September 2003 Archives
Kevin Miller, over at HMS blog,brings us this article in reference to altar girls and the Vatican document on liturgy that's in the works.
....He compared it to a document the Vatican issued several years ago which had a similar negative tone toward lay eucharistic ministers of either sex. Parishes still use them because they are necessary to move hundreds of people through communion and out of the parking lot in time for the next Mass. (emphasis added.)
"Move hundreds of people through communion"! This is exactly what I was talking about in my post on Confirmation.
Can someone explain to me the why behind this?
Secret Spells Kayla for Halloween. By day, Barbie, Christie and Kayla are fashionable school girls, by night they turn into magical enchantresses. Each doll comes with 2 outfits, spell book, case, edible poisons and potion cups.
This gives me a headache. I honestly think perhaps the idea came from the popular show Charmed, but it is not official Page, Piper and Phoebe dolls. I suppose there is not much of a difference except one would be modeled after an obvious fictional TV show, and the other implies that all little girls, except the really weird ones, are secretly wishing to play "let's make secret potions for love and money."
I wonder if there is going to be a great deal of fallout over this.
The weather here is just magnificent -- clear blue sky, a bit on the cool side outside but not too cold.... Soon we'll have that scent of leaf and wood fires in the air. How I love this time of year.
Today I took on another Napoleonic homekeeping project, and tried to bake a triple batch of pumpkin muffins and two loaves of banana bread, all before 11:00. I barely made it with the banana bread but didn't make it with the muffins. A triple batch (actually, I multiplied the recipe by 3.5) is really a lot of muffins, and I only have one muffin pan. I'm doing all this baking because I was in the mood, I wanted to get those bananas out of my freezer, and because I wanted something to feed the contractors (we are having some more work done around the Prussian Green Money Pit over the next few weeks.) Hambet loves pumpkin muffins and so does my husband, so I am going to have to be clever if I am going to have anything left for the contractors.
have you checked out Summa Mamas yet? "One fun, one granola, one old..." (although the "old" mama seems to be in the market for a more um descriptive sobriquet....)
On Friday, I got a flat of pansies and a couple of little mums for our front flower bed. I set out yesterday to plant them. When my husband came out a little while later to see what they looked like, he found the pantries still in the flat and the front bed in complete disarray -- some strange fit came over me and I was compelled to dig up the perennials, divide a few, and move them all around. And I mean all around -- I left only one in the same spot, and that's because I had just planted it last Sunday.
So I dug up the lamb's ears -- they looked crowded -- and spaced them all out along the front border. They didn't look like they're thriving, so I hope they like the extra room and aren't too traumatized by the move. I dug up and got rid of the black-eyed Susans; yes, they're the Maryland state flower and all that, but they just looked so straggly all the time, and their leaves scratched. I divided the big purple coneflower and moved it and the two volunteers to the back of the bed, and stuck a couple of rust-colored mums between them. The three rosemary plants got moved to the back southwest corner, closest to the house, and the two purple sages moved in front of them; I'm hoping they'll all successfully overwinter there. Finally, all the pansies -- little white ones with purple faces -- went in the middle of the bed. They're supposed to be able to overwinter.
I have bulbs on the brain now. The smart thing to do would have been to plant bulbs while I was doing all this moving around, but I'm not sure if it's too early here or not. I would like to plant tulips, hyacinth, and maybe some crocus. I'm also thinking about making a layered planter with my pansies -- one of those deals where you plant the bulbs in the pot and then plant pansies on top. The bulbs bloom first, and then the pansies rebloom (and their foliage covers the bulbs' dying foliage.)
At some point I should turn my attention to the indoor garden. I have exactly one houseplant (a Pothos, in the kitchen.) I have not done well with houseplants in the past, even with the hardiest "you-can't-possibly-kill-this" plants, so I'm timid about trying them again. I also am lacking places to put them; we don't have a lot of end tables, and no plant stands or attractive planters. I'm not sure about the light issue -- I don't think I have bright, direct light anywhere in the house except in the guest room. Then there's the Hambet factor -- keeping the little gardener from doing his own repotting. So a lot to think about. But I want to start soon, perhaps by starting cuttings from my outdoor herbs. If I succeed, we can just put the herb garden in the guest room.
We are also going to plant a new flower bed in the back. At first I was thinking about planting those big, splashy Asiatic lilies (perhaps in succession with tulips) but maybe I'll try... peonies.
Check out the latest developments on the Terri Schiavo case!
There are two letters, from Bishops Paul Loverde of Arlington and Raymond J. Burke of LaCrosse, reiterating Catholic teaching on this issue:
"The inherent worth of the life of Theresa Schiavo obligates all concerned to provide her with care and support and to reject any omission of nutrition and hydration intended to cause her death." --Bishop Paul S. Loverde
The site has also posted the latest documents from the Federal court hearing the case. Judge Lazarra has ordered transcripts of Michael Schiavo's testimony from the 1992 Medical Malpractice suit, Mr. Schiavo's rehabilitation experts at the same trial, and testimony from the September 15th hearing. (Adobe Acrobat needed to view.) He has also set October 10th as the date to consider the Schindlers' case that Terri's constitutional rights are being violated, and to consider guardianship issues.
I hope Cacciaguida and the Mighty Barrister will consider blogging a little more on this legal stuff. Does this mean that Governor Bush's administration has the opportunity to intervene on Terri's behalf? (or to intervene by not defending the Florida law?) Meanwhile, we can start another novena on October 1 -- the feast of St Therese -- or OCtober 2 -- the feast of the Guardian Angels....
Erik in the comments box at the Culinary Ennui post said:
Also, I really don't recommend trying to cook lean. You will end up consuming more calories in the form of carbohydrates and sugars. Rather, vary the fats. I use butter, goose fat, pancetta, olive oil, and peanut oil. Probably the number one is olive oil, followed by pancetta/goose fat, followed by butter. Peanut oil is for special cases (Chinese food, for instance). Food satisfies more, tastes better, and is better for you when it is full of real ingredients and not modified food starch (the non-dairy whipped topping).
I think the very worst thing you can do is worry about the amount of fat, rather than the quality of fat.
Posted by Erik Keilholtz at September 25, 2003 06:12 PM
I agree. I did the "fat free" thing for years. I used this weird fat free psuedo margarine stuff, egg substitutes, cooked only with cooking spray, you get the idea. It was in my last pregnancy while I was nursing an pregnant at the same time that I started to use real butter, olive oil and whole eggs again. My family looks on to my cooking in disgust, but I am much more satisfied and I find it easier to maintain a decent weight eating like this. For centuries people ate whole foods and did not have the obesity problems we have now. What's the deal?
Oh by the way, my family will go through a one pound container of Light Margarine Spread every six days or so just using it as a spread (not cooking) and I may not even use a half a stick of butter in that period of time.
We are just starting to get into the routine for the new school year. This year we enrolled to Seton Home Study School because I was stressed and tired this summer. Each summer I get a big kick out of curriculum planning, picking out books, finding books cheap etc. I did not have the energy this summer, so I just sent a pile of money to Seton and they sent me back a big box of books and daily lesson plans. The only thing is the day is much longer, but I am finding the lessons to be very redundant, so I am shaving off a little here, a little there. Normally I do not buy books that are redundant because books are not cheap.
The hardest part of the day is my seven year old's reading lessons. Each day he reads a story from his This is Our Town reader in this terrible little boy monotone like ..."At...St....Francis...Church...Faththth-err...Michaels...met...the...pas...tor...
Faththth-errr....Carl..." I love my son, but man, this is penance. I have not stayed awake for one reading lesson yet. Not only do I fall asleep, I fall into a deep sleep, dreams and everything. My other son will come and nudge me to wake me up and I will get angry at him for waking Mommy up in the middle of the night. Then I come to my senses and Posco is still reading "...yess...Pee-terrr...Mar-tin...anDuh...MaTT...Lay, lay, Lake...are...nice...boyz...said...Faththth-errr Carl..." I love my children, and I love homeschooling. I am so grateful my son's reading is improving because I was going to start begging someone to put me out of my misery.
Never be in a hurry; do everything quietly and in a calm spirit. Do not lose your inner peace for anything whatsoever, even if your whole world seems upset.
-Saint Francis de Sales-
Thanks to The Lowly Pilgrim for this quotation.
Bobbi has a really helpful new article up at her website, Revolution of Love, on the nitty gritty of the spiritual life.
I think I'm going to print this article out and staple it to my forehead or something.
Usually I like cooking, but lately I've been in a real funk about it. I'm talking about the ordinary, what's for dinner on the weeknight kind of cooking (with two hot lunches on the weekend) That comes out to seven meals a week. It shouldn't be that difficult to come up with seven meal ideas a week, but my culinary Muse has forsaken me. I'm sick of my own cooking and bored with my recipe repertoire.
My past strategy was to have a kind of loose "schedule" -- pasta night, chicken night, meatless night, etc -- and fill it in using whatever was on sale at the grocery store. It worked for a long time -- it was a good way to stay out of ruts and stay within budget. Lately, though, the sales have gotten less and less helpful -- sorry, $1.00 off ribeyes or fresh lobster isn't going to help me that much -- and the selection at the markets continues to shrink. The cases are packed with the special of the week and precious little else. (Let's see, what kind of chicken would you like? Thighs, thighs, or.... thighs?)
I am also getting really, really irritated with the Invasion of the Brine at the meat case. I just came back from the supermarket, where they had a nice price on turkey breast. I was all set to pick up Sunday's dinner until I saw that the turkey was "self-basting." Sorry, I'm not paying good money for salt water. Same thing goes for all that pork injected with "flavor solution" and ground poultry with "up to 15% flavor solution added." Isn't there anything left for people who want to do their own cooking?
I'd love to shop at Whole Foods more often, but I'm trying to keep our grocery bill under control and I hate the creepy, "Earth First" vibe of the place. There's also the little fact that I really should be making an effort to cook more healthfully, but a lot of the "lean" recipes I come across rely on processed foods (fat-free non-dairy whipped topping?) or very expensive tidbits (yes, filet mignon is lean, but come on!)
So now it's 5:25 PM, my hungry husband will be rolling in in 20 minutes, and I have no idea what I'm going to fix. I did "breakfast for dinner" yesterday, so I don't want to try that again. Maybe I'll thaw out some pesto. No, that won't work -- I forgot the Parmesan cheese.
Classical CD: Bach's solo suites for cello, the Rostropovich recording
Pop Song: Kokomo, by the Beach Boys
Painting: Carnation, Lily, Lily Rose by Sargent
Film: Persuasion (dir. Robert Michell, starring Amanda Root)
Book: Emma, by Jane Austen.
But if we are all headed to a desert island, maybe Erik will let me borrow Don Camillo.
martha stewart living easy chicken parmiagiana (uh, have you tried here?)
Greg Popcak brother (oh no, not this again)
rerum novarum shortened version (Owners, pay a just wage. Workers, save your money and don't get envious and greedy. How's that?)
clomid catholic teaching (It's permitted. More info in our links.)
in maryland is it illegal to spank a child (not yet.)
homeschooling three year old won't sit still (perhaps because he's three?)
lady elaine scary (Peony begs to differ)
popcak NFP (why not go here?)
linsday lohan lyrics
lindsay lohan homeschooled
sahm with friend jealousy
rhubarb crisp recipes (hope we could help)
lizzie maguire the movie spoilers
lizzie maguire shoes
puerto rican food pasteles banana cornmeal
what do jamaicans eat on a daily basis
hispanic and mouthwash
bulldog swimming tee shirts designs
lyrics "little voice inside my head" boys of summer
"veggie tales" eggplant
depressed overweight middle aged housewives (ummmm....should we be scared you found us?)
renting kids inflatable entertainment in St Louis
fancy older kids clothing dressy
rubbermaid composter
seamstresses that sew modest clothes
mothers manual Francis Coomes (hope we could help.)
Billy Joel excommunication
authentic pastele recipe
calories "deep fried oreo" (if you have to ask, perhaps you can't afford them?)
catholic homeschool blog (this is the place! Check out Ellyn's and MLynn's blogs, too)
granola (glad to be of assistance)
clifford the big red dog/ritter
michigan assistance programs for single parent
A few weeks ago, the Algonquin Round Table came up in the comments box of Catholic Light. Last week, I saw the film Mrs Parker and the Vicious Circle available for loan at the public library, so I thought I'd check it out.
My thoughts on this movie (oh, excuse me, film):
Taking out the cassette: whoa! I didn't see this thing was rated R! How am I going to watch this with Hambet around? We'll just have to distract him with toys, and fast-forward through any bad parts....
Watching the previews: I haven't heard of a single one of these movies, but they all seem as arty-trite as arty-trite can be.
Watching the movie film: What is going on? What year is it supposed to be? A little context, please? Nice costumes, though.
A little further in: Oooops, fast forward here. They really could have left that out. So when are they going to get to the writing part?
A little further in: I wish I were watching this movie with Lee Ann, it would be so funny to see get her started on this thing....
Halfway through the movie: Okay, I'm done. Where's the eject button?
It must be hard to make a movie about writers; there's not much visually interesting about watching someone stare at a typewriter, even if the writer is dressed in the best the costume department has to offer. It's even harder to pull off a movie stuffed witty remarks -- one or two are funny, but a constant stream of scathing repartee is like a steady diet of Russell Stover's. After a while, the stomach starts to quiver. It's also hard to be self-consciously witty (must... write... something... witty!); the dialogue in a party scene is particularly contrived ("Look to your own flanks before you go hunting, dearie..." -- that kind of thing)
Jennifer Jason Leigh does a good job as Dorothy Parker, including impersonating a really grating accent. The movie itself looks great -- I love period pieces with great costumes and art direction, and thie movie does a swell job showing us the '20s and '30s. But, as I said, the moviemakers seemed to think that showing Dorothy Parker sitting at her typewriter would have been a little too dull, so instead they focused on Dorothy Parker's love and sex life, and there is a great deal of focus on that. The pattern: Dorothy making witty remarks at the Round Table, next scene showing how unhappy she really is, next scene showing her either pining for someone or happily jumping in bed with someone. Okay, unhappy and starved for love, got it, but what else?
Memo to Hollywood: A movie about a writer is not necessarily an "artistic" movie. Costumes and art direction are not substitutes for a script that has some direction, some story with momentum. And it really is possible to make an art film without nudity! No, it is, really! Look at everything Hitchcock achieved without a view of Harvey Keitel's rear end!
Yesterday, when I was out driving, I was passed by a big white tractor-trailer. The only decoration on the truck was on its rear doors: a name and a picture of a penguin. I thought, "oh, this truck must be one of a fleet of refrigerated trucks."
Was this a semiotic moment? Would semiotics concern itself with how I came to this conclusion -- the study of the way I, in one glance, made the metonymic association penguin + cold + truck (- brand name) = one of a fleet of refrigerated trucks? Would semiotics concern itself with the guy who chose the picture of the penguin, with my brain seeing the picture making the association, or with the cultural associations that the truck owner and I share (the associations of penguins and cold)? Or is semiotics all of the above?
What if I had missed the point and thought that the truck was full of penguins? Would semiotics examine how and why I missed the point of the picture?
RC, our benefactor and guide, brought the archives over last night so now we're all moved in! We'll be indexing the archives as we have time.
The old site is still up, with comments and archive links, for any who are interested.
(I am taking the liberty of reposting Pansy's Italian Soup recipe (and, for those who are wondering, it was not made with real Italians....) She originally posted this in a comments box over at the old blog and I wanted to be able to index this with the other recipes --Peony)
The soup I make in Italian is pronounced "ee-drake" but I have no idea how it is spelled.
I make it by boiling boneless chicken thighs all day long and straining the scum off the top. I add chopped up carrots, celery and onion. Let that simmer like all day long.
I take some farina mix it with an egg, parsley and romano cheese (grated) with my hands. I roll it up and let it dry out. When it dries up and gets hard, I grate it into the soup. Before serving I add some fresh spinach leaves and cover for a couple of minutes. I do not usually make the little meatballs too out of laziness.
You serve the soup after antipasto with grated romano on top.
I gave in to book lust again yesterday. Hambet had fallen asleep on my lap and resisted my efforts to put him to bed, so I spent a little time surfing around the 'net with a sleeping baby on my lap. I had been thinking about a book I thoroughly enjoyed as a pre-teen and thought I'd see if I could find a copy. I remembered the title, Elizabeth, Elizabeth, but couldn't remember the author.
Googling the title alone was not much help, but adding a few words from the book itself helped. I tried "Elizabeth "Elizabeth" + aunt + Scotland and finally found a good hit in a Scottish tourism site that referred to the book and its author, Eileen Dunlop.
The book is hard to describe, but it's a real page-turner. (And I liked it for more than just the obvious reason!) It's a time-travel fantasy, in which a modern-day Elizabeth finds herself spending the summer at a Scottish castle with her aunt. Her aunt is a historian who has been spending several years researching the history of the great noble family that once lived at the castle. Elizabeth had once been close to her aunt, but recently her aunt has grown distant and cold.
The summer has a dismal start. Elizabeth is bored and unhappy, until she comes across an antique mirror stuck in the back of her bureau. She finds that the mirror has the power to transport her back to the castle as it was in the 18th century. Elizabeth finds herself living that life as another Elizabeth, the daughter of the lord of the castle.
Modern-day Elizabeth finds this spooky, but fun. As the summer wears on and her aunt grows more and more difficult to live with, Modern-day Elizabeth finds herself spending more and more time in Past Elizabeth's life. She is immersed in past Elizabeth's world -- in past Elizabeth's family, her studies, her accomplishments -- and that past world becomes more compelling to her than her own modern-day world. And the beckoning of the mirror grows almost irresistible.
The pacing and momentum in this book is just incredible -- it's been almost twenty years since the last time I saw a copy, and I still remember my heart pounding as I tore through the last chapters. I'm looking forward to reading it through an adult's eyes, especially reflecting on Elizabeth's immersion in the past compared to modern-day forms of escapist fantasy (especially in media such as computer games.)
Alas, this book is out of print -- truly there is no justice under the sun. I was astonished to find used copies going between $44 to almost $100! I finally found one for a much more reasonable price, and it's on the way. I'm so looking forward to this.
This book has also been published under the title Robinsheugh. Libraries might have a copy. Mine does not, and I was not willing to wait for inter-library loan.
I do hope dear Steven doesn't mind my shamelessly copying so many of his category titles, but he comes up with such good ones!
I especially like "Commonplace Book." Steven is only the third person I've ever heard use that phrase. I first encountered it in college, in a little article in Victoria magazine. A commonplace book is basically a personal book of favorite quotations. The magazine featured books that were true works of art, decorated and illustrated by their owners. That kind of intimidated me from starting my own -- I would keep putting it off for when I had time to copy each entry in perfect Italic calligraphy, with appropriate illustrations. Meanwhile, I just kept sticking copies of poems I liked into a file folder (a folder I recently discovered I'd lost! ARRRRGH!) I finally started a new book the other day (one entry so far.)
Many people are comparing blogs to commonplace books, and I certainly see the similarities. But the humble notebook still has its advantages as well.....
Eloquent reflections from Alicia, Steven, and Steven's commenters (don't miss MLynn's comments) on taking little ones to Mass.
I wish I had something to add. Even when alone, I fall so easily into distraction and sloth at Mass, and now I am struggling with keeping my child from running berserk in the Church as well. For a while my husband and I took turns going to Mass, but we missed going as a family. We also suspected that leaving Hambet at home wasn't going to teach him a thing about behaving at Mass, and was depriving him of whatever baby graces the Lord has for His littlest ones.
It is getting better. Hambet is getting older, and that helps a lot. Having only a few rules, enforced swiftly and consistently, seems to help too:
Whisper voice!
Stay with Mommy and Daddy! (no running in the aisles)
and the newest, Sit on the seat! (no crawling under the pews)
Yesterday was a particularly bad day (three ejections.) I hate the feeling of the glares in my back: Why can't she keep that kid under control? Maybe I am just imagining that part, but I know Hambet has become widely recognized around the parish -- whever I attend Mass alone, people come up and ask me where he was!
And as I haul him out for the second or third time, I always see other little boys his age sitting placidly on the seats. Sometimes it's because they're munching their way through a bag of Cheerios, but often they're just sitting there. (I see this other places -- Hambet simply refuses to sit still and participate in organized activities, such as a story hour at the library. He'd much rather run around and check the place out.) I always wonder if I have an atypical child, or whether I'm just a bad parent....
As it turns out, we did have a little Isabel damage: the dome on the roof that covers the attic fan was blown away. The fan itself fanned its last rotation this summer, so it's definitely time to just replace the fan. I was worried about this being some huge multi-step process, but I found an electrician that can do the work -- all the work -- today. They called about half an hour ago to let me know they were on the way. So now I'm just waiting.
I tried repeatedly on Friday to blog about one of my favourite saints, San Gennaro, or St. Januarius, but kept getting booted off the Internet. Grrr.
San Gennaro is the patron saint of Naples, which is where my grandmother's family hails from. I suppose this is why most of the men in that side of the family are named Gennaro such as my great-grandfather, my father (although they gave him what they thought was a more anglocised version) and my son Posco's middle name is Gennaro.
It is also a fun time of the year for New Yorkers, because in "little It-lee" in Manhattan they throw a big feast in honour of the saint. I have not been in years and vow to go each year. I have not mae it yet, but I have to really plan it I suppose.. I should mark my calendar for next year and start bugging dh now.
I talked to my mom this morning. It sounds like Grandma's fluid balance got way off and she developed pulmonary and pericardial edema (fluid around the lungs and heart.) She is responding well to treatment and is in excellent spirits -- when my mom was getting ready to pick up some of her things from the farm, she told my mom to bring her a nice outfit to wear home!
Mom says Grandma's not out of the woods yet, but I'm feeling optimistic. I hope her doctor manages to hit that fluid balance "sweet spot" again with her medication.
My sister called this morning to let me know that our 93-year-old grandmother is in the hospital. Apparently she had chest pain and shortness of breath. Our mother is with her, so perhaps she'll be able to give us an update tonight or tomorrow.
At this point, that's all I know. Grandma still lives by herself (with plenty of people checking up on her) in the farmhouse where she's lived for over 70 years. Up to now, she has firmly refused to even consider moving. but she has grown much more frail this summer. So I'm not sure where this is going to lead. I just hope it's not to a nursing home.
Times Against Humanity brings us glad tidings indeed:
A recent study published in the Danish medical review, Dagens Medicin, reports that women who choose a glass of wine over beer or spirits are more likely to conceive babies.And the good news gets even better!
According to the research, directed by Mette Juhl of the Danish state serology institute, Statens Serum Institut, the women least likely to conceive children were those who drank no alcohol whatsoever....
Disputations reminds us that today is Talk like a Pirate Day!
The storm swung well to the west of us, so we didn't catch it as hard as some people did. Everything in the yard survived (including my tomatoes on their little bamboo frames!) We have power and water, and the water is in the taps and not in the basement.
Virginia took it on the chin, though, all over the state, and at this writing, Fairfax County -- home to many in St Blogs, including several of the Catholic Light crowd and Davey's mommy and daddy -- doesn't have clean water. Not sure which side of the county line KTC lives on, but either way she got a good taste of Isabel, too....
The Mighty Barrister has posted a prayer we all should join in for Terri Schiavo.
I am so loving stblogs.org (especially when I have to go back over to the old blog and see that it's still not loading correctly!) Stblogs.org truly is a neighborhood as well as a domain (and if that domain's a kingdom, I want to be Lady Elaine!)
Thanks to everyone who's helped us get the new place running.
I still want to figure out how to link the category at the end of each post to the archives, and I still need to bring the Blogger archives over. But otherwise I think I have our template more or less the way we want it. Any suggestions? Is the type big enough?
We do not live close to the Potomac or even Rock Creek, so I can't see the water rising. But I do see the rain getting heavier and the wind kicking up. I just looked at the latest map and it looks like Virginia's going to bear the brunt of this storm.
We have been having a complete play day here. My husband stayed home, and Hambet is enjoying having Daddy around. I put some chili in the slow cooker this morning; I'm gambling that we'll have power long enough for our dinner to finish cooking!
Ugh, my seven year old, (actually both my children) are giving me major 'tude when it comes to doing their school work. Not at the start of the day, but when something comes up that is complicated, or looks like a big work load. I am sure this behaviour is no different for many school children in the history of the world, I remember feeling the same way as a child with the same lessons. An example of one would be looking up the meanings of my spelling words in the dictionary. The difference is, when Mom is the teacher, my children feel it is OK to whine about being "overworked" and to attempt to find ways to have Mom do their work for them. I am pulling my hair out.
As the school year progresses, getting back into the routine will help, but a secret between you and me (do not tell my kids) that homeschooling can be as much hard work on Mom as it is on the kids.
In another ruling, Greer denied Terri's parents' request for immediate therapy for their daughter. They had hoped she could be taught to swallow food even if the feeding tube is removed.....
So that gives Governor Bush a month to intervene, Terri's parents a month to keep working through the legal system (the federal suit is still pending) and us a month to keep praying....
We started school a week late this year to do moving stuff. All is moving along, but I my not be around for a bit until we get back into the swing of things...
The kids, while are very happy to have a structured day back, are not thrilled with the wok load. Cannot say I blame them...
I think I have the idea behind CSS, but when I make my changes and rebuild I'm not always seeing the changes reflected on the blog. I'm having trouble with the index template -- when I was using Blogger that template used tables, but I don't get how the MT templates structure the page.
- I want to change the fonts on the banners: Lucida for the title and Palatino for the description. I've set the headline and the description using the stylesheets but nothing seems to be working.
- I want to stop the top box on the right from squashing into the calendars. I want it to be its own little discrete box.
- I want the posts to be over on their own side of the line instead of squooshing the sidebar.
- I want a box on the sidebar listing the categories.
- I want the category listed at the end of each post.
Later on I can go back and play with color schemes and so on. I wish I had more time to play, but between my mother-in-law's birthday and Hurricane Isabel, I simply don't have time to play.....
Wesley J. Smith on the latest legal maneuver. Perhaps those who want Terri dead have been outflanked. Pat Anderson, the lawyer for Terri's parents, is arguing that Michael Schiavo is only petitioning to end Terri's tube feedings -- Terri still has the right to eat by mouth, and she still has the right to rehabilitation -- rehab she still hasn't received.
Thanks so much, RC, for setting this up for us!
I attend an informal doctrine class, and today was our "first day" back after the summer. Today the class was on the sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation.
Sometimes it seems to me that Confirmation is almost a "forgotten" sacrament. For myself, I feel like I don't know enough about it. I was confirmed in the eighth grade, and our preparation consisted of a year and a half of a very, very elderly Benedictine nun beginning each class with either "What...is...a sacrament?" or "Time.... is running out!" (meaning, Confirmation is coming soon and we still haven't written our letters to the bishop!) Sister was a good and kind nun, and perhaps her intercession helped draw me back to the Church. But looking back on it, I wonder if poor Sister was perhaps a little unprepared for the challenges of coming out of retirement and teaching a group of spoiled, uncatechized suburban middle schoolers. Those two phrases are the only things I remember from Confirmation prep. I remember thinking, "I know this is important, but I don't really know what this means."
I get the impression that every diocese seems to approach Confirmation a little differently. Some kids are confirmed in junior high, others not until their late teens. Some kids prepare for a year, some kids for three. It seems like every year the kids have more and more service hours to complete. And every year you hear about a kid or two who does not want to receive the Sacrament.
I wonder if there's something amiss with the way we're approaching Confirmation in this country. (I'm speaking primarily of Confirmation of children who were baptized as infants or little children and raised in the Faith.) It seems like a lot of people approach it as "the time you make your adult committment to Christ." Well, what does that mean? To me, that kind of approach seems to on some level belittle the actions of Baptism, and seems to be heavily influenced by the idea of the bar mitzvah or the way some Protestant churches approach Baptism. Is that why some kids resist Confirmation -- because they are doubting, and they don't want to commit themselves? (And yet how many of those same kids are receiving Holy Communion on Sundays?) Would they desire the sacrament if there was more emphasis on the very real graces of the sacrament, that it was the beginning of a lifelong journey instead of Signing on the Dotted Line for Life?
Then of course there's some people's attitude of "Confirmation means the end of CCD." Perhaps this is why some dioceses choose to delay Confirmation until later in the high school years -- to keep the kids in class longer. But doesn't that just send a hidden message -- "Yes, religious ed is a drag, so we're going to force you to go?" Meanwhile, the kids are deprived of the gifts of the sacrament all through their teen years, at a time when they could really, really use the Gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Sometimes it seems like there's a punch card mentality in the way we approach the Christian life in this country: You're born, you get your little Catholic card and you get the Baptism punch. You roll along the conveyor belt and pretty soon you join the herd of kids your age. Penance and First Holy Communion -- punch punch. Confirmation -- punch. Then the tracks diverge -- a few get the Holy Orders punch; most of the other folks get the Matrimony punch. Finally the conveyor belts converge again and you get your Anointing punch before you die. (This punch card gets clipped to your time card that you punch at Mass, by the way -- the "how late can I be for it to still count" time card. So you show up at Mass and receive Communion, and then you slide out early -- you've punched your Mass card for the week.) Hatched, matched, and dispatched.
I apologize for the Eeyore tone, but sometimes parish life seems organized on the model of a feedlot or a school cafeteria instead of a Heavenly Banquet. Don't kneel when you receive Communion, or take too long to bow -- it'll clog up the line! Time for Confirmation? Here's your checklist: go to 80% of your classes, do 15 hours of service, go to the retreat, write the letter to the Bishop, and choose a saint's name. (Never mind that many of these kids have never even seen a book of the Lives of the Saints, have no idea what's going on at Holy Communion, and have not been to Confession since their first one...)
And I do know these requirements are necessary, especially in an age when we have parishes serving more than 30,000 souls! This whole post probably says more about my own personal hang-ups, lousy catechesis and poor understanding of the Sacrament of Confirmation than anything else. But it's also coming out of my own experience. I've known some of those kids who have come close to refusing Confirmation because they weren't sure they wanted to commit themselves as being Catholic. I've known kids -- and adults -- who have dropped out of the Church because they hated the impersonal feedlot mentality -- "nobody believes this stuff anyway." Since they had never been taught about the Reality of the Mystical Body of Christ, they saw no reason to stay. How many Protestants have been scandalized by that same punch-card, feedlot atmosphere?
I know myself I have to constantly struggle against the idea that God is a big, indifferent Boss in the sky, kind of the principal of a very large high school, interested in His people's welfare in a general way, but uninvolved in their day-to-day lives unless they do something really out of the ordinary to bring themselves to His attention. The principal knows his delinquents and his most brilliant honor students; God knows the notorious sinners and the most virtuous saints, but the rest are just faces in the crowd. The high school student checks off the required classes, makes the required GPA, and heads across the stage when it's all over to shake the principal's hand for the first and last time (as the vice-principal misprounounces the graduate's name at the microphone.)
Surely I'm not the only one who's felt this way. In this impersonal world, how many more would-be confirmandi are parroting the line about we are God's gathered community, the sheep of his flock, etc, but in their heart of hearts percieve God as no more interested in them as individuals than their school principals?
What if Confirmation prep included more practical instruction on how to develop in the devotional and spiritual life? How about instruction in meditation or mental prayer, with follow up? Perhaps set up a book table after class, so the kids could have the opportunity to pick up some good spiritual reading? Maybe some programs out there already do this; all I know is I went through 12 years of CCD, but never heard of mental prayer until I was 30! The only instruction I got in prayer was a rosary and a couple of leaflets.
I'm not sure that shoving the kids (or the grown-ups) into small groups and commanding them to "share their faith journeys" is the answer, either. I've been shoved into those groups in both high school and college, and I hated them. Forced intimacy is not intimacy at all.
There is such a thirst out there for sound doctrine and good instruction. There is so much need. It's not the thirst of a herd, though, it's the thirst of one soul at a time.
Looks like Isabel could be arriving in the Washington area on Thursday evening -- just in time for rush hour, too! Another Isabel link.
So it looks like I'll be shopping today for batteries, bottled water, and canned goods. I have never been directly in the path of a hurricane, so I'm not sure what else to do.
Looks like our Floridians are going to get a pass on Isabel (at least on a direct hit.) Are there any St Bloggers in the Carolinas?
Why can't I select and copy text from blogs using MT? It makes quoting these blogs inconvenient and printing particularly good posts impossible.
Poor Erik and Steven! Erik has been posting on semiotics (parts i, ii, iii, music) and I have been hanging out in the comments boxes, sniveling "I don't get it! I don't understaaaaaaaaaaand!" Erik and Steven have been patiently explaining semiotics to me, but to no avail. Every time I think I have a grip on the concept, it slips away from me.
Part of my problem is that I'm having trouble wrapping my brain around the lingo. I guess I am a very concrete thinker; I don't like using words unless I have a really tight grip on what they mean. (Pansy says, kyeah! Just ask her about my dogged attempts to learn the correct usage of certain slang words.) This is an obstacle when I go up against a totally new topic with a very specific (and very abstract) vocabulary -- even the clearest authors (like Erik and Steven) must sometimes use those new words to express themselves precisely.
(I still suspect there are more than a few of people out there throwing the word "semiotics" around without really knowing what it means, just aping their professors and stringing it together with a bunch of other buzzwords.)
But maybe I really do, at some level, understand what the semiotic approach is, and I'm just trying too hard. I've started dipping into this on-line book, Semiotics for Beginners; parts of it are beginning to make sense, particularly when they illustrate a semiotic approach by examining advertisements. This section has a good (and funny) example at the end of the page, involving cigarette ads. This section has another example (the tomato sauce ad.)
In college, I was once assigned to select a print ad and analyze the ad's use of metaphor and metonymy to make its pitch. I chose a pantyhose ad, in which the speaker told a little story about going to the supermarket looking for out-of-season peaches and instead coming back with a pair of the pantyhose. The peaches were a metaphor for the stockings: luxurious, but not too extravagant (the metaphor wouldn't have worked with diamonds, for example) and pleasing to the touch (the metaphor wouldn't have worked with kiwi fruit or pineapples, either.) So was I taking a semiotic approach to this ad without even realizing it? I think ads are interesting to analyze -- they're not too difficult (it's not like wading into Finnegan's Wake, for instance) and I think it's easy to avoid reading too much into them. You know that everything in that ad is there for a reason -- the admen spend big bucks getting those things just so, and they're not going to throw in any red herrings or Babylonian dog references to distract you from the product (unless they throw them in to appeal to your sense of vanity at being in on the joke. Which itself is probably some kind of semiotic topic involving the use of irony and metalanguage, or some such thing.)
Maybe I would understand more if I saw more good examples of the semiotic approach in action -- for example, a sound semiotic analysis of a movie (preferably an easy one, and one that I've actually seen.)
Erik and Steven discuss the dangers of getting carried away with semiotics; in their police report, Erik's semioticians discuss keeping in mind both the author's intent and the reader's intent. That reassures me a great deal. I suppose I am a very conservative reader. I think critics should keep close to the text. I detest far-fetched interpretations -- the ones that have more to do with the prejudices and outlook of the critic than of the author -- and the faintest whiff of deconstructionism or Marxist/ feminist cant leads me to throw down the book and head for the door. For example, in the example about the cigarette ad, I think Robyn starts getting a bit carried away when she starts speculating about masochistic women; my take would be that the ad was designed to appeal to men. Similarly, in Erik's example, are the good semioticians reading too much into the Italian motorist's use of a certain gesture? The self-accusatory root of this gesture is very interesting, but did that meaning persist through history? Is that what the Italian meant on even a subconscious level when he made the gesture? In English, the words "conceit" and "nice" don't mean the same thing that they did in the 17th century, and I think it would be unwise to try to read those old meanings into contemporary uses of those words. When is semiotics useful and when is it just showing off?
I am also having trouble comprehending where the border is between semiotics and plain old literary criticism. Let's say we're looking at Brideshead Revisited. My approach to carefully reading this book would be to look first at the story Waugh presents, look at the actions of the characters and at the results of their actions. I would then look more closely at the book for more clues. I would look at things like the names of the characters and the places in the books -- is there a reason that Ryder sounds so c