Monday, July 30, 2007

A Full Weekend Once Again

We had a very full weekend and I'm totally exhausted from it now.

Friday after work we met with Fr. Frank for another marriage prep discussion. We always have great talks with him and I keep getting him off topic because I ask questions about something he's said and we go down a whole different path. I feel kind of bad about this, especially since his time is limited, but he said he doesn't mind too much.

The rest of Friday was just dinner and then sitting around watching TV. Nice and relaxing; just wish I had appreciated that more then.

A friend of mine was staying at my place this weekend, so her and I went for an hour-long walk Saturday morning. Chris and I attended a baby shower that afternoon and then went to a movie that night. We saw Ratatouille, which was very cute.

Sunday after Mass we went to Chris' house for breakfast and then left a few hours later to drive to Cincinnati. We went to see the opera Aida by Verdi. I've always wanted to see Aida and it was really good. The sets were amazing!! After the opera we crossed back over the river to Newport and had dinner at a very nice seafood restaurant there. We walked around the Newport area for a few minutes before finally deciding that we needed to head home. I got back to my house around 10:15 and pretty much went straight to bed.

Definitely a full and exhausting weekend! But we had a great time! I leave for Atlanta (again!) in a few days, in the meantime I guess I need to get back to work! Hope everyone out there has a wonderful week!

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Catholic Topic of the Week 4

Finally, the Catholic Topic I've been promising (and it's a long one) ...

On July 10, 2007, the Vatican released a document written by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. After releasing the document the press started misreporting on it, almost immediately. A friend of mine asked for my opinion on this matter. I have been reading and hearing a lot about it and I want to take this opportunity to reflect on it as well as point out other people’s thoughts or interpretations of the document. By talking about this document I feel that this Catholic Topic of the Week basically is a way of explaining what the Catholic Church believes about itself.

The document itself is actually pretty short. It is entitled “Responses to Some Questions Regarding Certain Aspects of the Doctrine of the Church.” Once the Vatican released the document it came to the attention of many news agencies which immediately began misinterpreting the purpose of the document. News reports I heard reported that the Catholic Church was making claims that salvation could be found only through the Catholic Church, that the Catholic Church thought only Catholics were Christians, and so forth. This is NOT what the document said and is NOT what the Church teaches.

I have become acutely aware lately of how horrible the media is about reporting on a lot of things. So much so that I now question everything I hear coming from the news. However, the Internet is an amazing thing. You can locate the documents and read the texts yourself, you can do your own research, and there are plenty of bloggers in the blogosphere doing much better research than many reporters these days. In regard to reporting on the Catholic Church, the media has a field day misinterpreting things from the Church and just never bothers to do their research. Two incidents of late: the Pope’s speech at Regensburg many months ago (maybe last summer even) in which one sentence from a very long speech was taken completely out of context and, more recently, the previously mentioned document. Speaking of which, here is what I have to say on that.

The document speaks honestly about what the Catholic Church teaches about what it believes in itself. So think about this: if you went to a church that said to its members, “We can only teach you part of the Truth, but we don’t have the fullness of Truth we’re just here for community building” would you continue going to that church? Regardless of your current faith, would you really want to go to a church (or synagogue or mosque) that didn’t believe that it had the fullness of truth? One of the headlines I saw that I did like after this document was released was: “The Pope is Catholic” or something like that. (He’s Catholic? Who knew!!) Basically, the Church is saying that it believes that it has the fullness of truth. As a Catholic, I’m very glad to hear that my Church thinks this way of itself. Otherwise, why would I bother going? I do like the community and all that, but the important part is the faith itself.

The response to this, though, has been: but what about the other Christian faiths? Well, within this document the Church does not deny that the Protestant communities also contain elements of the Truth within their teachings. The news reports overlooked this detail, or just didn’t bother reporting on it. Salvation is attainable through other faiths, the Church doesn’t deny that. And never has. Much of this was in the Vatican II documents, and even then it was just a reaffirmation of what the Church had always taught. Basically this is nothing new. But the Church would not be the Church if it said that the fullness of Truth is with us and it is with all the other churches that separated from us from the 16th century on through to today. Otherwise we’d all still be one united church like we were over 500 years ago. But we’re not and the Church knows this and continuously prays for unity again one day among all Christians. It comes down to this: the Church would be denying its own teachings to say that all churches are the same as it is.

I’m not sure if that makes a lot of sense. But there are other people talking about this same issue who are much better at writing about it than I am. Here are two of the many I read. The second blog (www.inforumblog.com) is a great blog overall. I highly recommend it. Both of these links are more on this same topic:

http://www.deoomnisgloria.com/archives/2007/07/did_pope_benedict_xvi_really_r.html

http://www.inforumblog.com/?p=1016

On a related note: Monday evening, I went to a session of Theology on Tap. This is a national young adult ministry that began in Chicago over 20-25 years ago. In Lexington it is held twice a year for six weeks each time. Monday was the third of the current series; this series is called Rome to Home: A Catholic History Timeline. Monday Fr. Frank spoke on the Reformation (yes, the priest that’s also doing our wedding in October). At the beginning of his talk he mentioned that there are currently over 33,000 Christian denominations in the United States alone. And that number is growing every day. From the time of Christ and the Apostles until sometime around 1500 there was only one Christian Church in the world (well, there was the split in 1054 when the Eastern Orthodox disagreed with Rome on some issues, but that was a different kind of split than what happened in the Reformation). In 500 years the Church has splintered to tens of thousands of Christian denominations world-wide.

That’s absolutely amazing!! Christ established one church on Earth and for 1500 years (roughly) that was the Catholic Church. But now Christians are divided, into many, many, many segments. For this reason the Church can not in good conscience call Protestant communities “churches” because we see them as divided from the one Church of Christ, the one He established on Earth. Yes, many people have taken offence to this, but I refer you to my earlier statement: Would you be a part of a church that didn’t claim some kind of fullness of truth in its teachings? Then why shouldn’t the Catholic Church think that way of itself?

There is so much more that could be said about this and so many interrelated issues. But it’s too much to go into here. This is why this document was written for theologians and not for the lay person. This is also part of the reason I started doing these Catholic Topics of the Week: to explore the many beliefs of the Catholic faith.

In closing, please pray for the unity of all Christians into the one true Church. Pray that one day the Church may be “one, holy, catholic, and apostolic” once again.

Feast day of Sts. Joachim and Anne

Today is the Feast day of Saints Joachim and Anne, the parents of the Virgin Mary. This reminds me of something Fr. Frank was telling Chris and I on Sunday morning.

After Mass on Sunday we went wondering around the Church grounds to see where some nice picture spots would be. I wanted to find a little side garden that one of my co-workers had mentioned to me. We found it and there was a statue there of what I thought was the Virgin Mary. Only it didn't look like her ... well, it didn't look like a typical portrayal of her. But there were no markings on it either. As we left the garden we ran into Fr. Frank.

We talked with him a bit and then I asked if he knew anything about the statue. He had also assumed it was Mary but had never really taken a good look at it. Chris said she was holding a lily, so we wondered what saints were typically pictured with a lily.

He mentioned St. Therese since she is usually pictured with a flower, but not a lily. Then he said that the lily does figure into the story of Saint Joseph and Mary.

The story is (and it is just a story, there is no way to verify it) that Saint Anne was trying to pick out a husband for her daughter Mary and there were several men there. Saint Joseph was among them and suddenly a lily grew out of the top of his staff. Taking that as a sign from God (honestly, who wouldn't!) she chose Joseph to be Mary's husband.

Even if it is just a story, it's a nice one.

Potter is in the house!

I'm so excited!! My copy of the seventh Harry Potter book arrived in the mail today!! I'm dying to start it but I promised myself I would first finish the library book I currently have out.

Darn my busy life, I want to READ!!

Thankfully I only have about 3-4 more chapters left in the library book and then I'm moving on to the final Harry Potter book.

All the other books waiting to be read will just have to keep waiting. Potter automatically gets moved to the top of the stack.

Robin: you can't borrow it when you come see me this weekend; you'll have to come visit another time to get your hands on it!

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Quick Note

I'm in Lexington again, been here since Saturday. The trip to Atlanta was nice, here's a quick update on that:

My brother cooked a wonderful meal the first night I was home which was absolutely spectacular!! Thursday I drove into Atlanta for a one day workshop that was actually very interesting and informative. It made me think about the future of my profession in a way I hadn't considered before and for me it emphasized the importance of what I do (and people like me) and how undervalued our work is not only in the outside world but even within our own library profession.

Friday I went with my sister and niece to have her 18 months pictures made (she's so cute!). The my mom and I ran some errands and I just hung out at home that evening. Nice to relax and have nothing to do for once. Saturday I came back to Lexington.

Since then I've been busy at work and with a few other little [wedding] things. I want to post something for a Catholic Topic of the Week very soon. You might see something tonight or tomorrow night (I hope!!). I haven't forgotten, I just want to make sure I do a good job with this one so I'm taking my time.

Okay, back to work for me!! Until next time ... K

Monday, July 16, 2007

In Lexington ... for now

Good Monday to everyone!!

I got back to Lexington Sunday afternoon around 3pm. I had to travel through a couple pretty bad storms on my way home, but I made it safely and still got back much earlier than Chris expected me.

The trip was good. We had dinner on Friday night at a little Italian place in Columbus and then went and got ice cream. I got two small scoops of two different flavors: Belgian milk chocolate and some kind of vanilla and raspberry thing. It was very good! Saturday we had breakfast at the B&B and then went off to our meeting. We met from 10am until just after 5:30pm, with breaks of course. I think the meeting was shorter this year than last. Several reasons for that: we seemed more prepared, the budget was easier, and there were very few items on the agenda that were controversial. So it went well. That evening we went to a very nice Spanish restaurant. The chef sent out a small dish with just a spoonful of octopus for each of us as a pre-meal item. I also got a baby spinach salad and then my main meal was a grilled beef fillet with potatoes and asparagus. Oh and the dessert!! I shared a serving of the Warm Chocolate Pudding Cake with a colleague. It was really awesome. Several of us also had a glass of some kind of Merlot that was supposed to have a hint of chocolate in it. Can you tell I like chocolate? Not sure that I tasted it in the wine, but it was a nice description.

So that was it. I am in meetings most of today while I'm at work and they are all over at the main library. The first one is over, I went and had lunch, and now I'm doing this before I go to the second meeting. Just one more day of work and then I'm off to Atlanta on Wednesday. This trip is both work and a little vacation.

Hope everyone has a great week!! I promise to post something soon for the Catholic Topic of the Week. I've been promising for a while now and I hope to get to it soon. Maybe while I'm in Atlanta.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Before I leave town ...

Before I leave town for the weekend I wanted to post about a few things.

First, I was hoping to post a Catholic Topic of the Week before I left, but I just haven't had time. My friend Tara made an excellent suggestion and I want to look at the issue she brought up. So when I get back from my next two trips (this weekend and then next week) I hope to post on that. In the meantime, you might have seen something about this in the news on Monday or Tuesday of this week. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith at the Vatican released a document on Monday (dated June 29) that caused a bit of a stir. Basically the document just answers five questions, rather briefly, and is only reaffirming already held Catholic doctrines, not stating anything new. It's actually a very short document that you can find by clicking on this Vatican website. Take a look and when I next get a chance I'll post some comments about the document and I look forward to engaging in some dialogue with all of you.

Second, I had a somewhat busy week. I have had meetings at work almost every day and I finally got all my reports done (end of the year reports, reports for the meeting this Saturday, and others). I've also been busy gathering all the things I needed for my trip this weekend. I hope I have everything!!

Speaking of my trip: I head to Columbus tomorrow. This excursion is for a Board meeting of one of my professional organizations. (See the Music OCLC Users Group link to the left for more info.) There are six of us for this meeting and although it is a lot of work, we are pretty casual and we have a good time. One person lives in Columbus and the other five of us stay at a B&B around the corner from his house. Last year I was the only female on the Board. This year two positions were opened and were both filled by females. I like the guys (four of my closest college friends are guys), but it'll be nice to socialize with some women friends over the weekend too!! Last year I was able to connect online at the B&B, hopefully I'll be able to do that this time as well so I can keep in touch via this blog.

Tonight, I went to meet with the wedding coordinator again. The head of the company emailed me this week to say that her assistant who was supposed to handle my wedding found a different job, but she had hired someone new and she wanted us to meet. So I went down there today to meet her and she's very nice. The cool thing was that she just did a wedding at the Marriott Griffin Gate and she met my photographer at that wedding. I saw pictures of that wedding when I last met with my photographer and it was a gorgeous wedding. Meeting with her and going over everything made me feel better about where we are. I've basically done everything I could have done by now and more. So that was good to hear.

That's about it from the Bluegrass State!! Have a great weekend!!

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Old theaters, old movies

The organist at my church emailed me on Monday and asked if Chris and I would be interested in joining him and his wife to go see a movie on Wednesday night. So we agreed and tonight I headed downtown to the Kentucky Theater where I met up with the organist and his wife and Chris. All four of us had to come separately.

I've been to the Kentucky Theater twice before. Both times I saw recent films and both times there was between 15-20 people there. That wouldn't be too bad, only this theater seats about 300 or more. Chris had never been to the theater, so this was a new experience for him.

Brian (the church organist) thought that maybe it was built around 1923 or 24. He wasn't sure exactly. But he did know that the original Wurlitzer organ was put in around 1926. Cathy (his wife, who is also an organist and sang alto with me in the Italy choir several years ago) was telling me how there is a campaign to bring the original Wurlitzer back. They are currently raising money to do that. I think I've seen the original organ over at UK's campus, in the large concert hall. It's not being used, just on display. I think; it could be a reproduction or maybe just a small exhibit about it (I haven't been over there in a long time).

Anyway, when we walked into the theater there was organ music being played. The organ down near the stage is an electronic reproduction of the original and the organist was a doctoral student I recognized from the library. Following the organ recital, he talked a little about the restoration of the organ, asked for donations, then had everyone stand to sing "My Old Kentucky Home." Okay, I've lived in the state for 7 years now, but I still don't know the words. Then someone else got up, talked a bit about the movie and the actors, and some of the filming and then we began.

But first there was a short. The lights went out, the curtain went up and on the screen was a short Three Stooges film. Once that was over it went straight to the movie: Key Largo. This movie has Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Becall starring in it. It was pretty good and had some very funny moments in it. It's fun to see these old, black and white movies and see how archaic the special effects are and how silly some of the acting is.

I love going to see old movies. And until Brian reminded me of this series, I totally forgot that the Kentucky did this on Wednesday nights throughout the summer. Oh, and the place sells out! I don't know if it sold out tonight, but it was quite packed so it might have. I had a lot of fun!! I picked up the schedule on my way out so I could see what else is planned for the summer. In August they have Harvey with James Stewart, which I definitely want to see!

Friday, July 06, 2007

In Lieu of the Catholic Topic of the Week

Time has gotten away from me this week, so there will not be a Catholic Topic of the Week from me this week. Except for quick updates, I'm not sure when I'll be able to do another Catholic Topic. I'll be going out of town next weekend but might have time one night next week to work on something before I leave (in between packing and gathing all the papers and reports I need to bring on the trip with me). If not, I know I won't have time the following week, I'll be out of town again. More on those trips later.

Anyway, I do have something in mind. A friend was recently asking me about patron saints, so I might do something on saints, patron saints in particular, or just simply "what is the communion of saints?" We'll see. If you have ideas or suggestions, or websites or books you think I might be interested in looking at, please let me know: just leave a comment at the comments link at the end of this post.

In the meantime, I learn a lot from reading the weekly Catholic Carnival. This is a collection of blog entries that one blogger compiles and summarizes for everyone. It's always someone different that hosts the Carnival week after week and I learn a lot about how different people live their faith, plus I discover lots of other cool Catholic blogs. So in lieu of my Catholic Topic of the Week, here is a link to this week's Carnival:
Catholic Carnival 126.

Enjoy and have a wonderful weekend!!

Thursday, July 05, 2007

July 4th Celebrations

The best part of July 4th was having a day off in the middle of the week!! How nice to work two days, have a day off and then work two more days before the weekend. I think we need to revise the work week.

I ended up sleeping in on July 4th, later than planned so I didn't go walking. But I did some errands and one load of laundry. Chris and I also had our first major miscommunication. Well, maybe not major, but I was not very happy at the time. He called me while I was out and we decided that I'd meet him at Lowe's to buy some things for our two houses. Well, I finished my errands and headed over to Lowes and couldn't find him. I was surprised that I beat him there since I was still running errands when we made those plans. So I went outside and sat in one of the swings in front of the store while I waited for him. 20 minutes later I was getting a little perturbed that he hadn't shown up yet and I couldn't call him because he doesn't have a cell phone. (By the way, he's getting one now, I'm buying it for him!) Suddenly I realized that he must have gone to a different Lowe's. When he said he'd meet me at the Lowe's near me I thought okay, not Nicholasville Rd. but Richmond Rd. I forgot that there was a NEW Lowe's on Winchester Rd.!! I hadn't been to the new one yet and I just hadn't thought about it at all, obviously. So partly my fault, but also his. If he had a cell phone I would have known much sooner where he was instead of hanging out in front of the wrong Lowe's for 20 minutes.

He has promised to be more specific the next time.

I also had to go to Georgetown for a concert last night. It started pouring in Lexington right before I left, and we looked up the radar map and saw that Georgetown was also getting storms. It was pretty awful driving there. At 7:30 they decided that yes, we would still play. The rain had stopped and we were in a barn and there were a handful of people there. So we set up, warmed up, and started the concert at 8:05pm. Twice during our performance the skies opened up and I swear the rain and thunder was much louder than the band. I got out of there as soon after the concert was over as I could. But driving home in the rain, the dark, with lightening flashing in the sky (some of it quite scary), and fireworks going off was exhausting.

Last concert is Saturday evening and the weather is supposed to be good. I hope that doesn't change. Hope everyone else had a fun 4th of July!

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

A New Baby!!

Chris' sister had her baby Monday evening in Louisville. She had a little girl named Abigail Michelle. She came into the world on July 2 at 7:33pm at 7 lbs., 7 oz., and 19 inches long.

Congratulations to the parents and big brother Shawn!!

Monday, July 02, 2007

Long Anticipated Update

It's been a while since I really updated anyone on what's been happening around here. Not sure if you would say this is a "long anticipated" update, but I've been meaning to do it for a while, so it is for me.

Of course, I went to Atlanta again for a weekend (two weekends ago now). It was lots of fun. I had my first dress fitting and discovered that I actually need taller heels than I had planned on. Fortunately, they won't be too tall! I was anticipating needing 1" heels (which I had even bought already) but now it looks like I need 2-2 1/2" heels. Anyone need a pair of ivory 1" heels? Never been worn, size 7. Just let me know.

I also spent the weekend at my sister's house and got to play with my niece and visit with them those few days. On the Sunday I was there, my bridesmaids had a shower for me. It was so much fun!! They did such an incredible job! Plus I got to see so many people that I hadn't seen in so long!! It was such a good time and so much fun to see friends again that I don't get to see very often at all. I really had a great time!!

Since I've been back in town I've been busy with a variety of things. I've done a few small wedding things and I had another concert Sunday (two more to go!). Saturday night Chris and I went to Cincinnati for the opera. He had never been to an opera before but remembered quite a bit about opera from his music appreciation classes in high school and college. We saw Mozart's Cosi fan tutte. They set it with a 1940s Hollywood theme. It was very cute! Long though, we didn't get back to Lexington until 12:30 or so and it was 1am before I got home and got to bed. I was exhausted. As a result we skipped the early mass on Sunday we normally go to and instead went to the 11am mass.

Actually the 11am mass was nice to go to. The Bishop said that mass and during the mass he officially installed our new Rector at the cathedral. Fr. Mark, the new Rector, seems like a nice guy and he made a few comments at the end of mass about his vision for the cathedral. I especially liked how he emphasized the cathedral parish as the example for the rest of the diocese. The diocese of Lexington is still pretty young and it has been a slow process for the Cathedral to start seeing itself as a Cathedral and not just another parish. Father Paul certainly started us on the right path and I believe Fr. Mark will continue us in that direction.

Also this weekend we had another meeting with Fr. Frank. We finally got to discuss the FOCCUS survey that we had taken a while back. He was very pleased that we got 100% in three categories. He said that is rare and that we got them in what he considers the three most important areas. I forget now what those were. However, he was pleased with all of our scores and we discussed a few issues, but overall we have obviously discussed everything that is important to discuss before getting married. We have another meeting set up for later in July to discuss the theology of marriage.

July is shaping up to be a busy month for me. There will probably be plenty of wedding stuff to think about and I have two trips to take this month, both work related, but one is to Atlanta so I'm combining it with a day of vacation. I still have two concerts this week, plus I hope we'll be going out to Bardstown again very soon to see the newest member of Chris' family!! I also realized recently that I probably need to start trying to get rid of things in my house and maybe even start packing. Time is starting to move faster and October is probably going to be here before I know it!

That's it for now! Hope everyone has a great week!!