When somebody has a "holier-than-thou" (HTT) attitude, it usually doesn't bother me much, because it just isn't that hard to beat me in holiness. Traditional Catholics are often diagnosed with HTT, simply because they searched and searched for the One True Faith. This alone is commendable, and every human should strive for truth. The rest of us Trads get a bad name when our peers then continue searching for the One True Sub-Faith, then the One True Parish, then the One True Group of Friends, and eventually hope to become the One True Catholic in all the land. Somewhere between One True Parish and Only Correct Person Ever Born a bit of arrogance tends to creep in.
I don’t really blame them for this. Arrogance is very hard to avoid when you are right 100% of the time. I know this because I have been cursed with right-ness since the day I was born and it’s a constant struggle to remain humble about it. I do pretty well in the humble department, but let’s face it, not everyone can be like me.
I don’t claim to be able to interpret the Bible but I do like to take the basics and apply them to my life. Crazy, I know, but bear with me. In the Sermon on the Mount, we are told to beware of false prophets. Had we been left alone with that phrase, we would have quite a job trying to distinguish the “false” and the “true” prophets, or as it goes on to say, a “bad tree” from a “good tree”. Lucky for us, our God knows us well, and He ends our confusion in the next verse.
“By their fruits you shall know them”, and later, “A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can an evil tree bring forth good fruit.” So, if men are the trees, fruits would be…actions, words, desires? When a person comes to you with the “truth”, are you to believe it because they say it? Of course not. Are you to believe it because they are great debaters, and you have run out of arguments? No. Are you to believe it because they give you a book which proves it? Absolutely not. This verse tells us to look at their fruits.
I do not mean to say that, just because a person is kind and seems holy, they are always telling the truth. God gave you reason – use it. Read, study, and most of all, discuss. It’s the discussion part that is key – only discuss with persons who bear good fruit.
This is where the problem lies with people in the Trad-World. There are good, honest, kind, faithful and devout Traditional Catholics out there. Use their fruits to find them. Don’t use their reputation, big words, arguments, money, education, or titles – this is where so many people are led astray.
I know a well-respected and well-educated man with a title. He is quite friendly and has a lovely family. I won’t describe him further, because I don’t want to give away his identity. People flock to this man for advice because of these things. The problem is that those aren’t fruits. At a social function, this man made a series of hateful and derogative remarks about people he had never met in order to get a laugh out of the people around him. I was in shock that someone so well-respected still had the mentality of a second-grade bully. THAT is a fruit. (Yeah, yeah, yeah...I'm sure the guy has other fruits, as well, and I shouldn't judge...I'm just trying to make a point here, people! You are more than welcome to keep asking unnamed-dude for his advice.)
If the doctrine is sound, you will see the good fruits. If a doctrine is founded on pride, you will see the fruits of that, as well. It doesn’t have to be blatantly heretical to be wrong. I was told by a man at my church that I could go elsewhere if I didn’t like the fact that he was spreading gossip about our priest. He wouldn’t speak to me in kindness, even though I approached him calmly and with love. He spoke to me in anger, clammed up and walked away. That doesn’t seem to be the fruits of a person who is doing the right thing. “The wicked man fleeth when no man persueth; but the just, bold as a lion, shall be without dread.”
This doesn’t always have to do with pride, of course, but it does seem to be the main difficulty in the Trad-World. As a Catholic, you are eventually going to hear about the Trad-World. Learn about it, discuss, and look at the fruits in the Trad-World community. Are they Christ-like and desirable? I find that they are. As a Trad, you will be approached with further ideas and ways of life, such as homeschooling, the Marian Code, Pre-Vatican II vs. Post-Vatican II, and Sedevacantism. Some are good and some are not. There are some things that work for some people if they are called to it, and won’t work for others. Look at the fruits. Talk it over with your Savior Who loves you and will show you the way to Heaven if you just let Him. Then decide if these are the kinds of fruits you want or need in your life. If they are, and you are sure, go, my friend, and live it to the fullest.
And pray for those who have not reached your same conclusions, because cramming it down their throats never works, and to tell the truth, force-feeding isn’t really a fruit most people find attractive. If it comes to that, you are welcome to go to the top of the page and start over, however, I recommend that you find someone who actually knows what they are talking about, look at their fruits, and, finding them yummy, talk to them about it.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Women in Skirts
Today was my daughter's first field trip. The Pre-K and Kindergarten classes at our school go to the pumpkin patch every year. This is not a pile of pumpkins in a church parking lot. This a huge place in the country with a petting zoo, corn maze, hayrides, piles of hay to play on, and a snack bar (well, a microwave and a few packages of hotdogs inside a tool shed). It is a full "day in the country" and our entire family looks forward to it every year.
Two of my children have shared classes with children from a "dress only" family. This is very odd in a public school. Most "dress only" people do not attend public schools. This family seems to be very nice, and they have two little girls. The girls go to school every day in modern looking skirts and dresses, and really don't stand out that much from their peers. If anything about their appearance sets them apart, it is not the skirts but the gigantic bows they wear every day. Each child has a perfectly crafted bow to match each outfit, and each bow is larger than the girl's head. I am not making fun, just sayin' that the skirts aren't anything to make a fuss about.
Because two of my kids have classes with these girls, I have seen their mother at almost every field trip or class party I have attended. She is different, and you know it from the moment you see her. Now, from what I know about her, she is very nice, very classy, and not stuck up at all. This is good, because I can't say the same things about most dress-only people I know. This woman manages to make it through every day in full Southern belle attire. (Well, I don't see her on weekends, but I do see her most days picking the kids up from school.) Today, she was wearing pumps, black pantyhose, a long dressy skirt, a blouse, a floral print jacket, full jewelry and had her hair done up like she was getting married at two o'clock and just stopped by to grab pumpkins for her bridesmaids on the way to the church. I do not exaggerate. Well, I do exaggerate, but I am not doing so now -- I promise. I, on the other hand, was wearing jeans, crocks and a T-shirt, and I was still pining for my jammies and flip-flops.
There was a point during the day when both our children were playing on the same tree, and I spent some time sharing a hay-bale circle with this woman. It should have given me time to make a new friend, but I was already tired, so instead, I watched her and wondered how she managed to make it through the day and still keep it all together. Then it came to me -- it must be a combination of talent and desire. Some women are born put together and seem to stay that way all of the time. That is a God-given talent, and it is one I do not possess. Some women have a desire to be as feminine as possible at all times, making men swoon and rush in to save them when they need saving. This, also, is not a trait of mine.
I had about five children before I figured out that I kinda' like being a girl. Even after that, I still prefer jeans over skirts, I can't stand make-up, and I'd rather change a tire than get my hair done. That is the desire part of the equation -- I just don't have the desire for excess femininity. Now, I am not a feminist by any means -- I still see a difference between men and women and no matter how many pairs of pants I wear, I still don't want to plunge the toilet. I think that some people may be called to wear skirts all of the time, and I am not one of them at this point in my life.
If I had worn that woman's outfit to the pumpkin patch, it would have gone horribly wrong for me. Let's start with the hair. I can't even get my hair up like that in the first place. If I had, it would have fallen out before we got out of the car. As it was, I washed and combed my hair before we left and pulled it back into a ponytail/headband combo to keep it from blowing around in the wind. This is not flattering, but doesn't draw unwanted attention, either. Fast forward to the end of the trip -- I get back in the car, check the mirror, and see that the hair behind the headband has all come out of place, blown dry in the wind, and it making a sideways mohawk across the top of my head. See? Can you imagine what wedding hair would have looked like on me? That woman has talent.
Moving on to the jewelry -- I actually love jewelry, but I seldom wear it, because my kids like it, too. It tends to break. The last time I wore a necklace, they broke it within an hour. If I tried to wear three necklaces, giant earrings, and bracelets and rings on both hands, I would have a kid hanging from each necklace, a migraine from the earrings, and the only ring not lost would be the one that is so tight I have to use butter to get it off my finger. And I can't wear bracelets without either the noise or the feeling I'm wearing handcuffs driving me crazy. It takes talent to wear that much jewelry gracefully, and I was not born with that talent.
Had I tried to wear the same floral jacket, it would have become a pillow, a blanket, a parachute, and a towel by the end of the day. That is why I stick to hoodies. Blouses are great, but when I am lifting kids in and out of the car, or finding them in a pile of hay at the pumpkin patch, I can't seem to keep them tucked in. Skirts require no introduction for anyone untalented like me. If the wind blows, forget staying modest. If you have five children who still cannot buckle a seatbelt, if you have to change a diaper without a changing table, if you have to climb onto the back of a trailer, if you have to do anything that doesn't require sitting nicely with your hands in your lap, skirts just don't keep you covered -- unless you have the talent. Do I even need to say what the pantyhose would have looked like at the end of my day? I think not. And heels would have been sunk into the mud until they finally broke off, leaving me walking sideways and falling over every ten minutes, untucking my blouse, tugging at my skirt, exposing ragged pantyhose and ripping my wedding hair out of the pins. After one hour, I would be screaming in the middle of a corn maze with mascara running down my cheeks as my brain comes oozing out of my ears from the insanity of it all, and seriously, why scare the schoolchildren like that? Let me wear my pants and we'll all get along just fine.
In conclusion, some women have talent and desire to wear skirts full-time, but I am not one of them. I am ok with that. Some people wear skirts and attract knights in shining armor with no effort whatsoever, and I wear jeans and have a beer with the knights, then con them into plunging the toilet. It works.
Two of my children have shared classes with children from a "dress only" family. This is very odd in a public school. Most "dress only" people do not attend public schools. This family seems to be very nice, and they have two little girls. The girls go to school every day in modern looking skirts and dresses, and really don't stand out that much from their peers. If anything about their appearance sets them apart, it is not the skirts but the gigantic bows they wear every day. Each child has a perfectly crafted bow to match each outfit, and each bow is larger than the girl's head. I am not making fun, just sayin' that the skirts aren't anything to make a fuss about.
Because two of my kids have classes with these girls, I have seen their mother at almost every field trip or class party I have attended. She is different, and you know it from the moment you see her. Now, from what I know about her, she is very nice, very classy, and not stuck up at all. This is good, because I can't say the same things about most dress-only people I know. This woman manages to make it through every day in full Southern belle attire. (Well, I don't see her on weekends, but I do see her most days picking the kids up from school.) Today, she was wearing pumps, black pantyhose, a long dressy skirt, a blouse, a floral print jacket, full jewelry and had her hair done up like she was getting married at two o'clock and just stopped by to grab pumpkins for her bridesmaids on the way to the church. I do not exaggerate. Well, I do exaggerate, but I am not doing so now -- I promise. I, on the other hand, was wearing jeans, crocks and a T-shirt, and I was still pining for my jammies and flip-flops.
There was a point during the day when both our children were playing on the same tree, and I spent some time sharing a hay-bale circle with this woman. It should have given me time to make a new friend, but I was already tired, so instead, I watched her and wondered how she managed to make it through the day and still keep it all together. Then it came to me -- it must be a combination of talent and desire. Some women are born put together and seem to stay that way all of the time. That is a God-given talent, and it is one I do not possess. Some women have a desire to be as feminine as possible at all times, making men swoon and rush in to save them when they need saving. This, also, is not a trait of mine.
I had about five children before I figured out that I kinda' like being a girl. Even after that, I still prefer jeans over skirts, I can't stand make-up, and I'd rather change a tire than get my hair done. That is the desire part of the equation -- I just don't have the desire for excess femininity. Now, I am not a feminist by any means -- I still see a difference between men and women and no matter how many pairs of pants I wear, I still don't want to plunge the toilet. I think that some people may be called to wear skirts all of the time, and I am not one of them at this point in my life.
If I had worn that woman's outfit to the pumpkin patch, it would have gone horribly wrong for me. Let's start with the hair. I can't even get my hair up like that in the first place. If I had, it would have fallen out before we got out of the car. As it was, I washed and combed my hair before we left and pulled it back into a ponytail/headband combo to keep it from blowing around in the wind. This is not flattering, but doesn't draw unwanted attention, either. Fast forward to the end of the trip -- I get back in the car, check the mirror, and see that the hair behind the headband has all come out of place, blown dry in the wind, and it making a sideways mohawk across the top of my head. See? Can you imagine what wedding hair would have looked like on me? That woman has talent.
Moving on to the jewelry -- I actually love jewelry, but I seldom wear it, because my kids like it, too. It tends to break. The last time I wore a necklace, they broke it within an hour. If I tried to wear three necklaces, giant earrings, and bracelets and rings on both hands, I would have a kid hanging from each necklace, a migraine from the earrings, and the only ring not lost would be the one that is so tight I have to use butter to get it off my finger. And I can't wear bracelets without either the noise or the feeling I'm wearing handcuffs driving me crazy. It takes talent to wear that much jewelry gracefully, and I was not born with that talent.
Had I tried to wear the same floral jacket, it would have become a pillow, a blanket, a parachute, and a towel by the end of the day. That is why I stick to hoodies. Blouses are great, but when I am lifting kids in and out of the car, or finding them in a pile of hay at the pumpkin patch, I can't seem to keep them tucked in. Skirts require no introduction for anyone untalented like me. If the wind blows, forget staying modest. If you have five children who still cannot buckle a seatbelt, if you have to change a diaper without a changing table, if you have to climb onto the back of a trailer, if you have to do anything that doesn't require sitting nicely with your hands in your lap, skirts just don't keep you covered -- unless you have the talent. Do I even need to say what the pantyhose would have looked like at the end of my day? I think not. And heels would have been sunk into the mud until they finally broke off, leaving me walking sideways and falling over every ten minutes, untucking my blouse, tugging at my skirt, exposing ragged pantyhose and ripping my wedding hair out of the pins. After one hour, I would be screaming in the middle of a corn maze with mascara running down my cheeks as my brain comes oozing out of my ears from the insanity of it all, and seriously, why scare the schoolchildren like that? Let me wear my pants and we'll all get along just fine.
In conclusion, some women have talent and desire to wear skirts full-time, but I am not one of them. I am ok with that. Some people wear skirts and attract knights in shining armor with no effort whatsoever, and I wear jeans and have a beer with the knights, then con them into plunging the toilet. It works.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Awards
It's too bad that Catholics don't get their own award show. That would be fun, and we would have another chance to do some name-dropping. American Catholics love their name-dropping (if you know one Catholic author, two bishops and ten high-ranking priests, raise your hand!), and it would let some of us less-name-knowing folks have a chance to know what is going on. The winner can have a $20 gift card to Dress Barn. As I need something to call this award that doesn't take long to type, I will name it the "Dressy".
This week, the Dressy goes to the Nobel Peace Prize Committee. Most conservatives would argue that Mr. Obama did not deserve this award. I agree, but the award did take away the "untouchable" quality that our president has enjoyed so far. All of a sudden, late-night comedians are not afraid to take jabs at this administration, liberal news media outlets are noticing the amount of work that their prize prezzie is NOT doing, and best of all, none of it can be blamed on race.
Up until that award, any negative comment about our president was viewed as closed-minded and racist. Now, people are starting to wonder just what has that guy been doing for the last year? We know he managed to pick out a puppy. We know that he spoke with some school children. I wanted to put one more sentence of accomplishment in here, but I can't think of one.
Next year, the Nobel Prize should go to the Nobel Peace Prize Committee for delivering the one thing that America can agree upon -- the Nobel Peace Prize continues to be nothing more than an atta' boy for anyone furthering (or, in this case, not hindering) the socialist agenda. Congrats.
This week, the Dressy goes to the Nobel Peace Prize Committee. Most conservatives would argue that Mr. Obama did not deserve this award. I agree, but the award did take away the "untouchable" quality that our president has enjoyed so far. All of a sudden, late-night comedians are not afraid to take jabs at this administration, liberal news media outlets are noticing the amount of work that their prize prezzie is NOT doing, and best of all, none of it can be blamed on race.
Up until that award, any negative comment about our president was viewed as closed-minded and racist. Now, people are starting to wonder just what has that guy been doing for the last year? We know he managed to pick out a puppy. We know that he spoke with some school children. I wanted to put one more sentence of accomplishment in here, but I can't think of one.
Next year, the Nobel Prize should go to the Nobel Peace Prize Committee for delivering the one thing that America can agree upon -- the Nobel Peace Prize continues to be nothing more than an atta' boy for anyone furthering (or, in this case, not hindering) the socialist agenda. Congrats.
Traditional Catholics are...
Originally, this blog was titled "Traditional Catholics are Meanie-Gripes". I was forced to change the name because of the high rude-comment factor. Had I more than two readers, this could have become quite a problem. In fact, my two readers are meanie-gripe traditionalists, and I don't want to cause them to turn their meanie-ness in my direction.
There are a few things to keep in mind if you are so in need of a time-killer that you intend to read further.
#1. If I say something that offends you, too bad, Buster. I spend all day listening to kid-people complain, I don't want to hear the grown-up version. If you have something mean to say, click here and start your own rant-page. This one is mine.
#2. I am a Catholic. I love my Faith. I may poke fun at my fellow believers at times, but that is good-natured ribbing. I will not poke fun at the Faith.
#3. I am Traditional Catholic. Mwahahahahaha!!! But I'm nice. Mostly.
#4. I have six young children. They are blessings from God and a great joy. They come fully equipped with all the bells and whistles, but only an idiot would let them use those types of things.
#5. I don't have a number five, but having five points makes me feel smarter.
During our journey together, we will cover controversial topics such as "Pants vs. Woman: The Rest of the Story" and "Mini or Conversion: Which Type of Van to Choose". We will also talk about (gasp!) the public school system, (boo) church gossip, and (horrified scream!) swimsuit fashions. These are things about which every Catholic mother should be well-educated, probably from a source other than this blog.
There are a few things to keep in mind if you are so in need of a time-killer that you intend to read further.
#1. If I say something that offends you, too bad, Buster. I spend all day listening to kid-people complain, I don't want to hear the grown-up version. If you have something mean to say, click here and start your own rant-page. This one is mine.
#2. I am a Catholic. I love my Faith. I may poke fun at my fellow believers at times, but that is good-natured ribbing. I will not poke fun at the Faith.
#3. I am Traditional Catholic. Mwahahahahaha!!! But I'm nice. Mostly.
#4. I have six young children. They are blessings from God and a great joy. They come fully equipped with all the bells and whistles, but only an idiot would let them use those types of things.
#5. I don't have a number five, but having five points makes me feel smarter.
During our journey together, we will cover controversial topics such as "Pants vs. Woman: The Rest of the Story" and "Mini or Conversion: Which Type of Van to Choose". We will also talk about (gasp!) the public school system, (boo) church gossip, and (horrified scream!) swimsuit fashions. These are things about which every Catholic mother should be well-educated, probably from a source other than this blog.
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