We met 6 great young people from the University of Maryland at Assisi–they bought me and Katie dinner so generously that we were floored, and the next evening we all went out to dinner together.They also took the only picture of me and Katie together on the trip and sent it to us!
Katie and I went to Sacred Heart parish in Austin yesterday for my first Tridentine Mass!
I didn’t know what to expect, and I so I shouldn’t be surprised that much of it felt quite unexpected. Overall, the Mass was very reverent and evoked in me a greater appreciation for the majesty of our Lord, something that our normal Masses don’t often do.
I was surprised when the priest first began Mass because he faced the altar and spoke inaudibly for a number of minutes–I realized he was saying certain prayers (in Latin of course) because the Latin/English Mass guide they provided to us indicated that.
Katie and I were on our way to dinner this evening when we heard Drew Mariani’s show on Relevant Radio, and the intro music played…
I asked Katie if she knew the song, and she said, “Yeah, it’s Ozzy Ozbourne’s ‘The Road to Nowhere’”. After I got over my shock that Katie was familiar with a song by Ozzy Ozbourne, I responded, “No, I think it is Spacehog’s ‘In the Meantime’”.
Katie stuck by her guess, so we made a wager. If I won, she would have to pick me up from work (instead of me walking home) 2 times when she really didn’t feel like doing so at some point in the future.
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I was feeling a little down this morning. A little lonely. Then I stumbled upon the photos from yesterday’s March for Life in Washington, DC:Â
http://picasaweb.google.com/BarbarasMommyLife/MarchForLife2007
And, it made me cry. With hope. I love being Catholic and young and pro-life. YKC!
Go read this inspiring and succinct article on CatholicExchange.com about a high school teacher who also teaches Missionaries of Charity sisters (Mother Theresa’s order) and who one day brought some high schoolers to Eucharistic Adoration at the convent.
I heard reactions like, “That was powerful” and “The sisters were authentic” and “They had nothing, but they were the happiest people I’ve ever met!” Since then about twenty other students have made the trek to the convent and the reactions are similar.
We so often short-change adolescents and teenagers by thinking that they cannot spend ten minutes, let alone an hour, in quiet prayer and reflection and also by doubting that they can believe in Jesus Real Presence in the Blessed Sacrament–how wrong we are!
May we instead set lofty expectations of faith for them and for ourselves, trusting in God to supply the grace and love.
I told many of my coworkers and friends about me and Katie’s getting bees, and the almost universal reaction was disbelief, ridicule, and dire warnings of death and chaos.
Our sister Courtney has been one of the few exceptions, for which I am grateful. Don’t worry though: I am not discouraged by this backlash against our beloved (and misunderstood) bees, for I know how cool they are
Bees can sting you, and that is scary, especially if you hear about the few Africanized (killer) bee attacks that have happened in the past years. But if a beekeeper pays attention to his bees and stewards them well, the chance of killer bees infiltrating the hive unnoticed are nil.
This kind of thing is not explainable, though, to the average person because of the pre-conceived ideas that they have, often fed by simple ignorance of bees and by the media, who never reports when someone was not stung by bees.
May God bless my bees, and all my neighbors and coworkers, too!
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At least, ours did. While driving the bus. Full of people. Through tunnels. In the evening. In the mist. For an hour.
I have never before seen a bus driver drive with one hand on the wheel, as well as using the aid of his knee, while his other hand holds his phone to his ear. He was quite at ease as he maneuvered our big shiny bus through the streets of Perugia, talking all the while on his little phone. All the other bus passengers were at ease, too, which made me question my American discomfort. I suppose, in Italy, driving is an entirely different affair than in the States.
In fact, we had a small discussion to that effect with our friend, Father Jaeger, in Rome, over dinner at La Carrette. He explained his frustration with American drivers who, in his view, stay in their lanes with the effect of slowing traffic and creating bottlenecks. The Romans, he contended, flow smoothly around any obstacle, remaining alert and flexible so as to create a constantly moving traffic flow.
All I know is that I’m glad Devin and I took the train more than the bus. YKC!
They are coming because we have ordered a hive of bees from the B. Weaver apiary!
Are we crazy? The short answer is “yes”. 
more…
My sister, Courtney, gave me a book for Christmas, “Catholic Matters”, written by Father Richard John Neuhaus, and it is an excellent book!
Fr. Neuhaus tells the story of his conversion from being a Lutheran pastor to the Catholic Church and goes into depth about the Church in the United States before and after the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II) and concludes with his “Rome Diary”, his account of the days in Rome after Pope John Paul II’s death and leading up to the election of Cardinal Ratzinger to the papacy.
Some people criticize Catholics as blindly following whatever the Pope says, which Fr. Neuhaus analyzes at length:
Dissent from official teachings–typically from teachings that do not sit well with the surrounding culture, and most typically from teachings touching on sexuality–is taken to be a mark of having grown up. The disposition is this: “Yes, I am a Catholic, but I think for myself.” The somewhat implausible assumption is that what one thinks up by oneself is more interesting than what the Church teaches. [emphasis mine]
Katie and I returned to the United States and Austin from Italy just in time for a winter storm that has iced the city over and closed down most businesses.
Today it sleeted and snowed! I took pictures of the icicles outside our house. It’s been fun: We built a fire, spent some time with our neighbors whom we have been intending to get to know better for many months, and read books.
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