Meditation on just one evil of mankind...

I cannot remain silent about the Gosnell trial, happening as I type this.

I usually try to remain silent on my own social media outlets because of the diversity of viewpoints I have on places like my facebook feed or twitter.  On one hand I choose to listen to what they have to say, and on the other hand I am afraid that they will see me as nothing more than some conservative nutjob and fail to see me for me...someone with varied opinions about a variety of topics, and who doesn't follow a party line.  However I felt about the topic of abortion years ago, my heart has been changed toward the topic over time. My heart has changed because of first hand stories I have heard and what I have experienced, although the stories of others belong to the people who have lived them--they are not mine to tell.

I used to be pro-choice.

I used to make the argument that many around me still do today: While I myself would never choose abortion for my own child, I would never make the act illegal so that it can remain safe for those who do choose it.

So in other words, I chose ignorance of evil and silent acceptance.

Yes, I said evil.

I guess it all goes back to the debate of when life begins.  Does it begin with birth? Does it begin at conception?  Or does it begin somewhere in between?  Oh....and how valuable is life anyway?  Is this creature in the womb even a person?

The reason that many pro-life advocates choose to show violent images of aborted fetuses is to try to shock the viewer into accepting their opinion as the right one.  I don't know if this is the answer.  I also don't know if legislation is the answer at this time, but I do know that honesty, integrity in the face of the suffering, education about options and gentle persuasion are.  Until the hearts and minds of a nation can be persuaded into choosing life, legislation might be doing little more than continuing to divide us as a people and nation.  It is for this reason that my heart goes out to those who support the adoption industry or drive the ThriVe vans, who provide prayer and emergency counseling at a grassroots level.  Division as it is today has caused more polarization of values in this country, and violence as a result, which is also wrong.  We need to pray that all hearts and minds see the evil of abortion and to be united in this....otherwise this fight will just go on and on and on, and back and forth and back again.

I do not think it is right to kill another human being just because a mistake was made.
We cannot cure sin with more sin.

BUT.  We live in a secular world, a world which more and more lacks morality and fails to see God's love for us.  We live in a nation severely divided against itself, where no one can agree whether it is black and white, or shades of gray.  It is complicated.

Women who have made this very tough decision need our forgiveness and our prayers.

I think that regardless of how you feel about abortion, we can all agree that the nature of Kermit Gosnell's work is absolutely deplorable and evil on so many levels.  What he did was to induce labor and kill the born....he didn't just kill the unborn.  That's just a small part of his crimes against women.  Feel free to research it for yourself here, here and especially here.  Was his work common practice in the abortion industry or simply the work of a depraved man?  There is quite a debate in that question alone.  I have heard both answers from multiple sides.  I'm saddened that this story isn't making the media as en force as a guy who hurts dogs....which is also deplorable, but aren't people a little more important?  People.....US....Those who cannot speak for themselves....such AS the UNBORN.

Book Review: History of the Catholic Church

Much my own spiritual journey happens through the books I read.  Right now I am reading about the ancient journey of others and simultaneously myself.....my church.

I am ever so slowly plucking my way through James Hitchcock's  History of the Catholic Church.  It's a big one guys!  Because I'm reading it on my kindle I didn't realize just how thick this text was until I saw it during a visit to my local Catholic Supply where it was on the shelf with other new titles.  There it was: hard cover, and quit hefty! I'm already considering it as a Christmas gift for my father....the print version that is.  Tis not for the feint of heart or the impatient reader.

Hitchcock has attempted a difficult undertaking: telling our rich story as a church from the time of Christ until today.  He is covering everything from wars, changes in liturgy, major theological thinkers, each and every heresy which threatened her existence; and all of it is interwoven with European social history.  I just finished reading about the Crusades and the separation of the East and West.  Because of the broad scope of this project (Over 2,000 years), Hitchcock does not go into too much detail...rather this is an introduction to many many ideas that can be a jumping point to your own research should a person wish to explore a topic more in depth.  I appreciate the way he puts many complicated ideas into the layman's terms without oversimplification or dumbing down, although the topical nature in which he covers his subjects can become a little confusing when you are reading from past to present.  Be ready for some jumps in the story telling as he back tracks to futher explain some concepts in more detail.

Overall, an interesting read, but then again, I consider myself an eternal student of History.
I'm sure I'll be referencing this one for many years to come.

For the Record.....

For the Record....

I'm just a girl.  With a Blog.

My only credentials are as a student. Of Art History. (I have the degrees to prove that.)
I am not a theologian, even though I love theology.

I like to read and write about what I read.

I also like to cook and taking pictures of what I have cooked.
Maybe some day I'll even start blogging recipes and kitchen experiments.

I'm not going to pretend I'm an expert at anything, because I'm not. 
But I will not pretend that I am without passion for the things I am interested in. 

My interests don't just stop with food and God.  I love making a home for myself and my wonderful husband.  I love sharing my faith, even though in person I can be quite shy about it, choosing to open up on a one-on-one basis rather than in a large group, introvert that I am.  I love Irish culture....her food and her music.  But I am not, by blood, Irish in any way.  I feel at community when I am in my favorite Irish Pub.....where I am a regular and always feel like I am a part of a big extended family when I am there.  I love Beauty and Artistic expression, and revel in the many ways that artists through the ages have told God's story in their own ways.  I spend way too much time isolated from a world I want to be a part of: because of the weakness of my body and the weakness of my mind.  So I probably spend more time online that in face to face community.  I love going to mass.  Don't ask me to explain it, or try to convince me that it's a waste of my precious time.....because my soul yearns for the Sacrament, for Jesus, for friendship with God, and I wouldn't have it any other way.  I find a well brewed cider and good company equally as sacred.  My favorite part about Irish culture?  Their love of hospitality.  Even if I don't physically always go out into the world, my door is always open to a kind soul.  I have a distrust of authority, yet I crave approval.  I struggle.  I learn.  Even if I tend to ramble, I love to share.

I DO have passion and I DO have Love.

And THAT is why I blog.

Another post on New Evangelism

As I have been reading about this topic of New Evangelism, I have noticed that each of my sources on the topic have included a different set of lists about what a New Evangelist or what New Evangelism is.  Luckily, they all seem to start at the same place, which is Jesus. 

I'd like to share what these thinkers believe make up New Evangelism, starting with Fr. Robert Barron.  He describes Seven Keys to Being a New Evangelist in this interview posted by fellow Catholic Blogger Brandon Vogt on his own blog, and then on Fr. Robert Barron's own Word on Fire. What I am including below is Barron's list with my own thoughts, paraphrases of Barron's idea.  I highly recommend that you start by checking out my original sources first....both Vogt and Barron put it far better than I could!  No, really....go check them out now! (And if you have 45 minutes, DO Listen to Vogt's speech on the topic)

1. "In Love with Jesus Christ" or "A friend with Jesus Christ"

This is a trait that New Evangelist Roman Catholics share with our Protestant brothers and sisters.  The emphasis on having a personal relationship with Christ is one that has not been emphasized in recent history by Catholics, but that needs to be on the forefront of our faith if we are to maintain our Catholic identity into the future.  Just knowing ABOUT Christ is no longer enough, or learning our faith through cultural osmosis.  It needs to get personal. Personally, as someone who is ecumenically minded, my heart rejoices that this is the first on the list of traits.  It gives me something strong in common with my Protestant brothers and sisters, and I can honestly say to them when asked, that yes, I do have a friendship with Christ.

2.  "A Person of Ardor" or who is "Filled with Ardor"

Us Catholics just love vocabulary lessons! (Consubstantial, anyone?)  Someone who is filled with Ardor for God is someone who is ON FIRE for him, someone who is passionate.  Someone you can't help but listen to, and who rejoices in having what Fr. Barron calls a "keen sense of the resurrection."  When we are filled with joy of what Christ did for us on the cross.  When we truly GET IT, it's difficult not to be filled with immense joy and want to shout it from the roof tops.  The first person I think of is Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who expresses this passion and joy in every interview I've watched.  Some day I'll get to listen to the joyousness that must be one of his sermons live.

3.  "A Person Who Knows the Story of Israel,"  Someone who is well aware of temple about covenant about prophecy, about law, because Jesus fulfills all of that.

This past fall my sister-in-law invited me to a bible study with a Women's Ministry at a local Presbyterian Church.  Now, as you may have guessed, my In-Laws are NOT Catholic, but I still relished in this invitation to share my walk with Christ with them, and so I became the groups "pet Catholic."  Incidentally, the study we are doing is "Deuteronomy: More Grace, More Love: Living in Covenant with God," by George Roberston with Beth McGreevy.  It is an in depth look at the Old Testament which has opened my eyes to the foretelling nature of Christ in the Jewish scriptures. I am a little bit jealous at just how well most Protestants know their bibles backwards and forwards and are deeply aware of the ways that Christ fulfills Old Testament prophecy.  I hope to emulate this kind of bible knowledge someday and am able to express it in teaching my own children.  It's a little frustrating that my own catechesis had too take a temporary dive into Protestantism in order to fall in love with the temple narrative.  However, I rejoice that this narrative is a central portion of my favorite mass of the year, the Easter Vigil, when we hear numerous readings about Man's Fall and the hope of Christ to come hinted at throughout all of time in the prophets of Abraham, Moses, David, Jonah, Elijah, and others.  My husband refers to this mass as the "Marathon Mass," which at three hours long when attending it at the Cathedral Basilica in St. Louis does seem like a marathon, (fitting that Paul did refer to the Christian life as a marathon often) but the participant is richly rewarded in the end by sharing in the joy of new Christians entering our church and in the resurrection of the lamb.  Cue the Alleluia chorus in full glory near the end......

4.  "Has Got to Know the Culture"  or be"A Person who Understands the Culture" 

Fr. Barron refers to the quote by Karl Barth that "the homilist should have the bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other:" a quote which resonates with my Lutheran husband.  Being a Christian today is inexplicably a Counter-Cultural move.  Our beliefs often don't make sense to those outside the church, we have been described as hateful and behind the times for putting our foot down on certain moral issues and refusing to budge.  The trap is to fall into our own little subculture as many evangelical Christians have been known to do, only listening to "Christian" music or wearing "Christian" logos on t shirts.  However, when we tuck ourselves behind a closed door of a sub-culture, we are not engaging the culture at large.  As New Evangelists we are called to be in engagement of the culture around us, not in avoidance of it.  We are called to question it and to interact with it, drawing out what message of redemption we can use in order to preach the Gospel.  St. Patrick evangelized the Celtic people by using their own imagery.  According to the legend, we used the three leaf clover to describe the Holy Trinity.  In our time, speaking the language of the culture around us may look like knowing what movies are playing, referring to facebook, television.  Fr. Barron lives this example in the cultural commentaries that he publishes on his Youtube channel.  Oddly, there was a time in history when WE were the culture.  Take a look at Renaissance art, for example.  But today, our culture has increasingly turned away from any kind of biblical foundation and has turned toward postmodern pessimism.  It needs re-engaging and re-filled with hope.

5.  "A Person who reverences Great Tradition" Not Sola Scriptura.....our tradition has unfolded over time.  We have a grand interpretive tradition, the arts--visial and media

Roman Catholicism acknowledges the infinitely enjoined nature of both the Bible and Holy Tradition.  The Bible was born out of Holy Tradition and Holy Tradition continues to be evaluated by the Bible.  We are not Sola Scriptura as the Protestant denominations have insisted on.  We, instead, have a rich interpretive tradition of two thousand years worth of thinkers who have been inspired by the message of Christ and  have put down their words to inspire future generations.  They have interpreted the Word so we may be left without interpretive confusion about what is going on.  That, and we have this rich tradition of art, music, even movies, which have had something to say about the nature of our world, the nature of man, and the nature of Christ's grand sacrifice.

6.   "A Person with a Missionary Heart"

I know many a person who claims Catholicism as their religion and history, but don't go to mass.  Even I struggle to make it to weekly mass.  While I was fortunate enough to be raised in a family where missing Sunday mass was usually not an option, as an adult no one is forcing me to wake up early on Sunday morning and just go.  I have fallen trap to the "Meh" Culture.  I'll go tomorrow.  Truthfully, however, when I don't go to mass, I feel it the rest of the week.  I feel that separateness from God.  Fr. Barron called souls divorced from God in this manner as anguished.  It takes surprisingly little to go from not going to church anymore to not believing anymore.  It's going to take a real effort to get wayward Catholics to return in a culture that doesn't want to be bothered.  Our mission as New Evangelists in North America has to engage this "Meh" culture, to reawaken those of us who have fallen asleep in Christ, and to be missionaries within postmodernism.

7.  "Knows and Loves the New Media" or "A Persons who knows how to use the New Media" 

Fr. Barron and others have pointed to the work of the Venerable Fulton Sheen who has had a mission toward using the Media of the day.  Today we live in a world rich with media technology.  For people like me its even almost a part of our blood!  Youtube, Blogs, Facebook, Twitter.....these are all a part of our culture and HOW we engage the culture.  These are simply many forms of media as our fingertips.  The most beautiful part of this is that these very tools make it possible for us to tell our OWN stories.  Just look at the coverage of last week's papal elections to see the fruit of this.  On one hand we have Mass Media, owned by secular institutions, who have already tried to tell our story for us and have tried whatever they can to paint our message in a false light.  On the other hand, the thousands of us telling our own story via New Media.  Who is going to tell the story of our faith?  Us?  Or a culture hostile to the message of Jesus?

Coming Soon: What Cardinal Donald Weurl has to say about New Evangelism.

George Weigel on the Church in Latin America

Speaking of our amazing Pope Francis and of George Weigel and his Book, Evangelical Catholicism ..... this interview was made just days before a certain someone became Pope. Enjoy.

I feel a Revival Coming On....

Wow!  It has been quite an interesting Lenten season for us Catholics. 

First, Pope Benedict the 16th stepped down as the leader of our church.  All eyes turned toward Rome last week when the College of Cardinals were all called into Convention, and then into Conclave, to choose our new Pontificate -- who came in the form of the Argentinian Archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio, now Pope Francis.  He is the first Pope from the New World, the first Jesuit Pope, and our first Francis.  I missed watching his Inaugural Mass on television this morning (I chose sleep instead), but I didn't miss watching his first historic words to the world last week when he stepped out onto the Balcony over St. Peter's square and said "Good Evening."  I was sitting in my living room, taking a break from cleaning. When he led us in prayer.....from those in St. Peter's Square to everyone in the world who was watching via TV, the internet, Twitter.....I couldn't help but feel the Holy Spirit at work.  Here we are, the Catholic, Universal church, being led in prayer by our new Pope.  My spine tingled through each word of the "Our Father," "Hail Mary," and "Glory Be."  Words cannot express what that kind of unity felt like.  Oh! To be there in more than spirit....!

I can't help but feel revitalized in my faith at a time like this.  Catholicism is one of the top topics in the public's mind right now.  It's up to us as Catholics to do something good with it, to keep the ball rolling.  We are starting to learn what the shape of Pope Francis' ministry will look like based off of the example he led back in his home country.  The media has not hesitated to dig up anything and everything in an attempt to either exalt or demean this man.  Yet, on the fore front of all of that media buzz are all the little ways that Pope Francis lives the Gospel.....in choosing the bus rather than the papal limo, or paying his hotel bill the morning after the vote.  In Pope Francis we have a humble servant who was exalted because of his humility.  It's beautiful. It's a living testament to the fact that we as Christians need to be living examples of our faith, and DO, ACT upon Christ's words when he tells us to Feed his people.  Just like St. Francis of Assisi famously said: "Preach the Gospel always. With words if you have to."

This is not to discredit the work of our scholarly Pope Emeritus, Benedict the 16th, whose writings have been described as little time bombs planted in our recent history, waiting to be discovered and read.  I, personally, have a few of his titles in my reading queue. 

What I am most amazed and hopeful about, though, is how Pope Francis will be continuing Pope Benedict's work on New Evangelization.  Even though I have just heard the term less than a month ago, I have been passionately and almost obsessively intrigued by the topic. 

Pope Benedict started this Year of Faith back in October with a Synod of Bishops in Rome on the theme of "The New Evangelization and the Transmission of the Christian Faith."  The United States Conference of Bishops has since presented a strategic pastoral plan for evangelizing which can accessed on their webpage.  Then there are all the publications on the topic which are finally coming out into the public domain to be read.  I, for one, have already devoured Cardinal Donald Weurl's New Evangelization: Passing on the Catholic Faith Today, which came out just this past January. This is a short little gem which serves as a good introduction to the topic.  Currently, I am in the middle of Evangelical Catholicism: Deep Reform in the 21st Century Church, by the Letters to a Young Catholic author George Weigel.  Weigel's book invites Catholics to look at both how our recent history as a church has led us to this point, for both good and for ill, as well as presents a steady solution in our evangelizing styles.  His work is both scholarly and easy to follow, as well as makes me feel glad to be a part of the Catholic Family.  Like any good bookworm, I enjoy these titles, its actually the Video-Internet based ministry of Fr. Robert Barron, of Word on Fire, that I find most intriguing.

I discovered Fr. Barron's Youtube channel just months before my wedding, when I was recovering from my tonsillectomy at my parent's house.  Reading was difficult, so I surfed the web instead. Earlier that week my father had read an article by Fr. Barron which was republished in the local diocesan newspaper.  I decided to Google this fascinating author, and was pleasantly surprised by his Youtube commentaries on our contemporary culture.  I had already been aware of the extent that the Protestant churches had been using technology: twitter, youtube and vlogs, to spread the gospel message, but I still had this over arching idea that my own church was kitch in its visual approach and behind the times.  This man proved that bias wrong.  The first people I followed on Twitter were of this Protestant persuasion.....after all, I did marry a Protestant.  However, since then it feels like my own Catholic family has been catching up in leaps and bounds.  Word on Fire ministries, and Fr. Robert Barron, have gone on to complete their now amazing video series: Catholicism, and are currently working on a video series on New Evangelism, which I am wonderfully anticipating.

You see, I am a child of the information age.  I have been blogging in some form or another since I was in high school.  I was connected on Myspace when it was the cool thing to do; now I am on Facebook and Twitter.  I have used Skype to keep in contact with my husband during his overseas deployments.  And I even adore Pinterest.  This stuff is second nature to me, but it isn't second nature to everyone I know.  I have a hard time convincing my father than sometimes text messaging is more polite than a phone call (time and place, ya know?).  So, of course I am drawn to New Evangelization, and it excites me that my social media presence means something during these weeks when we have gained a new Pope.  You cannot underestimate how connected to the world it can feel like when we are ALL Tweeting about one major event together, with all these people at St. Peter's Square.  It's mind blowing.  Thanks to new media, this is truly a magical time to be a part of the faith. 

Here I am, just a housewife in St. Louis, who tries to make it to church every week, someone tiny and insignificant, and probably not even a good Catholic....but I am part of something far greater than myself.  I am part of a Universal Catholic Church.

Fashion Rants

Time sure does fly.

Granted, I HAVE had a lot on my mind, even if I have failed to articulate any of it digitally.

Like how much I hate returning to a frustrating company in the food service industry because I needed a job.  Tail between my legs, I returned so my hubbie and I could keep food on the table and bills payed while I finished up my last semester of college.

Said last semester is now over, and I have a job search ahead of me.  Even if just to make a leap from food service to retail, just to get out from behind a drive thru window.

Oh, the stories I could tell about that drive thru window...... usually littered with hatred and curse words.  Mind you, I'm all smiles at work, because that's the corporate way.  However, I have been losing my cool easier and having to step away more.  It could be because my tolerance for stupidity has severely shrunk or just that I don't like being dehumanized every day to a group of ungrateful middle aged entitled types who lack the decency to put down their cell phones while I attempt to provide world class customer service.  I've been screamed at for not mind reading, and shushed for providing a total while a lady was on her cell, I kid you not.  Okay.....I probably should end the rant here before I go too deep.

I'm tired.
And frustrated.
And want out.

I have and hold on to my good memories with this company as much as I can, but the truth is, I may have simply grown out of it.  Or gotten jaded.  Still love our products, but in the name of austerity, it's just not the same five years later.

I also have another job though, working retail for on of my most favorite institutions in the city. YAY!  It's one day a week, but it makes that other job worth it....since this one is a career builder and the other is not.

I have been using paychecks from other job to slowly build a corporate wardrobe....  on a budget.

I've discovered this strange love of fashion and girlishness that I haven't embraced since I was ten.  I've been learning to dress a body that is often frustrating and more curvy.  I was a scrawny kid, but not I'm an adorable apple.....in a size too big for most fashion retailers but too small to be a true plus size.  How frustrating is that?  Maybe the challenge is a good thing though......it keeps me from spending like crazy.

I've learned to love Marshall's, Target, Burlington, Shoe Carnival, Dillard's, oh.....and Torrid.....(*heart*)
Heck, I've been using the Summer heat as an excuse to build my summer dress collection.  Only one left: the ubiquitous LBD!

My pinterest is littered with fashion blog links.  Someday I might actually order from some of my fave online retailers.  Someday....

 In the meantime, there's this gal who writes all about building a mix and match and remixable wardrobe.  Awesome thinking in this day and age.  I'm taking her advice on that one, and bought some new accessories today JUST for said purpose of stretching pieces for outfits.  Here's today's wardrobe choice......never mind my semi-bored facial expression; I was tired.  Or the blurriness of my camera phone.