MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS

"He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was hungry"
(Mt 4,1-2)

It's Friday ......and the kids are already digging through the fridge wondering "what will we eat for lunch?" Funny how talking about fasting and abstinence makes us hungry and craving.



I have heard people, some of them priests, remark that giving up is not so important as doing some extra good thing. If we had to make a choice between the two, I suppose more works of mercy would be the best choice. Why does it have to be either /or? Why has fasting become such a stretch in the minds of otherwise faithful Catholics? Isn't there time in this forty day journey for a little of each of the principal works of Lent?


After reading what Our Holy Father wrote, I am more inclined to keep Friday fast and abistinence with greater resolve as well as fasting from some small comfort every day.

"Denying material food, which nourishes our body, nurtures an
interior disposition to listen to Christ and be fed by His saving word. Through
fasting and praying, we allow Him to come and satisfy the deepest hunger that we
experience in the depths of our being: the hunger and thirst for God."

In our family, we have always given up sweets and desserts with the understanding that the little ones may have sweets that are offered at someone else's house. Our hope is to gently help them learn to delay gratification as well as to pause and reflect on the greater sacrifice that Christ made for us. More on the full program of Lenten offerings can be found at http://www.catholichomeandgarden.com/lent.htm. It is an excellent and comprehensive resource. * The program of fasting in the strict, forty-day sense described here is not for everyone. * But it offers some helpful guides for those who want to try a strict fast of any length.

Small Successes

1. We attended Mass on Ash Wednesday as a whole family. Daddy had toddler duty and stood in the narthex for most of Mass, but we made it together!

2. I successfully fasted the entire day without mentioning hunger or nibbling before dinner! And we prayed the Prayer of Saint Ephrem with our grace before the meal.

3. I finished our parish book club book Pierced by a Sword. It should prove to be a very interesting discussion, as it is based on a Marian apparition that I do not believe has been authenticated by the Church yet. (Garabandal) It is no literary classic, but it had a postive effect on my prayer life.

Ash Wednesday

What will you do to clean up your act during LENT?

1. Fasting and Mortification

2. Prayers

3. Almsgiving

4. Good Works

5. Education

6. Self Denial

Fat Tuesday

Liam has been counting down the days to Fat Tuesday, partly because we all love a party, but mostly because our special guests Cheryl and John will be joining us for the sixth year in a row! We make sausage, bacon, pancakes, whipped cream, donuts and we do an activity called "What I Like About You." On Fat Tuesday, we put each person's name at the top of purple or green paper and pass the papers around till everyone has a list of kind comments to read out loud. I can't remember how this got started, but we've been doing it since 2002 and some of the older ones are quite amusing and very sweet.

Some favorites from past years:

What I like about Bridget is "she lets me have sleepovers with her." (from a little sister)

What I like about Karlyn is "she gives me candy and hugs." (from the sweet tooth in the family)

What I like about Bridget is "she is vare nise." ( a friend in 2002)

Clean Monday

In the Eastern Orthodox Church, Clean Monday is the Monday before Ash Wednesday. Clean Monday is actually the Monday before Great Lent.(Apparently that was an adaptation that my research applied to the Roman Catholic Calendar.) It is a day of strict fasting from midnight til noon. The idea is to begin Lent with a clean heart and pure intentions. The following prayer is prayed on Clean Monday, as well as the 40 days of Lent.

The Prayer of Saint Ephrem the Syrian

"O Lord and Master of my life, keep from me the spirit of indifference and discouragement, lust of power and idle chatter. [kneel/prostration]

"Instead, grant to me, Your servant, the spirit of wholeness of being, humble-mindedness, patience, and love. [kneel/prostration]

"O Lord and King, grant me the grace to be aware of my sins and not to judge my brother; for You are blessed now and ever and forever. Amen. [kneel/prostration]"

Small Successes

1. I took a nap yesterday when I really needed it.

2. I read aloud from Tim's history book "Old World and America" in the kitchen while he grabbed a snack. I haven't taken the time to read any of his history assignments with him in a very long time.

3. I prayed a full rosary every day for the last week, a goal that is frequently back-burnered by tantrums and smallish "emergencies".

How many RED flags do we need?

Originally, I had intended to post happy moments and memories for my homeschool kids to peruse on this blog. However, with Obama's election, my awareness of world issues that affect my beloved country are pushing to the forefront. I'll get on my soapbox today and then leave the rest to Pundit and Pundette.

http://thehyacinthgirl.wordpress.com/2009/02/18/the-buried-life

These stories are just too grim and too close to ignore.





http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2009/02/losing-our-heads-.htmlMy point is, this (MUzzammil Hassan) was not some deranged lunatic. This was a"good" Muslim who followed the book. You think it's just Muslim girls who are at risk? We are all at risk."

a comment posted by 'ender' re: the recent New York beheading: "simple answer, he was getting funding for his TV channel from the saudi's. having his wife divorce him would have made him look weak. Now he has proven to his financial backers that he is a man. watch and see who is going to be paying for his lawyer and if saudi tries to give him back dated diplomatic immunity."

http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/08/obamas_donor_contributions_sil.htm
"The jihad donations were hardly the only bloody red flags. The first in my series of posts ran July 19th. Obama's overseas (foreign) contributors are making multiple small donations, ostensibly in their own names, over a period of a few days, some under maximum donation allowances, but others are aggregating in excess of the maximums when all added up. Half a million dollars had been donated from overseas by unidentified people "not employed".

The more questions we answered the more questions we discovered.
Thousands of Obama's foreign donations ended in cents. The "cents" did not make sense. And we compared McCain donation documentss to Obama's. McCain's records are nothing like Obama's. McCain's are so clean. No cents, all even dollar amounts. But Obama's contained thousands of strange, odd amounts -- evidence of foreign contributors, since Americans living overseas would almost uniformly be able to contribute dollars. Still no media."

the least government is the best..........

Even a simple rancher in 1906 knew that big government is not what America needs.

"Always remember son, the best boss is the one who bosses the least. Whether it's cattle, or horses, or men; the least government is the best government."

from Little Britches by Ralph Moody

Observing Presidents' Day - Pondering Lincoln

From CERC's Mark Knoll

In September that year, the North had suffered another disastrous reversal, this time at the Second Battle of Bull Run. Lincoln was considering the radical step of proclaiming the emancipation of slaves in the South. In those circumstances, at one of the darkest moments of the war, he penned the following "Meditation on the Divine Will." It was written, as his secretaries, Nicolay and Hay, said, "while his mind was burdened with the weightiest questions of his life …. It was not written to be seen of men." Here is what Lincoln wrote about the religious meaning of the war.

"The will of God prevails. In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be, wrong. God can not be for and against the same thing at the same time. In the present civil war it is quite possible that God's purpose is something different from the purpose of either party -- and yet the human instrumentalities, working just as they do, are of the best adaptation to effect His purpose. I am almost ready to say this is probably true -- that God wills this contest, and wills that it shall not end yet. By his mere quiet power, on the minds of the now contestants, He could have either saved or destroyed the Union without a human contest. Yet the contest began. And having begun He could give the final victory to either side any day. Yet the contest proceeds. "

Small Successes

1. I attended the healing Mass at Our Lady of Hope with my 11 year old daughter. We prayed five full rosaries and went to Confession. I learned about spiritual and physical healing and completely gave myself over to the Holy Spirit - yep, I "fell
over"! (rested in the Spirit)

2. I printed out the St. Augustine quote from Kimberlee's site to make Valentines with the kids tomorrow - maybe we'll even get them in the mail to their grandparents before noon.

3. I took time for spiritual reading, prayer, and quiet before breakfast!

Shhhh...be very very quiet, we're hunting wabbits.....

I said to Liam and Eamon just this morning,"Please stop running and screaming during school time!" Now I am all for Boys Being Boys , but there is a time for peace and quiet in every day.

Barbara said it perfectly here

"Let's see how quietly we can shut the door." .........

"Would you like to try?" Before turning it over, show once again how the knob/handle relates to the movement of the bolt.

Once you've begun to draw your child's attention to the auditory impact he/she has on the environment, keep a high expectation. When something bangs, simply say, "Oh . . . let's see how quietly you can close that door."

When I say this will have a major impact, here is what I mean:
As you begin to draw the child's attention to the results of his actions, he will respond to the challenge. These are the very first steps toward self-control - and this is exactly how you begin laying the spiritual groundwork for self-control in the preschool years.
You will see the fruit of this kind of training as your child matures and begins to generalize self-control to even more challenging issues.
Can you see how this early training eventually results in a teen who is self-aware and capable of self-control? The ultimate goal is to raise an individual who is not controlled by outer forces but from within. This starts very, very small - and very, very young.

This is why I keep insisting that the work you moms do is SO important. Who would think that teaching a child to close a door quietly had such great implications for the future? But it does, especially for the child raised by a mom who understands where she and her child are headed and is learning each day how to get there.~~~~~~~~

For more, check out

Mommy, Teach Me!

Thank you, Barbara!

Little Britches: Father and I Were Ranchers

Liam and I have been reading aloud from Little Britches: Father and I Were Ranchers by Ralph Moody. It is a terrific book for boys....or girls who want to know how real men behave in the face of adversity. In current society, where gender-confusion abounds and our lilly-livered president is more concerned about going green than red-white-and blue, we could all use a dose of the courage and character presented in the Little Britches series.

"We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and then bid the geldings to be fruitful." -- CS Lewis

a lifted quote from thehyacinthgirl.wordpress.com

Celebrating Small Successes

Three small successes this week:
1. I connected with an older cousin and discovered something about my paternal grandfather that I never knew: His favorite poem was The Duel by Eugene Field. Bonus: Liam memorized it last year in his MODG poetry curriculum!

2. All three kids completed their school work yesterday - happily and without any toddler disasters.

3. I posted a book to paperbackswap, got a request for said book and printed the label for shipping!

Flipsyde Prolife youtube- I never liked rap before this.........

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qj3nWy7HMshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qj3nWy7HMs

I have never liked rap before this.......please click on the link and watch this powerful prolife message. The prolife movement seems to be getting an update.