Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
The Kind of Crap the Joliet Diocese is STILL Advocating
The author of the following gobbly-gook crap is currently scheduled to run a seminar in MY diocese! Bishop Sartain please rid us of the wolves among us and shepherd your flock!
...In my poetry book, particularly in the title poem, I present different images of the Woman Dreamer ranging from the Neolithic priestess to female versions of the biblical characters Joseph, Jonah and Daniel. This Woman Dreamer is a woman of passion, insight and courage. The status quo tries to silence her but she is relentless in her spiritual odyssey; to go on her journey, she has to embrace a new world order of possibilities. When the voice of patriarchy has said, “Know your place, keep silence; accept your inferiority and limitations,” this Woman Dreamer has defied this spiritual death sentence and has instead embraced her own authenticity and giftedness. She knows that with God’s help, all things are possible: no dream is too extravagantly wonderful. All she must do is tend the dream within, refusing to let others extinguish it. The Woman Dreamer refuses to be bound and trapped buy others’ lies. When the status quo trieds to hold her back, bind her to rigid roles, limit her access to places of influence and convince her that she is less than she is, she protests. When the status quo demands conformity, compliance, and self-effacement, she refuses to cooperate, She is to be found wherever women have claimed their own dignity – in the Mothers of the Disappeared in Central American countries, in Mothers Against Drunk Drivers; in women who have been involved in peace initiatives; in women who have worked for better wages, working conditions and labour relations; in women who have claimed their place in the church…The Woman Dreamer dares dream a dream of peace and a new world order in which Mother Earth is venerated and given the respect she deserves… She is Mother Eve, Sarah, Haggai, Miriam, Judith, Esther, Deborah. She is Mary the mother of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, the disciple of Jesus; she is Claire of Assisi and Teresa of Avila, she is Joan of Arc and Julian of Norwich; she is Dorothy Day and Rosa Parks, Kasturbai (wife of Gandhi), Princess Diana and Mother Teresa, Cindy Sheehan, Oprah Winfrey and—potentially, you and me!
...In my poetry book, particularly in the title poem, I present different images of the Woman Dreamer ranging from the Neolithic priestess to female versions of the biblical characters Joseph, Jonah and Daniel. This Woman Dreamer is a woman of passion, insight and courage. The status quo tries to silence her but she is relentless in her spiritual odyssey; to go on her journey, she has to embrace a new world order of possibilities. When the voice of patriarchy has said, “Know your place, keep silence; accept your inferiority and limitations,” this Woman Dreamer has defied this spiritual death sentence and has instead embraced her own authenticity and giftedness. She knows that with God’s help, all things are possible: no dream is too extravagantly wonderful. All she must do is tend the dream within, refusing to let others extinguish it. The Woman Dreamer refuses to be bound and trapped buy others’ lies. When the status quo trieds to hold her back, bind her to rigid roles, limit her access to places of influence and convince her that she is less than she is, she protests. When the status quo demands conformity, compliance, and self-effacement, she refuses to cooperate, She is to be found wherever women have claimed their own dignity – in the Mothers of the Disappeared in Central American countries, in Mothers Against Drunk Drivers; in women who have been involved in peace initiatives; in women who have worked for better wages, working conditions and labour relations; in women who have claimed their place in the church…The Woman Dreamer dares dream a dream of peace and a new world order in which Mother Earth is venerated and given the respect she deserves… She is Mother Eve, Sarah, Haggai, Miriam, Judith, Esther, Deborah. She is Mary the mother of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, the disciple of Jesus; she is Claire of Assisi and Teresa of Avila, she is Joan of Arc and Julian of Norwich; she is Dorothy Day and Rosa Parks, Kasturbai (wife of Gandhi), Princess Diana and Mother Teresa, Cindy Sheehan, Oprah Winfrey and—potentially, you and me!
Monday, February 16, 2009
12 year old's class project - abortion debate
how proud this girl's parents must be! Please watch and have your hope restored.
Monday, February 9, 2009
Bishop Sheen I LOVE You!
Sure hope that I can go to this...
May 8, 2009 – Peoria, ILHappy Birthday Archbishop Sheen! Bishop Daniel R. Jenky, CSC, the Bishop of Peoria and the sponsor of the Cause, invites you to Archbishop Sheen’s hometown to celebrate his 114th birthday and the gala opening of the Archbishop Fulton J Sheen Museum and Research Center, part of the new diocesan pastoral center. The Gala Cocktail party will begin at 7:15 pm. For information and reservations for the Gala reception, contact Jane Peverly at the Archbishop Sheen Foundation by calling 309-671-1550 or sending an email to mailto://info@archbishopsheencause.org.
May 8, 2009 – Peoria, ILHappy Birthday Archbishop Sheen! Bishop Daniel R. Jenky, CSC, the Bishop of Peoria and the sponsor of the Cause, invites you to Archbishop Sheen’s hometown to celebrate his 114th birthday and the gala opening of the Archbishop Fulton J Sheen Museum and Research Center, part of the new diocesan pastoral center. The Gala Cocktail party will begin at 7:15 pm. For information and reservations for the Gala reception, contact Jane Peverly at the Archbishop Sheen Foundation by calling 309-671-1550 or sending an email to mailto://info@archbishopsheencause.org.
Friday, February 6, 2009
Choice
"We had one saline born alive. I raced to the nursery with it and put it in an incubator. I called the pediatrician to come right down, and he refused. He said, "That's not a baby. That's an abortion."~A New York nurse, as quoted in The Ambivalence of Abortion, by Linda Bird Francke
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Our Lady Please Help Us
Message of January 25, 2009
"Dear children! Also today I call you to prayer. May prayer be for you like the seed that you will put in my heart, which I will give over to my Son Jesus for you, for the salvation of your souls. I desire, little children, for each of you to fall in love with eternal life which is your future, and for all worldly things to be a help for you to draw you closer to God the Creator. I am with you for this long because you are on the wrong path. Only with my help, little children, you will open your eyes. There are many of those who, by living my messages, comprehend that they are on the way of holiness towards eternity. Thank you for having responded to my call." 01/2009
"Dear children! Also today I call you to prayer. May prayer be for you like the seed that you will put in my heart, which I will give over to my Son Jesus for you, for the salvation of your souls. I desire, little children, for each of you to fall in love with eternal life which is your future, and for all worldly things to be a help for you to draw you closer to God the Creator. I am with you for this long because you are on the wrong path. Only with my help, little children, you will open your eyes. There are many of those who, by living my messages, comprehend that they are on the way of holiness towards eternity. Thank you for having responded to my call." 01/2009
"The Problem With Catholic Schools" Highlights the Problem With ME!
OK so now I have actually taken the time to read and re-read and re-read again the letter I wrote to our principal. poor woman she was forced to read my rambling. As Tim joked this morning about it he sang "well Kris it was uh rambla rambla rambling-a-ding-dong" Ah such words of support and encouragement from the man I love. You can always count on Tim to be honest with you - even when it hurts.
This prompted me to shoot over a quick e-mail to my friend (and fellow school mom) Jenny who I subjected to reading the letter as well for imput. YIKES! the e-mail follows...
Jenny,
ok so I went home and re-read the letter and I saw that I could have eliminated about 1/2 of it! This is what happens when you are just writing in stream of consciousness form. AAAAHHHH!!!!! So now I don't just look like a bitchy disgruntled parent but a longwinded nit wit too! Tim says I sounded too "preachy" and as much as I hate to hear that I must admit he has a good point. I often start rambling on and on about religious stuff that I just toss around in my own mind in my free time (I'm a dork like that) and then when it gets regurgitated it sounds preachy. In actuality that's just how my mind works...in long drawn out meanderings with no point and just filled with spiritual metaphors....it's a sickness really. Anyhow so I hope you can get over my forcing you to see my in my sportsocks and with my greasy hair, and to think of me in a way other than "that preachy chick who's always bitching and complaining about how everybody needs to wake up and be more Catholic" in between cursing at her children who seem to enjoy climbing on top of her suburban. And on that note - love you bu-bye! - Kristan
This prompted me to shoot over a quick e-mail to my friend (and fellow school mom) Jenny who I subjected to reading the letter as well for imput. YIKES! the e-mail follows...
Jenny,
ok so I went home and re-read the letter and I saw that I could have eliminated about 1/2 of it! This is what happens when you are just writing in stream of consciousness form. AAAAHHHH!!!!! So now I don't just look like a bitchy disgruntled parent but a longwinded nit wit too! Tim says I sounded too "preachy" and as much as I hate to hear that I must admit he has a good point. I often start rambling on and on about religious stuff that I just toss around in my own mind in my free time (I'm a dork like that) and then when it gets regurgitated it sounds preachy. In actuality that's just how my mind works...in long drawn out meanderings with no point and just filled with spiritual metaphors....it's a sickness really. Anyhow so I hope you can get over my forcing you to see my in my sportsocks and with my greasy hair, and to think of me in a way other than "that preachy chick who's always bitching and complaining about how everybody needs to wake up and be more Catholic" in between cursing at her children who seem to enjoy climbing on top of her suburban. And on that note - love you bu-bye! - Kristan
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Irresponsible pro-creators vs. the elightened 2 and we're doners
http://women.timesonline.co.uk
COUPLES who have more than two children are being “irresponsible” by creating an unbearable burden on the environment,we must protect the environment at all costs. trees - good people - bad the government’s green adviser has warned.
Jonathon Porritt, who chairs the government’s Sustainable Development Commission, says curbing population growth through contraception and abortion those damn babies are ruining our world. They must be stopped . must be at the heart of policies to fight global warming. He says political leaders and green campaigners should stop dodging the issue of environmental harm caused by an expanding population.
A report by the commission, to be published next month, will say that governments must reduce population growth through better family planning.
“I am unapologetic about asking people to connect up their own responsibility for their total environmental footprint and how they decide to procreate and how many children they think are appropriate,” Porritt said.
"I think we will work our way towards a position that says that having more than two children is irresponsible." Sadly, I think we are already there. Maybe not in an overt way but in amillion little unspoken ways this premise is already very well accepted It is the ghost at the table. We have all these big issues that everybody is looking at and then you don’t really hear anyone say the “p” word.” ...
“Many organisations think it is not part of their business. My mission with the Friends of the Earth and the Greenpeaces of this world is to say: ‘You are betraying the interests of your members aren't these "members" humans? how are they innocent but others are not? by refusing to address population issues and you are doing it for the wrong reasons because you think it is too controversial,” he said.
Porritt, a former chairman of the Green party, says the government must improve family planning, even if it means shifting money from curing illness to increasing contraception and abortion. Shocking actually that someone would admit that they'd rather see money used to destroy life than to preserve it.
He said: “We still have one of the highest rates of teenage pregnancies in Europe and we still have relatively high levels of pregnancies going to birth, do we realize what this statement means? He actually is dissapointed in the fact that pregnancies are continuing on until the natural birth of the baby. This is how far we have come in accepting abortion as an acceptable approach to indulge our own selfishness. often among women who are not convinced they want to become mothers.
and now the rebuttal...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk
The bigger the family the better, says Cassandra Jardine
A new report concludes that children growing up in large families are happier and more successful. Told you so, says mother-of-five Cassandra Jardine
When I tell people that I have five children, they tend to say: "Lucky you." Roughly translated, that means: "What a show-off." A generation back, large families were generally attributed to rejection of contraception; nowadays, they are considered to be a public declaration of a huge income, limitless energy and a selfish disregard for the future of the planet, to boot. Or a sign that you are completely out of your mind and obviously a sex addict who is ignorant of birth control methods.
None of the above is true in my case, but I'm always rather feeble in putting the case for large families any more coherently than to say that I enjoy having lots of children, however expensive and tiring they can be.
Each throw of the genetic dice is a new adventure, a fascinating individual, another sometimes tiresome, usually loveable bundle of strengths and weaknesses. I didn't plan to have so many; I just couldn't bear to stop.
The point about big families is that they are more than the sum of their parts - they are a microcosm of society in which the members battle for attention and the best seat in the car.
The squabbles are endless, and often intense, but at the end of the day (literally) everyone has to get on with one another, because they have to share the television remote control. As such, I've always believed that large families are not just a selfish pleasure but beneficial for the country, even the world yes, humans are the world greatest resource - but, until now, I've been short of ammunition for arguing my case.
I'm grateful, therefore, to Sky News presenter Colin Brazier, who has spent the past five years assembling evidence that supports the idea that larger families are A Good Thing. "We are so often told about the disadvantages of large families that we have lost sight of the hidden advantages," he says.
His mission began one day at the start of the Iraq war when, while embedded with the United States army, he heard a radio report claiming that the cost of bringing up a child had risen to £180,000.
At the time he didn't have the five children that he has now, but he was already aware that it was bunkum to suggest that it costs as much as the price of a family house to raise each child. By sharing bedrooms, baths and toys, he could see that each additional child in a large family worked out cheaper to raise than a child in a small family.
Nor did he feel it was fair to calculate that each child adds an additional 750 tons of carbon dioxide to the environment. "What about economies of scale?" he thought.
"A four-person household uses half as much electricity, per capita, as a home for one. The people who are messing up the planet are the single people living alone in swanky apartments. Someone needs to rebut these nonsensical stories."
Since then he has not just gathered arguments for the defence, he has gone on the attack. More of us need to take this approach and not allow ourselves to be caught off guard by a strangers rude comments or a family members hurtful accusations or interrogations Having condensed his research into an article for the think tank Civitas, he may need to don his flak jacket again, because the anti-natalists I like that who advocate the benefits of a small family may not like what he has to say.
Nor may the Government. In France, parents with three or more children are given medals for their procreative valour. In Britain, we are penalised by higher taxes on people carriers and will soon have to pay through the nose for rubbish collections and water use.
Private schools don't offer discounts for bulk buying, while state schools are abandoning sibling policies, so parents can't assume that they won't have to hurtle around to several schools each morning.
The result of such measures, combined with the constant scare stories about the cost of children, people also use scare tactics that involve tales of a life not fully lived and full of "what ifs" and tales of how much higher quality existence you could be living if you didn't have all those "little burdens" dragging you down. is that 90,000 people have fallen into a baby gap: they would like to have more children but don't dare because they can't afford a larger house or bigger car.
With the British birthrate currently standing at 1.7 per woman - well below replacement level - does anybody even care about that?Brazier argues that there's no need for such restraint. It doesn't matter if you can't afford a large house.
Children who share bedrooms are physically healthier this should be good news for those who worship at the altar of health than those who don't, because their immune systems are toughened up by catching minor illnesses from one another in their early years. If they are a bit cramped and have to endure being told they can't always have the new trainers or toy they want, that's good for them. Basically it creates an actual environment that forces them to be less of a brat and more selfless. Now a parent can certainly train one child or two do be kind and selfless but those parents must artificially produce lessons or seek out lessons more intentionally to teach these virtues. A larger family has these lessons more "built in" to their very nature. For those parents like myself I find this helpful as I know that I am most likely to take the path of least resistence.
Having several siblings is also a pointer to future mental health. Oprah fans must like this one Scions of large families stand a good chance of making a success of their marriages, because they are used to sharing.
There is also safety in numbers from the pressure of ambitious, fussing parents whose tendency to hover like helicopters over their children's heads contributes, according to a recent Unicef survey, to British children being the most miserable in the developed world. I'm sure US kids are not far behind in that department. They have more stuff and less happiness
I'm as keen as the next mother for my children to be world-beaters, but with several children to compare I'm more realistic about their talents and don't have either the time or the resources to apply the mental thumbscrews. Mostly, I'm happy to settle for the children being whoever they happen to be, so long as they help with the washing-up.
Chores are an issue in larger families. The very rich can employ armies of cleaners to pick up after their broods, but the rest of us rely on the children to look after themselves. With a little benign neglect they are forced to learn to clean, cook, fix things for themselves and babysit one another. They may grumble, but these are more useful life skills than playing the violin. I just love this line it made me laugh out loud.
Not that children from large families underperform educationally, as used to be thought.
The theory was that parents with lots of children stop reading to them and park them in front of the television, but a survey of 22,000 French school-leavers found that academic performance improved with additional siblings so long as one parent was "an educated professional". Knowledge and studious habits trickle down the family. God, I hope so!
Younger children get less parental help with their homework, but their older siblings act as teachers and the younger ones learn to work on their own. It would be nice if it were so. Children from large families are also less likely to be members of the awkward squad at school: having had their rough edges worn down by sibling squabbles, they tend to be co-operative in the classroom. Yes, everyone else seems like a saint compared with their siblings.
One non-economic, non-ecological reason why parents limit themselves to small families these days is that they like the idea of having the time to be best friends with their mini-mes. Oh mini-mes just the thought of it makes me ill. In large families relationships between siblings become more important than those with their parents, who are too busy keeping the show on the road to go on endless one-to-one shopping or football trips.
This, too, brings bonuses: not only do children in large families have more siblings among whom to find soul-mates but there is always someone to give advice or act as whistle-blower if they are doing something dodgy.
Taking the emphasis off the parent/child relationship also means that twentysomethings from big families are less likely to join the growing hordes who live at home, behaving like ''kidults" well past the age when they should be taking responsibility for themselves.
They are also better at being parents themselves - and less likely to need Supernanny's advice - because they have more experience of seeing how it's done. Sometimes this can be a scary thing considering all the yelling, hairpulling, insanity that passes for parenting at times around here...but I'm sure they'll survive me and won't be scarred for life
What's missing in this country, Brazier concludes, is a lobby to uphold the manifold benefits and interests of the large families. If he wants to start one, he can count me in. Why size really matters
Pros
• Children from larger families get into fewer fights, and are better at making and keeping friends.
• Through having siblings, children learn empathy, team playing, gratification deferment, time-management and how to resolve disputes.
• Children with several siblings have lower rates of asthma, eczema and hay fever. They make fewer visits to the doctor and have a reduced risk of leukaemia, cancer and diabetes.
• Older siblings prevent younger ones being bullied.
• In larger families play is less closely supervised. Children learn to take risks, which will make them better employees and employers.
• Children in large families learn to cook, use the washing machine and to iron.
• In larger families there is more emphasis on thrift.
• Those who grow up with siblings are better at getting on with the opposite sex and have fewer divorces.
Cons
• Developers are building so few larger homes that a third bedroom can add a fifth to the price of a house, and a fourth two thirds.
• Since 1988 the tax and benefits system has left larger families living on average incomes worse off.
• Converting a loft or basement means higher council tax bills.
• Family tickets for many attractions are limited to two children.
• Car tax on larger cars may soon be followed by dearer parking.
• Many swimming pools allow an adult to supervise only two children.
• In Australia there are proposals for a carbon tax on parents with more than two children.
COUPLES who have more than two children are being “irresponsible” by creating an unbearable burden on the environment,we must protect the environment at all costs. trees - good people - bad the government’s green adviser has warned.
Jonathon Porritt, who chairs the government’s Sustainable Development Commission, says curbing population growth through contraception and abortion those damn babies are ruining our world. They must be stopped . must be at the heart of policies to fight global warming. He says political leaders and green campaigners should stop dodging the issue of environmental harm caused by an expanding population.
A report by the commission, to be published next month, will say that governments must reduce population growth through better family planning.
“I am unapologetic about asking people to connect up their own responsibility for their total environmental footprint and how they decide to procreate and how many children they think are appropriate,” Porritt said.
"I think we will work our way towards a position that says that having more than two children is irresponsible." Sadly, I think we are already there. Maybe not in an overt way but in amillion little unspoken ways this premise is already very well accepted It is the ghost at the table. We have all these big issues that everybody is looking at and then you don’t really hear anyone say the “p” word.” ...
“Many organisations think it is not part of their business. My mission with the Friends of the Earth and the Greenpeaces of this world is to say: ‘You are betraying the interests of your members aren't these "members" humans? how are they innocent but others are not? by refusing to address population issues and you are doing it for the wrong reasons because you think it is too controversial,” he said.
Porritt, a former chairman of the Green party, says the government must improve family planning, even if it means shifting money from curing illness to increasing contraception and abortion. Shocking actually that someone would admit that they'd rather see money used to destroy life than to preserve it.
He said: “We still have one of the highest rates of teenage pregnancies in Europe and we still have relatively high levels of pregnancies going to birth, do we realize what this statement means? He actually is dissapointed in the fact that pregnancies are continuing on until the natural birth of the baby. This is how far we have come in accepting abortion as an acceptable approach to indulge our own selfishness. often among women who are not convinced they want to become mothers.
and now the rebuttal...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk
The bigger the family the better, says Cassandra Jardine
A new report concludes that children growing up in large families are happier and more successful. Told you so, says mother-of-five Cassandra Jardine
When I tell people that I have five children, they tend to say: "Lucky you." Roughly translated, that means: "What a show-off." A generation back, large families were generally attributed to rejection of contraception; nowadays, they are considered to be a public declaration of a huge income, limitless energy and a selfish disregard for the future of the planet, to boot. Or a sign that you are completely out of your mind and obviously a sex addict who is ignorant of birth control methods.
None of the above is true in my case, but I'm always rather feeble in putting the case for large families any more coherently than to say that I enjoy having lots of children, however expensive and tiring they can be.
Each throw of the genetic dice is a new adventure, a fascinating individual, another sometimes tiresome, usually loveable bundle of strengths and weaknesses. I didn't plan to have so many; I just couldn't bear to stop.
The point about big families is that they are more than the sum of their parts - they are a microcosm of society in which the members battle for attention and the best seat in the car.
The squabbles are endless, and often intense, but at the end of the day (literally) everyone has to get on with one another, because they have to share the television remote control. As such, I've always believed that large families are not just a selfish pleasure but beneficial for the country, even the world yes, humans are the world greatest resource - but, until now, I've been short of ammunition for arguing my case.
I'm grateful, therefore, to Sky News presenter Colin Brazier, who has spent the past five years assembling evidence that supports the idea that larger families are A Good Thing. "We are so often told about the disadvantages of large families that we have lost sight of the hidden advantages," he says.
His mission began one day at the start of the Iraq war when, while embedded with the United States army, he heard a radio report claiming that the cost of bringing up a child had risen to £180,000.
At the time he didn't have the five children that he has now, but he was already aware that it was bunkum to suggest that it costs as much as the price of a family house to raise each child. By sharing bedrooms, baths and toys, he could see that each additional child in a large family worked out cheaper to raise than a child in a small family.
Nor did he feel it was fair to calculate that each child adds an additional 750 tons of carbon dioxide to the environment. "What about economies of scale?" he thought.
"A four-person household uses half as much electricity, per capita, as a home for one. The people who are messing up the planet are the single people living alone in swanky apartments. Someone needs to rebut these nonsensical stories."
Since then he has not just gathered arguments for the defence, he has gone on the attack. More of us need to take this approach and not allow ourselves to be caught off guard by a strangers rude comments or a family members hurtful accusations or interrogations Having condensed his research into an article for the think tank Civitas, he may need to don his flak jacket again, because the anti-natalists I like that who advocate the benefits of a small family may not like what he has to say.
Nor may the Government. In France, parents with three or more children are given medals for their procreative valour. In Britain, we are penalised by higher taxes on people carriers and will soon have to pay through the nose for rubbish collections and water use.
Private schools don't offer discounts for bulk buying, while state schools are abandoning sibling policies, so parents can't assume that they won't have to hurtle around to several schools each morning.
The result of such measures, combined with the constant scare stories about the cost of children, people also use scare tactics that involve tales of a life not fully lived and full of "what ifs" and tales of how much higher quality existence you could be living if you didn't have all those "little burdens" dragging you down. is that 90,000 people have fallen into a baby gap: they would like to have more children but don't dare because they can't afford a larger house or bigger car.
With the British birthrate currently standing at 1.7 per woman - well below replacement level - does anybody even care about that?Brazier argues that there's no need for such restraint. It doesn't matter if you can't afford a large house.
Children who share bedrooms are physically healthier this should be good news for those who worship at the altar of health than those who don't, because their immune systems are toughened up by catching minor illnesses from one another in their early years. If they are a bit cramped and have to endure being told they can't always have the new trainers or toy they want, that's good for them. Basically it creates an actual environment that forces them to be less of a brat and more selfless. Now a parent can certainly train one child or two do be kind and selfless but those parents must artificially produce lessons or seek out lessons more intentionally to teach these virtues. A larger family has these lessons more "built in" to their very nature. For those parents like myself I find this helpful as I know that I am most likely to take the path of least resistence.
Having several siblings is also a pointer to future mental health. Oprah fans must like this one Scions of large families stand a good chance of making a success of their marriages, because they are used to sharing.
There is also safety in numbers from the pressure of ambitious, fussing parents whose tendency to hover like helicopters over their children's heads contributes, according to a recent Unicef survey, to British children being the most miserable in the developed world. I'm sure US kids are not far behind in that department. They have more stuff and less happiness
I'm as keen as the next mother for my children to be world-beaters, but with several children to compare I'm more realistic about their talents and don't have either the time or the resources to apply the mental thumbscrews. Mostly, I'm happy to settle for the children being whoever they happen to be, so long as they help with the washing-up.
Chores are an issue in larger families. The very rich can employ armies of cleaners to pick up after their broods, but the rest of us rely on the children to look after themselves. With a little benign neglect they are forced to learn to clean, cook, fix things for themselves and babysit one another. They may grumble, but these are more useful life skills than playing the violin. I just love this line it made me laugh out loud.
Not that children from large families underperform educationally, as used to be thought.
The theory was that parents with lots of children stop reading to them and park them in front of the television, but a survey of 22,000 French school-leavers found that academic performance improved with additional siblings so long as one parent was "an educated professional". Knowledge and studious habits trickle down the family. God, I hope so!
Younger children get less parental help with their homework, but their older siblings act as teachers and the younger ones learn to work on their own. It would be nice if it were so. Children from large families are also less likely to be members of the awkward squad at school: having had their rough edges worn down by sibling squabbles, they tend to be co-operative in the classroom. Yes, everyone else seems like a saint compared with their siblings.
One non-economic, non-ecological reason why parents limit themselves to small families these days is that they like the idea of having the time to be best friends with their mini-mes. Oh mini-mes just the thought of it makes me ill. In large families relationships between siblings become more important than those with their parents, who are too busy keeping the show on the road to go on endless one-to-one shopping or football trips.
This, too, brings bonuses: not only do children in large families have more siblings among whom to find soul-mates but there is always someone to give advice or act as whistle-blower if they are doing something dodgy.
Taking the emphasis off the parent/child relationship also means that twentysomethings from big families are less likely to join the growing hordes who live at home, behaving like ''kidults" well past the age when they should be taking responsibility for themselves.
They are also better at being parents themselves - and less likely to need Supernanny's advice - because they have more experience of seeing how it's done. Sometimes this can be a scary thing considering all the yelling, hairpulling, insanity that passes for parenting at times around here...but I'm sure they'll survive me and won't be scarred for life
What's missing in this country, Brazier concludes, is a lobby to uphold the manifold benefits and interests of the large families. If he wants to start one, he can count me in. Why size really matters
Pros
• Children from larger families get into fewer fights, and are better at making and keeping friends.
• Through having siblings, children learn empathy, team playing, gratification deferment, time-management and how to resolve disputes.
• Children with several siblings have lower rates of asthma, eczema and hay fever. They make fewer visits to the doctor and have a reduced risk of leukaemia, cancer and diabetes.
• Older siblings prevent younger ones being bullied.
• In larger families play is less closely supervised. Children learn to take risks, which will make them better employees and employers.
• Children in large families learn to cook, use the washing machine and to iron.
• In larger families there is more emphasis on thrift.
• Those who grow up with siblings are better at getting on with the opposite sex and have fewer divorces.
Cons
• Developers are building so few larger homes that a third bedroom can add a fifth to the price of a house, and a fourth two thirds.
• Since 1988 the tax and benefits system has left larger families living on average incomes worse off.
• Converting a loft or basement means higher council tax bills.
• Family tickets for many attractions are limited to two children.
• Car tax on larger cars may soon be followed by dearer parking.
• Many swimming pools allow an adult to supervise only two children.
• In Australia there are proposals for a carbon tax on parents with more than two children.
Bishop Hermann - You're My Hero
I have here a great post from LifeSiteNews with my comments written in a different font following the most cartwheel inducing lines...
The following are excerpts from the column of Bishop Hermann published in the St. Louis Review and republished by LifeSiteNews.com with permission.
In our Supreme Court and in our Congress, we have a plethora of so-called Catholics (Tim and I would call them "half-ass Catholics")who are failing to live their Catholic identity.
Over 50 percent of our electorate voted for a president who is one of the most pro-culture-of-death (radically pro-abortion) candidates from a major party to run for the highest office of the land.
Yes, we can thank one-half of our Catholics for bailing out on their faith!
After almost 50 years of having 50 percent of Catholics abandoning their Catholic identity, we cannot expect to turn this culture around by short-term political efforts.
In order to bring about a transformation from a culture of death to a culture of life,
we have to restore our Catholic identity.(Go bishop go bishop I love it!) This means that all of us, as Catholics, have to undergo a profound transformation. It means that we have to take a good look at every facet of our Catholic life, including the serious study of life issues, the regular and devout use of our Sacramental system, especially the devout and weekly attendance at Mass, the regular reception of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, the devout praying of the daily Rosary, and then the faithful, loving and firm witness to lax Catholics (this means we must be willing to be uncomfortable, and be a fool for Christ. we must not fear rejection or anger. We must speak the truth at all times and in all places. Not because we want to be right but because we LOVE what is right!)about our Catholic beliefs and practices.
We have to live our lives in such a way that we will be unafraid to witness to what we believe and live.
I may courageously say that I am willing to die to end abortion, but am I equally willing to say that I am ready to let my ego get ruffled daily for the same cause? Yet … that is where I need to arrive if I am to be a credible witness.
What a glorious opportunity we all have to make a difference in the pro-life cause. 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.(my heart is literally beating faster and I could jump for JOY!! How I LOVE to hear these words - not the same old soft mushy gobbly gook we usually get from our bishops. Too often they seem more concerned with the eloquence of their words and the mistaken belief that christian charity means never being too bold or too clear. People have become VERY VERY dense - I mean this in the sense that they have become so hardened of heart of the course of the past 20-30 years that eloquence is LOST on them! For a culture that has numbed itself to subtlety through a constant media diet of shocking exposure to all things violent crude and sexual, a real big dose of Truth in the form of a "power punch" is just what is needed to break through the static that fills their brains and their souls. It does not take 100 percent of our Catholics to transform this country. If 75 percent of our Catholics were steeped in Catholic identity, the abortion issue would be over for our entire country.
For the whole column by Bishop Hermann see:http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jan/09012707.html
Back to Top2708.html
The following are excerpts from the column of Bishop Hermann published in the St. Louis Review and republished by LifeSiteNews.com with permission.
In our Supreme Court and in our Congress, we have a plethora of so-called Catholics (Tim and I would call them "half-ass Catholics")who are failing to live their Catholic identity.
Over 50 percent of our electorate voted for a president who is one of the most pro-culture-of-death (radically pro-abortion) candidates from a major party to run for the highest office of the land.
Yes, we can thank one-half of our Catholics for bailing out on their faith!
After almost 50 years of having 50 percent of Catholics abandoning their Catholic identity, we cannot expect to turn this culture around by short-term political efforts.
In order to bring about a transformation from a culture of death to a culture of life,
we have to restore our Catholic identity.(Go bishop go bishop I love it!) This means that all of us, as Catholics, have to undergo a profound transformation. It means that we have to take a good look at every facet of our Catholic life, including the serious study of life issues, the regular and devout use of our Sacramental system, especially the devout and weekly attendance at Mass, the regular reception of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, the devout praying of the daily Rosary, and then the faithful, loving and firm witness to lax Catholics (this means we must be willing to be uncomfortable, and be a fool for Christ. we must not fear rejection or anger. We must speak the truth at all times and in all places. Not because we want to be right but because we LOVE what is right!)about our Catholic beliefs and practices.
We have to live our lives in such a way that we will be unafraid to witness to what we believe and live.
I may courageously say that I am willing to die to end abortion, but am I equally willing to say that I am ready to let my ego get ruffled daily for the same cause? Yet … that is where I need to arrive if I am to be a credible witness.
What a glorious opportunity we all have to make a difference in the pro-life cause. 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.(my heart is literally beating faster and I could jump for JOY!! How I LOVE to hear these words - not the same old soft mushy gobbly gook we usually get from our bishops. Too often they seem more concerned with the eloquence of their words and the mistaken belief that christian charity means never being too bold or too clear. People have become VERY VERY dense - I mean this in the sense that they have become so hardened of heart of the course of the past 20-30 years that eloquence is LOST on them! For a culture that has numbed itself to subtlety through a constant media diet of shocking exposure to all things violent crude and sexual, a real big dose of Truth in the form of a "power punch" is just what is needed to break through the static that fills their brains and their souls. It does not take 100 percent of our Catholics to transform this country. If 75 percent of our Catholics were steeped in Catholic identity, the abortion issue would be over for our entire country.
For the whole column by Bishop Hermann see:http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jan/09012707.html
Back to Top2708.html
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
The Problem With Catholic Schools
Anyone who is close to me knows how I have struggled with making the right educational choices for my children. we have public schooled, we have homeschooled, we have Catholic schooled and through it all I have agonized over and debated and analyzed all the pros and cons of each option. I am in a place in my life and in my journey with the Lord that I have accepted the fact that I can be a faithful and holy wife and mother without being a homeschooling mother. That was a HUGE step for me to take. I still struggle with it but it is a lot better than it was...the guilt is receeding.
My hope was that Catholic school would offer me the next best thing. Frankly it hasn't. What it offered us was a huge tuition bill and the option between being constantly disgruntled and dissappointed or lulled into a false sense of spiritual security. Being the warrior woman that I am I mostly chose option #1. This put me into a difficult position between wanting to champion Catholic school as a "must" for Catholics with the means, and being a dissenting voice rising up against typical Catholic school lukewarmness and half-heartedness.
Tim and I are warrior-minded people. We want to fight the good fight for the Lord. We see clearly the battlefields that lie before us and before our children. We arm ourselves with the Truth and we want our children to be well armed as well. Let's just say that Catholic schools have become like an old dusty encampment where the soldiers are all asleep and the generals have decided to call a truce as the enemy sneaks in from all sides. We arrive on the scene with our guns and our ammo ready to fight and we're told to go put up our tent and rest awhile, or maybe play some b-ball or better yet sell some raffle tickets!
So here is the letter I finally got the courage to write to our catholic school principal...
Dear Mrs. ******,
Tim and I are currently undecided about Morgan’s future as it relates to her education. The cost of education has gone up, as well as everything else. This plays a part in the decision making process. There are however, factors that play a larger role in our thinking about the best educational option for Morgan and for all of our children. The fact is that our Catholic faith is the most important thing in our life. We are willing to make any sacrifice and bear any burden in order that the Faith is imparted to our children in such a way that they grow in virtue and zeal for the Lord and His Church. This dedication is what prompted Tim and I to choose homeschooling, as well as to opt for Catholic school over public school. Our ultimate aim is to offer our children an environment that is unapologetically Catholic and that fosters spiritual growth and maturity before all else. We believe that there is no greater goal than sanctity. Our children may grow to be scientists, teachers, mechanics, or secretaries, but if they do not grow to be saints then it is all for naught.
There is no greater opportunity to expose our children to the greatness, the holiness, the virtue God calls them to than Catholic education. A Catholic education is an unmatched resource in forming and shaping our children in the Faith. It is a great gift to work and study and grow in a community of believers. Sharing and experiencing the Traditions and the Teachings of the Church alongside your spiritual brothers and sisters convicts you in the Truth. This strengthens you and prepares you for the challenges you will certainly face in the world. Praying together, participating in different devotions together, practicing and striving to grow in holiness and piety, openly and boldly proclaiming our love for Jesus and His Church, all act as a great spiritual “fertilizer” within the protective “greenhouse” that is the school and the staff. Our school and all the staff serve to amplify the light that comes from the outside and keep out the more harsh “elements” which may stunt our students’ growth. This “greenhouse effect” is unique to the Catholic school. We are growing these little people and creating a place for them that provides them with the light of Truth, the fertilizer of Catholic culture, and deep roots in the Faith, while protecting, not hiding them from the world. Catholic school amplifies the Light and also keeps out what weakens a young mind, a young soul, at the same time.
A Catholic education is needed now more than ever. Our world desperately needs a new generation of believers who are set on fire and ready to defend the Faith. This world needs a new generation of Catholics who know what they believe and believe what they know. The lukewarm have done their damage. Now is the time to form our young people and to model such zeal, such love for the Faith that they will let it permeate every aspect of their lives. The students at a Catholic school should know that their Faith touches and relates to every subject they study and every game they play and every human relationship they are a part of. They should see these connections and then translate that to the world we live in. We are to be a light to the world. This generation is the answer to the darkness. In Catholic education we find our hope and the promise that the “children really are the future”. Catholic education is the last great resource we have as Catholics who are trying one person at a time, one human relationship at a time, to change a world that has lost its way. Sure, we can evangelize by other means. We can try to shape the culture as professionals, as parents, and as citizens. But there is no match for the POWER of a Catholic education used to instruct, form and set afire an entire generation of children who will then go on to change and form those around them, this often includes their own families and even some lukewarm parents.
Keeping all this in mind, Tim and I have come to the conclusion that St. Jude School is not currently living up to its full potential. We know it is capable of great things. There are so many beautiful and devoted families at St. Jude. We have met so many talented and zealous Catholics, ready to impart their faith in any way they can. We have been blessed to know families who are committed to evangelizing the world by acting as the “domestic church” JPII called us to be. These families are the untapped treasure that St. Jude School has yet to tap into fully. It seems to me that there is a lot of energy that goes into shaping and forming a sports program and fundraising program and other school activities. Where is the Parent – School Spiritual Growth Board? The spiritual growth of our children is not a process we can leave up to “the basics” anymore. Simply having catholic staff, and catholic prayer, and Mass, and RE as another subject in class is no longer enough preparation for our kids as the enter into the world. They are entering a world that is more like a battlefield than ever before. This is not the world I entered after leaving 12 years of Catholic education. It is a world that challenges the Faith at every turn and bombards our kids with temptations and distractions from their main call – a call to holiness. We are failing them when we think that we are doing enough. We are not doing enough.
There are mothers at St. Jude School who have some interesting and creative ideas on how we can better impart the faith to our kids. These are people who are not only committed to the Faith, but who are committed to taking a new and fresh approach. Our kids are in desperate need of some JOY and some ZEAL for their faith. This is not something they will just wake up with one day. Joy and zeal must be cultivated in the hearts of our kids by engaging them in activities that help them see the relevance and the POWER of their Catholic faith. Being catholic is not just another religious exercise – it is a battle cry – a call to do great things! We need to excite our kids about the possibilities that are before them when they embrace that call! St Jude School needs to maximize its use of the parents and other parish members who have these special talents and time and call to that particular ministry. This is not an attack on the staff. It is simply a humble recognition that God gives us each talents and abilities and we should never allow pride to prevent us from accepting the help and advice of others. St Jude needs to develop a volunteer team of parents and staff who will come together to develop new and better ways of creating an authentic Catholic culture at St Jude School.
Catholic culture is more than statues in the hallways and crucifixes on the wall. It is more than all the good and wonderful things St Jude is already doing. It is best to think of it in terms of the greenhouse analogy I used before. There are so many instances where the school could define itself as uniquely Catholic. One example is the Halloween parade. Why is it that we dedicate the day to a completely secular definition and experience of that day? Why not reclaim it and make it our own? Why not use it as an opportunity to build a Catholic culture at the school? We could have all the children do a lives of the saints study leading up to the 31st. The children could choose a saint they like and found interesting and then come to school dressed as that saint. Then we could have the children pray as they parade for the poor souls in Purgatory. What a witness to the neighborhood we would be giving as well as forming the children in their faith by doing and not simply reading it in a book. What a lasting impression we may make on our children. Also, if we are willing to parade and display our acceptance of a secular celebration then we must also be willing to parade and show our love of the many Catholic devotions. Why not pray the rosary in public? Why not have a Eucharistic procession? Why not participate in the essay and poster contests for Life? Why not promote attendance at bible studies and TOB studies and all the other church functions and activities in the school newsletter? Why not give incentives to do this by using dress down passes or other incentives like extra credit points for class to raise grades etc. Why not promote growth in virtue and the practice of the corporal and spiritual works of mercy by nominating students as “soldiers for Christ” for the trimester. “So in so is recognized as an exceptional soldier for Christ because of his consistent kindness and forgiving attitude towards his fellow students and his humility and perseverance in his schoolwork.” Why not have a soldiers for Christ club? Promoting heroic acts of virtue and spiritual maturity and leadership abilities in matters of faith. This could be a great incentive for the little ones as well as the older children. Kids want to matter. It can be very discouraging to be a kid because it seems as if you are so small and that nothing you do really matters in this big big world. But St. Jude school could and should recognize and promote the fact that every display of virtue, every baby step on the path to holiness does matter and it should be rewarded. Good kids should be intentionally put into leadership roles so that others can see that it is not the strength of your personality or the brightness of your intellect that makes you a light to others. Rather it is the holiness and the goodness you live out that others should learn from and embrace. If there are MVP in sports and there are high honor roll members in academics, why not have a place for children to be rewarded for their growth in holiness as well?
I am but one person and these are but a few of the ideas I have. There are mothers and fathers who are silently waiting in the wings. For whatever reason they do not come forward and make their concerns known or their ideas heard. It may be a lack of courage or a fear of rejection. It may be they have decided that it is hopeless and that there is no place for them in forming and changing the way St Jude School defines itself. But I have heard from these parents and they have so much to offer. I have decided to take a leap off that cliff into the unknown because I feel I have nothing to loose. St Jude School is not a bad school – it is a good school. My sadness is in the fact that it has the potential to be a GREAT school, uniquely Catholic, and stand out apart from the rest as such. This leads me to another important point. In these economic times when parents are confronted with the same tough choice Tim and I are confronted with there needs to be a clear and dramatic reason for them to continue to bear the financial burden. The more we try to mimic the public schools and throw in a dash of Catholicism here and there the more we will loose the very motivation and incentive parents have for paying the price of a catholic education. Those parents who are not motivated by an intense desire to have their children immersed in the Faith, will fall away when financial times get tough. They will begin to see, under the weight of growing bills, their children’s Catholic education as merely a glorified public school education. They will begin to ask themselves the ultimate question “Is it really worth it?’ If SJS does not set itself apart from the public schools in the one and only area where it can truly be set apart – in matters of faith and catholic culture – then they will answer that question with a “No.”
It is essential that SJS see its Catholic identity as the SOLUTION to any enrollment issues. Those parents that care about catholic culture are the very people who are willing to bear any burden and pay any price. This is how Tim and I feel. The school can never compete with its public counterparts because of the resources the public schools have at their disposal. But there is one place and one place only that the catholic schools bury the public schools – that is in the treasure of its Faith and Catholic identity. What makes this fact even more inspiring is that to promote and encourage this resource costs nothing! We merely have to become more authentically Catholic and people will say “Yes it is most definitely worth it!” “I can’t find this type of environment just anywhere. This certainly is not just a public school education with some prayers and some religious ed mixed in – this is a uniquely catholic culture and I see my kids growing spiritually in a way that I never thought possible!” How about that quote as a tagline for marketing the school? Don’t you think that parents would come from miles around to have their children enrolled in that kind of school? It is exactly that kind of parent who will hold on through the rough economic times and that kind of parent who will donate time and talent. But SJS must give them a reason to sacrifice and a reason to stay committed. As it is now, Tim and I do not feel like there is anything that SJS is offering Morgan that we cannot produce ourselves here at home on the same level. There is much sadness about this. We have met some of the most amazing people at SJS. I am amazed at the power of the Holy Spirit at work at St. Jude Church. We will of course continue to be members of the St. Jude Church Family. I have never seen such a wealth in persons at a church!
We are faced with tough economic times and a public school system that is working amazingly well for our other children. Collin is excelling beyond belief. He is happy and joyful and is reading and writing and coming home with a green card every day. Mary Grace is growing in confidence and is on a path to catching up in her studies. We talk about our faith daily and Jesus is a regular part of out conversations here. I am a mom who is on fire for the Lord and my kids could not escape it even if they tried! My kids know that there is nothing, I mean nothing, more important to their dad and I than their souls. We often say when our kids worry about grades or schoolwork – “God won’t be checking report cards at heaven’s gate.” They know that kindness trumps all else and that holiness and piety will make us far prouder than an entire report card of “A’s” or a #1 athlete trophy ever will. Tim and I want to stand before God and knowing that our primary purpose in this life was to raise children to know Him, love Him, and serve Him, we want to hear “Well done, good and faithful servant.” We believe that we can form our children as well as they are now being formed at St. Jude School on our own. Knowing that we can do this without the cost (and all the driving) has finally pushed us to make the tough choice of not enrolling Morgan for the 09-10 school year. She will miss her friends and many of the teachers there. We are committed to maintaining those friendships.
Finally, we have nothing but the very best hopes and wishes for SJS. I hope that it is able to become the light to the world it is called to be. I hope that the families that we leave behind are convinced that the only way to “market” SJS is to fundamentally change how we define it and then move forward to make that renewed definition a reality. I think that St. Jude if it uses the untapped resources of its most zealous and devoted Catholic families, will experience a renewal and a subsequent growth in enrollment. I hope to see St. Jude School become all that it can be. I have not closed the door to Catholic education. I believe in it and I know that there is so much potential there to form a whole generation of Catholics. I want to see Catholic schools succeed because they can be a treasure for every Catholic parent raising kids today – they can be such a help to parents who feel overwhelmed and alone in fighting the good fight. We will continue to fight the good fight on our own and our hope is that St Jude School will become a great spiritual center shaping our little ones and arming them for the battles that lie ahead.
God Bless You
Your Sister in Christ,
Kristan
My hope was that Catholic school would offer me the next best thing. Frankly it hasn't. What it offered us was a huge tuition bill and the option between being constantly disgruntled and dissappointed or lulled into a false sense of spiritual security. Being the warrior woman that I am I mostly chose option #1. This put me into a difficult position between wanting to champion Catholic school as a "must" for Catholics with the means, and being a dissenting voice rising up against typical Catholic school lukewarmness and half-heartedness.
Tim and I are warrior-minded people. We want to fight the good fight for the Lord. We see clearly the battlefields that lie before us and before our children. We arm ourselves with the Truth and we want our children to be well armed as well. Let's just say that Catholic schools have become like an old dusty encampment where the soldiers are all asleep and the generals have decided to call a truce as the enemy sneaks in from all sides. We arrive on the scene with our guns and our ammo ready to fight and we're told to go put up our tent and rest awhile, or maybe play some b-ball or better yet sell some raffle tickets!
So here is the letter I finally got the courage to write to our catholic school principal...
Dear Mrs. ******,
Tim and I are currently undecided about Morgan’s future as it relates to her education. The cost of education has gone up, as well as everything else. This plays a part in the decision making process. There are however, factors that play a larger role in our thinking about the best educational option for Morgan and for all of our children. The fact is that our Catholic faith is the most important thing in our life. We are willing to make any sacrifice and bear any burden in order that the Faith is imparted to our children in such a way that they grow in virtue and zeal for the Lord and His Church. This dedication is what prompted Tim and I to choose homeschooling, as well as to opt for Catholic school over public school. Our ultimate aim is to offer our children an environment that is unapologetically Catholic and that fosters spiritual growth and maturity before all else. We believe that there is no greater goal than sanctity. Our children may grow to be scientists, teachers, mechanics, or secretaries, but if they do not grow to be saints then it is all for naught.
There is no greater opportunity to expose our children to the greatness, the holiness, the virtue God calls them to than Catholic education. A Catholic education is an unmatched resource in forming and shaping our children in the Faith. It is a great gift to work and study and grow in a community of believers. Sharing and experiencing the Traditions and the Teachings of the Church alongside your spiritual brothers and sisters convicts you in the Truth. This strengthens you and prepares you for the challenges you will certainly face in the world. Praying together, participating in different devotions together, practicing and striving to grow in holiness and piety, openly and boldly proclaiming our love for Jesus and His Church, all act as a great spiritual “fertilizer” within the protective “greenhouse” that is the school and the staff. Our school and all the staff serve to amplify the light that comes from the outside and keep out the more harsh “elements” which may stunt our students’ growth. This “greenhouse effect” is unique to the Catholic school. We are growing these little people and creating a place for them that provides them with the light of Truth, the fertilizer of Catholic culture, and deep roots in the Faith, while protecting, not hiding them from the world. Catholic school amplifies the Light and also keeps out what weakens a young mind, a young soul, at the same time.
A Catholic education is needed now more than ever. Our world desperately needs a new generation of believers who are set on fire and ready to defend the Faith. This world needs a new generation of Catholics who know what they believe and believe what they know. The lukewarm have done their damage. Now is the time to form our young people and to model such zeal, such love for the Faith that they will let it permeate every aspect of their lives. The students at a Catholic school should know that their Faith touches and relates to every subject they study and every game they play and every human relationship they are a part of. They should see these connections and then translate that to the world we live in. We are to be a light to the world. This generation is the answer to the darkness. In Catholic education we find our hope and the promise that the “children really are the future”. Catholic education is the last great resource we have as Catholics who are trying one person at a time, one human relationship at a time, to change a world that has lost its way. Sure, we can evangelize by other means. We can try to shape the culture as professionals, as parents, and as citizens. But there is no match for the POWER of a Catholic education used to instruct, form and set afire an entire generation of children who will then go on to change and form those around them, this often includes their own families and even some lukewarm parents.
Keeping all this in mind, Tim and I have come to the conclusion that St. Jude School is not currently living up to its full potential. We know it is capable of great things. There are so many beautiful and devoted families at St. Jude. We have met so many talented and zealous Catholics, ready to impart their faith in any way they can. We have been blessed to know families who are committed to evangelizing the world by acting as the “domestic church” JPII called us to be. These families are the untapped treasure that St. Jude School has yet to tap into fully. It seems to me that there is a lot of energy that goes into shaping and forming a sports program and fundraising program and other school activities. Where is the Parent – School Spiritual Growth Board? The spiritual growth of our children is not a process we can leave up to “the basics” anymore. Simply having catholic staff, and catholic prayer, and Mass, and RE as another subject in class is no longer enough preparation for our kids as the enter into the world. They are entering a world that is more like a battlefield than ever before. This is not the world I entered after leaving 12 years of Catholic education. It is a world that challenges the Faith at every turn and bombards our kids with temptations and distractions from their main call – a call to holiness. We are failing them when we think that we are doing enough. We are not doing enough.
There are mothers at St. Jude School who have some interesting and creative ideas on how we can better impart the faith to our kids. These are people who are not only committed to the Faith, but who are committed to taking a new and fresh approach. Our kids are in desperate need of some JOY and some ZEAL for their faith. This is not something they will just wake up with one day. Joy and zeal must be cultivated in the hearts of our kids by engaging them in activities that help them see the relevance and the POWER of their Catholic faith. Being catholic is not just another religious exercise – it is a battle cry – a call to do great things! We need to excite our kids about the possibilities that are before them when they embrace that call! St Jude School needs to maximize its use of the parents and other parish members who have these special talents and time and call to that particular ministry. This is not an attack on the staff. It is simply a humble recognition that God gives us each talents and abilities and we should never allow pride to prevent us from accepting the help and advice of others. St Jude needs to develop a volunteer team of parents and staff who will come together to develop new and better ways of creating an authentic Catholic culture at St Jude School.
Catholic culture is more than statues in the hallways and crucifixes on the wall. It is more than all the good and wonderful things St Jude is already doing. It is best to think of it in terms of the greenhouse analogy I used before. There are so many instances where the school could define itself as uniquely Catholic. One example is the Halloween parade. Why is it that we dedicate the day to a completely secular definition and experience of that day? Why not reclaim it and make it our own? Why not use it as an opportunity to build a Catholic culture at the school? We could have all the children do a lives of the saints study leading up to the 31st. The children could choose a saint they like and found interesting and then come to school dressed as that saint. Then we could have the children pray as they parade for the poor souls in Purgatory. What a witness to the neighborhood we would be giving as well as forming the children in their faith by doing and not simply reading it in a book. What a lasting impression we may make on our children. Also, if we are willing to parade and display our acceptance of a secular celebration then we must also be willing to parade and show our love of the many Catholic devotions. Why not pray the rosary in public? Why not have a Eucharistic procession? Why not participate in the essay and poster contests for Life? Why not promote attendance at bible studies and TOB studies and all the other church functions and activities in the school newsletter? Why not give incentives to do this by using dress down passes or other incentives like extra credit points for class to raise grades etc. Why not promote growth in virtue and the practice of the corporal and spiritual works of mercy by nominating students as “soldiers for Christ” for the trimester. “So in so is recognized as an exceptional soldier for Christ because of his consistent kindness and forgiving attitude towards his fellow students and his humility and perseverance in his schoolwork.” Why not have a soldiers for Christ club? Promoting heroic acts of virtue and spiritual maturity and leadership abilities in matters of faith. This could be a great incentive for the little ones as well as the older children. Kids want to matter. It can be very discouraging to be a kid because it seems as if you are so small and that nothing you do really matters in this big big world. But St. Jude school could and should recognize and promote the fact that every display of virtue, every baby step on the path to holiness does matter and it should be rewarded. Good kids should be intentionally put into leadership roles so that others can see that it is not the strength of your personality or the brightness of your intellect that makes you a light to others. Rather it is the holiness and the goodness you live out that others should learn from and embrace. If there are MVP in sports and there are high honor roll members in academics, why not have a place for children to be rewarded for their growth in holiness as well?
I am but one person and these are but a few of the ideas I have. There are mothers and fathers who are silently waiting in the wings. For whatever reason they do not come forward and make their concerns known or their ideas heard. It may be a lack of courage or a fear of rejection. It may be they have decided that it is hopeless and that there is no place for them in forming and changing the way St Jude School defines itself. But I have heard from these parents and they have so much to offer. I have decided to take a leap off that cliff into the unknown because I feel I have nothing to loose. St Jude School is not a bad school – it is a good school. My sadness is in the fact that it has the potential to be a GREAT school, uniquely Catholic, and stand out apart from the rest as such. This leads me to another important point. In these economic times when parents are confronted with the same tough choice Tim and I are confronted with there needs to be a clear and dramatic reason for them to continue to bear the financial burden. The more we try to mimic the public schools and throw in a dash of Catholicism here and there the more we will loose the very motivation and incentive parents have for paying the price of a catholic education. Those parents who are not motivated by an intense desire to have their children immersed in the Faith, will fall away when financial times get tough. They will begin to see, under the weight of growing bills, their children’s Catholic education as merely a glorified public school education. They will begin to ask themselves the ultimate question “Is it really worth it?’ If SJS does not set itself apart from the public schools in the one and only area where it can truly be set apart – in matters of faith and catholic culture – then they will answer that question with a “No.”
It is essential that SJS see its Catholic identity as the SOLUTION to any enrollment issues. Those parents that care about catholic culture are the very people who are willing to bear any burden and pay any price. This is how Tim and I feel. The school can never compete with its public counterparts because of the resources the public schools have at their disposal. But there is one place and one place only that the catholic schools bury the public schools – that is in the treasure of its Faith and Catholic identity. What makes this fact even more inspiring is that to promote and encourage this resource costs nothing! We merely have to become more authentically Catholic and people will say “Yes it is most definitely worth it!” “I can’t find this type of environment just anywhere. This certainly is not just a public school education with some prayers and some religious ed mixed in – this is a uniquely catholic culture and I see my kids growing spiritually in a way that I never thought possible!” How about that quote as a tagline for marketing the school? Don’t you think that parents would come from miles around to have their children enrolled in that kind of school? It is exactly that kind of parent who will hold on through the rough economic times and that kind of parent who will donate time and talent. But SJS must give them a reason to sacrifice and a reason to stay committed. As it is now, Tim and I do not feel like there is anything that SJS is offering Morgan that we cannot produce ourselves here at home on the same level. There is much sadness about this. We have met some of the most amazing people at SJS. I am amazed at the power of the Holy Spirit at work at St. Jude Church. We will of course continue to be members of the St. Jude Church Family. I have never seen such a wealth in persons at a church!
We are faced with tough economic times and a public school system that is working amazingly well for our other children. Collin is excelling beyond belief. He is happy and joyful and is reading and writing and coming home with a green card every day. Mary Grace is growing in confidence and is on a path to catching up in her studies. We talk about our faith daily and Jesus is a regular part of out conversations here. I am a mom who is on fire for the Lord and my kids could not escape it even if they tried! My kids know that there is nothing, I mean nothing, more important to their dad and I than their souls. We often say when our kids worry about grades or schoolwork – “God won’t be checking report cards at heaven’s gate.” They know that kindness trumps all else and that holiness and piety will make us far prouder than an entire report card of “A’s” or a #1 athlete trophy ever will. Tim and I want to stand before God and knowing that our primary purpose in this life was to raise children to know Him, love Him, and serve Him, we want to hear “Well done, good and faithful servant.” We believe that we can form our children as well as they are now being formed at St. Jude School on our own. Knowing that we can do this without the cost (and all the driving) has finally pushed us to make the tough choice of not enrolling Morgan for the 09-10 school year. She will miss her friends and many of the teachers there. We are committed to maintaining those friendships.
Finally, we have nothing but the very best hopes and wishes for SJS. I hope that it is able to become the light to the world it is called to be. I hope that the families that we leave behind are convinced that the only way to “market” SJS is to fundamentally change how we define it and then move forward to make that renewed definition a reality. I think that St. Jude if it uses the untapped resources of its most zealous and devoted Catholic families, will experience a renewal and a subsequent growth in enrollment. I hope to see St. Jude School become all that it can be. I have not closed the door to Catholic education. I believe in it and I know that there is so much potential there to form a whole generation of Catholics. I want to see Catholic schools succeed because they can be a treasure for every Catholic parent raising kids today – they can be such a help to parents who feel overwhelmed and alone in fighting the good fight. We will continue to fight the good fight on our own and our hope is that St Jude School will become a great spiritual center shaping our little ones and arming them for the battles that lie ahead.
God Bless You
Your Sister in Christ,
Kristan
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Monday, January 26, 2009
A Sexual Revolution
Jennifer from over at http://www.conversiondiary.com/ has also written for America The National Catholic Weekly - A Sexual Revolution: in this article she states...
"All my life, the message I had heard loud and clear was that sex was for pleasure and bonding, that its potential for creating life was purely tangential, almost to the point of being forgotten. This mind-set became the foundation of my views on abortion. Because I saw sex as being by default closed to the possibility of life, I thought of unplanned pregnancies as akin to being struck by lightning while walking down the street—something totally unpredictable and undeserved that happened to people living normal lives."
I loved this line (the one in red)and think it captures the mindset of most Americans and sadly most Catholics today. And who is to blame for this mindset? Well I'd say the American Catholic Church and specifically her priests. When Catholics are confronted with a culture that is constantly challenging them and mocking their beliefs what we need is MORE clear definitive preaching from the pulpit on these tough issues not LESS! Our priests seem to be silent on these most foundational and life altering issues.
They are more than ready to discuss the poor and social justice and how open and loving and all forgiving Jesus is. They will most certainly discuss modern pop culture and current events and how they relate to the gospel. But make any remarks on how HUGE a proper perspective on human sexuality is to understanding our purpose in life and the purpose of marriage - NO WAY! That might offend someone. God forbid. We can't have anyone feeling uncomfortable now can we?
People do not need to be lectured or scolded or made to feel horrible about their poor choices and their embracing of worldly values. Rather they need to be inspired and motivated to be MORE than they are currently. So many people - most I'd say - sit in the pews at Mass and are not fullfilled. They are miserable and lost and yet they are still coming to Mass. That's great! They are searching. They are searching for the Truth without even knowing it and they keep coming back to Mass week after week despite the fact that from Monday to Saturday they are living a life completely devoid of Truth and in total conformity with the world.
So here they are sitting in the pews once more and just longing, deeply mysteriously longing for something more. And what do they hear? More of the same. More of what the world is saying or failing to say but just "packaged" differently. They need to be challenged not because they are naughty little children who need to be guilted into obedience, but because they are slaves to a contraceptive mentality and they need to know that freedom will be the best thing they've ever known. openess to life as is lived by OBEDIENCE to our Church's teaching is the very fullfillment and satisfaction they seek. This Truth is what will give them the JOY they are seeking and yearning for week after week.
So come on my priests! Let's give it to them! Have some courage! Speak the truth! Let's get down to the nitty gritty and roll up our sleeves and do the hard work we've been avoiding for about 20 years now. I have been on both sides of this - enslaved and now free. Nothing has been more dramatic, more pivotal in changing my entire view of life, the world, and the people in it than TOB and the Church's teachings on life. I want my brothers and sisters to know what they're missing and then take the first step towards getting it. But that cannot happen unless they begin to hear it from you my priests and hear it loud and clear!
"All my life, the message I had heard loud and clear was that sex was for pleasure and bonding, that its potential for creating life was purely tangential, almost to the point of being forgotten. This mind-set became the foundation of my views on abortion. Because I saw sex as being by default closed to the possibility of life, I thought of unplanned pregnancies as akin to being struck by lightning while walking down the street—something totally unpredictable and undeserved that happened to people living normal lives."
I loved this line (the one in red)and think it captures the mindset of most Americans and sadly most Catholics today. And who is to blame for this mindset? Well I'd say the American Catholic Church and specifically her priests. When Catholics are confronted with a culture that is constantly challenging them and mocking their beliefs what we need is MORE clear definitive preaching from the pulpit on these tough issues not LESS! Our priests seem to be silent on these most foundational and life altering issues.
They are more than ready to discuss the poor and social justice and how open and loving and all forgiving Jesus is. They will most certainly discuss modern pop culture and current events and how they relate to the gospel. But make any remarks on how HUGE a proper perspective on human sexuality is to understanding our purpose in life and the purpose of marriage - NO WAY! That might offend someone. God forbid. We can't have anyone feeling uncomfortable now can we?
People do not need to be lectured or scolded or made to feel horrible about their poor choices and their embracing of worldly values. Rather they need to be inspired and motivated to be MORE than they are currently. So many people - most I'd say - sit in the pews at Mass and are not fullfilled. They are miserable and lost and yet they are still coming to Mass. That's great! They are searching. They are searching for the Truth without even knowing it and they keep coming back to Mass week after week despite the fact that from Monday to Saturday they are living a life completely devoid of Truth and in total conformity with the world.
So here they are sitting in the pews once more and just longing, deeply mysteriously longing for something more. And what do they hear? More of the same. More of what the world is saying or failing to say but just "packaged" differently. They need to be challenged not because they are naughty little children who need to be guilted into obedience, but because they are slaves to a contraceptive mentality and they need to know that freedom will be the best thing they've ever known. openess to life as is lived by OBEDIENCE to our Church's teaching is the very fullfillment and satisfaction they seek. This Truth is what will give them the JOY they are seeking and yearning for week after week.
So come on my priests! Let's give it to them! Have some courage! Speak the truth! Let's get down to the nitty gritty and roll up our sleeves and do the hard work we've been avoiding for about 20 years now. I have been on both sides of this - enslaved and now free. Nothing has been more dramatic, more pivotal in changing my entire view of life, the world, and the people in it than TOB and the Church's teachings on life. I want my brothers and sisters to know what they're missing and then take the first step towards getting it. But that cannot happen unless they begin to hear it from you my priests and hear it loud and clear!
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
I'm Mad as Hell
I've never seen this movie and frankly I don't know what it was about. But this line of course has become famous. It sums up exactly how I feel as well as how I see the very first step that is required of all those who seem to be so ready to keep quiet and "plant seeds".
Well I'm tired of waiting for those who should know better and should be doing better for their children, their students, their congregations, their families, their constituents, their citizens, their fellow man to slowly transform themselves!
Damn it we are in a battle here. The battle is one of cosmic proportions and frankly the thought of one more heretical homily, one more dissenting authority figure, one more defiant politician, one more complacent Catholic, one more quiet "planter of seeds" willing to overlook all of the above for fear that they'll "scare them off" - makes me want to scream like the man in the video....
I'm a warrior. So is Tim. Thank God! I couldn't stand to have to be married to a man who wasn't just as moved to anger, moved to speak, moved to fight as I am. I'm mad as hell and I'm not gonna take it anymore. Why should I? Why should we? If we were in a position to see the Jews marching off to their deaths would we whisper gently in the ears of the SS or the German citizens who looked the other way? would I be satisfied with "planting seeds"? Or would I FIGHT and speak and boldly proclaim the injustice I was a witness to? Would I pray for the conversion of the Nazi - yes of course but I'd fight to the death to save innocent lives at the same time. Sometimes this means pissing people off. Sometimes it can hurt feelings and make other uncomfortable. Sometimes it means admonishing a sinner (a spiritual work of mercy mind you) and sadly sometimes that sinner is my priest - openly dissenting from Mother Church.
We are either obedient or we are not. We either submit to Her authority or we do not. We either speak the Truth or we do not. Knowing the Truth, believing the Truth is not good enought. We must be the soldiers for Christ that our Confirmation made us and be the brothers and sisters in Christ to our unborn brothers and sisters, that our Baptism made us. For crying out loud isn't time we stand up and say "I'm mad as hell and I'm not gonna take this anymore!" ????
Sunday, January 11, 2009
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