Walt's First Haircut

We took the kids to get haircuts last week.  The worst part of Walt's day everyday is getting cleaned up after meals.  He loves bathtime, but if splashing water is not involved, he's not a fan of being handled.  Unfortunately, he wasn't fond of the haircut either.  


Watch the progression of Walt's emotions

Curiosity

Confusion

Terror

Extreme terror

Desperation and escape attempt

Janie shows off her sucker while Walt finally submits to the haircut in exhaustion

Sibling shot at home

Have a hug, bro.  It's all over.

Spring Has Sprung!

I've been taking pictures of our burning bushes and lilac bush since they started blooming a few weeks ago.  It's incredible how quickly the blooms explode!  

The burning bush

The lilac bush

    

I've always considered it a blessing to live in the northern hemisphere where the climate naturally lends itself to the liturgical calendar.  Say whhhhhaaaaaaaat, crazy Catherine?  Hear me out.

I'm a visual learner and, well, I can be pretty dense, so it's helpful that my natural surroundings mirror what's happening in the Church calendar.  

In the fall, we have the beautiful burst of color before the plant life begins to die and fade into winter.  In the wintertime of Advent, while we're waiting for the Light of the World to arrive on Christmas Day, the days become increasingly shorter until the winter solstice on December 21. 

Just when we're getting the hang of celebrating Christ's birth, we enter the season of Lent, where we prepare for his Passion.  The season of self-denial is mirrored in the stark, brown landscape.  As we approach Holy Week, there are signs of life again outside.  The plants and trees start to bud, and the birds sing in the early morning.  We even get the beautiful Easter Lilies, announcing with their big, trumpet-like petals that Christ is Risen!  Alleluia!  

Throughout the late spring and into summer when nature is in full bloom, we get to celebrate the month of Mary in May, Divine Mercy Sunday, Ascension, the Church's birthday on Pentecost, Trinity Sunday, Corpus Christi, and the Assumption of Mary. 

Pretty cool, huh? 

Happy Easter!

You might have noticed that the name of my blog is a reference to Blessed Pope John Paul II's quote:  "Do not abandon yourselves to despair.  We are the Easter people, and hallelujah is our song."  So, you might have guessed that Easter's a pretty big deal for this household!  


It was a fun day with our little bunnies.  Here's how we celebrated:  

Bunnies after the egg hunt in the living room

Running her new vacuum in her Easter dress.  Kinda looks like a 50's housewife, huh?

Playing with new blocks and a bath boat

Reading her new Bible

Family pic after Mass

Walt is so excited that Christ is risen!  Jane's ready for nap time.

Trying to keep Walt upright

Egg hunt with the cousins

What's Easter without a trampoline jump with your buddies?

Giving Grandma a check-up

My sweet "little" guy

Celebrating Mass at our beloved home parish, watching the kids hunt for eggs, spending time with family, and eating some amaaaaaaaaaaazing food added up to one fantastic day.  

Happy Easter!   

The Fifth Station: Simon of Cyrene Helps Jesus to Carry the Cross

Shameless Popery is a great blog I read from time to time through the National Catholic Register.  The author has been compiling reflections on the Stations of the Cross, and the reflection on the Fifth Station really spoke to me.

The Fifth Station:  Simon of Cyrene Helps Jesus to Carry the Cross.

Statue in Vietnam portraying Simon helping Christ carry the cross.  Taken from:  http://www.hcmctoday.com/2009/04/i-saw-this-beautiful-tugboat-as-i.html

To make sure Christ didn't die on his one-mile trek to his place of crucifixion, the soldiers picked Simon the Cyrenian out of the crowd to help Jesus carry His cross.  As Pope Benedict XVI says in his reflection on the Fifth Station, Simon "does what he must do, but reluctantly. Significantly, the Evangelist Mark does not only name him, but also his children, who were evidently known as Christians and as members of that community (cf. Mk 15:21). From this chance encounter, faith was born." 

When I heard the Stations of Cross as a child on Fridays during Lent, I thought Simon was kind of a jerk.  I mean, here's Jesus, beaten beyond recognition, and you're annoyed that you have to help the guy carry the cross he's going to be murdered on?  C'mon!  What's wrong with you?!  This is GOD!

I didn't realize that I was still being called to carry Christ's cross everyday.  I thought it was an interesting part of the story, but I didn't see how I could participate in shouldering the cross.  As I enter into adulthood, I am seeing the countless opportunities I receive throughout my days to help shoulder the cross, but I'm too much of a blockhead to do it most of the time.

Thank goodness for the beautiful words and reflections of the Holy Fathers and blessed people like Mother Angelica.  Mother Angelica wrote and recited a reflection on "The Way of the Cross" for her order of nuns.  I'd like to share her reflection on the Fifth Station:

My Jesus, Your tormentors enlisted a Simon of Cyrene to help You carry Your Cross.  Your Humility is beyond my comprehension.  Your Power upheld the whole universe and yet You permit one of Your creatures to help You carry a cross.  I imagine Simon was reluctant to take part in Your shame.  He had no idea that all who watched and jeered at him would pass into oblivion while his name would go down in history and eternity as the man who helped his God in need.  Is it not so with me, dear Jesus?  Even when I reluctantly carry my cross as Simon did, it benefits my soul.

If I keep my eyes on you and watch how You suffered, I will be able to bear my cross with greater fortitude.  Were you trying to tell all those who suffer from prejudice to have courage?  Was Simon a symbol of all those who are hated because of race, color, and creed?

Simon wondered as he took those beams upon his shoulders, why he was chosen for such a heavy burden and now he knows.  Help me Jesus, to trust Your loving Providence as You permit suffering to weave itself in and out of my life.  Make me understand that You looked at it and held it fondly before You passed it on to me.  You watch me and give me strength just as You did Simon.  When I enter Your Kingdom, I shall know as he knows, what marvels Your Cross has wrought in my soul.  Amen.       

I have a sweet nephew who happens to be named Simon.  When he was younger, a teacher took his class to the school church where she showed the young children the Stations of the Cross.  When my sister picked Simon up from school that day, he was thrilled to tell her all about the part that he, Simon, had played in Jesus' Passion. 

"Mom!  Jesus fell down, and I told him, 'Get up, Jesus!  Get up!'" 

Lord, help me to love You like a child--simply and completely.  Give me an eager and willing heart to help you shoulder Your cross.  Please help me to enter into the Lenten season with the innocent love of a child, who pictures himself truly there, telling Jesus to get up and helping Him along His way.  

The Myth of the Liberal/Conservative Catholic

In an interview for a teaching position at a Catholic high school, the principal wanted to gauge where I stood theologically.  To find out, the principal asked, "You're not one of those conservative Catholics, are you?"

Knowing full well that this principal was getting at, I carefully crafted my response.  "I'm not exactly sure what you mean by 'conservative Catholic.'  If you're asking if I will be faithful to Church Teaching as a Catholic teacher, then my answer is absolutely."  

Just last week, an acquaintance asked me how I would respond to accusations that Fr. Barron's Catholicism Series was "too conservative."  A few years wiser than I was in my conversation with the high school principal, I responded more resolutely.  Being a Catholic Answers podcast junkie, I borrowed a response a routinely hear from host Patrick Coffin.  I said, "I'm allergic to labels like that when we're talking about Catholicism.  It's not necessary.  Either something is faithful to Church Teaching or it isn't.  Fr. Barron's Catholicism Series is faithful.  Period.  My hunch is if the series makes a Catholic uncomfortable, that Catholic is questioning something the series asserts that's against their individual, unfaithful theology."

 

The media likes to pit the "liberal Catholics" against the "conservative Catholics."  We saw these labels bandied about after the death of Blessed Pope John Paul II.  The "expert" religion reporters offered that the college of cardinals might favor a "less conservative" pope after JPII.  To their obvious dismay, "God's rottweiler" aka Pope Benedict XVI, an "ultra conservative," succeeded him.  "So much for the Church coming out of the Dark Ages!" we heard.   

Now, we hear how the "liberal Catholics" hope that the "conservative Catholics" will "get with the times" as the Supreme Court deliberates over Obamacare and the HHS Mandate.  

Inserting the label "liberal" or "conservative" before "Catholic" seems to confuse people into believing that the same labels used in the political arena have any business in a theological discussion.  The Church isn't a democracy, and I say thank goodness it isn't!  

We Catholics take for granted the immense pressure on non-Catholic Christian leaders that our parish pastors never need to struggle with.  Pastor Bob at 9th Street Open Arms Church has to be his own pope, so to speak.  He decides the direction of the church's theology and finds himself in a big pickle if he changes his mind down the road.  

Imagine the agony for a pastor and his congregation when he makes the swim across the Tiber and converts to Catholicism.  He has to humbly admit to his congregation that he, as the leader of their church, is walking toward what they see as the enemy.  Pentecostal minister Alex Jones had such an experience when he and much of his congregation decided to join the Catholic Church.

"To them, I have apostasized into error. And that's painful for me because we all want to be looked at as being right and correct, but now you have the stigma of being mentally unbalanced, changeable, being looked at as though you've just walked away from God."

Jones said when his group was considering converting, prayer groups were formed to stop them. "People fasted and prayed that God would stop us from making this terrible mistake. When we did it, it was as though we had died."

If Alex Jones had been a Catholic priest, he wouldn't have had that pressure.  Here's the beauty of Catholicism:  The Church doesn't have the power to change Truth or Tradition.  She simply cannot.  Period.  The Church might be full of unworthy humans with all kinds of embarrassing blunders throughout Her history.  Nonetheless, Christ blessed His Church with the presence of the Holy Spirit and the promise that the "gates of hell shall not prevail" against Her.  2000 years later, we can still find the Catholic Church alive and well in the world today, and we can trace Her roots throughout history via Apostolic Succession.  Without the presence of the Holy Spirit, how do you explain the tremendous vitality, success, and history of a human institution?  

Unlike Pastor Bob back at 9th Street Open Arms Church who decides the theology of his congregation, no matter what my parish priest says from the pulpit, he can't change the Church's stance on abortion, contraceptives, marriage, or any other hot button issue.  Even if a Catholic priest is living in a state of mortal sin, it has no effect on his ability to administer the sacraments.  So, no matter which Catholic Church I go to on this planet, if there's a priest there who gives a proper Mass, I get to receive Jesus in the Eucharist.  

This conversation about "liberal Catholic" vs. "conservative Catholic" makes me think about a sign my fifth grade teacher had on her classroom bulletin board.  It said, "What's right is not always popular.  What's popular is not always right."  This simple, almost cliché saying, needs repeating.  We're bombarded with the statistics and accusations that 98% of Catholic women use contraceptives, so what's the big deal anyway?!  If it's popular, it must be true, it must be good, and the rest of you crazy, conservative Catholics ought to get with the program.  

Well, that's the problem.  We seem to think majority rules every area of our lives.  Here's the thing:  Even if only 1 woman on this planet wasn't using contraceptives, it wouldn't change the Church's stance on the issue.  There's no safety in numbers when it comes to morality.  There's no changing Truth.  So, there's no need to call me or anyone else a "conservative Catholic."  Likewise, there's no need to call someone a "liberal Catholic" or the perhaps even more irritating label of "progressive Catholic."  We're either faithful or unfaithful to Mother Church.  

Let's get one thing clear, though:  I'm a sinner, and I do more than my fair share of screwing up--just ask my friends and family.  Regardless of my own personal failings, it doesn't change my ability to see the Church as teaching Truth.  If we only look to one another to be our moral compasses, we're literally in for a world of hurt.  We're going to fall short of the good that we're made for from time to time.  It creates great scandal to those who watch us fall.  Yet, why in the world would we choose to abandon Christ and His Church because of the actions of another human?  Would we leave Christ because of Judas?  We're earthen vessels, and hopefully we're all doing the best we can to lead a life worthy of  Christ's sacrifice, but the choices we make cannot negate Truth.  We choose Truth when we embrace and follow Mother Church.  That doesn't make us liberal or conservative; that makes us faithful disciples.

Spring Trip to the Zoo

We took advantage of the unusually warm weather we've been having and went to the zoo last week.  It was our first trip to the zoo as a family since Walt was born.  Janie and Walt loved looking at all of the animals.  

Janie insisted on wearing her big, goofy Tinker Bell sunglasses.  Between the pink shades and her plaid shorts, I'd say that girl has a lot of spunk!   

Talking to the gorillas

We LOVE this polar bear!  He would swim to the corner you see here, flip himself onto his back, do a lazy backstroke along the glass as he pushed himself off of the cement blocks separating each pane of glass, and repeat to all of our glee.  He even dove for some fish at the bottom of the tank while we were there. 

Walt was captivated by the performing polar bear, too.

Did you know that peacocks love Goldfish crackers?

Before we knew it, about a dozen peacocks were following us in the pursuit of more Goldfish!

I never noticed them before, but apparently the zoo has an entire hillside of prairie dogs!  They were so cute!  It was like my own up-close-and-personal glimpse into Meerkat Manor.

Baby Walt passed out about halfway into our trip to the zoo.  He seems to like the most uncomfortable positions for sleeping. 

The zoo recently added this beautiful "Garden of the Senses," featuring large birds, fountains, and beautiful plant life.

Choo choo!

Starting to zone out on the way home

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand she's out!

I just happened to come across this picture of Janie from our first trip to the zoo with her when she was five months old.  It's crazy to think that this picture was taken just two years ago!  So much has changed since then!  

Philip and Jane with the elephants, Summer 2010

Philip and Jane with the bears, Spring 2012

We'll be back to see you again soon, animals!

Spring Cleaning Donations

Now that I'm implementing my cleaning schedule to keep a clean house, I'm regularly decluttering as well.  If I were really ambitious, I might consider trying 40 Bags in 40 Days like my mother-in-law.  

When I declutter or go through my closet, I usually pile up the clothes and other things to donate and give them to my local Goodwill.  

Instead of heading off to Goodwill this time around, I decided to call around and see if there were any Catholic organizations in need of my donations--gently used furniture, lamps, clothes, etc.  Sure enough, I learned about several local groups in need of all different kinds of donations.       

One such organization is the Society of St. Vincent de Paul.  The Society of St. Vincent de Paul has thrift stores and food pantries nationwide.  You can find your local Society of St. Vincent de Paul thrift store or food pantry here.  

My local Society of St. Vincent de Paul even offers residential pick-up of your donations.  If you call your local chapter, you can set up a time for the Society's truck to pick up your items and haul them away.  This is a great option for those who have little ones or who don't have a large car to haul items like furniture down to the warehouse.  

Your material and monetary donations help the Vincentians (members of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul) serve the poor.  Specifically, here's how the Society of St. Vincent de Paul helps the poor in your community:

Donations help provide direct assistance to the poor in local communities throughout the United States.  Vincentians meet face to face with the poor to assess their needs.  Some of the needs addressed by Vincentians include: housing and utiltiy assistance; job training and placement; and access to food, clothing, transportation and medical care.  The National Council also makes grants to the local Conferences/Councils through its Domestic Disaster Relief Grants and the Friends of the Poor Grant Programs.  There are many ways in which you can donate.  Please click on the DONATE ONLINE button to make your selection.  Your donation is also tax deductible.   

If you've already gotten rid of your spring cleaning donations, think about your pantry.  Start cleaning out your pantry the day before you go to the grocery store.  Identify extras or items you will not be able to consume before they expire, and bag them up for your local Society of St. Vincent de Paul food pantry.  My parish distributes paper bags for parishoners to take and return full of non-perishable food items that church volunteers take to the pantry the first Sunday of each month.  Consider bringing this practice to your parish if it isn't there already.

This is just one example of ways that you can easily help the poor in your local community through a Catholic organization.  What are some other Catholic groups you help with your time, treasure, or talent?  Please share your ideas and experiences!