Projects Done

Today we finished the old pink room and now it is a mint green room, very pretty, actually. This will be our room now until we move. When J goes to GA, I will move C in with me in her crib.

I started on the room that had been ours for the past year and a half. I got most of the walls done, except for the upper part of one wall, near the ceiling, because I didn’t want to over do it. I will work on it tonight, after the kids go to bed and hopefully be able to do the trim tonight as well. We have the flooring guys coming tomorrow to put the floor down in the office so that will be another room down.

For those keeping track, we needed to do something to two bedrooms, an office area, our dining room as well as finish installing insulation and shingle the roof to the porch. (All things we thought we would have lots of time to do, but the suddenness of the move made them have to be done NOW!) So now, we are down to the dining room, finishing the trim in the office (once the flooring is down), the insulation and the roof. (if there is more, I don’t want to be reminded.

I should think of the positive things that we have going for us and this house. Since we signed the mortgage, we have put in: a new hot water heater, new furnace, new roof (down to the rafters), taken down wallpaper in three bedrooms (soon to be dining room too), fresh paint in three bedrooms and built an office area. If I forgot something, you can remind me in this section!

Today I had to deal with our car insurance. I noticed a dent in the van the other day, a small, softball sized one, one I should have probably ignored, but called it in anyway. I know the woman I talked to told me she would call me back with the time to take it to the shop. I even wrote what she said down and hung it on the fridge. Well, no call came, so I put it out of mind. That was until the repair place called and said we had an appointment at 10 this morning (they called at 2 in the afternoon). Next day they can get me in is Monday. I called another place, same thing.

Of course, this call came right after I had sat down to have a snack and realized that Joshua was leaving in just a few days, so I was a wreck. I started bawling and Joshua thought it was because I was upset about the car until I managed to get out that I was scared that he was leaving and how spoiled I am and how much I depend on him and how am I going to do this all.day.everyday for at least a month?

(Joshua called the insurance company back and they told him that they could send someone out for an estimate. Uh, why wasn’t I told that when I said I had time constraints?)

I see that it is 450 and I have no idea what to make for dinner. These are the nights I wish I could just say “pizza” and call, but I know that fastfood has not been treating me well lately, so I will probably do cheesy noodles. French toast sounds good too.

One more thing: Happy Birthday, Mom!!!!!

Filed under: General Stuff

On being shy

I used to think I was shy. I am not shy, really, I have come to realize, I just happen to hold my cards very closely to myself.

When it comes to play dates with the kids, I would rather drive an hour to visit friends from back in the day and have our kids play than hang out with a mother who has children close to same age as my kids in my current location. (Exception: The Coolest Kid’s Mom).

I would rather hang out with a few select friends than have a crowd to run with again. Most nights, I am happy sitting on the couch with Joshua, reading or watching a dorky science fiction television show. I am content in the quiet of the evening. I enjoy an occasional Ladies Night Out with my friends, sure, but being at J’s side is even more fun.

I have come to realize why this is. It is very hard to trust someone, very hard.  I have found that many women are still mentally in eighth grade. How does one get married, raise a family and not leave mentality that behind?  How do you trust a woman like that? You are not able to, so you have to hold your cards close.

One thing I look forward to with this move it the chance to return to anonymity. No one will know who we are. Sure, they may notice us as the family with 3 then 4 young ones who talk funny, but that is all they will ever have to know. I cannot express how much I look forward to this!

Filed under: General Stuff

If you profess to be Catholic…

If you profess to be Catholic by attending Mass each Sunday, praying the Credo during Mass and receiving Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament then you should darn well be a believer in all Holy Mother Church teaches. This goes tripled for those who are in ministry in a parish (be it DRE, CRE, RCIA Director, the person in charge of the formation of the children in the Parish School of Religion…and so on.)

Many issues, such as an all male priesthood, were settled in the early days of the Church, we do not need to go and reinvent the wheel. If Jesus had wanted women to be priests, He would have done so when He called the 12. If you think about it, who was the one and only person ever to be born without Original Sin? His mother, our mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary. If anyone was worthy of priesthood, shouldn’t it be the one who was sinless and did the Will of God her entire life? However, she was not called. While this may not be the most theologically in depth argument, it does hold a lot of water.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church also addresses this issues. If you open your Catechism to number 1577, you will see:

Only a baptized man (vir) validly receives sacred ordination.”66 The Lord Jesus chose men (viri) to form the college of the twelve apostles, and the apostles did the same when they chose collaborators to succeed them in their ministry.67 The college of bishops, with whom the priests are united in the priesthood, makes the college of the twelve an ever-present and ever-active reality until Christ’s return. The Church recognizes herself to be bound by this choice made by the Lord himself. For this reason the ordination of women is not possible.68

Of course, this is all meaningless, unless you accept the teachings of Holy Mother Church through the guidance of the Holy Spirit. If that is the case, then why are you even in the position you are in? How can you work for an organization that you do not agree with?


Filed under: Social Commentary

Quick Posts

I find that a few quick posts help me to know where I have been and where I am going in preparing for our move.

We have been finding ourselves moving the down comforter from the bed to the chair to the bed to the chair each day. This morning I remembered that the linen cabinet I use to store my clothes in is all cleared out, so I folded up our extra blankets and stuck them in there, the room looks much nicer now.

I sorted the last two baskets of laundry in to “current” and “not current” clothes for the kids, so, once I get things packed in to totes, I can say, clothes are packed. Book are done, some toys are done, kitchen is not done. I will probably work on that this week.

We have contractors coming to day to measure the office for flooring and a painter coming next week to do the porch and to strip the wallpaper from the walls in the bedrooms and the dining room. This of course made us realize how pretty the walls would be and that people would probably notice the crummy floors, especially if the house does not sell and we leave it empty for a bit. So, we will probably have someone come and lay carpet. Of course, this may help us get what we want from the house, in terms of selling price.

Filed under: General Stuff

My Wishes

Simple, really, here are some wishes I have for the future of our Church:

1. That those who are in charge of teaching the faith to our youth actually accept wholly, the teachings of our wonderful Church.

2. That those who do not agree with the Church and her teachings (contraception, woman priests, actually having to assist at Mass on Sundays and all Holy Days) would open their hearts to the Holy Spirit and open their minds to the reasons behind the teachings.

3. That Youth Ministry Programs become more prayerful and less skitful. We are not doing our children any favors by serving them Peeps when they need Lamb. We need to teach our children and teens how to pray, how to embrace silence, how to fall in love with Love Himself. When one is fed with the truth of God, they do not need fabricated fun.

I have more and will probably add to this list in the future. For today though, I am praying for those who do not understand and who fight against the teachings of an All-Male Priesthood.

Filed under: General Stuff

Why Women Cannot Be Catholic Priests

Recently, this issues came up in our parish. I pray for those who are mislead in to thinking that women will someday be ordained, it will not happen, ever. I was going to write an article explaining why, when I came across this wonderful article at EWTN.com from Our Sunday Visitor, in 1995.

WHY WOMEN CAN'T BE PRIESTS

Lost in the debate over women priests is the reason for the
Church's  teaching. A top woman theologian explains why the
Church has always believed what it believes 

By Mary DeTurris

Shouts of rage and whispers of schism have irrupted in
the month since  the Vatican issued a brief confirmation
of the Church's long-held teaching that it cannot ordain
women to the priesthood.

Yet lost amid the rash of reports of rebellion and
frustration is a  chorus of voices singing out in
support of the clarification of Church teaching,
published Nov. 18 by the Vatican's Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith with the approval of Pope John
Paul II.

 These supporters argue that critics, confused Catholics
and others, would  do well to study what the Church has
really said about the reasons for barring women's ordination,
which have nothing to do with "gender equality" and everything
to do with Jesus and the  history of the Church.

 "It seems so patently unreasonable and unfair to people that
they can't  imagine this, and they don't even give it a chance,"
said Sister Sara Butler, a Missionary Servant of the Most Blessed Trinity.

Admittedly, at one time Sister Butler would have been
an unlikely  supporter of the Church teaching. And she
understands firsthand the frustrations of those  advocating
women's admittance to the priesthood.

In the 1970s, she was among the numerous theologians
who spoke out  publicly in favor of women's ordination.
But Sister Butler, currently a theologian at  Mundelein
Seminary in Illinois, said she was forced to change her
mind as her study of the issue drew her  deeper into Scripture
and Church history.

Now, after years of continual study of the questions,
she is one of the  American Church's leading authorities
on the issue. And she believes that Pope John Paul II's
argument is "the only possible reading of the tradition"
of the Church.

Original choice

 "Catholics have always insisted that the ordained ministry
has its origin  in Jesus' own choice of the Twelve [Apostles]
and that they are the foundation of the Church," she explained in a recent interview.

Following Jesus' example of choosing 12 males to be His apostles,
the  Church from the earliest days has reserved the priesthood to males.

Sister Butler acknowledges that this requirement is not spelled
out  directly in the Bible, "as if Scripture, as if Jesus, said,
'I don't want any women to be priests.' "

History, however, shows that the first Christians believed that Christ
intended a male-only priesthood.

"We know it is so because early in even the second and third centuries
some people went ahead and admitted women to at least priestly functions,
if not to ordination,  and those people were considered heretics,"
she explained. "The response was that this was not what Christ willed,
and it's against apostolic teaching."

<Inter Insigniories>, a 1976 declaration by the Vatican's  Congregation
for the Doctrine of the Faith, details the early Church's response
to the Gnostics and other radical Christian sects that supported
women priestly roles. The Fathers of the Church, the Vatican said,
"immediately censured this step, judging it a novelty which should on no
account be accepted into  the Church."

The declaration, which was approved by Pope Paul VI and remains
the  Church's most explicit explanation of its teaching on women's
ordination, recounts that  beginning with early Church leaders such
as St. Irenaeus, Tertullian, Origen and St. John Chrysostom,
and extending through the Middle Ages down to the current popes, the
male-only priesthood was  an unquestioned tradition.

Even the Oriental or Eastern churches, which split with the
Roman Church over many theological issues, never questioned
that tradition. The question came up with the Protestant Reformation
in the 16th century. The Protestant churches effectively abandoned
the idea  of the priesthood in favor of "a pastoral ministry" in which
men and women could participate.

Nevertheless, the Catholic Church and the various Eastern Catholic  churches have
held true to Christ's original plan.

 As Sister Butler said, "The reason is we don't think Jesus intended this  for the Church,
and this judgment has been made repeatedly and definitively by the Church of our
own ancestors. It's a universal, unbroken tradition."

Anti-woman bias?

 Nonetheless, critics of the ban on women priests insist that it has  always reflected anti-
woman bias in the Church, and that if Jesus were living in an age with a  greater
appreciation of women's dignity and gifts, He would have chosen female disciples and
ordained  women priests.

 This is another argument that holds little water for Sister Butler, based  on her study of
the issue and the history, even though she once felt that the Church's main  objection to
women priests was based on its belief that women were inferior and should be
subordinate to  men.

 "The Vatican did clarify its teaching about women's equality and has been  very
specific," she said. "Pope Paul VI very specifically reiterated what Vatican II had said
about  the absolute equality of women and men, and Pope John Paul II has been very
lucid in many, many  places clarifying women's equality with men."

 In fact, Pope John Paul has written and spoken often about the equality  of women,
their unique gifts and their role in the Church.  In 1988, he devoted a 116-page
apostolic letter, <Mulieris Dignitatem>, to the subject of the dignity and vocation of
women.  And  last year he wrote an open letter to the women of the world in which he
acknowledged that women have  been oppressed and discriminated against and that
some of the "blame" for this can be laid  on "not just a few members of the Church."

 In apologizing for discrimination by some Churchmen, the Pope affirmed  women's
central importance in history and said the Church believes the Gospel message of
Christ is "ever relevant" when it comes "to setting women free from every kind of
exploitation and  domination." In <rdinatio Sacerdotalis>, the Pope's 1994 apostolic
letter  reaffirming the Church's teaching on ordination, he was careful to spell out that
the decision to deny women  access to the priesthood is not based on a belief that
women are less competent than men.

 "The fact that the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God and Mother of the  Church,
received neither the mission proper to the apostles nor the ministerial priesthood
clearly shows that the nonadmission of women to priestly ordination cannot mean that
women are  of lesser dignity, nor can it be construed as a discrimination against them,"
the Pope wrote.  "Rather, it is to be seen as the faithful observance of a plan to be
ascribed to the Wisdom of the  Lord of the Universe."

 That wisdom is sometimes called into question by those who campaign for  the
ordination of women. Many who support a female priesthood claim that there is no
connection between today's bishops and priests and Jesus' choice of the Twelve
Apostles.

 That view, according to Sister Butler, is something "quite alien" to  Catholic tradition.
"They really intend to suggest that the ordained ministry is the creation of the  Church,
something that it  developed for self-organization," she said. "Once you have done that,
you  have completely emptied out the whole idea of the Catholic sense of this Church."

 Since the very beginning of the Church, she continued, the authority of  bishops and
the priests under them has been seen as an extension of "the authority of Christ, who
acts through His ordained ministers who exercise His authority in a way that other
baptized Christians cannot."

 This authority structure ensures that what the Church teaches remains  true to the
teaching of Christ, and that is why the teaching authority of the popes and the  bishops
is at the heart of the question concerning women's ordination.

 And the authority of the Church has been "absolutely consistent" on the  issue of the
male-only priesthood, Sister Butler said. "Theologians have thought through the
centuries that it belongs to the deposit of faith, and that's what the Holy Father is
saying now, and  it does." The "deposit of faith" is the body of unchangeable teachings
entrusted by Christ to the  apostles and handed on by them to the Church.

 "When you tell people that this is what Christ willed for the Church,  they often say, 'If
He were alive now, He would do it differently.' He is alive now. Don't we believe  that
the Lord is living and acting in the Church, that these teachers are not just acting on
their own judgment but are trying to be absolutely faithful to the teaching that they are
entrusted  with and doing that against tremendous odds?"

 While she believes in the Church's authority and believes that the Church  is teaching
the doctrine of Jesus on the ordination question, Sister Butler worries that reaction  to
the Vatican's recent statement is focused so much on the authority question, which is
"misleading to the average person," and misses the real reasons for the Church's
teaching.

 "My expectation is that there will be a lot of talk about the pope's  authority," she said.
"But what we really need is a deeper theological investigation of the reasons
Filed under: General Stuff, Vaccination Information

Motivational Mondays

Anyone know of anything to help with motivation on Monday? I am sure that loading your weekends with all day activities and avoiding sunburn would help.

Yesterday we went to the Columbus Zoo and the attached water park, Zoombezi Bay. The Scouts had a special group rate and for $10/person, we could get into the zoo and the water park. I honestly am not a zoo person. I do not enjoy it and I can certainly tell you that I do not enjoy the zoo when there are thousands of people there. Once we got to the water park, I was much happier. The kids had a blast and K informed me that he wanted to go again today.

We also went out to dinner, a special treat for us and to make things even better, the kids ate free! I had suggested McDonalds when we were first talking about going out to eat but Joshua suggested eating some place we won’t be able to when we move, so I suggested Old Bag of Nails (if you are ever in Columbus Ohio, I recommend checking out one of their many locations around the city).

However, today, I am blah. It started at 315 this morning when firecrackers went off on our street. Who does that? I finally fell back to sleep, thankfully, but it was not a sound sleep. Thankfully, Joshua worked from home a bit this morning so I could sleep in a bit. We had a mover come and give us an estimate for loading and transporting our stuff to Georgia, fun times. We cleaned and organized a few things up stairs. After Joshua left for work, I forced myself to do a few loads of laundry then pack up books. I found a few books I would like to sell* on line but after looking  at the going price, I figured, nah, I will just garage sale them. We are talking $.75 for a hardcover book that retails for $32.00.If you are willing to pay shipping and are interested in a biography of George H W Bush (aka 41) or a “portrait” of the marriage of George and Laura, please holler!

We needed to use up the money in our flex spend account, so I just ordered three years worth of contacts, fun times. Well, actually, I think it should technically be a year and a half, as they are suddenly supposed to be tossed every two weeks. I have been using the same ones since I got contacts nearly 10 years ago and only with this purchase have I been told that they are not monthlys. Oh well.

Tonight’s dinner will be left overs from last night plus some fresh fruit and pudding for dessert. We had a gallon of skim milk left over from a fund raiser breakfast that I needed to use up. If I drink it, I feel yucky after and the kids don’t like it, so I figured I would put it in pudding.

*And no, Suzanne, my autographed copy of “The Privilege of Being a Woman” is not on that list.

Filed under: General Stuff

Of Life

Today I went to my first home schooling conference. It was in Dayton, Ohio and I had a good time. I picked my friend, Kimberly bright and early this morning for the drive over. We were able to attend mass then the conference. The speakers were great! We had a great line up of speakers, Andrew Schmiedicke, Father Sherry, CPM, Danielle Bean and Maureen Whittmann. I really enjoyed each and every talk!

I took a look at the many books offered and while I held back from buying anything. It was not easy, but the idea of buying them, just to pack them in a box did not seem wise to me.

What’s that? Why would I pack them in a box without reading them? Well, let me tell you why. Joshua got a new job. In Georgia. As in we are moving this summer. To Georgia. In the summer. Pregnant.

Why is it that I seem to be moving either pregnant or with a new born? I also seem to recall telling Joshua, shortly before we were married, that we were living in the Beaumont House for three years. By the time our third anniversary rolled around, we were on our third address. In the time since our third anniversary, we have seen two more addresses. So, by the time our Sixth Anniversary rolls around, we will have lived in four different states and held seven different addresses.

I do ask for prayers, for Joshua’s new job, for me keeping my sanity while packing up a house and being a single mother for a bit, while he goes and I stay and for us to be able to sell our house, quickly!
Quick Edit: No, I will not be burying a statue of St. Joseph in my yard.

Filed under: General Stuff