Amazing Grace

Here I am several months later, seeing my kiddos again! This time ALL of them (once Monday gets here and Liz arrives with her family). We're all gathering for Sarah's wedding to Paul. There is a grace - I can feel it. I believe the grace of this sacrament extends in a special way to the whole family. In addition, I can feel God's pleasure in a real, tangible way - just like I did last year when Joe and Liz were married. What a blessing.

Seeing My Kiddos

So I just left Michigan where I was helping Liz and Joe move. I miss them all already! Here is Margot helping Daddy.

And Margot taking a break with Mommy.

And then here is one of about 20 pictures that Margot took when she silently made off with Nana's phone.

Now I'm waiting at the convent in Boston (along with Chris) for Sr. Theresa Aletheia to arrive from Miami. She's moving back to the motherhouse! And she will accompany us to our nephew's wedding on Sunday. Happy, happy, joy, joy!

I was looking for one of my posts and ended up scrolling through my blog history. I truly loved blogging. Really I should say I loved writing, whether about me or politics or stuff, it was a great method for getting my thoughts out in a structured way (a miracle for an ENFP personality). I'm trying to analyze the patterns related to the blogging roller coaster, but it's making me sad. It seems to be stress related and even when I make major life decisions to avoid stress, I sometimes end up with more.

Anyway, one of the benefits of returning to blogging would be using this as my platform for political ranting rather than Facebook. Here I'm on my turf and readers come voluntarily. Facebook feeds tend to stick peoples' opinions into readers' faces. Sure you can unfriend, but that comes with all the attendant "inner turmoil." This all relates especially to pro-life ranting because I'm fully aware that more than 25% of the female population have had an abortion, so thrusting my opinions in those women's faces is just cruel.

Abortion has been on my mind a lot lately because of the Planned Parenthood undercover videos that have been coming out. Talking about turmoil! It's been turmoil in my mind, wondering how we have allowed ourselves as a country to get to the point where something so egregious can be basically ignored. More on that later. Maybe.

One more thing. My Blog Title has been hijacked by an HBO series about a transgender dad. If you landed on my blog while looking for the TV show, please... well, come on in and kick off your shoes and stay awhile. I'll put on some coffee and we can talk.

Running From Sainthood

Of this I am sure. I am not a saint. I might have had a chance at it if I had been willing to pray for it, but Mary Pat and I always agreed – “Are you kidding! Why in the hell would I pray for any more suffering than life sends my way naturally?”

I did, finally, pray for it (not often, mind you, but I did do it). It was after I had come to a greater realization of how much God loves me. I can say now that I am as sure of His love as I was of my mother’s (and of that I was VERY sure). So whatever comes my way is fully enveloped in a love that surpasses all understanding and I'm all for that (now).

So if He can get it done in the short number of years I have left, then I am now a willing participant. But to get to this Oklahoman's level I may have to live way, way past 100.

Pope Francis and Our Lady

I have been blessed to have experienced the 33 Days to Morning Glory Retreat. I came to understand the Blessed Mother as the greatest of all of Jesus' disciples. Knowing her is knowing Him. Many of those who are saints, PJPII, Mother Teresa, Maximilian Kolbe, were mentored by her. This is a moving video of Pope Francis' visit to the shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida, the patron saint of Brazil. He insisted on adding this visit to his World Youth Day itinerary.

When the now-Pope and the ever-Virgin came face to face again, veteran Bergoglio-watchers said that his moments before the foot-high wooden statue made for "the most emotional" they've ever seen him. Breaking his now-familiar form, Francis zipped past the shrine's Redemptorist priests to make it to the Madonna, needing to be prodded by his entourage both to start saying the prayer he apparently wrote on his own and – caught in an apparent trance – to depart after offering it.

And this is the beautiful prayer he wrote for this moment:

Mother Aparecida, today I feel like you once did before your God and mine, who proposes for our lives a mission whose contours and limits we ignore, whose demands we only glimpse. Yet in your faith that "nothing is impossible with God," O Mother, you did not hesitate, and so I cannot hesitate. "Behold the handmaid of the Lord! Let it be done unto me according to your word!" In this way, O Mother, like you, I embrace my mission. Into your hands I put my life and we will – you-mother and me-son – we will walk together, believe together, fight together, win together as your Son and you always walked together. "Woman, behold your son! Son, behold your mother!" Mother Aparecida, You once took your Son to the Temple to consecrate him to the Father, that he might be fully available for the mission which awaited him. Lift me up today to the same Father, consecrate me to him, all that I am and all that I have. "Here I am! Send me!" Mother Aparecida, I put in your hands, and so take to the Father, our and your youth, and World Youth Day: so much strength, so much life, so much dynamism sprouting and bursting, which can be at service of life, of mankind. "Father, welcome and sanctify your youth!" Finally, O Mother, we ask you: stay here, always welcoming your son and daughter pilgrims, but also come with us, be always by our side and go along with us, the great family of your devotees, in our own missions: especially when the cross weighs heavy, sustain our hope and our faith. "Keep faithful, and I will give you the crown of life. Amen!"

Why I Am Catholic

At one of my favorite websites, Patheos, all the writers from the different isms are being asked to answer Why I Am ______ in 200 words or less.

I thought I would take a shot at it as well.

I am Catholic because I’ve been blessed to have thousands of ancestors over the centuries pass the baton of faith to me. A baton that was, at different times, shining, battered, tear-laden, and glorious, from people who were saintly, sinful, persecuted, and determined. I received that baton-gift and felt compelled (if only because it was the 70's) to examine it closely and eventually reject it. I returned after sitting in church one day, sad and confused, where I heard an almost audible voice say from the crucifix, "This is My Church."

Despite years of serious efforts to convince me otherwise, including the horrendous abuse scandals, I have clung to this gift and done my best to pass the baton to the next generation. I encouraged my children, as they did their own questioning, to analyze the world views from which they could choose. Look carefully at their families – after two or more generations raised with a particular ism. Look at their “saints” – people who have lived that ism to the fullest. Look at their dying. Look at how their weakest, most vulnerable are treated. Look at the marriages of those who have lived their tenants. I could say that with a confidence that made me want to shout my gratitude to all who had gone before me.

We'll Know We're Doing Right if We're Taking Care of the Children

Every time we have a tragedy like this all the talking heads demand that something be done and it never is. The Republicans blame the lack of prayer in school and the Democrats blame the lack of gun control. Tonight the President called for a more lasting response. At the Newtown Memorial Service he said, "We know we’re always doing right when we’re taking care of (the children)." Could that be a rally cry? Is this something, finally, that we can agree on as a nation? Is there an energy rising from this horrific event that can create unified change where nothing else could?

We don't need either / or - we need both. Why in the hell are assault weapons legal? Whether or not one was used in Newtown, we can start there. The issue of mental illness is a huge one and this woman doesn't know the solution, but she sure paints a powerful picture of the problem. I'll focus here mostly on the culture because, well, I'm a Republican. And because we've had mentally ill people since time began, but they didn't shoot classrooms filled with children. We can gather all the weapons in America, throw them into the ocean and we're still going to have an increasingly decadent, degrading culture impacting our children every minute of every day.

Years ago, before there were blogs, when the only way to communicate ideas to the world was via articles, I wrote one about our nation's dwindling focus on sustaining a culture that is mentally and spiritually healthy for our children. "It seems," I wrote, "That we care more about the environment of the spotted owl than we do that of our children." Several years before the former first lady's book, the title of the article was "It Takes a Village to Raise a Child." And I wasn't talking about a lack of accountability for parents (which was the critique conservatives had of Hilary's book), but an increased accountability for all.

There was a time, for instance, when all the TV networks agreed to have family hours before 9:00 each night where only family-friendly content could be aired. Now at any hour of the day the air waves are filled with content that is violent, provocative, debasing. The violence is nothing like the violence of my childhood. It involves not just blood and killing, but degradation - dehuminization of the victims. Each day through television, video games and the internet, kids are exposed to more sex and violence than I was exposed to in my first (good Lord I keep writing decades here and they're too low) 40 (!) years.

I don't believe that the best parents today can protect their children from experiences that will at best cause them to lose their innocence and at worst invade their soul with a view of other humans as expendable, worthless objects of pleasure with targets on their foreheads. THEY NEED HELP! The raising of good citizens is the most important activity occurring in our nation and we're making their job more difficult with every passing year.

For instance, how about instead of making hard working families pay to protect their children from crap on the internet, we charge those who want to see it? And then find increasingly ironclad ways to secure internet browsing for children. Sure, the kids can find a way around it, but since when is that a reason not to take precautions? Do we leave our doors wide open to our homes because thieves are going to get in no matter how many precautions we take? No, we put up barriers because they deter, slow down, increase the possibility that someone will show up to stop it.

What are all the ways that parents use to raise virtuous, loving citizens? Is it, for instance, sending them to private or home-based schools? Determine those and protect the hell out of them.

Instead of giving in to the increasingly hateful and aggressive secularists and marginalizing people of faith we need to remember that despite all its flaws, a Christian-infused Western Civilization managed to support the raising of some pretty decent societies and individuals over the centuries while Godless, secular civilizations have already been tried and found devastatingly wanting.

Don't we all have some accountability for the environment we've allowed to devolve over the years that Adam Lanza was raised in? Don't we all have a responsibility to demand that it be de-toxified so that instead of chipping away at childen's souls it nurtures and cares for them like the precious future citizens they are? What else can we do? Think. You'll know it's right if we're taking care of the children.

Election Reflection

The election is over, results are in and I'm just now feeling less depressed. I was traveling for business and was gathered with co-workers in a breakfast room at a Comfort Inn in Parachute, CO to hear the results . Since oil and gas folks are generally pulling for Republicans we were all rooting for Romney. We went to our rooms once an Obama win seemed inevitable (despite a false positive from Karl Rove). For the next three days I was surrounded with people who all wanted to talk things through - it was very helpful.

Since I had to facilitate sessions the next two days I was forced to recover quickly. It pressed me toward God, who was more than willing to help.

My thoughts:

- First I realized that a move toward secularism in this country, and one that is profoundly anti-Catholic, may not be inevitable, but it certainly is probable. I felt deeply grateful. Of all the Christians throughout history, I've received the rare privilege of living in a time when both Church leadership and the culture around me supported me in my faith. The culture during the middle ages was Christian, but the Church leadership at that time was corrupt. In the early centruies the Church leadership was the strongest, but the culture was anything but friendly. Thank you, Lord. When I realize what a rare gift I've received, with Popes who heard you clearly, bishops who teach the truth forcefully (and lovingly), and an American culture that respected my faith and supported my values, I can no longer be angry that the gift is disappearing.

- I was able to hide from the "hurricane" named not Sandy but Obama. I pulled within, found God and really knew what Paul meant when he said:

Think of what is above, not of what is on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

I truly believe God cared about the results of this election, but if Christ lived in our times, I also don't believe He would have been obsessed with the process, angry at all that is blue, or despairing at the results. I want to die, with my life hidden in Christ who is perfect, and respond instead of react.

- I will now detach from the process that I obsessed over - in a hopefully humble way rather than an angry detachment. I will turn toward what I can do. Instead of looking to the Supreme Court to reverse Roe v Wade, I'll get training to be a sidewalk counselor. Instead of seeing the HHS mandate reversed, I will continue to demonstrate for religious rights and conscience clauses.

God is good.

Thoughts at the Garden of Hope

I'm in my second hour at the Garden of Hope praying as a part of 40 Days for Life. Several things have struck me while here. First, we're in the 40th year since Roe v Wade. I remember working long hours to defeat Proposition B that sought to legalize abortion in Michigan back in 1972 and how appalled I was in January of the following year when the Supreme Court invalidated all our efforts by making abortion legal during all 9 months in all 50 states. I was devastated. I remember wanting to move to Canada. Here I sit 40 years later still fighting the devastating impact of that decision.

Despite the horrors that people are now aware of, despite ultrasounds that clearly show LIFE, despite many many women who describe the deep pain and scars they bear from their abortions, despite knowing that many people choose abortion because their babies are girls, others are forced into the decision, despite knowing abortions occur at 9 months where the standard procedure is to pull the baby's head out of the birth canal and then STAB HIM OR HER IN THE NECK WITH SCISSORS!!!!!!

Despite all this, here we are with a president who doesn't even support keeping a baby alive who is born via a botched abortion, who promised fewer abortions in his 2008 campaign and in 2012 invites the president of Planned Parenthood to give a keynote speech at his convention, who feels totally confident that showcasing abortion in his campaign will gain him votes. Wake up Democrats. Ask the difficult questions instead of turning a blind eye. Are you willing to look at pictures? Why not? To those who are at least somewhat pro-life but continue to support the Democratic Party - are you willing to face the number of abortions that have occurred under a Democratic president that WOULD NOT have occurred under a Republican? What has to happen to give this issue a face? How can we as a society fill the air waves with commercials to save dogs and cats while close to a million humans lose their lives each year (and we ban commercials that even hint at the benefits of saving them).

And now to another thought that hit me powerfully as I was praying. I wondered how much all the prayers and actions over the years might have saved one very special baby...

whether her mommy might have been influenced by those prayers or possibly impacted by tagging along with her dad and me while we prayed outside abortion clinics over the years... so that years later when she found herself single and pregnant, she took the courageous and difficult road and blessed us and the world with Eleanor Charlotte. And I cried.

My Sister the Author

I'm so proud of my sister who recently e-published the first book of her Saginaw Series. They're sweet stories that take place in our hometown and are filled with familiar places and faces (including my daughter Sarah who starts her own bakery!!).

Here is the review I wrote for Amazon:

I loved the characters in this book. I felt like I knew and liked them right away. I read it out loud to my daughter and we were intrigued from the first sentence. I like the way the author combined the present day with a more nostalgic, sweet, and innocent time of long ago (I could tell because I'm a native of Saginaw and recognized the long-gone Bertie's Bakery and Webber House). The result is a story for today's kids that shows them a life they can choose to have if they put away the video games! I also like the integration of spirituality into the book. It's a part of the girls' lives and never seems contrived or off-putting. The life the author presents is inviting in every way, from the beautiful relationships that include friendship, romance and an abiding sense of community to the loving but real families. I highly recommend this book, especially as a read aloud with your daughter or granddaughter!

Go here to order it (only 99 cents!). And here to download a Kindle for PC's (free!). Congratulations, sis! Love you! :)

The Future?

"I expect to die in bed, my successor will die in prison and his successor will die a martyr in the public square" -Cardinal George of Chicago

To have my gut feel spelled out like a prophecy is a little disconcerting. We're living in difficult times.

Laughter of the Purest and Most Liberating Kind

A beautiful meditation from my favorite online prayer spot, Sacred Space.

"A physicist once gave me the ‘Ladybird’ version of electrons. He emphasised that reality as we know it is marvellously interconnected. Electrons at either end of the universe vibrate in synchronicity with one another. ‘So true is this’ he said ‘that we can’t understand anything by itself, but only in its connectedness. read more... Everything is somehow in touch with everything else. And everyone is linked with everyone else, past, present and future. This means that only when the last of us has been gathered in will we know the full story of the human race. Think of history as being a bit like a cosmic joke: while you’re telling a joke, people are puzzled. They wonder how the story is going to work out. Only with the punch line do they get the point and laugh.’ So with the human story: we must be patient. God indeed exists, but so also does dreadful evil. God works within what is bad to bring good out of it. We see this in the Passion with the eyes of faith. What was the worst of Fridays becomes Good Friday only because of the love involved. This love cuts across the downward spiral of evil, sin and death and it opens up to us God’s world, a new world of freedom and love. At the end we will see how love has transformed all the sorrow and pain and tragedy of our story. Only then will the laughter begin, laughter of the purest and most liberating kind. This laughter will be led by the three divine Persons who always intended that things would end well and who laboured mightily to bring this about. ‘Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh’ (Luke 6:21)."

And one more thing - I bet this caused laughter of the purest and most liberating kind - a true vocation in the making.

Happy Easter

At Easter, on the morning of the first day of the week, God said once again: “Let there be light”. The night on the Mount of Olives, the solar eclipse of Jesus’ passion and death, the night of the grave had all passed. Now it is the first day once again – creation is beginning anew. “Let there be light”, says God, “and there was light”: Jesus rises from the grave. Life is stronger than death. Good is stronger than evil. Love is stronger than hate. Truth is stronger than lies. The darkness of the previous days is driven away the moment Jesus rises from the grave and himself becomes God’s pure light. Pope Benedict's Easter Vigil Homily

Holy Thursday

I sat in the quiet church as the clock inched closer to midnight. It was Holy Thursday and the tradition of “spending one hour” with the Lord was coming to a close. The Cathedral had been open since seven, with people from every walk of life coming to kneel before the tabernacle and try, like the apostles, to stay awake as a comfort to Jesus. Did He know, more than 2000 years ago in that garden that we would be here tonight? Did He glean some small comfort from knowing it? Surely that is not outside the possibility for the Son of God.

As I sit in my pew I imagine myself in the garden – the exact garden that I visited just this past year with my husband and daughter as we toured the Holy Land. Somehow that reach across space many months before, enabled a stunning reach across time tonight and suddenly I was there. Sitting in the garden, watching, waiting. The wind howling outside my Tulsa church became the sound effects for the dark garden, illuminated only with a large full moon that any other night might look pleasant, but this night looked somehow ominous. The Asian man who was sitting in the pew in front of me, saying his prayers out loud, transformed from being an irritant to a part of the bustling and whispering of the other apostles. Here I am, Lord. More than any time in my life, aware that I would have fallen asleep as the apostles did that night, just as I know now that I, too, would have denied you three times. But tonight, in my Tulsa-Jerusalem, knowing how much you need my presence, I can remain awake and gaze, riveted, upon the image of your agony. Just sit. Be here. Knowing that you know.

Silent No More

Such a nice relaxing day! I pretty much gave myself the day off. It started with our scheduled time at St. John's adoration, followed by Mass, then Sarah and I went to a pro-life breakfast at St. Madelene's where we saw old friends and met new ones. We heard Georgette Fornay speak who founded the Silent No More organization - the group behind the "I Regret My Abortion" signs that can be seen at rallies. I remember when abortion was being sold to the nation (literally - did you know that Hugh Hefner funded the lower court costs for Roe v. Wade? Sex without consequences is imperative for the Playboy philosophy to work.). The promise was that child abuse would decrease since every child would be a wanted child. Here are the national Child Abuse Report statistics since 1976 (Roe v. Wade was decided in 73):

In case you're wondering if it was reporting that increased and not the abuse, here are the statistics for the number of child deaths per day due to child abuse or neglect going back to 1995.

So could it be possible that "every child being a wanted child" was outweighed by the effect abortion had on how we view our "ownership" of that small life? If I am able to make a decision to terminate my pregnancy, what does that, on a deep level, tell me about my power over that life? Once born, do I suddenly view my power differently just because the law says I should?

I Love Families

I love everything about families (OK, almost). It was one of God's most creative and sweet ideas. Here's a site with 50 outstanding family photos. Some of my favorites:

Blogroll

I came across this beautiful essay on St. Theresa and decided I now have too many websites that I like to visit regularly. I can't remember them all and no, Favorites, are not a solution. Does anyone else have this problem with Favorites? They're so over-run, so unorganized, so filled with old sites that are no longer favored! Then I realized...that's why people have Blogrolls on their blogs. Not so much for other people, but for themselves to have a quick and easy way to find their favorite sites! So I will now build one.

Talimena

Chris and I spent the weekend on the Talimena Scenic Byway. It's only 3 hours from Tulsa and yet we said to each other a number of times, "I can't believe this is the first time we've come here!" The scenes were breathtaking. God's wonder, displayed as only the True Artist can. The pictures don't do it justice. Suffice to say we were ready to go again this weekend (and take Sarah with us), but thunderstorms are predicted for Southeast OK. BUT we may have my sis and her hubbie talked into coming down for it next year!! Right, mesc?

And we'll stay at Queen Wilhelmina Lodge:

Right, Mary Ellen?

Hmmm...

It's funny how the people I introduced to blogging, like Mary Ellen and Lisa, blog all the time and yet I can't seem to get back into it. I used to love blogging. Anyway. Here I sit listening to George Winston, Enya and John Michael Talbot (playlist.com) while Sarah is baking a cake. She's trying out recipes and I get to be the delighted tester!! :) However! I just received this:

so I don't want to have happen what USUALLY happens when Sarah comes home and bakes things like this: .

This one was for her friend Amy - for her birthday. Here's one she baked for me:

Isn't she talented? Chris just sat down to watch the OU game he recorded and discovered that it didn't record. And guess whose fault it is!!! I saw it was recording on ESPN too so I removed the ABC recording......only to find out that ESPN was blocked out. I remember back in Steubenville I was doing child care at the Cowen's house and noticed their VCR (remember those?) was on. So I did them a favor and turned it off :). It was Super Bowl Sunday. And their team was in it.

Why I Am Catholic 2

World Youth Day. What an inspired and brilliant idea JPII had - to bring young people together from all over the world to pray, learn, and meet with the Holy Father. My own WYD experience was life changing when I went to Rome in 2000 with Sarah and Elizabeth.

Each of our five children went to at least one: Theresa and David(Denver and Paris), Liz and Sarah (Rome) and Mary (Cologne). It was a mission of ours to make sure that each one had an opportunity to go. The strongest message that came across to them, I believe, was how much they, as young people, were loved by the Pope. I remember the air ringing with "JP2 we love you!!" and hearing him respond with "JP2 he loves you too!" The world finds this so difficult to believe. An 80+ year old man being treated like a rock star. The media said it was because JP was so charismatic. Then he died and in his place was a man the media portrayed as a vicious rotweiller, one who searched and destroyed heretics. How many will show for this man? Instead we found a humble, joyful, and loving Pope Benedict. He went to his native Germany (chosen as the location of the 2005 WYD long before he was elected) and greeted one of the largest gatherings - 1.2 million. Now how do we explain it?

There were more than a million at many of the WYDs (5 million in Manila) which take place every 2 (now 3) years. There were 2 million + in Rome - when I looked out over the University of Rome I could see young people as far as the eye could see. Young people singing and smiling. Such a contrast to what we saw in Britain this past month

And this year in Spain, a country where most people see their Catholicism as a long forgotten heritage - the crowds are huge again - 1.5 mm. Just when the world might have been convinced the church is dying - when the sins of its leaders seemed to overshadow all that is good and holy and profound. We see gathered the church's future - vibrant, joyful and in love - listening intently to the beautiful words of "Benedicto" meant just for them in times such as these:

We, on the other hand, know well that we have been created free, in the image of God, precisely so that we might be in the forefront of the search for truth and goodness, responsible for our actions, not mere blind executives, but creative co-workers in the task of cultivating and beautifying the work of creation. God is looking for a responsible interlocutor, someone who can dialogue with him and love him. Through Christ we can truly succeed and, established in him, we give wings to our freedom. Is this not the great reason for our joy? Isn’t this the firm ground upon which to build the civilization of love and life, capable of humanizing all of us?

Beautiful Video

I'm sitting here on the couch with Chris. He's watching Masterpiece Theater (!) and I'm surfing the web. I came across a video of a beautiful singer that Theresa told me about. Thought I would share:

Welcome Mary!

Hopefully my dear friend, Mary, sees this (I just sent her a link to my blog). I don't tell many people about my blog - but she's special! I try to believe no one's looking at it (that's why I don't have a tracker) - that way I can share more from my heart.

And here is a gift.. a beautiful article about a saintly man.

The Holiest of Places

I have returned from the most amazing experience of my life - a visit to the Holy Land. Chris, Theresa and I joined a group of people from our parish and from Denver plus 5 priests, 3 other nuns and about 3 seminarians. The first night we stayed in a beautiful hotel on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. I woke up early the next morning and sat on the balcony watching the sun rise over the body of water that was the site of Jesus's walking on water, the call of Peter, and the calming of the storm. Fr. Kastl mentioned at the end of the trip that it was as if we were Thomas, placing our hands in the wounds of Jesus. Touching the places where Jesus was is a powerful way to elevate one's faith to an entirely new level. I wanted to kiss the ground wherever I went (and I see Theresa experienced the same thing). I'll blog more, but Theresa's blog is the one to watch - it looks like she's planning on blogging about each stop!

Wonderful Family Time

What a week it's been. The kids started arriving on Tuesday - gathering for Mary's graduation from Rockhurst. We stayed in Kansas City from Friday to Sunday. I've been working this week and yesterday and today came home to Theresa showing me a home project that she completed :) Tonight Sarah, who just returned from Mexico, cooked a traditional Mexican dinner followed by Mexican hot chocolate and desserts. Then Theresa, Sarah and I played Rummikub while the rest of the family watched the OKC Thunder play in the tournament.

I've been reading the comments on a favorite blog. The author has just found out she's pregnant with number nine and she posted Snappy Answers to Stupid Comments about Large Families. They're hilarious! My favorite: "Don't you have a TV?" "Yes, and if you think TV is better than sex, you're doing it wrong!" Then there's: "Are you done now?" "Of course not! We're only half way through the Karma Sutra!" And one that I contributed: "Did you WANT five?" "No, we WANTED six or seven, but unfortunately we were only blessed with five." The blessings of a "large" family - I can't be more happy and content. And the kids couldn't be a bigger blessing - to us and to each other.

Mother's Day

It's been a beautiful day already. I'm blessed to have two of mine at home today (Sarah and Liz) - both of whom were cleaning the house and singing when I came downstairs! Then we sat and talked and talked - Sarah talking about how much she missed the beauty, pace, and community she found in Mexico - Liz remembering the same in Honduras and talking about how she intends to return there this summer to show them all how much she continues to love them. Then they went out shopping and I sit here browsing and blogging. They just returned with bagel sandwiches and ingredients for a Happy Mother's Day cake.

You know, we can so easily take motherhood for granted because there are so many mothers in the world. The very fact that I was able to have children and then was abundantly blessed with five and then that they are five of the people I would most like to share a deserted island with! From the bottom of my heart, Lord, thank you!!

Why I Am Catholic by G.K. Chesterton

If I was as articulate as others I would write an essay of my own on Why I Am Catholic. One such person has an entire blog on the subject. Then there are those who rise above us all, like G.K., one of my all time favorites. With thanks to Lisa for posting this on FB, here are segments of his marvelous essay - read the entire article here. I've bolded my favorite part.

The difficulty of explaining "why I am a Catholic" is that there are ten thousand reasons all amounting to one reason: that Catholicism is true. I could fill all my space with separate sentences each beginning with the words, "It is the only thing that. . . ." As, for instance, (1) it is the only thing that really prevents a sin from being a secret. (2) It is the only thing in which the superior cannot be superior in the sense of supercilious. (3) It is the only thing that frees a man from the degrading slavery of being a child of his age. (4) It is the only thing that talks as if it were the truth, as if it were a real messenger refusing to tamper with a real message. (5) It is the only type of Christianity that really contains every type of man, even the respectable man. (6) It is the only large attempt to change the world from the inside, working through wills and not laws; and so on...

...The other day a well-known writer, otherwise quite well-informed, said that the Catholic Church is always the enemy of new ideas. It probably did not occur to him that his own remark was not exactly in the nature of a new idea. It is one of the notions that Catholics have to be continually refuting, because it is such a very old idea. Indeed, those who complain that Catholicism cannot say anything new seldom think it necessary to say anything new about Catholicism. As a matter of fact, a real study of history will show it to be curiously contrary to the fact. Insofar as the ideas really are ideas, and insofar as any such ideas can be new, Catholics have continually suffered through supporting them when they were really new—when they were much too new to find any other support. The Catholic was not only first in the field but alone in the field; and there was as yet nobody to understand what he had found there...

...There are passages in Pope Leo’s Encyclical on Labor [Rerum Novarum, 1891] that are only now beginning to be used as hints for social movements much newer than socialism. And when Mr. [Hilaire] Belloc wrote about the servile state, he advanced an economic theory so original that hardly anybody has yet realized what it is. A few centuries hence, other people will probably repeat it and repeat it wrong. And then, if Catholics object, their protest will be easily explained by the well-known fact that Catholics never care for new ideas...

...Nevertheless, the man who made that remark about Catholics meant something, and ..it is only fair to him to understand it rather more clearly than he stated it. What he meant was that, in the modern world, the Catholic Church is in fact the enemy of many influential fashions, most of which still claim to be new, though many of them are beginning to be a little stale. In other words, insofar as he meant that the Church often attacks what the world at any given moment supports, he was perfectly right. The Church does often set herself against the fashion of this world that passes away, and she has experience enough to know how very rapidly it does pass away. But to understand exactly what is involved, it is necessary to take a rather larger view and consider the ultimate nature of the ideas in question—to consider, so to speak, the idea of the idea...

...Nine out of ten of what we call new ideas are simply old mistakes. The Catholic Church has for one of her chief duties that of preventing people from making those old mistakes, from making them over and over again forever, as people always do if they are left to themselves. The truth about the Catholic attitude toward heresy—or, as some would say, toward liberty—can best be expressed perhaps by the metaphor of a map. The Catholic Church carries a sort of map of the mind that looks like the map of a maze but is in fact a guide to the maze. It has been compiled from knowledge that, even considered as human knowledge, is quite without any human parallel...

...There is no other case of one continuous, intelligent institution that has been thinking about thinking for two thousand years. Its experience naturally covers nearly all experiences and especially nearly all errors. The result is a map in which all the blind alleys and bad roads are clearly marked, all the ways that have been shown to be worthless by the best of all evidence: the evidence of those who have gone down them...

...On this map of the mind the errors are marked as exceptions. The greater part of it consists of playgrounds and happy hunting-fields where the mind may have as much liberty as it likes, not to mention any number of intellectual battlefields in which the battle is indefinitely open and undecided. But it does definitely take the responsibility of marking certain roads as leading nowhere or leading to destruction, to a blank wall, or to a sheer precipice. By this means it does prevent men from wasting their time or losing their lives upon paths that have been found futile or disastrous again and again in the past but might otherwise entrap travelers again and again in the future. The Church does make itself responsible for warning its people against these, and upon these the real issue of the case depends. It does dogmatically defend humanity from its worst foes: those hoary and horrible and devouring monsters of the old mistakes...

...There is no other corporate mind in the world that is thus on the watch to prevent minds from going wrong. The policeman comes too late when he tries to prevent men from going wrong. The doctor comes too late, for he comes only to lock up a madman, not to advise a sane man on how not to go mad. And all other sects and schools are inadequate for the purpose. This is not because each of them may not contain a truth, but precisely because each of them does contain a truth and is content to contain a truth. None of the others really pretends to contain the truth. None of the others, that is, really pretends to be looking out in all directions at once...

...Thus, for instance, Catholicism, in a sense little understood, stands outside a quarrel like that of Darwinism at Dayton. It stands outside it because it stands all around it, as a house stands all around two incongruous pieces of furniture. It is no sectarian boast to say it is before and after and beyond all these things in all directions. It is impartial in a fight between the Fundamentalist and the theory of the origin of species because it goes back to an Origin before that origin, because it is more fundamental than Fundamentalism. It knows where the Bible came from. It also knows where most of the theories of evolution go to. It knows there were many other gospels besides the four Gospels and that the others were eliminated only by the authority of the Catholic Church. It knows there are many other evolutionary theories besides the Darwinian theory and that the latter is quite likely to be eliminated by later science. It does not, in the conventional phrase, accept the conclusions of science, for the simple reason that science has not concluded. To conclude is to shut up, and the man of science is not at all likely to shut up...

...Every moment increases for us the moral necessity for such an immortal mind. We must have something that will hold the four corners of the world still while we make our social experiments or build our utopias. For instance, we must have a final agreement, if only on the truism of human brotherhood, that will resist some reaction of human brutality. Nothing is more likely just now than that the corruption of representative government will lead to the rich breaking loose altogether and trampling on all the traditions of equality with mere pagan pride...

My Dad

On the 47th anniversary of my Dad's death, I'm sitting here with a big ol' grin on my face, listening to him sing! My darling sister digitally recorded a tape that we had of him singing at an Elks Event. I loved him dearly and don't have enough memories of him, so I am so grateful to my sister for this and listen to it often. He was a rock of security, a man who loved God, and a devoted, playful father to his five children. He laughed often and served much. What more could I ask for? Enjoy!

Happy Feast Day, Dad!

I just went to Mary Ellen's blog to get a picture of dad and she has posted his eulogy! Thanks again, sweetie!

UBL and Seder Wine

I rejoiced with the rest of the country when I heard we no longer had to fear UBL and his terror campaigns (others, maybe, but not his). But the celebrations bothered me and I didn't know how to explain it. Then I read a comment on a work-related listserv I belong to and decided to post it here because it perfectly sums it up.

Those of you who have attended a seder may remember that one of our traditions is to dip our fingers into the wine glass & remove a drop of wine as each of the plagues is recited. The explanation given for this is that no matter how joyous our triumph may be, we must always remember that we cannot fully rejoice when it comes at the expense of the lives of others - no matter how well deserved that cost may be.

Just Walking By, And...

I've worked on the 35th floor since October and walked by this framed poster every day without really looking at it. Then one day recently I turned and read it. I laughed out loud!

A Happy Easter Gift

It doesn't get much better than this!

The Holy Land

Chris, Theresa and I are going to the Holy Land! We're SO excited. It will be a pilgrimage led by a scripture scholar and Fr. Kastl from our parish. We attended our first preparation meeting today and came away convinced that this will be a beautiful, life-changing experience. Will tell you more as we progress...

Try Again

I'm trying again, but this time will save every 30 seconds :)! We had a wonderful time last weekend when Theresa and her postulant friends, along with Sr. Rebecca, their formator, came to visit (the picture includes all + two other sisters who didn't visit - I really need to take and upload pics!!). They stayed on their way back to St. Louis from Texas and sold books at our parish.

They arrived very tired on Saturday and went to sell books at the 5:00 Mass, which we also attended. We got home pretty late and ate a wonderful meal that Chris had made. On Sunday they left to sell books at the 8 and 10:30 Masses. I went to hear Theresa speak at the end of the 10:30 - she called up all the postulants and very dynamically told us about the sacrifices they had made (one PhD, a nurse, a violist who played with Yo Yo Ma, a web developer). Then she said they weren't the only ones who were called to give their lives to God in a dramatic way - we all were. Hmmmm... When folks were talking later about the number of people buying books Fr. Kastl said it was due to Theresa making them all feel like slackers! :)

We ate a brunch of calzone (that's right, Shea family, and it's NOT Easter!) and fruit salad. In true family tradition, no one was allowed seconds unless they LOVED it! Later we went to see The King's Speech (save! - almost forgot!) that afternoon and then came home for an Oscar party. Dinner included Elizabeth Taylor's chicken simmered in wine, Ronald Reagan's macaroni and cheese, Robert Redford's olive salad, followed by brownies and ice cream with Jeff Bridges' (he was nominated!) hot fudge sauce. Then we watched the show while playing Oscar bingo, with cells marked off for things like "winner interrupted by music". Such Fun!!

Unfortunately, they left the next morning and we miss them all! BUT Fr. Kastl told them he would like them to return twice each year!

$%@#$!@

SAVE BLOGS! I just lost a looonnnggg one when the site shut down. And now I'm heading to Mass, so will re-write later :).

Mom

I have an almost tangible sense of solidity at my core – a sense of well-being and a knowledge that I’m loved. It’s been there all my life and I know it came from my mother.

She wasn’t a bake-you-cookies, give-me-hugs, what-can-I-do-for-you kind of mom (at least by the time I came around as the surprise! fifth of five, born when she was 40). She was a practical, I’m-always-here-for-you, let-me-at-anyone-who-hurts-you, you’re-more-than-OK kind of mom.

Despite losing my father to cancer at age 8, I know that life is good and I have that core – that unmistakable, irreplaceable core that only a parent’s unconditional love can give. Even though she struggled after his death and dealt with a lot of anxiety, her stability and commitment to us was So. Much. Greater.

I mourn for those poor children and former-children that do not have that core. They must search all their lives to find it. I had the blessing of being able to search for God instead. Today is Mom’s birthday – it is the 96th anniversary of her birth. Thank you, Mom. You were the best!

I'm Back Again!

OK,OK,so I wasn't really back. I have no idea why I can't seem to get my blogging groove back, but oh well, here I am for another post and possibly not another one for who knows :). In looking back over the posts it looks like I went into seclusion after sending my daughter to the Daughters!

I'm sitting in my living room looking out over the close to 18 inches of snow out there. This kind of weather is so rare here! Liz had to go to work Thursday and she and I both ventured out to work yesterday. The expressways are fine, but the city roads are amazingly horrible, and this spoken as a Michigander! There were holes that we called snowholes instead of potholes where steam from a sewer hole maybe had melted away the ice, leaving about a foot deep hole in the packed snow. Liz and I got out of work at 2 (due to 4-6 more inches coming) - Chris came to get us - but we didn't get home til 4!

Sarah has been baking up a storm. Last night she and I made cookies with peanut butter centers, covered in chocolate dough. Yum! She's heading back to Mexico on Wednesday :( I will miss her a bunch!

Our Daughter is a Daughter

The biggest news, though, is Theresa's entry into Daughters of St. Paul on Wednesday. We were so moved and Theresa was filled with joy. She needs prayers, though, because she's had some really strong allergic reactions since Wednesday. We talked to her today and she was more miserable than earlier in the week.
Theresa, we love you and we miss you! AND we're praying up a storm.

I'm Back!

Who knows for how long... But I miss blogging. I think I will turn off the comments so I can't tell if anyone is "listening" for awhile. I like it better when I'm kind of inside my own head.

I have wonderful news, head! I have a new job! Through the grace of God and "Getting Low" as Robert Duvall would say, I have discovered a wonderful opportunity at my company (which I love) but in a department other than the one I am currently in (which I don't love). The Lord worked with me on it in an amazing way. An example - in prayer several months ago when praying about my current job I felt I should place two dates out there - September 1 2010 and April 1 2011 - by which time I would have another job. If not by the first date, by the second. After searching desperately for jobs and trying to get a plan for starting my own consulting business, I quickly realized the first date was not going to work. I've been so stressed in my current position that I didn't have the focus or the energy to work toward my goal.

I was mentoring a woman at work who got a job outside the company. I was so happy for her, but felt a bit envious since it had basically fallen in her lap. The week before she left she said, "Have you considered applying for my job, Jane?" I said I had in the past, but listed my concerns. She cleared those up and I remember where I was standing when I "heard" a thud in my lap! In a matter of weeks I could be freed from this ungodly environment of stress! Well, I had a few conversations and a few days later heard the hiring manager say, "You've got the job, we just have to work out the details." The date? September 1!

The Good Lord is faithful. I ran screaming to him several times during the storm while he was sleeping in the boat ("ye of little faith"), but every once in a while I sat and watched him sleep. That's progress!

Happy Birthday Part II

An even better article from the National Catholic Reporter that reprints an article by an Italian sociologist:

“There are cases of sexual abuse that come to light every day against a large number of members of the Catholic clergy. Unfortunately it’s not a matter of individual cases, but a collective moral crisis that perhaps the cultural history of humanity has never before known with such a frightening and disconcerting dimension. Numerous priests and religious have confessed. There’s no doubt that the thousands of cases which have come to the attention of the justice system represent only a small fraction of the true total, given that many molesters have been covered and hidden by the hierarchy.”
An editorial from a great secular newspaper in 2010? No: It’s a speech of May 28, 1937, by Joseph Goebbels (1897-1945), Minister of Propaganda for the Third Reich. This speech, which had a large international echo, was the apex of a campaign launched by the Nazi regime to discredit the Catholic Church by involving it in a scandal of pedophile priests....
The expression “moral panic” was only coined by sociologists in the 1970s to identify a social alarm created as a kind of art, accomplished by amplifying real facts and exaggerating their numbers through statistical folklore, as well as “discovering” and presenting as “new” events which in reality are already known and which date to the past. There are real events at the base of the panic, but their number is systematically distorted. Even without the benefit of modern sociology, Goebbels responded to the encyclical Mit brennender Sorge in 1937 with a textbook case of the creation of a moral panic.

Happy Birthday PBXVI

The news about Pope Benedict has been relentless and filled with misleading statements. I came across an interesting article written by an "atheist libertarian" that included:

It's worth asking why otherwise fairly intelligent thinkers get so dementedly exercised over the Pope and the Catholic Church. What exactly is their beef? What are they objecting to?

Very few (if any) of the Pope-hunters were raised Catholic, so this isn't about personal vengeance for some perceived slight by a priest or nun. And despite their current lowdown, historically illiterate attempt to equate a priest fondling a child with a state's attempt to obliterate an entire people under the collective tag "crime against humanity", the truth is that some of these Pope-hunters don't really think child abuse is the worst crime in the world. In 2006, Dawkins criticised "hysteria about pedophilia" and said that, even though he was the victim of sexual abuse at boarding school, he would defend his abusive former teachers if "50 years on they had been hounded by vigilantes or lawyers as no better than child murderers". Yet now he wants to put abusive priests on a par with genocidaires.

And another article by PJPII's biographer, George Weigel, where he points out that we as Catholics can now speak our confidently and forcefully after having cleaned house of it's "filth", as PBXVI called it:

Reasonable people whose perceptions are not warped by the toxin of anti-Catholicism or who are not pursuing other (often financially-driven) agendas now recognize that the Church in the U.S. and Canada has bent enormous efforts towards cleaning up what Cardinal Ratzinger called in 2005 its “filth,” to the point where the Catholic Church today can be empirically shown to be the safest environment for young people and children in North America. The paralyzing drumbeat of one ghastly new story after another that went on all during 2002 has not been repeated. What we now have is, largely, the recycling of old material, usually provided to the press by contingent-fee attorneys whose strategic goal is to build a public “narrative” of conspiracy that will shape American courts’ decisions as to whether the Vatican and its resources can be brought within range of U.S. liability law.

The realization among serious Catholics that this is not 2002 and that things have changed dramatically since 2002, has led to a far more confident effort to fight back against misrepresentations such as those the Times perpetrated on March 25. There is a danger here: to recognize that this is not 2002 cannot blind us to the fact that there are wounds that remain to be healed, reforms of priestly formation that remain to be completed, bishops whose failures remain to be recognized and dealt with, new norms for the selection of bishops to be implemented, and accounts rendered as to why the Vatican, prior to Ratzinger’s taking control of the issue of clerical sexual abuse in the late 1990s, was sometimes sluggish in its response to scandalous behavior by priests and deficient leadership by bishops.

Assuming, however, that Benedict XVI has set in motion processes that will lead to all those lingering issues being forcefully addressed, a serious question can now be credibly posed: Are those most vigorously agitating these abuse/misgovernance issues today genuinely interested in the safety of young people and children, or are they using the failures of the past to cripple the moral credibility of the Catholic Church in the present and future? That question would have rightly struck many people as a dodge in 2002. It cannot be credibly regarded as a dodge today, because of what the Church has done since 2002 (and, indeed, since the 1990s, when the plague of abuse within the Church began to recede).

The Empty Tomb

The most fantastic claim. Either the tomb was empty. Or it was not. Either I believe the 500 witnesses, the 11 apostles who died martyrs' deaths rather than deny it was true, and 2000 years of enduring good works... or I do not. I choose to believe. Hallelujah!

Christmas Beauty

We had such a great Christmas! Four are still here! Theresa left for a week to go to Boston, but returned yesterday til Sunday. I took today off, took the tree down, we all went out to the Brook for lunch, then we came home and did our own home-made Dancercize in the living room for about an hour (well, OK, I didn't go the whole hour - but I think Sarah went for 1 1/2 hours!). Sarah spent some time creating a list of songs crescendoing from warming up easy listening to crazy African drum beats. Now we're going to play games followed by a trip to the dollar theater to watch Paranormal Activity (if we can talk T into it - she hates scary movies!).

Kissing the Face of God

"God's sign is simplicity. God's sign is the baby. God's sign is that he makes himself small for us. This is how he reigns. He does not come with power and outward splendour. He comes as a baby - defenseless and in need of our help. He does not want to overwhelm us with his strength. He takes away our fear of his greatness. He asks for our love: so he makes himself a child. He wants nothing other from us than our love, through which we spontaneously learn to enter into his feelings, his thoughts and his will - we learn to live with him and to practise with him that humility of renunciation that belongs to the very essence of love. God made himself small so that we could understand him, welcome him, and love him." Pope Benedict XVI

A Last Minute Gift...With Meaning

An opportunity for a last minute Christmas Gift! Liz has set up a fund to help cover the cost of books and supplies for students in Agua Fria, the mountain town where she did her Peace Corps service. Click below to send a payment via PayPal!! She has a nice certificate that she can send you to use as a gift (co-workers, family members, neighbors, etc.) if you'd like. But since she's traveling back to the states this week, you'd better email me (janen7@cox.net). THANKS! (PS - if you use the link below, the shipping address may be confusing - just enter your own address - since you're not purchasing anything, shipping isn't needed, but something needs to be entered.)

Gifts

Option 1 $10.00 Option 2 $25.00 Option 3 $50.00 Option 4 $100.00

O Come O Come Emmanuel

Oh Holy Advent

I wanted to share a beautiful Advent reflection on this Advent eve - from my favorite blog.

I shed tears of gratitude and joy that you have come round again, O Advent, to shake us from our torpor as early night comes, and the match is struck, and the message is brought home once more; that we are forever in the absence of light; it is beyond us and exterior until we make it welcome and bring it, like a lover, within. Welcome into our deepest void, welcome into the parts of us touched by human frost and stunted. Welcome, O Light, beaming glorious, into remotest apertures of our souls, rays aglow, warmth permeating where we have left old fires unattended and embers to wane, and our abysses to grow chill, and uninhabitable. Welcome light; dispelling illusion, and chasing old ghosts to rest.

With the sunset tonight, the promise is renewed; the story begins again. The beginning; quiescence, empty and void. Then movement; an annunciation; a Word -one boundless, vibrant “yes” that shakes creation; “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God, my savior!” Soon there will be dreams, and silent wondering, and a gathering, and a starry night rent with song. The Word Present penetrates lonely, lost humanity, and enters into the pain and fear, the tumult and whirlwind; and He sets His tent with us not merely dwelling among, but literally with us; with hunger, with the capacity for injury and doubt -with enough vulnerability to be broken- and within this espousal, everything is illuminated!

Technology Overload

You know you're technologically overloaded when you finally get invited to create a Google telephone number, spend WAY TOO MUCH time trying different numerical combinations that spell memorable words, finally find the telephone number to rival the one you grew up with - PLeasant OH SHOOT I forgot!! - submit it, and then several weeks later when you realize you haven't used it once, you wonder why you ever got one in the first place because you don't see any purpose!!!

BUT I did just find out that when you forget your Google Voice number you can go find it on the website! 918-200-WIDE (I know, I know - all the interesting words were taken!).

Uh-oh...

Prayers for Honduras

The Wall Street Journal reports on Hondurans prayers for a miracle offered to "La Morenita". Let's join them!

I've copied most of it below (mostly for Liz's sake) since WSJ articles are hard to reach:

In the past three months, a slew of Latin American presidents, foreign ministers, ambassadors and even a Nobel Peace Prize winner, have failed to find a solution to the political standoff that has split Honduras. Now, many despairing Hondurans say, may be time for a little divine intervention...

So every day, more and more Hondurans are calling on the Virgin of Suyapa, a 3-inch statuette of the Virgin Mary, made of dark wood and nicknamed La Morenita, or the Little Dark One, for help. Over the centuries, La Morenita, which was found on a hillside in 1747 and now makes its home at a small whitewashed colonial church near the capital, has been credited with sundry miracles, from curing kidney stones to ending a brief war...

If anyone can put Honduras back on the right path, believers think, La Morenita is the one to do it. Over the centuries, she is said to have cured the blind and made cripples walk. It is said that she appeared in white robes to aid Honduran soldiers during a bloody conflict. The challenge now is to get Mr. Zelaya and his foe, Mr. Micheletti, to settle their political differences...

Legend has it that the statuette was discovered one February morning in 1747 by a laborer named Alejandro Colindres who was out clearing a corn field the day before. But darkness fell suddenly, and the farm worker went to sleep by the side of the road. When he rolled over, there was something poking at his side. Half asleep, he threw the object into the night -- only to find it poking at him yet again in the morning.

It was the tiny statue of La Morenita.

Her first supposed miracle took place in 1768, when Capt. José de Zelaya, perhaps an ancestor of the ousted president, was suddenly relieved of incurable kidney stones. Grateful, the captain had a church built to house the Virgin. Pilgrims -- some saying the Virgin had visited them in the night -- arrived from across the land. More miracles were reported.

By the 20th century, the Virgin of Suyapa was Honduras's most loved symbol. Songs were written to her, daughters named after her. In 1969, La Morenita was even given the battlefield commission "Captain of the Armed Forces" when Honduras went to war with neighboring El Salvador after violence broke out in the stands in a World Cup qualifying match. The brief, bloody war took four days and cost 2,000 lives. A draw, it went down in history as the "Soccer War." "We were outnumbered," said Ms. Díaz. "But the patroness appeared in a white gown to our soldiers, guiding them along, giving them food and water."

The pastor chimed in with an anecdote of his own. It was last February, and a family of three from near the Guatemalan border made the grueling journey across the mountains to visit the figurine. But the church had already closed that day. When he returned, "the church doors were open and they were all inside praying to her," said the priest who insists it was none other than the Virgin who let the pilgrims in. "I had locked the door myself."

Last Sunday, parishioners gathered for the first Sunday mass since Mr. Zelaya's surprise return to the country. Two policemen on motorcycles circled the basilica, their rifles pointing toward the heavens. Inside, the church was overflowing with worshipers. Many stood before the altar, waving framed portraits of the Virgin as an assistant sprinkled holy water. Father Ruiz led the services, dressed in long white robes and a green cloak. "With all of the uncertainty now in the country, we beg for your help," he said.

Honduras, Father Ruiz whispered, is like the baby held by King Solomon, in danger of being split in two by its current president and its ousted one. "Maybe the Virgin should be president. She is only 6 centimeters tall, but she has greatness," said the priest, gazing out the window of the church.

Best Listened to with Earphones

Here is an amazing rendition of Spem in Alium a 40-part "motet" that was written in the 1570. The song itself is amazing enough. But once you know it's one person singing all 40 parts, well... take a listen:


Here is the English translation of the Latin text:

I have never put my hope in any other but in you,
O God of Israel
who can show both anger
and graciousness,
and who absolves all the sins of suffering man
Lord God,
Creator of Heaven and Earth
be mindful of our lowliness

According to Wikipedia, the normal method of performing this work is to place the audience at the center of the church and surround them with the performers. The effect "is that of inundation, or of being completely overwhelmed." The work "is not often performed, as it requires at least forty singers capable of meeting its technical demands."