Ok, so I wanted to try really REALLY hard not to post anything political for awhile. I OD'd on that last fall.
And I wanted to try really REALLY hard to absorb the excitement of this new president and give him the benefit of the doubt.
But, it is really REALLY hard for me to do that when he has already started taking steps against life. Seems like there are bigger issues going on inside our country that he should be worried about.
ABC News: Obama Overturns 'Mexico City Policy' Implemented by Reagan
I also find it strange that this guy held off to the day after the anniversary of Roe v. Wade because signing this on the actual day would be "too combative." Seriously? One day later is less combative? He was just afraid of all the wonderful people in town for the March for Life.
Please pray for our new administration. And pray hard. Obama needs it.
And for those of you in the Dallas area, all parishes should be participating in a postcard campaign against FOCA. Please make your voice heard for life!
-----
Posted using ShareThis
Friday, January 23, 2009
Vatican on Youtube?!
Did you know the Vatican has a YouTube channel? That's kinda cool! Let me know if you find anything particularly interesting on there!
http://www.youtube.com/vatican
http://www.youtube.com/vatican
Monday, January 12, 2009
Baptism of the Lord
(I was told in so many words that my posts are too long....but....I wrote this for the bulletin at church and thought I would go ahead and share it with you all! Enjoy! I'll post something shorter later on this week...) :)
This Sunday, we conclude our celebration of Christmas with the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. This feast brings a very interesting question to my mind: Why did Jesus need to be baptized if He was without sin?
The Church answers the question by giving us one of the four servant passages in Isaiah as our first reading today. In Isaiah, we learn about The Servant of the Lord who has been upheld by God, chosen by God, and given the spirit of God. We also learn of this Servant’s mission to bring justice to the world, open the eyes of the blind, release prisoners, and be a light to the nations. From the earliest apostles, the Church has made the connection between Jesus and the Servant and his mission as described in Isaiah. The final verse in the Gospel passage confirms this connection by linking back the first verse from the Isaiah reading, “You are my beloved Son; whit you I am well pleased.”
In other words, the purpose of Jesus’ baptism was not to cleanse his non-existent sins, but to give God an opportunity to show us His Son, His Servant and His Mission. What does this tell us about our own baptism? Our baptism was definitely important to cleanse our sins, but what are the other meanings? Are we not also chosen by God and given God’s Spirit? Do we not also have a mission to bring justice, heal the blind, release prisoners? Are we called to be a light to the nations? Most certainly! We are challenged daily to recognize God’s Spirit within us and give thanks for it. We called to immerse ourselves everyday in the mission of Jesus and be a light to the world.
Today, a few of our teens are participating in the Rite of Acceptance at the 11am Mass. This Rite is part of these teen’s path of Christian Initiation to come into full communion with the Church at the Easter Vigil. For some of these teens, this will include being baptized. We can all learn from their recognition of God’s Spirit within them and their acceptance of the mission, even during their challenging teen years. Please keep them in your prayers as they continue to learn about what it means to be a Catholic on a mission!
And may God bless all of you in your daily commitment to your Baptismal call to be a “light to the nations.”
This Sunday, we conclude our celebration of Christmas with the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. This feast brings a very interesting question to my mind: Why did Jesus need to be baptized if He was without sin?
The Church answers the question by giving us one of the four servant passages in Isaiah as our first reading today. In Isaiah, we learn about The Servant of the Lord who has been upheld by God, chosen by God, and given the spirit of God. We also learn of this Servant’s mission to bring justice to the world, open the eyes of the blind, release prisoners, and be a light to the nations. From the earliest apostles, the Church has made the connection between Jesus and the Servant and his mission as described in Isaiah. The final verse in the Gospel passage confirms this connection by linking back the first verse from the Isaiah reading, “You are my beloved Son; whit you I am well pleased.”
In other words, the purpose of Jesus’ baptism was not to cleanse his non-existent sins, but to give God an opportunity to show us His Son, His Servant and His Mission. What does this tell us about our own baptism? Our baptism was definitely important to cleanse our sins, but what are the other meanings? Are we not also chosen by God and given God’s Spirit? Do we not also have a mission to bring justice, heal the blind, release prisoners? Are we called to be a light to the nations? Most certainly! We are challenged daily to recognize God’s Spirit within us and give thanks for it. We called to immerse ourselves everyday in the mission of Jesus and be a light to the world.
Today, a few of our teens are participating in the Rite of Acceptance at the 11am Mass. This Rite is part of these teen’s path of Christian Initiation to come into full communion with the Church at the Easter Vigil. For some of these teens, this will include being baptized. We can all learn from their recognition of God’s Spirit within them and their acceptance of the mission, even during their challenging teen years. Please keep them in your prayers as they continue to learn about what it means to be a Catholic on a mission!
And may God bless all of you in your daily commitment to your Baptismal call to be a “light to the nations.”
Friday, January 9, 2009
Bingo With Grandma
I went to visit my grandma at the beginning of this week, or Mammaw as I call her. She is the only grandparent I have left, and this is the first time that I’ve gone by myself to visit – usually I tag along with my Mom and Dad. Mammaw will be 87 years old next week and she is still kickin’ it. Mammaw lives in a one bedroom apartment, has never driven a day in her life, and the highlight of her week is playing Bingo on Monday nights at the Knights of Columbus hall. She takes cabs to the grocery store, to the doctor, and yes, to Bingo. She loves puzzles and Sudoku, Drew Carrey on the Price is Right, tennis, football, and I learned this week that she is a huge Seinfeld fan! Mammaw loved my iPhone and kept telling everyone they should check out this little thing that tells me how to get around everywhere. I’m amazed at how she knows so much about what is going on in the world!
I think a lot of people don’t appreciate what we can learn from our grannies. We are so focused on moving forward and keeping up with the times that we forget about what people have experienced in the past and how that is important. People who have lived 87 years have seen a lot, know and understand a lot about life, and have a lot to share with us. I learned many things from Mammaw this past week.
In this age where so many people think they deserve things to be given to them, it is important to work for everything we want. Mammaw grew up in an orphanage and was working by the age of 16. She never went to high school. Today we would call that cruel. But Mammaw just knew that she wanted something beyond those orphanage walls, and if she didn’t work for it no one was going to hand it to her. (She also never dealt with credit cards or debt or anything like that either – you want it? You sell something you don’t want for the money or you work to make it happen!)
In this age where the feminists look down on women who stay home with their kids, I learned the value of being a SAHM (stay-at-home-mom for those of you who don’t know the mommy acronyms!). Mammaw jokes about how she worked for 25 years with no pay, no days off, and no vacations! How true that is! What a wonderful, tough job to stay home and raise kids! I feel blessed that my mom was able to work at home with us, and I hope I will be able to offer that gift to our children one day.
In this age where we want to take the easy road in relationships and dealing with family, I learned the importance of working through hard times and sticking with a hard situation to aim for the bigger picture. Mammaw had 4 children at home, all under school. Today 4 kids is a HUGE family – and for them all to be so close in age!! Mammaw knew that she wanted to be there for those kids and wanted to see them all go to college, so she worked through everything else that came along to make that happen. (And they did all go to college!)
It is not always easy to pick up the phone and call your grandparent, or even an older aunt or uncle. Sometimes they have complaints about their health or the situation they are in. But they have so much to share with us, so much wisdom that we can learned from. And they need our love too. While we are running from one event to the next, one dinner party to the next meeting, we forget that there are people in this world who are lonely. Some of our grandparents don’t have much else except the families they seen grow up and change. Pick up the phone and offer some love, you might get some great wisdom in return.
I think a lot of people don’t appreciate what we can learn from our grannies. We are so focused on moving forward and keeping up with the times that we forget about what people have experienced in the past and how that is important. People who have lived 87 years have seen a lot, know and understand a lot about life, and have a lot to share with us. I learned many things from Mammaw this past week.
In this age where so many people think they deserve things to be given to them, it is important to work for everything we want. Mammaw grew up in an orphanage and was working by the age of 16. She never went to high school. Today we would call that cruel. But Mammaw just knew that she wanted something beyond those orphanage walls, and if she didn’t work for it no one was going to hand it to her. (She also never dealt with credit cards or debt or anything like that either – you want it? You sell something you don’t want for the money or you work to make it happen!)
In this age where the feminists look down on women who stay home with their kids, I learned the value of being a SAHM (stay-at-home-mom for those of you who don’t know the mommy acronyms!). Mammaw jokes about how she worked for 25 years with no pay, no days off, and no vacations! How true that is! What a wonderful, tough job to stay home and raise kids! I feel blessed that my mom was able to work at home with us, and I hope I will be able to offer that gift to our children one day.
In this age where we want to take the easy road in relationships and dealing with family, I learned the importance of working through hard times and sticking with a hard situation to aim for the bigger picture. Mammaw had 4 children at home, all under school. Today 4 kids is a HUGE family – and for them all to be so close in age!! Mammaw knew that she wanted to be there for those kids and wanted to see them all go to college, so she worked through everything else that came along to make that happen. (And they did all go to college!)
It is not always easy to pick up the phone and call your grandparent, or even an older aunt or uncle. Sometimes they have complaints about their health or the situation they are in. But they have so much to share with us, so much wisdom that we can learned from. And they need our love too. While we are running from one event to the next, one dinner party to the next meeting, we forget that there are people in this world who are lonely. Some of our grandparents don’t have much else except the families they seen grow up and change. Pick up the phone and offer some love, you might get some great wisdom in return.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Grace and Life
First - thanks to all of you who posted comments on my last blog! You all are awesome! I'm looking forward to more blogging this spring. :)
I went to visit my grandma (known to me as Mammaw) for the last several days, and I have lots of thoughts to share on that. But, I HAVE to get into work today and get ready for the first youth meeting of 2009! So, while I was trying to catch up on email at home I came across this linke and thought I would share it.
Erin is the name of the girl who died suddenly during the White Rock Marathon. This is a great reflection on life and grace. It is a few weeks old, but I still think you will like it!
http://milemarkers.runnersworld.com/2008/12/for-erin.html
I went to visit my grandma (known to me as Mammaw) for the last several days, and I have lots of thoughts to share on that. But, I HAVE to get into work today and get ready for the first youth meeting of 2009! So, while I was trying to catch up on email at home I came across this linke and thought I would share it.
Erin is the name of the girl who died suddenly during the White Rock Marathon. This is a great reflection on life and grace. It is a few weeks old, but I still think you will like it!
http://milemarkers.runnersworld.com/2008/12/for-erin.html
Friday, January 2, 2009
Back on the Blogging Wagon
Also named: New Year’s Resolutions
I’m not one to usually make New Year’s Resolutions. However, I have done 2 things today that I’ve been wanting to do for a long time, so I’m thinking maybe that is progress enough to feel confident to make a few resolutions. Let me start with what I’ve done today. First, I did some spiritual reading along with morning prayer this morning. I paid a whopping 99 cents for an app on my iPhone called iBreviary. It has the Divine Office (or Liturgy of the Hours) loaded on the for each day, so I decided to give it a whirl. Second, I finally peeled off 2 stickers inside my car that have been there since last summer. One was just the sticky from an old registration sticker, and the other was my 07-08 UD parking sticker (yes, it has been piled up with the 08-09 since August…).
Anywho, here’s a few things I’m thinking about sticking with this year:
Ok, so 5 resolutions. Not too bad. Do you have any to share? Any ideas to help me with any of mine?
Thanks for reading! Looking forward to writing more in 2009. :)
I’m not one to usually make New Year’s Resolutions. However, I have done 2 things today that I’ve been wanting to do for a long time, so I’m thinking maybe that is progress enough to feel confident to make a few resolutions. Let me start with what I’ve done today. First, I did some spiritual reading along with morning prayer this morning. I paid a whopping 99 cents for an app on my iPhone called iBreviary. It has the Divine Office (or Liturgy of the Hours) loaded on the for each day, so I decided to give it a whirl. Second, I finally peeled off 2 stickers inside my car that have been there since last summer. One was just the sticky from an old registration sticker, and the other was my 07-08 UD parking sticker (yes, it has been piled up with the 08-09 since August…).
Anywho, here’s a few things I’m thinking about sticking with this year:
- I want to keep up with this blog! I seriously want to write 1-2x a week on here. I can’t believe it’s been since October since I’ve posted anything. I feel like such a slacker. I seriously got so wrapped up in writing for school that I didn’t think I had any more words. Really, I just didn’t make it a priority. Is anyone even still reading this thing? I promise, I will give you more, and more interesting, material!
- I want to go get my allergy shot 2x a week. Random, I know. But, I have to wait 20 minutes each time I go, so I feel like it is such a chore! I was lucky to make it in 1x/week last fall. I want to do what I’m supposed to do to try to get rid of these allergy problems – and that means a 2x/week commitment!
- I want to do more spiritual practices. I want to read more spiritual books. I want to go on a silent retreat at Montserrat. I want to do morning and evening prayer. The reading stuff may go out the window as soon as school starts back in two weeks, but maybe I can get into a routine between now and then. Plus, it will give me many more interesting things to share with you here!
- I want pick out pictures and order my wedding album. It is already paid for as part of the package we got, but for many reasons I won’t list here we just haven’t done it. This seriously needs to be done before the end of this month!!
- I want to organize my time better. That includes me getting up earlier in the morning – a struggle I have had all my life and will continue to have everyday. (this is something I did NOT do today...arg!)
Ok, so 5 resolutions. Not too bad. Do you have any to share? Any ideas to help me with any of mine?
Thanks for reading! Looking forward to writing more in 2009. :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
