Merry Christmas!

Sisters! I bring to you the Adored,

The Eternal God, so small, so weak;

I plead for the Incarnate Word,

Because as yet He cannot speak.

To Jesus, exiled from His home,

The cruel world no shelter grants;

And so to Carmel's shade I come,

  To find the shelter that He wants.

Ever your praise, your tenderness,

Your welcome sweet, your warm caress,

Be for this Child!

Oh, burn with love, for He loves you,

   This Child, who is your God and Lord.

Pathetic mystery! He who begs, tonight, of you,

Is the Eternal Word!

Come then, my Sisters! without fear,

Each in her turn, to Jesus' feet,

Offering your love to Him most dear,

And you shall know His will so sweet,

Yes, I will tell you the desires

Of Jesus born amid the snow;

For you are pure as angels are,

And you can suffer too, you know!

Ever your cares, your suffering,

And all your joys so light of wing,

Be for this Child!

Oh, burn with love, for He loves you,

This Babe, who is your God and Lord!

Pathetic mystery! He who begs, tonight, of you,

Is the Eternal Word!

(From THE LITTLE DIVINE BEGGAR OF CHRISTMAS by St. Therese of Liseaux)

Wish I Had Learned Latin When I Was Young

A couple of years ago, I discovered the Latin Mass (or EF). It was new and interesting, but completely weird. I didn't understand the language nor the order of the Mass. I just watched everyone else and stood when they stood, kneeled when they kneeled and sat when they sat. The church was so quiet while the priest performed Mass with little input from the congregation. There was no chatting or kids playing in the seats. Everyone was focused on the Mass and being reverent. It was weird and I wasn't sure I would attend that Mass again.

Fast forward to today. I still occasionally attend the Latin Mass and now even recognize a few words. There is no hope left that I will ever figure out the order of the mass, but I keep trying. There is a beauty to the Latin Mass that isn't present in the Norvus Ordo (NO) Mass. I am greatful that Pope Benedict XVI (now Pope Emeritus) brought back this beautiful tradition.

I come from the lost generation of Catholics. We are the ones who never learned Latin, never learned the specifics of our faith and basically got short changed. It took me years, but I am now beginning to learn all of the things that I should have learned when I was younger. Only it is much harder this time around. Thanks to the internet and thousands of Catholic resources doing so is much easier.

Youtube is one of my favorite resources for all things Latin. You can view EF Masses, pray along with the rosary in Latin, learn a little Latin, and so much more.

What are your favorite Latin resources?

It's Official

There's me with Father. I am now officially accepted into formation to pursue study towards my first promise. It still doesn't seem quite real yet. I can't get over the idea that I need to step it up a notch now that I'm official.

To celebrate, we had this beautiful cake that was almost too pretty to cut into. It was just as yummy as it looked.




The best surprise was my formation partner returned and we have a new Aspirant as well. Our little community is growing.

It's Almost Time

My Aspirancy is almost over. Tomorrow morning I will be officially accepted into the OCDS to begin working towards making my first promise. It's exciting and scary all at once.

May will mark two years since my first contact with the OCDS. It doesn't feel like its been that long, but it has. And I've learned so much about the Order, about God and about myself. I have not always lived up to my calling as a secular. Sometimes I am my own worst obstacle when in comes to prayer times and religious observance. But, I try.

There is so much more that I still need to learn about the Church and God. How do you condense 2000 years worth of learning into a lifetime or in my case a 1/2 a lifetime? It's a little overwhelming.

Anyways - please pray for me as I make this next step.

Love In A New Way

Holy week is my favorite time of year, especially the Triduum. It's the one time of year when there are tons of religious activities going on. Because I work I'm not able to make it to most of the activities, but I try to go to as many as I can. And at the end of it all is the Triduum, when mass is held in the evenings at a reasonable time, that I can go to.

This year I didn't go to any Triduum services because Thursday afternoon I became ill. I spent then entire weekend in bed, except for the hour on Easter morning when I drug myself to the entirely too early Latin Mass. I would have preferred to go to Mass later in the day, but with how packed the churches are on Easter Sunday, I decided that I would infect less people if I went to the sparcely attended Latin Mass.

I took a seat as far away from the other 50 or so people in the Cathedral and didn't go to communion. The Latin Mass was as foreign as ever, but since I have been practicing my Latin prayers there were a few recognizable words.

Before I knew it, Lent and Easter were over and I felt so cheated out of the wonder and beauty that is the Triduum. I should be joyous that even though I missed the suffering and misery, I was there to witness the resurrection. To have Jesus with us, once again, to spread the glorious news of God. Instead, I'm feeling like Thomas who focused on what was lost and couldn't see what was gained.

So throughout this Easter season I am going in search of the beauty of Christ's return; walk with him as he reveals himself to his followers; look at the world with new eyes; think wiht a new mind; and love in a new way.

Such A Long Week

I am completely worn out and really, I haven't done a lot. Between periods of actual work, I popped on the internet to catch up on the latest news. How revolting that was. I am so thoroughly sick of the hate and criticism that is passed off as news, not to mention the comments that accompany the articles.

POPE FRANCIS

The poor Pope is barely installed as Pope and he has been accused of everything from getting two priests kidnapped to supporting gay civil unions. Everyone seems to know that he is going to change this or that teaching and of course sell off the Church's treasures. Pirahna would be jealous of the feeding frenzy that is the state of news today. They seem to have a motto of "If you have nothing to report...make it up!"

GAY EVERYTHING AND TWINKIES

If you aren't on the gay parade...you are a bigot. That seems to be the concensus of all gay all the time news and its supporters. I think some of those people need to look in the mirror, because there seems to be far more hate and bigotry coming from the pro-ssm side than the anti-ssm side.

It's exhausting having to weed through article after article of the latest has-been Hollywood star who now professes to be "gay" (as if we didn't know this information already) or how some "claims-to-be" Catholic "nun" supports ssm and "gay rights" just trying to find a single article that is actually news worthy. Is it too much to ask for real news (things that are important and we don't already know)?

I did get to see a rainbow colored house that some activists bought and painted across the street from Westboro Baptist Church. While I like fun colored stuff and don't care too much for the Westboro Baptist Church, I would secretly repaint the house in the middle of the night something less obnoxious. (I'd probably also get caught and thrown in jail, but I'd use the Twinkie defense...as in I went mad because there aren't any Twinkies...I'd totally get acquitted. But, I had better hurry because they are coming back this summer.)

GAVE UP

I finally gave up trying to find any news from the mainstream media. I don't really want to want to read divisive opinions that are passed of as news. I don't want to read about the groundhog being charged for making a "false" prediction. And I certainly don't want to read mean hateful comments attaching everything and everyone.

Someone please let me know when the news becomes news again.

Pope Francis

What a wonderful surprise! Such a humble and holy man. I look forward to seeing where this shepherd will lead.