A Round of "Awws"

Paul Newman's letter to his wife on their wedding day. Sweetest. Thing. Ever.

Funny But Sad

{H/T: Modestia}

The March for Life

Greetings good readers

A poem for you:

A large parade outside the capital walls

Held up by music and "hellos" 

Pushing through the winter fog

We march side by side and uphold signs: 

"End Abortion" 

"Stop the pain"

"No more murder"

and

"Life is precious"

"A person's a person no matter how small"

"Let LIVE, laugh, love."

Today is the March for Life! 

Tomorrow is a National Day of Prayer and Penance. Pray to end abortion!

Fashion Friday: Tights

And now for something completely frivolous. Although I've returned to the (comparatively) warm and balmy weather of SoCal, I miss the winter and would gladly head back to Minnesota, especially if it gave me the chance to wear patterned tights. It's a trend that I've always wanted to try, but never had the chance to. As long as you have to wear an extra layer on your legs, why not make it interesting?

{Gray Peacock Tights}

{Colorblock Tights}

{V Who You Are Tights}

{Wine Tights}

Eleanor R.

Because you can't ever have too many strong female role models. Roosevelt's biography just joined the hundreds of other books on my TBR list.

Unnatural Selection

I could try and review Mara Hvistendahl's Unnatural Selection. Or I could just link to the WSJ review which says everything I want to say about it, but much more eloquently and succinctly. Because I'm lazy like that, and also trying to pull together an application for an honors program that's due in a week and a half. Hvistendahl is thought-provoking, although I was distracted from the thoughts she provokes by her left-wing/feminist bias, like trying to enjoy Bach with a mosquito buzzing in my ear. She realizes that there is this tragedy taking place, this "gendericide" of pre-born girls, but fails to connect the dots from the oh-so-sacred woman's right to choose (choose death, that is) and women choosing to abort female fetuses. If a woman can choose to abort because of Down syndrome, mental health or family size, why not gender?

Our Lady of Guadalupe

I stumbled upon something interesting in the Adoration Chapel today. (Not the worst place to find something interesting, by the way). It was the translation of the names of Christopher Columbus' ships: Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria. If you put them in a certain order it could read "Mary paints the young woman." The book I was reading was trying to argue that this could be a foreshadowing of the Blessed Virgin painting her image on the cloak of Juan Diego. Cool, verdad?

One other thing fact the book mentioned was that Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared in the same area as the previous goddess of wheat (who provided wheat to the Native Americans). Jesus is our wheat, the Bread of Life!

Better Off Outside than In

Personally, I've always found "Baby, It's Cold Outside" to be one really creepy song. The guy in the song deserves to have the snot beaten out of him by an older brother. Here is a rewrite of the song, sans creeper-ness.

Francis and Therese

This thought actually came to me at the beginning of the month, back on St. Francis Xavier's feast day. I was sitting in Mass (this is where the best thoughts hit you -- wonder why?), and I realized that Francis and Therese have a lovely complementarity about them. They are both patron saints of the missions, one of whom traveled from Europe to India and Japan before dying off the coast of China in the 1500s; the other spent all of her meager twenty-four years in France (other than that pilgrimage to Rome). I think this fact beautifully illustrates both facets of any Catholic undertaking. You have to go out and actually do something, yes, but if you didn't have your devoted corps of prayer warriors, you wouldn't get very far at all. Isn't it lovely how the Church manages to coordinate these things? :-) Just one more reason to be Catholic: no matter what your personality, talents or passions, there will be a niche for you.

The Importance of the Habit

Nice article about the importance of the habit in the religious life. Plus, I think it's kinda cool that I recognized the habits from the photo without having to look up the order. Props to the Catholic nerd!