Lighthouse Catholic Media

So...I got an email from Lighthouse Catholic Media about their Lenten Bundle, which is, by the way, still available through April 4th. While the CDs from LCM are not free, they are very reasonable and worth every penny! While I was on their website placing my order, I noticed that they have openings for people to become LCM representatives - in other words, they'd PAY me to brag about their CDs! I thought to myself, "Self, why not turn what you are already doing on a smaller scale, into a real, bona fide paying job?"

I've been praying about doing something a little more permanent than my very part-time, only-when-they-need-me bindery job. I think this might be it. (o:

Learning Things!

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Which Church Father are You?

You’re Origen! You do nothing by half-measures. If you’re going to read the Bible, you want to read it in the original languages. If you’re going to teach, you’re going to reach as many souls as possible, through a proliferation of lectures and books. If you’re a guy and you’re going to fight for purity … well, you’d better hide the kitchen shears. Find out which Church Father you are at The Way of the Fathers!

Twelve Years Ago

On a Thursday in early November 1995, my 73-year-old Great-Aunt Rose was coming home from a physical where she had been given a clean bill of health. She and Uncle Joe talked on the way home from the doctor's office about how blessed they were to be in such good health at their age. Friday night, she was awakened by chest pain. She was taken by ambulance to the hospital where they performed emergency open-heart surgery. She came out of the surgery just fine, but then on Saturday afternoon her heart stopped and they could not do anything to make it start again.

I should mention that was very pregnant with my second child at the time. Her son asked me to sing her favorite hymn, "How Great Thou Art" for the funeral service. I sang just fine until the last verse:

When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation
And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart!
Then I shall bow in humble adoration,
And there proclaim, "My God, how great thou art!"

Thinking about Aunt Rose doing that very thing was just too much for my very pregnantly hormonal self and I could not manage to even squeak out the last chorus. Fortunately the organist had some experience playing for funerals and had told me ahead of time that she would keep playing no matter what, so it wasn't a total disaster.

This weekend, on the very anniversary of Aunt Rose's passing, we're singing "How Great Thou Art" at Mass. I believe with my whole heart that Aunt Rose will be there, in that great cloud of witnesses, to hear me sing her favorite hymn and together we will proclaim, "My God, how great thou art!"

Oh, by the way...

I'm in. On August 12th I became an officially confirmed, communed, sealed with the Holy Spirit Roman Catholic. I should have blogged about this much sooner but even now, after having nearly two months to ponder, I have difficulty finding the words to describe that day, and that moment.

Perhaps I'll have to start with August 11th. That I can talk about with no problems at all! I got to see some of my best friends on the planet! They came by car and plane from all over the US to celebrate my homecoming. We drank wine, talked, laughed, drank more wine, talked, laughed, went to a restaurant and laughed and talked some more (and drank some more, Corona with a lime for me, margaritas for almost everyone else). I know some of them who "knew me when" would never have believed that I had become Catholic unless they were there to see it with their very own eyes!

We met up in a hotel room and I opened gifts. Had I known that gifts were coming I would have said something about them not being necessary at all. The fact that my friends had taken time to venture to the cornfields just to share the day with me was more than enough. I got:

• a gorgeous crucifix made of olive wood, that has replaced my "Life of Christ" picture on my bedroom wall.
  
• a crucifix necklace that I wear almost daily that also has a pendant with the Blessed Mother and Child and a round crystal I'm told either represents unity or the eternal nature of God.
  
• The Catholic Prayer book
• A Book of Hours by Thomas Merton
• The Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius
• a Willow Tree angel
• a journal from my mom (you know, the old-fashioned kind, that you write in with a pen...)
• a rosary made from Job's Tears
  

I have always been terrible about writing Thank You notes, especially when I don't have mailing addresses for some of you, but if you're reading this post, THANK YOU! Thank you for coming to share my joy, thank you for the lovely gifts, and thank you for walking me Home. Each of you were instrumental in making this day come to pass, in some way.

May the Lord Bless you richly.

RCIA Summer Intensive

I had to really restrain myself from doing the happy dance in Mass a few weeks ago. Father John announced that they would be starting their RCIA Summer Intensive session, designed for baptized believers who just need basic instruction in "Catholic distinctives" before being received into the Church.

I have been somewhat disappointed in the content of the class - the "Intensive" part of the class title, as far as I'm concerned, is a misnomer. Intensive is what I've been doing on my own for the last year or so. This is "overview" and "any questions?" The instructors are a couple of very sweet grandmothers - one of whom just LOVES Oprah Winfrey. Yes, I realize Oprah does a lot of great things for the good of humanity, but I might be more inclined to LOVE her if she didn't seem to be doing it all for the glory of Oprah.

There is only one other person in the class who will be confirmed with me on Aug 12th. There is a third woman who just joined the class, but she's not baptized, in fact, she has never been to church anywhere, so she's just there to get acquainted and will go through the full RCIA program that starts in the fall.

We were talking about the miracles of Jesus and one of the teachers was kind of blending the story of Zacchaeus (you know, the "wee little man") and the woman with the "issue of blood" who touched the hem of Jesus' cloak. So, according to her telling of it, there was a man up in a tree looking for Jesus, and then he climbed down to touch the hem of Jesus' cloak to be healed.
I couldn't help myself - I corrected her. But I wasn't rude about it. Honest.

So I am counting down the days (1 month, 6 days according to my Ticker) until I am confirmed. I hope to have several of my online buddies there for the occasion. I know they'll ALL be there in spirit! I am so much at peace about this. If you'd told me 5 years ago that I'd be looking forward to my Catholic Confirmation I'd have probably fallen over, nearly dead at the thought. Praise be to God for his gentle leading.

Answered Prayers

I've finally gotten over my shock and am now able to fill you in on what's been going on. Instead of the reaction I feared from dh (WHAT!?!? No way am I going to be Catholic and neither are YOU!) he is actually very open to learning about it. He's reading The Rapture Trap right now, which not only debunks the Rapture theory we held near and dear to our hearts for years, but also has quite a bit of Catholic apologetics on other topics woven into it. He's not typically a reader - a few paragraphs and he's nodding off to sleep - so this is a BIG deal. Also at his bedside he has My Struggle With Faith and The Lamb's Supper. He listened to Scott Hahn's testimony CD and has a great deal of respect for him, so I'm hoping and praying that The Lamb's Supper is his burning bush.

He attended Mass with me a couple of weeks ago and, being his first time in a liturgical church, was more worried about not knowing what to do next. I told him that the only reason the kids and I knew what to do when was because we'd been there for a few weeks and there is a definite learning curve! CS Lewis says something in Letters To Malcolm that really speaks to this:

Every service is a structure of acts through which we receive a sacrament, or repent, or supplicate, or adore. And it enables us to do things best -- if you like it, "works" best -- when, through long familiarity, we don't have to think about it. As long as you notice, and have to count, the steps, you are not yet dancing but only learning to dance. A good shoe is a shoe you don't notice. Good reading becomes possible when you need not think about eyes, or light, or print, or spelling. The perfect church service would be one we were almost unaware of; our attention would have been on God.

He's at a point now where he doesn't think the Pope is the Anti-christ but is still not entirely convinced that Rome is the only way to go. For me, I cannot in good conscience go to any church with the intention of becoming a member unless it's a Catholic Church. He said, "Well, that narrows down the choices for us, doesn't it?" Yup, sure does, and isn't that much better than trying 100 Protestant churches first and finding one that "fits" us? I sure think so.