"Words and Stuff....." and Maybe, Just Maybe... Silence?

Had a disturbing conversation, someone noticed I had traipsed through the nave with a gaggle of children in tow recently, asked me about it -
I told her, yes, it was partially to point out art and items of interest, and explain the liturgical and catechetical purpose of some of the architecture, but mostly to model behavior; cover my head in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, genuflect when necessary, maintain a reverent silence...
They don't know how to behave, do they....? she commiserated.
And I replied, how could they, most adults don't, the noise level before and after Mass, joking and trading recipes, and making golf plans -
But you must remember, it's a social event, too!
When other people are trying to pray?
But some people, that may be the only time they get out all week...
Now, understand,  our climate, weather and architecture are such that there is an embarrassment of riches for places to chat in comfort.
And I'm not an ogre - I am not condemning the wheelchair bound man who it takes two friends to get in to weekday Mass, or the senile and deaf-as-a-post babushka who shouts to ask, whadja say? at every squeak and sound.
And truth be told, the disabled man isn't among the offenders, he's impeccable - it's the Pick-a-little ladies who are heading to a meeting across the parking lot who are going to see each other all day but must start their kaffee klatsch konvo in the pew, and the wealthy retirees who want to make sure everyone hears their travel brag...
No, the simple fact is, many do not behave with reverence before and after the Liturgy, because the so often Liturgy itself transpires with precious little reverence, much less silence.
Fr Douglas Martis had a wonderful piece in Adoremus a few months ago about silence, different kinds, different dimensions. You should read the whole thing, (his words on the word, "mystery" are something I used in class,) but this descriptive phrase is a keeper -

"Invitation not Interdiction"

Again, something about which to talk with my gaggle of kids on Sunday, (in the classroom, not the nave.)
Silence as gift, not punishment. "A feature, not a bug," as the techie types say.
However -
I question his implication that speed and quiet reverence are a zero sum game, and to this end, (that of striking down such a notion,) I'd like to offer the neologism,

Breverence

Frankly, having assisted at more than one Liturgy conducted by Fr Martis, I would say it is a virtue he himself already posesses.
And finally, wihtout getting into the, "Was Shakespeare a Catholic or not?" fracas, a quote from Much Ado always pops into my mind when Silence in the Liturgy is the subject-

Silence is the perfectest herald of joy- I were but little happy if I could say how much.

"Taught That Sin Does Not Matter"

I do not have the strength to have been a parent.

Looks as if I should - I'm stubborn, confident, smart, very sure of what I actually know and very interested in looking into what I don't, flexible...
I love babies, I love children, I even love, (though it's hard sometimes,) teen-agers going through their sullen phase. I love teaching. I love learning from them. I love the negotiations between generations.

I love the spats. Yes, really.

I love large, no, make that enormous families, I come from one and would happily have continued the family business, (which for generations seemed to have been producing children.)

But the good Lord knew what he was doing.
I read articles like this open letter, and I literally tremble.

Sin was introduced into all our children’s lives, and one by one we watched as they began to weaken and fall. The teenagers in our community were suffering the broken hearts, bodies and souls that sexual experimentation brings with it....
As our children’s hearts broke, they had to turn to ways to dull the pain. Alcohol and drug abuse followed shortly behind. Then, of course, mental and emotional problems. Eating disorders were rampant in our daughters’ Catholic girls’ high school. Abortions were common. Suicides not unheard of. 

The family to which I am closest, have seen the most over the years as they grew up, have lived with and cared for for solid stretches, never were in this deep a whole, nowhere near - and yet, I don't know if I could have handled even those 5.
They're young adults now, only 1 doesn't go to Mass with anything like regularity, 1 thinks too highly of drinking as a recreation, 1 lived with spouse-to-be before marrying, (presumably not to have a partner with whom to say their pater noster...)
But all in all, a really good family.
They had great parents, (their worst transgression, as far as I knew? letting a son keep a "Grand Theft Auto" in the house. Can't think of much else I would have done differently.)
I just would not have had the strength.

But Susan Fox? more than strong, she's mighty. But never mind that she "saved" her family.

Read her take on today's problems, and their long, winding, hardy and tenacious root.
We should remember, the devil does, after all, have gardening experience...

As if the author heard His voice, "Behold - I make all things new..."?

Oscar Wilde was certainly a case study in Redemption.

Any Catholic parent (or aunt, or unlce, or older sibling, or godparent,) who has not read this to his child? Do.

     One winter morning [the Giant] looked out of his window as he was dressing. He did not hate the Winter now, for he knew that it was merely the Spring asleep, and that the flowers were resting.
     Suddenly he rubbed his eyes in wonder, and looked and looked. It certainly was a marvellous sight. In the farthest corner of the garden was a tree quite covered with lovely white blossoms. Its branches were all golden, and silver fruit hung down from them, and underneath it stood the little boy he had loved.
     Downstairs ran the Giant in great joy, and out into the garden. He hastened across the grass, and came near to the child. And when he came quite close his face grew red with anger, and he said, 'Who hath dared to wound thee?' For on the palms of the child's hands were the prints of two nails, and the prints of two nails were on the little feet.
'Who hath dared to wound thee?' cried the Giant; 'tell me, that I may take my big sword and slay him.'
     'Nay!' answered the child; 'but these are the wounds of Love.'

Are They Really Being Denied "Rights" or Are They Snatching At Privilege?

Per the headline, girls are being "denied right to honor...heritage."
Not sure of any of this, but it seems as if someone is trying to paint sort of averagely transgressive teenagers as "victims."
Are the little darlings actually being made to "alter their attire" and "their whole selves" when they choose one month to wear ethic/heritage headgear?
For that to be true, wouldn't geles need to be an item which they wore all the time, not just for Black Pride Month?
The principal is herself Black, so I suspect she has a better handle on this than Professional Grievance Hunters.
Of course, one then wonders if other national or ethnic headdresses or other clothing that violates the dress code is acceptable at certain times, (if so, than this should certainly be added to the exceptions.)
Many school of which I know, for instance, have a navy/dark green/white/khaki pallate but allow red and green on the days before Christmass vacation, or gaudy Kelly green on St Paddy's.
Is there a day when all the kids with Scandinavian ancestors show up like this?

Are Your Little Ones Not Behaving?

Maybe it's cyclical, a time-of-year thing when some Churchy Folk start writing those Why Can't Your Kids Behave?/Why Do You Have To Object To My Kids Misbehaving? columns and blogs and posts, but they seem to be popping up quite a bit.

Too bad we can't all agree, yes, some annoying behavior of other people's children is age- and disability appropriate and to be expected so get over it; as well as yes, some parents are too oblivious/lazy/self-centered to curb annoying behavior with discipline that is age- and disability-appropriate to their children.

But we can't.  So, here's the solution.

Farm it out to a big corporation!

Why can't we have Disney franchise Cry Rooms?

Touting the new property’s wide variety of unique and imaginative attractions, representatives from the Walt Disney World Resort announced Monday the opening of Ordeal Kingdom, a new theme park specifically designed for full-scale family meltdowns.

(Yes, it's the Onion, I know it isn't real.)

Speaking of the Infant Jesus and Infants in General....

I just find myself confused sometimes.

...We know little of the Child Jesus, but we can learn a lot from Him if we look at the lives of children. It is a good habit that parents, grandparents, have, to look at children, what they do. We find out, first of all, that children want our attention. They must be the focus, why? Because they are proud? No! Because they need to feel protected. And it is necessary for us to put Jesus at the center of our lives...
Children, finally, love to play. To play with a child, however, means abandoning our logic to enter theirs. If we want them to have fun, you need to understand what pleases them, and not be selfish and make them do things that we like. It is a teaching for us.

I have to admit, rather than turn my thoughts to higher things, all these words of the Holy Father did was remind me of an Onion article from a few years ago.

MINNEAPOLIS—A study published Monday in The Journal Of Child Psychology And Psychiatry has concluded that an estimated 98 percent of children under the age of 10 are remorseless sociopaths with little regard for anything other than their own egocentric interests and pleasures.
According to Dr. Leonard Mateo, a developmental psychologist at the University of Minnesota and lead author of the study, most adults are completely unaware that they could be living among callous monsters who would remorselessly exploit them to obtain something as insignificant as an ice cream cone or a new toy.
...According to the Hare Psychopathy Checklist, a clinical diagnostic tool, sociopaths often display superficial charm, pathological lying, manipulative behaviors, and a grandiose sense of self-importance. After observing 700 children engaged in everyday activities, Mateo and his colleagues found that 684 exhibited these behaviors at a severe or profound level.
The children studied also displayed many secondary hallmarks of antisocial personality disorder, most notably poor impulse control, an inability to plan ahead, and a proclivity for violence—often in the form of extended tantrums—when their needs were not immediately met.
...Because children are so skilled at mimicking normal human emotions and will say anything without consideration for accuracy or truth, Mateo said that people often don’t realize that they’ve been exploited until it is too late. Though he maintained that anyone can fall victim to a child’s egocentric behavior, Mateo warned that grandmothers were especially susceptible to the self- serving machinations of tiny little sociopaths.

Plugging Away at This Churchy, Faithy Thing

I hope I do no wrong when I tell my Sunday School kids that Advent is kinda like the Church's time to be Old Testament people, to know what it was like for the sons of Adam and daughters of Eve, B.(efore) C.(hrist)- waiting, longing, hoping, thirsting, begging for Him who was foretold to get here already!

I do enough complaining about it that I also need to praise, sometimes the lectionary, the choices made by its fabricators are incredibly powerful and perfect.

How many times have I read this, how many times have I PROCLAIMED the readings for this Sunday, and how have I never noticed this before?

He shall take His place as shepherd

by the strength of the Lord,

by the majestic name of the Lord, His God;

And they shall dwell securely, for now His greatness

shall reach to the ends of the earth:

He shall be peace.

Not, He will bring peace, or there will be peace in His time -- He will BE peace.

Peace Incarnate.
As He is Love incarnate, Mercy incarnate, and yes, Justice incarnate... PEACE INCARNATE.

Amen. Come, Lord Jesus

The Rewards of Teaching Sunday School

Okay, so my ten-year-olds can't remember if they've ever received the sacrament of confession... or of reconciliation... or of penance... or of mercy.
And they cannot manage to learn the words o the Act of Contrition.

To ANY "Act of Contrition."

(Could you just say, "I'm sorry for my sins"? Five words...? Learn that? Please...? Too much?)

And they can't tell the difference between "confirmation" and "communion."

And it is impossible to get them not to write in the pages of their missals, and to write on the pages of their workbooks.
Or pick up paper off the floor.
Or not to taste the paste.
Or to keep their hands off my things.
Or to put down their phones.
Or...
Well, no matter.

Today one instigated, and the others kept going, with pertinent, insightful questions, a discussion of, I kid you not, chronos and kairos.

I love them. (Even the kid who tried to break a desk by pounding on it with his foot in a cast.)
I just love them

The Precious Blood, Sunday Dinner and Miracles

An "Ask Father" Q and A at Crux strikes me as ill-done.
First off, let me say that I do not know Fr Doyle, I'm sure he is a good man, and I have no issue with his sacramental theology, (since I also don't know it, and assume it is orthodox.)
But it is asked,

At Mass recently, after listening intently to the words of consecration, our 4-year-old granddaughter whispered to my wife, “Is wine really blood?” How would you answer her question? 

and the good Father answers, ultimately,

Now having said [various matters about Christ, Aquinas and the rejection of "hard sayings"], I don’t think your granddaughter needs to know all of that right now. Little children think in pictures, so I’m not sure that I would mention “body and blood” at all.
I might say something like, “It still tastes like wine, but it’s different now and special; it’s Jesus coming into our souls to help us to be good.”

which would differ from the beliefs of most Protestants how exactly?
Different, and special and "Jesus coming into our hearts" is precisely how a Methodist Youth Minister described their denom's understanding of the white bread and Welch's they had once a month.

An icky humanism has made many Catholics way too diffident in giving voice to any belief in which we differ from our separated siblings - it's a sad fact of modern life and religious expression in the public square.
But that a Catholic priest would suggest that in "intra-denominational" dialogue, (i.e. a Catholic grandparent speaking to a Catholic grandchild in the context of a Eucharistic liturgy,) the teachings of the Church, the teachings of Jesus Christ should be glossed over in answer to a direct question about the nature of the Eucharist?
No.
Just NO.

Have you ever met a small child, can you even imagine the existence of one, who would not have been thrilled to know that she had just witnessed a miracle?
And that it was one she would be privileged to see repeated?
That something supernatural occurs?
That what happens was deliberately and specifically given to us BY GOD as a means of  receiving HIS LOVE, HIS GRACE? sharing in that?

So how about answering, "No, not all wine - but the Holy Spirit has just come to us in the Mass as Jesus promised and what seems to be wine is no longer wine but is the LIVING GOD"?
I'd probably go on, and if you don't quite "get" that, don't worry, neither does Grandma really, or anyone else, it's beyond human understanding, but God said it, God understands it, and that's good enough for me.

And just because I have a real bug about letting childrens' remarkable memories and ability to internalize truths without yet coming close to being able to comprehend go to waste, We call Jesus being there in what looks like bread and wine during Communion "the Real Presence."

And then I'd use the phrase "Real Presence" about a hundred more times after Mass and next time I had the kiddo with me within 50 miles of a Church.
Real Presence.
Real Presence.
Real Presence.
Real Presence.

When I was a kid our parish did not administer the sacrament under both species except rarely, (the one I attend now never does,) but I had received once or twice at an Eastern Rite Diving Liturgy.
The wine used was rich and sweet, (almost like a sherry, I think now looking back on it,) and of course, leavened bread, (which reminded me of babka.)
I was told that that was not how most wine tastes.
We had a roast of some sort almost every Sunday dinner, and although my parents were both medium-well people, (grayish meat!) the center was usually pink and luscious and produced copious drippings.
As it was being carved, one or the other of us would stand at my Dad's elbow hoping to be offered a spoonful, and never disappointed.
Somehow, in my head, with the whole wine/blood thing, I decided that THAT was what "regular" wine would taste like, and oh how I wanted to receive like that!
The first time I did receive the Precious Blood at communion at a Roman Catholic parish - well, it's almost sacrilegious to say so, I suppose, but I was sore disappointed. (Though not as disappointed as I would be if it had tasted like Welch's....)

In my experience, parishes seem to take and all or nothing approach toward offering the Chalice - it is either never, not even on major feastdays and special, solemn events, or it is every single Mass even on weekdays and at funerals and when in all other respects it is apparent that there is some pressure of time.

Don't understand it.

Young Yahoos at Yale: Hollow Wienies, or Wugwats Wooking Faw a Widdoo Home Away Fwom Home

The kiddies men and women of Yale did not have much fun with their trick or treating this year.
Was somebody faced with a shortage of the special orange and white chocolate Halloween Kit Kats?
Not exactly.
What happened was, one administrator sent out a missive to all the children suggesting that offensive masquerade costumes were.... well, you know - offensive.
Some children thought they were being treated like children.
Then another administrator sent one reminding the children that on their way to becoming grown ups, one of the ways we become big boys and girls is by being freed to make the kind of stupid decisions little boys and girls do.
Some of them then proceeded to lie down in the middle of the mall and kick and scream.
Others threatened to hold their breath until they tuned blue.
One or two peed themselves, I think, but that may not have been deliberate, or "transgressive," but just nervous shpilkes, from the thrill and the pressure of being allowed to try their hands at growing up, maybe even going out trick or treating without a baby sitter!
 (That may just have been too much...)
Crowds gathered, screaming and yelling at the Master of Slytherin and his wife, (she's something to do with the Ministry of Getting Us All Fitted Out In Big Kid Panties.)
Hundreds of the little ones surrounded them, told them what they ought to think and when offered the chance to dialogue or talk over sandwiches or something were told, "No, don' wanna," and sucked their thumbs to bolster their side of the reasoned discourse.
Fortunately, one little miss  was brave enough to speak, and explained to one of the nannies, in, er.... robust tones,

"Be quiet...It is your job to create a place of comfort and home for the students… Do you understand that? Why the f*** did you accept the position? Who the f*** hired you?... step down! If that is what you think about being a Master, then you should step down. It is not about creating an intellectual space! It is not! Do you understand that? It’s about creating a home here! You are not doing that. You’re going against that"

which, when you think about it is really pretty funny, since if most people used that kind of language when negotiating with the adults upon whom they depend, and whom they expect to warm their bottles and change their diapers "create a home" for them, they would, to use words the darling babes can understand, get the s*** beat out of their f****** a****.

Doncha think?

Great Catholic Artwork - and Your Children Can Get In On the Action!

This is major - Daniel Mitsui, one of the finest Catholic artisans or artists working today, has made CATHOLIC COLORING PAGES available.
Adult coloring books are having a moment, and these pages, which he offers, soli Deo gloria, are as beautiful as anything you will find in the collections at art supply or craft stores.

And he has made them freely available if - you cannot afford to make a donation. (But you should, if you can -- consider donating.)

The thing is, anyone looking for coloring pages for children knows how awful most of the religious stuff out there can be, not good and interesting enough for most past kindergarten age, and often grossly unworthy of their subject matter.
These are quite, quite magnificent.

In the World Yet Not Of the World

 Really thoughtful piece in First Things, by Robert Louis Wilken, regarding the "Church As Culture."

 Christ entered history as a community, a society, not simply as a message, and the form taken by the community’s life is Christ within society. The Church is a culture in its own right. Christ does not simply infiltrate a culture; Christ creates culture by forming another city, another sovereignty with its own social and political life.

Go read it.
One of the aspects of culture that he discusses is the ordering of time.
In Sunday school we've been talking about the whys of the Liturgy, of the liturgical calender, of the Ordo Missae, (though they inevitably think and speak of it as, "the missalette." Which reminds me, I said I'd post those lyrics.)

Nine and ten year olds have no trouble at all acknowledging the advantage of us all, "being on the same page."

Children are naturally liturgical beings and are naturally catholic.

They see the value of sharing a ritual, having a common focus of attention with persons of other places and of other times.

For all the fretting about the synod, which I admit to sharing with other right-minded Catholics, besides our surety that the gates of hell shall not, etc., I am encouraged at the constant reminders that the Truth is accessible not just to the great souls and deep thinkers among us but to any child with ears to hear and eyes to see a soul to perceive, and having perceived, love.
Or any middle-aged layabout as well, of course.
Aquinas can give me a headache, and I may become catatonic in the presence of one too many Greek theological terms, and my mind may wander when I think I'm engaged in spiritual reading, but whatever it is that is needed, I know that the Lord has created me, like every other human being ever conceived, enough of it to know Him and to love Him and to serve Him and ultimately be with Him.

I digress -- where I was really going with that was, whatever mess Catholic adults make make of things, however rough the sailing as we stupidly rush en masse to the starboard or the port railing, there are new little people all the time and the Barq will be righted.

And another aside, I know very little of this St. Isidore, and this intrigues me, (I spend a great deal of my time with a person whose use of language is imprecise to the point of random, said person's extreme tenderness of ego dates from damage in youth; I am never wholly successful in explaining that I am NOT correcting grammar or disagreeing with an expressed opinion, merely trying to ascertain what is being said - sorry, is that a yes or a no? do you mean done to them or by them? because of that or in spite of that? that sort of thing. But I digress from my digression.)

Isidore recognized that grammar, “the science of expressing oneself correctly,” is crucial not only for reading, writing, and speaking, but also for thinking and understanding. Grammar is knowledge of the way language works and of the rules that govern the relation of words and concepts. Without grammar there can be no transmission of the text of the Scriptures and no understanding of its content; hence, no grammar, no Christian culture.

"Spontaneous"

A story that apparently touched hearts.

Bernd Hagenkord, Fr. Lombardi’s German language assistant, underlined that many of the Fathers “spoke in defence of and for a clarification of the Catholic doctrine on marriage and the family, saying that the Christian vision of marriage needs to be more clear-cut, with an emphasis on the fact that the Church does not have the authority or the power to alter the word of God. Others have underlined that as a follower of Jesus’ teaching, it cannot permanently exclude certain faithful from the sacraments because we are not border control officers who check Christians’ purity.” Hagenkord summed up by stating that “many, many speeches” were given and they were all  “constructive and of a high quality”. 
Fr. Manuel Dorantes, the Spanish-speaking language assistant, recounted the powerful story told by one Synod Father about a very unusual first communion. When a young boy went up to the altar to receive the host, he spontaneously broke it in half and gave half to his father, who was a remarried divorcee and could therefore not receive it directly. 

Forgive me if I doubt the "spontaneity" of such a gesture.
I find it almost impossible to believe that such a thing could take place unless a parent or other adult engineered it, by complaining about the injustice of his not receiving the Blessed Sacrament, by discussing the pettiness of regulating the Sacrament, by playing on the child's emotions regarding his poor father.

In the world in which we live where broken families are tragically ubiquitous I suspect there are few of us who are not on intimate terms with such a family.
And horribly, almost as widespread as the divorces themselves, are the situation wherein one or both parents, subtly or blatantly, seeks to poison the mind of the child against the other parent.

Parents have such power over their children!

If you choose, you can protect your little ones from hating another parent.

If you choose, you can help your little ones to understand what the Church teaches and why She teaches it and why you do not receive.

Or you can be selfish and play the victim and protect your image in front of them and work on their sympathy.

By the way, I have seen a parent and child strolling away from the "communion station" sharing a host.

But it was the parent who stretched out a hand to receive the Body of the Lord from the minister, casually brekaing off a piece and not even looking as he handed some off to the child.

Do most of us believe there is such a thing as a "state of grace," I wonder?

Craft Activities With Children in Religious Ed

Last year in Sunday school I had a group that really, really liked to do skits, so basically any story or situation on which I wanted to concentrate in a given class, I wrote up a quick sketch, trying to use the exact number of people who would be begging to take a role.
(Because yes, there were inevitably whines of "I only got one line! My brother has two..." answered with "Yeah, but yours has seven words and both of mine are only three, you have more, it's not fair!"; as well as cries of terror, "I have too many lines, I can't say three lines, why did you give me so many lines??!?@?!???")
Anyway, this year, nobody much wants to act, and although they are great with vocabulary and analogies, no one is keen on writing anything down.

Strangely, I don't actually need much in the way of activities, because they are far more inquisitive than any class I've had so far, we may not get to what I planned to talk about, but we have great conversations because they ask great questions and are quick to make connections and go off on worthwhile tangents.

But still, I do like having some craft ideas at the ready.

Probably any Catholic working with children already knows about this, or has favorites of their own, but Catholic Icing is new to me, and has some wonderful ideas, (I'm especially looking forward to adapting this to other seasons, if I get up the nerve to risk dye with a group that has two or three hyperactive guys....)

Adventures In Sunday School Land

Of course, it had to happen.
As of this week, I do have The Kid.
Ya know him, ya love him -- you've had him in choir, or in gym, or at a family reunion until which you didn't know your cousin had spawned, or standing in front of you in line at Walmart making the most of the musical capacities of flatulence.

He is the one who never heard a rude noise he didn't enjoy, never accepted anything he was told on first hearing, never found an object with which he couldn't make noise or poke into his nearest classmate, never touched a book he was not tempted to tear, and never gave any adult a moment's peace.

My assignment, should I choose to accept it, is to love him.

And on the other hand, I don't have to take him home with me. One of my colleagues not only has an unruly class, several years ago she apparently gave birth to a Tasmanian devil, a girl not old enough for school but who, unfortunately,is of an age to be able to walk, and who, anyone who has ever babysat will know, the mother has no choice but to bring to class because no one else in their right mind would take custody of the imp. (Pause to offer up a prayer for all such mothers, who, see? are not limited to those with boys.)

ON THE OTHER HAND FROM THAT ONE, (that third hand I keep in reserve for just such occasions,) - this is the only group of kids I've ever had where all of them, or most of the boys at least, did not snicker every time I said the word "love."

(Which, as you can imagine, comes up a lot in catechesis.)

So, on balance, a good Sunday.

Checking to See If There Are Enough Lifeboats...

.... after the ship has sailed?
Because that ship has sailed, (why do I find myself using that expression so often in the past weeks having never used it before in my life, so far as i can recall? Hmmmm...)

Catholic World Report has a piece on how unprepared for true marriage young Catholics are, not just when they present themselves for whatever marriage prep their parish provides, but when they are deemed "ready" to go though with the sacrament.
True, for the other sacrament of "service", ordination, we don't think a half a decade is long enough, and for marriage a couple evening? a couple weeks?

But the solution, on-going formation after the wedding is unrealistic and beyond that, TOO LATE.

We need to to  member that if young people are going to choose one or the other of those two sacraments, (and odds are getting worse that they will opt for either,) the overwhelming majority will marry.

That means, EVERY Catholic child should be getting training for that vocation if he gets any religious education at all.

If formal catechesis doesn't begin with small children learning about the identity of "Domestic Church", of their family, and what marriage means, and what someday, hopefully, most of them will enter into, the Church is doomed to be playing catch up the rest of those children's lives.

There is too much tearing at the fabric of the family for Her to wait.

We put so much effort into assuring that we do not criticize or marginalize the sad exceptions among us, that normalcy is relativized, and the basic building block of society, of the Church is given short shrift.

We need to stop that.

When I was in school, a very kind bachelor teacher, or the principle whose kids were grown would offer to join one of the girls or boys in my large family when there was some kind of event with a name like "Father/Son Game Night," or "The Father-Daughter Spring Dance" being held, (never "Mother/blank," since it was a given, even as working-outside-the-home mothers were on the rise, it was still a given that mothers did most of the work, and volunteering, and dealing with school issues.)
There were other kids, who, for whatever reason, were in the same situation, and teachers, uncles, family friends were always in evidence.

Did we lobby to have the names of the event changed to something that wouldn't remind us our Father was dead? Did my Mother scream, How dare you stigmatize the families of single/divorced/widowed mothers like me!
No, she, we, they were just grateful.

Now schools try to organize things in a way that suggests fathers and mothers are the same thing, well, they'd have to be, wouldnt' they, since men and women are the same?

So yes, if we, as a Church ever want to see the turn-around that is needed, we can't wait until Emily and Joshua are ready to make it legal.

We have to start as soon as they can learn to bless themselves.

First Day of Sunday School

Okay, I never expected to ever say this, and I'll probably never say it again, but I loved my first class!!!!!!!

It was fun. They are insane noisy but engaged. It is small enough that I can deal with everyone as he needs, (or as I think he needs.)

I know, it won't last, more will trickle in as the year goes on until it become unwieldy, but for now, I'm loving it.

We strayed way off plan, and it was swell -- quite a long conversation on why we have Crucifixes around when they obviously show something "bad," and what paradoxes are, and how our Faith is full of seeming contradictions, and the concept of both/and....

Oh, and on the assumption that few of them went or will go to Mass, I decided to over emotively read at least one lectionary reading every week, and boy, did James go down well, and it led right in to acting out the dividing into the sheep and the goats, and how was I supposed to know that was you, Jesus?

And how are we supposed to know? and OHHHHHHH! it's ALWAYS Him!

All in all, I was exhausted but happy.

Catholic Schools Promoting Catholic Teaching - the Unmitigaged Gall !!!!

Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Springfield IL seems to be under the impression that those schools in his purview are for the creation of virtuous persons!

Oh, my God, is there no end to the wickedness of Papists?

He seems not to understand that his Church is just a collection of arbitrary rules and suggestions, that have no place in the making of moral and ethical decisions!
How dare he foist his opinions and his beliefs on people who are just looking for a cheap alternative to prep schools, (as indicated by the way, according to stats provided by one of the secular news outlets that has its panties in a bunch the percentage of non-Catholic attending Catholic school in the diocese jumps from elementary to high school,)?

And if parents of a child in the school are publicly flouting what those wacky Catholic Christians is mandated by God's law or by natural law he's, oh my God, I can hardly bring myself to type this --- he's insisting that they dialogue!
Yes, that's right, you're not seeing things, he wants them to come in for a [shudder] MEETING.

Because, you know, the Worship of God and Salvation of Souls.

Oh the humanity!

[/snarcasm]
Do you suppose the Catholic parents of a child in an evangelical protestant school are within their rights to insist that when the kiddies are doing art projects, or working on memorization that utilize scripture, that they not use the KJV, or NLT or NIV,  little Mary Bernadette will use the NAB, thank you very much?
Or is it only Catholics who provoke these diatribes when they promote a way of life that's, um, Catholic?

Can you imagine if an Islamic school in the US told the owner of a liquor distributor who wished to enroll his kids in a madrassa to be prepared, that the were not going to avoid  the Muslim teaching on alcohol just to please him?
Or a Christian Scientist, (or do I mean Jehovah's Witnesses?) school agreed never to mention their attitude toward blood transfusions?
Or a group that engaged in ecstatic dancing promised a parent of a denom that forbade dancing that they would water down or gloss over  their religion for him?

Or any religion whose teachings included any stances that were counter-cultural which ran a school?

Would the State Journal-Register be whinging about that?
Dubious.

Here's the document for Springfield that parents are asked to sign.
Oh, you're not Catholic? Who is forcing you to enroll your kids there?

There's an old saying in community theatre that too many star wannabes and drive-by members of the organization don't realize that it's more about "community" that "theatre."

Well, many parents, Catholic and non-, and of course the secular media, don't understand that Catholic Schools are and should be more about Catholicism than Scholarship. The latter is an accidental, and its purpose is to reinforce the former.

The money thing, the tithing?
I don't know about any of the parochial and high schools in Springfield, but in any other diocese of which I've had any knowledge even the out-of-parish, out of the Faith tuition didn't begin to cover the actual costs per student.

The sacrifices made by the teachers, (most could get much better money elsewhere,) and the average PIP, (most of whom, childless or not, do not have children in the schools in question,) are to build up the Faith, to build up the Church, to produce good Catholic, to - I can hardly believe this needs saying and I know when it is said it is roundly mocked - TO SAVE SOULS.

Here endeth the rant.

Trying to explain incense to children of a minimalist parish...

.... whose only encounters with its fragrances are likely through the hippie-slash-beachcomber denizens of this area?
Not easy.
And myrrh?
Eeeeeeeeeeew, you mean they were going to touch His body???!?!??$?%????!?!?!!? (I employed the upper case for the pronoun, it was almost certainly not inherent in the line reading of the little heathen who asked the question.)
Nearly hopeless.
This, by Peter Leithart caught my eye:

JPM Sweet points out that the Greek word “Smyrna” means myrrh, the perfume given to Jesus by the magi and, importantly, part of the mix of spices used for Jesus’ burial (John 19:29). Jesus... now sends a message to the church of myrrh,. which is also facing death but promised resurrection.

Myrrh was a component of the holy anointing oil for the priests (Exodus 30:23), and was one of the perfumes that created an aromatic cloud around the king (Song of Songs 3:6) and grew in the garden that was the bride (Song of Songs 4:14). With a church at Smyrna, Jesus is the myrrh-anointed Priest, the holy Lover, and the suffering church is also a priest in Him, the perfumed beloved.

Of course, the notion that what happens in the Smyrna where Christianity is in such danger might be of any interest to them, when there is another Smyrna just a hop and skip from Disney World would be an even harder sell than the value of myrrh....

Babies Is Funny

I am amused and charmed by babies and toddlers of all degrees and stations, so don't take my repeating of this story as evidence of any royalist leanings.

A visitor asked the Duchess of Cambridge,

"... if Prince George was excited about the new prince or princess that was coming and she said yes and that he is a toddler and is talking and walking"....
"Then she told me that his daddy, Prince William, was visiting China.
"After hearing this he went to the china cabinet, opened it and proclaimed 'daddy is not here.'"