "Absolutely gorgeous" when watching Prison Break.

She's not the only one.

He is solar-eclipse hot (don't look at him straight on -- you'll go blind!). With a heritage listed as African, Jamaican, English, German, French, Dutch, Syrian, and Lebanese, he's like an Exotic Ken doll come to life.

We first saw him on Popular and Joan Of Arcadia, where he made us feel seriously uneasy. We couldn't quite put our finger on it, but he was somehow too perfect-looking to crush on. (We like our men hot, but not too hot, and with some flaws we can relate to, thank you very much.) With that vacant stare and almost robotically calm voice, he didn't seem quite human...

So just how essential is it that we have one more wicked-hot actor walking the streets? Would we really miss Miller if he went back to his home planet? Prison Break -- the show that finally realized the only way to make a guy that scary good-looking less frightening is to lock him up in maximum security -- goes on summer hiatus today. We're about to get a taste of how bad Miller withdrawal would be.

We also first saw him on Joan of Arcadia where he played the devil's cohort. It was the only time we've seriously had to worry about cheering for evil.

Again, let me say ... just doing this for my dear daughter ... and I'll toss in ... revering God through admiring His handiwork.

Thank You God ... For My Big Mouth

... knowing that Christ has given me gifts now to be used for Christ. So he gives me gifts, I use them for Him or I use them for myself. I used to use them for myself and I realized that I get much more joy trying to use the gifts for Christ because He gives us all different gifts. Some people have the gift of prayer, healing ... I was given a big mouth. So I could either use it for myself or for Christ. I find it's better to use it for Christ. And I think that's why He gave me a big mouth.

This quote is from a very engaging Irish fellow, John Gunn, interviewed on EWTN: The Journey Home podcast (you can find it on iTunes). He is honest and forthright ... and I love his big mouth! It makes me feel better thinking that my propensity to speak up is a gift. Hopefully I will use it always, as Gunn says, for Christ.

How Does She Do That?

Once again, The Anchoress says what I'm thinking ... but so much more eloquently. Nice to know someone who calls it like she sees it, even when it means disagreeing with those like Michelle Malkin.

Pruning That the Rich Man May Enter Heaven

Just a train of thought that came to me and not intended for anyone else ... unless it strikes you personally. In which case, help yourself!

I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower.

He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and everyone that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit.

You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you.

Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me.

I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing.

Anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither; people will gather them and throw them into a fire and they will be burned.

If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you.

By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.

John 15:1-8

This was the gospel reading last Sunday and is again today. Between our Bible study and the Sunday homily many concepts were discussed: that Jesus is the living sap that feeds us, how branches intertwine to make community, etc.

However, I was truly struck by this commentary from Father Cantalamessa, preacher to the Pontifical Household, about pruning. It takes a totally different route and was quite enlightening to me. He is a consistent favorite of mine and perhaps this will strike y'all as well. Do go read it all but here's my favorite part.

One must have the courage to make choices, to put some secondary interests to one side to concentrate on the primary. To prune!

This is even truer in the spiritual life. Holiness is like a sculpture. Leonardo da Vinci defined sculpture as "the art of removing." The other arts consist in adding something: color to the canvas in painting, stone on stone in architecture, note after note in music.

Only sculpture consists of removing, of taking away the pieces of marble that are in excess, so that the figure can emerge that one has in mind. Christian perfection is also obtained like this, by removing and making useless pieces fall off, namely, desires, ambitions, projects, carnal tendencies that disperse us and do not let us finish anything.

One day, Michelangelo walking through a garden in Florence saw a block of marble in a corner protruding from the earth, half covered by grass and mud.

He stopped suddenly, as if he had seen someone, and turning to friends, who were with him, exclaimed: "An angel is imprisoned in that marble; I must get him out." And, armed with a chisel, he began to work on that block until the figure of a beautiful angel emerged.

God also looks at us and sees us this way: as shapeless blocks of stone. He then says to himself: "Therein is hidden a new and beautiful creature that waits to come out to the light; more than that, the image of my own son Jesus Christ is hidden there, I want to bring it out!" We are predestined to "be conformed to the image of his son" (Romans 8:29).

Then, what does He do? He takes the chisel, which is the cross, and begins to work on us. He takes the pruning shears, and begins to prune us.

Certainly, in my mind, it goes hand in hand with Rick Lugari's comments about how we are blessed beyond our own knowledge. I think that oftentimes we feel we are being pruned or carrying a heavy cross when we truly are just experiencing regular daily life for which many people of the world would give a lot to be able to live as we do. Not that God will not prune us using daily life. Of course, He will and does. However, I think that oftentimes what we, in our luxury, mistake for deep pruning is just cutting a few twigs.

I'm not complaining...not at all. The reason I'm painting the picture (perhaps more than I would normally care to) is to point out that I still think we have it easy. Very easy, indeed. It's not like we don't feel overwhelmed more often than not, but in comparison to much of the world and throughout history, it's a cake walk.

And here's some proof that all of us in this conversation have it far more easy than we think: We're all sitting here at a keyboard reading and typing away. Everyone should ask themselves just how much time they spend at their computer doing leisurely things like reading and writing blogs, etc. throughout the day. How about going to the movies, restaurants, watching TV, watching sporting events, reading books...?

We all have it made...we're just spoiled brats (certainly I am...if that shoe doesn't fit any of you, don't wear it).

That is why we must be careful to discern with dispassionate eyes and minds, just what is happening in our lives. I think that ours is what I recently heard called a "dry martyrdom" ... one that is all the more difficult because it is so internal. We must struggle against secular society, against the riches that tempt us to idolize them, against our own laziness or various temptations. No wonder Jesus said that it was difficult for the rich man to enter heaven. In his time so many of us would have been labeled as rich. And we know those struggles, understand why he said it.

All the more reason for me to remember to cling to that vine to which I have been grafted, to ask (even though with fear and trepidation, for I am no braver than anyone else) for God to chisel away what does not reflect Jesus Christ in me. Lord, hear my prayer.

Lord Hear Our Prayer ...

Let us pray to the risen Christ in whom all thirst is slaked:

R: Give us living water to drink!

You are the vine, and we the branches: bear in us the fruit of life - R

You are the rock in the desert from which the waters flow, and we the thirsty: cool our weary souls with the living waters of your Holy Spirit - R

You are the living Word, and we those who hunger to hear: bring life to those who grope for a sense of purpose in life - R

Our Father ...

Ever-living God, you have given us the water of life to drink through our risen Savior, vine, rock, Word. Make us so thirst for him that we will turn aside form all lesser thirsts, through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen.

May Magnificat 2006

Personal intentions:

• Maureen's friend
• Little Jack, 8, who has brain cancer
• The Anchoress' health
• MaryAnn with brain cancer
• My brother's job
• Klaire's CRHP team, readying themselves for discernment
• General intention: the too-busy and stressed-out
  

Lord Hear Our Prayer ...

In a world divided, let us pray for the Spirit of peace:

R: You hear your children's appeal

God of peace, make peace among those at war: R

God of justice, make right what we have made wrong: R

God of goodness, make holy what we have turned to our own selfish ends: R

May Magnificat 2006

Personal intentions:

• Maureen's friend
• Little Jack, 8, who has brain cancer
• The Anchoress' health
• MaryAnn with brain cancer
• My brother's job
• Deb's request for little Emma
• Klaire's CRHP team, readying themselves for discernment
• General intention: families

Well Why Didn't You Just Say So: &

The "ampersand," a familiar keyboard symbol, represents a shortened version of a cumbersome phrase. As the phrase was first used, it was "and per se and," or more literally, "and in itself and." In a much simpler form, this just means "and." The symbol derived from the Latin word et, which means "and" — its form evolved from the two separate letters, E and T, gradually merging into a single new character.

The Word Origin Calendar

And I for one am grateful that it did. "and per se and" ... cumbersome is not the word.

Calling Mothers with Large Families

These days anything over three qualifies as a large family I suppose.

A discussion is going on over at Et tu Jen that life today is so hard without traditional family groups living together to help watch the kids, etc., that it is only normal to limit families to a few children.

This is your chance to have a charitable, perhaps eye-opening discussion about it so head on over there.

The Trinity

Another blast from HC's past.

This is one of the descriptions of the Trinity that almost lets me wrap my brain around that whole mystery ... almost. Also, one of the best descriptions ever of the family's inner essence.

Our thoughts and our loves, the two distinctively human acts that no animal can perform, issue forth from us but do not become distinct persons unless aided by the flesh. In God, they are so real that they are the two additional Persons in God: God's word, or self-expression, is so real that he is the second person in God, and the love between Father and Son is so real that he is the third Person. Human creativity, both mental and biological, is the image of the Trinity. That is one reason why the family is holy; it bears the intimate stamp of the very inner nature of God, the life of Trinitarian love, the two becoming three in becoming one.

Fundamentals of the Faith by Peter Kreeft

We'll Be on the Lookout

Prison Break will be filming its second season in Dallas, beginning around the middle of June. We don't hang around the places where celebrities are likely to be spending any off hours. But it'll be fun to keep an eye out anyway.

IN OTHER TELEVISION NEWS
Reading this morning that President Bush will be speaking to the nation tonight about the immigration bill, I was struck by the idea that all over America, people were saying, "Not during 24! Please, no!" If the President is wise he won't try to compete with Jack Bauer. Let's face it. Who really can?

AND A LITTLE BIT OF LOST
Because how can we leave that out if we're discussing television? How Stuff Works has an interesting rundown of The Dharma Initiative.

Back to Basics: Sacred Tradition

God's word is more than letters on a page or sounds to the ear. His word is creative. When God speaks the word it happens. For example, the book of Genesis in the Bible tells us that God created merely by saying the word: "God said, 'let there be light,' and there was light."

Catholics believe that the Word of God is found not only in the Bible but also in the unwritten or spoken word — Sacred Tradition...

It took some time between what Jesus actually said and did from when the Gospel writer put it on paper (actually on parchment), so what took place during that period? Before the written word was the unwritten or spoken word. Just as in the Old Testament, things happened and were said long before they were written down, so, too, in the New Testament. Jesus preached his sermons and worked his miracles, died on the cross, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven long before anyone wrote it down. No one took notes while he preached. No letters were written between Jesus and the apostles. Sacred Tradition predates and preceded Sacred Scripture, but both come from the same source — God.

The New Testament is totally silent on whether Jesus ever married or had children. The Bible says nothing about his marital status, yet Christians believe he had no wife and kids. Sacred Tradition tell us that he never married just as Sacred Tradition says that the Gospels number only four...

Catholicism For Dummies by John Trigilio

Honestly, the Sola Scriptura way of thinking just doesn't make sense to me. For example, nowhere in the Bible that I can see is our understanding of the Holy Trinity spelled out. Where did that come from, if not from except divine revelation which has been passed down by Sacred Tradition? When it comes to taking the Bible at its word as so many seem to insist on ... how about the part where Jesus tells everyone that they must eat his flesh and drink his blood (the words used mean "gnaw") so almost everyone leaves ... and he lets them go. No arguing or saying it was symbolic. Not even any behind-the-scenes different explanation as he so often gave to the disciples after everyone was gone. If we really want to get basic, how about what the Bible itself says is the holder of truth?

I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these instructions to you so that, if I am delayed, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and bulwark of the truth.

I Timothy 3:14,15

At the Catholic Catechism Dialogue Blog, a former Protestant minister points out that Protestants have their own unacknowledged form of Sacred Tradition.

One. Protestants do not in fact make the Bible only their sole pillar of truth. No, they don't. They recall, study, emulate and if honest with themselves venerate the teachers of the founders {and there are several of them with several conflicting understandings of what the Bible alone teaches} of their Protestant faith. The Bible alone is not the actual sole guide.

That never occurred to me until he mentioned it but does ring true.

For Mothers' Day

Mary Cassatt, The Child's Caress, Source

I am not a fan of Mothers' Day. It is too much of a manufactured holiday. For Mary we have the month of May as well as other special feast days. For me ... my birthday is the day.

However, I do not begrudge the enjoyment of the day to all who are fans so ... Happy Mothers' Day!

Got 4 Tunes and a Shallow Plot? Let's Call it Opera!

THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA
Rose got this movie yesterday for her birthday and we watched it last night. Interestingly it was so very operatic ... gorgeous sets, melodrama, haunting music (through quite similar to each other somehow ... they all seemed to run together and I could recognize them but had a hard time telling them apart also), glorious voices ... which did not necessarily make for the best movie ever. I think it was definitely a chick flick in that way.

We wisecracked our way through it and at one point I apologized to Rose for being so flip about a movie she obviously loved. She grinned and said, "Oh I know exactly what this movie is. But I love it anyway." Don't we all have movies like that? I didn't love this one but it was certainly entertaining enough.

The one thing it did leave me with was a desire to go see some real opera. My mother used to take us when we were in junior high and it engendered a love that has never left me. I never passed that on to the girls which I regret. At one point, Rose said, "I love this exchange. Listen to all three songs interweaving and then coming together." Classic opera at that point. Guess I'll have to check out what the Dallas Opera is up to when their new season starts and plan a field trip!

For those who want a quickie but not to sit through the movie, Occupation: Girl did one of her trademark movies in 15 minutes which is, as always, hilarious (you must be registered with LiveJournal but it's free).

Some Underground Lair

CHRISTINE [waking up]: What the crap is this musical monkey box? And I’m in a… swan bed? Whatever. So. Let’s see. I remember… a lot of candles…

A LOT OF CANDLES: *flicker*

CHRISTINE: …a horse…

HORSE: Neigh, baby.

CHRISTINE: And a big lake, and a boat… and some guy.

THE PHANTOM: [writing music]: Mornin’.

[She goes over to the Phantom and touches his face and he seems to dig it.]

CHRISTINE: So, I’m gonna take your mask off.

THE PHANTOM: Okay.

CHRISTINE: Peeling it off as we speak.

THE PHANTOM: Ten-four.

CHRISTINE: It’s totally coming off.

THE PHANTOM: Sure, have a party.

THE MASK: *comes off*

THE PHANTOM: OMG YOU (expletives deleted by HC) HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

(HC rating: Good despite lack of flubber)

Speaking of Over the Hedge

Here's the official Othercott spot with more info than simply urging you to go see a different movie than the Da Vinci Code. Scroll down for 10 "other" things to do on or before May 19th.

Me? Ahem ... I'm not gonna comment about Over the Hedge any more, however, that will be our wedding anniversary weekend as well as Hannah's baccalaureate mass and graduation weekend.

Movies are the last thing I'll be thinking about!

Dance, Dance Evolution

Got six minutes to watch the Evolution of Dance? Via Quiet Life.

Rose is Sweet Sixteen

Our sweet, smart, musical, savvy, sensitive Rose ... how can she really be 16 and getting ready to learn to drive? How time flies (trite but so true).

We'll be celebrating Tex-Mex style at Marianos. For the grand finale, she has chosen chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting (can't believe I found a photo for it though ours will be round not square). Mmmmm....

TAR: Monkeys!

Getting close to the end and I was very happy to see that MoJo got eliminated. I really could not stand her whining and crying a minute more. I feel that the Frat Boys will probably win but would be happy with either of the other two teams actually.

And, we loved the dear little monkeys ... I can only imagine what that shrine area must smell like! Whew!

"Now I understand why Sawyer squashed that tree frog"

So said soft-hearted, animal-loving Hannah upon finding out that the very loud, "whirring" sound she's heard all night for the last two nights is a frog outside her window. It's been driving Tom and her crazy. Me? I didn't even notice it until she asked what it was. Talk about tuning out...