En route to the Atlanta Youth and Family Encounter (YFE), Katie and I visited the Pepe family, who as I mentioned in an earlier post also met through Ave Maria Catholic Singles.

They were so generous to us, meeting us personally at the airport, giving us two awesome tote bags full of EWTN goodies: umbrellas, a book on The Passion movie, Mother Angelica’s latest book, bumper stickers, holy cards, etc.!

We went to Mass at the beautiful chapel where they film and broadcast from each day. The priest, Father Francis, gave a homily about how we as men should live our lives that really inspired me.

Then after Mass we went outside and ran into Father Tom Euteneuer! He talked with us for five or ten minutes, and then the Pepe’s took us to a Chinese buffet. Their daughters are so precious!

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A Jesuit priest has launched a website to explore the faith and charism of the Jesuit order, beginning with the first of what will be ten videos.

Click on the Jesuit Review link to watch the first video.  The Jesuits have such an awesome history and many saints, as you know.  It’s good to see a Jesuit give a clear explanation of what they all strive to be.

Katie and I had a great time at the Youth and Family Encounter (YFE)!

I will be making several posts about the conference, including photos and some videos I took.

Highlights included:

• My incorporation into Regnum Christi with Father Alvaro Corcuera
• Eduardo Verastegui’s conversion story
• The Bella movie
• Cardinal Rode’s address and homily
• All the wonderful people we got to meet

Here is the first video I took in the convention center showing the general hub-bub:

I am taking off from work tomorrow and Friday because Katie and I are heading right out of state to the Youth and Family Encounter in Atlanta, Georgia!

God has helped us plan so many cool things on our trip. For example, because we had two free frequent flyer tickets on Southwest airlines, we decided to use them for this trip, but Southwest doesn’t fly to Atlanta.

So we are flying to the next closest city we could find: Birmingham, Alabama. Now I don’t know of much in Birmingham, but we do know that EWTN is close by in Irondale, and what’s more, we had a very kind couple who also met on Ave Maria Catholic Singles invite us to spend time with them anytime we were in the area.

Well, we’re gonna be in the area, so I emailed the Pepe’s, and now we are going to go to Mass with them at EWTN and then have lunch together!

The rest of Thursday and all of Friday we will spend having fun at the YFE, and then on Saturday in between activities we are going to meet and have lunch with Linda, a fellow beekeeper who lives in Atlanta and who we have gotten to know through her blog and the bee forums.

At the YFE, we will hopefully get to see a screening of the movie Bella, which has received excellent reviews and acclaim throughout the world.

I plan to take pictures, so I will post them when we return. Hasta luego!

When Devin and I married last October, I happily changed my name to Catherine Jean Marie Rose, dropping my maiden name.  I was proud of my maiden name, Bateson, and all the history that it carried, but I didn’t see any way to carry both names, Rose and Bateson, without seeming like I was resisting my full integration into marriage.  Somehow, hyphenating my name, Bateson-Rose, would have made me feel like I was trying to retain some measure of autonomy and individuality even as I entered into the total mutual self-gift that is the sacrament of marriage.

But, recently, I read the biography of St. Gianna Beretta Molla, wife, mother, and doctor.  She was so amazing and beautiful!  If only I could be a woman like that.  Anyway, the author of her biography wrote a lovely reflection about her double surnames, stating,

“Here, one finds the explanation of the dual last name, which is no aristocratic affectation, but rather bears witness to the nobility of a married woman.” (Guerriero, 17)

The nobility of a married woman.  I like that!   And, that certainly has always been Catholic teaching.  A woman marries a man sacramentally and joins him as a helpmate, equal in dignity and priceless in value; I know that some Catholic people haven’t always honored women, but the official Church doctrine is clear.  

That might explain why in “Catholic” countries (countries that have historically been generally Catholic–Italy, France, Latin America) the practice of double surnames is common.  Our friends, the Garcias, recently married, and Roxanna took Gerardo’s surname as a complement to her own.  I really like that.

Roxanna Garcia Ibarrola.  Gianna Beretta Molla.  Alexis Thibodeau Dobson. Catherine Bateson Rose.  Yep, that’s right.  I have officially decided, with the support of Devin, to drop my middle names, Jean Marie, and go with Bateson instead.  I’ll miss the lovely Jean Marie, but need to begin exercising the “nobility of a married woman”, right?   YKC!

My friend Nathan came over two more times last week and helped me build me and Katie’s chicken coop:

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Grieving has different stages, we’re told. So, I’m going to assume that I’m working with one of the grieving stages here, even though this feels awfully like venting to me.

I know that everyone means well and that they’re sad for us, and that’s why they want to comfort Devin and me. But, to the one lady and the other lady and that other lady, it’s not helpful to say “You’re young. You’ll have many more children.” It’s also not helpful to say, “You don’t know what your baby would have been. It probably had a genetic problem, and it’s better that it wasn’t born.” Definitely not helpful.

Because, you see, I’m not ready to think about other babies. I’m sad for THIS baby. THIS child of our love who we will not hold in our arms this side of heaven. THIS member of the Rose family who might have had his father’s curls. When I see pregnant women, I don’t feel a longing for another baby; I feel an ache that I don’t look like that now with THIS baby.

I know that people don’t know what to say because miscarriage is awkward and nobody quite knows what to say; it’s strange because nobody ever really had a chance to know this baby.  I know that all of these good people mean well, and want to reach out and ease our sorrow.   And, thank you to all of you who have said the perfect things–something as simple as “I’m so sorry”–and been so gentle and understanding. I have been amazed by the delicate charity (as Father Maciel says) of so many of our friends. Thank you.

Bless the Lord. Dear John Thomas, please pray for your mother, that I can be charitable and understanding. YKC!

James Benedict Hebert!

Our marriage mentor couple and good friends, the Heberts, invited me and Katie to be the God-parents of their newest son, James.

I was very happy and grateful to be chosen by them; it is such an honor to be entrusted in this way with their beloved baby.

God bless the Heberts!

…are belong to us.

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Here is the video of Katie and me crushing and straining the honey comb.

This is only two frames of honey; we hope to have at least 14 more!

Linda the beekeeper in Atlanta made a video that was very helpful to us in figuring out how to go about doing this.  Thanks, Linda!