Angelmeg Says: Go to the Movies

Remember: we are Othercotting DvC this weekend.

My pick is Over the Hedge. Of course, you have the choice of seeing any movie you wish.



See you at the movies. I will be the one not eating popcorn unfortunately since I am allergic to it.


Pax

FREEDOM!

Today I am officially an unemployed woman.

Last evening was my final commitment at work. I turned in my keys and left the building for the final time as an employee of the parish. Next week the parish is having a dinner to say goodbye, but even that will be at a venue away from the parish grounds, so this was the final time I will be on the parish grounds.

I'm hoping to take an entire year off before going back into the work force. Let's just say mrangelmeg and I are in negotiations. I want to get healthy before I do anything, however long that takes. Maybe a low stress summer will be the first step to getting healthy.

Yeah right, home all day with five kids, what could be low stress about that?

It could happen.

Pax

What do You Say?

I just found out that Dr. Jaroslav Pelikan died. I discovered his work because I had to read his exhaustive tome Credo for my class on Creeds in History and Theology class in Gradual School. While I can't say it was a quick or easy read, I am so glad that I read it. I was absolutely amazed at how well organized the book was and now that I have read it I can and have used the book as a reference more than a few times for other uses.


I heard him speak over the internet during that class, or was it for a class on liturgy, I can't remember, but it might have been either. I know that he has been referenced in at least three of my classes.

He will be missed.

Gashwin has a very heartfelt goodbye to him on his site.

Pax

Totally Funny

Curt Jester has done it again with a parody of Myspace for Catholics called of all things:




myWorshipSpace

I was laughing so hard by the end I was in tears.


Having a daughter who is practically addicted to her myspace page I am all to familiar with the phenomenon. Would that there were one for her that were this wholesome.


My favorite touch had to be asking St. Anthony for help with lost passwords.

Pax

Stage 5 Lunch, Maybe even Stage 6 if We Were Lucky

I had lunch today with a friend of mine who happens to be Buddhist. While she is raising her son Catholic, and is a very active member of the parish (where I used to work) she has never felt the need to personally become a Catholic herself. I have always maintained that she and I believe in the same God and have very similar styles of praying, and have wanted to talk to her about her prayer life for over a year now, but somehow it took this long for our schedules to permit us to get together for a talk.

We had the most amazing discussion about Union with God, the transcendent Other. That which is greater than any words we can use to describe. We talked about how we pray, and how we use our prayer time and what we do with distraction in our prayer life. We talked about The ultimate goal of the spiritual life being that of union with God.

It was a fascinating discussion, and in many ways I could easily have been talking to another Catholic. She even has a deep appreciation for the Blessed Mother. She understands what it took for Mary to say yes to God's plan of salvation and be willing to go along with that plan, holding those things she didn't understand in her heart.

She commented at one point that we have similar understandings about God. I told her that many mystics within the Christian tradition came to understand that God was more than the sum of what human language could describe. I also told her that for me, because of what I knew of Christ and His mission and the Eucharist I would always be a Catholic, because for me personally, the fullest expression of my union with the Divine would only come within the Catholic Church. She seemed to be willing to accept that.

We promised to try to get together again. I am sad that we finally did this so late in my time at he parish. It would have been nice to have these discussions for months and months.

Who knows, maybe we will for months and months from this point on. It could happen.

Pax

What Else do you do on a Rainy Mother's Day?

So my kids got me something for Mother's day that I have wanted for years: namely My very own copy of Dark Side of the Rainbow, which is copies of Pink Floyd's album Dark Side of the Moon and a DVD of The Wizard of Oz. Then you play the album's audio over the Video of the DVD.

We sat down in our family room on Mother's day afternoon and played it and it was really amazing at how many coincidental events there were between the album and the movie. If they were in fact coincidental. I personally have always thought that Roger Waters is a genius when it comes to music, and had forgotten how amazing an album Dark Side was all by itself.

It really was a lot of fun, and I will never be able to watch the movie or hear the album again in exactly the same way. Here is a story from MTV via YouTube you can watch about it. (you don't have to take my word for it.)



I highly encourage you to try it for yourself just for fun.

Pax

Serendipity, and Icon and an Answered Question

So I think I wrote about having to move out of my office by the end of this week, and I wrote about my new class in Gradual School being Early Church History. I am reading a book called Reading Scripture with the Church Fathers by Christopher Hall. In it he talks about the influence of the "Church Mothers" or the women in the early church who don't have a designation, but nonetheless were equally as influential to the men of the era. Some were even more influential, by the addmition of their male counterparts.

Anyway, just the day after I read about Macrina, the sister of Basil the Great and Gregory of Nyssa and how influential she was to them I happened to be taking down the Icon of the Greek fathers from the wall of my office which has Basil and Gregory and Gregory of Nazianzus and another figure, that I had always assumed was a woman, because the three men are dressed alike in Greek Vestments, and the fourth figure has a soft face and is dressed softly and is veiled. On the back of the icon there is a paper that states who is in the picture. The paper says that the fourth person is St. Proccuratus? And that the original image comes from the wall of a Church in Turkey and is from the 7th or 8th Century.

After reading Christopher Hall, I am going to take a big leap of faith here and say that the original painter knew that he (or she) was representing Macrina, The fourth of the influential members of the Greek "fathers" and over the centuries that little known fact was simply misplaced. When the icon maker decided to use the image on the icon, he (probably a man) knew the identity of the "fathers" and assumed that the fourth person was a student of theirs and so gave "him" a name with a question mark? Because of the uncertainty.

It would be interesting to find out if my guess is correct and my icon is really of the Greek Fathers and Macrina. I can't wait to take it to School with me next weekend and show it to my professor and see what he thinks.

Pax

Pax

A Month of Goodbyes

I went to a Diocesan meeting of Parish Administrators of Religious Education yesterday. It was the last one I will have to go to in my present position, and perhaps the last one I will ever attend. In six years these people have become my friends, mentors, spiritual advisors, cohorts, and playmates. Suffice it to say I was on an emotional rollercoaster the entire day.

And this is just the beginning. From here on out each week of this month there will be another type of goodbye that I will have to say to someone, on some level. Even though I am not moving, I will be leaving my job, so I won't be seeing the people in the parish where I work nearly as often or ever again. Some of them have become very close friends.

God put me in this place, with these people, during this last six years for a purpose, and in His infinite wisdom that purpose is finished. It is not mine to question His timing, but to surrender to His wisdom and take what I have learned here and move to wherever He chooses to send me next.

I realized yesterday how hard it will be to say goodbye to all of these people. But then it reminded me of something I had read, about relationships. We shouldn't hold too tightly to all our relationships because they are not all meant to be lasting.

I searched for it on the web, and found it here . In time I may know which of the people I met in this six years were meant to be my companions on my journey for longer than a season, and those I won't have to say goodbye to, because they will find me again, through email or the telephone, or I will want to keep in touch with them.

God's plans are perfect, we just have to learn to trust in them.

Pax

A Life of Sacrifice

Sunday was World Day of prayer for Vocations . Our Pastor spoke about it, asking men to consider a life in the priesthood. He made it seem as though being a priest was an adventurous career choice. I have always thought that the best priests were the ones who saw thier vocation as one of total service and self emptying sacrifice. They did not become priests to get their needs met, but to meet the needs of others. Our Holy Father's homily on Sunday seems to echo this opinion:

VATICAN CITY, MAY 7, 2006

The priesthood is not a path to prestige, says Benedict XVI. In his homily today during the ordination Mass of 15 new priests in St. Peter's Basilica, the Pope said that the spirit of the priesthood is opposed to "making a career" of it, to get to the "top," or "to seek a position through the Church: to be served rather than to serve."

The Holy Father criticized the "image of the man who, through the priesthood, wants to be important, to become a personality." "But the only legitimate ascent to the ministry of the pastor is the cross," said the Pope. "This is the door."

On World Day of Prayer for Vocations, Benedict XVI said that to be a priest is "not to desire to become personally someone, but to live for the other, for Christ and, in this way, through him and with him, to live for the men he seeks, whom he wishes to lead on the path of life."

The Pope continued: One "enters the priesthood through the sacrament, that is, through giving oneself to Christ, so that he can dispose of me, so that I serve him and follow his call, even if it is opposed to my desires for self-fulfillment and esteem.

"To enter through the door, which is Christ, means to know him and love him ever more, so that our will is united to his and our conduct is his." The Holy Father gave this advice to the new priests: "May Christ grow in us, may our union with him be ever more profound."

(Zenit.org).-

Pax

Whose Yardstick?

I had an interesting conversation today with a group of mom's. We were comparing family stories. I like to call these kind of comparison "disfunctional family feud" talks. We all have skeletons in our closets when it comes to our families. We can all bring out stories of how strange our families behave from time to time or circumstance to circumstance.

It got me to thinking about how we measure what is functional when it comes to families. Who decided what a normal family looked like anyway? Whose yardstick do we use to determine whether our family measures up or not?

I have two children with disabilities (Autism spectrum disorders). I know that to the world they can look very disabled at times. I think that because I understand how hard it can be to be judged unfairly by the outside world, I am very careful not to judge too harshly when I don't know the entire story about someone else's functionality on a daily basis. The behavior that I am seeing from that person may be the best that they can manage under the particular stress of the given situation.

It reminds me of the bookmarks I gave to the First Eucharist class today they had a picture of a bear that was being stitched together on them with the saying:

Be patient, God isn't through with me yet.

Wise words we should all heed. What an amazing world this would be if everyone was willing to give everyone else the benefit of the doubt.

Pax

Go, Get Out, Scram!

Did it ever occur to you that we get kicked out of church EVERY Sunday!

One of the professors at St. Meinrad, Fr Godfrey Mullen, OSB, wrote a meditation on that exact point. I quoted him in my heading today.

I don't know about you, but there are times when I would love to bask in the revelation that I have just become what I received. I could sit there in quiet contemplation of the fact that I am the body of Christ, part of and holy. Unfortunately, that is not our mission, because just moments after we receive this supreme gift of love we are sent forth "to love and serve the Lord"

Go in peace

No matter how much we want to stay, we are called to serve. Our membership in the body is one of action. It reminds me of the prayer I learned as a young girl.

Christ has no body but yours,

No hands, no feet on earth but yours,

Yours are the eyes with which he looks Compassion on this world,

Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,

Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.

Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,

Yours are the eyes, you are his body.

Christ has no body now but yours,

No hands, no feet on earth but yours,

Yours are the eyes with which he looks compassion on this world.

Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

- St Teresa of Avilla (1515-1582)

Gentle Nudge or Bums Rush?

This message is applicable to many areas of our lives. I have been contemplating the end of my job at the end of June. I know it will be hard to leave after six years at the parish. I realize that I am called to leave at this time. I wanted to move slowly at cleaning out my office, and take my time, but the timetable has been moved up on me by circumstance.

The parish has decided to renovate the office building and will be demolishing my office in the next few weeks, even before my parish committments are complete, so I have to be out of my office by next week instead of the end of May. At first I was feeling as though they were saying "Here is your hat, what's your hurry", but the more I think about it the more I see the above message that I learned from Fr. Godfrey's meditation; If I am truly being called out of that place to something new, then why am I lingering?

So, next week I will be cleaning out my office (oh Lord Help, I am no more organized than I was before) and since they are going to pay me till the end of my contract regardless I will take the extra free time as a wonderful bonus from God and not as a snub from them.

God is good all the time.

Even when he says Scram!

Pax

Update on Daughter's Recovery

Our oldest daughter had another visit with her Dr. Tuesday and is progressing quite nicely. She is down to one crutch already, I was still walking with two crutches at a month after my ACL repair. Her knee looks pretty ugly, but after major reconstructive surgery what did she expect?

She is bored silly because now that she isn't taking narcotics she is actually awake most of the day. She won't be cleared to drive for another week or so. We are trying to find things to do to keep her stimulated around here.

I think her recovery will be swift and complete. Thank you all for your prayers.

Pax

Prayer Before Connecting to the Internet

Okay children here is our prayer lesson for the morning:


OMNIPOTENS aeterne Deus, qui nos secundum imaginem Tuam plasmasti, et omnia bona, vera, pulchra, praesertim in divina persona Unigeniti Filii Tui Domini nostri Iesu Christi, quaerere iussisti, praesta quaesumus ut, per intercessionem Sancti Isidori, Episcopi et Doctoris, in peregrinationibus per interrete factis et manus oculosque ad quae Tibi sunt placita intendamus et omnes quos convenimus cum caritate ac patientia accipiamus.
Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.


and for those who can't quite do the Latin:

ALMIGHTY and eternal God, who hast created us in Thy image and bade us to seek after all that is good, true and beautiful, especially in the divine person of Thy only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, grant we beseech Thee that, through the intercession of Saint Isidore, bishop and doctor, during our journeys through the internet, we will direct our hands and eyes only to that which is pleasing to Thee and treat with charity and patience all those souls whom we encounter. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

From Treasury of Latin Prayers

h/t to Purcell's Chicken Voluntary for the link.

Pax

Bling for the Lord!

Martha Martha has an interesting discussion about what jewelry we wear that reminds us of God. Sort of our sacramental Bling round up.

I have to admit the mobius bracelet she describes on her site sounds really really cool, and happens to have a prayer from my Patron Patrick on it too.

So, mrangelmeg, if you are looking for something to get me as a gift, (hint hint)!

Pax

Always looking for Scripture Study Help

This is a great site for help in wading through scripture. As I have been saying for years, the only way to interpret scripture on ones own is wrongly. Scripture was always intended to be proclaimed and understood in a community of faith (duh, the church from which it arose). What this group of people is doing, by going through the bible using the Coming Home Network Outline is a wonderful idea.

I intend to join them, because no matter how much knowledge you think you have of scripture, there is always another perspective you will be able to gain when you study it in a group of believers. I have added their button to my sidebar for easy navigation.

Join me, won't you?

Pax

Tangents from . . . Well the mind just isn't fully engaged this early in the morning

I was up early so I could borrow my son's computer to get online. (Long story involving mrangelmeg, a glass of sweet tea and his attempt to replace the cover on my computer after putting in the Ethernet card, suffice it to say my computer is a bit ill for now)

In my daily meandering around St. Blog's B Team I ran into this wonderful post on analogies by Anonymous Teacher Person. I was very interested in the post itself because I am always trying to find ways to help my children understand doctrinal development, but rather than keep my mind on that topic, I was flooded with memories about . . . of all things . . . Christmas trees and ornaments.

Mrangelmeg and I had no ornaments for our first tree, so we purchased these horrid wooden ornaments that must have been made in some foreign country where Christmas isn't really celebrated the way it is here. These ornaments consisted of strange animals, which were supposed to look more festive because they had been painted with polka dots. We called them our Misfit Toy ornaments. Not all of them were horrid, but most of them were indescribable.

Anyway, when the angelboy came along the next year I got the idea that every year I would purchase a really nice ornament for him so that when he went off on his own he would have this set of 21 or 22 really nice Christmas Ornaments to take with him. That was my mistake.

Not being a mathematician, or savvy in the area of numerical permutations, it never occurred to me that one ornament a year, times eventually five children would end being more ornaments than would fit on a forest of Christmas Trees!!!!! You would think that mrangelmeg, being a graduate of engineering school would have said something, but I suppose he was too busy laughing inside at the thought of my eventual distress to let on that he could foresee the future.

Fast-forward 21 years and we have 6 bins of ornaments that we have to put away every year: one for each of our children and one for our own ornaments. For a while when we replaced our tree (we have to have an artificial tree because mrangelmeg is allergic to tree sap) we used to put up the old tree in the game room and let the kids put some of their ornaments on it. Now we just let them pick out a few of their ornaments to put on the big tree and the rest stay in their bins.

Anyway, Thanks teacherperson for trying to give me a lesson in docctrinal development, even if all I got was a waltz down memory lane and memory of a lesson in exponential child development.

Pax

My kind of Mid semester Reading

So, did I tell you how much I love my new class? Early Church History, with a young Monk who was once a Southern Baptist on his way to the priesthood. Fr. Denis has so much energy that he makes the class material very exciting, as if the early church wasn't.

Anyway, I am mid-semester again with no time for personal reading because I am eyeball deep in the church fathers, which really isn't such a bad place to be. but sometimes a girl just has to do a little light reading.

To my rescue comes Julie over at Happy Catholic with her mini-lit post. You have to love it! It sure made me laugh when I needed a break from Origen and Tertullian.

Pax

Othercott The Da Vinci Code

From now until the movie comes out I am going to make a point to remind you every week:

Don't just not go to see this piece of drivel, go out opening weekend and spend your hard earned money seeing something else. My preference, and that of Barb Nicolosi is Over the Hedge. but you can decide for yourself.


Barb has a great post about DVC, and why we shouldn't be debating anyone who wants to "talk" about the DVC as an opportunity in the church.

DVC represents all the "opportunity" that the

Roman persecutions offered the early Church. Rah.

Read the rest here.


Make this the most effective Othercott the movie industry has ever seen.

More screens for Over the Hedge.

Pax

Gimmi that Old Time Music!

Hey I like the old stuff too. Just not all the time.

h/t to Michael at Annunciations for the way cool link.

Pax

Most Mother's Get A Day: Why The Blessed Mother Get's an Entire Month!

We had a traditional May Crowning yesterday at Mass. It was so beautiful that it brought tears to my eyes. I am not sure if it was the sight of twenty two little children processing up the center aisle with flowers, or the old Marian Hymn the choir sang but the entire thing was just so moving.


One thing I didn't know, but was told yesterday by the pastor, as part of the introduction to the event, was that the original May crownings were a response to the May Day processions of the Communists. While they would strut around with great shows of military might on the first day of May, young Catholic children all over the world would process around with flowers and set them before a statue of the Blessed Mother, and then continue with prayers. I think our way was a more effective step toward world unity; our Mother is stronger than their army, and has proved that fact at Fatima.

It really put into perspective the honor that we give to the mother of our Lord. Queen of the Angels, and Queen of the May (as one of those old songs used to remind us).

Anyway, Happy Month Mother. And thanks to the parish where I work for reminding me of the May processions of my youth.

I will be humming Marian Hymns all month now, as if that is a bad thing.

Pax