Books and Back-to-School on the feast of the Assumption...

Books still available for pre-order!

Well, happy feast of the Assumption, everybody! I'm going to be honest and admit that I was dragging a bit to get myself to Mass today. I had planned to go to the 8 am at my parish, and well...

😳

Let's just say that didn't happen. 😂 Plus, I had a meeting at 9 am (that I had forgotten about, OOPS!) and so I would not have made it back for that on time. I was all rushy rushy, juggling my lunch, various morning beverages, and gigantic bag (Mike: "has this gotten bigger?! Me: "Well, yes. Didn't you see the big package that came yesterday with my new bag in it?" 😇) to get into the library and throw aforementioned stuff down before heading to the meeting. The meeting wrapped up at 11, and luckily there is a parish near campus with an 11:30 am Mass. Honesty time again: I did not feel like driving over there, but I did it anyway, because I knew that it was the right thing to do, and sure enough: BAM. Outstanding experience. I mean, the Eucharist is there, what more do we need, right? But the priest also had a beautiful homily about a statue that he had seen recently of Our Lady being assumed into heaven, and how it was different from other common images we see of Mary, wherein she is clasping her hands, or holding them extended downward. In this particular statue, she was holding her arms up, her gazed fixed upward towards heaven. He spoke of this posture reminding him of faith, hope and trust, and it really touched my heart. What an excellent feast day blessing.

In other news, I see from my Facebook feed that mid-August is officially back-to-school time. My kids don't go back until after Labor Day, but still, there is a definite back-to-school feeling in the air, yes? My piece for Catholic Mom this month reflects that this important change is very much on my mind this year (it's a focus on St. Vincent de Paul as a patron for our little back-to-schoolers!). My babies are going into 8th and 2nd grade, respectively. I mean:

😭

I can't believe that this is really happening. Henry has just one more year in the same school as Anne, and then he will be off to high school. This does not seem possible. I mean, just yesterday, he was toddling into our bedroom in the morning in his footed sleeper, to curl up with me and watch that creepy show with the hands until he had to get dressed for daycare.

😭

I guess I'm at that point in life that I just never foresaw. I saw myself getting married and having kids, by which I mean LITTLE KIDS. They are NOT SUPPOSED to get to be 13 years old and go to high school!

*blink blink*

I'll make it. Sometimes real life just seems a bit surreal.

Also this August, pre-orders for the Stay Connected journal series that I am a part of are open for only a few more days! I wanted to post about this again because the publisher decided on a final retail price for these initial 3 books, and they will be $14.95 each. The pre-order price of $9 per book, or $25 for the initial set of 3, is an INCREDIBLE bargain! You can also get my book in bulk quantities (3, 5 or 10 copies) for up to 50% off right now for a Bible study group, and now is the absolute best time to pull the trigger on that due to the price break. 10 copies for $60! My book focuses on spiritual reading, and pulls out excerpts from some classic works of Catholic literature for us to study together. Quick promo video for your leisure time! 😃

It's been such a pleasure to work with Allison Gingras on this series, and I am SO EXCITED about the full launch on October 1st (feast of St. Therese, she's featured in my book!) and doing some traveling to promote the book. Details to follow when I have them!

*streamers*

In the meantime, how is your back-to-school season going? Any fun plans for fall? I'd love to hear about them in the comments!

June novena nerds, report in!

My latest piece over at Catholic Mom is up, and it got me to thinking!

Novenas. I like to pray one per month, and I was slacking on June. ;-) It's always a humbling experience when you see Lisa Hendey tweet something out about a new article over at Catholic Mom, you admire the embedded featured photo, then think to yourself: "That sounds like something I would like to read." And only then do you remember that YOU wrote the article.

Middle age, peeps. It's the pits. 😄

So that's what happened again this month, and along with my hyper organized, early submission of aforementioned article, I also forgot to set things up to pray the Sacred Heart novena along with my group of friends like we had been planning.

Oopsies!

We're back on track now. And the novena starts TODAY! Pray More Novenas is hosting this novena, so you can sign up to receive the daily emails with all of the prayers included, happily. I also tweet a link out to the prayers each day, so if you follow me on Twitter you can follow along that way as well. I put the Twitter widget back on the right sidebar of the non-mobile site for the blog, so you can link to it right on there if you'd like. I remember someone asking me about that widget a while back after I removed it (Cindy?) and I've been toying with putting it back, so now here it is, back. :0 I know not everyone uses Twitter, so this way you can still see what I'm up to on there even if you don't have a Twitter account.

The feast of the Sacred Heart is next Friday, June 23rd. I talk all about it over at Catholic Mom, if you'd like to go take a peek. We love comments over there!

St. Lucy's feast day approaches - should we have Anne wear a crown of lit candles?! #CouldBeDangerous...

Happy Thursday everyone, and I hope that you are well. :) I absolutely love the feast days during Advent, and a fairly new one to my radar screen is coming up on Saturday December, 13th: the feast of St. Lucy. I thought we could talk about St. Lucy a bit and plot about how to work her feast day into a fun family activity/ domestic monastery thing. :)

Henry is the one who really drew my attention to St. Lucy. He and I read a saint story of some sort each night before bed (we have an entire library of books to pull from). And during the course of these readings last year, St. Lucy made an appearance. What with all of the dramatic eye gougings and blazing fires, the story captured Henry's imagination.

"Wow. Did that really happen to her, Mommy? How was she able to do that?"

*very big eyes*

Since then, he's always been fond of St. Lucy. Last year, I bought the book that you see above, Lucia: Saint of Light to read to the kids on her feast day. Henry read it, but Anne wasn't too interested in longer stories just yet. Plus, it really is written for slightly older children, I would say the 7-8 year range. But the pictures are intriguing, so we'll see how it goes this year.

I'd like to make St. Lucy's feast an annual celebration in our house. Thus, I decided to do some additional research this year. Who exactly was St. Lucy, you ask? Lucy was an early virgin martyr (there's that word again! :0 I always substitute "unmarried" when reading these stories to the kids ;-)) who actually appears in the canon of the Mass in Eucharistic Prayer I. Hence, the Church obviously finds her a pretty important example of courage in faith. Part of her story involves Lucy convincing her mother to seek the intercession of St. Agatha for the cure to a bleeding problem she was experiencing. The two women traveled to St. Agatha's tomb, and while there, Lucy had a vision of Agatha and her mother was cured. Subsequently, Lucy took a vow of virginity and gave her money and belongings away to the poor. When she rebuffed a smarmy suitor wanting to marry her, she was targeted as being a Christian, tried, convicted, and martyred. Unfortunately, we have the torture sequence referenced above. :-\

Traditional activities on the feast of St. Lucy involve the youngest daughter in the family wearing a crown (symbolizing martyrdom, and Lucy's status as a bride of Christ, I'm thinking) of lit candles. Her name means "light," so that's part of it, but it may also have to do with her feast falling during Advent, when we expectantly await the light of Christ. This is all very lovely, but obviously a trifle dangerous.  Especially considering our contender for the crown:

I'm not thinking this is a good idea. :0 I may try to find some crafty materials around the house to make a ribbony crown for her, we'll see. But no candles, please. The other thing that is popular on the feast of St. Lucy is serving coffee and sweet rolls that morning. I have no idea what this has to do with young Lucy herself, but this is the custom. I found a recipe here for an appropriate sweet bread for those brave souls wanting to bake. I absolutely love the idea of placing lit candles on the bread, perfect and symbolic compromise! I was all gung ho, but then I saw "active, dry yeast" on the list of ingredients. I have no notion of how one acquires yeast at all, let alone yeast that is all active :0 so I'm not sure if we'll be doing this or not. Maybe I could stop at the grocery store on my way home for some pre-baked "St. Lucy bread." Or at least, that's what I'll call it. ;-)

But I'd like to make the day notable for the kids. There are some other great St. Lucy day ideas over at this blog, if you feel ambitious.

How about you, dear reader? Doing anything special for the feast of St. Lucy?

How are we preparing for *this* Christmas? - 2nd Sunday of Advent & the feast of the Immaculate Conception 2014...

Morning everyone! Hopefully my greeting depicts "chipper!" because I am indeed in a very good mood. I had an excellent and jam-packed weekend, and over the course of the week I'll write about all of it. So! We had the feast of St. Nicholas on Saturday, an action-packed dance performance that evening, the Second Sunday of Advent, taking the kids to see The Nutcracker that afternoon, and the feast of the Immaculate Conception today. I'm going to have my usual Catholic Monday going on, with a recap of the Second Sunday of Advent, plus the feast of St. Nicholas, also touching upon my morning Mass for the Immaculate Conception, as they meld together nicely. Tomorrow will be a Dance Tuesday post recapping all the hafla fun (and it *was* super fun, I just love writing those posts, and I hope you enjoy reading them!), and on Wednesday I'll talk all about The Nutcracker and my first year of bringing both children. That is such a beautiful Advent tradition, I can't wait to write about it.

Ok! So let's get underway with our weekend recap of Catholic devotions and liturgical activity. Friday evening before my last dance rehearsal, the kids set their shoes out on the hearth, and this is what we found in the morning:

Anne chose her pink furry boots to put out there, isn't that a scream?

Books, chocolate coins and saints for everybody. :) The kids really enjoy this feast day tradition, and even though I didn't grow up with it as part of our home faith life, I definitely plan to carry it on. I also think it makes it easier when the inevitable "is there really a Santa Claus?" discussion comes up (as it did 2 years ago with Henry) when the kids already know about St. Nicholas. Santa Claus is a fun tradition based upon a *real* person, a saint, whom they are familiar with, and I think this softens the blow a bit. :)

And Anne, oh my goodness, LOVES her St. Therese saint softie:

PRECIOUS. She takes her to bed to cuddle and carries her around the house with her. I have Our Lady Star of the Sea for her Christmas stocking, and now I'm SO glad that I got her two. The shop that I bought these from is Saintly Silver on Etsy. The owner doesn't have any current listings because she's booked until after Christmas, but she'll have items back up for sale in early January. These are *fabulous* gifts for young children.

Sunday dawned with us adding the second purple candle to the Advent wreath, and I found that someone had rearranged our nativity set:

Apparently, everybody has banded together, including the angel and a sheep, to adore the infant King from outside in a mass lineup. :0 And the responsible party was *super* active at Mass in her excitement about the upcoming Nutcracker festivities, bouncing all over the pew and generally talking for all of Mass:

"ANNE. Shhhhh, Honey. We have to be quiet during Mass."

"I AM BEING QUIET MOMMY!!"

You know how that goes, all of you fellow long-suffering parents out there. I pointed out the two lit purple candles to both kids, and as ever, there are lots of questions and excitement about it being "pink candle Sunday" next weekend.

This morning I stopped off at 8 am Mass for the feast of the Immaculate Conception on my way into work. This is an interesting one since, being the patronal feast day of the United States, the holy day of obligation is retained even when it falls on a Saturday or a Monday, in contrast to other holy days throughout the year. I love attending Mass during the week, so it's always a blessing to me to have that extra encouragement to do so before work. I stopped off at a parish close to campus so that I would get to work by 9.

There was a pretty decent showing for a holy day Mass, in my opinion. The organist started things off by asking everyone to stand and greet each other, and can I be honest? I *loathe* this practice, lol! It's well-intentioned, certainly, but I find it forced and uncomfortable. The sign of peace is one thing, but this extra bonding activity is an awkward turn off for me personally. Happily, I wasn't sitting close enough to anyone to have to worry about it. I did wish them all peace at the appropriate place in the liturgy, however.

*gold star*

At any rate, the older priest who said the Mass was quite adorable, and he had some really thought-provoking statements in his homily. He mentioned how well-placed this feast is during Advent, when we can reflect on how we all need Christ to save us and help us to become holy. He talked about how Advent is a great time to avail oneself of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, which I thought was an *excellent* point. The key being - how are we preparing ourselves for Christmas? And he made an explicit point about referencing our preparation for *this Christmas*. Christmas comes every year, and we all know it is a special season, but right now all we need to focus on is the present. Christ wants to dwell among us, and each year we need to prepare and reflect on that anew. I really loved that.

It felt so good to be at Mass during the week, I'm hoping to do that again at least once or twice prior to Christmas. I felt all glowy as I headed into work, and voila! Here I am, starting our week together.

How was your Second Sunday of Advent, dear reader, and your feast of the Immaculate Conception? Do detail in the comments, and come back to join me tomorrow to revel in some dance fun. :)

Birthday party frivolity and priesthood aspirations?! - on the feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica...

Happy Monday everyone! I had a jam-packed family weekend, and a beautiful Mass yesterday, and I hope you did too. We had Henry's birthday party on Saturday (dance on Friday, will talk about that later this week :)) and the feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica on Sunday. Ready? Let's chronicle!

So, Saturday we hosted a small family party for Henry. We were keeping it simple with regard to food: ordering pizza and wings, having a cheesy dip as an appetizer with assorted veggies, chips and crackers, store bought cake, and lots of alcohol. I mean, that's a winning menu right there, folks. ;-) When I host things, I get all neurotic, so I like to keep things as simple as possible. That way I can just flit around and assure that everyone has enough to eat and drink without *also* worrying about setting the oven aflame or otherwise poisoning everyone accidentally. Before everyone arrived, Mike was bemoaning the lack of space in the refrigerator as he tried to wedge the cake in there, and I noticed my box of nearly empty Chardonnay in the corner. Well, Tiffany to the rescue! I cleared space in the refrigerator while also relaxing a bit before guests started arrived.

#halo!

And everything went great. I got to see an aunt and uncle from out of town that I don't get to visit with often enough, and a great time was had by all. Henry got some fun gifts, including this year's Lego Advent calendar, a few movies, a Lego Arctic set, and a new piece for his Fontanini nativity village. He was happy. His birthday is always a nice prelude into the holidays and time spent with family.

And so Sunday I was feeling in excellent spirits as we headed out to Mass. Both kids behaved very well, we just had one incident of Anne's baby doll (remember Tennis Baby?) losing her plastic bottle as it was dropped and bounced up about 3 pews, and apparently they engineer such things to be *as loud as humanly possible*, but other than that, things were good. As the feast day name indicates, our priest spent the homily talking about the history of the Lateran Basilica in Rome and it's place as the papal seat in Rome. When Mass was over, I let the kids collaborate to light a candle again ("Here's the money, but you have to take Anne with you." "MOMMY. Do I *have* to?!") while I wrote our deceased relatives names in the Book of Remembrance, which our parish has out every November.

Throughout Mass, I had been thinking about how I'd like to make Henry the subject of my next novena. :) He's going through what I remember going through very vividly as a child, which is Aversion To Mass Syndrome.

"Do I HAVE TO go?" is asked each week, with a look of torture present. "Mass is BORING."

For awhile, he would follow along in the missal, and that seemed to help, but lately he's been uninterested in doing that. I don't want him to see church as a bad thing, something I make him do and he doesn't want to do. And, you know. That's pretty much how it works right now for him. :0 Because yes, I do insist that he goes and Mike backs me up on this. But I'm hoping that his love for Catholic traditions and saints outside of Mass will open his heart to having a prayer life and a relationship with God that he relates back to the Mass. That's pretty ambitious hopes for a child of 9, but I think it's a worthy goal. Hence the novena.

But adorable anecdote here, and it brought so much hope into my heart. God indeed does have a sense of humor, and seriously, that is a quality that I LOVE in a man. :0 Later Sunday evening, I was upstairs putting Anne to bed. Mike and Henry were talking downstairs. As I joined their conversation, Henry was saying something about jobs some of the boys in his class want to pursue when they grow up. So I asked him if he had ever thought about what *he* would like to do for a career when he grows up. I was especially interested in his answer, since Henry has never said or shown any interest in any vocation or career up to this point. He mentioned something about construction and electricians, and so we talked about that for a few minutes. Then I asked him about his friend Raymond:

"Hank, have any of your friends at school mentioned wanting to be priests when they grow up? Maybe Raymond?"

Raymond seems an ideal fit to me, and the Catholic mother was being nosy. :0

"Raymond? No, he's never said that. But last year, Mrs. W and Miss S? (his third grade teacher and the teacher's aide). They both said that I should be a priest. They said it a bunch of times."

Well. I nearly fell off the couch with my partially knitted sock in hand.

"Really?! Why did they say that?!"

I was trying to keep my excitement contained, but was doing a pretty poor job of it. ;-)

"Well...I won that religion award. Three years in a row. And they said I know so much about the saints and stuff."

He looked pretty sheepish as he was explaining this, but I couldn't help my reaction. So here goes:

*nostrils flare with pride*

I am far from perfect in all ways, especially in my abilities as a mother. And God knows that I am no saint-in-progress and that I could do so much better with raising my kids up in the faith. But I do try, I do, very hard. And sometimes, trying hard is all we need to do. God will do the rest.

Certainly, I don't know that Henry is actually going to be a priest. He'll figure this all out when he is an adult. But just that someone else suggested it to him based upon his knowledge of the faith? That meant the world to me. I was glowing for the rest of the evening. Somehow, I think that everything is going to turn out all right with this intention, even if the route is roundabout. :)

*contented sigh*

How was your weekend, everyone?

Rainy Halloween fun, and the feast of All Saints & All Souls...

Morning everyone, and happy Monday. :) I'm not really feeling very bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, but that's just the way things go sometimes, it *is* Monday after all. But I had a very pleasant weekend, so let's chronicle!

Halloween, for the second year running, was rainy here in WNY. But I was armed with my drinky drink, so I was happy. ;-) Although Anne did shed a few tears at dinnertime because she didn't want to eat what we had made (this is a very common occurrence these days, unfortunately), no full out temper tantrums came into play, for which I was supremely grateful. After dinner, we costumed the kids up and waited for it to get dark. Mercifully, both got into their costumes and wore them without incident:

Moment before heading outside, everybody is happy. Including the photographer, with her "water" bottle in tow...

Anne was so excited that as I was getting my coat on, I could hear her outside having a lengthy conversation with one of our neighbors about the merits of chocolate vs. non-chocolate candy. It's been clear for quite some time that Anne is the sole extroverted member of my household. :0

Sooooo, Mike goes out on the porch to hand out candy with our lit Jack O'lantern, a chair, and a bottle of beer, and I head down the street with the kids. The rain did nothing to dampen their enthusiasm, to be sure. I had my rain jacket on complete with hood covering my hair, and was sipping my drink. ;-)

Both kids were very good, saying "thank you!" at each house. Anne's costume, especially her glittery purple mask, earned rave reviews. In lieu of saying 'trick or treat!' she just said "May I have some candy?" and she's cute enough to get away with it. Henry, of course, was horrified by this. :)

We get down to the furthest point of our journey, the very end of our street, and the inevitable happens:

"Mommy, I have to go pee RIGHT NOW! I AM GOING TO PEE IN MY COSTUME!!"

#longsufferingsigh

Back to our house we go, Anne doing a careful pee pee walk, Henry with a sour expression. We do what we need to do at the homefront and head back out. We get to most of the houses on the other side of the street before Anne declares that she is "so tired Mommy!" I drop her back at our house to hand out candy with Mike. I took Henry out for a bit longer, and all went well.

The only difficult part was the inevitable wrangling into bed for Anne, who despite being exhausted, did not want to go to sleep. She relayed the story to me the next day as follows:

"Mommy, I was so tired last night. So I got on the floor and cried."

"How come you didn't just go to sleep if you were so tired?"

"I did not want to go to sleep. So I threw my toys instead."

"But going to sleep would have made you feel so much better."

*thoughtful silence*

"Next time I will go to sleep, Mommy."

Interesting insight into the toddler mind, no? :0

After that big night, I was rather contemplative about it being the weekend commemorating the feast of All Saints, and then All Souls.

I really wanted to go to Mass on Saturday morning (I was sad that there was no official Holy Day of Obligation this year), but didn't end up making it because we had a ton of household chores needing our attention. I eagerly anticipated the feast of All Souls on Sunday, and got my new issue of Magnificat all ready.

#Catholicnerd

The kids were both really good at Mass, Anne even respecting my request to keep the bathroom trips down to one. :0 And it was just one of those Masses that seemed particularly meaningful to me for no specific reason at all. I mean, the feast of All Souls has been significant to me for some time now that I have relatives who have passed away, and I remember them in a special way each November. I write their names each year in our parish's Book of Remembrance. But yesterday I felt it even more so. I just felt very connected to my Catholic community yesterday at Mass - both here and around the world, and from the great cloud of witnesses in heaven. I was able to pay more attention at Mass and simply appreciate everything more, especially the Eucharist, and it made me feel so happy to be a Catholic. So, that's the sappy part of my weekend. :)

I have other good fodder to discuss, such as my ideas for making this upcoming Advent a prayerful one (hope springs eternal!), and I will discuss that tomorrow, so come visit me again then. How was your Halloween and feast of All Souls? Do leave a comment. :)

Month of the rosary, and feast of the Guardian Angels!

There's my new rosary, in action. *heart* I've been praying with it both morning and evening as I embark on the 54 day rosary novena. And in fact October is the month of the rosary, very lovely, yes? What I love about the rosary is the way it helps me to focus on specific events from our faith as I pray. I also love the use of a physical aid in prayer. As a person who likes structure and crossing off items on a to-do list, there is something incredibly satisfying about moving the beads through my fingers toward a definite goal.

This morning, I was thinking about the fact that it's the feast of the Guardian Angels, and Magnificat had a lovely little tidbit to introduce the memorial:

"Popular piety encompasses many forms of devotion to the Guardian Angels. St. Basil the Great taught that 'each and every member of the faithful has a Guardian Angel to protect, guard, and guide them through life.' This ancient teaching was consolidated by biblical and patristic sources and lies behind many forms of piety. St. Bernard of Clairvaux was a great master and a notable promoter of devotion to the Guardian Angels. For him, they were proof 'that heaven denies us nothing that assists us,' and hence, 'these celestial spirits have been placed at our sides to protect us, instruct us, and to guide us.'"

Very comforting, especially as I woke up in a state of some anxiety. I'll spare you the details, but I have a few things on my week this week, and I didn't sleep well because I was thinking about them. Don't you hate that? At 2 am, even the simplest things take on an insurmountable quality that will quickly overwhelm the mind of your resident Nervous Nelly. Mike didn't sleep well either:

"I'm worried about getting all the grading and prep work done between now and Columbus Day."

So I'm not alone, I married a kindred worrying spirit (and a super cute one, at that). :) And praying the rosary helps when I'm trying to figure out ways of coping with larger concerns, you know? The familiar and the repetitive bring so much solace in such situations.

On the other hand, short, quick prayers are best when faced with these situations:

"MOMMY. What you doing?!"

"Just coming to check on you, Honey."

"Don't look in here!!" *closes toilet lid with a bang*

Oh sigh.

I own so many rosaries at this point, that I have one tucked into every coat pocket and conceivably useful spot to grab when the urge to pray occurs. I keep several in the car, that's a favorite prayer spot of mine. I keep one on my bedside table, one in the kitchen. One in Henry's room, to pray with him if we say a decade together. Pockets are also popular, and many a rosary has gotten an unexpected and rigorous washing when I've forgotten to take it out before the item went into the laundry. It's soothing to have them always so available, as a reminder that we are never alone.

One day at a time, you know? God never gives us more than we can handle. I just wish he didn't trust me so much, as said by a very wise Blessed who adorns my current favorite rosary. :0

Of swinging from pews & tantrums in the aisle - Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross 2014...

I generally like to tie the theme of these liturgical day posts around the readings, but that would assume that I actually *heard* the readings, soooooo...that can be a problem on weekends like the one I just had. :) In looking back through my Magnificat, I see that the second reading and Gospel were very dramatic in tone (the "at the name of Jesus, every knee should bend" reading from Philippians, and "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son" from John) so that fits with the tone of my weekend, I suppose. ;) Let's discuss.

This weekend marked the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, a nice highlight to celebrate during Ordinary Time. We decided to attend the vigil Mass this week to accommodate a Sunday morning trip to the cider mill, and instead of our regular parish we went downtown to a beautiful historic church that Mike loves.

Well. It seems to me that our daughter, little Miss Sassafras Anne, behaves much poorer when we're all together at Mass. When I have the kids by myself, she toes the line pretty well. Usually. You know how that goes. So anyway, we arrive just before Mass starts, and I was all looking forward to some quiet time to pray and recollect. This church has a large and beautifully detailed crucifix near the front of the sanctuary by the votive candles, and I thought that would be perfect to use as a meditation aid for this particular feast. Doesn't that sound lovely?

Unfortunately, the moment we cross the threshold of the holy water font, Anne announces:

"MOMMY! I have to go to the bathroom!"

I try to talk her out of this so that we can at least have Mass underway before we have to depart again, but she will not be dissuaded. We find an empty pew, and Henry says that he also has to go. A real party, no? I head to the back with both kids while Mike gets our stuff settled into our pew. I couldn't find the restrooms at first, then discover that there is only a single stall unisex situation. Henry hustles in.

*long suffering sigh*

I stand with a squirming Anne outside the door until he is done, and then she and I go in. Only for her to sit on the toilet for perhaps 30 seconds before declaring that "the pee pee isn't coming!" Wherefore art thou, pee pee? It was hiding, apparently. And no amount of persuading was getting it to unmask itself.

I got her reassembled and washed up. By the time we get back to the pew to join Mike and Henry, Mass has begun, and the congregation is singing the Gloria. And then the real fun begins. :-\ I was looking forward to seeing the red vestments and any other special liturgical enhancements for this particular feast, but my attention was totally distracted by Anne's attempt to swing from the end of the pew out into the center aisle. Immediate ceasing of this activity brought about truculent responses and dramatic evasive body movements. When my quiet but stern lecture to her on proper church behavior resulted in the ever popular Toddler Makes Body Go Limp While You Struggle To Corral Them As They Begin To Scream maneuver, Mike scooped her up and brought her to the back vestibule for a spell. Since he holds her and won't let her down to run around, Anne *hates* this, as you might imagine.

By this point, it was the homily, so I had completely missed the readings. But I had a nice break with just Henry by my side to listen to that and recite the Creed. Mike and Anne came back around the time of the collection, during which time Anne refused to put the money in and it had to be wrenched out of her fist. When I got the money out of my purse, she noticed her forgotten little pink Lalaloopsy purse on the pew beside it. Before I can stop her, she grabs it and dumps the contents out onto the pew. Clattering out we had:

A Brillo pad;
A headband;
A keyring in the shape of an alpaca;
A plastic cracker with slice of cheese affixed;
A plastic piece of cake;
A purple toy cell phone complete with picture of Dora the Explorer on it.

She rummaged through the stuff just long enough to make a lot of noise with it, and then turned her attention to the giant pulpit positioned to our left. This church has an old style raised pulpit that's in the center of the congregation, and I've only seen it used during Christmas Eve Mass. Anne decided that it would be super fun to go over there and explore the bottom of it, which we didn't necessarily have a problem with, but then she started running in circles around the base. Yeah, NO. Her retrieval went over like a lead balloon to the surprise of absolutely no one, and by this point I was counting down the liturgical acts until we could hightail out of there. A shame, but such is the way of things when a toddler is in tow.

And the cider mill thing that we rearranged everything for? Let's just say that I'm repressing the memories from that little outing, and so are poor Mike and Henry. Going anywhere with a 3 year old runs this risk, and our luck just ran out this weekend.

When we got back from that disaster on Sunday, I decided to run some errands to try and perk myself up, and I brought Anne along so that Mike could get some lesson prep work done at home. I will say that she was actually pretty good for this trip, with the exception of trying to boycott sitting in the cart at Target, saying she's "a big girl now!"

#WHYGODWHY

I remedied this little situation with good old fashioned bribery, and everything was fine from that point on. We made it to Target, Carter's and the craft store, all without incident. Our last stop was at the liquor store to pick Mommy up a treat for later. ;-) We got there at approximately 12:02 pm, and in New York alcohol can't be sold until after noon on Sundays, so the place with mobbed with anxious football fans. :0 It was a humbling commentary on my weekend as I stood in line with two magnum sized bottles of wine, and my toddler shouts over to me from her perch at the display of mini sized $1.00 bottles of vodka:

"MOMMY! THEY HAVE THE CHERRY WHIPPED CREAM KIND YOU LIKE!!"

...and I don't even blink before replying:

"Ok Honey, grab two!"

:0

And so that was my weekend, dear reader, how was yours? I have lots of dance news, but I'll save that for tomorrow. Belly Dance Tuesday! Come on back tomorrow afternoon if dance posts interest you. :)

Happy feast of St. Kateri!

Today is a big feast day, y'all. :0 St. Kateri Tekakwitha, the "Lily of the Mohawks," patron of the environment, first Native American consecrated virgin, and whose cause for canonization was championed by St. John Paul II as a source of inspiration for all Catholics of indigenous heritage. You can read her story many places on the web, including the link I provided above, but what I take most from it is the difficult life that she led, losing her parents at a young age and being physically scarred from her battle with smallpox. Also, how strong her young faith was when she encountered resistance from her people with regard to her conversion. I am so enamored with saints who were devoted to the Eucharist, and St. Kateri is well known for falling into this category. I love that she started a community for like-minded women before her death, and her influence spread far beyond the small areas of modern New York State and Quebec, Canada in which she lived.

From Magnificat for July 2014

St. Kateri has much personal meaning to me, as I noted in the post I wrote about my family's faith story. My paternal grandfather was Mohawk, and that angle of my family's genealogy has always been of great interest to me and my sisters. When my dad came into the Church back in the early 90's, I remember the Mass in which he was confirmed very well. My dad is a very reserved person, quiet and unassuming, and he didn't want to take part in a large Easter Vigil Mass. At the time, we were members of a small parish on the nearby Tuscarora reservation, and there was no Easter Vigil Mass scheduled there anyway, we would have to go to the large nearby Marian shrine whose religious order, the Barnabites, donated the time of one of their priests to say Mass on the reservation. So this would mean a *very* large Easter Vigil. Instead, the priest offered to say a private Mass during Easter season for us, during which my dad would be received into the Church. And that's what we did.

I remember being at the shrine and thinking how different it felt from when I was usually there, because the church was devoid of all people aside from us, and usually it is bustling with visitors. When we got to the Rite of the Sacraments of Initiation, the priest paused to say a few words about how he had come to know my dad, and how he had enjoyed the instruction classes they had journeyed through together. Then he said that he loved the saint my dad had chosen as his confirmation patron, and in my mind I thought: "Oh yes, he chose St. Andrew," because that was my great-grandfather's name, and I knew that my dad had been planning to use it in honor of him.

But then Father said: "He chose [at that time] Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha..."

And I remember being surprised that he had changed his mind, but then thinking "Oh, of course. That makes perfect sense."

And it does. If you read my link to our faith story, you'll see why. ;-)

St. Kateri is so special to me. I have a saint peg doll bearing her likeness on my desk at work, on a key chain for my house key, and on multiple rosary centerpieces. I use the images to call to mind her life and faith while recollecting in prayer or going about my daily tasks, so that I can better try to emulate her strong faith and courage.

St. Kateri, pray for us!

Pentecost Sunday...

Happy Monday everyone! I'm back at work after a perfectly lovely Pentecost Sunday. It was an overcast day, one with a cool summer breeze that make you very happy to nestle inside. 

Anne really likes going to Mass these days, she's always anxious to go, but Henry is still difficult to get motivated. He likes going up to communion, but we have a lot of work to do with getting him engaged in the liturgy. Ever since his First Communion preparation though, he *has* been doing much better with following along in his missal. That's a definite improvement. I love looking over and seeing his little brow furrowed as he flips to the appropriate passages, so sweet.

So we packed up and headed out, me sacrificing myself by letting the children pick the music that we listened to on the ride to our parish. I had a big bag of clothes that Anne has outgrown to pop into the donation bin in the parking lot, and Henry always fields this task. He does a great job at hoisting the bag into the bin and getting it to fall through in one attempt. My attempts are not nearly so elegant or successful.

We get into the church, and I made sure to point out the red banners and vestments to the kids, explaining that they were just for Pentecost. Anne was wide eyed, Henry looked noncommittal. :)

We all enjoyed the special Sequence that the congregation sings on Pentecost, and Anne happily pointed out that the fountain in place on the altar for Easter was still present. I wistfully told her that this would be it's last week, since we officially go back to Ordinary Time after Pentecost Sunday, all the way to Advent. *sob*

Both kids were very well behaved for Mass. Henry looks adorable when he processes up for communion, hands folded prayerfully. Anne has even started walking on her own in the communion line so that my hands are freed up to receive from the chalice as well.

After Mass, I remarked to Mike what a lovely Easter season it was. A lot of my Lent was very spiritually dry, but I had a hall-of-fame Holy Week, and the Easter season that followed has been very fruitful. May, in particular, resonated with me this year. Likely because I had a child receiving a sacrament this May, I really reveled in Catholic sacramental season, and noticed the other associated traditions. The May Crowning, ordinations to the priesthood and diaconate, rosary processions. All so special.

Later in the day, as we were home preparing for a Sunday dinner with my mom, it started raining. An absolutely fabulous, perfectly cool summer rain. I was so glad to be home and thinking about Pentecost Sunday, and upcoming Ordinary Time. There are still so many riches to be had there, and I'm looking forward to exploring them with you. :)

How was your Pentecost Sunday? Leave me a comment!

* Photo from Holymusic55 on Photobucket

A beautiful Triduum - a tale of Holy Week happiness

Hello all! I'm very glad to be back and blogging with you. It's kind of rainy and dreary here today, but Easter weekend was sublime. Let us chronicle...

*makes tea*

I had a super long day last Thursday, working the evening reference shift, and thus was extra thankful that I had taken Good Friday off. I got to sleep in and relax in the morning, and pray with my Magnificat magazine. Despite my resolution to pray Morning and Evening prayer for all of Lent, that hadn't gone very well :0 until Holy Week. Everything just really gelled for me Holy Week, and that continued during the Triduum. My Magnificat had absolutely fascinating details about all of the Triduum liturgies that I pored over. How could I have been a Catholic my whole life without knowing all of this *fantastic* information?!

Due to work, I missed the Mass of the Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday, but I was rearing to go on Good Friday afternoon. I almost didn't make it to the Celebration of the Passion liturgy, held at 3 pm at my parish, because Anne had a bad nap wake up and pitched a fit that could be heard for miles before we left the house, but I persevered. She had thankfully calmed down by the time we arrived, and was an excellent girl for the entire service. The only thing is (a) we were a few minutes late due to aforementioned fit pitching, and (b) the instant our butts touch the pew, she announces that she has to go to the bathroom. But we made it, and so I'll take it.

The entire liturgy lasted just over an hour. During the veneration of the cross, Anne was wide eyed as she watched everyone take their turn going forward, from little kids to elderly people needing help walking up. I could tell that that made quite an impression on her. I plan to make the Good Friday service an absolute must attend event each year, WOW does it pack a wallop. From the reading of the Passion in St. John's gospel, to the bare altar & empty tabernacle, I leave in tears every time.

As soon as Anne and I were heading out to the car, I was thinking about completing the Triduum with the Easter Vigil. We usually attend Mass on Easter morning, I'd only been to the Easter vigil twice in my entire life. Once before I realized how different the liturgy was on that day from every other vigil of the year, and once in 2011 when one of my best friends was baptized and confirmed and I was her Godmother.

*beams*

That was a very special Easter, obviously. After a spiritually dry year so far this year, I was loving my fruitful Holy Week and felt very inspired for the vigil Mass. So I made plans. This involved:

(a) staying awake, since the vigil starts at 8 pm and I'm usually ready for bed by 9:30. *snorts*

and,

(b) talking Henry into going with me. I thought it would be a special thing given that his First Communion is coming up in two weeks.

"It involves FIRE, Hank! But it *is* longer, so you have to be patient."

"Longer?! I don't think so, Mommy."

"But...FIRE!"

Let's just say that I prevailed.

At 8 pm Saturday evening, Henry and I were sitting in the darkened church, craning our necks to see the fire getting started outside. As our deacon processed into the dark church with the lit Easter candle, intoning "Behold, the light of Christ!" I thought to myself how very grateful I am to be Catholic. Our faith is truly a treasure.

I was teary as Hank and I had our candles lit, feeling so thankful that God is always there, even in our spiritual darkness. When the lights were flipped on dramatically as the cantor sang the Easter Proclamation, I could tell Hank was impressed. This indeed was different than any Mass he had ever seen.

Following the Blessing of Fire and Procession of the Candle, we moved to the Liturgy of the Word. This is the tough part with the Easter Vigil. :) There are 7 readings at this liturgy, each with their own Psalm and prayer, and Henry's agonized face as he flipped through his missal said it all. If I have a missal with which to follow along, *I'm* fine with that many readings, but feeling Henry's misery oozing from every pore was raining on my Easter parade a bit.

Well, at the pastor's discretion, the initial 7 readings can be pared down, and our parish ended up reading 3 of those, plus then the Pauline epistle and the Gospel, so 5 readings in total rather than 9. I thought that was an excellent compromise, and it soothed Henry quite a bit to see the readings dwindling.

Following the homily comes the third part of this Mass, which is the baptismal liturgy. Sublime! The litany of the saints, oh!

*ANGELS WERE LITERALLY SINGING*

It was so beautiful. We had 2 catechumens (receiving baptism, confirmation and Eucharist) and 2 candidates (receiving confirmation and Eucharist). One of the catechumens was a much older man, probably approaching 90 years old! I teared up during the baptisms, and then when the congregation renewed our own baptismal promises, it was just... Only when my good friend Irena was baptized, and when I got married, have I ever been that emotional at a Mass before.

When we moved on to the final part of the Mass, the Liturgy of the Eucharist, I could feel Hank relax. He knew exactly how long we now had to go, and so he was cool with that. I think he just likes to know what to expect, and we just didn't know exactly how long we would be there. In total, our Easter Vigil was just under 2 hours, to my mind, an ideal length. When I returned from receiving communion, he leaned over to remind me that there was only one more Mass to go before *he* could receive communion, which made me smile.

When we got home, it was just after 10 pm. Although he was impatient at the beginning of Mass, I thought Henry did a great job overall, and I'm so glad he came with me. Next year, my goal is the entire Triduum, I don't want to miss Holy Thursday again!

I'm still smiling, two days into the Easter Octave. He is truly risen! How was your Easter? Leave me a comment!

Tune back in tomorrow for the April edition of the Catholic Book Club, when we'll be discussing "More Catholic than the Pope: An Inside Look at Extreme Traditionalism" by Patrick Madrid. See you then!

Joys & Challenges on the Feast of the Epiphany

I have always longed for a simple and lovely name. You know. Jane. Anne. Mary. Something like that. Something Catholic. :) Instead, I was born in the 70's and my name is Tiffany. But you know, we don't get asked for our opinions in these matters, and I will say that at least my name is easy to pronounce and feminine. Plus, there were never other Tiffanys in my class, so that was always nice.

Before I got married, I invested in a Catholic name book that took every name imaginable and found a Biblical or saint derivative for it. So, even those of us with secular names could have a Catholic reference and feast day for our names. I love this. And so, Tiffany was given the designation as having been derived from 'Epiphany,' and there is a St. Epiphana as well. Details are sparse, but never mind that. :0 Via this interpretation, I have a Catholic name and my feast day is today!!!

*cue choir music*

Ever since then, the feast of the Epiphany has held special significance for me. 'Epiphany,' of course, means "manifestation of God," and at the vigil Mass Saturday night the priest talked about how God is made manifest to us in so many different ways. For Catholics, we have the sacraments, one of my very favorite things. :)

Mike went to Mass with me this weekend, and it was just the two of us since we went on our way to dinner in celebration of our wedding anniversary. It's a novelty these days to not tote a sippy cup, animal crackers, and innumerable plastic necklaces to Mass with me. :0 Anyway, during the homily, the priest talked about Pope Francis, and how he seems to have this gift for drawing people to himself and his message that normally do not subscribe to Catholic beliefs. Mike was really struck by the homily, and told me afterward how much he enjoyed it. This made your Catholic Librarian very happy. :) It was a lovely Mass and a wonderful night.

Yesterday, we were hoping to have a relaxing Epiphany Sunday at home, complete with chocolate pancakes for breakfast, but it was not to be. Our nightmare with the kitchen ceiling remains. Cue:

The insurance company is sending an adjuster to assess the damage, but he can't come until Saturday. In the mean time, we continue to get rain on and off, and melting ice. We've had some more water come in, although not a lot, thankfully. More worrisome is the following:

I come downstairs and find Mike scrubbing the kitchen floor.

"Hi Honey, what's up?"

I used to scrub the kitchen floor weekly back when I had free time. That would be before we had children. :0 Now, we sweep it whenever it needs it, which is usually daily, and the scrubbing comes only when we have time for such a thing. It's not as often as we'd like.

*pause*

This is a bad sign.

"Well. This morning I found...mouse droppings on the floor."

*cue Tiffany having a heart attack*

"WHAT?! MICE!!!!! Are you sure?!"

"Yes, unfortunately."

"But we've never seen a mouse here!" *thinks desperately* "The ceiling! They must have come from the crawl space!"

The crawl space is immediately above the hole. See, I'm a brainiac, always thinkin'. ;-)

"Could a mouse fit through one of those slats?!"

I go right over and investigate with my evil eye.

"Mice are small."

"They're not that small."

Mike is always the voice of reason in these conversations.

"All right, well, I bet they were in the crawl space at some point and this is just ancient stuff falling through the cracks. Did the droppings look old?!"

Now I want Mike to be an expert on the dating and historicity of mouse droppings.

"I guess so. I don't know for sure though. Let's just keep a close eye out. I already checked the cupboards and pantry."

*Tiffany frets*

The second part of this interaction involved Mike going outside to chip ice off of our roof, since we had more melting up there causing further water to drip into the kitchen. A joy a minute, right?  The chipping caused vibrations throughout the kitchenish area, which resulted in an assortment of CRAP *stuff* to fall down from the crawl space onto the kitchen floor. I had the kids watching Peppa Pig for about an hour so that I could deal with the cleanup on the inside as poor Mike chipped away on the outside.

The joys of homeownership, folks, Doesn't it make you ache to get right out there and invest in a 100 year old house?!

So that was our official feast of the Epiphany. We made it, we're in crisis mode, we're dealing with it as best we can. Although, the *actual* feast of the Epiphany is today, January 6th. This is sort of like a feast day weekend. It's like birthdays after you're 30! Once I turn 40 I'm having an entire birthday WEEK, I don't care. You gotta have something to look forward to when the number is no longer to your liking.

But I digress. I'm doing my best with everything, we have a lot on our plate coming up. I will be keeping you posted every step along the way. :0 In the mean time, happy feast of the Epiphany! How was your Mass experience this weekend? Leave me a comment!

Photo credit: © Norlito | Dreamstime Stock Photos & Stock Free Images

Advent feast days: adding in some new traditions this year...

Hello all! Tomorrow is the feast of St. Nicholas, and so I thought I'd commandeer the opportunity to talk about some new things I'm doing this Advent. Related to this endeavor, I will soon be reviewing the first in a series of books about the liturgical year, which focuses on the Advent & Christmas seasons. That post will be up on Tuesday December 17th, so keep an eye out for it! There will also be a giveaway opportunity for the book in question! There are additional volumes that I will review as well, the second of which covers Epiphany and Lent. So excited!!

Ok anyway, I get all crazy when I talk about the liturgical year, because it's just one of my favorite topics. So where was I? Right! The feast of St. Nicholas. It's tomorrow, and this year we will be celebrating it with the kids.

St. Nicholas, of course, is where our Santa Claus tradition originally comes from, and as I emphasized to Henry when we broke the news last year that Santa Claus isn't real, St. Nicholas very much *was* a real person, a bishop. Known for his generosity, the other major story attached to him is in regards to him dropping off 3 bags of gold coins at the home of a man who was contemplating *selling off his 3 daughters* to make do. Good gracious.

We're going to have the kids leave their shoes out by the fireplace, and I bought little bags of chocolate gold coins to place in them. Henry and I will also read St. Nicholas's story in his saint book.

This is a great book, by the way. The stories are written for children' Henry's age (intermediate readers, age 8), and have lots of details that will capture their attention. I bought him the first volume, which begins with the January feasts, through June, to put in his stocking.

Ok, back to St. Nick. I'm also going to put out a small book for each child, as a gift. Yesterday, at Catholic All Year, Kendra drew my attention to a few Advent books for children, one of which concerns St. Nicholas:

The Miracle of St. Nicholas

Although it won't arrive in time for the feast day, I currently have this in my Amazon shopping cart. This Prime shipping speed is turning me into a salivating book hoarder. It will come by Monday, and I will enjoy reading it with Anne leading up to Christmas. I may have also added a wood St. Nicholas doll to my shopping cart. I'm admitting nothing.

Next Friday, December 13th, is the feast of St. Lucy, who is a favorite of Hank's. I think it's the plate of eyes that she's carrying in her hand. :0

While I was adding the St. Nicholas book to my cart (*innocent look*) Amazon "recommended" to me the following:

Lucia, Saint of Light

 

Even though Hank already reads chapter books, and this seems targeted to kids a few years younger than him, I actually think he will love this book. The reviews noted that it's for school aged kids, definitely too difficult for toddlers and preschoolers to understand, and when I mentioned a St. Lucy book to Hank last night, he gasped in joy. He loves her. This is also in my cart. *shifty look*

 

The tradition on the feast of St. Lucy, in Hank's words (since we have read her story in his various saint books at least a dozen times):

 

"So, the youngest daughter, that's Anne, right? She should wake us up on that day wearing a crown of lit candles. Carrying coffee and special sweet rolls."

 

Yeeeaahhhhh. So, we're not going to be following the St. Lucy tradition to the letter. Or, at least until we can trust Anne not to start a fire. But I'd like to look into baking some special rolls for that morning. 

Oh. And while I was shopping, Amazon had to go and recommend this:

The Legend of the Pointsettia

 

I mean, do they have no shame? I see that the book is about a little Mexican girl's devotion to the Christ Child, and references Our Lady of Guadalupe, feast day of December 12th!!!! 

 

Right, it's in my cart. I'm planning to checkout before I leave work. :0

 

I'm very excited about what we have planned from now until Christmas. We have done family Advent activities for many years, but this year I am really feeling the *Advent* message, rather than focusing on Christmas long before that actual celebration. And I've been very annoying about telling other people about Advent too, and how fabulous it is, and how they should get in on a piece of the action.

 

It's Advent fever I'm telling you! :)

Enjoying a special feast day...

Happy feast of St. Dominic everybody! You know, this blog has always been special to me, but lately it has become even more so (what does this have to do with St. Dominic, you ask quite reasonably? Read on :)). I have always been a "journal girl" and blogging has always been such a natural fit for me. I enjoy writing, and having an audience for my writing, no matter how informal, means so much to me. And I always hoped that the material would be a ministry of sorts to *somebody* (anybody? *looks around hopefully*).

Lately, however, this blog has become a ministry to *me*. Researching for the Catholic Nook segments in particular have deepened my own faith significantly. The Catholic Book Club as well has kept me accountable with spiritual reading.

And all of this is to say that I had languished a bit in my vocation as a Third Order Dominican of late. I kept up with the charisms (mostly :)) but I haven't attended a membership meeting in some time because I felt self-conscious about bringing my kids to my decidedly more solemn and quiet Mass that was a part of that.

But all of a sudden my thirst for all things Dominican is unquenchable. And this blog, as well as the encouragement I received in the comments to my post about it, have inspired me tremendously. So exciting!

And so on this feast of St. Dominic I'm feeling particularly happy and prayerful. I've added a few books on Dominican spirituality to my queue for the Catholic Book Club, so keep your eyes peeled for those. I finished the Christian fiction book I was reading (Beth Wiseman's The House That Love Built), and so I've picked up spiritual reading again. It's not the book I was intending to read next, but that's often the case with me. :) I should be able to have a Catholic Book Club post late next week.

I do hope that everybody has a beautiful feast of St. Dominic! Read your Magnificat's or Liturgy of the Hours! Lovely selections for today.

Mike and I are taking Henry to a local amusement park this afternoon, so pray for me, asking for the intercession of St. Dominic. :0 As a child, I loved amusement parks. As an adult, not so much. People, heat, fast moving vehicular-like boxes.Not exactly my idea of a good time. :) However, it means the world to Henry, and so therefore I go. It's so wonderful to see your child happy.

You'll hear from me again tomorrow for 7 Quick Takes Friday!

A foray back to daily Mass on the Feast of the Visitation...

So, a couple of interesting Catholic tidbits to share today. The first is that my new experiment with Magnificat magazine, after my first full month, is officially a success. I use it pretty much every day. I don't often get to the evening prayers, but I say morning prayer nearly every morning, and I use it for Mass on Sundays as well. I've also read nearly all of the daily meditations and saint stories. It tucks easily into my purse, and I have it for all of the needs that I just mentioned in one compact source. It's quite perfect.

And today, I used it for daily Mass. :) It's been a long time since I've been to a true daily Mass, usually attending during the week only when there is a holy day of obligation. But I used to go all the time back when I was in law school and working as an attorney. My schedule, as well as my location, worked out such that I could make it nearly every day back then. I also went occasionally when I was in college, which is what initially turned me on to what daily Mass truly was.

Daily Mass is pretty much the reason why I'm a committed Catholic today, and didn't just laze around in terms of my spirituality when I was a young adult. I had always assumed that it was like Sunday Mass, just during the week. It's not. It's a lot shorter (less readings and you don't recite the Creed, usually a more concise homily as well), but it packs a heck of a powerful punch. As well, many parishes don't celebrate daily Mass in the main church, having a separate, small chapel for this purpose so that they don't have to worry about heating/cooling the larger space. Obviously, there will be a much smaller crowd for daily Mass as opposed to Sunday, but the people that do go form this cohesive little community. It's comforting to see the same faces all the time, there is a feeling of camaraderie. And these are people who treasure the Mass and the Eucharist, so the reverence level is high.

It was a huge boon to my faith life when I started to attend daily Mass in law school, and that is when the religious vocation discernment took place. After I graduated, I went during my lunch break at work, Our cathedral downtown had a beautiful daily Mass chapel that I could walk to in under 5 minutes.

When I started working as a librarian/went to library school (both at the same place) it wasn't as easy. There is a Newman Center here, but they only have daily Mass during the main semesters, and even then only 3 times per week. My schedule is also different here, I often have classes or meetings that conflict with the Mass time.

At first, when the Newman Center was an easy walk from my office, I would go down there occasionally for Mass. Then, last year, they built a new, gorgeous Newman Center building, which is great, but I can't walk to it. It necessitates a short drive (this is a fairly large campus) and parking here is at a premium. I didn't want to leave my spot and then have to agonize over finding a new one when I returned. Plus, all that walking out to the lot and driving to and from took my time away from my office from about 20 minutes to 40 or 45. It just didn't work.

But I had always wondered about the daily Mass at our parish. The church is maybe a 2 minute drive from our house, and they have an 8 am Mass. I usually like to get to work around 8:30, but even with attending Mass I knew I would get in before 9 am. I just often have 9 am commitments and didn't want to be feeling rushed. Well, today I had no meetings, classes, or reference shifts on my calendar and I knew the opportunity was nigh. It's also the summer, and so parking is easy. I was going to daily Mass.

I left my house at approximately 7:53 am and made it in plenty of time. The small daily Mass chapel, located in the parish center, has it's own small parking lot that I had never used before. I arrived, collected my stuff and headed in.

I was unprepared for the amount of people in there. The chapel was pretty full. I suddenly remembered that the parish Women's Sodality prays the rosary after daily Mass for the month of May, and so they must all make a special effort to come during that time. A quick perusal confirmed Mike's suspicion that, when I expressed an interest in joining the Women's Sodality, I would likely be the youngest member by at least 15-20 years. :) I slipped into a seat and scanned my Magnificat while I waited for Mass to start. There was a featured meditation on the Feast of the Visitation, since that is what we are celebrating today. Love!

I recognized all of the people present from Mass on Sundays. Many of them also serve as lectors or Eucharistic ministers, or in the choir. I sensed some interest generated amongst the congregation that a new person was suddenly in their daily Mass midst, though I'm sure they recognized me. It's not often that a new person will start going to daily Mass, especially when it's not Advent or Lent.

The chapel was quite warm (it's pretty hot here today, at least by my standards :)) but Mass was lovely. I just feel so *good* when I go to daily Mass. It's the perfect way to start your day. After Mass, Father exposed the host in a monstrance, and I stayed to pray for a few minutes before they started the rosary. I was on my way to work by 8:30 am.

So, this pretty much seals the deal that whenever I don't have a 9 am commitment I'm going to go there for Mass in the mornings all summer. It was just smashing.

Happy Feast of the Ascension!

Yes, I live in an area that did not transfer this feast to the following Sunday, which I didn't realize was so unusual. I'm headed to Mass in about 5 minutes. I do love holy days of obligation. Going to Mass during the week feels so decadent.

And speaking of upcoming Pentecost, the novena to the Holy Spirit begins tomorrow, and I'm going to be taking part. I'll post a link to where you can find the prayers online.

In totally unrelated news, the first coat of polyurethane went on our floors yesterday afternoon. Yes, our house smells like a chemical factory, but it looks beautiful. New shoe moulding is going on today and a second coat of polyurethane. We're almost there!

Feast of the Chair of St. Peter

This is another interesting factoid courtesy of my Lenten Liturgy of the Hours foray. I've noticed this feast on the church calendar in the past, but never paid it much mind. This year, it seems particularly poignant that it falls within the week that Pope Benedict XVI will resign.

According to my Proper of Saints for February 22nd:

Chair of Peter, Apostle
Since the fourth century, the feast of the Chair of Peter has been celebrated at Rome as a sign of the unity of the Church founded upon that apostle.

There are special antiphons for today, plus a completely separate reading, intercessions and prayer. For Evening Prayer, I see that we will use the Common of Apostles rather than the Psalter. I know that I am a nerd because I find this so fascinating. All I can say is thank goodness for these little St. Joseph guides for praying the Liturgy of the Hours.

Tonight our dance class is off due to another commitment by my teacher, so I'll be at home happily knitting by Mike's side as we watch a movie. Fittingly, it has started to snow, just to make things cozier for us, isn't that nice?

Tomorrow, Mike and I are going out to dinner to celebrate my birthday, and Sunday I'm making a pizza so that we can watch the Daytona 500. Mike rolls his eyes whenever I mention this, but I always remind him that many men would love to have a wife who was interested in auto racing. He always compliments be appropriately. :) It should be a nice weekend.

Feast of the Baptism of the Lord

This feast has held a special place in my heart since I got married 8 years ago. In that year, our wedding Mass was the day before the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, which made it stick out in my mind. Every year, our anniversary falls during the Christmas season, varying of course in how close it is to this feast. I just love that our wedding occurred liturgically during Christmas. :)

But I also love the symbolism of this feast, and the fact that it signals the end of Christmas and the beginning of the winter segment of Ordinary Time. It feels like such a fresh start for January. And Lent/Easter is never far off, so something to look forward to.

Hank and I were admiring the Christmas decorations for the last time yesterday during Mass. He got to see the wise men at the stable, and yesterday also marked the Rite of Acceptance for the RCIA candidates in our parish. Whenever I see an RCIA ritual, I think of my friend Irena who came home to the Church during the Easter vigil in 2011. That was such a special year, and although I'm a cradle Catholic, I learned so much from her about the RCIA process. I was sad that I couldn't be at the different rites with her since she lives about 7 hours from me (although I was at her baptism/confirmation, wouldn't have missed that for the world, even at 36 weeks pregnant!) but each week we would talk about the rituals and how excited she was about them all. So meaningful.

So anyway, the Rite of Acceptance was yesterday, formally marking those participating as catechumens (preparing for baptism) or candidates (already baptized, but preparing for confirmation and full communion in the Church). This year we have 6 adults who will be received into the Church on the Easter vigil. Beautiful! I get teared up just thinking about it.

Henry and I were also talking about his upcoming first reconcilliation in early March. He's nervous about it, but I'm trying to reassure him. Back when I was making my sacraments, we did first reconcilliation AND first communion in second grade. It seems to be the norm that it is not done that way anymore. Henry does first confession this year (in second grade) and first communion next year in third grade. But I promised him that I would buy him his very own big boy rosary from Carm at unbreakablerosaries to commemorate the occasion and we went online yesterday to select one. He has his eye on one (the center medal is Bl. John Paul II, I'm thrilled!) and as long as he doesn't change his mind (which he's prone to do) I'll order that by the end of the week. He's precious.

Feast of All Saints

November is my favorite Catholic month of the year. It's the month that marks my adult "reversion" back to the faith, it contains the feast day for my confirmation saint, St. Cecelia, it marks the beginning of my beloved liturgical year in Advent, and I treasure the focus on our departed loved ones in the celebrations of all saints and all souls.

I went to Mass this morning at my parish's regular 8 am Mass. There is nothing better than starting the day off with Mass. And before the liturgy began, I was sitting in my pew watching everyone. I do that a lot. I think it's because I'm an introvert.

I watched the man acting as altar server pick up the large crucifix used in the opening procession to bring to the back of the church. I watched people come in and dip their fingers into the holy water font to cross themselves. I watched everyone get comfortable in a pew and peruse the bulletin. I listened to the organist practice playing the new Gloria, that we used in our parish for the first time this past Sunday. And it just made me so happy to be a Catholic, and to belong to this body of believers.

Our parish has a "book of remembrance" up for the whole month of November where we can all write in the names of our deceased friends and family, so that we can pray for them. Hank and I can do that this Sunday coming up. And I'm starting to mentally prepare for the time coming up very shortly where the only Mass I've ever known will undergo some changes. Post to come up on that soon. :)

Giveaway for a Chaplet of the Immaculate Conception...

Tag teaming onto yesterday's beautiful feast of the Immaculate Conception, I thought I'd mention a giveaway over at one of my favorite blogs, A Woman's Place. The giveaway is for a gorgeous Chaplet of the Immaculate Conception. It's a lovely chaplet in blue freshwater pearl stones. Directions for praying the chaplet can be found over there as well. I love chaplets; I also love learning about devotions like these and how they originated. I was so taken with this particular chaplet that I ordered a used copy of the book, Treasure of Chaplets, that Cam mentions over at the giveaway. Go check it out and enter!