What do you do for Advent?
We try to have an Advent activity for the family each day. These really vary greatly — one day is going to get Grandma from the airport, one day is attending mass for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. We also do a puzzle, make Christmas present place mats for Christmas dinner, watch the Nativity, donate clothes, and make a birthday cake for Jesus.
I will try to finish up the planning and then get the whole list posted soon. We are still new to this blog, and are curious as to how many people show up and take a look. If you do, please leave a comment telling us if you do anything special for Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany.
Thanks!
A guest post by our 13 yo daughter, Gratia:
As I was reading Proverbs Chapter 13, a verse I read struck me.The verse “One man pretends to be rich, yet has nothing;another pretends to be poor, yet has great wealth.” I realized that it was a lot like in the gospel, where the Pharisees and the Sadducees pretend to be so righteous, yet are really quite bad, and only are appearing to be righteous, and Jesus is on earth as a poor common man, yet is really the King of the whole world.
May all of my children grow with a yearning for Jesus.
This past Saturday Peter and I went to a meeting for those who feel they may be called to the permanent Diaconate. I would not really call it a time of discernmnet, but rather the beginnings of the process of prayer and discernment. It was held at a small church, and while it was for men, Peter felt I should be there with him. So, we hired a babysitter and went on our way.
We showed up and I estimate there were about 40 men there. Forty! There were a handful of wives, and a few children. Oh, the soothing sounds to the soul to hear 40 men praying and singing. I just listened as we prayed the mass and sang the hymns of Adoration. Have you ever heard anything like this? Men wanting to pray and sing to God.If so, then you know how wonderfully uplifting it is to listen to so many men singing together. To hear a group of men who wanted to sing and pray was so edifying. Why? Because it gives me hope for the church that we will have men to lead and guide. I know God will always see to the needs of His church. And I am certainly not denying the important roles women can perform in the church, but I firmly believe men need to lead the church.
Peter and I and our children happened to be in Paris on Ash Wednesday one year. We stumbled upon a working monastery/convent in the middle of Paris. At least I am assuming that is what it was. When we entered through the back stone doors we were greeted with the melodic sounds of the monks and nuns singing antiphonally. Gorgeous! Divine! Sweet to the soul. And this past Saturday I had a small taste of it again. Yes, it at times seems as though we are short on priests and on men who want to lead the church. But there is hope for the church!
Tags: The Church
Sitting around the table late this morning at lunch we discussed (Veritas called it a lecture) the question, “In the parable of the Good Samaritan, which person represents Jesus?” You can read the parable in Luke 10:25-37.
I see Jesus in the man going down from Jerusalem to Jericho. Think about the similarities. Jerusalem represents Heaven; it is ‘the city of the great King.’ (Ps 48.2) Jericho was the first city conquered by Israel when they began to occupy the land after 40 years in the desert. The journey from Jerusalem to Jericho is like Jesus’ coming down from Heaven to Earth; the beginning of His reign. And do you remember the Captain of the Lord’s host who appeared to Joshua outside Jericho and said to him, ‘Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.’ (Joshua 5.15) Who is this ‘certain man ‘going down from Jerusalem to Jericho? On the way to Jericho, the man falls among robbers who strip him, beat him, and leave him half dead. What happened to Jesus? He fell among ‘robbers,’ was stripped, beaten, and left half dead: Jesus, in His humanity was dead, but what of His divinity? Is Jesus, in this parable, indicating that He does possess two natures: human and divine? (That is a digression and we did not actually talk about the two natures over lunch.)
I see Jesus in the suffering man by the side of the road; the man who is not merely passed by, but avoided by the priest and the Levite. The priests and the Levites, the Pharisees, the Lawyers, and the Sadducees actively rejected Jesus and conspired together to have Him put to death; they did not merely pass Him by, or ignore Him: they plotted together to kill Him. The man who has been robbed, stripped, beaten, left for dead, passed by and rejected also calls to my mind the Suffering Servant of the Isaiah Servant Songs.
I see Jesus in the Samaritan. He comes upon the man left half dead, feels compassion for him, comes to him, tends his wounds, puts him on his own donkey and takes him to an inn and takes care of him. Then, when he must go he leaves the man in the care of the innkeeper, provides for his care, and promises to repay anything more the innkeeper might spend caring for him. It is not difficult to see Jesus here. He knows us in our brokenness and rejection. He feels compassion for us, comes to us - we are incapable of coming to Him - when ignore us and reject us. He tends our wounds, carries us to a safe place and provides for our care. Is the inn a type of the Church? Who is the innkeeper; I wonder if his name was Peter?
I see Jesus in the Samaritan. He is the one who shows mercy. He is like the Father, of whom Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount: ‘… causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.’ (Matthew 5:45) Jesus, God the Son, is the neighbor par excellence. If we want to know what it means to be neighborly, we should look to and listen to Jesus.
rhymes with noise. Have you noticed? I am sure this is not merely a coincidence.
Boys make noise.
Boys exude noise.
Boys are noise.
I have been thinking about our co-op’s spring term and if I would like to do a book club. I really, really enjoy reading and love to talk about books. As I have been thinking about books, I decided to check out Veritas Press books to see if one of those was one I would want to read with a bunch of kids. As I was browsing through their omnibus selection, I saw that they have “scheduled” for eigth graders to read the Divine Comedy: Inferno, Purgatory, and Paradise. This astonished me! I just read the Divine Comedy a little over a year ago. And to be honest, at least with the translation I read, I would be hesitant to let our 13 yo read it. I mentioned this to Peter and he commented that he thinks our standards are too low. We do not expect enough from our children — at least academically.
So, I have been thinking about this a lot today — especially as I (yes, already) start to think about next year when Gratia will be in 9th grade! When, how did this happen?! I have been thinking about the next 4 years and what I want her to accomplish before she leaves home.
Are we expecting too little? What is too little? Too much? Just the right amount? I read The Well Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer and Jesse Wise when we first started homeschooling and the reality is that I just cannot get all of that done in one day with this many children. Hey, I can’t get it all done with just one child! But I do want my children to be well educated. Ahhhh…. there is the question: what does well educated mean? I suppose we each have different answers. Does it include learning Latin? Does it include being able to do Geometry? Trigonometry? Calculus? I think it really does depend on the child and the parents what the education will ultimately include. I want her to be able to defend her faith, to reason well, to be able to learn new subjects all of her life. I will stick with my goal: “But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” 1 Timothy 1:5
A couple of weeks ago our homeschool group had a historical dress ball. My 13 yo daughter had been talking about it for just about 6 months — and only for that short of a time because I told her she could not talk about it until then. A good friend of mine made her dress for her (I am a hopeless seamstress — give me two needles and some yarn anytime!): a regency dress. The pattern she used was from the Sense and Sensibility Pattern line. I am going to try to get a picture up of the dress — it really is quite beautiful with clean lines. We went over to her house just about every Tuesday and my friend would work on the dress and we would visit and it was wonderful. Kim, my friend, seemed to work with the pattern well and as much as I could tell it seemed fairly straight forward — which measurements to take, which size pattern to use, how to adjust, etc.
Now some of the patterns have been made available electronically. These Sense and Sensibility epatterns, from what I can understand, are like the originals and have many advantages. Some of these include instant download — for people like me who want it NOW! And the ability to save and reprint (I am sure you never lose anything and won’t ever need to reprint things). However, I could certainly benefit from that feature. Someday, after I figure out to add pics to the blog, I will post a picture of my desk. Anyway, I think these patterns look great. The dresses are beautiful and the patterns are straightforward. Watching my friend and looking at the pattern, I feel ready to try my own hand at sewing one.
Today is the anniversary of mine, Gratia’s and Spes’ baptisms. We treat this as a feast day, along the lines of birthdays (though the only present they get is to be able to take a bath). When we had Gratia and Spes baptised we did not know that it was the same day as my baptism anniversary.
On these baptismal anniversaries, we renew our baptismal vows. And so I post here what we will read through later:
P. Do you renounce Satan?
Answer: We do.
P. And all his works?
Answer: We do.
P. And all his pomps?
A. We do.
P. Do you believe that there is only one God, the Creator, Preserver and Ruler of all things and the Father of all men?
A: We do.
P. Do you believe that this our God and Father is a just judge, Who rewards the good and punishes the wicked?
A. We do.
P. Do you believe that in one God there are three Divine Persons - God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost?
A. We do.
P. Do you believe that the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, Jesus Christ, was made man, was conceived of the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried, descended into hell, and on the third day rose aain from the dead, ascended into heaven, sitteth at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty, and from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead?
A. We do.
P. Do you believe that the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity, God the Holy Ghost, enables us to live and accomplish what is right and just, and that without His grace no one can be saved?
A. We do.
P. Do you believe in and openly profess the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, the Communion of Saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting?
A. We do.
P. If you have firmly resolved to live in accordance with the holy doctrine of Christ, ever to remain faithful to His Church, to avoid sin, to love God with your whole heart, and your neighbor as yourself, declare now this your will, and promise in the presence of the All-seeing God and before your family.
A. This we have firmly resolved and do now solemnly promise.
Of course, we do not have a priest present, so I will read that part.
Do you celebrate baptismal anniversaries in any special way? This was the day our child joined the faith! How exciting is that?! We celebrate not only the physical birth, but also the spiritual birth of our child. The renewal of the vows for me are a way to remind myself of my task as a mother: not only to teach my children in the love of our Lord, but also to live my own life for Him.
Tomorrow is voting day. This is the first election I have been excited about in a long time. And sort of dreading. I must admitt that I am pessimistic: I think Senator Obama will win. I pray not. My son, Spes, is 10. We were driving along one day and he noted the drop in gas prices and for some reason connected the lowering prices with the democrats. He suggested we should vote for them so the prices would continue to fall. I asked him which is more important: lower gas prices or the lives of unborn babies? He, thankfully, noted that babies are and said we should vote republican. I wonder if people think about it this way: how much money would you pay to save the life of a baby? Surely you would pay at least $1, and much more than that. I assume most people would do the same. The price of a life is, of course, impossible to name. We would each give whatever we could to save the life of a baby (and anyone, but we are talking about abortion here). Why is it then that many will vote in regards to monetary issues instead of in regards to moral, life-saving issues? Even Catholics!! This astounds me. But, I digress….
Before I go on about Governor Palin, I would like to apologize for the error in my previous post about Governor Palin being the first woman chosen. I know that Geraldine Ferraro was the first woman chosen as a running mate — I remember the election since I am from Minnesota and so was Mondale. MN and DC were the only electoral votes they received. Anyway, in my previous post I had sort of just set that fact aside and I was thinking about this election and the fact that Senator Clinton was not named but Governor Palin was.
I noted from the time of her being named as the VP candidate for the republican party how controversial she is. The media assaulted her repeatedly and pretty much left Senator Biden alone. I began to wonder why. And here is what I think: I think she is threatening to the democrats. She is a committed Republican woman who is intelligent and adamantly pro life and seems to be able to do it all. I think democrats and the media are threatened by a strong woman who can be intelligent and be pro life. I think they don’t want other people to realize that being pro life is a beautiful thing, and that all babies are beautiful, and that we can make hard choices and still be successful.
While listening to a lecture by Dr. Peter Kreef entitled “How to Win the Culture War” (available here), I was struck by the following statement:
… what’s at stake in this war: not just whether America will become another banana republic, or whether we’ll forget Shakespeare, or even whether some nuclear terrorist will incinerate half of humanity, but rather whether our children, and our children’s children will see God forever. That’s what’s at stake in Hollywood v. America.
Isn’t that what’s at stake in our parenting, as well? Not whether our children will become successful professionally, fiscally, physically, but rather whether they and their children will become saints.
Will our children desire to see God; to become saints?
Do we?