Spanning the Proverbial Globe to Bring You the Constant Variety of Posts
The first thing marc said was, “i think we need a bigger bed.” it was said with more enthusiasm than roy schieder's “i think we need a bigger boat,” nonetheless it conjured the same image in my mind....when asked about how large we'll grow our family, marc and i have often said we'll take as many as the good Lord will give us, "but, we refuse to drive a prison van." - smockmama reacting to news that she's pregnant with children number five & six
So please vote your conscience and make sure your conscience is correctly formed as to what constitutes humor and creativity. - the humorous Jeff Miller, on 2005 Catholic blog award voting
'When I get a little money, I buy books. And if there is any left over, I buy food.' This is the story of my life. I [even] read while brushing my teeth. - Julie of Happy Catholic. (Wow, that's one I've never tried. When I was younger & dumber I'd read while driving, but I've never taken the chance of reading while brushing for fear of damaging the book.:-)
Since the Reformation, the Church has been treating Mariology as a matter of apologetics at the expense of teaching Mariology as a matter of the living Catholic faith. To focus on the question, "When does Marian devotion make us bad Christians?" is to walk from the public square into court and sit down at the defendant's table... The first question is not, "What is bad about Marian devotion?," but, "What is good about it?" And we won't convince many people of what is good about it if we start from a defensive posture by denying that it's bad. - Tom of Disputations
Rev. Hock writes of Melancholic saints who conquered their tendency to pessimism and brooding, like the Cure d'Ars; Choleric saints who channelled their natural aggression into passionate, untiring work like St. Ignatius de Loyola and St. Francis de Xavier; and Sanguine saints who transmuted their gift for gab and carefree chatter into brilliant writings and sermons, like St. Francis de Sales. Yet the Phlegmatics, who are already allotted the shortest space in the book, don't seem to have their own patron saint...I refuse to publish this post without putting in a good word for them...My favourite Phlegmatic is one of my aunts, Ruby Baggins, who is as lovely and hobbity as her lovely hobbit name suggests. Heck, with all due respect to my beloved confirmation patron, I've learned more about Spiritual Childhood from Tita Ruby than from St. Therese of the Child Jesus. I'm sure St. Therese doesn't mind, though. She must be very fond of Tita Ruby. - Christina of Sancta Sanctis
What surprised me this year, however, was one local parish's Ash Wednesday all-you-can-eat fish dinner...I wonder sometimes if [my surprise] is the result of living most of my conscious Catholic life in the South, where Catholicism is more than a thread in the social fabric, something much different than cultural background noise, where you're constantly - not just as individuals, but as a church as a whole, on call, as 5% of the population in an often hostile religious culture, to demonstrate your true Christian cred. Because, I'm telling you, surrounded by an ocean of sentiment highly suspicious of the purpose of such "works" as fasting and abstinence, and "man-made traditions" like a season of Lent, an "all-you-can-eat Ash Wednesday fish fry," is just not going to support your argument for the spiritual value of these practices. - Amy Welborn
NRO reprints Whittaker Chambers' 1957 takedown of Ayn Rand with its noted line: "From almost any page of Atlas Shrugged, a voice can be heard, from painful necessity, commanding: 'To a gas chamber -- go!'" - Mark of Irish Elk
And somebody tell me how I actually give Him my heart. It's like rubbing your stomach and patting your head and jumping up and down on one foot and reciting poetry, all at once. How do we give Him our heart and talk on the phone at work? How do we give our heart and watch TV on the couch? How do we give and deal with our annoying relative? In a dark room, in peace, I can find my heart and try and hand it over. But in the world? Eeeeeshh...... - Therese Z of Exultet
We start out intending to use the blog, but too often the blog ends up using us. -Amy Welborn
Let me suggest that very few Christians adequately value the Sacrament of Baptism. It's such an awesome mystery, how could we? But even relative to other things, I suspect many Christians severely underestimate what Baptism means. There is a misplaced impulse in interfaith relations to downplay union with the Body of Christ, and a certain embarrassment regarding the Gospel has bleached nearly all meaning out of the dogma of the absolute necessity of Baptism for salvation. There are those who seem to regard Baptism as the way you keep score, and when another game is being played, Baptism doesn't count.- Tom of Disputations
I have gone through the Ignatian Exercises, and while they were wonderful because the guide was so wonderful, they convinced me once and for all that I was not cut out to be a Jesuit. The way I explain it is that the Ignatian Exercises are like Job wrestling the angel, whereas Teresian Spirituality is like a tango...[Our guide] asked that we spend no time with television, movies, music, or ANY reading other than the Exercises themselves, the Bible, and The Imitation of Christ. This was for about 9 months...Boy was THAT tough. - Steven Riddle (fyi: not all versions of the Exercises are so rigorous)
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