Bring on the COFFEE!

Easter afternoon.  I've had two (rather large) cups of coffee today and one bottled Starbux mocha frappucccino.  So far.  *Happy Sigh* 

 [[[jitterjitterjitter]]]

 I just may brew another pot for iced coffee and pull an all-nighter.  But that wouldn't be a good idea I guess.  I mean, it sounds good to me right now, but I'd regret it later.

[[[jitterjitterjitter]]] 

I really would.  Except that it'd mean I'd have all night to overdo Kindle reading, too...  Hmmm....

Coffee and Kindle are the main things I gave up this Lent, though I had a hard road deciding on either one. Before Ash Wednesday I'd threatened  to give up coffee, like I usually do.  But, I Wavered.  (Took a big sip of java.) Reconsidered.  Then, realizing how much I didn't want to give it up, knew it was exactly what I did have to do without.  So I did without. Forty days.  And I made it. Shew!

Me after a late night of
coffee and reading.

 The Kindle, though, was a different thing altogether.  I actually started up sacrificing Pintrest for Lent.  Which seemed like a good idea at the time...  But, then, with nothing left to unwind with (having given up TV as a family -- and accepting that there is only so much spiritual reading one can do without burning oneself out), I rediscovered my Kindle.  For less than $3.00 a book, a girl can just go hog wild with reading.  And I did. Hog. Wild.  But the intrinsic value of most of the books I read was less than $3.00 each. Figure that. So, practiced at giving the kids lectures about just such brain clutter, I had little choice but to pull myself up short at the midway point of Lent and switch out penances, taking back Pintrest (which does, at least, have some redeeming value: i.e.,  recipes, crafts, ubiquitous random inspiration), and sacrificing the Kindle instead.  It was the more noble road. But it turned out to be a harder one.

What a challenge dragging myself away from the addictive fluff novels I had devoured the first three weeks of Lent!  I'm even now suffering the DTs: depression (no silly dramas and amusing repartees to distract me from the oppression of America in the second year of the Obama administration); anxiety (what am I missing??? Will Destiny's sister, Charity, meet the Amish farmer of her dreams in the always-uplifting but meaningless sagas cranked out on Kindle?); craving (I NEED to read a silly novel; I MUST read a new silly novel; I may DIE without a silly novel to read at bedtime!)

Hard.  Hard.  Hard.  No coffee.  No fluff to distract me.  I'm so glad Lent's over.  It really, really stunk.

But that's the point, right? That Lent is supposed to be hard?  The road to Calvary couldn't have been more difficult. Jesus purposely chose the hardest route He could find, making the prize sweeter, and the lesson more perfect.  His sacrifice was a love offering for us. It's overwhelming to contemplate.  But really, isn't it true in the daily-daily, too?  The harder it is, the more we appreciate  the end result, the better we take the point.

If Dan gets up early to make coffee for the rest of us -- especially when he was also up late at Midnight Mass with us and has a long drive ahead of him in the afternoon -- that means something.  If Cathy spends the afternoon making bread sticks by hand to serve with dinner -- especially when we know she'd rather be outside playing volleyball -- that means something. If I let you use my camera after all the months it took to finally get it fixed, you know it means something.  And if William gives his sister the last purple peep instead of eating it himself... I will faint.


Happy Happy Easter, Anyone Who Happens By!  Many and Multitudinous Blessings during this Holy Season!  And Happy End of Lent!  I toast you with  my cinnamon Good Earth herbal tea -- because coffee at this hour really would be stupid!

But I am leaving now to go read a silly mystery novel about sleuthy cats.  TTFN!

Happy Easter!!

He hath risen as He said.

Hallelujah!

Holy Saturday

"Pieta"  William Adophe Bouguereau

They took the body down from the cross and one of the few rich men among the first Christians obtained permission to bury it in a rock tomb in his garden; the Romans setting a military guard lest there should be some riot and attempt to recover the body. 

There was once more a natural symbolism in these natural proceedings; it was well that the tomb should be sealed with all the secrecy of ancient eastern sepulture and guarded by the authority of the Caesars. 

For in that second cavern the whole of that great and glorious humanity which we call antiquity was gathered up and covered over; and in that place it was buried. It was the end of a very great thing called human history; the history that was merely human. 

The mythologies and the philosophies were buried there, the gods and the heroes and the sages. In the great Roman phrase, they had lived. But as they could only live, so they could only die; and they were dead. 

--G. K. Chesterton The Everlasting Man CW2:344-5

Good Friday

O My people, what have I done to thee? Or wherein have I afflicted thee? Answer Me. Because I led thee out of the land of Egypt, thou hast prepared a Cross for thy Savior.

Because I led thee out through the desert forty years: and fed thee with manna, and brought thee into a land exceeding good, thou has prepared a Cross for thy Savior.

What more ought I to have done for thee, that I have not done? I planted thee, ineed, My most beautiful vineyard: and thou has become exceeding bitter to Me: for in My thirst thou gavest Me vinegar to drink and with a lance thou hast pierced the side of thy Savior.

For thy sake I scourged Egypt with its first-born: and thou didst deliver Me up to

be scourged.

I led thee out of Egypt having drowned Pharao in the Red Sea: and thou to the chief priests didst deliver Me.

I opened the sea before thee: and thou with a spear didst open My side.

I went before thee in a pillar of cloud: and thou didst lead Me to the judgment hall of Pilate.

I fed thee with manna in the desert; and thou didst beat Me with blows and scourges.

I gave thee the water of salvation from the rock to drink: and thou didst give Me gall and vinegar.

For thy sake I struck the kings of the Chanaanites: and thou didst strike My head with a reed.

I gave thee a royal scepter: and thou didst give My head a crown of thorns.

I exalted thee with great strength: and thou didst hang Me on the gibbet of the Cross.

* The Twelve Reproaches:
A description of the praying (singing) of the twelve reproaches on Good Friday can be found here. 

Simon the Cyrenian Speaks

He never spoke a word to me

And yet He called my name:

He never gave a sign to me,

And yet I knew and came.

At first I said, "I will not bear

His cross upon my back;

He only seeks to place it there

Because my skin is black.

But He was dying for a dream,

And He was very meek,

And in His eyes there shone a gleam

Men journey far to seek.

It was Himself my pity brought;

I did for Christ alone

What all of Rome could not have wrought

With bruise or lash or stone.

~ Countie Cullen, 1926

“Alone of all creeds, Christianity has added courage to the virtues of the Creator. For the only courage worth calling courage must necessarily mean that the soul passes a breaking point - and does not break.” --G.K. Chesterton

“Show me your hands. Do they have scars from giving? Show me your feet. Are they wounded in service? Show me your heart. Have you left a place for divine love?” 
― Fulton J. Sheen

A Talk by Fulton J. Sheen for Holy Thursday

Judas

by Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

In the past few years in the Church we have had many psychological and sociological studies, all attempting to explain why some priests have left their sacred calling. I presume they have some value but it is interesting that none of them thought of making a biblical study of why a priest leaves. Perhaps we could find much if we peruse the Gospels and studied Judas. 

His name was Iscariot; no one knows exactly what that meant. Maybe it was Sicarius, in the Greek, a dagger bearer. In this case he would have been classified as a revolutionist bent on driving the Romans out of the land of Israel. But in any case; one day a babe was born in Kerioth, a child of promise. Friends brought gifts to the parents and time went on and that babe of Kerioth grew in age and he met a babe who was born in Bethlehem who had grown in age and grace and wisdom, and at the parting of the waters, Christ chose Judas to be an Apostle. He did not choose him to be a traitor, but to be an Apostle. 

Almost all studies that have been made seriously of Judas say that the principal reason that he left is because he was avaricious. There is indeed some Gospel evidence for this. For, just a week before the Passion of our Blessed Lord, the Savior was invited into the house of Simon, the Pharisee, and what the host saw brought a blush to his cheek. He looked up and saw a woman who was an intruder. Outside, friends could come and stand along the wall and listen to a conversation at table. This woman however, annoyed him to some extent. He would not have minded it if anyone else had been there; but the Rabbi, what would he think of it. 

She was a woman, a sinner. Her hair was long and she did not attempt to brush it back. As she came toward the table, and in those days everyone reclined at table on the left arm leaving the right arm free to eat, she came and stood over the feet of our Blessed Lord and let fall upon the sandaled harbingers of peace, a few tears like the first warm drops of a summer rain. Then ashamed of what she had done, she attempted to wipe away the tears with her hair. All the while Simon was thinking to himself, 

“If He only knew what kind of a woman she is.” 

How did he know? 

She took from about her neck, a small vessel. In those days women carried precious perfume about the neck in a bottle and when they attended funeral rites, they would break the bottle over the remains and then after allowing the perfume to fall upon the corpse, they would throw even the remains of the bottle onto the body. And she releases from her neck, this vessel of precious ointment but does not do what you and I do, pour it out gently drop-by-drop by drop, as if to indicate by the slowness of our giving, the generosity of our gift. She broke the vessel… gave everything. For love knows no limits. 

Judas all the while got a whiff of this perfume. Oscar Wilde describes a syniac as one who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. And he immediately fixed a price, three hundred days wages. This perfume let me tell you, was no ordinary smell #5. So Judas now becomes the defender of the social order. He breaks up the routine of the dinner by saying, 

“Why wasn’t this sold; sold for three hundred pennies worth and given to the poor?” 

The poor! I can imagine that he probably went on and argued in some such way as this, 

“I heard you on the mount of the Beatitudes say, Blessed are the poor. Where is your love for the poor now? Have you forgotten all those fishermen sheks that are laying in the Sea of Galilee? Remember all those huts that were hugging the highway between Jerusalem and Jericho; are you mindful of those? Have you forgotten the inner city of Jerusalem; it’s slums? Where is Your love of the poor?” 

The Lord answered, 

“The poor you have always with you; Me, you will have not always; and what this good woman has done was done for My burial and it will be told about her around the world.” 

Here is another instance of an emphasis on social justice when there is a forgetfulness of individual justice. 

A bishop, one day came to me with a letter written by a priest in his office. It was two or three pages long, single space. A very vicious attack on the bishop because he had no interest in ecumenism; particularly because he had no concern for the poor. Well, I knew that the bishop did have concern for the poor, ecumenism as well. And I said to him. 

“Why don’t you find out how much he stole?” 

Actually he stole over $25,000.00 from the chancery and then stole a wife who was a mother of four children. It was the story of Judas lived all over again. 

So, the argument that Judas fell because he was avaricious does seem to have some substance. But…does avaricious really make a priest fall? As a matter of fact, in the history of the Church avaricious men have stayed in. Sometimes the Church can be a comfortable haven for the avarice. Furthermore, avarice is an old man’s sin; sin of youth is lust and middle age, power. Old age avarice, for it is a kind of economic immortality. See how well I have provided for myself. And, Judas was not an old man. Avarice therefore, cannot have been the cause of his leaving. What then was the cause? 

Can you think of the first time that the fall of Judas is mentioned in the Gospels; the very first time? If you can recall that moment then you can have the answer to why there is a break in the priesthood. Where is the first mention of the fall of Judas? The day our Lord announced the Eucharist! When did Judas leave? The night our Lord gave the Eucharist! He broke at the announcement of the Eucharist; as a matter of fact, that was a critical moment in the life of our Blessed Lord. When He announced the Eucharist He lost the masses because He refused to be a bread King. Secondly, He lost some of his disciples; they left him and walked no more. Finally He split His Apostolic band. And here is the end of the story in the announcement of the Eucharist. 

Conclusion of the 6th chapter of John, 

And when the disciples withdrew and no longer went about with Him, Jesus asked the twelve, 

“Do you also want to leave me? 

Simon Peter answered, 

“Lord to whom shall we go? Your words are the words of Eternal Life. We have faith and we know that you are the Holy One of God.” And Jesus answered, “Have I not chosen you? All twelve? Yet, one of you is a devil!” He meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. He it was who would betray Him and he was one of the twelve. 

When do priests begin to break? When they lose their faith in the Eucharist! It is not seen, it is not commented upon, a dozen other explanations will be given and the faith is generally lost long before others see the loss. There is predictability about those who leave the priesthood as is evident from this 6th chapter of John. 

Our Blessed Lord had to live with this man for two years yet; think of it! He did not say who the devil was, He merely said, “One of you is the devil.” John, later on of course wrote the name. Now you know why we have centered this retreat on the Eucharist. There has never yet been a priest, who daily kept his faith in the Eucharist by watching an hour with the Lord who ever left him; no priest ever will! And those who are thinking of leaving… and I have many such letters in my possession about such men, from such men, who have come back because they restored their faith in the Eucharist. 

So, this is the beginning of the break but they stay in. As I told you Demas left, he went back to the world as Paul simply put it, but others will destroy from within. A young priest told me within six months after his ordination, “I was ordained to try to destroy the Church from within.” If they would only leave, but they stay. 

Now we come to the Last Supper and Judas leaves the priesthood. The seating arrangement of the table was one in which certainly John sat at the right. Who sat at the left? Judas! Now I will prove this to you. In the painting of Leonardo Divinci, Judas is down the table, I think about the fourth and upsetting the salt. And from that time on it became bad luck to upset the salt. He was holding his money bag but I think Our Lord always anxious to save us said to him, “Here Judas, sit near Me.” Where was Peter? On the other side of John. 

Our Blessed Lord now washes the feet of His disciples. There are seven gestures mentioned; I think it is the beginning of the 13th chapter of John. As Our Lord washes the feet during supper, Jesus was well aware that the Father had entrusted everything to Him and that He had come from God and was going back to God. Now get the picture of the Incarnation here, (rose from the table as if God the Son was now prepared for the Incarnation), laid aside His garments, (the glory of His Divinity,) taking a towel which is the mark of a servant, a slave, (tying humanity about Himself, tied it round Him,) poured water into a basin, (poured out His blood,) washed His disciples feet, (cleansed us,) wiped them with a towel, (the purification of the spirit). It is interesting to compare this passage with the second chapter of Philippians, verse 6 which was a hymn in the Church, verse 6 and on in Philippians. 

And Our Blessed Lord, after washing the feet of His disciples said, “You are clean, but not all. One of you is about to betray Me.” Ten said, “Is it I Lord?” In the Face of Divinity no one can be sure of his innocence. One said, “Who is it Lord?” We will come back to that later on. And one said, “Who is it Master.” St. Paul tell us that it is only by the Spirit that we can call Jesus, Lord. Eleven called Him Lord, one, Master. Now at this particular time there was whispering going on and you will understand why the seating arrangement was as it is here described. 

When Our Lord said, “One of you is about to betray me, Peter always curious and inquisitive had to be in on everything; he just couldn’t bear the suspense. If he were seated next to our Lord, you may be sure that Peter would have said. “Who is it Lord?” But Peter, says the Gospel, turns to John and said, “Ask Him who it is?” He asked John to ask and John said, “Who is it Lord, who is it?” And the Lord said, “It is he to whom I will reach this bread after I have dipped it in the sauce.” That is the way toasts were paid in those days; the bread was dipped in the sauce and given to a friend, the assumption being that they who ate the same bread were one body. Our Blessed Lord at that dipped the bread and gave it to Judas and said, “What you are about to do, do quickly.” Then Satan entered into Judas and the Gospel says, “And Judas went out and it was night.” It is always night when we leave the Lord. 

None of the other Apostles at table knew what was happening because the Gospel tell us that they thought Judas had gone out either to buy food for the Passover or else to give money to the poor. In other words, do not expect that anyone who is satanic looks satanic. You would never think that anyone who is going out to conduct the Liturgy, to prepare the Liturgy, was satanic. You wouldn’t think that anyone who was going out to distribute alms was satanic, but Satan was in him. Then it is after he leaves that our Blessed Lord pronounces that word “now”. “Now Father, glorify Thy Son with the glory that I had with thee before the foundation of the world was laid.” 

The Lord now prepares to go down to the garden; there is only one recorded time in the life of our Blessed Lord that He ever sang and that was the night He went out to His death! They go into the garden, He thought He could depend on three, Peter, James and John; John rather loving, Peter loyal in an intense kind of way, James ready always to follow leadership, but He told them to watch and pray. “Watch!” (Look out for the external environment…that is your horizontal problem.} “Pray!”…(Vertical attachment to Heaven.) And they slept! Men who are worried do not sleep, but they slept. Three times our Blessed Lord came back to them and said, “Can you not stay awake one hour with Me?” 

Now on the hill opposite the garden one can catch the sight of lanterns and a group of men, the Greek word that is used, spira, would rather suggest that there were about two hundred in this army of Judas. It is a full moon, very easy to distinguish anyone. Further more, our Lord was well known in Jerusalem, everyone saw him, at least on Palm Sunday. And as Judas leads his band of ruffians down the hill he says, “I will give you a sign, a sign. He whom I shall kiss, that is He. Lay hold of Him.” Why did he have to give a sign, a kiss? Somehow or another when we leave the Lord we never understand Him, we forget His Divinity, we forget His wisdom and we forget His love. And Judas thought our Blessed Lord, coward that He was, would run back into the olive grove hiding in the dark. And so he would have to flush Him out and in the darkness he would give them a sign, he would kiss Him. And our Lord comes forward, “Who do you seek?” ‘Jesus of Nazareth!” “I AM!” (Exodus) And they all fall backwards until He gives them strength to stand. 

And Judas then throws his arms around the neck of our Blessed Lord and blisters His lips with a kiss. And the original word that is used in the Gospel is means he smothered Him with kisses. (So, books are written; I love the Church BUT!) “Hail, Rabbi,” and then he kissed Him. Why the kiss? Because Divinity is so sacred that its betrayal must always be prefaced by some mark of affection and esteem. 

The Lord is arrested, led over the brook of Kedron; a story we will tell about in the last Holy Hour. And Judas had found his Lord because the Gospel tells us that our Lord was often accustomed to go there to pray. Only those who have been cradled in the sacred association of the Church know how to betray. Judas knew where to find the Lord after dark, and in all the great apocalyptic literature, Robert Hugh Benson, Soloviev, and Doesteovsky. The betrayal of Christ in His Church is always 
From within, not from without. In Benson, it was a Cardinal, in Doesteovsky it was a Cardinal, and in Soloviev it was a Cardinal. The title means nothing but the fact is, he was a priest. These writers made the priest one who had been at the top. 

Who will ever forget Doesteovsky’s description of Christ coming to the city of Seville in about the 16th Century? The Grand Inquisitor is a wisened old Cardinal over ninety years of age. And when our Blessed Lord returns he sees a child being brought into a Church. He raises the child to life and the Grand Inquisitor reminds Him that He came to bring freedom but people did not want to be free. They really want to be slaves of something. And he said, “Tomorrow we will burn You. Leave and never come back.” And our Lord bent over and kissed the whitened cheeks of the old cardinal and for the first time in many years blood came to his cheeks. And once again he said, “Never again come back.” 

Is it any wonder then that St. Peter along with Ezekiel in the Old Testament speak of the destruction of the Temple and the persecution of the Church is coming from within. Ezekiel said, “Incipite a sanctuario meo,” and St. Peter; “Begin at my sanctuary.” Begin there in the sanctuary, and that was what was first destroyed when Titus and Vespasian took over Jerusalem. And Peter said that’s the way it will be at the end. 

Judas now has his money but not very much, $17.40. Divinity is always betrayed out of all proportion to its due worth, always a ridiculous figure. So when a man gives up his priesthood what does he get? He gets $500.00 in royalties for a book attacking the Church, an hour on television to make light of it and celibacy. Three thousand nights in bed and he is sick of it all. Judas was sick of it all, took back his thirty pieces of silver and sent them rolling across the temple floor and he said, “Look, you do it.” All that it was fit for was to buy a field of blood. And he might have, if he had just a spark of faith, have received pardon and forgiveness from the Lord, Who would forgive such betrayals seventy times seven. 

It is interesting to make a comparison of Peter and Judas. Our Lord warned both that they would fail. They both failed, they both denied or betrayed the Lord and they both repented. But the difference in the word repent is that Judas repented unto himself and Peter repented unto the Lord. They were the same up to that point. St. Paul therefore says there are two kinds of sorrow, the sorrow of the world and the sorrow of true faith. So Judas no longer has any hope having refused to return to the Savior and he takes a rope and goes out to some rocky ground, we know not where it was. 

I wonder, maybe…and here I am only speculating, up to this point I have used the Gospel. After Good Friday did he throw the rope over one of the beams of the Cross? We know he fell from the rocks and was burst asunder. That we do not know; it is mere speculation. That speculation was confirmed a few years ago when the cook of one of our bishops in China, who had been with him for about twenty five years, When the Communists came in the cook sold out to the Communists and became a sheriff and, he became the sheriff prisoner of the bishop and the bishop died on the death march. The cook, in remorse went to the Chapel of the Bishop and threw a rope over the rafter and hanged himself. He went back as it were, to the scene of his crime. 

Leaving aside this speculation because that is all it is, Judas now is full of despair and he walks over the rocky ground and each rock seem just as hard and cruel as his own heart. The limb of every tree seemed like a pointing finger, “Traitor, traitor, traitor!” The knot on every tree seemed like an accusing eye. And he hanged himself and as the Acts of the Apostles tells us, his bowels burst asunder. “And he went to his own place.” That is all… his own place. Everything has its own place. You open the cage of a bird and the bird goes to its own place. You drop a stone from the hand and the stone goes to its own place. We do not know what this propriam locum was of Judas but we do know the reason of the fall and may that reason sharpen the resolution of our will so that we will not fail the Eucharist. If we could read the hearts of those who have left, faith broke, it snapped somewhere making light of the Eucharist, anything at all but no longer the sense of the invisible and the beautiful presence of Christ. 

And the great tragedy of the life of Judas, one of the twelve, is that he might have been Saint Judas.

Conference # 10 given by Archbishop Sheen for the Priests of the Archdiocese of Washington at Loyola on Potomac Retreat House during their annual Priest's Retreat.

Transcribed by: Denise Wood

Found here.

Jesus Washes the feet of His disciples.
(Artist unknown)

* To read Abbot Gueranger's thoughts on Holy Thursday from The Liturgical Year, go here.
* To learn why Holy Thursday is also called "Maundy Thursday," go here.
* To see the Lenten Stational Church for Holy Thursday, go here.

A coloring page for the children. Just click and print.

The Liebster Award

Many thanks to Natalie, over at Between the Bobseins for honoring me with this prestigious -- and really fun -- award! I haven't gotten the chance to participate in one of these in a long time!  The word on the blog street is that the Liebster Award originated with a German blogger who wanted to recognize blogger friends who had less than 200 followers. And, uh, that would be me.  My blogging's slowed down so much, I barely raise a blip on the site-meter thingy and many of my old blogging friends have hung up their blogging hats.  But, I haven't given in.  I'm still here.  Sometimes...  And I'm so touched that sweet Natalie remembered me; I may be a bad blogger, but I still do love the blogging world.


Liebster, by the way,  means "dearest" in German. Don't ya love that?  The first requirement for my accepting this "Dearest" Award, is to tell five things about myself that are not generally known.  The problem I have with that is, that after more than five years of blogging, I'm not sure if there's anything about myself that I haven't already shared.   (And heaven knows, the world has been hangin on my every word right?  ;0)  But I haven't been doing much blogging and this is a great way to sort of work in a "catching up," so here's a go at it...

1) I just got contacts for the first time a couple weeks ago!  (That's something new to report!) They're "multi-focal" meaning they're supposed to do the same job as bifocal glasses, correcting both my near-sightedness and my far-sightedness.  And you know what?  They really do!  The lens made for my left eye, which is my dominant eye, is for far seeing.  My right eye's lens allows me to read without extending my book out to the end of my arms.  Crazy thing is that my brain has figured out how and when to use each corrected eye -- together, so I don't have to do the work.  No more looking down my nose to read through my cheaters, then looking up to see the nerf bullet heading toward me, then looking down through my glasses to pluck the nerf bullet off my book.  It's  so much more simple than bifocals or carrying around reading glasses, and I love how well they work. When I can actually get the darn things in! Goodness, there's a knack to it!  Maybe someday I'll actually wear them.  

In the meantime, I'm keeping my half-dozen pairs of cheater glasses handy -- all over the house, but never where I need them when I need them...

2)   Which leads me to an admission.  A somewhat guilty one.  I am a Perpetual Delegator.  You know that kind of Mom? Undoubtedly it's a habit brought on by twenty-five years of having my hands full -- usually full of baby or toddler or something having to do with a baby or toddler....  And at any random time during the day, I'm running off in two or more different directions, if not physically, then mentally.  So, to simplify my life and keep things tidy and efficient,  I send youngins on errands. Constantly.  It's probably given my kids a complex.  To wit:
"Here, Gabe, take your Math book and put it in your bin.  And since you're passing the kitchen, take my coffee cup with you and put it in the sink for me, will ya please?

"And, Oh, while you're in there, see if Anna's in the back of the house and tell her it's her turn for Math.

"And tell her on her way back here, to see if she can find my little red reading glasses...

Gabe and William, buds. Right at that moment, anyway.

"Unless you see them on your way to the kitchen, in which case, pick them up and give them to Anna to bring to me..."

A few minutes later:  Gabe returns and hands me a full cup of coffee.  And nothing else.  No Anna, no glasses. So.... yeah.

 I just thank him.  Coffee's what I really wanted anyway.  Gee, I raise smart kids.


3) Another guilty admission.  I hate to exercise.  Really do hate it. I was born without those "happy-exerciser" endorphins you hear tell about.  I have never felt anything but tired and sweaty and miserable after exerting myself -- and I'm pretty sure that running and bouncing around just make my fat cells hang on for dear life.  Truly, the only way I'll exercise is if I don't know that's what it is I am doing.  Even hiking (which I love) is just a necessary evil I endure in order to get to pretty scenery inaccessible by car... 

4) But, that said, I've lost twelve pounds in the last five weeks or so. (Woohoo!) For health reasons, I've been suffering through a very strict low-carb eating regimen (we don't say the "D" word).  Along with feeling literally "lighter," I also have been making strides toward overcoming my chronic fatigue issues, so it's really been worth it -- but, I'm here to tell ya, being on a protein diet during Lent is no fun.  I may just turn into a fish before it's all over. (Oh, my goodness; I can't wait for Easter.  Can we just pause a moment and think about bacon: breakfast, lunch, and dinner?)

5)   I was born and spent the first year or two of my life in Spain, where my Dad was stationed in the Navy.  I was a bald baby at first, but when my hair grew in, it was blonde, blonde, blonde and very curly -- a novelty among the Spanish people and a source of delight, I guess.  According  to my mother, everywhere she took me, the native people would rub my head for luck.  As I grew up, my hair deepened to a honey color, then a light brunette, and continued to darken, so that by the time I was in my mid thirties it was dark enough to look almost black.  Much to my chagrin.  I think it was all that rubbing. I think in a random tweak of the universe, I now have the Spaniards' hair and there are a bunch of Spanish folks (probably pretty old by now) wandering around with blonde hair.  

Do I need to say that Clairol and I are very well acquainted?  But nowadays, I have to cover not only the dark hair, but the white strands that are creeping in...  Just a few more years and I'll be a "tow head" again.

   

And now here are Natalie's questions for me to answer:

1)  Your preferred terrain would be desert, coast, mountains, or plains/hills?
Well, hmmmm... Being the daughter of a Navy man, I grew up near the ocean, but I've been landlocked here in Colorado all my adult life (let's assume that's more than twenty-five and less than forty years altogether, right?).  If you know me, you know I lovelovelove my mountains, but I gotta say...  one whiff of sea air and I'm overcome!  I'm a kid again, standing at the harbor with my siblings and my Dad, watching a storm come in, the sound of the waves crashing against the shore drowning out my squeals as the salty wind whips my hair into my eyes.  Oh, how much I've missed the beach!-- How could you not love it?  Where is anything more alive, more powerful, more calming, more beautiful, more full of God?  

This photo from the Visual/Sensory blog -- because almost all my beach pics were lost when the computer crashed...

And yet... 
I'm  not a swimmer.  No kidding; you ain't getting this Momma of eleven into a "babing" suit ever again -- no way no how. I don't surf or boogy board, either, and I don't see us ever owning a boat. (How nerve-wracking would that be for a mother of many small children?)  So, what do I do at the beach?  I sunburn. I collect shells, make sand castles, breathe in the salt-tangy air, count the heads of the children in the water (over and over and over), dump sand out of children's bathing suits, wash sunscreen out of little girls' eyes, guard everyone's valuables and flipflops, try to keep sand and seagulls out of the food... etc., etc., and you get the picture.

So, really.

Give me the mountains any day: you still get the majestic beauty and the peace -- and the all-encompassing presence of God, but they very seldom knock you off your feet; and speaking of feet -- no sand in your shoes or food or hair or shorts; lots of shade for long parent-controlled hikes; no seagulls or drowning to worry about -- just mountain lions, bears, wandering out of cellphone range, or falling off cliffs. Yeah....  The mountains have their downside, too.  But, there is one great advantage that mountains have over seashore:  If you're not up for the risk or challenge of the actual wilderness, you can see them for free from your back porch.  Yep.  Just look at 'em.  Aren't they something?

Near McClure pass last summer...

Love 'em.  (This one -- me a couple springs ago on the edge of Grand Mesa looking west.)

2)  How long have you ever gone without shaving/waxing your legs?
Never long enough that anyone would notice.

3)  What boy and girl name do you love but haven't used? Hmm... Frankly, with eleven children, we really have used all our most favorite names -- and their corresponding patron saints are happily established as our family go-to heaven friends.  But, that said -- Paul (0ur firstborn) would have been Laura, a name I still love -- but never used.  Dominic would have been Mary Margaret (or Margaret Mary; we never did decide).  I always liked the name Emily -- though it never reached the top of the name list at the right time...  All girl names... But, honestly, I can't think of a single boys' name that I love that I didn't use for one of our seven young men.
4)  If you had twins what would you name them?  Cosmas and Damien?  Protus and Hyacinth?  Peter and Paul?  I guess the question is whether you make the names relate to one another or not, saint-wise, or other wise -- like Holly and Ivy,
-- or Crimson and Clover
-- Luke and Leiah
-- Simon and Garfunkle
-- Emmy and Oscar
-- Porgy and Bess
-- Thing 1 and Thing 2

... or whether you ought to alliterate, as with
-- Tina and Tommy 
-- Anna and Adam
-- Luke and Leiah
-- Xavier and Zoe
  We did actually have twins, though ya know.  We named them Kevin Christopher and Matthew Francis -- specifically for the help and protection of those patron saints.  Matthew is hanging with the saints right now, as he was stillborn into heaven -- so I can't ask him, but I can ask his brother, Kevin, how he'd have liked having matching or "theme" names.  Being the nut that he is, I expect he'll come up with a choice few that would work for him.  But I'm guessing most twins wouldn't care for it.

5)  What is the best materialistic gift you've ever been given?  Easy.  My camera. I love my Nikon D 7000.  Love it.  I don't have to be a photographer to take really beautiful pictures!  My next gift, though, needs to be classes to learn how to really use it! ('Cause I'm a tutorial retard...)

6)  What is your biggest pet peeve? People who don't clean up after themselves, because they either just don't care that they're wrecking things or they expect the cleaning fairy to clean up their mess.  (Erg.  Don't get me started.)

7)  Have you ever skinny dipped or streaked? Neither.  At least not since I was about three years old.

8) What is your favorite quote, psalm, or reading? Oh, wow.  I don't have just one -- I have millions, and they change with the day, the mood, the light coming in the window.  I have quotes all over my house, literally -- saved in notebooks, hung on walls, stuck to the refrigerator, taped around my bathroom mirror...  But, to narrow it down, just a bit... I love just about anything by G.K. Chesterton or St. Teresa of Avila.  Here's one I'm contemplating just today: 

9)  How do you relax after a rough day? I pin on Pintrest, or read, or watch documentaries on Netflix.  If I'm lucky and Dan's home, I'll be getting a backrub while doing any one of the above... 
10) What is the best quality you see in your significant other? Just one?  Dan is the epitome of patience and long suffering -- an extremely important characteristic for a man who's married to me... 

I nominate:
Ann (Learning Late in Life)
Maria (La Dolce Vita)
Cathy (A Bit of the Blarney)

Here are your instructions, I am nominating you for the Leibster and tagging you for Five Things.
1. Tell five (or eleven) things about yourself most people don't know.
2. Answer my questions (below).
3. Tag / nominate five (or two, or nine) others with 200 or less followers.
4. Ask them your own new questions.
5. Have fun!


My Questions:
(Please feel free to answer all ten or just choose five.)

1) What is the best vacation you've ever gotten to take? Why does it stand out?
2) If you won a two-week, all-expenses-paid vacation for two anywhere in the world, where would you go and why?
3) What is the scariest thing you've ever been through?
4) What is your favorite dessert? (Recipe please?)
5)  Fill in the blank:  I can't help but laugh when I remember__________________.
6)  What song can you not resist belting out with the volume cranked all the way up on your car radio?
7) What was your favorite cartoon as a child -- and would you (do you) watch now should it turn up on TV?
8) Approximately how many sets of earrings do you estimate that you own?
9) What is the best book you've read in the past year?
10)  If you could change your first name, what would you want to be called?

Career Advice

"The best careers advice to give the young is: 

Find out what you like doing best and get someone to pay you for doing it."

~ Katherine Whitehorn



(But, no, really, kids...  This could be a second job maybe.  Or a hobby. If I find you dancing like Michael Jackson and selling cotton candy on a European beach after the age of 19, I'm coming to get you.  There will be a lecture all the way home on the plane.)

On the Feast of Our Beloved St. Joseph

Charles Bosseron Chambers

About St. Joseph...


Isidore of Isolanis, a pious Dominican of the 16th century, prophesied that "the sound of victory" will be heard in the Church Militant "when the faithful recognize the sanctity of St. Joseph." He continues:

 "The Lord will let His light shine, He will lift the veil, and great men will search out the interior gifts of God that are hidden in St. Joseph; they will find in him a priceless treasure, the like of which they had never found in other saints of the Old Testament. We are inclined to believe that toward the end of time God will overwhelm St. Joseph with glorious honors. If in the past ages, during the storms of persecution, these honors could not be shown to St. Joseph, we must conclude that they have been reserved for later times. At some future time the feast of St. Joseph will be celebrated as one of the greatest of feasts. The Vicar of Christ, inspired by the Holy Spirit, will order this feast to be celebrated in the Universal Church.

The Blessed Virgin Mary said to Ven. Mary Agreda:

"The whole human race has much undervalued the privilege and prerogatives conceded to my blessed husband, St. joseph. I assure you that he is one of the the greatly favored personages in the Divine Presence, and he has immense power to stay the arms of Divine vengeance. That which my husband asks of the Lord in heaven is granted upon earth, and on his intercession depend many extraordinary favors for men."

St. Thomas Aquinas tells us:
"Some Saints are privileged to extend to us their patronage with paticular efficacy in certain needs, but not in others; but our holy patron St. Joseph has the power to assist us in all cases, in ever necessity, in every undertaking."  

" I know by experience," says St. Teresa of Avila, "that the glorious St. Joseph assists us generally in all necessities.  I never asked him for anything which he did not obtain for me."

Guido Reni

Prayers and Praises to St. Joseph

Praises of St. Joseph

O holy Patriarch Joseph, ever blessed by thy soul, which was adorned with all the virtues and gifts of the Holy Ghost.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

O holy Patriarch Joseph, ever blessed be thine intellect, which was full of the most sublime knowledge of God and was enlightened with revelations.

Glory be to the Father...

O holy Patriarch Joseph, ever blessed be thy will, which all inflamed with love for Jesus and Mary and always perfectly conformable to the Divine Will.

Glory be to the Father...

O holy Patriarch Joseph, ever blessed be thine eyes, to which it was granted to look continually upon Jesus and Mary.

Glory be to the Father...

O holy Patriarch Joseph, ever blessed be thine ears, which merited to hear the sweet words of Jesus and Mary.

Glory be to the Father...

O dear St. Joseph, ever blessed be thy tongue, which continually praised God and with profound humility and reverence conversed with Jesus and Mary.

Glory be to the Father...

O chaste St. Joseph, ever blessed be thy most pure and loving heart, with which thou didst ardently love Jesus and Mary.

Glory be to the Father...

O holy Joseph, ever blessed be thy thoughts, words and actions, each and all of which ever tended to the service of Jesus and Mary.

Glory be to the Father...

O holy Patriarch Joseph, ever blessed be all the moments of thy life, which thou didst spend in the service of Jesus and Mary.

Glory be to the Father...

O my Protector St. Joseph, ever blessed be that moment of thy life in which thou didst most sweetly die in the arms of Jesus and Mary.

Glory be to the Father...

O glorious St. Joseph, ever blessed be that moment in which thou didst enter into the eternal joys of Heaven.

Glory be to the Father...

O happy St. Joseph, ever blessed in eternity be every moment in which, until now, in union with all the Saints of Heaven, thou hast enjoyed the incomprehensible bliss of union with God, with Jesus and Mary.

Glory be to the Father...

O my dear Protector! Be ever blessed by  me and by all creatures, for all eternity, with all the blessings which the Most Holy Trinity bestowed upon thee and with all the benedictions given thee by Jesus and Mary and by the whole Church.

Glory be to the Father...

O thrice holy Joseph, blessed in soul and body, in life and death, on earth and in Heaven. Obtain also for me, a poor sinner but nevertheless thy true and faithful client, a share in thy blessings, the grace to imitate thee ardently, and to love and faithfully serve Jesus, Mary, and thyself, and especially the happiness to die in thy holy arms. Amen. 

Georges de la Tour

The Devotion of the Seven Sundays

The Seven Sundays in honor of St. Joseph are observed in the following manner: Holy Communion is received in his honor on seven consecutive Sundays, and on each Sunday the prayers in honor of the Seven Sorrows and the Seven Joys of St. Joseph are recited. For the Seven Sorrows and Joys, click Here.

It is related that a ship containing a number of passengers was wrecked off the coast of Holland. Two Franciscan monks, who had clung to a plank for two days, were saved by a man of venerable appearance who miraculously brought them to shore. Upon their asking him who he was, he replied, "I am Joseph, and I desire you to honor my seven sorrows and seven joys." This was the origin of the devotion to the sorrows and joys of St. Joseph.

traditional holy card

Prayer to St. Joseph for Our Children

Oh glorious St. Joseph, to you God committed the care of His only begotten Son amid the many dangers of this world. We come to you and ask you to take under your special protection the children God has given us. Through holy baptism they became children of God and members of His holy Church. We consecrate them to you today, that through this consecration they may become your foster children. Guard them, guide their steps in life, and form their hearts after the hearts of Jesus and Mary.

St. Joseph, who felt the tribulation and worry of a parent when the child Jesus was lost, protect our dear children for time and eternity. May you be their father and counselor. Let them, like Jesus, grow in age as well as in wisdom and grace before God and men. Preserve them from the corruption of his world, and give us the grace one day to be united with them in Heaven forever.

Amen.

Gerard van Honthorst

An Ancient Prayer to St. Joseph

Oh St. Joseph, whose protection is so great, so strong, so prompt before the throne of God, I place in thee all my interests and desires. O St. Joseph, assist me by thy powerful intercession and obtain for me all spiritual blessings through thy foster Son, Jesus Christ Our Lord, so that, having engaged here below thy heavenly power, I may offer thee my thanksgiving and homage.

O St. Joseph, I never weary contemplating thee and Jesus asleep in thine arms.  i dare not approach while He reposes near Thy heart.  Press Him in my name and kiss his fine head for me, and ask Him to return the kiss when I draw my dying breath.

St. Joseph, Patron of departing souls, pray for me.

Ron DiCianni

Prayer in a Difficult Problem

Oh Glorious St. Joseph, thou who hast power to render possible even things which are considered impossible, come to our aid in our present trouble and distress. Take this important and difficult affair under thy particular protection, that it may end happily. (Name your request.) 

O dear St. Joseph, all our confidence is in thee. let it not be said that we would invoke thee in vain; and since thou art so powerful with Jesus and Mary. show that thy goodness equals thy power. Amen, St. Joseph, friend of the Sacred Heart, pray for us.

Jason Jenicke
(Really awesome religious art;  click to see his website)

A Boy Sweetheart's Daily Prayer

O St. Joseph, Model of justice, and therefore of husbands, I beseech Thee to direct me in my choice of a future wife. Grant me especially wisdom and deliberation in this choice. Make both my friendship and courtship especially chaste, unselfish, prudent, thrifty, and cheerful. Be my companion in single as well as in wedded life.

traditional holy card

A Girl Sweetheart's Daily Prayer

O Mary, Model of pure love, and therefore of sweethearts, I beseech Thee to direct me in my choice of a future husband. Grant me especially wisdom and deliberation in this choice. Make both my friendship and courtship chaste, unselfish, prudent, thrifty, and cheerful. Be my companion in single as well as in wedded life. 

St. Joseph,

Patron of the Universal Church

Protector of the Holy Family

Patron of Fathers

and of Families

Pray for Us!