Nora Ephron RIP

Nora Ephron Passes–RIP I am sad that this fine writer and movie maker has passed away at 71.  Her movies were wonderful and full of human characters that moved me and made me laugh.  I enjoyed each movie she made and also in some cases on DVD I enjoyed the commentary that she would include. The best part of her stories is how many of them I could share with my children.  Sleepless in Seattle is a good example because aside from an innocuous bedroom scene it was good clean storytelling. Julie and Julia was very enjoyable and another movie … Continue reading

June 26 Feastday of St. Josemaria Escriva

Drew Mariani show with Fr. Rocky talking about St. Josemaria Escriva on his feast day, June 26. Just look down the calendar to June 26th and click on the first hour of the show.  It is a wonderful conversation about this marvelous and beloved Saint. All are called to be saints.  There is no room in the Church for slackers. People underestimate their vocation, they think they must do famously great things, but the truth is sanctity can be found anywhere and in any task.  You become a saint exactly where you happen to be. (paraphrase from the audio). I … Continue reading

Baptism on the Feast of St. Josemaria Escriva

St. Josemaria Escriva is a favorite of many people I know, especially me.  So it is a wonderful joy to me that we are celebrating the Baptism of our newest family member on June 26th, Feast of St. Josemaria Escriva, who passed into the hands of God on this day in 1975. The prelate of Opus Dei writes a letter each month to the members of Opus Dei, and I find it highly edifying.  Bishop Javier Echevarría is eloquent: The whole month of June is filled with significant dates, for the history of Opus Dei as well: the ordination of … Continue reading

“We Are Starting Over”

We Are Starting Over I am very very impressed with what this priest wrote. PLEASE, please go read his entire blog post.  It is an important set of things he has to say. I would so love to attend a parish with a priest like him– although I love and respect our parish priest for the excellent work he does. Home School is one means that parents can use to teach the Faith to their children and at the same time be reinforcing their own understanding.  I think this priest understands that value and would welcome children of good home … Continue reading

Writing

I read a really great story today.  It was fast paced, funny and held my attention.  I wanted to know what happened next and I cared about the characters.  I liked how the story was woven of several threads that were followed by changing from viewpoint to viewpoint. Changing point of view is tricky in any story, and this one relied heavily on this technique.  Over-all, in this case, I believe it works well to promote the storyline.  It also needed to be developed more to give each viewpoint character more unique qualities to their voice and the point of … Continue reading

7PM on Sunday Night

I recall as a child sitting down to the TV with my parents and siblings and the family dog.  Even with only the three stations our antennae could pull in, there were shows that a family could watch together that did not include gratuitous sex, violence, or swearing, lots and lots of swearing, and  adult themes were very limited until after 8 or 9 when the kids could be expected to be in bed. I’m not anti-Television.  I am a kid of the TV generation who grew up watching family shows in the evening before being sent off to bed … Continue reading

Inspiration and Education

I have recently discovered the joys of browsing the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Online Collections. It began with my favorite time period and region to study which is Byzantium during the reign of Basil II.  Someone pinned a photo of a bracelet from around that period on their pinterest page and I saw it and followed the link to see more historical information on this artifact.  Thus began a several day, every spare moment, fascinating walk through the website.  I pinned lots of bits of fabric from around and before my period to aid in finding embroidery patterns that would … Continue reading

Ancient Games

Byzantium or the Eastern Roman Empire survived the fall of Rome for another thousand years or so.  During this time the people still played games and had lives that grew out of the Roman culture.  I discovered this fun set of videos on YouTube, and they have several others I did not embed that you ought to go see if the subject of Ancient times interests you. These are about games people played.  There have been found game boards and game pieces and dice, but the rules are much more difficult to discover.  Scholars have attempted to accurately recreate the … Continue reading

Sacred and Religious Music

Religious music is wonderful for reinforcing our understanding of our Faith and excellent for building our Catholic cultures, but not all religious music is appropriate for use during the Mass. Just up front I want to let my readers know that: I am totally in favor of singing the mass as the norm rather than speaking it;  I am completely in love with the high quality older music that has survived the test of time; I believe the choir should be in the loft or at least well out of the line of sight of the congregation because it is … Continue reading