My happy Catholic Twitter-verse

I've had a Twitter account for a few years now, but I've rarely used it until recently. With Benedict XVI's resignation and the Conclave looming this past February and March, I decided to try it out again since I knew that you could easily connect with other people talking about the same subject. I also knew that some of the Catholic podcasters that I listen to are on Twitter, and I knew their handles, so I figured I'd go in and give it another try.

Well. I didn't expect it, but I really liked it. MUCH better than Facebook.

Is there anybody else who feels like Facebook has fallen off of it's pedestal a bit of late? I'm just going to name a few of my gripes, and then we can move on with our lives, but here they are:

(1) Frequent changes. There is nothing that I hate more than change. #oldfashionedbunheadlibrarian
But it feels like Facebook often changes their interface, how you interact with your friends, and how their sponsored ads work. I feel like your friends "see" more now of what you do. As in, *everything*. Pages that you like, comments that you make on posts or photos made by people with no relationship to your other friends. I just don't need all of Facebook seeing my business, kwim? Makes me feel like I'm walking around in my underwear.

(2) The "pressure" of friend requests. I know that I don't *have* to accept anyone's friend request. But I often feel like I will hurt the feelings of the person in question if I don't. Facebook just feels like much more of a commitment than Twitter (more on that in a moment). And I also know that I can later "unfriend" somebody, but then I feel like a mean, insensitive person. Who else is with me?! Whenever I unfriend somebody, I find myself with my mouse hovering over the "Friends" indication next to their name, talking to my computer screen.

"It's not that I don't like you. I just...don't want you on my Newsfeed. Please don't feel bad."

I know that I can change my Newsfeed settings for specific people, been there, done that. Sometimes that just isn't enough. I just want them out of my Facebook life. Which leads us to...

(3) People seem to feel free to be obnoxious on Facebook. I don't know what it is, but Facebook's venue seems to let people know that they can feel free to speak their mind and then not listen to anybody else's contrary opinion and/or ridicule aforementioned contrary opinion. They also feel free to comment on others' fairly innocuous "Happy Easter!" or "Merry Christmas, everybody!" posts with nasty monologues on how any person who could call themselves a Christian should be ashamed of themselves, and that religion in general is medieval, superstitious mumbo-jumbo out to subjugate women.

Really? Would you say that to somebody's face? Maybe you would, in which case you are not very nice and I'm unlikely to be friends with you either on or off of Facebook. But if you wouldn't say something in a dinner conversation, don't say it at all!!

I've thought for some time that the reason I keep my Facebook account is for (a) the pictures and (nice) updates from friends and family who live far away from me and who otherwise I would rarely get to talk to, let alone see pictures of their kids and dogs. I really love that; (b) my belly dance community. It's wonderful, and we communicate exclusively via Facebook.

So I stay. But I'm not always happy about it.

But let's circle back to Twitter. I reignite my presence over there right before the Conclave starts. I begin to follow a bunch of Catholic organizations, publications, news agencies, and people. I get lots of quick, up-to-the-minute bits of information. I am delighted by the @conclavechimney/@conclaveseagull episode. I get quick clarification of the who the new pope is and what name he took (my confidence in my ability to understand Latin? WAY OVERRATED.)

I find that I love Twitter.

I write and retweet what I want over there, I feel free to be as Catholic as my little heart desires. And you know what? Nobody makes nasty comments. Following somebody on Twitter does not require their consent, so you can follow or stop following somebody on a whim. And you know what? Nobody will know or care. I have very few followers, but if the number goes up or down by a few in a day, I really can't tell. And if I do notice that the number has changed, I couldn't tell you who is new and who left. And yeah, I also don't care. :)

It's not nearly as personal in that way as Facebook. If I do notice on Facebook that somebody has unfriended me, I can't help but wonder why and feel somewhat slighted. It's most likely because I used to interact with that person in real life, no longer do, and don't necessarily have a pressing reason to keep in touch with them, but all the same, you feel a bit wounded. "Gee, that belly dancer took me off her friends list. Did she just not care to keep up with me? Or did I do something to offend her?!" On Twitter? I rarely even go to the list of who is following me. If I lose a follower I just assume it's because what I Tweet about didn't turn out to be what he or she was looking for. Easy come, easy go.

I feel very free to be me over at Twitter, very much the way I feel on this blog. And that is a good thing.

So, I've been continuing to Tweet and am loving it. I'm not going to list my Twitter handle here, simply because it incorporates my last name (why did I do that?! sigh). But if you'd like to follow me, leave a comment with your email address (which I will not publish) and I'll send it to you. And if you don't want to follow me, I'm totally not offended. :)

St. Kateri's big day

Ok, housekeeping first. The ghost socks are coming along. I'm on the heel flap of sock #1. I tried a smaller needle size and once again, it looked like a ghost massacre had just taken place. I'm stuck with the 3.25 mm needles for better or for worse. I'm hoping that the sock won't be too big for my foot but I feel peace in the sense that no other needle option will work so whatever happens, happens.

Also, my new gold belly dance costume shipped. Much rejoicing has commenced.

So that's all good news. We had a very nice weekend with the kids. The fall is really at its peak here and it's just beautiful. We raked up leaves in our back yard which Anne is a huge fan of. She has her own tiny rake that Hank used when he was little, and she toddles around the yard carrying it around. It's all very adorable. Here she is, ready to do some other gardening:

Isn't that sleeper just a crack up? It has pink cat faces on the feet. It just kills me.

In Catholic news, yesterday Kateri Tekakwitha was canonized. This is something I've been waiting for for quite a long time and I was hoping to catch some of the Mass on EWTN but didn't check soon enough. At any rate, that afternoon I logged into Facebook, and once again, I was annoyed. :) One of my friends posted a link to an article about the canonization, and this started off a small flurry of comments. One mutual friend commented that she sees the canonization as a positive thing, but that given some of the unsavory missionary work in those days there is also a negative connotation. Her comment was respectful, so it didn't bother me in the least. And I have read an article about this more negative view of St. Kateri's rise to the top and I guess it's just one of those situations wherein I simply agree to disagree with those that hold that opinion. Do I think that all Catholic missionary work was totally on the up-and-up with no coercion? Of course not. But someone of Kateri's conviction was NOT acting due to manipulation; her faith was deeply held. And this is about her, not about inappropriate missionary activities.

Well, after that, someone that I don't know chimed in with an unpleasant tone and with scathing remarks. That she's no longer a Catholic because of how awful the Church is and how can anyone POSSIBLY think this canonization is a good thing given the circumstances, and the Church is STILL awful, and on and on. I think her bottom line can be summed up as the Catholic Church = No Redeeming Characteristics argument that we often see toted out on any number of issues.

It just brought me down a little bit. I hate to see the Church so maligned like that. But any religious faith with tenets that are challenging for most people is going to take a hit in the court of popular opinion, no way around it. And someone speaking with obvious hatred about the Church is not getting so worked up about a single issue; there is almost certainly many reasons that they are holding the Church is such ill regard. And Facebook is not the venue to get into any of that. It's hard to see such things out there without responding, but no response is going to have a positive effect, so one has to let it go. Which I did. But I felt porky about it.

Has anybody else seen this type of reaction to St. Kateri's canonization?

Oh boy...

You know, it's interesting. Lately, as we all know, the Church has taken quite a beating in the media. And I think we'd all agree that the disagreement is coming from those more "to the left," if you will. That's certainly a generalization, but I think it's a fair one. But yet, (and I have to admit, I find this amusing, albeit hurtful) the Church also takes a beating from the exact polar end of the spectrum, the far right.

This morning, I logged onto Facebook, and my lovely friend Cam from the A Woman's Place... blog drew my attention to a post by a headcovering shop that in the past, I've highly recommended on this blog: Garlands of Grace (link purposely excluded, ha!). I've "liked" the Garlands of Grace Facebook page, so I quickly found the source of Cam's comment:

"In response to several ladies who have wondered and many others who have presumed, I am compelled to share:Garlands of Grace in NOT a Catholic run business. I am burdened for all who stand with the Catholic Church and would plead with you to come out and believe the Word of God."This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." Acts 4:11-12"

Well then. I have absolutely no problem patronizing businesses that are not Catholic, not Christian, or even totally secular. What I DO have a problem with is associating with businesses that are downright anti-Catholic. THAT the Catholic Librarian does not tolerate.

Because the thing is, Garlands of Grace is not simply clarifying that they are not a Catholic run company. They are flat out saying that Catholics are not Christians and need to "come out" in order to actually "believe the Word of God." This viewpoint is certainly not pervasive amongst all non-Catholic Christians, but unfortunately I've seen it before, and it's insidious amongst at least a small representation of Christians. Very sad, but true.

Underneath this post, as one might imagine, a real brouhaha has erupted in the comments section. Happily, a sizable number of commenters (by far the majority) are charitable and articulate Catholics defending the Church and letting the business owners know that they will not shop there nor recommend the store anymore. There's also some ugly stuff mixed in there, including one woman who called the Church a "glorified cult" but that's par for the course, I suppose. I considered commenting, but then demured. The other Catholics there did an outstanding job of articulating my feelings beautifully and in a kind and charitable fashion. I just "liked" their comments to lend support. But I did "unlike" the page on Facebook to let the shop know that I'm no longer a fan of theirs. I'm curious to see how Garland of Grace's number of fans goes down due to this. It looks like a significant number of their (now former) customers are Catholic.

Anyway, I'm saddned by this, but I suppose I'm not totally surprised. If the Church made everybody happy all of the time, *that* would be something to worry about.

On a more positive note, if you're in the market for headcoverings, check out Cam's etsy shop A Snood for all Seasons. I just bought 2 coverings from her (the convertible type), and they're beautiful! She also sells coverings for little girls, and I'm plotting a purchase for Anne. How cute will that be?!

So, the morning is off to an adventurous start...

A very Catholic weekend

This picture just cracks me up. I have a priest friend on Facebook that uses this as his profile picture, and I just fell in love with the baby. And I so very much relate to it. *Finally* I too remember to say "with your spirit." And if I forget, I'm able to ad hoc my own special Tiffany response which is "And also with yoo.... *your spirit*."

I've also got the new "it is right and just" line down as well as the "not worthy to let you under my roof" thing almost perfected. Unfortunately, I've come to the conclusion that I may never have the Nicene Creed memorized ever again. I learned the Nicene Creed back in second grade, when preparing for my First Communion. It's so ingrained in my mind that chiseling away at any of the words is a pretty painful process. And it's not like it's totally different, which I think makes it even more difficult. The fact that it's mostly the same save for a couple handfuls of changed words and short phrases makes it even more unlikely that I'll be able to master it without having the pew card in front of me. Alas.

Speaking of Facebook, I've become downright unscrupulous with my defriending activities. I certainly don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, but I've decided that my Facebook newsfeed is *my* experience, and it's not worth it to be friends with someone that posts insensitive things about my faith. I'll lower myself to become snarky for *just* a moment *Emotional Entitlement Alert*: it seems that these days, many people are enjoying posting "witty" and politically correct comments about how irrelevant the Catholic Church is these days, and how clearly the Church is more concerned with everyone's sex life and their own power to care about pressing issues like social justice and helping the poor. I saw a comment like that last night on my feed, and do you know what I did? I contemplated posting a response for maybe 30 seconds or so, decided against it (just not worth it to upset myself, and in that venue the person is not going to be open to hearing any other opinion) and simply clicked over to my friends list, found their name, and selected "defriend." I even felt giddy. They'll probably never notice that I've done this, which I suppose is good. But it's a personal victory, and so I feel empowered. .

And in this vein, my ears are constantly burning with the sounds of contraception, which I'm sure all of yours are too. I was a bit surprised at how much this news story took off, and at first I didn't know what to think about it. I hate to see the Church take yet another beating in the news media and in the square of public opinion, but I do believe in the wisdom of this particular unpopular teaching and sometimes we have to stand up for the unpopular parts of our faith. Otherwise, how much could it really mean to us if we're not willing to go to bat for Her when the going gets tough? And things are definitely very, very ugly right now in the discussion out in the public arena. I did a lot of thinking about this, and I'll just hit the highlights since I'm sure we're all pretty saturated in talking about it at this point:

(1) The fact that this is an unpopular teaching does not change the truth of it in any way, from the Church's perspective. Popular opinion has never dictated theology in the Catholic Church. Hence, articles like I read the other day which say that it makes no sense to even talk about contraception in this day in age because it's so widely accepted and revered miss the point.

(2) Obedience, or lack thereof, also does not change Church teaching. Do the majority of Catholics use contraception? I have no idea, but it doesn't matter. So, all of the comments and articles that have as their main argument "most Catholics use artificial birth control anyway, so Catholic employers should just provide it" also miss the point entirely.

(3) Can people use their own personal opinions and consciences to decide whether or not to use contraception? Well, of course. We do have free will, after all. But that has nothing to do with the fact that, in the Church's eyes, contraception is immoral and contrary to the culture of life. Hence, asking Catholic organizations to pay for and provide contraception (even to non-Catholics) goes against THEIR conscience. This seems to be what most commenters are missing. People who want to use birth control still can. They can obtain it in other ways besides from their employers' health insurance policy. But to force a Catholic organization to provide it leaves them no room to follow their conscience. They would either have to pay for something that they find immoral, or not provide health insurance at all, which would also go against what they feel is fair and just treatment of their employees.

And that's all I have to say on that, because really, I don't like talking about contraception. :) It's a personal matter. But I'm taking personally what I'm reading these days about the Church, and since I don't write about it on Facebook, you all have to suffer on here, ha!

And so, relatedly, I've been thinking a lot about what I'm passing on of my faith to my kids. Henry is definitely in the "I'm bored in church" place and so I've been really trying hard to make our faith alive and vibrant for him. Because it is to me, even in the everyday routine of the liturgy. I used to think Mass was boring too. Now, I find the liturgy serene and beautiful.

Thus, when I was preparing for my Children's Liturgy of the Word session for yesterday, the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, I really tried to jot down some things to discuss I thought the kids would find interesting. We talked about the current liturgical color of green, what Ordinary Time means, how close we are to the beginning of Lent, and what we can be thinking about now in the last full week before Ash Wednesday. The readings featured leprosy, which did seem to make them scrunch their eyebrows up a bit. But I was getting a lot of whispered conversations going on as we approached the end of our discussion of the Gospel of Jesus healing the leper. And our deacon was still very much enmeshed in his homily, so I did what has always served me well when I teach: I just relaxed and let myself talk about whatever inspiration seemed right at that very moment.

"Today, we talked about Jesus as healer, and I think that it's important to think about what Jesus means to us in our everyday lives. We go to school, we play sports, we interact with our brothers and sisters and our parents. Sometimes people hurt our feelings or we hurt someone elses feelings, like we saw today with the lepers that were cast out of society. How can Jesus help us deal with these things? Sometimes, he heals us physically, like he did the leper, but more often than that, he helps us just in the little things that bother us or upset us as we go about our day. We talked about how the leper in the Gospel had faith that Jesus could heal him, and so we have to have faith that Jesus knows each of us intimately and can help us even in the mundane choices and events in our lives.

When I was a little girl, something really bothered me in thinking about this. I wondered: 'there are so many people on this earth, billions and billions. How can God see what is going on with each of them? Is God even real?'"

When I looked up, whereas before little conversation gaggles had formed as the kids got restless from sitting for too long, suddenly every little eye in the sacristy was on me. *100% * complete, rapt attention. And I could practically see the little thought bubbles above their heads, saying "Yeah! I *have* wondered that! Does she know the answer?!" And I knew I had done the right thing. I just hoped that my answer was just as inspired.

"This really bothered me, but eventually I realized that yes, God IS real. We are so intricately and perfectly made, we have to have a Creator. (little St. Thomas Aquinas thrown in there for good measure). And I realized that God is not like us. We're human, God is not. We are limited in how many people we can interact with at one time. God is not. If God is powerful enough to create the world and us out of nothing, He's powerful enough to see what's going on with billions of people all at the same time."

We even had a brief discussion of "omnipotence." Lots of wide eyes followed my every word. And so, I at least had a big impact this week. :) It was the best I've felt after one of these sessions in quite awhile.

I just hope nobody goes back to their parents and says that Miss Tiffany talked about how she didn't know if God was real this week. You know how kids tend to leave out important parts of stories when they retell them. :)

I just think that it's very important not to take for granted that our children are going to want to retain and explore their Catholic faith just because we tell them they should. They need to see it as real and vital in their own lives. And addressing some doubts that they have makes it more relatable for them, more likely that they'll take notice of the faith of the adults in their lives if they realize that those adults wonder about the same things that they do.

This week, before I headed out to Mass, I had prayed for my session with the kids. And so I hope that I provided a good foundation for them. And a truly Catholic one.

After that, we all went to a birthday party for the little boy of some friends of ours. As I sipped some wine and watched Henry play with some other little boys, and Anne cavort happily around the room, admired everywhere she went (she even accumulated a little 2 year old boyfriend named Devin who was very attentive to her every need), and Mike have a beer while talking to some of his fellow philosopher friends (there was even a priest there, the party was at the home of the Catholic couple that introduced Mike and I), I thought:

life is good.

Am I extra punchy lately? And, defending life...

I don't know what it is, but Facebook has been bringing me more angst than good the past few days. Yesterday, it was contraception, and today it's abortion. Just the sorts of uplifting conversation pieces we like to dwell on.

You know what it is? I don't use Facebook to post about my political and moral leanings. And I kind of wish other people didn't either, but hey, to each their own. It just seems like lately, I'm seeing all kinds of "much further than I am left" posts, and the problem with that for me is that oftentimes, the posters seem to think that anyone they could possibly be friends with must completely agree with them. Because their tone isn't always so nice and understanding. At least, that's my impression.

I hesitated to write this post addressing my feelings on today's topic of the day, because I like to keep it light-hearted on here. But life isn't always light-hearted, and this is a blog about the life of this Catholic librarian, so there you have it. This is, after all, MY blog. If I feel a need (and it has to be compelling for me to talk about a downer topic) to post about something, I can do that. Sometimes I restrain myself a bit too much I think. This is also a CATHOLIC blog. So I'm certain everybody can surmise what my position is on life issues.

And today, I do feel so compelled. I saw lots of posts today about the Susan Komen Foundation withdrawing their funding from Planned Parenthood, and many expressed their opinion about how outrageous they found this. They're entitled to their opinion. But I'm entitled to mine. And I felt that it would be worthwhile to write briefly about why someone could support such a withdrawal, since it appeared to me that my friends who wrote about this news piece were incredulous that anyone who called themselves pro-life could favor withholding funding from an organization that provides free breast cancer screenings to women.

Well, I'll tell you why. Planned Parenthood is an organization that performs abortions. I don't care what percentage of their business entails performing these abortions. To the extent that they perform any abortions at all, when you believe (as I do) that human life begins at conception, even one abortion is too many. Therefore, they may do all the philanthropic work in the world, and I still cannot support them. Are free breast cancer screenings a good thing? Yes, of course they are. And if that was the only service they provided, I'd be all for it. However, that is not the case. Even though part of what they do may be good, they also do evil, and this I cannot abide. I cannot defend the indefensible.

I certainly hope that I haven't offended anybody. In everything, I aim to be fair and charitable. But I felt that I had to express the other side of this issue.

It is my deep feeling that many people consider themselves pro-choice because they have been touched by abortion in some way. They may know someone who had an abortion, they may have helped a person procure an abortion, and/or they may have had an abortion. Please know that I do not condemn you in any way. Not a single one of us is perfect. Although I have no personal experience with abortion, I have chosen to do things in my life that I am not proud of. Every single one of us needs the saving grace of God. Nobody here is "holier" or "better" than anybody else. I pray that we can all find healing and comfort from Him, and from each other.

And once again, I'm going to be revamping my Facebook settings. It's bad enough that I get so little sleep at night, I *really* need more uplifting news from what is supposed to be my relaxation portal...

Is there a patron saint of keeping our mouths shut?

Yesterday, I was having a really long day. I had a long meeting, I had a long reference shift, and in the midst of all that I had to prepare a lesson plan for a gigantic class today that I'm nervous about teaching every semester. And so during my last hour and a half at work, I got back from the reference desk and sat down to both pump and work on my lesson at the same time. In an effort to relax myself, I checked my Facebook news feed first, and something happened that I knew would happen eventually, but hadn't actually taken place until the cursed day that was yesterday: I was very upset by something that I read on there.

My list of Facebook friends isn't teeny tiny, nor is it huge. I'm friends with some people on there that I rarely if ever see in everyday life. But in each instance, I do care about what is going on in their life, hence the reason for the friending. And in any group of 130 people, naturally all of these people are going to have a mix of different opinions, viewpoints and lifestyles. And that's fine. I'm married to an atheist, for heaven's sake. I don't need everyone to agree with me. I have lots of friends, both on Facebook and in real life, that I treasure deeply despite any differences in our worldviews. In real life, this is because we all respect each other and can discuss things (when they come up) in a civilized and charitable fashion.

On Facebook, you have a totally different phenomena going on. I do think people feel less restrained in what they say in such a format, plus you also see comments from strangers, people you're not friends with, but they commented on one of your friends posts. And this is what happened in my situation yesterday.

One of my Facebook friends posted a link to an article about the story that is all the rage in the Catholic news right now: Catholic bishops objecting to mandated contraception coverage in all insurance plans. And the thing is, that topic isn't even relevant to the post I'm writing now, because the fact that people disagree with the Church on this is not remotely the reason that I got upset. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, and I'm friends with lots of people that aren't Catholic. No problem. What upset me is that I'm reading my Facebook news feed, and I have to see comments that are mean spirited, ugly, and absolutely vitriolic. I actually started shaking reading some of them.

I got mad.

People, this isn't easy to accomplish. I am EASY GOING. Can someone make me mildly annoyed? Yes, very easily. I do work with college students after all. But mad? That's hard to do. And I wasn't just mad. I was seething.

The comments that got me riled up were not crafted by my Facebook friend posting a link to the article. They were in the comments that followed, from her friends and friends of friends. And I KNOW that anything Catholic is not a very popular religious choice, especially if it becomes known that one actually believes in all of the teachings of the Church. So, some snarky comments about how outdated the Church is and virtual eye rolling do not bother me in the least.

But what DOES make me mad, my friends, is the absolute intolerant and NASTY stuff that I read yesterday. I mean, HORRIBLE. Terrible inflammatory statements about the Church and anybody SIMPLE MINDED enough to actually align themselves with such an archaic institution.

99% of the time, I can let things go. But this stuff? I couldn't let it go. I just couldn't. I'm not going to even dignify what was said by paraphrasing it here, but I'd hope that you'd trust my judgment enough to know that the fact that I was so upset by it means that it was BAD.

I'm using caps a lot, see how worked up I am?

So I posted something. This is way out of my comfort zone, because I would never ordinarily do it, but I couldn't help it. I simply commented that I found the comments posted therein to be both unkind and unfair. I immediately got a comment back directed to me that had a major Attitude.

Well. I'm weak, but I couldn't let it go. I just COULDN'T. Pride goeth before a fall, sigh.

I certainly was not going to get into a debate on Facebook. Because, primarily, it's an easy format in which to lose your cool and launch into a very uncharitable tone with people. And that's wrong, even if you feel provoked. Secondly, let's face it, it's not going to do any good. Is she going to change her mind because I try to argue with her on Facebook? No way.

So I did comment back, but only to say that there are others out there, myself included, with a different viewpoint, and I respectfully agreed to disagree. I just wanted everyone who was spewing venom out on that thread to realize that, yes, there ARE still people out there who identify as Catholics, are proud of it, and feel that, despite the human imperfections of Her members, the Church is a beautiful and worthwhile institution.

Well. That ignited a malestrom of even uglier responses, and at that point, I did let it go. Because that was the right thing to do, and sometimes, I'm able to do the right thing. Not often enough, for sure, but sometimes I am. I did want to stand up for the Church, but I also did not want to slip into putting my pride first and thereby causing others to have an even more negative impression of Her. There was nothing to be gained by saying anymore, I'd said what I felt I needed to, and then I stepped away. These were all strangers to me anyway, why should I care what they think?

But I tell you, gentle reader, it was HARD. Oh, OH so very difficult! Someone even took my one sentence (and polite, if nothing else) reply and mocked it. It was a long post, I had clearly touched a nerve. And even though I left work feeling like I was snorting my nostrils out and creating new wrinkles in my forehead (such an attractive look), I didn't write anymore.

Interestingly, when I checked the thread again this morning (glutton for punishment), the worst of the comments, like that long one after mine? Gone. Deleted. Must be either by the commenter, or by the original poster of the article. Interesting. So maybe somebody else also thought they were over the top.

But this begs a question: when you hear something that you feel is anti-Catholic, should we say something? Or should we let it go and be an example of humility? St. Francis of Assisi tells us that we should evangelize always, and when necessary, use words. Yesterday, I felt a few words were necessary. But I agonized over whether or not I should say them, and chose them very carefully. And I stand by what I wrote. It was charitable and respectful. I held back a lot of what, emotionally, was roiling inside me. Was it the right thing to do?

In the end, I'm very glad that I chose my few words and otherwise held my tongue. I don't need to spew hatred all over a social networking site. I stand confidently with the Church, who stands firm, despite the weaknesses of Her human members.

And I learned another important lesson: I'm going to hide more things on Facebook when something bothers me. Nobody needs that kind of negativity in their life. Certainly not on something that is designed to help us stay connected to our family and friends.

So, the question of the day...Catholic Librarian: kind and possibly brave, or a cowardly idiot? Discuss. :)