"This is [My] Life"

Have you ever had one of those days where a song just keeps reverberating through your head?

It's been one of those weeks, actually.



Even when I was praying after Mass today, the lyrics came to mind. It's really a very beautiful song (and I'm a sucker for soul-stirring songs).

Although I do not own any of Switchfoot's cds, I really like their music, or at least all the songs I've heard on Youtube and their Myspace page. I love songs whose lyrics can be taken as Christian or just plain inspirational at the same time, and Switchfoot's songs do just that.

...methinks I need to buy me some cd's.

(:

In other news, I'm getting back into the rythm of the school year. I love, love, love it. <333 Although I'm going to have to curb this procrastination issue if I want to stay sane all semester.

God bless!

WYDSYD08!

This article nicely summarizes the essence of WYD08:

"Catholic and Cool in Sydney"

More commentary by me later.

Children: Joy > Cost

My inbox gets filled up with way too many forwards. Usually I delete them without even bothering to open them, because after awhile all forwards start to sound the same: cheesy and rather pointless. But since this one had "children" in the title, which is a subject I've been giving quite a bit of thought to lately, I decided to give it a try. Well, it turns out it was worth it! Here it is:

The Price of Children

The government recently calculated the cost of raising a child from birth to 18 and came up with $160,140 for a middle income family. Talk about sticker shock! That doesn't even touch college tuition. But $160,140 isn't so bad if you break it down.

It translates into:

* $8,896.66 a year,
* $741.38 a month, or
* $171.08 a week.
* That's a mere $24.24 a day!
* Just over a dollar an hour.

Still, you might think the best financial advice is don't have children if you want to be "rich." Actually, it is just the opposite. What do you get for your $160,140?

* Naming rights. First, middle, and last!
* Glimpses of God every day.
* Giggles under the covers every night.
* More love than your heart can hold.
* Butterfly kisses and Velcro hugs.
* Endless wonder over rocks, ants, clouds, and warm cookies.
* A hand to hold, usually covered with jelly or chocolate.
* A partner for blowing bubbles, flying kites
* Someone to laugh yourself silly with, no matter what the boss said or how your stocks performed that day.

For $160,140, you never have to grow up. You get to:

* finger- paint,
* carve pumpkins,
* play hide-and-seek,
* catch lightning bugs, and
* never stop believing in Santa Claus.

You have an excuse to:

* keep reading the Adventures of Piglet and Pooh,
* watching Saturday morning cartoons,
* going to Disney movies, and
* wishing on stars.
* You get to frame rainbows, hearts and flowers under refrigerator magnets and collect spray painted noodle wreaths for Christmas, hand prints set in clay on Mother's Day and cards with backward letters for Father's Day.

For $160,140, there is no greater bang for your buck. You get to be a hero just for:

* retrieving a Frisbee off the garage roof,
* taking the training wheels off a bike,
* removing a splinter,
* filling a wading pool,
* coaxing a wad of gum out of bangs, and coaching a baseball team that never wins but always gets treated to ice cream regardless.

You get a front row seat to history to witness the:

* first step,
* first word,
* first bra,
* first date, and
* first time behind the wheel.

You get to be immortal. You get another branch added to your family tree, and if you're lucky, a long list of limbs in your obituary called grandchildren and great grandchildren. You get an education in psychology, nursing, criminal justice, communications, and human sexuality that no college can match.

In the eyes of a child, you rank right up there under God. You have all the power to heal a boo-boo, scare away the monsters under the bed, patch a broken heart, police a slumber party, ground them forever, and love them without limits. So one day they will, like you, love without counting the cost. That is quite a deal for the price!

Love & enjoy your children & grandchildren!

Although I imagine that parenting is indeed a cross at times, like all suffering, the blessings that come from it are more than worth the "price."

Useless anxiety

Me: Worry, worry, worry, worry, worry. Aaaargh!

God: "I tell you, do not be anxious about your life. . .consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. . .but if [I] so clothe the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will [I] not much more clothe you, O [daughter] of little faith? . . .Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day's own trouble be sufficient for the day." (Matthew 6:25-34)

Me: Oh, that's nice, Lord. *goes back to worrying*

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You know what I need? A good smack in the head. It's a wonder God hasn't given me one yet. I think it would do me some good.

Our Mother's Prayer

My soul doth magnify the Lord.
And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.
Because he hath regarded the humility of his handmaid; for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.
Because he that is mighty, hath done great things to me; and holy is his name.
And his mercy is from generation unto generations, to them that fear him.
He hath shewed might in his arm: he hath scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart.
He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble.
He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away.
He hath received Israel his servant, being mindful of his mercy:
As he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed for ever.

After I recieved a certain blessing today, my heart filled with gratitude to God and I was able to say with Mary, "My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,. . .[for] the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name." I looked up the Magnificat (above) prayer on Google so that I could read the full text, and in doing so I also found this beautiful yet simple reflection on Mary's awesome prayer: The "Merciless" Magnificat by Rev. Johann G. Roten, SM.

I hope you enjoy & are blessed by it. May we all join with Our Blessed Mother in proclaiming and sharing God's goodness to us.

A little something about Prayer

I had this idea last night that I thought would make a great YouTube video, but since I'm a bit camera-shy and I know myself well enough to admit that by the time I actually got around to making said video, I would have forgotten what I wanted to say...well, a blog post seemed to be the better alternative. (Plus, anything that will keep this blog alive is a good thing.)

So, where to begin? Oh yes. The Baltimore Catechism. Well, I found it on my bookshelf last night and decided to peruse it, and after awhile I came across a section about prayer which asked the question: "Why do we pray?" The simple answer given is as follows: "We pray: first to adore God; second, to thank Him for His favors; third, to obtain from Him the pardon of our sins and the remission of their punishment; fourth, to ask graces and blessings for ourselves and others." Sounds very straightforward, right? And it is. But it was the order, not the form, that caught my attention. I realized that I have been approaching prayer completely backwards without even giving it much thought. For me, prayer usually goes something like this: "Hi God. I reeeeally need Your help with such-and-such. I'm not doing so well, and if You don't help me I think I'm going to give up. By the way, I'm sorry for doing you-name-it. I'll try really hard to stop doing that. But You gotta provide the grace. Also, thanks for such-and-such. Oh, and You are awesome and I'm so glad that You're my God. Amen."

Now obviously, this is a slight exaggeration. But you get the point: Ask for help, say I'm sorry, give thanks, and adore. Wroooong order. No wonder I so often fall out of a pattern of regular prayer. Adore. Thank. Repent. Supplicate. Rinse and repeat. :P When you think about it, though, the Baltimore Catechism's order makes much more sense than my own and allows prayer to flow more naturally. "I love You, God. You are so great and wonderful. Thank you so much for the blessings that You have given me in my life, especially recently. In light of Your goodness, I see more clearly my sins and how atrociously I have acted. I am so sorry, Lord, for offending You and failing to contribute positively to the world, but rather diminishing the cause and spread of goodness through my own sinful actions. Please forgive me, and help me to make amends and work towards becoming a better person. And please provide me with all of those graces which I am in most need of, especially the ones I am unaware of needing. Please bless my day, my thoughts, words, and actions, and my family and friends as well. Thank You, Lord. I love You. Amen."



"For me, prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a simple look turned toward heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy."

"Kneeling before the tabernacle, I can think of only one thing to say to our Lord: "My God, you know that I love You." And I feel that my prayer does not weary Jesus; knowing my weakness, He is satisfied with my good will."

-The Little Flower (Saint Therese of Lisieux)

Faith & Fidelity

This thought just came to me while I was in the shower (that greatest of thinking places): There can be no faith if it isn't accompanied by doubts. For if there aren't any doubts, how can you call it faith? How is it proven, if there is nothing to challenge it?

Anyway, this thought comforted me a little because I've been experiencing some doubts & cynicism lately in my life. I've not been so good in the prayer department, and I haven't seriously attempted to read a spiritual/devotional book in quite awhile. I know my friends think of me as the Catholic/Christian girl, yadda yadda. But I need someone to pray for me too, y'know. I never claimed to be perfect; people just seem to assume that since I'm into my faith, I'm...I dunno. But that's silly. I just wish I knew more people who share my beliefs; it would be awfully nice to be able to speak about spiritual things w/people. Well, God? Send 'em my way. :)

More political pondering

So, I've been thinking lately...I either need to delete this blog entirely or else start posting more often. I think I'll opt for the latter (at least for now). I remember my very first blog, back when I had a Xanga account. I would post on there all the time! Of course, that was back in the good ol' days of high school goofing off-ness. And that was also before junior year, if I recall correctly, before I was showered with hw. Anyhoo...having been inspired by some vloggers on youtube, I've decided to give this blog another try. This seems like an opportune moment to shamelessly plug my Spanish blog-go on, read it! I hope I don't sound too much like a caveman-of course, for the most part I just stick with the present & preterite tenses, so it's not too bad or difficult.

Random thought(to borrow one of Kelli's favorite phrases): I desperately need to do some research into the remaining presidential candidates. I know, I know-it's already March and I'm still uninformed?! I wasn't registered to vote in time for the primaries, though, so I didn't exactly have an urgent need to know...speaking of which, I still haven't received my voter registration card, etc. in the mail. Hm. Anyways. I guess I can partly blame my lack of candidate savvy on the fact that, as politicians, they are pretty much inherently annoying, so it's a bit of a chore to listen to/read their points of view for any amount of time. Perhaps I'm too cynical in this regard, but really, they are all a bit power-hungry and will do practically anything to appease the voters-it's sickening how they pretend to care about certain causes or w/e just to get votes. Nonetheless, I must vote for one of them...the lesser of two (or three at this point) evils. The thing is, I could never bring myself to vote for a candidate that supports abortion; it is such an atrocity. Even if I totally agree with his/her views in other areas, that one key issue would prevent me from voting for them. Which pretty much forces me to vote for the other candidate. I know that many argue that you can't or shouldn't base your vote on one issue, and I agree-but I refuse to give power to someone who wouldn't do a thing to prevent thousands of unborn children from being aborted (killed) each year in this country. Of course, I think Republican politicians need to do more to restrict abortion as well. Apart from any religious beliefs, abortion is clearly inhumane and does harm to everyone involved-the baby, mother, father, and country.

So what are your views on voting-are there certain issue that are very important to you? If anyone is reading this...let me know! I know politics is one of those conversation no-no's, but I'm a firm believer that we are all capable of being civil (and charitable) about sharing/expressing our opinions.

Pre-primary ponderings

Somehow I stumbled across Mark Shea's blog, "Catholic and Enjoying It," and among the many interesting/entertaining posts, I found two gems relating to this year's Presidential race. Unfortunately, I can't link to the individual posts, but look almost halfway down the page for a post titled "Israel and Judah." Also, a bit further up on the page he posted a priceless Foxtrot comic. Enjoy.

And one more thing...vote responsibly tomorrow!! :)

Deep stuff (Lenten style)

I want this Lent to be different from years past. This year, I really want to dig deep and look past the superficiality that I always seem to succumb to. Lent means so much more than not eating sweets for a month, or whatever. It is a beautiful period of time that the Church gives us to contemplate the very core of Christianity, so succinctly summed up (and oft-repeated) in John 3:16-that the Creator of everything that exists not only deigned to create us so lovingly and surround us with beautiful things, but He also had pity and compassion toward us in our peril and misery, and this One sent His Son to live among us and free us from the clutches of darkness and death. How mind-blowing is that? Sadly, it seems that it doesn't take too long for me to forget it. But that's what makes the Church's liturgical seasons even more valuable; they serve to bring our minds & hearts back to the Mysteries and Truths that define our Faith and (hopefully) our lives. For Lent, this means a renewed pondering/meditation on the Mystery of Suffering and the Cross...and its triumph. I pray that this Lent I'll be able to dig deeper into these Mysteries and draw closer to Him who so loves me.