Divine Fire

Come, Holy Spirit!







Today is the great feast of Pentecost, the day on which we celebrate the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles. It's the birthday of the Church -- a day fit for celebration!

For great ideas, see:
Women for Faith and Family
Catholic Culture
Catholic Cuisine

Tomorrow, we'll be back to Ordinary Time, which, in one sense, means we are simply ordering, or counting the days until the next great liturgical season. The Easter decorations will all come down, and life once again will be "ordinary." And yet, I find nothing about day-to-day existence in this world to be ordinary, if by that one means dull and pedestrian. "Ordinary Time" is full of ideas, things and people to celebrate, discover, and learn about.

And, speaking of learning -- how's your relationship with the Holy Spirit? Several years ago, I was at a point in my Catholic journey at which I felt that I "got it" regarding God the Father. And Jesus, the Son? I got it. But, the Holy Spirit? Wait, back up on that one ... He didn't make a lot of sense to me. A priest advised me to pray for the Holy Spirit to more fully reveal His work and power in my life, to make me more aware of my relationship with Him, to help me to "get it."

I don't want to bore you with details, but I will say this: when I prayed for a deeper understanding of and relationship with the Holy Spirit, I wasn't quite sure what I was getting myself into.

Be careful what you ask for ... He always means business.

Come Holy Spirit, and fill the hearts of your faithful, and kindle in them the fire of Your Divine Love. Send forth Your Spirit and they shall be created, and You shall renew the face of the earth. Oh God, Who by the light of the Holy Spirit instructed the hearts of the faithful, Grant, that by the same Spirit we may be truly wise and ever rejoice in His consolation. We ask this through Christ Our Lord. Amen.

Painting: Giotto's Pentecost, c. 1305

Quote for a Friday

To be a Catholic and not to grasp what it is to be a Catholic -- that is a matter for pity, one misses so much. But to grasp it can be frightening, too, for we have not only the supernatural life given us by Christ; we have also a natural life of our own, and in harmonizing nature and grace few of us can show any spectacular success. Yet with all our mediocrity there is greatness for us; there is no other dignity given to men which can approach this, and it is given to every one of us in baptism.

~~ Frank Sheed, Theology for Beginners

I am working on a writing project which requires a bit of research, and I keep finding gems. I must stop to share them. No ... I must get back to work.

Must. Share.

Must. Stop. Sharing. Get to work.

Must close browser. Now.

(By the way, I have friends who recommended Theology for Beginnersyears ago, but this is my first reading of it. Wonderful stuff. Must read. Closing browser now ... really.)

On the radio next Tuesday

I'll be joining Greg and Jennifer Willits on The Catholics Next Door (The Catholic Channel/Sirius Satellite Radio) next Tuesday, June 2nd, at 10:20 a.m., central time.

Poetry Friday: Workshop

I pondered a post that would be penetrating and insightful, something about life and loss and what it means to live in a fallen world.

But, I'm just not up for that today.

I had a stressful week -- an interior kind of stress, nothing to worry about, really, just an off week, draining in its way. So, today, I want to blow away the cobwebs, open a window to spring weather, feel the sun on my face, and revel in Billy Collinsian goodness.

And, in a way, I am posting about what it means to live in a fallen world, because this poem is about workshops, and we all know that the wrong kind of workshop can be, ahem, its own kind of purgatory.

Workshop

by Billy Collins (a man I love to an embarrassing degree)

... Maybe it’s just me,

but the next stanza is where I start to have a problem.

I mean how can the evening bump into the stars?

And what’s an obbligato of snow?

Also, I roam the decaffeinated streets.

At that point I’m lost. I need help.

The other thing that throws me off,

and maybe this is just me,

is the way the scene keeps shifting around.

First, we’re in this big aerodrome

and the speaker is inspecting a row of dirigibles,

which makes me think this could be a dream.

Then he takes us into his garden,

the part with the dahlias and the coiling hose,

though that’s nice, the coiling hose,

but then I’m not sure where we’re supposed to be.

Read the whole poem here, at the Poetry Foundation.

The Poetry Friday round-up is at Live. Love. Explore!

A Quote for Every Housewife I Know

(and for everyone who knows a housewife):


"You are no ordinary housewife, Signora Benedetti."

She looked at him.

"Professore Schafer, I am of the opinion that when one gets to know a housewife, any housewife, one finds that she is never ordinary."

~~ from Father Elijah, by Michael O'Brien

Quote for a Thursday

"Does this not show that the Spirit changes those in whom he comes to dwell and alters the whole pattern of their lives? With the Spirit within them, it is quite natural for people who had been absorbed by the things of this world to become entirely other-worldly in outlook and for cowards to become men of great courage."

~~ from a commentary on the gospel of John, by St. Cyril of Alexandria

Complaining Tweeting

This morning, I tweeted (Tweeted? Or twittered? Or twet?) these words:

Sadness. Coffeepot sits in silence. Time to shop.

Atticus said, "That's not a haiku, y'know."

"I know it's not a haiku," I snapped (with just perhaps a hint of caffeine deprivation showing.) "It's, ummm, only meant to have the slightest sound of haiku about it."

"It has," inserted Anne-with-an-e, "the sound of obsession."

The Bookworm Weighs In

with her review today of The Rosary book.

(And if I ever make it across the pond, I assure you that the cup of coffee we share will not be a metaphorical one.)

Thank you so much, Bookworm!

Say Hello to the Minnesota Baby!

You know her.

You love her.

Now you love her newest baby. Could this little guy be more gorgeous?

You know, Minnesota Margaret and I share something in common (besides the passion for coffee. And being short.)

We've both experienced the heartache of multiple miscarriages.

We've both been through periods of thinking that God's plan for us included closing the door on, "More children ... please, Lord?"

But now, we get to share something else in common. Something deliciously, miraculously wonderful.

A new baby at 42 (and I'm allowed to tell you her age because she already did that here, so stop thinking that I'm being brassy or tactless.)

I had a new baby at age 42 as well. And so, I'm thinking ... Ramona's newest friend should probably be called Howie Kemp.

Whaddaya think, Margaret?

I can't wait to get these kids together to play Brick Factory.

A Sweetness and Light review

Meredith, at Sweetness and Light shares her reactions to The Rosary: Keeping Company with Jesus and Mary.

Thanks so much for a beautiful review, Meredith!

A Rosary Review

The lovely Sarah at Just Another Day of Catholic Pondering has a lovely review of The Rosary: Keeping Company with Jesus and Mary. I want to run over to her house for that cup of coffee she mentioned.

Thank you, Sarah!

You Can't Always Get What You Want

Ramona, upon being tucked into bed, and with a heavy sigh:

"Oh, how I long to get up and play."

How Motherhood Changes You

There was a time in my life when seeing the words, "Make an Armadillo from a Milk Carton" would not have made me click.

Not even out of curiosity.

I don't plan to make that armadillo, mind you, but as a mom, I have to admit that the portion of the brain that processes craft tolerance has expanded and has overlapped with the portion that handles curiosity and clicking.

There's some relationship as well to the vocabulary portion of the brain, and there seems to be an entire cerebral center for the word cute.

I don't know how God mapped all this, but it's quite amazing.

Poetry Friday: In Which Barbara Crooker Pens My Ordinary Life

Barbara Crooker writes about the ordinary, the lovely, the amazing, the sublime. In Ordinary Life, she chronicles an extraordinarily ordinary, iridescent day.

My life, too, often feels ordinary and iridescent. It is an "unexpected gift," and I welcome the quiet, for the pearls of a dull, ordinary life are the result of chafing and pain that has been covered over, healed and transformed with beauty.

Last night, one of my daughters asked me to preview a book from the library. The book (which a review site chirped was geared to ages 12 and up) opened with a graphic and ugly scene in which a young girl is allowing herself to be used in the oldest way. The book is "gritty and real" they say. But, my ordinary days are real, too. They happen. They bring joy. The baby, the roasting chicken, the slow, stolen kiss ... these, too, are real. Graphic and ugly things happen in the world; I've been in the thick of them. I know they are real.

But, I have lived gritty and real, and I have lived ordinary. I will take ordinary. Every, single time. I'll take the kind of gritty and real that includes peeling carrots, cleaning up for the seventeenth time after a child you love so much it hurts, and adoring the moment when you see the father of your children walk through the door.

from Ordinary Life

by Barbara Crooker

I peel carrots and potatoes without paring my thumb.
We listen together for your wheels on the drive.
Grace before bread.
And at the table, actual conversation,
no bickering or pokes.
And then, the drift into homework.
The baby goes to his cars, drives them
along the sofa's ridges and hills.
Leaning by the counter, we steal a long slow kiss,
tasting of coffee and cream.
The chicken's diminished to skin & skeleton,
the moon to a comma, a sliver of white,
but this has been a day of grace
in the dead of winter,
the hard cold knuckle of the year,

Read the whole poem here.

The Poetry Friday round up this week is at Susan Writes.

Of Godmothers and Confirmations

When Anne-with-an-e was confirmed last month, her godmother, Holly, put together a beautiful prayer package. I know it's too late to use the idea this year, but some of you might want to file it away for your own children or godchildren down the road.

A box arrived here about ten days before Confirmation -- the enclosed card explained that Aunt Holly and her family (godfather Jack was also Anne's sponsor) would pray a novena to the Holy Spirit in the days leading up to Anne's Confirmation. The box held nine small presents, one for each day of the novena, as little reminders that Anne was enveloped in prayer. Attached to each gift was a prayer or a Scripture passage. Sweet little treats, holy cards, trinkets, favorite candies and fun gifts -- something was opened each day, and on the last day, Anne's final gift.

Such lovely reminders -- of the approaching day, the sacrament, the power of the love of God, and the beauty of the love of His people for each other.

Holly would deflect this praise, and would want you to know that she didn't come up with the idea (though I will stress to you what a beautiful job she did in carrying it out.) The idea came from "Aunt" Jean, who is not an aunt to Holly's children or mine, but is as beloved as any aunt could be, and is one of the most beautiful people I know.

Thanks, Jean and Holly, for such lovely ideas, which help to make the abstract and invisible concrete, real and near to our earthly-anchored eyes and hearts.

Recent Reads

Angels of God: The Bible, the Church and the Heavenly Hosts by Mike Aquilina is a beautiful book about -- you guessed it -- angels.

Mike's work is always edifying -- I invariably learn something from his wealth of knowledge, and am always entertained by his humor and humble style. I loved this book, and needed its timely reminder to call on my guardian angel every, single day.

For more information on the book, and reactions to it, see this post at The Way of the Fathers.


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Pauline Books sent a review copy of a lovely new picture book for preschoolers, Beginnings, by Lori Ann Watson.

Ramona's no longer a preschooler, but she was charmed. And no one is ever too old for the message that "babies are important."

Find out more about it here, at the Pauline Books and Media blog.



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School's Out for Summer

We're done!

We're not one of those families that schools year-round. Or, maybe we are, since we're sometimes in unschooling mode.

I'm of two minds, remember?

What I do know is this: the part of the year that I plan and enforce (and which usually includes mathish stuff) is over. We're ready for a break from school year routines, ready to relax into the stuff of summer. So far, it's looking as if our lazy-hazy-crazy days will include:

Vacation Bible School (with two daughters volunteering, and one participating)
Softball
Swimming
Horseback riding
Just hanging out
Lots of good books, both read-alouds and individual reading
Plenty of ice cream
4-H and the county fair
Running through sprinklers (that's usually Ramona, not me, but you never know)
Having friends over for dinner
Gardening (Atticus)
Running (Atticus)
Going to see Wicked (not Atticus)
Catching up on all the things I neglect during the school year, such as housework. I will tackle my mudroom, which has turned into a catch-all for every kind of pile one can imagine.

Atticus was to report for jury duty today (his week off between regular school and summer school teaching) but God kindly provided, and the case was already settled, so he didn't have to go. Anne-with-an-e noted, "It's a little ironic that Atticus had to report for jury duty, isn't it?"

So, we are all officially on vacation this week.

As long as I don't look at the mudroom.

Jennifer Makes Me Cry

(Disclaimer: To the cynics who are currently thinking, "Everything makes you cry, Karen," you can just stop that right now. I haven't cried at a Kodak commercial for years.)

Jennifer, at As Cozy as Spring, so often makes me laugh. I adore her sense of humor, and if I need to feel simply happy, I pop over and take a look at some lovely thing she has created, such as this, or this or this. She makes me actually want to sew, but then sewing usually makes me cry at some point, which brings me back to the tears of this post.

This review of The Rosary: Keeping Company with Jesus and Mary is beyond sweet and touching, for reasons that have nothing to do with my book.

Click on that link to take a look at Jennifer's dad, and at the gorgeous Rosary that he made for his granddaughter's First Holy Communion.

Beautiful.

Thanks, Jenn, and thanks, Jenn's dad, for the beauty you bring to the world.

Predict a baby, win a book

When Minnesota Margaret asked me if she could offer a copy of my Rosary book as the prize in her Blog Lottery for Baby Z, of course I said yes. What else could one say to this Mama Bear?

So drop by Minnesota Mom's place, and make your predictions.

Enter your guesses at Margaret's blog, in the comment box here. What do you think Margaret will have, and when? Include your guesses for gender, weight, time, and date.

Her due date is May 31st, but as a fellow short woman (who remembers what it's like to be 5' 2" and a kajillion months pregnant) let's hope it's sooner rather than later!

My children keep it all in perspective

Last week, my children were dying for the arrival of their copies of The Last Olympian,the latest and last Percy Jackson book, by Rick Riordan.

They eagerly awaited the mail, only to be flatly disappointed several days in a row. They spotted the UPS truck at fifty paces, but deflated when Mr. Brown did not stop at our house.

Finally, one day last week, there was a knock at the door. Mr. Brown had already dropped the package and was jogging back to his truck (I always call them -- all of them -- "the shy UPS guy" as they seem set upon never encountering an actual face.) I took the box inside.

I saw the return address -- Servant Books -- and knew that my author copies of the Rosary book had arrived. As I was opening it, a daughter happened into the room:

"A box! Is it Percy?"

"No," I replied, "it's my book! Look, my copies of the book! What do you think?"

"It's not Percy," my daughter yelled over her shoulder, reporting her disappointment to her fellow demi-god fan. "It's just Mom's book."

Heaving a pitiful sigh, my daughter slumped away.

Really, now.

Percy, that little upstart, is merely a demi-god. Whereas my book is about a whole, entire God. You know, the real one. Which would you get more excited about?

If you're under the age of 16, don't answer that.

Atticus suggests

that we subscribe to this.

I think it rather nicely captures my denial.

Dear Paperboy,

I am writing to confess that I have not always fully appreciated you.

For every time I called the newspaper office to complain, every time I muttered under my breath, "You couldn't have a little better aim than that?" and for every look of disgust as I shook a bit of snow or a couple of raindrops off my paper, I am sorry.

For all these transgressions and more, dear Paperboy, I am deeply contrite. After helping my daughters substitute on their friends' paper routes this week, I am duly chastened. I am a new woman. I will never again care where the paper lands.

With the utmost respect, and a bigger tip next time,

Karen

Of saints, babies and anniversaries

Ten years ago today, I was in the hospital, having a miscarriage.

We named the baby James Matthias, after St. Matthias, whose feast day is today.

I began to pray that James would intercede for his father's faith and conversion.

Three months later, Atticus took his first tentative steps toward Catholicism.

Thank you, baby James.

Thank you, God, for the gift of intercessory prayer.

And thank you, God, and Atticus, for our many beautiful children, even if we can only see and hug and hold three of them. I know that one fine day we will all be together.

In the meantime, to my big family in heaven: pray for us!

Ramona Shares the Ugly Truth

Last night, just as I was tucking her into bed, Ramona asked:

"Mommy, do you want to hear about all the things that have happened to my knee so far this year?"

Of course I did.

But I'll spare you the painful details.

Mary Moments

Behold Your Mother will be hosting "Mary Moments" on May 25th. Sarah says:

Mary Moments are where we share our Mary-inspired thoughts, reflections, tips, and everything related to our Blessed Mother. We'll focus on parenthood this time around, which doesn't mean you have to be a parent to participate. :) We all have an experience with parenthood, with someone who inspired us and helped us forward.

Details are here.

Sarah also points out that Barbara, at Praying for Grace, is offering a Marian post for every day of May. Go here to take a look at beautiful posts, prayers and quotes paired with gorgeous Marian art.

More Catch-up

Aid to the Church in Need is:

"an international Catholic charity under the guidance of the Holy Father, whose mission is to help suffering and persecuted faithful worldwide. An example of one of our projects is to build a parish center in Vietnam."

Visit their website to find out more about how to help.

I've been meaning to pass this on

If you'd like to help the Couple to Couple League, you can shop through the i-Give site; percentages of sales are donated to CCL.

See details here. And, one of their partners is The Teaching Company!

Soul, Soldiers, T-shirts and Totus Tuus

This made me smile and laugh. In the best possible way.

I can't get the video to fit here, so you can see it on YouTube, here. It's called May Feelings II.

H/T to Burning the Candle at Both Ends and to Amy, from the Omaha Catholic HS group.

Magical Moments from Mother's Day

• Breakfast in bed, served to me by the four people I love most in the world. With coffee, because Atticus was overseeing the preparations. My poor mother always used to get a big glass of milk from us, poor woman. I love milk, but I need my morning coffee.

• Some chocolate on the breakfast tray. Symphony bar and Peanut Butter M & Ms.

• After Mass, running into my obstetrician. He's taken care of me through all my miscarriages, and he delivered all my babies. He's a fully pro-life, Catholic doctor, and to have him wish me a happy Mother's Day, when I know he remembers a time when I despaired over ever becoming a mother, was deeply lovely.

• Re-reading one of my favorite books.

• A nap. A really good one.

• The dinner Atticus made. Grilled chicken breast, sliced avocado, his special pinto bean recipe, and chocolate cake for dessert. Ramona was amazed that I slept through the sound of the mixer. I was not amazed.
  

• A glass of white wine.

• A tea party, courtesy of Ramona. She dressed up, right down to the pink butterfly clip in her hair, set the table, poured the tea, and a lovely time was had by all.

I'm not a cat, but I sometimes play one in my dreams, and my day felt something like this:

Ramona, on her vocation

This morning, Ramona was being a bit -- shall we call it "difficult"? -- about what to wear to Mass.

I mentioned to her that I might have to pull a couple of privileges if she continued being "difficult." She wanted to know which privilege would go, and off the top of my head, I said, "Play time."

"But, Mommy!" she protested, horrified. "It's my job to play!"

Mike Aquilina on the Rosary book

Speaking of feeling honored, Mike Aquilina says in this post at The Way of the Fathers that he was honored to write the foreword for my book.

But, I have to say that I am the one who felt honored to have such a lovely and touching foreword written especially for this little book on the Rosary.

Mike shares such great memories about his own mother and the part the Rosary has played in her life (and by extension, his) and I'm very grateful to him.

Thank you, Mike!

The Snoring Scholar Weighs in on my Rosary book

Sarah, at Just Another Day of Catholic Pondering, has posted her reaction to The Rosary: Keeping Company with Jesus and Mary.

Sarah promises a full review is on the way, but I couldn't be more honored than she has already made me feel.

Thank you, Sarah!

Alice Gunther Reviews The Rosary: Keeping Company with Jesus and Mary

Alice Gunther, from Cottage Blessings, has posted the most lovely and touching review of my new book on the Rosary. I feel both honored and humbled by the care she took in sharing her impressions and reactions.

And, in true Alice fashion, she has visually presented the book and the post in a way that is far lovelier than anything of which I could have conceived.

Thank you, Alice!

Poetry Friday: Anne Porter

Atticus beat me to the Writer's Almanac the other day, and sent me a link to a heart-stopping poem by a poet named Anne Porter.



With perfect pitch, Porter describes what it is about music that reaches and wrenches us:


Music

by Anne Porter

When I was a child
I once sat sobbing on the floor
Beside my mother's piano
As she played and sang
For there was in her singing
A shy yet solemn glory
My smallness could not hold ....

(The entire poem is here.)

Anne Porter may be new to us (and how did I miss her all these years?) but she's not a new soul.

As noted in this article at Janice Harayda's One Minute Book Reviews she was 83 years old when her first collection of poetry was published in 1994, and it became a National Book Award finalist. Ms. Harayda writes:

She is a Catholic poet in the same way that Flannery O’Connor was a Catholic novelist: She describes a world that is, as O’Connor put it, founded on “the theological truths of the Faith, but particularly on three of them which are basic – the Fall, the Redemption, and the Judgment.” But she transcends the label “Catholic writer.” As the poet David Shapiro has said, Porter transmits “her Franciscan joy in created things” and “reminds us that the idea of the holy is still possible for us.” At the same time, her poems spring from everyday life, particularly her role as the mother of five children by her late husband, the artist Fairfield Porter.

Go read the whole post at One Minute Book Reviews -- full of interesting stuff. And here's a fun link to a collection of photographs and letters from the Porter family, including this photo of Anne and Fairfield Porter on their wedding day.

Here's one more article, at the Poetry Foundation, that mentions Porter. Scroll down to #4 on Donald Revell's list of poems that should be required reading.

And here's her poem, An Altogether Different Language, also at the Poetry Foundation.

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The Poetry Friday round-up today is being hosted by Anastasia Suen at Picture Book of the Day.

My book is shipping!

If you pre-ordered a copy of The Rosary: Keeping Company with Jesus and Mary it looks as if it will arrive soon!

Do let me know what you think, won't you?

Quote for a Tuesday

"Give me the bread of seeing You in all things and at all times."

~~ St. Bernadette Soubirous

All Quiet on the Blog Front

Because sometimes I'm just paralyzed.

And sometimes I'm tired (that nap thing in the blog description is still in force.)

And sometimes I have too many things to write about, so I dither rather than write.

Lots of things on my mind:

• The youth choir musical is over. Whew! But would love to write more about it.

• Need to pursue 4-H projects with the kids. Would love to write more about it.

• Fun reading: Malcolm Gladwell. Love him. Would love to write more about it.

• Fun and Angelic reading: by Mike Aquilina. Read it yesterday. Would love to write more about it.

• Stranger Than Fiction -- sigh. Really, really nice. Would love to write more about it.

• Mother's Day is coming up. Would love, not to write about it, but to do something about it. For my mom. Need. To. Shop.

• A writing project I'm working on. Would love to write about it, but instead, I should write.

And then there's Algebra. Perhaps, on that subject, my daughters would like me to write about, "When in real life are we ever going to use this?"

Perhaps I can apply this to our writing:

"Blogger X has not posted since Friday, but that's beside the point. If Blogger X posts on Monday, and Blogger Y doesn't plan to post until next Saturday, how much will each blogger have to write before their posts to meet on Wednesday, and how many characters over their Twitter allowance will they go?"

Ramona on the saints

She said:

"So, this bi-location thing ... is it sort of like teleporting?"

Poetry Friday: Leisure

I shared this poem a couple of year ago, and was reminded of it yesterday at The Writer's Almanac.

It's a lovely poem for this time of year, when the weather is finally beginning to warm, the lilacs will soon be blooming, and I am looking forward to the slower pace of summer, tantalizingly in view.

Leisure

by William Henry Davies.

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this is if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.


Poetry Friday is hosted this week at Allegro.