Quotable Monday

"Nothing great is ever achieved without much enduring"

--St. Catherine of Siena (1347-1380)

Notre Dame's side step

I haven't been biting my nails on following the Notre Dame / Obama hullabaloo, but I know enough. At first I wasn't too sure it deserved all the attention it was getting, but the more I think about a Catholic university honoring a person as opposed to young human life as Obama is, the more it bothers me. It's a regurgitation of the same trend that disturbed me in the presidential election: Christian complacency over abortion. It is very worrisome to me that it is a rare Christian who is willing to do something about abortion, let alone speak publicly against it, and it is extremely worrisome to see a Catholic institution following suit. Opposition to abortion is, after all, part of genuine Catholic identity; what other church so fervently identifies abortion as the prominent moral issue of our day? What a grand side step by Notre Dame of its moral duty to be a voice for goodness and life. Life! Such a basic idea to defend! How can it be so easy to care so little about death?

Batteries, batteries, batteries

My three year old got a non-mechanized toy motorcycle for his birthday this weekend, and he's been asking me to 'push the button,' and 'make it go' over and over. Finally he said "turn it ON mommy!", to which I replied, 'it doesn't have any batteries!' And he said "Oh dear! We better go to the store and get some!"

That's it. No more toys with batteries.

Keeping the Sabbath

"The Jews think that the sabbath is given to them for idleness. This is not the purpose, but in order that they may remove themselves from worldly cares and devote all their leisure to spiritual concerns. It is evident from the facts that the sabbath is not a subject for idleness but for spiritual work." --St. John Chrysostom, first sermon on Lazarus and the rich man

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I've always felt a bit puzzled by and even resistant to the idea of keeping the Sabbath. I have a vague notion that I shouldn't do much work, but that usually results in looking at the huge pile of dirty dishes on the kitchen counter and thinking 'I really should just let those go until tomorrow', but then going ahead and doing the dishes anyway, feeling slightly guilty but also justified. Crusty dishes were everywhere! How could I rest when I knew there were crusty dishes everywhere?!

Well, I've come across one of those "aha!" concepts in a sermon by St. john Chrysostom that is finally clearing things up on the issue of keeping the Sabbath. St. John explains the Sabbath as a day to do spiritual work. It is not a day set aside for idleness, but a day to accomplish spiritual things.

Thus far my idea of keeping the Sabbath has been pretty limited to going to Mass and then trying to spend the rest of the day on things that are relaxing. I'm realizing that while it is good for my soul to relax on Sundays, I'm missing the point if that is my main goal for the day. While it's not possible with two young kids to care for to set aside big chunks of time for spiritual reflection, I still think I could make the rhythm of Sunday more geared towards ' spiritual work' by making sure I do set aside some time outside of Mass. I feel more inclined to let the housework go knowing there's a good reason not to do the dishes. It's not that it's wrong to wash dishes on Sunday because I'm supposed to be relaxing, it's just that doing so might eliminate the only time I have during the day to spend pursuing God. (Now, if this doesn't convince my husband that we need a dishwasher, the kind with a motor in it, what will?)

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")