Nourishment

Ah, Lent. Spiritual house cleaning is upon us once again, and it feels due. Part of my Lenten practice this year is to pray the morning and evening prayers of the Liturgy of the Hours. This is an attempt to create a better balance of something I've been marveling at recently; how much time I spend nourishing the body, and how little time I spend nourishing my soul.

I'm amazed by the hours I spend every week on grocery shopping, preparing meals, and cleaning up after them. I go to the dentist, take my kids to the doctor. I clean the house. I highlight my hair, brush my teeth, put on makeup. I run and take walks, throw in a few yoga poses here and there just to get my body through the day. It really is remarkable. And how much time do I spend praying, reading Scripture, attending Mass? Very little, especially considering that my body will wither and die, but my soul is eternal.

I never find myself too busy to eat for an entire day, but I do find myself convinced I'm too busy and too tired to pray--why is that?!

Quotable Monday

One thing I ask of the Lord,
this is what I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord
and to seek him in his temple.

-Psalm 27:4

Breast cancer and the pill

I'd say this deserves some more investigation:

"In 1960, when the pill was first invented, the incidence of breast cancer was one in 25 women; today it is one in eight women,"

(Kathy Raviele, a Catholic physician practicing in Atlanta, in "How Birth Control Changed America for the Worst")

Quotable Monday

"Act as though all the past were nothing and with David say: "Now I will begin to love my God."

--Saint Francis de Sales: Bishop of Geneva, (1567-1622)

Throwing scarves

I picked up a great idea at story time today; wadding up a scarf in your hand and throwing it like a ball. I feel a little foolish calling this simple idea ingenious, but for toddlers who are stuck inside during winter, it is. There's something very satisfying about seeing a gauzy scarf sail through the air, and my two and a half year old can actually catch one--unlike most balls. Nice!

Quotable Monday

"Until we are willing to be politically incorrect in order to be biblically correct, we will never convince anyone that our religion is worth living."

--Bishop Robert Hermann, administrator of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, on recent elections and "lax Catholics":