Free Catholic music

Two very cool - and free - tunes are available from The Harms: "Hail Holy Queen" and "St. John Bosco."

You can listen to them on The Harms' site or download them for later enjoyment. And, seriously, you can never have enough songs about St. John Bosco on your iPod.

The songs were featured on a recent episode of the Rosary Army Podcast, and also on the site Sonitus Sanctus, which rounds up and links to free Catholic audio: homilies, talks, podcasts, songs, etc.

The Harms are brothers Ben and Dan. Dan is one-half of the "acoustic humor band" Popple, which has the fantastic song, "Peanut Butter Sandwiches." That song, and the lovely Prayer of St. Francis, are on Popple's latest CD, Plaid, which is available on iTunes. Check 'em out!

What are you doing for Lent?

I'm asking you because I don't know yet - LOL.

Actually, the discussion recently popped up on the Rosary Army forum. It's a good thread, check it out if you want some ideas.

Up until a few years ago, I've always hit Lent (when I decided to, that is) with the approach of: "Give something up!"

But the past few years I've approached the season with the aim of adding something spiritual to my life instead of taking something tangible away.

Two things I'm considering for this Lent:

Re-reading The Power of the Cross: Applying the Passion of Christ to Your Life by Michael Dubruiel. It's an excellent book comprised of a series of 40 reflections and passages - perfect for use as a Lenten devotional. I'm a big fan of Dubruiel's books, so you can't go wrong with Power of the Cross for Lent (or any other 40-day period), IMO.

Reconsecrating myself to Jesus, through Mary, via Total Consecration. The second 33-day prayer cycle of this year starts right in the middle of Lent, Feb. 20, and ends in the Easter Octave (March 25). I first consecrated myself two years ago, and have since tried twice to reconsecrate myself, but have lost steam on the way. If you want a free Total Consecration kit, including the book by St. Louis de Monfort, check out this apostolate, which gives them away for free. Yes, free - no strings attached.

I have to pray over which path to choose this Lent, or ask God to reveal another before next Wednesday!

I read what Jen's praying over, what are you doing? Got any good ideas to share?

Of pears and Purgatory

Yesterday my 7-month-old son had pears for lunch: sticky, pureed, get-in-every-baby-nook-and-cranny pears.

He wolfed down two containers, two-spooning it all the way. (He holds one spoon while I use another. Then he grabs the one I have and I grab his to produce more food. Rinse and repeat.)

When we finished, I let him gnaw on the spoons and the empty-but-still-sticky plastic pear container for a while, then decided it was time to break up this party. After we were going to do his favorite thing, lie down and nurse.

Taking the empty container away and cleaning him up was not going to be easy. I knew this, he always gets upset.

But we couldn't sit there all day, so I gently took the container away, took off his bib, removed the high chair tray, grabbed some baby wipes and set to work cleaning him up. As he cried and wailed, I tried to explain that he'd be really happy as soon as he was cleaned up. Once he was clear of the sticky pear all over his face and arms, we'd go for a cuddle.

Then it hit me: This must be what it's like in Purgatory. When it's time to move on, most of us aren't ready for Heaven. So we sit in Purgatory (probably pretty upset) while we wait to get cleaned up by angels with baby wipes - or however it's done there. ;-)

And all the while, hoping we'll be pretty happy once we get cleaned up.

Catechism tabs

More tab fun!

Good friend Lisa says that once you tab your Bible, you can move on to tab the Catechism.

I know! How cool!

According to the EWTN catalog: "With these 25 tabs on the teachings of the Catholic Church, you will find key doctrines in the Catechism quickly and easily."

Sweet!

Learning to say grace

Growing up, my family always ate dinner together, but we never said grace.

Maybe once or twice at Thanksgiving we'd give it an attempt, but it was a "Well, it's Thanksgiving, we should"-kinda awkward.

My husband didn't grow up with grace, either, but we both wanted to make it a practice with our family.

I bought a children's book, Mealtime Prayers, which we keep on the dining room table. Each night we pick a new one, hold hands and say a different grace. Our daughter, who is 2, is over-the-moon about it. She loves the hand-holding, and the fact after we loudly proclaim "AAAAAAA-MEN!" we clap our hands once. (We adopted the hand-clapping from friends. The wife is part of a large family who constantly forgot whether they said grace at the beginning of the meal. They added the clap to remind them they did. They may not have been able to remember saying grace, but they'd remember 8 of them clapping - LOL).

So our toddler loves grace, which makes us very happy. She loves it so much, in fact, she makes us say it 4 to 5 times every meal. And this is so great for us because she will grow up not feeling awkward about saying grace. We're even saying it, quietly, when we eat in public, which is a big step for we non-natural-grace-sayers.

I recently found and purchased a new aid for grace - this Table Grace Die from Abbey Press. Six-sided, it's much like the grace book, offering different ways to say grace. However, we can roll the die, which is another big hit with our daughter. I don't think it's really meant for rolling, but she loves it. And it also helps me and my husband as we continue to jumble up the words to the classic "Bless us, Oh Lord, and these Thy gifts..." grace. This gives is a cheat sheet. ;-)

The die is about 2.25" in diameter and as you can see is just half the height of a soda can. We're having a lot of fun with it, and I thought I'd pass the recommendation along.

Tabbing your Bible

I've always been a little scared of The Bible.

It's huge, filled with difficult-to-pronounce names and confused me any time I tried to navigate it.

But I've come to realize that I need to know the Bible. I really need to make my way through it and process it as best I can to understand, support and defend my faith.

At the end of last year, I bought Understanding the Scriptures, a home Bible study course. But before I started, I needed to dig out my Bible (at least I owned a Catholic one) and get over my mild phobia.

I headed to the local Catholic bookstore and found a set of colorful (Catholic) Bible tabs from Tabbies.

I've been meaning to get the Bible tabbed for weeks, and I finally tackled it Sunday night. As my husband and I watched the end of the Giants-Packers game, we tabbed our way through the Old and New Testaments. The results are below. How cool!

I realize it's really geeky to get excited over something like this, but A) I finally got the Bible tabbed and B) I turned a long-standing to-do into it's-done. I recommend using the Tabbies. They're inexpensive ($4, I think) and easy to "install." The colors are coded, too: The Pentateuch (rose); History (peach); Poetry and Wisdom (yellow); The Prophets (green); The Gospels (blue); The Letters (violet); Bible helps (lavender).

The before



The after

Getting my Act together

I headed to Confession last weekend, only to realize halfway there that I didn't have my Confession prayer book.

I'm embarrassed to admit this, but I still don't know the Act of Contrition. And I was too prideful to still go and admit that to the priest, who I'm sure would have been sweet and helped me out. So I bailed and went to Adoration instead, and it turned out to be a great experience. (I'm not advocating skipping Confession here - I will go this weekend. And I have got to learn the Act of Contrition for Pete's sake.)

Anyway, I went to Adoration sans anything. No Rosary. No book. No prayer book. Zip.

I've done this a couple of times before with the attitude, I'll go and just listen to what God has to say. That's not in my nature as I'm a Type A nutty multitasker, but I've always found it very rewarding nonetheless.

So I went to the chapel and sat in the front row of kneelers. I started with a few prayers; I didn't pray for anything specific, just thinking You know what I need, Lord. Help me as you see fit.

Then I just let my mind wander. One of the things I like to do at Adoration is imagine Jesus standing at the monstrance. For instance, if he were standing, how much taller would he be compared to the monstrance? Where would the top of his head be? Where would his arms be? I sat there, imagining him standing here, arms outstretched, flooding us with grace and mercy, a la the Divine Mercy image.

My mind kept wandering as I pictured him there and all of a sudden I imagined him walking away from the monstrance, sitting next to me and putting his arm around me. I will take care of you, he said. It will all be all right.

That all popped into my head in a split second, and my eyes welled with tears. I wasn't praying for anything really serious. In fact, for once, I came to Adoration with no petitions or intentions at all. Sure, I have plenty to pray for, but for once I just gave it all up to Him and he graced me with that image in my head. I really can't explain it, but it was very powerful and I was overwhelmed. I was so moved, tears ran down my cheeks. Thank goodness I was alone in the front row, I would have been embarrassed.

I spent the rest of Adoration gazing at the monstrance through watery eyes.

Who am I to judge?

A discussion popped up on The Rosary Army Forum recently regarding latecomers to Mass and the fact those who come early (or on time) grudgingly have to "scoot over" to accommodate them.

This made me think, quite a bit. I used to be very, very judgmental of my brothers and sisters at Mass. Those who came late, talked during Mass, dressed inappropriately, kept on walking right out the door from the Communion line, brought loud kids, etc., all fell under my holier-than-thou sphere of judgement.

And, amazingly, this was still when Mass was somewhere I felt I had to be, not somewhere I wanted to be!

At the beginning of my rebeginning* in the faith, I read How To Get The Most Out of the Eucharist by Michael Dubruiel.**

The first chapter offers the following, in relation to being unhappy about how the Mass is celebrated, other parishoners and their behavior, the music and anything else that gets your nose out of joint:

If you want to get the most of the Eucharist, you have to check your "I" at the door. The "I" that wants things, that endlessly critiques the way things are done and demands that things be done exactly in a certain way (meaning "my way" not "God's way....We therefore consciously have to leave "my way" at the door and in exchange take up an attitude that asks "how may we be of service to you, Lord, in this celebration of the Eucharist?"

Now, Dubruiel is not excusing legitimate liturgical abuses, he says you should report them to the diocese. Yet his statement underscores his point that we're at Mass to serve the Lord, and we're not serving if we're getting distracted.

A point I would like to add: We never know the stories behind our fellow parishoners' behavior. Sure, some folks may not have the appropriate respect and reverence for Mass, but I would bet many have a decent excuse for their actions:

For example, yesterday I forgot my envelope and had absolutely no cash in my wallet. When the basket came by, I had to let it pass without any contribution from me. Did others watching think I was cheap or ungrateful?

Another time I forgot my glasses and only had my prescription sunglasses in my bag. I'm very near sighted, so I need glasses to see. I decided to wear my sunglasses during Mass so I could see. Did others think I was ignorant or disrespectful?

In one of his 7 Habits books, Stephen Covey relates a personal experience. He was riding the subway in New York City one morning and a man boarded with his children. The kids were wild, goofing around, and the man just sat there seemingly oblivious to the situation. Covey got hotter and hotter until he walked over to the man and angrily asked him to do something about his kids. The man, who seemed in a daze, snapped out of it and looked at Covey. He apologized, noting he and his children were on their way home from the hospital. His wife had just died and he didn't know how to tell the kids.

We never know why people do (or fail to do) what they do (or should do). I think we just have to give them the benefit of the doubt and let Jesus worry about the rest. After all, it's His concern, not ours.

I don't mean to imply that I've totally conquered passing judgement on anyone (see this post), because that's far from the truth. I have to still work very hard to fight that impulse, and more often that not I've already judged someone in my mind by the time I think Don't judge!. But I feel I am making some progress, and I'm definitely getting better about it in the pew.

So, to wrap up, if someone arrives late and asks you scoot over in the pew, just do it and smile. No one's perfect and Jesus loves that latecomer just as much as you.

* I'm starting to like "rebeginning" better than "reversion", and found it mentioned in The Fulfillment of All Desire by Ralph Martin)

** I can't recommend this book enough: How To Get The Most Out of the Eucharist by Michael Dubruiel. Really fantastic, and one I feel I need to re-read once a year. When first read it, I was having difficulty feeling the gravity of the Real Presence. I never doubted the Real Presence, but it was difficult to muster up the appropriate reverence for it, if that makes any sense. After years of not even considering what I was receiving, I needed a major attitude adjustment. As an aside, it's something I still work on. It's almost too-awesome to comprehend and I have years of bad habits/ignorance to unlearn. I was leafing through it trying to find that quote and thought I need to re-read this soon!

Wanna read a good book?

As I've written before, I love books. And since my reversion to Catholicism, no book makes me more excited than one about Catholicism. I've found that constantly reading about Catholicism keeps me fired up and I'm finally (slowly) learning more and more about the faith.

Last week, I was on Maureen Wittmann's blog, and I saw this cool feature in her sidebar: Library Thing.

I checked it out, and it's so easy even I could do it.

Basically, via the site you search Amazon and other sources and catalog the books you own. You can see how many other LT users own the same books and peruse their libraries to find other titles you may want to read. And, it also illuminates the books you have in your library that you haven't read yet (raises hand sheepishly). Seriously, I gotta read more of what I own before I buy more. I am a book junkie.

If you have a blog or Web site, the Library Thing Blog Widget will give you automatic code to add random books from your library onto your blog. Very cool!

I'm having a fun time cataloging my books. I can finally see how many I own. After the Great Yard Sale/Purge of last summer, I was interested to see how I pared down my books. My husband and I had a ton, and we sold many. Those that didn't sell - dozens upon dozens - we donated to Got Books. I'd guess we purged our library by at least 50%.

After I set up LT, I told Jen about it and she's having fun with it, too. Check it out, if you're a reader it's very fun.

And, if you'd like, you can head to the sidebar (or click here) and check out what's in my library. I'm sure we have books in common, and you may find a new title to check out. If you have an LT account, leave a comment. I'd love to see what you're reading!

Packing it away

I remember being little and plaintively telling my parents, "I wish it could be Christmas every day!"

They patiently explained that if it were Christmas every day it wouldn't be special anymore. I'd begrudgingly agree (my sad statement became an annual event for a while), but was still disappointed.

I've (finally) come to accept we can't celebrate Dec. 25 365 times in a row, but I do tend to find Epiphany a little sad, as that means the Christmas season is over.

No more parties. No more Christmas carols. And no more decorations. That warm, fuzzy, familial, count-your-blessings-type atmosphere evaporates for another year, leaving behind the long, cold winter.

Last Saturday, before going to bed, I looked out my dining room window and sadly observed that the bright white lights that lit up the windows of my neighbors' homes were extinguished, leaving the neighborhood hunkered down in the dark. Ours would be packed away the following day.

So for me, the season is really over when we take down the decorations starting Jan. 6. Putting away the manger, ornaments, Advent wreath, singing snowmen and more leaves the house so empty-looking.

And this year, aside from removing the lights from the windows, the thing that bummed me out the most was taking down the Christmas cards. We hang them in the two arches/doorways to our kitchen. And for the whole month I enjoyed watching the arches get more crowded. I spend so much time in there every day, I got used to being physically surrounded by our friends.

Day by day, I'd see the smiling faces of friends (mostly their grinning, gap-toothed children) creep across the room, filling up all available space. We had so many cards this year I even had to expand onto a cabinet, see the picture above. (Because of the lighting at the time of the day I took that photo, I couldn't get a good shot of one whole arch, but you get the idea.)

So now those arches are bare and back to normal, leaving the kitchen really empty-looking. I know we're supposed to keep Christmas in our hearts all year long - and we do through prayer, Mass and keeping the Faith. However, I wouldn't mind having those Christmas cards around for a while longer as a reminder.

Just out of sight

Last night I went into my son's room at about 11:30 p.m. to check on him and pray over him before I headed to bed.

He's been having a little trouble sleeping as of late, so I was extra quiet. His crib is situated right by the door, so I can just peek my head over the end of the crib and look in. I've been putting him in bed with his head pointing away from me (he still sleeps on his back), in case he did wake up, he wouldn't be able to easily see me there. Because if he caught a glance, it's cryin' time again.

So there I was, just inches over his head but out of sight, making sure he was OK and sleeping well. As I prayed, it hit me that this situation was a lot like God and his children. He is right there, but just out of sight, making sure we're OK and watching over us.

I know that's nothing profound, but it really hit me.

Support Catholic authors

As I've blogged about before, I am a big Catholic book junkie.

So I really enjoyed this post from Catholic homeschool author Maureen Wittmann on the best place to buy a Catholic book (in terms of benefitting the author): Amazon, your local Catholic bookstore or the author directly?

Wittmann breaks down how authors get paid, and as a big Amazon.com buyer, very eye-opening. I'm going to try, when possible, to buy from the author, and if not, order via my local Catholic bookstore.

First tremendous book of the year

I saw a post on The Curt Jester recently that piqued my interest: Archbishop Fulton Sheen's St. Therese - A Treasured Love Story.

Given I've been on a Sheen kick as of late, I filed it away as a possible to-read in the future. Last weekend, I hit my local Catholic bookstore and what did I find in the new releases section? Yeah. The book I came in for wasn't in stock, so I took it as a hint from the Holy Spirit that I should pick the Sheen-Therese book up.

I am so glad I did!

Initially I was somewhat hesitant as I knew little about St. Therese. I swear, I must be the last Catholic in the world to be so ill-informed on her. I knew she's called The Little Flower and advocated The Little Way. That's it. So I was very much a blank slate on St. Therese reading this, which was possibly a good thing.

The book starts with short bios of Sheen and Therese, written by Fr. Andrew Apostoli of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, EWTN, and vice postulator for the Sheen canonization cause. Father then sets the stage, explaining the rest of the book consists of transcriptions of a series of talks Sheen gave in 1973 on the 100th anniversary of Therese's birth.

What follows are 11 talks from Sheen discussing Therese's life and spirituality. They are simply amazing in that Sheen way of breaking down big concepts, applying them to modern life (even though the talks were given in 1973 they're not at all dated) and making them understandable to anyone (even me!).

The last chapter on Therese and her devotion to the Precious Blood of Jesus was, simply, amazing. I never understood devotion to the Precious Blood. I certainly do now.

This book is relatively short (185 pages) but page-for-page packs an incredible spiritual punch. It also includes a large photo section featuring pictures of Therese and Sheen (not together, of course, but you know what I mean). I cannot recommend it enough.

And, if you're a St. Therese veteran, The Curt Jester (see link above) says this book is not a retread of other works. You'll get as much out of it as a newbie like me.

My favorite Catholic books of 2007

If you've got some Christmas gift money to spend and you want to buy something nice, here are a few of my favorite Catholic books from this past year. Some of these were published in 2007, others earlier but were new-to-me. Either way, they're excellent choices for the Catholic reader in your life...or you!

7 Secrets of the Eucharist by Vinny Flynn

I've posted about this before, so I won't get repeat myself. Simply put, this is an amazingly small, powerful book that I could read every month and still learn something new.

Mother Angelica's Little Book of Life Lessons and Everyday Spirituality by Raymond Arroyo

Another book I've written about before. And another small book packed with big returns. Perfect to keep by your night stand or anywhere else you may want a quick read. It's a great attitude-adjuster from Mother, queen of refocusing us when we need it. The book is funny, powerful and very thought-provoking.

The Holy Way: Practices for a Simple Life by Paula Huston

I've been meaning to post about this book since I finished it a few months ago, but I kept forgetting (until I read Jen's take!). But, quickly, the book is Huston's account of trying to simplify her life (work, children, husband, home) after retreats to the New Camaldoli Hermitage in California. Huston devotes one chapter each to her pursuit of virtues, such as fasting, silence, charity, humility, etc., and weaves in the history of important church fathers, somewhat akin to James Martin's approach in My Life With the Saints (one of my all-time favorites). Huston manages well the tricky task of writing about her pursuit of holiness without coming across as preachy or annoying. She's very humble and this is a very good read.

The Catholic Home by Meredith Gould

This book is a perfect wedding or baby present. I've posted about this book before and I continue to reference it all the time - and I'm sure I will for years to come. It's packed with ideas for your Domestic Church and starting new family traditions. What a resource.