7 Quick Takes - As We Wait in Joyful Hope

Hosted by Jen at Conversion Diary 

Reasons to Hope

1. It's been a pretty good year, all things considered.  I thought this was beautiful... and true.  Sure, there's some awful crap going on in the world today, but at the end of the day, we're still profoundly blessed to live as free men and women in the greatest nation on earth, where our freedoms far outpace those of most of our brothers and sisters elsewhere around the globe.

2.  It's nearly the 4th and final Sunday of Advent.  That means we are finally going to put the ornaments on my poor, dying Christmas tree which is now sporting about the same number of needles on its branches as my vacuum is holding in its dump tank (for lack of an official descriptor).  My dear husband and I came to a liturgical compromise of sorts whereby I was permitted to select our (live!) Christmas tree on the first Sunday of Advent, though we've been decorating it in stages.  So last Sunday was garland, the one before that was lights, and we've finally arrived at ornaments, though the aridity of our apartment has all but strangled the life from our poor, mostly-naked evergreen.  (Note: I realize Christmas trees are non-liturgical entities, and my husband is really not the hard ass this makes him out to be.  Our negotiations over Advent/Christmas decor and protocol have actually been nothing short of hilarious...)

3.  My little brother is home from college for the month and he waits tables at a karaoke bar.  They have Journey's entire discography in their system.  My high school babysitte... ahem, sisters are also on Christmas break.  Need I say more?

4.  It snowed last night in Denver!  Granted, it looked like fake fluff from the set of the Full House Christmas special and it melted by 10 am, but it was there!  I saw it!

5.  I have a new job.  A wonderful, incredibly providential and exciting new job, which I'll share more about after the New Year.

6.  My baby sleeps through. the. night.  He is 11 weeks old and he sleeps through the night.  Praise the living God for my dear friends Brigette and Eliz who pointed me toward Babywise while Joseph was still just a twinkle in our eyes.  It hasn't always been easy, but man oh man has it been worth it.

7.  I wake up to this face every morning.

Yeah, I've got hope.  And it has nothing to do with the dude in the White House.

Tap, Tap

Hello out there... is this thing on? 

So it's been 2 months.  2 glorious, difficult, rewarding, enthralling and exhausting months... but my baby is now sleeping through the night (with some rare exceptions), I've started running again in anticipation of this year's Colfax half marathon, and somehow my best friend Eliz beat me back to the blogosphere, though her Jude is more than a week younger than Joey... consider me officially shame-based.  

So far this whole motherhood gig is pretty much what I expected... but with way more joy.  I knew I would love my baby, in fact, I loved him in an intellectual sense for 9 months (okay, 8.25 months) before he made his debut.  But I had no idea the depth and intensity with which that love would manifest itself, allowing even the most hellish of experiences (labor, the first 6 weeks of nursing) to become redemptive in some way... to become acts of the will rather than acts forced against or upon me.  I think I'm getting my first real taste of redemptive suffering in this new role, and while I can't say it's enjoyable, exactly, it has actualized my faith in a way I couldn't have imagined before baby.  I'm pretty sure my husband would agree, though the times I've left my boys for a little mommy tlc, I've come home to tears of angst... and sometimes the baby is crying too.  Kidding.  Sort of.  Dave's an amazing father, but there are some things only mommy can do... particularly where a breastfed baby is concerned. 

As we gear up for Christmas at our house, we're praying for snow, (which is unlikely, thank you global warming.  Denver is a balmy 55 degrees today, and I've been running in shorts:) anticipating the arrival of family from around the country, and making room in our hearts for Christ in His most vulnerable form - that of a tiny infant, one who cried, who needed to be changed and nursed, and who probably had a bummer of a teething experience without the availability of ice packs...dang.  Mary was awesome, this much I knew already.  But only motherhood has shown me how awesome.  I've been listening to this song the past couple of days and looking down at my little guy, imagining how it must have been for our Blessed Mother all those years ago. 

Introducing Joseph Kolbe

The reason blogging has been - and will continue to be sparse for now.  Behold his cuteness!  We are supremely blessed and grateful for God's gift to our family.

Let's Be Honest, We Were All Raised By Wolves...

I've gone round and round with my mom about this topic more times than I care to recount, but I was gratified to see this piece featured on CNA earlier this week, because it points out a rather obvious defect which deeply wounded the Church these past 4 decades, but which is often ignored or unacknowledged by those who rail against her failure to preach the Gospel of Life. 

As the article indicates, the majority of our priests have indeed been too silent on matters of contraception and sins against life.  But I'd like to highlight what's not mentioned; namely, the reality that throughout all the poor catechetical formation many adult Catholics received at home and in their schools... sitting beside them were the majority of the priests who serve the Church today. 

So what does this mean for us?  It means an entire generation or two of adult Catholics (read: priests AND laity) came of age during a time of moral confusion, contradiction and poorly-communicated Catholic teaching.  However pitifully our priests have failed to communicate the teachings of Humane Vitae from the pulpit these past 40 years, the fault is not completely theirs. 

The formation they received at home and in the seminary was probably no better than that which has informed the consciences of the 90-something percent of adult practicing Catholics today who choose to live in open dissent from the Church's teachings on contraception.  Does this excuse our spiritual fathers from their duty to form and shepherd their flock?  By no means!  But does it explain some of the deafening silence from the pulpit for these past decades?  You bet. 

It's one of the reasons that Theology of the Body is so necessary, and not just for married couples, but for all Catholics, for all persons.  There is a fundamental disconnect in the modern human psyche, a great divorce which has severed our understanding of our very selves as bodies and souls, as bodies with souls.  The great modern mistake is not to think too much of the body, as some puritanical prudish types might insist, but to think too little of it.   We have been fed a dangerous lie indeed, one which insists that our actions need not match our intentions, and that we can somehow separate our mental and spiritual existences from the physical realm. 

This is what the practice of contraception shouts from the rooftops: "I am in control, and my intention determines the reality of my actions."  The actions themselves are meaningless, until and unless I inform them. 

Can you see the arrogance?  The asininity?  The utter falsity of such a way of living?  To presume that "I can, because I will it to be so" is to presume equality with God... and by so doing, reject His "version" of reality for one which better suits that which you have determined to be "right for you."

Our priests aren't alone in having fallen into this deadly way of thinking.  Neither are they excused, however, from crawling back out of the pit and leading their congregations with them.  Let's pray for our priests, and particularly for those who are currently studying and undergoing their priestly formation, that another generation doesn't slip through the cracks without hearing - and being equipped to proclaim - the truth.

Ewww... And Happy Friday!

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_16037537