St. Joseph’s Vanguard And Our Lady’s Train

It’s tough to find clothing that is feminine, fashionable, and modest, and I was delighted yesterday to stumble upon the website for Shabby Apple clothing. It’s featured in the newly published Eliza magazine, which, from what I understand is an initiative of young women who are members of LDS. They did a great job with the magazine; it’s hip, chic, and features really cute clothing.

Check it out and consider subscribing. And, thanks, Mormon sisters, for helping to promote good fashion sense in such a spectacular Audrey Hepburn way.

I’m wanting sugar. Pie. Cake. Muffins. Ice cream. A big fizzy cold Coke. But, I can’t have any, well, much of it. It’s this darned insulin resistance I’ve got, which is tied to our fertility issues, so we’re working on keeping my blood sugar levels down in the hopes of helping our fertility.

My dear husband has helped me create a list of our most common foods and their corresponding Glycemic Index numbers. We were encouraged by this exercise because, due to my organic foodness, it turns out that we already have very few sugars in our diet. So, really, not much is changing, but I like to gripe about it. The drama helps me feel better, you see.

A few things are changing, however. First, I’m trying to cook with all the buckwheat flour I can, since buckwheat has a low GI number, as well as producing a lovely compound in the body called D-chiro inositol when digested. I’ve made some muffins that turned out well, but I need to use strong flavors to mask the buckwheat flavor, so I’m perplexed regarding how to make things like pancakes. In addition, where before I might have more easily bent my organic rules and eaten ice cream (after all, it’s Haagen Dazs, which is, after all, all natural), now I’m being really strict about sugars; I’m only allowing myself to eat sweets on Sundays…and, maybe sometimes, when I really feel the need, I’ll buy a tube of cookie dough and eat it in hiding, so that Devin can’t scold me.

And is hitting Britain and Canada hard.

In Britain, Catholic Charities adoption service has to close down after 120 years of good work because they refuse to place children with homosexual people.

In Canada, people are being fined, threatened, and have had their right to free speech taken away by Canadian bureaucrats simply by saying that sexual acts with people of the same sex are morally wrong. (More here also).

These attacks on marriage and the family are coming to our shores, too, unless we stop them. Senator Obama, if elected, will advance them further at every opportunity. Senator McCain and the Republican party will fight against them.

Remember, anything that has to do with a person’s sexuality and how they act in regards to it is a moral behavior. Moral behaviors are not intrinsic traits like whether a person is black or white, Honduran or Italian, or even male or female, but rather are behaviors that can be controlled by the person.

Last night, our nearly empty plane (I had an entire Exit row to myself) touched down in El Paso, TX. At 9:30p, the weather was a balmy 95 degrees–but, it’s a dry heat remember, which makes all the difference. My father and I had arranged similar flights; he flew in from Portland, where he was spending the weekend with his brother who was recently diagnosed with brain cancer, so we were able to drive the two-hours to my hometown together. We had a great time catching up, and I finally tumbled into bed at midnight. That’s midnight Mountain time, mind you, which actually made it 1a for my body-clock. I was a tired girl.

As Devin mentioned, I’m home at the request of my parents to help with moving to Albuquerque on June 18, as well as emotional and spiritual support when my parents visit the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix on June 23. My mother is having a very difficult time as she contemplates the fact that she might be very sick. She appears to have the beginnings of a neuromuscular disease, but her doctor has been unable to diagnose her. She doesn’t have Parkinsons nor ALS (Lou Gherigs) and yet continues to suffer degeneration of her speaking and swallowing faculties. Please pray for my mother, that she can surrender control of her body to Our Lord and be filled with deep peace and please pray for me, that I don’t wither away from missing Devin and dry out in this New Mexico sunshine.

…was great!

Katie and I just returned from it, and it went well.  The young lady models performed a dance at the beginning of the show to the “It’s a New Day” theme song which was cute, and then my friend David Thies performed several of his songs, some from his new album, Sunset and the Battle, which I got a promo copy of a few weeks ago.

The models walked the runway 4 different times, each time featuring a different theme of dress; some of the young ladies walked a bit nervously, but that is very understandable and all of them did a good job of overcoming their fears.

Brenda Sharman spoke, as well as one of the Texas State basketball coaches, a young man who gave the “guy’s” perspective on feminine beauty and modesty.

This show was the first annual one, so I bet that next year will be even better.  Way to go, young ladies!

I love that song.

Katie and I just found the video and article from the local TV news station, KEYE, about the upcoming Pure Fashion show!

Rock on, fashionable and beautiful young ladies!

If you’re interested in being inspired. If you want to teach your young daughter to value modesty. If you want to help evangelize the fashion industry, I have an event for you.

Sunday, April 6th at the Austin Country Club, 30 brave models of virtue and loveliness will walk the runway. Let’s pack the ballroom and support them.

Get your tickets here!
(Devin here: It’s a new day!)

…cast the first stone.

You have probably heard about the allegations that New York Governor Eliot Spitzer fornicated with a prostitute, and it seems that the allegations are probably true.

One Republican political consultant called him a “hypocrite”, and many persons are calling for his resignation. He was a rising star in the Democratic party, but now he is disgraced. Perhaps he will come out of it all politically on top, or perhaps not–it doesn’t really matter much compared with the state of his soul.

And yet, are these persons calling for his resignation and labeling him a hypocrite without sin? How many can say that they have never fornicated or lusted after a woman, which are both committing the sin of adultery?

If the allegations are true, he did an evil thing, and the fact that he is in public office makes it a scandal. Perhaps he should resign as a penance for this sin, but I’m not sure that those calling for his resignation are doing so for that reason.

It strikes me as odd that certain people act outraged about this: What have we been teaching our children with regard to their sexuality, virginity, and marriage for the past decades? What has our culture been saturated with? At best: serial monogamy, at worst: hedonistic pleasure-seeking through sex with any willing partner. And we are surprised when men (and women) commit adultery?

Another news headline I read today: 1 in 4 teenage young women have at least one sexually transmitted disease. Can we read the signs of the times? And that was the average across all races: Almost 50% of young Black women have an S.T.D.

What does the Center for Disease Control say the solution is?

Officials of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that the findings underscore the need for strengthening screening, vaccination and other prevention measures for S.T.D.’s, which are among the country’s highest public health priorities.

Will screening and vaccination solve this problem? Will throwing condoms at the problem? These are the solutions of Planned Parenthood and the captains of the culture of death. They don’t work. These latest stats show they don’t work.

What we don’t hear, and yet what will solve the problem is a return to virtue-based living and education: Each person can become the master of themselves with the virtue of chastity, rather than being enslaved by their desires, yet instead children are taught that they can’t control themselves and that it is “normal” for them to do immoral things.
Until we become chaste ourselves and teach this virtue to others, which by God’s grace they can grow strong in, we will see many more persons in the position of Eliot Spitzer in our country.

Warning: graphic wording.

It is another very disgusting story of a very disgusting industry: this abortion mill has been throwing away aborted babies’ body parts, among other things, into their trash, and they were found in the dumpster.

From the police report (via CPLC):

On our third trash investigation we also found bloody canulas and human tissue distinguishably not a baby, except this time we also discovered infant body parts, including arms, hands, legs, feet, a spine, a ribcage, and eyes.

We estimate we found at least ten different infants. Each one was wrapped in a bloody gauze, tied at the end. Once you turned these inside out, you would find the infant parts. Each bloody gauze that was filled with an infant was wrapped in the absorbent paper used to cover the operating table which was soaked in blood, and used, bloody, latex gloves.

Such disrespect for human beings is despicable.  Yet this is the logical conclusion of legal abortion, one that Barack Obama spoke about when opposing the Born-alive Infant Protection Act (paraphrased): We cannot admit that an unborn baby is a person because then they would be entitled to all the other constitutional rights.  So if they are not a person, they are a thing, and things can be thrown away.

Many of you probably read the horrific account of the latest suicide bombings in Iraq, but this one was somewhat different in a very evil way.

It seems probable that the two women who committed the bombings were mentally handicapped and were strapped with bombs by terrorists, sent into the market, and then remotely detonated by the terrorists.

Almost 100 people were murdered; it is so horrifically sad.

I’ve made some posts recently about people being treated as objects for others’ own use and why that is so wrong.  This grotesque attack represents the worst usage of one person by another and is truly demonic.

May Christ have mercy on the souls of those murdered and bring to repentance and justice the men who committed this heinous crime.

It is always wrong to use another person as an object for your own enjoyment.

A ubiquitous example of this immoral practice is when a man lusts after a woman; however, I think it also occurs everyday when we make famous persons into objects for our own entertainment.

I don’t keep up with much Hollywood news, but it’s hard not to hear of the sad antics of Britney Spears, which are plastered on the front page of just about every mainstream news site I go to.

The media “gives the people what they want”, so it is us who are really to blame for feeding the flames that burn famous persons like Ms. Spears.  That is not to say that they are not without responsibility for their actions; they are responsible for them, but when a person is only ever treated as an object by other people, is it any wonder when they react in a negative way, often leading to their own destruction?

Photographers hound Ms. Spears to take pictures of her, delighting in catching her looking disheveled; the media tracks her every “breakdown”, court appearance, and cigarette, gossiping gleefully over every misstep and problem.  In short, they make her into an object for their own and their consumers’ entertainment.

The result is that instead of seeing Ms. Spears as a young woman, a mother, who needs a lot of grace and love to help her become the woman God made her to be, she is seen as an object, and therefore a mere thing that exists for our pleasure and amusement.

One of the insidious consequences of this pervasive sin is that we as people become accustomed to using others as objects, which degrades how we view people in general, how we love our family and friends, and our growth in virtue.

If there is a call to action from this post, it would be to stop buying those magazines that make their money from Ms. Spears’ and others’ misfortune or scandal, to stop reading articles on websites that are objectifying famous people, and to pray for them whenever you catch some headline blaring their latest escapade.

A great story of a virtuous young man who has auditioned for American Idol (from Bastrop, Texas, too, unless “Bostrop” is really a town) and joyfully proclaims that he is saving not only the marital embrace, but also even his first kiss, for his wife on their wedding day.

A very confused writer for a company that makes money from lust and unchastity commented on his decision to be chaste in a very telling way:

”These kids become sex objects, thrust into the spotlight,” she continued. “And while I know they’re all trying to stand out, especially during the audition period, using your Christian beliefs and the fact that you’ve never kissed a girl is not going to bode well for you while trying out to be America’s next big sex object,” Preston said.

She also said that “being in tune with one’s own sexuality goes a long way in being confident with yourself.”

If she only knew!

Mr. Dickson is being “in tune” with his own sexuality, leading to true confidence and peace that only comes from living a virtuous life in line with Christ and how He made us as men and women to love and give ourselves to one another, and never to lust and use one another as objects.

Yet, what does she reveal?  Twice she says that people are sex objects and are trying to become sex objects.  That is the way she understands sexuality, believing the lie of our culture that lusting after one another and using each other as objects is what fulfills us.

Who is man? How do I know who I am and what the purpose of my life is?

These important questions are answered beautifully in Gaudium et Spes (Joy and Hope), an important document from the second Vatican council:

1. Man is the only creature that God willed, not as a means for anything else, but simply for his own sake.
2. Man can only find himself through a sincere gift of himself in love to another.
3. Jesus Christ fully reveals man to himself and makes his supreme calling clear.

These fundamental aspects find their basis in faith and reason, and John Paul II elaborated on them in his book Love and Responsibility as well as in the theology of the body.

Only persons can love, which the pope, then Karol Wojtyla (Voy-TEE-wah), explained: “Love is exclusively the portion of the human person.” We see that animals and plants cannot love (or hate); they lack reason and the ability to freely act on their reason.

This reason, along with the freedom that we have as human beings, makes us moral beings and enables us to freely seek and choose the good and avoid evil. Father Walter Schu synthesizes all of these ideas together in his book, Splendor of Love, which Katie and I are studying with friends of ours.

I will share more of this awesome philosophy and theology in future posts!

Like me, I am sure you have read about the horrible massacre in Omaha earlier this week. Here are the pictures of the victims and a short bio on each one of them.

I do not wish to give much attention to their murderer, who claimed that he would be famous from this heinous action, but I read his suicide note and wish to briefly comment on it.

“I’ve been a piece of [expletive] my entire life it seems this is my only option,” the murderer wrote. “I just want to take a few pieces of [expletive] with me.”

In his mind and heart, he was a piece of garbage, and thus so were other people. They were not humans, but objects, and in this case, objects only fit to be thrown away and destroyed.

To his family, he then wrote: “I’ve just snapped. I can’t take this meaningless existence anymore.”

His existence was without hope, and when one’s life becomes full of pain, hurt, anger, and suffering, one must face the hopelessness that they believe in, which leads to despair. At that point, one has a choice: “Do I strive to change, reach out for help from God and others, and live, or do I give in to despair and kill myself (and in this case, horrifically, others)?”

Man lives on hope! Not wishful thinking, but true hope for fulfillment and for love: to love and to be loved. Pope Benedict just wrote his second encyclical and focused on this virtue. Is the pope and his writing irrelevant, as some say? This young man’s horrible story proves it is not so; rather, what the pope has written is vitally relevant to our life today.

At the beginning of Spe Salvi (”In Hope we were saved”), Pope Benedict writes (emphasis mine):

According to the Christian faith, “redemption”—salvation—is not simply a given. Redemption is offered to us in the sense that we have been given hope, trustworthy hope, by virtue of which we can face our present: the present, even if it is arduous, can be lived and accepted if it leads towards a goal, if we can be sure of this goal, and if this goal is great enough to justify the effort of the journey.

May our Lord have mercy on the souls of these victims, bless their families, and we even pray in hope for his mercy on the soul of their murderer.

The elephant is pornography.

The sin of lust by way of pornography is widespread amongst men in our country, yet we rarely talk about it.

Why? Because many men have lusted after women by looking at pornography and rightfully feel ashamed of it, such that the very mention of the word evokes this shameful feeling.

I had a conversation today with some friends of mine when I brought up pornography as evidence that good sexual desires, when twisted, can be manifested in multiple ways. That led to a discussion of pornography and whether it was right or wrong for a man to look at it and lust.

When I became a Christian, I became convinced that pornography was wrong, but it was not until I became a Catholic that I understood the full reasons why. I hope to explain why it is wrong and offer some encouragement for men struggling to overcome this sin.

For me, pornography evokes regret that I ever looked at it, sadness for the hurt it caused to God, to myself, and to the world, and at the same time gratitude for the fact that our Lord, Jesus Christ, has forgiven me of these sins and turned the tide from lust to love in my heart, giving me the grace to become a man of physical integrity.

Pornography weakens men because it is a sin, and giving in to the temptation to lust weakens our self-mastery.

Eventually, if this sin becomes a habit, it further erodes our masculine strength because we feel helpless against the temptation.

The solution is perseverance and grace, along with educating our minds in the truth of who we are as man and woman.

You see, pornography does not show too much of the woman; rather, it shows too little. In a man’s heart, pornography reduces the woman, a glorious creature made in the image of God as the substantial union of body and soul, to just a body, which can then be an object of lust and sexual gratification for the man.

This sexual gratification has neither unitive nor procreative capacity: It does not unite the man with his wife, nor is it possible to procreate from the act, which proves that it is altogether selfish and an attempt to frustrate the good design of our Creator and Father.

Men need to form their minds and hearts with this understanding of the human person by studying the Theology of the Body and learning all that the Church teaches on this most important matter. Armed with the correct understanding of the human person and with God’s grace through prayer and the sacraments, our human wills can be strengthened to overcome the temptations to lust.

Men are often afraid to speak out against pornography because they themselves have been in its grip and may even still be struggling to overcome an addiction to it. “Who am I to talk about it, when I have done it myself and still sometimes fall to temptation,” they ask themselves.

Well, it is vital that we speak out against it and challenge other men to fight for the virtue of chastity, of manly physical integrity. If we don’t do it, who will?

It is similar to the women who courageously go to pro-life rallies with signs proclaiming “I regret my abortion”. They had an abortion; they have realized it was wrong; now they want to help other women not make the same mistake they did, to realize that they do have a choice other than aborting their baby.

It is the same with us men who are striving to live virtuous lives: Even if you have sinned in this way before, you can courageously stand up and condemn the sin of pornography while sympathizing with the men who suffer under its slavery and encouraging them that they can overcome it.

With Christ’s aid, we can become the men of honor and strength that He created us to be.

For rebuking St. Edward’s University in their misguided decision to invite Fr. Curran to speak.

Pope John Paull II offers us the Theology of the Body, which teaches the truth of who human beings are as male and female, created to be gifts to each other.

Fr. Curran can only offer the same sad “sexual revolution” garbage that has hurt countless people and their families because of its falsehood.

From the article:  “St. Edward’s officials said Curran’s speech will contribute to academic dialogue and a diversity of viewpoints.”  (Audible groan)

…about my wife, Katie!

Well, as you know, I have been bragged on by Katie quite often of late, all glory be to God, but now, it is my turn to brag about her because, you see, she has an essay featured in the latest edition of Dappled Things!

It is the Mary, Queen of Angels 2007 edition, and her essay on Social Justice and Theology of the Body can be read here.

What’s social justice? It is simply the good of creating a just society, which particularly involves persons and institutions working to help those in need (the poor, refugees, abused, suffering, etc.).

What’s the theology of the body? It is the philosophical and theological work of John Paul II which teaches that persons can only fully find themselves in making a sincere gift of themselves to an other, that human beings–unique amongst all of creation–were each created by God “for their own sake”, and therefore that persons should never be used as mere objects for one’s own gratification or selfish interest.

If you just thought to yourself, “Whoa”, that’s what I thought when I first heard it and began learning about it, and I am just beginning to learn more.

My lovely wife has written an essay that discusses the importance of informing social justice efforts with the theology of the body, a topic that Pope Benedict discussed in his encyclical Deus Caritas Est (God is Love).
Katie, you’re wonderful!

Katie and I recently felt called to leave our parish and join a new parish.  It was a tough decision because I had made many friends at my old parish, and both Katie and I were involved significantly with ministry, in particular Perpetual Adoration.

The good news is, we still go to our old parish frequently for daily Mass and adoration, and so we keep in contact with our old friends.

The great news is, Katie and I felt called in our new parish to start a program called Splendor of Love.  It is a study of the Theology of the Body where married couples get together in a small group, read the book that Father Walter Schu wrote for it, and go through a workbook, discussing the Theology of the Body and related, relevant topics like same-sex “marriage”, feminism, and contraception.

Oddly, most priests that I have met don’t seem to know about the Theology of the Body, and some priests, sadly, have heard information about Regnum Christi or the Legion of Christ that is simply false, and so when we went to present this idea to the marriage coordinators at our new parish, we weren’t sure of the reception we would get.

We prayed and left it up to God.  Well, when we went in to talk to the two marriage coordinators, they were ecstatic about the program!  They want it to be an official marriage enrichment program at the parish (which is very large, probably 4,000 families) as it will complement their two Theology of the Body introductory sessions that couples preparing for marriage are required to take.

Katie and I are so grateful to our Lord for the warm reception that we and this program received.

I hope that one day all priests will know and embrace the Theology of the Body, Eucharistic Adoration, and ministries that promote the virtue of purity for both men and women.  All young priests from our generation that I know do embrace these gifts of Christ to the world, so there is great reason for hope.

May Christ’s Kingdom come!

Who says modesty means looking frumpy? I’d say there’s something a little risque, a little alluring about a woman who keeps her mystery.

Don’t believe me? Check out these cute fashions on Revamp Vintage’s website. They’re a little pricey but totally so feminine and…dare I say…hot mama. Especially check out the swimwear. I have not swam (swum? swimmed?) in public in two years, but those suits make me want to take a trip to the beach, just to feel pretty.

Pure Fashion, here we come.

…not THAT old heresy again!

I had the privilege of receiving Holy Communion today. Truly, heaven on earth. The Liturgy of the Word was a little problematic, however, particularly the dear priest’s homily.

Today’s Gospel was the lovely account from Mark 12 where Jesus argues Resurrection to the Sadducees and assures them that “in heaven there is no giving or taking in marriage, where we will be as the angels.” I love that Gospel passage! It’s rich with theology of the body and eschatological insights, and I just wanted to savor its beauty during the Mass.

Sadly, my reflections were interrupted by the surfacing of the Manichean heresy in the dear priest’s homily. He was preaching on the Resurrection of the body, God bless him, and he said, “I think that in heaven, we’ll have no more gender. We’ll be like the angels, neither male nor female.” Yikes! Cuidado, Padre!

See, here’s the problem with that view. (more…)

Negatory.

Teenage boys men need to be challenged to become the men God created them to be, so says Steve Wood in his invitation to the National Catholic Men’s Conference.

He is right on the money. Teenage men in our American society are given too much and little is expected of them. Boredom sets in because they don’t have anything truly manly to apply their intelligence, strength, and talent to.

Compounding this problem with a lack of formation in human and divine virtue, our young men get sidetracked into evil things like degrading music, drugs, pornography and lustful “relationships”, and even gangs in some places.

All is not lost, however! Listen to Steve Wood:

Christian teen “experts” tell us that teen boys need a specialized youth ministry that doesn’t take things too seriously. They are wrong. The goofy skits, endless jokes, and loud music while providing an enjoyable time, don’t have an effect much longer than the ride home.

The majority of teen boys are just waiting for someone to give them a ringing call to strive for mature manhood. It is tragic that so many young Christian men never hear such a call.

If you bring your son to the National Catholic Men’s Conference on Saturday, June 9th, I’ll guarantee that they will hear such a call. It is up to the Holy Spirit to make the call heard in the heart and mind, but the call to mature manhood will be given to all the men present, whether young or old.

My hope is that the shared experience between father and son in the world of Christian men will be one of those vital ingredients creating a legacy of faith for years to come.

Steve Wood convincingly explains how vital it is for father’s to dedicate themselves to Christ and their families, in particular their sons in forming them with the Holy Spirit to become men.

What will your son remember about what you did with him thirty years from now? My prediction is that it will be among one of three types of activities: (1) an outdoor sporting activity; (2) the times that you worked together; and (3) a shared experience in the world of men.

It’s so true. The times I remember most with my dad from my youth were playing sports, especially soccer. We played soccer together from the time I was 5 until 18. He coached almost all my teams. He also taught me basketball, baseball, track, tennis, and I played all of them growing up–perhaps a bit too much–but it formed a powerful bond between us and indelibly etched itself in my heart and body.

I hope Steve Wood is still around to host these conferences in 10 years so I can go with my sons!

My beloved wife is very involved with the pro-life movement, an grassroots effort that brings together people from all walks of life to support the sanctity of human life in Texas.

I have learned so much about the workings of our Texas state government through Katie, who tells me about the successes and failures that she and the other lobbyists have while working at the state capitol.

You can make a huge difference in your state government! I didn’t think that that was really possible before, having become cynical about one person being able to affect any change for the good in government, but I was wrong.

Katie shares stories with me on a weekly basis about how she gets to speak with legislators and their staff and educate them about cloning and embryonic versus adult stem cells. Most don’t realize that proposed legislation to “ban cloning” is actually legalizing cloning by support of somatic cell nuclear transfer.

(more…)

Today is a bonanza of chivalry and manliness after God the Father’s own heart:

St. Gabriel Possenti.

Which brings up the second incident in which St. Gabriel Possenti demonstrated the virtues of Catholic manhood. Again it involved a potential rape, but this time the victims were a couple of young virgins. The perpetrators were two soldiers-turned-brigands who were part of a larger gang pillaging the village.

Rather than hide in the monastery like the rest of the clergy, St. Gabriel Possenti approached the rapists and grabbed their revolvers. With a pistol in each hand, he ordered the brutes to unhand the crying maidens.

The Medal of Honor awarded to Lt. Col. Bruce Crandall.

Crandall and his wingman, Ed “Too Tall” Freeman, saved 70 wounded soldiers that day.

Bishop Finn’s pastoral letter to combat pornography in his diocese.

The pastoral letter also urges Catholics to tap into the power of prayer and the sacraments, particularly frequent confession and reception of the Eucharist, in order to break the cycle of pornography use and build the spiritual graces and strength to resist future temptation.

 
My husband is taking a nap on the couch this afternoon. My husband…I love to say that! He worked hard this morning with his father, repairing various valves and hoses in our home. Our home…I love saying that, too!
 
We have been married one week now and have rejoiced in every minute of it. Marriage is wonderful! The sacramental grace is new each day. Our Lord is gratuitously generous.
 
We look forward to sharing more about our wedding, as soon as we have photos to post. Thank you all for your prayers and congratulations. YKC!

 
I finished reading the Theology of the Body, Humanae Vitae, and Familiaris Consortio (cahn-SORT-see-oh) recently, and the question I asked myself afterwards was, “Why isn’t everyone in the entire world taught this?”.
 
Whoever you are, in whatever state, in whichever vocation, you should read all of these works. Why? Because through them God will teach you the truth of life, sexuality, marriage, Heaven, and love.
 
I was familiar to varying degrees with each of these three works before I read them, and their subject matter overlaps considerably, but each one is indispensable for forming a complete understanding of human love in God’s plan. Over the next blog posts, I plan to share some of the amazing wisdom of Jesus’ Church with you, so that you will taste the pure water from the springs of eternal life and will in turn drink deeply on your own accord!
(more…)

 
I read this quote today in “Woman’s Dignity and Vocation” by Father Marcial Maciel, LC. He attributes it to E. Mounier: “Woman is the richest reserve of humanity.”
 
Father Maciel then goes on to say, “In other words, woman has the mission of humanizing the life she is called to transmit and protect, making it open to love and to the very source of love.”
 
Isn’t it wonderful to be alive as a woman, endowed with the perfect gifts to humanize and evangelize our culture? Have a nice day, ladies.

 
During these remaining months before we enter the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony, Our Lord is very much helping me to transition into this new vocation. I’m very clearly being led from the life of a single, professional young woman into that of a wife and mother (Please God :)!) It has been a most blessed and peaceful time of surrendering, of laying aside the tools of my professional life, including my pink briefcase and planner, to take up new ones. (more…)

 
Devin and I enjoyed our second marriage preparation session with the Heberts last night. It was so great! Devin couldn’t help cracking up at the antics of the little Heberts, who were so curious and eager to participate in our meeting that they received a few reprimands for eavesdropping. They are such a beautiful and vibrantly alive family and offer Devin and I such joyful hope!
 
We’re working through a helpful text which facilitates discussions about our family backgrounds, our expectations and assumptions about marriage, our communication skills, and so forth. Please remind me of the title, Devin? I’m enjoying this workbook a lot because it’s leading us to discuss matters which are tender, such as our weaknesses or little hurts. We have so much to grow in unity and gentle forgiveness. Please, Lord, give us a lifetime to become one in the image of Christ and the Father. Please, Lord, teach me how to be simple and defenseless, like a child. Please, Lord, teach me how to receive Devin’s love so generously. Please, Lord, teach me how to embrace Devin with Your arms, for mine are so short and selfish.
 
“That others be loved more than I. That others be praised more than I. That others increase and I decrease in the world’s eyes. That others be chosen, I set aside…others praised, and I unnoticed…others be preferred in everything. That others become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should.” (Litany of Humility)
 
Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make my heart like unto Thine. YKC!

 
Wow, life moves rapidly! Katie and I went to our first Natural Family Planning (NFP) class, which my diocese requires for marriage preparation.
 
I have learned that there are (at least?) two different NFP systems: Couple to Couple League, which uses the sympto-thermal method (mucus plus temperature) and the Creighton Model, which uses just the mucus. This class teaches the Creighton Model.
 
What a great Biology lesson the instructor (who happens to be a friend of ours) gave! I felt like I learned more about male and female sexual anatomy and workings in that one hour than in all my schooling. Maybe it’s just a lot more relevant to my life now….
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Devin and I had the pleasure yesterday of watching a local dance troupe perform various Mexican ballets. They were really well trained and danced beautifully! After the ballet, we began to discuss the Catholic-ness of dancing. Truly, if life manifests theology, which I believe it does, for better or worse, then we can see how our Church doctrines foster such folk dances.
 
For example, one thing we noticed about the dances was that they displayed the women and men equally, highlighting their complementary strengths. (more…)