Worth a Thousand Words: For Babar Lovers

From Art Knowledge News

A Catholic Revert's Advice

What I found so difficult was to turn everything over to Him. To really turn my will over to His.

After I did that, the rest was relatively downhill. No, it was not a smooth hill with a comfortable slope and a smooth surface. It was more like a broken ridgeline on the Moon or something. Lots of boulders, and ravines that require some uphill climbs. Nevertheless the trend is downhill and as long as I keep turning to God, His grace draws me on like gravity.

The step I first took, which I here recommend to you, was so simple and easy it took me forever to think of it.

So I wanted to trust Him and have faith, but couldn’t take that final step. Finally, I told Him that I was willing for Him to change my heart for me. I was willing to let HIM give me the will and strength to turn back. With that, though the struggle was still long and hard, I had in fact turned the corner. I might still relapse, of course. But now it would take an act of will on my part.

As for the rest, our response to God’s grace includes doing everything we can while trusting the ultimate guidance of our journey to Him.

This post began as a comment over at Darwin Catholic and then turned into a post. Go read. It is chock-full of good advice for those returning or who are here to welcome him back.

In Related News ...
If you are entering the Church this Easter, there is a nifty badge awaiting your blog.

Peeps or Bunnies

Meredith wants to know and she has a handy poll to use.

Battle of the Breviaries

Christian Prayer or Daily Prayer?

Meg has been very kindly giving us tables, photos, and more to help compare the two resources. I really, really ... really ... like the Daily Prayer book.

I'm linking to the last post in the series so that you have links to all four posts.

The youngest child can’t zipper his jacket and tells you, “It crashed!”

Just one of the 25 signs you are a Geek Parent.

I'm not gonna tell you how many of those signs I knew ...

You Won't Believe the Strange Jolt I Got When I Saw This Cover at Amazon

Just go look ... right here ...

... I'll wait.

Why was I jolted?

Because I designed it. (Not the illustration, but the look, type, etc.)

Yep. Me.

More about all that later ... but what a thrill!

While You're Out There Crusin' St. Blog's ...

... voting ends at noon today, so don't forget to ... (yes, you know what I'm going to say don't you?) ...

C'mon, say it with me...

You still got to go kiss the egg ... for this little Jamaican bobsled in the Best Overall Catholic Blog category.

Worth a Thousand Words

Japanese toy design from BibliOdyssey which has many others for you to enjoy.

Happy Pi Day

Just don't make that a meat pie, since it's Lent.

Many interesting and amusing facts about pi may be found at Mental Floss whence came the above photo.

Worth a Thousand Words

Red Velvet Cake by Duane Keiser

It seemed quite appropriate to use this painting today as I have finally posted Cheryl's Red Velvet Cake recipe. Check it out.

Curt Jester Turns to Negative Campaign in Attempt to Swing Votes - Updated

It is with great sadness that we note The Curt Jester is, alas, so very insecure that he is resorting to negative publicity in his campaign to win the humor category. (Also with great hilarity that we read his customary humor ... how does he do it?)

As I have too much dignity (and not nearly enough cleverness) to respond on his charges, I will simply turn to that which has stood us in good stead before.

Hypnotoad!

Now, listen carefully and go vote for Happy Catholic in the 2008 Catholic Blog Awards.

You may then turn off your computer ... you will remember nothing of this later ...

Update:



I see that the blog awards has posted the top ten in each category so far.

Heavens to Betsy ... Happy Catholic is up there for Best Overall Catholic Blog. This calls for drastic measures. C'mon people, concentrate your votes ... go kiss the egg!


Let's go all da way with our little Jamaican bobsled of a blog here ...

A Beautiful Recitation of the Stations of the Cross

Laura H. has given us a real treasure just in time for Holy Week with this recitation.

She has a beautiful voice (she's a singer after all) and this is something that I will be listening to again and again. Do go listen and download it for your own meditation.

Anyone Been Watching New Amsterdam?

John Amsterdam is a homicide detective who really has seen it all. He's 400 years old, thanks to having saved a native girl from a fate worse than death ... or maybe it was from death itself. She rewarded him, if it can be called that, by putting a spell on him so that he would live until he meets his true love. This results in an understandably brooding man who views death as a gift that he would like to earn. His current homicide cases usually remind him of a past part of his life. They are well handled and serve to lift the series above the standard show. Most interesting of all, the show consistently reminds us that immortality is a hollow gift and one of which most of us would tire. This is a message quite at odds with what we often see in modern thinking.

This reminds us most of Moonlight, in which a man, turned vampire against his will, wants nothing more than to be human again. It consistently reminds us that to be human with all the accompanying pain is still better than a false "superiority." New Amsterdam, however, has more depths to plumb and is the better show.

Bye, Bye, Eli ...
By the way, the troublesome gaping loopholes and stubborn insistence on taking what seemed to us to be the wrong side in practically every legal case got to us a while back. No more Eli Stone and we are the happier for it.

Worth a Thousand Words

Golden Street found at Flickr's Cream of the Crop.

Wall-E ... The Trailer

We're suckers for Pixar and have been eagerly awaiting Wall-E. The trailer does nothing to make me any less eager to see it.

Worth a Thousand Words

From Art Knowledge News

Music to Skate By

I think this is the sort of playfulness that delights God. I know it delighted me. Via Standing on My Head.

Talk About Being Single Minded

I saw a headline saying Hooray Once More for Lefties and had to read it three times before I figured out it wasn't about left-handed people (which would be me, ya know ... and quite obviously it's all about me!).

Worth a Thousand Words

Sinai Archangel Gabriel icon, by Heather Williams Durka (click through on the link to see more of her beautiful art).

Sacrament of Confession ... Reconciliation ... Penance

Monica asked for a quick refresher on confession. I thought I had a few things about confession posted but now realize that I have just had a few good quotes and comments of my own. Here is a more basic all-in-one guide.

No matter what you call it, this sacrament is one of the most misunderstood as well as one of the most freeing. (For the basics about what a sacrament is, check out The Raft on the Tiber, where Mark is beginning an indepth discussion ... I am looking forward to his posts.)

Here are the very basics:

6 STEPS FOR A GOOD CONFESSION

1. Examine your conscience - what sins have you committed since your last good confession.
2. Be sincerely sorry for your sins.
3. Confess your sins to the priest.
4. Make certain that you confess all your mortal sins and the number of them.
5. After your confession, do the penance the priest gives to you.
6. Pray daily for the strength to avoid the occasion of sin, especially for those sins you were just absolved from.

Source

More than anything confession calls for a good, honest examination of conscience. The priest who taught our RCIA class told us that we shouldn't make "laundry lists" of sins but truly see what in our lives is truly keeping us away from God, acting as a separation from him.

If you want a guide to examination of conscience Fathers Know Best has probably the most thorough I've ever seen. Catholic Online has a good one that also includes an overall guide to confession which I recommend reading over if you are nervous or it has been a while.

I will often spend the week before confession asking God to show me what I do unawares that grieves him most. Then I spend the rest of the week ducking because those prayers are always answered right away. If I have slid into a lack of humility, suddenly I find myself "showing off" or something similar and then being embarrassed. If my bad temper has been growing unbeknownst to me, I suddenly am biting everyone's heads off in the most public and (again) embarrassing way possible. You get the picture.

In short, He shows me without hesitation what I need to repent of, to confess, and to receive extra grace for aid in my struggles.

The examination of conscience is one of the most decisive moments in a person's life. It places each individual before the truth of his or her own life. Thus, we discover the distance that separates our deeds from the ideal that we had set for ourselves.

John Paul II, Go in Peace

Another thing that I try to remember is to pray for the priest hearing my confession. I usually do this when I am in line waiting my turn. I pray for my own openness in truly hearing what I need to, for his openness in letting the Holy Spirit flow through and enlightening me. I can't tell you how many times the priest has taken a very unexpected turn of advice that has opened my eyes.

... The use of too many words frequently denotes a desire, whether conscious or not, to flee from direct and full sincerity. So as not to fall into this we need to make a good examination of conscience.

Concise: Confession with few words, just the words that are needed to say humbly what we have done or have failed to do, without any unnecessary elaboration or adornment.

Concrete: Confession without digression, without generalities. The penitent will suitably indicate his situation, and also the time that has elapsed since his last Confession and the difficulties he finds in leading a Christian life (Paul VI). He declares his sins and the surrounding circumstances that have a bearing on his faults so that the confessor can judge, absolve and heal.

Clear: A Confession where we make ourselves understood, declaring the precise nature of the fault, manifesting our wretchedness with the necessary modesty and delicacy.

Complete: Integral Confession, without leaving anything out through a false sense of shame so as not to appear bad in the confessor's eyes.

Lent and Eastertide (In Conversation with God, Vol. 2)

It is a big struggle to confess my sins fairly baldly and just let it lie. If the priest has any questions, he'll ask them. Otherwise, God (and all the angels and saints, as someone once reminded me) already has watched me "in the act" so I just have to let it go. In other words, no excuses. Confess and live with it.

The priest instructing us also mentioned that people sometimes worry because they are confessing "the same old sins over and over." As he said, "We don't want to go around finding new ways to sin, do we?" We all have inclinations to various sins that we most likely will battle against for our entire time in this earthly "boot camp." Some we will overcome. Others we will not. We must measure our progress in terms of getting back up repeatedly to continue the battle.

Those confessionals scattered about the world where men declare their sins don't speak of the severity of God. Rather do they speak of his mercy. And all those who approach the confessional, sometimes after many years weighed down with mortal sins, in the moment of getting rid of this intolerable burden, find at last a longed-for relief. they find joy and tranquility of conscience which, outside Confession, they will never be able to find anywhere.

John Paul II, quoted in In Conversation with God: Advent and Christmastide

There is nothing like the feeling of lightness and relief from a truly good confession.

I encourage you to take advantage of this gift which the Church offers to us so freely. Lent is still here. Go before Easter.

Update
Heather mentions something that I completely forgot to include, but which I think of often to give myself that extra boost to get to confession.

Confession also has enormous healing powers. So even if I am free of mortal sins, I often find Confession very powerful and valuable. Sometimes, you just need an extra boost of grace to keep flying true!

Also, because Confession brings us into a state of grace, it makes our souls more receptive of the graces we receive from all the other Sacraments. Without Confession, the other Sacraments are limited in their power, and even harmful--all because of sin that we can't or won't have cleansed by Confession.

I remember going to confession for a specific purpose and then being dumbfounded when the priest informed me that it wasn't a sin at all. "What?" I said. "You're kidding!" He assured me he wasn't and then, when I couldn't think of anything else, asked me what I struggled with the most so that I could receive the grace to battle against it more effectively. Quite often when I just can't stand to deal with a particular sin any more I remember that I can get a strengthening dose of grace as well as absolution from confession. And I hustle to church.