To blog or not to blog

It has been 10 days since my last post; and, we have been so busy living that I am not writing much. I attended my third Christ Renews His Parish CRHP ("Chirp") retreat this past weekend and experienced some amount of post-Chirpdom depression most of the week. The kids have been great and their work inspires me to pray harder and work harder. We ordered new books by mail; we love Adoremus Books. Times are hectic and noisy, yet here at our home, we often do not feel the hustle and bustle of the world. Cutting off from cable television four years ago has made such an improvement in our quality of life. I mostly watched A&E, HGTV and EWTN, but now I read more, cook more and talk to my friends and family more. I think I am more open to having people over as well, cause I cannot flip on the t.v. for company. And, yes, I love being invited over to my friends' houses. I am blessed to have so many friends. Some are active in homeschooling. I am often socializing with children, which I love. That being said, my husband and I are overdue for a date night.

I am always in need of being more organized. The reason I should blog more is that it will help me manage me-- and, trust me, I am very unruly <:! My Catholic faith is such a true friend to me. Receiving the Lord in the Holy Eucharist, being absolved in public in the confessional, "Son-bathing" at Adoration and clinging to traditional devotions like the Rosary and the Saints.....all these facets of Jesus's Ecclesia are deeply personal to me and make me strive to live life for Heaven. I am constantly falling short of this goal, but the goal is very clear. I think the children, in their untainted way, really understand what living their lives for God means. They understand this because they understand who Jesus is, why He came and what He came to do. I hope these blessed days will remain in them. I pray that these days are like money in the bank, spiritually speaking that is.

I semi-regularly visit this blog: http://happycatholic.blogspot.com/2007/04/fine-art-friday_27.html and, I was so excited to find this video with one of my favorite contemporary Christian singers, Sara Groves:

http://www.glyphnet.com/jeremiah/JeremiahLarge.html

And, look at this amazing Cathedral in, of all places, West Virginia: http://www.socalpix.com/wheelinglarge/index.html

May God bless anyone who takes the time to read all of these ramblings. Like the "happy Catholic," I too may not always be happy, but I am so happy and blessed to be Catholic. It is truly a case of His body and blood enlivening my weak and sin-prone flesh.

"Domine, quo vadis?"

St. Francis of Assisi prayer:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where
there is injury, pardon;where there is doubt,
faith;where there is despair, hope;where there is darkness, light;where there is sadness, joy;
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be
consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to
love.
For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are
pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

I joked with my friend Sara (and no, I was not talking to myself...) that I had "blogged and burned". We have been really busy preparing for our TORCH dramas. Joy-Beth was in Pinocchio this last Saturday, and Maggie will act in The Hobbit this weekend. I will creep out of my blog slacking with the above prayer. It is one of my favorite prayers.

The prayer of the month of March was "Domine, quo vadis?" "Lord, where are you going?" The children and I prayed this from our hearts. We are really trying to follow Him. Our Lord Jesus Christ asks alot of us, but His companionship is so sweet. We are so blessed with the families in our homeschooling co-op; the cooperation we have experienced in this group brings our religion to life. Our Catholic faith is beautiful. It is lived. I pray after taking the Eucharist, "Lord, I am in You and You are in me." As a convert, I experience Holy Mother Church and her children as my family. All persons are God's children, and, I believe that when the Lord met Peter leaving Rome that day, He was yet again revealing to a besieged and suffering humanity (through this encounter with the very human St. Peter) that God became man to suffer with him. He encouraged Peter to turn around, walk back in to Rome and be brutally killed on a cross in close imitation of his Savior. Peter did not have to follow Him back. He could have kept walking and returned at a safer time. Our Catholic faith is not about safety. It is sometimes about comfort. It is often risky. It is always about Love.