Everyday Beauty II

People in our culture are starving for beauty.  I remember when Trudy Krise, a wonderful woman, would bring her deserts to class for the snack.  Those days we had standing room only! People stood around the table exclaiming over the beauty of her deserts. They were indeed a work of art, and what is more, they tasted BETTER than they looked! People are so starved for beauty that knowing her art would be at the next class was all it took to get standing room only. Why the popularity of the Extraordinary form of the Mass? We often call it … Continue reading

My View From the “cry-room” Pew

Hi, I am the mother of two difficult, energetic children, whom I bring to Mass so they can learn to be good Christians; we sit on a bench, not in a pew, that faces a tall glass window between us and the sanctuary where the privileged Christians get to sit. Today, my view through the window was of the back sides of several college aged young persons, in shorts– plaid shorts in one case, boat shoes, flip-flops and sneakers, hairy legs and their asses at my face level FOR THE ENTIRE MASS. Now, it is a LARGE church, with a … Continue reading

Lenten Silent Retreat

Silent Retreats are a means of stepping away from the usual business of life and focus hard on God. As always, what I got out of my silent retreat is not what I expected to get out of my silent retreat. God always has plans that differ from what I expect even when I don’t think I expect anything in particular. The retreat I participated in was held at Featherock Conference Center in Schulenburg Texas. As ALWAYS, the facility was spotlessly clean and well appointed inside, the grounds immaculately presented and beautiful, the food excellent, and the program well designed. … Continue reading

Silent Retreat: Fall 2012 at Featherock Conference Center

My fall retreat took place last week at Featherock Conference Center. They run women’s and men’s retreats at various times throughout the year and I cannot say enough GOOD about this place and the people who run it. The priest who serves the retreat gave excellent meditations. He served the Mass with great reverence and devotion. Confession was available for several hours every day. The participants in the retreat took turns leading prayers and examinations of conscience. It was a time set apart for prayer, for a deeper reflection on the living of life, and an opportunity to resolve to … Continue reading

Gratitude to God for Good Priests

I experienced a marvelously refreshing silent spiritual retreat last week. This quiet time to be focused on God and not on the everyday stuff came just in time to help me find my center for Advent. Besides giving us deep messages from Scripture and Church teaching to ponder, daily Mass served faithfully and reverently, this priest spent several hours in the confessional so that if in our examinations of conscience we found anything requiring confession, that was available to us.  This priest was so dedicated he was in the confessional so long that every participant in the retreat could have … Continue reading

That word ‘OUGHT’

Many times we give a gift and the first response of the recipients is, “You didn’t need to do that!” and I always feel a bit annoyed by the comment because I’m not so virtuous a person that I would give a gift I didn’t want to give.  I know I don’t need to give a present, but sometimes I simply want to give a gift anyway.  I think the comment ‘You didn’t need to do that.” comes from a niggling feeling that anytime a person gives a gift it is because they felt obligated to do it.  This worry … Continue reading

Ordinary Goodness: Vatican II

Vatican II is a set of guidelines for a powerful revival in the Catholic Church, a revival capable of pulling many separated brethren and lukewarm Catholics back to the true Faith. Therefore, the powers of hell have worked tirelessly to influence individuals to undermine the work of Vatican II; an undermining made possible by many years of bad or non-existent religious education and general spiritual laziness on the part of the majority of Christians. I think it will be the LAITY, loyal to the Pope and to Church Teaching, who will respond to the Holy Spirit’s prompting and through reform … 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

Book Review: The Eighty Dollar Champion

Sometimes a book is so interesting to me that it takes less than two days for me to read it through.  THE EIGHTY DOLLAR CHAMPION: Snowman, the Horse That Inspired a Nation by Elizabeth Letts is one such book. This is the story of the horse who came to be known as Snowman.  He was purchased off the slaughterhouse truck by a horseman, Harry de Leyer, who saw something in the beat up old gelding’s eyes that caused him to think that he needed to take this horse home in spite of his underfed appearance.  The old gray gelding came to … Continue reading

CHRIST IS BORN, GLORIFY HIM!

Ah, Christmas day.  Marvelous day!  Attended Mass accompanied by ALL my kids, my grandbaby and my hubby!  Music was traditional, nothing heterodox or narcissistic, and led nicely by a cantor who doesn’t try to make leading the music all about performance. The day is quiet, low key, and we are watching Christmas movies.  Peace and Joy here.  We are so very blessed to live in this country. So I thought I’d try to add a video I found on you-tube. and here is a second one: I guess I get to see if this worked after I post. I do … Continue reading