I've been very fortunate to have had several articles published by the Catholic Match Magazine over the past four months. It's been good experience for me, and my articles have received very gratifying responses.
I don't get paid cash for the work; I'm paid in full membership privileges. Catholic Match is one of those sites you have to pay to participate on. I have full access to all the fora, posting privileges, email, emote, and chat access. I've been quite active since early November, I've made some delightful friends, men and women, and I'm glad I gave it a try -
But I have also decided that this online dating game is not for me.
In fact, I'm even more leery of it now than I was beforehand. I've seen a multitude of couples test the waters and then break up - I've seen women lament that their attempts to make contact with appealing men are ignored, I've seen men lament similar difficulties. The sex-segregated rooms, St. Anne's for the women and St Joachim for the men, are havens of personal revelations that have been an education, to be sure.
I think one of the worst problems with a site like this is that - let's face it: this place attracts men and women who have had no success getting along with people in real life. Except for my buddy Matt, who introduced me to the site (and who joined, I think, as a shortcut to being acquainted with potentially like-minded Catholics while he was brand new to our area - at least, I dearly hope that was all his motive), most people there have histories as long as my arm of failed relationships, many of them abusive and exploitive.
Just last night, one of the "pinkies" (women's room regulars) started a thread complaining how disgusted with the men on the site she is. She's decided to try to make it up with her local boyfriend, a man she has regularly come crying to us about - she caught him smoking dope, she was frightened because he expected physical intimacy from her that she didn't want to give him... but he's there, and he sends her flowers and what the hey, he feeds the homeless at the restaurant he owns, and that of course makes him a Living Saint.
It's a self-perpetuating loony asylum in there.
I was contacted by a fellow this week, a man who'd read my most recent article on chastity as a synonym for modesty and who wanted to thank me - and, while he had the opportunity, to complain about the women on the fora who stalk him and are so disgustingly immodest in their speech and conduct. A series of emails ensued - he sent me 2 to every 1 I sent him - and it quickly became obvious that this disgruntled man has such unrealistic expectations of human behavior that it is impossible to please him. He was particularly offended by the local affectionate term for the men's room: The Cave.
Thinking he was brand new (he's not, he's incognito in a "new" identity so as to "hide" from his former fiancee who stalked him after he broke off their engagement a couple of years ago), I explained that the Cave gets its name as a good-humored tease of the stereotype of men as neanderthals, and as a nod to John Grey, who says that men retreat to "the cave" when they have a problem to solve. This explanation only further offended my correspondant, who challenged me: "What if I were to call you a redneck?"
"Fred, I am a redneck!"
"Well, what about your weight, then? Wouldn't that offend you? It should!"
"Fred, you can call me obese, you can call me fat, you can call me a tub of lard - I really do not care. My weight does not define who I am - it only pertains to one aspect of my overall appearance. It's all a matter of having a SENSE OF HUMOR..." which poor Fred has none, by all appearances.
I'm also impressed, negatively, by the number of women who cling to rotten, abusive relationships with controlling, manipulative, and abusive men - because these guys baited them with romantic gestures and words from the very beginning of their relationships, "It was so perfect! I really thought he was The One!" they lament.
I feel like a bloomin' fish out of water in that website. I feel out of step and increasingly annoyed, disgrunted, and downright ticked off, particularly at the women. I've tried to speak Truth every way I know how - I had an article published called "Reflections on Love," in which I spoke of the difference between attraction, infatuation, and love - and about the dangers of codependency. I take a stand for sense and self-respect in the Pink Room (women's room) every chance I get. I cheer women on, I urge them to respect themselves and not to allow the men they think they love to abuse or exploit them, but to seek healthy, mutually balanced relationships -
It's like talking to a brick wall. Or, like my old Professor told us, a Korean proverb: "Spit straight up. Learn something."
I've dropped out of the Master Chorale. In addition to being swamped through Easter, I feel increasingly a need to cultivate LOCAL relationships and social outlets. It's ridiculous to place all my energies in relationships with people 86 miles away when I have a community here to cultivate and engage in. I don't know whether I'll ever see my Chorale friends again - and that makes me terribly sad. They are dearer to me than I ever expected them to be. But it's time to live in the real world, in my own community-
Yes, this community I've been wanting to escape for thirty years -
and I suppose this is the place to begin.
Saturday, March 17, 2007
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Rejection #1
Catholic Digest has turned down the golden opportunity to reprint "In Celebration of Holy Friendship," which was published by Catholic Match Magazine in January. One down, indeterminate number to go.
One of the reasons I am NOT going for my Teaching Certification
I subbed at the local high school yesterday morning. Got to school, got out of my car, and was crossing the driveway when a group of young men hanging out, outside the administrative building, were heard saying "shit." I called out to them, "Hey guys, watch the language." And they quieted down, but not one of them apologized.
A couple standing at the corner of the building were engaged in a full-body embrace, his hands were moving all over her, and they were engaged in a major liplock. I would have said something to them, too, except about that time I saw...
A teacher, "on duty," one presumes, since he was standing out in the grass facing toward the building as if he were there to supervise and police the action - only his nose was buried in a book and he didn't even look up when I called to the boys about their language. I walked up to him and said, "Excuse me, are you going to deal with that couple, there?"
He looked up, startled, glanced at the snogging couple and shrugged his shoulders. "There's nothing I can do about it, they can do whatever they want before school starts."
"Since when! According to the student handbook, which I am required to operate under, there are certain kinds of conduct these kids can't engage in on campus at any time!" He obviously could not have cared less. And, I might add - this is the side of the building facing the drop-off point for the kids being brought to school by their parents - dozens if not a hundred parents had a great view of this couple indiscriminately making out before school started.
I am so tired to the bone of being the lone ranger of understanding that the way these kids behave in public is the tip of the iceberg of how they're behaving in private. I am so tired of double standards being held to in the public schools. I am so tired of overhearing girls talking about the most outrageous topics - what oral sex tastes like is one example of a topic I've heard more than twice in recent weeks, and who's a dyke -
Teachers can't teach nouns and verbs or require the memorization of multiplication tables. Good literature is being abandoned in favor of trash like The Chocolate War. And conduct going through the absolute toilet. I'm so mad I could spit nails.
And I have people telling me I need to be practical and go get my certification requirements so I can be held hostage by this rapidly-disintegrating educational system for the remainder of my professional life? No, thank you!
A couple standing at the corner of the building were engaged in a full-body embrace, his hands were moving all over her, and they were engaged in a major liplock. I would have said something to them, too, except about that time I saw...
A teacher, "on duty," one presumes, since he was standing out in the grass facing toward the building as if he were there to supervise and police the action - only his nose was buried in a book and he didn't even look up when I called to the boys about their language. I walked up to him and said, "Excuse me, are you going to deal with that couple, there?"
He looked up, startled, glanced at the snogging couple and shrugged his shoulders. "There's nothing I can do about it, they can do whatever they want before school starts."
"Since when! According to the student handbook, which I am required to operate under, there are certain kinds of conduct these kids can't engage in on campus at any time!" He obviously could not have cared less. And, I might add - this is the side of the building facing the drop-off point for the kids being brought to school by their parents - dozens if not a hundred parents had a great view of this couple indiscriminately making out before school started.
I am so tired to the bone of being the lone ranger of understanding that the way these kids behave in public is the tip of the iceberg of how they're behaving in private. I am so tired of double standards being held to in the public schools. I am so tired of overhearing girls talking about the most outrageous topics - what oral sex tastes like is one example of a topic I've heard more than twice in recent weeks, and who's a dyke -
Teachers can't teach nouns and verbs or require the memorization of multiplication tables. Good literature is being abandoned in favor of trash like The Chocolate War. And conduct going through the absolute toilet. I'm so mad I could spit nails.
And I have people telling me I need to be practical and go get my certification requirements so I can be held hostage by this rapidly-disintegrating educational system for the remainder of my professional life? No, thank you!
Monday, March 05, 2007
It's Hard to Post Daily!
Okay, Maybe I'm a lazy slug, but I just cannot seem to get my act together to post every day. I don't know how "Angela Messenger" does it. Or any of my other blogger friends. I'm working on a couple of magazine articles (I just had my fourth article published with Catholic Match Magazine and am waiting to hear back on a possible reprint of one of those with Catholic Digest - please keep your fingers crossed!). Blogging might be a very good way to "Prime the Pump" - after all, "Celebration of Holy Friendship" (the article I'm hoping will be picked up by Catholic Digest) was the result of a blog entry I almost made but decided I wanted to develop as an article.
But right now it feels almost as if blogging and posting in various web fora just diffuses the energy I possess. I'm going to have to give this some more thought and prayer.
But right now it feels almost as if blogging and posting in various web fora just diffuses the energy I possess. I'm going to have to give this some more thought and prayer.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
updates...
Rotten head cold. Well, at least it's not the flu, right? That's what I was afraid it was, Friday night when I began feeling really rotten - rotten, I mean, past the sinus junk that's been annoying me all week before. By Saturday I felt somewhat reassured, I was just in for a head cold.
The disappointing thing is that I have no voice... well, what voice I have sounds awful, like my daddy used to say, "Like a dying cow in a hailstorm." That cow is very weak by now.
And this is the week the Master Chorale is supposed to be singing with the NC Symphony - Edward Elgar's Dream of Gerontius. What! You haven't heard of it? Not surprising. Few Americans have, I think.
It's fascinating, especially for me as a Catholic. Elgar was Catholic, in the midst of Anglican England - and he took as his libretto a poem by Cardinal John Henry Newman, himself an Englishman (and a former Anglicn priest). The poetry is typically Victorian- a bit excessive if you know what I mean - but the theology is thrilling.
Gerontius (a tenor) is an old man. He is dying, and he knows it, and he sings about his state, his joy at seeing God, his fear of Judgment, his uncertainty about what really is awaiting him on the other side of the veil.... and the chorus is a group of the faithful, interceding for him, invoking the prayers of the angels, saints, holy virgins, and just about anyone else who might have a capacity to pray for a dying man. Then after a bit more reflection by the tenor solo - Gerontius - the chorus becomes a choir of angels, commanding Gerontius' soul to "COME FORTH!" and it does, and he dies. And that's the end of Part 1.
In Part 2, Gerontius is surprised to be able to see - it has to be his guardian angel - face to face for the first time. The angel is escorting him upward through the cosmos toward the Gates of Heaven, and explaining to him what is going to be happening. For some reason, the Angel is sung by a soprano, I think it is - I think Angels ought to be basso profundos, but maybe the contrast of men's voices wasn't stark enough?
Outside of heaven, Gerontius sees a crowd of demons (sung by... the chorus) - they accuse him "What's a saint? one who taints the air with his breath before he dies...." and mock God, calling Him a tyrant and a despot. They taunt Gerontius but cannot touch him. Gerontius and his angel continue in. Gerontius sees the holy angels travelling back and forth - and the holy saints who are in the presence of God, worshipping and adoring God -
But he isn't one of them yet. His Judgment occurs in an instant, and the angel is carrying him to still another place - Purgatory. We hear the saints-in-the-making, being purified in the Refiner's Fire of Purgatory - and they are truly happy people. The most beautiful "hymn" in the whole piece is sung by the souls in Purgatory, "Oh, wisest Love, oh, Kindest Love...." they praise Almighty God.
The piece ends on a note of triumph: Gerontius may be in Purgatory, but that means his ultimate salvation has been secured and that he will be admitted into Heaven. The piece ends with a glorious hymn of praise to God.
It really is beautiful music, and so suitable for early Lent to my way of thinking.... and I won't be able to sing it. Bummer!
Well, God works His will on us - my experience with the Master Chorale has been a glorious one, and I have made some splendid friends there. But the sense is growing in me that it is time to start living here, close to home, cultivating the interests and hobbies that will get me around people on a local level and give me a chance to have Real Life friends not just in Raleigh but down here as well - okay, more than I currently have?
More later. I've got to go get ready for work.
The disappointing thing is that I have no voice... well, what voice I have sounds awful, like my daddy used to say, "Like a dying cow in a hailstorm." That cow is very weak by now.
And this is the week the Master Chorale is supposed to be singing with the NC Symphony - Edward Elgar's Dream of Gerontius. What! You haven't heard of it? Not surprising. Few Americans have, I think.
It's fascinating, especially for me as a Catholic. Elgar was Catholic, in the midst of Anglican England - and he took as his libretto a poem by Cardinal John Henry Newman, himself an Englishman (and a former Anglicn priest). The poetry is typically Victorian- a bit excessive if you know what I mean - but the theology is thrilling.
Gerontius (a tenor) is an old man. He is dying, and he knows it, and he sings about his state, his joy at seeing God, his fear of Judgment, his uncertainty about what really is awaiting him on the other side of the veil.... and the chorus is a group of the faithful, interceding for him, invoking the prayers of the angels, saints, holy virgins, and just about anyone else who might have a capacity to pray for a dying man. Then after a bit more reflection by the tenor solo - Gerontius - the chorus becomes a choir of angels, commanding Gerontius' soul to "COME FORTH!" and it does, and he dies. And that's the end of Part 1.
In Part 2, Gerontius is surprised to be able to see - it has to be his guardian angel - face to face for the first time. The angel is escorting him upward through the cosmos toward the Gates of Heaven, and explaining to him what is going to be happening. For some reason, the Angel is sung by a soprano, I think it is - I think Angels ought to be basso profundos, but maybe the contrast of men's voices wasn't stark enough?
Outside of heaven, Gerontius sees a crowd of demons (sung by... the chorus) - they accuse him "What's a saint? one who taints the air with his breath before he dies...." and mock God, calling Him a tyrant and a despot. They taunt Gerontius but cannot touch him. Gerontius and his angel continue in. Gerontius sees the holy angels travelling back and forth - and the holy saints who are in the presence of God, worshipping and adoring God -
But he isn't one of them yet. His Judgment occurs in an instant, and the angel is carrying him to still another place - Purgatory. We hear the saints-in-the-making, being purified in the Refiner's Fire of Purgatory - and they are truly happy people. The most beautiful "hymn" in the whole piece is sung by the souls in Purgatory, "Oh, wisest Love, oh, Kindest Love...." they praise Almighty God.
The piece ends on a note of triumph: Gerontius may be in Purgatory, but that means his ultimate salvation has been secured and that he will be admitted into Heaven. The piece ends with a glorious hymn of praise to God.
It really is beautiful music, and so suitable for early Lent to my way of thinking.... and I won't be able to sing it. Bummer!
Well, God works His will on us - my experience with the Master Chorale has been a glorious one, and I have made some splendid friends there. But the sense is growing in me that it is time to start living here, close to home, cultivating the interests and hobbies that will get me around people on a local level and give me a chance to have Real Life friends not just in Raleigh but down here as well - okay, more than I currently have?
More later. I've got to go get ready for work.
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Lent at last
Ash Wednesday, Opening Day of Lent. Opening day of Sin season - we're gonna hunt 'em down and shoot to kill.
I need Lent this year. I feel a need for a good scouring, inside and out. I've been too careless with sin. Those venials may not be your "Go to Hell" card, but they can sure do a lot of damage, like a termite infestation, left untended.
My Protestant habits always make Lent hard for me. I still find Confession awkward and I have an aversion to it. I forget it's Friday until after I've busted the fasts to smithereens.
We keep on trying. I'm not sure I can go forty days without anything sweet (besides my morning coffee or evening tea) - but I can sure limit to Sundays, I believe, and make up for it between times. After all, in the old days, fasts and abstinences were a lot more stringent than they are now; the old folks, the saints, would be horrified at what we 21st Century Americans consider a 'sacrifice'.
This year, instead of filling my evenings with videos like The Notebook or Casablanca or Sense and Sensibility, I'm going to pop in the unwatched videos of Scott Hahn's Our Father's Plan.
I'm putting down some of my leisure reading in favor of two devotional classics: St. Francis de Sale's Introduction to a Devout Life and for the month of March, a 30-day "pocket retreat" from Sophia Institute Press.
I will be praying for you: please pray for me.
I need Lent this year. I feel a need for a good scouring, inside and out. I've been too careless with sin. Those venials may not be your "Go to Hell" card, but they can sure do a lot of damage, like a termite infestation, left untended.
My Protestant habits always make Lent hard for me. I still find Confession awkward and I have an aversion to it. I forget it's Friday until after I've busted the fasts to smithereens.
We keep on trying. I'm not sure I can go forty days without anything sweet (besides my morning coffee or evening tea) - but I can sure limit to Sundays, I believe, and make up for it between times. After all, in the old days, fasts and abstinences were a lot more stringent than they are now; the old folks, the saints, would be horrified at what we 21st Century Americans consider a 'sacrifice'.
This year, instead of filling my evenings with videos like The Notebook or Casablanca or Sense and Sensibility, I'm going to pop in the unwatched videos of Scott Hahn's Our Father's Plan.
I'm putting down some of my leisure reading in favor of two devotional classics: St. Francis de Sale's Introduction to a Devout Life and for the month of March, a 30-day "pocket retreat" from Sophia Institute Press.
I will be praying for you: please pray for me.
Monday, February 19, 2007
I need a little... Lent
Day after tomorrow - Ash Wednesday. I'm feeling a little impatient, almost want to anticipate the start. As with Christmas, however, all liturgical milestones need to be honored in their own time and place and not shifted around a lot. I may start my Lent reading today, but that will be the extent of my anticipation.
Keith Green wrote a song a few years ago - more than twenty-five, now - that went something like this:
My eyes are dry,
My faith is old,
My heart is hard,
My prayers are cold -
And I know how
I ought to be -
alive to You, and dead to me.
That's how I'm feeling these days. All calloused over, toughened up. Insensitive. Complacent.
It's not a good place to be. I suppose my soul-house is like the analogy I warned my RCIA people of yesterday, as we talked about sin: mortal sins can be like a bomb blast, but venial sins can be like a termite infestation - eventually, if you haven't taken care of them, they'll cause the house to fall in on itself as surely as if there had been a bomb blast.
Two months since my last Confession - always an excuse not to go. I am a lazy slug. God deserves better from me, and I want better from myself.
Ashes, ashes, we all fall down....
Keith Green wrote a song a few years ago - more than twenty-five, now - that went something like this:
My eyes are dry,
My faith is old,
My heart is hard,
My prayers are cold -
And I know how
I ought to be -
alive to You, and dead to me.
That's how I'm feeling these days. All calloused over, toughened up. Insensitive. Complacent.
It's not a good place to be. I suppose my soul-house is like the analogy I warned my RCIA people of yesterday, as we talked about sin: mortal sins can be like a bomb blast, but venial sins can be like a termite infestation - eventually, if you haven't taken care of them, they'll cause the house to fall in on itself as surely as if there had been a bomb blast.
Two months since my last Confession - always an excuse not to go. I am a lazy slug. God deserves better from me, and I want better from myself.
Ashes, ashes, we all fall down....
Sunday, February 18, 2007
The First Joyful Mystery: The Annunciation
We meditate upon the Angel's appearance to Mary - and her great Fiat: "Behold the handmaid of the Lord. Be it done unto me acording to thy word."
Praying for my friend today, I take this Mystery and pray:
Almighty God, You sent the angel to your daughter Mary to invite her to bear the Messiah - and she said Yes! Be with my beloved friend, I pray, and let the annunciation of Your immense love and your choice of him to be Your very own bring him joy this day. I pray that he might always be ready to say Yes! to Your call upon his life, whatever it might be. Be glorified through him, and on the Last Day may he sing Your praises with all the angels and Saints in the Beatific Vision. Amen.
We meditate upon the Angel's appearance to Mary - and her great Fiat: "Behold the handmaid of the Lord. Be it done unto me acording to thy word."
Praying for my friend today, I take this Mystery and pray:
Almighty God, You sent the angel to your daughter Mary to invite her to bear the Messiah - and she said Yes! Be with my beloved friend, I pray, and let the annunciation of Your immense love and your choice of him to be Your very own bring him joy this day. I pray that he might always be ready to say Yes! to Your call upon his life, whatever it might be. Be glorified through him, and on the Last Day may he sing Your praises with all the angels and Saints in the Beatific Vision. Amen.
Friday, February 16, 2007
But... i gotta GO!
I woke up feeling achey and mildly feverish this a.m. I sure hope it's not going to develop into anything nasty -
Tomorrow I'm supposed to go to Raleigh - the Fifth Annual Ignited by Truth Conference -
Featured Speakers are friends of mine, via their written works and blog -
Mark Shea
Peter Kreeft
I will feel simply horrible if I can't get Dr. Kreeft to autograph my poor well-worn copy of Philosophy 101 by Socrates!
The diocese of Raleigh's recently-installed bishop, Bishop Michael Burbidge, is going to be celebrating the closing Mass, too - I so very much want to meet that dear and good man of God.
Not a day I am keen on missing, if ya know what I mean...
Tomorrow I'm supposed to go to Raleigh - the Fifth Annual Ignited by Truth Conference -
Featured Speakers are friends of mine, via their written works and blog -
Mark Shea
Peter Kreeft
I will feel simply horrible if I can't get Dr. Kreeft to autograph my poor well-worn copy of Philosophy 101 by Socrates!
The diocese of Raleigh's recently-installed bishop, Bishop Michael Burbidge, is going to be celebrating the closing Mass, too - I so very much want to meet that dear and good man of God.
Not a day I am keen on missing, if ya know what I mean...
The girl is just TOO SILLY, methinks!
Angela, of Angela Messenger fame, wants me to register my blog with some blogger registry or catalogue. Her blog has really taken off with viewers since she did.
What!
She thinks I ought to WRITE REGULARLY in this thing and keep it reasonably UPDATED???
Hey, just who does she think she's dealing with, here???
What!
She thinks I ought to WRITE REGULARLY in this thing and keep it reasonably UPDATED???
Hey, just who does she think she's dealing with, here???
Sharing the Faith
I got to the church about forty-five minutes early for choir practice last night. Father was there, getting ready for our opening night of Bingo - and he was showing two women around the church. I greeted them and went about my business of getting ready for the kids to show up - but when I came out of my closet office they were still there. One of them dropped back and struck up a conversation with me.
She was genuinely shocked when she learned I am a convert. WHY would a CHRISTIAN want to become a CATHOLIC???
You know what? It's probably good that I used to think that Catholics were cannibals - those sorts of questions don't offend me. I've thought worse, probably, right?
So we spent more than half an hour talking - I corrected her misinformation that Catholics worship Mary (that's an old one) and that Catholics believe Jesus died but wasn't resurrected (That was a new one for me) - I told her about our Easter Triduum, invited her to come back and attend Mass with us. Since she was curious about our Bibles, I gave her my NAB which was sitting on the shelf (unused) in my office. We exchanged email addresses, and last night I sent her my conversion story.
She's the third person this week I've sent it to.
I LOVE sharing the Faith! LoveitLoveitLoveit!
Pray for this gal - her name is Linda, and I didn't catch her friend's name. They're Pentecostals, former Methodists. I expect I'll be hearing from them again. PrayPrayPrayPrayPray.....
She was genuinely shocked when she learned I am a convert. WHY would a CHRISTIAN want to become a CATHOLIC???
You know what? It's probably good that I used to think that Catholics were cannibals - those sorts of questions don't offend me. I've thought worse, probably, right?
So we spent more than half an hour talking - I corrected her misinformation that Catholics worship Mary (that's an old one) and that Catholics believe Jesus died but wasn't resurrected (That was a new one for me) - I told her about our Easter Triduum, invited her to come back and attend Mass with us. Since she was curious about our Bibles, I gave her my NAB which was sitting on the shelf (unused) in my office. We exchanged email addresses, and last night I sent her my conversion story.
She's the third person this week I've sent it to.
I LOVE sharing the Faith! LoveitLoveitLoveit!
Pray for this gal - her name is Linda, and I didn't catch her friend's name. They're Pentecostals, former Methodists. I expect I'll be hearing from them again. PrayPrayPrayPrayPray.....
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Rant: The Chocolate War
I probably won't be invited back to sub at our local middle school - not after I complained about the video being shown to the 8th graders I subbed with yesterday.The video was The Chocolate War, based on the bestselling novel by Robert Cormier. It is the story of a sociopathic bully - who makes The Catcher in the Rye's Holden Caulfield look like a well-adjusted and productive member of society. He connives to take over the secret society, The Vigils, of a private boys' school (run by Catholic teaching brothers) and he pours his contempt on faculty, administration, and peers.
The book, and the movie, is full of profanity, masturbatory references, flagrant contempt for authority figures in general and religious in particular.
If it contains any literary merit whatsoever, I have yet to discover what it is.
Yet this book is the current hottest thing since boiling water to hit the schools.
I don't get it, and I want to know two things: First, why in the world are "educators" stupid enough to think this piece of crap is literature and has educational value? and Second, why in the name of all that is holy have parents put up with this?
I'm angry at myself today, because although I complained to the principal and the school's media specialist (who assured me that very detailed letters of explanation were sent to parents and signed permission slips on file for each of the students in the classes), I wish I had had the steel in my spine to simply refuse to show the thing. I didn't. I cooperated with feeding those tender young kids' minds mental and spiritual dung.
I just don't know what to do. I only know I feel more confirmed than before: I do not belong in education.
Saturday, February 03, 2007
Uh. try again?
Hi, Y'all -
Still here. Busy, and happy.
The article I mentioned, "In Celebration of Holy Friendship," was published on January 1 by Catholic Match Magazine. You have to register to access it; married people can register with FourMarks and I believe you can access the magazine that way.
A new article has been published for February. "Reflections on Love" is accessible through catholic web - scroll down until you see Catholic Relationships heading, then click on "What Is Love?" From there you can actually click on a link that will take you to the Catholic Match article in its entirety.
Looks like I'm going to be a regular contributor to that magazine. I'm very pleased and grateful for that opportunity.
See you again soon!
Still here. Busy, and happy.
The article I mentioned, "In Celebration of Holy Friendship," was published on January 1 by Catholic Match Magazine. You have to register to access it; married people can register with FourMarks and I believe you can access the magazine that way.
A new article has been published for February. "Reflections on Love" is accessible through catholic web - scroll down until you see Catholic Relationships heading, then click on "What Is Love?" From there you can actually click on a link that will take you to the Catholic Match article in its entirety.
Looks like I'm going to be a regular contributor to that magazine. I'm very pleased and grateful for that opportunity.
See you again soon!
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
Prayer Needs NOW
Chris, my co-contributor (read: technical assistant) is in hospital right now. She is in for an aneurysm.
Nora, dear friend from my choir, is in hospital, having undergone surgery for cancer this week.
Please pray for these two precious dear and wonderful women and their speedy recovery.
Nora, dear friend from my choir, is in hospital, having undergone surgery for cancer this week.
Please pray for these two precious dear and wonderful women and their speedy recovery.
Yikes! Has it been SO LONG since I posted?
So much has happened, are you SURE I have been so long away???
Okay - There's a new photo, as soon as Chris is up to replacing the old one.
I started to post a few weeks ago (honest!) in celebration of the anniversary of a very special friendship. After only a couple of sentences, though, I shut down this window and went to Word, where my idea very quickly became an article, which has been accepted for publication by Catholic Match Magazine. "In Celebration of Holy Friendship" is due to appear in the January edition of the online magazine. I'll post a link here when it comes out.
The Advent and Christmas seasons are upon us. I had four concerts, two funerals and a regular Mass in three days over Thanksgiving weekend. I'm still recovering, in fact! Our Joy of the Season concert is coming up on Saturday. We're being recorded for broadcast over our state PBS affiliate, WUNC-TV (Channel 4, Chapel Hill) and a DVD will be available for sale, too. I'll post info on that as soon as I'm able.
I have a new email address for anyone who would care to contact me: chantlaura@gmail.com
I've got more stuff bubbling on the back burner. See you soon!
So much has happened, are you SURE I have been so long away???
Okay - There's a new photo, as soon as Chris is up to replacing the old one.
I started to post a few weeks ago (honest!) in celebration of the anniversary of a very special friendship. After only a couple of sentences, though, I shut down this window and went to Word, where my idea very quickly became an article, which has been accepted for publication by Catholic Match Magazine. "In Celebration of Holy Friendship" is due to appear in the January edition of the online magazine. I'll post a link here when it comes out.
The Advent and Christmas seasons are upon us. I had four concerts, two funerals and a regular Mass in three days over Thanksgiving weekend. I'm still recovering, in fact! Our Joy of the Season concert is coming up on Saturday. We're being recorded for broadcast over our state PBS affiliate, WUNC-TV (Channel 4, Chapel Hill) and a DVD will be available for sale, too. I'll post info on that as soon as I'm able.
I have a new email address for anyone who would care to contact me: chantlaura@gmail.com
I've got more stuff bubbling on the back burner. See you soon!
Thursday, November 23, 2006
A Blessed Thanksgiving to you all!
It's such a trite saying: have an "attitude of gratitude."
Still, it's a lot to consider. We really do have a choice to be happy or miserable. Being happy largely begins with gratitude.
There's so much to be thankful for. I've got two cats curled up by my back, one on either side of me. It's warm in my house. The terrible storm of the past two days is past and the sun came out a little while ago with a vengeance, as if to more than make up for the nor'easter that nearly flooded our area.
Drowning Creek didn't come up to the road, thanks to the hard work done several years ago by the Corps of Engineers; it is stretched out almost a quarter mile in either direction of the bridge, though, I noticed on my way to Mass this morning.
It's Thanksgiving weekend. I'll be singing this weekend with the NC Symphony in their wonderful Holiday Pops concert. This year Grant Llewellyn is directing - a joy in itself.
I have been blessed with some of the most delightful and wonderful friends a woman ever had.
this is just the beginning of my list...
God bless and keep you all!
Still, it's a lot to consider. We really do have a choice to be happy or miserable. Being happy largely begins with gratitude.
There's so much to be thankful for. I've got two cats curled up by my back, one on either side of me. It's warm in my house. The terrible storm of the past two days is past and the sun came out a little while ago with a vengeance, as if to more than make up for the nor'easter that nearly flooded our area.
Drowning Creek didn't come up to the road, thanks to the hard work done several years ago by the Corps of Engineers; it is stretched out almost a quarter mile in either direction of the bridge, though, I noticed on my way to Mass this morning.
It's Thanksgiving weekend. I'll be singing this weekend with the NC Symphony in their wonderful Holiday Pops concert. This year Grant Llewellyn is directing - a joy in itself.
I have been blessed with some of the most delightful and wonderful friends a woman ever had.
this is just the beginning of my list...
God bless and keep you all!
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Guess the Christmas Carols!
1. Move hitherward the entire assembly of those who are loyal in their belief.
2. Listen, the celestial messengers produce harmonious sounds.
3. Nocturnal timespan of unbroken quietness.
4. An emotion excited by they acquisition or expectation of good given to the terrestrial sphere.
5. Embellish the interior passageways.
6. Exalted heavenly beings to whom harkened
7. Twelve o’clock on a clement night witnessed its arrival
8. The Christmas preceding all others
9. Small municipality in Judea southeast of Jerusalem.
10. Diminutive masculine master of skin-covered percussionist cylinders.
11. Omnipotent supreme being who elicits respite to ecstatic distinguished males.
12. Tranquility upon the terrestrial sphere
13. Obese personification fabricated of compressed mounds of minute crystals.
14. Expectation of arrival to populated area by mythical, masculine, perennial gift-giver.
15. Natal celebration devoid of color, rather albino, as a hallucinatory phenomenon for me.
16. In awe of the nocturnal timespan characterized by religiosity.
17. Geographic state of fantasy during the season of Mother Nature‘s dormancy.
18. The first person nominative plural of a triumvirate of far eastern heads of state.
19. In a distant location the existence of an improvised unit of newborn children‘s slumber furniture.
20. Tintinnabulation of vacillating pendulums in inverted metallic resonant cups.
21. Proceed forth declaring upon a specific geological alpine formation.
22. Jovial yuletide desired for the second person singular or plural by us.
2. Listen, the celestial messengers produce harmonious sounds.
3. Nocturnal timespan of unbroken quietness.
4. An emotion excited by they acquisition or expectation of good given to the terrestrial sphere.
5. Embellish the interior passageways.
6. Exalted heavenly beings to whom harkened
7. Twelve o’clock on a clement night witnessed its arrival
8. The Christmas preceding all others
9. Small municipality in Judea southeast of Jerusalem.
10. Diminutive masculine master of skin-covered percussionist cylinders.
11. Omnipotent supreme being who elicits respite to ecstatic distinguished males.
12. Tranquility upon the terrestrial sphere
13. Obese personification fabricated of compressed mounds of minute crystals.
14. Expectation of arrival to populated area by mythical, masculine, perennial gift-giver.
15. Natal celebration devoid of color, rather albino, as a hallucinatory phenomenon for me.
16. In awe of the nocturnal timespan characterized by religiosity.
17. Geographic state of fantasy during the season of Mother Nature‘s dormancy.
18. The first person nominative plural of a triumvirate of far eastern heads of state.
19. In a distant location the existence of an improvised unit of newborn children‘s slumber furniture.
20. Tintinnabulation of vacillating pendulums in inverted metallic resonant cups.
21. Proceed forth declaring upon a specific geological alpine formation.
22. Jovial yuletide desired for the second person singular or plural by us.
Sunday, November 12, 2006
Prayer Request
I'm asking you to pass the word along -- prayers requested for my dear friend Nora, who is facing surgery for cancer in the next week or two. She goes up to Chapel Hill this week for a consult with an oncology surgeon.
Monday, November 06, 2006
on Holy Friendship
Have you ever had a particular friend of the opposite sex who just blessed your socks off? Who was a friend of the right hand, of the soul? Who enriched your life in surprising ways?
Drop me an email and let me know about it, will you? I'm writing an article on the subject, and want to use more than just my own experience to illustrate...
Thanks!
Drop me an email and let me know about it, will you? I'm writing an article on the subject, and want to use more than just my own experience to illustrate...
Thanks!
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