so... I currently live in an apartment that doesn't have air conditioning. It's among some student housing that's provided by the university parish where I work. Today has been the hottest day so far. When I checked the weather channel, it was 86 degrees, but I woulnd't be surprised if it had gotten warmer throughout the day.
Also, I've developed the bad habit of staying up waaaay too late and then sleeping in the next morning, especially on days when I don't have work. Fortunately, this hasn't impacted my performance. There was one day last week when I didn't get clock in til about half hour later than usual, but since I have a flexible schedule, I only work a half day on Thursdays, and, to my surprise, the other summer worker, who works the other half day, had already opened the office and was planning on working the whole day, all was gravy and I just worked in my office.
All this is to say that because of my abnormal sleep schedule and the increasingly warm nights with no A/C, even though I finished my nightly reading and fell asleep at an unprecendented 11:47 PM... I find myself wide awake right now.
I've been up for almost an hour and I'm not sure I'll be going back to bed anytime soon... though I'm going to try as soon as I post this. As I tried to fall back asleep and sensed it wasn't going to happen, I decided that if I wasn't asleep again by 4, I'd grab a few necessity( pillow, sheet, etc) and head for the couch in my delightfully cool office. Not 10 minutes had passed before it was confirmed within me: I was just too uncomfortable to return to dreamland (even though I haven't been able to remember many of my dreams lately, except for one involving one of my elderly coworkers doing an awful liturgical dance with a large white rose at fake mass, pretend-celebrated by a womynpreest...what a nightmare!) So, I threw on a shirt and went to check out my office, really to see if I needed to bring my fan or if I'd be lulled to sleep by the sound of the vents. As I walked towards the kitchen and main lounge, which I had to pass through to get to my office, I half expected to see one of the students who just might have a touch of insomniac in the kitchen watching Golden Girls (what, it's one of his favorite shows? i don't judge). The TV was on, to my frustration but not surprise, because no one was around.
I get into my office. The first thing I notice besides the perfect sleeping temperature is the eerie blue glow from the computer's ON light. Naturally I sit down at the computer, giggle yet again at my Mother Angelica "I'm so tired of you, liberal Church!" quote as I think, "Well maybe I'll just check my email real quick". As I double clicke the aquamarine lowercase e icon, it occurs to me to instead check the Courage Apostolate webpage...
Low and behold it's like Christmas Morning! REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN!!! Feel free to examine the schedule. I'm pretty pumped about the speakers. I already knew Card. Burke and Fr. Groeschel were speaking, but I was delighted to find that Bishop Olmsted, who, if memory serves, was the one who removed the Catholic affiliation of that hospital that was performing abotions in his diocese had also made the cut, as well as Msgr John Esseff, a retired exorsist who can read souls. Our Catholic student group brought Msgr Esseff to campus a couple years ago just before I really started to get involved and thus I missed the event. He didn't drive out any demons, but those who did get to interact with him have some amazing stories and have grown much spiritually because of him. He did call down a 9 ft tall angel to guard and protect the men's common room, from what I hear, which is actually just next door to mine...
Anyway, the main point of this post is that you can now register for Courage. I would register right now, except I currently do not have the funds. Am I worried at all? Maybe irrationally that it will somehow fill up and registration will close before 9AM... Though that would be awesome because that means it's only more people who may need Courage more than I do would get to experience the conference... I'm not worried about not being able to afford it, though, because my diocese is going to be sponsoring me, two other laypeople, and three clergy. How cool is that? So, at 9, I'm going to call the diocesan office.
So... I feel like I did years ago, waking up with my little brother way before the rest of my family did on Christmas morning... cept I have no idea what I'm going to do for the next few hours before I shower and get ready and embark on my one minute comute from my room to the front desk... hm... Not sure if I can fall back asleep... videogames?
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Mother's Day
Happy Mother's Day
Which directions can I take this post? I'm certainly going to include an amazing quote from Joseph Cardinal Mindszenty, but I could also talk about Bl. John Paul II's Encyclical on the Dignity and Vocation of Women (or just link it). I could also talk about Mary, the Mother of God, the Mother of Mercy Incarnate. I could also talk about my own mother, and a situation one of the students and a dear friend of mine is facing with his own mother and family. Let's start there and see where it goes.
So, one of the student's moms is in the hospital. The doctors aren't quite sure what's going on with her. They thought it was her heart, but now they don't believe it is. All of the family is really worried...except for the student. A few years ago, his dad passed away, which, tragic as it was, brought an even greater good from it: the student's conversion to the Catholic Church!! He is now serving the Lord as sacristan in charge of the altar servers for the Mass and other liturgical events. This summer, he'll even be joining me on a month long summer immersion course in North Dakota. The point is, since reverting to the Church, he's be growing in faith and love by leaps and bounds. I've reassured him many times that this is just another trial and an opportunity to continually grow closer to Our Lord. We're praying that this current situation can be a similar opportunity for the rest of his family. Yet, there is tension amongst his siblings who don't seem to understand. I simply pray that he can be a shining example of Christ for his family and I hope that you join with me in that prayer.
I'd like to talk about my own mother at that too. I won't reveal all the details out of respect for her, but I hope she knows that I am thankful for all that she's done for me...truly. Yet, that does not make her a saint. There are things that she's doing that I can't turn a blind eye to and say some magic touchy-feely words and make everything okay, make it all right... and the sad part is not that I'm bitter or not grateful or anything like that.... the sad part is that she doesn't realize that if she proceeds this way, it's going to be bad news for her and for other parties involved. In my opinion, it stems from society's unrelenting desire to ignore sin...
Sigh. Well... I think I'll just leave you with the quote I mentioned before I heard it from Barbara McGuigan earlier this past week. It really is beautiful... and that's what people don't understand about the Church. She is truly beautiful and only teaches what She does in Her great wisdom because She knows that what we can get ourselves into will only hurt us. So... while we can and should honor our own mothers, there is One Mother who is often under-estimated, under-looked, and quite simply, misunderstood. Let's honor Holy Mother Church this Mother's Day by maybe spending an hour in front of the Blessed Sacrament and praying for our own mothers respectively.
The Most Important Person
on earth is a mother. She
cannot claim the honor of
having built Notre Dame
Cathedral. She need not. She
has built something more
magnificent than any
cathedral-a dwelling for an
immortal soul, the tiny
perfection of her baby's
body…The angels have not
been blessed with such a
grace. They cannot share in
God's creative miracle to bring
new saints to Heaven. Only a
human mother can. Mothers
are closer to God the Creator
than any other creature; God
joins forces with mothers in
performing this act of
creation…What on God's
good earth is more glorious
than this: to be a mother?
God bless all mothers through His Mother Mary and Holy Mother Church!!
Which directions can I take this post? I'm certainly going to include an amazing quote from Joseph Cardinal Mindszenty, but I could also talk about Bl. John Paul II's Encyclical on the Dignity and Vocation of Women (or just link it). I could also talk about Mary, the Mother of God, the Mother of Mercy Incarnate. I could also talk about my own mother, and a situation one of the students and a dear friend of mine is facing with his own mother and family. Let's start there and see where it goes.
So, one of the student's moms is in the hospital. The doctors aren't quite sure what's going on with her. They thought it was her heart, but now they don't believe it is. All of the family is really worried...except for the student. A few years ago, his dad passed away, which, tragic as it was, brought an even greater good from it: the student's conversion to the Catholic Church!! He is now serving the Lord as sacristan in charge of the altar servers for the Mass and other liturgical events. This summer, he'll even be joining me on a month long summer immersion course in North Dakota. The point is, since reverting to the Church, he's be growing in faith and love by leaps and bounds. I've reassured him many times that this is just another trial and an opportunity to continually grow closer to Our Lord. We're praying that this current situation can be a similar opportunity for the rest of his family. Yet, there is tension amongst his siblings who don't seem to understand. I simply pray that he can be a shining example of Christ for his family and I hope that you join with me in that prayer.
I'd like to talk about my own mother at that too. I won't reveal all the details out of respect for her, but I hope she knows that I am thankful for all that she's done for me...truly. Yet, that does not make her a saint. There are things that she's doing that I can't turn a blind eye to and say some magic touchy-feely words and make everything okay, make it all right... and the sad part is not that I'm bitter or not grateful or anything like that.... the sad part is that she doesn't realize that if she proceeds this way, it's going to be bad news for her and for other parties involved. In my opinion, it stems from society's unrelenting desire to ignore sin...
Sigh. Well... I think I'll just leave you with the quote I mentioned before I heard it from Barbara McGuigan earlier this past week. It really is beautiful... and that's what people don't understand about the Church. She is truly beautiful and only teaches what She does in Her great wisdom because She knows that what we can get ourselves into will only hurt us. So... while we can and should honor our own mothers, there is One Mother who is often under-estimated, under-looked, and quite simply, misunderstood. Let's honor Holy Mother Church this Mother's Day by maybe spending an hour in front of the Blessed Sacrament and praying for our own mothers respectively.
The Most Important Person
on earth is a mother. She
cannot claim the honor of
having built Notre Dame
Cathedral. She need not. She
has built something more
magnificent than any
cathedral-a dwelling for an
immortal soul, the tiny
perfection of her baby's
body…The angels have not
been blessed with such a
grace. They cannot share in
God's creative miracle to bring
new saints to Heaven. Only a
human mother can. Mothers
are closer to God the Creator
than any other creature; God
joins forces with mothers in
performing this act of
creation…What on God's
good earth is more glorious
than this: to be a mother?
God bless all mothers through His Mother Mary and Holy Mother Church!!
Friday, May 6, 2011
Nailed It! in CATHOLICISM
The next installment of Nailed It! is here. Should be self-explanitory. Enjoy the video!!
Monday, May 2, 2011
My take on Fantasy Bishball
A few weeks ago, LarryD over at AoftheA submitted the idea to do a bishop-catholicy-version of fantasy baseball. The idea is simple enough. Draft a team of bishops, get points, etc. Well... that's about all I understand really, so maybe it's not so simple. Anyway, after getting tweets from other bloggers about it, I decided to draft my own team of Catholic bishops... Actually, I'm going to see if I can name 30 bishops. The Pope, even though His Holiness is technically the Bishop of Rome, will be excluded. Even Larry considers restricting the pool to just North American bishops. These are all living bishops.
In no particular order:
Bishop Leonard P. Blair*
Archbishop Timothy Dolan
Raymond Cardinal Burke
Donald Cardinal Wuerl*
Archbishop Dennis Schnurr
Justin Cardinal Rigali
Daniel Cardinal DiNardo*
Francis Cardinal George
Bishop Soto
Archbishop Michael Sheehan*
Archbishop Chaput
okay... i think 30 came from a tweet. i've done more investigating and the teams are maximum 4 bishops. the 4 i'd pick are *ed above. i feel an unfair advantage picking 2 cardinals, but this is just for funzies anyway. the ones i starred i've actually had some very indirect interaction. Bishop Blair's See is my own Toledo Diocese, so it's pretty much a given i picked His Excellence. The good bishop has continued to amaze me in his vocation as the steward-shephard of our diocese! We've also shared a few meals. Their Emenences Weurl and DiNardo both played huge roles in this year's March for Life Masses, which i attended. That's very indirect i know, but both have been outspoken in their respective support and promulgation of Authentic Catholic Faith, especially on very controversial matters. Lastly, Abp Sheehan gave a talk at the 2009 Coming Home Network Conference. Though I attended 2010's Conference, I was given all the 2009 talks to listen to, rating His Excellence's talk 4 stars.
Okay... i'm pooped. enough for today.
In no particular order:
Bishop Leonard P. Blair*
Archbishop Timothy Dolan
Raymond Cardinal Burke
Donald Cardinal Wuerl*
Archbishop Dennis Schnurr
Justin Cardinal Rigali
Daniel Cardinal DiNardo*
Francis Cardinal George
Bishop Soto
Archbishop Michael Sheehan*
Archbishop Chaput
okay... i think 30 came from a tweet. i've done more investigating and the teams are maximum 4 bishops. the 4 i'd pick are *ed above. i feel an unfair advantage picking 2 cardinals, but this is just for funzies anyway. the ones i starred i've actually had some very indirect interaction. Bishop Blair's See is my own Toledo Diocese, so it's pretty much a given i picked His Excellence. The good bishop has continued to amaze me in his vocation as the steward-shephard of our diocese! We've also shared a few meals. Their Emenences Weurl and DiNardo both played huge roles in this year's March for Life Masses, which i attended. That's very indirect i know, but both have been outspoken in their respective support and promulgation of Authentic Catholic Faith, especially on very controversial matters. Lastly, Abp Sheehan gave a talk at the 2009 Coming Home Network Conference. Though I attended 2010's Conference, I was given all the 2009 talks to listen to, rating His Excellence's talk 4 stars.
Okay... i'm pooped. enough for today.
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