Nothing To Lose

I participated in a Catechist Training class last night.  It was the last of our intermediate classes on the Sacraments, particulary on Holy Orders.

We were talking about Holy Orders leaving an indelible mark on your soul that can never be removed.  So, even if a priest leaves the priesthood, he's still a priest.  This led us to the other indelible Sacraments: Baptism and Confirmation.

Father Finian had an interesting way of describing indelible to us that really worked as a visual.

Picture this: when you are born, you are born with the stain of original sin on your soul.  When you are Baptized, it wipes that stain from your soul.  That clear spot can NEVER be removed.  You cannot be unbaptized!  This is why a valid Christian Baptism from any recognized denomination is considered a valid Baptism in the Catholic church.  Until the Reformation, there was no Catholic and no Lutheran, it was all Christian - from which the rites were based upon.

As usual, when you have a group of questing adults trying to further educate themselves, we strayed from the direct topic.

We moved to family members that have left the Church, but were Baptized Catholic.  What did that make them?  Father told us that they might not be practicing Catholics, but they would always be Catholics.

But, she's Lutheran/Methodist/etc...

No, She's Catholic.  If she was Baptized a Catholic and Confirmed a Catholic, she's a Catholic.

Hmmm...

But, what happens if someone was Baptized Lutheran and becomes a Catholic?  Then, what are they?  They are Catholic.

But, you just said...

So, he used another interesting analogy.  Do we ever move from having more to less or do we always move from less to more?

We always try to move from having less to having more.  You'd switch banks if you could get 6% interest vs 2% interest, simple economics. 

But, how does this pertain to Catholic and Lutheran/Methodist, etc?

How many sacraments do Lutherans get?  None of us were really sure, but it's 2 - Baptism and Marriage.  So, if a Lutheran decides to become Catholic, they aren't losing anything they already have - they are GAINING 5 MORE SACRAMENTS!!!!!!

Wow! Never thought about it that way! 

So, why would anyone go from being Catholic to being Lutheran?

If they realized what they were losing, they would never decide to make that switch.  But, if they don't realize what they are losing, they could be convinced that they would be gaining by making that switch.  If they had been taught the value of what we have, no one would ever leave.

That's pretty heavy, especially to a room of catechism teachers.  Um, that makes us even more responsible for what we teach them, so they realize what to value about the church.  gulp.   

The first teachers are absolutely supposed to be the parents, but unfortunately that isn't often the case.

Dear Lord,

I am here and I am listening.  Please let the Holy Spirit guide me in what I teach and let my students retain those values that would never want to make them leave the Church.

Amen.

Yarn Along February 15, 2012

It's that time of week to once again join up with Ginny at Small Things for her Yarn Along - where I admire what everyone else has accomplished and I hide behind my pitiful attempts at accomplishing something.

Here's what I'm up to:

Green yarn is a crocheted apiary puff from Ravelry - way to use up all the little bits and bobs, figured out that if you use worsted weight instead of the SOCK YARN!!!!!!! they will never be 3" across - so, I'm just going for it.  It'll be warm however it turns out.

Blue yarn is a very soft acrylic - Satin by Bernat.  I'm using my Tunisian hook to work on a Mobius twist shawl for my sister.  Frogged the whole thing yesterday and started over.  Tempted to frog it again, because the yarn is thicker than the pattern called for and I'm not sure if I'm happy with how it's turning out.  It's not as open as the picture in the pattern, so it will be warmer than I really wanted it to be.

As for reading, I'm following the pattern that is on cover of the Tunisian Crochet book - it's a good basic book that I borrowed from the library and I don't think I can renew it - someone else has it on hold.  (Might have to get photocopies of the patterns I like.)

I just got The Beekeepers Apprentice from the library and I'm hoping it will be good.  I've been on a Sherlock Holmes kick lately.

And, I'm reading the US Catholic Catechism for Adults for my Catechist training on Saturday - this book is so easy to understand.  It's laid out that each chapter starts with a profile of a saint, then goes into theology, then discussion questions and a prayer.

Amazing Day of Reflection

First, when I get the pictures downloaded, I'll share our family day.   And I believe that the family day was vitally important to recharging all our batteries.

Now, I think my recharged batteries by spending time an amazing day with my family, not stressing about the day, and allowing myself to enjoy a family outing. 

This simple recharging really helped my thought processes towards Catechism class tomorrow.  For the first time, I was able to read through our classroom text and the teacher's guide without criticizing the content for being "boring."  I think my judgement was being clouded every time I was looking at this before, because Satan was discouraging my attempts to be a good catechist.  Self doubt is one of the biggest limiting evils.  After all, if I don't think I can do it, I can't.  That would be score 1 Satan, score 0 Traci.

Today, was different.  I was able to look at the text objectively and glean important concepts from it.  I will NOT be having them read from the text.  Yes, the information is very important to building their faith and reinforcing mine.  However, I think the way the text is written is very dry and the language is very complex.  I think I am going to be able to do a better job taking the concepts and trying to draw them into conversation.

That is the idea, anyhow.  Sometimes, 7th graders don't offer any comments or any discussion.  I'm hoping that one of my ideas of having them write their ideas down and then we can discuss them will help draw them out more.

I need to ask the Holy Spirit to guide me in what I say and what I try to teach.

Today was so successful that I actually spent 2 hours writing lesson plans. I always winged it before.  So, step back Satan, I've got a plan and I'm going to go with it.

I feel so good about this.  Seriously, it's a weight lifted.

Dear Lord,  Thank you for the revelation I needed to help guide me toward your truth. Thank you for filling me with the Holy Spirit and allow me to pass this importance along to my class.  In Jesus' name, I pray.  Amen.

I'm not exactly sure how to deal with this...

I'm trying to be a Catholic Mom.  No, I'm trying to be a GOOD Catholic Mom.  Some days, I'm just not sure how to go about this monumental task.

I mean, there are tons of resources out there that tell you how to be a Good Catholic Mom.  Some of these make me feel vastly inadequate.  Some of them, when I find them, seem to resonate with me and make sense and I bookmark them on my computer and hope to be able to find them again when I need them.  (Oh, and I'm totally unorganized and can never find anything when I want it.)  But, and it's a BIG BUT - How do I be a GOOD Catholic Mom? 

I'm a cradle Catholic.  I should know ALL this stuff, right? 

I had the "uber" Catholic Mom who was the Church Lady.  (I love you, Mom, more than anything, but as a Mom you drove us nuts with church, even though I strive to be like you, now!) 

But I feel really dumb and lacking when I don't know something that's going on in church or even the prayers that our congegration adds to the Rosary.  I learned the Rosary as Apostles' Creed, Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be.  The parish I grew up never said the rosary before Mass.  The only time we said the Rosary was during Lent.  Now, in our parish that we joined about 4 years ago, they say the Rosary before every Mass.  No matter what time we leave the house, we always get to church in the middle of it.  It's taken me Four LONG Years, but I finally figured out that the prayer that is added by the Glory Be is the Fatima Prayer. Huh?  That's not in my Catholic Book of Prayers.  I still don't know the prayer that they put at the end of the Rosary.

Maybe the crux of the problem is that I'm such an introvert that I don't ask anyone.  Honestly, shouldn't I know this stuff?  But, I never learned any of this.

Now, how am I supposed to teach a Catechism class for 7th graders when I'm not an "uber" Catholic?  I didn't grow up in a household where the family said the rosary together every night (and there are families like that in my parish. I strive to be like them.) How am I supposed to teach them when I don't know everything I need to know?

Hmmmmmmmmmm,  guess I need to take a deep breath, tell Satan to take a step back, and that I'll learn it as I go - all the while, being honest with the kids that they might know more than I do and I'm just trying to give them a way to continue to learn it.

Doing the Weekend Hustle

The whole family went to my Mom and Dad's house yesterday morning to make more cider. 

My hubby feeding apples into the disposal

Fixit THREW apples into the wash barrel for a couple of minutes.  But, she was already an old hat at this, so she got bored.  Plus, it was too cold and windy to play outside, so she go to head in the house and watch cartoons. 

Bug was a big helper putting apples into the wash water and she got to man the handle on the hydraulic press.  Eventually, she was cartoon-bound, too. 

Bug manning the hydraulic press with Grandpa

K & Bug with Grandpa

K was a trooper and helped put apples into the wash water, put apples into the apple grinder, and was a big helper with Grandpa manning the squishing station.  She thought it was neat to watch the cider being squeezed out and then be able to peel the dried apple remains from the muslin. 

Dried apple remains

It went much faster by adding the extra step of the apple grinder, before we put them through the disposal.  I haven't heard, but I'm hoping we didn't overload the disposal and kill the motor. It kept getting too hot and stopping. Garbage disposals were never meant for continual running.

Grandma fed us lunch and we headed home for the crew to take a nap.

Today, we all went to church.  I will admit that I forgot that Father Jim was going to be blessing the catechists and commissioning them for the coming year.  So, I started out sitting with the family and ended up sitting with the other catechists.

I think my poor husband got the bad end of that one, even though I didn't think the kids were that bad.  I actually got to sit and LISTEN to Mass and appreciate what was going on, instead of whispering to this kid or that one.

When we got home, Mom was waiting for me and we were going to head in to town to watch THE GREATEST MIRACLE .  This wonderful movie featured the amazing music from Libera. The soundtrack was incredible.  This was a 3D movie - which I had never watched a 3D movie before, so that was interesting its self.  This was an amazing animated Catholic movie celebrating the miracle of every Mass - receiving Christ and preparing for him and keeping him with us all the time, not just at Mass.  There was more than once that I had tears flowing down my cheeks from the wonder I was feeling, the insight into the Mass that I hadn't felt before.

I can't wait until it comes out on DVD so I can show it to my kids and to my CCD kids.  I will admit that some of the animation was off - the hands were really wonky, but the message was amazing.  Mom and I both got headaches from the 3D portion of it, but it was very powerful without being overwhelming.

To top it off, this Catholic company called Wee Believers paid for the first 100 people at each showing that said "We Believe" at the ticket counter.  I'm looking at some of their things as Christmas presents for the girls.  I love supporting family-owned businesses, especially Catholic companies.  If you get a chance, check them out and at least send them a note through their contact page thanking them for supporting a Catholic film.