Catching Up

How did it happen the entire month of May came and passed without my making a single contribution all month? Looking over my calendar, I’ve been buried under a frantic time schedule of work, travel, and pregnancy-related illness. There’s no guarantee that June will be any lighter for me, but I’ll try harder to put up at least one post per week.

Just in the last week, there were a couple of notable items in the news I really wanted to highlight.

A Papal First
In 1969 Pope Paul VI contributed a statement etched onto the silicon disk labeled "Goodwill messages from around the world brought to the Moon by the astronauts of Apollo 11.” Since that time no Holy Father has ever communicated with astronauts living in the heavens until Pope Benedict XVI’s May 21st . conversation with International Space Station astronauts, orbiting 250 miles above the Earth. Organized by the European Space Agency, the Holy Father addressed and asked questions of the two Italian astronauts and their ten U.S. and Russian colleagues. If you missed this papal first, check out the 19-minute video and transcript on NCR.

Tornadoes
The overwhelming devastation, destruction, and loss of life due to tornadoes this past two months deserves a longer post; however, please do not forget the people of Tennessee, Alabama, Missouri, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Kansas in your prayers and donations this month. While most of my friends in Oklahoma have years of experience dealing with tornadoes, these storms are never ordinary or taken lightly.

New Laws in Texas
Since the Texas Legislature only meets every other year to create our biennial budget and pass new laws, the end of May is a flurry of activity as bills are passed and signed. Two of the bills I’ve watched and prayed for during the past four-to-six years were finally signed into law last week.

In a public ceremony at the state capitol last Tuesday, May 24, Gov. Rick Perry signed into law the Informed Consent before Abortion bill also referred to as the Sonogram Bill. I wrote about the powerful impact an early sonogram can make on a pregnancy earlier this year.

Friday, Gov. Perry signed into law the Voter ID bill, requiring Texas voters to show a valid photo id before casting a ballot. Hopefully this new law will alleviate some of the voter fraud experienced across our state, particularly noticeable in Harris County. I wrote about this bill back in 2009.

Memorial Day is not Veteran’s Day.
Yesterday as I checked Facebook and Twitter, I realized the majority of Americans appear confused about the true meaning of Memorial Day. Many messages thanked our military men and women currently serving or living veterans. While the selfless service of these men and women should be recognized and prayed for daily, the official holiday honoring them is November 11, Veteran’s Day.

Memorial Day is different from Veterans’ Day in that we solemnly mourn those men and women who died in military service to our great country. Freedom is not free. Each Memorial Day we remember with great humility, prayer, and respect, that our freedom has been bought and paid for with the blood of our fathers, brothers, uncles, mothers, sisters, aunts, neighbors, and colleagues. It is their ultimate sacrifice that allows us to have the right to speak (or write) our mind in protest and debate as one united nation, celebrating what brings us together.

Kelly the Kitchen Kop
If anyone reading today comes to us from Kelly the Kitchen Kop's article on Paleo Diets & Increased Fertility, welcome and thank you for joining us. Your kind comments on my earlier post are much appreciated and taken to heart. I haven't really written about my personal journey with food and fitness this past year, so perhaps I'll make that a summertime post.

Blessings on Friday Morning

As my daughter and I head to Mass this morning to pray for so many around us in need, I thought I would share my first audioboo.  The Our Father as prayed by my sweet 4 year old, Birdie.  

 
Blessings on this Friday morning.

Struggle and Reward of Teaching the Faith

Teaching the Faith

After I stopped dancing in my 20’s due to an injury, people around me suggested I teach dancing to children.  I vividly remember thinking, “no way!”  I wanted to dance, not teach dance. 

When my new parish started growing and offering more faith formation opportunities for our children, they invited me to teach religious education.  Again, my mind flashed, “no, I want to learn about my faith, not teach it.” 

While at the Catholic New Media Celebration (CNMC) in Boston last August, I met Lisa Mladinich standing at her booth promoting her new OSV booklet, “Be an Amazing Catechist.”  We spoke for a short while about her booklet, our blogs, and catechesis.  She invited me to join the Catholic Writer’s Guild (which I did) and offered me a free copy of her booklet.  My first reaction was to turn it away since I was not a catechist and had no desire to teach the faith.  However, remembering my parish’s fledgling faith formation program, I accepted a copy to present to our DRE. 

The next morning when Shelly and I walked to a local parish for mass, Lisa sat on the pew behind us. The three of us walked back to the hotel together sharing more of our personal stories. With that personal connection as a starting place, I sat down to read the Amazing Catechist booklet after returning home.  I even reviewed this informative, inspiring booklet on teaching religious education here on Of Sound Mind and Spirit and recently at SQPN.

Be an Amazing Catechist and my personal connection with Lisa changed the way I viewed becoming a catechist and teaching the faith, so when I was asked later that month if I was interested in being a catechist, I surprised myself by saying “yes.”  For the first time I wanted to teach something; I wanted to share our Faith with children.

If you’d told me last summer how difficult it would be teaching 19 third graders within an hour after their school release, I would have run far away.  To be perfectly honest, I thought about resigning shortly after I started. With no previous teaching experience of any kind, I struggled with discipline in the classroom and found it difficult to capture and maintain their attention long enough to learn the lesson.

With prayer, a very supportive DRE and class assistant, the CatholicMom.com educational resources and Lisa Mladinich’s inspirational booklet, I persevered until I reached that gradual turning point where I actually enjoyed spending time teaching my active, rowdy group of 19.  There were fleeting moments in the beginning when I recognized that my students were learning and loving God! These moments inspired me to gain more control of the class, and step up the content of the lessons.  With experience came the ability to mix up the lesson plan in order to garner more of their attention for the hour.

What absolutely made the year worth it were those amazing moments when a student lit up with the Holy Spirit. Each one of them surprised me at times with the depth of their answer, their apparent love of God, and the ability to soak in material even when I thought they were ignoring the class. 

I’m looking forward to returning next Fall with some experience under my belt to implement so many of the wonderful ideas available for teaching catechesis. These last eight months teaching have taught me so much about not only the kids and being a catechist, but also about myself and my personal faith.

As classes come to an end all over the country, please join me in a prayer of thanksgiving for all the catechists teaching religious education who volunteer to teach the Faith to our children. Also, pray for discernment for those contemplating teaching the faith to our children in the Fall.

Lisa Jones

2012 Presidential Candidate Watch List - Rick Santorum

For years, I have been watching former Senator Rick Santorum both for his conservative political views and the way he and his wife publicly live out their Catholic faith. Last year I wrote about the Santorums' personal witness to Life through the unconditional and selfless love of their daughter Bella.  

At the recent FoxNews 2012 Republican President Debate, Santorum was asked about Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels' call for a truce on social issues.  I knew we were in for a good response when Santorum started off with the following, "Anybody that would suggest that we call a truce on the moral issues doesn't understand what America is all about."  From there, he showed the correlation between moral issues, Founding principles, and faith in God.

... Rights come from God, and the first of which is Life. The second of which is Liberty.  Those two concepts really transformed the world because it said government was going to be limited, allow people to be free and to pursue their own dreams, to serve their God and to serve their family and community...

With that answer, Santorum showed that Conservatives, Tea Party people, Christians, social and fiscal conservatives all belong to the same group.  Founding principles, Faith and social issues are all tied together.  You cannot sever them and remain true to the Constitution or God.

His response and the passion with which he delivered it put Rick Santorum on my 2012 Watch List for GOP Presidential Candidates.

Who is on your 2012 Watch List for GOP Presidential Nominee?

Is Faith in God a Winning Strategy on Survivor?

It is rare to find Christianity present on mainstream network reality shows and still rarer to find it presented in a positive light. However, CBS in their 22nd season of Survivor chose to include one player’s obvious belief in God.  Matt Elrod, a contestant from Nashville, TN, is often shown praying, reading scripture and discussing his Christian beliefs with other contestants. While in past seasons, you might have glimpses of a contestant’s faith, it has never been highlighted in consecutive episodes and with the focus given this year.

Matt has done the unthinkable by winning every challenge on Redemption Island so far to remain in the game. He publically attributes his place in the game to “God’s will,” even after being brought back from Redemption Island to join the merged tribe only to be subsequently voted out to Redemption Island for a second time.

Last Wednesday, a second player publicly relied on his faith to make an important decision in the game.  Iraq War Veteran, Mike Chiesl, decided to forgoe a family visit for himself in favor of gifting family visits for the six remaining contestants in the game.  When asked by host Jeff Probst how he made his decision, Mike told everyone he was thinking of the Gospels and Jesus’ Greatest Commandment; 

You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:36-40).

While I'm not sure Mike made any long lasting friends or garnered any potential jury votes with this move, he later told the camera that the game wasn't foremost on his mind.  Jeff, the host asked Mike's mom, how she felt that her son gave up the chance to spend time with her to give the opportunity to others.  She responded with tears in her eyes that this is who her son is as a man and she couldn't be more  proud.

Across fan sites, some Survivor fans find Matt’s constant prayer and references to God’s Will to be annoying and out of place in this game. Many, if not most fans, will argue that he is inept at playing this game of strategy, evidenced by his naiveté leading to two blindside tribal council votes.  Still, others find his and now Mike's demonstration of faith a refreshing inclusion in a reality game that celebrates and rewards lying, cheating and backstabbing.

Are you watching this 22nd season of Survivor airing on Wednesdays?  If so, do you enjoy the airtime given to Matt and Mike's Christian faith?

Beatification of Pope John Paul II

Pope John Paul II connected with Catholics and Christians for a multitude of reasons. He not only shared Christ's message with the world, but also truly lived God’s will personally. Through his loving example he inspired millions to grow closer to God. His heroic path, holiness, joyful nature and peaceful suffering helped make him a Shepherd of Christians around the world.

There is no way to sum up his life and legacy in one blog post; instead, I recommend these sites with their own tributes to the Blessed John Paul to discover what he meant for all Catholics, as well as for each of us personally.

SQPN created a special webpage to share Father Roderick and Steve Nelson's experiences through blog, photos, and videos in Rome for the Beatification. In addition, they opened the forum to posted video tributes about Pope John Paul II sent in by the SQPN community.

Visit the USCCB website filled with great resources honoring Blessed John Paul II, including his biography, his many writings, videos and so much more.

CatholicMom.com founder, Lisa Hendey received one of the coveted 150 invitations to the Vatican Blogger Meeting this past Monday immediately following the Beatification. She is writing online, tweeting and posting on FaceBook her personal reaction to the Beatification and ongoing events at the Vatican this week.

CatholicVote.org offers their own new site celebrating the life and legacy of Pope John Paul II, with many articles detailing his inspiration and love for all people to live out Christ's message.

EWTN's news director, Raymond Arroyo, posted numerous photos and videos taken before, during and after the beatification capturing his experience.

Elizabeth Scalia, known as The Anchoress, shared her experiences at the Vatican by live-blogging at the Catholic portal on Patheos.com