Pansy and Peony

One of those many messages I can always stand to hear (especially when it is put into LOTR-speak) was delivered here by Athos:

...At an unparalleled degree Christians in the West feel pummeled by attack after attack: our faith is scoffed at by pretentious scholars and celebrities (those famous for being well-known); our morals flaunted by individualists run amok and negative imitators who are caught in a state of scandal, both of whom are lauded by journalists; and a separatist religion of the Scimitar whose rivalry toward Judaism and Catholicism knows no boundary...

...But the Catholic Church - of whom we would ALL be a part 1,500 years ago - was begun by Our Lord, is sustained by Our Lord, and is promised to continue by Our Lord ... until He comes again (Mtt 16,18 & 28,20) come hell or high waters...

...Stand tall and join the merry revels and rejoicing of the glad Company who know by His Real Presence among us that we are a part of the Body of Christ. There is no darkness that can keep our heart and voice from singing. We are the King's men (and women), and we pledge our fealty to Him....

Read the whole thing.

(HT:The Dawn Patrol)

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A warm welcome to Baby Nikola!!

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The Summa Mamas are talking about the "alpha mom" and "beta mom" thing.

I know there's a lot of tongue-in-cheek going on, but I can only take about forty seconds of this "alpha mom" and "beta mom" thing before I just want to weep. Who pronounces the "alpha moms" to be "alpha moms"? And why are some self-described "beta moms" allowing the (perceived) skills of others to make them feel inadequate? And what standards are they measuring themselves against?

If I had more time maybe I'd be able to say something eloquent about this being another manifestation of our messed-up culture -- first feminism heaped scorn on the traditional domestic arts, so a lot of women didn't learn them, but then people started to miss them, so the commercial culture started selling them back to us. And how better to sell them back to us than by using advertising and magazines to foster a sense of inadequacy?

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TSO has this cool post up in which he "plays the curmudgeon so [I] don't have to." He watched a bit of a recent Republican debate (a task I am more than happy to delegate) and came away with some quotes to make curmudgeonly remarks about (note that he only had to catch "a bit" of the debate to come away with enough material for a good-sized post.)

A sample of the curmudgeonly stuff:

[Governor Huckabee] said he feels the answer to our health care problems is (drumroll) - greater emphasis on wellness rather than sickness.

[which] completely ignores the root causes of the health care crisis by ignoring lack of insureds, the incredible expansion of what health care now entails, and the fact that it is a human-labor intensive industry. The wellness philosophy is great but it merely postpones the inevitable. Wellness programs don't elminate sickness and death but merely delay them. Second, it sounds suspiciously like a call for government to go into micro-managing our exercise routines or lack thereof as well as every thing we eat (fast food - no way!).

So now that TSO's got that curmudgeon stuff out of the way, all I have to do is highlight a section I particularly agree with

the incredible expansion of what health care now entails, and the fact that it is a human-labor intensive industry

and state my agreement:

I think TSO is correct in his diagnosis of the causes of the health care crisis. There's simply more health care to be had than there was in the past, and that health care still needs to be delivered by human beings, who have to be paid.

Then I add my own commentary:

And the costs of paying those human beings are proportionately higher. Once, most bedside care was given by nuns (who weren't paid much) and nursing students (who weren't paid at all.) And there was no need to pay MRI technologists and other allied-health specialists because there were no MRIs, interventional radiology suites, and so on.

But now very few nuns are giving direct nursing care (the few left in health care are in administration) Nursing students are in short supply, and will no longer work for free. Patient care is hard work -- it's physically hard work and requires 24-hour staffing. And thanks to Griswold and Roe, the labor pool is smaller. So wages have be high enough to make it worth it for qualified candidates to pass up other career paths, get the education, enter the health professions, and show up for work evenings, nights, weekends, and holidays.

Throw in a pop-culture reference:

Even advanced societies such as the late Republic in Star Wars would pay real people -- even highly educated Jedis -- to fly spacecraft, but could only afford to have androids at the bedside to give medical and nursing care.

And I'm done! All the drudgery of watching the debate and coming up with curmudgeon stuff has been taken care of for me. (Even though I still don't understand what a "poncer" is.) Thanks, TSO!

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I'll leave the robots to Pansy and just blog all-Ratatouille all the time. I'd love to write a long, leisurely review but Happy Catholic Julie wrote a good one, so I'll just link to it and say, "what she said":

When "Fin" came up on the screen, I suppressed an impulse to applaud. No need. The audience around me, without my reservations, burst into applause anyway.

There was applause when I saw it, too.

Two themes I want to tie together at some point. Julie quotes Juila Child:

Noncooks think it's silly to invest two hours' work in two minutes' enjoyment; but if cooking is evanescent, so is the ballet.

I want to pull out Pieper's Leisure: The Basis of Culture

and consider that idea in the light of Pieper's comments on sacrifice.

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Our Rule explains that as monks we need to earn our keep by the work of our hands. We were praying about what sort of product most people utilize on a daily basis, and it came to us that everyone needs coffee to start the day. On our side of things, roasting coffee can be very contemplative. It only takes one monk to run the roaster and bag the coffee, so it is very complimentary to our life.

They are going to be offering a wide variety of blends and flavors, including Columbian, Chocolate Raspberry, Chocolate Mint (I am so there) and, of course, Carmel. They'll also be offering a double-handled mug, so you can drink your joe like a Carmelite. (Kind of like wearing the scapular but without the graces.)

Thanks to the Curt Jester for the heads-up.

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Lots of new posts from dylan.

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Regina Doman has an entry up about cake stands. I love cakes. I love baking them, I love eating them, and I love displaying them on the cake stand I inherited from my grandmother. And just reading that short entry about cake stands makes me want to drop what I'm doing and make a white cake with lemon filling and coconut seven-minute frosting. And when it was done, I would put it on my cake stand, take a picture, brew some coffee, get out the china, and yummmm.

Regina also mentions that Victoria magazine is coming back this fall. Sweet articles about gracious living, recipes, and lots and lots and lots of pretty pictures. It helped me keep my sanity while I was in school, and I still have my clip file of some of my favorite articles (including the one that introduced me to commonplace books) and pictures. It ceased publication in 2003 and I've missed it, so I'm really happy to see that it's coming back again.

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An Ode to Coffee

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Bob the Trousered Ape can help you out:

How do you solve a problem like Godzilla?

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Print, read, annotate, and heed:

Pray without Ceasing: A Daily Plan of Attackhttp://www.lumengentleman.com

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Katharine Jefferts Schori Ecumenical Mug

-- referring to this fine interview with the Episcopal Presiding Bishop, Her Sensitiveness Katharine Jefferts Schori , which I saw at Amy Welborn's:

How many members of the Episcopal Church are there in this country?

About 2.2 million. It used to be larger percentagewise, but Episcopalians tend to be better-educated and tend to reproduce at lower rates than some other denominations. Roman Catholics and Mormons both have theological reasons for producing lots of children.

Episcopalians aren’t interested in replenishing their ranks by having children?

No. It’s probably the opposite. We encourage people to pay attention to the stewardship of the earth and not use more than their portion.

Awesome. And since I'm one of those under-educated selfish Catholic child-producers, make that the LARGE mug.

And then let's get some snacks and sit back and see what Pansy does with this.

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This is after my midwife told me I need more rest. Someone is playing a nasty trick on me! I am going to turn on the TV and see commercials for Ambien. Grrrr. I've been up since midnight and I have to get up in two hours. Yeah, yeah, yeah..."offer it up".

Well, I am not alone in my exhaustion. Dinka's tired too.

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I would comment in an email to Rachel, but I really something to blog about. This is something that comes up a lot in Catholic circles, and I actually find it interesting why it becomes so heated. Very often I find it is used as one of those "good Catholic" litmus tests, i.e. "You allow your kids to watch Disney? We never!"

I actually do not believe that the few people who stop buying mega products like General Mills cereal, or stop buying Disney tapes do much economic harm to a company. I do feel, however, if you know a certain company strongly backs a view you find contrary to your beliefs, you certainly don't have to give your hard-earned money to that company. That's your prerogative.

I think it gets sticky when people start expecting others to start rejecting Cheerios or Stoneyfield yogurt with them. It is hard to find the exact companies that give to Planned Parenthood for example, and start abandoning them all. Not impossible. Just to me, it takes much energy that I really need for other things.

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Entry #1 was an excerpt of a podcast homily:

That we must be ready to remove from us the soul-killing voices of dissention, rebellion, bitterness, and contention does not mean that we must be ready to ignore or even coddle the Spirits of Deceit and Disobedience. Nothing about growing up to be Christs for others requires us to tolerate false teaching, listen to phony myths, or watch anti-Catholic bigots (both in and outside the Church) dismantle the Body given to us by Christ. Charity without Truth is not love; it’s merely lazy toleration. But Truth without Charity is mere accuracy, just fact—cold, hollow.

The last line truly struck a note with me as I vacillate between one extreme to the other, but rarely meet in the middle.

Entry #2 is an excerpt of Bishop Doran's (The Bishop of Rockford, Illinois) letter on abortion:

I do not think that we should spend a great deal of time in lamentation over the children whose lives have been snuffed out by the barbaric practice of therapeutic abortion. They passed from their lives quickly in this world and have gone into the hands of the Lord of Life and Mercy for all eternity. We must make it clear too, that many who have sought to have practiced on themselves therapeutic abortion are in many instances driven to it by persons heedless of their welfare, or by well- meaning but inept parents or guardians who regard abortion as a solution and not as what it is — an immense problem. There are some, I think few, largely given over to immoral lives who regard abortion as a good, but their number is not great.

Again, that part really touched a nerve. First, I think this falls under the "Truth with Charity" category Fr. Powell refers to in his homily above (it is really good in it's entirety, by the way). Secondly, I can honestly say that about 99% of the people I knew who have had abortions were girls who have been coerced, or very scared and easily coerced. They never seemed to have the ability to take a deep breath and truly consider what to do, but just react. There was always people taking advantage of that and thinking for them.When I say "I know", I don't mean stories on Imnotsorry.net, I meant friends that I used to hang around with, and watched these dramas unfold. So granted, my own anecdotal evidence may not be the best example, but it is what I have seen, and it has left me very sad for the women involved as well as their babies.

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HT: Ms. Eden of course.

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Curt Jester has a bit on Feministe's reaction to Bishops Yanta's letter on modesty.

As always, I ask the question, why does she give a s*&t what we believe? It is not her culture or her belief. I always find it funny how in the time of "celebrating diversity", the very notion of another group believing that a woman should command respect from men rather than simply be leered at as a sex object is so offensive to them. But hey, when you deal with people who are obsessed with "me and my body", it is hard for them to grasp the notion that nobody is talking to them. This is a letter for Catholics, it is not about them and their therapy.

She also has an entry where she takes task to Wholesome Wear swimsuits. Three years ago, I made one for RoseyPosey that summer. Peony and Greg Popcak in a funny rendition of an old Wendy's commercial thought it was a bit much (the comments sadly did not import from blogger, nor did the picture of RoseyPosey in her swimsuit). At that time, I was a bit more on the modesty-obsession train. I have calmed down a bit as I found personally, it became an obsession in and of itself that hindered, not helped my faith. Stepping out from the outside and seeing the people who are really big into this issue, it boggles my mind how people fail to see good qualities in a person simply because they are wearing jeans.
Likewise, I cannot stand hearing the polar opposite: "I wear nice, comfortable shorts and baggy tee shirts and that is modestly appropriate for everyone!"No it's not. Some people do not feel comfortable like that (amd some need a dose of What Not To Wear). The Catholic Church has yet to put out any specific guidelines about what to wear, they just ask for good judgement and to purposely not to dress a manner that is titillating. Simply put, women are allowed to have their own flava (which is what baffles me about Feministe-I would think it would be a concept a feminist would grasp most). I really liked dressing modestly. There is something very freeing and comfortable about it. I also like fashion though, so I just try to blend the two when possible. Sometimes one side wins out more over the other.

Realistically though, fashion these days is ridiculous. It does not cover enough. Don't take my word for it, look around. The majority of women/tweens/teens who are dressed in what the current trends are do not look flattering, but uncomfortable. How many times do you see girls adjusting their low-cut pants and high top shirts when they move? And what about the term "muffin tops". Having love handles sticking out over your jeans is so common there is cute terminology for it? Yeesh. How many bra straps do we see sticking out of tops because the fashions do not lend themselves to pratical undergarments that women have at home in their drawer? Practicality and comfort have been lost to imagined "sexiness". Sexy does not look sexy when it looks like you are trying way too hard.

And swimsuits, I'm sorry, but even in my heathen days, I never understood the concept that all of a sudden, it was acceptable to be in the equivalent of your underwear because you are near water. If you go to the Jersey Shore, there are a lot of people walking around that makes you wish they desperately had a Wholesome Wear suit. In stead of seeing a lovely face or even what would be a lovely figure with a bit more clothes on, you are assaulted with the information that people need to utilise the modern marvel of bikini waxing much more often than they do.

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Dawn Eden posts a somewhat confusing story about a teenager who becomes pregnant in high school, and cannot play basketball, but wants to return to basketball, and at first the school won't let her, but then they do...the story is a bit long.
I commented. My comments, along with a few others were picked up by Jill of Feministe as heartless condemnation against teen mothers or people who have sex something like that.

I commented because I had a lot of experience with knowing pregnant teens as a teen and young adult. My high school had one policy to not stigmatize, my husband's high school had a different policy. Frankly I am not sure what is better, and a study on the issue would be interesting. However, I feel kind of strongly that getting pregnant is a choice, and not a great choice as a teen. I have known girls who have had abortions, many who had their children. Of the ones who had their children, I have known two groups ones whose parents let them struggle a bit with the consequences, and ones whose parents pretty much became a parent to their grandchildren to allow their children to continue on the same path. Many are still in the same relationship ruts many years later. (By the way, I realize I am out of the realm of the story of the girl and basketball and her scholarship. Each scenario is different. These are some thoughts on the issue in general.)

I started to blog about an example someone in our family, but decided against it. I was not sure how to do so without sounding incredibly frustrated and well, "judgemental".

More and more, the American opinion about sex is becoming that sex is simply fun like playing Monopoly. Those of us who equate sex with things like reproduction, love and bonding,respect for ourselves or others, or sexually transmitted diseases are out of it, judgemental, cold, or a number of other things that means out-of-touch with reality. I find this so baffling because regardless of your morals, nature is still nature. If you are holding a ball and let go, it will fall to the floor. If you have sex, you have a chance of getting pregnant, that is not old fashioned stigma. If you have a child, that child will change things in your life. That child will need care, food, clothing, love and nurturing. That is what is, not outdated opinion. That is just why people have parents. It seems like there is a notion that if you keep yelling enough times that these facts are not true, and you insult the people enough who believe in these facts, you can alter reality. I suppose it works a bit. It seemed to me there was a time when mothers would rather die than see harm come to her child, now 1,300,000 mothers a year pay to have their children killed. Still trying to change terms of nature is an injustice.

It is not a favor to teenage girls to keep saying "sex is ok as long as you have a condom" over and over again (although it might be to some teenage boys who want sex without commitment). It is not about hating girls, being unrealistic, or having some desire to point fingers and throw stones. It is about working for a fulfilling, happy life,loving relationships, and giving your offspring as stable environments as possible. Being used by a boy is not fun, and I repeatedly get frustrated for all the sex ed that is out there, no one talks about the emotional side, and the reason for the emotional side is to keep married couples together and bonded. Having children too young regardless if you decide to keep the child, abort, or put that child up for adoption is hard. And STDs can make people very sick, with perhaps permanent side effects and even kill.

Since we have dissassociated sex with reproduction, it is then that girls who turn up pregnant are kind of like "I didn't see that coming", not girls who are used to seeing traditional marriage=families, marriage=families over and over again. (Of course again, the myth is that traditional family roles means that we never teach our children anything about sex and tell them babies come from storks. Whatever.)Why has this become such a common place taboo? Morals aside, I am baffled by the logic (or lack thereof) of it. I am so tired of seeing girls in dreadful, depressing dramas with their "baby daddies". I am tired of seeing children without fathers. I am so sad that this has become the norm, and this is just what people do. I know I am preaching to the choir, but I am so tired and frustrated. I know so many people I would like to see better for.

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Dawn Eden recently posted an excerpt from her new book The Thrill of the Chaste. She also linked to some of the responses to her book. Many of the comments range from outrage to outrageous. (I actually can only link to Dawn's site, and anyone can feel free to follow the links. This is PG blog).

I am both baffled and even scared. I am baffled because Amazon sells like over ten thousand books or something. I am sure that nine thousand books of those books are books that hold no interest for me or even of subject matter I completely agree with. You probably will not see me buying a book on a person's first hand account of how Kabbalah gave them peace and happiness, nor will you see me dishing it here. I could care less. But let's say I did decide to blog about it-you will not see 700 hundred comments (yeah right, like I get that much traffic to begin with so maybe I should say "if Mark Shea reviewed it...") with nasty comments about the writer's name and very personal practices. You will just see like 20 comments like "yawn, that's silly" or "that's why I'm Catholic".

I am scared a bit, because I get glimpses here and there of how crazy the world is. But for the most part, I try to surround myself with like-minded people and keep myself sheltered. It's protectttive because who wants their choices dished all the time? Family does enough of that. I often forget that people simply don't think the way I do. I mean I know they don't, but I always thought deep down inside they did, but are often blindsided by things like adolescence or other American delbilitating illnesses. So to me, if I were not Catholic, when a woman writes a book about saving yourself for a man to commit himself to you seems to me a book about a person making an extraordinary effort for something they truly want, not something to be met with obscenities.

But you know,I think what I find disturbing is just that. I was raised that you simply don't disagree with obscenities or below the belt remarks. If you disgree, you do so with a point: "Oh but I really do think avocados taste good, and would love some with dinner,"
not: "You jerk, you don't like avocados because you're just stupid because you have no taste buds! By the way, your name sounds silly on top of that!"

How, oh how am I going to raise children in this culture? I ask that of myself so much, maybe I should rename my blog that.

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How did I miss that the Smock is moving? I thought our family was moving quickly, but she and the Smockhub put an offer on a house just earlier this month and are closing this week!

So now I simply cannot complain about anything. Prayers to St Joseph for them!

So who else in St Blog's is moving this summer?

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Well, we have found a nice buyer for the Prussian Green Money Pit. Today my pal Iris came over and helped me dig up all my rhubarb. She's going to try to keep it alive in pots for me until after we move.

I think we've found a place to move, though I'm going to cry myself to sleep every night thinking about the mortgage (metro DC is a cruel, cruel place). Quaere: isn't it supposed to be a "buyer's market"? Then why is our seller acting like such a nut? He called our agent 36 hours after signing the contract, telling her he'd had another offer for $10K more than we'd paid. (Agent: "So? Dude, you signed a contract. If you don't go to settlement, we could sue you.") (Well, she didn't really say "dude" but I wish she had. It would have been funny.) Please, Lord, please help us just get to settlement without having to make a side trip to court. A nice concession from our deranged seller would help too.

Meanwhile, some good news, some good news indeed: new posts from dylan.

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Dinka, you did it!

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Why is it so hard to admit you are having a hard time raising kids 24/7? Because it means you probably don't love your children.

Recently, my grandmother told me how she said to my father "even your daughter is smart, I don't why she didn't finish college, but she is actually kind of smart, believe it or not..." I am not sure the purpose of her remarks.

If I went to these family members who made these remarks while I was in let's say medical school instead of being a SAHM, and mentioned "Oh yes, school is good, it is difficult, but going well..." which I could see saying about my life as a SAHM, I would get tons of sympathy, and praise for doing the right thing.
Not so with being SAHM. Why on earth would I mention I had a rough day when all I get is laundry list of how having 5 kids is about the dumbest thing I could do?

I am digressing to my usual whining about my family's foolishness. But I don't think I am alone in this sort of pressure form family and peers. All of my energy is exhausted on justifying my choices, and none is left for simple admissions of "I had a bad day," without feeling like an utter failure.

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Before I went to seminary, I taught in a public school. Thank God, not as bad as this one in New York. But what I learned there was that the biggest problem in sending your kids to a public school wasn't the teachers or administrators, but the other kids.

And their parents.

I have to concur. 18 years ago (ahem) when I was this age, I remember my parents being baffled as top why I did not adopt their morals. There were many reasons (besides that their morals were "extreme" to everyone else I was around)but frankly, I simply wasn't around my parents

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Abortion ends.

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Erik talks espresso!

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So saith Tom of Disputations:

Traditionally on this day, Catholic bloggers do something poorly that is worth doing.

I think I'll say a Rosary. I would also say "do some sewing," since that is something I do very poorly indeed, but I have the flu today, so I think I'll do needlepoint and housework.

And here's an excerpt from "Lepanto":

White founts falling in the Courts of the sun,

And the Soldan of Byzantium is smiling as they run;

There is laughter like the fountains in that face of all men feared,

It stirs the forest darkness, the darkness of his beard;

It curls the blood-red crescent, the crescent of his lips;

For the inmost sea of all the earth is shaken with his ships.

They have dared the white republics up the capes of Italy,

They have dashed the Adriatic round the Lion of the Sea,

And the Pope has cast his arms abroad for agony and loss,

And called the kings of Christendom for swords about the Cross.

The cold queen of England is looking in the glass;

The shadow of the Valois is yawning at the Mass;

From evening isles fantastical rings faint the Spanish gun,

And the Lord upon the Golden Horn is laughing in the sun.

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I was at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception this weeked because my two oldest were part of a children's choir there.
Whenever I go there, I think of you because there is this lovely statue of St. Veronica, and I finally remembered to take a picture and share it.

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Good article from The Curt Jester via Flambeaux at Fiat Lux!

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This is the first chance I had to get to these. This is a fun bunch of questions.
1. So living in the great white north sounds brrrrrr, too cold, to us Southerners. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live, and why?
I would go back to the Fiji, or Jamaica. I am an island girl at heart. We condidered relocating to Puerto Rico this past summer as well. But if I move to the islands, I would miss the beauty of upstate NY and New England terribly. I feel very blessed because even though the cold is a struggle, we are living how I would like to live for now.

2. Are you really sleepy all the time? And just how DID you meet that Peony girl, anyway?
Yes, i am really sleepy all the time. I come from a long line of what my brother Alex would call "Sleepy Jamaican Women" because anemia and narcolepsy run int the family. Then I manage to have children who hate to sleep.

I met Peony on the Mothering With Grace 2 1/2 years ago. I remember because she referred to Hambet as "the Baby" all the time, and he was 18 months. There was a thread where someone requested we all give our AIM handles and like a days later she IMed out the blue. Then we made a point to IM the same time every day and found we some funny things in common. I remember thinking she was the coolest Catholic I met. She was smart, she liked Buffy and we talked about what to make for dinner everyday.

3. What was the last movie you watched, and would you recommend it to us? (Note: this needs to be a grown-up movie. Bambi doesn't count.)Oh, I never get to see grown-up movies. I saw the Pacifier and Are We There Yet and not only were they not grown up movies, they were penance. I watched Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure last night, but that is adolescent. Oh, I know, I think perhaps The Village. It is not my fav M.Night Shayalaman, but it has some great lines in it.
4. Go ahead and confess. Tell us one of your guilty pleasures. Buffalo Wings!!!!Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. Oh, and um, season 1 of Wonder Woman.

5. You knew it was coming: What's your all-time favorite fiction book? At least for today.I have wayyy too many, I cannot narrow it down. I love science fiction and gothic horror. I also love mysteries, particulalry Sue Grafton. Reading is one of my favorite hobbies.

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I hope the link is fixed now.

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Lege: Coucoumellisms

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The Caelum et Terra Blog

Thanks to Dawn Eden for the heads up.

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Please forgive my lateness on this, but I had to highlight Mr.Cella's blog on GK Chesterton on birth control.It was too good.
Thank you Jeff "Ain't No Season's Greetings Here" Culbreath for the heads up.

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I read someplace (well, to be specific, the Sunday Post; marketing questions) that those little rubber bracelets (made popular by Lance Armstrong) have become a little fashion craze among the tweens.

Well, Dawn Eden has good news for the pro-life tween in your life: blue "pro-life" bracelets.

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here: advice to husbands and wives.

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for Karen Marie Knapp, who had surgery today.

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is here.
There are details about the funeral tomorrow, and a place to leave condolences for his family.

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... and may perpetual light shine on him. Amen.

He compiled the first directory, and now he is St Blog's first intercessor: Gerard Serafin, of Praise of Glory, died early this morning.

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If it help somebody find Jesus, then great. I'm afraid it sounds pretty cringeworthy to me. One of the sure signs that a cultural trend is dead is when some Evangelical creates a Christian version of it.

"Jesus Walks" is not s syrupy attempt at evangelising like much Christian Contemporary Rock. It is what it is, a song about what's on a brotha's mind, not to mention has a really good beat. It's a good song at that and a relief from things like Juvenile's Slow Motion.

P.S. I'm still a fan.

To the hustlas, killers, murderers, drug dealers even the strippers To the victims of Welfare for we living in hell here hell yeah Now hear ye hear ye want to see Thee more clearly I know he hear me when my feet get weary Cuz we're the almost nearly extinct We rappers are role models we rap we don't think I ain't here to argue about his facial features Or here to convert atheists into believers I'm just trying to say the way school need teachers The way Kathie Lee needed Regis that's the way yall need Jesus So here go my single dog radio needs this They say you can rap about anything except for Jesus That means guns, sex, lies, video tapes But if I talk about God my record won't get played Huh? Well let this take away from my spins Which will probably take away from my ends Then I hope this take away from my sins And bring the day that I'm dreaming about Next time I'm in the club everybody screaming out

(Jesus Walks)
God show me the way because the devil trying to break me down
(Jesus Walks)
The only thing that I pray is that me feet don't fail me now

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So like I said, I like the image at Jordan's post. (she found it at a Creighton University website.) In the image, Joan is little, defenseless; her expression is frightened, but she does not shrink or cower. Her cheeks are red from the heat of the bonfire. And St Michael towers behind her, protecting her. He touches her lightly on the arms as he comforts her in the flames. His face, his posture, convey calmness and strength. In general, I like images with big strong angels. I don't care for images with girly angels.

So I like this image, but at the same time it has that distinctive "Bridge Building Images" look to it. Bridge Building has some nice images, including images of Saints and Blesseds that I wouldn't have expected them to carry, such as Blessed Jacinta and Francisco, San Pio di Petrelcina, and Ven. Solanus Casey.

But they also have pages and pages of images that just go off the top of the Catholic Light Nut Scale. Bridge Building loves to depict people whose causes have yet to be opened (Fr Mychal Judge) or whose causes are unlikely to be opened anytime soon. They really, really love doing up images in some kind of bobo-romantic Native American style (complete with a disclaimer.) And, of course, who could forget their nut-rageous Lord of the Dance (complete with their reference to the 1963 ditty "Lord of the Dance" as a "medieval English Carol")? Not even Fr. Sibley knew where to start on that one.

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JMH at sotto sotto (which sports a very pretty template) blogs on Terri's predicament and how "gobsmacked" she (J) is at the utter lack (wilful?) of common sense shown by the courts and much of the media covering the case.

Jordan also has a post on Terri today, sharing her reflections on an image of St Michael the Archangel comforting St Joan of Arc:

The saint in the flames is Joan of Arc. I find it especially engaging when comparing it to Terri Schavo's situation. Terri's hands, as well as her loving parent's hands have been effectively chained by the courts. She is helpless. According to the "exit protocol" she will be kept warmer than she needs to (if they remove her feeding and hydration tubes again -- please God no!) in order to speed up dehydration. So she is literally in flames. Yet behind her stands St. Michael; holding her up against the evil and comforting her with God's own comfort.

Today is the feast of the Holy Archangels: Ss. Gabriel, Raphael, and Michael.

St Gabriel brought the news of the Word made Flesh. St Gabriel, please pray that our society be granted a renewed respect for the sanctity of human life and human sexuality.

St Raphael, please pray for Terri's healing -- and for the repentance and healing of those who are trying to kill her.

St Michael, please protect Terri and those who love her from the evil that seeks to destroy her. Protect us in battle!

Posted by Peony at 4:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

...this would definitely be included:

Ever since Tim Russert said "Ohio, Ohio, Ohio" on his little show Ohioans have taken their role in the '04 election with great seriousness.

This has most obviously shown itself by a superabundance of yard signs and bumper stickers. Kerry & Edwards have the most, presumably because much of the Left thinks the world can be saved through politics instead of through Christ.

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No, not mine. It's Lileks's memoir.

One reason I get a special kick out of this essay is that my parents shop at the grocery store he mentions toward the end; the flowers for my wedding and for my sister's were from shops in that strip mall.

Thanks to Terry for this link.

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Alicia has this neat widget on her blog -- a little picture of the moon's current phase. (At this writing it is waxing gibbous.)

I thought of it last night. We were out running errands and it was getting dark. Hambet usually isn't out that late, and when he caught sight of the moon he grew very excited: "Look! It's the moooooooon!"

So all that evening we were watching the moooooooon. He was quite delighted when he saw that it was following us, so we talked about that and about how the moooon is very far away. He wanted to know what the moooon is made of -- I told him "rocks" and Daddy told him "cheese." Hambet admonished him: "No, Daddy, the moon is made of ROCKS." He grew very upset when we turned north and he couldn't see the moon any more -- "I have to look at the moon! Where is the moon?! I have to look at the moon!" -- and was just as delighted when we turned south again and he could see it out the window. When we got back home he hopped out of the car and ran out into the driveway so he could stand, stock still, his little face pointed at the sky so he could gaze at the moooooon a little longer.

And it had been a while since I'd taken a good look at the mooooon. How crisp and sharp and chalky-white she looked! Even the horrible light pollution couldn't totally obscure the outlines and shadows of her craters.

And I found myself remembering some lines of a poem -- by Sylvia Plath, of all people. I'm not big on Sylvia, but a few lines from this particular poem had stuck with me, and they came back as I looked up:

The moon has nothing to be sad about,
Staring from her hood of bone.

"Her hood of bone." I just like that metaphor. The rest of the poem ("Edge") doesn't interest me too much -- I don't have much patience for obscure and morbid -- but it's posted in the Extended Entry if you want to read it.

Continue reading "The moooooooooooon" »

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It's the Summa Mama's first bloggiversary! Congratulations!

And dear Mr Luse was the one who tipped their odometer over by making comment #2000. I bet he is just going to be impossible to live with now.

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Smockmomma!

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On Dinka's daughter Veronika's page, there is a particulalry sinister looking picture if you scroll all the way down of Veronika and Gorbulas.

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So, like, Mark Shea has like all the coolest links today! He has this, y'know, link to this TOTALLY TUBULAR URL that will translate your site into, like, Valley Girl! It sounded, like, so AWESOME! So I totally had to try it out.

Anyway, I thought it was like SO FUNNY because I was like just blogging about the early '80's, you know? when I was like thirteen? and that was so when the Valley Girls were in and we would, like, call our friends up and all plan to wear the same color LEG WARMERS to school? And we would all go to the computer lab and program those totally primitive computers in BASIC, I think they were, like, called Apple 400s or something like that. And the rich smart kids with rich smart parents had Apple IIes at home. So, like, between thinking about the early 80s and seeing this site, you know, it totally brought me back. And now I'm realizing that that was twenty years ago, and I am feeling like SO OLD. Bummer.

So, anyway, I was also just thinking that the Valley Girls are like in California and even though I'm not really sure that like Sacramento is, y'know, like in the Valley, 'cause I'm not sure of like the geography and stuff, and I think it's like in the middle of the state but anyway, wouldn't it be like SO FUNNY if like Jeff Culbreath really talked like this? And like, all that proper stuff on his blog, and all that grammar stuff, like it was all an act? Well, like, not really an act, because he really wrote it, but like if you got on the phone, and like called him, this was how he talked?

But anyway if I wanted to really talk Valley I would have to say something like oh-m' gawd! but I hate like even pretending to type that because I would feel like, scrupulous to the max and I would just feel so bummed about getting into that habit because it is like so grody.

Oh, and, like, one of Mark's commenters has this thing called like the "splendidiser" which like translates your site into this terribly boffo English slang with all these fabulously overused little nuggets of shriekworthy hyperbole. Do run our site throught the Splendidiser -- I particularly like the transformation of the sidecolumn, and how it brought us "the shriekworthy Mighty Barrister" and "St. Marvellous! I say, Josemaria Escriva."

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Mark Shea links to this Winfield Myers take on some Garrison Keillor thing. Myers has a nice discussion of Keillor's misquotation of Dante (first put out there by man of letters John F. Kennedy; I particularly liked Myers's line about the "Potemkin Camelot.")

But here's what I want to know:

Keillor lampoons the right as the home of “hairy-backed swamp developers and corporate shills, faith-based economists, fundamentalist bullies with Bibles, Christians of convenience, freelance racists, misanthropic frat boys, shrieking midgets of AM radio, tax cheats, nihilists in golf pants, brownshirts in pinstripes, sweatshop tycoons, hacks, fakirs, aggressive dorks, Lamborghini libertarians, people who believe Neil Armstrong’s moonwalk was filmed in Roswell, New Mexico, little honkers out to diminish the rest of us, Newt’s evil spawn and their Etch-A-Sketch president, a dull and rigid man suspicious of the free flow of information and of secular institutions, whose philosophy is a jumble of badly sutured body parts trying to walk. Republicans: The No.1 reason the rest of the world thinks we’re deaf, dumb and dangerous.”

I guess I would be counted among those on "the right;" which one of those am I? I don't doubt the authenticity of the moon landings; I don't drive a Lamborghini; I don't have a hairy back (no matter what Robert might imply). I don't play golf; my husband does, but he's hardly a nihilist. I'm not a tax cheat (though we must be rich, since we got a tax refund.) I would certainly not qualify as one of Newt's "evil spawn", since I first signed on to the vast right-wing conspiracy in (gasp!) 1984.

I guess in Keillor's taxonomy, I'm a fundamentalist bully with a Bible (though "real" fundamentalists would beg to differ.) Maybe I'm an "aggressive dork" (though "contentious geek" might be more on the mark.) I wonder how he would classify the guileless pro-life manicurist I met in Fargo last summer? Keillor's gentle-rhubarb-eating-son-of-Minnesota pose is wearing a little thin with me.

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Papa Honk's got a picture up!

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One of the nice things about corresponding with gentlemen bloggers is that when they quote you, they not only say nice things about you but they edit what you wrote into something that makes sense.

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"I wonder just how much resources we are putting toward our schools, if we're having to charge such - for many families - out-of-reach tuition (it's no accident, I suspect, that enrollments are declining as tuition increases)."

Perhaps I should clip this and send it to our new parish school, which just opened this fall. There are still openings. Tuition is $6000 a year. (plus "fees", uniforms, etc) No parish discount; same fee for everyone. I think you get $200 off if you have more than one child enrolled.

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Steven Riddle on the love of reading: If I am such an inveterate reader, why do I not read scripture with the avidity with which I approach Walker Percy, Flannery O'Connor, and others?

I need to ask myself the same question. This past week, I found out that there's a prequel out to a science fiction series that I've enjoyed off and on for years. I read the first book probably around 1982 or 83 (holy cow, this book's been with me for twenty years) and have read it and its sequels through, or at least in snatches, many, many, many times since then. I can recite big chunks of the plot, discuss the characters and their motivation and why I'm glad so-and-so did something. I know the names, the backstory, the fangirl trivia. And all this without any serious study (nothing on the level of the Trekkers, for instance. And no, I've never made a costume.)

So when I found out there was this prequel out, I got really excited. I looked it up online, read the reviews, reserved it at the library, and made a special trip to pick it up. I read it in two days (it's a short book.) I even reserved the original book so I could go back and review my favorite parts, and started scheming to retrieve my old copy from my parents' house.

All this for a novel -- a very entertaining novel, but one that is basically a soap opera with spacecraft and a smattering of allusion (and a pressing need for a stern editor.)

So I can remember the seven planets named in the series. Big deal! So I can remember what Frank Churchill claimed to have borrowed from Miss Bates when Emma and Harriet meet him on the lane, and that Anne Shirley's new dress was brown and had puffed sleeves, and that there is a bust of Queen Victoria at Mole End. How many Psalms do I have committed to memory? Do I know the significance of the different towns and cities mentioned in the New Testament? Can I name all the people who were standing at the foot of the Cross? (Answers: none, no, and only some.)

The reason I remember these weird details from novels is that I've read them with delight over and over again (for the same reason that my little boy has several books committed to memory.) Why don't I read the Bible with the same attention and frequency?

May my Guardian Angel ever remind me to keep my priorities straight when I go to my bookshelf.

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Last night over supper, my husband remarked that the secular papers had picked up on something Cardinal Ratzinger had written that apparently said it was okay for Catholics to vote for pro-choice candidates -- for example, this article from the WaPo: (registration)

I hadn't seen it; I generally only consult the Washington Post to find out what Rex and June are up to. Now that I've read the article, it seems to need a touch of something.... perhaps a dash of fisking? (For starters -- "U.S. Catholic officials"? "Officials"? Is the word he's groping for perhaps... bishops, or perhaps their spokesmen?)

But I'll leave that to someone with more talent, or someone who at least has her dinner menu under control. As hubby and I talked, I had a vague recollection that something the Cardinal had written a little while ago had been seized upon by the dissenters so beloved of the papers, spun like crazy, and was probably trickling down in that spun form to the Post. So we got into talking about "proportionate reasons", and what could possibly be as proportionate as abortion (My suggestion: "What if someone ran who was pro-life, and anti-human cloning, and had the right position on stem cells, but was running on some kind of pro-concentration camp platform?")

My husband was still stuck on why in the world the Cardinal would write such a thing, given the political climate and our poor reporting in this country and dismal catechesis. The only thing I could think of was that perhaps the Cardinal just didn't realize how this would further scandalize many weak Catholics in the US.

It really bothered my husband, in that he has had the impression for a while that to some members of the hierarchy, abortion just isn't really a big deal. They would pay lip service to the sinfulness of abortion, but in practice, treated pro-life concerns as just something to wedge in the schedule between shaking hands with the Youth Baseball League and the charity dinner. Something like the recent Voters' Guide released by the bishops' conference, in which abortion is buried in the middle of a whole list of legislative concerns. Yes, health care is important, but the debate on how to make sure people have access to health care is a matter for prudential judgement -- it's not something on the same level as the legal murder of children in the womb.

So dear husband told me, you know, you and the other bloggers really should get on this and you know, it has taken me almost twenty-four hours to recover from my shock that my husband had actually instructed me to blog!

At the same time, I didn't feel up to the task, because I haven't been blogging or following blogs as much lately, and I had this vague sense that someone smarter than me would probably have already covered this.

Well, I am delighted to report that somebody has, in great detail: Mr Jimmy Akin, on
What Ratzinger Said.

For starters, this carefully worded document wasn't intended for a general audience. It was addressed in confidence to Cardinal McCarrick, and was leaked. I wonder by whom?

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Funny how on Labor Day everyone has the day off except a set of people who could really use a day off: retail workers.

I think it's important to remember where we came from (and where we might end up again if we're not attentive.) My husband is from Pittsburgh and Andrew Carnegie's prints are all over that city -- the libraries, the university -- and all that philanthropy was built on the backs of the men who toiled in the steel mills, day and night, twelve hours a day, seven days a week. They never had enough time to go to the library.

Karen Marie has posted some good Labor Day reading, including this excerpt from Rerum Novarum:

45. Let the working man and the employer make free agreements, and in particular let them agree freely as to the wages; nevertheless, there underlies a dictate of natural justice more imperious and ancient than any bargain between man and man, namely, that wages ought not to be insufficient to support a frugal and well behaved wage-earner. If through necessity or fear of a worse evil the workman accept harder conditions because an employer or contractor will afford him no better, he is made the victim of force and injustice.

Isn't depriving the worker of his just wages one of the sins that cries out to heaven for justice?

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and boy is he a cutie! Mama looks great, and it is so lovely to see how gentle Davey is with his little brother.

Papa Honk promises to try to get some pictures up soon.

Best wishes for a happy babymoon and for lots and lots of SLEEP.

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Mama Owl and Papa Honk should name their new baby Pio Goliath!

Alas, I was too late with this inspiration, and Davey's little brother has been named Thomas Matthew. Thomas and his mommy are back home now.

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...I said, "how do you explain how bad things are now compared to the way things were before the Council?". And she had a ready reply that I didn't expect - she said that Protestants were much better before the Council too, at least as measured by divorce rates and crime and other indicators.

It appears that it was the culture that swamped the Church and I've suspected that one way to have avoided the culture's devasting influence was not to blame the Council but to have avoided affluence. Affluence brought us the suburbs, which brought us out of our Catholic ghetto and into the larger culture. When JFK became president and Catholics were perceived as acceptable, we seemed to lose our way. We became influenced by the culture instead of influencing the culture. And the cost has been enormous.

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Dear Mr Luse emerges from the rubble to tell us about his experiences with Hurricane Charley, complete with jaw-dropping photograph.

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It's a boy!

I got a call from Papa this afternoon! Davey's little brother was born at 8:58 this morning. They haven't picked a name yet; I naturally suggested Pius but Papa wasn't sure he liked the ring of "this is Davey and his little brother, Pius."
But perhaps he will reconsider.

The little one weighed in at 8 pounds 4.3 ounces and is 21 inches tall. Mama's birth plans did not go quite as smoothly as she had hoped, but overall she and Papa are much happier with the way things went this time around.

They asked me to pass on their thanks for prayers; they do ask continued prayers for Mama's recovery and for their little one. Little Pius is in the neonatal step-down unit; there were some worrisome signs and they are making sure he doesn't have an infection. But hopefully he'll get to go home on schedule.

Posted by Peony at 1:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (2)

Stopped by Dylan's this morning to see if there was any news, and indeed there is -- great news from Dylan's mom, Marylou, posted last Friday in the most recent comments box:

today is Friday the 13th...good day..
Just wanted to let everyone know..
Dylan is finally out of the hospital..
Thank you for all the prayers and concerned for him...
Soon you will be hearing [from] him..
don't know exactly when.. but I'm sure soon..Its been a very long road ....
Have a good day everyone...
Dylan's mom{Marylou}!

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MUST remember this next time someone starts prating to me about overpopulation:

On the issue of overpopulation and starvation, I know an equally viable and more profitable way to bring that to a close. The world governments can set a mandatory death date of 60.5 years. On that day, the government agency will euthanize you for no charge in the presence of all your loved ones. Think of all the money we would save on medical care for you. Then after your loved ones leave, we will send your corpse to a rendering plant where it will be turned into a savory paste.

Actually, this used to be accomplished naturally, before the anti-smoking push and the advances in medicine and palliative care. Smokers would pay into society's coffers all through their working years, and then perish of cancer right as they approached their retirement years, never to draw a penny of their pension. But now fewer people smoke, and those that do live longer if they get sick. So perhaps a more expedient solution -- dare I say a modest solution -- to "overpopulation" is to subsidize cigarettes and ration health care for chronic illnesses. (That seems to be Russia's plan, anyway.)

Just think -- quitting those anti-smoking ads would free up additional funds for other public health projects, like persecuting the obese. This plan would also help to address the problem of urban sprawl, as it would make it more profitable to farm tobacco instead of selling the land to developers.

Posted by Peony at 9:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

...to Joshua Claybourn on the loss of his mother.

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Every so often, we get a hit from someone searching for

Franklin + Jennings + blog

I'd been trying to come up with something amusing (it's been a while since I did a funny search string post), but I'm happier to be able to just supply the link at last.

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“I’d like to learn more about classical music but haven’t any idea how to go about it. What would you suggest?”

I would suggest heading straight over to Vociferous Yawpings, where Mark Windsor has started a great series of posts answering precisely that question

Classical Music 101
Classical Music 102

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Kathy the Carmelite and her husband!

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We had a gully-washer of a thunderstorm yesterday afternoon. In my neighborhood, there was a lot of rain, but it came and went quickly. The sun was actually coming out when my husband called, wanting to know if we were okay.

I told him, yes, we'd had a little rain, but nothing terrible. He didn't seem to believe me so I told him again, yup, just some heavy rain.

That was when he told me that in his office in downtown DC, he couldn't see across the street (and the Smithsonian museum across the street is hard to miss) for the wind, the rain, and the marble-sized hail. That must have been the same storm that took out Zorak and the OO's car.

I need to run some errands this afternoon, and then plan to lie low as we get a taste of Bonnie. I've added intentions for those in the paths of the two hurricanes to the Assumption Novena.

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Sparki has all the details about Zooey's awesome Pirate Birthday Party! Arrrrr! And may ye be havin' a happy birthday, Zooey!

Our dear hobbit neighbor Zelie Bramble (formerly known as Jordan of A Call to Adventure) posted that recipe for Lemon-Herb Crock-Pot slow cooker chicken I asked for. While you're over there, perhaps you'd like to update your bookmark to her new spot?

Posted by Peony at 6:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Mark Shea
and
Papa Honk! (aka Davey's Daddy)

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Courtesy of Erik, of course.

Erik presents these as a "belated" Friday Five at the end of a reflection on current politics. (Why admit to "belated" when one could present them as "early"?) Don't miss his notes on Alan Greenspan, jazz man, and Senator Clinton, embodied alien. The whole entry reminded me of a cocktail that somehow involved gin, a memoir, and the Weekly World News.

So here we go:

1. List in the comments' boxes seven people who should be held up to God as reasons not to smite Massachussetts.

Dylan. Dylan's mom, Mary Lou. Dom Betenelli. Kelly the Pew Lady. The nice people at Orchard House, Concord who let us use their phone again and again when our car got stuck there.

2. Help! Harvard lost some of the biggest fruitcakes on its faculty to Princeton. In honor of the occasion, create some sort of award for Cornel West.

Wachowski Prize for Cinematic Dilettantism Presented as Pompous Post-modern Profundity

3. Write an all-rhymed acceptance speech for Professor West.

When we learned he was the One
The good part was done.

More later if I have time and inspiration

4. Earn a chance at being a sportscaster for a day! California and Massachussetts seem locked in a fanatical battle to lead the world into complete moral decay. In your best adrenaline-charged voice, narrate events. C'mon. Give it your all! Give it all you've got! Give 110% and don't forget the basic fundamentals. Remember the goal of this football game is to get the football, to move the football over the goal line, and then to kick it between goal posts. It all boils down to the team that does this the most, wins the game. Any comment, Pat?

I'll have to get back to this one. Is almost complete ignorance of football going to hurt me? My husband's true love is shown by how, in each and every one of the six football seasons we've been married, he patiently explains first downs and second downs and third-and-goal without getting testy.

5. Describe an experience you had with Moxie or fiddlehead ferns.

I saw fiddlehead ferns in the woods once, and in the freezer section another time. Oh, and I learned about them in Botany 103.

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Thanks to Steven for this link to Notes From A Writing Coach.

It was interesting to read the author's critique of a lazy reporter's error-ridden article about guns. Yesterday, my husband mentioned an article from last week's Washington Post about the government's budget for a particular project. The reporter had apparently talked to a liberal lobby group's PAC and had dutifully written down their numbers (which, of course, showed how wicked and tight-fisted the Bush Administration is.) Apparently, she couldn't be bothered to give the goverment agency a call to check those numbers (or look them up on the Web); if she had, she would have found out that she either completely misunderstood what the group had told her, or that the group had played her for a fool. (My husband's department handles this group's funding.) The story was just plain wrong.

Remember when the Jayson Blair story broke? I remember seeing an interview with someone close to one of the events that he'd spun stories about (I think it was someone involved with the sniper investigation.) He was asked, didn't you suspect something when you saw this bizarre story in the Times? He replied, no, we're used to seeing stories in the paper that have nothing to do with what we saw with our own eyes.

Tom of Disputations wrote about the same thing in his old "Praying the Post" blog.

I don't trust newspapers, particularly the "leading" papers. Do you?

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Effervescence: homeschooling, homekeeping, all that good stuff. Barbara has an entry up about meal planning and cooking on the pantry principle (something I strive for myself, though I'm not into writing out meal plans.) She mentions one of my very favorite cookbooks: How to Cook Without a Book, by Pam Anderson. It teaches techniques of cooking quick meals based on real food that you have on hand, instead of choosing a recipe and then going out to fetch the (often processed) ingredients.

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I wish I could be making the rounds of St Blog's a little more often, but "real life" comes first....

Goodbye to the elegant blog Theosis. Theosis left us a lovely farewell post, including a book list.

The Mighty Barrister is headed off on vacation! He's feeling lonely over at his blog -- wanna be a Barrister? or at least Mighty? maybe you should drop him a line....

Happy Birthday to the Princess Mommy.

This week's Blogger I Wish Was My Neighbor In Real Life: Sparki.

Dear Mr Luse has turned his talents to something new and has become a literary editor. (Ahem. Before you click the link/Put down your food and drink.)

More to follow....

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Thanks to Alicia for the heads-up: Michael Dubriel is asking to hear what bothers us most about the celebration of the Eucharist/Mass.

I wrote,

What bothers me most? Banal Masses modelled after a talk show or other entertainment, instead of after the Heavenly Liturgy.

If I want to be entertained, I can watch TV. I don't want to be entertained at Mass. I want to see the Mysterious, to partake of the Eternal -- to worship in unison with the Church on Earth and the Church in Heaven. This unity is broken if we substitute our own little fads for the prayers of the Mass, or treat the Mass like the priest, or the choir, or Oprah, is the star instead of Jesus Christ.

But I'm feeling shrewish and irritable this week, so let me continue here:

Please, no more "opening hymns." There is an Introit from Scripture. Let's use it. No more "Good morning! It's a wonderful Sunday and we come together once again to beGIN our worship in the Name of..." Please, Father, don't patronize me by thinking I need to be "warmed up." This isn't the Toastmasters. I'm not here for your personality. You don't have to make me like you. I know it's Sunday, I know what we're here for. Let's just start with The Sign of the Cross.

Use the time saved from skipping the opening hymn to incense the altar, chant the Kyrie (no cheesy You come to affirm our brokenness stuff, please), and let's sing the Gloria instead of saying it. Use a simple, sung through setting so the congregation can learn it more easily.

Psalm: Let's use the one in the book. I know, dear cantrix, that you really like that setting of O Taste and See, but we just can't do it every week.

Homily: --Do not start homilies with the words We all remember back what the nuns taught us in Catholic school... No, Father, not all of us do. Catholics who were children and young teens during the Council are now in their forties. Not everyone in your congregation went to Catholic school or is a "cradle Catholic." --It's true that we should not be racists, that we should remember that God loves us, and that we should remember to smile at our family members. It's also true that there are many other points of doctrine that we should understand. Please help us. -- Please do not order us to sing You are my sunshine, my only sunshine during your homily. --Not all of us play golf. Not all of us are edified or amused by your weekly golf jokes. In fact, it makes us feel... excluded.

Creed: Now that we've all learned to stand half a minute earlier during the Eucharistic Prayer according to the new directives, can we all follow the existing directives and learn to bow at the Et incarnatus est?

Eucharistic Prayer: No tinkly music in the background. Extra points for Father if he chants, and even more points for using Eucharistic Prayer I.

Our Father: Please, Father, do not order us to hold hands.

Agnus Dei: A little Latin wouldn't kill us, but if we're going to sing it in English, let's stick to the text. "Priiiiince of Peace," for example, is indeed a worthy Title of our Lord, but that's not the Title that we're reflecting on right now.

I so hope the new translation renders Ecce Agnus Dei as Behold the Lamb of God.

Holy Communion: Let's bow, as our shepherds instructed us. And remember, Mass isn't over yet!

Announcements: Would be better left to the bulletin.

Ite, missa est: The idea of scrapping a recessional hymn, and having organ music or silence instead, intrigues me. We could meditate on the last words of the Mass instead of immediately having the cantor intrude with the directive to please join me in singing song number such-and-such in the purple Gathered Community songbook: Let There be Peace on Earth. More silence, in general, would be a good thing. Our society is so yak yak yakalready. Let's have a Mass that makes it clear that we being given a glimpse of Eternity.

On music, I love the idea of having more chant, and having it be so familiar that a Catholic can "name that tune" after just four or five notes, so ingrained that just hearing a phrase could bring comfort to a dying person.

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the one that had me chuckling, was indeed Jordan's!

She titled her reading list, "In the Loo: (where else can a busy mom of 3 young kids find a minute to hide and read? lol)"

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Alicia and Dawn Eden have both blogged about Prevention's little screed attacking the growing number of doctors, pharmacists, and other health professionals who, disgusted at the idea of participating in silent abortions, are declining to prescribe, or fill prescriptions for, the Pill. Kevin Miller points out that the Pill is far from being the silver bullet in women's health care -- it's more like the lazy doctor's band-aid: "As my physician acquaintances ask, where is the article's mention of women who take OCPs only because of "pro-Pill" doctors' ignorance, negligence, deceit, and/or pressure? of what "anti-Pill" doctors do provide to women?"

I know for myself that in the eight years I've been seeking treatment for my own hormone disorders, the only real treatment I've ever gotten has been from NFP-only doctors. Of the secular set, I think my favorite was the endocrinologist who cheerfully said, "Well, if you want to get pregnant, we can do IVF, and if you don't, we'll put you on the Pill." I wish I had had the presence of mind to stand up and stalk out of the office. My second favorite is probably the nice doctor from Georgetown "In the Catholic Jesuit tradition" University Hospital who told me that I needed to just get used to having cycles lasting forty to fifty days, and not to worry until they got to sixty days long, in which case she would give me a pill to force a new cycle.

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I have a post up on Popcorn Critics about that movie list that's been making the rounds.

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Elinor Dashwood has a recipe, a chemistry lesson, a history lesson, and a small catechesis on the Eucharist all in one tight little post.

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Alicia has a list up of recommended books on pregnancy, childbirth, and breastfeeding.

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to Mama Chirp! (aka Davey's mommy)

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Wish him a happy birthday here, in the most recent comments box.

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to Mama Chirp and Papa Honk!

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Esteemed blogger Alicia has a nice reflection up on Ordinary Time. She also has her green template up.

I'm leaving the red up for the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart and Corpus Christi. I'll put up the green when I get back.

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to Karen Marie Knapp!

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Sorry for the slow blogging this week. I've been trying to limit my computer time, following the counsel of the nice man I talked to last week (the one wearing a black shirt and a purple stole....) When I have been on-line, I've been helping Emily of "After Abortion" out; her template crashed last Friday and I've been helping her recover her links and gussy up her template a little bit. (including adding her Atom feed .)

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I just heard from Michelle (aka "Shellynna"), blogeuse of "And Then?". She was concerned that there were "too many other things that weren't getting done." She considered resisting the siren call of the blog by lashing herself to the mast of her ship, but was concerned that she would be able to untie the knots and escape. So she has taken her blog down completely.

She does hope to come back to blogging in the future, and promises to pop up in comments boxes here and there. Meanwhile, she'll still be available at her old email address.

I'll miss "And Then?" but I totally understand. I will be scarce myself in the next few weeks, for similar reasons, but I will be answering email.

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That upcoming article on friendship I blogged on a few weeks ago? I didn't think it would be up on the Web until next month, but Jeff found it: On Male Friendship

Despite the title, I don't think this article is just for the guys.

UPDATE: There's an article on friendship, with a special focus on women's friendships, in the Summer 2004 issue of Faith and Family. My copy just arrived yesterday so I haven't read the article yet.

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to Samuel Riddle, who is SIX!

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On this day in history (which was yesterday, but I was distracted by the Sump Pump Saga....)

...in 1917, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeard for the first time to the little shepherd children of Fatima. Sister Lucia is still with us!

...in 1974, blogger Pete "Omnipresence" Vere was born. Happy Birthday!

...in 1981, an assasination attempt was made on Pope John Paul II.

...also in 1981, blogger Robert Diaz was born. Happy Birthday!

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Curt Jester is having a caption contest with the goofiest looking picture I have ever seen. I did not comment because I have no caption. But what is up with the flower wreaths on their heads? And why are they so old? This is cornier than "Hands Acroos America".

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God bless all the Mommies, Mamas, Mums, Nanas and Grandmas on this day!

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...is from dinka. Head over to her place
for a lucious-sounding recipe for Rhubarb-Strawberry Crumble.

My own rhubarb is just immense, but the stalks are still green, they're not turning red. I will have to consult my mom and see when I can start harvesting some.

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Over at Catholic Light, RC wonders: What would you be pleased to never sing again?

A commenter also wondered, what hymns would you pay to sing?

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I saw it first at Catholic Light: the Australian media appear to have a draft of the new English translation of the Mass.

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Dear Mr Luse has another post on the battle of the sexes, but this one is more sobering than funny. His students were invited to respond to Judy Brady's "I Want a Wife" (he provides a link).

At one time I would have found that essay hysterically funny. Now it just makes me wonder if I have any Pepto in the house. I would like to write more at length, but I don't want a wife, I am a wife, and I think I'm going to find me some shirts to iron.

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Jeff has a good discussion of "angry Traddism" -- the kind of relentless carping that that some refer to as "Lidless Eye" traddism -- over at El Camino Real:

I think that in many cases traditionalists are their own worst enemy. There are, indeed, some kooky traditionalists who think it is their duty to correct everyone they meet in matters of religion....

One of my favorite quotes is from TSO, in the comments box:

Anger has its place, of course. It's more the relish with which it is wielded that grates. One gets the sense that some (not just Trads) exult over their fallen victims like linebackers over a sacked, bleeding quarterback. As Bishop Sheen said, "win an argument, lose a soul".

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Steven's reflections on Martha, the patron saint of housewives: Choosing the better part doesn't mean letting the dishes pile up in the sink.

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Congratulations! I see Summa Mama Smockmomma made "Spanning the Globe!" I see that she also got reassigned to the Sleepy Mommies! Yay Smock!

Just kidding, of course. Smock is still a Summa. We love the Summas, but we have so much in common (Catholics, mommies, granolacons, The Fine Domain, even some para-blog projects) that perhaps it might be time to note some of the subtle differences in plumage.

So in the spirit of the late Roger Tory Peterson, please allow me to present A Field Guide to the Mommies and the Mamas.

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Enbrethiliel has some answers -- actually a mini Bible study on salt.

If permalinks are acting up, scroll down to April 17, "Why Salt?"

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I was planning to blog this as part of a follow up to my pity-party-post, but the Curt Jester beat me to it in The Seven Deadly Gilligans. The idea is that each of the castaways exemplifies one of the Seven Capital Sins: Gilligan shows us gluttony; Ginger, lust; the Skipper, anger; the Howells, avarice and sloth; Mary Ann, envy; and the Professor, pride. (This is the way I heard the list; Jeff's differs slightly.)

Now for all you young 'uns who don't know our seven stranded castaways, Don DeMarco suggests you think of the folks from the place where everybody knows your name: Sam showed us lust; Norm fell to gluttony; Cliff stood for pride, Carla for anger, Rebecca for avarice. DeMarco suggests Frasier for envy, but doesn't name anyone for sloth. Any nominees?

I have also heard that the show about nothing is really about the Seven Capitals. I have seen exactly two episodes of Seinfeld all the way through, so I hope I can remember this: Newman is gluttony, Jerry's parents are anger and avarice, Elaine is lust, George is envy, Kramer is pride, and Jerry exemplifies sloth.

This is fun! Any nominations for Star Trek?

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I always say I hate when people think "it's all about their therapy."

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aka Catholic Kerry Watch.

I would have so much more respect for Kerry if he just came out and said something like, "I was raised kinda-sorta Catholic but I really am no longer Catholic as I don't believe what the Church teaches on pretty much anything; the missus and I pretty much just worship whenever we get up early and have time to kill before brunch Christmas, Easter, Ash Wednesday, and Palm Sunday where and when it's expedient to do so the spirit moves us."

Posted by Peony at 6:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

So why does Senator Kerry say such strange things? Jeff Miller and his perceptive reader Alex have found the answer. Standard Curt Jester warning (put down your food and drink) applies.

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Poor Mr Luse is looking for sympathy. He is sorely vexed at present by some pretty depressing "research" papers:

Papers on the legalization of drugs ran 2-1 in favor. Marijuana, for example, just has so many medical benefits...So you're against it for purely recreational purposes then?

There's one line in there that should go straight to the Apologia Groupie Hall of Fame.

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Mark at Vociferous Yawpings bring usThe Da Vinci Code meets The Inferno. Don't miss this!

Happy birthday in the Church to Jeff Miller and Michelle of And Then?

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Bob, of the Republic of Virtue, is finally attempting to read that book:

...until I actually read this trash for myself none of my criticisms will hold any water with the kids. Amazing how they will believe the undocumented, utterly baseless slop that Dan Brown puts out in blatant defiance of the historical record, but when I'm citing the likes of Sandra Meisel and asserting completely undisputed facts, I'm the one who has to meet the burden of proof.

One of the reasons I would personally not mind taking a shot at Dan Brown in a dunk tank is that for some reason his fictional albino assassin monk has become a character in my husband's strange inner world: "Hi, hubby, how was your day?" "Not too bad. Saw Silas on the Metro, he says hi. He also says you should make me steak for dinner every night, and lobster on Friday." "Silas told me to buy these books or else." "I met so-and-so for lunch, and Silas showed up too."

I'm not sure what it says about me that I'm married to a man whose imaginary friend is a menacing albino assassin monk.

Posted by Peony at 9:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

The Curt Jester has the details.

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...to Mark at Vociferous Yawpings.

I think we could use a happier word than "blogiversary." I nominate Father Johansen to coin one, since he did so well with "blug."

Posted by Peony at 5:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Today is also Hambet's third birthday in the Church: the anniversary of his baptism.

Eric Johnson of Catholic Light has the picture I wanted, but couldn't find.

Karen Marie chose a very different picture for her Annunciation post at the Anchor Hold. Usually I don't care for that style of art, but this one really stopped me in my tracks -- I was literally staring at it, for a long, long time.

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OMG!!!!!!!!! I'm ROTFLOL!!

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Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted's on the "I'm Catholic, but...." crowd:

“ I am a Catholic politician but I don’t let my Catholicism impact on how I vote or what legislation I promote;” but Jesus says (Mt 7:26-27), “Everyone who listens to these words of mine but does not act on them will be like a fool who built his house on sand. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. And it collapsed and was completely ruined.”

“ I am a Catholic physician but I don’t let my faith mold my decisions regarding abortion, contraception, or other medical practices;” but Jesus says Mt 5:37), “Let your ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No’ mean ‘No.’ Anything more is from the evil one.”

“ I am a Catholic talk show host but I don’t let the Church inhibit my right to say whatever I want on the air;” but in the Letter of James, God says (2:17) “Faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”

“ I am a Catholic priest but I don’t let Magisterial teaching keep me from dissenting from moral or doctrinal points nor let it limit my own ‘pastoral solutions’;” but at ordination each priest professes a solemn oath, “I believe everything contained in God’s Word, written or handed down in tradition and proposed by the Church… I also firmly accept and hold each and every thing that is proposed by the Church definitively regarding teaching on faith and morals.”

Lent is the time to kick the “Catholic but...” out of our own daily lives. It is the time to expunge rationalization from our minds and to root out compromise from our hearts. Lent is the time to say a determined “No” to the temptation to water down our faith for personal gain. It is the time to say a much larger “Yes” to Jesus and His Gospel of Life. Lent is the time for Totus Tuus, the time to renew our commitment to love God with all our mind and heart and strength.....

Thanks to Not-a-Liturgist at Liturgiam Authenticam for this link.

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Magister Mundi sum!
"I am the Master of the Universe!"
You are full of yourself, but you're so cool you
probably deserve to be. Rock on.


Which Weird Latin Phrase Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Actually I should probably be a Magistra. Thanks to Magister Mundi Mark for this quiz.

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Father Johansen gave us an amazing blug, describing us as "two reasonably-well-adjusted Catholic women who take their faith seriously."

That compliment's going to have us on Cloud Nine for weeks. Thanks so much, Father.

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Michelle's Famous Poet Quiz result was Walt Whitman, so I'd like to offer this especially for her:

When Lilacs Last in the Door-yard Bloom’d

Continue reading "For Michelle: When Lilacs Last in the Door-yard Bloom’d" »

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It seems to me that much of our apologetics stays in our heads and never percolates down to the heart where it can foster true and lasting love. The only true defense against such idiocy is Jesus Himself. If we truly love Him, then nothing said against Him can convince us of anything other than the truth. The purpose of apologetics is to convince, but after conviction, something must help the truth bloom into love.

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Vociferous Yawpings has moved to the Fine Domain!

Another blog I plan to watch: Granola Conservatism. With a name like that, how could I not?

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The Passion of the Christ -- Three Reviews and a Letter by Orson Scott Card

EXCELLENT article by Orson Scott Card. I've only read a couple of his Alvin Maker books (should pick up on that sometime.) Thanks to Steven and the Summas for this link.

Posted by Peony at 5:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Times Against Humanity has moved to a new home and has a great new look.

The New Gasparian has also moved -- to the Fine Domain! -- and also has a great new look.

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See, I miss a day at Theosis and GoodForm and Summa Minutae, and look what happens -- I miss this gem. Thanks, TSO, for catching it for me:

Not long before his death, Pope Pius XI granted an indulgence to those married couples of the Westminster diocese who daily kissed the wedding ring of their spouses and repeated the following prayer: 'Grant, Lord, to us, that loving You, may love each other and live according to Your holy laws.' In 1960 Pope John XXIII renewed the same indulgence for all the married. --Rev. Lawrence Lovasik, [The Hidden Power of] Kindness

This is the umpteenth time in the last six weeks that I've come across a reference to that book. I own a copy, but I haven't read it yet. Perhaps it's time to remedy that.

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(actually it was yesterday) Welcome to the big 2!

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Revolution of Love has moved to stblogs.org!

The Tower has set up shop too.

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Moloch has a blog and extensive links to his friends. Why not go say hi, and help PP remember who's boss -- help Moloch show up on their referral stats!

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It's commonly called "envy", but what I have in mind is benign, it's not true envy. It's that feeling you get when someone you know has achieved something you'd really, really like for yourself, or has gotten to do something you'd really, really like to do yourself. It's only like envy in that it desires the good that another enjoys; unlike envy, though, it still rejoices that at least the other person gets to enjoy that good.

Well, whatever this emotion is, Apologia groupies -- and Friends of Fructus Ventris -- are experiencing it this morning.

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Nope, I don't have this week's P&P discussion. I'll try for Monday morning.

I do have some thoughts on "Master and Commander" up over at Popcorn Critics, though, if you're interested.

Today I went to Lowe's and picked up a shop light and a couple of flourescent tubes. It's time to start thinking about starting seeds! Today was a lovely, sunny day and I am getting spring fever.

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I'm reading "Parents Magazine" (controversial, I know), the article is called "Zoe has two mommies": mommy and mama are raising her. Mommy says: "When we started thinking about having a family... we met with a fertility specialist to discuss how to proceed. Obviously we faced issues that heterosexual couples don't encounter." Uhm... yeah. You can't blame this on narrowminded right-wing fundamenalists. These "issues" are not a consequence of unjust laws.

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from Steven: Can We Achieve Holiness by a Plan?

brought to us by TSO: Matthew Kelley's Seven Pillars

An oldie but goodie: The Seven Habits of Holy Apostolic People

Without a plan of life you will never have order. --St Josemaria Escriva

Wouldn't it be a cool thing if we lived in a society where planner pages came preprinted with check-boxes for Mass, Angelus, Rosary, etc?

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Summa Mama Terry is having a birthday! For a present, why not send her a little spiritual bouquet? She's even dropped a hint as to her favorite flower.

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Secret Agent Man fisks recipes:

Canned mushrooms are used by people who've never tasted real ones. I don't think a seriously-miseducated palette is going to hit on a good recipe by anything besides coincidence, and since the recipe already has canned mushrooms, I don't like the odds....

Pot-Roast, my friends, is pot-roast and it will remain pot-roast even if it's been slathered in Miracle Whip or poached in root beer. The only thing such trickiness will produce is pot roast with an odd taste, like it was made with Miracle Whip or root beer. God has decreed a universe in which Filet and Sirloin are very, very good and in which pot roast is . . . well . . . what you have to eat a couple of times each month. Trying to reverse that order by jazzing up pot roast is the culinary equivalent of schism.

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Summa Minutiae has moved to stblogs.org. Welcome to the neighborhood!

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Her campaign has been announced.

As campaign manager, I authorize linking to this button for display on your blogs.

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over at Sparki's.

Thanks, Alicia, for the heads up.

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Vote for Victor.

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Time to vote!

Thanks to Alicia for the heads up -- and congratulations to her on her nomination.

And thanks to whoever nominated us!

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Terry muses on the sin of gluttony.

Gluttony (an ugly name for an ugly sin) seems to be a stealthy sin, like sloth. It's easy to ignore it, to rationalize it away, especially by focusing not on gluttony itself but on being fat. And, as we all know, there are only two deadly sins in this culture: smoking and being fat. (Well, maybe three if you include failing to recycle.)

But gluttony is everywhere in our society. The Catholic Encyclopedia quotes St Thomas as giving five species of gluttony: wanting to eat too soon, too expensively, too much, too eagerly, or too daintily.

Omnipresent vending machines and snack shops offer us plenty of opportunities to eat "too soon." Food is cheap and plentiful in our society; it's easy to eat "too much." Rushed meals and the neglect of the family dinner hour tempt us to eat "too eagerly," wolfing down food while we do something else. Screwtape gives us a famous example of another way gluttony is expressed in our society, in delicacy:

While working your hardest, quite rightly, on other fronts, you must not neglect a little quiet infiltration in respect of gluttony.... They ought to be made to think themselves very knowing about food, to pique themselves on having found the only restaurant in the town where steaks are 'properly' cooked. What begins as vanity can then be gradually turned into habit. But, however you approach it, the great thing is to bring him into the state in which the denial of any one indulgence — it matters not which, champagne or tea, sole colbert or cigarettes — 'puts him out,' for then his charity, justice, and obedience are all at your mercy. Mere excess in food is much less valuable than delicacy. Its chief use is as a kind of artillery preparation for attacks on chastity. C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, Chapter 17

Is it possible to be overly delicate with regard to the healthiness of food? I'm thinking of a birthday party I attended recently, where one of the children's mothers made a huge production of declining the punch because it had artificial coloring. Now, I know that there are some kids who are honestly sensitive to artificial colors, and if her kid has that senstivity of course she should decline. (A phone call to the hostess ahead of time, or a thermos in her own purse, might have also been a good idea.) But if he didn't, was it really necessary to make such a huge deal about it?

Is there a place for wanting to prepare food well, and with delicious, wholesome ingredients, without falling into delicacy? Perhaps this is where detachment comes in, to be able to eat with a smile whatever is set before you, whether it be handmade pasta with freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano or Velveeta and elbow macaroni.

This is also where fasting comes in. Our society wants to feast constantly without fasting. If you fast for the sake of your arteries or waistline, that's okay. But if you fast for the sake of your soul, there's something wrong with you.

A constant feast becomes boring. The palate becomes dull, and more and more exotic and tasty treats are required. If you have a latte every morning, then it becomes no big deal, and only the triple mocha will be a real treat.

From an English Dominican site:

To someone who eats primarily food prepared commercially, the taste of ‘plain or home cooked’ food is bland, dull, unexciting. Where’s the pizzazz? Look at the cereal aisle in the store, everything, except wheatabix and cornflakes, are improved, flavour-enhanced, jazzed up. Oatmeal, surely that’s a wholesome, natural food, right? Now there are oatmeal bars in London and New York... the standard order is for Oatmeal with raisins, maple syrup and other added flavours. A far cry from the plain bowl of salted porridge.

Fasting sharpens our appreciation of the good things God gives us -- we're easier to please -- and helps us break our attachment to them.

Finally, Screwtape is certainly not the first writer to note the link between gluttony and impurity. Our society equates gluttony with being fat -- if you don't get fat, then gluttony isn't a problem -- in fact, you're considered lucky to be able to eat whatever you want and not gain weight. It's kind of like a culinary contraceptive mentality -- the desire to have sex whenever you want without any consequences; to eat all you want and not get fat.

Posted by Peony at 8:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (25) | TrackBacks (1)

Mr. Luse's birthday tribute to his father. A must-read.

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Well, actually you saw it at Flos Carmeli first.

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It's the International SPY LANGUAGE!

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Karen Marie Knapp has been hospitalized since before Christmas. She's in subacute now.

Her family has been posting occasional updates in her comments box, and now there's an address posted at Mr Serafin's place if you'd like to drop her a line.

Thanks to Steven for the heads-up.

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M'Lynn, her hubby, and the Tribe are ensnared in a web of red tape impervious to the machete of common sense -- our fine school and judicial systems at work again! Details here. They could use some prayer assistance (and, for those in a position to lend it, more practical assistance) right away.

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TSO posts this review of a book titled The Two Income Trap:

Married couples with children are more than twice as likely to file for bankruptcy as their childless counterparts....the authors point to the unintended consequences of sending 20 million American mothers to work. Rather than gaining more disposable household income, families saw real wages for men decline: the predictable result of more laborers pursuing the same number of jobs.... The higher nominal incomes of two-earner families also led to a fresh "bidding war" for nice homes in good suburban school districts, sending mortgage costs soaring.... Most important, the oft-derided stay-at-home mother proved to have been the true "safety net" in American life....

Posted by Peony at 7:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

...the SUMMAS! Woo hoo!

The Summa Mamas are moving to stblogs.org!

Posted by Peony at 4:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Alicia (please pray for the quick resolution of her license issue)

Master Xander Lams (check out the pictures)

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Sparki's baby is on the way....

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to Fructus Ventris!

Wanna send a present? How about a prayer for a quick resolution to her license issues.

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The local radio news was also reporting that a group of sexual abuse victims, represented by the same lawyers in the Boston cases, are bringing allegations against the Archdiocese of Washington and are "demanding" to meet with Theodore Cardinal McCarrick.

I haven't been able to find confirmation of this yet. I will be curious, if it is true, as to what they expect (well, besides lots and lots of money, of course.) I was under the impression that Cardinal Hickey cleaned house several years ago, and I know there was a system for reporting allegations of abuse well before the Geoghan case broke. (WaPo; marketing questions) But then, what could ever make up for the harm done to the victims? And what could ever satisfy the greed of the lawyers and the false accusers, and the desire of the professionally aggrieved for the spotlight?

UPDATE: David Morrison has more here and here.

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Never thought that Steven Riddle's erudition extended to these fine journals. Now we know exactly who to turn to next time we need an update on the career of Bat-boy.

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Our domain master RC brings us the happy news that Good Form and Suffer the Little Children have come to stblogs.org. Welcome!

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My dear husband almost never reads our blog. I think he finds it too girly. The other day he called me over to the computer, showed me the blog he was reading, and told me, "Now this is what a real blog looks like. See? Discussion of real issues. No Weather Pixies. No recipes."

The blog was Bettnet. Now I see that Dom has kindly posted a recipe for lentil soup. So I owe Signor Bettinelli twice over now.

Posted by Peony at 8:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

New post from dylan

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From Papa Noel Apologia, complete with a sweet little Christmas thought:

Some of us have gotten together a modest gift for Dylan and, in fact, KTC of the Gospelminefield has already sent it off at her own expense. Those of you who would like to contribute should email her at this address, and she'll tell you where to send the 2 bucks. Yes, a mere two bucks to brighten our friend's hopes this season of the Child who gave us everything, and all of Himself. Blessings to all so inclined. And may He show mercy to His poets.

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Smockmomma has a little announcement.

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...including this one from Ms Susie Q:

Well!! Let me ask you this yvette [another commenter -- Peony]. Are you sure that 'jesus' is really the person you think he is?? I mean (before you go crazy :)) I mean, think about it, even 2,000 years ago people where con artists, just like some people are today. I am saying that what if.. this whole religon thing was made up?? I mean, back then anyone could have come into town and said 'I am the son of god' and people would have belived him. The Jews could be right, our 'savior' could still be coming. Budist could be right, romans, there are many gods. Witches are right about thier god and goddess. I think that religon is a state of mind, not a real thing. True, it does not sound that way. I think that ALL religons are right, and what I mean is whatever you belive in, that will be true for you. For example, you belive in reincarnation, so you get reincarnated. You belive in god and heaven and hell, so if your good you go to heaven, bad you go to hell, etc. Nobodys right, noone is wrong. I think you might disagree, that again your religon is the only way to 'god' but if you take a moment and think about, how did we get all these religons in the first place? Yes, people made some up, but you cant get so many from just human imagination. People might have had just sudden enlightment and understud what had to be done. And also yvette, knowing you, you probley do no belive in magic. But did you know that there is solid proof that moses used magic to spread the waters of the great sea to free the slaves?? Or that jesus used magic to heal blind men, walk on water, and turn water into wine? If he lived and walked this earth today, people would have considerd him a witch!!

Anyone care to help Miss Q? Comment here if you do. (Please, be gentle. This is not Two Salem Mommies. ;) )

Posted by Peony at 6:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBacks (1)

here. I'll try to get my thank-you note up later today.

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Vales first: looks like Vociferous Yawpings is bowing out. Bummer. I'd read it just for the title.

Aves: Speaking of Caritate Dei, Robert Diaz is inviting everyone to check out his group blog Eternal Rebels, which has a cool Chestertonian title and some new members.

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T.S. O'Rama posts on economic systems and "bridling capitalism:"

One of the negatives of a global economy is that inefficiencies are squashed, and inefficiences can be humane. For example, companies in France and Germany are having to become leaner in order to remain competitive with the U.S. and Japan. Vacation time and benefits in European companies are higher, and they are paying the price for it. Instead of America tending toward the "more civilized" European model, the Europeans are tending towards our more cut-throat model.

It would be interesting if we could get a sustained conversation on distributism and Catholic social teaching going around St Blog's, maybe after the New Year.

Posted by Peony at 5:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

The Curt Jester brings our attention to Steve's great post on the seven capital sins, Seven Means to Seven Sorrows:

It’s amazing really. From Bach to Eminem, every bit of music is a variation on eight simple notes. The same goes for literature – the Greeks identified roughly a half-dozen different plots, and that’s all anyone has ever used. Unhappiness is the same way. There are only a handful of ways to become unhappy....

Take that, Tolstoy! I hope Steve follows up with a discusssion of the seven cardinal virtues.

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my smelling salts.... head...swelling.....

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I want to thank Pansy Moss for her first-hand example of racial attitudes in America. To address Mr. De Nunzio's point further, there was no question in the comments on this Blog of ignoring or trivializing racial differences. Indeed, as Pansy says, they are deeply entrenched. The question is, why do these differences exist and to what extent are they exacerbated by centuries-long non-Catholic attitudes. This is exactly what Pansy alluded to. To bring us back to the original topic, Jeff and I voiced concern over racialist views being touted as “traditionalist” (in both the political and religious sense). I completely agree that the “anti-racist” crusade is generally so much leftist agitprop. I’m not concerned that Nazism is going to take over the U.S. But that doesn’t change that fact that in a small community like traditional Catholicism, which liberalism seeks to marginalize, that fringe views can make themselves more strongly felt, whether they are promoting false apparations, errroneous theology or political error. Jeff’s concern with the ideas of Jim Kalb (or mine with Sam Francis) is the idea that ethnicity should be a fundamental factor in formulating political ethics and Catholic social policy. Nor is this some vague paranoia. None of us would care in the least except that there are more explicit examples, like the “Legion of St. Louis,” which claims to promote Catholic Action yet sells works by anti-Semites, racists and extremists. The deeper danger is that the spiritual struggle is reduced to an ideological one in which “holiness” is equated with arcane or even dangerous political preferences. These groups do exist, and where their presence is felt, dissension and confusion follow.

First, I would like to give a shout out to Jeff because he is a fellow Trad that doesn't buy into any of this BS, and that is why I am one of his biggest fans.

One of the reasons why I love the Traditional Latin Mass is the culture that is held in esteem above others is Catholic, not Spanish, not Irish, not black or Italian but Catholic. This is hard to find in many Novus Ordo Masses around here. That is why this racist attitude that seems to permeating the Traditional movement is so heartbreaking. The Catholic Church is Universal and all men are created in the image and likeness of God. If a person wants to stick to the true traditions of the Church Christ established, then we need to look at a person as a human and not as simply someone of some race.

The notion that since liberals promote "diversity" and "tolerance" (which are also buzz words for racism) it is also OK to support some type of white supremecy such as The Caucasian Club or whatever is stupid, reactive and nothing more than an excuse to get Catholicism to fit someone's own racist agenda. And last I checked, when you try to change the Church to support what you believe rather than what the Church teaches, that is called Protestantism.

Someone told me once that the notion of "integration" is nothing more than black people wanting pity for their dark skin? What the? No, integration is what happens when people stop being afraid of each other simply on the basis of race.

Posted by Pansy at 2:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (9) | TrackBacks (0)

Jeff Culbreath presents Mr. Matt Anger's commentary on leftism, racism, paleo-conservatism, slavery, throwing babies out with bathwater.... oh, just go read the essay, it's good:

Catholics don’t defend something on the basis of whether it is "old" or "new," but right or wrong. Mr. [Sam] Francis, however, believing that whatever the left hates must be good, defends all aspects of the Old South, including its "peculiar institution."
....I admit to feeling a bit impatient with those who howl at the least imposition of the IRS, and the "slavery" of the federal government, yet think nothing of consigning whole groups (like non-whites) to a second-class status... especially if they are members of the exempt class.

Later, if you're in the mood for illiterate mumblings on a related topic, I blogged a few months ago on Patrick Buchanan's book Death of the West.

Posted by Peony at 7:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Welcome, Catholic and Enjoying It! readers!

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Elinor Dashwood has a delightful thread going on on Literary Loves: What fictional character or characters have you ever fallen in love with?

Now this is how much of a plunker I am: Elinor first floated this idea in an email to me. Not only have I not come up with any literary loves, I haven't replied to the email yet. My apologies, Elinor; I'll try to write back today. I am pleading absence -- the Maryland Mosses went away for the weekend, and I am trying to restore order to the household.

As for the literary loves question, I'm thinking about it. I'm probably thinking wayyyyyy too hard about it and I'm too embarrassed to ask something as geeky as "define falling in love, please." Perhaps part of it is that I'm not prone to crushes in real life (exactly three over the course of my entire life: one in high school; one in college, complete with the requisite heartbreak; one on the gentleman I eventually married.)

I need to go sort laundry.

Posted by Peony at 9:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)

Steven is drawing attention to (and inviting intelligent comments on) a post by Steve Bogner on inclusive language.

"Intelligent comments" -- that would exclude me; I'm not good at discussing these things anyway, and I'm especially short on time and neurotransmitters today. So I'm just going to come out and say it (with apologies in advance for the rant):

My personal perspective as a woman, a reader, a mother, and a Christian, is that I hate inclusive language.

I hate it because I feel patronized when it's in use. I hate it because I feel like its promoters, well-intentioned though they may be, are saying to me, "O woman, you are not smart enough to know when the words 'men' and "man" refer to the whole human race and when they refer to males. All those times you thought you were being "included"? Nope, you were being fooled. And your feelings are not strong enough to handle being excluded, even if you didn't know you were being excluded until we told you. You can never focus on the universal, on what you have in common with men and women; you must always be focused on the particular, on yourself, your femaleness. Your feelings are too delicate to withstand the knowledge that there are males on this earth, and that they did things. The very fact that Jesus was a male is a stumbling block to you, and we must smooth it over. The very fact that He told us to call God Father -- 'Abba', 'Daddy' -- was an error; the only-begotten reproduced Son Offspring of God, who comes to make all things new, was a prisoner of His own time. (Jesus was not as enlightened as we moderns, of course.)"

I hate inclusive language because it insists that all the places I thought included me were actually excluding me. It seeks to drive a wedge between me and pretty much everything written before 1970. Inclusive language has robbed our language of the little honors paid to the feminine in the tradition of using the feminine pronoun for ships, countries, and abstractions. Inclusive language is the Mrs Elton in the garden of literature, the tacky boor who wrenches every spotlight towards herself.

I read pretty widely as a child and a teen, and I can remember one time and one time only when I misread the context of the word "man": it was in a satirical essay by H.L. Mencken, when he abruptly shifted from "man" as "mankind" to "man" as "all males."

In real life, we can't have relationships with Its. I can have a relationship with my mother, my friends, my husband, my little boy: they are Shes and Hes. My little boy doesn't have Parents or Father-Mothers; he has a Mommy and Daddy. The Coneheads have "parental units" because they're aliens; humans have mothers and fathers. Words such as He, Him, Father invite us to see God as a real Person who seeks a real relationship with us. If we have poor relationships with others, including with our earthly fathers, our Heavenly Father can help us relearn Whom those earthly relationships are supposed to model. We need this intimate, personal vision more than ever in this impersonal age of bureaucracy and broken families.

We should not worry about "placing limits on God." We should be thanking Him for, in a sense, placing limits on Himself, for the scandal of particularity. God, Who is so beyond us in every way, came to live our grubby daily lives with us, reveals Himself in images drawn from our grubby daily lives, ones that even little children can understand: Seeds. Drinking water. Daddy.

Posted by Peony at 12:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (29) | TrackBacks (2)

kill as few patients as possible

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Second, Martin is someone who, like so many of us, grew up with conflicted identity, a foot in both the colonial Spanish world and the world of the black servants and slaves. His identity in Christ both enabled him to transcend his beginnings and to extend the deep love of Christ to all - even some animals, like rats which are widely considered vermin.

Martin de Porres is special to me because of this reason. I am not sure what challenges being biracial in Peru at that time posed, but like many saints their experiences are timeless personal accounts for those of us who need a helping hand in different walks of life.

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Smockmomma, how will I evertop this?

A is for Aficionado: the Apologia groupie site

Posted by Peony at 9:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

for Jeanetta and myself and anyone else in Upstate NY.Once those temps hit like "Today's High is 32 degrees" Pansy Moss does not leave home.

The weather is so different here than it was 4 hours south in New Jersey. Summer does not hit until like the very end of June, and the first week of September it is Fall. But I have to say, autumn up here is breathtaking. All I can say is "just friggin beautiful"!

Our farm is located in the Mohawk Valley, about 15 miles west of the North American Martyrs Shrine where Bl. Kateri was baptised and St. Isaac Jogues was martyred. His body was thrown in the Mohawk River, so I think that makes the river Holy Water?? Not sure. I also live not far from where Bl. Kateri was born.

It is funny, because when you are originally from downstate NY, the City to be more specific, it is like an entirely different country. People leave NY City and travel the world to seek out beautiful places without realising how lovely it is a few hours northwest.

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Laura-lady has some interesting comments on Halloween:

I suspect that the commercial success of the holiday has very little to do with the neo-pagan emergence. Yes, we are becoming more superstitious as a society but that is really just a reaction to the atheistic tendencies of the past few decades. We are on a eternal flux between materialism and superstition and the pendulum is just swinging back the other way. This is hardly the first time that a vast number of people have been interested in the more silly and harmless looking aspects of the occult.

No, I think that the popularity of Halloween has to do with something entirely different. It has to do with the Culture of Death. Because one of the curious aspects of the Culture of Death is that it makes Death a forbidden subject ...We ignore the mortality of others so that we can ignore our own....

Posted by Peony at 7:59 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Jeanetta links to this amazing story about a Boston woman who, in 1985, woke up from a coma to find that her husband, a physician, was trying to pull the plug on her:

At that meeting, my then-husband, who was a doctor siding with the other doctor who wanted to let me die, held that clipboard which was my lifeline up in the air in front of me. He was not going to make it easy.

The purpose was to prove that the nurses were basically hallucinating and that I was
really and truly brain-dead.

To prove I could not communicate, he then put ink on my fingers and asked while laughing, "There isn't anything you want to tell us, is there?"

In response I spelled out, "D-I-V-O-R-C-E Y-O-U!" The laughter got very nervous then. The doctors called for medication because I was obviously having a seizure....

It is appalling how much prejudiced doctors (and others) will rationalize away as "primitive brain stem activity" and "seizures."

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Kairos Guy has moved to stblogs.org! Welcome to the neighborhood!

Other new points of interest on our ever-expanding blogroll:

Amy's journal
Musings on Muses
Ora et Labora
A Plumbline in the Wind

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Alicia has a great reflection on faith and obedience, and how following the rules helps save us from the natural consequences of dumb decisions.

Our culture, of course, hates rules and parenthood and faith and obedience. So now it is reaping the consequences of hating the rules.

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Their excellent taste in professional sports -- and in uniforms. Terry does not approve of the Dallas Stars' new third jersey. But when you put an ice hockey team in Dallas, this is the kind of mutant result you're going to get.

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Kathy the Carmelite is going on hiatus for at least six months; T.S. O'Rama very kindly posted her goodbye.

Praying for you, Kathy. You've always set such a good example of charity, and in this new chapter you are setting a truly heroic example of sacrifical love through wifely submission.

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Weighted bats:

The Two Sleepy Mommies wonder about this a lot, too.

'Baptizing' Feminism:

...Feminism can be thought of logically in terms of what it purports to be: pro-female. For what is more pro-female than being pro-life since half of all children aborted are baby girls? [actually, more than half -- PM] And what is more pro-female than being against contraceptives which typically harm the female body? And what is more pro-female that proclaiming the fact that the stay-at-home mom has a more important job in raising a soul than a female CEO has in raising profit?

The other night, a local talk radio program did an evening show on some new implantable hormonal contraceptive for men -- it sounds a bit like Norplant for guys. I only caught a snippet of the show -- enough to hear the host (Chris Core, who is a convert to Catholicism) and the callers speaking bluntly about the health risks of the Pill! (Basically, "women have been gambling with their health for years with hormonal contraception, should men be taking the same risks?")

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Happy Birthday to Bella, who turned TWO on Monday!

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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....)

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Chirp hatched a year ago this week.

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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.....

Posted by Peony at 9:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Check out chirp's new look!

including Davey's mommy's post explaining New York pizza.

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Fructus Ventris has moved.

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I so have to thank Elinor Dashwood of Mommentary for coming to our defense, but my blog about how we must look like the Two Fat Ladies was meant to be humourous.

Elinor writes:

What brings this on is a comment posted on Moss Place in response to Pansy's concern that readers who noted their interest in recipes might think they were "two huge women who can fit into nothing but muumuus and who sit at the computer all day because entry out the front door is almost impossible." In other words, it's a slight variation on the quintessential wifely anxiety, or "Does this blog make me look fat?" Why should they care if it does? They have families, friends, responsibilities - why do they care if somebody out in cyberspace gets a mistaken impression about their appearance? Why would they care if that same hypothetical reader approved of their appearance or not? They write a damn fine blog - anyone who imagines that his opinion of their looks makes a dime's worth of difference one way or the other should dry up. I've no time for those Catholic men - and there are some - who profess to admire a woman's character, purity, generosity, and goodness, and also think it would be great if she had a hot bod. Stuff it, turkeys.

When people meet me, they find it funny that one of my favourite subjects is food, and Peony and I laugh because it is something we had in common. I apologise if it seemed a show of insecurity. It really was just a chuckle on how much the Two Sleepy Mommies love things food.

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Wow, Erik has moved too.

At this rate, Pansy and I will soon be the only ones left at blogspot. It's unlikely that we'll be using any of the pin money on a paid host.

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Kathy the Carmelite!

Between you two Mommies, Huw Raphael at DOXOS, Erik, and Brian the Kairos Guy, I've been loving cooking recently.

Next thing you know, Davey's Mommy will have me out buying RHUBARB! (I know you all started the craze, but she'll be the one to put me over the top!)

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Two more converts to the joys of rhubarb!

Posted by Peony at 2:59 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

OK, so I have been reading about The Raving Atheist sending fellow atheists to drop bombs of love or something at Catholic Light and at Catholic and Enjoying It. While the story is amusing, it makes about as much sense to me as The Matrix plot did. I mean I never understand why people of other beliefs care so much about what we believe. I could care less. I do not mean that to be smug, but what atheists believe takes up very little time of my daily thought process. Much better things to worry about like, what to cook, saying the Rosary, teaching the kids and blogging about Mommy Stuff, BTVS, The Matrix, rhubarb, breastfeeding and the Catholicity of it all.

So I will end this blog with a nifty quote from Matrix Reloaded (bear with me because I am doing this from memory, not from a script):

Commander Lock: Not everyone has the same beliefs you do

Morpheus: My beliefs do not require them to.

Yeah, yeah, I know-short, pointless and nothing but an excuse to post that nifty quote. But the whole "Love Bombing" thing did remind me of that quote, so it wasn't just a random tie in.

Posted by Pansy at 7:11 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

New to our Blogroll:

El Camino Real (on hiatus for Lent)

Erik's Rants and Recipes: I thought we were going to be among the first to blogroll Erik, but I put it off and Alicia and Jeanetta beat us to it! Great minds may think alike, but greater minds are the first to strike. (I just made that up.) It's all to the good, you can check out any of our blogs and still be one click away from Erik's recipe for mushroom pasta.

Literarium and Spinsters.com

I also rearranged the blogroll a little bit, tidying up the order (alphabetical by blog title, more or less.) I also added a special section at the bottom for Silly PG-13 stuff.

Posted by Peony at 5:17 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Real life is just like the spiritual life

Lee Ann was kind enough to leave a recipe for eggplant parmagiana in our comments box (by the way, I am starting the eggplant seeds indoors.) She also was kind enough to leave the URL for her blog, The Literarium. From her mega-post on Mega-Merton:

I don’t think you can have any kind of interior or spiritual life until you stop seeing things as you would like them to be, or fear they are, and start seeing them as they really are. As long as you focus on an illusion of a thing, on your idea of how it is or ought to be, you cannot respond to that thing. You can only respond to your self-created illusion. Only when you dispense with illusion and see things as they are can you respond to them and value them.

It's almost depressing to think about how many problems -- from the tiniest personal issues to international issues -- arise from refusing to face things as they are instead of how one wishes they were.

Another good one:

This is why I have never liked the stripped-down, rather morbid Spartan Aesthetic of Protestantism and modern AmCatholicism. Nothing is less conducive to a connection with the majesty of God than a plain white box. Modern churches can be more like sensory deprivation chambers than churches. Plain walls with nothing to look at, a plain altar with nothing to look at, and an overall sense of being in a nicely appointed office building are the first things I call to mind when I think about modern churches. There is nothing religious about them. There is nothing that says you are in a special, sacred place for a special sacred purpose. Boring, uninspiring buildings push you farther and farther away from God. You can’t pay attention to Him when you’ve mentally fallen asleep. Maybe this is somewhat behind the craze for garish Hindu/ Mexican religious objects. After being deprived of spiritually inspiring, artistic rituals and worship aids, people are grasping for anything that will make faith lively. By excising the religious artistic tradition of the American Church, you are left with soul-numbing modernism or artificial, imported kitsch. Too many people lapse from faith because our houses of worship are so alienating and uninspiring. Beautiful churches can plant a seed of faith that True Religion can make grow. But something has to plant that seed.

There is a church not far from me that literally is a big white box. Whenever I go there I wish I had my sunglasses with me because of the darn glare. I feel like I'm in one of those 60's science fiction dystopia movies, where after great exertion the hero has finally found the villian's secret headquarters, and it turns out to be a single brilliantly lit but eerily silent room, housing the evil pulsing brain that controls the planet.

By the way, Lee Ann also writes for The Spinsters.

Posted by Peony at 9:27 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Little things

Hambet had a good checkup this morning. He's chugging right along on his height and weight (25th and 5th percentile) curves. The doctor did not tell me I was crazy when I produced my little spreadsheet of words, which now has 229 entries and is still an undercount. (Today's new word: "robot.")

The little adventurer has noticed that I have a stash of chocolate revel bars in the freezer door, and has figured out how to push a chair over to the freezer, open the freezer, and help himself. He has not figured out yet that chanting "cookie, cookie, cookie" during the expedition is a good way to get busted.

Dylan has paid us the compliment of a permalink -- thanks! He links to a nice NRO article on Mr. Rogers, written on the occasion of Mr R's retirement.

Thanks also to Brasilianista Aspirante for her permalink!

Posted by Peony at 1:55 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)