Very Interesting...

Apparently, a herd of elephants is rampaging in India, seemingly avenging Catholics martyred there a year ago.

Pray for those who have died, martyrs and persecutors alike.

Posted in: , , on Monday, December 21, 2009 at at 12:38 PM 0 hooligans commenting  

I see Joy

That was the license plate in the back of the red sport sedan in front of me this morning: "I See Joy." This got me to thinking that surely this person in front of me must have the Joy of the Lord in her heart, especially during this time leading up to the Christmas season. My heart glowed red like the paint job on her car.

Until she illegally passed the green car in front of her on a two-lane street. It would seem that the green car wasn't going fast enough. We got stuck at the light on the next block (4 lanes now). The green car in front of me, the red car next to the green, in the right lane, behind the cab of a tractor trailer (without a trailer). The light turns green and the red car has to wait while the trailerless tractor trailer gets going. In my rear view mirror, I see the red car pull out in front of a white van and go around the offending truck.

This gets me thinking, perhaps this woman's name is Joy and all she sees is herself.

Which now has me thinking, ought my license plate to read: "I See Amy?"

O Sapientia: “O Wisdom, O holy Word of God, you govern all creation with your
strong yet tender care. Come and show your people the way to salvation.” Isaiah
had prophesied, “The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him: a spirit of wisdom
and of understanding, a spirit of counsel and of strength, a spirit of knowledge
and fear of the Lord, and his delight shall be the fear of the Lord.” (11:2-3),
and “Wonderful is His counsel and great is His wisdom.” (28:29).

We start to pray the "O Antiphons" today in preparation for Christmas. Click on the quote above for a great link to an explanation of what the "O Antiphons" are.

"O come, Thou, Wisdom from on high,
Who orderest all things mightily.
To us the path of knowledge show,
And teach us in her ways to grow."

Posted in: , on Thursday, December 17, 2009 at at 12:16 PM 1 hooligans commenting  

Thank them, especially at this time of year.


The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,
I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
My daughter beside me, angelic in rest.
Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
Transforming the yard to a winter delight.

The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,
Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.
My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,
Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.
In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,
So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.

The sound wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near,
But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear..
Perhaps just a cough, I didn't quite know, Then the
sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.
My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
And I crept to the door just to see who was near.

Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,
A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.
A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,
Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.
Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,
Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.

"What are you doing?" I asked without fear,
"Come in this moment, it's freezing out here!
Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,
You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!"
For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,
Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts..

To the window that danced with a warm fire's light
Then he sighed and he said "Its really all right,
I'm out here by choice. I'm here every night."
"It's my duty to stand at the front of the line,
That separates you from the darkest of times.

No one had to ask or beg or implore me,
I'm proud to stand here like my fathers before me.
My Gramps died at 'Pearl on a day in December,"
Then he sighed, "That's a Christmas 'Gram always remembers."
My dad stood his watch in the jungles of 'Nam',
And now it is my turn and so, here I am.

I've not seen my own son in more than a while,
But my wife sends me pictures, he's sure got her smile.
Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,
The red, white, and blue... an American flag.
I can live through the cold and the being alone,
Away from my family, my house and my home.

I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,
I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.
I can carry the weight of killing another,
Or lay down my life with my sister and brother..
Who stand at the front against any and all,
To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall.."

" So go back inside," he said, "harbor no fright,
Your family is waiting and I'll be all right."
"But isn't there something I can do, at the least,
"Give you money," I asked, "or prepare you a feast?
It seems all too little for all that you've done,
For being away from your wife and your son."

Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,
"Just tell us you love us, and never forget.
To fight for our rights back at home while we're gone,
To stand your own watch, no matter how long.
For when we come home, either standing or dead,
To know you remember we fought and we bled.
Is payment enough, and with that we will trust,
That we mattered to you as you mattered to us."

Posted in: , on Wednesday, December 16, 2009 at at 9:02 AM 0 hooligans commenting  

A day that will live in infamy...


"The surprise was complete. The attacking planes came in two waves; the first hit its target at 7:53 AM, the second at 8:55. By 9:55 it was all over. By 1:00 PM the carriers that launched the planes from 274 miles off the coast of Oahu were heading back to Japan. "
-"Attack on Pearl Harbor" from eyewitnesstohistory.com

Pray today for those who were lost on this day in 1941. Pray for all those who died in World War II. Pray for all those who fought in World War II. Pray for those who fight now that they may remain courageous in battle. Pray also for those who lead us now that the Lord might bless them with the ability to make peace.

Posted in: , on Monday, December 07, 2009 at at 1:38 PM 1 hooligans commenting  

"Baby, It's Cold Outside"

I'd like to know what a song about a guy trying to get a girl to get into bed with him has to do with Christmas.

Also: Norah Jones and Willie Nelson singing this song together is just a bit creepy. He's old enough to be her grandfather. But it IS the best version of it I've heard.

Posted in: on Monday, November 23, 2009 at at 8:56 AM 2 hooligans commenting  

Veterans Day


Thank you to all of the brave men and women who have fought for our country on any field of battle. If you, like I, have never served in the military, please take time today to think about the sacrifices these folks have made to serve us and keep us safe. Think of the doughboy who made his way overseas for the first time, digging trenches in France, shells exploding over his head. Think of the WACS and Joes who went back 30 years later to fight in WWII, arriving on the shores of France like in the photo above. Think of those who went to Korea to stop the spread of communism. Think of those who served in the steaming jungles of Vietnam and Central America, who sweated in the deserts of Iraq, who climbed in the mountains of Afghanistan, and all other places their President has sent them. They went willingly, bravely, to meet an uncertain future and they returned, asking nothing but for us to every once in a while to stop and say thank you. Ponder the sacrifices they and their families made and I dare you not to choke up a bit.

I love how Veterans Day falls on the feast of St. Martin of Tours. When Martin was 10 (326 AD), over his parents' objections, he wanted to be baptized and began to be taught. He eventually joined the Roman army and was stationed in Gaul (modern-day France) where he was born. One day, by the city gate, he saw a beggar with hardly any clothing. Without much thought, he cut his cloak in half and gave half to the beggar (see picture at right). That night, he had a dream were he saw Jesus wearing his half cloak. He finished his religious training and became baptized. After he left the army, he became a priest, and eventually the bishop of Tours. As a bishop, he passionately defended the Church against the Arian heresy. He died in 397 AD.

St. Martin is the patron saint of soldiers, which makes Veterans Day on November 11 so very cool.

Heavenly Father, through the intercession of St. Martin of Tours, I beg your blessings for those men and women who are veterans of the wars the United States has fought. Please bless them and their families for the sacrifices they have made for our country. Please bless the United States. Please let us be a beacon for freedom and good for the whole world. Mary, the Immaculate Conception, patroness of the United States, pray for us. Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us.

Posted in: , , on Wednesday, November 11, 2009 at at 8:19 AM 1 hooligans commenting  

We have Religious Ed. classes on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. The kids come for one of those sessions every week. We have about 625 kids in RE, so it gets kind of busy.

The Tuesday session meets from 3:45-5:00, so Scott comes to pick up the kids from me at work at about 4:45, takes them home, and gets dinner started.

Tonight's menu was leftover teriyaki chicken (grilled last night) with rice and stir fry veggies. Now, the children will not eat them all stir-fried together because they are my children and are therefore adverse to anything that makes my life easier, such as eating the same meal their father and I enjoy. ("Sauce? What kind of sauce? I don't like sauce. I like ketchup. You stirred it all together! I know it's called stir fry AND it will all wind up stirred together in my tummy, but I don't want my food all mixed up on my plate!!")

Point? Yes, I have one. Right on the top of my head.

So, Scott came home and started making the rice. He measured out 3 cups of rice and cooked it. Which yielded approximately 10 cups of cooked rice.

Lord, I am thankful to you today for the rice pudding I am about to enjoy. Yum.

Posted in: on Tuesday, November 10, 2009 at at 9:49 PM 1 hooligans commenting  


Luigi, Mario, and their pumpkin.

Posted in: , , on Monday, November 02, 2009 at at 1:43 PM 2 hooligans commenting  

I hate Halloween

Well, hate is a strong word, but I really don't like it. I think I like it even less than that cat over there does. It's not much more to me than a whole big, huge pain in the rear end. Getting costumes together is stressful. Then the inevitable, "I changed my mind. I don't want to be that; I want to be this" the week before Halloween. I set a deadline for the kids to tell me what they want to be on Halloween and then that's IT. Bub tried pulling this last weekend. When I reminded him that it was past the mind-changing deadline and that he wasn't going to be a skeleton, but Mario like he had told me the week before, my six year old son declared that "Fine! I'll wear it, but this is going to be the WORST HALLOWEEN EVER!!!!" To which I replied if he would truly like it to be the WORST HALLOWEEN EVER, he should mention costumes to me one more time and then he wouldn't be allowed to trick or treat.

What bothers me even more than my children's temper tantrums is the decidedly more evil and downright disturbingly scary turn that Halloween decorations have taken in recent years. It's to the point where I avoid the Halloween Aisle at our local Tar-jay. I had to go into a Halloween store last weekend with Curly Sue (looking for Mario and Luigi costume stuff). I should have marched right back out, but I didn't. She's had 2 nightmares since last Saturday and she usually sleeps like a baby. I blame my lousy parenting and the zombies and horror music at the store.

I can't wait till it's over. What are you (or your kids) going to be?

Posted in: , on Thursday, October 29, 2009 at at 7:50 PM 3 hooligans commenting  

"True works of God always meet with opposition and are marked by suffering. If God wants to accomplish something, sooner or later He will do so in spite of the difficulties. Your part, in the meantime, is to arm yourself with great patience." Fr. Michael Sopocko, spiritual director and confessor to St. Faustina Kowalska, from the Diary of St. Faustina, paragraph 270.

Posted in: , , on Tuesday, October 27, 2009 at at 11:25 PM 2 hooligans commenting  

Ecumenism

This week, the Holy Father made it easier for Anglicans who want to be united with Rome to, well, unite with Rome. There are many people more knowledgeable than I who wrote about it. Among them are: Father Z., Matthew Archbold, Rocco Palmo, Fr. Longenecker (who was once Anglican himself). I'm not going to try to dissect the pope's message. So many others are doing that, and I don't have the real energy it would take to do that well. I don't even have the energy to write down my navel-gazings for this blog, let alone take on a major project like that. I will just say not to believe everything you read in the papers, secular and otherwise. There are people who just don't like the pope. And I don't think he's poaching congregations from others. He's just responding to their request to come home. What good father wouldn't find a way for his child to come home (See the Prodigal Son)?

But today Father Z. posted this good bit about B16 being the Pope of Christian Unity and food for thinking about what Ecumenism truly is. And my brain took that food for thought and it satisfied something my brain has been trying to chew on for years.

I firmly believe, and was taught, that the Catholic Church is the only Church founded by Jesus Christ. Our popes and bishops trace their line (through ordination) all the way back, unbroken through history, to the Apostles, whom Jesus commissioned. Presbyterians can trace their lines back only so far as John Calvin, Anglicans to Henry VIII of England, etc..

By our baptism, we are called, among other things, to go forth and make disciples of all nations. We are all called to mission. Maybe some of us are called to go out and evangelize in extraordinary ways, by going to other countries and to proclaim the Good News to those who have never heard it. Maybe some of us are called by God to evangelize in our parishes, in catechetical ministry. Maybe some are called to evangelize by blog. But all of us are called to live as Jesus taught us, keeping the 10 Commandments: loving God with all our heart, all our mind, and all our strength, and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. In this way, with the joy that comes from living as the Lord intends us to live, we draw others closer to God. They see how joyful we are and they draw closer to God by our example. This is how the ordinary person is an evangelist.

Not to get off track, but think on this: How full of joy are you? Are you feeling the joy that comes from life in Christ? Why or why not? Can other people tell? Are you giving anyone a reason to consider the Church?

So, if we can accept that the Catholic Church is historically the Church founded by Christ Himself (see third paragraph above), and we can accept that Christians are called to mission, what should the true purpose of ecumenism be? Should it be about fact-finding? ("Ah, I see that you believe in the Real Presence. So do we! But you really don't have it since your founder broke away from the Church and interrupted the line of Apostolic succession. Hmmm...what else have we got?")

And what of the "one, true Church" argument? The Catholic Church is the only Church founded by Christ Himself. In Lumen Gentium, the fathers of the Second Vatican Council said that other Christian churches are only true churches as far as they subsist in the Catholic Church, or are in union with the Catholic Church.

I read somewhere recently (and I cannot remember the source) that someone said that through interreligious dialogue should be like laying down a two way street so that we don't crash into each other. We learn about each other so we can stay out of one another's way. Consider: is this true to what we understand our mission as baptized Christians to be? Especially in light of Jesus' prayer that all are one in Him?

If we consider the highway analogy above, it works for us, to a point. After dialogue with those of other faiths, the example of the Catholic Christian should be so compelling, and his ways of explaining the Faith so good, that others are led to join the Catholic Church, not through any direct, coercive effort of the Catholic Christian, but through the work of the Holy Spirit, who draws us ever closer to the Lord.

So, can ecumenism truly be about fact finding? I don't think so. By being a true Christian, by loving God and others perfectly, those who belong to other faiths should want to join us. Father Z. used the analogy in his article about the members of the two faiths stretching, which is an image I find particularly apt. One person is about to fall off a cliff. The other, on top of the cliff, stretches his hand, scooting himself to the edge, reaching as far as he can to save his friend without falling over the edge himself. The other, clinging to the rock for life, stretches his hand as high as he can. Their fingertips brush, they stretch more, reaching, reaching, until they clasp hands, and the one at the top is able to pull his friend back to the safety of the solid rock, the Rock upon whom Jesus built His Church.

Posted in: , , on Friday, October 23, 2009 at at 8:37 AM 1 hooligans commenting  

Hello, blog, it's me, Amy.

Hey. Did you miss me?

I have had some things going on that I wish I could blog about, but since it involves one of my children and he has asked me to respect his privacy and not blog about it, I can't. But it's all good. No one is in the hospital or anything. Everyone is healthy and well. But the thing is that it is kind of taking up all of my time and mental energy. But whatever. This isn't his brain dump, it's mine and I just will have to talk about it endlessly with Scott instead of you.

So, here's some things that are happening that are not the 700 pound gorilla in my life right now. In no particular order:

1. My Curly Sue is sleeping under my desk at work right now. Poor kiddo has to get up with her brothers so we can get them to school on time. If left to her own devices she'd sleep until 9:00 instead of 6:45.

2. I am teaching 7th grade CCD on Wednesdays and I love it. That is why I got into this job in the first place. Nothing beats being in a classroom.

3. Going to see Bruce Springsteen at Giants Stadium tomorrow night. I'm really psyched. He's going to play all of the "Born to Run" album! And our tickets were only $33 each!

4. Went to the pumpkin patch with Bub's kindergarten class on Monday. What a bunch of fun that was! It was nice to spend some time with just Bub. I don't get to spend a lot of time with him when his siblings aren't around. He's a funny guy.

That's all I've got. Happy Wednesday!

Posted in: , , on Wednesday, October 07, 2009 at at 1:32 PM 2 hooligans commenting  

My first bad haiku

At Catholic Teacher Musings is Bad Haiku Friday. My submission:

To live in N. J.
Is to take thirty minutes
To drive but 6 miles.

Posted in: on Friday, September 25, 2009 at at 11:10 AM 6 hooligans commenting  

Six is super!

Happy Birthday to my boy, Bubba! Bub turns six today and we are so blessed to have this boy with us.

Here is a Bub-crostic poem to describe my middle child:

Bubbly
Uproarious
Beautiful
Buddy
Awesome

Bub likes: music; They might be Giants; Star Wars; video games; snuggling; hugging; his brother and sister, and of course, his mom and dad; he likes to play with his friends.

Bub dislikes: tomato sauce, lima beans.

Happy birthday to my funny, sunny, Bubba. I can't believe it's been 6 years since you were born. You are a delight and you warm my heart with your hugs and silly songs and stories. I am so glad that God sent you to us.

Posted in: on Thursday, September 17, 2009 at at 8:36 AM 2 hooligans commenting  

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