No classrooms. No homework.

Wandering around museums, reading, looking, talking. Who knows what rabbit trails you will find.

And there lies the beauty, the learning, the education, the atmosphere of relations , for unschoolers.

For we do not plan a museum trip with firm outcomes in mind.

We go. Out of interest. Out of something to do. We know we will learn... But exactly what it is that we will learn, well, that we are unsure of.

Meandering around a local museum yesterday, we knew we would learn about local Australian history. And geography. And culture.

But our Unschooling museum rabbit trail involved far more than that. It involved literature...

Imagine my bookworm heart being excited to find that Trollope, yes, the Anthony Trollope, he of Barchester Towers fame, had visited the early colony in the 1800s. Had even written in praise of the area. Has travelled on one of the first trains to the area . And that, subsequently, there was a landmark named after him. Trollope's Reach.

A search with google, with my phone and maps, with museum volunteers, showed that no one these days knows of Trollope's Reach.

But what an interesting trail! And on arrival home, I promptly set boys to look for our novels by Trollope, to tall about his books, to discuss married Anglican Bishops, to display and strew some novels on the dining table, to say to Anthony "Oh my goodness, you haven't read Trollope? You must!"

A literary museum rabbit trail, within the realm of the expected Australian history education, within discussions and research on female emancipation, convicts and free men, Mary Reiby, the Arndell family, Bligh and Macquaurie and currency and the novel/TV aeries Sara Dane...

And so, as today we, Anthony and I, sit in the airport, on our way interstate to another museum, this time for the King Tut exhibition, I can't help but wonder what rabbit trails we will find.

Egyptian history, yes.

But possibly there is another window there, a window to a new area, a new interest, to new ideas .

A window to a new Unschooling rabbit trail.

Or.. Perhaps not!

It's all an adventure anyway.

A homeschooling, Unschooling adventure.

No classrooms. No homework.

Museums and rabbit trails.

Liturgical... What?

Two different masses.

Both outside my parish.

One evening last week I attended a mass with older girl altar servers in attendance. Maybe girls aged eighteen to twenty.

The head or senior server wore a fancy hair do with frangipani flowers in her hair, lots of eye makeup, dangling earrings to match the liturgical year. Very distracting!

Why was I looking and allowing myself to be distracted? I was up the front in one of those altar-in-the-middle churches so no choice but to be distracted when I looked up from my missal and from prayer, to adore Jesus.

Mass the next day was a different affair. A more traditional chapel. Mass, again, in the Ordinary Form. Celebrated with reverence. Altar servers in soutanes and surplices, serving unobtrusively and with dignity.

Sometimes I feel like I live with liturgical schizophrenia!

Are people naive?

Are people naive?

I heard a speaker the other night, one who had been at university and seminary at the time of the Second Vatican Council, talk about his feeling of enthusiasm during the Council.  He felt, he said , that he and others thought that the Council would be a "new Pentecost." And he said that experience has shown that this was not the case.

Were they really so naive?

So naive as to think that a relatively large drift from tradition in a relatively short period of time would yield positive fruit? When history and human nature shows us that people need guidelines and ritual and routine.  .. take these away and you cause confusion and floundering . And without the safety net of beliefs and customs, there is often a vacuum within each one, a vacuum waiting to be filled... and sometimes it is filled by apathy. Or secularism.

Indeed, instead of naivety and thinking all change is for the good, all change is a  new Pentecost, we can heed the words of the Holy Father...." We are not a production plant, we are not a for-profit business, we are Church . That means a community of men standing together in faith. The task is not to manufacture some product or to be a success at selling merchandise. Instead the task is to live the faith in an exemplary way, to proclaim it and at the same time to keep this voluntary association, which cuts across all cultures, nations, and times and is not based on external interests , spiritually connected with Christ and so with God himself ." (Pope Benedict XVI, Light of the World)

A Fifteen Year Old Unschooler's Reading List

In January, lounging around the sitting room on a very hot day, an idea was formed.

We all love books.

Could we make a list, specific for our interests and for Anthony, an avid reader , of books or authors he could read this year? Our last unschooler, while brothers are at university or away, to read and share? That ongoing family literary discussion.

Of course, the making of the list involved discussion, debate, quotes ... And friends on Facebook!

So here is Anthony's list... A beginning list...

Dickens, Charles - Martin Chuzzlewit

Goldsmith,Oliver – She Stoops to Conquer (play, 18th century comedy)

Shakespeare, William – King Lear

Shakespeare, William – A Midsummer Night's Dream

Trollope, Anthony – Barchester Towers

Eliot, T.S. - The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

Arnold, Matthew – Culture and Anarchy (Non-fiction, 19th century criticism)

James, Henry – The Europeans

Pope, Alexander – The Rape of the Lock (poem, 18th century)

Dryden, John – MacFlecknoe (poem, 17th century)

Plato – The Apology of Socrates

Aeschylus – Oresteian trilogy (plays)

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor – The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Jonson, Ben – Volpone (play, 17th century)

Shaw, Bernard – Plays Pleasant and Unpleasant

Johnson, Dr Samuel – Introductions to King Lear and A Midsummer Night's Dream (18th century criticism)

Swift, Jonathon – Gulliver's Travels

Contemporary Criticism (I can send through a selection of recent articles from American and English writers)

Hartnett, Cynthia – The Wool Pack

Orwell, George – Animal Farm

Tey, Josephine – The Daughter of Time

Epictetus – Sayings (Stoic philosopher)

The Little Princess

Seven Little Australians

The day I became an autodidact

John Wyndham

John Christopher

Cynthia Violet

Yes Minister

Sir Walter Scott

E. Nesbit

Noel Streetfield

Stories from Opera

Chesterton

Belloc

To Kill a Mockingbird

Chesterton’s saints (St. Francis, St Thomas)

Waugh’s Edmund Campion

The Andromeda Strain & Jurassic Park

Jane Austen

Little Women

Apologia Pro Vita Sua

Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

Terry Pratchet

Lepanto by Chesterton

A Fortunate Life

R. L. Stevenson

Joan of Arc  Belloc

Our Hearts Were Young and Gay

Cheaper by the dozen

Belles on their toes

Collin Thiele

Biography of Pope John Paul II (Wiegel)

Tim Winton

 
No have-tos but hopefully some want-tos. With discussion. And maybe even blogging or email. Or Facebook.
 

 

 

Unschooling Resource Post # Three

What else helps us unschool?

Our form of life without school means weaving education into life , threading an interest into a day, a book into a car trip, a movie alongside dinner.

A shopping trip and a discussion.

Learning to read with computer games and Garfield and Calvin and Hobbes.

Understanding strategies and problem solving playing Warhammer.

That kind of thing.

So what helps us in this life? We cook and we pray, as discussed in recent posts.

With the thread of prayer, our life is woven.

But to weave requires time.

Plain and simple, to unschool requires time. Not always quality time but quantative time. Time spent day after day, day in and day out.

And not even time spent in great pursuits, in learning adventures, or even mindfully.

These sorts of time are important to unschooling, to learning, to memories...but so is the every day time, ordinary time, time spent in the dailiness, the discipline of life...but spent together more often than not.

Time like a morning last week.

The older boys were up and went to university, with a friend who had stayed the night. I was going to work eleven a.m. until six p.m , no six forty-five a.m. start for a change and Mass for St Anthony at seven that night...so I had a slow morning... no rushing, just doing stuff at home, chatting to the fifteen year old unschooler son, doing a workout while he played computer games and then we did chores together. We went to the shopping centre and post office about ten and just had time to talk about inconsequential things ... but those things make relationships don't they? Anthony helped me buy shoes, we talked about his winter clothing needs then I drove to work and he went to the library, to walk home the thirty minute walk later, to do some Maths and Saxon Physics and meet up with his older brother at home to fold junk mail.

Almost sounds like nothing, doesn't it? But that is the simplicity of unschooling time.... That which is small is actually great. The little spending of time in small things reaps big benefits long term....The chores, the discussion, the reading is woven into learning and relationships and memories and Faith and Love.

The Little Way of Homeschooling. As in that new unschooling book. And that quote, again, of St Therese...."You know well enough that Our Lord does not look so much at the greatness of our actions, nor even at their difficulty, but at the love at which we do them."

Unschooling Resource Post # Two

What else is it that helps our family unschool?

For me it is prayer.

I cannot see how one can unschool, can live one's life as an open book for one's children, can share every day, highs and lows, sorrows and joys, busyness and minutiae, without prayer.

Without prayer, my unschooling life would be a hive of activity, needing bolstering with reading and affirmations and subject to individualism.

With prayer underpinning my efforts as an unschooling mum, our busyness can be mindful, our interest driven education and lifestyle can be part of a bigger picture of life as a Christian, in the Church, with service for others.

"All the basic themes are the one you have noted: Do not become utterly absorbed in activism! There would be so much to do that one could be working on it constantly. And that is precisely the wrong thing. Not becoming totally absorbed in activism means maintaining considerario, discretion, deeper examination, contemplation, time for interior pondering, vision, and dealing with things, remaining with God and meditating about God. " Pope Benedict XVI, Light of the World.

Would I be able to unschool without prayer, without this meditation about God? Well, as often as family life provides comfort and satisfaction, as often as I may enjoy the juggling act of work and family, there are many times when things fall...the juggle becomes a heap, a mess. It is prayer that lifts me up from the sometimes messiness of an unschooling life to the experience of Our Lord, His Love...and the purpose of it all.

Prayer snatches me from the everydayness and pushes me towards God, reminding me to be faithful in my vocation, to live with purpose, to share my life unceasingly. To unschool.

That sursum corda in the mass, when my heart and mind is lifted up to the Lord so that I receive the grace to continue in my vocation.

The Holy Father wrote, of liturgy, of public prayer "...the decisive thing is that we enter into something that is much greater. That we can get out of ourselves, as it were, and into the wide open spaces....liturgy, in truth, is an event by means of which we let ourselves be introduced into the expansive faith and prayer of the Church." (Light of the World)

Talking about unschooling resources? Don't forget prayer.

Unschooling Resource # One

"What are the resources you use in your unschooling?" 

I get this question. People love to know the ins and the outs ( the hot and the cold)....So I thought I would write some posts, every now and then, about what we actually use in our unschool, our Homeschool, now, this very minute.

Let me tell you (again) about cookbooks.

Cookbooks  a resource in the Homeschool?

Yes, right now, these are what we use the most.

Saints At the Dinner Table, Jamie Oliver's Thirty Minute Meals and Nigella Lawson's How To Be A Domestic Goddess. 

We celebrate the liturgical year. We read about and research the saint of the day. We sometimes get into the history of that time, and the history of the Church. We might read some more. We might look at geography. We might talk about virtues and say some extra prayers. 

And we cook. I mean, we have to eat anyway, so why not cook something fitting for the feast.

Saint At the Dinner Table has whole menus planned, information about the saint and why the menu was chosen and also discussion questions or a prayer. Like the prayer of Pope Pius XIi to St Joseph.

I usually simply choose some foods to cook, not the whole menu. Forgiving Trifle for St Josephine Bakhita....the recipe is very forgiving, as was the saint. 

Or I look in Jamie's speedy recipe book for culturally related recipes..the speed suits my lifestyle. Fiery Noodles for the Korean martyrs.

Or I read Nigella's gloriously warming, homey baking book for recipes to suit the feast...or the "special day", as in pies for Pi Day ...and yummy bread for St Zita.

Wanting to unschool? You could start with the liturgical year and some good cookbooks. Cook, pray, learn. 

Tradition and living experience

In the Second Letter to the Thessalonians, St. Paul writes: "So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by letter" (2:15)

Traditions.

In the home, little traditions, like praying the Angelus at meal times. Or having a special dinner and table  centerpiece  for birthdays. Or sharing hot cross buns and Easter eggs on Easter Sunday morning.

In our liturgy, our prayer, holding fast to what has gone before us, those traditions. Praying and meditating on the rosary, as generations before have done. Praying at mass in the Extraordinary Form, participating in the Divine Office, praying the psalms, with the community  of saints through the ages

Just as traditions in the home bind us together as a family and with friends , build relationships and memories, make our family life vibrant, so traditions in the Church help us form relationship with Our Lord, with the community of believers past and present. These traditions helps us express and build a vibrant faith, a vibrant relationship with Christ and His Church.

To quote Bishop Kaiilstos Ware, on Orthodox spirituality, but making a point that stands true for us in the West,.."...I wish particularly to underline this need for living experience. To many in the twentieth century....the Orthodox Church seems chiefly remarkable for it's air of antiquity and conservatism....For the Orthodox themselves, however, loyalty to Tradition means not primarily the acceptance of formulae or customs from past generations,  but rather the ever-new, personal and direct experience of the Holy Spirit in the present, here and now." ( The Orthodox Way)

Loyalty to Tradition within our present, leading us to direct experience of Christ, through the prayers of the ages and through the sacraments .

Tradition forming our living experience. 

And that is why, in many respects, I am traditional in my worship. 

Hermione Granger on retreat?

So what does will your retreat schedule look like? ..asked my non Catholic friend.

Here is a day.

7.30 am Divine Office of Matins and Lauds
8.00.     Breakfast
9.15.     Conference then Offices of Prime and Terce
10.45.    Mass in the Extraordinary Form
12.30 pm Lunch
4.30.      Confession
5.00.      Sermon and Divine Offices of Sext and None then the Angelus
6.00.      Dinner
7.15.      Vespers, Holy Hour, private prayer, confession, Benediction
8.45.      Compline

And we observe the rule of silence. 

"Wisdom enters through love, silence, and mortification . It is great wisdom to know how to be silent and to look at neither the remarks, nor the deeds, nor the lives of others," St John of the Cross

Time to pray, rest, walk, read, think, reflect, connect and write. Because it is in writing that I think and reflect.

And we are praying through and working through some of the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius of Loyola.

Yes, even me, the  "late" retreatant.

"Each one must probe the depths of his heart to feel what it is that prevents him from finding God in peace - that is from going straight to Him and cleaving wholly to Him." The spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius...The Three Classes of Man.

And I am resisting the urge to bring my To Do List Mentality to this retreat. Because  it is so easy for me to plan my time and my prayer and my walk/exercise and my spiritual journaling and my good resolutions, and write them in my book, and cross off what I have "achieved"... When what I really want to do is listen to Our Lord. That interior mortification.

High achiever, list oriented, organized Hermione Granger twin meets God. On His terms. Not hers.

Should mothers go on retreat?

I posed this question on Facebook, in a whirlwind of trying-to-get-to-a-retreat myself.

A retreat, a silent retreat, a time away for prayer, for reflection, for adoration of Our Lord. Time to be, simply be. With God. Mindfully. Fully present. To pray, think, write.

But, oh the many, many things a mother must organize, before she even begins the hour drive to the retreat centre. Cars, errands, appointments, phone calls, bills, work, extra work, work meetings, teach Catechism, listen to a friend, work emails, listen to a son read his religion paper, the one he wrote for Homeschool study today, talk about  uni assignments and times, chauffeur, sort who is taking Anny to music and who is doing junk mail delivery and who will be home when and will the homeschool son be alone and who needs what car and what about laundry and meals and Kumon and OOSH and ready cash and objections and did you pay the car rego and the rent before you left for the retreat and make sure you pray for this intention, okay?

Those little details in a mother's life.

Should mothers go on retreat, with all the work needed just, simply,  for two days away?

Reflecting tonight after vespers and compline, feeling some of that tension  and tiredness releasing, being in the quiet presence of Our Lord (Be still, and know that I am God)...I thought...yes.


There are contradictions and mysteries in a mother's life, in a woman's life.

God, Himself, is one of those mysteries .

As the author writes in one of my " retreat reading books"....("The Orthodox Way")... God cannot be grasped by the mind.If he could be grasped, he would not be God. (Evagarius of Pontas). Metanoia, the Greek word for repentance, means, literally, change of mind . In approaching God, we are to change our mind,  stripping ourselves of all our habitual ways of thinking. We are to be converted not only in our will but in our intellect. We need to reverse our interior perspective, to stand the pyramid on it's head.

And that is why mothers should go on retreat. No matter how difficult it is to actually get there.

Dress for the occasion

I may be judgmental but I just think the clothes should be suitable for the occasion.

This is coming from a homeschooling mum who loves short-ish skirts and casual clothes and knee high funky socks and bright coloured stockings!

But you know, very short shorts and low cut strappy tops worn to mass just don't do it for me.

You dress for the occasion.

And thus, when I went to the RCIA Rite of Election in a cathedral, did I wear my short skirt and gold flat sandals, as RCIA Coordinator in my parish and as a sponsor for one of the catechumens?

No, I wore a safe black skirt and wedge heels.

The friar with me wore his habit. Of course. ( And thanks be to God for the orthodoxy of these friars. My family is blessed by their example )

So, tell me, why is it that a few priests stood up for their parishes, and for the elect, wearing not clerical dress, not even the white shirt and black trousers worn by many Australian clerics, but in checked shirts, khaki or cream trousers, sandals?

The priests in clerical dress were noticeable by their dress. We knew they were priests before their names were called.

And the others? If I know enough, as a laywoman , to dress appropriately for liturgy in the cathedral, how come these priests do not?

Don't give me that line about clothes not making the man. If clothes don't make the man, the vocation, then why not just wear some form of clerical dress... No time wasted in deciding what to wear, thoughts given to other areas not clothing, and let people know who you are... A priest, before God, at a solemn occasion.

Harangue me if you like for being judgmental but commonsense tells it like it is.... Don't wear your Paris Hilton lookalike party dress to mass...If you are a priest or religious at least wear clerical dress or habit for solemn occasions in the Church.

Dress appropriately for the occasion.

The virtues of vinegar

I am a guest blogger at the Australian Catholic Families blog. I am a guest blogger...on vinegar ..and on adult women altar servers. The text ? As follows. But please also visit the blog and check out their articles.

The virtues of vinegar

As the good housewife that I am, I am planning a series of cleaning posts. You know, posts about house cleaning and not about liturgy. Or other deep subjects. Because that's what good housewives do, don't they?

Clean and make coffee.

This first post describes the virtues of vinegar. A non toxic cleaner...so it can be used for a myriad of purposes. I find it helps clean windows and mirrors and even one"s mind via cleaning and scrubbing, when one is lamenting the state of the liturgy in our Church. Wonderful writings from our Holy Father on the importance of liturgy...yet, the practice of public liturgy loses some of it's shine in the grass roots, in the field, in some of our parishes.We need to scrub away our lamentations.

But back to vinegar.Any good housewife knows that it is cheap, non harmful, effective as a cleaner. Any good housewife knows that when cleaning, one should look at the effects of cleaning....use the least intrusive method, follow the instructions carefully, to avoid possible fallout. Would that liturgy always be treated with the same respect....discourage obtrusive extraneous activities and words being added to the liturgy, follow the rubrics carefully, think about the fallout from possible actions (adult women servers may be allowed but their use and encouragement is not compulsory, you know ..what message does it send, to the women, to young men, about vocations to the priesthood? About serving being a privilege and not a right? Do we placate one group temporarily, for the general ill of the Church? What are the ultimate fruits of this action?).

But back to vinegar. Used judiciously in cleaning. To clean and not think Too Much. Because what can a laywoman do, when she feels like weeping at the some of the Liturgical anomalies ? Attend mass only in the Extraordinady Form? Discuss ad infinitum?

Concentrate on her vocation as. wife and mother ? (Yes!)

Ignore that part of her mind that cares deeply about the Church and Her liturgy?

Clean?

Ah, the virtues of vinegar.

Note on adult women altar servers.....Congregation for Divine Worship
Letter on Altar Servers July 27, 2001

"With respect to whether the practice of women serving at the altar would truly be of pastoral advantage in the local pastoral situation, it is perhaps helpful to recall that the non-ordained faithful do not have a right to service at the altar, rather they are capable of being admitted to such service by the Sacred Pastors (cf. Circular Letter to the Presidents of Episcopal Conferences, March 15, 1994, no. 4, cf. also can 228, §1, Interdicasterial Instruction Esslesiae de mysterio, August 15, 1997, no. 4, see Notitiae 34 [1998] 9-42). Therefore, in the event that Your Excellency found it opportune to authorize service of women at the altar, it would remain important to explain clearly to the faithful the nature of this innovation, lest confusion might be introduced, thereby hampering the development of priestly vocations."

The Little Way of Homeschooling

"You know well enough that Our Lord does not look so much at the greatness of our actions, nor even at their difficulty, but at the love at which we do them." St Therese of the Child Jesus.

Unschooling, sharing our lives with our children, living our lives as an open book, is education with love.

We may not be doing great things but we are educating our children, in little ways, about the world, in skills, in the Faith...we are learning ourselves, as parents.

Catholic unschooling. The Little Way of Homeschooling.

And the title of a new book. Thirteen families share their discovery of St Therese's little way . Thirteen families share their discovery of Catholic unschooling.

My family included.

Yes, I am one of the contributors to this book.

Catholic unschooling has shaped and formed me, the kids, our family.

Have you started school yet?

Have you started school yet ?

I get asked this question at church, by people at work, by other homeschoolers.

I may be a bit grumpy ( WHO, ME??), but, in all honesty, if I hear that question again, instead of answering with a smile and my stock answer, I will just scream.

Or eat peanut M &Ms.

My stock answer, you say?

We don't ever start or stop school, we learn all the time, we read, we do Maths, we write, we study...or we don't..

"Youth is the time to go flashing from one end of the world to the other in both mind and body; to try the manners of different nations; to hear the chimes at midnight; to see sunrise in town and country; to be converted at a revival; to circumnavigate the metaphysics, write halting verses, run a mile to see a fire, and wait all day in the theatre to applaud 'Hernani'." -Robert Louis Stevenson

That describes our homeschooling.

Whch translates today as mum walking in the door from early morning work, one son helping her to prune flowers on her way in, one working on his computer for music stuff, one playing the piano, two conpleting the retro arcade game Golden Axe ( I thought it was Golden Max!), a son now studying Spanish, everyone stopping to say a prayer for a soul, mum suggesting a trip to the shops for errands and fun and talking about Blessed Fra Angelica and someone finding the Faith and Life book with reprints of his paintings, while listening to Gorecki...and music lessons, work, youth group later.

That flashing around, in mind and body. And in discussion.

No screaming. No peanut M&Ms.

Yet.

Live long and prosper

On the blog A Priest Downunder,, there is a discussion on promoting vocations to the priesthood and to religious life. A discussion prompted by an address by the Holy Father.

A discussion centred on how we, as members of a parish community, as individuals , can encourage vocations to prosper.

" ‘Every Christian community, every member of the Church, needs consciously to feel responsibility for promoting vocations.’ What are we doing in our local area, our parish, our deanery, our school, to promote vocations?"


Last year, our parish women's group devoted each first Thursday and each first Sunday to prayer for vocations.

And that is good.

However, I also think that we need to look at our actions and how these may help to prosper vocations.

There are a number of things I could discuss here but I will, instead , bring up a recent conversation between myself, my sons and a friend.

On why a priest only uses extraordinary ministers rarely, that is to say, in extraordinary circumstances, when needed.

Well, apart from the obvious statement re extraordinary , we talked about valuing and devaluing the role of the priest, of the religious.

You know, if the extraordinary minister (usually a woman ) serves at the time of communion of the faithful, instead of a religious, say, a Brother , who is also present at mass, what message does that send?

If the acolyte cleans the sacred vessels after Holy Communion and holds the relic for veneration and serves at communion, always, what message does that send?

I am not underplaying the role of the laity here. I understand the concept of the priesthood of believers.

However, it remains to be said that over use of laity and under use of religious, especially in the public liturgy of the Church, does tend to devalue the role of priests and religious. Young men in particular are less likely to look towards vocations ... Not because they are not called but because they can serve in the Church, in ministries, in many instances undertaking that which the priest and religious can and should undertake, but without that final commitment.

It seems to me that one way to prosper vocations then, is to fully understand the role of priests and religious in our communities and in the liturgy, in the Church. To fully appreciate and value this role. To fully understand the contribution of lay people.

And to avoid the clericalization of the laity, to paraphrase Pope Benedict XVI.

My year with the saints

Over time now, I find a rhythm in my year. A liturgical rhythm. I think in terms of feast days...oh, you will be here on December 12? Our Lady of Guadalupe!
This living with the saints has developed gradually...I started by reading about the saints with my kids, then celebrating their feast days, then delving further for my own interest...Was St Therese really as sickly sweet as she seemed? The only way to find out was to read her own words...and. boy, I certainly found out why she is a Doctor of the Church! Strong. Loving. Not sickly sweet.
Living with the saints doesn't mean that I am a saint..no, way too tarnished for that.
It does mean, however, that just as I used to peruse self help books and popular psychology ( Thirty Days to A Better Life; Three Steps to a Super Marriage, Ten Ways Not To Fail As A Mum...) so now I perusue the writings of the saints.
As a booky person, reading and writing are givens for me when faced with life and its dilemmas.
Yet now it is reading of the saints and words by the saints. Asking the saints for prayers.
Living wiih the saints.
So my year with the saints becomes my life with the saints as friends to whom I turn.
Tonight I turned to Mother Teresa.
She was good at dying to self. I am not. I am good at building barriers around myself.
No matter. The saints words give me solace. Give me advice. My own twelve step programme.
My year with the saints is exemplified in my reading with Mother Teresa tonight.
How did she make it through?
With God's grace. And with her own determination and strength of character. Mother Teresa lived the joy that she did not always feel.
"You know how much Jesus loves you...Be good, be holy - Pull yourself up. Don't let the devil have the best from you - You know what Jesus and Mother expect from you - Just be cheerful - Radiate Christ..."
Radiate Christ. Thank you, Mother.

And this is why I live with the saints, remembering them, celebrating their feast days, asking for their intercession.
To learn. To love. To be better.
God knows how much I need it.

Mmm...Niceness

I am a bit over niceness.

Well, I am over exhortations to be nice..as if this is all the Gospel teaches us..be nice to your neighbour, to your family, smile, never rock the boat.

Did Jesus come to save us just so we can be nice?

Yes, I try to be a nice person. But that is not the whole story of salvation is it? I am here to know, love and serve God on earth so I can be happy with Him in heaven.

So, yes serving God can mean being nice. But it also means a lot more than that.

Sometimes it even means to speak out , with love, but to risk not being nice for the sake of Truth.

And let's be honest...niceness can lead to blandness, to complacency, to thinking I'm alright...to being lukewarm (...He vomits out the lukewarm, isn't there that snippet?..).

As C.S. Lewis said, people who are nice may even be hard to save...their niceness leading to self sufficiency and a complacency of soul...I don't need salvation, I don't need church, I don't need religion, I'm not a sinner, I'm nice.

So if I go to church and hear continual exhortations to be nice, and I am already pretty nice, then I am less likely to look towards Our Lord, to worship Him, to research Church teaching, to challenge myself...I am more likely to think, I am doing okay as I am, aren't I? Well, according to the exhortations in Mass to smile at my neighbour and to phone my mum, I am.

I may be using contraception, I may sleep in and miss Mass many Sundays, I may not understand the sacrament of reconciliation, I may support gay marriages, I may think abortion is fine for others in case of great need...but I am nice because I am friendly, I put money in the collection when I do go to to mass, I bake my cousin cookies, I ask after your health, I like Father and his jokes and the cuppa..when I do go to Mass.

Now, I know I will be criticised for judging here. For not being nice. But you know what? If we are going to talk about being nice, wouldn't it be nice to hear Church teaching explained, encouraged, exhorted? So I know what the Church teaches and why. So I know what I profess to believe, as a Catholic, and why. So my faith permeates every aspect of my life. For the salvation of my soul, and the salvation of others.

Wouldn't that be nice?

Like Nim's Island

I don't have to go to school, I'm home schooled.

That book, Nim's Island. A great adventure story. Totally believable yet unbelievable.

A bit like unschooling.

Your kids don't go to school?

To many, that is an unbelievable concept.

But the learning is believable. The reading. The discussions. The self discipline.

Self discipline?

Yes, because while we don't have school structure, we do have family and life and work structure.

So, I hear a son say " I will come to play Band Hero, in half an hour, another half hour of writing."

Or I see a son reading Mathematician's Delight during his university holidays.

Or practice the piano, several times a day, without a reminder.

That unbelievable concept of unschooliing, lived out, as Nim lived her life, learning in freedom, in that book and movie.

Personal devotion or public liturgy

The liturgy of the Church is her public act of worship, her prayers, Holy Mass, the sacraments, the Divine Office.

The liturgy of the Church is something in which the whole Christ participates ( to paraphrase the CCC). The whole Christ...Christ, the Head, with His Body, the Church in heaven and earth.

So, we pray at mass , in the liturgy of the Church, as a whole, together. Yet we also have our personal prayer, our devotional life within and outside the public liturgy,

We concentrate on God and praying with our neighbour; conversely we contemplate Our Lord, personally, with private devotion.

Is there tension between the two? Can we become so entwined in personal devotion that we forget our active participation in the public liturgy of the Church? Or can we be so caught up with community and praying with each other...that we neglect our interior preparation?

Our personal devotions should lead us to the liturgy...and vice verse. No tension. But we are not that lone sinner in the pew..we are part of the Church, gathered to pray. And that knowledge has to affect our participation in Holy Mass, for example. Without making Mass itself all about social interaction.

My participation in Holy Mass, tonight, was not a personal devotion. I was an active participant in the Holy Sacrifice. And my private devotions, preparation, reflection, help my active participation in the prayers , with others, in the mass and St Anthony novena.

No tension. But something good on which to reflect..the role of and relationship between personal devotion and liturgy.

You wore a mantilla to mass?

Well, yes, tonight I did. A veil. Head covering.

I used to wear a mantilla to mass more often than not.

And then I stopped. For a variety of reasons.

I wear a mantilla nowadays every now and then.

Tonight was a then.

Candlemas. Mass in the Extraordinary Form. And as I climbed out of the car, late, rushed from work, sweating unladylike in the heat, wearing a short skirt and pink pigtails...well, in that one second something nudged me and I reached into the glovebox of the car and grabbed my black mantilla.

Wearing the mantilla in mass reminded me of why I used to enjoy the wearing of the mantilla....I felt like my eyes were forced to concentrate on Our Lord, on Holy Mass...and not on shoes ( my far too often mass preoccupation) ..

Another case of those externals helping the internal..the internal disposition to prayer.

Of course, who knows when I will wear a mantilla again. God forbid that I become a mantilla policeman, making rules for myself, sticks with which to beat myself.

But the mantilla was a reminder, an encouragement tonight.

Sometimes, I deal with sour expressions, usually on other women, when they see me with my veil. I have a method for dealing with this: smile, nod and acknowledge them quietly "hello". The smile you wear underneath the veil goes a long way towards placating those who think the veil is a throwback to some legendary era when women were slaves. Why veil