As If We Needed Any More Convincing ...

... The Curt Jester reviews Jesus of Nazareth ... ahem ... my birthday is coming up next week ...

Stitch 'N Pitch Nights

Stitch N' Pitch brings together two American traditions — Baseball and the NeedleArts. Come to a ball game and knit, crochet, embroider, cross-stitch and needlepoint. Sit among friends, family and colleagues and cheer on your favorite Baseball Team.

This event is for ANYONE who has an interest in the perfect double play — NeedleArts and Baseball; beginners, intermediate and experts are all welcome.

You can check out the scheduled nights and teams here.

Me? Mmmm, no way. But I know there are tons of baseball fans out there. Now, football ... that would be something I'd consider.

Thanks to Catholic Mom for this heads-up!

8 Random Things About Me

Nick tagged me with this one. I'm not sure how random these will be because y'all already know a lot of my random stuff but here goes:

1. I always preferred real food for breakfast ... soup, sandwiches, leftovers ... and still prefer a quesadilla or bagel with pimiento cheese to cereal or pancakes.
   
2. I read around 700 words per minute ... if I'm pushing it for the test it will go up to around 900.
   
3. You can read while washing dishes ... and knitting ... and brushing your teeth ... and cooking ... I do it all the time.
4. I'm a Jayhawk
5. I have green/brown hazel eyes
6. I had pneumonia for two weeks when I was in 6th grade.
7. I'm afraid of the dark.
8. My favorite color was blue for most of my life but for about three years ago it changed to green.
   

See This Afghan?

Yep, the one on this book cover. This is the one that Rose would like me to make for her. Who can blame her? It looks fantastic.

However, I think I'd better start now because this is likely to be a lengthy project ... in two years I can give it to her to begin her sophomore year in college.

(By the way, I picked Cables Untangled: An Exploration of Cable Knitting up from the library and it looks really good. The author does have a tendency to want to cover every square inch of any sweaters with as many cables as possible which always looks rather crowded to me. Also, there is that tendency to give aas many of the instructions as possible using charts instead of written instructions. Naturally, having learned to read patterns long ago when everything was written out I understand that method much better than those darned charts. However, aside from those little quibbles, it has some nice, simple projects and all the explanations are good. I have never been afraid of cables and enjoy the variety they add to a project, but this book looks as if it would still the fear that I hear lurks in the hearts of beginners ... for expert instruction in mastering the art of cables give this book a try.)

In other afghan knitting news, I finished Hannah's afghan a couple of days ago, washed and dried it ... and it held together! Exciting! I'm trying to remember to take a photo to post ...

Thinking Blogger Award

Much thanks to Jean at Catholic Fire (another favorite "thinking blogger of mine) who graciously gave me a Thinking Blogger award. Now if only she lived close enough that we could actually sit down to that cup of coffee and piece of pie (make mine cherry!).

In turn, here are my thinking bloggers which I carefully compiled earlier. Thanks again Jean!

They Have a Word for It ... And We Don't

Biritululo (Kiriwana, New Guinea)
Comparing yams to settle disputes. In New Guinean culture, the code of behavior is that nobody talks about what everybody knows concerning sensitive subjects. Breaking this code results in violent disputes. They present their yams at these moments. Yams are so important in Kiriwana that people boast about their own supply to the point of violence. Settling the fights with yam displays calms everyone down.

The New Book of Lists: The Original Compendium of Curious Information

This puts a new take on "mine is bigger than yours" ... though I never understood that argument either.

Walking With the Dead

Permanent Londoners
Permanent Parisians
Permanent Italians
Permanent Californians
Permanent New Yorkers

Photo Source

Felix Faure (1841-1899), the sixth president of the French Republic who, in true Belle Epoque spirit, dies in the arms of his mistress -- endearing him to the French populace in a way that his policies never did. His bronze figure is raised slightly and turning as if, waking, he can't figure out where his paramour has gone.

Permanent Parisians

There is something that I simply love about wandering through graveyards, reading the headstones and looking at the monuments. I picked up this love from my mother who I remember wandering graveyards with on a vacation trip to New England. Later, when I visited Europe, New Orleans, and Galveston, all of which have a generous sprinkling of fascinating graveyard monuments, I wandered whenever I could through the memorials. Some tell their own sad story of disaster when many family members are buried within days of each other or similar tragedy when a newborn and mother are laid side by side in the same week. However, part of the fascination is wondering about the lives of those who went before us.

Perhaps my lifelong attraction to cemeteries is the reason I dearly love to occasionally reread this series of books. They are illustrated guides to some of the interesting cemeteries of the London, Paris, New York, California, and Italy. Written with charm and verve, the authors guide readers and potential sightseers amongst interesting, unusual, and famous grave memorials of the famous and anonymous. The photographs are in black and white but still retain their appeal.

Before settling down to his arduous labors Darwin set about finalizing his one decisive prescription: "Marry, marry, marry. Q.E.D." His choice was Emma Wedgewood; not surprising since the Darwins and Wedgwoods seemed always to be marrying one another. It was a case where "the perfect nurse had married the perfect patient," for Darwin was frequently ill. With age his complaints grew worse and he spent more time in illness and convalescence. It has never been clear whether Darwin's illness was more or less hypochondriasis. Certainly he loved the attention of his doting Emma as did their many children who were also not loath to be sick.

Darwin's children grew up true Darwinians. They could hardly not, for the house smelled for eight years of the barnacles Charles was busy noting and dissecting, causing one of the young children to inquire about a neighbor, "Then where does he do his barnacles?" ...

Permanent Londoners

Much of the undeniable entertainment of these books is from the prose stylings of the authors who somehow maintain a careful balance between respect for the dead and an irreverent enjoyment of poking holes in any pretensions of those who history has put on a pedestal. In the meanwhile, the reader is absorbing quite a bit of history in a most enjoyable fashion. We discover little tidbits about famous personalities that never would have gotten across otherwise. Especially entertaining is the sometimes incongruous juxtaposition of final resting places for those who were rivals when alive which, of course, the authors lose no time in pointing out. Occasionally, not much is known about the person buried but the memorial is so memorable that it is shown and described in detail. Highly recommended.

Photo source

Behind the Newcastles, in the small Chapel of St. Michael, is hidden one of the more extraordinary monuments of the Abbey. Executed by Louis Francois Roubillac, it is a memorial to Lady Elizabeth Nightingale (1704-1731) who died after a miscarriage. Lady Nightingale languishes while her horrified husband, Joseph Gascoigne Nightingale, supports her and tries to stave off Death's poisoned dart with his upraised hand. Death, attacking from beneath them, is a dramatic enshrouded skeleton. It is said, with perhaps more hope than truth, that a burglar who once broke into Westminster Abbey saw the scene and fled, terrified.

Permanent Londoners

Stardust

I wasn't that fond of the book. It was rather predictable. However, the movie trailer looks really great.

Sacramentum Caritatis: Truth and Freedom

Continuing the series that began last week in our church bulletin, here is the second excerpt. I thought I'd share it again ...

I was particularly struck by this: “Jesus is the lodestar of human freedom: without him, freedom loses its focus, for without the knowledge of truth, freedom becomes debased, alienated and reduced to empty caprice. With him, freedom finds itself.” This is true in so many ways in our lives. If we aren't basing what we do on the truth that is Jesus, we are basing everything on a false base ... like the man who built his house on sand.

The Eucharist:
The food of truth

2. In the sacrament of the altar, the Lord meets us, men and women created in God’s image and likeness (cf. Gen 1:27), and becomes our companion along the way. In this sacrament, the Lord truly becomes food for us, to satisfy our hunger for truth and freedom. Since only the truth can make us free (cf. Jn 8:32), Christ becomes for us the food of truth. With deep human insight, Saint Augustine clearly showed how we are moved spontaneously, and not by constraint, whenever we encounter something attractive and desirable. Asking himself what it is that can move us most deeply, the saintly Bishop went on to say: “What does our soul desire more passionately than truth?” (2) Each of us has an innate and irrepressible desire for ultimate and definitive truth. The Lord Jesus, “the way, and the truth, and the life” (Jn 14:6), speaks to our thirsting, pilgrim hearts, our hearts yearning for the source of life, our hearts longing for truth. Jesus Christ is the Truth in person, drawing the world to himself. “Jesus is the lodestar of human freedom: without him, freedom loses its focus, for without the knowledge of truth, freedom becomes debased, alienated and reduced to empty caprice. With him, freedom finds itself.” (3) In the sacrament of the Eucharist, Jesus shows us in particular the truth about the love which is the very essence of God. It is this evangelical truth which challenges each of us and our whole being. For this reason, the Church, which finds in the Eucharist the very centre of her life, is constantly concerned to proclaim to all, opportune importune (cf. 2 Tim 4:2), that God is love.(4) Precisely because Christ has become for us the food of truth, the Church turns to every man and woman, inviting them freely to accept God’s gift.

-------------------------------------------------------

When we find something wonderful and true, what is the first thing that we do? We rush to tell our friends about it. We can’t wait to share it with others. Indeed, we know from scripture that this is the case quite often when people met Jesus. He is the ultimate truth and word spread quickly everywhere he went. Andrew immediately went to tell his brother, Simon Peter (John 1:40-43). Philip went to tell Nathaniel and bring him to Jesus (John 1: 44-46). Surely, as St. Augustine says above, this is because we all passionately desire the truth. When we actually find truth it is such a revelation to our longing hearts that we want others to know of this treasure also. No wonder the Church constantly proclaims that the Eucharist, the Christ, is there for all to know. The truth, in fact freedom itself, is there in our midst.

There is much food for thought packed into this single paragraph. Reading slowly, phrases leap off the page and demand our thoughtful consideration. Which of us can ignore truth and freedom at such a basic level? As revealed through Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, they become a wellspring of inspiration for contemplating God.
-------------------------------------------------------
(2) Saint Augustine, In Iohannis Evangelium Tractatus, 26,5: PL 35, 1609.

(3) Benedict XVI, Address to Participants in the Plenary Assembly of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (10 February 2006): AAS 98 (2006), 255.

(4) Benedict XVI, Address to the Members of the Ordinary Council of the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops (1 June 2006): L’Osservatore Romano, 2 June 2006, p. 5.

All Our Questions Answered ...

... in this clever AbeBooks campaign. Check out the other titles. You're sure to find one to tickle your funny bone.

Happy Birthday, Dear Rose!

Source

I can't believe I forgot to put up a cake for Rose's birthday today. My only excuse is that I was busy shopping and I think that we'll all agree remembering birthday gifts is much more important than a photo of a cake!

What would we do without our sweet, smart, funny, clever Rose? I don't want to even think about it. I am simply grateful that God picked us out to be her parents. She is sweet 17 today.

We'll be going to Royal Thai as her choice for a birthday dinner. Mmmm, mmmm, good! She chose a cake I've never made so we'll see how it turns out. Yellow cake, cherry filling, marshmallow frosting. It is a cake designed more for a President's Day celebration but since she's been studying like crazy for her AP History test and we've been talking about presidents all week ... I suppose it seemed like the right choice this year.

We'll let you know how it tastes!

What are those 10 Prayers?

The ones that God always say yes to ... I've been asked and luckily Disputations just put them up so I didn't have to hunt them down.

1. God, show me that You exist.
2. God, make me an instrument.
3. Gos, outdo me in generosity.
4. God, get me through this suffering.
5. God, forgive me.
6. Give me peace.
7. God, give me courage.
8. God, give me wisdom.
9. God, bring good out of this bad situation.
10. God, lead me to my destiny.

Next Up: "R" Rating for Eating a Cheeseburger

Cheeseburgers are so unhealthy, you know. Just like smoking ...

The Motion Picture Association of America announced Thursday that smoking will be considered when rating movies and "depictions that glamorize smoking or movies that feature pervasive smoking outside of an historic or other mitigating context may receive a higher rating."

Smoking will become a factor in decisions by the Classification and Rating Administration, along with sex, violence, language, nudity, drug abuse and other elements.

"There is broad awareness of smoking as a unique public health concern due to nicotine's highly addictive nature, and no parent wants their child to take up the habit," MPAA Chief Executive Dan Glickman said. "The appropriate response of the rating system is to give more information to parents on this issue."

Source

Yeah, yeah, to get the obligatory comments out of the way, I don't approve of teens smoking, yadda, yadda, yadda.

But an "R" rating for smoking? This from the esteemed board that gave Spanglish a PG-13 rating so that when we were watching it with Rose we were treated to an unmistakable scene of Adam Sandler and Tea Leoni having sex.

Give me a freakin' break.

Give Me Peace

... this prayer -- God, give me peace" -- is a little bit different. God will say yes to it all right, but the rapidity and clarity of his response are going to depend a lot more on your relationship with God. ...

Is God still going to say yes to this prayer? You bet he is! But he's going to do it on his terms. He's not in the business of helping people live in denial. His "peace" is not some magical, divine anesthesia administered simply to make you feel good. It's the real thing. It's deep. It's lasting. It's wonderful. That's why when you ask him for peace, he's not just going to give you a Band-Aid when what you really need are stitches. He's not just going to help you cover up the problem, when what you really need is to treat it. God's going to give you peace, but he's going to do it by helping you restructure, rearrange, and rebuild your life so that it fits into hisperfect plan. And that may take some doing.

You see, the kind of peace we're talking about goes way beyond mere emotions. It has to do with being in union with God. Ultimately, that's the definition of true peace. It's the awareness that, no matter what else may be happening around you, everything is going to be okay, because you're doing what God wants you to do. ...

On the other hand, if you're "wrong" with God, it will be impossible for you to have a peaceful life, no matter how hard you try. Why? Because God is the source of peace. If you're in rebellion against him, then you're going to be in rebellion against peace itself. It makes sense that your days are going to be filled with chaos, stress, worry, and anxiety. They have to be. Deliberate sin, by definition, excludes peace. Therefore, eliminating the stress in your life depends, in large part, on how successful you are in eliminating any big conflicts you have with God.

Ten Prayers God Always Says Yes To: Divine Answers to Life's Most Difficult Problems
by Anthony DeStefano

Dear Elliot ...

I have never seen "blessed are they that mourn" so beautifully illustrated as in 99 Balloons, the "diary" of a family's love and joy taken in their baby who proclaimed God's presence without ever uttering a word. (Much thanks to Bridget for pointing to this video.)

This was the perfect counterpoint to the low I felt after reading the jubilant editorials about "progress for women's health" in the Dallas Morning News acclaiming Mexico City's legislation of the right to abortion.

I have a feeling that my First Friday sacrifice will be going on for more than a year, because the U.S. is just one step in a world wide struggle which is going on in the spiritual world as well as through visible legislation and courts. Moloch does not give up easily. You know what? Bring it. St. Michael, defend us and pray for us ...

Gone Haulin'

Haulin' Hannah and her stuff back from A&M. Hard to believe she is done with her freshman year! Strange to think of her being home for months and months. But a GOOD kinda strange!

See y'all on Thursday!

Loving Zeke

An extraordinary story, documented by the Kansas City Star, about a family whose whole goal was to love and welcome the little one who would die soon after birth. Via The Anchoress.

Show Me You Exist

... when we lift our minds and hearts in humility and say to God: "Please show me that you exist. ... Give me some sign that you are really up there somewhere" he is only too happy to respond -- sometimes with a speed that can astound us. ...

No matter how God decides to answer this prayer, your reaction is going to be "How in the world did that happen? How could this possibly have come about? It just doesn't make sense. I didn't plan it. I didn't do any work. I didn't make any phone calls. I didn't do anything." There will be a growing conviction in your mind and in your heart that there must have been some other force at work. And more important, there will be a growing conviction of the presence of this force.

This is a critical point to understand. The wonder that you'll feel when this prayer is answered will not be the same as what you feel when you experience an ordinary, everyday "coincidence." Everyone has experienced coincidences and weird occurrences in their life. This will not be like them. This will be a direct experience of God's grace, and, as such, it will piont directly to the one who is behind it -- God.

Ten Prayers God Always Says Yes To: Divine Answers to Life's Most Difficult Problems
by Anthony DeStefano

Yep. That's pretty much how it was for me.

A Closer Look at Sacramentum Caritatis

I have to admit that when I read Sacramentum Caritatis, I did it as more of a "duty" than anything else. Consequently, I zipped through it, marked it off my list and moved on.

Shame on me.

Our church began something new this week ... the first of a series of weekly excerpts that made me read slowly, think carefully, and realize the beauty and truth-packed goodness of this document. I'm not sure if anyone else read it but I certainly was glad that I was forced to take another look. I am going to put the excerpt up here and share with y'all as well. (And yes I typed this ... that is how much I love y'all!).

Loving Us to “The end”

The sacrament of charity (1), the Holy Eucharist is the gift that Jesus Christ makes of himself, thus revealing to us God’s infinite love for every man and woman. This wondrous sacrament makes manifest that “greater” love which led him to “lay down his life for his friends” (Jn 15:13). Jesus did indeed love them “to the end” (Jn 13:1). In those words the Evangelist introduces Christ’s act of immense humility: before dying for us on the Cross, he tied a towel around himself and washed the feet of his disciples. In the same way, Jesus continues, in the sacrament of the Eucharist, to love us “to the end,” even to offering us his body and his blood. What amazement must the Apostles have felt in witnessing what the Lord did and said during that Supper! What wonder must the eucharistic mystery also awaken in our own hearts!

-------------------------------------------------------

The reverent and tender words above call us to reflect on the Eucharist as Jesus’ eternal love for us in this offering of his body and his blood.

We might expect to find this sort of inspirational commentary in a devotional. What a surprise, then, to find that this is the introductory paragraph of Pope Benedict’s recently released report on the bishops’ synod on the Eucharist held in 2005. Or as it is more formally titled:

POST-SYNODAL
APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION
SACRAMENTUM CARITATIS*
[Sacrament of Charity]
OF THE HOLY FATHER
BENEDICT XVI
TO THE BISHOPS, CLERGY,
CONSECRATED PERSONS
AND THE LAY FAITHFUL
ON THE EUCHARIST
AS THE SOURCE AND SUMMIT
OF THE CHURCH’S LIFE AND MISSION

As formidable as that title sounds, this introductory paragraph shows us that we are being given an intimate look into how Pope Benedict and the bishops reflect upon the Eucharist itself. As the Holy Father says, further into the exhortation:

... I wish here to endorse the wishes expressed by the Synod Fathers (11) by encouraging the Christian people to deepen their understanding of the relationship between the eucharistic mystery, the liturgical action, and the new spiritual worship which derives from the Eucharist as the sacrament of charity. Consequently, I wish to set the present Exhortation alongside my first Encyclical Letter, Deus Caritas Est,** in which I frequently mentioned the sacrament of the Eucharist and stressed its relationship to Christian love, both of God and of neighbour: “God incarnate draws us all to himself. We can thus understand how agape*** also became a term for the Eucharist: there God’s own agape comes to us bodily, in order to continue his work in us and through us” (12).

That is much more what could be expected as an introduction and yet it comes five paragraphs into the exhortation. Clearly Pope Benedict wishes to first plunge us into the heart of the matter which is the complete and self-sacrificing love of Jesus for each of us through the Eucharist. Which is exactly as we should wish also.

(1) Cf. Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae III, q. 73, a. 3.
(11) Cf. Propositio 1.
(12) No. 14: AAS 98 (2006), 229.

* Sacrament of Charity. (Caritatis, meaning “charity,” is from Latin and translates in this case as “Christian love..”)
** God Is Love.
*** Agape is from the Greek and was used by the early Christians to refer to the self-sacrificing love of God for humanity, which they were committed to reciprocating and practicing towards God and among one another. One example of this is found in Matthew 22:37-41, when Jesus was asked what was the greatest commandment and answered “’Love (agape) the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love (agape) your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

This is the first of a series of weekly excerpts from Pope Benedict XVI’s Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis. You are encouraged to read the entire document. The Vatican link to that document as well as to Pope Benedict’s first encyclical can be found on the website, www.stthomasaquinas.org.

Siggy and the Butterbell

He went a-Googlin' and found ... this!