Yes! Writer's block=Removed!!

The first two months of college have flown by, along with the time to post on this blog. However, I have a few seconds to share some God moments with you.

1. I started praying about health (ok, I will humbly state) weight. It was probably on my mind way too much, but there it was anyway. That night I ended up going to some prayer group meeting (which I did not plan on going to and haven't been to since) and guess what the reading was all about? The Body of Christ. So, I realized that my body is completely in His hands. Alleluia.

2. Today at breakfast my roommate and I made the Sign of the Cross and prayed before eating. Afterward, some of the alumni here for a reunion thanked us for doing this.

3. The best part of sitting at a football game is when you sit in the same section as the seminarians. They have the loudest and least cheesy cheers of the whole croud.

No, We're Not Dead. Yet

It's just been crazy busy lately. Normal posting might resume sometime soon. In the meantime, I give you this random picture of an adorable little kitten.




And remember, Jesus loves you very, very much!

This Madcap Existence We Call Life

How do you quantify the unquantifiable, and reduce the unexplainable to a rational equation?

Martha Beck is Harvard-educated, brilliant, and married to an equally Harvard- educated and brilliant man. At the outset Expecting Adam, neither Martha nor her husband are religious, although both were raised as Mormons. They had agreed that "it was a very good idea to abort fetuses with birth defects." But when Martha becomes pregnant with a Down's Syndrome baby, whom she names Adam, she's not so sure about things. It doesn't help that her entire world has been turned upside-down with inexplicable events and miracles large and small since Adam's conception.

Precisely because Beck refuses to be pigeon-holed by either right or left, Expecting Adam continually turned me on my head while I was reading it. Beck can write (when describing her complete lethargy and weakness at one point in time, she compares herself to "Popeye during the Great Spinach Shortage"). Simple statement. I enjoy, I tremendously enjoy, reading the work of people who can write. Beck is witty, sharp, and sarcastic. When she experiences any negative or shallow reaction to Adam's existence in this world, she roars with all of the fury of a mother bear. Yet she makes it abundantly clear that it is Adam who has taught her what life really consists in: the ability to slow down and enjoy the world, not to be caught up in what society classifies as the necessities of life, to truly appreciate the wonder of this mad existence that we lead.

Beck writes quite frankly about Adam's existence as a person before his birth. Neither she nor her husband deny the humanity of the unborn. This, coupled with all of the incredible things that happen to her during her pregnancy beg the question -- why hadn't she become "pro-life" by the time of Adam's birth? She admits that she's come to believe in the existence of the spiritual realm (it's hard not to when someone pushes you out of a burning building and a picture shows absolutely no one behind you), whether it's God, angels, cosmic puppeteers or invisible gremlins. She does offer the explanation that "I myself had suspended my disbelief in a spiritual realm and was stumbling daily over more and more evidence that my world was full of things rationalist science could not explain. But this made me feel better, not worse, about the fate of those who die young, including those who die as fetuses. Why should people who believe that life exists outside of mortal bounds be the very same people who are so obsessed with a fetus's 'right to life' on this messy little planet?"

It is because Beck remains an "outsider" of the pro-life movement, that her memoir resonated with me in a way that similar stories, told by wonderful and fervent pro-lifers, have not. I am not accusing these people of propaganda (on the contrary, I agree with them on nearly every count), but because Beck remains as mystified at the end as at the beginning of her story as to why exactly she kept Adam in the first place, her words carry a raw honesty that is often lost in the charged rhetoric of the abortion/pro-life debate.

Beck's story provided me with much fodder for thought, but ultimately the lessons she learned from Adam touched me the most deeply. One thing that I've come to learn over this past summer is the importance of appreciating the wonder of life, and all the beauty and miraculousness that God has placed here for us. Beck does not hesitate to admit that her own obsession with achievements and the perfect life were entirely upended by Adam.

"I was afraid Adam would slow me down, and he has. Not because he has required more care and time than a "normal boy" (he is the most helpful and least demanding of my children) but because the immediacy and joy with which he lives his life make rapacious achievement, Harvard-style, look a lot like quiet desperation. Adam has slowed me down to the point where I notice what is in front of me, its mystery and beauty, instead of thrashing my way through a maze of difficult requirements toward labels and achievements that contain no joy in themselves. Adam takes his joy straight up, in purer form than most of us can handle. He was the person who, at two years of age, spent enough time experimenting to learn that his four-month-old sister was capable of laughter, and determining exactly what would make her laugh. He is the one who goes into transports of delight over clean sheets, or packaged waffles, or batteries. He is the one who taught me to appreciate rainbows -- not only in the sky but also in lawn sprinklers and dish-soap bubbles and patches of oil. He is the one who stops, and makes me stop, to smell the bushes."

(caveat emptor: Beck is extremely frank about her views on abortion and contraception, almost to point of rubbing the reader's face in them. She also swears on occasion, but I found it to be understandable, if not excusable. There are also some slightly, but not horrifically, graphic descriptions of various medical complications from her pregnancy.)

Helen Alvare article

I have not read Kirsten Lavansdatter, but this article makes me want to run back to MN, grab the book off the shelf and devour it and its sequels.

http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/arts/al0007.html

Catholic Women of the World, Unite!

While spending too much time on the internet today, I ran across this interview with Harvard's 2010 Valedictorian, Mary Ann Marks, who entered the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist back in August. After spending the summer discussing femininity and our faith, she struck me as an example of both. It is also extremely interesting that, despite all the claims that the Church is misogynistic or that she stifles women, Marks is quite obviously a smart, well-educated woman who chose to accept her vocation -- she wasn't coerced or brainwashed.

The world could use more women like her. She is truly a strong woman of God.

(excerpt)

LOPEZ: You wanted to go to graduate school but discerned that God wanted something else. Why would you give up your free will like that?

MARKS: Part of the answer is that when Love asks you to be His spouse, you don’t quibble about the when and where. The other part is that anything worthwhile in life requires an ongoing, freely willed surrender of one’s freedom.

Surviving College

Prayer of St. Thomas Aquinas before Study

 O ineffable Creator,

Who, out of the treasure of Thy wisdom,

hast ordained three hierarchies of Angels,

and placed them in wonderful order above the heavens,

and hast most wisely distributed the parts of the world;

Thou, Who are called the true fountain of light and wisdom,

and the highest beginning,

vouchsafe to pour upon the darkness of my understanding,

in which I was born,

the double beam of Thy brightness,

removing from me all darkness of sin and ignorance.

Thou, Who makest eloquent the tongue of the dumb, 

instruct my tongue, 

and pour on my lips the grace of Thy blessing.

Give me quickness of understanding, 

capacity of retaining,

subtlety of interpreting,

facility in learning, 

and copious grace of speaking.

Guide my going in, 

direct my going forward, 

accomplish my going forth; 

through Christ our Lord. 

Amen.

September 11th

May we always hold our the memory of our departed in our hearts. Eternal peace grant unto them, Lord.

And, in a special way, one soul who was born on this day, but never lived to see the September 11th attacks.

Happy Birthday, Dylan. Rest in peace.

In the midst of passing bravery

In the face of our own injury

It's the constant generosity of grace

Friend, I know your heart is raw

But love is still a worthy cause

(Love is Still a Worthy Cause, by Sara Groves)

Love Never Fails.

Something to chew on...when you have time

The following article is very interesting. It made me think of the following points:

Here it is.

1. The last time the electricity went out my sister and I ran to the computer to Google what to do when the electricity goes out. Of course this did not work because the computer was down with the electricity.

2. I was not able to read the entire article without interuption. Why? I was jumping from place to place on the internet at the same time. Proves a point?

Hello Everyone,

I have officially moved into college and am starting classes tomorrow. Due to some technology problems, I have been unable to call or e-mail any of you. So...

No cell phone and no computer(I am in the library right now). Long story....

However, I am still alive, and kicking. Despite the technology problems, everything else is going perfectly! We have been staying up super late and having lots of fun.

Brothers and Sisters in Christ

My dear mother introduced the lovely blog of the Visionary Daughters to me a few years ago. I have found their articles both inspiring and insightful. It has been a delight to read the musings of two Christian young women on various topics, including, but not limited to, Christianity in the modern world, modesty and the relationships between young men and women. In this particular article they address the roles of young men and women of today and their relationships to each other as brothers and sisters in Christ. Take a gander and enjoy!

http://visionarydaughters.com/2008/07/brothers-and-sisters-in-christ