We are on our way to Jamaica! The first leg of our journey is complete and we have successfully made it to Memphis! Lindsay was the first to notice after getting off the plane that Memphis smells like fried chicken and hot sauce…everywhere we go! There is the requisite Elvis things and lots of big pigs associated with the restaurants. 🙂
All posts by CadyLy
Vocations – A Reflection on the Single State of Life
I think the single life is a state of life which is not often recognized as a vocation in our culture today. Too often, it may be seen more as a state of pending — waiting to determine if I am called to marriage or to consecrated life, instead of as an authentic calling on its own. I bought into this and was waiting myself, until I realized that God calls me all the time, and that I am currently in a valid state of life. And that I had better start responding. As a single, I do not have the same ties on my time, resources and attention as married couples. I can travel on pilgrimage. I can be that substitute catechist. I can be on parish council. I can volunteer at the various fundraisers. I can sponsor events. I can help out on a moment’s notice. Parents are the primary educators of their children, but in some ways, singles are the primary educators of their peers. I am living in the world in a way in which religious are not and I have potentially more free time to attend lectures to deepen my understanding of the faith and have greater access to a wider population of people. There is an expectation of a married couple to be more responsible, more religious, and in some ways more mature than a single. This, I find to be a great challenge for me to step up and attempt to be a good example of what it can be to live a good Christian life as a single. God is not waiting to call me, so why am I waiting to respond? If my state of life changes, then I will respond in that capacity at that time, and serve in the new role which God has called me to fulfill. He is calling today and I am answering today, with all the flexibility, resources and time that I have currently as a single, able to live my life entirely for others.
— Published in the OLGC Bulletin, March 22, 2009 🙂
Please Pray for Justin Wainwright
Justin is a 15-year-old who was last seen on March 16th in Ohio. He is traveling with a friend. There has been an Amber Alert issued. Please pray that both boys return home quickly and safely. If you have any information, please contact the Plymouth Township police, 911, or visit the website hosted by the boys’ families at www.findjoshandjustin.com.
Here are some photos:
Justin Wainwright
Josh Zohr
Police said the pair is traveling in Zohr’s red Pontiac Grand Prix with a Michigan license plate BYP1180:
Pontiff Proclaims Year for Priests
From Zenit:
VATICAN CITY, MARCH 16, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI is proclaiming a Year for Priests on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the death of St. Jean Marie Vianney, the Curé of Ars.
The Pope announced this today during an audience granted to participants in the plenary assembly of the Congregation for the Clergy, a Vatican communiqué reported.
The theme for the priestly year is “Faithfulness of Christ, Faithfulness of Priests.” The Pope is scheduled to open the year with a celebration of vespers June 19, the solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, in the presence of the relic of the Curé of Ars, to be brought to Rome by Bishop Guy Bagnard of Belley-Ars, the press release stated.
The closing ceremony will take place exactly one year later, with a World Meeting of Priests in St. Peter’s Square.
During this year, a directory for confessors and spiritual directors will be published, along with a compilation of texts by the Pope on the core issues of the life and mission of priests in the modern times. As well, Benedict XVI will officially proclaim St. Jean Marie Vianney as “patron saint of all the priests of the world.”
The congregation will aim in this year to promote initiatives that will “highlight the role and mission of the clergy in the Church and in modern society.”
Another goal will be to address “the need to intensify the permanent formation of priests, associating it with that of seminarians.”
An entire year devoted to our priests! I love it! Love it, love it, love it! Thank you, Holy Father!
In an article talking of the importance of priestly ministry and of the distinction between the ordained priesthood and the priesthood we are all called to due to our baptism:
The Pope stressed the importance of the ministry, without which “there would be no Eucharist, no mission, not even the Church” and he recalled that the mission of the priest “has its roots in a special way in a good formation, carried out in communion with unbroken ecclesial Tradition, without pausing or being tempted by discontinuity.”
“In this regard,” he continued, “it is important to encourage priests, especially the young generations, to correctly read the texts of the Second Vatican Council, interpreted in the light of all the Church’s doctrinal inheritance.”
The Pontiff spoke about the urgent need for priests to be “present, identifiable and recognizable — for their judgment of faith, personal virtues and attire — in the fields of culture and of charity which have always been at the heart of the Church’s mission.”
He said the mission of the priest concerns the Church, communion, hierarchy and doctrine, and added that these aspects should not be separated.
He explained: “The mission is ecclesial because no one announces or brings themselves, but rather in and through his own humanity, every priest should be very conscious of bringing Another, God himself, to the world. God is the only treasure that, definitively, mankind wishes to find in a priest.”
The Holy Father said the mission concerns communion “because it takes place in a unity and communion which only at a secondary level possess important aspects of social visibility. These, moreover, are derived essentially from that divine intimacy of which the priest is called to be an expert, so that he can bring, with confidence and humility, the souls entrusted to him to the same meeting with the Lord.”
He said that “the ‘hierarchical’ and ‘doctrinal’ dimensions emphasize the importance of ecclesiastical discipline — a term related to that of ‘disciple’ — and of doctrinal — not just theological, initial and permanent — formation.”
The Pope concluded by urging those present to discover the centrality of Jesus Christ who gives meaning and value to the ministerial priesthood.
He added, “As Church and as priests we announce Jesus of Nazareth, Lord and Christ, crucified and risen, Sovereign of time and history, in the joyful certainty that this truth coincides with the deepest hopes of the human heart.”
I absolutely believe in the necessity and blessing of a visible, valid, faithful and orthodox priesthood. These are our shepherds — the men who guide us and care for us and bring us life. They provide us access to Jesus in the sacraments, break open the Word of God for us, demonstrate to us a holy life and what it means to love our neighbor and give our entire selves in service to others. They give and they love, and they help us to do the same.
On Passivity vs. Activity in Suffering
When we are in pain, real pain, it becomes easy to fall into despair regarding our condition, especially when our suffering is long-term. What we are often told by well-meaning Christian friends is to “offer it up.” What does this really mean? At first glance, it appears that they are asking you to dismiss your suffering, which, of course, is impossible. The mere suggestion is liable to make you feel less than charitable towards your friend.
A friend of mine frequently offers the suggestion that we not “offer it up,” but that we “unite it to the cross.” He finds that “offering it up” is far too passive of a thing. Rather, we should actively donate our suffering, *give* it to Christ to be used for the purposes of someone else. Not only to make it not just something we endure, but to make it efficacious and redemptive, as Christ’s Passion is efficacious and redemptive for all of mankind. Because Jesus made His suffering efficacious specifically for each and every one of us, by name, we too should unite our sufferings to a specific person or intention, so as to direct the efficacy of our suffering. This is all great, and works to make the person suffering feel useful, because now instead of being a victim, they are able to work, actively. Suffering is no longer something which “happens to them,” but is a medium in which they can effect results through Christ.
But before I completely tossed aside the phrase “offer it up,” I decided to revisit it once more. After all, as my friend says, this is the phrase that Pope Benedict XVI uses. Perhaps there is something else to the use of the passive voice which is intriguing to the Holy Father. Allow me to speculate on this for a moment. For a person who is new to the concept of redemptive suffering, I am really taken by the concept of “uniting it to the cross,” to give the sufferer a means by which he can feel useful and connected to the community, instead of despair. However, the caution that I would add would be to not get so caught up in the concept of our own action in “uniting our suffering to the cross” that we begin to think that our action in willing this unity is the efficacious agent in this transaction. It is God, and not us, who is able to use our suffering in some way for the benefit of others. What we are doing, in essence, isn’t actually an *action* per se which renders aid, but a submission of the experience of our suffering which the Lord then uses. It is neither the selfishness of wallowing in our negative experience, or the pride in thinking that we are being personally effective which aids our brothers, but the willful, humble submission to the will of God. In this humility, this proper ordering of our desire for unity with God and with our brothers and sisters, are we able to make a true gift of ourselves back to the Lord and cooperate in His saving action. For this reason, I argue that the use of the passive voice is a good and legitimate use, not to show passivity in will, but to show docility to God.
For My Priests
Yes, I did quote this very passage almost exactly a year ago, but it bears repeating…. And, I am reading it again today in Scripture:
1 Thes 1:2-4
We give thanks to God always for all of you, remembering you in our prayers, unceasingly calling to mind your work of faith and labor of love and endurance in hope of our Lord Jesus Christ, before our God and Father, knowing, brothers loved by God, how you were chosen.
Spiritual Thoughts from our Papa
— From “Benedict XVI: Spiritual Thoughts in the First Year of His Papacy” by United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
On spiritual deserts: “…the emptiness of souls no longer aware of their dignity or the goal of human life.”
“The world is redeemed by the patience of God. It is destroyed by the impatience of man.”
“The Word of God and reason go together.”
“We cannot communicate with the Lord if we cannot communicate with each other.”
“…without suffering, nothing is transformed.”
“…for the ascent to life’s future it is essential to exercise an interior life.”
“True joy is something different from pleasure; joy grows and continues to mature in suffering, in communion with the Cross of Christ.”
“The more you seek Him, the more you are moved to seek Him.”
“…only those who first listen to the Word can become preachers of it.”
“…no community can forego the witness of a prayerful priest…”
“‘Spiritual reading’ of Sacred Scripture consists of pouring over a biblical text for some time, reading it and rereading it, as it were, ‘ruminating’ on it as the Fathers say and squeezing from it, so to speak, all its ‘juice,’ so that it may nourish meditation and contemplation and, like water, succeed in irrigating life itself.”
“Deceived by atheism they consider and seek to prove that it is scientific to think that all things lack guidance and order as though they were at the mercy of chance.”
“The closer a person is to God, the closer he is to people.”
“Faith…is the criterion that determines our lifestyle.”
Graduate Record Exam
I would love to say that the reason why I have been so incommunicado recently has been because I have been studying furiously for my GREs.
Alas.
I have put in maybe, oh, 5 hours *total* to studying, despite all my plans to work diligently on my study guide. Add that to the fact that I have never in my life taken a vocabulary class, have issues with language in general, haven’t seen simple algebra in years and can’t do geometry to save my life, and you have a picture of why my grades are suboptimal. I did, however, take an IQ test last night (yes, instead of studying….) and got a 155, which is in my normal range of 147-179. These things are important to know, when you are about to take a test that will kick the pants off you.
Right after taking the test, the computer gives you your verbal and quantitative scores. You have to wait a few weeks to get your analytical writing scores, which are graded by an actual person. The first thing I did after taking my GRE was (of course) go to Starbucks and get a venti peppermint white mocha. (Yums!) Then, I sat in my car in their parking lot and looked up my scores in their book, to see what my percentiles were.
On the quantitative/math section, I scored in the low 60s. Okay, so 40% of the population can do this stuff better than me. I’m fine with that. I said I can’t to geometry to save my life, and I’m sticking to it! I also don’t have any spatial reasoning skills, but they don’t test on that. 🙂
On the verbal section, I scored in the 96th percentile. Yippee! I’ll take it! 🙂 Hopefully, it will be good enough to get into grad school, because I am *really* excited about beginning my studies. 🙂
Oh, and what does one do after taking the GREs?
1. Starbucks
2. Find percentiles
3. Go home and dance
4. Jump on the trampoline
5. Write on your blog
Why God Made Moms
Answers given by 2nd grade school children to the following questions:
Why did God make mothers?
1. She’s the only one who knows where the scotch tape is.
2. Mostly to clean the house.
3. To help us out of there when we were getting born.
How did God make mothers?
1. He used dirt, just like for the rest of us.
2. Magic plus super powers and a lot of stirring.
3. God made my mom just the same like he made me. He just used bigger parts.
What ingredients are mothers made of?
1. God makes mothers out of clouds and angel hair and everything nice in the world and one dab of mean.
2. They had to get their start from men’s bones. Then they mostly use string, I think.
Why did God give you your mother and not some other mom?
1. We’re related.
2. God knew she likes me a lot more than other people’s mom like me.
What kind of a little girl was your mom?
1. My mom has always been my mom and none of that other stuff.
2. I don’t know because I wasn’t there, but my guess would be pretty bossy.
3. They say she used to be nice.
What did mom need to know about dad before she married him?
1. His last name.
2. She had to know his background. Like is he a crook? Does he get drunk on beer?
3. Does he make at least $800 a year? Did he say NO to drugs and YES to chores?
Why did your mom marry your dad?
1. My dad makes the best spaghetti in the world. And my mom eats a lot.
2. She got too old to do anything else with him.
3. My grandma says that mom didn’t have her thinking cap on.
Who’s the boss at your house?
1. Mom doesn’t want to be boss, but she has to because dad’s such a goof ball.
2. Mom. You can tell by room inspection. She sees the stuff under the bed.
3. I guess mom is, but only because she has a lot more to do than dad.
What’s the difference between moms and dads?
1. Moms work at work and work at home and dads just go to work at work.
2. Moms know how to talk to teachers without scaring them.
3. Dads are taller and stronger, but moms have all the real power ’cause that’s who you got to ask if you want to sleep over at your friends.
4. Moms have magic, they make you feel better without medicine.
What does your mom do in her spare time?
1. Mothers don’t do spare time.
2. To hear her tell it, she pays bills all day long.
What would it take to make your mom perfect?
1. On the inside she’s already perfect. Outside, I think some kind of plastic surgery.
2. Diet. You know, her hair. I’d diet, maybe blue.
If you could change one thing about your mom, what would it be?
1. She has this weird thing about me keeping my room clean. I’d get rid of that.
2. I’d make my mom smarter. Then she would know it was my sister who did it not me..
3. I would like for her to get rid of those invisible eyes on the back of her head.
Magnificat Meditation of the Day
Humility and the Father’s Love
Why did my Father give you power over me?
Because he wanted me to get very close to you
to show you the depths of his love for you;
not the distant love of a God
who sits on a throne in his heaven
and looks down on you on the earth,
but the love of a Father who longs to help you
to carry your burdens,
to comfort and heal you,
to give you every good gift.
He wants to come into your homes,
and to sit with you at your meals
as one of the family.
He wants to walk with you as a beloved friend.
He could not do that himself
and so he sent me, his only Son,
to make his love known to you.I could take on your weakness
and then act out my Father’s name which is Love.
Can you truly imagine the love of God?
Can you understand the depth
of your Father’s love for you?The Father sent me to show you his love,
and to act it out among you
to give you an example to copy.
I am the image of your unseen Father,
in my life, and particularly in my passion,
I showed you the depths
to which love must be prepared to go.
There is no room for fear in love,
no room for shame,
no excuses,
no holidays.
Love offers everything
and expects no return.You cannot bear the unveiled love of God.
It falls like a fire upon you
and you are consumed and burnt up in its heat.
You are not ready yet to be refined
and purified by the naked flame
of your Father’s love for you,
and so it has to be filtered,
mediated to you through my flesh. — Richard Hobbs
I was just looking up the Mass reading for the day in the Magnificat and I opened up to the meditation of the day. I just love this. Not only is it a great expression of Jesus, but I feel a personal connection to these words as well. I feel that I also am called to mediate God’s love to a particular person. I also feel that this person has incredible power over me. Not that this person is entirely aware of my calling, but that in what this person does, says, feels and experiences, I am also affected. We truly are one Body in Christ, and I feel that most keenly with this person. The way in which I help to carry burdens, comfort and heal is in my daily, continual prayer for this person. I pray night and day and all the time in between. It truly is an act of love, and not done for any false sense of piety. And in this loving, I learn how to love. By opening myself up to God’s love, poured out through me, I learn from His example.
