one more reason to love the pope (as if we needed more!)

This was released today.  Word is that he SINGS on this CD, too!  :)  

My husband asked last night what I wanted under the tree - I think I might have an idea now.....

A presto 

the kings were NOT there right away

Before we left my parents' home to return to our own home yesterday, I may or may not have plucked the three kings from the Nativity Set at my parents' house and placed them strategically across the room on the piano, attempting to signify their journey towards Bethlehem, and their arrival in the liturgical calendar about a week after the birth of Our Lord.  My sister, upon hearing of my plan on Saturday afternoon, was aghast that I would even dare think of removing the wise men from their spots next to the Child Jesus.  I wonder if she noticed the change once she got home from work.....


The kings were NOT there right away!  :)  And liturgically speaking, they shouldn't be in the Nativity scene until the Epiphany of our Lord! 

wedding wednesday (a few days late)....there goes the veil

Quite honestly, this is one of my favorite moments captured on that beautiful day.  Our friend caught on his iPhone the exact moment that my veil came off on our way out of the church!  We're walking out of the church following the Nuptial Mass, and all of a sudden, my head jerks back and.....there goes the veil!  My hopes of having a cathedral veil at the ceremony seemed to backfire in that moment - the beautiful veil then lay in a heap of tulle as my husband and I continued out.  It was hilarious, and our photographer caught a bunch of great shots of the laughs my husband and I shared as we left the church. 

After the wedding, many people put forth their own conclusions regarding "veilgate."  

Hypothesis of my father - did someone step on it on the way out of church?  

My hypothesis after feeling my bridesmaids shove it back into my hair during the wedding homily - was it fastened loosely at the salon that morning?  

Hypothesis of my uncle, who claimed to witness this moment - did my dad step on it on his way back to his seat after giving me away, at the beginning of Mass, causing it to fall out during the recessional?  

Eventually, we reached the conclusion that it was probably stepped on by one of the wedding guests sitting near the aisle.  A moment that will live in infamy, I'm sure :)  

How was that beautiful day already three months ago?  We are so blessed!  
Queen of heaven, pray for us....
a presto

reason #154,209 that we need to pray for Holy Mother Church...and her priests!

Because the evil one hates her, and attacks her from all angles.  He especially hates her servants, particularly her priests, and especially her bishops.  I am in no way suggesting any kind of tie between the evil one and Chris Matthews - but the way he treats this prelate of the Roman Catholic Church certainly helps the evil one's cause. 


We have to pray for these bishops.  They are our shepherds, sent by the Holy Spirit to take care of the flock.  They are entrusted with the care of our souls.  If we truly saw the bishop's call as such - the care of souls - we would understand when bishops such as His Excellency, Bishop Thomas Tobin, below, explain themselves like this.  They are called by our Lord Jesus Christ to safeguard the faith, and, more importantly, to save souls.  Congressman Patrick Kennedy's soul is no exception to this rule. 



Kudos to His Excellency, Bishop Tobin.  He has some great bits in here about keeping an eternal perspective on things.  I especially like the comment that if your job interferes with your faith, you quit your job and save your soul.  So often we miss that fact - the fact that this world is transitory, we will leave this world, and we await our judgment before Christ the King.  If only we remembered that we are all pilgrims on this journey.  I'll be the first to admit that I rarely have my priorities straight and my sights on heaven.  

I am but a pilgrim.....
Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on us, have mercy on me!

shenanigans during the spurs game

And what, you might ask, did my San Antonio groom want to do a few nights back after his class ended for the evening?  

Why, watch the Spurs/Mavericks game, of course!

So rarely are Spurs games aired here in the Midwest that we had to tune in and see how the boys from San Antone were doing.  Ridiculousness eventually ensued as my groom's wife (hehe, that's me) insisted that we start documenting random moments in our first year of marriage. 

This was the result:

Already, my husband is not interested.  See how his eyes are strategically looking away from the camera and are still fixated on the game....however, at least there's a nice peek at his wedding band!

"Just look at the camera!"  

Not my finest hour; I look like a human Peanuts character.  

 

Still having none of it....can you spot the smirk?  

At this point I'm not even sure that the Spurs were still in the game......

He is still not pleased - Dirk Nowitzki must have scored at a pivotal moment! 

 

And blogger has decided not to allow me to post the remainder of the pictures, even though I eventually snagged a decent one.....dang!

We are plugging right along, full speed ahead....I am still not employed, which is a drag, but God, I am sure through the prayers of St. Joseph, has blessed us very abundantly,  so much so, that my immediate employment is not an urgent situation right now.  This has proven to be a double-edged sword, as these blessings have somewhat put the job search on the backburner and other things have often grabbed my attention.  It's my hope to rev job things back up after the Thanksgiving holiday. 

Very much looking forward to a break from Brad's classes (I'll actually have him at home in the evening for a couple consecutive nights!) and will head home to visit my parents tomorrow night before the holiday.  We're both pretty excited to get out of Madison for a couple of days and spending that time with my family.  Now, if only we could end our losing streak in cribbage against my parents!!!!

a presto

Christus natus est..... :)

Nativity of Our Lord, Giotto

So beautiful.  
I wish I could make it bigger without the margins going crazy!

I've been thinking so much about the Nativity recently; I wish I had it in me to put it to words tonight.  It'll have to wait - heck, we're not even in Advent yet, so there's still plenty of time to meditate on the Incarnation (something I really should be doing at all points of the year).  I'll tell you this, though: my heart just swells when I think of St. Joseph and his great love for his family, the love deep within him to take Mary and the Child Jesus into his care.  What love!  

He's definitely a rockstar.

St. Joseph, pray for us.  

we dare insult His Bride?!

Have people any idea that when they slander the Church and utter falsehoods against her, that they are insulting the Bride of Jesus Christ Himself?!  We really dare to slam and mock and insult the Bride of Our Lord?  And when we make fun of her priests, that we are insulting those men called by Our Lord Himself to bring His Eucharistic Presence into our very midst?  

Only for a moment did my husband turn to George Lopez's late night TV show this evening.  But it was in that moment that Mr. Lopez took things way too far, and made a comment about Holy Mother Church, the Vatican, and the Church's priests that was completely inappropriate.  Seriously......it's His Bride!!!! 

No doubt our Church is strong - she's withstood these attacks for centuries.  But my heart hurts when I see her - and her priests - mocked as they are.  

Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us. 

Holy Mary, Mother of the Church, pray for us.  

the vocation calls....

I would love to blog on something terribly profound right now (what that might be, I'm not sure of - but I'm sure I'd figure it out), but my vocation is calling - in the form of four massive piles of clean (CLEAN!) laundry on our apartment floor. 

A presto

bell'italia

"Even now I miss Italy; I dream about it every night."

~ Eila Hiltunen

 "You may have the universe, if I may have Italy."  

~ Giuseppe Verdi

 "Italy is a dream that keeps returning for the rest of your life."

~ Anna Akhmatova

 

 "A man who has not been in Italy, is always conscious of an inferiority."

~ Samuel Johnson

Pictures from top: Historical Center of Perugia (Umbria); celebrating the semifinal World Cup victory of gli Azzuri (the Italian National Soccer Team) against Germany, Perugia; "The Glory of St. Dominic", the Basilica of St. Dominic, Bologna; Sunset over the Mediterranean, taken from Riomaggiore (Cinque Terre, Liguria)

defende nos in proelio!

~ St. Michael the Archangel, by Guido Reni

Fight for us, Michael! 

gotta love His Holiness....

"Bear witness to everyone, beginning with your peers, to the joy of His strong and sweet presence.  Tell them how wonderful it is to be friends with Jesus and that it is worthwhile following Him.  Show your enthusiasm...only by following Jesus can the true meaning of life, and true and lasting joy, be found."

~ His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, December 2005

If only my life reflected this every day!

27.

After suffering through another season of Yankee hating (seriously, sometimes I just can't stand the utter vitriol that accompanies Yankee bashing), and losing touch with the season this summer due to particularly momentous things (um....getting married, hehe), I reconnected with my team just in time to see them clinch World Championship #27.  They were exciting times last night as Game Six came to a conclusion - I often forget the unabashed excitement that comes with being so close to a Championship win.  Counting down the outs....nine, six, and finally, just three away from the clinch.  Honestly, I hadn't quite experienced that excitement since 2001, even though that Fall Classic didn't turn out as the Yankees had hoped.  

And it was in the waning innings of last night's game that brought me back to postseason 2001, as lower Manhattan smoldered after the terror attacks and I (and much of the world) turned to baseball, and particularly the Yankees, in a seemingly endless effort to escape the clutches of the news cycle - words like war on terror, jihad, Patriot Act, the list goes on and on and on.  Hoping to escape the hellish scenes of September 11th that were now, starkly, part of our reality, we turned our television sets to baseball each October night, reveling in nine innings of America's pastime and forgetting the real world that awaited us once the broadcast concluded.  It seemed like I was back in 2001 last night as I watched the Yankees, remembering that October when I was but an awkward adolescent, struggling with the horror of the post 9/11 world, turning to the Yankees for comfort and escape.  

Often, people don't quite get why I could embrace the Yankees as I do.  I receive my fair share of teasing - and sometimes, the joking can become downright mean.  Quite simply, in some strange way, I owe that team a lot.  It was their playoff run of 2001 that certainly helped me to forget the horrors of September 11th and, in a sense, helped me to start to do my own healing from those events.  Often it is said that the Yankees' playoff run helped the city of New York to heal - I know they certainly did that for me too.  Watching the Yankees with my family that October reminded me of the simple things in life, the simple things that became so important in the wake of the 2001 terror attacks.  The simplicity of Yankee baseball in October helped me move on from 9/11 and learn to heal, which, ultimately, paved the way for my life's next big moment - the moment where I met the person of Jesus Christ for the first time.  I won't say that it was Yankee baseball that began my conversion, but the 2001 playoffs certainly put the steps in motion that eventually led to my meeting Christ.  

It's funny how something that seems pretty meaningless in the grand scheme of things - professional baseball - can do so much when the circumstances are just right.  

It feels so great to celebrate #27.... :-)  

A presto. 

just thinkin' about the Incarnation...

Son of God, Purest light
Lord on high is here tonight
Stepping through this sacred sky
Suddenly our eyes behold
Heaven's perfect plan unfold
Son of God

Son of God, Love divine
Timeless one steps in to die
Who could dream of such a thing
With us now, the King of Kings
Man and angels bow and sing
Singing Hallelujah

Emmanuel, our God is with us

~ Michael W. Smith, "Son of God"

I'll admit, some of the time, this man's music does sound a bit cheesy.  The lyrics and notes themselves don't always fit quite right.  But I think he seems to get something right about the Incarnation, in just the simplest terms.  

I still can't quite wrap my head around the fact that my Lord and God walked this very earth, the same earth of which I am resident, 2,000 years after the fact.  

all souls' day.

Merciful Father, hear our prayer and console us

as we renew our faith in your Son, whom you raised from the dead.

Strengthen our hope that all our departed brothers and sisters

will share in His resurrection

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, forever and ever. 

Amen. 

~ Collect of the Commemoration of the Faithful Departed

I have never quite "fully grasped" the meaning of this day in the Roman Catholic calendar.  I have the blessing (and privilege, for that matter) of having most of my extended family (and all of my immediate family) still in this life.  I can count the number of funerals I have attended in my life on my hands (around six), and the number of Catholic funerals I have attended on one hand (three) - and half of these total funerals were for friends and not family.  My husband shares with me frequently how wonderful it is to have my grandparents still alive, all four of them - it's our prayer to give them a great-grandchild before they depart this world for the next.  I guess you could say that I've never really "grasped" this day because death is an infrequent occurrence in my little sphere of the world. 

It is the Commemoration of the Faithful Departed today, or colloquially dubbed "All Souls' Day" in the Roman Catholic calendar.  The priest wears purple (or, sometimes, black), and the living faithful of Holy Mother Church are given a stark reminder of our own mortality and the necessity of praying for those who have gone before us, the faithful departed.  We light candles and reminisce and remember those we have loved in this life, who have seen the end of their lives.  And, most importantly, we pray for them - for the rescue of their souls from the clutches of purgatory, for our merciful and just God to grant them eternal rest.  

Tonight, as my husband and I pray our rosary on the way back from the east side of town, I will remember in the intentions of my heart the faithful departed, my brothers and sisters in Christ who have departed this world.  I will pray for the peaceful rest of their eternal souls and for the mercy of God and the intercession of Our Lady to come to their aid.  Most especially, I will keep close to my heart the soul of my father-in-law, who I was never able to meet in this life, but a man for whom I am so grateful.  

My husband lost his father at a particularly formative time in his life, just before going off to college.  We don't speak much of him, I must admit.  Every once in awhile, he'll come up in our conversation - I'll ask my husband what his father might think about the situation about which we're talking, or what his father was like in a certain circumstance, things like that.  His picture now hangs on one of the walls of our apartment - it is really a fantastic picture, his smile is just priceless, and it's as if that one smile, forever immortalized in picture form, gives me so many glimpses into this man's personality.

I never met this man, yet the first time I was with all of my in-laws (just about a year ago - we weren't engaged yet), I thought of him.  I glanced around the room, from person to person, sibling to sibling, grandchild to grandchild - and I kid you not, I was in awe.  This man, this man I never met, gave five beautiful souls to this world in his children, and subsequently, there are two more in this world - his grandchildren (and I pray that there are many more to come!).  I looked around the room and I could just sense that his legacy and his memory remain deeply embedded in the family.  And then there were times, particularly in some more tense and emotional moments, where I nearly wondered aloud why God had to take him so early from this life, why God had to take him, the patriarch, from this incredible family so soon.  Yet I trust that my father-in-law's life has in it some divine meaning for the family - I know already that his life and untimely passing has transformed my husband into the man he is today.  I am hopeful that God might give my husband and I another glimpse into His Divine Plan that surrounds my father-in-law, whether it be through our own family, our own vocation, or something entirely different.  

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord,

and let perpetual light shine upon them. 

Amen.