Our little non-parish "community" is finally growing up. You can see it here.
And while there has been some controversy over what sort of fruit you feed an archbishop, we are growing out of our teen angst, so maybe this blog can grow up, too. Probably not, but maybe.
Dedication is this Friday night. I don't know what time, but I'm sure it's on the website, so go look at that, if you haven't already. Everyone will be there, including assorted fruits, cookies, possibly chairs, some tables, and yours truly. Also people. And the Men in Black (of the clergy variety, not the alien-killing variety, but aliens weren't invited, so we should be good on that).
Monday, September 27, 2010
Sunday, September 26, 2010
In Honor of Mr. Short
I am the oldest of seven, and I sometimes feel sorry for my kids that they didn’t get that sixth sibling, because I know I have needed every single one of mine.
As most of you know, a good friend of mine is in the hospital tonight, suffering from what is currently diagnosed as some sort of brain infection. I went to see his family at the hospital last night, and walked into what was quite possibly the most crowded waiting room in the history of ICU. It struck me again how important the family structure is, and how badly we need each other when times get tough.
I have not yet had to face the mortality of my parents, and can only imagine the fear and pain and feeling of disconnect that must come in situations like these. Not to mention the anxiety most of us have felt when we know our parents are suffering in some way. I have watched two big families go through the possible death of their father while also trying to be there for their mother at the same time. This is when I think siblings most need each other. The only person who can understand what you’re going through when your dad is sick is someone who also knows him as Dad. The only person who can understand how you feel when your mom is in pain is someone who also knows her as Mom.
I imagine that this would be a huge struggle for a person dealing with this alone. As a child with many siblings, you learn to share at an early age. You hate sharing. You never want your sisters to go in your room to “borrow” your clothes, you don’t want your brothers breaking all your stuff, you want to carve out a little corner of the world that is just yours. But then you grow up, and bad things happen. And you need to share. If you’re lucky, you have someone to share with now that you know how badly you need it. And if you’re like me, or these two families, you have lots of people who know exactly what you’re going through.
There is always someone to be with Dad. There is always someone to be with Mom. There is always a shoulder to cry on, someone to run get sandwiches, someone to make everyone laugh, someone able to hold it together enough to speak rationally with the medical staff. And you share these things, and it’s easier.
When you come from a large family, you experience the “freak show” stares when you all pile out of the car, the unending rude questions from strangers, the constantly chaotic household, and the hand-me-down clothes, but you know you have something that you wouldn’t trade for the world. When you have four or five or six or seven or more built-in best friends who you can depend on no matter what, and parents who have loved you enough to continue to expand their family and to stick by them, loving their children through their toddler tantrums and their angry teens and their young adult stupidity, and you have the One Who designed your “quiver full of joy”, then you have everything you need to make it through anything that life hands you.
To the parents who have welcomed God into their marriage, who welcomed new life into their homes as He willed it, who taught their children to grow in Faith and in His Will, who taught their children to share, who brought in every stray kid or friend of their children or next-door neighbor and made them feel like part of the family, I am thankful for you. What I’ve seen in those two ICU waiting rooms, and what I have seen in the other large families I know, and what I’ve seen in my own childhood home is exactly what I want my children to have – the hatred of sharing, the broken toys, the borrowed clothes, the spilled nail polish, and the growing up and realizing how awesome it is, after all.
As most of you know, a good friend of mine is in the hospital tonight, suffering from what is currently diagnosed as some sort of brain infection. I went to see his family at the hospital last night, and walked into what was quite possibly the most crowded waiting room in the history of ICU. It struck me again how important the family structure is, and how badly we need each other when times get tough.
I have not yet had to face the mortality of my parents, and can only imagine the fear and pain and feeling of disconnect that must come in situations like these. Not to mention the anxiety most of us have felt when we know our parents are suffering in some way. I have watched two big families go through the possible death of their father while also trying to be there for their mother at the same time. This is when I think siblings most need each other. The only person who can understand what you’re going through when your dad is sick is someone who also knows him as Dad. The only person who can understand how you feel when your mom is in pain is someone who also knows her as Mom.
I imagine that this would be a huge struggle for a person dealing with this alone. As a child with many siblings, you learn to share at an early age. You hate sharing. You never want your sisters to go in your room to “borrow” your clothes, you don’t want your brothers breaking all your stuff, you want to carve out a little corner of the world that is just yours. But then you grow up, and bad things happen. And you need to share. If you’re lucky, you have someone to share with now that you know how badly you need it. And if you’re like me, or these two families, you have lots of people who know exactly what you’re going through.
There is always someone to be with Dad. There is always someone to be with Mom. There is always a shoulder to cry on, someone to run get sandwiches, someone to make everyone laugh, someone able to hold it together enough to speak rationally with the medical staff. And you share these things, and it’s easier.
When you come from a large family, you experience the “freak show” stares when you all pile out of the car, the unending rude questions from strangers, the constantly chaotic household, and the hand-me-down clothes, but you know you have something that you wouldn’t trade for the world. When you have four or five or six or seven or more built-in best friends who you can depend on no matter what, and parents who have loved you enough to continue to expand their family and to stick by them, loving their children through their toddler tantrums and their angry teens and their young adult stupidity, and you have the One Who designed your “quiver full of joy”, then you have everything you need to make it through anything that life hands you.
To the parents who have welcomed God into their marriage, who welcomed new life into their homes as He willed it, who taught their children to grow in Faith and in His Will, who taught their children to share, who brought in every stray kid or friend of their children or next-door neighbor and made them feel like part of the family, I am thankful for you. What I’ve seen in those two ICU waiting rooms, and what I have seen in the other large families I know, and what I’ve seen in my own childhood home is exactly what I want my children to have – the hatred of sharing, the broken toys, the borrowed clothes, the spilled nail polish, and the growing up and realizing how awesome it is, after all.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Modernism vs. Post-Moderism
I heard an interesting tidbit on what it means to be living in "Post-Modern Society", and the dangers presented to ourselves and our children. To be very basic, Modernism, theologically speaking, was the rejection of theological values. Philosophically speaking, it was the rejection of truth (we all remember this : There is no absolute truth, blah, blah, blah). So, as I am a simple girl with the desire to keep things simple, moderism equals rejection. (Of course, that is not a definition, just a point of view from a theological and philosophical standpoint.)
Post-Modernism, however, is nearly the opposite, but with a twist. The post-modern world is the embodiment of acceptance. This is where people jump on a bandwagon without researching the details. Acceptance sounds like a wonderful thing. That word gets thrown around in our culture as if it were a natural right. While I don't argue that acceptance is a basic human need, that is only as it is applied to an individual -- not to a behavior, an ideal, etc. We should all love and accept each other -- that is what Christ has taught, and He lived it to perfection. However, what the post-modern world has done is to reject the old standard "There is no truth", and embrace a new standard "Everything is truth". My religion is true for me, and yours is true for you. My lifestyle is right for me, yours is right for you. My ideals are true for me, yours are true for you. It's all right, it's all good, and everybody jump on board and accept it. This goes for theology as well as philosophy. All gods are the true god. All religions are true. All life-choices are true. All you have to do is find the one that is true for you .
Americans have such a desire to "be themselves", to not follow the crowd, don't be oppressed!!! These ideas are so easy to adopt. This way, we can all do what we want, we never have to worry about rejection, and we never have to confront one another because, as long as we aren't infringing on the rights of others, we aren't doing anything wrong. Does this really make us individuals, though? Or does it turn us into a mass of selfish and ungodly creatures, looking for any justification to live our lives "our way". These things do not free us from a judgmental society or an oppressive god. Instead, they hide us away from truth, from the safety of a protective society and a Creator Who made us in His image and with plans to prosper and not to harm us.
Question number six we learned in Catechism (well, some of us, I guess!) "Why did God make you?" And what is the answer? "God made me to know Him, love Him and serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him forever in the next." God made us who we are -- and He gave us the free will to chose it. Society takes away our choices under the guise of acceptance. If we are to embrace the clear Christian principles and truth which will allow us to be happy with God in heaven, then we have to be willing to be shunned by an "accepting" society -- not based on what we do believe, but on what we don't.
As Christians, most of us know most of what I have said, so it's not anything earth-shattering. My question is this: As a parent, how do you fight this? If acceptance is gold in our society, and the only thing you have to do get it is to be accepting, is it harder now than it used to be for our children to stand their ground?
I hear we are leaving the post-modern age and moving into realism. I can see the slogan, now..."Only what is real is true." I wonder if they ancient philosophers are sitting together somewhere laughing at society for adopting these nonsense principles and ambiguous phrases they came up with. And this is what I get when I stay up too late. :)
Post-Modernism, however, is nearly the opposite, but with a twist. The post-modern world is the embodiment of acceptance. This is where people jump on a bandwagon without researching the details. Acceptance sounds like a wonderful thing. That word gets thrown around in our culture as if it were a natural right. While I don't argue that acceptance is a basic human need, that is only as it is applied to an individual -- not to a behavior, an ideal, etc. We should all love and accept each other -- that is what Christ has taught, and He lived it to perfection. However, what the post-modern world has done is to reject the old standard "There is no truth", and embrace a new standard "Everything is truth". My religion is true for me, and yours is true for you. My lifestyle is right for me, yours is right for you. My ideals are true for me, yours are true for you. It's all right, it's all good, and everybody jump on board and accept it. This goes for theology as well as philosophy. All gods are the true god. All religions are true. All life-choices are true. All you have to do is find the one that is true for you .
Americans have such a desire to "be themselves", to not follow the crowd, don't be oppressed!!! These ideas are so easy to adopt. This way, we can all do what we want, we never have to worry about rejection, and we never have to confront one another because, as long as we aren't infringing on the rights of others, we aren't doing anything wrong. Does this really make us individuals, though? Or does it turn us into a mass of selfish and ungodly creatures, looking for any justification to live our lives "our way". These things do not free us from a judgmental society or an oppressive god. Instead, they hide us away from truth, from the safety of a protective society and a Creator Who made us in His image and with plans to prosper and not to harm us.
Question number six we learned in Catechism (well, some of us, I guess!) "Why did God make you?" And what is the answer? "God made me to know Him, love Him and serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him forever in the next." God made us who we are -- and He gave us the free will to chose it. Society takes away our choices under the guise of acceptance. If we are to embrace the clear Christian principles and truth which will allow us to be happy with God in heaven, then we have to be willing to be shunned by an "accepting" society -- not based on what we do believe, but on what we don't.
As Christians, most of us know most of what I have said, so it's not anything earth-shattering. My question is this: As a parent, how do you fight this? If acceptance is gold in our society, and the only thing you have to do get it is to be accepting, is it harder now than it used to be for our children to stand their ground?
I hear we are leaving the post-modern age and moving into realism. I can see the slogan, now..."Only what is real is true." I wonder if they ancient philosophers are sitting together somewhere laughing at society for adopting these nonsense principles and ambiguous phrases they came up with. And this is what I get when I stay up too late. :)
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