Poetry Friday: There is No Frigate Like a Book

There is no Frigate like a Book
To take us Lands away

Emily Dickinson knew what she was talking about.

For Lent, I'm reading In This House of Brede (for the first time! Where has this book been all my life? Languishing on my TBR pile, that's where, and I should be ashamed of myself for taking so long to get to it.) Clearly, however, it's not a penance. Beautiful book.

How frugal is the Chariot
That bears the Human Soul

Yes, Emily, and yes, Rumer Godden.

~~~~~

For more about books, process, and poetry, visit Elizabeth Steinglass, who has the roundup today. 

Five Reasons Lent is Hard on INFJs

ImageChef.com

Earlier this month, my friend Tamara pointed me to Britt Echtenkamp's "What You Should Give Up for Lent, Based on Your Personality Type." It was a fun post, with a quick rundown of the various personality types, a la Myers-Briggs, and related suggestions for Lenten sacrifices.

Anyone who knows me knows I love this kind of stuff. I like taking personality tests, love Art and Laraine Bennett's book, The Temperament God Gave You, and enjoy puzzling out who's what, why we interact the way we do, and how to improve communication and understanding.

No matter which personality test I take (here's a relatively quick one), I always end up as an INFJ, or in temperament tests, Melancholic/Phlegmatic.

Here's a rundown on INFJs. No wonder I always feel weird -- we're 1% of the population.

The above-linked test calls an INFJ "The Advocate." Our life strategy (how we approach situations and achieve goals) is "constant improvement."

Constant improvement.

Maybe you can see where this is going.

INFJs are idealistic. If our approach to life is "constant improvement" it's not surprising we're busy all year. We're constantly analyzing our lives and figuring out what we can and should do differently. We can wear ourselves out with our probing, analyses, plans, and projects. Some years, by the time Lent rolls around, I'm just tired of working on myself. I've been doing it for months, and I'm ready for a break from my idealism.

Yes, Mother Church is a wise, holy, smart mother. She designates certain times of the year to help me with the ebb of flow of all things -- fasting and feasting, prayer, almsgiving, seasons of life. The liturgical year is a little bit of mad genius, the ideal structure for a human life, and I love it.

But INFJs, whose idealism can be a weakness rather than a strength, are occasionally out of sync with mom. When you've been tackling the idealism thing 24/7, chances are that Lent sometimes hits at a terrific time when you're on a roll ("Improving! Looking forward to doing more! Bring it on!"), but other years? You're so sick of yourself you want to scream.

That said, here are the Top Five Reasons Lent is Hard for INFJs:

5. You have lofty ideals about minimalist living. You've spent the last twelve months decluttering and simplifying your life. There's not enough stuff left in your tiny house to dispose of in steadily-moving-bags over forty days. But instead of being pleased by the progress you've made, you feel like a loser because you can't join in the wonderful, idealistic thing everyone else is doing.

4. INFJs tend to zero in on injustice and inequity in the world. Since you worry every day about how many people are starving around the globe, you've worked hard on eating more simply, on sharing with your family what you've learned about planet-friendly foods and methods of growing them. You've exhaustively researched where to buy certain foods,  and you often eat simple meals in solidarity with the poor around the world. But instead of feeling pleased by the progress you've made, you feel like a loser because you're still, by the standards of most of the world, a rich American, and therefore, some kind of fake.

3. This has nothing to do with being an INFJ, but you already do meatless Fridays all year. "Giving up" meat every Friday in Lent is not a challenge, it's a habit. But (here comes the INFJ part) instead of being thankful for the grace to make that small sacrifice year-round and offer it as a little prayer every week, you feel like a loser because "the Friday thing in Lent" is too easy. Therefore, you are a fake. You feel a desperate need to come up with several torturous things to do on Fridays in Lent. And on lots of other days in Lent, too.

2. You have so many faults. This, of course, is why you are in need of constant improvement, and why you're constantly conducting an assessment of your spiritual life. Lent, you tell yourself, is the perfect time to get even tougher on yourself. Therefore, for Lent, you should give up every single pleasure you've ever known so that you may emerge at the end of these forty days a saint. Right? Except you know that you're going to fall down, and you really don't want to give up coffee this year (because your family begged you to never do that again.) Obviously you are a slothful loser who is destined to spend gobs of time purgatory.

1. INFJs are sensitive and are highly concerned with how everyone else is feeling during Lent. You will be quick to tell others that they should pray about what's right for them this Lent, that the Lord will guide them in their fasting, prayer, and almsgiving, that what's right for one person this year isn't necessarily right for another. You will pat yourself on the back for giving such sound, sensitive, spiritually uplifting advice to your friends. Then you will wonder if it was the right advice. Was it too lenient? Too rigid? Have you damaged the soul of your best friend? Clearly, you are a loser who will never live up to her own hypocritical ideals.

~~~~~

Every personality type has strengths and weaknesses. This Lent, just acknowledge them. Stand up in front of God (and maybe more importantly, in front of yourself), and say, "I'm a ridiculous mess, Lord. Help me." And He will. Every year, whether I'm primed for more "constant improvement" or sick to death of trying so hard, I know He'll take the reins and teach me something. And it will usually culminate in posting something like this (from last year) on Facebook:

Feeling so incredibly happy and humbled and blessed this morning. Beautiful Easter Vigil last night and, as always, I cried during the baptisms, receptions, and confirmations, remembering where Atticus and I came from, and where we are now. When the priest (to those being received into the Church) spoke the words, "His loving kindness has led you here," I almost lost it. I could hear the voice of the priest who received Atticus into the Church, saying the same words 15 years ago.

~~~~~ 

His loving kindness has led me here.

I've only recently realized that when people ask me, "What prompted you to go on this quest for Truth that landed you in the Catholic Church?" I should simply say, "I'm an INFJ. I guess I never stood a chance."

Poetry Friday: "A Quiet Life" by Baron Wormser

How could one not love a poem that opens this way: 

What a person desires in life

    is a properly boiled egg.

This isn’t as easy as it seems.

and contains these lines: 

Only God could have imagined from

    nothingness the pang of salt.

I dare you not to be won over by this poem. Thanks to The Writer's Almanac for introducing me to it. 

Read the entirety of "A Quiet Life," by Baron Wormser, here. 

~~~~~

Kimberley Moran is hosting Poetry Friday at Written Reflections.

Living Differently for Lent

Photo courtesy of Free Images 

Every year, it's the same thing: "What am I going to do for forty days?"

One year I wrote a letter to Lent.

Another year, I made a Top Ten List of things to consider giving up.

And I've shared my monstrously long post about Lenten ideas, activities to do with young children, etc., more times than I can count.

How about this year?

In addition to reliving that old letter and adopting some stuff from that Top Ten list, I'm introducing you to Living Differently.

It's a new website/project/collection/thing of beauty from Alicia Van Hecke, a fellow homeschooling mom and the genius behind Love 2 Learn: Favorite Resources for Catholic Homeschoolers.

Alicia and I are very much in sync in our approaches to sharing the faith. It's been fun to see her new site launch and unfold just as You Can Share the Faith is being published, because one would almost think we'd been working on these projects in tandem. (We haven't, but that's how sympatico we are.) We employ the same vocabulary (uncannily at times) as we talk about similar issues and approaches, about engaging the culture, about reaching out a person at a time, and about nurturing one's own faith and the faith life of the family.

Alicia sums it up this way, on the Intro page of Living Differently:

What I’d like to offer here is a kind of guide, especially for parents and their families, to cultivating ideas, attitudes, and spirituality in their own hearts and in those of their children, that will prepare them for this great task that we are all called to do – to go and make disciples of all nations.

We are so much on the same page that Alicia asked if she could give away a copy of You Can Share the Faith, and I told her I couldn't wait to help spread the word about Living Differently.

So that's what I'm doing at the end of this busy Ash Wednesday. I'm throwing out one more Lenten idea for you, just in case you haven't figured out what you want to do from that Top Ten list.

Here's the idea: Read and pray about one nugget per day from Living Differently. There's more than enough there for 40 days, and I think once you start digging in, you'll want to keep going well beyond Lent. You can start in the sidebar on the left, and work your way through the riches that Alicia is curating.

I'll leave you with my choice of reading for today, from the page, "Be Generous."

I wish you a fruitful forty days in the desert.

P.S. I almost forgot! It's been a long, busy Ash Wednesday. :) Here is the link to Alicia's giveaway of You Can Share the Faith. 

Poetry Friday: Go Read Lots of Poetry!

There's so much going on at The Miss Rumphius Effect that you don't even need me to post a poem today. Go check out original poetry and much, much more.   

The Shepherd Who Didn't Run: Fr. Stanley Rother, Martyr from Oklahoma

It's a genuine privilege to be part of Our Sunday Visitor's blog tour for a new book from my friend, María Ruiz Scaperlanda. Here she is:

Don't you want to sit down and have a cup of coffee with her?

 Here's a little more about her: 

In the past 30 years, María has been published broadly in the U.S., including the New York Times, Our Sunday Visitor, St. Anthony Messenger, Columbia, and other national and diocesan publications.

Maria’s work as a Catholic journalist has taken her on international assignments in Central America and the Caribbean, the Middle East, and throughout Europe. But perhaps her favorite assignment was covering Pope John Paul II’s historic visit to her native country, Cuba.

Her primary life-time assignment, however, has been as wife to Michael for 34 years, mother to four grown children—and now “Bella" to six adorable grandchildren!

In addition to her journalism, María has written a number of books. Her latest, The Shepherd Who Didn't Run: Fr. Stanley Rother, Martyr from Oklahoma, published by Our Sunday Visitor, tells the extraordinarily moving story of Fr. Stanley Rother, a missionary and martyr who died at the age of 46.

Cover courtesy of Our Sunday Visitor 

A brief summary of the book from OSV:

Fr. Stanley arrived in Guatemala in 1968, and immediately identified with his parishioners' simple, farming lifestyle. He learned their languages, prepared them for the Sacraments, and cared for their needs. Fr. Stanley, or "Padre Francisco" as he was called by his beloved Tz'utujil Indians, had found his heart's calling. 

After nearly a decade, the violence of the Guatemalan civil war found its way into the peaceful village. Disappearances, killings, and danger became daily occurrences, but despite this unrest Fr. Stanley remained hard at work, building a farmer's co-op, a school, a hospital, and the first Catholic radio station, used for catechesis.

In early 1981, his name was on a death list, so he returned to Oklahoma and was warned not to return. But he could not abandon his people, so he went back, and made the ultimate sacrifice for his faith.

~~~~~

Perhaps the best way to introduce you to the book is through a conversation with María. I think you'll find, as I did, that you are touched by María and her spirit before you even get to the first gripping pages of this beautiful book about a holy and inspiring Servant of God.

Q. When and how did you first learn about Fr. Stanley Rother's story? What made you want to write a book about him? 

Karen, I want to begin by thanking you for your interest in my book—and above all, for helping me spread the story of Oklahoma Martyr Father Stanley Rother!  I am so happy to be “here” today. 

The Church of Oklahoma has done a great job of making sure that the story of Father Stanley Rother is passed on from generation to generation. When we first moved to the state, my kids (who attended Catholic schools here) came home talking about the local priest who died in Guatemala—and I became intrigued! I wrote a few articles about Father Stanley for various Catholic publications.  Years later, when the Archdiocese opened the cause and began working on this project, I was invited to be part of the Historical Commission, mostly working with the Spanish documents.  This is the group that collected information on Father Stanley and prepared a report to send to the Vatican requesting to open his Cause for Canonization. 

A year after our work was completed, our group traveled to Guatemala and made a pilgrimage to Santiago Atitlán the parish and village where Father Stanley lived and where he was killed. On that trip I also met our (then) new Archbishop, Paul S. Coakley. And it was Archbishop Coakley who invited me – and commissioned me, to write the book! 

Working on this project and telling the story of this holy man has been such a privilege. Our world is so hungry for heroes!  And this farm boy from Oklahoma who grew up to be a martyr for Christ is so much more than a comic book super hero. He shows us that we are all called to be holy where we are, as we are—and that is true heroism. 

Q. Fr. Rother was from Oklahoma, where you currently make your home. How long have you lived in Oklahoma, and what brought you there? What has surprised you the most about Oklahoma and its people? 

Our family moved from Texas to Oklahoma 22 years ago because my husband Michael came to teach at the University of Oklahoma College of Law.  Michael and I met at the University of Texas Catholic Student Center, so we call ourselves displaced Longhorns living in Oklahoma Sooner-land.  Since you’re in Nebraska, I think you understand what this fiery dynamic really means, especially during football season! 

But since I was not born in either, I will risk offending both Texans and Oklahomans by saying that I think they have more in common than they do differences.  The southwest is such a unique, colorful, friendly world. The people of Oklahoma are generous, welcoming, easy-going. Perhaps it’s living in tornado alley, but it takes a lot to rattle people here! 

Coming from a Hispanic Catholic culture where being Catholic is the assumption, what has been a surprise and a great witness to me is how strong the Catholic Church is in Oklahoma, where Catholics comprise 3-6 percent of the population!  When I hear colleagues talk about their state’s church experience, especially in the two coasts, I am reminded about how blessed we are to be living here. We have a strong and active Catholic community in Oklahoma – and a great leader in Oklahoma City’s Archbishop Coakley. 

Q. What surprised you the most about Fr. Rother's story? 

Stanley Rother was born in Okarche, Oklahoma, a small town northwest of Oklahoma City that was founded by German Catholic farmers. Like other farming towns up and down the middle of the country, the people in Okarche are close and take care of one another. It is here that Stanley Rother first learned the values of generosity, kindness, family-first, hard work, perseverance—and the importance of living out your faith. 

I don’t know if Id’ say this surprised me, but I was certainly amazed by how well and how fully Father Stanley lived who he was—both here and as a missionary in Guatemala.  The soil and the weather may have been different, but just as he fixed the machinery and worked the farm fields in Oklahoma, he did so alongside the Tz’utujil Mayan community in Santiago Atitlán, Guatemala.  In fact, it was this natural disposition to share the labor with them, to break bread with them, and celebrate life with them, that made the community in Guatemala say of Father Stanley, “he was our priest.”

In his words and with his life, Father Stanley lived compassion… or co-passion. With humility and love he became one of them in order to show them – not just tell them – how much God loved them! He was, as my friend Pat used to say, God-in-the-skin for them.

In one of his final letters to the Church of Oklahoma, (the two dioceses that sponsored the Mission where he served), Father Stanley wrote, "Pray for us that we may be a sign of the love of Christ for our people, that our presence among them will fortify them to endure these sufferings in preparation for the coming of the Kingdom."

Q. If you could sum up the message of Fr. Rother's life in just one or two sentences, what would you say? 

Father Stanley Rother is truly a saint of mercy! He fed the hungry, sheltered the homeless, visited the sick, comforted the afflicted, bore wrongs patiently, buried the dead—all of it. He lived Mercy throughout his life—in the seminary, in the farm, in parish work, and of course, in the Guatemala mission. During this Jubilee Year of Mercy Father Stanley’s life reminds me that living Mercy is what God calls each of us to do, right where I am, today!   

Q. What effect did writing about Fr. Rother have on you? Do you have a devotion to this Servant of God now? How did this book writing this book change you? 

My writing is intrinsically connected to my spiritual life. I imagine that you feel this way, too, Karen. And working on this book, in particular, demanded so much of me that it was truly a prayerful experience. 

I confess that for much of the time my prayer consisted of me telling God, “I can’t do this.”  And God patiently reminding me, over and over, “this is my project. You just have to do your part.”  God is so unbelievably patient with me. 

Part of what made this a tough book to write was the timing. During the year I spent researching and beginning to write the book, I had a number of major life events – the illness and death of two close friends, taking care of my father during several health crises—the type of things that drain and derail!  I felt helpless in every direction, including my writing. Finally, a good friend suggested that I simply invite Father Stanley into my crazy life, as it was, that I let him walk with me through all these life events. It was beautiful… and it transformed me. 

When I finally got serious about completing the manuscript I realized that those difficult and painful life events that I went through during the year were precisely what allowed me to have a profound insight and understanding into Father Stanley’s life during that last year of his life -- as he watched the people he loved so much endure suffering and death. 

And the book continues to change me, Karen! Just today I received a letter from a nun in San Antonio who knew Father Stanley and who is delighted to finally have a way of telling people more about the priest she met in Guatemala who transformed her life.  These are all God-things, not about me. 

So I’m reminded again that all I have to do is continue to try to do my part!  

Thank you for allowing me to share his story with your readers, Karen. It’s been a delight to be here today.

~~~~~

Fr. Stanley with parishioners 

~~~~~

I don't know about you, but I love that María invited Fr. Stanley into her pain and her crazy circumstances and what she discovered as a result. 

Fr. Stanley Rother, Servant of God and beautiful soul, pray for us! 

~~~~~

If you'd like to hear what others are saying about The Shepherd Who Didn't Run, you can find a list of all the blogs participating in the tour at Maria's blog.

To find our more about María and her work, go to: 

Our Sunday Visitor

Day by Day with María

CatholicMom.com 

Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. 

My New Book is Starting to Ship!

You Can Share the Faith is starting to ship! If you pre-ordered a copy (and if you did, thank you!), it should be in your hands soon. If you'd like to order one, you can do so from Our Sunday Visitor, or from Amazon. Barnes and Noble is showing a ship date of February 10, and you can also order from Indie Bound, or inquire at your local Catholic bookstore.

I'm excited to share this book with you!