Weekend

I had an absolutely beautiful weekend. I didn't have to work, for once, got to spend lots of time with my wife and children. Had a relaxing Saturday. Sunday we took the girls to a museum in Durham, complete with butterfly house! A big hit, to say the least. Monday, we saved for house and yard work. Even that went off without a hitch. In fact, we took the great leap of going out to a restaurant with the girls, and a great time was had by all. That marks the first time we, as a family, have been to a real restaurant (fast food and barbecue don't count). Kilo is generally a bit, shall we say, enthusiastic (i.e. wide open, I don't call her "wild thing" for nothing). Yet even she was good as gold. Well, maybe bronze. Lima and Delta were both great, too. All in all about as close to perfect as you can get.

I went to mass Saturday evening, which is almost unheard of for me, and it was beautiful. Yes, it was, of course, Novus Ordo, and in english, and the hymns weren't my favorites, but it was very reverent, sincere, and satisfying. The choir, and accompaniment, while not completely traditional, was very good, and gets better all the time, it seems. It was just very very nice.

I have put a great deal of blogeffort into bitching about mass, music, etc. And I am quite sincere in my bitchiness. This time, for some reason, I am ignoring the few sick and misshapen trees, and just relish the beauty of the forest. I thank God for that blessing. I needed it.

And no, all of my fellow friendly trads out there, I am not jumping ship or anything. I still see many things that need changing, and I will continue blogging about them. But for once, with God's grace, I was not distracted from what was there, what was happening RIGHT THERE, on that altar. The whole absurdly preposterous idea that Jesus was there for ME! Giving Himself to me as if I deserved it! Me in all my weakness and unworthiness. How could anyone see that, believe that, and not be moved to tears?

Pants

My wife wears pants. Even to Church. There, I said it. I never really gave it a second thought, at least beyond noting it to be the case, that is. You see, she hates skirts and dresses, and does not own any, period. She dislikes shorts as well, though she owns a few pair which she wears at the beach or pool.

I always thought that it was unusual, but kind of nice at the same time. You see, I generally dislike the things too. Skirts and dresses always seemed to me to be a bit impractical and awkward. I may be wrong, never having worn them, but it just seems that way to me. Now I will tell you that she always dresses modestly and neatly and is the most faithful, conservative Catholic I have ever known. She not only brought me back into the Church when I was lost and had drifted away, she brought in her best friend, as well. She is truly devoted to our faith.

I never put any other meaning to it at all - her attire, that is. But, apparently, there are a lot of people in the world of traditional minded Catholics who find it offensive. To all of you out there, I apologize in advance, because I just don't get it. I can see getting upset about sloth and slothful appearance (they go hand-in-hand IMHO). That bothers me even outside of church - it upsets me tremendously in Church. I find it offensive as hell to see people go to communion in ragged boat shoes, beat up shorts, and tee shirts with God knows what kind of things them (my personal favorite was "I was a pig at _____ Barbeque").

I have often said that in the pusuit of the truth-in-advertising that people so dressed should have t-shirts that say "I don't give a ____". In fact, maybe have them say it both front and rear, so that those of us who DO give a _____ know to avoid them at all costs. Kind of like the old testament rules about lepers having to say "unclean, unclean" whenver someone would approach. Man, now that I think about it, that's a great idea!!! But I digress...

I like to be casual, sure, as does my wife, but not inappropriately slovenly-looking. I don't think that nice, decent casual dress clothes - khaki pants, nice blouse, maybe a jacket on top of that, is inappropriate dress for church. So please don't confuse slack and casual, or criticize the latter because you are disgusted by the former.

EMHC UPDATE

I suppose anyone who has read my earlier post on the subject of Extraordinary (or Extra-ordinary) Ministers of Holy Communion would be aware of my thoughts on the matter.

Sunday past, though, beat all of my previous experiences hands down.

As communion time approached, the priest, having prepared the customary 4 chalicettes and 3 extra ciboria for the distribution of communion (to ± 250 people !!!!!) found himself in a bit of a situation. It seems that there were only three EMHC's who voluntarily went up to the altar to "serve". Well, the common sense options would seem to be 1) give the three ciboria to those three and they, plus the priest could distribute the sacred hosts, skipping the precious blood distribution entirely. or 2) give one ciborium and two chalicettes to the three busybodi... I mean, volunteers and run that way - four people-two species.

But nooooooo. The priest proceeds to call for any EMHC's to come forward to help. So the rest of the congregation sits patiently while three others have to get out of their pews, and amble slowly up to assume their roles. And actually, it was more interesting than that, because there were more than three potential volunteers, which lead to a kind of To Tell The Truth style halfway sitting-standing-alternatating for a bit before it actually settled out who the choice three would be!

This kind of madness will go on until some authority (Rome) says, simply, NO. If there is ANY kind of "except in _____ cases" wiggle room, it will never ever stop. I kind of have the idea that God got it right on Sinai. Being the smart God that he is, he stuck with "thou shalt not". Not "that shall not, except when". Maybe the Powers that Be in the Vatican should look to God in this case. He seems to be a good role model.

Slacking Off

I have been slack in my blogging lately, I know. Special thanks to the Cannonball for bringing this to my attention. I apologize to my loyal reader!

I tend to fall behind on many things in the summertime, because my teaching requires two nights plus all-day Saturdays. This in addition to my usual 7-6 regular job. Factor in the children and wife and I just don't get much time to do anything, including sleep.

That combined with the fact that the fatigue brings with it a certain lack of focus and energy means that I get slack.

But MAN does it feel good that I am missed!

Missal

My new missal came yesterday! It is beautiful, and I can't wait to have the time to look through it and begin to read the prayers, readings, etc. I am amazed that it came so soon! I am hoping to get a few minutes to go by church, sit quietly, read and reflect this afternoon.

And this at the same time that Father Z (and others) is reporting this!

I only hope that our Bishop is following this. I pray that he is.

Music & Books

Ahhh, my first meme! Courtesy of my friend Carolina Cannonball

How many books do you own?
Enough to occupy the majority of four bookcases, plus maybe 8 boxes.

Book(s) I am reading now:
Somebody's Got to Say It! by Neal Boortz

Five Books That Mean a Lot to Me:
1- The Bible
2- Saint Joseph's Daily Missal
3- Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy
4- Robert Frost, The American Library Edition
5- Star Man's Son by Andre Norton


Now for the music...

Five favorite songs:
Rover - Jethro Tull
Hey Porter - Johnny Cash
Sing Sing Sing - Benny Goodman
Dark Night of the Soul - Loreena McKennitt
One More for the Road - Frank Sinatra

Three favorite music artists:
Johnny Cash
Frank Sinatra
Nanci Griffith
Loreena McKennitt
Ian Anderson

Three favorite composers:
Aaron Copland
Beethoven
Tchaikovsky

Favorite song when you were a little kid:
I can't remember. I sang constantly so who knows?

Favorite song you wish you could sing:
Come Sail Away by Styx

Favorite type of music:
everything but Rap

Least favorite song:
Morning Has Broken

Least favorite type of music:
Rap

Favorite music instrument:
Tie between Violin/Fiddle and Banjo

Musical instrument you wish you could play:
Flute

Tagging two friends.

Man this is tough. To narrow down to just a few favorites on such short notice is very very hard. I could easily do an ipod playlist in response to a couple of these!
Or a card Catalog - for those of you who remember what they were.

A Thousand Words