An Appearance that we can really sink our teeth into

Workers at Bodega Chocolates in Fountain Valley California discovered an amazing sight when they found this small figure that appears to be the Blessed Mother formed organically from chocolate drippings.

You can read the rest of the story here.

I am not a great believer in these types of apparitions and sightings, but hey if Mary is going to show up don't you think she would do so in good gourmet chocolate before she would in a humble tortilla or as a splotch on a glass wall?

I believe, but then again I am a chocolatarian, this is an apparition that goes along with my lifestyle choice.

hat tip to Ironic Catholic for the link.

Pax

Spiritual Reading for the day

From the Book of Armaments: chapter 2 verses 9-21

And St Atilla raised the hand grenade up on high saying "O Lord bless this thy hand grenade that with it thow mayest blow thine enemy to bits in thy mercy" (ROTFLOL)





hat tip to God Spede ye Plough for the laugh

Pax

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year . . .

for a stay-at-home-mom anyway. My girls are going back to school, and by the end of the week my days will be filled with peaceful silence, well at least once they get used to the morning schedule and we don't have to pry them out of bed with a forklift.

Once, when my oldest daughter was really struggling in school I prayed long and hard about whether or not it might be a good idea to home-school. Other people I knew were bravely taking their children out of the school system to assure that they were getting what they needed, so I thought surely I should do the same for my daughter. After many, many nights of prayer I was assured by my father in heaven that my children would be much better off if I left their education in more capable hands. I, you see, can barely get them to do homework and keep their rooms clean. It would have done much harm to us all, both mentally and spiritually if I had endeavored to teach my very special needs children at home. Their handicaps and needs were way beyond my personal abilities.

And I will have to admit, with the exception of just a few times, my children have been blessed with very caring teachers who have made a great impact on their lives, and broadened their horizons in a positive way. We have been blessed, because I believe we have been faithful, and vigilant and stayed as active and connected to what was going on at their schools as we possibly could.

Because I am not working this year, I am going to do something I did for my older children. I am going to be a library lady volunteer at the angelbaby's elementary school. I went in to meet the Media Specialist yesterday, and we are going to schedule a time slot so that I can become a regular weekly volunteer. That way I get to spend time at the angelbaby's school without seeming like I am snooping or being in the way.

I am pretty excited about the chance to be in there again. So long as it is only one morning a week.

The rest of the time I want to enjoy the quiet house while I have the chance. Christmas break will be here sooner than we think.

Pax

3 Things Meme

Three things that make me laugh
funny commercials
Steven Colbert on The Colbert Report
Monty Python

Three things that scare me
clowns (long story, Steven King understands though)
really big bugs that crawl on you in your sleep
thunderstorm and tornados

Three things I love
chocolate
being in love, especially with mrangelmeg
the smell of a just bathed baby

Three things I hate
intollerance, especially from self righteous people
indifference
driving somewhere I have never driven before, especially at night or if I am late

Three things I don't understand
how someone can presume to think they know how good a christian someone else is
people who get bent out of shape by what songs are sung at liturgy when the Eucharist is validly consecrated
why anyone would choose philosophy as a career

Three things on my floor

shoes

a NAB bible from my youth ministry days (where did that come from?)

my suitcase that was just unpacked yesterday and isn't put away yet

Three things I am doing right now

blogging,

talking with my youngest angelbaby

counting down the days till school starts around here, (T minus three -- woo hoo)

Three things I want to do someday

Write and publish a book
travel to Ireland
speak another language fluently

Three things I can't do
speak another language fluently (hence above)
play the violin
bluff at cards convincingly

Three things I should listen to
the voice of the Lord
my gut
my kids

Three things I shouldn't listen to
rap music
country western music
any voice that would lead me astray

Three things I like to drink
decaf coffee (hot or iced)
baileys Irish cream
Simply Limeade

Three favorite foods
chocolate (the darker the better)
rosemary roasted chicken
broccoli with cheese

Three shows I watch
Psych too funny
The Office can't wait for the new season, for now I am watching the webisodes
Project Runway what can I say, this is one reality tv show I love

Pax

Top 100 Reasons to be Catholic

Visit Ironic Catholic for a fun look at all (Well this installment is 100 - 91) the great reasons for wanting to be Catholic.


You go girl!


Pax

At Least it Didn't Come Up Philosopher!

h/t to SFO Mom


Pax

Wise Words

“It’s getting so I always make a sincere

Act of Contrition before I go into a meeting.

Statistically, it’s a good bet I’m going to die during one.”

Fr. General Vincenzo Giuliani SJ
From The Sparrow
By Mary Doria Russell

I think I may make this into a wall hanging for my spiritual director.

Pax

All That Jazz

Thursday Night my friends John and Pat took me to The Jazz Factory for dinner and some great Jazz violinist named Zach Brock. There was a singer there as well named Spider Saloff, and a guitarist Steve Ramsdell. The music was amazing. Zach got tones out of that violin that I have never heard from any other violin in all my years of music appreciation. Steve was getting amazing riffs that sounded electric from an acoustic guitar, and Spider's voice was a really mellow throaty contralto. Together they made an awesome trio.

This venue has to be one of the best Jazz clubs around, it was just the right size and configuration for good music and the food was great. We had a great time. John and Pat go there about twice a month and sometimes more often even than that.

If you ever get to Louisville Kentucky and find you have an evening that you want to make very special spend it at the Jazz Factory. You won't be disappointed.

Pax

Just? One Book Meme

I have enjoyed reading this meme all over the net and have been patiently waiting my turn, but have decided that this is probably as close as I am going to get to being personally tagged.

One book that changed your life:
Mere Christianity I am a cradle Catholic, but I really only understood what it meant to live as a Catholic Christian full tilt 24/7 after I read this book.

One book that you have read more than once:
Too Kill a Mockingbird I read it the first time when I was about seven or eight, and I have read it every two or three years since then. I don't think there is another book that is as well written in the world. Reading that book, more than anything else in the world made me want to be a writer.

One book you want on a desert island:
The Ultimate Survival Guide I am sure that I can talk to God without the bible,so I am going to be practical and get instructions on how to start a fire or build shelter or even catch and clean fish.

One book that made you laugh:
Any of Junie B Jones series by Barbara Park are absolutely laugh out loud funny. Alexander and the Terrible Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst is so funny I can't read it out loud.

One book that made you cry:
Daughter of Silence by Morris West There is something about how Mr. West writes his women characters that makes them so real I felt her pain and cried for her.

One book you wish would have been written:
Chicago Cubs World Series Champions in the Third millennium hey we can all dream.

One book you wish had never been written:
anything by Joel Osteen his stuff is too shiny happy God for me.

One book you are currently reading:
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell recommended by my online Jesuit friends and my Associate Pastor who calls it "Jesuits in Space. I am not usually a fan of Science Fiction, but this is really really good.

One book you have been meaning to read:
When the Heart Waits by Sue Monk Kidd was recommended to me by someone I love when I quit my job and I have been meaning to read it. I actually even bought a copy of it, but until this darn Philosophy class is over I doubt that I will have time to read it.

Now that was a lot of fun, the hardest part was limiting each category to only one book.

I would like to tag Mark Mossa SJ when he gets back from his retreat if he hasn't already been tagged, because I am interested to see what his answers would be.

Sense of the Faithful?

This commercial was passed around the School of Theology last fall. Thanks to Ironic Catholic and my favorite fun site YouTube it has reemerged. Some may be scandalized by it, I saw it as great fun, possibly because there have been times when I was younger (and unmarried) when I had an attraction for a nice looking young man only to find out he was a seminarian or priest. (Father What-a-waste).

This commercial made me laugh. I hope you enjoy it and take it in the spirit in which it was intended and are not scandalized by it.





Pax

Is This the Good Kind of Tired?

So I have been working the Alumni Reunion today and I have been running my legs off helping the alumni, most of whom are priests (this is a seminary after all) find their way around and get to where they need to be). It has been exhausting and fun.

Tonight I had the pleasure of serving dinner at the banquet celebrating the returning classes. The people at my table were celebrating their 50th year reunion from St Meinrad High School (yes years ago young men came here when they were 14 and stayed through major seminary if that was their vocation). Who should sit at my table but Daniel M Buechlein OSB Archbishop of Indianapolis, my bishop and until a few months ago a man I worked for indirectly. Happily he didn't recognize me as someone he knew, and was very gracious.

Another man who sat at my table was from the parish where I used to work. In fact I have seen three older men from my former parish here that I haven't seen since I quit my job. It was nice to talk to them and let them know that I am all right an doing pretty well in my sabbatical.

I am really tired tonight. I think though all in all this is the good kind of tired, because I have been busy all day being helpful and making a difference. When I go to sleep tonight I will sleep really well.

Pax

Finally, News from Namibia

Maureen Martin at CatholicNews.org posted today that all is well in Namibia. Little St. Banana Sunshine Smoothie came into the world on July 14th and Maureen's C section recovery is going well.

Now if we can just get the kid on a regular schedule so that Maureen has just a little time to come back to all of her avid readers for an occasional posting.

Welcome little Banana Sunshine, now go to sleep and let your mom write and that is an order from your aunt angelmeg!

Pax

Tis Good Lord to be Here

Today is the Feast of the Transfiguration. Often I have heard friends bemoan the fact that they are waiting for those transfiguration moments in their spiritual lives. I suppose I look at things a little bit differently.

It is good that I get the mountaint top experiences, but I am more of the mind that it is good that I am wherever it is that God wants me to be at this moment. Even if this moment doesn't seem to be a very glamorous or exciting moment, there must be some good reason for God wanting me to be in this moment.

I need to learn to cultivate the idea of gratitude that will allow me to say "It is good Lord to be here" at every moment of my life. When I am taking care of my family and their needs, or I am dealing with the struggle to handle our van being in the shop for over a week and two weekends and all of us not being able to fit in one car to go anywhere together. Or when I am doing something fun and new.

If everything is truly gift, then I should find good in everything. My spiritual director used to say that was finding the grace in every moment. Sometimes the hard fact is that the grace in some moments isn't for us. Especially in our suffering. Sometimes the grace of those moments is meant for others, and often the effects of that grace we will never know or see. But because God is good, it is good that we are there and that fact we can know if we allow ourselves to believe.

I need to to finish packing and hopefully tackle the rest of those midterm questions. I am leaving for an adventure this week; I am working the alumni reunion at St Meinrad and then visiting friends for a few days and then back to Meinrad for a workshop Friday and Saturday.

Mrangelmeg, two of the daughters and Suzanne's son are off to a Cardinal's game, and the rest of the house is still asleep because we went to Mass last night.

So, Blessed Transfiguration to you all.
Pax

A Lesson in Ethics on Reality Television?

So my daughters and I were watching our guilty pleasure show Project Runway last night. Who would have thought that it would have offered an awesome lesson in ethics and a great debate among us about knowing the rules and abiding by them from the outset of a competition.

It seems that Keith, one of the designers on the show this season was found to be in possession of pattern books in his apartment even after they were told when they began the show that those types of books were NOT to be in their possession. Whether or not he used those books to aide in his design process is beside the point, mere possession of them is against the rules of the program and the producers had no other recourse than to ask him to leave the competition.

Personally I didn't really like Keith because the week before he felt he was above the rules of the program when he "chose" not do design an outfit for the dog in the challenge that included the dogs. Rules apply to everyone I told the girls last week when we were watching him try to defend his actions, and yet they allowed him to stay. His defiance of the rules finally came back to bite him (ha, I didn't intend the pun, but it is funny).

The easiest way to work is to play by the rules, then you don't have to worry about trying to defend your actions later.

I hope my girls learned a lesson from Keith's foolhardy actions, and I hope this poor young man did as well. Perhaps his public embarrassment will be enough to ensure that he will understand that rules are there for a reason.

Pax

The Human Spirit Soars

Wow, if this doesn't prove the worth of one man's life. It brought tears to my eyes.

I have seen this all over the net.


Pax

Note to Self

Quit Complaining


Esther has the details.



Thanks to GOP Soccer Mom for the link.

Pax

Dream Analysis Please

So I had this horrible dream last night.

I was taking my Modern Philosophy Midterm. Each time I would successfully write the answer to a question about Descartes or Spinoza or Berkeley or Hume, and I would be so pleased that I had completed the question and could move, I would hit the save button on my computer and the program would work like a random question generator and change the questions so that the answer no longer matched up with the question I had just completed or the previous ones I had done.

Someone please help analyze this dream for me because it is totally freaking me out. I am beginning to second guess all of the work I did on the questions I answered yesterday (all five of them out of twenty). This thing is already giving me daymares, now nightmares too!

Oh well I had best get back to the test before the questions change!

Say a quick prayer for me.

Pax

Marriage is a Duel to the death!

So I am busily working on my Philosophy midterm . . . okay so that is technically untrue, I am postponing even starting work on it this morning by doing a bit of a blog stroll. I have been taking advantage of the amazing links on the B-Team blogroll and every day I pick a random link I have never followed and am exposed to another Catholic voice.

I must admit it is a bit like any parish; some I really like, some not so much.

Today's link was In Veritas Ambulare where I came across this amazing gem:

Whether it is true that marriage is not a gamble

My favorite line has to be the one I quoted in the title. Marriage is a duel to the death. ROTFLOL sometimes it sure feels that way.

I did like the line: The "outcome" of marriage cannot be in doubt, as our Lord has promised all necessary graces to spouses who seek them. Failings, then, can be ascribed only to the participants, and not made a quality of marriage itself.

I believe mrangelmeg and I have had discussions about this point before. He even mentioned this last night before we went to sleep, when we were talking about what it takes to be a real man. A real man does what it takes to make a marriage work and doesn't bail when the going gets rough.

Pax

LOVEly New Meme

This one is from Confessions of a Hot Carmel Sundae:

Five things I love about my husband:
1. He is consistently the same, you could set your clock by his routine. There is something solid and trustworthy in knowing that he does the same thing at the same time almost every day. I love to listen to him getting ready for work in the mornings because I know what he is doing by the sounds of his toothbrush on the sink, or his razor in the water.

2. He has a killer sense of humor. He is so quiet that most people don't even realize how funny he is until they have known him for a while, but he can always make me laugh.

3. He makes me feel as though I am the most beautiful woman on the planet.

4. He really sincerely cares for other people, even strangers.

5. His faith is unwavering.


Five things I love about other family members:
1. my son is overcoming his disabilities and is learning how to drive and I am so proud of him for that.
2. my oldest daughter is coming off of a very bad time but she has really taken great strides recently in taking charge of her life and getting back on track
3. my second daughter is fielding calls from colleges and military recruiters like a pro, even with her disabilities. She is creative and I am sure will find here way in the world
4. my third daughter has proven that she can play the piano beautifully, and willingly takes on any task around the house that I ask her to do.
5. my baby girl is learning to be a ballroom dancing queen, and a very compassionate friend.

Five things I am proud of in people I love:
1. mom is bearing up with her illness very well
2. Suzanne has handled the stress of her husband's accident with so much grace, but then she always handles these things that way, she is always an inspiration to me.
3. Maria has quit smoking, and I know from experience how hard that is. I am so proud of her for that.
4. Meg and Brian will have a baby soon, they are going to be the best parents ever.
5. Jeff, who I had hoped would one day be my future son-in-law, is going to meet with the vocations director of the Passionists this week to explore a vocation to the priesthood. I am so proud that he is still listening to God's voice, even if it means I will lose him to God.

Five Happy memories I have about people I love:
1. When I was growing up I remember waiting on the front steps of my house for my dad to come home from the school where he taught. He used to walk to work and I would wait patiently on the steps for him to come back in the afternoon. Thinking about those times still brings back very happy memories for me.
2. My mom used to read to us kids every afternoon. That was one of my favorite things we did together. She read everything from The Wizard of Oz to Stewart Little.
3. I used to stop in to see my Godmother at the Bank where she worked when I went downtown when I was little. She always made time for me no matter how busy her day was. She was the Executive Assistant to the President of the Bank, and I know that the last thing she probably needed was a little girl hanging around her desk, but she always made me feel as though I was the most important thing in her day when I stopped in to see her.
4. Driving to and coming back from the retreat that Diane and I went on last October. I won't say that the retreat was all that great, but the trip there and back was amazing. It really solidified our friendship.
5. Fr. Charlie showing up in the angelbaby's hospital room after she almost drowned. This may seem like a strange happy memory, but he was supposed to be on vacation and we were desperate to find a priest, and he showed up out of the blue. He stayed with us for an hour and was there when she woke up.

Five things I want to thank God for:
1. my sisters (and brother but mostly my sisters)
2. the church, salvation Eucharist, it's all tied in together
3. the ability to think, reason and remember ( because I know mom can't do those things now)
4. a sense of humor and laughter
5. friends old and new, close and far away, intimate and those I only know online

If you are reading this and would like to do it, consider yourself tagged.

Pax

Happy Blogoversary to Me!

My dear little blog is two years old today!!!

It seems like yesterday that I started this foolhardy venture of placing my spiritual musings on the internet for all the world to see (and two loyal readers to eventually find). Some of you late comers may not know that I did this after my first Jesuit retreat as an act of obedience to my director.

After having to spend a week listening to me read from my retreat journal, and laughing hysterically every time we met, he told me that it was a shame that I didn't share my spiritual insights with others. When I told him that I really didn't have a forum by which I could share, he recommended that I start a weblog, and thus Transcendental Musings was born August 1, 2004. So I suppose you could blame the Jesuits if you must.

In two years, according to my site meter nearly 10,000 hits have been made (probably a third of those are me checking back and making changes to the site) but even if you take out that number it still adds up to quite a few more hits than I ever would have expected.

I realized about a week ago that I have done a lot less spiritual writing in the last few months, which might have been due to the stress of my job transition, or other things that were going on in my life, but I hope to change that. I really do look forward to writing on my blog and sharing my journey of faith, and I have come to cherish the friendships I have made, even the ones who call me cupcake; and you know who you are.

I hope for many more years of happy blogging, because you see even if the site meter never registers another hit it sure is cheaper than therapy.

Pax