New Math

More New Math

Hannah got the book New Math: Equations for Living as a gift for a friend, however we all got to check it out before she wrapped it. Now this is the sort of math that I understand!

Tags: Catholicism, Christianity

"I was making rather merry yesterday, sir."

And we shall go on doing so today, extending the Christmas celebration with a day off of work. We had a wonderful time and I made out like a bandit (oh yeah, I definitely enjoy receiving gifts, materialist that I am!). More game playing, movie watching, and enjoyment of our family time together ... and I prescribe the same for y'all as we enjoy Boxing Day.

Tags: Catholicism, Christianity

Merry Christmas to My Fellow "24" Junkies

Our wait is almost over! But until then, enjoy this. Thanks to A Catholic Sooner for the heads up!

Pope Benedict Hits All the Hot Spots

No, not the bars and clubs.

However, just about every politically correct idea took it on the chin in his Christmas Greetings to Roman Curia.

"At this point," he added, "I cannot fail to mention my concern over 'de facto' couples. ... When new legislation is created that relativizes marriage, the rejection of the definitive bond gains, so to speak, juridical endorsement." Moreover, "relativizing the difference between the sexes ... tacitly confirms those bleak theories which seek to remove all relevance from a human being's masculinity or femininity, as if this were a purely biological matter."

"Herein is a contempt for corporeality whence it follows that man, in seeking to emancipate himself from his body (from the 'biological sphere'), ends up by destroying himself." Against those who say that "the Church should not involve herself in these matters, we can only respond: does man not concern us too?" The church and believers "must raise their voices to defend man, the creature who, in the inseparable unity of body and spirit, is the image of God."

He didn't stop there, of course, Celibacy, science, and culture wars were among his topics. Gee whiz, I love this pope!

Check it out at Catholic Analysis.

Tags: Catholicism, Christianity

Books, Glorious Books

CURRENTLY READING

• Enjoying the Dickens out of ... A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (a Librivox audio book). I think that such familiarity with numerous movie versions of A Christmas Carol and Oliver Twist dulled me to an appreciation of Dicken's story telling abilities. I have snickered more than once over some of his sly, cutting lines delivered with apparent innocence. I guess there had to be some reason he kept people coming back to his serials in the papers.


• Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman, is a complete delight, especially if you like the Anansi stories as our family does. When read by Henry Lenny the story soars to new heights. He can do a lazy American drawl, old ladies' querulous Jamaican voices, and stuffy British office managers without a hitch. Check your library. That's where I found this treasure.


• The Rock That Is Higher: Story as Truth by Madeleine L'Engle. I'm rereading this, partly prompted by Steven Riddle's reminder that concrete truth is so often found in fictional stories. I also haven't read this book in quite a long time and am enjoying L'Engle's writing and turn of phrase as well.


• Advent through Christmas reading: Watch For The Light. My liking for this book continues. Every author can't hit me equally as well, naturally, but there is enough variety that it prompts thought quite a lot of the time.


• Reading with Tom: Mark: A Devotional Commentary is the book we have settled on for reading right before bed. It has a nice mix of contextual information and devotional commentary ... which has passed muster as being thoughtful, noncondescending, and not too simple. Whew!

FINISHED

• The Rosary: A Path into Prayer by Liz Kelly ... a nice, simple explanation of the rosary and ideas about how to meditate on the various mysteries. Interspersed with these are stories of people, both famous and ordinary, who have valued the rosary.


• Cosmas, or the Love of God (Loyola Classics) by Pierre de Calan ... the only book written by de Calan who was a banker, this story is told by the vocations master at a monastery. His main concern is whether Cosmas' vocation is a true calling. Cosmas has a great deal of trouble reconciling real life and the ordinary human failings he sees at the monastery with his idealized visions of the perfect monastic life. This short book is quite interesting and, although I prefer In This House of Brede as a story of religious vocation, this book will appeal to people who would like something shorter and less involved.


• Pomegranate Soup by Marsha Mehran ... a delightful book about three Iranian sisters who open a restaurant in a small town in Ireland. The townspeople are initially wary but most fall under the spell of their food which has some magical properties ... perhaps similar to Like Water for Chocolate? I didn't like that book and so don't remember much of it. This book, however, I did like very much and recommend as an easy, charming read.
  
  UPDATE
  I forgot to mention that there is a recipe between each chapter. Also, thanks to a kind comment from the author I found her website which has information about a sequel and her life story which is just interesting than that of the sisters in the book.
  

Tags: Catholicism, Christianity

When It Comes to Christmas, I'm All About Tradition

You Are a Traditional Christmas Tree

For a good Christmas, you don't have to re-invent the wheel. You already have traditions, foods, and special things you bring out every year.

What Christmas Tree Are You?

Via the Cranberry and Popcorn Strung Quoth the Maven.

What is This Holiday About? This Halloween?

We have quite a few Sudanese refugee families in neighborhoods near ours. I first became aware of them several years ago when a woman was taking several young men, all with distinctive tribal markings on their cheeks, through our grocery store. I was fascinated but had no idea where they had come from. Later I heard about the Lost Boys of the Sudan and realized that these must be some of the same.

A nearby parish, St. Patrick's, has an active ministry helping the people adjust to our culture. There are so many things that they don't have any frame of reference for. Hannah volunteered there one year and told me about a family who had gotten some Christmas wrapping paper. When a volunteer went to their apartment, it had been taken off the roll and taped to the wall. As a decoration.

The Central Market hires a lot of young Sudanese men. It gives me great pleasure to have watched them work their way up, from rounding up carts, to bagging groceries, to manning the registers. I enjoy chatting with them and the day before Halloween, when all the CM employees who cared to had dressed up, a very friendly young man asked me that question about Halloween when ringing up my groceries. It led to quite an interesting conversation during which I was able to ask him about a few of his adjustments to this country. He was quite cheerful about it but I think it must be like going to live on the moon in comparison to his country.

All of that is a lengthy introduction to why the trailer for God Grew Tired of Us garnered my immediate interest. I will definitely be going to see this one.

Tags: Catholicism, Christianity

Our Times and Mother Teresa

REVOLUTION OF LOVE by David Scott

Most saints are hometown heroes, local boys and girls made good -- very good. that's not at all to diminish them. Every saint reflects the glory of Christ. But most were made saints because they were able to translate the gospel into a way of live that spoke in a special way to their time and place.

Some saints -- a handful in the past two thousand or more years -- are sent to bear a message that transcends their moment and culture. They're raised up at critical junctures in history, when great gospel truths are in danger of being hijacked by heretics of plowed under by Christian indifference and forgetfulness.

... Catholics envision humanity -- with all its different cultures, races, and even religions -- as a single world family, a people loving one another and loving God. Mother Teresa showed us how far our world is from that. She showed us a world cleaved apart by blood and class, caste and creed, a world that fixed an impassable gulf between those who have too much and those who have nothing at all. She showed us a world in which people don't matter, especially the weak: the baby in th womb, the poor, the sick, the old. She showed us a world of people torn apart from within, not knowing who they are or what they should be about, not knowing what meaning there is to life, if any.

Mother Teresa became a household name in this world because God needed a witness, needed to send some sign that He is still on earth and that hope is growing like a seed beneath all the bleak contingencies of our days.

I liked this book even better than I liked Scott's The Catholic Passion and you may remember that I really liked that book quite a lot.

Somehow, Scott manages to make convey just what Mother Teresa's impact was on the whole world, while keeping the story personal. This is a perfect reflection of Mother Teresa's ministry and how God used her as the perfect saint for her time. Before Revolution of Love I never really thought about how many ways that Mother Teresa reflected just what God wanted us to learn ... or remember ... in our modern and often lonely world. She showed us that we should bloom where we are planted because that is where God wants us to make a difference, that the smallest act of kindness casts ripples beyond our own imagining, and so much more.

Scott has given us a gem of a book, short and simple, such as Mother Teresa undoubtedly would have approved. His insights took me beyond the usual platitudes and made me really consider Mother Teresa, our life and times, and my place in it.

I also really appreciated the way that he didn't ignore the controversies raised by various naysayers about Mother Teresa. He points out that many of those outspoken critics really couldn't understand her because they didn't have the right point of view to begin with ... which would be focusing all through the lens of faith.

Along the way, I also learned some extremely practical lessons, such as this one on how to be ecumenical while still proclaiming Jesus. I can't recommend this book too highly. If you haven't yet come across it, do seek it out.

Mother Teresa had too much respect for the truth of her own conscience to ever fall into this trap of denying her Lord or the mission of His Church. "I love all religions but I am in love with my own," she would say. "Naturally I would like to give the treasure I have to you, but I cannot. I can only pray for you to receive it.

She earned the trust and friendship of Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, and atheists. Many called her "Mother" and came to her for prayers and advice. But everyone knew that her heart belonged to Jesus and that she hoped that their hearts would one day belong to Him too. In this, she was a kind of missionary to missionaries, showing them new possibilities for preaching the gospel in an age of radical religious pluralism...

Tags: Catholicism, Christianity

Speak to me, Lord, and help me to listen.

I must have repeated this a hundred times. I close my eyes, I open them to try to focus on the Lord by looking at Him, I close them again. Spontaneously, I pray: Have mercy on me, Lord. Instantly I can feel His presence, and I know that was the right thing to ask Him. I know all that’s between us is what I’ve put there.

Brad takes us into Adoration with him. His depiction is the truest to my own sort of experience coupled with insights I really appreciate him opening up and sharing. "I know all that’s between us is what I’ve put there." No matter what separates us, isn't that the honest to goodness truth? Do go read. It is a lovely echo of a holy time.

Just having returned from Confession I saw in his prayer "Speak to me, Lord, and help me to listen" an echo of my prayer for the Holy Spirit to speak through my confessor ... and to give me the wit to recognize it. You know that He did. Just when I thought I was telling what I was doing to work out of my problem, the priest said, "You know what the next step is ..." And danged if he wasn't right.

(And may God bless our priest for arranging to have three priests available in the confessionals for 1 or 2 hours each day all week).

Tags: Catholicism, Christianity

He Sees Dead People: Odd Thomas

From the second row, Brother Quentin put a hand on my shoulder, returning to his main issue with the persistence of a cop skilled at interrogation. "All I'm saying, Odd, is we need to know the name of our enemy. We don't exactly have a crew of trained warriors here. When push comes to shove, if they don't know who they're supposed to be defending against, they'll get so jittery, they'll start swinging baseball bats at one another."

Brother Augustine gently admonished, "Do not underestimate us, Brother Quentin."

"Maybe the abbot will bless the baseball bats," said Brother Kevin from the third row.

Brother Rupert said, "I doubt the abbot would think it proper to bless a baseball bat to ensure a game-winning home run, let alone to make it a more effective weapon for braining someone."

"I certainly hope," said Brother Kevin, "we don't have to brain anyone. The thought sickens me."

"Swing low," Brother Knuckles advised, "and take 'em out at the knees.Some guy with his knees all busted ain't an immediate threat, but the damage ain't permanent, neither. He's gonna heal back to normal. Mostly."

"We have a profound moral dilemma here," Brother Kevin said. "We must, of course, protect the children, but busting knees is not by any stretch of theology a Christian response."

"Christ," Brother Augustine reminded him, "physically threw the money changers out of the temple."

"Indeed, but I've seen nowhere in the Scripture where our Lord busted their knees in the process."

Brother Odd by Dean Koontz

I don't usually like Dean Koontz's books. They are a style of horror writing that is fairly gruesome. However, the Odd Thomas books are different.

"My name is Odd Thomas. I live an unusual life.

Those two sentences came to Koontz complete and with an image of Odd Thomas himself. A disciplined writer, Koontz put these ideas aside until he finished the book he was writing at the time. I heard him talking about this on his podcast and was intrigued. I was intrigued even further when Koontz said that his fan mail for Odd Thomas far and away outstrips any other that he receives. He attributes it to the fact that Odd Thomas is completely humble. That interesting tidbit and remembering that Lofted Nest had commented on the increasingly Catholic nature of Koontz's writing, made me pick up Odd Thomas.

I discovered that one definitely could find those Catholic traces in the Odd Thomas books.

Civilization -- says my friend Ozzie Boone -- exists only because the world has barely enough of two kinds of people: those who are able to build with a trowel in one hand, a sword in the other; and those who believe that in the beginning was the Word, and will risk death to preserve all books for the truths they might contain.

Brother Odd by Dean Koontz

Odd Thomas is indeed completely humble and he also is striving as hard as possible to do the task assigned him in life. That task? He sees ghosts and helps convince them to move on to the next step. Odd isn't sure what awaits ghosts beyond this world but his girlfriend, Stormy, has a vision of an army of souls on some great mission in the next world. She calls this life "boot camp" and tells him that it is intended to toughed us up to serve in that army.

The ghosts aren't the main problem, however, although they do help him bring wrongdoers to justice, with the help of the town sheriff who is privy to Odd's secret. Odd also sees menacing shadows which he calls bodachs. The shadows themselves do no harm but they only show up around people who are going to be the victims of an extremely gruesome death. As the bodachs show up ahead of time this gives Odd an opportunity to try to figure out what tragedy is unfolding and to stop it. Along the way we also meet other inhabitant's of Odd's little town as well as his practically constant companion, Elvis, who is afraid to move on to the next world but likes keeping Odd company.

The second book, Forever Odd, perhaps should have been called MacGyver Odd. Odd tracks down a strange group of villains who are obsessed with the supernatural and have kidnapped a friend of his in order to make Odd show them ghosts. Although Odd can see ghosts he can't make them manifest to others so this is something of a problem. Practically the entire book takes place in an isolated, burned out casino and Odd spends the entire book figuring out ways to outwit them and rescue his friend. This was distinctly different from the first book but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

Brother Odd is even more different as it is set in a Catholic monastery. Given the setting there is much more scope for bringing in elements of theology, not that one would say theology is Koontz's goal. However, it is obvious that Odd Thomas is on an increasingly spiritual journey and retreating from the world to give himself time to think would seem to be the next step.

It is too bad for Odd that murder, bodachs gathering around the children at the attached school, and a mysterious Russian librarian give him little time to meditate. The dialogue in this book can be really enjoyable, especially the sparring matches that Odd and the librarian have when Odd is trying to discover his true identity. Brother Odd is my favorite of the three books, especially when you consider the touches like this one that are scattered throughout.

"You're a very brave young man, Jacob Calvino."

"She said ... she said don't be scared, we wasn't born to be all the time scared, we was born happy, babies laugh at everything, we was born happy and to make a better world."

"I wish I'd known your mother."

"She said everyone ... everyone, if he's rich or he's poor, if he's somebody big or nobody at all -- everyone has a grace." A look of peace came over his embattled face when he said the word grace. "You know what a grace is?"

"Yes."

"A grace is a thing you get from God, you use it to make a better world, or not use it, you have to choose."

"Like your art," I said. "Like your beautiful drawings."

He said, "Like your pancakes."

"Ah, you know I made those pancakes, huh?"

"Those pancakes, that's a grace."

Tags: Catholicism, Christianity

Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery

Found at The Doctor is In where you can read a very funny rant about life's little insanities ... his comments about "fun size" made me laugh out loud.

Tags: Catholicism, Christianity

This Weekend Will Be Busy...

For the first time in I don't know how long I haven't done any baking yet and very few gifts have been bought with no ideas for most of the ones I do need to buy. However, the good news is that it isn't freaking me out. (Or maybe that's the bad news...)

Anyway, we will put the tree up today, having waited until Hannah got home. And I'm going to launch in to baking and buying, wrapping and sending. Hopefully all while retaining my lack of panic.

Of course, now that I know God is against gift wrapping that makes my tasks even easier!

We Watched Equilibrium Again Last Night

Still better than The Matrix and the gun fighting scene with Father at the end is still one of the coolest scenes ever.

If anyone sent me an email yesterday evening ...

... and I haven't answered you might need to send your message again. We switched servers and a lot of yesterday's emails were lost. I think I caught them all but you can never tell.

Puttin' On the Ritz Will Never Be the Same ...

Peter Boyle died today and our family will miss him. We loved watching him in family favorites such as in Everybody Loves Raymond or Young Frankenstein, both of which were showcases for his comic acting. No one could communicate better than he did as the speechless monster he portrayed in Young Frankenstein ... which we may have to watch again soon in memoriam.

You can read more about Boyle's life and career at Pop DVD.

Tags: Catholicism, Christianity

Loneliness ...

I just can't get enough of these Despair.com posters ...

Chew and Swallow Very Carefully!

Engrish.com

Tags: Catholicism, Christianity

Around the House

• Hannah has found her sport ... rock climbing. She took a class in it for her PE credit this semester and went on to buy extra sessions at the MSC (Student Union) climbing wall. She and her instructor and a varying group of enthusiasts just keep climbing and climbing. She always looked fit and trim but now she's buff ... poking her arm is like poking a board.


• Rose passed her second Kung Fu test and now has a purple badge on her belt. In conversation about the class I found out that one of her instructors evidently is nationally famous. People come from all over to special sessions he holds a few times a year. What impression does this make on Rose? Not much. He is her "Sigun" (sp?) which means her master's master. Her master (instructor) is her "Sifu" (sp?). Each teaches one session a week and Sigun holds them to a much tougher standard than Sifu ... which is to be expected I'm sure.
  


• Rose also got her driver's license last Friday. I now invoke the intercession of the angels and saints every morning when she leaves to drive the carpool to school. I'm only partially nervous about her driving. I'm much more nervous about everyone else out there...


• Tom and I are now reading a devotional together right before bed. The only problem is finding something that he likes. His plain common sense pokes a hole in the selections we've tried so far. It's kind of like reading with Goldilocks ... this one's too preachy, this one's too simplistic, that one's too touchy-feelie. And he's always right. We may wind up reading a book together, something simple that can be read a few pages at a time ... maybe The Screwtape Letters. We'll see.
  


• Rose had an English paper about honor and justice for which she had to watch a variety of Westerns. She watched High Noon, The Magnificent Seven, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence and Rio Bravo. Rio Bravo was an unexpected delight and has become one of her favorite movies. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence on the other hand ... what a disappointment it was to Tom and me who always have had it held up as an example of Western elegance. Not only was the heavy handed script a complete disappointment but it showed up Jimmy Stewart's acting style in a way that I may never be able to forgive. Oy veh, how we all hated that movie.


• We were going to put up the tree last weekend and then Rose reminded me on Friday that Hannah probably would want to be there too. I can't believe I didn't think of that but I'm certainly grateful that she did! The funniest part was that when Tom came home that evening, he said, "We can't put up the tree without Hannah here!" I said, "Oh, I know! She'd be so disappointed." He looked at me with a funny look on his face and said, "I didn't think of that. But I sure don't want to do all that with only three people!" Oh how different we can be!
  

For That Hard-to-Buy-For Person

How about this adorable little Streptococcus pyogenes (flesh eating virus microbe) complete with its own knife and fork?

Check out all these adorable microbes ... seriously, these have made very popular gifts for Rose's and Hannah's friends. A lot of it has to do with how cleverly these stuffed animals have the shape of the real virus as well as the humorous tie-in. I especially like the markings on the Mad Cow Disease microbe.

Tags: Catholicism, Christianity

"Christian" Art and Christian Artists

Hank Hill to Christian rocker: "Can't you see that you're not making Christianity better? You're just making rock and roll worse."

That is one of Tom's favorite quotes. It's funny because it's true.

I know I'm opening a can of worms with this one but there is a discussion going on in the comments about supporting movies because they are "Christian." Seriously though, what is it about doing something as a "Christian" effort that makes it ok to slack off and accept mediocrity because it is a good faith effort? No one else gets that pass and as Christians I thought that we were supposed to do and offer the best of the best in our work.

I agree with Scott Nehring that what we need are more Christian artists and less "Christian" art. The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia would never have reached so many people if they had been pushed as "Christian" stories. I, for one, would never have touched them with a ten foot pole in the days before I became Christian. As it was, someone let slip to me the Jesus-Aslan connection when I was in the beginning of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I kept reading but I couldn't get past that connection. As someone who was tolerant but not fond of Christians, I was completely unable to look at the work with an unprejudiced eye. Therefore, I hated it as being so obvious. Is it obvious? Maybe yes. Maybe no. All I know is that I will never know because I was tipped off that it was "Christian" from the beginning. And I resent that opportunity being taken from me.

The public's general perception is that if something is called "Christian" it is substandard work. Sadly, all too often they are correct. In that case you are only preaching to the choir who go to support Christian movies. There is nothing wrong with that I suppose but why not preach to the entire world as we are called to do? For that, one must remove the dreaded "Christian" label and go forth as a talented artist with a good story to tell. If it is Christian at the foundation that will come out without having to slap a label all over it.

I probably wouldn't have turned this into a post except that I just came across Jeffrey Overstreet's take on the subject.

Since the Contemporary Christian Music has done so much to sidetrack Christian musicians so their music doesn't accidentally end up in arenas where the world might hear it... why not create Contemporary Christian Cinema? That way, faith-related films can play to those who already agree with their messages, and to those who don't want to bother with the challenges of mainstream movies. Meanwhile, mainstream audiences can put even more distance between themselves and films that openly wrestle with issues of faith. They'll spot the "faith" label, feel a shiver run down their spine, and move on to something else.

Walls and boundaries. That's what we want. Neat and easy labels and categories. All the better for judging other people, for staying where we are, for complimenting ourselves on our choices.

No matter what the industry does to try and fence in me and my Christian faith, it won't work. I won't preoccupy myself with "Christian moviemaking" any more than I'll spend time shopping for "Christian groceries." I'll keep exploring questions in the open sea of artmaking, fully convinced that God is revealing himself in the art of all kinds of people. After all, they're all made in his image, and they're all using his materials, so how can they possibly hope to stifle the truth? I'll keep finding God as he peers out through the beauty and the truth that resonate in the works of even the most defiantly irreligious.

If I see a "faith" label on a film, it'll automatically make me suspicious that the work is preachy and mediocre. And more than likely it's obvious enough and simplistic enough to qualify as entertainment for a six-year-old. If I sound a little too judgmental here, well, what do you expect when decades of preachy, mediocre, connect-the-dots "Christian art" have shaped my opinions?

My advice to Christians who make movies? Make them complex enough, powerful enough, beautiful enough, and subtle enough that they can never be dismissed as movies for that "faith-based" audience and ignored by people who want something challenging.

Jeffrey Overstreet commenting on the Weinsteins beginning a faith-based movie line

To me, this connects in a beautiful way with a brilliant post that Melanie Bettanelli wrote about Santa Claus. This is a lengthy excerpt but it is not all and you do yourself a disservice if you don't go read it all. As I said ... brilliant.

One day this [violently anti-Christian] friend said to my sister that if Christ is like Aslan, then perhaps that is the kind of Christ she could wish were real. Well, I was raised on Narnia and I strongly suspect that my image of Christ has strong doses of Aslan in him. Because I think Aslan is a very good icon of Christ indeed.

And to me that's one of the wonders of fairy tales like The Chronicles of Narnia, that its beautiful art which can evangelize the culture. Sew seeds in hearts that are not yet ready to hear the gospel message, that are firmly closed to any mention of Christ. And slowly they warm, thaw: If Christ is like Aslan, then maybe Christ isn't so bad after all. Maybe he's a God I could believe in.

Many Christians hailed The Lord of the Rings for that same reason. There is no mention of Christ or God, no one in the book seems to have any faith at all. And yet every word, every action proclaims the gospel message. For it is a story about a small man, a hobbit, a weak, inconsequential nobody who willingly bears a great burden expecting no benefit for himself, indeed expecting destruction at every step. It's about what it means to be a follower of Christ, to pick up one's cross every day and lay down your life for your friends and for those you don't even know.

To me the Santa story is the same thing. In its modern, secular rendition there might be no mention of Christ, in fact it might seem to lead one into a fantasy realm where there is no room for Christ. And yet He is there. It's the story of a man who somehow, miraculously gives abundantly, perhaps even prodigally, to everyone regardless of who they are or their state in life and expecting no return for himself. It's about the miraculous ability to be everywhere at once, impossibly in one night.

To me Santa is the image of the prodigal love of Jesus, pouring himself out for everyone expecting no return for himself. It reflects the miracle of the Eucharist, (just think of Christ on a thousand altars all over the world in one night on Christmas Eve).

Think of how subtly God gets our attention so much of the time. Through nature or "coincidences" or things we read or something a friend says. He doesn't show up in a vision of glory every time we need to get a message. The glorious sunset that bespeaks His creation to me may be touching someone else's heart with a specific message that He has prepared. For a third person it may simply be beautiful but may be softening them up for further communications in an unknown way. And it is sent to all, without any special genres or labels on it. We could do much worse than to model ourselves on that method.

See all of the photos in this Flickr series

Tags: Catholicism, Christianity